Posts filed under Lamy

What is the LAMY CP1, and why do I like it so much?

One of my favorite review categories is products that are great, but not great for everyone. The LAMY CP1 is a perfect example of this type of product. I love it, it has its super fans, and it flat-out won’t work for many people. Let’s dig in.

Starting with me: why do I like the Cylindric Pen 1 so much? It is a long, skinny fountain pen, with a lightweight metal barrel and a Stainless Steel clip. LAMY’s classic Bauhaus fingerprints are all over the design, making the CP1 look like a mini LAMY 2000 - ok, maybe if you squint a little.

My enjoyment of this pen comes primarily from the narrow barrel, with everything else tied for second. (Second, until they released the Aquamarine model, which made me throw money right through my computer screen.) Having a narrow barrel fountain pen is convenient for sliding it into notebook loops, clipping it to notebook covers, or stashing it into any type of pocket. Yes, it is long, but the narrowness comes in more handy than I ever thought.

LAMY CP1 Fountain Pen Converter — *The CP1 hits the price point where a converter is included. I think all fountain pens should ship with a converter.*

I’m also a fan of LAMY’s Steel nibs, primarily Extra Fine. You may notice that I ordered a Fine for this pen, and that is for good reason: I don’t own a Fine, and this nib is swappable with other LAMY nibs found in some of their most popular pens, like the Safari and AL-Star. I have plenty of stock EF nibs I can swap into the CP1, plus their unique Cursive and A nibs (found in the LAMY ABC,) and I have a few grinds at the ready if I’m feeling frisky. I ordered something I didn’t have, and if it’s too wide for regular use, I can swap it easily.

To my surprise, the line and flow of the Fine LAMY nib in this CP1 is close to many of my Extra Fine favorites. I’m not compelled to change it anytime soon, but the option is always there.

LAMY CP1 Fountain Pen Fine Nib — *A very controllable LAMY Fine Steel nib.*

Given that I like the CP1, who won’t like it? Those who don’t like narrow pens, for starters. Obvious, right? The diameter is a negative for users who need, or simply prefer, wider barrels.

LAMY CP1 Fountain Pen Comparison — *The LAMY Safari could eat the CP1 for dinner, and still have room for dessert.*

Secondly, the grip section isn’t great. For some reason, LAMY loooooves slippery metal grip sections, and the CP1 grip is no exception, even with grooves that provide absolutely no bonus grippability. My fingers will slide when I first pick it up, but once a little natural temperature and moisture cranks up when writing, it’s fine. If you have dry hands, this grip will frustrate you, especially since it is straight-sided. There is no concave here to help.

LAMY CP1 Fountain Pen Posted — *Posting is a mistake.*

Up next, the aforementioned nib. They can be wide and wet even in relatively fine sizes, so if you are looking for a narrow pen with a needlepoint-adjacent nib to match, I’m not sure even the Extra Fine would be an option for you.

LAMY CP1 Fountain Pen Grip — *The grip is slick.*

Finally, the price. For $60 I think it is fairly priced, but that is too expensive to take a random chance on because there are downsides to the CP1. If this price point is within your budget but the style isn’t, take a look at the recently discussed Pilot Prera, which is an easier recommendation to make to a wider audience.

Remember, there is a pen out there for everyone, but not every pen is for everyone. The LAMY CP1 is a perfect example of that.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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LAMY CP1 Fountain Pen Box — *It even ships in a nice box, not a perforated sleeve.*

Posted on January 21, 2026 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Lamy, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

LAMY ABC Fountain Pen Review

“Brad, why would you ever review pens made for kids?”

Well, I’m a big kid, and I love stationery. Plus, most pens that focus on helping children how to write are fun, and who doesn’t want that in their choice of writing instrument?

The LAMY ABC has been on my radar forever, but I was never compelled to try one out until the new Black Model was released. Blue and Red are the classic colors of the ABC, and are always available. I guess I needed my new kid’s fountain pen to be a special edition to buy it? No problem detected.

The ABC was released in 1980, and designed by Bernt Spiegel. From the Spiegel Institute:

The ABC was developed to be a writing utensil for writing beginners. While observing the behavior of children beginning school, important features were developed and compared with the guidelines of the association “Spiel gut” (Play well) for good toys. The product’s design featured a combination of wood and plastic, adapted ergonomically to children’s hands with a thicker and condensed body and a cube-like design to keep it from rolling away.

Given that brief, this pen checks all of the boxes. For starters, the design is begging any user to pick it up and try it out. It looks like a mini baseball bat or baton, with a wood barrel and an ABS plastic cap and end piece. It’s chunky, too.

When uncapped, the rubberized grip is molded in two spots to help kids with finger placement when first leaning to write. While grips morph and change as you get older, LAMY at least provides a good baseline to start. Later in life, this type of grip may not be comfortable for you to use.

The nib of the ABC is what LAMY calls an A nib. It writes a Medium line with its rounded tipping, specifically designed for beginners. I’m not sure that it differs all that much from their standard Medium nib, but this one does do a nice job writing at various angles.

