General
This is the Jinhao 80 Black Fiber Brushed Fountain Pen. I selected the Fine size nib version. There were also other options of this pen, i.e., black pen with either a silver or black brushed alloy clip and the option of Ultra Fine nib. If you put Jinhao 80 next to very long established Lamy 2000, the similarities are amazing. Internal design and workings are obviously quite different. Though externally, it is a “spitting image to the naked eye”. See Appendix 4 for full details.
Features
On the Lamy 2000 pen, the join between the barrel end and piston knob is famously practically invisible. On the Jinhao 80 pen you cannot either see it, the reason is simple, there is none. Jinhao 80 is a converter pen which can also use Jinhao cartridge, but it is not a piston filler which Lamy 2000 naturally is. The clips on both pens are physically identical, one exception is the small lettering LAMY, both clips are spring loaded and made of brushed metal. Interestingly, I have not seen this mentioned by any well-known reviewer: The Lamy clip strongly reacts to magnet i.e., it is steel and Jinhao is completely non-magnetic.
Comments
There is no design coincidence here as Lamy 2000 was introduced around 15 years ago. Jinhao 80 is a nice pen, but this is not end of the story, its nib and feeder are also very close if not identical to Lamy Safari, except for the breathing hole. At less than £10 per piece again does a conspiracy theory exists here. It is doing rather well. What was first, the chicken or the egg.
Ink used: Parker Quink Blue, France/UK
