The Pen Addict 120/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	120
Title:	Behind The Nib
Release Date:	September 15th, 2014
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 120
Audio File:	Audio Episode 120
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 120
Length:	6363 min <br />1.05 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 120 of The Pen Addict on RelayFM. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Squarespace, where a better web starts with your website, and Pen Chalet, great deals on high quality pens with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. The Pen Addict is a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools that we love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by my friend and co-host, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: You hanging in there, Myke? Oh, it's late for you tonight, isn't it?

Myke Hurley: I'm doing what I can. Yeah. Yeah, so basically, we're recording this episode right on the tail of last week's episode, hence while there'll be no follow-up except maybe this one item, I have to apologise that I did not do the usual intro for the episode last week, I realised as I was just saying it then. No problem. And that's simply unacceptable to not say pens, paper, and analogue tools that we love so dearly.

Brad Dowdy: Well, we'll let you off the hook because it's a busy day, it's a busy week, and we're getting ahead of the game because we will continue to be busy when this show actually goes live on Monday. So, yeah, we'll let you off the hook on this one. So, what we're going to do today, Michael, is something as the official show mascot, Kanooni Rineshin, just posted in the chat, is it's long overdue. We're going to do a little bit of Fountain Pen 101 today.

Myke Hurley: Interestingly, yes, it is potentially long overdue, however, you wouldn't have been able to do it before now, I don't think.

Brad Dowdy: I think that is a fair point. And we've talked about the progression of both of our learning about fountain pens over these past couple of years that we've been doing this show. And we've certainly covered these topics as one-off type of things as we've gone, oh my god, that really exists, or wow, you can do that. And as we've learned through these things, and now we've kind of got a collection of, I won't say a collection, but a baseline of knowledge. It's certainly not an all-encompassing knowledge base. I certainly don't profess to know everything, and I will certainly make mistakes as we go through this. And that's why I love all of our listeners so much, because they just want to help me correct those things, or show me new things, or help me learn about other things. So, it's awesome to get the feedback from the listeners on topics like this. And as we've gained more listeners, and a bigger following on the blog, I get more and more questions just about the very, very basics of fountain pen usage. And that's what we're going to try to cover today. We're not going to get too deep into this. We're going to cover the super basics, like when you're going to buy your first fountain pen, what do you need to know, and then what do you need to know after you've made that purchase. So, that's kind of the emphasis for today.

Fountain Pens

Myke Hurley: So, if you're a pen addict who has thus far resisted from buying a fountain pen, I hope that today we're able to push you over the edge with that a little bit, and set you on the right path.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think so. So, let's get into it. What do you think? I think we should just go for it. All right. So, we're going to start with what I think is the most important aspect of the pen, of the fountain pen, and that's the nib. That's what you're writing with. That's the part that's touching the paper. That's the part that's transferring the ink onto the page. That's the part that a lot of people think looks the coolest when they have a fountain pen, or for people who don't have fountain pens, think looks the scariest. Right? How do I write with this thing? So, we're going to cover a lot of glossary type terms. And so, you know, if you're in the chat room listening to this, or Myke, if you catch me, you know, going off the rails or misstepping, let me know, and we'll fix it up. But I want to cover just some very basic things. You know, with the nib. The design of the nib is made so the ink flows out of a specific point at the tip of the nib. So, that tip has, you'll see if you're looking at a fountain pen nib, most of them, if you're looking at a standard fountain pen nib, you'll see that there is a little bit of extra material on the end of the tip of the nib. That's called the tipping. That's what, it's a little bit of a rounded part. That's what makes the writing smooth on the page. So, you can write in all different directions with the fountain pen. Now, there are exceptions to this, and we're going to talk about the different types of nibs and different sizes and things like that. But in general, when you're looking at a fountain pen nib, you'll see kind of almost like a little ball on the end. That's called the tipping on the end. That's the part that actually touches the page. Then you'll see a line on the nib. It's like a slit that actually bisects that tipping. And that's called the slit. And those two different sides are called the tines. So, there's a left side of the nib and a right side of the nib. And you'll hear us referring to the tines a lot. Like in Myke and I's case, we've both had pens where those tines have been misaligned. So, if you're new to fountain pens and you get your first fountain pen and you think it's writing scratchy, it might have a misalignment in the tines. So, it kind of, one side will grab the paper more than the other side. And I just want to let everyone know who's listening.

Brad Dowdy: So, you have a visual. I'm actually holding a fountain pen as I do this. And I'm like, I have like this magic, like Mr. Rogers thing going on where I'm like showing it to the screen, even though no one's watching me. I couldn't do this empty-handed.

Myke Hurley: So, when you were explaining the tines, I grabbed my Lamy 2000 and started looking at it. I was like, oh, yes, he's writing it.

Brad Dowdy: So, and I'll tell you what pen I'm using in a little bit. So, behind the nib. So, the nib is just, is really a thin piece of metal. It can be steel. It can be gold. We'll talk about more of that in the middle. But behind that nib, you'll see generally a piece of plastic. It could be made of other materials, but it's called the feed. And what the feed does is actually goes up. It's behind the nib. It goes up into the grip section of the pen. And that's actually what helps transfer the ink in a manageable way from whatever ink filling system you'll use. And we're going to cover that too. You know, whether it's a cartridge or a converter or an eyedropper.

Brad Dowdy: It's going to help manage the flow of ink from the ink reservoir into the nib of the pen and out the tip of the pen. So, you get a smooth, consistent writing experience. So, the ink's not gushing out. It's metered. So, you can write normally. And it just helps the ink flow.

Myke Hurley: Do you know why, like, on some pens, like, maybe all of them, but you can see it on, like, demonstrator pens, why the feed has, like, those slots in it?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I don't. That's a good question. I should have managed that because you can have a solid feed, which you'll see in a lot of vintage pens. And then modern pens like Lamy use a solid feed on a lot of their pens. And some of them use, like, this fanned out looking feed. So, that is a good follow-up topic that I will make a note of and see if I can get a clear answer.

