TWSBI Diamond 580 Smoke and Rose Gold Fountain Pen: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

I own several TWSBI fountain pens, from the TWSBI Mini to the Eco to the 580, and all of them have been excellent. I’ve enjoyed the different colors that TWSBI offers (usually leaning towards the blue ones, of course), but I don’t think I would have considered the TWSBI Diamond 580 in Smoke and Rose Gold for myself. The photographs I’ve seen didn’t make the color combination look all that interesting. I am so glad JetPens sent the Smoke and Rose Gold for review, because this is a gorgeous fountain pen in person. I hope my photos can do it justice.

The pen arrives in typical TWSBI packaging--a brown outer cardboard box and an inner plastic display case. (Um . . . the pen doesn’t really arrive already inked--I forgot to take pictures of it before I inked it!)

Nestled beneath the white plastic stand you’ll find a TWSBI branded wrench (for removing the piston mechanism for cleaning and lubing) and a tiny bottle of silicone gel.

The 580 is a medium-sized pen, measuring 5.5 inches/140 mm capped, 5.1 inches/130 mm uncapped, and 7 inches/177 mm posted. The grip diameter is 10.4 mm. Un-inked and capped, the pen weighs 30 grams. Unposted and inked it weighs 18.2 grams, so it’s a fairly heavy pen due to the metal piston and trims. I find it well balanced and comfortable unposted. Posted it becomes too unwieldy.

The pen is quite beautiful with rose gold trims from top to bottom--even the inner piston mechanism is rose-gold plated.

The cap, grip, and piston knob are translucent smoke colored--and this is really what makes the rose gold stand out. The faceted barrel is clear allowing your ink color to show through.

The only thing that detracts from the beauty, in my opinion, is the red TWSBI finial on the cap. There’s just something about bright red that clashes with rose gold, but I realize that changing the finial color to please me probably isn’t a priority for TWSBI.

The 580 is a piston filler that holds a glorious 1.8 ml of ink. Originally, I inked my pen with Robert Oster Sushi, and I loved how the ink complemented the rose gold on the pen. I switched over to Bungubox 4B for this review to test the pen with a wetter ink.

My pen came equipped with an extra fine nib. I’m more of a stub/italic gal, but this EF nib writes smoothly and I’m enjoying using a much more delicate nib point. The nib is steel with rose gold plating. It is decorated with some scrollwork, the TWSBI logo, the TWSBI name, and the nib size.

Although I haven’t had any problems writing with the nib, my macro shots reveal tines that look misaligned--almost twisted.

Maybe this is just due to some extra tipping left behind on the top of one of the tines, making them look misaligned. I’m not sure.

Inked with Bungubox 4B, the nib writes a smooth line, obviously without any line variation due to the fineness of the nib.

Writing long passages was pleasant and trouble free. I encountered no hard starts, scratchiness, or skipping despite the strange looking tines.

The EF nib was perfect for creating this delicate mandala (pictured also in last week’s review of Robert Oster Sushi ink).

As I said at the beginning of the review, I have not experienced any problems with my TWSBIs so far. I think these pens are a terrific value for the price, and they are built solidly. However, I know from reading other reviews and discussions on fountain pen forums that quality control can be an issue for TWSBI fountain pens. Some customers complain about cracks in the plastic, poor nib quality, scratches, and other issues (such as unhelpful customer support). I hope that most TWSBI customers have a positive experience with the brand, as I have.

You can purchase the TWSBI Diamond 580 in Smoke and Rose Gold from JetPens in EF, F, M, B, and 1.1 stub for $87.00. As of this writing, JetPens is currently out of stock in all nib sizes, but you can ask for a restock notification.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Conklin Duraflex Elements (Water) with Omniflex Nib: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

Conklin has a new series of fountain pens called Elements, which includes three pens: Earth (black and brown translucent resin with black trim), Fire (black and red translucent resin with silver trim), and Water (blue and green translucent resin with copper trim). Today I’m reviewing Water.

The pen comes packaged in a clamshell box with an outer cardboard sheath that is brightly colored and printed with the Conklin Duraflex Elements label. The box itself has a cream, suede-like interior.

Included with the pen are several cards with information about the filling system, the Omniflex nib, and the Conklin brand. In addition you receive two ink cartridges and a converter.

Water is a beautiful resin. It reminds me a little of the black and gold celluloid on the Omas Lucens. Water is translucent with blue and green flecks (and it’s resin, not celluloid). Still, it’s quite striking. Even my daughter, who often looks at a fountain pen I have in hand and says, “That looks like clown vomit,” remarked on how pretty this pen is.

The barrel is engraved with “Duraflex Limited Edition” and the number. Mine is 711 out of 1898.

This pen comes with copper trims that complement the resin well. The clip has a simple curve with a teardrop-shaped tip. The cap is a screw top and requires only two turns for capping and uncapping.

The cap ring is engraved with “Conklin” on one side and “Duraflex” with moon shapes on the other.

The Duraflex is a medium-sized pen, measuring 5.5 inches/139.7 mm capped, 4.8 inches/121.92 mm uncapped, and 7.0 inches/177.8 mm posted. The grip is a comfortable 9.9 mm in diameter. It weighs only 11 grams unposted, which makes it light in the hand. The pen is well-balanced uncapped, but posting makes it rather unwieldy.

The pen fills via cartridge or converter. The converter is pretty standard, made of mostly plastic, but it pulls up the ink adequately.

I’m always excited to try flex nibs, so I was looking forward to writing with the Omniflex. The nib itself is pretty cool looking with cutouts on the sides, a heart-shaped breather hole, and the word “FLEX” inscribed on the surface, along with “Conklin Toledo, USA.”

