Chinese Pens Show And Tell.

[Helen350]

  On 10/21/2016 at 5:16 PM, Ian the Jock said:

I like the look of this material, very nice.

They can be found on ebay China for around $16.

 

Ian

 

Thanks Ian. Found them and they do look rather interesting, however, the pen is rather lightweight. I tend to like a bit of heft to my pens. Looks like something I would not mind taking to class (in case I lose it). Might consider purchasing one????

 

COST: $16.55 - color (white/red/yellow/pink/green/blue)

$14.71 demonstrator - clear & blue

 

WEIGHT: 18g

LENGTH: 13.5 cm ( 5 5/16").

CAP DIAMETER: 1.48 cm.

NIB THICKNESS: 0.5 mm - F. (this makes it write like a fine/medium.

[taike]

  On 10/21/2016 at 1:12 PM, Helen350 said:

 

Can you provide us with some details: Weight capped & uncapped; length capped & uncapped; diameter?

Do they ship to the USA? A couple of other pens on that page look interesting, however, the info is only in Chinese.

 

Taobao does ship to the US and it looks like you can put their whole site in US/English mode under the world.taobao.com URL. Once you get setup with them, Google translate is enough (at least for me) to navigate the site and make purchases. You may need some help from a Chinese reader to get your initial account set up, however. The Alipay bit was kind of tricky to get going. They don't take Paypal .

 

Given the growing sucess of other China sales websites (Gearbest, Fasttech, dhgate) I would expect that the Taobao English website will evolve quickly in a more English-friendly direction.

[Ian the Jock]

  On 10/21/2016 at 8:58 PM, Helen350 said:

 

Thanks Ian. Found them and they do look rather interesting, however, the pen is rather lightweight. I tend to like a bit of heft to my pens. Looks like something I would not mind taking to class (in case I lose it). Might consider purchasing one????

 

COST: $16.55 - color (white/red/yellow/pink/green/blue)

$14.71 demonstrator - clear & blue

 

WEIGHT: 18g

LENGTH: 13.5 cm ( 5 5/16").

CAP DIAMETER: 1.48 cm.

NIB THICKNESS: 0.5 mm - F. (this makes it write like a fine/medium.

 

The weight kinda put me off a bit too Helen, as like you, I prefer a wee bit more heft.

It's quite a nice looking pen though, however, I feel that there are other options at that price point which deserve greater consideration.

Yours and Franks' positive views have had me re-visiting Dukes that caught my interest previously, like the Rhombus one Bob points out above and a few from the Davinci collection, among others.

 

 

Ian

[bobje]

Taike,

what would you think about writing a tutorial for how to do the initial Taobao account setup, with Alipay, and posting it as a separate topic within this forum? Feel free to correspond with me by PM if it's easier. This would be a valuable resource for FPN members.

[Ian the Jock]

When I was out with the dog this morning, I realised just how autumnal it had become in these parts, which for some reason had me thinking back to when I was very young and we used to collect leaves from the school playground, then lie them on paper to paint around them with paint that we had mixed to get various shades of brown and orange, before lifting the leaves away to leave a nice autumnal picture to show to our mums and dads at school visit time.

 

Anyway

Enough nostalgia, I got home and inked up my Jinhao 8812 "wood" with diamine saddle brown and I'm having an "autumnal day"

 

 

 

A very nice pen that has a nice warm feeling to it, probably due to the wood, which writes very nicely indeed.

 

Ian

[Mech-for-i]

The Lorelei is not a new pen at all, its out for quite some time. I suppose its only really marketed in the home market, and that's why its not getting attention. Had a couple of them. the EF is kind of scratchy to start with but after some run in its working fine, but its still not as fine as my old Wing Sung. Its also not a no.5 nor a no.6 nib ; The light weight is yet again a feature that's more a dictated character of pens designed for Chinese writing which require consistent and repeated lifting the nib off the paper between strokes ( and there can be many strokes in a single character, figure how many time one need to lift the pen and then put it down again when writing a whole page of text ). Not to mention the different way to hold and write with a fountain pen for the language in concern.

 

The demonstrator and the white one are injection molded plastic and the other are turned acrylic. the nibs are all on the hard side,

Edited October 25, 2016 by Mech-for-i

[Ian the Jock]

 

 

Ian

[Helen350]

Ian:

 

 

My Picasso FINALLY arrived in Chicago this morning! I had started to become impatient , but it is here in the States. Thinking it will take another 5-8 days to land on my doorstep~ Thanks for your 'expert pen enabling'!

