Why I am quite obsessed with my Lamy dialog 3
Hey, the 5 of you who decided to follow me for some reason or another after month of inactivity here’s the first proper fountain pen review, fuck you. One of my limitatians is that I am still a student and don’t have that much budget to blow on pens, which is why the Lamy dialog 3 is my first pen over a hundred euros and my collection mostly consists of cheaper and older pens of of e-bay (and some inherited from my grandfather), so my opinion is, let’s face it, quite meaningless.
However, I found myself drawn to ever larger pens and due to afore mentioned budget constraints neither a Pelikan M1000 nor a Montblanc Meisterstück 149 are realistic offerings for me in the foreseeable future. Compared to the pen that got me into fountain pens, a Reform Iridium Point that I found in my dead grandpas old desk (nothing as weird as a then 16y/o going through his long dead grandfathers drawers in search of whatever) the Dialog is much bouncier and slightly smoother. In it’s defense however, this specific model of pen is smoother than most modern nibs I’ve gotten to experience, however, it is also as flexible as your average brick. However, the Lamy is much smoother than any pen with Lamys Z52 nib, smoother than a steel-nibbed Pelikan M481, yet this steel nib is slightly more flexible if you push it (predecessor of the M200) and smoother than a broad nibbed Lamy 25P, my previously smoothest pen. If you happen to own a Diplomat pen with a steel nib: It is smoother than those too and feels much bouncier even tho in everyday writing it doesn't have that much more line variiation. However, being a Lamy pen, this is not a gusher, it in fact writes so dry that after just 5 seconds with T53 azurite there is basically no smearing. Great for note taking, not so much for shading, sheen and shimmer. Now, let’s be real, no one really cares about this hyper specific comparison of smoothness. The party trick of the Dialog is it’s retractable, full-size nib. First of all: I haven’t had any hard starting, even after two weeks of disuse, this pen just started writing immediately. I wish some of my older pens could pull that of. The mechanism with all it’s intricacy makes it quite thick however, at nearly 14mm with no taper across the pen, which takes a bit of getting used to, especially since this pen easily outweighs nearly everything at 48g inked, but even for me with my small hands (I still wear gloves that I wore in 4th grade and I am turning 18 next month) the pen feels well balanced with most of that weight being at the front, where the intricate mechanism for opening the ball valve, lowering the clip and extending the nib is placed. This leads to a somewhat jarring feeling when you first use it for extended periods of time because there is so much weight and so much length but the weight feels rather compact while the length still is very noticeable at over 155mm (which is just the limit of me measuring, I have no bigger tool), personally I got used to it rather quickly but if you are used to lighter and smaller pens, this will not be enjoyable. At all. I know, because I asked several friends to comment on this after I’d enthusiastically praised this pen for like 5 minutes which was embarrassing. TLDR: Do you like fucking huge pens with presence, nearly perfectly smooth nibs and sleek Bauhaus styling? Go for it. Do you like to take notes in style with said pens? Go for it, its smooth yet dry nib lends itself well to subpar paper. Do you own another pen which may be better suited for the task of long writing sessions? Yes? Good choice, because if you aren’t carefull and haven’t adopted the proper way of writing with your whole arm yet, you may find your fingers turning to jelly after about an hour or even less. If you mostly do short writing tho, know that you have a soft spot for giant, heavy pens or just want to experience something different, this might be for you. It is also a good motivation to start improving your hand writing technique.