The Pen Addict 153/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	153
Title:	Nuclear Fallout Green
Release Date:	May 4th, 2015
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 153
Audio File:	Audio Episode 153
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 153
Length:	5454 min <br />0.9 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 153. Today's show is brought to you by lynda.com, where you can instantly stream thousands of courses created by industry experts. Uni, a wood-fired oven that is fast, portable, and affordable, and Karas Customs. It's quality, bro. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined, as always, by the one and only Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: It's podcast time, bro.

Myke Hurley: You bet it is.

Brad Dowdy: I love that slogan.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I thought I'd go for it today. I wanted to feel cool like Karas.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, I'm gonna leave that one alone.

Brad Dowdy: I have an inside joke in my own head that is really not funny at all, so... Yeah, how's it going?

Pen Addict Show

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm good. I am very good. I'm happy to be back doing this show, as always. It's always a nice way to kick off the week, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so you rolled right into it, right from Upgrade, in the span of a few minutes, right into The Pen Addict. So I appreciate you doing that, and it was nice to hear a little bit of the After Upgrade show, to hear Mr. Snell talk about pens for a second, because he was getting, the chat room was getting filled with pen fans, and he didn't know what to do. I think he panicked a little bit.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it was, he started talking about pens that he knew about, and I could feel the sweat dropping down his face, and he got out of here as quick as he could, because the pen addicts were converging upon Upgrade.

Brad Dowdy: That's right, that's right. It was kind of funny, but it was a good chat anyway. So, got a bunch of follow-up today, and some really awesome stuff, including one of the most awesome things of all, which is the Pen Addict Podcast Episode 150 Kickstarter. We got an update on that. I published that out last night. Most people are up to speed with where we're at, as far as getting the video done, and getting the cases made. I just wanted to put that in writing, in case people don't listen to the podcast, or read the blog, or anything where I've been updating it. But recently, I guess this was yesterday, Myke, Mr. Hackett, and the video crew gave out, gave a link to you and I for the first edit of the video. So, that's coming along swimmingly, and you got to see it, and I didn't, because they wanted to make some changes. So, they pulled that down and are re-uploading it, so I'll get to see the second version. But how's it looking?

Myke Hurley: So, I've seen everything except the after-show portion. So, that's where we demonstrate what we got, the stuff that we bought. So, that's why that needed to be added still, which is what is now being put in, and we'll see the final one of that later on today. It's amazing. It's so good. That's good. They were like, just watch it, let us know if you have any tweaks. I had nothing. Oh, that's great. It's like, the show is really great, and there's like a great intro where it shows off some footage, and then basically, it's just, you know, we've got the whole episode of us, and then, like, interspersed with the video of me, Hugh, and Anna, there's like clips of the show, like, and they show some stuff of the party and all that stuff. It's so much fun, and I watched it, the whole thing, and I loved it. It was weird seeing me on video talking, which is really peculiar.

Myke Hurley: But I, you know, I, it really made me miss the pen show.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's cool. That's good. That means that they've done a good job, and the video kind of gets across what we wanted to try to present to everyone, which is kind of make them feel like they're there. And, yeah, that's great. I'm anxious to see it myself, just because you've been raving about it, and it's going to be cool. I'm really, really pumped about this. So, I don't know when we'll have the final edit, but maybe this week? I don't know. Maybe late this week, something like that?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, we'll see it within the next few days, I think, and then it's up to us, I guess, then just work out when we're going to kind of put it out for the world. But rest assured that everything is in production, which is great, because we're well within the time frame that we wanted for that, and it's looking fantastic, and I think you're going to love it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and people are asking if they should listen to the episode 150 podcast or just wait for the video, and I think you should totally listen to the podcast if you haven't, because the video is going to have so much more extra content. It'll be like reliving it all over again, which Myke just did.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I mean, I recorded the show, and I still found it interesting to watch.

Brad Dowdy: Actually, that's been episode 150 is one of the highlights of our run for me. I actually listened to that one twice, just because I enjoyed listening to that episode, just as a listener. It was a good episode. I thought we did a good job, if I can pat myself on the back for a minute and give you an honor props, too. I thought that was a really excellent episode. So the cases are coming along as well. I don't have an exact date, but May is not going to be a problem, though. They will get out this month, and I'm going to send everyone the survey from Kickstarter so we can get everyone's shipping address. But yeah, the news will be coming hot and heavy over the next couple weeks for the video and the cases, and we will get that wrapped up, and everyone will get all their Kickstarter-y goodness. So I'm looking forward to it. So last week's episode, I was a little bit concerned about, you know, we're going to do mechanical pencils was my focus on the show, and I knew it was going to be completely fine. It was something I wanted to talk about and something a bunch of people wanted to hear about. We had a ton of feedback on that episode. I don't know if you saw any of it directly or through Twitter, but I got all kinds of emails, all kinds of links, people showing me which mechanical pencils they use. A lot of people were dialed in with kind of the same ones that I was talking about. You know, kind of out of all the feedback I got, we could probably come up with a pretty good top five list just out of the pencils that I was talking about on that episode. And I did get a little bit of grief on the Statler 925 that I figured I would, but that's okay. I can live with that. But I had a couple that I missed that people wanted me to bring up, and that includes the Zebra M701, which is a really good quality pencil for a really good price. It's the stainless steel with the knurled grip, like the F701. I think it's the ballpoint model. It's a really popular EDC carry pen, and this pencil goes along with that, and it's only like six bucks. And it's really durable and really, really strong. We also had several people mention about the TWSBI pencil, which I have never used.

