Jinhao golden clip X450

[Chris]

I have read a lot of positive comments about Chinese pens and thought I would buy one if I could find one for very little money. This was to be an experiment, pure and simple.

 

I bought the first one I found for £7.99 including free postage from China, not expecting too much. Well, I am surprised! The pen I bought was a Jinhao and was simply described as "gold clip 18KGP" by gotoschool1888, the seller. It arrived yesterday in a small but sturdy cardboard box in a small padded bag; undamaged all that way.

 

It is a medium to large and heavy pen, all black with a gold clip, wide gold band with Jinhao and X450 engraved on it and a narrow gold band at the end of the barrel. In other words it looks quietly understated and like 100 other black pens, but nicely done.

 

The pen body is probably indestructable. I tis made of brass and covered with plastic, again nicely done and I could only find one tiny flaw (a moulding mark) which is not bad for an inexpensive pen. The cap is a firm snap fit but although you can post it for writing, it wobbles a lot and also makes the pen very heavy (and I usually use a Cross Townsend).

 

It is a converter filler and this looks to be well made with a small spring inside to prevent fuel starvation in use. The finger grip/section and feed are thick tough-looking black plastic with a matt finish.

 

The nib is large and two-tone with a stamped 'engraving' pattern and 18K GP on it. There is some tipping material on the medium nib but whether this is a separate hard tip or simply a fattening of the nib only time and use will tell.

 

So far, looks to be fine, but does it write?

 

Well, straight from the box I filled with Waterman Florida Blue (not my favourite ink but if any faults appeared, I would know it would not be the ink itself) and started to write. It wrote perfectly well, starting straight away and writing with a consistent wet line, no blobs, skips or jumps; not glassy smooth, but perfectly acceptable and on a par with most of my other pens; certainly no catching or scratching. The nib itself is quite thin but this is much like some older pens I have like the W5 from Waterman.

 

My verdict? Well worth £7.99 and I expect it will last many years to come though whether it will outlast me, who knows. I may well take it on those travels when it is possible the pen might suffer trauma or loss and then that would not cause me to weep, unlike some other pens... or for those occasions when someone says, "Oohh, can I borrow your pen?" so it may live in my desk at work.

 

I had intended to use it for highlighting with Noodlers Firefly, but I have another (silver finish) on order, even cheaper, with a broad nib.

 

Chris

 

Sorry, I seem to have mucked up adding a picture (which was from the seller)

[lovemy51]

thanx for the review! i'm assuming is this one:

http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n419/peterpaul_rguez/Bigt1QmkKGrHqYH-DwEsMDNhLvBLPWjZnvY.jpg

 

(image taken from the ebay seller ahai006)

 

enjoy your pen!

Edited January 12, 2010 by lovemy51

[rwilsonedn]

Nice review! I like the way you combine subjective and hard factual information--really gives a feel for the experience of receiving the pen.

ron

[Rabidferret]

I too have a Jinhao X450 and it's become my favorite pen of Chinese manufacture. The fit and finish is very, very good, with the sole exception of posting. Mine doesn't post at all, but I'm not a poster anyway.

 

One thing Chris didn't mention in his review and which struck me with my X450 was the quality of the plating on the nib and its sheer size. This nib is huge in proportion to the pen - about 1 inch long, on a 5-inch pen. I'll be taking mine to the more rugged environments which my expensive pens shall never see.

 

- Jon

[Ed Ronax]

Nice review, thanks.

[Chris]

Lovemy51, yes, thank you, that is the pen (edit to add: though the pattern of gold/silver on my nib is slightly different - same big size though).

 

Still working today and I think I might change the ink to W/M red and use this as the correcting/annotating pen as it has quite a fine (to me) nib.

 

Chris

Edited January 13, 2010 by Chris

[blackfox]

I've got this model, but different pattern:

 

http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad43/blackfoxpl/DSC_0006-1.jpg

 

http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad43/blackfoxpl/DSC_0007-1.jpg

[Skeet]

I've got this model, but different pattern:

 

http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad43/blackfoxpl/DSC_0006-1.jpg

 

http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad43/blackfoxpl/DSC_0007-1.jpg

 

 

The grey marble is a classy contrast to the gold accents. Very nice indeed. BTW, great review. Glad you're enjoying your pen.

[Sunbird]

Thanks for the excellent review.

I just ordered a Jinhao X450 and a Jinhao 159. Could not resist the $7.46 AUD including free postage to Australia!

One might say "How can you lose?" :clap1:

[KrazyIvan]

For the money it is a good pen. I ground the nib on mine to a stub.

[jjaberg]

I have this same pen. Originally in the grey smokey finish which I think is really classy looking. Unfortunately, I dropped the cap on the hard terrazo floor in my home. There was no external damage but somehow the retaining ring inside the cap broke so that the cap would no longer click securely onto the body of the pen. I liked the pen so much that I bought another one in the same finish - so I now have some spare parts. Just for good measure I bought another one in a red/black marbled looking finish. Also a very pretty pen. I think the nibs on these pens are especially nice looking and they write very smoothly.

