Jinhao 159 - Long Term Review

[Cyclopentadiene]

Hi all,

I've had quite a lot of time free at the moment and so have finally got around to making my first review - of the Jinhao 159 pen. It's a pen that has been reviewed before, but as I've been using the pen for over a year now thought it good to share some of my experiences. And so...

Introduction:

After failing to find a Montblanc 149 at a price I could afford I decided to try to look for alternatives, allowing me to try out the apporximate feel of the giant without leaving such a hole in my wallet.

Many brilliant reviews pointed me the way of the Jinhao 159 and so after finding a reputable looking seller on that online auction site I purchased one from china for £7 (a rather handy sum as it's below the value on which import goods are taxed entering the UK).

Around two weeks later the pen arrived in red corrugated cardboard box. Not a brilliant nor beautiful box box but considering the price rag, very welcome. Opening the box by lifting the lid reveals the pen... (the box has disappeared into the ether so unfortunately can't photo it!)

Appearance and design (6/10):

The Jinhao 159 is a large black cigar sharped pen with chrome accents. The pen is styled after the already mentioned Montblanc 149.

 

 

The clip is steel and is chrome plated. It caries the somewhat gaudy Jinhao Chariot motif in a shield.

 

 

The cap band is a single ring of what feels to be plastic. Jinhao on one side...

 

 

159 on the other...

 

 

The nib is large and attractive and displays the same chariot design as the of the clip albeit in a more tasteful fashion.

 

The size, shape and overall appearance of the nib fits well with the design of the pen.

 

The black finish leans more towards gloss and is well presented. I've had the pen for over a year now and despite trips out and about without a pen case I can tell of no scratches or rub wear degrading the finish.

 

At the end of the pen there's a faux blind cap ring highlighted by a chrome ring.

 

Construction and quality (7/10):

 

The pen has an excellent feel in the hand. The pen is fairly heavy although I don't have any scales with me for reference. Uncapped it is a tad lighter than that of my Sheaffer Legacy Heritage. This weight largely comes from the inner brass construction of the barrel which gives it a nice heft.

 

The fit and finish of the pen is acceptable for the price point. The barrels brass components could practically be used as a club, they seem so sturdy, but the plastic fittings at the cartridge/converter mechanism feel a little flimsy.

 

As previously mentioned I have had the pen for over a year and haven't found any wear to the finish of the pen, wether it be at the chrome or black lacquer.

 

Weight/Dimensions (9/10):

 

The pens measurements are below. For comparison I've also stated those of its expensive basis the 149, gathered from Richard Binders site (a most useful and otherwise brilliant site).

 

MB149:

Length Posted; 170mm

Length Capped; 149mm

Length Uncapped; 133mm

Barrel Diameter; 15.2 mm

 

Jinhao 159:

Catagories as above;

164mm,

148mm,

128mm,

150mm

 

I've tried writing posted only a few times with this pen, due to its large size I find posting makes it a little clumsy, but the cap posts securely without seeming to mar the finish.

 

As a note the cap is rather heavy and as such moves the balance rather far back when writing.

 

Nib and Performance (7/10):

 

One of the things that initially attracted me to the pen apart from the size was that it was advertised as available (only as far as I'm aware) with a broad nib.

 

The nib I received performs to my mind as a wet, smooth Medium nib. This of course is a welcome change from the vast majority of chinese budget pens bieng available with fine/extra fine nibs.

 

I was surprised on receiving the pen how well it wrote and am still surprised how well it writes today. Line width is constant with minor variation possible if pushed hard.

 

The nib is labelled 18K GP. I believe I heard on a video review that it has been tested and found incorrect. Regardless the steel nib performs reasonably well and has plenty of tipping material if you're partial to tinkering.

 

 

 

The nib performs well on a variety of different papers from regular copier/inkjet stuff to Rhodia and G.Lalo.

 

Good nib for a cheap pen.

 

I'm lead to believe these nibs are friction fit and as such should be easy to clean out, I however just just usually soak the section etc.

