Hero 616 Quality

[Dip n Scratch]

I have noticed that you often receive Hero 616 pens that do not appear to work. How common is it to receive pens with a defect right out of the packet?

I presently have pens from 3 different sellers in red, teal and black.

Only the red one slurped up ink in the normal manner you would expect of a proper Parker.

With the other two pressing on the bar does not properly squeeze the sac. If you take the aluminium sleeve off and directly squeeze the sac with one's fingers the pen fills properly.

At least the defective two were not really DOA. I just had a play with them before throwing them away.

[Dip n Scratch]

More Information

It appears as though the teal & the black ones are knock-off's. Uneven markings of the characters on the cap. The style of the cap engraving is the lame longitudinal lines, vaguely similar to the 'Empire State' Parker. But the 'lines' of the teal & black one are actually the tiniest dots close together.

The burgundy one is the better one. Described as the 'jumbo', it came with Hero packaging. Until I know better I am calling the burgundy 616 'genuine'. A genuine copy!

The lengths of the section and barrel of the burgundy 616 and the other two are different. If I wanted to use some really nasty ink I would be more inclined to put it through a 616 than a genuine Parker. I am not comparing a Hero 616 with a Parker hooded nib pen. They may look similar from the outside, but do they have the same internals?

 

You just have to hope that the auction image is not a genuine 616 on its OE card to push inferior fake 616's.

 

Got another bunch of 3 carded 616 on the way. Let's see if they are as good as the burgundy example I already have.

[afishhunter]

I have not had any problems with my 616 "Doctor" pens. 

The nib on the wine/maroon/red pen is another story ... the tipping on one tine came off. How and why I have no idea. 

Fortunitally, the nib from my Hero 1107 fit, so "problem" solved.

 

(The 1107 feels a bit skinny in my hand ... sortta like a standard wood pencil, or a BiC Crystal stick pen, so I don't use it anyway.)

[Dip n Scratch]

How do you get the section off a 616 in order to attend to the nib?

Is the process unique to that pen?

The 'fake' pens seem like an EF & the proper 616 is F.

The EF seems unusually scratchy... Probably just rubbish nibs. Might have a play with the micro-mesh to see if I can actually polish a t**d.

it is all good fun.

[Mech-for-i]

Well well , the genuine Hero 616 , while not exactly a fine pen , not even a good one , is still a workhorse , but as befit its vintage , its not exactly up to date nor the best in design and fitting ... its call 616 cause its introduced ( officially , it actually are available earlier ) June 1961 - you can picture how dated and primitive it can be ..

 

And of course its not to be compared with a Parker, not even the 21 ..

 

Even Hero know about the limitation , it was on the catalog simply because people still buy them and that is why we had today Wing Sung 601 , and Hero's own 616Plus ( not to be confused with the 616 , while profile , style, size all the same its a totally up to date design ) and 616s, the funny thing about knockoff is that you actually kind of hard to get them in the home country as pretty much everyone know what to look for and these days those knockoff Mfr are onto doing knockoff of , well , more selling and pricier others

 

if you want to get the section off the coupler on the 616 , you need to get it a hot bath ( literally ) to soften the glue then you just unscrew it from the coupler ( the transparent part that hold all the innards ) or try a blow dryer .. this is the default method to get the hood off any of the vintage hooded nib models

 

vintage models of any Chinese fountain pen can sometime give nice surprise but mostly they are better for collection than for daily usage , unless you really know what to expect and do not mind getting some hand on .. I've been using the 616 since the mid 60's when I was a kid in school, so getting to know them quite well