Although it's been a half-century of the standard way of writing words on paper, there are still people who like to use fountain pens. Some modern manufacturers now market the fountain pen as a collectible item or status symbol rather than an everyday writing tool, but a well-crafted fountain pen is still a writing instrument, not just a way to put words on paper.
I had gone looking for a new calligraphy pen but was not having much luck in stationery stores, so I tried art supply shops. I found a very suitable pen made by Lamy GmbH of Heidelberg, Germany.
Lamy says that by tradition their pens embody the Bauhaus principle of functional design, that form must follow function, and I found this to be true. The model I bought was elegantly shaped, well-fit to the hand and featherweight — perhaps no heavier than the quill pens of medieval scribes. Best of all, the grip area had a warm, high friction, soft touch covering that made it easy and comfortable to hold without any risk of slipping.
It turned out that this design innovation was produced by two-shot overmolding with a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) supplied by KRAIBURG TPE GmbH & Co. KG, a leading global manufacturer of thermoplastic elastomers. The company is based in Waldkraiburg, Germany and has production plants and sales offices on three continents. It operates...