Jinhao's most recent introduction into their line up is a great, affordable hooded nib fountain pen with a beautiful wooden barrel. Ebay Link To product: goo.gl/yeZj8k
The world truly cannot entirely and completely be a bad place, if there are still people in (seemingly) their late teens or 20s who handwrite and handwrite at that with a fountain pen! Thank you for your review of this fountain pen. Myself, an inconsistent, fleeting fountain pen user although a dedicated handwriter in the era of computer-based word processing and instant digital communication -- like the one I'm using now to praise handwriting. Oh the irony! All the best. Cheers
Your reviews are excellent. I appreciate how thorough you are. You're now one of the people whose reviews I consult before purchase. Thank you for the work you put into this :)
Great review! I just picked a few up myself after some FPN impressions verified your impressions. I'm a big fan of the Parker 51 shape and it's nice to see this at this price point. Thank you.
My 51A's with acrylic barrels have the metal section like your wood one and a nice bent nib from Bobby. Cost about $7 USD. Writes much better than the plastic versions, which is a good nib. The weight of the metal section makes the pen easier to write with in my opinion. You should try both all plastic ones & one from Bobby, acrylic like that in PENBBS.
Thanks - excellent review! I have a wooden one on order - glad to see it works so well. I bought 2 of the acrylic versions with Bobby’s hand-ground nibs. The nib is close to a medium, and is very smooth. They’ve become a daily writers, and I enjoy them so much that I’ve ordered two more as gifts. They’re very attractive and really worth the mark-up.
I now have a few of these, some are hooded and one is a traditional/exposed nib - which I didn't know was a thing until recently. I have been so impressed with the handling of my acrylic bodied hooded 51A that it is pretty much my pen of choice. It's as smooth as silk, gliding over the page effortlessly with no drama, no hard starts and no skipping. For a cheap hooded nibbed pen it is truly exceptional. My 911s are "okay" but don't hold a candle to the 51A for pleasure of writing.
I really like the 51A. I got a cheap transparent one to start (the plastic ones also have plastic threads so eyedropper away) and liked it enough to get the same style wood one that is featured in this video. Now I have an ebony and a resin one in the mail. Very nice for the price.
...And for me, the Jinhao 51A as well! I'd never noticed the 911 stainless steel model until you spoke of it here. I have a pen carrier full of the 51A in the acrylics (all of them) and several of the transparent barrel. I've looked at, but never purchased, the wood version (fear of splinters...humidity...IDK...) I found them to write reliably, feel comfortable even in my senior citizen RSI/arthritic grip. The fact that they look lovely on top of it and I don't worry when I take them on field trips outside my home since they are SO affordable, makes me love them all the more. I didn't NEED to see a review of the pens as I use them regularly, but I kept watching because I fell in love with the ink you wrote with! So, now the Robert Oster "Australian Sky Blue" ink is now on my never-ending ink wishlist! Thanks so much for your commitment to making these videos!
Probably the wood, a ton of countries have policies stopping some woods from being imported. The customs agents on different days must’ve gone better safe than sorry and sent yours back... or they wanted it for themselves.
I notice you can by a few Jinhao fude nibs on eBay for a couple of dollars. I wonder what models they fit into that don’t normally sell with a fude nib, and how well they work in those models.
so, interesting thing--I got a blue transparent barrel of the Jinhao 51A, and it came with a slightly upturned spoon nib/waverly nib? and actually can do an EF nib, but also can do a wider line depending on writing angle. So I guess some sellers have different nibs in there? I recently swapped a spoon/smaller fude nib into a wing sung 618 for some variety and it's very similar.
I saw a 51A with a .5 mm nib and it was an open nib. The one marked .38mm has the hooded nib. Also, a coat of polyurethane on the wooden barrel should keep any potential ink stains at bay.
There are two price ranges of these hooded 51A and they have different nibs. One for all plastic which has a bit rougher nib and the more premium kind for a smoother and wetter nib.
I don't recall it in the video, but how do you feel it compares to the wing sung 601 you reviewed earlier saying it was the best parker 51 homage? Does this cheaper jinhao come close or does the 601 still have a leg up on it in terms of which you prefer?
