Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen - 03 Fine Nib - Black

This is my first fountain pen, and I'm glad it's very affordable, after looking at other specialty pen shops and seeing how expensive they get. I'm enjoying writing with it, and it's inspired me to perhaps branch out and get a $30-$50 fountain pen when I can eventually afford that, and look into getting one that I'm able to fill with bottled inks rather than relying on cartridge refills.

I used to use rollerball and gel pens in my planner and journal, and this fountain pen is more prone to bleeding through my pages a little (which I print myself on standard printer paper, so not too surprising, giving the paper thickness) compared to those, but it's not a dealbreaker at this stage. I do wish the ink was a bit more black, as it's more of a dark grey, which is more noticeable when writing on my matte coloured planner stickers, and the ink dries with noticeable 'shading' - when the ink pools and creates darker points per each written letter/stroke of the pen (some people like this and some people don't, but personally I'd just prefer a more opaque look when writing with black ink, as my planner is very colourful so that contrasts well). It also already started to become scratchy after just 1-2 weeks of use so I had to clean the nib, whereas it seems most other fountain pens of average price seem to only need cleaning every 4-6 weeks, from what I've seen people say online.

Overall, really good if you want to try out writing with a fountain pen without breaking the bank on a more expensive model if you can't afford it or aren't sure you'd like it. I don't regret buying it at all, and I'm sure it'll be a constant companion until I can afford anything a bit higher end. I thought I'd seen a converter (a cartridge you can fill with bottled ink) for the pen on Washi Gang's store when I bought this, but it's either been removed or (more likely) I'm just mistaken. Still, I looked it up now, and it looks like it is possible to buy a converter for this fountain pen model, so I'll be keen to try that out with bottled ink soon and see how I go. I just regret not buying a second one, as I had just wanted to try it out first to see if I liked fountain pens after the last of my ancient Kikki.K rollerball pens started reaching the end of its day, and now have to juggle this one pen between my work planner, personal planner, and journal! It also took quite a bit of time to clean and dry, so expect it to be out of commission for a day or two while it soaks and then dries, if you don't have other decent pens to use (like me at the moment), haha.