Finally, I’m writing a post dedicated to fountain pens for beginners. Let’s get started on fountain pens in the economy price range, which, by my definition, is below 20 USD. That would be approximately 25 SGD or 15 Euros. In the eyes of many non-fountain pen users, fountain pens seem to be luxury items that are valued at a full month’s salary or more. Well, it is true in certain cases, but let’s not go there today. If you are just starting out on fountain pens, you’d probably prefer to invest in something that has decent quality but does not cost a bomb, and most likely not something that you’d spend even a tenth of your salary on. Many questions may have come to your mind when you consider that purchase. You may wonder if you will actually like fountain pens at all, since you’ve spent all your life using ballpoint pens, pencils, and rollerballs. You may have walked past a fountain pen store or a Montblanc boutique, and got a little freaked out at the 3- or 4- digit price tags (and probably with multiple zeroes at the back, if we are talking currencies like the Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, or Indonesian rupiah) on the […]
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I am a music-lover, and used to be a student of music. All that time spent drawing crotchets and quavers, treble clefs and bar lines, has been memorable indeed. It is not until my interest in fountain pens started that I learnt about the existence of music nibs. Did the composers in the past really use nibs like that to write their music? Here is a picture of a handwritten musical manuscript: The style is characterized by very thin strokes for stems and lines, big saturated blobs for the notes, and thick fat lines for joining notes together. You can also see line variation in the handwriting. I’ve decided to investigate whether music nibs are able to produce a similar effect. Thanks to Parkablogs, I have managed to try out a Sailor music nib for myself. Previously, I have reviewed the Platinum music nib and liked it pretty much. I had spent quite a bit of time deciding between the Pilot, Platinum, and Sailor music nibs, and finally decided on the Platinum because of the writing feel on paper. Sailor’s music nib does not have 3 tines like the Platinum, and I had felt that it didn’t look as special, […]
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This is a fun and creative guest post about switching around parts of the Platinum Preppy, Plaisir, Desk pen, and highlighter, written by Thomas Teo! For more information on the Platinum Preppy and Plaisir, check out my review. ~~~ So, the story goes….. You want a fountain pen that is yours. I mean not just yours, but truly yours. A pen that has the right color combinations, writes well and works well. Most important of all, it represents you! Think that you are that Tony Stark, and want a gold (obviously!) and hotrod red. Something to suit that suite of yours? :) But yet you don’t have that kind of fortune… 🙁 Well, Tony did built his first suit in a cave, didn’t he? Can’t a fantasy be a reality? And then…. You get yourself a preppy, a simple and cheap fountain pen. And there is a gold-colored 0.3mm nib! Good to use, nice to hold, easy to break… 🙁 Then you found another gem, the Platinum Plasir in red! That hot-rod metallic red fits the bill! And home it is coming with you! But it comes with a 0.3 red nib, and there is no color variation. But wait, you have […]
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Hey, ho! I think I am on a roll lately blogging about fountain pens and reviewing them at top speed. Today’s review is going to be about a really cool music pen – the Platinum Music Nib Pen. What is a music pen used for, you may ask? Is it only for writing music? Clearly not, even though the nib is supposed to be optimized for writing on sheet music when placed upright on a music stand. You can use the music pen for everyday writing, that is, if you like the line variation that it offers. There are 3 brands that I know of which are carrying the music pen. Platinum music nib on a Platinum 3776 pen (which is the one I have) Pilot/Namiki has a music nib that you can install on the Custom 74 or Custom 742 pens Sailor also places their music nib by default on the Sailor 1911 fountain pen. The Platinum and Pilot music nibs have double slits and triple tines, a feature which is supposed to improve the ink flow via the feed to the tip of the nib. This enables a consistent ink delivery to the sheet music even when you write vertically. […]
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I am actually writing this quick post in a huge rush – I’m flying off to Vietnam for a business trip (with extra fun on the side after all the meetings!) in a few hours, and I do need to get some sleep before going to bed. I could have gone to bed, like, right now, but I am so excited and eager to share with everyone about this new pen that I received, thanks to a nice friend, that I absolutely have to blog immediately. As you might see, I had no time to adjust the quality of the pictures, nor add my watermark, nothing. This is how excited I am about this pen. This is a Platinum Pocket Pen, or a “Long-short pen” if you prefer (this name always makes me laugh, what an oxymoron). The model is probably that imprinted on the red sticker – it says “PKA-500”. It’s a pen produced during the 1970’s, when this design got really popular. There are many similar pens with this huge-cap/small-barrel feature from makers like Pilot and Sailor. I doubt they actually sell or produce such pens anymore, which is why I am so excited about it. I browsed the web […]
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Happy Seventh Day of the Lunar New Year! Today is what we call 人日 (rén rì) or Man’s Birthday: everybody’s birthday! Long due is the review of one of my favourite pens: the Platinum Plaisir. I will do a mini comparison with the Platinum Preppy because I believe almost everyone knows about the Preppy already, if you are a fountain pen-phile. For the sake of those who had never heard or thought about fountain pens before, I will write a small paragraph on the Preppy. So far I have only come into contact with two Platinum pens, namely the Plaisir and the Preppy (which will be thus referred to in the rest of the blog). The Preppy: a really cheap and good starter’s pen, it is made of see-through plastic which is pretty appealing if you like demonstrator pens (basically, see-through pens). It’s lightweight and has a steel nib section coated with the colour of the pen itself. So if you have a pink Preppy, it comes with a pink-coated nib section. A special thing about this pen is the capping mechanism: there is somewhat like a double-seal mechanism, one at the normal place where the cap clicks onto […]
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