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I have a Preppy and a Plaisir. They both have a similar nib and writes the same with a good touch of feedback. Though I love butter-y smooth pens, but I do enjoy the pleasant feedback of both the Platinums I own. I heard that Balance and Cool nibs are different from Plaisir ones, how different is the writing experience? Do they write smoothly or they give off that same feedback? Or any other parameters?

Being the happy owner of two Sailor fp's (1911 Standard GT & Pro Gear Slim CT, both 14k H-M) and two Pilot fp's (Custom 823 F and Metropolitan M), I was curious what Platinum would bring to the gathering of Japanese pens. As I did with Pilot, I decided to buy a cheap pen first, with the possibility to "upgrade" to a gold-tipped model later on. So I got a blue Plaisir with 0.3 mm nib (18 euros) and a blue Preppy with a 0.5 mm nib (3 euros). I compared them to each other as well as to the Pilot Metropolitan (19 euros). The 3 euro Preppy doesn't come in any kind of box. Based on look and feel, I would expect the pen to be somewhat more expensive (i.e. around 8 euros). It's a plastic pen and it will probably not live to see its first birthday, but it doesn't appear flimsy. I bought one with a 0.5 mm nib. Popped in the included Platinum blue cartridge and off I went. It's somewhat weird to see the ink flow across the section-enclosed fins of the feed. There are no fins outside of the section. The pen wrote straight away and puts a big, fat, confident line on paper. It's not a stub, so line width is more or less the same in downstrokes as well as sidestrokes. The nib is very, very smooth. On a scale of 1 to 10, scratchiness zero, tooth zero, feedback 2. It's like skiing over fresh snow. Very impressive, though purely as a matter of personal preference I'd like more feedback. The 18 euro Plaisir comes in a cheapish plastic box with instructions and an included black cartridge. The instructions claim that the pen won't dry out for a year, even though it is a click-on cap. If that's true, then it's impressive. The barrel and the cap seem to be made of aluminium. Even though it's made of metal, somehow the design looks cheapish to me. Being 6 times as expensive as the Preppy, I'd say it looks only slightly more upmarket but definitely feels more upmarket. I bought one with a 0.3 mm nib, and after popping in the cartridge the pen wrote straight away. Being narrower, the nib offers more feedback than the 0.5 mm but is still incredibly smooth. On a scale of 1 to 10, scratchiness zero, tooth 1, feedback 4. Very impressive. I like this nib. Both pens are nice to write with, in terms of ergonomics. I can use them unposted and the sections aren't slippery at all (even though I tested them on a hot summer day). I could easily do long sessions with these pens. I feel that both Platinums offer exceptional value for money, with the expected longevity of the Plaisir being the main reason for its higher price. The fact that the nibs are easily exchangable between the Preppy and the Plaisir is a great bonus. Want another nib in your Plaisir? Buy a Preppy. Both pens use Platinum's proprietary cartridge system. A converter is available (see photo). Also available is a small item that facilitates the use of standard international cartridges (see photo). For fun, I compared them to my Pilot Metropolitan M. In terms of price, size and shape, the Plaisir and the Metro are very very similar, with the Plaisir being about 4 mm longer and 1 mm wider. A big difference is the feel of the section. The Plaisir has a very small step-down from barrel to section and no ridge at the low end of the section. The Metro does have such a ridge and a pronounced step-down. I like the Metro just fine, but the Plaisir is much easier to grip and feels more comfortable. In terms of writing, both are excellent pens. My Metro has a touch of baby's bottom; it's very subtle but it's there. It also offers slightly more refined feedback, of the pleasant kind, than the Plaisir. It's a tie, both pens writing very well, very smooth and very reliable. Heck, I've had issues getting 200-euro pens to write this good. Count me impressed.

