Our Favorite Fountain Pen is Just $30

Welcome to the Esquire Endorsement. Heavily researched. Thoroughly vetted. These picks are the best way to spend your hard-earned cash.

I used to not think much about the pen I used. I like books and write for a living, so I already owned a nice custom refillable notebook. I had a Parker Jotter pen only because James Bond used one in GoldenEye. I got particular about my Parker refills, but that was as deep as I got into stationery. A fountain pen, to me, was something people used for actual calligraphy. I knew fountain pens were part of the whole Classic Man thing that Esquire is built on, but I tapped out at buying a nice suit. No need for an old-school pen.

Then, a few things happened. My fiancée got a Lamy Safari because she wanted a nicer pen that was lefty-accessible. My nephew, a budding artist, stopped asking me to buy him video games and started asking for sketching equipment and a medium nib fountain pen. Esquire made a case for the Meisterstück. One of our writers started pitching fountain pens. Style guys I follow were posting their pens. There was something in the air around me. I swiped my fiancée's Lamy for a week, ordered a few pens off Amazon, and started stopping by my local stationery store. I wanted to see what I was missing out on.

Turns out, I was missing one of life's great pleasures. Like everything else old-school and superfluous by modern standards, writing with a fountain pen is a lovely rebuttal to our ugly digital world. I spent a few weeks with various pens before realizing that first one I stole, a Lamy Safari, was the cheap model I loved the most. Between the Safari and my Jotter, I've cut out digital notes altogether. Everything is handwritten now, and my life is markedly better for it.

SHOP $30, amazon.com

Florence Sullivan

It's Made to Take a Beating

From what I've read, the original marketing pitch of the Safari was that it was for kids. (If you haven't been able to tell yet, I never had to use a fountain pen in grade school. I learned this all for the first time.) The molded grip is easy to hold for long periods of writing, and the cheap ABS plastic can be made a million different colors. It makes them fun, makes them collectible.

More importantly for my modern life, it makes the Safari durable. Like the name and the original Terracotta Orange and Savannah Green colors suggest, the Safari is made for a real world adventure. Whether that adventure is my nephew stuffing it in a pencil bag and leaving it uncapped for days on end or me taking it on a plane across the world, the ABS plastic is tough and the steel nib is wonderful to write with. For the price, and how fussy I found other fountain pens to be, I loved that the Safari looked good and just worked every time I pulled it out.

SHOP $30, amazon.com

It Writes Flawlessly, Every Time

The usability is what will ultimately win you over on a Lamy Safari. Sure, it's durable, but that's not worth anything if it's not an enjoyable writing experience. For starting out with a pen, it was dead simple. Lamy Blue cartridges will work endlessly, without fail. I've gotten a Lamy converter to use my own ink, and it's just as seamless. Ink always makes its way to the nib. So long as there is ink to run through the feed, and you didn't leave it uncapped, it's going to write smoothly.

The pen in this shoot is a medium nib which I got when I wanted to actually see different inks put through a converter. My fiancée uses a fine nib as her daily driver, which she says is perfect for a leftie, dry enough to not smudge, wet enough to glide. I like that there's just a touch of scratch to give it a satisfying feedback. Lamy makes its own nibs, and the affordable stainless steel versions are wonderful. Plus, so long as you're not using a Lamy 2000, all the company's nibs are interchangeable, and all phenomenal.

SHOP $30, amazon.com

Florence Sullivan

It Teaches You What You Want

You can sum this point up with that molded, also called “triangular,” grip on the Safari. Most people hate it or love it. I like it. But by trying out other affordable pens (like a TWSBI Eco, a Kaweco Classic Sport, and an aluminum Kaweco Sport) as well as vintage options from local sellers, I’ve realized I want an old fashioned heavy rounded body if I’m going to invest. Maybe I am a Meisterstück guy after all.

That said, I'm not going to give up my Lamy Safari. Now, it lives in a pocket of my work bag. Next to my preferred Jotter ballpoint. Just like a ballpoint, the Safari doesn't need to be fussed over. When I'm killing time waiting for a friend and want to do a little bit of journaling, at work and writing a grocery list, or (ideally) in some far flung part of the world, that Lamy Safari is going to be ready to go. Can't put a price on that.

SHOP $30, amazon.com

Photographs by Florence Sullivan