Greetings forum members. My Lamy Safari fountain pen which arrived in the mail last week has an extremely scratchy medium sized nib. I ordered this pen after reading the reviews and was impressed by how smooth a writer the pen was according to most Lamy Safari users.

Unfortunately, this has not been my experience up to this point. Does anybody have any suggestions on how I can smooth out the nib for more comfortable writing? I enjoy everything else about the pen except the most important aspect.....nib feel and writing quality. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I think you just might have a lemon. I have two Al-stars and one vista EF nibs and they write smoothly. If your mediums feeling like that then there could be two possibilities. The nib is bad, or the angle that your holding it is weird. Also they tend to get smoother as you write with them, cause your basically burnishing the nib on paper. But if you think that it's unbearable I would return it while you can.

Yep, though there are ways of smoothing it, I'm sure.
My experience matches DirtyDog's, but it was before I found FPN, so I didn't try to save the beast.

Perhaps a different ink would provide more satisfactory results? Are you using a Lamy ink cartridge?

try a different ink, is the nib aligned correctly, is the nib clean of manufacturing crud (its vent hole and slit), and finally if necessary polish the nib.

About the "lemon" thing. I have several safaris and all stars, some are great, some are scratchy. It is my experience that quality control is not very good with respect to these pens. My advice is not to buy this type of pen online but in a brick and mortar shop so you can try the pen you will actually buy (or not).

I am using Quink Blue Black ink on mine and have tried a Lamy Safari Cartridge as well. I find it very disconcerting that the quality control would be so poor that they wouldn't test their nibs before putting them to market. After all, Germany has a good reputation for making quality products. I would have purchased mine at a local store but to be honest, I doubt there are any stores selling these pens in my neck of the woods.

I am considering ordering another nib section from Pear Tree pens also, but am concerned that I will spend $12.00 on the new nib and run into the same problem. Should I take the chance and order another nib section?

I have an AL-Star (F) and I thought it started out somewhat "scratchy" but it seems better now and that is with a less wet ink (J. Herbin, Orange Indien) and daily use. I have high hopes for it with other inks and with continued use. I think also, with me at least, the stiffness of the nib contributed to my experience of scratchiness. There are so many good stories about Lamy pens I would give another ink or nib a try particularly if you like the pen overall.

I have some new inks on order and will try those in the Safari once they arrive. Hopefully, this will smooth things up. Due to the bad results I got with the Safari, I purchased a Waterman Phileas on ebay yesterday. So far, my favorite pen is a Parker Latitude which I have had for a few months. It is a very smooth writer and is not picky about which angle you hold the nib. This was my first fountain pen and probably the best. I have purchased some Parker 45's and the nib is a little scratchy but not scratch compared to the Lamy Safari. My reason for purchasing the Safari was because I wanted an extremely smooth writer that would be good for everyday use. Hopefully, I get good results with the new inks but the truth is, I am disappointed in the Safari's performance up till now.

I got the microabrasive sheet kit from Richard. Once I found the right amount of padding, it is easy: just draw on the abrasive side. work a little to each side of the sweet spot so as not to make a chisel, and when it feels smooth add pressure to use the padding to wrap the abrasive around the curve more.

I plan on trying a foam fingernail polisher, but I think they might not be as well graded. I've not tried burnishing on a smooth non-abrasive (like glass) yet. I'm more concerned with the concave part of the cleavage between the tines, there.

The Lamy All-Star (same as the Safari but in aluminum) I just got works fine, and is better than the cheap Asian pens out of the box.

--John

Hmm, on another thread I read that Lamy tests all the pens, and thats why they are sometimes not clean.

This is probably not the best suggestion, but have tried sending it to your local LAMY repairs centre? If this is a new pen and writes scratchy, then the repairs centre should exchange the nib for you under warranty. In my experience, I've had one scratchy EF nib on a Vista before and after it made a trip to the local repairs place, they exchanged the nib for me and it writes wonderfully.

