The Lamy Safari

Those are some nice lines...

Since it is my first official day of fall break, I decided to be productive and get a post online. My mom recently returned from Paris and brought back a fountain pen for me. This is my first real fountain pen, since before this I had only written a few lines with others' pens or just used Platinum Preppy's. I was very excited to start writing with it, yet somehow, the box managed to delay me from my goal. It is quite possibly the coolest pen container I have ever seen, because it can be flipped inside out (kinda) and the pen is just floating there before your eyes, just asking, no, begging to be touched.

As far as writing goes, I went right at it and ended up jotting down the entire set of Greek verbal accidence for the verb "λυω" in my Moleskine notebook.  The nib that came on my pen is an M, which I'm not terribly fond of, but honestly, it still puts down a great line on the paper that isn't too wet or thick.  One thing that I had to remember is that the German nib sizes are larger than the more precise Pilot nibs, probably because of the need for fine detail in writing kanji. The blue ink cartridge that comes with the Safari is more of a blue/black with a hint of purple. It really isn't that far off from Noodler's Polar Blue, which I am really loving.  The cartridge ink also takes very well to the Moleskine paper, with very little feathering if any.  The ink also did not bleed through at all, but at times it can seem a bit washed out. I've got some black cartridges, so I hope to add those to this review as soon as I get to them. Unfortunately, the ink reserve in the cartridges is so large that it is taking me forever to finish them off!  That's how it should be Pilot Petit1!

You take that top off!

One thing that immediately struck me about this pen is that the barrel has a somewhat triangular shape to it, which I assume is intended to make writing more comfortable over long periods of time, which I fully intend to test soon. The steel clip is really strong and allows me to hook this pen into my pocket, so I don't have to worry about it falling out like some of my other pens.  As far as installing a cartridge, there is an interesting little trick to getting it done, which is actually quite nice, which is to just twist the back end of the pen in place and it breaks the cartridge seal for you.  There isn't a whole lot of weight to this pen, but it does have durability going for it, and being a student, that is really the first thing I look for in a pen.

Overall, this is a very practical pen that I can see getting a lot of use for a long time.

Salvete!