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Requiem For an AL Star


Inkshades

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I was cleaning the nib section of my AL Star and my mother threw it away without realising what it was. Clearly the solution to my grief is to use this as an excuse to buy another one, it was my first pen and a gift from my grandmother.
 

I still have the cap and the barrel: if I bought a new AL Star/Safari/Lx would I be able to swap between the two different bodies?

 

I assume so since they are basically the same model except for the material, but is there a difference I should be aware of?

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I don't think there should be a difference - they all seem the same, and I've been able to do this with my Al-Star and a friend's Safari.

 

I'm sorry for your loss.

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I have an unwanted Al-star with a wonky cap - free to a good home - that you could cannibalise  if that's any use.  PM me your address and I"ll put it in the post.  You'll need to flush the section out again! 

 

Oh - Spain!  What the hell - the offer still stands!

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Quote

I have an unwanted Al-star with a wonky cap - free to a good home - that you could cannibalise  if that's any use.  PM me your address and I"ll put it in the post.  You'll need to flush the section out again! 

 

Oh - Spain!  What the hell - the offer still stands!

Wow, that’s very generous from your part, I appreciate it! It’ll be nice to give a new life to two pens that are otherwise going to waste.

Edited by Inkshades
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If I'm reading your original post correctly -- and I apologize if I'm not because I'm rushing, but wanted to address this quickly -- Al-Star and Safari sections are not interchangeable, due to the size and placement of the O-ring on each pen.  On  the Al-Star the o-ring is attached to the barrel, and on the Safari the o-ring is attached to the section.   They are also different sizes on each pen.

 

Swapping the barrel/section from an al-star onto a safari = no o-ring

 

Swapping a safari section onto an al-star body =  an extra o-ring.  

 

I just tried the latter, and and it does actually work... But I wouldn't want to press the cap onto the body for fear it might bump up against the nib (which is now extends about 3mm further than it would be without the extra o-ring).

 

Not sure whether the LX will fit on the Al-star.  

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

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54 minutes ago, dennis_f said:

 

If I'm reading your original post correctly -- and I apologize if I'm not because I'm rushing, but wanted to address this quickly -- Al-Star and Safari sections are not interchangeable, due to the size and placement of the O-ring on each pen.  On  the Al-Star the o-ring is attached to the barrel, and on the Safari the o-ring is attached to the section.   They are also different sizes on each pen.

 

Unless the Safari is significantly different from the Joy, swapping Joy and Al-Star sections is trivial. I've done it in both directions. So far as I can tell, the Joy is just a Safari front end with a long tapering tail.

 

What you are calling an o-ring is just a plastic trim ring and snaps off the section of the Joy, and can be snapped onto the section of the Al-Star. In the case of the Al-Star the "o-ring" is the end of the plastic insert into the aluminum barrel, which prevents it from falling into the barrel too deeply. In both cases it appears to also be the point at which the cap snaps to the body.

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5 hours ago, BaronWulfraed said:

 

Unless the Safari is significantly different from the Joy, swapping Joy and Al-Star sections is trivial. I've done it in both directions. So far as I can tell, the Joy is just a Safari front end with a long tapering tail.

 

What you are calling an o-ring is just a plastic trim ring and snaps off the section of the Joy, and can be snapped onto the section of the Al-Star. In the case of the Al-Star the "o-ring" is the end of the plastic insert into the aluminum barrel, which prevents it from falling into the barrel too deeply. In both cases it appears to also be the point at which the cap snaps to the body.

 

Well, if that's the case, and you can snap the o-ring off of the safari (I haven't tried that myself), the hack should work. Awesome!

 

One question (out of curiousity, since I'm not the OP, but also because it bears on his question) : the Safari o-ring is noticeably smaller (outer circumference) than that of the Al-Star.  Is that also the case with the Joy, and if it is, does this affect capping the pen?

