Conway Stewart Belliver... Meh...

[dneal]

Conway Stewart makes some seriously beautiful pens, and one look at the Belliver in Bracket Brown meant I had to have it (did I mention I'm on a pen buying spree?) I'm trying to catch up on doing some reviews of pens I've bought recently (and get these photos off my camera...)

 

Appearance and Design (10) Simply stunning, with classic lines and colors. It has a subtle beauty, in that it's not flashy or brightly colored. The epitome of understated elegance.

 

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa163/roomdog/Pens/Reviews002_zps11f772d5.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa163/roomdog/Pens/Reviews003_zps8c06e28b.jpg

 

Construction and Quality (3) Externally, it has what you think of with "fine English hand craftsmanship". Wood trim of a Rolls or hand stitched leather in an Aston. This is what you initially see and feel with this pen. The resin and gold trim is well done, and it is solid (due to the weight added by the brass inside). So why only a 3? Because as you look a little closer, "English Craftsmanship" becomes Jeremy Clarkson in a shed with a hammer. I noticed the pen had a "pause" when screwing on the cap, feeling like it was cross-threaded. I couldn't find any evidence of it though. Examining it closer, I noticed (and was disappointed by) the brass insert in the cap.

 

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa163/roomdog/Pens/Reviews006_zps01b806d9.jpg

 

A little rough, to say the least. This is what the soft gold nib goes past when putting the cap on. Why isn't is smoother? Why isn't it chamfered? That may seem to be nit-picking a bit - although it shouldn't be given the price - but that's not the worst of it. Inside, and the cause of the strangeness of putting the cap on was this:

 

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa163/roomdog/Pens/Reviews018_zps18940099.jpg

 

Yep. A brass shaving still attached to the insert. It took some work with a set of jeweler's needle-nose pliers to get it out of there. Examining the nib, both sides have nice little scratches from it (also seen in the picture above).

 

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa163/roomdog/Pens/Reviews017_zps2c7b713f.jpg

 

I can polish those out with some jeweler's rouge, but it's disappointing. Well, let's look in the other (converter) end. Same roughness of the brass, and a smattering of brass particles.

 

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa163/roomdog/Pens/Reviews016_zps7a3d3816.jpg

 

They were everywhere, and a couple had even made it inside the converter. I disassembled the pen (to include the feed and nib) and cleaned everything out.

 

Weight and Dimensions (7) Dimensionally, it's about the same as a Lamy Safari. It's a hefty and substantial pen (in a good way). It rests comfortably in the hand, and the section is nicely tapered to allow a natural resting place for your fingertips.

 

Nib and Performance (7) The Italic Fine nib suffered initially from hard starting, and examination under a loupe revealed a little baby bottom. A few loving strokes on a Binder buff stick took care of that, and it is an incredibly smooth writer. Not too wet, and not too dry; it offers good performance. A little on the "stub" side of "italic", keeping it smooth, and offering good line variation.

 

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa163/roomdog/Pens/Reviews019_zps718f4a3d.jpg

 

Filling System and Maintenance (7) It's a C/C, nothing remarkable.

 

Cost and Value (5) It is gorgeous, and has been made to write well, but it is a little over priced for the final product. A higher score would be given if they tightened up the shortcomings.

 

Conclusion and Final Score (6) I really, really like to look at and write with this pen. I'm baffled by the attention to detail though. The same company that bothers to polish (to a high lustre) the body of this pen, and includes 18k hall-marked trim should perhaps smooth/polish the inside of the resin body (like Edison does in their $150 pens) and certainly shouldn't be selling a pen with the brass inserts in the condition these are in. They have done me a favor though, and eliminated the 58 from my "vicarious shopping / help me choose" thread.

[theverdictis]

Good review. I've been looking at these pens for a few weeks now. I think they are absolutely amazing (only from looks) and after watching quite a few reviews I've witnessed many reviewers saying that the Churchill's and Winston's also suffer from baby's bottom. Which is where I agree with yourself, that for that price you are expecting perfection.

 

It is also a real shame that the quality control on your pen allowed it to leave the workshop with the brass part being chipped.

 

Ben

[Paul80]

CS are good at making nice looking desk ornaments, but as shown here and elsewhere they are not upto the mark with their design and implementation of the insides, my lever fill Churchill has a very badly designed filling system that rips the sac off the nipple and also baby bottom making it a hard starter.

 

For the price they are asking their quality is a joke, given that a Churchill is around the same price as a Montblanc 149 which is a million miles better in the quality stakes.

 

Paul

[gmax]

Thanks for your review. I recently ordered a Wellington as my first CS pen, and eagerly await its arrival

 

I have already (sad but true) begun to think of a Belliver as my next CS adventure!

[dneal]

CS are good at making nice looking desk ornaments, but as shown here and elsewhere they are not upto the mark with their design and implementation of the insides, my lever fill Churchill has a very badly designed filling system that rips the sac off the nipple and also baby bottom making it a hard starter.