Thanks for all of your responses. I don't have a Lamy repair center near me but I went ahead and placed my Safari in the mail today to the headquarters in Connecticut. I followed the instructions in the warranty pamphlet and enclosed a check for $7.50 as well as a self addressed stamped envelope and a letter describing the problem. I also asked that they test the nib before returning the pen to me to ensure proper function. I hope everything works out because I am eager to get my Safari back and start writing again.

Also, before signing off, I tried Noodler's blue ink in my Lamy Safari and didn't have any better results compared to using Quink Blue-Black.

Bought a Lamy Safari (yellow) with a fine nib. I use a lamy cartridge with blue black ink. It flowed poorly and was very scratchy.

I soaked the nib and section and used a bulb suction to flush the section. I then used one of the three colored emory sticks on the nib for a few minutes and now have a great pen.

This has been a routine for my last few lamy safari pens. But who can resist a shocking yellow fountain pen for under 40 dollars. (not me)

It is still a toss up between this and a pilot varsity (semi) disposal now that I can refill the pilot with good ink.



George

I'm sure you'll get a good replacement nib. I'm having the same experience you had with much more expensive pens right now, so this thing does happen from time to time. If you have access to a loupe or a strong magnifying glass and you have this experience again, check to see if the tines are not aligned properly. I have bent a Lamy nib that was dropped on a hard floor back into shape by hand with perfect results, so a little tweaking might be all you need to do.

Good luck with your warranty return!

Neill

Had the same problem with my first or second Safari. Got a replacement nib and that was it.
Was a bit annoying but the nib is not expensive so I decided to do it the easy way.
The other nibs had been nice and smooth ootb.

Does anyone know where to buy seperate nibs online, preferrably in Europe?

DirtyDog, are you by any chance left-handed and rotating the pen due to the way the indentations on the section force you to hold the pen? The writing pad may simply not line up properly any more if you are rotating. If you rotate enough, you may need a left oblique nib - same shape as your left foot looking down on it.

jips123, try The Writing Desk in England (thewritingdesk.co.uk) for nibs alone, without a section.

In Germany you can try [post="http://www.buero-lindner.de/shop_v2/themes/kategorie/detail.php?artikelid=178844&kategorieid=57&source=1"]Büro Lindner[/post] or [post="http://www.sawu.de/index.php?cat=c311_Federn.html"]Sawukaytis[/post].

Have ordered from both without any problems.

Just to provide an update, I did receive my Lamy Safari back in the mail with a new nib last week. Lamy replaced the nib for $7.50 and the pen now writes extremely well. I am very pleased and am considering buying a Lamy Al-Star; however, I would like to be able to try it out before spending the money, as I don't want to have to wait to begin using the pen. Regardless, I am very happy now my with Safari and Lamy Customer Service and will considering purchasing more of their pens in the future.

Sorry to piggyback on an older thread, but I've got some Al-Star scratchiness myself. I was going batty last night trying to figure out if it was all in my head, if I was holding the pen wrong, or if it was a flaw in the pen. I didn't notice it so much at first, but the problem seems to be way worse on Cambridge writing paper, much worse than cheap composition notebook paper.

The one thing that makes me pretty sure it is a real issue is that I only really feel it on a certain direction- right to left, while left to right flows beautifully.

I just got a F Lamy 2000 and it is an incredibly pen- I've a hard time imagining how much nicer a $400 pen could be than this. My one complaint is that is really seems that the nib is much less forgiving in regards to the angle it's held at- another thing where to me, it seems that it doesn't cut it, but perhaps that is just how the 2000 is.

Anywho, I'm thinking of sending mine in too, but I hate to be without a pen such as the Al-Star.

Wrt nibs- it'd too bad no one sells a pack of Z50 nibs for the Safari. I don't want to buy each one for $15 each, but perhaps everything EF to B, with some stub or something in there too, for $8-10 each.

Great to hear the news on your Safari- maybe I should send mine in too... But it's so hard, esp on an EF nib, to know if it should just feel that way or not, at least for me.

Aaron