I ordered a Jinhao 51a from an e-commerce site in India. The pen I received had a cap with inscriptions "Jinhao" in the front side and "616" in the reverse. Does a "51a" has the same design or it is altogether a different model ?
I have this pen but not too enthusiastic with it though, while the hooded nib of mine is quite smooth, it has a quirky habit of being fairly wet when I started writing which then dries up considerably as I keep writing. Edit: ah yes, the proper wording is.....the ink flow isn't consistent.
Well, that is because jinHao uses different size nib's across there fountain pen's for example on 911, 51A they use (0,37 mm EF nib's) on the X450, X750, 159 they use (0,7 mm M nib's ) and on the 991,992 (0,5 mm F nib's) .
9g uncapped? I expected the wooden version to be a tad heavier than the plastic one. With inks, I got tons of samples and my all time favourite is _Diamine Majestic Blue._ It's a nice dark blue with a slight red sheen. And it's a part of the regular Diamine range so you don't pay anything extra like the special sheeny inks
Hiya do you think Diamine Magestic Blue is the same or very close to Goulet Noodlers Elysium.. If you watch Brian Goulet on you tube I'm sure the blue in the background is the Elysium blue... Bit of a personal question I know but seeing you use it I thought you would share your thoughts..I . Thanks
Howdy, I have no clue. I don't really believe in telling ink from a monitor after I got burnt with Diamine Graphite, which was described as _grey with slightest green-ish tone_ and turned out to be a pale green, far too green to be called grey. I'd have to order some of the Noodlers Elysium to tell. Cameras and screens just aren't very good at capturing colour faithfuly.
Show the pen more. What wood did you get? Are you aware the 51A can be had with a standard Number 5 nib? I have an Ebony 51A inbound with the number 5 "EF" nib, I think it is, tho it might be an "F" nib. Either way, it can be replaced with a flex or stub nib, if/when I decide to change the nib. If the Zebra G flex nib can be fitted to the X450/X750 and others that use a number 6 nib and feed, I should be able to fit it to a number 5 feed. 😁👍
I bought one of those after seeing your review, and unfortunately mine writes horribly, it always skips and after only two days it leaked ink in the cap. I'm thinking about changing the nib, maybe that solves it, cause I think it's a pretty good looking pen
I am sorry to hear that, I guess that is always the risk of buying Chinese. Jinhao have gotten much better over the years but these things still happen. Maybe shimming the tines or realigning the nib might help it
Josh, I know it's a very late comment, but I think there's an error in your channel description. It says you are an Aussie fountain fen addict. Shouldn't that be fountain pen?
I ordered an acrylic Jinhao 51A but eBay is slow and it's still on the way. I hope the acrylic is nice because that would be cool to have such a cheap acrylic pen, even cheaper than PenBBS!
@@jpl2475 That's good to hear! I have a few eBay pens on the way but the only one I've received so far is my Moonman M2 and it took 2 months to get from China to Canada. The rest were purchased early in October so hopefully they come soon!
I really do love the M2 - great EF nib that always starts up, well-controlled feed that doesn't leak ink into the cap even when tossed around, and beautiful design! Only con for me is no roll stop, so I just have to be more careful with it
Also I just got one of my eBay pens in just 2 weeks! But I'm still waiting on pens that I ordered before that one. Fingers crossed they'll be here soon, but Canada Post workers are striking so there is quite a backlog!
whats the difference of the Jinhao 51A and the 911? They look like the same pens? is the 51A made of a plastic/acrylic and the 911 made of metal? Which is better?
Jpl as a long time parker pen collector .. my experience is that the 911 is more of a feel and design of the parker 61 the 51a is like the 51. Let me know your thoughts
Hi JPL, I had my Jinhao 51A Rosewood since mid-September and like you have a good run with it. Being someone that like to tinker with my fountain pens, I ordered the 4pcs 0.5-0.8mm bent nibs for Wing Sung 618,601 pens for AU$4.99 (I live in Perth WA) from seller:xingchunqing1984. In replacing its nib with the 0.5 nib, took this already good pen to the next level making it an excellent pen. I used the other 3 nibs on my other pens and have similar results. I carry my EDC pens in my pouch and this 51A in my shirt pocket to work every day. The clip on this pen is somewhat too stiff, so I removed and tweaked it(by bending it) and made it easier to carry in my shirt pocket.
