A New Fascination - The LAMY Unic

November 30, 2014

The LAMY Unic? Is this a model that a lot of people have heard of? I certainly knew nothing about the pen up until about 6 months ago. I do recollect seeing one on FPN awhile back where it was listed as a "rare model" and was quite pricey, but at the time I didn't really engage with it.

I was perusing the deep, dark corners of LAMY's website and stumbled upon a really neat page called the Design History. I don't believe it has every variation of every model (which would be awesome), but in a nutshell it is a sort of design timeline of LAMY pens which is super cool. In flipping through the timeline I stumbled upon the year 1984 where I saw this:

Uhhhh.... cool? Why haven't I seen this before?! Oh. They are discontinued...

Upon reading the page about the LAMY Unic a bit further, one finds out that the designer of the pen is none other than Gerd A. Müller, the designer behind the LAMY 2000, their flagship product. This is one of four designs by Müller for LAMY: the 2000, cp1, st, and unic. The man has quite a legacy and it is a shame that this stunning beauty is tucked away in the corners of a timeline rather than gracing thousands of desks today.

The images in the post are from my Instagram feed.

The Gerd A. Müller Collection: 2000, cp1, st, and unics — The Gerd A. Müller Collection: 2000, cp1, st, and unics

As it usually does, when I am intrigued by a pen, particularly those that are difficult to find, I am instantly on the hunt. I scour forums, auction sites...all ends of the internet to see if I can track down more info, or even a pen for that matter.

My luck struck pretty quickly on eBay where I was first able to acquire a stainless steel Unic fountain pen. I was thrilled and couldn't wait to open the package when it arrived.

I have subsequently acquired three additional Unic pens: a black fountain pen and ballpoint as well as a stainless steel ballpoint, of course, to match the fountain pen. The black versions have a bit of a story as a friend on Instagram, Marcellix, was kind enough to work out a deal with me to get my hands on the fountain and ballpoint set.

The stainless ballpoint I purchased from an eBay type site called Martini Auctions which is out of Germany. I had never bought from them before, but a friend said he had so I felt more comfortable. They have a ton of pens, but the pricing can be really high. Although, I got this ballpoint for 55 Euros which isn't cheap, but compared to prices I've seen it was a steal (not steel...wow).

As you can tell, this post isn't really a "review", but more an awareness post for now. Actual reviews will be forthcoming in time, but I thought it interesting to share as I always love finding out about pens that are amazing, but for some reason have fallen out of production. Sounds a bit like the rOtring 600s and Pilot MYU/Murex?

Why do companies do this? It isn't like LAMY went through a restructure or merger. (or at least I think they didn't) It must boil down to either production costs or lack of popularity. I mean, LAMY sells a lot of pens and there are similar pens available like the Logo, st, or cp1, so why no Unic? If anyone knows someone that works for LAMY...

Black Friday Sales at Pen Chalet and Karas Kustoms

November 28, 2014

A couple of The Clicky Post's site sponsors, Pen Chalet and Karas Kustoms, are running some pretty awesome Black Friday sales at the moment.

Pen Chalet -

They have running a Black Friday discount list as well as an additional 15% off when using the promo code BLACK15 at checkout.

Karas Kustoms -

The fellas over at Karas Kustoms are offering 20% off any purchase with the promo code BLACKFRIDAY at checkout.

Levenger True Writer Element Fountain Pen - B Nib

November 27, 2014

I think I was perusing an issue of Pen World or even Levenger's site when I stumbled upon a newer release from their line, the True Writer Element edition. It intrigued me and stood out as a pen I wanted to review at some point, and oddly enough the folks over at Levenger reached out and asked if I might be interested in reviewing a pen.

Of course, I picked the Element... Thanks to Levenger for sending this my way.

The first thing that stands out to me about the Element is the texture on the shiny metal barrel. There is a design either etched, engraved, or stamped during production that spans both the barrel and cap which makes it look almost braided. If the pen had just a smooth metal barrel, I think it would look like just "any other pen" of its kind, but the texture really makes it stand out. I find it to be a handsome looking pen.

Being mostly metal, the pen has a good weight and heft, but not what I would consider to be overly heavy. The pen can be written with while posted which I wouldn't necessarily think of as annoying, but I do find that taking the cap off balances things considerably. To some people, posting is a really big deal.

The section is made from a black plastic or acrylic and transitions at a gentle taper towards the nib. No dramatic drop offs and the move from the threads to the grip isn't uncomfortable.

Lets talk about the threads; I love the threads. I've seen threads like these on some other pens, but this is the first pen to come into my possession with them. I refer to them as "chunky" threads. What I mean be chunky is that they are wide and there are only a few of them. Most pens employ really tight threads, but I dig the look of this. Seems such a silly thing to grab my attention, but I do like it. I've mainly seen it on Visconti and Montegrappa pens.

The True Writer is a cartridge/converter filling system and they send one of the really nice international converters with the pen. I like that. When a seemingly nice pen gets a cheap-o converter it kind of irritates me. So, kudos to Levenger.

I filled the pen with Noodler's 54th Massachusetts (which these pics don't seem to do justice) as it is a great blue black (sort of in my opinion...color wise) and has nice shading with larger nibs. I requested a broad on this one as I've been getting further into enjoying the way the ink looks on the page. Broads and stubs create such a different dimension with the inks and are a lot of fun to write with.

The writing sample is written on a Rhodia dotPad which is definitely one of my day-to-day papers of choice specifically for fountain pen use.

The nib... (sigh) When it writes it does pretty good, but it has a lot of feedback which makes the experience fairly dry and scratchy. I do like some feedback on my nibs, but this one is a little much. The nib is also plagued with some slow starting which frustrates longer writing stints. Even in 5 second intervals at writing vertical lines, the nib behaves pretty poorly. I believe Brad Dowdy swapped in a TWSBI nib to his as they are an exact match, but I'll try it out and see. I really like the pen design and barrel, but the nib makes things a bit tough.

Overall, I think the True Writer Element is a solid pen. Classy design, good weight and feel, and when it writes on good stints it is ok. If I can get some better flow through a different nib, I'd imagine this one could see the rotation frequently.