The (Discontinued) Kaweco Sport Luxe Fountain Pen

A few weeks ago, we paid a visit to our Kaweco distributors out in Burlington (more on that to come soon! including photos!), and it was great to see and hold and feel some of Kaweco pens we don’t regularly carry. We saw some real beauties, including the Kaweco 1910 Eyedropper ($550 CAD), which I am hoping Jon may one day get me for Christmas.

We did, however, pick up the last eight of the Kaweco Sport Luxe Fountain Pens!

The bad news is that they are literally the last eight units because the pen has been discontinued. And actually, as of writing this post, we only have three left. And coincidentally, one of our favourite customers picked one up earlier today! Great minds think alike 🙂

Kaweco Fountain Pen Nib Sizes

Also known as: What Kaweco Nib Size Should I Get?

Happy Friday! Even though the weekend is usually busier and more hectic than our weekdays, running the bricks & mortar, I guess remnants from when I was in the “real workforce” mean that I still get the Friday freedom jitters.

Spring is basically here, or rather, it’s so close to around the corner that the snow we had yesterday doesn’t count. I seem to always have brown in my pens, but one of these days, I’m going to switch them all out for Diamine Meadow or J. Herbin Bleu Azur. Lots is still to come over the next few weeks, but I thought it was time to get a few close-ups of some nibs that we’ve been carrying for a while.

Kaweco pens are some of our most popular pens, both because of their great looking, often vintage inspired design, and, of course, their nibs.

Kaweco nibs are made in Germany for Kaweco by Bock. They’re specific to Kaweco, so you won’t be able to easily swap these nibs out with other companies, but these Kaweco spare nibs are available for purchase widely.

If this is your first pen or you’re getting a Kaweco for someone as a gift, I would say go for a fine or medium. Fine if you have smallish handwriting or you’re writing on lower quality paper, medium if you have largish handwriting or you know you just like a wetter line. You can’t go wrong with either.

I would say Kaweco nibs are fairly similar to Lamy. The extra fine on Kaweco may be just ever so slightly finer than the extra fine on Lamy, but the difference is pretty negligible.

These writing samples were done with Noodler’s Kiowa Pecan, on Rhodia paper 80gsm paper.

Kaweco Fountain Pen Nib Sizes – Extra Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad, Double Broad

Kaweco Extra Fine Fountain Pen Nib

Kaweco Extra Fine and Fine Fountain Pen Nib Writing Sample

Kaweco Medium Fountain Pen Nib Writing Sample

Kaweco Broad and Double Broad Fountain Pen Nib Writing Sample

Kaweco Double Broad Fountain Pen Nib Writing Sample

Remember that it’s always tough to be very precise with exactly how broad your nib will write. Many factors can be at play, including the type of paper and ink you’re using, how much pressure you’re putting on it, whether the ink has just been filled and the feed is very saturated or if it’s running near the end of its tank. That’s not to say that your Extra Fine should be as wide as a Broad, but just keep in mind that some small variation may still happen.

I find usually the biggest factor is the type of paper you’re using – more absorbent paper will suck up the ink and spread it out, like on a paper towel, which dramatically affects how crisp your line looks.

I think it’s always helpful to give your pen a quick flush with water if it’s not writing as it should be. You should also consider giving any brand new pen a flush with water, or water with a drop of dish soap, just in case of any residual machining oil or dried ink from testing, although you can usually get away without.

You can also check out how the Kaweco italic nibs write, and as well some helpful hints on switching your Kaweco nibs around.

The Kaweco Sport – Brown Edition

We know the best things in life are brown. Worn-in leather boots, chocolate & coffee, some of my favourite inks like Lie de The or Diamine Ochre, and of course, this handsome prince:

I could gobble this chocolate bad boy up! Right after I gobble up the baby.

And, as a bonus, my favourite/only joke: what’s brown and sticky?
(Continue reading for the answer!)

Joining the ranks, we are now introducing the Special Edition Kaweco Brown Sport!

We are so excited to have this brown Sport fountain pen in from Germany, in very limited quantities. I think this was some sort of European release, but we bungled our way into a few of them. A brown pen?! How could I resist!

(Plus, I mean, Canadians and Europeans, we go way back. To like 1497 back. And we still have the Queen on our monies! If this doesn’t help small businesses get into these European releases, I don’t know what will.)

We’ve harassed our distributor for updates on this pen for long enough – it’s finally here!

It’s a dark, retro, smooth kind of brown, actually kind of like chocolate.

The Sport is a pocket pen, smaller in size when capped, but if you remove the twist cap and post it on the back of the pen, it converts closer to a regular size pen.

The Sport takes standard international cartridges, and also has a squeeze converter (since most piston-type standard international converters don’t fit into the back of the barrel of the Sport). It comes with one royal blue cartridge to begin with, which you can also refill with a reusable ink syringe.

You can get either the standard clip, or the curved “N” clip with a bit more of a vintage styling on it. The finishes are gold, which I think perfectly suits the brown tone. We’ll put a gold-toned nib on it for you unless you upgrade to an italic, as all of the italic nibs are silver in colour.

Kaweco keeps coming out with new stuff, and this brown is just the chocolate icing on the cake! We got a very limited quantity, so if you’re a Kaweco fan, or you just like the look of this Sport, don’t wait too long. You can check out the details here.

There are lots and lots of new things coming from Kaweco! I can hardly keep up, really. I just got off the phone with the Canadian Kaweco distributor, which is always a treat because I get to hear about all the new things in the pipelines. Soon!

 

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And as for the joke, what’s brown and sticky?

A stick! Get it, stick-y? HAHA! (In my defense, I’ve told this joke to many of my former students, who have all agreed it’s hilarious, and not only because they know which side their bread is buttered on, and who is writing their report cards).