On a separate note, SBREBROWN videos on youtube are a source of excellent reviews on fountain pens and inks fully recommended! The pen shows a few minor scratches in the steel body from my keys, but one would have to look for them despite how much I have bounced it around. Mine was a touch scratchy, but I smoothed it on some micromesh the other day, and it's improved it noticeably.

It seems that the nib isn't sealed properly inside the cap, which causes the ink to dry and evaporate. This isn’t a problem on most papers such as my bullet journal, but on many cheap papers, it feathers quite a bit.

Maybe it’s something about the sharp corners that limits the flow and maybe the paper isn’t as awful as it seems.

In fact the X750 is a bit kitschy if you ask me, what with the unevenly stamped checkerboard pattern, but its quirkiness is partly what lends it its charm. Please also take time to read our post-Brexit information page if you are outside the UK to see what will happen now with tax and import duty.

Maybe it's the broad nib or this particular nib or poor quality control in general (though I suspect it's the latter) but I constantly struggled with this pen. Much more expensive pens still eschew a converter and it really makes me question why those companies can't be bothered to include one. The nibs that come with the "out of the box" Jinhaos have always worked OK for me, but I find them a little characterless.

I have not tried any of the other popular chinese brands but glad you at least got a couple of good performers in there. The slit gets awfully narrow as it approaches the tip which could restrict the flow and the pen skates at times which could be another factor.

It took me this long to review the pen because I've been using it for several weeks with multiple inks. It is a high quality fountain pen with a snap cap, chrome details and a beautiful fine textured finish.

At first blush, the two types of instruments seem to have opposing needs: Pencils want at least a bit of tooth, while fountain pens love to skate across smoothness. The site states that “Every nib that ships from His Nibs is closely examined under high magnification and tuned or adjusted if needed.Right out of the box the ink flowed to the nib quickly, I got a smooth writing experience with no skipping or hard starts. I am of a mind to give the converter a second chance because the inks I used didn't flow very well, so perhaps an ink which flows more easily will work better in it. Nostalgia dictated that I give this pen another try, even though it didn't score perfectly in my original review. This was an unplanned purchase but while I was browsing the web a few months ago I came upon these Chinese pens and noticed that brands like Jinhao and Hero have a huge variety of designs. The cap has a large lacquered and domed top button, and a very well designed and sturdy chrome plated pocket clip.