Chinese Pens - A Perspective

[slayerfans]

Hello all,

 

I would strongly recommend you to buy chinese fountainpen with a golden nib, generally, the quality of such golden nib pens are better than steel nib pens, and i would say 18k is more exquisite than 14k, 14k is more exquisite than 12k.

 

Ebay is not a proper website to buy chinese pens, try this www.taobao.com, and search ”Hero 14k“ ”Wingsung 14k“.

This website provides a chat tool which called Ali WangWang, by using it you can chat with the seller instantly.

 

Cheers

Ben

[79spitfire]

I've had variable experience with Chinese pens as well, sometimes with the same pen! I've had some 616s that write perfectly well, flush and store, and then next time they won't cooperate, same inks, no signs of old ink stuck in the pen.

 

The best Chinese pens I've got are a Hero 100, a Jinhao 159 and a Bulow (Jinhao) X450. I have several Wing Sung 233s that were acceptable, and still use for testing questionable inks, but they have sections that crack without warning, and the only acceptable action at that point is scraping the pen.

 

The inexpensive Chinese pens are great starters (gateway?) into modifying and fixing pens.

[richardandtracy]

...Ebay is not a proper website to buy chinese pens, try this www.taobao.com, and search "Hero 14k" "Wingsung 14k".

This website provides a chat tool which called Ali WangWang, by using it you can chat with the seller instantly.

 

Cheers

Ben

 

Ben,

Not all of us are very good with Chinese language web sites - I for one see thousands of squares where I don't even have the correct language characters loaded on my machine. I'm not sure that I'd trust Google Translate to give me enough info to safely buy through the site, and I really cannot read Chinese at all.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[wastelanded]

I think with any of these pens, it's pretty much required to pull the feed and give it a scrub with a soapy toothbrush. Ivory works wonders for me, ymmv.

[seffrican]

This supports my point of view here, that there are good chinese pens out there. This thread should be "Cheap Pens - A Perspective" instead of "Chinese Pens - A Perspective" because the hit and miss quality control issue here is not with Chinese pens, which can be excellent, but with very cheap (sub $10) pens in general.

 

Well, I started the thread so that's the title I chose.

 

I have cheaper pens than the ones I mentioned here. The two Indian pens I bought last week for $8 the pair kick every pen except one that I listed above into touch. The exception is the Jinhao 159, which is superb. I did say so in the original post, but no-one seems to have noticed that part.

 

Bringing $50 pens into the discussion confuses things. The Chinese pens are widely considered good value on this forum precisely because they are the majority in the sub-$10 range.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Hello all,

 

I would strongly recommend you to buy chinese fountainpen with a golden nib, generally, the quality of such golden nib pens are better than steel nib pens, and i would say 18k is more exquisite than 14k, 14k is more exquisite than 12k.

 

Ebay is not a proper website to buy chinese pens, try this www.taobao.com, and search ”Hero 14k“ ”Wingsung 14k“.

This website provides a chat tool which called Ali WangWang, by using it you can chat with the seller instantly.

 

Cheers

Ben

 

I've heard of taobao, but so far I've bought all my Chinese pens from US dealers or ebay.

[inkstainedruth]

Interesting thread. I'll throw my hat into the ring, since I have 5 Chinese-made pens, all of which are squeeze fillers.

Three of them are Guanlemings (all purchased from isellpens.com -- no affiliation other than being a happy customer). All three cost $5 US from there. The #193 "Calligraphy" pen doesn't get much use, but seems okay. It has a semi-hooded fude nib on it, which is fairly nice to use. The pen is nice looking, but feels cheaply made. I envision the barrel cracking at some point. The 2001 Demonstrator has a hooded nib. It feels even cheaper than the #193, and I have to keep an eye on the nib so it doesn't get misaligned from the feed. It's a bit scratchy (I think it's an F -- or equivalent to Western EF, perhaps). OTOH, it's the pen I put Bay State Blue in, because I don't give a rat's ass if the barrel or feed stain. The third pen is a #978 Accountant. It's a little slim (almost too much so even for me), but it has a nice heft to it -- the metal barrel makes it feel like a more expensive pen. It too has a hooded nib, and like the 2001 has an F/EF nib. I like it a whole lot (love using grey inks like De Atramentis Tchaikowsky in it, and I don't normally match ink colors to pen barrels).

