The Pen Addict 107/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	107
Title:	Getting Crunk With Myke
Release Date:	May 19th, 2014
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 107
Audio File:	Audio Episode 107
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 107
Length:	4747 min <br />0.783 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to The Pen Addict podcast, episode 107. The Pen Addict is your weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools we love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined, as I always am, by the pen addict himself, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Can you believe we have 107 episodes? I mean, I knew 100 episodes was a lot, but now we're just getting into, like, sick, crazy, like, episode numbers. It's going to be awesome. I've been at this place before. Episode 382.

Myke Hurley: Exactly. I've been at this sort of point before. Once you hit the three digits, you start to talk about it a lot more. And then, like, once you get into, like, 200, every episode's like, oh, it's 200. Because you say it's so long. And it's like, I can't believe we have 265 episodes. But that will be us in a couple of years.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. That'll be us for sure. Because, yeah, we can talk about this stuff forever. It never gets old. So I'm glad to see these numbers ticking up. It's still mind-boggling, but it's awesome at the same time. So how are you, sir?

Myke Hurley: I am very well, buddy. How are you? Recording early this week. Good, good. Huh? We were recording early. It's going to throw my schedule off.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, I know. I had a little last-minute conflict I was not prepared for. So I appreciate you bumping us up a day. And hopefully the fans will be excited when we have a new download in their stream, unknowingly. Although I did spill the beans on Twitter a minute ago.

Myke Hurley: Ah, these things happen.

Bag Dump Post

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So we got a little bit of follow-up from last week. We got some good feedback on our bag dump post. And I got a few things from there. But I wanted to talk about, one, my bag in the bag dump was the Topo Designs Doan Paper Mountain Briefcase. And we talked about how that version, that was version one, it's not for sale anymore. And Chad Doan replied, he, what's it called when you re-Instagram something? Re-gram? Re-gram. So he re-grammed one of my pictures and said, hey, the new Topo version two bag will be available at the end of June. So I know a bunch of people have been asking for that. So I'll put a link in the show notes to where Chad is mentioning that for anyone who's interested in that bag. So I wanted to be sure to point that out. We wrapped up NotCo, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Yay!

Brad Dowdy: Our Kickstarter campaign. Not the company, just the Kickstarter.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, we're done now. Bye, guys.

Brad Dowdy: I should say the Kickstarter. Because, yeah, now the hard work begins, right? So I shipped out the last packages on Sunday. And, yeah, everyone's orders should be en route if you have not received them already. So Jeff and I, we're just, you know, we've said it before, I'm going to say it again, how thankful we are for all of our backers and supporters and everyone who's been patient with us through this. And it's, hopefully, it's going to be worth it to everyone in the end, not just with their Kickstarter rewards, but also with what we're going to be able to do in the future. We're actually signing a lease on a workspace this week. So we can move all our equipment in and have a consolidated workspace instead of Jeff's second bedroom. Get all our sewing machines and get the shipping station out of my kids' playroom. So we're working on that this week. And we're working on building up inventory. So in June, we will be able to launch. We don't have an exact date yet, but we want a few weeks to get our new shop in order and get a bunch of cases made. So when we do turn on the lights, that we'll have enough cases for everybody to purchase because the waiting list is long so far right now. You did it. We did it. It was exciting. Yeah, I did like a little happy dance at like 1 o'clock in the morning on Sunday morning when I was finishing, finished packaging the last order. I was like, we did it. It was exciting. It was a euphoric time. So it was good to get that wrapped up. And so everyone be on the lookout for that and for the future opening of the store, you know, in maybe a month or so, three, four weeks, something like that once we get everything settled in. So we're excited. So back to our bag dump follow-up, Myke. This was the best follow-up we got, and it was great. And this was for you, and it was so good. I had to share it on Twitter right when he sent it. But God, who sent it to us? Thomas. Thomas sent it. He sent a link to this blog. It says, Real Men, Real Style. And you think this is going to be good, Myke. This is going to pimp you out totally, but it's actually for their Style Sin article. Style Sin number 15. Wearing a backpack over a suit. So do you have a response to this, Myke? What is your feelings on this?

Myke Hurley: There's nothing I can do.

Brad Dowdy: What are you going to do, right? You travel on the tube in a suit with your backpack. What are you going to do?

Myke Hurley: To be honest, I tend to just wear a shirt rather than a suit jacket. But, you know, there's nothing I can do about it, unfortunately.

