Lamy Aion: Jasper Morrison and his concept of the Super Normal

[Mercian]

6 hours ago, RJS said:

Thank you for bringing that to my attention... I'll try to track one down!

With respect to the ‘rubber’ grip sections on the Studio, beware…

 

 

I have never owned a Studio myself, but I did find that the ‘rubber’ on the grip-section of my mid-2000s Parker Frontier eventually started to come off in chunks. I think that it may have been caused by a chemical reaction to exposure to water.

 

Ok, so the Frontier is a ‘cheaper’ pen than the Studio, and mine was built at a time when the company was failing and so was frantically cutting production-costs, but I would not be surprised if the ‘rubber’ grip of the Studio were also to be susceptible to similar degradation.

[Baka1969]

2 hours ago, RJS said:

Thanks. I found one on another website for about $100 that comes with the gold nib variant... that is tempting!

 

I'd be interested also. 

[RJS]

51 minutes ago, Mercian said:

With respect to the ‘rubber’ grip sections on the Studio, beware…

 

 

I have never owned a Studio myself, but I did find that the ‘rubber’ on the grip-section of my mid-2000s Parker Frontier eventually started to come off in chunks. I think that it may have been caused by a chemical reaction to exposure to water.

 

Ok, so the Frontier is a ‘cheaper’ pen than the Studio, and mine was built at a time when the company was failing and so was frantically cutting production-costs, but I would not be surprised if the ‘rubber’ grip of the Studio were also to be susceptible to similar degradation.

That's interesting. I have a number of pens with rubber sections, and they do tend to get sticky over time. When this first happened to a pen of mine, I recalled the same thing happening to my game controllers on my original PlayStation, and how I fixed it. Wipe clean using IPA (isopropyl alcohol, not India Pale Ale). Works a treat. Never had rubber come off in chunks so far.

 

Edit: While I do realise rubber isn't a "forever" material, some kinds can last a quite a few decades... especially when rarely exposed to sunlight. I'd be satisfied with a few decades...

[Mercian]

6 minutes ago, RJS said:

Wipe clean using IPA (isopropyl alcohol, not Indian Pale Ale).

😁

[RJS]

I hadn't used either of my Looms since last summer, but inked one up today as I've been doing a lot of writing... it must be the nicest 'cheap' western pen on sale. It is leagues above a lot of the competition. Good build quality and excellent nibs that punch well above their weight. It remains baffling why this pen isn't better known and recommended more heavily. The Aion I was gifted is also a very nice but not well known pen. Lovely build, but a shame it doesn't have a Loom quality nib.

[LWW]

On 1/7/2024 at 10:40 AM, ralfstc said:

Very nice! Thank you. The Aion (changed to Lion by spellcheck) is a pen I have tried to love, but find it not quite right in my hand. I was just thinking about trying again with a dark blue one, and perhaps I shall after this review. Or maybe one less attempt is more..

I don’t want to discourage you, but if the pen doesn’t feel right in your hand then I doubt a color change will help.

 

This is a rather big pen for a person with average sized hands, especially when posted.

 

It is a shade bigger than a Safari on paper put to me it just fits.

 

LWW <—- 5 ft 10in 183 lbs 67 YO size L glove size.

 

I hope this helps.

[alfredop]

I like the aesthetic of the Aion (I have one in black), but it has two problems: the first is that the section is slippery (not as much as some Lamy Studio), the second is that the EF nib is too broad for me. I solved the last problem by sampling among my Safari EF nib (usually they have the some problem but occasionally you can find a true EF) and substituting the original one.

 

Without the slippery problem I would have a much larger collection of Aion, Studio and Scala, instead I am limited to Studio with satinated or ruberized sections.

 

Alfredo

[Azulado]

3 hours ago, alfredop said:

I like the aesthetic of the Aion (I have one in black), but it has two problems: the first is that the section is slippery (not as much as some Lamy Studio), the second is that the EF nib is too broad for me. I solved the last problem by sampling among my Safari EF nib (usually they have the some problem but occasionally you can find a true EF) and substituting the original one.

