First fountain pen of my life. Parker Vector with “Medium” nib. I’ve already had it for two weeks, and although this was only meant to try out fountain pens, I think I’ll keep it, since the nib is a great compromise between being smooth while not being fussy with office paper. Already chewed through a cartridge. Only bad thing with the pen is that the grip is a little meh – my fingers don’t really like it.
My next will probably be a Lamy (mostly Safari). Any recommendations for the nib size so it fits my criteria?
I find that the Lamy Extra Fine nib does quite well on office paper, but it’s also very dependent on your ink. A thinner ink is much more likely to spread (it’s before coffee idk the name). I need to find the manufacturer of the one I am using now (I was gifted the cart) so I can recommend it to you.
My experiences with the Lamy polished steel nibs seem to be a bit of a lottery as to how close to standard they are.
I have used EF nibs that behaved more like a fine/medium nib and have a fine nib that was closer to an EF nib.
Then I got an EF black steel nib that was bang on.
Okay I have to say my EF black steel is definitely the best of the lot. It is a bit more scratchy, but paired with rhodia I like the feed back for faster notes.
So my wife did a lovely, terrible thing and got me a fountain pen and a moleskine for my birthday. It’s just a Zebra V301, but it has reignited my interest in fountain pens (which is why it’s terrible lol). Now I have a tiny wishlist on Jetpens… Anyway, I’m going to get a LAMY Safari, but I’m torn on whether to get Fine or Extra Fine nib to start with. My V301 is Fine, and I like the lines from it, but it can be a little thick at times, especially when I make a mistake and go back over it to correct it. I’m worried that the Extra Fine will be too fine, especially since it’s stainless steel, which doesn’t flex as much as gold. This is going to be my EDC pen, so I’ll be using it on all kinds of paper. Please help me decide!
How scratchy (unsmooth?) is a Lamy EF?
Feedback (aka the scratchy friction from the nib rubbing across the paper fibers) all depends on both the paper and the type of nib you get.
The polished steel nib will have less feedback than the black steel nibs but the polished steel nibs will have greater variation in the line thickness.
Higher end/premium paper like Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Leuchtturm 1917 etc will feature smoother paper which will give less feedback.
Some feedback is wanted so you know how you are writing but how much feedback is needed is up to both the user and the situation.