Platinum | Black Ink Cartridges | 4-Bundle for Preppy & Plaisir

The refill that keeps the Preppy going, in black.

Every Platinum pen ships with one cartridge, and sooner or later it runs dry: usually mid-sentence, usually when you need it. This is the four-cartridge bundle that means it doesn't stay dry.

There's a small stainless steel ball inside each cartridge, and it's the part that matters. It seals the ink in until you push the cartridge home against the back of the section. After that it stays in there doing a second job: metering the flow so the pen starts clean instead of dribbling the first line, and re-priming the ink when you give the barrel a shake. It's a fussy little piece of engineering in service of never thinking about it.

Paired with the Preppy's Slip & Seal cap, a cartridge left in a pen through a quiet month is still ready when you come back to it in the drawer. That combination, sealed cap and sealed cartridge, is most of the reason a $10 pen has the reputation it does.

Two things worth knowing before you order. Platinum uses its own cartridge size, so standard international cartridges won't fit your Preppy, and these won't fit anything that isn't a Platinum. And this is a dye-based black: deep, smooth, and completely legible. It will run if the page gets wet. If you need ink that survives a damp thumb, that's what a converter and a bottle are for.

SPN-100A #1 Black. Made in Japan. Four cartridges in two sealed packs, which is a lot of writing between reorders.

• Sealed steel ball — holds the ink until you seat the cartridge, then meters flow and re-primes the feed when you shake the pen
• Fits Platinum Preppy, Prefounte, and Plaisir — every nib size and barrel color
• Works in Platinum sign pens too — the same cartridge feeds the marker-nib pens, not just the fountain pens
• Roughly 1 ml per cartridge, four in the bundle — a straightforward reorder rather than a project
• Dye-based black — smooth and fast to start; not water resistant
• Platinum proprietary fitting — does not accept or replace standard international cartridges, so plan your refills around it
• Prefer bottled ink? — the same pens take a Platinum converter, which opens them up to Mintvalley Daily Ink
• SPN-100A #1 Black, made in Japan — Platinum's own cartridge, not a third-party fill

How to install a cartridge

1. Unscrew the barrel from the grip section.
2. Push a fresh Platinum cartridge, narrow end first, straight onto the post inside the section. Press firmly until you feel a small click: that's the seal opening.
3. Screw the barrel back on and hold the pen nib-down for a minute, or give it a couple of gentle shakes. The steel ball in the cartridge moves the ink down to the feed.
4. Scribble on scrap paper until the line runs solid. A new cartridge usually starts within a few lines.