Jinhao 992 Informal Review

[bob_hayden]

I just received two pens which I think are the ones TruthPil described -- clear Safari clones with flat broad nibs. I got them from eBay in the USA where they were listed as "duckbill" like the pens RoyalBlueNotebooks mentioned. $1.50 each. The 0.7 nib writes like a regular medium nib with not much calligraphic effect. The 1.1mm nib is very like the Hero 5028 nibs -- rounded edges, very wet and smooth, but more like a paintbrush than a calligraphy nib ;-) The nibs and feeds LOOK like those in the "bamboo" pens I mentioned but the 1.1 bamboo was more like a traditional calligraphy nib. Mostly hard, clear plastic except for a white inner cap.

[truthpil]

I just received two pens which I think are the ones TruthPil described -- clear Safari clones with flat broad nibs. I got them from eBay in the USA where they were listed as "duckbill" like the pens RoyalBlueNotebooks mentioned. $1.50 each. The 0.7 nib writes like a regular medium nib with not much calligraphic effect. The 1.1mm nib is very like the Hero 5028 nibs -- rounded edges, very wet and smooth, but more like a paintbrush than a calligraphy nib ;-) The nibs and feeds LOOK like those in the "bamboo" pens I mentioned but the 1.1 bamboo was more like a traditional calligraphy nib. Mostly hard, clear plastic except for a white inner cap.

 

Yep, those are the ones. I noticed those "duckbill" pens on eBay the other day. The pens with broader nibs write more like calligraphy pens. The 2.9mm stub I have writes really well.

[bob_hayden]

I picked up those "duckbill" pens today and both immediately produced a wet line after sitting unused for three weeks. Very good performance in my experience.

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

The stub nibs I talked about in the previous page didn't come in Safari clones but in Jinhao 992! Yay!

 

[truthpil]

The stub nibs I talked about in the previous page didn't come in Safari clones but in Jinhao 992! Yay!

 

What?? That's cool! The seller must have installed the nibs in these pens rather than them being installed at the factory. Evidence for this is the fact that the Chinese written on the side of both pens says medium nib. Edited May 27, 2018 by TruthPil

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

What?? That's cool! The seller must have installed the nibs in these pens rather than them being installed at the factory. Evidence for this is the fact that the Chinese written on the side of both pens says medium nib.

Then kudos to the seller because I prefer the shape of the 992 to the Safari much, much better! Screw cap! Nice, round section! Inner screw section! Classic tapered cap and barrel!

Thank you for the translation.

[AmandaW]

The stub nibs I talked about in the previous page didn't come in Safari clones but in Jinhao 992! Yay!

 

 

Thankyou. I like stub nibs and have been looking out for a subtle small size. I also like the 992 because they don't evaporate the ink. I have ordered the 0.7.

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

Thankyou. I like stub nibs and have been looking out for a subtle small size. I also like the 992 because they don't evaporate the ink. I have ordered the 0.7.

Hello, no problem, happy to share!

By the way, the 0.7 has round tipping material.

I'll try to take very close pictures to show this.

Edited May 27, 2018 by RoyalBlueNotebooks

[JessLJessup]

I like the 992. I ordered two.

[truthpil]

 

Then kudos to the seller because I prefer the shape of the 992 to the Safari much, much better! Screw cap! Nice, round section! Inner screw section! Classic tapered cap and barrel!

 

Thank you for the translation.

The nibs seem to be nameless OEM nibs because they are identical to those on the Hero 5028 calligraphy set as well as all the other inexpensive Chinese calligraphy pens. That really stood out to me on the 5028 because Hero pens usually have some kind of logo on the nib, but not in this case. All-in-all they are great writers, so it's really fantastic that the complete line of nibs is available for the 992.

 

Please report if you experience any cracking of the cap or barrel end.

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

The nibs seem to be nameless OEM nibs because they are identical to those on the Hero 5028 calligraphy set as well as all the other inexpensive Chinese calligraphy pens. That really stood out to me on the 5028 because Hero pens usually have some kind of logo on the nib, but not in this case. All-in-all they are great writers, so it's really fantastic that the complete line of nibs is available for the 992.

 

Please report if you experience any cracking of the cap or barrel end.

Roger that! o7

[mr T.]

The cap of one of my 992's fell in two parts after about 6 months of use. The pen itself, an older model 992, is still functional.

[TSherbs]

Epoxy that sucker

[truthpil]

I whipped out my second version 992 which I bought 7 or 8 months ago to do some grading the other day and it still looks like it did the day I got it.

I'm a big fan of the gold trim opaque models which have a smaller plug in the barrel that you can easily wiggle out with a fingernail. Those versions seem to be getting harder and harder to find so I wonder if the gold trim models have been discontinued.

[SteveID]

Well it appears Minteverde had "discontinued " its Monteverde Monza, this same pen marked up to nearly $20US. You may have seen solicitations for them at the "low low price" of $9.95 which as we know is still exorbitantly overpriced even with a Monteverde name branded on the cap ring.

 

So take some pride in being an instrumental part of eliminating this questionable-at-best attempt at a moneymaking scramble by Yafa/Monteverde by selling this pen at a ridiculously inflated price.

Edited December 4, 2018 by SteveID

[SteveID]

Oops posted 2x by mistake. Mea maximally culpa.

Edited December 4, 2018 by SteveID

[truthpil]

That's good news. Selling clones or fakes is one thing, but rebranding something and selling it for exponentially more is another.

I'll probably never buy any Monteverde pens, but had to cave last week on a "Conklin" Duragraph stub in cracked ice that was a mere $33 thanks to a Penchalet sale.

[Honeybadgers]

The conklin all american is a fantastic pen, pil. It's really, really nicely made. Also takes any #6 nib. I'm using my all american as the testbed for my stacked nibs.

[SteveID]

That Cracked Ice Duragraph is indeed a beauty, and my Monteverde Impressa is attractive and writes well, even if the cap comes off too easily, which leads me to agree that, nonetheless, Yafa has lost me as a customer, especially after the "Monza" debacle. I'll accept a Jinhao that cracks if I spent $1.50 on it, but trying to shill off a rebranded "Monza" as a flex pen is a deal-breaker. Good riddance.

[JollyCynic]

After a little under 3 months of daily use, my smoke demonstrator 992 cracked below the clip ring when it fell about half a metre onto carpet. I flushed it and set it aside for a few weeks until I could get a chemical welding solvent to try to fix it. When I picked it up to try, the finial and clip just crumbled away from the rest of the pen in several pieces. I put it in a box to reclaim parts from it later.

 

I went to reclaim the parts this evening, and found that there's an inner cap friction set inside the cap ... Which should be obvious since it's a demonstrator and all, but I'm sometimes quite slow. (Really, I don't know that I ever would have realised it was just wedged up there without the cap breaking.) There's really no reason not to keep using the pen. The inner cap looks fine. I mostly used it to play with my worst inks anyway, which honour currently falls to a 599A which I don't reach for as often.

 

Okay, so I'm not going to keep it. I found some opaque 992s on AliExpress that are still sub-£1. Even if they only last half a year, I like the 992 a lot more than the 599A and 51a.

 

(I'm pretty sure now, though, that I caused the initial crack by tightening the cap too much, causing the section to wedge the inner cap up into the outer cap's curve and put too much stress on it. But the way the cap disintegrated on me after a few weeks of not being touched was really bizarre.)