Detailed Kaweco Calligraphy Pen Set Review

If you’re looking for a starter calligraphy set, my Kaweco calligraphy pen set review might be helpful. 

A calligraphy set includes multiple pens or at least multiple stub or italic nibs. All in all, this allows you to practice your handwriting or learn new fonts. 

Based on the popular Kaweco Sport fountain pen, the Kaweco calligraphy set comes in a beautiful metal tin with a clear window. First, one of the positive aspects of this calligraphy set is its the presentation box. Overall, it is a really nice presentation box that is also more durable than other boxes used by other brands.

My Kaweco Calligraphy Pen Set Review: The Basics

This Kaweco calligraphy pen set includes four stub nibs and their respective sections. With this set, you get a 1.1mm, a 1.5mm, a 1.9mm, and a 2.3mm stub nibs.

Kaweco decided to include 3 plastic caps to protect the nibs and feeds when you’re not using them. At this point, I have to confess that I personally don’t find them very useful. The goal of these caps is to avoid that your nibs dry out if you have a cartridge inserted on them. Provided that I didn’t test this feature, I believe it doesn’t work well. This cap has a plastic feel like a little rubber and it shouldn’t prevent evaporation.

Finally, this set also comes two sets of 6 black cartridges. These are small international sizes cartridges that work well on the Kaweco sport fountain pen.

As I already mentioned, the base pen used in this set is the fantastic Kaweco Classic Sport fountain pen. Although you may not be familiar with this pen, this is an amazing compact fountain pen. Prior to the fact that it is made entirely of plastic, this is a sturdy little pen that due to its smart design is both portable and functional. That’s why this is one of the most popular compact pocket pens. 

Getting Into Details

The Kaweco Classic Sport fountain pen is a simple and practical pen. Firstly you might notice that this fountain pen has no trim. However, you can add one as an add on if you want to. In any case, this pen won’t roll out of your desk without a trim due to its octagonal shape. 

The only metal details you find in this pen are the name on the barrel and the Kaweco logo that you can find at the top of the cap.

The Kaweco Classic Sport features a sturdy plastic body. However, this is not the kind of plastic you sometimes get on cheap pens. This is a slightly thicker and stronger type of plastic that assures a resistant and durable pen.

The cap used in this model is a screw-on cap and is also postable. For those with larger hands, using the pen posted is actually much more comfortable. 

For the most part, this pen may appear cheap at a first glance considering it is made of plastic. Even the lack of the metallic trim might be considered minimalist by some and a lack of a common feature by others. However, when you try a Kaweco sport fountain pen, even the plastic version, it’s easy to understand why these pens are so famous and popular. 

There’s also a Steel Kaweco Sport fountain pen in the market, but that one is much more expensive. As a side note, the nibs you get in this Kaweco calligraphy set can be used on your Kaweco Sport fountain pens.

The Stainless Steel Nibs

The nibs in this calligraphy set are stainless steel nibs. They’re smooth and have the Kaweco logo stamped on them. At this price level, no one could expect gold nibs. Besides, the most important thing is these nibs are smooth on most types of papers. 

One of the great things about this set, and most calligraphy sets, is that you can easily replace a nib, and get a completely different use out of the same fountain pen. 

These Kaweco calligraphy nibs perform well, especially the 1.1 and the 1.5mm stubs. The 1.9mm and the 2.3mm are larger and sometimes they take a little while to start writing. Other times, they generate some skipping. 

It’s quite normal that you decrease your writing speed when you’re using a larger nib. But, the larger Kaweco nibs don’t work as well as the Pilot Parallel or the Lamy Safari calligraphy pens. The nibs appear to be perfect, but the feeds don’t seem to be able to assure enough ink flow for the larger Kaweco stub nibs.

This is definitely a negative aspect of this calligraphy set. However, I found that by keeping these nibs in tip-top condition and clean them with pen flush between each ink change, helped a lot. If I only use water to clean the nibs, I get issues with them. When I use the pen flush, the first start on the 2.3mm stub nib still takes time. But then I don’t usually get any skipping or any other problems. 