 

Without the slippery problem I would have a much larger collection of Aion, Studio and Scala, instead I am limited to Studio with satinated or ruberized sections.

 

Alfredo

My hand is small and I found it difficult to adapt to the section. I still don't find it as comfortable as the Safari. 
I think the Section has a good grip due to the texture of the aluminium. I have read in some reviews that it is difficult to find the ideal finger position and that you have to keep moving your fingers or even squeezing them. 
As for the nib, mine is an M, which writes like an F+. It has all the virtues of the regular Z50 and writes more smoothly. 
It seems to me that the Safari nib has been adapted to your Aion. Something strange happens in my pen, the Z50s are very far away from the feed at the end. It's as if the nib is straight and the feed is curved. But the nib on the Aion fits the feed perfectly. 
There is another problem that no one has mentioned: the cartridge does not fit well into the barrel. It has a constriction in the deepest part. In theory, it is designed to fit only the end of the cartridge. That way the pressure is on the shoulders of the cartridge and the cartridge is secure. The problem is that there is no room and you have to press hard. When you do this, you force the thread about 3mm before you reach the end. You can hear the barrel thread rubbing against the profile thread. That can't be good. So I only use the pen with the converter. 

[MuddyWaters]

On 6/15/2024 at 1:30 PM, RJS said:

I hadn't used either of my Looms since last summer, but inked one up today as I've been doing a lot of writing... it must be the nicest 'cheap' western pen on sale. It is leagues above a lot of the competition. Good build quality and excellent nibs that punch well above their weight. It remains baffling why this pen isn't better known and recommended more heavily. The Aion I was gifted is also a very nice but not well known pen. Lovely build, but a shame it doesn't have a Loom quality nib.

 

It's the section and weight of the pen. Just not that comfortable in the long run. Unfortunate though because it's a pen with a decent girth for an entry pen. 

[RJS]

On 7/20/2024 at 5:29 AM, MuddyWaters said:

 

It's the section and weight of the pen. Just not that comfortable in the long run. Unfortunate though because it's a pen with a decent girth for an entry pen. 

Sorry, are you referring to the Loom or the Aion?

[Azulado]

On 6/15/2024 at 2:30 PM, RJS said:

Lovely build, but a shame it doesn't have a Loom quality nib.

I have an FC Ambition and a Lamy Aion, both with medium nibs. I totally disagree that the one on the Ambition is better than the one on the Aion. Both are great nibs, some of the best you can find in steel. Each has its own personality, it's a matter of personal taste whether you prefer one or the other.
With the Z53, Lamy wanted to make a different nib from the Z50. He gave priority to the smoothness of the writing, there is a total absence of roughness, while maintaining a certain feedback that manifests itself in a peculiar noise when gliding over the paper.

[RJS]

2 hours ago, Azulado said:

I have an FC Ambition and a Lamy Aion, both with medium nibs. I totally disagree that the one on the Ambition is better than the one on the Aion. Both are great nibs, some of the best you can find in steel. Each has its own personality, it's a matter of personal taste whether you prefer one or the other.
With the Z53, Lamy wanted to make a different nib from the Z50. He gave priority to the smoothness of the writing, there is a total absence of roughness, while maintaining a certain feedback that manifests itself in a peculiar noise when gliding over the paper.

I never commented on the Ambition or its nib, as I don't own one. I had to Google what the pen even looked like.

 

The nibs of the Looms I have were excellent out of the box- essentially flawless. Maybe I got lucky each time? Across 12-15 Lamy pens (I've lost count as some are back in England) I've been that lucky once, only 'topped' by Kaweco, where I've been never been lucky. (Both have interesting looking models- I'm not just a glutton for punishment).
 

It is interesting that there are now two low end Lamy nibs that look much the same- I didn't know that. Perhaps the Z53 goes through some extra steps? It seems to be priced only a couple of euros less than a Safari/Nexx, so I guess it is meant to be generally superior and not just smoother.

 

The reason I've not purchased more FC pens relate to the number of reviews I've seen where internal parts have broken, either nasty plastic threads or the parts around the nozzle that connects to the c/c. 