Myke Hurley: I'll let you know if anyone in the chat room comes up with it.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. For sure. Sure.

Pen Anatomy

Brad Dowdy: So, on the exterior of the pen, where you grip the pen, I always called it the grip when I first started, you know, talking about pens. It makes a lot of sense. Where you grip the pen, it's called the grip. It's actually called the section. I don't know why that term. I prefer grip. It's called. I actually have gone to calling it the grip section. So, it kind of kills two birds with one stone. Good idea.

Myke Hurley: Because the section could mean anything, couldn't it?

Brad Dowdy: It could. It could. But I think it's due to a part that's usually removable.

Brad Dowdy: And so, I don't know if that's where the term originated from. So, it's like a section of the pen. But it's actually the grip section. And, you know, in the chat room, let me go ahead and say this now. We're going to have in the show notes some good references, some good reference pages to this. And certainly, these gentlemen know more about these topics than I do. And I've learned a lot from reading their sites and watching their videos. But we'll have links to Brian Goulet from Goulet Pens. He's got a fountain of knowledge on their website, which links to a lot of fountain pen 101 videos, a lot of learning, a lot of good, good reference material. And also, Richard Bender at Richard's Pens. He has a huge index that I use. His glossary is pretty much all-encompassing. So, I reference it a lot if I have a question on something that I haven't heard of before. That's where I was able to read up on his Italifying nib as an example. So, you can check those links in the show notes. Where are those show notes at, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Relay.fm slash penaddict slash 120.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So, all the things I'm talking about today, you can learn even more from going to those two sites, watching their videos. And they do a really, really excellent job and much more thorough than I'll be able to do on the podcast today. And plus, like Brian Goulet, he's got videos where he can actually show you these things. So, beyond the grip, you start, you run into the barrel, the meat of the pen, basically. Barrels can be all different shapes, all different sizes, all different materials. A lot of them, I'd say the majority of them, are some type of plastic, resin, acrylic material. Then you get into just other materials like ebonite and just other more expensive, harder-to-work-with materials that pens are made from. And one of my favorite barrel styles is a demonstrator barrel. And I was actually asked by Andy Wellfle this week on the Erasable podcast, he said, you said something about a demonstrator barrel last week. What does that even mean? Well, a demonstrator was an old way for pen manufacturers to show the inner workings of the pen. And it was actually just meant for demonstration purposes. So, you know, back in the early 1900s, these pen vendors would show, have a clear barrel pen where you could see all the mechanics inside the pen. Well, it turns out people wanted to purchase that. And that became a thing. So, that's what a demonstrator pen is. And that name just kind of sticks today as basically a translucent barrel pen, something that's see-through. It's something that's a style that I enjoy very, very much.

Myke Hurley: I think a lot of people like demonstrators to show off their colored inks.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's a huge deal for how it looks. I mean, and, you know, we're not just talking about clear barrels here, too. I mean, you can get a demonstrator in pretty much any color under the sun. Green, yellow, blue, red, anything. It's become a real popular thing. And I think you're exactly right. I think it is because a lot of people want to show off the inks that they use. And I certainly enjoy them. I just, I think it's a good look.

Brad Dowdy: So inside the barrel is where your ink system is going to be. And that can be a wide range of things. And we're going to talk about, we're going to elaborate that on a little, on that topic a little bit more later. But just in general, that's where your cartridge is going to go. So that's where your converter is going to go for filling ink from a bottle. You can have a piston filling system. And we'll dig into all this a little bit later. You can have an eyedropper. All of that. That's going to go inside your barrel. So that's pretty much the, that's a big consideration when you're buying a pen, what type of ink filling system you want to go with. And we'll talk about that more in a second. Then with the pen, you have your cap, which, you know, pretty much all fountain pens these days are capped. But you have your rare exceptions like the Pilot Vanishing Point or the Lamy Dialog 3 that are retractable fountain pens. But generally, most pens are going to have a cap.

Brad Dowdy: Most pens are going to have, most fountain pens are going to have a clip. There's definitely some that don't. I like, I have a couple that do not have a clip that I like. I enjoy using them. You'll find your smaller pens like the Kaweco AL Sport. They don't come with a clip because they want to, want you to be able to slide them into your pocket. But they have an optional accessory where you can buy a clip to add on to that. And then you'll hear me use the word furniture a lot. That's just the general color of the.

Myke Hurley: The clip or any sort of like band, which might go around the pen. Yeah, or the nib.

Brad Dowdy: Basically, all the accessory type features of the pen, they're generally all the same color, whether it be gold, silver, you know, all the plating, all the rings around the barrel, anything, you know, on the nib. I use the word furniture a lot. It's just kind of a catch-all term for all the, all the bling on the pen. Like I say, I like silver furniture primarily in my pens. All right, so nib sizes and types. I think most people are familiar with steel nibs and gold nibs. But what most people want to know is, should I buy a gold nib? What's the difference between the steel and gold nib? Is it worth the money cost differential between a steel and gold nib? The primary difference is you're going to get a slightly more flexible nib with gold. And I don't want you to think it's a flex nib at all. You can just feel the tiniest, tiniest bit of difference. It almost is like the nib feels softer on the page than a steel nib, which will generally feel firmer. These are not hard, fast rules. You can get some very firm gold nibs. You can get some softer steel nibs. But in general, that's what you're going to experience.

Myke Hurley: I've found that with gold nibs, the ink flows more freely, which I like. I think that gold nibs are really good if you like a medium.

Myke Hurley: Or, you know, even if you are a person who likes to write with fine, but likes a smooth line or a more wet line, then gold is probably a good option for you. However, it's expensive.

Brad Dowdy: It is expensive. And I definitely agree with your assessment. I find gold nibs to have better ink flow and maybe be a little bit smoother. But there's some awfully smooth steel nibs out there on the market, too. The price difference, you're probably looking, just a general rule of thumb, gold nibs will cost about $100 to $125 more than a steel nib. If you're looking at the same exact pen and you have an option for steel or gold, it's going to be in that $100 range for a difference. A lot of times, I don't think it's worth it. I have steel nibs that I just love.

