I bought this pen from Ebay for just over 8 USD shipped and it arrived today. I must thank Steve_the_Chief for introducing me to these pens!
It is a nice metallic grey-brown colour with gold accents and a pretty floral inlay. The same design is also available with silver accents, and some with a different brand name too (Yiren).
The pen came in a thin plastic sleeve, in a plain blue card box with a layer of foam. Box was shipped in a padded envelope. Although the pen could move freely in the box it had no marks or signs or wear.
Compared to my Parker Urban it is smaller and lighter, although still has a nice little weight to it. Nib is fine although I was expecting it to be medium. I don’t like fine nibs so I may change it. Writing with it, it is very smooth. I was a little surprised at this. It was not at all scratchy like the cheap plastic fountain pens aimed for school pupils.
Fit and finish is hard to judge it too harshly at this price point, especially given the Parker can retail around £30. It is good but far from flawless. There are no sharp points and tolerances are good, but if you are expecting perfection it will disappoint. A drop of silicone oil cured the squeaking as I unscrew the barrel to insert a cartridge. The threads aren’t perfectly smooth and there is some wear in the black finish, showing gold underneath.
A standard Parker Quink refill is just a bit too long to fit. I wanted to try the pen so I cut the top off a cartridge and sucked the ink into the special cartridge that came with the Yongsheng. It isn’t clearly visible now it has ink inside; the black rod can be turned to move a little plunger inside the cartridge, much like a syringe:
There is a tiny gap around the included cartridge. There was a little bit of glue which may have helped retain this cartridge, but I had to remove it for the Parker refill to fit. The glue was easy to remove.
I actually prefer more traditional styling that “presents” the nib but this Cayman design is interesting, almost like flower petals opening:
