Twsbi Diamond Mini With 1.5 Stub As A Highlighter Pen?

[paperballs]

I need a highlighter pen. Tried the Lamy Safari with 1.1 nib route, but the converter is too small so I run empty very quickly. Now I am leaning towards a TWSBI Diamond Mini with a 1.5 stub. Is anyone using the TWSBI as a highlighter pen? How is the 1.5 nib out of the box?

 

Having read about breakage, cracking plastic, and finnicky nibs in the TWSBI forum, I'd like to hear your experience with the Diamond Mini, particularly the 1.5 stub nib. Also, if your experience steered you away from TWSBI, please share if you found a better alternative.

 

The highlighter ink will be Diamine, probably Yellow or Sunshine Yellow.

 

Thanks, everyone!

Edited February 14, 2015 by 1848

[chemistcool]

http://i60.tinypic.com/1zn4rur.jpghttp://i57.tinypic.com/11ty5w7.jpg

 

Lammy Safari Apple Gren/Neon Yellow 1.9 nib + Pelikan High Lighter ink (Yellow and Green)

[InkedPages]

I'm always amazed by the wealth of experience on this. Thanks to both of you for asking the question and having the answer I've been looking for 2 years down the line. Now off to find the right Safari!

[sirgilbert357]

To the OP: I had a TWSBI Mini with the 1.5 nib and to be honest, out of the box, it didn't have enough flow to spread the ink the full width of the tines. I had to fiddle with it quite a bit to get it wet enough to use (even my Iroshizuku inks weren't really that wet in that pen). After getting the flow "right", I noticed the flow would taper off the more I wrote (very dark and wet at first though). After about a full page of constant writing, I noticed it wasn't near as wet and the line was greatly reduced in width and I was getting almost no line variation at all. I had to let the pen "rest" or tap the pen in the palm of my hand several times to get the flow back. This is due to the way the feed is designed -- there is a choke point which restricts air flow back into the ink chamber. I found an awesome detailed thread somewhere on here about it and how the channel must be enlarged to fix the problem, but I have no idea what happened to that thread now. My tapping the pen was forcing the air bubble past the choke point little by little until the feed could be fully re-saturated. Anyway, I've had two different pens with Jowo nibs, and a total of 6 nibs across the two pens, in medium, 1.1 and 1.5 (two of each size) and they ALL had this type of "tapering off" flow issue -- didn't matter what ink I used - if I wrote long enough (and I sometimes write up to 10 - 20 pages at a time), it was guaranteed to happen. It's worth noting that the feed used on all of these nibs is the same. Every single Jowo nib unit I've had taken apart for deep cleaning (which was all six of mine) had the same size feed channel. You would think the XF and F would be one size, the M and B another and the 1.1 and up would be bigger than all of the previous, but it's not the case. Just something to keep in mind when buying a TWSBI, Franklin Christoph, etc...

 

Having said ALL of that...for intermittent highlighter use, you probably wouldn't have the problem. And I have no experience with highlighter inks...maybe they are so wet you'd never have the issue either way. But I have a Lamy Studio with M, 1.1, and 1.5 nibs too and I can say that the feed on that pen (should be the same as the Safari) is MUCH better designed when using regular inks. So yeah, there you have it--my two cents.

 

Edit: oh, and you asked about better alternatives...yes, well, I mentioned the Lamy above, but you said the converter was too small, so maybe look for a Pelikan M205 with the highlighter nib. I don't know how hard they are to find, but it holds 1.2 ml (a smidge more if you ignore Pelikan's instruction to let 5-7 drops of ink go back into the bottle -- I never do that anymore and they all run fine, no airlock issues), which should give you a bit more mileage than the Lamy converter.

Edited September 7, 2017 by sirgilbert357

[jchch1950]

I begin to use a Twsbi mini with 1.5 stub for highlighting but I am not very happy with it: too wide and too wet.The paper of the book has also to blame. Going back to the old highlighters in the form of pencils.

[inkstainedruth]

Here's another suggestion for a pen to use as with highlighter ink: get an inexpensive brush pen. I have several Kuratake brush pens, that were freebies with bottles of Noodler's Kung Te Cheng. They're eyedropper pens, so they hold a ton of ink, and the translucent barrels makes it easy to see how much ink you have left. Plus, the brush tips work really well with Noodler's highlighter inks. Jetpens.com has a bunch of different styles and brands, and some of the Kuratake ones are $2 US.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[bureaudirect]

Highlighter ink in this pen looks amazing

I used to have one and people would ask if it is water lever )))))))

1.5mm is OK for under-lining, you may need to go over writing twice if you wish to highlight properly.

[bobaroo]

I've been down this road and tried several. The TWSBI 1.5 stub is not reliable in my experience.

 

Platinum Preppy highlighter as an eyedropper is the best, though doesn't feel particularly 'premium' if that's what you're searching for.

[truthpil]

Highlighter ink in this pen looks amazing

I used to have one and people would ask if it is water lever )))))))

1.5mm is OK for under-lining, you may need to go over writing twice if you wish to highlight properly.

 

 

I agree, 1.5mm is exactly half the width of the smaller chisel point highlighters such as the Platinum Preppy highlighter.

So what we need is for someone to make an affordable 3mm oblique italic or architect nib.

[truthpil]

Has anyone tried using a "Manuscript Classic Italic Calligraphy" FP with the left-handed (i.e., left-foot oblique) 4B nib?

The nib is 2.8mm, so almost as wide as a Platinum Preppy highlighter tip. You can buy the pen with just the 4B-LH nib on Ebay for pretty cheap.

[displacermoose]

+1 for a Preppy. I have mine filled with Noodlers Firefly with the sign pen tip. I've also been experimenting with the Pilot Petite with the brush tip and that is nice too.

[truthpil]

+1 for a Preppy. I have mine filled with Noodlers Firefly with the sign pen tip. I've also been experimenting with the Pilot Petite with the brush tip and that is nice too.

 

I've been thinking about trying a brush tip Petit for this purpose. Are replacement tips available for the Petits??

[displacermoose]

 

I've been thinking about trying a brush tip Petit for this purpose. Are replacement tips available for the Petits??

 

 

Not that I've seen, but I haven't looked closely. I must say that it has performed way beyond my expectations. I really like being able to vary the line width with a bit of pressure; its a very different writing experience and quite fun. Right now I just have the orange cart it came with in it, but I'm going to give it a go as an eyedropper with some proper highlighter ink as soon as that runs out.

[truthpil]

 

 

Not that I've seen, but I haven't looked closely. I must say that it has performed way beyond my expectations. I really like being able to vary the line width with a bit of pressure; its a very different writing experience and quite fun. Right now I just have the orange cart it came with in it, but I'm going to give it a go as an eyedropper with some proper highlighter ink as soon as that runs out.

 

Good to know! I just ordered another bottle of Noodler's Year of the Golden Pig, so it will be nice to try it in some different highlighters. As far as I can tell, only the Preppy has replaceable tips. I just checked on Jetpens and neither the Zebra refillable highlighter nor the Preppy brush pen have extra tips available.