The Pen Addict 178/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 178 |
| Title: | Big Dan Episode |
| Release Date: | October 26th, 2015 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | Dan Bishop |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 178 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 178 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 178 |
| Length: | 7171 min <br />1.183 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 178. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's, Squarespace, and The Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley, I'm a little sick, and I'm joined by Mr. Brad Dowdy.
Brad Dowdy: Boy, there could have been some really bad rhyming going on there, so I'm glad you just cut it off really, really cleanly like that. You can tell who our guest is today if you're already talking like this. Yeah, yeah, so Mr. Dan Bishop from Karis Customs, how are you, sir? I'm doing well. Thanks for joining us, man. Yeah, no problem, anytime. It's been too long, I think. It's, you know, it's like the guests that we have had in the past, it seemed like I talked, like for you, for example, like I talk to you all the time, so I never think, well, maybe I should ask Dan to be on the show again to talk about more stuff, because I've been talking to you so much, you know, in email or chat or whatever. It seems like I'm always talking to you, it's like, oh, you know, I should probably have him on the show sometime, because you've had a lot going on, man. You're busy.
Dan Bishop: Yeah, things have been kind of good, kind of nuts, so. How's your sanity level? Oh, it's fine. You know, I started out crazy, so it's not like it was that hard of a level to jump up a notch.
Myke Hurley: I guess we're going to talk a little bit later on in the show as to why Dan's sanity level could be at breaking point right now. Yes.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I mean, yeah, this is a big Dan episode, because we have a lot to get to. So let me, I want to do some follow-up real quick, if you guys don't mind, we'll go through those, and then we'll get right into Dan and Karis Customs, and I know everyone wants to hear about the EDK that launched today, so we'll get to it. What do you think? Sounds great.
Myke Hurley: Yep.
Woodcase Pencils[edit]
Brad Dowdy: All right, so Dan, do you use woodcase pencils at all? I mean, I follow you online, and I see you drawing and, you know, all your artwork, it's mostly pen. Do you ever get into just the woodcase pencil?
Dan Bishop: Yeah, I actually have a Palomino blackwing pearl in front of me right now, so.
Brad Dowdy: Nice, nice. So I talked last week where I couldn't think, I didn't know the term for how I like, you know, the sharpen, the point of my pencil being sharpened, you know, at a kind of a shallow angle, long and pointy. And my good friend, Matthias at Blystift, sent me a link that he actually keeps on his blog about sharpeners, and each sharpener has a different angle that they sharpen at, and that's the term I was looking for. It says, you know, most sharpeners for graphite pencils seem to sharpen the pencils with an angle of about 20 degrees, so that would be standard. And the ones that I like have a more, I guess it's more of an acute angle, like the Kuhn masterpiece is at a 15 degree. That makes it have a longer, you know, sharpened area and a longer point. So I learned something from Matthias last week. So we'll have that link in the show notes so y'all can check out what all these sharpener angles. It's pretty impressive, this sharpener list that he has. It's got 27 different sharpeners in there, sorted by the angle of sharpening. So that's pretty impressive. So that's the word I was looking for. It's the angle of the pencil tip when it's sharpened.
Myke Hurley: That's not at all the word that I would have expected. Yeah. You know, because angle would, like, suggest to me that it was, like, cut at an edge, you know? Mm-hmm. Rather than just, like, how much of the wood case you want to show through.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But, you know, if you look at it, you know, if you, you know, laying it on the desk, I mean, it's a basic, simple angle, right? I mean, that's what that dimension would be, you know, if it was cut, if you laid it flat.
Dan Bishop: You can refer to it as the total included angle.
Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. See, now it's way too early to start blowing my mind. I just woke up, okay?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. From the design guy who has to program in all this stuff, right?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, speaking of what, since we're on the pencils real quick, our good friends on the Erasable podcast, Tim and, Tim and Johnny minus, oh, sorry, Andy and Johnny minus Tim, we're on the radio in the Baltimore Public Radio channel. So we'll have a link in the show notes. Go listen to them talk about pencils and, you know, they kind of spread the gospel on the radio. So it was a good listen. If y'all haven't caught that yet, we'll have that in the show notes for you guys. And, Myke, are you still a coloring machine? Yeah.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. I haven't done as much coloring in the last week. The lovely people at Colt Pens did send me a 30 pack. Oh, look at you. Yeah. I just wanted to thank them for doing that. They're very nice to me. I think it's because I'm along with everybody else in the world. We're helping them sell so much stuff right now.
Brad Dowdy: It's nonstop. The links in my Twitter feed from everyone seeing all the coloring stuff.
Myke Hurley: So that was something I was going to say. I just came back from the release notes conference and I was spending some time with a friend of the Internet, underscore David Smith, who sometimes listens to this show. Oh, really? Like, underscore is not a pen guy, but he said sometimes he likes to hear people that love something talk about something. And he was, like, saying all this stuff to us that, like, we talk about, you know, like, and just using some of the terminology. And it was really funny to hear him say it back, but he sent me a picture a little while ago and he just put it on Twitter. He's bought some stuff as well. So, like, the same pens and Joanna Bashford book. And I saw Tiffany Armand has also bought some. Everyone is in on this train now. It is unstoppable. And also, I sent you a picture from the airport, right? Right. There was, like, a whole section in the airport of coloring books.
