Lamy Safari Fountain Pen: Our Pick for the Best Everyday Carry Pen for 2026

So I want to back up on this one, because the Safari’s got an actual origin story that explains why it looks the way it does. Lamy built this thing back in 1980 as a handwriting pen for kids learning to write, designed by a guy named Wolfgang Fabian under Lamy’s in-house development group. That’s why the grip section is triangular instead of round, it’s not a design flourish, it’s forcing your fingers into the correct writing position whether you like it or not. Forty-plus years later it’s still doing that job, just now for adults who are in on the joke. The wire clip on the cap is the other instantly recognizable thing about it, spring steel, holds like it means it, and it’s the one detail that makes a Safari identifiable from across a desk.

Here’s the part that actually matters if you’re new to fountain pens, the nib pops off. Pull it straight out, no tools, and you can swap in a different size, extra fine, fine, medium, broad, or a specialty grind, and there’s a dedicated left-handed nib too, which is not nothing, since most fountain pens quietly assume you’re right-handed and never tell you. So you’re not locked into whatever nib showed up in the box. Buy one pen, own five different writing experiences over time.

It ships running on Lamy’s own T10 cartridges, pop one in and you’re writing, but the part that converts this from a nice pen into an actual hobby gateway is the Z28 converter, a separate piece you can buy that turns the Safari into a bottled-ink pen. Suddenly you’ve got access to literally hundreds of ink colors instead of whatever cartridge colors Lamy sells. There’s also a little transparent window built into the barrel so you can actually see your ink level instead of finding out you’re empty mid-signature.

And then there’s the fact that Lamy’s made this thing in something like 40 different color variants over the years, rotating special editions, matte finishes, the whole thing, which is part of why this pen has a weirdly devoted following for something made of ASA plastic. It’s genuinely durable, it’s genuinely affordable as fountain pens go, and it is, without exaggeration, the pen stationery people point beginners toward first. Not because it’s flashy. Because it just works, every single time you pick it up.