I'm glad you like it! Out of curiosity, what aspects of the pen/writing experience is taking getting used to? For me, the biggest difference was the comparatively minuscule amount of pressure required to write - it's almost like using a brush compared to hand-tiring ballpoints. The improved ergonomics ended up being a godsend for finals season and I imagine even more so for people with carpel tunnel syndrom/other injuries.

Oh, and if/when you decide to get a pen with a more flexible (non-steel) nib, you can vary the pressure you apply to get different line-widths for more nuanced writing. I'm a lefty and my handwriting is pretty horrible, so this is a moot point for me, but I know a lot of people who use fountain pens for solely this reason. Are you a lefty as well?

I'm a righty, and have pretty horrible writing (even though my wife says she likes it ).

The idea of a fountain pen in general is foreign to me, so it's all new. I think the pressure required is the the biggest one, but even small things such as how to hold the pen. The orientation you hold it matters, and when you've never used one, it's something you have to think about. I'm sure if it's all you use, you don't even realize it, but coming from only using ballpoints (with which you can hold any orientation), it's different.

Also, I hold writing instruments very peculiarly. In fact, there might not be another person in the world that holds it like me. Okay, maybe that's not true, but I can't tell you how many people have commented on the way that I hold a pen or pencil. So, with the two indentations on the Lamy Safari, it sort of sets up well for someone who holds the pen properly, but not quit as perfectly for the way that I hold it. I think that it will still work just fine for me, but the angle at which the nib is oriented isn't ideal, I don't believe. Then again, I know nothing about what is ideal, so I'm just guessing here.

There other thing to get used to is the flow of ink. I look like a kindergartener with the amount of ink that is on my hands. Handling the pen will take some practice as well it seems.

One thing I'm trying to figure out is how to manage the pen in daily carry. It's obvious that the ink will make a mess if the pen is tossed around too much. I'm about to head on a trip here soon, so I need to figure out how to transport this through the airport (is this allowed anymore?), and if I can't transport it on my person, where do I store the pen so that it won't fling ink everywhere while the lovely airport employees play toss with my luggage?

Anywho, just holding the pen and figuring out the best way to write with it is what's requiring the practice. It's definitely helpful if the paper is really flat, as it requires such little pressure for ink to come out and if the paper bends upwards (such as if the wind caught it), the pen will still write without applying much pressure (similar to what a marker/sharpie would do).

Also, I'm fascinated by how the pen works. I love tinkering with things and figuring out how they work, so I've caught myself staring intently at the nib of the pen trying to figure it all out. Yeah, I'm weird.

Check out Fountain Pens: The Complete Guide to Repair and Restoration - pendemonium.com has it. I used to do a fair bit of repair - it's a blast and you can very often find good pens on the cheap to fix up on eBay.

I find that fountain pens improve my writing dramatically because they force me to slow down. I also find that italic nibs help. Your Safari has a replaceable nib, which is one of the great things about those pens. Italic nibs are available for it.



If you want to set out to improve your handwriting, one of the first lessons of calligraphy is that you write with your arm, rather than your wrist. It takes some practice, but it makes a huge difference.

Fountain pens are allowed on planes. In 20 years of traveling with FPs I've never had any problems with them spilling so long as I fill them beforehand - empty is safe too, of course . The fuller they are the less opportunity there is for air to enter the ink sac/piston/convertor. I also travel with a Visconti traveling ink pot. Not sure if they're still available, but they're totally baller.

Lastly, I like them just fine, but some folks don't dig the way the Safari structures your grip. Given that it's your one and only, you don't really have a basis for comparison, but I thought I'd throw the info out there just so you can have it in the back of your mind ... which is to say, to enable more pen purchasing.

Huh, that's interesting that you're getting a lot of ink on your hands. Is the ink from the paper or from the actual pen? In practice, I haven't had much trouble with ink getting everywhere - maybe the flow is different for lefties/righties? It can also be the paper, but this only really matters if you're using some special type of glossy paper, which I imagine you weren't.

