New Kaweco Sport Converter: The Nightmare Continues

[tinta]

Just thinking about reusing the kaweco cartridge that came with my skyline sport, how many times can I reuse if filled with a syringe? I mean some of the cartridges tend to crack at the mouth. Almost all of my LAMY cartridges and several other brands have cracked after reusing for a couple of times.

Some people here on FPN refill cartridges all the time with no problems. I prefer not to refill. I only use cartridges in my two Kaweco Dia2s & my Lilliput. These pens are not used very often.

 

I have found that after a few refills, a cartridge no longer fits as securely at its mouth. No matter if the cart was made by a reputable manufacturer, the plastic at the opening gets deformed.

It's like removing & re-attaching your converter every single time you would fill a cartridge/converter pen. Your converter would eventually leak at its mouth if you regularly pulled it out & plugged it in.

[Chrissy]

Please tell me how did you make the squeeze converter at home?

 

See the YouTube video in post #13 in this thread.

[Bill Wood]

I gave the brand a whirl with an Al Sport. After much tinkering with the medium for flow from the nib, cartridge and squeeze converter I got it going. I ended up PIF for another user that I thought may enjoy it. I really tried to like it. I really did. If the pen wrote out of the box I think I would have felt different about the brand.

[MilanKov]

I used same cartridge without leaking about 4 five times. Weirdly enough my Kaweco doesn't like Pelikan cartridges at all. when I pop new one in they do not seal properly and are all wobbly and leak. Does anyone encountered similar problem.

[Astronymus]

No, both my two Kaweco Sports take Pelikan cartridges without problem. They just don't like the ink. Flow is bad with Pelikan. Perfect with Kaweco ink and J.Herbin.

[tinta]

I used same cartridge without leaking about 4 five times. Weirdly enough my Kaweco doesn't like Pelikan cartridges at all. when I pop new one in they do not seal properly and are all wobbly and leak. Does anyone encountered similar problem.

My daily carry pen is a stainless Lilliput loaded with a Pelikan blue/black cart. I need an ink with some water resistance. Pelikan's b/b is the only ink I know that has this quality & is packaged in an international cartridge form.

In more than two years of using this pen & ink combination, I've never had a Pelikan cart come loose or leak. I must have used up easily 3 or 4 dozen Pelikan b/b cartridges, using each one only once. If I would have reused (that is refilled) the Pelikan carts, perhaps I too would be having leaking issues, but I've always considered ink cartridges to be single use items.

This is just my experience Kaweco pens (I have three) & Pelikan ink carts. You may get different results with your Kaweco pen.

 

PS: Pelikan inks in general are quite dry & do not seem to perform well with Kaweco's feed system. All my Kaweco (Bock) nibs/feeds had to be modified by a nib tech to flow properly. Out of the box, the Kawecos wrote dry, even more so with Pelikan ink.

Edited May 24, 2018 by tinta

[MilanKov]

It is but I as I said i found it weird I tried two cartridges of pelikan violet from 2 different packs and every time they wouldn't just stay and would eventually i do not know the proper word disengage fits most accurately from the nipple. I also had problem with J. Herbin ink Terre de Fue and it was definitely no go for my kaweco as it was absolutely no flow. Sigh I sometimes really doesn't like this pen.

[tinta]

It is but I as I said i found it weird I tried two cartridges of pelikan violet from 2 different packs and every time they wouldn't just stay and would eventually i do not know the proper word disengage fits most accurately from the nipple. I also had problem with J. Herbin ink Terre de Fue and it was definitely no go for my kaweco as it was absolutely no flow. Sigh I sometimes really doesn't like this pen.

It could be your Kaweco feed's nipple that may be the problem. You may want to try another feed.

BTW, what Kaweco pen do you own?

[MilanKov]

It could be your Kaweco feed's nipple that may be the problem. You may want to try another feed.

BTW, what Kaweco pen do you own?

