Regarding Expensive Chinese Fountain Pens

[Megaten]

Hello all. So Ive come to realize that a lot of chinese brands like Duke, Fuliwen, etc. offer some pens over 100 dollars. For anyone who possesses pens such as these, would you say the quality compares to other high end pens from other brands?

[langere]

I find PenBBS and Moonman expensive, for Chinese pens...but I do like them and in the last year have tried and added a number to my collection.

 

Erick

[gerigo]

They are all designed as gifts for important people and are thus prioritize ornate and ornamental over usability or writing capabilities. If you like that type of pen, then it's for you. I personally hate the very traditional motifs like dragons and phoenix, Chinese lacquer or porcelain type of look they go for.

[Mech-for-i]

well, first off , what kind of price bracket are we talking here .. expensive is always a relative term .. pens like many of the Duke , Fuliwan that goes into the gift market are priced as such to that market and there are pens that are priced towards other market and priced again likewise for that market .. Overall speaking Chinese fountain pen usually are not THE expensive pen on said market sector ... Say for that mentioned $100.00 range , many gift market product ( Fountain pen ) are still giving you steel nib and usually a fairly decent , nice finishing , most are metal with polished lacquered finish, some with patterned acrylic ...

 

BUT ..

 

for that same 100.00 price, one can also get a decently build, decently styled gold nib pen that's mean for writing but might be not so fancy , say a simple search on Amazon setting price to 85 to 115 , I see that you can get a lacquered Parker Sonnet ( Steel nib ) but you can also get a Pilot Elite 95s , or Pelikan M205 and then some ...

 

In a fashion the Duke, Fuiiwan, for most part is no different than the Parker Sonnet mentioned , and as others had put it, they are mostly gift market oriented product and priced likewise , there is some premium added for the fanciness and flashy finish , if that's what you goes for they are worth it, fi you are looking for something else, then look elsewhere, whether its Chinese or else ; in term of quality ... now we cannot just loop it altogether and say this is good or that is bad, therre are many big names that deliver well not that great quality, and there are many who deliver quality but are not known for that either and that is not limited to fountain pen alone ... and that is why we had forum like this where we can discuss them and get opinion and info regarding ...

 

Its often too easy to fall into trap that this pen is made in Germany then it must be good, or this pen is made in Japan so it must be so and so and this pen is made in ... ( add your own ) .. that just do not apply, fountain pen is very mature technology and today the manufacturing know how is all there , its all about pricing, marketing, and what that pen really are design, manufactured for and how its marketed

[Parker51]

My observation is there have been some very good to excellent Chinese made Fountain pens. I own some of them. The older ones are best, but there remains some low cost high quality production. Unfortunately, China has had significant changes in its consumer product production in recent years. It appears that the high quality and pride of manufacturing that was uniform for products produced in China and sold in our area 20 to 30 years ago or more has dropped for much of what is imported, as the volume has risen. It appears that there used to be a high degree of quality control of what was exported and we happily purchased many products over many years. We value those products still today and know they can't be replaced as what is produced and sold today is of a lower quality, or simply gone from the market place.

 

Basically the well deserved reputation of Chinese made consumer products has bifurcated. On the one hand, there are some excellent and even innovative products of the highest quality. On the other, there is a lot of junk that is being produced and sold coming out of China. For my family, if a product is made in China and does not come from a well recognized organization and does not come with an actionable warranty or guarantee from the manufacturer, marketer, or store we don't buy it unseen and unexamined. It is actually quite sad that an entire countries consumer goods production reputation has been so badly tarnished by what are likely over all only a few thousand manufacturers who seem to care only about themselves.

 

My suggestion is as until someone in China decides to make a beautiful, impressively designed, well made, high quality expensive Fountain Pen, there aren't any to buy, only high priced garish, badly designed, poorly made expensive Fountain Pens.

 

But, there are many high quality low cost Fountain Pens made in China and the vintage Fountain Pens that were made in China are quite good. They may not have gold nibs, but they are quite nice fountain pens over all. So, in regard to Chines made Fountain pens, cost is not an indicator of value, actually, the opposite. If I was cynical I would think it is an elaborate joke.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Parker51

[basterma]

I don't think the economics of Chinese consumers means you will find great pens over 100 USD as the amount of disposable income they are willing to spend on a Chinese product is limited. Look at the pens made by Kaco, N9, and the higher end M&G pens. They are great pens under 100 USD here, because that is where the money is. Chinese will spend more than 100USD on a pen, but it will be foreign, as the consumers don't see domestic brands as status symbols. Whatever you find in the 100USD or more range will be gaudy bling fests or marked up for gullible foreigners. Very few good pens there at that price range now. Give it time for N9 and others to build the brands. Live in Youis an exception, but Picasso bought them out and the pens are hard to find.

[Megaten]

My observation is there have been some very good to excellent Chinese made Fountain pens. I own some of them. The older ones are best, but there remains some low cost high quality production. Unfortunately, China has had significant changes in its consumer product production in recent years. It appears that the high quality and pride of manufacturing that was uniform for products produced in China and sold in our area 20 to 30 years ago or more has dropped for much of what is imported, as the volume has risen. It appears that there used to be a high degree of quality control of what was exported and we happily purchased many products over many years. We value those products still today and know they can't be replaced as what is produced and sold today is of a lower quality, or simply gone from the market place.

 

Basically the well deserved reputation of Chinese made consumer products has bifurcated. On the one hand, there are some excellent and even innovative products of the highest quality. On the other, there is a lot of junk that is being produced and sold coming out of China. For my family, if a product is made in China and does not come from a well recognized organization and does not come with an actionable warranty or guarantee from the manufacturer, marketer, or store we don't buy it unseen and unexamined. It is actually quite sad that an entire countries consumer goods production reputation has been so badly tarnished by what are likely over all only a few thousand manufacturers who seem to care only about themselves.

 

My suggestion is as until someone in China decides to make a beautiful, impressively designed, well made, high quality expensive Fountain Pen, there aren't any to buy, only high priced garish, badly designed, poorly made expensive Fountain Pens.

 

But, there are many high quality low cost Fountain Pens made in China and the vintage Fountain Pens that were made in China are quite good. They may not have gold nibs, but they are quite nice fountain pens over all. So, in regard to Chines made Fountain pens, cost is not an indicator of value, actually, the opposite. If I was cynical I would think it is an elaborate joke.

I did have a 14k nib fuliwen gift pen and it was just this heavy unbalanced mess with poor ink flow. The nib was nice and smooth though. So yeah my experience with a "high end" chinese pen wasnt that great.

[lovemy51]

i have a couple of Hero's (old style) with 10k and 12k nibs -never seen that before these- their performance is quite good. those are semi-flex nibs. they cost me around $40 USD -if you wanna call the high end. they perform better than some of the more expensive pens i own... of course, the latter have steel nibs.

 

oh, funny little pen, the Hero 110, 12k hooded nib and golden clip.... that's writes quite well too. tho' not what one calls expensive, maybe $15 or $20 when i got it (maybe more????)

[Mech-for-i]

There were and there are some EXPENSIVE fountain pen from China but they are in the absolute minority .. in short the majority even hobbyist oriented brand like PenBBS are making pen as writing tools instead of fashion or accessories.

[Hanoi]

Are there any Chinese artisanal brands that kind of specialize in handmade fountain pen production? It seems like you find most of them in Japan but not so much in other parts of Asia.  The European companies tend to produce very boring designs for the Asian market, always some flashy dragon or loud red lacquer.  It would be nice to see what a high end Chinese pen made for some rich Chinese guy actually looks like.  China is now kind of filthy rich with lots of dollar billionaires.