Both pens cost SGD 55–65 and appear on every beginner recommendation list. But they are not the same pen with different looks — they make fundamentally different trade-offs. The Safari was built for writers who sit at a desk. The Sport was built for writers who keep a pen in their pocket. If you understand that one distinction, most of what follows will make sense. But the details — nib sizing, ink capacity, the clip, the eyedropper conversion, left-handed use — matter enormously for the right buyer. This guide covers all of them.

LAMY Safari — SGD 55

Kaweco Classic Sport — SGD 65

Grip and Ergonomics

The LAMY Safari's triangular grip section is its most distinctive feature and its most polarising one. Three flattened sides physically guide your fingers into the position fountain pen instructors call "correct hold" — thumb, index, and middle finger each get a facet. For first-time fountain pen users who are used to gripping ballpoints tightly, this guidance is genuinely helpful. It encourages a lighter touch, which is exactly what you want when learning.

Writers who already hold pens comfortably often find it restrictive. If you hold a pen at an unusual angle, or if you rotate the pen as you write, the triangular grip will fight you. Some experienced writers love it; others return it within a week. The Kaweco Classic Sport has no such opinion about how you hold it. The smooth octagonal section offers no guidance and no resistance — it sits wherever your fingers naturally land. This is a feature, not an oversight. The Sport was designed for confident writers who've already sorted out their grip.

Cap Design: Why Screw vs Push Matters More Than You Think

The Safari uses a push/snap cap — one click and it's open, one click closed. Fast, satisfying, convenient for writers who are at their desk reaching for the pen frequently. The Kaweco Sport uses a screw cap that takes about four full turns to open and close.

For desk writers this sounds inconvenient, and it is. For everyone else, the screw cap has a real advantage: it creates a much more airtight seal than a snap cap. Fountain pens dry out when air gets to the nib, and the Sport's screw cap is meaningfully better at preventing this. If you carry the pen in a bag or pocket and write in short bursts — on a commute, in a meeting, between tasks — the Sport is less likely to hard-start after sitting for hours. In Singapore's air-conditioned environments, where pens can sit uncapped-but-in-a-bag for long periods, this matters.

Nib Performance — and the Sizing Truth Most Reviews Miss

Both pens use steel nibs. Both are smooth out of the box. Both write well for the price. The differences are in character and sizing.

LAMY nibs write on the wet side and run approximately half a size broader than marked. A LAMY Fine writes like a Medium from most other brands. A LAMY EF writes like a Fine. This is consistent, intentional, and well-documented in the fountain pen community — but it catches new buyers by surprise. If you have small handwriting, want fine lines, or write on cheaper paper that feathers with wet inks, order one size finer than you think you need. Go EF if you'd normally pick F.

Kaweco nibs are true to size — what it says on the nib is what you get. They write slightly drier and with more precision than LAMY's nibs, making them better suited to detailed writing. The extra nib size the Sport offers — BB (double broad stub) — is useful for expressive handwriting and decorative text, and the LAMY doesn't offer this at all in the standard range.

The Ink System — Where They Really Diverge

This is the biggest practical difference between the two pens, and most comparison articles only cover half of it.

LAMY Safari: Uses LAMY-proprietary T10 cartridges (not compatible with other brands) or the LAMY Z28 converter (~0.7ml), which gives full access to bottled inks. The converter fills easily via piston action and opens up thousands of ink choices from LAMY, Pilot, Diamine, Sailor, and any other brand you prefer. The ink window on the barrel lets you see approximately how much ink remains.

Kaweco Classic Sport (cartridge + converter): Uses standard international short cartridges — available from Kaweco, Pelikan, Diamine, Schmidt, and many others, meaning you're not locked into one brand. A squeeze converter is available but holds only ~0.4ml, barely more than a half-used cartridge. For regular converter use, the Safari is significantly more practical.

