Quick Look at the new TWSBI Aurora
Earlier this month there were ripples running through a certain subset of the FP community, when with little warning (about 4 days.) TWSBI announced a new model, available only on their website.
On the 18th, I made my move at 6:30 in the AM, and was actually surprised to find I was able to get one, in any nib size I wanted. I selected BOLD, because TWSBI calls the big nibs BOLD.
The pen finally arrived sometime Saturday, AFTER 2 of my local pen friends had been showing off their Auroras at our weekly pen freakout at my shop.
First impressions of the pen are good, and I’ve left the nib unenhanced so far. I put a slurp of Pilot Blueblack in there and it’s been writing very nicely for me.
Anyway, here’s a bullet list of my hot takes:
- The material is beautiful.
- The cap, section, barrel and piston knob are all made from non-adjacent pieces of the material. They do not match up, and that is OK.
- It’s a chonky pen. The section, barrel and cap all seem wider than any other TWSBI I’ve used in recent memory. I haven’t compared it to a VAC700.
- The piston is nice and smooth, and the bit that’s visible when the piston is moved forward is metal.
- The pen sounds clacky when the cap contacts the threads. I like it.
- The dark coating on the metal bits looks great with the rest of the pen.
- The ink window (covered when the pen is capped) looks great, classy even.
It’ll be interesting to see what the secondary market for these pens does. No word I’ve heard from TWSBI on any more of these becoming available, so we’ll see.
I’m glad I picked this one up, and I’ll probably write a more detailder review at a later date.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time!