Myke Hurley: I don't even think my brain remembered that that existed.

Brad Dowdy: Same here. Same here. I picked one up at a show one time, maybe like not this Atlanta pen show, but last Atlanta pen show. I think the Andersons might have had it. But anyway, you know, it was fine. It just wasn't super impressive because it's like 25 bucks, and I'd spend a little bit more to get the Rotring 600, and it's far superior. And I'd buy the Kurutoga before it. Several, several other models I would choose before the TWSBI, including, you know, the graph gear. And pretty much anything I rated highly, I would pick over the TWSBI. Just, it felt a little plasticky to me. It didn't seem totally like a great pencil for the price. And I don't know if I've seen any reviews of it. I'm sure they're probably out there, but I'm not sure. And in a sad note, unrelated to the pencils themselves, but the Internet's most popular mechanical pencil blogger, Dave's Mechanicals Pencils, he posted yesterday that he's hanging up his hat for good. He pretty much hadn't been posted in the last two years, but he finally put the word out there that he was done. And so I thought, you know, that was interesting to bring up in case I know a bunch of people follow him, follow his blog, and read all his things. So that was sad to hear Dave, but he was at the forefront of the mechanical pencil reviews for years and years and years and years. All right, so we got an email on the mechanical pencils too. So I want to get in here and get this, because I think it's important and something we didn't cover. So it's from Chris. He says, I listened to your mechanical pencil episode this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish I had the chance to listen live and get in the chat room so I could ask the burning question. What is up with those tiny capped erasers on mechanical pencils? I like my Kuro Toga, but removing that little eraser is too small to be of much use, and capping it just makes it inconvenient. My only solution has been to stick to a Pentel high polymer eraser cap on the end. Workable, but inelegant at best. The preferred method is to use a block eraser like a Statler Mars. I don't get it. Flipping the pencil to erase is so much faster than putting it down to pick up a block eraser. Maybe I'm sensitive to it because I make a lot of mistakes and need to erase a lot. In the eraser department, nothing beats a Pentel twist erase, the original model. Now, if Pentel could stick that twist erase mechanism on a really nice pencil pen body. I guess he meant pencil body. Mechanical pencil perfection. Chris. He says, P.S. Myke is totally wrong on the Jetstream. But that's another topic for another day.

Myke Hurley: No, it's not. I'm totally right. I think about this all the time. And I'm right.

Brad Dowdy: That's fair. I have several people that, I mean, yeah, there's no reason to love the Jetstream if you don't love it. I mean, it doesn't work for everybody. So, all right. So, to Chris's point, I agree with him with the tiny erasers or mechanical pencils. I think they're essentially useless. I mean, they're there kind of because it's like you have to, as a mechanical pencil maker, they feel like they have to do it. But it's a really ineffective means of erasing. And block erasers are really the only way to go. I understand that it's slower, that you have to put the pencil down, pick up the block eraser, and pick the pencil back up. But that's pretty much the only answer. And that's how I do it as well. Anytime I'm carrying a mechanical pencil, there's always a block eraser in my bag or nearby. It's just a crummy solution to the problem. I mean, those erasers are so small. They generally erase pretty well, but you run through them so quickly and the refills are expensive. I'd rather just have a block eraser and go to town when I need it. And honestly, when I'm writing, if I'm just writing with a pencil, I don't even use the eraser. I'll just scratch out, like if I'm writing with pen. Now, if I'm, you know, Chris may be in a job where he needs to, you know, have more definition and clarity. So he needs to erase more. So that wouldn't be a solution for him. But I don't even use the eraser if I'm just writing something. I'll just scratch it out. So not a big deal there. And the Pentel twist erase is a great eraser. They actually do have that on a mechanical pencil body. I'd have to look up the name, but it's a cheaper plastic pencil body because that twist erase eraser takes up 50% of the barrel. They don't have a metal barrel that fits that twist erase. And it's probably a cost effectiveness thing. But there is a pencil. I've reviewed it on my blog, too. I'll have to figure it out. But the huge twist eraser comes out the end of the mechanical pencil. So we'll have to find that link. We'll put it in the show notes for sure. So that's our mechanical pencil follow-up. It got a ton of feedback. Tons of Instagram pictures. Hey, here's my pencil carry that I carry. And it was kind of cool to see. I enjoyed doing that episode in retrospect. So I was pretty happy with how that turned out.

Myke Hurley: I think I felt weird after the last show. It was like, I haven't spoken about pens for like a whole week.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but it was good. It was something we needed to do and something we needed to cover. But I felt like, yeah, I left you out a little bit there.

Inks

Brad Dowdy: But that's okay. I'm bringing you back into the fray this week, Myke. Because later on, we're going to talk about the inks we bought that we mentioned last week. And we both had some time to spend with some things like that. So let's talk about one of our good friends, though. And we have a little bit more follow-up before we get into our ink reviews.

