I'm so honoured you used my pens in this video (which was a truly /great/ video)! I have to admit that I keep those paper rings and I think I used the black Safari but just put the ring back on when I loaned it to you lol. Regarding the two-piece feed, I found reference to it having a "floating adjustment bar" that allows the user to adjust the amount of ink getting to the feed. Lamy's attention to detail is amazing and I appreciate it even more after watching your video. Hope your daughter likes the LINE Friends bear pen you got for her :)
Thanks so much again for the pens so I could make this video, would have been impossible without it! Ahh, didn't know the feed was meant to be adjusted, very interesting 👍
@@Doodlebud @Doodlebud You're very welcome! I didn't know that about the feed either. You might want to record how that adjustable feed thing works because I don't know anything about it; I just read about it on Fountain Pen Network (old thread) a few days ago!
@@Doodlebud .. Bro... I'm a mechanical engineer myself.. It was more of a Solidworks tutorials than pen review.. The things like centre line.. Mirroring and all.. I could feel it you love designing like me.. I used to use Solidworks and catia.. Before I started my own thing.. What do you use?? Reply awaited bro
Imagine someone calling Heidelberg and saying something along the line of “Hey, we found 500 overstock genuine Lamy feeds and EF nibs in our warehouse and, uhm, … we were wondering, Lamy, if you’d supply us with some brown bodies for a special project?” I somehow doubt that Lamy would sell even a small batch of genuine pens but sans nib/feed assembly. A “replacement parts” order, maybe? If the pen body is a fake, it is scary good. To make a counterfeit operation work financially, you’d need to manufacture a minimum number of pens, since those injection molding forms do not come cheap. Going down that route, it might pay off to copy all the small details that you pointed out - to make a better fake than the competition. I can see how, if you expertise is in injection molding, you might want ot outsource the nib/feed/converter part.
Guys, I case you have a 30 year old Lamy or older, like I do. The cap doesn't have the hole, the nib doesn't come with logo, the leaving in the table uncaped test is not perfect. The "Germany" in the botton aligns different. Those were other times, Lamy got better at making their pens absolucty perfect over time. But if you really want to check: if you remove the black ring and look for the number, it's there. Mine is red Safari, hiden number 8, from 1990 if my father's memory is correct.
Also my nib is like those boxy ones. It is still working after 30 years and besides some bleeding works very nice. Could there be so good copies already back then?
I noticed the Mold Numbers on the Feed on the Genuine Lamy's were positioned to be read with the Nib End pointed down, and on the fakes they were oriented with the Nib End up.
Ref the instructions: you don't need to have the cad drawings available to get things lined up properly. Any desktop publishing software will allow you to sort that out in moments. When it comes to fonts, it is really easy to make a font using scanned images from someone elses font; you can even make things like cartridges into a typable font if you choose.
I'd love to see you take a look at the Moonman A1 Press - it looks like a pilot decimo/vanishing point... but for MUCH cheaper (and likely a steel nib).
I've seen them listed on Aliexpress. Might get one at some point. Don't have a vanishing point myself. They've just never appealed to much to me, but for the pice I might get an A1
Just a thought about the cartridges supplied with the fake Lamy's - In a knock off pen factory, maybe it would be cheaper and easier to buy genuine cartridges in bulk, it would save them a lot of tooling and having a genuine cartridge come inside the pen would help them to look genuine. I wonder how many knock off factories there are making the Safari and if they use the same moulding tools, could be interesting to see their tooling fingerprints and compare them. Great video btw and it got me checking my charcoal grey Safari fountain pen - she's definately a real one lol. I reckon the font on the nibs gives it away when u look closely at the angles of the letter 'M' in Lamy.
If I were a betting man, I’d say that this is a semi-collaborative process. Depending upon the number of Line Friends units being made, it is conceivable that some parts were supplied by Lamy, with perhaps Lamy providing some additional molds or mold schematics and that some other parts were made in a different factory. It’s possible that this wasn’t marketed well or lacked distribution support from Lamy or Lamy insisted it be sold through different channels. That might account for the lower price points. It’s hard to believe that a knockoff would get the number of things dead on that they did. It’s also hard to imagine they could get Lamy nibs in quantity, if not sanctioned by Lamy.
Its a bit of a head-scratcher for sure! I think its a decent deal as it seems you're getting a "mostly?" legit safari with some neat packaging and add-ons that aren't available in the western market
I agree, not sure but Lamy does some collaborations sometimes, I saw one for Kinokuniya, which is a Japanese-based retailer usually for books/manga and stuff coming from Japan. But there's another collaboration with line friends but it came inside a metal case.
It's very easy to copy moulds with the finished product, nevertheless you have a point. Also, copying a product hypes up the original product. Lamy benefits as long as they keep their pens even slightly better.
Thanks for the great video, very interesting and entertaining… I have the Line Friends Brown Special Edition Safari. I have the edition with the tray and larger Bear, as well as the small bear for the clip. Two interesting things… my feed shows the Lamy Blue ink from testing as other Lamy pens do… also BROWN is mechanically engraved into the back of the cap (where there would be a cap ring)
Glad you enjoyed it, this was something I was curious about myself. I'm not a big safari fan but thought this would be interesting to learn more about the pen (real & fakes)
@@Doodlebud I am new to fountain pens, less than a year since the purchase of my first pen…a Lamy Safari! Once I wrote with it, I was hooked! I have indeed bought, just a few more pens, (like 8-10). Some of them are as simple as a preppy platinum, and and others are much more expensive (Kaweco sport), and I love them all for different reasons!
This was a FANTASTIC video. The "fingerprint" stuff was very interesting. By the end of the video, I was convinced that you had a genuine Lamy. Then, you did the writing sample. When it wrote just fine, I knew it was a counterfeit since Lamy steel nibs are some of the worst and most inconsistent nibs out there. OK, maybe I am exaggerating a bit but it doesn't mean it's untrue and possibly supports the idea that the nib and feed were outsourced. Great stuff as always. I love the technical details that you provide over and over again.
LOL, I dont have many Lamy pens but the ones I do have worked pretty good out of the box. This EF nib writes a decent EF line. I do with the EF on my Lamy 2000 was a finer line this like one. Glad you enjoyed the technical deep dive I had to do to figure out the story of this pen 👍
Your Line Friends is a very well done fake. Go back and at look at the top of the cap at the "X", the fake is straight where the authentic version is slightly curved or rounded as it gets towards the cap edge. The Barrel Imprint also is missing the correct Lamy imprint at the end, where the "A" and "M" are joined on the real version that intersection point is lower and aligns with the horizontal bar of the "A" you will also notice the hollowed area of the :A" is also different, the real logo is is crisp and not raised as high. The "discolored" Brown pen is actually a painted pen where the base plastic is black. I have hundreds of these Authentic Lamy Safari pens. Any Lamy on Ali Express is fake.
