The Pen Addict 337/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	337
Title:	Pen Pin – Holiday Gift Guide 2018
Release Date:	December 5th, 2018
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Ana Reinert
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 337
Audio File:	Audio Episode 337
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 337
Length:	8989 min <br />1.483 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Gift Guide Introduction

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 337, and ho ho ho, today is our gift guide episode, and it is brought to you by Kane11, Harry's, and Pen Chalet. My name is Santa Myke, and I am joined by Brad the Elf. Hi Brad.

Brad Dowdy: I didn't know if that was exasperation, or if that was actually a Santa ho ho ho that you attempted, because that was very interesting, Myke. It's both. Okay, good, good. That's an exasperated Santa, so there's our show title, right?

Myke Hurley: Well, that's what, like, exasperated Santa is the Santa that has to come up with all the gifts before giving them, which is what we've done.

Brad Dowdy: It's a difficult job. Well, we had help with that, right?

Myke Hurley: From the only person that truly can help us out in any situation, and that is the wonderful Anna Reiner. Hi Anna.

Ana Reinert: Hello. Does that make me a helper elf, too?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so Anna, we know our place now. Myke is Santa, and we're the elves, so just so we're clear on that.

Ana Reinert: Absolutely. I never doubted it for a second.

Brad Dowdy: So Brad, what are we doing today? We're doing this. We're doing our gift guide episode, and I know all of our listeners always enjoy when we have Anna on. We started this years ago when Anna yelled at me for my choices during the gift guide episode. I forget even what year that was. It's been so long ago. And we said, fine, Anna, you come on and do it with us. And ever since, it's been our routine. So every year, towards the end of November, early December, we bring Anna back for one of her many appearances throughout the year to talk about all the gifts that we want to get people. And this year, we're going to do it a little bit differently. We're going to take kind of descriptive types of entries into the gift giving. We'll have different categories of gift buying for all your gift buying needs, and we'll say what we think might fit this type of person that you need to buy a stationary gift for. So we'll give it a go this year, Myke, and see how it goes.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think this is a great idea.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so should we kick it off? Because there's actually a lot of topics here.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so should we run through them? So we have like a topic, like a category name, and then a quick description. And then we're going to each have our own picks for each different category. And we'll start with the stationary newbie. I'm going to be very particular about this one because we have a category called the novice later on. And there are some very slight differences here between those two. Now, the stationary newbie is somebody that already has a taste for good pens and paper. Like they've maybe gone and they've perused the aisles and staples, and they found the gel pen and the pad that works for them, and they know that they like it. Kind of like when I began this entire journey with Brad all the way back in episode one, right? Like I knew I liked stuff, but I didn't really know where to go. So, you know, this is for the person who is not sure what exactly they should be looking for or even where they should be starting, but they know that they like this stuff. So, Arna, would you like to give your first recommendation for the stationary newbie? Sure.

Ana Reinert: My first recommendation is going to be a multi-pen like the Zebra Sarasa, which I think is a really, really good option. There's a lot of colors available. So, you can buy the empty body and then fill it with several different gel pen colors. And I think it's just a good jumping off point. So, if someone's already got a G2, but they're looking to try some other things, that could be a good one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Arna and I kind of went the same route. I just remember back when I was using like the first gel pens that I found, like the G2 and the Energel and the Signo, I didn't realize how cool like some of the multi-pens could be. And that made my notes even better. So, I went with the Pilot Hi-Tech C Coleto, like the three-color barrel. You can pick different colors to go in there. It's gel. It's a needle tip. And it just works really well. It's really neat to play with. It kind of – this is the person who, you know, you kind of have the hook set, you know, kind of catching them in their first early stationary love. And I paired that with a Field Notes County Fair edition because, well, at least in the U.S., you can specify like what state they're in. And it gives it a little bit something extra. And pocket notebooks are super easy to use. So, it's kind of a neat little combo for someone who kind of has an idea that I think they like stationary. And this will be a little kit to push them off the deep end and start listening to the Pen Addict podcast in the future.

Myke Hurley: I think the Coleto is a very good pick. Like, the Coleto was an early on for me, right? Like, that was something that was very early on. And I particularly liked how you could pick not just the body that you wanted to use, but all of the individual colors that you were looking to go for, right? Like, I think that that made it a lot of fun for me when going through that process. I had a lot of fun with it. Yep. So, that's a great one. That is a very good one. And, of course, Field Notes forever. So, I thought about this of like, well, it's obvious what you would expect I would say. So, I decided to not say that. And I am actually going to go with the Studio Neat Mark I in this. And the reason is because I think that people maybe in this bracket who are kind of new to stationary, I would expect if you're probably in some kind of office environment. Like, that would be my thinking, right? That like, you may be in some kind of office environment. You decided you want to increase your stationary wares. So, you maybe want something that still looks pretty professional. It looks really good, but also performs very well. And I think that the Mark I fits so perfectly in that range because it uses the Schmidt refill that I'm in love with. The mechanism is wonderful. And it's still very professional looking. And also, it will be shipping really soon. I think they're getting the Kickstarter stuff like out imminently. And you can buy it on the Studio Neat website now. And it's like a couple of weeks away from, I think, maybe from shipping out. So, it's very exciting. I can't wait to get my actual Kickstarter versions because I still just have the prototypes. But I think that this is a pen which would fit quite nicely in this category.

Brad Dowdy: All right, the next category, and I want to explain the order of the categories in that there's no order in the categories. They just are. This was just how my brain dumped these categories out in this order.

Fountain Pen Expert Category

Myke Hurley: We ordered them for variety reasons, right? That's what it was. You were looking for variety.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this was purposeful and meaningful. Yes. That the fountain pen expert category is next. So, this is the person who's kind of got it all. They know what they like. They know the brands they like. They know the styles they like. And is there something you can get that person that is compelling? Like, what would interest someone who has it all? And there's one thing that I can never get enough of. And that is custom nibs. Like, loose nibs that I can use for other pens. And I specifically put in the gift guide the Franklin Kristoff custom nibs. Because they have such a huge variety of styles, sizes. You know, everything from a steel extra fine to like a 1.9 millimeter two-tine music nib. You can get Masuyama nib grinds. You can get all kinds of different shapes. They have gold nibs. And it's actually really helpful for someone who's into fountain pens and wants to mix things up a little bit to have options for nibs. So, like, I'll have a favorite pen barrel that I might use three different nibs on depending on the mood I'm in when I fill up that pen and want to do it. So, I like having that customization option of just having an extra loose nib unit laying around. And you can get these, I mean, just the basic nibs, you know, in the $20 range. You know, special grinds for steel, you know, $60. And then the gold nibs, you know, up well over $100 depending on what you get. So, there's a huge range of things you can get here with just like spare nibs. So, that seemed to be a pretty good option.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I like that because if you already have a bunch of stuff, this could allow you to play around with some new things without necessarily needing to buy new pens, right? It's like I bought a couple of nibs like this myself. Like, I bought that few-day nib, right? And that was a lot of fun to play around with to kind of understand a little bit more of what I like. So, now, when I actually buy pens, like some of the sailors that I've bought, I've been a little bit more adventurous with the nibs that I'm using. So, I think this is a very good pick. My thinking was the fountain pen expert probably at this point has maybe purchased everything that they would want which is available to them, right? You have your sailors, you have your pilots, maybe you even have a Nakaya, right? Like, you've bought a bunch of things. So, there is one route that if you have not explored at this point, you should do. And that is to order something completely custom. So, to actually go to a company like an Edison or Newton pens or you go to Jonathan Brooks and you're like, okay, I've seen these types of pen bodies. I want this type of material. And like you go through the whole process because it is exciting and it is terrifying. And you end up with something unique and wonderful at the end of it, right? So, I think that if you're at a point where you feel like, oh, I've maybe bought everything that I've been looking for but I want to know where to go next. I think ordering something of your own desire from scratch is a really, really fun thing to do. And it's a nice kind of like milestone in your kind of pen buying history.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Anna, what do you have? I actually liked your selection a lot.

Ana Reinert: Oh, thank you. Myke, I think that's a great idea. Yeah, I'd be nervous to try to pick out a pen for somebody else. But I'm wondering if Newton or Brooks or anyone actually offers gift certificates where you could maybe contribute to someone's custom pen purchase.

Myke Hurley: Oh, that's a good idea.

Ana Reinert: So, my suggestion was that I would not risk trying to figure out what another fountain pen enthusiast needed or wanted or if they already had something. So, I went with a book and I recommended The Adventures in Stationery. I think it was originally called The Perfection of the Paperclip by James Ward, which has like historical information about all the different office supplies from highlighters and ballpoint pens to fountain pens and just sort of how they came about. And it's a really nicely designed book. It would make a good gift, I think, if you haven't read it already.

