Review: Lamy Safari (2008)
penaddict.com
penaddict.com
Also, once the world returns to normal, check out a local pen show or pen meet, there's a pretty active community of fountain pen enthusiasts, if it's a rabbit hole you care to pursue.
You're right in that as a result there are lines that don't really draw as well as one might like. I'm so terrible at drawing that that doesn't matter to me and in exchange I get the lighter weight of the Safari. But it's not for everyone!
I really like Lamy 2000, though.
In the same price range you'll find the article's Lamy Safari, and the TWSBI Eco. The Eco, in particular, is an excellent value. It is a good piston-filling fountain pen. The nibs have slight feedback, so it feels like you're using a pencil on most paper.
Don't get me started on bottled inks. :)
One last bit of advice... Don't buy from Amazon (especially for the more popular pens). There's a huge counterfeiting problem on Amazon. Instead, buy from a specialty retailer. They'll give you better service, you'll get the real thing, and you'll be able to find ink samples. In the U.S. I've bought from Goulet Pens (love them, and their video tutorials [1]), Fountain Pen Revolution (for Indian-made pens), and Pen Chalet.
I had an old Waterman fountain pen in my closet. I wanted to figure out how to actually use the converter, because I had stuck to cartridges, but disliked running out. I checked out the videos and am really enjoying the hobby.
[1] https://blog.gouletpens.com/fountain-pen-education/fountain-...
That said, I've come to terms with the 2000's nib's narrow sweet spot and I've no arguments with everyone who says how good that nib is. :-)
The Lamy Wikipedia entry [1] has a picture of the Lamy 2000 fountain pen for those that don't know what I'm talking about.
In general though, the three major Japanese pen companies make great pens of high quality and aesthetics and reasonable prices for someone that wants to start collecting pens. These companies are Sailor, Platinum, and Pilot/Namiki. I have perhaps a dozen of these and I like all of them. If you ever get to go to Tokyo, visit one of the large stationary/writing supplies stores. I'm sorry, I can't remember the name of the one I went to but it was perhaps six or seven floors of paper, inks, pens, etc. It was in one of the major shopping districts and easy to get to. It was great!
Even if you are going to buy just one pen, check out the entertaining world of YouTube pen reviews. One of my favorite YouTube pen bloggers is sbrebrown, see [2].
I have a Lamy with a clear grip so that you can see the feed--not sure which model. I also have a Pilot Metropolitan, which has a better seal and doesn't dry out as bad when it's disused.
I kind of want to get myself an electric typewriter so that I can write comfortably without really being able to edit (to force myself to keep writing instead of going back and editing), but I know that it will end up in disuse after writing a few dozen pages with it. My Apple Magic Keyboard, my full-size mechanical keyboard, and my ThinkPad's built-in keyboard are the only writing devices that get much use for me anymore.
That said if the pen is gunked up inside that won't help, either flush it through or some pens like the Lamy Safari come apart with a little effort.
For those in the UK, Cult Pens are a good online supplier, I'm sure the US will have some equally good outlets.
As some folks have mentioned, normal US notebook paper doesn't work particularly well with fountain pens (they tend to show through to the other side enough that I can only use one side of each page). Most printer paper also suffers from this problem. You can get nicer notebooks that address this but they tend to be very pricey and I take notes prolifically (and of things that I don't particularly care to keep) enough that those aren't a great solution for me either--I go through them too quickly, and then I have a collection of random ephemera that I feel bad about tossing. So I use the paper mentioned above with off-brand Levinger rings, which let me reorganize them fairly easily (though it's still enough of a hassle that I'm thinking about giving the good ol' 3-ring binder another try...)
[0] https://www.amazon.com/HP-Printer-Paper-Premium32-Letter/dp/...
I have tried pretty much every note taking system there is and unfortunately none that support a platform agnostic, simple, and clean way to have hybrid handwritten and typed notes. Apple notes with iPad and pencil came closest. I find (and studies suggest) that handwritten notes allow for much better understanding and organic brain recall than typed but lose a lot of search/machine recall functionality.
I think if more people enjoyed writing by hand we would soon have better hybrid analog/digital note taking solutions. Strongly recommend picking up a Lamy Safari!
I never settled on a notebook I really liked with the pens. Rhodia pads have the best texture for those two nibs, but were never great for anything but throwaway notes. Now I write short notes with a pencil.
In the budget category, I think the Lamy Safari is actually quire overrated. For my money, the Twsbi Eco and Twsbi Go are the best budget fountain pens. After that the Pilot Metropolitan and the Platinum Preppy are also excellent. Only in the next tier do I put Lamy, Kaweco, and the rest.
If you want a truly excellent "techie" pen, check out the Pilot Vanishing Point. But it's several hundred dollars.
If you want that German feel, the Lamy 2000 is the way to go.
Jin Hao 159 especially:
I have a Lamy Al-star (metal-body version of the Safari in the OP) and it has treated me very well for some years now. My only issue had been losing it, but have since bought a replacement.
I’m 39 now and use them almost exclusively, and I have a collection of over fifty (predominantly metal-bodied, because I like the heft, but I have three or four Lamy pens too, including two transparent ones loaded with fluo ink which I call “the lightsabers”).
