Hero 892 Fountain Pen with Red Body

 

Hero 892 Fountain Pen was another pick by my cousin in the stationery store, the affordable 20 RMB (but it was the most expensive Hero pen at the store though, the rest are all around 5 yuans) pen has a slender cigar shaped body that's made of aluminum and painted red. The pen is quite weighty, even thought it rests securely in my grip, it feels slightly uncomfortable after a period of use.

Now here comes the complaints - The first few times, the lid snap closed somewhat securely, maybe with a bit of slipping...Afterward, the spinning motion became more and more pronounced and finally, it stopped shutting altogether and the plastic insert comes off (on the grip of the pen) every time I open it.

I guess this should work as a desk fountain pen or I can tape it over? The clip on the lid is secure, basically too hard and tight to be remotely user-friendly. And oh, I find the gray band (with the model number and the dove) right in the middle of the pen, pretty ugly.

The pen comes with a sliding piston movement that sucks up mostly air (doesn't work either by pumping directly with the converter or have it attached to the pen), so I ended up filling it using needle/syringe. The ink reservoir is miniscule, as the whole fill only lasted me for 4 pages of filled binder paper. 

The conical grip is made of a heavier metal compared to the body (which I have mentioned, is already a little heavy for my liking) and comes with three equally-spaced shaved off areas to either guide your hand/ provide a more secure grip. I like it how they are not forcing you to hold the pen a certain way (Safari, I am talking to you) with highly specific allocated areas of each finger.

The nib is hooded and appears to be in (Asian) medium size (broader than Pilot medium but finer than Lamy fine nib). It's really smooth with most ink-paper combination and it literally skates on paper with more lubricating ink (Noodler's Bulletproof Black).

 Here is a writing sample of Hero 892 Fountain Pen with J.Herbin Vert Olive (I am not sure if it's an alright ink or that I hate it...It looks so much like pickle juice). Even thought it writes smoothly, the nib/feed section is terribly inconsistent that once a while it just spew out a pool of ink on the paper (the pool is guaranteed if you rest the nib on the paper for more than 10 second, not knowing what to write). It also dries out rather quickly when you 1. Rest the pen uncapped for a few minutes while filling out data sheet of the sort. 2. Have it capped (remember it doesn't shut) for a day or two...

Of course, the ink spewing also happens when I am not using the pen...So, despite the nice smooth nib, I really have no use of a ink sprinkler that wouldn't even shut properly.