Recently it was Cult Pens 20th birthday, and so I took advantage of the excellent discounts to grab a couple of pens off my wish list (plus a few extras!). 

The first pen I bought has been on my wish list for quite some time: the TWSBI Diamond 580 ALR in Sunset. I’m a huge TWSBI Eco fan, but had yet to try any of TWSBIs higher end offerings, and wasn’t sure if the price jump would be worth it, considering how much I like the Ecos. There also aren’t many colourways I like that much in the Diamond line, since they tend to be more subtle colours, but the beautiful metallic orange of the Sunset edition really caught my eye. 

And I’m so glad I finally bought this pen! Whilst it operates and writes exactly the same as the TWSBI Ecos, it definitely feels more premium with the faceted barrel and the aluminium trim. Whilst feeling weightier and more substantial, it also feels a lot more streamlined, and I find the ridged metal barrel to be surprisingly comfortable in the hand! I tend not to like metal grip sections, because they can be quite slippery, but the ridges on the Diamond 580 nicely solves this problem. 

As tempted as I was to put a bright orange ink in this pen, I opted in the end for Diamine Ancient Copper, an ink I love, but haven’t used in a long time. And it’s a nice combination! 

My second pen purchase is one I made despite initially vowing to resist… so much for my self control! I already had five TWSBI Ecos, and had told myself many times I didn’t need any more, even as the Amazonite and Irish Green editions tempted me. But when the Matcha Green was announced I could no longer resist – it’s my perfect shade of green!

So it ended up in my virtual basket, and I’m justifying it because it’s the only medium nib TWSBI I own. All the others are extra fine or fine, so it just made sense to get a medium nib (or so I’ll keep telling myself!)!

I am glad I got it though, because it really is a stunning colour, and it’s now duking it out with my TWSBI Eco Crème and Rose Gold for the title of my favourite TWSBI Eco. This one might just have the edge because of recency bias! 

I’m also really liking the medium nib! I didn’t use to like medium nibs, preferring fine or extra fine, but I’m really coming around to them these days, since I’ve started to experiment more with inks and use better quality paper. I just like being able to use lighter inks and still have them be legible! 

The ink in the Matcha TWSBI Eco is Diamine Spring Green, which I bought along with the pen. Every time I shop at Cult Pens I have to throw at least one Diamine 30ml bottle of ink in my basket, because even without discount they’re so cheap. So this time I bought three: as well as Spring Green I got Beau Blue and Amazing Amethyst. 

Spring Green is a beautiful light, bright, yellow-toned green that matches the Matcha Eco perfectly, as I hoped. 

Beau Blue was a bit of a surprise though, because I’d expected more of a light, icy blue, but when swatched it’s bolder than I thought! I was possibly just a bit heavy-handed with the swatch and put down too much though, because it looks more like I expected now it’s in a pen. I put it in my Ivory Pilot Kakuno to try it out, and I really like it, although it isn’t the most legible in this pen.

My favourite of the three inks though was Amazing Amethyst. Purple is my favourite colour, so I have a lot of purple inks, but I don’t have any others quite like this! It looks almost navy when you first put it down, but then it dries to a deep, blue-toned purple. I have it inked in my Persian Green TWSBI Eco, and I’m absolutely loving it! I like how that happens sometimes, where something cheap you threw into your basket as a last-minute addition ends up being a favourite! 

The last thing I got in the Cult Pens birthday sale was a packet of pastel lined paper for my personal size Filofax, because yes, I’m a Filofax girl now! But that’s for another blog post! 

So have you got either of these TWSBI pens? What have been some of your favourite recent stationery buys?