Brad Dowdy: It's pretty amazing.
Brad Dowdy: This is the year it exploded. It's obviously been around forever. Like, we were talking last week, some of the links that I got, you know, these coloring books I was using, like, in the 70s and 80s. But it's got this new, you know, we're in this period now where everything's so digital that anything you can find, just like we enjoy pens and paper, the coloring gets you away from the screen for a little while and does different things to your brain. And people are realizing that it's a hugely beneficial thing.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, so, like, with a couple of the packages I bought from Colt Pens, they're throwing in, like, these little gift pens. So, they're like the Statler Triplus. Yeah. They come on these little boards. And I reckon they're probably going in all their packages. And it's to promote the coloring, right? Right. And then yesterday, like, I had the package and Adina, like, took the pen out. It's, like, coloring in the actual board that it comes on. So, I can see that she's now getting it. Then she asked for the 10-pack that I had. So, man, this adult coloring thing is really picking up steam.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And I'm still efforting to get Joanna on the show. I have talked with her people, but I have not gotten a response yet.
Myke Hurley: It can't be easy. Like, I told you that, like, my mom was telling me that she saw her on a TV show in the UK. Like, she's on, like, TV shows. She can't be difficult to get.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And Lost Ocean just launched, and it's going to hit in the US. I think it drops tomorrow in the US. It was in the UK last week. So, it could not be a busier time for her. Oh, yeah. Look at that.
Myke Hurley: It's right up on the Colt Pens website. I don't know whether to get this. I've still got so much to go in the first one. I don't know. Mm-hmm. I feel like I don't want to get another one, but it does look cooler.
Brad Dowdy: Dan, do you get into the coloring? I know you do a lot of drawing, like, on your Instagram, at Design Concussion. You do. You share a lot of your drawing. Do you ever get into, like, the coloring aspect outside of just, you know, all the artwork you do?
Dan Bishop: No, not really. I don't know. It's something that I haven't tried it, so I can't say that I'm not into it, but it's, I think doodling would be more therapeutic than coloring, so.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I am sure there's benefits to both. And there was actually an article in the New York Times or New York Magazine this weekend about doodling. I was going to put it in the show notes, but it ended up being kind of a weak article. But it's just the whole concept of this doodling and coloring thing is getting a lot of run right now. And I actually have my friends at Doodlers Anonymous are actually sending me a copy of their coloring book that should be coming out. That I should be getting this week. They've been doing one for putting one out for years where all the doodlers that submit to Doodlers Anonymous make, do an individual page and compile it into a coloring book that they sell every year for the show. So for their website, which is really, really great. So it's a thing, man. It's a thing for sure. So, all right, let me talk about these other couple things real quick and we'll keep going through it. But there's a new blog, new blog to me. It's not a full stationary blog, but Myke Bates, the interestingly named mbs-p-b.com. Maybe there's a meaning to that aside from his name. But he did a wonderful review of the Field Notes Shenandoah.
Brad Dowdy: I just wanted to link to it. It could be the blog of the week since I haven't done one in a while. And it's just a really great visual review of the Field Notes of the latest Shenandoah edition. He does great pictures, did a great review of it. So if you haven't run across Myke's blog yet, we'll link that in the show notes and y'all should check that out. It's pretty impressive.
Myke Hurley: Beautiful photography.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. He reminds me a lot. I was like, is this Josh Genter? It looks a lot like the newsprint is like the same type of aesthetic, which Josh is one of my favorite people to read on the internet. So I am now following Myke's work over to his blog.
Myke Hurley: I would just make a recommendation to Myke to get an easier domain name. That would be my recommendation for the day.
Brad Dowdy: Well, maybe it has special meaning for him. I'm sure it does. I'm sure it does. Yes. But it's an interesting one.
Myke Hurley: Dashies in a domain name is difficult. Maybe just mbspb.com would be better.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah.
Favorite Pens[edit]
Brad Dowdy: So what's your favorite pen, Myke?
Myke Hurley: Oh, that's difficult. Well, I think, you know, I've been saying for a while that I think that the Sailor Pro gear, the Orange Pro gear that I have is probably the best pen. Favorite is a really difficult question. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So that's a loaded question always. But there was a link out that's been going through all of our friends and all of our networks. There's an article. Well, I don't know if it's an article on Kenja for, you know, whatever Gawker World does. I don't really follow them, but this is one of their things. But there's an article called Your Five Favorite Pens. And it's basically they did a poll of all their readers on this article. And it ended up being it's basically a list of what I would call my five favorite pens in the store that you can just go get. Right. That's what type. That's what the answers were. The you know, the winners were Pilot G21, Fisher Space Pen, Zebra F301, Uniball Jetstream and Sharpie Pen. And they actually did a pretty good job just randomly picking these these things. This is like the list you'd get off the store shelf. Like the F301 would never make my list because the grip is really, really bad. But if you had to go walk into Staples and pick out a good pen, this is a pretty good list. I mean, you know, it's just something to share. This is I just wanted to link this to show this is the the general public's idea, you know, the non pen junkie like we have that listen to us and read our stuff and buy Dan's products. You know, this is what they're running into out there.
