Review: Lamy 2000 fountain pen

I do love a nice fountain pen and I had been looking for a good fountain pen with a fine nib, which was preferably able to be filled from bottled ink. I asked Gerard – one of the people I have come into contact with through Philofaxy (read his review of the Glenroyal organiser here…) – for advice and he suggested the Lamy 2000.

Now, unlike many, I have not been enamoured of the Lamy fountain pens – I don’t like the viewing window in the barrel of the Lamy Safari (and others) – either aesthetically or functionally as I fear it would rub on my fingers/hand as I wrote. Anyway, Gerard immediately suggested the Lamy 2000 and also said that he had one he was happy to let me ‘road test’ and if I liked it, to buy it from him. He also said the viewing window was very small and wouldn't rub.

Just before I left work for the holidays, a parcel arrived from Gerard, including the Lamy 2000 and a lot of other ‘paper, pens and ink goodies’ for me! [Thank you Gerard!] I didn’t have chance to use the fountain pen until after Christmas though. I needed to write thank you cards and I also owed letters to a few people, so I decided I would use these opportunities to try out the pen.

[picture from Lamy website]

I really wanted to like this pen. It looks stylish, is a design classic and the nib wrote well… [Yes, I know you are all sensing a but here…]

But… after writing with it for a couple of hours, my palm felt as if I had been hanging from a cheese-wire. Within one letter I had cramped up in my hand; by three letters the arthritis in my thumb was screaming and when I had finished, I could barely open my hand out. The pen and I are not going to be partners.

I don’t quite know why the pen hurt so much to use, but it felt as if the weight of the pen was too far back (even with the lid lying on the desk) and that therefore I was having to really grip the barrel as I was writing.

Also, although the nib was beautifully smooth, it laid down a lot more ink than my other fountain pens do. In fact, so much so that there was bleed-through to the reverse side of my favourite writing paper (which doesn’t happen with any of my broader nibbed pens).

So, it was not to be, and I will be returning the pen to Gerard forthwith. My parents gave me some money at Christmas and so DH and I might go to Edinburgh and see if there are any nice fountain pens for me in the sales… Any other recommendations, anyone?