Myke Hurley: This week's episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by lynda.com, the online learning platform with over 3,000 on-demand video courses that can help you strengthen your business, technology, and creative skills. For a free 10-day trial, visit lynda.com slash penaddict. That's L-Y-N-D-A dot com slash penaddict. What I love about lynda.com is no matter whatever you're trying to learn, they can help you do it. Whether you're looking to solve problems, whether you're just a person who is curious about stuff, or you just want to make things happen for yourself. You know, you've had a hobby or a passion. You've always wanted to try and explore a bit further. And there was something in your way that you needed to learn more about. This is exactly what lynda.com can do for you. Maybe you've always been interested in learning Excel, or learning negotiation tactics, or just trying to be more productive in your daily life. And maybe you wanted to learn getting things done, which is a great idea of how to be productive. And interestingly, a new show to Real FM, Mac Power Users, just had an episode with the creator of Getting Things Done, a guy called David Allen. David Allen actually produces the course on getting things done for lynda.com. So it is as good as a course on this book can be. So if you are somebody who wants to look at being more productive in your life, that's a great way to start. But there's also other things. Like, maybe you are interested, you have your own small little business, and you want to learn a bit more about marketing. You can do that on lynda.com, but maybe you want to learn how to do more design work. You want to learn Illustrator or Photoshop. They have all tutorials for this stuff, as well as all the thinking and fundamentals that go behind design and artwork and illustration. They have the thinking behind it, and then also tutorials on the practical skills as well. lynda.com's classes are taught by experts who have a real passion about teaching. You can watch their courses from wherever you are, whenever you want to, with their apps for iOS and Android. They also have the ability for you to watch on the web, of course, and you can watch these great transcripts along with the videos as well. You can create your own playlist, so you can choose different courses to watch in a different order, and you can share these with friends, colleagues, or team members as well. Your lynda.com membership is going to give you unlimited access to training on hundreds of topics, all for one flat rate. Whether you're looking to become an industry expert, you're super passionate about something, or you just want to learn something new, go and visit lynda.com slash penaddict. That's L-Y-N-D-A dot com slash penaddict and sign up for a free 10-day trial. Thank you so much to lynda.com for their support of this show and all of RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Thank you, Lynda. I had a little bit of follow-up from our Iron Gall Registrar's UK Marriage Certificate conversation. That was another one that got a bunch of feedback, too. There must be more than my mom and dad listening to this podcast, because people are emailing us saying, hey, I listen, and I have a comment on your other topic. Do we have more than one download per week?

Myke Hurley: One or two. Okay. Sometimes I download a couple of times, and I think that messes with the numbers.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. We must have like 10 or so, because I'm getting emails about this. Yeah, so it was actually John who sent it in, the original question, and he mentioned that he is actually part of the Anglican Church over there, which is why he was asking. He didn't mention that part in the first thing, but we found the same document that he has shared with us, the Oxford Anglican Marriage Registers and Certificate PDF. But he says what happens in practice is that the registrar brings along their own pen for people in the ceremony to use, usually some horrible Parker vector, which I'm very familiar with that pen, and the fountain pen version of that is pretty sorry. At least the older ones are. He says, I remember not being able to sign my own wedding certificate with my own nice pen. He says, still, I suppose, for many, this seems like a step up from a chewed Bic bureau and adds to the occasion. Hope that helps. So, what the suggestion is, is that he wants to start recommending to the people getting married to make the purchasing of the pen and the required ink kind of part of the ceremony itself. They should have that as part of their lead up into the marriage ceremony and signing their certificate, that they should, you know, consider, you know, their pen that they're going to be signing this wonderful marriage certificate with. So, you're going to start working on that, right?

Pen Certificates

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's already in the, I've got the wheels in motion. But I'll agree. That seems like something like, then, you know, you'd get people like, you know, your parents would buy you a pen for your marriage ceremony, you know, that you would keep forever in a little glass case. It feels like a thing that is, like, really, like, ripe to be done something with. But it just feels like nobody's done it. And considering there is this, like, restriction, it just seems so strange that you, like, even just, like, the registrar could just find a way to make a little bit more money that way. Like, you buy the pen that you eventually use or whatever. Sure. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's honestly a little bit interesting just because of the very traditional aspects that I think of when I think of England in that this doesn't actually seem to be a thing. It's, like, more of a lawful requirement that no one considers. And I don't know. It seems like it would be kind of a neat thing to get involved in. But anyway, who knows. But thank you, John, for following up on that and advising who brings the pen because that was my biggest question is people aren't prepared for this. Is someone bringing them the pen with the proper ink? And the answer apparently is yes.

Myke Hurley: I might try and do some kind of sleight of hand technique.

Brad Dowdy: What? To use, like, the Visionaire? Yeah. With Registrar's Inc.?

Myke Hurley: Well, no, but that's only for birth certificates. Oh, okay. Remember, it's not all kinds of official certificates. Oh, I forgot. I forgot, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Just birth certificates. Yeah, just birth certificates. You've got to work on that, too, while you're at it. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: When we got our nib grinds done in Atlanta, one thing we did not cover, which was asked of me a couple times, was actually how much does this work like that cost? So, we got, I got just a nib smoothed out, kind of adjusted to get it riding, you know, no real modifications to the nib. And then I got a nib ground from a standard medium nib into, or a fine nib into a stub nib. And so, those prices for Myke Masuyama, we'll include it in the show notes. We'll have his nib repair pricing. It's just a general guideline. But for Myke's work, if you are just getting something basic done, like, you know, making the pen write better, making it flow better, making it write smoother, that's going to run you around $30. And then if you're getting the nib actually ground into a different shape, you're looking at around $45 to $60 or so. I think for my work, my nib fix, if you will, was $30. Then my nib grind, where I got a fine nib into a cursive italic nib, was $45. So, I think my two pens were $75 total. Now, I don't know, something like an architect grind, someone, I don't know if anyone in the chat room got one of those and how much they paid for them. But that might be more than, like, the $45 because that's a little bit more work. But that's kind of the ballpark price range you're looking at for getting nib work done at a pen show, something like that. Do you remember, I'm assuming yours were around the same price. I mean, his prices are relatively fixed. And as long as it's nothing extreme, you know, it's going to be right in that same price range, I'm sure.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I can't remember exactly what they were, but that sounds about right. He didn't really charge me much at all for the sailor because he didn't really do much to it. Like, he just kind of adjusted it. And he was just like, oh, that's just like a slight adjustment. I'll charge you this for that. It felt like he was kind of, which I quite liked, making the prices up on the spot, depending on how much work he felt went into it at the time. I quite liked that. That felt like a nice personal experience.

