That reminds me, I have thank-you notes to write!
I prefer the Lamy Safari pens. They are more expensive, but the clips are designed to not break off when used. They write well. My everyday pen of choice.
Safaris are great, as long as you don’t mind the weird, semi-triangular section. If you prefer a round section, the Metropolitan or the Super5 .5mm “Calligraphy” pen (approx $25) are both good choices.
My main writer is a Pilot Metropolitan and I love it. I’ve tried the Lamy Safari. I prefer the metal body of the Pilot to the plastic body of the Lamy. The Lamy that I had/have had a particularly scratchy nib. A few reviewers have said that both pens seem to have a handful of them that come to market that are just unusually scratchy. Perhaps I would have gone with the Lamy if I had better luck.
I liked mine so much that one day when I left the house without and thought I’d lost it, I immediately bought another in my travels. I now have two, and at that price don’t mind at all. These are really good writing pens for people that write, as opposed to showoff pens for people that don’t.
That was my pen of choice all through secondary school. I had several over the years, but none were lost under circumstances that you can hold against the pen. It was by far the most popular choice in my generation.
All the pen nerds seem to like the Lamy. I ordered one a few days ago so we’ll see. They’re only about $5 more.
I’m a lefting when it comes to writing, so fountain pens are… Well my hand always gets stained. I just prefer #2 pencils, then those blue bics that cost a nickel.
I wish I could get into nice pens, but I don’t see that in the cards this lifetime.
And the Al-Stars are the best Safaris. Though I do have a cool demonstrator (e.g. clear) Safari fountain pen around somewhere.
Lamy Safaris also come in an excellent rollerball version 
There are some great Chinese fountain pens for less than $2 on ebay. I like the JinHao 599a. There are some nice ones from Duke and Hero as well.
j -
Your stained hand reminds me of a few Charlie Brown threads.
I’m left-handed yet I really enjoy fountain pens. My university house-mate from Nepal (H.S. in Australia) turned me on to these in the early 90’s. In my view, pencils & pens of any type will stain my left hand, so, my thinking is - why not have some fun with a fountain pen. (A nice source of inexpensive fountain pens is used/antique stores & estate sales.)
~c
What do I really think?
Keyboards - Great. Handwriting - Gah.
I have a clear Lamy that holds Noodler’s invisible ink.
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