Fuliwen 017

[sansenri]

Yes, it seems I was not quite thorough on the last post.

What I meant was if Fuliwen (or any other Chinese seller in that regards) has a cheap aftermarket #6 EF nib, sorry for the lack of information.

Also depends how cheap you want to go, but I would not go too cheap on an EF, you're likely to find lower quality which might be more evident on a very fine nib.

The pen is reasonably affordable and seems to deserve a good nib if the one on offer is not to your liking.

I would wait for someone to confirm which type of nib may fit, then if confirmed I would probably make an effort to get a Jowo or Bock, or Schmidt for it.

[penzel_washinkton]

 

Moonman started to produce #6 nibs for the M600S and M6 pens. The nibs are available in EF and F and can be purchased separately. I hope I can test if this nib fits the Fulwen 017 during this weekend.

 

Interesting... Is it the one with the gold tone color? Might need to try those out.

 

The Moonman / Delike EF is what EF like in a Chinese fountain pen ; the latest batch of Moonman 80/80S/80 Mini had one of the finest Fine around these days ( they change the nib to made it firmer after too many complain about too easy to sprung the tines ) ; and also the WSE Wing Sung Pilot style nib. I've found the usual Lamy style nib tend to be a sliver wider always. They generally in my experience write as fine as a Platinum Preppy 0.2 , well of course the ink and paper play a major role when we talk this fine.

 

There is not many no.6 nib and as far as just stock replacement nib or even Stock ; I am not seeing any EF on offer ; I had actually on order some Fulin nibs ( now in shipping ) and they should arrive next week , within the cache is a no.6 0.5mm ( aka their finest ) I'll see if I can fit it somewhere to give a sample when that come in

 

And yes, the PenBBS EF seems about the only one factory offered for now ... the lack of alternative grind always an Achilles Heel among all the Chinese fountain pen brands

 

Unfortunately never tried Moonman / DelikeEF, only the PenBBS EF.

I opened the tines a little bit on the PenBBS EF because it was dry as a desert when I got it hence why I couldn't use them as a point of reference.

 

Also depends how cheap you want to go, but I would not go too cheap on an EF, you're likely to find lower quality which might be more evident on a very fine nib.

The pen is reasonably affordable and seems to deserve a good nib if the one on offer is not to your liking.

I would wait for someone to confirm which type of nib may fit, then if confirmed I would probably make an effort to get a Jowo or Bock, or Schmidt for it.

 

The reason why I am searching for an EF nib from the Chinese market is mainly because of curiosity in all honesty (and to save cost, not gonna lie lol).

I have had the the EF on Jowo #6, Nemosine #6 and soon I will try Bock & Kanwrite just to see the performance.

[Mech-for-i]

Well I would characterize Chinese fountain pen EF nib in a most generalized form as being grind to a fine semi architect point and firm in most cases

 

Its understandable why it is this way if you consider trying to write the language clear and concise on say a 6 mm ruled note and similar ; also almost all of the thus equipped pen would likely be tuned for conservative ink flow so not to ruin the fine lining ; which usually made them downright misery for most who had to use it for most other linguistic writing.

 

In fact in my cache one of the finest EF I had is none other than a vintage GLM 14K in a slim no.5 size and its firm alright but it do the fine lay diwn of ink consistent and at evety stroke I take it to

Edited September 28, 2019 by Mech-for-i

[vojtahlad]

So I tried the nib swapping and the Moonman #6 nib fits perfectly. I consider the original nib to be troublesome so this modification improves the pen significantly. Both pens have different screw-in units, but the bare nibs fit. Another compatible nib is the Jinhao #6 from X450, X750,...

 

Here are some images, click to enlarge. I do not own the Moonman EF nib only F. Comparison left to right: Jinhao X750, Fuliwen 017, Moonman M600S. The original nib is fairly wide, rouhly comparable to Lamy B.

 

 

Here are some pictures of Fuliwen wearing the Moonman F nib plus a writing sample:

 

[sansenri]

thank you, interesting, if the moonman #6 fits it's very likely Bock or Schmidt will fit too.

Thank you also for the nice and very sharp photos.

[MuddyWaters]

Very good to know. The original nib did seem poor and imprecise. I just bought a bunch of nemosine pens so will have a bunch of nibs to replace this with.

 

The body of the pen seems nicely large. I look forward to feeling it. The m600s was not comfortable for me.

[antoniosz]

Reasonable pen for the price. The plastic is nice. The nib is good. The clip is a joke. Very soft and the cap is tapered and it never stays on it.

[alanlight]

[sansenri]

Regretfully I need to tell a tale of either misfortune or stupidity (mine).

 

As mentioned earlier in this thread and discussed with Muddy, this pen had caught my attention since a while particularly for its size.

Besides the M600 (Moonman), which is borrowing from the Duofold its appreciable size, the Fuliwen 017 is one of the first Chinese pens I see that seems to have a size larger than the usually skinny Chinese offerings. In fact the construction reminds me rather closely of Ranga pens, of which I am quite a fan.

It looked like a pen to try, despite its origin which usually concerns me somewhat, due to previous experiences.

New Chinese pens seem to be improving, so also invited by vojtahlad's nice photos and comments, I decided to give it a go.

 

As I hesitated the first shops started running out of the pen, so not to lose the chance, since it seems Chinese pens seem to be made in small batches of lately and when they're gone they're gone, for a few dollars more I ordered one with the snake stopper, which does not interest me at all, but was the only offer left at around $28.

The shop I ordered from was esybuy... mhm...

