Jinhao "Dragon's Decendant" Copper

[Songwind]

Jinhao Dragon's Descendant - Copper, Broad Nib

One of the downsides to getting your spouse interested in pens is that she becomes one of your enablers. So, my wife was cruising eBay looking at fountain pens, and found this listing, almost over and not bid upon. I really liked the look of the dragon engraving and the nib, and I was curious about trying a broad nib. I had also already had great luck with my Jinhao #250, so I decided to take a chance. I got the pen from seller GoToSchool, and everything about the transaction was as smooth as one could hope.

 

http://www.isellpens.com/Images/jinhao/JINHAO%20DRAGON%20COPPER%201.JPG

(image hijacked shamelessly from isellpens. If you want a Jinhao, Todd is a great source.)

 

Packaging

The pen came securely packaged. The collectible case was wrapped in bubble wrap and boxed, before being boxed for shipment. It came through the overseas shipment without any issues. The bamboo scroll is interesting and attractive, as is the box. I still have not had a chance to ask my Chinese coworker to translate for me. The box have a very nice set of hinges on it. They move smoothly and hold position well, both open and closed. I do have one complaint, however. It was packaged a bit too quickly after assembly, and carried a strong smell of wood stain. Thankfully, it did not affect the pen and dissipated quickly.

 

Pen Appearance and Construction

The pen cap and barrel are an attractive brushed copper with an engraved dragon on the barrel and Chinese characters on the cap. The end caps are black plastic and seat neatly and securely to the pen. The top of the cap has a gold plated hemisphere which lends the whole piece something of the air of a Mandarin button hat. The cap is in the form of a dragon's neck and head. It is not as ostentatious in real life as it looks in close up pictures. It also works very well. It holds tightly enough to the body to be useful without being difficult to slide over a pen loop or pocket.

 

The section is black plastic with GP hardware at the nib and body joins. The section is smooth and tapered, but neither so severely as to cause the hands to slip. The nib is partially 18k gold plated steel, with an embossed dragon head. Like the dragon head clip, it is busy looking when examined closely, but pleasant when taken in total.

 

Weight

This pen is heavy. With a wide all metal body, it would not help but be so. I fount the weight to be very manageable if unposted. The balance is forward of center, so it likes to be nib downward. Posted, I found the pen to be too back-weighted, and it became difficult to control.

 

Nib

I am very impressed with this nib. It puts down a nice wet broad stroke, though it is a bit narrow for a B. It is no broader than my medium Targa. It glided very smoothly over the paper right out of the box. So far, this is my flexiest nib. It will actually flex out to over a 1mm stroke, but it takes a lot of pressure, so I wouldn't make a habit of it. This caused me a bit of trouble at first, because I had a tendency to roll my pen counterclockwise. This ended up lifting the left tine and started causing skipping problems. It actually helped me to break that habit. It was the smoothest pen I had until Monday when I received an M200 I had been given in the mail (with, I believe, a Binder nib).

 

The only thing about this pen I can identify as a problem is the converter. It is a nice enough converter - a piston style job with copper rings at the handle and the nipple end. However, it really isn't enough ink for this broad wet nib. I can empty it out in a hurry.

 

Value

It would be hard to overstate this. This pen will run you somewhere between $30-$40 US, shipped. It writes as well or better than my Sheaffer Targa and Libelle Epic. It's solidly and attractively constructed, and came with a nicely joined wooden box. It is more ornamented than a lot of more expensive pens, but as I told my wife, "This isn't just a nice pen for the money. It's a nice pen for four times the money."

[hardyb]

I picked up the gold version and really like it too.

[goodguy]

Thank you for the review.

Lovely pen.

hardyb's gold plated pen is BEAUTIFUL !!!

[hardyb]

The one in silver is a knock out too:

[Songwind]

The gold and silver ones are nice, but I really like the dragon engraving more than the pattern.

 

http://www.isellpens.com/Images/jinhao/JINHAO%20PEWTER%20DRAGON%202A.JPG

[oneill]

The gold and silver ones are nice, but I really like the dragon engraving more than the pattern.

 

http://www.isellpens.com/Images/jinhao/JINHAO%20PEWTER%20DRAGON%202A.JPG

Hi There I have purchased six of this company's pens and to say the least they are such gorgeous writers each and every one of them, I am amazed at the quality that you get for such affordable prices, this company Gotoschool just leave others for dead as far as service and the very low cost postage charges they make to get the pens to you no matter where you live. I have bought some of these from Isellpens before but his postage charges are disgusting and the same pens are more expensive. I was more than impressed with the nibs of the pens and the fact that each one was already fitted with a convertor.two of my purchases were JINHAO DRAGON and JINHAO ZHUGELIANG these are perfect examples of what this seller offers the presentation boxes themselves must be worth around the $10. mark, I can thoroughly recommend them to you.