Has anyone tried...

[An old bloke]

The new Conway Stewart pens?

A mate of mine recently found their website and as a lifetime CS user is interested. I've seen the website, but not the pens.

Has anyone purchased one or had a chance to try one?

https://conwaystewart.com/pages/bespoke-pens

[Robert]

I own two of the "new" CS pens with the Flag nibs from Bespoke British Pens. One is a lever filler Churchill in "Flecked Autumn" and the other is a c/c Series 100 (I think) in "Razor Shell." Both have medium nibs and write well. The lever filler is a little finicky and doesn't always provide a generous fill. The main attraction for me is the gorgeous celluloid used for each pen - leftover stock from the original CS company.

[cj2020]

They have some interesting collections for sure. The Jack Row Jaali ones are unique!

[FredRydr]

I really must read a history of the Conway Stewart brand.

[eachan]

The late Jonathan Donahaye's site covers the original Conway Stewart's pens, pencils, sets and so on.

Stephen Hull's Fountain Pens for the Million is a history of Conway Stewart and some of the succeeding firms that traded under that name. It's still available at some sites.

https://www.englishpenbooks.co.uk/ho...r-the-million/

[Chuck Naill]

Just knowing Churchill liked them was enough history for me.

[An old bloke]

I am passing on all comments. My mate is still vacillating about the purchase and which to get if he decides to go for it.

[Jon Szanto]

Please do as much reading about the 'modern' CS company. Like some other venerable companies, they had a hard time changing with the times. I can't remember if they totally closed down, but the name was bought - maybe by a consortium of former employees? - to resurrect the company but there were many, many quality control issues. It has been a turbulent number of years, possibly a decade, mostly with pens being made from existing parts.

I bring this up because there used to be a very active CS forum on FPN, with a lot of long time collectors of their vintage pens, as well as people who were sampling their newer offerings. Many problems with the pens and a company that wasn't very good at customer service, torpedoed by people's posts being deleted by admins who had a connection to the pen line. Typical sordid forum stuff, not the main point. In any event, the pens aren't inexpensive so I just ask people to do their due diligence before investing. I've wanted a Churchill but was put off by numerous reports of issues.

I plan on checking out what is going on recently and see if things are doing better, which would be my hope. I have a few from the 50s and they are handsome, excellent writers.

[An old bloke]

Please do as much reading about the 'modern' CS company. Like some other venerable companies, they had a hard time changing with the times. I can't remember if they totally closed down, but the name was bought - maybe by a consortium of former employees? - to resurrect the company but there were many, many quality control issues. It has been a turbulent number of years, possibly a decade, mostly with pens being made from existing parts.

I bring this up because there used to be a very active CS forum on FPN, with a lot of long time collectors of their vintage pens, as well as people who were sampling their newer offerings. Many problems with the pens and a company that wasn't very good at customer service, torpedoed by people's posts being deleted by admins who had a connection to the pen line. Typical sordid forum stuff, not the main point. In any event, the pens aren't inexpensive so I just ask people to do their due diligence before investing. I've wanted a Churchill but was put off by numerous reports of issues.

I plan on checking out what is going on recently and see if things are doing better, which would be my hope. I have a few from the 50s and they are handsome, excellent writers.

I have a number of 1940s and earlier CS pens. I have one from the 1950s and another from the 1960s. The latter was one of my late wife's school pens. It is engraved with her name and she broke off the clip at some time, but it, as are the others, is an excellent writer. The original company did wither away, as you said. I believe there was an earlier 'rebirth' with a limited number of Churchill pens being marketed at what seemed excessively high prices earlier this century. The current pens ('third edition' if you will) seemingly have a better reputation and are priced better, as well being British made.

I was asked about them because my made, a bloke I trained decades ago when he first entered our profession, knew I have a small collection of CS pens and wanted to find out what I thought of the new line. Not having even seen one, much less tried one, I had no opinion to offer. Hence my query here.

[An old bloke]

FYI: In 1975 the company stopped production. Trademarks, design and archives remained intact, however, and this enabled a new Conway Stewart to start up in the 1990s. The new Conway Stewart's web site is at: www.conwaystewart.com
Conway-Stewart- Pen Companies - Glenns Pens
glennspens.com/companies/conway-stewart.html

[Jon Szanto]

The current pens ('third edition' if you will) seemingly have a better reputation and are priced better, as well being British made.

Thank you. I really don't mean to "speak out of turn" and it must be that middle iteration that I recall so many problems. Things like lever designs that pinched the sac when filling, eventually leading to punctures, etc. I'll take a look at the new stuff. One thing even the modern company had was beautiful materials. I've seen pens made from later CS rod stock that are to die for.

[Jon Szanto]

Holy moly, I hadn't realized this: now Conway-Stewart is connected with the Simoni "Pen Family" in some way! So confusing, take a look:

https://thepenfamily.com/pages/our

[An old bloke]

That says something about quality doesn't it?

[Jon Szanto]

That says something about quality doesn't it?

It certainly could. What I think about - and I've seen the growing "family" at pen shows in the last couple years - is at what point does a particular pen brand lose it's own unique character and individuality, and become subsumed into something else. Well, time will tell.

[Chrissy]

Holy moly, I hadn't realized this: now Conway-Stewart is connected with the Simoni "Pen Family" in some way! So confusing, take a look:

https://thepenfamily.com/pages/our

That is interesting. Thank you.

[An old bloke]

That says something about quality doesn't it?

It certainly could. What I think about - and I've seen the growing "family" at pen shows in the last couple years - is at what point does a particular pen brand lose it's own unique character and individuality, and become subsumed into something else. Well, time will tell.

I would say it depends upon 'the head the family' and his or her motivation. Is it passion or profit?

[Jon Szanto]

I would say it depends upon 'the head the family' and his or her motivation. Is it passion or profit?

Well, they have been operating and growing for a few years, they are well-known in the fp community, especially in Europe. From what I can tell, there are varying opinions on how they are charting this course and implementing it all and, not too put too fine a point on it, virtually all of their offerings, from the various 'brands' they now produce, are outside of my financial abilities and comfort. These are high-end pens with price tags to match. It is easy enough to be as skeptical about those products as it is to be wary of dirt-cheap knock-off pens.

If nothing else, this is certainly interesting!

[Fermata]

Modern CS, bought it a few years ago because of the pretty rod stock, if anything let it down it was just a simple converter fill.

A large part of the price must be in the packaging, so many layers of boxes to get in to the pen, more boxes than Santa's sleigh

[ArchiMark]

Holy moly, I hadn't realized this: now Conway-Stewart is connected with the Simoni "Pen Family" in some way! So confusing, take a look:

https://thepenfamily.com/pages/our

A day late and a dollar short, I know...but FWIW, there are two companies making Conway Stewart pens.

One is the Pen Family as noted above and the other is a UK company:

https://conwaystewart.com


A bit complicated......

[Dougc]

All of my Conway Stewart pens are from the older company but I do have an ASC Studio, one of their entry level pens. It was made in Miami but is a great pen and seems to be the equal of other pens in the sub $200 category.

I don't care for the way they devour heritage brands but I don't think the bad reputation that they have with some people is fully warranted.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk