Help Me Choose My Next Jinhao :)

[truthpil]

  On 2/16/2017 at 11:01 AM, KingRoach said:

ive ordered a jinhao 911 but aliexpress says i should expect waiting times up to another 7 weeks perhaps. if it arrives before that (if it arrives at all) i will let you know what i think of it.

 

When it does come, it'd be great if you could do a short review of it. I'm sure a lot of people are interested!

[KingRoach]

When it does come, IF it does come.

 

I bought it off an Aliexpress dealer who had on %50 discount but no feedback/orders yet for that particular listing.

 

A bit worrying, but it was only £1.50 so will see.

 

the reason why I chose it over the Hero 338 is first that it is a cartridge/converter pen, not an aerometric like the Hero, and second because the Jinhao is so far harvesting a much better reputation than Hero ever could for their hooded pens.

[Mech-for-i]

Actually the Jinhao 911 was pattered after the Hero 338, the early production 338 do have the build in aeromatric filler and use the good old 33X series long 21.5mm nib, however Hero change the production after those early batches, later batches 338 use the more common 18.mm nib and use a C/C filling mechanism. Is easy to identify the one with the Aeromatric filler as those are the ones with a steel coupling ring on the section/barrel thread mating surface. Later version having only ( clear ) plastic on this area signal the re-engineered models with the C/C and shorter nib. the mid production batches use aeromatric Converter and the later models had plunger ( push/pull ) type converter.

 

Somehow the Hero do not seems to suffer the section failure ( cracking ) of the jinhao.

 

And as far as hooded nib pens goes, I think most here are just mis informed as typically it seems that everyone just like to think Hero's hooded nib pens are just 100, 616, and the 3XX series ( all are literally decades old ). I wonder why people not care to look at Hero's updated and developed hooded nib pens of today like the 3920 and 3022 I had or the 511 which is a very fine pen ( though not looking any bit like a Parker any more )

[truthpil]

  On 2/17/2017 at 4:57 PM, Mech-for-i said:

And as far as hooded nib pens goes, I think most here are just mis informed as typically it seems that everyone just like to think Hero's hooded nib pens are just 100, 616, and the 3XX series ( all are literally decades old ). I wonder why people not care to look at Hero's updated and developed hooded nib pens of today like the 3920 and 3022 I had or the 511 which is a very fine pen ( though not looking any bit like a Parker any more )

 

Please enlighten us about these pens by posting some reviews of them.

 

It seems like most of the pens I see in shops around China today are recently produced hooded nibs nobody has heard about in the West. Personally I don't like hooded nibs because they aren't easy to clean, that's why I'm not buying them and writing reviews of them myself.

[KingRoach]

  On 2/17/2017 at 4:57 PM, Mech-for-i said:

Actually the Jinhao 911 was pattered after the Hero 338, the early production 338 do have the build in aeromatric filler and use the good old 33X series long 21.5mm nib, however Hero change the production after those early batches, later batches 338 use the more common 18.mm nib and use a C/C filling mechanism. Is easy to identify the one with the Aeromatric filler as those are the ones with a steel coupling ring on the section/barrel thread mating surface. Later version having only ( clear ) plastic on this area signal the re-engineered models with the C/C and shorter nib. the mid production batches use aeromatric Converter and the later models had plunger ( push/pull ) type converter.

 

Somehow the Hero do not seems to suffer the section failure ( cracking ) of the jinhao.;;

 

Very interesting info on the lines of production of that Hero model, and rather useful, I must say.

 

Can I ask what is the difference in performance or feel between the long and short nibs mentioned above?

 

And I've never heard of a Jinhao cracking problem. How common is that? I was actually under the impression that Jinhao, being relatively new to the pen market compared to Hero, is producing better nibs by and large, and so I thought they were actually a better make overall in terms of construction quality. Or is it only the 616 department in the Hero that is lacking so much?

