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Beware With Pen Bbs.


kataro.miamoto

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I recently bought a fountain pen from ebay's pen bbs store, the model is the aluminum 323, at first glance it was good but the nib tip is horrible, ink flow problems, horrible feed back. And I lost my temper I sent the pen to the aluminum recycling, its first and last pen bbs pen for me, I will stay away from this #@%^@@.


Ps. Sorry all. But I am very upset with Pen BBS.

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We all had our good and our bad experience when it come to hobby ; any hobby . Instead of losing the temper and making only yoursekf miserable why not talk to the seller and ask for a refund or replacement. It might be a bsd sample who knows. It jusy happen with any consumer product.

 

On another hand let's elaborate on how you write and how the pen misbehave ; lots of us on this section of the forum had PenBBS and generally we are pleased with them ; personally I own the alumunum version of the 323 also and its been fuss free. Let see if we can get something out of this

Edited by Mech-for-i
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I has a lot of fountain pens ... I received in past week a two wing sung 699 and two delike elements ... and then writes very very well... The Pen BBs simply skip all time, flow issues very very dry for a medium nib and a unpleasant feedback, the pen bbs oficial store ebay send me a piece of aluminum, i tried to replace ink, nib with knox, jowo and nothing .... it dont write good same ink flow issue and very dry.

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Yes, the PenBBS feed & nib is known to be dry but not to the point of skipping. I usually modify the feed unit cause that's where all the dryness roots from.

Have you tried contacting PenBBS? They have excellent customer service, you just have to explain your issue to them. Raging over it won't fix the problem.

Edited by penzel_washinkton
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Sounds like a case of needing some CLA .. I would suggest first and foremost a cleaning , by that I mean using soupy wash and use the converter to force in and out a number of times, then take the converter off, screw the nib unit off the section and then let the section, nib unit and converter all soak in soupy water for a couple of hours and then rinse them all clean and re assemble after dry. Its frequently a case with many Chinese fountain pen that the first thing first is cleaning ...

 

And yes , Chinese fountain pen are almost always tuned dry in ink flow , or rather constrained shall I say, considering ta how the language is to be written this is to be expected. Its just the nature of the said intent of the pen originally designed for . One can tune or mod it for wetter flow , but I've found that just a slight opening up of tines usually give it a wetter and wet enough flow for most, or one can pull on the nib a bit to get it slide that tiny bit off from the section

 

As for the feedback, unfortunately this is also a Chinese fountain pen thing , the writing of the said language just favor positive feedback and most of the time that's the case how the nib are grind .. it can be smoothed with some polishing of the tipping , and generally Chinese fountain pen nib do not actually shown its true character until you get at least a fill or a couple full of actual writing done ; and the unpleasant feedback is likely aggravated by the ink flow ( lack of it ) ; then there's the grind itself , most Chinese fountain pen nib do not like to be rotated , its just the way the are grind more a quasi architect rather than a Kugel grind or a stubby one, so any rotation or skewed posture you would feel it alright. Though the PenBBS M nib was not that much of such, its still having that character

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yes, the PenBBS feed & nib is known to be dry but not to the point of skipping. I usually modify the feed unit cause that's where all the dryness roots from.

Have you tried contacting PenBBS? They have excellent customer service, you just have to explain your issue to them. Raging over it won't fix the problem.

 

All good advice penzel! Almost all of my PenBBS nibs have started dry. It is fairly easy to get them to the wetness I like. Also, I've had instant service from Beini on the PenBBS Etsy site, so getting in touch with PenBBS is highly recommended.

"There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know 'till he takes up the pen and writes."

- William Thackeray

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Well, I've got two of the PenBBS aluminium 323s – with RM and RF nibs – and both of them write just fine, I like them, I must admit, more than I thought I was going to.

Lined paper makes a prison of the page.

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Well, I've got two of the PenBBS aluminium 323s – with RM and RF nibs – and both of them write just fine, I like them, I must admit, more than I thought I was going to.

 

I have a black tortoise 323 that I just added a snake ring to as a roll stop. I have a clear 323 on the way as well as a silver snake ring. :)

 

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"There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know 'till he takes up the pen and writes."

