Kaweco Sport Review 2025The Best Fountain Pen Under $50

"When I was 19, I spent a semester in the Northern English city of York. Every Monday, a professor dutifully doled out our weekly food allowance in the Queen's paper notes, and I'd walk the cobbled streets to a local bakery just outside the Roman walls. There was a stationery shop next door, the kind of antiquated but charming thing you'd expect to find in a city with 400-year-old pubs. I often browsed, but never purchased, saving my pound coins for pints."

"Eleven years later, I returned to the city, and thankfully, the stationery shop was still there. Another benefit of a city that ancient: things don't change quickly. At my old fish and chips haunt, I confessed to the lady behind the counter that I'd waited over a decade to come back, only for her to reply, in her rough Yorkshire accent, that a man had been in last week who had waited for over 25 years. So much for my American earnestness."

"Small and lightweight, the pen's design hasn't changed since 1935. Its octagonal barrel is easy to grasp in hand, and it's a conveniently cartridge-filledno medieval bottles of ink required unless you want to fill your own cartridges. It comes stock with a 23k gold-plated, stainless steel, engraved Kaweco nib in broad. That's the only thing I would change; I prefer a finer line to match my cramped handwriting. A fountain pen is an impractical choice, whether you're spending less than $30 or over a grand."

A narrator returned to York after eleven years and found a stationery shop unchanged, buying a Japanese paper notebook and a Kaweco Sport fountain pen. The Kaweco Sport is small and lightweight, with an octagonal barrel and a design unchanged since 1935. The pen accepts cartridges, avoiding the need for bottled ink, and ships with a 23k gold-plated stainless steel broad nib. The narrator prefers a finer nib to suit cramped handwriting. A fountain pen favors a gentler grip and finesse over force, and, once adapted to, becomes a joyful writing instrument. Fountain pens remain impractical but rewarding.

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