Kaweco Allrounder Fountain Pen Review
The satin blue anodized finish is gorgeous on the Kaweco Allrounder. If looks were everything, this pen is it… but looks aren’t everything are they?
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Kaweco Allrounder Fountain Pen Design
The satin, brushed-finished anodized aluminum finish on the Kaweco Allrounder is gorgeous. I mean, I WANTED to love this pen. Look at it! I don’t have any blue fountain pens that are this nice. The clip is a bit of a necktie shape tapering to a diamond at the end, and there is a wide cap band detailed with ovals and lines engraved in it. The Kaweco domed logo is on the top of the cap and matches other Kaweco fountain pens I’ve used.
Specs:
Steel Nib
Nib Width:
Nib Length:
Piston Cartridge/Converter Fill: Cartridge
Pull/Screw Cap: Screw
Capped Length:
Posted Length:
Uncapped Length:
Mid-Grip Width:
Cap Band Width:
Total Weight:
Cap Weight:
Kaweco Allrounder on a handmade journal
This is a beautiful blue fountain pen. The satin finish makes you want to use it. The shade of blue lends a feeling of fun and frivolity to your writing instead of a pure-business navy blue finish. This pen dares you to grab it and write.
Onto the nib, the pen I’m reviewing is in a fine nib. If you’re going to buy this pen, I’d recommend at least the medium nib. The fine is an okay choice but it’s a medium to dry writer, and I believe a medium nib would deliver enough ink to make the experience a little more luxurious to match its finish. 
This is a cartridge fill pen, and the writing sample is in Kaweco blue ink designed to pair with this pen.
How Does The Nib Perform?
WRITING SAMPLE
This is where my emotional connection to this pen ends. It’s so attractive, I just want to love it, but I don’t. The writing experience is just meh. I mean, for over a hundred bucks, you should be getting a piece of writing royalty. Instead, you get an average, so-so experience peppered with some thicker and thinner lines as you write. The upstrokes are thinner and down-strokes a bit thicker.
Usually, I’d be extremely happy with this expressiveness in my writing, and I am, but it’s not due to the nib flexing that you’re getting this character, you’re getting it because the ink delivery is a bit inconsistent. It doesn’t skip or hard-start, but the nib is nail-hard so the down vs. upstrokes should be fairly even. Instead the line variation comes from more ink flowing on the down-strokes.
I much prefer the Kaweco AL Sport it’s nib is also made by kaweco but it’s cheaper and the overall feel of the nib and pen combo is utilitarian and like a garage find, where you’d expect this pen to deliver more luxury and beauty when you write and the nib just doesn’t stack up.
Now, this would be a great fountain pen to do a nib swap or have the nib completely replaced with another assembly that is more luxurious to match the great finish. But I don’t want to do that much work on a pen that costs more than one hundred bucks.
The Cap – Screw/Pull/Post and What That Means
The screw off cap comes off in 1.5 rotations and is a good weight. When you post it on the back of the pen, it grabs only a small section of the backside of the pen, elongating it to an almost awkwardly long size.
I didn’t experience any hand fatigue, it’s not THAT off-balance, but it doesn’t feel like a luxury design either.
It’s a bit top-heavy when posted.
Having said that, the cap stays put when you post it, no chattering, no falling off, it’s there until you remove it.
Who is the Kaweco Allrounder Good For? Is It a Good Overall Value?
Earlier I asked you, “If looks were everything, this pen is it… but looks aren’t everything are they?”
Well, if they were this would be your ideal pen. But just like in dating, looks are just the starting point before you commit to a long-term relationship with a pen or a person.
This is a looker, but it won’t give you the warm, soft, sink-into-your-recliner-and-write-a-novel feeling that you’d expect from such a beautiful pen at a higher price point.
If you like to swap out innards, or tweak nibs on your own, this could be your dream pen. If you want out of the box pleasure and a feeling that this pen is worthy of your inner Faulkner, don’t bother. You’ll be disappointed.
Utilitarian feeling, YES.
Luxury, pomp and circumstance? Meh.
For a hundred bucks, take a look at some of my other favorites.
But it’s your call.
Let’s face it, sometimes you just want a looker and you don’t care if she can recite Shakespeare or make your heart melt like Keats.
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