Birthday pens? TWSBI ECOs?! Pen review?!?

It’s not my birthday and shame on you for not wishing me happy birthday in January nor sending me TWSBIs. Also, TWSBI ECOs are amazing.

Originally, I was going to write about love and what not last month (February), and then I realized March had already began; it’s on brand for this blog — chaotic as it is — that I would be late for anything current. It’s also a thing in my family regarding gift giving. I don’t get Valentine’s as a concept. To me, if you love someone, you love them, and if you have a sibling, you get a pen, simple as that¹.

Boru (not his actual name), I hope you’re reading this.

Anyway, I am a simple individual. I know what I want and I know I don’t need anything else. When my brother remembered my birthday was coming up, I had already had a plan, and I gave him two options. Actually, I had had a pen in mind; it was a TWSBI, but not the ECO. However, Boru being Boru, he decided my taste in pens was boring and went with option number two.

Side note, how the heck is my taste in pens boring?

Enter TWSBI ECO in Crème and rose gold.

Now, I will preface this with: I don’t care about pastel, off-white, non-saturated colors, and I particularly do not care about rose gold. However, when I saw this pen, I was instantly hooked. Maybe because it looks like a coffee (especially when inked with Robert Oster Cocoa Shimmer). Maybe because it reminds me of Michael Palin and his riding a bicycle around England, crashing, and proceeding to explain how he detests bananas and doesn’t care about cheese, and yet loves banana and cheese sandwiches².

Classic. Also me when I talk about bananas, coffee, and pens.

I swear that was relevant. Anyway, I saw the pen online, then on the Pen Addict’s Twitch stream, and, of course, decided I should have it. I didn’t order it, though, as I wasn’t immediately sold on the color combination (basically, the pen was my version bananas and cheese sandwich), but mentioned it in passing to my brother.

Little did I know that five days after on my birthday, I would be surprised with said pen. And even littler did I know: I would instantly fall in love.

If you’ve never had a TWSBI ECO, which I doubt, since you’re reading an obscure blog and are probably deep in the rabbit hole, it’s the first “more affordable” pen in TWSBI’s line³. Nowadays, though, Swipe and Go took ECO’s place as more affordable options, as the ECO slightly went up in price. For those who claim they crack, I’ve had one for seven years and it’s yet to crack; I don’t overtighten them, and I have never dropped one. I’ve had a mini crack around the nipple, but it didn’t impact writing, plus I got a replacement body for free. The pen, as is customary, comes in six nib sizes, starting from EF and ending with 1.1 stub. I asked for either M or B, and got the M. TWSBI, despite being based in Taiwan, follows the “European” sizing, so the M will be the same size as most European brands’ nibs.

Spoiler alert: writes superb and I love the nib.

Diamine Cocoa Shimmer looks so good

TWSBI’s nibs are a bit odd when it comes to sizes, though; they don’t really follow the numbering as other brands do (well, except for Pilot… and Kaweco… and…), but if I were to guess, the nib on the ECO would be a #5, whereas the one on the, say, 580, is the #5.5 (and you can actually swap in the Sailor 14k nib on the TWSBI feed and it will fit and write like a charm; go try, I’ll wait). So, a smaller nib on a relatively normal sized pen might seem off, but don’t let that fool you; it still writes well. All of the nibs on all of my TWSBIs have been perfect out of the box, for that matter. Not sure if they tune them before sending them off into the wild, but I really cannot complain about the quality of the nibs. Heck, I’ve had more expensive pens write poorly (looking at you, Leonardo).

As most of the TWSBI pens, ECO is also a piston filler⁴. The ECO is unique in the fact it looks like a vape, so my suggestion would be to fill it with a fluorescent ink just to mess with people who ask incredulously if you smoke in the office.

Fun fact about TWSBI pens — apart from the fact they’re user friendly and fully disassemblable⁵ — the piston unscrews clockwise and screws in counterclockwise, absolutely destroying your self esteem when you try to remember the trick of “lefty-loosely and righty-tighty” and fail and have to revert to watching YouTube videos so as to not obliterate your new pen.

Another fun fact is that both 580s (and subvariants 580 AL and ALR) and ECOs are super addictive and collectible, the latter being probably more interesting as they’re more affordable, and, honestly, more fun. You have your darker colors, your pastel ECOs, your transparent caps… and, of course, your banana-coffee-looking crème and rose gold.

Sadly, I did not collaborate with TWSBI to have a pen looking like something that should be my perfect pen (should’ve called it banana split in my opinion), but it’s still super pleasant to the eye. It even looks edible, although I would advise against it as it’s not particularly tasty, and ink can stain your teeth for a few hours. Don’t ask me how I know. As any other ECO, it’s well balanced, fun to use, fun to fill, fun to play with, and fun to pull out in a meeting just to watch people stare in horror (cue: vape comments).

The rose gold furniture is not that much of an outlier for TWSBI, as they have a few other pens with the same trim, but I would venture to say it fits with this theme way better than with, say, blue. It looks classy and “adult” and, of course, comes with a price; it’s a bit more expensive than your regular ones. Not as expensive as some limited editions that are only available on eBay, but still a bit more expensive than what I’d particularly like to pay.

Is it worth it? Depends on my mood. I would say that the increase in price isn’t warranted; would I have bought it if I hadn’t gotten it from my brother? Absolutely. Begrudgingly, but I still would. I think the pen is gorgeous and it made me change my mind about rose gold — at least on pens.

Now, what really makes it worth it is the fact that I did get it from my brother. The color doesn’t remind me of him (as he’s a green person, which… I hope that makes him happy because green is ew), but the pen in its entirety does, and the fact he thought it would be a better and more fitting gift than the black ALR definitely makes my cold, dead heart flutter. He doesn’t get my pen obsession, but I feel supported. Especially since it gives me another topic to blab about. Not that I don’t have a reason to bother all of you, but it’s still nice.

So — should you get this pen? If it’s your first ECO, you might want to wait a bit and get a less expensive colorway (there’s GLOW IN THE DARK ones woooooo), just in the unlikely case you don’t like the pen, as there’s no actual difference between regular colors and this beautiful, velvety stunner of a pen.

Still, if you pull the trigger on the crème and rose gold, it might just be the only one you’ll ever need, as it is probably one of the best looking ones that I can think of. Well, except for the transparent blossom red that I paid premium for because I am an idiot.

Do you have a favorite ECO? Slap a comment so we can argue about nib sizes.

As always, the blog is free, but if you want to show support and dare me to eat a banana sandwich (eff cheese though), you can always subscribe with a pledge.

1. Whether you like it or not. Point in question: previous post and Mustangs.

2. Actual quote was: “It's funny how one can go through life, as I have, disliking bananas and being indifferent to cheese, and then be able to eat, and enjoy, a banana and cheese sandwich like this.”

3. The ECO is not eco-friendly… but ECOnomical. Just sayin.

4. Notable exceptions would be the Swipe and the Go (c/c and whatever that pump thingy would be).

5. Is that even a word?