Majohn A1 (a capless clone)

[Lomi]

2 minutes ago, mhguda said:

I'm sorry it did not go well for you. But at least you have a functioning pen, right? What spring came out, the one that closes the trapdoor? I have seen one discussion where someone described something similar to what happened with your pen, but I wouldn't be able to point you to it... only he was able to put the little spring back.

So, again, good luck, and I hope you end up fixing your pen... and at least now we know: if we wash the inside of the pen, let it dry, blow air through, but don't use paper towels or the like... Thank you for that info!

nah, it's all fine, pen is better then ever anyway, it's just have a little bit of dry mechanism feel to it left right now, it was way worse. Spring i'm talking about is the large one, not the one that maintains the trap door, i'm not sure how it is in capless/vp but in Majohn A1 I assume it was glued? right now it's loose but it doesn't affect the pen in any way you just throw it back into the pen and screw together.

[mhguda]

Oh, I see. In the Capless, I think it is just forced into the (plastic) liner. It stayed there and when I cleaned it, it worked a bit better. There was some dried ink gunk, I think that's why my pen started jamming. It's now back to the troublefree operation of before (knock on wood). Glad yours is functioning better too.

[OCArt]

12 hours ago, Lomi said:

the problem was really laying in the alignment pin of the nib unit as i first thought, during my previous assemblies of the pen the pin was aligned properly but it was positioned too high during screwing process and it was scratching the insides of the pen, though during assembly you can position it at its lowest point and then screw the pen making sure it stays in place, pin is large enough to align with slot at any position but in my case if it's positions too high it starts to scratch the inside walls of the pen.

Would you please explain the pin you are describing?  I'm looking at my pen guts and I don't see any pin that can be placed in different positions.  Thanks

[Lomi]

8 hours ago, OCArt said:

Would you please explain the pin you are describing?  I'm looking at my pen guts and I don't see any pin that can be placed in different positions.  Thanks

I probably used wrong word to describe it. So if I try to explain it better - we have pen body and nib unit, while pen body is disassembled we can see rectangular shaped slot on threads, and on the the nib unit we can see small protruding pin/hill shaped in square, this pin goes into the slot when you assemble the pen, you probably know this by now anyway, i'm just trying to make sure we talking about the same thing 😄 so if I continue, when you put nib unit into the pen there quite a bit of play/slack? nib unit doesn't sit flush with insides of pen body and you can move it millimeters up/down/left/right/etc until you hit the inside wall of threads, so the thing that happens atleast in my unit is that when i put nib unit into the pen this so called "pin" that goes into the slot can go either higher or lower because of slack, it's millimeters difference but it's there, and if I don't make sure that my whole nib unit touches the bottom of inside wall (it also means that pin stays at it lowest possible position) the pin otherwise will scratch the inside surface causing problems. 

I drew a little explanation from the side view, it's not perfect but hope in helps to imagine what i mean.

[OCArt]

@LomiThank you so much for your (very nice) drawing and explanation. 

[miwishi63]

Talked myself into buying one just now from a seller on ebay with whom I have done business in the past. Orange/Tan/Yellow w/clip and 0.4mm nib.

[Misfit]

I just checked the tracking on the MaJohn A1 I ordered. It’s in Kansas City! It arrived at 10:30am. It could be here tomorrow, likely. 
 

I saved this screenshot from Jet Pens. I entered the drawing, but didn’t win. I liked the photo. I already own the notebook, and a different blue Rohrer & Klingner ink. Soon the blue MaJohn A1 will be here. 
 

[Helen350]

28 minutes ago, Misfit said:

I just checked the tracking on the MaJohn A1 I ordered. It’s in Kansas City! It arrived at 10:30am. It could be here tomorrow, likely. 
 

I saved this screenshot from Jet Pens. I entered the drawing, but didn’t win. I liked the photo. I already own the notebook, and a different blue Rohrer & Klingner ink. Soon the blue MaJohn A1 will be here. 
 

 

It is a beautiful blue, and I trust you will enjoy it!

