Sourcing Baoer 801 Nibs (Or Similar)

[sodul]

I have a few third tier vintage pens that are either missing a nib or have a nib too damaged to be useable that I still want to service so that they write again. For some of the pens with a feed around 5mm diameter I have a few 'vintage' nibs that are probably from around the 1960s that work well but some pens with 4mm diameter feeds and I've been using nibs from the Baoer 801 models. These are cheap pens and each nib costs me under $2 but then I kind of waste an entire new pen which I find wasteful. I've been able to get #5 and #6 chinese nibs but not what I guess would be #4 nibs. A nib a few mm longer than the one on the Baoer 801 would actually be even better.

 

Below 2 vintage pens that are now very nice writer thanks to Baoer 801 nibs:

[oneill]

I have a few third tier vintage pens that are either missing a nib or have a nib too damaged to be useable that I still want to service so that they write again. For some of the pens with a feed around 5mm diameter I have a few 'vintage' nibs that are probably from around the 1960s that work well but some pens with 4mm diameter feeds and I've been using nibs from the Baoer 801 models. These are cheap pens and each nib costs me under $2 but then I kind of waste an entire new pen which I find wasteful. I've been able to get #5 and #6 chinese nibs but not what I guess would be #4 nibs. A nib a few mm longer than the one on the Baoer 801 would actually be even better.

 

Below 2 vintage pens that are now very nice writer thanks to Baoer 801 nibs:

Try just advertising for Baoer Nibs on ebay they sometimes have them on there,or try Goulet,Trust Me

Oneill

[sapient]

Did you ever find anything? I am interested too for nibs that size

[Mech-for-i]

well as far as I know the Baoer 601 nib is actually a very common nib used in Chinese fountain pen and its a classic no.5 as that it's used on a true 5mm feed and the nib is something like 24mm o 25.5mm long ( depending on specific version of the nib ) , the typical so call no.5 ( or type 26 in Chinese fountain pen ) actually use a 5.5mm feed mechanism and the nib curvature matched to that , and with a length of 26 to 28mm varying.

 

At least in its home market this type of nib is not hard to source at all, many pen retailer carried spare nib from various brand that fit this size; mind that there are indeed even smaller sized 4.5 or 4 nib that goes into well 4.5mm and 4mm feed and they generally are slimmer if not shorter. Say I have in my stash a number of no.4 nib that are 25mm long but as well some 4.5 nib that are only 21mm long, the smallest likely the Hero no.4 nib that's only 20.5mm long to fit a 4mm feed which actually is current and used on quite a number of models

 

without knowledge of you guys retail channel or how you buy I can only say that they are available, sometime you just need to ask your online retailer about it cause for international trading they probably find it too much hassle to list the nib separate.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Mech-for-i

[sodul]

I've been able to procure #6m, #5, Lamy style and hooded style nibs on eBay but I have yet to find 4mm nibs.
Contacting the eBay resellers has not been very successful in the past as they usually do not specialize in fountain pens and are unlikely to source different nibs than what they have listed already.

[Mech-for-i]

judging from the photo ... the old nib seems to be roughly 20mm+ .. are you looking for similar sized ones , here's a photo cached off the net of the current Hero no.4 nib,. In fact Hero even had a 10K gold version of this on some of their pen ( but the gold nib was not offered independent )

[sodul]

Thanks Mech-for-i, this looks like it will be a good match if I can find a good source for California.

 

On the Arnold pen (yellow) the original nib was 19mm long, 5.5 mm wide at the shoulders and 4.5mm in the back. The feed has a 4.75mm diameter.

The green pen, an Eclipse, came with a badly fitting Waterman's #2 nib. That nib was in poor shape and I did not measure it for reference since it did not fit well. The pen performs well with he Baoer 801 nib.

 

The best nibs here would be generic ones without branding as it would look the most authentic on these vintage pens. Of course new old stock would be even better but my stock of NOS nibs are neither this old or the right size.

[Mech-for-i]

well well .. OK let me go back to my parts cache ( might be this weekend when I' off ) and see if I can dig p something. back to yo if I got something else