Spoke Design Interview

Spoke Design Mechanical Pencils

I first became aware of Spoke Design back in July 2012 when they launched a Kickstarter campaign for a mechanical pencil. The campaign was a success with 318 backers funding US $16,782. That was the original Spoke mechanical pencil, Spoke 1, and now they are onto the Spoke 4 mechanical pencil. I have recently been in touch with Brian from Spoke and thought it would be interesting to do an interview with him. Happily, Brian agreed.
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1 - So, Brian, tell us a little about yourself and Spoke Design.
I’m a mechanical design engineer and I live in Charlotte, North Carolina USA.  I have spent my whole career in new product development.  The majority of my career has been working for corporations in various industries (telcom, barcode equipment, security devices).  The bulk of my experience is actually in plastic part and product design, but I am a hobby woodworker and a very hobby machinist. I have been working full-time on my own for over a year now.  The Spoke brand is a part of the product design and development company I run with my brother Dan… aptly named Conti-Bros, Inc.  It’s a small enterprise… it’s just us two and Dan is part-time.

2 - I imagine as a mechanical design engineer you have used a pencil or two throughout your career?
Absolutely… I sketch out ideas constantly, so pencils are my preference for that.  I’ve always been a user and fan of the Pentel Sharp pencils… probably because they have been somewhat of a standard throughout the years.  I’d say I use .5mm most often… and I prefer 2B lead.

3 - Let’s quickly go through some history. Spoke 1…. Was it a case of one day you were just sitting there and thought “I want to design and make a good mechanical pencil and sell it to some people.” So you did? Perhaps though there was a little bit more to it than that, a long evolutionary process?
Years ago I was browsing online and I ran across a news article about how this new website called Kickstarter had just had their first million dollar project (a machined iphone stand I think).  I had never heard of Kickstarter or crowdfunding… when I looked up the site I became fascinated with how it could be used to find, test, or create a market for new unique products.  I had to give it a try.  My first two submissions were actually rejected by Kickstarter… they were designs for ‘active foot rests’.  As I spent so much time at my desk, I had made prototypes of these for myself to allow some ‘fidgeting’ with my feet.  Back then, Kickstarter didn’t allow ‘exercise products’ so they rejected my submissions (they have since changed their policy and others have successfully funded several similar products to what I had originally submitted).  Undeterred, I noticed a few machined pens really becoming popular on Kickstarter… so I decided I could try to see if there was a similar interest for a machined body mechanical pencil… my preferred sketching instrument.

Many of the pens on Kickstarter are simply ‘minimal’ cylinders… largely indistinguishable from each other.  My goal was to make something very distinct and immediately recognizable by its design… after lots of sketching and prototyping… I settled on long slot features to be the signature design element.  The Spoke name seemed a natural description of these features.  The project was a moderate success on Kickstarter (after all pens are a much bigger market versus mechanical pencils), and that’s how Spoke got started.

4 - Spoke 1 was obviously a success by whatever measures you personally use because you have carried on and now there is Spoke 4. What’s the one big thing you learned from the Spoke 1 campaign? By the way, what do you call the original Spoke mechanical pencil now there’s more than one?
Spoke 1, Spoke Original – I’ve called it both.  From the outset, I had planned to do versions of the pencil… the initial pencil is designated by a machined ‘dot’ on its end… so I also refer to it as Spoke Pencil single dot.
There were three big takeaways from Spoke 1 (single dot)…

First, while I can make various types of prototypes, for production quantities, I had to develop a capable supply chain for my intricately machined and anodized parts.  It’s fun creating relationships with machine shops and working together to produce cool parts.  It’s always exciting and fulfilling to take something from sketch to physical product, but volume manufacturing has its own set of challenges and learnings as well.

Secondly, the initial project provided an introduction to the Kickstarter system.  Crowdfunding is a unique process with lots of things to learn. Since the original Spoke Pencil we’ve used Kickstarter to fund several other products (most notably a brand of magnetic products under the brand of Strong Like Bull Magnets.

The third thing I’ve learned is that selling products online is quite difficult.  As a design engineer, I had little experience with e-commerce, marketing, website creation, etc.   I’ve since learned quite a bit through the years… and continue to work on this area.

5 - With perfect hindsight, what would you have done differently?
While I’ve learned a lot along the way and have definitely had some missteps… those things were part of the journey so to speak.  Overall I’m happy with the path I took.

