Hi all,

I love big pens and I overlooked a lot of CS reviewed here in FPN since every one of them say something like 'the pen is huge but still very light'.

Today, I was browsing Richard Binder's site and noticed that the Nelson is pretty hefty at around 1.76 oz. or 50 g. A brief google search didn't lead me to any comprehensive review of the pen. Why is that? Is this a new model?

Anyway, do you own this pen? If so, what do you think about it? What are the pros and cons? Do you like the weight? Is it comfortable for use as a daily writer (balanced weight)? How is the nib? Very smooth and frictionless like Sailor, lots of 'feedback' like Pelikan? Huge sweet spot or a minute one?

If this works out, it would be my first CS. Also, how is the quality control of CS? Are all nibs fine writers out of the box?

Thanks!
Stanley.

I own one of the Nelson I series in Crimson Whirl. It is heavy, due to brass sleeves in the body and cap, but well balanced when un-posted. I think Richard Binder has mentioned before that he can remove these sleeves if the buyer so desires.

Mine has a EF nib which is buttery smooth with a large and forgiving sweet spot. The captive converter system holds plenty of ink and seems very well made. You should also note that we have excellent CS customer support through Mary Burke on this site and Luxury Brands in the real world, both of which will be happy to swap out a nib if you find it isn't quite right for you.

I own several CS both vintage and modern and find them to be great writers. Of the three modern ones I've owned all have written flawlessly out of the box. The Nelson and a Drake fitted with an italic fine nib are 2 of the 3 pens I have in daily rotation.

I think you'd be happy with Nelson as a daily user. Also, they are now available in most (all?) of the custom rodstock colours that CS offers. I'd recommend you purchase through Richard Binder if you are concerned about nib flow or sweet spots. He's an authorized retailer and will check your pen before shipping it to you.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Hi,

The Nelson is a popular pen due to the weight and balance. The nibs are 18 carat solid gold and available in eight grades: Extra Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad, Extra Broad, Italic Fine, Italic Medium and Italic Broad. Filling mechanism is a choice of piston or converter cartridge. We have changed our c/c so that they are all screw-in rather than push-in and this has helped tremendously to improve the ink flow.

Here are images of the Nelson series available through our regular edition offerings. You can also order virtually every colour through our bespoke service, however there are some restrictions on certain finishes.








Kind regards,

Mary Burke

Thanks for the detailed reply Chemyst. I am officially sold now. I am definitely getting the Nelson with my Etruria purchase in the next few weeks. I have decided to go with the Classic Green which looks both amazing and understated at the same time.

Mary, I am very happy to see you here in the thread. I have a question. Which nib size would be the best for me? I write with a Sailor B as my main pen which 'on paper' writes a 0.6 mm line. I checked your nib sizes sticky, and it got me thinking. All the tips mentioned are extremely wide. For example, the F is 0.7 mm. But, my question is, are these the size of the nib tips or the thickness of the line it lays down on paper? If the former, would you be able to tell me how much thinner (or thicker) the actual line on the paper would be for the F and M nibs?

Also, if someone with a Nelson F or M nib can post a photograph of a writing sample with a scale and some other M and F nibs, it would be awesome! Thanks.

Stanley.

I would love to own a Wellington in the classic brown.I just have not saved up enough money to buy one. The Duro i just purchased really whetted my appetite for more Conway Stewart pens. I prefer the look and feel of the 100 series best but they are just too far out of my price range.Even used.


Jim

Hi Stanley,

Our nibs run on the broad side and deliver a wet line. Therefore I would suggest a comparison to the Sailor Broad would be a CS Medium. However, it all depends on the ink and paper being used

CS also offers a Double Broad which delivers a very thick line and is a smooth writer. It is a little too broad for my writing, and I prefer to use an Italic Medium and sometimes an Italic Broad for signing.

If you find out that after you have received your pen that you wish for a nib exchange, then you can send your pen to Luxury Brands or myself. The only expense you will incur will be the shipping charge to our offices.

With kind regards,

Mary Burke

Thanks Mary.

However, my Sailor Broad is still not so broad - it is a very nice daily writer at 0.6 mm line. But the CS Fine tipping size as you mentioned seems to be 0.7 mm! If it writes a 0.7 mm on paper it would be just perfect for me as a 'writer' pen. I have a 0.8 mm (line width on paper) CI Waterman which writes too wet for me on the broad strokes of 0.8 mm so I am just worried if Medium could be too broad for me. Anyway, I will wait for your post next week for the correlation between nib sizes and line widths for ConwayStewart nibs. Thanks!

Also, does the smoothness vary across the F, M and B nibs? Not compared to other pen brands' nibs, but between the three nibs. Is the Medium markedly smoother than the Broad and is the Fine markedly smoother than the Medium? That would be a huge factor in my decision as well.

Thanks in advance! Hopefully I will be able to order this one by next week. I just placed an order for the Etruria.

I've got the centenary collectors edition in Classic Green. Not my favourite CS colour, but still very nice and understated. Some of my recent Diamine ink reviews have been done using my CS pens. I'm guessing the Nelson uses the same nib as the Duro and I just love my Duro fine. You'll have to give us your impressions when you get your pen, I like the look of the Nelson, but suspect it would be too heavy for me.

I have one of those, Jim, Classic Brown, with a Binder 0.7 ci.....luvverly, although I find Richard's CIs a bit sharp for prolonged writing on most notepapers...mine tends to get a bit 'furry' by the end of an A4 page and needs wiping.

The Wellington is a nice compromise in size, weight and price, I think....not quite as big as a Churchill, as heavy as Nelson, ad less expensive than either!

But I would like a Trafalgar, and 'Elizabeth Garrett Anderson(s)' to give to one(or more) of my daughters (as I was born in the same town as EGA, and raised in the town where Garrett Engineering operated)....unfortunately, I haven't 'converted' my girls to FPs (yet!).

Hi,

I have a couple of questions:

Mary - what is that amazing orange colour in your second image?

Is this pen available without the brass sleeve in the UK?

If not what is the closest pen in terms of size?

Ok, 3 questions...

Thanks

Black Whirl. It's a standard colour on the Wellington.


A bespoke Duro would be your best option. Very similar in size overall, especially the "waisted" section, but all resin (ie no brass sleeve). No integral piston-filler option though. Note: the 100 has a wider section and the Churchill is much larger overall. Note also that the Wellington, although sharing the same section dimensions as the Duro has the brass sleeve in its barrel.



But only 2 answers .

HTH,

Martin

Thanks Martin,

Can bespoke pens be ordered with silver metalwork?

Although, I wonder if silver would work with black whirl...

Cheers,

So many of the CS pens are just too gorgeous! I would love to know the name of the the ivory flowered pen, which is in I guess the 100 body style? I know this will never be in my price range, but I'd like to know what it's called just the same.

Honestly, I would have a hard time choosing just one of these pens. RogerB, I think that's lovely that you'd like to give your girls such beautiful pens. And can you imagine getting one one of these as a gift? Wow. I think that even if I didn't care about pens, I'd be blown away just the same.

The modern one is called "The Floral Rose" and is amazingly gorgeous! The price tag is a bit out there though, but for a pen with a body and cap made from 18kt gold rod, what else could we expect? Someday, if I win the lotto, I'll have one... Hopefully far sooner I'll have the funds to buy the Floral 22 which is what the modern one is modeled after.

It's on my Christmas list (again...), and hopefully I've been good enough this year. Or if that doesn't work, I have the biggest 'sumgai' in the world looking for one for me. Hopefully he finds it, it'll probably end up costing $5 for him.

Ha, I figured as much, about the price. Beautiful design though! I hope you get your Christmas wish this year, Dreg. I've never seen a Floral 22. I'm going to hunt around for a picture.

Many CS pens, including the Nelson, I notice, have my favorite type of section--long and tapered with a little flare at the end. I find these most comfortable for the way I hold a pen.

I have a Drake and a Nelson with Fine nibs. The Drake F writes a 0.45mm line and the Nelson F writes a 0.4mm line, both lines being nice and wet, and pretty smooth. I suspect the information Mary has posted about nib sizes reflects the actual width of the nib, and not the line width on paper which will change with ink, paper type, and writing pressure.

