Budget Chinese Pens and Ink Starvation.

[Tony1951]

I have a number of Jinhao and Baoer pens and although they are a heck of a good buy for the money, I have a small annoyance with regard to them starting to run a bit mean on the ink after an A4 page or so of rapid writing. I can charge up the pen and start off with excellent ink delivery, but after a few hundred words (I didn't count them - that's a guess) the line becomes thinner and I get a drier writing experience. This is easily enough sorted if I whip off the barrel, and give a couple of twists to the filling ink convertor by pushing some ink up to the nib. Then I can whizz through another A4 page, until the same thing happens. I do like a wet nib, mind you. Perhaps it is me, and no one else experiences this. The only one of my Chinese pens that I don't see this in, is my Jinhao 992 which is operated as an Eye Dropper pen. That never runs mean at all. I really like that even though it is an incredibly cheap pen. I just saw them on Ali Express for £0.75 with a £2.20 delivery charge. Writes like a dream with just the right amount of feedback from the 0.5mm nib.

 

Any thoughts anyone? Thanks for reading.

 

Tony1951.

[OCArt]

Sometimes the ink sticks to the converter wall, try one of the new style converters with an agitator weight built in. Also a good soak and flush with soapy water will help.

[Tony1951]

Thanks.  I have one of those converters. I'll try it.  If it does work, I could adapt the other converters I have. It ought to be easy enough to put a stainless BB inside.

 

EDITED POST:

 

I had previously suggested using lead shot inside the convertor. In retrospect that is a very stupid idea. The ink would likely react with a reactive metal such as lead, especially Iron-gall inks with some acidity. I have removed that reference.

Edited September 30, 2022 by Tony1951
Removed bad idea in retrospect.

[AceNinja]

16 hours ago, Tony1951 said:

I have a number of Jinhao and Baoer pens and although they are a heck of a good buy for the money, I have a small annoyance with regard to them starting to run a bit mean on the ink after an A4 page or so of rapid writing. I can charge up the pen and start off with excellent ink delivery, but after a few hundred words (I didn't count them - that's a guess) the line becomes thinner and I get a drier writing experience. This is easily enough sorted if I whip off the barrel, and give a couple of twists to the filling ink convertor by pushing some ink up to the nib. Then I can whizz through another A4 page, until the same thing happens. I do like a wet nib, mind you. Perhaps it is me, and no one else experiences this. The only one of my Chinese pens that I don't see this in, is my Jinhao 992 which is operated as an Eye Dropper pen. That never runs mean at all. I really like that even though it is an incredibly cheap pen. I just saw them on Ali Express for £0.75 with a £2.20 delivery charge. Writes like a dream with just the right amount of feedback from the 0.5mm nib.

 

Any thoughts anyone? Thanks for reading.

 

Tony1951.

I've the same problem with my Jinhao X750 and X450.  Writing within the A5 page, I can see the words on the upper half are darker than the lower half.  But I didn't try to fix them though, cause i don't use those pen that frequently.

 

Jinhao 992 on the other hand, its really good.  I always say that its a $2 pen that writes like a $20 pen.  Is the best chinese pen in my collection.  Granted I only have those chinese pen on the cheaper end, like Jinhao 992, X450, X740, 51A, 599a, WS3001, 3008, Hero 329

[A Smug Dill]

55 minutes ago, AceNinja said:

Jinhao 992 on the other hand, its really good.  I always say that its a $2 pen that writes like a $20 pen.

 

The Monteverde Monza, which has essentially the same pen body, also writes like a $20 pen, albeit with a far better nib than the Jinhao 992. (I have multiple units of both models.)

 

Just in case someone is tempted to assert (once again) that the Monteverde Monza and the Jinhao 992 are in all ways the same except branding and asking price: no, they're not. Not only are the nibs different (in performance, if not also in factory of origin), but the nib housing in the gripping section is not the same across both models; the Monza takes an “international standard” (i.e. ~2.4mm bore) converter or cartridge, whereas the 992 takes the more common of the two quasi-standards of ~2.6mm bore converter or cartridge among Chinese-branded fountain pens. The connector on the nib housing screwed into the gripping section, and the converter supplied in the retail product, are therefore not the same when you buy a Monteverde Monza as opposed to a Jinhao 992.

 

[Tony1951]

Thanks for the responses.  I note also that there is a Jinhao lookalike made by Lorelei. It looks very much the same as the J 992, but I have seen a video which suggests that the body of  that Lorelei pen is made of better stuff and not liable to the cracking issues which some Jinhao 992 pens had. They used to crack at the base of the barrel caused by stress from the pressed in end plug. 

Edited September 30, 2022 by Tony1951

[rochester21]

On 9/29/2022 at 12:08 PM, Tony1951 said:

 

Not a difficult problem to solve. 

Don't use the converters, they usually don't work right. Use a cartridge. 

 

Most cartridge/converter chinese pens write a bit dry, but my info is dated by now. 

 

If i were you, i'd simply get a piston filler because those never seen to run dry, typically this means any Pelikan but since there are plenty of chinese made piston fillers now you can try getting one of those. 

 

 

[Tony1951]

2 hours ago, rochester21 said:

Not a difficult problem to solve. 

Don't use the converters, they usually don't work right. Use a cartridge. 

 

Most cartridge/converter chinese pens write a bit dry, but my info is dated by now. 

 

If i were you, i'd simply get a piston filler because those never seen to run dry, typically this means any Pelikan but since there are plenty of chinese made piston fillers now you can try getting one of those. 

 

 

 

Thanks. I ordered a vacuum filler pen on Aliexp...  The other day. It works by pulling a rod out of the back of the pen body and then pushing it downwards. This may be the kind of thing you were writing about. 

 

Cheers

[rochester21]

5 hours ago, Tony1951 said:

 

Thanks. I ordered a vacuum filler pen on Aliexp...  The other day. It works by pulling a rod out of the back of the pen body and then pushing it downwards. This may be the kind of thing you were writing about. 

 

Cheers

Oh, you're a beginner. 

No, a piston filler is different from a vacuum fill, although they both suck ink. 

 

If you like broader and wetter nibs try a Pelikan M200, i think you'il like the wetness. They cost more than the average chinese made pen but you'il never experience any dryness. Plus, they have a very good resale value. 

[Tony1951]

2 hours ago, rochester21 said:

If you like broader and wetter nibs try a Pelikan M200, i think you'il like the wetness. 

Thanks.

[YFS]

Or you can take any moderately functioning pen and use Noodler's BayState Blue ink. I don't know what they put in their ink, but the ink doesn't dry and manages to flow much better than most inks, even better than Waterman inks. It is a beautiful ink too!

BUT, that pen will most likely have to be dedicated to that ink forever. It will stain your converter permanently.

Or at the very least, if you want to change to a different ink, you will have to wash it very very very well.

So maybe try it out on an inexpensive pen first and see if you like it.

[Tony1951]

Thanks for the advice.