6 - The wood turning folk have always had pen and pencil mechanisms readily available for their use. One of the intriguing features of Spoke 1 was your use of Pentel P205 mechanisms. I’m imagining you buying a few hundred Pentel’s from a local store, ripping their mechanisms out (sacrilege!) and assembling them into your Spoke bodies. Is that what actually happened? Where are you sourcing your pencil mechanisms from now?
I buy the standard pencils wholesale from a distributor.  The great thing about the Pentel P200 series is that they are readily disassemble-able.  This makes it easy for me to utilize the mechanism and also easy for customers to get ‘replacement parts’ if ever needed.

7 - Tell us about Spoke 1, 2, 3 and 4. What’s different about them? What did you learn from each and think you would like to try on the next variant? Has feedback from users influenced you much?

The Spoke Design series of mechanical pencils. Top to bottom, 4 to 1.

Photo courtesy of Brian

Spoke Pencil (single dot)… the original.  A one piece pencil body utilizing the P200 series mechanism.  The body is machined from aluminium, has a swooping profile with hexagonal cross section and of course the six signature slots.  There’s quite a bit of machining going on there.  It was funded on Kickstarter and now retired from sale, although I do have a few reworked pencils I sell occasionally.

Spoke Pencil 2 (double dot).  Spoke 2 was a follow up design that was more a refinement than new design. The main change was a slightly smaller profile and a bit narrower slots.  It was released on my website and not a Kickstarter project.  Spoke 2 is now retired from sale, although again, I do have a few reworked pencils I put for sale occasionally.

Then there was Spoke Inverse.  The inverse was a shift to a more simple cylindrical design, with the main feature being an inverted taper in the grip area.  Inverse was a smaller pencil altogether, using the Pentel P225 mechanism (since discontinued).  It was released on my website only.  Inverse is retired from sale, although I do have a few reworked pencils I sell occasionally.

Spoke Model 3 (triple dot).  The model 3 was a big departure in design and material. I decided to go with Titanium.  Design-wise it has a stepped profile with circular cross sections, bevelled edge slots, and a heavily grooved grip.  The model 3 proved to be quite difficult to machine… and ultimately only 100 were made.  Model 3 was released on my website… and is now sold out.

Spoke 4.  By this point I had received a good amount of feedback and requests from customers for various materials, colors, and grip sizes.  There’s no one perfect pencil configuration to satisfy everyone, but I thought it would be unique to offer a degree of customization to try and address common requests.  The solution was a two piece body design in order to provide a range of material, color, and size options to customers.  This level of customization has proven to be popular.  The model 4 is an interesting pencil in that depending on configuration it can vary significantly in how it looks and feels… many customers order 2 or 3 and mix up their order configurations a good bit.  I’ve decided to make the model 4 a ‘standard’ pencil with no plans to retire it any time soon.  In fact, I plan to add some additional colors.

8 - As you have mentioned, the Spoke 4 mechanical pencil is a pick ‘n’ mix of 5 different grips, each in 2 diameters, and 5 different barrels, so that’s 50 combinations. Which combination if your personal favourite? Is there any clear preference from customers for grip diameter, grip material or barrel colour?
I have several pencils on my desk, so I do mix up what I use quite a bit.  Overall I probably favour the smaller diameter 8.3mm grip in Titanium with a blue barrel.  The titanium moves the balance point closer to the tip while not adding too much overall weight, and the blue provides a nice contrast to the spoke grooves.  As for customers, the classic look of Titanium with a black anodized barrel is most popular.  Orders are generally split pretty evenly between the 8.3mm and 9.2mm grip diameters.  While the dimensional difference seems quite small… the result is a big difference in feel.

9 - You have offered your various Spoke pencils in 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9mm lead sizes. What has been the most popular?
The .5mm is the most popular… I’d say half of all orders are for .5mm with the remainder spilt pretty evenly between .7mm and .9mm.

10 - You have also branched out into some other stationery related items. I guess anything on your desk is fair game?
I have quite a diverse background in the types of products I have developed.  Under Spoke, I’ve done a machined ring holder and more recently a machined note holder… both on Kickstarter. While I do enjoy the challenge of working on a variety of product categories, I really enjoy working on writing instruments… and expect to keep releasing new Spoke designs going forward.

11 - Okay, well thanks for telling us this Brian. All the best for the future… so Spoke 5 is already in your thoughts?
Yes, Spoke 5 is coming!  I’m at the prototype stage and hopefully it’ll be ready to go in the next month or so!  However, the model 5 is more exploration of the spoke design… not a model 4 replacement.

