The ultimate TWSBI review! Part 3!

Make sure you don't forget about the free give-away going on! Check it out here for a chance to win!

Alright, we're now into the 3rd part of my ultimate TWSBI review. This multi-part, extensive, and detailed review has (and still is) taken me along time to put together. I'm working on it as I go, posting each part as I finish it. Make sure to subscribe to get notified of when the next apart comes out.

For those who are late in veiwing this review, here's a quick recap with links to the other 2 parts. Make sure to go back and look at these if you haven't. There's a lot of essential information in them.

Recap of Part 1:

• How did the TWSBI come about?
• What is the TWSBI is all about?
• What exactly is the TWSBI Diamond 530?

Recap of Part 2:

• Packaging
• Presentation

In part 3 of this extensive review we will be discussing what is (to me at least) the second most important aspect of a pen. Aside from nib performance, design is everything. This is exactly what this entire part is going to be devoted to.

The ultimate TWSBI review! Part 2!

Make sure you don't forget about the free give-away going on! Check it out here for a chance to win!


Today we're going to move on to part 2 of my ultimate TWSBI review! If you missed out on Part 1, go back and read it right now. It will help you better understand this part (#2) and all the other parts of this review.

For a quick recap I'll show what was reviewed in part 1.

Recap of Part 1:

• How did the TWSBI come about?
• What is the TWSBI all about?
• What exactly is the TWSBI Diamond 530?

Now we can move on to part 2 of the ultimate TWSBI review. In this part we'll be discussing some important elements of the pen design.. Some will be more interested in other aspects of the review but to me, looks are almost everything when it comes to buying a new pen. This applies even to the smallest details.

Part 2:

• Packaging
• Presentation

As we dive into this, again keep in mind that I'll be ranking each aspect of the pen in two ways.

1. What the pen is in comparison to others in its price range
2. What the pen could be

That being said lets now move on to the real meat of today's review. We'll begin with the first topic:

We've reached the half-way point for the free give-away!

We've finally come to the half-way point for the free give-away!

You guys have been doing great so far! Hopefully it won't be much longer before we reach the end and the four winners are chosen!

To keep things fresh and updated I've got two things to talk about today.

• Re-cap of the free-giveaway for those who are new
• What to do to speed up the free-giveaway

Let's start out with a re-cap of what this free give-away is all about and what's up for grabs!

The free give-away was started exactly 2 weeks ago as a fun little contest to both promote this blog, and to give people a chance to win some neat prizes. There are four prizes being given:

The ultimate TWSBI review! Part 1!

This is going to be a super-sized review of a pen that's caused a lot of excitement in the fountain pen community. This review is promising to be extremely long, so I will be posting it in separate parts -- probably around five -- as I go. I hope you will enjoy this review as much as I'm enjoying putting it together for you!

Also, make note of my method for ranking this pen. I will consider each aspect of the pen from two different angles. It will be given a rating for both:

1. What the pen is, in comparison to others in its price range
2. What the pen could be

The reason for these classification is to ensure that the review is accurate. By comparing the pen to others in its price range, you'll be able to see what incredible value this pen has to offer. By comparing the pen to what it could be, you'll get my honest opinion on what could be improved about the design.

That being said, let's move right in and get started!

Watch out for bad Parker Vacumatic Diaphragms!

Here's a pen that belongs to a very good friend of mine. It's lovely Cedar Blue Parker 51 Vacumatic.

Sadly, this lovely pen suddenly stopped working for its owner. It wasn't taking up any ink or water. As soon as I got it in "the-shop" I checked the breather tube for a clog. This seemed the obvious solution for a pen that just stopped working suddenly. After checking - nope, not the breather tube. So, I took a peek at the diaphragm.

Looking down the barrel it looked pretty bad in there. After I removed the filler-unit things looked even worse. Then after about an hour of scraping and cleaning this is what I finally got out...

How to disassemble a Parker 45!

Here's a video that I've made in response to a question from a customer of mine. He asked if I could perhaps show how to take apart a Parker 45. We struck a deal - I polish his pen and tune it up if I'm allowed to review it. So that's what you're seeing here. I'm going to take-down a Parker 45 on camera. Hopefully it'll be easy to follow along in case you want to do this yourself.

