Jinhao X450

[singer]

I'll just post the whole article here, with pictures :meow:

 

 

 

written by watch_art

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?aBID=111780&p=3&topicID=37165955

 

Jinhao x750!!! awesome little pen!

 

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://i55.tinypic.com/24njl9i.jpg

 

 

the nib and feed

http://i56.tinypic.com/25qft.jpg

Edited February 12, 2011 by singer

[singer]

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://i54.tinypic.com/15f3bs1.jpg

 

 

[....] i did a bit of a regrind on the nib. i was thinking that it should be writing MUCH bolder with such a big ball on the tip. i took part of the nib down, and when i did that, found that this thing had some serious baby bottom on the point end of the ball, so that it skipped a LOT. so i had to grind and grind some more, and now i've got a happy Medium tipped pen. I might smooth it a bit more tonight, but it's a realy nice writer.

http://i55.tinypic.com/awauk8.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://i55.tinypic.com/jt2976.jpg

 

http://i51.tinypic.com/kb4vhu.jpg

[Shinfay]

Nice review and photos (very important to comparison).

I´ve received my Jinhao X-450 (M nib) last week and it´s a very good pen for the price.

Out of the box it was a little dry but after adjusting the nib the flow is much better. The nib is not as smooth as my Parker Frontier and Lamy Al-Star but it´s good, no scratching.

I use it as my workhorse pen. The only issue is the converter that holds little quantity of ink (about 0,5mL). I´m working in a custom cartridge to will hold much more ink.

[watch_art]

:roflmho:

This is crackin me up! Old posts from other places...

Here's the link to what I did to the feed:

 

http://www.fountainp...957-jinha-x750/

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

 

 

Just makes me realize how poorly I used to write my reviews. Get the pen and play for an hour and write?? No no no! I should have waited a few days before writing anything good about it.

Edited February 11, 2011 by watch_art

[Bloch]

No problem.. I don't even know what a clip is yet haha. Here is a diagram with the breather tube:

 

http://i56.tinypic.com/111p3l5.jpg

 

There's more info about parts and nibs at richardspens.com.

 

Thanks, this is great!

Isn't the clip that little metal (or sometimes plastic) thingy that fits over the edge of your pocket so the pen won't fall out?

Unless (here's a thought) you're teasing and really do know...

I'll check out richardspens.com, too, and thanks again!

[Bloch]

This is crackin me up! Old posts from other places...

... snip...

Here's the link to what I did to the feed:

 

 

Cool. Nicely detailed. Bummer that my computer doesn't show the images, though.

[watch_art]

If you want to modify your feed, grab the nib and feed, and PULL. Look at that little tube stickin out the back of the feed. Yank it and throw it in the garbage. Or keep it.

 

THen put it back together. Write. Maybe that'll help some. I'm just under the impression that these feeds are not the best designed feeds on the planet.

 

Good luck.

[singer]

hey watch_art I knew I recognized your avatar from somewhere.. Nice to see you here! Thanks so much for posting these, I'm looking forward to trying to make a franken-pen

 

 

 

bloch, this is the image that goes with his post (#24). Not sure why you can't open flickr images

http://i56.tinypic.com/r2pb3b.jpg

oh and I wasn't teasing

Edited February 12, 2011 by singer

[Spector]

very nice

[Skeet]

If you want to modify your feed, grab the nib and feed, and PULL. Look at that little tube stickin out the back of the feed. Yank it and throw it in the garbage. Or keep it.

 

THen put it back together. Write. Maybe that'll help some. I'm just under the impression that these feeds are not the best designed feeds on the planet.

 

Good luck.

 

When re-inserting feeder, did you have to apply some sort of adhesive around the edge, or will the feeder adhere without leaking? Thanks.

Edited February 12, 2011 by Skeet

[watch_art]

NO. Nothing. Just shove it in there. That's how it's held in to begin with. If you put something around it, you risk clogging the feed and preventing it from writing, or even ruining the feed.

[Bloch]

hey watch_art I knew I recognized your avatar from somewhere.. Nice to see you here! Thanks so much for posting these, I'm looking forward to trying to make a franken-pen

 

 

 

bloch, this is the image that goes with his post (#24). Not sure why you can't open flickr images

http://i56.tinypic.com/r2pb3b.jpg

oh and I wasn't teasing

 

Many thanks! Okay, so now you all have got me contemplating making a franken-pen, not least because "franken-pen" is such a cool word! :-)

Mind you, I said "contemplating"; not sure if I'll have the guts to actually do it! Unless maybe after a glass of wine or two, sitting at my writing desk, looking at the Bulow pens that don't have a nice ink flow...

 

But... but... did it hurt your v-gouge? I've had my main one since around 1972, and the thought of hurting it horrifies me! I suppose I could use one of my other ones, one with a replaceable tip that has seen far better days... but then would my other v-gouges look at me with distrust, since I'd always been kind to them?

[Skeet]

NO. Nothing. Just shove it in there. That's how it's held in to begin with. If you put something around it, you risk clogging the feed and preventing it from writing, or even ruining the feed.

 

Ok great. Thanks.

[watch_art]

 

But... but... did it hurt your v-gouge? I've had my main one since around 1972, and the thought of hurting it horrifies me! I suppose I could use one of my other ones, one with a replaceable tip that has seen far better days... but then would my other v-gouges look at me with distrust, since I'd always been kind to them?

 

Nope. The v-gouge is sharp. It's made out of metal. The feed is plastic and soft. Easy to cut. I wouldn't bother with trying to use a speedball v-gouge (if that's the kind you mean) as you'll end up breaking the feed or stabbing yourself. You need a sharp too.

[pajaro]

My wife gave me one of these Jinhao X450s recently. She knows fairly little about fountain pens and bought it because she liked the dark green and black pattern. I inked it and write with it, and its medium nib was beautifully smooth and started without issue every time. I can tell you that I was very disappointed that this pen didn't absolutely suck wind. This Jinhao wrote perfectly from the start. I was kind of peeved that my wife was able to buy me a better functioning pen than most of the expensive ones I have bought recently. Specifically, this is aimed at the Pe-----------s, which required adjustments to their gold nibs to get running. Well, there is no need to spend a lot of money to get a good pen. Now, if you want a lot of collectible dustables, I guess you can buy the expensive stuff. The gold might wear off the Jinhao's nib, but you can throw them away and buy another a whole lot of times before you spend what it takes to buy an expensive Icon pen. I have a couple of the modern icons that are really good, and a lot of others that have been more trouble than they are worth, some that I couldn't in good conscience put up for sale because they are such trouble. The Jinhao is better. It kind of leaves me hopping mad...and there I thought I was ambling along like I had good sense. Seems like the better half has better sense.

[Bloch]

 

Nope. The v-gouge is sharp. It's made out of metal. The feed is plastic and soft. Easy to cut. I wouldn't bother with trying to use a speedball v-gouge (if that's the kind you mean) as you'll end up breaking the feed or stabbing yourself. You need a sharp too.

 

My Speedball v-gouges are made out of metal, too, and are sharp; I sharpen them. Long gone are the days when I'd just buy a new v-gouge tip to replace the old one. The new ones aren't sharp. They also aren't straight! So when I buy new ones, I look them over carefully to get the best of the lot, and even then I have to sharpen them.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of gouges are you referring to that aren't made of metal? Unless you mean the handles, which vary in composition. But the tips...?

[Chris]

Done the gouging snd chucked away the breather stick but still have the fuel starvation problems. I need a very runny ink - maybe one of Noodlers will creep out on its own... Pity 'cos I like the look and general feel of these two.

 

Chris