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Does the Jinhao 599 take a standard #5 nib?

First post because I actually have something interesting to share. I've always liked the Jinhao 599 demonstrators. I admit they're not durable and they have that entirely useless hole for checking the ink level/color, but they write decently and they're cheap, which is exactly what a student needs. Today I received 2 of them from eBay ($2 each, listing no longer available) and immediately noticed that the feed was transparent (I forgot to take a picture, sorry). This has never happened to me before; I have owned several previously and the feed was always black. When filled with ink, the feed is both visually appealing, and it clearly tells you what color your ink is (when it's just in the converter, it can be very hard to tell the difference between, say, blue-black, black, and brown). I think it's awesome! Here are some pictures with Waterman's Absolute Brown and Inspired Blue (please excuse the bad quality, the colors are more vibrant IRL). As you can see, the cap piece is still black, hiding the nib itself. Anyone else got one of these? Has Jinhao updated their design? P.S. I also think the thread spacing on the provided converted has been increased.

A 2014 video on transforming an inexpensive standard steel nib into a cursive italic stub, produced by Nathan Tardif of Noodler's Ink, suggested a hacking experiment with the nibs of Jinhao 599 pens. The pens are currently available on eBay for $2 or less. I started with a Jinhao 599 with a Medium nib because this particular pen uses a more traditional nib with a slightly longer body and tines, unlike the more modern-looking nib on Fine versions of the 599. The investment in materials, tools, and equipment totals about $10, so there is very little risk involved. The question behind the experiment is: Can a rank amateur lop off the tip from a medium nib on a Jinhao 599 and make it write fairly well -- or, more ambitious -- make it write smoothly? To my great surprise, the answer is yes. Another contributor to the Fountain Pen Network, Ian the Jock, has confirmed the experiment with a $2 Baoer pen. I've tried this technique twice now -- the first time with a Jinhao x450, sometimes available for $1, shipped from China (!) I accidentally lopped off too much of the Jinhao x450 no. 6 nib, resulting in a 1.7 mm cursive italic stub. It was rather broad, but still wrote well. For people who like to learn on Chinese pens and try other types of nibs, there is very little stopping us. Resources and results of the experiment are posted below. Nathan Tardif's Nib Transformation Video The Method Using a pair of diagonal cutters, lop off the tip of the nib. In Tardif's video, he just does it by sight. Place 2000-grit wet-dry automotive abrasive paper on a hard surface and smooth off all the external sharp edges. It only takes a few strokes. Then pick up each tine and use the abrasive paper to make a couple of light passes on the inner surface of the tines. Ensure the tines are aligned, and the gap between tines is moderate. A 10x loupe is essential for this. A separate video, by Brian Gray of Edison Pen Company, is helpful here, as are notes available on Richard Binder's website. http://www.richardspens.com/pdf/workshop_notes.pdf Brian Gray's Nib Alignment Video The Nib and Pen A Writing Sample

I know a lot of people have been interested in the Safari clones, the Jinhao 599 series, and I thought I'd post some comments about the tuning process I've gone through with these pens. I picked up several of them out of curiosity and have been using them to practice my nib grinding and smoothing skills. The first ones I picked up did not fare well. I got two of the blue demonstrators, and when doing an initial cleaning I reinserted the converters and pushed the nib/feed sleeve out of the section. Not sure if these are friction fit or tacked in there with a little bit of cement, but this is clearly a big issue when a normal push on a converter pops the whole nib/feed unit up and out. I moved too quickly and assumed that the sleeve unit was round, and I cemented the sleeve back into the section. A couple of problems with this -- 1) the sleeve has ONE alignment position and 2) using cement to lock up a sleeve in a transparent section leads to some ugliness. Obviously, because the grip is formed, the sleeve has to line up EXACTLY with the top of the section or the nib alignment will be off. And, if I were to cement the sleeves in again, I'd use a very small amount of cement and try to keep it out of the inside of the section. Having tossed the first two into the parts bin I bought three more and found myself going through a similar tuning process for each. First off, EVERY pen had a really bad nib with way too much ink flow. Not one of the five had a nib that was usable from the start. Fortunately the nibs/feeds are easy to pull out and work with, so I went through the following steps to get them working: Ground them down closer to fineAdjusted the tinesSmoothed the inner edges of the tines (this was critical)Closed gaps on the tines to get the right alignment and pressureCorrected a few "inverted Grand Canyon" problems Once these changes were made the flow was better, and I managed to turn all three of the pens into really good writers: The next weirdness to correct was how the section screwed into the barrel. Each one of the pens seems to do this strange thing where right as it gets tight it turns slightly back to the loose position. It is almost like the body can't make the final 1/16 of a turn to cinch it down completely. To correct this I put a very thin layer of Shoo Goo on the threads to prevent movement. Clearly this is a silly solution because I'd have to repeat it every time I filled the pen, but for now it works. Maybe I'll try setting one up with a sac and then using the side window and a bent paperclip to fill it. The last thing I did was to take 400 grit sandpaper (lightly) to the bottom of the cap. The plastic had a slight edge to it that I didn't like, so I smoothed it out, and because it is right on the edge you don't have to worry about scratches in the plastic. I have some solid colored ones on the way, so we'll see if those have the same issues. Overall the pens are decent for the price, but only if you have some fairly solid nib tuning skills. Graham