Are Chinese Pens A Gamble?

[XiaoMG]

It was originally an American company, founded in NYC in 1926 and manufactured there. Two years later they hauled anchor and moved to Shanghai and soon became a major manufacturer; no NYC-built products has yet been discovered; pre-war Shanghai-built examples in good condition now command up to four-figure prices due to collectors interests. It's also known that the firm also branded some of their pens "Rockman" but I do not know when that happened.

I wonder where the claim that they started in New York comes from. Are there any records of such a company being founded in NYC? If not, I would not be surprised at all if it were a fabrication of the company's.

[Chrissy]

I have been advised that even if you have one of the decent, more expensive Jinhao FP's, and you want do to play around with the nib a little, you can't buy a new nib unit for it. No-one sells just nib units.

[Ipno Tizer]

I had a Chinese pen from Ryman that cost £0.49 - half a quid. To put it politely it was dross. When I put registrar's ink in it, it rotted the nib unit. Good. That's got rid of it.

 

But I've got two W.H. Smith stubby cartridge pens that I believe to be made in China which cost £1.00 each and they are better than some expensive pens. I also have a Hero 616 which cost me £1.50. Now that I've worked out how to cope with it's peculiarities, it, too, is a really good pen.

 

So yes, you can get some rubbish pens from China, but that country is also home to some very good brands.

 

Bear in mind that Twsbi, from Taiwan, could be considered a Chinese pen.

 

Chinese pens can be a collector's interest in themselves. But considering that Chinese pens are normally inexpensive, you could miss out on some good value for money pens if you avoid them.

 

Chris B.

[mr T.]

If they are what companies and models should I stick with and which ones should I stay away from?

Many 'Chinese' pens are counterfeited (even the very cheap ones), so it's impossible to answer this question.

[tonydent84]

I think like others here, I too have had both good and bad experiences with Chinese pens. Jinhao fountain pens never worked for me. Others love them, but I've always got the bad ones. But for like $10 or less, I'm not going to cry over it. The Hero fountain pens I found to be very functional and pleasant to use. Recently I bought a batch of low budget ones, but even these write pretty good. I've never had a problem with any of the Duke pens I own. I only tried out one pack of Wing Sung pens and I like them. Just today I got a Baoer 388 in the mail, and it writes the way I'd expect a $50 brand name pen to write and feel. I got a small lot of Chinese pens coming in the mail over the next couple of weeks, and I expect at least a few of them will be flaky but there will be some pretty good writers too. I guess to put it simply, with such low prices, it might not be that risky because as someone said above, you can buy a bunch of cheap Chinese pens for the price you'd pay for one good brand name pen and get a few good writers out of that lot as opposed to just one with the brand name pen.

 

But even with the best writer from the cheap Chinese pens, I don't expect any of mine to be the types of pens that would outlast me or even hold up over years of use the way brand name pens would (or at least should).Maybe some of them, but I set my expectations low.

[Seele]

I wonder where the claim that they started in New York comes from. Are there any records of such a company being founded in NYC? If not, I would not be surprised at all if it were a fabrication of the company's.

 

It would be interesting to see if members located in NYC can do some research. There are quite a number of sources - where I cannot verify as totally independent of each other - making this claim. Here are some webpages mentioning that:

 

This pageis from the Shanghai government historical website

 

This page is from a Chinese fountain pen forum

 

This page is on the story of Youlian Pens and the Guanleming connection

 

This page is another account on Guanleming's early days

[guilhermejf]

Usually you must work quite a bit on these pens before using them. I have always needed to wash them well, floss the tines to clean any gunk, adjust tine spacing and check if the feed is working. If you know how to do it, easy. If not, bad.

[XiaoMG]

It would be interesting to see if members located in NYC can do some research. There are quite a number of sources - where I cannot verify as totally independent of each other - making this claim. Here are some webpages mentioning that:

 

This pageis from the Shanghai government historical website

 

This page is from a Chinese fountain pen forum

 

This page is on the story of Youlian Pens and the Guanleming connection

 

This page is another account on Guanleming's early days

Thanks! I figured it would have been a Chinatown thing if it were an authentic story. Didn't mean to cast too much doubt on the story...just curious where the claim is from.

[Sasha Royale]

Yes.

 

I bought a 10-pack of HERO 226 and a 10-pack of Hero 616. Sturdy construction.

Writing quality: 40% very good, 40% fair, 20% useless, except as teaching aids.

I have a selection of the "low-end" Jinhao pens: x750, x450, x250, x500.

These pens look great sitting on the desk. They are very sturdy. Writing

score is the about the same.

 

I have learned a lot from dismantling and experimenting with the bad ones.

[jd50ae]

I wonder where the claim that they started in New York comes from. Are there any records of such a company being founded in NYC? If not, I would not be surprised at all if it were a fabrication of the company's.

