What Chinese Pens Are You Using Today?

[daTomoT]

A gold plated embossed Hero 608 from Andy's Pens. Only £6.

[richardandtracy]

My Huashilai 3000. I'm warming to it. A nice, competant pen even if it's not spectacular. At £3.56 inc postage, it's great.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[Saintpaulia]

Today I carried the Kaigelu 316, which is one that I dearly wanted to love. Smooth writer, no concerns of any kind - but it will Not adapt itself to my clumsy hand, or writing style (or lack of). Since the world wouldn't wait for me to scribble everything I needed to, I broke out the Noodler's.

Sounds to me like the experience I had with my Namiki Falcon. The problem there was that the pen was simply too thick for my small hand. It was a very smooth writer, really an elegant 14K gold nib pen. But its grip section was so thick I could not write with it! Could this be your problem?

[Saintpaulia]

A gold plated embossed Hero 608 from Andy's Pens. Only £6.

Andy's! I just discovered this nice man in England and made a purchase. Had not heard him mentioned on this forum before and so want to give him a thumbs up from a customer who got his superior service BEFORE the sale.

[51ISH]

Today it's the Kaigelu 356 and the Dolce-Vita Naranja

 

The 356 is a bit on the slim side for me...but a very nice writer, so I need to 'adjust'...seems to be happy loaded with the Diamine Sherwood Green....

 

Whereas the Dolce-Vita seems to like the Diamine Majestic Blue less than the El Cheapo cart that it was supplied with..

the D.MB is new to me...is it regarded as 'dry'?...I had a couple of carts with my last order from Diamine...

[Kugelschreiber]

Duke 1853

 

 

I have two of the 1853s (aka P06, though the red one was listed as D18). Both have been really good writers. But I'm not sure what to make of the metal mohawk on the top. Does it actually have anything to do with how the clip is attached? If not, than it really is a bit of an odd design choice.

[chadden42]

Two days ago I received a Kaigelu 356 and a 220 from an Ebay seller. The 356 keeps skipping and the 220 leaks. I think I will only use ISELLPENS and xFountain Pens from now on. Today I hav ebeen using a Jinhao 450 and a Nemosine Fission. I should have a Knox Aristotle in the mailbox when I get home.

[Kugelschreiber]

Two days ago I received a Kaigelu 356 and a 220 from an Ebay seller. The 356 keeps skipping and the 220 leaks. I think I will only use ISELLPENS and xFountain Pens from now on. Today I hav ebeen using a Jinhao 450 and a Nemosine Fission. I should have a Knox Aristotle in the mailbox when I get home.

 

 

I have two 356s and one I gave as a gift. They were all purchased from Chinese sellers at ebay and all have been pretty well flawless writers. The same for the Jinhao 159s I have. On the other hand, the Bulow/xfountainpens 159 I have has been mediocre, and the Knox Aristotle worse than that. Thems the breaks.

 

I'd be interested to know how your Aristotle writes.

[Saintpaulia]

I have two of the 1853s (aka P06, though the red one was listed as D18). Both have been really good writers. But I'm not sure what to make of the metal mohawk on the top. Does it actually have anything to do with how the clip is attached? If not, than it really is a bit of an odd design choice.

The Chinese pen people are nothing if not original (except when they are trying to imitate Montblancs and Parkers). I just see alot of elegance in their designs...sometimes...well even oftimes. However their quality control issues are still there. As others have noted, you really never know if you are going to get one of their "good ones" or one of their "bad ones".

 

I liked and chose to buy my P06 because it was one of the few all white pens I could find at the time (in my price range). Now I like it because it is one of the few medium point pens I have. But it will always hold a special place in my collection as being my first Chinese pen. And, not to mention, having been tweaked by a certain penmeister in Northern Holland.

[chadden42]

Two days ago I received a Kaigelu 356 and a 220 from an Ebay seller. The 356 keeps skipping and the 220 leaks. I think I will only use ISELLPENS and xFountain Pens from now on. Today I hav ebeen using a Jinhao 450 and a Nemosine Fission. I should have a Knox Aristotle in the mailbox when I get home.

 

 

I have two 356s and one I gave as a gift. They were all purchased from Chinese sellers at ebay and all have been pretty well flawless writers. The same for the Jinhao 159s I have. On the other hand, the Bulow/xfountainpens 159 I have has been mediocre, and the Knox Aristotle worse than that. Thems the breaks.

 

I'd be interested to know how your Aristotle writes.

 

I filled it and it has been writing great from the beginning. Smooth.

[lovemy51]

the last two days i've been using Baoer Skywalker and Jinhao X750.

[51ISH]

the last two days i've been using Baoer Skywalker and Jinhao X750.

 

Still waiting on my Baoer Skywalker...

