The Pen Addict 151/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	151
Title:	Wabi-Sabi
Release Date:	April 23rd, 2015
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 151
Audio File:	Audio Episode 151
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 151
Length:	7171 min <br />1.183 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Podcast Intro

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 151. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's, an exceptional shave at a fraction of the price. Warby Parker, glasses should not cost as much as an iPhone, and Dudak Modern Goods, fantastic pen storage made in the USA from solid walnut. From London, England, my name is Myke Hurley and I am joined across the pond from Hotlanter, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: It's sad being so far away, Myke. I've had a rough come down this week.

Myke Hurley: It's a weird feeling, right?

Brad Dowdy: It's totally weird.

Myke Hurley: I don't know how I feel. Like, I'm sad. I'm really tired. Like, jet lag is running amok with me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so it's a super, just, you know, overload this weekend. All of good things, right? It was just, like, completely high, completely pegged the whole weekend. And then to get back into the normal life, which is completely fine, you know, but getting back into that routine has been really, really hard for me after this great weekend of events here in Atlanta. So it was amazing, but then trying to get back to normal. After that, I'm having a really difficult time.

Myke Hurley: Because for me, like, it's not even just so much that we had fun, right? Right? We were working hard. Right. And I don't know how much or if we, because I don't really remember a lot of the episode last week. It was kind of a bit of a blur. But we were, like, full bore for three days. Like, the pen show, like, exhibiting at the pen show is exhausting.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, there was no slowdown at all. I mean, because we weren't just exhibiting. You know, we had a bunch of friends there from the pen addict and the Kickstarter campaign. And then we had a bunch of knock side stuff to do, like, partying. And then we just had, you know.

Myke Hurley: And the show.

Brad Dowdy: And the show. And then just hanging out with friends, which I felt like almost gave that part short shrift just because I was so tied up with everything else. And, you know, I certainly don't have any regrets or disappointments, but I would have liked to have a whole day of nothing just to hang out with people. That would have been super cool. But I think everyone else accomplished that pretty well.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, because, like, even, because obviously the Sunday hadn't happened when we recorded. Like, so Sunday evening, me and Brad just, like, hid away for an hour or two when I had dinner. Because it was just like, I love everyone, but I just need to calm down for a bit, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's totally right. I mean, it's, it was, even at dinner, we, like, we, like, talked about, we finally got to talk a little bit about businessy stuff. Not that we were doing stuff, but we finally got to have conversations separate from pen show stuff. And even then at dinner, we were both, like, kind of, like, sunken in our seats, just, like, taking deep breaths, like, whew, yeah. Good to be sitting here and just chilled for a second.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because usually I, like, when I go to conferences and things like that, I will take a time maybe once a day or once every couple of days to just be on my own for a little bit. Like, it's something that I do. And I think many people are like this. Because I think we're all a bit introverted in our own way. And just so I can just take a bit of time, relax, like, just recharge. But that, we couldn't do that, like, because, and mainly because we were at the booth, right? Salon. Yeah. Because, like, Saturday was the busiest day, it ended up being, which was good, because I couldn't have taken that again on Sunday, because there was less of us. But, like, I have to say, though, like, I'm so coming back next year. Like, the Atlanta pen show is on my calendar now. It's just a thing that I'm going to be at.

Franklin Kristoff

Brad Dowdy: That's awesome. It was really, really amazing. I mean, just, there was just nothing but just awesomeness. So, and we're going to talk about that awesomeness today, because, you know, we did our show last weekend from the show, and we talked about it. And I figured there'd be a lot of follow-up from the listeners just on that, you know, whole thing. So, we're going to dig in a little bit deeper today and answer some of those questions that everyone had that we didn't necessarily get to. I mean, we could have gone on for a couple hours at the pen show for sure. So, you ready to get into it and, you know, talk about some things from the show?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, this is good, because basically we have, like, a huge question and answer, right, today. Right. Which is good, because I think we got a lot of people wanting to know stuff, so.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. And I want to start off with the one thing that we've talked about that's actually not on the list. It was a big purchase for you, not just in the type of pen, but in the style of filling system. So, you went to Franklin Kristoff, and you bought a pen that you can use as an eyedropper, which you were super scared of, just in us talking, you know, how would that work and things like that. So, why don't you give us an eyedropper update, because a lot of people have been asking, you know, from a beginner's perspective.

Myke Hurley: So, this is the Franklin Kristoff Model 2, right, that I have here. I have to say one thing, that I'm not 100% sold on the nib.

Brad Dowdy: Which nib did you get? I don't even remember.

Myke Hurley: The Masayama Grind Medium Curso Vitalik. Okay. I should have had him tune it, because in some angles, it's a little scratchy, and in other angles, it's great. And I think it's just because, you know, with me being a lefty, these things can be a bit wonky sometimes. Sure. But, like, if I kind of, just depending on the way I angle the pen, depends on how it writes, because sometimes it scratches, other times it's smooth like butter.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So, with that cursive italic nib, it's got some sharp edges. So, the one thing we failed on was getting you some micromesh, and just a few little swipes of the micromesh will smooth that out for you. Okay, what is that? It's the little sandpaper, little squares.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's what we were writing on the sandpaper. Where can I get that?

Brad Dowdy: You can order it from all kinds of pen vendors online.

Myke Hurley: Can you find me one? Yep. Because I don't really know what I'm looking for.

Brad Dowdy: You know what? I need to order some, so I'll get you some, and I'll just ship it over to you.

Myke Hurley: That'd be great, because basically, if I write like a normal person, it's really, really nice. But if I do it in my crazy hook hand, that's where I start to find some problems.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like Mark Bacchus mentioned in the chat, maybe you should have gotten a stub, which is going to be the same sort of line variation, not as extreme, but with more rounded corners. But the micromesh, even me, who loves the sharpness of the cursive italic, even I've had to tone down the edges on some of mine, just because they do get a little bit sharp. If you're not like spot on. And a medium cursive italic is actually a really fine one, you know, comparatively speaking. You know, that's a very fine line. So, yeah. It's good. So, what do you think about the eyedropper process itself in carrying an eyedropper pen? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So, I opened it up and I took out the black ink cartridge that was inside. I hate black ink so much, because you change it to a color, it just ruins everything.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, I always have to get extra clean in black inks.

Myke Hurley: Because even if you think you've cleaned it, you've never cleaned it enough.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: So, I have the Franklin Kristoff Model 2, cleaned it all out, and I bought a special ink just for this pen. Did I tell you about this?

Brad Dowdy: Yes, you bought a red ink, but I can't remember what it was.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I bought Diamine Red Dragon. Yeah, cool. Because basically, I wanted something that looked like blood. Right? I mean, that's what I like.

Brad Dowdy: There's no better pen for showing blood.

Myke Hurley: Because what I was going for is something, because it's like the smoke in the ice. I wanted something red like fire, but I wanted like a blood colored ink, because I think it looks really cool. Right.

Myke Hurley: And I, it was, do you know what? It's so easy, man. I got some of the silicone grease. I can't remember who bought me the silicone grease.

Brad Dowdy: Someone threw it at you. Yeah, someone threw it at me. I think it was, I think it was Punky. I think it was Casey.

