Lamy67P

[AidenMark]

... the sound of a flying saucer panning in the stereo field mutates into a scream of feedback.

Enter drum and bass.

Aboom Boom Chak,

Aboom Boom Chak.

"Foxy!"

sung with an unmistakeable British lack of conviction.

American voice: 'You know you're a cute little heart breaker, yeah',

wriggles tongue lasciviously...

Anyway tuned in, chilled-out, uptight pen-pickers - here it is in psychedelic Stratocaster red - the Lamy 67p!

Dig it.

Now you can't buy these and I'm not going to bore you with quasi-erotic descriptions of the nib smoothness, the subliminal writing experience or the artisanal excellence of the workmanship. This is a jolly little plastic pen, created I assume in the 1960s, that I picked up from da Bay for 9 Euros.

Let's be honest, it has seen the inside of a few school pen pouches since then. At some point in time, someone found it amusing to over-bend the clip and I can't rule out the possibility that it may have taken a nib first plunge onto a hard floor at one time.

But it's a fun little chap and I thought it might amuse you to see it, even though you undoubtedly have better things to, like planning your next Montegrappa acquisition or signing the papers to import that $200 bottle of Japanese ink.

I can't exactly date the pen as it belongs to that mysterious period of Lamy history between the resumption of post-war production and the commissioning of Gerd A. Müller to sketch the shape of the L2K. We could term this period as the Ratio period since sales of the excellent Lamy27 had started to slide and the apotheosis of the L2K had yet to occur. Lamy was making pens of varying scratchiness under the Ratio umbrella. Ratio 44, 46, 49, 57, and lastly, although lacking the Ratio name, the 67, 67p, 68 and 69.

Outside the heads of Lamy gurus Christoph and Jan almost nothing is known about these pens. It is as if they had been removed from history in a brutal MGB purge. The Lamy website skips the period entirely, the mid 70s catalogues contain no mention. Except for one or two posts from the Lamy connoisseurs of this forum little evidence remains of them having existed.

Between you and me, I have previously tried a 47 and 57 and can tell you it was likely no great loss.

Anyway back to this fellow.

He is small, light and very bright red. He cheers me up when I look at him because in the cynical 21 century we are not capable of designing a red that optimistic anymore. The pen has the stub-ended cigar profile of the later L27 pens. The body is plastic, obviously, yet has not cracked or split - a failure that is is quite common on Lamy's of the 50s and early 60s.

The cap is aluminium and engraved with LAMY67P. The bent cap clip is steel. As you can see, there is a groovy red and white L on the finial that looks like it belongs on the jersey of a henchman attempting to duff-up Adam West.

The semi-hooded nib looks rather similar to the L2K nib, but in steel, basically the nib of the L25 and L26 too. I know it's a medium nib because the M embossed under the feed tells me so. Despite the suspicious downward angle of the nib, which forces a rather high writing angle, the tines are aligned. I suppose he writes as well as he ever did.

He drinks standard cartridges in a slightly wobbly way.

He is not a great writer but a perfectly decent one. Would that the same could be said of me.

Size, if you care about such things:

130mm capped

120mm uncapped

140mm posted

Weight: makes writing with a Pelikan M150 feel like lugging a Marshall JTM-100 stack up a flight of stairs.

 

Maybe someone knowledgeable can shed light on when exactly the Lamy 60s were first produced and how long they were in production.

Edited May 2, 2018 by AidenMark

[Martinsroom]

Very enjoyable, thank you.

[SoulSamurai]

That was an enjoyable read, thanks for sharing.

[hbdk]

Now, that's one cool review!

[jchch1950]

Are another colours in the Lamy 67 series?

[AidenMark]

Are another colours in the Lamy 67 series?

 

 

Lamy collector Jan F. aka JF_LAMY COLLECTION has some pictures of a black 67p on his Flickr account (if you can be bothered logging in).

 

Over at Fountain Pen Geeks there is a thread 'Lamy 60 Series - Great Vintage Writing Instruments' which shows a see through Lamy 66 (the same pen without the metal cap).

 

In 2012 the site stationeria.net has posted some pictures of a blue one. At least I think it is blue. Some Lamy teal colour pens tend to photograph blue.

 

So from the documented Lamy 27 colours this leaves Burgundy, Maybe there is a burgundy one out there.

[MomoShinChan]

I think you got a steal with this one. Only 9 euros for such a unique pen. Well, at least it seems unique to me.