Are Platinum nibs dry ?

[Patrick L]

Hello ,

                 I own a Platinum 3776 music nib fountain pen. It's the only Platinum fountain pen that I possess.  I never liked the nib of this pen . I found it to be  really dry even with wet inks like Aurora black . I would like to buy a Nakaya Fountain pen but from I understand the Nakaya pens come with a Platinum nib. The seller informs me that pen will only be available after several months as Nakayas are hand made fountain pens . Do you think that I should ask the seller to work on the nib so as to make it wet ?

                 Please share your thoughts.

                 Thank you.

                 Patrick

[Dillo]

You can have your Platinum 3776 tuned properly for your writing. Send it to someone who can work with nibs. Nakayas use the same nibs and feeds and they are capable of decent flow. Flow adjustments in the music nib should be something any competent nib person will be able to do without issue.

 

For Nakaya, I recommend to buy directly from Nakaya. Skip the middle man. They will tune the nib to your preferred wetness and writing as part of their process when they work with you to make your pen. They will also record your writing preferences so that they can make sure it writes the way you want and future pens you get from them are tuned that way. This way you will not need to worry about this issue at all. They speak English well enough and can help you much better.

[nm4]

My Platinum nibs are pretty middle of the road.  The music one is a 6-7/10 in wetness and I would rate my coarse nib as 6/10.  
 

Nakaya nibs are very similar - my soft medium is a 6-7/10 wet writer.  
 

I would fathom if you don’t like the Platinum nibs you may not love Nakaya.  Of course they will tune it to your needs but some of the characteristics are very similar regardless 

 

N

[inkstainedruth]

I don't have a lot of experience with Platinum pens -- mostly a few Preppies (set up as roller balls), and a Plaisir I got early on (back when they were coating the nibs to match the barrel color).  And I didn't realize back then just how dry the nib on the Plaisir was until I tried Noodler's Walnut in it (horrible combination, BTW).  Then, when I got my first Pelikan, a 1990s era M400 Brown Tortoise, which is a VERY wet writer (as in, an F nib which wrote like a B)?  That pen SAVED the ink from being tossed in the trash.  It coaxed flow out of the ink and the ink tamed the flow.  

Of course, the fact that the coating started to flake off the nib on the Plaisir didn't help matters....   And the sad part?  When I first started here, people told me that Platinum made the best nibs of any of the Japanese brands....  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Lithium466]

Aurora black isn't that wet

 

Here's a (terrible) comparison, my F Platinum is the wettest of the bunch:

 

I encourage you to try another Platinum nib before ordering a Nakaya. Yes they will tune it per your request but the general feel will remain.

The SF nib can be quite dry with no pressure applied.
 

Not sure how related/relevant that can be but my rhodium plated nibs seem wetter...based on a sample of 3 plated nibs and 2 non plated, YMMV.

[Lithium466]

6 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

When I first started here, people told me that Platinum made the best nibs of any of the Japanese brands....  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Some will tell you it's Pilot, other Sailor, or Platinum 😂

Not in any camp (at the moment) but I hear it more often coming from Sailor fans. Maybe that feedback thing, or the emotional perception associated with brands, etc

[inkstainedruth]

Well, Sailor does seem to have the biggest range of nib sizes of the three.  But I'm not overly enamored of the "feedback" on my Sailor pens.  Whereas, I have yet to find a Pilot pen that I haven't liked right off the bat -- and that's with both low end Metropolitans and the freebie Plumix I got last summer, up to the mid-range Decimos and the Falcon I have.  Even the Pilot Varsities were nice writers -- just ran out of ink too fast (I know that there's supposed to be a way to disassemble them and redo then to use FP ink, but never got around to trying that on the two I have).  And I picked up what turned out to be a Pilot Saturn (made for the Korean market, apparently by a subsidiary) a few years ago; hmmm -- I should put that pen back into rotation at some point.... 🤔

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[senzen]

I only have a fine nib 3776 Century and a medium President, both second hand; both are particularly wet, ink comes out nicely saturated without any shading.