Regarding everyday carry/traveling with the pen, you shouldn't have to worry much at all - just treat it like a rollerball pen. I just toss it into my bag and forget about it, and I definitely don't handle my bag gingerly - it gets tossed around a lot, and spends a lot of time in my motorcycle case where there's tons of vibration. Also, I took it on a 5-month semi around the world backpacking trip recently and can attest to its travel versatility. It weathered grumpy Indian luggage handlers, shaky rooftop bus rides on rural dirt roads, etc. without an ink leakage crisis.

With that said, that's not to say that the ink won't seep a bit. It's normal for fountain pens to have varying degrees of "nib creep" (the ink that appears at the line running down the nib), and under some of the above conditions, you get a bit more compared to the pen sitting in a desk case, but not enough to call it a "spill". I'd say go ahead and keep it in your jeans pocket if you'd like (upright). As long as the pen isn't forcefully shaken, subject to some sustained centrifugal force, or stored upside down for long periods, the ink should stay put. Other than that, a quick wipe with a napkin works fine for any excess nib seepage.

As for airports/plane travel, fountain pens are fine and don't have any restrictions (the fluid volume inside the pen is minuscule). The volume of the ink bottles I sent you should also be fine on a carryon. Another thing to note - you'll find a lot of assertions warning against carrying/using filled fountain pens on a plane due to the pressure differential, however, with the Safari and 2000 I've had no issues whatsoever with both carrying and actually using the pens to write during a flight (if anything, just a bit of initial added nib creep). As a precaution, you might just want to make sure that the pen isn't near empty, since a large higher pressure air pocket in the pen is what people are concerned about.

Oh, and the ink bottle should be fine in a backpack/messenger bag too - just place it in a ziplock. I introduced a very rough-and-tumble, "mountain man" friend to fountain pens a while back, and was shocked when I learned that he just tosses the pen/ink bottle (no ziplock) into his multi-purpose rock climbing bag every day - odds and ends and all. I said something about it and he just brushed it off and since then I haven't heard of the bottle shattering/spilling. Of course, YMMV .

I should clarify. The ink all over was from me writing, touching, turning, opening, pulling, wiping, etc. In some ways I find that I'm OCD, and seeing just the faintest smear of ink on the backside of the nip sorta bothered me. So when I tried to wipe it off with a napkin, a ton more ink would just come out on the napkin. I still haven't figured out how to clean the nip without causing more ink to flow out.

When it came to just writing, I found that it wasn't messy at all. It just handling it that was causing the mess. I think I just have to resign myself to the fact that it won't be spotless at the nib and there will always be some shade of color that I will see (whatever color the ink is). Or, I'll figure out how to use it properly.

"Some" ways?

As a followup to some of your earlier comments, I, too, am intrigued by how fountain pens work through their combination of multiphase physics (solids, liquids, and gasses), surface chemistry, capillary action, and pre-wetted versus dry surface adhesion. The actual physics are very detailed, but the implementation, when done correctly, is elegantly simple!

db

Yes, as others have mentioned, don't worry about your Safari getting leaky. It won't. I did notice something interesting though, and that is when I kept my Safari clipped down my shirt front between that and my undershirt, the humidity from my perspiration was actually sucking ink through the little viewing hole and leaking inside of my shirt. A bit of gaffer's tape wrapped around the viewing holes and I haven't had that issue since. Keep in mind that I use cartridges on my Safaris so the converter may not have this issue at all. I need to get one to find out.

Now you can start collecting inks and wonder if you'll ever use them before the ink separates in the bottle or develops some disgusting mold. It's not really likely though.

I think I'm set with the bottles Bezerk set me up with.

I do seem to have a bit if ink seeping a small amount at the seam of the nib. It's not much at all. Is that expected?