[truthpil]

  On 2/16/2017 at 9:12 AM, WJM said:

I've read some opinions that in Jinhao 911 plastic threads have a tendency to very easly break. This is what for now prevented of from getting one, even though a c/c Parker 51 clone is something I would like to get.

 

What plastic threaded parts on these pens are there? Judging by the pictures, the section has metal threads. Are the corresponding threads inside the barrel plastic then? I did notice the similar-looking Hero 338 has plastic threads on the section.

[Mech-for-i]

The ill fame 616 gets IMHO stem from a slew of reasons. Mostly due to the fact that people are buying fakes or old stock that are simply aged and not to forget that the 616 was a much simplified adaptation circa 1950/1960s of an even older Parker. And people are expecting a pen that cost only 2.00 to perform like its 20.00 These old Hero models favor user tweaking and using and that's against todays consumer expectations. Not to mention the 616 is suppose to be the people's pen ( read : cheap knock around pens ).

Still with current Chinese Mfr Hero made the best and rightly so. They pretty much had the know-how and do manufacture all their parts including nibs and feed. Jinhao made some of their own parts but their own design is centered around the cosmetics and not the pen part which they buy or license from other and mostly from Hero.

Now for the 338 nibs. The reason why Hero made the 33X nibs 21.5mm long is that most of the ink feed and flow with these nib had pretty little to do with the nib but the nib/ feed mating area. Know that its a very thin rod with a tubular nib so the ink is channeled and buffered at this round mating area. The longer nib thus had more area in contact with both the feed and the ink collector indide the section and would generally write teeny bit wetter and ink flow better than the 18.5mm version. Few noted this, but the longer nib is actually fatter ( diameter ) than the 18.5mm nib and also 33X feed do not just had ink channel, it had a ported breather tube exchange channel ( air hole ) where the shorter nib's feed had only the ink channel. I did however find some 33X feed without the air hole still so I am not sure which model and/or batch where this feature is present or not for sure. That stated almost all later Chinese hooded nib use the 18.5mm spec and they looks working fine including Hero's own. Thus the 33X had the distinction of one of the few that use this long nib. FYI Hero 616 use a nib feed of same design but its 19.5mm speced. I would say all other being equal and the pen well calibrated then the 33X do work best among Hero's old models hooded nibs being the wettest ( good for most Western language writing but not exsctly needed for Chinese writing ) The 329-2 , and 33X was suppose to be the next upgrade model after the 616 ( small version ) and its priced higher than the 616 signalling its more up market status.

Edited February 19, 2017 by Mech-for-i

[antichresis]

  On 2/17/2017 at 4:57 PM, Mech-for-i said:

Actually the Jinhao 911 was pattered after the Hero 338, the early production 338 do have the build in aeromatric filler and use the good old 33X series long 21.5mm nib, however Hero change the production after those early batches, later batches 338 use the more common 18.mm nib and use a C/C filling mechanism. Is easy to identify the one with the Aeromatric filler as those are the ones with a steel coupling ring on the section/barrel thread mating surface. Later version having only ( clear ) plastic on this area signal the re-engineered models with the C/C and shorter nib. the mid production batches use aeromatric Converter and the later models had plunger ( push/pull ) type converter.

 

Somehow the Hero do not seems to suffer the section failure ( cracking ) of the jinhao.

 

And as far as hooded nib pens goes, I think most here are just mis informed as typically it seems that everyone just like to think Hero's hooded nib pens are just 100, 616, and the 3XX series ( all are literally decades old ). I wonder why people not care to look at Hero's updated and developed hooded nib pens of today like the 3920 and 3022 I had or the 511 which is a very fine pen ( though not looking any bit like a Parker any more )

I was drawn to the 911 because of the removable converter (apart from the clean good looks). Unfortunately, the 338s on eBay still have the built-in aerometric filler, which I have in other pens and would prefer to avoid. Hopefully, the sellers will get their hands on some new stock.

