Jinahao 82 vs. Sailor Pro Gear Slim! Fountain Pen Comparison Dupes or the The Real Thing? 

Welcome back! Today I'm showing you some of my new Jinhao 82 fountain pens alongside my Sailor Pro Gear Slims. Which is the better value? Are Sailors worth the money? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for watching. xo Lori

I’ve been collecting fountain pens for about 7 years now, and I can confirm the dangers of that rabbit hole. Even though I own many expensive fountain pens, I’m always testing cheap pens, mostly Chinese. They are, for the most part, much improved from 7 years ago. Sometimes they are so good, I ask myself why I buy expensive pens at all (the rabbit hole). Still, though they might good, they are never excellent, in my experience. Of course you can work on the nibs if you want to do that, but I don’t. Expensive pens rarely write poorly, and as you mentioned, their build quality is superb. That said, I never recommend Chinese pens for a new fountain pen user. Risk of failure still too high. I always recommend a major company’s entry level pens. Usually Pilot or LAMY, but even Sailor Kaweco, TWSBI, and others. I usually recommend LAMY Safari’s because they are easy to maintain (especially the changing of nibs-none easier.) They do cost more than most Chinese pens, but are well worth it. For newbies: if you shop on Amazon for pens, beware of “Luxury” fountain pens. If they claim to be luxury they never are-especially Chinese pens. I apologize for being so wordy, but I love talking about fountain pens. This is the first time I’ve watched one of your videos. Well done. I’ve subscribed. 😊

You can’t compare F nib vs B so I’m not sure your outcomes are very accurate.

Love the jinhao for fun. Love their colors esp the translucent ones, and the fact you can change the finials. The ones I have all write very good. But I have a diff reason of buying them -- I want to test inks. I could actually do that with preppys and kakunos, but these jinhao 82s are just pretty 😊 Its a good starter pen.

I have a Jinhao 80 and put a Lamy EF nib on it and I love the writing experience. It’s not better or worse than my Montblanc 146, just different.

I’ve tuned the 82 nibs making them wetter and smoother. They all right like a dream now. As you say the Sailor nibs have feedback and out of preference I will use the 82.

I have a 2 Jinhao 82’s and I find that my EF is much, much better than the F. So it’s interesting that you have the same experience. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I have not pulled the trigger on the PGS yet but it is on my wish list and I look almost every week at them. 😂

I don’t have any of the Jinhao 82 but have other Jinhao’s in my collection that I enjoy using. I do love my Sailor PG Slims x2 and Sailor PG Slim Mini which have been recent purchases and now understand all too well why people fall in love with them 😊 But think these Jinhaos are great and give people a good writing experience at a fraction of the cost. Happy Easter 🐣

Aren’t these Jinhao pens so much fun!! Now these I could get on board with in terms of collecting! I just did my own video review of the transparent versions. I really liked them, mine were pretty consistent across the board. The ones I got were medium nibs but one I got with a bent nib and it’s fantastic. I also had the same experience with shimmering ink… clogged it up. Thanks for sharing your experience! Happy Easter!

I’m a big fan of jinhao 82. I always interchange all the colours. You can also interchange the top and bottom finial. 😊

Some Jinhao 82 have a difficult start. They get better with time

where did you find sailor pro gear slim in 90$?

Sailor 21k nibs are their premium nib; their KOP (King of Pen always comes with a 21k nib). I don't use shimmer or glitter inks because of problems they cause with FP feeds.

I have lots of Jinhaos and generally like them. But, I am not a fan of their #5 fine nibs. When my 82 arrives, I will swap that out for a medium before I even ink it. There are a lot of generic #5 calligraphy nibs on Ali Express and even those are better than Jinhaos fine nibs.

Thanks for a fun video. When you do the curly S's, maybe consider going a bit slower and try applying gentle gentle pressure to evaluate potential flex and line variation? Happy Easter colors!

If you polish the jinhao nib with micromash it writes like the Sailor. And a so cheap pan its ok to work on the nib 20 minutes.you can make the jinaho morenwet too

I have a Kanwrite Zoom #5 nib on my Jinhao 82. Very thick and smooth. I can’t stop using it everyday its that good.

I really enjoy my Jinhao 82 translucent purple and jade, which I switched around to make color blocked versions. But nothing will or can compare to my Sailor Zoom nib in 21k! My favorite nib I own!🎉

Recently I wanted a couple more fude nibs and was delighted to learn that you can get 82s with fude nibs. They perform just fine. The red one is nice and bright and the lavender/green one is gorgeous. Bargain price. Highly recommended. I hope they come out with dups of the Pro Gear full size and the King of Pen, so I can spend more money. I have several real Sailor Pro Gears, which are my faavorite pen, but at ever-increaasing prices they are awfully expensive.

I need to try these Jinhao. I love Sailor pro gear slim form-factor, i have rather small hands and more comfortable with pen size like this. But my Sailor have intermittent problems with the ink flow. It writes nicely only first day after it's washed and refilled. Then it's getting worse and worse.

I'll have to try these Jinhao's. Thanks!

I think the Jinhao 82 is much closer to the Sailor LeCoule.

Thanks for the comparison, I've been curious to see how the Jinhaos stack up, and the results you got are pretty predicable, I think. Jinhao has questionable quality control, lower quality components, etc. The only point I would raise that you sort of touched on in the video, but not very deeply, is around the ethics of purchasing something that is clearly stolen intellectual property. Sailor has spent a lot of money designing, marketing and standing by their products, and I struggle to purchase an item that is a clear rip-off of Sailor's designs. On the other hand, I've recently been very bummed out at what I view as greedy practices by Sailor. They have almost made a science of creating inflated prices for their products by severely limiting demand, issuing limited edition after limited edition and then placing HUGE mark-ups on their products. I've seen many of these pens being sold for more than $300 each, and some exceeding $500-600!!! (And if you dare get into the KOP market, you're now into 4 figures!) Long gone are the days were you could regularly pick up one of these pens for $150. And I'm not talking about on the secondary market, these are the prices their authorized dealers are charging. Those kinds of prices for a plastic pen are just ridiculous, and so I totally see why people are turning toward the knock offs.

How silly. If I had a Sailor I wouldn't even watch this video or be slightly interested in the cheap Chinese knockoff.