Lamy2000 black - elegant Fountain Pen in robust fibreglass barrel - 14 ct. gold nib, partially platinum-plated - nib size F

I have a small addiction to fountain pens.I have purchased a Parker Sonnet, 2 Waterman Carenes, a Parker 100 and have the remains of a very elderly Parker 61. None of them the bomb proof feel of this pen. Also, this pen just works and I get a sense of no nonsense with this Lamy 2000. Why?One, it just works until the ink runs out.Two, it is hooded so no inky fingers if I hold the pen near the nib (I am looking at my Waterman Carenes while saying that).Three, it doesn't skip or dry start while using it. (I am looking at my Parker 100 now).Four, it is a nail. By that I mean that there is very little flex in the nib, which I happen to be a fan of. (I would be looking at my Parker Sonnet with it golden broad nib, but I lost it.)Five, it is well built out of steel, so in my view it should last. (I am looking at the Parker 61 with its cracked plastic hood that can't be replaced easily.)Nib wise, I have the medium which is finer than my medium Waterman Carene. I normally get broad nibs, but needed a smaller nib to do degree level maths with and this is skinny enough to handle tiny subscripts of a subscript, but I don't want to go any smaller.There are two downsides to this pen, one is the lack of warning about the pen running out. It is fairly wet to write with when first fill and slowly get a touch drier as the ink level reduces, but it gives no warning about running out. I don't mind this as I always have a bottle of ink with me.The pen is filled by poking it into an ink bottle and turning the end of the pen in and out a couple of times, so no option for using cartridges.The other downside is the weight of the pen, it is my heaviest pen, but I don't mind as I have big paws.I am happy with how smooth the gold nib is, as it is my smallest nib. It glides with just a touch of toothiness but I find it quite sensitive to being rotated off its smoothest position.I would like to end by saying that this pens looks good, it is curved in a pleasing way, but looks nothing like the 180 odd pounds spent on it. If a fountain pen needs to make a statement of bling, get another but if you just want a workhorse of quite reliability, get this one if spending £180 on a pen doesn't seem mad to you.

I'll not repeat much about the pen's design and history, there are extensive reviews elsewhere online. Instead, a few random jottings.* this is a very practical fountain pen: the fibreglass finish, sprung clip and large ink reservoir make for a no fuss everyday writing experience. There's no reason why a pen like this shouldn't be usable for decades.* it's a pen which combines a number of interesting/desirable features in one fountain pen at a reasonable price. Hooded or gold nibs and piston filling are characteristics found usually in pricier pens and the Lamy 2000 combines all three.* it's much less likely than some other good quality fountain pens to be stolen since, capped and left unattended on a work desk, it could pass for some run of the mill biro or rollerball* the Fine nib comes up broader then typical, and would easily suit someone looking for a Medium on other pens. It is finer than a TWSBI 540 M or a Pelikan M200 M however. It has some springiness and allows for some lovely line variation, say less then the Noodlers Konrad's flex but much more than a nail like the TWSBI 540.* Cost varies a lot from full retail at £175 to sub-£100 if you manage to hit the right offer. WHSmiths have it at less than £100 at times, but rarely in stock. I bought mine from Amazon for under £100 and felt I'd done well. The quid pro quo is that you don't get the full Lamy packaging, so depending on the circumstances it might not be suitable as a gift. I flushed the pen before use and there was the mearest whisper of blue ink, this is from the factory testing and is not an indication that the pen is used. I think £175 is a little overpriced, but anywhere under a £100 seems good value for this piece of elegant and functional design history.

The Lamy 2000. A classic design that's stood the test of time.The Macrolon body has just the right bite to it to stop fingers from sliding off the pen's body, but doesn't feel rough to the touch. The Matte colour is unusual - I've only ever seen shiny pens before, and makes a change in its styling.The clip is well designed; pressing the very end of the clip at it's attachment point raises the clip from the body of the pen, making it easier to place into a cotton pocket.The capacity is positively voluminous, covering pages of A4 before giving a hint of running out. This is mostly because the pen doesn't use cartridges or converters, instead it's a piston filler. The piston is operated by turning the end of the pen, and when fully closed, the Macrolon material of the pen's body hides the seam - it really doesn't look like a piston filler! The ink window is a set of four clear windows around the pen's body. This takes some getting used to; you cannot see the entirety of the ink in the pen. With the pen upright, you can either see that the pen has ink or doesn't. Hold the pen on its side and you can make out the ink level in the pen if you hold it up to a light source.Writing with this (fine nib) pen is a pleasure; I have only ever used medium nibs before because I've found fines to be slightly scratchy. Not this pen though, it's as smooth as silk to write with (iroshizuku "shin-kai" and Lamy crystal grey inks used in the pen) so far.

