1.1 Or 1.5 Twsbi 580? Which One Shall I Get?

[Fabienne]

I love TWSBIs. I have 2 540s, a Mini, and a 580. I have lived through cracks and skips and the mystery of how to re-assemble one. Philip Wang and Speedy have been STERLING in their customer care. The big reason I keep coming back is the way the nibs feel when I write. Yes, there are other reasons to love the TWSBIs but the nib is the nub of the matter! TWSBI has consistently chosen wonderful nibs be they Bock or JaWo or Brand X...their taste is the same as my taste for things like: smoothness, road feel, broadness, and flexibility.

I did recently buy a 580 broad TWSBI. It skipped and I was sent a new nib. The new nib still skipped and Philip let me send it back and had adjusted it and now it is a perfect writer. I would like to get another 580 in a stub BUT I am hoping that the skip problem is fixed and I can't make up my mind as to whether to get the 1.1 or the 1.5. Can you answer the first question (are the 580s perfected yet?) and then the second question (1.1 or 1.5)?

I am afraid that the broader nibs were the ones which were most prone to skipping, but I could be wrong about that, if I am please say so.

[colrehogan]

I have a TWSBI 580 with 1.5 nib. I don't think it skips. Or if it does, I'm not holding the pen correctly and have to adjust it slightly. This is my first TWSBI.

[amberleadavis]

I love my 1.5, but I can tell you that it is a little too broad for general writing ... I use it more often where you can use larger text. Envelopes, personal notes, sub headings, doodling ..... you get the idea. 1.1 is broad enough to give you the look of italics but not so large you can't use it for the regular note taking. Hope that helps.

[Uncle Red]

I got the new 1.5 stub on the vac 700 and I love it. I find it's at the top end of the nibs I can use for daily writing but I write big with broad nibs a lot. A 1.1 is probably more useful. My stub doesn't skip, writes very smoothly with excellent line variation, be careful of pale inks or ones that hold a very tight line since it may be hard to see cross strokes.

[JonSzanto]

I think Amber nailed it - how are you planning on using the pen? If it is to do a lot of daily writing, you are going to be using a lot of paper, because it is going to be BIG WRITING! I've found that - for me - anything over about a 1.1 italic/stub nib ends up falling into the "signature" category: I use them for signatures, big addresses, headers on notes, the kind of thing you'd choose a large font size in a word processing program. For most writing - journals, letters, general note-taking - I need a smaller nib than that.

 

But, heck, some people like to write largely. If so, go for the 1.5!

[chiaroscuro]

I don't know about skipping, but I think 1.1mm is more versatile. It has plenty of flair and you can still use it with small margins in a pinch, or flip it to use on cheap copy paper.

[AAN]

In reply to the question as to whether the 580 skipping, my recent experience would suggest that the problems are still there. This is all covered in another thread, but briefly: a few weeks ago I bought a 580 with a B nib. The pen looked and felt far meter than I had thought it would, but I simply could not get it to write. It was very, very wet, then after a page or so began to skip and dry. I didn't want to fiddle with the nib so I assumed it was a rogue bad one and ordered a new nib unit, this time in M as the B was very B and I thought the flow might be better in a slightly narrower nib.

Unfortunately, the second nib was just as bad.

My own view is that this is a lapse in quality control, possibly compounded by the fact that many TWSBI buyers are happy to tinker with the nibs and or feeds, so the manufacturers are not aware of the extent of the problem.

I think if they are selling pens on the basis that they may well need fiddling with before they work, then this should be made clear.

I really hope that TWSBI can succeed in producing reliable pens that work out of the box. I don't think they are there yet.

[Strombomboli]

My 580 with 1.5 mm stub nib doesn't skip, but it dries out ever so often. Still, this is my favourite pen at the moment!

 

Your choice should be based on how you write. I need a very broad nib, so for me, this nib is just right, but if your letters are not that big, maybe a smaller nib would be better for you. And then there are people, whose large hand-writing actually looks good with a smaller nib. It's hard to decide from afar.