Got My First Twsbi's

[Driften]

i got my first TWSBI's. I ordered an ECO F off Amazon and while waiting for that to come in I ordered a second one in the 1.1 Stub from Goulet. That one actually showed up a day before the one TWSBI shipped. For me the 1.1 seems like it goes from fine to medium. I can see using it as a daily pen, not just the special use type I thought it might end up being. The fine nib works well just as well as some of my other pens with fine nibs. Both are nice smooth writing pens. My favorite ink in general is Kon-Peki so I got samples of two other inks.

 

I used samples of Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu and Shin-Ryoku inks in the two new pens. One issue I had filling from the samples was lots of bubbles in the ink fill. That kept me from getting good fills. I expect filling from a real bottle would be different but it would be good to know if that is other people experience.

 

I look forward to the new 700s Vac coming out.

 

Here is a pic of the new pens.

 

http://driften.dragonsightsoftware.com/images/TWSBI-pair.jpg

[heathydraws]

I too would like to know how to get a good fill from those 2ml samples. I plan on just siphoning out the remaining ink and filling empty cartridges with it. The green ink in your TWSBI looks very nice btw.

[Erik Dalton]

Glad to hear that you like your pens.

As for getting a good fill from the sample bottles, it's tricky. But try this: Dip the nib into the vial and slowly bring down the piston so that you don't whip up a lot of bubbles. Then draw the piston up. You should get a decent fill.

Alternately lower the piston before placing the nib in the sample vial and retract it when the nib is submerged.

Filling from a bottle will work much better. You still get bubbles, but they don't effect the fill. In fact, I usually go up and down twice maybe three times when i fill up a pen. Each time I listen for bubbles that tells me that there is still air being expelled from the barrel. When you get no bubbles you have a solid fill. Same thing goes for squeeze type fillers. Squeeze until you get no more air bubbles.

[LizEF]

I used samples of Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu and Shin-Ryoku inks in the two new pens. One issue I had filling from the samples was lots of bubbles in the ink fill. That kept me from getting good fills. I expect filling from a real bottle would be different but it would be good to know if that is other people experience.

 

The bubbles won't be near as much trouble from a bottle. But it's OK to put the piston down before the nib is in the ink (that's what I do). I then draw it all the way up, slowly squirt it back out, then draw it all the way up again (to eliminate as much air as possible). I've also done it the hard way: pull the nib, put the piston all the way down (toward where the nib goes), use a syringe to fill the nib/feed area with ink, turn the piston enough to suck the ink down through that little hole (it won't go on its own), repeat until there's tons of ink in there, including pushing the piston back toward the nib and feed until pretty much all the air is gone.

[Tasmith]

Congratulations on your first TWSBIs!

 

The ECO was my first TWSBI too. Got the 1.1mm stub (but it writes more like .8mm which I like!) and it's my new favorite daily writer.

[Driften]

I normally put the piston down before putting the nib in the bottle. This is just the first time I have used the 2ml samples or the TWSBI's. I would have filled one of them with Kon-Peki but the body of the pen did not fit in the 15ml bottle. All my other bottles (MB, Private Reserve, Visconti) had colors I did not want to test right now.

 

I am liking the Murasaki-shikibu and Shin-ryoku samples and expect I will buy full size bottles of that as well as the Kon-Peki.

 

On my Pelikan m200, m215, and Pilot Custom 92 it normally takes two draws to get a full pen. Its funny how on those pens the piston goes all the way down where on the Eco it stops about 1/4" from the section. I wonder why TWSBI did that.

 

I am already eyeing a Vac Mini or Vac 700s to add to the TWSBI collection.

[Driften]

Congratulations on your first TWSBIs!

 

The ECO was my first TWSBI too. Got the 1.1mm stub (but it writes more like .8mm which I like!) and it's my new favorite daily writer.

 

Thanks that is very good to know. I normally like nibs that are like the TWSBI F and the 1.1 stub is very enjoyable. I was thinking about getting some nibs for other pens and knowing that the stub nib on the Eco is more like a .8 really helps!