Fountain Pen Review: Kaweco Ice Sport Black

[Chrissy]

Kaweco ICE Sport Black FP Review

Source Kaweco sent me this pen in return for an honest review. The Smokey Grey ink cartridges were included in the box. I’ve been using this pen for over 3 months now, so I think I have given myself plenty of time to get to know it.

History (reproduced from the Kaweco web-site)

Kaweco - In 1883 the manufacturer of high-quality writing instruments was founded in Heidelberg Germany. Kaweco has been producing a wide range of fine writing pens and has been setting a great value on classy design and high standard manufacturing.

The first Kaweco Sport was founded in 1912 as a pocket fountain pen for ladies, officers and sportsmen. In 1930 the brands and models of Kaweco and Aurumia fused and the Ka We Co three part circle emerged. This circle is still used today on nearly all of it’s pens.

Even Sepp Herberger already appreciated these characteristics. It was with a Kaweco Sport that the former coach of the German national soccer team wrote on a piece of paper his winning tactics which brought the Germans to the world cup in 1954.

In 1993 H & M Gutberlet GmbH made it’s first prototypes for a relaunch of the Kaweco Sport under the name Trekking, but gained and registered the rights to rename as Kaweco in 1994.

The Kaweco Sport was newly produced as a cartridge holder in 1995, but the design remained the same as the 1935 model.

In 2000 the first Limited Sport edition was produced in green celluloid, and the AL Sport as well as the Art Sport were launched in 2003.

Kaweco's product range is perfectly described by the keywords "tradition" and “innovation"

Appearance and Design

The Kaweco ICE Sport starts off as a small and compact pen until you remove it’s octagonal shaped cap, and replace it on the end of the barrel to make a decent sized fountain pen in your hand. It's one of the very few fountain pens that I use with a posted cap.

The ICE Sport range differs from the Skyline and Classic range in having a transparent barrel. It has platinised accents like the Skyline Sport, and comes with a steel nib. I love the very attractive milled edge on the end of the barrel.

Kaweco supply a standard steel nib unit, with iridium tip, with this pen, that matches it’s Kaweco platinised plated metal cap emblem as well as the silver coloured ‘Kaweco Sport’ script on the barrel.

This pen has a black grip, a transparent barrel and a transparent black cap. You can buy this pen with or without a matching clip that costs extra. It comes in a standard sized Kaweco Sport cardboard box.

Construction and quality

Although this pen is made from plastic, it feels quite well made and fairly substantial in your hand and performs as well as many full sized pens. It’s lightweight, but doesn’t feel flimsy, and it has a nice size, well shaped grip. The cap is intended to be posted on the barrel for all Sport pens and the pen feels nicely balanced in your hand when the cap is posted on the barrel.

As always with Kaweco Sport pens, the cap and the barrel screw together very well for a close fit, on smoothly machined screw threads.

Weight and Dimensions

Weight: 10grams. Measurements: Closed; 105mm, Posted; 135mm, Nib; 17mm.

Nib and Performance

The steel nib units for this pen come as a complete front part section, as opposed to the screw in nib and feed units that Kaweco make for their metal Sport pens. So you can swap in any Kaweco ‘Front Part with nib’ into this pen. You can usually buy them from Kaweco stockists. They are available in nib sizes EF /F / M / B / BB. An octagonal clip in chrome to match can be purchased separately.

Unusually, I found this pen to be difficult to start and a dry writer when I first fitted the Smokey Grey cartridge. I had to remove the cartridge again, and clean out the pen before reinserting the cartridge and trying again. it performed much better after I had cleaned it out. Maybe there were some remains of machine oil that stopped the flow of ink before I cleaned it out. On my second attempt, I was impressed with the smoothness of the nib, that needed no tip adjustment at all. It gave me a smooth writing experience that rivalled that of some gold nibs in more expensive pens.

There is no flex with these steel nibs, but I don’t really mind that. I don’t particularly buy fountain pens because I want a flexible nib.

Filling system and Maintenance

Kaweco sent me a couple of pens to review, and in with them are two packs of cartridges in two brand new colours. These are Sunrise Orange and Smokey Grey. I selected a Smokey Grey cartridge for the Black ICE Sport. The cartridges are standard International Short cartridge size.

If you’re looking for a pen with a sophisticated piston filling system, then you might be disappointed with this pocket-sized pen. Kaweco make two different converters that would fit this pen, the Kaweco Squeeze Converter “Sport” and the Kaweco Mini Converter. However, I only used the Smokey Grey cartridge with it for the purposes of this review. I find that both types of Sport converters generally contain less ink than a cartridge, but either one is useful if you want to use bottled ink.

It isn’t a difficult pen to clean out. I just used an ear bulb and pushed some lukewarm water through it to clean out the ink after I had used it. The ink was non staining and it is an attractive addition to the Kaweco range of ink colours for people who like grey inks. I’m not a great fan of grey inks, and found this one a little light for my usual tastes, but I had no performance issues with it.

Cost and Value

I found the Kaweco ICE Sport pen for sale at Hamilton Pen Company for £17.95 in the UK, but black wasn’t one of the colour options in stock. In the US they are available from JetPens for $25 and Pen Chalet for $27. Seitz-Kreuznach, Germany also sells Kaweco pens at reasonable prices via their web-site, Amazon or ebay

Overall Opinion

Kaweco Sport pens have a really good screw cap that prevents their cartridges from drying out, and I have always liked that in these pens. I also like the way they are compact pocket sized pens that extend into good size pens that are easy to write with.

