Must Buy Chinese Fountain Pen: Highly Reliable Chinese Fountain Pens In China

[boxis]

Could you please recommend me 3 or 5 Chinese fountain pens that consistently deliver high quality and excellent value?

Chinese fountain pens that look very good and perform wonderfully.

Thanks.

 

BRAND:

MODEL:

 

Answer if you have a lot of experience about Chinese fountain pens or if you have been in this forum for a long time and can remember the top best Chinese fountain pens that are a pleasure to use.

[ExcaliburZ]

Hero 100

[penguina]

Hero 100's are indeed good pens with hooded nibs, in the Parker 51 style.

 

But you would have to be careful to buy from a reputable seller of pens on ebay, as many of these Hero 100's are actually second rate copies of the real Hero pens. Truly Fakes of poor quality.

 

But having said that, there are some great Chinese pen sellers out there. Such as "gotoschool" and "comeon1788".

 

A good and current thread on this subject can be found at https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/185843-chinese-pens-on-ebay/

 

Also Todd at Isellpens has many good quality and authentic pens.

 

 

Other good Chinese pens include Jinhao and Kaigelu.

[lovemy51]

Hero 189 (can't find them on the net anymore, alas!):

http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n419/peterpaul_rguez/P6175829-1.jpg

 

 

 

Baoer Skywalker:

http://isellpens.com/Images/dewen/baoer%20skywalker.jpg

http://isellpens.com/dewen.html

 

 

 

Duke Spider:

http://www.goldquills.com/prodimages/D1-BlueSpider3.jpg

http://www.goldquills.com/proddetail.asp?prod=D1

[andybiotic]

Sorry if I am hijacking the thread but since we are talking about Chinese pens... has anyone heard of or owned and used one of those Picasso pens? They look quite good and relatively higher quality than e.g. hero or Jinhau (not sure how to spell it) but does it write well???

 

Some examples (no affiliations, pictures from Trademe.co.nz):

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2011 by andybiotic

[penguina]

The Picasso pens can be very good, (but so are many of the Jinhao's and the Hero's). I own three of the Picasso's myself, bought on ebay for about $25-30.

My pens are beautiful and sturdy Chinese Lacquer pens. They work perfectly every time I have used them.

 

However, I have heard some mixed reviews of these pens on FPN. Since I bought my pen about a year ago, many much cheaper Picasso pens have now come onto ebay. Maybe these are the pens giving thier users some trouble.

 

I think that one of my pens is a different version of the the last black pen that you have posted up. If so, it is a great pen

 

Perhaps if you avoid the really cheap Picasso's (under $15), then you will get a great pen.

 

The cheaper ones may be more of a lottery

Edited August 16, 2011 by penguina

[paolino_paperino]

Jinhao 325. It's a good copy of a Parker 61. Mine is well finished and a very reliable writer.

[ImolaS3]

Could you please recommend me 3 or 5 Chinese fountain pens that consistently deliver high quality and excellent value?

Chinese fountain pens that look very good and perform wonderfully.

Thanks.

 

BRAND:

MODEL:

 

Answer if you have a lot of experience about Chinese fountain pens or if you have been in this forum for a long time and can remember the top best Chinese fountain pens that are a pleasure to use.

 

 

I don't really think Chinese pens are that good in my experience but two of the 5 I have are not at all bad:

 

Jinhao X450

Jinhao Mao Commemorative

 

Generally the areas I am not happy with are the converters and nibs

 

Note that I have purchased 2 other Jinhao and a couple of Regals and been less happy - I think it is a sort of lucky dip

[tractionavant]

I've found that Hero, Jinhao and Baoer look good and write well .There is however the 'one off' model from other manufacturers that are a pleasant surprise -

Ok my list of Chinese Pens that look good and perform well in no particular order--

 

Hero 280

Jinhao X450 and the 'Emperor' Pen.

Hero 849

Hero 508

Zhenhao( I never managed to get another piece)

Baoer 388

Hero 240

Hero 78

Hero 443 and 329 and the Luoshi 923 .

[Will update pics soon]

[rearviewmirror]

I just got a Baoer 510 and its REALLY nice and well crafted.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Cnuyu.jpg

 

Compared to the 540

 

http://i.imgur.com/I7dFe.jpg

[tmenyc]

I much like my Jinhao x450 and Zhuge Liang, have given 3 x450s as gifts. Every single one of them was a lousy writer until I recut the grooves in the feed, thanks to advice received here on fpn. Then they all became great writers!

 

Tim

[padams2359]

I bought 8 pens, and have had various degrees of satisfaction. The two I gave my son, Jinhao Noblest 165 in silver and gold, and a Jinhao x750 in SS. They are both the best of the bunch, but the x750 is by far the smoothes write. The Jinhao Noblest - Celluloid Red is also a good pen. When dealing with these pens, a nice wet ink will also make the difference. Pelikan - Edelstein Onyx works well in all of them.

[txinsk]

My Kaigelu 316 is what I would recommend. I also have a 323 that I like as well. The Jinhao x450's are nice but heavy. Baoer makes some nice ones and they have some cheaper ones as well.

 

Rick

[chrevbel]

I really like my Montessa Venizia. This was a brand produced by Twsbi before the company was called Twsbi. I'm traveling at the moment and it's not one of the pens I brought with me this time, so I have no pix I can show you. It's a lacquered brass body, so it's on the heavy side, but that's what I prefer. I have nothing negative to say about it. They don't make 'em any more, so you'd have to hunt for used or NOS, but I think they're pretty readily available.

[Uncle Red]

My Regal Edward is works great for someone with smaller hands that likes a heavey pen because the cap doesn't post. Nib is very nice though. My Wing Sung 233 needed a touch of silicon grease to stop a leak but it's one of my favorites now. I'll add the Hero 616 Jumbo, a really nice, slightly dry writer.

[KrazyIvan]

+1 for the Jinhao X450 and also the Jinhao Century pen. Only issue I can see would be the gold plating rubbing off easily.

[ghazali]

Note that I have purchased 2 other Jinhao and a couple of Regals and been less happy - I think it is a sort of lucky dip

 

Interesting. The Regals I bought are among the smoothest nibs in my collection. Even smoother than the Sheaffer No Nonsense and Safaris (as a point of comparison). I'm thinking of purchasing more Regals in the future. The two Regals I bought are the Thames and Ritz from Ipenstore.

 

I also highly recommend the Kaigelu 316. That one I bought the Charcoal Grey model from Isellpens. Probably going back for the amber version of the pen. Writes a wet medium line.

 

Finally, I also like the Charles Hubert Paris line of pens. Not sure if it's Chinese or not but many seem to think so. Anyway, I got the "Engraved Silver" model also from Isellpens. Smooth nib (though the Regals are smoother) and nice balace/weight in my hands. Only problem is the cap is a bit loose. It caps but doesn't require much pressure to uncap. Not a threaded cap. Yes, I'll be going back for the mosaic version of this pen.

[tractionavant]

The Luoshi 923 .

[inky]

+1 for the Luoshi. It's such a nice pen that it is in my everyday rotation.

[Denny]

Hero 100.

But my advice - buy it from a reputable source. I bought one cheaper (~ $35) and it was scratchy. But regardless the price all are prone to breakage of the hooded section.