Fingers Were Meant to be Inky
A while back, I published a post describing my experiences with iron gall ink and how one specific ink ate a pen and a spare nib. If you haven’t read it, I’d recommend doing so before reading this post. This is going to be a long, photo-heavy article, so I’m not going to rehash the initial story, which has proven to be really popular. It’s sparked quite a debate across reddit, including one in which a lovely redditor repeatedly called me… Read More
Is iron gall ink Public Enemy #1, or just a poor, misunderstood schmuck caught up in an unfair war of opinions?
Some people avoid it like the plague, flat-out stating that it will eat your pens, paper, pets, and children. Others use it exclusively, saying it’s perfectly safe and they bathe in it and pour it over their cereal with no ill effects… Read More
Straight outta the “You sure looked different in your picture” file, an inexpensive Chinese pen from a mysterious manufacturer…
Price: $8.00
Nib: Medium/Fine
Filling System: Cartridge/Converter (International Standard)
This one has me mystified. I’ve heard in the past that “Yongsheng” is a slightly different translation/Romanized spelling of “Wing Sung” and that they’re made by the same company (both of which would be owned by Hero now). And in seemingly logical fashion, the Yongsheng 088 did, in fact, come with a Wing Sung nib installed. Cut and dried situation, right? Except that I went looking for some background on Yongsheng and where the name came from, only to find reference to two separate Yonghseng pen companies: Jieyang Yongsheng Pen Manufacturing Factory and Zhejiang Tonglu Yonghseng Pen making Factory.
Now, Jieyang and Zhejiang seem like they could be different spellings of the same name; however, these two companies have different postal addresses, indicating that they are most likely different companies. Kind of a weird thing. More weird things… Read More
Inexpensive. Chinese. Classy. Dependable. Bigfooty. It’s the…
Price: $7.50
Nib: Medium (#5)
Filling System: Standard International Cartridge & Converter
Yiren has probably become my favorite Chinese fountain pen brand. It’s not just because their pens are attractive and work well (they are…and they do). It’s also because the Yiren (or Yeren…or 野人) is the Chinese Bigfoot (or Sasquatch…or Skunk Ape). Yes, I know. I mention that every time I talk about Yiren pens. And I will continue to do so every time from here to eternity. I like fountain pens. I like bigfoot. It’s a match made in heaven. Deal with it.
Yiren, and their sister brand Bookworm, are made by the Nanchang Yiren Pen Company from the Chinese town of Wengang. Yiren refers to Wengang as the “pen capital” of China. I can neither confirm nor deny this claim, but it sounds like… Read More
Fountain pens are wonderful. That’s a given. But because they use water-based ink, they’re really not suitable for most run-of-the-mill paper (see what I did, there?). Fountain pens aren’t very popular in the US, so most of the everyday paper found here is a poor match for pens that use water-based inks. Ballpoints and gel pens effectively make up the entirety of American daily writing instruments, so manufacturers only need to supply paper that works well with those inks…which, really, any crappy paper can do.
So that leaves us poor fountain pen users stuck buying higher quality paper, mostly imported from France or Japan. These papers are great, but they’re pretty expensive compared to… Read More
Inexpensive. Chinese. Fountain pens. Some are gems; some are disasters. How does this one measure up? Let’s mess with the…
Price: $1.58
Nib: Fine / Extra Fine (Hooded)
Filling System: Cartridge/Converter (Standard International)
There is a huge number of Chinese fountain pen brands. Some, like Hero and Wing Sung, have been around for several decades. Others, like Duke and Kaigelu, are relatively new, but considered among the high-end of options from the Middle Kingdom.
Jinhao—a property of the Shanghai Qiangu Stationery Co., LTD—is another new-ish pen brand that came storming onto the scene in 1988. Okay, so maybe “storming” is a bit of an exaggeration. But at the present time, Jinhao produces a large number of fountain pens that are considered to be of… Read More
Getting back to some good, old-fashioned inexpensive Chinese fountain pen action. Is it cheap? Or is it good? Could it be Both?
Price: $3.00
Nib: Medium (on the finer side)
Filling System: Standard International Converter & Cartridges
Exploring the world of Chinese fountain pens is an adventure. Some are inexpensive, others are less so. Some are outstanding performers, while others are absolute disasters. And there seems to be no real correlation between price and quality. Some of my best finds were in the $4 to $7 range, while some of my biggest disappointments cost between $12 and $19.
Some Chinese pens lead to adventure not because of the price-to-performance ratio, but because of some of the crazy things that happen with them. The Baoer 508 is a perfect example.
I filled the 508 with ink from a sample, so I used a syringe. I was also filling another pen, so I stood the 508 up on its cap to let gravity help the ink find its way to the nib. After about three minutes, I came back to it and took the cap off. Ink went flying… Read More
For the next entry in my “Inexpensive Chinese Fountain Pens” series, I would like to call your attention to the…
Price: $7.00
Nib: Fine/Extra Fine
Filling System: International Standard Converter & Cartridges
An old Chinese Proverb states “A good memory is no match for a worn pen nib.” It’s lesson: to write everything down…a written account of an event, by its very nature, is stronger (and more accurate) than an oral tale of that account passed down through generations.
In Chinese, “worn pen nib” is translated to lan bi tou (or Lanbitou). What a beautiful name for a pen brand. I love it. It tells me that the company takes writing seriously, and that the pens that bear its name can be trusted to record all the events of my life, all the stories I hold dear, all the knowledge that I want to live on after I’m gone…. Read More
Moby Dick: The great, white whale who for so long eluded and tormented Captain Ahab, invading his dreams, becoming the subject of his infamous obsession, and eventually leading to his demise. We all have one, don’t we? That one thing that’s always on our mind…that just eats at us night and day until we capture it, defeat it, or figure it out.
For some in the fountain pen world, the white whale is a rare pen model, color, or date of manufacture (or a combination of all three). For me, it’s about 1/100 of a penny’s worth of plastic: a simple … Read More
Next up in my “Cheap Inexpensive Chinese Fountain Pens” series, another winner from one of my favorite Chinese brands…
Price: $7.00
Nib: Medium
Filling System: Standard International Converter (& Cartridges)
I’m a really big fan of gunmetal-colored pens. It’s just classy, you know? Eye-catching. I often peruse eBay in search of cool-looking pens that won’t break the bank. Quite often, I find interesting Chinese pens for under $10. I’ve purchased and used a number of them, and I’m always happy when I find new designs that I haven’t seen before. I stumbled on an auction for this beautiful little Yiren 860, and immediately fell in love with the gunmetal and gold colors.
Given the terrific success I had with another Yiren pen, I pounced on the 860 like a rat on a Cheeto. And I’m not sorry about it, either…. Read More