Review of Pilot S20 & Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencils

A mechanical pencil was a totally utilitarian thing during my engineering days, be it for drafting engineering drawings or making graphs. Shortly after, their utility started diminishing when AutoCAD and other drawing software could address most of the design elements, although their luxury value started beaming. Like fountain pens. Sparsely used but heavily sought after. That reminds me that I am still typing this post on a laptop rather than using one of my FPs. Mechanical pencils can delve from cheap plastic to rugged metal to precious wooden designs. In my view, metal designs seem to showcase more of modern industrial utility whereas wooden designs foray more into the aesthetics part of it.

Mechanical Pencils  ^{A brief history in time}

According to wikipedia, the earliest form of a mechanical pencil was found in a ship-wreck (British ship HMS Pandora) in 1791. However, the first patent was filed in 1822 by Mordan & Hawkins in Great Britain. Later Mordan started manufacturing mechanical pencils under the company – “S.MORDAN & CO”. Leads upto 0.9 mm wide became popular by this time. By 1915, Japanese were into it and Tokuji Hayakawa started a company to manufacture mechanical pencils, which later came to be known as  “Sharp” due to its first product – ‘Ever-Sharp mechanical pencil’. After the entire pencil division was destroyed in 1923, by the Great Kanto Earthquake, Sharp relocated to Osaka  and forayed into electronics industry.

Pilot S₂₀ – 0.5 mm

The S20 came in a old black Z-CR-HN pilot case. A refreshing black faux leather case with a felt layer to host the pen.

A maple wood contoured design with a deep brown colour renders a very natural feel with a classical wooden look. The entire end cap section is made out of aluminium with a steel lead sleeve, till the seamlessly finished wooden grip section comes up. The grip section gradually gains diameter going upwards from the end-cap (0.8 – 1.1 mm) till it reaches a small aluminium band which says ‘S20’ and ‘JAPAN’ on opposite sides of the band. Then, it narrows down towards the push-button section, till it comes across a pilot branded aluminium clip and finally ends up with the aluminium(+ plastic) push-button.

There is a lead-indicator in the push-button. To set the lead indicator, you have to remove the push-button which reveals an ubiquitous mechanical pencil’s eraser and rotate the pipe end of the push-button. The eraser section once removed shows a hosted clean-out rod. Design does seem minimalistic with a subtle emphasis on simplicity. The weight feels quite evenly distributed and the length of around 15 cm is quite comfortable to write or draw for extended periods. Sweaty slips at the grip section should be quite rare or even a non-occurrence. The grip section feels very firm.

The pencil itself comes in two wooden variants – Red and Brown.

The mechanism operates with a audible click sound at the push-button and is quite error free. It’s quite comfortable to use for long writing or drawing sessions. As per my experience, putting additional 4-6 leads inside the lead reservoir tube will not cause any blocking problems at the sleeve end. The S20 ends with comfortable aesthetics.

For the disassembly part, the end-cap with the sleeve can be easily unscrewed from the barrel and the push-button and eraser-sections can be pulled out easily. I did not attempt any further disassembly, as the parts of the barrel seemed tightly fixed.

Rotring ⁸⁰⁰ – 0.5 mm 

As evident from the above picture, the lead sleeve does not come out unless you rotate the top knurled section which rests just below the gold-trim of the push button. So a completely retractable mechanical pencil with an all metal construction. Mostly constituted out of coated brass, the 800 has a weight of around 25 g compared to S20’s 18 g. To draw a comparison, both of them will be heavier than a Pelikan M400 or a Sailor-Pro gear slim fountain pen. It is available in two themes – silver and black.

Design seems utilitarian, industrial with a subtle emphasis on its high-end design. It’s somehow evidenced by the gold trims to differentiate it from a 600. The sleeve comes out smoothly on half a rotation of the knurled switch. With a feeling of balanced heaviness and assurance, the pencil seems superior to many. The hexagonal cross section of the barrel prevents it from slipping from inclined planes and the knurled grip does the same for your fingertips. The tip apparently can wiggle a bit compared to other fixed sleeve-pencils (like 600), but does not really do so while in use.

