Hongdian N7 Gray Resin Piston Fountain Pen Rabbit Cap, Iridium Medium Nib Classic Pen Smooth Writing Pen with Metal Box

Beautiful pen. Very well made and great value. Recommend the Hongdian Blue Peacock Ink to go inside. My first piston filler pen. Writes smooth and feels great posted in your hand.

Update 07/05/23: The pen broke. During my 5th refill, I noticed the dial at the top of the pen went slack. Upon inspection, it seems the plastic screw within the pen shattered. I did not turn it aggressive while refilling, and used normal pressure. Just goes to show you get what you pay for. So while the appearance is great, it's not a pen built to last. Update: I've gotten used to the weight and I am here to say it's become my favorite pen. I like it even more than my Sailors, and it's smoother then their gold nibs too. I recently bought a new Sailor and this was like a "why not purchase" at the same time. This $32 pen outshines that $100 pen. Wow, amazing, amazing pen with an incredible nib for 32.44. It writes super smooth, and the extra fine nib on this is finer than Lamys. It makes no noise when writing, whereas my Lamys are all a bit scratchy at the Extra Fine level. My only complaint is that it's thick and heavy and makes my wrist hurt after only a page of writing. I do have small hands, so this might be a perfect 10/10 for someone who isn't petite.

I collect and use fountain pens of all types. I saw this pen and bought it due to its very affordable price point. I didn’t except much when I received the pen. I have bought Chinese pens in the past and was generally disappointed especially when it came to writing. Firstly, the pen is large and very ornate but looks good. It feels good in the hand too, not too heavy at all. I don’t know what the pen is made of other than metal but it is light and is not magnetic. I ordered an extra fine point. The nib writes well, is not scratchy, with some feedback, and is wet for a fine point. I was very pleased with the writing in general. You can write with the cap posted or not, either way it is balanced. It is a piston filled pen. There were no instructions with the pen but it did have a wrench to take the piston apart for cleaning—very nice touch. The only negative I could find is the clip—a little too stiff for my liking. Overall, at this price point, the pen is a must have for fountain pen enthusiasts. I would recommend this pen.

I recently bought two Hongdian pens, the N6 and the N7, both for about $35 US dollars. I primarily got them because they look beautiful and awesome, but also because Hongdian is the one Chinese brand I had not yet explored and wanted to dip my toes in , so to speak. The reason I got the N6 Black w/ Longblade nib is…well, quite frankly I was secretly wanting the new Estie Raven piston, but the $275 price tag turned me off, despite it being a gorgeous pen to look at. And so I saw the N6 in all black, a longblade nib (which is a really nice architect type grind, but a bit more expressive) and for just $35 and thought “Hm, well, I guess I can get a really cool black pen and not spend almost $300”. The N6 is very well made, a mixture of resin and metal so that it has a nice weighted balance that makes posting the pen pretty nice. Also, it comes with an ebonite feed and a little wrench for disassembly. It has a nice little ink window when the cap is removed, which I appreciate. The black longblade nib is really cool and reminds me of line variation I get from my Lamy 2K EF, which has a subtle architect grind-like nib, but the Longblade is a bit more expressive in its line variation and looks and feels great, very addictive. If I had one complaint, I wish it was a matte black finish, as opposed to the smooth black surface that it is. Especially with respect to the grip section, which is almost too smooth, and which I have a little bit of a hard time placing my finger on it; I end up holding the pen higher up, near or on the threads, which I don’t really like. Other than that, it’s a fantastic pen.