Style Sins

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So we got a lot of enjoyment out of that on Twitter last week. So if you haven't seen that, check out the Style Sins about wearing your backpack. And our friend Harry Marks did not let you slide on this one. I do remember that. We did get a couple of bag dump pictures from listeners who asked for bag dumps. So J.P. Roberts sent me a bag dump. His made me feel really good because it looks a lot like mine. There's about four or five different kinds of paper products in there. There's at least probably a dozen pins in there.

Brad Dowdy: And so I could commiserate with this. This looked like my bag dump, very much so. So me and J.P. have a lot of similarities. He's got the Field Notes and the Render K and the TWSBI 580 and the Dome Paper and the Palomino. And he's got another fountain pen wrap and, you know, headphones. He's got a sweet Filson bag here. I'm a fan of what Filson does. Are you familiar with that brand, Myke? Very classic carry brand.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, Matt sells a lot of their stuff, aren't I, that need?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, very high-end, very high-quality, high-end, you know, kind of like buy-it-for-life type stuff.

Myke Hurley: He's actually got a Filson… He's got a duffel this month. I think it's a travel bag. I think he's got like one of those like wash bag type things. He has it. It's the Filson. Okay. Yeah, and a duffel bag. Yeah, he has a duffel bag as well. Yeah, yeah. All over Filson.

Brad Dowdy: Filson Doppkit. I remember looking at that this month. It was pretty cool. I like that a lot. And Mikey Reach sent one who's a long-time listener. And let me see. Oh, that was a little slow pulling up. But I like his. I actually pinged him about this keyboard. I've been looking at this keyboard. He actually carries it with him, I guess, for iPad usage. But it's the small Logitech keyboard. But he's got a bunch of great pens. Again, with the Field Notes Shelterwood Edition. I don't know what's up with you people.

Myke Hurley: This is so awesome. And you're so wrong.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, and it's another TWSBI 580. Smart man. Yeah. So that's some similarities. And Retro 51, Secure Pigment Micron. He's got the pens. He's got the pens on lockdown.

Myke Hurley: A little Easter egg. If you zoom in on his Pebble watch.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: I think you have to go to the Flickr feed to get the full photo. He's listening to the pen addict. And it shows it on the watch.

Brad Dowdy: I see it. What does it say? It says the pen addict. Oh, I just lost it. It said 1-0 something. Cool. That's awesome. I like that.

Bag Dumps

Brad Dowdy: Cool. Cool. So thanks for everyone who sent their bag dumps. And if anyone else wants to send them, send them on. I love looking at this type of stuff. I just sit there and stared at both of those guys' bag dumps for like 10 or 15 minutes trying to figure out what all they're carrying.

Myke Hurley: Did you go on that website I told you? Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. No, I subscribe to it or put it in my feed reader. The Knowling. The Knowling website, right? Uh-huh. Is that what you mean? Mm-hmm. That one. Yep. Yep. All right. So I got this little note in here. And Myke, you won't know what I'm talking about here. And this is – it's kind of a downer moment. But I wanted to bring it up because it had a neat little story in it. But a famous college basketball coach here in the U.S. died this past week. His name is Don Meyer. And he wasn't a super well-known coach. Like he wasn't a guy that's on TV, you know, all the time. But he held the record at one time for the most wins in college basketball. He's just one of these – well, he's one of those guys that everyone in the industry respected. And he passed away. You know, he had some – you know, he had cancer and he had some late-life injuries and things like that. And I wanted to read this little article because he had this thing for pens that all of his coaching friends took up at the end when he got in an accident late in his life. I wanted to read this story because I had read this and someone else sent me a link. And I thought it was just kind of a cool little sidebar. It says, Yeah. So, you can tell what kind of guy this guy is. So, it says, Word is Myers of Myers' accident spread. Louisiana State Assistant Bob Starkey sent word out to the coaching community and asked them to show their support by sending pens to Meyer, whose handwriting was precise and loved to try different pens. Thousands of pens arrived along with notes from coaches ranging from John Wooden to Bob Knight to Coach Krzyzewski to Bill Self. So, these are all like the Hall of Fame type coaches. So, I thought that was kind of cool that all these guys rallied around support of this coach who got hurt and was diagnosed with cancer. And the way they did it was through his love of pens. You know, they sent him, you know, from all around the world, thousands of pens and notes into this coach. And I just thought that was really neat. So, he had a thing for pens. And actually, in the photo, in the article, in the show notes, I can tell he's got like a paper made flare and he's got some other pen I can't make out in the thing. But I thought that was pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: You shouldn't be able to make out any of them, buddy. The image is tiny.

