Guess who is back with more fountain pens! 🫂 Hello friends, welcome to another blog post about me rambling about my love for fountain pens. Thank you for being here, I highly appreciate it. Today, I am bringing you yet another favourite of mine from the Jinhao brand with all its glory and beauty. We will dive into Jinhao 100, also known as Centennial or Parker Duofold dupe.
I have mentioned my love for Jinhao in my first-ever pen-demonium post. I wanted to continue with the same brand with a different model, and I have mixed feelings about this pen, mainly because of my nib selection, because I am quite sure that I made a mistake going to a smaller size with this one. Let me get into them in detail: Jinhao Centennial is a “dupe” for famous Parker Duofold fountain pens, they are quite similar from the nib size to the resin body; had a chance to hold both of them, and quality-wise, the outside is fairly similar to each other. It has a classic converter that Jinhao puts all in their pens, not the highest quality, however since it does the job, we do not mention it too much. It is not a click pen, you have to screw and unscrew each time you wish to use it, however, if you are a person like me and write continuously for long periods, it really means nothing. I rather have screw caps to prevent unwanted accidents anyways.
It is on the thicker side, exactly like Parker Duofold and this thickness in the body doesn’t really bother you because the neck of the pen is fairly comfortable to hold. Depending on what you would like at your hand while writing (I lean towards thinner pens most of the time), it is soft thanks to its resin body and gives you these fancy feels as you use it. I often feel like an important author with my fat, heavy pens haha. They come in two clips: a ball-pointed clip and an arrow-pointed clip. Mine have arrow clips, which I find more aesthetic than the balls with the logo on top. All the designs in the selection are phenomenal, they have a deeply textured look while being flawlessly smooth, do not get scratched easily and the gold lea doesn’t lift as long as you take care of it well. It has good quality, may not be the most prestigious option we have, but definitely the quality is higher than its price.
The main reason that left me conflicted regarding this pen is actually my selection of the nib size. I use EF and F nibs all the time, and since I enjoyed Jinhao 82’s F nib very much, for this fancier pen, I thought I could get EF without any issue and the writing would be as smooth. While it is not horrible on certain papers, for standard notebooks I have (100 GSM at most) it scratches the paper a lot, I often feel like it drags my hand as I write. I will get the nib slightly cut by a professional, and it may end up being something between F and M by the end, however, I rather have a smooth writing experience than a scratchy, dragging writing experience. When I first got it and filled it with Ferris Wheel Press’ Radiant Rosewing (a beautiful pale pink with gold glitter), I saw that the ink came to the tip significantly slower than my other pens, which I assume the nib length had something to do with it. I started writing with it and my husband came, enjoyed the hold of the pen and asked for one, thus, I had an opportunity to try M nib thanks to him. M definitely writes smoother and juicier; it is not tiring you out as you write with it. I am excited to get mine cut a little, I really like this pen and I wish to use it often, so I need smoother writing to not go insane.
Overall, I do believe that these pens are beautiful, the quality is on point and the designs are gorgeous. I suggest my tiny writers choose F nib instead of EF since it is scratchy and requires extra work. Other than that, I highly suggest these! 🌸
Luster of Books 