Huh, that's really interesting. As you suggested, I would imagine that with a converter you wouldn't run into that issue. The female end of the converter has a rubber gasket that should prevent ink from getting past the seal (more sound than the plastic/plastic of convert/section).

Oh, and as far as converters go, you don't have to go with the Safari-specific converter - both the Z26 and Z24 work fine (in case you might want to use it for another Lamy FP in the future). The converter that's not Safari specific seems/feels higher quality to me (metal parts, etc), and it might hold a bit more ink. The only thing that's different is that on the Safari-specific converters, the converter has two "nubs" that allows it to snap into place (which the other converter lacks, but to me makes no difference in practice).

Yep - totally normal. The small amount of ink in the seam helps keep the nib "primed" so that when you start writing you get an instant line vs. having to "re-start" the pen (you might have to do this if the pen has been sitting uncapped, much like you would a "dead" ballpoint).

Gotcha, thanks!

First of all this may seem a bit off topic. But this is why I love the OD forum: here are so many differend people, shows up so many different things, we like so much. I think this thread is full of win. I think I'm always opened for new things, and I really like to be a little bit different than others, I hate when something goes the same all time.

To be on topic. When I was about 6-7 years old, I found an old fountain pen at a case. It was the one my mother wrote with, when she was in the army here in Hungary. (she was about ~20-25 years old when she used it, and when I found she was ~40-45) I don't have to explain I think, that the pen did not work properley, but I really loved the feel and the shape of it.
Actually I'm very sensitive about ball point pens, I can't write with something "cheap", it just feels bad.
Now after I read this thread, I'm about to buy a fountain pen for daily use. I'm planning a LAMY Safary, or a Joy. Which one do you guys recommend for first/daily use?

Thanks in advance. : )

Well for daily use, you'll likely find that the Joy is a little much. It's actually a calligraphy pen.The nib is a chisel grind for more flourish in your side to side stroke on the page. If you're into calligraphy or a pen that will add character to your writing, I bet that it would be fun. It's certainly something you'd want to try first. I still recommend the Safari for all general use. The nibs aren't the best ever (steel nibs usually aren't), but it's very smooth and reliable. As I've said, I use mine every day. 

It hasn't been mentioned a lot, but I'd like to point out that you should hold on to your empty cartridges if you don't have a converter because with a easily attainable blunt tipped needle syringe, you can refill the cartridge which generally will hold more ink that many converters. You can also poke a tiny tiny hole in the back of a cartridge (with aforementioned syringe), put the needle full of water through the hole, put the cartridge in the pen, and shoot a direct blast of water through the capillaries. It makes flushing your pens an absolute breeze!

I second the Lamy Safari advice - it's a really solid first pen/daily use pen. The nib (metal tip you use to write) is the same one used in many of the more expensive Lamy pens that use steel nibs (though they also have upgraded feeds and other parts, but I don't know how much of a difference this makes in daily practice). Another good thing about the Safari is that it will also accept the much nicer platinum-plated gold nib from the Studio pens, so if you ever wanted to upgrade, you wouldn't necessarily need to buy an entirely new pen. I'm sure you can even find these nibs on the cheap from ebay/fountain pen forums.

To your question about Safari vs. Joy, they're essentially the same pen, but with slightly different barrel shapes, and the Joy of course comes with calligraphy oriented nibs. The Safari design lends itself more to daily carry vs. desk/home use, and plus, if all you were interested in were the calligraphy nibs, you can easily just buy the nibs and install them on a Safari to have the best of both worlds.

As for cartridges vs. converter, I like using a converter, and I think it holds a fine amount of ink. Probably 1-2 weeks worth of ink for "University Student" levels of writing (assignments, daily notes, lectures, etc.). Converters also hold the advantage of making your pen "self-cleaning" - every time you refill the pen, you also flush the internals. You can also use the cartridge+syringe technique KansasCity suggested, but IMO it seems a little too involved for me.

