Twsbi Eco Video Review - From The Nibsmith

[Jamerelbe]

Public service announcement: for those who don't subscribe to his channel, Dan Smith (the Nibsmith) has just posted a YouTube 'first look' video for the TWSBI Eco. A concise but comprehensive and, I think, pretty fair summary of the pen's features. Take a look if you're interested (and/or feel free to make your own?!).

 

[Forsooth]

Thanks. It is a great review.

[Jamerelbe]

Thanks. It is a great review.

 

Yep, even-handed in discussing pros and cons, and honest about the fact that it can't properly evaluate the pen's durability. Looking forward to having one (or more) in my hand!

[katerchen]

Heh, he has the Costco toolbox.

 

Irrelevant I know

 

-k

 

I need to order me one of these pens. Or two.

[Jamerelbe]

Heh, he has the Costco toolbox.

 

Irrelevant I know

 

-k

 

I need to order me one of these pens. Or two.

 

I've asked Sunny (of Straits Pen, Singapore) to set aside one in each colour for me - just waiting for an invoice to confirm availability and make payment... After which (all going well) I'll be waiting another 7-10 days to see it arrive in my letterbox in Aus... Will *probably* just keep one, and save one as a birthday gift - that was the original plan, but... we'll see!

 

Very limited numbers at the moment, but hopefully supply and demand will keep up well over time.

[cambookpro]

Wow, that white version looks great. Will probably pick one up before school starts again in September.

[GHigley]

As always, an excellent, succinct and informative review from Dan. I appreciate him reviewing it so quickly as these just became available. I look forward to Stephen Brown's and others reviews of it.

[beanbag]

Here's my mini review of my eco. If it belongs in some other thread, let me know:

 

The cap posting on the pen is not as flimsy as he says. I can't "rub it off" while holding the pen in a writing position. I also can't get the cap to fly off by shaking the pen. What I have to do is rapidly wriggle the pen back and forth, which causes the cap to rock. Then if I keep this up for several seconds of fast wriggling, the cap will fall off. You really have to do this on purpose to make it come off.

 

The o-rings do not make the pen feel cheep. First, they are barely noticeable since they are at junctions anyway. Second, they help smooth out the steps at junctions anyway.

 

The cap is too large and heavy. If I post it, the pen becomes very rear heavy. I also don't like screw caps.

 

The feed system is not as good or sophisticated as a Platinum or Pilot pen. Those pens have very little exposed ink (e.g. no exposed fins) and also when you shake them, ink doesn't fly out. On this pen, when I shake it, little droplets of ink fly out. Not big drips like vintage pens, though. I can also see a big ring of exposed ink right at the point where the nib enters the section. I hope TWSBI can study the Pilot feeds and learn something from them. Those feeds are shaped to be a nice fit to the underside of their custom nibs, though.

 

The fit and finish seem fine, but one problem is that the threaded piston is very fine thread pitch but doesn't have a definite stopping, or "oh, it suddenly got tighter, better stop turning" sensation. My guess is that somebody is going to strip the threads someday.

 

The nib writes well by default and makes a medium-wet line in the fine point. Just right for me. It is half way between the Pilot fine and medium. It is less smooth than a Pilot nib would have been. I haven't put this nib to the Micro-mesh yet.

 

I like the piston filler and demonstrator clear body.

[Art]

Nice info. Thanks for the posts. I've got one on the way from Goulet Pens.

[GHigley]

I'm quite pleased with the Eco. The medium nib on mine is quite smooth though a touch on the dry side which I may adjust for later. I like the looks of the black version a lot. Build seems quite robust especially for the price. I wish the barrel was hexagonal like the cap to prevent desk roll. I like the o-ring as it provides an excellent cap seal and prevents over tightening reducing the likelihood of cap cracks. Hard to beat at the price. Another winner from TWSBI.

[Frank C]

Thanks for posting this; it was a good review of the pen.

