Chinese Fude

Pen review. Luoshi “Good Luck” 739 with fude nib.

Luoshi is one of these Chinese pen companies sprouting in the market and whose products, through on-line commerce, are becoming more widely available.


1. Appearance and design. (7.0/10)
The first impression shows a very substantial –more on this later— and appealing pen. It calls you attention through the richly decorated barrel—a brass overlay engraved with some Chinese motifs (Confucius) and an inscription of good luck together with the company name in Chinese ideograms.

Other than this, design-wise there is nothing remarkable. Actually, the ornament makes the pen quite heavy and unbalanced.

2. Construction and quality. (6.0/10)
A closer look shows a number of imperfections on the cap enamel and rings. Nothing impeding its functionality, but they show this is a cheap pen.

At the same time, the pen did not perform correctly right away. The feed –easy to disassemble—was dirty and the nib was not properly aligned to the feed. Cleaning and sliding the nib further down made the trick for a good writing.


3. Weight and dimensions. (5.0/10)
Heavy and unbalanced pen.

Dimensions:
Diameter: 13 mm.
Length capped: 142 mm.
Length uncapped: 127 mm.
Length posted: 171 mm.
Total weight: 45 g.
Weight uncapped: 32 g


Even unposted, this pen is unbalanced—the barrel is too heavy and pushes the center of masses high up in the pen. Posted, this becomes a very uncomfortable pen.

Size-wise, though, this is an average pen, a bit on the thick side, favoring a comfortable grip.

The gold plated steel fude nib.

4. Nib and writing performance. (8.0/10)
The nib is the key point of this pen—a fude nib bended about 40 degrees. Therefore, it draws a very thick horizontal line and a thin –about an M point—vertical one. It is tipped, and this smooths the writing at higher angles—up to a point. But it hardly becomes rough.

It is only natural to compare this nib to that of the Sailor Fude Pen 40 already reviewed on these chronicles.


The first difference is that the angle at which the Luoshi pen is bended is a lot more progressive than that in the Sailor pen. As a result, the possibilities of line variation are huge, but it also makes this pen very tricky to master. The usual effect is a very uncontrolled variation in the handwriting width.

Therefore, this is a wet, smooth, difficult to master, and fun pen.

As was mentioned before, this nib had to be re-aligned with the feed. After that, there has been no problem with it.

Different line widths with different nib inclinations.

5. Filling system and maintenance. (8.0/10)

This is a cartridge/converter pen that uses short and long universal cartridges. The nib-feed set is very easy to remove from the section. In summary, an easy to maintain pen, even if boring in the filling department.

6. Cost and value. (8.0/10)
This is an inexpensive pen –less than USD 10— with appealing looks but not well finished and certainly unbalanced. However, it implements an exciting fude nib.

All in all, a good deal.



7. Conclusion. (42/60=70/100)
Inexpensive and unbalance pen with good looks and interesting nib. As customers, we should also look at some other fude pens with less appealing looks but much better balance and overall handling.

My thanks to Tarraco-san.

(Luoshi “Good Luck” Fude Pen – Montegrappa turquoise)

Bruno Taut
May 1st, 2011
[labels: Luoshi, plumín]