Cheap Chinese

Like India, China has an incredibly long history with ink.  Around the same time Egypt and China invented ink, some 4500 years ago, so it is unsurprising that most every method of laying down ink comes out of China these days.  Fine brushes, bamboo dip pens, and modern pens with a nib, printers, just to name a few.  Some of the finest everyday, don't-care-if-I-lose-it, fountain pens come out of China.  My three favorite companies are  Baoer, Hero, and Jinhao.  I don't recall paying more than $5 for any of these, and only one had shipping charges (the Baoer).  The Hero 616 was a real bargain, I believe I purchased 2 packs of 10 for under $20, free shipping included.  So now feast your eyes on the wonders below.

Cheap Chinese on cheap paper, because everyday, these have got to write on what's in the office

The Baoer and Hero are copies of the Parker 88 and Parker 51.  The Hero is almost a dead knock-off for the 51.  I own my father's 51 he used in college.  This writes nothing like it, but not that I'd expect it to for less than $1 per.  The Jinhao has a feel like it's attempting to be a Pelikan 140,  All are advertised as having a fine nib.

So let's look at them one by one:

Baoer 801 - A nice surprise from the Baoer, it is entirely metal, excepting the converter, the only one in the bunch, and pretty well made.  Sturdy construction, a very nice converter, I've paid more for worse converters than I have for this pen, a set-back for the cap, so it posts well, and the nib is pretty good.  Using the Montblanc Mystery Black it writes smoothly.  It has a rough time getting started in the morning, but flows well and writes consistently once it gets going.  

Hero 616 - I speculate this may be the most common fountain pen on the planet.  This body has appeared as numerous variants, has been broadly exported, has been used by generations of Chinese students, and is actually pretty reliable, once you get past the horrible quality control.  I believe this variant is referred to as the Extra Light.  It is plastic, except for the nib, cap, and part of the converter.  This is a an aerometric style converter, that works mostly ok, again quality control issues.  I found that 3 of these 20 were completely unusable.   When you get a good one, the steel nib works well with a thinner ink.  Quink works very well with this.  The nib is really more like an extra fine, if not finer, htat's why I recommend a thin ink.
The Jinhao is aesthetically a bit disjointed: the taper on the barrel is not smooth, the fittings are not flush to the cap, and the feel is definitely of plastic.  Overall, not bad, looking, but just unrefined.  The nib fitted to it says fine, but it writes somewhere between a medium and fine, and really lays down the ink.  This is an ink hog!  I wish that there was a bigger converter in it.  The writing experience is smooth, the posted weight of the pen is generous, and provides a nice balance, and the orange cap is striking and gets a lot of comments.  This is nice for lighter colored inks, since enough is laid down to really saturate the color.
So, where do I stand on these pens?  I love them, not because they write like my better pens, but because they write well enough for daily use, don't put me out any for than if I purchased a couple gel pens, and I don't have to worry about losing them.  I have handed out 10 or 12 of the Hero 616's to people who didn't even know that fountain pens were made any longer, and I've let kids, without worry of destruction, try their hand at writing without fear of loss or damage.  For some reason, the United States is moving away from teaching handwriting.  An entire generation is barely capable of writing (can't say much, mine penmanship bites) and don't see any value in it.  If we'd like to see writing continue, what better way than getting kids excited with a fountain pen.  They're just retro enough to get people jazzed about them.