Bulow X530

[Sasha Royale]

My silver Zeppelin arrived today. Whatever else, it's a pen with presence! But having inked it up, I'm seriously impressed. I bought the pen with the OB nib and although the oblique nature of the nib is not as pronounced as in most other OBs I've used, it's stunningly smooth - butter-smooth even. I suspect I'm going to be using this a lot over the next few days. I think I'll be going back for the black pen with the double broad oblique very soon! Highly recommended!

 

It is

a nice pen, but, really, wouldn't you want the Jinhao

chariot ?

 

Definitely not!

 

 

Your choice, of course. However, it writes better with a chariot

on the clip. :ltcapd:

[Gloucesterman]

Could you share the discount code, please?

[wastelanded]

Could you share the discount code, please?

 

Oh, that was almost a year ago: long gone, I'm afraid. Sign up for emails from them and you'll get notices. That or check Market Watch here.

[MTS2]

I have a 159 in the post. I don't usually go for Chinese pens but this was a middle of the night, I can't get to sleep Wow that's big and only £6.80 inc postage, why not give it a go kind of thing.

 

So I await with interest. It will impress the kids at school even if it doesn't write. :roflmho:

 

I don't think you will be disappointed!

 

And, as Boris the Blade said, "It is heavy. If it does not work, you can always hit him with it."

 

Seriously, it's a nice pen for the money!

"Weight is sign of reliability!" :roflmho:

[Aysedasi]

After a few days using the pen at work, I just love the OB nib. Superbly smooth. But I'm having the ink-flow problems that others have mentioned. I broke my golden rule of not giving the nib a good flush through with surfactant and today it just shut down completely several times and only winding the convertor got it going again - until the next time. I've given the nib and section a good flush tonight and I've got another convertor that I'm going to try. If that fails, it'll be on to try a cartridge. That'll be really annoying as I hate using them, but I'm not going to give up on the pen as it writes so well.

[P.A.R.]

If your flow problems continue but you'd like tocontinue using the same nib,I would recommend getting a Noodler's Ahab. It'll take the same nib, has a fast and large capacity filler, and all four of mine are quite reliable.

[chadden42]

This is my first review: hopefully it can be of some use. This is the Xfountainpens model X530, aka Jinhao 159. Note: the scores I applied are for an average $20 Chinese pen. Of course it is not a Pelikan, or a Montblanc or other high end pen, and it would be unfair to compare this pen to those. So the scores are in relation to other pens of similar manufacture and price.

 

Appearance and Design: 10/10

 

The pen arrived in a sealed plastic bag, with sticky-labelled instructions on how to use the converter and how to insert a cartridge. At first glance I was impressed. The pen is very black, very shiny, and very heavy. This is a behemoth, a zeppelin of a pen. Cigar-shaped, black, chrome trim, a gracefully curving clip with a small blue jewel at the end. For a Chinese-made pen, it is very tasteful and understated: definitely a take on a Montblanc 149 or Sailor 1911, or a Jinhao 159, the other name for this beast. The cap band says Bulow, with an umlaut where one should be. My first impression was not a disappointment.

 

 

 

Construction and Quality: 9/10

 

Picking the pen up, it is certainly solid. The body is most obviously brass, with a lacquer finish. The finish is high gloss, and shows fingerprints readily: I keep taking the microfiber lens cloth to it. I don’t know how rugged the finish is, and I’m not at the point of wanting to find out. Yet. The cap is a screw-on, taking about 2/3 of a turn to open. The clip has a nice curve to it, and no sharp edges. Threads on both cap and body are metal. There is a slight chrome lip on the end of the section, just enough for the fingertips to get purchase on.

 

 

 

Weight and Dimensions: 8/10

 

On the digital postal scale at work, the pen weighs 54g capped, and 30g uncapped; if I dropped this bad boy, I’d worry about cracking a floor tile before damaging the pen. The cap does not post; you can post it if you like, but it flops there like a rogue landmine. It also makes the pen very top heavy: you’d need a seatbelt to keep it from flipping you out of your chair. Unposted, the pen’s centre of gravity is (in my hand) right over where the barrel rests against my index finger. So, surprisingly well balanced for me. I wrote and scribbled for 30 minutes with little hand or wrist fatigue. Your mileage may vary, of course. All in all, good contruction: smooth threads, clean finish.

