Lamy 2000 Rollerball Pen Review

Lamy 2000 Rollerball Pen
The Lamy 2000 Rollerball Pen

Lamy fountain pens are extremely popular and have a reputation for being smooth writers. But most of their designs are too lightweight and oddly shaped for my taste. One exception is the Lamy 2000. Its practical design and solid build are both qualities I love in a writing instrument. The rollerball version is about half the price of the fountain pen ($73.98 on amazon.com as of this writing) so I tried it first.

The Good

The Lamy 2000 Rollerball is well balanced and weighs in at a solid 25 grams. From a distance, it could be mistaken for something as simple as a Paper Mate Flair. Up close, the matte black textured finish, brushed stainless steel clip, and wide 15mm diameter give it a higher quality look.

Instead of posting with the usual click, the cap slides quietly on to the back of the barrel creating a small vacuum that keeps it in place. Some have complained that the cap falls off when it’s posted. I haven’t experienced that.

The spring-loaded clip is adequate—strong enough to stay attached, but not hard to remove.

The Not So Good

On the barrel, near the section, there are two small metal posts that stick out just enough to cause some finger irritation where I grip the pen. Not sure if they’re just used to lock the cap into place or if they attach the section to the barrel. Maybe both. They look okay, though. Probably not a show stopper, but definitely worth considering. If your grip tends to be directly on the section rather than further up the barrel, then you might not even notice.

The M63 ink refill that shipped with the pen was a huge disappointment. Maybe I just got a bad one, but it skipped so much I ended up throwing it away. I’ll admit that it was smooth on Rhodia 90 gsm paper–similar to Pilot G2 or Uni-Ball Signo refills–but even after several pages of writing, the excessive skipping never stopped. I ended up replacing stock refill with the slightly smaller Montblanc rollerball cartridge and hacked it into place using some washi tape to fill up the excess space in the back of the barrel. I also tried it with a Uni SXR-7 Jetstream ballpoint refill and a Pilot G2 gel refill. You can use strategically placed tape to make them fit correctly (see photo at right), but any kind of small spacer should work. Your mileage may vary with other refills.

Specs

The total weight is approximately 4.2 oz (119 grams) when it’s new in the box. The specs of the pen itself are as follows:

Cap weight: 9 grams
Body weight: 16 grams
Total weight: 25 grams
Body length: 120 mm
Cap length: 65 mm
Closed length: 140 mm
Posted length: 150 mm
Widest diameter w/o clip: 15 mm
Widest diameter with clip: 17 mm

I’m conflicted. Overall, the Lamy 2000 Rollerball is a bit on the expensive side for something so understated. And I can’t say I’m thrilled about the scratchy posts on the side of the barrel. Even still, I’m impressed with its look and feel and I’ll probably upgrade to the fountain pen version sometime soon.