Brad Dowdy: And steel nibs never stop me from buying a pen, put it that way. You can get some really, really quality steel nib pens. Oh, for sure. It's really good quality.

Myke Hurley: If you ever heard me talk about all the fountain pens that I love, I think I have one pen of a gold nib, which is my Pelican. And so it doesn't necessarily mean to have a great...

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. When I'm choosing a pen out of my collection to use and to ink up, I never go, well, I'm going to get this one because it's a gold nib pen, or I'm going to use this one because it's a steel nib pen. And I always pick it because I know how well it writes. It doesn't almost... The nib material almost doesn't make a difference to me. But some people, you know, swear by gold nibs. Others swear by steel nibs. So there's some thought to put in there. But really, steel nibs are legitimately great writers. So don't think you have to have a fountain pen with a gold nib.

Myke Hurley: But in most instances, you probably just don't need it.

Nib Materials

Brad Dowdy: Yep. There's a few other metal types that are available with nibs.

Myke Hurley: We both have titanium on the way.

Brad Dowdy: We have titanium on the way. The Nexus pen, fountain pen project filled. So I will be getting my first titanium nib.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I paid for mine yesterday. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: They say they're going to have it to me in November. So we'll see.

Brad Dowdy: That's great. And then, you know, there's other just random materials. Like I have a Visconti pen with a chromium nib. I can't even explain to you what the qualities are of that nib. But it's a very firm, firm metal nib. And I actually like it. It's kind of neat. So in your steel nibs and your gold nibs, there's some standard sizes. Extra fine, fine, medium, and broad. That's obviously from smallest, thinnest line width to widest line width. And these are just your standard. There's a whole wide range of non-standard nib size that we'll talk about too.

Myke Hurley: And they differ country to country.

Brad Dowdy: This is one of the most important things for beginners who are buying their first fountain pen to understand. And we bang on it, bang on it, bang on it. You have to be aware of your country of origin to understand how their nib sizes work. So a lot of Western pens, and we're talking Germany, U.S., their extra fine, fine, medium, and broad nibs leave a much wider line than their Eastern counterparts. Pens from Japan, for example. So a fine, Lamy nib or a fine Pelican nib, both of those coming from Germany, will be much wider than the same fine nib on a pilot or sailor that has come from Japan.

Myke Hurley: My feeling about this is, and this is probably on complete biases, but I'm going to go with it anyway. The German style and the Western sizing feels more accurate. So fine feels like a fine line and medium feels like a medium line, etc. I mean, that could just be my kind of bias on it, but that's how I feel.

Nib Sizing

Brad Dowdy: I will agree with you in general. I will agree with you. So what a general rule of thumb is if you have a fine German nib, that's going to translate to an extra fine Japanese nib.

Brad Dowdy: Did I say that right?

Myke Hurley: No, I think you got the wrong way around. I think I...

Brad Dowdy: The Japanese... Let's do it this way. The Japanese extra fine nib will translate into a German fine nib. How about that? So the Japanese is going to be about one size smaller relatively to its German counterpart. Wow.

Myke Hurley: Do you know, someone just posted this in the chat room, ethosophical, the Goulet Pens nib nook.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Wow. It's going in the show notes. They will have that in the show notes. And you can see they go all the way down to platinum. The platinum 3776 makes an ultra extra fine Japanese nib, which is a 0.1 millimeter Japanese nib. It's like the finest stock nib you can buy. That is on their nib nook. So everyone should check that out. What was that one? What was that one? You can do comparisons. The... The... Platinum 3776. Century. It's called the UEF. Ultra extra fine. It's a 0.1 millimeter. Oh, wow. That's about the finest stock nib you can get from any vendor.

Myke Hurley: Like a high-tech C or something.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. I've used one before and they're pretty neat. I don't own one yet, but I will own one of those one day when they come out with more silver furniture options. Platinum is not a big fan of the silver furniture. Most all of their pens are gold. So one of these days.

Myke Hurley: I'm sorry I interrupted you.

Brad Dowdy: No, that's perfect because that's a great resource because you can pick different nib sizes and compare them against each other on the same screen. So it's good. Now, outside of your standard nibs, you can get into specialty nibs, which I've kind of become a fan of. Things like a stub nib, which is a more squared-off nib with rounded edges. It gives you a smooth writing experience, but with a more squared-off line in your north-south lines and a very thin line in your east-west lines, if you will.

Brad Dowdy: And then an italic nib is a counterpart of the stub, but it gives a much, much sharper edge to the pen. It's not as smooth. It's a crisper line, if you will, but not everyone likes it because it's not as smooth as the stub nib. But flex nibs are awfully popular.

Brad Dowdy: There's wide ranges of flex you can get. Some have just like a soft flex with just a little bit of flex in the nibs. Some flex a little bit more. It's just something you'll have to read and learn about each particular pen. Then there's some really random nibs that really specialty nibs, like a music nib, which has a, it's basically got a double-tine system, if you will. It's got two tines. Instead of the single slit going down your pen, it's got three tines, two slits. And then a zoom nib, which I can't even remember what that one is now. It's one of the sailor specialty nibs, and my mind's gone blank.

Myke Hurley: I'm on it, buddy. You're on it.

Brad Dowdy: You're all over it.

Zoom Nibs

Myke Hurley: I'm looking around.

Brad Dowdy: You're poking the nib nook. But no, the zoom nib, it's one that allows you to write in very big line variations.

Myke Hurley: The sailor fountain pen of a zoom nib takes the place of a brush. Holding the pen at a higher angle produces a much finer line than when the pen is held at a lower angle. So when held at a normal angle, the point delivers a juicy medium to broad lines. So depending on the angle of the pen to the paper depends on the thickness of the line.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, exactly. Okay, thank you. Thank you. So that's kind of the nuts and bolts of the hardware, the external hardware of the pen, the nib, the barrel, barrel materials, nibs. So we're going to get into filling mechanisms, how to fill a fountain pen, how to clean a fountain pen. But first, we're going to do the pen blog of the week, which if you're in the chat room, you knew this already. It's the clicky post. And it's not just because Myke Dudek was in there. It is because I read his post on the Max Madco titanium retractable pen, which I love that pen dearly. And I need to order one. And then that reminded me that I don't think I've ever had the clicky post as the pen blog of the week on the show. So I'm super excited to feature the clicky post as the pen blog of the week. Myke's reviews are amazing. His photography is awesome. It's a blog that all pen bloggers should live up to as far as style and quality goes. It's super, super excellent. So and everyone knows I'm a fan of Mr. Dudek. And I'm holding one of his various rot rings hostage right now. So thanks, Myke.

Myke Hurley: I still have his prototype Karis Customs Inc., which he said I need to try out like six months ago or something stupid. The dude is so awesome. He is a dear, dear friend to the show. He's been on a couple of times. And he's he is an example of someone that has kind of like appeared whilst we have done this show. Yeah. And has now like become a full on like pen addict. You know, he's well known for his roturing stuff. And you should also be checking out the fantastic products that he makes, too. You know, I'm a fan. And you can find out all about these at clickypost.com. Just click handmade goods and you'll see everything you want to know about that. And I have a couple of his fantastic products sitting on my desk right in front of me now. So, yep.

Brad Dowdy: And I'm obviously a huge believer as we collaborated with him on our idea doc at NotCo. So which is just it sells out every time we get them in. The dude can't make them fast enough, which is a credit to his awesome workmanship and design and collaboration with us. Everyone loves him so much. So thank you, Myke, for being awesome and being the pen blog of the week.

Myke Hurley: Indeed. Right. So I'll take a break to thank our first sponsor.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, sir.

Myke Hurley: So this is a company that we love very dearly. And we're very, very happy that they're back to sponsor another episode. And that is Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet, they have all of your favorite brands and all of the favorite types of pens that you want to buy. They have brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor and Kaweco. And they sell authentic and authorized amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils and so much more. They're very fast, very reliable customer service. They offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their fantastic pens that they sell. One of my favorite things, and I think one of our listeners' favorite things about the Pen Chalet is the special discounts that they have. And we have another special discount that I'm going to tell you about, which is just for Pen Addict listeners in a moment. But they are running special discounts for everyone all the time. Twice a month they have special discounts that they run. They have closeout specials every two weeks, the things that they're sort of moving out of stock on. And they're always adding new styles of pens every single month. As well as all the brands that I mentioned earlier, Pen Chalet sell limited edition pens and all of the accessories that you're ever going to need. Like carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pens and so much more. They have free shipping on orders over $50 in the continental United States. They also have great rates when they're shipping overseas. They do ship internationally. And also don't forget, you can take advantage of the exchange rate if you are on the other side of the pond. So go to penschalet.com and you want to use the code PENADDICT with anything that you have in your cart. It's going to get you 10% off your order. But the real trick is by clicking the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the code PENADDICT for even more savings. Don't forget to still use the code PENADDICT at checkout to get your 10% off. Here's the bit that everybody waits for every week. Here's our special from Pen Chalet. So today's special is a Sailor 1911 standard fountain pen in both black and demonstrator models. So Pen Chalet have a few different color types, but this offer is only going to be on the black and demonstrator models. In a range of different nib sizes, Pen Chalet are giving 25% off the standard price. And then if you use your 10% coupon code PENADDICT, you will bring this pen down to an incredible $131.63. Now the stock is limited on these, so you must act fast. There are varying different stock levels in different nibs and obviously in the different colors. So if you want one, you want to get in and get it quick. The guys over at Pen Chalet wanted me to let you know that they stock a medium fine nib in some variations of this pen, which is actually quite similar to a fine that they have for other brands. As we mentioned earlier, this stuff differs from pen stockers to stockers. So if they run out of fine, a medium fine should serve you well. Brad, would you agree with that?

Brad Dowdy: I've actually become a huge fan of medium Japanese pens. You know, I have been a hardcore like extra fine, extra, extra fine, get all my nibs ground down to something like super microscopic. I'm actually coming in, moving back up the size range. So like a medium fine would be spot on for me. I'm really enjoying fine and medium Japanese nib pens more than my extra, extra fine ones of late. So yeah, medium fine would be perfect.

Myke Hurley: So head on over to penchalet.com right now. Click that button on the top that says podcast. Enter the code Pen Addict and find your savings. Thank you so much to Pen Chalet for sponsoring Real AFM, for sponsoring the Pen Addict, and for being a fantastic company to work with for our listeners. Thank you.

Brad Dowdy: So, yes, as the chat room reminds me, I love sailors. So, and I actually have what I was talking about before, how I'm doing this, doing this show with a pen in my hand. I actually have my 1911, which isn't a model available on the Pen Chalet, but it's the same exact barrel. Mine is actually called a Black Luster. It's a little bit different. It's got a different grip section, if you will. It's got a metal grip section. But I broke out the 1911 because it's the exact same barrel size, barrel design, barrel shape, barrel feel, everything. It's really, really good. I can't recommend Sailor nibs enough. You go to clickypost.com. Myke's done a couple of Sailor. After he borrowed my Sailor 1911, he's become a Sailor fan. They make elite nibs.

Myke Hurley: So, I don't own a Sailor. Maybe this is the...

Brad Dowdy: This might be your opportunity.

Myke Hurley: This might be my opportunity.

