Despite all the chaos around TWSBI and Narwhal over the last couple of months - for which IMO only TWSBI is responsible and simply did something completely stupid there - I still love their Diamond 580 line thanks to its slightly broader grip, great demonstrator look, and simple refill mechanism if paired with their Diamond 50 ink bottles!
About a month ago I stumbled upon the Navy Blue version of the Diamond 580ALR and knew I wanted to have one. After writing with non-demonstrator pens for a while I wanted to make my life a bit easier by simply always knowing if I needed to take a bottle of ink with me or not. I also wanted to write more with blue-black inks and so decided that would be a nice combination. I was right 😅
Last week my new blue fountain pen arrived but I was slightly shocked by how fine the EF nib was when paired with the TWSBI blue-black ink that I had ordered with it. The nib itself worked and was not damaged as fare as I could tell but the ink turned out to be slightly too dry for it when writing on Leuchtturm 120g paper. After a lot of back and forth I decided to also get a replacement F nib and give that combination a try. I’ve never had one of these from TWSBI so I should find a use for it whether I liked it with the blue-black ink or not.
That second shipment arrived yesterday and now the pen/ink combination finally behaves as I had hoped it would 😀
A small note on the TWSBI blue-black ink, though: When I ordered it I didn’t know that it would be an iron-gall one. That was actually a really nice surprise as I prefer permanent inks due to sweaty hands especially during the summer month. This also means it’s slightly dryer than anticipated and has an unexpected smell. After a week, though, I don’t notice it anymore 🤣
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