****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
The pen is very pretty, and gives the appearance of an expensive pen; it is classy-looking. The vacuum mechanism is nice, and the ink capacity is wonderful.However, the pen writes more like a medium than an extra-fine. I have just spent the last 2 hrs writing with the pen on a variety of paper, and the only type of paper that gives me an "extra-fine" result has been Post-It Notes. I have tried an Apica notebook, a Black n' Red, Moleskin, a Midori notebook, and different types of printing/copy paper. All gave me the same result: lines that are thicker than extra-fine. The pen is also incredibly wet on such papers. BUT is the problem were the wetness of the pen then the lines on the Post-It Note would have also been thick and wet. I would like to mention that all of my pens are extra-fine. As a lefty, I only write with extra-fine. I have experience with extra-fine, and this pen is definitely not extra-fine.I want to like this pen. The Wing Sung 699 has many wonderful qualities, but it just doesn't write well enough for an extra-fine nib. The reviews I read online, before purchasing this pen, all complained about the nib being too dry. This is precisely why I ordered it. I needed a drier nib in an extra-fine.Maybe I got a pen that is malfunctioning?UPDATE, 4/3: even though the pen was giving me problems, I decided to try another of the same model in a different color, for the sake of comparison. Was the issue "user error" or the pen? I received another Wing Sung 699, in blue with an EF nib. I dip-tested the nib in Pilot blue-black. It wrote like a dream. I filled the pen, which was a breeze, and it continued to write perfectly: the fine line was amazing and the ink flow was wet enough to function, but not too wet to saturate the paper; PERFECT. After a few days, I decided to seek a replacement for the original Wing Sung 699, in brown translucent. It arrived today, and I immediately decided to test it with a Noodler's ink--which can be a challenging ink, that is normally too wet. I dip-tested the replacement and it wrote just as well as the blue 699. I inked it up, which also functioned flawlessly, and begin testing the pen. It wrote just as perfect as the blue 699.All in all, I recommend this pen. I am a lefty and I write small. I enjoy neither paper soaked in ink nor nibs that are larger than extra-fine. The blue 699 and the replacement brown translucent are PERFECT. The original pen that I ordered was definitely a lemon--as I compared it to the replacement, today, using the same ink, and it was too wet and the nib too broad for the pen to be a functioning EF. Furthermore, my original pen, for which this review was initially composed, stopped filling reliably. I don't know why, but everything else was malfunctioning, so I wasn't surprised.You might get a dud, but if you get one that functions you'll never want to use another fountain pen, again!