Brad Dowdy: You know, my only issue with this is five years from now, it's going to be the same list. Right. Like, that's that's why we that's that's why we love that's why we love Dan Bishop, because he makes new stuff for us to to to buy and to use. That's way cooler and way nicer than stuff like this. So, Dan, when you go when you go to Staples, do you tool around the pen aisle? Do you ever come away with anything, you know, just right off the shelf? If you had to grab one of these pens, if you didn't have one of your pens laying around, what would you grab off the shelf?
Dan Bishop: You're not going to like that answer. No, it's good. I know in design school, everything we used was pretty much just a cheap, like the cheapest ballpoint you could find.
Brad Dowdy: Yep.
Dan Bishop: And so I'm because mostly I doodle. I don't do a lot of note taking. But if I do maybe a G2, a Pilot G2. But I like the cheap, cheap Bix because you can draw really well with them.
Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, no, that's a hugely popular pen. And actually, I've never reviewed one. And someone's been emailing me to review just the, you know, the basic Bic Crystal. So I bought.
Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah.
Brad Dowdy: I bought one. Well, I bought a 10 pack because you can't just buy one. But, you know, I mean, 10 of them for $1.50. I mean, that's a legitimately good pen for such a cheap price. And it's one of the best drawing pens out there that people don't realize is actually a really good drawing pen, right? Because you can do shading with these type of ballpoint pens. And you can actually have some line variation. And you can do a lot of good work with just a basic Bic ballpoint. So that's cool. No, I'm totally on board with that. I'm surprised that didn't make the list now that you say that.
Dan Bishop: Well, they smell weird when you use them. They really.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, as a strange smell. Yeah.
Dan Bishop: Yeah, when you really get on it and, like, you know, move your hand really quickly and get a lot of ink on the page, there's this, like, definite aroma that's, I wouldn't call it pleasant.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's not at all. It's basically, I mean, it's basically oil. I mean, it's what it is. It's kind of gross. It is kind of gross. But, yeah, I just thought I wanted to share that because I thought it was, number one, they actually did a pretty good job on the list, which I'm pleasantly surprised about. And number two, it's the same list from five years ago. And five years from now, it's going to be the same list, too, which is, you know, why we're in existence to spread the word about all kinds of other good things that you can use to write with. Like one of our good friends, Myke, at Penshalay, they have all kinds of good things to write with, right?
Pen Chalet[edit]
Myke Hurley: You bet they do. They have all of the best rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils that you'd be hoping to find. Penshalay have all of the brands that you love as well, like Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco, and they're an authorized dealer of all of them. Penshalay believe in reliable customer service. They believe in fast customer service. And they believe in free shipping on orders of over $50 in the continental United States. They also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. I've just realized how hard these are for me to do this week. They're always adding styles of pens. Every single month, Penshalay have got new pens. They're always adding awesome stuff in. And they do all of these great new pens and all the great stock that they have at great prices. They do high quality pens, great prices with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So, you want to head over to penshalay.com, use the code PENADDICT on any order, and you'll save 10%. So, you can just do that at checkout. What you should do, as always, is click the podcast link at the top of the website, and enter the password PENADDICT for even more savings as well as your 10% off. So, a couple of things I want to let you know about today. So, before I tell you the special deal of the week, Ron over at Penshalay wanted me to let you guys know that Penshalay is doing a Fountain Pen Day giveaway. I can't believe Fountain Pen Day is nearly upon us again. I know. It's coming in November. November 6th is Fountain Pen Day. So, there's a bunch of fantastic giveaways. You can go and check out the site. I'm going to put a link in our show notes so you can find the Fountain Pen giveaway page. So, if you go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 178, you'll find a link to the Penshalay Fountain Pen Day giveaway there, which is fantastic. Go check that out. Go enter. There's some fantastic prizes in here, like a Pelican Suverand 600, which is $595, for example. There's loads of really, really awesome stuff in there. You should go check that out. But, also, you want to know our special deal for the week, which is a Visconti Homo Sapien Rollerball in silver. This is 40% off the retail price, which is incredible. They usually retail for $565.50. You can get them in the sale for $339.30. And then, once you put in the coupon, the penaddict coupon at checkout as well, you'll be able to pick it up for $305.37, which is 40% off. A really, really great looking and expensive pen.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I didn't even know that pen came in a rollerball. That's like one of the, probably at the top of my wish list, like the years-long wish list, the Visconti Homo Sapiens is just a fantastic looking pen. The fountain pen model is the one I've been looking at. I didn't even know it came in a rollerball. So, that's very cool. I just love the barrel design on that pen. So, it's awesome. And Ron continues to be awesome at Pen Chalet. I get more complimentary emails about Pen Chalet than just about any sponsor that we have on the show. And all of our sponsors are wonderful. I get emails about all of them. But I get time and time again just the thank you for, you know, working with Pen Chalet. You know, every week in my inbox, they do a great job for our listeners and for us. And we really appreciate it.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, you know, I also want to thank them for helping out with us and everything that we do. We think it's awesome. And we're very, very happy to continue to work with Ron Pen Chalet.
