Wingsung 698,618 Vs Penbbs (What Is The Best Chinese Pen)

[Reyghdhd2]

I want to know how they feel and what writes better

[omarcenaro]

I only have a 698 (F nib) so can only speak to that. I have a transparent demonstrator. The pen feels good and sturdy and is easy to write with. The cap does not post but I don't post any of my pens so that's not an issue for me. Its easy to take apart. Seeing that mine is transparent it really looks cool with Diamine Shimmering Blue Lightning or purple pazzazza Ink. It writes well without issues. Smooth and consistent.

 

Here are some writing samples of the 689 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/331870-battle-of-the-wing-sung-piston-fillers/

 

Not sure if anyone has done the comparison you are asking for but I think if you search around on the site you will more info of the 689, 618 and Penbbs and be able to draw your own conclusion.

 

Cheers,

Ozzy

[DasKaltblut]

They are all very good. The PenBBS and Wing Sung 698 in F are 6 of one and one half dozen of the other. Get whichever tickles your fancy for appearance or nib size.

[AmandaW]

I have a PenBBS 309 (cranberry trim, clear barrel) and a Wing Sung 698 (Ivory trim, clear barrel). Unfortunately my 698 tends to evaporate it's ink and occasionally leak ink into the cap (so the ivory is stained and I dread opening it to what mess I might have to deal with).. If it matters, the 698 piston knob wobbles a little, while the 309 is solid.

 

Consequently on my desk the 309 tends to make it out of the pen cup more often.

[inkeverywhere]

I have a couple of 698's, they have never been out of rotation since they arrived, both are retro fitted with extra fine Wing Sung nibs. I also have a 618 which came with a fine nib.

 

I just love the 698's, neither have given an ounce of trouble since buying them. One is filled with Diamine Blue Velvet and the other with Diamine Autumn Oak. I bought them as a result of no end of trouble with a Twsbi Eco.

 

I have found the fine nib on the 618 is just a bit to wide for my liking so at this time it has been decommissioned, however the 618 feels great in hand.

 

I would like to try a Penbbs 308 but alias funds are particularly tight at present, even for a chinese pen, so that is going to have to wait for a while.

 

Between the 698 and the 618 I much prefer the 698, but I must admit this is purely due to the nib situation, perhaps if a extra fine nib can be found for the 618 that could change things totally. In any case both the Wing Sung pens, imho, are value for money.

 

 

Greg

[GreyPix]

Greetings,

 

I have two WingSung 618's and really like them. They are, wait for it, the pens the Parker 51 should have become.

Parker 51 styling with a piston filling system. The ability to be fully strip apart without any specialized tools or tools at all in fact.

The only thing missing would be a larger selection of nib choices (fine and medium which is more like a western extra fine and fine respectively were available at the time of my purchases).

If you like the style of the P51 in a full demonstrator (including transparent feed) style complete with a piston filler mechanism and a none to shabby ink capacity for an extremely reasonable price then go get one, or two, or three, or more. Different ink in each. They look awesome especially being able to see the ink traverse all the way through the feed and nib.

They have steel nibs but I am sure they are also available with gold, not gold plated, nibs through some online vendors.

I have the steel nibs (both 'Fine') and they just work. From the first day with no start issues or skipping. I even left one of the pens inked up for 4 months without use and it worked as soon as it touched paper with out any 'assistance' (re-priming the feed, shaking etc). Very impressive for such a reasonably priced writing instrument.

That's about it from my perspective. Hope this helps.

[Mech-for-i]

Seriously I would not consider any of the trio being the best, but then they are good pen none the less; my experience had been that of good if not great performance from any of them ( NIB cleaned ) , and among the Wing Sung(s) I like the 618 better and now the 601 even better still, the PenBBS use their signature F nib which may or may not be a deciding factor, for some its great, for others it just do not work out. As far as aesthetic goes, one mus give the 601 a salute to retro styling ( and every bit the colors too ) , the PenBBS obviously win out on the eye candy section. The 618 / 698 does OK shall I say but nothing really to rave about.

 

For sheer variety of nibs options, the Wing Sung 618 / 601 win out hands down. They both use one of the de facto ( for Chinese fountain pen ) standard on hooded nib and there are EF, F, and then all the fancy and not so fancy calligraphy nib old and new, some of those just write like M, B and even BB / BBB when writing in cursive Latin, and yes there is 12K and 10K gold nib tha can be put onto them both standard F, there were even vintage 14K nib that can be put onto them. 698 clearly lost on this one as the nib is of the Pilot kind and while its possible to go with different grind, its all steel and most are just as hard or even harder than the hooded nib. PenBBS use nib unit of their own, some had success putting in no.6 nib but be cautious it just does not always work.