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I will leave you another nice photo supplied by Brian.

L to R - The history of Spoke pencils to date

Autopoint Interview

Autopoint were a significant name in the American mechanical pencil industry throughout the middle part of the 20th century, and a particular strength of the company was corporate gifts and advertising pencils. Like many writing instrument companies of the time they went through a succession of corporate owners, eventually ending up in the Gillette / Papermate stable. However around 1980 Papermate divested the Autopoint name and machinery, selling to a group of businessmen, and Autopoint again became an independent entity.

Recently I was contacted by Jason Bender, the President and owner of Autopoint Inc. He offered to send me a few samples, and I expressed an interest in learning more about the current Autopoint. So here’s a Q&A with Jason.

1.    Hello Jason. Thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions about your company. Perhaps you can start by telling us a little about yourself, and how and why you came to own Autopoint?
I am married with two little boys and a dog that runs the house. I love spending time with my family and enjoying life as much as possible. I currently have little life outside of work and family. We purchased Autopoint in January of this year and have been consumed turning it around, and getting the Autopoint brand back out to people.

I am a drafter by trade; my class of draftsmen were the last class to take a hand drafting class and I fell in love with it. I had to relent to using various CAD programs if I wanted a job but I still love the hands on element as well as the vision it took to be able to make something look accurate. I moved from drafting into estimation and sales for a commercial construction company. After years of doing that I decided that I wanted to be a business owner.

My wife and I set out with a very wide net of businesses that we would be interested in and initially pencils had nothing to do with it. We finally were about to give up on our idea when right in my back yard there was a mechanical pencil company for sale. I almost instantly was hooked. I noticed that people who use pencils every day are fanatical about their specific pencil. Myself I was a Pentel Graph 1000 user, I bought my first one in college and have had a handful since. Autopoint has a quality product that has been around for a long time, plus the brand recognition is fairly high. Once I started looking at Autopoint I realized that deep down I was a pencil nut. After stepping back a few times and making sure that this was really the right decision, my heart and mind were all in and my wife was on board. I am convinced the brand has staying power and hope our users feel the same way.

2.    I believe the Autopoint product range was drastically reduced and redesigned in the 1970’s under Gillette/Papermate ownership. Is it this product range and machinery that is still the basis of the current range?
Gillette indeed drastically cut the product line down in the 1970’s. The core products are the same as they were when Gillette redesigned the Twinpoint and All American. Before Gillette sold the business to the previous owner they sold off a majority of the assets to make the pencils. When we were cleaning up the shop and moving some things around we found hundreds of documents dating back to the founding of the company in the 1920’s. I have all of the blueprints to the old machines and products. Maybe one day we can bring some of that stuff back.

3.    Tell us a little about Autopoint as a company today.
Autopoint is located in Janesville Wisconsin USA. We currently have nine employees, six in the shop and three (two full time and one part time) in the office. All of us in the office step out to the shop to help build pencils as needed. We ship approximately 60 orders per day. This year I expect to have right around One million dollars (USD) in sales, our current production volume is approximately 1,500 pencils per day; we have room to grow.

4.    How do Autopoint products make it to market these days?
Autopoint over the last few years has relied on ad specialty, online sales, and a few retail locations. All of our current retail locations are located internationally. Since I have purchased the company I have pushed hard to get us back into the retail market. I am working with several buying groups and a few local stores to get our pencils in front of a wider market.

5.    Do you export outside of the USA?
Yes we have customers all over the world. There are stationary shops in London, Taiwan, and South Korea that sell a lot of our pencils. We sell products to the Saudi Arabian Air Force and the Kuwaiti Navy, as well as my government. We sell to individual customers in Africa, Australia, Canada, all European countries, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Middle East, and Mexico.  I would love to expand that presence.

6.    What is your goal with Autopoint?
I do see a significant increase in sales as we move back into distribution. We currently have zero presence in major retail stores and I intend to change that starting locally at first. If a big box store came to us tomorrow and said I want to carry your pencils I would have to turn them away, we could not supply a national chain.

I want to expand the Autopoint line up, I have been playing with the idea of making a metal pencil. A heavier pencil feels more stable. I also want to add a line of pens made in the United States. A lot of the products that comes from the Asian market has poor quality and reliability issues. The manufacturing base here specifically in the Midwest is some of the best in the world.