 

Filling system and Maintenance (5/10):

 

Filling is by the boring c/c filler mechanism. I got a converter included with mine on purchase.

 

Frankly the converter is actually quite good. Also fits waterman pens as well. The converter is branded Jinhao - again with the ubiquitous chariot logo. I don't have a measuring cylinder with me at the moment but I believe the capacity to be around 0.8ml.

 

 

Cost and Value (10/10):

 

As mentioned earlier I paid £7 for the pen shipped last year off of eBay. It's damn good value for a 149 mimmic.

 

In fact it's the best value pen I own. I've other cheap chinese pens by Jinhao and Hero but they tend to have significant issues that I won't go into for this review.

 

Conclusion (44/:60) 7.3

 

When purchasing I expected a well sized pen with an OK nib. In fact it is an excellent tool that I now incorporate into the rotation of pens I take out and about.

 

The nibs are attractive, nice and wet. The pen is well balanced and fairly well built and costs shipped less that a round of drinks (considerable less actually...).

 

My only concern with recommending the pen is that Quality control has been highlighted as an issue. I've heard reports of bad nibs, rubbish feeds and cracking inner caps. Maybe I got lucky but my advice would be to give one a go. If it doesn't cut it as a pen you can use it as a truncheon!

Edited April 21, 2014 by Cyclopentadiene

[EenyBear]

Thanks for the long-term review. I get the impression that it has neither improved nor degraded over the year... rather, it was good out of the box and remains so. Fair enough.

 

It's curious how we each approach scoring. The "boring" c/c earns it a 5/10 from you while, for some folks, any thing else would earn a 5/10. In my case, a good c/c would score higher due to worry-free consistency and the ability to use cartridges on the road. Others despise the c/c and rave about eyedroppers and other filling systems. Everyone is correct. It's a funny world.

 

Nice to hear you are continuing to enjoy the pen.

[David_W]

The divergent views on filling systems reflects, in part, the different ways we use our pens.

 

 

I like cartridge/converter. I now use fine and extra fine nibs and do not write that much each day, so the capacity of a piston converter is more than adequate for me. C/c pens are easy to flush with a bulb syringe and if the converter becomes faulty, it's inexpensive and straightforward to replace. I'm no fan of cartridges, but they provide an easy way to keep using the pen if it runs out of ink away from home.

 

My old Parker 25s (one of which is now 30 years old) have been though several converters. The sacs failed in the original aerometric converters and the cheap Parker slide converters did not prove durable (one suffered stress cracking at the nipple end, the other had the seal break off the shaft). Both now have modern Parker deluxe converters (rotary piston type) and still work well.

 

 

If you are someone who makes heavy use of a pen that is a heavy ink user (wet Western medium or broader), piston fill really comes into its own, as it gives a much longer time between fills.

[Cyclopentadiene]

I did indeed find it difficult to do the scoring - aesthetics for example are subject to preferences etc.

 

I performed the scoring on the basis of comparisons to the collection of other pens I have. The C/C filler indeed works extremely well on this pen, but comparing this filling mechanism to all other pens available it's just... OK...

 

Many thanks for your responses EenyBear and David_W. Please do let me know if you've any suggested improvements!

 

Thanks,

Badger

[Benpiggy]

The paint / lacquer did not wear? I wonder if they have improved the finish. Mine was brought approximately 2 years ago and a lot of paint has gone by daily use.

[Nosferatualso]

I found that the ink flaked off the barrel but not the cap. But I still love it

[Pemako]

http://s16.postimg.org/hnmiz4i3p/pen1.jpg

http://s28.postimg.org/727cbmsq5/pen3.jpg

http://s8.postimg.org/5opg2eymd/pen2.jpg

[Nosferatualso]

That blue is fantastic. I only have black

[Fuellerfuehrerschein]

 

I mounted a 35 mm Ambitious India chrome plated nib in my Jinhao 159. The Ambitious nib is an affordable F/M steel nib made in New Delhi available in chrome, gold and dual tone plating finish and a serious upgrade compared to the Jinhao OEM M/B nib.

