Do you own a Churchill ?

[goodguy]

From the first moment I heard about the Churchil I was sold.

I knew I want this pen.I am a huge fan of BIG pens and I heard that this is a BIG pen.

I also think its a beautiful pen.

 

So I think this is the right place to ask how is this pen ?

How does it feels in real life and how does it makes you feel.

 

For me its not a question of if to buy it or not.Its more a question of when.

[David Miles]

I have a Churchill. In many ways it feels like an oversized Parker Duofold flat top, though more beautiful and appealing. If you like big pens, this one should definitely be on your list. It's big but very light, and if you don't like the available colours, you can choose from several other colour patterns that CS offers as a bespoke service, for a small additional fee.

[Titivillus]

From the first moment I heard about the Churchil I was sold.

I knew I want this pen.I am a huge fan of BIG pens and I heard that this is a BIG pen.

I also think its a beautiful pen.

 

So I think this is the right place to ask how is this pen ?

How does it feels in real life and how does it makes you feel.

 

For me its not a question of if to buy it or not.Its more a question of when.

 

If you get a good one it is nice. I got 4 bad ones so I don't want to tempt fate and be disappointed again.

 

 

Kurt

 

[dreg]

I've got a Classic Black lever filler Churchill and absolutely love it.

 

It is a large pen, though not overly long when not posted. It's a wide pen, which is what I enjoy most about it. The section on them is also gently concaved which makes for a very comfortable writing experience, at least in my opinion. As said above, it is a light pen despite its size which is rather nice. Back to the topic of posting, I will say that I don't particularly like using mine posted as it is a bit large and long at that point, but I'm not of the posting sort anyhow so that's a non-issue for me.

 

If I had it to do over again, I think I would have went for the chased hard rubber instead of the classic black, but that's a purely aesthetic issue.

[goodguy]

From the first moment I heard about the Churchil I was sold.

I knew I want this pen.I am a huge fan of BIG pens and I heard that this is a BIG pen.

I also think its a beautiful pen.

 

So I think this is the right place to ask how is this pen ?

How does it feels in real life and how does it makes you feel.

 

For me its not a question of if to buy it or not.Its more a question of when.

 

If you get a good one it is nice. I got 4 bad ones so I don't want to tempt fate and be disappointed again.

 

 

Kurt

Could you please explain what was wrong with the pens you got ?

[Titivillus]

Could you please explain what was wrong with the pens you got ?

 

 

All of the problems were with the filling mechanism whether a leaking section, j bar cutting sac or sac not sealed to the section. As well a button filler would not fill more than a tiny amount..

 

 

 

Kurt

 

[David Miles]

Could you please explain what was wrong with the pens you got ?

 

 

All of the problems were with the filling mechanism whether a leaking section, j bar cutting sac or sac not sealed to the section. As well a button filler would not fill more than a tiny amount..

 

 

 

Kurt

 

 

Did you get a lever or a cc filler? I've heard that the lever fillers are vulnerable to faults. My cc filler works like a dream.

 

[andyk]

Could you please explain what was wrong with the pens you got ?

 

 

All of the problems were with the filling mechanism whether a leaking section, j bar cutting sac or sac not sealed to the section. As well a button filler would not fill more than a tiny amount..

 

 

 

Kurt

 

There do seem to be some issues with some of the CS filler systems, I have a button fill Duro and that seems to hold very little ink for a largish pen, went back to CS once I think it had sprung a leak, no external signs, just the barrel got darker.

 

When it came back it may have held a tiny bit more ink, than before but not much, when I tested it wrote for just over 5 sides of A4 which didn't seem a great deal to me.

 

I think the pens look great and mine write well, I just can't help but feel it should hold more ink though.

 

Andy

Edited November 10, 2007 by andyk

[CharlieB]

I have two of them, one with a medium nib and one with a medium italic nib, and I love them both. I've had no problems at all with either pen, but they're both have converters, so I can't speak for the lever-fill version with the sac.

[Jopen]

I have two, both lever fillers. I had one issue with a sac (came off) but was easy to fix and both perform well. There are many brands with known name but also with known faults. CS has sometimes some issues but usually design and quality are very high and once the issue is fixed, the pen works like a dream. In fact I have 2 Churchill, 2 100's a 58 and a modern Duro, beside several vintage ones. All are operative and only minor issues had to be fixed on some modern ones.

[goodguy]

I must admit I am confused now.

I was hoping to hear only raving comments from you guys that own the Churchill.

When considering to spend 400$+ on a pen I must feel confident the pen will be reliable.

 

I will have to give it a serious thought.

[Pengrump]

My lever-filing Churchill leaked and would take up only enough ink to fill the feed. Sent it to the distributor who sent it to England. It came back and leaked worse than before and would take up only enough ink to fill the feed. Sent it to Richard Binder who did some major surgery on it. It still doesn't hold a huge amount of ink, but at least it isn't leaking. Apparently the bar was too long and kept cutting the sac. So he shortened the bar and made whatever other adjustments were necessary. Somehow though, I can't really warm to the pen. I keep expecting it to start leaking again.

 

If you're going to get one, get a cartridge converter filler. The pens are lovely to look at, well-balanced, and light in the hand.

[Richard]

DISCLAIMER: I'm a Conway Stewart dealer.

 

The Churchill is an excellent pen. It's big, but it's also very light, and if I used a pen that big it would be comfortable all day long. (When I test 'em I do it unposted!)

 

There are concerns about the lever filling system, and pens made during the tenure of Don Yendle are notorious for failure. I developed a modification that both increases capacity and enhances reliability, but since Glenn Jones took over at the helm I have not had to modify the fillers on any new-made Churchills to correct filler failures. (They still have very little capacity, but they do work properly.) I would recommend the C/C filler; Churchills with C/C fillers are quite literally elegant and a joy to use. The smooth, unbroken expanse of that long, fat barrel is just plain pretty. My favorite? The Red Arrows LE.

