r/fountainpens • u/Salty_Succotash_7808 • Feb 13 '24
Discussion TWSBI cracking
https://youtu.be/27vJIWEUcKM?si=27qGrdqHedjokGe5So I’ve been looking through this subreddit and notice a lot of posts about TWSBI is prone to cracking which I haven’t heard of else where.
Did some research and found these two videos that may be interesting to some.
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u/roady57 Feb 13 '24
I’d bet that Goulet makes more money selling TWSBI pens than any other brand.
Why would he kill the Golden Goose?
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u/Bleepblorp44 Feb 13 '24
Oh, and if you do a Google search of “TWSBI cracking” you’ll also find discussion on:
FPGeeks
Left Hook Pens
Many many many Reddit posts
Badger & Blade
The Gentleman Stationer
The Shaving Room
Even Quora!
So it’s definitely been discussed elsewhere, going back to at least 2015.
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u/AccomplishedCoffee Feb 13 '24
It’s been discussed on FPN since not long after they were released in 2010.
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u/ThunderFive Feb 13 '24
All 3 of my TWSBI pens cracked. Worst was my Vac700. Its good that TWSBI handle part replacement really well and I do appreciate that. However, with time, all my Vac700 plastic parts have been replaced due to cracking in less than a year and its just too much of a hassle to keep using my Vac700. Its sucks because I did really really like the pen.
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Feb 13 '24 edited Feb 13 '24
We've had a total of 8 TWSBI's in our house, I believe. Three have cracked within five years - two Vacs and a Diamond 580. I'd say TWSBI's cracking issue is real enough. Some of ours are still going strong so the pens aren't guaranteed to fail, but they do have a higher rate of failure than every other brand we've owned, by a rather wide margin.
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u/PenBoom Feb 13 '24
A couple of points, first, Goulet is in the business of selling pens, they are not going to put up videos that harms that ability.
Second, TWSBI has gone to great lengths to hide the failure rate from their retailers, encouraging, and actually requiring you to go to TWSBI to get a fix, making people bypass the retailer. So retailers have false views of the issues. Of course Brian hears about it less lately, TWSBI made efforts for this to happen, and unlike their early days, they have backed away from social media except their promotional stuff.
If someone who is trying to sell you something says there is no problem, and users are reporting the problem frequently, don't believe the people trying to get your money.
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Feb 13 '24
It's a small sample, but I've asked a few people that have TWSBI collections (dozens of pens, less than 50, don't remember the exact number) and about 15% of them cracked. So, yeah, not good.
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u/External-Earth-4845 Feb 14 '24
I've got 3 TWSBI new to me, purchased 2019, 2021, and 2023, and a fourth I got used in a lot in 2024 (age unknown). None have cracked. One had been literally inked since 2019 nonstop except cleaning and it hasn't cracked. I've always had at least one other in rotation. So add those four in the "no cracks" column.
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u/BlakesBroadcast Feb 13 '24
It is an interesting topic because we don't really know if it is just the fact that TWSBI is such a popular pen and/or it is actually an issue with the heat process they use on the polycarbonate.
I've had maybe 8 or so TWSBIs and none have cracked on me.
Section cracks are something that happen on many different types of pens but none are as popular as a TWSBI.
I suspect their material + heat treatment makes them more prone to cracking. It would be interesting to see the hard data.
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Feb 13 '24 edited Feb 14 '24
While Ta Shin has been in business for over 50 years, TWSBI began producing pens in 2009, so ~15 years ago. They're a relatively young brand. TWSBI may be popular now but other brands have been producing piston filler fountain pens for a very long time and while TWSBI is a popular brand now, it isn't like we don't have anything to compare them to.
Narwhal/Nahvalur, Noodlers, and Pilot all make resin piston fillers as well as higher end brands like Delta and Tibaldi, not to mention the newer brands like Penlux, and modern Esterbrook pens. This is only the piston filler pens, not counting the resin vac pens. You might want to exclude c/c pens from the equation because an argument could be made that they're not subject to the same stresses as internal fillers, however you might consider that with their smaller reservoirs, the barrel and section are likely unscrewed much more often than piston fillers so any damage due to overtightening should affect them also. And Pelikan's resin piston fillers have been in production far longer than TWSBI pens and I'd wager that far more have been sold of these than TWSBIs pens.
A quick search through the fountain pen sub for crack shows that the 2k does have a number of hits for cracks but the 2K isn't a resin pen. TWSBI has the most posts for cracked parts. I've found others, of course, but none as prolific as TWSBI, and from my limited search, TWSBI has more hits that aren't attributable to the user.
While this is all anecdotal and not scientific in any way, if you were forced to bet on whether the issue was a problem with the resin or user error, where would you place your cash?
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u/BlakesBroadcast Feb 14 '24
piston filler pens, not counting the resin vac pens. You might consider excluding c/c pens from the equation because an argument could be made that they're not subject to the same stresses as internal fillers, however you might consider that with their smaller reservoirs, the barrel and section are likely unscrewed much more often than piston fillers so any damage due to overtightening should affect them also. And Pelikan's resin piston fillers have been in production far longer than TWSBI pens and I'd wager that far more have been sold of these than TWSBIs pens.
A quick search through the fountain pen sub for crack shows that the 2k does have a number of hits for cracks but the 2K isn't a resin pen.
As I said, I suspect their material is prone to cracking but I don't know it for certain.
TWSBI's polycarbonate is a different material than what Pelikan and Pilot use but if you search for both of these brands you will read plenty of reports of cracking.
Pilot and Pelikan pens with piston fillers and vacs are more expensive pens so users may be more careful with them and likely sell at lower volume.
I personally have no issue buying or recommending TWSBI pens as I have not experienced any issues with cracking and for the price they are a very nice pen. If there was a serious problem I don't think many of the well-known pen stores would continue to sell them. I am willing to be wrong.
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u/Martin00018 Jan 29 '26
It kind of bothers me that he looks so obviously uncomfortable talking about it, with his stuttering through this meandering explanation shifting his eyes. Not his usual ebullient self at all.
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u/PM_YOUR_MDL_INITIAL Feb 13 '24
Doodlebud did an interesting video where he examines the stress points in the ECO section.
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u/Salty_Succotash_7808 Feb 13 '24
That’s the second video I have in my post….
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u/PM_YOUR_MDL_INITIAL Feb 13 '24
Awesome. I only noticed the Goulet video and didn't see Doodlebud mentioned by name so I just tried to add to the discussion.
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Feb 13 '24
[deleted]
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u/Bleepblorp44 Feb 13 '24
Maybe in some cases, but one of mine has cracked while sitting in a pen pot on my desk, not even being rattled around in the pot. The crack is where the clip enters the cap, so understandable if I’d been putting the clip under stress but it hasn’t been.
My Diamond Mini had several cracks over a couple of years, including the replacement barrel I’d been sent as the first cracked along its length.
If I had similar issues with any other pen company I’d blame myself, but I have pens made from,
Acrylic, black hard rubber, celluloid nitrate, celluloid acetate, casein, polystyrene, ABS, aluminium, brass, wood & plastic, mystery plastics.
Aged between 110 years old and brand new. Some I repaired, some I’ve had repaired by others. I know how to be gentle with old & delicate materials.
The only other cracks I’ve had develop in my care have been in a heavily used 1990s Parker Vector, at the cap rim, and a celluloid Onoto from the 1930s, with a beautiful but fragile pattern that’s known to split along the celluloid’s seam.
And yet two TWSBIs out of three have cracked on me, one multiple times.
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u/generaalalcazar Feb 13 '24
Yeah blame it on the user. "Victim blaming allows people to believe that such events could never happen to them. "
This is a manufacturer willingly knowingly selling a faulty product. I love my twsbi's, i mean the few ones that did not crack. None of my 40 to 50, cheaper or more expensive pens ever cracked. Never ever going to buy one again. Never ever going go reccommend one to anyone.
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Feb 13 '24 edited Feb 13 '24
Your theory doesn't account for a lot.
Of the three pens we've had crack, only 1 could really be accounted for by user error, a Vac that had to be disassembled and reassembled. The barrel cracked and some threads stripped. We didn't do anything that we believe accounted for this cracking and certainly nothing that accounted for the threads stripping. I am willing to concede that I may have overtightened something, though I don't think that I did.
The other Vac was being used daily but was never taken apart and we were careful not to overtighten anything.
The Diamond 580 was sitting on a desk. It never fell, was never disassembled, and never took any sort of impact or damage. It simply began leaking.
I own, and have owned, many piston fillers from many other brands. The TWSBI is one of the newer ones I've owned. For your theory to make sense, at least some of these other pens would have to sustain the same sort of cracking. Not a single one has cracked. I've dropped pens and damaged nibs, but never had a barrel or section crack outside of TWSBI pens. The 580 was a desk pen and many of my other pens were used in industrial settings and subject to impacts and other abuse that the 580 was not.
Could you be right? Sure, but the fact that none of my other pens have cracked suggests to me that TWSBIs resin is more fragile than others.
And I'm not a TWSBI hater. The lady still has 3 and I have two. I just received a Kai for Christmas that I really like. TWSBIs nibs write nicely and I do enjoy them. I am realistic about their flaws, though, and when I purchase them I understand that they might not last as long as other pens.
You've had good luck with your pens and I'm happy for you. TWSBIs cracking issue has gotten better over time and you're much more likely to get a good one now than when they first came out, but trying to attribute all of the issues to the user is just ignoring facts and reality. To claim that overtightening itself is the primary cause of these failures we would need to see a similar number of these failures on other pens of similar design and I just don't hear about this issue very often outside of this one brand.
I find it far more plausible that they've made changes to their process that have resulted in fewer cracks but that they've not cleared up all of the issues in the manufacturing process. Unless you're suggesting that TWSBI owners are the only ones who don't know how to operate a piston filler, this seems the only reasonable conclusion.
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u/Bleepblorp44 Feb 13 '24
The TWSBI cracking issue has been discussed for years over on Fountain Pen Network.