Lamy Nibs And Modification...?

[Christopher Godfrey]

Perhaps the best place for this question is the "Nibs and Tines" forum; but I prefer to ask here first...

 

Is it feasible or possible to modify these nibs for flex? Are they perhaps too small for modification? The forum to which I refer is highly technical and often very <professional>! If someone here has already achieved anything in this area, then I might go over there and ask again.

 

Lamy nibs are "nails", in the words of someone who knows a lot about flex in the Pelikan forum (thank you, Bo Bo, for the loan of your words); but Lamy <used> to make some gold nibs that were not bad (I had a silver cp1 many moons ago that had a 14kt nib that was quite un-rigid, to invent a new word); but they obviously don't make anything like that now. The gold insert in some of their upper-end nibs <may> offer some "give", but I doubt it, somehow...

 

Any comments or input, anyone? I am interested, mostly, in vintage flex, nowadays, and I hardly use my Safaris any more and may sell them as I weed out the non-flexy specimens that I have collected over the years. However, if one <could> take the Dremel tool to these llittle nibs, then one might be tempted to try!

[ErrantSmudge]

Lamy nibs are replaceable and cheap, so it seems ripe for experimentation. You may also need to carve out a little of the feed to increase the ink flow.

Edited October 6, 2017 by ErrantSmudge

[dapprman]

I have three modern gold nibbed Lamys, one medium and two fine. All three have flex, more as a comfort factor, but certainly enough to get a certain amount of variation safely. Steel nibs are very rigid though.

 

Make that 4 gold nibbed Lamys, forgot I just picked up a 2k - smooth but too small for any flex like on the other three.

[Christopher Godfrey]

Thank you, Smudge and dapprman, both! It might, then, be worth experimentation, although I have many vintage Watermans, Pelikans et al, so I wonder why I would bother? ;^)

 

dapprman, your nibs have the gold strip in them, I assume (down the tine slit)? You know, my first cp1 had a ribbed, sterling silver barrel and a proper 14kt nib and this latter had some real softness to it -- not real flex (understandable, inasmuch as those nibs <are> small), but it was nothing like as "nail-ish" as the modern iteration. I missed that pen for a long time after it was liberated from my jacket pocket in a doctor's waiting room in Johannesburg; but today I would find those cp1s too slim for comfort...

 

Cheers, you two, and thanks again!

[dapprman]

One thing to bare in mind, no modern nib can flex like one from before the 1960s, so in comparison the Lamy nibs are closer to semi-flex at best, but do offer variation. As to looks, yes visual wise my non 2k nibs have a gold strip in the middle (not sure if the outer is gold, plated in another substance, or if they're gold inserts).

[migla9]

I don't know how flexible they are, but Goulet Pens does list a few gold nibs for Lamy:

 

https://www.gouletpens.com/search?query=lamy+gold+nib