Jinhao X450

[old4570]

 

I had to try the Jinhao X450 , I could wait no longer .

It does have some weight to it , it writes smoothly . And the cap does not post , not on mine !

No leaks , no burps , no funny stuff .

 

Canting the pen 45 deg left made no difference to the way the pen wrote ..

Canting the pen 45 deg right made a large difference to the way the pen wrote . It became scratchy and the NIB started to catch on the paper , as well as run dry at times . ( Not happy )

Inverted it was very scratchy .

 

The pen did write wet ...

 

24 hours later .

 

Pen started fine , no leaks or issues ..

Pen wrote just a little less wet than the day before ..

Other wise nothing had changed .

 

I would say the NIB could use polishing ..

The Jinhao x450 just might be a good place to start if you plan on going the budget fountain pen path , a lot of people seem to be very happy with it .

I am not unhappy with it , I find the X450 needs some work ( polishing the NIB ) , and if the pen can be smoothed out ( Canted 45 deg right ) , it would be a sweet budget pen .

[pajaro]

It is a nice enough pen. I replaced the nib with a fine gold plated nib from one of the US sellers. Not too bad, but heavy and I like to post the cap. That doesn't happen. Pretty enough to keep it.

[old4570]

I am trying to catch one of the X450 with a .7 NIB ...

This one might be .5 ...

 

But some one keeps driving up the bids ?

[MuddyWaters]

The nicest thing about this pen is the section imo. It is very good for people like me with a bad grip that leads to middle finger pain. However, the pen body is quite heavy, and the nib is so so. I am not a fan of jowo nibs though so still wondering what I should do with it (my own polishing into more of a stub or replace with something else).

[pitonyak]

Is it just me, or, when looking head on, is the nib out of alignment? it looks like one side is much higher than the other....

[old4570]

Sure is ...

Such is life with Chinese fountain pens ...

[Mech-for-i]

Would not surprise me ... that stated I must say I had pretty much a good vs no good ratio of about 3:1 regarding Chinese fountain pen when NIB nibs are concerned. and most of the no good is a simple case of slight adjustment / align but almost all of them require a good cleaning though .. fail to do these preventive measure or preparation tuning / cleaning its almost a guaranteed for glitch in performing

[old4570]

Well ...

To review , pretty much needs to be as delivered ...

Imagine a car reviewer taking delivery of a car for MOTOR MAGAZINE , first taking it to a engineering workshop where they tune and fix everything wrong with the car ?

Every car would be perfect ! And fantastic !

 

No can do ! After doing a review , then one can certainly explore ways of making the product better .

For reviews , it has to be as delivered !

I bought these pens for review , and nothing further . If there happens to be a stand out pen I may add it to my table top pen collection to use .. But it would have to be good !

Don't think I have tested anything yet that I would run 24/7/52 ...

[Mech-for-i]

just different mentality and expectation regarding market / customer difference ; Jinhao probably not a good example but almost all Chinese pens of the entry / mid range priced category are sold as is ... and in fact if one go on to read the Mfr user manual ( and also most shop's assistance advice ) ; they would all be saying the same thing, clean it thoroughly before use, and the tuning part is pretty much long time user habit now ( for me ) though I am finding that many actually do not require that ( like I stated before 75% of them do not need that ).

 

I think this represent a caveat emptor sort of for potential Chinese fountain purchase for anyone ..

 

speaking of cars, actually even high end models like Mercedes and BMW specifically say you should not expect the car to perform to its full until you had well run in all the components ( mostly the engine and transmission ).

[Karmachanic]

  On 4/24/2018 at 2:00 AM, old4570 said:

Sure is ...

Such is life with Chinese fountain pens ...

 

It's not uncommon for higher priced pens, from countries other than China, to require attention out of the box.

 

The two 450s and two 750s I purchased wrote well as received. Three have moved to new homes. I still have a 750 and will keep it until it ceases functioning.

[pitonyak]

  On 4/24/2018 at 5:56 AM, old4570 said:

To review , pretty much needs to be as delivered ...

