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Kaweco Al Sport Ef Nib Review


MilanKov

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Kaweco Al sport stonewashed EF nib

 

My first review here so please be gentle. I always liked fountain pens and I have been using mine Sheaffer VFM for years. And last summer I was looking at it and decided that my Sheaffer is full of scratches and the pen was loosing bit of posses, so I have decided to upgrade to my first pen to something else. After long lurk around I have found an ideal pen for my needs of note taking which combined durable metal body, portability and options of nibs. The price was bit steeper roughly 76 USD with tax.

 

The pen came in a lovely tin that can serve as a pen case for two writing instruments of Sport line and spare cartridges. The tin contained one stonewashed pen with EF nib and it also contained one proprietary cartridge with blue ink.

 

fpn_1524568435__foto_1.jpg

 

Packaging 9/10

 

Now the pen by itself is really sturdy lightweight. The cap looks massive in comparison with the whole pen but when you post it balances the pen nicely. Writing unposted more than few lines is pain as the pen by itself is just too short. I have medium sized hands with thin fingers and the pen fits in the hand just right but compared with my Sheaffer or Pilot CH92 the grip section seems thick but it is comfortable though it is bit short so sometimes the cap threads can get in the way but as they are fine they do not have any sharp edges so there is no danger in holding the pen by the threads.

 

Construction 8/10

 

The nib performs well it is stiff and on a dry side , it works well with wetter inks, if you let it open for some time the pen is prone for hard starts. Now while the nib says that it is EF the line is little bit thicker then my Sheaffers F line. Writing in reverse hold is impossible with this nib. The nib in short was quite a disappointment.

 

Nib 6/10

 

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This pen is for international short cartridges. With a pen with such a short barrel it is not surprising that Kaweco offers two converters for this pen, squeeze and piston. The squeeze converter just from looks of it just no. The piston looked interesting so I bought it and in short you will do better, if you reuse cartridge with an ink of your choice. The piston converter is small officially holds 0.4 ml of ink. But you cannot fill it fully as the piston is capable to fill barely half of the converter and it won’t fit in the Al sport fully extended so you have to keep the piston to ¾ of its capacity that leaves you with an amount of 0.3ml of ink in converter or you will face leakage. You also cannot convert this pen to an eyedropper because of the metal barrel.

 

Filling system 5/10

 

fpn_1524568598__foto_3.jpg

 

All in all this pen is great EDC pen, light and easy to carry around with your notebook, but the nib was bit of a let down I was expecting bit thinner line, but it writes well and the only real complaint I have is the filling system as I do think that Kaweco could make much better job with converters for this pen, but so far this is really cartridge only pen.

 

All in all 7/10

 

​(For those curious about the Czech pangram it roughly says: So lets the terrible tones of the devils playing the sinful saxophones fill the hall with waltz, tango and quickstep.)

 

With regards Milan

Edited by MilanKov

If you win over your own stupidity then are you winner or loser? In any case it means something good.

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Congratulations on your first review - it captures pretty well the strengths and weaknesses of Kaweco Sports pens as I've experienced them. Nibs tend to write a little on the dry side (though they can be adjusted with some care), and it's hard to find a good converter for such a short pen barrel.

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A nice, spot on review. As for the nib, you might try opening the tines up a bit. This way, it will be wetter and slightly broader but you will atleast enjoy writing with it. To do this, take the pen and slightly press down the nib on a hard surface, preferably glass. This should open up the tines.

Edited by Aditkamath26
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My Kaweco AL Sport is my all day every day carry pen. I love it. Please give the nib/feed some time to settle in. Surface tension is a very subtle thing that greatly influences how wet a pen writes. I find that with new pens, it takes a while to clear out every trace of every substance that was used during production. Use a wet ink such as Waterman Mysterious Blue and write 4 or 5 cartridges empty.

 

One thing I found with my AL Sport and also with my Classic Sport (both with F nibs): they prefer non-coated paper. They’re my only pens that actually write _less_ well on Rhodia.

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Please give the nib/feed some time to settle in. Surface tension is a very subtle thing that greatly influences how wet a pen writes. I find that with new pens, it takes a while to clear out every trace of every substance that was used during production. Use a wet ink such as Waterman Mysterious Blue and write 4 or 5 cartridges empty.

This.

 

I have purchased 2 Sports with 2 extra nibs, from EF to M (one of them F 060 size 5 from Bock). They (nibs) are all horribly executed, slits misaligned, b-bottoms, uneven surface of the nib upper (looks like it has been straitened after a drop or a washing machine cycle), set over the feed crooked which causes one of the tines to be misaligned (depending on which side the nib is crooked). After some loupe-tea-and-patience time I managed to bring all in descent working order, but they would still not start right away and write hesitantly, even after washing w distilled water and drop of Dawn. As the post above states correctly, I writing with the pen with a minimum of 2-3 cartridges (5 even better) and enduring the horrors of the nibs, will properly flush the pen nib and feed and bring the pen to the descent starting point for tweaking. I would avoid doing anything else to the nib before this, other than aligning it correctly over the feed, which will straighten most of the tines misalignment errors. My M Kaweco nib is one of the smoothest and wettest (not always a good thing) of all the pens I have, and maybe I should have skipped flattening the baby bottom of my plastic Sport before writing the several cartridges, the flow improved immensely, and it writes very well now.

 

In hindsight, brass Al was maybe not my best choice, too heavy. Aluminum is lighter and better overall experience (looks excluded (for my taste, at least)). Plastics are way too light and give off a cheap pen vibe...

 

OP, thanks for the review, enjoy your pen!

life is nothing if you're not obsessed.

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Good review, you might want to check the titles of your sections, which seem to come after the text... My Checkered Sport writes well with an F nib (careful, it bends easily), after many attempts I managed to get the latest piston converter to work: take it apart, use silicone grease, put it back together. It's still an ordeal to fill as there isn't much grip to keep the entire section and converter from diving into the ink bottle, but it can be done and it doesn't leak from the plunger anymore.

 

Too much hassle, it's only a couple of centimeters shorter than a Pelikan m200. It was a gift, otherwise I would stay clear from Kaweco Sports.

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

 

B. Russell

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks for the review.

I really like the kaweco al sport designs, especially the washed out blue and have been considering it for months.

But dry nibs are a no-no for me. Guess will have to pass on this one.

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It's a pity that this pen have dry nibs, meaning that I would have to pass on this pen. A shame really

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I have 4 Kaweco Sport nibs, none of them is dry. All are very good, wet writers. They just need a bit of flushing and on several of them I had to eliminate a slight baby bottom problem, but after that the performance is excellent.

Edited by superfly

life is nothing if you're not obsessed.

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I have 4 Kaweco Sport nibs, none of them is dry. All are very good, wet writers. They just need a bit of flushing and on several of them I had to eliminate a slight baby bottom problem, but after that the performance is excellent.

 

This has been my experience as well. I've had 8 standard Kaweco nibs over the years only one has been a problem. The four that I still have* are all great.

 

* I love the form factor of the Kawecos, but they are easy to lose.

Yet another Sarah.

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I love the form factor also, and after various tweaks and an eyedropper conversion, the nib on mine now writes passably but still not as well as the nibs on any of my other pens, including pens costing a fraction of the price.

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