Reverse Writing & Lamy Nibs...

[sirgilbert357]

I don't think I've ever seen this mentioned about Lamy nibs and I have had such a good experience that I feel compelled to share this in case anyone else finds it valuable or helpful.

 

I like to reverse write if the pen will do it (turn the nib upside down and write with the top of the tipping material, which usually results in a slightly thinner line than writing normally) so I try it out with almost every pen I get. I have found Lamy's steel nibs to support reverse writing quite well (except for the stubs obviously!).

 

I have two Lamy Medium steel nibs and one Broad in my collection that I have tuned to reverse write wonderfully. The two Mediums write like Fines when they are upside down and the Broad writes like a wet Medium. I had to do a little smoothing on Micromesh for them, but never had to adjust anything else. The flow is great and I can write continuously without any issues. This seems to be something the Lamy nibs are just naturally able to support because of their design. Once I found this out I went on a bit of an affordable buying spree!

 

I started with just a Lamy Studio with a Medium nib. I have now have 4 Wing Sung 3008's (they all came with a Fine nib) and Lamy nibs in Medium (x2), Broad, 1.1mm and 1.5mm. The Lamy nibs fit on the Wing Sung 3008's, and since both Medium nibs and the Broad are tuned to reverse write, I have a lot of nib options for very little money. I haven't yet messed with the stock Wing Sung 3008 Fine nibs, but my guess is they would reverse write too with a little smoothing on Micromesh since they are basically designed exactly the same as the Lamy nibs. I just don't prefer Fine and EF nibs...

 

Anyway, if anyone else is looking for a good "bang for your buck" pen that will also reverse write like I was, try out a Lamy with a plain old steel nib!

 

A little disclaimer on the Wing Sung 3008's: I bought 5 of these total since I figured the QC would be spotty, and I wasn't wrong. The Lamy nibs fit VERY snug on some of the feeds and loosely on others. Of the 5 3008's, four are usable and one is a total dud (well, the Wing Sung Fine nib fits it, but I have no interest in it currently). I tried all the different Lamy nibs on the various 3008's until I found which ones fit each other best. I ended up having to tighten one Lamy nib to fit more snug on one of the feeds, while the rest fit fine.

 

All in all, a great experience and coupled with the cheap, but decent 3008, a very cost effective way to have lots of nib widths (or ink sample testing pens!) at my disposal. Sorry for the long winded post!

[dennis_f]

Hi there SirGilbert,

 

I don't own any Chinese pens, but I've found the same thing with Lamy nibs. I've been reverse writing with them for years. In fact, I've gotten so used to doing this that I was in a pen store yesterday, trying out the new Lamy crystal inks with the Vista that forms part of the official Lamy crystal ink display, and I absent-mindedly kept flipping over the pens I was handed to write on the finer side... and then reacted in shock when I realized the shop-keepers probably didn't want me doing this, and scrambled to flip the pen back into the correct position without anyone noticing what I was doing (even though one of the clerks was standing right across from me).

 

I even manage to reverse write with my Lamy2000, though I wrestle to break the habit because I don't want to damage the gold nib (obviously, I care less about the workhorse safari/al-star nibs).

 

D

[A Smug Dill]

I'll almost always give 'reverse writing' a go with any pen I acquire and ink, and I write with the nib in upside-down orientation frequently when using my Japanese fountain pens (most of which have Fine nibs) to get even finer lines whenever the occasion demands or warrants it. There are very few Japanese gold nibs in my pen collection that will not write like that.

[Astronymus]

Always used the reverse writing when I got my first Lamy Safari in the 80s. Especialy usefull for maths when super- or subscript is needed.

Also for sketching. One pen, two widths.

[LizEF]

I don't think reverse writing harms a thing unless you're applying so much pressure that you bend the tines (but the same is true of regular writing). The best reverse writer I have is my TWSBI Go with a broad nib - the reverse is a beautifully smooth EF - right out of the box - go figure! It's like the best of all worlds for me.

[sirgilbert357]

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I felt a little like I was cheating -- buy one nib, get one free, LOL. I don't really prefer anything thinner than a European medium, but there are times a Fine is warranted and appreciated, so its nice to have that for "free" in my Medium nib!

 

I haven't tried reverse writing with my new Pilot 912 (its a soft medium), but I'll give it a shot the next time I get it out to write.

[Honeybadgers]

I'll almost always give 'reverse writing' a go with any pen I acquire and ink, and I write with the nib in upside-down orientation frequently when using my Japanese fountain pens (most of which have Fine nibs) to get even finer lines whenever the occasion demands or warrants it. There are very few Japanese gold nibs in my pen collection that will not write like that.

 

 

100% agree with this statement.

 

Lamy nibs suck out loud at reverse writing. Of all my nibs, my Z50 B nib is the only one that isn't unusable upside down (which is nice, but I'm dead certain that it's just luck of the draw)

 

Neither of my 2000's write reverse worth a damn.

[sirgilbert357]

 

 

100% agree with this statement.

 

Lamy nibs suck out loud at reverse writing. Of all my nibs, my Z50 B nib is the only one that isn't unusable upside down (which is nice, but I'm dead certain that it's just luck of the draw)

 

Neither of my 2000's write reverse worth a damn.

I can't tell if you mean your Lamy nibs are terrible or good at reverse writing. If terrible, have you tried smoothing them a bit with Micromesh?

[Honeybadgers]

I can't tell if you mean your Lamy nibs are terrible or good at reverse writing. If terrible, have you tried smoothing them a bit with Micromesh?

 

Why would I bother?

 

A Z50 is not exactly a work of art, and most nibs not tuned from the factory tend to be badly misaligned on the reverse (since they weren't intended to be used as such) which would require a lot of material removal.

 

"suck out loud" means they're garbage.

[sirgilbert357]

 

Why would I bother?

 

A Z50 is not exactly a work of art, and most nibs not tuned from the factory tend to be badly misaligned on the reverse (since they weren't intended to be used as such) which would require a lot of material removal.

 

"suck out loud" means they're garbage.

 

LOL. Fair enough. I am fortunate my experience with them has been different. I've had no trouble getting the reverse side quite smooth with just a few figure 8's on Micromesh.

 

And I just tried and none of my Pilots reverse write. Sample of two though...The third one isn't inked (78g). Anyway, the Decimo would probably be a good reverse writer with a little smoothing. I might just do that later today.

[A Smug Dill]

And I just tried and none of my Pilots reverse write. Sample of two though...The third one isn't inked (78g). Anyway, the Decimo would probably be a good reverse writer with a little smoothing.

I don't know about smoothing, but both of my Pilot Capless 18K gold Stub nibs required flossing between the tines to get them wet enough to write with the nib in upside-down orientation.