Platinum Koi Celluloid with music nib.

[Leigh R]

I have a Pilot E with a music nib and a Pilot Custom 74 with a music nib, and they are quite different from each other. The Platinum is different from those two. IMHO better than the Pilot Custom 74, and less sharp at the edges than the Pilot E.

 

Here's what it looks like compared to other pens:

 

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d138/leighpod/pilotplatsailor.jpg

 

I'd say it was a light-to-mediumweight pen. I prefer using it posted; then again, I post everything.

 

The nib is everything people say, and more. It wrote immediately when put to paper. It is ultra-smooth and feels like a natural extension of the pen and your hand.

 

This is my first celluloid pen, and I didn't really know what to expect. I'm amazed at the depth of color and how rich it feels! It won't make me give up my heavy-metal pens yet, but it is lovely, and has already elicited compliments from friends at work.

 

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d138/leighpod/koi1.jpg

 

And here's how it writes.

 

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d138/leighpod/koireview.jpg

 

I love how I can swoop and swoosh and not get broken lines.

 

Dov made it really easy for me to obtain the pen, and even included a birthday gift! Great service. (No affiliation, etc.)

 

Here's a gratuitous shot of the Koi with another Platinum, the starter maki-e with cranes.

 

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d138/leighpod/plattwo.jpg

 

Edited June 23, 2006 by Leigh R

[Nimrud]

Great review! Lovely pics and writing samples!

[DrPJM1]

Congratulations! My starter music nib was Sailor's, then Pilot, Platinum and finally a Nakaya. Interestingly enough, they all behave differently!

[meanwhile]

I really enjoyed this review - the pen looks great and does what you do with it.

[Leigh R]

Thanks, guys - I'm glad you liked the review. Now I want to do more of them, which means buying more pens!

DrPJM1, would you happen to have the Nakaya with the elastic music nib? I have been very curious about it but it is sadly out of my price range.

[sonia_simone]

Great review! I love that Koi colorway, so beautiful.

[mike1]

A great looking pen and a good hand as well.

[tonydacrow]

One word, “Gorgeous!” (And, that applies to both the pen and the writing!) I actually just posted a question about the Platinum music nib since I just bought one. You must be prescient, Leigh…

[Leigh R]

Thanks, Sonia & Mike! Tony, I'm sure you'll definitely enjoy your new pen.

[DrPJM1]

Yes, Leigh R, both Moorthi and I bought the same pen at the Chicago show. His review is in this section.

Edited June 23, 2006 by DrPJM1

[Margana]

Wow! Both the pen and the penmanship! I let a music nib slide a week ago and now I'm :bonk: for it.

[kissing]

Just when I thought there couldnt be more about Fountain pens to discover...a whole new world of Music nibs unfolds

 

Great review. I LOVE your penmanship *green with envy*

[NG-Huy]

The design on the koi is really beautiful. Usually, I'm not really fond of celluloid pens but I must admit this one suits well my tastes. Concerning the nib, Music nib seems really nice. I have myself a platinum maki-e bellflower, where do you think I can find a music nib + section for it? Mine is too fine for my writing.

[Leigh R]

Thanks, Margana & kissing! :-) I tend to favor music nibs over regular italics because of the smoother feel against paper. Do try them when you get the chance. :-) NG-Huy, I sent you a PM. :-)

[Idiopathos]

Thanks to* your 'Koi' review, I bought a 'Stone' celluloid Platinum with a music nib. (*And for it, too.)

 

The Stone echoes the 1930s' black & pearl Sheaffer's and others' celluloid. Like a Swan Mabie Todd, for example, it is 'wrapped'. In other words, there are joins along the barrel, the section and the cap, where a sheet of celluloid has been placed around a mandrel and fused at the edges. However, just as on the binde of a Pelikan, the Platinum's celluloid is joined in a straight line and not wrapped like a leaf around a cigar as on a Swan. On the Platinum, the joins, although perfect, don't even think of aligning with each other and I'm still not sure whether I like this or not. The English method is certainly more elegant than the Japanese or the German, if not stronger. The Platinum celluloid itself seems well made, however, and its colours are vibrant and attractive.

 

The trim looks adequate, although stamped/pressed metal of derivative design with thin gold-plating has little attraction to me and it remains a mystery to me why most manufacturers pay so little attention to this area of pen production. Even very expensive pens have poor quality clips.

 

Compared to an MB146 or a Sailor 1911, the Platinum seems disproportionate: the cap looks too large for the body. When posted, however, the pen balances very well.

 

The converter is a good one: decent capacity and an efficient, screw filling mechanism. As good as my Dunhill-Namiki. (Heretical as this may be to say, I am slowly coming round to liking converters.) Part of the converter, however, rattles against the inside of the barrel.

 

Finally, the nub of the matter. The nib. It is as stiff as ... a very stiff nib. No flex. None. Initially, this really surprised me. A 3-tine nib with no flex? Then I realised ... duh ... it doesn't need to flex, because it has three tines. Therefore, the nib works very well, with almost no pressure. It delivers an evenly saturated broad vertical line and an equally satisfactory fine horizontal line. Inverted, it does the same, although producing a medium line and a finer line. The tip profile is complex and explains this.

 

Using the pen is enjoyable and I shall keep it, not least because of its balance and the seemingly infinite variety of the nib, which really does work well, as long as you can accommodate the absence of flex.

 

So, is it a good buy? Well, it's a bit of a curate's egg, but then most pens are, aren't they?

 

 

[Jared]

I really like stub nibs, but I wonder if the music nibs are too wide for me. I have a Sailor 1911M with a music nib, but at 1.15mm it's a bit too wide. A Pelikan B (.85mm) is about my max in comfortable width. Are the tip sizes of the Pilot, Platinum and Sailor music nibs about the same?

[significantmark]

IMHO

 

It is a great review and samples indeed. Platinum pen is new for me perhaps I should recall it when I was about 10 years old.

 

Japanese's writing instrument is really great and reliable. Love to have full collection of Platinum Celluloid. Believe there are about 5 includes the new one SAKURA.

 

Happy Valentine's Day

[Melnicki]

i like red ink. i thought i'd like a red pen. turns out that the Koi celluloid scares me. It's quite bright (a bit orangey). It's thus being traded to someone who likes bright colors more than I do!!!

 

The music nib, however, is really fabulous. It gave me a completely new perspective on the inks that I used to try it out. It's neither wet nor dry, and it is indeed quite wide for a nib.

 

I wish I could write like Leigh.

[Peter from Sherwood Park]

The Platinum music nib is really terrific -- I am just re-learning how to write now that I have one. This is something that everyone should try at some point.

[RevAaron]

The music nib, however, is really fabulous. It gave me a completely new perspective on the inks that I used to try it out. It's neither wet nor dry, and it is indeed quite wide for a nib.

 

I completely agree! I just assumed that a music nib would write like a stub, perhaps a wet stub. Even so, I still was into the idea of a music nib for the novelty value, if anything- they're just neat.

 

I got a Platinum BelAge Music a while back, used from another FPNer. As often happens, it came with the tines out of alignment. I made it worse trying to fix it, ending up in a situation that would only get worse if I tried to fix it without removing the nib. Last week I finally figured out how to get the nib and feed out, took 5 minutes to fix the tines, and ... wow! My assumptions of the pen being just like a stub were off. Sort of like you said- it's neither wet nor dry. It shades differently than a stub would- I can't say I've ever seen Florida Blue look better than it does in this nib.

 

I wish I could write like Leigh.

 

Me too! Though, my Platinum Music nibbed pen gets my HW looking a tiny bit closer...

 

Aaron