Lanxivi Duke 551 Confucius Fude Nib Fountain Pen Bent Nib Natural Bamboo Medium to Broad Art Handwriting Drawing Calligraphy Pen

The pen is really hefty and perfect for my husband. He likes the weight of the pen and the design of the nib gives it the ability to vary your handwriting. A great gift for someone who loves different pens.

This pen is not for the feint hearted, it is a big and heavy pen. I have now had the pen for a couple of months, it's becoming more familiar with each use, and I'm still learning all its possibilities. I'm very impressed with the pen. I struggle to find any negatives.The 551 has been around for several years (earliest review 2012) and is available in a couple of variations so be careful where you buy it. This later version has resolved many of the earlier issues. My pen is perfect, so here are the things to look out for: screw on cap, extra detail on the sleeve of Confucius, and a large Duke converter. I was only interested in the Fude nib so didn't buy it with a box. If you can afford it, I recommend buying the box as well.I had seen many reviews before I bought the pen and almost all come with high commendation particularly from other artists. It's a personal choice if you prefer light or heavier pens for art, personally the heavier pens gives me a steadier line and also works well with calligraphy.The Fude nib was not designed for normal cursive writing but it still handles it well when writing at a higher angle. Writing with the nib upside down also produces a consistent smooth XF line. The Fude nib is meant to be used for Asian characters so it is capable of replicating brush strokes. It does this well and is great for art since it gives lots of line variation and expression when drawing . This nib has three tines (2 slits) to allow more ink flow and also has an overfeed which collects more ink and drives it to the nib. When used as a dip pen with pigment inks, the overfeed holds quite a lot of ink. The ink flow with this nib is capable of drawing fast. This is my first Fude nib and lucky for me it appears to be give the widest line of any Fude nib. I suspect I would be disappointed had I bought any other Fude nib.Duke has done a nice job on the finish of the pen, especially the bamboo. I like the finish on my Duke 552 and the finish on the 551 is just as impressive, it looks good and feels good. The cap posts securely but I find the balance of the pen is perfect without posting.I enjoy the pen when used for writing, but much more so for drawing and calligraphy.

This pen immediately feels well made. The cap threads on securely and it has a nice weight to it. The converter is about the standard, I wish it was a little beefier but none of them are for any pen I've tried. At first this pen felt well but wrote only ok. I found it skipping enough to annoy me and ultimately put it down for a bit to take a break. Upon return and reinking with different ink it still had a bur of a skipping problem. It might be that I write too fast. Either way. So I carefully pulled the tines apart. This broad fude nib is a triple tine nib. This means I could add just a hair if separation gently with my fingers to each side tine. I also polished the nib on some 15000 grit paper just for kicks. Now that I have it where I want it, it writes as great as it feels. Great pen for the buck, be aware you might have to do the slightest tuning. Recommended for sure.

Duke 551 Confucius Fude Nib Fountain Pen Bent Nib Nature Bamboo Medium to Broad Art Handwriting Drawing Calligraphy PenThis is a very fine pen. The construction is very solid. It is a large and very heavy pen. Posting the pen is quite easy, however I would never do that. The pen is already heavy and the weight and balance un-posted works well for me. I was able to balance the pen in my hand and it felt like an extension of my fingers (very nice feel). Once I posted the pen, the balance was off (back heavy) and I could not control the pen.Then pen has some beautiful markings on the cap and the body is designed nicely in bamboo. My en is a twist cap.The selling point of this pen is the nib. The "Fude" nib means that it's bent and this allows for a wide range of line variation. The pen has 2 slits and 3 tines and one tab that collect an enormous amount of ink and helps the ink flow in large quantities. This pen is a wet juicy writer. In fact you will have to wait a long time for the ink to dry, especially if you are using the pen for coloring or drawing.The pen can be used as a dip pen or you can use the included converter. Be aware, if you travel with this pen, bring plenty of extra ink. I use it primarily as a dip pen when I'm writing at my desk. If you use the converter, you will be filling it constantly.There is a steep learning curve for me using this pen as the line variation depends on how you hold it. I do not draw but I write with sharp curt lines. But I get tons of character in my writing. The pen is very expressive, very striking and quite unique for my fast writing style.I think the pen is a great value for it's price and it's function. The only thing to worry about is the ik taking so long to dry. If you are rushing, you will have a mess.

heavy-ish, but kind of balanced. Well made, great smoothness of the nib, and wet flow. Its a triple splined nib, yet solid, not soft, but so easy to lay down a line, you kind of don't notice it. I did, however, realize that i do not like fude nibs, the speed i write doesn't allow for many variations in line thickness, but this pen is like a paint brush, so you either paint with it, literally, or you take time to write at a higher angle, which lefties and oddies do, lol. But yeah, i like it so much that i am keeping it and am going to grind it into a broad stub nib. I think there are versions of this with a regular nib, but honestly, will it be as wet? The nib unit screws out, i will see and research if the screw out nib can be replaced with a similar or cheaper nib unit from another pen. I will update this asap. Today is December 8th, 2023.

Awkwardly large and heavy. Once cap is posted, it's cumbersome.