Goodbye Chinese Fountain Pens

[betweenthelens]

I have to chime in here. I have a TWSBI, my latest Chinese pen, and it writes perfectly well. A friend gave me three Hero 616 models and two write well. The third is so-so but I think I can tinker with it to make it an acceptable writer.

My first pen purchase, after I got back into fountain pens last summer, was a Bookworm 675 for under $10. I've heard mixed reviews on this pen but mine was (right out of the box) and remains a perfectly wonderful pen. The finish hasn't peeled off as some have experienced and the pen has never skipped or had other problems with ink flow. It also writes incredibly smoothly as well.

Quality control is an issue anywhere, more so in countries that strive to provide products cheaply as they compete for their share of the global market. There has been much written about quality control (specifically in China) and it's really very interesting. Interesting also is the relationship between Chinese manufacturers and exporters and those who import these Chinese goods in the West. Often, the story is one-sided.

[AndyT]

Quality control is an issue anywhere ...

Most definitely. Arguably a more serious issue if the pen in question comes from a prestigious European manufacturer which sees fit to buff its nibs to such a mirror shine that they won't write on smooth paper without remedial work to get rid of the baby's bottom profile. That's a story I've heard quite a few times just lately.

It seems to me that if a pen costs $10 it's only reasonable to expect to have to do a bit of tweaking: in fact it's surprising how often that turns out to be unnecessary. Comparing a $1 Hero unfavourably with a Parker 51 is beside the point, really.

[mhosea]

Arguably a more serious issue if the pen in question comes from a prestigious European manufacturer which sees fit to buff its nibs to such a mirror shine that they won't write on smooth paper without remedial work to get rid of the baby's bottom profile. That's a story I've heard quite a few times just lately.

Pelikan? They're not the only one putting out baby's bottoms these days, unfortunately. I've dealt with it in the last year on a Platinum, a Faber-Castell, and a Pilot. I have only owned 20-30 vintage pens, and I have seen various issues, but I have yet to come across one with baby's bottom.

[AndyT]

Nope not Pelikan - haven't heard that. Since it's not my story to tell I don't want to name names, but SBRE Brown has a couple of times in recent videos, and he's not the only one. As for vintage pens, same here.

For what it's worth my suspicion is that buffing wheels are to blame for those malformed tips. Nothing like a felt mop and and chrome oxide for quickly putting an impressive shine on metal, and rounding over edges too.

[kaisnowbird]

My Pelikan (yes, singular) has a bit of a baby's bottom, but thankfully not so serious that I will want to work on it... yet.

[DPWilkens]

I just bought what I think is a Hero 616 from Amazon (the product name says "Hero Extra Light Fountain Pen"). Not sure if it's going to work out of the box or indeed at all, but it reminded me of a dirt-cheap Wing Sung I had once and nostalgia got the better of me. Plus it bumped my total shipment up to the free shipping level, so that it was essentially a free pen. Does anyone else have experience with the 616?

[Sailor Kenshin]

I have about ten of them, bought many years ago from isellpens and speerbob from fleabay. All of them are great, reliable writers that I reach for day in and day out.

[rdcalhoon]

I recently bought two Hero 616's from isellpens and was given one earlier (thanks heath). I did a touch of smoothing on each with a buffing stick, but that may just be me.
I would buy them again from isellpens.
The two I bought are different from the one I was given. Caps don't fit, threads are different, one is shorter, end of the cap of the one is narrower and more pointed than the others. The last bit is a feature since I can pick the pen from my shirt pocket by feel.
I have to assume that they come from different factories, but it makes no difference to my uses.
All of them write well.

[DPWilkens]

I used to buy a lot of Chinese pens from isellpens. I found them to be very unreliable, but that is really before I knew much about how to tweak nibs and properly wash out fountain pens. I also didn't know about the large selection of fountain pens that were cheaper than 50 dollars but still good quality, such as Noodler's and the Pilot Metro. At the time I only knew about the luxury pen market and so a cheap, everyday pen was really attractive. I had this theory that the Chinese pen companies had been manufacturing fps since 1949, and had been serving an isolated market with basic-quality pens since the Mao era. Nowadays it seems like a lot of them are just taking tooling and designs from Japanese, American, and European companies and producing lower quality copies. Yet I still like the idea of picking up a really decent, cheap Chinese pen, maybe out of a batch that had originally been produced as say, Parker knock offs for Chinese officials.

