Kaigelu 316 - A Little Disappointing

[the_gasman]

  On 2/19/2016 at 11:53 PM, dcwaites said:

Mine, too, writes perfectly. The only change I have made was to get one of Richards seasonal finials, so it now feels perfect in the hand.

 

When I read this, I was perplexed by the reference to "seasonal finials". I was thinking: finial with Father Christmas pictures on; maybe an Easter Bunny finial; or even a finial with beach scenes.

 

Aha, the penny has dropped. I have since read another Kaigelu thread, in which Richard explains that he doesn't (?can't) produce finials when his workshop is too cold!

 

Cheers,

David.

Edited February 20, 2016 by the_gasman

[dcwaites]

As of last night, (which I mentioned in another K316 thread) I have now also swapped the nib for a hand-ground stub made from a Jinhao #6 nib.

[AndyKeir]

  On 2/20/2016 at 7:13 AM, Frank66 said:

Hi, I think AndyKeir has a legitimate complaint with the ink leakage he encounters in his pen. My impression is that he just tries to fix this problem, he does to try to generalize that all Kaigelu 316 pens are leaky or anything ...

 

Photios

 

Ahhh ... I'm certainly not suggesting that there are widespread issues with the 316. They are a great pen and deserve their popularity. I was just unlucky ... but the same thing applies to many pen brands. Nobody has 100% perfect products 100% of the time.

I won't be giving up on mine. It is a very attractive pen and if I can't fix the existing nib/feed I'll replace it with the Bock.

[dcwaites]

I am reminded of a story of a well-known Australian Radio Personality (yes, spelt in caps...). He exchanged some of his liquid assets for a new car - a Rolls Royce, no less.

He drove it home. He drove in the front gate (it was a farming property, the Personality's other bow to his string). He stopped. The bumper bar fell off the new Rolls.

The manager of the dealership was, of course mortified. Bits do not just "fall off" their cars.

But, it it can happens to Rolls Royce, it can pretty well happen to anybody.

[magnus919]

http://i.imgur.com/j6RykIC.png

 

My Kaigelus arrived yesterday. I'm very unimpressed. None of them wrote right out of the box. Two of them burped terribly upon filling, and one would vomit out all of its ink in one go. Some converters screwed in, others did not (though they were all the same... I'm guessing there were issues with the threads that my eyes can't see). Using Jinhao converters got me further. Apparently they use the same feed you'd find in a Jinhao X450/X750/159...

After screwing with the Kaigelu nibs for too long and still suffering problems with dry starts and skips, I tried importing the nib & feed from my favorite Jinhao X450 (Goulet 1.1mm stub). Wouldn't you know it, it ran quite a lot drier on this pen. I'm wondering if there is a bottleneck in the section maybe.

Even if they did function adequately (which they don't for me yet), there's that brass finial that makes it feel like some prankster is pushing the end of your pen around with their fingertip.

Buyer's remorse. I'm feeling it.

[richardandtracy]

Don't suffer from remorse.
The finial is nuts and was the first thing I got rid of - just using the pen without one until I could make a new one. Tune the nib - it won't take much, and grease the thread. If all else fails, use a tiny worm of blu-tac.

I will start making finials again in a month or so, and they really transform the pen into a Duofold. Which is great if you like a Duofold, and not everyone does.

Regards,

Richard.

[AndyKeir]

Well, I think I can confidently declare my Kaigelu 316 fixed.

I've just written a couple of A4 sheets without any problems, put the cap on, walked away, come back an hour later, picked up the pen and carried on writing. No sign of excess ink, it just writes ... and rather well

 

The solution was a combination of things. Firstly the nib collar/feed holder needed to be secured in place. I used clear nail varnish, applying it in a narrow band around the entire circumference of the inside of the section in the threaded area (the threads which are unused because the nib collar/feed holder isn't threaded). I did this as I suspected there may have been an air pathway between the section and the minimally glued and too-easy-to-remove nib collar/feed holder.

 

Secondly, I found the nib needed to be inserted far deeper than it was when received. Now the shoulders of the feed almost meet the edges of the nib whereas previously there was a significant gap. To put it another way, the tip of the feed is now a lot closer to the tip of the nib.

 

Finally, a small amount of silicon grease on the converter threads ... and being careful not to tighten the converter too enthusiastically when installing it in the pen.

 

I am now a happy chappie as I have an attractive and functional pen!

 

<edited to fix the inevitable (in my case) typos>

Edited February 22, 2016 by AndyKeir

[scrivelry]

  On 2/21/2016 at 5:55 PM, richardandtracy said:

Don't suffer from remorse.

The finial is nuts and was the first thing I got rid of - just using the pen without one until I could make a new one. Tune the nib - it won't take much, and grease the thread. If all else fails, use a tiny worm of blu-tac.

 

I will start making finials again in a month or so, and they really transform the pen into a Duofold. Which is great if you like a Duofold, and not everyone does.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

Looking forward to your finials being available again! I have another similar pen from some other brand and I am very busy squinting and measuring to see if I can replace those finials with the ones you make as well...

