Shulong 675 Or Is It?

[sodul]

Update: identified as a Huashilai A053, thank you Richard.

 

I recently got a "shulong 675" for $3.25 shipped. The pictures seem to be exactly a Bookworm 675, aka Yiren 601 that had mixed reviews.

 

Here is the picture from the posting, the pen is described as "celluloid flower pattern":

 

So I received my package today, I open the package, open the cap, the nib falls off... nothing is broken but I see that the feed quality seems very poor. Anyhow I start to try the pen:

 

Not the same pen. They are similar for sure and the 'celluloid' is actually quite nice and yes it is semi transparent with depth, but it is not the same pen.

 

It is very heavy 28g, and 23g for the cap, a whole 51g posted!!! The 159 which is a heavy pen at 30g is only 49g posted.

The pen is 143 mm long capped, 122mm unposted and 171mm posted.

The pen posts securely but is very top heavy. The cap closes with a big clack sound and quite securely as well.

 

Top of the cap is not back and flat but has a round transparent insert with a logo (if anyone can recognize it, please tell):

 

The clip is much more boring and just folded metal, a little stiff but not too much. It did slid in and out of my shirt pocket. Unfortunately the finish is poor quality and is already oxidizing:

 

The converter is the worst quality converter I've seen so far, but it is not standard size. So it better not break or I don't know what to fit in there. The opening is much larger than international ones, about 3mm.

 

So to the writing test on my Rhodia dotpad. Excuse the terrible handwriting.

 

The nib is actually very smooth and wet, so I try to flex it and wow a lot of flex ... well no a lot of bending actually and big drops of inks. I eventually bend it back close to the feed since there is just too much inflow now.

 

The nib is 32mm long, the feed is 42mm long and 6mm wide ... could I set a JinHao feed and nib? Let's compare:

 

As you can see here they are of similar size, but you also can see how crappy the plastic of the feed is, with that big chunk of molding channel still hanging. The ink channel is also not as 'fine and polished' as on a JinHao feed.

 

An yes the nib and feed do fit in the section and the tip of the feed is flush on the other side of the section. The section is fully round on the inside, there is no flat part like on other pens, and the feed and nib can be set freely.

 

I was able to write with the JinHao #6 feed and nib but since I took that from my daily writer I put the originals back in place. I have spare dual tone JinHao nibs and I have feeds on the way. I will try that again when I receive the spare feeds.

 

I will use the pen with the original feed and nib for a few days and get back here with how it holds up. I have good hopes with fitting it with a JinHao nib and feed in the future, it could become a decent writer for under $4 total.

Edited March 2, 2017 by sodul

[OCArt]

Thank you for a very well-done review! I like the looks of you pen better than the bookworm. Is the brand name on yours actually Shulong? I wonder what model your is?

Edited March 2, 2017 by OCArt

[visvamitra]

Nice review, thanks.

[sodul]

After looking around it seems this pen is very close to a Kaigelu 316 which is very strongly inspired by the Parker Duofold.

 

The Kaigelu 316 can be had for as low as $19 but the cap is the same material as the body and is a screw cap. On my $3.25 clone the cap is black and just pushes on the body. The logo on top of the cap is different, as in the picture and I'm not familiar with it. The other difference besides the nib and the feed is that the end of the section is completely flat where the metal and plastic are completely flush, as seen in my last picture where the nib meets the section. On the Kaigelu 316 there are rounded steps.

 

I have to say the the body is very nice looking and pictures do not make justice to the depth of the texture. From my research this would be acrylic and not celluloid, but still a great looking texture.

 

 

I have no idea if the pen brand is Shulong but my online search show that Shulong and Bookworm seem to be the same company:

http://bookwormpen.win.mofcom.gov.cn/en/plate01/index.asp

[Uncial]

That's a shame, I found the Yiren Bookworm quite good and an attractive enough pen for the price.

[Trom]

Nice pen and review. May I ask where you bought it?

Couldn't find the brand on ebay.

