BUY HERE (affiliates): Lamy Safari pen: tinyurl.com/4wzhnrua Private Reserve ink: amzn.to/3MZ0jZC Paper: amzn.to/3mCIH95 Best fountain pens: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/btmbaspjm5e3YI0.html If you enjoyed, consider supporting my channel by getting a KILLER shirt: prf.hn/l/jPLyJD1

I have a Lamy in that same ABS plastic from 15 years ago. It’s still holding up. No worries about the quality of that plastic, it won’t break.

I love the Lamy Safari. I'm a hobby author, and although I prefer to write my drafts by hand, I couldn't before because of carpal tunnel syndrome. But after watching an interview with Neil Gaiman where he talked about using fountain pens when writing his drafts and using different colours each day to see the difference, I decided to try. Initially, I bought three Lamy Safari since they were only supposed to be tools for my hobby writing, but I soon got more and more of them. Today I have 31 Lamy Safari, from standard versions, country exclusives and special editions. Everyone is in use with different ink. Since fountain pens don't require much pressure on the paper to write, it's perfect if you struggle with ordinary ballpoint pens because of cramps or pain. I'm still missing some versions of the Lamy Safari, but it's getting rather challenging to find them, and some are relatively expensive, so I've begun looking into the Lamy AL-star now.

I think you should label it as the expensive plastic , my safari ballpoint is over 20 years old

The LAMY Safari was the pen that I really got into with fountain pens. I got it and a Pilot Metropolitan at around the same time and my Safari has gone through about 30-40 refills while my Metropolitan is on its second (and only because I didn't want black ink). I absolutely adore my Safaris (I have one in EF and one in M), but I know the tripod grip can be really hit or miss for people. My Al-Star (B nib, a gift from a friend that they didn't really like) is my go-to pen for anything I can use fountain pens for. I like the additional weight that the Al-Star has over the Safari, but it isn't heavy enough to be difficult to write with (unlike the Monteverde Ritma). I also appreciate that the Al-Star is metal, but it doesn't feel super metallic. If you like the Safari, I'd definitely recommend trying out an Al-Star! If you don't like the Safari (especially the grip section), the Al-Star might not be a good fit.

I got a Safari in the charcoal with a fine nib. While I enjoyed the pen for its simplicity I wasn’t in love with the fine nib. I then got an AL-Star with a medium nib. That one writes more like a broad but I like the wetness of it and the lines it lays down. Back to the fine nib. After living with it for a few weeks I decided to do the brown paper bag thing-scribbling back and forth while rotating it in my hand. The result is much smoother, wetter lines that I’m really pleased with. Simple trick on a simple pen with a very nice result.

I have three lamy safari’s and I love them! It was my first fountain pen and I just love the way it writes!

My first Lamy Safari pen turned 31 years old this year and it has held up remarkably well. The only noticeable wear is the barrel screws on a little too far now (i.e., the threads are a bit worn) such that the ink window is partially obscured when the barrel is fully tightened.

I have been using my lamy safari for the past 5 years. It has been terribly abused and still works as good as now and does not have a single scratch on it. Still using the original medium nib it came with.

The Vista was my first fountain pen after years of exclusively using mechanical pencils. It was a choice I made because it was a cheap, well-made entry into fountain pen use and being left handed, to see if fountain pens were a viable option. The tripod grip was an important aid forcing me to hold the pen in the correct position. This pen will always be my favorite, no matter what I purchase in the future. That indicates the high regard I have for the Vista and I'd recommend it to anyone starting out.

Great, quick review! I had used fountain pens about 25 years ago, and just drifted away from them. However, I decided to give them another try recently, and my research led me to the Lamy Safari. I'm a teacher, and have been using it full-time the last two weeks. It's just a quality pen at an excellent price point, and I enjoy using it every time, even if it's to write a bathroom pass. While I bought a bunch of black Lamy ink cartridges, I have my eyes set on a specific ink and converter when those run out. Thanks for a great review that confirms my love of this pen!