Brad Dowdy: And I haven't. Like, that's one I need to put on my list so I remember to pick it up at some point. I need to get that because I like to read all these stationery books. And they're always so interesting and such good reads that I need to get this one.

Ana Reinert: We actually included several other books on the Well-Pointed Desk gift guide that Laura, Tina, and I put together maybe a week ago. So, there's more options.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so quick note on that. I purposefully did not read your wish list so we could link them in the show notes. So, there's more options to your overall gift guide for the Well-Appointed Desk. And then, like, your personal gift guide for you and all the writers, Jesse and Tina and Laura over at the Well-Appointed Desk put up another post for that. So, there's some more gift guide goodness y'all can all go check out. We'll have links to that in the show notes.

Ana Reinert: Okay, what's next?

Myke Hurley: All right, so our next category is for the Experimentalist. So, this is something that you're trying to buy from someone to blow their minds, which I like this as an idea. And I was sitting and thinking, like, what can it be? Like, what could you buy somebody to blow their minds? And for me, it was something that the first time I saw blew my mind, and it's the Pilot Parallel. Now, the Pilot Parallel are these pens that have varying nib sizes, right? So, you can get, I think they're from 1.5 to 6 millimeters. And they're kind of like ink pens, so a really weird fountain pen is the way I think of them. But you can touch two pens together and change the color of the line. And it is this super weird and wonderful thing to see. And I think that they are, if you can find someone who kind of knows what they're doing, they are a ton of fun to play with and experiment with and to fill with weird and wonderful inks and see the kind of crazy combinations that you can come up with. And they're not very expensive. I think they're like, I'm looking at Colt pens right now, like 10 pounds on Colt pens. Buy a couple of them. You could get some exalted in cartridges as well. You can go to town and have, these things are a lot of fun.

Brad Dowdy: Did you know Ana has a super special Pilot Parallel?

Myke Hurley: Yes, I have seen this actually.

Brad Dowdy: Can you tell us about that, Ana? Because I'm totally in love with what Brian from Red Dragon Pen Co. did for the Parallel.

Ana Reinert: Yeah, I heard about these during the DC pen show. And basically, I mugged him in the hallway to get one. Actually, I think I have two. I got two of them from him. And he had created like a resin barrel bodies for the parallels. So basically, you can twist out the nib unit from a, you know, he pulls out the nib unit from the plastic body that was originally made. And he made these beautiful, you know, turned resin bodies for them. And the bodies are much shorter. So they'll actually fit in a regular pen sleeve or pen case. But yeah, they're extraordinarily cool. And every time I mention it, he gets contacted by like, you know, dozens of people being like, when can I get one? So let's mention it again.

Ana Reinert: So yeah, Red Dragon Pen Company.

Brad Dowdy: All right. But that's not on your list. And I almost put this down on my list. So I'm glad you did. So what do you have for this category, Ana?

Ana Reinert: Oh, so my category for the experimentalist is the new Pinnider snorkel filler. It looks completely bizarre. But it's one of those things that it's like, if you're trying to blow somebody's mind, this would probably do it if they haven't seen it yet. But it is a little device that can be attached to a converter. This is so cool. And then it's like a long, it's basically like the long needle tip so that you can get into your ink bottle. And then just suck up the ink into your converter. And yeah, it's supposed to like give you a complete fill. And so you don't get as much of that air bubble issue that you get when you're trying to fill a converter from your nib into an ink bottle. And it's also going to let you be able to get into the corners of all of those jars, you know, particularly the sailor ones, which are impossible. Those little flat sailor bottles. And it's not very expensive.

Brad Dowdy: I'm 100% in.

Ana Reinert: Yeah, totally. But my other option was to try out the pencils for pen lovers from CW Pencils. I believe someone we know put that set together.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, it was me. I know that guy. It was me. I did it. I did it.

Brad Dowdy: Myke, the lover of wooden pencils. Yes. No, I did put that list, that group together. And I'm really happy with that group of pencils, especially for someone who has not tried pencils before. And, you know, it's one of those things you always kind of, after you make up a kit like that, you always want to revisit it, you know, a year or two later. And this one holds up really, really well. So, awesome. Thank you for including that.

Brad Dowdy: For my experimentalist, I like vacuum fillers. And I didn't want to go as deep as, like, Conid or, like, a Pilot 823 because they're very expensive for that, especially for gift giving. But the Twisby Vac Mini gets absolutely no respect. And I think it's just a feat of engineering. To have that filling system and that small of a pen and for it to work that well, it continuously blows my mind. It's one of my favorite little Twisbys. And it's just such a cool little pen. And the body is clear. So, you see the vac working. And, you know, you can see all the internal. So, I thought that was cool. I also added the Tech Accessories Coaxis Rail Pen, which is a pen that I like. This is a very specific to me pen. But if you're looking for something weird and, like, you have a friend that's, like, an engineering-type person or, like, a builder or likes to put things together, this is such a uniquely designed pen. It's definitely not for everybody. It's definitely kind of a risk purchase to buy. But if you know someone who likes kind of odd, weird, you know, fidgety-type things, the Coaxis Rail Pen, it works for me. I have a traditional grip, traditional tripod grip. So, being a rectangular-shaped barrel, you have to have a specific grip to hold it well. So, it's super particular. But I think it's super fun if you want to take a chance and a real risk buying a gift for someone.

Ana Reinert: That thing is, like, crazy Lego-looking, like, metal Legos.

Brad Dowdy: It works so well. Like, we have a category later that this would fit into well. So, I might have to mention it again. But it's shockingly good for me. And I definitely know that it's not for everybody. But, like, if you see this and you say, oh, that would work. Oh, you know, Tom or Kate is, like, really into this really weird building stuff. You know, like, to see how things are put together or see unique ways to solve a problem like writing. Well, this might be that type of pen for a gift.

Myke Hurley: All right, let's take our first break and talk about some whether you should be going to buy the gifts for the fountain pen or rollerball or ballpoint pen lover in your life. Pen Chalet. They have all of your favorite brands. They do fantastic deals all the time. We have some deals to talk about later on. They do fast and reliable customer service. That is so important to Pen Chalet. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. They want you to be able to go to them and buy the high-quality stuff that you're looking for and feel happy about it. Pen Chalet do free shipping in the U.S. on orders of over $50. And they have great shipping rates to sell internationally as well. They don't just have pens. They also have accessories, carrying cases and refills. And they do ink and converters and so, so much more. And one of the reasons you should always be going to Pen Chalet is because you can always get yourself a discount that helps support this show. You go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. And there's a link at the top of the website that says podcast. You tap that button and just put the password penaddict in. This is where you will get a 10% code to save on anything at Pen Chalet at any time. So you can always go there, grab that code, and you can get yourself a discount. But as always, we do have some special offers. And there's a large selection of things in there this week. There's a few Retro 51s that have caught my eye for great prices. There's a couple in there that I'm super surprised to see. As well as just some wonderful fountain pens as well. I know there's some stuff that we've been talking about on the show in the past that I think people will get a great kick out of. So you just go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Hit that link at the top of the website and use the password penaddict. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for the continued wonderful support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: This list is always great. This is one of the deepest, most thorough penaddict sales page lists I have ever seen. There is a lot of interesting stuff in here.

Myke Hurley: I think Ron has covered quite a wide gamut on this one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so this kind of has something for everyone. Definitely well worth checking out. That's a huge list. I'm going to have to go back through there myself because I'm surprised to see some of these things on here.

Myke Hurley: All right, should we move on and talk about The Writer? So Brad, what is The Writer?

Brad Dowdy: So one of the reviewers for the penaddict, Sarah Reed, is about to have her first novel published. So I've learned a lot of her reviews over the years have been focused on her writing and NaNoWriMo. And of course, a bunch of people in this space, like Les at Comfortable Shoe Studios, really write a lot. And our friend Harry Marks, who we met at CW Pencils, has a podcast about authors and things. So there's just so many traditional writers that listen to The Penaddict, read The Well-Appointed Desk, pretend Myke exists, and write stories about his beards, that they need places to put all of this knowledge and all of these stories that they want to tell and things to write with. So I thought, you know, maybe I'm not the best person to answer this, but I see all of Sarah's posts, and she always has just like these crazy systems for writing. So I thought maybe we could maybe take a stab at finding something for the writer. So what do you have, Anna?

