What pen(s) are you using today?

[OldTravelingShoe]

On 9/23/2022 at 9:57 PM, DvdRiet said:

The Pelikan M800 brown-black that I ordered on an absolute whim finally got inked today. I’m kinda liking it… 

 

Ooh, beautiful pen, and I like very much the model and nib. Congratulations, @DvdRiet! 

[OldTravelingShoe]

TL;DR: For the past few days, I've tried a trio of Jinhao X159s, in black, dark blue, and Burgundy plastic, all with steel F-tipped nibs, inked differently. Overall, excellent MB149-hommage pens, but YMMV. Figures 1-5 illustrate my adventures. 

 

Figure 1. A trio of shiny pens. 

 

Figure 2. The 149th elephant in the room. 

 

Figure 3. Black and chrome. (Top) The pen. (Bottom) The nib. 

 

Figure 4. Rhapsody in blue. (Top) The pen. (Bottom) The nib.

 

Figure 5. A cup of Burgundy. (Top) The pen. (Bottom) The nib.

 

An opinion: Among the MB149-hommage pens, the Jinhao X159 seems to offer the best price and the best quality.

 

Now, a few observations:

1. The pens are very likely MB149 rip-offs, with almost no attempt for innovation or change. The shape and weight are great, just like the MB149. The plastic material is very nice and comfortable, just like for the MB149.
2. The nibs are springy and capable of some line variation, but each nib was different and one required serious tuning. So YMMV. Of course, these are not Montblanc-quality nibs, and not even good steel nibs a la Pelikan or Geha or even Lamy or TWSBI, but they are competent, decent nibs. 
3. The filling system is CC, which with the Jinhao converters rattles a bit in the pen when moving or using with large gestures. There is also no ink window as appears in the MB pens. 
4. The cap is threaded a bit differently, with what appears to be the same inter-threading distance but longer distance for threading (threading starts as for MB149 but runs further away from the nib), leading to more rotations to uncap the Jinaho X159 than the MB149. I believe this is to prevent drying out, but in my experience the problem persists. 
5. I haven't done a proper test to see how (much) the Jinhao pens dry. However, all of them I tried skip and the first one I inked starts with some difficulty after a day of rest. I should probably tune them to eliminate these dry and flow issues, but I'm still ponderong if it's worth it. I could imagine having a set of these for sketching in the field, in which case I'd really need to tune them.

 

A prediction: These pens are already good, even excellent for the price so as value-pens. So I'd expect these to become good sellers, in which case I'd further expect Jinhao to (i) increase the number of finishes, say with more colors, even materials, and (ii) increase the diversity of tipping, from only Fs as I could find back when, to at least EFs and Ms (Chinese manufacturers are notoriously reluctant to go for B or larger tipping). Special nibs could be manufactured by others, e.g., by Bobby on eBay/AliExpress. 

 

That's about it. 

 

Enjoy the weekend! 

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by OldTravelingShoe
Fixed some typos, corrected for clarity some text.

[jandrew]

Franklin Christoph 20 + waterbrush ... happy Inktober

[essayfaire]

1 hour ago, jandrew said:

Franklin Christoph 20 + waterbrush ... happy Inktober

I love parallel structure. Happy Inktober to you, too!

[mallymal1]

20 hours ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

TL;DR: For the past few days, I've tried a trio of Jinhao X159s, in black, dark blue, and Burgundy plastic, all with steel F-tipped nibs, inked differently. Overall, excellent MB149-hommage pens, but YMMV. Figures 1-5 illustrate my adventures. 

 

Figure 1. A trio of shiny pens. 

 

Figure 2. The 149th elephant in the room. 

 

Figure 3. Black and chrome. (Top) The pen. (Bottom) The nib. 

 

Figure 4. Rhapsody in blue. (Top) The pen. (Bottom) The nib.

 

Figure 5. A cup of Burgundy. (Top) The pen. (Bottom) The nib.

 

An opinion: Among the MB149-hommage pens, the Jinhao X159 seems to offer the best price and the best quality.

 

Now, a few observations:

1. The pens are very likely MB149 rip-offs, with almost no attempt for innovation or change. The shape and weight are great, just like the MB149. The plastic material is very nice and comfortable, just like for the MB149.
2. The nibs are springy and capable of some line variation, but each nib was different and one required serious tuning. So YMMV. Of course, these are not Montblanc-quality nibs, and not even good steel nibs a la Pelikan or Geha or even Lamy or TWSBI, but they are competent, decent nibs. 
3. The filling system is CC, which with the Jinhao converters rattles a bit in the pen when moving or using with large gestures. There is also no ink window as appears in the MB pens. 
4. The cap is threaded a bit different, with what appears to be the same threading but a longer threading distances, leading to more rotations to uncap the Jinaho X159 than the MB149. I believe this is to prevent drying out, but in my experience the problem persists. 
5. I haven't done a proper test to see how (much) they dry. All of the pens skip and the first one I inked starts with some difficulty after a day of rest. I should probably tune them, but I'm still thinking if it's worth it. I could imagine having a set of these for sketching in the field, in which case I'd really need to tune them.

