What will be your next Lamy pen buy and why.

[LP10]

I’ve a few shillings burning a hole in my pocket that I’m taking to the Birmingham (UK) Pen Show next month. A Lamy 2000 is top of my urges but do I get F or M?  Hopefully there’ll be the opportunity to try them both.  What should one be paying for a pre-owned 2000, hopefully in immaculate condition with its box?

[BrassRatt]

I might not get another Lamy. 

 

I have a Lamy 2000 Makrolon that I long to love ... but the CI nib gushes and floods the line it is writing.  Three successive nibmeisters (including the original grinder) have been unable to tame it so that it can show the line variation I paid for.  The nib writes beautifully, when suitably temporarily limited in its ink supply.  Various suggestions about putting slips of thin plastic between the nib and feed also fail to cure it. 

 

On the other hand, the Dialog 3 appeals to me, so I'm torn.  But I want some assurance that I can get a non-flooding CI nib on that one. 

 

[Checklist]

On 5/17/2022 at 12:47 PM, LP10 said:

A Lamy 2000 is top of my urges but do I get F or M?

 

Depends.  What do you write with now, and on what?  I bought my 2000 in F about a year ago, and it looks like a normal western fine, but it is a wetter line.  If you're using good, FP-friendly paper and normal ink, it'll be nice and richly colored.  Cheap paper or a wet ink, however, will probably tend to bleed.

 

Long story short, my 2000 was money well spent, and it is now my favorite pen.  Just make sure you know what you like to avoid disappointment.

[LP10]

On 5/20/2022 at 3:06 AM, Checklist said:

Depends

Sorry Checklist, it’s been a good while since I’ve been on-line.

 

I’m using quite a few pens in rotation but the one that lights the fire the most is a Parker 51.  I’m guessing it’s medium.  My second go to pen is a TWSBI.  Good paper and ink and the 51 is a delight to write with, if the Lamy, eventually, doesn’t match it I’ll be disappointed.

[da vinci]

Anything vintage, ideally a piston filler.   

[Checklist]

@LP10, no worries about the slow reply; we can't all live here.  In my experience, my fine 2000 is about as wet as my medium 51, with a slightly finer line; the older pen is undeniably a great writer, but the 2000 is a much better experience.  If the 51 lights your fire, the 2000 would be a good investment.

[LP10]

Thanks Checklist

8 hours ago, Checklist said:

If the 51 lights your fire, the 2000 would be a good investment.

This is ridiculous, I’m like a school boy waiting for Christmas anticipating my forthcoming pen show, not long now.

[LoBh]

I buy those special edition Safaris every year, regardless of the colour. I put them on display and look at them once in a while. I do have one Safari on permanent duty, a bog-standard red with a 1.1mm nib. It was my very first one, given to me by my sweet wife. 

[Rebbe]

I've slowed down on buying Safaris as of late, but the next round of Lamy purchases are going to be nibs and converters until I'm loaded for bear. The sheer number of nibs available that fit their intro line of pens is wonderful.

[inkstainedruth]

For me, it's going to depend entirely on what the next round of Safari/al-Star SE/LE colors will be.  Some I've liked and some I couldn't stand.  And a couple of years ago I lucked into a used French Blue Safari on eBay for not much more than the MSRP would be (or the US price for an al-Star) and that was the color I just lusted after.  I waffled back and forth on the Azure al-Star because it was hard to get a good photographic representation of the color online, but glad I got it, and recently swapped the nib on it for one of the hanzi nibs.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[jchch1950]

Maybe the next Lamy will be the Studio in brown . Waiting to see it.😏

[A Smug Dill]

I'm still waiting to see what Lamy would put out next primarily to attract consumer interest spending in the Chinese and Far East market. The hanzi nib, and the special/limited edition pens that are factory-fitted with that, are a good start; and I'm glad to see the hanzi nib available from US retailers, although I'm still waiting to see if Lamy is going to start distributing those in Europe as well. (LCdC has taken the question up with Lamy in Europe on my behalf.)