Ana Reinert: Well, I just recently discovered the new Endless Recorder, Tomoe River Notebook, which is a slightly smaller scale. It's only got like 160 pages of 68 GSM paper, but it's still, you know, an A5 size, Tomoe River, nice, you know, PU leather. Just very cool, very reasonably priced. Everybody loves Tomoe River.

Brad Dowdy: As we can tell by Brad's selection as well, I went the opposite. I went big. 496 pages of Tomoe River in the Elia Note, which is a notebook I just got. And I'm very impressed with it so far. It comes in this really nice slipcover. You know, you can get a blank line or dotted. It's a little bit more expensive than the Endless Recorder, but you do get more pages. Although it is the thinner page. It's the 52, I think, is the thin page thickness. But getting a lot of space to write. I've watched Sarah fill up these notebooks left and right, you know. So I figured something with a lot of pages might be something cool.

Myke Hurley: So where I think Brad has maybe picked something for you to actually write your novel into, my thinking was that depending on, you know, you may be writing it on paper, you may be writing it on a computer, like whatever it is that you're doing. There are also things that happen which aren't necessarily in the text, you know, like ideas. So maybe you want to do some plotting and some planning for where the book's going to end up going. And I would say that a nice format for that would be the Field Notes front page, like reporter notebook style. So you've got like long pages with you, but they're short. So they could sit quite easily next to the notebook that you're using to actually write the book into. And you've got like an extra space that can be very easily put into a jacket pocket or into a backpack. So you've always got something with you to write down your next great quick idea.

Brad Dowdy: Anna, I got to give it to Myke. Like that was a smart pick right there. Thank you. Accessory, the accessory to the writing is just as important, right? Because there's always small bits and tidbits, especially when putting together a novel. I can't even imagine what some of these layouts look like for planning. So yeah, great choice by you, Michael Hurley.

Ana Reinert: Yeah, I totally agree. And it made me think of David Sedaris, who he's sort of talked about it in interviews and stuff that he actually like carries a notebook with him everywhere. And he will write down snippets of conversations, things that he sees out in the world. And I think the front page would be a perfect notebook for something like that. If you're, you know, that whole out and about in the world, and you see something that you want to capture, some snippet of conversation, the way someone looked, like all those little details that go into writing a novel. I think that'd be perfect. So yeah, Myke wins that category. Good pick, Myke.

Ink Guru Selection

Myke Hurley: Thank you. All right, so we'll move on to the Ink Guru. This is the person, they have 10,000 sample bottles in a cabinet. They've got their color decks all filled up, and they're looking for something new. Brad, what would you recommend?

Brad Dowdy: I'm fascinated by this stinking Ackermann Delfts Blue. Just for the packaging and the bottle and the idea behind it and the reason why it exists. It's just everything Dutch. It's everything Ackermann. It's what I expect. They make the most beautiful bottles. Like, if you know someone that's, like, just a huge ink junkie and they have, like, they've subscribed to, like, all the ink flights and all the ink samples and, you know, and have a few bottles of their favorites. If they don't have an Ackermann ink, number one, the ink is amazing. Number two, the bottle is the best in the business. And this Delfts Blue, I'm just in love with it. The only reason I haven't bought it is because I may not actually use the ink. The ink is really good. It's just a traditional blue, and that's traditionally an ink color I don't use. But, boy, am I tempted. I might just have to break down and get that for myself. See, I'm selling myself on these gifts. That's the other problem with this gift guide. Between stuff that I want and stuff that y'all bring up, I'm going to end up buying half this stuff. But Ackermann Delfts Blue is at the top of my list. I think it's really pretty.

Myke Hurley: All right. So, I'm going to go with the Mont Blanc Lucky Orange because that, I mean, one, it's a limited ink, right? At least it's not super easy to get. So, like, that maybe increases the desire for the Gotta Catch Them All ink collector. But I just, I've been super impressed with the color. I think it's a beautiful, rich orange that I really, really enjoy. And it's been different enough to the oranges that I've been using over the last couple of years to make it something that I'm going for more and more often. I think this is a wonderful color and quite a surprise for me. Like, I wouldn't have expected such a wonderful orange to come from Mont Blanc. So, you know, I would have just thought, oh, they're the stuffy, fuddy-duddy people. They're not going to create something so vibrant and wicked. But they did. And I love it. It's a great, great ink. And it's paired very nicely with one of my sailor pens.

Ana Reinert: I really like that orange, too. It's one of the few that I've actually purchased this past year, maybe last year. But, yeah. And the bottle is beautiful, too.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can't, you know, their logo, for as much as it can be that you feel about it, it looks really good, especially on the bottles, right? Because they just... Oh, it's a stunning logo. And it's such... It looks... I really think that it looks better on their ink bottles than it does on their pens. Because it's so big and bold on the bottles. I think it looks really great. Yeah. It's nice. Very nice. And nice packaging, too. Just in general, like, the branding around the Lucky Orange has been really great.

Ana Reinert: So, my suggestion for the Ink Guru would be to try something, a newer ink. And so, I recommended the Three Oysters, which is the new... I believe it's Korean. Is it Taiwanese? It's Korean. But there's a couple of colors in particular that I think are pretty unusual and pretty unique. One of them is called Doldum. D-O-L-D-A-M. And it is sort of like a blue-gray with a grayish... Grayish sheen. I don't know. It's the... It's like one of the coolest colors.

Brad Dowdy: I'm looking at this. It's pretty wild.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. It's very unusual.

Ana Reinert: Just a great... It's just a super cool color. And then there's two other ones. One's called Red Wine, which is a really nice burgundy color. But not... It doesn't look like a lot of the other burgundy colors that I've seen. And then they have a sort of a golden color called mustard, which is also really nice. Non-metallic. It's just a golden color. It's kind of... It really does look like mustard, yellow-green-ish, which I think is really nice. And of course, you can never go wrong with including a color ring in your holiday gift giving.

Myke Hurley: I think if you don't do it, you are going wrong. Right? Like I think it is a bad idea not to do it. You must. Everyone must have one. How else are you going to test your rings? Exactly.

Ana Reinert: There's no other way. And I've got a shameless plug for the Pen Addict listeners this week. The well-pointed desk shop has 10% off anything in our store if you use the coupon code Pen Addict. And that's good through the 15th.

Brad Dowdy: All right. If you're shopping for stationery, the color rings or the color decks are a mandatory purchase. They're such a great product. And I could not recommend them more. And even if Anna wasn't on here, I'd still say the same thing.

Myke Hurley: I quite like the person that makes them.

Brad Dowdy: She's pretty okay.

Myke Hurley: Thanks. Thanks, guys.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke. I'm going to introduce this next topic because I think it brought about some confusion in our list. And this is how my brain works. So in the beginning, we had the stationery newbie. It's like this is the person who just got their first taste. Their first hit was free. This person, the novice, has no clue about this. And you want to kind of introduce that person into what is a decent stationery item or two that is a step way up from anything they've ever used before. This is a person where you're going to give them their first, like, good stationery products. What path would you go down?

Myke Hurley: All right. So I genuinely really struggled with this one.

Brad Dowdy: I agree. It was harder than I thought it would be, honestly.

Myke Hurley: Well, mostly because the writing implement that I would pick, you'd already picked it, which I feel honestly was unfair from you because you know that I was going to pick it, but you did it beforehand. So I went slightly differently, and I'm actually pretty proud of my pick. So for the paper, I would choose the Rodeo web notebook for two reasons. One, the paper is amazing. And two, it looks like a Moleskine. So when you give it to someone, you're like, oh, I get this. Right? Like, I see these all the time. So I think it is a really great upgrade for someone. And I think it's also just like a great starter notebook. And it comes in a really cool orange as well as black. So I like it. It's very well made. Paper is very good. Big, big fan of the Rodeo stuff. I haven't used them in a while, but I always love it when I do. And then I was thinking, what else could I pick? Right? Like, I was really struggling. I didn't want to pick a fountain pen because that feels like it doesn't fit the brief. You've picked the thing that I would pick. So I came up with the Rotaring 600 mechanical pencil because it's, you know, they have a pen chalet for like $30. It retails typically for like $40. I don't think you can spend that amount of money on anything else in pens and get like the very best that the category has to offer. But you do with the Rotaring 600. You spend $30.

Brad Dowdy: I like how you explain that. That's a really, really accurate statement, I believe.

Myke Hurley: And I think that it's like for that kind of price to be able to get the tippy top, I think makes it a really exciting thing. And plus, it's not too complicated, right? Like it's not got anything to it that's funny, right? Like people understand how to use a mechanical pencil. And it looks great. You know, I think the pairing of the Rodeo web notebook and the Rotaring 600, that is like a professional looking thing. Like that is a nice looking thing. But it's also fun in its own way. So I think that this is an interesting pairing and could be something that somebody really enjoys.

