One of my favorite memories from childhood was browsing the eclectic mix of items carried by the old school tobacco shops in my local malls. While I was too young to appreciate the tobacco offerings, these destinations often packed their retail spaces with what I’ve come to call manly accoutrements — knives, shaving products, Laurel & Hardy statues, Elvis on Velvet paintings, coins and writing instruments I never knew existed.
Almost a half a century later, I’m the one that’s making the decision about what product mix one of these tobacco shops carry. I’ve found that my choices are highly influenced by what fascinated me all those years ago as much as what I think my core customer base will find interest in as well.
Why Kaweco?
Having done so much writing over the years, my hand has literally been worn out — I have lost most of the feeling in my right hand and what isn’t numb regularly suffers from cramping and shooting pain any time I write. (They don’t tell you about this when you’re a kid!)
On a whim, I gave a fountain pen a try. While the numbness in my hand will never go away, I’ve found that the cramping and pain is nonexistent when I write with a fountain pen. The best I can figure is that the structure and nature of writing with a fountain pen nib demands that I hold the instrument in a looser, more fluid manner. That difference in grip has made putting ink to paper much more pleasant for me.
As I shopped for fountain pens, I found myself thinking about those tobacco shop display cases I found so interesting in my youth. As a sense of nostalgia set in, I was drawn to look for pens that had history behind them. While I could have settled on luxury fountain pens from ST Dupont or Montblanc, I also remembered the thousands of pens I had lost over my adult lifetime and practicality became a huge filter through which I was making my decisions. I found myself drawn to pens from Kaweco of Germany.
Being three quarters German (and a quarter Irish) that nostalgia that lingered in my head was satiated. Kaweco has been producing fountain pens since 1883 in Heidelberg Germany. Additionally, Kaweco writing instruments have a strong, almost cult-like, worldwide following with consistently great reviews. Except for one or two models, the Kaweco line of fountain pens are “accessibly affordable” aka, if you lose one, you won’t have to decide whether to make a car payment or buy a new pen. I personally have focused on Kaweco’s flagship Sport model, so I figure that if I like it, others will too. And, finally, I wanted to add a pen line that wasn’t easy to find in other retail shops in the Annapolis area. I wanted a line that stood out for all the right reasons.
Kaweco Sport Line
While I’ve mostly talked about fountain pens to this point, I know that they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Kaweco’s Sport line of writing instruments are mostly available in fountain, gel, ballpoint and even a couple different pencil styles. In the fountain pen category, Kaweco typically offers Sport pens in FIVE different nib sizes — Extra Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad and Double Broad — with no adjustment or customization needed.
And, as if this robust variety of models isn’t enough, Kaweco Sport pens are available in a rainbow of standard and special edition body colors as well as several standard and special edition body materials — plastic , aluminum, steel, brass and sterling silver, etc…
While you can use one of the thousands of available fountain pen inks with Kaweco’s converter, Kaweco has ready-made cartridges in TEN different ink colors, giving you yet another way to truly personalize your pen.
Because of all the variables that can go into selecting a Kaweco Sport writing instrument, they have become both highly personal and highly collectable.
In Stock & Special Order
I’ve selected a core line of Kaweco Sport writing instruments to keep on hand here at the shop. We have one of each of Kaweco’s TEN Sport instrument models for you to touch, feel and try. What we don’t carry in our local stock, can be quickly ordered from Kaweco’s US distribution center in Michigan.