[Jamerelbe]

My pleasure - every review has some subjective elements, and I'm keen to see for myself whether the cap really displaces that easily, but I always appreciate Dan Smith's efforts to be balanced and fair. It's well worth subscribing to hi YouTube channel!

[Frank C]

My pleasure - every review has some subjective elements, and I'm keen to see for myself whether the cap really displaces that easily, but I always appreciate Dan Smith's efforts to be balanced and fair. It's well worth subscribing to hi YouTube channel!

 

I like Dan's reviews in general. They are well-planned and his delivery is matter-of-fact. I always cringe when he tests the springiness of a nib, but he didn't do it in this one. Thanks again for posting!

[WayTooManyHobbies]

My TWSBI ECO just arrived - a black with 1.1 stub nib. So far, I'm favorably impressed. The aesthetics aren't great, but certainly it's not ugly. The ergonomics and function all seem good, with the piston action being particularly smooth. Overall, I like it a bit better than a Safari.

[FOUR X FOUR]

If i don't have anything nice to say about someone, i say nothing.

[Drone]

Dan GOT IT in his review - the cap falls off too easily. This is happening to my Eco too. Very annoying. So we have yet another TWSBI pen that will not post properly. And this one was actually supposed to post!

Grrrrr....

 

The problem is the O-Ring doesn't have enough grip on the cap, and the cap is air tight. So the air pressure in the cap when posted tends to push the cap off the O-Ring. This debacle could have been totally avoided if TWSBI only fielded a dozen or so prototype Ecos to select reviewers for a few weeks before going to full production. But nope, didn't happen. And now there are probably thousands of Eco's in the field with caps that fall off.

[thepiman]

Drone was absolutely right when he said "Dan GOT IT". Having owned and used the Eco almost every weekday for over 4 months I remain impressed at its quality and ease of use. It still looks good, writes beautifully and has not skipped once. The only draw back to this pen is the posting issue. Maybe it is the way that I write, but I find the cap comes off at least once or twice a day - which is annoying. So I have two questions:

1) in the video, towards the end, Dan shows how he uses this nifty ink bottle which can be balanced on its side so as to tilt the ink and make it easier to fill your pen. What is this kind of IBM bottle called and where can i buy one?

2) if you liked everything about the TWSBI Eco but the posting issue, what pen would you go for? I like a wet butter smoother M nib with a large ink capacity.

[ac12]

I have an Eco since August '15.

 

- Mine has an EF nib. The nib did need some work to get it to be as smooth as I wanted it to be. But then I like a nib smoother than many people who want "feedback" from their nib. So nib feel is very personal. You may or may not like the stock nib. Also realize that the finer the nib, the more likely it is to feel scratchy.

- If you want smooth, out of the box, go with a M nib and adjust it to flow your ink wet.

 

- When posted, the pen is too tail heavy, for me. This is because the cap is too heavy, as 'beanbag' said, and moves the center of gravity/balance point too far to the end of the pen. So I just use the pen unposted, not an issue, as the pen is long enough unposted. BTW, I find the cap of the Lamy Safari similarly too heavy, and have to use my Safari unposted.

- For those having trouble posting the cap, you might try sanding or notching the rear O-ring, so that when posted, there isn't an air tight seal that traps and compresses the air under the cap.

 

- I have not had any ink drooling, spitting, etc. issues. I have it inked with Noodlers Gruene Cactus, which seems like a wet ink, which should do that if there was an ink drooling/spitting problem.

 

- To me the pen is FAT. I like slim pens. I hold my pens high, which makes FAT pens more of an issue. My fingers are on the cap threads (~2.5cm from the tip), and thumb on the body (~4cm from the tip), and that is comfortable for me. Maybe it is the smaller diameter at the threads that make it fit my hand, because the body is definitely too fat to hold with my fingers on the body.

 

- The pen is light, and that makes it pleasant to use for extended writing, anything more than a page.

 

- Bottom line, I like the pen, and keep it inked and used regularly.

If I did not like the pen, it would be deinked and sold or put into my collection never to be used, like my Lamy 2000.

