this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2026
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I have been nearly obsessed with finding a good set of Parker 51 clones. I've had several (from Jinhao and Junlai) that have been disappointing. While they had the look and filling mechanism that I wanted, many of them would fail in terms of writing well, or in drying out. What exacerbated these purchases was that they would all come up when searching for a “Hero 601” on Amazon, which is the pen I'd seen reviewed that was often praised.

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[–] SimplyGreg@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If the Jinhao 85 does look appealing to you in any way, and you can find it at a reasonable price where you live (I paid all of mine between 3 and 5€), please don't let the filling system hold you back, they are very good pens on their own, not just as a Parker 51 clone. And they manage to be a lot smoother with their steel nibs than the modern 51 with gold nibs, which I find disgraceful from Parker. Then again, their modern production is dismal.

I would consider the x750 middle of the road for Jinhao, not up to the quality of the more recent models (this one has been around for over a decade), but not awful. But their newer stuff is a LOT better. The exception is the 100, which I find to be a little lower quality than its contemporaries.

Hong Dian and Wing Sung, I have limited experience, 3 pens total, but too far from what I read online that I don't care to try any further. Not bad, but not good enough.

A lot of Chinese companies still stick to the old ways of no QC and replace when the customer is unhappy. This isn't specific to the pen world. Though for a lot of Chinese pen companies, there is also the fact that their newer designs are also intrinsically better, higher quality overall, but not necessarily with changes in QC, just better design and manufacturing. The only Chinese pen company I know to have very tight QC across the board is Pimio. Hero also has some good QC on some of their stuff, but they also have lousy QC on other pens.

Also, when buying Chinese pens, or anything Chinese really, I would very strongly advise to check AliExpress first, because they'll very likely be a LOT cheaper than Amazon. But even if they're closer in price, you'll often get a lot more choice in colorways, nib sizes, finishes, etc.

[–] Unattributed@feddit.online 1 points 1 day ago

Also, when buying Chinese pens, or anything Chinese really, I would very strongly advise to check AliExpress first,

You must not have read the article carefully. ;) I've been ripped off by sellers on AliExpress four times and have vowed to never purchase another thing through that site.

I have, however, found a really nice reseller that (while a little more than AliExpress) is much better than Amazon, and very clearly labels their products. I have a review of some pens I purchased through them coming up.

And, I think the “no QC” thing is changing. A bunch of the Chinese companies that have gone into “luxury” products (like watches and leather goods) have started realizing that QC is a necessity. Doodle Bud (on YouTube) has mentioned that Asvine has actually reached out to him to get feed back on some of their engineering and QC issues.