Chinese Fountain Pen Quality

I'm curious about the quality of the Chinese fountain pens that are often
advertise in this group. Everyone seems to write reviews about the well
known pens like Parker, Waterman, Rotring, etc., but rarely do I see
anything written as to the comparable quality of the Asian pens. The pens
seem to be priced well, but the lack of "chatter" about them makes me
somewhat reserved in purchasing one.

Same here -- would like to hear some feedback by any that purchased an Asian
pen. Went to look at the Hero pens website. Seems the one's I'd be
interested in trying out are still relatively expensive for an "experiment."

By the way, I've been trying to stick to kt. gold nibs because of a rather
bad experience with a Lamy fountain pen. Does the irridium tip 'guarantee'
a smooth write? Any recommendations so I can pick up a couple of other
everyday pens? Was thinking about purchasing a TrueWriter model from
Levenger.

Thanks...first post on here...been primarily "lurking" for the past few
days. Neat newsgroup.

Paul

On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 19:35:36 -0500, Prometheus7 typed:

I'm curious about the quality of the Chinese fountain pens that are often
advertise in this group. Everyone seems to write reviews about the well
known pens like Parker, Waterman, Rotring, etc., but rarely do I see
anything written as to the comparable quality of the Asian pens. The pens
seem to be priced well, but the lack of "chatter" about them makes me
somewhat reserved in purchasing one.

I can only give some feedback about the cheaper Hero pens; I bought
two as "sacrifices" for my attempts at learning how to grind a cursive
italic nib. (I can't, BTW)

Before grinding, I filled them and wrote with them for a few weeks.
They are $9 pens: astounding when you consider that they must sell for
about $1.25 in China... They were pretty crappy, the nib is stamped
from mystery metal with only a slit; the tip is a welded blob,
somewhat smoothed, and the fill and feed are just horrid. The fill
holds very little ink (it's a squeeze-thingy with a rubber sac inside)
and the pen skips and blobs. I was able to tweak the nib-slit, polish
the tip, and then it flowed and wrote decently.

It's what you'd expect for $9.00 i.e. don't waste your $9.00. Let me
state clearly though, that I have never tried one of the better Heros,
so please don't draw conclusions. For all that I know the more
expensive ones may be great pens for the money. Or not.

Anyone else try one???
--
Cordially,

Sonam Dasara
11/8/2005 11:13:03 PM

On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 20:09:56 -0700, Paul K typed:

By the way, I've been trying to stick to kt. gold nibs because of a rather
bad experience with a Lamy fountain pen. Does the irridium tip 'guarantee'
a smooth write?

IMO, no. It's the shape that the tip is ground to (each tine's tip
should be gently rounded - it's called a "baby's bottom") and how well
it is polished that has the most influence on a smooth write...

Any recommendations so I can pick up a couple of other
everyday pens?

I think that the Pelikan 150 or 200 are great pens for the money; a
Waterman Phileas is also a candidate, but it has a crappy converter as
opposed to Pelikan's piston-fill.

--
Cordially,

Sonam Dasara
11/8/2005 11:27:08 PM

I've owned lots of the Hero 329s and 330s over the past few years, and with
out of about 12 of them, have only had 1 that gave me real problems (and I
think that was because of the ink clogging up the nib.) They aren't fancy by
a long shot - no one is going to be asking you where you got such a
beautiful pen (although Hero makes much more decorative ones, I haven't used
those - yet) - but that's not what I get them for. I get them because there
are many times when I want to be able to write with a fountain pen that has
a very fine point, that holds lots of ink (although one poster wrote that
his didn't, I haven't had problems with that), that can stay uncapped for
more than 2 minutes without having problems starting again, and that is
inexpensive enought that I can keep several at hand, all with different
colors of ink.
Another major plus: they're inexpensive enough that if a student starts
expressing interest in writing with a fountain pen, I can reach into my desk
drawer, hand them a Hero to try, and if they like it, let them keep it. (I'm
very proud to say I've started a few pen lovers off this way!)
If you decide to try one of the Chinese pens, my suggestion is to start by
getting either a Hero 329 or 330, preferably getting two at the same time
because there IS some variation, I've found, in the thickness of the nib
('thick' being a relative term -- basically, they're 'fine', though some are
'finer'.) Although Wing Sung is described on several sites as being just the
same, I've found that the ones with the actual Hero name write better.

Sally

"Prometheus7" wrote in message
.. .
I'm curious about the quality of the Chinese fountain pens that are often
advertise in this group. Everyone seems to write reviews about the well
known pens like Parker, Waterman, Rotring, etc., but rarely do I see
anything written as to the comparable quality of the Asian pens. The pens
seem to be priced well, but the lack of "chatter" about them makes me
somewhat reserved in purchasing one.

Well...I'm going to try one....or at least bid on one through a "popular"
auction website. Found one with a 14 kt nib so hopefully a bit better
performance than what Sonam reported. **IF** I obtain the pen, I'll be sure
to provide a review of the pen on here (performance, construction, etc.).

My best.

"Sonam Dasara" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 19:35:36 -0500, Prometheus7 typed:

I'm curious about the quality of the Chinese fountain pens that are
often
advertise in this group. Everyone seems to write reviews about the well
known pens like Parker, Waterman, Rotring, etc., but rarely do I see
anything written as to the comparable quality of the Asian pens. The
pens
seem to be priced well, but the lack of "chatter" about them makes me
somewhat reserved in purchasing one.