[Helen350]

Can someone help me identify these pens. I purchased them about 12-15 yrs ago, and never used them. The cap says Hero 616, though I am doubting that this is the cap for these two pens. They've been sitting in the bottom of a box, and I had long forgotten about them. Nibs are somewhat scratchy and definitely need some work. Wondering if I should throw them out, or just use them for class??

[Frank66]

  On 11/8/2016 at 1:15 AM, Helen350 said:

Can someone help me identify these pens. I purchased them about 12-15 yrs ago, and never used them. The cap says Hero 616, though I am doubting that this is the cap for these two pens. They've been sitting in the bottom of a box, and I had long forgotten about them. Nibs are somewhat scratchy and definitely need some work. Wondering if I should throw them out, or just use them for class??

Judging from the nib and the whole pen characteristics, It looks to me like a vintage Wing Sung (owned by Hero) celluloid pen. Pens with similar nibs that I have write super smooth and also write a very fine text line/size. I do not know which particular Wing Sung model this is, could it the 234? I am not sure, but if it is, then it may still be around as New Old Stock at Ebay. Nice pen Helen.

Edited November 8, 2016 by Frank66

[richardandtracy]

I think it's a Wing Sung 237 with a H616 cap - http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Brand-Wing-Sung-237-Fountain-Pen-90-s-inventory-Original-Factory-Production-/302103842757?hash=item4656cacfc5:g:8u0AAOSw-CpX~Rwh

Nibs being scratchy sounds about right - the pens from the 1990's were not as good quality as now.

The 234 has a step at the end of where the cap sits. Also thought it could be a 233, but that has the same step.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

[Ian the Jock]

  On 11/7/2016 at 10:33 PM, Helen350 said:

Ian:

 

 

My Picasso FINALLY arrived in Chicago this morning! I had started to become impatient , but it is here in the States. Thinking it will take another 5-8 days to land on my doorstep~ Thanks for your 'expert pen enabling'!

Fingers crossed it arrives sooner rather than later Helen.

I hope you like it.

[Mech-for-i]

  On 11/8/2016 at 1:15 AM, Helen350 said:

Can someone help me identify these pens. I purchased them about 12-15 yrs ago, and never used them. The cap says Hero 616, though I am doubting that this is the cap for these two pens. They've been sitting in the bottom of a box, and I had long forgotten about them. Nibs are somewhat scratchy and definitely need some work. Wondering if I should throw them out, or just use them for class??

 

The Pen is definitely a Wing Sung 237, its in Wing Sung range for quite some time but well before Hero's take over of the Wing Sung brand. The correct cap for this pen is of course not the one shown, it's a brushed steel finish with flat top ( just like the pen finale ) with a plain straight clip and engraved Wing Sung 237 on the rim ( Chinese of course ), the 233 always come with the amber ink window, the 234 only come in brushed plain steel metal barrel, the 235 come in with a gold color plated aluminum barrel ( grid chiseled ), the 236 is exactly the same as the 237 but with just plain color plastic barrel, the 230, 232 and 238 use a different type of nib, the 239 yet another type, and there is no 231

 

BTW, the nib is almost always scratchy first start up, but I've found that about 1/3 load down the road it start to run in and then its smooth sailing ( smooth for such a fine tip that is ) depend on the batch and the nib, its usually a fine to EF

Edited November 8, 2016 by Mech-for-i

[Helen350]

I want to thank all of you for your help! These two make the only Wing Sung pens I own. I vaguely remember not being happy with that scratchy nib. Did not know about micromesh at that time.. I also had several 616's, and must have exchanged caps. Did not like the 616 either. I threw them into an old shoe box and forgot about them. I'll set them aside as 'class use only pens.'

 

 

 

Oops. I kept digging in one of my packing boxes, and found another Wing Sung without a cap. I have an old Jinhao 500 cap in my pen accessories stash, and placed it on the pen. Perfect fit and was not able to shake the cap off. I think you call this a frankenpen? The cap is heavier than the barrel, but when posted gives a nice balance. I wonder what else is packed away?? Pen inked with Lamy Dark Violet.

[Mech-for-i]

Helen, that pen you have is the Wing Sung 235

 

  On 11/8/2016 at 3:48 PM, Helen350 said:

I want to thank all of you for your help! These two make the only Wing Sung pens I own. I vaguely remember not being happy with that scratchy nib. Did not know about micromesh at that time.. I also had several 616's, and must have exchanged caps. Did not like the 616 either. I threw them into an old shoe box and forgot about them. I'll set them aside as 'class use only pens.'

 

 

 

Oops. I kept digging in one of my packing boxes, and found another Wing Sung without a cap. I have an old Jinhao 500 cap in my pen accessories stash, and placed it on the pen. Perfect fit and was not able to shake the cap off. I think you call this a frankenpen? The cap is heavier than the barrel, but when posted gives a nice balance. I wonder what else is packed away?? Pen inked with Lamy Dark Violet.

