Kaco Edge - Brushed Makrolon

[JollyCynic]

I know I'm extremely late to this party, but just finally got two of these pens, one in EF and one in M to compare them. (I had them thrown in a box of other things I was shipping from China, so got them for $7.50 each, K1 converter included. And they threw in a free red Kaco Pure gel pen.) I can't compare them because I haven't put down the EF since I picked it up.

 

Unpopular opinion: I like the clip. It levers open for me easily pressing on the back, but I might have ape hands. What I really like about it, though, is that when I clip it, it stays tight and straight, with the blade of the clip rigidly forward and looking ... Well, I'd say "sharp" if it weren't called the Edge and I hadn't described the clip already as a blade. (I can see how it would be basically unusable under a seat belt.)

 

I was gun-shy on getting this pen because the only other Chinese Schmidt holder I had was the Moonman M100. The only thing I'm really satisfied with on the M100 is its looks (which, admittedly, are stunning). I can't recognise any shared heritage between the two nibs. I'm willing to accept that I got a bum nib on the M100, but replacing it wouldn't elevate its writing experience enough to make it worth using often. All of which is to say that the EF on the Edge is way nicer than my F on the M100.

 

My annoyance is that the studs that lock it into the cap are positioned exactly where my thumb and forefinger rest on the pen. And twisting the feed and nib wouldn't help, as that'd just put one of them where my middle finger rests, which I'm pretty sure would be unbearable. I never have trouble with threads and rarely with step-downs, but these little studs are going to take some getting used to.

 

I hope I like the M as much. I also need to sort out a faster way to tell them apart without yanking off the cap and inspecting the nib.

Edited January 17, 2019 by JollyCynic

[taike]

[snip]

 

I hope I like the M as much. I also need to sort out a faster way to tell them apart without yanking off the cap and inspecting the nib.

 

LOL. I know the feeling.

[Honeybadgers]

One thing - don't try to twist the nib and feed. They're not designed to be repositioned, the feed has a flat spot locking the nib/feed in place.

 

Most users will get used to the lugs. I find them unintrusive, but I am more of the "adapt your hand to the pen, not adapt the pen to your hand" kind of school.

[truthpil]

Anymore thoughts on how the medium-nibbed version of this pen writes??

 

I'm want to get a Schmidt medium nib unit I can use with others pens, so this seems to be the cheapest way to get one.

[taike]

Anymore thoughts on how the medium-nibbed version of this pen writes??

 

I'm want to get a Schmidt medium nib unit I can use with others pens, so this seems to be the cheapest way to get one.

 

All good. I've switched over largely to the M version of this pen now. The wider line is welcome.

 

So I like it, though not to the point where I'm considering getting aftermarket gold M nibs for my Moonman M100s.

 

Perhaps because the new PenBBS round M nibs fill that role very well.

[truthpil]

 

All good. I've switched over largely to the M version of this pen now. The wider line is welcome.

 

So I like it, though not to the point where I'm considering getting aftermarket gold M nibs for my Moonman M100s.

 

Perhaps because the new PenBBS round M nibs fill that role very well.

 

Good to know! Thanks!

 

I've been unsuccessfully trying to find gold-colored Schmidt nib units for a while. All I could find were the unplated steel ones sold by Jetpens which cost several times more than a whole Edge.

 

An Edge with medium nib may be the pen to break the Chinese New Year purchasing fast in a couple weeks haha.

[Holon]

Anymore thoughts on how the medium-nibbed version of this pen writes??

 

 

I got my edge with the m nib yesterday. The nib is smooth and nice. I can recommend it.

[truthpil]

I got my edge with the m nib yesterday. The nib is smooth and nice. I can recommend it.

Thanks for the recommendation! I've got one in the shopping cart just waiting for the Chinese New Year shipping hiatus to end. Still a week to go.

[truthpil]

Well, I'm going to have to retract my recommendation of this pen.

 

After sitting in the pen case for a couple months, last night I decided to ink it up.
This morning I noticed a long crack going down half of the cap so you could see the metal clutch inside it! The pen has never been dropped and rarely used, so this is quite a testimony to the poor quality of whatever Macrolon mix Kaco is using. I've never had any pen develop such a huge crack before, not even the infamous 992! It looks like pressure from the inner cap caused the Macrolon to pull apart, as the crack looks kind of like shredded meat (think pulled pork) or something haha.

 

It's a real shame because I really enjoyed writing with the pen all morning and it feels so nice in the hand, posted or not. I swapped the nib with a wet and wild Delike 1.3 stub and it writes like a dream.

[taike]

Well, I'm going to have to retract my recommendation of this pen.

 

After sitting in the pen case for a couple months, last night I decided to ink it up.

This morning I noticed a long crack going down half of the cap so you could see the metal clutch inside it! The pen has never been dropped and rarely used, so this is quite a testimony to the poor quality of whatever Macrolon mix Kaco is using. I've never had any pen develop such a huge crack before, not even the infamous 992! It looks like pressure from the inner cap caused the Macrolon to pull apart, as the crack looks kind of like shredded meat (think pulled pork) or something haha.

 

It's a real shame because I really enjoyed writing with the pen all morning and it feels so nice in the hand, posted or not. I swapped the nib with a wet and wild Delike 1.3 stub and it writes like a dream.

 

Sad but true. Checking my original EF pen, this is what I found. Not dropped, not lately used, kept in quiet storage.

 

My two later-purchase M nib versions are still crack free. An unfortunate legacy for a nice pen!

 

[woleizihan]

Same is true for mine. Sad.

[Honeybadgers]

hopefully the issue gets solved with improving quality control.

 

my oldest has a tiny, hairline crack ind the middle of the cap that isn't visible at all, I can only feel it if I run my fingernail across it. My other 3 (only about 2 weeks newer) are fine.

[truthpil]

I was just checking through reviews on Taobao and there are pictures of cracked caps on pens with medium nibs purchased in the past few weeks.

Edited February 10, 2019 by TruthPil

[Honeybadgers]

materials fixes will come in months to a year if they are to happen. This sort of thing isn't fixed overnight, and a chinese company is unlikely to just throw out its entire stock of the material that it already has.

[Martolod]

I sold off my Lamy 2000, just because this EF nib is much less wide and wet than my EF Lamy nib and I wanted the money for a Pilot Falcon. I'm pretty happy with the choice, it's a great pen!

[truthpil]

materials fixes will come in months to a year if they are to happen. This sort of thing isn't fixed overnight, and a chinese company is unlikely to just throw out its entire stock of the material that it already has.

Yeah, I think you're right. It's probably best to wait on getting more of these then. Kaco seems to take their products seriously, hiring designers and all for their pen designs, so they might actually fix this issue eventually.

[rockydoggy]

Here's one more case of a crack appearing in the cap. it's really too bad because the pen had quickly become one of my favorites. I may try to fix it at some point. In the meantime, it's now relegated to being a desk pen--thankfully, the crack doesn't seem to cause the nib to dry out.

[Antenociticus]

Reading this thread, just looked at mine. It also has a crack developing on the cap, pretty much in the same position as in the photo posted by EDC. Only hairline as yet, but it's a crack.

[woleizihan]

It actually sounds more like a design flaw than a material failure to me. I remotely remeber similar issues happened to Lamy 2000 section/body threads when it was first out and then Lamy somehow fixed it.

[woleizihan]

a chinese company is unlikely to just throw out its entire stock of the material that it already has.

 

That's not an issue here. "Makrolon" is TMed and Kaco bought them from the same German company as Lamy does. So, the quality of the material should be the same as L2K and in the rare case that Kaco got a bad batch, they should be able to get replacement fairly easily and almost for free.