Jinhao 992 Informal Review

[truthpil]

Jinhaos are smooth, but do not preserve inks properly. We are looking at 5 days to a week.

 

Do you find your Jinhao 992s drying out easily? So far my Jinhao pens seem to have a decent cap seal so no hard starts most of the time.

Edited October 11, 2017 by TruthPil

[AmandaW]

Jinhaos are smooth, but do not preserve inks properly. We are looking at 5 days to a week.

 

I've had drying out problems with Jinhao x750 and 599, but the plastic 992 is still behaving nicely.

[truthpil]

So, I ordered a box of 15 of the 992's for give away pens. The delivered price was slightly less that $1.60/pen. Fine nibs. Transparent barrels in the full array of colors. Delivery time to the middle of the US was 13 days from order date.

 

I flushed them and filled a couple to see how they performed. So far, so good. I have to say that I was expecting less for this price. I know they are not a robust pen nor likely a long lived pen, but what the heck. If someone shows an interest in fountain pens, I'll have a handful of these in my desk, ready to fill and go with them. If they stick with it, perhaps they'll get a bottle of ink.

 

I've got to ask...do you see any cracking on the cap or end of the barrel where the plug is on any of your 992s?

 

I haven't given up on the idea of ordering another one in case I can get a crack-free one.

[dapprman]

I'm another one who's found the X750 dries out quite quickly, but has had no problems with the 992. More accurately I buy in bulk, test, ink up, then pass out to fountain pens newbies (muahah) - sent one out today that's been sitting on my coffee table for a couple of months - no obvious ink loss, but it did still write well. I suspect they may vary pen to pen (they are dirt cheap after all and must be going through a cheap manufacturing process to enable that).

[JFB]

My 992's & 991's seem to do pretty good resisting dry-out for the most part. I just pulled a 991 out of my bag that I last used about 2 or more weeks ago. It has been rolling around, probably on it's side half the time, and it wrote immediately with just minimal skipping on cheap copy paper. and I have a 992 I keep by my bedside in case I have any brilliant ideas in the middle of the night—that one doesn't get used very often either. It suffers from a little skipping as the 991 but writes...

 

Pax,

John

[TSherbs]

 

I've got to ask...do you see any cracking on the cap or end of the barrel where the plug is on any of your 992s?

 

Yes, a couple of cracks on more than one, but not all. I don't mind them. No diminishment in performance.

[Kelly G]

I've got to ask...do you see any cracking on the cap or end of the barrel where the plug is on any of your 992s?

 

I haven't given up on the idea of ordering another one in case I can get a crack-free one.

 

So far, I've noticed no cracks. I don't plan to use these as eyedroppers so I'm not too worried about the cracking issue.

[rochester21]

I was sorry to read about the cracking issues on these pens, which i don`t contest in any way. Engineering can`t perform miracles at a production cost of less than a dollar.

It is possible that the solid black version has a better chance of surviving long-term usage, since creating quality translucent plastic isn`t as easy.

 

Is there a metal alternative to the 992?

Edited October 13, 2017 by rochester21

[truthpil]

Yes, a couple of cracks on more than one, but not all. I don't mind them. No diminishment in performance.

 

 

So far, I've noticed no cracks. I don't plan to use these as eyedroppers so I'm not too worried about the cracking issue.

 

Thanks for the replies. It's good to know there are crackless ones!

 

[madrigal]

I have two 992s that have been inked and unused since the summer. One (translucent blue) is inked with Noodler's Baystate Blue and the other (translucent green) has Waterman Intense Black. The blue pen hasn't been used since August 11; the green pen since July 11. I used both of them today, and to my surprise, both still write! The blue pen was a little dry, but after a little twist of the converter, it's writing well again. I don't know if it's a testament to these little pens or to the ink, but I thought I'd mention it either way.

 

Also: I don't have a loupe, but I don't see any cracks near the plug!

 

edit: Spoke too soon. The blue pen is still pretty dry. Not sure if I should flush out the ink and try again...

Edited October 24, 2017 by madrigal

[apvm]

Ordered one on Oct 16 from ebay seller, surprised me that it arrived today.

 

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/1pc-Jinhao-992-Spiral-Transparent-white-Colour-office-Fine-nib-Fountain-Pen/253110770019?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Edited October 27, 2017 by apvm

[truthpil]

Ordered one on Oct 16 from ebay seller, surprised me that it arrived today.

