Last year, Jinhao launched its new pen, the Dadao 9019, and it quickly gained traction in the pen community. Many have compared it to the X159 from the same brand. It’s about the same size and both have #8 nibs, but there are also some notable differences. While the X159 is strongly inspired by the Montblanc Meisterstück 149, the Dadao 9019 rather resembles some of the high-end Namiki pens. It annoys me a bit that Jinhao has chosen a design that is so…
Us fountain pen enthusiasts have a small tendency to look down on ballpoint pens, but personally, I’ve found that both pen types have their uses. The fountain pen isn’t always the best tool, and in some situations the ballpoint pen is just better. In any case, there’s no reason to pit the two against each other. On the contrary, they actually complement each other quite well. When the ballpoint pen came on the market after the war, it was quickly able to replace the…
I visited Flying Tiger in Trondheim this summer, and found a pen pack for NOK 80,- (approx. $8), with 8 pens of different types in it. I noticed that it contained, among other things, a fountain pen, and decided to buy it for testing. My hopes were not very high, especially after the fiasco with the fountain pens from Søstrene Grene last winter. Those were cheap chinese knock-offs of Kaweco Sport sold in a Norwegian design store, that dried out after just a…