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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.

I'd like to share my experience of adjusting a modern Pelikan nib myself. Ages ago, I bought myself a pen that had been on my list for a long time: a black/rhodium Pelikan M1005. It was a disaster! I had hard starts, mid-sentence skipping, couldn't write a frustration-free sentence. The QC problems in modern Pelikans are well-documented; in my case, the tines on the 'Fine' nib came misaligned. Under a powerful loupe, I saw that the tines made a kind of V shape at the tip where they should fit beautifully together. I got the pen just before I went on a big trip, so I didn't have time to have it sorted out before I left; and then when I returned, other stuff intruded. And so time passed. What to do? I seriously considered doing nothing, sending it in to a nibmeister, and even throwing it away (frustration, remember). In the end, armed with information from FPN - notably the pictures from 1000km (and watch_art does some entertaining ones) - I decided to try to fix it myself. My thinking was that, if I was slow and careful, I wouldn't do anything that couldn't be fixed by a professional, if necessary. So, I separated the nib from the collar and feed, realigned the tines, reinserted the nib and feed into the collar, screwed the nib unit back into the barrel, inked it up, and was good to go. The entire operation was actually prety simple and took no more than 15 minutes (plus all the research before starting). Perhaps I got lucky: the only tools I needed were my fingers (and that good loupe). The hardest part was overcoming the mental barrier against working on such an expensive item. It's still not absolutely perfect: it has the occasional hard start on smooth paper (like the Rhodia dotpad in the photo) and the nib and feed are fractionally misaligned. But I now have a very usable pen. It puts down a beautiful, smooth, wet line (though it's just as well I usually prefer broader nibs, because grading this nib as 'fine' is pure fantasy). So, I saved myself time and money, and developed a stronger relationship with my pen: I am very pleased I took the 'do it yourself' approach. What's your experience been like? Picture: writing is a pleasure now. Disclaimer: YMMV. If in doubt, go to a professional. As one well-known pen reviewer on YouTube says, you do this sort of thing at your own risk.

Hi, I have a Platinum 3776 Century Chartres Blue with 14k medium nib. It writes nicely but upon inspection with a loupe I noticed that the tines are misaligned (see attached photo). When I took the nib and feed apart for cleaning I checked the tines again and the tines are well aligned if the nib is removed from the feed (sorry - the image is a little blurry). Looking at the feed one can see that there are small bumps in the plastic. I believe this causes the one tine to be raised compared to the other. Does anyone have a suggestion how to fix this problem? Maybe I can use a file to remove the bumps? I purchased the pen in July 2013 so I guess I could also send it back under warranty. Thank you, Jochen