Another Twsbi Diamond 580 Review

[sannidh]

Here is another take on a TWSBI 580 Diamond FP with a Fine nib. The reviews at fpn did make me finally buy a TWSBI, just for the fun of dis-assembly and maintenance.

 

In case there are any problems with pictures you can go to the below link on my blog.

http://iwonder-thecartographer.blogspot.in/2014/11/twsbi-diamond-580-review.html

 

Why did I get one ?

Well, just to disassemble the pen and have all the fun. Plus, I get a clear demonstrator and a nice-looking wrench.

What on earth is a TWSBI? (For the uninitiated like me, I doubt there are any left )

TWSBI (called Twiz-Bee) refers to “San Wen Tong”, i.e when TWS is spelled backwards and it means ‘Hall of Three Cultures’ according to their website. BI at the end refers to “writing instruments”. And the company, Ta Shin Precision manufactured everything from toy lego parts to high-end writing instruments (as an OEM) for several luxury brands (American & Japanese) for well over 40 years. So that’s plastic, metal & precision, precisely what’s required to make and sell a lovely writing instrument, under your own brand name. Which luxury brands? They don’t tell it due to privacy agreements. I have reasonable doubt from various reviews that one of them is Levenger. Also, TWSBI Nibs are said to be sourced from JoWo, Germany (same as for Faber-Castell Design Pens).

Packaging

That’s probably one of the great aspects of marketing the pen. For the lack of any other word, let’s call it ‘Apple’ packaging inside a brown cardboard box.

http://s25.postimg.org/r1745r4mn/DSC_1025.jpg

There is an instruction sheet on disassembly of the pen, highlighting the pen parts.

http://s25.postimg.org/m53he24hb/DSC_1029.jpg

http://s25.postimg.org/p5fqguqen/DSC_1031.jpg

Below the white pen-holding shelf, you will find the 7mm TWSBI wrench and a small bottle of silicone grease fitted into slots.

http://s25.postimg.org/8j2rlimun/DSC_1036.jpg

580 Diamond

With a screw fit cap and relatively technical construction right from the nib unit to the end cap, this pen endorses practical utility rather than art (with which you will probably associate a Pelikan or a Visconti or an MB with). The entire pen along with the cap is made to disassemble, clean and reassemble. With a 13 cm length and comfortable grip diameter of 1cm, it can be used unposted with ease. The polygonal planes (Diamond-cut) shape of the barrel (almost a decagonal cross-section) prevents the pen from slipping and makes it quite photogenic for posing too . Cap has a circular cross section though. Embossed on the tail (steel bracket) band of the cap is TWSBI on one side and Diamond & 580 & TAIWAN on the other.

http://s25.postimg.org/4k0yoy8tr/DSC_1043.jpg

http://s25.postimg.org/6fscdun1r/DSC_1048.jpg

Posting gives it a space shuttle like appearance and the posted thing is altogether heavy and way too long.

http://s25.postimg.org/9g96udycv/DSC_1056.jpg

The finial carries the TWSBI trademarked logo on a red background. Clip has a smooth modern design with a diamond cut and quite springy to use.

http://s25.postimg.org/ddwgjsl67/DSC_1060.jpg

 

Nib has an industrial sword like look, and the unit is easy detachable and can be unscrewed from the grip section. Embossed is a brief arabesque along the tines with TWSBI logo, name and nib size mentioned at the tail-end. The metal cross section does amplify the industrial design of the pen.

 

http://s25.postimg.org/f0lo50x7z/DSC_1068.jpg

 

Along with the Custom 823
I am making a comparison with custom 823 only for its size. The nib and construction are very different for these two pens. And a pilot custom 823 is a heavier pen with a really big nib.

 

http://s25.postimg.org/qklwjbgvj/DSC_1070.jpg

 

http://s25.postimg.org/krbuir57z/DSC_1072.jpg

 

Disassembly
For this phase, rather than from the manual, you can have a look at a 580 disassembly video. I like the one with gouletpens or srebrown. However, do check the warranty terms, if you are not very sure of fixing it yourself. Make sure you flush the pen completely before doing it . By rotating the piston end-cap counter-clockwise, the piston seal is lowered to a hinged stop inside the barrel. The wrench then can be fitted just below the piston-end-cap (below the metal band), which is unscrewed in a clockwise direction from the piston-top.

 

http://s25.postimg.org/64fhetvzj/DSC_1074.jpg

The piston mechanism has five different parts as you can see in the picture, though it’s might not be necessary to remove the rubber piston seal from the piston rod. The nib unit can be easily removed by first unscrewing the grip section from the barrel and then the nib unit can be removed. Since, nib is friction fit, you may remove the nib and feed from the unit, in case there is some heavy cleaning required (in case of a bad flow, sometimes the feed is coated with grease which restricts ink-flow). However, if your flow is good, I don’t think there is anything broke to fix in the first place .

http://s25.postimg.org/hob4fdq9b/DSC_1078.jpg

 

Rest, reassembly might be an initial frustration and it took me a while to learn to fit the piston parts properly.Initially, I was left with the piston seal and rod inside (while everything else was outside!), while I tried to reassemble the pen for the first time. Tried many different things with tweezers, ear-buds and finally could remove it by using the piston parts only. My guess is that a little bit of experiment is required to get used to this.
Make sure you apply an adequate amount of silicone grease to the sides of the rubber piston seal (you may ignore the bottom surface) at the end of the piston-rod, so that it glides smoothly along the barrel. I did that in the second reassembly attempt, because the piston seal seemed to have too much of friction, after the first reassembly.