Brad Dowdy: All right. So, a couple more quick things. And then we're going to go way, way deep into the Karis Customs thing today. I have a feeling. But NaNoWriMo is coming up. This is the National Novel Writing Month in November. It's coming. A friend of the show, Pete Dennison, has a link that we'll have in the show notes. Getting prepared for NaNoWriMo. He's got all kinds of, you know, links on getting started and tips and how to proceed on it. You know, I'm definitely not a writer and won't be participating. But I know tons of our listeners do this every year. And our good friend, our favorite priest, Father Kyle, asked us, if you had one notebook, one pen, and one ink for NaNoWriMo, what would the combo be? So, I know you're not participating, Myke. And I know you're not participating, Dan. But if you were, and you were going to write a novel in November, and you picked up one pen, one notebook, and one ink, what would it be, Myke? Okay.
Myke Hurley: So, if I was writing a book, you know, I would want something that was easy to use, you know, so my hand wouldn't cramp up too much. So, I would probably go with, yeah, I would probably go with that Pro Gear. Yeah. The Pro Gear is real soft, it's real smooth. I've got it in a fine, I think, or cursive italic, something like that. I can't remember now off the top of my head. So, I've got it in a nice fine point. So, I'm going to have a lot of space on the pages, right, to fill in with all my amazing, fantastic words. And, of course, I would use Hiroshisuku Kanpeki, because there is no greater ink.
Myke Hurley: And, plus, who doesn't want to turn in a manuscript written in orange? Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Except it's Fuyugaki Kanpeki is the bright blue.
Myke Hurley: I'm drinking medicine right now. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: You are fully exempted from any mistakes.
Myke Hurley: Did I ever tell you, Brad, I might have told this story on the show before once, that my coursework for GCSE, so, like, when I was 16, and we were doing our exams, and we had to do English coursework, and we had to, like, write essays. I was a bit of a rebel at this point in my life, and I wrote them all in purple ink. Nice. And they wouldn't, and I just, my teachers were trying to tell me that I couldn't do it, but I refused.
Myke Hurley: And then the only way that they could submit it to the exam board was they had to photocopy everything that I wrote, so it would be in black.
Novel Writing[edit]
Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's amazing. All right, so what about you, Dan? Your big novel you're writing next month. What's your one pen, one notebook, one ink?
Dan Bishop: Oh, man. I don't know anything, really. Yeah, you don't care. I'm a cheap date. Like, you know, it could be just copy paper and big pens and crayons and, you know, whatever.
Brad Dowdy: That's like a, that's, that's literally probably, like, the best answer you can have. You know, I don't have that gene in me where I can be that free to just do that, but people that can just pick up something and go, and that's their thing, and it doesn't matter. I always find that to be extremely impressive, and that, that's not a joke. That's, that's, like, seriously, that's, like, that's one of those things, like, you strive to be, you know, as a, as a writer or a stationary user, just to pick up that one thing and not give a crap at all. And I can't, I can't do that, and I find that to be, like, when someone says that, I find that to be very endearing. I think that's a big deal, to be quite honest.
Dan Bishop: No, no, no, no. I lied. It would be the Keras Custom EDK and our new notebooks.
Brad Dowdy: Man, I was setting you up there, and you had to, you had to drive it home. Good job, good job by you.
Dan Bishop: Thanks, chat room.
Brad Dowdy: I would have to go for one of those, one of those Tomoe River notebooks that all the fancy writers seem to use, like the Nanami Seven Seas or the Paper Cuts, one that I have. And I would probably stick with Shinkai, because I want something normal that I wouldn't get tired of for the ink. And the pen would be, actually, be the hardest thing for me to pick. I honestly don't know. I'd probably, I have, like, a, I have a Pelican 605 with a gold cursive italic nib that's just really smooth and lightweight. I wouldn't get tired on it, tired with it, and really to use. So, I think that would probably be my, my thing.
Myke Hurley: Talking about the Tomoe River paper, Ginny at Three Staples wrote a really nice post I saw the other day, where she kind of did a roundup of her favorite Hobonichi accessories. Yeah. I'll put it in the show notes. It's kind of cool. Like, because I didn't know, you know, I've seen this stuff, but I've not really paid a lot of attention to it, right? Because I know this is a rabbit hole I could go down and never come out of, and I end up with a diary that hasn't got any days filled in. But I just have tons of accessories. But it was really nice to see this stuff. It really is quite a cool system, I have to say.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's pretty cool. We'll probably talk about that more as we get closer to the new year, because mine's just sitting there ready to be used.
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: All right. I swear we're going to get to Dan eventually. Should we talk to Dan today? You think? Nah. We've got more stuff to do? Okay. We'll talk about a couple more things. Okay. People were tweeting me this weekend about using Reddit for pen stuff, and, you know, if they had any recommendations on what subreddits to follow, things to look at. And I created, I had a personal list I used on Reddit. It's called a multi-reddit, but I just had it set private just to me. But I turned it on publicly. So if people use Reddit and want, like, a good grouping of stationary blogs, stationary subreddits to follow, you can just click this one link, and you can see all the subreddits that I follow, like fountain pens, pencils, notebooks, calligraphy. There's probably 20 or 25 subreddits all in this one multi-reddit. So we'll have that link in the show notes for anyone that uses Reddit and wants a good place to just kind of get the short version to where you don't have to browse around and figure out all kinds of things for yourself. So I've kind of done that work for you and put it all together in one easy spot.
