Jinhao Cartridge Inks - Blue And Black

[dcwaites]

I was interested in trying both the Jinhao Blue and Black ink cartridges, so I ordered some of each on eBay. They arrived on Friday.

I immediately popped one of the blue cartridges into my stealth (matt black) Jinhao X-450 and it wrote straight way, perfectly.

When I got home I found my matching gloss black X-450 (this one has an old-style nib and feed), cleaned it out and put a black cartridge in it.

The cartridges are a bit unusual. They fit international nipples, but are a bit longer and a bit narrower than standard Short International Cartridges. The capacity, though, appears to be about the same, at 0.75 ml.



And now, on to the inks themselves.

The Black is a very ordinary ink. It feathers to a small degree (visible under a loupe) on most papers and bleeds through on many papers. From normal reading distance it looks blacker than Noodler’s black. It doesn’t shade at all, but it does spread a bit, giving a wider line than the blue. For my money, given the behaviour on paper, there are many better black inks out there.

 

 

This shows Jinhao Black compared with Noodler's Black, in similar nibs. You can see the feathering

and spreading compared to the Noodler's.

 

And this is the back of the paper. There is significant bleeding from the Jinhao Black compared to the Noodler's Black.

The Blue ink, however, is a keeper. It is a pleasant medium-dark Indigo colour. It is very well behaved, not feathering on any paper that I tried, even the worst, neither does it spread. It’s bleed-through behaviour is also very good, with only small signs of bleeding on the worst of papers.
In comparisons with Visconti Blue and Waterman Florida Blue the Jinhao blue came out best as far as behaviour on paper. On both good and ordinary papers the Jinhao had no feathering or bleeding. On good paper the other two showed bleeding but not feathering, and on ordinary paper both showed feathering and bleeding.

 

 

This detail compares the Jinhao Blue with Waterman and Visconti Blues (sorry about the cross-out, I forgot what ink was in the pen). You can see the slight feathering with both the Waterman and Visconti blues.

 

And this is the back of the paper, showing the bleed-through from the Waterman and Visconti Blues.

Neither ink is at all waterproof. The Blue is probably quite washable but I think the black would stain white textiles. Both inks are quite quick drying, in the less than 5 seconds range. Both inks are also reliable, easy starters.

 

The cartridges cost $7.50 for 25 or $0.30 each, which comes out to $0.40 per ml, or $24 per 60 ml (2 oz) bottle. This is not cheap compared to some inks, but is good value for money compared to others. It is, for example, comparable with Visconti Blue, which the Jinhao Blue outperforms on some papers.

 

This ink is only available in cartridges. I bought mine from eBay vendor hejing1314.

Edited June 17, 2014 by dcwaites

[I like mango cheesecake]

I too bought a pack of Jinhao blue cartridges but they look no where near like yours. Mine are 57mm long and don't have the two stage nipple design. The narrow collar is also a bit longer on mine too. It writes really well and actually a nice colour of blue too.

[dcwaites]

I think there was a recent re-design of the cartridges. I vaguely remember some time ago that they looked a bit different.

[magnus919]

Thanks so much for posting this. Even though I use bottled inks, I was looking at these cartridges in the context of looking at the 12 pack lots of Jinhao 599 pens so I can scatter them around the house & office, and never be far from a civilized writing instrument.

[Kev]

Jinhao long cartridge black are not so bad.

well, quite a wet ink, with feathering and bleeding, but good for ef pens/scratchy nibs.

Bluish tonality when washed/diluted

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I was interested in trying both the Jinhao Blue and Black ink cartridges, so I ordered some of each on eBay. They arrived on Friday.

 

I immediately popped one of the blue cartridges into my stealth (matt black) Jinhao X-450 and it wrote straight way, perfectly.

 

When I got home I found my matching gloss black X-450 (this one has an old-style nib and feed), cleaned it out and put a black cartridge in it.

 

The cartridges are a bit unusual. They fit international nipples, but are a bit longer and a bit narrower than standard Short International Cartridges. The capacity, though, appears to be about the same, at 0.75 ml.

 

 

Well, this explains why the Jinhao 992 is made so that it will not accept a long international cartridge. But since the proprietary Jinhao cartridge doesn't hold any more ink than the usual short international cartridge it's not worth getting them IMO. Why pay more for something that doesn't hold more than what you can get for less?

[otblue]

Jinhao long cartridge black are not so bad.

well, quite a wet ink, with feathering and bleeding, but good for ef pens/scratchy nibs.

Bluish tonality when washed/diluted

My experience is quite the opposite.

 

I've tried Jinhao black from a couple of different sellers in both long and short cartridges and a variety of Jinhao pens and find it is a dry ink and a hard starter. Have actually given up using the black cartridges.

 

On the other hand the Jinhao blue cartridges are very well behaved in any pen I've tried.

[Sasha Royale]

When I got home I found my matching gloss black X-450 (this one has an old-style nib and feed), cleaned it out and put a black cartridge in it.

 

Thanks. I just ordered some, and am anxious to try them.

My current x450 have a black feed, with a circular indentation on the underside. One of the earlier x450's has, instead, a trough indentation running the length of the feed. Is that what you mean by "old-style nib and feed"?

[dcwaites]

Thanks. I just ordered some, and am anxious to try them.

My current x450 have a black feed, with a circular indentation on the underside. One of the earlier x450's has, instead, a trough indentation running the length of the feed. Is that what you mean by "old-style nib and feed"?

 

The new-style feeds are 6 mm in diameter, have two feed slots to the end of the nib and are keyed, so they only go in one way

The old-style feeds are 6.5 mm in diameter, have only one feed slot, are circular, and when assembled, the nib (and feed) stick out a bit more.

 

The nibs are the same, but form to the diameter of their feed when assembled. That makes it difficult to swap nibs.

 

All the #5 Jinhao pens have the same style nib and feed as the current #6 pens, just smaller.

[bob_hayden]

The review matches my experience with the blue. The black I found rather pale and so I have rarely used it and have nothing else to say about it.

 

I am really wondering about the price comparison, though, for two reasons. Is the comparison with Visconti bottled ink or cartridges? Cartridges almost always cost more -- often lots more. Secondly, $7.50 for 25 Jinhao cartridges sounds quite high. Currently it is easy to find them for about 10 cents each in small lots, or half that if you look hard and buy a tub of 100. Name brand cartridges are often more than $1 each so these are a really cheap alternative for those who need to write a lot or are on a budget.

 

However, I don't use them because I find they give me hard starts in pens left unused for a while. I can't quote days, but they are among the worst cartridges in this respect. But to make matters worse, they are so stiff that I cannot squeeze them to get ink to flow again. So, these have been very high maintenance for me. Still if you go through one or more cartridges a day this may not be an issue for you, while the price may be a big advantage.