Platinum Kanazawa-Haku Fountain Pen Red Mt. Fuji

Regular readers will know that I have a thing for fountain pens, so if you are not interested in them and prefer my Brompton/cycle related posts, you might want to give this one a miss.

If you are still here, recently I was bought a 'Platinum Kanazawa-Haku Fountain Pen Red Mt. Fuji' with a fine nib and I have to say that it is bordering on perfection! You don't really have to read much more to understand that I REALLY like this pen - better still that it was a gift and a pretty generous one at that.

Platinum is a Japanese pen manufacturer that has been making pens since 1919 and believe me they are pretty good at it. I own two other pens by Platinum that I use daily.

The Platinum Kanazawa-Haku Fountain Pen Red Mt. Fuji is a hand decorated pen with gold leaf. A very skilled craftsperson of kamazwa - working with gold leaf - produce some of the finest gold and silver leaf that are in turn hand-applied to these pens.

The iconic Mt. Fuji with its red sunset, golden cloud, shining in the sun are what appears on my pen. The photos really do not do this justice as the colours are brighter and sparkle as light catches the gold and silver leaf at different angles.

The clip, also gold is firm and looks as if it could stand the test of daily use.

The gold and silver leaf is stunning and you seem to see different colours and aspects each time you use the pen.

The centre band has 'Platinum' at the front and 'Japan' on the rear.

The cap and end of the barrel are capped off by a black jewel, banded in gold.

The nib is 18k gold and in the Goldilocks school of pen nibs. It isn't too firm and it isn't to soft, but just right. The ink flow is excellent and produces a consistent line. The other great thing about this particular pen (and seems to be true of my other Platinum pens) is that they just seem to work straight away even when not being used for a while. There is no skipping or soft starts. They just work.

The pen comes with a converter but can be used with Platinum cartridges. I will always use a converter as I sometimes swop ink colours.

The pen comes in a box, the outer wrapper of which is card and looks like handmade paper?

Inside is a simple wooden box containing the pen itself. This is minimalist and elegant.

Inside the lid is satin lined with 'Platinum' in gold writing and the pen sits in a deep red velvet lined tray.

A warranty card, instruction card and information about the pen declaration are also inside the box.

The dimensions of the pen are:

• 137mm long close
• 124mm open
• 152mm posted
• 13mm diameter
• 17.2g in weight

It really is a stunner of a pen to look at but the actual practicalities of using it are not far from my thoughts.

Make no mistake this is a pen you could quite happily use as your daily writer, your workhorse even. It is simply that good. I am a huge fan of Lamy pens but the 18k gold nib really does make all lesser pens wanting.

The pen was a gift so talking about cost is perhaps vulgar, however it can be bought from anywhere between £105 - £149. That is a great deal that someone has spend on me but having used this pen and experienced that incredible nib, I do fell it is worth every penny.

Platinum produce several other pens with different gold / silver leaf designs and some I like and some I do not. It is a case of choosing the one that appeals to you most. (I would have chosen this one given the choice). I would consider another one at some point in the future, perhaps in a medium nib next time?

Below I have a photo showing the line thickness of this fine nib. I would say that like most Japanese pens the nibs tend to be a little finer than a European fine. For me this is perfect.

Below is a size comparison against a Lamy Al Star. It isn't a huge pen but I do have huge hands find it comfortable writing with the cap not posted.

There you have it. At the start of this review I REALLY liked this pen and I have to say I do. If you feel that this is too expensive but want to experience a gold nib, Platinum do a pen called the PTL-5000 which is similar in style, a little smaller, without the gold/silver leaf but sporting a 14k gold nib. I have one of these and it is also excellent value at around £45.

If you are looking for something different the Platinum Kanazawa-Haku Fountain Pen Red Mt. Fuji might just be the pen of you?!

Lamy Al Star Copper Orange Fountain Pen

This blog post has nothing whatsoever to do with cycling but if you have been a follower of this humble blog over the years, you will know that I have a soft spot for fountain pens and in particular a German brand called Lamy.

Lamy make some inexpensive pens and some that are very much at the luxury end. One of my favourites are the Safari and Al Star pens. Every year Lamy release a special colour in a limited run. Lots of people collect them and I have quite a few of these.

The Al Star looks identical to the Safari pens but it is just that little bit more special being made of aluminium and with a see-through window so you can see the nib feed.

The special edition for this year is the 'Cooper Orange' and it looks pretty fine to me.

The great thing about the Al Star pens is the fact they are built really well and are tank-like, being able to withstand the rigours of heavy day to day use.

The AL Star isn't a small pen either and fits in the hand well, being a comfortable all day writer.