One comment regarding cartridges supplied in China. Legal documents have to be written in black ink rather than the blue ink that is customary in the West. Black cartidges are thus standard on pens supplied to China.
I worked for a start up tech company that was partially owned by a bank and we had our first office space in the bank. I asked if they had any pens with black ink (not a fan of blue ballpoints, they're extra smudgy and I'm a lefty) and got such a look of horror. "We never use black ink - we wouldn't want to take the risk of confusing a copy of a document with the original". Makes sense for them. They also couldn't understand why we as software developers didn't need a desktop calculator. We worked with numbers didn't we? ;)
Yeah, it sounds odd - however, some limited editions go for big money, and if you live in a country that doesn't have a great economy, then you might struggle to afford things that seem cheap to people in richer countries. So if someone can afford a Lamy Safari without worrying about the cost, they can consider themselves lucky because in some countries it can cost the equivalent of a couple of days' wages.
Waouw Very deep investigation ! Thanks for having done this work for us To make such a perfect copy woul have been very costly for the copier I guess I will call mine a genuine cousin ;)
As an autistic European Lamy Safari fan; this video is so useful! I can get new genuine Lamy pens pretty easily if I want to (I could just walk into any stationery store here and just buy one, lol), but it's not like the market of my country is immune to fakes. i'm glad that most stores here wouldn't sell fakes since genuine stock is easier and cheaper for them to get, though (also, they probably have the expertise to spot a fake one). Some fakes are obvious for a comsumer like me to spot, but some of these 'well-made fakes' are so well faked that I otherwise couldn't tell if I don't know the details to keep an eye out for. But thanks to you, I can now actually spot a fake since I now actually know what details to look for. Because let's face it; if anyone would catch those more minute signs of a fake, it would be an autistic woman like me 🤣
First, in a real pen, whoever does the illustrations for the booklet is not the engineer. It's a designer or an illustrator. Any designer or illustrator worth their salt will be capable of producing very precise artwork, even if doing a bootleg copy (you only need to design the booklet once, so it pays to do it well on the first go). Second, "reproducing fonts is hard". It isn't if the fonts are common ones (as Germans are wont to use). The "Lamy" logo is more likely drawn rather than being a font (It may have started out originally with a font, but designers soon change lines and spacing here and there to make the logo better, clearer, more appealing. Third, on the cardboard ring, the spacing between the words and the slash is different. On the originals it is "Entfernen / Remove" on the fake it is "Remove/Entfernen" (mind you the order of the words is flipped as well). I'm sure there'll be more.
I just bought a lamy safari petrol it came with a blue black / blue ink cartridge with a converter it writes well and it passed every test tho its ink skips a little bit i dont know if its ligit but im pretty sure it is
I just bought a Lamy safari fountain pen from Officeworks in Australia. $50 Aud. Then this video pops up on my feed! Lami are repackaged in Australia, so they're in a plastic see through pen box. Checked all your details , ok. But I've just checked out the distribution company and it's legit. Phew.
I wonder if there is any variation between an early version of a true Safari versus a current version to see if there is any variation and compare the early version with the fake. Maybe they are identical. I am just wondering if an early version was copied.
The one black safari I had in the video was an older version Maja purchased a while back. The details seemed very close to the newer one she supplied. I imagine over time there are some minor changes that do take place.
Good video I am between the Lamy safari LX, the Safari and the CP1 I never had a fountain pen but I want one of these three I don't know which one to buy
In addition to a Safari Savannah Green, I also recently purchased a Chinese Montblanc Boheme ("Bohemia") for about $16 shipped. An incredibly good fake, they are getting so good at copying things. It was an enjoyable way to have a Boheme-like-object in my rollerballs, as I like the form factor but have no interest in paying a secondhand MB dealer $500 for a discontinued pen. The refills that come for the knockoff MBs are not as good as real MB refills, but they are OK, and much cheaper. OK if not used for an EDC pen but for more of a "signing" pen.
My lamy safari has a slight misallignment of the nib and the body (they arent alligned in a straight line even when its fully screwed in) But it came with a nice black box with converter cartridge and warranty card. The seller in amazon is also connected to the official Lamy India website.
Would a third party be assembling these special editions in a foreign market and sourcing parts from different sources? Similar to Car manufacturing where a car is basically partially made in a country but internal parts came come from a bunch of other countries so there will be variances?
Most likely a 3rd party assembly. Could very well be some components being supplied from others. The "Made In Germany" part still suggests to me that the body is made in Germany, Lamy wouldn't allow that on the packing unless it was. But it wouldn't be a crazy stretch if other internal parts came from other suppliers/manufacturers for other markets, especially for these collabs.
At 6:35 it looks like the letters on the brown pen are very “blobby” compared to the real pens, especially in the R and the M. Isn’t this a good tell that it’s fake?
i wanna ask because I'm looking at buying some likely knock off Lamy's because I want two limited edition colors, are there any active reasons (besides value) that getting a fake Lamy would be a bad thing? Do they write worse? fail to function with Lamy Cartridges? Im fine to buy knock offs of the limited edition colors because myh job WILL destroy these over time but if they're going to be poor pens I want to know beforehand
Those hands don't like they are entirely mirrored it looks like the fingers in the background are slightly tilted differently on the right side I like it
Body is clearly a fake - at 6:40 the "Germany" is not as crisp as on the authentic pens. The font is noticeably thicker and the text looks warped (particularly the ERMA characters).
Are you aware of the Lamy - Lingmei association? According to what I have read, at least some pens sold in China with the Lamy brand stamped into them are actually imported from Germany and sometimes referred to as Lingmei, which is somehow a transliteration of the name Lamy. These are currently widely available on AliExpress and elsewhere for in the 15 to 16 USD range. And they claim to be made in Germany. These are way more expensive than a lot of the cheap knockoff Safari shaped pens that are only a dollar or two, and I have a few of these and none of them are stamped with Lamy brand. It's also possible that perhaps the nibs and feeds are actually made in China which could account for the shape variation you point out. I wish you had tried to see if all these nibs and feeds are completely interchangeable.
have you tried the jinhao 777, not really a fake. more like a clone since they still say JINHAO on them but they're really good. WAAAAY better than the 2$ they cost. (I've never used a real LAMY tho) but it kind of writes nicer than my kaweco sport
So, I bought a Lamy Vista on Amazon, got it about a week ago. Now I’d imagine it might be even harder to determine a counterfeit with these demonstrators? What say you?
I don't mind cheap copies like those made by Jinhao. Although these look similar to more expensive pens, they are not claiming to be them. However, I do object to fake pens pretending to be more expensive pens, like the counterfeit Lamys especially when they cost as much as the genuine article.
