Fountain Pen Review: Lamy Safari Aquamarine

The 2011 limited edition Lamy Safari Aquamarine  is now in Manila! The wait is finally over.

I read about the new 2011 Lamy Safari color from Goldspot Pens' announcement in early February. Like many avid collectors of this line of fountain pen, I was more than happy to know that another pen will join my collection. Fortunately, Charlene Ngo of Times Trading has kindly sent me one to review here on the blog.

The 2011 limited edition Lamy Safari Aqumarine comes in a neat and well-designed packaging. The pen is inside two boxes: an outer box and an inner box. The outer box, shown below, is made of silver-gray board paper without any fancy design. All it has is the Lamy logo printed on the lower right corner of the box. It is so simple and minimalist, yet very stylish.

The inner box, below, is made of gray plastic that splits open from the middle when the two sides are pulled apart, as indicated by the arrows.

The top sides are pushed under the bottom part of the box, and a hard plastic pen clamp holds the Aquamarine Lamy Safari fountain pen in place. This packaging is a lot better than those slim gray paper boxes that my earlier Lamy pens came with, as it offers more protection for the pen.

The Aquamarine Safari is the newest and youngest member of Lamy's Safari line of fountain pens. Designed by Wolfgang Fabian, the first Safari was introduced in 1980 and has stayed in Lamy's regular production since then.

The Aquamarine Lamy Safari fountain pen measures 5.5 inches while capped, 5 inches uncapped, and 6.5 inches when posted. It feels very light on my hand when I write with it, but then I don't post my pens.

Lamy Safari pens are made from sturdy ABS plastic, more technically known as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, a common thermoplastic that is widely used in a variety of products. You wouldn't believe it, but the Lego blocks you played with as a kid has the same material as the Lamy Safari you may be holding now. And did you know that the inner walls of your refrigerator has the same plastic as that of the Safari?

Below is the Aquamarine Lamy Safari's parts: cap, section with converter, barrel. 

The cap of the Aquamarine Lamy Safari like other Safari fountain pens has the iconic flexible chrome-coated oversized paperclip-style clip.

The cap's top has a button cross, another unique identifying feature of Lamy Safari fountain pens. I noticed though, that this pen's cap top button is different from those of the previous limited edition Safari pens.

Below is the Aquamarine Lamy Safari together with my other limited edition Lamy Safari fountain pens. The earliest version is the lime green pen (2008) with the black cross cap top that is seen in almost all regular Safari fountain pens. The creme orange (2009) and pink (2010) Safari pens have simple dots as cap tops in the same barrel and cap colors, instead of the usual black cross. Note that the Aquamarine Safari (2011) has a cross cap top, but in the same color as the pen's cap and barrel – aquamarine. Interesting details.

The Lamy Safari's section has unique features to make writing easier. The triangular section has two recessed grips and the finger anti-slipping brake to prevent a user's fingers to slip into the nib part while writing. Some fountain pen users find the triangular grip annoying and uncomfortable. I find it helpful so I get a firm grip on my pen.

The pen's barrel measures around three inches, and the flat areas on both sides prevent the pen from rolling especially when it is uncapped. 

Lamy's logo is boldly etched on the top/end of the pen's barrel.

An ink window near the barrel's threads allows me to check on my pen's ink. This is an excellent feature, not to mention a cool design, as I don't need to unscrew the barrel of my pen every time I need to check on its ink. 

Like the rest of my Safari and other Lamy fountain pens, I can ink my pen in two ways: with Lamy's proprietary T10 ink cartridges, or from an ink bottle using the Z24 converter. The Z24 converter can also be used in other Lamy fountain pens including the Vista, Al-Star, Joy, and even the Nexx.

Towards the middle of the Z24 converter are two tiny nipples (can be seen in the photo above too) that fit snugly into the small grooves in the upper part of the section.

This is how the tiny nipples on the converter fit into the specific grooves in the section. They fit perfectly so that the converter, while filled with ink and inserted, will not easily turn or be accidentally pulled out.