The nib is excellent and even better you can replace the entire nib in seconds. There is a huge range of nibs: extra-fine, fine, medium, broad and italic ones and even left handed nibs. You can get them quite easily from good pen shops or online dealers for about £4 - £5.

The Al Star accepts Lamy carriages or for around £5 you can buy a converter, allowing you to use any colour of quality bottled ink.

This particular Al Star costs anything between £20 - £25 and as far as I am concerned is a bargain. I have written before that I have used fountain pens costing more than 10 x this amount and I actually prefer using the Al Star.

Lamy just seem to get things right first time and in addition to being a great little pen as far as this special edition 'Copper Orange' goes for some reason, I even like the colour!!

TWSBI 580 Diamond Fountain Pen

Let me get this out of the way first. This particular blog post has nothing whatsoever to do with cycling or Brompton bicycles.

Regular readers will know that I do have a thing for fountain pens. I have lots of them. So are ridiculously expensive and if I were being vulgar and tell you how much some of them cost, you would gasp.

Saying that there are a few pen manufactures out there that produce fountain pens of very high quality at a fraction of the price. One such company is TWSBI.

TWSBI is a Taiwanese company that produces a range of quite brilliant fountain pens. There are several reasons for this.

The first is that their Diamond range of pens are rather handsome, well balanced and sit very comfortably in the hand. Added to this the fact that TWSBI use nibs manufactured in Germany and of high quality.

A very handsome pen

The screw on cap, like the rest of the pen is clear

The Diamond range are also rather different from your run of the mill fountain pen. Rather than using a cartridge or a converter, which usually holds only a small amount of ink, the Diamond 580 uses a piston filler. This allows you to hold a huge amount of ink and in my opinion a much better option for those of use who love bottled inks.

The piston filler is a much better solution that cartridges or a converter

You can buy the pen in various nib configurations and if you fancy something different at a later stage you can easily buy a second nib and fit it without much trouble.

The pen writes really well and produces a lovely semi-wet line. This particular pen has a medium nib and is a joy to write with. As someone who has to do this a great deal every day as well as type away on a keyboard it makes a great workhorse of a pen. The ink flow is excellent and there are not any moments where the pen skips or scratches.

Quality nib from Germany

The cap with the TWSBI logo

The other very interesting feature of the Diamond 580 is the fact that in the box TWSBI supply a small bottle of silicone grease and a small wrench. The wrench allows the user to fully dissemble the pen for cleaning and servicing. The silicone grease allowing you to ensure that the piston runs silky smooth.

Wrench and grease allowing the owner to service the pen

Okay, how much I hear you ask? Mrs Orange bought me this pen for Christmas for £42. Let's put this into context. A piston filler fountain pen is normally found on a pen costing £80 upwards. I have a Pelikan Souveran M800 which retails at over £300 and is very similar in terms of size and handling but I have to say I prefer using this TWSBI. I like the looks of the TWSBI, its handling and the fact you can be geeky and dissemble the entire pen. 

This is not the first TWSBI pen I have owned. I have the 580's predecessor the 540 - also an excellent pen - and I am certain it will not be the last. If you like fountain pens and want one of very high quality that punches well above its weight, the 580 Diamond should be on your shortlist!

If you want to find out more I have a link to the TWSBI website below.

TWSBI

2013 Lamy Safari Special Edition - Neon

If you are are regular reader you will already know that apart from Brompton bicycles and photography I occasionally mention a certain fondness for pens made by the German manufacturer LAMY.

They make a line of pens called 'Safari' and every year they introduce a special edition colour that is only available for that year and in limited numbers.

Last week I stumbled by chance on the new colour for 2013 and I simply had to get myself one as it looked really, really good.

The colour as the title of this blog post is Neon and it is certainly that. It is made out of a tough ABS plastic, has a triangular finger grip area, a strong chrome-plated clip and an ink level window so you can see how much ink is left. It takes Lamy cartridges or a Lamy converter (which is what I will be doing) so that you can use different coloured inks.

I bought my one with a fine nib for £13.56. The great thing about these pens is that you can start a collection of different colours and use them to suit your mood or outfit. At around £15 they are fairly inexpensive.  

I use them all the time and they are quite brilliant and even though they are primarily meant for schoolchildren or students, you will finds lots of adults using them. I have a few pens costing more than 10 times the Lamy Safari but I don't like using them as much.

The Lamy Safari Neon is available in all good pen/stationery shops or online. If you want one, be quick as they really won't be around for long. Once the the run has been sold out, that's it and I have plans to buy another one in the near future as I like this colour so much!

I have posted a link to the Lamy website so that you can get more information about there range of pens and the company itself.

http://www.lamy.com/content/index_eng.html