The feed is a dead giveaway that its a clone. It also looks like the pen body has been painted (the color fades away on the inner threads) and LAMY only makes injection molded Safari bodies.
My Lamy Safari arrived in the mail yesterday. I'm sure it's a fake, the pen didn't come in the cardboard box, it was unceremoniously placed in a small bubble wrap envelope inside the standard Amazon Prime package. However, it writes fairly well (I would have preferred black ink instead of blue.) does a better job than the $30 dollar Pilot pen I bought recently. I'm going to have to find some way of refilling it when the cartridge runs out of ink. At this point I'm not sure if it's worth buying an authentic Lamy pen, already in the hole for the Pilot not sure I want to invest any more money into pens that could be much better. Good video, I know what to look for should I decide on another Lamy pen.
I experienced the same unceremonious delivery of a Lamy Safari EF in bubble wrap from Amazon. I don’t care for the blue ink either but it writes nicely.
@@momme7125 I'm glad you're satisfied with your Lamy, I like the way it writes as well. There's a pen store in town, I hope they can find a suitable ink cartridge replacement for the Lamy and I can change over to black ink.
It is very difficult to judge the difference as things have minor changes batch to batch. I got one, I guess fake one, the pen was scratchy like hell. I returned it.
I almost wonder if they buy real pens, sell the legitimate internals off as spare parts, put in ripoff ones, and sell that as the real pen for a profit overall.
Hey Doodlebud. Sorry if you've been asked this a million times or if you've answered it in another video, but what feeler gauge widths do you typically use when checking nibs?
Omg stumbled across this just now. Just remebered few years back I got the exact same line brown lamy pens. For around 10-15 usd. Sent it back to the seller, cause it's scratchy and pretty sure it was fake. Wish I stumbled across this video back then.
I know this is an old video and it seems that you've come to a conclusion already, but I can't help but watch this video and point out a couple spots where I tend to disagree: 10:45 - I would argue the questionable one on top does not look the same. The 'hole' in the A looks wider, and the line made by the M and the Y is a different angle to the others, it looks like that right leg of the M is also thinner 20:30 - It looks to me like the tray on that questionable pen to the right has a wider groove between those two rails I know you talked a lot about the mold fingerprints, and while they were similar, it didn't seem *exactly* similar enough to me to totally disprove it as a fake. The blue one definitely stands out due to the poor molds but I think this aliexpress one is at a level between that and the real ones, it's much closer but not designed to be compared directly next to a true, real pen
I order tons of stuff online. Most of my high end pens have been bought this way. But not all online retailers are the same. Buy from regular retailers you wont have a problem. Aliexpress.... you have to be on the look out
I know that's a South Korean cartoon, but my initial impression was that it looked like a South Park character. It's not exactly the same, but it resembles the art style strongly IMHO.
I actually have a few super cheap Chinese knockoff safaris, and they are quite junky, nowhere near the quality of the knockoffs you are getting. Of course they don't say Lamy. Previously the best knockoff I got was a Jinhao 777, although it says Jinhao on it. I don't really mind copycats cuz they're not purporting to be the real thing. These things that actually say Lamy, that is just not cool. Makes it a real headache for shoppers who want the real thing and now we have to worry about fakes. At the moment there are tons of fake Safaris on eBay in the two origin colors green and reddish brown, but they all ship from China and strong feeling they're all knockoffs unfortunately. I also like trying out different pens and recently bought a knockoff Lamy Joy for like $3, and discovered that it is a fantastic art drawing pen, perfect shape. Now I'm going to definitely buy a real authentic Joy set. Don't think there are any close copies of that particular model, hopefully.
I've looked into AliExpress listing. They also offer Safaries in colors never been produced (gradients, etc). Totally fakes. P.S.: Have you removed my previous comment?
No never removed any of your comments. I don't really remove others. Sometimes the algorithm blocks stuff. Especially if there is a link in the comment
My guess is that brown was not a popular colour so Lamy’s inventory would have been a write off. Some marketing guru came up with a cutsie bear way of getting rid of the barrels. The Chinese Lamy style nibs write great in my experience so it was a win win situation. That is how business works.
They have a wide range of colours offered in this series, so not just brown. This exact collaborative offering was done previously but the price point was much higher. So don't think it's the case of nobody liked the brown colour
I wonder if that’s why AliExpress picked you to do this experiment they’re doing because you don’t see too many TH-camrs have a sponsorship from AliExpress. I wonder if they know that you’re such an intelligent engineer and are going to pick these pens apart and inadvertently give them information to help them create better fakes.
@@avgjoeshow4208 I mean sure, but they do not really care, as in China there is not really stopping it. So until their overseas customer form a much larger part of their business, they do not care where the truly discerning connoisseur can sus out that the pen that looks convincingly like a Lamy is in fact a well executed fake. And until the volume is large enough, and the fakes perhaps in a US based warehouse, neither does Lamy, as it is not worth money pursuing. Ergo why Amazon goes after fakes, to an extend, and mostly on high volume, or high dollar items. Thus Lamy makes a lot of new and limited colorways, since they get a window of sales fake need to take to catch up, by which time it is time for the next "exclusive" to be unleashed. This is easier and far more profitable than trying to play whack-a-mole with fakes out of China, where the system is against you, and recovery would be unlikely, while the next faker is right around the corner. Plus school kids need a new school pen each Fall, and replacements often, which they buy locally. Western collectors pay for exclusives via their favorite pen supplier, who keeps out fakes, lest Lamy cuts then out of the exclusive colors. So pragmatically very few people, besides real pen needs, care about the fakes. If all else fails, then the old adage that if it is too good of a deal to believe, then it is not real. Prices that are a fractions of what reputable resellers charge like mean it is a fake, so proceed at your own risk. Which is essentially what buying anything on AliExpress boils down to.
Think you're a bit too generous throwing around the term "intelligent" for your pal DB😅. I don't think there's anything in this video that pen makers aren't already aware of. But I did want to educate viewers on what to look for so they can assess if they have a pen where they are questioning the legitimacy. This one was priced so low I just had to check it out. They are also carrying high-end pens now like Pilots (e95s, 74, and 823) and Platinum 3776. The prices are a bit lower than other sites, but in alignment with where it should be. Figured this would be a good one to do a deep dive on.
@@Doodlebud absolutely. It was an excellent video and immensely valuable to the community. There was a time I searched spotting fake LAMYs for days on end because I was unsure about something. This video would have been a huge help then! But now it will be for all future fountain pen aficionados. And you are an intelligent engineer. The fountain pen community is better off having the insights into your points of view and the knowledge you pass on to us. It’s invaluable and I’m willing to bet there’s maybe a fraction of a percent of the community with the experience and keen eagle eye that you have for detail. If that. And your generous enough to share it with us all. I really appreciate your in depth, precise videos. Your one of the few channels that I enjoy so much I watch every video when I see it’s up, and inspire me to start making my own videos one day soon. Thank you brother!
