Why do I dislike TWSBI nibs?

[dragondazd]

Hey guys,

 

I love my TWSBI pens but the nibs are not my style. I want to learn how to tune nibs so these icky nibs seem like a good place to start. I have 3 ecos and 2 580 nibs. I just want to do some easy tweaks and not try to fix anything hard to do.

 

First, what is it about these nibs that I hate? They are not quite like writing with nails but they do feel really stiff. It's like writing with a glass dip pen. I finally decided I absolutely hate it. Is that something I can fix with smoothing? 

 

Second, I have a 1.1mm 580 that has feed issues. It loses flow and pushing hard doesn't solve it. Is this a common problem in TWSBI stubs? I will test the feed to be sure but it would be helpful to know if there is a common issue. I think I have two nibs with this problem and it's really frustrating.

 

Thanks!

Edited April 24, 2021 by dragondazd
Mins=nibs

[silverlifter]

They are a (relatively) cheap steel nib. They shouldn't be expected to be anything other than "nails" (which, IMO, is not a pejorative). Smoothing the nib won't alter that.

 

14 minutes ago, dragondazd said:

It loses flow and pushing hard doesn't solve it.

 

"Pushing hard" doesn't solve any issues with nibs, it creates them. Flow issues can be caused by issues with the feed (give it a good clean) and make sure the nib is properly set on it.

[dragondazd]

Well I get that. I'm not expecting a gold nib here. But there are steel nibs I really enjoy and I would like to make some less fun nibs feel like the more fun nibs. For instance, I had a dreamy Lamy safari nib, and many are not. I had a platinum prefounte nib I'd gladly replace most others with if I could. Etc.

 

I don't have any experience tuning yet to know what can or can't be altered to my personal taste.

[tde44x]

I have 4x 580's with stub nibs (3x 1.1 and 1x 1.5) and started off with one with an EF nib that I switched to a stub. While the EF was like a nail (something I expected) it write about the same as other steel nib pens in the same size. I switched it to a stub as I "discovered" that I preferred writing with stub or broad nibs.

 

Only had to tune/adjust one of the nibs - a stub - as the tines were too close. Other than that they have written quite well out of the box. 

 

As far as I know these are all Jowo nibs (at least in the 580). I have pens from other manufacturers with Jowo nibs which required a lot more work.

 

FYI - I write primarily on HP24, HP32 and sometimes TR52. Inks are all Diamine.

[Dione]

I love my TWSBI stub nibs. They all write very nicely straight out of the box, but they are meant to be like nails.

[maclink]

TWSBI is one of the few pen producers for which I have multiple pens and never having to tune any of their nibs on receipt.  Their nail-like quality is shared by pens with Bock and Jowo steel nibs.

[Paul-in-SF]

20 hours ago, dragondazd said:

I don't have any experience tuning yet to know what can or can't be altered to my personal taste.

Tuning can fix problems, but it can't change the nature of the metal. Among the problems that tuning can fix is mis-aligned tines, faulty ink flow due to tines that are too close together (or too far apart, although that is a little harder to fix), and scratchiness when writing. 

 

Your complaint about TWSBI nibs is that they feel really stiff, and when you write with them it's like writing with a glass dip pen. I fear there is not much you can do about that, except perhaps to try writing with a lighter touch so that the nibs glide across the paper and you don't notice how firm they are. 

[dragondazd]

Hey everyone, thanks, this is really helpful. I did not know they were jowo as they feel so different from all the other jowos I have. Some of those other jowos--the ones tuned by professionals--are delicious! This means there's a lot of possibility for modification, which means I can buy more twibis! Further, I have little to lose. I was about to retire the 4 pens with 5 nibs.

 

I just need to figure out how to make these feel less... Dead.

[dragondazd]

3 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

Tuning can fix problems, but it can't change the nature of the metal. Among the problems that tuning can fix is mis-aligned tines, faulty ink flow due to tines that are too close together (or too far apart, although that is a little harder to fix), and scratchiness when writing. 

 

Your complaint about TWSBI nibs is that they feel really stiff, and when you write with them it's like writing with a glass dip pen. I fear there is not much you can do about that, except perhaps to try writing with a lighter touch so that the nibs glide across the paper and you don't notice how firm they are. 