Piston Fillers

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Highly, highly recommend Sailor pens. I'm a huge fan. Yeah. Yeah. I can't say enough nice things about him. So, back into the Fountain Pen 101, the Sailor 1911 is a cartridge or converter filling mechanism. It uses, when you unscrew the barrel, you can fill this pen in two ways. It comes with... Actually, it ships with an ink cartridge, I believe, when the 1911 ships. Because the Sailor has a proprietary ink cartridge. So, you have to use Sailor cartridges for Sailor pens. And you'll find that with a lot of companies. Some do, some don't. Or, you can use a Sailor converter with this pen. So, the cartridge obviously comes with ink in it already. You just snap it into the pen, push it down, and you start writing. Cartridges are the easiest thing to work with on fountain pens, especially for beginners. That's where a lot of people start. That's where I started. They don't want to get into the fussiness of having a bottle of ink and learning how to fill a bottle of ink and making a mess and all those things. But, the bonus of having a converter, which you can use on your Sailor or any other pen. Or, not any other pen, but any cartridge converter pen. Is, you can use bottled ink. You pop in the converter into the barrel, into the nib unit. You stick the nib into the ink. And you twist the end of the converter. And it sucks up the ink. And you're ready to write. So, it's converters are really, really simple. It's probably the most popular filling system for fountain pens. It's very easy. Don't let it intimidate you at all. Anyone who's considering getting into fountain pens. Cartridges are great. I have a cartridge in this 1911 right now. Because I like this particular ink that Sailor makes. It's Sailor Nano Blue Black. It's a killer ink. I'm using those cartridges. But, it also comes in a bottle ink. So, if I have a converter for this, I can use it with a bottle as well. So, it's the ultimate inflexibility in pens.

Brad Dowdy: The next step up is probably a piston filler. Which is another extremely popular filling mechanism for a pen. This is what you're going to get on Twisbees, on Pelicans. It's where there's no inside of the barrel that you can easily access. The end of the pen basically screws off and allows for a plunger to go down in the barrel. So, you unscrew the back end of the barrel. That lowers the plunger. You dip the nib into your bottle. And then, you screw the back end of the barrel back in. And that plunger just pulls, sucks up the ink into the pen. It's kind of a built-in filling system, if you will. That's the best way to describe a piston filler. It's all built in. There's no extra parts like cartridges or converters. But, that's the kicker for someone who wants a cartridge. It's not an option for a piston filler. It's ink bottle only.

Myke Hurley: Piston fillers are my favorite. But, my main problem with the piston filler mechanism is typically in pens that have a piston filler, there's no sort of indication as to how much ink you have. Like, it's difficult to get an indication. Some pens have a window, but the window only shows you up to the point where the window is. Right. So, also, as well, like, you have to be kind of cautious of the way that you fill the pen. Now, I know I'm probably jumping ahead looking at the document. No. But, Mr. Thomas Hall gave me a really great tip about filling with a piston filler.

Myke Hurley: This is probably, you know, to you, Brad, you probably know this, but this is, I guess, good for the 101. So, what you should do is, you should have the pen just in standard. You don't unscrew it or anything. You put it into the bottle of ink, and then you kind of, you unscrew it, so it fills up. Then you screw it back the other way, so it empties, and then you fill it. Because what you're doing is pushing all the air out. So, when you bring it in, you're bringing in air bubbles originally. You push it all out, so you're pushing the air bubbles back into the ink. So, then when you draw the ink back up again, you've expelled all the ink from the mechanism.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's a great tip, and that gives you the maximum fill. And that's right about the piston fillers. You know, unless it's a demonstrator, you have a hard time managing the ink capacity or knowing exactly where you stand. Whereas a cartridge converter pen, you can just unscrew the barrel, see how much ink is left in the cartridge or converter. So, the eyedropper is kind of the next most popular. So, cartridge, converter, and piston fillings mechanisms, those are going to compromise the vast, vast majority of fountain pens. The eyedropper filling system, a bulb filling system, a vacuum filling system, a squeeze filler system, all those things are kind of not as popular as the rest, but some people swear by them. You know, something like an eyedropper fill is something that I've just got into recently. And what the eyedropper allows, that allows for maximum ink capacity in a pen barrel. But the barrel has to be made to handle that. And with the eyedropper, it takes a lot of extra maintenance because you have to, it can only be on a, like an acrylic pen, like a plastic type pen.

Brad Dowdy: Because you have to seal off those seals with silicon grease and on a metal pen, it doesn't work as well.

Myke Hurley: I still haven't gone anywhere near this.

Brad Dowdy: It works really well. The Franklin Kristoff pen. You want to read about a pen when you're purchasing that it's actually built to handle eyedropper fill. You can't, some people can, there's other pens that people have just converted that really aren't marketed as such. Marketed as an eyedropper fill. But really what people use it for is for the huge ink capacity that's available with them with an eyedropper fill. Like two to three times as much with an eyedropper fill as with a cartridge or converter. So that's why people enjoy them. But there are risks and maintenance issues involved with eyedroppers. I haven't have a problem yet, but I don't do it a lot either. I usually just carry like one pen with a, that's filled as an eyedropper. So now filling these fountain pens, we've kind of gone through. I did want to say, and it's not really a fountain pen 101 thing, but it's something I do frequently is with cartridges. Like the Kaweco AL Sport, it really only fits cartridges. Now they have a converter, but it's really bad. It's a squeeze converter. I've never gotten it past a half a fill on the squeeze converter. A squeeze converter is theoretically like a regular converter. You put the converter in the nib unit, dip the nib into the ink, and then you just kind of push it kind of like a button. And you know, that air moving in and out sucks in the ink. Well, the Kaweco one's so small, it doesn't really fill up very much. So what I do with a lot of cartridges is I have a syringe that you can buy from someone like Goulet Pens or Anderson Pens. And that way I can use a bottled ink, you know, like my favorite, you know, Pilot Orochizuku Shinkai and put it in a Kaweco AL Sport by cleaning out an old cartridge that I've used up and syringing in ink from the bottle into the cartridge and then popping the cartridge right into like the Kaweco AL Sport, for example. I do that all the time, just as an easy way to not have to go to a converter on pens that don't easily take them. So that's just a quick filling tip. It's not necessarily a 101 thing, but there are options for pens that take cartridges to fill with bottle ink. And that's one of the ways. Cleaning is a big deal and something I can get lots of emails about, how to clean a fountain pen. And I use some very, my method is very simple and very effective, I think. But it does require one extra thing. And you can also get this at Anderson Pens or Goulet Pens, and that's an aspirator. And if you don't know what an aspirator is, if you see a picture of one, you'll know exactly what it is. It's basically the snot sucker that people use for babies to suck snot out of their nose.

