Recently, in the Unsharpen YouTube channel community area, we dropped in a poll about the Lamy 2000 fountain pen. This is, of course, one of the most popular and highly regarded 14k nib fountain pens of the last 50 years.
But how does is the L2K hold up in 2021?
This wasn’t a giveaway or any incentivized opinion, just thoughts from the community about a pen of note.
With the final results in:
In text form that’s:
- Love it: 43% (174 votes)
- It’s good but overrated: 29% (117 votes)
- Indifferent: 23% (93 votes)
- It’s not good: 2% (8 votes)
- Hate it: 3% (12 votes)
The Breakdown
With just above 400 votes we see that a plurality of people love it, which is a strong showing for any $100+ pen… even an icon like this one. “Love it” is a strong message when the pen costs what it does and it has some notable quirks. Despite the lack of a defined grip area, the nib’s too-wet writing, and small sweet spot, 174 people really do love the Lamy 2000.
“It’s good but overrated” is a choice that I would have expected to be more popular, possibly higher than “Love it” simply due to the stellar reputation of this pen. That is to say that it’s hard for the Lamy 2000 not to be considered to be overrated since it’s been so highly rated for so long! It’s entirely understandable that a pen that was first released in 1966 (and has seen a fairly limited number of changes since then) has been surpassed by others pens, but sometimes and icon has its status for a reason.
From a survey building perspective I will note that “overrated” isn’t an ideal descriptor, particularly because this was tacked on to another option. For instance, what if you think it’s good but not overrated? Did some of those people opt for “Love it” when they would have otherwise chosen good? Just some food for thought.
An indifferent of 23% makes a lot of sense to me. When I first started using the Lamy 2000, some years ago, I was largely indifferent to the pen. Initially I was very excited about it, but then the nib’s small sweet spot — which I could never seem to find — and the difficulty in taking the pen apart cooled off my enthusiasm. I sold that pen but bought another L2K fountain pen (a fine this time), which I’ve really been enjoying.
And then just 20 people out of the group of over 400 thought the pen was “not good” or they “hate” it. Hate is another poor choice of words on my part as the pen could be very good but you just have problems with it, so you hate it. (Maybe one leaked on a flight and ruined your trip so you believe it to be a good pen but you have a personal issue with it. It’s farfetched but possible.)
Either way, it’s a very small number of people who have a problem with the Lamy 2000, which is a strong indictor that this is a downright excellent fountain pen.