We investigated why the Black Forest has become one of the most popular and successful Chinese fountain pens in recent years.
I'm a bit nervous. Partly because I'm not used to writing detailed descriptions of pens, and partly because I'm trying to write about a “Chinese” (plague! damnation!) pen in a company filled with true connoisseurs where the most interesting rarities are discussed from time to time.
I encountered the Hongdian 1850 relatively early while searching for some seemingly acceptable Chinese pens on AliExpress. It looked surprisingly good, was surprisingly cheap, and everyone who had bought one was raving about it, so I quickly ordered one. At worst, I would convert it into a spy pen with ammonia alcohol. As it turned out, there were a few thousand of us in the same boat. When it arrived, I liked it even more than it looked in the picture. Its shape, weight, and size appealed to me (I don't like either large or overly light pens... so it's not that simple).
It seemed completely unrealistic that one could get a metal-bodied, well-crafted pen that writes absolutely normally, not leaking waste here and there, along with a seemingly high-quality converter, for just 4000 forints including shipping. Well, it didn't seem completely unrealistic because by then I had also bought one-and-a-half dollar Lamy Safari clone pens, and those also came with a converter for that price, but still: it seemed like a very good deal, and to put it simply, it was love at first sight.
As it turned out, there were a few thousand of us in the same situation. Unfortunately, because of this, the company, seeing the huge interest and success (and probably the prices of raw materials also went up in the meantime), significantly raised its price. Nowadays, it can be bought on AliExpress for around 7000 forints. The good news is that after the initial black and silver-white, the model has also been released in various other colors (blue, dark blue, dark green, mustard yellow, pink, purple, and a kitschy „rainbow”). Although those are a bit more expensive. And by now, there is also a ballpoint pen version of it.
A few words about the factory
It took a while to find out that Hongdian (弘典, 弘 – wide, large, 典 – law; documents; old records) is just a brand name. The manufacturer is called Zhejiang Lishui Chuanren Pen Co., Ltd. It's not small, but in Chinese terms, it's not huge either. It was founded in 1997 with a registered capital of 3 million yuan (165 million forints) and currently has about 180 employees. (For comparison, the Shanghai Hero Group Co. Ltd., which consists of ten (!) stationery manufacturing companies, and only one of them is the Hero (英雄) fountain pen manufacturing company, has a registered capital of 9 billion (!!) forints and a balance sheet total in the hundreds of billions with 5500 employees. In comparison, Pelikan doesn't even have 2000 employees, and Japanese Pilot barely has 1000. Their revenue figures are also not comparable. For example, Pilot's is nearly 7 billion forints, but they also sell their pens at a higher price.)
A In the city of Lishui The functioning company is fundamentally specialized in OEM manufacturing, producing private label and promotional pens for companies and schools, and was also an OEM supplier for much more renowned manufacturers. The appearance with its own brand is also the result of conscious development, but now a confession: searching for the word Hongdian, or even browsing the models on the company's page, most of their pens are exactly that outrageously ugly, gaudy, kitschy Chinese fountain pen, which apparently has unlimited demand in that country, but I can't stand it.
And then suddenly the designer's hand fired.
We usually see this in other industries as well, for example, a bunch of car brands produce something improbably good (Kia Ceed, Hyundai i20) once in their lifetime, compared to the given price category. This is such a pen. Let's not get it wrong, this is a pen made of metal, with a steel nib, not particularly better, so it won't be a competitor to the gold-nibbed Pelikans, the LAMY 2000, or the Pilot Capless. At the same time, if we divide the joy and pleasure it causes per unit of time by its price, it will certainly finish in the top ranks, at least that's what happened to me. For that amount of money, you can buy an ugly, plastic student fountain pen in Hungary, not a „Harcimarci” looking coolness.
However, the designers also suspected that not everyone longs for military-style pens, so from the very first moment, it was available in a silver-white version, under the name „Birch Forest.” The other models were given names like „Blue Forest,” „Pink Forest,” and similar.
Dimensions
After so much chatter, let's get to the point of what this pen is. The original black Hongdian 1850 „Black Forest” is a fountain pen made of steel, „metal vaporized” black (physical vapor deposition, abbreviated as PVD), interestingly, the steel nib is also colored black.
The intentionally designed „tactical fountain pen” („Batman pen,” as someone called it) is undeniable, but the fact is that regardless of military interest, this is indeed one of the few fountain pens that can be confidently taken not only out of the office but also for hiking or a trip around the world. An Amazon reviewer mentioned that they no longer remember how many times they dropped the pen and of course, it has no damage, the PVD surface has worn a bit and the steel is showing through.