Is there a reason they would feel stiffer than other jowos? Maybe I am describing the feeling wrong. Maybe I prefer nails to dip pens o.O

[Geslina]

6 minutes ago, dragondazd said:

Hey everyone, thanks, this is really helpful. I did not know they were jowo as they feel so different from all the other jowos I have. Some of those other jowos--the ones tuned by professionals--are delicious! This means there's a lot of possibility for modification, which means I can buy more twibis! Further, I have little to lose. I was about to retire the 4 pens with 5 nibs.

 

I just need to figure out how to make these feel less... Dead.

Aren’t Franklin Christoph pens Jowo nibs too?  If so, there is a world of difference between the EF Franklin Christoph I have and the EF Twisbi Diamond.  They don’t feel the same at all.

[dragondazd]

1 minute ago, Geslina said:

Aren’t Franklin Christoph pens Jowo nibs too?  If so, there is a world of difference between the EF Franklin Christoph I have and the EF Twisbi Diamond.  They don’t feel the same at all.

That was exactly what I was thinking!

[Geslina]

20 hours ago, dragondazd said:

Well I get that. I'm not expecting a gold nib here. But there are steel nibs I really enjoy and I would like to make some less fun nibs feel like the more fun nibs. For instance, I had a dreamy Lamy safari nib, and many are not. I had a platinum prefounte nib I'd gladly replace most others with if I could. Etc.

 

I don't have any experience tuning yet to know what can or can't be altered to my personal taste.

I tried tuning a few of my own pens with a piece of Mylar someone sent me.  While there was some noticeable improvement, the gold nib I worked on is now much broader than the fine nib i bought it as.  The other pen is a Twsbi Diamond EF, which I found very sharp and scratchy at first....it’s now a little smoother, and much more useable, but I think one has to be really careful when doing this.  There is probably a fine line between improving and ruining a nib.  I had no idea what I was doing, I watched a few YouTube videos and just started scribbling away on the Mylar....it’s easy to get carried away!

[Geslina]

7 minutes ago, dragondazd said:

That was exactly what I was thinking!

Likely Jowo makes a lot of different types of steel nibs, some better quality than others.  The Twsbi Diamond was my first pen - researched for weeks, agonizing over spending so much (ha, little did I know!) only to be very disappointed when I finally got it.  Using Mylar helped, but it’s still not a pen I love using.  When I do use it, it functions best with very highly lubricated inks.  I know lots of people love Twsbi pens, but I won’t buy another based on my experience with the Diamond.

[dragondazd]

3 minutes ago, Geslina said:

I tried tuning a few of my own pens with a piece of Mylar someone sent me.  While there was some noticeable improvement, the gold nib I worked on is now much broader than the fine nib i bought it as.  The other pen is a Twsbi Diamond EF, which I found very sharp and scratchy at first....it’s now a little smoother, and much more useable, but I think one has to be really careful when doing this.  There is probably a fine line between improving and ruining a nib.  I had no idea what I was doing, I watched a few YouTube videos and just started scribbling away on the Mylar....it’s easy to get carried away!

Thanks for the warning! I fixed my feed issue on the one nib and smoothed out a spot on a Lamy yesterday. I'm ready to throw away all the nibs I touch. The alternative is leaving them in a drawer. I have half a dozen meh lamy nibss on my desk right now, and a dreadful EF eco next.

[Geslina]

4 minutes ago, dragondazd said:

Thanks for the warning! I fixed my feed issue on the one nib and smoothed out a spot on a Lamy yesterday. I'm ready to throw away all the nibs I touch. The alternative is leaving them in a drawer. I have half a dozen meh lamy nibss on my desk right now, and a dreadful EF eco next.

There is probably a lot of tuning advice here on this forum, if you want to search.  I wouldn’t hesitate to do it myself with less pricey pens, but I have a Pilot Custom 74 fine nib that I’m not thrilled with, I’m hoping to find someone at a pen show (eventually...maybe?) to work on it for me.  Not going to mess with my gold nibs, not after my experience with my Pilot Decimo.  

[maclink]

5 hours ago, Geslina said:

While there was some noticeable improvement, the gold nib I worked on is now much broader than the fine nib i bought it as

Sounds like way too much polishing ongoing there.  That's more of a regrinding exercise (one for a professional), rather than a tuning exercise.  

[Geslina]

1 hour ago, maclink said:

Sounds like way too much polishing ongoing there.  That's more of a regrinding exercise (one for a professional), rather than a tuning exercise.  

Yep.  Like a lot of things in my life, I overdid it!  The pen writes well....just more like a medium now.  Maybe even a broad.