Twsbi 580 Or Conklin Word Gauge Piston Fillers

[fabian3194]

Hi,

 

I'm deciding between two mid-priced piston fillers; either the TWSBI 580 or Conklin Heritage Word Gauge. Apart from the small price difference which pen would you choose and why ? Especially like to hear from those who have both.

 

TWSBI

pros: easy to disassemble and clean

Cons: chance of cracking/fragile, #5 nib limits availability of nib options (eg italics, gold flex and specialty grinds etc)

 

Conklin:

pros: no history of cracking, #6 nib more freedom of nib options (eg italics, gold flex and specialty grinds etc)

cons: not designed to be disassembled

Thanks

[kestrel]

I own both and prefer the Word Gauge. The balance is better and the modern Conklin stub nib is a better nib. Cleaning the Conklin is easy as the the nib and feed are easily removed and replaced if necessary. They are both good pens but I use the Conklin far more often.

[ian1964]

I am a great fan on the Conklin pens and so bought the World Gauge from the recent Massdrop offer. Of all my Conklin pens it is the worst by a long chalk. The piston is stiff (very stiff) and my Waterman black ink has left a distict ring at the base of the viewing window. Waterman inks have never done this to my Demonstrator pens I might add and so I am mystified as to why. The nib is not smooth and this is again something new to me. Having said that, the pen is well balanced and comfortable in the hand.

[Freddy]

As noted above ease of cleaning is a plus.

My experience using the Conklin Word Gauge in Tiger Eye

purchased from Art Brown NYC{more than 10 years}

has been flawless.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/316994-what-pens-are-you-using-today-2017/?p=3782394

 

 

Furthermore..I have all TWSBI's 530..540..580..et al and have not had any issues.

 

There is no need to strip down a pen for routine maintenance.

This is of course is my personal preference which has served me well.

 

Fred

Edited February 5, 2017 by Freddy

[langere]

I am surprised by the good words on the Conklin. I gave up on the new Conklins a while ago because I found that they were not as well built as most of my other pens. Has their quality improved a lot in the past five years?

 

Erick

[Runnin_Ute]

As noted above ease of cleaning is a plus.

My experience using the Conklin Word Gauge in Tiger Eye

purchased from Art Brown NYC{more than 10 years}

has been flawless.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/316994-what-pens-are-you-using-today-2017/?p=3782394

 

 

Furthermore..I have all TWSBI's 530..540..580..et al and have not had any issues.

 

There is no need to strip down a pen for routine maintenance.

This is of course is my personal preference which has served me well.

 

Fred

Agree with above 100%.

 

Have I taken my 580 apart in the two years or so I have had it? Yes, on a couple of occasions. But for just regular maintenance it isn't necessary. I would bet that most of the people that have had cracking issues did take the pen apart for routine maintenance.

[ian1964]

I am surprised by the good words on the Conklin. I gave up on the new Conklins a while ago because I found that they were not as well built as most of my other pens. Has their quality improved a lot in the past five years?

 

Erick

 

I have several at they are one of my favourite brands. No significant QC issues. All have a Conklin 1.1mm stub nib and produce a wonderful writing expeience. I am a big fan anf recently Massdrop have had some interesting models at great prices.

[kestrel]

I am surprised by the good words on the Conklin. I gave up on the new Conklins a while ago because I found that they were not as well built as most of my other pens. Has their quality improved a lot in the past five years?

 

Erick

I think so. The first one I bought had major issues including a cracked plastic ring in the section that made it leak like a sieve. Conklin repaired it for no charge. My last Conklin purchase, a Conklinetta, had a leak inside the barrel. Either the sac was faulty or they didn't attach it properly. That one, also, was repaired free of charge. In between I bought four other modern Conklins and have had no issues with any of them. The Word Gauge and Crescent Demonstrator are two of the best modern pens I own with very nice nibs. I have also purchased duds from Visconti (three trips to Italy to fix that one), Parker, and TWSBI. I would shoot for the pen that you like and let the company fix any problems. Conklin and TWSBI both have good reputations for fixing misteaks misstakez booboos.

[fly_us]

IMO, if you want a good piston filler pen, skip both and get a Pelikan M200/205, preferable a old style one. It could be found around the same price range. Plenty of nib options, build could last for years.

 

This is a little bias as I never impress by the 580 nibs and have some bad experiences with modern Conklin.

