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Kaweco Dia2: my pen palate cleanser

I recently sold my trusty Kaweco AL Sport, leaving me with just one Kaweco: the Art Sport Alabaster. But it transpires that my Art was only destined to be lonely for a short while. The itch to experience the Kaweco Dia2, which I’d resisted since reading Rupert’s excellent review, finally overtook me.

And I’m glad I took the plunge. The Dia2 has fantastic retro styling, and actually reminds me a great deal of the Montblanc 1912. Except for a tenth of the price.

Design

Let’s do a walkaround, shall we?

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Naturally, I went for the chrome option, although there is a gold-trimmed version if you’re so inclined. There’s also an amber limited edition for a lot more money, which thankfully I didn’t much like in the flesh. That saved me 235 quid.

So, the Dia2 is a fairly small black plastic pen. There’s a clear retro vibe, with some lovely detailing like the chrome bands and the ribbing for a pretend piston filler, and the usual Kaweco badges on both ends.

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And a bit of “subtle” Kaweco branding in case you forget who made it from the other four logos…

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The clip is distinctive, with an organic shape and a lot of decoration. It’s also strong and works really well.

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Overall, the fit and finish is very good. Plating is even, polish is high, no rough edges.

In the hand

In the hand, the Dia2 is not a big pen, but it’s comfortable, and you start to notice some curves. The barrel has a noticeable swell, and the section has a noticeable concave shape.

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It still offers a rather narrow grip, but the section is much longer than that of the Sport, so your fingers don’t touch the cap threads. Even if they did, you’d find the threads fairly comfortable.

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Incidentally, the cap winds on or off in one turn exactly, on plastic threads that are really steeply pitched. For its part, the section uses metal threads, and there’s an o-ring in there, too. Nothing has come loose in use so far.

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There’s metal inside the Dia2, so it’s not quite so lightweight as its size would lead you to expect. Body only and with most of a cartridge inside it tips the scales at 17g; capped it’s 27g.

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If you want more substance in the hand, the Dia2 will post, but not deeply, and something feels like it’s scraping. So I’d recommend you don’t post unless you have to.

On the page

At the business end you’ll find the usual steel Kaweco nib unit, as found on the AL Sport and Art Sport. Here on this slightly larger pen it looks distinctly undersized, but I’ll live with that for the flexibility of being able to swap in any of my other nibs.

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I opted for a broad with this purchase, and I’m pleased to say that it writes fairly well. A tiny bit of hard-starting, maybe, but smooth and easy to use.

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The Dia2 is designed for cartridges. There’s a spring inside the tail that can play havoc with converters, and no converter is supplied. I put in a Kaweco Midnight Blue cartridge and have had no problems. It’s sometimes nice to have a truly low-maintenance pen, even if you’re a bottled ink addict as I am.

Conclusion

I’m treating the Dia2 as a kind of palate cleanser. While it looks classy (and classic), it’s an inexpensive pen — I picked mine up for a hair over 50 quid. The interchangeable steel nibs mean you don’t have to worry about dropping it nib-down, can swap widths on a whim, and trust that cleaning is an absolute doddle. Being a cartridge-filler you can feed it ink from any WH Smith or pop a second cartridge in the back of the barrel. Everything fits together well and it’ll clip securely to your pocket and stay there until you need it. In essence, it’s a truly low-maintenance workhorse pen for when you’ve got other things to worry about. I find that quite refreshing.

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9 Comments

  1. slightlyunnerved

    Nice review – thank you. The Dia2 seems to be a pen that everyone who uses it likes. I’ve been tempted a few times, but can’t quite get past the size of the nib relative to the rest of the pen.

    On the subject of converters, do you think one of the Kaweco mini piston ones would work?

    Finally, are you at liberty to say where you got this? £50 is a much more tempting proposition. For that kind of money I could forgive the small nib! 🙂

    • rupertarzeian

      Kaweco make a standard international converter, (twist type) , although their mini piston converter (for the Kaweco Sport) should also fit, probably with smaller ink capacity. Both types are currently available on Cult Pens, at £2.99 and £4.89 respectively.

      • slightlyunnerved

        Thanks. I’ve used their standard one in a Perkeo and have been impressed by it. It was Anthony’s comment about the spring in the barrel and whether it would foul a full-length converter that made me ponder the question of the mini-piston.

        • rupertarzeian

          Oh I see. Yes, I suppose you would not want the spring pressing on the piston draw bar..

    • Anthony

      Penandpaper.co.uk, and it was actually 58 – I misremembered! They had a sale on and I used a code.

      Yeah, I think one of the mini converters would fit, or I remember reading that it’s possible to remove the spring.

      • slightlyunnerved

        Thanks. They’re my local shop – will check it out.

      • Jamie

        It’s entirely possible to remove the spring though I’m not sure how; perhaps a bit of garden wire with a hook at the end/ piece of welding rod similarly modified.
        My Dia 2 came from a German vendor, I got it some years ago when it was much better priced there than here. It was supplied with the Kaweco twist convertor, a Kaweco blue ink cart and the aforementioned spring supplied loose. I’ve only ever used the convertor.
        I got mine with a 14k medium nib unit too as the combined deal was very good at the time, this makes my Dia 2 a very lux feeling little pen, the generous 14k nib complements the heft and solidity of the pen and feels much better there than when it was temporarily fitted (for comparison) in my Al Sport.

  2. rupertarzeian

    Thank you for the link and the compliment. I am glad to hear that you like this pen. I enjoyed your write up and great close-up photos. The comparison with the Montblanc 1912 is interesting!
    Personally, the Dia 2 is one of my all time favourites. I do like to post the cap and find it super-comfortable to write with, and this is reflected in my sometimes scrappy handwriting! The size of the nib does not bother me. I did try the Kaweco converter in mine, which works well although it did lift the spring out of the barrel (although the spring is not essential). Now I tend to use it with cartridges (of which Kaweco’s royal blue is excellent). I have not had any significant hard starts with mine. I paid £76.00 at the time and so if you found one at £50 you were lucky!

  3. JML

    The spring can be removed so it doesn’t interfere with a converter. But the Kaweco converter has proven to me to be less than ideal. However, the Visconti Standard and Schmidt K1 converters fit perfectly.

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