Conway Stewart Marlborough Review

[GTOZack]

FPN,

 

 

I received a nice looking, lightweight Marlborough in Black-gray marbled barrel,

 

Silver trims and is a lever filler. Italic Medium Nib 18k two tone

 

 

I would like to start off with the exterior build quality of this pen. 8 / 10

Problem spots: the silver may tarnish over time but that is very subtle you could use a polishing cloth and clean that. No problem. The barrel actually is very shiny under light the proportion from cap to body, nib and its girth is overall pleasant and proper. This is your typical British built pen. the proportions are aesthetically appealing and made to melt into your hand. Not literal of course.

 

Nib: 9/10

Problem Spots: Sometimes has difficult start ups, I suspect it has a baby bottom, I tried iroshizuku inks. it became extremely wet and skipping ever frequently, I would rate the wetness at least 9 out of 10 on wetness scale. I had to deposit ink back into bottle. I had chosen Montblanc mystery black, which is only ink I have that is generally dry. However the wetness scale is approximately 7 The Nib feel is extremely light, smooth, elegant and especially springy. Mind you. This is not a flex pen. It does flex only about two millimeter apart. I must advise you to halt at that point. The tip of the nib is actually bent slightly downwards I assume to gain springiness feel.

 

Filling experience 3/10 ​Problem spots: I'm appalled at how lever fills this pen. It is catastrophically bad. I sunk the nib well past its point i pressed the lever repeatedly. I drew point 7 ML of the ink.Yes, .7 milliliters. So I had unscrewed the nib housing and yanked the nib out. Took a look inside I had more than 1.0 ML left to go. So Naturally I had turned this pen into an eyedropper via Nib housing as the entrance. So far no problems. Looking back, This pen is a Jaguar XJ with perhaps one gallon fuel tank. nothing more. Unless you hand pour the fuel in the trunk with a child's sand pail you would get 17 gallons in it. The lever fill is bad.

 

Writing experience 8/10 Problem spots: aside from the initial rough and skippy upstarts, it is very wet writer. It depends on what kind of paper you are writing on. I used a cheap 26 pound printer paper. It was a nice and elegant experience. When I think of myself in my own office writing on ordinary everyday- printer paper it would feather bad because it is so dang wet. It would make an excellent signature pen and note taking for sure. Once I adjust the flow and the skipping it would be a 10 out of 10.

 

 

In my opinion this pen matches the British mood, feel, frustration and engineering. It makes it fun, When you write with a stern and no-sense German pen you would know it wouldn't fail you. over the years it would get boring. Somehow Conway Stewart has issues of its own but when you are overlooking all that issues. you would love this pen like I do. It reminded me of my old land rover one ten. The thing always break but it still tries. I liked that car in the end You will ignore some flaws and appreciate the engineering as whole. It can be really rugged yet prestigious pen for you to enjoy and use. It is certainly not a drawer queen. So buy a Conway Stewart soon!

 

 

Edited July 10, 2014 by GTOZack

[theverdictis]

For a pen that expensive the baby's bottom and level filling system being poor are a deal breaker for me.

[GTOZack]

I will have it fixed for sure

 

 

 

Edit*

Update, I finally fixed the lever problem, The bar spring was flat and level, when I pressed it only moved very little, so I bent the bar slightly into a concave.

 

Now it fills its sac whole in two or three lever motions.

 

Now to fix the baby bottom, I don't know if i want to send it to a nibmeister or leave as it is. It starts up fine, but once in a while it skips . But after you got the ink flowing It wont skip.

 

it is very wet writer for sure. the tines has gap but the very tip is snug shut. it will be extremely wet when you flex slightly.

 

I had measured the sac capacity it measures to 1.6 to 1.7 ml that is pretty substantial for its size and girth however.

 

more updates to come.

Edited July 11, 2014 by GTOZack

[lgreen]

I have one of the ebonite ones and it is a great idea for a pen with a great nib [mine an italic fine which is closer to a medium fine] but the pen leaks from the ink sac and has been back to Conway Stewart three times [with me paying special delivery each time] and although the leaking is better it isn't fixed and if I use it for more than a few minutes my fingers end up ink stained.

 

I don't think Conway Steward could give a stuff about QC or customer relations but now they are owned by ONOTO it might improve... I'll stick with Japanese pens in the future

[mrchan]

Thanks for an honest review. Things that are slightly incongruent is your scoring (no offense intended). How can a nib that has so many problems from the get-go get a score of 9/10? Baby's bottom, super wet, etc..and 8/10 for writing experience when there is so much skipping? The filling mechanism is clearly flawed significantly too. Yet you end it the review by saying "so buy a conway stewart soon"? From memory that pen is around 500-700$? Thanks for the warning, but I probably won't be getting one anytime soon.

Edited July 11, 2014 by mrchan

[Ghost Plane]

Prices are often lower, even with shipping from the US. Bryant Greer at Chatterley Pens is often a source of CS pens without problems. I got many of my Churchills from him.

