A Master List of Chinese Fountain Pens? 

A hobby in which you fall down the proverbial fountain pen rabbit hole for the sheer enjoyment of writing with these beautiful writing instruments. I should know, for I have over 420 pens in my collection. I have large collection of Chinese pens. With knowledge on how to tweak a nib, you can get years of writing experience with these pens. The Moonman/Majohn A1 is a pen I absolutely love writing with. I currently own four of them (Black/Silvery Blue/Green/Orange). I've got two of the Moonman A2 in route to me. My oldest Chinese pen is the Jinhao 750 (silver) with a med. nib. It is now 13 yrs old, and writing like a champ. I keep my pens in a pen case, and there are no dents, scratches or issues with that Jinhao. When I ink it up I always get a compliment on how attractive the pen looks. I paid approximately $2.99 for my 750 way back when. I am thankful there are pens we can all afford, for not all of us can afford to spend $3,000 for pens. If it were not for these knock-offs, only those with deep pockets could participate in this hobby.

I think calling some of these pens 'Chinese derivatives' would be more complimentary. Alternatively, you could just refer to them as copies. However, as someone on a low wage with ADHD, nice Chinese derivatives help me to focus on writing and learning. I have an x159 and several jinhao 80s. I will not be able to afford the original Mont Blanc 149 for several years. I refuse to feel guilty for paying for a cheaper alternative in this economic climate when people are dealing drugs and dishonestly claiming welfare. I do think your video was informative and I like the pens you chose. Peace. ✌️ 😊

Super helpful to have an overview. And I love your calm balanced voice. I have just discovered such Chinese pens and it’s a new world.

I can’t believe how high quality my A1 feels, and it convinced me to get my first Pilot Capless. I never would have gotten a VP without trying the A1 first to be sure I liked the clip writing experience ❤

Excellent and very useful information. Thank you for sharing. We are all looking forward to te spreadsheet you are creating.

New subscriber. Love the idea of you sharing the list. Looks very helpful!

Hello to all. This is Jim from Madrid, Spain (a New Yorker expat living abroad) - a fountain pen lover both for writing and for Art. I am new to your channel, Kendall, but I find this video very helpful to all fountain pen lovers, as well as all the info provided, including Reddit and your own spreadsheet. So Thank you very much for your hard work. And I'm also subscribed to chrisrap's channel, amongst others. I just want to share that Chinese fountain pens have come a long way at a still very affordable price in most cases, something extremely important nowadays and they make for an excellent entry point for many new FP users as well as for FP collectors. One of the most important things to be considered about FPs today, besides that they are great and fun to write and draw with, you cN use many diggerenr and beautiful types of ink, etc... is that they are "ECO FRIENDLY", since they help reduce substantially the overall plastic imprint we all leave behind... in comparison with using many other throw away plastic tools... just for that, it's great to see more and more people getting into FPs - I already bought 2 Majohn A1s, one for each of my daughter's, since it's an excellent fountain pen (great manufacturing quality) and a great transition FP from traditional plastic pens to FPs... So... thank you all for spreading the love of FPs and don't ever STOP! Cheers from sunny Madrid!!!

I will add that the Jinhao 82 is a wonderful "Knock Off" of the Sailor Pro Gear Slim. It is really a great pen on it's own and super inexpensive. Cheap enough to order a few and the mix and match he parts to create great combos such as Sailor offers in their line. They are a really nice pen in hand. Order a few nibs in your favorite sizes as well to create your favorite pen. Have fun and enjoy!!!

As am owner of most of the Chinese pens you show & also have some of the pens they are based on, I find the use of terms like knock-off, clone, etc. are not accurate. You reference patents, copyrights but give no specific references as there are none. Many of these designs can be found in other pens not made in China. There are many "skeleton" designs, Visonti has some, so does Monteverde. The V169 is one of many. As with cell phones, cars, food, etc, many copy many. It is the nature of the business. I worked in product development & have firsthand experience at an American fortune 100 company. For me, I enjoy a pen for how is writes, do I like it. What may have influenced the design is secondary. Would like to see you compare these to what you believe is the "original" based on actual experience, not based on other's opinions or photos.

Amazing spreadsheet! Thankyou from Italy!

