My Jinhao 159 Journey

[gryphon1911]

I purchased a Jinhao 159 a few weeks ago. I got the black with gold accents. I already had a few other pens inked up, so did not want to ink up anymore. I waited until another pen had a emptied.

 

So, here comes the Jinhao into the rotation. I cleaned and flushed it out, and put in a full converter of Noodler's Black.

Initially it wrote well, but over the week I had it, I noticed that the pen would dry up and the only way to get it started back up was to turn the piston down and fill the feed.

 

As well regarded and stable as the Noodler's Black has been reported, I didn't think that the issue was the ink. I started looking other places. Could it be the feed is blocked, the converter is faulty, the nib is not working right? One glaring thing that I noticed, was that the Jinhao supplied converter seemed to have air pockets and the ink was sticking to the rear part of the plunger and to the side walls of the converter.

 

After the pen was empty, I did another flush and I went to a local pen store and picked up another converter. The ones they had there were the Waterman Standard International.

 

I noticed a big difference in the quality of the Waterman over the Jinhao supplied converter, even before swapping them. Just to be sure, I even took a toothbrush to the fins in the feed just to make sure.

 

My wife, God love her, picked up a bottle of Private Reserve Tanzanite. She loves that I write her letters almost every day and I think she loves the ink variations more than I do!!

 

Second inking was with the newly flushed, Waterman converter installed and P.R. Tanzanite inked 159.

 

Has been working like a dream for the last 3 days. No hard starts, skips, not running dry. The nib, a medium, has been very smooth and I personally like the larger size pens, so the 159 size suits me well.

 

I also noticed that the Waterman converter did not exhibit any air pockets, clinging ink. I'll double check this once I get the Noodler's Black back into the 159. Just want to rule out the ink as an issue a well.

 

Take aways:

1) A cheap pen can be enjoyable to use

2) Expect a cheap pen to need some work

3) Quality converters are worth the extra $5-$10

4) Stick with it and do some basic troubleshooting. It's great to have a community as diverse and helpful as this forum to research what others have been through and their resolutions.

 

Anyway - enjoying the Jinhao 159, hope that this post is of benefit to someone down the road.

[richila]

My Jinhao 159 only gives me hard starts when I have run out of ink. It even loves Ancient Copper.

[rwilsonedn]

As you have observed, the surface chemistry between the ink and the sidewalls of the converter make a big difference. If the plastic repels the ink, the ink will hide at the top of the converter, defying gravity and even, sometimes, rather vigorous encouragement. Much like our cat when he thinks he is being put into that crate to go to the vet.

Sometimes the problem is residual chemicals inside the converter. But if repeated flushing of the converter with detergent solution or ammonia solution doesn't help, it is the chemistry of the ink and plastic. In that case, you can only fix it by changing the converter or (possibly) the ink.

Given the price point of Jinhao pens, I would not be surprised if the factory changes the source of their plastics from time to time. So one Jinhao converter might be a continual annoyance, as yours was, and another might work just fine, as the one I'm currently using in an X450 does.

At this price point--half the price of a Waterman converter buys you a whole, very nice pen--it's the luck of the draw.

ron

[Bluey]

The air bubbles form initially due to the oils from the factory process. All you need to do is clean out the converter with water and detergent and it will be A OK.

[gryphon1911]

All very good points. I did not throw the Jinhao converter away, so I might run a detergent/water solution through it and re-try it.

 

I needed another SIC anyway, as I have a Franklin-Convey that did not come with one. So, either way, I'm still coming out on top.

 

I'm still very new to the fountain pen world when compared to the majority here, so I appreciate you all taking the time to respond with comments and suggestions. I learn more and more with every post because of the great people here.

[Flounder]

On a related note, can anyone recommend a good quality international standard squeeze converter?

[scrivelry]

Do you find they work better than piston converters?

 

I never feel like I have managed to get any ink into them at all.

[Sasha Royale]

Quality control is one of the items that show better in a $50 pen. Observation #1 & #2 are spot on !

[Bluey]

Quality control is one of the items that show better in a $50 pen. Observation #1 & #2 are spot on !

