Lamy Blue Ink Review

There is no such thing as the perfect blue ink. Some blue inks come pretty close to perfection, but you'll have a need or a desire to try others. It comes with the territory.

I was recently on a crusade to find a favorite blue ink for my fountain pens. I was naive enough to believe that I could settle on just one ink. Now I know better. I ordered many samples from Goulet Pens and had an absolute blast trying them all out. It didn't take long before I realized that I wouldn't be able to settle, and I might be better off just owning all of them. That makes sense, right?

It was through this blue ink voyage that I realized I had never even tried a particular blue ink of which I had several cartridges lying around. Lamy fountain pens generally come with a blue cartridge, but I had never once tried one. I guess I thought it was a "freebie" and it wouldn't be worth trying. When I got around to trying it, I was very pleased to be so wrong.

There's nothing particularly special about this blue, but it's a very steadfast and dependable ink. It won't turn heads and garner complements. It's well-behaved and predictable. In my mind, I think of it as my default, professional blue. And while that might sound boring, it's also a very high complement. Each ink has a purpose, and this one fills a very specific need.

I bought a bottle of Lamy Blue from JetPens on a whim. I was intrigued by the bottle and the tape attached to the bottom, and I knew I didn't want another bottle of black ink, so blue it was!

The bottle is larger than I expected. 50 ml is the same size as my Iroshizuku ink, but the Lamy bottle is larger in order to accommodate the roll of tape on the base. As you'd expect, the bottle works great for filling pens. What more can I say? What I find interesting is the blotter tape. This is extremely handy for cleaning up a pen after filling it. The tape has two sides: an absorbent side and a water-proof side. The absorbent side does an excellent job of soaking up any ink droplets on the pen, while the water-proof side prevents the ink from soaking through to your fingers. You can clean up the pen without staining your fingers!

I've found myself reaching for this tape when I fill pens with other inks, just because it makes the clean-up so much easier than using a tissue or paper towel. I can never manage to fill a pen without getting some ink on my fingers, but maybe I'm just clumsy.

Overall, this is a great everyday ink and the blotter tape is a very useful bonus.

Lamy 2000 Review

My history with the Lamy 2000 is long and sordid. I was fascinated by this pen like so many fountain pen users are, but once I got the 2000 in my hand that fascination turned into frustration. This is supposedly one of the greatest fountain pens of all time - why did I want to break it over my knee?

As it turns out, the answer was simple. Getting to that answer, however, was a longer process than it would have been for someone more experienced with fountain pens than I was at the time. Hopefully I can shorten that cycle for anyone else considering purchasing a Lamy 2000.

Despite the fact it has been well over a year since I first opened the box containing my Lamy 2000, I still remember my first reaction to picking it up: Holy amazeballs! The only other pen in its price range that I owned and could compare it to was the Pilot Vanishing Point, and the 2000 was a completely different experience.

Since owning the Lamy 2000, the word Makrolon is now an official part of my vocabulary. Makrolon is the fiberglass-type material that the 2000 barrel is made of, and it is fantastic. It is lightweight, yet sturdy, warms to the touch, and feels great in the hand. Did I mention beautiful? That too, especially for someone who likes minimally styled pens like myself.

The inking system for the 2000 is a piston filler and is integrated flawlessly. In fact, if you were unaware of the mechanism, you would be hard pressed to see the seam at the end of the pen. It moves smoothly when engaged and pulls in ink with ease.

Where I ran into trouble with my 2000 was with the nib. It is a 14k gold hooded nib that is integrated perfectly into the barrel. As soon as I inked it up the first time I enjoyed how it wrote but noticed quickly that I was having trouble with some of my strokes. I felt the nib was sticking to the page, which caused skipping in the line. The thing was, it wasn't unusable. It was a very minor issue.

I went through several cleanings and different inks to see if the writing performance would improve. It didn't, so off to the internet I went. After only a minute of searching I found a common theme: Lamy 2000 nibs are notoriously inconsistent out of the box. Unfortunately for me, I had found a bad one.

The refrain I heard was to send it to a nibmeister to get it fixed. The issue at the time was I had never done that before, and was nervous about doing so. I put it off, my 2000 collected dust despite how badly I wanted to use it, and I pouted. I did formulate a plan though. The Atlanta Pen Show was going to be my savior.

Getting my Lamy 2000 nib fixed at the pen show was the number one item on my list. I made an appointment with Mike Masuyama, and when I sat down with him and handed him the pen he noticed the problem immediately: the right tine was longer than the left.

This is nothing I would have noticed on my own, so letting an expert handle it was the best route. Not only did he even the tines and smooth it, I had him grind it down to a Japanese EF size - around 0.2 mm. My Lamy 2000 is now usable!

Not only is it usable, it is one of the best pens I own, if not the best. In the time since I bought my 2000 I have bought a dozen or more very nice fountain pens and it is a contender for the best of them all. I get asked "Pilot Vanishing Point or Lamy 2000" often and now the answer is clear: Lamy 2000.

What did I learn through this experience? Even though I spent a good amount of money on a pen and the expectation is it should be perfect out of the box, it often times isn't. This isn't just a Lamy 2000 issue by the way. It can happen to any pen, and spending $30 or so to have a professional look at it and smooth it is money well spent. I have sent many pens to Mr. Masuyama since, and each time they return better than before.

The Lamy 2000 is an iconic pen, and I wanted to share my personal experience with it. There are many things I didn't touch on in this review, so be sure to check out some of these wonderful posts to learn more about the Lamy 2000:

-- Lamy 2000 Review (Pen and Design)

-- Lamy 2000 Fountain Pen (Ed Jelley)

-- Icon: Lamy 2000 (Makrolon) (From the Pen Cup)

-- Lamy 2000 – The Awesome Review (FPGeeks)

-- Lamy 2000 And The Origins Of Lamy Design (The Fountain Pen Network)

Lamy Safari 2013 Neon Yellow Limited Edition Winner

The Lamy Safari is always a popular giveaway pen for pros and novices alike. There is something about the design and feel of the Safari that works for many people, and it doesn't hurt that Lamy puts out a limited edition each year. The winner of the 2013 Neon Yellow Limited Edition is:

Congrats Karen! Please reach out to me via the Contact Page and I will coordinate delivery. And be sure not to hurt yourself when it arrives....

so i've been stringing for 10 months. this is my first video to be uploaded. :D the song is "caught up in your love" by Sy & Unknown which you can get here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TG7I2JRV