Pen Review: Kaweco Skyline Sport

April 15, 2015 by Lori Beck in Pen Review

Kaweco Skyline Sport (Grey) EF
Ink: Graf von Faber-Castell Stone Grey
Paper: Rhodia Dotpad 80gsm
Pros: Nib, color, weight, portability, design
Cons: Few converter options, almost too light, very small for some, no Kaweco tin :(

The first time I saw the Kaweco Sport pens, I thought they were less than beautiful. I didn't get the giant octagonal cap especially. But after hearing so many people rave about their Kawecos, my interest was piqued. The one thing that was stopping me was the gold-plated nib and trim on the Classic Sports. I am not a fan at all of gold furniture on anything, especially pens. When I discovered the Skyline Sport had been released with rhodium-plated trim and in a grey color, I had to get one to try out.

When I received my Skyline, the first thing I noticed was that it didn't come in the cool Kaweco tins. I had thought that all of the Kaweco Sports came in one of the tins, but the Goulets let me know that only the AL-Sport comes in it now. I was lucky to have a Twitter follower offer to send me one of his extras, which speaks to just how amazing the pen community is.

As you may know, the Kaweco pens are very small, and because of that, they do not fit a standard international converter. There are a few converters out there that will work, including Kaweco's squeeze converter and the Monteverde Mini Converter. Not many people care for aerometric converters, myself included, and I've read mixed reviews on how well the Monteverde Mini Converter fits in this pen. Luckily, I stumbled across one of SBREBrown's videos on a Kaweco Sport, and he had been sent the Templar Mini Converter. I'm intrigued by this little thing, so I may end up picking one up - if I do, I'll be sure to review it! For now, I chose to pick up some standard international short cartridges to try out. Being that I love grey ink and this is a grey pen, I chose Graf von Faber-Castell Stone Grey. Spoiler alert: I LOVE THIS INK. Review to follow.

Kaweco is a German brand, and have German nibs on their pens - so they run close to what a Lamy nib size would be. I chose the EF because of this, and I was not disappointed. I always worry that an EF will write scratchy out of the box, but this one was quite smooth. The rhodium plating looks very sharp, and I love how the Kaweco logo is stamped into the nib. I'm not sure why I'm drawn to their logo, but I really love that thing. They included a sticker in the box with the pen, and it now has a place on the front of my Macbook Pro.

The pen is very lightweight which adds to the portability aspect, though some would say it feels kind of cheap. Honestly, I just don't get the cheap vibe from this pen. Looking at pictures online, you would think that it's just a cheap plastic pen, but I'm very impressed with the craftsmanship and the quality. For the price, it really can't be beat. I love the grey color, and the finial with the Kaweco logo on it is a nice touch.

The pen when capped can very easily fit into the palm of your hand. For some, writing with it unposted is impossible, but posted, the pen's weight is very balanced. I hardly ever post my pen, but this one doesn't change in balance at all and is actually more comfortable for longer writing sessions.

I am very happy with this pen. If you've been debating getting one, trust me, you need to do it. It writes like a dream, never skips or hard starts and is a great pocket pen. The Skyline Sport is available in 3 colors, Black, Grey & Mint. The Mint and Grey are both new colors to the Sport line and the pen community are going crazy for both of them. You can pick them up at Goulet or a similar retailer for $25-$27 (for some reason JetPens has the EF listed at $27 and the others at $25).

Nib Tuning by Pendleton Brown

April 03, 2015 by Lori Beck in Pen Review

After hearing tons of people rave online about how awesome their Lamy 2000s were, I decided that would have to be my next big pen purchase. So I grabbed one from Goulet Pens and excitedly inked it up only to find, like many people, that my nib was horribly scratchy. In addition to the scratchiness my EF nib was writing more like a M - very bold for my taste. I debated sending it back to Goulet, but knowing that most Lamy 2000 EF nibs have these types of issues, I knew that would likely result in a new EF with the same problem. So I decided to look into some nibmeisters.

Brad Dowdy over at The Pen Addict had good success with his 2000 from Mike Masuyama. I shot Mike an email and he let me know that he was about 11 weeks backlogged. As much as I wanted to have my pen worked on by him, I just didn't want to wait that long. I considered Richard Binder as well, but I'd heard that "Binderized" nibs were notoriously overly wet and wider than what they should be, so that scared me off a little. Then I remembered Pendleton Brown's name being mentioned on some of the Goulet Q&A videos, so I went over to his website and saw tons of great information on his services and pricing. I shot him an email and had a response in a couple of hours.

Pendleton explained that the Lamy 2000 EF nib has so little tipping on it because the iridium is more expensive than gold right now. In his words, "they are practically 'painting' the F and EF nibs with 'iridium' right now." Despite that, Pendleton was confident he could get my nib working much better; so I dropped it in the mail to him and requested that he put it in the expedited queue.

Just a few days later, I had an email in my inbox from PB letting me know my pen was finished. He sent some awesome pictures of him writing with it, all adorned with the distinct PB smiley faces.

I PayPal'd him my payment and it was in my hands two days later. I opened up my pen, gave it a quick cleaning, and loaded it up with Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldgrun. The first stroke on the page was like using a whole new pen - the overly wet, bold line was now a nice EF/F line, and the scratchiness was better.

Though the scratchiness is markedly better, there is still some "tooth" to it. I mentioned this to PB and he replied that light force is best when using the Lamy EF & F nibs. I admittedly have a fairly heavy hand when I write, though I don't feel like I push down like I would with a gel pen. I also noticed that the act of writing sometimes caused the nib tines to misalign - I asked PB if that is a common thing with these Lamy nibs, and he said he thought that the nib could be sliding around as I write and that he could fix it free of charge if needed. In all honesty, I was not ready to send my new pen back off to be worked on again - I've been dying to use it all week. It's also not as bad as I'm probably making it sound as I write this - it's still a very great writing pen, and not at all a displeasure to use. So I plan on using it for a while and if I have any further issues with it, I'll drop it back in the mail to PB. Despite the headache this pen has caused me up front, I still consider it my 2nd favorite pen, next to my Pilot Custom 74. Keep an eye out for a full review soon!

All in all, I am very happy with Pendleton's service - he is very professional, realistic, informative and always took the time to wish me a good week or a blessed day. I will most certainly utilize him in the future for nib work. His prices are very reasonable - $45 for general smoothing/adjustment, and an additional $20 to expedite.

Pen Review: TWSBI Mini

April 01, 2015 by Lori Beck in Pen Review

Pros: Awesome design; high ink capacity; screw to post; portable/pocketable; comes with wrench for disassembly and silicon grease
Cons: EF nib was dry for my taste

Admittedly, I am a fan of "modern-looking" pens. TWSBI definitely fits that description. Their packaging is widely considered "Apple-like" with its white base and clear lid with the pen suspended on clear stands. The pen itself is very unique, as most TWSBI pens are. It is essentially the tiny version of the TWSBI 540 and 580. The "Diamond" name assigned to the 540/580 also fits this pen, though from what I can tell they don't market this as the "TWSBI Diamond Mini."

I love the TWSBI logo

I chose the EF nib for my Mini based on indications from others that the TWSBI nibs are around the same size as Lamy nibs. My Lamy F nib was VERY bold for a F, so I assumed the EF would be perfect. However, it wrote incredibly dry, even for an EF. I ran a brass sheet through the tines which didn't seem to help. I looked up a video on TWSBI's YouTube page which showed them squeezing the fins on the nib to widen the nib slit. I did that, and it got better, but was still not quite we enough for my taste. Next, I went over to Stephen Brown's YouTube page (SBREBrown) and watched his video on doing a waverly bend on a nib to make it write wetter. That did the trick. My boyfriend bought a TWSBI Mini with a F nib, and in comparison, my slightly waverly EF writes identical to his F. So ultimately, I think I just undershot the nib size for my taste.

Aside from those issues, the nib itself is buttery smooth. TWSBI's quality always impresses me, especially for the price. The piston filling mechanism is very nice, and allows for a very large ink capacity. What's great about TWSBI is they give you the tools you need to take your pen apart and do your own maintenance on it; underneath the Apple-esque packaging you'll find a TWSBI wrench and a tiny bottle of a fairly liquid-y silicon grease to grease up the piston ring. One other great feature is that the cap screws to post, unlike the 540/580. I normally don't post my pens, but with the mini the small size and the perfect balance of the pen posted lends itself to posting.

At $50 from Goulet, or $55 shipped from TWSBI's Amazon page, you can't afford not to grab this awesome pocket pen.

Pen Review: Pilot Metropolitan

March 19, 2015 by Lori Beck in Pen Review

Ink: Noodler's Nightshade
Paper: Rhodia dotpad 80gsm
Pros: Inexpensive, comes with a converter, weighted well, SMOOTH nib, several color options
Cons: Grip is a tad thin

The Pilot Metropolitan has become a household name in the pen world. At $15 including a converter, you would wonder what the catch is. Really, there is none. I would venture to say this is one of the best, if not THE best fountain pen for newbies.

The Metro is not at all cheap feeling; the barrel is made of brass, giving it a great weight and balance in the hand, unlike nearly every sub-$20 pen. That is not even the best part of the Metro; what will surprise you most is the nib. This nib is buttery smooth. You'll be hard pressed to find a nib this smooth on a sub-$30 pen. In fact, I own some fairly expensive pens that aren't nearly this smooth. The medium nib compares well to most 0.7mm gel pens - a Japanese compares to a German fine like what you would find on a Lamy.

Some folks have an issue with the grip section of the Metro. It is a little thin for long writing sessions, but for me that is easily overlooked. I use the pen for more of a workhorse pen that I can throw in a bag, and don't tend to write long sessions with it.

All in all, the Metro is a must-have for fountain pen fans. For veterans it's a great throw around workhorse pen, and for beginners it's a low cost, high quality introduction to fountain pens.

Note - if you don't care for Pilot's "cleaning converter" that comes with this pen - $5 will get you their Con-50 twist converter, which I like much better. Also, if you like a stub nib, the Pilot Plumix stub nib will fit the Metropolitan.