Saturday, July 16, 2022

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 402

This pen isn't nearly as rare as Christopher's vintage Parker 'Vacuum Filler' (lol)...

It was described on Amazon.ca as "Gullor Lightweight Fountain Pen in Gift Box, Includes Converter, Resin Barrel, Color B". I got it for $27.00 CAD with free shipping, and the order was fulfilled by Amazon (for the seller - APlustore), arriving four days after I ordered it. The pen is still available from Amazon.ca, but the price is now $22.00 CAD + $7.90 shipping as it's being shipped directly by the seller now, not Amazon.

(please click on images to enlarge)


And here it is - my new
Jinhao '100 Centennial' fountain pen!

Wait what?? The description said it was a Gullor fountain pen....


 ...and it came in this Gullor presentation box and sleeve.....


---with a Gullor sticker on the bottom....so what gives?!?

Well, I did a bit of digging and found out that Gullor is the North American distributor for Jinhao, so that explains the packaging. As to why they'd omit the word "Jinhao" from the Amazon listing, I have no idea because Jinhao is well-known in the pen world, and Gullor isn't.

In any case, I wasn't surprised when I saw that the pen was, in fact, a Jinhao ---I own three others of the same model, and I easily ID'd it as such from the Amazon photos. I did an in-depth review of the orange/black version of this pen here, so I won't be going over all the features of the pen in today's review.

This particular version is made of a very pretty resin that doesn't have a name, as far as I know. I love that the section material matches the rest of the pen. Not all of the Jinhao '100 Centennial' pens are like that--many (most?) have black sections, so if that's important to you, make sure you look at the sales page/auction listing photos closely before you buy.


Another thing to watch for -- this Jinhao '100 Centennial' has a ball-ended clip, but some others have arrow clips (that look like Parker's famous "Arrow" clip). I thought they were two different models, but they're actually both Jinhao 100's (note: there is a Jinhao '100A' model, but it has a completely different cap band).


The Jinhao '100 Centennial' pens are available with silvery or gold-coloured trim. The pen's colours match the gold-colored trim on mine very nicely ...

On Aliexpress, I noticed that this pen is listed as being a "new" colour, so that might explain why it's priced a bit higher than the older colours. Jinhao seem to be adding new pens to their '100 Centennial' lineup every few months, and I look forward to seeing what they release next.

Above: Note the thin black O-ring at the end of the pen's section. This tiny ring prevents the barrel from being over-tightened (and possibly cracking) when the barrel is screwed back on.

Another nice feature --- the converter that came with the pen (shown above) has a clear piston knob! They're usually black, but this Jinhao converter has a clear one. This is a great idea, especially for a translucent fountain pen. Now, if they could make the converter's internal piston mechanism clear as well, that'd be even better!

The pen takes about 2.5 turns to cap --which might annoy some people--- but the barrel threads are verrry smooth to the touch, and won't cut into your fingers when you're holding the pen.

The gold-coloured two-tone steel nib has the same markings as the all-orange version of this pen that I reviewed here last month. The pen comes in three nib widths--Fine, Medium and Bent. The Fine nib on mine writes smoothly and lays down a true fine line. If you want to upgrade your pen, there are a few '100 Centennial' colours that come with 14K gold nibs, starting at $136 CAD + $5 shipping on Amazon.ca

Overall, I'm very impressed with the build quality, design and appearance of the pen. Its Fine nib wrote smoothly out of the box, and no tuning was required on my part. I think these pens are a heck of a deal for less than $30 CAD shipped. They come in a variety of colours, and because they're affordable, I think they're quite collectible. If you're looking for a full-sized, fairly light (27.9 g total weight inc. converter/15.4 g uncapped), economically-priced fountain pen, this might be the one for you.

(photos & review by Maja)

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