 

http://www.richardspens.com/images/sales/conway/zoomed/redarrows.jpg

[David Miles]

I must admit I am confused now.

I was hoping to hear only raving comments from you guys that own the Churchill.

When considering to spend 400$+ on a pen I must feel confident the pen will be reliable.

 

I will have to give it a serious thought.

 

What are you confused about?

 

The pen IS reliable - if you get it as a cartridge/converter filler! The problem lies in the lever filler. It's a great pen, so don't let the negativity merchants here put you off.

Edited November 12, 2007 by David Miles

[goodguy]

DISCLAIMER: I'm a Conway Stewart dealer.

 

The Churchill is an excellent pen. It's big, but it's also very light, and if I used a pen that big it would be comfortable all day long. (When I test 'em I do it unposted!)

 

There are concerns about the lever filling system, and pens made during the tenure of Don Yendle are notorious for failure. I developed a modification that both increases capacity and enhances reliability, but since Glenn Jones took over at the helm I have not had to modify the fillers on any new-made Churchills to correct filler failures. (They still have very little capacity, but they do work properly.) I would recommend the C/C filler; Churchills with C/C fillers are quite literally elegant and a joy to use. The smooth, unbroken expanse of that long, fat barrel is just plain pretty. My favorite? The Red Arrows LE.

 

http://www.richardspens.com/images/sales/conway/zoomed/redarrows.jpg

Hi Richard

 

Thank you very much for the info.

The Churchill is back to No.1 on my next purchace list.Oh and yes I will probably go for the C/C filler.

[Titivillus]

The pen IS reliable - if you get it as a cartridge/converter filler! The problem lies in the lever filler. It's a great pen, so don't let the negativity merchants here put you off.

 

I spoke the truth about the Churchills (notice the plural in that I have experience with more than one of them) that I owned and do not appreciate being called names for doing so.

 

Kurt

Edited November 12, 2007 by Tytyvyllus

[twdpens]

Disclaimer: I am also a Conway Stewart retailer (and have been for about 7-years).

 

Not only has Conway Stewart improved the filling mechanism but more recently (say about 18-months ago) a new feed was introduced that has a greater capacity than the original, thus helping maintain ink flow especially when the pen is left uncapped for brief periods.

 

Even better, for the past few months pretty much all the Conway Stewarts we have sold have actually written quite well out of the box! This is a definite improvement on past output as now the worst cases are pens that need only very adjustments to ensure writing performance. It shows, to me at least, that the Company is committed to improving its product quality.

 

Martin

[andyr7]

Even better, for the past few months pretty much all the Conway Stewarts we have sold have actually written quite well out of the box! This is a definite improvement on past output as now the worst cases are pens that need only very adjustments to ensure writing performance. It shows, to me at least, that the Company is committed to improving its product quality.

 

Martin

 

Sorry Martin, this sounds like 'damning with faint praise'!

 

Am I unreasonable in expecting that if I were to pay £300 or more for any new pen it should already be perfectly adjusted and should work first time with pretty much any ink I cared to use? Why should the company expect their dealers to do their final QA for them?

 

I would also question Richard's assertion about the improvement of the quality of pens produced in the 'post Don Yendle' era. There are numerous instances mentioned in this forum of new pens that don't work properly because of faulty feeds, converter fillers that leak, cracks that appear within a few weeks of delivery, prototypes that have been sold as production pens - and these are all 'Glenn Jones' era products. Things may indeed now be getting better - but it would seem there is still some way to go.

 

Andy

[twdpens]

Sorry Martin, this sounds like 'damning with faint praise'!

 

Am I unreasonable in expecting that if I were to pay £300 or more for any new pen it should already be perfectly adjusted and should work first time with pretty much any ink I cared to use? Why should the company expect their dealers to do their final QA for them?

 

Conway Stewart is not alone in this respect. Not that that's an excuse, of course! You are correct, dealers should not have to perform final QA on this scale, but would you buy a pen from a retailer that didn't bother?

 

I would also question Richard's assertion about the improvement of the quality of pens produced in the 'post Don Yendle' era. There are numerous instances mentioned in this forum of new pens that don't work properly because of faulty feeds, converter fillers that leak, cracks that appear within a few weeks of delivery, prototypes that have been sold as production pens - and these are all 'Glenn Jones' era products. Things may indeed now be getting better - but it would seem there is still some way to go.

 

I cannot comment on any of those specific issues because thankfully we have not experienced them in recent times. What I can say is that quality took a dive shortly after the change of ownership - so much so that we nearly dropped Conway Stewart altogether. Quite a few pens were returned before the customer even saw them and even more nibs had to be swapped out because they were "Friday afternoon" jobs that were only suited to the scrap metal bin! Because of these issues we are particularly diligent with all the Conway Stewart pens we supply. Not an ideal situation I know but, as I wrote above, things are definitely getting better. In hindsight, we are pleased that we continued to support Conway Stewart (although comments about the current product line-up are probably best left to other topics ).

 

Martin

[andyr7]

So the moral appears to be, if you are going to buy a modern CS, ONLY buy from a careful seller (such as yourselves, or Richard, or no doubt a few others) if you want a pen that is guaranteed to work first time because the company seem happy that the dealer is going to do final QA for them. Of course you should expect to pay a highish price because the dealer must recompense his time out of his margin on the pen.

 

If you take a chance on paying less for an ebay offering, you should expect to be faced with a pen that doesn't work and may need to be returned to CS for repair before you can use it (and may still be returned in an unsatisfactory condition, according to some of the other posts we see). Same applies to buying direct from a CS stand at a pen show!

 

Andy