The Pen Addict 176/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	176
Title:	Swip and Swap
Release Date:	October 13th, 2015
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 176
Audio File:	Audio Episode 176
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 176
Length:	7171 min <br />1.183 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Pen Chalet Sponsors

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 176. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace, build it beautiful, Pen Chalet, great deals on high quality pens of a 100% satisfaction guarantee, and Harry's, an exceptional shave at a fraction of the price. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined as always by Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, what's up hard-working iMike? How are you?

Myke Hurley: I'm good, how are you?

Brad Dowdy: Good, you're a hard-working man. Oh yeah? Yeah, yeah, man, you're just, you're like recording podcasts, and now all of a sudden you're like delivering apps, like on the App Store, like there's this whole RelayFM app, and there's new shows coming out. You are going to town, sir. Can't stop, won't stop. Yeah, so tell us about this RelayFM app. I've got to get you up front on this, because I knew it was coming. I wasn't even a beta tester, thanks for nothing.

Myke Hurley: All you needed to do was look out for the app channel on the Slack where we put the beta like weeks ago. Just saying.

Brad Dowdy: I'm an overcast beta tester, but you know, RelayFM, yeah, I wasn't paying that much attention. But it looks sweet. So how did this, I knew it was coming down the pipe, so tell us all about it.

Myke Hurley: So this is a collaboration with our friends over at TapJets. They're a company previously under the name of Glide, and they have built this incredible system that allows people to build apps mainly with Dropbox files. So the majority of stuff that you see in our app is actually built with text files in a Dropbox folder. It's kind of magic, the way that it works. Which is why, like, so if you have had the app downloaded, and I'll get in a moment talking a little bit more about what the app is for, but you will have noticed today that we've added a new page in the app called Shows, where you see a list of all the shows, and you can easily go in and turn your notifications on and off, and it also has a schedule in there, which tells you when the next episode is streaming live of a specific show. So that's all in there, which is really good, actually. We don't even have data that good on our website currently. It's just all in one time zone. So this is much, much better, because it localizes to your time zone. So this Tapjet system is really, really cool, and it's very, very interesting, and we've been working with these guys on this app for a little while now. We actually previewed the, we kind of announced that we were making an app at the Atlanta Pen Show. So when we were at the Pen Show was when we announced that we were working with Tapjet on this. But it's taken us some time to get it exactly the way that we want it to be, and that's kind of what it is now. So the RelayFM app is not intended to replace the app that you listen to the podcast in. It's not intended to replace the podcast app, or Overcast, or Pocketcast, or however it is that you listen to the Pen Addict. I would like you to remain doing that, and we've taken great lengths to try and make it easy for people to subscribe to shows that they find in the RelayFM app in their podcast app of choice. What the RelayFM app is for is kind of twofold at the moment. It is for live listening. So we record this show live every Monday usually, although we're recording Tuesday this week. And you can go onto the RelayFM app. You can select to be notified about the Pen Addict, and you'll get a push notification when me and Brad go live, and then you can open the app and start listening. So that's what it's primarily for. And then also we have some other stuff in there, like you can kind of taste the shows. You know, they're all in there, right? All of our most recent episodes are in there. All of our list of shows are in there. So you can go in and you can stream only. We don't have any downloading. You can just stream some shows, you know, that maybe you haven't listened to before, just to see if there's anything that you want to find out about or want to check about. And then we're going to, over time, kind of add more information into it. So we have a support section, which has links to like the RelayFM store. And over time, like what we're hoping is that our app becomes like another place that you can find what's new and what's kind of going on with RelayFM. And then we have some features that we're going to be implementing, hopefully in the not too distant future. Like one of the most important ones for us is the chat room. We want to be able to put the chat room in the app. Because currently, yeah, if you want to access the chat room, you still either have to go to our website or use an app that's dedicated for IRC chat. But we're looking into how, we were hoping we could launch with this, but it turns out that this is actually quite a difficult problem to solve, to integrate with the IRC room. So we're still looking at ways to do that, but that is going to be in a future update will be the chat room. So at the moment, you can still listen live, but the chat room is a lot of fun. And we would love it if you would still kind of join the chat room, maybe download an app for that if you're on your iOS device or access the RelayFM website when we stream live. But that's kind of a future thing. But it is mainly about live streaming. And I wanted to kind of go in detail with it. We won't talk about it this much in future episodes, obviously. But I just want to make sure that everybody that listens to the show knows that it's there. Because I know that we talk about the live thing. I know people ask us about how they can stream live and stuff like that. And this is actually, this is the best way to listen to our shows live now. It's much, much better. It's a much, much nicer experience than listening on the website. If you're on an iOS device, it's far, far better.

Brad Dowdy: Well, the notifications in itself are huge. Yeah, exactly. Because, you know, that's, I mean, we're not always exactly on time. And, you know, it's nice to be able to get that notification, you know, when you're waiting there, you know, 10 or 15 minutes, you know, if we're running a little bit behind. And then, boom, here comes the notification. You know we're good to go. And I love that. So, yeah, I've enjoyed playing around with it. It looks just awesome. And good job by you guys.

Myke Hurley: Thank you, buddy.

Brad Dowdy: Go team.

Myke Hurley: Go team. All right, what else do we have here today? We've got an action-packed show.

XOXO Field Notes

Brad Dowdy: What else? Pretty much everything. Yep. So, the XOXO field notes, they went on sale and just as quickly went off sale. Did you buy some more?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I bought two. Oh, good. Remember, I bought a pack for you.

Brad Dowdy: Well, you got me a pack at the XOXO.

Myke Hurley: But what I said, so I DM'd you when they went up. And I said that I got two packs. And my intention was I have one for me and one for you in case when you woke up.

Brad Dowdy: Nice.

Myke Hurley: Right? So, I'm trying to make amends here, you see.

Brad Dowdy: I know. You were wonderful. And I said I was able to get in. I got my two packs. So, just keep all yours for yourself and do as you wish with them. So, I appreciate you looking out for me. Oh, I have four. Oh, you have four. So, I appreciate you and everyone else who looks out for me when I'm asleep during the day when, like, real life things happen. You know, that's – I appreciate all the hookups I get for sleeping. But, yeah, I can't wait to get these. They look pretty good. And then I saw – I didn't put the link in the show notes. But I saw, like, our good friend Andy Wellfleet at Erasable and Woodclenched. You know, he works at Facebook now. And the same artist, he found some wall murals that the same artist had done in the same type of artwork. He sent some really big pieces over at Facebook in the same black and white artwork. They look really, really nice. So, I might have to hunt some more of those down and check out and see if I can make some phone wallpapers for that or desktop wallpapers. Because I like that style of artwork very, very much. So, yeah, cool. I'm glad I got them. Hope everyone else who wanted them got them. They went pretty quickly, as you would expect them to do. And you were limited to two. And it was good. So, I appreciate that the Field Notes gang does that. So, also Field Notes related, we have the Field Nuts 2000 member giveaway over on the Field Nuts Facebook group. They crossed 2,000 members, which is pretty amazing. And they're doing a big giveaway. So, I wanted to put that in there. And just to let everyone know that I donated the Raven's Wing 3-pack that is being given away. So, if you want a shot at that, plus all kinds of other awesome stuff, and you're a Field Nuts member, get in there. If you're not a Field Nuts member, go join the group. We'll have the link in the show notes. And there's all kinds of good stuff in there. Lots of other Field Notes 3-packs, some rare singles. There's like 15, I don't know, 15 different prizes. So, definitely jump in there and try to grab something.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm looking at it, there's tons of stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, there's tons of stuff. You kind of got to flip through the little raffle copter thing to see all the list of goods. But, yeah, I had an extra Raven's Wing 3-pack, and I thought I would enjoy that community. So, I thought I'd give back. And, you know, hopefully someone will enjoy that and not put it up on eBay. That's always the trick. That's always the trick, right?