The Nelson was perfect right out of the box. The Drake had a slight skipping problem which didn’t show up until after writing a page or so. I could have lived with the slight skipping, but finally I decided to send it to a nibmaster.

I don’t have a Sailor B nib, but my Sailor Fine nib writes a 0.3mm line, just as advertised on John Mottishaw’s site.

Just saw the Floral Rose, and what a pen it is. The $28,000.00 price will keep me from owning one unless I hit the lottery. I wonder what the actual gold weight is in this CS.

That wouldn't be moi you're talking about, now would it? If so, I'm flattered! Don't worry...if I find one it will be yours ! (just because you're the CS guy!) If you find a mandarin or RHR Duofold Sr. I expect you to pass it along!

LOL

I hope you aren't holding out for me to be a sumgai... we both know that's not going to happen.

Hi,

Here is an image of the 'modern' Floral Rose. The size of the pen is between a model 100 and model 58 and is crafted out out of solid 18 carat gold with hand applied enamel.

It takes three months to make this pen and we have now sold out of the edition of 50 pieces.



The original Floral Rose is still a popular item to collect, however it is rather hard to obtain one in good condition as the colour tends to fade.

Kind regards,

Mary

This colour is known as the Black Whirl and due to the individual nature of this material, no two Black Whirl Wellington pens will look exactly alike.

The Nelson can be ordered without the brass sleeve and I am checking to see if there is a price difference and will advise tomorrow, Wednesday.

Kind regards,

Mary

There is a mint one here:
http://writetime.co.uk/conway/conway.htm
(scroll down)

For a 'mere' £695.00. I have often wondered what one would do with it if one bought it. It seems rather a shame to 'unmint' such a rare pen, but you wouldn't want to display it either because of the risk of discolouration...

Thanks Mary

My goodness the Nelson looks truly amazing in Black Whirl... amazing.

Hello everyone!

An update. I saw the Nelson II Red Stardust at Melpens store a few days back and ordered it immediately (so I can jump past the one month wait at Binder). I received the pen via FedEx with amazing packing in just 3 days! Today is also 08/08/08.

It looks amazing and the depth of the resin is great. Regarding pictures, unfortunately I only have a manual focus lens right now - hopefully will post a picture soon. The pen itself is great. I love the weight of it and for me that is just enough. However, even uncapped it feels relatively back heavy. Hopefully I will get used to that soon. I ordered the medium nib, and the thickness of the line laid is just wide enough for me - about 0.5 mm. However, the nib is almost as smooth as my broad sailor 1911 out of the box and that is a pleasure. It lays an very wet line. When I start a word, there is a hesitant flow though. But this is only for about 1/5th of the initial stroke and easily ignored. I hope this improves though, and especially not become worse. It is really well built. The nib is a little firm though, but that is alright.

Sorry for the unstructured review above - I just got the pen and am going back to use it, all excited. Will update it later.

G'day and thanks everyone for helping me out with this purchase.

Stan.

EDIT: After a few flushes, the starting skipping problem still existed. Wanted to get rid of it before it got on to my nerves so switched from Old Manhattan Black to Diamine Claret and lo, no skipping! I also tried fox red and golden brown, and it didn't skip at all with either of them. However, the fox red was too red to match the pen's color and golden brown wrote too wet and hence too brown to bring out its golden shading. So, went with my finishing bottle of Diamine Claret. I am ordering PR Plum right now to better match the pen's color. I really am pleased with this purchase!

The flow problem is back now. It is present with all the inks I currently have. There is skipping when I write fast as well - that is, the flow thins out a lot, as evidenced while writing with golden brown ink when all those shadings are seen with lighter tones corresponding with the skips.

I have a question. If I don't rotate the twist filler's screw all the way to the clockwise, but leave a gap of about half a turn, I get a nice wet flow. Is this alright to do? The improved flow seems sustained for longer time for now. I noticed a slight flaw with this method - when I give a vigorous jerk with the pen, drops of ink come out of it on to the paper which doesn't seem to happen when the screw is tightly wound. I have no idea what is happening inside the pen when the filler works and when the screw is turned, so if someone can explain to me if this method would be healthy in the long run, it would be much appreciated.

I really don't want to send it off to a nibmeister or try to separate the tines myself.

Stanley.