Posted 11 August 2012 - 22:10

Part 3. Putting it all together: Lamy 2000 components

Front section

I was flushing my Lamy 2000 this morning and noticed the section has cracked into half, and it's not a small crack but a rather big one like 1-2mm wide.





The nib

Nibs from 1960s vintage Lamy hooded nib pens (27, 99, Ratio) tend to run much truer to size. And the 14K yellow gold nibs are often semi-flexible. Lamy 27 pens are marked 27/30, 27/31, 27/32 and the Lamy 99 pens are marked 99/36 and 99/37.... Nibs from these pens are compatible with the Lamy 2000. All Ratios have nibs compatible with the 2000. And even the stainless steel Ratio nibs have a hint of flex.



Just be careful you don't buy an early 27 or 99 if you plan to use the nib for your 2000. These early 27 and 99 nibs had different designs and won't fit the 2000. These early Lamy 27 pens are marked 27e, 27n, 27m, 27b. Early 99 pens may be marked 99e, 99Ce, 99b. All of these pens have a solid color plastic cap jewel with no "L".



This portion of the article describes the major internal and external Lamy components that deliver and protect the writing experience: the front section, which houses the nib, ink feed, and ink breather hole; the piston filling system; and the ink window.The front section comprises the outer housing grip section, the breather hole, the nib, the ink feed, an o-ring, and a metal cap clutch ring. This is where the action occurs: ink is drawn in through the breather hole on the underside of the section. It passes through the feed past a small "neck" and into the piston chamber. Emptying the pen reverses the process. The front section is also the place where trouble is most likely to occur in a Lamy 2000 fountain pen. Fortunately, Müller and Lamy designed the 2000 so that all of the major components can easily be disassembled. In recent years the firm has strengthened the areas most susceptible to problems: leaks around the breather hole (which is now all metal) and leaks around the section/body joint (which now has metal threads).The front section has undergone modest but important improvements in its lifetime, as befitting a pen and a firm dedicated to functionality. KMPN, an occasional FPN poster, has a very nice pen blog and has devoted a few posts to historical details on the Lamy 2000. It is an invaluable resource. In particular, I would draw your attention to this entry , which compares, among other things, slight differences in the Lamy 2000 front section across time. Another good resource is here (although it is written in Japanese, the pictures are instructive). FPN member hari317 recently compared a 1966-era Lamy 2000 to a newer Lamy 2000 Early models have a slightly elongated breather hole cover and the nib size indicator stamped on the Makrolon ring.The current and previous generations of the front section are pictured below. The most significant changes in this iteration are (1) the introduction of an all-metal breather hole and (2 )the transition from Makrolon to metal female threading in the section joint. The previous breather hole was made of plastic. It fitted in to the metal section with one-way tabs. On the rare occasion of a flaw in part or assembly, or due to damage, ink could leak out of the seam where the plastic meets metal.The second major revision, the new metal threading in the section, alleviates tension when screwing the section and barrel back together. In the older section, the receiving (female) threads were Makrolon. Tension here over time could cause cracking as show below in the photo by FPN user sunnerd. The new section has a Makrolon ring that is purely cosmetic.The problem: Makrolon threadingThe solution: new metal threading.The Lamy 2000 fountain pen is fitted with a semi-hooded, platinum finished 14 kt gold nib. The following sizes are available to the US market: extra fine (EF)*, fine (F), medium (M), and broad (B)( source ); the international market has the same sizes and adds extra broad (BB), oblique medium (OM), oblique broad (OB), and oblique extra broad (OBB)( source ). (*Call me old-fashioned, but I like that Lamy uses EF, not XF, to denote extra fine nibs.) Lamy is among a minority of fountain pen brands in that it produces nibs in-house. The pictures below show how the nib is fitted on to the ink feed. You will notice that the size of the nib is significantly smaller compared to traditional nib systems.Hooded and semi-hooded fountain pens: Pilot VP, Lamy 2000, Parker "51" aero, and vintage Aurora 88This nib design goes back to the Lamy 27 of the 1950s. In fact, the late Lamy 27s and early Lamy 2000s shared the same nib and feed assembly. Early nibs had a slightly elongated breather hole. Until recently, 2000 nibs did not have a size stamp on the nib (in early 2000s, the size was heat stamped on the Makrolon portion of the section). 18 kt gold nibs on earlier versions of the Lamy 2000 are not uncommon.Can we please, pretty-please put to bed the idea that Lamy 2000 nibs are flexible? They are soft, they are springy, and they exhibit some line variation with pressure, but they are not flexible nibs. Just because the tines spread apart with pressure does not mean they were designed to do so. Look at the Lamy website. Do you see anything there that boasts of the Lamy 2000 having a flexible nib? I don't. And until Lamy says they sell flex nibs in the Lamy 2000, you aren't allowed to either. I will feel no pity for you if you spring the tines of the nib. Humbug.Nib, feed, and ink collector on Lamy 2000, Lamy Safari, and Pelikan M215.In my experience, the gold nib of Lamy 2000 pens runs wider than the stainless steel nib of the Lamy Safari and Al-Star. I've never been able to tell the difference between a Lamy 2000 Extra Fine and Fine nib, and that tends to be the case with Safari as well. Frequent chatter on Lamy 2000 nibs on Fountain Pen Network decry wide writing nibs, scratchy nibs, poor flow, or too much flow.Wide writing nibs: I have a hunch that some of the chatter about wide writing nibs can be traced to the fact that the Lamy 2000 is often recommended to beginning fountain pen enthusiasts who do not have much experience with different brands and nib varieties. On the face of it, European pens tend to run a little wide and Asian pens tend to run a little narrow. I suspect that users coming from the world of rollerballs, ballpoints, and mechanical pencils have a different expectation of what fine means. Getting a fountain pen to write as narrow as common gel pens often requires a nib customization.The only trouble with making the argument that "German nibs run wide" is that it's not true! Lamy itself was once capable of producing not only a wonderfully smooth extra fine nib, but a gold one, to boot! I purchased a NOS Lamy 81 that came with an EF nib sticker on the pen barrel. It writes magnificently. I do not understand why Lamy can't make consistent extra fine nibs across its range of pens. I really am baffled.As to the other troubles of flow, scratchiness, and whatnot, there is, again, no very good excuse. If you are in the business of making fine writing instruments, your customer expects a pen that is fine. These troubles are not endemic to Lamy. These troubles affect all the major brands, and it's just not possible to produce perfect pens all the time.What should you do if you get a dud?If you simply can't be fussed, return the pen to the merchant. If they refuse, take it up with your bank or credit card.If you want the pen to work, but lack the motivation or skills to tinker with it yourself, take advantage of Lamy's warranty. Look up the contact information of your nearest Lamy service center.