Very uniform yet very attractive to use. The pencil can be disassembled easily by removing the knurled grip section to reveal the inner tube. Cleaning can be done if required. The eraser cap and eraser section can be pulled out. The clip mentions ‘rotring’ while the backside of the hexagonal body says ‘JAPAN’ quite elusively.

In Conclusion

A mechanical pencil will typically cost around 50 cents in my part of the world. But these two are beyond just mechanical pencils, perhaps a work of art and even a draftsman dream.

Writing

Feature	Pilot S20	Rotring 800	Additional Comments
Length	Fixed Sleeve ~ 14.6 cm	Retracted Sleeve ~ 13.5 cm Extended Sleeve ~ 14.3 cm	Quite Comfortable with respect to both length and weight
Weight	18 g	25 g
Design	Maple wood and aluminium construction with Lead Grade Indicator at top cap - Red and Brown Variants	Brass construction, Gold Trim, Matte Finish with hexagonal anti-slip faces on barrel, Knurled grip - Black and Silver Variants	- Both are ‘Made in Japan’ by the way
Barrel	Contoured Wood – 0.8 – 1.1 cm	Knurled brass – 0.8 cm diameter	- Both engage the writer in a non-slip(y) way
Tip	Fixed Sleeve, Loud Click, Aluminium/Steel lead sleeve	Retractable Sleeve, Gold trimmed sleeve
Mechanism	Hard Click	Soft Click
Lead Capacity	~ 6 -8 without blocking	~ 10 without blocking
Economic Value	Retails at $33, can be obtained at around $ 20-25 with ship	Retails at $70, can be obtained around $60 from ebay-sellers	- You can get a mechanical pencil at 50 cents!! - However, these are more than just mechanical pencils, perhaps a draftsman’s dream
Box	- Pilot Box	- A triangular cardboard box

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TWSBI Diamond 580 Review

My sole motivation behind getting a TWSBI was to disassemble the pen and have all the fun, which I missed. And I got a clear demonstrator, packaged with a nice-looking wrench.

THE TWSBI STORY

TWSBI (called Twiz-Bee) refers to San Wen Tong, i.e when TWS is spelled backwards and it means Hall of Three Cultures as per their website. BI at the end refers to writing instruments. Ta Shin Precision manufactured everything from toy lego parts to high-end writing instruments for several luxury brands (both American & Japanese) for well over 40 years. So that’s plastic, metal & precision, precisely what’s required to make and sell a nice writing instrument, under your own brand name. Which luxury brands? They don’t reveal those due to privacy agreements. I have reasonable doubt from various reviews, that one of them is Levenger. And TWSBI Nibs are said to be sourced from JoWo (earlier it was Bock & Schimdt), Germany (same as for Faber-Castell Design Pens).

THE FPN CONNECTION

An FPN member by the name of speedy started a post with a prototype development for an inexpensive piston filling fountain pen somewhere around late October, 2009. He clarified that he was a pen-maker and shared pictures of TWSBI 530 prototypes in this post. It showed a metallic piston system. And it became a popular brand within a short time-span.

PRESENTATION

That’s probably one of the great aspects of marketing. Inside a brown cardboard box, you will find the pen residing within a clear plastic case. You will instantly fall in love with the presentation part of it. For the lack of a better word, I call it The Apple packaging.

There is an instruction sheet on disassembly of the pen, highlighting the pen parts. Below the white pen-holding shelf, you will find the 7mm TWSBI wrench and a vial of silicone grease in two slots.

DESIGN - THE GEOMETRICAL TRANSPARENCY (4/6)

The build looks sturdy without adding much weight. Plastic economizes both cost and weight of fittings. This pen endorses practical utility rather than art with which you will probably associate a Pelikan or a Visconti. I do find an element of industrial look with the pen.

Most of it is visible engineering, while use of plastic is quite evident in its piston-system. The barrel and cap are made of thick polycarbonate, with a protective heat treated layer for increased resistance to scratches, along with the crystal transparence. The overall fitment is still an area of improvement. One of my experiences is with the piston knob, which does not tighten itself well, as the piston head is pulled back in.

The cap feels substantial and unscrews with a single turn, revealing a rather dagger-like nib. There is a metallic insert for the nib unit, supplying necessary chrome accents for the aesthetics. The piston knob has a rather broad ring making the mark for disassembly. Multiple polygonal planes orchestrate light effectively within, dazzling both the pen and the ink inside the barrel. The decagonal geometry also prevents an open pen from rolling away.

