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Old Fart With A Question


jranney48

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Greetings and happy holidays to all!

 

I have recently returned to using fountain pens after 10 plus year without. Unfortunately, I gave away almost all of my pens when I first retired. Now I'm back at work in a college setting and have started back into the fountain pen world... but oh the prices! and the lower quality... I can't afford expensive Cross pens as in the old days so opted for a $20 Cross. It wrote great but the barrel was cheap plastic and it broke in my shirt pocket! I stumbled around on Amazon a bought several Jinhao pens. I love the heft and the look BUT the Jinhao converters are junk... I am looking for suggestions on a quality converter for the Jinhao line. Yes, I know it makes little sense to spend $10 to replace a part on a $5 pen but I love everything about them except the leaky converter. Any suggestions?

 

From the desert south of Tucson, AZ

 

James (JR) Ranney

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Welcome home. Pull up a stump and set a spell. Look for a Schmidt converter. They will be push in or threaded so make sure you order the one that will work in your pen.

 

My Website

 

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Not too sure about JInhao, but Faber Castell make great universal converters at a reasonable price.

 

Your best bet is to post a question (with pictures) in the Repairs Q&A forum.

 

Welcome to FPN - and Merry Christmas.

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Have you considered Lamy, either Safari or Al-Star?

 

That kinda defeats the purpose when he's just wanting a better converter. He probably doesn't want to downgrade to a Lamy Safari

 

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Hello and Welcome to FPN!! Glad to have you as a member!!

PAKMAN

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That kinda defeats the purpose when he's just wanting a better converter. He probably doesn't want to downgrade to a Lamy Safari

"Downgrade" is funny. The Lamy will outlive him.

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"Downgrade" is funny. The Lamy will outlive him.

 

Mine didn't. What's more, it holds the record in my pens as the only one to ever dry out after a week or less of none use.

Edited by Bluey
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:W2FPN:

 

And merry Christmas to all !

 

For any Jinhao pen I know, any standard converter will do fine,

although the Jinhao (Chinese?) cartridge format is slightly different:

They usually don't fit into standard pens, but Jinhaos will take standard cartridges.

Tho old Jinhao converters were rubbish, but the newer ones (as shown above) are better.

 

If you like the heft and look of the Jinhaos, a Lamy Safari will not be your style.

 

Lamy does make good pens, but they use their own cartridge format that no one else uses.

This limits the choice of usable inks and makes cartridges expensive.

They do have converters, too - but more than one format that do not fit all Lamys! :headsmack:

When I was in school it was quite desirable to have a Lamy. :puddle:

Because of their own cartridge format (by that time available from Lamy only!),

they were a rather expensive pleasure and the posh kids liked to show them off!

It was then that I made a solemn oath never ever to buy a Lamy! :angry:

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When I was in school it was quite desirable to have a Lamy. :puddle:

Because of their own cartridge format (by that time available from Lamy only!),

they were a rather expensive pleasure and the posh kids liked to show them off!

It was then that I made a solemn oath never ever to buy a Lamy! :angry:

 

I had one. Although I didn't "show it off". Your oath sounds more like a defiant reaction fueled by envy. :lol:

 

Alte Heimat NRW.

Edited by Astron
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From one old fart to another, welcome to the forum. On a side note, I feel bad for you folks that have problems with different pens. Seriously, Im not being cute. I can understand how frustrating it must be. Im just lucky with fountain pens. I dont think Ive ever had a problem with any of my pens.

Allan😀😀

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I had one. Although I didn't "show it off". Your oath sounds more like a defiant reaction fueled by envy. :lol:

 

Alte Heimat NRW.

 

More a kind of principle than envy: I didn't want Lamy to profit from their choice of a proprietary format.

And financial reasons, too: Those costly cartridges would have drained my far too small purse! :yikes:

The pens were great: Stylish design and good writers, but completely unaffordable!

I might have liked to have the pen, but not the running costs!

 

I also was glad that I didn't have a Geha:

Whenever they ran out of ink they needed another rare Geha.user to borrow a cartridge from,

whereas the Pelikan pens could use both! :P

And those Lamy users really had problems when they ran dry:

Hardly anyone had a Lamy and those were seldom willing to borrow ....

maybe because the cartridge was too expensive? :P

 

And yes, OK: I was annoyed with these show-offs, too! ;)

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Welcome, JR !

 

Modern "injection-mold" manufacturing uses an oily mold release agent in the plastic. In this case, it is the converter and ink feed path that is affected. Before first ink, I routinely flush thoroughly with five drops of DAWN detergent, dissolved in three ounces of water. Drawing and expelling the solution a dozen times is enough. Then, repeat with clean water. A clean ink path helps. Sometimes, the choice of ink is significant. The little "suckers" are picky ! (Yes, pun intended.)

Auf freiem Grund mit freiem Volke stehn.
Zum Augenblicke dürft ich sagen:
Verweile doch, du bist so schön !

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The Schmidt converter which I ordered from Goulet Pens works fine in my Jinhao 159.

“If you believe yourself unfortunate because you have loved and lost, perish the thought. One who has loved truly, can never lose entirely.” ~Napoleon Hill

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Hi! And welcome from Missouri! Glad you are with us!


You could give Ebay a try. You can buy 10 of them for 1 dollar. That way you have enough that several of them will be good.


You are right. I really do like the Jinhao pens, but their converters are not great. Good luck.


Edited by Bisquitlips

"The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."  - Selwyn Duke    

 

 

 

 

 

 

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