Jinhao

[Poetman]

I recently read two very favorable reviews of this brand, which touted their very wet, smooth nibs. I am looking for a black, LIGHTWEIGHT, western M, with a wet line. For those of you who have used these pens, which model would you recommend? I love the size/feel of the Waterman Expert I and Phileas and the Parker Sonnet (which is probably as heavy as I would want).

[Arkanabar]

Asian nibs tend to run narrower than Western nibs of equivalent marking.  Most Jinhao pens that are light have less girth than the Phileas, and nibs rated as either 0.38mm or 0.5mm (e.g. 599, 991, 992, 51A).  The X750, which has about the same section girth as the Phileas and easily has a Western medium nib, is 36g, which is quite a bit.  According to Jet Pens, a Sonnet weighs in at 31g.  The Jinhao 100 might be right up your alley, though.

 

You might look at a Fountain Pen Revolution Jaipur v1 or Himalaya v2.  These are both lightweight pens with fat grip sections, easily available with nibs from XF to B to 1.0mm stub to Ultra Flex (very similar to a Noodler's flex nib with the Ease My Flex mod).  Quality control is variable, but Kevin, the owner of Fountain Pen Revolution, is very much into customer satisfaction.  Contact him regarding any issues your pens may have, and I would put strong odds on him making it right.

[sirgilbert357]

I bought an X750 and put a Goulet medium nib in it. It was a perfect fit - just plug and play. So, at least if you get an X750 and don't like it for some reason, just know you can put a different nib in it quite easily.

[John UK]

I have an X750.  Was very good straight out of the package but two minor negatives; firstly the ink tends to fail to flow in the converter reservoir (surface tension in a rather narrow reservoir?); secondly - the cap is a rather loose fit.

 

But overall, nicely finished (mine is a stainless steel finish), good smooth wet writer - and excellent value at the price.

[mke]

2 hours ago, John UK said:

the cap is a rather loose fit.

All of mine are rather tight than loose fit.

 

On 4/25/2022 at 12:35 PM, sirgilbert357 said:

Goulet medium nib

There are number of fltting nibs: basically any Jowo #6 will do. Isn't a Goulet nib a rebranded Jowo?

 

[Poetman]

Thank you for these replies. I was interested in the Jinhao pens because I read that they were very wet writers, but it seems some of you have been less than thrilled. Are there higher quality, equally wet, writers for under $20?

[Paganini]

@Poetman, at that price point fountain pens are not fungible - maybe not at any price point! What I mean is, there is just not the kind of consistency from one pen to the next that allows you to say a particular named line of pens are "wet writers" or other similar generalizations. There are plenty of good pens in the $20 - $30 price bracket, but you won't know how they write until you try them. 

 

You might try buying a bulk pack of even cheaper pens (say, Jinhao 911s or something like that) and picking out what you like. One of my favorite nibs I pulled out of a 6 pack of Jinhao 911s that I got for - I think - $11. It lives in a Wing Sung 601 now. 

 

If you don't want to go that sort of DIY route, you have to either shop in person and try a lot of pens, mess around with ordering, trying, then returning pens you don't like (inconvenient), or buying a pen you like for other reasons and taking it to a nibmeister to make it write like how you want it to (more expensive). 

[John UK]

37 minutes ago, Poetman said:

I was interested in the Jinhao pens because I read that they were very wet writers, but it seems some of you have been less than thrilled.

Mine is certainly wet, but I use Parker Quink Royal blue washable, which I think tends to wet.  Less than thrilled?  I think I paid GBP 6 for mine delivered to my door (under $10) which for a nicely finished stainless steel pen is incredibly good value.   So, it writes well, looks good and was very well priced, and I'm well pleased.  For the price, you won't loose much in trying one.

[sirgilbert357]

16 hours ago, mke said:

All of mine are rather tight than loose fit.

 

There are number of fltting nibs: basically any Jowo #6 will do. Isn't a Goulet nib a rebranded Jowo?

 

 

Yes, Goulet nibs are Jowo with Goulet's logo on it.

So is Franklin Christoph...

So is Edison...

So is Leonardo Officina Italia

So is Diplomat

So is Conklin

Etc, etc, etc....the list goes on and on. EVERYTHING is Jowo now...

[A Smug Dill]

18 minutes ago, sirgilbert357 said:

Etc, etc, etc....the list goes on and on. EVERYTHING is Jowo now...

 

Not Chinese pens (although the odd model may use Bock or Schmidt nibs), Japanese (except maybe Wancher) pens, Aurora, Santini Italia, Scribo, Visconti(?), Graf von Faber-Castell, Pelikan, Parker, Cross, … as far as I know, even if we're only talking about prominent products and brands in the market.

[sirgilbert357]

9 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Not Chinese pens (although the odd model may use Bock or Schmidt nibs), Japanese (except maybe Wancher) pens, Aurora, Santini Italia, Scribo, Visconti(?), Graf von Faber-Castell, Pelikan, Parker, Cross, … as far as I know, even if we're only talking about prominent products and brands in the market.

 

This is one thing that makes Chinese pens so attractive to me. They are usually an excellent value and they have in-house made nibs.

