Kaweco Liliput Fireblue Double Broad

January 30, 2018

This is my first Kaweco and I really dont know why I waited so long. Im really happy with this pen even as a daily writer despite the ultra small size.

I went against all better judgement and ordered a double broad nib on a pocket pen and boy am I glad I did! It writes like a very nice stub nib with about a 1mm line width. This may be common knowledge with Kawecos but it was news to me. My only complaint about the nib is that it was on the bleeding edge of babys bottom and actually showed mild hard starts on the first letter. This was easily fixed with a short polish with 4K micromesh and then a few runs on 6k to get rid of the squeakyness. It writes very well after a small amount of work. The cartridge seems to last about as long as it does in a standard stub nib pen so far. I plan to refill it with a syringe of which is extremely easy. I would say even easier than a converter actually.

The Fireblue finish is awesome! Every angle of the pen is interesting. Theres always something new. There is a very high premium paid for it though. Not sure if its worth it to everyone but it does look cool. The Fireblue finish cost me an extra $40 over raw stainless with a deep massdrop discount. I just bought a raw stainless version as well so Ill see how close I can come to Fireblue with a mapp gas torch and some cutting oil. I suppose youre partly paying for the story behind the process with the CEO of Kaweco personally torching each pen and matching the caps to pen bodies. Thats kind of cool and worth the extra cost to me. It adds a little something special to the pen regardless even if I can replicate the finish on a raw stainless pen myself for much less.

The form factor is very convenient. Its super small and makes my Montegrappa Micra look like a full size pen. I can barely use the Liliput unposted. It fits mid web between my thumb and pointer finger. I wear a medium glove for reference. For quick writing it can be used effectively with average sized hands. For anything longer than a few sentences, the pen should be posted for stability. My only gripe here is I wish Kaweco would have not threaded the pen body all the way to the full radius at the top. Theres only one entrance to the threads capping the pen and posting. Many times you need to hunt and peck to post the pen since theres no staging area to align the cap to the body before you get to the threads. Also with only one thread entrance, you will need to rotated the cap almost 360 deg around before it will catch a thread many times, thus rolling off the body. Its a little annoying in a hurry.

Overall this is an extremely unique pen and can perform as well as a full size pen when posted. Its ridiculously small of which is great. You can opt for a double broad/stub nib in basically the smallest fountain pen on the market with just a standard international cartridge?! I salute you Kaweco for making it possible for me to indulge in my insane pen specifications on this one! Its a completely crazy pen in this configuration but just awesome! Im very happy with it and its never dull or boring! Ive been writing with it all week and its not even gotten close to old. The kicker is, I believe the Karas Kustoms K titanium Bock nib will fit this pen. Im going to order a nib and report back. A semi flex pocket pen?!! You got to be kidding me! Thats just a good time right there! No one will see that one coming.