Wednesday 28 October 2015

Review of the Platinum PTL-5000

I treated myself to this to celebrate something special, but I will tell you more about what that was in the future! For now, let me just review the Platinum PTL-5000.

Platinum PTL-5000

I got this because although I do own quite a lot of fountain pens, I didn't have one with a gold nib. I also don't have thousands of pounds to spend on gold-nibbed fountain pens but this one came in at a very decent price. I got mine from Cult Pens (no affiliation; I paid for it!) and as ever, it arrived the day after ordering. No, I'm not paid by Cult Pens but I have only ever had fantastic service from them and I can recommend them very highly.

The pen arrived with a card slip cover containing the pen box.

slip-cover
plastic box with pen and bits and bobs in

This is an entry level pen and the bulk of the costs have gone into the nib, so it was no great surprise that the box was slightly less than classy. But I don't keep my pens in their original boxes - the boxes go in a cupboard and the pens sit in a pen-tray on my desk, so I don't really care that the box wasn't too special.

Inside the box was the pen, a converter, a cartridge and an instruction booklet.

Contents
Contents with the converter out of its little box

The instruction manual was a little superfluous.

The body and barrel of the pen are glossy black plastic. It feels a little flimsy but that might be because I've been using the Conklin Durograph so much recently and that feels like a real chunky monkey. However, when I weighed the pens, the Conklin was 14g and this Platinum came in at 13g so barely any difference at all. With the cap posted, it weighs 17g, but I never post pens because it always feels as if the weight is too far back in my hand.

uncapped

I have bottles (and bottles!) of ink, so I put the converter in. It has a very positive click/feel when fully engaged. It took a couple of fill-empty-fill-empty routines to get it to fill fully but then it was all primed and ready to go. I filled it with Pelikan Topaz.

The nib I ordered was a medium, but it has to be noted that a Japanese medium is finer than a UK medium. I would describe it as closer to medium-fine. Interestingly, the feed is see-through!

Clear feed

The nib
The gold nib has a bit of  spring to it. Not too 'boingy' but there is a nice amount of give/flex. It felt a tiny bit toothy/scratchy but this may be because it's not a stub nib and that's what I've been writing with for yonks. It may also smooth up with writing. Ink flow was great and there was good shading with the lines. It felt light in my hand, but this may be because it's slimmer than the Conklin (and the TWSBI which are the two I've been using a lot recently).

Writing sample on Original Crown vellum

After doing the test on Original Crown vellum paper, I've used the pen in the Leuchtturm A4+ notebook (reviewed here) and can say that the pen feels much better - a lovely feel to it and nowhere near as toothy as on the Original Crown paper. It's fabulous.

The pen was bought as a work-horse pen -something I can write and write with and not have any issues. I'm sure that it will fulfil this role wonderfully. It wasn't bought as a drop-dead gorgeous, "ooh, isn't it pretty!" pen (and it meets that expectation too).

2 comments:

  1. Isn't this just the best pen for the price? I have had mine for about a year and it remains a favorite.

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    Replies
    1. It's brilliant!! I love it more every day.
      Thanks for stopping by.

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