Wing Sung 590: S.b.r.e. Brown And I Say, "great Pen"

[stacybean]

I purchased one priced at 3.99 USD shipped. It wrote straight out of the box and did not smell. The finish on the metal ring at the base of the cap is quite rough but it writes well, quite smoothly and with good ink flow. A fun purchase.

[Tas]

Oh go on then, I'll have two.

[k3eax]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-HERO-Wing-Sung-590-Fountain-Pen-Black-Gold-Rare-1990s-Trim-Gift-With-Box-/291229415036?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43cea0367c

 

The pen bought from this vendor for $3.99/USD did not smell.

[scrivelry]

Yes, I have the 3.99 ones - don't smell, won't write, I am still working on them. Just for interest I picked up a very dry Luoshi I had hanging around and the ink channel did not look all that promising in that one, either, so I got out the linoleum cutting tools (for making print blocks, not for putting lino down on the floor and getting it to fit in the corners - two entirely different sets of tools) and dug a bit and the Luoshi is indeed happier now - I have to go measure the distance between nib and feed on my two to see what's what with that. If necessary, I will do surgery on one and see what happens...

 

If your pen smells, there are probably even better things to do than washing it. Or, rather, there are additional things you can do after you wash it. I would try putting it in a box with some backing soda, but not in the baking soda - the baking soda in a dish, the pen next to it. Or you can try a box with a bunch of newspaper in it - sometimes that will help. Change paper or soda every now and then - the stench should decrease over time. In a final bit of desperation, Tupperware consultants used to be told that noxious odors could be got out of that plastic by putting cold water in and letting it sit overnight.

 

I seem to be the only one who got one that didn't write, and I go two of them. Did the Fountain pen sprites see me coming???

 

BTW, Flounder, very interesting that the pen stunk, but not the box it was in... I have no idea how they do that....

[arcadeflow]

It sounds as if the plastic is degrading. I've seen Chinese data and audio cables falling apart after a few years stored in drawers, like some kind of plastic rot. Very strange.

[hari317]

perhaps the pens were stored separately (bulk packing) from the boxes, and were mated just before despatch. standard practice...

[Flounder]

After all the washing yesterday and an overnight soak for the section & sac, the cap, barrel, nib, feed and breather tube no longer have a detectable smell. The sac and sac cage still smell but it is much fainter today. I'll give them another wash and soak (can't find the baking soda!). This is encouraging!

 

The plastics don't have any appearance of degrading, and the smell was always strongest from the ink sac, which is what leads me to believe the sac is the olfactory issue.

[k3eax]

After all the washing yesterday and an overnight soak for the section & sac, the cap, barrel, nib, feed and breather tube no longer have a detectable smell. The sac and sac cage still smell but it is much fainter today. I'll give them another wash and soak (can't find the baking soda!). This is encouraging!

 

The plastics don't have any appearance of degrading, and the smell was always strongest from the ink sac, which is what leads me to believe the sac is the olfactory issue.

 

 

Why didn't you return the pen? The vendor,who certainly knew about the odor problem, should be given an 'unsatisfactory" rating. If your purchase was from an eBay vendor, such an "unsatisfactory" might get him to act more responsibly.

[Flounder]

I don't mind a challenge, the pen pretty much cost the price of sending it back, and it's not the kind of pen I'll be cherishing anyway. After a wash and a polish, it'l just be a user pen.

[scrivelry]

I checked, and there is absolutely no space between the nib and the feed - an idea wouldn't fit. I am now looking up how one fixes this. I am guessing the feeds are plastic?

 

These seem to me to be pens which can take a #6 nib from Goulet or Knox or who have you, and I'm going to try that out as well. I like that it is light for the size - heavy pens can be a problem for my hand. I also like lots of ink, so these have the potential to be very useful.

 

I agree they are EDC pens rather than something you put in the glass cabinet and light carefully for effect... I'm glad the wash seems to have helped your pen, Flounder - I wonder if the sac may have just been from a stinky batch? I have learned to expect that some plastics will out-gass viciously and need a very very good airing before use. I've got a semi-offensive pen roll from the East right now - it smells oddly of nicotine, but i don't think it actually is nicotine - I think it's the plastic fake leather. However, it shows signs of not being impossible in this regard, the price was ok, and for tossing a few pens in my bag seems like it will be useful, so I am just airing it and seeing how it goes. It has a little zipper pocket I can put carts in, which struck me as particularly useful for out and about writing... All that said, it was a slight odor, not the stench you and others have described from some of these pens.

 

Has anyone else found the nibs too tightly fitted to the feed, BTW?

[hari317]

A tight nib feed fit is a good thing. The lack of an ink channel on the feeder can be problematic.

[swain]

Worst...pen...ever.