This is a good video to give some perspective as to why we see so many replica items that come from China. I still don't agree with copying others' work, but this gives some really good perspective and the answer wasn't what I had assumed. th-cam.com/video/kwA6ACulqsw/w-d-xo.html
Was so great for her so supply me with some of her pens to do this video! I had so much fun taking them apart and combing over all the details. I wouldn't have been able to figure things out without her help. Hope this video can help people over time figure out the legitimacy of a pen they may have in question.
Sorry to disappoint but LAMY DON’T outsourced any of their manufacturing processes. Also, LAMY design and manufacture their own equipment too. Hence, it’s next to impossible for anyone outside LANY to try to copy and duplicate LAMY manufacturing processes. Also, LAMY lower priced pens such as Safari or ALL STARS are produced nearly fully automated. If there’s any ever slight variations, it would be in their higher priced pens where hand assembly are still used. This is the way LAMY prevent industrial espionage or to steal LAMY IP It’s awesome for a company like LAMY that do all things in-house from the designing to machinery to manufacturing to delivery too, yet selling some of the most affordable better quality pens
Price is a big one, but I noticed on aliexpress they are selling many high-end name-brand pens such as Pilot (e95s, 74, 823) and Platinum 3776. The price on those ones seem in alignment with what they should be. The price on this one was an outlier. Not so much for the pen itself, but for the Line Friends special edition. These ones go for a lot more since they are limited. I'm not sure how Lamy does things for pens in other markets or special collaborations. But the pen body to checks off every box that its legit. You can get a bunch of things right, but this one has everything bang on.
@@Doodlebud I dont buy much from Ali express. I think banggood is more copy stuff. I have often wondered about some oftheir stock being genuine. I have 2 x lamy safari's and was checking htem as you were going along, and I have the Lamy Al-Star blue aluminium fp. I had one safari given to me which is the demonstrator and it didnt have a nib. I fitted a nib, but it does not say lamy on it. I think they write quite well. The demonstrator has a decal on hte barrel for the Lamy name. The others are embossed. My first Lamy was a ballpoint. :)
@@Doodlebud I mean it could be genuine after all. However, for non-Chinese brands on AliExpress I would assume it is fake, and proceed from there. If it turn out to be real, then so much the better. At price parity I would shop somewhere less likely to list fakes. At a discount, perhaps roll the dice, and caveat emptor.
The language and syntax of the English instructions is not perfect - it's weird and malformed. The second sentence should have a present perfect continuous ('having never before developed...') and _'meets Line Friend's representing star Brown for collaboration edition'_ is incomprehensible. Still, if this is for the Chinese or East Asian market, the English might not be perfect, particularly if the local partner has responsibility.
Yours looks like a questionable real, lamy, fake. . Possibly real, possibly not. Does china make them for lamy ? China make parkers for parker company and as you know, china made the jinhoa (96 and 85 ?) to immitate the parker 51, but one has the screw on cap, the other has a different clip. Thery both write and handle just like the parker 51 and are a lot cheaper. China make a lot of things for a lot of companies and as they have the machinery to do it, they make their own version with the same machinery, but with subtle diffrences.
I'd be surprised if I knew anything they didn't already know. This video was to help viewers be equipped to know how to check a pen if they are questioning its legitimacy.
The same plane, the same point.. hehehe.. this is how you do it when you are and engineer. ... look at the finger, it goes through the center, and then look at the mirror image. . . " bla bla bla bla. hajahaha I can't stop replaying it. oh God.
Strange, TH-cam filters stuff automatically sometimes. If there are links they automatically do. Don't know what your previous comments were but also sometimes keywords get tagged & filtered
I'm so honoured you used my pens in this video (which was a truly /great/ video)! I have to admit that I keep those paper rings and I think I used the black Safari but just put the ring back on when I loaned it to you lol. Regarding the two-piece feed, I found reference to it having a "floating adjustment bar" that allows the user to adjust the amount of ink getting to the feed. Lamy's attention to detail is amazing and I appreciate it even more after watching your video. Hope your daughter likes the LINE Friends bear pen you got for her :)
Thanks so much again for the pens so I could make this video, would have been impossible without it! Ahh, didn't know the feed was meant to be adjusted, very interesting 👍
@@Doodlebud @Doodlebud You're very welcome! I didn't know that about the feed either. You might want to record how that adjustable feed thing works because I don't know anything about it; I just read about it on Fountain Pen Network (old thread) a few days ago!
@@Doodlebud .. Bro... I'm a mechanical engineer myself.. It was more of a Solidworks tutorials than pen review.. The things like centre line.. Mirroring and all.. I could feel it you love designing like me.. I used to use Solidworks and catia.. Before I started my own thing.. What do you use?? Reply awaited bro
Imagine someone calling Heidelberg and saying something along the line of “Hey, we found 500 overstock genuine Lamy feeds and EF nibs in our warehouse and, uhm, … we were wondering, Lamy, if you’d supply us with some brown bodies for a special project?” I somehow doubt that Lamy would sell even a small batch of genuine pens but sans nib/feed assembly. A “replacement parts” order, maybe?
If the pen body is a fake, it is scary good. To make a counterfeit operation work financially, you’d need to manufacture a minimum number of pens, since those injection molding forms do not come cheap. Going down that route, it might pay off to copy all the small details that you pointed out - to make a better fake than the competition. I can see how, if you expertise is in injection molding, you might want ot outsource the nib/feed/converter part.
Guys, I case you have a 30 year old Lamy or older, like I do. The cap doesn't have the hole, the nib doesn't come with logo, the leaving in the table uncaped test is not perfect. The "Germany" in the botton aligns different. Those were other times, Lamy got better at making their pens absolucty perfect over time. But if you really want to check: if you remove the black ring and look for the number, it's there. Mine is red Safari, hiden number 8, from 1990 if my father's memory is correct.
I own one bought also in the 90's but mine does not have the number under there.
Also my nib is like those boxy ones. It is still working after 30 years and besides some bleeding works very nice. Could there be so good copies already back then?
I wondered why one of my Lamys just wasn’t as good as I had come to expect. I’m going to have to get them all out and check. Great video.
I noticed the Mold Numbers on the Feed on the Genuine Lamy's were positioned to be read with the Nib End pointed down, and on the fakes they were oriented with the Nib End up.
Yup good eye
Thank you so much for this detailed video. I appreciate the fine details and close up shots of the parts in comparison. It's really helpful.
