It’s a modern pen today, the Wing Sung 3013. It is described as a vacuum filler. Actually it’s a plunger filler, along the lines of the Onoto. It doesn’t fill the barrel completely on the downstroke and repeating the process draws no more ink but the action is smooth and most people would be quite satisfied with the small lake of ink in the barrel.

It’s a large pen at 14.5 cm capped and it’s medium heavy at 33 g. For comparison the Mentmore Autoflow is 19 g and it’s far from being the lightest vintage pen. The 3013 doesn’t post securely but if it did it would be inconveniently long anyway. Unposted it’s long enough. It is quite back-heavy and that could be tiring in an extended writing session.

It is transparent, of course. The blue is Baystate Blue. The nib is excellent as is the ink-flow. My only complaint about the nib – and it’s a minor one – is that it’s supposed to be EF but it’s fine – an unusual problem with an oriental pen. I note that several people have complained about the nib in reviews. Perhaps I have been fortunate.  There is a large step from barrel to threads to section but it did not interfere with my grip.

The shape is rather odd, with the widening of the barrel near the section. There are faceted areas at the top of the cap and the tail of the barrel. There is quite a bit of metal in this pen. Chinese plastic, especially transparent plastic, is always suspect because of the problem of cracking. Time will tell. Though the design is not entirely aesthetically pleasing it is well implemented. Everything fits as it should and this is a pen that can easily be fully disassembled.

The pen is very cheap. It’s more than decent value for money, I would say. It will never be my favourite pen because of the weight distribution and the odd design but I like it and will use it.