Lamy Safari vs Pilot Metropolitan: Which First Pen Wins?

Lamy Safari vs Pilot Metropolitan: Which First Pen Wins?

Ask the hobby for a first fountain pen and two names come back before any other: the Lamy Safari and the Pilot Metropolitan. They sit at nearly the same price, they are both built to be a beginner's daily writer, and between them they absorb the majority of "what should I buy first?" threads on r/fountainpens and the Fountain Pen Network. Choosing between them is less about which is better — both are genuinely good — and more about one decision you can make in ten seconds once you know it exists: how do you want the pen to sit in your hand?

We line them up on the four things that matter in a first pen: how the grip suits a hand, how the nib writes and whether it swaps, how you feed it ink, and what it costs to live with. One of them will be obviously right for you by the end.

At a glance

	Lamy Safari	Pilot Metropolitan
Price	around $30	around $20
Body	tough ABS plastic	lacquered brass, real heft
Section (grip)	molded triangle — teaches a hold, divides hands	smooth round — suits any grip
Nib sizing	Western (a Lamy F is a true Western fine)	Japanese (a Pilot F is close to a Western EF)
Nib swap	pulls off in seconds; EF, F, M, B plus 1.1/1.5/1.9 italics	fixed; choose F or M at purchase
Filling	Lamy Z28 converter or T10 cartridges (proprietary)	squeeze converter included; CON-40 upgrade
Best for	tinkerers who want one pen to become five nibs	anyone who wants a smooth, premium-feeling writer

The grip decides more than anything else

The single biggest difference between these two is the part you hold. The Safari's section is molded into a soft triangle that drops your thumb, index, and middle finger onto three flats and places you in a textbook tripod hold. For a writer who never thought about how they grip a pen, it is a quiet lesson in ergonomics. For a writer whose natural hold sits outside that triangle, it argues back on every line, and there is no rotating out of the argument.

The Metropolitan makes no such demand. Its section is smooth, round, and untextured — it lets you hold the pen however you already hold a pen. Writers who bounced off the Safari's triangle land here and exhale.

This is the whole ballgame for a lot of people. If you can, hold a Safari before buying, or read a few grip threads; if the triangle suits you, its teaching is a genuine gift, and if it does not, the Metropolitan is your pen by default. Our full Lamy Safari review and Pilot Metropolitan review go deeper on each.

The nibs: two different fine lines

Both pens wear reliable steel nibs, but they are sized on different systems, and beginners trip on this constantly. Lamy uses Western sizing, so a Lamy Fine is a true Western fine — a moderate, slightly wet line. Pilot uses Japanese sizing, which runs finer: a Pilot Fine writes closer to a Western extra-fine, and a Pilot Medium lands near a Western fine.

Translated to a purchase: if you write small, take notes on cheap paper, or want a precise line, the Metropolitan's Japanese nib is already pointed your way — buy the Medium. If you want a broader, more expressive stroke, the Safari's Western Medium gives it. Neither is better; they are aimed at different handwriting. Our Japanese vs Western nib sizes piece is the two-minute read that prevents the classic mistake, and the nib finder will name a width for your hand before you spend a cent.

The Safari's trump card is what happens after you buy. Its nib pulls straight off — grip it with a scrap of tape, tug, push on a replacement — so for a few dollars a nib you can turn one $30 pen into an EF, a broad, and a fistful of italics. That makes it the cheapest way in the hobby to learn what a stub actually does to your handwriting. The Metropolitan's nib is fixed; it gives you a superb F or M and asks you to choose once.

The honest caveat runs the other way. Lamy's steel can arrive a touch dry or with a hint of baby's bottom — usually a five-minute fix (see how to fix a scratchy nib) rather than a defect, but a real possibility. Pilot's nib has a decade-long reputation for arriving smooth and starting reliably, and it is the steadier out-of-box writer of the two.

Feeding them ink

Both pens can run from a cheap cartridge forever, but bottled ink is where fountain pens get interesting, and the two handle it differently.

The Metropolitan comes ready: current versions include a squeeze converter in the box, so you can fill from a bottle on day one. When it wears out, the click-style Pilot CON-40 drops in and holds a little more. (Skip the larger CON-70 — it does not fit the Metropolitan's slim body.)

The Safari ships with a single cartridge and no converter; the Lamy Z28 you need for bottled ink is sold separately for around $5 on most editions. It also takes only Lamy's proprietary T10 cartridges, not standard international ones. So the Safari's true entry cost is a few dollars above its sticker if you want bottled ink from the start — which you do. Either way, a single bottle like Diamine's 80ml range costs pennies per fill and outlasts the pen. New to the ritual? How to fill a fountain pen walks through cartridge, converter, and squeeze in order.

Living with each

The Safari is built to be carried, dropped, and refilled without worry. The tough ABS body shrugs off a desk-to-floor tumble, the spring-steel clip bites onto a notebook or shirt pocket, and the ink window (or the fully clear Vista) lets you watch the level drop. It is a pen you are meant to actually use hard.

The Metropolitan trades some of that ruggedness for feel. The brass body gives it a cool, forward-balanced heft that reads as far more expensive than $20, and the subtle accent bands (plain, or tasteful python, tiger, and leopard tone-on-tone) make it photograph and gift like a considered object. The smooth metal section can get slightly slippery for damp hands — the one place the Safari's grip texture wins.

The verdict: hold, then decide

There is no wrong answer here, only a fit. Buy the Lamy Safari if the triangular grip suits your hand and you want one pen that becomes a whole nib collection — check the current Safari price on Amazon with a Z28 converter in the cart. Buy the Pilot Metropolitan if you want the smoothest, most premium-feeling first pen with a nib that needs no tuning and a grip that fights no one — check the Metropolitan's price on Amazon, grab the Medium, and add a bottle of ink.

Still weighing options? If you want to see your ink and fill straight from a bottle, our TWSBI Eco vs Lamy Safari match adds a piston filler to the conversation, and if $20 feels like a lot, Metropolitan vs Kakuno puts the same Pilot nib in a $15 body. See how both finish in our best beginner fountain pens roundup, or start from the /best hub.