True Writer--Episode 2

[sleek_lover]

 

And in those days, a Decree went out from Steve Levy

 

"Let there be a pen to honor my forebearer, who, armed with only an Esterbrook, went into the world and waged war against the EEEVILS (think BLAZING SADDLES for the pronounciation...) of poor penmanship."

 

 

And Pen Makers did slave and work to fulfill Steve Levy's desire.

 

And lo, there came an undisclosed penmaker and unto Steve Levy didst deliver a Pen of such worthiness that Steve Levy didst decree that this mighty writing implement was yea, verily, what he sought

 

And thus didst Steve Levy annoint this pen as The Pen of Levenger's and didst proclaim it to be both A and THE TRUE WRITER

 

 

The subject of this second round of the True Writer saga is a Green TW...not only is it from the original series issue, the color was the first issued...in Feb. 1999. As in the former review, I got the pen within a short time after it was issued.

 

I gave this pen a bit of a cleanup before slipping in the PR Velvet Black short international cartridge. As expected, it fired right up. I spent a pleasant afternoon with the pen...just noodling, make notes on the direction my novel is going, doing some rough outlines of chapters, noting some charater developments...probably a total of 5-8 pages. The pen performed flawlessly...never faltered, didn't hesitate once.

 

The nib lays a solid Western M...about the same as a Waterman Kultur/Phil M. I was writing on Staples Multi-use Bright-White and noticed no feathering or bleed-through (except where I got too "vigorous" in my scratch-outs and mark-throughs...) To my mind the whole feathering/bleed-through is such a nebulous issue and fraught with the vagarities of pen/ink/paper/writing pressure that I pay it little mind anyway...

 

Truth be told, the TWs are as much fun to use as my Phils and for me, have the same level of reliability...they just do their job...which is to put pen on paper...

 

I just wish the Great Pen God(dess) would whisper into Steve Levy's ear that a TW with a hooded nib would be slicker than owl snot. THAT would just tickle me no end...

 

So the rating...Same as the other TW...

 

Function 9 of 10

Form 7 of 10 (It ain't a SLEEK, it's a TRAD)

Imponderables 10 of 10

Total 26 of 30

 

Bill

Edited August 7, 2007 by paircon01

[Opus104]

Bill -

 

I bow before your verbal prowess -

 

I have the same feelings for my Kyoto, a Latter Day True Writer . . .

[Maja]

:clap1:

Very nice review, Bill!

 

Not sure about a TW with a hooded nib, though (they ain't my cup of coffee, you know ).....

(edited to correct spelling of "coffee" Sounds like I need mine NOW!!)

Edited August 7, 2007 by Maja

[Stew]

I've seen several references here to "old" and "new" style True Writers, which, I assume, refers to whether the nib is exchangeable. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I only have one True Writer which I purchased in December 2006 without an interchangeable nib. However, I found that I could pull out the nib assembly without too much effort. I made a minor adjustment to the nib's alignment, and put it back in place. Couldn't a nib be easily replaced in this manner? I'm pretty certain I didn't do any damage to the pen - It's not leaking and writing much better as a result. It might not be as easy to replace as a threaded nib assembly, but it seems to do the trick.

I'll bring the pen to the DC pen show for a check-up exam, because it is one of my favorites.

Edited August 10, 2007 by Stew

[rroossinck]

Bill, how 'bout some pictures of 'em?

 

Also, if you're looking for something that is reminiscent (in my mind, anyway) of the TW styling (and resins), you might take a gander at the Conklin Cushion Point. Nice looking pen with a semi-hooded nib. It's not for everyone, but you might like it.

 

http://www.conklinpen.com/images/pens/cushion_point/cushion_point-hero.jpg

*Picture borrowed from Conklin's website.

[Johnny Appleseed]

However, I found that I could pull out the nib assembly without too much effort. I made a minor adjustment to the nib's alignment, and put it back in place. Couldn't a nib be easily replaced in this manner? I'm pretty certain I didn't do any damage to the pen - It's not leaking and writing much better as a result.

 

Historically 95% of all fountain pens worked this way. The nib and feed are friction-fit into the section. Swapping out nibs was a pretty easy proceedure in just about any pen repair shop.

 

However, it is usually a little harder than your example. The fit for most feeds is a bit tighter, and the fact that yours pulled out so easily might be a sign that it was too loose in the section to begin with (perhaps the source of leaks?). Most of the time you need to get a knock-out block (a block of wood or aluminum with several different size holes in it) and knock them out from the feed end. With modern cartridge pens this is can be much harder, if not impossible, due to the cartridge nipple (and a few vintage pens, like Parker Lucky Curve's and some Sheaffer feeds have bits on the end that make it pretty tricky). Also, try to mark the section with the mid-point on the nib somehow, so you can put it back together in the correct alignement - some feeds are ever so slightly out-of-round, and will fit back together in one particular spot.

 

Rocking the nib back and forth to work it out from the front end can crack the nib, so that should be avoided if possible.

 

John

[Erica Kline]

By the way, I still have a True writer with a cracked ring in the section. It's the black ring that holds the nib/feed assembly in the actual colored section. Can I replace that with a new section?

 

Thanks,

 

Erica