[pico]

My experience is about 50% of the really cheap ones are worth keeping/using. Considering I've never paid more than $7.00 for one, that's not bad... It's a gamble and may not pay off if you only get one or two.

Clear plastics must be difficult to produce this cheaply. I'm done buying cheapo auction pens for now, but if clear demonstrators were to show up, I might try again.

[Sailor Kenshin]

On the other hand, ten WS 333s I got off fleabay for $16 all seem fine. That's $16 for all ten, making them officially My Cheapest Pens.

After gapping, they are wet writers, perfect ink testers/loaners, and their wild color schemes appeal to my sense of fun.

If they're still available, they would also make good practice pieces for nib-grinding.

I'm sure there are awful Cheap Chinese Pens out there but I haven't run across 'em.

[DPWilkens]

Well, a few days ago my new Hero 616 arrived and after running some tap water through it, the pen writes very nice with Pilot Namiki black. It has completely displaced the Noodler's nib creeper that I had been using for fine work. I'm very pleased, especially since I've had bad experiences with other, older Hero pens in the past.

[VertOlive]

Chiming in, now that I've bought a few Chinese pens in the past year. I have:

1) Hero 715-an elegant, slim pen that's light weight. From speerbob

2) Duke Bamboo- large (as in "could double as a weapon"), very attractive and well made. From hisnibs.com

3) Luoshi etched with a Tiger scene- nicely done, heavy enough that I'd never post it during use. Forgotten ebay dealer.

I bought these for their looks, and to learn about Chinese pens in general. All of them have ordinary, F/M nibs.

All of these write like a boss out of their respective boxes.

[KBeezie]

In regards to TWBSI specifically, there are probably people who will argue that it's NOT Chinese but that it's Taiwanese (apparently this is a big difference to some), and I imagine that the pens from PRC are probably going to have even less quality control than TWSBI.

I myself have never owned a TWSBI, but I noticed that when people voice problems with theirs, the company tends to have no problems shipping out replacement parts for just about any damaged component til you're practically able to make a whole new model of the pen.

Far as Chinese pens that I've owned (and still own):

Jinhao X750 : have had over 8 of these so far, most of them given away either to family or PIF online, they're durable, reliable (for the most part other than drying out after not using them for a week), and I usually don't use the stock nib on them, usually replaced with either a Goulet or Monteverde nib. The current one in my rotation is the first one I got, a Shimmering Sands design fitted with a Monteverde Black-coated fine (was using a Goulet 2-tone EF on it). It's a decent bit of weight to it (being mix of brass and steel), handles whatever abuse I put on it, and the paint job lasts longer than a Monteverde Invincia Deluxe Nighthawk.

Jinhao 159 : A really nice one in the line up, very large though, has a screw on cap instead of a clip on. It's almost a clone of a Montblanc 149 but with a huge badge on the clip. About the same weight as a X750 but a little bigger. Only in black and uses the exact same nib and feed as the X750 and X450. Currently have one fitted with a Goulet 2-tone Medium, I also have a second one (used from someone who gave it to me) that still has the original Jinhao monotone nib that's pretty smooth, but a little inconsistent in how it lays down ink.

Jinhao 611 (Metal): with a fine hooded nib, something like a Japanese Extra-Fine, attractive, pretty thin, pretty durable. The nib on the scratchy side but not unusable. I PIF'd this one when I was scaling down my collection.

Jinhao 599 (Metallic Lime Green): Lamy Safari Clone that was given to me by Pens N More as a review sample, not too heavy, feels durable, and oddest part is that the Jinhao branded nib in a western fine size is smooth and consistent flowing and hasn't dried up on me yet. I'm just not a fan of the 3-way grip that copies off the Lamy Safari (I wouldn't be happy with Lamy's official grip either).

