During March Madness, Lamy released a bracket filled with their own pens. The Lamy 2000 won. In winning it inspired friend of the blog Brad Dowdy started a rant that deserves more backing. He wants an orange Lamy 2000. I loved to see an orange G10 Lamy 2000 but there is a whole world of materials that Lamy could effectively employ to stoke sales of its most popular pen. This is a variant of the article on wood that work in knife scales.

We want some new varaints of the Lamy 2000. There are a bunch of good reasons why.

The Lamy 2000 (or L2K as it is affectionately known) is one of the best, most striking pens ever made. Its not insanely expensive, but it is not cheap either. The L2K has an absolutely beautiful design with a clean, austere appearance. The Makrolon, a form of polycarbonate, mates seamlessly with the stainless steel nib hood for a sleek form. The cap is similarly spare and contrasting—the clip is brushed stainless steel and the rest is again Makrolon. The L2K was designed by Braun designer Gerd Muller and is heavily influenced by the Bauhaus design movement. As beautiful as it is and as careful as they were to hide complexity in the service of simple utility, the L2K is missing something—color.

The pen was introduced in 1966 and since then there have been 10 different variations (see here). Some, like the RED variant, are so rare that they hardly count. After all there was only one set RED versions of the four tools and they sold as a package for $25,000. Some variants like the Taxus, only came in the ballpoint pen version of the L2K. That’s like offering a high end sports car with an automatic transmission.

Lamy recently posted a bracket-style tournament of its best pens and the L2K won. Despite all the love for the pen it remains a stylistic constant in a market flooded with variations. By comparison there are at least 38 versions of the Safari. As this Redditor lamented, I wish the Lamy 2000 came in more colors and materials. The tuxedo look of the original is great, but its odd that the L2K has basically one version with a special edition every five or so years while the Safari gets three new versions every two months. Lamy’s ability to pump out pallete-swap ninjas for the Safari puts Spyderco to shame.

Here are some suggestions Lamy:

Carbon Fiber: This one seems like it should have been done already, but so far as I can tell it hasn’t. If anything exudes the cool, high end feel of Makrolon today, it is carbon fiber. Some really tight weave stuff like the CF found on the Caly3 would be great.

Westinghouse Micarta: One of the cool parts of Makrolon is that despite it being a plastic material it isn’t cold to the touch. Westinghouse is similar, but it even LOOKS warm. The white and yellow butterscotch tones would go great with the silver angular brushed furniture. The scales on this gorgeous Tom Ploppert custom give you an idea, Lamy, of how this would come out. Westinghouse and silver are a match made in heaven.

Feather Pattern Damascus: Pen companies are only now coming around to what knife companies have known for a long time—you can do cool stuff with metal. Fewer things are more beautiful in metal than a good, handmade pattern welded damascus, and of those my favorite is the feather pattern. I have been smitten with a Steve Randall custom Bowie in feather damascus, like the one shown here, for a long time. Lamy, go commission a few billets and then go to town. These will…fly…off the shelves. I am sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Electroplated Nickel: If you want to go full T-1000, Lamy, this material is the way to go. If the entire L2K was made of this stuff, the result would be a gleaming form that is pure writing power. I love it on flashlights like this Prometheus Delta full custom I own:

Concrete: concrete pens already exist. A few of them are made by big companies. Here is an interesting looking pen (though that is all I am claiming, I have never held or reviewed one of these pens). The thing with concrete is that, when done well, looks really, really classy. Image the clean lines of the L2K with dark concrete.

Green Canvas Micarta with Red Felt Accents: Now, I get it, Lamy, the Loveless DPH is not a thing many Lamy owners have, but hear me out. Loveless is not a great knife designer. He is a great designer that made knives (and other things…). His pairing of green canvas micarta and red felt accents is a striking color combination AND quite durable. Here is the handle to my Krein TK3 Whitetail with the color pairing.

It’s super smooth but still grippy, which, like Makrolon, is ideal for a pen body. L2K with this set up would be fire, I promise.

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