Your Best Cheap Pen?

[mb146]

Great Buy.

 

Baoke Fountain pen- a surprisingly great buy! This pen was nicely packaged and came with a presentation box containing two black international cartridges and one convertor for the price of $4.46. The pen looks like a re branded Jinhao 156.

 

The pen is made of brass with a black lacquer finish. It is not too heavy and is well balanced given its weight and dimensions. The pen reminds me of a Montblanc 144 Classic due to its dimensions, and it has a heavy spring loaded clip which reminds me of some of the Visconti pens.

 

I strongly suggest the pen be flushed out (water and dish washing soap solution) before use in order to remove any manufacturing factory residue. The medium nib is a European nib with not much flex. The nib lays down a consistent wet line without any problems and it is a pleasure to use.

 

The pen has a slip on type style cap with a nice cap liner to prevent the nib from drying out. It closes with a satisfying click and it posts well. There is a sharp step down between the pen body and pen section, but it does not bother me because of the way I grip the pen.

 

 

 

 

[merserene]

A set of 6 Jinhao 992 from eBay for about $12. They are colorful demonstrators with great, smooth nibs. I usually test out iffy inks on them, but more often than not they become EDCs because these pens just write so well. Better than my Preppies or my other cheap pens by far

Edited December 17, 2020 by merserene
Typo.

[Stompie]

Moonman mini brass - great little pen that writes well.

 

I stubbed the nib a little bit and am quite happy with it although it does not hold much ink

 

I think this is my best cheap pen as it is small and fits into any sort of holder and bag and is reliable and I am happy with how it writes. 

It only cost me £8 so it is not the cheapest pen I own - I have a real plastic Jinhao that meets that, I think it was just less than £2.

[Estycollector]

The question was not "what is your cheapest pen". 

[Tasmith]

Platinum Prefounte.  For $10 it writes great, fits my hand nicely and looks good too.  It's been my go-to daily writer since I purchased it in July.

[chromantic]

My PaperMate folded-nib stick c/c pens @ $3/ea. I have one I use daily, a 'parrot' - yellow barrel, red section, blue cap, green clip - inked with 1864 and a red and black one inked with Take-sumi that sees more occasional use.

[Wolverine1]

My 3 Lamy Al-Star pens. They are reliable, and can take a fair amount of abuse, and careless handling. Yet they keep on writing without a problem.  I carry at least 2 of them in my backpack or messenger bag whenever I leave the house.

[dreaminginindigo]

Jinhao x450. Better than a lot of the pricier pens right out of the box. I have 10 of them, with some fitted with Goulet broad and stub nibs. I ink up at least one for my weekly rotation.

[Karmachanic]

Matte black ASA Maya, no rings, Bock threading. Ordered sans nib  It's sporting, a titanium cursive italic nib, which cost three times the price of the pen.

[txomsy]

Noodler's Ink Creeper. Piston filler, flex (better with the EMF mod) and can be tinkered with.

[PAKMAN]

Lamy Safari for me.

[Ron Z]

Wing Sung 3003, under $5.   It's a knockoff of the Pilot Prera, but a tad bigger, and doesn't crack.  A couple of them smoothed to really sweet nibs.  One has the nib from a clear Prera that cracked.

 

Their 699 knockoff of the Pilot 823 is nice too - and doesn't crack.  Street price is $25 - $30.

[tim77]

My best cheap pen is a Safari - no contest - but it's just too ugly to get much use.  My favourite cheap pen is a transparent WingSung 601.

[sdbruder]

my best 'cheap' pen (or brand, as I'm talking about multiple pens here) are my TWSBI's (and I know they are not dirty-cheap like the chinese ones).

They are really good writers, work horses, work reliably with no issues until today. Didn't got a single cracked TWSBI here until now!

 

[I-am-not-really-here]

TWSBI ECO with Honorable Mention to Faber-Castell's Hexo.

[Larry Barrieau]

Pilot Plumix in Purple.  Odd looking pen suited more for a Unicorn themed diary.  The cap end looks like a squid.  But it is a great writer.  The line differentiation is excellent and it writes like a stub.  I use it every day, it's my crossword pen.

[sansenri]

Reading through the long thread there are a few recurring pens mentioned,

my own experience confirms some of them.

If I have to mention some very cheap ones, my winner is undoubtedly a Jinhao X500, bough for much less than $4 shipment included... the nib is incredibly smooth and even has a tad of give. The pen performs well overall.

For just a few dollars more the Baoer 388 and the Kaigelu 382 (very similar). Really smooth nibs and good behaviour.
The Jinhao X750 is quite good too, although a bit too heavy.

The Sheaffer nononsense follows closely. I managed to get two of these mint for $8 each.

Good pens, very reliable, very decent nibs.

Slightly higher cost Reform 1745 and Pilot 78G. Really nice nibs! pity both pens are a bit too skinny.

Kaigelu 316 is also a favourite (I own 3...) if you can accept the back heavy balance (you do get used to it).

(Moonman M600s has tried to improve on the 316, balance is much better, but my experience is negative in terms of reliability, both the two I got were in some way defected...).
The Plumix is a very nice writer, but I don't get on so well with the shape.

[Karmachanic]

1 hour ago, sansenri said:

Kaigelu 316 is also a favourite (I own 3...) if you can accept the back heavy balance (you do get used to it).

 

 

Apparently the current version of the K316 has solved that problem.

[sansenri]

2 minutes ago, Karmachanic said:

 

Apparently the current version of the K316 has solved that problem.

so I've heard, some of the early ones had really nice resins though

[corniche]

Hi all,

 

Platinum Preppy - $3.98 - and since they're made in Japan, I can buy them with a clean conscience. 

 

If you want to go a little upmarket, go with a Prefounte. 

 

- Sean