 

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/1pc-Jinhao-992-Spiral-Transparent-white-Colour-office-Fine-nib-Fountain-Pen/253110770019?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

What do you think of it?

[Gloucesterman]

I have two 992s that have been inked and unused since the summer. One (translucent blue) is inked with Noodler's Baystate Blue and the other (translucent green) has Waterman Intense Black. The blue pen hasn't been used since August 11; the green pen since July 11. I used both of them today, and to my surprise, both still write! The blue pen was a little dry, but after a little twist of the converter, it's writing well again. I don't know if it's a testament to these little pens or to the ink, but I thought I'd mention it either way.

 

Also: I don't have a loupe, but I don't see any cracks near the plug!

 

edit: Spoke too soon. The blue pen is still pretty dry. Not sure if I should flush out the ink and try again...

If you are flushing the pen with the Baystate Blue be prepared for a fair amount of work and some long term stains.

 

You may want to check the files here on FPN for the challenges of cleaning BSB. Just mho!!

 

And best of luck!!

[madrigal]

Oh, yes, I had my BSB sample on hold until I got some cheap pens on hand! Luckily I've never spilled it... yet...

[bob_hayden]

Is there a metal alternative to the 992?

 

 

I don't know of one that differs only in being made of metal but the 886 is a small but light inexpensive cigar-shaped metal pen that I would not expect to crack.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/285797-pen-review-jinhao-886-colorful-cute-bullet-amazing-writer/

[IndigoBOB]

Well I am late to the show.

I was going to disregard the 992 since I was so impressed with Wing Sung's lately, but when I saw the success these had on their own and especially with fitting TWSBI/Jowo #5's, I had to order two to use my TWSBI nibs collecting dust.

[truthpil]

Well I am late to the show.

I was going to disregard the 992 since I was so impressed with Wing Sung's lately, but when I saw the success these had on their own and especially with fitting TWSBI/Jowo #5's, I had to order two to use my TWSBI nibs collecting dust.

 

I know exactly what you mean. My TWSBIs were collecting dust too, just too chunky and angular for me. My ECO stub nib is much happier in my 991 and 992.

 

Looking forward to reading about your experiences with the 992!

[dan in montreal]

I was sorry to read about the cracking issues on these pens, which i don`t contest in any way. Engineering can`t perform miracles at a production cost of less than a dollar.

It is possible that the solid black version has a better chance of surviving long-term usage, since creating quality translucent plastic isn`t as easy.

 

Is there a metal alternative to the 992?

As far as cost of engineering is concerned, well these are copies of another company's pen (zero cost as far as design is concerned) and the very least Jinhao could do is use a suitable and stable material. I guess there is no real incentive to do this, as the company is government subsidized and it really doesn't care if their products last or not. They just have to sell a bunch to make it worth their while before moving on to another model, using the same nib and feed.

[bob_hayden]

I think the pens are copies in the sense that some engineer is told to figure out how to "make a pen that looks like this" (but use off-the-shelf components for the functional parts). But making it "look like this" does not mean that much engineering thought goes into making it work like the original. I gather that the pen Jinhao copied to make the 992 had a plug in the closed end of the barrel, so the copy must have that too, but nobody figured out how to do that without having the barrel crack. I am a retired engineer and the Chinese pens do not look to me like they were designed at all. Now they do put some design work into nibs and feeds, and those seem to be much better in the current crop of Jinhaos and Wing Sungs, but we still see things like an ink level window that shows you the converter instead of the ink level, and piston fillers in which the cap posts on the filling knob instead of the barrel. But, hey, it LOOKS like the original!-) One could see this in many Chinese products sold in WalMarts long before Chinese fountain pens became common. OTOH when US designers create a product and have it manufactured in China under careful QC such goods can be both well-designed and cheap. The hard part is figuring out which products fit in that category and which were just made to look like the real thing. For now, FPN is the quality control arm of the Chinese FP industry;-)

[IndigoBOB]

I know exactly what you mean. My TWSBIs were collecting dust too, just too chunky and angular for me. My ECO stub nib is much happier in my 991 and 992.

 

Looking forward to reading about your experiences with the 992!

 

 

Very glad to hear about that.

 

I'll be happy to share my experience.

Edited November 5, 2017 by IndigoBOB