While I love all of these 4 nibs, the two larger ones are below average when compared with the competitors. After all, if you don’t keep them spotless, you’ll find that out really soon.

Comfort And Performance

If you ever used a Kaweco Classic Sport fountain pen, you know exactly how this pen behaves. Even though the nibs are larger than the ones you get on a regular Sport, the comfort remains the same. This is a great little pen, and the most comfortable pocket pen I used so far. 

I have large hands and can use this pen unposted if I have to. But that wouldn’t really be that comfortable. I always write with the cap posted for long periods of time and never had any fatigue when using my Kaweco Sport. This is a lightweight pen that glides well across the paper. No matter what nib you use, you’ll be able to practice your calligraphy effortlessly.

The larger the nib you are using, the slower you need to write to avoid skipping. That’s particularly true on the 2.3mm stub nib. However, in the 1.1mm and the 1.5mm, I never got any kind of skipping even on fast writing.

Kaweco Calligraphy Set For Everyday Writing?

The reality is that most calligraphy sets aren’t that great for everyday writers. Albeit, this Kaweco is a great pen to use every day and it is clearly an exception to the rule. While the 2.3mm nib isn’t practical for everyday writing, the 1.1mm is. Overall, unless you have a small handwriting, you can use a 1.1mm stub on most occasions.

This is an amazing little pen that you can use on a regular day. Although, you can simply transform it into a full sized pen because of its smart cap design. You just need to add the cap.

The plastic barrel is sturdy and won’t crack easily. This is an amazing pen to convert into an eyedropper. Furthermore, these nibs can use so much ink. This way, converting this Kaweco Sport into an eyedropper allows you to write for much longer.

Kaweco Calligraphy Pen Set Review: The Pros

• Firstly you get 4 calligraphy nibs: 1.1mm, 1.5mm, 1.9mm, and 2.3mm stub nibs.
• Interchangeable nib units makes this set cheaper than if you had 4 complete pens.
• Everything you need to get started with calligraphy in a beautiful traditional metal tin.
• All the 4 nibs are smooth and provide a good writing experience.
• Excellent quality and nice value from a reputable brand.
• Consistent ink flow (on the 1.1mm and 1.5mm nibs).
• Small pocket size fountain pen, with the performance of a full-size pen.
• Finally, an Eyedropper conversion turns this into a great pen with large ink capacity.

Kaweco Calligraphy Pen Set Review: The Cons

• The protective nib covers are a good idea. However, I don’t find them that effective and are easy to lose.
• The larger 1.9mm and 2.3mm stub nibs can have problems starting up and on assuring the right ink flow. It’s necessary to write slowly and to keep them perfectly cleaned between ink changes. 
• A calligraphy set version with an aluminum or steel barrel would be welcome.
• There’s no converter included, besides that, this pen can only take mini Kaweco converters.

Would I Buy This Kaweco Calligraphy Set Once Again?

I would. As I showed in this Kaweco Calligraphy Pen Set review, the performance of the larger nibs is the main con. Especially the 2.3mm stub nib. Obviously, out of the 4 nibs, that one is the one I use less often.

I do find Lamy calligraphy nibs pretty comparable with these ones. Regardless, with this set, I got 4 calligraphy nibs at once in a beautiful presentation box.

In my opinion, there’s a nice value here considering the quality of the set in addition to the premium brand. However, this set is not a bargain either. Basically, you can get a similar set from Lamy (with a Lamy Safari and multiple replacement nibs) at the same price level.

The truth is that it all depends on your preference and your own collection. For me, this was my first Kaweco Sport and this set brought me some extra value. Surprisingly, I got a great little pen for everyday use besides the actual calligraphy set.

Hope my Kaweco calligraphy pen set review helps you decide if this is the right calligraphy set for you.

Fountain Pen Ink Used in this Review 

The ink that I used in this Kaweco calligraphy pen set review was InexPens Purple.

It’s a well-behaved ink even on copy paper, and one of my favorite colors of late.  

Technical Specs: