Lamy Safari Arrived: Is What I'm Experiencing Normal?

[Foyle]

The Lamy Safari in charcoal black with a fine nib that I ordered arrived today with the Z24 converter. The first thing I did was to flush out the pen as I had learned that Lamy tests all their pens before they leave the factory, and I needed to flush the blue ink out of the nib so that I could ink it up with my own ink. So, I installed the converter and flushed some cool water through the pen a few times to get the blue ink out. I dried off the nib with a paper towel and filled it up with Noodler's Purple. I have this same ink in my Schaeffer Special with a medium nib. The color of the ink coming out of the Safari seems a little more washed out or possibly fainter. Perhaps this Lamy nib is a bit dryer writing, and I'm sure the fine nib means that less ink will be laid down by the pen.

So, being new to fountain pens, this took a little by surprise, but I supposed it makes sense thinking about the differences between these pens. So, am I correct in assuming this is normal? One pen which writes wetter with a broader nib will have more color saturation than the other with a finer and dryer writing nib?

Have I done something wrong? Should I have let the pen air dry before filling it with ink after flushing with cool water?

 

[nortac]

Not sure what the problem is, diluted by water still in the pen, vs different nib size? You may want to refill the pen with fresh ink to rule out a dilution problem.

 

[Snargle]

I think you've got some residual water in the feed and converter from your flushing that's diluting the ink. It should work its way out after a few paragraphs. If not, try emptying it and cleaning it again, but this time, let it dry overnight with the cap off to make sure all the flush water is gone.

I've also used a can of compressed air to blow out the converter and the feed section. Don't overdo it, since that compressed air can get things pretty cold. Just a few puffs should do the trick.

 

[syngent]

just water by the sound of it... it should run through with a few sentences of writing

 

[Krodor]

What they said. Your feed is still capillarily-filled with water. You need to let it dry first before reinking. No biggee.

 

[4ever3]

I'm think what they said. I've ran into the same issue and with a little writing it clears the water out.

 

[Krodor]

What they said. Your feed is still capillarily-filled with water. You need to let it dry first before reinking. No biggee.

And by the way, I did the same thing over the weekend due to lack of patience.

 

[Andy]

Rather than emptying it out, if you leave the pen overnight, the water should evaporate by next morning.

 

[celestino]

As has been stated, it just seems like a bit of residual water, Chad. I hope you enjoy the pen!

 

[Foyle]

Here's a pic of the difference. I've written about a whole page with the Safari, and the color difference is still the same. I am noticing that the Safari writes much dryer than the Special. That's not necessarily a bad thing because the Special writes really, really wet. On smooth paper, the ink takes forever to dry with the Special.

​

 

[syngent]

that Sheaffer does appear to be really wet, between the fine to medium nib, and the wet to medium flow, inks can show up very different in different pens

but i still think there may be done watering down a bit

 

[svalcourt]

I had the same problem after rinsing my Lamy Safari. I fixed it by unscrewing the back and tightening the converter to force some ink through the nib and flush out the remaining water (obviously over a couple scrap pieces of paper).

 

[ShinyRex]

I'm going to buck the trend and say it is a "characteristic" of the Lamy and I feel it is a bit of a dry writer. My first three pens were all Lamy Safaris/All Stars with EF nibs and I tested all my inks in them over time. I am a fan of gray but a lot of times I noticed that almost any gray ink looked washed out in the Lamy against comparable nib sizes in my TWSBI and Pilot pens which write much darker/wetter to include a very thin but dark writing Esterbrook and Pilot Prera.


Just my .02

 

[allawd]

I'm going to buck the trend and say it is a "characteristic" of the Lamy and I feel it is a bit of a dry writer. My first three pens were all Lamy Safaris/All Stars with EF nibs and I tested all my inks in them over time. I am a fan of gray but a lot of times I noticed that almost any gray ink looked washed out in the Lamy against comparable nib sizes in my TWSBI and Pilot pens which write much darker/wetter to include a very thin but dark writing Esterbrook and Pilot Prera.


Just my .02

I agree. I've only had a couple Lamy Safaris, but both are on the dry side compared with other pens. They also seemed to dry out faster, which is why I really don't ink them much anymore.

 

[Foyle]

I'm going to buck the trend and say it is a "characteristic" of the Lamy and I feel it is a bit of a dry writer. My first three pens were all Lamy Safaris/All Stars with EF nibs and I tested all my inks in them over time. I am a fan of gray but a lot of times I noticed that almost any gray ink looked washed out in the Lamy against comparable nib sizes in my TWSBI and Pilot pens which write much darker/wetter to include a very thin but dark writing Esterbrook and Pilot Prera.


Just my .02

That seems to be the case with mine. I let it dry well and re-inked. It looks the same. It's just a dryer writing pen than the Sheaffer. That's perfectly fine actually. The Sheaffer makes the purple look almost black it writes so wet. With the Safari, I can actually tell the ink is purple.

 

[Runnin_Ute]

There will be a difference anyway, but initially it is due to still having a little water in the nib/feed. It writes right out. But one nib size will be darker than another depending on the ink. Remember the paper is a factor too.

Of course, some pens are just wetter than others too.