Brad Dowdy: That's absolutely right. He does that on the fly. And I had, what, three years ago, I got my Lamy 2000 worked on. And then I didn't think it came out exactly right. So the next year I brought it back to him and he just fixed that for free. He said, well, I've already worked on this pen. Let me just make you happy. Did he remember that he'd worked on it? He didn't say specifically, but I mean, he knew that he did something for me for something.

Myke Hurley: I just wondered if he could tell. Yeah, I don't know. That was what I was wondering, really, like if he knew, if he looked at it and knew, that would be special.

Pen Blog

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I don't know. All right. Before we get into our ink reviews and our next sponsor, we have a big announcement to make, Myke. I'm very intrigued about this. I'm excited. And I've had more than one person come up to me at the pen show and mention this. I've had several emails on this. And I've actually had a couple of very recent emails after I've already decided to do this saying, why don't you do this anymore? We're bringing the pen blog of the week back on the Penotic Podcast. We took a break for a little while because, you know, I felt like you kind of get to a spot where you I felt like I've kind of covered what I wanted to. And then I said, let me take a break for a while and see if anyone notices. And guess what? No one noticed for a long time. Then all of a sudden, about a month ago, it started happening. Hey, where's the pen blog of the week? Hey, you should do that again.

Brad Dowdy: You know, so I've had multiple, multiple people asked to bring that feature back. And it was something I had been thinking about doing myself. But it was nice to take a break for a little bit. So we're bringing the pen blog of the week back with a brand new blog. And this week, it's The Desk of Lori. Lori, she is a relatively new pen blogger. She does awesome reviews, especially ink reviews. She does a ton of ink reviews. Like every time I'm refreshing my feeds, it seems like there's always a new ink review from Lori. She's got some really cool stuff up there. And I noticed today she just, she got some cigar box pen cases from the same guy I ordered mine from. And she got some really different styles. And I'm actually kind of jealous of the boxes that she got. They're pretty wicked looking. It looks like something I would very much enjoy. So everyone, definitely check out The Desk of Lori. And if you have any suggestions for future websites that we should feature here for the pen blog of the week, definitely get in touch with Myke or I. And we'll have all that information at the end of the show. And I'm glad to have this back because, you know, I want to shine the light on all the awesome work that's happening in this wonderful, wonderful pen realm that we play around in. So are you excited, Myke?

Myke Hurley: I am.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So when are we going to have Myke's pen blog featured on the pen blog of the week?

Myke Hurley: I do this thing every week. Like, it's called the Pen Addict Podcast. Really? Yeah. If somebody wants to transcribe the entire show, like, we can make a blog out of it. But outside of that, I think that's probably all it's going to be. Hey, Mac Power Users has some transcribers, don't they? Uh, probably. They kind of have, that show kind of has a bit of everything. Yeah. Especially with people helping. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: We're not transcribing our show. But yes, pen blog of the week is back. Desk of Lori. Keep being awesome. And we will have more as we go, as we go forward with the show. I'm glad to have it back.

Myke Hurley: Indeed. Right. So let's take a quick break and then we have interviews to get to. All right. This week's episode is also brought to you by Uni, a wood-fired oven that is fast, portable, and affordable. Uni takes only 10 minutes to heat up and just two minutes to cook a pizza. You can use that time in between pizzas to get the next one ready, but you have to stay on it as the Uni is fast. Uni weighs only 22 pounds. So not only can you easily find space for it in just about any garden or outside space, you can also take it with you on a camping trip or even a trip to the local park. Here's a pro tip from Uni. It fits nicely into those large IKEA bags. So you can throw that and your ingredients in and you're good to go. It's a great carrying bag for it. Uni is super affordable too. Wood-fired ovens usually cost upwards of $1,000, but Uni is less than $300. This was actually a key factor in the product's design. They wanted it to be available to anyone and everyone. So they thought about that when they were considering size, space, and price. So I actually, a couple of months ago, maybe a month or two ago, went to Christian and Darina's house. They are behind Uni. And they cooked pizza for me in one of their ovens. And I was super impressed with how small it is. It's this tiny little thing. And it's got this fantastic wicked chimney on it, which is frying out. It's great smoke. It's just this great little experience of a thing. And you feed it these little pellets that it uses for fire, which are really economical. They're a great source of energy, but they're compact and green. They come from managed forests. It's this great little thing. You feed it with these pellets and it cooks these pizzas. It's got a lovely little design to it. And the pizza cooked so quickly. It really does take just 10 minutes. You just put it in. You take it out like halfway through, spin it around, put it back in again, and it's done. And of course, the pizza was fantastic. Adina, my girlfriend, came with me as well. She loved the pizza as well that came out of the Uni. And she is a very harsh critic of these types of things. So you know it cooks excellent stuff. Uni ships worldwide. They have free shipping on most places in the US and the United Kingdom. But here's the thing, right? Unis have been so popular at the moment that they are currently sold out. But if you pre-order right now and use the code DRUMROLL, they have a huge surprise in store for you when it's ready to be delivered again in June. So they've got more stock coming in and they're ready to go out again in June. But if you go now and order with the code DRUMROLL, there will be a super surprise in store for you. And I can't tell you what it is just yet, but I do know what it is and you'll be happy that you did it. So make sure you get your place in line for Uni right now because they set out super quickly when they do get them in stock. So don't forget, you want to use the code DRUMROLL at checkout when you go over to Uni and try them out. They are absolutely fantastic. I think these guys are going to be something you'll be really happy that you checked out. Go to UUNI.net. So Uni.net, UUNI.net. You'll be able to find out more and order one for yourself. Thank you so much to Uni for sponsoring this week's episode of The Pen Addict.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so this looks like the perfect Father's Day gift for me because we like to do stuff outside all summer long. You know, go to the pool and hang out and just chill outside. This is like the perfect thing. So I'm going to look at that and hit that drumroll code to see what cool stuff shows up.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, let me tell you, man, I've had pizza from these things and they are great. They really, really are great.

