Platinum #3776 (Non-Century) Cap Seal Effectiveness?

[A Smug Dill]

How is everyone's experience with the effectiveness of the cap seal on Platinum #3776 fountain pen models not designated Century, and are thus without the "Slip and Seal" mechanism?

 

The celluloid models with product identifiers PTB-30000S (as opposed to the current production batches identified as PTB-35000S, which are obviously more expensive but designated Century), and earlier batches of the models with briarwood barrels (PTB-30000BN and PTB-50000BS), were not designated Century. I have one of the earlier brown tortoiseshell celluloid models and two of the briarwood models, and today I discovered the ink has all dried out in their converters after not having been used for four or so weeks.

 

In contrast, not so my two kanazawa-haku models (PNB-30000H) or basic Bourgogne models of the Platinum #3776 Century pens.

 

That pretty much cured me of the persistently resurfacing desire to complete the 'collection' of briarwood models I'm still missing the one with the light-coloured smooth finish or buy more of the celluloid models when I see them offered 'cheaply' on Amazon.

Edited April 24, 2019 by A Smug Dill

[almoore]

Mine has been fine.

 

I have a 3776 with a music nib loaded with Eclat de saphir and whether I leave it a day or a week it just works. I haven't found it any better or worse, so far, than my 'Century' version; which went 18 months capped and worked just fine.

 

Al

[jar]

I suggest never leaving a fountain pen unused and filled with in for a month or so. That's called user error.

[A Smug Dill]

I suggest never leaving a fountain pen unused and filled with in for a month or so. That's called user error.

While I appreciate the suggestion for what it is, I don't see it as an error, any more than I see clinking lead crystal glasses as user error when one could argue that is subjecting the object to undue risk and inevitable damage. I have over 150 pens and over 150 inks, and I try to have a pen each filled with every ink in my collection ready to write, even if there are some pens with which my fiancée and I infrequently write.

 

You could argue that it isn't how fountain pens are designed to function and/or be maintained, but then I have many pens that never dry out and are always ready to write with the ink I filled it with weeks or months ago. I don't recall the last time I refilled my Rotring 400 with an EF nib, so it could well be three or four years since I last filled it with Noodler's X-Feather, and I'd pull it out once every few months to use as a yardstick against which to test blackness, water resistance or line widths of other inks and pens. It has never dried on me. My Platinum #3776 Century pens don't dry out (and I even fill some of them with iron-gall and pigment inks), and neither do my Platinum Plaisir pens. Actually, none of the nineteen Wing Sung 3008 pens I filled with various shimmer inks have dried on me either.

 

<EDIT>

My Sailor koshu-inden sayagata pen (which has a screw cap) seals so well that, after briefly inking it with KWZ Ink Grey Plum and then removing the converter from its section on the same day, the pen still writes immediately upon being uncapped after four weeks of lying in my pen display case undisturbed. I'd have imagined there would have been plenty of opportunity for the nib and feed to dry out through evaporation, from the exposed 'nipple' end of the feed, into the hollow space inside the barrel.

 

I'm sad to see that my Platinum #3776 celluloid pen did not do nearly as well in that regard.

Edited April 25, 2019 by A Smug Dill

[ridiculopathy]

My Platinum celluloids were bought after Slip & Seal was invented, and I have been able to keep them inked without refilling for months with only occasional usage. I'm sure they've been left completely unused for at least 1-2 weeks at a time. However, my Higo Zogan (snap cap) dries out within a few weeks.

 

Caveats: I syringe-fill cartridges, so I'm working with a starting volume about twice as much as converters. Also I live in a moderate environment (i.e. not too hot or dry that would encourage evaporation).

[hari317]

The screw cap models are very dryout resistant. The snap cap versions are less so. I have several of their celluloids, Jupiter ebonites and snap cap briers, shell briers, cedar wood and plain gathered plastic models.

[A Smug Dill]

The screw cap models are very dryout resistant. The snap cap versions are less so.

Yeah, I was quite surprised to find my celluloid model with a screw cap to have dried out, even though I didn't expect the snap cap on my briar models to be as resistant. I have a couple of Platinum Balance pens with snap caps that seem to have outperformed my #3776 Celluloid pen in that regard.