 

At the end of the day, a fountain pen is just a writing instrument which is agnostic to the language or style of handwritten text produced with it, and so a hanzi, ‘Hebrew’ or ‘architect’ nib has the same relevance logically as an Oblique or Italic nib. So I look forward to when Lamy (and other manufacturers, too) start making all such nibs as part of the repertoire of nib options available to those users (whoever and wherever they are) who want to write in the styles those nibs facilitate, and focus next on designs, finishes and colourways that appeal to different groups within the target consumer segment(s) globally. 

[N1003U]

19 hours ago, jchch1950 said:

Maybe the next Lamy will be the Studio in brown . Waiting to see it.😏

 

I like Studios as well, and I suspect my next Lamy will be a Studio in a color I find interesting. After years of living in the upper Rhine Valley with a view of the Black Forest, I was sure I was going to buy a Black Forest Studio. But every time I see it in person, the color just doesn't do anything for me. It is an attractive color, but just not enough for me. The new one, allegedly in brown, may be another story.

[Keyless Works]

I recently got a Lamy Lady and an Ideos. I ordered a Lamy Pur in silver but I don't know if I will actually come.

 

 

[LP10]

Well, I went to my pen show yesterday and…not a Lamy to be seen (not true, there were a couple of Dialog 3s there but I didn’t have the courage to ask the price).  So what is it with the aficionados and Lamy, why the lack of love?  I’m a user not a collector and my interest has been piqued so mail order it is.

[inkstainedruth]

I think it's not lack of love so much as the opposite.  People tend to hold on to pens they like, and since it's not as old a company as some, there aren't the pen collections being sold off at estate sales and auctions.  

I don't know about the UK or the show you went to, but here on this side of the pond I've seen numerous Safaris and al-Stars at pen shows (some vendors do sell modern pens).  I don't think I've ever actually bought one at a show, but it gave me a chance to look at N year's SE color and decide if I like it enough to want to own one.  Of course, I also remember one year at the Ohio Pen Show when Toys in the Attic had a French Blue Safari and I couldn't afford it (don't remember if it was NOS or not -- just that I was NOT paying that much for a Safari, no matter HOW much I liked the color...).  I ended up getting a used one on eBay for not much more than the retail price of an al-Star, and it already had a converter installed (and only a few -- not overly noticeable -- bite marks on the end of the barrel... ).  Which then meant I could stop watching all the listings for NOS ones....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[jchch1950]

Lamy was a brand with no global dealers until the 70' if I'm not wrong. Also at that time there was no E-commerce even if you can buy through catalogs(Joon, Fountain Pen Hospital , etc} and pen collecting was in its beginning. Fifty years after every thing has change in the pen world.A quick review of the number of new  companies manufacturing pens in 2022  and you can see how the interest for fountain pens has increased. To find old Lamy pens like the 27,is not as easy as other brands but that is part of the joy of collecting certain brands like Lamy.

[LP10]

15 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

I think it's not lack of love so much as the opposite.

You are very probably right Ruth.  At my first ever show last year I mentioned to a dealer that I write a lot each day and that I was looking to upgrade my daily user, a Lamy Safari, what did he recommend?  In the same breath he said Parker 51 and Lamy 2000 so clearly thought the 2 were compatible and we know of the love for the 51.  I ended up with a 51 there and then, no Lamys, and haven’t regretted it for a moment.

[steerpike]

I kind of want to try a Lamy 2000 after everything I've read about it, but I just can't get over the look. My first thought when seeing it was to laugh and call it an uncircumcised fountain pen. I'm probably just not mature enough in the hobby to appreciate the aesthetic. 

 

I would probably buy another AL-star in a different color, perhaps with a different nib to play around w/ inks.

[inkstainedruth]

I tried someone's Lamy 2000 a few years ago at a pen club meeting, and I found the pen was too heavy for me.  But that was before I got the TWSBI 580-AL and 580-ALR (which are about 28 grams capped each; I think the 700 Vac is a similar weight).  And then recently a friend gave me a Monteverde Strata -- which is even heavier than the TWSBIs, I think).  So I might rethink my opinion of a Lamy 2000 at some point -- or not (I LOVE the size and weight of my vintage 51s).

As for Lamy pens?  I really like the Safari/al-Star/LX pens I have.  If I get more, it will be because I like the color(s) -- some of which I didn't want to be without, (but others you couldn't pay me enough to take off your hands...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: Of course I could say the same thing about some of the colors of vintage 51s....