 

Nib and Performance: 9/10

 

When buying the pen, I opted for the “German” Knox nib, Medium. One reason was I thought the two tone nib would suit the pen. I also thought that having a nib fitted by the vendor would give that part of the pen a little attention when it was done. The nib is quite attractive: the pics on the website do it no justice (the nibs shown in the website look like they were dug out of the ground). Steel, two tone, with smooth lines between the silver and gold. The engraving is eye-catching but not over the top. Available widths are XF, F, M, B, Oblique Broad, and Oblique 2X broad. The website says the nib is iridium tipped.

 

Sure it’s pretty, but does it work? The answer is yes indeed. Smooth from the start, a slight amount of feedback from the Carpe Diem notebook paper I baptized it on. Using Skrip black, the nib lays a wet line, quite dark. The line is a little thinner than I remember a medium nib to be, and there is very little flex. Not a 6d nail, but not far off. However, these are good nibs, at least this one is. Snap some up before the vender reads all the recent ravings about them and jacks up the price, like they did with their inks. As far as ease of replacement, I don’t see much of an issue. I actually will update this, as I’m going to order an OB nib for a little more of a line.

 

 

 

After standing upright, capped, for 24 hours, it took about a half inch of scribbling to get a solid line going. Dry-out seems not to be a problem. There is some class of a seal inside the cap.

 

Filling System and Maintenance: 10/10

 

Of course, this is a cartridge/converter filling system we have here. Unscrewing the section shows a surprisingly well-made converter. The screw piston is not floppy or flimsy: I may just score a couple of these for other pens. There is a small ball in the chamber, presumably to agitate the ink. Note the band around where the nipple is on the converter: I think this would ensure a better fit and seal. It certainly fits well in my Kaweco. One could also use cartridges as a backup, or if one prefers using cartridges. Three cycles of the screw plunger filled the converter with about what is in an international cartridge worth of ink. No leaks, solid fit, what else can I say?

 

 

 

Cost and Value: 9/10

 

Xfountainpens shows a “list” price of $49.99 for the X530 ‘Mitternacht’, but that’s only if you just fell off the turnip truck. The $14.99 I paid is about the typical price, even on Ebay for a Jinhao 159. The nib upgrade was $6.99, but I got 50% off that because I happened to see a post here about discount codes. So I paid $18.48 plus $4 shipping. A good deal? I say yes, for an attractive pen that writes fairly well. It may have been cheaper on the ‘bay, but not with the nice Knox nib. The sale went smoothly, and shipping wasn’t bad considering Xmas was in the middle of the shipping period. Brief aside: why do parcels come to Canada quicker from China and Korea than from the US? Just wondering. There was no duty or tax due from crossing the border. Indeed, in the many many purchases I have made from US retailers, the only time I ever had to pay duty was for a piece of sterling silver jewelry, and I think that was because it came by courier. Avoid couriers for cross-border shopping, or else customs brokers get their hands in your pocket.

 

Conclusion

 

All in all, I am pleased with my purchase. Some might find more things to fault with this pen, but it is a $20 Chinese pen and that is how I judged it. And for a $20 Chinese pen, it’s not too shabby at all, atall. The Knox nib was a pleasant surprise; I plumped for it only because of possible pre-shipment attention, but it performs very well for a $9 nib.

 

 

Loved the review. Would you post a link for that discount code? Thanks

[wastelanded]

The code, again, was ten months ago.

[Robinkeys]

I don't know about this one, but the finish on my x450 has started to come away very quickly.

[Harlequin]

Hate to resurrect a thread almost 3 months dormant, but for those who have both, which is bigger, the Jinhao 159 or the Bulow X530? Or actually, are they even different pens, with the exception of the clip or perhaps color?

[wastelanded]

Hate to resurrect a thread almost 3 months dormant, but for those who have both, which is bigger, the Jinhao 159 or the Bulow X530? Or actually, are they even different pens, with the exception of the clip or perhaps color?

 

They are indeed the same pen, except for the clip, nib and cap band. I prefer the Bulow clip, but that's just me. I'd like to try the Jinhao, for the broader nib.