The Lamy 2000 is a unique fountain pen, created in 1966 with a body of glassfibre-reinforced polycarbonate, its tactile matt black brushed finish cigar shaped body and brushed steel fittings give it modernist cool and a touch of the technical. The body is lightweight but durable and well-balanced. It's filled from bottled ink, rather than cartridges. For me, the large ink capacity outweighs not having the ease of carrying around a spare cartridge, and opens up a bigger choice of ink colours. The semi-hooded nib is platinum coated 14K gold, and hand polished. The fine nib is smooth and well-behaved, not in the least scratchy like some fine nibs. I've tried the Lamy Studio 14K nib, and I find the 2000 to have a good sweet spot in comparison. Truly a modern classic.

The first requirement for any fountain pen I own is that it must write consistently and reliably. Appearance, precious metal adornments, precious resins used, gold content in the nib...all of secondary importance, because if it doesn't write well when I pick it up, it's not going to be used. The LAMY 2000 is that pen, for me. With a body made from fiber-reinforced polycarbonate, a smooth piston filling mechanism, a grip section made from powdered steel and seamlessly attached to the upper grip section, this pen revolutionized fountain pen design in 1966, and is still produced today, virtually unchanged. That's longer than the Beetle was in production, and with significantly fewer updates. Following the Bauhaus school of thought (Form follows Function), this pen is large enough to be used unposted, but it can be posted. The nib is semi-hooded to minimize drying out when the pen is uncapped. The feed is designed to provide ink to a 14k nib that is just short of 1/2 inch long; all of Lamy's nibs are significantly shorter than conventional nibs, but write just as well as their longer cousins from other manufacturer, at a fraction of the price. All but one of Lamy's fountain pens' nibs are interchangeable, even their 14k gold nibs (yes, you CAN put a $140 14k gold nib on your $20 Safari). The only fountain pen that has a unique nib that will not fit on any other pen is the Lamy 2000, which is available in 14k gold only. Due to the shortness of the tines, and the fact that only a small portion of the nib protrudes from the end of the grip section, you will not get any line variation by applying pressure to the pen. If you want line variation, you have to buy "specialty grinds" such as a stub nib, or oblique nib, both of which are available as options from Lamy and their authorized retailers.If you don't know how nibs are made, here's a quick lesson: they stamp the basic nib shape out of sheet metal, then weld on a little ball of long-wearing metal that's harder than woodpecker lips to prevent erosion from being dragged across various types of paper for years, then cut the nib slit up to the breather hole to split the tip into two (sometimes more) tines (for flex and facilitation of ink flow), and finally polish the part of the tip that makes contact with your paper to make it smooth, and to remove burrs left over from the slit-cutting process. In THEORY, only the bottom of that round ball makes contact with the paper, with the slit between the two hemispheres carrying the ink to the paper. The bigger the ball, the wider the amount of the ball's surface that contacts the paper, the wider the line. In PRACTICE, however, they grind a flat spot into the part of the ball that should make contact with the paper; the bigger the "contact patch", the smoother it becomes. This also negates having to make a giant ball for the tipping material to get a broad line. Why do you need to know this? Because now comes the explanation for why some people complain about the Lamy 2000 writing inconsistently. With a regular fountain pen nib, if you "roll" your pen to the left, the right side tine will lift off the paper, but the springiness of the nib will allow the left side nib to lift up until both nibs are back on the paper, with the nib slit full of ink in the middle; ink gets on the paper, life is good. Similar, but opposite, thing if you roll your pen to the right. However, the nib on the Lamy 2000 has virtually no flex, so...if you roll it to the left far enough, the right side tine will lift off the paper, but the left side won't flex enough to allow the right side to get back on the paper. That means the right tine and nib slit full of ink are hanging in the air, not on the paper; ink doesn't flow, there's no writing, and you're upset because your pen doesn't write. While you don't have to keep the nib PERFECTLY flat to get ink to flow, the "sweet spot" (where ink flows despite rolling your pen) is noticeably smaller than with other pens. And since the grip section is round, not triangular (like on a Safari), it may be harder to tell if you rolled your pen too far to the left or right. Practice makes perfect, and after you find out how far you can roll your pen and still get good ink flow, it'll become one of the best writing pens you'll ever own, at ANY price.TLDR: Why would Lamy do that? So, imagine you made your own standard nib, just cut the slit into your non-Lamy nib, and polished the bottom nice and smooth. The inside edge of the slit is still razor sharp, because...metal, harder than woodpecker lips. And then imagine writing with that nib, moving the nib from right to left, and you just rolled your pen far enough to the left to let the right tine lift off the paper. The left tine will flex up, and allow that razor sharp inner edge of the right tine to scrape across the paper...not only does that sound and feel horrendous, it also damages the paper's surface, and forces paper shavings into the slit, where they combine with the ink to form a very effective blockage to continued ink flow. Moving the pen from left to right (while still rolling the pen to the left) will be far less scratchy, because the smooth and well rounded outer edge of the left tine will apply the most pressure to the paper. The solution to that problem is to grind away some of the material from the inside bottom edge of both tines, and round off the edges until they're no longer razor sharp. Problem solved, right? Well, yes, mostly, but...what if you remove just a little too much, or you smooth the edge too much? Remember, this work is still done by hand, by skilled technicians, but we're talking removing maybe a 1/1000 of an inch at a time; there will be very small variations from one nib to the next. What you end up with, if too much material is removed, is a condition called "baby's bottom". The ink's surface tension tends to pull the edges of the ink closer to where the majority of the ink is located, namely the center of the nib slit. The wider the gap between the two tines, the higher up in the slit the ink remains. So, if the nib slit in the last 1/1000 of an inch of total nib length is too wide, the ink will stop flowing down at 1/1000 of an inch away from the paper, and laugh at you...silently, of course. You can "fix" that by carefully "closing the gap between where the nib touches paper, and where the ink stops flowing, by grinding the nib's tip shorter (ultra-fine sandpaper and micro-mesh, which voids your warranty!) and re-smoothing the edge carefully to avoid a repeat of baby's bottom; you can send it back for a replacement (if you didn't grind the nib, and it's still under warranty); or you can have a nib technician re-grind it to your liking (which also voids your warranty, but the nib technician will ensure that the nib does what you want it to do before giving you back your pen). Lamy's method, initiated before computers and CNC machines were a thing, created this process of mass producing a reliably working nib that rivals today's CNC machined nibs...as long as you don't roll your pen too far to port or starboard ;-).

