I found it at MSRP at a very cool stationery shop in Madrid. The shop owner told me that the Spanish Lamy distributor found 5 stashed somewhere and offered them all to him since he has a reputation of being a stationery nerd lol. This was the last one left.
I don’t tend to use leadholders as thick as this one (the intended use seems to be for architects scribbling things on walls during construction, that’s why it’s a 4B super soft lead) but I guess if I’m only gonna have one pencil over 2mm in my collection, this is the best one to have. The construction feels amazing. Lamy argues that they couldn’t make it anymore since they can’t produce the body material anymore.
The thing about the 3.15 is the flattened sides - that’s where you grip it to made those ‘visionary’ scribbles on a large canvas to convey your architectural intent
I don’t know what they meant by ‘couldn’t produce’ the body material anymore… Just switch to ABS or whatever? Sometimes, I suspect there’s an issue with rights, residual profits or what not with those star designers that the public is not privy to. I remember a period when the Lamy website scrubbed all mention of Wolfgang Fabian…
Could be that or simply some raw materials got banned from entering the EU for some reason.
What is particularly great in the 3.15 is the quality of the clutch. Not sure it is a specific material or that palladium finish but it is perfect and works like a clock.
I also have a fully black 3.15 (a promo version that Lamy produced for a german interiors magazine or something of that sort) and the clutch is not the same, it is a “normal” one with a chrome finishing.
I don’t doubt that the clutch is high quality but I’d like to ask, have you ever had a clutch like this fail in some way? I don’t use many leadholders but I’ve never had trouble with them (I was always under the impression that these mechanisms are simpler and virtually never fail)
I haven’t had a single one failing on me but i’ve seen pencils without a “tooth” and caran d’ache sells clutch replacements so i guess it is possible to destroy one… maybe rust? Or sometimes people try to adjust the clutch and break it?
Now they seem to be gone but I was wondering why did Caran d’Ache offered spare 2mm and 3mm clutches on their webshop until some years ago (I know this because I bought a few for replacements)…
The paradox is: you need a specific action to destroy a clutch, they won’t fall off on their own… but at the same time it is also quite common to see older 2mm CdA’s with clutches in poor condition, while the rest of the pencil is reasonably intact…
So I’ve come up with one possible explanation for the extraordinary amount of Fixpencils with bad teeth. it’s not because they’re european (ahah) but because they probably went through those drafting table sharpeners!