Well I added a couple inks to my collection.
Waterman Florida Blue
Mont Blanc Midnight Blue

I'm very pleased with both, but am especially excited to test the water resistance of the MB Midnight Blue. It's an "iron-gall" ink, for those who don't know, which goes on blue and through the mixing of it's gallic acids with the cellulose in paper, forms a dark purplish-black which given some time to dry, must be mechanically scraped off the paper fibers to remove. It also destroys an unflushed/maintained pen very quickly. Or at least that is how 12th century inks behaved. This is a modernized mix without (hopefully) many of the harmful reactions. I'll probably still flush it every couple of weeks or so because I'm crazy.

So far I much prefer the shading to Noodler's Bulletproof Black as it's a little more consistent and not so wet. It probably wont be ideal for most of my Fine and Extra Fine pens as it's quite dry, but I'm planning on keeping it in at least one pen at a time for document signing and the like. Right now it's behaving well in my Safari. I don't have a scanner that would do the color justice, but a quick search can show and tell more than I can ever hope to describe.

About the Florida Blue, it's great. Really nice and non-staining. Wet enough that I have to be mindful about getting it on my hand as I write, but without the heavy saturation, it's much easier to wash out than Private Reserve Tanzanite (which I like, but it gets erry-where!) I've only inked my Sailor with it which likes it very much. It starts writing easily without any stopping as I do figure 8s across the entire length of my notebooks. It's a highly technical and scientific process where I fill several pages with figure 8s of all my inks, smile, and put the pages into a drawer to be forgotten forever. It has no bleed through in any of the paper I've tried and it is such a refreshing clear blue.

Now to write some real letters/stories/to do lists

My god ya'll have done it again. Another new thing to obsess over!

I used to write with calligraphy pens when i was ~6-7 just for fun because i liked the classic feel and all that but since the ink we had was rather slow drying it didn't last long and soon went back into the basement.

About a year ago or so I was fed up with using shoddy ballpoints so i decided to go out and purchase a fountain pen! I went to Fred Meyers and got a 20 somethin' dollar sheaffer that had a really awful nip (super dry, scratchy, etc..) and eventually I set it aside.

Zoom back too about two days ago and I stumble across this thread! Oh man, now I'm going all over the internet and learning all this cool stuff about vaccum and piston and cartridge pens and the chemistry of inks and WOW! There is so much cool info to learn about fountain pens!

So after a bit of research and flip-flopping I have a blue Safari with a converter and Diamine eclipse and umber headed my way...

Gotta love the OD forums!

I love Diamine's inks. Great choice on the pen too! I finally caved and bought myself a converter for my Safari, though I wish I had bought two! I just received my Parker Duofold back from its repair and I am extremely impressed with the nib. I don't know if it was smoothed or if it was always like this, but it's a joy to use. Probably my new (circa 1940s) favorite. Along with the Lamy 2000. They are both up there.

Anyway, some good links to check out for info are:
http://www.thefountainpennetwork.com - great forum.
http://www.gouletpens.com - Great store where you can buy tiny 4ml samples of any of the inks that they stock. Full swab charts of all the different colors available. Which is convenient.
http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/ - Store, reviews, assorted info on FPs

I'd love to see a pic of your Duofold.

Here's a photo of the Duofold. I actually just won another on eBay so I think this could be the start of something special. Specially expensive.

Thanks for the great links! I did most of my research before purchasing from this forum and the FPN, so I feel that I was pretty well-informed before buying! I wasn't sure if Diamine would be a good first choice because lots of people seem to slave over Noodlers and PR Tanzanite, but I had read some really good reviews about diamine inks so I went for it!

The third link is actually really neat too, i really appreciate his inks of note section. Also the goulet ink site is amazing! The samples bit sounds really great and they have a comparison chart (with pictures of actual writing) of nib sizes for all sorts of different pen models! Most excellent.