17 December 2012

Platinum Platinum

Cartridges and converters, retractable nibs, pocket pens, generalization of gold nibs,… All these elements saw the light or became normal at some point during the 1960s in Japan. These years were a time of strong competition between Pilot and Platinum, struggling to increase their share in the market.


Different views of two Platinum Platinum pens of full and pocket sizes. There existed a smaller third pen for ladies.

As part of its strategy, Platinum released in 1967 a line of luxury pens made of sterling silver. And the marketing argument was that they implemented unique nibs made of some platinum alloy. And the pens were called “Platinum Platinum”.


Two full-size Platinum pens. The one on top implements a Pt-alloy nib whereas the other uses a more common 14K white gold nib. It is questionable whether the compositions were any different.

Actually, these nibs were made of white gold whose non-gold content included platinum. There are discussions of whether these Pt-alloy nibs were made of 14 or 18 K gold. In fact, years later, they were replaced by both 14 and 18 karat white gold nibs labeled as such. In 1976, a special edition of the full size silver pen was release on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Emperor Hiro-hito. It was equipped with a 14 K white gold nib, and displayed the 16-petal chrysanthemum seal (菊紋, kikumon) on the cap.

Platinum sterling silver pen, 14 K WG nib – Platinum Brown

Bruno Taut
Madrid, December 17th, 2012
labels: Platinum, Japón

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My observation based on the single "Pt. ALLOY" nib pen I own (a grid motif full sized pen) is that the nib is both thicker and more malleable than 14k or 18k gold nibs that Platinum made during the mid to late 70s.

Dimensions and flexibility characteristics are much closer to the 22k gold nibs I've seen from Plat, which have slightly thicker tines than their 14k and 18k equivalents (likely to compensate for the softness of the metal used) and very little flex range before the tines take a set. The 22k gold feels a bit livelier on the page than the Pt. alloy, which has almost no "bounce" if one attempts to modulate pressure while writing.

I found citations on a few jewelry related sites for 18K white gold alloy using 25% platinum as the sole alloying element, though white gold is more often a mix of some or all of these: nickel, zinc, silver, palladium... and no mention was made of platinum being used at all in an alloy of less than 750/1000 gold content (18k).

David Wimmer awa.fiftyfour@gmail.com

Bruno Taut said...

Thanks, David, for the information. Will take it into consideration and will reinspect my Platinum nibs.

In any even we know that geometry matters more than composition when dealing with flexibility.

Thanks a lot.

BT

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