Differences Between Lamy Z 55, Z 56 And Z 57 Nibs

[G-S-L]

Lamy have different 14K gold nibs

2000 series nibs

Z 55 --> dialog 3, studio, cp1 and others

Z 56 --> imporium palladium finish and rose gold

Z 57 --> imporium black and black/gold finish

I'm planning to upgrade the nib of my Lamy Logo with a gold springy Lamy nib (I want a springer nib without expend much money buying another pen, I like my Logo), but what are the differences between Z 55, Z 56 and Z 57?

In pages like nibsmith or appelboom for example, Z 56 and Z 57 have a higher cost compared to Z 55.

Of course! Z 56 and Z 57 are the Lamy imporium nibs and have some minimal differences in design (no breather hole)...

But talking about only the writing perfomance (springiness and other aspects that affect writing experience), what is the differences?

Anyone has tested and can compare those nibs?

[Bo Bo Olson]

Z 56 --> imporium palladium finish and rose gold

Z 57 --> imporium black and black/gold finish

I tried those two nibs, and the only difference is the coloring. I believe there are four different nibs colors. Could be wrong and there is only three.

Those Imporium nibs are perhaps the best 'Springy' nib in the world

I rate 'Springy' as it's own nib flex......., good tine bend but only 2 X tine spread like a unmodified Falcon or basic modern MB nib. Regular flex nibs like the Pelikan 200 has nice tine bend but a 3 X tine spread.

....I went to the Lamy only Store on the Hauptstrasse in Heidelberg. May have checked one out at my B&M also. I was very, very, very impressed with the tine bend of that pen. Had it spread it's tines to 3 X it would have been semi-flex....and a good one at that.

I would have saved money and bought the 'new' Persona....which is what the Imporium is. Designed by the same guy.....now long dead. The Imporium has a regular clip, not a spring loaded recessed one.................

and the nib is different...and won't fit.

My Persona is a 18K nail..........

The Persona and the Imporium are Art Decco based.

Picture of my Persona by PB, who changed my nail OB.....no line variation at all, to a nice CI.

His writing. Recessed clip. Mine is a 1990's first year, in after that they put a tiny bump on the clip to prevent the pen from rolling off the desk.

Just remember black Titanium oxide, does not play in the sand box well with other pens.....mine has been sitting alone for 5-6 years. It don't need company.

[Honeybadgers]

I only have an oblique medium and it's a nice nib, moderately springy.

 

I don't really like the oblique medium part, but it does feel quite nice. I'll likely follow Bo Bo and have it ground into a medium italic.

[G-S-L]

Thanks for you reply Bo Bo and Donor!

 

 

Do you know how much differ Imporium nibs from the other gold nibs (Z 55) that come in a Dialog 3 and others? What is more "springy"?

[Bo Bo Olson]

What is more "springy"?""""

 

 

Some folks say the 2000 has mild spring.....others say it is a nail.

I don't know, I've not like that pen since the first time I saw it when it came out in 1966. (And when I went looking for it cheap back when pens were cheaper on German Ebay in the last decade....there were none but new ones to be had..........obviously the inheritors like Gramps pen.

 

Safari and the CPM-1 that I gave away to hook someone into fountain pens, were a nail/manifold nib. A rigid nib.

Good for heavy handed folks coming over from Ball Points.................most of us are or were heavy handed.........Ham Fisted............

.............in fact there are many horror stories of some Ball Point Barbarian grabbing a fountain pen out of someones hand and mangling the nib into a pretzel in 3 1/2 seconds...about the time to scream NO!!!!!!!

 

Yes, you can over stress or bend that Springy Imporium nib, if you are Ham Fisted.

If new to fountain pens, put it on Next Year's List.

I normally suggest getting a Nail EF and B, and then two regular flex nibs in F&M for two toned shading inks.............before going on to semi-flex. That would go for the very nice and springy Imporium nib. It is a nib for more advanced users.******

.

Nib Flexes.

Nail- manifold, rigid ...basic 1X tine spread..........none. Tine bend ...none.

Semi-nail....if well mashed would go to 2X; very minor tine bend, like a P-75, modern 400/600 Pelikan. That is not the springy nib I mentioned. It lacks tine bend.....

Regular flex if well mashed will spread it's tines 3 X and has fair tine bend. Pelikan 200, semi-vintage 'pre-98 400/600 Pelikan and a few American pens, like some Esterbrook nibs are regular flex.