Brad Dowdy: It's a nasal aspirator.

Myke Hurley: I knew you were going to go there.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's what it is. It's the best fountain pen cleaning tool I own. So what I do, all I do to clean my fountain pens is I unscrew them. Usually, I run water through the cartridge or converter, usually the converter. I just run water through that, bring in the water in and out of the converter until it's clean, until it's showing clear. And then I take the nib unit, run that under the water. Then I fill up the aspirator, and I stick it on the feed, you know, where the cartridge or converter would normally go, and shoot that water through the nib and the feed, and it clears it out so quickly. It's much better than just running the pen underwater. It's much better than soaking it overnight. It's faster. It's definitely, definitely the way to go with the aspirators. And then after you've kind of cleared it out and got all the ink out, you can use it without water in it and push air through to help dry it out. It's a super, super handy tool. It costs you about two bucks, and it's totally the way to go when cleaning a fountain pen. It's not rocket science to clean a fountain pen. Don't let it intimidate you. It's just one of those things and one of those tools that really changed how I thought about cleaning fountain pens. So I highly, highly recommend that, getting an aspirator to shoot water through those, shoot through the nibs and help get them cleaner.

Brad Dowdy: So there's kind of, we'll talk about it when I got a few Twitter questions about this, and there's kind of three things that are involved in your whole fountain pen experience. There's the pen itself, there's the ink you use, and then there's the paper you use. So we're not going to get totally into all those things. We're not going to get into paper today, but I did want to talk about ink and how it performs when using a fountain pen. So there's a few terms we use frequently when we're talking about ink and how it behaves. And like I said, all these things are determined, they're not in a vacuum, right? They're determined by what nib, what size nib you're using, what ink you're using, and what type of paper you're using. Everyone could have a different performance with these aspects, like the bleed. Bleed is when you're writing on a page and it looks like the ink's soaking into the page and going through to like the other side of the page and the ink starts getting on the page behind the one you're writing on. That's ink bleeding through the paper. Feathering is what we call when the ink, you're writing on the page and the ink spreads out horizontally. You can see like little spidering through the paper fibers and the ink just kind of soaks into the page. It may not necessarily bleed through to the backside of the page, but you can see it spreading on the top of the page. That's feathering. What I call show through is where the ink, you can see the ink through the backside of the page, not necessarily from bleed or feathering, but it's just like you can see, some people refer to it as ghosting. You can see like ghost writing on the backside of a page to where it might be so severe you couldn't use the backside of the page if you use both sides of the page to write on. Dry time is something that fountain pen users all take into consideration. They want to be sure that their ink and their paper choice and their nib choice is going to allow for a reasonable dry time. Some people look for a very, very fast dry time, like Myke's left-handed. He might want a very, very fast drying pen and ink and paper combination so as not to smudge when he's writing. It's very important. For me, being right-handed, it's not as important to me. I will use an ink and paper, especially like a rhodia, where the ink will stand up on the page a little bit more because it's smoother, because I don't necessarily have to worry about smudging as much. But dry time is very, very important to a lot of people. Ink saturation and ink shading are two properties of inks that people either love, hate, or deal with. Saturation is kind of how deep the color is. On the page, a saturated ink doesn't shade a lot. Shading is when there's a different range of colors in a single line of ink. Like, you'll find a lot of blues, like a lot of turquoise blues, have a range from a lighter shade into a darker shade. If that line was solid instead of shaded in those different colors, it would be a saturated line, like one solid color line. That's a saturation. Now, if the line has a wide range of colors, that's the shading of the ink. So, an ink's not usually saturated and a shading ink. They're usually separate, although I guess there could be cases where there is, I guess, kind of in conjunction there with the types of inks. But, you know, when I do ink reviews, you can get really, really deep in ink reviews. And that's not something I do because I don't, there's, you know, I'm trying to do kind of the most common use case scenario. Like, I don't do a lot of waterproof testing on my fountain pen inks just because that's not a huge consideration for me. And it's definitely a consideration for some people, and I'm not discounting that. But when I do an ink review, I think the majority of the people want to see what it looks like, how it performs, how it dries, what's the shading look like, what's the saturation look like, does it bleed, does it feather? I'm not getting into necessarily waterproofness, light fastness. There's some really extreme tests, and there's lots of places online you can go to find all these great tests. I mean, these people spend hours and hours testing inks and doing all these wonderful tests on it. I'm just kind of coming from more of a standard use case scenario when I do an ink review. So mine are generally more simpler, but that's how I use pens. That's how I use fountain pens. And I don't get bogged down in some of the other things like that. So, excuse me. That's kind of it on ink performance. There's a lot more we can get into. There's definitely a fountain pen 201 course where you can talk about iron gall inks and different permanents and things like that and different behaviors. And all of these topics, there's so much depth in these topics. We're just trying to cover the surface points here. And that's some of the basics. I got a couple more topics I want to get to, including one that I don't consider fountain pen 101, but some people very much are interested in this topic. And there was a great post made this week. So we're going to talk about that in just a minute. Right, Myke?

Myke Hurley: We sure are. Before we do that, we need to thank our second sponsor for this week's episode of the Pen Epic Podcast. And that is Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website, portfolio, and online store. For a free trial and 10% off, visit squarespace.com and use the offer code INK at checkout. And better web starts with your website. If you are listening to this show and you think, hey, I wouldn't mind trying some of that pen reviewing stuff. Well, you too can be like Brad and have your very own pen blog. You don't have to worry about all the tricky parts. Just go to Squarespace and get started with one of the beautiful templates. You can very easily build your pages with the fantastic drag-and-drop page building system. It's all within your browser. And you can see the changes you're making update in real time. Squarespace take care of everything. Web hosting, image hosting, and even podcast hosting if you would like to have a show just like ours. And what if you want to run a store like Knock? Well, that's really easy to do too as our friends over at Knock Co. run their store on Squarespace. They run the whole site there. They run the store there. Every Squarespace website features Squarespace Commerce. So you can set up your own store and start selling physical and digital goods immediately. They integrate with Stripe for payments and loads of other awesome services like ShipStation to help you run a fantastic and efficient business. Squarespace take all of the pain away from building your own professional or business website. They have awesome templates that you can choose from that look good on all devices. They have great apps to allow you to manage your site and your stats on the go. They have 24-7 award-winning customer support over live chat and email with teams located in New York City, Dublin, and Portland. You can get started with Squarespace plans that start at just $8 a month. This also includes a free domain name if you sign up for a year. You can try a free trial right now with no credit card needed and start building your website today. When you do decide to sign up for Squarespace, make sure that you use the offer code INK. That's I-N-K. That's going to get you 10% off your first purchase and show your support for The Pen Addict. We'd like to thank Squarespace for supporting this show and all of RelayFM. Squarespace, a better web starts with your website.

