Platinum Century Black or Bourgogne Fountain Pen (Black Broad)
Platinum Century #3776 C nib (Double Broad)
Diamine Asa Blue
This pen has been on my want list for some time. I finally purchased one direct from Japan. My original order was for a broad nib but the seller emailed me that they were out and Platinum themselves were out of stock for about a month. The seller was quick to offer a refund but I asked about other nib options they had in stock. One of the options was this double broad nib. I decided to go for it primarily because Asian nibs tend to be finer than western counterparts.
I did not expect such a broad and wet nib. The nib is so broad that it is just to much for my hand. On the very big plus side, there is so much tipping on this nib that a very nice stub or cursive italic should be possible.
The pen itself is very light and comfortable to use posted or un-posted. The pen has a very classic design that begs comparison to Montblanc. Platinum kept the ornaments to a minimum so the pen does not look at all gaudy. The 14k gold nib is springy but getting line variation from it is difficult since the tipping is so broad.
The converter holds enough ink to keep up with the wet nib but some will definitely think it does not hold enough ink.
This pens claim to fame is a feature of a special inner cap that helps seal up the nib and feed. This, according to Platinum, keeps the ink fresh for up to a year. It is the same system as found on the lowly Platinum Preppy. If the Preppy is any indicator of the cap performance, the #3776 Century cap should work perfectly.
The pen measures about 119 mm uncapped, 139 mm capped. If you post the pen, you are looking at 154 mm. The Century looks almost identical to my Pilot Custom 742. There are some very minor differences in the cap band and clip. It would be easy to confuse the two pens if you were being careless.
This pen is destined to be worked on by Mr. Pendleton Brown. It remains to be seen how the pen will react after modification. 🙂
Thank you for reading!
Ivan
The Fountain Pen Sith Lord.
The hand written portion of the review:
*This blog post, including pictures, was created with iPad Mini
Inktronics 
The same pen is on my wish list too, but I am looking either at the UEF or SF nib. Not sure whether the SF one is similar to that of Falcon, so more thinking is needed!
That winged wonder that is on the Nakaya, is that the same thing?
LOVE. Your pictures. LOVE them. (Also I fancy this pen…)
As always, thank you for you kind comments Azizah.
I have this pen in Chartres Blue. The color is like blue stained glass. My nib is an M, and it writes nice and wet. If I had a chance, I’d also get the Bourgogne color, with perhaps an F nib. So worth it!
The Chartres Blue is on my Radar but it will be a while before I can get one. 🙂
That looks great Ivan. I didn’t know that Platinum did a Cosu/BB nib. I love broad nibs so I’d leave it alone but you’re the one using it.
Have the same pen with the same ‘C’ nib. Like writing with butter on a hot Teflon pan. Seriously smooth. Seriously wet.
But a paintbrush, not a writing instrument. I have it with someone to convert into a stub right now. Can let you know how it goes.
Exactly what I intend for this pen. A stub is in my future.
I got my pen back from John Sorowka and it is really, _really_ nice! (If a little temperamental and fuzzy about its ink.) Must make some writing samples, but we went for his ‘Oxford’ grind where the line depends on the angle of the pen to the paper. When held high it is a medium cursive italics changing continuously to a (rather) broad round when held low. We kept it really quite wet so it works best with inks that are just a little dry – I use Pelikan 4001 Königsblau at the moment and that is near perfect for the flow.
I hope you enjoy your pen!
Thank you for your comments. I will have to keep John in mind for future work.
Nice review. Have been thinking about picking one of those up for some time now.
Can’t wait to see how it writes post PB mod!
Ken
Just to clarify, this is a standard 3776, not a century. So it does not have the high tech cap. You can tell this because the gold band on century pens is part way up the nib section whereas on the standard 3776 its at the end, like yours. As long as you screw the cap on well and use the pen once in a while, you should have no problems with dry out. Also, century pens do not come with c nibs, only standards 3776 pens do. I know this because I have a standard 3776 with c nib just like yours. I had mine ground to a 0.85 mm crisp cursive italic by John Mottishaw and the results were amazing. This 3776 nib writes more or less same as a nakaya but at hundreds of dollars less money. This is one fine pen, as you had mentioned, the only draw back is having to refill the converter often in order to keep up with the wet nib. Platinum blue black cartridges or bottled ink go well with this pen, but I particularly like Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo with it. Anyway, thanks for the review and enjoy your pen!
Hey Ivan, looking more carefully at placement of the gold nib band on the feed section, this does look like a century
Model after all. So please disregard comments about that above. Sorry about that. I think you will like it once you get it back from Pendleton.
Thanks for your comments.
Hmmmm such a lovely Nib, I need to get me one of those nibs! 🙂 Thnx for the great review 🙂
Thank you Michel. Been digging your video reviews as of late. You are getting some serious nibbage to review!