Myke Hurley: Do you know what? I think it was Casey. I thought it was either Casey or Thomas. Someone, someone basically bought me some, some silicone grease from the Andersons and just threw it at me. I caught it and it's like, now you don't have an excuse. Oh yeah, look, I see Punky in the chat room. You have no excuse, Myke. Yeah. You definitely made sure of that, Punky. I appreciate that. So I actually used it so that he bought me. I got a little Q-tip and I greased it up. I probably put on more than I needed to because I was so scared. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: You don't have to, you don't have to overdo it. That stuff works well.

Myke Hurley: And then I used the pipette. Is that what you call them? Yes. Cool. Couple of, couple of just like squeeze, drop, squeeze, drop.

Myke Hurley: Screwed it up and it's great. Seems to be fine. I have no problems with it at all.

Myke Hurley: Pipettes as a filling system is way better than most other things. It's not, it's completely clean.

Brad Dowdy: That's the, the cult of eyedropper now that you're, you're part of. Just the actual filling and cleaning and ease of use. That whole, that whole system is really, really simple. It's one of the most simple there is. It's just a tiny bit more intimidating than slapping a cartridge or a converter into a pen. Right. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I think it's way intimidating.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because there is this part of me. It's like, I could leak, but anyway, I'm confident in it. It looks fantastic. It's fit purpose, you know, but I just need to now tune this nib up a little bit. Yeah. Even if I don't like it, I have other Franklin Kristoff pens. I could just take the nib out and replace it. Sure. But ideally I would like to just do that. And now I know that I can, can do something to kind of take the, the sharpness off. Then I'll. Yeah. Now you're going to send me some, which is even better because I don't know what I'm buying. Great. That's fantastic. And then that will be perfectly tuned up.

Brad Dowdy: I'm writing a note right now. In my eyedropper, with my eyedropper pen.

Myke Hurley: What have you got right now?

Pen Models

Brad Dowdy: It's the, the models, Franklin Kristoff model 66 that I bought at the show.

Myke Hurley: I love that one, man.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I really liked that one. I had to deliberate, but I decided I wanted a full size.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. No, that's good. Do it. I thought the one you bought, I don't have, and I'm, I'm jealous and that's on my shopping list now too. So that's a great design.

Myke Hurley: Because that one, that one that you have, that's definitely for me more like an everyday pen. And I wasn't looking for that. I was looking for, I was just looking for the best eyedropper pen I could get. Sure. Like that's what I was after. I wanted just the, to be able to show off a pen like that and in its like purest form or whatever. And like, I have it in my ink, like in my, not my ink, my cube. And we'll talk about those in a bit. And it just looks great. Like, cause I can still see like the top of the pen with the, the, the eyedropper there. Like it looks really great. I love it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You need to take a picture of your end results if you haven't already.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That's a good idea. I'll do that and I'll put it in the show notes.

Nakaya Pens

Brad Dowdy: Throw it up on Instagram. Yep. So. All right. Well, let's get into some of these, some of these questions and we'll hit as many as we can. We got a huge ton of them, but I think it's all good stuff. Um, so Christine Ritter on, on Twitter asked, did the show inspire any new grail pens? And this was a, a, a really good conversation that we always have about grail pens and.

Myke Hurley: Explain what that is for people that don't know.

Brad Dowdy: So it's like a, the ultimate pen for you. So, you know, whether it's the design or the materials or the company or the vintage, you know, whatever this pen style that speaks to you the most. And then like something that will really fulfill your needs, um, in writing and usage and just in beauty and something that really, really speaks to you on a personal level. Um, you know, is a kind of a grail pen, you know, people search these things out. Um, it's not necessary. It can be, you know, a mainline production pen. That's completely fine for a grail pen, you know, but it's always something you're striving to obtain. And, you know, I've talked about it in the past where it, I feel like it takes a little bit of a extra to get that grail pen, you know, whether it's saving up or hunting down, or there's always going to be a story behind a grail pen. Um, so did you, did you have anything? Because I did have something.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I do. Um, and it's the, huh, we're going to do this right now.

Brad Dowdy: Now, now I know what it is. I didn't know what it is before I said it. Now, once you started talking, I know what it is.

Myke Hurley: Uh, I have found my Nakaya.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And who corrected us? Tell everyone who corrected us.

Brad Dowdy: Well, Lee Ray is in Thomas Hall for sure.

Myke Hurley: Yep. They really wanted to make it clear that it's not Nakaya as we've been saying for so long. And it was funny because me and you were talking and it was like, I realized that I only know these things because you tell me how to say them. Sure. So like, if you tell me them wrong, then I'll just say them wrong. Yep. Um, but yeah, I've decided on my Nakaya. This is after, uh, Lee and Thomas were basically showing us through a bunch of different things. And basically Thomas in his way that he does made me choose. Right. Cause he, and he was right in what he was saying. And I agree with him. Um, you're never going to see this many in one place at one time. So if you want to get one, choose it now. And I was like, as crazy as it is. Yeah, I will. And he made me choose everything. He made me choose the, the design, the body size and the nib as well. So I would like a Nakaya Piccolo Cigar Negoro Nuno Hon Kataji with a soft, fine nib. And that's basically, we've spoken about it on the show. That's the Nakaya that you have.

Brad Dowdy: Right. The orange Piccolo with, it looks like it, people think it's cracked when I take a picture of it. I took a picture of it last night, not realizing we'd be talking about it today. And people on Instagram were saying, oh no. And I'm like, wait, no, it's supposed to be like that.

Myke Hurley: Because effectively what they do is, and again, man, talking to Thomas about this stuff is just the best thing. We need to have him on the show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we should.

Myke Hurley: I can't believe we've never done that.

Brad Dowdy: I've talked to him about it before and we will certainly do it. He's just been gone so much that I'll get him and get him on the show for sure. And basically, what is it called?

Myke Hurley: The idea behind the pen?

Brad Dowdy: Wabi Sabi.

Myke Hurley: Right. And it's effectively the idea that things get broken, but there's a beauty in it. Right. Right. Because basically this isn't like an effect. What they do is they put the material, the only thing I can think is acrylic, but it's not acrylic, but it's got a specific name. They layer it on to the pen. Arushi. Arushi. Arushi, that's it. They layer the Arushi. It's all coming back to me now, sitting in the hotel bar.

Brad Dowdy: It's Arushi over an ebonite core.

Myke Hurley: And then they scratch the Arushi away. And every single one of these pens is different. Right. Because they're all done by hand. And I am in love with it because I love how it looks and I love the story behind it. And that's the pen that I want. But I'm not just going to buy it for myself. So I have made a decision when it comes to grail bands for me personally. I award them to myself when I achieve something. So I haven't set that achievement yet. I don't know what it's going to be. But having a pen custom made for me, which is what I did with my Edison, with my Menlo, that was going to be something that I really wanted to do one day. And I gave it to myself as a gift when we founded Relay. So that was a pen that I bought for myself because we did that. So I need to have some sort of achievement. It can be anything, but just something that I need to work towards. Then once I've achieved it, I'm going to buy myself this pen. Because it's not cheap. It's like $750. Right. I mean, that's effectively what I paid, like all in all for my Edison. So, you know, I want to wait until I get to the point where I've achieved something that I feel deemed worthy to award myself with this pen. Because, you know, for some people, grail pens are hard to find pens. They're not hard to find. You can buy them on nibs.com. Like, you can get them. Right. They're in stock. Like, you know, you can just buy them. But I don't want to yet.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. No, I think that's good. I mean, it should mean something to you. You know. And, yeah. I obviously love the one that you picked out.

