New Kaco Edge

[LiquidInk]

Tempted by the new brown version. Also the medium nib looks good too. Might add to cart for next drunk order

Edited February 28, 2020 by LiquidInk

[g33klibrarian]

On eBay, delivery-times from China on the new colors is slated for late-April to mid-May. I wonder how much of this is related to COVID19 quarantines resulting in plant shutdowns.

Edited February 28, 2020 by g33klibrarian

[Paganini]

A while ago I found a Kaco Edge on Amazon for around $10. I figured it was old stock that was priced low on account of the cap-cracking problem. I also figured that $10 wasn't much to spend on a nice pen, even if the cap *did* crack. I further figured that, if the cap did crack and I liked the pen, I could get one of the new and improved ones. Kaco International is now selling them on Amazon as well, albeit for three times as much money as my original one.

Anyway, last week the cap on my Edge did indeed split overnight, so I followed my plan. The new Edge is definitely different from the old one. The new finish is sort of a dusty dark grey rather than the old quasi-shiny black.

 

 

It doesn't come out in the photo as pronounced as it actually is, but the new Edge is the top one.

 

 

The new one has a slightly different feel in the hand; denser, or slightly heavier, or something. I'm wondering if maybe they applied a reinforcing layer of some type of finish over the Makrolon. It kind of reminds me of a matt polyurethane over a textured surface.

 

As far as the rest of the pen goes, the new one seems to be just as well-tuned as the old one. The new one didn't come with a converter, which led to me trying all of my spare converters to find that none of them fit, even the Jinhao ones that fit almost everything. However, what *did* fit was an old Waterman long cartridge. Go figure!

 

Anyway, I've been assured by Kaco that thanks to the redesign the cap cracking problem will almost never happen, so fingers crossed!

 

- N

[Honeybadgers]

Kaco didn't include a converter from the factory, if you got one it was a bonus from the seller.

 

The converter that fits them is the schmidt standard one. it's what kaco rebrands as their "k1".

 

Keep us posted on whether or not it splits. If it's good, I'm going to start ordering them as gifts again!

[Paganini]

Kaco didn't include a converter from the factory, if you got one it was a bonus from the seller.

 

The converter that fits them is the schmidt standard one. it's what kaco rebrands as their "k1".

 

Interesting. The original one had the converter inside the pen; I guess the seller must have opened the original packaging and then resealed it.

 

Keep us posted on whether or not it splits. If it's good, I'm going to start ordering them as gifts again!

 

Will do! I also have a blue one and a brown one on the way, but they're coming from China via Ali Express, so it may be a while before I see them.

 

- N

[Aditlojs]

...

 

Anyway, last week the cap on my Edge did indeed split overnight, so I followed my plan. The new Edge is definitely different from the old one. The new finish is sort of a dusty dark grey rather than the old quasi-shiny black.

 

...

 

The new one has a slightly different feel in the hand; denser, or slightly heavier, or something. I'm wondering if maybe they applied a reinforcing layer of some type of finish over the Makrolon. It kind of reminds me of a matt polyurethane over a textured surface.

 

 

- N

I just took delivery of one from Amazon. On your new one, is the finish consistent between the cap and the barrel?

 

My cap is lighter grey in color and more textured compared to the barrel.

 

Edit: Did you purchase your new one through AliExpress?

Edited June 15, 2020 by Aditlojs

[Paganini]

I just took delivery of one from Amazon. On your new one, is the finish consistent between the cap and the barrel?

 

My cap is lighter grey in color and more textured compared to the barrel.

 

Edit: Did you purchase your new one through AliExpress?

 

I got mine from the Kaco store on Amazon. It was a little more expensive than buying from AliExpress or eBay, but I got it in two days.

 

The finish is consistent between the cap and barrel in appearance on mine; the barrel has the same slightly dusty grey look. In terms of texture, the cap does feel less smooth compared to the barrel. Kind of like old tree bark compared to new tree bark.

 

- N

[Aditlojs]

 

I got mine from the Kaco store on Amazon. It was a little more expensive than buying from AliExpress or eBay, but I got it in two days.