If you love fountain pens and contemplating on your first gold nib pen, just get it! I have several fountain pens from different brands - Pilot, Lamy, Twsbi, Diplomat, Faber Castell, Parker, Sheaffer, Cross(all steel nibs) and was fighting the urge to buy a gold nib pen by convincing myself that is just a marketing gimmick, when I got this pen and wrote the first page, everything changed, you may not go back to your other fountain pen with steel nib. My other options were Pilot Custom 74 and Platinum 3776. I got this because of the in built ink mechanism (can hold more ink), the material of the body (Makrolon) and supposedly iconic design (Bauhaus) unchanged for 50+ years and the die-hard fan reviews of this pen. Well I am a fan now.Comfort / Construction - most well balanced pen with cap posted and unposted I have used yet. The material is very nice to touch and grip well when you write - you just know it is designed and built well.Flow - luxurious ink flow (I have medium nib) from start to finish, consistent flow, no skipping. In most pens, when you fill the ink - it is wetter and darker, but start running a bit drier when you write a couple of pages (or less), this pen writes wet consistently till the last drop of ink.Writing - I should say I am able to naturally be more legible and neat in my writing compared to other pens (with no additional effort or attention) May be that’s just with the way how the pen balances in your hand and contacts paper as you write, or may be that’s where the gold nib shines and makes a difference.Ease of Use - Easy to fill ink from bottle with inbuilt piston mechanism so well engineered, easy to clean the hooded nib and pretty low maintenance other wise. If you use ink cartridges, this pen does not support that- it works only with bottled ink. So traveling with this pen can be a challenge as you need to carry / purchase an ink bottle. But if you don’t write as much when you travel, it has good ink capacity that can last pages and a short trip.Looks - Understated, does not draw attention - has that no nonsense look, that just says ‘built for purpose’ and well built at that and ‘ready to go when you are’. If you are looking for a pretty or a colorful pen, this is not one and it absolutely has no qualms. It is functional and at that, it outshines most pens I have used.Any Cons - None for me. Some people talk about a sweet spot, with the medium nib - the sweet spot I believe is pretty large and I don’t have an instance when I was outside the sweet spot range.Price - expensive, but with what other pens retail for, this pen is worth the price. I am thinking of buying another one :)Who is it for (mostly)?1. If you want / like to write with a fountain pen and may be you plan to use only one pen ever- this is probably that pen.2. Fountain pen lovers waiting for your first gold nib pen.

Escribe excelentemente. Muy bonita. Trazos firmes y bien marcados.

Erg snel verzonden.Correcte afhandeling

Por ser un plumín casi carenado, fluye la tinta perfectamente.En la mano, cae de fábula, la escritura se hace cómoda y no se siente el peso por exceso o por defecto, es el adecuado.Los materiales empleados en su fabricación son muy buenos, en tacto y acabado.