Twsbi Diamond 530 Fountain Pen Review

[thoddomas]

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This review is originally posted on our Goldspot Pens blog, but I decided to share it with the FPN community, as it was folks like YOU who have largely made this pen AWESOME. These are some home-grown, action shots of the pen in full glory. I had used Sailor Sei-Boku Blue-Black ink for the purposes of the review. As you can see closely in some of the shots with the nib, cleaning the excess ink off the nib did not work out too well. Please do not take that as an indication that the nib creeps. It only seemed to happen with this particular ink.

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When I first heard of the Diamond 530 piston-filling fountain pen, it was a knee-jerk decision to get it. Piston-filling fountain pens are hard to come by at such an affordable price. I would not have high expectations on the nib, but was pleasantly surprised at the writing quality and smoothness. The piston mechanism works perfectly, smoothly drawing up the ink through the nib without much loss of suction. The tank holds about 2 1/2 weeks worth of writing ink. Since the pen can be completely disassembled, thorough cleaning between fills is easy.

 

My only criticism of the pen is that writing with the cap posted is not an option (at least for me). The length of the pen with cap posted is just about 7" long, which throws off the balance of writing with the pen and makes my hand more tired after writing.

 

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Summary:

• Writing Quality : Stainless Steel nib delivers with smoothness, even wet flow. (grade A-)
• Aesthetic Quality : Injection mold plastic is crystal clear. The diamond pattern body interacts beautifully with the ink inside the tank. (grade A)
• Utility : Unique ability to take apart and put back together is very useful for minor repairs and cleanings. Cap does post well, but becomes a bit too long to write with. (grade B+)
• Price : Available in extra-fine, fine or broad nib sizes for $59.95 at Goldspot Pens. If this pen had "Pelikan" on the cap ring, it would easily be sold for twice the price. (grade A-)

Final Grade : A-

After hearing all the fan fare, TWSBI Diamond 530 is certainly worth the buzz and the title of Pen of the Year. You can read up on other reviews of the Diamond 530 at the following sites :

• Fountain Pen Network
• Dizzy Pen
• Fountain Pen Geeks

[Malcy]

Thanks fo the review. It is certainly a worthy winner of Pen of the year 2010.

[Pjake]

Nice job! 2011 will see at least 2 TWSBI's, the 530 and at least one of the Aluminum Vac fills.

 

thanks,

Peter

[fabrimedeiros]

Great review! One of the Diamond qualities is that we can easily swap the nib for another nib models, such as Pelikan M4xx, M2xx. Now I'm using a Reform nib (Reform Demonstrator), which I realIy like. The TWSBI 530 plus that nib work flawless!

 

 

[thoddomas]

Great review! One of the Diamond qualities is that we can easily swap the nib for another nib models, such as Pelikan M4xx, M2xx.

 

Is that so? I didn't even try that yet. I have a M215 nib that I could use. Fantastic!

[andyk]

Hi,

 

Been using mine since beginning of January (Christmas present from my wife) and it is a great pen for the money (£31 from ebay), I think the nib a very smooth F writes very well and can't really imagine wanting to change it.

 

My only criticism is that the pen is a bit unbalanced when posted (the cap doesn't go down as far as I feel it should) but is a largish pen so not a great issue to use unposted even though I generally prefer to post.

 

Certainly looking to buy one of the coloured versions one The Writing Desk has more choice of colours (although the Blue they have is tempting).

 

Andy

[Sagar_C]

Waiting to get one soon.

[canucklehaed]

Thanks for the great review. Just received mine and am really enjoying it.

[razr]

Waiting to get one soon.

 

Mine's on the way...