Tale of a Vandal Pen User: When Pens Break - Part 2

01 October 2025

My Platinum Motosu #3776 went missing for a year. It was somewhere in the house, I knew that much. Finally, the fountain pen was found when rearranging furniture in my office. The fountain had rolled, not underneath, but into a wire basket of a cabinet. Of course, I’d looked under that cabinet many times. Never in the back of one of the wire drawers. Anyhoo, I was glad the Motosu had finally turned up.

Brief history of the Motosu #3776.

• Released by Platinum on July 11, 2011.
• First pen in the Fuji Five Lake series.¹
• First pen released with the Century Slip and Seal design.²
• Released with Rhodium trim.
• The converter was regular Platinum gold-plated version.

The Motosu had been inked when it went missing. When found, the ink inside the converter had evaporated. The nib unit was covered in dried PMF Olive Oil.³ The ink dried not only all over the collar but within the walls of the acrylic holder.

Letting the nib unit soak in Platinum Ink Cleaner,⁴ a lot of ink was released. However, weirdly, I thought, there was ink inside the acrylic cover that held nib collar. Taking the entire nib collar apart, the ink was finally cleaned off all the parts. Mostly. It took more work to get the acrylic clean.

Hopefully, you can see the cracks in the plastic nib collar, and even in the acrylic. You know what that meant, don’t you? When the pen was finally re-inked, ink seeped through the nib collar again and into the acrylic holder.

I tried different things to prevent the ink from leaking, like replacing the teeny black seals, and applying silicon grease various places. Nothing worked for long. I finally sealed the cracks in the plastic nib collar with Captain Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure. That stopped the leaks. Seriously. At the same time, given enough time and pressure while writing with the pen, those micro cracks were bound to re-open. Also, an old pen repair guy’s voice was in my head yelling at me.

Then I went down a long rabbit hole trying to find another nib collar to replace the damaged one. I would have even settled for black in order to use the Motosu regularly, once again. Easier said then done, friends. You may have a broken #3776 Century, but try to find another one to use for parts. Pursuing a custom made nib collar found no one wanted to make one in clear plastic.

At the beginning of said rabbit hole, I did try contacting Platinum for a replacement collar. Crickets. A year later, I tried again, and Luxury Brand came through. But I couldn’t simply purchase a nib collar and had to buy the whole unit (without a nib). Platinum had no Motosu parts available, so the replacement was from Oshino parts. The Oshino looks like the Motosu. (Ahem) Oshino Hakkai are the eight springs in the Fuji World Heritage Site. Bryce of Luxury Brands was very helpful and the delivery was quick.

All I can say is that it’s a relief to get the Motosu writing properly again.

Some links for your browsing pleasure:

• Platinum Japan
• Platinum USA
• Favorite vendors
  • Vanness Pen Shop
  • Jetpens