I have a great pen from lamy that I used for a could have years and really enjoyed. I found it a delight to write with and found it more consistent than ball point pens. Then I ran out of the prefilled ink cartridges it came with. I grabbed a refillable cartridge and some waterman ink and it has been downhill from there. I have two pens, not sure what the other one is, but neither seem to be able to write at all with the refills. They leak more often, constantly seem to dry out, and I have ended up going back to sharpie sgels because I need my pens to write when I need to write.
What am I doing wrong? Do I need better refill cartridges and if so can you recommend one, or are the cartridges really so much better? Or is there maintenance I am supposed to preform on the nib that I have neglected that could be causing my issues? Thanks for any advice, I would love to get back to using these pens.
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You are supposed to rinse out the nib and feed periodically. There are several ways to do it, but at least rinse the nib and feed until the water that drips out of the nib isn’t obviously colored, soak it in some water for an hour or so to get even more gunk out, then put the nib point down on a paper towel or something to suck even more old ink out, and then give it some time to dry.
You don’t need to do as much if you’re just refilling it with the same color, but since you’re running into trouble might as well rinse it out fairly well.
That just might fix the problem if it’s built-up dried ink clogging up the pen.
Would isopropyl alcohol be better?
I don’t know Lamy pens, and isopropyl alcohol damages some pens. I’d read the care guide before doing that.
Good to know, thanks!
I wouldn’t.
Thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely try that and see if it helps.
I’ve had hit or miss luck with Lamy converters. In my case the seal in the back was letting in air and drying out the ink. I’ve found using a blunt-tipped syringe and refilling old cartridges works better. There’s a bit more ink capacity as well.
FYI, Never had any issue with Lamy and their (official) converters (the only difference being that they carry less ink than a cartridge), no matter the ink brand I have been using. And I have been using Lamy since the late 90s.
- As suggested, you may want to rinse your fountain pen (and let it dry for a few days). You may also learn to disassemble the fountain pen entirely (which for a Lamy Safari means removing the nib and the feed) to do a deep cleaning (you will find guides on YT). When not using a fountain pen for a long time, ink can dry in it and should be cleaned (with standard ink, barely warm water should be more than fine)
- Waterman, like Pelikan, is a great (and cheap) ink, I’ve been using it since I was a kid (back in the 70s ;) but you may want to check what exact type of ink you’re using. Make sure it is ink for fountain pens and not India or acrylics which would ruin any fountain pen.
- Another possibility: check you’re using a genuine Lamy converter. There are cheap knock-offs. And just in case: don’t try to use a Lamy converter on any other brand of fountain pen.
- Last suggestion: contact Lamy support. They’re not the fastest but they’re good. I had them help me with a 2009 model a few months ago, without any issue. I place them right next to Twsbi as far as customer support goes, and Twsbi is real excellent ;)
You might be right about the cheap knockoff. I just grabbed one on Amazon not realizing that they would be so finicky. I am new to this type of pen and so thought some of this was standardized. I will try to find an official one and after cleaning the nib as another poster suggested give it a try.
I prefer to just refill cartridges rather than try to use the converters. I have a small mountain of converters for all kinds of pens, all of them originally pack-ins with the pens themselves, and I’ve never used any of them.
Converters are full of seals, gaskets, and moving parts. All potential points of failure. A cartridge isn’t. You can just refill it with a syringe and be on your way. For me, at least, I have the luxury of never being in a situation where I’ll conceivably ever do enough writing in a day to completely run a pen dry, so I don’t have to carry spare cartridges and thus don’t need to jigger some kind of way to reseal them.
Many of my pens still have the same cartridge in them they originally came with. Some, like my Sheaffer Targa, have a cartridge in them that’s easily decades old. No sweat.
Also, it’s usually a good idea to flush out your nib and feed when you change brands of ink. It’s possible, albeit unlikely, that some combination of ingredients in ink A could react poorly with ink B, and gum up and cause a clog.
@Shalaska
Ive just pulled out my one Lamy converter.
The converter in the photo does not look like a propriety Lamy converter, It looks like an International Standard converter. In which case that would account for leakage and poor performance.
Lamy. most of the Japanese, Shaeffer and a few other manufacturers use propriety cartridges and converters that are not interchangeable with other brands.
Some Chinese pen models claim to use Standard International cartridges but they are sufficiently out of dimension that only their own products will work.It is very likely that I didn’t get a proprietary one as I did not realize that was important. I will look around for one and see if it helps, thanks.
I am fairly confident that that is thr official lamy converter or a very good knock off as you can see the small tabs it has to fit in the Safari pens
I use a refillable cartridge and I’ve never had problems. Try a few different cartridges until you find one that doesn’t leak. I would recommend one but it’s been quite a few years since I bought it and I don’t remember anything about it.
Also try a different ink, maybe? Some of them can leak easier out of the nib. Also clean your pen with some alcohol to make sure it isn’t that.
quite a few years since I bought it and I don’t remember anything about it.
but you still have it and ‘could’ make a foto, right? just to mention. i had this prob very long ago.
i guess leaking could be because the specific pens could have some different behaviour. while the ink flows down, air must flow into the catrige. if too much air can flow in, i’ld guess thats when leaking occurs, but letting that tiny amount of air that precisely into the catrige might be possible, for a refueled catridge, but could be more error prone due to moving parts or just might not be the same needed for every pen that fits and the vendor chooses somewhere in the middle to “fit” more pen types, but that was guessing from long time ago. however now that it seems that this prob still exists3… maybe you can make a photo of the catrige and the pen.
When you are inserting the converter into the Lamy make sure you are inserting it into the correct slots so it fully engages (it can take a bit more force than you expect).
I made the mistake of using the half circle sections when I first got my Lamy Al-Star and it made a bit of a mess.
