Hero 329 / 616 Differences

[pitonyak]

I inherited a bunch of Hero fountain pens.

 

I opened and tested some of these pens, some I did not. My 11 year old daughter was testing them, and, she might have mixed up the caps, which is sad, since that is how I knew which pen was which, so, I might have some of these wrong.

 

The unopened pens on the left are type 616, the one on the right is a 329.

Based on the labels on the pen caps, the opened pens, from left to right, are 329, 329, 616, 329.

 

If I looked at the packaged pens, I would have assumed that a double stripe implied that the pen was a 616 and a single stripe meant a 329. That could be if I have another 616 somewhere with a 329 cap on it....

 

The black pen has an arrow in gold pointing at the nib, the only pen that has that, odd.

 

The maroon pen on the left writes ok with Bexley ink. Not great, but ok for me.

 

The green pen next to the maroon pen has a green ink, and it writes about the same. I do not remember the brand of ink I loaded.

 

The green pen on the right has a red ink, and it does not write well for me, lots of skips. Again, I do not remember the ink brand.

 

I did not load the black pen to test it, so no comments on that pan.

 

These were purchased by my best friend, who died about 18 months ago, so I am not able to ask him about where he got them, but, with my friend, there is simply no telling how he acquired them.

 

[pitonyak]

I am pretty sure that the cap on the red pen is wrong since it fits very differently than the others..... specifically, the red pen is wider than the other 329 pens, but the same diameter as the 616 pen.... I think that I have another pen to find.

[hari317]

329: No arrow on clip, golden arrow on hood. very thin section barrel trim ring. Nib is golden in color.

616: arrow clip, plain hood, two rings between section and barrel with a translucent portion in between, plain steel nib.

[pitonyak]

So the green pen in the middle and the still packaged black on the right should both have the golden arrow on the "hood", but they do not. Is that cause for concern? Well, given the price of the pens, perhaps not, but, any thoughts on that?

[Mech-for-i]

Ok might be I should chip in ; Note that only the pen with the hood inlaid had a cap with a hinged clip in rounded end profile .. This is the identifying points for the modek 329-2 where the 616 always got a teddie ring arrow clip with screw on end jewel ( metallic ) . the 2 other pen with a flat end jewel and plain clip is 329 . 329 and 329-2 though share the same pen parts were not styled the same only the -2 had the hood inlaid.

[Mech-for-i]

On further scrutiny, the 2 still packaged pen on the left clearly are 616 and the like packaged pen on the right is a 329. The red pen among the 4 display uncapped on the left is a bit of a mystery .. Without actually able to hold it and examine I can only surmount that either its a 616 small version with a mismatched cap or someone hack the 329 with non 329 parts specifically the coupler which is the clear plastic part that sit between section and barrel and made up the ink window as well as the inbuild ink reservoir sac assembly. Likely the prior one. A careful examination of the pen profile could tell as 616 small is slimmer than 329 in which itself is slimmer than a 616 ( officially termed medium size but often wrongly refer to as jumbo or large )

[pitonyak]

I went through my Daughter's stuff and found that she is not that careful with caps, so, I found the proper cap for the "mystery" pen. Indeed I see now that the diameter of the 616 and the 329 pens are different. We now have the correct caps on the pens.

 

So I have exactly one 329-2, and that is the one open pen that I did not load up with ink and test.

[pitonyak]

This group has been so helpful, I am offering some of these pens for free in PIF

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/333108-6-free-hero-pens-to-say-thank-you/

[Tefolim]

Hero 329~338(Hero 3xx Series steel nib), Hero 129~131(12k) have 21.5 mm nib like P51.

Hero 616 series(steel nib) have 19.5 mm nib like Hero 110 series(12k)