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Wing Sung 698, 83% Defect Rate


LostArk

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Go and buy 5 Wing Sung 3008 than touching a Wing Sung 698 for the same price !!

+1

 

I have a batch of 3008's and not had a problem with any of them, I've even swapped in Lamy nibs from time to time and whilst the fir isn't perfect they do work well.

 

I've also got a large batch of Jinhao 992's and they have all been fine; the one I've had problems with is the 991 and I think it's down to the click on cap not fitting as well as the 992's screw cap which leads to the drying out.

 

In my experience most Chinese pens are fine and many make good everyday pens, but a few will not last but when you only pay a dollar or two, it's one of those things.

 

As for QC, PenBBS are the best I've had where this is concerned but I find overall it's ok, again they're budget pens so it is what it is.

 

I'm genuinely shocked if jewelrymathematics has been anything less than helpful; I've always found to to be a great guy to deal with and when I was sent the wrong pens he simply replaced them at no charge, didn't even ask me to send the wrong ones back.

 

Al

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When I messaged the seller about the problem, they were abusive and rude. Screenshot attached. I'd advise everyone to stay far away from this seller.

 

vayAmlj.png

How many times have you written? This seems like the kind of reply one sends when one has already answered a question, but the question keeps getting asked. If you feel that you have been defrauded of a proper sale of working goods, then contact ebay for redress.

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IGP7582.jpg

 

I don't know ?

Not sure I have enough Piston Fillers to make a judgment :

 

But my observation so far is : Finding a GOOD budget piston filler seems to be a matter of luck !

So far I have one ( 1 ) Piston Filler I would call good , the rest are either not good / suspect / or untested ..

I am currently waiting for 2 or 3 more piston fillers ( I don't know why - I would like to like them ) , the concept seems good but the execution of said product less so - so far for me !

Edited by old4570
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I don't know ?

Not sure I have enough Piston Fillers to make a judgment :

 

But my observation so far is : Finding a GOOD budget piston filler seems to be a matter of luck !

....

 

I guess its a matter of not having enough variety as far as actual models goes. Yeah those are different one but they are still essentially the same as per engineering. Its lucky for me, Demonstrator generally do not excite me, in fact in most cases I got put off by the all too often try to be as bare and as nude as possible approach. I do have one of these; and in general it work out quite well for me.

 

There are other piston fillers like the Caliarts Ego / Ego 2 , the Wing Sung 618 ( which though use the same basic piston mechanism, I've found much better made ). I would wager these were really trying to ride the Demo fab and the manufacturing is just trying to ship out as many as possible ... its the contemporary of the Hero 616 , sound design, solid engineering, OK but not great parts, and poorly put together. It seems a common theme is that if the user are hand on type and tinker / disassemble / reassemble they generally can made a better ( or in some case much better ) result against the NIB state the pens come in.

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I have used jewelrymathematics a number of times and have had no issues with him. Been a real pleasure to deal with him.

 

All the Chinese pens that I have purchased so far, Wing Sung 601, 3008 - Jinhao 450, 159 have performed without a hitch. Maybe I am just lucky?

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I have a few Chinese pens, and mostly they have been okay. The finial snapped off the Guanleming demonstrator (but it was a $5 US pen). And a guy in my pen club ordered a ten-pack of "Hero 616" pens off eBay a few years ago and handed them out to people for free. Mine? I suspect it's a fake. But honestly, even though the nib is scratchy, it does write... it just writes, IMO, like what it is -- a $1-2 pen.

OTOH, the other two Guanlemings are decent: the"calligraphy" pen feels cheap -- as in Arnold-level cheap -- but the fude nib is pretty good; and the "Accountant" is better and a more substantial-feeling pen than its $5 price tag would let on. And I have a Wing Sung 237 someone gave me (he doesn't like EF nibs), and I keep meaning to put it back into rotation, because it's a very nice pen. Is it to the level of my Parker 51s? No, of course not. But I'd equate it to the 1980s Pelikan Pelikano I bought a couple of months ago: a decent inexpensive pen that writes better than the price would lead one to expect.

Of course I also read the threads where people rant and rave over the quality of expensive pens; and the ones where people are constantly complaining about the QC on Noodler's pens (yet the only one of mine that didn't perform well was a freebie Charlie pen -- and that may have been because the ink sample I was trying didn't fill the barrel completely (the down-side of ALL eyedroppers); I've never even noticed the "smell" of the resin pens per se, and I'm the one that my mom had smell the meat she thought had been in the fridge too long). So it's a case of YMMV.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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As for QC, PenBBS are the best I've had where this is concerned but I find overall it's ok, again they're budget pens so it is what it is.

 

I'm genuinely shocked if jewelrymathematics has been anything less than helpful; I've always found to to be a great guy to deal with and when I was sent the wrong pens he simply replaced them at no charge, didn't even ask me to send the wrong ones back.

