Lamy Safari Thoughts

This fountain pen gets a lot of love from fountain pen enthusiasts. I thought it'd be an amazing pen, but honestly I don't like it all that much. It's a good quality pen. I don't like materials used or the way it feels in my hand. I still think the best beginner fountain pen would have to be the Pilot Metropolitan. I don't really know a good way to talk about fountain pens, so I'm going to jump around and talk about different aspects.

Quality wise, the Safari is great. It's an extremely well made pen. Mine works flawlessly. I've had no issues with the nib skipping when writing.

I don't especially like that this pen is made of plastic. It makes it feel very cheap to me. I guess the use of plastic is nice, because it keeps the pen very light. Luckily, there is an aluminum version available, but that costs a little bit more.

The cap stays on very firmly. I've never had it accidentally fall off. I'm not the biggest fan of the clip. It's way too big. It does seem to be pretty sturdy though. I don't have any fears that it'd snap off.

The pen itself is of course full-sized, so there'e plenty to hold when writing. I love fountain pens for the fact that they write so smoothly. However, the nib on this pen is very scratchy. My Metropolitan writes very smoothly, but this one not so much. That's just something to note, as I guess there's nothing wrong with a scratchy nib. I don't like grip at all. It's a triangular shaped grip and is kind of meant to show you how to hold a fountain pen. I don't like it at all, because you have no choice but to write the way Lamy intended. The grip is only comfortable in that one way. What if I held my pen differently? Then you're screwed. I don't know if that makes sense at all. I just feel as if you're being forced to hold the pen in one way only.

These pens retail for around $20 to $30. Mine is a special edition colorway for 2016, which is pretty neat. Lamy always puts out a special colorway Safari every year if you are a collector of these. The black on purple looks awesome to me. The Safaris come in tons of colors as well. I guess that's the benefit of using a plastic body. You can get plastic in practically every color and shade.

These pens are pretty popular, but I wasn't all that impressed with mine. I prefer the Pilot Metropolitan, which feels better in the hand, writes better, and is only $15. I don't personally recommend it. Tons of other people seem to enjoy it, so maybe it's just a preference thing. Thanks for looking!