 

For the price they are asking their quality is a joke, given that a Churchill is around the same price as a Montblanc 149 which is a million miles better in the quality stakes.

 

Paul

 

I'll certainly not argue that there are some shortcomings with this pen (a LE, BTW) that are probably not unique to this particular sample, and that it doesn't reflect well on the company given the price.

 

Still, I do really like this pen. The heft and solid feel, and the way it writes. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but I wouldn't steer folks away from it either. I think a fair assessment of the positives and negatives are in order and others can decide for themselves if it is worth the price. A Belliver is roughly $400. No cheap, but not terribly expensive when you look at other 'hand made' marbled/swirled/flaked/etc... acrylic pens with 18k nibs. I'm not sure an M800 in tortoise is any more lovely or worth the extra $150 or so.

 

Some will yell from the rooftops that MB is horrible, with no semblance of their former quality, selling "precious resin" (*cough* plastic *cough*) pens that crack, for a premium, due solely to a name. I dunno... Good luck getting a 149 in the variety of colors that CS offers.

[Paul80]

Then again if you look at my pen collection Black is good enough for me.

 

Paul

[dneal]

And a follow-up discovery... full size cartridge won't fit. The diameter of the cartridge is larger than the brass insert.

 

Full Edelstein cartridge? In the trash now.

[theverdictis]

Another deal breaker then. Try and sell it on eBay?

 

Ben

[dneal]

Another deal breaker then. Try and sell it on eBay?

 

Ben

 

Said the guy with his eBay sniping software at the ready...

 

I'll keep the pen, and I do enjoy it. None of my gripes a deal-breaker for me, and I'm certainly not going sell it and lose money. It's beautiful, lovely to hold, and writes well. That qualifies as a good or nice pen. After that, it becomes an issue of value - Is a pen worth the price it commands?

 

At this price point, there isn't a lot of room for error; and some of these errors are pretty egregious. I think people should be made aware of these things. Most pen reviews are written when people are still smitten with their new pens (or absolutely hating them). There are a lot of nice pens at this price point. Bexley and Edison with an 18k nib are contenders I think of, if you want a pretty hand-made acrylic C/C filler. I'm sure there are a lot of others.

 

Maybe the most valuable question is: would I buy this pen again? I think I would. I do think I would skip the italic though, and get a fine or medium and pay for a custom grind.

 

--edit--

 

Changed "piston" filler to "C/C"...

Edited April 12, 2014 by dneal

[dneal]

I'm not sure what Paul80's views have to do with my review. I thought I gave a fair assessment of the good and bad, and documented it; and I think I've made plenty of comments relating the fact that I am pleased with and do enjoy this pen.

 

Even if I had elected to send it back, it wouldn't change my review and would only be an addendum of "but they fixed the flaws after I brought it to their attention". I'm of the opinion that if a company wants to play at this level, it needs to be right the first time. I'm well versed in quality assurance / quality control, lean six sigma, etc... There's a reason Lexus stays at the top of the luxury market and Mercedes Benz has fallen. The internet is a fact of business life, and can be a wonderful ally or terrible adversary. Which role it plays is dependent on (in this case) the product. But I digress...

 

I didn't give CS a chance to "make this right", because:

 

1. It's a pain in the butt sending stuff off and waiting.

2. There was nothing I couldn't fix to make it write properly.

3. I saw no reason to send it back to the same folks that sent it out that way in the first place.

4. I didn't want to take a chance on the nib being replaced with the new two-tone version.

5. There's nothing wrong with the exterior of the pen.

6. I am capable of correcting the issues with the brass, if I decide to, and I like to tinker with stuff.

 

$395 is pretty much the going rate for this pen. I'm not sure where you're finding them new for much less than that.

 

One thing that I'd like to add is that I was very pleased with the vendor, and didn't (and won't) reveal who that was since they didn't construct the pen.

 

--edit--

 

Ok, this post looks weird since the one it was replying to was deleted. As this post is predominately a set of answers, I think you can glean what the questions were.

Edited April 12, 2014 by dneal

[Paul80]

I would have thought what my views have got to do with your views was quite obviouse. You where dissatisfied with the way they made your pen and their quality control and I was dissatisfied withe the way they made mine and their quality control.

 

Quite obviouse really.

[WilsonCQB1911]

Sorry about your issues. I'll play devil's advocate to the other posts and mention that my Churchill is one of my top 3 pens. And mine is a lever filler.

 

I'm not dismissing the OP's issues. Seems legitimate.

[watch_art]

I really want a CS Pen. Probably one of the lever fillers even though I'm not a huge lever fan. It just looks so pretty.

[JonSzanto]

Here's a question for the OP:

 

Had you gone into a store, maybe even a CS storefront (bear with me, I know they don't exist) and asked to see one of these pens in person; had you given it a fair examination, and found similar issues - would you have given them $400.00 for it? Would you have paid the same amount of money and walked out of the store with this same pen?

