Lamy Safari Ef More Broad Than F

[cskroeze]

Hi all, first post here, long time reader/lurker. First off thanks for all of the great advice you all have, unknowingly, bestowed upon me over the many hours I have browsed FPN!

 

My question is: What do you all think think I should do with my curious Lamy nib situation?

 

My first fountain pen, like many, was a Lamy Safari, which I ordered with an F nib. Love it. But I always wanted it to be a little bit finer. I know the Lamy's are notorious for running thick, but I was trying to balance smoothness and thinness. Long story short, my new Lamy Safari showed up today with an EF nib and I was really excited to get it inked up!

 

Imagine my disappointment when I discovered the EF nib is actually more broad than my original F nib! Same ink (Noodlers Zhivago) on the same paper and it is noticeably more bold :-(. In the picture the new EF nib is #1, the old F nib is #2, and my F Schmidt Kara's Kustoms Ink is #3.

 

Is this highly unusual? A typical characteristic of Lamy? Should I try to return it? What do I?

 

 

Edited April 28, 2015 by cskroeze

[Matt.Nethery]

Did you happen to get it from amazon? A lot of the fake Lamy Safaris come with an ef nib. Watch this video see if it's a fake unfortunately it's an epidemic on Amazon and Ebay . I've gotten a fake before, the quickest way to check is to try putting a genuine Safari nib on it, it won't fit it will be too big.

[cskroeze]

This is totally it! Thank you so much, Matt.Nethery for responding with the great info and the very helpful video!

 

After watching the video and checking out the pen/packaging that arrived, all of the other red flags are falling into place now:

1. Cross imprint on cap is pretty shallow compared to my AL-Star
2. Pen was wrapped in plastic inside the Lamy box, not clipped to the cardboard sheet
3. The pen came with a BLACK Lamy ink cartridge, not blue, and it was just sitting in the box, not inside the pen
4. No stickers/UPCs anywhere on the pen or box
5. The nib is not the same "black chromium plated" as my Aluminum Al-Star, which it should be

In fact, now I cant believe that I didn't spot it immediately! Unfortunately now I have to go through the process of an eBay (I know, I know) return for a counterfeit.

 

Live and learn, I guess that was a $20 education to always buy from a reputable source!

Edited April 28, 2015 by cskroeze

[PingleiHe]

Check if it has a writing surface.

If not, write with it for about one week and it'll be finer. I think.

[PaperDarts]

Sorry you had a bad experience. I have several Lamy F and EF nibs and the EF nibs are definitely finer - though the line varies according to the ink. Right now I've got an Al-star with an EF nib that nevertheless is a very juicy writer with PR Ebony Purple ink, compared to other Lamy EF nibs.

I hope you get satisfaction with your return.

[bigjuice]

Wow, I had no idea there were counterfeit safaris out there! Thank you for the heads up and the video link, this is good to know! Also explains why these pens are sometimes so much cheaper on amazon

[pen2paper]

Did you happen to get it from amazon? A lot of the fake Lamy Safaris come with an ef nib. Watch this video see if it's a fake unfortunately it's an epidemic on Amazon and Ebay . I've gotten a fake before, the quickest way to check is to try putting a genuine Safari nib on it, it won't fit it will be too big.

Thanks Matt, and especially Goldspot for the video comparison.

Safari design is reliably the same. Recently every similar inquiry turns out to be one of these fakes.

 

If you seek a slightly better price, keep an eye out for special sales, new releases. Some resellers/stores include package prices with nib options, special ink too, and/or shipping benefits.

 

Simply the fakes are no bargain at all, plus the hassle to remedy the situation.

What needs to be consistent is that your online sales feedback includes brief mention of the true issue, and remediation. That gives the next buyers fair warning.

[civil]

I don't know, my Safari XF came from Jetpens a few years ago, and an F nib recently came from the same source, and the XF nib is a wetter nib, writes better as wel, as a result it writes a bit wider.