For me, this is a dangerous channel, have too many foundation pens now and cannot stop buying after your review! Thanks for introducing me to jinhao and other Chinese brand.
Hiya Handsome how yer doin??? Nice to see you. Well the Chinese custom guys really HATE you don't they...try a different supplier they maybe have something on their radar... Ive never had a problem with shipping pens from China and I've got quite a few pens... My problems are with US shipping to the UK... Customs/post-office get me every time and put a ton on the price, yea someone will say its the law etc blah blah blah... Anyway, nice pen... I have my dad's Parker 51 as he can't write with fountain pens??? So he gave it to me, and... It has a stub nib ! ! ! This Jinhao is pretty cool and I think I'll have to get a couple... based on what you've said here Josh.. OK that's because we love you although the Chinese customs men hate you 😉😉😉 Best wishes to all PenPeople. LeZc @@
Lets be honest; when a pen less than $5 lasts as long or longer than the $40-50 "higher quality" pens, and writes consistently, the idea of higher quality overall is questionable in terms of value.
Honest answer, just a little bit too expensive to do on a regular basis. Only reason other channels can is because they are sent pens or are sponsored. Plus I have sunk some money into a camera and lenses and they weren't cheap. Plus Chinese fountain pen quality can be surprisingly good.
Its probably your name...Try a John Doe once or use a friends ID and see if you have a problem.....I been there...and lets face it: They have sticky Fingers......WORLD WIDE...
Generally, vast majority of these pens users will be Asian. Asians do tend, generally, to have smaller hands. Ergo, smaller diameters. Lighter weight comes from the way (generally) the instruments are used in writing.
The world truly cannot entirely and completely be a bad place, if there are still people in (seemingly) their late teens or 20s who handwrite and handwrite at that with a fountain pen! Thank you for your review of this fountain pen.
Myself, an inconsistent, fleeting fountain pen user although a dedicated handwriter in the era of computer-based word processing and instant digital communication -- like the one I'm using now to praise handwriting. Oh the irony! All the best. Cheers
K Theodor bruh I’m 10 lol
In german schools, you have to write with fountain pens!
i am a 16yr old student and i only write with fountain pens😂
The fountain pen community is massive, with many young people.
Your reviews are excellent. I appreciate how thorough you are. You're now one of the people whose reviews I consult before purchase. Thank you for the work you put into this :)
Cheers :)
Great review! I just picked a few up myself after some FPN impressions verified your impressions.
I'm a big fan of the Parker 51 shape and it's nice to see this at this price point.
Thank you.
My 51A's with acrylic barrels have the metal section like your wood one and a nice bent nib from Bobby. Cost about $7 USD. Writes much better than the plastic versions, which is a good nib. The weight of the metal section makes the pen easier to write with in my opinion. You should try both all plastic ones & one from Bobby, acrylic like that in PENBBS.
Thanks - excellent review! I have a wooden one on order - glad to see it works so well. I bought 2 of the acrylic versions with Bobby’s hand-ground nibs. The nib is close to a medium, and is very smooth. They’ve become a daily writers, and I enjoy them so much that I’ve ordered two more as gifts. They’re very attractive and really worth the mark-up.
I just ordered six 51A today, red, blue and black plastic w/normal Jinhao nib. Thank you for the review.
I love this pen , looks great writes good , love the wood and metal mixture .
I now have a few of these, some are hooded and one is a traditional/exposed nib - which I didn't know was a thing until recently. I have been so impressed with the handling of my acrylic bodied hooded 51A that it is pretty much my pen of choice. It's as smooth as silk, gliding over the page effortlessly with no drama, no hard starts and no skipping. For a cheap hooded nibbed pen it is truly exceptional. My 911s are "okay" but don't hold a candle to the 51A for pleasure of writing.
I really like the 51A. I got a cheap transparent one to start (the plastic ones also have plastic threads so eyedropper away) and liked it enough to get the same style wood one that is featured in this video. Now I have an ebony and a resin one in the mail. Very nice for the price.
