HongDian 525

Overview

The HongDian 525 is a budget Chinese pen Garry has owned since at least October 2020, bought from AliExpress for a price he's repeatedly described as very affordable. It's stuck around in his rotation for years -- still turning up in a September 2025 inked-pens video -- despite a genuinely rocky start: his very first review flagged a real flow reliability problem, and his early showdowns were lukewarm at best. His opinion of it warmed considerably over time, and by his most recent head-to-head review he was giving it a straightforward 8/10. It's most notable for its distinctive small bent nib, a budget take on the Japanese 'fude' style of nib that's designed to give line variation depending on how the pen is held.

Design & Appearance

Colour: A glorious green -- Garry compares it to British Racing Green more than once and says repeatedly that he loves the colour, given that green is one of his favourite pen colours generally.
Trim: Steel/silver-coloured ends, clip, and section. The clip is notably stiff -- in more than one review he says he really struggles to get it into his shirt pocket.
Cap: A pull-off cap (not a screw cap) -- one of his recurring criticisms is that this style of cap means the section can work itself loose after repeated removal, and that the cap on his copy 'slips off' on its own.
Nib: A steel nib with some attractive engraving, in a small bent/fude style -- intended to give different line widths depending on the angle the pen is held at. Garry initially struggled to detect this effect at all; in later reviews, using grid-pattern writing tests and a sheening ink, he was able to actually see the stub/bent nature coming through.
Section: Slim and slightly tapered, with a colour and finish that Garry has described as feeling a touch slippery in the hand.
Pen Looks scores across reviews: 7/10 (vs HongDian The Light of Hope), 8/10 (vs Moonman P135) -> a reasonably consistent 7-8/10, with the looks rated higher once compared against a different pen the second time around.

The Nib

Material: Steel.
Size/type: A small bent nib, sometimes referred to in his transcripts as a 'fude'-style nib (mis-transcribed several ways -- see the Fuzzy Match table below). Marked as a fine nib, although Garry has noted more than once that it's debatable whether 'fine' is quite right given how the line varies.
Line variation: A genuinely mixed verdict across reviews. In his first dedicated showdown he said he just couldn't get the promised line-width variation out of it, no matter how he held the pen, and scored writing experience down because of it. In later reviews -- using a grid-pattern writing test and inks with strong sheen (Diamine Black Ivy came up twice) -- he was able to clearly see the bent/stub nature of the nib coming through, with noticeably wider cross-strokes.
Reliability: His very first review (October 2020) flagged a real issue -- the nib would intermittently stop writing mid-sentence, roughly every three or four sentences, requiring a shake to restart. This specific complaint does not reappear in his later showdowns, suggesting it settled down with use (or with a tune-up he mentioned the nib might need).
Writing Experience scores: 6/10 (vs HongDian The Light of Hope), 8/10 (vs Moonman P135) -> a notable improvement in his opinion between the two showdowns.

Filling Mechanism

Cartridge/converter, with a standard plastic feed. All-metal section fittings rule out eyedropper conversion.

Measurements

Measurement	Value
Total length (capped)	13.7 cm
Length unposted	12.1 cm
Length posted	15.3 cm
Body width	1.0 cm
Cap width	1.0 cm
Section width	0.7-1.0 cm (tapered)
Full pen weight	30 g
Cap weight	11 g

Writing Experience (Ink Flow & Comfort)

Ink Flow scores: 6/10 (vs HongDian The Light of Hope), 8/10 (vs Moonman P135) -- again, a clear improvement in his assessment over time. He's described it as a wet writer with the right inks, and has had no issues with hard starts or skipping in his more recent reviews.
Comfort: Not scored as its own category in either dedicated showdown (that category was added to his scorecard later, after the 525 had already been reviewed), but he's described the slim section as feeling slightly slippery, and has noted the pull-off cap and loosening section as the main physical annoyances rather than anything to do with how it feels to hold.

Inks Used (as referenced across reviews and monthly rotations)

Ink	Context / Notes
Van Dieman Apple Island Green	Original October 2020 inking, and again in the vs HongDian The Light of Hope showdown -- a green ink he liked, though a very wet, slow-drying combination
Colorverse Albert	February 2021 'Pens In Use' rotation (ranked position 5 that month) and the vs Moonman P135 showdown -- a bright, limey green that surprised him by how vibrant it looked once written, despite expecting it to look washed out
Robert Oster Elf's Cap	December 2021 'Pens In Use' rotation (used as a backup pen) and a matching photo-log entry -- no flow issues at all with this combination
Diamine Black Ivy	Used in both 'From Extra Fine to Stub' and 'Seasonal Switch Up' nib-comparison videos -- a very dark, nearly black ink with a notable red sheen sitting on top of a dark green base, which helped him actually see the bent-nib line variation clearly for the first time