Used the same Lamy Safari since I got to secondary school (fifth grade in Germany). Still use it today and I gotta say you really get your moneys worth if you are willing to write with it on a regular basis. Edit: It might not be as great for people with bigger hands. You should definitely try it out because the grip is relatively narrow and some people might not be comfortable with such a narrow grip. The aluminium version is a bit thicker too.

Safari was my 1st pen. Back 5yrs ago it was 22 bucks. Inflation strikes. One time or another I got 8 or 9 of them, still have 6. Great colors. Eventually moved up to their 2000 and the really overpriced Pelikans, also from Germany. These are still the best inexpensive I have. I’ve made the mistake several Xs of laying them down, only to find they rapidly developed feet and walked off.

Lamy is a wonderful pen in fountain pen. beautiful writing

I love the grip, for this is how I normally hold my pens.

Fun fact, growing up in the 90s, late 1998-99, I went to german elementary school and they made us start using those LAMY pens and they would always bust ink everywhere in my pockets or worse your school bag. I use to have the dark gray and the blue one. I have to get one of these again that will definitely hit the feels again and its amazing this product is still out! Edit: Oh, flashback, german school always made us have pen/pencil cases and the LAMY pens where the culprit of ink everywhere in your pen/pencil bag.

My wife picked one up for me (my only fine point pen) and I really like it. Often fine point pens (fountain or ballpoint) are not as nice in touch, but this one is great. One (perhaps unusual) thing I like is it does not look expensive. I like the low key look, not looking to attract attention, stuffed in a casual shirt pocket it just looks like a generic roller pen. There is a video on youtube showing how they are made.

I had the roller ball version, the plastic lasted about 20 years before parts of it self destructed. But more important when I tried to contact Lamy here in the U.S. and then emailed Germany to see about purchasing a new part which was still in production I got zero response in either case. I accidently contacted Pelikan US in one of the emails and they responded the next day.

It is very good. If you lose it you can always buy another. Fairly cheap . I prefer the plastic kind-gives me a satisfying tactile feedback. I kinda went the other way: started with Pelikans added up in TWSBI and Lamy land. My daily Lamy has a tough life- it serves as the primary writing tool for a long haul trucker in Canada.

I've had one of my (many) Lamy Safaris for over 30 years. The plastic definitely holds up very well.

I bought one years ago, really like it. The material is alright, especially considering it is a budget option. I despise the idea of paying thousands of dollars for a tool so it is nice to see something that is high quality and not aimed to be a jewelry. If something is a fraction of the price but you have a similar experience while using it, for me it is totally fine. The only negative for me is that sometimes the tip doesn't fit right, sometimes it does. I got used to it though. I am thinking about buying my second one just to have different inks to play with

Great review.. For that price point i find the Twsbi Eco to feel a bit more refined and nearly impossible to beat..

My favorite are the matte lamy safari

I have a Parker IM Vibrant Blue and a Lamy Safari White-Black. Both are my first fountain pens. Both fine nibs because I want my writing to dry quickly, and I do have small handwriting. The Parker is smoother and wetter (with the Quink) and produces slightly broader lines. I have to write slower with it because I'm a fast and messy writer, and the smoothness makes it hard to write dynamically without "slipping". The Lamy has more feedback so I can write faster. But in the end, I write more neatly with the Parker. So I guess my preference is not glass-smooth pens. Best thing is I can write for longer without stopping. The pens just glide on the paper and puts down ink without any pen pressure at all. The Parker is what I use at the office. It looks and feels more professional and is great for signatures. The Lamy is what I carry around to work sites and take quick notes.

I had quite a few Lamy pens throughout the years, and I never had to exchange them, nib ALWAYS was what I expected from it. And then I got Visconti homo sapiens bronze age, and I had to exchange it TWICE to get a useable nib...

