New: Platinum Curidas (Capless Type) Fountain Pen

[penzel_washinkton]

Pensachi was offering them for US$62 apiece just last week (but not this week; its price is now US$70).

 

Edit: Now that I've watched the review (which was a challenge to get started, because as a rule I detest reviews in video format), that is indeed an awesome pen review attesting to your excellent work! Very information-dense, which I like, and covers so much ground. Thank you very much!

Inky Rocks as a YouTube channel is one of the few artistic style themed fountain pen / ink review channel.

Rarely does fountain pen reviews so I was a bit surprised when she did the Curidas review.

[Intensity]

Super helpful review, thank you so much for taking your time to put it together, InkyRocks!

 

I can see clearly now that I'm not at all interested in this pen. I will be getting another Vanishing Point and VP Decimo at some point, however.

[A Smug Dill]

I loved the idea, but I hate hard starts,

More than anything, the single worst flaw of the Pilot Capless (Vanishing Point and Décimo, but I'm not sure about the Fermo as I've never owned or used one) is that, in my experience with our more than ten of those, the trapdoor mechanism is relatively ineffective at preventing ink evaporation and drying out on the nib and feed. Even so, putting a pigment ink such as Sailor kiwaguro or souboku in a Pilot Capless VP is generally OK and not subject to hard starts after the nib is retracted and left unused for 24 hours.

 

The biggest drawcard of the Platinum Curidas, at least in what its marketing claims the pen can do, is retaining in excess of 60% of the ink volume after six months of inactivity; but that has now been called into serious doubt. As for the related, but logically separate, other claim that "The size of the nib pocket is minimized to keep the nib moisturised", the hard starts in InkyRock's review video have all but disproven it.

 

I hate too fat, and the ink inside would drive me crazy.

I'll have to agree with what InkyRocks said in her review, that such a phenomenon is also evident in other capless fountain pens with retractable nibs, (irrespective of whether) you just fail to see it through an opaque nose cone. I know it is happening with each and every one of my Pilot Capless pens to some degree; so if the very idea — and not just the visual aspect, which to me seems part and parcel of every clear demonstrator design to show all the internal mechanisms and every imperfection — of ink splotches on the inside of the nose cone bothers you, then fountain pens with retractable nibs are not the best fit for your preferences.

[Intensity]

Ink inside the section is definitely an issue Pilot Capless has. I have to rinse mine's section really well after every fill, in order to ensure the "trap door" mechanism is operating properly and sealing as well as possible. Usually you can see colored water draining into the sink for a few seconds of starting to rinse the section, but to get most of the ink out takes a while, some shaking, and repeated rinsing with a bulb syringe on both ends.

 

edit: but it's at least not visible inside the Pilot pens, since the sections are not translucent.

Edited February 16, 2020 by Intensity

[jchch1950]

Thanks InkyRocks for the video. You mention many interesting points about the Curidas.It is a fun pen that is very usable.I have a doubt about the period that it will keep the ink without evaporation and maybe the pen is too new to have a comment about this particular issue by other users. It keeps the fresher than the Pilot or the Lamy?

[Inky Rocks]

Thanks for the video feedback love! I am kind of doing an experiment with both my Decimo and Curidas.

 

Now I'm going to really muddy the waters...I left the pigment ink "Dude" in both the Decimo and Curidas unused since Friday night (Tokyo time) and now it's Sunday night. The Curidas wrote just fine. No hard starts. After having one on Friday from leaving the pen overnight. The Decimo won't write at all. I will leave them for a few more days, try them and then load them with Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo as that is my go-to "normal" ink and try the waiting game again.

[TSherbs]

Interesting. Thanks for the update.

[bbs]

Thanks for the video feedback love! I am kind of doing an experiment with both my Decimo and Curidas.

 

Now I'm going to really muddy the waters...I left the pigment ink "Dude" in both the Decimo and Curidas unused since Friday night (Tokyo time) and now it's Sunday night. The Curidas wrote just fine. No hard starts. After having one on Friday from leaving the pen overnight. The Decimo won't write at all. I will leave them for a few more days, try them and then load them with Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo as that is my go-to "normal" ink and try the waiting game again.

Excellent research, much appreciated!

[Inky Rocks]

Well, well well...

 

I wrote with both the Curidas and Decimo this evening and took video of it. The Decimo still does not write at all. With a normal ink (Yamabudo), it usually gives me about a week before it freezes up on me. The "Dude" pigment ink has done it in.

