Jinhao 886 Short Review

August 25, 2017

There is a huge number of Chinese fountain pen brands. Some have long history, others appeared in recent years. I believe Jinhao - a property of the Shanghai Qiangu Stationery Co., LTD - is relatively new. On the other hand in the West it became much more popular than Hero or Wing Sung - brands with decades of tradition.

Jinhao produces a large number of pens that offer decent quality and are available in variety of finishes for reasonable price. Because of this Jinhao pens gain popularity and some people start to collect them.

So far I had a lot of luck with Jinhao pens. I've tried more than twenty of them and had no problems with any of them. Jinhao 866 isn't maybe most popular Jinhao model, yet many people find it appealing due to it's shape and fun colors it's available in. I bought two of them - yellow and green.

The pen looks like a bullet. Sort of. I'm not sure how to describe it accurately. To my eyes there's something wrong with proportions but most people enjoy this design. It's small size pen that can be easily kept in a pocket especially that the cap is screw on and stays on its place.

Barrel and cap are made of lacquered metal. The cap comes out in two turns. It's small. It can be posted. The only thing that isn't well thought of construction-wise is use of plastic threads. With time they'll wear off but given pen's price, I don't mind. The grip section is quite comfortable.

Nib

(ZyCC Navy Blue)

The pen comes with silver monotone nib that is labelled ‘Jinhao -18 KGP’. The nib writes western Medium. It feels smooth and the line is rather wet. On the other hand both nibs are incredibly stiff. Almost nail-like. There's nothing wrong with it, especially that they perform well but if you want your nibs to show some springiness, well, you'll be disappointed.

Filling system

Dimensions

Capped - 122 mm

Uncapped - 115 mm

It's small well-weighted pen. Because it's made of metal, it's not too light. It feels well and comfortable in the hand. Compact and solid.

Summary

Overall it's cool, compact and solid fountain pen that can be purchased for less than 2 $. It feels nice in the hand, it performs well, it looks fun. At the price, there's no reason not to try them. If you have some glittering inks you may dedicate one or bunch of these to them.

August 26, 2017

I have one of these that was given to me as a sample by a local supplier. A great-looking, compact pocket pen. I found two problems with it, though - neither of them fatal:

(1) The airtight seal in the cap seemed to be compromised - air was able to get in where the clip pierces the cap. Some shellac applied around the interior of the cap seemed to resolve this.

(2) The glue holding the nib assembly in the grip section gave way, so that the assembly sat loosely in the pen. Haven't gotten around to fixing this, but a bit of glue should take are of it.

Other than that, a nice little pen - thanks for the excellent pictures!

August 26, 2017

For your information. Jinhao and Baoer have been around for YEARS and have been established for YEARS I know because I used to Edit their pages at the address you have shown in China I even had the pleasure of Naming some of them, I cant think of two better brands for the money,I have in my collection many of their old Chinese pens which were given names which represented Archaic meanings such as Confucious, Archaic Saint, The long Wall, etc some I cant even spell.What can be done with a Jinhao when the owner changes the nib to a Flex, they are great

pens which sometimes need a little encouragement to write,they have problems with needing to be flushed out because Jinhao never ever spent much time cleaning off the manufacturing oil which is never ever cleaned off thoroughly,however in doing these things the pen owner learns quite a lot and who cares if something gets broken it generally only cost a couple of dollars to replace that's why I just LOVE Them,take my advice buy LOTS.Trust Me. oneill

August 27, 2017

Can anyone suggest a US source for this pen? Thanks.

August 27, 2017

I have had the pleasure of a green 886 for a few months and like it very much. I find it to be a similar size to a Prera but with a little more shape to the girth which makes it slightly more comfortable to hold. (It doesn't stop me slowly adding to my collection of Prera, just saying for comparison.)

A couple of days ago I was searching for another one in another colour and came across a seller in Singapore doing custom nib grinds with them and a range of other Chinese pens. The one I bid on and won is a yellow with a 0.7mm cursive italic nib. The starting price for the auction was very reasonable and no one bid against me. I will review the pen when it arrives.