Two Chinese Surprises

**kaisnowbird** · April 9th, 2015, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by Murfie

Originally Posted by Jon Szanto

I ended up buying a Baoer 388 that was on sale for $6.00.

Jon, you must be slipping. I just ordered a 388 on eBay for AU$2.85 and that equates to US$2.15 at the current exchange rates - and the price included shipping!

Please stop. Do you two know how long and how many ridiculous ebay sales (where I was the seller) it took me to kick the cheap Chinese copycat addiction?
I've been sorely tempted by the Kaigelu 316 for years. Still hurts.

Mr Murfie, very nice cursive italic grinds.

**Murfie** · April 26th, 2015, 12:19 AM

Just an update. After learning about the replacement Kaigelu 316 finials I contacted the maker and was able to buy three of them which should reach me from the U.K. later this week. In the interim I've managed to remove the finials from the two 316's that I now have. The earlier one popped out with just a roll or two over the steam, but the later manufactured one was really tough. It took numerous immersions in boiling water and steam to get it to budge and I'm quite amazed that there was no damage done to the celluloid barrel given the heat that was applied. But it eventually came out. They weighed in at 13 gm each - a really large proportion of the total weight. I'll post a further update when the jobs complete.

**Murfie** · April 28th, 2015, 12:18 AM

The replacement finials arrived in the mail from the U.K. today. It took just minutes to insert them, using some two part epoxy resin adhesive. What a remarkable difference to the feel of these pens. Yesterday I also ground the second 316 to an italic cursive nib. I did this after removing the nib to see if it could be replaced by another type. I have several spare nibs including no. 5 and 6 German Knox steel nibs, but neither of these fitted, as didn't several others. The nib seems to be an odd size in between 5 and 6. So I put the original back on the feed and ground it instead.

I'm very pleased with the result and thank you to those who gave me the 'heads-up' about the replacement finial.

**Flounder** · April 28th, 2015, 11:41 AM

Murf, a lot of eBay sellers advertise the 316 as celluloid, but it's really made from a sensible, strong rod of stable acrylic. Kaigelu themselves never felt the need to pretend it was celluloid, back when they had an English language website. And the pens look so good - your photos of the tiger eye colour are the best looking I've seen in that finish - I'm sure we really don't mind!

Also - great nib work!