[Misfit]

Thank you @Helen350  

[Misfit]

The MaJohn A1 marked Moonman, did arrive today. I rinsed the nib, put Pelikan 4001 Blue Black in the converter. It is writing lighter than reviews of that ink show, so I’m thinking there was still water in the feed. 
 

I don’t think it is writing wider than an F nib. Sigh. I looked around a bit, as in 3 websites, and Atlas Stationers seems to have the best price for the Pilot VP nib units. And I have a whopping 5% off in rewards at Atlas. That would make the stub nib unit cost $66.50. 
 

I’m wondering if I should go ahead and order the stub nib unit.  If MaJohn sold additional sizes of nib units eventually, I wonder if they would have a stub nib version. 

[Jamerelbe]

7 minutes ago, Misfit said:

The MaJohn A1 marked Moonman, did arrive today. I rinsed the nib, put Pelikan 4001 Blue Black in the converter. It is writing lighter than reviews of that ink show, so I’m thinking there was still water in the feed. 
 

I don’t think it is writing wider than an F nib. Sigh. I looked around a bit, as in 3 websites, and Atlas Stationers seems to have the best price for the Pilot VP nib units. And I have a whopping 5% off in rewards at Atlas. That would make the stub nib unit cost $66.50. 
 

I’m wondering if I should go ahead and order the stub nib unit.  If MaJohn sold additional sizes of nib units eventually, I wonder if they would have a stub nib version. 

 

Stub nibs really don't seem to be a 'thing' in the Chinese market - so I doubt that would be high on their list of priorities.

 

It's also worth doing some research on VP stub nibs before diving in: there was some consternation when they first came out, that you needed to hold the pen at a fairly high angle to get a good flow of ink.  I don't know if that's a problem they addressed after the first batch came out - I just remember having some issues breaking mine in (I haven't used it in quite a while....).

[Misfit]

Thank you @Jamerelbe  I’ll see if I can find reviews of the Pilot VP stub. 
 

I like their calligraphy nibs that are often on the humble Plumix. They are likely italic, but when I got one the website called it calligraphy. 

[Misfit]

Here is my photo of the pen, taken at the wrong angle, but oh well. 
 

[A Smug Dill]

33 minutes ago, Misfit said:

Thank you @Jamerelbe  I’ll see if I can find reviews of the Pilot VP stub. 
 

I like their calligraphy nibs that are often on the humble Plumix. They are likely italic, but when I got one the website called it calligraphy. 

 

Pilot Capless 18K gold SU nibs write nothing like the Pilot Plumix's steel CM nibs out-of-the-box, in my experience. I prefer the Plumix's nib.

 

42 minutes ago, Jamerelbe said:

Stub nibs really don't seem to be a 'thing' in the Chinese market - so I doubt that would be high on their list of priorities.

 

Nope. ‘Long knife’ nibs ground in the Naginata Togi tradition is the big thing right now, for users who want broader lines/nibs. Nibs with upward bends at the tip (‘art’ nibs, ‘fude’ nibs, etc.) are the other option that have always been available for that purpose.

 

Italic and Stub nibs are really ‘only’ (or mostly) useful for drawing hanzi characters in the Songti (aka Mingti) family of scripts.

[Misfit]

@A Smug Dill  I’m not surprised about the difference in writing since the nibs and feeds (Plumix, VP) are different. 

I’ve read reviews at Jet Pens so far. The VP stub gets 1 and 2 star ratings from 2017 and 2018. It gets 5 stars from 2020. 

 

[Jamerelbe]

5 minutes ago, Misfit said:

@A Smug Dill  I’m not surprised about the difference in writing since the nibs and feeds (Plumix, VP) are different. 

I’ve read reviews at Jet Pens so far. The VP stub gets 1 and 2 star ratings from 2017 and 2018. It gets 5 stars from 2020. 

 

 

That doesn't surprise me. I don't think they were appropriately 'attuned' to the Western market, at least at first - and I remember Goulet Pens doing a video that addressed the issue.  It's lost in the haze of distant memory now, but my vague recollection is that Pilot *were* aware of the issue, and were seeking to address it.  I hung onto my VP stub, and eventually got used to it - though, again, it hasn't gotten a lot of use in recent times.  Their F and B nibs, on the other hand, are magnificent - and I've been pleasantly surprised by the consistency of Majohn's one-size-fits-all-or-don't-bother-buying-it nibs (I have 3, all write really well).

