Kaweco Student Vintage Blue

When you look at my pen collection, you'll definitely notice that I'm not a huge fan of brightly-coloured, flashy pens. Ok, there might be a few exceptions, such as acrylic pens (e.g. Kaweco artsport, or Delta Journal). But in general it doesn't do the trick for me... IN GENERAL, but NOT in this case! Even though this Vintage blue Kaweco Student could well be categorized as one of those 'flashy' pens, its colour doesn't bother me at all! Oddly enough, it was the colour that made me interested in the first place!

Brand, model name and country of origin, all stylishly printed on the back of the cap.

The vintage blue colour scheme (along with a yellow version) is one of the new colours Kaweco recently introduced for the Student, their 'entry-level' full-sized model. I literally fell in love with it the moment I saw it on the Kaweco website! So I was extremely happy to find out that the colour is exactly the same in real life! I can't really describe the color, my best attempt would be: a vibrant blue-turquoise with a hint of vintage to it!

The Student is, as I said, the cheapest full-size pen Kaweco has to offer. As the name suggests, it's aimed at students. It's not the fanciest pen Kaweco sells, but the lower price tag makes this a solid choice in the entry-mid level range.

The design of the pen is similar to the DiaII and Allrounder that I both reviewed before. The injection-molded plastic build makes it a lot lighter than both of these pens (The DiaII is heavier because of the brass inner body!). Though the rather large concave-shaped grip section is completely metal, which gives the pen a front-heavy balance. In the hand it feels very well-balanced.  Posting the pen is possible, it does get quite long (well over 15cm) but it doesn't throw off the balance.

I caught myself often picking this pen when I had to do a lot of writing. It's a well-balanced and comfortable choice for my - I guess 'normal-sized' - hands! The only issue I encountered when doing these longer writing sessions, was that the chrome grip section -even though it has that nice concave shape I love- would get a bit slippery after a while. 

given the price point, fit and finish is very reasonable. It's a solid pen, and everything fits together snugly. The only point of criticism are the visible seams on both cap and barrel. Other than that, it's easily on par with other, more expensive kaweco pens.

The fine nib writes smooth, and is fun to use. However I did have some problems with hard starts and skipping. Opening the tines up a litle bit helped, but it would still occasionally skip, or even run dry after longer writing sessions. Only recently I found out that the converter is to blame for this bad behaviour. It doesn't come with an agitator (a little ball or spring that helps to break the surface tension of the ink), and because I keep my pens nib-up on my desk the ink would stay away from the feed. I took the converter apart (which turned out very easy) and added a metal ball from an empty Platinum cartridge (I'd always keep a few empty ones around, you never know they might come in handy!)

The Student is a lovely pen. The design and colour combine to form a great looking pen with a retro-ish feel to it. And as the name suggests, it's a decent choice for everyday use in school, or in the office. you'll be paying around 40 EUR/ 55 USD, which is quite reasonable I think.

Note: this pen was sent to me by Kaweco, free of charge, so I could write this review.  I was in no way influenced in the making of this review, the opinions shared in this review are completely my own!