Last minute Christmas present, perhaps? I just picked up one of the new Platinum Prefounte fountain pens. Goulet Pens is selling it for $10USD and I paid only $15CDN locally. This pen is a bargain, and more.
If you’re familiar with the Platinum Preppy you know something about this pen as it’s pretty much a “super” Preppy, with significant improvements. First, it looks great and comes in orange, red, blue or green. You can get it with fine or medium nibs, just like the Preppy.
![](https://larrydmarshall.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/PrefounteClosed.jpg)
While the Preppy caps are prone to breakage, the Prefounte cap is a significant upgrade. Much stronger, and with a very positive click when you cap the pen. More important, however, is that this pen includes Platinum’s super-d-duper no evaporation double cap seal. The packaging claims you can leave ink in it for a year without much loss. Try that with your Lamy (grin).
![](https://larrydmarshall.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/PrefounteOpen.jpg)
As a street sketcher, one of the things I really like about Platinum pens is that they are the one company that sells a waterproof ink for their pens in cartridge form. This is also wonderful if you’re trying to get someone involved with sketching and/or fountain pens because they don’t have to deal with pen filling. You just throw in a cartridge, about $3 for four of them, and you’re all set. I’ve been using a Platinum Plaisir that way for quite a while. This new Prefounte is lighter, though and I know I’m going to love it. Kinda silly since I’ve got a bunch of high dollar pens sitting around but I don’t have to worry about losing these cheaper solutions.
I apologize for the horrible photos but I wanted to get this post up this morning and the overhead light in my studio isn’t the greatest for taking close up photos. Goulet Pens, though, has good photos 🙂
I should add that the pens don’t come with red nibs; Prefounte nibs are silver. I made the mistake of buying the medium nib, didn’t like it, and exchanged one of the Preppy nibs. Of course I did this strategically to show you that this was possible. Sure I did (grin).