The final kid-friendly aspect of the ABC, which I didn’t realize until I bought this pen, was that each pen comes with a sticker to write your name on and attach to the cap. There is even a clear plastic sticker designed to be applied over the color sticker, and a matching color dot for the end of the barrel so you can match up the different parts when they are inevitably lost in a sea of 3rd graders. Or on my desk.

LAMY ABC Fountain Pen Stickers — *Deskmat from* *Mintlodica.com* *- they rule!*

For my use, I’m having a lot of fun with it. It is legitimately fun to pick up and sling ink with this wet A nib. I used the stock LAMY Blue cartridge that shipped with it for the full grade school experience, and it is a perfect match. The only thing I don’t like is that the grip is wide in diameter (11.0 mm vs 10.4 mm on the LAMY Safari,) and the molded sections don’t extend up the grip as far as on the Safari, either. This is a pen designed for small hands, so I get it.

How will I use this pen going forward? Big writing with the A nib, and possible artistic destruction of the wood barrel? It seems like a perfect platform for that.

Give its start as a school pen, would I recommend it to kids as their training pen? Maybe. For starters, at $20 it is a bit expensive to take a chance with. Then again, other popular school pens (meaning pens with a molded grip for grip training, and a durable build,) like the Pelikan Pelikano are more expensive. That’s just me shopping at pen retailers. I’m sure there are many $2-$5 pens that could be sourced in bulk for classrooms.

For more experienced users, like myself, the LAMY ABC is a blast. Not everyone will enjoy it for various reasons, but I do love bringing out the inner kid in me every once in a while.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on April 28, 2025 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Lamy, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

Lamy Al-Star Aubergine Ballpoint Pen Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

It's that time of year again: annual edition color schemes for Lamy's Safari and Al-Star pen lines. For 2025, we have several lovely options to choose from, and I decided to give the Aubergine Al-Star a whirl since the yellow-green section was calling out to me. While some people lean more toward either the Safari or Al-Star, I just tend to follow the colors that I like. They're both great pen designs in my book!

The Aubergine edition of the Al-Star is a dusty gray-purple body paired with a yellow-green translucent section and black hardware. When looking at the images online, I couldn't decide if I really liked the body color, but the section is what really got me. I'm a sucker for bright translucent anything.

I was hoping that the body would be a more striking color in person, but I was a bit disappointed by it. It's a unique color for sure, but it doesn't match up with my idea of aubergine. Here's a color swatch and then a photo of various aubergine fruits from around the world. I'm not crazy, right? Aubergine wasn't a great name for this color.

Naming issues aside, it's still a bit of a dull color in my eyes. There's a small hint of purple, but this is mostly a dark gray body. Despite the underwhelming body color, the section easily saves the pen for me. It's a bright, fluorescent color that just begs to be picked up and used or turned around in your hand to let the light do fun things to the material.

The cone is a matte black metal, the nock plunger is a soft black material, and the clip is Lamy's standard glossy black material. Nothing crazy, and I think they could have had a little bit more fun with either the clip color or the nose color (or both??). Oh well! The other Al-Star option for this year, Denim, also seems to have missed an opportunity to really capitalize on the fun colors, but it's also quite a looker.

Writing with the Al-Star ballpoint is a mediocre experience. The Lamy M16 refill is decent, but my main gripe with every one I try is that they take a little too long to start working after they've been idle for more than a few minutes. It's normal for ballpoint to take a second to wake up, but the M16 takes longer than most. It wouldn't be so bad if there were other options available to swap out the M16, but that's not the case. Lamy's proprietary refill is just about the only player in the market, outside of Monteverde's options, which aren't much better.

Personal gripes aside, the M16 refill is totally capable and works fine 99% of the time. I'm just spoiled by some of the other ballpoint options out there. I'll be (un)patiently waiting for Lamy to release M16 refills that use the Jetstream's ink formula.

If you've ever used a Lamy Safari or Al-Start before, then you'll know how this pen feels in the hand. The grip section has a unique shape that favors the standard tripod grip — index, thumb, and middle — to hold the pen steady when writing. This doesn't work for everyone, and means that it's not a great option for people that use different grips that are incompatible with this type of grip design. For me, I can use a standard tripod grip after a little adjustment period, and the Al-Star/Safari is comfortable for me after that. I just have to keep myself from subconsciously rotating the pen a bit when I reset my grip after a few words or sentences.

Lamy Al-Star Aubergine Ballpoint Comparison

One of the things I love about the ballpoint versions of these pens has always been the covered nock mechanism. I love the squishy accordion-like design and the unique feel it produces when extending or retracting the tip.

Overall, the Aubergine is a fun color for the Al-Star. Yes, I wish they would have made better choices regarding the body color, but it's still a winner for me due to the grip section. If it speaks to you, then grab one! As always, they're available as ballpoints, fountain pens, mechanical pencils, and rollerballs.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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