The other two pens I have were gifted to me at pen club meetings. One is a Wing Sung 237, with a Triumph style F/EF nib. Like the Guanleming Accountant, it feels more substantial than its price (I believe that they also run around $5). It's also an attractive looking pen, and writes well. The other pen is a Hero 616 (someone bought a whole pack and was handing them out to any takers and I said "sure, what the heck..."). It's not bad looking -- a Parker 51 clone, down to the arrow-design clip. The comparisons pretty much end there. It feels cheap. Really cheap. Because it was new and I needed a pen with me that had pretty permanent ink with me when I was out of town a couple of weeks ago, I threw in some iron gall ink. It wrote okay, but tended to be a little scratchy -- especially by the end of the week, where I was convinced that I had worn off any tipping there possibly had been on the nib (I know that IG inks can be dry, but I'd used it -- it's Pharmcist's Terra Incinerata, original formulation -- in other pens, and don't recall the dryness being this bad). Additionally, the edges of the squeeze bar are *very* sharp (unlike any other pen I own, and besides the 4 other Chinese pens I've also got a Parker 21, a Parker 45, and a Parker 51 Special, all squeeze fillers -- the Parkers might be an unfair comparison, since the Hero is probably a $2 pen, but the other Chinese pens are also much better in this regard, even the Demonstrator). This makes the pen uncomfortable -- even a bit painful -- to fill.

I should note that someone else also took one of this passel of Hero 616s, and was having issues getting the pen to fill and write. I didn't have that sort of problem, but I did flush the pen out first, as I did before using the other pens (I flushed it last week but haven't put anything else in it). I should also note that I've had recurring issues with a Parker Urban, which costs a *lot* more than any of these pens (more than all five pens put together, assuming I had bought all five).

Overall impressions: the Guanleming Accountant and the Wing Sung 237 are nice, inexpensive pens. The other two Guanlemings have their uses. They're okay for what they are. The Hero? I'm going "meh".

YMMV

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Sailor Kenshin]

It probably wasn't a 'real' 616. Mine came from either speerbob or isellpens. Back in those days I never flushed a pen before first inking, and all of them wrote well right out of the box.

 

They don't have tipping.

 

But, on the genuine 616s, it's easy to remove the metal tube for a much better filling experience.

[penrivers]

Well, I have 4 Jinhaos, 2 heros 616 still new since years, never inked, lol I like to look at them they are beautiful, ah and the Cross Century ll smooth and little but not so much wetty, btw I think next week I am going to ink and photograph 2 Jinhaos for

the thread don't....and show me your pen..etc.

Coming back to the op question I think our problem is that we are in the beach and the Chinesse ocean some times send a brand to Isell or his nibs, I suspect there in the mass gravity of China must be hundreds and hundreds of fountain pen

factories that we don't know of, special editions for government functionaries or millioners that are only sold inside the country. Good we have the unvaluable opinions here of Slayerfans and Sebastel23, but we need more information from Chinesse members of Fpn.

Edited March 26, 2013 by penrivers

[akustyk]

Some people swear by Chinese pens, some hate them. I'm more in the latter category. Yes, they're cheap, but my experience has been rather negative. In fact, I don't have a Chinese pen that works well. They all ended up in the bin. Sorry.

[brewerjeff]

Greetings all! I have a sampling of "the usual suspects" listed above. Some good some bad... etc. I can write pretty well with all of them..

 

The intangible element is that I renewed my relationship with FPs on Chinese pens after being away for maybe 35 years so they have a place in my heart. Best of all, they're fun and unpretentious with true anti-snob appeal. Pens for the People!

 

Aside: You can keep Indian pens. Of the 7 that I have used one is worthwhile, 2 are "meh, wadever"... don't bother.

