Wing Sung Balance

[antoniosz]

I bought the red 626 to convert it into an RB and give it to my wife. I would not give her the beautiful but flimsy Sheaffer plastics.
The section of the RB does fit well but unfortunately it seems that the barrel is not drilled deep enough and an RB refill does not fit... I need to see if I can "fix" it.

Has anybody tried?

Edited June 15, 2018 by antoniosz

[Jorge]

I have noticed that WS626 is available again in eBay in all four colors BUT only in the white dot variant.

Does anyone know whether this is a new "third production batch" or just a relaunch of old stock from the first one (blamed for having some manufacturing defects)?

[WJM]

Good question. Probably should've ask it before I ordered one of those some time ago, but, well, hopefully I'm going to find out soon.

Edited June 21, 2018 by WJM

[sciumbasci]

Might be as well a relaunch.

If that is the case, I'm all over one: that golden dot never really did it for me.

I suppose that nostalgics, and other people that appreciate homages (which are different from copies!) might've vouched for the white dot.

 

Take this with a grain of salt: all the informations I gather on Chinese pens are either from FPN or Frank's blog.

[WJM]

White dot is definitely a plus... the gold one is just nonsense. If they didn't want the white one, they should've remove the dot at all. Which would likely be the best solution - would both satisfy people who had problem with the white dot being there, and at the same time it would be still a completely faithful remake of Sheaffer Balance - not all of them had the white dot.

 

It could also be a nice touch if instead of the white dot they placed a small version of the Hero logo - the pen is technically branded Wing Sung, but it's part of the Hero company, isn't it? Similiarly like on Hero 9315 they placed it on the top, sort of imitating the MB logo.

Edited June 21, 2018 by WJM

[Mech-for-i]

Hero was not involved in this project or any of todays Wing Sung other than Hero licensing the name out to someone to use it, sort of like Ferrari Spectacle frame ( yes there is actually that ), or Voigtlander lens ( which is actually Cosina ) ... Instead why not just put on the old Wing Sung logo which is just a stylized W .... and as far as those stocks goes, I tend to agree that those are just re launch / re stock .. while there are many who dislike the white dot, there are indeed plenty who like it. Personally I do think getting rid of it and jus giving us a plain one would likely be better option. Though I cannot find the urge to buy this pen as I do not find anything particular alluring here.

[WJM]

I contacted one of the sellers an he answered that these new white dot ones are new production, not from the first batch.

[taike]

I now have a blue white dot one (steel nib) that I've been putting through its paces. So far so good. They only popped up for a moment on taobao. Hopefully there are more on the way.

Edited June 23, 2018 by EDC

[truthpil]

I now have a blue white dot one (steel nib) that I've been putting through it's paces. So far so good. They only popped up for a moment on taobao. Hopefully there are more on the way.

It's good to know that the current white dot ones are good. I know what you mean about them disappearing fast. Shanghai Junlai seems to be putting these up in batches of 40 randomly. The blue and green ones seem to sell out within 24 hours every time.

 

Now if they would just start making the medium nibs that are advertized!

Edited June 23, 2018 by TruthPil

[WJM]

I got mine today. Green one, white dot, F nib.

 

It's a really beautiful pen and overall makes a very good first impression of being solidly made.

 

Surprisingly, the c/c seems to be Parker compatible, like PenBBS.

 

Unfortunately, one thing that disappoints me a bit at this point is the nib. I hoped to get a gusher like the one showed by chrisrap52 in his first review (and also one other reviewer on YT who showed the blue one), but my 626 turned out to be on the dry-ish side. It's not by any means a bad writer, for testing purposes I wrote a few A5 notebook pages with it, and I can say that the writing is smooth and consistent, only less juicy than I expected, and would like it to be.

Edited June 26, 2018 by WJM

[taike]

Unfortunately, one thing that disappoints me a bit at this point is the nib. I hoped to get a gusher like the one showed by chrisrap52 in his first review (and also one other reviewer on YT who showed the blue one), but my 626 turned out to be on the dry-ish side. It's not by any means a bad writer, for testing purposes I wrote a few A5 notebook pages with it, and I can say that the writing is smooth and consistent, only less juicy than I expected, and would like it to be.

 

You might try another ink. I initially filled the pen with Diamine Majestic Blue and enjoyed how fine the line was and how the nib felt soft. But it was no means wet. Dry, even.

 

On a lark, I thought to switch to another blue and filled it with PR DC Supershow blue. Big difference. No longer such a fine line and much wetter. Much more like chrisrap52's experience.

 

Definitely a live-and-learn experience for me.

[WJM]

Perhaps... I don't know, I have it filled with Parker Quink Blue-Black, I don't usually have any problems with this ink.

 

I though about another thing, similarly like in my Penbbs 308, 626's converter seems prone to air bubbles. With 308 I just ditched the converter and used the pen as an eyedropper, unfortunately with this Wing Sung it's not an option.

[truthpil]

Perhaps... I don't know, I have it filled with Parker Quink Blue-Black, I don't usually have any problems with this ink.

 

I though about another thing, similarly like in my Penbbs 308, 626's converter seems prone to air bubbles. With 308 I just ditched the converter and used the pen as an eyedropper, unfortunately with this Wing Sung it's not an option.

 

It seems that the nibs on the 626s are really soft and easy to bend....you might be able to use that to your advantage by separating the tines to increase flow. Probably just pushing the nib down harder than usually and gradually increasing pressure would be enough to spread the tines apart more. Of course, you'd need to check the tine alignment afterward in case one moved more than the other.

[WJM]

I thought about it, but I think I first try another ink, perhaps another converter... If as now it seems to me it's a problem with the converter, separating tines won't do any good.

[antoniosz]

 

It seems that the nibs on the 626s are really soft and easy to bend....

Thanks for mentioning this I thought I was the only one that noticed it.

But I would call the nibs pathetically weak, not just soft and easy to bend

[WJM]

Trying another converter unfortunately was a failure. Parker converters theoretically fit in place - Wing Sung used the same standard, but both the slide and twist Parker converters are too long and don't fit in the back of the barrel.

 

Parker cartridges are another thing. Long ones don't fit in the barrel, like the converters. Short ones do, but not without problems. The cartridge wouldn't get pierced unless I cut the off a bit of this round piece of plastic around the opening - apparently the spigot, which should pierce the cartridge, is too short.

 

Interestingly, my Penbbs 308 has exactly the same problems, which makes me wonder whether these models are made in the same factory, or at least some of their parts.

Edited June 29, 2018 by WJM

[WJM]

I replaced the stock converter with a Parker short cartridge. The flow is more satisfying, unfortunately the cartridge leaks inside the barrel - possibly due to modification (as described in post above), but without it it could not be used. As is seems, with it also can't, so now I'm not sure what's next.

[Mech-for-i]

clearly then the issue is with the flow regarding the source, then go get a different converter ... might be not the Parker, but those smaller Chinese made which they refer to as 3.2mm. I usually had a stash of converter lying around and my experience is cleaning them thoroughly ( and the pen parts are first order of the day and finding one converter which fit best with one particular pen do come along as sometime needed. Have similar experience before with other pens ( and not just Chinese ones, also very expensive German , Italian, and Japanese ) ; somehow some pen seems to like certain converter better than others despite same spec on them

[WJM]

https://m.ebay.com/itm/Two-Hero-Screw-Type-Fountain-Pen-Converters-Inner-Diameter-3-2mm/232294425709?epid=867318597&hash=item3615d3a46d:g:FU4AAOSwoQ1Tmcbj

 

Something like that?

[Mech-for-i]

Yeah .. something like that, there are many similar ones