New Lamy Safari's - Charcoal and Black

June 19, 2009

So who can't use a few more Lamy Safari's? I think I own 14 fountain pens and 9 of them are Lamy's. 6 Safaris, (.5 Cursive italic red, EF blue, EF yellow, F light blue with red clip, EF charcoal and EF black.) a silver M AL-Star, EF Studio, and an EF Accent.

Red was my real first fountain pen ever, and the charcoal and black are my latest acquisitions.

I'm not going to re-invent the wheel with this review, as I've talked about the Safari in several previous blog posts. What can I say? I love this pen and the way it writes. They are not priced to break your budget. (About $30 with a converter) I like playing with different inks and I like to have a lot of pens inked at the same time so the Safari's work really well for me.

I love the black clip on the charcoal, and I'm wondering if I can switch it with the one on the black pen to make an a Darth Vader model... But don't get me wrong - I also love the silver clip on the black pen. My favorite pen color combination is black & silver.

My new charcoal Safari is actually one that's been around for a while - and I think they may have even stopped making it.

I see a few subtle differences between the charcoal and other Safari models.

For one, it's got a textured surface rather than the ultra-shiny versions. It might be my imagination but it feels a little lighter in my hand. I'm just ok with the textured surface. I don't love it and I don't hate it.

The shiny black Safari has a silver steel nib to the black steel on the charcoal. I haven't met an ink that hasn't showed nib creep on a Safari. No big deal - I just wipe it off if it gets really bad. Interestingly, each of these nibs are EF's, but the silver one writes really, really fine and dry. Probably the finest driest Lamy nib I own. That may be the only rub with the Safari is that their nib widths are sometimes inconsistent. I have a fine that's more like an EF, a few EF's that write like F's, and an EF that's more like a Medium. I don't care. I still love them. Replacement nibs are inexpensive and you can always have them fancied up like my Cursive Italic that Pendemonium cut for me.

I will absolutely be switching the nibs on these two pens. Black nib has to go on the black pen. No two ways about it.

This is the only thing I don't like about the charcoal model. The rim of the cap is cut differently than on all of the rest of my Safari's. It's got a sharp edge and I'm not sure if it was a production flaw, or just the way that the charcoal model came out. I even called Filofax (Lamy Repair) and asked them if this was a new version of the Safari and that was when I was told it was an older model.

99% of the time I post my pens as I write and the sharp edged cap digs into my hand. I'm wondering if I could maybe smooth the edge with a polishing cloth.

All said, these are still my favorite pens.

Go buy a few of them from Swisher Pens and don't forget a converter because I'm sure you will want to be trying out lots of different bottled ink- though these pens also take Lamy proprietary cartridges.

June 19, 2009

They are great aren't they. I have both blacks, but no red. The Ef is great on the charcoal. In the black I added a 1.1 mm italic nib. Also I think your's is either flawed or a different version I just compared it to my other Safaris, and I can't feel the difference. I have more Al-Stars than Safari's but I have been thinking of getting a red and a blue safari.