Platinum Fountain Pen, Curidus, Urban Green, Medium Point, PKN-7000#43-3

There certainly aren't a lot of retractable fountain pens on the market, and at this point I think I've collected at least one each of all current models that matter. The obvious contender is the Pilot Vanishing Point, which is the one you're likely to think of when someone says "retractable fountain pen," and which is also expensive. I also have a knockoff of it, and in then the middle there's this.Platinum make a lot of noise on their web site about the Curidas being an extension of their original "Knock" retractable pen from the 1960's. That says maybe, and the Curidas and Knock are two very different pens, with different design aesthetics. The Curidas is not a rerelease or a recreation, and I'd only call it retro insofar as you'd count its looks as being reminiscent of the early 2000's and the transparent colored plastic craze instigated by the old iMacs. It definitely has that kind of vibe.I think the Platinum Curidas retractable pen does not have as many pretensions of being as high end as the Pilot Vanishing Point. It's considerably less expensive, although not exactly what I'd call CHEAP per se. At first blush the plastic body is not as nice, but the translucent design that shows all the working gubbins has grown on me. Mine is in the "urban green" color which has a definite hint of turquoise in it.But I'll say this: Out of all my retractable options, the Platinum is the one that's become my daily companion pretty much ever since I bought it. The others remain on display, novelties, rarely used. Especially my Vanishing Point, which is so expensive I don't risk it most of the time lest something horrible happen to it or worse -- The possibility that some layman swipes it, doesn't understand what it is, and throws it away in frustration.If you're looking at one of these I can only assume you know at least a little about what you're getting into. Not a lot of people wind up buying a fountain pen except on purpose, let alone a weird retractable one. The Platinum retractable pen has a very long clicker throw that exposes about 3/4 of an inch of its nib, via an arrangement with a little trap door that opens and shuts behind it to help prevent the ink from drying out when not in use. The trap door is maybe not as elegant as the one in the Vanishing Point, and part of its mechanism actually drops down outside the barrel of the pen when it flips open, necessitating a little bump on the side opposite the clip.Despite not having any texture or other greebles, what I guess you would call the grip section on this pen (its construction being really unlike a normal fountain pen) still feels pretty good in the hand. There's not much taper to it except at the very end which I think I prefer. I think this makes it easier to hang onto for longer periods of time. The clip is ever-present, and lives on the writing end of the pen. When in use it will be on top, between your thumb and forefinger. It doesn't get in the way, but you're always aware that it's there. It's also pretty large in diameter. My usual cup of tea is a narrower diameter and preferably metal bodied pen, so the Curidas is quite unlike what I'm normally used to. If you can't function without a small pen, or have really small hands, this might not be the one for you.The "medium" point as described puts down a nice bold line, which is something I like. I do enjoy a good bold nib. Little to no scratchiness is present, as you would expect from a competent fountain pen. Those who prefer a really "expressive" flexible point should prepare to be disappointed -- the Platinum's point is steel, and it's about as stiff as a board. This means that you can kinda-sorta use it on carbon or write-through forms (duplicates, at least; you probably won't make it all the way through to the bottom copy of a triplicate form) but you're not getting much in the way of varied line widths without putting truly unwise levels of pressure on it.Platinum does not specify what the nib (the rounded ball thingy on the very tip) is actually made out of anywhere that I can find, so it's likely it's just steel and not any fancy premium material. It feels fine, and time will certainly tell how well it wears.The pocket clip is a simple springy piece of chrome plated steel and if you like it can be removed, although doing so leaves its little alignment blade and two mounting ears exposed. What you can't do is put it on the other end of the pen. Like other retractable pens, the clip lives on the business end and when you pocket the pen you do so with the point facing up. All in the entire thing is just under 6 inches long and the pen body doesn't change in length in the slightest whether the point is retracted or deployed. That's closer to the length of a lot of fountain pens with the cap posted on the tail, rather longer than the capped and closed length, but it is what it is.Upon disassembly you'll see that the mechanism in the Curidas is quite... mechanical. The metal carrier for the cartridge is held in with a bolt-action peg through an L shaped channel in the nib assembly. The nib assembly itself is also retained by a similar bolt-action arrangement that's tensioned by the pen's mainspring, and is also utterly unnecessary -- the guts would be held in just fine by the tail body and clicker cap assembly even without it. This is probably just Platinum showing off. So the disassembled mechanism is a fairly comprehensive fidget toy if you're into that sort of thing. Note that the mainspring is not captive, so it can ping off and away if you're not careful.The elephant in the room here is how well this thing retains ink without a traditional cap. Both in terms of not leaking, but also in not drying out over moderate periods of not being used. Well, I haven't been able to get my Curidas to leak yet. I have been able to get it to drool some ink over its point by being naughty and not storing it point-up, but none of it has managed to escape the trap door on the front. The longest I've let it sit so far without writing anything was only about a week, but it restarted immediately without issue. That's pretty good.The whole kit and kaboodle comes in a quite heavy duty cardboard presentation box, complete with one ink cartridge (filled with blue ink in my example -- not what I was expecting), an inkwell converter, and a gizmo that I eventually learned was to aid you in removing the clip. A little instructions leaflet is included, half in Japanese, but figuring out how it all works is pretty self explanatory.Overall I have to say I do quite like the Curidas. I wasn't going into it expecting much -- With its dorky and wide transparent plastic body and novelty mechanism I wasn't expecting much out of it. But it's a great writer, such to the point that I still haven't yet been able to bring myself to put the thing away and break out any of my array of much fancier pens since getting it.