Myke Hurley: Just letting you know, I'm getting a 404 on that, so you might want to check your privacy settings on that.
Brad Dowdy: Okay. Okay. So, yeah. Looks like someone else is getting that too, but I will check the link when we are done. It came up for me, but it might be my private link, so we'll see.
Brad Dowdy: So last thing, real quick. You were in Indianapolis last week for a – what was the name of the conference again? Release notes. Release notes. Release notes, but we don't care about that. What we care about is that Indianapolis is the home of Thomas Hall, the enabler to everybody, and you got to hang out with Thomas a little bit while you were there, right?
Myke Hurley: Yeah, we met for coffee one morning, which ended in him taking me to a pharmacy due to this thing that I'm currently dealing with because that was the day I was giving my keynote speech. Gotcha. Wow. So I needed to make sure I was sufficiently drugged up. Yeah. And he, as you can imagine, he brought everything. Yeah. Right? And so me and him were in a coffee shop. Doug walked past at one point. Good old Doug Beal, and he came in and joined us for a little bit.
Brad Dowdy: Is he in the chat room today?
Myke Hurley: I don't know. Doug is probably traveling. He's probably traveling. But we hung out for a bit. It was really cool. I got to – you know, he showed me a bunch of the pens he was carrying. He brought me some super secret things. That's all I'm going to say right now. Some stuff you don't know about. That's what I'm allowed to say. He also brought me – he gave me some arts and sciences, which I was very grateful for. I've had a few people do that now. I'm good and stocked up on those. And talking about coloring pages, Elizabeth Bolin, EXB pens on Instagram. She's working on a coloring book of her own. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: I got the sample pages that you got. Yeah.
Myke Hurley: So I have some here, and they look really, really incredible. So you can find them on her Instagram. She's been posting pictures of some of it. So I'm really excited to play around with some of these. But one of the big things for me from that meeting is I fell in love with the Murex and the Mayu again. Is it Mayu? Yeah. They're Pilot, aren't they? Yes.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Pilot, Murex, and I don't know if it's Mure or Mayu. So, yeah.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. I really, really fell in love with them again. And the Mayu is the one that I'm the most interested in because that's the one that's all smooth, right? Right. And so you can imagine the emails that have been coming my way from somebody, right? So Thomas is now finding them for me on eBay and sending them to me.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, don't buy one. But don't buy one yet. I might have an in for you. Oh, yeah? Someone that might be getting rid of one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So don't purchase one without talking to me first.
Myke Hurley: All right. I'll wait to hear that from you then because. All right. Yeah, if you know someone then. Because I want one that I know is in good condition. Yeah. Okay, good. Well, I am going to buy one. I've decided I'm going to buy one. Okay. Because I've loved that pen for so long. It's time now, I think. Awesome. Talking about pens we love so long, we've made Dan wait for way too long now as we've just been yammering on about rubbish. We have. Let me make him wait for just a couple more minutes and then we'll start talking about all the amazing Karas Custom stuff. Is that okay, Dan?
Dan Bishop: That's fine.
Brad Dowdy: Dan is a trooper. We'll give him the floor here. It's going to be all Dan all the time coming up right after this sponsor message from my good friends at Harry's.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm going to have you help me out with this one. So I don't lose my breath too quickly. So this week, we are joined by Harry's. They are here to sponsor the episode and make it possible for you. We love Harry's because Harry's give us a way to make shaving feel good on our wallets and good on our faces. They give you great quality blades at a great price. And they also have stuff that is really cool to use. Harry's have their own factory in Germany, which they use to create their own high quality, high performing blades. They're crafted by experts. And they will ship these blades to your front doorstep for free as long as all their other products like their razors, their foaming shave gel, their aftershave moisturizer, their shave cream. Whatever you want, they'll be able to ship it to you for free. It's absolutely fantastic. They have a starter set, which is an amazing deal for just $15. You'll get razor, moisturizing shave cream or foaming shave gel and three lovely razor blades. And on average, an everyday shaver who uses Harry's products is going to be saving himself $150 each year because Harry's is such great price. They just really believe in offering great stuff at a great price. And with Harry's, your satisfaction is guaranteed because that is important to them. Brad, can you please tell the world what Harry's products you love and why you love them?
Brad Dowdy: So I had a hot date this weekend, Myke. I had a hot date Saturday night with Taylor Swift.
Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah?
Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. How did that go? It went very well. Excellent. Because I used Harry's products before I went on this hot date. So I was neat and clean and I smelled awesome for this date. And Taylor was very impressed. She said, oh, is that Harry's aftershave lotion you were using? And I said, well, yes, Taylor, it is. How did you know? She says, oh, I am a huge fan of Harry's. All the guys I've dated and broken up with have used Harry's their entire lives.