 

Most pens can be made to write wetter with a bit of patience. You hold the pen onto a hard smooth surface and gently press outwards, repeatedly, checking for flow each time; overdoing it can spring the tines, and result in too much wetness. There are also inks that depending on one's preferences can benefit from a dry nib.

[Number99]

On 1/14/2025 at 12:50 PM, inkstainedruth said:

I picked up what turned out to be a Pilot Saturn (made for the Korean market, apparently by a subsidiary) a few years ago

 

Korea Pilot is not a subsidiary of Pilot Corporation, but a completely different company derived from Shinwha Publishing Co., Ltd. founded by Koh Hong-myeong. (There was technical cooperation.) A Japanese company that has existed in Korea since the days of the Japanese Empire was not allowed to continue to exist in South Korea.

 

They are described separately as different sections in the Korean wiki. Few people in Japan know of the existence of Korea Pilot.

 

I believe that the sales market for Korea Pilot was limited to the Korean and Thai markets due to the trademark. 

The Korean word " Pilot" is written and pronounced differently.

*빠이롯드 Pyrod (Korea Pilot)

*파이롯트 Pilot (Pilot Corporation)

 

So to be precise, Korea Pilot is a pen company that belongs to the China, Korea and Others (Far East, Asia) sub-forum in FPN's regional classification of pen companies, so I think it needs to be mentioned there. Your pen is "made by Pilot (Pyrod.)”

 

Now that they have stopped manufacturing pens and are functioning as an import agent for Pilot products in Japan, they have changed to the latter notation and pronunciation.

 

Source.

https://namu.wiki/w/한국파이롯트

 

https://namu.wiki/w/파이롯트

 

*These Korean characters are simply copied and pasted from the Wiki. If you are fluent in Korean and find any mistakes, please correct them.

 

 

Returning to the Platinum fountain pen, the pen should be slightly dry to write better characters for Japanese writing. The nib is not used like a flex nib, and the line width is varied by adjusting the ink release and the inflection of the writing speed. 

However, my writing experience with Platinum fountain pens is vintage only. Somewhere in the box I have a vintage Platinum and a Sailor music nib fountain pen. I can't rate the music nib fountain pens accurately because I found that they are not the right writing size for me.

I just remember that the Sailor music nibs were too wet to use.

Perhaps platinum music nibs might feel dry to Roman letter writers.

 

 

Edited January 16 by Number99

[Patrick L]

Thank you all  for  your comments and suggestions.

I am very grateful.

Take care.

Patrick

[Ambien]

I have a bunch of Platniums I wouldn't say it's drier than other brands but I imagine if you have the opportunity to try in person would be ideal. 

[inkstainedruth]

@Number99 Thanks for the additional information.  What little I knew was what I was told when I contacted Pilot USA to find out what the model was.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Number99]

11 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

@Number99 Thanks for the additional information.  What little I knew was what I was told when I contacted Pilot USA to find out what the model was.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I have not added anything there as I have not adopted your information.

That is a very strange story. The Pilot USA you refer to is probably Pilot Corporation of America, what did they describe?

Korea Pilot and the company they founded, Pilot Pen Co.Ltd. (Thailand) still exist. However, they are not listed as an affiliate of Pilot Corporation on the global website, nor on the investor website where they are described in detail.  

 

The research indicated in my previous reply was initiated 3 years ago in collaboration with a friend when he was refused by Pilot Corporation to repair a Korea Pilot product. This is especially important for Korean and Thai enthusiasts, because if Korea Pilot is described as a subsidiary of Pilot Corporation, as you say, this may cause people to buy pens of other manufacturers that cannot be repaired by Pilot Corporation, expecting them to be repaired by Pilot Corporation.

https://www.pilot.co.jp/company/english/global/

 

Pilot Corporation investor website.

The relevant companies are shown on the map.