 

All of them however exhibit the same pretty much expected character of any Chinese fountain pens, that is the nib would demand user to run in. People usually mistaken that as a not properly factory fresh finished sort of, from the Mfr, but that is actually not the case its just that writing Chinese is a very personal thing even among daily usage for those who write in this language, so Mfr tend to try to do only the minimal and conservative grind and not try to impose any.

 

I own all of them , and while I do like the 698 for breaking the mold and giving us all the latter models. I must say its perhaps the bottom of the bunch if I had to choose. I would take a PenBBS 309 any time as its body feel good , look great and the larger nib write smooth for me, but I must say the 618 / 601 duo wins out on me as they simply work and work and work .... and the styling is timeless ( especially the 601 ). Sure I would want them a bit fatter but I can understand why the do not do that

[J_MM]

I have several 698 and PenBBS 308/309. Once they are fitted with a M nib that are excellent writers in my experience. I've been using a WS 698 with a Pilot stub for over a year now. I think the PenBBS are a bit more flashy and the 698 more business friendly.

[Stefan-Ionut-Marius]

Seriously I would not consider any of the trio being the best, but then they are good pen none the less; my experience had been that of good if not great performance from any of them ( NIB cleaned ) , and among the Wing Sung(s) I like the 618 better and now the 601 even better still, the PenBBS use their signature F nib which may or may not be a deciding factor, for some its great, for others it just do not work out. As far as aesthetic goes, one mus give the 601 a salute to retro styling ( and every bit the colors too ) , the PenBBS obviously win out on the eye candy section. The 618 / 698 does OK shall I say but nothing really to rave about.

 

For sheer variety of nibs options, the Wing Sung 618 / 601 win out hands down. They both use one of the de facto ( for Chinese fountain pen ) standard on hooded nib and there are EF, F, and then all the fancy and not so fancy calligraphy nib old and new, some of those just write like M, B and even BB / BBB when writing in cursive Latin, and yes there is 12K and 10K gold nib tha can be put onto them both standard F, there were even vintage 14K nib that can be put onto them. 698 clearly lost on this one as the nib is of the Pilot kind and while its possible to go with different grind, its all steel and most are just as hard or even harder than the hooded nib. PenBBS use nib unit of their own, some had success putting in no.6 nib but be cautious it just does not always work.

 

All of them however exhibit the same pretty much expected character of any Chinese fountain pens, that is the nib would demand user to run in. People usually mistaken that as a not properly factory fresh finished sort of, from the Mfr, but that is actually not the case its just that writing Chinese is a very personal thing even among daily usage for those who write in this language, so Mfr tend to try to do only the minimal and conservative grind and not try to impose any.

 

I own all of them , and while I do like the 698 for breaking the mold and giving us all the latter models. I must say its perhaps the bottom of the bunch if I had to choose. I would take a PenBBS 309 any time as its body feel good , look great and the larger nib write smooth for me, but I must say the 618 / 601 duo wins out on me as they simply work and work and work .... and the styling is timeless ( especially the 601 ). Sure I would want them a bit fatter but I can understand why the do not do that

 

The Wing Sung 698 came with a gold nibs to , even if this pen uses pilot nibs , it can use other types of nibs to .

[Mech-for-i]

Yes I do know about that .. however the 12K gold nib version of the 698 re purpose old Wing Sung 2000 series nib and thus the section , feed and nib is different from the nominal steel nib version and the are not cross compatible .. I count the gold nib version 698 another separate entity. Still even accounting for that for current cataloged ones the 601/618 or for the matter most current production hoded nib models ( excluding vintage design like the Hero 616, 100, 329 etc .. ) enjoy the widest selection of made for the pen nibs.

 

If we however take into account of after market nibs , that typically mean no.5 or No.6 ... then the PenBBS models enjoy a load of selection though the cap volume might exclude some. And all the nominal Hero / Wing Sung and many others producing open nib models with the also de facto no.5 ( aka size 26 in the home market ) likely enjoy the most adaptable in term of possibility to equip.

[truthpil]

I own all of them , and while I do like the 698 for breaking the mold and giving us all the latter models. I must say its perhaps the bottom of the bunch if I had to choose. I would take a PenBBS 309 any time as its body feel good , look great and the larger nib write smooth for me, but I must say the 618 / 601 duo wins out on me as they simply work and work and work .... and the styling is timeless ( especially the 601 ). Sure I would want them a bit fatter but I can understand why the do not do that

 

I don't have a 698, but I do have a 3009, 601 and Penbbs 309 and I totally agree with Mech-for-I regarding the superior styling of the 309.

