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Kaweco Inks Full Line


visvamitra

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http://imageshack.com/a/img538/6158/11Pc6j.jpg



Founded in Heidelberg in 1883, as Heidelberger Federhalterfabrik, the company started by producing a modest range of wooden dip pens. The Kaweco brand name, originally developed as a model name and coined after Koch, Weber & Company, the owners, was adopted as the company name in the early 1900’s. By the 1930’s over 600 staff were producing a huge array of fountain pens and pencils, including the popular Sport range of pocket pens. The company's survived almost one hundred years but in 1980 its operations were closed.



Happily that wasn't the end of the brand. Horst Gutberlet - owner of H&M Gutberlet GmbH and pen enthusiast and his son Michael were able to but the brand name in 1994. They started working on reviving the brand. It took many years of dedicated work. The brand was initially distributed by Diplomat however over the years their line-up has extended and they were able to create their own international network of distributors.



As with most big dreams the realisation took many years of dedicated work. The Kaweco brand was initially distributed by Diplomat. Over the years, the model line-up has expanded and Kaweco has created their own international network of distributors.



http://imageshack.com/a/img661/7232/sBiTQO.jpg



Today Kaweco offers wide variety of fountain pens and accessories. They have eight inks in their line-up. I don't know makes their inks, however I've read somewhere it was Dr. Pflug from Aratrum (creator of Caran d'Ache inks). If anyone has some data on this topic, I'd like to learn it :)



Anyway the inks are sold in generic glass bottles (30 ml) and their price is steep. Given that in my country Kaweco inks are priced higher (price per 1 ml) than Edelstein or Graf von Faber-Castell I keep on aking myself "what were you guys thinking"? I expect premium priced products to offer premium experience - premium inks should be well-behaved and offer some added value as aesthetic bottle. Here KaWeCo doesn't deliver. The bottle is cheap, heneric and boring. Practical, no doubt, but if you want me to pay premium give me premium :)



  1. Karamel Braun (Caramel Brown)
  2. Konigsblau (Royal Blue)
  3. Mittertnachtsblau (Midnight Blue)
  4. Palmen Grun (Palm Green)
  5. Paradies Blau (Paradise Blue)
  6. Perlen Schwarz (Pearl Black)
  7. Rubinrot (Ruby Red)
  8. Sommer Lila (Summer Burple)





http://imageshack.com/a/img661/8134/2ZcCps.jpg


Ink splashes


http://imageshack.com/a/img908/5226/nSoE0i.jpg



http://imageshack.com/a/img540/6168/9NbZsy.jpg



Swabs


http://imageshack.com/a/img537/3828/p2jpOQ.jpg



Drops of ink on kitchen towel


http://imageshack.com/a/img540/6628/vEmLSh.jpg

Chromatography


http://imageshack.com/a/img537/9696/k9K7mN.jpg


Scribbles, my company's noname paper, Kaweco Classic Sport B


http://imageshack.com/a/img538/2243/bK17Ki.jpg


Notebook Esquisse, Kaweco Classic Sport,B


http://imageshack.com/a/img661/4995/nEiQk9.jpg


Calendar, Kaweco Classic Sport B


http://imageshack.com/a/img538/1079/hFcnGp.jpg


Calendar, Hero 5028, stub 1,9


http://imageshack.com/a/img909/7808/BEZVHU.jpg



Rhodia, Hero 5028, stub 1,9

http://imageshack.com/a/img538/4517/Xl9FMP.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img910/1349/VFOUTH.jpg



TeNeues, Hero 5028, Kaweco Sport Classic, B


http://imageshack.com/a/img673/8065/V72ikA.jpg




Summary


I find Kaweco inks well-behaved and rather nice. I really like Sommerlila, Karamelbraun and Palmengrun. I sincerily dislike Paradiesblau and Mitternachtsblau.


The problem I have with them is the price. I believe in value for value principle. When I buy premium product (Kaweco ink price per 1 ml is higher than Pelikan Edelstein, Montblanc, Graf von Faber-Castell inks) I expect premium. Sadly Kaweco doesn't offer me the value I would expect for the money. That's why I won't recommendf their inks to anyone. It's not about the money guys, it's about principle :)




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I love your brand comparisons! Thank you for taking the time to do them. I've only tried a couple of the Kaweco inks and like you I wasn't wowed by the ones I tried.

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Did Kaweco change the formula for some of these, because the brown and purple I have in cartridges look nothing like the colors I see here? Or maybe the cartridges are different? I stopped using the brown cartridges because they have such a strong orange undercurrent. And the purple I have is a much softer shade, leaning toward a pastel almost. The blue cartridge I tried also had a good amount of purple in it, so I'm not even sure which one it was looking at these samples - neither blue has much purple that I can see. I only had the one blue cartridge because it came with a Kaweco Sport, but it was darker than the Royal Blue here, and lighter than the Midnight Blue. I guess I'm confused.

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I think the green is the winner, too. It reminds me of Cd'A Amazon Green—another premium-priced ink.

"One can not waste time worrying about small minds . . . If we were normal, we'd still be using free ball point pens." —Bo Bo Olson

 

"I already own more ink than a rational person can use in a lifetime." —Waski_the_Squirrel

 

I'm still trying to figure out how to list all my pens down here.

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That green is really nice.

Fountain pens forever and forever a hundred years fountain pens, all day long forever, forever a hundred times, over and over Fountain Pen Network Adventures dot com!

 

- Joe

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  • 1 year later...

The range has now expanded to ten inks, with the addition of the awesome Sunrise Orange (better than Apache Sunset, in the opinion of many) and Smoky Grey. Taking a quick swipe of each, they line up like this:

fpn_1479124048__scribblesquares.jpg

 

There are more images and results than I can fit in here on the United Inkdom meta-review, which I hope you enjoy too!

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Yes, I've tried them :) Smoky Grey is simply bad ink - it lacks saturation and lubrication. In my opinion it's one of least interesting grey inks on the market. Sunrise Orange is an ok-ink. I like it but I would say it's nowhere near Aoache Sunset in terms of performance and variability :)

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Hmm.... I disagree. There are more interesting greys out there (dozens of the 80 or so I know of) but this one isn't bad at all. I find it at least medium-saturated, well lubed, nice and wet, and shows some shading. FWIW, my specimen is in cartridges and about 2 months old.

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

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