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Thread: Chinese fountain pens and airbrushes

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    Default Chinese fountain pens and airbrushes

    Before my interest in fountain pens, I collected airbrushes. I have over 30 of them from various manufacturers. There are similarities between pens and airbrushes. Both are based on simple principals, but require precision to work well. And, both can be very attractive.

    Like fountain pens, there are many low cost airbrushes made in China. Most are nicely finished, and, like fountain pens, if you are lucky, they work well. If you are not, they may have problems.

    Here is an example. I got this red no-name airbrush for $12 and free shipping. It looks and feels great. The trigger is silky smooth. There was only one problem, it wouldn’t spray. Since I know something about how they work, I was able to fix it, and it is now a good airbrush. Someone with less experience would probably have to toss it.



    Like many others, I have received Chinese fountain pens with problems too. I figure that’s part of the game. I look forward to the challenge. If I fail, it hasn’t cost me much and maybe I’ll learn something.

    I suspect there are other products from China with similar characteristics. When I was in the Navy, I bought a beautiful little gold pocket watch in Hong Kong. It ran perfectly until we got out to sea. A jeweler later told me it wasn’t worth fixing.

  2. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Parsimonious For This Useful Post:

    Lloyd (October 25th, 2020), Robert (October 25th, 2020)

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    Default Re: Chinese fountain pens and airbrushes

    Chinese industry has a problem with quality control. If they had sense they'd be getting in the ISO 9001 experts to take a look. Friends in India won't subcontract to China as they don't get quality components - apparently you end up spending more time checking the components than you would making them.

    OTOH when that means you can get something cheap that you know you can fix, well that's the cloud with the silver lining.

    I'm intrigued by your collection of airbrushes. Do you use them all? Or is the user/collector dichotomy something that's peculiar to the fountain pen universe?

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    Default Re: Chinese fountain pens and airbrushes

    @ amk -- No, there are only a couple that I use regularly. I have a website that reviews airbrushes and most of mine were supplied by the manufacturers for review. If you are curious about the one I mentioned, you can see my review of it and how I fixed it here.

    It's obvious that Chinese companies can produce high quality stuff if there is an incentive. But, they are happy to take shortcuts if it's more profitable. If you want something cheap, they will sell you something cheap. It might even work.

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    amk (October 27th, 2020)

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    Default Re: Chinese fountain pens and airbrushes

    Nice web site. I'm almost tempted to take up airbrush.

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    Parsimonious (October 26th, 2020)

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    Default Re: Chinese fountain pens and airbrushes

    @ Ole - Thanks. Careful though, they can be as addictive as fountain pens.

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