Lamy Safari vs. ?

I've decided to jump into fountain pens and I'm going to buy a Lamy Safari, fine or ex fine. I'm also going to get some Leuchtturm 1917 journals, a converter, and good ink (haven't decided which black yet).

I think my budget permits another pen (under/around $50) so what else should I check out? Comfort is absolute priority, not looks. I actually prefer the utilitarian look of the Lamy's and also don't want to spend $200 on a pen I will most certainly drop or misplace Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Mike

I would skip the LAMY and get a vintage Parker "51", you would never regret it

I have really enjoyed moving back to fountain pens. I never had a Lamy, but always wanted one...they are nice looking to me.

The best pen I had...bar none...was this one, from this vendor:

http://cgi.ebay.com/WATERMAN-PHILEA...ncils_WritingEquipment_SM&hash=item2ead62c07e

This pen, even with the XF nib, was very smooth, a pleasure to write with. Sadly, I lost it. I see the medium nib versions at office supply stores all the time, but I prefer a finer line.

BTW: This is NOT me, I just bought some pens from him.

Ive a parker vector in brushed stainless that looks a million bucks, and is about the same price as a safari.

the steel nib is also a good one to use when transitioning into fountains, as it can take a fair bit of abuse while you learn to ease way back on pressure when youre writing.

Pilot Prera

I found the Lamy nibs too rigid and not very responsive.
My preferred pen is the Parker 51, although the Sheaffer equivalent does well.
If you want a modern pen, I dont think you can go past the Parker sonnet, although the Vector is good.
If you are going to use a fountain pen, you need one that suits your writing style. A cheaper pen that feels not quite right simply wont be used, IMHO
MIchael

An Al-Star from Lamy has the same style as the Safari, but is a little more substantial and not so plasticky. You can get them for $35. They, and the Safari, are real workhorses and you can certainly branch out from there. Fountain pens are great, and you will find everyone has their pet pen. Pilot Preras are rather small. 51's have a tremendous reputation, but I have yet to find one that writes a good EF line--you can pick them up for anything from $40 to $400 but you probably won't have a predictable experience with them and end up with five before you find one you like. The Scheaffer snorkel filling mechanism is cool and I have had good luck picking up various restored vintage ones on fountainpennetwork.com for $50 or so. I have had much better experience with Schaeffer than with Parker as far as both vintage and new pens, but that is really only anecdotal and based on less than ten purchases of each.

I started off with a Lamy Al-Star Graphite EF purchased of Ebay fairly cheaply and a converter. I think all up I paid $35AUD.

Now that I have adjusted my writing to suit a FP, I am looking for a Parker 51 and am prepared to splash a little more coin to get one that I like.

Just got a Noodler's Ink Fountain Pen in the mail. It is a "medium-fine" nib, and lays down about someplace between a fine and medium line. swisherpens.com had them about a week ago, and mine was something like 19 bucks after shipping. I've got a Lamy I hardly ever use now, a couple vintage Parkers that I love, and a Pilot Knight.

For a pen in your price range, I would honestly go with the Knight (looks more classic, writes well for me) or another less expensive Pilot/Namiki. jetpens.com has a good selection.

To be totally honest though, I do love my new Noodler's pen. Writes really well, and it was pretty inexpensive. Good bargain, though it does sound like you may want a finer line than this lays down.

Wait and save your pennies for the second pen. After using your Safari you will likely want something like a Pilot Vanishing Point, Lamy 2000, or even Pelikan M200. Trust me on this. After a while you will want an upgrade. The Parker 51 is heralded as the best all time fountain pen bar none. Never had one, don't know, but there are MANY acolytes for that pen. A well restored/kept one should do very well for you. Also, Lamy Safari's are excellent pens, I have one and love it.

Get a restored Parker 51 aerometric fill fountain pen. It is, hands down, the best and most reliable pen ever made. You should easily be able to get one for around your $50 price, in a vast array of colors (as long as it isn't a rare variant, like plum), with the typical brushed steel ("lustraloy") cap. Speaking as a collector with over 20 Parker 51s (both aero fill and vacumatic, some rare and some not), it is still my favorite fountain pen for daily use (and I have had over 300 fountain pens in my collection, both vintage and modern). Go to the Pentrace pen market board and I'm sure you can find one (or place a WTB ad there). http://www.pentrace.net/PenMarket.htm

I managed to find some good deals and got both the classic and the new pen. I love the look of the Safari and it is widely praised, so I bought it (should arrive tomorrow). However, after hearing how great the 51 is, I had to have one. I found a great restored vacumatic on the bay and it is beautiful. I plan on posting a pic tomorrow when the remainder of my purchases arrive.
Thanks for all the advice and for helping me spend more money.
Mike

invizable said:

I managed to find some good deals and got both the classic and the new pen. I love the look of the Safari and it is widely praised, so I bought it (should arrive tomorrow). However, after hearing how great the 51 is, I had to have one. I found a great restored vacumatic on the bay and it is beautiful. I plan on posting a pic tomorrow when the remainder of my purchases arrive.
Thanks for all the advice and for helping me spend more money.
Mike

Click to expand...