That’s a great review, thank you!!
...And for me, the Jinhao 51A as well!
I'd never noticed the 911 stainless steel model until you spoke of it here. I have a pen carrier full of the 51A in the acrylics (all of them) and several of the transparent barrel. I've looked at, but never purchased, the wood version (fear of splinters...humidity...IDK...) I found them to write reliably, feel comfortable even in my senior citizen RSI/arthritic grip. The fact that they look lovely on top of it and I don't worry when I take them on field trips outside my home since they are SO affordable, makes me love them all the more.
I didn't NEED to see a review of the pens as I use them regularly, but I kept watching because I fell in love with the ink you wrote with! So, now the Robert Oster "Australian Sky Blue" ink is now on my never-ending ink wishlist!
Thanks so much for your commitment to making these videos!
Probably the wood, a ton of countries have policies stopping some woods from being imported. The customs agents on different days must’ve gone better safe than sorry and sent yours back... or they wanted it for themselves.
How can customs just steal your stuff? Wtf? The customer isn't even refunded?
Perhaps it's your initials: JPL: Jet Propulsion Lab (NASA). I didn't know that about the wood and other JinHao 51A bodies - thanks!
Very nice review. I decided to order one with the red wood barrel and it cost all of $3.74US.
Thanks for the comprehensive review!
yeah, $3.74USD is almost $5 AUD, sometimes I forget to mention that I will quote prices in AUD
I just got my 51a in the mail and does write great
I notice you can by a few Jinhao fude nibs on eBay for a couple of dollars. I wonder what models they fit into that don’t normally sell with a fude nib, and how well they work in those models.
They finally released one to you eh, great vid!
so, interesting thing--I got a blue transparent barrel of the Jinhao 51A, and it came with a slightly upturned spoon nib/waverly nib? and actually can do an EF nib, but also can do a wider line depending on writing angle. So I guess some sellers have different nibs in there? I recently swapped a spoon/smaller fude nib into a wing sung 618 for some variety and it's very similar.
I saw a 51A with a .5 mm nib and it was an open nib. The one marked .38mm has the hooded nib. Also, a coat of polyurethane on the wooden barrel should keep any potential ink stains at bay.
@ 2:16 "What can you buy for two dollars these days?"
Not much... but you CAN buy another Chinese fountain pen!
There are two price ranges of these hooded 51A and they have different nibs. One for all plastic which has a bit rougher nib and the more premium kind for a smoother and wetter nib.
Prolly the best fountain pen yt ber out there
Thankyou
I don't recall it in the video, but how do you feel it compares to the wing sung 601 you reviewed earlier saying it was the best parker 51 homage? Does this cheaper jinhao come close or does the 601 still have a leg up on it in terms of which you prefer?
So I got the pen a year ago and stowed it away becuase the ink is just not flowing and I don't know what to do. Any advice?
How does this compare to a Wing Sung 616?
Nice review. I don't think I've ever seen so many pastel colors in a guys bedroom. Weirdly enough I dig it 👍
I went for the ebony wood barrel but you only get ef nib with that.
Good review, thanks. As a preferer of slender pens, and metal pens, now I have to investigate the 911.
I ordered a Jinhao 51a from an e-commerce site in India. The pen I received had a cap with inscriptions "Jinhao" in the front side and "616" in the reverse. Does a "51a" has the same design or it is altogether a different model ?
I have this pen but not too enthusiastic with it though, while the hooded nib of mine is quite smooth, it has a quirky habit of being fairly wet when I started writing which then dries up considerably as I keep writing.
Edit: ah yes, the proper wording is.....the ink flow isn't consistent.
Well, that is because jinHao uses different size nib's across there fountain pen's for example on 911, 51A they use (0,37 mm EF nib's) on the X450, X750, 159 they use (0,7 mm M nib's ) and on the 991,992 (0,5 mm F nib's) .
Thanks for your nice review. Can you teach me how to change the jinhao 51a hooded nib?
You have to gently remove the nib with some pliers. In mine, they came out pretty easily. Good luck!
9g uncapped? I expected the wooden version to be a tad heavier than the plastic one.
