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27 April 2023

New Izumo (II)

As we saw yesterday, Platinum has announced a new Izumo series of pens with a relatively new nib—a #3776 made of 18 K gold.

It could be argued that Platinum had paid attention to a typical complain—the President nib looks small on the Izumo pen. But how do President and #3776 nibs compare? Is the #3776 unit going to correct that perception?


The fact is that the #3776 is just slightly bigger than the President, as the following table shows:


. President .
18 K Au
.#3776.
. 14 K Au .
Total length (mm) 25.5 29.1
Exposed length (mm) 20.9 21.8
Width (mm) 8.1 8.6
Weight (g) 0.6 0.7

And a similar effect can be seen when comparing a #3776 Century and a President pen side by side. These two pens are very similar in dimensions.

President (top) and #3776 Century (bottom).

Izumo Akatamenuri (top) and President (bottom).

On the Izumo, the problem is the actual girth of the pen, significantly larger than that of the regular President:

Izumo
.Akatamenuri.
.President. #3776
.Century.
Length closed (mm) 155 143 140
Length open (mm) 134 122 120
Max. diameter (cap) (mm) 17.5 16.0 15.3
Barrel Diameter (mm) 15.7 13.4 13.3

So, will the #3776 nib correct the perception of a small nib attached to a big pen? Only marginally, I'm afraid.

The actual problem of Platinum is the lack of a big nib, a nib comparable to the Sailor super big (King of Pen) or to the Pilot size 30 (Custom Urushi). And that is a serious handicap if you wanted to design and produce a big pen.


Pilot Custom 74, Yamada Seisakusho – Diamine Teal

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, April 26th, 2023
etiquetas: plumín, mercado, Platinum

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