I recently purchased the new Super5 0.5mm stub nib fountain pen in black on a whim. I have some 0.6mm stub nibs pens from Nemosine and my beloved Esterbrook Falcon is about that width as well so I was looking forward to trying another pen with this diminutive stub. My handwriting is small and being left-handed, any stubs larger than a 1.1mm don’t always make proper contact with the paper for me or cause all my letters to fill in so finding that sweet spot in the stub category is pretty limited. And since the Super5 is just $27.95, how could I not give it a try?
Super5 is a relatively new entry into the fountain pen, at least in the US. From the photos on Goulet Pens, the pens look kind of plastic-y but in reality, the pen feel surprisingly sturdy. ON the scale, filled and capped it weighs 24g and 19g uncapped. That’s right between a Lamy AL-Star (22g) and the Lamy Studio (28g) so its a pretty solid pen. It turns out the grip area is metal which gives it solid weighting to the tip. The body and cap are plastic but the clip is also metal. So overall, its not as low-budget as I might have expected.
The clip seems solid and the pen snaps closed tightly with a click. The overall shape is a long tapered bullet which in not unappealing but the plain black with a big logo on the side doesn’t make it my favorite pens to look at. Then again, a Pilot G-2 is a great writer and is an ugly pen. So, looks can be deceiving.
In writing, I had no issues with this pen at all. I loaded the blue ink cartridge that shipped with the pen (a standard European short cartridge in blue) and started writing. It wrote smoothly with the lightest of touch in all the wonky angles that this lefty uses.
I miswrote that its a 0.6… Super5 = 0.5mm, at least for now. It sort of reminds me of a medium sized nib without the iridium tip roundy-ness. I get a nice mix of thick and thin stokes rather than an overall roundness in a regular medium nib.
If you’re looking for a new kind of nib at a reasonable price, this is not a pen to be overlooked. Its performance is excellent even if its overall aesthetics wouldn’t win a beauty contest.
I used this pen for a short time, and I found that even though the cap seemed to snap on tightly, the nib dried out quickly. If I hadn’t used it for only a few days, it would take a lot of scribbling to get it going again. The Super 5 INK, on the other hand, is fantastic! Waterproof and comes in several good colors.
I would like to add that the plastic barrel is coated with piano lacquer.
I agree, the big SUPER5 brand on the barrel is a big turn off for me. I wonder if there is a way to remove it. Did you try to put a converter in this pen?
I suspect the logo will wear off the barrel pretty quickly. The cartridge is a standard European short and the barrel was long enough to hold a space empty cartridge and the standard black cartridge so I think a converter will easily fit.
An updated version is now being featured at massdrop.com — with your choice of four sizes of calligraphy nib and five barrel colors. The clunky logo isn’t printed in white anymore, but discreetly molded into the barrel. The deal also includes optional pen cleaning solution and a Kaweco converter.
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/super5-calligraphy-fountain-pen?mode=guest_open
whoops — the converter is an upcharge, too… 🙂