Platinum Preppy: Possibly The Best New Fp In The World Right Now?

[DaveBj]

Further on the cap-cracking issue, I bought a couple back in December, put Bad Black Moccasin in one and BSB in the other. I use them for addressing envelopes, which means that I use them fairly frequently. So far, so good -- no cracks. Maybe they did get the problem fixed.

 

 

[PAKMAN]

Seeing this topic made me remember that I had a Preppy somewhere. Found it in a cup of pens. It is quite a few years old and fortunately I cleaned it out before putting it away. No cracking on the cap. Looks like I need to ink it up and play with it! Fine nib.

[Monophoto]

Unfortunately, my experience has not been so good. I purchased a Preppy last month on a whim, and frankly, I like it at lot. And I also like the Platinum blue-black ink that came with it. But after only about five weeks of use (about half a cartridge), the barrel cracked. Now one of the real features of the Preppy is that the cap fits snugly so that the pen won't dry out - but when the barrel cracks, it won't securely attach to the threads on the section, and when you try to remove the very-snug cap, what happens instead is that the barrel comes off the other end.

 

At this point, I have tried running a little thin cyanoacrylate glue (superglue) into the crack to see if that will seal it but it remains to be seen if that is a permanent fix.

Update - the repair seems to be holding, but now there are two new cracks in the barrel. Really disappointing because the Preppy writes better than most of my other pens.

 

I purchased the pen from Amazon. There are other posts that report that Platinum had a cracking problem several years ago, but made changes that appeared to have been a correction. I wonder if Amazon sold me 'new - old stock'.

[MuddyWaters]

The preppy funnily enough has one of the most reliable, no-baby-bottom nibs I possess. My only beef with it is the straight cylindrical body that I wish could puff out a little more.

[Intensity]

I've only had one Preppy to date, bought it in Japan last year, the 0.2mm size. It writes much more broad than I expected--noticeably wider than my Sailor EF nibs. I also have a crack in the barrel where it screws onto the section, and I've been very gentle with the pen, only used a few times.

[MuddyWaters]

Just wanted to sing the praises of these pens once again. I'm currently using a plaisir as my main pen. It's a little small in the hand, but the section has no threads, isn't slippery and when my hand gets crunched up, it posts very well for a more relaxed holding position. It's sturdy but light, and the 0.3mm nib is just perfect. I love it with my pelikan black, yielding slight feedback sensation. I can't seriously justify spending as much money as I have on pens with this guy around. 

 

My only downside with the preppy style pen was it did not work out for me as a lanyard pen at work: nib up, the nib would dry out; and the threads of the barrel get loose somewhat easily. Anyway, I kept shaking the pen to get it working and eventually the cartridge came dislodged and an inky mess occured. 

 

I will say though that one other aspect I love of these pens is the satisfaction of seeing the ink move with the ball rolling up and down in my refilled cartridge. 

[A Smug Dill]

8 hours ago, MuddyWaters said:

My only downside with the preppy style pen was it did not work out for me as a lanyard pen at work: nib up, the nib would dry out; and the threads of the barrel get loose somewhat easily.

 

Does that have anything to with the movement of the pen hanging from a lanyard? I have a dozen Platinum Plaisir (and some Preppy) pens sitting (properly capped, of course) in pen cups with their nibs facing upwards, and I can't recall any occasion when any of them hard-started or suffered from dry nibs.

[MuddyWaters]

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Does that have anything to with the movement of the pen hanging from a lanyard? I have a dozen Platinum Plaisir (and some Preppy) pens sitting (properly capped, of course) in pen cups with their nibs facing upwards, and I can't recall any occasion when any of them hard-started or suffered from dry nibs.

Really? Interesting. Then I'm not sure what was happening. Do you use a converter or refilled cartridge?

[TheDutchGuy]

21 hours ago, MuddyWaters said:

nib up, the nib would dry out

 

Interesting. I store my Preppies nib-up, sometimes for months on end without ever using it, and so far none of them have ever dried out. 

 

21 hours ago, MuddyWaters said:

I can't seriously justify spending as much money as I have on pens with this guy around.

 

Very true.

[A Smug Dill]

12 hours ago, MuddyWaters said:

Do you use a converter or refilled cartridge?

 

Converters for all my Plaisir pens. Maybe half of the Preppy pens I have are eyedropper-filled (generally with dye inks absent particulate matter); the other half are converter filled (with Sailor STORiA pigment inks).