[Helen350]

4 hours ago, Misfit said:

Here is my photo of the pen, taken at the wrong angle, but oh well. 
 

 

Well, how do you like the blue color of your A1?  Pen looks nice with that notebook. 

The VP broad nib unit which I have in my matte black A1 is a very smooth writer.  Not

having a nib issue requiring me to hold it at a certain angle, though I do normally hold

my pens at the proper angle.  A little extra cash came my way today, so I've ordered

the green A1 with clip.  I really do like the A1.  I plan on purchasing a med. VP nib

unit from Atlas.  

[Misfit]

@Helen350 I like the pen as far as the color, the clip and click open and close are neat. The size of nib is not my favorite. I’ll give it some time, trying it on Tomoe River paper. I’m keeping the stub nib unit in mind though. I love stub and italic nibs.  

[Helen350]

7 hours ago, Misfit said:

@Helen350 I like the pen as far as the color, the clip and click open and close are neat. The size of nib is not my favorite. I’ll give it some time, trying it on Tomoe River paper. I’m keeping the stub nib unit in mind though. I love stub and italic nibs.  

 

It took me a minute or two to get use to the size of the nib, preferring the eye catching

#6 nibs.  However, it is now no longer an aesthetic issue, for I have surely enjoyed

writing with my A1s.  From the photo, the amt of nib we see in the black matte A1 with a

VP broad nib unit, and the A1 with the original nib shows the same amt of nib exposed. 

As noted in your earlier conversation with OCArt re: how deep the nib unit is seated,

is a design issue.

[A Smug Dill]

On 7/30/2022 at 10:00 AM, Misfit said:

The MaJohn A1 marked Moonman, did arrive today. I rinsed the nib, put Pelikan 4001 Blue Black in the converter. It is writing lighter than reviews of that ink show, so I’m thinking there was still water in the feed. 
 

I don’t think it is writing wider than an F nib.

 

Not trying to invalidate your experience, or discount the possibility of variation or inconsistence in manufacture from one unit of a product to the next, but this is how another as-supplied steel EF nib in another newly arrived Majohn A1 performs:

 

The Majohn A1's EF nib writes consistently broader than either a Pilot Capless F nib (which, to me, is the most “like for like” comparison in terms of nominally substitutable products), or a small (nominally “#5“) Majohn/Moonman steel nib (of which I only have one) that I was told is a Chinese F nib in the absence of any other nib option.

 

 

It's actually reasonably consistent with what I saw when writing with the first Majohn A1 pen I received:

On 1/1/2022 at 3:45 PM, A Smug Dill said:

By the time I finally got it working and writing (smoothly) using the same converter and fill of ink, and on the same sheet of paper, lays down lines of ~0.35mm wide.

 

Obviously I'm not going to take “an F nib” to mean anything akin to a generic JoWo #6 F nib, since in no way is that a fit benchmark or reasonable point of reference; that would be comparing apples with oranges.

 

Notes:

• The nib on my Moonman S1 has no grade marking, and the item was originally listed as having an “EF/F” nib — except there was no selectable option at all. When I asked the seller for clarification, he/she said there was only one nib width, that being “0.5mm”, which would make it a “Chinese F”.
• I swapped the Majohn A1 and Pilot Capless nib assemblies into the same (clipless Majohn A1) pen body, and used the same converter with the same fill of ink, for (2a) and (3a), as well as for (2b) and (3b), to minimise any unconscious differences that could arise from the the weight balance of the pen.
• Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black is supposed to be dry-flowing, while Jacques Herbin Noir Abyssal is supposed to be wet-flowing. However, it just seemed the former wanted to misbehave today on this sheet of paper; and the latter actually seem to be more dry than the former coming out of the Moonman S1, putting down crisper but shadier lines.

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by A Smug Dill
added image showing line width measurement with my loupe