Myke Hurley: Because you, yeah. I mean, part of the reason that I want it is because I saw yours and I love it.

Myke Hurley: So, you know, that really helped. But there's just so much about it now that it's like, yeah, no, that's exactly what I want.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. So, I found a grail nib, actually. Which comes attached to a pen. Which also happens to be a Nakia. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I want an elastic nib on one of mine. Oh, yeah. One of mine. I never had the opportunity to choose one before. And it's a pretty expensive upgrade on an already expensive pen. So, I never was interested in it. But those elastic nibs that they make, and I got to try about three or four of them. It's really something else. And I didn't know what to expect. It's really, really cool. So, I'm going to... That's... My next grail is a new Nakia. Just what I need. And with a really, really unique special nib.

Myke Hurley: Can you explain what an elastic nib is? Because I personally never heard of them.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. It's essentially their take on a flex nib. And what happens is the Nibmeisters cut notches up on the sides. Like on the... I don't know what that area of the nib. They're just like this cutout. Like probably one or two centimeters deep. And, you know, it's kind of large. And I'll see if I can find a picture we can put in the show notes just to show the picture. But that allows for that nib to have a huge amount of flex. A really wide range of flex in the nib. But what I found interesting was just for normal writing, it's not really flexing. You do have to put a little... You do have to push it a little bit to get that flex. So, you can write very well with it in its normal whatever you get. You know, if you get a fine nib, you can write very fine just like normal. And then once you push it, it really goes to town on the flex. And they call it elastic. So, you know, it definitely has some bounce back to it.

Myke Hurley: I found a Vimeo video by Lee. Shocking! That I'm going to put in the show notes. Okay. I'll also put it in the chat room. So, you can see how it actually works.

Myke Hurley: I've never seen anything like it. I really liked it. And I kind of want one because the idea of it is really interesting. But I don't... It's not like enough that I would want to buy them. But like you press down and it's the softest. It's got like a bounce and a springiness to it. Almost feels like you're going to break it. You know?

Brad Dowdy: Right. But it snaps back real well. Snaps back perfectly. And I was shocked how much I liked it. So, that's at the top of my list for who knows when. You know?

Brad Dowdy: Not in the very near term. But I've been burned saying that before. But I just don't... You know, after the pin show, I'm not shopping for pins as I was, you know, leading up to the pin show right now. So, you know, late this year, something like that. So, who knows? It's on the radar. And it's something I really want to add to the collection. So, I think that's pretty neat.

Myke Hurley: All right.

Elastic Nibs

Brad Dowdy: We got a million other questions. Do you have something else?

Myke Hurley: Grailwise, I'm sure. Do you want me to talk about a sponsor?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Grailwise.

Myke Hurley: No. Okay. No, that's the only thing I came away with. Yeah. I think so, too. Really wanting.

Brad Dowdy: I think so, too. You know? I can't bring myself to purchase a Mont Blanc. I always find them to be too expensive relative to, like, the other things I need. I've always said I want to own a Mont Blanc fountain pen. But I never just... It always gets pushed down the list. So...

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Like, we saw some cool ones. But it's like... Right. Like, it's like... I don't want... You know? I don't want it. Like... Yeah. Like, I own one. I mean, we've been through this before. It's one of the composer ones. I think it might be Mozart. I can't remember which one it is now. Mm-hmm. And I'm happy that I have it. And it really needs to be properly cleaned. And I did that. Do you remember I kind of cleaned it out and made it work a bit better again? Yep. And I'm pleased that I have it. But, like, I'm not interested in it. Mm-hmm. It's kind of not just a thing, really. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. I'm with you. All right. Let's talk about some hot hotel room bathroom counteraction.

Myke Hurley: Sounds like a great idea. This week's episode is brought to you by our friends over at Harry's. For many of us, shaving can just suck. Like, not only is it extremely difficult to actually try and buy razor blades because they're locked in these cabinets in drugstores. It can be uncomfortable. You know? It can hurt the pocket because of the price. It can hurt your face because of nicks and cuts and scrapes and stuff like that. And this is what Harry's is all about. It's about taking all of that pain away. They make good quality blades. They have a great German factory that they found and they use their blades. It's absolutely fantastic. They own the factory now. So you're not going to get the scrapes and nicks and cuts. And one of the reasons that happens to people is because they use their blades for too long. So Harry's blades are really cheap. So you can replace them more quickly. They're about half the price of some of their competitors. So you can replace them more often. And because they're half the price, it's also not going to hurt your wallet so much. It's a really interesting way of doing things. You can change over your blade more frequently. They come to your door. They're shipped to your door for free. It's all just great stuff. They have a really fantastic starter set. $15 is going to get you one of their razors. Their razors look great. They've got this different kind of look to them. They're really kind of retro cool. I think I heard John Gruber say this, that they're kind of like this madman kind of idea. You know, like this kind of like madman cool. So it's like it looks old, but it's actually new. So they've got that. But also for that $15, you're going to get either the moisturizing shave cream or foaming shave gel and three razor blades. On average, an everyday shaver is going to save $150 a year using Harry's blades. And your satisfaction is guaranteed. Now, Brad mentioned about Atlanta bathroom stuff because our bathroom was full of Harry's products because... Yeah. Go on.

Brad Dowdy: We should have just done a trunk show in our bathroom for Harry's. Because we both use the stuff and not because they sponsor the show because it's really good stuff. Like I've mentioned it before. I used Harry's before they were even a sponsor of the show just because... I haven't found anything better. It's the best shaving experience I've had. I'm a big fan of the handles, the blades, and I use the shave cream and the aftershave lotion. And I just keep reordering that stuff whenever I'm out. Shows up in just a few days. And I travel with it, obviously. And yeah. So it took up counter space in our hotel room over the weekend just because it's that good.

Myke Hurley: Yep. It was all over the place. Which is a good thing. And the bathroom always smelled good. You can experience a clean, close, comfortable shave with Harry's. Go to harrys.com right now and they'll give you $5 off if you use the coupon code PENADDICT with your first purchase. So that's H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com and enter the code PENADDICT at checkout. That'll get you $5 off so you can start shaving better today. But they have a new product, Brad. I don't know if you've seen this. It's a little Harry's stand. They call it the Stan, which is quite funny.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, no.

Myke Hurley: I haven't seen it. It's a little block of aluminium that you can set down and it's got some little rubber feet on it. And you can just stand your razor up in there. It's called the Stan, which I like it. I like the name. It's clever. It's the Stan stand. Yeah. So there you go. You can go grab that for yourself if you're interested in it. So there you go. So thanks so much to Harry's for sponsoring this week.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's that's way more bathroom talk than I ever thought we'd have on the show.

Brad Dowdy: But I'm good with that. I'm good with that. So. All right. Let's talk about a few more things. We got we got a bunch to I want to get to, especially so I can ask you some questions. So we talked last episode about your nib work with Myke Masayama. And so we're not going to rehash that. But the question is and from Leslie and I'm kind of paraphrasing what she's asking here. Would you do it again?