Let me give you a bit of advice regarding the vacumatic versus the aerometric filler, since you bought a vac. The vac is the earlier filling unit, made from 1941-1948. It is a bit more cumbersome to fill than the aerometric filler (made from 1949 onward). The aerometric is a very simple squeeze filler, which is a soft plastic tube with a metal spring bar over it that you press. The vacumatic filler works differently: you unscrew the "blind cap" (which is a fancy name for the end of the pen barrel), and you will see a plastic rod. You then immerse the nib and tip of the pen in the bottle of ink, while you depress the plastic rod about 10 times, making sure to wait about one or two seconds between each push of the rod. After the last time you push the rod, and while still keeping the pen immersed in the bottle of ink, count off aboput ten seconds, which will allow the pen to suck up more ink into the barrel (vacumatic models actually store ink in the barrel rather than in a rubber ink sac). Then screw the blind cap back on, wipe off the nib end of the pen with a tissue, and you are ready to write!

Another thing you should know about vacumatic filler 51s as opposed to aerometric filler 51s, is that emptying them is a PITA!! The aerometric is easy to empty: you just squeeze the metal bar and soft plastic filling unit, and the ink squirts out. Then you fill with water and empty it the same way, repeating until the water comes out clear. But with the vac filler, you have to slowly depress the plastic rod, letting the ink come out of the nib end slowly, drop by drop by drop. Once you finally think you have all of the ink out of the pen this way, take the nib end of the pen, wrap it in a ziplock sandwich bag, and shake it like a thermoter, to get the rest of the ink out. You will then need to fill the pen with water to clean it out, emptying it the same way (i.e., drop by drop, then the thermometer shake).

So, enjoy that vac filler, which I'm sure will be a beautiful pen and a great writer. But still look for an aerometric filler 51, which will be much easier to fill and empty.

Cheers.

I have many 51's both vac and aero. DGS is correct about cleaning a vac... a bit of a pain but a great filling system. Holds a ton of ink... I just don't change the ink color that often

BTW, for everything you could possibly want to know about the Parker 51, see my friend Ernesto Soler's fabulous site, www.parker51.com. Ernesto is THE expert on 51s, and he has the best collection of them I have ever seen, including the rarest of the rare. He also sells them from his web site, fully restored, at good prices.

These photos will show the difference between the vacumatic filler and the aerometric. First up is a rare Parker 51 vacumatic demonstrator pen. These were not sold to the public, but were used by Parker salesmen to show to pen dealers as a way of demonstrating how the filling system worked. You can see the small rubber sac in the barrel toward the bottom. Below that, you can see the plastic rod inside the blind cap. When you press the plastic rod, it extends the rubber sac into the barrel, and when you release the rod, it creates a vacuum which sucks ink into the barrel from the bottle. The brownish colored tube extending into the barrel from the top is a breather tube, which displaces air so that the ink can reach the filling unit and the nib. There are numerous horizontal "fins" in the filling unit surrounding the gold tubular nib. These fins also are part of a hard rubber "feed" which draws ink from the barrel and onto the gold nib, allowing you to write. The fins hold ink.



The next picture is an aerometric demonstrator. Here you see the filling unit, which is a metal housing with a "window". In the window you see the soft, clear plastic ink sac with the metal spring bar over it. You dip the nib end in the ink bottle, then press on the metal spring bar 5 or 6 times, waiting about one second between each press. Then you count about ten seconds after the last press to let more ink draw into the sac.

DGS you saved me from having to post another question on the forum!
The pen came with a bit of blue ink left and I never use blue.
Thanks for the cleaning instructions.

My Noodlers arrives with my Safari tomorrow, so I'll be busy the rest of the week testing pens, inks, and papers.

invizable said:

DGS you saved me from having to post another question on the forum!
The pen came with a bit of blue ink left and I never use blue.
Thanks for the cleaning instructions.

My Noodlers arrives with my Safari tomorrow, so I'll be busy the rest of the week testing pens, inks, and papers.

Click to expand...

Noodlers is my favorite ink; Nathan is always cojming out with great new colors. The Noodlers Black is the best black ink I've used; it's dark, rich, and permanent. It will NOT wash off (so don't get it on your clothes!). Plus, Noodlers is priced great compared to other inks (especially Aurora, which I also like but which is too expensive).

As both a user and collecter, you could not go wrong on a Parker 51. I personally prefer vintage of modern. Try other inks too J Herbin and Private Reserve are great inks that are not overly expensive.

Here's the Lamy Safari Extra Fine in Charcoal and the Parker 51 vac with fine nib.