 

It would be interesting to see if members located in NYC can do some research. There are quite a number of sources - where I cannot verify as totally independent of each other - making this claim. Here are some webpages mentioning that:

 

This pageis from the Shanghai government historical website

 

This page is from a Chinese fountain pen forum

 

This page is on the story of Youlian Pens and the Guanleming connection

 

This page is another account on Guanleming's early days

 

Maybe someday I'll learn Chinese.

[jd50ae]

I have at least 20 Chinese pens of all types and flavors. Not a bad one in the bunch.

I can't say the same for others, say MB, which of the few I have bought none of them paned out, and I will not buy another.

I have had a bad Visconti which wasn't a hard fix.

I have had a Stipula repaired and I love it.

Chinese pens are no worse then any other and are a lot cheaper so you are not going to loose a lot if it does not work out.

I have 4 Pelikans and none have ever given me a problem, but other folks complain about the bad one they bought.

At any point in time anyone can get a bad pen from any manufacturer. It can be fixed or it can't.

If you want to buy a pen, then buy it.

[Flounder]

I wouldn't say Chinese pens are a gamble scamwise, the vast majority of sellers are fine,. You still see a lot of Hero 616 knock offs, but generally you can expect a functional fountain pen for the money you pay. The"gamble" is more to do with variable build quality on lower priced Chinese pens. Maybe one will be a hard starter, another scratchy, the next perfectly fine, and so on.

 

I will say for all the tremendous variety in shape, size and colour available, most Chinese pens are pretty homogeneous in having fine, stiff nibs.

[goldiesdad]

I have acquired a number of x750, x450 and use them to practice grinding the nibs and turning them into obliques which I love ....

 

I concur they look like a million bucks but perform only marginally ... IMO

 

 

Yes.

 

I bought a 10-pack of HERO 226 and a 10-pack of Hero 616. Sturdy construction.

Writing quality: 40% very good, 40% fair, 20% useless, except as teaching aids.

I have a selection of the "low-end" Jinhao pens: x750, x450, x250, x500.

These pens look great sitting on the desk. They are very sturdy. Writing

score is the about the same.

 

I have learned a lot from dismantling and experimenting with the bad ones.

[Tokugawa]

My view on Chinese pens is that I am too poor to buy cheap stuff. My time is precious and limited. I would rather spend time writing than scowling and cursing the parents of the fly-by-night makers and purveyors of such pens. Thankfully, Esterbrooks and other quality, reasonably priced pens are available in addition to high end pens like Nakayas.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Like I say... Buy from reputable dealers . No gamble involved.

[Seele]

Maybe someday I'll learn Chinese.

 

I think I should as well

[lovemy51]

I wonder where the claim that they started in New York comes from. Are there any records of such a company being founded in NYC? If not, I would not be surprised at all if it were a fabrication of the company's.

 

It would be interesting to see if members located in NYC can do some research. There are quite a number of sources - where I cannot verify as totally independent of each other - making this claim. Here are some webpages mentioning that:

 

This pageis from the Shanghai government historical website

 

This page is from a Chinese fountain pen forum

 

This page is on the story of Youlian Pens and the Guanleming connection

 

This page is another account on Guanleming's early days

 

todos tus enlaces son fantásticos. los entendí perfectamente. un millón de gracias.

[lovemy51]

My view on Chinese pens is that I am too poor to buy cheap stuff. My time is precious and limited. I would rather spend time writing than scowling and cursing the parents of the fly-by-night makers and purveyors of such pens. Thankfully, Esterbrooks and other quality, reasonably priced pens are available in addition to high end pens like Nakayas.

 

i understand perfectly. hence, i rather buy a nice $15 Hero than a $70 sheaffer 300. the hero writes and handles way beter, IMO.

[richardandtracy]

I have tried Jinhao, Kaigelu, Wing Sung, Hero & Leonardo. I have one 'Duke' too, which is a very nice pen.

 

The hooded nib Jinhao's (321 or similar) are superb.

I have three more Jinhao's I'd recommend to anyone. The two versions of the Jinhao Century - with the Mk2 being better - and a filigree version for 'best' as it's too cheap to have thick gold plating. However, the filigree pen looks amazing and writes well. See here:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/141747-jinhao-321-review

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/200150-jinhao-century-pen-in-blue-celluloid/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/220345-jinhao-century-mk-2/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/214811-jinhao-5000-filigree-overlay-pen-review/

 

I like all the Kaigelu's I've touched (I have 3 types, and my wife has a further 8), however the gold plating is fairly thin and does wear more rapidly than one would hope. They do have problems with some more recent convertors - with a corrodable ball in the c/c. That is easily fixed, though. The K356 and K316 are very good.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/204770-kaigelu-316-grey-amber/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/222537-sonnet-comparisons-with-lookalikes/

 

The wing Sung and Heros I have are a disappointment. The H616's have variable quality and all have fine nibs.

 

The Leonardo I have was, when I got it, the most amazing looking pen I had up to that point. Six weeks later, it looked very sad. 'Tired' would accurately describe the finish.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Richard.