Myke Hurley: Oh, without a shadow of a doubt. Like, OK, my Edison has gone from a pen that made me sad to a pen that makes me incredibly happy because now it's a dream to use. Right. Like, I'm using it right now and it's super smooth and I love it so much. Yeah. One pen I've not been able to try out that Masayama got for me was the Sailor. Do you know why? Why? I left the converter in Atlanta. Oh, no. Yeah. So I've had to order one on Amazon. It's the only place I could find one. So I don't know when that's going to arrive.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I'll order you an extra. I'll put that in the micro mesh order because I need to order a bunch of supplies.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because it's one of those ones where it could take, you know, when they say like shipping between the 1st of May and the 29th of May and it's like, it's not helpful.

Brad Dowdy: That's funny. Way to go.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So there you go. Something else.

Brad Dowdy: Also from Leslie, is there anything you didn't buy at the show that you regret? Did not regret, but like, oh, if I had more money or, you know, whatever.

Myke Hurley: Just before we move on from that quickly, you should talk to Jeff because he's mailing me a package. Oh, okay. Because I left a couple of things in the shop. So he's sending them to me. So you might want to club that together.

Brad Dowdy: Noah and Jeff, those are gone. I mean, he probably knocked that right out. So I don't even have this stuff. I got to order it for myself.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That's a good point. He asked my address today. So it's probably already on the way.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep.

Myke Hurley: He just sent me a message today. Asked me my address. And he was like, aside from the things you forgot, is there anything else you want me to put in this order? That was all he said. And I was like, no, no, it's all good.

Beer Samples

Brad Dowdy: All right. So do you leave anything behind at the show that just didn't come home with you?

Myke Hurley: I didn't buy anything vintage, which is not a mistake, but it was something that I maybe should have done. Because again, like all the stuff that I bought, I could have just bought online.

Myke Hurley: But no, I don't feel like I've missed anything in that regard.

Brad Dowdy: Same here. Like I got exactly what I wanted. Didn't overspend my budget and didn't have to have anything that I didn't come on with. So that's, that's always a success. You know, if you feel like you left that show and you, you got some things that you wanted and, you know, it was perfect. So I, anything else would have been just spending money to spend money, which I never liked doing. So. Yep. All right. Brandon asks, most interesting, funniest reaction from those who weren't listeners.

Brad Dowdy: I have a, I have a good one. Okay. So, and I told this, I think I told this story last episode, but it's really just the older crowd, if you will. And I hate saying that. I don't want to be ageist or whatever, but they were really confused about how, you know, the, this was happening at their, at their pin show. So people that didn't listen to the podcast, there was one gentleman who, and his name's Tom. He did the, he does this newsletter for the, I think it's the Southeast Pin Collectors Club. Mark Backus can correct me. Um, but he wanted to get some pictures of us and talk about it and talk about, you know, the podcast and knock and things like that. So he could put it in his newsletter. And then we recorded the podcast on Saturday and then we, you released it that night and a bunch of people listened to it. And I saw Tom and his wife, I think his wife's name is D. saw them the next morning and Tom mentioned that he listened to the show and it was wonderful and your, you know, enthusiasm's contagious. And then D came up to the table, not go table later on that day. And she said she couldn't sleep last night. So she decided to listen to the podcast and she had so much fun listening to the show that it just ended up keeping her up her more that night because she was so excited about it. And, you know, it was cool to see that, um, that type of reaction from them who, who really hadn't listened to it. And I feel like they got it immediately. That was the most impressive thing. You know, they just wanted to keep talking about it and that was really, really cool.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That, that would have been the exact story I would have told.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That was a real highlight because like the smiles on the faces of them and, you know, the, the way they talked about it and they just thought it was like the coolest thing ever. So, yeah. So, um, Mary Callis asks, and this is, uh, this is for our, our other podcasting partner, Anna, who's in the chat room. Uh, Mary wanted to know if there was an Estherbrook throwdown like a, like in the school cafeteria, fight, fight, fight. Um, there wasn't an Estherbrook throwdown because Anna went around the show and bought them all. So there were, there was no Estherbrook throwdown to have. Although, uh, Punky did a good job, um, purchasing up some Estherbrooks as well. And, you know, if you're new to the pen show and you want to buy something vintage, Estherbrook's the way to go. There's so many options and there's such cool pens. Um, and I didn't get an Estherbrook this year. I usually try to buy one. Um, and I just never got around to really shopping for it. You really kind of got to shop for those and really look at there's because there's so many options of barrels and nibs. You got to spend some time shopping from Estherbrook. So, all right, uh, Derek asked, and I want to get your answer to this one, Myke. I want to know specifically how the beer and coffee was at the Sassafling. This is the party at Nock. So what did you think of the, the beer and coffee samplings? Really not just at Nock, but over the whole weekend.

Myke Hurley: Um, coffee was fine. Mm-hmm. Um, I, uh, I don't really think anything specific about the coffee. Uh, Punky Casey had some crazy coffee that I don't even want to get into.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I put the link in the show. We're getting to it. If you don't get to it, I'll get to it.

Myke Hurley: Okay. So you can explain it, but it was basically when he was explaining this coffee to us, it was effectively letting us know how much we should have before it will kill us. Like that was an actual conversation. Um, so I was, I went very easy on that and it tasted very, very good, but I was, I was a little bit, um, I, when I'm in a country that's not my own, I try and avoid things that could potentially put me in the emergency room. Uh, and so I tried this coffee, but, but I didn't get through an entire, uh, vial of the coffee. And yes, they came in vials. Um, the beer at the, at the Sassafling was, which is the party that we had at Nock. It was really great. Really, really great. I can't remember the ones that I had now. Um, I think I have one of the Amber, uh, one of the Amber beers.

Myke Hurley: Um, I had a few more as well and I really, really liked them. Oh, I had the Hoplanter as well. Uh, I'm really, really liked that. Yeah. Good beer. Good beer from Red Brick.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So Red Brick hooked us up like something fierce. I even brought some of the Hoplanter home and the, uh, Laughing Skull I think I had, um, was excellent. And Cullen Whitmore brought us a bunch of beers from St. Louis, which I can't remember the name, but those were outstanding and a huge hit. And, um. Oh yeah, I had one of those as well. Yeah. Yeah. They were fantastic.

Myke Hurley: I had to have one because they came from such a, such a journey.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And then Punky was walking around with different samplers of, of four beers that he brought special from his collection. Um, and I won't even pretend that I know the names. Um, he was basically the whole weekend between his beer and his coffee, he was trying to kill us. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Every, everything, everything he brought me, I was worried was going to knock me down because those beers were really good, but they were so strong.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They're, you know, pretty high, uh, ABV, you know, like 12%, some of them, um, a couple of them were really good. A couple of them I couldn't do. They were real, not my style, but, um, apparently I enjoyed the most expensive and hard to get one the most. So I'm kind of hosed on that deal, but he gave me some other names, um, to, to try, but the back to this coffee, um, it's essentially with being the non-scientific person that I am, it's essentially coffee extract, all the toxins and tannins and acidity and all the bad stuff is ripped out of this coffee in a chemical process. And so it's just like pure coffee and caffeine and it tasted really exceptional. I, I really enjoyed it.

Myke Hurley: Um, it was weird cause it didn't taste like coffee. Right. Right. It tasted like blueberries.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So like the name of this stuff is the black blood of the earth. And we'll have a link, uh, in the show notes where you can go read the story and see all the, uh, chemistry behind it. And you can actually purchase this stuff. And, uh, I would actually consider it. I enjoyed it. It's something where you need just like a shot of something and, uh, it's, it's really super. So I, I'm, I'm interested in that. So I was, that was really nice of him to bring all that stuff for us.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Definitely.