Is called regular flex in over the decades many companies put that flex nib on their normal pens.

 

Semi-flex takes half as much pressure to reach 3 X tine spread as a regular flex, and has nicer tine bend. Those are easiest found in German '50-70 era pens....will be flat and stubbish nibs.

 

Honeybadger didn't like the Oblique medium................I wouldn't have liked it either. I am spoiled in Oblique and have told people 1000 times don't waste your money on a nail, semi-nail or even regular flex oblique. It appears that the 'Springy' nib of the Imporium, also fails to give the grand line variation of the '50-70 era....................of which Lamy was a nail then. I had a OM 27 model pen I think it was, that did nothing. Just for left handers or left eye dominate users. (You will find enough of my posts that explain that later.) The 99 was also a nail, as is my Persona the direct ancestor of the Imporium.

 

Don't buy any oblique but a stubb(flat bottomed nib) that is semi-flex. Or you will not get the line variation you thought you were buying.

 

I've had nail and regular flex nibs in Oblique.....with great luck one gets a whisper of line variation. Why waste money on a whisper when you can get a Shout of real line variation in Semi-flex.

 

 

***** I had learned 'how to use' a fountain pen way back in the late '50's......more than likely had a Death Grip even then. Did in Jr. High School, a teacher told me to hold my pen easier... I doubt if I did, in I didn't really know what she was talking about....10 seconds of advice ain't much......eventuality by 10th grade I stopped using a fountain pen.....the next 40 years I was a Ham Fisted Ball Point Barbarian....

 

When I came back I was still fairly Ham Fisted....for perhaps a year.

When I got a semi-flex nibbed pen, it took me some three months to lighten my Hand, so I was only slightly Ham Fisted instead of being HAM FISTED.

EF in a nail is very useful and B is a lot of fun.........with the first regular flex you should know how to hold a fountain pen, and be striving to hold it lightly.

 

I had lightened my Hand a bit in fountain pens vs a ball point, holding the pen at a different angle (It does take a conscious effort to get rid of the Death Grip, and it took a while to not always press hard with a semi-flex....and the OB nib was rugged enough to put up with my Ham Fistedness.

 

Hold a fountain pen lightly, like it's a featherless baby bird.

Edited August 22, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

[Bo Bo Olson]

Let me explain semi-flex nibs, that is semi-flex, not semi-flex. It is not a flex nib.....the almost of semi, is miles away from a flex nib.

Due to the ease of tine bend and spread, gives a nice soft flair to your writing with out doing anything special....just writing.

Some folks insist on trying to make it do fancy work.....and can stress their nib too much.

3X is a max for life time use, is not this which I see as 5 X at the super fat X's.

The BB nib on this picture.....has been pushed to 5X on the funny X's . The first quick fox is a normal width, the second fox is what I'd see as a max of 3 X. That is a BB nib, so fat is normal, but for the fancy X's the nib has been forced to go too wide.

I would never buy such a nib, in I don't know how much tread is left on the 'tire'. I do hope if someone sells such a nib they tell the truth and say they often go 4-5 X....

 

There are other nibs; superflex that do the 4-5 or 6 X and the rare outside of Youtube and folks springy the nib for your convince.

A sprung nib is broken and needs to be repaired. It will never be quite the nib it once was.

 

Semi-flex is a flair nib, not a nib for Fancy Lettering.

You need to go to Richard Binder's site, it is the bible of fountain pens. Great info on nibs, filling systems and good advice on ink. He wrote a great article on metal fatigue, that I call how to spring your nib...spring as in busted, not spring as in springy.

 

Regular flex nibs are considered springy, in they have more spring....a nicer ride, than nails or semi-nails. The Japanese have perhaps a similar nib they call 'soft'.....though some who have Japanese pens say....they find them 'mushy', more than springy. Other's have other opinions finding them just fine. I expect it matters how many other nibs from different era's to what one will find.

I grew to like the springy Pelikan nib of the 200, '88(?) to now, or the ''82-97 gold nibs.

(Modern gold nibs from Pelikan are semi-nail, nail and the 1000 is regular flex. (When bock made the 1000 it was semi-flex....but at 18K is not as robust as the 14 K vintage '50-65 Pelikan. The 18 K semi-flex bends and stays bent if one is heavy handed, where as the 14 K vintage semi-flex don't bend that easy and stay bent............)