Because my Aquamarine Lamy Safari is new, I could not pull out the feed from the section to show here, but it has the same feed as those on other Lamy pens (Safari, Vista, Al-Star, Joy, Nexx, and Studio).

Lamy Safari fountain pens have polished steel nibs available in a number of widths: extra fine, fine, medium, broad, and left-handed. It can also be fitted with an italic nib ranging from 1.1mm to 1.9mm since the Safari shares the same section, feed, nib and cap design with that of the Joy, Lamy's set of calligraphy pens. Lamy nibs have the tendency to run wide, but they all write wet and smoothly.

I usually use medium Lamy nibs on my Safari and Studio fountain pens, but I am very fortunate that Charlene sent me the Aquamarine pen with a broad nib.

Lamy's modern minimalist design extends even to their nibs. These polished steel nibs do not have the usual fancy engravings -- just plain, simple, shiny metal pieces with 'LAMY' and a letter for the nib's width to mark them. My pen's broad nib is marked 'B'.

I flushed this pen before I filled it to ensure that there is no factory residue or ink on it. When I used it, the pen wrote instantly, and did not need any strong pressure to start writing. It kept writing very smoothly and did not skip as I filled an entire page of my A5 Daycraft Signature notebook journal.

Below is a writing sample of this cool Aquamarine Lamy Safari fountain pen.

The Aquamarine Lamy Safari next to a Venzi cahier in A6 size. The ink used in this writing sample is Lamy Turquoise. Ink review to follow.

Here is the pen again with my limited edition Lamy Safari fountain pens.

This Aquamarine Lamy Safari is a cool new addition to Lamy's growing line of fountain pens. Touted as a beginner's fountain pen and a student pen, this plastic pen actually feels very good in my hand because it is light, but strong and firm at the same time. And it's available in many colors! So it's not only a reliable, sturdy, user-friendly fountain pen, it's fun to collect too! I just got my Aquamarine pen but I'm already thinking of the 2012 Safari color. Purple? Not bad.

My pen with a bottle of Lamy turquoise ink and a large Venzi notebook.

Lamy Safari pens are widely available in reputable pen sellers worldwide. For a global search of Lamy sellers worldwide, follow this link.

In the Philippines, the Aquamarine Lamy Safari (and other Lamy pens) is available from Times Trading Company, through their increasing number of kiosks at National Bookstore outlets around Metro Manila. A Lamy Safari (including the Aquamarine pen) sells for PhP1,499.75 (USD35), and a 50ml bottle of ink costs around PhP375 (USD9).

Notebook Review: Daycraft's Juicy Notebook

The rainy season has definitely started here in the Philippines, but I'm stuck in summer's ambrosial delights - fruits! At home, we still get to enjoy these colorful, sweet, and juicy summer pleasures: plenty of bananas, cantaloupes, green and yellow mangoes, pineapples, and watermelons. Soon, most of these fruits will be gone from the stalls and we will all wait till next summer to enjoy them again.

Luckily for me, one watermelon has remained to keep me company until the next summer. It's Daycraft's Juicy Watermelon notebook that Foreal Lee, Retail and Marketing Manager of Hong Kong's Tai Shing Diary Ltd. sent to me a few months back. With a very apt tagline of 'Pick A Fresh One', Daycraft's Juicy notebook line comes only in A6 size, but has five 'delicious fruit flavors' to choose from: orange, watermelon, strawberry, pineapple, and honeydew melon.

The Juicy Watermelon notebook's cover is soft, fine Italian polyurethane (PU), designed to resemble the rind of a watermelon.

This notebook opens to a wedge of watermelon. You'd want to grab a juicy, wet bite when you see the front and back inside covers are watermelon red with watermelon seeds.

The Watermelon notebook, like the rest of those in Daycraft's Juicy line, have 128 pages of 6.5mm lined cream-colored paper with distinctive 'fruit' designs. The 'fruity' spread below has apples on the lower left of the page and watermelons on the upper right of the page. The 6.5mm spacing is just right for my handwriting.

