Fountain pen that writes well (Lamy Joy)

I am very happy to offer you my experience with this inexpensive fountain pen that always works and writes well. This is my personal experience that I am sharing with you in the hope that it may help you in your choice or may at least alleviate some of your doubts in choosing your fountain pen.

Remember also that if you have any questions about my experience with this fantastic and inexpensive fountain pen, you can write a comment. Let's begin!

I think I have always had a passion for fountain pens, perhaps even partly inherited from my ancestors who had a good number of them. The fountain pen, when it works, can offer a lot of satisfaction and is even essential for people like me who need to write a lot by hand.

Unlike ballpoint pens that work well anyway, I have always been better off with fountain pens because I also have a slight arthrosis that annoys me not a little when I have to press the ball too hard on the paper.

Also, it has always bothered me that I have to throw away and buy the whole pen again, I think it is much more economical and environmentally useful to use refills and a good fountain pen.

Unfortunately, I have always had great difficulty using fountain pens in everyday life. They are pens that normally force us to keep them on the desk and when we need them, perhaps to make an emergency note, they never write because the nib tends to dry out.

It took me a long time to find an inexpensive fountain pen that was as easy to use as a traditional pen and that did not have these kinds of problems.

So I am very happy to share with you the satisfaction this fountain pen made in Germany has given me.

Some purists of the expensive fountain pen may turn their noses up at this article, but for us mere mortals, the efficiency of a pen is far preferable to the quality and luxury of the materials with which it is made.

Unless you collect luxury fountain pens, there is no point in spending a lot of capital to buy a pen that does not write the next day.

I bought this fountain pen on Amazon, but it is also available in some physical shops and in the official online shop, which is only in German for the time being. It is more convenient for me to shop online because I work a lot and when I finish work the physical shops are always closed.

I must admit, also a little bit out of laziness. You can therefore buy the pen by clicking directly on the links in this article.

My aim was to buy a pen that was not excessively expensive and that allowed the nib to be changed conveniently without necessarily changing the entire writing unit.

This fountain pen has the feature that it can be used with traditional original cartridges and Lamy converters to draw the relevant ink directly from the bottle.

I highly recommend using only original accessories and inks because these are designed to work well and our goal is to have a fountain pen that works practically all the time.

I chose the Lamy Joy 1.1 because I like the broader nib that allows me to write in the Italic style but this is not the only reason. The 1.1 nib is a good compromise between normal and calligraphic writing, the width of the stroke allows a greater passage of ink and there are less chances to have problems with false starts or uneven strokes.

The nib is replaced with disarming ease.

I also appreciated the cartridge change in this pen. Simply place the cartridge in and twist to close. Since the dimensions are precise, the cartridge will fit into the insert automatically as you screw the writing unit in.

I bought the pen on amazon in prime mode to have the certainty and guarantees we all know for possibly defective products and whatnot. Below is a brief description of what I purchased and what you may need, for your convenience below the pictures I have included the direct link to purchase the relevant item.

Appearance of the Lamy Joy 1.1 fountain pen

Shipping included, for the pen I paid just over 20 euros, the body was complete and contained a blue cartridge.

The pen has a sleek appearance in different colour combinations. I preferred the black version with red trim. As you can see from the picture, it is quite long for a pen but fits comfortably in the pouch that I always carry with me.

The actual dimensions are shown in the picture as well as the proportions relative to an average sized hand.

The quality of the plastics is quite good, so far, after a month of use, I have not noticed any particularly noticeable scratches although I do not store it carefully in a protective case. As I said, it is an everyday fountain pen.

The trimmings on the cap and the end of the body are plastic while the part that eventually serves to lock it in the pocket is metal. This allows it to have a longer life under stress and daily use of the flexible parts and at the same time a low weight.

In fact, I measured a weight of about 17 grams with the original cartridge. Basically, the weight is comparable to a good rollerball pen. The low weight is a great thing for someone like me who tires his hand easily.

Although it is not very visible in the picture, there are two interesting details. The first is an insert that exposes the cartridge to easily check its filling status. The second relates to two channels on the writing body where the thumb and forefinger must be positioned.

This ensures that the inclination of the nib is always optimal and the grip ergonomic. I believe this is also an advantage for novice users who do not know how to hold a fountain pen.

From an aesthetic and functional point of view, there are also other small things that can be noticed by an expert eye but I will let you notice them yourself so that you can appreciate the study and experience behind it. Let's focus on the essentials for now.

Lamy Joy 1.1 fountain pen cartridges

The refills can be conveniently found for 4 euro and 50 cents including postage. The original cartridges for the Lamy Joy are called Lamy T10 and are available in different colours. One can choose between mango, black, dark blue, blue, tourmaline, turquoise, green, red and purple.

In practice, an impressive variety of colours can be enjoyed with the original cartridges alone.

The colours appear brilliant and of course, as is also the case with all other fountain pens, the initial stroke is darker than the full stroke. This is perfectly understandable and I have noticed that the steady stroke is never too pale or discoloured anyway.

One thing that has always bothered me about cheap fountain pens is the fact that after a while, when you write a lot and continuously, the stroke starts to fade. To be honest, I have also encountered this characteristic with much more expensive fountain pens with which you have to write very slowly.

With this pen, I have not encountered this problem so far and therefore, together with the fact that as soon as you put the cartridge in, it starts to write without any false starts, I personally feel that it can also be used successfully when you need to take notes quickly.

Lamy Joy fountain pen nib set

The complete set of original nibs costs only almost 12 euros and as I wrote before, the nibs can be replaced with disarming simplicity without changing the writing body. Ridiculously cheap is the price of the complete set of nibs made of excellent stainless steel.