 

A prediction: These pens are already good, even excellent for the price so as value-pens. So I'd expect these to become good sellers, in which case I'd further expect Jinhao to (i) increase the number of finishes, say with more colors, even materials, and (ii) increase the diversity of tipping, from only Fs as I could find back when, to at least EFs and Ms (Chinese manufacturers are notoriously reluctant to go for B or larger tipping). Special nibs could be manufactured by others, e.g., by Bobby on eBay/AliExpress. 

 

That's about it. 

 

Enjoy the weekend! 

 

 

Many thanks for the interesting observations.  

[dimledger]

I recently returned to the fountain pen hobby after a few years' absence and am still getting back into the swing of things, so I only have two pens inked at the moment.

 

One is my very first 'real' fountain pen, a Pilot 78G with a medium nib, filled with Papier Plume Oyster Grey.

 

The other is my most recent pen, a Waterman Allure with a fine nib, using the included blue cartridge.

Edited October 2, 2022 by dimledger

[Peter_H]

22 hours ago, jandrew said:

Franklin Christoph 20 + waterbrush ... happy Inktober

 

Clever presentation; lovely sketch.  Thank you.  

 

You’ve certainly ‘earned’ your various pens, if ever such is needed. 😉

[jandrew]

20 minutes ago, Peter_H said:

 

Clever presentation; lovely sketch.  Thank you.  

 

You’ve certainly ‘earned’ your various pens, if ever such is needed. 😉

Thanks

This morning I'm using the Universal Uniflow (vintage):

[ruby.monkey]

Mostly jotting down quick notes today, with a broad-nibbed green Summit S.175.

[sandy101]

Nakaya Midori writer long, broad nib with Platinum black cartridge.

[essayfaire]

Wing Sung vac filled with Diamine Dark Forest.  This was a mistake; I wanted to try a vac filler so I bought three(different nib sizes) only to discover they don't post. Trying to use up the ink so I can give it away, but it holds a lot of ink!

[Misfit]

On 9/26/2022 at 2:27 PM, jandrew said:

Re-inked the Ranga Bamboo with Tsuki-yo (but didn't flush the residual blue-black) ... no need to see the pen again, so here's iceberg-ish thingy...

I’ve been reading reviews of this ink. It’s going on my Christmas list. 

[dms525]

1 hour ago, Misfit said:

I’ve been reading reviews of this ink. It’s going on my Christmas list. 

 

I think you will like Tsuki-yo. It is in the Blue-Black family, but I find it quite unique in a good way. Of course, like other Iroshizuku inks, it is quite wet and plays best with a dry nib.

 

David

[Misfit]

3 hours ago, dms525 said:

 

I think you will like Tsuki-yo. It is in the Blue-Black family, but I find it quite unique in a good way. Of course, like other Iroshizuku inks, it is quite wet and plays best with a dry nib.

 

David

That’s good to know. I found it on the dreaded amazon site at $17 plus change. After applying my credit card reward dollars, it’s costing me $3.27. 
 

I have a Monteverde Mountains of the World K2 pen that doesn’t seem to work well with the sample of Van Dieman’s Cradle Mountain Grey. Maybe Tsuki-yo will work in it. 
 

It’s fun to know it is the ink @KaB used to show a bottle of ink emptying fill by fill. 

[OldTravelingShoe]

8 hours ago, dms525 said:

you will like Tsuki-yo.

I second @dms525. Brings back the fondest of memories. Together with Fuyu-gaki (orange), the Tsuki-yo was my first ink after three decades of not using fountain pens. I loved the pair so much I got hooked. 

 

@Misfit, may you enjoy the ink! 

[OldTravelingShoe]

23 hours ago, jandrew said:

Thanks

This morning I'm using the Universal Uniflow (vintage):

Thanks for sharing, @jandrew. I also like your brush work. 

[jandrew]

Model 20 with Diamine Salamander

[ruby.monkey]

Today's the day for the Aurora 88P.

[essayfaire]

15 hours ago, Misfit said:

I’ve been reading reviews of this ink. It’s going on my Christmas list. 

I keep a pen permanently inked with this.  I think you will enjoy it.

[Misfit]

10 hours ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

I second @dms525. Brings back the fondest of memories. Together with Fuyu-gaki (orange), the Tsuki-yo was my first ink after three decades of not using fountain pens. I loved the pair so much I got hooked. 

 

@Misfit, may you enjoy the ink! 

Thank you. I’m thinking of the first pen to put it in. It won’t be a new one.