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Jinhao 159



Just got a full set of Jinhao 159. Aliexpress had a brand shopping week and they were very "affordable". From the rosegold/copper and the purple pen, only silver-trim pens are available.






Nibs of the silver and gold trim pens
Silver trim in yellow, black, silver, green, gold, orange, white, red, blue and purple - 
gold trim in the same colors - only purple doesn't exist as gold trim

Disassembled
As usual with Jinhao pens, the quality is quite good. Some pens show some microdamages like punctures or scratches but still this is not visible if one doesn't look very close. Apparently the quality check at this price is also reduced. If you don't plan to get a set which is 100% perfect, it is acceptable.

I tested all of them with Pelikan 4001 brilliantblue. The nib quality is good. The nib sizes are medium (0.5 mm) as ordered - some of them tend towards broad, however.
There are also broad nibs with 0.5 mm writing size.





Data sheet
(weights vary quite a lot):

length (capped):       150 mm
length (uncapped):   127 mm
width (at trimband): 18 mm
width (at barrel):      16 mm
nib length:                 22 mm
nib width:                  9 mm
nib size 6

weight all   : 48.2 - 50.2 g
cap:              ca 19 g
barrel:          ca 19 g (this part is the reason for most of the difference)
feed section (including nib):   9.0 - 9.5 g
converter:    ca 1.9 g

I like the size of the pens. The weight is on the heavy side but bearable.
The nibs write astonishingly good. Their design is also beautiful.
It is not understandable that Jinhao doesn't provide F-sized nibs. Fortunately, the nib can be easily switched to other size-6 nibs. Two of these pen will get an XXXF (0.1 mm) and an XXF (0.2 mm) nib from https://www.fpnibs.com. (Report follows)


This is a visual comparison of a Sailor Kingprofit (1911 KoP, left) with one of the Jinhao 159.
By accident, the (MRSP) price of the KoP corresponds to the price of 159 times the price of a Jinhao 159 (at a good campaign price - which is not always the case).






edit 2018/1/13
The nibs are advertised as medium and sometimes as broad. But actually, medium and broad nibs seem to be the same nibs - delivering a quite large line size variation from nib to nib. As I prefer F or smaller, I exchange the original nib with a Jowo#6 from https://www.fpnibs.com. A comment on FPN claims, that there are F-sized nibs from Jinhao available on Ebay China. I haven't checked (there was no link available) but I doubt it. I guess it is written but not true, similar to the broad and medium mentioned above.

Response to the comment of DATGUY
My pens don't have any big problems with the plating or the coating. Perhaps I was just lucky to buy with a good seller as some sellers have a questionable quality control. Only one of the 30 159 which I bought over the time required a complaint. But to be clear, it is a good quality for a 1-5 USD pen. From my much more expensive Sailor pens, I expect better quality - and get it.



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