I'm quite a fan of Kaweco Sport pens and have a small collection of them. So, all in all, I really like this pen and I would recommend it especially if you like ICE transparent pens so that you can see the ink colour through the barrel.

Writing sample: Kaweco Smokey Grey ink cartridge

From the Kaweco web-site: Pocket fountain pen with steel nib and iridium tip for ink cartridges. Closed version has a length of only 10.5 cm and open version 13.5 cm. Available in the nib sizes EF / F / M / B / BB - with and without clip.

[Komboloi]

Nice review. Thanks. I find this pen without the optional clip to be a good "front jeans pocket" pen for EDC. Inexpensive and reliable, and sufficiently lightweight to disappear into the pocket. Because of its price point, I don't worry about it scuffling around with keys or coins. With a bit of silicone grease, it eyedroppers well too. For quick notes, I can write with it unposted, but as you say in your review, posted it's just a normal-size pen, and like you I normally write with my pens unposted.

[bobje]

Chrissy, I didn't realize that the Ice Sport was available in black. Nice photographs, dramatically lit, and I really like the macro shots. Thank you for investing your time in this review.

[DaveT]

Nice review!

 

I agree with you about cleaning the pen. All of the Ice Sports and Classic sports I have used benefited greatly with a simple cleaning. Hard starts and ink starvation issues were resolved for me after I cleaned the pen.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write this review.

[Chrissy]

Nice review. Thanks. I find this pen without the optional clip to be a good "front jeans pocket" pen for EDC. Inexpensive and reliable, and sufficiently lightweight to disappear into the pocket. Because of its price point, I don't worry about it scuffling around with keys or coins. With a bit of silicone grease, it eyedroppers well too. For quick notes, I can write with it unposted, but as you say in your review, posted it's just a normal-size pen, and like you I normally write with my pens unposted.

 

Thank you, and you're welcome. Yes, I agree that it's a pen that you don't need to worry about it scuffing around with keys or coins. However, I do still keep a couple of Kaweco Sport pens in my Montblanc Boheme pen case. It helps me to find them easily in my bottomless pit that's called a bag.

 

Chrissy, I didn't realize that the Ice Sport was available in black. Nice photographs, dramatically lit, and I really like the macro shots. Thank you for investing your time in this review.

 

Thank you, and you're welcome Bob. This review has been a while coming! It was on the Kaweco 'novelties' page when they sent it to me, but now I assume it's just part of their Sport range. I must admit that I haven't seen it in stock everywhere that sells Kaweco Sport pens though.

 

Nice review!

 

I agree with you about cleaning the pen. All of the Ice Sports and Classic sports I have used benefited greatly with a simple cleaning. Hard starts and ink starvation issues were resolved for me after I cleaned the pen.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write this review.

 

Thank you and you're welcome. I should have thought about cleaning it out before I fitted the cartridge.

[Bluey]

Nice review. Interesting design of pen and looks like it would make a great eyedropper.

 

Unusually, I found this pen to be difficult to start and a dry writer when I first fitted the Smokey Grey cartridge. I had to remove the cartridge again, and clean out the pen before reinserting the cartridge and trying again. it performed much better after I had cleaned it out. Maybe there were some remains of machine oil that stopped the flow of ink before I cleaned it out.

Yep, always clean every pen when you first get it, otherwise you'll get flow issues either right away or later on.

Edited January 30, 2017 by Bluey

[Chrissy]

Nice review. Interesting design of pen and looks like it would make a great eyedropper.

 

Yep, always clean every pen when you first get it, otherwise you'll get flow issues either right away or later on.

 

Thank you. You're welcome. I did try it briefly as an eyedropper.

[Bluey]

 

I did try it briefly as an eyedropper.

Oh did it not work out well then? It would look pretty good with all the ink slashing about, like a TWSBI.

[ppdiaporama]

Nice review ... I recently purchase a raw Al-Sport and find myself using it day after day ... I love the fact that i can carry it in my pockets.

 

I originally purchased mine with a medium nib ... it's a good writer. Smooth and wet. I went back and purchased three more nibs. The 1.1 has start up issues and quickly runs dry ... I've been slowly adjusting the tines and it's getting pretty good ... actually, too wet now. The double broad has also been a disappointment, aside from startup issues, I struggle to write a whole sentence. I haven't taken the time to tinker with it yet. The last nib that I bought, a fine, has been as good as the medium

[JasonChao]

Kaweco ICE Sport Black is indeed beautiful. I have Kaweco Sports, will buy this Fountain Pen too.

Thank you for this wonderful review.

[Chrissy]

Oh did it not work out well then? It would look pretty good with all the ink slashing about, like a TWSBI.

 

Oh yes, it worked and I could see the ink inside. I just preferred to test it with a cartridge.

[Chrissy]

Nice review ... I recently purchase a raw Al-Sport and find myself using it day after day ... I love the fact that i can carry it in my pockets.

 

I originally purchased mine with a medium nib ... it's a good writer. Smooth and wet. I went back and purchased three more nibs. The 1.1 has start up issues and quickly runs dry ... I've been slowly adjusting the tines and it's getting pretty good ... actually, too wet now. The double broad has also been a disappointment, aside from startup issues, I struggle to write a whole sentence. I haven't taken the time to tinker with it yet. The last nib that I bought, a fine, has been as good as the medium

Thank you. You're welcome. I only had to flush my pen with warm soapy water, then rinse it, before it worked properly.

 

 

Kaweco ICE Sport Black is indeed beautiful. I have Kaweco Sports, will buy this Fountain Pen too.

Thank you for this wonderful review.

 

Thank you. You're welcome. I hope you enjoy it.