What is Platinine ?

[gregcropper]

I have seen pens described as being made of platinine. Is this an alloy? If so, of what?

[Peter Pedant]

Doncha mean Platinum ?

Platinum is an element, like Copper, Cu SIlver Ag or GOld Au and the 103 or so others

The gold nibs had a very small amount of gold put on the nib

and the pt nibs I had assumed had a microscopic amount of Pt put on the end of them. It is a few times more expensive than Gold.

GOld and Pt are too soft to have the whole thing made out of them

[tubeway]

I have seen references to pens, pencils and spectacle frames being made of platinine (there are lots on google) - but no reference to what it actually is.
So maybe somebody is liing up to their name in assuming that you mean platinum.

[Peter Pedant]

oops sorry - platinine seemed so obviously a cross between platinum and platignum

[rojash]

Pt is not exactly soft - it has a hardness of 4-4.5 which is about the same as iron (4-5).