My New Safari Is Skipping...help

[Mike 59]

Hi, Re. surface tension in converters, this varies with brand and materials used, but one method I've used over the last few refills in my Vista, is to add to the ink, one drop of diluted (with water) washing up detergent.

Obviously this changes the ink quality to some extent, and maybe the colour very slightly, but it seems to cure the surface tension issue in my pens.

It may not work with some ink and converter combinations, but with this one it does.

Hope the photo shows how the ink is not sticking to the walls of the converter.

I would guess the amount I have diluted the ink is under 1%.

[Yarn-Yogini]

So I just got a Lamy Safari yesterday and I'm having the same issue. Just some notes for anyone else having this problem. That finds this thread!

I purchased all the nib sizes, as my intention is to take this pen with me travelling and wanted to use it switching languages (meaning I needed the italic nibs) and I really wanted to try a B nib.

To my surprise, when I switched the nibs - I had a problem with them sticking to the feed and it took some major soaking before I could take the factory installed EF off the feed. Under the nib it looked greyish, as if the nib had been sitting against if for awhile...anyway, I'm assuming old stock, as I bought the royal blue. After another good washing that seemed to clear up as well. Like some others in this topic, I found I couldn't even budge the feed to take it out for a proper cleaning and I didn't want to damage it, so I've not pulled the feed out.

 

I tried out the italic and the M and A nibs ... then I put on the B nib and I got my second surprise:

I wrote 3 words then dead stop - no ink flow - unless I pressed way too hard for my comfort - then 3 words & dead stop again.

(I expected a B nib to be super juicy!)

 

I tried to take the nib off and again it wouldn't budge - ran it under tepid water and managed to carefully wiggle it off with my fingernails. My impression is that the nib was way too tight against the feed, and the pooling of the ink on the backside of the nib seemed to confirm it (it was all under the air hole)

I slid the nib back on and and slowly and carefully started applying a bit of pressure then writing and repeating

(I did this by putting the nib against the edge of my CF notebook, making sure that the tip of the feed was clear, and pressing until I saw some flex then holding for a second)

It took me about 40 minutes to tune it but now it seems to be writing well and it is much juicier - though not as much as I expected.

 

So my thought is that it has something to do with the feed in the pen and the nibs - although Lamy tests the nibs... I wonder if they test the feeds too?

[ErrantSmudge]

 

So my thought is that it has something to do with the feed in the pen and the nibs - although Lamy tests the nibs... I wonder if they test the feeds too?

 

When you buy a new Safari, it has residual blue ink in the nib section from the factory testing process. That seems to indicate they test the feed and the nib together during assembly.

Edited April 11, 2017 by ErrantSmudge

[Yarn-Yogini]

Hmm I didn't think about that.

I ordered a nib set and one pen. Of course there was residual ink on the spare nibs, and the one on the feed too, but it was pretty much stuck on there. What I had in mind, was that these spare nibs had to be tested somewhere.

 

That being the case, what were they tested on? About half of them had a really hard time slipping on and off the feed and 2 had to be tuned.

[flow]

So I just got a Lamy Safari yesterday and I'm having the same issue. Just some notes for anyone else having this problem. That finds this thread!

I purchased all the nib sizes, as my intention is to take this pen with me travelling and wanted to use it switching languages (meaning I needed the italic nibs) and I really wanted to try a B nib.

 

To my surprise, when I switched the nibs - I had a problem with them sticking to the feed and it took some major soaking before I could take the factory installed EF off the feed. Under the nib it looked greyish, as if the nib had been sitting against if for awhile...anyway, I'm assuming old stock, as I bought the royal blue. After another good washing that seemed to clear up as well. Like some others in this topic, I found I couldn't even budge the feed to take it out for a proper cleaning and I didn't want to damage it, so I've not pulled the feed out.

 

I tried out the italic and the M and A nibs ... then I put on the B nib and I got my second surprise:

I wrote 3 words then dead stop - no ink flow - unless I pressed way too hard for my comfort - then 3 words & dead stop again.

(I expected a B nib to be super juicy!)

 

I tried to take the nib off and again it wouldn't budge - ran it under tepid water and managed to carefully wiggle it off with my fingernails. My impression is that the nib was way too tight against the feed, and the pooling of the ink on the backside of the nib seemed to confirm it (it was all under the air hole)

I slid the nib back on and and slowly and carefully started applying a bit of pressure then writing and repeating

(I did this by putting the nib against the edge of my CF notebook, making sure that the tip of the feed was clear, and pressing until I saw some flex then holding for a second)

It took me about 40 minutes to tune it but now it seems to be writing well and it is much juicier - though not as much as I expected.

 

So my thought is that it has something to do with the feed in the pen and the nibs - although Lamy tests the nibs... I wonder if they test the feeds too?

 

 

Tines are aligned but is there proper gap between tines? Make sure tines are not tightly closed.

 

 

 

@OP, I had a skipping problem with a recently acquired Safari medium. It turned out the tines were too tightly closed as prashant.tikekar mentioned in his response. The nib was swapped out for another one where the tines had a small gap in them and the pen now writes like a dream - consistent wet, thick lines, no starting and skipping problems.

 

@Yarn-Yogini, you're probably aware of this, but if not you may want to check out this simple technique for swapping Lamy Safari nibs quickly using duct tape (courtesy Brian Goulet): http://blog.gouletpens.com/2011/03/swapping-lamy-nibs-with-just-tape-video.html. It certainly helped me swap nibs on my stubborn Safari.

[Yarn-Yogini]

 

 

 

 

 

 

@Yarn-Yogini, you're probably aware of this, but if not you may want to check out this simple technique for swapping Lamy Safari nibs quickly using duct tape (courtesy Brian Goulet): http://blog.gouletpens.com/2011/03/swapping-lamy-nibs-with-just-tape-video.html. It certainly helped me swap nibs on my stubborn Safari.

 

Yes, and I wound up cleaning a pile of tape glue off the top of my EF nib and my B nib!

It was really stuck on there. I was wiggling it with my finger nails for quite some time before I could get the thing to move. Now there's no issue - I think whatever that greyish film was on the feed was the culprit, and that the B nib was sitting too tightly against the feed. Once I tuned it a bit it hasn't been an issue.