You need to include Hongdians and PenBBS s! They are amazing! Good video!💪🏾

As I have posted on other videos, our legal system actually encourages competition, which leads to better deals for consumers; however, it is also designed to enforce trademarks, trade names, patents, and copyrights. It does support what is called “trade dress.” I can best illustrate by one or two famous cases. Fudruckers vs. Flakey Jakes involved the original layout of a hamburger chain where you saw raw meat, various toppings, and more. It was the first to use this particular layout. Flakey Jakes entered he market and used a somewhat similar layout, which was determined (proof included surveys, etc.) that it confused customers as to the “source” or ownership because it was viewed as being deceptively similar. (Another case that has some interesting connections in legal issues involved two restaurants in Texas, Two Pesos and Taco Cabana, which was also viewed as deceptively similar, confusing customers as to source. HOWEVER, this particular take on “source,” which is trademark oriented does NOT mean the U.S. protects designs though patents or trade dress (in individual market items). So, Walmart can order “copies” of high-priced design dresses and NOT be in violation of any American law. (Japan does have a design patent; our patent law requires a function-aspect of the patent application). To be brief, there is nothing wrong with copying mere designs which almost all fountain pen manufacturers do! However if someone made a cheap pen that looked like a Montblanc 149, say complete with an 18 K nib and sold it for $249 instead of the real Montblanc’s price over$1,000, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH DOING SO! You just need to put your brand on it, avoid anything deceptively similar to the “snowflake” Montblanc uses only as a trademark that it feverishly guards because it allow it to sell a well-made pen at obscenely high prices. Why? Well, I have had numerous angry comments on my posts when I dare call another pen worthy of Wall Street or prestigious N.Y. Or international business. The PEN is about prestige. Are there better pens? Absolutely! And some are even more expensive; however, the genius Bauhaus design Lamy 2000 is a near perfect pen to actually USE in business (at least the medium nib or larger, where you have no sweet spot issues usually, where you have a hooded nib & no ink on your fingers, and an ink window and, something I learned the hard way, a cap that STAYS ON until you pull it off. The Montblanc cap can come unscrewed if you clip it into the inside pen pocket of an expensive suit. As In law we use permanent ink, which (I can confirm) will not come out of a suit if the cap to a Montblanc 149 comes unscrewed and you do not realize the uncapped pen’s ink supply is being sucked into the fibers of your $500 (today’s price over $1,000) suit. I also asked an expert who said, “Yes, you WILL get ink on your fingers if you are not incredibly diligent in carrying a cloth to wipe ink of the nib and feed before writing with it. Perfect pen? NO! Most prestigious, with a logo people flash, YEST. Can you make a copy of the 149 or the LAMY 2000 as long as you do not use their branding or logo (the snowflake) absolutely! The average Joe or Jill can have something at a really, really low price that looks like your pen, but it is not branded to BE A REAL MONTBLANC. Why do we encourage this behavior? We do so to provide lower cost goods to all us average folks and the poorer majority. It encourages competition and lowers prices for all except those who want ELITE, to establish PRESTIGE! They will pay for that snowflake and be happy, and trust me, THEY WILL RIDICULE ANYONE WITH THE CHEAP COPY. It is O.K. I have a Montblanc 149, a gift; I write with a LAMY 2000 and a lot of Chinese knockoffs. I love my Pelikan M1000, my M800s, and other expensive pens. I carry one usually; I fill the ret of the pen carrier with Chineses pens I also love! I have lost one pen carrier with 4 pens. I do not want it be one with 4 X $500 = $2,00i0 in pens!

Just as I was about to make a spreadsheet of the colossal list of Asian (especially Chinese) pens recommended all over fountain pen forums, I had the thought - "hey, there's gotta be someone out there who already had the foresight to realize how useful such a list would be..." And here I am, posting on his channel! Thank you for your focus and consideration for making such a list 🙏🏾

Great info as not everyone wants to spend $100 on pens. ❤

I too have a Jinhao 80 with a Lamy 1.1 nib. My favourite daily carry pen. I recently bought the dark red Jinhao X159 with silver clip and a medium nib which writes beautifully normally and in reverse as well.

I have a lot of Chinese pens and they are great value. I don't view them as counterfeits; they're not trying to pretend to be the ones they're copying. My favourite is the Jinhao 8802 (closest match is the Pelikan 400/600, it's about midway between the two in size) I paid about £6 for it and I use it literally every day.

Interesting. I ground down a Kaigelu F on a Jinhao X750 and made it into a 1.1. I was going to put it in the drawer. Now I'll use it.

I don't see the Chinese fountain pens as a knock-off. For me they are consistently of such good quality that I would be willing to pay more than €100 for each one.

