For anyone not familiar with the Wing Sung 698; it’s a very nice Chinese piston filler which until recently was only available with a fine nib but now it is available with a medium nib. Which for those of us that prefer medium nibs, like me, is great news because most Chinese pens still ship with a fine or a fine nib. However, this left me with a dilemma; now that I owned 698’s with medium nibs I wanted to upgrade my other 698’s with fine nibs to medium nibs.
It’s relatively easy to obtain a generic medium (usually listed as 0.7mm) nib from China but a bit more difficult to buy original Wing Sung nibs, happily eBay seller Bobby (office_supplies_pen) sells a pack of three with two replacement feeds; I ordered a pack and less than two weeks later I was ready to swap my nibs. One thing to remember is Wing Sung nibs do not seem to come with their size stamped on them e.g. a medium nib does not have an ‘M’ stamped on it so double check before you buy and buy off a reputable seller, not everyone is as good as Bobby.
I know how to dismantle the 698 for cleaning but decided to look up nib swapping and found very little information, hence this post. If you’ve never done this, don’t panic, with this pen it’s really easy.
For dismantling there are two basic options:
Option 1 – unscrew and remove the nib section and from there gently pull out the nib and feed and you are good to go. This is the best option if you want to give your 698 a thorough clean and re-lubricate the washer at the end of the section.
Option 2 – take a firm hold on your 698 and gently pull the nib and feed from the nib section.
After you have chosen Option 1 or 2 the process is basically the same.
Next remove the nib from the feed and place to one side.
Take your replacement nib and place it on the feed and align it; remember these nibs are folded under at the ‘blunt’ end to help them fit correctly and stop them moving rather like Lamy nibs.
Once you have done this hold the nib and the feed and carefully re-insert into the nib section. To ensure it is well seated I placed my thumb and forefinger on the shoulders of the nib and carefully applied pressure until I was confident it was tightly re-seated.
After that all you need to do is (reassemble if you chose Option 1) reload your pen and you are all set, so for $8.70 USD and a few minutes work I was able to upgrade my pens to a nib size I prefer; it really was that easy.
For what little this cost it was worth doing both as a learning exercise and to improve my pens. I am so pleased with the results that I have ordered more replacement nibs, from Bobby, for my PenBBS pens.
Disclaimer: The nibs and feeds were purchased with my own funds at retail price. The opinions expressed in this review are my own; and I am not connected with either the retailers or manufacturers in any way.
The Indian Marmalade Company 