Ink flow really bad on my brand new Lamy Safari

[Jenniferinfl]

I've never owned a Lamy before. I had a couple basic fountain pens 20 years ago, bought a cheap Hong Dian Black Forest pen last month, loved it, decided to buy a Lamy because I figured it would be a step up. 

 

I cannot get this thing to consistently write. The ink in it now is Lamy Mango in a cartridge. Mine did not come with a converter but did come with another blue cartridge that I have also tried. The nib it came with was EF, but, I also bought two stubs, the 1.1 and the 1.9. I flushed the pen initially because it had been inked before. I installed the cartridge, primed it by lightly squeezing the cartridge and the pen is scratchy as anything. I can only write about three sentences before it dries completely and I have to unscrew it, squeeze the cartridge again, and that lets me write another few sentences. The performance is exactly the same with each nib. I don't understand what is wrong with this thing. I could understand the EF being scratchy, but, the ink should be flowing easily out of either stub. It's weird that none of them work. Can the flow just be defective? I ask because when I squeeze the cartridge, ink flows out behind the feed, where the feed enters the pen, not in between the feed and the nib. I disassmbled it again and used a syringe to force water through it, but, same thing. 

 

I don't get this, I bought a conklin at the same time, put the cartridge in and just wrote with it. Is there something just wrong with this Lamy?

[Estycollector]

Could it be the cartridge is damaged or not seated well? I only use a converter and didn't get it seated once and had some flow problems. After removing and re-seating the pen worked as before. I've got two fine points which are not scratchy and quite wet. 

[Jenniferinfl]

I unseated it, reseated it and then tried another one just in case that one was defective. No such luck unfortunately. 

[arcfide]

I ran into this problem with my Dialog 3 as well, though not as badly as your are experiencing. I tried it with a variety of inks, and the drier inks were definitely more susceptible to this. I think Mango is a pretty dry ink, and I don't think Lamy blue is particularly wet. 

 

I would definitely check the nib tines and see if they are spaced properly. The Medium nib I got on my Dialog was tuned waaaay too dry with a lot of nib tine contact, and opening up the tines was the first thing that made a significant difference in the flow. I also made sure to give it a good washing with a touch of ammonia and dishwashing soap to really flush things out. I did find that I had to seat the cartridge much further than I expected, and then I got decent flow, but it is still a bit on the inconsistent side with the converter. 

 

One thing I can confirm is that with my pen I think I am getting air bubbles in the feed and this is leading to ink starvation like you experienced. If I write a little bit with the pen and then give it a flick to ensure that I get the ink/air interchange working properly, the flow is more consistent. So far, adjusting the nibs made the biggest difference, with using a wetter ink and making sure that the feed wasn't blocked by an air bubble both making other measurable differences. 

 

The EF nibs on the Lamy Safaris I have around here are not at all scratchy, so I suspect that you may have some tine misalignment to go along with overly tight tines. 

 

In all my tests, I have not needed to prime the feed at all. If you haven't done so already a good soak of the section might due wonders for the pen. 

[dan in montreal]

8 hours ago, arcfide said:

The EF nibs on the Lamy Safaris I have around here are not at all scratchy, so I suspect that you may have some tine misalignment to go along with overly tight tines. 

 

In all my tests, I have not needed to prime the feed at all. If you haven't done so already a good soak of the section might due wonders for the pen. 

If you've tried these 2 solutions, and it seems you have, if you have flushed the pen and if you've tried using it with three different nibs, perhaps there is a problem with the feed. Is there a gap between the feed and nib? That might be the problem.

In any case, this should not be happening. This model is known to be a solid performer and if all fails, I would return it to the shop or contact Lamy to get a replacement.

[Jenniferinfl]

Unfortunately, I only have those two Lamy colors at the moment, so I can't test another one. But, that's an interesting idea, that perhaps I just ended up with really dry ink. 

 

None of the nibs had much of any spacing, I follow a video for instructions on widening them, basically just using a bit of pressure when writing with them. You can at least see there is a slight gap now. I've flicked the heck out of this pen. If I don't open it and squeeze the cartridge periodically, I still have no ink. 

 

[bogiesan]

Most reputable pen dealers will at lest talk to you on the phone or via email in an attempt to resolve your dissatisfaction.

 

In 12 years of buying (opens drawer and counts...9) Lamy Safari and AlStar pens, I've not had a single bad experience--they all work a charm. But Lamy makes millions of these things, one or two bad units are going to slip through. 

 

If you had another, properly functioning Safari or AlStar, you could examine the feeds with a loupe and compare physical appearance and maybe see what's wrong. Could be a simple flashing of plastic from a mold impeding ink flow or something even easier to fix yourself. 

[austollie]

23 hours ago, Jenniferinfl said:

Is there something just wrong with this Lamy?

 

I've got lots and lots of Lamy Safaris (plus a Vista and several Al Stars).  What you are experiencing is indeed unusual.  The quality control on Lamy's standard (i.e. steel) nib is a little hit and miss.  Whilst the vast majority work very well, I have had one or two that needed tuning.  Given that you've already tried different nibs (with the same results), it's safe to say that the nib is likely not the problem.

 

Nib tuning issues aside, I have never experienced any issues with my Safaris.  My only suggestion is to soak the pen for an extended period.  Given that it was used previously, there is a chance that there is a blockage in the feed somewhere.  You can also pull out the feed for inspection, but that shouldn't be necessary.

[Estycollector]

Have to used your safari as a dip pen? If so, how was the experience?

[Jenniferinfl]

 

11 hours ago, dan in montreal said:

If you've tried these 2 solutions, and it seems you have, if you have flushed the pen and if you've tried using it with three different nibs, perhaps there is a problem with the feed. Is there a gap between the feed and nib? That might be the problem.

