The Jinhao 997 fountain pen looks like a shark and costs $4 what else do you want
finally an excuse to feature my signed The Meg poster on this blog
Longtime readers will know that while this is officially a weird pen blog, it is also sometimes a blog about aging, sometimes a blog about European symphonic metal, and virtually always a blog about sharks.
This is a shark post. We will be discussing the Jinhao 997, which is The Meg of pens.
Now, how much do I love The Meg?
Well, you know how you go to a charity auction for work and you bid on something lame like a ski weekend or a dinner with some Boring Businessface which you don’t really want but you feel like you have to bid on because it’s for a good cause and then you’re like ugh why even bother?
Here’s why: because sometimes instead of that stuff there is a poster of The Meg signed by the director that you want so badly you would fight someone for it.
When I saw this, I texted my wife to ask for some guidance on how high I could bid. It went something like this:
Me: There is a poster of The Meg here, signed by the director. How much can I bid on it?
Me: Before you answer, you should know that it says “Pleased to eat you”
Wife: I was going to say use your judgment, but now that I know what it says do whatever it takes
It is now in our sitting room so we can point it out to everyone who comes to our house.
Why? Because it’s a bonkers, over-the-top movie about a giant shark where they let Jason Statham just be his character from Spy the entire time. Does he punch a shark in the face? Probably! You either immediately recognize that as massively fun or you know it’s not for you—delving into the technical merits just ruins it.
This is, I think, also the right way to understand the Jinhao 997.
For example, this pen has a translucent triangular grip that is more pronounced than the Kaweco Perkeo but not as much as the Lamy Safari. I generally hate these grips but it’s mild enough to be passable for me.
It also has a hooded extra fine nib and it writes pretty well. One of mine leaked out of the nib when I tried to turn it into an eyedropper pen, but worked fine when I went back to the converter.
But back to my point: WHO CARES. None of that matters.
BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE A SHARK AND IT COSTS $4.
PLUS if you put a bright red ink in it you can pretend it just ate something.
AND if you are willing to spend $8 you can get two and pretend they are fighting.
In conclusion: it looks like a shark.
Do you really need a long review discussing whether this one is a workhorse pen? No. “It looks like a shark” either sells you or turns you off entirely; anything else is just an excuse to tell that story about my Meg poster.
You can buy it from Goulet for about $4 or from a jillion people on Amazon and Etsy, and if you’re the kind of person who reads this blog you’re probably already in another tab doing that right now.
The gifs did it for me. But in all seriousness, I have the white one, I call it the great white shark, and it’s inked with Red Dragon because it looks more like blood than Oxblood, and if you think I didn’t paint the eyes red with that ink you’re wrong.
Because shark.