I have two Safari EF and a 2000 F. My everyday pen is one of the Safari.

Right on brother 😊

If you haven’t checked out the platinum preppy, you should check that one out too. It’s really well-made and even cheaper than the Lamy Safari.

This thing gets half of german students through school. It is made from plastic, yes. You have to understand what the thing is built for: In germany, students use fountain pens from 2nd grade in school (age 8) The safari is made for them. It is built to be thrown in your school bag, falling on hard surfaces, getting thrown around the class room. abused in any conceivable way by frustrated students. And not crack under that load. I think the thing is built like a tank. Some parts can even be ordered as spares I believe. Plus it does not hurt your teeth when chewing on it. I know what I am talking about.

I have had two. Both leaked around the nib. I use Jinhao pens now. Unlike the Lamys they come with a free converter, are cheaper. I do however have a Lamy 1.1 stub nib on a Jinhao 80. The range of nibs that lamy offer is huge. Just make your pens better. No more leaks please.

I have 2 and love them when they write but both are fully filled, clean, use good ink, and they both do dry after writing a few lines. I tried the cartridges and converter with both fine and medium nibs. How do I get them to write?

i sold fancy pens every day for a couple years - Watermans above $200 every day. I didn't understand it at all. I'd just clean the nibs of the display pens customers would write with. Kept this old, fancy Cross Century on my suit - I was 16 years old and had no idea about anything. One thing that I don't often see being said about these pens are the pocket clips. They are deep-seated, suitably chrome-plated, (wear and rust-resistant) wider than many, and really hold fast. I'd compare them to a good pocket knife, not a pen. I've forgotten that it's clipped to me on some occasions. That old Cross Century, however, its clip began to loosen from the cap. As an adult I write daily with a LAMY Safari, and that beautiful old Century now sits well in her display box. I simply didn't believe a "cheap pen" could be a daily driver because I was drowning in sales patter every day. LAMY Safaris defy this. Every single one, there are zero issues with the plastic body, zero issues with the threading. Never, ever! You can find ones that are older than I am, and that plastic (which I held to be dubious) is incredibly strong and light. You would need to be making an honest attempt to destroy it. The plastic's commonly used for parts of vehicles that will be exposed to the sun and elements - plastic trim still looking good on that 30 year old car? They're probably made of this plastic - it weathers far, far better than ABS plastic, it handles temperature, pressure and humidity changes as well as UV exposure INCREDIBLY well. It's not a cheap/bad plastic. If you don't mind a stiff, plain nib, and you're okay with the fact that their $25 price point means some of the nibs won't be perfect, it's just perfect. You'd really have to abuse one to make a mess with it; I can only imagine how many German schoolchildren made a giant mess with one of these. It's also a fair consideration that even high-end "luxury" pens sometimes have nib issues out-the-box. No showoff nonsense, no worry about losing the darn thing. The nibs can be quite casually clipped on and off, (with care of course!) so you can really easily switch nibs - taking out an M for an EF as and when writing Chinese characters, for example, won't even take you a few minutes. New nibs are only ten buckeroos! The single downside to this ease and inexpensiveness is that occasionally, a nib you get has a small issue, even fresh from the factory. They aren't terrible defects, they will still write very well reliably, but I have a few M nibs as the first one I got "blots" and releases a fair bit of ink when first touching paper. Note here that if you make LAMY aware of a faulty nib, they will immediately send you a replacement no questions asked. It's nice to have a fancy desk pen, absolutely! There's also many reasons why you'd actively prefer a reliable yet almost discardable pen. Cheers for the video and apologies for the essay!

I love mine , wish it would stop leaving a blot of ink every time I put the nib to paper though. Any ideas how to stop that?

