Very Disappointed With Twsbi Mini

[dbs]

Just bought a TWSBI mini from TWSBI. Pen looks very well made. Line is uniform and wet. But the problem is, whenever I uncap it for 5 min, the first inch will be always dry. This is really annoying -- I cannot use this as note taking at all.

 

I have Pilot Heritage 92 and much cheaper Pilot Prera. I can uncap it for the whole day and the first inch is alway wet.

 

I am ordering another nib from a nearby dealer and see if this problem is due to the design or the nib issue. It seems buying a TWSBI is just like people said, kind of waste time and money.

[Gump]

I have found new homes for most my TWSBI's. Too many issues, too many excuses, too many good options out there to fuss with TWSBI.

 

Email TWSBI and request guidance or replacement parts before you put more money into it, they are very willing to send out additional parts at no charge. I have received an extra nib, two feed holders, o-rings, and a section. All of those were just on my Vac 700's.

[ExcaliburZ]

Why are you leaving your pens uncapped? Second contact Twsbi, the nib might need to be readjusted on the feed. Third have you considered a Pilot Vanishing Point?

[Scribblesoften]

I had good luck with my Mini. It sounds like an air getting in the cap issue. Try some silicone on your cap threads. If the barrel is slightly out of round that would do it. If nothing else, it would help you diagnose the problems.

[Nonsensical]

I had good luck with my Mini. It sounds like an air getting in the cap issue. Try some silicone on your cap threads. If the barrel is slightly out of round that would do it. If nothing else, it would help you diagnose the problems.

He is uncapping the pen for 5 minutes and leaving it out to dry. To the OP - many pens will dry out in 5 minutes if you leave them uncapped. That's a FP issue, not a TWSBI one.

 

As for your claim that your other FPs can write right away after leaving them uncapped all day...well I do wonder about that one.

Edited April 21, 2014 by Nonsensical

[Scribblesoften]

He is uncapping the pen for 5 minutes and leaving it out to dry. To the OP - many pens will dry out in 5 minutes if you leave them uncapped. That's a FP issue, not a TWSBI one.

As for your claim that your other FPs can write right away after leaving them uncapped all day...well I do wonder about that one.

Thanks. I misread it. Five minutes is too long.

[Sasha Royale]

I have not encountered this with my TWSBI,except if it sits unused for a long time. I can understand how it would be annoying

(even embarrassing) in a "signing" pen. Certainly, there can be corrective measures.

 

Most annoying is the Pilot Varsity. It hangs on the store display for months. I take it home. Remove it from the blister package.

Pull the cap. And it writes. Why can't every pen do that ?

[Nonsensical]

I have not encountered this with my TWSBI,except if it sits unused for a long time. I can understand how it would be annoying

(even embarrassing) in a "signing" pen. Certainly, there can be corrective measures.

 

Most annoying is the Pilot Varsity. It hangs on the store display for months. I take it home. Remove it from the blister package.

Pull the cap. And it writes. Why can't every pen do that ?

He's not leaving it for months unused, he's simply taking the CAP off and leaving it UNCAPPED for 5 minutes. I've left my TWSBI pens unused for 6 months at a time and they write the very first line that I try to write. That's a whole different issue!

[rezwrrd]

Most annoying is the Pilot Varsity. It hangs on the store display for months. I take it home. Remove it from the blister package.

Pull the cap. And it writes. Why can't every pen do that ?

 

I have the same annoyance with my Varsities. I always wanted to hate them because they were so cheap and "disposable"... but I keep coming back and those little cheapies keep providing reliable service. What does Pilot know that the rest of us don't?

 

To the OP, if you want to leave your pen uncapped for more than a minute or two, you might look into a hooded nib. I don't have any in the same price range as the Mini, but my Parker Super 21s and Hero 616s all start up surprisingly well after uncapped breaks of even five or ten minutes.

[Lisya72]

I second the recommendation for a hooded nib - most fountain pens will dry out if left uncapped that long. If my exposed nibs were still wet after that much time uncapped, I'd consider myself lucky. Hero Pen Company makes several that are variants on classic Parker designs (616 already mentioned, the 100 may also be a good choice), and you can leave them uncapped for a long time before they dry out. You could also buy half a dozen or more (depending on shipping costs, I guess) for the price of one TWSBI pen. isellpens.com sells quite a few Hero pens - no affiliation, just a satisfied customer.

 

Another option that's a little closer to TWSBI's price point (edit: I was thinking the 580 or Vac700, I forgot the OP had a Mini) would be to purchase a restored Parker 51. You can find the more common colors in the $75 range in the classifieds here or on ebay, or at the next pen show in your area.

Edited April 21, 2014 by Lisya72

[RLTodd]

Uncapped?

I think the problem is your habbits are not condusive to fountain pen ownership.

These types are behavior were accomidated by the developement of the ball point pen.

One of the many reasons the ball point replaced the fountain pen.

 

Solution, as I say to many, gift or sell the fountain pens and buy some good ballpoint pens.

 

Even during the heyday of the successful fountain pen, most people used pencils or ink pencils.

 

I don't think it is good for people to force a behavior that is not natural to them.

The main reason why I never use my fountain pen in my checkbook, to write on my wall calander, or to write on Post It Notes.

[I like mango cheesecake]

yeah 5 minutes is a long time for any fountain pen. Have you tried this with other fp's? Do they experience the same dryness after 5 mins uncapped? Even my wettest gushers dry up after a sustained long period of uncappedness (ie 5 mins).

[Kataphract]

Fountain pens simply may not be for you. Most will start suffering from the effects of evaporation after five minutes (certainly all mine do, but I don't have a hooded pen and don't know if that helps). It depends on the humidity, temperature, and if, for example, you have an overhead fan blowing (like I have at the moment), but it's just the nature of the beast. You either have to cap it if it is going to sit that long unused, or you need to learn to doodle. Personally, I doodle, but I like the Twsbi because it has a short-twist screw on cap rather than an annoyingly loud click-on cap.

[rezwrrd]

Solution, as I say to many, gift or sell the fountain pens and buy some good ballpoint pens.

 

Fountain pens simply may not be for you.

 

Never give up! Never surrender!

 

Seriously. Capping a pen more often or switching to a hooded nib isn't that big of a deal. Not worth giving up the world of FPs just yet!

Welcome to FPN, by the way!

[wikeh2004]

I won't say anything about the drying nib. That's been covered.

 

However, I will give one unusual testimonial for the Mini. My friend gifted me one and I happily used it as an everyday pen. Always worked well. One day, I forgot it in the flapped pocket of a shirt and sent it through the washer. Not only did it survive the washing without a crack or scratch, it didn't even leak. The multiple O-ring seals on the pen managed to keep the water out and the ink in. I was amazed. And, that was with some tumbling and high speed spinning because this was in a modern front loading washer. I give TWSBI's design and engineering full credit for the pen surviving this unusual torture and not staining an entire load of clothes. Try that with any other pen!

 

I recently changed the nib from an M to an F, and that nib worked fine from the moment I installed it. It's one of my everyday pens. I have several TWSBIs and they've been great. Any issue I had, Philip Wang at TWSBI USA took care of quickly. I'd gladly get another Mini, except I'm waiting for the Vac Mini they tantalized us with several months ago.

 

I've found that with the O-rings on the section and on the cap, this pen doesn't dry out with the cap on. It writes reliably. Some other pens will dry out even with the cap on.

[celesul]

If you want to leave your pen uncapped for a while (as one often does when notetaking), you'll want a hooded nib. I use a Hero 616 for almost all of my notetaking for this very reason (also, it's cheap enough that it's suitable for a college setting, where one's belongings too often wander off). Alternatively (and at a very different price point), you might want a Pilot Vanishing Point, which you can easily click closed or open when needed. I use regular open nibs mostly for journaling.

[TSherbs]

My Mini is the best pen/nib combo in my house right now. It was a little dry out of the box (1.1 stub), but I flossed it and flexed it ever so slightly and now it writes like a dream. It does not hard start after five minutes EXCEPT with Pelikan 4001 RB in it (ie, a drier ink). With other inks it takes about 10 mins uncapped to give me a hard start, a very reasonable length of time.

[Just I]

If you want to leave your pen uncapped for a while (as one often does when notetaking), you'll want a hooded nib. I use a Hero 616 for almost all of my notetaking for this very reason (also, it's cheap enough that it's suitable for a college setting, where one's belongings too often wander off). Alternatively (and at a very different price point), you might want a Pilot Vanishing Point, which you can easily click closed or open when needed. I use regular open nibs mostly for journaling.

 

I will second this. I got a Pilot Vanishing point just for using at work so that I didn't have to leave my pen uncapped during the minutes that I didn't need to take notes. My mini is awesome when I am writing a myriad of other things like letters, lists or action plans.

[Jamerelbe]

I have not encountered this with my TWSBI,except if it sits unused for a long time. I can understand how it would be annoying

(even embarrassing) in a "signing" pen. Certainly, there can be corrective measures.

 

Most annoying is the Pilot Varsity. It hangs on the store display for months. I take it home. Remove it from the blister package.

Pull the cap. And it writes. Why can't every pen do that ?

 

I think I have the answer to that: every pen doesn't have a wick feed arrangment, in which ink is transported to the nib not by capillary action (and dependent on air-ink interchange) but via a 'wicking' effect, similar (I guess) to a felt tip pen or Sharpie, where the ink is drawn up through the fibrous material. Leave them uncapped for long enough (I'm talking hours or days, not minutes) and they'll dry out - but otherwise it's pretty hard to disrupt their flow.

 

I have three different brands of cheap pen that use this system (Hero 358, a Sellner kids' pen and of course the Pilot Varsity / VPen) - and they all have the same tendency to keep writing no matter what. I can't explain the Physics of it, but I'm pretty sure the feed system is what makes the difference!

 

I love my cheap pens for their reliability - but I have to say, I still much prefer my TWSBIs, and thus far have had very little trouble with my Diamond Mini...

Edited May 3, 2014 by Jamerelbe