Newbie question; Jinhao and Hero fountain pens

[Talos]

Hi all,

 

This is my first post... I saw these two pens, but I have no idea if they are o.k. Does anyone know a bit more; quality, build, nib etc. Many thanks for helping out a newbie! They will be my first buys if they are not too bad... the only other fountain pen I ever used was in primary school when learning how to write almost 30 year ago, some plastic Bruynzeel's.

 

Hero:

 

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1152/dc581pu4.th.jpg

 

Jinhao: (and this one also comes in full metal colored)

 

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/8744/21093a1bry5.th.jpg

Edited January 20, 2009 by I am not a number

[Cerbeos]

There's an extensive pen review list that people of FPN have compiled and written themselves. Here

 

I personally have no experience with a Hero or Jinhao, although I am very tempted with a couple of pens that Jinhao has to offer!

 

Best of luck with your fountain pens! Definitely watch out in case you start to get addicted (I've only been into FPs for a few weeks now, but its literally all I do with any spare bit of free time I can get!!!)

[liapuyat]

I have the Jinhao pictured on the bottom, with the B nib. Nice, matte black. Lovely writer, very smooth. If you use a nice ink you get great shading on your writing. I have small hands but this pen is very comfortable to hold.

 

Got it from Gotoschool888 on eBay (no affiliation).

[richardandtracy]

The Jinhao looks like the one reviewed here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=38233

 

Both Hero & Jinhao produce nice pens. The more expensive Hero's tend not to suffer from the same quality problems as the cheaper ones. I've not heard many bad words about Jinhao's. The Jinhao's seem to have broader nibs than the Hero's - some getting to the width that would be called 'Medium' in the west. Most Hero's have fine or extra fine nibs. The choice is yours, as both pens would be at least 'OK' and may even be 'Very Nice'.

I would tend to go for the Jinhao, on the basis of experiencing 11 Hero's (of which 10 were 616's [4 with some faults] and 1 Hero 330) but only one Jinhao.

 

Regards

 

Richard.

 

[dogpoet]

I've not used any Heros, but the Jinhao I have to hand (Confuscius Memorial) is great: well balanced, brilliant nib for what it cost, nice and solid (the cap and body seem to be brass under a coat of lacquer), and very comfortable in the hand for such a huge pen. The only downside is that it seems very thirsty, and the converter it came with doesn't hold all that much ink. Still, as it isn't even one of the pricier Jinhao's, I was well impressed.

[superfreeka]

I've had both a Jinhao and a Hero. The Jinhao was a heavy laquer-over-brass pen with what some might consider to be a gaudy gold dragon wrapping itself around the black base of the pen. The nib on that pen was the best nib I have ever used, right out of the box. Jinhao has a reputation for nibs which far exceed the price. Unfortunately, my pen had flow issues and eventually I retired it because of its tempermental nature. I would suspect that had mine not had a flow problem, it would have been almost too good for the price. Highly recommended.

 

I also have a Hero 100 stainless steel Parker 51 reproduction, which is arguably their best made P51 clone. It's durable, solidly built, and well worth the 30 dollars I paid for it. The nib, while scratchy out of the box, has been made acceptable due to some adjustments I made to the tines. A good pen; a great value. Highly recommended.

 

You can't go wrong unless you get a dud.

[Souldrifter]

My experience with Jinhao is not positive, but it's not exactly negative, either. They're good starter pens if you're looking for something inexpensive. And they have super awesome packaging, with wood boxes and other little extras. But, the pen itself was unremarkable. I got Chinese Dragon's Offspring which sounds a lot like the one superfreeka described. It's heavy and unwieldy to my hands, and the little plastic thing at the top of the cap is cheap and loose, and allowed an ink cart to dry out in it in just days. I sealed it with a little beeswax, but even after that, I don't care for how it writes.

 

So far, I'm enamoured of Lamy and Pelikan nibs, it seems. And my Falcon, of course.

 

Everyone has different tastes, though, and your mileage may vary.