Fountain Pens

Brad Dowdy: All right. So Todd has a really good question here. He says fountain pens, get all the headlines at pen shows other than the Lamy 2k multi-pen that I bought. Any non fountain pens strike your fancy. Do you have anything? Not for me. No. Yeah. I, there really wasn't much. And honestly, I didn't get to shop around that much. Well, except retro 51s.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I was going to say. I ended up not buying any, um, for me. Uh, I convinced a couple of people to buy one because there was some really, really nice ones there. Um, I just didn't, I just didn't really want to spend the money on one. Um, sure. But I liked looking at them and that's the only thing that I would have bought anyway.

Brad Dowdy: There were some really nice vintage mechanical pencils that, uh, were making the rounds. And I know a few people picked up a few. I think Anna might've even picked up one. Um, those were pretty well sought out and available at the show. And those were kind of, uh, neat to see some, some really nice, uh, pencils, but I did not pick anything up. Um, and nothing that I like totally had to have. All right. So Sebastian Morissette asks about bung box inks. So we talked about that a lot and he can, he wants me to elaborate about that brand. Um, I'll do what I can. It's basically sailor. I'm a huge fan of sailor inks. They perform really, really well. And their colors are amazing. Lots of really neat colors that no one else is doing. The problem with sailors main line inks is they're super limited in color, not in availability. They make like eight colors. So what they do sailor back home in Japan, what they do is work with smaller fountain pen stationary shops to manufacture their own lines of inks. And bung box is one of these shops. Bung box is a really, really small store in Japan, but is really well known and respected. And sailor makes a bunch of inks for them. And when I say a bunch, I think we're talking like between 25 and 35 different colors just for bung box. The only place in the world you can get these inks, but what bung box is doing, since they are so nice, such nice inks and have become so popular, they're starting to, you know, work with a couple of people like Van S pens who had them at the Atlanta pen show. And I picked up, you know, a bottle of the one I bought with silent night, which is a dark blue.

Brad Dowdy: They do this for other companies too. Like they're mentioning in the chat room, Kobe ink. Kobe is another store and they have about 40 inks, different colors than what bung box carries. So, and I have some samples of the Kobe inks that I still have to review. So it's just really a good sailor ink in colors that you can't get regularly. And since I'm such a huge fan of sailor inks, I talk about them all the time because I, I just really like how these perform. And I especially like the colors that you can get them in. So that's kind of my, my short version of the bung box inks. So it's a, it's basically sailor inks made for a specific shop in Japan that is now getting a little bit of availability around. And I know a lot of groups do group buys, you know, different message boards, things like that, Reddit. And so you can always kind of get ahold of bung boxings.

Brad Dowdy: So I need to give you some samples, Myke. I don't think you have any.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I don't, I didn't even try any.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. They have one of my favorite blue blacks and they have one called Sapphire. That is just top notch. So you'll, you'll, you'll be reading more about them. Um, I still have a bunch I need to review. So I have four bottles now, so I don't have a problem at all.

Brad Dowdy: All right, let's talk about another one of our, our good friends. He definitely has a problem and it's a good problem to have. Um, he has lots of pins and he needs somewhere to store them. So why don't you talk about our good friend, Myke Dudek and Dudek Modern Goods.

Myke Hurley: Um, Dudek Modern Goods is a sponsor again for the pen addicts. We're so happy about, we were very lucky to be able to spend some time with Myke Dudek. And if for any reason you haven't yet wanted to pick up one of these products, I'm going to talk about in a minute. Like having spent some time with a guy, like I just urge you to go and do it. Like my dude, Myke Dudek is one of the nicest people on the entire planet. Um, he's so kind and like caring and just a great person. Uh, and he, you can tell whenever you talk to him about his stuff, like, so Myke makes just fantastic pen holders, right? They're all made of like solid walnut. They're just these beautiful things. Um, they're made by somebody who really understands pens. Uh, and like, you know, the Dudek products, for example, they're all big enough to fit any of my pens in because he understands, right? How chunky some of these things can get. Um, but yeah, whenever you talk to him about his stuff and he talks about his work, his face just lights up. Like he clearly loves what he does. And I think he puts that love right back into his products. Myke decided that he needed somewhere nice to put his pens as he was getting more and more into the fountain pen world than just the pen world in general. Um, and he couldn't find anything that he wanted. So he created his own products. He's super passionate about this. He just loves doing it. All of the products are handmade. So all of Dudek Modern Goods products are handmade in Arizona from solid walnut. They have a distinct modern and minimal design. Um, are they going to look good on your desk today? Are they going to look good on your desk in 30 years? Because they're going to keep, and they're going to keep that real traditional modern, like it's an, it's like kind of how I was talking about with Harry's, right? It's got, it calls back to the past, but it's done in a modern way. It's really great. He has six different designs, um, that you can pick from with a bunch of different options that can hold, uh, pens and notebooks as well. Um, and I mentioned the cube earlier, which is a project that he's worked with on Karas Customs and they're getting ready to ship the Kickstarter stuff out. So I'm sure you'll have more about that soon if they'll be able to purchase after the Kickstarter. And those ones are made out of aluminium, which is why he worked at Karas Customs. But the stuff that you can buy right now is, is all the walnut stuff, but you should just go and check it out. If you go to dudekmoderngoods.com, that's D-U-D-E-K-M-O-D-E-R-N-G-O-O-D-S.com. Of course, there'll be a link in the show notes. You'll be able to find that there. Um, you can get 10% off until May 8th, uh, of any product on, uh, Myke's store by using the code PENADDICT. So any, any, any product in the Dudek Modern Goods store, you'll get 10% off if you use the code PENADDICT. Myke ships internationally with very reasonable rates. Remember, walnut is heavy, so it's not super cheap, but they're very reasonable. He tries his best to keep that down and he has shipped to over 20 countries so far. Um, so there you go. Get 10% off with the code PENADDICT. Thank you so much to Dudek Modern Goods for sponsoring this week's episode of the PENADDICT podcast.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So I am ordering the daily as we speak. I keep meaning to order that one. And let me type in PENADDICT. Before I forget. Yay. Discount. 10% off. Um, I needed one from, for, uh, my office at, at my jobity job. Um, and you would think I would just steal one from my desk at home because I have three or four of them already, but they have stuff in them that I don't want to, I don't want to unstuff them. So I just want another one. So, um, I'm going to get the daily, which is perfect for the office is three pen holder and notebook in the back. So I, I'm, I'm totally getting this.

Myke Hurley: I have three Dudek products. Literally every pen that I care about lives in one of these things. Yeah. If I don't care about it, it ain't in one. If I care about it, it's in them.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Exactly. So all the stuff I want to get, um, yeah, if it doesn't, if it doesn't live in there, it can, uh, can go, go hide away in the closet. So yeah, that's a good stuff. Good stuff. All right. Thanks dude for sponsoring us and, uh, look for my order momentarily. All right. So I just talked about Van Ness and the Bung Box inks. So, uh, Lisa Van Ness had, had a couple of questions. One, she was asking about the folded nips, which became a huge deal at most of the, the pen sharing event that you and I missed. So if anyone hasn't seen, um, Matthew Morse's folded nib work, you need to go to his website. We'll have that in the show notes. Um, and I don't know a lot about them. Jeff picked one up with a holder, but, um, check out what Matthew does at his site and, you know, figure out these folded nibs, but it's basically a large dip pen that does some really crazy line width variation. And it's really cool. It's basically like painting with a fountain pen nib. It's pretty cool. And Lisa also mentioned about, um, seeing the older pen people are now acknowledging the benefits of social media, um, including the, the, the guy who runs the pen show there. Um, and she's saying it's about time. So that was a real kind of thing that we saw, you know, it's starting to social media doesn't hit some of these old school, um, things like fountain pen shows very, very much. So I think, you know, maybe we'll start to see an influx of that. Um, if not, I would hope to, uh, at least, uh, see a little bit more, a little bit more change. So, and, and Maury, it says the same thing, you know, how nice it must be for the older collectors and dealers to see passion for pens and the demographic that we brought to the show. And it was obvious. If there was one thing that was obvious throughout the whole show was the younger crowd was out in full force. So that was pretty cool.

