The ultimate Lamy Safari! Does the $100 Lamy 14k nib make sense in a $30 pen?
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- Опубликовано: 17 ноя 2022
- I'm a big fan of pens from Lamy on the lower end of the price spectrum.
Does it make sense to upgrade them with Lamy's excellent 14k nib?
Thanks for your content. I have a Lamy Studio Palladium fountain pen with the gold nib, and also a Safari with the black steel nib. My gold nib is definitely much smoother in writing, and is more effortless in writing.
I share the same 1st memory with you in regards to the Lamy safari. I remember being so underwhelmed with it at first! It is now one of my favorite pens for daily use! I have a 1.1 stub nib on it but now you’ve convinced me to get a gold nib for it. 😅 The Lamy is so comfortable for everyday use and I don’t have to worry about being extra careful with it. I reach for it even more than I do for my pilot custom 823 🫣 lol… great video!!
I upgraded the steel nib to a gold one on a Lamy Al-Star, and it definitely writes nicer than the steel nib.
I also had the same thoughts as you about the Safari at first - I didn't think much of it and quickly moved towards fancier gold nibs. Years later coming back to it, with much more experience with fountain pens under my belt, I've come to really love the Safari. It's simple, robust, and like you said HONEST in both its function and form. Your video has inspired me to put away all my other pens and carry a Safari with a 14k nib for daily use. The idea of having 1 super durable pen that's also a great luxurious writer is very appealing to me - surprisingly, there aren't a lot of pens that have both of these qualities.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on your original Safari.
Thank you for this video. I was debating wither my next Gold nib pen should be a Lamy or a Platinum as I recall how bouncy soft the Platinum was when I tried it - But I also tried a Lamy Gold nib and loved that. Decisions, decisions! It helps to know that the Lamy Gold nib will work in most Lamy pens.
I love your perspective on this topic. I've been tossing the idea of putting a gold nib on a Safari or Al Star for a while now. You may have given me just the push I needed. Wonderful use of adjectives, by the way.
I have an EF gold nib on my Safari Blue Macron (one of 3 pastel 2019 special editions). I have De Atramentis Document Turquoise in it. Safari may be inexpensive, but it is a sturdy, workhorse pen and I love it with the gold nib.
My lamy safari was my 3rd fountain pen, 4th one I had used and it is my go-to due to durability, ease of use, and comfort
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. My Lamy Dialog 3 with its cool engineering was a chronic user frustration for me; the ink "door" wouldn't always fully seat, the nib would dry out/hard start and priming the nib/feed as a hassle so it sits in my pen case. Earlier this year I picked up a Lamy Studio (usual Lamy steel nib) which I liked but this same swap occurred to me -- so it now sports a 14k. nib. Honestly, it's a bit smoother but I won't cry if I have to put the gold nib back on the Dialog 3 (probably to sell it).
The main thing that stands out to me is that the 14k Lamy fine you’re using here is much finer than my steel extra fine Lamy nib - that’s surprising to me given that gold nibs usually run a hair bolder than their steel counterparts
Nice breakdown
Great topic for a video! I have the beautiful, wonderfully smooth 14k rose gold nib from my LAMY Dialog cc on my LAMY Studio Lx right now. It looks great, writes great, and I prefer the rubber grip on the Studio to the body of the Dialog cc for longer writing sessions. It’s my perfect pen now!
Agreed, the Studio LX is a lovely pen to write with. It feels so very good and is nicely balanced. 👍
Good stuff. Got a medium 14k coming that I'm going to pop on my LX. I quite like the LAMY steel nibs, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how the 14k compares.
Update?
@@TheCreedBratton I like it a lot! I wouldn't say the difference is drastic, but it's noticeable. Not totally sure it's worth the price, but it does look REALLY pretty on the LX.
My daily driver is a safari with a Lamy gold left oblique and some high shading ink - colorverse morning star at the moment. Going to buy a second Lamy gold oblique
I own a Lamy OM nib. It took some getting used to but great writer!
Good video. If you like the design of the Safari, and rate the 14k nib, then it makes sense. At the end of the day, most fountain pens are made of plastic, so why is the Safari different? People pay multiples of this money to buy plastic Montblanc pens with 14k nibs. What is different?
I got my Lamy Safari from there flagship store in NYC SoHo. I was thinking of getting the gold nib but went with the black one instead, I may get the gold nib next time.
Your reasoning about a better nib in a cheap pen is indisputable.
I have an Aurora gold nib in a TWSBI. I had a spare. The TWSBI has a feel for me and now it is effectively a premium pen.
Once we have a pen that fits and feels good the nib is all.
Given that we are actually writing with the hard nib tipping a steel nib with decent tipping will write every bit as well as a gold nib. The difference is the flex we can get with a gold nib.
My tuned Lamy steel nibs write every bit as well as some premium pens with stiff gold nibs, Pelikan's are an example.
Someone once said to me there is no reason that manufacturers couldn't make soft steel nibs. They just choose not to.
This is another great review - Thought provoking.
I really like your take on this. So thought out.
Thank you.
👌
Aurora gold nib in a TWSBI.... dude isnt aurora proprietary?