If I were to describe the Platinum Curidas, I would say it's built on the idea of being weird. Although that's not a bad thing. When I first started getting into fountain pens, I wanted something retractable. I remember considering the Curidas, but I ultimately went with the Moonman A1 vanishing point copy. Although that pen is nice and very sturdy, I think the Curidas has my heart, purly with its elegant weirdness. Where the VP/A1 are very practical, professional and serious, the Curidas feels like it came from the heart, like your mom bringing you freshly made cookies. Something so special that it can't truly be compared. This pen is as over engineered as it gets, but it does it well and in a unique way. The medium nib is smooth and writes beautifully. The nib is also not as small as the VP/A1, which was always a point of contention for me. It's a nice medium between the full size Lamy dialog 3 and the VP/A1. It's chonkyness is also much like the Dialog but slightly thinner. It fits in my hands nicely, and I really like its feel. As I'm sure most of you have noticed, this pen has the upfront Clip everyone seems to love or hate. You can choose to remove it of you like (and it come with a tool to do so), but I don't even notice it's there, it also adds the the beauty of this pen, so for me, it's staying. This pens retraction mechanism is neat and I've never seen anything like it before. The throw for the mechanism very long and I love it. This pen has been done dirty by every fountain pen reviewer on the web. Personally, my only wish is for it to come with a converter, but that's small when considering the pen is a masterpiece overall. For $50 you can't go wrong. I love the Curidas, and I'm sure others will too.

I own a few Pilot Vanishing Point pens, and have never gotten used to the clip in the way, at least for my pen holding style. And, I'm not a fan of their very flexy, small 18K nibs. Enter the Platinum Curidas. This is not my first one, I have been pretty pleased with the previous ones. I wanted to see how the "maintenance kit" helped the pens smoothness when being retracted, as it seems that after awhile, the nib unit seems to stick a bit when retracting.Well, even though it's shown in the pictures, my pen did not come with the kit, which is simply some silicone oil, and a few Q-tips. Still, I would have liked to try the OEM Platinum solution. I went and got some silicone oil from a local store, and had some Q-tips already. I found the instructions online, so I gave it a try, and so far, it's very smooth action, I think this helps.Overall, the pen is excellent, for me at least. I find the grip/holding position not as finicky as the VP pens are. LOVE the nib, has an excellent fine line, and that "Platinum feel" with plenty of feedback in the nib. If you are looking for a glass smooth nib, look elsewhere. I would like to see more colors, and to make sure each pen comes with the maintenance kit to ensure smooth operation down the road. The Graphite Smoke is nice, how about orange or yellow, something bright?In summary, a great retractable fountain pen. Some people seem to feel that the pen feels cheap in some way, and in all honesty, it is not as solid as a Pilot VP, for sure. I would buy it again!