What Chinese Pens Are You Using Today?

[Helen350]

Jinhao X750 - Knox 1.1 stub nib. Ink - MB blue/black. Pen color - Purple (lovely). Arrived this afternoon. The X750, X450 & 159 can now be purchased in purple. The X750 & X450 I have also seen in pink.

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/HWcAAOSwU0RXHWP7/s-l500.jpg

Edited May 5, 2016 by Helen350

[bobje]

Wow, Helen, I had no idea Jinhao was making pens in that gorgeous color. Thank you for sharing this.

[mehandiratta]

Jinhao X750 - Knox 1.1 stub nib. Ink - MB blue/black. Pen color - Purple (lovely). Arrived this afternoon. The X750, X450 & 159 can now be purchased in purple. The X750 & X450 I have also seen in pink.

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/HWcAAOSwU0RXHWP7/s-l500.jpg

 

beauty

[Guardy]

I just got four new Jinhao x450's in the mail (red, white, 'fireworks black' and that shiny red-black one with the weird gold blobs, whatever that one's called) and Oh. My. Gosh.

 

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n522/Guardevoir/Pen%20and%20Writing%20Stuff/P1120271.jpg

 

The fancy red one is my favorite thing ever, because it's one of only two reliably wet writers I own, and it's also smooooth. Not glassy-smooth, but just right. I love it.

 

The white one is almost as nice. The red and the fireworks-black ones have a bit too much drag for my taste. Given how it behaved without ink, the fireworks-black one may just need a wetter/different ink - not every pen handles Pelikan 4001 inks equally well, after all, and especially not blue-black - but with the red one it's definitely the nib. Ah well, gonna give that a quick polish when my micro-mesh finally arrives and then we'll see.

[Helen350]

Jinhao X250 - medium nib. The X250s arrived approximately 10 days ago. Inked one at that time, and decided to pull it out tonight to see if there would be a hard start up. Fortunately, I did not experience that problem. Pen is inked with Chestfield Antique Shamrock.

 

I put the pen through some paces late evening, and it proved it could do the job. I had held off for years and did not purchase the X250, however, I decided to give it a try. I purchased 4-X250s for approximately $10. Two I gifted, and two I kept. Uncapped, it is the length of an uncapped Metropolitan. Writes almost as smooth as my Metropolitan (without any tweaking).

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2016 by Helen350

[bobje]

Helen, perhaps Jinhao has made some process or quality control improvements during the last 6 months. These nibs seem to require less tweaking out of the box recently. Or possibly I've become more patient in letting the nib and feed marinate in ink for a day or so, and then kind of come into their own without interference.

[notimetoulouse]

I received my latest Lucky fountain pen, the octagonal barrel and capped 2007, and an initial dip in Shin Kai gave a beautiful, smooth fine line. Then, like a newboy, I got carried away and inked it straight off, without flushing.

Ergo.... with a full tank of Shin Kai on board it now skips bouncily across the page, light ink, dark ink, no ink for two or three characters. I really should have known better. I'll flush it, and try again.

And from tomorrow, I'll be able to add photo's to every post.

[Helen350]

Helen, perhaps Jinhao has made some process or quality control improvements during the last 6 months. These nibs seem to require less tweaking out of the box recently. Or possibly I've become more patient in letting the nib and feed marinate in ink for a day or so, and then kind of come into their own without interference.

 

Yes, it is interesting. Like yourself I often tweak the Jinhao nibs, however, 'some' of my recent purchases have required little to no tuning. I checked the nibs of the X250s before gifting, and they were smooth. One of my Jinhao 886 required quite a bit of tuning, but that was one out of three. I really like the 886 pocket pen because of the screw cap. Patience is truly something we can learn in this hobby.

[Guardy]

I got a Jinhao 8812 rosewood barrel a while ago and am mostly writing with that one right now.

 

In retrospect, I kind of wish I'd put something less boring than Pelikan Royal Blue in it, so part of that is me trying to use up that fill so that I can go forth and have some fun with ink colors. Also, I'm having some flow issues - seems like dry-out. Some of my other Jinhaos have that problem, too, and it's a bit of a mystery, because it comes and goes, seemingly at random. The caps are not the issue, somehow. Definitely keeping an eye on that - luckily, a bit of priming usually fixes the problem.
Apart from that, the pen is fun - I ground down the nib just the tiniest bit, because it was a bit too bland and characterless and didn't write super great. Not bad, either, though: a classic case of utter mediocrity.

 

Also, I gave a Jinhao 159 to a good friend as a birthday present, and as a result I got the sudden urge to dig up my own. It's weird how much my enjoyment of this pen depends on my mood - sometimes I absolutely love it and sometimes I feel like I'm lifting weights while writing and it's the worst.
Inked that one up with Manufactum Nachtblau (some re-labeled De Atramentis ink, I think, although I'm not sure if it's a standard color or a Manufactum exclusive), which is... actually really similar in color to the Pelikan Blue-Black I had in there before, so I'm not sure how much of a point there was to that.

