Search the Community

Prompted by this thread: link I opened up one of my newer Lamy2000s in the full steel finish purchased a few months back from UK. On the newer nibs: The tipping has a peculiar interface shelf betwen tines and the hard tipping material per se.The Nib width is now marked on the nibs in addition to gold content and LAMY, so far I have not seen this on any of the older 18K/14K nib iterations on the Lamy 2000. Pics: http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/Lamy2000NewNib/IMG_0100.jpg http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/Lamy2000NewNib/IMG_0099.jpg http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/Lamy2000NewNib/IMG_0098.jpg HTH Hari

I wonder how many first-timers buy a fountain pen and stop using it because they don't know how? While I see introductory posts from people who say they've been using them since they were school-age, most of the world has not. To them, a fountain pen is either a mystery or it has a bad reputation ("they leak ink all over everything"). I held off getting a pen for a couple of months; a) because I was worried about appearing pretentious; and I didn't know how to get ink from the outside of the pen to the inside of the pen. I don't think the person who buys an FP casually is going go online and watch a bunch of videos. Either the manufacturer or the seller should make that unecessary. There are two places where the fountain pen industry industry fails people, in my opinion: 1-Companies do not include good instructions. I think these should cover the spectrum, from a brief overview of the new pen; how to use it (filling it, the best grip, etc.); to how to handle the most frequent problems. I think these should be crafted by a native speaker of the language in which they are written. I don't think this would take a big investment. Write them once, print many times. I expect a few pages would do it. 2- Test the pen before selling it. Make the pen enjoyable right out of the box. A few days ago, I posted that the Lamy EF nibs that I've tried were scratchy. Someone said they didn't agree with me, they said that after they tuned their EF nib using an online video for guidance, it worked great. Hello? That's like a car dealer selling you a car with the wheels out of alignment--"Don't worry buddy, there are You-Tube videos that will walk you right through it." I think the nibs should be tuned by either the manufacturer, or the dealer. I know that HisNibs.com and Richard Binder both do this. Maybe there are others. It's part of their customer service. Given that fountain pens are currently on the periphery of the writing instrument industry, I think they would do a lot better if they helped people make the transition painlessly. Get rid of the barriers to entry. Do you agree? What else could the FP industry do to make it easy for newcomers?