Old Safari Barrel Misalignment

[majolo]

I have an older (stamped W. Germany, so must be about 25 years at least) charcoal Lamy Safari and the barrel slightly over-rotates so the nib doesn't align with the flats on the barrel, and the ink window doesn't align with the cutouts on the "shroud" where the converter/cartridge plug in. Below is a picture compared with a new neon lime green safari.

 

My guess is that the o-ring has compressed a little over the decades. Has anyone noticed this happening on other older Safaris? It's not a big deal except that it does make half the ink window unusable.

[RMN]

That charcoal pen: is it with you all that time? Or did you buy it recently.

 

Because that misalignment is one of the things often reported in fake Lamy's.

 

D.ick

[watch_art]

I would think that over tightening could cause this, over the course of years. Maybe months if you're rough?

[pen2paper]

if you slip the new o-ring onto the charcoal does that remedy the situation?

[majolo]

The charcoal one is not a recent purchase. I think I got it in college, around the start of the 90s, which would fit the W. Germany stamp. However, I went through a long period where I didn't use FPs, so it's been in a drawer for much of that time. Cleaned up and works fine now though (recently got a converter so I wouldn't have to bother with syringe filling the cartridge that was left in it).

 

I'll see if swapping the O rings makes a difference, nice idea.

[majolo]

Well, I tried the O ring swap and... the charcoal is still the misaligned one. So it's not a difference in the O rings. I wish I could remember if the window was misaligned when I first got it. I suppose it's possible I somehow got a fake but it seems a lot less likely since I didn't get it off ebay last year, it actually is an old pen. Weird. Well, it still works right anyway, so I'll live with it.

[RMN]

If it is really old I doubt it's a fake. It seems to me (but I am open for correction...) that fake Lamys is something of the more recent past with the surge of Amazon and shops like AliExpress.

 

 

D.ick

[TorPelikan]

My charcoal Safari shows some misalignment same as yours.

And, there seems to be some under-rotating type misalignment in your yellow Safari.

 

As there's no click-stop built in the pen, it's very difficult to keep alignment between the nib and the flat surface of the barrel, I think.

 

Of course, I believe your Safari is not a fake.

[pen2paper]

I think the fakes are a recent issue - last year or two, with Amazon access to the locations fakes come from.

 

Only you would know if the pen was stored in extreme hot temperatures, and/or whether you might have torqued it past thread stop as designed.

None of mine have done this, but I'm more likely to not tighten enough I did have one (red ABS) that survived 2 months in high temps with no damage.

 

Determine which piece needs a replacement? perhaps someone has a spare? Post your want in classifieds after you meet the required amount of posts to do so?