You have put a great effort in this video .. and some details finding are really interesting.... appreciable efforts man.
Love your work. Very nice lighting and camera angles
Ref the instructions: you don't need to have the cad drawings available to get things lined up properly. Any desktop publishing software will allow you to sort that out in moments. When it comes to fonts, it is really easy to make a font using scanned images from someone elses font; you can even make things like cartridges into a typable font if you choose.
I don’t know why but these people make the obvious mistakes when faking stuff.
This is why your my favorite DB! The details the deatails!!!!
Man, this one required me getting up so close on the tiny details to figure things out!
I'd love to see you take a look at the Moonman A1 Press - it looks like a pilot decimo/vanishing point... but for MUCH cheaper (and likely a steel nib).
I've seen them listed on Aliexpress. Might get one at some point. Don't have a vanishing point myself. They've just never appealed to much to me, but for the pice I might get an A1
32 minutes of valuable information, this was so helpful. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Just a thought about the cartridges supplied with the fake Lamy's - In a knock off pen factory, maybe it would be cheaper and easier to buy genuine cartridges in bulk, it would save them a lot of tooling and having a genuine cartridge come inside the pen would help them to look genuine. I wonder how many knock off factories there are making the Safari and if they use the same moulding tools, could be interesting to see their tooling fingerprints and compare them. Great video btw and it got me checking my charcoal grey Safari fountain pen - she's definately a real one lol. I reckon the font on the nibs gives it away when u look closely at the angles of the letter 'M' in Lamy.
If I were a betting man, I’d say that this is a semi-collaborative process. Depending upon the number of Line Friends units being made, it is conceivable that some parts were supplied by Lamy, with perhaps Lamy providing some additional molds or mold schematics and that some other parts were made in a different factory. It’s possible that this wasn’t marketed well or lacked distribution support from Lamy or Lamy insisted it be sold through different channels. That might account for the lower price points. It’s hard to believe that a knockoff would get the number of things dead on that they did. It’s also hard to imagine they could get Lamy nibs in quantity, if not sanctioned by Lamy.
Its a bit of a head-scratcher for sure! I think its a decent deal as it seems you're getting a "mostly?" legit safari with some neat packaging and add-ons that aren't available in the western market
I agree, not sure but Lamy does some collaborations sometimes, I saw one for Kinokuniya, which is a Japanese-based retailer usually for books/manga and stuff coming from Japan. But there's another collaboration with line friends but it came inside a metal case.
It's very easy to copy moulds with the finished product, nevertheless you have a point. Also, copying a product hypes up the original product. Lamy benefits as long as they keep their pens even slightly better.
Thanks for the great video, very interesting and entertaining… I have the Line Friends Brown Special Edition Safari. I have the edition with the tray and larger Bear, as well as the small bear for the clip. Two interesting things… my feed shows the Lamy Blue ink from testing as other Lamy pens do… also BROWN is mechanically engraved into the back of the cap (where there would be a cap ring)
Very interesting and detailed…… thank you for taking the time to figure out the differences and make this video!
Glad you enjoyed it, this was something I was curious about myself. I'm not a big safari fan but thought this would be interesting to learn more about the pen (real & fakes)
@@Doodlebud I am new to fountain pens, less than a year since the purchase of my first pen…a Lamy Safari!
Once I wrote with it, I was hooked! I have indeed bought, just a few more pens, (like 8-10). Some of them are as simple as a preppy platinum, and and others are much more expensive (Kaweco sport), and I love them all for different reasons!
My new favorite pen-related phrase: "That's very engineery for you."
This was a FANTASTIC video. The "fingerprint" stuff was very interesting.
By the end of the video, I was convinced that you had a genuine Lamy. Then, you did the writing sample. When it wrote just fine, I knew it was a counterfeit since Lamy steel nibs are some of the worst and most inconsistent nibs out there. OK, maybe I am exaggerating a bit but it doesn't mean it's untrue and possibly supports the idea that the nib and feed were outsourced.
Great stuff as always. I love the technical details that you provide over and over again.
LOL, I dont have many Lamy pens but the ones I do have worked pretty good out of the box. This EF nib writes a decent EF line. I do with the EF on my Lamy 2000 was a finer line this like one. Glad you enjoyed the technical deep dive I had to do to figure out the story of this pen 👍
I thought it was a very good fake all along but once I saw the feed it was a done deal. VERY GOOD fake.
Your Line Friends is a very well done fake.
Go back and at look at the top of the cap at the "X", the fake is straight where the authentic version is slightly curved or rounded as it gets towards the cap edge. The Barrel Imprint also is missing the correct Lamy imprint at the end, where the "A" and "M" are joined on the real version that intersection point is lower and aligns with the horizontal bar of the "A" you will also notice the hollowed area of the :A" is also different, the real logo is is crisp and not raised as high.
The "discolored" Brown pen is actually a painted pen where the base plastic is black. I have hundreds of these Authentic Lamy Safari pens.
Any Lamy on Ali Express is fake.
One comment regarding cartridges supplied in China. Legal documents have to be written in black ink rather than the blue ink that is customary in the West. Black cartidges are thus standard on pens supplied to China.
I worked for a start up tech company that was partially owned by a bank and we had our first office space in the bank. I asked if they had any pens with black ink (not a fan of blue ballpoints, they're extra smudgy and I'm a lefty) and got such a look of horror. "We never use black ink - we wouldn't want to take the risk of confusing a copy of a document with the original". Makes sense for them. They also couldn't understand why we as software developers didn't need a desktop calculator. We worked with numbers didn't we? ;)
What I want to know is why the hell you’d actually make a copy of a Safari. It’ll probably be a lot more expensive than the actual.
Yeah, it sounds odd - however, some limited editions go for big money, and if you live in a country that doesn't have a great economy, then you might struggle to afford things that seem cheap to people in richer countries. So if someone can afford a Lamy Safari without worrying about the cost, they can consider themselves lucky because in some countries it can cost the equivalent of a couple of days' wages.
Very interesting! Thank you so much for making this video, such an interesting topic!
Waouw
Very deep investigation !
Thanks for having done this work for us
To make such a perfect copy woul have been very costly for the copier
I guess I will call mine a genuine cousin ;)
As an autistic European Lamy Safari fan; this video is so useful! I can get new genuine Lamy pens pretty easily if I want to (I could just walk into any stationery store here and just buy one, lol), but it's not like the market of my country is immune to fakes. i'm glad that most stores here wouldn't sell fakes since genuine stock is easier and cheaper for them to get, though (also, they probably have the expertise to spot a fake one). Some fakes are obvious for a comsumer like me to spot, but some of these 'well-made fakes' are so well faked that I otherwise couldn't tell if I don't know the details to keep an eye out for. But thanks to you, I can now actually spot a fake since I now actually know what details to look for. Because let's face it; if anyone would catch those more minute signs of a fake, it would be an autistic woman like me 🤣
First, in a real pen, whoever does the illustrations for the booklet is not the engineer. It's a designer or an illustrator. Any designer or illustrator worth their salt will be capable of producing very precise artwork, even if doing a bootleg copy (you only need to design the booklet once, so it pays to do it well on the first go).