With inks, I got tons of samples and my all time favourite is _Diamine Majestic Blue._ It's a nice dark blue with a slight red sheen. And it's a part of the regular Diamine range so you don't pay anything extra like the special sheeny inks
Hiya do you think Diamine Magestic Blue is the same or very close to Goulet Noodlers Elysium.. If you watch Brian Goulet on you tube I'm sure the blue in the background is the Elysium blue... Bit of a personal question I know but seeing you use it I thought you would share your thoughts..I . Thanks
Howdy, I have no clue. I don't really believe in telling ink from a monitor after I got burnt with Diamine Graphite, which was described as _grey with slightest green-ish tone_ and turned out to be a pale green, far too green to be called grey. I'd have to order some of the Noodlers Elysium to tell. Cameras and screens just aren't very good at capturing colour faithfuly.
Show the pen more.
What wood did you get?
Are you aware the 51A can be had with a standard Number 5 nib? I have an Ebony 51A inbound with the number 5 "EF" nib, I think it is, tho it might be an "F" nib.
Either way, it can be replaced with a flex or stub nib, if/when I decide to change the nib.
If the Zebra G flex nib can be fitted to the X450/X750 and others that use a number 6 nib and feed, I should be able to fit it to a number 5 feed. 😁👍
I was thinking the barrels could use some kind of walnut oil or beeswax treatment to improve the finish. Could also reduced the chance of staining.
Ill have a look into that, cheers
great reviews can you swap the clip over from a hero 616 ? the ball don,t do it for me ! otherwise a great looking pen
Is it good for writing?
The threads screw directly to the wood or it has a metal insert?
Small brass insert
I bought one of those after seeing your review, and unfortunately mine writes horribly, it always skips and after only two days it leaked ink in the cap.
I'm thinking about changing the nib, maybe that solves it, cause I think it's a pretty good looking pen
I am sorry to hear that, I guess that is always the risk of buying Chinese. Jinhao have gotten much better over the years but these things still happen. Maybe shimming the tines or realigning the nib might help it
@@jpl2475 thank you so much for the tip, I realigned the nib to the feed and it looks like it's fixed, writes perfectly now.
I bought 2 and one was a dud 😐, but I must say it writes pretty darn well. Love it.
Josh, I know it's a very late comment, but I think there's an error in your channel description. It says you are an Aussie fountain fen addict. Shouldn't that be fountain pen?
nice blur effect... what camera are you using?
This is an older video, so I think it was a Canon 600D which I don't use anymore.
I ordered an acrylic Jinhao 51A but eBay is slow and it's still on the way. I hope the acrylic is nice because that would be cool to have such a cheap acrylic pen, even cheaper than PenBBS!
eBay from china is much faster than it used to be. Most of my pens come within 3 weeks now.
@@jpl2475 That's good to hear! I have a few eBay pens on the way but the only one I've received so far is my Moonman M2 and it took 2 months to get from China to Canada. The rest were purchased early in October so hopefully they come soon!
Wow, they always send it by air mail nowadays (for free), maybe that's for Australia only. Hope you like the M2 :)
I really do love the M2 - great EF nib that always starts up, well-controlled feed that doesn't leak ink into the cap even when tossed around, and beautiful design! Only con for me is no roll stop, so I just have to be more careful with it
Also I just got one of my eBay pens in just 2 weeks! But I'm still waiting on pens that I ordered before that one. Fingers crossed they'll be here soon, but Canada Post workers are striking so there is quite a backlog!
whats the difference of the Jinhao 51A and the 911? They look like the same pens? is the 51A made of a plastic/acrylic and the 911 made of metal? Which is better?
the 51a is a much thicker pen. I much prefer the 51a for that reason, though nib wise, they write almost identical
Jpl as a long time parker pen collector .. my experience is that the 911 is more of a feel and design of the parker 61 the 51a is like the 51. Let me know your thoughts
Hi JPL, I had my Jinhao 51A Rosewood since mid-September and
like you have a good run with it. Being someone that like to tinker with my
fountain pens, I ordered the 4pcs 0.5-0.8mm bent nibs for Wing Sung 618,601
pens for AU$4.99 (I live in Perth WA) from seller:xingchunqing1984. In
replacing its nib with the 0.5 nib, took this already good pen to the next level
making it an excellent pen. I used the other 3 nibs on my other pens and have
similar results. I carry my EDC pens in my pouch and this 51A in my shirt
pocket to work every day. The clip on this pen is somewhat too stiff, so I
removed and tweaked it(by bending it) and made it easier to carry in my shirt pocket.