Has anyone ever figured out how to safely remove the feed from the section of the Preppy/Plaisir so it can be cleaned and dried faster? In some SBRE Brown video he mentioned that he had been utterly unable to remove the fin-feed from the clear section of either his Preppys or Plaisirs, said that as cheap pen you have to deal with it, but complained that it took 'forever' for it to dry inside its clear tube section after rinsing it out. Well, I just got my first Plaisir (light and plastic-y yes, but the .05 writes very nicely - more smoothly than my .03 Preppy) and I see exactly what he was talking about. A comparison between a normal fountain pen feed to the Preppy/Plaisir (from this old post): http://www.pbase.com/liverman/image/141447107/original.jpg http://www.pbase.com/liverman/image/141447688/original.jpg I really don't want to have to wait 'forever' for my pen to be ready to be re-inked. Has anyone gotten the feed out of the section easily?

Do you have any pen and ink recommendations for book signings? My book of poetry just came out, and I've done two books signings with my Platinum Plaisir (fine) and Noodler's Baystate Blue. It actually worked out great, but I'd like to try out some other colors and would like to use some nicer pens. I'm a fairly new fountain pen collector, and I'm just starting to experiment with nicer pens. About my experience with the Plaisir/Baystate combo: I loved the bright color, it dried quickly (even though it's not supposed to be fast drying), and didn't smear. The Plaisir did fine, but being a cheaper pen, it writes scratchy. I do have some nicer pens, but I was worried the Baystate Blue would stain the pen (so I didn't have to be concerned if it stained the inexpensive Plaisir). Here are the other pens I have: TWSBI 580AL (M) - Love this pen---ink doesn't dry out in pen if I leave it in a long time, but I think the M nib might be too broad for book signings, and I'm afraid it would be prone to smear/not dry quickly enough. Pilot Urban Premium (M) - Same feelings as about the TWSBI. Noodler's Ahab, Konrad flex, Konrad flex Essex acrylic: I like the Ahab and Flex acrylic, but they are prone to leaking at the nibs and sometimes putting out too much ink. Not happy with the Essex--not reliable, leaks, inconsistent look on paper. Platinum Plaisir (F) - Doesn't dry out in pen, not afraid it will get stained or stolen---but it's scratchy to write with. Pilot Metropolitans (F & M) - Pretty pens, but dry out quickly, nibs get damaged easily, and the writing scratchiness is inconsistent. I went a little crazy on eBay and just got these pens---but I'm nervous about what inks to use in them. Visconti Van Gogh Starry Night - M Platinum Chartres 3776 - F What do you recommend? What types of ink should I look for (dries quickly, water resistant?)? I liked the look of Baystate Blue---but is it safe to use in more expensive pens? I also tend to like purples and teal/turquoise. Nib size? Are there be other types of fountain pens I should consider? Thanks!

The old-style Plaisirs with body-coloured nibs are £4.50 each at Cult Pens! I have a green one that I use carbon black with and it works really well.

Hi! I've narrowed down my next pen choice to these two pens: the Plaisir and the HighAce Neo. Both are avaible locally in a mom-and-pop store. The Plaisir is $11 (right now there's a sale, and it's only $8.5), the HighAce is $13. I've only tried the HighAce, and I quite like it. I only have a Preppy. I'm a student, I write a lot, have very small hands, and I would like to use cartridges. I find the HighAce Neo's slimness good (before the Preppy I used a Parker Jotter as my pen), but the Preppy's is also good. Which one would you recommend?

I just can't seem to refill preppy/plaisir without making a mess on my fingers. I use converters on them, and I pull up the ink through the nib into the converter. What happens is that the ink doesn't get sucked in all the way, so there are residual ink that just sits in the feed: http://i1332.photobucket.com/albums/w614/GabrielleduVent/preppy_zps60fadbf3.jpg It'd take a while for the ink to drip down, and while writing, the ink flows out and makes a nice mess on my fingertips. It's not that big of a deal, but I'm starting to get a little irritated. Anybody have any tips on how to properly avoid this problem? (I currently don't have a syringe on hand, so using it would be a bit difficult.)