This post is a brief review of one of my recent acquisitions, a Lamy Safari Vista fountain pen, after having used it for over a month now. If you are into fountain pens like me, please read on.
I have been a fountain pen user all my life. Ever since I made the switch from pencil to pen in grade 5 (aeons ago!), I have preferred using fountain pens over ball-point pens.
I remember my then class teacher insisting that we use a fountain pen to make our handwriting better. Well, that theory didn’t hold good in my case – my handwriting is, as termed by my near-and-dear-ones, ‘crow crash’. Each letter that I write has a mind of its own. You will see one letter scuttling to the left, the next one shooting straight up, the next one in a hurry to get ahead of the one adjacent to it and so on. Suffice to say that my handwritten notes would have found good use during war-time communication – no enemy cryptologists would’ve been able to decipher my notes.
Well, anyway, back to fountain pens. Earlier on in my life, I used to be fascinated with Hero pens. Those China-made pens used to come in several models (the model number would be on the cap). I still have a couple of them stashed away somewhere.
Since then, I have collected several fountain pens. From a length-adjusting Sheaffer to the fanciest, most colourful ones, I now have a decent collection. The small pen shop at the entrance of Broadway in Ernakulam used to be one of my favourite haunts for buying pens.
A Lamy Safari Vista fountain pen is my latest buy; an impulsive one I did by clicking through an Instagram advertisement. Lamy is a German company started in 1930 by Josef Lamy, a sales representative for Parker Pens.
Here are my thoughts after using a Lamy Safari Vista fountain pen for a month:
- Since it has a transparent outer body, you can see all the pen’s inner workings. I found it beautiful, and this distinct style is one of the key reasons I picked this pen.
- It is a ‘thick’ pen, with the grip flattened on two sides, guiding you to hold it correctly while writing (People with unconventional writing grips may find this a bit uncomfortable).
- Based on the width of the tip, they have a few different types of nibs you could choose from. I chose the ‘Fine’ nib. It produces a narrow, smooth stroke while writing, and this is what I usually prefer.
- It comes with a cartridge converter – which means you can replace the default cartridge with a converter to refill ink.
- The clip is very sturdy – in fact, too sturdy that it leaves an impression on the surface you clip it. Overall, the pen, too, looks and feels sturdy.
- The pen writes well, and in the one month I have used it so far, there were several instances where I created reasons to write on paper, just to use this pen.
- Lamy Safari fountain pen price in India: Pricewise, at around Rs 3,000, it is not cheap even though it is among the most inexpensive pens in the Lamy lineup.
I am delighted with this purchase and will recommend this to my friends. You can check out the pen on Amazon using my referral link here: https://amzn.to/3jsJurR. So long!