czxwyst601 Steel Cap Vacumatic Fountain Pen (army green with ink window)

Bought this on a whim... It's a really nice pen... Especially the filler. I have now used this for several months and it is my favorite pen for writing letters. It is very smooth and I have had no problems with the feed or nib. I REALLY like this little guy. As I write, the line is clear, no skips, and it's perfect in laying down ink. I really didn't think this would be a very good pen when I purchased it, but this one and and the Pilot Prera are now my letter writing pens.

I have too many pens, everything from the old cheap 10-for-$10 Hero 616s to a pair of vintage Mont Blancs. I'm particularly a fan of interesting filling systems, demonstrators, and Parker 51s. This hits all three, without resorting to selling your house for an actual 51 Vac demonstrator.I've owned a few Wing Sung Sheaffer knockoffs over the years to keep knockabout, keep in your bag pens, and honestly, they were atrocious, but at least they wrote, and I didn't care if they inevitably got lost, dropped, or stolen. Last year, I found the Wing Sung 618, an odd hybrid of the P51 aesthetic with the user-serviceable design stolen from TWSBI, and picked up a few. The nibs were hit or miss, but the workmanship was superb for the price, and easy to clean out--perfect for my risky inks like pigment or sparkly inks, or the bottles of Baystate Blue everyone keeps dumping on me.So when I saw this, I was pretty jazzed. It gets rid of the weird Platinum-like cap that was prone to slipping, and swaps a piston for a vacumatic filler. Same nib, more or less. Ordered it, two hours later it was in my hands, and a couple hours of smoothing the nib and testing it out, I'm here writing this review.Like the 618 and the TWSBIs its modeled after, its completely disassemble-able for cleaning or lubrication. Comes with a small tube of silicone. Good luck finding individual parts, but you likely won't need them unless you want to tear it apart and are incredibly clumsy. Just buy a new one. The filler uses a piston, unlike the prototype parker's tear-prone rubber diaphragm. Big points for reliability. The plastic, whatever its composition, feels solid. Not like a Lamy 2000, but not a glorified Bic.The nib is nothing special, but no slouch like some others at this price point. It's fairly smooth, albeit dry, out of the box. Worth getting some mylar and smoothing it out. As always, wash out the innards before inking up or you might get flow problems. Writes akin to a western EF.Definitely a new favorite. Like I said, I like weird inks that I'm loathe to put in nicer pens, but other cheapies from (ahem) certain ink makers tend not to be up to the task. If this is anything like the other new Wing Sungs, I know I can throw this in my bag and forget about it for days on end and it'll still write when I fish it out. Get one, and you'll be mesmerized filling it up.

Feels solid. Smooth edges. A lot like a Parker 51. The "jewel" on the cap is a pretty close approximation of the 51. Might be closer than I realize given that the cap jewels on the 51s I've had were 60 years old by the time I saw them. I know well that pens can differ from sample to sample, but this one is a smooth, wet writer. I like it a lot. Fine line, not medium, not extra-fine. Comparing directly to a Hero 616, I don't care all that much about the difference in filling systems, but head to toe, this one has a much higher quality and feel.

I was excited at first -- the pen worked pretty well. Nice form factor. But it's now a few months down the line, and it's gone dead for the most part. The inconsistent feed/nib combo is beyond my patience level. Pros: light weight, good styling, the filling system works with a big capacity, nib is smooth enough and is fine/extra-fine (not my preference usually, but it's super work-friendly for me). Does it look nicer than a Pilot Metro in this price range? Meh. Does it work better than a Pilot Metro? Meh. Nice find for the fountain enthusiast looking for variety or something to tinker with. BUT, would not recommend for a first time fountain pen user. IMO, this pen feels a little more like a novelty than a workhorse EDC pen.Note: if you take the pen apart, it takes a lot of trial and error to realign the nib with barrel opening so plan accordingly.