Lamy black steel nib experiences?

I have four Lamy steel nibs, stainless, that work fine right from the start. An EF, F, 1.1mm, and 1.5mm. I also have three black steel nibs (two mediums and a B) that are a struggle and really only one works OK (one of the two mediums). I've checked alignment (using Goulet 15x loop) as best I can and some brass sheets to make sure they aren't clogged, but I just don't get the same ink flow or the smoothness with the black nibs as I do with the silver color.

Anyone have similar experiences or am I in the minority? I have a charcoal matte Safari and a Vista that I think the black looks better on, but its just not worth the decreased performance. Thanks.

I have a black ef nib and have never had a problem.

I've got a couple, the black medium on my Flame Safari flows like the dickens. I don't see a difference.

I have many a Lamy and I can tell you that there is no physical difference apart from color. I couldn't tell if doing a blind test

+1

Lexbomb said:

I have many a Lamy and I can tell you that there is no physical difference apart from color. I couldn't tell if doing a blind test

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I have three Lamys, two with black (fine point) and one with stainless nibs. They're all great..

If the stainless nibs work well for you, maybe consider just using a stainless nib in the Lamys which now have the black nibs. Who knows, you might even come to like the appearance..

Have you tried thoroughly flushing them out?

I guess I haven't used pen flush on them, but I've flushed them with a bulb syringe when changing ink and soaked them in water when changing nibs, but could try something more.

Seems unanimous that the black nibs perform just as well as the silver, so will try to flush and check with the loop again. Thanks for the feedback.

Have you tried using one of the nibs from one of the working pens on the malfunctioning one.

It is very possible that you just have a defective feed.

How long have you had this pen?

Myosin said:

Have you tried using one of the nibs from one of the working pens on the malfunctioning one.

It is very possible that you just have a defective feed.

How long have you had this pen?

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I've mixed the nibs on the pens a good bit. I am currently using the Safari, which I just bought last month. It came with a Broad nib (black) but I found that to behave worse than the EF silver nib that I currently have on it. The other two, a Vista (owned 1 year) and Nexx M (owned 9 months) have had the same type experience. Well, come to think of it, I may not have had the black nibs on the Vista. Thanks for the idea and appreciate the suggestion.