How to Swap a Fountain Pen Nib: Kaweco Sport, Liliput, Traveler's

I also had two Kaweco nibs I wanted to trade between pens, so this was a good time to show the whole process.

Watch the full video for everything shown on camera.

The swap I wanted

My Kaweco Liliput has a medium nib, and my Kaweco Sport has a fine nib. I want to swap them, so the Sport gets the medium nib and the Liliput gets the fine one. The Liliput is the pen I usually travel with, and I prefer a fine nib.

Start with the easy customizations

Before the nibs, here are a few simpler ways I customize my pens and pencils so they fit what I need.

A pencil in the Traveler's Company holder

I keep a Blackwing pencil in the Traveler's Company brass pencil holder. I cut the pencil to the right length and slid it in, and now I have a Blackwing I can bring anywhere, protected. It feels nice in the hand and writes great. Traveler's Company sells its own pencils to fit the holder, but any pencil of the same diameter, cut to size, works too.

Gel pen refills

Once you start opening pens and looking at their refills, you notice that many refills are nearly identical, and gel pens in particular tend to share one shape. My Zebra Sarasa Vintage pens came with Zebra JF-0.5 refills. One of them now has a Muji 0.5 refill instead, and swapping it in was the whole job.

A trimmed refill

The Big Idea Design Base Line Bolt Action Pen normally takes a Parker-style refill. I trimmed a gel refill to length so it would fit. This won't work with every refill: a Zebra Sarasa refill did not work in this pen.

A two-tone Fisher Space Pen

My Fisher Space Pen is a mix of two pens. I had a brass Fisher Space Pen, then I got the Field Notes edition, and I put the cap of one on the other. The refill inside comes from a Zebra Sarasa multi-pen. The Space Pen has a very narrow barrel, so it's hard to find refills that fit, and this one took a lot of trial and error. The gel refill writes the way you would expect a good gel pen to write.

How the nibs come out

Fountain pen nibs are the part people often find a little scary to swap. How the nib comes out depends on the pen.

Liliput

The Liliput's nib unit unscrews. If you buy a replacement nib from Kaweco or a retailer, you unscrew the old unit and screw in the new one. There is nothing else to it.

Traveler's Company fountain pen

The Traveler's Company fountain pen is harder because its nib does not unscrew. When you pull the nib out, the feed comes out with it, so fitting a different nib is up to you. The good news is that the nib and feed come out easily. The catch is that a Kaweco nib pushed all the way back to where the original Traveler's nib sat ends up a little short, so you have to adjust its position to make it fit.

Kaweco Sport

My Kaweco Sport is a plastic Classic Sport, where the nib and feed are friction-fit and pull out of the section. I work them out slowly, gripping them with a towel and turning gently as they come out.

Be gentle so you don't bend or break the tines.

Side by side, the feeds from all three pens look very similar. The Kaweco feeds are a little longer and have a stop that marks where the nib should sit. The Traveler's Company feed has about the same diameter but is a little shorter.

Putting it back together

Kaweco

The stop on the Kaweco feed shows exactly where the nib belongs, which makes reassembly easy: seat the nib against the stop, then put the unit back in the body.

Traveler's Company

The Traveler's Company pen takes some trial and error. If you push the Kaweco nib all the way back on the feed, it sits too short. Instead, slide it on while watching how far the nib extends past the feed, and when it looks right, press the nib and feed into the section as far as they will go.

After reassembly, give each pen a few minutes for the ink to reach the nib.

Was it worth it?

Yes. The Liliput now has the fine nib I wanted for travel, and the medium nib writes great in the Sport.

The Traveler's Company pen was the bigger project. The nib it came with was not the greatest, so I replaced it with a Kaweco nib, and a few people at Kaweco were really helpful while I worked it out. It took a lot more trial and error than the Kawecos, but it's a fun customization that makes the pen feel and write better.

I don't customize every pen. But sometimes a pen body really catches my attention, and I want to make the pen better.

The gear worth a look

• Kaweco Liliput: my travel fountain pen, now with a fine nib.
• Kaweco Sport: now carrying the medium nib.
• TRAVELER'S COMPANY Brass Pencil: holds a Blackwing cut to length.
• Zebra Sarasa Clip Gel Pen: the standard gel refill shape that makes swaps easy.
• Field Notes Space Pen: the Field Notes edition I combined with a brass one.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do you swap a Kaweco Liliput nib?

The Kaweco Liliput's nib unit unscrews, so you unscrew the old nib and screw in a replacement from Kaweco or a retailer.

Can a Kaweco nib go in a Traveler's Company fountain pen?

Yes. I use a Kaweco nib in mine, but pushed all the way back on the feed it sits a little short, so you have to adjust its position until it fits.

Why swap the nib on the Traveler's Company fountain pen?

The nib that came on my Traveler's Company fountain pen was not the greatest, so I replaced it with a Kaweco nib that makes the pen write better.