MB 149P's body guard

[WJM]

The X159 won't take the standard Jinhao converter, but it does take standard international cartridges, so there's that.

[sketchstack]

On 8/26/2022 at 3:17 AM, hari317 said:

The two tone nib looks sharp!

 

I could not help but order a set of three in the gold trims. The bicolor nibs look great and the x159 I already own have quickly become an inexpensive favorite. It's nice having some oversize "knockabout" pens. And even though there aren't any nib width choices, I do find that these nibs write in a width that works well for me. 

[hari317]

11 hours ago, sketchstack said:

 

I could not help but order a set of three in the gold trims. The bicolor nibs look great and the x159 I already own have quickly become an inexpensive favorite. It's nice having some oversize "knockabout" pens. And even though there aren't any nib width choices, I do find that these nibs write in a width that works well for me. 

👍

[Karmachanic]

Ordered a "golden" version for the two tone nib, which I'll install on the black/silver trim pen.  Hopefully there'll be replacement nibs in the future.  Maybe even different widths.  I'd like to grind an M CI.

[sketchstack]

My trio of pens arrived today. I haven't inked them yet but they sure are nice for being less than $10 apiece. If they write as well as my black and silver versions then I'll be quite happy. 

[Tony1951]

I have one of these in black with silver trim. It arrived about six days ago and there was a slight problem with the nib unit which was not properly assembled. It only took a moment to put right and I quickly inked it with my home made IG ink. It writes very well, pretty much identical to my Jinhao X450 - even though the nib designation in the x159 is F for fine while the X459 is supposed to be M for Medium. If I write a line ior two with the 450 and another directly under it with the x159, there is virtually no perceptible difference in line width, or ink flow. There may be a touch more feedback as the x159 works over the paper, but the x450 has written a lot of A4 pages over about two years. To be honest, the x 450 spent long periods resting in a drawer, but it has certainly been well run over time. The slight extra smoothness of the X450 I would say is down to it being worn to my style of writing.

 

The x159 is very light weight in comparison to the X450 metal pen, of course. It is rather trite to say so, but it is an easy pen to carry. For a cost delivered of £4.99, I won't be complaining. I really like it and it starts every time and shows no vices.

 

My X450 writes for about a page of A4 and then the nib begins to starve unless I turn the convertor filler knob and push more ink to the nib. Then it writes another page and the same thing happens. The x159 does not do this. It just keeps going at the same rate of ink application until you need to refill it, so it is better in that way.

 

I'm glad I bought it. It looks nice too.

[sketchstack]

That's what I really like about the x159 and why I'll actually use it as a daily writer: the Fine nib is actually rather wide and juicy in comparison to other Jinhao nibs (or those by Majohn, Hongdian, etc.) I pulled the feed out on one of them and it's substantial. Lots of fins deep within the nib collar. 

 

I suppose if I needed to complain about something it's that the pen does not play well with international cartridges or converters. But that's not a huge deal. 

 

Now ...it would be nice to see this pen in a "146"-size, particularly if they innovate in the nib department as they did with the x159. 

[Tony1951]

On 9/17/2022 at 4:44 PM, sketchstack said:

I suppose if I needed to complain about something it's that the pen does not play well with international cartridges or converters. But that's not a huge deal. 

 

Now ...it would be nice to see this pen in a "146"-size, particularly if they innovate in the nib department as they did with the x159. 

 

I tried mine as an eye dropper. It ran through quite strongly at first, and then dropped a big blot. Still - nothing ventured nothing gained.

Edited September 18, 2022 by Tony1951

[txomsy]

That may be only natural.

 

When you pick up an eyedropper, it is at room temperature, which is usually lower than your body temperature. As the pen rests in your hand, heat is transferred from the hand to the pen in a slow process. As the pen heats, so does the ink and air inside, which expand.

 

Heat transfer to air is faster than to water, and air will expand more (it is a gas) than water. Ink is water based.

