What Chinese Pens Are You Using Today?

[lovemy51]

today: Kaigelu 316 Amber with PR Burgundy Mist.

[richardandtracy]

I have three with me today. My pocket is rather weighed down with a Bookworm 675/Yiren 601, a Charcoal Kaigely 316 and a Jinhao Century Mk 2.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[Muncle]

I've had a Duke (I can't remember the model D23 Complete Esteem white (ebay link) ) for a couple of years now. It wrote smoothly, but was awful at starting up again. This week I finally got some micromeshs. I concluded that it had a baby-bottom nib, so I smoothed that out and inked it up.

 

My wife is giving it the acid test this week: use in a workplace. It's filled with Waterman purple. She's already received compliments on the pen and the ink colour. So far, no complaints about skipping or non-starting. This may make it officially my first repaired pen!

[atypical]

Kaigelu 356 stainless steel with Waterman Florida Blue.

[Vignette]

I got a Lanbitou Pocket Missile in the mail today. (Thank you so much, alc3261!)

 

I was just going to test it quickly, but once I inked up the tiny sac with Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, it wrote so smoothly and nicely that I actually ended up writing four longish letters! This pen is nearly the size of a cigarrette when uncapped, so I use it posted. He is an amazing little guy! So reliable and smooth, and outperforms my Parker Vector 10 to 1. He retails for so little that I was completely blown away. I'm going to have to get a 10-pack of these to share with friends!

 

Sorry, Parker Vector, you are no longer the "Easily Replaceable Take-Anywhere Notetaker" of my lineup. In addition to outperforming you, Pocket Missile can safely be tucked in a sock, a wallet, or a hairdo. No more boring dinner parties.

 

Edit:Mixed up Vector and Jotter.

Edited July 13, 2012 by Vignette

[alc3261]

I got a Lanbitou Pocket Missile in the mail today. (Thank you so much, alc3261!)

 

I was just going to test it quickly, but once I inked up the tiny sac with Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, it wrote so smoothly and nicely that I actually ended up writing four longish letters! This pen is nearly the size of a cigarrette when uncapped, so I use it posted. He is an amazing little guy! So reliable and smooth, and outperforms my Parker Jotter 10 to 1. He retails for so little that I was completely blown away. I'm going to have to get a 10-pack of these to share with friends!

 

Sorry, Parker Jotter, you are no longer the "Easily Replaceable Take-Anywhere Notetaker" of my lineup. In addition to outperforming you, Pocket Missile can safely be tucked in a sock, a wallet, or a hairdo. No more boring dinner parties.

 

That's exactly what I've been doing with them.

I've got 4 FP converts at work now!!

Edited July 13, 2012 by alc3261

[rwilsonedn]

Today I began using the much-recommended Kaigelu 356--the Sonnet clone. Beautiful finish, smooth with just a hint of drag on the paper--not even quite a tooth, slightly dry outside a fairly narrow sweet spot, but in general a very nice writer. And certainly great-looking.

ron

[lovemy51]

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/jinhao-11-light-black-High-grade-Medium-nib-fountain-pen-new-/00/s/NjAwWDYwMA==/$(KGrHqJ,!iQE5fbSLsPfBOdt3zWFPw~~60_35.JPG

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/jinhao-11-light-black-High-grade-Medium-nib-fountain-pen-new-/310346406181

 

jinhao 11 -in fact that was yesterday, it's past midnight here in CA USA.

Edited July 15, 2012 by lovemy51

[richardandtracy]

A Kaigelu 316 in Charcoal. Lovely pen & it's made from gorgeous material.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[Seele]

I am still on my 007, and waiting for a box to arrive which includes several quite interesting ones, two that I am really looking forward to are the Hero 1000 and the Wing Sung 612A in "Flighter" style.

 

By the way, Vignette: I found out what "Lanbitou" means: "broken nib"! That's a bit of rare humour in it, something like a wheel manufacturer called "Square"

Edited July 16, 2012 by Seele

[Sasha Royale]

I am going to give the $2.75 Jinhao x250 a thorough shakedown,

over the next few weeks, at work. I did the same with my $4.00

Jinhao x750. The heavy, old "war club" is as good as it is

going to get. I have tried all I can to remedy the "feed depletion"

problem. I am resolved to tweak the converter piston now and then.

Thinking about giving away the spare x750's.

[Vignette]

 

By the way, Vignette: I found out what "Lanbitou" means: "broken nib"! That's a bit of rare humour in it, something like a wheel manufacturer called "Square"

 

Cool! That is clever, precious, and unpretentious! Lanbitou gets Brownie points for that. Sharing that would be a great way to break the ice in this country, where it is a huge sin to be a show-off. (And some people here think using a FP is just showing off )

[Kugelschreiber]

I have five Chinese pens on order. Last night, I was thinking about picking up a Jinhao 159 and noticed that one of the main Chinese sellers at ebay had his listed for over $110....

 

I sent him a message asking why his price was so high; his reply was quick and cordial. He told me that he raised the price of his listing by $100 because he was out of stock and didn't want anyone buying any 159s from him until he had them back in stock.

 

He didn't say if he would refuse or refund any purchases he might get at the temporary price.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Kugelschreiber

[Jadie]

Using a nice Guanleming 2001 squeeze-sac filler today (hooded XF nib and clear transparent body). It's perfect for writing Chinese characters; I use Perle Noire as my ink of choice.

 

Does tend to "squirt" occasionally, though...but since it's a $5 pen, I just make sure it doesn't squirt onto my paper, and all is well.

[alc3261]

A Hero 629.

[Eeyvind]

Just inked a Wing Sun 236 that arrived in the mail yesterday. It is my first Wing Sun pen, and so far the initial impression is positive.

[richardandtracy]

K316 Charcoal + Duofold Centennial.

I'm beginning to notice signs of wear on the 'gold' plating of the cap rings on my K316, which is a shame.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

[Seele]

Wing Sung 612A aluminium; surprisingly good pen!

[Kugelschreiber]

I inked two Hero 336s last night and have been playing around with them this morning. My first two Chinese pens! I've been quite impressed with how they write: slightly scratchy but nothing too bad. And I really like the very fine lines they give you. One of them oozed a little bit of ink out, so that might be of some concern if it happens again.

 

Other then that my only complaint is re: the aerometric converters... :mad: Does anyone have any tips on how to get more ink in these things? I have a handful of other Chinese pens on the way that use the same converter. The nibs don't put out a lot of ink, so perhaps the little ink you can get in the converters is enough for a decent amount of writing.

[richardandtracy]

The only way I've managed to really fill them is to slip the sac guard off and manually squeeze the sac flat then allow it to fill that way. They usually don't fill too well because the breather tube is short. However, if you fill them this way you are almost certain to have the pen blurp on you. As the air in the sac warms up in your hand, all the ink above the top of the breather tube could get forced out as the air expands.

One way of curing this could be to modify it into a true aero with a long breather tube and an air release hole near the bottom.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.