[Azulado]

1 hour ago, RJS said:

I never commented on the Ambition or its nib, as I don't own one. I had to Google what the pen even looked like.

The Faber-Castell steel nib is suitable for the Ondoro, E-Motion, Loom and Ambition.

 

1 hour ago, RJS said:

It is interesting that there are now two low end Lamy nibs that look much the same- I didn't know that. Perhaps the Z53 goes through some extra steps? It seems to be priced only a couple of euros less than a Safari/Nexx, so I guess it is meant to be generally superior and not just smoother.

I don't know whether to speak of low-end when referring to the Lamy Z53 nib. They fit the Lamy Aion and the Lamy Ideos (recently discontinued). The former costs 55 € in Spain and the latter used to cost over 100 €. In theory they are compatible with other models, but on my Aion the Z50s are too far apart from the feed. The Z53s do fit well on the Safari. The Z53 has rounded shoulders and the tip is quite different. In my opinion, the carving and polishing are optimised.
All my Kaweco and Lamys write quite well. In the case of the Kaweco, the nibs that came with the Sport classic needed adjustments such as the nib spacing or smoothing of the tip end. The nibs that came with the DIA2 and Student were perfect out of box. Is there better quality control on the more expensive models? I don't know.
As for the Lamy, I have more than 15 nibs and only two came defective. One was asymmetrical, the steel blade must have fallen badly in the press and cut badly. The other nib had a burr which I easily removed. They all wrote well out of box. Some were rough at the end of the tip, but this varies depending on the ink and paper. Just run a little micromesh on the edge of the channel, never on the contact surface. On both Kaweco and Lamy pens, the contact surface is perfectly polished. If you touch them, they lose their personality.

[RJS]

6 hours ago, Azulado said:

The Faber-Castell steel nib is suitable for the Ondoro, E-Motion, Loom and Ambition.

 

I don't know whether to speak of low-end when referring to the Lamy Z53 nib. They fit the Lamy Aion and the Lamy Ideos (recently discontinued). The former costs 55 € in Spain and the latter used to cost over 100 €. In theory they are compatible with other models, but on my Aion the Z50s are too far apart from the feed. The Z53s do fit well on the Safari. The Z53 has rounded shoulders and the tip is quite different. In my opinion, the carving and polishing are optimised.
All my Kaweco and Lamys write quite well. In the case of the Kaweco, the nibs that came with the Sport classic needed adjustments such as the nib spacing or smoothing of the tip end. The nibs that came with the DIA2 and Student were perfect out of box. Is there better quality control on the more expensive models? I don't know.
As for the Lamy, I have more than 15 nibs and only two came defective. One was asymmetrical, the steel blade must have fallen badly in the press and cut badly. The other nib had a burr which I easily removed. They all wrote well out of box. Some were rough at the end of the tip, but this varies depending on the ink and paper. Just run a little micromesh on the edge of the channel, never on the contact surface. On both Kaweco and Lamy pens, the contact surface is perfectly polished. If you touch them, they lose their personality.

I'm also loathe to smooth nibs, as I enjoy feedback more than a glassy smooth nib. I genuinely may have had my share of bad luck with Kaweco and Lamy, as various flaws in both have lead to downright scratchy nibs frequently on arrival- much more so than I experienced with bargain basement Chinese pens I've played with (though a number of those had flow issues). I wouldn't say the majority of my Lamy nibs have been bad, they've just mostly not been good or consistent.
 

I heavily lean towards Japanese pens, which from personal experience tend to be more accurate and consistent in line width and feel, as well as having better QC standards. I'm aware that while a lot of people have experienced the same as me, some on these boards will vehemently disagree. My Lamy and Kaweco pens have frequently strayed from their designated width- take two M's, where one is clearly an F and the other clearly a B. I've not experienced that with Japanese pens, even those priced similarly to a Lamy Safari or Kaweco Sport.

 

Thanks for bringing the Z53 to my attention. I'd conflated the Z50/53 into being one and that same, so maybe I should buy another Z53 to try it (I have only one, and was away from my collection when I bought it and used it. It was on the better side of my Lamy experiences, though I've not used it much at all since). Now that I compare the nibs side by side they're clearly very different!

