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To Skip The Intermediate Stage Or Not: Lamy Al-Star Vs. Lamy 2000


MuddyWaters

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As a novice, I'm still taking in all of the terminology and trying to answer my own questions, but this post raises so many for me that I decided to toss a few out right now:

 

When a fountain pen is described as having a 14 K gold nib, does that imply that the nib is a 14K solid gold nib (with alloys of course), or does 14K gold nib mean that the nib could be either solid gold or merely gold-plated?

 

I am beginning to understand the importance of writing with a particular fountain pen for a long time before deciding if one likes it or not. But one still dreams... And this posting is just the kind of thing to incite dreaming (of adding another pen). I have only two. One is a vintage Pelikan (400) and writes beautifully—it never skips and has nice flex—but it's scratchy and I need to get used to that. Also, if there is something called a "sweet spot," I need practice finding it in this pen; (it's a medium nib but feels a bit more like a fine nib). On the other hand, this Pelikan is absolutely gorgeous (I haven't figured out how to upload photos yet—I will) and I love its age as well. The other pen is a Waterman Lady Charlotte, which writes smoothly but skips a lot (in spite of another deep cleaning this week). Both are using Waterman ink. I'm guessing that the wonderful flex qualities of vintage fountain pens are to be enjoyed at the expense of buttery-smooth writing. Is that true? Or can a pen have both a flexible nib and also be a very smooth writer at the same time? Any examples?

Moderation in everything, including moderation.

--Mark Twain

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Lamy Safari/AlStar writes easier than Lamy2000 due to the grip and nib, ironically, considering the price difference.

 

Lamy2000 is a pain in the A_s to grasp and get acquainted with. And the QC on nibs is terrible. I have struggled with the pen and the nib for a year or so. The question for me has always been: to post or not. And do not try to flex this pen, the nib springs very easily, i.e. it won't go back to its original tine alignment or shape.

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      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
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