 

I think even Visconti are using Jowo now (wasn't it Bock before, and in-house before that? I can't recall -- either way, their nibs are more customized than a lot of other pen maker's Jowo nibs, so at least there is that).

 

My comment about the Jowo nibs was hyperbole meant to highlight how many pens use their nibs. I find it a bit frustrating personally (although I can't fault the pen makers for their business decision to use Jowo nibs) because I'd prefer to have more nib variety in my small collection. And sometimes I REALLY like the design of the pen, but if it has a Jowo nib, I already know how it will write and that decreases the value proposition for me.

 

For anyone that adores Jowo nibs, now is the golden age of fountain pens, LOL.

[mke]

10 hours ago, sirgilbert357 said:

EVERYTHING is Jowo now...

And there is also Bock, Eboya e.g. uses Bock nibs. Don't forget the large market share of Bock 350 (some people say #8).

Kanwrite, MagnaCharta and other Indian nib makers.

 

There was also a Jowo-compatible nib sold by Nemosine, now Birminham pens from the maker Knox - said to be from Germany but I do not find any information. I have some of these, they are good.

[A Smug Dill]

On 4/27/2022 at 10:33 PM, sirgilbert357 said:

This is one thing that makes Chinese pens so attractive to me. They are usually an excellent value and they have in-house made nibs.

 

I don’t know about the nibs being made ‘in-house’. Having pulled the nibs out from HongDian 960 and Wing Sung 699, I suspect they’re from the same factory. The (different types of) nibs in Jinhao 51A, 992, X450, etc. most likely aren’t made by Jinhao exclusively for Jinhao, but most likely a rebranded generic product. We simply don’t know the major OEM suppliers in China by name, the way we know about JoWo and Bock, that’s all.

 

As for Visconti, I thought it has moved its current production 18K gold nibs back in-house?

[mke]

6 minutes ago, sirgilbert357 said:

I'd prefer to have more nib variety in my small collection

You still have so many possibilities - if you choose a pen for each possibility, you can spend a lot.

Just to mention Bock nibs, I have and like a Bock 230 Pt950 (XXF) and I am thinking about acquiring a Bock 230 Pd 23k.

[mke]

2 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

major OEM suppliers in China by name

One is Hongdian, I was told.

 

3 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

nibs from HongDian 960 and Wing Sung 699 are from the same factory

I can't believe this, the behavior of Hongdian nibs is so much better than the Wingsung nibs (my experience).

 

On Alibaba, you can see how many companies are actually making Jinhao pens (they call them differently but at the end the name Jinhao is written on the pen).

I didn't search for nib makers. I guess you will also find a big number of it.

[A Smug Dill]

3 minutes ago, mke said:

One is Hongdian, I was told.

 

Yes, Zhejiang Lishui Lantian Pen Industrial Co., Ltd., started off in 1997 as an OEM for other Chinese fountain pen brands. It wasn’t until twenty-odd years later that it decided to produce and sell pens with its own brands — one of which is HongDian — in the retail market.

 

http://winwinsky.com/wap/home.asp?Menuid=1

 

My point, though, is that if HongDian makes its nibs in-house, then there must be substantially more Chinese brands, being those of Zhejiang Lishui Lantian Pen’s B2B customers, that don’t make their nibs in-house.

 

 

A company that does not have its own factory or workshop to produce nibs from scratch using sheet metal cannot be said to be have in-house nib production, in my opinion. I seriously doubt Chinese brands such as LingMo, Paili, Picasso, Tramol, etc. produce the nibs on their pens in-house; and I don’t actually believe Majohn and Delike do, either.

 

[Poetman]

On 4/26/2022 at 10:12 PM, sirgilbert357 said:

 

Yes, Goulet nibs are Jowo with Goulet's logo on it.

So is Franklin Christoph...

So is Edison...

So is Leonardo Officina Italia

So is Diplomat

So is Conklin

Etc, etc, etc....the list goes on and on. EVERYTHING is Jowo now...

What is JOWO?

[A Smug Dill]

8 hours ago, Poetman said:

What is JOWO?

 

1. Something generic in the world of nibs.
2. https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/317788-what-can-anyone-tell-me-about-jowo/
3. https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/294896-whats-a-jowo-nib/
4. Search engines are your friends ready to attend to your questions at your whim; faceless fellow hobbyists not necessarily so.

[John UK]

On 4/26/2022 at 10:30 AM, mke said:

All of mine are rather tight than loose fit.

It can be 'adjusted' - and I have now done mine and it is MUCH better.  You need to unscrew the plastic insert inside the cap slightly to loosen.  I did this using a small piece of wooden dowel.  Gently push the dowel inside the inner cap (where it should grip the inside of the plastic) and turn anti-clockwise. 

[Prof Drew]

 

@PaganiniThanks for the suggestion to take a Jinhao 911 nib to a Wing Sung 601. I'm super-impressed with the ever-affordable 911 and was disappointed by the nib on my 601. It looks great, especially with the metal section upgrade, but the nib was disappointing compared with the 911, which glides across crappy photocopy paper like an ice skater.