When I started to get into fountain pens, I had my eye on the Platinum Century 3776, but I held off purchasing one because the cigar shape wasn’t the most appealing to me. These particular pens have since grown on me, and I actually find the Platinum Century 3776 to be a pretty well constructed pen for the price. It’s often listed of as one of the best entry level gold nibs. By the time I bought this pen, I already had a few other gold nibs, and I had pretty much decided that I was going to put an architect grind on it when I ordered it.

I started out with a broad nib on a Platinum Century 3776 Nice Lilas, the frosted pink material with rose gold trim, and sent it off to Mark Bacas (Nib Grinder) to put an architect point on it. I sometimes print in all caps, especially when I address envelopes or write out headings in hand written drafts or when I make lists, so I thought this would be perfect to give my writing that draftsman style. The only complaint that I had about the Nice Lilas is that it came with a silver toned converter, which clashed with the gold trim on the pen. You can order a gold trim converter, but the small details make a difference, especially in a pen that costs over $100.

I liked the Nice Lilas so much that I ended up getting one of the Chartres Blue pens with the same broad nib and had the same grind put on it. I tend to gravitate toward blue ink for a lot of things, and I do like to keep my ink in the same color family as the pen because I think it keeps things neat and easy for me to know what color the pen is inked with.

I purchased both of these pens at a discount, which is why I thought they were good candidates for the architect grind. If I didn’t like the pen, I figured it would be easy to unload in one of the forums or auction sites. For those who don’t know what an architect grind is, it’s designed to have a narrow downstroke and a wide cross stroke (this post has a good explanation of the sharp ‘v’ that the nib makes when its ground to an architect point, plus a great nib shot). I don’t mind so much that these pens have to be filled with a converter or cartridge, which I know some folks complain about, but I don’t write in all caps all the time, so the ink consumption isn’t really a big issue for me. If you want a nicer pen to put an architect grind on, the Platinum 3776 is a good candidate. The converter seems to hold more ink than a Sailor, and the price is lower than Sailor as well. Plus, I think these pens look sharp.