
Review: Lamy Safari (2008) - Tomte
https://www.penaddict.com/blog/2008/11/24/review-lamy-safari.html
======
kloh
If you get a Safari and don't particularly enjoy writing with it -- give other
pens a chance. I personally find Lamy nibs atrocious, the sensation of their
nibs on smooth paper reminds me of nails on glass.

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.

~~~
tomgp
I’m a long time Safari user and find the nibs very variable especially the
thin ones which seem more common these days. I prefer the thick and find one
in five or six have that horrible scratchiness. What I do love is the shape of
the grip m on the barrel which I find just about the most comfortable of any
writing implement I’ve tried.

------
nextos
Safari is cool, but for the same price I've found some Pilots to be much
better. And if you are willing to spend a tiny bit more there are tons of good
options.

I really like Lamy 2000, though.

~~~
coffeefirst
Yes. I haven't tried the Safari, but if anyone is curious/looking to see what
the hype is about the Pilot Metropolitans are also great and affordable.

~~~
slowmovintarget
I just picked up a Pilot Metropolitan and am liking it. Be aware that a Pilot
fine nib is closer to a Western extra-fine. It really is smaller, though the
pen is well made for $30.

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-...](https://blog.gouletpens.com/fountain-pen-
education/fountain-pen-101/)

~~~
powersnail
Jetpens have pilot metropolitan at $20.

------
snazz
Fountain pens are nice to write with for really long handwritten documents,
but I do that so rarely these days that I spend longer cleaning out my pen to
get the ink flowing than I do actually writing. That says far more about me
than about fountain pens, however.

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.

~~~
dan-robertson
FWIW the pens I’ve used have generally been fine and had ink flowing straight
away after months of neglect. It might be related to the ink. I just use the
simple cheap ink one can find in high street stationary stores.

~~~
smileypete
Diamine inks are worth a look a look too, there's also converters for using
bottled ink in cartridge pens.

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.

------
Tcepsa
Probably too late to be noticed, but I want to mention that I've found that HP
Premium LaserJet paper has worked very well for writing on with fountain pens
for me. I started with 24lb and now am on 32lb [0]

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/...](https://www.amazon.com/HP-Printer-Paper-
Premium32-Letter/dp/B000099O2W/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=hp+premium+32&qid=1591288692&s=office-
products&sr=1-2)

------
maayank
I really enjoy my Pilot Metropolitan, even more than pens costing x5 the
price.

------
pcmoney
I thoroughly enjoy my Pilot Vanishing Point fine. However, lately I use a
Uniball Signo 0.38 more. Just less fuss and the ink is always there. I wish I
had reason to write more but too often using a computer is the default.

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!

~~~
jamesliudotcc
I used to switch between Lamy Safari (or Vista, which is a Safari with clear
instead of colored plastic in EF) and Pilot Vanishing Points (in F) depending
how rich I felt when I lost the last one. I owned some other hundred-dollar-
ish fountain pens too. The Pilot was the only one that ever wrote as nicely as
the 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.

~~~
pcmoney
Miraculously I am still on my one and only VP. Had the matte black and it has
been scratched and used so the brass underneath shows through, I am pretty
attached to it now. I strongly recommend Nanami Papers Journals and other
Tomoe River products. Great quality and value, not much more than a Rhodia and
2x the pages.

------
TheMagicHorsey
I'm a huge fountain pen buff, and own several dozen different fountain pens in
the same price range as the Lamy, as well as several dozen pens that are far
more expensive.

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.

------
billfruit
Pens from Boaer and Jin Hao are also good value, considering their very sturdy
all metal construction and low prices.

Jin Hao 159 especially:

[https://youtu.be/QZt0-uz4II4](https://youtu.be/QZt0-uz4II4)

~~~
waste_monk
I will say I have had a Jin Hao x450 I purchased from aliexpress break and
spill ink all over my bed. I think it was a fake or third-shift manufactured
though. The ink that came with it was so watery that it cleaned up completely
from the white quilt and sheets.

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.

------
qubex
I attended a school where calligraphy was still a major aspect and we were
taught to use fountain pens. You know how in the Harry Potter series there’s
all that very real-feeling ‘tradition’ about how a wand chooses its master?
That feels real because J. K. Rowling drew inspiration from the tradition of
schoolchildren choosing ‘their’ pen and it sticking with them for evermore.

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...](http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/331163-first-
look-graf-von-faber-castell-tamitio-calligraphy-set/) 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.

