Unboxing…
This pen is the second fountain pen I bought, after Pilot Kakuno F. I also bought F nib version of this pen. The first impression I had from this 18k gold nib pen is just beautiful. And by beautiful I did not exaggerate. It is worth the bucks I spent.
The photos may not show a detailed effect of the texture. The most standing-out part is the flower petals. It has white glitters when you expose it to light. Other golden-colored part of the phoenix texture is not, however.
This pen is shipped with a piston converter, a blue-black platinum ink cartridge, and the box, of course. I installed the cartridge first, since I was curious with how the Platinum ink looks like.
I was skeptical to buying gold nibs at first, since I am not sure that it will enhance my experience in writing. So I quickly try writing some text to see whether it lives up to my expectations.
I write in relatively small fonts, so I want to have an F nib or maybe finer. One thing that I was afraid of is that it will produce bolder strokes than my previous Kakuno F. It turns out there is only more ink flow in Platinum Phoenix. The strokes they produce are pretty much the same.
Conclusion: This pen is beautiful to look at, but you may not want to use it too much outdoors. If you post the cap, there will be scratches in the body, which I doubt you want it to happen. Nib is golden, and can be flex-ed a bit to vary the stroke width. It is the cheapest version among Platinum’s Maki-e Fountain Pen Series, and it is worth the dollars.