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Wing Sung 590 Chinese Colossus


visvamitra

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As I enjoy trying new things I often order some chinese fountain pens that I resell or give to others later. Some stay with me, some find new homes. WIng Sung 590 was a model mentioned quite a bit on fountain pen boards some time ago. Experience with this one were mixed. There were peope wgo raved about how good was the pen and people who were disappointed by it’s smell, feed problems or overall performance.



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The one I received performs well but, truth be told, I’m not so entusiatic about it.



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Wing Sung 590 is a very large pen, but light weight for its size. The overall design is boring. Cylindrical shape, flattop, golden furniture. The parts fit together decently. The cap and section threading feel a little coarse but there’s no wobbling or looseness. As it’s a vintage pen signs of wear and tear are visible practically everywhere. Discoloration, some microscratches, gold trim that wears off. That’s ok for me as I usually don’t expect much from 5 $ fountain pens.





Nib



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The nib appears to be close in size to #6 nibs, but I’m not sure if they are swappable. It writes quite well. It didn’t need any smoothing or tweaking to produce consistent line. Ink flow is rather moderate but I think it can be improved by using wetter ink or doing some adjustments to the feed. The nib isn’t exactly smooth, it’s rigid and writing is moderately pleasant. Line variation is possible. Surprisingly reverse writing is very smooth and plesant.



Filling system



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Aerometric filling system. The ink sac in this thing is HUGE and holds a ton of ink.



Dimensions



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Capped – 158 mm


Posted – 172 mm


Diameter – 14 mm


Weight – 15 g



Summary



Wing Sung 590 is a pen you don’t really need unless you’re into hobby and simply need to try new things from time to time. It’s cheap. It’s huge. If you’re lucly, it’ll perform well. For me this pen is too big and too ugly to use. Also getting one is like particpating in Chinese Pen Lottery – you may get a working one, you may have bad luck and get a ppen that will, say, spontaneously stop writing in the middle of sentence. That’s part of the fun, actually :)


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Excellent review,as always.But I don't know why you didn't like it.I like the pen overall but mine is very wet which I don't like...Do you know how to disassemble the nib?

Sagar Bhowmick

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The nib and feed simply pull out. They are friction-fit into the section. The nib is larger than a #6 nib, so you may or may not be able to find another nib to try. I purchased two of these monsters for about $11 USD, shipped to Illinois. Between the two, I have been able to get one that writes dependably and actually is pleasant to use. To me, though, at this huge size it should be heavier. Oh, and if you think the pen is cheap, then the nib seems cheaper.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

post-138873-0-34895800-1505658977_thumb.jpg

 

I actually like this pen, but I had to do a lot to get it to work. It literally did not write at all when I first got it. The nib is really flimsy and unimpressive and since the pen wasn't working anyway, I decided to "go to work on it."

 

  • I replaced the nib with a nib from a Jinhao 159, which both looks, feels and works better.
  • I had to open up the channel on the feed a bit.
  • I also had to remove the breather tube in order to get the pen to work. It now fills and writes great without it.

 

 

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That's a gorgeous pen! You say yours is vintage, are they still made?

They are still readily available nos, and trust me, it is huge.

Not really ideal for posting as it turns into a baseball bat, but mine is very reliable and even has a bit of flex in the nib, and it has a certain cartoonish appeal.

 

A similar alternative if you need to post is the Yangtze version, or Hero Yangtze as it's listed, as the cap posts far deeper, making the pen a more reasonable size in use.

They are cheap 80s/90s plastic Chinese pens, which I've become quite fond of for differing reasons.

 

Ian

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  • 3 weeks later...

Do you know how to disassemble the nib?

It is a straight pull out type friction fit arrangement. Grip the nib and feed between the flats of the thumb and forefinger and gently rock them out. There is a breather tube on the feeder, so be careful as you pull the nib out else the tube may snap. Do not attempt to separate the tube from the feed.

 

My SOP with these pens is to first remove the nib and feed. Then soak the feeder and nib in dish wash detergent like Vim or Pril, then use an old toothbrush to scrub the feeder nicely. Rinse the feeder under running water and then wick the feeder dry using a cotton cloth(old cotton vests are excellent for this).

 

Adjust, align and gap the nib outside. Then assemble the nib and feed together and insert into the section. Heat set the feeder to nib using hot air if you see a gap between them. I have not needed to do this so far on this model across several examples.

 

good luck.

