With the Lamy range of pens being so popular all around the globe, we constantly see a wide range of questions being asked by people who are looking for information on the best models within the range or how to get the most out of their pen once purchased. More recently though, we have noticed more and more people reaching out specifically about the accessories from the Lamy range such as their ink refill cartridges and although we have already published a few articles on their ink refills, we want to publish our ultimate Lamy m63 vs m66 comparison today.
This is due to a number of people reaching out about both the Lamy m63 and the Lamy m66 recently and getting them confused with each other as well as what the refills are actually for. Our hope is that our article will be able to help any of our readers who do use pens from the Lamy range and ensure that you are getting the correct cartridge for your specific pen as well as help you out with a few tips and tricks for the cartridges.
Lamy M63 Vs M66
The most common mistakes that we see people make when it comes to the Lamy m63 and the m66 is that they are NOT interchangeable with each other. They are designed for use in different pens within the Lamy range and the internal mechanisms for them are different to each other so you are not able to hot swap the ink refills between the two types of pen.
An easy way to remember it is that the Lamy m63 has been designed for use with the capped pen models from the Lamy range such as the Lamy 2000, Lamy Studio, and Lamy Safari. On the flipside of this, the Lamy m66 has been designed for use with the capless pen models from the Lamy range including the Lamy Swift and Lamy Dialog 2.
The two ink refills also have very different reputations to each other amongst the community too with the Lamy m63 having a great reputation where as the Lamy m66 does leave much to be desired and has a more controversial reputation. Thankfully though, the popular pen models from the Lamy range are all from their capped range meaning that most people will be using the Lamy m63 anyway so won’t run into any issues with their ink refills.
The Lamy M63
The Lamy m63 is the more popular ink refill from the Lamy range due to the pens that it supports having the larger market share by far when compared to the rest of the pens of the Lamy range. Although official figures have not been released, it is estimated that the Lamy 2000 the flagship pen model of the Lamy range and the Lamy Safari, their entry level option that is considering king of the entry level pens make up for over 50% of their market share.
As both of these pens use the Lamy m63 ink refill as well as the majority of the other models from the Lamy range also using the m63, we would estimate that as much as 80% of the total Lamy market share is made up from their capped pen models using the Lamy m63 ink refill. As we touched on above, the m63 does tend to offer a better writing experience than the m66 while also being easier to source in local stationary stores meaning the vast majority of people who do use Lamy pens will be using the better ink refill option.
Due to the design of the Lamy m63 being proprietary, it is hard for third-party brands to make their own, cheaper variant of the m63 ink refill. That said though, we always recommend that our readers go with the official ink refill for cartridge or refill based pens to ensure that they get the best performance possible. There are countless stories from all pen brands of people having an absolute nightmare due to using third-part refill options that are usually only a dollar or two cheaper than the official option.
Although there is no exact third-party option on the market, you are able to make your own Lamy m63 alternative ink refills to open up what you are able to do with the pen. That said though, for most people who just want a general use ballpoint pen for writing, the standard m63 ink refill will be able to get the job done without issue and ensure you get a great writing experience out of your pen model of choice.
The Lamy M66
Moving on to the more controversial Lamy m66 ink refill that tends to divide the community but as we touched on above, the cappless pen models from the Lamy range tend to make up a much smaller marketshare than their Capped pens meaning that only a small number of people will be needing to use the Lamy m66 in the grand scheme of things. That said though, we have seen reports of people initially opting to go with a Lamy pen that used the m66 and then disliking the refill so much that they have switched over to a capped model from Lamy or decided to just go with a competing pen brand all togeather.
The writing experience of the Lamy m66 ink refill does seem to be a lot more inconsistant than that of the m63 and this is one of the main complaints against the m66 from the community. Even if you purchase a bulk pack of m66 ink refills that were all made from the same production run, some of the refills in the pack may write a little finer than expected where as some may write a little broader than expected and some may write as you thought they would.
Depending on what you are doing, this inconsistency in the performance of the m66 can be enough to put you off using any of the Lamy pen models that rely on it as their ink refill. In addition to this, just like the m63, the design of the refill is also proprietary and although you can kind of make your own Lamy m66 alternative refill, it is not perfect and the official refill will almost always out perform the alternative.
Another common complaint about the m66 is that it is only available with a nib size of medium or broad. Although the medium nib size does tend to be the most popular option in the west, outright refusing to support extra-fine, fine, fine-medium, and double-broad has pushed more criticism to an already controversial ink refill.
Conclusion
That brings our ultimate Lamy m63 vs m66 comparison article to an end. As we have mentioned, the majority of people who choose to use a pen from the Lamy range will be using the better m63 ink refill anyway but the people who do use the pens that rely on the m66 do tend to have a slightly worse experience. On top of this, there are ways that you are able to make a suitable m63 alternative refill if needed where as this option is not available for the pens using the m66 refill.
If you are yet to purchase your Lamy pen and are doing your initial research on refills prior to settling on your pen of choice, we would recommend that you go with a pen such as the Lamy Safari for an entry level price point pen or the Lamy 2000 for an intermediate price point pen. As both models use the m63 ink refill you will tend to have a better writing experience with either option moving forward.
