LAMY 2000: First Impression
The LAMY 2000 fountain pen is an iconic pen in the fountain pen world, with a cult-like following since 1966. It has a modern look even today. It's perfectly balanced, comfortable in the hand, and on paper. To me, the LAMY 2000 is a perfect example of German design and engineering.
It is made of matte black fiberglass with brushed stainless steel accents. It's a unique material that feels great in the hand and really gives a solid grip when you're writing, something important to fountain pen users. The nib is 14k yellow gold plated in rhodium, so it has a silvery look to it that complements the stainless steel accents on the pen. The nib is the only shiny component of the pen, everything else is brushed, which is a great appeal of the design.
The nib is hooded, which means it's partially covered by the grip section of the pen. The benefit of this is it makes it harder to touch the nib with your fingers, which will keep you from accidentally inking up your digits :) The nibs are available in extra-fine, fine, medium, and broad. They tend to run on the broad end like most LAMY pens, especially if you're used to Japanese pens like Sailor, Platinum, or Pilot. This pen will write wetter than other LAMY pens.
What I recommend is filling your pen, then flushing the ink back into the bottle, then filling again, just like I do in this video. Or, fill the pen, cap it, and let it rest horizontally on your desk for a minute while the ink works its way down the feed.
Tapping is a method you should use at your own risk, as you could potentially misalign the nib tines if you tap too hard. It looks like I was tapping harder in the video than I really was, and I assure you, the pen is no worse for the wear because of what I did. But the risk is there. I did the tap as a split-second decision to save time in the video, which was already running long! In retrospect, I would have done it differently, but, I left it as is to maintain the integrity of my true first impression of the pen. A retake wouldn't have been my first impression ;)
Want to see just the highlights in a shorter video? Check this one out:
