I have 4 Lamy Safari pens and 1 Al Star. All these pens were purchased in the early 1990s. Four of them have the black nibs and one Safari has the 1.5 mm stub. The Al Star, with its black medium nib has been, and continues to be a fine writing pen. The Green Safari with its stub nib works as it should as well. My Red and Blue Safaris have broad nibs and they have been hard starting on certain letters with a down stroke or a left to right stroke. I finally got tired enough of this to order a new black nib for each. I got a medium and a broad.
Having just replaced the nibs on my red and blue Safaris, I have the following notes:
1. The new nibs are finer than the originals. I am not sure if this is due to 25+ years of use or they just changed their nib profile, but they are definitely less wide than their similarly sized predecessor.
2. The new nibs write very well. Both the broad and medium have eliminated the hard starting issue that these pens had.
3. Now to order a new nib for my yellow Safari as its medium nib is a bit of a hard starter as well. There is a good chance I will put the new medium black nib on the yellow Safari and order a new medium gold nib, either in the gold/silver edition or the black coated edition (available only from Europe). The new nib will likely go on the blue Safari.
4. It is good to know that the current nibs fit on the older pens. I could not get a definitive answer from anyone. At $14/nib, the risk was small, but this is the reason I did not order the gold nib yet.
Having just replaced the nibs on my red and blue Safaris, I have the following notes:
1. The new nibs are finer than the originals. I am not sure if this is due to 25+ years of use or they just changed their nib profile, but they are definitely less wide than their similarly sized predecessor.
2. The new nibs write very well. Both the broad and medium have eliminated the hard starting issue that these pens had.
3. Now to order a new nib for my yellow Safari as its medium nib is a bit of a hard starter as well. There is a good chance I will put the new medium black nib on the yellow Safari and order a new medium gold nib, either in the gold/silver edition or the black coated edition (available only from Europe). The new nib will likely go on the blue Safari.
4. It is good to know that the current nibs fit on the older pens. I could not get a definitive answer from anyone. At $14/nib, the risk was small, but this is the reason I did not order the gold nib yet.