The complete set consists of several nibs of different sizes: extra fine, fine, medium, broad, for left-handed writing, for oblique writing medium stroke, for oblique writing with broad stroke and finally also the calligraphic set 1.1, 1.5, 1.9 millimetres.

At this point, it seems clear that Lamy Joy offers us the opportunity to explore the world of fountain pens from both an everyday and a purely artistic and calligraphic point of view. The wide variety of colours and the availability of nibs made a really good impression on me.

My favourite stroke being ambidextrous is certainly the 1.1 millimetre but this is a personal preference and extremely subjective. As you can see, there is something for all tastes and occasions. It is of paramount importance that nib replacement is done very gently. Should it be necessary, I can also write an article on how to replace nibs, if you would like to write it in the comments.

You can believe me that I would definitely have saved a lot of money if I had known about this fountain pen much earlier. But as they say, you learn by making mistakes and this article also serves to prevent you from making the same mistakes as me.

Traditional Lamy Joy fountain pen inks

Of course, this is not the end of the story because you can also use dedicated inks. The ink for the Lamy Joy fountain pen is called T51 and can be found, including shipping, for less than EUR 8. The number of cartridges that can be loaded with a bottle is unknown to me.

It contains about 30 millilitres of ink. If we consider that generally on average a fountain pen refill contains 0.4 to 0.8 ml of ink, the convenience is immediately apparent.

Personally, I prefer to use traditional refills because they are much more convenient, you don't stain your fingers, and they are calibrated exactly for that particular pen. Then the refill box fits easily into the bag and because they are sealed, if not subjected to excessive stress, they should not release ink.

The disadvantage of traditional refills from an economic point of view is also due to the fact that in my town, to my knowledge, there are no physical shops that sell original Lamy refills and therefore, buying them online, I also have to take into account the shipping costs.

At the moment I buy a large number of refills when I place my order so for me this is not a problem but the user who writes a little should take this into account in my opinion.

Lamy Joy fountain pen converter

You wouldn't have thought that Lamy wouldn't have planned to produce a suitable converter that could replace conventional cartridges, would you?

Actually, converters exist for almost all fountain pens. The fountain pen converter has the useful function of sucking in, holding and releasing the ink in the bottles. It can also be very useful to eventually purge the pen with simple warm distilled water.

I advise you to avoid the classic drop of dish soap because it has a tendency to break the surface balances that the internal parts of the writing body rely on to deliver the right amount of ink.

Another very useful function is that by simply rotating the red part slightly, if a pen does not write immediately, a little ink is forced into the nib. The Lamy Joy fountain pen converter is called Z28 and replaces the Z24. It can be found for just under 6 euros (including shipping).

I am not aware of the amount of ink that can be sucked in, but in any case I recommend using the converter if we write with our fountain pen in a fixed location. The advantage of disposable cartridges of not staining is obvious and so carrying around a pen with a converter and a bottle of ink may not be a very wise and convenient thing to do.

I also think it may be useful to specify two things. The first is that the converter must be one that is compatible and designed for the fountain pen with which it is used. The second is that the converter must already be mounted on the writing body before the ink is sucked in. You do not suck the ink directly from the converter, it must be sucked from the nib. This is important, mind you.

Special and brilliant inks for Lamy Joy fountain pen

As the Lamy Joy is a fountain pen geared towards calligraphy, the special inks with their bright and intense colours were a must. Personally, I don't think I will ever use them because I have really bad handwriting but if anyone is interested, these special inks are called T53 and can be found for less than 14 euros.

The colours of these fountain pen inks are supposed to give a really great graphic rendering. Should you be interested, there are also videos on youtube describing them.

Again, like disposable cartridges and traditional ink, the colours available are many and have sophisticated specific names: ruby (code 220), rhodonite (code 260), beryl (code 270), azurite (code 360), benitoite recommended for document proofing (code 380), peridot (code 420).

But that's not all because you can also find amazonite (code 470), topaz (code 500), obsidian (code 660) and agate (660). So to give an example if I were to look for the obsidian coloured ink bottle I would have to write Lamy T53 660.

The preciousness of these inks is clearly underlined by the names that call to mind minerals that are in some cases precious. It is not clear to me, however, whether the manufacturing process is related to the use of these elements or not. Of course, these inks can be used with the Lamy Joy Z28 fountain pen converter.

Let us not forget that almost all Lamy inks should be compatible with any Lamy pen. Theoretically, they should also be compatible with other fountain pens but I would not do this test if I were you.

Apart from any legitimate doubts that may arise in relation to the fact that I am not really a fountain pen expert, I can assure you that I have really enjoyed using this pen. I would not have taken the time to write such an extensive review (and that in any case remains my personal opinion) if I had not experienced the practicality of this fountain pen.

I currently use it on all types of traditional or recycled paper. Fountain pens normally write much better on specially designed paper, but I have found no impediment in filling out any kind of form.

Of course, remember that this is not a pen that can be used on carbon paper. For carbon paper, you have to press which is a concept that is antithetical to the philosophy of fountain pens.

I've been using it for about a month now, writing about twenty pages on it in my normal paper notebook and with the intention of doing a thorough job I've watched numerous youtube videos, reviews on various sites and even feedback from users who have bought them.

Apart from a few sporadic complaints that I believe can be attributed to a few cases of faulty goods, I think this is the right pen for everyday writing.

Although this site does not sell items directly, by clicking on the link you will visit the relevant Amazon page and for each eligible purchase a commission may be paid to the webmaster. You will also be able to ask questions regarding specific aspects of the items such as, shipping, purchasing and whatnot directly on the amazon page and not on this one.

In order to provide an adequate information service to those who come across this article, should your ideas be at odds with what I have written, should there be someone more experienced or with longer experience, for all other possible questions or perplexities concerning non-sales-related topics: feel free to leave a comment.