Myke Hurley: You're a very kind man.

Brad Dowdy: That's why I feel good giving it to that group, knowing that they will hopefully use it or at least keep it and add it to their collection.

Pen Show

Brad Dowdy: All right, so your pen show arrived. We've never figured out the pronunciation. I guess I'm too lazy to figure out the real pronunciation for this. I could probably go listen to the Kickstarter again and get it. So, yours arrived. Tell me what you think. You haven't got yours? It literally came right before the show. So, I was going to tell you I just got it, and I've played with it a little bit. So, I'll tell you my thoughts. You go first, though.

Myke Hurley: It's very pretty to look at. So, I have the black one. Do you know what color you have?

Brad Dowdy: Black, yeah. I took it out. I've played with it a little bit. So, I have some comments on it.

Myke Hurley: I find that getting the lead to come out is difficult. The action that they show of pulling it apart, I find to be a little uncomfortable to actually perform that action. And I think it would take some getting used to. It can be a bit fiddly to get the lead in and out of it. Unfortunately, the red lead that they provided is way too soft.

Brad Dowdy: So, it breaks down immediately.

Myke Hurley: It may as well be made of liquid. Like, it's, you know. Oh, wow. Almost like a crayon. Yeah, it's really, really soft. It actually doesn't say what type of lead it is. I wish I could say what one it is, but it just says red. Like, it hasn't got like a, you know, like they have like HB and B and all that sort of stuff. I have no idea what this is, but it's super, super soft. It's too soft for me to use, which is a shame because I have three packs of this red lead now. But it came with one pack of HB leads as well in black, which are perfectly fine.

Myke Hurley: So, I would be interested if anybody knows where I can get some HB and some colors, if that's possible. I don't know. Maybe, you know.

Brad Dowdy: I'm sure. Probably cult pins, jet pins. I was going to look and order some myself.

Myke Hurley: So, I'm looking at that. But I really, really like it. I like it a lot. I've been using it all week.

Myke Hurley: It's not completely cylindrical. Like, it has like a flat-ish edge, kind of, like where the cutout is, which means I can put it down and it won't move. But if I put it down quickly, it does roll away. And the problem with being made of metal is when it hits my desk, it sounds like this. So, that's like a big difference to using something like the rotary, which has a clip on it, so I can just drop it and nothing will happen. Right. But I do really like it. I find it very comfortable to hold. It's nice to use. And it has an all-around very, very different experience to the mechanical pencils that I've been using. Primarily because, you know, you get much, much more line and width variation as the lead runs down because it's much thicker than a mechanical pencil lead. This is a true pencil lead. It came with an eraser, which is actually really good. I found that it does a really, really good job of erasing. And a little lead sharpener, which I don't find to be as good.

Myke Hurley: It's a little dinky. Yeah, I mean, and I understand that it's small and that's fine because it's compact, but it doesn't do a very good job of putting a sharp point. I have to really work at it to get a sharp point. And the other thing, like, you have to bring the lead quite far out for it to go into the sharpener. And more than once, I've snapped large pieces of the lead off trying to sharpen it. But I would say, though, that if you are a person who uses pencils to look at this, this is a very nicely designed, very nicely manufactured thing that is a real kind of just piece, an interesting piece to own. And if I can find some HB colored leads, I will be very happy, man, because it will look fantastic. Like a nice dark red or a blue in here because it's got, like, basically a window, right? And it looks really good. And I have to say, like, the idea of having a window to show you the lead, like, and how much further the lead is, is really genius. The whole kind of design of the product, like from conception to actualization, is very, very smart. And I think that it's very unique and would be also a really, really nice gift for an artistic friend. I think this would really, really brighten someone's day. You know, it gets me like, wow, this is very different. So I'm overall very pleased with it. But I think some of the implementation details from the way that the project was delivered could have been better. I don't think they were very good at communication. And I would have liked to have known that the leads were going to be as soft as they are before they came because otherwise I probably, well, I definitely wouldn't have bought them.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, my feelings are pretty much the same. It's an awesome lead holder. And I think it's coming down to me, seeing that I've just only had it for a few minutes. It's going to take some getting used to for me because I've never used anything like this before. So I'm doing weird things with it that I shouldn't be doing. Like, number one, I set it down on my desk just like you did and let it roll off the desk into the floor. So it snapped the lead. I mean, it snapped the tip off, which is fine. And then it broke it further up in the barrel, which, you know, it's taken a long fall. But I'm still getting used to the extending the lead and putting the lead back in, like to essentially retract the lead, if you will. Like if I'm going to set it down and I want the lead, I want the tip fully back in. You can't turn it upside down to get it back in. Right. When the lead's too short and that window is open, you turn it upside down. You just shoot the lead back in, you know, let gravity take hold, and then the lead just falls out the side. So I've done that. So it's just a matter of figuring out how to use it. I definitely need to get a real lead pointer. The little sharpener that they have is pretty bad. But, I mean, I can't blame them for that. It's just this little fingertip sharpener.

Myke Hurley: I didn't have to put it in at all.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's a little freebie. It sharpens unevenly, leaves a ridge in the lead. Um, so I'm going to get like a legitimate pointer that I don't know who sells one. I haven't looked for that either. I'm also going to, I didn't order the colored leads, but I want to. So I will be doing that same shopping that you're going to do. So maybe we can find something that works out. But I think in general, it's going to be really, really good. When I'm actually, when I was actually using it, you know, as it be intended, it's great. Um, but yeah, they're talking about in the chat room that I didn't think of that either, Dan, when I retracted the lead, if you're down to like a half size lead and, you know, you've sharpened it, you use it, and then you flip it over to retract it. Um, it's just going to, it's just going to fall straight out because it's wide open in the middle. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I don't personally retract, um, once I've, I've pulled it like, cause I'm not, I'm not like putting it anywhere, you know? So it's like I retract it and then it's, that's good to go.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's probably not made to, you know, most people probably won't do that. I was just playing around with it and, you know, you just never turn it upside down to, to do anything with the lead or you're going to have a bad time, you know, just keep it all in the vertical position, how you would normally write and, you know, extend or retract the lead that way. Um, I've been using two hands, which is a little bit awkward. So just because it is so tight, but I mean, that's just part of the design. It's, it has to be that tight. So maybe I'll get the motion down to free it up a little bit better. Um, so we'll see. I really like it, man. It's beautiful. And so I'm going to get some colored lead as well, but, um, I'm, I mean, I think I'll use it pretty regularly. I am definitely going to keep it on my desk. I'm not going to carry it around with me. I have a feeling I'll end up just getting frustrated and break the lead somehow. Um, you know, I feel like I should keep it at my desk, but, um, we'll see. Otherwise I'm, I'm really happy with it. It was certainly worth the price. I mean, um, what they were in the 20 something dollar range and, uh, it's a beautiful, it's beautiful. Mine. Did I say mine was black also? I got the black one.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Colored Leads

Brad Dowdy: Um, so yeah, I'll be looking for some colored leads as well and a new pointer. So it's cool. I'll be using it.

