traveling with the kaweco sport
The train sways slightly as you watch the landscape rushes by. There is a constant chatter of people in the background. The train passes a busy highway. All those colourful cars blur into one constant line, broken only by the giant masses of the trucks driving to the harbour. Finally, the train slows down to enter a station. People get up, try to pack their bags to leave. Now, they try to rush by to leave the train before it moves away. But you stay, this is not your station yet. You keep sitting, waiting for the whistle to move on, to take you to your station.
This week I have been traveling pretty much everyday to different cities due to interviews and school trips. Therefore I thought it would be fun to look at what I take to these trips and I’ll share my favourite pocket pen: the Kaweco Sport.
While I’m traveling I usually take the train to the cities and then walk around, so I have to be careful not to pack a heavy bag. My trusty backpack accompanies me, either a waterproof one -where you’ll see pretty much everyone use here in the Netherlands- or a regular Eastpak, which has more comfortable shoulder pads. In that bag I have my planner, a Traveler’s Notebook, a book to read on the train, earphones and my sunglasses. I try not to take my pen roll with me to trips as I know I won’t be writing much, I only take my two “bag pens”. Until today, I only had my phone to take the photographs with, but today I finally got my camera back and I cannot wait to take more photographs. Probably that will become a staple in my travel bag as well, since sketching really isn’t my forte.
My Traveler’s Notebook only has three blank inserts inside, so I can doodle and take notes while interviewing people and sketch some if I want to. The fountain pen friendly paper is great to write on and the dry time isn’t outrageous with the pens I carry: a Lamy Vista -F- with Platinum Lavender Black and Kaweco Sport -EF- with Noodler’s Heart of Darkness. I talked about the iron gall inks in another post, but I like carrying them about as a little fun alternative to plain black.
I have a bunch of Kaweco Sport pens, they’re basically indestructible and I’ve been generally lucky with the nibs that none of them were terrible. EF line on my Skyline Sport Fox is a little thick, but still has an enjoyable feel on the paper. It’s a small pen. Fortunately, I also don’t have big hands, so I can even use it unposted for quick notes on the way. For longer writing, posting the pen is more comfortable as the added length gives you enough place to hold it nicely. The small size is great to throw in a pocket or a bag though, and the plastic is durable enough that it survived drops and being stuck under books.
Let me also talk a little about Noodler’s Heart of Darkness. I am not the biggest fan of Noodler’s inks as the ones I have tried have been a little finicky, except this one. It never feathers on non-fountain pen friendly paper. Writes a smooth but disciplined line, doesn’t take an hour to dry. I don’t mostly sketch with fountain pens, but I sometimes like scribbling with this one. I use a regular Moleskine notebook for sketches as I usually sketch with a pencil, ballpoint or a fineliner, thus I have tried to do a couple of sketches with my fountain pen as well. It turned out fine and barely bled through the page, but the nib was a too thick for my liking.
Overall, this pen & ink combination works perfectly for carrying while traveling. The light and small size of the Sport is not only easy to carry, but also comfortable to hold. The nib pretty much can handle every ink you throw at it, but a dark, dense black works the best for my writing. Considering how much abuse it took, I am pretty sure I will continue to use it for many more years to come.
Hello from a snowy day! I never thought I'd see snow in April... Unfortunately trains are cancelled for this morning, so my travel schedule is disrupted. But when I do leave, I'll make sure to take the Kaweco Sport with me. On a better note, I finally got my camera back, so hopefully I'll start to make much better photos instead of the ones with my phone's camera. Thank you for reading!