Myke Hurley: You went to a Taylor Swift concert, didn't you?
Brad Dowdy: I did go to Taylor Swift this weekend. So I was in Atlanta traveling. Harry's always goes with me when I travel because I use it at home, use it on the road. It's the only stuff I shave with.
Myke Hurley: We do love Harry's. So does Taylor Swift, apparently. Yes, she does. If you want to experience a clean, close, comfortable shave of your own, you want to check out Harry's. Go to harrys.com right now. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com. And you'll get yourself $5 off if you use the coupon code PENADDICT with your first purchase. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com and the code PENADDICT at checkout for $5 off so you can start shaving better today. And you never know, you might bump into Taylor Swift one day and we all know that she loves Harry's as well. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show.
EDK Fountain Pen[edit]
Brad Dowdy: All right, Mr. Bishop. Everyone wants to talk about the EDK, but I'm not going to let you first because I have a lot of questions. I got a lot of questions for you, but we're going to get to the EDK. We're going to save the best for last. Well, they're all pretty much the best. But since we've had you on last time, you've launched so many new products. I want to kind of do a rundown of a few things and kind of get into the nuts and bolts of, you know, some of the things you guys are doing. Like, I guess it's been a month, maybe a month and a half that you did the Fountain K, which is the Render K barrel with a basically a fountain pen section. You know, the Render K cap, that style. And, you know, you and I talked about this before and you said you were just going to sell this one direct. You weren't going to go to Kickstarter. So tell us, number one, a little bit about the Fountain K, how it came about. And number two, why you chose to kind of go just the direct route, you know, selling them yourselves directly instead of doing, you know, like a crowdfunding campaign.
Dan Bishop: Well, so the Fountain K, we wanted to expand the, the Render K was obviously the first pen that we ever did. Right. And so, I mean, it's one of my favorites. I like the way it looks and everything and the size. And so we wanted to see if we could turn that into a fountain, a fountain pen. And so we just kind of did some engineering work and were able to whip it together. And so we were prepping it for Kickstarter and we said, well, what if we didn't use Kickstarter and just kind of played around with, you know, what scenarios and imaginary numbers and, you know, figure it all out. And we said, well, why not? You know, let's try it. So we took the small batch that we made and we kind of supplemented it. You know, we completed it because we were missing some grip sections here and some other stuff here and had a small enough batch that we could consider, you know, worthy of putting up for sale.
Brad Dowdy: And we just kind of went for it. Yeah. Yeah. So I love that the Render K was, you know, my first Keras Customs, obviously. I mean, that was y'all's first real main launch pen. It's probably the orange anodized one has probably been my most used Keras pen. So it was cool to see this come into the fountain pen style. Wow. And now you and I talked, you know, like right around launch, you redid the section a little bit, right? Because it was a little bit thin or a little bit short. Tell me about like the design choices that went into, you know, getting that just to where you wanted.
Dan Bishop: Well, this is going to kind of, yes, we did. And originally we wanted to make it compatible with all of our existing parts, but the grip sections, well, the first, the batch that we sold was actually the original design. And then we got feedback from different people and stuff. And we're also switching over to a different nib manufacturer. And so the full run is, you know, it's going to be a little bit larger diameter than the first one. So if you bought one of the first ones, it's like one of 200. So it'll be collectible in the future when I'm famous for designing pens.
Brad Dowdy: Well, it certainly feels great and looks great. I love the shape, but you talk about, you know, changing into new nibs and new designs and have, you know, kind of wanting to have that retrofit to like the old, old, old models, which I think is great. But then you, you kind of have to mesh that in with like the changes and, you know, moving forward to that's a, that's a, that's a huge dilemma because I want to talk about the new ink that's coming out. It's the ink, the ink version two that you have coming out that you kind of teased on the blog. I mean, it's going to have a larger nib. It's going to have a new section, a new cap design. It's going to be clipless. So tell, so tell us about this, this choice. So you've like, there's this balance, right? You want to like make your existing customers happy. If they buy an ink, you know, maybe, you know, we all like to switch around the colors. And I mean, y'all do a great job with like the anodizing and the two-tone. That's something that totally speaks to me. And I can take a cap from one pin or like Myke does, you know, bought two inks, which is the caps and barrels to have the two-tone look. But now the ink version two is coming out and you've made some changes, which I actually think are awesome changes. This is, this is like a super exciting change for me. So tell us about that.
Dan Bishop: So just like the Fountain K and, and the ink internally, we've been calling it the ink 2.0 just because it's, it's got updates. The most notable update is going to be the larger number six nib. And it kind of sits recessed a bit in the grip section. So it's, I guess you could call it like partially hooded. Yeah. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: I like that look.
Dan Bishop: And part of that was an accommodation for the existing design of the pen. Um, but we, we redid the threads the way that the grip section threads into the body. We made sure that the, the cap and the body threads were, you know, more, you know, tolerances were better. The, the clip has been slightly tweaked so that, um, we don't have the same problems with, um, after polishing. Cause the, the polishing guys would kind of get aggressive and, uh, the clips would sometimes not touch the bodies. So like Myke with his, you know, his tuning fork clip.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah.