7.    In producing your mechanical pencils, how much is carried out in-house as opposed to sub-contracted? For example, do you mould your own plastic barrels, press the metal components, etc or is the factory more of an assembly operation?
Our barrels and tips are molded about 45 minutes drive from our factory; metal parts come from the east coast. The device that propels the lead are assembled and pressed into the tips by machines in our plant, the final assembly is done by hand, this puts the quality control in the hands of the assembler, and they take ownership of the build and make sure that what gets sent out is a quality product.

One step in the process - the Tip Assembly Machine (TAM), which assembles the assembled shank into the tip cone and presses the Grip-Tite tip into the tip cone.

8.    Your pencils come in a variety of lead sizes; I would be interested in the percentage breakdown of sales by lead size.
This is an interesting question and varies by region of the world. North America and Europe both have tendencies to write heavier and favour the thicker leads, Asia writes far more precise and delicate and like the thinner leads. 90% of the pencils exported to the Asian market is 0.5mm, 1.1mm and 0.9mm are split evenly there. In the North American markets 0.9mm is the top seller, roughly 80%. 1.1mm is the next best seller at approximately 15%. 0.7mm gets a little less than 5% with 0.5mm making up less than 1% of our sales in North America. Europe is pretty close to the same as North America with more sales going to 1.1mm.

9.    Are your leads manufactured in the USA or imported?
The lead that we use is imported. We used to purchase our lead from the United States but the plant closed years ago. Autopoint has tried several lead makers but many of them could not hold the tolerances that we need as our Grip-Tite system does not have the flexibility of a clutch type mechanical pencil. It is also the key component to having a system that my five year old son struggles to break the lead.

You mention your leads need a tight tolerance, and your pencil system increasing resistance to lead breakage. Could you explain a little about the Grip-Tite system?
Our  Grip-Tite system is fairly simple, most mechanical pencils have a clutch that holds the lead and propels it forward. This clutch sits internally a fair distance back and is what holds the lead. The tip on a clutch type pencil supports the lead and if applying to much pressure acts as a pressure point on the lead. Grip-Tite holds the lead at the tip taking away the pressure point, we machine our tips to allow the lead to rub ever so slightly through the tip. This grips the lead to keep it from falling out. The tip has a notch in it to allow for minor expansion and as the writer applies pressure the lead pushes back against the plunger and actually causes the tip to contract down upon the lead.

Putting aside the difference in the length of leads, does this mean that common brands of lead refills will not work with Autopoint pencils? 
Other leads could work, we just do not guarantee that they will. We have had customers call and complain that the pencil broke because it will not hold the leads, they fall half way or completely out. Turns out they used up all the lead supplied with the pencil and bought a competitors lead. We require our lead to have a higher tolerance for this reason.
Ahhh, old time blog readers know all about various run-ins with lead diameter tolerances

Thanks very much Jason. I wish you every success with Autopoint, and I’m sure all readers do too.
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For more information on Autopoint check out the Wikipedia page and Bob Bolins Resources. Also here on this blog, some discussion of the Autopoint 1948 Catalogue:
Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

PS – Coming soon to a blog near you, a review of an Autopoint pencil.

Platinum Pen Company Interview

Platinum Pen Ltd Interview

I recently made contact with Mr Osamu Fukuoka, International Marketing Manager of Platinum Pen Company of Japan, and he agreed to answer a few questions about Platinum and their products.

Dave - Platinum Pen aren’t particularly well known outside of Asia so some readers of this blog won’t be too familiar with your company. To start with, could you tell us a little about Platinum’s history?

Osamu - Platinum Pen Co was established in 1919 as manufacturer of fountain pen. During 1930’s, Platinum started manufacturing Maki-e fountain pen. Maki-e is the Japanese traditional hand crafting. Also Platinum is the first company to adopt the fountain pen cartridge system. Mechanical pencils were added to range in 1935, multi-pens in 1978.

Dave - And what about Platinum today?

Osamu - Platinum main office is in Tokyo, Japan, and we have two factories in Japan. We also have the factory in Shanghai (China), Shenzhen (China), Taiwan and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam).

Japan’s factory is making the middle-high end writing instruments; other factories (China, Taiwan, and Vietnam) are making the low writing instrument & OEM products. In Japan we have 250 persons, overseas factory staff total 400.

Dave – I note that compared to many writing instrument companies Platinum seem to have a large selection of multi pens. What is Platinum’s speciality, your strongest product group?

