Hey all,
First post here. Never been on FP BB before, but am thrilled to see that others that share my passion are out there. Been writing with FP's since my grandfather gave me a waterman from the early 70's when I graduated from high School. My everyday all day pen in the shirt pocket is a VP that I have had for a few years, and absolutely love. I have a few watermans, two Pelicans, a Wality that hasn't been written with yet, a Cartier pen that was given to me for Law School graduation that has never been written with, a few different glass pens, and a few steel nib dip pens, a Kaweco sport, and a few other random pens that have accumulated over the years.

Recently, I saw the Lamy Al-Star, and figured it would be a good pocket pen (can't let the little Kaweco have all the fun on the weekends), and also a good pen to leave at the office and not be TOO worried about it disappearing. I have been REALLY impressed by the performance of this pen. Nib is F, and I excpected such an inexpensive F to be scratchy and dry. How pleasant to be surprised by the quality of a less expensive writing instrument. I am still waiting for the converter, but I am getting such nice performance out of *gasp* the Lamy cartidges, that I might not even feed it Noodlers. For a pocket pen, it mihgt make sense to leave it withthe super-convinience of cartidges. I find myself reaching for the lamy sometimes over the VP.

For anyone who is looking for a less expensive pen that still delivers solid performance, I recommend it very strongly.

Take care,
Josh

Hi, smokelaw,

I love those so much I bought three of them. 9 (That's in addition to the two Safaris and one Vista - all the same body style.) For some reason that style of pen (particularly the section) fits the way I write perfectly. My Al-Stars are most often in my Wilde Wrap, so they get taken with me in my tote. Right now I have them filled with Noodler's Le Couleur Royale, Squeateague, and J Herbin's Poussière de Lune. (F, M, F)

All 'round great pens, imo. Wonderfully smooth on Clairefontaine paper. (I haven't tried the Lamy carts, so I can't speak to that.)

Tricia,
When the converter comes in, perhaps I'll give those inks a try. Noodlers Legal Lapis will be my first, though.
I've already considered getting another F (for red, I do a lot of editing) and an M.

Thanks!

I have an Al-Star (Safari) broad nib and Safaris with medium and extra-fine nibs. I love them all. I'm glad you like the fine nib; the extra-fine is good, and it's the width I need for marking my students' papers, but it's not as smooth as the dreamy-smooth medium and broad (which produce lines that are so close in width that I'd say get a medium because it produces more-solid lines than the broad does).

They've done well with all the inks I've put in them, although I prefer some inks to others: Lamy Blue, Levenger Raven Black, Levenger Fireball, Levenger Cobalt Blue, Levenger Cocoa, Noodler's Black, Noodler's Blue-Black (perfect shading coming out of the medium!) Noodler's Red and Waterman Purple/Violette (fairly wet coming out of the medium, so not good for cheap paper).

I prefer to post pen caps on the ends of barrels. The plastic Safaris post more securely than the aluminum Al-Stars, for some reason.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the board, smokelaw1 ! I agree with entirely: Lamy Safaris and AlStars are wonderful pens for a very good price. These pens are large and light, and write surprisingly well, with good flow and smooth nibs. I´ve never had any problem with them (I own 3 AS and several Safaris), and have never had to tinker with the nibs to improve them. Even their XF nib writes great out of the box. That´s the sort of pen that leaves you wondering: why are there so many ornery 100+ usd pens in the market, when Lamy makes such good ones for 30 usd?

regards,
Rique

Welcome to FPN! The Lamy AL-Star and Safari are both great pens. I have one of each. My AL-Star has a fine nib and can sit upright for weeks and write as soon as the nib hits the paper. The Safari has a 1.5 mm stub and is the same. Both are super reliable, rugged, and smooth. Wonderful pens at great prices. ENJOY!

I've heard Lamy nibs tend to write broad. How does the XF on these compare to a Namiki VP fine? I am looking for a nib that is inbetween the VP F (the narrowest writing line I've seen!) and M nibs, which are incredibly smooth, but too broad for me.