 

Air will take heat and expand faster than ink. If, when the process occurs, the pen is nib down, the air will be up, expand and push ink down, burping a blot of ink. If the pen is nib up, then air will be up and exit through the nib.

 

So, it may be only natural that it writes well at the beginning and, after a while, as it warms, the pen burps a blot of ink.

 

What I (but that's me, YMMV) do is warm the pen first in my hand before writing, nib up. After a couple of minutes (depending on pen width, capacity and ink load) I assume that the air has warmed and expanded, and reached equilibrium, so no more expansion/burps are to be expected, and start to write. Anyway, whenever I stop writing, I keep the pen in my fist, nib up to keep it warm(ing).

[Tony1951]

Yes Txomsy. Thanks. I get the expansion issue. I didn't try running the 159 again as an eye dropper pen. It works so well with its converter that I am more than happy with it. 

 

On the eye-dropper thing, I run a couple of old Shaeffer No Nonsense pens as eye droppers and only ever had one issue with them. That was as you described - filled cool, then put in my trouser pocket and heated up - unsurprisingly, there was some egress of ink onto the nib unit. Used at my writing desk, there is never a problem with those pens. They probably hold about 2.5 ml of ink without being filled entirely. 

 

 

[cvk]

6 hours ago, Tony1951 said:

Yes Txomsy. Thanks. I get the expansion issue. I didn't try running the 159 again as an eye dropper pen. It works so well with its converter that I am more than happy with it. 

 

On the eye-dropper thing, I run a couple of old Shaeffer No Nonsense pens as eye droppers and only ever had one issue with them. That was as you described - filled cool, then put in my trouser pocket and heated up - unsurprisingly, there was some egress of ink onto the nib unit. Used at my writing desk, there is never a problem with those pens. They probably hold about 2.5 ml of ink without being filled entirely. 

 

 

Yes indeed. Sheaffer no nonsense pens have a wonderful feed that can mitigate burping to a large extent. So much so that you can use them with large Eyedropper pens made in India and have a burp free experience. There are several threads on that here. Unfortunately that feed does not fit in the x159

[sketchstack]

Public service announcement: I took one of mine apart to clean ink out of the cap. The cap finial and clip were easy enough to remove, but to my surprise the cap is actually two pieces (outer shell, inner sleeve) and a small piece fell out that apparently kept everything together. 

 

That small piece either snapped off (wasn't meant to unscrew) or it's so difficult to put back in that it's ill-advised to casually disassemble. 

[Tony1951]

On 9/21/2022 at 5:41 PM, sketchstack said:

Quote snipped

On 9/21/2022 at 5:41 PM, sketchstack said:

That small piece either snapped off (wasn't meant to unscrew) or it's so difficult to put back in that it's ill-advised to casually disassemble. 

 

It may be that superglue is your friend, or if not, order another one and don't dismantle it..... :))

 

Good luck - hope you can repair it. My x450 had a nasty accident when I dropped it onto a tiled floor. It's a heavy pen - the heaviest I ever owned I suppose, and it landed hard on the end of its cap. This caused the springy plastic collar inside the cap to crack and lose a lot of it's spring. Since this is the part which holds the push on cap firmly when it is in place, this gave me a problem. I bodged a repair by using superglue to fix a patch inside the cap to hold the plastic part together. It isn't nice, but it works - sort of. I don't feel the same about that pen now, but it is always in my trouser pocket, so it does get used, and the cap stays in place firmly. This is maybe a case of the unexpected - a heavy pen may not be as robust as you think and can fall victim to its own heft.

[Helen350]

On 8/24/2022 at 1:37 PM, A Smug Dill said:

 

Again, the issue I have with your statement below is:

 

 

it's only your requirement to know the diameter of the feed in the pen on which the nib is fitted. Indian and Chinese companies quite legitimately consider it sufficiently useful to ‘define’ their nibs by the total length, because for their primary target markets the customer requirement for compatibility with (feeds in) Western pens is uncommon, and a minority concern; and addressing minority concerns in the brands' marketing collateral is not particularly useful, especially when ‘defining’ a nib as size 6 instead of calling out the total length does not guarantee compatibility with pens of their own brands, or with other Chinese-branded pens.