That Asvine is the bomb. My personal favorite one to write with is the WingSung

Other than they are so much cheaper, I laugh at the uproar over some of these copies because copying has happened in the past by the major brands. The Pilot Elite, Platinum Pocket Pen and a Sailor Pocket pen, all from the late 1960s to late 1970s were all very similar. So similar that other than the nib and the cartridge, I can interchange parts between my Pilot Elite and Platinum Pocket, swapping caps and barrels.

Is it a 'knock off' when it provides something the original does not? Take your Majohn A1 - it doesn't have the clip that gets in the way of a lot of people's grip, but has a discreet rollstop at the other end. Another example would be the Moonman 80S Mini/Mini E. These two use the supreme serviceability of the Parker 45, in a pocket pen format, which works very well, and was a trick Parker themselves missed.

Very nice video. Subscribed immediately!!

Thank you. 😊

I love my Jinhao 100 in Orange Marmalade. It is one of my favorites. I liked it so much I ordered another in Galaxy blue and now another in black with the Logo etched into the side. Jinhao did a great job with the Centennial though I wish it was a piston filler.

There’s definitely a substantial upgrade when it comes to the originals. In this regard, the originals are quite safe, and the copies are not really a competition. There are, indeed, conflicts like me buying Jinhao Centennial and realizing that Duofold is not for me, but I believe they’re marginal. Therefore, as long as there is no misleading branding, I don’t have hard feelings. BUT, in some cases, imitations have enough deviations to warrant high value on their own. For me, the outstanding example is Jinhao 80. The way how I use pens, Jinhao 80 is an ultimate workhorse. I wish they’d made it 20 years earlier. I’d have way less pens. And I spent on J-80’s less than I spent on fixing the nib in my Lamy 2000, which is still not up to my liking. If Lamy would make a pen with such design accepting Lamy’s standard nib, I’d snatch it right away. But they don’t (I do have Aion, it’s way different). The closest Lamy has is their Studio in all-black version but I still prefer J-80 for several reasons. This is what I wish big pen manufacturers would do: extend their designs for everyday had working pens. Don’t think this will have a chance to happen.

Excellent job on the list. I started one as well but got bogged down trying to add to many details.

Good video! A couple worth adding: Asvine P20 - knockoff of Leonard Momento Zero Asvine V126 - knockoff of Pilot 823 (and actually a bit better built than the Wingsung 699).

The Asvine V169 is great

Very good information.

I was looking for the Pilot Vanishing Point in Deep Yellow with Rhodium Trim and couldn't find it; I missed the boat, twice. I bought the Majong A1 in that colour, and I love it. The pen I received is very good quality, and I can put a VP nib unit in it, and it fits perfectly. YMMV, though, depending on when it was made. Because it's not a VP, I am comfortable bringing it with me as I feel that people loving the Pilot VPs will know it's a knock off and won't snatch it - they won't think that there's an 18k nib in there! 👏

For the person who wants to decide if the feel of the expensive pen works for them then these replicas are probably a worthwhile investment. If you purchase something like a Duofold and find that some aspect is not to your liking it can be an expensive mistake if you cannot recoup most of the original cost on the second hand market. The last decent bricks and mortar pen shop near where I live closed down last year so I cannot go in and "try" a pen.

I just received my Jinhao 9019 today. It is a Chinese clone of the Sailor KOP/Montblanc 149...although more towards the KOP. So far, after a few minutes of writing, it is a decent pen. The one selling point is the HUGE converter that it comes with. This converter screws in and holds close to 2ml of ink. That alone was worth the price I paid, which was $13.95 on Amazon.

how fun.. I do love my Jinhao X159

Were these all purchased from the same website? I'm new to fountain pens(only have 3 Lamy safaris and a Twsbi eco) and was wondering if you could also post links to where to purchase them.

Question for you: the Majohn/Moonman X1, the Montblanc Bohème knock-off, does it come with a #6 or #5 nib? Thanks!

I've heard a few times about the "14kgp" not being believed. I'm curious, why not? you can buy gold plated jewelry for really cheap, especially when it is just a few microns thick. Why couldn't they do that with the nibs? They are probably buying the nibs in batches of the thousands, it doesn't seem that the gold plating would add more than a few cents per nib.

