Jinhao X750

[watch_art]

ordered this nearly a month ago from Australia and it came in yesterday.

very nice.

 

I was pretty optimistic when I hit the bid button on Australian ebay. If I won it would cost less than $10 USD shipped. Can't beat that with a stick. So I won. Yay!

Got it in the mail yesterday, shipped well, small cardboard box with foamy lining. Pen wrapped in plastic. Flushed it a bit before i inked it up. The converter works as well

(or not) as any other I've used. As good as a Lamy or Pilot twisty converter, honestly. It might not look as nice, but it works just as well. It is all metal, so fairly heavy, and

therefore not really the best pen to write kinda sideways with while laying in bed. Figured that one out all by myself.

 

Construction and Quality: VERY nice. CLicky cap, stiff spring, and the cap ring at the bottom is just wonderful to look at. I'm REALLY impressed with this thing. Cap clicks on very tightly with a nice loud CLIK, haven't had any dry out. Piston converter fits in VERY tightly, was really impressed with this part. There's really only two things that bug me about this: the threads where the barrel and section screw together are a bit loose. It tightens up just fine, but it's sorta cheapy feeling. And where the clip fits into the cap there is a little gap. If you bought the black pen, you wouldn't notice, probably. But it sorta sticks out. Not awful though.

The grip is sort of a matte plastic, and feels really nice. No slippery grip here even with sweaty fingers.

 

Appearance and Design: love the color, ivory I think, and love all the s/s trim. Very classy looking. I even like the clip. The pen is cigar shaped I guess, so not the most original thing on earth, but who cares.

 

Nib: Very thin metal so it gives you the impression that it has some spring, but I wouldn't push my luck. Out of the box it needed tine alignment, and I pushed up a tiny bit and it stayed put. So this is one to write lightly with to save you from bending the nib all-to-hell. Sort of a dry writer, maybe a 4 outta 10, but still nice. Slow writer. Skipped in scribbles. Then I took out the breather tube and it became a brand new amazing little pen. THe line is wetter, so wider, which is good b/c the ebay description said "bold nib", which it really wasn't. Now it's close to a fat medium I'd guess. Just slightly smaller than my old Pilot Custom (the doody brown one I traded off)...

 

Filling: piston converter. top notch for the price. Takes a good fill, too. Not the biggest, but good for a day or two of doodles and notes. It looks like it would take international carts, so you could probably even take some carts with you. But I'd be wary of putting the converter in and out for ruining the mating surfaces.

 

Price: under $10 usd. Very good. Could easily be a $20 or more pen.

 

Overall: awesome. would definitely recommend it to others. Just know you may want to take out the breather tube, and may NEED to adjust the nib. Didn't have to do any smoothing on this one. It was great right out of the box.

 

 

 

first a size comparo...

on my red and black spiral bound....

sorry for the blurry pic...

Parker 51, Lamy Safari, Pilot C742, Pelikan M200

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096/4812333715_ed338b5893_b.jpg

 

 

the nib and feed

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4116/4812332861_e7b820ae1d_b.jpg

 

 

 

and the breather tube, which i took out and chunked. feels like good quality and works quite well.

when i pulled the nib and feed out (came out VERY easily just pinching) the breather tube stayed behind in the section. i used some skinny tweezers to

twist and pull it out. the pen was fairly dry, so i chunked the breather tube and put it back together and this thing writes MARVELOUSLY! couldn't believe it.

 

and the piston converter. actually, it fits into the section tighter than any other piston converter i've used. one of the best...

especially for this price range.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4114/4812333011_9b5f20a1b0_b.jpg

Edited December 21, 2011 by watch_art

[watch_art]

oh yeah, stupid unbalanced if posted. but it's big enough that i don't care. i usually don't post anyways...

[jniforat]

my friend, EMM, uses Jinhao's and Regals almost exclusively and loves them.

 

good review!!

[watch_art]

edit to add:

forgot to upload a pic disassembled...

 

 

The feed on this thing really impressed me. minus the breather tube of course. the material used seems top notch, comparable

to what i've seen from Pilot pens... or at least close. but WAAAAAAY better than anything i've seen from the hero or lanbitou pens...

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4082/4813801216_2db6e16dc2_b.jpg

 

 

 

and the line was too fine for such a huge tip, so i spent some time grinding and smoothing it back down...

much better!

