Reader Longname, via the Boing Boing BBS, suggested I try the TWSBI ECO. This $31 stainless steel nibbed fountain pen looks cool and is perfectly functional.
I bought the ECO immediately upon seeing it online. While you may purchase various colored bodies, I went straight for the demonstrator. I like demonstrators. The one looks pretty wicked when filled with Red Black ink.
This is a large writing instrument and may upset tiny hands. About the same size as my Parker DuoFold, this pen is quite a bit lighter. The stainless steel nib, which I bought in Extra Fine, lacks any flex and puts down a very solid, consistent line. It does feel a bit like scratching words onto a page, even with quality paper and ink. Perhaps a function of the EF nib, but I find most SS ones to be similar.
I like this pen. I think it will be wonderful for short personal notes and is so EF it may prove fun for sketching. The inflexible, scratchiness of the nib, however, does not inspire me to WRITE with it.
All in all, the TWSBI ECO is good, serviceable $31 fountain pen.
TWSBI ECO Fountain Pen Clear EF Nib via Amazon
Every year or so I buy another 5 pack of these Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens. I keep these in my travel bag. Unlike refillable fountain pens, of which I have far too many, these do not dry out if forgotten in the pocket of a jacket. They do not leak when airplane cabins pressurize. […]
I prefer Noodler’s ink, and they have so many varieties I never seem to run out of new ones to try. Depending on what I’m writing, or who I am writing to, I like to change my ink and pen kinda frequently.
Doane Paper makes wonderful pocket-sized notebooks with paper that is fantastically compatible with fountain pens. I absolutely love my Maruman Mnemosyne notebooks, but they are big and rigid. These 5″x7″ Doane Paper pads have similarly awesome paper, and fit in casual clothes pockets, if you need small they also make 3″x5″. The paper is slightly […]
Use a single password for every website, and you’re compromising your security. Use a different one each time, and you’re bound to lose track of them. The solution? RoboForm Everywhere, a catch-all tool that will not only manage the passwords on every site you visit but generate better ones. As a simple password database, it’s […]
Just a reminder: Print isn’t dead. And now that printers are becoming as portable as cell phones, it might be around for quite some time. Enter the MEMOBIRD Mobile Thermal Printer, a mini-printer that is versatile, portable – and most importantly, never needs a refill on ink or toner. Measuring just a few inches around, […]
What do Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google all have in common? Somewhere in their framework, they all use MySQL, that most versatile (and free!) of database management systems. And they’re not alone. If your company or the one you’d like to work for wrangles data (and who doesn’t?), they’re going to need someone with a […]
