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Conway Stewart Levenger Limited Edition


ashishwakhlu

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Friends,

 

I am reviewing today the Conway Stewart Levenger Limited Edition Fountain Pen.

I bought this in Chicago in 2006 from Marshall Fields where the Levenger counter was closing down. It was my first Conway Stewart purchase.

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii313/Ashish_031/Conway%20Stewart/Picture002.jpg

First Impressions - The pen came in a voluminous arched top box with a button down lid with Conway Stewart on the lid in its diamond border. Inside the box was the pen and a converter (the latter being somewhat ordinary). The pen is made from blue swirled resin which at once looked classy and substantial at the same time.

Appearance Size and Weight - The first thing which surprised me was the weight of the pen, it is quite heavy for its size, 45 grams which bespeaks the quality of the resin. Though it is not a small pen, 53/4 inches capped, 63/4 inches posted and with maximum cap and barrel diameter of 0.6 and 0.5 inches respectively. The cap and barrel thickness are substantial and the pen gives the impression of being well made. The blue acrylic is shimmery and has depth but not the same compared to the red Leader shown for comparison.

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii313/Ashish_031/Conway%20Stewart/Picture003.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii313/Ashish_031/Red%20Brahman%20Leader/Picture4152.jpg

Features - The pen has the classic cigar shape with rounded cap and barrel ends, the cap jewel is a round acrylic dome. The clip is gold plated and tapering with the standard diamond shaped end and the CS logo, it is firm and well sprung. The cap itself is cylindrical and has three bands, the top one wider than the bottom two. The barrel is cigar shaped and has Conway Stewart Levenger Limited Edition printed on the midsection. There are two gold plated barrel bands, one at the junction of barrel and section and the other at the “blind cap” end though the pen does not have a blind cap.

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii313/Ashish_031/Conway%20Stewart/Picture005.jpg

Filling mechanism - The section unscrews from the barrel in 6 turns and takes standard international sized cartridges or the supplied converter.

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii313/Ashish_031/Conway%20Stewart/Picture006.jpg

Nib - this is the piece de resistance, a no 6 motone 18 kt fine nib without the breather hole. the nib bears the CS logo in the back half of the slit and the name Conway Stewart 18 kt gold F in the body. The nib is a very wet line writer (just the way I like it) has a bit of responsiveness but no flex (responsiveness meaning the nib bends on pressure, no flex meaning the tines do not separate so there is no variation in line width, (please correct me if I am wrong). Overall a very pleasant but just a tad bland writing experience.

 

Performance - the pen is good to write with unposted and feels quite comfortable in the hand. Posting increases the weight but does not affect the nice balance of the pen. It can be used for long period writing comfortably and will soldier on reliably.

 

Overall - I give this pen an 8 out of 10, it is a very “correct" pen well built, comfortable to write with good ink flow and no complaints. It just lacks zinggg! the kind you get with a vintage Sheaffer Balance or a Prasad Celluloid or a Conway Stewart lever filler (58) with a medium Duro nib. That said it is a fine example of modern penmaking from a truly fine pen company and a regular member of my platoon throughout the year.

 

regards

 

Ashish

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Nice review. Thats a great looking pen, my wife would love it. Blue and green are her favorite colors.

 

I wish it came with silver/chrome hardware though. I think so many more pens would look better that way, imo.

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thanks for sharing

Pens are like watches , once you start a collection, you can hardly go back. And pens like all fine luxury items do improve with time

 

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  • 3 years later...

Hi Ashish,

 

The conway stewart Levenger LE FP you bought @ Chicago was for how much?

 

Thanks and Regards

 

Jignesh Patolia

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It really looks like a lovely pen and the wetter the better when using a fine. Nice of you to share this 2006 beauty with us all.

Rob Maguire (Plse call me "M or Mags" like my friends do...)I use a Tablet, Apple Pencil and a fountain pen. Targas, Sailor, MB, Visconti, Aurora, vintage Parkers, all wonderful.

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  • 1 year later...

I know this is a fairly old review, but I wanted to ask about the converter. I have the same pen in a red with black swirl (with some translucent orange highlights). It came with a Broad nib which I had Michael Masuyama regrind into a Cursive Italic. I love it, but it does seem to have flow problems once the feed has exhausted itself. It would seem that the converter has too much silicone in it (?), and so the ink (right now Waterman Blue-Black) gathers at the whatever end and will not flow downwards even when inverted. I have expelled five drops to equalize the pressure, but this does not fix the problem. Suggestions? It is a lovely writing instrument, and I would like to use it more without having to fiddle with the converter periodically.

 

Thanks,

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How does it perform with a cartridge instead of the converter? Have you tried a different converter? Conway-Stewart use International Short cartridges and

converters so there are lots out there to choose from.

Pat Barnes a.k.a. billz

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I know this is a fairly old review, but I wanted to ask about the converter. I have the same pen in a red with black swirl (with some translucent orange highlights). It came with a Broad nib which I had Michael Masuyama regrind into a Cursive Italic. I love it, but it does seem to have flow problems once the feed has exhausted itself. It would seem that the converter has too much silicone in it (?), and so the ink (right now Waterman Blue-Black) gathers at the whatever end and will not flow downwards even when inverted. I have expelled five drops to equalize the pressure, but this does not fix the problem. Suggestions? It is a lovely writing instrument, and I would like to use it more without having to fiddle with the converter periodically.

 

Thanks,

I had the same problems with a Churchill and I installed a Pelikan converter and it worked better.

 

Aris

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First Impressions - The pen came in a voluminous arched top box with a button down lid with Conway Stewart on the lid in its diamond border. Inside the box was the pen and a converter (the latter being somewhat ordinary). The pen is made from blue swirled resin which at once looked classy and substantial at the same time.

Appearance Size and Weight - The first thing which surprised me was the weight of the pen, it is quite heavy for its size, 45 grams which bespeaks the quality of the resin. Though it is not a small pen, 53/4 inches capped, 63/4 inches posted and with maximum cap and barrel diameter of 0.6 and 0.5 inches respectively. The cap and barrel thickness are substantial and the pen gives the impression of being well made. The blue acrylic is shimmery and has depth but not the same compared to the red Leader shown for comparison.

 

 

 

 

Conway Stewart lines their caps and barrels with brass tubes. That's the reason their pens feel heavier compared to other acrylic pens from Edison, Levenger, Bexley etc.

Edited by s_t_e_v_e
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  • 3 years later...

I feel badly that it has taken me this long to say thank you to those who offered suggestions. My sincere apologies.

 

FYI - Aris, a new converter was all that was needed.

 

Three things though: Contrary to the measurements reported by Ashish, 1) my pen weighs 36.7 grams (37.0 gr. when loaded with ink), 2) is 5.375 (five and three eights) inches long when capped, and 3) just a hair over 6.5 (six and a half) inches posted. I am fairly certain it is the same pen, but in a different colour...? Curious.

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