 

I don't always get consistent ink flow throughout a filling of the converter but that's an intermittant issue. My Jin Haos seem to be a bit selective in the inks they like. Noodler's American Eel worked best for me in this pen.

 

I also don't post the cap when I'm writing. Normally I am a "poster" but the X450 is such a large pen that it functions just fine without posting.

 

In short, a really good value fountain pen! I'm glad to see that there are a number of us who have come to the same conclusion.

[robofkent]

Here are the two currently in my rotation!

[ronlakin]

I've seen a number of reviews for cheap Chinese pens and on the whole they are positive. To satisfy my curiosity I bought one of these from a seller on ebay - at £5.48 including shipping I took the view its worth the risk.

I like to write with the pen posted and this one doesn't post very well. This is very subjective but I have to add that when posted it does feel a little out of balance to me.

When it writes it writes very smoothly and with good ink flow. However, for some reason there are times when the ink flow simply stops. Give the pen a light shake and ink flow is resumed. Whether this will change as the nib beds in or whether the pen will go in the bin only time will tell.

The other gripe I have is the ink converter is very small and holds very little ink.

My conclusion is that the numerous reviews I've read suggest the quality control of the manufacturer of these pens is not as good as it could be. If you get good one you've got outstanding value for money, if you get a dud the price is low enough not to worry about.

Edited July 11, 2012 by ronlakin

[Scribblesoften]

I have one of these in my rotation as well. Sort of. It has a different nib and a round section from a different pen. The X-450s have a triangular section that did not work for me. Experience has shown that Chinese pens in this size, though from different manufacturers, have many interchangeable parts. Allowing for customization

(Frankenpenning). They are lots of fun for the price.

[Newjelan]

I received my Jinhao "something" (sorry detail is not my strength) on Tuesday. It's red, with black accents and gold trim. I think it was about $15. It looks beautiful, is nicely weighted and the nib is great. It wrote instantly and smoothly. I'm amazed by it.

[PDW]

Experience has shown that Chinese pens in this size, though from different manufacturers, have many interchangeable parts. Allowing for customization

(Frankenpenning).

 

Could you give some details - or do we need a new thread about which bits of which Chines pens fit together?

[Sparky2]

I have two of the Jinhao X450 pens. They are always in my rotation. I have one filled with MBMB and the other Privet Reserve Electric DC blue. I like the understated look of these compared to many of the other inexpensive Chinese pens ($8.98 including shipping) and I love the size/heft. Unlike other’s experiences mine post fine, but it puts their balance off a bit. These are large enough that I do not feel the need to post them as I usually do with smaller pens.

 

Both pens arrived needing a good flushing to flow properly and both had what was called a medium nib, but was way too broad for me. I used these pens for “grinding practice” and then fitted each with a Knox K-35 nib. The only quality issue I have had is that one of the pens had the nib/feed stuck into the section a bit too firm and it was hard to get out. I noticed that this pen did not seem to have the usual “shallow channel” in the section hole for the nib to fit into. I could not fine the preferred orientation when reassembling and had to really force the thing back together. It could stand to be pushed in another millimeter or two, but I am afraid to force it any more.

 

In all I am extremely happy with these and was just searching the web for an X450 with a fine nib when I came across this thread again. I want another pen to my rotation to load up with something like De Atramentis Birthday or Diamine Majestic Purple and am now torn between a third one of these or a TWSBI 540.

 

Sparky2

[Scribblesoften]

Experience has shown that Chinese pens in this size, though from different manufacturers, have many interchangeable parts. Allowing for customization

(Frankenpenning).

 

Could you give some details - or do we need a new thread about which bits of which Chines pens fit together?

 

I don't want to hijack Sparky's thread, but here goes.

I purchased a number of Chinese pens that were about the same size at the same time. The nibs in my batch all had baby bottom. So, I bought several "Genius" nibs from Todd at isellpens. Then, some of the caps were too loose and there were some preference issues - like the triangular section. I put together the best of the parts and made a pretty nice pen. If you are interested, I can gather the Chinese pens I used and take a pic. I don't know the names on a couple of the models. This was only possible because the Chinese pens were very reasonably priced.

[Jamesbmorley]

I got a Jinhao x450 in marbled red/black with gt as an Xmas present from my parents who kindly also got it engraved for free as they purchased it from www.sigmapens.co.uk. The pens looks beautiful (perhaps a bit too bling for me) and I like weight but concur with other comments about the posting issue. The nib is fairly smooth to write with but does slightly resemble an offensive weapon being so big. As with a couple of other reviewers, my x450 writes fine the suddenly stops and will kick in again with a bit of coaxing. It all got too much when in a meeting with someone using a MB... Still I've only got myself to blame as I dropped hints about Sigma to my parents as I wanted a nice pen for forms, sermons and registrar work It was a kind gift but I wish I had offered to put something to it and actually get a Sigma... Anyone called James want an engraved Jinhao x450?

[rjbull]

Are the nib, feed and converter of the Jinhao X450 the same as for the 159, or different? I.e., the same "works," but a choice of Mercury Atlas or Saturn V body?