In any case, this should not be happening. This model is known to be a solid performer and if all fails, I would return it to the shop or contact Lamy to get a replacement.

 

The nib is definitely as high up as it can go. Well, I think I'm going to order another and compare, because the three nibs are pretty much working the same which leaves me with the problem being pen or ink as it seems unlikely that all three nibs are bad. I'm not a particularly fussy person, it's not that the pen isn't writing as nicely as I'd like, it's that it is not writing at all, or at least, the performance is so bad as to make a bag of pens from the dollar store look like an upgrade. 

 

I'm betting I just got a bad one, I'm going to just buy another to compare. I doubt they would be popular at all if people were regularly getting one like this one, so, I'm going to assume I just got the one in a thousand that doesn't work well. 

[dstahlberg]

Just to say that you are not alone, I also have a LAMY pen that dries up, starts scraping, I shake it and let it sit for a while and it starts again. But I haven't followed all the advice given here, so after some new testing I can report back. Have done lots of cleansing but no tine adjustments. Btw it is an ALStar and I have several Safari that works perfect.

[Jenniferinfl]

Felt the need to update this, my pen is working now. Not from anything I did, but, whatever was going wrong with the feed seems to have resolved itself. My cat must have been playing with it because I found it on the floor 10 feet away from the desk I left it on. Now it works. I don't understand how or why, I flicked it and shook it and cleaned it out repeatedly, but, apparently the cat playing with it overnight and dropping it off the table did the trick. 

 

Maybe it just needed to sit with ink in it a couple days? Maybe it getting rolled around by the cat helped?

 

Either way, wrote two pages worth of Mango just fine without a single issue. Even the EF nib is working fine. 

 

[Astronymus]

Sometimes it seems to me the feeds need some time with ink. Then they will work flawlessly. I don't know what the feeds are made of. But some plastics can accumulate water. Maybe the feeds need some time to get "wet".

[FP fan]

I’ve never had significant issues with LAMY nibs - although I do think they get better with use (‘especially the steel nibs).  Calligraphy 1.1 mm nibs or EF can be difficult to use at first.  I had this issue with a new Lamy nib and Kyoto-Ono ink in Aonibi once.  I started to use the ink with broader nibs, and sometimes used the Lamy pens as a ‘dip pen’ at my desk. Just to get the flow going.  Give them time, and they start to write very well.

 

Here is a Lamy Petrol special edition, inked with aonibi:

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

8 hours ago, Jenniferinfl said:

I flicked it and shook it and cleaned it out repeatedly, but, apparently the cat playing with it overnight and dropping it off the table did the trick. 

 

Maybe it just needed to sit with ink in it a couple days? Maybe it getting rolled around by the cat helped?

 

Did you flush the nib, feed and insides of the gripping section with (greatly diluted) detergent and/or aqueous ammonia solution, or perhaps a commercial pen flush product?

 

It could be that there was some machine grease or oils from manual handling during production that got onto the nib and needed dissolving with something other than just plain water; and solvents in inks may have done the trick slowly over a couple of days.

[Sailor Kenshin]

11 hours ago, Jenniferinfl said:

Felt the need to update this, my pen is working now. Not from anything I did, but, whatever was going wrong with the feed seems to have resolved itself. My cat must have been playing with it because I found it on the floor 10 feet away from the desk I left it on. Now it works. I don't understand how or why, I flicked it and shook it and cleaned it out repeatedly, but, apparently the cat playing with it overnight and dropping it off the table did the trick. 

 

Maybe it just needed to sit with ink in it a couple days? Maybe it getting rolled around by the cat helped?

 

Either way, wrote two pages worth of Mango just fine without a single issue. Even the EF nib is working fine. 

 

 

Hire that kitteh out at once! 😜

 

Safaris are nice writers.  Glad yours is working now.

[Jenniferinfl]

 

5 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Did you flush the nib, feed and insides of the gripping section with (greatly diluted) detergent and/or aqueous ammonia solution, or perhaps a commercial pen flush product?

 

It could be that there was some machine grease or oils from manual handling during production that got onto the nib and needed dissolving with something other than just plain water; and solvents in inks may have done the trick slowly over a couple of days.

 

Yeah, the ink solvents gradually dissolving something makes more sense.. lol I didn't have a commercial pen flush product, this is only my third fountain pen and I'm still trying to figure out if I like them enough to really get into them. I'm at that phase where I just have a couple different ink cartridges and no bottled inks. I went through a time a couple years ago where I bought a bunch of brush tip markers, but, they weren't what I was looking for. If I'm still using these regularly a month from now, I'll probably buy all the related accessories and some bottled ink and so on. 

[arcfide]

I'll point out that pen flush might not have helped, because I did do the ammonia and detergent flush of my Lamy and I still seem to be having the same issues, so even that's not enough some times. I do want to maybe try keeping it inked up and writing with it every day to see if that maybe fixes things. At any rate, it's really great that this issue has resolved itself. Those are some of the most frustrating, but sometimes convenient problems. 

[Greg Miller]

6 hours ago, arcfide said:

I'll point out that pen flush might not have helped, because I did do the ammonia and detergent flush of my Lamy and I still seem to be having the same issues, so even that's not enough some times. I do want to maybe try keeping it inked up and writing with it every day to see if that maybe fixes things. At any rate, it's really great that this issue has resolved itself. Those are some of the most frustrating, but sometimes convenient problems. 

 

Have you considered getting a cat?

[arcfide]

2 hours ago, Greg Miller said:

 

Have you considered getting a cat?

 

Hrm...I'm not sure I really need that Lamy working after all....