G. Crown
Sanhe

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"Norman, the Sanhe meets every expectation -- this is an obnoxiously large pen! I look forward to never losing it on my desk as I do my others . Thanks again for the sterling service!"
R. N., Mountain View, CA
 

G. Crown Sanhe    $25.00    Sold out in record time! (Please email to go on the waiting list)

These out-of-production Sanhe (so it says on the clip) pens were found by one of my buyers in China, and since neither he nor I had ever heard that name before, I considered just calling it the Brass Behemoth. (Update: My Chinese wife informed me that this name translates as Landscape....San means mountain, and He means river. I always ask her to translate Chinese characters...now I've learned my lesson with Pinyin translations!)

This is one large pen. Measuring a cool 6" capped, it comes in at a staggering 7" posted. As it weighs about 1/4 lb., I wouldn't recommend posting the cap if you value keeping your forearm intact.

There aren't many pens that can make the German Dreadnaught, the Montblanc 149, look puny. As you can see....mission accomplished.

Manufactured by the G. Crown company of China -- which I have heard of -- these are NOS (new, old stock) pens. Did I mention that they're large? This is the kind of writer that you can feel confident going into a corporate who-has-the-biggest-pen battle, and emerge victorious. Come to think of it, this is the kind of hunk of metal that you can feel confident of emerging victorious in a typical street fight.

It's all-brass construction makes for a nice heft while writing -- sans cap! -- and the only marking on the pen body itself is the aforementioned Sanhe, written in script on the clip. Further decoration is left to the bevels around the cap top, as well as in the crown of the cap and bottom of the barrel.

The nib, on the other hand, is quite busy. It's engraved with the Crown logo, as well as 'G Crown' and '22KGP' -- meaning it's a steel nib with 22K gold plating. I'd rate the nib as a western fine.

Unscrewing the all-metal fittings between section and barrel reveals a permanent, pump-style filler. This is not removable for cartridges.

Now, for the fine print. Like the Bookworm pen, the reason that I've priced these pens at such a low price is that not one of them arrived in pristine condition. With such a large brass body, all of them have minor scratches, small imperfections in the finish or a ding or two in the metal. I won't sell any of the egregious ones -- I received fewer than a dozen all told -- but the ones I'm offering here are being sold as is. You have to look carefully to find what I'm describing, but these imperfections are there. I considered sending all of them back to China, but they make such a statement (did I mention that they're big?), that I decided to offer them at a reduced price prior to doing so.

IMPORTANT SERVICE NOTE: Every nib that ships from His Nibs is closely examined under high magnification and tuned or adjusted if needed. About 85% of modern nibs need some adjustment out-of-the-box from the manufacturer for an optimal writing experience. Most commonly, the tines of the nib are misaligned -- which would cause scratchiness at the minimum; the slit between the tines is partially or fully closed -- which would starve the nib of ink and at best cause skipping; or the slit between the tines is too wide -- which will either again cause skipping, or conversely, flooding. There are other factors  -- such as separation of the nib from the feed -- that are inspected and repaired before any pen leaves the Palace.

The only 100% guarantee of course comes when the pen is actually filled with ink and written with for the first time, but our pre-shipping inspections and tunings have eliminated 99.99999 (my finger is getting tired) of the frustrations that a customer experiences when first using a new fountain pen. Although this can be time-consuming on occasion, it affords our customers a much more pleasant experience when receiving a fountain pen from His Nibs -- and saves us the frustration of dealing with returns!

Ordering Procedures & Returns

International customers, please note, we will not falsify shipping documents

Credit cards, for the quickest fulfillment of your order, are accepted through PayPal, a secure site allowing you to use your credit card without us even seeing the information. If you'd like to make use of this credit card service, please let us know when you email your order and address, and we'll email you the appropriate Request for Payment, and instructions for the simple payment procedure (you don't need to join PayPal to use it).

If you would like us process your credit card directly instead, then please email us:

1. Card # (dividing this number in two, between two emails, will ensure security)
2. Expiration date
3. Name on card
4. Address for billing statement
5. Card verification # (3-digit number printed on the back of your card. It appears after and to the right of your card number, or 4-digit number on the front of your AMEX card).
 

If you'd rather pay by money order or check, kindly make payable to:

His Nibs.com
  2540 W. Union Street
  Allentown, PA 18104

We ship via insured Priority Mail
(email for cost)

Please send your order and shipping address (along with any questions) to:

orders@hisnibs.com
(on PayPal transactions, the email address may also display as stonebri@sprynet.com -- both are valid)

We will email you back with your order total (PA residents please add 6% sales tax)

Warranties and returns

If an item proves to be defective, in most cases the manufacturer's warranty will apply. However, please email us first so that we can determine the easiest way to resolve the problem to your satisfaction. In the case of fountain pens -- which are a bit more individualistic than other writing instruments -- what may at first appear to be a defect (hard starting or poor flow for example), can in almost all cases be resolved with a few simple 'tweaks' to the nib, which we'll be happy to guide you through or perhaps suggest returning to us for adjustment.

Should you wish to return a non-defective item within 3 days of receipt because it doesn't suit you for some reason, again please email us and we'll arrange an exchange, credit or refund (minus any shipping/insurance charges), if the item is returned in an 'as new' condition. If you've dipped a fountain pen to try its writing characteristics, kindly clean off any ink residue prior to shipping -- to save us both a nasty surprise .

We want you to be happy with your purchase from His Nibs.com and hope to have you join the ranks of our many long-term, repeat customers!

Revised: May 17th, 2008

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