[GTOZack]

Thanks for an honest review. Things that are slightly incongruent is your scoring (no offense intended). How can a nib that has so many problems from the get-go get a score of 9/10? Baby's bottom, super wet, etc..and 8/10 for writing experience when there is so much skipping? The filling mechanism is clearly flawed significantly too. Yet you end it the review by saying "so buy a conway stewart soon"? From memory that pen is around 500-700$? Thanks for the warning, but I probably won't be getting one anytime soon.

 

 

I put those scores when it is fixed I was updating them as I go. I apologize for being not clear. I will edit the rest of the page later. I fixed the baby bottom, via 12000 grit paper then mylar sheet, It is gone for good. and it has no foot on it. just perfect rounded with no baby bottom.

 

So the filling system was fixed by my kludging and bodging. there was sharp bar edge I sanded it down to smooth edging, and applied extra talc powder on the sac. there was indentations where the bar end was. That kind of freaked me out but It was not punctured. the bar, I bent it downward in a concave. so it gave it an extra squeeze when I pulled the lever. I refilled the pen whole in two or three pulls.

 

After fixing, overall nib experience is 9/10 and wetness has went down when I set feed position slightly it is 7 out 10 in wetness scale.

 

I only paid 1/4-ish of the retail price, so its a bargain.

 

I agree with you about CS QC, someone on the job was drunk or careless. I think they hire parolees to sit on a stool and fiddle with pen to pass the time. I was that angry when I received. but in the end, I am glad I fixed it.

They should have paid me money for fixing my own pen.

Edited July 12, 2014 by GTOZack

[AJ50]

I agree with you about CS QC, someone on the job was drunk or careless. I think they hire parolees to sit on a stool and fiddle with pen to pass the time. I was that angry when I received. but in the end, I am glad I fixed it.

They should have paid me money for fixing my own pen.

 

Sadly, Conway Stewart has had these QC issues for many years, and I mean MANY years. I gave up on them a long time ago. Their pens look very nice but the buying experience is just not worth the hassle.

[mrchan]

I agree with you about CS QC, someone on the job was drunk or careless. I think they hire parolees to sit on a stool and fiddle with pen to pass the time. I was that angry when I received. but in the end, I am glad I fixed it.

They should have paid me money for fixing my own pen.

Unfortunately for a pen of this price, I expect a much higher caliber performance. I think you should score it pre and post modification. If you have to modify it and then score it highly after, I don't think its a true reflection of what the pen is truly like for most people who buy it and don't expect to have to mess around with it to get it to work perfectly. You're obviously handy and well done tuning it back to your expectations, but I would like to see your initial views and scores..Because that's what the masses are going to get when they buy it..Anyway CS (bleep) QC is a known issue based on the tonnes of reviews in the past anyway..

[Ghost Plane]

I have to wonder if different batches got shipped to Oz; there seems such bitterness from posters there.

[penmanila]

was having some fun with my marlborough (B nib):

 

[Ghost Plane]

Nice! What ink is that?

[penmanila]

thanks--it's a sepia i made up, a concoction i'm never going to be able to put together again, because its base, of all things, was a full bottle of spoiled sheaffer persian rose (long story there, the short of which is that i got two bottles of the stuff off ebay, one of which was perfectly fine, and the other had turned a strange yellow ocher). rather than throw the bottle away--the color was good and there was no sediment or anything--i added pelikan black, pelikan brown, and R&K alt-goldgrun to produce this sepia. my go-to ink is actually R&K sepia, but i wanted something closer to olive, so here it is

[perth]

 

 

I put those scores when it is fixed I was updating them as I go. I apologize for being not clear. I will edit the rest of the page later. I fixed the baby bottom, via 12000 grit paper then mylar sheet, It is gone for good. and it has no foot on it. just perfect rounded with no baby bottom.

 

So the filling system was fixed by my kludging and bodging. there was sharp bar edge I sanded it down to smooth edging, and applied extra talc powder on the sac. there was indentations where the bar end was. That kind of freaked me out but It was not punctured. the bar, I bent it downward in a concave. so it gave it an extra squeeze when I pulled the lever. I refilled the pen whole in two or three pulls.

 

After fixing, overall nib experience is 9/10 and wetness has went down when I set feed position slightly it is 7 out 10 in wetness scale.

 

I only paid 1/4-ish of the retail price, so its a bargain.

 

I agree with you about CS QC, someone on the job was drunk or careless. I think they hire parolees to sit on a stool and fiddle with pen to pass the time. I was that angry when I received. but in the end, I am glad I fixed it.

They should have paid me money for fixing my own pen.

Perhaps a score for before your work on the pen, and a score for it after?

[georges zaslavsky]

I stopped after owning two conway stewarts because they don't seem to care about piston fillers owners. I will however continue to look for older piston filler models in second hand. Great review