It feels wonderful in the hand, is made from nice acrylic with a classic and comfortable design, and one can easily swap in any #6 nib without the nib scraping the inside of the cap like on the 308. The piston mechanism is also very simply and can be completely disassembled without any tools or even elbow grease. In short, I don't think you can go wrong getting a 309. It gives you a piston filler that can take any #6 nib and you can easily unscrew the section to flush out the nib and feed like you would on a C/C pen. What a bonus!

 

That being said, the 601 is also fantastic if you like hooded nibs. I have a regular demonstrator and one with 12k nib and both are great writers and seem to be tough as nails. I'll be taking the demonstrator on a business trip for the next 5 days as my main writer thanks to that huge ink capacity.

[Stefan-Ionut-Marius]

I don't have 3009 but i have all other and of course the Wing Sung 698 i have 2 with medium nibs and one with a gold nib . I must say that Wing Sung 698 it's one of my top favorite pen's together with PenBBS 309 .

[truthpil]

I don't have 3009 but i have all other and of course the Wing Sung 698 i have 2 with medium nibs and one with a gold nib . I must say that Wing Sung 698 it's one of my top favorite pen's together with PenBBS 309 .

The Wing Sung 698 medium nibs are super nice and wonderfully smooth. Thankfully they can be bought separately and put on any pen that takes a Pilot-style nib. I've outfitted my Lingmo Loreleis with them.

[KellyMcJ]

My PenBBS 309 is built like a $100+ pen. The fit and finish is fantastic. The nib required some tuning to suit the angle of my writing but is otherwise fantastic (and I think it's easily swapped out.)

 

Given a choice between a Wing Sung 698 and a PenBBS 309 (both piston fillers of similar form factor) the PenBBS 309 gets my loyalty hands down. They're both great pens, but the 698 can't hold a candle to the 309, in my opinion.

 

The WS 618 is a radically different pen, and I don't want to compare it to the other two. I really love mine. It's the only hooded piston filler I know of (at least that's currently being made). The WS 601 (new version) blows it out of the water too though, in my opinion. If the 601 came in the same colors that the 618 comes in (and it might, yet. I love the glittery blue, and pink. WS tends to add more colors.) I'd be in hog heaven.

[Hanoi]

I guess the better Chinese pens would be ones made for the luxury market. I don´t think they last any longer than the Parker clones but at least they have Dragons and gold which Asians love.

[Mech-for-i]

I guess the better Chinese pens would be ones made for the luxury market. I don´t think they last any longer than the Parker clones but at least they have Dragons and gold which Asians love.

 

Actually as regard to pens like the PenBBS 308 or Wing Sung 618 I would sa they are no better or worse than like of say a Sailor Profit / Pelikan M200 ... all of them pretty much use material of similar ( acrylic mostly ) and the simple mechnics are pretty much all the same .. when taken care of, they last a long time all of them.

 

In all serious, Chinese fountain pen Mfr had a different market and different customers than western Mfr, and shown. Their better pen are best described to be segmented to 3 different category, the said luxury market .. just as Hero keep doing ... often than not these are pricey pens with say 18K nib and ornate arrangement ... pretty much the same everywhere ... then there's the better pen for the users, and typically these are not what most western / Japanese Mfr would do , those usually are metal bodied, 10K, 12K, or 14K nib , some of them had steel nib, but generally they are build even tougher than the luxury ones and pretty much bullet proof mechanics ( simple friction fit feed and nib, C/C filling ), and finally we may say there's the better pens for the hobbyist / affordable range, typically with steel nib but one can include all those 10K gold nib ones too as they are generally not expensive by any means.

 

Better is a relative term, it depend on what's being put up as the base line, if we take the old Hero 616 as the yardstick, then we can safely say the Wing Sung 618 / 601 a better pen ... in sort most of the new pens we came across lately can best be grouped as being in the 3rd category tough I myself really like all those in the 2nd category and had little interest in the 1st category.

[truthpil]

Is there any piston filler other than the 698 that takes those "winged" Pilot nibs?

[Mech-for-i]

Caliart Ego and Ego II , I consider it a better pen than the 698, especially the solid color variant

[truthpil]

Caliart Ego and Ego II , I consider it a better pen than the 698, especially the solid color variant

 

Ah, yes! Thanks for bringing those two up... I didn't realize they used the Pilot-style nibs.

I too prefer solid colors. I believe they are also cheaper than the 698!