 

The Imporium has a real nice tine bend...........something you can bend into a pretzel if you are real Heavy Handed....lets call that Ball Point Jack Hammering can be over bent that nib. The tine spread is 2 X, so you do get a bit of flair. But not as much as a semi-flex.

That is why I recommend that pen for next year unless you have 3-4 pens and one of them a regular flex.

 

I have 29 semi-flex pens, and 16 maxi-semi-flex pens........that last is for another day.

So I do get a bit :gaah:when I see someone being too cheap to buy a superflex nib and abusing a semi-flex like that.

 

 

Just Remember Bogotá was not built in a day, nor was anyone's knowledge of fountain pens. With any luck even after a decade I still learn every day................and then there is papers and inks.

[Honeybadgers]

Simpler terms : a springy nib will bounce up and down, cushioning your fingers if you write with a particularly heavy hand, or just soften those downstrokes. But the tines won't spread very much and give you a wider line while doing so. A flexible nib will do the same, but tines will spread and the line will get noticeably wider.

 

So for example, a 3776 soft fine is a springy nib, but it won't flex much more than a western medium line, whereas a pilot FA nib is a flexible nib, also quite soft but the line width goes from the same fine as the 3776 to a western double broad.

[G-S-L]

Wow very interesting Bo Bo thanks!

 

Also thanks Honeybadgers!

 

I'm use FP since I was 12 years (now I have 29)... My experience with soft gold nibs was a Parker Sonnet that my father had when I was a child... Also I'm learned to painting, technical drawing and some calligraphy in my school... For all this, I hate to use ball point pens, I don't like press the pens... so I think that I don't have heavy hands.

 

In addition to that, I polish very detailed all my FP because I like this feeling of "buttery" ultra smooth nibs.

 

I love broader nibs by their smoothness and my Lamy Logo have a broad nib, but I also carry everyday in my bag FP with finer nibs for fill documents in too absorbent papers.

 

I don't want now a true very flexible nibs like Noodler's Ahab or Pilot Falcon, now I don't make spencerian or other very decorated calligraphy... I want a very smooth nib that allows some line variation and give me this soft feel of the Parker Sonnet soft gold nib from 80's that my father had, without spend too much money.

 

The main use will be everyday writing, take notes and sign documents (I'm medical doctor and researcher in biomedical sciences).

 

For the above, I'm thinking to buy a Lamy gold nib, but there aren't much information about the performance differences of their gold nibs... Bo Bo said that Imporium nibs (Z56 and Z57) are "springy" allows some line variation, but how much different is from Z55?

 

Lamy in their website said:

 

Gold nib

Whether for writing comfort or good looks: a gold nib always makes the difference. In high-quality writing implements it contributes to creating a refined and harmonious overall look. The 14 carat bicolour gold nibs from Lamy are part platinised and ensure a particularly harmonious and rounded script.
(Z 55, Z 56, Z 57, 2000-Feder)

Gold nib – LAMY imporium (Z 57)

The 14 carat gold nib from the LAMY imporium series has a sophisticated black and gold bicolour finish. It has a striking design with no breather hole and has a PVD finish. This means that the pen provides an extraordinarily soft feel when writing.

 

But I think that those descriptions aren't clear enough about differences in performance or particular properties.

 

Lamy Z 55:

 

 

 

Lamy Z 56

 

Lamy Z57:

Edited August 23, 2019 by G-S-L

[Honeybadgers]

the three nibs differ in nothing more than coating. Their behavior will be identical.

[Bo Bo Olson]

It could well be that Honeybadger is right. I know nothing about most lamy nibs but they are nails execept for some saying the 2000 is not a nail....could be a semi-nail...don't know the Lamy Logo.

 

The only Lamy pens I've had were nails. The Persona, (ancestor of the Imporium), model 27, Safari/&Joy, and a CPM1...................those were nails. I'm down to a 1.5 Joy and that now CI Persona.

 

I think the Imporium nib is a hell of a nice springy nib....well worth having. But I'm spoiled by vintage semi-flex.....so when it only went 2X instead of 3X tine spread....at nearly semi-flex feel....sigh, I crossed it off my list.....the cost was then a real big factor.

How ever, I need to ask Lamy if the nib unit would fit my Persona...……….then the smoke alarms in my house would go off from heavy dithering.

I think .the Imporium is better than a modern MB springy nib.

You are not going to get full semi-flex line variation, but there is some. & that plus the great springy ride would do well indeed.

 

One could think of that Imporium springy nib as Cadillac suspension. A real smooth ride.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson