Dear all, welcome back to another review after a long hiatus…. I have been busy, so have not had much time to bother with my blog. Recently, Kaweco offered to send us some pens for review purposes, and I immediately thought of the Liliput, since it is so famously small. After spending more or less two weeks with it, here’s what I thought of it…

Presentation and packaging:

After you tear excitedly tear through your envelope, the signature Kaweco tin box is slotted into a cardboard sleeve which you will immediately ignore and throw into a corner.

The box is very cute, perfect for storing your little cigarettes and pens, after you take out the plastic mold, which had held your pen.

Touchy-feelies:

And right in the middle of that, I found a little finger-like golden object. Surprised at the heft of the body (slightly heavier than Pilot Metro), I carefully opened it. The cap gave way smoothly to the view of a dainty gold nib (thanks to Scribble/Kaweco for colour-matching for me!).

The cap is engraved with the Ka-We-Co logo on the finial, and the side with the model name. It is very discreet and tasteful.

The cap screws onto the end of the body, taking a couple of turns to gettight. It takes about 4 turns to use the nib. It is not as convenient as, say, the Vanishing Point, but having to touch it often to un/screw it suits the theme of this finely machined pen. Oh, and don’t be startled if you hear a mouse in your pen when doing that! *squeak squeak*

The ridges give it an interesting texture, which I think also holds off a bit of the oxidation since I did try to rub it as often as possible. The section quickly turned a dull shade of gold, while the outer body still retains a bit of shine.

After you hold/rub it for some time, you will notice that if you smell your hand closely, there is a bit of a metallic tang, but it isn’t very strong, and isn’t a bother at all.

The section is comfortable to hold for me, even for my stubby fingers. However, my hand is small, so even without the cap on it is not uncomfortable to write with. Occasionally, I would also hold it at the threading, while not sharp, is not as comfortable as the smoother ones on, for example, a Noodlers Konrad. I didn’t like how my sweat built up at the threads and made it dirty either.

technicalities: pen is about 9.5 cm long when capped, and posted is 12.5 cm long. nib is small but en-scale with the pen. overall width is just about 1 cm.

(If you’re one of those people who are worried if the metal will turn green, be assured that it wouldn’t anytime soon.)

Skating on metal nib:

From the cartridge-roulette (which I couldn’t help playing with) I chose Palm Green, one of my favourite Kaweco inks. Green with purple sheen! Not that you can see it much with extra fines…

Look at that patina! Didn’t realise how much it changed until I compared the earlier photos to recent ones. #tinyhandwriting

Later, I put in Pearl Black, but to my surprise the ink was sticky and it didn’t flow very well! I discovered that during my exams, which would have put me at a disadvantage had I not brought my trusty Preppy. Took it right out afterwards and put Palm Green back in. Green suits gold anyway.

The tactile feeling of writing on paper was present, which is no surprise from a steel EF nib. The line it wrote was finer than my 0.3 Preppy, and it is neither wet nor dry. If you leave it on the table, it will dry up quite quickly.

Since it only takes international cartridges, with no space in the body for a spare, having an EF nib is useful, fitting into the concept of having a pocket pen. It is great that it takes international cartridges, meaning you can change it out for virtually any ink.

Speaking of compatibility, nibs from Liliputs can be easily replaced. It comes with a silver steel nib that is not very flexible. These are ‘eligible’ for the use of Kaweco’s 14k gold nib, or other variants of steel in other nib sizes. If you have in mind a specific use for this pen, you could buy a spare nib and custom-grind it. These nibs can be unscrewed from the section cleanly, so you wouldn’t get your hands dirty with adjusting the nib or feed.

To buy or not?

Kaweco Liliput Brass Wave retails for £62.99 from Cult Pens, Andy’s Pens, blah blah… I feel that you get what you paid for, a brass portable pen that is durable and rugged, which will grow along with you. I don’t think the Liliput has many competitors, since other than Karas Kustoms, not many companies make alloy pens.

I personally love it, I’ve wanted it for quite some time.

BoNus rOunD: The cartridge dispenser can be used a deadly weapon or as a fidget toy for your boring lectures. At least this thing is better than your deadpan little cardboard boxes.

Take care to put the cartridges the right way up though, unless you want them to shoot across the room when you twist the thing… Uh, I didn’t do that, I’m not that silly!

(updated 5/26)