Kaweco Classic Sport (eyedropper conversion): Here is where the Sport pulls ahead of almost every pen in its price range. The plastic Classic Sport barrel can be converted to an eyedropper fill — you apply a thin layer of silicone grease to the nib section threads, fill the barrel directly with bottled ink using a syringe or dropper, then screw the nib section back in. This holds approximately 2ml of ink — roughly three to four times what you get from a standard cartridge, or nearly three Z28 converters' worth. For writers who want to use premium bottled inks and don't want to refill constantly, this is a significant capability.

The Clip Situation

The LAMY Safari includes a stainless steel clip as standard. It's sturdy, spring-loaded, and grips shirt pockets and notebook covers firmly. This is included in the SGD 55 price.

The Kaweco Classic Sport does not include a clip. The clip is a separate accessory that screws onto the cap ring, available in gold or silver finish, and costs approximately SGD 14 at Cityluxe. If you intend to pocket-carry the Sport — which is the primary use case the pen was designed for — factor this into your budget. The effective cost of a clip-equipped Kaweco Classic Sport is around SGD 79. That said, many Sport owners choose not to add the clip at all; the screw cap is secure enough that the pen won't fall out of a proper pocket.

Ink Window

The Safari has a small slit-shaped window on the barrel that lets you see roughly how much ink remains. It's not precise, but it gives you a warning before you run dry mid-sentence. The Kaweco Classic Sport has no ink window — the barrel is opaque. When the pen runs dry, it runs dry without warning. For cartridge use this is less critical (you typically know when you loaded the cartridge), but for eyedropper fill where you've added an unmarked quantity of ink, you have no visual reference at all. The transparent version of the Kaweco Ice Sport solves this, but the Classic Sport does not.

Paper Compatibility

Because LAMY nibs write drier than Kaweco nibs, the Safari is more forgiving on everyday paper. It handles standard 70–80gsm office paper, school notebooks, and cheaper copy paper without significant bleed-through or feathering. If you're someone who writes in whatever notebook you have on hand, the Safari suits that use case better.

The Kaweco Sport's wetter ink flow means it benefits from better paper. On 80–90gsm or above — Leuchtturm1917, MD Notebook, Clairefontaine, or similar quality paper — it performs beautifully. On thin or low-quality paper, the wetter flow can cause feathering and show-through. In Singapore, standard office paper (typically 70–75gsm) may show some feathering with the Sport, particularly in F and M nibs. Going to EF reduces this significantly. If you pair the Sport with quality notebooks, this concern largely disappears.

Portability

Both pens cap to exactly 10.5cm — the same length. But the Safari's smaller size is a side effect of its design as a desk pen, while the Kaweco's identical cap-length was the original design goal. The Sport was specifically engineered to fit in a shirt breast pocket in its capped form. Posted, both pens extend to near-identical lengths (13.5–13.9cm). The meaningful portability difference is the screw cap: the Sport is better sealed for bag and pocket carry where it may sit uncapped (inside its cap) for extended periods.

Left-Handed Writers

This is one area where the two pens genuinely split.

The LAMY Safari's triangular grip is optimised for a right-handed hold. Left-handed writers who use an underwriter or oblique grip (common and comfortable for many lefties) often find that one of the triangular facets sits at the wrong angle for their natural position, causing discomfort or forcing an unnatural grip adjustment. Some left-handed writers adapt to it easily; others find it a dealbreaker. You cannot rotate the nib to fix this without fighting the grip geometry.

The Kaweco Classic Sport's smooth octagonal grip is entirely neutral. It does not tell you where to put your fingers, so left-handed writers hold it in whatever position works for them.

Colour Options

LAMY releases a special edition Safari colour every year — past editions have included Umbra, Aquamarine, Violet, Mango, and others that became collector favourites. The standing range includes Black, White, Blue, Red, Yellow, Green, and Pink. If colour is important to you, LAMY gives you substantially more to choose from and a reason to come back each year.

