Fountain Pens

Obsession

Fountain pens tick all the boxes for an "obsession". They're small, and each has it's own mechanical feel in the hand: you instinctively know a well designed and engineered pen. They're useful, everybody needs to write at some point. They have brand appeal. They're eco-friendly (you use the ink, but reuse the pen). They're either affordable or out-of-reach expensive. Your current pen is good ... but you always feel there might be a better one out there. And Youtube reviewers tease and tempt you with reviews of the latest and greatest, inks, repair tips, etc.

The pens

I have 13 fountain pens in the house. They cost from about £7 to £80. Here's the story of the ones that matter.

Jinhao X450

Jinhao X450

This was my first and bought as a taster. I had never really used a fountain pen before. It was cheap but looked rather attractive.

It was solid and heavy. It wrote, ok-ish, a bit on-off. I liked the writing experience when it was working though.

Recently I bought some decent Chinese EF nibs for a few pounds and swapped one in. And it now writes like a dream. Too heavy to cart around so it lies on the table and we do crosswords with it.

Pilot Metropolitan

Pilot Metropolitan

A nice, if rather bland, standard pen. Metal, but not as heavy as the tank-like X450. This is used on Youtube as a size comparator for more interesting pens. The Metropolitan was the first pen I really liked. Pilot don't supply it with my preferred EF nib, but you can buy a cheap plastic Pilot Penmanship which has a superb EF nib, and swap it in. Unfortunately it tended to dry out a little, and the nib always seemed to have some ink droplets on it. But I liked how the cap just pulled off, and went back on with a click. It was fast to use.

There's always temptation waiting for a moment of weakness though...

Platinum 3776 UEF

Platinum 3776

This sounded like my dream pen. It was available with an ultra-extra-fine gold nib (reputedly the thinnest line you can buy), a resin body (lighter), and many glowing reviews. But boy it was expensive. Then a second-hand one appeared on a local sales site for £80. Although that's less than half price I still had to take a deep breath before I clicked. And it was great. And looked expensive. I was so happy.

Then one day, while cleaning it, I snapped the feed in two. Platinum don't sell replacement feeds. (Nor nibs as I discovered). The internet recommendation was simply to buy a new pen. Good grief. I then bought and enjoyed the pens you will read about below. Recently I very carefully superglued the feed, and to my surprise the repair worked OK. So I'm back using it. Will it last? Hmmm. Some further fine sanding of the feed and ran a sharp blade along the tiny channel a few times. And I have a great pen again!

In the interim a few more pens arrived at chez Hope. A few lemons, but the ones I fell in love with were...

Jinhao X159

Jinhao X159

£7 including postage from China. A huge bold statement pen with a spectacular size 8 steel nib. Controversially it copied the look and feel of the ultra-high-end, expensive, and beautifully engineered Montblanc 149. And I love it. Although the decorative metal band appears to be nickel-plated and gives me contact dermatitis.

Wing Sung 699

Wing Sung 699

Another Chinese pen, this time a copy of the well reviewed Pilot Custom 823 (£280-ish). The Wing Sung will set you back around £24 and I wanted it for the piston filling mechanism which holds loads of ink (there is also a vacuum filler version) and the semi-transparent body that lets you see how much is left. It's a beautifully proportioned pen and I really liked it. Until the section developed a hairline crack (known issue) and it dribbled enough ink to be unusable. And there is no known fix—you buy a new pen.

So I bought some modeller's acrylic-weld cement, gently opened the crack a little, applied it to the gap then held it for a few seconds with pliers. I painted more of the weld cement around the feed (this stuff briefly melts the acrylic). Then I coated the entire section with superglue. And it cured the leak, but although usable it's a bit scrappy looking now. Grrr. So I "Dremelled" the superglue off, masked the section, and sprayed it with hammered-look black spray paint. 24h to harden and I have a usable pen again.

That hairline crack after sanding.

But, I really want a pristine one, so I've ordered a replacement.

*** August 2023 update ***

The replacement arrived and leaked from day 1. Multiple hairline cracks in the section. The seller offered a partial refund, but I had already tried a quick repair with acrylic cement ... and failed. It's a manufacturing flaw but possibly only affecting the opaque section. So I ordered another specifying the clear acrylic section. And, what do you know, the clear/translucent section is leak-free and looks and feels like a much higher quality acrylic. A great pen.

So my advice - specify the translucent / clear section if you don't want a rather messy disappointment.

What now?

I'm going to stop there. I have 3 truly great, reliable, fountain pens: the Platinum 3776 UEF, the Wing Sung 699 EF, and the Jinhao X159 EF. These are a joy to write with. Now time for another obsession - because for sure there will be one waiting in the wings!

Or ... would this one be even better?

Namiki Emperor Dragon Pen £7,850-ish

Get thee behind me, Satan...