 

I got the F nib because several reviews suggested it was the ideal compromise between the XF nib and a medium nib, in terms of writing performance while still writing small.

 

While I have two nibs rather than two whole Lamy pens, the video hints suggests to me I have a genuine Safari. I have tried to use Brass sheets to improve the flow in the F nib, which helped a bit from the original frequent stopping and skipping, but it is not a better writing experience, so I put it away for now, trying to figure out whether I wasted my money on it.

 

For what is worth, the original XF had some moderate skipping issues when new, particularly when using Lamy blue ink, not so much with Noodlers. I am using it now with Lamy black for the first time, seems ok, no skipping apparently.

[discopig]

Lamy nibs are a crapshoot. I have a M that writes as broad as the EF, I have a F that writes narrower than the EF, I have a B that writes as wide as another F, etc.

[GHigley]

Lamy Safari's (children's pens) hold little attraction for me other than frequently being a pen that others are compared to, so with that in mind I recently bought a charcoal Safari on eBay from a Chinese seller (call me a dumb-ass, I won't even blink) for about half-price that was stated to be authentic. The nib's tipping was terribly chewed as if someone had repeatedly attempted to use sharp toothed pliers to remove it. No response from the seller to my or eBay's inquiries (sooprise, sooprise), so I was refunded. After much time on micromesh I was able to make it quite smooth, but the fine nib nib then wrote like a broad, so I bought a Lamy EF nib. It can't be made to stay on, which I discovered is a sign of a fake. So is receiving a converter with the pen. Lesson learned at little expense and I have a friend with a REAL Safari who can use the spare nib. At least I've a pen that can be used for size comparisons and, after my nib ministrations, is actually quite a nice writer.

Edited August 22, 2015 by GHigley

[pajaro]

There are a lot of pens available in the marketplace. Why buy a pen that is widely counterfeited?

 

After spending a lot of time going over Sonnets to make sure they were genuine, I ceased to buy any more.

 

The Safari, while I don't think it's a children's pen, is a relatively inexpensive casual pen with its culture of the paperclip clip and special shape and ruggedness intimating that you are writing as if on safari. The pen seems to have a broader appeal than I would suspect after inspecting the two I have. My EF writes like an EF though and it's better than taking a Montblanc 144 out on the porch to do a crossword. I would risk the Safari where I wouldn't risk the MB, and it writes nearly as nicely.

[eloquentogre]

I had a similar problem with TWSBI Vac 700 Extra Fine nibs. One wrote fatter than my pilot metropolitan mediums. The other wrote as fine as a Metropolitan Fine. As I've gotten more pens I've noted that JoWo nibs seem to have a pretty sloppy level of precision when it comes to what size you are getting. It's frustrating - when I'm not getting a Japanese nib now, I generally order the finest I can get and consider the crapshoot a victory if its finer than a medium, and if it actually matches the size on its label, it's like winning the jackpot.

[FPscribe]

Interesting examples in this thread of differing EF widths, I think I'll share my own observation. I recently bought a Delta #6 EF nib to replace the M on my Dolcevita, and before I installed it I checked it under a loupe.

 

The ink channel looked pretty much perfect as it was, just the right shape and coming to a pleasantly crips slit of light toward the tip. I expected a very very thin line.

 

After installation I had a line that was comparable to most of my medium nibbed pens. The pen was also extremely wet. When I took a loupe to it agian I realised that pressing the feed into the nib and installing the whole thing into the section, through friction fit, had spread the tines apart and left the ink channel looking more like a ravine. The tipping material had far too much space between each tine.

 

This is why I think some manufacturers produce broad looking 'fine' lines: they are looking at the cut nib on its own and passing them through quality control. Few are going to the time or expense of pressing them into final writing positions and seeing how they actually perform.

 

In my case I removed and adjusted the nib until it was writing a thinner line - but even now it is more like a F than an EF, but I can live with that. I understand people's frustration when they are new to the hobby or have, for example, spent a great dea of money on a gold or palladium nib and feel they haven't received what they paid for.