Second, "reproducing fonts is hard". It isn't if the fonts are common ones (as Germans are wont to use). The "Lamy" logo is more likely drawn rather than being a font (It may have started out originally with a font, but designers soon change lines and spacing here and there to make the logo better, clearer, more appealing.
Third, on the cardboard ring, the spacing between the words and the slash is different. On the originals it is "Entfernen / Remove" on the fake it is "Remove/Entfernen" (mind you the order of the words is flipped as well).
I'm sure there'll be more.
I just bought a lamy safari petrol it came with a blue black / blue ink cartridge with a converter it writes well and it passed every test tho its ink skips a little bit i dont know if its ligit but im pretty sure it is
The spacer that protects the cartridge also had a space before and after the “/“ symbol where the one in question did not.
Did you know you're suppose to take the nib off with the cap? It's designed that way.
He does! Demonstrated it in a diff video of his
So much detail on a pen. I watched quite a bit of it.
Your observations is piece of art.
I am kinda saddened you didn't weigh the pens or break out the calipers .
I can tell it's fake because you ordered it on aliexpress.
Yup, end of story.
So easy, lmao waste of time.
Amazon has sold many fake items as well. Mitutoyo calipers come to mind.
@@836dmar Oh for sure, but if it's from Amazon it might be real. If it's from aliexpress it's definitely fake.
A great topic !!!! Always worry about getting knockoffs !!!!
Me too! I just recorded as I went through to figure out if this thing is legit or not
I just bought a Lamy safari fountain pen from Officeworks in Australia. $50 Aud. Then this video pops up on my feed! Lami are repackaged in Australia, so they're in a plastic see through pen box. Checked all your details , ok. But I've just checked out the distribution company and it's legit. Phew.
I wonder if there is any variation between an early version of a true Safari versus a current version to see if there is any variation and compare the early version with the fake. Maybe they are identical. I am just wondering if an early version was copied.
The one black safari I had in the video was an older version Maja purchased a while back. The details seemed very close to the newer one she supplied. I imagine over time there are some minor changes that do take place.
I'd be really interrested in an assessment of this from a Lamy engineer. I bet they have a contact address on their site (o:
Good video I am between the Lamy safari LX, the Safari and the CP1 I never had a fountain pen but I want one of these three I don't know which one to buy
What a great video. Very informative. Thanks a lot.
In addition to a Safari Savannah Green, I also recently purchased a Chinese Montblanc Boheme ("Bohemia") for about $16 shipped. An incredibly good fake, they are getting so good at copying things. It was an enjoyable way to have a Boheme-like-object in my rollerballs, as I like the form factor but have no interest in paying a secondhand MB dealer $500 for a discontinued pen. The refills that come for the knockoff MBs are not as good as real MB refills, but they are OK, and much cheaper. OK if not used for an EDC pen but for more of a "signing" pen.
My lamy safari has a slight misallignment of the nib and the body (they arent alligned in a straight line even when its fully screwed in) But it came with a nice black box with converter cartridge and warranty card. The seller in amazon is also connected to the official Lamy India website.
Great video! I ended up ordering two of them for my kids. Keep up the good content.
The font on the ring is not the same as the genuine Lamy. The Lamy font is condensed.
ad a white one from the same line as well and the fountain pen Community was not able to tell if it was real or not as well.
Would a third party be assembling these special editions in a foreign market and sourcing parts from different sources? Similar to Car manufacturing where a car is basically partially made in a country but internal parts came come from a bunch of other countries so there will be variances?
Most likely a 3rd party assembly. Could very well be some components being supplied from others. The "Made In Germany" part still suggests to me that the body is made in Germany, Lamy wouldn't allow that on the packing unless it was. But it wouldn't be a crazy stretch if other internal parts came from other suppliers/manufacturers for other markets, especially for these collabs.
At 6:35 it looks like the letters on the brown pen are very “blobby” compared to the real pens, especially in the R and the M. Isn’t this a good tell that it’s fake?
i wanna ask because I'm looking at buying some likely knock off Lamy's because I want two limited edition colors, are there any active reasons (besides value) that getting a fake Lamy would be a bad thing? Do they write worse? fail to function with Lamy Cartridges? Im fine to buy knock offs of the limited edition colors because myh job WILL destroy these over time but if they're going to be poor pens I want to know beforehand
Great job Doodlebud.
The Lamy safari nibs in Norway have stamped lettering and not laser engraved ones, am i being scammed by my local bookstores??
No idea on that one
Those hands don't like they are entirely mirrored it looks like the fingers in the background are slightly tilted differently on the right side I like it
Body is clearly a fake - at 6:40 the "Germany" is not as crisp as on the authentic pens. The font is noticeably thicker and the text looks warped (particularly the ERMA characters).
instant way to find out in the brown lamy safari.... the legitimate will have "BROWN" engraved in the cap
Are you aware of the Lamy - Lingmei association? According to what I have read, at least some pens sold in China with the Lamy brand stamped into them are actually imported from Germany and sometimes referred to as Lingmei, which is somehow a transliteration of the name Lamy. These are currently widely available on AliExpress and elsewhere for in the 15 to 16 USD range. And they claim to be made in Germany. These are way more expensive than a lot of the cheap knockoff Safari shaped pens that are only a dollar or two, and I have a few of these and none of them are stamped with Lamy brand. It's also possible that perhaps the nibs and feeds are actually made in China which could account for the shape variation you point out. I wish you had tried to see if all these nibs and feeds are completely interchangeable.
have you tried the jinhao 777, not really a fake. more like a clone since they still say JINHAO on them but they're really good. WAAAAY better than the 2$ they cost. (I've never used a real LAMY tho) but it kind of writes nicer than my kaweco sport
So, I bought a Lamy Vista on Amazon, got it about a week ago. Now I’d imagine it might be even harder to determine a counterfeit with these demonstrators? What say you?
I don't mind cheap copies like those made by Jinhao. Although these look similar to more expensive pens, they are not claiming to be them. However, I do object to fake pens pretending to be more expensive pens, like the counterfeit Lamys especially when they cost as much as the genuine article.
The feed is a dead giveaway that its a clone. It also looks like the pen body has been painted (the color fades away on the inner threads) and LAMY only makes injection molded Safari bodies.