- William Thackeray

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Sorry to hear you had a bad experience but wow you overreacted.

 

I've had some bum PenBBS nibs myself. But the beauty of the brand is you can throw any #6 into them as a replacement. I've put bock, JoWo, Jinhao, gold, titanium, all sorts of nibs into them. The bodies are such an outrageously good value compared to other acrylic/aluminum pens that even factoring in the cost of a replacement JoWo nib, you're still at less than 1/4th the price of any other acrylic pen.

 

Also, with fountain pens, particularly low priced non-japanese models, you need to just accept that there will be some risk with quality control failure. This goes for all brands, from parker, cross, pelikan, visconti, basically anything that isn't japanese can be expected to occasionally have a bad nib or feed slip by quality control.

 

You should have contacted the seller or the manufacturer. Beini can be reached through etsy and would have likely sent you a new nib unit for free.

Edited by Honeybadgers

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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Second pen arrived today after 50 days, but the same problems found compared to the first pen. Flow problems, very dry Nib, and horrible feedback. Tested with Diamine and Sailor Inks. Feed was washed with soap and still writes very badly. This time is the 456 model I will try to put another Nib (Bock, Jowo, Knox, Warranted etc) But it is not my first idea to turn it into a frank'n pen. Very SAD -_-

 

 

 

 

Obs: Nib Housing crack after a try to change the nib ... >_< $%@%@

Edited by kataro.miamoto
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You cracked the nib housing? I've literally never seen that happen.

 

Just put a JoWo or Bock nib in it. Problem solved.

 

And ask Beini for a new housing if you damaged it.

Edited by Honeybadgers

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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Flow problems, very dry Nib, and horrible feedback. Tested with Diamine and Sailor Inks. Feed was washed with soap and still writes very badly.

Obs: Nib Housing crack after a try to change the nib ... >_< $%@%@

 

I don't think you've read the response thorughly in this thread, PenBBS stock nib units ARE indeed quite a dry writer so one of the way to clear that issue is tinkering the feed.

 

Nib housing cracked, as Honeybadgers mentioned is the first of it's kind for a complaint. Not sure what kind of method you use to remove the nib from the housing but there are so many variables that could result in a nib housing to crack.

Edited by penzel_washinkton
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dry and constrained flow of ink is almost but not always universal among PenBBS pens , its just the way they are build .. still a cracked nib housing is certainly something new ; I had many PenBBS pens and tinker with them a lot, switching nibs , both PenBBS's own and after market , yes those are tight fit and usually it require some effort and some time delicate tinkering to get them set or unset and I must admit sometime I do abuse the nib housing a bit but so far none gave up on me ...

 

Are you removing the nib from the housing with the nib unit off the pen or does it crack while you try to work on removing / tinkering the nib with them on the pen .. it might be just something to take note of .. anyway .. as typical of any Chinese fountain pen nib designed to write of course Chinese, the nib need a run in of actual writing for a fill or two before it break in .. unlike mos western or even other Asian writing , Chinese language in writing do not demand the pen to be gliding across the page , instead the writing require manipulating the pen through the strokes ( similar to using traditional brush ) so yes a positive feedback is t be expected, if the goal is to get a smother writing with more wet flow, the first thing to do is tinkering with the feed , a blade running through the ink flow channel to open it up just that minute amount , and then also opening up of the tine also that minute amount , and finally run it through a fill or two.

 

But I can understand the frustration, not all Chinese fountain pen are like that but PenBBS just happen to be specifically highly tuned to be so and it can be a pain if one is not expecting

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~SNIP! ... if the goal is to get a smother writing with more wet flow, the first thing to do is tinkering with the feed , a blade running through the ink flow channel to open it up just that minute amount , and then also opening up of the tine also that minute amount , and finally run it through a fill or two.

 

But I can understand the frustration, not all Chinese fountain pen are like that but PenBBS just happen to be specifically highly tuned to be so and it can be a pain if one is not expecting

100% agree with this. Just a couple of strokes with a .004" spark plug gapping tool (feeler gauge) and some of my drier PenBBS nibs have become gushers.

"There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know 'till he takes up the pen and writes."

- William Thackeray

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