When I ordered a Moonman M600s from them a few months ago the misadventure I run into did surprise me. The M600 I received had a badly bent cap.

see my earlier misadventure here

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/346682-moonman-m600s-moonman-6-nib-new-colors-cheaper/?do=findComment&comment=4219973

To be honest they did solve the issue by sending me a totally new pen (and not asking to return the defected one).

 

This time with the Fuliwen 017 I did not order a bent nib, but guess what? exactly... I got a bent cap again

So I'm either unlucky or more possibly stupid for challenging chance again

 

It has to be said that Ms Sally, the shop owner, was very fast at acknowledging the issue and apologizing.

In no time she reimbursed the whole sum paid and has also offered to try and get hold of a spare cap.

She would not send a new pen this time in substitution, but I'm guessing reason is she has run out...

 

Here is the weird bent cap next to a straight M600 cap.

 

Explanation for the defect was due to heat during transport (same odd explanation she gave me the last time with the M600s).

It does make me wonder how they ship these from China... (looks like a manufacturing defect to me though, and I told her so...)

But if it is transport, then I probably must stop buying from them (the defect statistics is dramatic, two pens, two bent caps!!)

 

Bent cap aside, the pen looks good, and is comfortable in the hand. I do hope Sally finds a cap for it.

But what if it gets bent during transport?...

Edited October 23, 2019 by sansenri

[MuddyWaters]

Wow that is odd. I bought from them too many weeks ago and have not received the pen yet.

[Ememel]

I tried to modify the nib on my own, but it is beyond my newbie repairing skills. The skipping and hard starts (tried with several papers and three inks in total) stopped me from using the otherwise so lovely pen. So I ended up ordering the nibs vojtahlad mentioned in his/her post, as well as some random size #6 italic and flex nibs I came across on Etsy just for fun.

[MuddyWaters]

They actually could not fill the order and offered me a different colour by my interest in the pen waned so I asked for a refund instead. Esybuy tried to get in contact with me multiple times but I was not checking my Etsy account.

[Ememel]

They actually could not fill the order and offered me a different colour by my interest in the pen waned so I asked for a refund instead. Esybuy tried to get in contact with me multiple times but I was not checking my Etsy account.

Darn. It is a nice pen even though the nib it comes with has caused some problems. I did also notice that this second round of pens now available seems to be somewhat different looking. The model is the same, but this batch's acrylic has sharper differences between the colors - in the purple version there's more of the red and in the starry night more yellow. Hence I haven't dared to order a starry night.

[Ememel]

 

 

 

 

 

I received the first order of nibs. This is a size 6 steel nib from the etsy shop KiwiPens. It works fine, but isn't a perfect fit. At times, there's minor issues with the consistency of the ink flow, causing some inkless lines. I believe this is bc the feed and nib aren't a perfect match. I ordered this just for fun and will keep the nib on the pen at least until the other orders arrive.

[penzel_washinkton]

Wondering if anyone has tried exchanging nibs between Fuliwen and PenBBS?

[sansenri]

Just adding a comment on this pen after a while.

Besides the defected cap (which is slightly bent on my specimen, but still screws on correctly) the pen itself is really nice both in terms of material, which looks good and feels strong, in terms of size (a large size Chinese pen as Muddy had noticed!), in terms of balance and weight, really correct, and also with regards to nib performance.

No, the nib does not need to be swapped out! It's a very nice nib, and it's an M!

 

Considering that it has turned out to be a rather good pen in all its aesthetic and functional details (with exception of the bent cap, but that's my bad luck as others received perfectly straight ones ...), and considering the design seems to be original, it is a pity this pen is nowhere to be found any longer (except perhaps on taobao), Fuliwen would probably do a good thing to re-issue the model, maybe in some new colours.

Edited May 19, 2020 by sansenri

[sansenri]

I tried to modify the nib on my own, but it is beyond my newbie repairing skills. The skipping and hard starts (tried with several papers and three inks in total) stopped me from using the otherwise so lovely pen. So I ended up ordering the nibs vojtahlad mentioned in his/her post, as well as some random size #6 italic and flex nibs I came across on Etsy just for fun.

btw, your experience seems to be opposite to mine... good cap, bad nib!

[sansenri]

sorry for the dreaded double post...

Edited May 19, 2020 by sansenri

[MuddyWaters]

i finally got one of these. I could not resist the red version. The pen is absolutely beautiful. It's basically a Ranga Model 4C but cheaper and without variability from model to model. The nib is terrible though. I'll have to swap it if I can after this fill. Not sure there will be that many options though. Moonman nibs are pretty bad too and I read that might be the only other option.

[Mech-for-i]

10 hours ago, MuddyWaters said:

i finally got one of these. I could not resist the red version. The pen is absolutely beautiful. It's basically a Ranga Model 4C but cheaper and without variability from model to model. The nib is terrible though. I'll have to swap it if I can after this fill. Not sure there will be that many options though. Moonman nibs are pretty bad too and I read that might be the only other option.

 

What nib come with the pen , though I do not own the 017 , I do however had a number of their no.6 nib the Medium pretty nice and smooth, the EF would be a curse to anyone not writing Chinese and the F somewhere in the middle.

 

There are quite a variety of Chinese manufactured no.6 or compatible form factor nibs around. Fulin had B and BB , Fuliwan's Medium , Hero got FM , and a whole load others got F and EF.

 

For simple no.6 PenBBS and Linmo ( Lorelei ) had nib unit retail in different grind.

 

And vintage nib are also there but beware , they can be a gamble. That said I do not find Knox, Jowo, Bock any better either.