Dan Bishop: Um, that can be adjusted out a little bit so that, um, it, I mean, most of it is, is stuff that nobody will ever notice. But the number six nib, um, is the most notable one.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I, I think that's pretty cool. I like that size nib and these are all going to be Bach nibs, right? Yes. So the Bach nibs, I, at first like with like TWSBI, I love, they're very firm and durable and smooth. I, I, I really like those. And the hooded, um, design that you're going to use. I didn't have a pen like that until I bought a Franklin Kristoff model 20. And actually the first time I got it, I was like, is there something wrong with this pen? I keep, I'm screwing in the, I'm screwing in the nib and it keeps going in and in. And I was, and I was like, wait, oh, that looks pretty cool. And the, the end result is kind of this, uh, unique look. And I think on the, the ink itself that I love that pen. And I just think that's going to be such a cool thing. And I am anxious to try the clipless model too, because you were, you were teasing these in the, and I love this so much. The W.A. Kara's signature ink 29 limited series. I, I cannot be, every time I read that and see you post about that and see it on Instagram, I just get the hugest grin knowing that it has Bill's, Bill's name attached to it.
Myke Hurley: I just realized the W.A., right? So, so yeah.
Brad Dowdy: I just die every time I see that. I just get the biggest kick out of that.
Dan Bishop: No, yeah. Bill, I mean, he was like, uh, why'd you guys do that? Um, no, but the, the idea was that, um, we're kind of playing with branding a little bit, um, because people, they, they don't understand what we are by our name. Um, so some of the stuff, you know, you notice on some of the, the newer things like the no books, we'll say Karis Penko on them. And, um, the, the signature line that was our, we hired a new, uh, a new guy in the office. I don't know if you guys know him. His name is Paul and, um, he's kind of, he's, he's behind the, the, the Karis Penko Instagram. Cool. And he's on, he's on the Slack group and everything else a lot too, but.
Brad Dowdy: Definitely.
Dan Bishop: Um, we've been pushing hard to, you know, be more involved in the community than, you know, than we were and, and to, uh, kind of bring these premium, uh, you know, small batch things out and people, people seem to like them, you know, and even if they don't, you know, want to purchase them, they like seeing them. So, uh, it's something that we're probably going to keep doing.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I just picture the, the W.A. Kara's, uh, signature ink 29, like it, like it runs through Bill's beard, like before shipping, like he's sitting there, sitting there at his desk. And so tell us more about this pen. Cause it's got some unique features that the other pens have not to this point have. And I am like, I'm super tempted on one of these. Um, it's, I stare at them all the time because I think they're beautiful. So tell us why those pens are different than like the other ink or like the ink version two coming out and things like that.
Dan Bishop: Well, those, there was six of them, I think to start Bill actually took and, you know, hand machined the cap and then hammered a texture into a raised ring on the cap. And I think he did on one of the grip sections, some, some hammer work and stuff. He just actually set up and did it himself. Huh. Um, so it wasn't, um, like the bodies I think were the same and, and, um, things like that. And I think we use nibs from, uh, Mark Bacchus, um, on those as well. But the, the cap was basically hand finished by him. And we talked about doing some other, other ones like that, like having something that, you know, maybe Paul works on and then, or I work on and, and do them in, in smaller numbers. But the, it was kind of a teaser because that cap is obviously all copper. Um, we are going to be having all copper and all brass inks. Nice. Nice.
Brad Dowdy: And, um, so, uh, clipped and clipless versions. So. The thing that got me about these is that brown anodizing. I, that came out so sharp. I mean, the green looks awesome too. So those two new colors, but I, I keep going back. I like to scroll back through the old pictures. I was like, I should probably go in for one. He's like, I like to have this dilemma. Every time I see, see y'all post something, I stare at that stupid pen, like it's calling my name. So I, I, I love how those colors came out. Are those going to be new regular colors? Um, yes. For other anodized products.
Dan Bishop: Yeah. We're planning on adding those colors to the, to the complete line of pens. We already added them to the bolt. Um, okay. And, uh, you know, the fountain K and the render K and retract and everything else.
Brad Dowdy: So cool. Cool. So then you take all these new products and now you have something, uh, that people can write into, right? Tell us about them. Tell us how the notebook, the notebook project came about.
Stationery Expansion[edit]
Dan Bishop: So we've been, I've been wanting to kind of expand out into, you know, stationary and other items as well. Um, and, uh, I talked with the president of scout books via email a few times about a year ago. And if you don't know who scout books are there, they're a small notebook manufacturer in, in Portland and we were going to do something and then we just never got around to it. But, um, I said, you know, we need to do something like this. This will be kind of cool. And, um, these are also, there's a top secret project coming up that these will also be a part of. So, um, I think, you know what that is, but, or maybe you do.
Brad Dowdy: I, I, let's just say I like the logo a lot.
Dan Bishop: Oh, okay. Um, so, um, yeah, I shared it with a few people. Um, but there's a, uh, so we are very proud to make things in, in Arizona. So, um, the, the notebooks, if you lay it flat, it's, you know, a monochromatic Arizona flag and has the Harris Penco logo and then, uh, made in USA, um, logo on the, on the backside. So yeah, it turned, they turned out pretty cool and, uh, people seem to like them.