The cap has a wide chrome band carrying a laser engraved TWSBI on one side of it and DIAMOND 580 TAIWAN on the other, in three separate lines. Two concentric circles run on this band in the form of imprints. The finial carries a vibrant red & silver TWSBI logo of three pillars within a dome of transparent acrylic. The clip is spring-loaded within a visible system having a chrome tassie and it has a geometrical pyramid-like cut. The cap is heavy and has a smooth circular cross section which can roll the entire pen easily with its weight, until the clip restricts it. You can also observe the relatively greyish inner-cap, which prevents the nib from drying out.

FILLING SYSTEM (5/6)

As a piston filler, it does have a good ink capacity around 1.8~2mL. The knob unscrews with three complete turns and manages to draw ink quite efficiently from the bottle. The feeder hole is rather a channel to enable efficient ink suction. One of the improvements could be with the piston knob, which should increasingly tighten itself, as the piston head is pulled back in. Mine stays loosely fastened (after I applied some silicone grease on the piston head) and is directly proportional to the friction at the piston head.

DISASSEMBLY

For this phase, rather than learning from the manual, you can have a look at a 580 disassembly video. I like the one with gouletpens or srebrown. Make sure you thoroughly flush the pen with water before disassembling it.

• Rotating the piston end-cap (knob) counter-clockwise, the piston seal (head) is lowered to a hinged stop inside the barrel. 

• Fit the wrench on the connector threads, just below the metal ring on piston end-cap (knob) & it can unscrewed in a clockwise direction from top.

• The piston mechanism has five different parts as you can see in the picture, though it’s not necessary to remove the rubber piston seal (or head) from the piston rod (spindle). The fittings of the mechanism can be made from higher grade material.

• The nib unit can be easily removed by first unscrewing the grip section from the barrel

• Since, nib is friction fit, you may remove the nib and feed from the unit, in case there is some heavy cleaning required (in case of a bad flow, sometimes the feed is coated with grease which restricts ink-flow). 

• Make sure you apply an adequate amount of silicone grease to the sides of the rubber piston seal (you may ignore the bottom surface) before reassembly.

NIB - ALL THAT MATTERS (4/6)

The nib/feed unit can be taken out or apart for cleaning purposes. The nib is stainless steel and has a rather small dagger-like design. It comes with four stock widths - EF, F, M, B and two special widths of Stub 1.1 & Stub 1.5. 

The tail end specifies carries the nib width while the name TWSBI along with the logo rest above the tail. There are some curves adorning the inside symmetry of the tines. To be honest it’s kind of a plain design with limited nib leverage. A black plastic feed with a feed channel for ink suction and the thin fins on the other side ensures a good buffer capacity and prevents hard-starts.

Earlier, TWSBI used to source its nibs from Schmidt and then Bock (it's now JoWo), which is incidentally the nib-supplier for Faber-Castell too. But it’s the alloys and then post-processing that can make a lot of difference even with steel-nibs.

PHYSICS OF IT (6/6) – RELATIVELY SPEAKING

The pen filled with ink, does have a good balance in terms of both weight and length. The pen is not meant to be posted. The grip is quite comfortable with a section around 1 cm thick. 

• Uncapped Length ~ 13 cm
• Capped Length ~ 14 cm
• Nib Leverage ~ 2 cm
• Overall Weight ~ 28 g (Cap Weight ~ 14 g)

Capped and uncapped and posted with a pelikan m805 runs below for your reference. A capped 580 looks similar to a m805.

Uncapped it obviously lacks the nib of a m805, although the lengths are well-matched.

ECONOMIC VALUE (4/6)

It retails at around Rs 5,500 ($ 86) here and I got it from a local store at around $ 70. The problem with ordering it from TWSBI’s website directly is that apart from heavy shipping charges, there are unseen duties to be paid for. Given the fact that you could get one of the usual butter-smooth and more responsive steel-nibbed Faber-Castell pens at a similar or even lesser price, it’s rather a decision of piston vs converter. I hope that the retail prices will get evened out with demand.

