Its new pen day! Got a new Lamy Studio Matte Black in a Fine nib + Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo from Makoba, and there's a little story here.
I initially ordered this ink with a Diplomat Viper (Green) from Makoba last Sunday, which got delivered earlier in the week. But by God that pen wrote terrible. It was ultra dry (It was dry af even when I dipped it in ink, thats when the feed is supposed to be really saturated and write wet right?), and wrote very rough, like a really cheap pencil. I saw a lot of online reviews of the pen claimed that the nib was smooth, so I don't know if my unit was bad or if my standards of smooth are different than others, but I could not stand that pen. (The build quality on it was amazing though, that magnetic cap really is very satisfying to play with)
So I reached out to Makoba support team, and they were incredibly understanding, and said that I could ship the pen back for a refund to my account's wallet and get a different pen, either a different unit of the same model or a different model.
I instead took the pen to one of their physical locations (Gurgaon), and explained the situation. The employee at the store was very understanding, and said that he can take the Viper back and give me the amount in my wallet.
I then spent over an hour in the store trying out over 20+ different pens in various price ranges, starting from Lamy Al-stars to even some super expensive pens like Visconti Homo Sapiens and Namiki Urushi pens. (I wasn't going to buy any of those, but the store clerk let me try them by dip testing them anyway. I think I will be buying a Pilot E95S next though, maybe next year).
I finally got this Lamy Studio. The store clerk also let me try multiple other Lamy pens to find which exact fine nib I liked (we all know how inconsistent Lamy nibs can be), and then swapped the nib I liked the most onto this pen. I had to pay just a tiny bit extra to trade in the Viper for this Studio.
On to the pen itself: this is likely the smoothest writing fine nib I will ever find. I already have a Lamy Safari in a Medium nib which writes smooth as can be, and now I have a super smooth fine nib as well, and I can swap the 2 nibs between the pens as I see fit, so I couldn't be happier. The build quality feels solid and the cap snap is really satisfying. I have seen some online complaints that the grip feels really slick, but I found there to be quite a bit of friction when I hold it in hand, and it wasn't slipping at all so I don't think I mind the metal grip section.
This is my first bottle of Iroshizuku ink, and I honestly can see why there is so much hype behind it. The moment I put this in my Safari, the pen started feeling completely different (I was using Waterman Mysterious Blue ink in it before this). The smooth flow and lubrication made my safari reach a level of smoothness I didn't know was even possible. I don't know if I can ever go back to using cheaper inks. The colour too is simply lovely, I wanted a deep teal like blue, and that is exactly what I got.
(The paper used in the photo is a random diary I got from work, have no idea what kind of paper it is, but it works with my pens so........ yeah it just works).
All in all, kudos to Makoba for a great experience, I did not have to fear that I was spending a stupidly high amount of money for a sub par product. Highly recommend checking them out if you are in India. (No I am not getting paid by them to say any of this).
Happy weekend!