Myke Hurley: And, uh, yeah, they were, uh, they, they were in the range of 25 to like $30, um, depending on what you got, which it's a great, really, really great deal for that. Uh, I mean, I just had to took a look on cold pens and I can't find any like HB in color. So again, I don't know if it's like something that's difficult to do. I don't know. Or maybe like, I just don't know what I'm looking for properly. So I would appreciate something on that.

Brad Dowdy: Maybe colored leads don't come in a defined hardness. Yeah. You know, I don't know just maybe because of how they're made. I don't, I have no idea. I'm just blabbing, but that may be the case.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So I'd love some feedback from people. I know there's going to be some people in the chat room, uh, that are going to know.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So, um, I was, uh, trolling Twitter, what, two nights ago or last night, I can't even remember. And, uh, your good friend, Georgia Dow was, uh, who I follow on Twitter. I've never talked to her before, but, um, she, of all things, she posts posts, want to try the benefits of meditation, but don't enjoy it. Try coloring. And she has these great colorings that she's done on there. And then, uh, your other friend, uh, Marco's wife, Tiffany chimes in like, Hey, what pencils are you using? And they have this whole conversation. And then I, I just completely insert myself into their, uh, into their conversation about coloring. And Georgia and I go back, back and forth a little bit. And it's just like the randomest thing of all time is this coloring thing. It's like, everyone knows about it. Everyone's getting into it and, and doing all these great things with it. So, uh, it's funny to see like your other, other people you follow on Twitter who you wouldn't, who you would least expect to do something like this, um, to end up, you know, sharing their coloring work on Twitter. It's catching on, man.

Myke Hurley: There's nothing you can do about it. So my 20 pack came in, uh, which I'm very happy about. And, uh, Colt Pen sent me an email and they were like, so sorry about the 30. We cannot get like, apparently stat like cannot keep up with demand right now. Right. Like it's that insane. Um, so like, I thought it was quite funny, but it's nice to have a bit more variation. I was doing a little bit more, um, on, on that big circular piece that I was working on. And it was nice to have, uh, some different shades to, to, to work with, to try and kind of vary up a little bit more. Um, I might stick with the 20 for a bit, um, and see how I go because I'm looking at like how big the 20 pack is. A 30 pack is going to be huge. I don't really know if I want it on my desk because I keep them on my desk because they're, you know, they're just there for when I want to pull it out and start doing something. So, uh, yeah, I'm, I'm interested. Um, to continue down this path. Uh, and I'm looking forward to doing a little bit more on it. And it's, it is really fun to see, um, non pen addicts, I guess, getting involved in this.

Brad Dowdy: So I'll fall out when I see, uh, John Syracuse to like tweet out his drawings. That, that's when, you know that, that it's made it right.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. That's, it's only a matter of time. John is an artist. So.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, okay. So maybe he'll do it. Yeah. He went to art school. He tweets him out. Okay. I did not know that. There you go. I did not know that. But I want to, um, I want to explore the, the colored pencil realm too. And, uh, our good friend Anna, who's in the chat room, she was on the erasable podcast last night and, uh, I haven't listened yet, but they, uh, talked about, it was a whole colored pencils episode and they, uh, definitely talked about, um, the adult coloring thing. So y'all check that out. We'll put a link in the show notes and, uh, I'll listen to it tonight. I was pretty out of the loop, uh, yesterday. So I'm still catching up on all the, all the goodness out there. So definitely check that out.

Myke Hurley: I thought we'd decided on grownup coloring.

Brad Dowdy: Grownup coloring. Yes. I prefer grownup coloring. Yeah. I'm going to, uh, work that in. Oh, and before we, before we jump on and we, we do have another, uh, little, one little bit on this. I wanted to mention, I am efforting hard at the Joanna Basford thing. I've, I've made contact with her people. She has people, Myke. So I'm, I'm dealing, I'm dealing with her people right now. So we'll, we'll see what I can get done.

Myke Hurley: Okay. But you are there. You are making inroads at least.

Brad Dowdy: I am making inroads progress. We have progress.

Pen Chalet

Myke Hurley: Good. Good. I'm pleased to hear that. Yes. All right. Let's take a break and thank Pen Chalet for helping support this week's episode. Pen Chalet are stockists of all of your favorite brands of pens like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, uh, House of Sailor as well. Kaweco, they're an authorized dealer of all of them. They not only sell, uh, lovely pens and fountain pens, they sell roller balls, they sell ball points, mechanical pencils, my favorite, and so much more. They run special discounts twice a month. They have closing, uh, closeout specials every two weeks and they always have very fast and reliable customer service because Pen Chalet love their low prices on their high quality pens, but they feel very, very strongly about their 100% satisfaction guarantee. As well as pens, they sell pen holders. They sell refills, fountain pen converters, everything that you're going to need for the pen addict in you. They sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates and in the continental United States, they do free shipping on any order of over $50. So if you have a purchase in mind or you, there's something that you're after, the first place you should go to is penshalet.com because you will get yourself 10% off any order with the code pen addict. But as always, you want to click that podcast link at the top of the website, use the password pen addict for even more savings as well as your 10% off. And this week's special offer is on the Monteverde Intima fountain pen. It retails for $70, but after you get the special discount and then add the 10% coupon on, you can pick it up for $37.80. A very cool looking and vibrant fountain pen for an excellent price. Thank you so much to Pen Chalet for their continued support of the pen addict and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So this week with the, with the pen addict code, Myke, I popped it in and there's a pen that's been on my wishlist forever and it's the Monteverde Intima series. And it's, it's, there's a really bright colored acrylics on this one and I've almost bought the one called Volcano Gray. It's been on my wishlist forever.

Myke Hurley: I bought that for Matt.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah. For the Volcano thing. And, and I was totally going to do the exact same thing. It's a great looking pen and it's $37 now, which is just nuts. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: That is the special offer this week. It's absolutely awesome.

Brad Dowdy: So I'm going to get one of these after the show because I've been eyeballing that gray. So y'all don't take all the fine, uh, the fine nibs until I get mine. Okay, please. And then I've had at least two emails in the past week about our sponsorship of Pen Chalet and how good of a deals people have been getting. They haven't even been buying like the, um, like the primary offer, you know, like the, the, the one exclusive offer, but then they have like all the other offers. If you scroll down the page, I've had two people mentioned that they found a pen they were looking for, um, that they've had on their shopping list and just for like the best price they've ever found. And they couldn't help themselves, but buy it. So, um, Pen Chalet is doing a really good job at, um, you know, cultivating, you know, a great selection of pens and has some really good deals for a lot of pens. Um, people are looking for, so I appreciate those emails, uh, in my inbox and, uh, they were very happy with everything they bought at Pen Chalet. So y'all take a look, uh, use the code Pen Addict and check out all the hot deals. And, uh, thanks again, Ron, for supporting us in the Pen Addict podcast.

