****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Look at these things: lusciously heavy like jawbreakers or popsicles. And bigger than Montblanc Meisterstucks to boot.What is the world coming to when you can get solid metal fountain pens in pastel colors for $5 each? These Jinhao pens from China write beautifully with a bold medium stroke. And should you not like the nib, you can purchase alternative nib sizes as another reviewer suggests.These have steel nibs and write smoothly with a look and flow rivaling pens costing up to $50, including Lamy Safaris, Al-Stars, and Pilot Metropolitans. TWSBI is unrivaled in the sub-$50 range, but otherwise I'd consider a Jinhao.These pens just feel great: weighty, chunky, smooth, and unlike recent Lamys I've purchased, they come with converter.Trade-offs for the price are these:1) The pen is painted. It looks great, but you can see in one of my pictures that the yellow version either came scratched or scratched within hours of my opening it. It was too much to hope for such beauty to be baked enamel. Nevertheless....2) Interior threads on the cap are plastic.3) Though the clip is fairly solid, like the Lamy Safari, there's no way to remove the clip to bend it back into shape should it bag out in use.4) I replaced the converter with a Lamy international ink cartridge and it doesn't seem to fit tightly. The converter does, however.But overall, this thing's amazing, a tactile delight that writes well and looks handsome for just over $5. Unbelievable.
