Lingmo Lorelei Review

[pscrybe]

Hi everyone. First review here and open to suggestions. This is largely pulled from my blog post on the Lorelei with minor edits for your reading pleasure!

Appearance

The Lorelei appears to be a dupe of the Sailor Procolor 500. Mine is a clear demonstrator with silver trim and the clear feed displays inks quite nicely. The brand name”LingMo” is engraved on the trim of the cap in a similar manner found on the Sailor Procolor. Even the font used is similar to Sailors and the similarities don’t end there.

 

LingMo Lorelei Converter. Potential Sailor CON dupe.

Filling System
The pen came with a piston converter which, knowing Chinese brands, could be a duplicate of the Sailor converter though I do not have a Sailor pen to try it out with. The converter looks similar to the Sailor converter but has a small metal object inside to break surface tension of the ink and works fine, fitting securely into the section. So well in fact, that for a moment I thought it was not removable when I first tried to remove it ! I noticed that the section came with an O-ring which gave me hope that it could be converted into an eyedropper to further show off the ink inside and it’s demonstrator body. Those hopes were dashed, however, as the barrel isn’t a single piece of plastic but two pieces. A tiny little plug at the end of the barrel closes it off and will leak. I was devastated.

Functionality
The clip on the cap is sturdy but quite hard and probably will not clip onto thick fabrics without doing damage. The cap is a threaded cap which screws on securely, though I’d be careful about over-tightening and cracking it. The cap posts by friction, no rattling or anything, and the pen is light & comfortable to write with posted or unposted. The nib and feed are friction fit, making for easily disassembly and cleaning.

Write-ability
The F nib produces a 0.5 line. It is a hard nib that produces little line variation with quite a bit of force. Straight out of the box, the pen wrote well with normal ink flow. There were no hard starts or any fiddling necessary to get it writing. The line produced appears the same as a Platinum Preppy F though the nib on my Lorelei was somewhat scratchier than both the tester in the shop and my Platinum Preppy F, feeling more like my Preppy EF nib. The pen I have was also wetter than the one tested in the store which already had decent flow.

Personally, I find the LingMo Lorelei aesthetically pleasing (more so than the Wing Sung 659), and it has worked very well for me with no leaks or ink flow issues. I found it disappointing that the fully plastic body cannot be made into an eyedropper, but this should not be a problem for those of us who prefer cartridges/converters. Overall, a nice and affordable beginner’s fountain pen with a classic look.

[visvamitra]

Thank you for the review.

[Aditkamath26]

Nice review. I do not know why, but dupes always bug me. When I went to Malaysia in 2015, I went to the China market which is an attraction. People were bugging me to buy fake Montblancs. They were even selling stuff they called iPhone 7 and iPhone 8.

[Seele]

It's my understanding that Lingmo (literally "Quill & Ink") has been around for about fifteen years, and involved in the OEM business, making pens branded for corporate use. The Lorelei - code number LM-2016 - is probably their first product sold under their own name. I have one on its way, also a clear demonstrator, although the transparent blue is also quite appealing, but I certainly wish they went further and stepped out with a more original design.

[krystledawne]

Any idea what nib size it is? I'd like to get one, but would want to swap it to an M or B if possible...

[RubenDh]

Is this a #6 size nib and is it interchangable with other #6 nibs like goulet/edison/bexley nibs?

[OCArt]

Definitely NOT a #6 nib. I replaced the nib on mine with an italic nib from a Pilot Plumix.

 

Is this a #6 size nib and is it interchangable with other #6 nibs like goulet/edison/bexley nibs?

[Trom]

Thanks for the review.

There are no original pens, so saying that Chinese pens are copies, how about Japanese pens and German pens.

They all look similar like trousers do.

 

Glad the nib is rather good. I like the other colours as well, especially the green and the blue ones. $14 is not too bad a deal.

[BlueJ]

I just received one of these, purchased off eBay for about $16 including economy mail from China to the USA. It arrived in about two weeks which was much better than predicted (about three to seven weeks).