 

 

Edited July 22, 2024 by RJS
Corrected an error.

[mazinger55]

On 1/7/2024 at 10:19 AM, Nhartist40 said:

I just posted a new video on my YouTube channel that combines my passion for fountain pens with my interest in art. I look closely at Lamy's Aion fountain pen which was designed by Jasper Morrison. It is a great example of his concept of the "super normal." I think it is a very beautiful pen, but it is not the most comfortable pen to write with. I talk about why this might be so and think about the old modernist issues of form not quite following function, and less is not necessarily more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm2I8NpWYMo

 

Morrison is a British designer, who is probably best known for the dishes and flatware he has designed for Alessi.  In 2007, along with his colleague, the designer Naoto Fukasawa, Morrison curated an exhibition entitled Super Normal which displayed a selection of tools, furniture, dishes that they felt embodied their design aesthetic—objects that evolved, if you will over time, so that they functioned beautifully but also discretely.

 

The name of the pen is interesting.  It comes from a Hellenistic deity who represents eternity, or cyclical time.  In art he is is often depicted naked next to or inside the circle of the zodiac.  Rather than see time as linear, past present and future, AION is about continuity, and this relates to two ideas the pen is supposed to embody: a kind of seamless whole, and a timeless quality.  One reviewer said the pen seems masculine, I am not sure about this, but it does have a naked quality—a feeling that Morrison has considered what a fountain pen should be and stripped it down to its essentials.  The process by which the pen is given its brushed surface by robots and then bathed in an acid bath, also suggest a kind of stripping down of the body.

 

I have a pen in my collection called The Rings pen that was designed by the Hausmann design team.  This cute but totally bizarre pen is almost completely unusable as a pen.  It is really an art object—everything about it says it was designed by designers who want their pen to stand out and look different.  Morrison is against all of this—rather than original, he insists he is “reprocessing” the past. 

 

To put it another way, it is almost by design, that Jasper Morrison’s work on the Aion pen has been largely ignored.  The pen does not shout, "I am original, I am different," but in fact, in order for it to made, Lamy had to develop new ways of manufacture.  Its simplicity—its discretion, requires work and reengineering, which is sort of a paradox.  Even the nib is newly designed. The result is a pen that while not super expensive, costs more than twice what a Lamy Safari costs, even though they both have a steel nib that writes rather similarly. 

 

Morrison said in an interview about the pen:

 

"From the very beginning, I wanted to design the pens to be as seamless and sealed as possible. Lamy has managed to make our ideas reality in superb form.

If it isn’t a simplified whole, then it isn’t a finished design."

 

Another aspect of Morrison’s design is a certain sensuousness.  He wants the materials to be seductive, and thus the rounded forms, and the brush surface.  Comfort is supposed to be another consideration. The clip is spring loaded which makes it easy to fit on a shirt without tearing the fabric.  The pen clicks together—no time wasted screwing the cap in and out, no problem with the rough edges of threads.  The pen posts very securely. 

In order to produce the pen, Lamy had to create a system of robots that quickly creates the brush surface.  They had to use a heavy aluminum, that is anodized to make it harder so it would not scratch easily. 

 

Several reviewers have talked about how the top and bottom of the pen is blank.  This is wrong.  My favorite part of the pen is the way you can see how it is machined on the top and bottom—and how beautifully it reflects the light.  Lamy also redesigned their standard nib so that it looks more pointy and rounded on the edges, and also slightly finer.  However, if you like the standard Lamy nib, it is interchangeable with it. 

 

And so Morrison and Lamy created what I think is a gorgeous looking pen.  And yet, it isn’t perfect.  It is quite heavy.  It is well balanced when posted and I find I am able to write well with it, but I think if I used it for hours, my hand would get tired—particularly if I used it posted.  In our world of computers, more and more people don’t write for long periods of time with pens, but a pen called Aion, should encourage writing for a long time, not tire the user out. 