 

This the model 235

[Helen350]

I had another cap - from an old Hero 901. Placed on one of the Wing Sung celluloids. Any thoughts on creativity gone wrong??

[Frank66]

I have been following this thread for a while now, and I would like to dedicate this post to Helen:

 

"Helen, thank you for beautifying this forum with your goodwill, your writings, your charm and your pens."

My pen shown below is also a Wing Sung, namely it is the Wing Sung 1532 EF nib. I bought it a year ago from jewerlymathematics. I do not remember the original nib, but I replaced it by another #5 nib bought from laoman, the feed and converter were kept the same. It writes beautifully and never skips or dries. I keep it inked in violet most of the times. It is one of my favorite pens and it is also a Wing Sung.

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah12/phzervas/56E4FD1C-C6B6-491F-860F-CF1A6E776362_zps4dzkrstv.jpg

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah12/phzervas/4B32D371-B38B-4EBE-ADF7-A62E21BB698A_zpssyy4l7hs.jpg

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah12/phzervas/7778AA16-A41C-49D1-96E1-6F3F177BF2D3_zpsbhsnzatv.jpg

Edited November 8, 2016 by Frank66

[Helen350]

  On 11/8/2016 at 7:28 PM, Frank66 said:

I have been following this thread for a while now, and I would like to dedicate this post to Helen:

 

"Helen, thank you for beautifying this forum with your goodwill, your writings, your charm and your pens."

My pen shown below is also a Wing Sung, namely it is the Wing Sung 1532 EF nib. I bought it a year ago from jewerlymathematics. I do not remember the original nib, but I replaced it by another #5 nib bought from laoman, the feed and converter were kept the same. It writes beautifully and never skips or dries. I keep it inked in violet most of the times. It is one of my favorite pens and it is also a Wing Sung.

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah12/phzervas/56E4FD1C-C6B6-491F-860F-CF1A6E776362_zps4dzkrstv.jpg

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah12/phzervas/4B32D371-B38B-4EBE-ADF7-A62E21BB698A_zpssyy4l7hs.jpg

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah12/phzervas/7778AA16-A41C-49D1-96E1-6F3F177BF2D3_zpsbhsnzatv.jpg

 

Frank, I'm at a lost in expressing my gratitude for your very kind remarks. So nice to be able to share my love for fountain pens with another FP connoisseur - and all the way from Athens, Greece!!! That is an interesting looking Wing Sung. I have been writing with my Wing Sung all day today, and it feels a bit smoother than when I started my studies this morning. I will do some further tweaking with 12000 grit micromesh tonite. How do you like your X450? Is the center pen a Duke (hard to recognize)? Like Ian & Richard, I have been fortunate in finding some pretty nice Chinese pens, with the ability to swap nibs, giving me wonderful writing experiences. Again, thank you for your kindness and dedication :)

[garyc]

Helen,

The centre pen is the Jinhao 15, which you can find reviewed here https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/246134-jinhao-15-moka/ and elsewhere (sbrebrown etc.).

 

It's curved design is a nod to the Waterman Serenite (with an acute accent on the last 'e'). This is one of my favourite fine writing Chinese pens, I have one in blue permanently in my pen box at work, it comes also in wine red and black. Very nice writer and quite comfortable to use for long periods. Its rather simple design lines with chrome accents makes a welcome change from some of the more gaudy and flashy pens from China.

 

Cheers,

Gary

[Frank66]

@ Helen and @Gary above posts:

 

Thanks Gary for posting about the Jinhao 15 pen. They are wonderful pens with a semi-hooded nib. I usually tweak them a little bit by running a shim between the tines to make them a little bit more wetter writers. I have 4 fountain Jinhao 15s pens (2 black, 1 blue and 1 burgundy) and one ballpoint pen in burgundy. The most elegant color for me is burgundy. I currently keep one black Jinhao 15 inked with black ink on my desk. I had one of the pens leak ink from the nib unit when I first ordered it, but it was replaced by the vendor at no additional cost. They are modern design but they are not too flashy, and I like this.

 

Here are few pictures of them:

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah12/phzervas/B5A63316-D5B8-4BA0-A3ED-AC3FC2BAE354_zpsce3uftjg.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah12/phzervas/B1A2BF73-D84A-452F-8915-6F5EE070AB14_zpsdrea72bg.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah12/phzervas/BB0DAEF0-782B-43B1-9F01-0AE4B15C439D_zpsvyq4wjqd.jpg

Edited November 11, 2016 by Frank66