The Lamy ABC is a pen and pencil set aimed at children, though adults will have no difficulty enjoying these nicely made products.
The fountain pen is essentially a Lamy Vista in a pleasing wood and red plastic case. It takes Lamy cartridges or a converter. My version has a medium nib. It’s a tremendous value as fountain pens go – a great writer, smooth and highly reliable. The cap doesn’t post, which could be an issue for some, and has a space for a sticker with one’s name. It is really lightweight, even compared with a Vista, so it’s no trouble to transport around town.
Matching the pen is a mechanical pencil with a 3.15 mm lead. Unlike most clutch leadholders, which require pressing a button or cap and sliding the lead, this pencil has a really nice twist mechanism. Even Lamy’s more sophisticated looking (and expensive) Scribble 3.15 mm pencil doesn’t have this mechanism. There is also an included lead sharpener, which I love as it works with other 3.15 mm pencils, and is a pretty unusual sharpener.
The pencil is comfortable and writes very nicely. The lead is solid and doesn’t break. Though they ship with an HB lead by default, the pencils also take other hardnesses as well as colour leads from art supply stores.
It’s a mechanical pencil that offers great quality, as well as nice (though not traditional) styling.
Nice. I’m going to try to track one of those pens down for my daughter. She already has a Rotring kids’ fountain pen and 2 Harry Potter fountain pens.
This pen looks ideal for my son, however, I am unable to find a distributor in the United States. How can I get my hands on this product?
Hi Jennifer,
What a nice gift this would be. Laywine’s in Toronto, Canada would be a place that I would recommending calling.
Good Luck.
Jennifer,
Richard Binder claims to be the only US distributor for this pen. It’s $25 plus $4.50 shipping at http://www.richardspens.com/.
Hi,
We got the pencil for our son on our last vcation in England, but when we got home we couldn’t keep the lead in. in. It’s easy to install but it keeps falling out, as if the pencil is too large (or the lead is too small) for it.
what are we doing wrong?
Nava
Hi Nava, sometime between 2005 (when this post appeared) and now, Lamy created a new ABC pencil that uses 1.4mm lead. If you have that newer version – then I am not familiar with it. If it came with some spare leads, try one of those.