Myke Hurley: They still had those Cafeco Artsports on there as well. I know, I know. $72. You can pick them up on it as well.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I mean, they got, I spent a lot of money recently, Myke. I was on a lull after the DC Pen show. Now all of a sudden I've gone off the rails again. I, I, I tend to go in batches. Um, I don't like steadily buy, but like every three months I just go nuts for a minute and then slow it, rain it back in. And then another three months. Um, so we're, we're going to talk about a couple of the things that, that I've, I've bought, uh, recently. But, uh, one more thing on the, um, on the grownup coloring. When I was a kid, I enjoyed these, they were the, I had these, uh, coloring books with just like detailed geometric patterns in them. And I remember coloring them with markers and colored pencils all the time. Um, this is like in the late seventies, early eighties. And I just remember loving these and I would have never even thought to look for them. I don't, I wouldn't have had a clue the name of them at all. But, uh, listener, uh, Dwayne Lively, who's a long time listener and a supporter of the show sent me a link. He said, these are the ones I used to draw in when I was a kid. And I was like, oh my God, these are the exact books I used to draw in. And they're called Altair design. And we'll have a link to the show notes. He sent me that link. I was like, this is exactly it. So this is perfect. This is the, these are the books I used to color in when I was a kid, you know, instead of like the, uh, the normal coloring books, they have all these, uh, geometric patterns in there and, uh, they're just spectacular. So this has been around a long time. I mean, but, um, and now it's, it's really making inroads with the, uh, I think the more digital we get, the more we look back on things like this and even like the grownup, whole grownup coloring phase going on right now. It just really gives us an opportunity to slow down where we didn't realize how important these things were, you know, before we had all these, you know, fully connected devices all the time. Right. And, um, you know, that's why we enjoy pens and paper and coloring because it gives us a break from our, our day to day, you know, head down in devices or computers and things like that. And, uh, realize how much we miss them and how much, how enjoyable it is to look at these things and talk about these things. So I was happy to see that he sent me that link. I had like a fall out of my chair moment. Like that's it. That's exactly it. So that was really, really cool. Um, one other thing kind of along the same lines, just on the, on the written word, there's a new website out there called handwritten work.com, which we'll have in the show notes. I've been talking to, uh, Brett, uh, the guy who's created the website. He has been, you know, let me look at, um, you know, early releases of the website as they're building things up. And they're basically, basically what they're doing is they're collecting things. Around the handwritten word. So they have my, my favorite thing that I've seen on the, on their site is they have a collection site and where they have letters and postcards and journal entries and drafts from people and articles about these types of things and examples of old letters, new letters. You know, I just love seeing all this stuff. Like I love looking at like these, you know, X'd out postcards and mail and looking at all the handwriting, all the old school handwriting and seeing how people used to do things. So this is the site just launched yesterday. So they're just getting, uh, they're just getting underway. So, um, definitely add that to your, to your feed readers, add that to your bookmarks, check out what Brett's doing over there, um, on handwritten. Um, I think it's going to be really cool. And, uh, they have a lot of, uh, neat things coming up, uh, on the site. So it's definitely something to pay attention to if you're into that type of thing, which most of us are right. You bet.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So should we talk about my budget busting here in the past couple of weeks?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So I, I really trying to think back. I say this all the time. Like, so the DC pin show was in August and I spent a lot of money there and it's not like, you know, the end of September was very far from that. It was, I guess it was only a month or so. And I got an email. I had pre-ordered the sailor starburst galaxy from nibs.com because it was a limited edition sailor, uh, Sapporo, the, um, the pro gear slim, which is the tiniest one, but it has this great, um, galaxy pattern on it. You know, it's like an acrylic with like a glitter and sparkle type of thing in there. Um, in a black and I don't know, gosh, it's hard to explain. It's really like a black base or maybe a really dark, dark blue, um, with like kind of green and white. It really looks like, you know, the galaxy if you're, if you're looking in outer space and it's something I pre-ordered thinking it was coming in November. And then I get an email like at the end of September saying, Hey, it's in, um, pay us and we'll send it to you. I'm like, Oh, okay. And I guess I will. Um, I'm going to review this pen very soon because I ordered it with what's called a zoom nib, Myke. And what the zoom, a zoom Z O O M. Okay. So it's a gold nib and it has a tip on it that allows you to change the width of the line as you move, as you write more horizontally or vertically. So if you lay the pen down flat, it's a wide line. But if you, as you move it up taller, if you write with the pen more vertically, it writes a thinner line all in this, in the same nib without really, you just adjust the angle of the barrel as you're writing. And, um, so like my, my standard.

Myke Hurley: Did we see these in Atlanta? Did somebody have this?

Brad Dowdy: Probably. I don't know exactly, but, um, it's, it just allows for a wide line very variation in one nib, you know, other, as opposed to like a, um, stub nib where one direction it's wide and the other direction it's narrow. It's pretty much the same width, whether you're going vertically or horizontally, but depending on the angle you're holding the pen, the line will change if that makes sense. So yeah, in the chat room saying we probably saw it from Le Reyes. It's probably something she had, and I'm sure she did. She had like every nib ever. So I can't wait to get some good photographs of this pen. Like the one I sent, uh, I put on Instagram was actually really poor. I just kind of brought out some of the sparkles in it, but it's, I haven't been able to capture it, um, in good enough light yet to get it to really, really show up how, how nice looking this pen is. So I, I look forward to, uh, to reviewing this one. And, um, it's, it's going to be one of my favorites just because of the design and the feel. And of course it's sailor and their nibs are great. And, you know, I love the feel of their pen. So the same day I got the, um, I got the notification. Hey, your pens ready pay us. I got the Goulet pens newsletter and. And it had a new release on it. Um, they do a collaboration with Edison pens, um, for, they have a barrel design. That's a Goulet specific called the Nouveau premier Edison Nouveau premier. So in every quarter they come out with a new acrylic design. They work with, um, work with Brian Gray at Edison, come out with a new acrylic, you know, like in the spring, it was this really bright blue, um, like tropical looking thing. And in the summer, um, I think it was kind of a red one. They've been doing this for almost two years now, I want to say. Um, and I've never bought one because honestly, I'm not enamored with the barrel shape. Um, it's, it's great looking, but I didn't think I would really enjoy the pointy ends. It has a pointy end on the cap and on the end of the barrel, but they, they always come out with a great acrylic and I've almost pulled the trigger several times on many of the ones they've done in the past. And this one got me. This is so beautiful. Yeah. So the acrylic they use this time is called midnight thunder. And it's, this is another pictures can't do it justice because you can't, you can't see, it looks like a blue acrylic with a red and white swirls in it. But when you get the pen in your hand and you get it in the right light down under the acrylic, like in the depths of the pen, there's like this blue shine, a lighter blue shine underneath it. It it's crazy. This is definitely one of the most beautiful pens I own just on the acrylic alone. Um, hopefully I'll be able to capture some of this in the, in the pictures. And it just feels great. It, I'm a fan of the Edison Beaumont. This feel in the hand, when you're writing with it, the grip section and the weight of it, it's lightweight. It feels like a Beaumont, but it's extended a little bit with the, uh, with the point on the, uh, points of the end of the barrel. So it's basically like just a tiny bit bigger Edison Beaumont. If you're familiar with that pen, um, that's what it feels like to me. And I'm a huge fan of the Beaumont and that's probably the Edison I recommend the most, um, to people. Um, I, I couldn't, I couldn't pass this one up. It was, it was about time I got one of these nouveau premieres and I don't think I could have picked a better one. Um, you know, they're not necessarily limited, but they just make enough for like the fall. And when the fall edition one's gone, they're gone. And you know, the either, I mean, I mean, I think there's past editions still available, you know, just if they hadn't sold them out, but, um, I've been really, really happy with this pen. So that will be reviewed soon as well. And then I got, fortunately, I didn't have to buy this one yet. Um, this one's on loan to me and this is the Pilot 823. Are you familiar with this one, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Hmm. I don't think so.