In terms of feel, size, and weight, it resembles the Rotring 600 or the metal-bodied version of the Uni Kuru Toga (okay, a bit heavier), meaning this is not a large pen, in fact, it is specifically slim, yet has a noticeable weight. For those interested in the exact numbers, it is 138 mm long, 11 mm wide, and weighs 31 grams. I measured it on the kitchen scale, and it really is that much.
Obviously, there will be some who are deterred by this whole appearance, but it seems there are many more who are not: by now, there are over 12,000 reviews on Amazon alone, with an average above 4.5. I really like it, but I also recoil from huge fountain pens. For example, my favorite is the distinctly thin (9.8 mm wide) Pilot Cavalier.
The cap is not screw-on, but it is precisely tight, surprisingly pleasant to take off and put on. I practically write with it almost exclusively with the cap on (that's how it feels good), but in reality, it is completely pleasant without it as well, although others say it is a bit heavy at the back without it. Unfortunately, the clip is also very tight, making it difficult to put in a shirt pocket, and it hardly does it any good. On the other hand, it doesn't fall out when upside down or while rafting, although it's worth considering how many people hang upside down or go rafting in a white shirt. I mean with a fountain pen.
The neck of the pen thins a bit too quickly for my huge hands, it's already quite thin at the tip, so I might not use this to take notes in a university lecture, but the way I use it – just a few lines at a time, max. half a page – there's no problem with that. And I can easily hold it a bit higher, where it's wider.
The pen tip
Let's quickly get through the official data: the pen theoretically exists with four types of nibs, EF (0.4 mm), F (0.5 mm), M (0.7 mm), and a bent, „fude” (brush) nib for writing Chinese characters. In practice, when I ordered (to Japan), I always only saw that they actually send the pens with the nibs labeled as F and M, which are really EF and F.
The nib is made of steel, colored on the original black (and one blue) version, while the others are gray-gold two-tone. I went through quite a big wave with it. At first, I simply hated that it was hard. When God gives with one hand (a damn good-looking pen), he takes away with the other (too hard steel nib). However, I ended up buying more, in several installments, quite a lot of this pen, and it turned out that 1. like with every Chinese pen, there is variation in quality (some barely flowed, some flowed quite well), and 2. as time goes on, the quality becomes more consistently good. By now, you practically don't have to worry about getting a really cheap pen, and if you do, it just needs a tiny bit of polishing.
However, if someone is used to soft gold nibs, this is incredibly hard in comparison, but it won't be a big surprise for people trained on Lamy Safaris, Pilot Kakuno, and similar pens. In return, you can confidently press it onto the paper, it won't get offended. And relatively longer, even keeping the pen open for minutes, it writes without any issues afterward. If someone wants to remove the nib, they shouldn't yank it, it needs to be twisted.
If the factory nib doesn't work at all, it can theoretically be replaced with another #5 nib, but the pen is thin, so you need to look for a thin nib. I bought #5 nibs for another reason (to try them in a Jinhao x750), but the actual replacement is still pending: it turned out that the original nibs were completely usable, both for the x750 and the Black Forest.
Cartridge and converter
The Black Forest fountain pen comes with a converter by default, which is very similar in size to the „universal” cartridge, but is actually a bit larger. I learned the hard way that in China, there are apparently two sizes of „universal” cartridges, the 2.8 mm diameter one that is common in Europe, which the Chinese use for their plastic-bodied pens, and the 3.2 mm one used in metal-bodied pens.
Not only Hongdian, but also a 3.2 mm cartridge is needed for the metal-bodied Wing Sung and other pens. It's advisable to pay attention to this, although in practice, I strongly doubt that anyone would want to mess around with cartridges, the converter is good, comfortable, and relatively large.
Hongdian 1850 Black Forest: the verdict
I may have talked too much about a relatively cheap Chinese fountain pen, and – unless someone buys all the existing colors – I wouldn't specifically recommend it for collecting. At the same time, if someone is looking for a fountain pen for everyday use, especially in a place where it can receive more serious „training” – say in a factory, or really for a trip – it's hard to find something more durable than this (although others have started to copy the idea, not too badly).
The Hongdian 1850 Black Forest fountain pen is specifically suitable for people with slightly rougher hands or those accustomed to ballpoint pens, even as a first fountain pen instead of some plastic toy, and thinking it over, also for children (the pen is practically indestructible except for the nib, which is sold separately, and since it is a screw type, it is impossible to insert it incorrectly).
Did you find it interesting?
Read Szabolcs further writings also in the Budapest Pen Show community magazine!
Photos: Csaba Kiss
