I would like to come back, should I?

[sparkyhx]

I was an early adopter of the TWSBI, but my first two pens cracked, which at the time appeared to be relatively common, and I kind of put it down to the teething problems of a new manufacturer.  I then got a couple more later generation pens, and both these broke on the cap, with the silver collar section snapping off.

 

Cue a few years later and I pulled the trigger on a couple of Vacuum fillers, again thinking the quality issues were a thing of the past.  These have lasted longer admittedly, but this week, one of them stopped filling and on closer inspection has a crack at the top of the piston chamber.

 

I love the demonstrator design, being able to see how much ink is in the pen, the various colours of pen/see thru means I know which colour ink is in, the greater capacity, and in my experience they have always written superbly, but I am just so disillusioned by the quality problems.  I have NEVER had another pen break on me, and now 5 out of 6 TWSBI have all cracked.  I've pretty much replaced them now as daily writers with cheap Lamy Safari (£20) ones, which I absolutely love and the various colours available in these means I can match pen to ink.  The Lamy Safari may not be classy and interesting to look at and use, but they get the job done with no fuss and I like how they write. 

 

I'm looking for another pen to replace the now broken vacuum filler and was wondering if it's time to return or just give up, get something else, or just stick with the Lamy.  

 

[Mark from Yorkshire]

If you like Lamy and Demonstrator pens maybe try the Lamy Vista, basically a clear Safari shape and grip wise.

[irony]

buy a clear jinhao 9016, the best $5.00 fountain pen on the market today.

ali express

[PAKMAN]

Asvine pens give a good piston fill or vacuum fill option and seem to be very sturdy for the long term. 

[Doc Dan]

Well, I can't say it will never happen, but I have yet to have an issue of any kind with my six TWSBI pens. I love them so much I kick myself for buying other brands because I am usually disappointed in comparison. 

[Sealkat]

None of us can offer guarantees, but I own a silly number of TWSBIs and have yet to have a problem with any of them. I always have at least one or two of them inked up. I find them super reliable. I managed to misplace one for 2 years and it wrote without hesitation when (joy) I found it again. Their nibs are so much more reliable than Lamy in my experience (if you exclude the 2000) and I won’t touch Lamy any longer for this reason. From what I can tell the general build quality has improved in recent years - though no guarantees of course. 

[Format]

I have two, neither see use. I owned another, the section became cracked, it went to twsbi for repair and they refused to repair it. The two that I have are troublesome, one has a loose fit in the feed and nib, the other blobs ink without warning. neither have seen much in the way of use.

 

As others have suggested, you can do better. 

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

My experiences with TWSBIs: 

580-AL and 580-ALR -- the piston doesn't extend all the way to the back of the feed, leading to air bubbles blocking ink flow at times.  Additionally, when soaking the 580-AL in ammonia solution, the metal section became discolored; the 580-ALR (with its ribbed section) is hard to clean because the ink tends to lodge in the ribbing.

700-Vac -- Takes FOREVER for the barrel to dry out and I really do NOT want to have to be constantly pulling the nib and feed to be able to swab down the insides.

I keep looking at the Indigo Bronze AL mini one, but then keep reminding myself that the problem with the piston will likely be the same -- that the piston rod is too short to extend all the way to the back of the feed.  

Mind you, I read all about the cracking problems that people experienced early on.  I didn't have that happen, but I've also pretty much decided that I'm not a fan of clear barrels in general (with the possible exception of my Noodler's Charlie pens which are eyedroppers).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[inkstainedruth]

Just now, inkstainedruth said:

My experiences with TWSBIs: 

580-AL and 580-ALR -- the piston doesn't extend all the way to the back of the feed, leading to air bubbles blocking ink flow at times.  Additionally, when soaking the 580-AL in ammonia solution, the metal section became discolored; the 580-ALR (with its ribbed section) is hard to clean because the ink tends to lodge in the ribbing.

700-Vac -- Takes FOREVER for the barrel to dry out and I really do NOT want to have to be constantly pulling the nib and feed to be able to swab down the insides.

I keep looking at the Indigo Bronze AL mini one, but then keep reminding myself that the problem with the piston will likely be the same -- that the piston rod is too short to extend all the way to the back of the feed.  

Mind you, I read all about the cracking problems that people experienced early on.  I didn't have that happen, but I've also pretty much decided that I'm not a fan of clear barrels in general (with the possible exception of my Noodler's Charlie pens which are eyedroppers).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

ETA:  Maybe if I used the same ink in them every time, so didn't worry quite so much about cleaning/flushing them, I'd like them better (I do like the trim colors on mine: pink on the 580-AL, purple for the 580-ALR, and the rainbow variagated metal on the 700R.

[Bill Wood]

I was an early adopter as well. And my Twsbi cracked. Maybe I’ll give it a whirl again. All the Lamys have been good to me, but I might try a Twsbi again. Surely some of the cracking problems have been solved. Thanks to the original poster I may try again.