Lamy Safari Wet And Dry

[smiorgan]

I've been swapping nibs between my charcoal and my white safari, trying with several different inks, and I've come to the conclusion that the white one is much wetter than the charcoal. Both have worn EF, M and B nibs, italics and obliques.

 

Actually come to think of it my Vista and Al-Star are all fairly wet with the broad nib. So I guess the Charcoal is a bit drier than the others.

 

I've removed and reinstalled the nibs several times and the wetness/dryness seems to be pretty consistent, so that eliminates install error. I've tried with several different inks including Oxblood which really shows a difference between a wet and a dry pen.

 

So the only thing left is the feed. I guess the Charcoal may be clogged or something -- but the flow is very reliable and smooth, just drier. Not complaining as it works well with some cheaper papers.

 

Is that just another Lamy production variation?

[Senecabud]

I've only recently been using Safaris and have four of them (a fifth one coming in the mail with a 1.1mm nib), each with a different nib: F, 1.1, 1.5, and 1.9mm. I'm using Waterman, Sheaffer, and Lamy inks, and have found that the pens and nibs are consistent for their intended purposes. When I compare the pen with the 1.9mm nib and Lamy Black ink to other calligraphy pens with wide nibs and inked with other inks, the Safari is definitely drier. But the greatest variation seems to arise from the papers rather than the nibs or inks I'm using. Overall I'm quite satisfied with the ink flow on my Safaris, but then I make a point of writing at least a few lines every day with each pen/nib, and I write slowly when using the 1.5 and 1.9 nibs.

[lurcho]

The insufficiency of flow in your Safari is typical.

 

Take a deep breath, take out the nib, and take a sharp blade to the central feed channel.

 

Then check the writing performance.

 

If it hasn't worked, take the nib and pull the wings of the nib apart with determined but extraordinary gingerness. John Mottishaw has a quick tutorial on this at nibs.com.

 

These procedures will make your Safari wet.

 

You'll need a 10X loupe to sort out the post-surgical alignment of the tines.

 

Otherwise, see Steve Brown's YouTube instructions on making a nib wetter.

 

You could ruin your nib, and your feed, but if you're careful you probably won't.

 

Dry pens are usually not helped by the stock advice to rinse with weak bleach. Most are too dry, and they need macho action!

 

It works.

 

If it doesn't, I accept no responsibility for my forthright advice.

[lurcho]

PS. Paper's always a consideration. I find that the pens I have that are too wet on other paper are the only ones that work satisfactorily on Rhodia.

 

I don't think any pen works well on every paper, with the definite and singular exception of my pre-2000, chisel-pointed medioum Pelikan M800, which works on any paper with extraordinary and inexplicable ubiquity.

[Houston]

Completely agree with lurcho (above). I love safaris only after I've hacked the feed for greater flow. Then, I love them a lot.

[smiorgan]

Cheers for the replies. At the moment it's an academic question -- it suits me to have one Safari that's reliably wet and the other reliably dry (good for Field Notes notebooks with the right ink).

 

But, I have a spare Vista lying around -- one day I may hack the feed as you describe, just to see what happens.

[lurcho]

^{Do it. You'll be amazed. You'll feel power surging through your veins.}

 

^{I first had a go at adjusting my nibs and feeds only three years ago, and it changes the way you feel about fountain pens, and their extraordinary potential to disappoint.}

 

My last advice - and I really, really am an amateur at this, and far, far less knowledgable than many, many others on this board, is to adjust flow - by feed-cutting, and especially by nib-spreading - by being ever-so-gentle, and STOP just before you think your pen is 'wet enough'.

 

Once it's a tiny bit too wet, it's then a little-bit rubbish, and harder to remedy. (Though if you prefer a wet writer, a dry one's no good to you.)

 

Hope that's confused things even more.

 

But a thirteen-quid Safari's a better place to start than a 14K Pelikan M250 nib. (Take my word for it.)

Edited August 29, 2013 by lurcho