Despite really liking my TWSBI ECOs, I’ve never actually branched out and tried any of their other pens. (I take that back, I tried the TWSBI Swipe a while ago and thought it was ok.) But this time I saw the TWSBI Diamond Mini AL in Grape (a limited edition color!; $62.50) and decided to give the more expensive model a go!

The Diamond Mini AL is TWSBI’s version of a pocket pen. It is styled similarly to the other pens, in the sense that it has a transparent plastic barrel which gives you a bird’s eye view of the piston filling system. There are differences though. The grip and part of the piston system are designed in aluminum. The barrel of the pen is faceted (hence the “Diamond” feel and look). While the ECO and the SWIPE tend to be boxier, with edges on the cap, the Diamond Mini’s edges are rounded, and the cap is tapered. Overall while the ECO is utilitarian, the Diamond Mini is a bit sleeker looking.

I decided to compare a few pens that I use as daily writers to give you a sense of size.

L to R: TWSBI Eco, TWSBI Diamond Mini AL, Kaweco AL Sport, Sailor Pro-Gear Slim.

While the pens vary quite a bit in length when capped, when uncapped the Diamond Mini AL and the Kaweco AL Sport aren’t that different in length. The nibs, however, do have a size differential. In terms of weight they’re very similar: The Pro Gear comes in at 19gm, the ECO at 20, the AL Sport at 21g, and finally the Diamond Mini AL is the heaviest at 23g. But that’s not a HUGE range.

So what do I think? If I’m entirely 100% honest, I don’t feel much of a writing difference between the ECO and the Diamond Mini AL. This is my first extra fine nib from TWSBI, and given that TWSBI tends to use western-style nibs, I don’t find the extra fine to be scratchy in the least. In fact I quite like it. The pen is a bit weightier in my hand, and it’s smaller in size, but I have small hands and it seems like a comfortable writer. So what would make me pay more for the Diamond AL Mini? To me, it comes down to aesthetics. The Mini is fun, and often I do prefer aluminum to plastic (see my preferences for Kawecos!), but given that I don’t see a huge writing difference, I feel like I’m more apt to stick with the ECOs than amass another collection.

Do you have a favorite TWSBI? I’d love to hear about it!

• Paper: Maruman Mnemosyne N182A Notebook – A5 – Graph ($10.00)
• Pen: TWSBI Diamond Mini AL in Grape ($62.50)
• Inks: Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki-Shikibu (50mL for $26.00)

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge or at a discount for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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Joe, the proprietor of The Gentleman Stationer, added a surprise to the package – a TWSBI Eco in Cerulean Blue with a F nib. So today we’re going to host a fun giveaway for Halloween – no tricks, all treats!

Ana and I have added some notebooks and inks to make this a fun little prize package and I’ll be adding some sweets at the end. As pictured, one lucky winner will receive:

• A TWSBI Eco in Cerulean Blue with a F nib
• A small Clairefontaine Classic Multi-Subject Notebook
• A Tangy Orange and Blu Raspberry Sweet Tooth notebook from Field Notes
• A fountain pen themed blank notecard
• A bottle of the Monteverde limited edition LA Pen Show ink in Coral (Halloween needs an orange ink right?)
• Plus stickers, and a sweet treat!

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below telling me what your favorite Halloween candy is! (Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay?) One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by midnight CST on Sunday, October 30th. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday, October 31st – Halloween baby! One winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules. Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 5 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items in this post were generously provided by The Gentleman Stationer for the purposes of this giveaway.

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Forest Green is a bit misnamed. I picture forest green as much darker, dustier. TWSBI’s take on forest green is a bright emerald green.

Forest Green fits right in with the standard green from several other lines – Lamy, Aurora, Monteverde, and Rohrer & Klingner are close matches.

The shading from Forest Green is great. I’ve used a medium nib from Narwhal for my writing samples and it produced the shading you see below.

Sheen! The best kind of sheen in my book – it only shows up occasionally and is never overwhelming. I’ve also never had smearing issues with this level of sheen.

As I showed with TWSBI Purple last week, the bottles are beautiful. They are made of thick, frosted glass and feel heavy for their size. Every bottle is clearly marked with the color and name.

