Is There A Defect With My Lamy St? Ink Problems! (Pics Provided)

[numerics]

Hi guys, I'm a new fountain pen user and I recently purchased a Lamy St fountain pen with an EF nib. I noticed that from when I first tried using the pen that it had problems with taking up ink, i've manually had to force ink into the feed by pushing the convertor forward. I noticed while I was cleaning the ink there was only a very small opening to allow ink in. Is this how the Lamy St is designed, or is this a manufacturing defect?

 

I have previously used Lamy Safari's without this ink feed problem and i'm wondering if I should try widening the hole to allow more ink in? Is this a bad idea? Is it the size of the opening that's the problem? Please help! I love this pen, I just have no idea what's wrong with it?

 

http://i.imgur.com/aqdU9ZZ.jpg

[Geert Jan]

Hi there,

 

The hole you're showing looks the same as on my Lamy st, soo I don't think there is an issue there. I wouldn't mess with that, ink flow is based on capillary action; widening parts of that ink channel might cause ink leaking from your pen.

 

I take it you're using a Lamy converter and you are able to fill that with ink by dipping the nib in ink and turning the knob on the converter. If so you know the channel isn't blocked. If you haven't done so, flush the pen thoroughly with cold water (lukewarm at the most). You may even add a tiny drop of dishwashing liquid to disperse any oil/grease left from production; make sure you flush very thorougly after that. If that doesn't help, try a 'wetter' ink as you may have found an unfortunate combination of pen and ink.

[numerics]

Thank you for replying! I will wash out my pen and hopefully that fixes the problem.

[nujnay]

ive got the same problem with my lamy studio. i have to either shake or manually twist the converter all the time. Washed the pen plenty of times (changed from Lamy blue to Pelikan Turquoise a few times) and the problem still exists