Ordered the Long Knife Nib version. Shipping was Free One-Day with Prime, which was great. The pen, visually, looked stunning. Felt solid and balanced in the hand. Packaging and presentation, all 5/5, lived up to the pictures and advertising. The insurmountable issue was the piston plunger was defective. The plunger, a hard plastic, was warped, forming an ineffective seal. When attempting to piston fill from the ink bottle, the pen only drew in a couple drops of ink, not enough to even be visible through the ink window. I cycled to attempt a fill multiple (3) times, between attempted fills turning the pen nib-up to purge air and let gravity help pull in ink. Some ink did make its way into the tank, but went right past the piston because of the defective seal and onto the threading of the piston end. Not only that, but ink was also starting to leak directly out of the seams around the ink window. Figured I had bad luck and opted for a free replacement, which had a similar issue with the piston (see picture). Because of the irreparably warped plastic end, this piston was unable to draw any ink whatsoever. The replacement did not leak from the seams around the ink window, but regardless, it was unusable as a piston fountain pen. It appears the piston assembly for this pen is having a bad manufacturing batch issue which renders the piston-filling operation completely non-functional. Furthermore, the piston assembly in the one I received appears different than in the advertising and videos (see picture). The piston end's threading and housing on mine appeared to be brass, rather than the white (plastic? steel?) material in any of the videos or pictures, visible through the translucent body. Normally, I'd attribute higher quality to the brass, and wouldn't complain, but both the original and replacement I received both were uniquely brass and uniquely had defective plungers. Perhaps they replaced one of the original components with a seemingly higher quality alternative which ended up having quality issues with the plastic portion. Regardless, I can only recommend strongly against buying this until they sort the broken batch out.

Smallish pen beautiful architect nib.... Piston filler. Black w/ red stripes. Ebonite feed. Works very good. Very good grind. Clean crisp lines. Ink flow is proper. Not very comfortable for long sessions. Grey ink is some Payne's grey and dark is tintype from BPi. The pen is light and comfortable but it's for smallish hands. For me it's size is functional and acceptable since the nib/feed combo is so sweet. I'll buy any HD pen with a sword nib paired with ebonite. Now if we could get HD to make an Ebonite full size pen.

So, I need to preface this review by saying that I have over four dozen fountain pens now. Writing with them is my happy place. However, when the first pen arrived, I could not get it to fill. I have several TWSBI piston fills, but this one confounded me. I was able to get just a few drops of ink in it to try out the nib, and that was it. Writing with the nib was as smooth as butter sliding over a hot skillet, and it laid down a smooth, heavy, wet line. I knew instantly that I had to have one that worked for my collection. So I packed it up, and back it went. The replacement has just arrived today. The new one glides over paper just as well. More importantly, however, the piston on it opened all the way up without any effort, and I understood that the original had a defect in the piston. This one was super-easy to fill, and held a lot of ink. I touched it to the page, and it just glided almost on its own. But let's get down to the things you want to know. 1) Smooth, wet, juicy writer that lays down a thick line with no effort whatsoever. 2) It does not skip at all when you flip it over to write from the top. It lays down a super-thin, clean line without really having any feedback even in this position. 3) Holding the nib at a 45 degree angle from its point really doesn't make much of a difference when trying to get a little calligraphy style in your cursive writing. But, honestly, there's not a lot of feedback there. It's an all around smooth writing experience no matter which way I've turned it (apart from the obvious angles that lay down no ink at all). 4) The pen posts. It posts very easily, and fits with the barrel over halfway up the cap. Read it's not just fitting at the tip. 5) When the cap is posted, the pen is nearly twice as heavy, if not more, than it is unposted. This pen already has a little heft to it, which is a statement all on its own. With the cap on, however, it is very TOP-HEAVY. I don't care, but it may make a difference to you, as it affects the way you write with it. 5) It's in my daily lineup now. I need to work out my wrist and forearm a little just to be able to use it as much as I write daily. However, Writing with it is pure joy... so, worth it. 10/10 recommend. Unless you don't like heavy pens. Also, this pen is very textured. If you're sensitive to textures, be aware that the texture is rough, but not sharp around the barrel, but smooth in the grip area. Depending on how you hold your pen, you may feel the texture but rub against the crease between your thumb and forefinger.

Overall, I am very impressed by the build quality and weight; however, the nib is where this pen fails. The medium nib skips on Rhodia paper and other high-quality papers that are used for fountain pens.