Having bought many pens over the years in the 'hundred's of pounds' each bracket, I had to think long and hard before spending £1.73 (that included shipping!?) on a brand new black Jinhao X750 Deluxe FP all the way from downtown Honkers.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I pulled the trigger on fleabay and hoped for the best. Incredibly, 10 days later a shiny new pen - albeit in a not very protective 'envelope' - came through the letterbox. Thankfully, the pen survived the journey intact and was, in fact, in mint condition.
First thoughts - it is comfortingly solid and weighty, and looks properly classic in its black metal barrel and 'chrome' trim. Everything snaps into place and screws together nicely where it should do. Hold on, what's this? A convertor is included as well! Jeez, I've spent much more just buying convertors on their own!?
I tried the pen dry just to get a feel for the 18K gold-plated M nib. Straight out of the box, it was surprisingly good. Still, twenty seconds on some 8000 and 12000 micromesh and it was like butter.
I loaded up the convertor with Diamine Jet Black and proceeded to write after priming the nib - basically helping the ink 'draw' with some tissue paper and water. It lays down a lovely wet line, medium+ thick and is very comfortable in the hand. Upon start up, and after stopping to write for a good few seconds with the cap off, it does take a few millimetres of travel along the page to draw ink again but that really is only a very minor complaint and easily worked around. Also, I found that it works best on heavier / coarser paper.
This pen is a true working-class hero - for the money it is simply unbelievably good. Obviously, it's too early to comment on quality control and longevity but, on this example, and having used it a lot over the past week or so, I don't see any reason why it shouldn't hold up to normal usage.
Thanks for the heads-up Richard @Darkbulb - I would never, otherwise, have gone for one of these; now I'm hooked on Jinhao!
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I pulled the trigger on fleabay and hoped for the best. Incredibly, 10 days later a shiny new pen - albeit in a not very protective 'envelope' - came through the letterbox. Thankfully, the pen survived the journey intact and was, in fact, in mint condition.
First thoughts - it is comfortingly solid and weighty, and looks properly classic in its black metal barrel and 'chrome' trim. Everything snaps into place and screws together nicely where it should do. Hold on, what's this? A convertor is included as well! Jeez, I've spent much more just buying convertors on their own!?
I tried the pen dry just to get a feel for the 18K gold-plated M nib. Straight out of the box, it was surprisingly good. Still, twenty seconds on some 8000 and 12000 micromesh and it was like butter.
I loaded up the convertor with Diamine Jet Black and proceeded to write after priming the nib - basically helping the ink 'draw' with some tissue paper and water. It lays down a lovely wet line, medium+ thick and is very comfortable in the hand. Upon start up, and after stopping to write for a good few seconds with the cap off, it does take a few millimetres of travel along the page to draw ink again but that really is only a very minor complaint and easily worked around. Also, I found that it works best on heavier / coarser paper.
This pen is a true working-class hero - for the money it is simply unbelievably good. Obviously, it's too early to comment on quality control and longevity but, on this example, and having used it a lot over the past week or so, I don't see any reason why it shouldn't hold up to normal usage.
Thanks for the heads-up Richard @Darkbulb - I would never, otherwise, have gone for one of these; now I'm hooked on Jinhao!
