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Comment by e40 | Hacker News Reader

I saw the recommendation for the Lamy Safari in a lot of places. Just want to say I actually hated writing with it. Maybe I got a bad one, but I doubt it.

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I've had a few Safaris and they're easily among my favorites, but personally it was common to get misaligned nibs with them, or extreme variation between two different nibs of the same grind (so I don't think the problem of "getting a bad one" is as unlikely as portrayed). The alignment problem occurs with all brands to one degree or another IME, and it's worth learning to make adjustments using a loupe or macro camera for anyone who's interested in the hobby.

There's also a widespread problem of counterfeit Lamy Safaris out there, which usually come in subtly different packaging and/or have subtly different markings on the pen body. These are widely considered to be inferior, and fairly common if ordering somewhere like Amazon.

This is fascinating to me, as someone naive to the hobby. Can you describe what you're looking for and what adjustments you'd make? Are there two halves of the nib that need to be at the right spacing and alignment for proper ink-wicking or something like that? Does that affect the smoothness of the interaction with the paper too?

I routinely work under a high-magnification dissecting scope to build experimental equipment for neuroscience, but I never considered that people would be doing this to optimized their writing instruments.

Pretty much all of what you wrote is a consideration, but everyone probably has their own preferences (and in some part it's affected by writing angle and penmanship habits). Certain nib styles are better suited to different ways of holding a pen. And there's a lot more to it, since different papers react in different ways to different nibs, and inks are another wide-ranging variable.

I think many people get drawn into the hobby for the endless pursuit of matching pens, papers, and inks, or trying to optimize for various characteristics across different combinations of the above. Of course a lot of people don't bother and just find one that works well enough and leave it at that.

I agree, I've had huge variation in the nibs as well. I did some research on how to polish the nibs a bit and was able to tune the ones that didn't perform as well.

Even the gold nib needed tuning. :(

You should be able to feel a _consistent_ feedback as you write with a proper nib. Two of the three nibs that I bought didn't perform out of the box. And a fine nib was too dry. I bought some brass spacers to separate the tins a bit.

I assume you mean the nib wrote scratchy. Honestly, troubleshooting that issue is something you have to be prepared for if you have a fountain pen. I haven't used enough of any nib to know if some of them have genuine design or quality control problems, or if the volume of reports online is due to people expecting a more plug-and-play experience.

Where you source nibs from matters a great deal.

Amazon? IME, more commonly bad batches.

Small independent retailers who live and die by satisfying their niche enthusiast customers? Yeah, they're fantastic, and they're generally passionate about what they sell.

It's extremely rare to get a nib that isn't tuned pretty much perfectly if you buy a brand new pen made by one of the Japanese big 3, Pilot, Platinum and Sailor from an actual fountain pen retailer (online or brick and mortar). I've never gotten a remotely bad nib from any of those nor have I heard of someone getting a remotely bad nib from one of them.

If you buy from eBay or used elsewhere or for that matter Amazon, you do sometimes get a bad nib because someone has tried to tune one of these nibs and botched it and then decided to try and sell the pen new.

A lot of times, with Pilots especially, if they're sold for the Japanese domestic market the tines are extremely tight and the pens write very dry, to the point of needing adjustment for writing in roman-derived script. I have a few nice Pilots and of the high end ones bought from Japan, a little bit of skipping or dryness was common out of the box.

Most nib complaints can probably be resolved with proper adjustment and maintenance. If people were doing that, I'd expect the complaints to be more focused on how the nibs defy their efforts, as opposed to how the nibs write poorly.

I have two. The first one was purchased as part of a box kit from Bespoke Post. That one is fantastic all-around. Then I misplaced it and purchased a second one from Amazon, apparently with a different nib. I prefer the Pilot disposables to that one.

Decided to try the Pilot Varsity disposable, when I saw the price was so low (3 for ~$9). Thanks for rec!

It feels like a rolling ball with a nib, and that pen was my go to pen for a long time before the Pentel EnerGel replaced it.

I really love my Lamy Safari, but tbh my experience is limited. What did you follow up with?

EnerGel Alloy RT Gel Pen, Medium Point, 0.7 mm

(copy/pasted from my amazon order)

I've been using this pen for a long time and I just love it so much.

Btw, just got a 3-pack of Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens and it's pretty nice. It feels like a rolling ball with a nib, and that pen was my go to pen for a long time before the Pentel EnerGel replaced it.

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