 

Al

I'm also surprised by the tone of the response. I've stopped buying Chinese pens for a while now, but when I was in the market for them, this seller was a sure bet.

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Chinese QC, be it on pens, pocketknives or tools, is very much a function of what you pay for. A couple Chinese pocketknife companies have pretty good QC because they pay for it- the price reflects that. When the same knife is available from a different brand for $5 compared to $15, some of that $15 goes to QC.

 

Wing Sung seems to not use much for QC. Of course there are days I wonder about TWSBI...

Physician- signing your scripts with Skrips!


I'm so tough I vacation in Detroit.

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Wing Sung seems to not use much for QC. Of course there are days I wonder about TWSBI...

 

Ahh, but which Wing Sung licensee? I believe there are three. Shanghai Green Stationery, the maker of the 698 is doing OK by me. Good value, a propely functioning cap liner (no dry out after 6 days) and no cracking.

Add lightness and simplicate.

 

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I'm batting 4 successes out of 5 with my 698s with one left to try. (They weren't all bought at once. I bought them in pairs of F and EF in various colours at different times). I don't have very much mileage on any one pen so I've no idea how they'll hold up over time. On the problem one the cap doesn't screw/unscrew easily (it's not realistically usable) and it burps. I don't know if the problems are related.

 

I do have a 659 in which the feed and nib fit quite loosely - but not falling out loosely.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have 2 WS 698 both have a pilot stub in them. One is great, no issues and the second has a loose fitting feed that generates drops of ink regularly.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have purchased many items from jewelrymathematics over the past year. The gentleman has always been helpful and highly responsive. A great and trustworthy ebay seller in my experience.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Add me to the list of fountain penners disappointed with my Wing Sung 698 demonstrator piston fill for exactly the same reason - the nib doesn't quite fit - and I've tried swapping in a Lingmo nib and encountered the same problem. The nib refuses to fit snugly and there's skippage when I write. (The Lingmo demonstrator converter fell apart on first use, by the way, and I purchased a Sailor converter and ink cartridges and couldn’t get either to work.)

 

I purchased the 698 because I was happy with my Wing Sung 3008 demonstrator purchases - but I should have waited. The 3008 is a PERFECT fit for my hand. It has a great feel. And I enjoy writing with both the F and EF nibs. Unfortunately, after a few weeks of daily writing, both 3008's started leaking by the grip.

Anyone have any insider tips or tricks on how to stop the leaking? I'm not talking gushing, about the head of a thumbtack on my the index finger of my writing hand.

I’d be very interested in other piston filler fountain pens. (And yes, I tried TWSBI and didn’t like it, go figure.) Pelikans, aside from pricey, are too small for my hands – but I’m open to other suggestions.

Why say you Fountain Penners?

Edited by AndWhoDisguisedAs
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Opus 88 makes a demonstrator. It's not a piston filler. It is an Japanese style eyedropper with a shut-of valve. Holds around 3-4ml of ink. I have four piston fillers and a Opus 88 Koloro eyedropper. Have a look.

Add lightness and simplicate.

 

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Do tell. Which German piston filler can be found for $15?

A reform 1745, the ocassional pelikan M100/150 etc. Edited by rochester21
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I have purchased many items from jewelrymathematics over the past year. The gentleman has always been helpful and highly responsive. A great and trustworthy ebay seller in my experience.

The trouble with this seller is that he appears somehow to stock mostly second grade lots, many pens have faults etc. I cannot explain how or why,but other sellers don't have this issue(as often). I know because i used to sell chinese pens, so i bought hundreds of them off ebay.

 

The people in the industry obviously know which lots are better and which are worse,so maybe the bad batches are sold at a lower price and ultimately all of them end up on ebay at some point.

 

I personally avoid the seller in question, i'd rather spend a dollar more and get a proper pen than get a lemon :)

Edited by rochester21
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I would say its kind of irrational to put NOS / 2nd hand into the discussion ... Let's try to focus on the new production item that everyone can consistently get just off retail instead ...

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I would say its kind of irrational to put NOS / 2nd hand into the discussion ... Let's try to focus on the new production item that everyone can consistently get just off retail instead ...

 

Hm, i just checked current pelikan models and prices and and things are getting more and more insane. I guess it only makes sense that chinese manufacturers try to get a piece of that action. 100 dollars on a entry level pelikan is a slap in the face. A few years back a M150 would cost around 40 dollars and it wasn`t cheap, but acceptable. 20 years ago you could still buy a Reform equivalent(not a 1745, they had a larger version of that) for around 15 dollars. Now they have decided that affordable piston-fillers are suddenly beneath them. Not that i care.

 

So short answer, the only manufacturers who appear to offer cheap piston-fillers right now are based in China. Maybe it has something to do with the difficulty in assembly, i don`t know. I`m definitely tempted to try one out, although i somehow know that these pens will have issues, much like every aerometric filler ever made in China. It`s a thing.

Edited by rochester21
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