Comment on First Platinum pen, and first time using Platinum inks. the Curidas retractable pen.

notlookingfornemo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

Glad to hear you like yours! The price is definitely attractive for people. I know some people also don’t like the idea of buying the Majohn VP clone. The plastic design is a plus over the VP. I feel less guilty about treating mines roughly because it’s plastic.

Personally, I don’t like mines. It’s probably the least used FP in my collection. I’m not a fan of how long the knock is, but I can look past that. The actual issue is how quickly mines dries out, far from the promised 6 months. I notice quite a bit of darkening of the ink from evaporation within a few days of no use. The cartridge/converter dries out very quickly considering mine is an EF and my use rate. My VP evaporates much slower in comparison. The VP will last weeks longer at the same rate of use. I suspect the design flaw is that the flip hatch inside the pen does not have enough downward pressure to make a good, airtight seal against the silicone sleeve. I’ve had two so far with the exact same problem. I had the first one replaced since it completely jammed in the silicone sleeve after being used once. I used it once when I got mines, and it jammed immediately when I used it a second time two years later. The sticking point was the silicone sleeve that is supposed to keep the pen sealed. The second one came with a bottle of silicone grease/oil, so I guess that’s how they solved that problem. If yours did not come with a bottle, it’s just an eyedropper of silicone grease, similar to the viscosity of the TWSBI bottles. Platinum packs it with a few cotton tipped sticks.

My experience is not all bad though.

Platinum USA was great about replacing the pen though. It was long out of warranty, but they replaced it for free, no questions asked.

I will give my Curidas one thing, both EF nibs is/were incredibly smooth considering how fine it is. It’s a Japanese EF, so a nib that fine will be scratchy, but wow. One of the smoothest I own at that small size. My EF 3776 is a bit scratchier in comparison.

It’s not a pen I would recommend unless someone has a very specific set of needs and use case. If someone is a high volume user who wants a retractable beater pen and feels uncomfortable about using a clone, the Curidas is a no brainer. I can’t emphasize enough how smooth that EF nib is for its fineness.

I hope you continue to like the pen.

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