Saturday, December 31, 2011

TWSBI 540 Fountain Pen Review




TWSBI a company that I have come to love and trust, its fairly new to me and yet so many people seem to know all about it. I was late on the band wagon getting into fountain pens fairly recently myself. The TWSBI 540 fountain pen is a really cool pen. for $50 bucks you can have a pen with a wide range of performance. A pen that clearly outshines other pens similar in looks and writing abilities and stature. I was lucky enough to get a small portion of pens, if you can get your hands on at least one pen next year, make sure you get a TWSBI.

Lets start off with the "pronunciations",  Nothing irritates me more then when people don't say things right. This isn't a twistsawbee or a twosbee, the proper way to saying this is "To-Wiz-Bee".... now that we got that out of the way we can start the review.


TWSBI 540 laser etched in the chrome accents.
COMPETITION
Lets start out with competition, what do they have to offer us "the consumer" in way of pen worthiness. now I'm not an expert at any one of these pens, I'm just noting the obvious features of what I've seen over the year.
  1. Pilot Custom 74. This pen from pilot comes in a fancy gift box, a cartridge and a button fill converter (CON-70) It also has a 14k rhodium nib. for the price of $160-$200 you could buy 4 TWSBI's for the price of one, also it does not have a built in ink reservoir or replaceable nibs at your disposal.
  2. Platinum 3776.  Just like the Custom 74 at around the same price range this Japanese company has a gold nib, a cartridge converter and a decent looking box. This is a limited edition pen and won't last long, also there are no replaceable nibs. The price is $200
  3. Pilot Prera Clear Body. This pen I was excited to see until I actually got to see it. In my opinion I was not impressed with the nib, the fact it has no built in Ink reservoir, or that it makes no noticeable improvement on the already famous Pilot 78G. Also it cost $58
  4. Pelikan M800.  From the reviews and the raves the "select" few people who own this particular clear body pen this is what I imagine all the following pens above should of had Included. So for an easy $500 dollars you can have the exact same pen as the TWSBI 540... just a little cooler, and gold to say the least but you get the idea.
To me it doesn't make sense to buy a pen for much more than its worth. Now I'm not knocking down any of the pens, they are all fine writers, I just wouldn't buy them.

The TWSBI 540 Pen

REFILL-ABILITY
There are several ways to fill your fountain pen with its life blood...ink. The most popular are cartridges, ink bottle converters, or the piston filling method that some pens have built in. With the new TWSBI Inkwell bottles that came out this year filling the 530/540 pen is now the simplest method I can think of. On the first try I got a 100% fill, which is unusual for any pen filling method other than a cartridge. And as that goes I have an inkwell for each TWSBI pen. My two favorite inks are the Noodler's Baystate Blue, Private Reserve Avacado, and my purple is Noodler's Kung Te-Chung. Since these pens have been inked I have not changed any color except for the Kung Te-Chung ink ( I used to have Noodler's Vmail series North African Violet). So again the TWSBI is a no brainer when you have a choice on filling and refilling your pen with just one ink or hundreds.
Filling my 540 with the New TWSBI Inkwell
Decorative Nib, it has good line variations 
 Inside the TWSBI Pen box there are tools for you to disassemble your pen and repair if required. There are a wrench and a small bottle of silicone grease, I don't see a need if ever to use this, but maybe in the future I would like to add some silicone grease to the piston plunger for maintenance and prolong its longevity.
This is EF, but it can flex to some degree up to a bold line.
The writing ability is so smooth, I characterize it as a slight pull on the paper. Its not so smooth that you have no control, it has a lot of feedback to the paper which is surprising because it is a steel nib. This lets me know how much pressure I'm applying and I also notice that my handwriting looks nicer too. 
A clear shot of the TWSBI logo.
The cap screws on and off and is snug fitting posted on the pen. The only problem is that if your like me you twist the cap off the pen instead of just pulling straight out. Doing so can move the plunger down forcing ink out and making a lovely mess on your hands, desk, pen, carpet and anything else you may or may not cherish.
The cap is much heavier than the body of the pen so posting can leave a slight unbalance.
The tip of the cap is the TWSBI logo, so far the early productions were all hand made.
The grip is smooth but does not slip during long writing.

Overall this is the best fountain pen of 2011 in my books. I look forward to seeing what else TWSBI will bring forth.

The Pen Review

11 comments:

  1. Just a friendly reminder about how to read TWSBI.

    TWSBI is a manufacturer in Taiwan that has been making pen for different global brands for more than 40 years. TWSBI is the name they re-brand themselves as.