Brad Dowdy: Probably not. It's probably like the least talked about of the main line Pilot pens, but it might be the best of them all. It's, it's a, it's a lot more expensive than like the, the Pilot, um, 92, the 74, the 912, the 823 is very expensive, um, in relation to those. And it's mostly because it uses a vacuum filling system. And I've been eyeballing this pen. This is, this pen's probably been at the top of the shopping list forever. And I got it on loan from Goldspot. So I'm going to be reviewing it soon. And the only kicker is I have to decide if I'm going to offer to buy it off there, take it off their hands and purchase it. Um, when I'm done or not, what's kept me from buying it mostly is that it's a gold trim. And, um, and I generally prefer silver Rodian plated, uh, trim on my pens, but with a brown barrel, which is what this is, the gold trim looks pretty good. And like, I have a, um, Pelican M800 tortoise, which is brown and, um, you know, gold trim and it looks great. And this of course looks great. It's just generally not my style, but this pen feels awesome. This is a really awesome pen. I'm going to have trouble with this one. So I'm, I, I'm thinking long and hard. I've already used it for about two weeks now and I haven't even started reviewing it because I know when I'm done reviewing it, I'd have to send it back. Um, so I I'm thinking long and hard on this one, but needless to say, I pretty much love this pen. Um, it's, it's just a little pricey. I think that's why it gets, uh, gets a little bit, uh, lost in the shuffle with pilots offerings, but it's one of those pens where when people own it, that's like their favorite pilot, you know, that it's that type of pen. Um, it's big, it's sturdy. Um, the gold nibs pilots, gold nibs, I think are the best, um, even over sailor and platinum. Um, I, I pick pilots, find pilots, gold nibs. Um, they're my favorite right out the box. They always work. Um, there's never any issues with them. Um, and the line thicknesses are always dead on for me. So I'm, uh, I've got a lot of reviews coming up.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. You'd be busy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Those three for starters, which I haven't even be, I've just been using the pens. Um, you know, unlike the, the tactile turn gist, which we're going to talk about at the end of the show, that's a, that was a, like a quick turnaround. I like to use the pens more than, you know, but in general, but like with the gist, I didn't have that much time. You know, it's a live Kickstarter. I got to get these pens back to will things like that. But, you know, I mean, I've, I've reviewed enough pens. You can, yeah, I can tell pretty quick, you know, what's good and what's bad. But in general, I'd like some time with all these pens. So these other pens are sitting here in my case and, uh, they're going to be there like the next three pens on the, on the docket to get reviewed and with a few other mixed in. So here in the next month or two, I'll have those, um, have those reviews going for those three pens. So they're great.

Myke Hurley: All right. Let me take a break. And we still got so much more to get to today.

Brad Dowdy: Not even close to done.

Myke Hurley: No way.

Brad Dowdy: No way.

Myke Hurley: This episode is also brought to you by our friends over at Harry's. We love Harry's because they make shaving comfortable. They make it feel good. And they also make it feel good in your wallet too, because far too often can shaving be a pain in so many different ways. This is what Harry's are set out to tackle. This is what they're good at. They were started by a couple of guys who wanted a better product without having to pay an arm and a leg to get it. They wanted something that's going to look good, feel good, and cost a great price. This is why Harry's make their own blades. They don't rely on anybody else. They have their own factory in Germany, which they use to create really great blades by people who have been making this stuff for years. They offer a high quality shave at about half the price that you will find from other big brand blades. Maybe the stuff that you're more used to, maybe the stuff you've been using for the last few years. But Harry's is really a great place to try something else, to try something new. And you can also get it for a really great deal. So even if you're thinking, oh, I love my Gillette blades. I'm not sure I hardly can beat them. You can get for $15 a brand new great looking razor, moisturizing shave cream or foaming shave gel and three razor blades for just $15. And in a moment, I'll tell you how you can get $5 off that. They'll ship for free to your front doorstep. This is a real great offer to take advantage of just to see if Harry's are right for you. And I'm sure that they really, really will be because they offer a really great comparable shave to stuff that you may be used to for about half the price. In fact, an everyday shaver saves $150 each year when they use Harry's blades. And also if Harry's, your satisfaction is guaranteed because that is important to them. Brad, I know that you are a Harry's man.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm a Harry man.

Brad Dowdy: Did you know they have an app, Myke? I didn't know that. They have an app. So let me talk about the app. Please. It's pretty sweet. You know, I mean, what can you get with a shaving app, right? Really not that much, but it's cool. You just, when you're a Harry's fan like I am, you can go in, download the app, see all the products. You can quick order the products. I'm looking through my order history and you guys think I'm lying about how much I like Harry's. I've got one, two, three, four, five, six orders in my order history from them. So I've been a Harry's customer since before they started sponsoring the show. I love Harry's. You can just, you know, I'm flipping through the app. They have all the blades, all the gel, all the starter sets, all the supplies you need. And you can just pop them in your cart in the app, order away. And, you know, I think it's free shipping over like $15 or something like that. So I order from them quite consistently and quite all the time. So I love Harry's.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they do free shipping. They're not going to like hit you with a big bill at the end of it when you get to the.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's a pretty low. It's either $10 or $15. It's something like negligible, the amount that takes for free shipping. So yeah, it's good.

Harry's Shave

Myke Hurley: You can experience a clean, close, comfortable shave for yourself with Harry's. Go to harrys.com and they will give you $5 off if you use the coupon code penaddict with your first purchase. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S.com. Coupon code penaddict to check out for $5 off and start shaving better today. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So a couple more new items. Around the time I got these new pens, the Sailor and the Edison, I got a new ink in a trade with one of our listeners and readers who is of the Canadian origin. And in Canada, they have a special Noodler's ink called Blue on the Plains of Abraham. It's a Canadian only. What?

Myke Hurley: Why did I come up with these names?

Brad Dowdy: It's a historical battle that was fought in Canada. Nathan, I mean, Nathan is, yeah. I mean, you're not going to get anything normal with Nathan. But I've seen pictures of this from different Canadian friends and Canadian bloggers. And it's like a, it's a, you know, kind of a navy blue, almost blue black. It's really, really nice. It's about the only Noodler's ink I've been using regularly these days. I've just had other things in the rotation. And it's got a real unique shading in that it's not too many different colors in the ink, but it's basically a lighter shade of the navy and then a darker shade of the navy when you look at the shading. And by the time the ink dries on the page, the whole, the end result, like out of a, like an entire letter or an entire page worth of notes, it looks pretty amazing. So I'm, I'm real happy with this ink. I hate to tease it because it's kind of just for our Canadian listeners, which I know there's a lot of out there, but you can, you can get it at places like Wonderpens, who we talk about all the time in Canada. They stock it. And the Canadians are definitely excited that they have this ink all to themselves. But if you know people, you can, you can make a trade like I did. So I traded some ink for this ink and I am really, really happy with it. So I will be using it a lot. Oh, and I'll review it too. So I am knee deep in review items. I got like five packages in the mail today alone from stuff.

Myke Hurley: So most wonderful time of the year.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy. You got something in the mail too, right?

Myke Hurley: I did. I've got my, yeah, there it is. I got my Apple retro 51 from my lovely friend, Brad Dowdy, the silver one. Yeah, cool. Cool, cool. I am very, very happy about this pen. It does two things to me. It makes me very happy and very sad. And do you want to know why it makes me very sad? Sure. Because they picked the lesser of the retro models.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. That was coming out of my mouth because it's not a good refill.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, exactly. I mean, I really don't know why they did it. I guess they just liked the design. They wanted something that looked like a rotaring, right? That's my thinking.