Jinhao X450: pretty much the same as the X750, I've owned 3 of these (one bought, two given), I still have a green marbled one, I PIF'd the other two. It mainly doesn't post well, and the grip has ridges on 3 spots, both issues corrected by the X750, otherwise nearly identical.

Hero 616 : Rather quirky and cheap feeling, once I took some micro-mesh and mylar paper to it, it was a very smooth and wet flowing pen form then on. But I hate permanently built in aerometric fillers. Was PIF'd as well to someone who was simply amazed at how smooth it was. The pen was originally gifted to me in the package with the Sheaffer Snorkel that I had sent back to me after being completely restored.

WingSung 3203 : A nice metallic (almost brown gun metal looking) with a tiny open nib, somewhat on the western fine/medium with a decent converter that came with it's own little agitation method (steel ball bearings). Though it did have some problems with hard start after not being used for a while. This was also PIF'd

Baoer 507 "8 Horse" Design: Ordered 3 of these in different colors, all three were in need of adjustment to the nibs (too dry), once adjusted they were a little on the wet side, not a huge fan of how they felt, but they were cool looking. Gifted two of them, sold the third one once adjusted further.

Winsung 233 : Sort of a Sheaffer Triumph nib clone with an amber ink window. Plastic for the most part, very rigid/stiff nib but had decent flow and could be disassembled for cleaning. PIF'd one, Sold the other, mainly because like the Hero 616, I didn't care for the permanently installed squeeze filler. But they were sturdy to say the least.

Uranus KSF-301 (from Speerbob) : A pretty attractive partially hooded Duke pen with a blue body and chrome cap. It's converter seems proprietary and was a squeeze filler only. Also didn't care for metal-on-metal as the cap scraped on. The nib on it was quite smooth with the huge ball tipping on the front which wrote close to the middle of a western fine and medium.

I still have the last one, 1x X750 and 2x Jinhao 159, the rest were either sold or given away as I upgraded to different things. In regards to pens like the 159 and X750, a few dollars more can afford a Pilot Metropolitan at $15 with a very smooth Japanese Medium Nib, and I find they're about as durable but easier to write with (especially considering that my Jinhao choices are technically more expensive when you factor in the nib price).

[Scrawler]

I used to buy a lot of Chinese pens from isellpens. I found them to be very unreliable, but that is really before I knew much about how to tweak nibs and properly wash out fountain pens. I also didn't know about the large selection of fountain pens that were cheaper than 50 dollars but still good quality, such as Noodler's and the Pilot Metro. At the time I only knew about the luxury pen market and so a cheap, everyday pen was really attractive. I had this theory that the Chinese pen companies had been manufacturing fps since 1949, and had been serving an isolated market with basic-quality pens since the Mao era. Nowadays it seems like a lot of them are just taking tooling and designs from Japanese, American, and European companies and producing lower quality copies. Yet I still like the idea of picking up a really decent, cheap Chinese pen, maybe out of a batch that had originally been produced as say, Parker knock offs for Chinese officials.

When I lived in China (1989-1996) I observed that large, fancy looking modern pens were made to be given as gifts, because the pen is associated with education, and presenting one was a symbol of esteem. There was very much a gift giving culture. For the most part these pens were intended to symbolically sign a document, then be out away and forgotten. So it did not really matter that the feed was hard plastic. For everyday use the pens the officials used were quite plain, but worked well. Many of the modern pens we see today come from this gift giving and presentation culture. It was the appearance that mattered. When it came time to present me with my pen I made it known that I did not want a fancy presentation pen, but I preferred something that I was going to use. This caused a bit of a problem, but my hosts cleverly solved it by finding an unused 1954 (the year of my birth) officials working pen. It was NOS and sealed in a nice box. So for my part, I made a great show of opening and filling it, signing the documents, and then placing it in my breast pocket to show that it was going to be used. This pen is an imitation of a Duofold of the time, with a push button filler and a gold nib. I was (and still am) very pleased with it. Despite its plain appearance I increased my host's face by speaking of how special it was to me, and showed off the excellent nib, and spoke of its quality.