 

Going to be using the Kaigelu's-356/323 and the Dolce-Vita Naranja today

 

Looks like cleaning and storing the German & English pens for a while

[richardandtracy]

I shall be using my Huashilai 2210 today. It's utterly forgettable, so I think I'll give up on Huashilai for a while.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[51ISH]

I'm going to try and get to know my Jinhao 159 a bit better....

 

I have been neglecting it since it's arrival in favour of the Kaigelu's and the Dolce-Vita Naranja.

 

It's bigger and wetter than I usually like...which makes the nib broader than I usually go for....but it does write so so smoothly...so it really deserves better than to become a 'Signature Pen'....whatever one of those is...

[J.R.]

Yesterday, I inked a Jinhao (un-named, un-numbered), sold on ISellPens as "Jinhao Celluloid", which is VERY similar to the Kaigelu 316 - which everyone here seems to appreciate, but simply did not fit my hand. The Jinhao is roughly 20% thinner and lighter, with almost the same writing quality (considering my poor penmanship). Also, the difference in price is evident, in that the Jinhao is cheaper looker, but with I think (time will tell), the same durability as the Kaigelu.

 

If the Kaigelu suits you, you'll probably enjoy it more - but if you have small hands, you might consider the Jinhao.

[Jennings]

Literally just about to start a global telecon...with my Kaigelu 316 in white marble. Well, obviously not phoning in with the pen...it's not that good...but it's about to be on minute/note duty!

[richardandtracy]

JR,

 

I have done a review of the pen I think you are talking about, and tend to call it the Jinhao Century either Mk1 or Mk 2 (review here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/220345-jinhao-century-mk-2/ ).

It's nice, and I think if you like Parker Duofolds (or are likely to) the Jinhao is a good tester for the Duofold International and the Kaigelu 316 is a good tester for the Duofold Centennial.

My Jinhao has suffered a bit of plating wear, which is a shame as I expected the chrome to last better than it did. However, I will admit that mine had plating flaking off when I got it, so possibly I got a bad one.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[J.R.]

Richard,

 

Thx for spending enough time on my post to provide the link to your reviews. Yes, mine is definitely the Mk1, in the charcoal/pearl color version. I certainly appreciate the time spent on details in your review, and (altho' my length of service is significantly shorter), I wholeheartedly concur with your every finding.

 

It may not become a daily writer, but I think it's nice enough to be give good service, barring any durability issues in the future. Back up the page, in answer to Saintpaulia - yes, the problems with the Kaigelu sound identical to your Namiki. So, you might consider this Jinhao, as far as fitting the hand, at least.

 

Thx, everyone, for providing all the input on these affordable alternative pens.

 

Take care,

J.R.

[Aramchek]

I'm currently using a Vens 329, a Parker 51 flighter copy, which, contrary to the name, doesn't really resemble the Hero 329 that much, apart from them both being similar to the P51. It is pretty well made and looks fairly nice. As a writer, it is OK rather than good. Well, OK-ish. Quite dry EF nib with a decent feel. To my surprise, the clib is spring loaded. It dries out quite quickly.

 

I've recently used (or, tried to use in the first case), two Lucky pens, a brand that I've heard somewhere is a brand from Wing Sung, which I'm not convinced of since the Wing Sungs I have are so different, and typically better. The first one is the Lucky 271, which looks "inspired" by the Pelikan Souverän family - at a distance, with poor eyesight, with the cap on, it could be mistaken for a Souverän based special edition. It blue, cracked appearance - although I have no pens I know are celluloid, I'm guessing that is the material based on description of how they look and feel. I never got it to work with the supplied converter (which, for some reason has an opaque black plastic instead of a clear plastic which you see in most Chinese pens. I decided to clean the nib and feed and alse use a razor blade on the channels and tried a cartridge. I then got it to work after I primed the pen to the extent that I could see ink reach the nib. It then wrote OK - for a while after which I had to reprime it, which eventually led to visible cracks on the

cartridge.

I gave up on that pen but since I had a cartridge I had started to use I decided to move it to a different pen - a Lucky 2002. This pen has a cold coloured exterior with a layer of qrotective laquer that is already starting to come off even though I haven't used it much. It has a gigantic nib which I only got working after priming it similarly to the 271. Once I had, it did write quite well with no skipping or false starts. However, my hand started hurting after a while, probably due to the pen being a big metal pen and therefore rather heavy.

I also have two other Lucky models, the 2000 which, again, is pretty at a distance but doesn't work well, and the 2002 which I haven't tried inking yet.

[richardandtracy]

Aramchek,

 

Sorry you've had a disappointing time. I've not heard of the 'Lucky' brand, but after your experience, I'll actively avoid it if I see it.

You should have better luck with either the Jinhao or Kaigelu brands if you want to be a bit less adventurous next time - however you should get pens that write reasonably well.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.