Comparisons and Rankings

vs HongDian The Light of Hope (Fountain Pen Showdown, Van Dieman Apple Island Green vs Noodler's Navajo Turquoise)

A head-to-head between two HongDian pens bought together, at a similar price, after about a four-week AliExpress shipping wait. The Light of Hope won clearly on every score that mattered to Garry -- better looks, better writing experience, and his clear preference overall -- largely because he couldn't get the 525's bent nib to show the line variation he expected. He did flag a specific mechanical gripe with the 525 here: after repeated cap removal, the section started to come loose on its own.
HongDian 525 = 6.5/10, HongDian The Light of Hope = 7.75/10

vs Moonman P135 (Fountain Pen Showdown, Colorverse Albert vs Colorverse Dark Energy)

A much stronger showing for the 525 the second time around. Garry rated its looks at 8/10 (just one point behind the P135's 9/10), and -- notably -- couldn't pick a winner between the two pens on writing experience, ink flow, or value for money, giving both an 8/10 across the board. He specifically called the section-loosening issue 'really minor' this time, a softer framing than in the earlier showdown. The Moonman P135 narrowly won on overall score, purely down to its higher looks rating.
HongDian 525 = 8/10, Moonman P135 = 8.25/10

Monthly 'Pens In Use' rotations and rankings

October 2020 (its debut): Ranked position 9 in that month's line-up. Garry was careful to note this wasn't really a dislike of the pen so much as a product of having to rank a large group -- but he did flag a real issue here with the nib intermittently stopping mid-sentence.
February 2021: Ranked position 5 of 6 pens that month, paired with Colorverse Albert, which he says he 'absolutely loves' in this pen. In an end-of-month least-to-most-favourite ranking, it placed 3rd from the bottom of 7 pens.
December 2021: Used as one of two deliberate 'backup pens' that month (alongside the Pilot Custom Heritage 92), specifically because it was a low-cost, reliable option to fall back on if a more expensive pen ran into issues.
September 2025: Still in active rotation nearly five years after he bought it -- briefly featured in a 'What's Inked in My Pens' video, still described affectionately ('love this green colour, nice pen as well'), with the slip-off cap noted again as a known quirk.

Nib-width comparison videos ('From Extra Fine to Stub', 'Seasonal Switch Up')

Used in two separate 'compare several nib widths side by side' videos as his representative small-bent/fude-style nib. In the more recent of the two, using a grid-pattern writing test, Garry was finally able to clearly see the stub/bent character of the nib coming through in the line variation -- a contrast to his earlier scepticism about whether the effect was real at all.

Overall Scores Summary

Review	Score
vs HongDian The Light of Hope	6.5/10
vs Moonman P135	8/10
Average	~7.25/10

(Monthly 'Pens In Use' videos and the nib-comparison videos did not include a personal numeric score for this pen.)

By category (averaged across the two scored showdowns)

Category	Average
Pen Looks	~7.5/10
Writing Experience	7/10
Ink Flow	7/10
Value for Money	~7.5/10

Build Quality

Mixed, but trending positive over time. The earliest review (October 2020) flagged a genuine nib reliability issue -- intermittent stopping mid-sentence -- which doesn't reappear in later reviews. The pull-off (rather than screw) cap is a repeated, ongoing point of mild criticism, since it has caused the section to loosen on its own after repeated removal; by his most recent review, though, Garry was calling this 'really minor.'

Value for Money

Consistently rated well -- 7/10 and 8/10 across his two dedicated showdowns -- and repeatedly described as a pen that does what it's meant to for a low price, without needing any tuning or adjustment out of the box (aside from the early flow hiccup). It's specifically called out as one of his go-to inexpensive 'backup pen' choices when a pricier pen in his rotation is giving him trouble.

Key Recurring Themes

A real love of the green colourway -- repeatedly singled out for praise across nearly every review, independent of how he felt about the nib or mechanics.
A bent/fude nib that took time to prove itself -- early scepticism about whether the promised line variation was real at all, resolved later with grid-pattern testing and a strongly sheening ink.
A pull-off cap that loosens the section over time -- the single most consistent physical criticism across every review, though it softened from a real concern to a 'really minor' one as he got used to it.
A genuine flow issue early on that didn't persist -- a notable mid-sentence stopping problem in his very first review that is absent from every subsequent mention.
A long-serving budget backup pen -- still in his rotation nearly five years after purchase, repeatedly used as a reliable, low-cost fallback option.
Heavily mis-transcribed manufacturer name -- 'HongDian' comes through as a different garbled phrase in nearly every video; see the Fuzzy Match table below.

Source Files

#summary