The Omniflex Nib instruction card states that the nib is “intricately designed and cut for maximum performance, resembling a bird taking flight . . . . The nib flexes with significant ease . . . .”

Well . . . I would beg to differ on the “significant ease” part. This nib is stiff. Very stiff. And getting any flex out of it requires a good amount of pressure. That said, you can get some decent line variation if you work hard. I inked Water with Kobe University Town Green and wrote out the alphabet in a Midori MD notebook. You can see the line variation in the photos below. In addition, you can see where the pen started railroading and stopped writing when I did line tests.

I added some Vanness White Lightning Ink Additive to the ink and refilled the pen. This helped ink flow significantly and I was able to write at my normal speed (without flex) without any skipping or railroading.

However, this is one of the worst nibs I’ve ever used. Not only is it difficult to flex, when you write normally the nib is rough and extremely unpleasant. I took macro photos of the nib in an attempt to see what the problem was. The tines did not look misaligned from the front.

But the photos I took of the nib’s top and bottom revealed two issues. First, one tine is slightly shorter than the other. Second, one tine is quite a bit thinner than the other. It appears to me that this nib was just poorly made. Unfortunately, these sorts of issues can’t be fixed with a little micromesh.

It’s quite a shame that the nib is in such bad shape out of the box. If this weren’t a review pen, I’d return it and request a replacement. I read quite a few reviews of the Omniflex nibs, and most were negative, which suggests to me that there’s a quality control issue here. Some owners replaced their Omniflex nibs with regular Conklin nibs with good results, but, as far as I can tell, there are no copper-colored regular nibs that would match the trim on Water.

I’m sad that I finally have a fountain pen that is "Daughter-Approved™ but is unusable due to the nib. I may just grit my teeth and write with the nib for now, but I’ll likely wind up buying a regular Conklin nib to replace the Omniflex.

You can purchase any of the Conklin Elements pens from JetPens for $60.00. Keep in mind that right now JetPens is not offering free shipping for orders over $50.00 and shipping takes quite a bit longer than normal.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Leonardo Officiana Italiana Messenger Fountain Pen Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Up until the last couple of weeks, I haven't had the pleasure of using a Leonardo fountain pen. I've heard about them and seen plenty of photos of these Italian beauties, and I've wanted to try one out to see what all the fuss is about. Based in Italy, the Leonardo brand uses unique and colorful materials to create modern fountain pens that perform beautifully at a reasonable cost. Unlike a lot of premium luxury brands, Leonardo pens don't compare in price with things like rent or a mortgage payment.

The Messenger fountain pen is a limited edition that celebrates the leap year. Since there are 366 days in a leap year, there are also a limited number of each Messenger color option (366 of each). The number of each pen copy is stamped into the lower exterior cap opposite the clip side. It's a nice touch for a really fun and pretty material design. Even if 2020 is easily the worst year in modern history, these bright pens can (hopefully) bring joy to your day.

The Messenger is what I call a "standard" size, which is similar to a TWSBI 580 or Lamy Safari in length and diameter. The silver accents go nicely with the cool and refreshing teal material. This particular color is called Aqua or Water, and it has veins of lighter colored material rippling through the translucent teal body and cap that really make this pen a joy to behold. The grip section features the same material, which allows you to see the metal assembly that holds the nib and feed collar in place. The grip is a nice shape and fits well in the hand.

The cap secures to the pen with a quick twist. Capping and uncapping the pen takes about 1.5 rotations to fully remove or secure the cap. It's a quick motion but also feels very secure when you've tightend the cap down. There's also a good "closed" feeling when screwing down the cap so that you know it's set. Some caps feel a little mushy or vague when capping, which can cause you to over-tighten the cap, increasing the likelihood of the cap developing tiny fractures, cracks, or even splitting over time. The cap also posts on the back of the pen body, but I found that the combined length is too much for normal writing.

The pen comes in a case that also includes a cartridge converter. I'm always very thankful when a pen manufacturer includes a converter because they understand the wide, wide world of ink choices, and it also means I don't have to go digging through a drawer to find the right size and fit of converter laying around.

The Jowo nib is a fairly large stainless steel nib, but the size of the nib fits the size of the body perfectly. It's a stiff nib but still has a pleasant feel when writing; it doesn't feel like you're writing with a needle. The grip section is also quite comfortable. Even though the section is smooth, it has a nice tapered shape and a butt at the of the grip to keep your fingers from slipping off onto the nib and feed. I've been really comfortable when writing with this pen.

The writing performance of the Messenger is also quite nice. It's a smooth writer and has zero issues starting after being unused for a while. I even left the pen uncapped for a while when I had to step away unexpectedly during the photoshoot. After 20 minutes, I came back and tried using the pen again — to my shock and surprise, it started writing with zero hiccups or dryness!

The fine nib in my copy is a great representation of the European fine nib size. The nib is smooth and creates a reliable and consistent line. I've had zero complaints with this nib out of the box, and it always makes me happy when a nib performs as expected without the need for any tuning or adjustments.

At $164, the Messenger isn't an impulse buy, but it's also really fairly priced given the quality and beautiful, unique materials that are used in the pen. Sure, you can find some fountain pens in this price range that feature a great gold nib, but the body will be quite boring in comparison to this one. I've really enjoyed having this Water variant on my desk to add a bit of cheer to the day.

If the Water / Aqua color isn't for you, you can also choose from Green, Orange, Red, and Caramel.

(The Pen Addict ordered this pen from site sponsor Pen Chalet using the 10% off podcast code.)

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