Lamy steel nib still is a small nib, it lacks the performance of a bigger nib, gold upgrade is pointless too.
Thanks so much for the kind feedback! I heard good things about Aurora gold nibs. Very cool that they make those nibs completely in house. Hope to try one in the near future
@@Cortesevasive Hi - The TWSBI Vac 700R is fitted with a No.6 nib made by Yowo. The Yowo and Aurora feeds are slightly different and cannot be swapped over. I had the metal part of an Aurora gold nib which is also a No.6, so I just swapped that. I also have a spare metal part of a Diplomat. That too is a No.6 and it will fit the YOWO feed. (Some people say the Diplomat nib is also a Yowo - the feed is different). Diplomat steel nibs are exceptionally good.
I don't know what you mean by performance. A little nib flex? Ink flow? Smoothness or feedback from the paper? Nice sharp lines? My experience of Lamy nibs is that if tuned they are very good indeed, for a stiff nib. After all it is the tip that is doing the writing as long as the feed gives the flow. The big thing here is 'when tuned'. They are very variable out of the box and that includes the nib width. I have Lamy nibs which write every bit as nicely as a Diplomat nib which many hail as the best steel nib out there.
@@seattlepenclub They tend to arrive with a little too much feedback ( Read scratchy). A few moments polishing them makes a great difference and they still have personality and are lovely to use. The Aurora Optimas are great pens for me.
Cheers
@@kevinu.k.7042 so aurora nibs without feed can be swapped with other Jowo6 ?
Yeah Diplomat are good, I have like 6 of them, big feed and big nib is always great, its easy to adjust things too, very nice inkflow, easy to dissasemble feed.
Yeah nibs are complicated science. I guess lamy is irregular size short nib no bounce, hard to remove feed, its like writing with wooden stick.
Hi there, and greetings from Prague. I wonder how much some tuning of the steel nib might help. I own only one Lamy, Lx Ruthenium with a black steel medium nib, and it writes quite nicely-it is smooth, with some rather pleasant feedback, no problems with flow or anything like that whatsoever. It is not comparable to gold nibs on my other pens but it is really good.
Not owning any other Lamy I cannot compare how that may differ from cheaper models, however I have two Faber-Castells with the same nib (or at least I believe it is the same), one is Hexo Bronze and the other E-motion Pure Black, both with black steel fine nib. And whilst those nibs are supposed to be the same, E-motion (which is more than 3× more expensive and I suppose-or hope, anyway-got more tuning and care than the cheaper model) is so much smoother and nicer that I wouldn't believe it if I didn't test it myself. Hexo writes OK, no scratchiness but a strong feedback, whereas E-motion is so smooth and pleasant! It is in fact my favourite fine nib, better even than the 14k gold fine nib on my Pilot 92 Heritage.
You will be able to tell how new I am to fountain pens, I did not know Lamy even made a gold nib. Having said that, I completely agree with your logic.
I didn't realize Lamy made a gold nib until more than a year after I bought a Lamy Safari :)
Very interesting.
I actually like it quite a lot how the steel nib writes in my Lamy LX Marron. It is the black plated steel nib in medium and it writes very nicely in my opinion. But yes, I personally would like to have the 14K gold nib but, for that I would like to buy it in a Lamy Studio for example. I think that will be a great writer.
The pen is nice for the price, but I cannot get past the triangular grip. I have other pens with this type of grip configuration and can use them without worrying about the grip. It is similar to the Pilot Vanishing Point. Both pens force one to use this arrangement.
As for the gold nib, it works very well and worthy to get.
Now I am considering using a Lamy nib in a Jinhao 80.
I don't mind the triangular grip too much but I do find it a bit narrow for my hand
I actually love the triangular grip of the Lamy pens. It was my first fp getting back into the hobby and trained me to properly hold the pen.
Which gold nib you have fitted in aion
..z55 or z56
The one with the breather hole...I forget which model number is which. That said, I can't really tell the difference between them
Is waterman nib better than lamy
I would take the smooth flowing steel nib on my Lamy Safari over a $10 Pilot nib any day!
Your client is left handed, that should provide a hint as to how left handed writers view writing sticks as compared to right handed writers. I tend to put practicality before aesthetics and expensive brand names.
I'm actually flirting with the idea of getting a Aion or studio with a gold nib. I already own a bunch of safaris and I want the Aion to feel different to those. So I don't just buy a fancy Safari 😅
If you want to spend $130 on a pen but have it perform as well as possible, it makes sense to dump $100 into the nib. A durable grip section, cap, and barrel can all be constructed cheaply, so if you're going for the best writing experience on the lowest budget, you don't want the money going there.
Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by "honest" ? How could a pen be dishonest? !
I respectfully disagree with your comment about the Lamy steel nib. Firstly, there is a difference between the silver and black ones. I always use the black ones, they write smoother than the white ones. I put a 14kt nib on a Lamy LX. It does not write smoother than the black one, but it is less stiff than the black steel ones. There is little flex possible, but that doesn't matter to me as I prefer a stiff nib. Is it worth the investment? Depends what your preference is. My Lamy LX has now become a beautiful pen to look at, but I prefer to write with a black steel nib.
