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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Kokuyo Mark+ Dual Tone Highlighter Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

I love the idea of the Kokuyo Mark+ Dual Color Highlighter. I'm a fan of color-coded notes, and having two colors in one seems like a clever and time-saving trick. In practice, though, they fall a little short of the mark.

These highlighters have a wide, white plastic body with a clear plastic cap. The clip is also clear plastic, and quite bendy. The body does show the colors of the tips, which is nice. There's a lot of text on the body, but it's well laid out and doesn't detract from the appearance of the marker. It looks nice, like a fancy highlighter should.

The grip section is also clear plastic, and shows the double feed. It is slightly shaped and comfortable to hold, though a little slippery. The two chisel tips face away from one another and are separated by a clear plastic piece, so they don't touch.

The tips make nice crisp lines with consistent color. I had no ink pooling or smearing. It does bleed through cheap copy paper, but performs well on coated papers. I think it would work well in textbooks, but might have issues if highlighting in novels. I suspect they'd be great for planners. There was minimal smudging over fountain pen and rollerball ink, and none for pencil, gel, or ballpoint ink.

I like the available colors for these. They're not eye-searing neon, but more gentle tones. One issue, though, is that some of the darker shades are a bit too dark to be highlighters. The grey, for example, obscures text more than it emphasizes it, and it's very difficult to read pencil though it. Of course, on the body of the piece, they're referred to as markers, not highlighters. So perhaps there's some confusion of purpose at play.

Another issue I had with them is that you have to be fairly conscious of getting the right angle, if you're using the wide chisel to highlight. If you hold the marker too high, you'll get a thin line above from the tip of the other color. Which looks kind of cool, and would be neat for calligraphy, but would defeat the purpose of color coding. And I worry that, while studying, I'd be focusing on how I'm holding my highlighter instead of the text I'm highlighting. Or, more probably, I'd focus on the text and just end up making it messy with sloppy highlighting.

I still like the idea of these, and the lighter colors are lovely tones. Perhaps, with more use, I'll get used to holding them at the correct angle and won't have to think about it anymore. At $2.50 apiece, they're right in line with other specialty highlighters, and the dual-colors gives them a bit of added value.

Ultimately, these aren't flawless, but they're still clever and useful. My schoolwork is already encroaching, with enrollment and advising already underway. It's definitely time to stock up on highlighters, so having two in one sounds like a good plan.

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

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!