Platinum Century 3776 UEF experience after using a Sailor EF

[PotbellyPig]

I own a Sailor 1911L with 21K EF nib.  After numerious discussions here, I found some good inks and am very happy with it.  I went ahead and bought a Platinum Century 3776 UEF, wanting to see the difference in line thickness.  I was warned beforehand that there wouldn’t be a big difference in the line produced but I found one cheap so I bought it.  The line thickness may be slightly finer on the UEF than the EF but not by much.  Note I wasn’t using the same ink in both pens (Standard Platinum black cartridge and Sailor Kiwaguro in each respectively.). But what got my attention how the feedback from the Plstinum UEF was unpleasant.  The Sailor EF feedback is the feel of a sharp pencil on paper.  The Platinum UEF has a roughness to it and it isn’t enjoyable to write with.  If you write with an absolute minimum of pressure, the feedback gets slightly better but I still don’t like it.  In any event, since I already own the Sailor EF, the Platinum UEF wasn’t worth it.  Luckily I was able to return it.  I don’t know if there was anything wrong with my particular pen or this is how the Platinum UEF writes in general.

 

Thanks for letting me share my experience with all of you.

[Paul-in-SF]

I have a Platinum President EF that did not write much at all out of the box, I had to work on it quite a lot and it is still writes only OK. On the other hand, I have an older Platinum pocket pen with an EF nib that writes very well. This isn't much evidence to go on, but when I look at the shape of the tip of the President's nib it's squashed flat from the sides, so where the nib meets the paper I think those flat shapes are setting up a vibration; the older nib is shaped evenly from the shoulder down to the tip, and I suspect that's why it doesn't vibrate. 

 

I have a Sailor 1911L EF that was completely dysfunctional out of the box, I had to have a nibmeister work on it. 

 

These two experiences discouraged me from experimenting any further with Japanese EF nibs, let along anything finer. Maybe I'll try a Pilot one day, their EF nibs seem to have a pretty good track record. In the meantime, I find Japanese Fine nibs very nice to write with, and probably as fine as I really need to get with my writing. 

[AmandaW]

1 hour ago, PotbellyPig said:

 I don’t know if there was anything wrong with my particular pen or this is how the Platinum UEF writes in general

 

I have one that is very pleasant to use.

[PotbellyPig]

40 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

 

I have one that is very pleasant to use.

It could be I received a pen that wasn’t right.  But it can also be that I like the Sailor’s kind of feedback more. I enjoy the feeling of writing with a sharp pencil.  I don’t know if a Platinum UEF, even if it is in tune, feels like that.  I haven’t tried other Platinum pens so my knowledge is limited.

[A Smug Dill]

On 8/26/2021 at 4:52 AM, A Smug Dill said:

While the Platinum President's and #3776's UEF nibs (and F nibs, of which I have ten or so) are hard and precise, (figuratively speaking, and not that they physically puncture paper) like good, strong and sharp leatherwork needles that took a lot of work to fashion them right in that way, Sailor's gold nibs are more… robust and responsive. Not that the 14K gold nibs aren't hard; they are, and even have the H in the nib type marking (e.g. H-EF) to designate exactly that. But you can tease a substantial range of visibly different ink marks and line widths out of a Sailor nib, and get it to produce what you want reliably and repeatably, once you've learnt how to handle it.

 

[arcfide]

I doubt that your experience is significantly outside of the typical range of UEF nibs, even though you might interpret it more negatively than some do. I have a UEF that I like very much, but it would probably feel close to the same as what you experienced with your own UEF. 

 

I think this comes down to a few things, but undoubtedly one of them is the way in which Sailor and Platinum approach the UEF level. Platinum has an EF, but their UEF is a specialty in terms of how they design the nib. Sailor nibs exhibit much more softness, IME, than Platinum's nibs, and indeed, Platinum nibs are the hardest nibs I have felt across the board in all my nib experiences, bar none. I think maybe only the Lamy aion nib rivals them. I don't have any of Platinum's soft nibs. 

 

The extra-sharp tipping design along with the very hard nib I think results in a nib that absolutely does not absorb any feedback from the paper, so you get an extremely precise and direct sense of writing, which, for many people, will translate into a roughness. 

 

For me, Platinum nibs are consistently some of my favorites, and they tend to be the only pens that have been consistently and constantly inked up across my entire line, but I can easily see why they might not appeal to some people. For one thing, they will not give that "natural expressiveness" you can get if you have a varied writing pressure unless you get their soft nibs. And you get a much more direct experience with the nibs. However, for me, they're just addicting. I tend to write with a very light hand, to the point that many of the "smooth and soft" nibs don't write reliably for me, and I can get hard starts and the like, because I might be using a paper that is too smooth and the nibs just don't get ink to the paper right away unless I am absolutely 100% perfectly in alignment. But with the Platinum nibs, they write at the instant of a feather touching on the page, and I can feel exactly what I want to feel on the surface, even if the paper might not be fully pressed down onto the surface of the table. That's a kind of control and precision that appeals to me when I write and makes the writing experience work. I think if you had a heavier hand, the UEF can easily become rougher than most people would want. 

 

That being said, I don't typically write very often with my UEF nib. It's a nib that I prefer to use as a marking pen, in that I use it for drawing line rulings and other sorts of drawing marks, filling in stencils, or the like. For normal EDC writing, I tend to use much broader nibs, like the Platinum Music nib (my current favorite). 

 

So, in summary, the Platinum nibs are extremely hard, precise, reliable, and usually well-tuned, but if you want a softer feel or if you have a heavy hand, they probably won't appeal to you as much as they do to me. For me, they let me get a sense of control on the page that I don't get from any other nibs, and I happen to really like how they sound and feel when writing. 

[awa54]

While I don't own any Japanese nibs that are marked as thinner than EF, I do own a few ranging from 1950s era through the 1980s that are extremely fine writers. With the exception of a couple well used shiro nibs that were worn to a chisel pointed profile (*hardest* iridium my @$$), they have all been serviceable writers, however almost all nibs with such tiny tipping are going to respond best to a light hand, they're also going to be more sensitive to ink characteristics and paper quality than even a "regular" fine.

 

I also own a few vintage American made needlepoint/accountant nibs and they share these same characteristics with their Japanese equivalents.

 

You may want to get a 10X triplet loupe some day, as having the ability to see the condition and alignment of nib tipping can be a powerful tool in understanding and correcting poor nib performance. However using abrasives on a UEF nib should be reserved for nibmeisters, or advanced hobbyists, since the amount of tipping material is tiny and once removed can't be put back without the significant cost (in time and money) of retipping.