Inking & Writing
Inking is easy piston filling and writing is kind of ‘ok’ smooth (not butter), with a rather wet flow. Initially, the ink feathered a little, on a moderate quality paper, but later on it adjusted well once the excess ink was used up.

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Ratings

Along with my own biases*

Diamond 580 Feature - Rating (of 10)*

Length - 10

Capped ~ 14 cm

Posted ~ 18 cm
Unposted ~ 13 cm
Nib Leverage ~ 2.0 cm

- Unposted length is comfortable for long sessions

Weight - 10

28 g (~ 14g body + 14 g cap)

- Balancing is good

Design - 9

Silver Steely Accent

(Demonstrator)

- Non-slip diamond (polygonal cross-section) design of barrel

- Clip is quite innovative

- Ease of disassembly & cleaning

- Reassembly needs piston seal to be lubricated well else it won’t move

Filling System - 9

Piston

- Ink capacity can be adjusted to be > 2.1 ml

- Some play with the piston parts and end cap is required to get used to it

Nib - 7

Steel nib
Balancing Length ~ 2.0 cm

- Small Nib compared to the overall volume of the pen

- Wet Flow

- ‘Ok’ for smoothness

Economic Value - 6

- Retails in India at ~ INR 5500 ($90) and $ 50 in the US

- Available at $70 (usually shipping would be around $20-25 if ordered from TWSBI site)

- Should be priced at $50 in India too

- A bit steep for a steel nib, when you can get a Pilot CH92 for a little more

Accessories - 10

- Elegant Packaging – Let’s call it ‘Apple’ packaging for the lack of any other word (iPhones/iPods come in a similar packaging)

- 7mm steel TWSBI branded wrench

- 1 small bottle of silicone grease for lubricating piston (seal)

- Overall a nice set

 

Overall Rating 8.7 / 10

Edited November 8, 2014 by soniknitr

[Sridhar]

import duty takes a toll on the value proposition when you buy it in retail in India. If you import directly from Goulet or any other site (no affiliation.....) it works to $64

[sannidh]

import duty takes a toll on the value proposition when you buy it in retail in India. If you import directly from Goulet or any other site (no affiliation.....) it works to $64

 

Agree on import duty thing.

 

But USD 64 from Goulet is sans any tracking and and additionally customs will cost you anything between 10-19% (whichever pleases customs). Many have lost packages without tracking (pilferage and all). You can check that full tracking will cost you USD 55.(USPS is pretty expensive)

 

Alternately, the same scenario with TWSBI's website.

 

IME, parcels from Japan and all are let away from customs even sometimes with a small duty, but if it's from US/Europe, they are usually opened and checked for bill, even if there's a declared value. And customs will keep it for a month or so before valuating for duties.

 

So, USD 64 + min customs duty ~ USD 75

 

That's one of the main reasons to buy it locally.

[Art]

Nice review, especially the photos. Thanks.

[maverink]

sonik hope you had fun disassembling twsbi at last. i am starting to like this pens simple and minimalistic design.

i am all for buying the twsbi locally as its not worth the hassle of going thru customs to save 15-20 dollars as customs have beccome stricter with parcels and are opening each n every parcel.

[hari317]

Thanks for the review. Actually pens from several other brands can be also taken apart easily, only that the fact is not advertised much and a tool is generally not provided along with the pen. The need to fully strip a pen for routine cleaning is overkill IM view.

 

I would simply pay sightly more and buy a CH 92 piston filler, that pen is in a totally different quality league for just a little more money. (I did that actually)

Edited November 10, 2014 by hari317

[ArchiMark]

Very nice review, soniknitr.....

 

Thanks!

 

Mark

Edited November 10, 2014 by ArchiMark

[sannidh]

Nice review, especially the photos. Thanks.

 

Thank you for going through the review.

 

sonik hope you had fun disassembling twsbi at last. i am starting to like this pens simple and minimalistic design.

i am all for buying the twsbi locally as its not worth the hassle of going thru customs to save 15-20 dollars as customs have beccome stricter with parcels and are opening each n every parcel.

 

Of course yes And I agree 4500 INR was a decent local price for this piece. These pens however, lack the superlative efficiency of pilots or the finesse of the faber castells IMO. (As Hari, you and I had discussed it earlier, a pilot CH92 is a much superior pen for additional 2500-3000 INR).

Edited November 11, 2014 by soniknitr

[sannidh]

Thanks for the review. Actually pens from several other brands can be also taken apart easily, only that the fact is not advertised much and a tool is generally not provided along with the pen. The need to fully strip a pen for routine cleaning is overkill IM view.

 

I would simply pay sightly more and buy a CH 92 piston filler, that pen is in a totally different quality league for just a little more money. (I did that actually)

 

Thanks Hari. I do agree on a pilot CH92 too (& it would have costed INR 2500-3000 more at max above 4500 INR (580)). That's true, it's a pure marketing perspective of disassembling the entire piece. Having said that, I would like to take a twsbi apart rather than my CH92 (I would only remove the nib if it's required that badly). Since damaging a steel nib/steel-nibbed pen would hurt me less than a 14k nib.

And honestly, TWSBI lacks the efficiency of pilots or the finesse of faber-castells, even it's priced in a similar range. You would know that right away when you try to piston fill the pen, screw the cap etc.

 

BTW, did you take apart the CH92 piston ? (Isn't there some glue at the end-cap section?)

 

Very nice review, soniknitr.....

 

Thanks!

 

Mark

 

Thank you for your kind words, Mark

 

Regards,

Sonik

Edited November 11, 2014 by soniknitr

[hari317]

 

BTW, did you take apart the CH92 piston ? (Isn't there some glue at the end-cap section?)

 

 

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/183987-pilot-custom-heritage-92-piston-filler/

 

HTH