 

Hope you enjoy this. I did

 

http://i46.tinypic.com/20u1if9.jpg

[UK Mike]

My collection of Chinese pens currently stands at 16, all purchased over the past 9 months and every one of them writes very smoothly.

 

I have never tried a WingSung and prefer to keep to Duke, Baoer, Kaigelu and Jinhao - all of whom seem to make very good pens with excellent quality control.

 

In general, ink flow is generous although I always give a good detergent flush beofre inking any of the pens. Not one of them has had a problem after this.

The nibs are generally quite stiff but very smooth and I have avoided the very fine nibs because they don't suit my writing. The only nib I have to do any appreciable work on was my one and only Hero which writes very finely.

 

In my opinion, the quality control levels from the manufacturers I have mentioned are all extremely high and they produce a consistently good product. The better Dukes and Jinhaos have a standard of finish that is equivalent or better than many of the European pen makers. If they removed some of the gaudy design elements (shields on clips/jewels etc) and spent more money on the "gold" plating (usually PVD coatings), they could sit there alongside mid-range premium Western pens with no problems.

[slayerfans]

...Ebay is not a proper website to buy chinese pens, try this www.taobao.com, and search "Hero 14k" "Wingsung 14k".

This website provides a chat tool which called Ali WangWang, by using it you can chat with the seller instantly.

 

Cheers

Ben

 

Ben,

Not all of us are very good with Chinese language web sites - I for one see thousands of squares where I don't even have the correct language characters loaded on my machine. I'm not sure that I'd trust Google Translate to give me enough info to safely buy through the site, and I really cannot read Chinese at all.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

Howdy Richard,

 

Actually, you don't need to dig out pens throughout the whole website, just save a few stores and here after you can find out what you need from these stores, cos as you know, fountainpen collection is a minority hobby, 80% sources are seized in a few seller's hand, i can introduce the seller to you if you need.Download and install the chat tool is the only thing you need to do, i can build the relationship betweem you and the sellers.

BTW, taobao also have the money protection system like paypal, you can pay the money to alipay from your visa card, then seller will ship the pens to you, confirm receipt after you receive the pens, all under protection.

let me know if you are interesting.

 

Cheers

Ben

[seffrican]

Interesting thread. I'll throw my hat into the ring, since I have 5 Chinese-made pens, all of which are squeeze fillers.

 

(...)

 

Overall impressions: the Guanleming Accountant and the Wing Sung 237 are nice, inexpensive pens. The other two Guanlemings have their uses. They're okay for what they are. The Hero? I'm going "meh".

 

Thanks for the opening remark, it means a lot, coming from someone who sprinkles Linotype fonts into the forum and owns more ink than would be required to fill all the pens belonging to the entire forum membership.

 

 

Thanks also for describing your experiences in detail. That seems a more constructive way to augment and expand the perspective that I gave in the original post than some of the other approaches that have been adopted.

[icevic]

China does make some very good pens, including those from TWSBI, Cross, Sheaffer, Taccia, and many others.

 

They also make some pens at astoundingly low prices with no quality control at all, and many of those are lemons.

 

It IS possible to make consistent quality pens at a very low price (as Pilot does with the Preppys, or as we see with ballpoint pens) so it is disappointing that the cheaper Chinese pens are so inconsistent. But they are also incredibly varied in styles and full of quirky features and strange brand names, so perhaps that is part of their charm.

 

Please don't paint all Chinese pens with the same brush, because some of your favourite fountain pens with familiar brand names may very well have been made in those same factories, by the same people.

 

Someone mentioned watches: remember that many of the parts and much of the assembly in many "Swiss Made" watches also originate in China.

 

Chinese manufacturing and engineering varies from astonishingly bad to astonishingly good - the fun part is figuring out which is which.

[Pterodactylus]

China does make some very good pens, including those from TWSBI, Cross, Sheaffer, Taccia, and many others.

 

They also make some pens at astoundingly low prices with no quality control at all, and many of those are lemons.

