Problems And Solutions (?) For Jinhao And Penbbs

[EDR1633]

I have bought a number of Chinese pens lately including 4 Jinhao's and 3 PenBBS pens.

 

The Jinhao's have been a no-go for me, at least the x450, x750 and a model I don't recall the name for. I bought a 159 but have not used it yet. All three the pens I did try, when filled with ink, will drip ink out of the feed. Impossible to write with and a mess. Solutions?

 

Meanwhile, the two PenBBS 309 pens I have are excessively wet writers. On one I put in a Goulet Pens EF and it wrote more like a F, although really the ink was just gushing. At least its more controlled and the ink doesn't drip from the feed.

 

I had a really dry Franklin-Christoph EF nib on hand and replaced the GP nib, and now it writes beautifully. Unfortunately or maybe just coincidentally, this brings the total cost to around $50-$60, about the same price as the Diamond 580 by TWSBI. Both are now $60 piston fillers with smooth steel nibs.

 

The nibs that came with the PenBBS both wrote the same way... smooth, but even drier than the FC nib, and prone to skipping. There is no tipping on the end. Appears to be all steel with the characteristic upturned end.

 

Has anyone else encountered this? I was expecting a hit of miss experience with these, but all I've gotten is consistency, unfortunately biased to one extreme or another.

[Mech-for-i]

The PenBBS nib do have tipping but that tipping is more on the up turn end ; and you have to realize the nib is tuned for writing Chinese where the constrained ink flow would not be a issue but a plus. I use my PenBBS for multiple language and I had encounter no issue ; even with writing English. Admitting though I am not a fast writer and I am not out to do any calligraphy either. One of the Model 308 is my EDC and day to day workhorse writer for a while and I generally ink it with an IG Blue Black ( right now its Hero 232 ). I do have a trio of Jinhao 159, one wit its original nib, one I replace with a F nib and one I replace with a Fude / Calligraphy nib, Again no issue for me.

 

One thing about ink flow ; its not just the nib ... had you clean and flush the whole pen through before committing it to writing , if not, then go back do it, do it twice or even a third time, let it dry and re ink, examine the fitting , make sure everything tight then go and re ink for a run

Edited April 20, 2018 by Mech-for-i