Vaguely amusing to see what Chinese QC was like when items like this were made--"who cares" would summarize it nicely.

I messed around with it for a few minutes and wound up tossing it.

The pen I had was simply a waste of time.

Good luck if you can find one that writes as well as Mr. Brown's but I suspect they are the exception.

[Flounder]

I've only dip tested mine so far, which is not the best test of functionality. It wrote a fine line, no skipping, and not too toothy. The smell is almost away, and I've given the barrel a polish.

[scrivelry]

Simichrome, or something special?

 

I am determined to get these pens to work. They should be scared. Very, Very scared...

[Flounder]

I'm using Greygate plastic polish, which is pretty good. I don't want to waste my sample packets of Novus 123 on the WingSung!

[scrivelry]

I have managed, with the aid of my curvy-bladed little linoleum knife (Think something a mouse-sized pirate would carry. If it had a smaller handle) dug a little channel for the ink on the feed, and low and behold, I can now write with the pen!

 

I'm writing with Quink and it's coming out a bit on the grayish rather than blackish side and I am wondering if I need to cut more of a channel, find a way to give that feed some breathing room, or just get some wetter ink.

 

I tried the GP nib in there just for fit and was then afraid I would not be able to get it back out! (I managed.) I have not tried to put that nib in there and write with it yet.

 

I want to get this one as close to what I want as possible before I start carving up the other one.

[scrivelry]

Well, this is interesting.

 

I took the Jinhao 450 that had a Goulet pens 1.1 stub nib in it and swapped nibs with the 590.

 

While the Goulet is a tiny tiny bit bigger, it does fit, and the feed is obviously delivering enough ink now for a stub.

 

The 590 nib is doing well in the Jinhao - seems to be writing better than it did in it's "home" pen.

 

This would seem to indicate that I can just shut up and write.

So Happy!

[k3eax]

Worst...pen...ever.

Vaguely amusing to see what Chinese QC was like when items like this were made--"who cares" would summarize it nicely.

I messed around with it for a few minutes and wound up tossing it.

The pen I had was simply a waste of time.

Good luck if you can find one that writes as well as Mr. Brown's but I suspect they are the exception.

Why did you toss it? Certainly meeting the challenge, as did Scrivelry, of first diagnosing and then correcting the problem would have been both rewarding and have left you with a very nice pen.

[masterguns]

I have managed, with the aid of my curvy-bladed little linoleum knife (Think something a mouse-sized pirate would carry. If it had a smaller handle) dug a little channel for the ink on the feed, and low and behold, I can now write with the pen!

 

I'm writing with Quink and it's coming out a bit on the grayish rather than blackish side and I am wondering if I need to cut more of a channel, find a way to give that feed some breathing room, or just get some wetter ink.

 

I tried the GP nib in there just for fit and was then afraid I would not be able to get it back out! (I managed.) I have not tried to put that nib in there and write with it yet.

 

I want to get this one as close to what I want as possible before I start carving up the other one.

 

 

Well, this is interesting.

 

I took the Jinhao 450 that had a Goulet pens 1.1 stub nib in it and swapped nibs with the 590.

 

While the Goulet is a tiny tiny bit bigger, it does fit, and the feed is obviously delivering enough ink now for a stub.

 

The 590 nib is doing well in the Jinhao - seems to be writing better than it did in it's "home" pen.

 

This would seem to indicate that I can just shut up and write.

So Happy!

 

 

Thats good to hear.

 

I have a spare GP 1.5 waiting for a new home, so this might be the one. When you say bigger, what do you mean by that? What dimension? Length, width, fit to feed? Just wondering what I might have to do.

[scrivelry]

Oh, so pleased if my posts are in any way useful!

 

The GP nib is longer than the original nib and seems to be a tiny bit wider.

 

By tiny bit, I mean maybe a few millimeters at the base where it enters the section.

 

It did work with the nib a tiny bit (one millimeter? two?) further out from the end of the feed than it is possible to put it, which leaves the part that goes into the section a tiny tiny bit smaller, but this time when I inserted it it just went in properly and everyone is happy. I didn't really have to do anything to it other than be careful I had the nib exactly where I wanted it on the feed, pinch the two together tightly and push a little.

 

I have a number of pens whose nibs fit very much more tightly at the base than the Goulet nib fits, so I would not say it is a big problem.

 

The length does not seem to be an issue at all - the feed is still longer than the nib, so the nib is not just hanging in space and, as I said, the pen is writing.

 

Cutting the ink channel resulted in many tiny tiny bits of plastic - Mostly I had to dig them out of the channel, and rinse, and otherwise encourage them to leave peaceably but I suppose the possibility of one deciding your eye was a desirable next address is there, so a person might want to put on glasses or goggles if they are cautious.