Don’t laugh: Platignums.

[Robalone]

775FF7CC-3AEA-4CF5-970A-E6E7DFE16E5E.jpg899DE8B9-63B4-4F78-BF90-B4A44C4B33BD.jpg9F641EC2-E7CB-4CE7-8890-A6727384149E.jpg

More Platignums to come

[penwash]

Reminds me of the Sheaffer school pens, also from the 60's.
But instead of a hooded nib, this guy has a small conical (steel) nib.



** Not trying to derail or hijack the Platignum theme of this thread, the photo is just for comparison's sake

[Robalone]

Yeah cool 👍🏻 Looks like it’s from a similar time …great how they still turn up occasionally like this..

[An old bloke]

I grew up using Platignum pens. They still have a special happy place in my heart.

[Chrissy]

There is nothing wrong with Platignums. I have a couple and even a couple of spare Platignum 14ct gold nibs.

[eachan]

Of course many Platignums are awful. I had some that applied more ink to my fingers than to the page. Perhaps the best thing about those ones is that they broke quite quickly. But as Rob shows there are others that are good pens. I have a 50s/60s lever filler with a gold nib that's a good pen and comes around in my rotation. Never fails.

[Robalone]

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[Robalone]

There is nothing wrong with Platignums. I have a couple and even a couple of spare Platignum 14ct gold nibs.

There’s a person on 'the bay' who seems to have an inexhaustible supply of new packets of Platignum nibs in various configurations….
And to make something of a mockery of the sellers putting up one nib …or a couple, for quite unrealistic prices, this person sells whole boxes of 'new old stock (?) for AU$20 !!! ….regularly!
I must admit, I’ve grabbed a few myself, umm….just in case ?!
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[Sailor Kenshin]

The 'Regal' nib reminds me of Osmiroids.

[An old bloke]

The 'Regal' nib reminds me of Osmiroids.

There's a reason. I'll leave it to the OP to explain.

[Sailor Kenshin]

The 'Regal' nib reminds me of Osmiroids.

There's a reason. I'll leave it to the OP to explain.

I love my Osmiroids.

[Robalone]

The 'Regal' nib reminds me of Osmiroids.

Did you mean the italic nib on the one above the Regal ? The Regal's nib , the folded tip steel one is pretty similar to quite a few of the cheapo pens of that era.

, I’m pretty sure the early Osmiroids had a very similar screw in nib unit… I may even have had one or two back in the day, but haven’t now .
I do have a couple of their later …swappable nib and section jobs, and the medium / broad italic nib profile is pretty much identical to the Platignum italics.

Ps. The Osmiroid..Rolatip 'fine soft and medium soft' screw in nib units were very fine nibs indeed !
There’s a person on the bay selling these and left oblique and italic brand new ….and they seem to have lots !!
I’ve bought a couple ..and love them.

[Robalone]

24BD4A2A-2E31-4CD5-A5C5-2D6E9B867509.jpgSo, today.
Here’s a couple of 'new in box' offerings from Platignum's last gasp ; probably around 66/7 ?
There were a couple of better ones from the same time…but these must have been party favours. 🤣🤣🤣 because even though they look quite smart in the pic, they are actually, pretty cr*p. They’re very thin and badly moulded/machined? Plastic, and feel flimsy in the hand.
I’m guessing they were built down to a low low price , maybe for a child’s birthday from a granny ?
I think I’d’ve been insulted even as a child if I’d been presented with these !!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Awww…but….matching pencil! ❤️

[mizgeorge]

I can remember winning a lot of these at school - Platignum were huge sponsors of things like poetry, prose and handwriting competitions - the higher the prize, the better the pen. I probably have one or two lurking at the back of a drawer somewhere. They were superseded by Parker 25s in the mid 70s - and of course these appealed far more to the boys as well.

I didn't like either, remaining loyal to my P51 and Pelikan 120 that I'd used pretty much since I started to write.

I did like my Osmiroids though (the screw in versions, not the quick change units) - and still use a 75 with a copperplate nib regularly. I like the fact they are completely interchangeable with my Esterbrooks, and always keep a stash of assorted nibs just for fun.

[welch]

Robalone, were the school Platignums only cartridge pens? How do you fill it? "Inject" ink into an old cartridge? Incidentally, the Platignum cartridge, like the Parker cartridge, looks larger than what is typical today.

[eachan]

There were lever-fill Platignums in my schooldays. The ones I had then were without exception bad. I frequently broke or lost pens so my parents got tired of buying better ones.

[Jon Szanto]

Ok, at this point, two asides:

1. Every time the title to this thread pops up with a new post, I start laughing. I can't help it.
2. I am aware of the "aluminum" vs "aluminium" spellings. Is "platignum" an alternative to "platinum", or is it just a company name?

[An old bloke]

Ok, at this point, two asides:

1. Every time the title to this thread pops up with a new post, I start laughing. I can't help it.
2. I am aware of the "aluminum" vs "aluminium" spellings. Is "platignum" an alternative to "platinum", or is it just a company name?

To the best of my knowledge as a user, 'Platignum' is only the company name as, I believe is 'Onoto'. Neither word appears in the OED.

[Robalone]

Robalone, were the school Platignums only cartridge pens? How do you fill it? "Inject" ink into an old cartridge? Incidentally, the Platignum cartridge, like the Parker cartridge, looks larger than what is typical today.

Hi. Apart from the very earliest 'Platignums' ( which I have a post about coming up !). The late sixties models had , to my knowledge, four different filling systems.
The first post I did shows the cartridge filler. These were a bespoke , I think, plastic cartridge, which because we thought resources were infinite and life was good, were designed to be thrown away and replaced when empty.

The next three iterations were a push button ,internal aerometric arrangement, the more familiar and very common press bar aerometric one.
And as in the Regal , a standard lever filler.

I believe the Platignum cartridge was bespoke at the time , as it’s often referred to as 'the Platignum cartridge' (?), but I think it’s about the same size as the long international cartridge, ( as opposed to the more common 'short international' one.

The history of the cartridge is quite an interesting subject , and worth a bit of research…. I have examples of pretty much all of them from the very first glass job made by Eagle, through the Waterman glass ones and on to the plastic ones , started I think by Waterman with the CF model.