 

 

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Kinda intrigued now too, I don’t think I’d be able to remove the plastic ring from the barrel of the old pen, I’ve tried prying it off but left it alone when it didn’t get removed easily. Shouldn’t be a problem since the pen Al-fresco is sending me is also an AL Star, at least, but I didn’t expect there to be differences in the nib sections.

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1 hour ago, Inkshades said:

Kinda intrigued now too, I don’t think I’d be able to remove the plastic ring from the barrel of the old pen, I’ve tried prying it off but left it alone when it didn’t get removed easily. Shouldn’t be a problem since the pen Al-fresco is sending me is also an AL Star, at least, but I didn’t expect there to be differences in the nib sections.

The ring is not removable from the Al-Star -- it is part of the plastic insert with the threads.

 

The Joy (and I presume Safari) have the ring on the section. THAT is the ring that can be removed to make an Al-Star compatible section (and can be snapped onto an Al-Star section to be compatible with Joy (Safari?).

 

17 hours ago, dennis_f said:

One question (out of curiousity, since I'm not the OP, but also because it bears on his question) : the Safari o-ring is noticeably smaller (outer circumference) than that of the Al-Star.  Is that also the case with the Joy, and if it is, does this affect capping the pen?

 

Since the section ring is only used with the Joy/Safari, it would be compatible with those caps. The Al-Star ring is part of the barrel and hence compatible with Al-Star caps.

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35 minutes ago, BaronWulfraed said:

The ring is not removable from the Al-Star -- it is part of the plastic insert with the threads.

 

The Joy (and I presume Safari) have the ring on the section. THAT is the ring that can be removed to make an Al-Star compatible section (and can be snapped onto an Al-Star section to be compatible with Joy (Safari?).

 

 

Since the section ring is only used with the Joy/Safari, it would be compatible with those caps. The Al-Star ring is part of the barrel and hence compatible with Al-Star caps.

 

 

Cool.  Thanks for the info.

 

 

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Silver blue cap? Does anyone have a silver blue cap. I have two of these gems, but sadly have scrapes and dents on both of the caps. If anyone has one, or a resolution I’d greatly appreciate it:-)

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Update! The pen arrived and I’ve been able to use my purple-black pen again :) 

It’s my first time using anything bigger than an F nib, and the difference is bigger than I thought.

At the beginning I was confused that I seemed to need to use more pressure to write, but by examining the nib apparently Al-fresco ground this nib into an oblique.

20210128_214150.jpeg

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Objection - I've never had a nib reground in my life! If it says 'M' on it then that's what it is.  (It has got an 'M'' on it hasn't it?)  That particular nib has seen some some fairly extensive action - it was my work pen until I retired.  The pity is that I should have included an 'F' with the pen (I have several spare Lamy nibs) but I just assumed you'd prefer a medium.  Sorry!

 

Edit: Fortunately Lamy nibs are very cheap and easy to swap.

Edited by Al-fresco
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I didn’t mean to come across as complaining, I actually was thinking of buying an M nib before to test bigger nibs! It’ll be nice to use with shading inks :) 

If you didn’t have it reground then I guess this is a case of the fabled FP adapts to the owner thing lol 
I did buy a LAMY pen for the ability to get new nibs, so I think there’s an 1.1 stub nib in my recent future ;) 

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On 1/18/2021 at 10:19 PM, BaronWulfraed said:

Since the section ring is only used with the Joy/Safari, it would be compatible with those caps. The Al-Star ring is part of the barrel and hence compatible with Al-Star caps.

The caps of the Safari, Vista, Joy, Al-Star and Lx don't use the ring to snap in. This happens on the other end of the grip section right behind the nib.

The aluminium caps will fit the plastic pens. But not the other way around. The Al-Star and Lx have bigger diameter (1mm) compared to the plastic versions. That's why the (fake) ring of the aluminium pens is on the shaft - so it closes up the larger cap. The grip sections themselves are 100% the same.

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