Sonnet Comparisons With Lookalikes

[pajaro]

The nibs that screw into the Sonnet usually cost from about $25 in ebay auctions to around $50 or so as a high for steel nibs. The 18K nibs you might find at a bargain price of about $30 or so in an ebay auction to normal highs ranging from about $80 to $100 or so, in US dollars. Sometimes it seems cost-effective to buy an ebay pen with the nib you want, and I have done this with Sonnets bought for $22 to $33 or so. So, the changeable nibs do not come cheap usually. This same thing plays out at even higher costs with Pelikan. You can change the nibs, but it costs you, and so you have to carefully choose the nibs to keep the costs down.

 

I am not sure the Parker will last any longer. I bought one Sonnet where the inner and outer barrel had separated, and the section had come apart into four pieces. I put it all back together with epoxy, and now it will last. I have had several sections which came apart, but epoxy can hold them together, as I can see no reason to take them apart. If you have to make a repair like this, use epoxy with at least a five minute work period before the epoxy sets. I also have an Autumn Lacque with areas of the barrel that look melted. With twenty Sonnet fountain pens plus rollerballs, ballpoints and pencils I have seen good, bad and ugly.

 

You might be able to find the appropriate #5 nib from online sellers and have a geater range of choices and prices, but here you are making a frankenpen. It doesn't bother me to make a sleeper out of a Jinhao by putting in it something like a Sheaffer. I have seen Sheaffer available for $35 online in 14K. If you don't like the Chinese nibs, you could use a Cross Solo nib. Friction fit, pens sometimes cheap. I used the whole Solo section in a Big Red with a Jinhao converter, which fits.

 

There are a lot of options. So many options. I still like the Sonnets so far. Nice feel, and when you get a good one it is very good, but those Kaigelus are so inexpensive.

[tryphon]

I put Schmidt nibs in some of my Sonnets and they write like a dream.

[specimen]

I face the same issue with Sonnet nib.

 

I will always face the problem about the ink flow some first stroke of the word.

 

I have to repeat the first character frequently.

 

My own Sonnet is the gold nib.

 

I do not face this kind of problem with the cheaper fountain pen.

 

it easily dry within one week and take time to return.

Edited April 13, 2014 by specimen

[pajaro]

This continues to be a problem for me with some of these nibs in Sonnet. In some cases, I have taken the Sonnet nib and fitted it to a Cross Solo section or in an Esterbrook collar with the Cross or Esterbrook feed, as appropriate. The Sonnet nibs then work. This points the finger at the Sonnet pen: the Parker feed or the converter, or at the nib to feed contact. You could try to heat set the nib on the feed, or widen the slit in the nib very slightly. I am inclined to test these ideas. I might try a heat gun on the nib mounted on the feed. I have read that the nibmeisters use candles, but I don't like that idea. One nibmeister said he opens the slit with an exacto knife where the blade has been dulled. Some of the Sonnets work, but I like the blue Kaigelu better, and my solution overall has been to use Waterman pens, Carene, which has the feed enclosed in the section with a vent hole, and Phileas or the less expensive Kultur. These pens stay wet longer and if they dry, I jot a short line on a piece of scrap paper.

 

You know, I should just use rollerballs and ballpoints and give up on the old technology of the fountain pen. What keeps me from doing it are my Parker 51s, My Montblanc 144s, my Pelikan M200s and M400s and these Watermans. These pens work.

Edited April 13, 2014 by pajaro

[ac12]

I bought a 7 pack of Baoer 388 for $25 (shipped), comes out to $3.57 each. Great price to use as gifts or give aways.

However, 4 of the 5 that I checked, needed to have the nib adjusted to get decent ink flow, and this is with a Chinese ink cartridge. That is NOT a good QC record. However, once adjusted, they are nice writers.

I had different experience with the cap. Most of the caps were HARD to remove, requiring much more force than a Sonnet's cap. 1 was easy, about the same as a Sonnet and 1 was in between. I "think" the securing mechanism is the plastic inner lining of the cap. It is how tight that cap fits over the clutch ring on the front of the section. And waxing the clutch ring did not help.

 

My converters had a plastic ball inside. And based on what I think it is for, it does nothing. If the ball is supposed to help break the surface tension that keeps the ink stuck on the back of the converter, then it fails. The ball was stuck inside the ink (Waterman) at the back of the converter, thus failing to do its job. A heavier stainless steel or chrome plated metal ball would work better, as the weight of the ball would break the surface tension holding the ink to back of the converter.

 

BTW, I had zero problems with the F nib on my Sonnet. Worked first time and reliable ever since.

 

Given the review, I think I will try the Kaigelu 356 and Jinhao 601.

I'm always looking for inexpensive pens to use in the office or work place.

[ttakacs]

This continues to be a problem for me with some of these nibs in Sonnet. In some cases, I have taken the Sonnet nib and fitted it to a Cross Solo section or in an Esterbrook collar with the Cross or Esterbrook feed, as appropriate. The Sonnet nibs then work. This points the finger at the Sonnet pen: the Parker feed or the converter, or at the nib to feed contact. You could try to heat set the nib on the feed, or widen the slit in the nib very slightly. I am inclined to test these ideas. I might try a heat gun on the nib mounted on the feed. I have read that the nibmeisters use candles, but I don't like that idea. One nibmeister said he opens the slit with an exacto knife where the blade has been dulled. Some of the Sonnets work, but I like the blue Kaigelu better, and my solution overall has been to use Waterman pens, Carene, which has the feed enclosed in the section with a vent hole, and Phileas or the less expensive Kultur. These pens stay wet longer and if they dry, I jot a short line on a piece of scrap paper.

