Chinese Pens for Travel?

[Dan Carmell]

I’m traveling next week for the first time since before the pandemic and I’m thinking I will bring two pens, the Hongdian M2 and a retractable, probably a Moonman A1. The M2 is a great pocket pen. It will be the first time I’ve inked the brass version and I’ll actually carry the M2. 

The retractable will be my alternative and probably what I’ll use in my travel journal. Photo because posts without photos are dull!

 

You’re leaving for a week in a dull little town in the middle of corn and soy fields. What Chinese pens do you carry with you?

[OCArt]

I travel with a couple of Winging 699's.  Great pens that never seem to dry up either.

[Dan Carmell]

  On 3/18/2025 at 5:45 PM, OCArt said:

I travel with a couple of Winging 699's.  Great pens that never seem to dry up either.

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 Very unlikely to run out of ink with those WS 699s!

 

I have a supply of blue carts in 2.6 and 3.4mm so I’m aiming to use carts on this trip, hopefully either/or, not both!

[Shanghai Knife Dude]

Wingsung 699, 2.1ml and air travel safe. 

 

Majohn C5, 2ml. 

 

Actually I am thinking of acquiring a second WS 699. 

[SpencerianDream]

I love the nib on the Hongdian M2. 
 

I don’t love the hard and slick anodized aluminum section on mine. Wish it had some knurling. It’s better if I grip higher on the threads. 

[Dan Carmell]

  On 3/23/2025 at 12:56 AM, SpencerianDream said:

I love the nib on the Hongdian M2. 
 

I don’t love the hard and slick anodized aluminum section on mine. Wish it had some knurling. It’s better if I grip higher on the threads. 

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Maybe the brass version is less slick? I’m inking for the first time this weekend for a trip, will report back

[Dan Carmell]

I’m at SFO, a mere five hours drive home will bring this little trip to a close. I thought I’d report on the two pens I brought with me, the brass Hongdian M2 and a Jinhao 10 (wavy lines black, chrome trim), first time inking either.

 

I’m a bit perverse as I like to ink new pens without first flushing them, just to see how they perform. In this case, I used both with a cartridge, so the nibs didn’t get the priming a bottle-filled pen gets. I filled the pens at my destination, so they were only inked for the return flight. 
 

The Hongdian M2 was ready to write soon after I popped the cart in and wrote on the first stroke throughout. It lived in my front pants pocket through most of my trip and never leaked nor flooded. It performed just as well as my first M2, but the heft and warmth of the brass version makes it a step or two above. 
 

The J10, I’m sorry to say, never wrote. The 2.6mm generic cart isn’t squeezable so I couldn’t prime the nib that way, but the ink made it to the nib, as running my finger on the nib slit produced ink; it’s just not making it to the tip. 
 

I imagine a flush will fix the J10’s nib unit, so this experience didn’t sour me on the Jinhao 10, but it certainly made me even more fond of Hongdian and the M2. I have Japanese pocket pens I don’t put in my (pants) pocket because they are too nice, but the M2 performed so well and in my pocket was barely noticeable. I’d definitely recommend the M2—in brass. 

[inkstainedruth]

I'll admit that while I have a few cheap Chinese pens from early on, the last one I took one along with me on a trip was the Jinhao 599 that someone gave me a few years ago (he'd ordered a ten or twelve pack from someplace online, and was handing them out to anyone who wanted one at a pen club meeting).  And honestly?  While it wrote sort of okay, I ALSO wondered if it was a fake (!) because it kinda wrote like the $1 pen he probably paid for it.  I'd MUCH rather have a pen that I can rely on when I'm traveling.

Although I'm NOT taking the M405 Stresemann with me when I go camping ever again, when I almost lost it (fortunately it got turned into Lost & Found -- I was less worried about it, um, "developing legs" than I was of it getting run over by a fully loaded pickup truck hauling a fully loaded trailer... ).  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[mke]

  On 3/31/2025 at 2:58 PM, Dan Carmell said:

The J10, I’m sorry to say, never wrote. The 2.6mm generic cart isn’t squeezable so I couldn’t prime the nib that way, but the ink made it to the nib, as running my finger on the nib slit produced ink; it’s just not making it to the tip. 

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I also don't ink those by way of bottle. I always ink with a syringe.

If you "squeeze" by turning a converter, there is a lot of ink assembling on the bottom of the nib - that is all. Then it drops.

So, I "squeeze"  just to the point of a bubble starting to form. Paper tells me there is ink at the bottom of the tip - as you found out too.

So, turn it around and write a bit with the backsite of the nib. That usually helps.

 

That is especially helpful with the Jinhao 82 EF pens.