Any news on getting the discount code working again?
No reply yet, I will update if I hear anything
its a $30 pen.
My Lamy Safari arrived in the mail yesterday. I'm sure it's a fake, the pen didn't come in the cardboard box, it was unceremoniously placed in a small bubble wrap envelope inside the standard Amazon Prime package. However, it writes fairly well (I would have preferred black ink instead of blue.) does a better job than the $30 dollar Pilot pen I bought recently. I'm going to have to find some way of refilling it when the cartridge runs out of ink. At this point I'm not sure if it's worth buying an authentic Lamy pen, already in the hole for the Pilot not sure I want to invest any more money into pens that could be much better. Good video, I know what to look for should I decide on another Lamy pen.
I experienced the same unceremonious delivery of a Lamy Safari EF in bubble wrap from Amazon. I don’t care for the blue ink either but it writes nicely.
@@momme7125 I'm glad you're satisfied with your Lamy, I like the way it writes as well. There's a pen store in town, I hope they can find a suitable ink cartridge replacement for the Lamy and I can change over to black ink.
It is very difficult to judge the difference as things have minor changes batch to batch. I got one, I guess fake one, the pen was scratchy like hell. I returned it.
Dear Mr Doodlebud, What will help us to know where to purchase, and where to avoid please! Many thanks,
kari, Victoria, BC
I almost wonder if they buy real pens, sell the legitimate internals off as spare parts, put in ripoff ones, and sell that as the real pen for a profit overall.
very interesting video.. thanks Doodlebud
Glad you enjoyed my vid. I'm still not 100% sure, as they could have stepped up their game big time & are making insane copies!
I see a bunch of other issues. The capital "E" for example is different on your version. The real one uses a condensed typeface.
I think it's possible it's a refurbished body with an aftermarket feed, nib and converter
The Engrish on the first page of the booklet is also a giveaway.
What about manufacturer defects? This does happen.
Defects happen with all manufactured products
Hey Doodlebud. Sorry if you've been asked this a million times or if you've answered it in another video, but what feeler gauge widths do you typically use when checking nibs?
0.0015" (0.38mm) is the one I try to get nibs close to. A bit narrower is ok, but in and around those #s
@@Doodlebud sounds good. Thank you so much!
Omg stumbled across this just now. Just remebered few years back I got the exact same line brown lamy pens. For around 10-15 usd. Sent it back to the seller, cause it's scratchy and pretty sure it was fake. Wish I stumbled across this video back then.
IThese Lamys may be what the factory discarded due to some minor manufacturing defects. And they sold as "B" grade in chinese market.
I know this is an old video and it seems that you've come to a conclusion already, but I can't help but watch this video and point out a couple spots where I tend to disagree:
10:45 - I would argue the questionable one on top does not look the same. The 'hole' in the A looks wider, and the line made by the M and the Y is a different angle to the others, it looks like that right leg of the M is also thinner
20:30 - It looks to me like the tray on that questionable pen to the right has a wider groove between those two rails
I know you talked a lot about the mold fingerprints, and while they were similar, it didn't seem *exactly* similar enough to me to totally disprove it as a fake. The blue one definitely stands out due to the poor molds but I think this aliexpress one is at a level between that and the real ones, it's much closer but not designed to be compared directly next to a true, real pen
Other pen reviewer : Released 30 min ( Omg so boring )
Doodlebud: released 30 min ( so interesting)
LOL thx buddy 😁
The G and M in Germany looked a bit off to me not as crisp as the legit one
There are exceptions of course, but generally speaking If the packaging is required to identify a fake, the original isn't all that great.
It’s not the same character spacing, there is a gap on the real Lameys between the divider line and the first and last font
This is why I hate ordering things off online
I order tons of stuff online. Most of my high end pens have been bought this way. But not all online retailers are the same. Buy from regular retailers you wont have a problem. Aliexpress.... you have to be on the look out
Which one is the real one again? I'm lost.
I know that's a South Korean cartoon, but my initial impression was that it looked like a South Park character. It's not exactly the same, but it resembles the art style strongly IMHO.
El alimentador de una pieza es del año 1980.
I actually have a few super cheap Chinese knockoff safaris, and they are quite junky, nowhere near the quality of the knockoffs you are getting. Of course they don't say Lamy. Previously the best knockoff I got was a Jinhao 777, although it says Jinhao on it. I don't really mind copycats cuz they're not purporting to be the real thing. These things that actually say Lamy, that is just not cool. Makes it a real headache for shoppers who want the real thing and now we have to worry about fakes. At the moment there are tons of fake Safaris on eBay in the two origin colors green and reddish brown, but they all ship from China and strong feeling they're all knockoffs unfortunately. I also like trying out different pens and recently bought a knockoff Lamy Joy for like $3, and discovered that it is a fantastic art drawing pen, perfect shape. Now I'm going to definitely buy a real authentic Joy set. Don't think there are any close copies of that particular model, hopefully.
I've looked into AliExpress listing. They also offer Safaries in colors never been produced (gradients, etc). Totally fakes.
P.S.: Have you removed my previous comment?
No never removed any of your comments. I don't really remove others. Sometimes the algorithm blocks stuff. Especially if there is a link in the comment
My guess is that brown was not a popular colour so Lamy’s inventory would have been a write off. Some marketing guru came up with a cutsie bear way of getting rid of the barrels. The Chinese Lamy style nibs write great in my experience so it was a win win situation. That is how business works.
They have a wide range of colours offered in this series, so not just brown. This exact collaborative offering was done previously but the price point was much higher. So don't think it's the case of nobody liked the brown colour
@@Doodlebud Well brown isn't even really a color. Se technology connections video on that.
I´ve bought Platinum Preppy from Ali and this one fake I am sure....
I wonder if that’s why AliExpress picked you to do this experiment they’re doing because you don’t see too many TH-camrs have a sponsorship from AliExpress. I wonder if they know that you’re such an intelligent engineer and are going to pick these pens apart and inadvertently give them information to help them create better fakes.
AliExpress doesn't make the pens. They are just a platform like eBay. I doubt they care greatly one way or other.
@@martinlebl631 I didn’t mean AliExpress like they physically make the pens themselves. I meant like their vendors that do.