 

You know, I should just use rollerballs and ballpoints and give up on the old technology of the fountain pen. What keeps me from doing it are my Parker 51s, My Montblanc 144s, my Pelikan M200s and M400s and these Watermans. These pens work.

 

I too have been trying to coax a better writing experience from my recently-acquired Sonnet. I applied some shellac inside the cap (carefully) and on top of the cap (beneath the jewel) in the hopes of sealing the inner cap. The inner barrel separated from the outer barrel -- epoxy seems to have fixed that problem. Finally, I removed the nib from the feed and scored the ink channels on the feed with the point of a tweezers. That step made a big difference in the flow.

 

Maybe I can turn this Sonnet into a nice writer. I don't know. At least I have a Montblanc 24, a Pilot Custom Heritage 92, and a vintage Aurora 88 that write wonderfully.

[wikeh2004]

I recently bought a Baoer 388 Flighter from Hisnibs.com. It was more expensive than the ones on da Bay, but it wrote beautifully straight out of the box without skipping after a dilute soap solution flush per his recommendation (I do that with all new pens). I credit Norman Haase's nib inspection and tuning before sale as a factor in the performance and well worth the extra. Norman calls it the Sonata.

 

I bought a Parker Sonnet years ago (can't remember when) with a gold nib, and while it looked great, it never wrote well. It had continual skipping and flow problems and I finally put it away and never bought another one. I read somewhere that Parker fixed the nib/feed problem later, but I dunno if they'll take back my Sonnet and fix it. That really put me off buying new Parkers, although I have a ton of vintage ones.

 

I've been impressed with the Baoer. It writes far better than my real Sonnet ever did, and except for the hard to remove cap, is solidly built and feels great. The finish and the plating seem to be fine. We'll see how that holds up over time. The cap requires a lot of push to remove, and doing it one handed is the only safe way. That is, holding the barrel in your palm and pushing up with your thumb and index finger to take the cap off. Using two hands is risky, as the probability of you socking the person next to you in the face with your elbow when the cap suddenly pops off is very high. Not to mention flinging the cap across the room. :-)

 

But, at a huge difference in cost to the Sonnet, I'd have to say that the Baoer is a bargain. Just watch out for that cap!

[richardandtracy]

If you could give a long term report on the pen, that would be great.

 

Richard

[dcwaites]

Over last summer I did a lot of building work, and the K356 was often in my pocket. Frequently it was used for writing on timber (very good) but there was one problem. One day I got blood and permanent marker all over my fingers, then used the Kaigelu. This bubbled the paint on the section almost immediately. As a result, it doesn't look quite as good as it did, but still works perfectly.

 

Apart from that, the K356 is still looking good and standing up to regular use. The others have been put away due to me not liking them so much.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

 

Just re-reading this thread for something else, and noticed this point. My K356 also has the paint bubbling on the section, and there was no blood or permanent marker involved.

It looks like some type of QC problem.

Any ideas on a good way to strip the old paint and re-lacquer?

[richardandtracy]

Possibly white spirit, or acetone.

The chances are that it'll chip off with a fingernail once chipping has started.

 

The re-lacquering is more of a problem. To the extent I haven't done it yet, and don't really know what to do.

 

Possibly an epoxy paint is needed.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

[dcwaites]

Hot water removed the black laquer on the cap finial of my K316. I have left that as is, as the brass finial nicely matches the gold plated fittings on the rest of the pen.

I used to use Tarmid Tar Epoxy on small boats, but that comes in a pair of 1 litre cans. Mix the two and use in 30 minutes. Unless you leave the mix in the hot tropical sun, when you then get a run-away catalytic reaction that results in hot, bubbling tar epoxy coming up out of the can onto the nice, previously spotless deck.

I must ask in the local model shop if they have the equivalent in 10ml cans...

[writewright]

I find it amazing that there are so many copies. Where is the market for all these pens?

[anton1978]

hello!

possible grip section of parker Sonnet replace in kaigelu 365 or others chinese clones?

Edited May 1, 2015 by anton1978

[richardandtracy]

No, I am afraid not. None of the threads are quite the same size, or the cap click mechanisms exactly the same size.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

[JonB55198]

This is an awesome review! Very complete! I really enjoyed it. Thank you.

[WJM]

Very interesting comparison. From those 5 I have, apart from the Sonnet, Baoer 388 and Kaigelu 356, and in my experience there is a huge gap of quality between them. The Kaigelu is a really good pen, the Baoers's nib is just terrible, dry and scratchy - probably something could be done about it, but I never got around to it. Not to mention that Baoer makes overall poorer impression when it comes to quality.

Duke 209 was one of the first pens I ever considered buying but somehow never got one. Almost 10 years ago, when I first started getting into fountain pens, it was sold on a polish auction site as "Duke 22 kgp" and the seller openly advertised it as a cheaper alternative for the Parker Sonnet. Cheaper, perhaps, but it was pretty overpriced at the equivalent of about $15-20. I ordered one half a year ago on eBay for $4 and it haven't arrived to this day, so I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Edited October 31, 2017 by WJM