Lamy Safari: Medium or Fine nib

[mackthepen]

For high volume (plus low quality paper) everyday writing the medium is ideal.

 

I also use a fine, but more for annotation rather than bulk writing.

 

Andrew

[Bearcat]

Fine. The Lamy nibs run wide, as noted above. The XFs are inconsistent.

[Chthulhu]

Mine's an F, and does indeed look somewhere between a conventional fine and a medium. I'd suggest buying the pen with an F nib and an additional EF as they're apparently quite easy to swap out, and fairly inexpensive.

[majorworks]

I enjoy the fine nib on my Vista very much. I vacillated about a medium and now that I know how wide the "fine" line is, I'm glad I didn't go for the medium.

[djpyle]

As others have said, the Lamy fine is much closer to a medium. I normally prefer a medium, but I have a fine on my Safari and also on my 2000, and a 1.1 italic on my Al-Star. All three are fantastic writers.

[Brerarnold]

For my writing style, a fine line looks spidery but a broader line looks great -- since I have bit of tremor in my hands, the broader line helps to smooth that out. I like the M nib for the Safari.

[Flippy]

I am using an EF in my 2009 LE and it is very smooth and lays down a great wet line no matter how fast I choose to (normal not speed-test) write.

 

In fact I just ordered another EF.

EF nibs are too thin for my liking. I tried a F nib from Lamy and it wrote wonderfully.

[Fatestorm]

One consideration I didn't see above is that I feel the Lamy safari nibs run dry. So while the lines do run slightly broad on their line of nibs, they don't lay down a lot of ink, so if that's a consideration, a broader nib might do you better. I like the Medium for this reason, though most of my pens are fine.

[ak2k5]

All my safaris are medium nibs... Well most of my pens are medium nibs

[Torrilin]

I've got 3 safari bodies, and at least 1 copy of each nib size. M, F and EF I have multiple copies.

 

Currently, I have two bodies with an EF nib fitted, and one with a 1.1mm italic. The italic basically never is in storage. The others I tend to change around with mood/ink/planned writing, tho I almost always have one of them fitted with a reasonable size ball nib.

 

If you like Safaris, I wouldn't worry about what nib you start with. You can always add more. And the nibs do vary quite a bit. If you want specific features from your nib, buy in person and pick the nib you want.

[ClockOnHR]

I prefer Medium nibs, but in this case, I would recommend FINE for you. There's not much difference anyways.

[MuttonChew]

I prefer the medium nib in my Al-Star.

Very smooth and is wide enough to show some great shading.

[bogiesan]

Compared to my Sheaffer nibs from the 1960s and 70s, Lamy nibs run quite wide. I recently acquired two Al-Star units and selected fine nibs. They are wider than my Sheaffer medium nibs. Eventually I will end up with replacement Lamy extra fine nibs. Wish they made an extra super fine.

[prashant.tikekar]

I agree with bogiesan. Lamy nibs run quite wide and my EFs are not exception. EFs are also quite wide.

Edited May 23, 2016 by prashant.tikekar

[mivox]

I just got an EF Lamy, and I am really pleasantly surprised. It is a very smooth writer, even for my left-handed self. And the line width is about perfect for every day use, for me.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

EF, F and B on 2 Al-Stars, blue.

 

All are wonderful writers.

[BerndtNorten]

I own a Lamy 2000 Fine and an Oblique BB which is currently at Mike Masuyama's workshop being ground to a stub of about 1.3 mm. The Fine is wider than every Japanese fine you'll find. But given the unusual shape of the Lamy nib, with its small sweet spot, I think you're better off with the Medium. The Fine is finicky--see Brian Goulet's video on the pen's small sweet spot. I love it and I won't sell it but I'd trade it for a M in a heartbeat.

[888007888]

All of my Al-Stars are fine nibs. Dry writers in my opinion when compared to Montblanc, Visconti, and TWSBI. My inks all look different in my Lamys due to the dry nature of the writing. Hopefully an ink like Noodlers Eel series makes a difference. My two top inks are MB Lavender Purple and MB Toffee Brown. The MB LP really looks thin and more red/pink when used in my Lamys. I'm used to the darker deep shading lines out down by my other pens. Can I flex the tines out on Al-Stars?

[Budzynski]

I'd go for a medium one. In my opinion they are quite wet writers (at least while using Diamine inks). My medium safari is relatively smooth with some feedback to it. I'd avoid it if you're going to use cheap paper. I hope that helps.

[randomist]

Buy the pen with one of the nibs and a spare nib in the other size, and try both. It's really easy to swap the z50 nibs, and they aren't expensive. I originally got a fine for equation writing, but it was a bit too broad for that really, I have a Parker medium that's finer. So I got another Lamy with an extra fine and started experimenting with more sizes on the other pen. My Lamys now have an extra fine, a 1.1 mm cursive italic and a 1.5 mm cursive italic, and I have a couple of spare nibs tucked away.