[ian1964]

IMO, if you want a good piston filler pen, skip both and get a Pelikan M200/205, preferable a old style one. It could be found around the same price range. Plenty of nib options, build could last for years.

 

This is a little bias as I never impress by the 580 nibs and have some bad experiences with modern Conklin.

The size difference with the 200/205 and the Conklin Word Gauge does not make them comparable pens. The Pelikan is puny by comparison. I own several Pelikan 200 and 400 models.

[Maggard]

Which did you purchase?

 

How has your experience been?

[tde44x]

I have one Conklin which wrote so poorly I ended up replacing the nib unit which made it acceptable. Looks great, my experience with a whole number of one of theirs was not great.

 

I have four TWSBI 580's, all with stub nibs (3x1.1's and 1x1.5). They write well and one of the 1.1's has one of the nicest/smoothest stub nibs I have ever used. I have not experienced and problems.

 

Next two might be at the top of the $ range you are looking at (but not ridiculously so if purchased on sale from either Cult Pens or Endless Pens) and are not piston converters:

 

My favorite demonstrator style FP though is an Opus 88 with a 1.5 nib. Absolutely wonderful nib that is slightly better than my best TWSBI 580 1.1. It is an eyedropper not a piston filler.

 

However, my favorite nib in terms of being smooth and writing wonderfully is a Faber Castell e-Motion in a broad nib. This is a cartridge converter but the converter screws in.

[sirgilbert357]

12 hours ago, Maggard said:

Which did you purchase?

 

How has your experience been?

 

The last response was 4 years ago and the OP only has 29 posts. I'm guessing we'll never know...LOL.

[Maggard]

On 8/23/2021 at 9:44 PM, sirgilbert357 said:

 

The last response was 4 years ago and the OP only has 29 posts. I'm guessing we'll never know...LOL.

 

Yet if they do, they'll see 👀 we're still interested in their thoughts.  It is one of the benefits of asynchronous communication. 

 

Once life brings them back to their love of writing-sticks, hopefully they return.

[Maggard]

On 8/23/2021 at 9:28 AM, tde44x said:

...:

 

My favorite demonstrator style FP though is an Opus 88 with a 1.5 nib. Absolutely wonderful nib that is slightly better than my best TWSBI 580 1.1. It is an eyedropper not a piston filler.

 

However, my favorite nib in terms of being smooth and writing wonderfully is a Faber Castell e-Motion in a broad nib. This is a cartridge converter but the converter screws in.

 

The Opus 88 line has started showing up while checking for options.  I fear my wishlist must expand to include their products. 

 

Also, I am leaning more toward dropper filled pens lately. I blame Noodler's Ink, as their 4.5 oz inks are a great deal before considering the FREE pen. 

 

Noodler's Ink attitude toward everyone being able to adjust your pens is sinking in.  I want to gain the knack to maintain and adjust my pens to ensure reliable flow.  It is easier to do with their FREE pen than risk one with greater value, whether emotional, price or both.

[fabian3194]

Hi,

 

I purchased both the TWSBI 580 and Conklin Word Gauge.  On the Conklin I replaced the plastic feed with an ebonite feed  from flexiblenib.com and the Conklin nib was replaced with a JoWo nib.  The ebonite feed gave a wet flow with the nib smoothed and tuned to give feedback like that of a "smooth pencil". 

 

The Conklin piston mechanism feels stiff to turn. It's not designed to be disassembled and greased.  The TWSBI nib I did not tune, it performs sufficiently as a writer out of the box. The TWSBI piston mechanism is flawless and you can disassemble and grease it if need be.

 

I hold my pen near the top of the grip section where the threads are; so for comfort and long use I prefer the Conklin because its grip section and threads are acrylic, which is comfortable and smooth. There is no sharp step down from thread to grip section.

 

The TWSBI has a coarse plastic thread section with a prominent step down to its metal grip. I found myself constantly adjusting my finger posture to find the ideal comfortable writing grip, that comfort zone was never there for me.

 

For me, the Conklin had a sweet spot when held that soon had me forget about the pen in hand, the pen soon "disappeared" when ideas and thoughts were put into words. This was why I went to the effort of replacing its mediocre nib and feed to its current ebonite feed and JoWo nib.

 

Other considerations maybe: the TWSBI has faceted sides so will not roll off the desk, the Conklin has a beautiful industrial design that I prefer. If  you have arthritis the Conklin's piston is harder to twist especially if you're flushing the pen.

 

Hope this helps.