As far as I know, they often have "14K GP" on the nib, meaning it's *plated* with a microscopic layer of 14K gold... but is otherwise a steel nib ? I am very happy with a moonman a1, a wingsung 699 that I have, and I also have a burgondy x159 that writes quite well

Thx 🤗✒

That spreadsheet is great, Kendall! Wonderful to see so the pens just in one go haha! Thanks for putting that together for everyone who might find it helpful! I don't think I give knockoffs enough attention and care to really see if they're for me, I have probably bought real knockoffs rather than these Chinese name brands.. which might be why I didn't like them. I will say the one jinhao x750 i have writes pretty well, but I think I can say that the Chinese brands seem to have poorer quality when it comes to caps and mechanisms to keep the nib wet after long periods of not being used. Which is fine if you use your pens on a daily or weekly. None of my non Chinese name brands have ever dried out in me, with the exception of lamy at times, but my jinhao 82 and some lesser known Chinese brands do dry out within 2-3 weeks. That's just from personal experience, which is different from others use and experiences. But would love to see you do some tests of that sort to compare the Chinese brands to their non Chinese counterpart to see the more extensive pros and cons for each. I should make a video for my sailors haha! I only got 2 jinhao 82s... and I'm very biased with my opinion, but will need to be scientific and objective with my tests!

It is extremely easy to tell all the world how wonderful the classic expensive fountain pens are. Chris and Doug have been the best at explaining that although not the best, there are very good reasons to spend less on Chinese (not a fan of China), pens . They are most excellent. I don’t think I’m buying a several hundred to thousand dollar pens. They aren’t worth that much.

I’ve swap the nib of the jinhao 80 with a Lamy Z50 fine

I've got a decent Jinhao 599 I didn't see here (yet anyway, not done yet😏) that I got to tinker with before deciding if I like the style; a Lamy Safari/Vista knockoff body type. VERY hit and miss on the nibs (mostly miss) eta: Granted, neither are expensive but I hear Lamy nibs can be a little wonky out of the box too, and it's the grip I'm not sure about.

The more expensive pens are knock offs of each other. MontBlanc didn’t invent the cigar shaped pen. MontBlanc look like Sailor looks like Pilot. It simply shows your prejudice that is front and centre of your presentation. You don’t talk about the Sailor/pilot/whatever knocking off the competition. So whose design is the cigar shaped fountain pen and what copyrights / patents are current? That’s right, none.

Not sure why people balk some of these items. Obviously collector's buy them to look to others if they have fine taste, or high incomes to match their status. As I listened to your diatribes against selecting these copies, tabulating up the final sum you've spent, I came to the final analysis that you could have found any one of the original trademarked pens you've mentioned, instead of buying the replicas you have here. I own not a few of the newer Chinese fountain varieties, and am pleased with their feel, balance, weight, and writing qualities even if they aren't their carbon copies sainted namesake. You would have made a better argument had you shown the relative merits of these new makes, rather than make your viewer's giddy with their costly brethrens exorbitant cost.

Keep your introduction short. Common designs are not copies. They all have the same designs. Cigar shape etcetera.

Thievery will last as long as there are amatours or clients for stolen goods or ideas

I’m subscribed but you’re very slow

Yes, knockoffs, so I just steer clear of Chinese pens completely.

I opened up your website chart and couldn't find the comparison listing of the DUPEs vs Original fountain pens. Kaigelu 316 Parker Duofold Hero 616 Parker 21/51 Duke 209 Parker Sonnet Baoer 388 Parker Sonnet Baoer 801 Parker Vector Moonman m6 Parker Duofold Moonman M600’s Parker Duofold Jinhao 992 Sailor Procolor Lingmo Lorelei Sailor Procolor Pen BBS 308 Sailor Porcolor Delike New Moon Sailor ProGear Wing Sung 3003 Pilot 78G Wing sung 699 Pilot custom 823 Majohn / Moonman A1 $40 Pilot Vanishing point 170 Wing Sung 6359 Lamy Al Star LM Focus 3 Lamy Dialog 3 Delike Alpa Kaweco Al Brass Sport Lanbitou TWISBI Eco Lecai Acrylic Franklin Christoph Moonman C2 Franklin Christoph model 66 Wing Sung 626 Sheaffer Balance Pen BBS 480 Sheaffer Balance Jinhao x159 $10 Montblanc 149 $700-800 Moonman P136 Montblanc 146 Majohn moonman x1=50-80 Montblanc boheme 950- 1500 Monte Mount Snake Clip Montblanc Rouge et Noir Majohn / Moonman M800 $30 Leonardo Momento $250 Asvine V169 $38 Leban Skeleton $200 Jinhao 11 centennial $15 Parker Duofold Centennial $600 Majohn/ Moonman Q1$14cad Tombow dragon fly $200+ mini pocket size Jinhao 80 $5 Lamy 2000 or Lamy ion ~ $180

Why should they up their game and lower price just because idiots kopi their work. Do you really think this fake junk will do good for people hobby? It's like copy DVD or fake handbags. Break the junk and don't waste time