 

The Curidas wrote like a breeze. No hard start. Nice and juicy. Here is the time frame:

 

I inked it up with "Dude" on Wednesday night and it wrote fine. Then Thursday morning, it hard started (that was on the video). I continued to write with it till Friday night with no problems. Then it sat for 2 days and Sunday night--wrote just fine. Then I let it set for 2 more days and Tuesday night it wrote fine again.

 

I will ink it up with Tsukiyo tomorrow. I think I will post an update at the end of my video on Friday night. I'm thinking, now, that there is some validity to Platinum's claim that it has extended "no dry out" time. Wether or not it can hold out for 6 months can only be determined 6 months from now hahaha!

[penzel_washinkton]

Well, well well...

 

I wrote with both the Curidas and Decimo this evening and took video of it. The Decimo still does not write at all. With a normal ink (Yamabudo), it usually gives me about a week before it freezes up on me. The "Dude" pigment ink has done it in.

 

The Curidas wrote like a breeze. No hard start. Nice and juicy. Here is the time frame:

 

I inked it up with "Dude" on Wednesday night and it wrote fine. Then Thursday morning, it hard started (that was on the video). I continued to write with it till Friday night with no problems. Then it sat for 2 days and Sunday night--wrote just fine. Then I let it set for 2 more days and Tuesday night it wrote fine again.

 

I will ink it up with Tsukiyo tomorrow. I think I will post an update at the end of my video on Friday night. I'm thinking, now, that there is some validity to Platinum's claim that it has extended "no dry out" time. Wether or not it can hold out for 6 months can only be determined 6 months from now hahaha!

So just by this short sample, Platinum's claim could be true after all.

Will be waiting for your update with eagerness.

[TSherbs]

Thanks for the time and effort, Inkyrocks.

[essayfaire]

ASmugDill and Inkyrocks,

 

I find it interesting that you both seem to have had hard starts with Vanishing Points. I haven't, and have used both Yama-budo and Tsuki-yo in Capless F without problems. Smug, the idea that there is ink inside doesn't bother me; it's the visual splotches that would. I think the VPs dry out a bit too quickly, but when mine do so they're are out of ink and need to be refilled, not coaxed into writing.

[mke]

Someone on Yahoo Auctions just bought an old Platinum Capless (and four other pens) for $480.

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c801353613

[A Smug Dill]

ASmugDill and Inkyrocks,

 

I find it interesting that you both seem to have had hard starts with Vanishing Points. I haven't, and have used both Yama-budo and Tsuki-yo in Capless F without problems.

 

Maybe I wasn't clear earlier, sorry. I was saying I don't usually get hard starts in my Pilot Capless pens, even when using Sailor nano pigment inks. Ink evaporation occurs (far too quickly!) even when the nib is retracted and the trapdoor in the nose cone is closed, but the increase in concentration of the diminishing volume of ink tends to be spread evenly through the remaining liquid inside the feed and the converter, which still manages to keep the nib moist, until there simply isn't enough ink left. The thickening of the ink is not visually noticeable on the page when using the very black Sailor kiwaguro or Monteverde Raven Noir; but inks such as Sailor seiboku and Ferris Wheel Press Bluegrass Velvet will become darker and darker the longer they remain in Pilot Capless pens.

 

I expect all demonstrators (including those with translucent coloured plastic bodies) to end up with unsightly specks and splotches of ink inside the cap and the gripping section, where in the name of neatness you don't want to see any. I don't expect the Platinum Curidas to be any different in that regard. Other cosmetic marring also tend to show up far more readily in demonstrators, in my experience. That is why I'm not a big fan of demonstrators. Of course, you can hardly get any less neat than letting ink slosh around in the barrel of eye-droppered or piston-filler demonstrator pen's barrel. I tolerate it for shimmer inks, because I want to see whether the shimmer particles have settled against one side of the barrel's inner wall and the pen needs shaking before writing with it.

[Inky Rocks]

Ink evaporation occurs (far too quickly!) even when the nib is retracted and the trapdoor in the nose cone is closed, but the increase in concentration of the diminishing volume of ink tends to be spread evenly through the remaining liquid inside the feed and the converter, which still manages to keep the nib moist, until there simply isn't enough ink left.

 

 

 

 

Ah! This may be why I had the first hard start and since then, have had no problems. I let the pen sit for longer since the video (not overnight but for 2 days). The concentrated ink may have had more time to distribute thru the rest of the ink.