~~~
michaelg7x
I love the idea of letters being hand-written. In fact, having just done the
requisite minimum amount of writing with my fountain pens to keep them
working[1], I wondered about building an app which can record you via the
camera hand-writing a message, remove your hand and perhaps the pen from the
video, speed-up and create a time-lapse video which can be sent to someone.
Add a background from wherever you're holidaying (our desks for now, haha) and
it's a modern-day postcard. I don't have the specific skills to build it but
would love to show the time-investment in the process when sending someone a
message. I'm sure that time-lapse video apps already exist, just not with the
ability to auto-remove objects within the video.

[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.

~~~
qubex
To be honest, I can see where your idea of the app is coming from... but
what’s the point? Wouldn’t it be just yet another piece of self-aggrandising
performance art in this already totally narcissistic age?

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?

------
lwhsiao
I would highly recommend the TWSBI Eco as a starter pen close to this price
range. Piston-filled with a massive capacity, and comes with all the tools to
disassemble and clean.

~~~
yarrel
The Eco is great. I use it for any long documents I have to write because it's
so comfortable and reliable. I do have to clean it more often than other pens
due to the ink feed getting gunged up though.

Also I accidentally took mine on a flight (between two sea-level locations!)
and it didn't leak in my bag.

------
gumby
Safari is a kid's pen and it's great. I have one right here next to my laptop.

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!

------
thomas
If anyone is curious the clear version is known as the Vista.

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/](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!

------
supernova87a
I'm generally puzzled why Lamy (although clearly with a distinctive design and
marketing up the wazoo) gets so much attention. Maybe it's just a taste thing.

Give me this stylish, classic look for $19 from Pilot any day:
[https://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Metropolitan-Collection-
Fountai...](https://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Metropolitan-Collection-
Fountain-91107/dp/B009X9Z2FW)

I have 2 of them, they are great. Solid metal, sleek construction.

------
flobosg
At some point I almost went down the fountain pen rabbit hole but never
managed to buy one.

Here are some nice recommendations for beginners, including the Lamy Safari:
[https://www.jetpens.com/blog/the-best-beginner-fountain-
pens...](https://www.jetpens.com/blog/the-best-beginner-fountain-pens/pt/862)

------
rkallos
The Lamy Safari was the pen that started my addiction to fountain pens. It
holds a special place in my heart.

------
mrob
I've been using a Lamy Safari for nearly 10 years now. The paint is wearing
off the clip (I have the matte gray version; gloss finish versions have bare
metal clips) and the snap-fit cap has become slightly loose, but it still
writes as good as new.

------
Tomte
I'm not keen on the glossy finish, but at least the umbra colored one has a
nice matte finish that feels very good in the hand. Plus the black nib looks
great.

------
mwlp
I'm a big fan of Lamy's design and quality. A pair of Al-Stars got me through
HS and Uni.

------
schuke
I write in both English and Chinese. I do find Pilot’s pens somewhat better at
writing Chinese.

~~~
brandmeyer
I found that printing with a fountain pen is very difficult to do neatly, and
switched over entirely to using a cursive handwriting style. Every lift of the
pen tended to leave a short stray mark on the page that I couldn't manage to
do neatly.

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?

------
gjvc
Lamy Safari is really great for a daily pen. If you lose it, or it gets
damaged, no big loss.

------
BeetleB
As people have said in other comments, the Pilot Metropolitan is a pretty good
pen, and a bit cheaper. If you buy one, keep in mind that a Pilot medium nib
is similar to most Fine nibs. If I had to recommend one pen to start out with,
it would be that one. And it was my favorite one until recently - I found it
better than many of the more expensive ones.

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](https://www.etsy.com/shop/PENBBSOfficialStore)

[2] [https://www.gouletpens.com/collections/ink-sample-package-
se...](https://www.gouletpens.com/collections/ink-sample-package-sets)

------
jtth
The barrels of these crack easily. Go with TWSBI.

~~~
wlesieutre
Funny, I’ve heard that about TWSBIs before but not about Safaris.

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.

~~~
thomas
I have cracked multiple Twsbi pens but never a Safari. Weird.

~~~
wlesieutre
Never cracked the main body, but I did get a crack in the black plastic collar
around the nib/feed which had ink seeping slowly out the front on to my
fingertips. TWSBI sent a free replacement part.

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.

~~~
wlesieutre
Meant to specify: the cracked collar was on my TWSBI 580AL