 

I

[Sailor Kenshin]

Can these be used with cartridges? The black and pearl one appeals to me.

[dcwaites]

  On 2/26/2016 at 1:26 AM, Sailor Kenshin said:

Can these be used with cartridges? The black and pearl one appeals to me.

 

Yes, standard international cartridges are cut away a little in the area that the K316 converter has threads, so there should be no problem.

[cubfanbob]

> I will start making finials again in a month or so

 

Looking forward to that day.

[Piper 987]

My first Kaigelu 316 arrived the other day and so far, I am impressed. I gave it a cursory flush and then inked it up with the iroshizyku asa-gao that also arrived that day. (It was a good day.)

 

Before I inked it I checked the tine alignment which was fine. It writes well but with a very slight scratch that I'm sure some Mylar paper will fix.

 

No drips or burps yet. I really like the size, shape and weight. It's also a very good looking pen and I always prefer screw caps over snap caps.

 

It was a few more dollars than all the other relatively inexpensive Chinese pens I have but so far, I'll say it represents good value for the money.

[eragi]

My experiences is similar. In my pen the problem has been the thread on the convertor and inside of the brass connector. Although, in theory, this may be good, as most other pens do not have this feature, of habit I pulled the convertor out forgetting it was threaded, resulting in stripping the threads, on the convertor but possibly also damaging those on the brass housing. When I tried to use another convertor (having matched the diameter of the nipple), I may have applied more force to secure proper fit onto the spigot of the sleeve. This seems to have pushed the sleeve out, imperceptibly but enough (helped by its conical shape and the redundant thread on the inside of the nib section) to lead to the dribbling of ink emptying the converter in less than a minute. Dribbling is not fro the nib or feed, but through the outer wall of the sleeve into the lip of the section.

The remedy I tried is to glue the sleeve and convertor semi-permanently (with shellack).

[J_MM]

I just received my first K316 as well. Beautiful pen. Unfortunately the ink drips started right away. I tightened the converter in a bit more and that slowed the drip but it is still there. Will have to try some of the other suggestions next. The nib on mine is very smooth.

[cubfanbob]

On my 316, the lip on the open end of the converter was a bit ragged with "flash" plastic left over from molding. I used a razor blade to trim the excess material from the lip, applied a bit of silicon grease, and all was well.

Edited May 31, 2016 by cubfanbob

[Frank66]

My Kaigelu 316 with the orange swirls which was retrofitted with a #250 Bock housing, including a #6 EF two-tone Stainless Steel nib and a corresponding ink converter works excellent after 6 months since my initial modification. Even if not used for a couple of weeks, the feed supports the nib so well that the pen never dries nor presents any hard start-ups or skipping issues.

 

The nib capillary action is so great that I can even start and write forever while holding the pen upside-down (nib pointing to the ceiling) without any issues.

 

I have no pen market affiliation, but this Bock nib modification is not that expensive (15-20 USD total) and greatly inproves the performance of an already great pen.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah12/phzervas/IMG_0601_zpsr0u1wchd.jpg

Edited June 2, 2016 by Frank66

[J_MM]

  On 5/30/2016 at 5:46 PM, J_MM said:

I just received my first K316 as well. Beautiful pen. Unfortunately the ink drips started right away. I tightened the converter in a bit more and that slowed the drip but it is still there. Will have to try some of the other suggestions next. The nib on mine is very smooth.

 

I changed the converter to a Jinhao and no more leaks.

[Frank66]

  On 6/3/2016 at 5:26 PM, J_MM said:

 

I changed the converter to a Jinhao and no more leaks.

 

I concur with this solution. In my nephew's Kaigelu 316 that had a similar leaking problem, I changed the original cartridge converter with one taken from a Jinhao 159 and now the pen works fine. Thanks J_MM for your input.

 

Photios

Edited June 3, 2016 by Frank66

[spring3r]

I would like to try the 316 but have found the price to be a little high for a pen that potentially has issues.

 

These are listed at between £15 and £35 on EBay (and the tiger's eye model, arguable the one that I would want, is currently at the top of that range).

 

That pen is more expensive than the Nemosine Singularity Coral (£22), so unless the Chinese start flooding, I'd find this one difficult to justify.

Edited July 29, 2016 by spring3r

[Rewpert]

I've had mine a few months now and have rather taken to it. The original nib was okay, but it really was worth the time to replace it with a Bock. Incidentally, it happens to be the first bit of 'customising' that I've ever attempted. I did a little write up over here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/311497-joining-the-custom-kaigelu-club/?do=findComment&comment=3675365

 

The balance is a real shame though and is just about the only thing that stops the 316 from being my go-to pen at the moment. I've got very small hands and have trouble gripping things - sometimes it feels almost as if I would drop the pen if I were to continue writing. Would very much like to get my hands on a replacement finial - does anyone know how I'd go about doing that?

 

Also, am I the only one to have a dodgy cap jewel? Some of the gold leaf from the Kangaroo Logo looks like its floating in the clear resin. It a tiny gripe to have, but I would like to replace the end of the cap if I ever found someone with one going spare.

 

Anyway, that's my butterfly thoughts...

 

R.