new fountain pen arrived - Lamy Safari review

The YELLOW! Lamy Safari fountain pen arrived, and of course I have tried it out as soon as I had time this morning.

(Sorry for the grammatically incorrect capitals and exclamation mark there, but just 'yellow' in lower case doesn't seem enough for how YELLOW! the pen is)

My review:
As a fountain pen - Disappointing.

The writing experience was a rough and slightly scratchy feel on the paper compared to the old Parker 25 on the same paper (which I found incidentally has a date code on the lid, IIL, which reveals it was apparently made in 1992) . And yes, as expected after thinking about it properly (and some feedback from a knowledgeable enthusiast) the fact it has a 'left-handed nib' is nothing really.

Also it has two flats moulded into the grip area which, for my odd overhand grip, are no help whatsoever. And having fitted a Lamy T10 black ink cartridge, I am hitting my old nemesis – smudging.

It just doesn't seem to dry (on Moleskine paper anyway) quite as fast as the cheap old Parker Quink for my style of grip and writing, so if I start off with a heading or date on the first line, and then start to write directly underneath that, I smear the heading as I write the new line.

If I remember to wait a second or five, I expect it'll be fine. But so far I've remembered only I should have waited a second or five as the smearing happens.

Last thing I noticed is that it didn't seem to be designed to use with the lid docked on top of the pen as you write. The feel was definitely top heavy to me when I did that, and it ruined the balance. This was especially compared to the old 25 (my only point of comparison), which actually feels more like docking the lid is how you're meant to use it. The Safari is fine without the lid docked though.

But the first item I noticed will probably demote this one to 'chuck it in the pen pot to get old with the other stuff in there'. Although, being a cheapskate, I'll probably use it just to make some practical use out of both it and the ink cartridges I ordered for it.

It just doesn't feel as good in use, to me, as the older pen I have, for the thing it was bought for. Writing with.

Shouldn't be a surprise really. I expect if the Parker was £20 back in 1992, then this one at £20 now would have been about a fiver or less back then.

But there is one thing I can't deny.

The YELLOW! Lamy Safari is very good at being YELLOW!