(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.)