Brad Dowdy: Um, bump. Was he in the chat room earlier? No. So, uh, Robert, who made it to the, to the show and into the not party, wanted to know how my new Lamy multi-pin cleaned up. It did real good. Um, I want to get it a little bit cleaner on the inside, but it really, you know, the old ink cartridges I just trashed, the mechanics work well. I have Zebra Sarasa, um, excuse me, Zebra Charbo X gel ink refills in there. Works like a champ. I am having a hard time putting that pen down. It's hard coming back from a pen show, Myke. Like I have like five new pens and at one time, that's really hard to like use and love them all. So I'm still trying to figure that part out.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. In a way it's kind of a blessing that I can't use the sailor. Yeah. Yeah. So do you know what I have been using? What? So I'm going to totally cut off your story. So in 2011, Thomas Hall sent me two Edisons.

Brad Dowdy: No, it wasn't 2011.

Myke Hurley: It was. No. Yeah. Hang on. I'm going to go get the letter that he wrote me.

Brad Dowdy: All right. I think you're looking at British dates. I think it was 2014.

Brad Dowdy: And your backward date system.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. 2014.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Okay. It was in January, 2014.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, so yeah. Pretty, pretty long ago.

Myke Hurley: So you guys had the backward one.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, you heard, you heard all that. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: A year and a half ago, he sent me these and I've been sitting on them and I was scared to use them. And then do you remember we were talking last week about how like now I have the confidence to use other people's pens? Mm-hmm. Like now I, now if he sent me stuff, I'd be totally fine with it. But before I was worried I was going to break them. And there were two nibs. There was a 0.8 and a 0.3 Masuyama Koso Vitalik. And I can't remember 100% which nib I have now, but I'm pretty sure it's the 0.8.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You'd know if it was the 0.3.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because I remember, yeah. Because I think I tried one. I was like, nope, can't do it. Can't do it. Yeah. And I am in love with this pen.

Brad Dowdy: So I think you got the Perlet.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. He gave me the Perlet. Yeah. Which is so nice that he gave me one. I love that guy so much. Yeah. Really. Thomas Hall is one of the, just the best people. Yep. Yeah. And it's, it, it writes like a dream, man. It's just absolutely fantastic. And I've been using that a lot as well this week.

Brad Dowdy: Good. Yeah. That's, um, it's good to try to get all these pens and use what I've started doing was writing out all my thoughts. Cause I haven't wrote, written my recap post yet for the blog. Um, I'm way out of sync on blogging right now. I don't know whether I'm coming or going and trying to get things published, but I'm going to work on my, I'm, I hope to get mine out this weekend cause I have to take pictures, but I was using all my pens to write down all my notes and just rotating like every paragraph, you know, like the four or five pens that I brought home and, uh, just so I can, I can get to use them.

Myke Hurley: And, oh man, your, uh, black dot dash notebooks. A good. Oh, good. That paper is good. Good. I'm glad you like it. I've been using it for ink tests and stuff. Nice. Nice.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's the fountain pen one. It's really, really great. Yeah. I'm digging it right now. I'm using it for our show notes with a needlepoint nib and it's working great. Um, Stuart Hasley asked a question that's kind of related to some of the previous questions.

Myke Hurley: Did you fully answer the question? Sorry about the Lamy.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yeah. It's, it's good to go. It's solid. Um, the only thing I wanted to do with the Lamy is try to date it. I'm thinking it's early nineties, but I want to try to figure out how I can, how I can date that thing.

Myke Hurley: So, well, you know, it's before the wall came down. Right. Right. So that's my only one of the funniest things. Not that there was a wall. I mean, the Berlin wall was a horrible thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the fact that, you know, what did it say? Like, was it a West Germany on it? Yeah. Yeah. It's just funny to me to see that. It's like, oh yeah, there was a West and East Germany. Yeah.

Manufacturer Community

Brad Dowdy: So Stuart asked this question. Do you feel the bigger pin manufacturers make an effort to connect within the community? I have a really hard time answering that question. That's a super, super good question. That's like an entire podcast. I'm going to go no in the general sense. I think there's some inroads being made.

Brad Dowdy: They're very small and very sporadic. There's no concerted effort, certainly directly from manufacturers. I think they still don't get it. They're still old school distributors that have been dealing with the same people for 20, 30 years. And they don't have the understanding of necessarily what like the social aspect and this whole aspect that we have or, you know, that like what we brought to the pin show. So I think there's work to be done there.

Brad Dowdy: But yeah, we'll see. I mean, there's some effort, but I think it's really small. And I mean, I'm OK with that. We have more contact with the retailers, right? Because they have more direct, you know, reason to get their name out there to sell pins and things like that. Whereas the manufacturers themselves, you know, usually they're hidden behind a distributor and things like that, other layers of bureaucracy. So they don't have that direct line of communication with like the front lines, if you will. So that's something to keep an eye on and something, you know, I want to work on and, you know, see if there is more of a way to get them more involved. So Joe Lebo asked us, do you feel closer to online friends after meeting in person?

Myke Hurley: No, I'm laughing at the chat room. Sorry. Oh, what do they say? Punky is freaking out about your notebook paper. Uh-huh. Because he's all like, oh, yeah, you know, I like it some. But it's like, no, this is the chosen one of notebook paper.

Brad Dowdy: Well, good. I'm glad to hear that. It's such a new product. I am just dying for feedback on that because, you know, I know how I feel about it. But until you get into other people's hands, you don't really know. So I am super excited to hear that.

Myke Hurley: So it's just great for fountain pens. Like there's no bleed through or anything like that. It's really, really good notebook paper.

Brad Dowdy: So I'm reading his chat now. And, yeah, we can't totally reread everything that he said. But it's very positive.

Brad Dowdy: So do I feel closer to online friends after meeting in person? Absolutely. How can you not? But, I mean, we kind of knew how good this community was online. But then to get so many people in the same place together just knocked my socks off and just really, you know, nailed any thoughts I had on that of how great these people are that are involved in this whole fountain pen. And I should not say fountain pen, but pen, pencil, paper community. Yeah, it's legit.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Pen Shows

Brad Dowdy: This is another interesting question from Mitchell Hislop. He said, if there are no pen shows near you, any worth traveling to? That's an easy question. Yes. And he says, is it worth noobs starting their own? That's a super interesting question.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. You want to say yes.

Brad Dowdy: But I haven't had time to, like, formulate my thoughts on that answer. But I thought it was a really good question I wanted to throw out there. And, you know, it's, yeah, I don't even know what to say to that. I think it's an interesting idea and worth exploring. But pretty tough at the same sense because there's already kind of, like, a tour around the country of pen shows, you know. And fitting something else in separate from that would be an interesting idea. I think it would do well to pose it more as, like, a convention type thing. Like, pen con or something like that. So, I don't know.

Myke Hurley: I mean, looking at the amount of people that came to this, I think, in a couple of years' time, we could do our own. I genuinely mean that as well. A couple of hundred people.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, no, I think about it all the time and have different people come in to speak and do more than just, you know, have, like, a pen show. It would be more of an event, conference type thing, if you will, than just a show. So, yeah, I think it's certainly worth continuing conversations around that because of what we saw this past weekend.

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of seeing, wow, that was really good of me.

Myke Hurley: Oh, look at you.

Brad Dowdy: Golly, I'm professional.

Myke Hurley: This week's episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Warby Parker. Glasses should not cost as much as an iPhone, but way too often they do. And this is where Warby Parker can help. If you go into an optometrist and you go and get your eyes checked, I know that last time that I did this, it set me back, this was a few years ago, it set me back, like, the equivalent of, like, $450. Sure. To get my eyes checked, to buy some frames that I liked, and to get the lenses that I needed with a scratch-proof coating in them, right? That's how much it cost. Warby Parker's prescription glasses start at just $95. This includes lenses. These aren't ugly, cheap-looking designs at these prices either. Because Warby Parker, they make great-looking stuff because they believe that glasses should be viewed as a fashion accessory, just like a bag, a shoe, a necktie, a hat, or even a watch. And, of course, at prices like $95, you can have a few pairs and you can choose from them, right? They want you to look good in your glasses, and you will with Warby Parker glasses. They also have a titanium collection. These are all made of Japanese titanium with French non-rocking screws, and including prescription lenses, these are at $145. See, I say about the premium materials and you think they're going to be way expensive, that's $145, including lenses. And all of Warby Parker's glasses include anti-reflective and anti-glare coating. This is at no additional cost. They all have a come of a hard case and a cleaning cloth. There's no additional stuff that you're going to need to buy. But the best part about Warby Parker and their experience is the home try-on. Brad, you have done a home try-on for Warby Parker. Can you talk me through what you did?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I'm a glasses guy. I've worn glasses for 35 or more years, I'm guessing. And I've never been a contacts guy. I just like glasses. I don't like contacts. And it's just my thing. And Warby Parker's style has always been something. I've enjoyed the style of glasses. Speak to me. So I did the home try-on.

Brad Dowdy: And I picked out five frames from their site. You go through. There's a little... It basically walks you through the process on their page to do the home try-on. And you pick out the different frames. They send them to you in a box. I think it came in like two days. It was super fast. Two, three days. Open up the box. And all these different frames that I picked out online are there for me to try and stand in front of the mirror and have my wife either love them or make fun of me for the weird things that I picked out. I try as hard as I can. I try to pick something different than what I've always worn, which is like a tortoiseshell plastic frame. Just a real traditional looking style. But, you know, that's what Warby Parker does very, very well. So I picked out five frames. Started trying them on. I got the wife and kids involved. We're all looking at them. And we all came to the same conclusion, which I was hoping for the most. And it's the most different frame than what I currently wear. And it's called the Nash, where the style is very traditional. But I'm getting it in the clear crystal, which I've always wanted clear crystal glasses. Not just because, you know, I'm fascinated with Andy Warhol and he used to wear those style of glasses or not because I'm, you know, like a preppy deep down inside and love that style. But it actually looks really good on me. I think I can pull those off. And, you know, I like to do something a little bit different. So I've got the Nash clear crystal frames coming. And it should be pretty sweet. I'm kind of excited about this. It's going to be awesome.

Myke Hurley: Because I guess the good thing is, right, with the home trial and you pick all the ones that you like, and maybe you wouldn't necessarily go with these, even though you've always liked them, but you can show them to your family. And they can tell you if you look good.

Brad Dowdy: I'm laughing because Shireen said demonstrator glasses is what I'm getting. Oh, yeah. I didn't even think about that. That's hilarious. That's good. So, yeah, I got other people to take a look at what I had going. And it was really awesome. And then when I was done, the next day, I just threw them back in the box. They give you the UPS label, prepaid stuff. You just pop the label back on and drop it back off. Like I dropped it at the UPS store and it was gone. So, they make the process really, really easy and simple to do this. So, I'm looking forward to getting these glasses.

Myke Hurley: Awesome stuff. You should go and try this out for yourself. It's just, you know, there's no harm in trying. Once you basically can order the home try-on for free. Then once you place your order, Warby Parker will get started on them right away and have them in your hands within 10 business days. They usually arrive even quicker than that. Go to warbyparker.com slash penaddict to choose your five free home try-on frames. Send the frames back, choose your favorite pair and order. By visiting that URL, warbyparker.com slash penaddict, you'll get free three-day shipping on your final frame choice. Warby Parker makes your experience completely risk-free with free shipping all around. And you will also be contributing to a charitable course as for every pair of glasses sold, Warby Parker distributes the pair to someone in need. Thanks so much to Warby Parker for supporting this show. That URL again, warbyparker.com slash penaddict.

Brad Dowdy: All right, so we've got a final few things from our favorite online follower, Mr. Toffer. Had some great questions for us, Myke. So, the first one we've covered. What was the pen you regret not buying at the show? I actually have no regrets and I'm really happy about that. I'm really just genuinely satisfied with what I went for. What I got, what I came home with, and what I'm using now. So, that was great. So, that's the last of the legitimate questions.

Brad Dowdy: Now he wants to know, I saw a bunch of you went to a Waffle House. What other bad decisions were made?

Brad Dowdy: That was one of the best decisions any of us made. And we made it daily and there were no regrets whatsoever. No regrets. From the Waffle House.

Myke Hurley: No regrets from Waffle House at all.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so that was Myke's first Waffle House experience. You know, he didn't get the full scattered, smothered, covered, chunk, diced, and topped. And apparently there's some new thing they're adding to the hash browns. But I think you did pretty good there, Michael. What was your take on the Waffle House? Five-star restaurant?

Myke Hurley: I enjoyed it. Like, the waffle was good, right? And I just, on two occasions, I had waffles with bacon. Because a lot of the other things did kind of intimidate me a little bit. It was in the parking lot of the hotel. Like, you know, you couldn't not do it. Oh, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It was totally within stumbling distance.

Myke Hurley: Although, I did love the hotel breakfast.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you were all about the hotel breakfast. I couldn't drag you away from it the second day. And I got some grief for being a Southern boy and choosing that over the Waffle House. But we did good. Hotel breakfast was good, too. Yeah. So, all right. Taffer also wants to know, I see that Jeffrey Seamster was there. What did he steal by hiding it in his beard? Or is that strictly for contraband?

Myke Hurley: I love Jeff's beard more than, like, I think, members of my family.

Brad Dowdy: So, there's a good story about Jeff's beard. And that was when we were shopping. I think I may have told this story once already. Jeff and I went. He wanted me to go walk around the show with him on Sunday afternoon. And at that point, he had his newborn one-month-old baby with him. So, he strapped the baby to, like, the chest holder. Like, the baby Bjorn is what kind of the normal term for it is. So, it's just a holder so that he can have his hands free. The baby's sitting on his chest. And it's got a cover over the top of it. So, you actually can't see the baby. It looks like he's just walking around with this patch on, the pouch on the front of his chest. And the beard's so long, it drapes over the top of that. So, as we were walking around the tables, I was telling the people that he's, like, stuffing stuff into there under his beard. Just so everyone can't see it. It's not really a baby. We're just, like, pretending and, like, swiping stuff. Which was obviously not true. But it was funny to walk around with him looking like that. Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.

