Newer Lamy Safari Pen Skipping Troubles?

[Dr. Massey]

EDIT** : I took the brutally scratched old school F nib that was on my old safari and tried it on all 3 of my new safari pens that are having trouble with their nibs and it wrote FLAWLESSLY. This lets me know the pens themselves aren't bad. All 3 of the nibs are.

 

 

I have an older lamy safari that writes wonderfully with a Fine black nib.

 

Since then I purchased another safari with a fine nib and it wrote awful. It would skip anytime I would make a fast down stroke or a backwards "C" or backwards loop. My signature has a backwards loop in it so obviously I can't have my pen skipping while doing this.

 

 

So I paid the 9.50 and sent it to lamy to get it fixed. Lamy replaced the entire bottom end + the nib. Got the pen back. SAME ISSUE.

 

 

So I purchased 2 more off ebay, one with a fine nib, one with a Medium nib. BOTH do the EXACT same thing. (all of the nibs I have bought have been the black color.) I have tried 4 different inks in the pens (lamy cartridge, perle noire, private invincible, sailor kiwa nano: bottle ink w/ converter). 3 different kinds of paper (cheap, topps gold 20 pound, and rhodia.) Every single one of these skips when I do a fast straight down stroke. A backwards C or loop. I thought maybe it's how I write but my old lamy has no issues what so ever (and I've even had a razor blade in between the tines as well as squeezed the upper arms on the nib tighter with a pair of needle nose pliers, and yet it still writes perfect.

 

What is going on here? Any ideas?

 

 

I'm getting so frustrated i'm about to just sell them all and return back to my rollerball G2 Limited with cross ink refills which has yet to let me down, unlike the fountain pen world has. End rant/

Edited October 31, 2012 by Dr. Massey

[Renfield]

Sounds very unusual that it has happened on so many different pens.

 

Have you tried flushing them with some washing up liquid and water? Sometimes it helps the flow.

 

Are you using converters? Flush the converter as well. (Flushing with plain water again afterwards.)

[Bearcat]

Most Lamy Safaris are great. Some are bad.....happens in mass production. Usually the trip back to Lamy fixes them.

 

I would return them as a batch to Lamy service department with writing samples documenting the problem. There does seem to be more frequent flow issues with the black nibs than the stainless polished ones. Perhaps you could request nib replacements to the polished stainless. ????

 

I also must say that buying used pens from eBay may be pre-selecting for bad pens with problems that the owners are unloading on eBay. Buy here or from a reputable dealer.

Edited October 31, 2012 by Bearcat

[Dr. Massey]

Sounds very unusual that it has happened on so many different pens.

 

Have you tried flushing them with some washing up liquid and water? Sometimes it helps the flow.

 

Are you using converters? Flush the converter as well. (Flushing with plain water again afterwards.)

 

 

On 2 of the pens I flushed them with Dawn dish soap (a squirt in about 12oz of water, not just a drop) and the 3rd I left it brand new. I cant figure out why the nib that I have messed with the most and has literal scratches up and down it from needle nose pliers writes perfect. And these others don't. And the lamy is a cartridge, the others are in the converter. The converters have all been washed out with dawn dish soap + water.

[Dr. Massey]

Most Lamy Safaris are great. Some are bad.....happens in mass production. Usually the trip back to Lamy fixes them. I would return them as a batch to them with writing samples documenting the problem. There does seem to be more frequent issues with the black nibs than the stainless polished ones. Perhaps you could request nib replacements to the polished stainless. ????

 

 

and see, Bob at lamy, who fixes them, told me the black ones write significantly better than the stainless.... sigh.

[Bearcat]

Most Lamy Safaris are great. Some are bad.....happens in mass production. Usually the trip back to Lamy fixes them. I would return them as a batch to them with writing samples documenting the problem. There does seem to be more frequent issues with the black nibs than the stainless polished ones. Perhaps you could request nib replacements to the polished stainless. ????

 

 

and see, Bob at lamy, who fixes them, told me the black ones write significantly better than the stainless.... sigh.

 

 

It would seem to me that the capillary action necessary for good flow would be better on polished stainless steel than on anything with a coating on it......YMMV.

 

 

 

[Dr. Massey]

Most Lamy Safaris are great. Some are bad.....happens in mass production. Usually the trip back to Lamy fixes them. I would return them as a batch to them with writing samples documenting the problem. There does seem to be more frequent issues with the black nibs than the stainless polished ones. Perhaps you could request nib replacements to the polished stainless. ????

 

 

and see, Bob at lamy, who fixes them, told me the black ones write significantly better than the stainless.... sigh.

 

 

It would seem to me that the capillary action necessary for good flow would be better on polished stainless steel than on anything with a coating on it......YMMV.

 

 

Yes. The F nib on my oldschool pen that I have messed with and scratched up dearly over the years, well I tried it on all 3 of the new safari's i'm having trouble with and all 3 work flawlessly with that nib.

[soloz2]

I have two Lamy Safari pens and was having skipping issues with my charcoal one that has a med black nib. My green w/ 1.1 silver nib was fine... In fact it was very wet. I swapped nibs and no more issues... And personally, I attribute this to the ink more than the nib.

Converter filled with noodlers hunter green: 1.1 italic was wet with lots of nib creep. Black med was still wet, but very good.

Lamy blue cartridge: black med nib was dryish and had some minor skipping issues. I swapped to the 1.1 nib and the pen writes like a dream. It is still a bit dry, but no skipping.

 

I hope this helps. Try a different ink.

[emiliovillegas]

I have almost perfect Lamy nibs and some (bleep) ones It's a hit or miss with Lamy these days... but I still like them for some reason...

[Renfield]

I have almost perfect Lamy nibs and some (bleep) ones It's a hit or miss with Lamy these days... but I still like them for some reason...

 

I have 8 Lamy nibs in my house (Only 3 mine), but all are working wonderfully.

 

They didn't always, I had to do a bit of work on them, but in my (limited) opinion, almost any nib can be smoothed or altered, or battered into decent working order (Warped, bent, and downright mistreated nibs excepting)