[KingRoach]

Oh what do you know. It has arrived today. A bit surprised I wasn't scammed.

 

Jinhao 911 in possession. Will get back to you.

[truthpil]

  On 2/24/2017 at 10:35 PM, KingRoach said:

Oh what do you know. It has arrived today. A bit surprised I wasn't scammed.

 

Jinhao 911 in possession. Will get back to you.

 

Looking forward to your impressions of the pen!

 

After looking at many, many pictures online, my concern is that the nib doesn't have much of a ball at the end to keep it from being too toothy. Hope you're in for a smooth writing experience!

[KingRoach]

Positive so far, with a few concerns. I cannot compare it to any of the rest on your list though, so while I cannot help you make a decision, I can share my impressions on it. I will do a review, would you like anything in particular, anything "unusual", to be covered in it?

[truthpil]

  On 2/25/2017 at 11:44 AM, KingRoach said:

Positive so far, with a few concerns. I cannot compare it to any of the rest on your list though, so while I cannot help you make a decision, I can share my impressions on it. I will do a review, would you like anything in particular, anything "unusual", to be covered in it?

 

Yeah, the 911 doesn't really compare to the others on the list because it's the only EF.

If you can comment on the writing experience (smoothness, etc.) as compared to any other EF pens you have, that would be helpful. I would guess that the Platinum Preppy 03 would have a similar nib size, so it would be interesting to see which one is a better writer.

 

Thanks for offering to review the pen!!

 

Edited February 26, 2017 by TruthPil

[KingRoach]

haha... I don't have any EF nibs. And it won't make sense to compare it against any dip nibs which are untipped. The only relevant thing I have is the Hero 616, which has very inconsistent manufacturing quality anyway.

 

In short, smoothness is good. no scratchiness at all, and feedback is very nice for an EF. I've had thicker nibs with more feedback, or even "annoying" feedback. With Parker Quink, the nib is extra fine (pun).

[truthpil]

Sounds nice!

[KingRoach]

Here it is:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/319628-jinhao-911-review/

 

writing sample to follow, if only I knew what to write.

[Trom]

  On 3/1/2017 at 2:25 PM, KingRoach said:

Here it is:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/319628-jinhao-911-review/

 

writing sample to follow, if only I knew what to write.

 

Can you write english with a chinese pen? Nice review!

[KingRoach]

  On 3/1/2017 at 3:17 PM, Trom said:

 

Can you write english with a chinese pen? Nice review!

 

I tried, it turned out cheaper.

 

Thanks a lot.

[truthpil]

Great work on the review!

[truthpil]

Back to the original topic... I'm most likely going to get the 911 because it's extremely cheap where I am ($1.88) and also one of the other pens in the OP.

 

I've narrowed it down to choosing between the 163 and 165 and I have some questions for those who may have either of these pens:

 

1) Do they have the same nib?

2) Are the nibs #5 or interchangeable with other #5 nibs?

3) Has anyone tried exchanging the nib on either of these pens with a flex nib from a Noodler's Nib Creaper?

 

I have a Nib Creaper that I can't stand but the nib is okay, so I'd like to put it in one of these pens.

 

Thanks in advance for any thoughts and advice!

[truthpil]

Well... I ended up getting the customized and tuned version of the Jinhao 911 called the "Thyer" thanks to a tip on another thread here. It's a lovely pen with a very smooth nib writing a nice F (the seller says 0.45mm and that looks about right to my eye). Next chance I get I'll write a little review of it.

 

As for the other pens in the OP, I've got the 165 coming in the mail (I went for the matte black finish) and also one of these new ones I just came across, the Jinhao 992:

 

 

Available in all these colors! (I went for the cobalt blue hehe)

 

 

I'll definitely be posting a review of this newbie when time permits. It'll be my first Chinese pen with a threaded cap.

Edited March 31, 2017 by TruthPil