 

As we trend towards purchase-at-arm's-length, one of the things bothering me is that the inertia and exhaustion of having to deal with issues and repeated calls and sendbacks and etc... is causing us to throw up our hands and accept things that simply should be addressed. When we roll over like patsies and say to ourselves "oh, it's just so much bother, I'll muck about with it myself", nothing will ever change. Nothing will get better. Nothing will even be as good as it is supposed to be.

 

I don't think one is necessarily a bully, a belligerent or crude person to ask a level of expectation to be met, at each level of the economic strata. Point in fact: I expect more of a $400.00 pen than this. In this case, I expect that - in addition to style and unique materials - the actual manufactured quality matches or exceeds that of a $15.00 Pilot Metropolitan.

[dneal]

 

 

Had you gone into a store, maybe even a CS storefront (bear with me, I know they don't exist) and asked to see one of these pens in person; had you given it a fair examination, and found similar issues - would you have given them $400.00 for it? Would you have paid the same amount of money and walked out of the store with this same pen?

 

A great question! I think the simple answer is no, I wouldn't have bought it. In honesty though, I don't think we scrutinize items that thoroughly in those circumstances (see my Omas review, where it wrote well when dipped in the store...). If the store was a reasonable distance away, I probably would have returned or exchanged it.

 

 

 

As we trend towards purchase-at-arm's-length, one of the things bothering me is that the inertia and exhaustion of having to deal with issues and repeated calls and sendbacks and etc... is causing us to throw up our hands and accept things that simply should be addressed. When we roll over like patsies and say to ourselves "oh, it's just so much bother, I'll muck about with it myself", nothing will ever change. Nothing will get better. Nothing will even be as good as it is supposed to be.

 

I could really wax philosophical on this topic, and actually I think on it frequently. Your statement is an interesting twist on it; and I agree that this seems to have become the norm, and is a part of craftsmanship being lost as we move to mass production and competitive business models. I am stationed in Germany, and observe daily the contrast between older construction and new. Wiesbaden was a resort town for the aristocracy, and you see buildings from the 1890's that have fascinating and exquisite stone or brick work. No one builds like this anymore, and even if you could find people competent enough to do it, the cost would now be prohibitive. I am reminded of Mike Rowe's various addresses on "hard work" and its value.

 

 

 

I don't think one is necessarily a bully, a belligerent or crude person to ask a level of expectation to be met, at each level of the economic strata. Point in fact: I expect more of a $400.00 pen than this. In this case, I expect that - in addition to style and unique materials - the actual manufactured quality matches or exceeds that of a $15.00 Pilot Metropolitan.

 

I agree. The deleted post almost appeared accusatorial, as if I was unreasonable or "mean-spirited" to post the negatives; or that somehow I should have worked this out with CS instead of reviewing the product as delivered. "Is it worth it" is a question I tried to raise and address. If I could turn back the clock to opening the package, I wouldn't have done anything differently - which is what I meant earlier with "I would by it again". I certainly won't buy another one at retail prices. I would probably buy a used one.

[JonSzanto]

Dneal, thank you for your quite thoughtful response. It is specifically this kind of dialogue - reasoned and on-point - that can be of true value to a company and a community as they strive to better a product.

[Montblanc owner and lover]

Good honnest and interesting review. The more i read the more i'm anxious (i have ordered the same pen but surely won't have it before months since i've ordered it to my local dealer who try to contact CS and mary burke unsuccesfully since more than a month now....)

[GutSchrift]

The only English pen I own so far is a Yard-o-Led which is built exceptionally well and I love. I've been finding myself flirting with the CS pens lately but this review gives me serious pause. Maybe it was an outlier? Good, thorough review though. Thanks!

[Flounder]

Thanks for your excellent, well rounded review - great photos, range of topics, nice rationale to each opinion proffered and an eye for detail.

[theverdictis]

 

Said the guy with his eBay sniping software at the ready...

 

I'll keep the pen, and I do enjoy it. None of my gripes a deal-breaker for me, and I'm certainly not going sell it and lose money. It's beautiful, lovely to hold, and writes well. That qualifies as a good or nice pen. After that, it becomes an issue of value - Is a pen worth the price it commands?

 

At this price point, there isn't a lot of room for error; and some of these errors are pretty egregious. I think people should be made aware of these things. Most pen reviews are written when people are still smitten with their new pens (or absolutely hating them). There are a lot of nice pens at this price point. Bexley and Edison with an 18k nib are contenders I think of, if you want a pretty hand-made acrylic C/C filler. I'm sure there are a lot of others.

 

Maybe the most valuable question is: would I buy this pen again? I think I would. I do think I would skip the italic though, and get a fine or medium and pay for a custom grind.

 

--edit--

 

Changed "piston" filler to "C/C"...

Lol no way I would do that!

 

Ben