Here's the watermelon design up close. I think the fruit designs are cute. And because they're printed lightly, I can write over them and still read the text I've written. 

The notebook's back cover has the same watermelon rind design as its front cover, but bears the clearly pressed Daycraft logo centered at the bottom.

Like most of Daycraft notebooks, the Juicy line is case bound, so the pages are threaded and glued together to make it durable.

The pages have round corners which I like very much. Pointed/Squared corners are more likely to snag my arm while writing, so the rounded corners are safer and better.

And now the best part of the review is here: pen and ink tests! I always do a number of tests when I have a new notebook. These tests help me choose the best pen and ink combination for any particular notebook. I grouped the tests according to the ink brand this time.

The first page has the ink tests for J. Herbin, Diamine, and Caran d'Ache. There was no feathering on the page and all the inks dried fast. Most of my pens have medium nibs and put large amounts of ink on paper, which is why I am concerned about the inks' drying time. Surpisingly, they all dried fast, including the saturated J. Herbin 1670 Anniversary ink. I'm loving this Juicy Watermelon notebook's paper already. The Herbin inks looked bright and happy, but Diabolo Menthe is the runaway winner here. It looked so beautiful and yet so cool. Diamine Royal Blue appeared so bright that I instantly filled two more pens after seeing it again. And then there's Caran d'Ache Saffron which will always be the perfect orange ink for me.

I tried Private Reserve, Waterman, Pelikan, Noodler's, and Mont Blanc inks on the other page. This time, I saw some feathering in Private Reserve and Noodler's inks, but that's okay as I already expected that. PR Black Magic Blue is a gift from fellow fountain pen collector Karlo Tatad and it surprised me because of its close resemblance to one of my favorite blue inks, Diamine Majestic Blue. Pelikan Blue-Black is another surprise for me because I did not see any feathering even though it's on a BB nib. I also tried two of my Zebra Sarasas here and they looked good on this cream-colored paper.

Below is the back of the first page with ink tests. Note that there is only minimal bleed which is seen only as tiny blue dots. Again, that's okay. This is still way, way better than the first Daycraft notebook I reviewed last year.

The second page revealed more bleed. Private Reserve Avacado on my no-name Maki-e pen is the one bleeding here (on top), as is Noodler's Midnight Blue (lower part of the page).

Here are some macro shots of the inks on the Juicy notebook paper. I was surprised to see under a 10x loupe that the 1670 ink feathered. But Vert Pré did not, and even showed some shading. 

I love the shading that Saffron produced, as well the Blue Sky; and both CdA inks behaved properly: no feathering, no bleed!

After all is said about this excellent little notebook from Daycraft, I realized I forgot to mention that this Watermelon notebook comes with a felt bookmark instead of the usual ribbon pagemarker - cool! It is shaped as a curled stem of the watermelon fruit. Other notebooks in the Daycraft Juicy line have their own respective bookmarks according to their fruit designs.

And what else is good about this notebook? It is sold here in the Philippines at Scribe Writing Essentials! Daycraft notebooks have been available at Scribe's flagship store in Eastwood Mall since last year, and in several PowerBooks outlets this year.

Daycraft products are also widely available now. Aside from Daycraft's distributors, their products can also be bought in stores from these countries: (click on country name to see retail stores) Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Macau, Poland, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand.

J. Herbin, Lamy, and Starbucks Go to CamSur and Caramoan

Last year, my Rhodia pad and Thein the Sheaffer franky went with us to Puerto Galera. This year, I brought along my Starbucks planner and white Lamy Safari loaded with J. Herbin Diabolo Menthe to CamSur Watersports Complex and the beaches of Caramoan for some 'fun in the sun'.

Here they are next to a wakeboard in the deck.

And here's the set again on the beach in Matukad Island, Caramoan.

Throughout our three-day stay in Camarines Sur, the pen and notebook took plane rides, a couple of boat rides, and a looooot of land transfers. But we had fun! Pen and notebook were kept dry in layers of zip-lock plastic bags while I enjoyed the water, the sun, and the sand.