I can only give some feedback about the cheaper Hero pens; I bought
two as "sacrifices" for my attempts at learning how to grind a cursive
italic nib. (I can't, BTW)

Before grinding, I filled them and wrote with them for a few weeks.
They are $9 pens: astounding when you consider that they must sell for
about $1.25 in China... They were pretty crappy, the nib is stamped
from mystery metal with only a slit; the tip is a welded blob,
somewhat smoothed, and the fill and feed are just horrid. The fill
holds very little ink (it's a squeeze-thingy with a rubber sac inside)
and the pen skips and blobs. I was able to tweak the nib-slit, polish
the tip, and then it flowed and wrote decently.

It's what you'd expect for $9.00 i.e. don't waste your $9.00. Let me
state clearly though, that I have never tried one of the better Heros,
so please don't draw conclusions. For all that I know the more
expensive ones may be great pens for the money. Or not.

Anyone else try one???
--
Cordially,

Sonam Dasara
11/8/2005 11:13:03 PM

Thank you again Sonam for your response. I completely agree with your
assessment of Pelikan....recently acquired an old Pelikan 250 (w/kt gold
nib) for a reasonable price. Have a couple of other 400's .... all are just
wonderful! Nice, large reservoirs -- ink flows quickly and smoothly even
after several days of rest. Current "least favorite" is my Mont Blanc 164
(again, understanding the "baby bottom" grind now), it's a bit "scratchy."
Plus it's a bit smallish. Maybe one day would like to pick-up a 600 series
(for the larger size in my hand).

My best,

Paul


"Sonam Dasara" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 20:09:56 -0700, Paul K typed:

By the way, I've been trying to stick to kt. gold nibs because of a
rather
bad experience with a Lamy fountain pen. Does the irridium tip
'guarantee'
a smooth write?

IMO, no. It's the shape that the tip is ground to (each tine's tip
should be gently rounded - it's called a "baby's bottom") and how well
it is polished that has the most influence on a smooth write...

Any recommendations so I can pick up a couple of other
everyday pens?

I think that the Pelikan 150 or 200 are great pens for the money; a
Waterman Phileas is also a candidate, but it has a crappy converter as
opposed to Pelikan's piston-fill.

--
Cordially,

Sonam Dasara
11/8/2005 11:27:08 PM

On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 19:35:36 -0500, Prometheus7 wrote:

I'm curious about the quality of the Chinese fountain pens that are often
advertise in this group. Everyone seems to write reviews about the well
known pens like Parker, Waterman, Rotring, etc., but rarely do I see
anything written as to the comparable quality of the Asian pens. The pens
seem to be priced well, but the lack of "chatter" about them makes me
somewhat reserved in purchasing one.


I have three Heros which I bought out of curiosity. They're actually quite
good. There's a lacquered Hero 100 which I use quite often. It's
reasonably light despite its metal construction, the threads are good, the
nib performs very well and the balance is good.

Another's a Duofold clone. It's rather too heavy for my taste but performs
very well without skipping or blotting. The third one is a Parker 75
clone, an excellent writer, light and with a good nib. The clutch of the
push-on cap isn't well made, though, and I suspect it won't last long.

The drawbacks are these, as I see it: rigid nibs. They write perfectly
well in a characterless fashion but are eventually tiring to the hand. The
slightly "sprung" effect of a flex nib allows me to write much longer
without fatigue. Heros are hardly alone among modern pens in that failing,
of course. Secondly, they're cartridge fill/converter fill, with both
aerometric-type and piston converters offered. They don't hold very much
ink; the barrel of the pen is mostly wasted space. Again, this a common
fault even in much more expensive pens.

They cost about UKP3 each because I bought them together and haggled a bit
:-). There's huge variation in the prices at which they're offered. Shop
around. They're good occasional pens, the kind you can put in your pocket
without worrying about them leaking or losing them, at that price. They're
fine for note-taking. If you like rigid nibs, they may suit you very well.

I have one Duke pen which, despite being described as German, is
essentially a Chinese pen. It works perfectly well but it's grossly heavy
and the nib is very big, forcing you to write at an unnatural angle. The
one I have isn't a good pen for these reasons but there are many others in
the range and they seem to be well manufactured.

The occasional Wing Sung has passed through my hands - on the way to the
junk bin. They've all been very poorly made.

--
Sem

On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 19:35:36 -0500, "Prometheus7"
wrote:

I'm curious about the quality of the Chinese fountain pens that are often
advertise in this group.

I've used two Heros. One was a mid-80s blatant copy of a Parker 51 and
was quite nice. Not as good as a 51 in details, but certainly usable.
The other was a recent Hero bought from eBay a few months ago. It was
not a nice pen. It had all the quality "presence" to it of an eBay Mont
Blanc ripoff, which isnt saying much.

So IMHE it looks like Hero can do it when they want to, but they aren't
doing it at the moment.

On Wed, 9 Nov 2005 12:17:49 +0000, Semolina Pilchard wrote:

Just an addendum to my post above: I took the converter out of my Hero 100,
filled the barrel with Pelikan 4001 and screwed it back together. I've
been using it all afternoon and it hasn't leaked. I didn't grease or wax
the threads - I did say they were good, didn't I?

So it now holds about three times the ink it did before, which addresses at
least one of the faults of the pen.
--
Sem