First Impressions: Lamy Vista With Bi-Color Gold Nib

[Segel]

Thanks to Ben, an excellent FPN member who responded to my classified, I was finally able to upgrade my workhorse Vista with a 14 kt bicolor nib. The nib is solid gold with platinum coating and was originally installed on a Dialog 3. My first impressions are very positive: the nib is both springy and flexible and for some reason is much wetter (even with R&K iron gall) than my steel nibs. I will provide a fuller update after I have used the pen a few weeks,but I really like this combination and have not even touched my Lamy 2000 since my new nib arrived. I also upgraded to a z-26 converter which also improved the appearance of the pen. Here are some photos:

[perth]

Nice! I've wanted to try one of those gold nibs myself, but have never had the time to do so?

[willard]

Really cool!

 

I might be biased, though, since I'm the Ben in question...

 

B-)

[chad.trent]

I've been wanting to to the same thing for quite a while. This may have just pushed me past "wanting to" to "going to".

[SujiCorp12345]

I love it! Looks great. Congrats.

[cleosmama]

It really makes your Vista look beautiful. I would like to do that to mine.

[Newjelan]

That looks amazing. I think I need a gold nib for my Vista.

[Tenkai]

How much did you get the gold nib for?

 

It confirms the reviews I read on FP about the gold nib on the Studio, but the 200 price tag just for the nib is terrible, it's about the same as buying a pen but I don't want to buy another one, swap nib and collect dust =\

[Segel]

I paid more than twice the cost of the original pen for a used nib from a fellow FPN-er. A new nib would have run thrice the cost of the pen. The combined cost of the Vista and gold nib is essentially the same as a Studio Palladium or Accent, but I prefer the weight, feel and appearance of the Vista. I have no interest in collecting pens, but did want a premium nib on my most-used workhorse. I wrote several more pages with the pen this morning, and I am liking it more and more. The writing experience is very different from the steel nibs or the Lamy 2000 gold nib, closer in fact to semi-flex vintage.

 

It is puzzling that Lamy makes gold nibs so difficult to acquire. I had attempted to purchase this nib directly from Lamy USA before running the ad on FPN. Lamy's repair/parts center recently moved to Texas and the competent, helpful customer service I had appreciated in the past seems to have vanished. The person I spoke with insisted that Lamy does not sell spare nibs for their pens, gold or otherwise (which we all know is untrue).

[watch_art]

These Lamy gold nibs are some of my favorites. Absolutely wonderful.

[xian112]

Nice modification!

[willard]

> The writing experience is very different from the steel nibs or the Lamy 2000 gold nib, closer in fact to semi-flex vintage.

 

The closest experience I can relate with what is now segel's Lamy gold nib is my Parker 45 gold nib. There may be some similarity with the Parker Jr I once had, but I'd rather compare the latter to a Pelikan M400. That said, there is a softness that can be appealing in the Lamy gold nibs as workhorses or writing instruments, as they feel quite potent tools, unlike vintage pens. That subjective impression may justify the overall Lamy design more than anything else.

 

I ended up letting go of it because I prefer italics and because I use my Dialog 3 as a technical workhorse. The pen now has a Lamy 1.1 mm that came with my son's Lamy Joy. Since he's a lefty, I'll buy a Lamy for lefties, perhaps in black to fit with the body of his Lamy Joy.

 

I took some photos the other day. If people are interested some photos of a Dialog 3 with a Lamy 1.1 nib, I could start a twin thread.

Edited May 14, 2014 by willard

[Segel]

Interesting comment, Willard. Your former nib reminds me most of a Parker Parkette that is now long gone: springy with a pleasant spread of tines under pressure. I for one would like to see your Dialog,

[wvbeetlebug]

Oooh. That's just like fresh water.

[artibasos]

That's just gorgeous. (I might have to do that on a bluegreen Al-Star, because I think it's the prettiest pen body Lamy makes.)

[canibanoglu]

That looks amazing! Congrats on your upgrade and I'm happy to hear that you are having a good time with it.

 

I considered doing that to my Safari (the only one I have left after giving away the other ones) but can't locate a gold nib, maybe I'll just post an ad myself. I'm curious about the cost as well, I can part with about $50 for the nib but anything above that makes no sense for me, I'd much rather put the money in my pen fund to finance the purchase of some of my grail pens.

 

One last thing, the ink you used looks amazing, what is it?

[Segel]

That looks amazing! Congrats on your upgrade and I'm happy to hear that you are having a good time with it.

 

I considered doing that to my Safari (the only one I have left after giving away the other ones) but can't locate a gold nib, maybe I'll just post an ad myself. I'm curious about the cost as well, I can part with about $50 for the nib but anything above that makes no sense for me, I'd much rather put the money in my pen fund to finance the purchase of some of my grail pens.

 

One last thing, the ink you used looks amazing, what is it?

Yes, the nib improves the appearance of the pen but it is the enhanced writing experience that makes this worthwhile for me. It springs/flexes just enough to give me a vintage-pen feel while producing vintage-looking cursive. I really like it.

 

The ink was Rohrer & Kligner Scabiosa. The lighting and my camera changed the tone (it is reminiscent of a dark burgundy in real life), but Scabiosa looks rich and dark flowing out of this nib and shades really well. A good ink.

[TomF]

+1 for this.

 

I have a couple of Safaris (one a well used Vista), and also the gold-nibbed Studio Palladium. The easy of use of the Safari's section makes me want to enhance it with the superb nib on the Studio (I get in fine with its section, but it's not as "invisible" to me as the Safari).

 

I'm glad someone has done this - it validates my original thought! Time to consider whether I'd try to track down a gold nib for one of the Safaris....

[Algester]

brian goulet also likes the gold nib by Lamy I also want the gold nib by Lamy... BUT WHY WHY WHY... they are not selling the gold nibs anymore

[bardiir]

brian goulet also likes the gold nib by Lamy I also want the gold nib by Lamy... BUT WHY WHY WHY... they are not selling the gold nibs anymore

 

Yes he does apparently. I've also done this with a Gold EF nib on the Vista, writes very well as far as I can tell (i'm just starting of into fountain pens as part of my quest to improve my handwriting).

 

Gold nibs are not widely available here in germany but pretty easy to get. If there is some interest in them I might be able to help out. But they are not quite cheap. New gold nibs are 60€ here so around $80 and that is without shipping then.