Lamy USA c/o Filofax, Inc.

372 Danbury Road

Suite 171

Wilton, CT 06897

1-800-345-6798, ext. 0

lamy@filofaxinc.com



Canada c/o LSF Trading Ltd.

300 Trowers Rd., Unit #2

Woodbridge, ON

L4L 5Z9

(905)264-2034

lsftrading@bellnet.ca



Europe

C. Josef Lamy GmbH

Repair-Center

D-69111 Heidelberg

e-mail contact: http://www.lamy.com/.../index_eng.html



Australia

China

Japan

Mexico

Taiwan

Thailand



Look at the tines from the front. Is one tine higher than the other? Are the tines touching or is there a gap?

Look at the tines from the top to examine the nib slit.

Look the nib from the side to see the gap between nib and feed.

Look at the back of the nib to see how the nib is set on the feed.

Ink it up and write with it!

"My favourite novel-writing pen is probably the Lamy 2000." (Source)



The piston filling system

Some pictures of the entrails in the older pen:









The piston was slightly stiff, expected from a very old pen like this. Disassembly was straight forward and the piston is very smooth now. Did a disassembly and some cleaning of the forepart(did not take pictures) and the pen writes like a champ.

The ink window

I wish it were either eliminated or made twice as large, for by the time I can see any emptiness at all, I have less than a page of writing left. Once one realizes he is low on ink, the pen runs out very quickly.

Here's the method I use: When the pen starts skipping, I look at the window. After trying to figure out exactly what I've learned from looking at the window, I try to write some more. When skipping continues, and ink flow eventually stops. I know what the window was trying, unsuccessfully, to tell me.