Brad Dowdy: No, I think it's, I'll have to take them apart. I think with the way this one fits, it's not the same shape refill, right? I think it has to fit this retractable mechanism.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, no, I'm just saying, like, I wonder, you know, in thinking, why did they pick this retro, like, hexamatic rather than a standard retro 51? I expect they just wanted something that looked like a rotaring.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, this has a better design aesthetic for what they're trying to accomplish. Yeah, for the minimal look. So, Myke and I need refill recommendations for the hexamatic.

EasyFlow 9000

Myke Hurley: Yep. I mean, it's just not, I mean, I'm using it and it's fine, but it's really not my cup of tea. I mean, I think no matter what I get, I'm never going to be happy because it's always going to be a ballpoint. Is it rollable? Well, not necessarily. I always get them mixed up.

Brad Dowdy: This one's a ballpoint. There you go. And it, I don't have it right in front of me. It might even be like a 1.2 millimeter ballpoint. It's wide. But I think we can find either some rollerball or gel. I think rollerball type refills. I think if we look at Monteverdi, I think they make a, something that we can swap out for this. So, I'm going to work on this because I want it to. Because I want to use this pin because the barrel is brilliant, right? I mean, these hex barrels are, even before Apple did them, they're one of the best looking barrels around. I want to click. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's real, it's dead solid. But it's not a good refill. It's just not. You know, I wrote out a note with that last night. And I was like, it just, it doesn't make my handwriting look good. It's just not that great of a refill. So, we're going to work on, I'll take it apart and figure, I used to know which refill this was off the top of my head. I mean, it's another Schmidt, but it's just not a good one. And so, we'll find something. No, it's not a D1, Ana. It's like a full size. It might be like a Parker shape refill. So, if that's the case, we can definitely find something to fit. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: They call it the EasyFlow 9000.

Brad Dowdy: EasyFlow 9000. I think that's the Parker shape one. Yeah. So, if that's the case, we can find something very easily. In fact, the Moleskine gel refills would fit that if that's the case. I just don't have it right in front of me to confirm that. So, that would be a great choice because you can get a 0.5 millimeter black gel refill for that. That would be nice.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. Chat room says EasyFlow is Parker. So, we will find something. I will get you some recommendations for that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because I adore it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's a great pen. I mean, it's sitting on my desk. You know, I grab it all the time. And then, you know, I write with it. And I'm like, you know, I couldn't write for a long time with this because it's just not a great writing experience with the refill. So, if I can get that swapped out, I'll probably carry it with me. That's a step up from leaving it on the desk when you make it into the carry. Yeah. You've made it. Made it to the big time. Big leagues. Big leagues. Big leagues. This next pen's made it to the big leagues, Myke. I am all over this pen. I might be on an island, and I don't care. The pen type B by my good friends, Saewe and Taylor, known as CW&T, who created the pen type A, the pen that launched a thousand Kickstarters. This pen is flat out amazing. The design is brilliant. The look is stunning. It uses the high-tech C, which I'm all about. And I couldn't back this one fast enough. I am all over this pen. I know I might be on an island. I mean, I'm not because they've blown out their goal on Kickstarter. But, man, this is... I cannot wait for this pen. This is gonna destroy the pen type A. This is such a better design. I love the smooth brass sleeve that you just slide into your pocket. This pen is gonna be... This pen knocks my socks off. What about you?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm on an island. It's okay. I'm good with it. I'm good with that.

Myke Hurley: I just... So, the brass sleeve is genius. And I'm looking at a video on the Kickstarter page right now where it's so perfectly fit that it has that beautiful vacuum... Right. ...that it goes in there. But I cannot be on board with it being, like, a piece of metal that just has a pen coming out the end of it. Like, the way that it ends with, like, that flat tube and then there's, like, the tiny little part. Then that ends and then the nib comes out. I just do not like that design. I didn't like it in the pen type A and I don't like it in any of the pens that have imitated it.

Myke Hurley: It just doesn't float my boat. Like, it really doesn't. I'm just not a fan of that design style. And I totally understand why people do like it. I mean, what also doesn't help is I do not like the high-tech C.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think that's what most of the people that have reached out to me are just like, oh, it looks great, but it's the high-tech C. And I'm like, yeah, I mean, you're right. I can't disagree with that. You know, but I use the high-tech C enough to where it's not an issue for me. I'm used to the finickiness of it. But for other people, I completely understand. That's why I'm okay, you know, being on an island on this one. Just because it ticks all the boxes for me, personally.

Myke Hurley: I really would have liked to see them do something more. Because it's basically, I mean, please correct me if I'm wrong. It's the pen type A with brass sleeve.

Brad Dowdy: The pen barrel is the pen type A barrel. Yes. Yeah. I don't know if it changed in length. I don't know the length, but the shape and design, yes. Is the A internal with a B external.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I would have liked to have seen them do a little bit more than that, in all honesty.

Brad Dowdy: Because the A external was like an engineering ruler. It was not pocketable. It was a literal desk pen. You didn't want to carry that around with you because it was a big honking piece. This is way more functional for people who carry pens. And that's why I like it so much.

Myke Hurley: But if you can dig that, go for it. Like if they, basically, if the end of that pen went down smoothly into a point, I would have bought one already. Yeah. High tech C or not. Because it's stunning. Like the brass sleeve. But it's just like, oh, take it off. And I can't take that bit at the end. And I know that I would spend this money and not use it. So it's really not. This one just isn't for me. But I can see why people love it. I can see why it's raised $100,000 already.

Myke Hurley: But yeah, this one I will have to let go.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. No, that makes complete sense. And it's not even remotely cheap. I mean, it's expensive. I got the early bird at $120,000. The regular price is $135,000. And it's just nuts expensive. It's really expensive. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: There's a reason why they've made $100,000 with 668 backers.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: Right. Which is very, very different to Bentai Bay. Right. Right. Pentai Bay made $280,000 but with 4,000 backers. Wow. Because the Pentai Bay sold for $50.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, wow. I didn't even remember that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So you're paying like what? A hundred? Well, another $80 for that brass sleeve. I don't know if it's worth that. I genuinely don't know. Yeah. But I expect it is.

Brad Dowdy: Well, the retail of the Pentai Bay afterwards was like $100 or $150. Oh, okay. If you go buy them now, they sell them. It's like $100,000, $150,000. Which I imagine this one is going to be like that. You know? It just started there to begin with, you know? Yeah. That makes sense. But I'll be interested to see. I don't know if anyone else has backed it besides me that I know of, you know, that listens to us, you know, reads the blog, anything like that. But I'm all about it, so I'm pretty stoked.

Pen Addict Pens

Myke Hurley: This one really, to me, doesn't feel like a pen addict's pen.

Brad Dowdy: No. If you ask me, like, for a recommendation and you listed all these things, I'm never going to recommend this pen to anybody, right? I'm excited about this pen for me personally because it fits a lot of things that I like. I would never in a million years recommend this pen to almost anybody. You know? It's not that type of pen.

Myke Hurley: So, Dan is providing some great color in the chat room. They did do some engineering upgrades on the inside part of the pen type B. And the reason the price went up is because they are now manufacturing it in the U.S. They began manufacturing China.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, that's why the pen type A was such a madness cluster. You know what? And these are done out of a shop in Vermont that they're using.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So, they can get the quality control that they need, which sometimes can be a problem with Chinese manufacture.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. And if anyone is not familiar with the pen type A and that whole story, just do some Google searches there. If you're interested in Kickstarter and Kickstarter failures and successes and rip-offs, look no further than the story behind the pen type A. It's quite amazing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Quite amazing. We covered it, you know, it was 100, 130 episodes ago. It's forever ago. Since it's happened, it's been a good three years at least, huh? Three, four years.

