The nice folks at Pen Chalet gave me this Platinum Classic Maki-e fountain pen with an 18 karat gold broad nib to review and give away. The Classic Maki-e is a splendid pen — a great value, very attractive and with an excellent nib.
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This is the Platinum Classic Maki-e Fountain Pen from Pen Chalet that I’ve been using recently. It’s such a pretty pen, with such a great nib.
Pen Chalet very nicely gave this to me so we can give it away to a blog reader. Before we do that, though, I’ve been putting it through its paces. And I wanted to highlight the pen a little, now that I’ve been using it for a month.
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There are good problems to have, of course, and having too many fountain pens inked is probably one of them. I’ve been looking at a lot of new-to-me inks, so I can’t complain if that requires a lot of pens. And in there is one awesome Platinum pen I’m going to be giving away. But I still had the small issue of where to put all those pens.
Last time I confronted this, I went for a temporary solution: I ejected a rollerball from the pen cup, and moved the fountain pens around like puzzle pieces until they all fit. Not ideal, but a workable quick fix. “You go, girl.”
However, one new ink led to another, and another led to a third, and so on. Before you could say “J. Herbin,” I was over-penned once again. This time, there were no more squeezes possible, and nothing to do but add another pen cup to the lineup. And not a pretty one, either. “Le sigh.”
But it’s all in how you look at things, right? So I shall look at my pen cuppage not as excess, but as a small tribute to the Very Large Array, which uses 27 movable radio telescopes to explore the universe.
And I mean, even the number 27 is inspiring. When I think how many pens would fit into 27 pen cups….
“You go, girl!”
Why is that photo so gigantic? Because we have gigantic news. A giveaway from Pen Chalet.
Also, I like the box a lot. It’s a simple cardboard box, but attractive. This box does a lot with a little.
Inside the box, from the very nice people at Pen Chalet, is a fountain pen for Fountain Pen Follies readers.
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I’ve been writing with Platinum and Sailor’s inexpensive desk pens recently. Both were around $12 from Jetpens when I bought them a few years ago. I noticed that Jetpens isn’t carrying the Sailor any more, but still has the Platinum, as do other retailers. Here are my thoughts when comparing the two for writing, rather than drawing.
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Platinum Carbon Desk Pen. This is an inexpensive plastic desk pen made by Platinum for its Carbon Black ink. I bought this, and a similar desk pen made by Sailor, years ago for drawing. I decided to take them out again this week for writing.
The Platinum desk pen has a nice, smooth nib, and I like the pen’s light weight, long length and good balance. It can take a Platinum converter if you want to use bottled ink. It’s a good pen to write with, for me. Platinum describes the nib as “super fine.” It may be slightly thinner than my Pilot Prera fine nib with Pilot black ink, but I really think the two are comparable.
Platinum Carbon ink is marked safe for fountain pens, but I have had some difficulties with pigment inks over the years, so I honestly prefer to use them in dedicated cheaper pens, like this one. Carbon Black is a waterproof and lightproof pigment-based ink. It’s reputed to be a very dark black ink, but in this pen I don’t get that. It writes smoothly and dries quickly. This combination easily could be an everyday user.
Fountain Pen Follies 