A Brief Statistics Of (Un)Problematic Chinese Pens

[mke]

I bought recently about 140 Chinese pens. 6 of them had damaged parts like deep scratches and 20 of them other problems like not holding the ink or not writing at all.

With Jinhao pens, a set of 8 Jinhao 599 had 5 bad pens, otherwise just one X750 who couldn't hold the ink - you can see that the quality of Jinhao pens is quite good. They are wet writers, some at the limit of too wet.

Baoers are often dry writers, all bad pens didn't write at all.

Wingsung had no big problems (1 of 10), but I am not so convinced of the squeeze converter they use.

Duke no problems.

Hero just 2 from 22, also here problems with the converter.

Dikawen no problems (I only bought 4)

Kaiduaoli converter problems (2 from 5)

and finally Yiren: 50% of my 8 purchases had problems with the holding of the ink.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2017 by mke

[hbdk]

That is not a bad hit rate I would say. I often buy 2 or 3 pens of a specific model to make sure to get a good one. I wonder about the models of Baoers that you got. I use the 388s for give away pens; buying 10 at a time I usually have to ditch only 1 or 2.

[Ian the Jock]

My hit rate is considerably better.

 

I have somewhere between 60-70 Chinese pens, possibly more, and I have had 1 non player, and 1 dubious nib.

The non player...

A Boxue?, which looked nice, but unfortunately the slit in the nib was cut by someone using a spoon, as it was cut diagonally across the nib and didn't even go right through the nib.

And

I was re-seating the nib on slim Huahong and the nib halved in my fingers. I think the nib was ready to go and I just helped it.

 

All the rest? No complaints at all.

 

I think my ratio is aided by the fact that I've steered clear of the Hero 616 and other similar skittery, flimsy, plasticky wee things, that to me are just not worth even considering, when comparing them to what you could have instead.

 

If I've bought more than 1 of any type of pen, it's because it's a good pen and works well, and of course I like the pen in the first place.

Buying a 10 pack because you expect 4 not to work, to me, a tight ar$ed Scotsman, just doesn't make sense.

Buy a better pen in the first place, and as sure as a cat's a hairy beastie your failure rate will reduce.

 

I've just realised that I've absolutely slaughtered many people's beloved 616, for which I apologise.

 

I'd better get myself a 10 pack now.

 

 

Ok,maybe not.

 

Ian

[NinthSphere]

I'm, thus far, 10 for 10 on functional Chinese pens.

 

1 Hero 616

1 Jinhao 750

3 Jinhao 886

2 Jinhao 159

1 Jinhao 599

1 Hero 565

1 Lingmo Lorelei

 

One or two of the 886, I think the 565, & maybe one 159 needed minor tweaking to the tine alignment, but otherwise fine. No leakers or other damage.

[bobje]

I haven't calculated the failure rate for my Chinese pen acqusitions, but it feels similar to Ian's. One or two mess up, among several dozen. When the pen costs less than most converters, the loss is not much.

[Mech-for-i]

Well I have , over the years , literally a couple hundred of Chinese pens. Discounting my student years when being young and naive and abusing whatever I have on hand. I will say my failure rate tend to be astonishing low. I would say since I consider pen ( of any sort ) a valued tool and start using, then hoarding a stash, and then really start collecting them. My failure rate out of the roughly 150 Chinese pens I have, I believe I have 7 or 8 failure.

 

3 of them outright refuse to write no matter what until I do major surgery on them either replacing nib or parts

2 fail in their sealing and leak inks , end up I have to disassemble and reassemble them

I think the others are damaged or cracked section etc ....

 

I would attribute the low failure rate to my own habit of handling any tool ( and not just my pen ). My routine for any tool I do acquire new is not to use them but to clean them, inspect and if needed, adjust and tune, then take a few while to familiarize myself with the tool's operation before actually starting to test / use the item. I think this kind of approach guarantee a better long term usage excellency and satisfaction

[Sasha Royale]

Jinhao x250, 159, x450, 500, 599, x750.

Failure/defective rate about 5-10%

 

HERO 266 10for$9 , 616 10for$11

Failure/defective rate 20-25%

 

Assume this going into the purchase. Spend accordingly. The good ones are very good.

[Helen350]

My experience has also been pretty much as Ian's. Of all of my Chinese pens, the plastic 599s had problems with cracking. I took the nibs out of the plastic 599s and placed them in the metal 599, and they are working well. The nibs did require a bit of smoothing. All of my other Chinese pens are working well, and I have a fairly decent selection of them. The X750 nibs have been replaced with Goulet 1.1 stubs. I have no problem with replacing the nibs of my Chinese pens with either a broad or 1.1 stub Goulet, Knox or a 1.0 FPR nib if necessary. My Huahong nib required quite a bit of tweaking upon arrival, and now writes with just a small amt of feedback. Knowing how to work with a nib is a required skill for a Chinese pen. With that ability, you can have a very nice writer.

 

The original 616 pack was purchased years ago, though I recently rediscovered them and currently using them. Out of the pk of 10, two were throw away - failure rate 20%. Of the remaining 8, three were sent to my dear (leftie) friend in NY. I recently purchased a pack of three 616 Jumbo/Physician/Large, and have no problems. Was rather surprised at their performance, though I am not partial to F-nibs. Even my most recent F. nib Lorelei is doing pretty well after some serious flushing and nib smoothing.

 

Overall my experience with Chinese pens has been a very positive one. I keep one of my Hero 616 in a globe pen stand.