Brad Dowdy: And Christian seems like a really nice guy. I've talked to him several times on email. He's sponsored the blog before. And he's one of those insane guys that does like the polar bear swim where it's like negative freezing water and you go jump in. Yeah, so anyway, that was my Christian commentary. He seems like a cool guy. All right, so we got a couple of, we have several ink reviews that we want to get to this week. We haven't talked about inks in detail in a while. So I wanted to cover two really unique inks that were reviewed on the Pen Addict. One by Jeff, who did the Franklin Kristoff Midnight Emerald. This is an ink that's really impressed me. I have it myself in a needlepoint nib. Franklin Kristoff Model 66 ice. Jeff has it in a Model 40 pocket with a fine cursive metallic nib. And boy, does it look good in that pan. It looks so good. It looks so good. So this is kind of a blue green ink. I find it in my use that it leans more blue, which I like. Jeff's review pictures make it look a little bit more green turquoisey. But still, it's a beautiful color. And I've raved about an ink before called Sailor Yamadori. It's very, very similar to that. And that's one of my favorite inks. So having this ink by Franklin Kristoff. And they have really good prices on their inks. I'd have to pull this up. But every time I look at it, I was like, wow, that's it. So yeah, they have a good price on it. It behaves well. It writes well. It looks outstanding. This is my kind of ink for sure. And when you add it into those ice pocket pens that we have, it's a pretty sweet deal. So I think it's available now. If not, it's coming very soon. What Franklin Kristoff did, and I didn't talk to them about this. But this is just my anecdotal commentary on this. Not having any information on it. They did a batch of, they did six inks about a year ago. Maybe even two years ago at this point. Some standard colors. And the inks just didn't perform well. They, I think some of them, a couple of them were okay. A couple of them had real bad bleeding feathering issues. So I think they've kind of scrapped the old inks and come up with these new inks. And these inks are killer. These inks are spot on. There's no issues with performance like some of the old inks have. And I'm actually anxious to try a couple more that they have. They're going to have, they have a blue black, blue black. That looks pretty nice that, you know, I will definitely get. But this, this midnight emerald, I think is going to be the standout. And I know Lori, who works for Franklin Kristoff, she kept mentioning like how great this ink is. And, and of course she has, you know, an incentive to say that, but it's legitimately good. She thought, she kept pushing it because she thought so many people would like it because it's a little bit different than anything else out there on the market. So definitely check out the Franklin Kristoff Midnight Emerald. The second ink review that was done recently on the Pen Addict is one of the most talked about hard to find inks. And that's the Ackerman Shocking Blue. Susan did this review on the Pen Addict and like Susan and Jeff always do, they knock it out the park with their reviews. I mean, they put me to shame. But the reason why this blue is so popular is it's in that really bright, vibrant blue with a little bit of extra oomph into it. Like people talk about the Parker Penman Sapphire being an old classic ink that, you know, people like hoard and, you know, try to keep to themselves. And just because the ink properties are so great, they wanted to keep it, but it would end up tearing up pens. Well, this Ackerman doesn't do that. And looking at the color and the sheen on this, I was never in the market for like, I'm almost never by standard blue inks. I want something a little bit extra in my inks. This review would make me buy this ink just because seeing the sheen on this is ridiculous. Do you have any inks, Myke, that you see this kind of like red tint coming through, like on the edges of the ink, which is the sheen that I keep talking about?

Myke Hurley: I feel like I've never looked hard enough. You know?

Brad Dowdy: You'd see it. It's pretty noticeable. You don't have to get like, she has some macro shots on here, which you don't really have to do to see it. And it's not a very, it's not necessarily a common thing. Like the, um, um, the Shin, the Iroshizuku Shinkai that I like so much has very little bit of it. This, I would consider a lot of sheen. Like you can see it from far away. It almost turns the blue into this reddish purple, purpley thing. And it's this real traditional style that I enjoy. Um, and I think a lot of people really, really enjoy having a sheen in their ink and Ackerman inks from the few bottles that I have, they perform wonderfully. So, um, if you're looking for a blue, I don't know that you're going to see something better than this. I mean, it's pretty stunning how this blue turned out. You know, I, I'm going to have to get a, I'm going to have to get a test bottle of this or something. I might actually, I might actually have one laying around. I'll have to load this up because it's, I'm intrigued. And if I'm intrigued on a basic blue ink, it's got to have something pretty good going on. So, uh, I think I might give this a look.

