TWSBI Mini: Review

[fountainpenkid]

Hi all!
My TWSBI Mini is here, and I want to give you all a early comprehensive review of this long awaited release!

First Impressions: I didn't expect it to ship so fast! It got here in 3 days. Checked the mailbox at 9:00 at night, not expecting to find anything...I was wrong! I madly tore open the envelope, and the outer cardboard box. Then, there was the pen! TWSBI's standard Apple-esque packaging is really a great touch, especially when mixed with TWSBI's modern designs. Included is a nice instruction manual, and a piston wrench as well as a bit of silicone grease. I love their "user serviceable" mentality (anti Apple right there though ) Enough about the box. You already know how it looks
9/10 Great, distinctive presentation for a $50 pen!

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Inked: I filled my TWSBI Mini with Diamine Asa Blue right away. Who wants to WAIT to ink their new pen!? The pen started immediately, and wrote a nice, wet, fine nib. This was great, considering the shaky experiences you hear about with some TWSBIs. (Still, no flex, or springiness, though. I wish TWSBI made titanium nib upgrades!)The only problem is the nib is really a fine nib, but I ordered a medium. (It is stamped medium, so it is not some sort of mismatch ). You hear that Asian nib grades do vary, so I'm not too mad, but TWSBI sells predominantly to the English-speaking world, as so should make their nib grades more towards our standard.
9/10 Impressed!
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Filled: Oh Yeah! She's a piston filler! (I don't think the pen community would expect anything else on a pen like this from TWSBI.) The piston is precise and quite smooth; so much nicer than my OMAS Paragon, which feels shoddily made when it comes to filling it. TWSBI continues the 540's tradition by allowing the user to take apart the piston to grease it. This doesn't have to be done that often, but it saves you from having to pay someone to do it. Knowing how to take apart your entire pen is a cool feeling. There is a problem though. The piston is NOT maxed out to the most capacity. While TWSBI did this with the 540, they seemed to think a bit differently with the mini. The problem lies in the piston head. There are two gaskets, as with many pens. This ensures no leaks, but TWSBI left a considerable distance in between the two, reducing the ink capacity by .2 ml (approx.) This is not the biggest deal in the world, but for a student (which would be a GREAT market for this pen!), the more ink capacity the better. After 1 day, I'm halfway through the fill. There is one more problem I've found with the piston. It is pretty minor, but the overall effect of a product is often in the details! When you unscrew the section, there is a little nipple at the end od the barrel--this makes getting a Q-tip in there to clean out the ink from the barrel quite hard. You can just take apart the mechanism, but that's a hassle. I don't understand why TWSBI didn't just make the piston go down as far as it could--it would increase ink capacity! Overall, it is precise, smooth, but lacks maxed out ink capacity. (Don't take this as "it doesn't really hold much ink" though...the ink capacity is still pretty high for a pen under 5'' capped.
8/10 Great!
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Quality: This is a hard one. The TWSBI mini is my first pen without a gold nib, and a first tier name. So I will try to judge it as a $50 pen. The cap and metal machining, for the most part, is quite nice. Little variations on the clip can be seen under a loupe. But not some ugly problem. Just tiny detail work. The plastic on the cap (really the whole cap in general) is very precise and could be on a much more expensive pen. The engravings on the cap band are awesome and well done. The detraction is the barrel. The diamond facets are very nice, but the threads (there are posting threads on this pen!) have injection molding lines on them. They are pretty noticeable. This really detracts from the quality of the pen IMHO. Then, on the blinde cap, there is a little injection port centered on it. Not horrible, but it firmly places it in a "good" not excellent category. My Pelikan m400 is injection molded as well, but sports a $250+ price tag new. There would be a problem if I saw some injection molding ports. Here though, I'll be less scathing. Overall the quality is good, almost great. I would happily spend $20 more and get a bit more of a quality fit and finish. One last thing--there is the famous TWSBI cracking problem to consider here...and horrible dictu, my mini caught the plauge. I noticed a longitudinal crack in the barrel--it almost followed one of the facets on the barrel--and so I contacted TWSBI. They said they couldn't find a crack. It really was there, but maybe it is just hard to see. They smoothed the piston, but a cracked pen is still a cracked pen. When you buy a TWSBI, at the time of this review (Decemeber 2012), you really can't expect it to last very long. Not to say it won't, as some people have had their TWSBIs for years and had no problems, but there is always the chance. I actually wonder how many TWSBI 530s or 540s will be left (with all original parts) in ten year's time.
7/10
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Comfort: This pen is short for most people. At 4.5 in. uncapped, its quite petite. But the pen is stubby and thick; accommodating large sized hands when posted. Posting is great with the threads, and the cap ring is curved and feels nice in the hand. But for smaller hands, this pen is O.K unposted. I use it unposted. The grip section is deceiving, as it does not flare out near the nib, but continues to taper inward, like the Lamy 2000, vintage Aurora 88, or a Parker "51." This took a little getting used to for me, but it is quite comfortable once I got the hang of it. BUT, people with large hands may want to hold it about where the threads are. The cap threads, sadly, are uncomfortable to grip, unlike Pelikan's (or better yet Parker's vintage Vacumatic's) tightly spaced design. This may be a serious factor when you consider a purchase. If you have large hands, and like a large grip diameter, try this pen in person first. I think for mid sized hands, this pen's moderate weight, combined with a nice grip section allows for nice long writing sessions.
8/10
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Design Notes: I tend to be critical here, and this is no exception. The design, visually, is quite nice. The curved cap is beautifully done, proportionally nice...etc. So are the diamond facets on the barrel. But there are a few little glitches. The first is at the nib section--TWSBI tried to make a classy look by putting a trim ring by the grip. It looks o.k, don't get me wrong, but it is a major problem for corrosion. Metal near grip sections is a bad idea--especially on such a daily user pen! The next glitch is on the blinde cap. The posting threads are a nice touch, ensuring a cap won't fall off. But the threads are exactly the same as the capping threads, causing you to twist the cap on for 1/2 turn. Not too bad, but I would've liked a more subtle approach. The posting threads also make it so the cap doesn't always align with the nib, which can be a problem when the clip gets in your way because it is on the underside of the pen. Lastly, a spring clip would have been nice, but the clip works fine as is. TWSBI did a great job, with some minor glitches.
8/10
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Price: TWSBI's original price tag on this pen was $80. They aren't flaunting their lower-than-estimate price, but I'll applaud them for keeping the price the same as the 540. Smaller or miniature-sized pens often are more costly to produce than the standard sized ones. So this is a good price. At $50, you can buy two and not feel too bad about it. The price also gives itself to becoming a daily user pen for everybody--It certainly has become mine! I would like to see some upscale TWSBI models though. No, not with gold nibs and silver trim, but with a bit more attention to detail as well as more interesting (hint: titanium flex) nibs.
9/10 The pen is MORE than worth the money!

Conclusion: Students: are you looking for a great pocket pen to take everywhere? This may just be your thing. Collectors: looking for a reliable travel pen, in miniature? This may be your thing as well. I think the new TWSBI mini may just be, as I hoped, the best sub $100 mini pen available today.

58/70 B- (Remember I grade harshly.)
Leakability Factor: (I'm adding this to all the reviews(if it wasn't covered before) to give people an idea of how dirty their hands may get by using this pen. The higher the better. This is not factored into the pen's score.) 6.5/10. I've found that turning the grip section in your hands will result in smears of dry ink on your hands. This is because TWSBI doesn't apply silicone grease to the section threads. Nothing huge, but for inkless hands on a small pen, I've found my 1939 Vacumatic to be less "inky."