The Numbers:
Weight: 53g
Length (capped): 142mm
Length (uncapped): 125mm
Length of cap: 65.8mm
Price: less than SGD$30 on eBay
Material: Metal and plastic
Filling Mechanism: Cartridge / Converter
Colours: Black, red, white (as far as I can find)
Intro:
Before I go into the review of the Jinhao 3000 I would like to give my thanks to Maybelline of On Fountain Pens for the loan of the pen for review. Do check out her website for more reviews of pens and inks.
My first impression of the Jinhao 3000 is what a gaudy pen. I can picture a fat chinese boss chomping on the end of huge cigar as he hold a glass of alcohol on one hand while the other hand signing a contract using the Jinhao 3000 in a sleazy nightclub with loud music blaring. Maybe I have watched too many Hong Kong gangster movies but I think you get the idea.
Appearence:
The Jinhao 3000 is a huge and heavy pen in a cigar shape. It weighs a hefty 53g. I think this is the heaviest fountain pen I have had the chance to use for any reasonable length of time. The silver metal juxtapose against the black plastic barrel in a net like design and a silver tiger. The tiger is seen clearest against the black plastic barrel though the pen is also available in red and white as well.
The JInhao 3000's cap snaps on with a click but it didn't feel very secure because the catch is pretty shallow. However the cap hasn't fall off accidentally as yet. The clip though stiff wasn't too hard to clip onto my Nock Co Lookout. The grip section is smooth and the step down is gentle. Though the Jinhao 3000 is heavy, the pen's balance tips towards the nib so the weight works in its favour. It takes a standard international cartridge and converter. I am surprised to see that the pen comes with an included converter given its price. More expensive pens didn't even bother to include a converter.
Performance:
The Jinhao 3000 nib is a huge ass two tone nib. It is stiff and writes similar to a Japanese medium or a German fine nib. It writes surprisingly smooth. Thankfully it doesn't write too wet. However, I realised that the vertical strokes are drier than horizontal strokes. I am not sure if this is a common issue for Jinhao or not. I had a hard time getting the ink into the feed. Though I had draw ink up into the converter via the traditional method and not syringe filling the converter, I have also pushed ink out via the nib but still the feed isn't saturated and the nib doesn't write. However, this is solved once I repeated the steps a couple of time. I had encountered this with the Baoer 507 fountain pen as well. Is this a chinese fountain pen quality control issue or is it just me?
Conclusion:
The Jinhao 3000 is an afforadable fountain pen if you can get over its gaudy design. Personally I probably can never over look its design. The nib writes pretty smooth once you get it going.
Once again, I would like to give my thanks to Maybelline of On Fountain Pens for the loan of the pen for review.
Pros:
* Afforadable
* Snap on cap
Cons:
* Heavy, huge pen
* Gaudy design
Additional reading:
SBRE Brown's review