 

That's why I'm saying you're putting your requirements at the centre of the world, because you seem to fail to acknowledge that apparently most Indian and Chinese fountain pen buyers/users don't require that feed diameter information you seek, and globally (i.e. in the world) I think they outnumber the small proportion among ‘Western’ hobbyists that you may consider like-minded in wanting to play with nib-swapping across brands, and not being satisfied with only nib-swapping between ‘Western’ brands. The Chinese may sell cheaper nibs, and those nibs may be good enough (or even very good for what they are), but if interchangeability with JoWo and/or Bock nibs on ‘Western’ pens is not what the companies consider to be a key selling point, then there is no call to make that information prominently available.

 

The Jinhao X159 uses a 40mm nib, which is a longer and visually more prominent nib than that on, say, the Jinhao X450. That is a key selling point Jinhao is calling out in its marketing collateral (which I've shown you earlier) for the pen model, while having a wider feed than on other Jinhao pen models or not is apparently not what the company thinks would make the X159 attractive to prospective buyers and users. Whose information requirements should Jinhao prioritise or even really care about?

 

 

Touche!!!!

[Helen350]

On 8/24/2022 at 1:37 PM, A Smug Dill said:

 

Again, the issue I have with your statement below is:

 

 

it's only your requirement to know the diameter of the feed in the pen on which the nib is fitted. Indian and Chinese companies quite legitimately consider it sufficiently useful to ‘define’ their nibs by the total length, because for their primary target markets the customer requirement for compatibility with (feeds in) Western pens is uncommon, and a minority concern; and addressing minority concerns in the brands' marketing collateral is not particularly useful, especially when ‘defining’ a nib as size 6 instead of calling out the total length does not guarantee compatibility with pens of their own brands, or with other Chinese-branded pens.

 

That's why I'm saying you're putting your requirements at the centre of the world, because you seem to fail to acknowledge that apparently most Indian and Chinese fountain pen buyers/users don't require that feed diameter information you seek, and globally (i.e. in the world) I think they outnumber the small proportion among ‘Western’ hobbyists that you may consider like-minded in wanting to play with nib-swapping across brands, and not being satisfied with only nib-swapping between ‘Western’ brands. The Chinese may sell cheaper nibs, and those nibs may be good enough (or even very good for what they are), but if interchangeability with JoWo and/or Bock nibs on ‘Western’ pens is not what the companies consider to be a key selling point, then there is no call to make that information prominently available.

 

The Jinhao X159 uses a 40mm nib, which is a longer and visually more prominent nib than that on, say, the Jinhao X450. That is a key selling point Jinhao is calling out in its marketing collateral (which I've shown you earlier) for the pen model, while having a wider feed than on other Jinhao pen models or not is apparently not what the company thinks would make the X159 attractive to prospective buyers and users. Whose information requirements should Jinhao prioritise or even really care about?

 

 

Touche!!!!

[garyc]

On 9/17/2022 at 4:44 PM, sketchstack said:

That's what I really like about the x159 and why I'll actually use it as a daily writer: the Fine nib is actually rather wide and juicy in comparison to other Jinhao nibs (or those by Majohn, Hongdian, etc.) I pulled the feed out on one of them and it's substantial. Lots of fins deep within the nib collar. 

This was my experience - more towards an M than F. But my initial black model with silver nib was a little 'noisy', so I did give it some Micromesh 6000/8000 treatment and that did thin the line a little.