 

It IS possible to make consistent quality pens at a very low price (as Pilot does with the Preppys, or as we see with ballpoint pens) so it is disappointing that the cheaper Chinese pens are so inconsistent. But they are also incredibly varied in styles and full of quirky features and strange brand names, so perhaps that is part of their charm.

 

Please don't paint all Chinese pens with the same brush, because some of your favourite fountain pens with familiar brand names may very well have been made in those same factories, by the same people.

 

Someone mentioned watches: remember that many of the parts and much of the assembly in many "Swiss Made" watches also originate in China.

 

Chinese manufacturing and engineering varies from astonishingly bad to astonishingly good - the fun part is figuring out which is which.

 

Note:

TWSBI is a Taiwanese company not a Chinese one.

Or do you mean companies which manufacture in China?

I don't know if TWSBI manufacture their pens in China, but I don't think so.

Also Sheaffer is no Chinese company.

Sheaffer is part of the French BIC company and at least my Valor is manufactured in Italy.

Also Cross is no Chinese company, it is a US one.

 

In general many of the products from China that flood our (European/US) market is cheapest junk (not talking only of pens).

Look e.g. At all the cheap plastic toys or clothes.

Or even picture books for children ... Printed in China....

It is crazy that such things are shipped over the whole world.

Produced in China under degrading conditions, to maximize the profit in our closefistedness time.

 

I try to avoid these products whenever I can.

Especially the cheap junk, but also products from western companies which manufactures in China.

This cheap, cheaper, cheapest globalisation mentality will ruin our economy in the western world on the long run.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Pterodactylus

[seffrican]

China does make some very good pens, including those from TWSBI, Cross, Sheaffer, Taccia, and many others.

 

(...)

 

Someone mentioned watches: remember that many of the parts and much of the assembly in many "Swiss Made" watches also originate in China.

 

I agree with everything else you said, but those two paragraphs are unfounded in fact, which does not support your argument.

[Interapid]

I always wonder about the cheap Chinese pens, they look nice but I wondered of the overal quality. I also collect violins, if you thought fountain pens were an expensive hobby it has nothing on violins, your most expensive pen probably would barely rate as a decent entry level violin. But the Chinese also make some really astounding looking violins for cheap, as cheap as $150. I took the plunge on one and it was really terrible, wet varnish, big thick top, terrible tone, the neck pulled clean off after a month under string tension. The Chinese also make some excellent violins, but you pay market value for those like Scott Cao, Ming Jang Zhu etc... Basically you typically get what you pay for even in a global economy.

 

 

Agreed 100% that you get what you pay for, even in a global economy. However, there are some savings to be had if you buy products made in a country with, let's say, relaxed attitudes towards worker treatment and environmental concerns. That's why clothing and shoes can be purchased so cheaply.

 

When it comes to Chinese products, the consumer should always be wary of something that looks good, but is not built or intended to last.

 

FWIW, Scott Cao was born in China, but has been an American resident for almost 30 years.

 

I mean no disrespect to any country. Although I was born in America, my father and many more family members immigrated from China in the late 50s through the 80s.

[icevic]

 

Note:

TWSBI is a Taiwanese company not a Chinese one.

Or do you mean companies which manufacture in China?

I don't know if TWSBI manufacture their pens in China, but I don't think so.

Also Sheaffer is no Chinese company.

Sheaffer is part of the French BIC company and at least my Valor is manufactured in Italy.

Also Cross is no Chinese company, it is a US one.

 

 

 

The country we unofficially call "Taiwan" is officially the "Republic of China" and is Chinese.

 

I didn't say that Sheaffer is Chinese: I said that they manufacture in China, like Cross and many others. They don't make everything in China but quite a lot is, and many parts are made there even for pens manufactured elsewhere.

[icevic]

China does make some very good pens, including those from TWSBI, Cross, Sheaffer, Taccia, and many others.

 

(...)

 

Someone mentioned watches: remember that many of the parts and much of the assembly in many "Swiss Made" watches also originate in China.

 

I agree with everything else you said, but those two paragraphs are unfounded in fact, which does not support your argument.

 

 

Look it up.