Kaweco Supra Stainless Steel fountain pen review

The Kaweco Supra is a stubby metal pen that comes with an extension piece to make it a long metal pen. It’s unusual in Kaweco’s lineup in having a larger, #6, nib.

Price: £105
Filling method: cartridge/converter
Barrel options: This pen is also available in brass
Nib options: stainless-steel; extra-fine, fine, medium, broad, extra-broad
Length with extension piece: capped: 12.8cm; posted: 16.2cm
Length without extension piece: capped: 9.7cm; posted: 13.5cm
Width: 1.2cm
Weight with extension piece: capped: 49g; uncapped: 40g
Weight without extension piece: capped: 38g; uncapped 29g

The Supra is a difficult pen to review because it’s a great pen and it’s a not-so-great pen, and the two pens are combined to make a package that is, perhaps, unnecessary.

Let’s start with the great pen! In its short configuration, the Supra is a great pocket pen which continues Kaweco’s fine tradition of great pocket pens (the Sport and the Liliput).

It’s quite wide but not uncomfortably so and it’s long enough unposted for quick note-taking. Posted, the pen is a good well-balanced length and sits comfortably in the hand. It’s a little bit too heavy for me to use for extended periods but, really, you can’t buy a stainless steel pen and then be a wimp about the weight.

It looks fabulous like this, too. Plump and lovely, with little details like the branding on the end of the cap adding elegance.

The grip is a little contoured, adding to the charm and the comfort, and the #6 medium nib on my pen worked well, with a good flow and smooth touch.

The only downside to the stubby version of the Supra is that it’s too stubby for a useable converter, meaning cartridges are your only option.

The Supra can, however, be extended using the provided metal sleeve. The sleeve is the same diameter as the cap which has some consequences. When capped, the extended pen looks as if it has a long cap, not necessarily a bad thing unless you are me. If you are me and you are faced with something like this, you will, on virtually every single attempt to take the cap off the pen, instead take the extension piece off. This is annoying. Sadly, when I have finally managed to take the actual cap off, I’m left with a pen that has an odd looking extra wide bit stuck on it.

I find the extended pen unusable when posted.

It’s too long and far too heavy, with too much weight sitting above my hand. Unposted, it’s not much different to the posted stubby version except it doesn’t look as pretty. However, you can use a converter.

I would like to see Kaweco either pick one of these pens or sell both as separate pens (without the extension piece). It would presumably bring the price down for each but even if it didn’t, I wouldn’t feel like I was buying something I wouldn’t ever use. I would be tempted by a stubby Supra but (and I know this is more about feelings than rational thought) I don’t feel like buying a Supra kit and then storing the extension piece in a safe place until the day comes when I change my mind and I think an ultra-long strangely shaped pen is a great idea because when that day comes I’ll have forgotten where I put it. Which would be a shame.

Of course what I’m effectively saying is that I would be happier if Kaweco included less, which makes little sense and probably means you shouldn’t trust anything I tell you.

Many thanks to Kaweco and Scribble and the team at United Inkdom for lending this pen to me for this review.