 

- As for the ink bottle in the video, I don't know, but the Waterman ink bottle can be similarly angled.

Edited January 29, 2016 by ac12

[Drone]

Drone was absolutely right when he said "Dan GOT IT". Having owned and used the Eco almost every weekday for over 4 months I remain impressed at its quality and ease of use. It still looks good, writes beautifully and has not skipped once. The only draw back to this pen is the posting issue. Maybe it is the way that I write, but I find the cap comes off at least once or twice a day - which is annoying. So I have two questions:

1) in the video, towards the end, Dan shows how he uses this nifty ink bottle which can be balanced on its side so as to tilt the ink and make it easier to fill your pen. What is this kind of IBM bottle called and where can i buy one?

2) if you liked everything about the TWSBI Eco but the posting issue, what pen would you go for? I like a wet butter smoother M nib with a large ink capacity.

 

1) The bottle in the video is a 62.5ml bottle of Omas brand ink. You can buy empty Omas bottles from Anderson Pens for or $2.50 or from Goulet Pens at $2.95 each; when they are available. Goulet pens sells a lot of ink samples, so it is more likely they will have an empty bottle of a given type available. Of-course you will have to clean the bottle out yourself and there may be some residual ink staining left over.

 

It just so happens you are in luck today! Both Anderson and Goulet have empty Omas bottles available. Here you go...

 

http://www.andersonpens.com/Empty-Omas-62-5ml-Bottle-p/empty-omas.htm

 

http://www.gouletpens.com/EmptyBottleOM-D/p/EmptyBottleOM-D

 

2) I would say at a price-point similar to the TWSBI Eco I would recommend the Lamy Vista. The Vista is Lamy's demonstrator (clear) version of the Safari. The Vista sells for just around $29 USD each, and it comes with EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm, and 1.5mm nibs, although not all sellers will offer these pens with the 1.1mm or 1.5mm stub nibs. The nibs are sold separately and are interchangeable. One thing to watch out for with the Lamy Vista and Safari pens is whether the pen comes with the Z24 converter or not. Some sellers include the converter, some don't. The Z24 converter is the one with the red piston knob (not black) and it costs around $5 USD each.

 

Lamy's non-demonstrator equivalent of the Vista is the Safari. The Safari is just like the Vista, but it's not clear and it comes in many colors. My favorite is the Charcoal Safari which comes with a matching black nib and clip (stealthy). I fill my Charcoal Safari with matching Diamine Graphite ink Depending on who you buy from, the Lamy Safari is either the same price as the Vista, or a bit less expensive.

 

One thing you have be to careful about with the Lamy Safari is fakes. Recently fake Safari pens have been showing up - mostly on Ebay. Most likely these fakes are coming out of China (or maybe India). A Safari expert can spot a fake a mile away - but that's not possible buying on the Internet. So buy your Safari from a reputable dealer. I do not know of any fake Lamy Vista pens - yet. I suspect the clear Vista is harder to copy than the Safari and/or it may be more expensive to make. Just to be sure, buy from a reputable seller regardless.

 

And finally come the Lamy nibs... Sometimes, you can get a Lamy nib that isn't a stellar writer out-of-the-box. This is true for all Lamy pens ranging from the lowly Safari all the way through their high-end pens worth hundreds of dollars. Lamy has a small problem with quality control when it comes to nibs. If you get a bum nib on your Vista or Safari, almost always all it requires is a minor adjustment to get the tines aligned. A good magnifier or (better) an eye-loupe helps a lot in aligning the tines. If you're worried about this, just ask your seller if they will try the pen for you prior to shipping to make sure the pen is a smooth writer (Goulet Pens will do this for you). Alternatively, if you're not happy with the nib at all, send the pen back. Any reputable seller will either put the pen right, or refund your money.

 

Good Luck, David

Edited January 29, 2016 by Drone

[AllisonS]

Just ordered a white one from Wonder Pen. Cannot wait for it!! Hopefully their shipping is fast.