"Bamboo Leaf Nib" - cheapest Flex Nib Fountain Pen I've encountered

[AceNinja]

I first came across this post in FPN. Looks rather interesting, seems like a dip nib type fitted in FP body (very similar to Jinhao 166).  The OP says the pen is bought from Vietnam online store.  So i went and do a search "Bamboo Leaf Nib" on a popular online shopping platform at my region here, it does lands me to a few Vietnam vendor selling similar dip nib looking pen.  In earlier 'quest' for flex nib fountain pen, it usually lands to the conclusion of:

 

1. Pilot Falcon or 743 with FA nib - USD 150-200 option
2. FPR options - USD 20-50 option, with a very hefty shipping cost due to my location

 

This "Bamboo Leaf Nib" fountain pen only costs me around USD 3 per pen, with nib and converter, shipped.  So i immediately put in my order.  It has arrived, and here's my brief review.

 

The pen is just very chinese cheap fountain pen feel, it's metal, i think its aluminium, light weight, thin and slender.  But my main purpose is not on the pen body, its for it's flex nib.

It is marketed as "Bamboo Leaf Nib".  But the barcode sticker on the pen has Ouguwen brand name, and with the Chinese name of similar pronunciation to Ouguwen.

 

The nib is basically a tipless steel nib.  It just feel very similar to a regular dip nib, there's even the ridges similar to dip nib.  the different i think it's that it's a stainless steel nib, so there's some protection from the corrossion i hope.  I know that some people jammed a Zebra G nib into pen like Jinhao X750, those nib will eventual corrode, hopefully this bamboo nib won't corrode so easily.

 

It writes like a dip nib, it flex quite easily, i would say somewhat similar to Zebra G.  therefore it is also scratchy, as it is tipless.  and when writing up stroke, it had the same problem as tipless dip nib where the nib will tend to catch the paper, studder, and jumping.

 

The feed is similar to common chinese #5's feed.  The bamboo nib itself is longer than #5 nib (jinhao #5 pictured).  So the differing feature of this pen from common #5 pen i think it's the section, inside the section it has enough room to put in the longer size of the bamboo nib. For eg, i can put the Jinhao #5 nib in this Bamboo leaf's section, but I can't put the bamboo nib into a Jinhao's section.

 

Some photos of the nib flexing.  The ink used is Hero 233A Blue.  I would say the ink delivery is quite okay.  It doesn't really railroad, unless you flex too much.

I would say its a really good option to try out a flex nib fountain pen, just simply based on its super low cost.

The main disadvantage is that the nib is tipless, so it really writes more like a dip pen than a fountain pen, even when you don't need to keep dipping for ink.

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thank you for bringing this pen to our attention.

The nib does look a little scratchy, from the line left.