Lamy Safari White Medium nib

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Here we have my newest addition to the pen addiction/collection/habit, a Lamy Safari fountain pen.

I'm sure many people know these pens, probably many owners reading this blog too, but this is my first Safari, I have owned Lamy pens before (now sadly lost over the years) but never a Safari, guess I've been a late arrival to the fan club. This is my daily user at present, as is usual with any new pen I get.

I tend to use my newest pen for a while, at least till the cartridge/refill runs out then move on to the newest pen or go out on a mission and buy a new pen, but with the Safari I have actually bought refill ink cartridges to keep it as a daily user, I guess that must say something for this pen, what though I will not commit to.

Obviously it's a white model with a medium nib, I've never actually seen a new Safari supplied with anything other a medium nib, anyone else? I know fine, broad and I believe italic replacement nibs are also available, but for now I'll stick with what it comes, whilst I like fine writers I'm not very good (read delicate/careful) with them so I find it best to avoid them, although lately I am finding myself becoming more and more drawn to a fine nib, especially for pocket notebooks, i like the idea of filling a page with fine, neat and small writing, this usually only last a few lines or days until i become lazy and slipshod.

The pen has a reassuringly firm feel to the pocket clip and capping responds with a discernible, if not audible, click. They are a very popular pen so I have high expectations of its robustness and life expectancy. 

Test time! So we can see that even though this test paper (the same one I use for all my pen tests) is very fibrous, not as smooth as normal writing or copier paper, the line put down by the pen does not bleed at all, surprised me! The nib does not pick up any fibers and exhibit dragged feathering like some do, I can only put this down to the nib split being very fine and tight, a good sign in any fountain pen.

Here is the nib in question, you can see the M to denote the nib width, medium in this case, notice also the slight raised collar around the base of the nib/barrel connection, this is the "clicky" mechanism that secures the pen top to pen barrel. At first i was dubious whether the smooth finger indentations would actually produce enough grip to be secure, but after continued use and various writing situations they do they job surprisingly well. The ink deposits you see have been there since the very first ink was run through the pen, in this case Lamy original purple, at first I was concerned that this would be one of those pens that deposited a lot of ink in the cap when they have traveled, in a bag, pocket, side of a book walking around, but on reflection its obvious that even with all the movement and bag carrying this pen has been through that it is actually a very good performer in that respect. If anyone has any other thoughts on that subject please do let me know, use the comments section down below.

As you can see, the cap interior does show ink traces, some of which must have come from the nib splashing while being transported, but hardly enough to cause concern or to class the pen as leaky. All in all I'm very pleased with its performance as a travelling pen, I may well give it a thorough test when we go on holiday in a couple of months, from which I will also being doing another Spanish stationery shop haul, so keep checking back for updates on some (hopefully) interesting finds.

The Lamy cartridge, inserted and in operation, is one of the larger/longer variety, not yhe Euro cartridge, this tends to be more common in European made pens and those that are classed as school/learner fountain pens. I have a slight preference for the Euro cartridge, purely because they are more widely available in non-stationery shops, having said that the fact hey use Lamy specific cartridges is not a problem, after all most pen makers do use some sort or variation of their own specific cartridge form. Notice also the aperture in the barrel of the pen.

Here is a close up of the aperture; apologies for the blur, my camera is not macro equipped, a useful feature enabling viewing of the cartridge in use to judge who close to empty the cartridge is, it means you will not have to carry a spare around with you all the time, or be for ever undoing the barrel to check levels, handy for an everyday pen, and at just the right level to give you a fair amount of ink left, yet still be close enough to empty and need to have new cartridge around.
In conclusion, my first Lamy Safari has been a very positive experience, is it my favourite pen and can I see where the big following comes from? I'm not sure yo be honest, I'm sure for some people its the perfect pen and no other will do, for me, I'm undecided as yet, I can see the plus points and the good points, only time and further use will tell if I find it as perfect a notebook pen as others do.