 

I want to know how it was delivered.... and then I want to know if (and how) it can be fixed, and how it works after that. Maybe you can correct a slightly off nib, but, if there is a problem with the feed, forget it. Then, how does it work after the fix.

 

I remember when I purchased my first hand plane. When I read all of the things that people did to make the tool usable, I was horrified. So, I purchased something for a couple of hundred dollars that worked out of the box rather than for $30 that required significant work to make it right. Today, I can easily make that $30 tool work right if the tool is in decent shape (meaning some tools simply cannot be fixed). Even after lots of elbow grease, that $30 tool may not work like my $400 tool, but, it might be good enough.

[truthpil]

  On 4/24/2018 at 9:27 AM, Mech-for-i said:

just different mentality and expectation regarding market / customer difference ; Jinhao probably not a good example but almost all Chinese pens of the entry / mid range priced category are sold as is ... and in fact if one go on to read the Mfr user manual ( and also most shop's assistance advice ) ; they would all be saying the same thing, clean it thoroughly before use, and the tuning part is pretty much long time user habit now ( for me ) though I am finding that many actually do not require that ( like I stated before 75% of them do not need that ).

 

I think this represent a caveat emptor sort of for potential Chinese fountain purchase for anyone ..

 

speaking of cars, actually even high end models like Mercedes and BMW specifically say you should not expect the car to perform to its full until you had well run in all the components ( mostly the engine and transmission ).

 

As someone who has been collecting too many Chinese pens while living in China the past three years, pens ranging from 0.40~40USD, I totally concur with Mech-for-i's experience. You can't expect there to be much quality control given the massive quantity produced and the incredibly low price; doing so would limit output and increase expenses. Even then, the 3:1 ratio of good to "needs adjusting" has been true for me as well.

 

So far I've only had pens from two companies that were write tested before shipment...all my Delike pens (Alpha and New Moon 2) and my new Wing Sung 601 with 12k nib (only the 12k nibbed version was tested, not any other Wing Sung pens I've bought, including a steel nibbed 601 from the same seller).

 

Having some shims and a loupe at hand has been essential for my life with Chinese pens, but totally worth it most of the time. I've have some Chinese steel nibbed pens that write better than my Montblanc and some other expensive pens.

 

Back to the X450....has anyone heard about the "Mk II" version of this pen. Sometimes it's sold as the "X450a." They seemed to have an improved the grip and nib (even the regular X450s come in two nib options depending on when made). There are also some new colors that are really nice. I first noticed these pens in a bookstore last year but they disappeared from the shelf before I could buy one. After unsuccessfully hunting for months because I was just searching "X450," I finally found them as X450a.

 

[k3eax]

The clip's shield is very welcomed by me! It makes the pen so very undesirable that I am assuredly never to add more 450s to my already embarrassingly considerable number.

[truthpil]

  On 6/17/2018 at 3:25 PM, k3eax said:

The clip's shield is very welcomed by me! It makes the pen so very undesirable that I am assuredly never to add more 450s to my already embarrassingly considerable number.

 

Hahahaha thanks for pointing that out! I totally didn't notice that the "X450a" has a shield on the clip while the original X450 didn't. I think those shields totally break the lines of the overall design and they drive me nuts.

 

Oh well, it will fit in next to the shielded 165 in my pen case.

 

I guess it's time to buy more 500s before they add a blasted shield to those as well.

Edited June 17, 2018 by TruthPil

[Stefan-Ionut-Marius]

  On 6/17/2018 at 1:09 PM, TruthPil said:

 

As someone who has been collecting too many Chinese pens while living in China the past three years, pens ranging from 0.40~40USD, I totally concur with Mech-for-i's experience. You can't expect there to be much quality control given the massive quantity produced and the incredibly low price; doing so would limit output and increase expenses. Even then, the 3:1 ratio of good to "needs adjusting" has been true for me as well.

 

So far I've only had pens from two companies that were write tested before shipment...all my Delike pens (Alpha and New Moon 2) and my new Wing Sung 601 with 12k nib (only the 12k nibbed version was tested, not any other Wing Sung pens I've bought, including a steel nibbed 601 from the same seller).

 

Having some shims and a loupe at hand has been essential for my life with Chinese pens, but totally worth it most of the time. I've have some Chinese steel nibbed pens that write better than my Montblanc and some other expensive pens.

 

Back to the X450....has anyone heard about the "Mk II" version of this pen. Sometimes it's sold as the "X450a." They seemed to have an improved the grip and nib (even the regular X450s come in two nib options depending on when made). There are also some new colors that are really nice. I first noticed these pens in a bookstore last year but they disappeared from the shelf before I could buy one. After unsuccessfully hunting for months because I was just searching "X450," I finally found them as X450a.

 

 

 

 

Present and on duty !!! I have heard of it, the model number is inscribed on the cap and it is JinHao X450 A . I must know i have one in stainless steel .

[truthpil]

  On 6/18/2018 at 7:45 PM, Stefan-Ionut-Marius said:

 

 

 

Present and on duty !!! I have heard of it, the model number is inscribed on the cap and it is JinHao X450 A . I must know i have one in stainless steel .

That's great! How does it compare to the original x450? Any notable differences? Which do you prefer? 😀

[Stefan-Ionut-Marius]

This pen feels in the hand more like a X750 , the grooves in the grip section are less pronounced and the section is a bit thicker .

It writes like a X750 and feels in hand like a X750 so it is closer to the X750 than the X450.

And for the clip it is made from 2 piece and welded under the shield .

[truthpil]

  On 6/19/2018 at 6:04 AM, Stefan-Ionut-Marius said:

This pen feels in the hand more like a X750 , the grooves in the grip section are less pronounced and the section is a bit thicker .

It writes like a X750 and feels in hand like a X750 so it is closer to the X750 than the X450.

And for the clip it is made from 2 piece and welded under the shield .

 

That's interesting! If it's lighter than the original X450, that would be a definite plus.

The different grip section was what initially attracted me to this model. The grip section on my X450 is misaligned with the nib and there's no way to fix it without dismantling the section, which would probably destroy it for good.

 

So the clip is actually two pieces that are welded together behind the shield (making three pieces in total) or are the two pieces the main part of the clip and the shield?

Edited June 19, 2018 by TruthPil

[Stefan-Ionut-Marius]

  On 6/19/2018 at 6:16 AM, TruthPil said:

 

That's interesting! If it's lighter than the original X450, that would be a definite plus.

The different grip section was what initially attracted me to this model. The grip section on my X450 is misaligned with the nib and there's no way to fix it without dismantling the section, which would probably destroy it for good.

 

So the clip is actually two pieces that are welded together behind the shield (making three pieces in total) or are the two pieces the main part of the clip and the shield?

No just two pieces ! The first is welded under the shield and the second is formed by the shield and the rest of the clip.

[truthpil]

My X450A came yesterday. The materials and construction seem to be better quality overall than the old X450. I was really impressed with the X450A's section components. The section screws onto the barrel more smoothly and tightly. Also the cap snaps on much better than my X450, it requires no effort to get a nice snap of the cap and the cap can be removed much easier than with the X450.

 

Alas, this one also seems to have the section facets "misaligned" with the nib. Now I'm starting to think it's just a Jinhao thing and the way they want you to hold the pen because when I put my fingers in the grooves the pen writes fine, it just feels awkward to me. You can see it a little in the second picture below. Basically, unlike the Safari and other models that have three grooves with the top two grooves being equally spaces to the sides of the top of the nib, the Jinhao grooves are shifted to the left about 2 mm so that the index finger is closer to the topside of the nib than the thumb is.

 

The nib is great, although not as glassy smooth as my Jinhao 992 and 156. For some reason the unplated Jinhao #5 nibs tend to be smoother than the two-tone nibs.

 

One of the nice things about living in China is that you can order direct from Jinhao retailers so your pen comes in a Jinhao box and even Jinhao packing tape around the box.