Kaweco

A Heidelberg pen factory founded in 1883 is where Kaweco begins, and its pocket-size fountain pen dates to 1911. Today the company is based in Nuremberg and makes fountain pens and ink cartridges.

Where to buy Kaweco pens

To compare Kaweco with other makers, see fountain pens. The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and products ship across the continental U.S. from theambrosianpantry.com. Visitors can ask staff questions in the shop. The pen and pencil guide tells the Kaweco story from Heidelberg to Nuremberg.

A Kaweco pen as a gift

Kaweco is known for its pocket-size fountain pen, first mentioned by the company in 1911 and relaunched in 1994 from a 1935 design. A small pen that fits in a pocket suits someone who writes on the go, in a journal or a notebook. Pair it with a notebook from notebooks and journals and a spare pack of ink.

About Kaweco

Based in
Nuremberg, Germany
Founded
1883
Known for
the Sport pocket fountain pen

The company started in 1883, when Luce and Enßlen founded the Heidelberger Federhalterfabrik in Heidelberg. It made wooden pen holders and imported fountain pens and gold nibs from Morton of New York. Heinrich Koch and Rudolph Weber took over in 1889 and set up a new production facility in Handschuhsheim, just outside Heidelberg.

In 1911 a pocket-sized pen for ladies, officers and sportsmen shows up in Kaweco's records for the first time, which the company counts as the birth of the Sport. In 2000 Kaweco began building a worldwide sales network under h&m gutberlet GmbH, the Nuremberg company behind the brand today.

In 1913 Kaweco set up its own production of gold nibs, the metal writing tips of fountain pens. Kaweco sells its own ink cartridges and converters, which fill many of its fountain pens, and it also makes piston fillers that draw ink straight from a bottle.

Kaweco questions

Where does the Kaweco logo come from?

It dates from 1930, when the smaller pen maker Aurumia, from Wiesloch, bought Kaweco's name, machines, stock and patents and merged the two brands. Out of that merger came the logo KA WE CO in a circle split into three parts, which still appears on nearly all Kaweco pens. The company has changed hands since, and today it is based in Nuremberg.

How do you fill a Kaweco fountain pen?

Many Kaweco fountain pens take ink cartridges, small sealed tubes of ink that slot into the pen, and Kaweco sells its own. Many can also take a converter, a refillable reservoir shaped like a cartridge that draws ink up from a bottle. Kaweco also makes piston fillers, pens with a built-in ink chamber that is filled straight from a bottle.

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