Brad Dowdy: Um, I got a new ink this week, Myke, or two weeks ago. We talked about momentarily on the podcast. I'm branching out from my blue black, um, favorites. And it happened during February, which was the Enco Rhimo month where people were writing us letters. And I noticed a vast majority of the letters I was receiving use some type of brown ink. And I never really considered brown ink for anything. And every letter I got was noticeable how cool the brown ink looked on these letters. And I made a, it stuck in my head that, wow, brown looks good. Just over and over again, all different inks. So tooling around different pen websites, talking to people, you know, I kind of narrowed it down to kind of the, I wanted to start with one of the best ones. I didn't just want to buy a bunch of samples of brown that I'll never use. And I came down, it came down to the Mont Blanc Toffee Brown, um, which I purchased, which I mentioned last week. And I'm using it in a Pelican fine cursive italic nib, the nib I mentioned earlier that I got Myke Masayama to grind for me at the pen show. It's really good. Um, I think it's going to be a special occasion ink for me though. I, I love how it looks, but when I pull out a pen to do whatever I'm going to do with that pen, I'm stuck like in these blues, you know, the blue blacks or like the bright turquoise blues. I got to find a reason to use this Toffee Brown because it's really good. Maybe I need to start writing letters, um, because that's what turned me on to brown inks. And it looks so nice. It's a really, really great ink. It's, it's like a mid range brown. It's not too dark, not too light. It has a little bit of shading. Um, the Mont Blanc inks behave perfectly. You know, they clean well, they handle paper well, and they flow like a champ. They're a really good writing ink. I don't know yet if I'm sold on the brown and it's maybe a little bit unfair to make a declaration this early on in me using it. I think I need to use it some more. That's why I still have it inked up and I'm trying to use it.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know if it's going to work its way into my regular rotation, say of, you know, somewhere between five and ten pens inked up. I want to have something different than ten blue inks inked up, but then I have a hard time pulling that brown ink out when I have those other ten choices. So, am I making sense there? Like, it's a really great ink, but for me personally, I don't know. So, I'm not fully bought into the brown yet, but I'm trying. I'm going to keep going on it. I think it'll come around, but I think I'm going to have to find that perfect situation to use it, which is maybe a little bit unfair to the Mont Blanc Toffee Brown ink. Sorry.

Brad Dowdy: But I'm going to keep at it because it's a really good color. I just got to figure out how it's going to work for me in my daily writing. Do you have any browns that you use regularly? I don't think you have any browns at all, do you?

Myke Hurley: No. I saw brown at the pen show, but wasn't too... And I thought it was nice, but I still just can't see a point for it on my own.

Red Inks

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Brown's a hard color to get right, and I'm also the same way about reds. I'm super particular about reds. And I've never found a red that makes it in my regular rotation. There's been a couple that have come close. And brown's kind of in that same color range as well, which makes it funny that I like oranges so much because they're all in that same area. But browns and reds, there's some really, really prime inks in that range, but it just comes down to a personal taste. And those don't seem to be the most fitting inks to me. So that's my thoughts on the Toffee Browns so far. But it's staying inked up. It's in a pen and a nib that I absolutely love. So it's getting the full hookup for testing. So I'm going to keep at it and see what I can find to do with it because it's really good. I've got to figure out if it's going to fit for me. So I know something that does fit for me, Myke.

Myke Hurley: What's that?

Brad Dowdy: Kara's Customs pens.

Myke Hurley: Kara's Customs is our final sponsor on this week's episode. We love Kara's. Like, if you have listened to this show for more than like two weeks, you'll know that we have mentioned the pens from Kara's Customs. They are all American made. They have a great shop in Mesa, Arizona. They're super proud that they build their stuff in the U.S. of A. And Kara's Customs are behind awesome pens that you would have heard of and seen, like the Render K, the Ink, the Bolt, and the Retract, which, of course, you can get in gorgeous two-tone colors now more recently, which is fantastic. But I love all my Kara's Customs pens. I really like the inks the most. Like, they're all great, but they're just my favorites. You know, I love that I can put my Retro 51 refills in the ballpoint version. And there's also a fountain pen version as well, which is absolutely beautiful. So it's got best of both worlds for me, and I have a whole selection of them now. And they have different materials that the pens are made out of, aluminium, brass, and copper. That allows you to choose and customize your pens with the right balance, weight, and texture, and colors for you. The colors, like, just beautiful aluminium models with all these really vivid colors that they have. Kara's Customs just make amazing stuff. I buy everything that they do because I know they're all made of love and care. And they're made by pen addicts just like us. We work with great people like Dan Bishop and over at Kara's Customs. They're great to have in this community. And we love that they sponsor us. We love that we can send people their way. And if you've been holding off, then you should really be buying some of their stuff right now because they're helping support this week's show as well. And our friends over at Kara's Customs are offering you a fantastic discount. Discount, you can go and get yourself 15% off anything in their store just by entering the word congrats before you check out. This code is valid until June 1st, so make sure that you get in there now and buy something fantastic from Kara's Customs. Now, Brad, of course, you are a big fan of Kara's Customs stuff as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm a huge fan. I want to talk about two of their pens. Number one is a recent purchase for me. It's the Two-Tone Retract. This is one of my favorite things that they've released in a long time. Because I'm a huge fan of the multicolored barrels, especially in machine pens. And with the anodization process that happens on these aluminum pens, all the colors turn out really bright and vibrant. And I say that, and I bought the black one. Which I didn't think I was going to buy until I saw it in person. And, you know, I've got orange, you know, render case. And I've got orange inks. And I have a pink bolt. And I really like the bright colors. But that black one in the Two-Tone Retract Aluminum is so killer. It's so retro looking, which I like. And it fits the Pilot Juice refill, which I enjoy so much. The .38mm blue-black. That's my refill of choice for the Retract, by the way.

