Tag Archives: Lamy nibs

How Do I Replace a Lamy Nib?

(There is risk in doing any repair. We will not be held liable for what happens to your pen if you break it while trying the following advice.)

Changing a nib on a Lamy Safari or AL-Star is easy. All you need is the pen, tape and a replacement nib.

Changing a nib on a Lamy Safari or AL-Star is easy. All you need is the pen, tape and a replacement nib.

Lamy Safari and AL-Star pens are among the most popular pens on the market today. Bright, modern, affordable and made to work well under the most trying conditions, what is not to love? Many people’s favorite feature is that the nib is easily changed.

The genius German engineers and designers behind this pen put the nib on a pressure-fit track system for easy assembly and repair.

How easy is it? The only tool you need is a piece of tape. Go ahead. Get your tape, and I’ll teach you how it is done.

Place your index finger on the inkfeed to stabilize and support the fragile feed when you change a nib.

Place your index finger on the inkfeed to stabilize and support the fragile feed when you change a nib.

First, it helps if your pen is empty and dry.

Next, gently grip the section (writing grip) of your pen and place your index finger gently on the plastic inkfeed under the nib to brace it.

With the top of the nib facing you, place a piece of tape on the entire nib. Be careful as the plastic inkfeed under the nib is easily broken if you are not careful, and those are much more difficult to replace, as Lamy doesn’t give out those parts.

Put your other index finger on top of the tape and nib. Using your thumb, grip the ball of the nib from underneath it.

 

 

 

 

Tape helps your fingers gain added traction to slip off the nib.

Tape helps your fingers gain added traction to slip off the nib.

Pull, gently and straight out, on the tape and nib tipping. The nib should slide right off the inkfeed.

Turn the pen over, with the bottom of the inkfeed facing you. Turn your replacement nib upside down and align the little runners with the tracks of the inkfeed.

Slide it into place until it stops. Turn it over again to see the top of the nib. There should only be about a millimeter or so of inkfeed visible.

Voila! You have successfully changed the nib. Congratulations!

 

Turn the inkfeed upside down where you can see the tracks for the runners of the nib to slide into place. Gently pinch the side of the Lamy replacement nib and slowly slide or wiggle the nib into place.

Turn the inkfeed upside down where you can see the tracks for the runners of the nib to slide into place. Gently pinch the side of the Lamy replacement nib and slowly slide or wiggle the nib into place.

Testing Lamy Nibs & Inks

If you caught us at the Chicago Pen Show, then you saw our really fun Lamy nib-and-ink-testing station. It was a great opportunity to try each of Lamy’s 7 nib sizes used on their super-popular Safari, AL-Star and Studio pen models. Each of our pens was loaded with one of the 7 different ink colors Lamy sells in cartridges.

Check out the 7 standard nib sizes and ink colors put out by Lamy. These range from extra-fine nib to a 1.9mm stub! Blue-black ink gives the best shadowing in a Lamy pen. These nibs can be ordered for any Lamy Safari, Lamy AL-Star and Lamy Studio fountain pen.

Check out the 7 standard nib sizes and ink colors put out by Lamy. These range from an extra-fine nib to a 1.9mm stub! Blue-black ink gives the best shadowing in a Lamy pen. These nibs can be ordered for any Lamy Safari, Lamy AL-Star and Lamy Studio fountain pen.

This sample shows the nibs ranging extra fine, fine, medium, broad, 1.1mm, 1.5mm and 1.9mm. I think our most popular seller was the 1.5mm nib followed by the medium nib. Extra fine is popular these days, but so many write with a bit of feedback. Personally, I love the medium, 1.1mm and 1.5mm nibs. The stubs offer nice line variation at a very affordable price. In a Lamy Safari, they make great travel pens that can get beat-up or lost without inducing guilt. Plus, with a fancy stub nib, your postcards and journal will look great.

The broad nib is actually much juicier than the image makes it look.

Our most popular inks were purple and turquoise. Purple was no surprise, given the popularity of the new dark lilac Safari. Turquoise did surprise me. Men bought it in droves, and they typically stick to standard blues and blacks. Yet, I’ve been thinking of using it much more than in years past. It’s a nice color.

For folks who like the stub nibs, I highly recommend the blue-black ink by Lamy. As you can see, it offers the most shading. The black is more solidly black without as much shading as a Parker Quink or Pelikan. Green is a great color that seems underused.

We are thinking of making the Lamy nib and ink stations standard for any show we can drive to. Hopefully, we will see you soon. In the meantime, I hope this photo serves as a good indicator as to the qualities of these Lamy nibs and inks.

Visit Us at The Chicago Pen Show

Big changes this year in Chicago! New venue. New management. More entertainment.

This year ThePenMarket.com is hosting a Lamy table at the Chicago Pen Show...in addition to its usual vintage/modern pens table. These Lamys are part of the special new nib-testing station for Lamy.

This year ThePenMarket.com is hosting a Lamy table at the Chicago Pen Show…in addition to its usual vintage/modern pens table. These Lamys are part of the special new nib-testing station for Lamy.

Some of you might know that I’m this year’s marketing director for the Chicago Pen Show. The new management team of the show has been working overtime for the past year to reverse the declining appeal of the show.

This year we have a new hotel: the Marriott Chicago Northwest in Hoffman Estates, IL. It is much cleaner, nicer and more well organized for hosting a show than our past two venues. PLUS, there will be NO tearing down mid-show for weddings and such. Your table is your table Friday through Sunday!

We’ve been adding more fun things for people to do other than just buy and sell pens, too. This year we’ll have several courses on penmanship, history lessons on brands (such as Wahl-Eversharp by the CEO of the modern incarnation of Wahl), repair workshops for lever-fillers, button-fillers, Esterbrooks and the always tricky Sheaffer Snorkel. We’ll have podcasting sensation Brad Dowdy. Plus, we’ll have nearly 300 inks available to test in individual pens at an ink-testing station.

ThePenMarket.com is hosting a new Lamy nib testing station, where anybody and everybody can test Lamy nibs sized extra fine, fine, medium, broad, 1.1mm, 1.5mm and 1.9mm! We also have a limited number of the new Dark Lilac colored Lamy Safari at steep discounts. Lamy 2000s will be on sale for up to 40% OFF!

Fans of our vintage pens and preowned luxury pens will be excited to find 50 pens that are not yet on our website! It is a special treat for those who can attend the show. (Not to worry, they’ll be online soon after the show.)

What do you think of our 2016 Chicago Pen Show mug?

What do you think of our 2016 Chicago Pen Show mug?

As marketing director of the show, I commissioned our 2016 Chicago Pen Show logo and had it put onto coffee mugs. These will be available at the registration desk for only $10 a piece. Supplies are limited. I also organized and wrote the bulk of our new Chicago Pen Show Facebook page. Please give us a like.

Unlike past years, the entire management team has been reaching out the media, social networks and community calendars to attract more pen lovers to the show. Chicago has thousands of writers, doctors, lawyers, journalists and myriad others who love the experience of writing with a good pen. More than anything, we hope we attract more pen lovers than we’ve attracted in years…and we hope to give them a damned-good time.

See you there!