I’ve included all five new TWSBI colors swatched on Tomoe River paper:

And on Cosmo Air Light paper:

The finish of Forest Green on the two paper types is quite different. Cosmo Air Light paper shows the ink as a bit chalky or dusty.

The entire set of new TWSBI inks can be purchased at most ink retailers. Even with the small bottle size, I’m glad I purchased a full bottle of Forest Green – a great standard green that looks even better with the shading and sheen.

DISCLAIMER: The items in this review were purchased by me and I was not compensated for writing this review. See our About page for more information

The post Ink Review: TWSBI Forest Green appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

TWSBI released 5 new colors in their ink lineup – Grape, Tangerine, Navy, Crimson, and Forest Green. I purchased a bottle of each at Vanness where the 18mL bottles were $6.50 each, coming in around $0.40 per mL.

The bottles for the 18mL inks are a beautiful frosted glass with a bit of heft for their size and, my favorite, are square for easy storage with other bottles. The packaging is secure and not excessive.

TWSBI grape was not the color I had imagined – I was expecting a much more purple ink.

Instead, Grape is not what I would label as purple at all but rather a deep fuchsia. Although the color was a surprise, I still love it. plenty of shading and a touch of a dark halo.

A swatch on Tomoe River paper:

A swatch on Cosmo Air Light paper:

I love the crisp outline on the CAL paper. As usual, the ink shows as a bit more blue on Cosmo Air Light.

I’ll be working my way through these inks in the near future! For now, here’s a glance at all five on Tomoe River paper:

and on Cosmo Air Light paper:

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were purchased by me and I was not compensated to write this review. Please see the About page for more details.

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I’ll be honest and say that the last TWSBI release, the GO, just didn’t appeal to me aesthetically speaking. For some reason, the Swipe did.

The TWSBI Swipe is a somewhat traditional cartridge and converter fountain pen. The two new things with the Swipe (at least for me) are the options available and the funky looking spring (that was actually in the GO as well).

The Swipe comes in two just two colors right now: Smoke and Prussian Blue. The nibs are TWSBI steel #4 nibs (same as the GO) and are available in EF, F, M, B and 1.1 stub. I chose an EF and it was the right choice – to me it’s not that fine, but I guess I’m used to my Japanese pens! The body is made of resin. The cap is postable, and it’s a snap cap.

The fun part about the TWSBI Swipe is the ink. My pen came loaded with a spring converter which was super fun to use – I even shot a little video!

But I also got a standard converter and a cartridge that I could have used instead. Though the cartridge looks slightly wider at one end than standard international cartridge, the top end, through which the ink feeds through is definitely standard. Yay for non-proprietary systems!

So how does the Swipe stack up? Compared to the very slightly more expensive ECO (26.99 vs. 32.99) it’s just a smidge lighter (16g vs. 22g) and every so slightly shorter (5 3/8″/13.5cm vs 5 1/2″/14cm). I also put it against some other introductory pens, the Platinum Prefounte and the Pilot Kakuno for comparison, even though it’s not quite apples to apples.

So how did it write? I think it writes fine and it’s another great introductory fountain pen. I think I prefer the style and feel of the Eco slightly better, but that’s definitely a preference, not anything wrong with the Swipe in the least. And I do love that the Swipe gives you so many options for ink delivery.

• Paper: Write Notepads Dot Grid Steno ($14)
• Pen: TWSBI Swipe in Smoke ($26.99)
• Inks:Kala Nostalgia Gemstone series, Star Garnet (30mL for $11.50)

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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I haven’t bought a new pen in a while, though I’ve been tempted by many of TWSBI’s recent offerings (I’m looking at you MINT BLUE). But when the ECO White Rosegold (Lemur Ink, $49.99) edition came up for sale, I didn’t really stop and think, just hit pre-order.

The ECO White Rosegold is basically exactly like the rest of the TWSBI ECOs, with the exception of the Rosegold plating on the nib, clip and rings. TWSBI shares that the plating process is a bit more intensive for the Rosegold editions, and so this run is a limited and a bit pricier than most runs of ECOs.

