For the first time in my life, the famed Lamy Safari design cues have jumped up to bite me.
There are many things that make a Safari noticeable from a mile away. The often bright ABS plastic used for the barrel. The molded grip section that thousands of children have learned proper writing form from. The unique turned-up wire clip that is often imitated, but never duplicated. And that’s just a start.
As much as it pains me, only one of those things works well with the Lamy Safari Mechanical Pencil.
Let’s start with the good: It looks fantastic. Sure, this is traditionally a love/hate design, with not much middle ground on whether you like the style of any Lamy Safari product. And Lamy has never been one to shy away from bright colors either. Yes, you can always choose a more subdued Black or Blue barrel, but I promise your eye was initially drawn to that Bright Yellow, Red, or even White barrel.
In fact, this Pink Body is the sole reason I chose this pencil. It is absolutely, 100% my aesthetic. And as fun as it is, that’s where the fun ends I’m sad to say.
Molded grips don’t belong on a mechanical pencil. I knew that going in, but that still didn’t stop me for some reason. I love it in the Safari fountain pen, rollerball, and ballpoint, so why not in the pencil? Because you rotate pencils in your hand when you write, silly! How else can you keep a sharp point on the graphite? Unfortunately, having a molded grip section works against that rotation, leaving you with an awkward, uncomfortable grip much of the time.
On top of that, the famed Lamy clip bumps into your hand as you rotate, making for a double dose of awkwardness when it lands in the wrong spot. Which it will.
So, what to do with the Lamy Safari Mechanical Pencil? Lamy will never change the Safari design cues that make it a Safari, so we are stuck with the molded grip section as long as they make this pencil. And I’m pretty sure we will never see a Uni Kuru Toga lead rotation mechanism on the inside, which would make this design workable. That means for anyone using this to write in more than sentence chunks at a time I would never recommend it.
If you pick up and put down the pencil a lot, I could maybe see it. Say for math/science work, or for an artist. But then, we run right into the issue of price. This is a $20 pencil, which is fine if it is great. The Lamy Safari Mechanical Pencil is not great, which means I would be well into double-digits on a ranking list before getting to it, if I would at all.
Hire me Lamy.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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