Black Gel Pen Sampler

Ana Reinert: Those are good picks. Thank you. Okay, so my picks for this category are the black gel pen sampler from JetPens. It gives a novice a range of gel pens to try out. And I think it's basically the gateway drug. And I picked the black. But if you know specifically someone prefers blue pens or has a favorite color, JetPens has gel pen sampler. In a myriad of options. So if you know someone prefers blue or you want to do the blue black or gray or pink or orange or some other color. But I went with black because I feel like that sort of like start there. And then they can discover that they love the high tech C that's in there or the Uniball Signo or whatever. And then they can go and discover that there's a million colors and different point sizes and the whole thing.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, I think that's an awesome pick because I talk about all the time how cheaply you can try several pens to figure out what your pen is. And this is kind of the perfect way to do that and narrow down what you like and dislike. And then go down that path of, you know, whether you like the Signo or the Energel or whatever it is. And then start exploring there. I think that's a killer, killer idea. I went with the Leuchtturm A5 softcover. I think I picked the softcover one because it feels great. And it's not as big and thick or intimidating as I think, you know, some of the A5 hardcover, you know, serious business notebooks are. I don't want to intimidate someone right out the gate. And the Leuchtturm is such good quality. Any pen they have will look good in it, especially the pen I stole from Myke, which you knew it was going to happen at some point. The Retro 51 Tornado. But I specifically put in the lacquers edition because you can get this pen for like 20 bucks in those colors. And that was my introduction into Retro 51. And you can see what happened from there. And I've had so many people use either a Retro 51 or the Baron Fig Squire or the Mark 1, even though it's not out. I know some people that tested it and were never familiar with the refill. When they try the Schmidt refill that was in this Retro 51 and now is in a bunch of other pens,

Brad Dowdy: it changes how people think about what a good pen should be. So that was kind of the idea I had behind that. So I think all these are really good choices. We did better there than I thought, even though that was kind of a difficult category.

Ana Reinert: The one nice thing about your Leuchtturm notebook and Retro 51 combo is that you could color coordinate. Yeah, matchy-matchy. Matchy-matchy.

Brad Dowdy: Leuchtturm, like in the past year or two, like they've expanded like the hardbound color covers for years. Now these soft covers come in just a myriad of colors. Like there's got to be probably 20 choices. So yeah, that's a great idea. Good call. All right, Myke, let's get nerdy. Yeah. So we all have, I mean, we're all geeks. We all have our geeky friends. And a lot of our geeky friends are into like the stationary stuff. So I thought this would be kind of a fun thing to throw out there. So Ana, what do you think about your geeky stationary friends? Kind of what do they need?

Ana Reinert: Well, the first thing I thought of, of course, was these fabulous Skylab Letterpress D20 coasters.

Brad Dowdy: They are so good.

Ana Reinert: I had to throw that in there.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And we, just a, you know, pro tip, like we sold, you sold several of those last time you mentioned these. If you guys haven't seen these, you need to check them out. Yep.

Ana Reinert: Yep. So if you have a geeky friend who likes to play games of any sort, the D20 coasters, it's a perfect gift. It's fun. It's silly. I really get a kick out of them. But if you would prefer a more pen nerdy geek option, I found a really cool enamel pin that is a fountain pen that says mightier on it.

Brad Dowdy: That's super cool. We love enamel pins, obviously.

Myke Hurley: Would you call that the pin pin, Brad? Is that the pin pin?

Brad Dowdy: That is the pen pin.

Myke Hurley: The pen pin.

Brad Dowdy: That took a lot of work, effort on my part. So I'm not going to do it again. Honestly, buddy, I'm sorry. It still sounded the same. Yeah, it's the pen pin.

Ana Reinert: It really does. Is that the name of a panda in China? Pen pin? It's a panda in China?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, man. That's a tough one. I still got to share with y'all the email I got from the professor who was trying to break it all down for me. All right. So I went with I really wanted. I didn't know what I wanted for this category at first. And then it hit me. I wanted that post-it note set up where you pull the notes off and then it ends up building like a scenery. Yes. You know, like a mountainside or a house. And I couldn't find them for sale. They're called the Omaroshi Block. And everywhere I looked was not in stock or sold out. I really think this is a super, super geeky thing. Because it went viral. It did earlier this year. So I think this is like a perfect geek stationary thing to have kind of this experience with your post-it notes. So I did find some other post-it notes that I like because y'all know I like those like small notes and post-it notes. And I was hoping President Correct would actually have the Omaroshi blocks. But they have these other ones just called block notes. And they look really cool on a desk. Like this is like this would go with your D20 coasters on your desk. These block notes would fit in. It's different color palettes. And, you know, you can make different shapes. I mean, different color layouts, you know, like on your desk, things like that. So that was something to check out. But, yeah, if you can find those Omaroshi notes, that would be the ticket.

Myke Hurley: All right. For this one, I am going to go with, because I think it has to be included every single year, a Pen Addict membership. As the geeky thing for the pen nerd in your life. Because you get to read a wonderful newsletter every single week where you get to learn what's rattling around in Brad Dowdy's brain, which is always an interesting thing. Sometimes it's scary. Could be scary. Mostly interesting. And you also get a bunch of great links as well to stuff that you may have missed. And it's always stuff that I've missed because Brad is very good at curating that. And you also can get yourself discounts at the Pen Addict shop and giveaways and wonderful stuff. I think that the Pen Addict membership is wonderful. Penaddict.com slash members is where you can sign up. And you should. And is Refill, which is the newsletter that you get, is my favorite membership newsletter. And I subscribe to a bunch of them. I read it every single week. And I think that if you have not yet subscribed, you should definitely do that. Awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Yay. Thank you so much. I saw that in there. I was like...

Ana Reinert: I'm a subscriber. Yay.

Brad Dowdy: I saw you put that in there. I was like, that mic. Sneaky. Sneaky mic. I'll always get you. All right. This next category is near and dear to my heart. And I think to Anna's heart too. And actually to Myke's heart too. The messy desk. How are we going to solve people's messy desk problem? This was one of those categories that comes up a lot throughout the year on the Pen Addict. And it comes mostly because my desk is a wreck half the time. And when we were in New York, I fawned over the Muji acrylic five drawer storage little mini cabinet that would fit on a desktop or in a closet on a shelf. It's just... It was five trays. It looks like it would fit hundreds of pens. They have some larger size ones that would fit notebooks. So that's kind of the thing I look for for desk storage is what I can fit a lot of things in in a small space. And I still kind of like to see them. Like I like the acrylic see-through look. Like I have no problem with that. And then for portability, I think the Knock Co Sinclair case is the best case we make at Knock. I carry the Brasstown more because I have a bunch of pens and I'm usually carrying a bag where I'll keep a notebook or I'll have a notebook in my pocket. But just for singular carry, pens, paper, notebook, notes, loose stuff, I think the Knock Co Sinclair is a great choice. And I'll go ahead and announce this now. I have started to receive the violet and black ones. So I'll have those up on the site hopefully tomorrow for any of your last minute Christmas shopping.

Myke Hurley: All right. So I am going to take Brad's acrylic five drawer situation and expand it significantly to talk about the IKEA Alex, which is a drawer unit that I use. You can have it on wheels. You can have it not on wheels. It comes in a bunch of colors. I really love it. It is a large scale solution. They do it in a couple of different sizes, but I have the kind of the larger one. And I've got some like rubber insets that IKEA do as well. So stuff doesn't roll around in there and I have everything in there. All my pens, all my paper, all my inks, all in these drawers. And the drawers are in varying depths as well, which is really good. So you can put larger stuff in the bottom and smaller stuff in the top. It is a great, great little office based storage system that I have for all of my stationary supplies.

Brad Dowdy: I love it. I've seen pictures. It's super cool. I really like that a lot.

Ana Reinert: Well, you guys pretty much took the two things I was going to say. So I really had to scrounge around to find something else.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I think you did pretty good because now I'm like, I'll let you say what it is and I'll tell you how that would work perfectly for me.