[Kublai Khan]

Just a side note: this EXACT same pen is also made under the Reynolds name and sold in India at their Writesite stores. I bought one off the shelf for a bit over $12. Same EXACT everything including a shoddy converter. Instead of the Jinhao markings, I have R and Reynolds markings on mine. Now, isn't Reynolds a US company? So who copied whom here, I wonder. See photo (taken in Fuellerfuehrerschein's style) just to show the similarity. Cheers everyone!

[mallymal1]

Nice review. Thank you.

[Maurizio]

I recently bought one of these based upon your nice review here. Maybe I got lucky because Chinese quality is nothing like Japan's or Germany's, but my pen works quite nicely and I posted an enthusiastic expression of that in a post on the "first stop" forum.

[Bluey]

  On 6/18/2016 at 10:34 AM, Maurizio said:

I recently bought one of these based upon your nice review here. Maybe I got lucky because Chinese quality is nothing like Japan's or Germany's, but my pen works quite nicely and I posted an enthusiastic expression of that in a post on the "first stop" forum.

Japanese quality is good but German definitely isn't judging by Pelikan and Lamy. In terms of QC from what I've seen around the interwebs it's Japanese > Chinese > European.

I've been wanting to get an Aurora, Pelikan, Lamy 2000, and Delta but I'm scared off getting one because of the seeming high chance of getting a dud, while paying a lot of money for it.

Edited June 18, 2016 by Bluey

[Maurizio]

I had a poor experience with a Pelikan 400 which gave me a bad taste about the brand. Out of the box it was a bad writer: skipped and didn't flow well when it did write. Coincidently, within a few days of getting the 400 I picked up a Pilot Varsity from a stationary shop. I was really fried when the Varsity wrote light years better than the Pelikan. I did buy it from a reputable dealer online and did send it in and it was adjusted for free, but after that I never really felt warmly about it.

 

All of my Pilots (and I have about 9 or 10) have been solid writers out of th box.

Edited June 18, 2016 by Maurizio

[Bluey]

The old Pelikans are meant to be a lot better than modern ones I gather. Although I like the design of the stripes on the Pelikan there doesn't seem to be anything about the brand other than to remake the same old pen in different sizes and different colours. My Pilots, Sailors, and Platinum seem very reliable so far, as does my Jinhao(159) and Hero.

 

 

 

Congrats on an excellent review, OP. I really like my 159.

Edited June 18, 2016 by Bluey

[VivienR]

Honestly I thinking about getting a 159 one, its available in purple The only thing I didn't like this pen is the clip. Does someone have an experience bout how hard to remove that?

Although I kind of have a hit and miss relationship with Chinese pens, this maybe worth that few dollar. Although my Jinhao Mocca's (15) are kind of not cleanable... :/

[Bluey]

  On 6/18/2016 at 11:41 PM, VivienR said:

Honestly I thinking about getting a 159 one, its available in purple The only thing I didn't like this pen is the clip. Does someone have an experience bout how hard to remove that?

Although I kind of have a hit and miss relationship with Chinese pens, this maybe worth that few dollar. Although my Jinhao Mocca's (15) are kind of not cleanable... :/

For the clip, just unscrew the end cap, remove clip, screw back on. Voila.

Edited June 18, 2016 by Bluey

[VivienR]

  On 6/18/2016 at 11:49 PM, Bluey said:

For the clip, just unscrew the end cap, remove clip, screw back on. Voila.

 

Nice, so its not glued. Than you!!! Well, its time to do some another harm related to my finances....

[Trom]

Green, purple and blue, the colours of the ink in silver, purple and black.

 

Edited June 21, 2016 by Trom

[VivienR]

  On 6/21/2016 at 9:52 AM, Trom said:

Green, purple and blue, the colours of the ink in silver, purple and black.

 

159 no 1.jpg

 

I need a Purple! :puddle: