Kaweco AL Sport, Vibrant Violet - A Quick Look

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

This isn’t the first time that the Kaweco AL Sport has been reviewed on The Pen Addict and probably won’t be the last. Jeff wrote a great article about the Light Blue AL Sport and I highly recommend you give it a read because I don’t have much to add that isn’t already there. Here’s a quick run down:

The AL Sport is the aluminum sibling to the Kaweco Sport which is made from resin (the AL is short for aluminum - clever, right?). Being aluminum, it is more durable and about twice the weight of the Sport (.68 oz/19g vs 0.3 oz/8.5g). It comes with a Kaweco blue cartridge, but you can also purchase other accessories including a pocket clip or converter (I prefer the piston converter to the squeeze one and usually use a converter so I can prime the feed if I need to, plus I rarely need/want a cartridge’s worth of ink). This Vibrant Violet AL Sport is a special edition that comes in a metal tin with a specially designed outer box sleeve. The pen is fitted with a gold-colored steel nib, and has “Kaweco Collection Germany” written in gold on the cap. As of this writing, this limited production Vibrant Violet is still available, with an EF, F, M, or B nib size for $90 USD/70 EU.

Aside from the material being aluminum as opposed to resin, the other key difference is the ability to unscrew the nib unit from the AL Sport models. The regular Sport nib housing is often glued to the grip, so you have to pull the nib and feed if you want to swap nibs. With the AL Sport, you simply unscrew the entire nib unit and you’re ready to switch nibs.

Purple pen lovers rejoiced as there were several purple Kawecos that came out this year. The first was the Kaweco Sport, Lavender, which was released earlier in Spring 2021. The other 2021 purple Kaweco was an exclusive Violet Sport for Galen Leather. The Vibrant Violet is the second addition to the Kaweco Collection (the Lavender was the first). The color is a beautiful purple with a bit of magenta tone. It is a darker shade of purple than the AL Sport Lilac, which was a limited edition from a couple of years ago, but a lighter, redder shade than the Galen Violet one, which is also transparent. A bit of trivia on the Lilac Sport: Kaweco incorrectly printed “Kaweco Sport” on the barrel instead of “Kaweco Collection”, prompting some avid fans to collect both versions (I’m not one of them, lol).

Lavender, Lilac, Vibrant Violet, Violet (Galen Leather).

Over the years, there have been reports of quality control issues with Kaweco’s nibs in the Sport/AL Sport lines in terms of nib size consistency as well as quality of writing experience. I am a big Kaweco Sport/AL Sport fan (I always have at least one inked up) and have only had one Sport whose nib made me want to throw it at a wall, but otherwise they’ve been great writers out of the box even if the nib size wasn’t always spot on. I had already bought this pen and had it inked up prior to this pen showing up for review. Mine has a Broad nib and is currently inked with Papier Plume Mardi Gras Indians Purple in a Kaweco mini converter. The review pen has a Medium nib and I’ve chosen to use the same ink and converter to see how it wrote and to compare line widths. The Medium wrote perfectly out of the box. I didn’t flush it prior to use (though I always recommend it as one of the first troubleshooting steps). It gave me a medium line width and was indeed finer than the broad lines. It hasn’t been a big issue for me but I’ve encountered it, the most inconsistent line widths were between EF and F, and F and M. I’ve never mistaken a Broad for a Medium or BB.

Medium vs Broad - yup, they produced different line widths as expected. Neither were too fine nor too wide.

I had a tough time picking matching inks because the purple has some red/pink tones to it and not as much blue as other purple inks. It also depends on the nib size of your pen as well as how dark you want your writing to be.

Robert Osterd Velvet Crush (better in a Medium or Broad nib), Colorverse Project #3 Deep Purple, Papier Plume Mardi Gras Indians Purple, Kala Nostalgia Star Garnet, Diamine Amazing Amethyst (which is a much closer match in person than in the photo), and Akkerman #13 Simplisties Violet.

Writing sample on Clairefontaine Triomphe, 90gsm.

As I’ve mentioned, I am a big Kaweco Sport fan as well as purple pen fan, so when this was announced, it was a no-brainer for me. One of the few drawbacks I have about this pen is its diminutive size. Even though it is postable, it is definitely a pocket pen. So if you don’t like small pens, you’ll probably want to pass on this one. As for me, I think they did a great job on the color and both of the pens worked flawlessly right out of the box. I can’t wait to see what the next Kaweco Collection pen is going to be.

(Thank you to Goldspot Pens for providing this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes. The Broad one was paid for by my own funds.)

Maiora Impronte Oversized Fountain Pen Review

Fountain pen fans weren’t exactly surprised when Italian brand Delta Pen closed up shop a few years ago. You never want to see a beloved brand shut down, but I must say, I am pleased at what I’m seeing so far from the companies that started up in Delta’s wake.

The Delta DNA is clear in both Leonardo Officina Italiana and Maiora Pen offerings. I’ve covered Leonardo ad nauseam in these pages and on the podcast, and it’s time to give Maiora its own due. The Impronte Oversized Posillipo certainly deserves it.

Let’s tackle the Oversized part of the name first. Yes, this is a big pen, but by no means outrageous. As a well-known fan of writing instruments on the smaller side, the Impronte Oversized fits my hand wonderfully.

The key to that is the concave grip section. It’s deeper than what you may find as standard, but what it allows is your fingers to have a proper amount of space between them with a traditional grip. The result is having good writing control for a pen that has a wide barrel.

The barrel itself is beautifully shaped, beginning with a wide center point, and tapering - at different degrees - towards the peaks at the top and bottom. All of the barrel trim matches perfectly with the fun blue green of this Posillipo material.

The Impronte is a cartridge/converter filling pen, with a blind cap on the back of the barrel for that “captured converter” feel it you want to fill the pen without unscrewing the barrel from the middle. I don’t mind this aspect of the design, but I don’t think I’ve ever used this feature in any pen I own.

The #6 JoWo Extra Fine nib was good right out of the box, but I did have to smooth it just a touch to knock off a bit of a “picky” feel when writing. It was fine, but I wanted it smoother, so a couple of swirls around 12000 grit sandpaper fixed it.

If you were to ask me to pick only one between the Maiora Impronte or Leonardo Momento Zero, I wouldn’t be able to. In use, I only have a list of pros for both pens, and no cons for either. They are even priced similarly in that $200 range. Which one looks better to you? That’s the one you should buy.

Maiora vs. Leonardo.

I do have one negative I want to mention, in hopes to turn it to a positive. I like this pen, and I like what Maiora is doing. But it was difficult to get proper, full, and correct details about this product. Most retailers post the marketing copy for the pen received from their distributor. The distributor may have received that from Maiora directly, or written it themselves. Regardless, what I see on many sites is a copy/paste of the first Maiora pen released, down to having that original orange color on product pages for non-orange material pens. Additionally, there is no Maiora Pen website, where I would liked to have read about, well, anything that would give me more information about what is a good product.

As someone who writes and talks about these things, it would make my life easier. Maybe I’m the only one, though. Maiora is doing something cool here, and I’d like to tell their story much better than I can right now.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Gravitas Skittle Fountain Pen Matte Finish Fountain Pen Review

Gravitas Pens is doing some seriously cool stuff. I’ve already reviewed the Skull Pen I impulse-bought after seeing the online shop in one of Brad’s Twitch streams, and now I’m the grateful owner of this Skittle Fountain Pen. Gravitas is such a good name for Ben’s business, because these pens have presence. They have attitude. There’s almost a kind of animas or sentience to them, the way created things sometimes have. They have gravitas. Receiving one feels momentous, and opening the package is an event. And then there’s a rad pen.

This Skittle matte finish definitely lives up to the magic promised by the ambiance of the brand. It is flawlessly rainbow, with each color blending smoothly into the next in transitions that make it look almost like an illusion. The only interruption to the color is a small laser-etched logo at the base of the cap. It’s a super fun color and I love it.

The craftsmanship is also impeccable. The stainless-steel machining is precise and everything is perfectly flush, with smooth joins and easy triple-start threads. At each end of the pen, there’s a small hollow into which is fitted a silicon nitride ball, which protects the points from being damaged.

The one warning I will give about this pen is that it is a beast. It’s very large, comparable to an Opus 88 Omar in size, and is easily the heaviest pen in my collection at 74 grams. If you don’t like heavy pens, you might want to check out some other Gravitas models that also come in this cool finish—or you may fall in love with one of the other colors, or fancy laser-etched designs. I don’t mind a heavy pen as long as it’s well balanced and doesn’t cause fatigue. This one writes so well that it doesn’t wear out my hand when writing, though I wouldn’t use it for a super long writing session. It did fine as my notes pen for an hour-long lecture.

This pen came with a very wet medium nib that writes more like a broad, in my opinion. The bold line surprised me a bit, but it writes very smoothly and I love how it shows ink characteristics. The Gravitas pens come with Jowo #6 nibs, which I have used in many other pens, and I would say this one was out of character for the labeled size. Most of my medium Jowo nibs are true mediums, so I’m guessing this one was either mislabeled or an anomaly. It doesn't bother me, but YMMV. It should also be noted that this nib is interchangeable with other Jowo nibs, so if you already have a favorite nib at home, you can always mix and match.

The pen comes in a vibrant rainbow tube with the Gravitas brand name in Ogham, and includes a converter and a generous six standard international cartridges. It is very reasonably priced at 80 Euros, or about 94 American dollars, and I highly recommend you go get one before Ben figures out he could be charging a lot more for pens of this quality.

I’m an official Gravitas fan, now. I’m sure it won’t be long before my two are joined by more--especially as Ben seems to be rolling out new ideas and finishes faster than I can keep up. If you’re interested, keep an eye on the Instagram page where shop updates are always announced. Just be ready to buy a pen before you look.

(Gravitas Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!