I still write letters by hand and send them by post. I sit down and erupt fifty handwritten page documents detailing my plans or thoughts before typing them up for editing. There’s something almost zen-like and cathartic about writing in cursive with a good pen, weighty, well-balanced pen.
Anyway, if you’re really interested in upper-crust writing, I strongly recommend the Graf von Faber-Castell “Tamitio” calligraphy set (see http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/331163-first-l... for a review). If you have good cursive skills and know how to glide over the page rather than dig in and apply force, it’s heaven to write with.
[1] The two Lamy Safaris I have dry out if left pointing upwards after a couple of days. They're ridiculously wet and concentrated if left nib-down. Somewhat hit and miss if they're left level. The Waterman and Pelikan are both unaffected by their direction of repose. The cheap and now very old Parker doesn't seem to suffer either.
One writes to leave one’s mark. One writes well because one recognises the importance of presenting one’s thoughts in an aesthetically pleasing manner — a manner that in a certain sense ‘costs’ the writer a great deal because it implies maintaining discipline and order. One sends letters because one wishes to make an effort to avoid the transient and facile nature of modern electronic communication — and because in a certain sense one wishes one’s communication to be ‘timeless’ and transcendent. How does filming oneself writing and sending it actually fit into this?
Also I accidentally took mine on a flight (between two sea-level locations!) and it didn't leak in my bag.
I've tried Noodler's Ink 54th Massachusetts in the Eco, and it wrote a line one size up. Fantastic ink, but you have to know what you're getting into. It wants to charge out of the pen and onto the page, so even with the Eco, I had to have it in a pen cup, nib-up when not in use. (I have the pen horizontal on my desk top or in a drawer when inked with other inks.)
I, too, can highly recommend the TWSBI Eco. It is definitely worth every penny of its comparatively low price.
My actual kid graduated to grown up pens once school stopped requiring the standard set of kid's hardware, but I prefer the lighter weight.
For me, using a heavy pen is like eating with silver utensils: inconvenient and thus seemingly pretentious. But some people value the heft for functional, as well as style purposes. To each their own!
I’d recommend checking out the Preppy from Platinum. It’s a great pen and a good deal cheaper than the Safari. https://unsharpen.com/pen/platinum-preppy-fountain-pen/ The Safari is a lot of fun but it’s less fun to experiment with a $25 pen than a few $3 ones!
Give me this stylish, classic look for $19 from Pilot any day: https://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Metropolitan-Collection-Fountai...
I have 2 of them, they are great. Solid metal, sleek construction.
Here are some nice recommendations for beginners, including the Lamy Safari: https://www.jetpens.com/blog/the-best-beginner-fountain-pens...
Chinese characters in print are composed with many pen lifts per character, but some cursive forms do exist. Do you prefer to use a cursive style or a printed style in your Chinese writing?
You can get some really good looking, cheap, Jinhaos on the Internet (eBay, etc) (e.g. $4/pen). These are Chinese pens, and the quality control is fairly poor. You can buy 5 of the same model and one may be great and another may not. The good ones, though, are great. They are not cheap quality material. I got an x450, and swapped out the nib for a Goulet nib, and I love the pen.
penBBS[1] is a Chinese woman who makes pens and sells them on Etsy. These are of quite good quality - you can search the Internet for reviews. I have a 309 - it was the first pen among many that I've tried that dethroned the Pilot Metropolitan. She also has some creative designs like the 469 which has a nib and compartment at both ends, so you can fill it with 2 different inks. The nibs on the PenBBS are OK, but some of them will allow you to swap with other brands' nibs - be sure to research this though as not all her pens will allow for this (the caps may not fit with other nibs of the same size).
Most of the joy with fountain pens is using is trying different inks out. Various sites sell samplers. I usually buy mine from Goulet Pens[2]. Unless you really use the pen a lot a bottle of ink (35-50ml) will last years, and it's boring to use the same ink over and over. So I just buy the samplers. You may need a syringe to fill your pen with them, though.
Last but not least - the type of paper matters, and most notebooks in the US are not fountain pen ink friendly. You'll get feathering, bleed through, or both. Try Clairefontaine or Figurare notebooks. There are other options. If you have a Japanese store in your town with a stationery section, chances are most of their notebooks will be good with FP ink as I believe Japanese students still use FP a lot.
I don't recommend spending more on a pen than you are willing to lose. People lose pens all the time. I've personally lost 2 Pilot Metropolitans. If it's valuable, you will keep it at home and rarely use it.
(Yes, I walk around with a FP pen in my pocket. No pocket protector. I live dangerously).
[1] https://www.etsy.com/shop/PENBBSOfficialStore
[2] https://www.gouletpens.com/collections/ink-sample-package-se...
And if your Safari barrel does crack it still won’t leak ink all over, since the ink is in a cartridge and not directly in the barrel.
The capacity on TWSBIs is great though, my 580 is one of my favorite pens. In the Safari’s price range the Eco is a great pen too.
Nib problems on the other hand, less helpful. A friend bent the tip of his Eco (fell off a table I think) and they said “buy a new pen”. Spares not even for sale.
[1] https://www.twsbi.com/collections/frontpage/products/twsbi-d...