The Ultimate Pen Showdown - Ballpoint Hybrids

The Lamy 2000 recently arrived on my radar after ignoring it for so long, after some persuasive reviews about the way it's engineered. I recently picked one up from my local Lamy shop but never used it or filled it with ink, because I'm just not a huge fan of its appearance (which I find a bit bland). Lamy made some limited editions in blue and brown, but the prices are way out of my budget. I decided that before using it, I'd investigate some other similar pens and try to compare them side by side. I picked up a Montblanc 220, which I think is a more interesting design in the same makrolon material, The 220 is a lovely writer and feels like it's built to tight tolerances, though the relatively broad nib in mine is a bit much for me and it doesn't have the solid heft of the Lamy. After digging for some more candidates, I discovered the Taobao Lamy 2000 clone which is made from someone in China with a 3D printer. I asked the seller if he could make one for me in dark...

 In the years since I started on this pen testing journey, I did dabble in fountain pens as well. As a lefty, I was always hesitant to get into fountain pens, but I couldn't resist their allure. Here I'll give a brief overview of the ones I tested. Pilot 912 Green Limited Edition - I was looking at Pilot with the intention of trying a Waverly nib, which is supposedly suitable for my weird 90 degree writing angle and my left-handedness. I'm a big fan of green and brown pens, and was hoping to find something from Pilot in green. Endless searching for the right one led me to a store in Japan that partnered with Pilot to make a few limited edition colors of the 912, including translucent green. It came with a Fine nib, and wasn't going to have any WA nibs til the end of the year, so I thought I'd give it a try. This was the last fountain pen I bought, because it actually worked perfectly as-is (though I'd still like to try a Pilot WA). Beautiful pen, much more reli...