While I love pocket pens, and pocket fountain pens in particular, those of us who also enjoy using bottled ink have been frustrated by the lack of a functional converter that fits most pocket pens. While Kaweco had released a smaller plunger-style converter designed to fit the Sport series that worked reasonably well, two things kept it from becoming more popular than it did. First, the converter was still too large to fit other popular pocket pens like the Schon DSGN Pocket 6 and the Tom’s Studio Studio Pocket; and second, the plunger didn’t lock, so when the converter was full you could accidentally expel ink into the cap by bumping the plunger.
Kaweco recently redesigned the mini converter to address both of these issues, and the fix was somewhat creative and fairly simple: The plunger rod folds down and “locks” once the converter is full. This not only reduces length, but a slight “lip” on the top of the plunger prevents it from accidentally depressing once folded. I’ve tested the new model, and it not only fits all of the cartridge/converter Kaweco Sport models, but the Schon DSGN Pocket 6, the Tom’s Studio pocket pen, and even the recently released Good Made Better Jester.
Takeaways and Where to Buy
Is a mini-converter revolutionary? Not really, but sometimes small incremental improvements like these can drastically increase your enjoyment of a pen. You’ve always been able to refill cartridges with bottled ink using a syringe, but many people (including myself) find a converter more convenient, and having this converter option makes it more likely that I’ll reach for my pocket fountain pens. Plus, plunger-style converters make it very easy to clean out a pen since you can flush water through the nib and feed with more force than with a piston-style converter. The more options, the better!
We currently have a small-ish number of these Kaweco Mini Converters available in the shop, but since I’ve liked how they work so far, we will probably plan to carry these as a regular item. We’ve also recently restocked our supply of Kaweco bottled ink and Kaweco cartridges, not to mention a bunch of new releases from the Sport and Perkeo lines.
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