 

I also have a trio of the gold finished versions coming soon. I have a small retinue of 159s but have never really taken to them as they feel more bulky due to the weight, I am sure I will use the X159s more. The X159 really is a great improvement over the 159. I compared it to a Kaco Master which I did prefer due to its much nicer nib, but it does come in at about £30 rather than £5 for the Jinhao. For those wanting to experience a larger pen, the X159 is a very good (economical) starting point.

On 9/17/2022 at 4:44 PM, sketchstack said:

Now ...it would be nice to see this pen in a "146"-size, particularly if they innovate in the nib department as they did with the x159. 

Yes indeed, although the X159 has slimmed quite a few grams off its weight compared to the 159, it is quite wide-bodied. Something a little slimmer could have even more appeal.

 

One question will be whether different sized nibs will be offered - like the Jinhao 100 which also has a screw in nib unit with EF/F/M and 'bent' sizes offered (albeit smaller diameter unit, so not interchangeable). Perhaps they could re-use the 100 nib unit in a 146 sized pen?

[GWT1]

On 9/21/2022 at 12:41 PM, sketchstack said:

Public service announcement: I took one of mine apart to clean ink out of the cap. The cap finial and clip were easy enough to remove, but to my surprise the cap is actually two pieces (outer shell, inner sleeve) and a small piece fell out that apparently kept everything together. 

 

That small piece either snapped off (wasn't meant to unscrew) or it's so difficult to put back in that it's ill-advised to casually disassemble. 

It does go back together take a pair of tweezers long type with wide jaws spread them to catch the nut and scotch tape them tight together the put it all back together! That piece is not broke that is the nut takes special wrench. There is 8 pieces total in the cap! I was wowed when it came apart! Be patient it will go back together…..the pieces are as follows….  inner and outer caps, nut you spoke of, cap band, clip and clip hold down, top cap has two pieces also inner and outer. That makes 8 pieces and it makes since when you really look at it, less complex injection molding dyes.

 

Also the gold clip versions all i have uncap in 2-2.25 turns so not the horrid 3 turns!!!

 

These pens are a real value for what they cost!! 
Now imagine if MoonMan would upscale there new P136 and call it P139, the 136 is a truly WOWWW! Pen i have five one of each color also the P135 brown and blue…The 136 is almost a 1-1 of the Montblanc brass piston sleeve plastic piston and turning stem, nib has the almost exact nib unit, caps will interchange but thats where there is small difference the Moonman cap is .042mm longer overall… considering trying a 146 nib unit in this pen if i can find cheap used one! But imagine a 149 look alike oh MoonMan also sells extra nib units and jowo and bock nib and feed holders to fit this pen also. We can only wish………

[GWT1]

On 8/24/2022 at 5:22 PM, sansenri said:

 

I think I've explained my point, now I'm slightly tired of the discussion, so if it makes you happy, yes it's just my requirement to know the diameter of the nib. When I find out I will tell by pm just those few who care to ask. That if ok with you.

 

 

 

My good sir or madam I would much appreciate any info on this matter! 

[hari317]

On 9/21/2022 at 10:11 PM, sketchstack said:

Public service announcement: I took one of mine apart to clean ink out of the cap. The cap finial and clip were easy enough to remove, but to my surprise the cap is actually two pieces (outer shell, inner sleeve) and a small piece fell out that apparently kept everything together. 

 

That small piece either snapped off (wasn't meant to unscrew) or it's so difficult to put back in that it's ill-advised to casually disassemble. 

This blog post has an exploded view of the part showing the tiny part. https://rohitmohapatra15.wordpress.com/2022/09/07/jinhao-x159-review/?fbclid=IwAR3KkyPyIN0lGRbw7dCvAOzwjeQZRJZlP9Z4grwlMBIr8XTvDexfxQ_hbkY

[jacklndn]

Does the cap on the X159 stay posted?

 

I have an orange metal 159 that I love to look at, and over the years I have only written several lines with it before shuddering in frustration because the cap does not stay posted. It *really* doesn't want to stay posted.

 

To confirm: other than the plastic body and larger nib, the pen is the same size as the metal 159?