Osamu - Platinum’s main product is fountain pen and multi-function pen. We have good sales of multi function pen in Japan market. Best sale is 3 action multi pen - black & red ball pen with mechanical pencil. Market price JPY 1000 - 3000 model is good sales.


There are lots of multi pen company in Japan. Platinum supply the standard multi pen, also we’re supplying the wood body, leather body, sterling silver body, modern maki-e multi pen etc. We have many multi function pen types, so for that reason we think that we are the leading brand of multi pen in Japan market.

Dave - What sells more in Japan – technical drafting style pencils like the Pro-Use, or general writing style pencils like MOL-500 and A-Pen MAQ-1000?

Osamu - Pencils like Pro-Use MSD series are suitable for drafting, however these item are specialised, our sales of general everyday writing pencils are better sales than MSD series.


Our biggest selling model of pencil is MSIQ-200 series; they are using the soft silicon grip. Price is JPY200, reasonable price. This model is good selling mechanical pencil in Japan market.

Dave – Can you give us some data on the sales ratio of pencils by lead size?

Osamu - We don’t have many mechanical pencils, so our pencils are 90% 0.5mm. The pencil’s standard lead is 0.5mm in Japan market, most everyday writing pencil is 0.5mm. Other size 0.7mm and 0.9mm are not so popular in Japan. This is the same for fountain pen. For example, Japanese prefer fountain pen nib of Fine or Medium size. However European or American market prefer Medium or Broad nib.

Dave - Which countries are your primary market?

Osamu - Platinum’s biggest market is Japan. Our main export market is USA, Korea and Taiwan. USA and Korea’s main exporting products are fountain pen. In Taiwan main exporting items are fountain pen and middle class products. For our pencil sales, 90% is Japan market. USA, Korea & Taiwan are not big.

Dave – Do you have plans to try and expand sales in Europe, America, etc?

Osamu - Our next trying market should be Europe. We think that there is the custom to use the fountain pen in EU market, so we’re trying to expand sales in Europe market.


Platinum main products are fountain pen or multi function pen. Last 20 years main item is multifunction pen instead of fountain pen. We would like to export the multi function pen to overseas market. However in USA or Europe market they are not so popular. We’re thinking how to promote the multi function pen in overseas market. Also regarding the pencils, we’ll try to promote them for overseas market.

Dave – Thanks very much Osamu. I wish you luck with expanding the Platinum brand around the world.

Interview With The Retailer

Cult Pens Interview

I imagine that when most collectors of anything start thinking about the origins of their collection they immediately focus on the manufacturer - be that a factory, an artisan or an artist. For most collectables there is an intermediary - a distribution and retail system - between the manufacturer and the collector. For me, as a collector of mechanical pencils, it would be pretty hard to collect pencils without distributors and retailers bringing the manufacturers products to market. Recently I started thinking about these retailers, the somewhat overlooked (and sometimes maligned) part of the collecting process.

When I first started this blog, I soon established contact with Michael, a blogger in the UK who was keen on writing instruments. Later on he got something of a dream job, a job working in the writing instruments industry, for the UK domiciled online retailer Cult Pens. So, when I started thinking about retailers and learning a little more of how they see things, I immediately thought of Cult Pens. Here then is a little Q & A Interview with Simon (the boss) of Cult Pens.

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Dave - Tell us a little about the history of Cult Pens.


Simon - My wife Amanda and I used to work in IT for banks in the City of London – something we didn’t find terribly interesting or fulfilling. We left London in 2001 to ‘downshift’ and ended up buying a small stationery shop in Dartmouth, Devon, where my family live. This was something of an education, neither of us having had exposure to the world of retail, customers, suppliers, etc. before. Comments from customers sparked the idea of a website selling hard-to-find office pens. After a lengthy gestation this finally kicked off in December 2004, and was renamed Cult Pens in May 2005. The idea was that it would only stock the more obscure pens and pencils, but we quickly established that there was demand for almost any pen/pencil, in the way we sold it – which was singly, with good images and details and some product knowledge to back it up. The website quickly matched the shop in terms of turnover, so we sold the shop to concentrate on our online efforts, moving to spacious new premises in Mid-Devon in January 2007. We recruited pigpogm (aka Michael) at the same time, a useful chap with an ideal combination of talents in both PHP and pens. Since then we’ve added a further four staff and will be looking for another as you read this. We’ve grown rapidly but ‘organically’ over the last few years and managing that growth is a constant challenge as any business owner will know.