Ana Reinert: Well, so my next thing, because I actually have an Alex IKEA storage as well and I store all of my flat items. So like papers, it's actually where I do all my photography for the blog is on top of the Alex. But inside of it is papers, notepads, all kinds of junk. But yeah, putting pens in there is a great idea. And I'm laughing because I'm sitting here looking at my five by five foot, six foot by six foot IKEA bookshelf. So really, if you have a messy desk, that's really what you need is the giant bookcase with the drawer units and the cupboard fronts on there. And that might put a dent into the messy. But we now have two in our studio. Bob has one and I have one. So that's what 12 square feet of storage. And my desk still looks like hell. So my suggestion then is the Razcog utility cart, which is where I keep all of my things to review. And it is overflowing and literally like it's a little three wheeled metal storage container. And anyone who has one ends up loving it and then ends up buying another one because they're they're only $30 US each. Yeah. And they come in. You can right now, I think they have like white, navy, blue, and black. When I bought mine, I got it in steel gray. I've seen them in a couple other colors, too. But yeah, they roll really well. They're super easy. And they'd be a pain to wrap, though.

Ana Reinert: But, you know, you put that that one nib that you paid a ton of money for on top in a little box and then wrap the whole thing in one of those like big bags that they wrap kid gifts in. And you've got your entire holiday covered.

Brad Dowdy: There you go. I like it.

Ana Reinert: But my other suggestion was the Retro 51 bamboo tray, which has like a plexi cover on the front of it. And will hold I think it holds 15 or 16 Retro 51s. So if you know anybody, and I'm not naming names like Myke, who has a large collection, the tray is great for not only storing your pens, but then also displaying them because they don't get dusty or anything. So you can see all of them. And I confess we have two of those trays, too.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I grabbed two of those as well. And they're loaded up. I love them. I want this Raskog because I just moved the Knox shipping department to my house. And I have when we ship, we always have these little accessories that we need. We need like a, you know, the hang tag for the product or the stickers or the little loops that the hang tags goes on or an infinite amounts of tapes. Like just all those accessories stuff to just move around and to have in there. I think it would be a great solution for me. So I'll be looking into that myself.

Ana Reinert: It rolls really well, too. So even once it's loaded down, whatever wheel system they put on those, they roll really nicely. So, yeah, for me, it just means I can like roll whatever products I'm reviewing over to the light box and back. And usually Laura just comes over and laughs at me because she's like, So how much of this stuff do you want me to take? Could you take all of it?

Brad Dowdy: All of it. Yes.

Break Announcement

Myke Hurley: All right. Should we take a break?

Brad Dowdy: We should.

Myke Hurley: My feet are warm. Oh, well, that's good news. Well, hang on. Do you have socks on? I do. All right. Great. Well, that's good news then because today's episode is brought to you by Kane 11. Because you have a warm feet before. It wasn't going to help, right? We need you. We need you to warm your feet afterwards. Kane 11 are the company who make ridiculously comfortable socks precisely in your shoe size. The socks that you're wearing right now will be like a one size fits all situation. But we don't all have the same size feet. And the folks over at Kane 11 thought that since we wear our socks every single day, they deserve some attention. They deserve some care. They deserve some innovation. Kane 11's Merino Wall Socks offer a precise fit. Their name, Kane 11, comes from the 11 sizes they have available from 7 through to 17. You will be amazed when you feel the difference of socks that truly fit your feet. They are made in the USA and engineered to give you a precise fit with extra comfort and performance. It's going to be better than anything you've worn it before. And they are available in smart, confident, cool looking styles as well to suit your look every single day. Big fan, Brad. I love my Kane 11 socks. I was super surprised just how well they fit. And I'm going to buy so many of them. They also do like the low cut ones as well. Like, you know, like the kind of the ankle socks or the sneaker socks. Trainer socks as they're called here in the UK. And I'm very excited for summertime because I'm always so frustrated at those ones particularly. I never get good like low socks that fit me very well. So I'm looking forward to getting some of these as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this is a fidget proof sock. So you don't have to mess with the toe box or the heel or anything when you slip them on. That's what I like about them the most. And right now the weather's cool where I'm at. So they're wool. I am wearing them right now, keeping my feet warm. And they have great patterns. The ones that I have like they're kind of that middle ground where you can wear them with like a dressier type shoe or you can wear them with tennis shoes, which is what I'm doing today. So that's the kind of style I like, the fit I like, the comfort I like. So yeah, very, very big fan so far. These Kane 11 socks in size 11. So I get double the branding, Myke. We get double the branding. So it's like they made them just for us.

Myke Hurley: All of these purchases will come with a Kane 11 promise. If for any reason you don't love your socks, just send them back for an exchange or return. No questions asked. And Kane 11 socks make the perfect gift for the person who has just everything in their life. Because I can bet you sure they do not have these. Once you wear Kane 11s, you'll never go back to one size fits all socks ever again. To get your own Kane 11 socks in precisely your size, go to Kane11.com slash Pen Addict. That is K-A-N-E-1-1 dot com slash Pen Addict. And use the promo code Pen Addict to get 20% off your order. That's Kane11.com slash Pen Addict and promo code Pen Addict for 20% off your first order. Our thanks to Kane 11 for their support of this show and all of Relay FM. So the next one we're going to go with, our next category here, is for the student. Because as Brad wrote in this little document that we have here, school sucks. Let's make it better. So here's my thinking, Brad, right? I'm expecting that lots and lots of students these days actually use computers, right? They use laptops. They use maybe iPads, maybe Surfaces, whatever they're using. So I was thinking, what paper goods can I suggest that could go along with this computer-based learning style? So I'm going to go back to talking about my friends at Studio Neat and recommend the Pano Book. Because this is a notebook that is designed to go alongside a computer. So I thought that it would be really great to either have, but like, you know, in between you and the keyboard or on the side of your keyboard, in case you want to make any scribbles, you want to take any notes whilst you're in class, I feel like the Pano Book would be a great option for that. And I also, just for funsies, I wanted to throw in something that, you know, I know I used a lot of highlighters when I was at school. And I wished that I had the Kukuyu Beetle Tip three-way highlighters because they're friggin' awesome. And I feel like this is something that, I feel like a lot of the time when you have stationary stuff, people, like, don't get it. But this Beetle Tip highlighter, I think, is one of those things that you could show and people would be like, oh, that's really cool, right? Even if they didn't care about pens and paper. So that's what I'm going to go with for my picks for students.

Ana Reinert: Well, I kind of went a similar route in regards to paper. I assumed that chances are people are, you know, if they do handwrite, it's probably like the copious amounts of notes in, you know, spiral notebooks and that kind of thing. So I went, or they are using a computer, you know, for their note-taking and, you know, writing papers and stuff. So my suggestion was the Baron Fig Mastermind desk pad, which is similar to the Pano book, but a little bit larger. And it's just a tear-off pad with dot grid on it. So it's, like, the perfect thing for, like, jotting quick notes, having on your desk or in your study area, if you just need to, like, if you're sort of, you know, mind mapping out how your essay is going to, you know, how you're writing your paper or your essay or whatever or just taking various notes. But I tend to be, like, a big sloppy thinker. So, like, having a big sheet of paper in front of me that's good paper and easy to write on and not very expensive. I keep one on my desk at work. And it's basically like having those old desk pads that they used, you know, used to have the calendar or whatever on them. This is sort of the same idea. A little bit smaller. Yeah.

Ana Reinert: But just a very cool, easy thing to use. And then my other suggestion was the Jet Pens Study Quill Sampler Set, which is specifically put together by a YouTube blogger of her favorite study materials and things she uses. So there's a set of highlighters, a brush pen, a couple gel pens, and some paper. And a reasonably priced little set. So a good place to start. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And my stuff was right around the same type of thing. I love, like, the Pano book and the Mastermind for, like, the desk type of notebooks. And mine was the Dome Paper Dot Plot Large Idea Journal. It's kind of the – it's more of a traditional size. But the same idea. It's like the companion to your electronics. And with the layout of the paper, it's great for, like, math and science. But it works for, you know, any type of note-taking at all. And it's such a big, thick, durable notebook. Like, it's going to take a beating in your backpack and, you know, work all the way through to the last page of the notebook without falling apart. It's just a big, sturdy, durable, and fun-to-use notebook. Let's face it. I was horrible in school. The only redeeming factor about school was the stuff I got to use, the notebooks and pens and pencils. So, you know, have fun, you know, if you're a student and use any of these products. I love the highlighter suggestions as well. But, yeah, I think those are all great, great suggestions. So, even maybe before we get to school or in the early days of school, we have kids out there. We got lots of parents who listen. They want to know what kind of fun stuff you can get the kids for the holiday. So, Ana, what do you think?