Myke Hurley: Did we actually really talk about it? I feel like the pen type A existed before us.

Brad Dowdy: Well, no, we talked about it because of the rip-off that happened afterwards. There was another pen that came and it was a whole deal with one of the guys that was working with them, basically, hauled off and started making the pen under his own name with the same design. But, you know, it's a whole story because the design was generic anyway. It was an old medical patent. I mean, this is an hour-long show if I start talking about this.

Myke Hurley: Well, I'm going to put a link in the show notes to episode 16 where we talk about the popularity of pens on Kickstarter with the pen type A starting it all. So there's probably quite a bit in there. That might be a nice little thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Dan says they stole the design from an old patent. If the patents expired, they didn't steal anything. So they had the design liberated from them as well. So me and Dan like to fight about the pen type A.

Myke Hurley: I know you do.

Brad Dowdy: They agreed to disagree on that one.

Myke Hurley: You and Dan like to fight about many things.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah.

Kickstarter Pens

Brad Dowdy: All right. So we got another sponsor, then we got another Kickstarter pen to get into, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the main event.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. You can start building your own website today at squarespace.com and you want to use the code INC at checkout and you'll get yourself 10% off Squarespace. Build it beautiful. With Squarespace, you will be able to build a site that looks professionally designed regardless of your skill level, regardless of your coding experience, or regardless of how much time you want to put into worrying about that stuff. So I mentioned that, right? Because we know, if you've been listening to the show for long enough, that Brad runs his web projects on Squarespace. Brad knows how to build a website. Brad chooses not to. That's one of the great things about Squarespace. You don't have to know any code to use it, but even if you do know how to do it, you don't have to do it, right? You can have a system that looks after this, takes care of it all for you as well. Like my co-founder, Stephen, he has his blog, 512pixels on Squarespace. We have our own store and blog at RelayFM on Squarespace as well, because that's just stuff that we don't want to have to build, manage, and maintain. We have other things to think about. Squarespace do it. It all looks fantastic, and it's all super powerful. They use state-of-the-art technology to power every single Squarespace site. They ensure security. They ensure stability. And because of this, they're trusted by millions of people around the world and some huge companies as well. I mentioned their templates look great. All of Squarespace's websites look fantastic on all devices. They format in a responsive design way to make sure that everything looks great on all manner of devices, no matter what you're using. And all of their templates are really nice. They're really beautiful, and they're all adaptable as well with their great drag-and-drop controls. They have 24-7 support with live chat and email. I mentioned that we have a store with their Squarespace, their commerce platform. This is also how Nock get their products out to the world. They use Squarespace Commerce to do that. It allows anybody to power a store via their Squarespace site. You have all your inventory stuff, a bunch of integrations for other services. You can use Stripe for the card payments and stuff like that. It's really, really awesome. Squarespace have rock-solid, fast hosting, and so much more. And if you sign up for a year, you'll also get yourself a free domain name too. Squarespace plans start at just $8 a month, but you can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required and start building your own website today by going to squarespace.com. When you decide to sign up, make sure that you use the offer code INK to get 10% off your first purchase and to show your support for this show. I'd like to thank Squarespace for helping out today. Squarespace, build it beautiful.

Brad Dowdy: All right, so we've talked about it before, and I've had a bunch of people ask me on Twitter and other places about the recent product by Will Hodges from Tactile Turn. It's called the GIST, which is on Kickstarter now. It's already funded, so if you're interested in this pin, you know you're going to get it if you order it. But I've had so many questions about it. Will got in touch and sent me three of the models he had available to loan me. I've had a lot of these prototypes so I could get a better feel for them, so I could talk about them a little bit better. I put a review up on my site yesterday for the GIST and kind of went through the different materials that it comes in, the different barrel shapes that it comes in, the different metals you can add on to that. I have one of each of these steel, gold, and titanium nibs. So I had a good mix to kind of get a good grasp of what the GIST is all about. And I was all in on this pin as soon as it launched, never having used one. I just loved the design. I loved the materials. I backed the polycarbonate barrel with the Damascus grip and finial. And that was before Will had sent me any of this stuff. And, you know, there's a lot of different choices, you know, which is why I wanted to, you know, why I was glad Will sent me this, sent me these samples out so I could talk about these, this whole varying setup of things that you can buy. It's really, you could kind of mix and match a whole lot of different things. And, you know, I guess the main takeaways from the pins that I have, and, you know, I'd kind of, if you're interested in this, I'd kind of listen to this and then maybe look at the post I wrote on the blog. But it's, it boils down into three base designs. So there's the full polycarbonate barrel, which is the lowest end price point. It's, you know, it's like a fiberglass, fiberglass and plastic barrel. It's very lightweight. It's as light as like a Kaweco classic or sport. When you have the pin unposted, it's that light.

Brad Dowdy: You know, when you post it, it's obviously a little bit heavier, feels more comfortable. I would actually use the full polycarbonate with the cap posted, just like I would use a Kaweco sport or classic with the cap posted. You know, it just gives it a better writing experience, a better balance, a better feel. It's feather light if you write without the cap posted, but which is good. I mean, some people may enjoy that. It's a great pocket carry. You're never going to feel it in your pocket, in your shirt pocket or in your pants pocket. In the, just the design and the whole shape of it is really well done. The second kind of primary option is the same polycarbonate barrel, but it has a metal grip section. In the case of the loaner that I have, it's a brass section. You can do it in copper, Damascus steel, zirconium, bronze, stainless steel. What it does, it gives the pin a little bit more weight unposted, which I like. So you have a lightweight plastic barrel end, but then a heavier metal grip. And that gives the pin, I think, a better feel when writing. But it's not that heavy. Like, you don't notice, like, a thunk, you know, when you're picking it up. I mean, the weight of it matches with the overall weight of the pin. It's not like an outlier as far as weight goes, right? It's like, it's not the metal section. It's not dragging you down at all. It just feels really comfortable. I mentioned in the article that I think this is probably, like, the mainstream choice. A polycarbonate barrel with some type of metal section, which you have a million to choose from. I backed the Damascus steel, which, unfortunately, was the most expensive choice. But I think it's really, really beautiful. And I wanted to try that out. And then the last option, the last general option, is a full metal barrel. And sorry, I'm twisting this open in your ear, Myke. In my case, Will sent me the full titanium. So it's a titanium barrel, a titanium grip section, titanium finial. It has a great weight to it.

Brad Dowdy: This is my favorite. And it caused me to go back and add on this pin to my backer, to back this pin as well. So I'm getting the polycarbonate and Damascus. And then I'm going to get the full titanium. Because the full metal barrel feels so different than the other one. It's like a completely different pin. And I just love the look of the ribbing design on it.

Myke Hurley: No, please stop doing that. What one is that? Is that the titanium?

