I have the plastic Safari and it is very light but writes well. I also have the Lamy in aluminum, but it’s a rollerball; the body is almost identical. The heft is slightly more, but if you’re used to brass pens, I would say the difference is negligible. I’ve carried brass and stainless steel pens and can understand the attraction of the heft.
The Pilot Vanish Point I have actually has more heft than the Lamy aluminum and feels thinner (didn’t do a side by side yet).
Thanks for the suggests. Those 3D prints look fun - though I don’t have access to a printer myself. Online there are a couple of places nearby that can do 3D prints, if the price is right I might try those.
matlward. I still write with fountain pens every day, and have a nice collection of them in display. I say get one. They’re tedious no doubt. Fountains need to be cleaned now and then, sometimes they skip, and can leak if not tended to. Plus side is that a fountain pen can be nicely creative and nothing else looks quite like it. I recommend a stub nib. Those really change up the line thickness when writing, adding to your personality on paper. I believe the Pilot Metropolitan series offers a stub nib. About $20, and metal. If you get a converter for it, many hundreds of inks become available, including permanent ones. Permanent ink is advised for documents of course, but harder to clean the pen, and a bitch if the pen ever dries out. So get yourself a fountain pen and join the proud minority of smeared-ink letter writers (I’m a lefty).
Daily: Pilot Metro, TWSBI 580 ALR, and a Rotring 800 mech pencil
The first pens I bought were a Lamy Logo and then a CP1. At first I started with a Medium nib but on low-quality paper it wrote very thick so eventually got a fine and then an extra fine nib. I liked the pens because they are so small but after a while I bought a Lamy Safari. Man I did not knew how much I was going to like that grip! I used it for a very long time! But it was a bit hard to refill with the cardridge converter, so eventually I bought a Lamy 2000 EF for a birthday present. Man that thing writes incredibly smooth, no idea it was going to be such a difference! Yes it’s much more expensive but it is very easy to refill (piston-filler and way less cleanup due to the hooded nib), holds much more ink and as a bonus the nib can be used upside-down to get even more fine lines!
KnotSoMuch I started with a fisher bullet pen and I also have some other pens the same size.
The smooth clean lines is what sold me on this one plus the one handed operation and no parts to lose.It uses a Lamay M22 cartridge.
The cord I have on it helps to hold it.
Thanks for the memory jog… I had forgotten my favorite ball point as it was lost years ago. I had the Rotring that was a heavy, thin pencil and red/blue pen in the same thin tube. Loved that pen! Have been using fountain pens since about 1979 and love them… just need a minor upgrade as my old Shaffer Sc\hool pen is really starting to feel with wear.
Have any of you used this pen? It should have a bit more heft than plastic or aluminum… Kaweco Brass Sport
Bic round stic med. And a basic sharpie. I used to cut the Bic’s down to 4 inches so they would lay flat when carried in a front pants pocket. But now they go in a cargo pocket with the sharpie.
I’ve been into fountain pens much longer than flashlights.
For a while I carried a Lamy Safari in charcoal, but for a long time I coveted the 21k Sailors. Almost three years ago now I finally purchased a Sailor Pro Gear Realo (piston filler) with M nib, and though it’s a bit much for EDC I don’t care and I carry it anyways because it’s awesome. I’ve also gotten into vintage pens, and I sometimes EDC an old Parker 51 Aerometric.
Ball pens are maybe more practical, but the writing experience of a good fp is more than worth the tradeoffs for me. Plus the cool factor is undeniable. That being said I usually keep a space pen of sorts as a backup (I prefer to put the Fisher refill into another pen body)
It’s a great writing instrument. I just wish PILOT had thought to make the ink reservoir larger. I often use a cartridge that I refill, rather than a converter. I get about 20% more ink. But lately I’ve not been bothering with fountain pens for EDC. They’re usually terrible for signing those printed receipts.
My pen of choice is a Fisher Space Pen bullet, which is super small. Mine is abused. A little dented and the cap “data nub” came off at some point, so I use a rubber cap over it to keep my pants pockets from getting ink stains. When I’m using my portable writing pad, I’ve got a Zebra Sharbo multi-pen docked to its side. 2 ballpoints, 1 pencil. Very nicely made. This one is a limited edition.
In my pencil case, I had a Lamy Safari or a Pilot Metro with fine nibs. As a teacher, I like to have inks that cannot be imitated. I mostly use Lie de Thé by J. Herbin.
… but nowadays I prefer only take easy pen like Uni boxy 100 as edc.
I EDC cheap, plastic ballpoint pens, because I keep losing them on regular basis.
For daily writing I like to use my grandpa’s 1949 Waterman fountain pen.
Mike