Kaweco Ice Sport With Modified Flex Nib

[andymcc]

Since getting going with my fountain pen addiction I've bought various pens(Ahab, TWSBI Mini, Kawecos & vintage etc), most are used to draw and I've tried lots of nib types and use different pens/nibs depending on how I feel. My ideal nib has flex as it allows line variation and greater expression in my drawings, as yet no pen met my needs, a couple of vintage pen came close though.

My latest acquisition was a Platinum #3776 Century with an SF nib, at best the nib is semi flex but it's a nice pen with a nice nib and great to draw with. After using the #3776 I started thinking about flex again, a while ago I tried fitting the FPR flex nib to my TWSBI Mini with some success, sadly the feed couldn't keep up with the nib so I scrapped the idea.

 

I recently bought an ICE Sport with a BB nib which puts down lovely thick, wet lines but it's not a flex nib, so I wondered if the feed would cope with a flex nib. I dug out the FPR nib again to see if maybe it would fit the Kaweco feed..it didn't but with a little tweaking it might

After 15-20 minutes with a small file I took 3-5mm off the back of the nib, the FPR nib is slightly square and the Kaweco is round so I had to bend the FPR nib to make it sit snugly on the feed, fitting to the section is a tad tighter but not too bad. Initially the pen wouldn't write but after trying a couple of inks I got it to write a little. Some more tweaking and pushing the nib & feed further into the section and I was amazed at the results. The pen lays a VERY wet line and doesn't miss a beat unless I move fast while fully flexing, the picture shows just how much line variation I can get

 

Behold the pen itself, I might change the white section to the ICE orange one once I'm happy that the flex nib is working ok.

 

 

I've still got to fine tune the tines with my loupe to smooth out the nib but that'll only take a couple of minutes, for around 30 minutes of tinkering I'm now the proud owner of a new Kaweco flex pen There's no reason why the nib and feed can't be fit into my other Kaweco pens so I'll probably try it in my AL Raw which would be my ideal pen.

 

The FPR flex nibs are really cheap and with a dremmel the modification would take seconds to do, so any Kaweco pen and flex lovers get going

Edited August 9, 2013 by andymcc

[swanjun]

Wow, neat! I have a medium Ice Sport (in green), but I don't think it writes wetly enough for this to work.

[andymcc]

Thanks

I think all the kaweco feeds are the same, mine all look the same anyway(ef-1.1mm) but I wasn't using the BB so decide to use the section & feed from it.

[Earthdawn]

Wow thats great !

 

Well done.

 

Sonce I have all parts needed I will have to try this out.

 

Thanks for sharing with us.

[andymcc]

No prob's, it's a really simple mod and being shortened has made the FPR nib even more flexible

[Calamus plasticus]

Good experiment: now you may want to use the Sport as an eyedropper to increase the ink capacity. That nib seems to consume a lot of fuel... :-)

[andymcc]

That may be my next job, the flex is so big & lines so wet that the cartridge is spent in minutes

[renderboy]

I've done this to about 5 kaweco classic sports now, and they all work really reliably and are so much fun to use. The FPR flex nib, though they vary a fair bit from new and need a bit of tweaking, write great as a fine for general note taking, then when I have the time the flex is just too irresistible. I always get people asking about the pen when they see it in 'flex mode'.

 

Though I have a few of the kaweco converters, I don't find they fit particularly well and the capacity sucks, so I've made some of the DIY converters using an ink sac and kaweco cartridge which are great!

 

Thanks to the OP for inspiration, love this kind of thing.

[Oldtimer]

What is an FPR nib?

[NedC]

FPR = fountainpenrevolution.com

 

They are a seller of Indian made fountain pens.

[yannori]

I see an enjoyable afternoon of tinkering in my future! Thanks for the recipie!

[bin02]

Hi everyone,

 

So glad to have found this thread. I'd love to try this mod as I've just bought this neat little set:

http://monoqi.co.uk/gb_en/bestseller-shop/kaweco/fountain-pen-writing-set-blk.html

(10% discount currently with code: MQDESIGN10 btw)

 

Can you advise which flex nib I need to get from FPR? Ideally I'll get one in gold colour.

 

Many thanks!

[Dries]

Can you tell us how you did the mod?

 

Dries