The Best (and Worst) Fountain Pens of 2022 

"Just writing with this is making me want to kill somebody." Best pen review line ever! 😂

Enjoyed your review of 2022 jinhao 80 great pen,. Keep up your work

The Jinhao 80 is an amazing pen, I am waiting for the mailman to deliver the few colors I am still missing. And guess what? You can exchange its nib (the original is still good, by the way) for a Lamy nib. And why not? A Lamy gold nib! This is a match made in heaven!!

Great overview of your pens. I do have a few of them. I particularly like the Pelikan M200. I have a steel nib and it performs wonderfully. The Jinhao 80 is a surprise as to how well it performs. The Jinhao X159 is a stunning writer. Another surprise is the MaJohn C4 eyedropper with the piston seal. The Wing Sung 629 is outstanding with a great smooth nib. My last pen I bought this year was the Leonardo MZG Mosaico. It was a Christmas present to me, lol. Beautiful pen and a fabulous writer. Loved you presentation.

Nice to see your thoughts about these pens! The Jinhao 80 has several reviewers singing it's praises. As well as the X159. 😉 Sheaffer has really started to suffer under AT Cross. The Ion is just a Chinese hooded nib pen. To improve the writing experience, put in a "Bobby" nib for the Wing Sung or Jinhao. They fit. My opinion of the Parker 51 of today is they just dug around in a cast off parts bin and assembled what they found. Whilst I am not exactly a fanboy of the original 51s (mainly the Aerometric ones), they're worlds different from the modern iteration. The student Parkette or 21 of the 1950s with the easily warped plastic are better than the modern 51, IMO. Why did they only hint at the original shape, abandon the slip capping mechanism and use a Jotter type nib instead of even the similar looking 45 design? (Could care less about it being cartridge converter. Parker made that switch in 1960 for most of their designs. Better than an Aerometric, IMO. 😁 Vacumatic? I like those. 😉) And the gold nibbed version of the modern is wildly overpriced. The original was $12.50 new ($150 USD today.) They're still available for that. Or less, unless you want something specific. So the $250 USD initial price of today for something lower quality? I really appreciate your videos, Rob. Have not steered me wrong in modern budget friendly pens yet. 😁 Hope you have a great week and even year!

Dang. Expecting to have no celebrations until everyone is prosperous seems a little grinchy, but we’ve all been feeling the pinch. I’ve had to stop buying pens except for my birthday, but I’m just enjoying collecting vicariously by watching more pen videos. Thanks for sharing the pens, and my condolences about the queen. She was a good un.

Very much enjoyed that. Thank you!

1. Great pens all, but Faber-Castell for the win. 2. I was disappointed in the TWSBI GO; the piston died pretty quickly. 3. Kaweco Sport double broad (BB) nibs are also excellent. 4. Glad to learn about the Opus Koloro, looks tasty. 5. I love the fact that you have the gall to prefer the Jinhao 80 over the Lamy 2000.

Thanks for the Cult Pens discount code!

I agree with you wholeheartedly about handwriting!

It is good you are getting back to the Lamy 2000. I don’t have one, but I am considering one.

I agree that the platinum prefointe is an excellent affordable pen.

Hi Rob. I've been saving this video because I knew it would be good. I had some free time this afternoon so sat down and watched it. Many thanks for a very enjoyable hour talking about your best and worst pens of 2022. This year everyone seems to be raving about the Jinhao X159 but I really liked the Jinhao 80 a lot more. I am in agreement, the 80 is one of the best low cost pens of last year. However, I picked up my Jinhao 80 yesterday to write a few things down and found myself covered in ink. Not sure why mine has suddenly become incontinent. I'll have to clean it all out and check out why it's leaking. Onto your worst pen of the year. Sorry your Parker 51 (new) was such a disappointment. I couldn't wait for Parker to release that pen so I dived in, with both feet, when Jinhao released their model 85 (I think it's called). The Jinhao equivalent of the Parker 51 is surprisingly good. I was so happy with it I decided not to bother when the new Parker came out. I did see the great offer from Amazon when they dropped the price on this pen but decided in the end to leave it for you! My pen of the year for 2022 is probably the Aurora Ipsilon. I got mine at the end of 2022 in yellow (yes, I like yellow pens as well) with black finials. My choice of nib was the broad. It writes very nicely indeed.

Hello FPJ, congratulations for all your tests, I need a little help I am looking for a fountain pen to draw with a regular line that glides well medium and resistant tips with a regular flow and very dense ink do you have a model for me advise

The capping of that Monteverde is NICE 😁 30-40 dollars? I might have to get one 😏

Also, I am in love with my M200. I don't think these pens get enough love.

Ha! I can never spell that bloody word, either 🙂 Cheers for the vid. 👍

Just a quick correction. The Pelikan Iconic is not a M200, it is called M120 Iconic Blue.

I think I'm with you about the reissued Parker 51. I'm a huge fanboy of the classic P51 so I was very keen to get the re-release (steel nib). It was such a disappointment for the same reasons you list. Dries out, is bland, boring, lifeless, dull. The most complimentary thing I can say about it is that it's a pen, sometimes. The Jinhao 86 is so much better. The 86 has more colour options, feels like the same nib as the hooded Jinhao 51A, of which I'm a fan, and it's all around just a more competent writer than the Farter 51 reboot. I probably prefer the Jinhao 51A hooded to the 86, because I like the slip cap and acrylic body options, but frankly I would rather perform open heart surgery on myself with the P51 reboot than try to write with it ever again. I was so disappointed that I bought 2 more with the same sort of Amazon UK discount incentive, to see if I'd just been unlucky and bought a dud. Such is my loyalty for the proper P51. The new ones were just as bad. Tried other inks; equally bad. Tried other papers, writing angles, tried fierce Danish swearing at them; just as bad. They've now been banished to a pen case to lie in a pit of dusty neglected shame for all eternity.

Great video and me I say you have a great voice. You should read poetry or something!

I wonder if there will soon be a knock-off version of an existing knock-off when it comes to the Jinhao 80? Stranger things have happened in this world so who knows. Anyway thanks for the video.

"affordable... not 500 pounds..." Honestly, that's what I've been looking for.

🤓👍

The pen IS reliable! Sometimes😄