[inkstainedruth]

ASmugDill and Inkyrocks,

 

I find it interesting that you both seem to have had hard starts with Vanishing Points. I haven't, and have used both Yama-budo and Tsuki-yo in Capless F without problems. Smug, the idea that there is ink inside doesn't bother me; it's the visual splotches that would. I think the VPs dry out a bit too quickly, but when mine do so they're are out of ink and need to be refilled, not coaxed into writing.

 

I had that problem with my first Decimo. I took it back to the guy I ordered through, Martin Ferguson, and he looked at the pen carefully with a small flashlight. Then said "I'll be back!" rushed off. Came back a little while later and told me he'd had Richard Binder grind down the shoulders a little bit, so the trap door would close properly. Of course I then IMMEDIATELY lost the pen. I have not had that issue with the replacement Decimo, though - it works quite well.

I had chalked up the issues with the first pen to having replaced the EF nib assembly it came with for the F nib assembly on a used VP I'd found in the wild -- the VP was too big and awkward a pen for me, so I gave it to my husband (trying to coax him to the dark side ) but he didn't like the nib width. So I could have spent $80 buying a replacement assembly, or spring for the extra cost of buying myself a Decimo and swapping the assemblies -- which in theory should have worked well, but in practice? Not so much....

Had not realized that the issue with the door was actually a problem -- like I said, the replacement Decimo has given me no problems at all. And I think I inaugerated BOTH Decimos with Yama-budo, because I thought that would look splendiferous coming out of the pens (Light Grey).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[essayfaire]

 

Maybe I wasn't clear earlier, sorry. I was saying I don't usually get hard starts in my Pilot Capless pens, even when using Sailor nano pigment inks. Ink evaporation occurs (far too quickly!) even when the nib is retracted and the trapdoor in the nose cone is closed, but the increase in concentration of the diminishing volume of ink tends to be spread evenly through the remaining liquid inside the feed and the converter, which still manages to keep the nib moist, until there simply isn't enough ink left.

 

That is why I'm not a big fan of demonstrators. Of course, you can hardly get any less neat than letting ink slosh around in the barrel of eye-droppered or piston-filler demonstrator pen's barrel. I tolerate it for shimmer inks, because I want to see whether the shimmer particles have settled against one side of the barrel's inner wall and the pen needs shaking before writing with it.

It seems we are then in agreement on at least two counts - the evaporation and the best use of demonstrators.

[Inky Rocks]

I've got two new pieces of information. 1) My tests are pretty extreme (shimmering and pigment ink test) and 2) the EF nib makes NO splotches of ink on the inside like in my video.

 

Had a pen club meet today and another member has the blue Curidas with an EF nib and "normal" ink. He has had no problems with hard starts and uses it a lot since he got it. There are no traces of ink inside the tip of the pen. Also, the blue is beautiful and looks more luxe than the clear. I still prefer the clear because it looks more "demonstrator-y". It also looks like it would hide ink splotches better if you got the blue with an M nib.

 

Also, someone has asked if the ink splotches actually come out of the pen onto the paper or table. I have not seen that at all. It is all contained inside the pen and as I said above, I'm pretty hard on this pen.

[mke]

> My tests are pretty extreme

 

That is correct. Especially inks have a hard life with you.

To everyone: look at the end of Inky.Rocks new video - ink abuse. :D

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by mke

[Inky Rocks]

I've been out with a health issue (NOT the virus!). Here are my take aways after doing my final testing and talking to several people:

 

-it uses a full up Platinum converter, which some saw as an advantage (bigger than CON-50 etc)

-the converter connects to the nib unit very well

-it is very long, and a bit "girthy"

-the EF nib doesn't seem to get splotches in the inside tip, but it varies on the F and M (I couldn't make it splotch on the latest test?!?)

-no one, and I did not experience, ink actually splotching out on the paper

-the colored pens seem more luxe than the clear pen, but the clear pen seems more "demonstrator-y"

-if you have a "standard" grip, neither the clip nor the housing mechanism bump will bother you

-I was the only one that had a bit of a problem with getting the clip off

-if you choke up on the pen, you may have a problem with the housing mechanism

-it was all over the place on wether it keeps your ink wet. No one else had dry out problems, but I did some pretty extreme testing with both shimmering and pigment inks. It had more problems with shimmering ink than the Decimo. It way out performed the Decimo on pigment ink. And on normal ink, it was the same as the Decimo and then they both did "their own thing" when I let it sit for three weeks. The Decimo skipped and the Curidas did this kind of "gluey" thing.

-I'm including my video as I compare the section of three pens to help you figure out if the bump will be a problem

-overall, I am still excited about the pen and use it everyday to jot notes on a sticky pad