Day 34: Today's Pick — A $48 Italian Fountain Pen That Beats My $300 Pens

I own pens that cost $200, $280, and $310. The pen I reach for daily costs $48. This is the post in which I admit, against my own collector's pride, that the cheap pen wins.

The pen is the Lamy Safari, a steel-nibbed German fountain pen (yes I know I said Italian — bear with me, the punchline is the ink). It has been the most-recommended starter fountain pen for thirty years. It is, on closer inspection, also the right answer for many experienced fountain pen users.

What it is

A plastic-bodied fountain pen, about $30 for the pen and $18 for an ink converter (so you can use bottled ink). Steel nib. Triangular grip section that forces correct grip position. Comes in eight or ten current colors.

Why I switched

Three reasons:

1. The nib is reliably good. Lamy steel nibs are, in my experience, more consistent than mid-range gold nibs from boutique brands. They write the moment you touch them to paper. They don't dry out between uses. They don't skip on cheap paper. The mid-range gold-nib pens I own ($150–280 range) are all moodier.

2. It's plastic. This sounds like a downside; it's a feature. Plastic doesn't dent. Plastic doesn't show fingerprints. Plastic is, at the end of the day, the right material for a tool you're going to throw in a bag every day.

3. The triangular grip. Lamy designed the grip section as a soft triangle that forces your fingers into the correct three-finger writing position. This is uncomfortable for the first hour and then second nature forever. My handwriting got better in the first month I used it.

What it doesn't have

• The hand-feel of a resin pen
• The status signaling of a Pelikan
• A flex nib (Lamy steel nibs are firm; if you want flex, look at vintage)
• A piston filler (it uses a converter or cartridges)

On the ink

The Italian punchline I promised: pair the Safari with a $14 bottle of Italian ink, specifically Diamine's "Ancient Copper" or Pelikan's "Edelstein Aventurine." The pen is functional; the ink is the personality. Fountain pens with great ink are a genuinely different writing experience than fountain pens with the standard cartridge ink.

I have eight bottles of ink in rotation. Each bottle costs $14–24. They last a year of daily writing. The total ongoing cost is roughly $14/year for ink. Cheaper than printer ink.

What I write with it

A daily journal entry. A few notes during meetings. The occasional handwritten letter. Birthday cards. The kind of writing where the small ceremony of uncapping a fountain pen and putting wet ink on paper actually matters.

I do not use it for grocery lists. I use a Bic Crystal for grocery lists. The fountain pen is for writing where the writing matters.

A small confession

I have stopped buying expensive pens. The Safari has fully cured me of the "if I just spend more, I'll write more" delusion. The Safari writes great, my expensive pens write great, and the only meaningful variable is whether I actually pick up the pen and write.

The pen is not the problem. The pen is never the problem.

How to actually buy

Goulet Pens, Pen Chalet, or Goldspot in the U.S. About $30 for the pen, $5 for cartridges, $14 for a converter, and a bottle of ink for $14–24. Total entry is around $60. The Safari is "the answer" not because it's a luxury pen — but because, after thirty years, it remains a reliable, well-made writing tool that most other pens in its price bracket fail to be.

Tomorrow: a houseplant pruning shears that costs $14 and is, somehow, also my favorite kitchen scissors.