Table of contents

If you want the pen to work and you don't mind doing a bit of work yourself, the best place to start is with a flush of water. Just water. No dishwashing soap, no ammonia, no solutions, just water. You don't want to break down the grease on the piston knob. I purchased a new Lamy 2000 size Fine for this review. I inked it up and was disappointed that it had poor flow and a scratchy nib. I stuck with it, and by the time I'd finished my first piston of ink, it was performing like a champ. Those first few pages were a real test, though. Some letters would be very fat and others very thin. If you can't stick it out like I did, flush with water.If water doesn't fix your trouble, examine the nib. Somehow it became popular to think writing a few figure-eights and circles would help smooth a nib. If you have a scratchy nib, you probably have a misaligned nib. No amount of doodling on a bag is going to to set it right.Brian Gray of the Edison Pen Company has a wonderful article on his five steps for tuning a nib (link) . The first half of the article is a description of steel nibs, but for our purposes you want to pay attention about halfway down. A summary of his process is below:Richard Binder's website RichardsPens.com has a treasure trove of information on nibs and performance. His three part series on nibs should be required reading -- Part I: The Basics Part II: Beyond the Basics with Specialty Nibs , and Part III: Flex vs Italic . Also noteworthy are articles on tuning and hitting the sweet spot As a last resort, you can send your Lamy 2000 to a repair technician or nibmeister. Richard Binder has worked on a Lamy 2000 for me (medium nib to stub) as has Pendleton Brown (who straightened the tines of a dropped Lamy 2000) and I recommend both without hesitation.All of the above--and much of the chatter on FPN--makes it seem like every Lamy 2000 nib is going to be shoddy straight out of the box. That's rubbish. Are there occasional quality control issues? Yes. Do people make legitimate complaints about wide-writing pens? Yes. Should someone have to put up with a misaligned or improperly finished nib? Absolutely not. You're much, much more likely to find that your Lamy 2000 is an out and out great writer. After all, it's good enough for Neil Gaiman, who says:Remarkably, I have little to say about the piston filling system. It's a very simple and mostly foolproof setup in the Lamy 2000. A gasket forms a seal around the inner chamber of the pen body. When the piston knob is activated, a piston rod pushes the gasket up toward the section of the pen, expelling air. Dip the nib in your ink jar, tighten down the piston knob, and let physics do the rest (a vacuum is created that draws ink to the chamber). One nice feature of the Lamy 2000 implementation is the ability of the end user to remove the piston for servicing without the use of tools. More on that in Part 4.Video on how to fill a Lamy 2000http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH1A8yZr3WsHere's a picture of two recent piston filling mechanisms, with the newest iteration on top. The piston rod on the newest model feels slightly less sturdy than the older clear piston rod, but this is a minor complaint. They both work quite well.Compare those to an original 1966 piston mechanism, and you will see that very little has changed. (Pictures and text reposted here with hari317's permission)There are only two real problems that could occur with the Lamy 2000, and both are extraordinary. First, the piston could be stiff. This is simple: wash the pen well with water, unscrew the nib section or unscrew the piston mechanism (instructions below) to expose the gasket, and grease the gasket with a small amount of pure silicone grease. The second problem is a faulty seal, and for this you will need to send the pen to Lamy for a new gasket. It's a straightforward operation to change it out.Some people complain that the piston knob feels loose when it is turned. That's the way it's designed. There's nothing we can do about it. If the piston knob is loose when it is tightened down for normal writing, that's an entirely different matter in need of Lamy repair attention.The ink window on the Lamy 2000 fountain pen is vexing: it looks really cool integrated into the body, but it performs so poorly. The window itself is approximately 1/8" in width, clear but divided by four small strips of black Makrolon, and located just "below" the screw-in nib section. When the pen is capped, the ink window is not visible. It is only present on the standard edition Lamy 2000 fountain pen; it is not featured on the Lamy Edition 2000 or the 2012 stainless steel fountain pens. It is perhaps the least functional element on the Lamy 2000. One reviewer wrote:Lamy 2000 ink window compared to other piston-filled pens. From top: Aurora 88 Archivi Storici 022, Aurora Optima, Montblanc 146, Pelikan M605, Lamy 2000.A notable feature of the ink window construction is that there is no visible seam or joining; if you run your finger across the length of the pen or around the circumference of the ink window, you will feel only a smooth, continuous surface. I have spent a length of time pondering the construction of the window and scouring FPN for clues, but I have not been able to glean any useful insights on how the ink window joins the body. As we know, the body is made of fiberglass-reinforced Makrolon. One engineering materials database lists 132 variants of Makrolon, of which 17 are glass filled at 5 to 30 percent. These are all described as "opaque", "intense black", or "natural (opaque)," so I am confident that at least the ink window is not fiberglass-reinforced Makrolon. There are many formulations of Makrolon that are clear, for use in glasses, goggles, riot shields, automobile headlights, and so on. I am confident that the ink window is Makrolon. Observe the finish on the body in the following illustration to see the brushed effect: it that starts above the ink window and continues over and past it.An empty Lamy 2000. Note consistent streaking on the body over the black Makrolon and ink window.Some reviewers and users have remarked that ink appears to be in a separate chamber, as seen below. This is an optical distortion of the ink window material. As the ink level lowers, droplets of ink stick to the wall and appear much "closer" than when the pen is fully inked. Further, in removing the front section and inspecting the barrel of the pen, no separate chamber is seen. Finally, if one extends the piston gasket into the viewing area, it too appears much closer to the wall.A full ink window. Note the optical distortion that appears to be an ink chamber.Comparison of a full (top) and empty ink window.Piston gasket in the ink window.A look into the barrel—no ink chamber—myth debunked—sorry conspiracy theorists!Ink windows of the Lamy 2000 and Lamy 81.Love it or hate it, this is the ink window we're stuck with, so we might as well get used to it. How does one actually use the ink window? Uncap the pen and hold in front of a light, nib up. If you can see a well illuminated semi-transparent ring at the ink window, your ink level is low. If you can see a dark blob in the middle of the window, you should be fine for many more pages. If you wish to know how much ink you have, rotate the pen so it is horizontal and the ink will level off.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A91luUA-4xoThe ink window on the Lamy 2000M and Lamy Edition 2000 is just as useful as the ink window on the FPN Stipula Etruria, zing.

Edited by bphollin, 12 August 2012 - 11:53.