Fountain Pens: My Experience with Lamy, Esterbrook, and Visconti

Published on April 22, 2025

Published April 22, 2025

I love writing, I write every day. At work I take notes, at home I journal — I take time each evening to write down two or three lines about noteworthy things that happened during my day. Every article published on this blog was previously written by hand in a notebook. I love it.

I don't necessarily journal every day. But I always write these few lines to note the significant events. It takes 2 minutes but how pleasant it is to reread a random day that took place 4 months ago. I recommend it to everyone. It allows me to remember how rich and varied life is.

I write with a fountain pen. It doesn't have any particular advantage over a regular pen but I like the sensation it provides. It still has some advantages: I can choose my nib, I use a 1.1 stub nib, it gives a nice italic effect that I really like. I can also easily change ink and select colors of my choice. For example, this article was written with J.Herbin Emeraude de Chivor ink.

I currently write with the TWSBI eco fountain pen, excellent quality for about 40 euros.

But I'm a man, and like any man, I like to stupidly blow my money. Some do it on tech gadgets, others on beautiful cars or even on a big 85-inch TV to watch matches.

I decided it was fountain pens. I bought several "high-end" fountain pens and none worked as well as a classic 20€ fountain pen. All experiences were catastrophic until my last purchase: a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age fountain pen for €745. I'm going to tell you about these experiences.

The Lamy Dialog CC

My first high-end purchase was the Lamy Dialog CC for €350. Unfortunately, it was a real disappointment. From the unboxing, I was struck by the mediocrity of the packaging, unworthy of a pen supposed to embody luxury and refinement. I put in ink and immediately tried to write with it. It has a gold nib, justifying part of the price. Normally, a gold nib is supposed to be more fluid but there was actually no difference compared to a classic nib — pure marketing.

And then, disaster strikes: every time I put the nib on paper, nothing comes out on the first stroke — not a drop of ink. After some research on the internet, it turns out this was a manufacturing defect on the nib. But how is it that on a fountain pen costing nearly €400, no test was performed to verify its basic functioning? Is there no quality control at Lamy?

When buying a premium fountain pen, I expected to have an excellent customer experience — huge disappointment. I of course returned the product and never bought from the Lamy brand again in my life. I don't want to support incompetence.

Esterbrook Back to the Lands

A few months later, I relapsed in my compulsive purchases. I acquired an Esterbrook Back to the Lands fountain pen for €240. Cheaper, but still an exorbitant price for a pencil. This fountain pen has nothing special — it's a classic fountain pen, you just buy a beautiful design and beautiful packaging this time.

To fill it, there's a push button system. It's very practical and fast, it works with a spring and when you press it, it sucks up ink and injects it into the fountain pen reservoir.

Unlike the Lamy, it's an excellent purchase, I'm very satisfied with it, everything works perfectly. The only small flaw is the reservoir size. I have to fill it every 4-5 days. Nothing dramatic but it's not great — especially for the price! If you go away for a few days, you have to remember to take an ink bottle with you.

Three months later, after light use (I use it every day but it's not the intensive use of a student who writes several double sheets per day), the spring is already tired. It no longer springs back. To fill the fountain pen, it's laborious. I press the button and since the spring no longer has its effect, I have to pinch the tip with two fingers and pull it. It's much less practical, much less fast and especially much less ink enters the reservoir — which means I have to refill even more often. Typically, there's barely more ink than to write an article like this one. By comparison with my €35 TWSBI, I can write about twenty articles like this one without having to fill it.

After three months of use, I can no longer return the fountain pen. The two-week deadline has passed. To continue using it, I would need to find the right compatible spring as well as the pliers in the right size to dismantle the proprietary mechanism. Or continue with this current system.

As with the Lamy, you can be certain that I will never again buy an Esterbrook product. I expect from a fountain pen costing more than €200 that the spring lasts at least 10 years — not three months. Disastrous quality, it's inadmissible from major brands.

The Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age

I splurged last week and bought a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age fountain pen for €745. A VERY big budget for a simple fountain pen. I received the fountain pen in simple packaging — a classic box with the pen inside and a nice bookmark. I'm personally not at all the type of person to appreciate packaging but I admit that buying this Florentine fountain pen for €745, I expected an exceptional experience. I don't know, a little effort on the box design as well as the materials used, it doesn't cost much. But especially, at €745, Visconti could make an effort and provide a nice little leather pouch to accompany the fountain pen, it's the minimum at this price, no? I find that it's taking customers for fools. It's shameful such service for such an expensive product.

Seriously, I repeat because I find it inexcusable, isn't it unacceptable not to provide a pouch or a small box with a €745 fountain pen?

So I take out this magnificent fountain pen from its basic packaging and fill it with ink using its vacuum filling system (vacuum filler). It's a very beautiful tool, of exceptional beauty — incredible sensation in the hands — I'm delighted.

After an evening of writing with it, where I even wrote a letter to a friend, the reservoir is empty again. I tell myself it was the first use, that I must have done the manipulation wrong so I fill it again, applying myself correctly this time.

24 hours later, after light use of the pen — no more ink again. This isn't possible, there must have been an error, I must have missed something. I watch a tutorial on YouTube, follow it meticulously and fill my fountain pen again.

36 hours later — it was empty again. It should normally be able to last 10 times longer. If I want to be comfortable for the day, I would need to recharge it every morning — this isn't conceivable at all.

I decide to compare my Visconti with my TWSBI. Both have a similar-sized reservoir. I fill them with water then eject it to analyze the storage difference between the two. After several tries, about 10 times more water comes out of the TWSBI than the Visconti. It's a manufacturing defect.

This is inadmissible, such a serious defect in a €745 fountain pen. It's like the Lamy Dialog CC. This one is even handmade in Florence — nobody tested the fountain pen to ensure its quality before selling it?

I of course returned it immediately. This will have the merit of having made me "gain" €745. At least, I avoided stupidly wasting €745 and I'm content with my €35 TWSBI which is better in every way.

Conclusion

Three high-end fountain pens purchased, three enormous design flaws. It's scandalous — such a lack of seriousness in manufacturing products at such a price.

These are European companies, Lamy is manufactured in Germany and Visconti in Florence. As for Esterbrook, it's American. It was an opportunity to treat oneself, to support an industry manufacturing magnificent fountain pens locally — to elevate the excellence of craftsmanship and promote European quality.

But no fountain pen worked. I have to settle for a Taiwanese TWSBI fountain pen. It's very good — but I would have liked to buy a European fountain pen. Showing local artistic exceptionalism.

I think there's a generalized lack of rigor in Europe. Nothing works. In all domains — it's also the case in my industry. I don't know if this has always been the case, but I find it distressing that nothing is done seriously. Whether it's Lamy, Esterbrook, or Visconti, all had a defect preventing the use of the product.

We notice this quality problem in Europe, there's always an issue somewhere. We report it, point it out — nothing changes — nothing is corrected — we watch this continent slowly sink by our own hands.