Brad Dowdy: This is a pen I'll end up with two or three of at some point down the line. I just bought the black one at the Atlanta Pen Show.

Brad Dowdy: And the reason why I haven't bought another one yet is because I think I'm going to have to get another ink. And the problem is I've been watching everyone else carry their inks around with the two-tone sections in them. Either the copper or the brass section. The anodized aluminum barrel with a copper or brass grip section. And mine is just a standard orange all the way across. Just standard anodization with the aluminum section. These brass and copper sections that everyone was carrying around at the Pen Show. Like with the red with the gold, people were calling the Iron Man. And, you know, the black with the copper. It just looks really good. Myke, you have the gray. And did you just pick up one recently?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I got one at the Pen Show. I have gray with the copper grip. Which is, like, you cannot photograph how fantastically this thing looks. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I'm going to have to break down. I might have to go the Iron Man route. I know it's not very original. But that red anodization is so cool. And with the brass section, it's stellar. And there's no better time to buy it than getting 15% off. Which Dan has definitely given us the hookup right now using the code congrats. I mean, that's the time to do it. And this episode is going to end up costing me a lot of money, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, well, it's worth it because their stuff is great. Thank you so much to Karis Customs for continuing to support the Pen Addict podcast.

Brad Dowdy: So it's my turn now, right? I guess. It's your turn. And you kind of blew my mind last week. And that's what made me want to talk about inks this week. Because you bought two new inks that I wouldn't have ever put in, like, if you said to me, Brad, pick the top 100 inks I should buy. These two probably wouldn't have ever made the list. So let's hear about it.

Pro Gear Pen

Myke Hurley: Let me start off by saying that I have a converter for the Pro Gear now. And I'm using Fuyugaki in it because all are in, you know, so you've got to roll. And I've been using this pen, like, all week. I am in love with this pen on, like, a whole different level. Like, the love that I have for this pen is extremely high. It is a deep love.

Myke Hurley: And that's kind of all I have to say about that.

Brad Dowdy: Does it stay by your nightstand or is it in the bed, actually, when you sleep?

Myke Hurley: It's my show notes pen, so it stays on the desk. But we do know what happens to show notes pens. Sometimes they go missing.

Brad Dowdy: That's right. Did you see my show notes pen today? I did see that. Yeah. I did see that. The golden web. The iMike special. I love this pen. Thank you, buddy.

Myke Hurley: I'll put – it's a pleasure. It was nice to relive that part while switching the video again as well. I'll put that in the show notes as well. But I have – I bought a couple of inks. And one of them – well, I'll start off with first is talking about the Pelican highlighter ink. Mm-hmm. I have actually put that in my Pelican.

Brad Dowdy: Nice. So this is the green highlighter because they have yellow highlighter, right? Yeah. So this is the green ink.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I want my green. And it's kind of exactly as you would expect the ink to be. It is incredibly bright, incredibly vivid. It looks like something that shouldn't come out of a fountain pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's like nuclear or fallout green, right? I mean, it's like wicked bright.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's super bright. And I kind of don't know why I own this. I just do. And I'm happy that I do. And I like that I own it. And that's kind of it. And it's just something interesting. Because I love my Pelican, but I don't use it enough. And now I've got something in there that is weird and might make me use it more, if that makes sense. Sure. Because when I'm taking notes and stuff, now I can grab my Pelican to highlight things in the notes and that kind of thing. That's cool. It's given me a reason to use that pen other than the fact that I love it. Does that make sense?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. No, absolutely. It has a new purpose in life now, right?

Stormy Gray Ink

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But now I want to talk about Stormy Gray because I've had an interesting time with this. Yeah. Over the last few days. So, first off, I put it in my Edison, right? Okay. Because I wanted to test.

Brad Dowdy: The eyedropper.

Myke Hurley: No, the pump filler. My Menlo pump filler.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. That's right.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, I put it in there because I was interested in, I don't know, having something super fancy in that pen. Mm-hmm. Put it in and dumped it out the next day because Thomas emailed me and told me under no circumstances should I have that ink in that pen. Mm-hmm. So, I removed it because he said, look, if it does stain or if it clogs stuff up, which it can do, it's basically going to be, it's basically impossible to clean out the Menlo. And it, I mean, it is possible, but it's hard. Yes. It's a whole process.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, let me elaborate on that real quick for just those who aren't familiar with the Menlo. It has a unique filling system, kind of like the old Parker Vacuomatic, but with a pump filler on the end. And it's got this tube that comes up through the nib. So, there's a lot of extra internals that the Menlo has that, say, like a Pelican doesn't have where you just have the piston sucking up into a reservoir. The Menlo has lots of internal parts in addition to, compared to like a standard pen. So, go ahead.

