Short Sweet Review Of The Twsbi 580

[Fabienne]

I just got my 580 from TWSBI yesterday, inked it up with Ackermann Shocking Blue without cleaning it out/scrubbing it out/ putting it through the special esoteric 'cleanse'---this one was getting the 0 to 60 treatment. Would it write? Would it be as good as my beloved 540? Would it be the mild disappointment that the Mini was with its nail nib? Was TWSBI going from WOW to MEH, or worse to FEH after they had captured my heart and then leave me? Why the hall did they have to improve everything. You know that just ruins a good thing.

 

I started writing...

 

The short version of the review: The 580 is even BETTER than the 540 and I thought the 540 was almost perfect as a writing tool. Stop reading this right away, go to TWSBI and get one NOW. I will wait for you to return and then bias your experience with more detailed accounts of what I found.

[Fabienne]

OK, that was suspenseful, no? Now that you are just boiling over to find out what happened next I will let you have the full account.

 

THE BOX AND WRAPPINGS; Just like the old one, can't tell the difference really. first class all the way. Natural colored box, great padding and presentation, I even love that little gossamer inner plastic baggie which protects it. The logo is a pinnacle of Chinese design and style. I would give one of these to anyone and be proud of it.

 

THE PEN ITSELF: I was expecting it to look all redesigned; too slick on the sides, a silly attempt at being modern (sorry Lamy lovers, but I am looking at you),the abandonment of that great thick "diamond" cut body was what I was expecting. Thank goodness I was foiled. The 580 looks a lot like the 540. Long live that design. There are more chrome rings around the grip and at the start of the turning part at the end. Looks polished, professional, and substantial.

 

THE NIB: The nib appears more chrome/shinier more finished. I don't have a 540 with me right now to compare the size but it feels like it is a bit bigger than the old Bock. I want to compare the grips on the two as well, I get a feeling that the 580 is a bit more slender but that could just be an optical illusion In any case the business end of this pen is First Class.

 

How does it write? Exceptionally smoothly. Very wet and there is a bit of spring, about as much as the Bock! Eureka! The best of all worlds. The one thing which I didn't like about the old Bocks was that they would sort of squeak as you wrote; I figured that was the price I paid for "road feel" which was one of the charms of the 540 Bock. The 580 manages to erase the almost squeak feeling of the nib while delivering the impossible smoothness which actually lets you feel the paper as you write. That is a triumph. I didn't think it could be done but it has been.

 

I did mention spring and you can get some line variation with the new nib. It isn't a wet noodle and I don't think I would call it a semi flex but it is very pleasant and can help to make your handwriting much more creative in a good way. I don't think I could write well with a very flex nib all day long BUT this is about perfect.

 

CAPACITY: It holds a lot of ink so make sure you put your favorite color in it because you will be looking at it a long time.

 

THE BOTTOM LINE; This is a marvel of a pen. I really only use my TWSBI's in day-to-day writing because they are so friendly and easy to write with. They are relatively inexpensive so you don't feel like you would have to call your insurance company if anything happened to one of them. The 580 nib is much smoother and if TWSBI has solved the cracking problem in their barrel and grip sections, then I would call it a wrap and declare TWSBI the best pen in the world.

 

My rating out of 5 is:

[Kuryaka]

Bah. You make me not want to wait for the EF nib. Actually, I might pick up a narrower stub nib as well. What nib did you get?

[jhass]

I'm writing with my 580 now - with the 1.1 stub - using Waterman Florida Blue. I also have a Lamy Safari (Vista) with a 1.1 stub. Here are my initial thoughts:

 

The TWSBI is a beautiful pen - I never owned a TWSBI before, but now I see what all the fuss is about. It is large without being too big or heavy, and has a real "presence" to it. Nice weight and balance, and lovely to look at and hold.

 

I have to say that, so far at least, I like my Lamy 1.1 nib better than the TWSBI. The TWSBI nib puts out a really fat line - too fat, I think. Also, it seems very sensitive to the angle at which the nib touches the paper. Get it wrong and the ink does not start flowing well (yes, I did flush and clean the pen and feed prior to using it). Perhaps a different ink will produce better results. The Lamy nib, in contrast, hits the perfect balance of not too wet but not too dry, puts out a crisp line that is bold but not fat, and starts flowing every time.

 

I have some J. Herbin at my office; I will ink up the pen first thing Monday morning.

 

It is still very early, so I may change my opinion as I do more writing. Also, I am going to buy a F nib and see if that is more to my liking.

 

My initial rating (subject to change) is 3.5 out of 5.

Edited March 16, 2013 by jhass

[Fabienne]

Bah. You make me not want to wait for the EF nib. Actually, I might pick up a narrower stub nib as well. What nib did you get?

 

Broad. I love it.

[akustyk]

It's interesting, I feel the same way about my TWSBI Mini. I was disappointed with a couple of different generations/iterations of the 540, but they keep learning, improving. I like it a lot, about TWSBI as a company. The opposite of the fossilized Watermans and Parkers of the pen world.

 

I will not buy the 580 because I don't like demonstrators, but if it comes out in black, I'll pull the trigger. :roflmho:

[dizzymizzy]

Photos of the broad line variation please.

[vondauster]

I love my 540, and really look forward to a 580 once they are available in colors/smoke. Sounds like the tweaks to the design only improve an already good product.

 

Will

[Fabienne]

Sorry, I can't spare the time for a photo shoot.

