Curious About Model/age Of This Lamy Cp? And Is It Fixable?

[notbenh]

So I recently acquired this pen, the hope is to have the perfect 'every day' pen. It was a mess when I got it. Old dried out ink had effectively glued the cap on, but after much patients and lots of water I now have a nice clean pen.

 

 

I currently carry a Lamy Al-Star in a bag for my larger notebook and a basic UniBall Roller in the pocket with my Feild Notes. Both write well but I carry the Roller because it's small, always at hand. The Al-Star just never feels like it disappears in the front pants pocket, thus relegated to the bag. I'll include this one mostly for the size comparison. The new pen is slightly thinner and shorter than the Roller but the size difference is only noticeable when they are right next to each other.

 

 

So back to the new pen, at first I though was a cp1 though in doing research (ie Lamy: CP50 vs CP1 Black ) it seems to look more like a cp50. Though on closer inspection it seems to have markers from both? Obviously the silver rather than black color is more cp50. Though not obvious is that there is nothing marked on the barrel, just like the cp1. Also the clip is stamped 'LAMY' like the cp1. Curious?

 

 

It also has the old style nibs, no breather hole, no obvious size indication, just like the cp50. I got lucky and this one had a 585 gold nib, though it seems to be loosing some of it's coating. I like the patina, it shows age and use, I am assuming that this is not going to be an issue but it's something to watch out for. Also I am guessing that I have a fine sized nib, but with out markings I am not really sure.

 

 

I also was fortunate that it came with the correct converter.

 

 

At this point, while I am confused to what I really have here, all is looking good. The pen has all the right parts, and is cleaning up nicely. The converter is holding fluid, seems we have a working pen. Next step is to do a quick little 'how does it feel' dry nib test: scratch... really scratchy on the up stroke, not bad but not great every where else. Things were going so well. As we look closer things look a little off. This pen has likely been dropped as the nib is a bit out of shape.

 

 

I got out my macro lenses and was able to get a bit closer:

 

 

 

Full size images can be found on Flickr.

 

From the looks of things the tines are bent in two directions and touching. I am guessing that this is fixable, but how? Is this something that I can fix? I am a bit worried due to the rare-ish nature of the nib, but gold is a fairly forgiving metal. Would I be better off sending out to some one? If so who? Does LamyUSA even deal with these pens any more? I'm in Portland OR in the US, is there any one local or regional that I should reach out to? Or is there an expert that I should just contact? I would really like to have a working pen that writes as well as the Al-Star but with the size of the Roller, but currently with that nib it's not going to write as well as either of them.

 

Lastly, just out of curiosity, what pen do I have? Not like it really matters but is this a late cp50? an early cp1? neither? both?

 

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2014 by notbenh

[twdpens]

Does the nib from one of your recently-purchased Lamys fit? If so, you could replace the damaged nib with a new one. A new steel nib is the cheapest option (here in the UK they cost approximately 6 of your USDs) but this would obviously be non-original. Next up, and the preferred option, would be a nib repair and I'm sure forum members in your country can recommend somebody. Finally you could splash out on a new gold nib but this would cost more than the value of the pen.

 

HTH,

 

Martin

[hari317]

I feel this is a CP50.

[soapytwist]

Lamy 1979 Catalogue HERE calls it a CP1 Model 50 - more expensive than the 2000 in its day!

[notbenh]

Does the nib from one of your recently-purchased Lamys fit? If so, you could replace the damaged nib with a new one. A new steel nib is the cheapest option (here in the UK they cost approximately 6 of your USDs) but this would obviously be non-original. Next up, and the preferred option, would be a nib repair and I'm sure forum members in your country can recommend somebody. Finally you could splash out on a new gold nib but this would cost more than the value of the pen.

 

HTH,

 

Martin

Great suggestion though the Al-Star uses the new nibs and the two pens nibs are different enough that they are not a direct swap. I agree that a steel nib would be much more cost effective.

[notbenh]

Lamy 1979 Catalogue HERE calls it a CP1 Model 50 - more expensive than the 2000 in its day!

Very cool thanks for sharing!

[KBeezie]

Does the nib from one of your recently-purchased Lamys fit? If so, you could replace the damaged nib with a new one. A new steel nib is the cheapest option (here in the UK they cost approximately 6 of your USDs) but this would obviously be non-original. Next up, and the preferred option, would be a nib repair and I'm sure forum members in your country can recommend somebody. Finally you could splash out on a new gold nib but this would cost more than the value of the pen.

 

HTH,

 

Martin

Just from looking at the sides in the pics, I don't think the modern lamy steel nibs would be the right size or shape.

 

Plus the nib doesn't look damaged to me, it just looks like it's optimized for a certain degree of wetness a gap in the tines is normal so as long as the nib itself is flush against the feed, and both tipping/tines are parallel with each other (aligned). Also the tipping touching each other is normal too (usually how you want it unless you're aiming for a wetness that's even wider than the rated tipping size).

Edited November 16, 2014 by KBeezie

[MCN]

I can see from your photo that the two bits of tipping aren't perfectly lined up along the axis of the pen, which can't be a good thing. I have a Lamy unic of similar vintage with the same gold nib and it's a real joy to write with. It would be a shame for you to miss out on that experience by swapping in a modern steel nib even if it fits. I'd contact Greg Minuskin (greg@gregminuskin.com) and see if he's up for working on this nib. Make sure you point out to Greg that you have a gold nib rather than steel. He has repaired similarly damaged nibs for me and he does superb work. I'm gonna guess that the repair will cost more than you paid for the pen, but if it were me, I'd do it anyway.

 

Do not bother with Lamy USA. They've been recently acquired and the new crew is currently pretty clueless, something this big Lamy fan is sorry to tell you.

Edited November 17, 2014 by MCN

[KBeezie]

Alternatively there's http://nibs.com/orderform.html (just in case you do a google search on Greg).

[Segel]

Ink it up -- at least dip it -- and try writing a bit, including using light pressure on the downstrokes to test flexiness. If it is like Lamy's bicolor gold nib, it will spring nicely and even spread a little under modest pressure. If you have a moment, post an image of the resultant writing -- I'm curious.

[Bo Bo Olson]

As far as I know all Lamy nibs were always nails, from the '50's on. Lamy who bought up Artus's pen division when he bought machine for making plastic machines, had a regular flex on the Artus pens...at least those in the late '40-early '50's.

 

Don't know about the Artus pens brought out later '60-80'?as a cheaper sub brand of Lamy.

 

I do know Herlitz, Tropen also made nail nibs...don't know if they made any other flexes.