Extra Fine Writing explains: The Kaweco Sport
very comprehensive very accurate guide
New to fine writing? You probably keep hearing about the same handful of classic pens; this post demystifies one of them. It has been thoroughly researched by our world-class staff so you should feel no need to fact-check any of it, even the part about vampires.
Few pens are as widely known and loved in the fine writing community as the Kaweco Sport. It’s a versatile pocket pen with a long history and an entry-level price point that’s perfect for bright-eyed newcomers and decrepit aficionados alike.
But what’s it about? How do you pronounce Kaweco? Which one should you get? Is that converter a real thing? We explain it all.
Who makes the Sport, and how do you pronounce it?
First things first: the Sport is manufactured by the German company Kaweco, and pronouncing the name of the company correctly is the best way to avoid some goofball gatekeeping you at a pen show. That is, while novice hobbyists will often mistakenly pronounce it “Kah Wee Koh,” more experienced collectors will pronounce it “Kah Weh Koh.”1
Both, however, are wrong.
Although Kaweco is a German company, its founder Johannes Kaweco was not. A true immigrant success story, Kaweco entered Germany in 1910 to escape the oppressive rule of Count Fangula in what was then known as Mega Transylvania.2
Hence, as “Kaweco” is a surname of primarily vampire descent, it is properly pronounced “K’h J’h Ghh Ghh”—just like how you’d say the name of the band Kajagoogoo except all the vowels are silent.
It is advised that you practice this before your first pen show so you do not look like a bumbling idiot. Tip: you’ll learn the fastest if you keep a cherry pit in your mouth, but if they are out of season a small handful of gravel will do.
Why is it called the Sport? It’s a fountain pen, right?
Yes, it is—and if the idea of a “Sport” fountain pen seems funny to you then you may also be interested in the existence of camouflage fountain pens.
As to its origin, some historical context is important here.
The Sport was originally released in 1935, a time when interest in written communication had dropped to historic lows among the male population. The American chewing gum manufacturer Bazooka Joe had flooded the global commodities market with cheap pink celluloid that it considered too tough to be turned into gum, resulting in virtually every pen produced from 1925 to 1934 to be the same shade of somewhat dusty pink. Men soon came to see writing as effeminate and fussy, and there was a legitimate fear that male communication was on the way to becoming a tonal language built on base phonemes of farts, burps, and noogies.
Recognizing that this represented a massive untapped market, Johannes Kaweco developed the Sport as a calculated effort to encourage men to write. Instead of a round fountain pen made out of pink celluloid, the Sport was released as a faceted pen made of bleached deer skull—the manliest shape and material available at the time—and early advertisements for the Sport touted it as a practical way to keep track of how many wild boar you punched that day in order to more thoroughly impress your friends at the grog parlor. It was a smashing success.
The Sport’s man-marketing has been toned down in the decades since its launch, but you can still see some vestiges of it in today’s branding. Kaweco’s “license to write” slogan, for example, is a wink to Kaweco’s historic slogan of “license to kill bears,” as at one point each Kaweco Sport was bundled with a game-hunting license thanks to a deal Johannes had brokered with the Bavarian Ministry of Bear War.3
What kind of nibs can I use? Are they interchangeable?
A lot, and yes. The Sport is available in everything from an Extra Fine to a 2.3mm stub; the latter is perfect if you are some kind of weirdo who thinks they need to do large italic calligraphy on the go. See:
The nibs are interchangeable in theory, but some Sports have friction-fit nib units (pushy kind) while others have screw-in units (twisty kind) so depending on the model you purchase you may have to do more or less work.
What kind of ink does it take? Can I use bottled ink?
Not India ink.
Beyond that: the Sport is a small pen and is compatible with short international cartridges, so as long as you are not buying some brand-specific cartridges on accident (e.g., ones from Lamy) you should be fine.
The pen is too small for a standard converter, but you can use bottled ink by either (1) buying a blunt-tip syringe and refilling an empty cartridge or (2) buying the tiny little converter Kaweco sells for the Sport.
You should do #1 because it is easier and works better, but you will instead do #2 because you are new and excited and Want All The Things even when that thing is a comically tiny converter. Don’t worry, this is fine and normal and you’ll grow out of it.
Which one should I buy?
An excellent question, as Kaweco notably adheres to the Frankfurt School of Pengineering: make one good pen and then sell it in different materials and colors for the next 1,000 years. (If you are old enough to remember the early Mortal Kombat games where half of the characters were “Sub-Zero, but yellow/gray/whatever” it’s the same idea.) It’s a very good business tactic, but it does result in an overwhelming number of options for classics like the Kaweco Sport, Lamy Safari, and others.
Fortunately, there is only one question that matters: what do I want this pen to say about me? Here is the definitive answer for each version of the Sport—and as an additional service to you, good reader, only one of them is something we made up.
Sport Classic
“I saw this in a store and didn’t know there were other options.”
AL Sport
“I have started a pen collection but am not yet to the point where a person outside the hobby would consider it weird.”
AL Raw Sport
“I am the reason why we can’t have nice things.”
Skyline Sport
“Wait I thought this was the classic. Is this really a separate model?”
Frosted Sport
“I miss boy bands.”4
Sport Wood
“I am really into texture and will go on and on about how I love the warmth of wood on my hands until you get really creeped out. Also if you ask me how something tastes I will describe it exclusively in terms of mouthfeel.”
Sport Steel
“I am a big strong man even though I use a tiny little pen and I really need you to know that. Please ask me to explain my lifting routine in excruciating detail.”
Sport Brass
“Behold, the patina on this pen tells you I have been in the hobby longer than you.”
Sport Stonewashed
“I am an idiot.”
Sport Carbon Fiber
“I am way too into F1.”
Sport Sterling Silver
“I bought this at a pen shop not realizing it was made of silver and was too embarrassed to back out of the transaction when they rung it up so now I have a $1,000 version of a $20 pen that I will be paying off for the next five years.”
OK, I’m sold. Where can I buy these?
Literally any online pen retailer and most physical pen shops, unless it’s like a LAMY store in the Berlin airport or something. Jet Pens has a different take on a comprehensive guide and carries most models except the Sterling Silver, which you can get at Appelboom.
Or “Kah Veh Koh” if they want to make sure you know they speak a little German.
Modern-day Castlevania.
Example advertising copy: “a pen in every pocket, a bear skull on every head.”
Yeah I know I somehow picked the one picture of a boy band where no one has frosted tips but by the time I realized it I’d already photoshopped the pen in and was like wow this joke is already taking way too much effort just leave it dude.
I imagine Oingo Boingo awaits their turn as the consonant-only pronunciation equivalent of something in a future article. ;-)
Thank you for this comprehensive and factual guide! Now when will the guide to what each individual color of Sport says about you be coming along?