I absolutely love snapping up budget pens in the under $25 range because they universally have at least one feature that is super impressive, while having so many downsides that are so easily avoided, I almost stagger back from the stupidity of it all.
Why would I love this? I genuinely prefer penning reviews where I can bitch. As many of my friends can attest to: I am a Negative Nelly, and thrive when given the opportunity to be thoroughly spiteful. I shan’t make any apologies for it, and if I’m honest, I feel it means when I finally do have something nice to say about an item it has more “oomph” as a consequence. Considering this preamble, I’m sure you’ve put together that not much “nice” is on the menu today.
The Wing Sung 698 characterizes Chinese fountain pens in 2017 down to a T: some interesting quirks wrapped in piss poor branding and questionable aesthetic cohesion.
Wing Sung 698 Fountain Pen – Amazon / eBay
To this day I do not understand why Chinese manufacturers when presented with a decent base model think to themselves, “Yeah, it’s nice, but if we throw a bunch of garbage shit on it then it will be better.” Wing Sung/Lucky/Wings (all the same company) is particularly guilty of this design sin.
One reason I like Jinhao pens beyond the standard consistency is the more Western branding choices. The Wing Sung 698 has zero consistency when it comes to branding. As a matter of fact, this Wing Sung doesn’t even say Wing Sung on the pen, nor does it have a logo – just bizzare off putting slivers of chrome gaudiness, as can be seen below.
I find this particularly offensive because this is actually a great pen, with a ridiculously pleasant nib. The garish branding exists for reasons no one understands as they add cost to the manufacturing and yet damage the style of the pen to the point that in my eyes its worthless.
If they made it out of that lovely cream plastic with no finial and naked bands (except maybe a small “Wing Sung” laser etched perhaps?) it would be stylish and timeless, but instead we have as super shiny starburst finial, a clip with “LUCKY” stamped across it, a cap band with “WINGS [Chinese characters] 698” and some bizarre log on the piston which I presume is to indicate that we should pull and twist?
No idea.
I just don’t understand why manufacturers would spend time and money making a product worse. The mind boggles over the sheer stupidity of it all.
Full disclosure: I am making a pretty big leap insofar as assumptions go with regards to the nib.
This is (I am 99% sure) a Pilot nib made by Wing Sung on ex-Pilot machinery. This theory has been floating around on the internet for a while, but after using it and comparing it with a bunch of my steel Pilot nibs, I can attest that if my eyes were closed – I wouldn’t know the difference.
Superb feel, almost Sailor levels of glassiness and unlike buttery Jinhao’s, it still has that precise bite that F width Pilots have. I am beyond impressed and frankly for something like $20, it’s pretty damn awesome.
I didn’t bother flushing the pen before I used it because frankly, I shouldn’t have to. I will “clean/adjust” a pen if I need to and report back on Scribble Jot that it didn’t work out of the box. Beyond that, my experiences are always out of the box.
The feed itself is similar to what you would find on a Pilot Penmanship. I would wager that they are interchangeable and the performance is beyond reproach after a few seconds to let the ink saturate the feed.
A smidgen on the dry side, but then again this is on Midori paper and it’s pretty damn absorbent compared Tomoe River or Vellum paper – on those I would say it leans on the wet side of things. But beyond that, it’s super pleasant to use. The grip section is neutral and of decent size and thus the nib can do its thing without the pen getting in the way.
Just lovely to use – I don’t have a single criticism.
Should be noted that this is for taking notes/scribbling only, for doodling/artistic swathes of inky goodness, the feed won’t keep up. For writing, though – it’s a real workhorse.
So really what you have is a top shelf nib, a standard (decent) piston mechanism and a neutral body in a nice plastic that has been spoiled with cheap trimming that looks tacky in a way that only the Chinese can really excel at.
Kudos, especially as the manufacturing is sturdy and decently put together. Managing to make it look cheap is an achievement at this point!
On the note of manufacturing and tolerances, this is definitely above average with a piston that pops out with a satisfying click and very smooth threading. It came with a lil’ bottle of silicon lube which is a nice touch.
If you write reams on the daily, this is a decent high ink capacity option. Personally, I like to switch inks regularly so this isn’t much of a selling point, but that will always be a point of contention amongst us inky lot.
Oh and it has ink windows that barely work, which I guess puts it in the same league as its Western (Pelikan and Montblanc) contemporaries.
Balance is solid, not much to say about a plastic pen. It’s light and neutral, will handle exactly as you expect it would. Waxing poetics over that just seems silly and a waste of words.
So here we are. Piston filler gaudy Pilot for less than 25 dollars is my general conclusion.
I recommend the Wing Sung 698 as a workhorse that you don’t have to feel guilty about trashing, but beyond that the aesthetics are jarring. The cream plastic is lovely (in my opinion), but the thick chromed branding and obnoxious cap finial just puts me off and I don’t like having it out on my desk.
Make of that what you will.
So glad someone has loudly spoken the truth about the aesthetics of all too-many Chinese pens. I have often wondered if there is not a special department in Chinese factories which works on adding gaudy details to fountain pens and poor English to Chinese restaurant menus (and take-out boxes). Worst of all, I fear this is all done in the the mistaken idea that the results then conform with a Western ideal of “beauty” and “attractiveness”! Oh Please, someone, make them stop! Remove the gaudy golden embossing, phony filigree, and ugly details; leave the clean lines and simplicity.
Haha, yes, very much so. I have a lovely lacquered high-end Duke from China (Gold nib etc.) with a gorgeous Greek Key cloisonne pattern on the cap in a tasteful way, but as you can guess- weirdly gaudy clip. Breaks my heart and its a damn shame. I find Chinese Lacquer to be superb in feel and quality but its ruined the bulk of the time due to the obsession with weird gold bits and gems in the finial. Eugh.
My 698 has a problem with hard starts and skipping, which is frustrating. I’m using a basic Noodler’s Blue, which is a typically wet ink, and the nib/feed appear to be reasonably well aligned. You don’t seem to mention any issues like this – is it just me?
I can only speak for my own example, which has worked perfectly. I would remove the feed/nib unit, clean everything and put it back together. See if that plays nice. I have played with Noodler’s Blue and its not a super dry ink so I don’t think thats the issue.
If that doesn’t work, you can try to spread the tines (gently) to allow more ink. You can use a brass shim or take out the nib and pull the wings using your thumb. That will fix it but go steady. 😉
Thank you for that review. I had the demonstrator model and noticed several cracks were the section was screwed in. When I tried to unscrew it I noticed that I needed a lot of force so I assume the the section was assembled too tightly. The nib is indeed very nice but the feed only looks as if it was compatible to a Pilot one – with a Pilot nib it was to loose in a Prera, and with the Wing Sung nib it didn’t fit.
Interesting, so I guess it would need some “help” for the feed/nib to play nice with pilot alternatives. Maybe heatforming? Its a cheap enough pen for me to experiment on so I guess i’ll give it a shot next time I take this pen out to play.
I’m eager to hear about the results of your experiments!
As the owner of 2, I agree on all counts. My only comment would be that you bought the wrong model – buy the demonstrator model next time and I think your opinions on the aesthetics of the pen will change.