Myke Hurley: My favorite thing is to watch Jeff eat some stuff. Because you don't see his mouth open. So, it looks like he's just shoving things into his beard. Yeah. Like, chips. Or what I would call crisps. I was, basically, he was eating some crisps. And every time he ate one, I just burst out laughing every single time. It just looked so funny to me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, everyone enjoyed the beard. And the beard's gotten so much love. I don't think it's going away anytime soon. Taufer also wants to know, did anyone overdress? You know there's always one person that does. I don't think there was. I think we were all dressed appropriately. It's super casual. Comfortable. You're going to be in those clothes all day. Which was unfortunate for me and Myke. Because it was a long day of being in those same clothes. So, you know, I might have to pack a little bit differently if there's another pin show. Because I was getting ripe towards the end of the day. Yeah, maybe we just need to.

Myke Hurley: I'm not afraid to say that. Maybe we need to institute mandatory t-shirt changes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. When we're going from like 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. It's going to get a little bit rough by the end of the day. But there was never any overdressing. But it was solid.

Brad Dowdy: Taufer did say one more nice thing. And these other things are nice too. But he did have one more question. He said, did the NotCo table sell out? I hope it did. You all make great stuff. And I wish you the best. That's super nice. We sold out of some items. But we planned properly. So we didn't sell out. But we sold a crap ton. Way more than I would have imagined. And I had nothing imagined ahead of time. But it was a huge, huge success from Nox perspective. And I'll talk that a little bit more when I do my write-up. Just because a lot of people are asking how we did as a company there. So that was super. So I want to wrap it up with one more item, Michael.

Myke Hurley: I was going to say about the selling out. Yeah. If we would have sold out, I don't think any of us would have lived to a tale. Because you brought a lot of stuff. And if you would have managed to sell out, I think that we would be having a very different kind of conversation right now. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: We'd probably be hooked up to IVs like dehydrated.

Myke Hurley: I don't think I would have made it home. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: We'd definitely need some fluids if we sold out because that would have been just crazy.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Visionaire Pen

Brad Dowdy: All right. So you brought something special to me to test out for the first time ever at the Atlanta Pen Show. A pen I have lusted after and desired for well over a year. So why don't you tell everyone about what you brought me?

Myke Hurley: Well, I still stand by the fact that this was the rarest and maybe most anticipated. Pen of the Pen Show, which was the Visionaire. Because nobody else had one. Right. And everyone wanted to see it. Literally, I had people saying, did you bring it? I brought it and I get it out and show people. And everyone had the same sort, like a similar kind of reaction. But I want to hear you say it first before I spoil your thoughts. But this is basically the Brad trying the Visionaire for the first time is going to be in the Kickstarter video. So we did it just after the show. And that currently, we're hoping to have that out very early May. We'll have some more to say on that shortly. There is 150 gigabytes of photos and videos that needs to be looked through by Stephen, Mark and Josh. The great people who came down to Stephen of RelayFM fame. Who came down to help us out with that. And they were fantastic. And I've seen some pictures. And those guys, they really know what's going on. And I'm so, so excited to share the video with you guys. But we'll have more to say on that shortly. They just need to start going through it.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, so the Visionaire. Here's the best way I can explain it in pen show terms. So you have the silver metal barrel. And if I saw that pen sitting on someone's table at the show, like in one of their trays of their pen displays, I would see it sitting there and I would reach out and pick it up. I absolutely would. It's pretty good looking just from an external aesthetic. That's a point of view.

Myke Hurley: Except for the engraving.

Brad Dowdy: Except for the engraving.

Myke Hurley: The engraving is like comical.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So that's not good. But just in general terms, if I saw it sitting there, I would probably reach for it and pick it up. And then it kind of all falls apart from there. Figuratively and literally. So when you arrived, you traveled with your fountain pens inked up. And you did have a little bit of a leaking problem out the nibs of some of them, including the Visionaire.

Myke Hurley: Which that was the worst. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So the Visionaire was the worst. And not just that. The other ones cleaned right up. You cleaned the Visionaire 2 and then found it leaking the next day and the next day and the next day. It's just a really poorly made pen. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: There's no getting around it. The whole time. The whole time. There was always, always ink on the nib.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So the weight was good. The style was good. The feel was off because it just wasn't mechanically sound. It didn't feel like I talk a lot about when you're writing with a pen that you really don't notice the pen. It's like one coherent unit and there shouldn't be any rattling movement, odd spaces, anything. And the Visionaire doesn't have that. It's not a good feeling pen in the hand. And then when you go to write with it, the nib is super average. You can tell it's a very generic nib. There wasn't necessarily anything wrong with the nib. It wasn't overly scratchy. It wrote. It wrote okay. But if I handed you any other pen that was sitting around and you compared the two side by side, you'd go, you would like the other one better. It's just, it's everything that we thought it was, right? It's a very low dollar mass produced pen. You know, it's like a five or ten dollar pen that you would just buy and destroy and then buy another one. It's essentially a disposable fountain pen for what it was. And yeah, I don't have anything really good to say about it. I don't have anything extraordinarily bad to say about it. It's just not very good. Yep. So, I mean, and we'll cover more of that in the video. But you could tell pretty quickly how poor of a pen it was once you had it in your hands. So, I feel sorry for anyone who spent their money on that. And luckily, it wasn't too, too much to be a huge deal breaker. So, that's our Visionaire love. And, you know, that's, it's pretty amazing that the Visionaire has made it this far just in our talking. I know. But it's like still a thing. It's, it's become like a meme, if you will. It's just, there's always something you can relate to the Visionaire. And, you know, we love signing birth certificates with it.

Myke Hurley: So, for everybody that like, everybody that tries to, that asks me about it, the way that I try and explain this is, it's not a good pen. It's not a bad pen. Which is fine. The problem is, is the way he marketed it. Yep. If he took out the birth certificate thing and just said, like, I've worked really hard on the design with people in China or whatever. I think he probably could have had a similar result to what he had. I also have a different theory about this pen, which I shared with you. Is that we have all slightly misunderstood what the original pitch was. And that it's actually been tested and it works really, really well on the paper they use the birth certificates. That's my new theory. And that we just slightly misunderstood what he was saying. And it's basically just the perfect pen for signing a birth certificate with.

Brad Dowdy: That's my new theory about the vision. All right. We'll go with that. And I'm going to let you go with that. And I think we will end it on that and go sign some birth certificates. Sounds like a great idea. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So, we're now on our way to episode 200 because we're episode 151. That's where you'll find the show notes for this week. Relay.fm slash penaddict slash 151 or in the show, your favorite podcast app of choice. If you want to find us online, there's a couple of ways you can do that. You can find Brad at penaddict.com. He is also at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter and penaddict on Instagram. I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E on Twitter and Instagram. And you can find more shows that I'm on and that we do over at relay.fm. Thanks again to our sponsors this week, Harry's, Dudak Modern Goods, and Warby Parker. And we'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

Myke Hurley: Thank you.