[duna]

I have two Jinhao X450 which are good users, a little on the heavy side, both great nibs (a tad on the big side to be honest, if that's a problem..) and very smooth, bodies are lacquer over metal. They appear to drink ink like thirsty camels but their wet, brilliant line is crisp and dense. Some are experiencing feeding problems with this model, so it's a matter of luck.

Heroes are more consistent, and the 100 model is on the verge of excellence, still some QC problems but the pen is a consistent, reliable instrument. No skipping, no problems starting, expecially if a fluid ink is used (for some reason it appears to hate the Pelikan Brilliant Black, compared to the less 'dense' Pilot Black). I tried many 100s and bought two of them and never managed to find a dud (but I know it's far easier to find a bad one with cheaper models like the 616, which I use often, but the 100 is another ballpark). My daily users are a fantastic Pilot VP M nib and a H100; enough said.

[Talos]

Thanks for all the replies so far, I just received the Hero one; I like it. Bought some ink, filled it, gave it a sharp downward shake and it wrote right away. No problems. I will go ahead and order the Jinhao too.

 

Only one weird thing though... I looked closely on the Hero nib and it states this:

 

4810

18k

montblanc

750

 

... montblanc???

 

 

[shadowsforbars]

I have a couple of both brands. The Jinhaos tend to be heavy and therefore I think they are more suited to someone with a large hand. The Heros I have are good too, but there are so many models on the market, it is difficult to generalise. I would buy both brand again.

[HerosNSuch]

I own, and frequently use, a smalle mountain of Chinese pens. Of them, I have found:

 

With Hero- Avoid anything less than $8(full retail) unless you know how to tune a nib

With Jinhao- Avoid their X-Fine(same as above) Also, spend an extra $10 or so and get one of their LE's from eBay. The two tone nib is a bit smoother and flows a bit wetter(good for me, maybe not for you)

With Duke- I think that they may really be made in Germany, the jury's still out on final assembly though

With Dookworm- Ive yet to have a problem

With Wing Sung- Hero owns them so the same applies

With Baoer- They seem to have finish durability issues but the guts and nibs are okay

With Haushilai- no problems as of yet

With Leonardo- very good quality in the exmples in my drawer/boxes/cases

WithDinouyang- Awesome. That's all I can say. I've never spent less than $20 on a pen and had it write like some of my $200 pens until I bought one of the 808's.

There are others, but I dare not speek of them for fear that I might actually be plagued by them again. Mostly terrible pens with wonky nibs, leaks, and terrible feeds.

 

 

Spelling edit

Edited January 21, 2009 by HerosNSuch

[ExcaliburZ]

I lived in China, I bought a couple Hero FPs. Basic rule, the more money = the better quality. Those are better quality pens so put some good ink in them and see how things go.

[Talos]

Hi all,

 

This is my first post... I saw these two pens, but I have no idea if they are o.k. Does anyone know a bit more; quality, build, nib etc. Many thanks for helping out a newbie! They will be my first buys if they are not too bad... the only other fountain pen I ever used was in primary school when learning how to write almost 30 year ago, some plastic Bruynzeel's.

 

Hero:

 

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1152/dc581pu4.th.jpg

 

Jinhao: (and this one also comes in full metal colored)

 

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/8744/21093a1bry5.th.jpg

 

Yippie, just won the Jinhao fpn (but the full metal body version) on Ebay, with free shipping for only 7,5 USD. Hope it will be o.k. Now the wait has begon... i choose this one over the other more fancy Jinhao's out there because I like the simple design, it looks durable... (I hope it is)

[JinhaoMaster]

There's an extensive pen review list that people of FPN have compiled and written themselves. Here

 

I personally have no experience with a Hero or Jinhao, although I am very tempted with a couple of pens that Jinhao has to offer!

 

Best of luck with your fountain pens! Definitely watch out in case you start to get addicted (I've only been into FPs for a few weeks now, but its literally all I do with any spare bit of free time I can get!!!)