Brad Dowdy: Can't recommend them enough, Myke. They're awesome and they continue to be awesome. It's been a couple years now since I've had my site on Squarespace and I really, really love it. And obviously, we use it in other places too. We use the RelayFM blog as a Squarespace site. Yes, sir. All right, so we've got a couple of quick points I wanted to mention from the chat room. And before we move on, one, Ethosophical made an excellent point, which I wanted to mention so I drive it home.

Brad Dowdy: But basically, and where'd it go? It vanished. Uh-oh. Hold off my screen.

Brad Dowdy: All right, so here it is. The best thing for a pen, as I understand it, is just to use it a lot. The more ink that goes through it, the cleaner, ultimately, it will be. So I think the takeaway is that you have to use, if you're using a fountain pen and you ink up a fountain pen, it needs to be used. You can't just let it sit for weeks and months on a time. It's going to start to clog up. The performance is not going to be as well. The nib's going to get dirty. The ink's not going to flow as well. And if your expectation is that you can fill a fountain pen with ink and let it sit for weeks and months without using them, you're going to have a bad time. It's not going to work well. So try not to have too many pens inked up unless you're a really, really heavy, dedicated fountain pen user. I have, I think I have eight inked up right now, and that's too many for me. I need to be like around three to five at the most. I have a hard time getting there. But that's kind of the right rotation for me to be able to use the pens enough and to ensure that they're staying clean and staying functional.

Brad Dowdy: So use your fountain pens. If you're inking them up, it's made to be used. Use them. Don't let them sit too long. If they're sitting too long, just clean it out and file it away for next time. There's nothing wrong with doing that. Also, Mikey Reak wanted to know about why using, well, the pros and cons of using a bottled ink. And what I told him is that goes back to the general question, why fountain pens?

Brad Dowdy: Cartridges are easier to use. They're more portable. They're less fussy. But the whole reason why I use fountain pens and why a lot of people use fountain pens is customization. I can pick an ink in a beautiful color that's not available in a cartridge. You're very limited on cartridge ink colors. And match it with a pen. Match it with a writing style that I want it to do. Match it with a notebook. I really have the ultimate choice in using a bottled ink. The ink's the same if you have, you know, if you're using pilot blue black ink cartridges or pilot blue black ink from a bottle. It's the same ink. So in that aspect, there's nothing different. If you want to use a cartridge, great. Use a cartridge. But you're not going to be able to get the huge range of colors like you can get in pilot or roshizuco inks or diamine inks or any ink out there. Roaring cleaner that I love so much to be able to really suit your personality, your style, your tastes. So that's why I get into bottled inks a lot. And that's how we talked about last episode, how, you know, I have enough to last me for all of eternity.

Brad Dowdy: And Mikey also asked about a method of storage when you don't use them. Should it be emptied or filled with water? They should absolutely be empty. Store all your fountain pens dry, empty, in a cool, shaded climate. Just like with other possibly sensitive goods, you want to, you know, you want to keep track of them, take care of them, make sure they're stored away properly and laid flat, definitely dry. So one of the big questions I get, and Myke, you also mentioned this last episode, and you and I are experiencing this actually right now as we release this episode, flying with fountain pens. So you're scared of doing it. I'm scared of doing it. But our friend at Modern Stationer is not scared of doing it. And I think he's in the chat room. Yeah, he's in the chat room. Doug's in the chat room. Hey, Doug. Doug's pin, Doug's pin, Doug's post on flying with fountain pens from about a week ago was awesome. He gave like a current, Doug must be a big traveler. And he has a whole setup that he goes through. This is really more than fountain pen 101, but I get this question so much. It's definitely worth pointing out. You should go read this post. I don't know if it's going to change me yet, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Nothing will change me. I'm being serious about it. Nothing. Nothing anybody can ever tell me will make me a call of it.

Fountain Pen Travel

Brad Dowdy: So Doug is an experienced traveler. He has worked through different scenarios with his fountain pen carry while traveling in a plane. Let's make that specific. This is plane traveling where you're dealing with pressure variations that cause fountain pens to have a problem. Doug is a braver man than I, I am willing to admit. But this post gave me some hope that maybe I will convert to a full-fledged fountain pen travel carrier. I admit that I'm getting ready, that I'm traveling, and I will be taking a fountain pen, but it will be a cartridge-filled fountain pen. So I can cartridge it when I arrive, and I will be carrying a Fisher Space Pen or something more stable until I can actually go full-dug. And complete my travel setup with fountain pen pen. But the fact is, I just don't travel enough to really put the time into deciphering how to do this. But Doug has a great post. It'll be in the show notes at Modern Stationers. So thanks, Doug, for doing that post. It's something I will link to frequently.

Myke Hurley: Thanks for your attempt. All right, so I've got a few questions.

Brad Dowdy: We'll wrap this up on what some other Twitter followers wanted to know about Fountain Pen 101, getting started with fountain pens, or just some of the basics. So Pete Dennison mentioned a little on use would be great. Grip, orientation, angle, pressure, posted versus non. He says it's subjective, but your thoughts would be great. Excuse me, Myke.