For me, this is a dangerous channel, have too many foundation pens now and cannot stop buying after your review!
Thanks for introducing me to jinhao and other Chinese brand.
Stupid question, but do you get your money back for the pens, or do you lose that too?
I do make some money, but I went and spent a heap on a DSLR and macro lenses, so I have to repay that off
I think he wanted to ask if you get your money back when customs return your pen (or keep it for themselves)?
Vineet Kumar Singh That’s correct. Thank you.
If it's eBay purchase he'd get the money back when he claims he didn't receive the item.
Guys what color is the one in the video
Peach
I just bought a jinhao 51a from local stationery shop, and came home and saw your video. 😂
Just one difference my 51a has a normal no5 nib.🤔
Yeah, I've seen just recently the normal nibbed 51A models. They look pretty funky. Also, what stationary shop sells Chinese pens? Where is it?
@@hrnekbezucha Iam from Karachi, Pakistan. Almost all pens here are chinese except for our favourite - The Dollar fountain pen.
The Dollar pens are pretty good. I have the 717i demonstrator and I like it a lot.
@@hassaan334 Bro where can I find Jinhao pens in Karachi? and can you quote a price for Jinhao X450, X750 and 51A?
@@JAFFER3657 I bought mine from Tariq road dopatta Gali. There is a famous stationery shop located there. Probably costed me around 170.
Hiya Handsome how yer doin??? Nice to see you. Well the Chinese custom guys really HATE you don't they...try a different supplier they maybe have something on their radar... Ive never had a problem with shipping pens from China and I've got quite a few pens... My problems are with US shipping to the UK... Customs/post-office get me every time and put a ton on the price, yea someone will say its the law etc blah blah blah...
Anyway, nice pen... I have my dad's Parker 51 as he can't write with fountain pens??? So he gave it to me, and... It has a stub
nib ! ! !
This Jinhao is pretty cool and I think I'll have to get a couple... based on what you've said here Josh.. OK that's because we love you although the Chinese customs men hate you 😉😉😉
Best wishes to all PenPeople.
LeZc
@@
2:17
Another Jinhao
Great... You convinced me. eBay here I come.
Is there a non hooded version?
Yes there is, it uses a number 5 nib
I just bought 5 911s D: I wish I had watched this before.
Never mind, the 911 is still a good pen, uses the same nib, just wait and see if the ergonomics suit you :)
Subbed
Thankyou
Please return
Why only chinese pens? Why do you not go up in price and quality? ^^
Lets be honest; when a pen less than $5 lasts as long or longer than the $40-50 "higher quality" pens, and writes consistently, the idea of higher quality overall is questionable in terms of value.
Honest answer, just a little bit too expensive to do on a regular basis. Only reason other channels can is because they are sent pens or are sponsored. Plus I have sunk some money into a camera and lenses and they weren't cheap. Plus Chinese fountain pen quality can be surprisingly good.
@@jpl2475 Plus, many are looking for these chinese pens and not the more expensive ones
But they're not as represented as the more expensive ones
Other reviewers are already reviewing those pens, appreciate getting information on the Chinese pens, thanks.
You're a cross between Bogdan and Girl Farquad.
Its probably your name...Try a John Doe once or use a friends ID and see if you have a problem.....I been there...and lets face it: They have sticky Fingers......WORLD WIDE...
Generally, vast majority of these pens users will be Asian. Asians do tend, generally, to have smaller hands. Ergo, smaller diameters. Lighter weight comes from the way (generally) the instruments are used in writing.
100th comment
Trump, it was Trump, he runs around the White House with your pen sketching new tweets while munching cheeseburgers.
What's Trump got to do with China and/or Australia lmao?
@@kxvtr1 Nothing, he has nothing to do with trade restrictions or tariffs.