Lamy Fine Nib Corrosion

[adayley]

I have two Lamy fine tip nibs that have corrosion on the inside. (See attached photo) They are the nibs that came installed on a Safari and an AL-Star. The one with the most corrosion has a lot of nib creep. The excessive ink on the outside of the nib led me to investigate.

 

I am using Noodler's Polar Blue Bulletproof ink in the pens. I assume it should not be corroding nibs. I have a Lamy extra fine nib on one of the pens now, using the same ink. There has been no corrosion on the extra fine nib.

 

Has anyone seen this before? Should I blame the ink or the nib?

 

 

[Bluey]

Not on any of my pens, no.

That's some highly corrosive ink you have there (it probably won't surprise many that it's Noodlers). Or a really bad nib. Or both.

 

I suppose it's only a matter a time before the acid ink burnt straight through the nib.

 

Has there been nib creep on the EF? (nib creep is more or less a result of the ink)

Edited December 23, 2017 by Bluey

[KellyMcJ]

Are you sure that's corrosion? Those spots come as stock on some Lamy nibs (there has been at least one discussion about that here before) and they seem to be a fair bit rougher (and thereby "grabby") than the rest of the nib.

[Inkling13]

Not on any of my pens, no.

That's some highly corrosive ink you have there (it probably won't surprise many that it's Noodlers). Or a really bad nib. Or both.

 

I suppose it's only a matter a time before the acid ink burnt straight through the nib.

 

Has there been nib creep on the EF? (nib creep is more or less a result of the ink)

Why would Noodlers have anything to do with this? Id leave slandering till we know this is corrosion.

I would say its too symmetrical for corrosion, being that it only occurred there. Anyone else with something similar?

[Bluey]

Why would Noodlers have anything to do with this? Id leave slandering till we know this is corrosion.

I would say its too symmetrical for corrosion, being that it only occurred there. Anyone else with something similar?

Because they tend to have, ahem, special properties which many others don't. (in general, the boutique inks are less safe overall than those that are made by the pen manufactures such as MBs, Lamy's, Pilots' etc own ink).

Edited December 23, 2017 by Bluey

[adayley]

Has there been nib creep on the EF? (nib creep is more or less a result of the ink)

 

A little nib creep on the EF. And I remove and check the nib every time I refill the pen. No corrosion on the EF so far. It's been a couple of months.

[Astronymus]

Those two circles are due to laser treatment at the factory. They are normal. They show more or less.

[adayley]

 

Those two circles are due to laser treatment at the factory. They are normal. They show more or less.

 

 

Interesting. My EF nib has zero visible anything like this. So, I assumed corrosion. Assumptions can be misleading!

[adayley]

Are you sure that's corrosion? Those spots come as stock on some Lamy nibs (there has been at least one discussion about that here before) and they seem to be a fair bit rougher (and thereby "grabby") than the rest of the nib.

 

Thanks for the note. I totally missed your reply in the thread. That's two people saying such spots are normal.

 

I'm feeling better about my nibs, now. I'm feeling the need to figure out the nib creep. But that's a different thread.

[Inkling13]

Nib creep, from experience is ink dependent, with those with a lower surface tension leading to a tendency to creep.

[Bluey]

 

Those two circles are due to laser treatment at the factory. They are normal. They show more or less.

 

Any idea why some have them and some don't? At one point I owned 8 Lamy nibs, but none of them had those marks

[KellyMcJ]

Nib creep, from experience is ink dependent, with those with a lower surface tension leading to a tendency to creep.

 

Pretty much this. Some pens do it more than others and some inks more than others. Noodler's in my experience is pretty creepy. So is my beloved Sailor Sei Boku. Nib creep is only a problem if it really bothers you (in the more elaborate engraved nibs it can actually be very pretty!) My suggestion is to learn to not mind it because you'll likely drive yourself nuts trying to solve it and it really won't hurt anything.

[senzen]

Checked on my 7 Vistas and 3 extra nibs, none of them have anything like this.

[Astronymus]

 

Any idea why some have them and some don't? At one point I owned 8 Lamy nibs, but none of them had those marks

I can't say.

 

But I found my old post with the video link where you can see the laser in action.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/323366-lamy-11-mmm-nib/?p=3876968

[Chrissy]

I have at least 10 Lamy nibs of different tip widths, for various Safaris, Nexx's and Al-stars plus some spares, and not one of them has any marks like those in the OP's picture.

[dapprman]

I thought it had been established nibs with those spots were potentially fakes ? The Lamy nibs are precision cut by laser in an industrial machine, there's no correction post there and any that do not meet standards are ditched (and presumably recycled).

[ItsMeDave]

Why would Noodlers have anything to do with this? Id leave slandering till we know this is corrosion.

I would say its too symmetrical for corrosion, being that it only occurred there. Anyone else with something similar?

Slander is spoken, libel is written. :-)

[KellyMcJ]

I thought it had been established nibs with those spots were potentially fakes ? The Lamy nibs are precision cut by laser in an industrial machine, there's no correction post there and any that do not meet standards are ditched (and presumably recycled).

 

The video linked above which was created by Lamy themselves clearly shows a laser making the dots in question.

 

Why, I don't know. A guess (pulled out of my butt so take it with a grain of salt) is that it increases flow by creating a rough area for ink to "stick to" and pool right at the top of the nib slit.

[Bo Bo Olson]

There has been many problems with Noodler inks over the years......have they been cured?....I don't know....but some Noodlers users will not hear a word said bad.

Well Bay State Blue...was fixed so it no longer ate feeds faster than it stains pens....

 

They insist that some national research laboratory prove that. ...not willing to take the word of experts .

 

There are well known respectable repair men who will not warrant the pens they have repaired for Noodlers inks. Rick Propas(sp) the Pelikan guru once said that.

Supersaturated inks like many of Noodlers have been blamed for eating rubber sacks of lever pens with in a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ron Zorn commented on that.

Once a rubber sack was good for 30-40 years....now only ten.

There were other professional repair men who have seen many hundreds of pens that had problem pens they blamed on Noodler inks.

They Bashed Noodlers..............maybe they had a reason.

Many folks once had problems with Noodlers that they wrote about that.

They either no longer use Noodlers or clean the pen after every use.....which one should do with any supersaturated ink....including Parker Pennmann.

 

 

xxxxxxxxx

I can believe that that roughness could be normal....but won't take apart my Persona or Joy to find out.

The bottom of the modern Lamy feed looks '20's fast. Peningeneer who helped develop that feed to go with the then new Safari or other Lamy pens, says they have to soak the feed in chemicals to roughen up the feed so it's as rough as sawn Ebonite.

 

Ask Lamy....send an Email with the picture of the nib....if it is not normal they will send you a new nib....or may ask you to send the pens so they may examine it.

Lamy is not fast with Emails nor return, but it is free.

[dapprman]

 

The video linked above which was created by Lamy themselves clearly shows a laser making the dots in question.

 

Why, I don't know. A guess (pulled out of my butt so take it with a grain of salt) is that it increases flow by creating a rough area for ink to "stick to" and pool right at the top of the nib slit.

Seen it so may times and did not realise that's what was happening at that point - cheers.