Myke Hurley: I don't really have anything to say about grip or orientation. I don't really know I have a lot to say about any of these things. I don't put a lot of pressure on my fountain pens. I never have posted.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, the two primary takeaways here are angle and pressure. So angle, you just at least have to have the nib in. Each nib has what's called a sweet spot. And if you're not holding the pen at the right angle, it's going to feel rougher. And if you move it a little bit, you can feel the smoothness kind of shift. So there is a certain angle that you have to hit. There's a range. You're not totally forced to use it at a certain angle. But there is a range where you should hold a fountain pen to get the best performance out of it. Pressure should always be light. And that's something I struggle with. I'll never forget the first time I sat down in front of Myke Masuyama to have him grind one of my pens. And he's like, oh, you press hard. And I didn't even realize it. And you just have fountain pens require a very light touch. It's a very big challenge of mine. I still write very firmly with a lot of pressure.

Brad Dowdy: Posted versus non is totally subjective. I'm a non-poster. It just feels more comfortable for me to not post the cap on the end of my pen. I don't know. It just feels right to me. And I used to not be that way. But now I don't even post the gel ink pens that I use. I hold the cap in my hand or set it on the table. Kind of like Myke. I think you do the same thing.

Myke Hurley: I sometimes hold the cap. She's just something that I do. But yeah. Same here. I can't use pens posted.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So Kim H asked about basic cleaning tools needed in the frequency. I covered the basic cleaning and the tools. Frequency. I'd say if you're going a month without really using a pen. And there's still a lot of ink in it. That's kind of my. It's not a hard, fast rule. But that's kind of my uncomfortable point. Where I'm like, yeah. I think I just need to go ahead and clean this pen out. And either refresh it. Get a new ink fill. Or just clean it and file it away for next keeping. Maybe two months. It's just something. Each pen is going to be a little bit different. Some don't. Some are more airtight than others. So some will be able to handle longer term ink. Like someone in the chat room was talking about the Platinum 3776 is designed to hold ink longer. Because it's airtight. And the cap has an airtight seal. So it doesn't need to be cleaned as frequently. I tend to clean more frequent than normal. Just because it's me.

Brad Dowdy: Rich says. Key practical differences between fountain pens and ballpoints. For carrying them around. Refilling. Carrying for them. Storing them. It's definitely more work. It's more fussiness.

Myke Hurley: You have to be a little bit more careful with them.

Brad Dowdy: It's definitely more care. You have to. You can't just throw a fountain pen in a backpack pocket. Then sling the backpack around. Without. You know. The pen. The ink might. You know. Come out the nib a little bit into the cap of the pen. Things like that. Make a little bit of a mess.

Myke Hurley: They're not going to catch fire. Right. But. Yeah. You have to. You have to appreciate. That if you do those things. Like I do. Sometimes you're going to take the cap off. And there's going to be some ink spots on the nib.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So. You don't. You do have to accept. That there are extra challenges. With fountain pens. You know. They're not necessarily. If you're going to go. Out. Camping. And the weather is going to be poor. A ballpoint pen is going to work better. There is some common sense aspect to that. But. You know. Practicality wise. You know. Fountain pen. It's just. Different. But. That's why. We all like them so much. Because. It. Can suit me. Better. For certain things. And. It's. That's also particular to me. And only me. So there's certain reasons. Why I would choose that. It doesn't necessarily go for everybody. So. There are differences. And. You know. Hopefully. You know. Some of these tips will help. And will help you be. You know. Willing to try out a fountain pen. If you've never tried one before. For. John May. Had. A question. Says. New fountain pen. Or use vintage fountain pen. For beginner's choice. Absolutely new. Your. Vintage fountain pens are awesome. But. If you think fountain pens are fussy. Getting a vintage fountain pen. Requires a lot of. Additional thought. On top of what you would normally. Experience with a modern fountain pen. Just so. If you're getting started. I say. Go modern. Understand what you like. Do some research. And then go vintage. Vintage. Can be. Much. Much. Much. More. Fussy. And finicky. Especially for beginners. I would hate to have someone turned off. You know. From buying an older pen. And having a really tough time with it. So.

Brad Dowdy: Let's see.

Fountain Pen Enjoyment

Brad Dowdy: Jeremiah. And I think we'll end it on this. Our good friend. Jim Cant. On Twitter. He said. Drop a warning or two. About how it's the path. Down into the void. It will consume you. Especially your wallet. And I think we all know this. By this point. So if you're a beginning. Fountain pen user. Understand. Understand. That it's the old. Lay's potato chip thing. No one can eat just one. It's definitely. A path. Down into the void. It will become. All your research time. All your spare time. Filling inks. Organizing inks. Cleaning pens. But. It's the best kind of. Consumption. You can have. It's really. Mentally.

Brad Dowdy: Freeing. For me. To use a fountain pen. To clean a fountain pen. To be involved in. Any kind of pen at all. It's just. It's a very. Mental thing for me. And a very. Fun thing for me. It's a great hobby. It doesn't cost a lot of money. It doesn't. Require a lot of work. But it gives. A lot of.

Brad Dowdy: Enjoyment. You get a lot of enjoyment. Out of it. For what it is. And. Yeah. That's why. I write the blog. And that's why. I do this podcast. Because it's fun. To talk about these topics. And share these topics. Amongst everyone. And get feedback from everyone. And help people out. And have people help me. And. It's. It's very. Very good. And. If you've never used a fountain pen. Guys. And gals. I think you should try one. And. Check it out. Sounds great.

Myke Hurley: Thank you. Mr. Daly. Thank you sir. For pulling that together. And thank you to everyone. Who sent in. Some.

Myke Hurley: Suggestions. Some questions. If you'd like to find. The show notes. For this week's episode. Go to. Relay. FM. Slash. Penaddict. Slash. One. Two. Zero. Thank you so much. To our fantastic sponsors. This week. Pen Chalet. And Squarespace. You're going to go and check those guys out. I am. I Myke. On Twitter. I am. Y. K. E. Brad is at Dowdyism. D. O. W. D. Y. I. S. M. And of course. Brad writes at penaddict.com. We'll be back next week. Of another episode of the pen addict. Until then. Say goodbye Brad. Goodbye Brad. Bye. Bye.