Fountain Pen Review: Kaweco Student Transparent Blue

After sharing my review of the orange Ice Sport with Kaweco's Sales and Marketing Team, the manager, Sebastian Gutberlet, arranged to send me a small package of sample products to review on the blog. The box from Nürnberg arrived safely in Los Baños, and to my surprise, it had Kaweco ink cartridges in all colors, a Denim pouch for two Sport pens, and a selection of Kaweco pens, including this beautiful transparent blue Student fountain pen.

I have always known Kaweco for their small pens — which I think are cleverly designed. The short Sport and tiny Liliput — extended by posting their caps — are wonderful pens. But Kaweco also makes full-sized pens, such as DIA, Elite, Allrounder, Special, Elegance, and the Student.

I look at the Student as an introduction to Kaweco's range of full-sized pens. It is closely similar to the aluminum-bodied Kaweco Allrounder, but is made from high quality acrylic. Think of the Student to the Allrounder resemblance as that of the Safari to the AL-Star.

When I received the pens, I noticed that Kaweco's packaging for the Student is simple, yet unique: the pen came in a long Nostalgic tin, encased in a cardboard sleeve. The tin has a lovely vintage design, and can fit one or two pens. It's a reusable box, and will hold more pens and other stuff once the tray is removed.

The cardboard sleeve for the Kaweco tin.

And has a tray with slots for two pens. Once the tray is removed, the box can hold other stuff.

The Student is made from high quality polished acrylic, while the section and trims (clip, cap ring, finial) are chrome-coated brass. It weighs ~26 grams (with a full short cartridge), and measures ~5.2 inches while capped, 4.7 inches uncapped, and 6.3 inches when posted.

The Student when I disassembled it: cap, barrel, section, feed, and nib.

The Student is a bottom heavy pen because all of the brass trims (finial, clip, cap ring, section) are in that part. The cap alone weighs 16 grams, the barrel and section at 10 grams. The barrel without the pen's section is very light, is wider in the middle, then tapers off towards the end.

Sebastian sent me a fountain pen to review, but the Student is also available as a ballpen, or rollerball. This pen fills with ink through a converter or a cartridge, and I inked it with the Royal Blue cartridge which came with it.

Kaweco uses the same finial (top cap) design for most of its pens. The Student's finial is in chrome, bearing the Kaweco logo. While this finial is the same as the finial on the Sport, the Student's diameter makes it appear smaller.

 The photo below shows the underside of the top cap.

In other pens, the branding is all over the barrel. The Student, however, has it all in the cap. The Student's chrome clip — identical to the Allrounder's clip — has the Kaweco logo. The clip is tight, but slipping it on or taking it out of a pen slot is not a problem at all.

On the top part of the cap, opposite the clip, 'Kaweco Student Germany' is printed.

On the chrome-coated cap ring, the imprint says 'Kaweco'.

On the other side, the imprint is 'Germany'.

Bock, a German nib manufacturer, makes nibs for Kaweco. The nib imprint includes the width (B), logo, and the words 'Germany' and 'since 1883' under a filigree-like pattern. For the Student, nib availability ranges from extra fine (EF) to double broad (BB).

I requested a B nib for this pen, and thoroughly cleaned both the feed and nib before inking, to take off any residue from manufacturing. The steel B nib wrote well, it is smooth, wet, and did not skip when I wrote with it. Some line variation was possible with a little pressure, but I didn't push it further because it's not really a springy nib. But it's not a nail, either, and I love writing with it.

The Student's section is a heavy part of the fountain pen. It is made of brass, made smooth by the chrome coating, and I little flared towards the nib. It's cold to the touch, and because it's so smooth, my fingers sometimes slide towards the nib.

I didn't notice this before, but Kaweco's feeds have imprints too!

Kaweco uses the same feed and Bock nib for many of its fountain pens, which allows users to easily change their pens' nibs. It is the same feed and nib for all the Sport series, the Liliput, Student, and Allrounder.

Left to right: Liliput, Student, and Sport. They have identical feeds and nibs.

As I mentioned above, the Student measures ~5.2 inches, a length that I find comfortable enough for writing without the need to post the cap. The Student allows posting, but it becomes unusually long at ~6.3 inches, and a bit top heavy.

The Student is longer than the Sport by an inch, and by ~1.5 inch than the Liliput. Uncapped, though, the two small pens become full-sized pens when their caps are posted.

The Student with my blue demonstrator pens. It's a bit shorter than the Platinum 3776 and Noodler's Ahab,
but longer than the Pelikan M205.

Here's the Student with other pens.

Here's a writing sample of the Kaweco Student, filled with Kaweco's Royal Blue ink. The ink is a vibrant blue with hints of purple. It shows minimal shading, but flows well. It's a truly well-behaved ink.

The Kaweco Student is a light pen, and very comfortable to use for long periods of writing. It's a well-balanced and well-built pen, a reliable writer, and though I find the nib a bit small for my writing style, it's fun that I can swap nibs between pens. The Student is an elegant and beautiful fountain pen and I am happy to add it to my growing collection of blue demonstrator pens.


The Student and other Kaweco pens are widely available in many reputable sellers worldwide, with prices ranging from US$58 to US$65.

In the Philippines, Kaweco pens are exclusively available at Scribe Writing Essentials, where it sells for PhP2,995 (~US$62).

I received the Kaweco Student fountain pen in this review free of charge from Kaweco Germany. For more about Kaweco and their products, visit their website at http://www.kaweco-pen.com/en/index.php.