Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen - Blue

Guess I'm the outlier here, because this pen has failed to wow me. Just to be clear, selecting the Preppy was completely incidental; what I really wanted was to try an iron gall ink. Given what I'd read about those inks being potentially corrosive, I figured why not start with a cheap one and see how it goes. The Preppy was also billed as a great pen for eyedropper, so I ordered it with a sample of Platinum Sepia Black and gave it a try.

At first, I rather liked the way it wrote. The nib was reasonably smooth, but with just enough tactile feedback that I knew I was writing legibly and not just sliding around all over the paper. Unfortunately, the pen just couldn't seem to retain ink; every time I took the cap off, I'd be met with a big blob of ink coming out of the feed, or leaking from the point where the grip was screwed into the barrel. Upshot: the entire 2 ml sample was gone in less than a day and a half. I'd written less than 3 pages.

OK, so that didn't go especially well, but the pen came with a cartridge, so might as well try that. Opposite problem. No leaking any more, but the pen barely even writes at all. I've tried it on a few different papers, and ... nope.

Suppose I could try using more silicone grease on the threads, or even try an O-ring, but ... well ... it's a six dollar pen. Can't have huge expectations, but hardly worth the effort of shopping for O-rings either.

I bought one in blue and one in red for my son and I ended up using them. Despite having pens that cost a whole lot more, the blue is one of my favourite pens because of the nib. It's smooth and lays down a good amount of ink. I wouldn't convert it to an eyedropper as the mid section unscrews quite easily but I am going to refill the empty cartridge with bottled ink.