Friday, March 8, 2013

From Lemon To Love: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Goes on Safari

Once upon a time, early in Dr. Inkenstein's Pen Collecting and Using Life, there was a yellow Lamy Safari with black clip and black medium nib.
 

But it never wrote all that well.  Scratchy.  Stingy.


Crash of thunder.  Flash of lightning.  Ooo, scary!


Dr. Inkenstein gave the Safari away and never looked at another one until, for some unknown reason, a Charcoal Safari with 1.1 italic nib found its way here.


Still don't recall why I bought it.  But I inked it up.  Hey.  It wasn't bad.' It had GOOD ink flow!  Wasn't scratchy or nothin'!


Then I began reading all sorts of Safari and AlStar-related posts on the Fountain Pen Network.

And then, I discovered the Nexx.  And all was lost.  Or found, depending on your perspective.  I started buying Lamys again.  They are sturdy, inexpensive, come in a variety of nibs, and best of all, COLORS galore.  Each year Lamy puts out a Limited Edition color.  And they are collectible' (translated to English: wayyy expensive on fleabay).


The Pink Nexx, F nib:

 
 
 
The Coral Nexx (M), and the Pearl (color looks like Champagne, really) AlStar (B):
 
 
 



Lamy family, top to bottom (Coral Nexx, Pink Nexx, Pearl AlStar, Yellow Safari, Apple Green LE Safari, Aqua LE Safari, Ocean AlStar, Blue Safari, LE Pink Safari, Red Safari, Charcoal Safari.  Unable to make it to the photo shoot was my blue Lamy ABC):









The really sad part of this tale is that the original 'lemon' was probably fixable.  And that the yellow with black nib/clip combo is now selling for hundreds of dollars on fleabay.

One of these days Dr. Inkenstein will actually return with the Superhero Pens post.