Ana Reinert: Well, this was literally the first thing I thought of. And my nephew just turned 10, and I think that's just about the right age to introduce a kid to their first fountain pen. So, the first thing I thought of was the Pilot Kakuno fountain pen. One, because they're inexpensive. They have the molded grip. They come in fun colors. Or you can get it in clear. But also because the nib has the little smiley face on it, which I think is just, it's fun and charming and makes the pen very approachable without, you know, feeling too juvenile. I think I like them.

Myke Hurley: It's a nice mixture.

Ana Reinert: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And, yeah, and it's an awesome pen. It just feels good. It looks good. It's fun. Both of my kids have the Kakuno. That's the fountain pen I chose to get for them. But the other, the one thing I picked up, which is not the most functional, I'll admit, but it is, by gosh, it's the most fun. It's this Kokuyo donut stamp seal stickers. So, what these are made for are for your three-ring binders. And a lot of kids use, still use three-ring binders these days. I know my kids still use them for class. Or they'll use the three-prong folders. And these, what they're really made for is for, to make the holes in the paper more sturdy. Like if one of those holes rip, which happens all the time, you use these stickers to make it more durable. And you can put the page back into the notebook. But they're just like little stamps you can use for anything. You can use them as like little post-it note holders or different things like that. And they're just fun to use. And I know I'm just a big kid. And these are like one of the most fun products I've used all year just to have stickers on things. But they're actually, you could talk, you know, you could talk your parents into saying, hey, these are actually useful for school. They, you know, look at all these, look at all this three-hole punch paper falling apart. I can just put these little stickers around there and have more fun with it. So, that's what I think.

Myke Hurley: All right. So, for this one, I mean, I maybe went more along the young route and went with the Lamy ABC, which really is kind of like baby's first fountain pen. And it's designed that way. You know, like I actually quite like the ABC personally. I think the design is really cool. But I can see where they're coming from with it, right? Like it's got big chunky rubber grip. The body is made of wood. It has like a big kind of thing, like a dice on the end of it, I guess, to stop it from rolling away. And then on the cap, you can write somebody's name on it. And it's like a place to write your name on it. So, it's very much like your very first fountain pen. But I think it's a super cool looking pen. And you benefit from the wonderful technology that Lamy has created. And it works wonderfully. It's very comfortable. I'm a big fan of this pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Love everything about it. Absolutely. So, we kind of have the perfect person on for the artist category, Myke. So, that means you and I get to go first. And we'll let Anna pick out the stuff you should really, really get. But I don't know, Myke. I think we came up with some pretty good choices. I like to draw and sketch. Just, you know, pencil on paper, pen on paper. And one of my favorite tools over the last year, and why I think this is a good one for the artist category, is the Tombow Erojitan colored pencils. It's hard to say, but easy to use. They're a beautiful set of colored pencils. They come in several different palettes that you can buy. So, you have some choice around what you want to use. You can go as small as like a, I think a five color palette. Or you can get like the 30 color box that I bought. And then there's three different 30 color boxes. So, you can get deep into this pencil, this colored pencil realm. But I've just enjoyed everything about using these pencils all year long. It's one of my favorite products I own, period. And I think, you know, for any artist, you know, colored pencils are always a great thing to have in your arsenal. And those would be my pick.

Myke Hurley: I am going to go with an ArtSnack subscription. I feel like if you are an artist and you're kind of getting to grips and you want to learn more and do more things, ArtSnacks is wonderful because you will receive weird and wonderful art supplies. Things that you may have not considered may be different. You know, so you might end up with your next piece working in a tool that you hadn't expected because now you have something cool and different to use. I think it's a great way to like understand what's out there, understand the tools that are available to you and learn a bit about how to use them all. I love what the ArtSnacks folks do. I think it is a really super cool product. And it's also something like even if you're not an artist, it's fun to subscribe to for a little while to get some weird and wonderful tools in your collection. Big fan.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's always great to get that box of awesomeness. All right, Anna, do you want to take us to school?

Ana Reinert: It was hard to contain myself in this particular category.

Brad Dowdy: That could have been the whole episode.

Ana Reinert: It could have been. I could have gone on forever. Sure. My so if you know somebody who really likes to do like watercolor or wants to experiment with them, I have I am a watercolor junkie. I have so many different palettes. But what I've really discovered that I love are the handmade watercolors. And there's a maker on Etsy called Hushwing that hand makes watercolors. They're highly recommended. And they are available in little small tins with like three or four or six colors. But she has one called the primary set, which is basically red, yellow and blue. And even in the images that she shows with the colors on Etsy. She shows like how many colors you can make just by mixing those three. You basically have like the whole rainbow of colors just by having red, yellow and blue. And it's just a unique gift. It's something somebody would not normally find on their own. But the other things that I have, because that's more expensive. I think the three color palette's about $45. My other recommendations are the Sailor Fude de Manin fountain pens with the Fude nibs. There's a 55 degree one and a 40 degree one, which for artists or anyone who likes to draw or sketch or do hand lettering are so fun. And they're like $10 each. So just a really good gift. It's something people probably wouldn't find on their own as well. And then my last recommendation is the Tatley Art Supply temporary tattoos.

Myke Hurley: It's pretty intense, this one. That's so good.

Ana Reinert: They're so good. They're so fun. So if you ever wanted to be, you know, just like Caroline and have your pencil tattoo on your arm, you can at least test drive it with the Tatley temporary tattoos. But they also have some that are like the craft knife and like a scribble and a bunch of other little designs. And that's pretty reasonably priced, but super silly and very fun.

Desk Toys Transition

Brad Dowdy: Very cool. That's tempting, tempting. All right. We took some listener requests and we're going to get to those. We have one more category that Myke snuck in on me at the last minute. And I think it's a great category. It's exactly what should be in this type of episode. So what is the fidget category all about, Myke? I think it's kind of self-explanatory, but what were you thinking here?

Myke Hurley: Desk toys for people that can't sit still.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. That's all of us pretty much.

Myke Hurley: Yep. And I will recommend for mine the thing that kind of is the it takes is where the name comes from for fidgeting is fidget spinners. And I have a fidget spinner that I love and still play with every day. It is the Zentry Metal Fidget Spinner. I have got a link to it in our show notes, of course. I really like this thing. It's got some weight to it. It's nice and comfortable to hold. And I enjoy how comfortably this thing spins. It's a very well-made fidget spinner. You can get, obviously, a lot of junk ones. I think that this one is really cool and I enjoy it very much.

Ana Reinert: I went with the Squishy Mochi Cat.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. For being a fidgeter, I tend to fidget by doodling, sketching, drawing in meetings, like all that kind of thing. So, I was like, what do I, what? Like, this one really, like, I had to, like, think of something. And, like, my other thing is, like, if I can't keep my hands still, I knit. But I can't really recommend that, you know, people buy some yarn and some needles. I mean, I could, but the Squishy Mochi Cat, a friend of mine gave me one and I have it sitting on my desk. But it's, like, this little, just, it looks like a marshmallow cat. And you can just, like, squeeze it and push it and, like, jam on its little belly. It's very stress-reducing. I love it. I love it. That's so cool. They're so goofy.

Brad Dowdy: I need something with a little bit of noise. So, I tend to go to magnet-style stuff. And I have some pens that I use for this. Like, the TI2 Tech Deliner is my favorite. It's just got a small cap that I might have a pen in my right-hand writing. I might have it in my left hand just, like, lifting and letting the cap drop back on the magnet. You know, just kind of like this.

Brad Dowdy: So, I'll just sit there and fidget, like, all the time with magnet pens like the Tech Liner. The co-axis rail pen that I mentioned before, it's got a slider is how the refill gets deployed. So, I've found myself fidgeting with that because I can carry it in my pocket super easy. So, I'll just have it and then I'll take it out and fidget with it. So, yeah, I use a lot of pens just for fidgeting, just for rolling them in my hand. I don't really pin spin or anything like that. But I like having those magnets or, you know, those fun sounds and that snap feel to it. So, TI Tech Deliner gets a lot of use from me.

Myke Hurley: All right. So, that is the end of our category-based gift guide. But as Brad mentioned, we do have some additional listener requests for some items, which, I'll be honest, I was not very good at coming up with any answers to this stuff. But luckily, my co-hosts today are the brain boxes that we need to get these questions answered. But before we do, I want to thank our final sponsor for this episode and that is Harry's. Look, we're doing a gift guide right here. Gift finding is difficult. Like, do you really want to buy people just another pajama set this Christmas? Like, is that what you want to do? Or do you want to get them something that they really want to use every day? Buy them a gift from Harry's. Their razors and shaving products make the perfect gifts because they're really practical. Once people get hooked on Harry's and they understand how great they are, they actually will save money than what they were doing before because Harry's razors cost as little as $2 each. You can personalize your Harry's razor to make the recipient feel extra special. You'll be able to choose from multiple razor handles and colors as well and even have the option to engrave it, which is fantastic. And they come in ready-to-gift, wonderful boxes. Brad, tell me about the holiday set that you received from our friends at Harry's.