Brad Dowdy: And I want to read you this one quote. And I just lost it. And this really speaks to me. And I think, you know, a lot of people can get something out of this. And I'm drawing a blank here. Where did I write it down? By the way, I'm dying for the new quote book app. This is, I need, I'd keep this in here.

Brad Dowdy: So, he said, so this quote, and these are like words to live by here.

Brad Dowdy: He says, this was a meeting he did for spring training just this past year for the Braves. And he said, one question he asked our staff that seemed to provoke deep thought was, do you love coaching more than you love winning? And he said, he made many profound statements that day, including define your unique talent or gift, develop it to the fullest, and give it away every day. So, I thought that was pretty profound. So, anyway, we're getting off the subject here.

Myke Hurley: That speaks a lot to what people do on the internet. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. It really hit home with me in, you know, the communities that we are luckily to be involved in and things like that. So, define your unique talent or gift, develop it to the fullest, and give it away every day. I thought that was a great, great phrase by Coach Don Meyer. So, Don Meyer, pen fan. I love it. You know, there's lots of these hardcore pen guys, you know, hiding in the woods, Myke, that we just don't know, do we?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: I know. And they're everywhere, and it's fun when you run across them in the most unexpected places. But we have an expected place where you can run across some awesome pens, don't we? I'm so proud of you right now.

Myke Hurley: Will you go out with me? Sure. That was so good. I'm sorry I ruined your segue. It was so perfect. No problem. Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet. They are for the pen addict. Welcome. Yes, welcome back, Pen Chalet. They are for the pen addict in all of us. Pen Chalet is the perfect place to shop online for authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have all your favorite brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Pilot, Namiki, Sela, and Kaweco, just to name a few. Pen Chalet is, of course, an authorized dealer of all of them. They run special discounts twice a month, including closeout specials every two weeks. Pen Chalet is always adding new styles of pens. Every single month, they're adding more and more, and they have limited edition pens that they will add that you can buy. And they're not always. And there's lots of times they have nice discounts on those, too. They also have all the accessories that you're ever going to need, like carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pen, converters, and so much more. Orders of $50 have free shipping in the continental United States, but they also sell internationally. And their shipping rates are very reasonable, depending on where you are. They're going to make sure that they get things to you in a timely fashion for a good price. With fast and reliable customer service, Pen Chalet has low prices on high-quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to penchalet.com and use the code PENADDICT10 to save 10% on your order, or click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password PENADDICT for even more savings, as well as your 10% off. Of course, when you'll see and you go to the page at Pen Chalet and you put the PENADDICT password in there, you're going to see loads of fantastic, fantastic offers that we've mentioned before. There's still some of those Pelican Mount Everest 640s available. They've got the Pilot Metropolitan still with some great discounts. And they've got more Pelican 205s in, as well. $97 at the moment. That's on sale from $195 down to $97.50. They have a bunch of colors at the moment, as well. Black and white, as well as taupe. Taupe. Taupe. Good work, thank you. And they've all got a couple of different medium and broad nib sizes, too. That is a top, top pen and a top, top tip from us. If you haven't got a Pelican 205 from Pen Chalet yet, you should go and take advantage of that offer. We will keep saying this until every single one of you has one. Because this offer's not going to be around forever. But there's so much more cool stuff there. Obviously, you've got all of your special discounts. But no matter whatever you buy at Pen Chalet, don't forget to use Pen Addict 10. It's going to get you 10% off whatever you buy over at Pen Chalet. Thank you so much to Pen Chalet for the continued support of the Pen Addict and 5x5.

Brad Dowdy: And don't forget on the Pen Addict page, if you scroll down to the bottom, once you put in the code Pen Addict, you scroll down to the bottom, our giveaway from a couple of weeks ago has seven hours left in it. So there's 848 entries. You can get in to win a Monteverdi Invincia Stylus fountain pen in black or matte chrome. So I think we can get to 1,000 giveaways. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: Well, that's provided people haven't got a lot of time. Because by the time this goes out, there'll be about six hours left.

Brad Dowdy: About six hours. So get on your downloads. They'll be surprised. They'll have a new episode in their queue. So maybe they'll be excited to listen. But I found one pen I wanted to bring up to you, Myke. I can see. From Pen Chalet. This is the Volcanor model fountain pen I found for you and Matt. You need to get this for him or something. It's the Monteverdi Intima series fountain pen. And what is this color called? It's actually called Volcano Gray. I didn't even realize that.

Myke Hurley: That's actually not a bad idea. I might buy him this. What a good idea. Yeah, I'm going to do that. I'm going to buy this.

Brad Dowdy: It's actually an awesome looking pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but I think it would just be a nice little gift from Alexander.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, that's the official Volcanor company fountain pen.

Unroyal Warrant

Brad Dowdy: Very sharp, very sharp. All right, our pen blog of the week this week is the Unroyal Warrant.

Brad Dowdy: Blake is the author. He reached out to me, I think, before he started the blog. And he was wanting to do some guest posts on the pen addict. And he did a couple for me. I know he did a Mont Blanc guest post on there, which was very well received. And I appreciate that very much. And he started his own blog. And he's been just cranking it out ever since. And he has gotten back from a trip from Japan here in the past couple weeks. And he's reviewing all the pens that he picked up from that trip. You have to go read some of these things that he's bought. He bought a Pilot Custom 845 Urushi fountain pen, which is a very high-end, classically styled Pilot fountain pen.

Brad Dowdy: I think he's got – he brought back a bunch of paper. He's got some life notebooks.

Pilot Urushi

Brad Dowdy: What else was in here? He brought back a really interesting – like, you know, I found the Pilot Urushi pen, which is, you know, $500 or $600. Very interesting. And then he brings back a Sailor multi-pen, like a ballpoint multi-pen, which was probably $5, which I find just as interesting as the Pilot because I've never seen a Sailor – a non-fountain pen Sailor pen. So I thought that was kind of interesting. And he bought a beautiful Nakaya. So, yeah, go take a look at his blog, The Unroyal Warrant – or excuse me, it's UnroyalWarrant.com. It'll be in the show notes. We're at 5x5.tv slash penaddict slash 107. And, yeah, he does a great job, great reviews, great photography, amazing pens. I'm just kind of jaw-dropping type stuff. He must have had quite the wallet stash heading over to Japan to come back with the pens that he came with. So it looks pretty good. All right, so Myke and I discussed this – was this last week where we discussed this? Possibly redoing the glossary edition, glossary from episode one of the podcast. It was within the past couple weeks. And I thought about it, and I wasn't sure how I wanted to do it. But I thought about it over the weekend, and I definitely want to break it down into a couple of different topics. Like fountain pens, they're going to have their own show. So we're going to hold off on that until maybe a week or two down the line, and I'll work on the fountain pen show. So I'll talk about them a little bit in this, but we're going to call this glossary version two. And we're just going to cover the general pens, you know, your standard off-the-shelf, from-the-store pens. You know, a lot of people are new to this podcast and are new to the pen world in general. Or, you know, they have an affinity for pens, and they're using pens like the Pilot G2 or the Uni Sino 207, and they want to find something different or better, but it's similar. So I wanted to do an episode where we kind of recap and reset the glossary and talk about some of these pens and talk about what you can expect and things like that. How does that sound, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Sounds like a great idea.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So the way I looked at this, at resetting this glossary, I wanted to come at it from the perspective of someone, what someone would consider or needs to consider when they're making a purchase. So that's most of the questions we get, right? So I get the question, hey, I'm a student. I'm taking a test, and I have to write an essay, and what type of pen do I need? You know, it's like we're like the beats music, that little, what do they call it, the list where you pick out the things?

Myke Hurley: The sentence.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the sentence. I'm in the club. I want to get crunk with Myke Hurley and drink girly drinks and listen to indie music.

Myke Hurley: What is happening?

Brad Dowdy: So people want to know what pens are going to be the best for their writing situation that they're in. So I kind of took it from that point, and I just want to go over the basic ballpoint, the basic pens, starting with ballpoints. And I just want to go over some general assumptions that you can take with you. You know, you can listen to this episode, and if you're trying to find a pen that fits your needs, you can say, okay, here's the things that I'm interested in. What type of pen is going to fit those needs for me? You know, these are not necessarily facts. There's always exceptions to all these rules. But you can take these general assumptions about all these pens, and that's going to handle about 95% of the situations you run into. So for ballpoint inks, ballpoint pens, it's an oil-based ink. So it tends to get a little bit messier than some of the other inks we're going to talk about, like liquid in comparison to liquid ink or gel ink pen.

Brad Dowdy: You know, a lot of people don't like ballpoint pens because they get messy around the tip, right? You're writing lines, and you get like a little blob of ink. That's the way a lot of ballpoint pens are. They're just the consistency of the ink makes that happen. It ends up getting messy, sticky. But on the flip side, a lot of people swear by ballpoints because they're probably the least finicky writing instrument. They're going to write in a lot of situations. You know, like if you're working outside or something like that, you know, a liquid ink pen is probably not going to do as good a job as a ballpoint pen. And it's going to handle the elements a little bit better.

Brad Dowdy: And, you know, it dries quickly in general.

Brad Dowdy: Most of them are pretty smooth writers. You know, you think of something as famous as like the Bic Crystal or the Bic Stick. Those are the main ballpoints that I think of when I think of ballpoint pens. Those are the classic all-time great ballpoint pens. But they really offer, if you're doing a lot of writing, they offer actually a poor writing performance just because they're a little bit messy. The ink gets on your hands because it blobs up and you run your hand through it. So it's not the best for long writing. But I actually had a conversation with our friend Dan Bishop this weekend. He was actually giving me grief before he even knew I was doing this episode about my hate for basic ballpoint pens. And it's true. I mean, I personally don't have a lot of use for them. But Dan's point was, and I was actually well aware of this fact, is that many artists use ballpoint pens and many industrial designers use ballpoint pens because they can get a huge range of shading with them, almost as much as a pencil, if the artist is good enough. So you'll see, I don't know if you've ever seen, Myke, where like concept car designs, you see a lot of those type of designs. A lot of them are done in ballpoint pen. I've seen a lot of that happen. Or then you'll have artists that only work in ballpoint or mostly work in ballpoint like my friend Andrea Joseph, who is a fellow Brit like yourself. She does amazing ballpoint pen artwork and she's just perfected the art of getting all a huge range of color out of a single ballpoint pen. She's really amazing. So there is a lot to be said for ballpoints for different use cases. I think just for general writing, they're a pretty poor choice. But if you have very specific situations, they're a decent choice. You know, the refills last a long time compared to liquid and gel ink pens. It's probably the longest lasting refill out of the bunch. When you go to the store, the standard size you're going to run into is a 1.0 millimeter tip for ballpoints. That just seems to be what the majority of them are. You can find smaller. Sometimes you'll that's what most ballpoint pens. They'll call it the medium size and the medium will be 1.0. And then they'll offer a fine in some pens. That'll be 0.7 millimeters. So that's ballpoints in general. Next up is liquid ink pens, which a lot of people refer to as a rollerball. And this is a completely different ink composition. It's a liquid-based ink. And its benefit is that it gives you a really dark line. The ink soaks into the page, sometimes negatively. You know, they're definitely prone to bleeding and feathering. But it's a very deep, saturated ink color. It dries quickly or sort of quickly. A lot of left-handers use liquid ink pens because they do dry faster than a gel ink pen and are less messy than a ballpoint pen. So a lot of left-handers use liquid ink pens.

Brad Dowdy: But they do have a bleeding feathering problem if you're not careful about what paper you're using. And we'll have a whole other episode on paper coming up soon. And we'll talk about how specific pens react on different pages. But in general, liquid ink pens are going to bleed and feather more than gel or ballpoint ink pens. But if you're a fast rider or you're a lefty, this is something you probably want to look at. Because they do dry reasonably quickly. And they're not near as messy as some of the other pens can be.

Brad Dowdy: There's not a huge range of colors offered in rollerballs for some reason. I mean, they're there if you look hard enough. But there's not a huge range like you're going to find in gel ink pens. And even a little bit ballpoint pens. I'm not sure why. But if you go to the store, you're just going to see the basic colors. And the standard liquid ink pens. Like a standard liquid ink pen that I think of is the Uniball Vision. That's a classic one. And also the Pilot Precise line. The Pilot Precise V7. And the Pilot V-Ball. Those are all liquid ink pens. You're going to find them mostly in the 0.7mm tip size.

Brad Dowdy: And very few. Like the Pilot will come in. Pilot has some that come in 0.5mm tip size. And you're not going to find any that are... I don't know that I ever see liquid ink pens in 1.0mm. Just because it would just be a flood of ink onto the page. I guess Uniball Vision does a 0.8mm. And it's just... It's like you're writing straight through the page onto the next page. It lays down so much ink. Do you have a... As a lefty, if you're not using a fountain pen, what types of pen are you using? I know you use gel pens. But have you seen a difference, say, like between a liquid ink and a ballpoint ink? Do you have any experience with that?

Myke Hurley: I don't know if... What... Give me something that I have that has liquid ink. Like the Oter?

Retro 51

Brad Dowdy: So like the Pilot Precise, Pilot V-Ball. Actually, your Retro 51 is a liquid ink pen, but it's so superior that it doesn't have these bleeding qualities, which is why we like it so much.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: So something like that, it's a really good writer. So, yeah, I don't know. Maybe you don't have... Liquid ink pens, I think, are probably the least used out of all of these pens. Sure. I think most people these days are using gel or ballpoints or hybrid ballpoints, which we'll talk about later too. Liquid ink pens you rarely see these days, except for people who are in love with the Uniball Vision. Actually, in the UK, I think it's called the Uniball Eye. Have you seen that pen? E-Y-E? E-Y-E?

Myke Hurley: I think so.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think that's what it's called in the UK. It's like if you go to Cult Pens, I think they sell the Uniball Eye, which is similar to Vision. I don't know why they just don't call it the same thing.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah, I know this pen really well. It's extremely popular.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's a classic office supply cabinet pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I noticed. And another, the Uniball also makes another one. Uniball, God, there's a boxy, one called boxy, and there's one other one called, oh, I'm blanking. It's a classic black barrel with like a little, like these little fins at the top. I can't think of the name. I'll think of it later. All those Uniball rollerball type pens are very popular in offices. At least they were for a long time. So, yeah, the Uniball Vision, Uniball Eye. Actually, the Uniball Vision is one of my least favorite pens, least favorite popular pens that people like, and I really, really dislike that pen just because it writes way too wet, bleeds on everything, and it's just not a really fine line or a really sharp line, which I like, which is why I like most of my pens in this third category, which is gel ink pens. So, their ink is a pigment gel water suspension. You know, you can look it up on Wikipedia or somewhere and just kind of see the components of what a gel ink pen is, but it's a little bit different ink composition in the refill, and what that gives, it gives a really, really bright, bold, vibrant color. It gives a longer dry time, unfortunately, gel ink pens. Since due to the composition of the ink, the ink sits up a little bit on the page for a second longer than like a liquid ink or a ballpoint necessarily, so they can't have a longer dry time. Also, because of that ink composition, people will blow through gel ink refills much faster than they will rollerball and ballpoint ink. So, a general assumption to have is if you need something that's going to last a long time to write with, like if you need to write pages and pages and pages, you're going to run through a gel ink pen faster than you're going to run through some of these other types of pens. So, these are all considerations you have to make. You know, maybe that the writing quality of a gel ink pen outweighs the fact that you're going to have to refill it sooner or use another pen sooner. So, you know, these are all things to take into consideration. But it also has very little bleed and almost no feathering with gel ink pens, which is why I like them. And they tend to, the gel ink pens, what I look for in a good quality pen for me personally, is when I write the line, that the line has sharp edges. Like, I don't like wobbly lines. That's hard to define. I don't know. It's one of those things, I know it when I see it or feel it. The sharpness of the line is the best, I think, in gel ink pens and drawing pens, which we're going to talk about in a second. That makes my handwriting look the best. As opposed to a liquid ink pen, you know, my handwriting looks good. But since that ink tends to spread a little bit, it doesn't make the lines, like the edge of the lettering, as sharp and as clean. Gel ink pens also give you just these huge rainbows of colors. I guess that's with the pigment differentiations these companies can make. I mean, you know, you look at someone like Uniball or Pilot, they have product lines that have 30 different gel ink colors. So that's one reason why they're so popular, is people like to use, you know, other colors besides blue and black. Most of your gel ink pens, they run in a range from 0.5 to 0.7 millimeters. You'll usually find those equally just off the store shelf. And obviously, you know, online you can find them much finer, you know, all the way down to 0.25 millimeter tip sizes than something like the Pilot Hi-Tech C or the Pentel Sleechy, something like that. So gel inks are my personal favorite.

Brad Dowdy: But I tend to, I don't know, I switch it around a lot. You know, I like the Rollerball and the Retro 51. You know, one of the gel ink pens that I've been liking a lot recently is the Pilot Juice 0.38 millimeter blue, because that can get it in blue-black ink. So, you know, that's another cool thing about the gel, like I was talking about, the different colors. So, you know, that's something I like. Like, I'd say gel ink pens are probably the most popular these days. I certainly don't have any hard, fast information on that. That's just kind of anecdotal, just by how much people are asking me about particular pens and things like that, where the popularity lies. And it seems to be, I think, gel ink is kind of the most popular ink these days around the world. Now, drawing pens is a completely different animal. They're not necessarily for writing, but I do. I use them for writing because of what I was mentioning before, the sharp lines. This is a very clean, even line you get out of a drawing pen. And what I mean by drawing pen is like a plastic tip or a felt tip pen, like a Secura Pigma Micron or a Sharpie pen or something. You know, you see sometimes these aren't even on the regular pen section. They're like in the art engineering section of, you know, your office supply store. But most of them are liquid ink. And most of them offer some type of archival quality in the ink because they know people are going to be using these for art or some type of project that needs to last a long time. So the ink is going to be, you know, long-lasting. It's not going to fade. You know, and not all the drawing pens offer that. But a lot of them, that's a feature that they offer. The downfall with the drawing pens is they're very fragile. These plastic tips are pliable. If you have a heavy hand, you're going to destroy them at a fast rate. Where, you know, unlike gel ink pens and roller balls and ballpoints, all those have some type of metal tip. Most drawing pens, it's a plastic tip. So you can definitely do some damage. So that makes them expensive, I think, compared to other pens. You know, like on a one-to-one basis, you know, pen-to-pen basis, they're approximately the same price, except you're probably going to throw away the drawing pen quicker than you are in any of your other pens just because the tip will break down faster, maybe even before you drain it of ink. I've certainly had that happen before because I use a lot of them. But it really gives you a control with the pen that you don't have in some of these other pens. That's why I always carry something like the Secura Pigma Micron or that Kuretaki Zig that I've been carrying recently. I just like how the lines look. And a lot of the brands come in many different colors. So, you know, that's something... If you're not doing a lot of writing, but you're doing some very specific writing where it needs to be neat and concise, I consider a drawing pen, depending on what your paper is going to be. That's probably one of the most particular type pens out of this group that we've talked about so far. You just have to have... You have to hit the right variables to be able to be happy with a drawing type pen with a plastic tip.

Brad Dowdy: The newest type of pen, which I think has come along in probably the past 10, 15 years, is what's called a hybrid ballpoint. And I think it's a completely separate ink category from a traditional ballpoint because the ink performs and behaves completely differently than a standard ballpoint that I don't think they're even in the same category. They're called ballpoints. This is something like a Uniball Jetstream or a Pilot Acroball or a Zebra Sorare. They look like ballpoints. They act like ballpoints. The ink is better, in my opinion, for writing than ballpoints. It's a darker ink. It's a richer ink. They don't smear or smudge like a traditional ballpoint. They're much cleaner, much less messy. But you're not going to get the range of color that you would get with a traditional ballpoint. It's pretty much shading-wise, it's one color. So artists are not going to use something like a Jetstream. They just can't get the work that they need out of that pen to get the coloration that they like. So this is one of the best writing pens. Like students that want a pen to write an essay for an exam that's comfortable, that's smooth, that has a good output, that's not going to make a mess, and the refill is going to last a long time, I recommend hybrid ballpoints all the time, the Jetstream and the Acroball. And they're cost-effective too. They're not overly expensive. They're more expensive than basic ballpoints.

Brad Dowdy: But, you know, in the big picture, this is like one of the best student pens that I recommend all the time. I get emails a lot from students that write a lot, and we usually end up going, based on their needs and what they're telling me, something like a Uniball Jetstream.

Fountain Pens

Brad Dowdy: So then the last item on the list, and I almost didn't include it because it's a completely separate category, and it's its own show, and that's fountain pens. But I included it because people always ask, why would I use a fountain pen over any of these other types of pens you just listed? And the reason for me that I keep coming back to is that it's much more customizable than all of these pens combined. It's, I can choose, or I can make, or have made something very specific to fit my writing style with the color and consistency of ink that I want to use on the specific paper that I want.

Brad Dowdy: So I find that's why fountain pens are so popular because of that customization. Now, they are the most difficult and finicky of all these pens, right? I mean, they require more maintenance. They require you to pay attention to what you're writing on. You know, if you're using some inks, they're just going to bleed worse than the worst Uniball Vision ever has. It's just, you know, it could be really bad. But a lot of people also like fountain pens because they are more eco-friendly, I guess, from a refillable aspect. You know, if you're not buying, you know, 40 of them a year, like myself, they are a little more eco-friendly if you have a fountain pen and you keep refilling it with a bottle of ink. So, I mean, I just wanted to throw fountain pens in there as a comparison to why people like fountain pens, but we're going to have a whole separate episode that will cover everything fountain pen. But out of these other five, you know, ballpoint pens, liquid ink pens, gel ink pens, drawing pens, and hybrid ballpoint pens, those are the main categories of pens that people run into on a daily basis. You know, either at the office, using at the office, shopping at the office supply store, ordering online. And these are just kind of these, the general questions I get sometimes. Like one of the most popular questions I get, Myke, is what refill is going to last the longest? Well, it's probably going to be a ballpoint or a hybrid ballpoint. Well, I don't like ballpoints or it doesn't fit my type of writing. You know, what's my other choice? So, this is the kind of, these are the kind of topics I wanted to point out for each specific pen to where it'll hopefully help you make a decision on what writing instrument works best for the situation that you're in. You know, and I'm always open to discussing this with people. I, you know, my first question, people want me to recommend a pen to them. Well, there's never a direct answer, right? You got to tell me the hows and whys of the situation that you're writing in or what you're trying to accomplish. And then we can narrow it down and we usually narrow it down to one of these particular pens. And because of one of these reasons that I've talked about, you know, are you a left-hander? Well, you may not want a traditional ballpoint because it's going to smear. Same with a gel ink pen. It doesn't dry that fast. So, let's look at these other pens. So, things like that. That's why I wanted to talk about these items again.

