As a member of the United Inkdom I have just had the pleasure of road testing the Kaweco Stainless Steel Supra.
Minimalist in appearance the Supra is made entirely of untreated CNC-machined stainless steel. The capsule like design comes with an extender unit that allows it to be made into two different lengths. The cap screws securely onto either end, at either length.
With the middle extender unit fitted, it’s a full-size pen, with space for long a cartridge or standard converter. It is very comfortable in the hand and very smooth to write with. I used it in my Rhodia note book using Robert Oster Midnight Blue fountain pen ink and it went like a dream. You can screw the cap on the end if you wish, but the result, even for my big hand, is too long.
Remove the extender unit, and it’s a short pen. Quite a normal width, but short and stubby to make it more pocketable and similar in length to the Kaweco Sport. In this format, unless you have very tiny hands, you’ll probably find it more comfortable to use with the cap screwed on the end to extend the barrel to a more usable length. Not unlike utilising the Sport caps to extend their pen length.
In this configuration, as with the Sport, there’s only room for a mini Kaweco converter, and only the shorter type of international standard cartridges can be used. Yeah I know… fiddly!
The pen comes with a polished stainless steel nib, manufactured by Bock of Heidelberg and is available in extra-fine, fine, medium, broad and extra-broad. The pen I have tested has a medium nib. Of note, the nib is not interchangeable as with most other Kaweco pens, but it is still a screw-in nib unit for easy replacing if you should need to. It comes, as usual, in the classic metal Kaweco gift box with a short international standard cartridge.
Dimensions: full length capped: 128mm; full length posted: 162mm. Short length capped: 97mm; short length posted.
Would I buy it? Well, it is a little bit on the fiddly side. It’s like putting a telescopic weapon together, if you’re into that sort of thing. But it is a comfortable smooth writer and does look very slick. I would probably use it in the short configuration as it looks slicker (think pill capsule) and all in all more complete. To be honest, I do wonder why it came with the middle section in the first place? I don’t think it needs it and I don’t really want to pay for something extra that I’ll never utilise. I’ll have a think….
As an avid fan of Kaweco, please use the search button to access my reviews of their other products.
FOUNTAIN PEN INK ART 