Brad Dowdy: So it comes in this beautiful holiday blue and red box, kind of like a foil-wrapped, sparkly, good-looking box. And it comes with two blades, a handle, the shave lotion. And I don't know. It's just a great gift. I think I've given the one that they sent me every year as a gift. I'm keeping this one for myself because I like the box so much. And you know what I do with the boxes? Plus, I get to load up on my blade inventory, which, let's be honest, that's the best thing about Harry's is their blades are second to none as far as quality goes at a price that's just unbeatable. That's why I use them. That's why I love them.

Myke Hurley: So as a special offer for listeners of this show, Harry's are going to give you $5 off any gift set, including their limited edition holiday sets. When you go to harrys.com slash penaddict, plus you'll get free shipping as well. And this offer is for new and returning customers available for this holiday season. Every set comes with that ergonomic weighted handle, which you can engrave, German-engineered five-blade cartridges, the shave gel for a rich lava, the foaming shave gel, travel cover to protect your blades, and that beautiful holiday gift box, which is just ready to go. You don't even need to wrap it. Or maybe you're looking for a treat yourself. You can also get a trial offer with Harry's. You can get a trial plan to experience the quality of shave before committing. Get your holiday shopping done early. Free shipping ends on December 12th. So don't delay. Act now. Go to harrys.com slash penaddict, and you'll get $5 off a gift set while supplies last. That is harrys.com slash penaddict. Our thanks to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: So in preparation for this show, I sent out a tweet and took specific questions, and I grabbed a few of those that we could talk about here. Some very difficult, some even more difficult than that. These were the tough questions I grabbed to see what we can come up with. This first one was actually my toughest one, and the Pastoral Urbanite wants to know about pen sets. And when I think about pen sets, all I think about is your traditional pen and pencil set. And I was stuck on that, right? I was stuck on that, and there's not an answer to that that I'm happy with, right? I can't say, here's the pen and pencil set you should get, because one or both of the products is flawed in anything that's existing right now, in my opinion. So I left it blank, but y'all came up with some other things. Y'all got out of the stuck-in-the-tradition mindset that I did and came up with some other cool stuff. So what do you have?

Myke Hurley: Well, I recommended, just as a set of pens, you want just one small collection of pens, the Retro 51 Space Race set, which was announced over the past week, which is super cool. It is a Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo-themed Retro 51. So there's three of them. You can buy them individually or as a three, and if you buy the three, it comes in like a nice presentation box as well. So I think this is a really, really nice one for the space nerd in your life.

Ana Reinert: I completely agree with your call there, Myke. And I was actually surprised when it came out, my husband, the nerd who named his letterpress business after Skylab. I was like, so the whole set? And he said no, and he just picked one. But he has all of the, he has all of the other space and, and airplane and related Retro 51. So I think he was just trying to dial it back a little, but the box, the box that the set comes in is just, they did a really nice job on that. Always. I went back to the, the JetPens samplers. Yeah. As a way, like they have so many different sample sets, which would be a really good way to have a pen set. It's not really the traditional one, but there's lots of, I mean, they have, they do brush pen sets. They do gel pen sets. They do ballpoint sets, permanent drawing pen sets. There's a whole bunch of different ones. So you can kind of find something that might appeal.

Myke Hurley: So our next question comes from Tim Fowler. Tim, Tim, Tim's a nice guy. So some of, Tim says, some of my pals like to make fun of me for being a pen addict. So they're going to be getting a handful of five or six pens that are good, but not expensive for Christmas, including a JetStream. I like that.

Brad Dowdy: Subversive.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Sigma DX, Paper Mate Flare, Blackwing 602, that kind of thing. And I need help with a pencil case. The good, but not expensive pens can be got for like less than $12. So I cannot find a pencil case to stash them in, which is comparatively cheap. I don't want to spend more on the case than the pens, although it's beginning to look like I might. Do you have any suggestions for something that I could use here?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's a tough one to get like a super, super cheap on, but you can get reasonably cheap. I'm a huge fan of what Lihit Lab does. They have one called the Actac, which looks like a really, really nice case. It's like nine something us under $10. You know, that's kind of just a good all around pen case. Reading back through the note, it's not going to fit the Blackwing 602. You're going to be hard pressed to find anything that will. Just chop those in half. Just buy half of them, cut them in half, and give them to each person. They don't know what they're getting. So anything Lihit Lab, and they have a really good quality one under $10. So, Ana, what did you, which one did you put in here?

Ana Reinert: I put in the Velos tin. There's a small flat tin, which would double as a presentation. So basically, all you'd have to do is like wrap a string or ribbon around it, and call it done. You've got a present. And I believe it is large enough to hold that retro, or that Blackwing.

Brad Dowdy: Nice.

Ana Reinert: So I think it should hold that five or six pens, plus the Blackwing. And it's just a nice little tin box.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it looks good for like the presentation. Just like you said, it would kind of be kind of like a perfect fit.

Ana Reinert: And it's $4.25.

Brad Dowdy: Perfect.

Myke Hurley: Any better than that. All right.

Disc Bound Planners

Brad Dowdy: Our good friend Joe Lebo needs a ring-bound day planner around A5 size paper, and the paper must have removable refills. So I didn't totally look at like the planner sheets. At William Hanna. But William Hanna notebooks are one that I've been fascinated with for a while. I know our friend Dan Don. I've used his. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. Susan's reviewed one for the pen addict. And I keep not buying one, because they're pretty expensive. So like I said in the show doc here, I'm going to spend all of Joe's money on this recommendation, because these are no joke expensive. But they're very beautiful. They're very high quality. They're very customizable. As far as styles, you can even pick out, you can even build your own notebook setup. And they have the ring system. So you have all the refills that you need to put in there. So yeah, that might be something to look at. It might be something for anyone to look at. I think this would be a really nice gift for someone who's really into like the stationary scene and wants a real high quality journal and notebook. And they do have some weekly planner pages and things like that and some monthly calendars. So yeah, take a look at that and you can kind of build your own. And it's ring based. So you have removable refills and stuff.

Ana Reinert: Technically, it's disc bound, not ring bound.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, sorry. I meant to say disc. That's okay.

Ana Reinert: That's okay. Yes, definitely disc. I went the same way for my recommendation. While I would kill for William Hanna, not all of us have the budget for it. So there are several other disc bound planner covers, notebooks that you can find.

Ana Reinert: Office Depot that does the tool TUL line has a bunch of covers. I think if you go to Staples or any of those places, they also carry a version of this. And my suggestion is to buy your cover or in your case, the William Hanna, get the really beautiful, amazing one if you can afford it. And then you can do DIY printables.

Ana Reinert: There are tons and tons of people on Etsy who make printable layouts. And so I put a link in the show notes to search. And I put in A5 size, but you can also use a search term planner, printable, and half sheet or half size, which will give you that sort of eight and a half by 11 cut in half size as an option as well. And then you can decide what kind of monthly calendar you want. If you want note pages, if you want two weeks on a spread, one week on a spread, you know, all of those other options and decide what design. Some people do really minimal looks. Some people do some that have like fancy lettering on them. You can get some that are just blank and you can start today. So you don't have to wait till 2019 to fill them out. This is another category where I have way too much to say.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's perfect.

Ana Reinert: But, and a lot of these DIY printables, then you can go to your favorite office supply store or even like Rodia sells eight and a half by 11 or A5 size paper. And you can run it through a laser printer. You can take it to your local copy shop and ask them to run them off for you. But yeah, so that's usually what I do with a ring bound or disk bound planner. In fact, I've even been known to make my own inserts. Like if you have any sort of drawing program on your computer, heck, even like PowerPoint, you could probably come up with a layout that'll give you your calendar layout or whatever and then print them out.

Brad Dowdy: I don't think Joe is at that skill level, you know.

Ana Reinert: Probably not. Sorry, Joe. That's okay. It's not an insult. It's a time versus money. Oh, it's totally an insult. Time versus money. Go out to Etsy. Find somebody who's done them. And there's a ton of good designs. And if you want more information, just email me. You can use my Ask the Desk link and I can help you find some more.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome.