The comparison I wanted to see is between the standard and Lamy gold nib. I'm really not that interested in comparing Lamy's gold nib with another make of gold nib (that I'm not going to buy).
Nor do I have the money to buy a gold nib because it looks nicer.
Edit
I’m trying to validate putting a $100+ nib on a $30 pen. Will it make that pen so much better?
No.
Your writing angle is weird. You are not writing on the nib's sweet spot, yet the lamy nib flows smoothly.
14k nib/ Be or not to be...
Question: Why is using a fountain pen supposed to provide a "luxurious" writing experience?
Back in the day when your choice was a dip pen (to include a quill pen), fountain pen, or pencil, the writing experience was utilitarian, even with a 14K nib in a fountain pen, at least for business use, where a flex nib was not used. The fountain pen was a tool.
I have a 1940's Waterman's "Dauntless" with a semi-flex fine 14K nib. It writes about the same as my Esterbrook J pens with a firm or rigid Fine/Extra Fine steel nib suitable for making carbon copies. The Esterbrook pens write the same as my Parker Super 21 (firm/rigid fine or medium fine nib, again suitable for making carbon copies) which according to Parker'sown advertising wrote the same as the much more expensive Parker 51, with a 14K firm/rigid gold nib (again suitable for making carbon copies) The Parker ads said "identical" and "no different". I have never used a 51, so I will take Parker's word on the similarity between their top of the line expensive pen (the 51) and the less expensive (around 1/3 the cost) 21/Super 21.
My recently manufactured Hero 616 and 329 pens (basically a remake of the Super 21 with improvements, such as an ink window incorporated into the clutch ring/trim ring) write the same as my Parker Super 21. The Hero pens have an extra fine hooded nib.
OBSERVATION:
The 14K Lamy nib looks like a steel nib with gold tines.
Question:
Does the Lamy 14K nib have more flex than the steel nibs; Does the Fine 14K nib have line variation?
Question concerning ink:
When did splotchy ink (AKA: "shading" ink, today) become popular and acceptable for business use?
The Lamy gold nib is entirely made out of 14k gold, not just the tines. It's just a 2-tone nib.
Audio is weak
Do $1000 rims make sense sense on on a $100 car?
I disagree with all you said about steel nibs vs gold nibs. The "luxury writing experience" you said in the video is purely a psychological thing because you will not be able to distinguish between a steel nib and a gold nib blindfolded. One who owns a $100 gold nib will automatically think that it perform better even though it is exactly the same. I have a collection of many Japanese made gold nib pen and vintage pens, and I also have one Lamy Safari and one Conklin that have steel nibs. They perform exactly the same.
Each nib, be it gold or steel, will write either scratchy or smooth, depend on how the tip of the nib is. That feedback from writing has nothing to do with nib material but depend on the geometry and smoothness of the tip.
If you're referring to feedback solely from the tipping material, then you're correct. However, the feel of a nib comes from many more variables than that.
At 1.5 speed, you are wasting less time watching this video and you won’t miss any bit.
This is astounding information. Who knew that it was possible to adjust the playback speed. Amazing. 👍
It actually flows better 🤣
I note fountain pen geeks tend to have a poor, childlike, level of penmanship. What could possibly foster attraction to collecting and gloating over tools that cannot be employed with any reasonable level of skill?
What? His penmanship is fine
This is what one would call confirmation bias. I am in many groups dedicated to such pens, and most tend to have great penmanship
Nope its not worth it. Lamy is not good manufacture. I found the gold lamy to be underwhelming, its a very small nib so it doesnt affect any performance. You are much better off buying real japanese fountain pen instead
I personally have had great luck with Lamy gold nibs and find them to be very nice. I'm impressed with their performance especially given the standard feed and small size. I'd take the Lamy over my 3776 most days. That said, my sample size is only about 5 so your results could vary haha
What would be a Japanese full-length pen with the snap-on cap and the gold nib?
@@seattlepenclub Yeah nibs are very personal stuff, you can easilly dislike a 500euro pen nib, and at the same time enjoy 30euro steel nib.
well lamy feels like writing with a wooden stick. I c that u reviewed all the good japanese stuff, so prob cant argue with u lol
@@mishaerementchouk That's a tough one. Japanese gold nib pens tend to be more "traditional" with a twist off cap. The ones that come to mind are the Pilot Stella 90s / Stargazer and the Pilot Elite but those are both pocket pens. The Vanishing Point / Capless has an 18k nib and no cap. My personal favorite snap cap gold nib pens are 1. Lamy 2000 and 2. Waterman Carene but neither are Japanese
@@seattlepenclub I also don't know any Japanese pens that would fit these seemingly simple requirements. Vanishing Point (and the whole series) is a good pen, and I use it very often, but, to me, it's not the first choice for long writing. So, if I want a pen that's fast to engage by one hand and is comfortable for long writing, the options are quite limited, even if I look beyond Japanese brands. Therefore, if one can upgrade a nib in a pen that fits the usage profile perfectly, that's actually a rare opportunity, regardless of the pen price.