By Doug Vicary
I
figured I'd write a quick review of the new Conway Stewart 100. They account
for two of the three pens I purchased at last weekend's great NY pen show,
so they have been getting a lot of use this week. I always like to try
the new things out.
While the 100s may be new to the market, there's nothing particularly new about them. Like the 58, it's modeled on a vintage CS design. The pen is basically a big brother to the 58 series. The overall shape and proportions are the same, but the size is much closer to the larger Duro models. But the 100 isn't just the M800 to the 58's M400. There are some substantive differences between the two pens.
While
the 58 is primarily a cartridge/converter filler, also available as a
lever filler, the 100 uses a piston filling mechanism. Unscrewing the
blind cap exposes the gold plated turning knob. I believe the piston filling
mechanism is self contained, basically a sort of permanent converter,
not unlike what Stipula has been using lately. It seems to hold plenty
of ink- after writing with my two 100s for the week, I haven't needed
to refill either one. Also, it's comforting to know that the ink isn't
contacting the barrel of the pen, so there's no need to worry about staining
on the lighter colored pen barrels. And some of the materials are pretty
light.
The materials are another place where the 58 and 100 diverge. While the 58 was offered in a range of stunning but temperamental caseins and some familiar acrylics, the 100 gets a wide range of entirely new proprietary plastics from Conway Stewart. There are seventeen different colors, all new, some of them truly stunning, a few a bit questionable. I chose Meteor, a marbled color composed of black and bright red-orange. It's a vintage looking material, but the bright red-orange gives it a lot of life. Another color I considered was Classic Claret, basically the same as the meteor with burgundy instead of the red-orange. It also had a very vintage look, very subtle and classy. I also had a tough time choosing between Razorshell and Shingle. The shingle is a mixture of opaque cream and translucent amber, kind of like that Montegrappa Bassano material. The Razorshell is similar but with the addition of black and gray, and an overall orangish tint. Very unusual, so it's the one I went for.
Some of the colors were very subtle and understated, like the Claret, the Lapis and Stardust Blues, and the brown and green swirls. At the other end of the spectrum, some of the colors are very attention grabbing, bordering on obnoxious. The Flecked Autumn, for instance, is an unusual mixture of bright and dark blue, and dark brown/burgundy. It's pretty loud. Not as loud as the yellow whirl, though, which is bright red-orange with a swirl of intense yellow. I can't imagine how anyone would like this material, which of course explains why Conway Stewart can't keep it in stock. Apparently, it's the most popular color of them all. Which shows where my tastes are. But I think it's safe to say that from range of 17 colors there must be something for everyone.
The 100 addresses the biggest problem I have with the 58, which is size. I love the look of the 58, the perfect proportions, the jewel like fittings, the cool materials. It's just a bit too small. The 100 is a full sized pen, in vintage terms an oversized one. It's not Churchill sized, but it is Duro sized in just about every direction. Capped, it's as long as a Duro at 13.9cm. It's about 16.7cm long with the cap posted, which is a bit shorter than a Duro. The barrel is about 1.3cm in diameter, while the cap is about 1.5cm. Those numbers are pretty much identical to the Duro. What's more, it feels a bit more substantial in the hand than a Duro. It has an interesting weight to it. You can feel the weight at the back end of the pen, and at first it feels like it would be unbalanced. But the weight rests right on your hand when writing, and makes the pen very comfortable to use. If you post the cap, the balance is even better. The section is modeled on the 58 section, which means it's fairly thick with a gentle taper and flared out a bit at the end. It's not curved like the Duro section. For me, it's a very comfortable pen to grip, hold, and use.
Overall,
the detailing on this pen is very nice. The clip is the same from the
58, the tapered diamond clip, not the ball clip from the flat-top Conways.
Like other Conways, the cap bands are 18k solid gold. On the 100 it's
the traditional thin/thick/thin band, flush with the barrel as on vintage
Conways. The thick middle band is hallmarked. There's a nice barrel imprint,
with the manufacturer, model number, and 'Made in England.' A thin gold
band separates the barrel from the blind cap and the section from the
threads.
My only issue with the trim involves the cap jewel. In the 58 series, the cap jewel is in matching material. It's a very classy touch. On the 100s, the cap jewel is black. It's fine if the barrel material has black in it already, as both of mine do. But on other colors without black in them, it's a little jarring. That's really my only problem with the way this pen writes or works, though.
There's certainly no problem with the writing. The big 18k nib is shared with the Duro and Churchill lines. It's the size of a Pelikan M800 or big Stipula or Delta nib. Every one of these I've tried has had a great combination of soft, slightly springy response, great ink flow, and wonderful smoothness. A whole range of sizes is offered, from EF to BB, and italics in fine, medium, and broad. I tried a fine, which is smooth, springy and wet writing without having too much ink flow. It has Noodler's Blue in it right now, and is a real joy to use.
The great balance and near perfect size of the pen together with the great nib is a tough act to beat. One of my pens had a medium, but while I was at the show Mary Burke swapped it out for a medium italic, which, despite its name, is really more of a broad stub. This one's a little drier, but still has good, even ink flow. It gives good line variation.
The Conway Stewart italics aren't real italics, though. They're stubs, a bit rounded on the corner and with a good amount of tipping material to keep things. This means the nibs are very smooth but don't give quite as much line variation as a true italic. It really only matters on the italic fine, which I can say from experience is more akin to a good Pelikan or Montblanc chiseled broad nib than an italic.
Overall, the 100 is a beautiful pen that has all of the jewel like qualities of the 58 in a larger size. It's large and attractive but still exudes class and refinement in a way the chunkier Duro and Churchill do not. The 100 is, in my opinion, a more desirable pen than the Duro. I don't believe it's really in competition with the Churchill, though- the Churchill has more of that big, manly pen vibe, while the 100 is much classier, and frankly, easier to use everyday. It's sort of the Jaguar to the Churchill's Land Rover. And like those two cars, which carry similar price tags, the 100 and the Churchill are the same price.
I think most would find the 100, being comparable to the Duro in size, material, and nib, to be about the same price. Instead, it's the same list price as the Churchill. While it's on the same level of desirability in my mind as the Churchill, I'd like to see the price more in line with the Duro. Even so, It's a very sweet pen, and I don't have to use the 'little' qualifier I always do with the 58s. Well done, Conway Stewart. If only you could have brought these to market sooner! Oh, and bring on the casein....
copyright 2004 Doug Vicary