I am thinking of buying another whole nib unit anyway I have Al Sport black stonewashed. Edited May 30, 2018 by MilanKov

[tinta]

I am thinking of buying another whole nib unit anyway I have Al Sport black stonewashed.

A nice pen Milan.

The ALs are a good choice, as replacement nib units for these Kawecos are readily available & not very expensive.

It's an easy-nib unit to install. The Bock/Kaweco 060 feed however, can sometimes flow a little on the dry side. I have four 14K nibs with this type of feed system. All my feeds needed some extra work to make them flow better.

I prefer my pens to flow on the wet side because I mostly use dry inks & write with wide, edged nibs. If you do not need pens that write particularly wet, then the 060 factory nib-units may flow just fine for you.

[Micat]

Not having fun with mine either! I can't get the hard plastic converter to seat properly in my Sport. It comes free inside the pen in my pocket. It wasn't a problem for the first week really, just reseated it. Today I reached in my pocket to get my pen and discovered my hand covered in KWZ Grapefruit! I'm going to "convert" to refilling cartridges for my Sport if I want to explore different inks with it.

[Astronymus]

Common problem. But cartridges will wear out too and the same problem will occur. The trick is to put a not to hard spring or a short piece foam rubber behind the converter or cartridge to avoid them slipping of the feed.

[MilanKov]

So update on my problem with the Pelican cartridges I bought 1.1 stub nib unit and Pelican cartridges now fit fine and I have to say I love this nib, it is smooth and work very well no hard starts or skipping so far I am impressed.

 

Cheers Milan

[Inkyways]

I have a Sport and it is with a piston converter. No problem with that.

I have a second mini converter on a MontBlanc Mozart and it is a very short pen it is ok on the pen halfway fill and converter position need to be closed as the pen barrel doesn't take that length. All the pistons are perfect in my hand.

[Pintstein]

I was a bit bored with refilling cartridges so I went deep in my pen parts stash. And this came up: the small, but not super short, converter that comes with the Delike Dip Pen is a perfect (I mean, perfect!) fit for a Kaweco Sport. It has a super skinny stalk, and it looks like it was designed specifically to fit Sport-sized pens. And it works. And there absolutely no issues with ink flow. Wonderful! Does anyone know if/where one could get extra units?

 

[RJS]

This converter is a pitiful creature- my newest one broke after 2 uses. I love the feel of the stonewashed Al Sport, despite the nasty cheap nibs, but the body is just too damn short for a useful converter. Time for Kaweco to improve and adapt...

[peroride]

I got 2 of the piston converters during a sale and one worked without leaking but eventually it leaked. 😢

Now garbage but good for one time fill and later barrel clean up.

 

The unreliably converted me to a refill cartridge user. 

 

I have the bulb fill converter but the volume is comical though it works consistently and mates with the old AL Sport version which has the old housing nipple size.

 

I'm still waiting until Kaweco releases the full piston, but until then I think bulb filler conversion is the way to go :

 

[senzen]

After all this time I finally found a simple fix: put a bit of teflon tape around the piston head, no leaks so far after a few days. Not crazy about using teflon, any other alternatives welcome. At least it means I can change inks on my checkerboard Sport, currently trying with Fuyu Gaki.

 

If it remains reliable it would make me reconsider Sports, some of the colours like Toyama Teal look great, but the new piston Sport would make a lot more sense... If I didn't already have waaaay too many pens already.

 

 

As always a deep cleaning, drying and lubrication with silicone grease is in order.

[Azulado]

I had heard very bad reviews of the Kaweco mini-converter and was afraid before ordering one. However, my experience could not be more positive, few converters fit as well as the Kaweco mini. In addition, its flow is good and it does not leak ink. It did end up feeling hard and I had to apply silicone grease on the piston to make it slide better. I don't have much trouble with the cartridges either. I looked at one I have in one of my Sport's, it's a Schneider one and it fits tightly. I even feel how it slides - not too tight and not too loose - through the nipple.