Matte Black Forest Fountain Pen Extra Fine Nib Classic Design with Converter and Metal Box Set by Hongdian

HongDian produce some high quality, excellent value fountain pens. They're ergonomic, well balanced, they post well & have very decent nibs. Even their EF nibs usually run smoothly in my experience, producing neat EF lines which are at least equal to most Western brands. This certainly applies to the excellent Carbon Fiber Black Forest 1861 fountain pen. It's a genuine pleasure to use even over longer writing sessions. I was so impressed with it that I also bought the Silver Stainless Steel & Raw Brass 1861 editions. All three came with smooth, consistent EF nibs.An added plus for me is that the step above the grip section on these "1861" models is less pronounced than on the regular "Forest" pens in the same series. Also, the grip section on the 1861 editions has a 2mm-to-3mm larger circumference, allowing me a more comfortable grip. See photo showing three Black Forest "1861" fountain pens as stated above compared to a standard "Forest" pen on the right. - All three "1861" editions in this series come highly recommended!

A fabulous pen!I am so glad that I read the reviews and ordered this pen, it's perfect!I hadn't heard of the brand before and would have skimmed past, but there were so many positive reviews that I gave it a go.On a more superficial level the colour is gorgeous, it looks lovely. Not garish, but a bit different.It arrives in a silver metal tin which is useful for storage.The pen is very comfortable to hold and to write with - I have damaged hands so this is really important. The ink flows smoothly, for the first use I gave the cartridge a gentle squeeze and a shake (over scrap paper) and from then on it's been great to use.I ordered the ink cartridges from the same brand, and there are sets with mixed colours and sets with different sized nibs.As you can tell I'm delighted with it!Thanks for reading, I hope you find this review helpful.

As much as anything, I purchased this pen because of being intrigued as to what a "Long Blade Nib" is .... not being able to find any reference to it in any of the reviews.Apparently it is a loose translation from Chinese - loosely translated to Chinese from the Japanese - and describes what we would call a "architects" nib ... ie one which produces a narrow vertical but broad horizontal strokes whilst writing. I sometimes use this effect by the slightly awkward technique of using a standard italic nib held at 90 degrees to the normal with a widely crooked arm - so have been looking for a reasonable-priced solution.Nice as the pen is, I am afraid that - although under a loupe I can see the shaping is there, there isn't very much of it. The difference in line width is very small, but I can produce it in a writing test, using block capitals. In any meaningful writing - anything more than a word long and involving lower as well as upper case characters - I just cannot hit the "sweet spot" and it ends up somewhere between a fine and medium standard nib (depending on the angle of inclination to the paper).Disappointing nib then ...The pen itself is a joy to use though - comfortable, just the right degree of heft to it, very nice ink flow and the feed seems more than adequate with the ink used (Herbin "Cafe des Iles"). I like the plain brass finish and look forward to it developing a bit of patina as it is used.I will simply use it as if a standard medium nib (not that I use them very often) until I have time to explore the nib more fully and see if there is enough meat there to do a regrind...

Great pen, very smooth writer. Hong Dian are getting better and better!

I know close to nothing about fountain pens, but I decided to get this for note writing and exams at Uni. The idea of buying bottles of ink and refilling appealed over the plastic throwaway gel pens I had been buying (which were fantastic in every other respect). One warning - it's a gateway drug. You may find yourself watching fountain pen reviews on YT and wondering about investing in a gold nibbed Montblanc when you graduate - something that would never have crossed your mind a month ago. You might start actually thinking about penmanship, instead of just being satisfied with barely legible chicken-scratch handwriting. It's a slippery slope, kids. Like, who knew that handmade blown glass dipping pens were a thing. I didn't need to know that, but I blame this pen for the fact that I now do.As for the pen, when the ink cartridge has ink in it, it writes smoothly and the ink flows well. I bought the Waterman ink, which seems decent. It's solid without being too heavy. There isn't much flex in the nib, but it's smooth and writes well - no blotches or smears to speak of. I expect the paper and ink has something to do with that as much as the pen. If you leave it uncapped for a few minutes without writing, the ink can take a little persuasion to start again - something which isn't a thing with disposable gel pens, but I fairly quickly got into the habbit of capping it when I wasn't writing, which is not a bad thing since I have a lot of gel pens without their caps since I forget to replace them after use and they part company. See - this pen will make you a responsible adult.As far as criticisms, the edge where the lid and body join is a little bit of a sharp edge and can get slightly uncomfortable after a long period of writing. 2 hours in exam conditions is fine. Much longer and it gets a bit sore where that part rubs against your finger.