 

The finish is consistent between the cap and barrel in appearance on mine; the barrel has the same slightly dusty grey look. In terms of texture, the cap does feel less smooth compared to the barrel. Kind of like old tree bark compared to new tree bark.

 

- N

 

 

Great description there. I think mine is very similar. I might try a very light sanding on the barrel to more closely match the textures.

[Mech-for-i]

I must be a lucky one, my old model Edge , despite regular use show no issue with the cap , got the new one , like the brown, the black is really not black, just kind of dark / mid grey , , prefer the old black colour better. Anyone got the blue one and might be ale to comment on the colour

[Paganini]

Well, it's been just over 2-weeks, and my new Kaco Edge is still uncracked. (Hooray!) In addition, a the blue and coffee colored ones finally arrived from Ali Express. I have to say these are some classy-looking pens.





I don't like the gold-colored nibs as much as the original steel ones; they seem bouncier, and less well tuned. They remind me of some of the Bock nibs I have in my Kaweco Sports. The coffee colored one in particular has trouble with push strokes. They both are having some flow trouble, but that could be because (A) I was impatient to try them and didn't flush them thoroughly enough and ( I only have one converter (it's in the black pen) so the others are using syringe-filled cartridges.



Not sure why that last photo is so shadowed; the top photo shows their colors pretty well. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with them, in spite of the coffee one needing a little work. It didn't take them as long as I thought it would to get here (just about 3 weeks), and they were pretty inexpensive (

 

- N

Edited July 2, 2020 by Paganini

[A Smug Dill]

On 6/15/2020 at 2:45 AM, Paganini said:

The new one didn't come with a converter, which led to me trying all of my spare converters to find that none of them fit, even the Jinhao ones that fit almost everything. However, what *did* fit was an old Waterman long cartridge. Go figure!

 

The text in the marketing images — which, in all likelihood, were produced by Kaco itself and made available to any seller for promotional use — clearly states (in Chinese) that the pen uses ‘international standard’ cartridges. Given that the nib unit is a rebranded Schmidt, it makes perfect sense that the Jinhao 2.6mm-bore converters do not fit this Chinese pen model.

 

The black one I ordered did not come with the two ink cartridges (on account of the seller purportedly wanting to avoid issues with customs or postal operators for shipping liquids out of China) but a converter. However, it was 3.5mm-bore converter that of course would not fit this pen model, either. After I complained and pushed hard repeatedly over the course of a week, the seller finally capitulated and sent me the two long cartridges of black ink that, again according to the Kaco marketing images that the seller chose to use unmodified for his item listing, would come as part of the retail item/package I ordered.

 

The blue and brown ones I ordered from a different seller, some weeks later, did come with the two long cartridges as stated in the images; but one of the cartridges leaked in transit, and ink was smeared all over the brown pen, the tray it was sitting in, and the inside of the clear plastic box around them.

 

…

 

The EF nib on the black Kaco Edge — and, sadly, although that's the colour in which I'm least interested out of the three, it's also the only one for which different nib options are available — was terribly disappointing, in how broad and lacking in line variation at that, the lines it put down are. Having used many Moonman pens with the same type of Schmidt F nibs, which are write delightfully finely and precisely out-of-the-box, I dreaded to think what the F nib would be like. Still, a sale promotion came up on AliExpress last month, so I took a leap of faith and ordered the other two colours, which only come with F nibs.

 

Those gold-coloured F nibs on the blue and brown pens prove to be just like the Schmidt F nibs on the Moonman M100 and M200, except that Kaco put custom scrollwork bearing its logo on the Edge pens' nibs, while Moonman didn't bother in that regard. Phew.

 

However, from what I've seen so far, the blue and brown pens are worse than the black pen in some respects. The shape of the glossy gold-coloured, propeller-shaped(?) clips are narrower and pointier on the business end; and, most likely a manifestation of poor QC, the clips don't sit quite flush against the exterior of the caps. On my brown pen, there's a significant gap running from the end up three-quarters of the length of the clip, enough to make the pointy end a minor stabbing hazard; on my blue one, the  gap is much smaller, but only the middle third of the clip physically rests against the side of the cap. The matt silver-coloured clip on the black pen look and fit much better.

