I picked up a couple of TWSBI Diamond piston-fill pens at Scribe Writing Essentials over the weekend. (This is your fault, Karlo.) I wasn’t really intending to mod one, but these thoughts do cross your mind when you’re working overtime on a Sunday.
The EF nib felt – normal. I pulled it out of the collar and tried a Waterman no. 2 nib. The no. 2 was bent away from the feed to an alarming degree, and I wasn’t about to try to bend it closer. So out it went.
On to the Eversharp Skyline nib, which is slightly shorter than a no. 2. In the image below, you can see how it and the feed weren’t even talking to each other.
I took a cutter to the feed and deepened the channel. (When you do this, practice restraint. You can take out more later, but you can’t put it back.) My first try yielded a pen that would write with light to normal pressure, but blanked when flexed.
I had better results the next round. The pen had decent flow, but the nib had to be set low for it to be in contact with the feed at the right point. That meant the feed would touch the paper at every downstroke.
Just a little bit more.
Mission accomplished.
Tinkering and TWSBIs go together. At the last pen meet I tried JP’s Conklin nib in a TWSBI and liked how it wrote. Â If you have a spare vintage nib lying around, it wouldn’t hurt to try. Be careful, go slowly, pause often and check your progress.
I love it when a non-plan comes together.
Have you modded your TWSBI? Do share.
