Does the difference between my Safari's warrant a nib-change?

Hi all, I have a black and green Lamy Safari. The black one is a medium nib, the green one a lefthanded nib.

The green one writes like a dream. The black one writes...nicely I guess, it does feel a bit scratchy sometimes. It isn't as smooth as the green one and writes a bit finer.

I am thinking about replacing the M-nib on the black Safari to a lefthanded nib. Would that be wise move? I did read that some think the lefthanded nib is just marketingspeak by Lamy and that there is no difference to a medium one. Would a change to just another medium nib better?

What would you suggest?

I suggest you read Goulet's description of the LH nib:
https://blog.gouletpens.com/2017/09/...ded-nibs-whats

Thank you for that link. My immediate (erroneous) thought was "left foot" as used by Richard Binder in terms of the angle of an oblique tip instead of Goulet's explanation regarding left-handed writers.

Hm, I think something is wrong with my black Safari. A petrol one arrived today, M-nib. Just a smooth/nice/wet as my green lefthanded one. No difference between the two. But since my black one isn't as smooth and does not give as much ink, I can now only conclude there is something wrong with it...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nerdyhistorian

Hm, I think something is wrong with my black Safari. A petrol one arrived today, M-nib. Just a smooth/nice/wet as my green lefthanded one. No difference between the two. But since my black one isn't as smooth and does not give as much ink, I can now only conclude there is something wrong with it...

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One of the nasty secrets about modern fountain pens is that quality control on nibs is quite poor. This seems to be almost unrelated to price, with the Japanese generally being the most consistent and everyone else less so. Lamy's reputation and especially that for Safari nibs is not stellar, so it's very possible that you have a rogue nib. They're interchangeable, so try swapping the nib for one from another pen. (And do read that Goulet link carlos.q suggested.)

The cheapest pens with really excellent nibs (and feeds, which are surprisingly challenging to engineer) are probably Pilot Kakunos and Metros. They run very fine compared to Lamys - a Pilot M is between a Safari EF and F.

I put a new nib (M) on my black Safari and it writes like a dream, just as good as the other three :o