 

Then, I discovered that the nib units on the blue and brown pens are/were glued to the inside of the gripping section; trying to unscrew the collar only led to the nib and feed getting rotated off kilter, and then eventually coming free of the housing like friction-fit nibs and feeds do. I finally managed to get the nib collar unscrewed on my brown pen, and the remnants of glue is clearly there. The collar on my blue pen remains stuck. No such issue with my black Kaco Edge; the collar unscrewed easily since Day One.

 

All three have the cosmetic issues of (i.) the pen cap and barrel looking ‘dusty’, lighter in colour than the material ought to be, and very dry in the way you'd expect it to see it crack and bleed if it were skin; and (ii.) the product sticker on the side of the cap, once removed, leaves a permanent shadow showing inside that small rectangular patch what the material really looks like. Nothing can really remove that unsightly darker patch, because (eventually I figured) it's the rest of the pen body ‘unprotected’ by the label, from whatever treatment that made them look so ‘dusty’ and dry, that is the problem. I managed to make the rectangular marks much less obvious; but if you look closely you can still see them. In the process of looking for a fix, I did make the pens' body material look much closer to that on the Lamy 2000 Makrolon and blue Bauhaus pens, and all the more attractive for it; but now their surfaces are less grippy than before. (I haven't started working on my brown Kaco Edge yet.)

 

How effective the caps are at preventing ink evaporation is yet to be seen. Then there's the question of whether the material is going to develop cracks and inevitably split the caps.

[Paganini]

...a year later! Wow! 

 

9 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

I finally managed to get the nib collar unscrewed on my brown pen, and the remnants of glue is clearly there. The collar on my blue pen remains stuck. No such issue with my black Kaco Edge; the collar unscrewed easily since Day One.

 

Interesting! It never occurred to me that the collars might unscrew. I think all four of mine are cemented in place, including my 1st Gen black (crack'd!) Edge. Does the adhesive seem like the kind that softens up with heat? 

 

9 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

(i.) the pen cap and barrel looking ‘dusty’, lighter in colour than the material ought to be, and very dry in the way you'd expect it to see it crack and bleed if it were skin;

 

This seems to be a feature of the 2nd generation Edges. I presume it's a result of whatever they changed to make the cracking problem go away. The dusty look does fade away over time, but after a year my 3 "new" ones still don't look quite as sleek as the original (crack'd!) one. However, I'm pleased to report that they are as whole and healthy as they were a year ago, so whatever Kaco changed seems to have worked. 

 

The caps aren't too bad at sealing the pens - they're not as good as Platinum's Slip & Seal or the clutch caps on Wing Sung 601s, e.g. - but they're fine for normal use. I haven't had any problems with hard  starts for daily use. I've had to prime the feeds a few times after maybe a week of not being used. I did forget that I had filled the blue one with Salix and let it sit for a couple of months. That was a bit more trouble to clean, but the nib didn't get eaten away or anything, and the pen works fine again now!

[A Smug Dill]

12 minutes ago, Paganini said:

Does the adhesive seem like the kind that softens up with heat? 

 

Dunno. I don't repair and restore old pens, and so never make a habit of trying to soften adhesive with heat when a component known to be screwed-in and removable won't budge; if I want to separate them, I just keep twisting until something gives. Sometimes it's the hardened glue on the threads; sometimes it's the nib and feed that come loose from the collar; and sometimes things just break. I've broken a Moonman nib unit (specifically, the nib and feed got wrecked by the grip and torque applied), and the gripping section of a beautiful Delike Alpha in brown plastic with celluloid-like patterns that way; in both cases Lamy Topaz ink somehow cemented the formerly removable components in place.

 

I did soak the section of my blue Kaco Edge in a heated (only to 32°C) bath in my ultrasonic cleaner for a while, but that didn't help.

 

19 minutes ago, Paganini said:

The dusty look does fade away over time, but after a year my 3 "new" ones still don't look quite as sleek as the original (crack'd!) one.

 

I'm keen to remedy that dry, dusty look on Day One; a brown pen that looks like a old fallen twig (with a distinctly darker and perfectly rectangular patch on one side, no less) is not very appealing.