Brad Dowdy: Get these general assumptions out there again. And hopefully it will help people make a decision to purchase a pen or writing instrument that works the best for their writing situation that they're currently in. And, you know, there's no shame in having a pen for every different writing situation, Myke, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I mean, well, for me, though, every writing situation is pretty much fulfilled by a fountain pen. Right. Because, as you said earlier, like, that's just my style. I've been able to find the perfect thing for me. And luckily for both of us, there are fountain pens in it. And I think it does come from having particular needs and wants. And even more than that, like, I just feel like the designs and the beauty are in fountain pens more than they are in other pens. And I think if that's the thing that's important to you, then you should really start checking out fountain pens because you can spend an equal amount of time trying to find the perfect-looking pen. As you can, the perfect performing pen. And then you can also go down the road of having pens made.

Myke Hurley: Which is a whole other topic for a whole other time. Because we're both going to do that relatively soon, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep, very soon. We're going to essentially start from scratch, if you will, right?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, that's going to be a fun journey. We'll definitely be talking about that soon once we get all the details ironed out.

Myke Hurley: I need to reply to an email. Do I need to reply to an email? Oh, you're ready.

Brad Dowdy: No, you're good right now. Okay, good.

Brad Dowdy: Secrets. We're waiting for the next email. Right. Okay, so I'll just hold fire. Yeah. But yeah, that'll be several episodes worth of conversation. But, so yeah, this is a good topic to rehash. It's a good baseline to set, I think. And, you know, we've both been on this journey since episode one. And, you know, things have changed or things have become more clear on how we, and when I say we, I'm talking specifically me and you, how you and I use pens, what works the best for us, and hopefully we've had the experience enough to be able to communicate with that. Other people who are looking for the same thing to fit a pen into a particular writing need they have. So, you know, some of you experienced listeners may not have gotten a lot out of the glossary, but I think it's something we need to do because we've had so many new listeners and we get so many emails about purchasing pens for the first time. You know, people who are breaking away from the hotel ballpoint or the office supply cabinet and want something a little bit better. So this is a good place to point them to to figure out, okay, I need this for my writing instrument and I can eliminate this, this, and this and let me try a couple of these other pens that might work for me. So it's trial and error. You're going to find, you know, these are not stone cold facts. You know, there's going to be some variance in this, but in the general sense of it, you know, a lot of these things are true and, you know, you can use this to help you find the best pen for you.

Glossary

Myke Hurley: And this is really as well, I guess, only just part one of the glossary thing because we kind of need to go a bit deeper into some terms and terminologies as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we'll do a lot more on this. It's more than even like two episodes. It's going to be several episodes over, you know, we're not going to do them all in a row.

Myke Hurley: We'll space them out.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we'll space them out because I don't want to hear myself talk as much in a row as I just did.

Myke Hurley: I'll try and make sure that I help out a bit more next time.

Brad Dowdy: No, I wasn't saying that. No one wants to hear me ramble, but it's a baseline. You have to have a baseline and I think this is where you start from.

Myke Hurley: Indeed. Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: And I think that's all I got for today. And, you know, I want people who listen to this episode write to me or Myke and tell me what you're looking for in our glossary episodes. What do you want us to cover? I know I have a huge list of fountain pen questions, so keep those coming. And then any other questions you have about all these other types of pens that you've run across a problem or you need some clarification on or something that works in some oddball situation. So definitely get in touch.

Myke Hurley: So that's it for today's episode of The Pen Addict. You can do that by. Sorry?

Myke Hurley: Nothing. He's saying secret things about me. I think he might be. So that's it for this week's episode of The Pen Addict. If you'd like to catch up with all of the links and stuff that we spoke about today, go to 5x5.tv slash penaddict slash 107. My name is Myke Hurley. His name is Brad Dowdy. And until next time, we'll wish you goodbye. I am at iMike, I-M-Y-K-E on Twitter. And Brad is at Dowdyism, D-A-W-D-Y-I-S-M. So until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.