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096/4813801314_382153919d.jpg

Edited July 20, 2010 by watch_art

[bluemagister]

Excellent review! I have a couple of x750s that are also a little dry and I will take out the breather tubes and see what happens. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

These pens really DO punch above their weight class! I took one in to a meeting last week and the only thing people talked about afterwards was how sharp my pen looked!

[watch_art]

since the regrind and tube removal, this has quickly become one of my favs.

[scrawlhand]

Hi folks!

 

I've been lurking here for a while, but now I felt it was time for my first post .

 

I also bought an X750 recently, and it was too dry for my taste, so I pulled out the feed and widened the ink channel with an x-acto knife. It worked like a charm, and it's a fine writer now.

However, when I pulled out the feed, the breather tube came loose. I don't know extactly what it's for and I wonder if there's a correct orientation for it? I just stuck it in the lower half of the round channel in the feed until it fit quite snugly, and so far it seems to be working.

 

Appreciate your advice!

 

Greetings from Germany,

Steve

Edited July 20, 2010 by scrawlhand

[watch_art]

yeah, you did it right. the tube on this pen seems pretty useless though. also, i didn't touch my channel since i took the tube out. doing both might make it a bit too wet.

 

and here's a quick sample for fun...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4078/4813889916_f583337c42_b.jpg

[777]

Great review "watch_art"! May I ask: what is chunking the breather tube? Sorry for the dumb question, I should probably know this by now.

[watch_art]

:roflmho:

 

of course i should know better than to presume everybody will understand my slang!!

 

chunking means throwing it away. it should technically be chucking, but i like chunking better.

 

[Silvermink]

I have an X750 which writes nicely, but I honestly don't use it much. The primary reasons are that a. it's heavier than I prefer and b. it dries out quickly if left unused for a day or two.

[watch_art]

i've been working on the dry out problem... i've had to advance the converter a bit to feed it after it sits for a couple hours. i've tried something, and i'll see how it works in a few days, and if it works, i'll share it. as far as the weight goes, yes it is heavier, but that doesn't bother me like i thought it might. i just sort of guide it against the paper and don't really hold it, if that makes sense.

[777]

:roflmho:

 

of course i should know better than to presume everybody will understand my slang!!

 

chunking means throwing it away. it should technically be chucking, but i like chunking better.

 

 

 

I see. Great, now you've got me starting to say chunking instead chucking.

 

 

[whiteOUT]

Great pen reviews... Make me wanna get one....

[Chris]

Well, you live and learn. I didn't even know there was a breather tube! So, I'll try taking it out and see what that does to the ink flow because both my Jinhao pens seem to 'run dry' after half a page or so and opening them up to screw the converter is a pain. I've already washed with soap and cleaned the bits out of the feed.

 

Cheap pen to play/learn on I guess.

 

Chris

[watch_art]

this is a drawing of what i did. it seems to have helped a lot. i have a little ink left in my covnerter, and to really test

this i retracted the piston all the way out, so it wouldn't be pushing the ink up into the feed. i covered an entire 8x6 inch page

with scribbles and it didn't skip or dry out once. not big scribbles. tiny little scribbles. i got bored. and it did well.

so, the moral of the story is, if you like to fool with cheap pens, and like to modify your stuff, then this is the pen for you.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4119/4818450006_13eff0faa3_b.jpg

Edited July 22, 2010 by watch_art

[OMASmaniac]

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4078/4813889916_f583337c42_b.jpg

 

:roflmho::roflmho::roflmho::roflmho::roflmho::roflmho:

[watch_art]

THANKS! glad somebody got the joke! i saw that on Jarhead and thought it would work well with fountain pens...

[Bigfoot]

Thanks for the review; I just received my X750 and I'll ink it up tomorrow. Should I encounter the same issues I'll try your (very well documented) modification.

[OMASmaniac]

THANKS! glad somebody got the joke! i saw that on Jarhead and thought it would work well with fountain pens...

 

it's actually from "Full Metal Jacket", and in Jarhead they're paying tribute to that WONDERFUL film

It works perfectly with fountain pens! But in Full metal Jacket, if I remember correctly, the soldiers had to sleep with their rifle... this means that we should start sleeping with our FP! :D