[Mike_Dowling]

Hello,

 

I was a bit of a critic of the TWSBI pens and wanted to give a brief review of it (but didn't feel we needed another topic), I bought it on a flyer, I sold a few things and had about $470 sitting in my Paypal and said "what the heck", I'm not normally this anxious to part with 50 hard earned dollars, but fountain pens bring it out of me I suppose. I am not very experienced with fountain pens so take this review with a grain of salt.

 

Initial Impressions:

The packaging was professionally done, it reminded me of how Apple packages their products, the one knock is the plastic case closes with tape, once the tape is peeled off the case doesn't close (unless taped again). Not a big deal, but it seemed like a fairly simple thing for a plastics company to design the case to close without the need for clear tape. When I pulled the pen out it was put together really well, felt solid, I expected it to have the feel of light cheap plastic and it does not, the cap in particular seems quite stout and really high quality. I would give the initial look and feel 4 out of 5 stars.

 

Mechanics/design:

The piston mechanism works very well, the piston depresses and recedes without any sticking or malfunction and it's smooth. I loaded the pen with Noodler's Green and the pen took a lot of ink first shot without any problems. The pen clearly was not made to post, and reading a bit it appears the makers never meant for it to post. For me this is a problem, if properly designed, a pen should post, and it should also have decent balance posted or un-posted. Un-posted the pen feels just fine, but if you attempt to post the pen it oddly sticks about halfway onto the piston knob and the pen is completely unbalanced. Long story short, it is an un-postable pen, if anyone thinks it can be posted just not as well as say a Pelikan, get that thought out of your head it can't be posted at all. Because the pen can't post I knocked it down to 3 out of 5 stars.

 

How it writes:

I won't even pretend to lecture you very knowledgeable folks here as to the writing qualities of this pen, I've handled and written exactly five fountain pens to date. But in my limited experience the pen puts down a very wet thicker than the typical medium line, at least from what I'm used to. It's considerably thicker than the LAMY Safari medium and a little thicker than the Pelikan medium. The pen writes very wet, the ink flows from it (maybe it's the Noodler's ink?). So far the LAMY Safari I would say puts down a cleaner, more consistent line (don't kill me) 3 out of 5 stars.

 

Value:

It's not a bad value since it is clear and you can see the piston working (very cool) and has a piston fill mechanism all for $50.00, but it doesn't write (in my limited experience) any better than cheaper pens like the LAMY Safari, in my opinion the LAMY writes better. Because of that I would give it 4 out of 5 stars for value.

 

Again I'm a novice with all this, take the above for what it is, a novice giving you his elementary review of the TWSBI 580 pen. I like the pen, it's definitely cool and a conversation piece. I don't have plans to unload it anytime soon. I just have to figure out what to do with the cap, put it in my pocket? Hold it with my left hand? More times than not I'm taking notes in my bosses office where I have a chair but no desk space so I'm writing on my lap.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Mike_Dowling

[sammyhellsyea]

I just received my 580 today as well, but haven't inked it yet. I also ordered a Vac 700 and was given BOTH a Bock and a Jowo nib!

 

Can't wait to try them!

[alicest]

I really like this pen so far, but agree that the 1.1 is very broad, and if you're looking for a posted pen (which I was), it most defintiely is not made to post. I kind of wish I'd known that before I bought it. It's not a bad pen, but it's not the favorite I thought I'd want.

[UK Mike]

I agree with the later reviews - the 580 is an ok pen and nicely manufactured and packaged, but as a writing instrument it is only what you might expect of a $50 pen. (£41.99 UK price)

 

I have the medium nib and after 3 flushes with increasingly detergent filled water, I am still getting some hard-starting and skipping issues. I feel sure they will disappear after a bit more tweaking, but apart from the filling mechanism, I can get better performance from a Chinese pen at under $10. Quite how the TWSBI achieved its legendary status is beyond me.

 

I'm not a lover of clear pens to be honest, but even when you take that out of the equation, the 580 leaves me a little underwhelmed. I prefer my Pelikan M200 which cost the same amount of money thanks to a deal on Amazon last November (£41.40), and also the Monteverde Prima (£45 list price - paid £18 from Amazon UK) which has a converter and a bigger nib which after some tweaking is a much better writer.

 

Top of the pile comes the Parson's Essntial from Italix (£39.00) which is incomparably better as a writing instrument than any of these and is the cheapest of the lot, has a silky smooth nib (even the full italics) and an impeccable ink flow. It performs way beyond its price range.

 

Nice pen TWSBI, but no cigar

[Frontier]

Thank you for the great review

Am waiting by the mailbox for mine to arrive.

Edited March 22, 2013 by Frontier

[gorjeanul]

I've got mine 580 few days ago. F nib. As I posted in some other part: start = good, wet, etc. but after writing 2 x A5 pages, pen started skipping (ink = Standardgraph Figbrown).

As this ink perform quite well in other pens, I've decided to dismantle the nib and take a look at the ink channel on the feed. It was too thin, no constant weight. So i took a cutter (small, thin blade), i have cleaned the channel - now everything it's OK.

I guess that this channel is clogged with some rests after the industrial cutting or the cutting is not done well from the factory (not so unusual for a chinese product). Probably they have more machines cutting the feeds - some of them are good, some of them no so... Depends on each of one's luck which machine was in charge his feed.. I wonder how the f... the PILOT manage to to their pens (starting OK directly from the box)?

Probably it will need also some flushes and another cleaning of the channel. Keep in touch.

BR,