The other problem is that I find the section to be slippery.  This is a problem that often comes up with the all metal pens Lamy is partial too in their more expensive pens. The section is not perfectly smooth, but it is fat and slippery.  I think if it were ribbed or made of a different material it would improve the feel and make it easier to write with.  But that might ruin the aesthetic simplicity.  This is one of the problems with the less-is-more aesthetic.  Simple things don’t necessarily function better than complex things.  Less is sometimes just less.

 

Don’t get me wrong—I really fell in love with the way these pens look, so much so that I will use them, probably unposted.  I love the colors the come in. They seem like true works of art to me in their simplicity and elegance.  But in terms of comfort, the Lamy Nexx, which is much cheaper, is a better choice.   Interestingly, the Nexx was designed by Andreas Haug at Phoenix design, which is a little more flashy and mainstream in their aesthetic than Morrison.  It does things that are not necessarily justified by function, like the way its barrel begins as a diagonal and transitions to a circle. But its section is rubberized for comfort, and like the Lamy Safari, it is shaped to help you hold the pen in the proper way.   

But I am not so charmed by the way the Nexx looks—it is trying too hard to be noticed.  The cap and clip seem a bit cheap, particularly in the plastic version. It doesn’t quite look like a pen to me, while the Aion still comes across as an elegant writing instrument that is both contemporary and classic in its form. Elegant and discrete—these are terms that fit Jasper Morrison's designs perfectly.

love it

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thanks for the info on a plastic Studio section. I'm not yet having any problem with mine. It is out loaded with a Dark Lilac needle filled cartridge. The converter leaks.

The gold nib (Z-53?) has baby bottom, is will be sent off to be repaired?

Dumb, send it into Lamy to repair or replace. Along with the converter.

 

I have a 1990 Persona, and a Lamy Joy 1.5, and now a Safari needing a new ring, that was in a live auction lot. I'm not into nails.

There was a sale at a department store in down town that closed. I only bought the Studio for 20% off, in I could get the same springy but only 2X gold non-nail nib for it. That nib had really impressed me in the Imporium.

 

I had never heard of the Aion. Great description. 

[inkstainedruth]

Somehow I'd missed this thread before now.  I was curious about the model, so looked at the technical specs for it on the Goulet Pens website.  And it seems to be a tiny bit heavier than a Lamy Studio.   

I had been eyeing a Studio for a while, but ended up passing on it when I was at the Lamy SoHo store in NYC at Christmastime and tried one, and it was a bit too heavy for me.  So it looks as it the Aion would also be a hard pass for me as well.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Azulado]

17 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Somehow I'd missed this thread before now.  I was curious about the model, so looked at the technical specs for it on the Goulet Pens website.  And it seems to be a tiny bit heavier than a Lamy Studio.   

I had been eyeing a Studio for a while, but ended up passing on it when I was at the Lamy SoHo store in NYC at Christmastime and tried one, and it was a bit too heavy for me.  So it looks as it the Aion would also be a hard pass for me as well.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I had never really noticed the weight of the Lamy Aion before. If someone had asked me, I would never have said it was a heavy pen. However, you're right—21 g uncapped does place it on the heavier side of pens.

I generally prefer lightweight pens, and I don’t mind if they’re small. Models like the Lamy St 45, Diplomat Traveller, or Pelikan M150 are among my favorites. That said, I also appreciate the Aion. I consider it a truly unique pen. The biggest challenge for me was getting used to the unusually wide grip section. The nib has a personality of its own—it’s nothing like the Z50 nibs found on Safaris. It has a meticulous polish and is very stiff, which makes it highly sensitive to paper and ink choices. On some papers, it feels slippery, but when the combination is just right, it’s a marvel. The Safari handles anything you throw at it, but with the Aion, you need to be more selective with your papers and inks.

In my opinion, this is a pen to own as a rarity and to appreciate for its construction details. Despite the issues I’ve had with it, I wouldn’t part with it for anything. I don’t regret buying it for a second. However, I wouldn’t recommend it to a beginner or someone looking for a reliable workhorse. That said, I’ve read about people who use it as an everyday pen without any issues.