[Harlequin]

The nibs themselves should be interchangeable, right? They are on the X750. The sections aren't, but the nibs are.

[wastelanded]

The nibs themselves should be interchangeable, right? They are on the X750. The sections aren't, but the nibs are.

 

I don't yet have a 159 to compare, but I think the sections are the same. This pen I got with the Knox nib option. I believe it's a No. 6 nib. I'm pretty sure it's the same size nib as the 750.

[TakeoJiro]

It did the first fill. The second fill, after I filled the tank I pointed the pen nib-up and turned the piston until a bubble of ink came out of the bottom of the feed. Seems ok now, no skipping. I think the main problem with converters is getting vacuum inside, and the ink stays at the top even when the pen is nib-down. There's a little ball inside this converter, presumably to keep things moving, but I don't know how effective it is. When that kind of thing happens with a pen, try a cartidge. If the flow problem disappears, it's the converter.

 

 

I have same problem with jinhao 159 and saw this at richardpens

 

http://www.richardspens.com/ref/nibs/primer.htm

 

 

'' A nib’s slit must conform to certain restrictions of shape. The slitting process, performed with a very thin abrasive wheel, produces a slit that is perfectly straight; that is, the slit’s sides are the same distance from each other along the slit’s length, as shown here

 

 

The nibs in most inexpensive and moderately priced pens go to market this way, and for the most part these nibs perform reasonably well. Occasionally, a nib with a straight slit will have difficulty maintaining capillary action and will stop writing from time to time. This is more common in broad nibs, whose slits are wider. A quick shake will usually restart the nib, but it’s an annoyance, and it creates the risk of splattering your companions. Worse, if your name is Lewis Waterman, you risk destroying an important insurance contract and having to find a new line of work.

Better-quality nibs, which are hand finished, usually exhibit a slight taper to the slit. You can see, upon close examination, that the tines are slightly closer together at the tip than they are at the breather hole: ''

 

Do you think this is problem for jinha 159/bulow x530 ?

 

[Fountian Pen Journaler]

I have the X530 Bulow Mitternacht with a standard medium nib that I purchased a year ago. It’s my favorite pen, but I never use it. It had all the frustrating hallmarks the pen is noted for (rough penning, skipping and uneven dry lines). The constant skipping was what made me put the pen down permanently. I took out the plunger and replaced it with an ink cartridge but had the same issues.

 

I thought because of the low price ($15.00) that the pen was just poorly constructed or had an inferior nib, or even possibly I was using incompatible ink. Whatever it was I never tried to improve the pen. I moved on to other more reliable brands.

 

That was until I stumbled onto this thread and saw the idea of adding dishwashing liquid to the ink. The Glycerol in the dish detergent lowers the surface tension between a liquid (ink) and a solid (the nib). This also has the side effect of being a wetting agent and a dispersant. When added to ink it improves the separation of particles to prevent settling or clumping. This will give you a wetter, more consistent line when writing fast as I do. It doesn’t thin out the ink or change its color. It simple smooth’s it out and makes it very slippery when traveling down the nib tines. The surfactant also slows down the drying time of the ink considerably when the pen is not being used.

 

After reading the original post of this idea, I took a toothpick and dipped one quarter of it into some regular dishwashing liquid I had prepared in a small cup. I then gently tapped off the excess liquid clinging to the sides of the toothpick and dipped the toothpick directly into an opened disposable ink cartridge that I had readied for my Bulow X530. I slowly twisted it a few time while it was still seated inside the cartridge and carefully extracted it.

 

The results were surprising. After two shakes to get the ink into the nib, my pen fired up and began writing immediately. The ink flowed beautifully with no change to the color or consistency. I wrote as fast as I could and experienced no skipping or line degradation at all. The pen glides across the paper like butter now with no hint of scratching. It was a revelation to me that such a small fix would bring my old friend back to my hand.

 

The original poster of this great idea suggested that less then a drop of dishwashing detergent be used. I would start with that and add more to suit your needs. I did start with less then a drop and found that I needed a little more wetness and ink flow. The more dishwashing liquid (Glycerol) you add the “wetter” your nib will write. That doesn’t mean smeary or diluted. The nib will just produce its ink at a smoother rate.

 

I imagine this idea would work on most stubborn pens.