Hi Everyone.

I only recently (8 months or so) got back into fountain pens after over 20 years absence. I started out getting a Jinhao x450, to make sure i could even write anymore. i immediately had issues with it (posted here about it). it would write on crappy paper, but not on decent paper. tried flushing it, soaking etc to try to get oils etc out, but no luck.

given that i could still write with it, i went for a decent-ish pen in a faber-castel ambition (which i really like the design of and seemed to get good reviews). immediately noticed the difference, will write on anything from poor paper to good, no issues at all.

when i noticed that i could get some german market shimmer inks here, i bought a few and got another cheap pen (Jinhao x750) as i didnt want to risk the decent pen. immediately had the exact same issues with the x750... actually, they are even worse. after reading a few reviews about poor quality control, and that sometimes you just get duff pens, i bought another 2 of the x750s as i could get them for £3 each at the time. but it appears to be the same all round..

even the best of the bunch will hardly write at all, even with regular ink, unless i press really hard! the FC writes perfectly with hardly any pressure; the the Jinhao pens have to be pressed so hard it dents the pad below...

am i the only one finding this, or is it a common problem? the reviews for them say they are pretty reasonable, but im finding that they are all utter trash.. the only way i can get any decent flow out of them is by priming the nib every few lines.