Porcelain

"Norman, Norman, Norman. Your pens are lovely and you are a lovelier than all of them put together. First, the pen is for my Grandnephew, not my child. Sorry I didn’t make that clear. I have no children but am lucky enough to have Oliver and his brother. I plan on sharing your art and products with all who I think might be interested. Oliver’s little brother Sawyer will likely be the next. I’m 67 years old, and college friends still recognize my cards and letters because they are written with fountain pens. Obviously fountain pens have been a great part of my life for nearly all my life, and I expect to share the joy with as many younger as I can. Yours have been the most interesting and best quality I have ever found. Until I found you, I was only buying fountain pens. That you took the cost and care to send pens you thought might fit my grandnewphew's hand at age 12, without my asking, is just stunning. I will never buy a fountain pen from another again. Your products are stunning, but your care and appreciation for the writer who holds the pens and the art of using them cannot be trumpeted enough. Thank you so much."
S. P., Santa Maria, CA

"Norman, I received my three pens, my three inks and the pen case. Thanks so much! I got home from work late last night after teaching my evening class to find the package and couldn't wait till morning to open the box and flush the pens out. All three pens are just delightful, so whimsical and pretty. And all three work perfectly. The white porcelain horse (filled with the Supershow violet) is perhaps my favorite of the three. It writes so smoothly and isn't too heavy. I hadn't used Private Reserve inks before and love the wide-mouthed jars and the deeply saturated and wet inks, fun colors for fun pens. The silky little terra cotta pen case with your note and the gold seal made the whole package special. That pearl windows still calls out to me, as well as many other pens on your site. Thanks for the great pens and the great service."
K, S., Ijamsville, MD

"Norman, I got the pens last week! Thank you so much! The nib is wonderfully smooth and the pen is a lovely addition to my fiance's collection (it was his birthday gift). I won't hesitate to order from you again.

Best,

E. M., Huntersville, NC

"Me again. Just received my porcelain dragon pen, gassed it up and it writes like a dream, smooth with nary a skip. I like the slightly heftier weight of it too, fits my hand nicely. Thanks for a very nice, affordable product."
S. C., Prescott, AZ

"I got some compliments on my Jinhao porcelain sailboat pen when I took it to a recent book-signing; one person even thought I'd borrowed it from her friend that had just returned from Burma! It's a great correspondence pen, too. Thanks again for such great products and service!"
Christopher N. Phillips

"Just a note to let you know the Dragon pens arrived today safe and sound! They are beautiful! One is to be a gift, but the one for myself was rinsed out and filled right away! Even though they are porcelain, they feel nice in the hand if you use them cap unposted. It writes with a super smooth wet line. Thanks so much for inspecting the nibs before selling them. I can give my gift pen with confidence!"
T. C., Tecumseh, Canada

The Jinhao Porcelain series features full-sized pens, measuring 5-3/8" capped, 6-3/4" posted and 4-7/8" with cap held aside.

Although I plan on offering additional artwork in the future, the first two entries are the Dragon and the Sailboat.

The Dragon is of course synonymous with China (in Chinese, the people's name for themselves roughly translates as 'offspring of the dragon'), and the association goes back thousands of years. The barrel depicts a classic dragon, while the cap shows the dragon name in ancient Chinese characters or script.

The Sailboat depicts, well, a sailing vessel

on the barrel. The cap has a very famous Chinese poem about 'smooth sailing', to simplify the content greatly.

The Horse come from a very famous Chinese painting of '8 Horses', referenced on the cap in characters.

The Bamboo is quite striking, and as with the Horse version just above, has a famous poem associated with it on its cap.

The newest addition to the porcelain is the Shrimp. I think this qualifies as the oxymoron, 'Jumbo Shrimp'.

The pen cap has a black 'jewel', and the cap band is engraved with 'Jinhao' and '950', for the pen model. The clip sports the Jinhao chariot logo within a shield, representative of the terracotta warriors of Xi'an.

I would rate the nib as a western light-medium, falling between a typical western fine and medium.

Unscrewing the all-metal threads between the section and barrel displays the piston converter for bottled ink. It will also take International-style cartridges, such as those from Private Reserve.

As with all new pens, I recommend to run a dilute solution of dishwashing soap (two or three drops to a small bowl of water) through a new pen a few times, followed by water only. Step one is effective at removing manufacturing oils that can tend to make the ink less than enthusiastic in heading from the converter/filler to the nib, and step two removes the traces of the detergent you've used...which tends to have the opposite, diuretic effect.

IMPORTANT SERVICE NOTE: Every nib that ships from His Nibs is closely examined under high magnification and tuned or adjusted if needed. About 85% of modern nibs need some adjustment out-of-the-box from the manufacturer for an optimal writing experience. Most commonly, the tines of the nib are misaligned -- which would cause scratchiness at the minimum; the slit between the tines is partially or fully closed -- which would starve the nib of ink and at best cause skipping; or the slit between the tines is too wide -- which will either again cause skipping, or conversely, flooding. There are other factors -- such as separation of the nib from the feed -- that are inspected and repaired before any pen leaves the Palace.

The only 100% guarantee of course comes when the pen is actually filled with ink and written with for the first time, but our pre-shipping inspections and tunings have eliminated 99.99999 (my finger is getting tired) of the frustrations that a customer experiences when first using a new fountain pen. Although this can be time-consuming on occasion, it affords our customers a much more pleasant experience when receiving a fountain pen from His Nibs -- and saves us the frustration of dealing with returns!