I'm not sure about #2. I've been purchasing FPs in recent months like a lunatic and found this to be true

 

2) Expect a cheap pen to need some work 2) Price doesn't make much difference to QC

[Flounder]

Do you find they work better than piston converters?

 

I never feel like I have managed to get any ink into them at all.

 

I've never had flow problems in a squeeze filler, including Parker, Pilot & Sheaffer, but have in *some* piston converters. I also prefer the one handed filling, lets me use the other to hold/tip the ink bottle.

[scrivelry]

h, yes, holding the ink bottle. I think I saw some contraption for that somewhere, sometime - I've got an idea I keep meaning to try out.

 

Holding my inkbottles to ink lever-fill pens has been interesting, but so far God has been good...

[gryphon1911]

Ok, so today I ran my first converter of Private Reserve Tanzanite dry in the 159.

 

I go to unscrew the body of the pen from the nib section and to my surprise, the threaded part of the grip section stayed in the body and the grip part with converter still attached was in my other hand.

 

What compound would be appropriate to use to attach the grip section threads back onto the grip? Superglue, liquid nails?

 

Not that it is a big deal given I could replace the whole thing probably cheaper than buying a new tube of super glue, but I really do like it and the way it writes, so why not?

[Sailor Kenshin]

 

 

 

Happened to me once, as well. I just 'pushed' the threads back and they sorta, kinda, stayed there. Perhaps shellac, as sold by Anderson pens and other vendors, will work. It's a classic for pen repair.

 

Ok, so today I ran my first converter of Private Reserve Tanzanite dry in the 159.

 

I go to unscrew the body of the pen from the nib section and to my surprise, the threaded part of the grip section stayed in the body and the grip part with converter still attached was in my other hand.

 

What compound would be appropriate to use to attach the grip section threads back onto the grip? Superglue, liquid nails?

 

Not that it is a big deal given I could replace the whole thing probably cheaper than buying a new tube of super glue, but I really do like it and the way it writes, so why not?

[gryphon1911]

Happened to me once, as well. I just 'pushed' the threads back and they sorta, kinda, stayed there. Perhaps shellac, as sold by Anderson pens and other vendors, will work. It's a classic for pen repair.

 

 

Thank you. I'll look into that shellac.

[alexander_k]

Thanks for this good review of a decent pen. The 159 is certainly worth its money and if you fit it with a good nib (and possibly a better converter) it can become quite enjoyable. After all, all pens need some care and tweaking.

[jacksterp]

My only Jinhao has worked flawlessly from the get go, although I haven't used it in quite some time. A quick flush with mildly soapy distilled water and away it went. Never dried out (even after a month of non-use) and no hard starts.

 

Overall, have been very satisfied.

[gryphon1911]

I really like this 159 - the size, shape, weight....I could write with it for hours.

 

My only issue is that I like the black with gold accents - but not a fan of the bolder colored versions. I wish there were more color/style options in the 159. I might need to look a bit at the X series of Jinhaos. Maybe see if their size is something I like.

[DrDebG]

Give a Jinhao 750 a try. It is just a tad lighter, but still very nice.

 

RE: Jinhao converters - it's the luck of the draw. I just bought 4 Jinhao 250's, and 3 had a converter with a black piston and one had a converter with a clear piston. The clear piston was smaller than the others. I happened to have an extra standard international converter, and fitted that one instead.

 

But when I received them, I thoroughly cleaned them with lukewarm water, a drop or two of dishwashing soap, using a baby nose syringe (see Goulet Pens) to flush the pen thoroughly. I washed each converter several times too, then rinsed them in cool running water. I then allowed them to dry before I filled them all with the same ink - Callifolio Bleu Pacifique. For me, this is a very consistent, smooth, reliable ink, with no nib creep, gunk building up, etc. . . much like Waterman inks.

 

Then I wrote with each one - about a page each. I was very impressed with the consistency of all of them - smooth nib, great ink flow, no hard starts, same line width, etc. Only one was every so slightly scratcher than the others. But that was hardly perceptible.

 

One thing that I find works the best with my Jinhaos is to store them flat rather than stand them up. If I stand them nib up, they will dry out after a couple of days.