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Lamy Safari Not Writing Properly?


Flippy

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Hello everyone

 

I recently bought (another) Lamy Safari. It was the 2013 LE Neon version in Medium. When I filled it with Parker Quink, the pen wrote in a very wet blue instead of the black it was suppose to write in. I just assumed it was tested before shipping and the company forgot to wash it out properly. I washed it out well and left it to dry for a couple of hours.

 

Then, I tried again with a Lamy Blue Cartridge. Same result, it wrote in a watery blue. This time, the pen would eventually dry out after writing in wet for a while, and would only work again if I squeezed the cartridge a bit or capped it with a Lamy and wrote with it later. I was very disappointed, washed it out even more thoroughly, and set it to dry for 10 hours. I then loaded it with a black cartridge, and the same thing happened, watery black writing, and then a dry, scratchy feeling after a bit. Can anyone help me with this? Do I have to do this every time I clean out my pen?

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Hey flippy, It's not you. it's the pen. Sometimes you just get a clunker. There's an ink flow problem there somewhere. Have you tried it with a converter yet?

 

There aren't a lot of moving parts on the safari to tinker with. It's either the ink, ink supply or the nib and feed. Nibs for the safari can be had for low costs. I once bought a package of like 4 different sites for cheap on Amazon. If you have another safari, you could try that nib and see if it makes any difference.

Keep tinkering and let us know what you find.

Edited by Old Salt
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The converter was the first thing I tried using with the pen. When it didn't work I used a cartridge. I'm getting really mad about it.

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My first urge is to tear into things. But I've learned to hold off in some cases, Especially when there might be a warranty. Did you buy it new? Can it be returned?

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Alas, no. I could not return it. I will never buy a Lamy from that site again, this is the 2nd time I've had an issue with them and Lamy. Such a disappointment. Do you know where I can buy a spare Lamy feed? :wacko:

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There are no spare feeds. You can only purchase the whole grip section.

BTW Are you sure it's not fake?

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Which site? Astro brings up a good point. There are now Chinese fakes of the Chinese clones..lol..

I just read a thread about fake Jinhao feeds being sold on eBay.

I hope that didn't happen to you.

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  • 2 weeks later...

There are no spare feeds. You can only purchase the whole grip section.

 

Yes, and that's because they make the feed UN-removable :angry: .

 

I bought a broad nibbed Lamy Safari here on FPN some years ago. Wouldn't write. I followed the directions for taking the nib out. I cleaned that nib and flossed it, replaced it in the pen, and the Safari still wouldn't write. I really do not think the nib was the problem. And it was while trying to get that fountain pen to write that I found that Lamy in some way makes it impossible to get the feed out without breaking away the section that surrounds it. Not a friendly move by Lamy, IMO.

 

That Lamy Safari became the most expensive fountain pen I've got in my dud pens box :bawl: .

On a sacred quest for the perfect blue ink mixture!

ink stained wretch filling inkwell

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Of course you can pull out the feed of a Safari. It's just snapped in. It's hard sometimes 'cause it's difficult to get a grip, but I've done it many times.

 

Maybe this helps: https://www.gouletpens.com/goulet-grip/p/GP-10013

 

I'd asked about this some years ago, and I was told that the Lamy Safari feeds do not come out.

 

Well, maybe I'll give it another try. I actually have a rubber thing for opening lids of jars, etc. That should be about the same as the tiny piece of rubber that Goulet Pens is selling.

 

I'll give it another try and see if I can get that feed out. Maybe I can get a broad nibbed Safari to write with after all. I had very much wanted to try that pen when I bought it. I'll post my results one way or another.

On a sacred quest for the perfect blue ink mixture!

ink stained wretch filling inkwell

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I'll give it another try and see if I can get that feed out. Maybe I can get a broad nibbed Safari to write with after all. I had very much wanted to try that pen when I bought it. I'll post my results one way or another.

 

Okay, so I tried it and it worked! Thanks for the help.

 

And I think I see why the pen never wrote. There's some sort of damage on the feed, right across the ink channels.

 

I have to say, the ink channel on that Lamy Safari feed look serpentine. Thin ink channels that take twists and turns and appear to make 90° turns and I'm not even sure that they go to the very end of the feed. Easy to have problems with a feed like that, I think.

 

Anyway, I have the feed soaking in the ultrasonic cleaner. I'll see if I can widen those ink channels and fix that damage. Thanks again.

On a sacred quest for the perfect blue ink mixture!

ink stained wretch filling inkwell

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Ah, it worked. Good. Curious. Never had a problem with a feed.

Edited by Astron
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Ah, it worked. Good. Curious. Never had a problem with a feed.

 

It took quite a bit of force to get the feed out. I'm reading of others finding that it needs quite a bit of force too. In the link below one reply says that there is apparently some extra resistance to be overcome, "Note that there is a 'bump' or detent in the feed which you have to get past,"

 

The big thing that I found was that the Lamy Safari feed is in two parts! I was trying to get the two ink channels that are under the damaged part of the feed opened up and suddenly the feed seemed to have changed shape. I couldn't figure it out. I pushed on the suddenly asymmetrical part and the top of the feed came off :doh: !

 

I have since looked around in this forum and I've found another thread where someone has found this out three years ago and there are photographs in that thread.

 

I had done plain water, dish detergent and ammonia all in separate tries in the ultrasonic cleaner and I was just going at those thin channels that were under the damaged part when I found this out. I still need to see if I can get the ink channels under the damage working, but this opens up an entire new way of going at the problem. And I can directly clean the insides of that feed now.

 

It's just possible that I may get this fountain pen writing yet :) ! And then I'll finally have a Lamy Safari.

On a sacred quest for the perfect blue ink mixture!

ink stained wretch filling inkwell

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