Mine is in the blue flaked resin and I find it VERY pretty; if someone had told be it was expensive Italian celluloid I could easily have been fooled. In fit, finish, proportions and size it is very similar to mid-line Sailor pens like Procolor (as the OP mentioned) or Profit or 1911 standard, though the Lingmo is slightly longer.

 

My impressions of the writing performance are also similar to what is described above. The nib is hard, fine (slightly broader than a Sailor F, so maybe comparable to a Sailor MF), moderately wet and very smooth (less feedback than a Sailor, more like, say, a low-end Pelikan.) It is quite a nice pen and certainly a good value at the price.

[Tassitus]

Does it accept any kind of cartridges?

[BlueJ]

I think someone posted that it accepts Pilot cartridges. So far I have only used the supplied converter and have no plans to use anything else.

[Wrecky]

Definitely NOT a #6 nib. I replaced the nib on mine with an italic nib from a Pilot Plumix.

 

 

That seems worth a try!

[JFB]

I just received the green-flecked version, it's a really lovely pen. It fairly shimmers in the light. It's a nice writer, but I find it a tad scratchier than my Jinghao 992. I expect this pen will last a bit longer than the Jinghao. Mine was $16.99 including shipping via the 'Bay. This basic body, the narrow cigar, is the one I generally prefer.

 

A fellow worker saw my Lorelei on my desk today and was quite taken with it.

 

Pax,

John

[MontPelikan]

Hello everyone,

a little review of this pen could be found here:

 

 

Thank you for watching,

 

MontPelikan

[truthpil]

I really wanted to like this pen because the colors on the opaque versions are so beautiful, but the nib on mine is trash.

I had hard starts on every single stroke (unless I mashed it into the paper) and found out under a loupe that the F nib has insane baby's bottom.

Sounds like another Chinese company with some quality control issues.

 

The redeeming quality of this pen is that it takes any of the nibs from Pilot's cheaper models. Mine is sporting a Plumix italic nib now and I'm looking forward to putting a nice smooth Pilot medium in it next.

[BlueJ]

My Lorelei is also often a bit dry or skippy. Are the Pilot and Plumix nibs that fit these pens #5? There are a lot of interesting nibs in that size I could try.

[truthpil]

My Lorelei is also often a bit dry or skippy. Are the Pilot and Plumix nibs that fit these pens #5? There are a lot of interesting nibs in that size I could try.

Pilot nibs aren't a standard size but proprietary and usually only fit Pilot pens; that's what makes the Lorelei so cool. The nib from any Pilot Plumix, Prera, 78G, Metropolitan, Kakuno, or Penmanship will fit the Lorelei. That means nib sizes from Japanese EF up to 1mm italic are available for this pen.

Edited August 20, 2017 by TruthPil

[truthpil]

So I felt a little brave today and, considering I was going to throw the nib out anyway, I thought I'd make my first attempt at nib smoothing.

I followed SBRE Brown's YouTube video on how to remove baby's bottom from a nib but adapted it to the materials that come in the Indy-Pen-Dance nib smoothing kit. The results were fantastic! The original Lorelei nib now writes as smooth as glass on Rhodia and with just a touch of feedback on cheap copy paper. The best part is, the skipping and hard starts are totally gone!

 

So, if it isn't cheaper to buy a Pilot 78G or Kakuno to scavenge the nib from, getting some MicroMesh sheets off Ebay or the nib smoothing kit from IPD will totally save your nib and make this pen an awesome writer.

 

Oh yeah...I shouldn't forget to mention that I also had do the "thumbnail trick" to get the tines a little farther apart for better ink flow, then had to use a loupe to properly align the tines again before doing the smoothing operation. The entire process took 20 minutes or so, being as careful as possible.

Edited August 20, 2017 by TruthPil

[rwilsonedn]

Congratulations. Doesn't it feel great to bring a problem pen up to its potential?

ron

[BlueJ]

I also took some micromesh to my Lorelei yesterday with good results (smoother and better flow.)