[displacermoose]

I also have been very pleased with the success rate of my Chinese pens. Of about 50 two were junk from the get go. I've had an additional 2 or 3 that I couldn't get to work the way I like. The others have been quite impressive.

[pomps]

I have around 70 Chinese pens, one of which just refuse to write (a FP with hooded nib from Aihao) no matter what I do. One Wingsung 698 had the nib bent to an L shape on arrival (dropped on its head before packing?), which I had to repair with finger nails and pliers but it writes perfectly now. 3-4 have starting problem if inked and left for 2-3 days (cap not properly airtight?). A lot of them have minor nib alignment problems that can be fixed easily.

[rwilsonedn]

I almost wish this thread could be moved to the First Stop forum so people who have been told to beware of Chinese pens could get a more accurate view of reality. This is really valuable data, and a corrective to a lot of prejudices.

ron

[bugsydog55]

Have approximately 70 Chinese pens and am more than a little surprised by how well they work. There have been some issues-a Jinhao 599 snapped in half-but even that worked out. The nib and feed went into a Baoer 388 that was only good for spear fishing and it works great now. Have had a few issues with Hero 616's. Converted one of them to a small stub. Overall I am very pleased with them, even the stinkers are fun to work on and play with.

[oneill]

My hit rate is considerably better.

 

I have somewhere between 60-70 Chinese pens, possibly more, and I have had 1 non player, and 1 dubious nib.

The non player...

A Boxue?, which looked nice, but unfortunately the slit in the nib was cut by someone using a spoon, as it was cut diagonally across the nib and didn't even go right through the nib.

And

I was re-seating the nib on slim Huahong and the nib halved in my fingers. I think the nib was ready to go and I just helped it.

 

All the rest? No complaints at all.

 

I think my ratio is aided by the fact that I've steered clear of the Hero 616 and other similar skittery, flimsy, plasticky wee things, that to me are just not worth even considering, when comparing them to what you could have instead.

 

If I've bought more than 1 of any type of pen, it's because it's a good pen and works well, and of course I like the pen in the first place.

Buying a 10 pack because you expect 4 not to work, to me, a tight ar$ed Scotsman, just doesn't make sense.

Buy a better pen in the first place, and as sure as a cat's a hairy beastie your failure rate will reduce.

 

I've just realised that I've absolutely slaughtered many people's beloved 616, for which I apologise.

 

I'd better get myself a 10 pack now.

 

 

Ok,maybe not.

 

Ian

Hi Ian most of the sellers realised that you are Scottish and Frugal.Trust Me, oneill Edited April 21, 2017 by oneill

[oneill]

I bought recently about 140 Chinese pens. 6 of them had damaged parts like deep scratches and 20 of them other problems like not holding the ink or not writing at all.

With Jinhao pens, a set of 8 Jinhao 599 had 5 bad pens, otherwise just one X750 who couldn't hold the ink - you can see that the quality of Jinhao pens is quite good. They are wet writers, some at the limit of too wet.

Baoers are often dry writers, all bad pens didn't write at all.

Wingsung had no big problems (1 of 10), but I am not so convinced of the squeeze converter they use.

Duke no problems.

Hero just 2 from 22, also here problems with the converter.

Dikawen no problems (I only bought 4)

Kaiduaoli converter problems (2 from 5)

and finally Yiren: 50% of my 8 purchases had problems with the holding of the ink.

[MercianScribe]

Small sample so far, but:

Baoer 388 x 3

Jinhao x750 x 4

Baoer Eight Horses x 1

Edit: completely forgot about one of my daily users! Hero 187 (bought - gave one to my wife and one to someone else, after testing them and cleaning them out again)

AND five or six Hero 1028s (the italic nibbed ones in garish purple and marginally less obnoxious blue): no problem with any apart from the broadest which took some persuading (can't remember without looking; was it 2.7mm? Maybe even 3...)

All wrote with no problems out of the box (well, there weren't any boxes, but you know!), and I even tested a couple without cleaning them first, and no problem there either. The one problem I had was that one of the Jinhaos wouldn't take the Noodlers nib I tried in it properly, but the other two I tried that with, and the G-pen nib I tried worked fine, including changing back to the original nibs.

All of them were on the wet side.

Of course, there is always fine tuning you can go for. One of the x750s was a touch scratchy.

Edited May 1, 2017 by MercianScribe

[FOUR X FOUR]

I have 4, X750s. They're brand new. Just got em from Goulet. I love the looks of them. Matte black finished metal. No problems with them. They write smooth and wet.

[Ian the Jock]

Hi Ian most of the sellers realised that you are Scottish and Frugal.Trust Me, oneill

Hahaha

There's 2 words that definitely go together O'neill.

I do like a bargain.

 

There's probably little truth in it, but apparently copper wire was invented by 2 Scotsmen fighting over a penny.

Edited May 1, 2017 by Ian the Jock

[bobje]

Are Scottish and frugal redundant?

[Ian the Jock]

Are Scottish and frugal redundant?

I'm mot quite sure what you mean Bob

[mke]

a bit more from my statistics - just for fun

 

I bought directly in China using Amazon, Ebay and AliExpress.

I follow how long it takes to arrive in Japan - but there are so many different ways from Air Mail, Economy Airmail, whatever - for the statistics I do not separate the different services. I did this bad statistics just to see when I should consider a parcel as lost.

 

Several parcels are still on the road: three from Ebay (48 days, certainly lost), 7 from Aliexpress (4 between 10 and 13 days, should arrive soon and 3 between 30 and 33 days, lost?)