    Thus, I am quite sure that "Taiwan's Bi" (Bi, is Pen in Chinese) the true way to read it. However, it's quite confusing for people to know what I am referring to (since not many know the reason of the abbreviation), so I just call it T-W-S-B-I for those unfamiliar with it.

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  2. Lawrence, I read that too somewhere and I totally understand, I believe they have it on their website, www.TWSBI.com. Just saying TWSBI for short is easier then saying Taiwan's Bi pen company you know.

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  3. Thanks for the review. I agree with you on twsbi. And I am thinking of following you on having a dedicated baystate blue twsbi.

    I wanted to ask you how is that working out? I have had no problems with baystate in pens I use regularly. in pens i use irregularly--i had problems in one.

    and I would be sure baystate has stained the twsbi. I mean, I don't care. Just asking.

    Thanks.

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  4. One more thing: for pen of the year for 2012, I would like to recommend two for consideration:

    1. Hero 100
    The quality of the build on this pen is comparable to the TWSBI. The downside for me is the extremely fine point. I might like the TWSBI just a little better, but if I had to go with only one pen for a whole month, I would have to pick the Hero because it can go way longer between refills.

    2. Hero 5020

    A great writer in a medium nib. The downside of this of this one is the small size of the converter. I plan to try to make an eyedropper fill of one of them.

    And the next pen that Noodler's makes. The Ahab is quite an improvement over the earlier pens. I expect Nathan Tardiff's next pen to be a contender.

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  5. M800 is significantly better quality than TWSBI - don't compare pens that you don't have experience of. I like my TWSBI but find them ugly and the nibs dreadful (only 1 still has the original nib).

    I own 4 TWSBI and 4 Pelikan M series and the TWSBI is good but the Pelikan outstanding.

    Wonder how much a TWSBI with large 18K nib, gold trim, solid colour body and an ink window will cost? (about the same as an M800)

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  6. Tony - That may be true, but as I mentioned before that I'm not an expert at these pens. I'm just noting the obvious features. I would probably not buy the M800 because its not worth it to me. The TWSBI pen does just fine for my immediate use.

    Yes I'm sure TWSBI could make an 18K gold pen with trim and such it will still cost less than the Pelikan Clear demonstrator. I'm also sure Pelikan can make a pen that cost less then 300 dollars, still have a gold two tone nib and perform the same. To me its just not worth it.

    I gave this review to show positive outlook for the pen, the company and all the hard work its putting out. I made comparisons to show the differences between a good pen and... the TWSBI 540 pen. I cannot give you actual comparisons because I don't own them. So yes its not "exactly" like the TWSBI pens in any way, but its close to the features I've stated. If it is indeed smoother than the TWSBI, well I'll have to take your word on that because I will probably never get a chance to hold the M800.

    I am happy for you to have the luxury to own so many high quality pens.

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  7. Steven,

    Like CowDaddy, I'm wondering if Baystate Blue has stained your TWSBI. (From what I've heard, the Kung Te-chung can also stain.) Any problems? I'd love to buy a bottle of BayState blue, but haven't identified a good pen for it yet.

    Booker

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  8. NB- I have no problem with my TWSBI's staining. It may look that way but after I clean it out it looks fine. Kung Te-chung just cleaned out with water. Now BSB had a hair bit more trouble. add 2 drops of bleach to 1/4 cup of water and fill the ink reservoir half way. Shake then empty. repeat 3 or so times util the solution is clear, then rinse with water. I've also had to take a cloth and a needle to the inside of the screws on the nib. It seams to work for me and I believe Nathan (Noodler's ink) said something about that too. Even if it does stain my pen. Its a permanent residence, at least for now.

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  9. Thank you for the review. Could you tell me how the TWSBI compares to the Lamy vista? I have a nexx and am curious to know.

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    1. Yes I sure could, The TWSBI is a much nicer pen, It has some flex that the Lamy pens do not offer. It also writes more of a true fine, as the Lamy writes more of a medium, even the xf is does not offer as much differences to the line variation. The ink reservoir will be equivelent to I believe 5 or 10 of the converter reservoir, and the grip on the Lamy is in my opinion better overall. In a nutshell the TWSBI offers a wide range of features that is much desirable. I like the Lamy Vista because it's clear, rugged and is simple. Your Nexx is about the same except for a rubber grip I believe, so if you go with a Vista you might have to get used to the hard grip section of the pen. Also the TWSBI is much heavier and if you post the cap you might be to heavy to write for some people.

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  10. Thank you for this great information, you write very well which I like very much.I really impressed by your post.imprinted pens

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