My grail pen has finally arrived! Lovely Pelikan M805 Blue Stripe!

I've wanted one of these for a very long time now. The Pelikan Souveran range always caught my eye as a series of beautiful, reliable, and reasonably priced pens. By reasonably priced I mean the approx. $300.00 they cost goes mostly towards quality. Many other pens of this price range waste the said amount on fancy gold trims or engravings in the pen.

It took me forever to decide which size to get. The only real way to get the exact right size was to try them out. Lucky for me, I had an extremely generous friend who loaned me an M400, M600, M800 and M1000 for test-driving.

TWSBI Diamond 530! I finally got one!

I don't excite too easily, and when I do I'm  usually still pretty calm, but this is one pen I am ecstatic about! I am totally, 100%, all the way loving this pen to the fullest! It quite simply is the best pen on earth for under $40.00 (what is costs brand new). I'd venture to say the best for under $100.00 even!

This said pen is my new TWSBI Diamond 530. It's a piston filler demonstrator (for $40.00!) that is of exceptional quality for the price. I won't delve into the story of its creation, it's a very long one. I will say that this is a pen made for the FP enthusiast!

Getting closer to ending the free giveaway! But wait, there's more!

Some of you new visitors to my blog may not know yet so I'll first inform you. I'm giving away a fountain pen with one of my custom nib grinds on it. To enter for a chance to win, visit this page!


The new subscribers has been a little slow, so I thought I'd throw in another little something to speed this contest up a bit! Here's a something you won't want to miss out on!

Three people who have entered the contest will also be chosen to win a special prize!

Free fountain pen giveaway! Don't miss out on this one!

Here's a deal you don't want to miss out on! I'm going to be giving away a free fountain pen. But not just any pen... This pen will be sporting a 777 Pen Repair custom grind! The grind on this pen is one of my smooth, buttery, crisp cursive italics! You don't want to miss out on this opportunity to try out one of my CI grinds for absolutely free. The nib comes attached to an awesome Jinhao 500 fountain pen. These heavy-weight Chinese-made pens are of superb quality and are really fun to use. This pen is a c/c filler and comes with a converter included. It also comes with a soft felt "gift-pouch". This pen with the grind is worth over $45.00, but it could be yours for nothing!

By now you're probably asking "how do I get it!?!". Well I'll tell you!

What is RSS? Let me attempt to explain...

RSS - What on earth is it?

Do you want to keep up to date on all of the latest posts on my blog? There are many different ways to do this but by far the most popular and useful way is via my RSS feed. Still, the question remains - what is RSS?

Another fun little video! Wanna' see some pen-repair tools?

So, I thought I'd make this interesting and fun little video of me just going through my pen tools and explaining them. This video is really unplanned and laid back so enjoy! I just thought some people might like to know what a pen-repairer uses on a day-to-day basis to fix pens. This doesn't have all my tools. I didn't have enough recording time to get my power-tools, and other misc. items. What you see here is just the basic bare essentials.

SOLD! - Jinhao X450 with a 777 Soft Cursive Italic Nib!

This pen has been spoken for!

Thanks for looking... :)

Hello guys,

Today I have for sale a beautiful Jinhao X450 Blue Swirl Fountain Pen. This classic torpedo-shaped pen is a lovely color! Stunning blue with  very slight purple undertones in direct sunlight. C/C filler and comes with a converter. This pen is made of brass and is somewhat heavy. It is extremely comfortable in hand! Its thickness and heft give it a feel of higher quality than it really is. The size/weight reminds me of the feel of a Pelikan m800/m1000.

A 777 Pen Repair Super-Deal! Grab it while you can!

This pen has been spoken for!

Thanks for looking... :)

Hey Guys!

Another 777 special for you today! I have for-sale a lovely green Sheaffer Valiant Pen & Pencil Set. This is the FAT model. NOT the thin model. I love the size of this pen! Very comfortable in hand! This set is in excellent condition with one minor flaw. I'll get to that later...