Lamy 2000 EF

[Shelley]

There are quite a few reviews of this pen already, and for history I reccomend reading MYU review, or for what can go wrong read davidmigl version, both of those reviews contain extensive photos, and if I get a chance I will add some to this, along with some messy handwriting samples, but for now just the guts.

 

This an "in my opinion" review, any facts incorrectly stated are my fault and the opinions are mine. Yours may differ.

 

I bought this pen from Pam Braun for USD 94.88. It came with a small pad of paper with Lamy branded across it (actually its really nice paper). The pen itself came in a cardboard box, inside that is an aluminium box and inside that, resting on a plastic holder was the pen and a sticker depicting nib type.

 

The pen is of course, an example of german bauhaus-simple, unardorned and functional, at first glance one could easily overlook it, it has none of the glamour of the blue studio, for instance, in fact one could easily overlook the fact that it is a FP.

 

The only give a way as to brand is a very discreet LAMY on the side of the clip and underneath the clip GERMANY is stamped (moulded) into the metal.

 

The pen feels light in the hand, it is a medium sized pen, and is black in colour with silver coloured clip, circle on bottom of pen and bit of pen that encloses the nib.

 

The nib is platinum. The rest of the pen is makron, black plastic, the very top of the pen is shiny plastic, and there are some semi clear/opaque windows for telling you how much ink is in her.

 

The pen feels rock solid, although I have no intention of EVER testing this (touch wood), I believe that with lid on this would easily survive a drop onto the floor...

 

Interestingly the plastic warms to the touch and I find myself reaching to hold her whist sitting at my computer if not actually typing (and even sometimes when I am).

 

The cap is a pull on/off type with a couple of ears that engage with a slight click, this seems very strong, yet at the same time easy to pull off, I am positive that the pen will not uncap itself in my shirt pocket (as has happened with my P51 occasionally), but is almost as easy to engage and can easily loosen the cap with thumb on clip and a slight push.

 

This pen had been factory tested as was evident in its first wash when a slight amount of blue came out of her when flushed with water.

 

So once washed and dried I filled her up with Mont Blanc Turquise ink (why not lamy ink I hear you ask-well this is the SAME stuff, Lamy ink amd MB ink are made in the same factory and then placed in different bottles, with the MB stuff being more expensive- and having a larger range - whether it is MB ink in Lamy bottles or Lamy in in MB bottles I do not know). The pen is a piston filler, I punger her nib down into the ink, unscrewed the top until it stopped, rescrewed her, loosed a half turn, retightened and removed, wiped off the excess, and then put away the bottle.

I then took pen to paper, almost instantly a bright line appeared on the paper, and did I mention smooth, this thing is easily the smoothest pen I have used, it is smoother than my P51 (which is 50+ years old), and that was smoother than any other pen I had previously tried. Serious smoothness here. A real pleasure to write with.

I opted for the EF nib and the line it puts down is slighly wet and is thin although is thicker than the F on my P51.

 

The pen holds a lot of ink, the windows allow you to see how much ink remains sort of-you can tell that there is ink left and I imagine that with practice one will be able to work out how much that is.

There are slight ears on the pen that holds the cap in place-some people have complained about the sharpness of these, besides noticing there the first time I picked up the pen I have not noticed them since (caveat-I have done full contact martial arts for the past 20 odd years so my hands are not the softest in the world).

 

The nib is, as I mentioned, Platinum-more resistant and expensive than gold-and is a dream to write with (whether this is a platinum sheath over gold or pure platinum I do not know), there is no feedback, scratchiness, hesitation or skipping and she writes on all sorts of paper without a pause-the line is slightly wet when first put down - a speedy left hander may run into trouble and this is an EF-the OBB would presumably be very wet. Also it glides over paper, if you do apply pressure there is some flex.

 

The clip easly slips into shirt, jacket and suit pants ocket and comes out with slight but reassuring resistance.

 

The cap posts nicely-nothing exceptionall there.

 

So value for money-I seriously do not think you can find a new, super strong, well built, piston filler with a platinum nib for under $100 that is better than this pen-so, in my opinion I give it 10/10.

 

Appearance-this is no MB149 bird splat pen, it is simple, elegant, functional-you will either really like that or not be impressed by it, also it is a hooded nib.So I like it for its clean lines, but I do not think it is beautiful like my Van Gogh 7/10.

 

Nib-I prefer non-hooded nibs but the function is flawless so I go for 9.5/10.

 

Fill system-piston filler, (window could be bigger) 9/10.

 

Over all-this is a users pen, not a collectors pen, as such it works well, but would be passed over without comment in a collection I suspect, so said I understand that this pen is in a museum, as an example of a bauhaus FP. So if you want an amazing pen that works well, is strong, is light, is of medium size, is a piston filler and does not cost the earth-then this could well be the pen for you-if you want a bling bling pen-look elsewhere.

 

 

Edited July 7, 2007 by Shelley

[NeoTiger]

The nib is, as I mentioned, Platinum-more resistant and expensive than gold-and is a dream to write with (whether this is a platinum sheath over gold or pure platinum I do not know), there is no feedback, scratchiness, hesitation or skipping and she writes on all sorts of paper without a pause-the line is slightly wet when first put down - a speedy left hander may run into trouble and this is an EF-the OBB would presumably be very wet. Also it glides over paper, if you do apply pressure there is some flex.

 

Agree with everything said in the review, great pen, great review.

 

I believe the Lamy 2000 nib is made of gold and plated with platinum (or some white metal, not sure if it is platinum).

[MYU]

Shelley, nice review -- I'm glad to see another satisfied Lamy 2000 owner.

 

The nib is indeed platinum plated. I also have found the Lamy 2000 to be super smooth, without presenting control problems. I had not heard much feedback on the EF nib--I'm pleased to learn it is also smooth (sometimes EF will be rather toothy). I was writing with a Lamy 27 EF nib today and found it also wrote very much like an F nib (also quite a smooth nib). The other great thing about this nib is that it can remain uncapped for long periods and still write shortly after being applied to paper. I was writing on the beach in windy conditions and never skipped a beat on my lettering.

 

The Makrolon body is great, tough material. I have dropped my cap on a hardwood floor with no resulting traces of the impact. I always post my pen and I've never seen any post markings on the barrel. This is nice!

 

Although there have been plenty of 2000 photos, it would be nice to see your interpretation. Please post when you can.

 

~Gary

[handlebar]

Nice review.I have yet own a Lamy but will someday.

 

JD

[Ghost Writer]

Thank you for this review. I have been considering purchasing a Lamy 2000 for about 3 months and your observations and comments have been very helpful in that process. I want a real workhorse in a modern pen and I think this is the one for me.

[bphollin]

Just when I thought I was done buying pens, you had to go and tempt me with a L2k! Now I'm thinking I might keep an eye on the classifieds board and scoop one of these bad boys up to replace my Al-Star as a beater pen.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts... I like reading multiple reviews of the same pen.

[AviSz]

thanks for the reveiw