Dave - Do you have some overall philosophy or overriding principle guiding your development? What’s your goal with Cult Pens?

Let's Talk Mechanical Pencils with Lamy

Recently I’ve been wanting to know a little bit more about some of my favourite mechanical pencil companies, and the mechanical pencil market in general. I own more than my fair share of Lamy’s, so I thought I’d approach them and see if they would participate in a brief Q&A type interview about themselves and their pencils. Luckily they readily agreed to an “interview”, and below are a few questions I put to Andrea Schuch of Lamy’s International Sales Department in Heidelburg, Germany and her replies.

Dave - Well firstly I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. Perhaps to start with you could give me a brief introductory run down on Lamy.

Andrea - Lamy was established in 1930 in Heidelburg, Germany. We have approximately 370 employees, of which 2/3rds work in production, making approximately 7 million writing instruments annually. Our sales turnover is approx. €50 million/year, through 6,500 specialist dealers in Germany, and distribution partners in 62 other countries. Currently our range comprises 27 different series of writing instruments.

Every Lamy product embodies our brand values: Design – Innovation – Quality. Lamy not only develops modern, sophisticated designs, but also conducts ongoing research into technical innovations which raise the functionality of writing instruments. Lamy is 100 per cent “Made in Germany” and we have more than 100 international design awards.

Lamy head office & factory

Factory and roof garden sculpture

Dave - A lot of high-end brands don’t offer many mechanical pencils, but Lamy is a little different, offering a pencil option with most styles. So, thanks very much for that! How well do pencils sell in comparison to the various pen options? Are there some styles where the mechanical pencil option is a particularly good seller in relation to the pen options of that style?

Andrea - Lamy likes to offer complete ranges of the various product families, thus our customers have a variety of writing systems to choose from but also the opportunity to combine sets of their likings.
But to be honest, pencils are not our best selling systems. They do very well as a set with ballpens, but we are mostly selling ballpens, closely followed by fountain pens.
We do however offer two ranges where the pencils are selling very well and the ballpens are more or less an "addition". These are LAMY spirit, an extremely slim pencil, designed to fit into agendas (for those people who still write with a pen and do not use blackberrys) and LAMY scribble, a very handsome pencil available with two lead sizes (0,7 mm and 3,15 mm), designed for artists, architects, designers, etc. who are doing sketches or just like "scribbling"
But I should also mention our pencil LAMY abc which has especially been designed for school children who start learning to write. This pencil has an ergonomic grip section for small hands and a soft (B) 1,4 mm lead which forgives high pressure but also allows a great variety of writing positions.
Dave - Hopefully you see Lamy continuing to offer a pencil option as you introduce new styles?

Andrea - Of course, we will go on offering product families as complete as possible.

Dave - Lamy seems to have a world-wide presence. Are there any markets where sales of your mechanical pencils are much stronger or weaker than average?

Andrea - We are currently exporting our pens to more that 60 countries worldwide.
Should there be any preferences for pencils they are certainly in the Asian markets who like to write either with a fountain pen with a fine or extra fine nib, or with a pencil.

Dave - Counterfeit or fake products seem to be an issue for many well known brands and products. Is counterfeiting of Lamy writing instruments a problem?

Andrea - So far we do not have any problems with counterfeit products. We have however come across one or the other pen that has been faked, but mostly the copies are rather poor and you can easily see the difference. We are however closely watching the market and are taking legal steps when we come across such products.
Dave - To finish with, a question about your manufacturing operation. Lamy writing instruments are made from a very diverse range of materials, and many specialised manufacturing techniques would presumably be needed for this. What parts of the manufacturing process are carried out by Lamy itself? Is Lamy’s part essentially the final assembly of finished components sourced from external suppliers, or are you actually doing most things in-house - making mechanisms, moulding bodies, machining out pocket clips, etc?

Andrea - 97% of the whole production process is done in Heidelberg. There are certain parts we are buying from other suppliers, but for example all our nibs are being completely made in Heidelberg, we are injection moulding all plastic components, producing metal barrels, clips, etc....

Dave - Once again, thanks very much for your time, and I look forward to seeing many new innovative and unique products from Lamy.

Some of the team at Lamy. The gentlemen in centre-front with the light suit and the sun glasses is Dr. Manfred Lamy, owner of the company and to the right in the dark suit with tie is Mr. Bernhard Roesner the CEO of Lamy.