The Kaweco Classic Sport keeps it clean: Black, White, Navy, Red, Green, and Bordeaux. The restraint is intentional — the design philosophy of the Sport is minimal, almost vintage. The colour range supports that character. If you want something that doesn't announce itself as a bold fashion item, the Sport's palette suits that.

LAMY Safari — 10+ colours including annual specials

Kaweco Classic Sport — 6 classic colours

Nib Swapping and Customisation

Both pens support nib swapping without tools, which is one of the reasons both are so popular as starter pens — you can experiment with different nib sizes without buying a new pen each time.

LAMY Safari: Grab the nib firmly between thumb and index finger and pull straight up — it comes off cleanly. LAMY nibs fit interchangeably across almost all LAMY fountain pen models (Safari, Al-Star, Studio, Logo, CP1, and more), so your nib collection grows with your pen collection. LAMY also offers 1.1mm, 1.5mm, and 1.9mm calligraphy stub nibs for the Safari.

Kaweco Classic Sport: The metal nib and feed pull out together from the front of the section — you may need a piece of rubber or a grip aid for the first few pulls. Kaweco uses standard Bock nibs, and the Sport nib unit is compatible with other pen brands that use the same system. The Sport also offers 1.1mm and 1.5mm calligraphy italic nibs.

The Accessories Ecosystem

Both pens have strong accessory ecosystems, but in different directions.

LAMY: Cartridges, the Z28 converter, interchangeable nibs that cross into 12+ other LAMY models, LAMY's own extensive ink range, and a loyal global community with third-party resources. If you go deep into LAMY, one set of nibs serves multiple pens.

Kaweco: The Sport has a well-developed accessory catalogue — sport clips (gold and silver), mini sport converters, replacement nibs, and the growing Kaweco ink range. The pen uses standard international short cartridges, which are available from dozens of ink brands including Pelikan, Diamine, and Schmidt, giving you broad ink access even without a converter. The eyedropper conversion is perhaps its most impressive unlockable feature and costs nothing beyond an SGD 3 syringe and a small amount of silicone grease.

Engraving

Both pens can be engraved at the Cityluxe WorkRoom at 601 Sims Drive, #04-05. The Safari's cap and barrel both take engraving cleanly. The Kaweco Sport's short, round barrel — when posted — is particularly well-suited to engraving because the proportions show text clearly without crowding. It's the most frequently engraved pen in our WorkRoom for exactly this reason, and one of the most popular gifted pens in Singapore.

Kaweco Classic Sport — laser engraved at the Cityluxe WorkRoom

Who Should Buy the Safari?

• First-time fountain pen users who want guidance on grip and hold
• Desk writers who want the convenience of a snap cap
• Anyone who wants to use bottled ink with a converter (0.7ml is practical)
• Writers who use standard office or school paper and need a forgiving, drier nib
• Right-handed writers (the ergonomic grip was designed for them)
• Collectors who enjoy annual special edition colours
• People who already own other LAMY pens and want to share nibs across models

Who Should Buy the Sport?

• Writers who carry their pen in a pocket or small bag and write on the go
• Left-handed writers who find the Safari's triangular grip awkward
• Experienced pen holders who don't need grip guidance
• Anyone who wants to try the eyedropper conversion for maximum ink capacity
• Those giving a pen as a gift — especially with engraving
• Writers who store pens for extended periods and need the better seal of a screw cap
• Ink experimenters who want access to any brand's standard international cartridges
• Minimalists who want the pen to stay out of the way visually

The Honest Answer

If this is your first fountain pen and you write primarily at a desk, the Safari is the stronger recommendation. The grip guidance, the included clip, the ink window, and the practical converter capacity all point in that direction. If you already hold a pen comfortably and you carry your pen with you, the Sport is the more versatile long-term choice — the eyedropper conversion, the screw cap, and the neutral grip make it a pen that grows with you as your habits evolve. Both will last years with basic care. Neither will disappoint you.