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RayF
22214
May 13, 2018
Every time I see this drop, I am reminded of a certain type of sailing ship peculiar to waters of Asia. It's called a Chinese Junk.
anthony.cary
123
May 13, 2018
RayFThe two Regal pens I have a very well made, and write really well. The nib on my Regal Jennings is very smooth and wet, and the brass body of the pen is sturdy.
Some of the very best and most popular inexpensive fountain pens are Chinese made. On Reddit's /r/fountainpens you'll find a lot of discussion about Penbbs, Moonman, Wingsung, etc, many of which you can only order from ebay out of China.
RayF
22214
May 13, 2018
anthony.caryLots of good cheap pens come from China--I own a fistful of them. But the first requirement of a cheap pen is to be cheap, and by that I mean well under the $28 MD is charging for this one, and way, way under the crazy msrp of $40 some botanical-smoking dreamer in Marketing came up with. After a cheap pen meets the first criteria, it has to work, meaning write well. "Well" is a little esoteric, but I'll accept "smooth." So far, that's puts it into realm of most Chinese pens, hundreds of which can be had for under $10 on Amazon--with two day shipping by the way.
My first recommendation for anyone considering this drop is to search Amazon for "Jinhoa fountain pens" and compare any of those to this Regal thing at four times the price. Consider that: four well-made, cheap pens for the price MD wants for this cheesy also-ran, with the rip-off model name. Couple of examples in the photo below:
That big Orange thing (not the tomato) on the Moleskine, is a Jinhoa 250; it's on Amazon today for $6.95. It comes in a rainbow of colors (I'm partial to Orange), but in black (a tacky knock-off of a Montblac 149), it's only $3.65. If you prefer something less rotund, Jinhoa has a zillion more pens to browse through in both modern and traditional styles--few if any are over ten bucks!
And if someone actually was in the market for a good $28 pen, that tortoise shell number on the far left is a Kaigelu (Chinese for Kangaroo) that writes, feels and looks like many $200 fountain pens. It also comes in a zillion colors and it's on Amazon for less than $30, and in your hot little hand, all inked up and ready to go, in two days. And when I say, ready to go, I mean all of the pens mentioned come with converters and very nice nibs.
So, choice is yours, help some guy at Regal buy another Porsche, or buy yourself a nice cheap, Chinese pen, instead ;- )
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anthony.cary
123
May 14, 2018
RayFBrass is necessarily going to be more pricey than acrylic or resin pens. Gold plating on the nib, even partial, will add price as well. If this pen is not your style, that's one thing. But throw around "cheesy" and "rip off" is highly subjective, negative, and unhelpful to anyone.
RayF
22214
May 14, 2018
anthony.caryEvidently you need A LOT of help when it comes to pens. A) brass is the cheapest way to make a pen heavy--nine times out of ten, it results in an unbalanced pen (the cap weighs more than the body). And B) resin is THE most expensive part of a good fountain pen--go find me a nice brass Pelikan. And C), did I say cheesy rip-off? I meant "blatant rip off." As MB says on their website: "Every year since 1992, Montblanc has paid tribute to great writers whose works have become part of world literature, with its Writers Limited Editions"--so, writer/author--see any connection there? Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you can actually find an "author" who wrote anything of note on one of those POS Regals you seem to have the hots for, I'll buy us both a copy. Nothing too subjective about POS is there? Because I'll be happy to put it in more concrete terms for you: Regal sells shit pens to people who don't know any better. I write this not to inform you, but to point out once again, MBs feeble attempts to enter the low to mid-range fountain pen market. The main reason being, those vendors and manufacturers don't need MD, nor do they (as yet) want to be associated with them. So, what does that leave you? If you're already a fountain pen user--you know this stuff and you pick your MD pen drops with knowledge and LOTS of caution. If you're interested in getting into fountain pens for the first time--MD (as yet) is not the place to learn about them. So then, in closing, I hope I have been especially negative, and especially helpful to anyone who was about to pull the trigger on this particular piece of ove-priced Chinese-crap. Not sure what your angle is here, Tony, but attempting to defend an over-priced MB drop either means you're with MB or you're with Regal--'cause you're damn sure not with us.