Platinum Koi Fountain Pen
A couple years ago I saw some pictures of a Platinum Koi and fell deeply and madly in love. The material was so beautiful, the pen so clean and the look so balanced. It was just perfect. But it was also $$$ in my estimation, and more than I generally spend on a pen (I have a few huge deviations from this but most of my pens are sub $200 antiques snagged at good deals.)
So I waited. About a month ago I was bored and scrolling through eBay (isn't that what all pen people do when bored?) when I spotted a Platinum Koi with a Fine nib. It had a couple days to go but was only $100. I added it to my watch list. It's ending time was after I'm normally asleep so before I went to bed on its last day I entered a high bid of $180 and went to sleep assuming it would close around $200 something and I'd miss out. When I woke up in the morning, Ebay had sent a message congratulating me on my new pen.
Here she is:
It is more beautiful in person than in photos. The celluloid just *glows* much the way koi scales do when the sunlight hits them. It is warm in the hands, light, and perfectly balanced (I don't post pens so I couldn't tell you what it is like posted but I'm sure it would ruin the balance). I was nervous about that fine nib, which comes out to a Western EF. You see I don't even like Western Fines. I like big OBBs, I like broad and sharp cursive italics. I like wet writers that make any ink shade, even the ones that don't want to. I don't like tiny little nibs. I don't own a single fine nib in my whole collection, I've sold every one I've ever bought, until now.
I will never sell this pen.I inked it with one of my all time favorite inks to give that nib the best shot I could: Montblanc Winter Glow. It tends to be wet, which I like, and well behaved. I've never had it not be lovely to write with. If you have a bottle I will buy it from you, send me a PM, I really need to stockpile this stuff. Anyway. I haven't uncapped another fountain pen since I set this one to paper. The only other pen I ever, ever had this experience with is my beloved Gin-nami (my custom Nakaya). She's the only other pen that's ever bumped my rotation to nothing and just sat there being a solo flier for, well weeks.
The nib is indeed sharp, smooth but sharp is the best way I can describe it. Maybe because I've gotten so used to very sharp italics it doesn't bother me. I find I enjoy using it. Now it doesn't do anything for my handwriting, it doesn't make it pretty the way my italics do. But for a planner/journal pen... Well it was made to write in a Hobonichi.
I've never had it skip or hard start, even when the pen sits uncapped for a while as I fiddle with my calendar or mess with washi tape. I'm hugely impressed. This is my second Platinum. I bought a 3776 Chartres on a whim and hated that nib (Bold) until Pendleton made it a super oblique very sharp italic. But I do like the *pen* and this one I adore. It makes me desperately want Nakaya's koi to go with it, but that's a little more spendy than I'm going to do.
I can recommend this pen 100%. It is the polar opposite of 90% of my collection (black, German) but what a pen! Super happy with it, proof again that every now and then, you *can* hit pay dirt on eBay.
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Originally Posted by amk
both engeika and rakuten are out of the koi celluloid, limited edition had run its course.
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