I like this Kaweco Special Fountain Pen.

Kaweco Special W/Crispy BB Italic

This one is narrow and fun.

I like lots of these Kaweco pens, and this one is super cool.

It’s metal (brass I b’lieve) with a black anodized finish. I picked this up used for fifty bucks or so and it’s a happy purchase.

First things first: it’s knurled near the top of the cap. That is cool as heck. The cap, when removed, threads on to the back of the pen to post. I like that feature, but this pen gets comically long if you do that, so I usually do not.

The next most obvious thing is that this is an octagonal pen. There is no shortage of hexagonal pens, as a quick glance around the rooom will no doubt confirm. You can’t open your mouth to sneeze around my house without somebody coming and cramming a handful or two of hexagonal pens in there, just to have a place to put em.

So the pen will reluctantly roll across the table, especially if the cap and barrel aren’t aligned (then it rolls like a hexadecagonal pen, which is not a thing.)

For this reason it is best to procure and use the lovely and ornate accommodation clip. It clips to any part of the pen, which is a handy feature, especially if you don’t want the clip distracting from the aforementioned knurling featured on the cap.

Despite the pen’s narrow girth, the Special accommodates a regular-sized converter, which is a pretty swell way to keep a pen in ink. Or ink in a pen, rather. Long or short disposable carts would work as well, if you’re into that kind of thing.

On my Special is a chromey steel nib. I like these Kaweco steel nibs; they are inexpensive to purchase. I’ve no compunction about doing weird things to them. This nib’s sporting a quite sharp Cursive Italic that my buddy Henry cut from a double-broad behemoth.

Before its surgery, this nib was a little bit baby’s bottomed (not uncommon with these double broads) but I’ll take that over being old guy-bottomed any day of the week. I don’t even know what that means.

I like:

• The shape and color
• The Teutonic Brutality
• The Knurling

I don’t care for:

• The black finish wearing off the threads a bit

 

Bang for the buck: Prooty Good.

Special out of the box: Depends on how you feel about Octagons

Looks: like an anodized cog from the machine of literacy

Writes: Crispy like pork rinds.