It was my first fountain pen and the grip was a big problem for me so thanks for mentioning that in the review. And no I don't think the lamy way is the 'right way' of holding pen

I love the design and construction although personally i find it some how uncomfortable for long writing for that a do prefer TWSBI, Pelikan or the 2000

Couple questions... one -- is that fine or medium? And also, if I buy in that website will I get the color of the pen as the ink? For instance if I buy a yellow pen will it come with yellow ink? Thanks!!

If you like or don't mind nearly every nib you get from them having different line widths in no matter what width size nib you get, then sure, buy them. On the other hand IN MY experience every single nib I have gotten from them has written different widths for each size I ordered even though they were labeled the same for their width. Not all fines will write fine. I have one that's almost writes like a broad. I have Extra Fines that write like Mediums. I think you're getting the picture. I have one Extra Fine nib that actually writes like an Extra Fine so I was switching it from pen to pen sometimes since I have multiple pens with different ink colors in them. Then I decided it's too much trouble. I put all the Lamies away and will not ever use them again. I've had much better luck with nib size consistency with some of the very "well-known" Chinese brand fountain pens. I find Lamy nibs are just not reliable in line width. I never knew what I was going to get line witdh wise. There are too many other good manufacturers of fountain pens with more reliable nibs that are close or similar to Lamy's price range for me to be fooling around with that kind of inconsistency.

I have a few Lamy Safaris - BUT I still prefer the KAWECO Sport (still German engineering).

I agree! I’ve been collecting fountain pens for many years, and I have many expensive fountain pens, but I love my Safari’s. I buy a lot of them because if a friend becomes interested in fountain pens I’ll gift them a Safari. I always recommend Safari’s to newbys because they are excellent writers, and they’re easy to clean, and changing nibs is easy-easier than any other fountain pen. And they’re cheap enough to own many, in a variety of nib sizes. (The LAMY 1.1 stub nib is my favorite 1.1 stub, and I’ve tried a lot of them.) I really can’t say enough good things about LAMY fountain pens. I own fountain pens from all the major manufacturers, and LAMY is better than most. In my experience, LAMY nibs are excellent!

ok ok, but what about the most important thing about a nib: flexibility and dynamics? Can this pen make good thin and wide strokes?

Platinum preppy is best budget. Lamy is good if you want a wider range of nibs. However the safari cap gets loose over time and loses the cap click and thus starts to dry out.

For me the Lamy Safari is a quite good pen but their nibs are hit or miss you never know what you get. That is a shame considering how quality control went down nowadays not only with pens. Lamys were always scratchy and EF wrote like B et cetera. Now that I have Lamy Studio, the nib is in medium and seems to be the only nib closest to being a true M although it is a bit wider to my taste.

Of all my pens, expensive and cheap, my Lamy Safari is my all time favorite go to pen.

Little bit of a backround. The Lamy Safari was and probably still is one of the go-to Fountain pens for Kids and Teenagers in Germany. Thats also why they have the special holding grip. Look up the wooden Lamy for little kids. It basically is the little more grown up "cooler" version of it. Hence all the funky colors. Its on the pricier side, but the quality is amazing. (Fountain pens start at around 5€ here, so 30€ is something you invest once and then it should last a while). I had the same one for probably over 15 years without any issues. I had more expensive ones in the meanwhile and honestly. Once you had a Lamy its hard to use another one. The specific cardritches are a little bit of a headache, but third parties already offer cardritches with Lamy on one end and regular on the other. So you can use them for either. I will probably invest into a converter at some point.

What is the difference between inc cartridge and converter?

What's the difference between the Lamy Safari and the Lamy Al Star?

Can you use permanent ink with a Lamy pen?

best budget pen you can buy in terms of smoothness

you can even add a gold nib if you like

My mama ordered me a bronze LAMY safari Edit: I FINALLY GOT IT, IT'S SO GOOD only downside is that I have to buy Lamy Cartridges

The Lamy Safari is best described as plain, it's not bad, it's not great. For that kind of money, you can do much better. Platinum Preppy 6 Color Bundle is $32 @ Jet****. ( That's 6 fountain pens! )

Is the Lamy Safari still good? I don’t think it’s just good, but rather excellent. The Safari is good price and easy to clean after emptying the ink, and it’s also easy to change the nib size at an affordable price. You can even change it to a 14K nib if you want, and these advantages are quite attractive. Even if, I lose or break it, I won’t be that sad.