Myke Hurley: At Sacred Stacks says, how about gel pens to go with the Field Notes 3 missions? Colors like a medium blue or a gray black. I'm in a university setting. The recipient of this gift will be mail, but unfancy. I love it. But we'll appreciate good design, though. Do you have any options for this?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So number one, I love the specificity here. Like this is key. In any question we get, the more specific you can be, the better. And I love this. I'm generally more on the fancy side of things than unfancy. But the first thing I thought of were the Zebra Saracic Clips in all these great colors that they have. They have some great blue, blacks, and grays. And then I was browsing through them. They have this set of five colors called Vintage Colors, which I think has kind of the color range that matches the three missions pretty well. It's got the vintage style and look that kind of matches the historic thought behind the notebooks. They're not a pen that's going to stand out if you're looking for something more subtle. I think it's kind of a neat option to match those in with the three missions set.

Ana Reinert: I went a very similar direction, but the first thing I thought of, which was the Pilot Juice, the Juice Up Gel pen, because they are very slick looking. There's not a lot of... They're not overly designed. They don't have weird, funky clips with a big brand name on them. They're just really like... They're designed really nicely. They look really good. And the Pilot Juice is a great refill. It's available in .4 and I think .5.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And I love the Juice Up barrel can come in... It has a lot of two-tone options, which I think looks really neat. It's subtle. It's not going to stand out, but it's cool at the same time. So I think that's really cool.

Ana Reinert: Yeah. And they have blue, black, black, standard blue, and then they have funky colors like silver and purple and white and stuff like that. But there's also a brown, which wouldn't necessarily match, but is also another subtle color. They were asking for gray. But I think the blue, black, the black, or the blue would be a good mix with the three missions.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. All right. Greg wants to know, with my Mark I hopefully arriving soon, what single pin sleeves would you recommend? I've got... I had two choices here. Anna, I think you concur with my first one according to these notes here that I'm reading. So the Rickshaw, if you're looking, there's kind of two ways you can go. You can go fabric or you can go leather. For a fabric pin sleeve, I don't think anyone does it better than the Rickshaw solo pin sleeve. You can pick out your colors. You can even do some custom stuff. You can browse around on the site. They have all kinds of funky patterns if you want something that's just not like a basic black or orange or purple like that. They do a really good job with the single pin sleeve. And for leather, my friend Keegan at One Star makes the best single leather pin sleeves if you're looking for something like that. You can browse through, look at all the different colors of leather that he offers, all hand stitched, all made by him. They're really great, high quality stuff. So those are kind of the two options to go with as far as single pin sleeves. Not the easiest category to shop for, but the people who do it right do it really well. So those are the ones I'd go with.

Myke Hurley: And finally, Rob wants to know, do you have recommendations for a desktop index card holder? What do you have for this? Or maybe just like a general desk tidy, maybe, I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I put, I don't have an answer for this. I know that I want, and I've always wanted, a vintage library card, index card drawer just for my desktop to put my index card in. And I think Anna might have some ideas for that.

Ana Reinert: I know where to find like Rolodex style, Colodex style, but index cards, not so much. I do actually own a library card catalog.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think I'm just going to have to go antiquing and find one. Just grab one.

Ana Reinert: Yep. But you can also look for, like a smaller scale would be like the vintage recipe card holders, the recipe boxes, which would also hold those, which you can find, they'd hold probably good 200 or so index cards.

Ana Reinert: But yeah, and they had some industrial looking ones and just like plain metal, but that's something to look on eBay or Etsy for for a vintage one. I have one that has Christmas patterns on it. I bring it out every year at the holidays. That's how I holiday decorate. Yes, I get my card, my index card box out that's Christmas themed.

Ana Reinert: But yeah, my suggestion, this was thanks to Bob. He was helping me this morning. We were looking for a desk tidy and he found the butt.

Ana Reinert: I like this. It is an all-in-one. It will hold some, some three by fives, but it looks like it holds post-it notes better. Post-it notes better, but it's a little figure and you can stick a pen in his mouth and when you pick him up, there's a place to hold your paper clips underneath and his behind is magnetized so the paper clips will stick to his tush. Wow. It's totally, it is totally ridiculous. So if you have a sense of humor, that might be fun. But they also have one that's called the Rewind desk tray that looks like a cassette tape, vintage cassette tape and you can put your pens and your paper clips and stuff in there,

Myke Hurley: which I thought was pretty cute. I cannot fathom why they sell both of these under the same listing.

Ana Reinert: I don't either, but that was the best price for that Rewind one as well.

Myke Hurley: So these are two different products and like they're on Amazon, you know, you can choose different colors of things or whatever, right? But they have these two different, like one that looks like a cassette tape and then one which is a guy in the bathroom, basically. It's very, it is very peculiar to me that they sell these together, but they do, so you can get them.

Brad Dowdy: All right, live update on the storage solutions. One, I put in the Uggmonk gather, which I can't wrap my head around paying this price that they're asking for this, but it's this modular system. It's really expensive. I don't know that it's worth it. I don't own one, but it looks nice. Like if you're looking for different accessories and to have it modular, you can move things around. And then Tony in the chat room dropped in this Levenger card box that is kind of this nice wooden index card holder for your desk called the Nantucket note card box. We'll have the link in the show notes to check that out. I'm actually kind of interested in that. That looks pretty cool.

Christmas Gift Wishes

Brad Dowdy: All right. Last question. And this is for us. And we'll let our guests go first. Anna, what do you want for Christmas from the stationary world? Like what items tickle your fancy? What are you asking for for Christmas?

Ana Reinert: You guys saw me lose my mind when Caroline pulled out the CW pencil sweater. So really, that's the top of my Christmas list right now.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, if there's a product that's more you, I would like to see it because that's on the money. That is super on brand for you. Like that's it. That's the ticket. Yep.

Ana Reinert: So yeah, that was the one I was like, I, because I'm to the point now where like, I really would not ask anybody to buy me a pen or ink, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep.

Ana Reinert: But yeah, that, that was, that's the winner right there. But we did actually put together a wish list on our, on our site. So there's a couple other things. Me and the darn enamel pens, man. Oh yeah.

Brad Dowdy: They're going to get you. They're going to get you the new hotness. I went with a product I've mentioned a lot throughout this year that I want really badly. And like you, I never ask anyone or expect anyone to buy me any pens or inks or pencils or anything like that. But something on my list that is kind of perfect for like the holiday season because I'm always skeptical about buying it for myself is the Graffon Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil. Like I will, I will end up with one of these next year. I'll, I'll break down and buy one. But like, that's kind of like the perfect gift item for me. It's like egregious and ridiculous in lots of ways, especially the price. But I just kind of want it really badly because I think it's just so cool looking. So that's, that's my, that's my Christmas wish.

Ana Reinert: The funny thing, both went to CW and this is the first time I would have outspent you because that pencil is not as expensive as a sweater. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: We did good.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Michael, I'm feeling a new podcast in the works by, by the answer that you put in this. So what, what, what are you doing here?

Myke Hurley: I want some watch storage solutions. both like a, something for home, right? Like a nice fancy box for home to put stuff in and maybe like a carrying case for if and when or maybe possibly that I have multiple wristwatches. This is something that's going to happen to me over time. I may, I may potentially own a second wristwatch now. Possibly there's rumors going around that that's happened. So I'm starting to require some, some nice storage solutions and I know that this is actually stuff that I will be getting for Christmas but it's like the only thing I could think of. I can't think of anything in the kind of pen and paper world that I, that I want as a gift, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, well you, you kind of, the last several months of the year you've, you've kind of fulfilled all, most of those needs I think. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But you did good. You did it good and I think we did really good with this episode. It was fun. Mm-hmm. To put together the gift guide. It's always fun to talk about these things, see what we could come up with. Anna, we super appreciate you coming on as always.

Ana Reinert: Thank you. Thanks for having me again.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and where, Anna, where can people find your work and your wonderful products that they should be putting in people's stockings this holiday season?

Ana Reinert: If you go to wellappointeddesk.com, you can read all of our recommendations and then down the side of the page is a link to our shop. It just says shop.

Ana Reinert: And there's also links there to my Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Myke Hurley: You can find Brad's work online at penaddict.com and knock.co for his stocking fillers. You can find me on Instagram. I'm I-M-Y-K-E. Brad is penaddict on Instagram. And Anna, you're well AP, wait, well APPT desk. PPT. Yeah, I knew I'd get there in the end. I never can remember if it's two Ps or two Ts. And I don't know why I can't remember that. It's as if I don't know how to spell, which is true because I'm not very good at that either. Thank you so much to Pen Chalet, Ken 11, and Harry's for their support of this episode. But most of all, thank you for listening and we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye Brad and Anna. Goodbye Brad and Anna.