Esterbrook “The Journaler” Nib Review

It’s rare when I review a stand-alone nib product on The Pen Addict, but in the case of The Journaler, I think that it is more than worthwhile to discuss.

The Journaler is a collaboration between Esterbrook and Gena Salorino, of Custom Nib Studio. The idea behind this product was to create a nib grind that would mimic the experience of a vintage Esterbrook nib. In this case, the 9314M - a classic medium stub grind.

So to get us all on the same page here: A pen company I like is working with a nibmeister I like to create a modern version of a vintage nib style that will work perfectly my handwriting.

You had me at hello.

Before I get into the performance of this nib (Spoiler: It’s great.) I want to discuss the idea of this nib. Pen companies that go out into the community to work with other creators will always get my attention, and support. It’s a sign to me that these companies get it. I love to see it, and I will love seeing this continue, not only with Esterbrook, but with other brands who do the same.

To quote from Esterbrooks product page for The Journaler:

“The idea is that it’s smooth and friendly enough for everyday use, gives your writing some flair, all without being too huge for practical writing.”

I think this description is exactly right. I’ve been able to use The Journaler regularly over the past month, and it gives a perfect medium stub line. Being a steel nib it is firm, and the line variation is moderate. Vertical strokes are wide - I’m guessing somewhere around 1.0 mm - and horizontal strokes cut the line width approximately in half to give your letters a great look.

While this nib grind is tailor-made for my block printing handwriting style, cursive writers will enjoy smooth lines and good variation as well. All in all, it’s a complete joy to write with.

The Journaler, top, vs. TWSBI 1.5 mm Stub.

I chose Robert Oster Blue Water Ice to use with this nib to see what shading I could get out of it, and it was a solid choice for that. The way stub nibs work is that the wide part of the nib on the downstroke pulls the ink down, giving the top of the line a lighter color than the bottom, where the nib lifts up and the ink pools. Shading is the best feature of fountain pen inks, in my opinion.

The Journaler has been a great nib for me, and I think many of you would like this as an option if you are looking at picking up a new Esterbrook Pen. This nib isn’t available separately, but is available as a $50 upgraded nib choice (check the dropdown) when buying a Standard or Oversized Esterbrook Estie. That puts it in line with getting a custom grind on your nib at any pen show.

I love this product, and I love this concept even more. I can’t wait to see what’s next from Esterbrook, and from other brands who are looking to work with other makers in our community.

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

---

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!

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.)

---

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!

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.)

---

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!