[mhosea]

Jinhao 159 : A really nice one in the line up, very large though, has a screw on cap instead of a clip on. It's almost a clone of a Montblanc 149 but with a huge badge on the clip.

The badge is the biggest difference? Although MB 149's are not that special in how they write (IMHO), they have a certain balance and feel in the hand. The Jinhao 159 does little to approximate it, as the grip on the 159 is heavily tapered, the 149 not tapered at all, and the nib on the 159 is much smaller than the 149's. The combined effect of these differences is immense. I'm actually surprised there isn't a proper imitation of the 149 to the same extent as a Baoer 388 is an imitation of the Parker Sonnet, but I guess this would require a larger plastic feed and a larger steel nib. Even just an un-tapered grip section with same nib and feed would be a much better approximation.

[KBeezie]

Jinhao 159 : A really nice one in the line up, very large though, has a screw on cap instead of a clip on. It's almost a clone of a Montblanc 149 but with a huge badge on the clip.

The badge is the biggest difference? Although MB 149's are not that special in how they write (IMHO), they have a certain balance and feel in the hand. The Jinhao 159 does little to approximate it, as the grip on the 159 is heavily tapered, the 149 not tapered at all, and the nib on the 159 is much smaller than the 149's. The combined effect of these differences is immense. I'm actually surprised there isn't a proper imitation of the 149 to the same extent as a Baoer 388 is an imitation of the Parker Sonnet, but I guess this would require a larger plastic feed and a larger steel nib. Even just an un-tapered grip section with same nib and feed would be a much better approximation.

Visually speaking of course, if you took the chunky badge off the clip then to a layman they wouldn't seem that much different other than one being larger than the other. Anyone who *knows* a 149 will of course immediately spot the difference. Not to nitpick, that's just how close it would be generally speaking if the badge were removed to people who know little about pens.

A "proper" imitation of a 149 wouldn't survive without being a straight out counterfeit because MB would go after everyone who attempts to sell it. The 159 has enough generic differences going on that it just basically *looks* like a typical classic pen of that style but not really a pinpoint of anyone other than just being closests to a 149.

[I like mango pudding]

I have both the 159 and 149 and the only similarity is the size and basic shape. Nothing else is the same. I only got the 159 as a tester as to how a 149 would feel in my hand knowing fully well that the weight would be totally different. I didn't get the 159 to compare weight.

[mhosea]

A "proper" imitation of a 149 wouldn't survive without being a straight out counterfeit because MB would go after everyone who attempts to sell it.

Not possible. No patent can be active at this point, so Montblanc would have no legal basis for "going after" an imitation based on design. If it were too close in every detail, there might be a trademark infringement somewhere in the labeling on it, but this is easily avoided. Check out the "Crocodile" brand name on Ebay. You can get a decent imitation of a Starwalker, even a Boheme, although the latter might be better thought of as a "mock up", since it only looks like a Boheme and doesn't function like one (can't do that on the cheap).

I do agree that the chunky badge will tip off even a casual observer, but my point is that thinking of the 159 as a "clone" of the 149 sets the bar too low when other models, even some Montblancs, are much more accurately imitated.

[Scrawler]

A "proper" imitation of a 149 wouldn't survive without being a straight out counterfeit because MB would go after everyone who attempts to sell it.

Not possible. No patent can be active at this point, so Montblanc would have no legal basis for "going after" an imitation based on design. If it were too close in every detail, there might be a trademark infringement somewhere in the labeling on it, but this is easily avoided. Check out the "Crocodile" brand name on Ebay. You can get a decent imitation of a Starwalker, even a Boheme, although the latter might be better thought of as a "mock up", since it only looks like a Boheme and doesn't function like one (can't do that on the cheap).

I do agree that the chunky badge will tip off even a casual observer, but my point is that thinking of the 159 as a "clone" of the 149 sets the bar too low when other models, even some Montblancs, are much more accurately imitated.

Yes, quite right. The 159 may be said to be inspired by the MB, but not a "clone".