After my successful experiment with the Platinum Preppy, I was eagerly anticipating taking my new LAMY Safari Fountain Pen for a test drive and I wasn’t disappointed!
Armed with my LAMY Safari and Exacompta Club Leatherette Journal I travelled to a 3 day convention ready to take lots of notes. Many, many pages later there was not one ink smear and my hand felt less fatigued than it normally does thanks to the smooth action of the LAMY nib combined with the ultra-smooth Clairefontaine paper in my journal. This combination would be an asset to anyone who does a lot of writing!
For this experiment I used LAMY standard ink cartridges in turquoise. Since I tend to poke holes in paper when I use extra-fine nib pens, I choose the LAMY fine nib for my pen. The fine nib produced a consistent flow of ink in a medium to fine line. The benefit of the LAMY Safari’s ergonomic grip was lost on me because my left-handed grip is rather strange, but it was not a hindrance either. The Clairefontaine paper in the Exacompta Club Journal is 64 g, a lighter weight than the usual 90 g paper used in Clairefontaine notebooks. Even though there was a little bit of ink bleed-thru, I was still able to write on both sides of the page with a fountain pen.
This lime green LAMY Safari quickly became my favorite pen!
(Just a note: LAMY Studio, Safari, Vista, Joy and AL-Star Fountain Pens all use the same type of stainless steel nibs.)
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I have several left-handed friends who have always stayed away from fountain pens due to the potential for smearing. One friend managed to come up with a very odd way of holding his hand to stop this problem, but his hand writing really suffered.
I will point my ‘lefty’ friend to this post, thanks.
I am left-handed and prefer fountain pens for writing. The only reason a lefty would smear ink is because they were never taught the correct way to write. The paper should mirror that for a righty, with the paper top being to the right not to the left. The lefty’s hand then glides smoothly beneath his/her writing rather than being uncomfortably foisted above their words. Thus the paper should be angled the same as a backslash / and not a forward slash \ .
Thanks for the tip! It’s too late for me. I’m an over-writer and find the most comfortable way for me to write is in an upwards direction with my notebook rotated 90 degrees to the left.
If you’re an lefty overwriter, it shouldn’t matter for smearing if you use a suitably long pen, and decent ink. I’m a lefty overwriter, and my hand sits several lines above the current line. By the time my hand gets to a line, it’s well and truly dry.
Hi, I’m new to fountain pens in general and I just purchased a set of Pelikan juniors from your site. I like the width of the pen tip/stroke. If I purchase a LAMY pen and it gives me the choice of ‘fine, medium, broad’ what does that mean? Is the pelikan junior a fine, medium, or broad stroke? I need a comparison. Thanks!
Hi Maria,
The size of fine, medium and broad nibs tends to vary depending on what brand of nibs they are. The size of the Pelikano Junior nib seems to be in between a LAMY medium or broad nib. I hope this helps!
For several months I have been thinking about improving my handwriting. I am a left-handed writer, and remember smearing ink when using a fountain pen. Not much left to do apart from making a decision on which pen to purchase, and get to writing.
Hi David,
If you’re a lefty you’ll also need to think about the type of paper and ink you use. The ink needs to dry fast enough on whatever paper you choose to minimize any smearing. As a lefty myself, a couple of my personal favorites are J. Herbin fountain pen ink and Leuchtturm1917 paper. You may need to try a few things before you find what you like best. Happy writing!