Brad Dowdy: Titanium, yeah. So that's, I mean, it's metal on metal. It's going to squeak when you thread it. But it feels great. It's not too big. It's not too heavy. It feels wonderfully. It writes wonderfully unposted. And it, I think this is going to be like the ultimate like EDC type pin. Like this is going to be, this is like the full on, you can't destroy this pin pin. Like you can carry it anywhere, everywhere. It's going to take a beating. I didn't try the other metals. They're going to be heavier than this titanium. Like me, my personal taste, I wouldn't do the full brass or full copper. That's a lot, a lot more heavier than this titanium. But the, the titanium is kind of perfect for me. I don't know how much the stainless would be as far as weight goes. But the brass and copper will be heavier than this. It feels great. It looks great. I mentioned in the article that the first pass of the article, I mentioned you can't post it, but I was wrong. You actually can post it. I talked to Will. I just didn't push it on far enough. Sorry, I keep playing with it. It posts actually completely fine. It's got a smooth section in the barrel. So it posts on without damaging the exterior of the barrel. The clips on here are rock solid. Like I wouldn't have, hesitate to carry this pin and clip it to my jeans or something like that. And know that it's not going to dislodge or pop out anywhere. It's got a really, really firm clip. And I mean, there's just really no negatives about these pins. I love, love all of them. I, the full polycarbonate is my least favorite because it's so air light. I mean, it's lighter than I imagined. And that's why I kind of like the, the brass section one or just the metal section with the polycarbonate barrel. That's really great. And then the, the full metal titanium, which is great. The nib choices, since I've tried all three, I'm sticking with steel. I'm a huge steel nib fan as it is. I love the firmness of a steel nib. The gold nib is great. I just don't want a full yellow gold nib. It's just not aesthetically pleasing to me, especially since I'm buying silver colored pins, like the Damascus steel is silver. The titanium is silver. I don't think they look as good with the gold nib. The gold nib I tested though is elite. These Bach nibs are great. I mean, it's just dead smooth, rock solid. It feels wonderful. The titanium nibs are awesome. If you don't have one, order one. The thing is I have one from the Nexus pin. So I can just swap, swap, swap and swap, swap and swap. I can just swap out the one titanium nib because it's a Bach titanium nib. It'll just go right into any of these tactile turn pins. So I didn't, I didn't need to order. I didn't need to pay a premium for titanium. If I didn't have a titanium nib, I would order that, but I'm sticking with the steel and all these Bach nibs are great. You're not going to go wrong. Pick out whichever one you want. It's just personal preference at this point, but they're really well done. I'm excited about this pen. The interesting thing is it's not, it's hard to tell in the pictures, like the size. And I didn't do any comparisons. It's, it's like that just right size. It's not an overly, it's a full size fountain pen, definitely. But it's not an overly large fountain pen, if that makes sense. It's shaped just right for the hand. It's, it's very comfortable to write with. It's just all around a good pen. So, I mean, I, I'm, I'm definitely, um, I'm about, uh, I picked out the two most expensive options to back. So I'm about $250 into this, so it better be good. But, uh, I'm pretty happy with what I, what I've chosen. I, I couldn't pick just one. Um, I knew that was kind of going to happen. Like I just backed the Damascus steel one, right? At first. So it's had the polycarbonate barrel and the metal grip. And I was happy with that. All right, this is what I'm going to go. So, and then, um, you know, then when I got the titanium, um, you know, on top of it, I was like, I don't think I could pick between the two. I think I'll just have to go with both of them. So, so that's my take on it.

Brad Dowdy: So what do you think? Are you going to back it? Or I don't even know if you're going to back this one or not.

Myke Hurley: Well, I mean, as I said last week, I was completely overwhelmed, um, in what to go for. Cause there's so much choice. So I wanted to kind of let it settle in. And cause I didn't know about this until we were recording last week. Um, and now I've read your post and I've seen some pages. Uh, yes, I definitely am going to get one of these. I think, I think I want the brass section.

Brad Dowdy: Like full brass? Oh, brass section. No way.

Myke Hurley: I don't need to kill a man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. I think I'm going to go with the brass because I've seen your pictures of it and I've seen Ed Jelly's pictures of it. Uh, and I, I, that one really calls to me. Yeah. I don't want titanium. I can see that the titanium is beautiful. And yeah, when you said that it reminds you of a Murex, I'm like, uh-oh, but I already have a titanium pen. I, I don't love titanium pens enough that I want another titanium pen. Um, I considered, considered maybe going stainless steel, but then I would be getting the entire thing in that. And I don't know if I want that. I think it would probably, again, be too heavy, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'll remember that too.

Myke Hurley: And there's something about that brass one, which just looks fantastic. And I'm really pleased that Ed got a steel, what looks like a steel nib with his brass, because I looked at your pictures and I was like, oh, I'm going to have to go gold with the brass because like, it looks good together. But the steel also looks good with the brass. But yeah, I think I'm going to back it. My only other thing with this is obviously because of the way that Will has had to do this, like it's, it's, it's difficult to like work out where to back. Like it's, there's so many options. Yeah. Like I'm looking at it and I can't find the one I'm looking for. Uh, bronze, stainless steel, copper.

Brad Dowdy: Let me, let me make one comment while you're poking around. The, the weights are actually, I kept looking for the weights. They're actually listed on the pledge levels. Like the titanium is 1.53 ounces. The full titanium, the stainless steel is 2.56 ounces. That's a massive difference. So, you know, you're in for a heavier pin if you're going full metal and the copper is 2.84. Oh, where's the brass? Oh, I don't see it. I'm not going to scroll through the whole thing. Uh, 2.72. So there you go.

Myke Hurley: There we go. I found it. One tactile turn gist made entirely from polycarbonate except the finial, finial and grip are made from brass. Comes with a steel nib. Um, and that's $66 because I get seven, only $7, uh, for shipping to the UK. Um, I have now backed it. So thank you, Will, for creating a beautiful pen. Very excited to get one of these in my hands.

Brad Dowdy: I think you'll be very happy with the choice. Like I said, that's going to be the poly barrel with a metal grip is going to be. By far the whichever metal anyone chooses is going to be far and away the most popular choice and probably the right choice for the vast majority of people.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: Awesome. Yep. Yep.

STPA

Brad Dowdy: So what else do we have to cover today? We got, we have one STPA that I didn't get to last week that, uh, it's kind of in relation to this a little bit, right? So I am Jay skinny, which is a solid, solid Twitter handle. He wants to know, or she, uh, wants to know what pen brand will give me flexibility and options to try out a variety of nibs. So we're just talking about how these Bach nibs, um, I can swap them out between these tactile turns or, you know, whatever other pens I've used that uses a default nib unit. Um, you're going to be able to swap out, um, Kaveco Lamy and Twisby are going to be your primary ones. You can swap out the easiest and the cheapest, um, because they're all steel nibs. You can get into Pelican probably has the most variety and easy swappableness, but then you're getting into mostly gold nibs. They have a huge variety. Um, you can have one Pelican pin and have 10 nibs easily. But what I would look at, I swap nibs on Kaveco all the time, Twisby all the time. Um, and then, um, you know, other brands that use stock nib units, either from Bach or Jowo. Those are, um, swappable too. Just like I use, um, the nibs that come with Edison or Jowo, the nibs that come with, uh, Franklin Kristoff or Jowo. So I can swap those nibs in between those two brands as well, but your main stock brands that are going to give you flexibility to try anything from an extra fine to like a 1.5 millimeter stub, Twisby, Kaveco, Lamy. There you go. Good question.

Myke Hurley: Awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Let's get it out of here on that because I I'm dying to screw the cap back on this titanium pin, but I'm sparing, I'm sparing you. I'm sparing you and the listeners the sound. Um, so yeah, uh, awesome episode.

Myke Hurley: Most definitely. And you can grab our show notes as always, of course, by going to relay.fm slash pen addict slash one seven six. Thanks again to us, but great sponsors this week, Squarespace, Harry's and pen chalet. If you want to find Brad's work, you can head on over to pen addict.com and you'll see all of his great stuff there. And he is at dowdyism on Twitter and pen addict on Instagram. I am at I Myke I M Y K E on Twitter and Instagram. If you want to follow us, you should. And, uh, we'll be back next time for another episode of the pen addict until then say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.