Jinhao 165 Fountain Pen

Aside from the Platinum Preppy, and right along with the Serwex, the Jinhao pens are one of the most affordable fountain pens we carry.

People who use much more expensive fountain pens are often pleasantly surprised by the performance of Jinhaos. While they are not going to be as robust as your Safari, they will write, and write well. Quality control is also not going to be as superb as with the Safari’s (and even they, once in a while, let one through), but for $7.50, you can’t beat it.

Jinhao 165 Fountain Pen Writing Sample

People who just happen upon our shop often will come in and pick up a Jinhao and a bottle of ink because they’re interested in trying a pen, and the Jinhao’s are so inexpensive. These pens are a great way to get started in using fountain pens, especially because they already come with a converter, and choosing your bottle of ink is sometimes half the fun.

The JInhao 165 is one of our more popular Jinhaos. One of the perks of running a bricks & mortar is that you can talk to people about their thoughts and likes and dislikes about pens. I must admit that some people feel that this Jinhao in particular is a bit “bling”, but it’s actually my personal favourite of all the Jinhaos we currently carry (but we’re expecting a new shipment in soon, with a few new pens!).

Jinhao Lava Finish on the left and Glossy Black on the right.

The Jinhao 165 comes in a “Lava” finish and a glossy black finish. They’re both metal and fairly weighty – on my not-especially-accurate scale which only shows even numbers, the Lava is 32g and the glossy black is 30g.

It has a snap cap that quite secure, you can feel the click as the fits onto the pen. The section is smooth, black plastic, and the step up to the barrel of the pen isn’t too steep.

Right now, each model of Jinhao only comes in one nib size. The 165s are both around a medium-broad, and fairly wet. The nib says “18KGP” which might lead one to think that it’s 18K gold-plated, but I’m pretty sure that might just be some fancy marketing on the part of Jinhao…

The writing sample is done with Platinum’s Blue-Black.

Writing Sample of the Jinhao 165 with Platinum Blue-Black

So how does it write? It’s wet without being too wet – but then again, I like wet pens – no skipping, no starting issues. It’s smooth and flows along the page, I guess lubricated by the wetness. Unfortunately, there are no other nib size options for this model, no fine or extra-fine, no italics or stubs. The other Jinhao pens we carry, like the 126, will have finer nibs, quite fine.

For the price, it’s a great way to start using fountain pens, to have a few extra kicking around with different ink colours, or a gift for someone who may not know if they like fountain pens or not.