 

 

Try Jinhao's no guarantees on Hero, but Jinhao DEFINITELY is worth it

[JinhaoMaster]

Hi all,

 

This is my first post... I saw these two pens, but I have no idea if they are o.k. Does anyone know a bit more; quality, build, nib etc. Many thanks for helping out a newbie! They will be my first buys if they are not too bad... the only other fountain pen I ever used was in primary school when learning how to write almost 30 year ago, some plastic Bruynzeel's.

 

Hero:

 

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1152/dc581pu4.th.jpg

 

Jinhao: (and this one also comes in full metal colored)

 

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/8744/21093a1bry5.th.jpg

 

 

 

Go for Jinhao I am sure it is the best, notice how the Hero looks like the Jinhao X450. Jinhao offers many models and many variations of each model, so EVERYONE has their own perfect pen,, from simple to abstract, Jinhao outperforms the most expensive pens here and there, yet they are extremely low cost, THEY ARE REALLY GREAT!

[Renzhe]

Pretty brave naming yourself that. Get ready for a pop quiz on everything Jinhao.

 

Just kidding.

[Jimmy James]

I'll caution that you need to watch who you buy Hero pens from. Believe it or not, there are actually fake Heros. I have bought three such pens, the only time I haven't purchased from a seller I had a good sense was reputable.

 

I have paid as little as $2 per pen for Heros, and every real Hero I have used has worked out well so far. I did lose one to a problem with a part in the cap, but it seems likely that the cheap Hero plastic didn't agree with Bay State Blue.

 

I know nothing of Jinhao.

 

One of the users above listed a bunch of Chinese brands. I'll add Kaigelu, which seems to sort of hold itself out as Australian and Chinese. My best Chinese pen is a Kaigelu, and I haven't seen much in the way of trouble reported. They make some very stylish pens that don't suffer the gaudiness some complain about with some Chinese pens. In fact, the one I have looks similar to Parker's modern Duofold line. I did drop it last week and discovered today that I did some fairly minor damage to the pen, but I'm satisfied with the durability because I dropped it onto asphalt.

[Talos]

So although I am a complete newbie, I still would like to place some thoughts here, after I received and used the Hero.

 

For my work I have to write quite a bit, so I gave the Hero a good workout. After I received it (10 days or so ago), I bought some inexpensive black Quink, filled up the pen. Gave it a few sharp shakes and started to write... no problems... as far as I can tell as a newbie it writes smooth, no skipping... and the reservoir holds enough ink for around 2 days of moderate usage. So far I am very happy, also with the build of the pen. Everything looks and feels solid. Nice heft.

 

Anyway, I find it one of the best buys I ever made, a mere 15 usd or so, inclusive of international shipping. What more do you want.

 

PS. the nib seems to be an exact direct copy of a famous brand.

 

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1152/dc581pu4.jpg

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/dc581pu4.jpg/1/w400.png

[Talos]

typo error, please delete...

Edited February 5, 2009 by Talos

[Talos]

So although I am a complete newbie, I still would like to place some thoughts here, after I received and used the Hero.

 

For my work I have to write quite a bit, so I gave the Hero a good workout. After I received it (10 days or so ago), I bought some inexpensive black Quink, filled up the pen. Gave it a few sharp shakes and started to write... no problems... as far as I can tell as a newbie it writes smooth, no skipping... and the reservoir holds enough ink for around 2 days of moderate usage. So far I am very happy, also with the build of the pen. Everything looks and feels solid. Nice heft.

 

Anyway, I find it one of the best buys I ever made, a mere 15 usd or so, inclusive of international shipping. What more do you want.

 

PS. the nib seems to be an exact direct copy of a famous brand.

 

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1152/dc581pu4.jpg

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/dc581pu4.jpg/1/w400.png

 

Update; Just received the Jinhao x750. I like the build of the pen, full brushed metal body. I like the nib... how it looks, with a stylized dragon pattern on it. It writes smoothly but not consistent (yet)... a bit 'watery'. Maybe it will become better later on... lets see. But still for a mere 10 usd inclusive of shipping I am not complaining.