@@avgjoeshow4208 I mean sure, but they do not really care, as in China there is not really stopping it. So until their overseas customer form a much larger part of their business, they do not care where the truly discerning connoisseur can sus out that the pen that looks convincingly like a Lamy is in fact a well executed fake. And until the volume is large enough, and the fakes perhaps in a US based warehouse, neither does Lamy, as it is not worth money pursuing. Ergo why Amazon goes after fakes, to an extend, and mostly on high volume, or high dollar items. Thus Lamy makes a lot of new and limited colorways, since they get a window of sales fake need to take to catch up, by which time it is time for the next "exclusive" to be unleashed. This is easier and far more profitable than trying to play whack-a-mole with fakes out of China, where the system is against you, and recovery would be unlikely, while the next faker is right around the corner. Plus school kids need a new school pen each Fall, and replacements often, which they buy locally. Western collectors pay for exclusives via their favorite pen supplier, who keeps out fakes, lest Lamy cuts then out of the exclusive colors. So pragmatically very few people, besides real pen needs, care about the fakes. If all else fails, then the old adage that if it is too good of a deal to believe, then it is not real. Prices that are a fractions of what reputable resellers charge like mean it is a fake, so proceed at your own risk. Which is essentially what buying anything on AliExpress boils down to.
Think you're a bit too generous throwing around the term "intelligent" for your pal DB😅. I don't think there's anything in this video that pen makers aren't already aware of. But I did want to educate viewers on what to look for so they can assess if they have a pen where they are questioning the legitimacy. This one was priced so low I just had to check it out. They are also carrying high-end pens now like Pilots (e95s, 74, and 823) and Platinum 3776. The prices are a bit lower than other sites, but in alignment with where it should be. Figured this would be a good one to do a deep dive on.
@@Doodlebud absolutely. It was an excellent video and immensely valuable to the community. There was a time I searched spotting fake LAMYs for days on end because I was unsure about something. This video would have been a huge help then! But now it will be for all future fountain pen aficionados.
And you are an intelligent engineer. The fountain pen community is better off having the insights into your points of view and the knowledge you pass on to us. It’s invaluable and I’m willing to bet there’s maybe a fraction of a percent of the community with the experience and keen eagle eye that you have for detail. If that. And your generous enough to share it with us all.
I really appreciate your in depth, precise videos. Your one of the few channels that I enjoy so much I watch every video when I see it’s up, and inspire me to start making my own videos one day soon. Thank you brother!
What baffles me is the extremes some fakers go to match the pen as close as possible rather than using that same time to design one.
Especially relatively cheap injection molded pen at that.
This is a good video to give some perspective as to why we see so many replica items that come from China. I still don't agree with copying others' work, but this gives some really good perspective and the answer wasn't what I had assumed.
th-cam.com/video/kwA6ACulqsw/w-d-xo.html
I'm Foist!!!!!! LOL Great video. I love my Lamy Safari "Charcoal", great edc pen.
Maja!
Was so great for her so supply me with some of her pens to do this video! I had so much fun taking them apart and combing over all the details. I wouldn't have been able to figure things out without her help. Hope this video can help people over time figure out the legitimacy of a pen they may have in question.
Sorry to disappoint but LAMY DON’T outsourced any of their manufacturing processes. Also, LAMY design and manufacture their own equipment too. Hence, it’s next to impossible for anyone outside LANY to try to copy and duplicate LAMY manufacturing processes. Also, LAMY lower priced pens such as Safari or ALL STARS are produced nearly fully automated.
If there’s any ever slight variations, it would be in their higher priced pens where hand assembly are still used.
This is the way LAMY prevent industrial espionage or to steal LAMY IP
It’s awesome for a company like LAMY that do all things in-house from the designing to machinery to manufacturing to delivery too, yet selling some of the most affordable better quality pens
I would also say, coming from Aliexpress, it is a fake. I see banggood had almost stopped sellig fountain pens and their prices have gone sky high.
Origin and price suggest a fake no matter how well it matches the real thing. If this is a fake, then it us a really convincing one.
Price is a big one, but I noticed on aliexpress they are selling many high-end name-brand pens such as Pilot (e95s, 74, 823) and Platinum 3776. The price on those ones seem in alignment with what they should be. The price on this one was an outlier. Not so much for the pen itself, but for the Line Friends special edition. These ones go for a lot more since they are limited. I'm not sure how Lamy does things for pens in other markets or special collaborations. But the pen body to checks off every box that its legit. You can get a bunch of things right, but this one has everything bang on.
@@Doodlebud I dont buy much from Ali express. I think banggood is more copy stuff. I have often wondered about some oftheir stock being genuine. I have 2 x lamy safari's and was checking htem as you were going along, and I have the Lamy Al-Star blue aluminium fp. I had one safari given to me which is the demonstrator and it didnt have a nib. I fitted a nib, but it does not say lamy on it. I think they write quite well. The demonstrator has a decal on hte barrel for the Lamy name. The others are embossed. My first Lamy was a ballpoint. :)
@@Doodlebud I mean it could be genuine after all. However, for non-Chinese brands on AliExpress I would assume it is fake, and proceed from there. If it turn out to be real, then so much the better. At price parity I would shop somewhere less likely to list fakes. At a discount, perhaps roll the dice, and caveat emptor.
All that effort to figure out if a $30 pen is fake?
I had to know.... The depths engineers go to get an answer can be extreme
Instantly I'm saying it's fake because the the flash on the pen observation hole. I'll come back at the end of the video.
The language and syntax of the English instructions is not perfect - it's weird and malformed. The second sentence should have a present perfect continuous ('having never before developed...') and _'meets Line Friend's representing star Brown for collaboration edition'_ is incomprehensible. Still, if this is for the Chinese or East Asian market, the English might not be perfect, particularly if the local partner has responsibility.
The fount on the card spacer is a different fount!!!!!!! It is NOT a legit spacer.
Yours looks like a questionable real, lamy, fake. . Possibly real, possibly not.
Does china make them for lamy ? China make parkers for parker company and as you know, china made the jinhoa (96 and 85 ?) to immitate the parker 51, but one has the screw on cap, the other has a different clip. Thery both write and handle just like the parker 51 and are a lot cheaper.
China make a lot of things for a lot of companies and as they have the machinery to do it, they make their own version with the same machinery, but with subtle diffrences.
Don't make them any wiser!!
I'd be surprised if I knew anything they didn't already know. This video was to help viewers be equipped to know how to check a pen if they are questioning its legitimacy.
Font is not same.
👀 Well, I bought mine in Germany, so I know mine is legit 😌😏
If you have to convince me it's real in the description on any website, it's probably a bad sign. 😉
You’d know if it was from a Chinese website, sold at a suspiciously low price 😅
Are you AvE?
The same plane, the same point.. hehehe.. this is how you do it when you are and engineer. ... look at the finger, it goes through the center, and then look at the mirror image. . . " bla bla bla bla. hajahaha I can't stop replaying it. oh God.
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@@Doodlebud my previous two comments have mysteriously dissapeared. Magic.
Strange, TH-cam filters stuff automatically sometimes. If there are links they automatically do. Don't know what your previous comments were but also sometimes keywords get tagged & filtered