Edited by hari317

In case you wish to write to me, pls use ONLY email by clicking here. I do not check PMs. Thank you.

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Whenever I see a review of this pen and for the matter any of its Chinese perrs aka oversize like the old Doctor 90 model I cannot help but chuckle.

 

The thing is these pen in their days and originsl intent were sold as art supply. They were not even designed for writing not even Chinese. They were essentially a pen for ink sketching / drawing and paintig including Chinese calligraphy painting which is not the same as Chinese calligraphy writing.

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I bought one of these recently and it is one of the best pens I've ever owned. Whatever its intended purpose, mine writes beautifully with very little tweaking. It is very wet and puts down a broad line. I use it for titles and dates on stuff I write for my own use. The feel is a bit unusual but very smooth. I find it quite comfortable to use capped though I have small hands. But looking over other posts on the pen I am not sure I would recommend buying one. There may have been quality control problems back when it was made, though my experience with old Wing Sungs is that they are consistent. I bought a package of ten 333s at about $1 per pen and every one has been just great and needed very little fussing. That was years ago and they all still write great despite looking like really cheap (elementary) school pens. Nor have any broken in any way. OTOH I have had a number of Wing Sungs with the imitation Triumph nib and hated all of those. But some people like these, so some of the variability may just be due to taste. I suspect that a big factor may be that the ones you find on eBay are roughly 25 years old and may not have been stored under ideal conditions. The 333s came in a box that looked like something found in an abandoned barn. And the bad small suggests the sacs are decomposing. Mine does not leak, but the decomposition process could be depositing gunk in the feed, accounting for the high variability people experience in ink flow. As I said, mine is very wet, never skips, and starts right up after sitting for days.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/315571-in-praise-of-the-wing-sung-333/

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I have 3 of them - manufacturing errors abounds.

 

None of them wrote well. That said, they do not dry out, so the cap design is solid. I put a TWSBI B nib into one and it's actually now a good pen.

 

This is a callback to china at its early, experimental days. Quality all over the place, kinda junk materials.

 

But with a good nib in it, this pen is quite comfortable and a good writer. Just don't -expect- the nib in it to be good. I'm happy that it has had zero problems with hard starting over the past 3 weeks.

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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  • 10 months later...

Mine is great and performed out of the box as Bob describes above.

 

One question: can the aerometric filler be replaced with a converter? I don't at all like not knowing how much ink is in the sac or being able to tell if it's clean and dry before refilling.

 

C

Oh, I know this of myself

I assume as much for other people

We’ve listened more to life’s end gong

Than the sound of life’s sweet bells

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Guess not?

Oh, I know this of myself

I assume as much for other people

We’ve listened more to life’s end gong

Than the sound of life’s sweet bells

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No, it can't. it's glued to the section. BUT, the metal squeeze bar can be pulled off and I find that squeezing the sac itself without the metal bar makes for a very convenient filler. I actually take the bar off all my chinese aerometrics now, I have no idea why they exist on any pen. just squeezing the sac itself is the way to go.

 

So, all your problems are solved by just pulling the metal shroud off the sac. It's not "elegant" looking to fill, but who watches people fill pens? It holds a ton of ink and you can see the ink level easily with the metal shroud off, and cleaning is quick too since it's essentially its own bulb syringe. being so darn huge.

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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MG66, where did you get yours? Mine came from cute.panda on eBay.

 

I since have bought the Yangtze but do not like it nearly as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just bought one of these as a punt on eBay and figured if I didn't like it, I'd give it to my sister who was looking for a nice pen (though she is far more picky than I am!). I got it in Medium (Which to me is far too wet and puts too much ink out! I haven't been able to find a notebook to be able to use it with without bleeding) and at first it wouldn't write. Well it would, but it would skip and almost felt like the ink was running out.

So I left it over night in some water and dishsoap before pulling it out this morning for another go (this is when I realised it was SO wet).

I'm not sure whether I like it yet or not but even with a full ink sac, I had to pull out the nib (and the feeder came with it - I'm presuming that's normal?) and it took a dozen or so tries to get it right. Even now the feeder is aligned on top (the line appears in the centre of the little hole) but on the bottom it is off to the right. However it writes so, whatever.

It smells really odd - like musty, is that something others have experienced??

'Someone shoot me please.'


~the delectable Louisa Durrell~

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These pens really do love a nib swap (they'll swallow even a very long TWSBI #6). the stock nibs have typical 90's china quality control - none whatsoever.

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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