[richardandtracy]

I did a review of this pen when it was called the 'Huashilai A053' here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/233123-huashilai-a053/

 

I have not seen any Huashilai pens in the last year or two, so possibly they went bust & someone else took over the stock and/or design.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[sodul]

Thanks a lot Richard for identifying it as the Huashilai A053. Having the actual name make it feel more valuable. From your review it seems the plating will not last long, which is one reason I avoid the gold trimmings. Chrome seems to last longer, but not indefinitely if cheaply applied. Do you happen to know what cartridges/converters fit this pen?

 

 

Nice pen and review. May I ask where you bought it?

Couldn't find the brand on ebay.

 

I got it on eBay here, the seller only had 44. I have no idea if the stock were all Huashilai pens or if the other buyers actually got the Shulong/Bookworm 675 that was in the description.

[Trom]

I got it on eBay here, the seller only had 44. I have no idea if the stock were all Huashilai pens or if the other buyers actually got the Shulong/Bookworm 675 that was in the description.

 

Thanks. I will probably buy a Kaigelu 316.

[richardandtracy]

.... From your review it seems the plating will not last long, which is one reason I avoid the gold trimmings. Chrome seems to last longer, but not indefinitely if cheaply applied. Do you happen to know what cartridges/converters fit this pen?

...

I do agree with you about the gold plating. I also try to avoid pens with painted/lacquered finishes, going for self coloured resin or stainless steel finish where I can. Every now & again I break my rule and usually regret it.

 

I think it's supposed to be an 'International' size, but is more likely to be the slightly modified Jinhao size which has a 2.5mm spigot (as opposed to 2.4mm). It will usually take international c/c's, but they can't then be swapped back into a true International size pen as the spigot hole is stretched too big.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[sodul]

The spigot hole is quite larger here: 3.2mm according to my caliper as measured on the inside diameter of the converter. Considering the issues I have with the converter (see below), I would like to try something else that fits.

 

I do not write a lot but I have been using this Huashilai A053 for a few days now and the main issue is that the ink tend to stay stuck in the converter, which means that the feed dries out after writing a couple of pages. So I twist the converter to push the ink so it reaches the feed and the pen writes right away again. The inside of the converter seems to grab onto the ink while it seems to slide off more in my other converters. The second issue is that the nib's metal is too soft and I had to push it back against the feed a couple of times as it became too wet. Other than getting this ink starvation issue the pen has been performing well: no hard start, no skipping, and no scratching.

 

While the feed looked pretty bad compared to JinHao feeds, it does seem to perform well so I will probably leave it. I will swap the nib with a JinHao #6 this weekend.

[sodul]

Well the JinHao #6 nib and the original feed looked fine at first, but did not go all the way and now they are stuck 2-3mm from where they should sit. I'm not even going to try to ink up the pen but I need to find a way to get them out. Any advise or tricks are welcome. I'll keep on try to pull and hope they will get unstuck.

[sodul]

I was able to get things unstuck by wrapping the nib and feed with padding and pulling with pliers, very carefully.

 

I redid the operation with a JinHao nib and things look great.

 

Original nib:

 

Full pen with original nib:

 

Full pen with JinHao nib:

 

Nibs side by side, not the JinHao nib is the bigger nib, with the chariot:

 

Compared with a JinHao 159, note that the nib sticks out a little more, which is better for my large hands actually:

This makes the pen about 1mm longer, not much.

 

And a writing sample:

[sodul]

So this Huashilai A053 JinHao frankenpen is nice to write with. I do enjoy writing with it for the past few days.The main problem is that it burps. Not extremely often, mostly right after a refill or after 10-15m of writing. If it does not burp in 10-15m then the feed is ink starved from the converter and will dry up. Shaking the pen is dangerous and will result in drops of ink flying out, something I cannot reproduce even with long vigorous shaking on a JinHao 159.

 

Is there something I can do to improve the burping issues? I'm taking this as an opportunity to learn how to troubleshoot pens so that I can learn enough to try to make my vintage waterman useable (I use it rarely and only as a dip pen for lack of compatible cartridges/converter).

[richardandtracy]

My suspicion is the cure involves a 14lb lump hammer & 10 very satisfying minutes.

 

In truth, I have no idea, and am not convinced it's even worth the effort to try.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.