I am looking for a lightweight fountain pen with a wet and smooth nib and I can't decide between Lamy Safari and Twisbi Eco. The only thing that makes me hesitate to go for the Lamy is the "tooth" you mentioned. I have heard people say Twisbi writes wetter, but it looks bottom heavy with the piston mechanism. I have really small hands 😅 Any advice?

I have 5 of them

After using a Pilot Kakuno, Pilot Custom 743 and Pilot VP... My Lamy Safari's feel freaking terrible.

That grip section I hate it, I waste my money on that. A Pilot Varsity is bether and cheaper.

I had one in all black/charcoal, my partner borrowed it and about a week later dumped me and kept the pen. Fucken bastard. That's how good this pen is 😂

FYI Fountains are more arthritis friendly than ball pens or even pencils. Taking the strain off of these fingers has improved my handwriting from doctor like to half way readable. Just say'n

Lamy Vista medium nib bar none the best cheap Lamy I have.

Ok, I'll be the contrarian here. It is a good pen but not necessarily a great pen. The price, like the pen, is fair for what you get (an ok nib, easily changed, proprietary cartridge and converter -- not included) etc. For just around $30, I can get a nice writing, Chinese made piston filler (Asvine P36 or P20) that are higher on the value curve. The Pilot Prera is good, too.

Love the pen, hate the grip.

I bought my Lamy in Germany, the nib is Fine and horrible, I hate it 😢

Came here to say yes before the video then I watched it.

Why the background drum beat? It's irritating and caused me to turn off the review.

There are lot of chiness duplicate pens like Lamy safari.

I have to be the heretic here and honestly mention that I deeply despise the Lamy Safari - wait a second, there's a reason: I'm a German who was a student in the 90s and the first decade of the 21st century and I spent the vast majority of my schooldays writing with the Safari - heck I still *have* three of them - the point here it's a decent pen and very affordable but it's also a) Bauhaus in style... I despise the style but the true thing of importance *for me* is the *forced angle* - I had hand cramps all my school days when writing something longer... as one is bound to do in German "High School" (the system is substantially different but that's off-topic). And I wasn't the only person among my peers who suffered from this. So long story short: it's not made for me and I feel it's design is disgusting. *But* I also get why it has a substantial fan base elsewhere - in Germany it's *the* "school pen" par excellence so all I associate with it is hand cramps.😅 Though if you like the design (bleh!😉) check out the Lamy AL -Star, as the (oh-so-clever) semiotic game implies it's the Safari design executed in aluminium and not substantially more expensive... I'll stay with my Pelikans.😉 Best regards Raoul G. Kunz

I think they are expensive for a plastic pen. They may be good, but pricey for plastic.

You need to remove the spacer

I prefer heavier type pens. Safari is very light at .6 oz. so I only own 5 of them with nibs from EF to 1.9mm. They write great.

Vendor from Amazon cheated on price

I just don’t like the nib shape

There's a whole world of blotters out there, too.

Wait!! Inexpensive! What is he saying. They are quite a lot expensive. You have to be really rich to call them budget pen! They 3500 indian rupees. Budget pen would be 100 rupees and cheap is 5. 3500 is a months worth groceries!

"best budget fountain pen". This guy thinks he can speak when he hasn't even tried the platinum preppy.

The best, lamy safari

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️😘😘😘😘

Is it still good? The Lamy Safari outperforms all the pens in its class. It's far superior to even so-called "luxury" pens like Montblanc or Visconti. Pelikan & pilot can't compete either. The Lamy Safari is true class for a real gentleman. World leaders should use it.