Platinum Preppy and Sailor Candy Reviews

I've always been fascinated by fountain pens, but the ones I knew about were far too expensive for me to consider owning.  However, my fingers ache, and I began to worry about my hands. I read a bit about fountain pens and some folks noted that the fountain pen requires less pressure and a much looser grip. Still, I didn't want to spend $100 on a fountain pen (or $20,000).  I took a peek at my favorite website, Jetpens.  It's a site that I was already using, but I hadn't spent much time with the fountain pens.

I read some reviews and decided to order two pens:

Platinum Preppy Fine Point, Blue Black Ink

Sailor Candy Clear

The Platinum Preppy is a $3 fountain pen that uses cartridges. The Sailor Candy is a $16 fountain pen that also uses cartridges. 

The Platinum Preppy is a fun pen to use. I have since purchased the purple one both because the tip is beautiful (I love that the nib color matches the ink color) and because they actually write very nicely.  The blue black ink is an interesting navy blue. It's still bright, but it's not as bright as a lot of blue ballpoint pens. The ink flows smoothly, and I can write well on copy paper and on nice, smooth, higher quality papers.  I was thrilled with this pen from the moment I started using it.

The Sailor Candy was a serious disappointment. I had purchased brown ink cartridges at the same time I bought the pen, and I filled it with the brown cartridge. I tried to use it for several days with no success.  The ink skips, it's scratchy to write with - even if I am using high quality paper, and it's a difficult and horrible pen to use. However, the Sailor Candy brown cartridge is awesome. The ink is an iodine color, and it made me so happy to look at it on the page that I tried to use it for weeks.

I thought that perhaps the problem was with the pen itself, maybe I had a malfunctioning pen. I contacted Jetpens and explained that I had a defective pen, and they were wonderful. They sent me a new one free of charge and said I could dispose of my current pen. The new pen writes better. I'm willing to use it, but it's still not a great, fun use. I have a black ink cartridge in it, so I keep it in my pen case in case I need to write in black.

I used these pens for months and discovered that I'm more likely to write in my paper journal now because it's fun. I feel special writing on the page. Usually a new notebook is daunting. I worry about writing on the first page because I'll "screw it up" and everything will be ruined. With my fountain pens, I look forward to marking up the page, even if it's messy.