[FromTheNetherlands]

Jinhao 599, inked with Quink BLBK

[Guardy]

Jinhao 8812 rosewood barrel inked with Manufactum Nachtblau (rebranded De Atramentis, in other words), which is, unfortunately, given the price and availability, the best blue-black I've ever used. The pen seems to like the ink, too.

 

Also two Jinhao x450's - one dark-red-with-gold-blob-things one inked with Pelikan 4001 royal blue and one plain red one inked with Standardgraph poppy red.

[Ian the Jock]

Guardy

I love my 8812

I have mine inked with diamine saddle brown and it writes beautifully.

I use it in my Journal which has thick creamy coloured paper and it is a lovely combo.

 

Ian

[Guardy]

@Ian: My 8812 is probably my most-used pen at the moment - I gave the nib a bit of a grinding, though, because it wrote exactly like my x450's and since I have 4 of those, that was a waste of a perfectly good pen. Besides, it was a bit of a hard starter because of the sliiiiiightest bit of baby bottom's syndrome. Not to the point where I wouldn't have been able to use it, but some more incentive for some fiddling.

Now it writes like a western Medium that's a tiny bit on the broad side and it's really quite glorious. The more I use it, the more I like it.

 

I actually planned on inking mine with a brown ink, too (Standardgraph coffee brown, in my case, because I can get that at a local store), but alas, what I actually got was a bottle of Maize Yellow with a wrong label. Which is a fantastic ink and my new replacement for J. Herbin's Ambre de Birmanie, but that's not necessarily something I'd want to write all my stuff with.
I'll buy a proper brown ink for a new Dolcevita Federico that should arrive soon-ish - most likely Diamine Raw Sienna - but don't think I'll ink my 8812 with anything that isn't Nachtblau in the foreseeable future. It's just too nice a combination.
Maybe I'll have to get a second 8812 for that, then... /cough

[uemuraw]

After a good long rest, I inked up my silver Jinhao X750 with some Noodler's Air Corp - a blue-black. Good to hook.

[MadTheNeko]

I'm using my Jinhaoo 500 since it came thursday. I'm new into fountain pens (a collector of versatile ones) and I only used another romanian pen, but for me pencil has a real smooth nib, and no hard starter, I used on taking notes, on essays, cheap and more good papers, pen just fit them all. I also use Parker Quink Blue with it (Till I get a diamine ox blood). They are really good friends for now. And only problem with this pen, it's just too heavy. Since I write my stories firstly to a notebook. After 3 hours my hand was hurting really badly.

I'm planning to buy more Chinese pen now. But I want it with a squeeze system (I know its really harder than converter ones but I love retro stuff) on it. I'm looking for Hero pens because of that, but if you have any idea about chinese pen which has squeeze filler system, please give me your advises.

 

P.s. Sorry for my bad english.

Edited May 21, 2016 by MadTheNeko

[Technomancer]

Jinhao 599 loaded with Diamine Sargasso Sea and a Jinhao X750 filled with Aurora Black.

[garyc]

A teal Hero 565 with (OK, predictable, but a fine match) Diamine Teal. Cap has a habit of coming off if not pushed on securely, but the nib is a delight. It is smooth with a good flow and has a little bit of italic character depending on the 'attack' angle.

[richila]

I am using my orange Jinhao 159 with a Knox 1.1 and Ancient Copper, so pretty.

[rafizip]

that is a great

 

Jinhao X250 - medium nib. The X250s arrived approximately 10 days ago. Inked one at that time, and decided to pull it out tonight to see if there would be a hard start up. Fortunately, I did not experience that problem. Pen is inked with Chestfield Antique Shamrock.

 

I put the pen through some paces late evening, and it proved it could do the job. I had held off for years and did not purchase the X250, however, I decided to give it a try. I purchased 4-X250s for approximately $10. Two I gifted, and two I kept. Uncapped, it is the length of an uncapped Metropolitan. Writes almost as smooth as my Metropolitan (without any tweaking).

 

 

 

that is a great looking pen - very nice - thanks for sharing

[Guardy]

I just got a Blue Twist Jinhao x450, which I'm going to wash out and ink up now. Going by the feel of the uninked nib, it's going to be a nice and smooth writer. Beautiful pen, too.

-

Yeah, it's not bad. I inked it with a partial fill of Pelikan 4001 blue-black, which my Jinhaos generally don't like that much, so if there are flow problems, I'll just have to pick a different ink.

So far, it seems to keep up quite nicely, though. I intend to switch to a different ink eventually - most likely a deep, dark blue befitting the color of the pen; until then, Pelikan blbk will have to do.