OVERALL (4.6/6)

This nib is wet with a hint of feedback which is expected of fine nibs. I purposely used a less wet ink, since the pen runs smooth with wet inks. There is some line variation which is evident with thicker vertical lines. A complete absence of any perceptible softness in this nib, kills the responsiveness part. The fine nib lays a line which runs between Japanese Fines and European Fines.

Being a wet writer out of the box, the Fine nib puts a line which takes around 16-17 seconds to dry on MD Paper with Pelikan 4001 ink.

INNER CAP - INK RESIDUE

In case you find any ink trapped between the inner cap and the cap, a wooden pencil fitted with attached eraser, can help clean it. I have experienced this kind of leakage during air-travel. 

1. Take the wooden pencil (Standard #2) and insert the eraser-end into the cap.

2. Bend the cap in one direction, while putting pressure on the eraser in the opposite direction.

3. Slowly use the friction created by the eraser to pull out the inner cap.

4. Wash the ink out (Plain water is fine).

5. Re-insert the inner cap, and screw the pen back in, and it should friction-fit back into its original position.

REFERENCES

FPN TWSBI

Bock Clientele

Ink Residue

Disassembly - gouletpens, srebrown

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An Ambitious Review: The Faber-Castell Design Ambition

Long ago during school days, I had used some of the not so expensive Faber-Castell ballpoints, pencils, highlighters, rulers, mechanical pencils and geometry sets. They used to be a bit scarce in India then, as they came with a ‘Made in Germany’ tag. Though there was little or no price difference with other Indian brands like Camlin or Omega, these were not widely available as such. Years later one fine day, while randomly searching for pens made by Faber-Castell, I bumped across the Ambition/Ondoro/e-motion fountain pens which were placed in a premium segment with Graf-Von Faber Castell Anello/Intuition in luxury segment. In India, a few models were available in Shoppers Stop Online and some of the other known e-com sites. I finally ordered an Ambition (then an Ondoro) from Pensavenue, as they were running a discount sale on all Faber-Castell products. I added a converter since it was clearly mentioned that a Faber-Castell Design (FCD) converter was not included with the gift package. 

A BIT OF FABER-CASTELL HISTORY 

Around 1660s Kaspar Faber was one of the pencil makers in Stein, Bavaria, Germany. Later Kaspar’s son Anton Wilhelm Faber took over the business and the initials A.W were added from his name in 1839. Later on in 1898, when Ottile Von Faber (sixth generation of Faber family) married Count Alexander zu Castell-Rüdenhausen, A.W Faber-Castell was born. Count Alexander modernised the company and introduced the jousting knights logo. Faber-Castell started manufacturing fountain pens in 1951, after acquiring the Osmia Company and produced fountain pens till 1975. They had carried the Osmia logo [diamond-within-a-circle] till the 1960s, given Osmia’s high brand recognition in the fountain pen industry. Later under Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell, Faber-Castell started expanding their factories & offices across the globe and also started manufacturing fountain pens under two banners of Design and Graf von Faber-Castell (introduced in 1993) from the 90s. 

These Ambition range comes with a fountain pen (with 4 different nib widths), a roller ball, a propelling pencil (0.7mm) and a ballpoint pen with various barrel designs constituting of resin, wood or brushed steel. 

PRESENTATION 

Within 3 days, the pen and a converter were delivered in a moss-green cardboard box. The colour reminds me of lush green cricket outfields and the Australian Baggy Green Caps. 

The box has a slider and the pen is secured with an elastic band on a felted bed, along with a warranty card. 

DESIGN - THE CYLINDRICAL MOTLEY OF RESIN & METAL (4/6) 

Held in hand, the pen will feel somewhat heavier towards the cap end, with a relatively lighter brushed barrel made of up black coloured resin (Like MB, Faber-Castell also calls it ‘precious resin’, I feel it has comparatively lower density). 

A convergence in its minimalistic design of chrome plated accents is achieved with another piece of metallic finial at the end of the barrel, which also serves as the click-lock for posting the cap. 

And yes, the chrome accents are prone to fingerprints. Very much!

The cap is substantially heavy with a snap-on locking mechanism. Once you pull it, it comes off with an audible click, and you can see a chromed metallic section attached to the non-differentiated grip, at the end of which rests a shiny nib. Absence of any taper in the singular cylindrical section, introduces a steep step for holding the pen.

A mirror finish on the chromed cap etched with the Faber-Castell logo of two jousting knights will immediately gleam with the slightest amount of light and it is also embossed with the traditional statement preserving antiquity of A.W Faber-Castell - Since 1761. The clip is spring loaded and is shaped like an arc with a concave end. To generate friction with fabric, there are multiple grooves on the insides of the clip’s concavity, where it touches the cap. There is also a plastic insert inside the cap gives the snap-on friction. However, it seems to lose grip with time. 

FILLING SYSTEM (5/6) 

The small metallic section at the end of the barrel unscrews from the resin barrel with less than three turns and it disengages the section containing the nib and CC filling system. The nib has a screw fit, and inserts into a metallic sleeve like most of the Faber-Castell fountain pens, which I have seen. The nib sleeve has threads which synchronize with threads on the insides of the resin barrel. 

The converter says SCHMIDT on its piston along with a brand imprint of FABER-CASTELL Germany on the metallic sleeve. It has a reasonably high capacity of 0.8 – 0.9 mL, and the ink does last for quite a while! I am usually biased towards piston fillers, but I like the capacity offered by Faber-Castell or Schmidt converters. In case of GvFC Converters there is no mention of Schmidt on the converters themselves. 

NIB - ALL THAT MATTERS (6/6) 

The nib is made of stainless steel alloy with an iridium tip. The initially available nib sizes featured F, M and B nibs, though an EF was made available later. I went with an M sized nib. Right out of the box, this was a butter-smooth nib. 

The nib has a perforated imprint of dots which cover a third of its surface area. Had these been real perforations there would have been an opulence of breather holes. And in fact there is not even a single breather hole. The nib-size is embossed above the traditional Faber-Castell Design logo of two jousting knights near the tail. Nib section is screw-fit and thus easily removable from the steel sleeve for cleaning or replacement. 

The feed is standard grey plastic, with a big filler hole for ink suction, which is incidentally also used across the GvFC Intuition Series. 

Faber-Castell Design (steel) nibs are sourced from JoWo whereas the GvFC nibs are known to be sourced from Bock. 

PHYSICS OF IT (3/6) – RELATIVELY SPEAKING 

Without the cap, the pen measures around 12 cm, which might not be comfortable for people with medium or large hands. Posting the cap is easy and it seems to be secured with a click-lock at the finial section. Although the posted pen exceeds a 15 cm scale, the steel cap makes it pretty top-heavy. In addition to weight, the cap freely rotates once it’s click-posted. While writing posted, the beautifully arched clip later becomes the pen’s arch-nemesis for top weight imbalance, with free rotation around the metal section. A girth less than 1 cm might be inadequate for the shorter uncapped length. 

• Uncapped Length ~ 12.2 cm 
• Capped Length ~ 14 cm 
• Posted Length ~ 15.8 cm 
• Nib Leverage ~ 1.9 cm 
• Overall Weight ~ 28 g (Cap Weight ~ 15 g) 

Capped and uncapped and posted with a GvFC Intuition, Pelikan m400/2XX and a bigger MB146 run below for your reference. The Intuition has a wider grip than the Ambition. 

ECONOMIC VALUE (5/6) 

It retails at around USD 70 and I got a converter included at the same price, because of the aforementioned discount. I believe it’s a good value for money pen, given you too end up with such a nib, which defeats many of the gold ones. 

OVERALL (4.6/6) 

This nib is wet, runs wide and smooth like butter, without giving even a hint of feedback. I purposely used a less wet ink, but the pen did quite well against a drier pelikan 4001 ink. There is a bit of line variation with relatively thicker verticals. The nib has some spring and a touch of softness. In fact it lays a wetter and wider line with a little pressure. If you hold it from the metal section, the pen might feel slippery after some time and it might even rotate a little between your fingers. I instinctively hold the pen just above the metal section. 

Being a wet writer out of the box, the Medium nib puts a line which takes more than 20 seconds to dry on MD Paper with a relatively dry Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black ink. 

REFERENCES 

Faber Castell History

Bock Clientele

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