Myke Hurley: And there is like a video as well that Edison made.

Myke Hurley: And they've put that in the show notes because that's what Thomas sent to me. Mm-hmm. But, you know, you kind of don't want to have to really do that unless you have, you know, unless you really have to. Yes. Because usually you don't need to worry about doing that when you clean the thing. You know, you just run water through the system. Mm-hmm. So, best to take that out. So, I did. But I did try it in that pen. And I was thoroughly unimpressed. I think is probably the best way to put it. It just looked like gray. Mm-hmm. But I was rocking, I'm rocking like a, I don't even know what I would class this pen at now. Because it was, it was already like a customized, like medium. Um, and then it's been customized further. So, I don't even know, like the nib size of this pen anymore. Yeah, yeah. So, then I thought, right, well, I'm going to have to throw it in something that I think's got a good nib size to it, right? So, I'm like, what can I put it in? Then I remembered, like I had, um, I, I have a Twisby Mini, which is broken, which has a 1.1 stub. So, I did some, some pen, uh, operations. Uh, and I'm, I changed the 1.1 stub over, uh, into my 540 ROC.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. So, I've got the 1.1 nib on the 540 ROC. And so, it's got a thicker line to it. Now, here's a couple of problems with it. So, this is a demonstrator, right? So, I can see the, the gold flex just sitting. So, every time I pick it up to use it, I have to kind of, like as I'm doing right now, turn the pen in my hand a bit to get the, the flex to, to mix in. Right? Because otherwise, they just never come out. And then whenever I... Right, you kind of got to shake it up a little. Yeah, so then whenever I put the ink on the page, and I don't know if it's because I do that or just because in general, like a gallon of ink comes out of the pen. It's insane. Like, just so much ink comes out and then it's kind of normal again. But like, whenever I start to use it, it's just so ridiculously wet. It's kind of unreal. And I just don't see gold in it. Like, you have to shine a bright light on it to see anything out of it. I don't know what I was expecting, but I feel like I was expecting something to look really amazing. But like, I'm shining my iPhone torchlight on it right now, and it looks incredible. But like, just generally, like it just doesn't look that great. Like, it's nice. I'm pleased that I own it. Like, and I'm looking at it now on the like regular light, and it looked... There's something interesting about it, but I don't know. It's just, it doesn't blow me away. But it is nice looking. Like, when you see it in the light, and it's like, ooh, look at that in the light. But just the general performance of the ink in this pen, at least, I'm just not really that happy about. I would never use this on a daily basis, because it makes the Twisby like a waterfall.

Ink Opinions

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, my experience was very similar. And I don't understand the love that these inks get. But they are beloved. I mean, people swear by these inks, because they want something different. And they're usually using it in a more traditional pen. Something with a very wide nib or crazy flex. Something you can show off the ink particles and the shading of the ink. But I just don't want to deal with that. And now they're making the blue with the flex and the gold with the flex. And it's just not for me. I'm with you on this. And I think we're in the minority on it. And that's okay. You know, I don't have to love everything. And I just don't want to deal with the additional features of this ink, if you will. It's not my style at all. I'd rather just use something very basic. Something I know is going to, you know, work good. Not damage the pen. Even though, you know, they have changed the formulation so it can be cleaner and do things like that. It's just not for me. It's not something I want to have to worry about. And plus, I'm not a huge fan of the colors anyway. The blue is super saturated. It's, you know, a really good traditional blue. But it's not for me. The gray is actually the prettiest color out of the red, blue, and gray. But it's just not going to get any use for me. So I'm with you, mate.

Brad Dowdy: It's just not going to do it. I actually shipped my bottle off to someone. You know, I was making a comment in Reddit or somewhere about how I didn't care for this ink. And someone said, well, I'll take it if you don't want it. And I said, okay, give me your address. And I just sent it on. I didn't even keep a sample for myself, so.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, I have it. It's nice, I suppose. But I think soonish I'm going to clean it out of this thing.

Myke Hurley: And then put it into something else.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yep. I think it's about that time to move on from it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Are you going to keep it and just have it handy? Or are you just going to punt on it completely?

Myke Hurley: I got it. I'll keep it. Like, you never know. I could get something one day that has a crazy nib on it and maybe just fool around. But, you know, it's not like I'm really excited about it. And I'm going to ink everything with it and see what happens. But I've got it now. So it's just there. It's the same as the highlighter ink. Yeah. I'm not going to fill everything up with it.

Brad Dowdy: No, but I think you'll use the highlighter ink. And I'm actually, I probably need to get the green myself because I had the yellow. Then I ended up trading that to somebody with the yellow highlighter pen. But I need to get the green ink just to have, because I do like to have one pen inked up with a really crazy color like that just to do some weird things with.

Brad Dowdy: All right, mate. I think that's all I got this week. It was some good stuff. I wanted to talk about these inks. And I definitely wanted to hear your thoughts on the stormy gray and the green. So I appreciate you doing that. And I think it's a wrap.

Myke Hurley: Awesome. If you want to catch the show notes for this week's episode, go over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 153. If you want to find Brad online, he is dowdy as I'm on Twitter, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. He is penaddict on Instagram and has, of course, penaddict.com where you can read all of his great stuff. And if you would like to find me online, I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E, on Twitter and Instagram. Thanks again to our sponsors this week, lynda.com, Uni, and Karis Customs. And we will be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.