I do have a clear ECO to compare it to, so I’ve done so here.

I love my TWSBI ECO. The first one I bought was over 3 years ago, and it has served me well. My original ECO has a medium nib and is almost always full with Platinum Classic Lavender Black. Though I’ve been warned that iron gall inks can stain pens, my TWSBI seems to have escaped that fate. It’s a consistent writer and, even if I put it down for long periods of time, writes well as soon as I pick it up, rarely even needing water or priming to re-start.

My biggest dilemma when using the Rosegold ECO was what color ink to choose? I opted for bright pink (Diamine Hope Pink) thinking it would complement the Rosegold, but I also think a bright green would do it justice. What color would you use?

Overall, I like the finishing work on this ECO so even if it isn’t vastly different from the first one I own, I’m happy to have another TWSBI in my pen case, and one that sparkles a bit differently at that!

DISCLAIMER: All of the items included in this review were purchased with my own money for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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Enjoy, stay warm (or cool depending on your hemisphere) and happy Inkmas to all and to all a good ink!

TWSBI, the Taiwanese company known for its affordable, stylish fountain pens, will soon be known for inks with the debut of a limited-edition, six-color set in time for the holidays (six 18 ml bottles for $36; individual bottles also available for $7.50 each). The 1791 series is “inspired by the vivid scenes described in Cao Xueqin’s Dream of the Red Chamber. First printed in 1791, the novel is widely lauded as one of the greatest works in the history of Chinese literature.”

As part of this year’s 12 Days of Inkmas, I’m going to review them two at a time. This post will serve as an introduction to the boxed set and review of Pink and Prairie Green.

Packed in a sturdy carton with nicely rounded corners, the set would make a lovely gift for an ink-collecting friend or someone new to fountain pens. A diecut on the bellyband shows the TWSBI logo, which also appears on each faceted bottle lid. My favorite part of the design is the frosted glass – a distinctive touch among fountain pen inks.

On to the review of Pink and Prairie Green.

TWSBI Pink is a pure, lovely rose that is neither too orange nor too blue. I see no sheening, and it’s a little too pale to show shading. This pink evokes peonies and the centers of cherry blossoms. I forgot to test for water-solubility until after I photographed the swatches, but none of the TWSBI inks is in any way waterproof. All washed richly with a swipe of water.

Sampled with the fine Zebra G nib, the pink looked a bit pale for writing, so I tried it in my medium-nib Lamy Nexx. I like it better here, and it would probably be best with an even broader nib.

Closest in my collection to TWSBI’s Pink is Iroshizuku Kosumosu, though the latter leans more toward the coral side. Iroshizuku Momiji is more saturated and bluer.

Prairie Green might be my favorite in the set – a vibrant yellow-green of young leaves. Like Pink, Prairie Green sits squarely in the leaf green range without being too yellow nor too blue. Again, I don’t see signs of sheening.

It turns out l like this green because I found several others in my collection that come close. Caran d’Ache Chromatics Delicate Green is the most similar. Others are close but tend slightly toward either olive or yellow.

TWSBI Prairie Green struck me as a beautiful color to paint/draw with, so I filled a waterbrush with it.

At Gage Academy’s annual Drawing Jam event in Seattle, both nude and costumed models pose for short and long durations all day. For this five-minute pose, I used the Prairie Green-filled brush to make the initial gesture strokes. Then I used a hacked Pilot Parallel filled with TWSBI Sky Blue (coming up in Part 2) to emphasize the shading. They’re beautiful inks to draw with!

TOOLS

• Paper: Canson XL Mixed Media pad, 98 lb., 10” x 7” (60 sheets/$6.90)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10)
• Pens: Zebra Comic Pen G Model Nib (10/$13.50) with Koh-i-Noor holder and Lamy Nexx, M nib ($25.60)
• Brushes: Winsor & Newton pointed round 4 ($12.28) and Kuretake waterbrush – large ($7)
• Inks: TWSBI 1791 Pink and TWSBI 1791 Prairie Green (18ml/$7.50)

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

Updated: 12/18/19 to add link to the Gage Drawing Jam.

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