Brad Dowdy: So shoot. Yeah. They turned out great. Did you do that? Does you did the design for the, the graphic design work? Yeah. That's what I thought. Yeah. So that's one of my hats. I had to trade out hats. So, well, you did a killer job. I mean, it's just, it's just, it's awesome looking and scout books are great. I worked with them when I, a few years ago when I was working at Jetpens, we, uh, we worked with them on a notebook project and they're, they make good stuff and they're great to work with. So I, uh, I, I like to see those expanding, you know, that being added to your lineup. I mean, it's kind of a no brainer and I want to see some pictures of those things, um, used around the shop and just beaten and destroyed. And they're, they're, they're going to look pretty awesome. You know, knowing, uh, what machinist hands look like and, uh, all the pens and, and, and notebooks that y'all, that y'all go through. Um, I think it's going to look pretty killer. So I hope those are doing excellent for you.
Dan Bishop: Yeah. Um, so far so good. So we'll probably see, uh, more of them.
Brad Dowdy: All right. Cool. Cool. So let's, uh, let's get into the EDK. Um, right after we talk about our good friends at Squarespace.
Myke Hurley: You can start building your own website today over at squarespace.com. You want to use the offer code Inc. It's very fitting at checkout and you'll get yourself 10% off Squarespace. Build it beautiful. With Squarespace, you'll be able to build a site that looks professionally designed regardless of your skill level with no coding required. With Squarespace is intuitive and easy to use tools. You can make your own website look and feel exactly how you want to do this. Squarespace will power your site with state of the art technology. They ensure security and stability and also give you fantastic tools, really powerful tools to build a website that looks exactly as you like with their WYSIWYG page building system. So you can set up all your pages. You can customize their beautiful templates that all feature responsive design to look and feel just as you'd like. But this is just getting started. Squarespace has a ton of other awesome features like 24-7 support with live chat and email. Squarespace has their own commerce platform like Brad uses NotCo to sell his products and you can sell your own digital or physical goods. Anybody can add a store to their Squarespace site. They integrate with services like Stripe, for example, so you can accept payments. It's really awesome. They have rock solid fast hosting on all of their sites. So your site stays up and it will load quickly. It doesn't matter how many people are on it. They also have their cover page functionality that allows anybody to build a great looking single page website. And if you are a person that wants to get in and tinker with the code, maybe that's something that you know about. Obviously, you don't have to know any of the sort of stuff to use Squarespace. But if you do, they have their dev platform. So you can get in under the hood and pull some levers and play around and tinker if that's the kind of person that you are. Squarespace plans start at just $8 a month. And they'll give you a free domain name if you sign up for a year. You can sign up for a free trial right now with no credit card required and start booting your own website today by going to squarespace.com. And when you decide to sign up, make sure that you use the offer code INK, I-N-K, at checkout to get yourself 10% off your first purchase and show your support for this show. My thanks to Squarespace for helping us out today and for supporting us all at RelayFM. Squarespace, boot it beautiful.
Brad Dowdy: So Mr. Bishop and Karis Customs have released a new pen today that I am loving. It's called the EDK. It's a smaller, pocketable, retractable, everyday carry type of pen. So Dan, why don't you tell us, how did this design come about? That's what I want to know first is, you know, where did you come up with this? You know, how did it fit in with, you know, the rest of the lineup? It's, you know, like you have the retract, which is the other retractable pen, but this is a smaller, you know, smaller version than that. So tell us about how the design came about.
Dan Bishop: Okay. So if some people have noticed that the retract and the bolt, they have the same threads. So you can kind of, you know, swap parts out. Well, I'd say almost two years ago or more, probably, I took the retract and then the bolt front end and I made myself a pen on my desk and it required a little bit of tweaking on the knock on the inside to adjust the length. But you could fit a Parker or like an easy flow refill in it. So I used that for a while and then guys around the shop started seeing them and they started making them. And Bill made one and then he drilled his out so it would take the 8126. And he was like, yeah, we should make one of these things. And so eventually the internet caught up. In fact, Jeffrey Bruckwicky posted a tutorial about how to create, as he dubbed it, the Rebolt. And so he's like, hey man, check this pen out. It's called the Rebolt. And then I sent him a picture of one on my desk and I'm like, yeah, I've been using one of these for two years. And he's all, jerk, I didn't hear you telling me about this like two years ago. So it's not the same size. So I went in and actually did the engineering and did some other stuff to make it a standalone part. And then we tumble, finish them and then anodize them. Or if they're copper and brass, we just tumble them. So they have kind of a matte finish. So they've got a grip on them. They're the shortest pen we make. They're shorter than the retract by about a half inch. Yeah. So they were just kind of born of tinkering around with pen parts. And the Rebolt was gaining so much popularity that people were starting to do it and buy parts from us so they could do it themselves. So we said, we just need to make our own, basically. And the EDK was born.
Brad Dowdy: I think that's how the best products come about, right? I mean, it's just from tinkering from what you like to use yourself. You know that it works. You know it's something that catches on. You build it. You enjoy it. And then you take it around the shop. Or we have that example with Knock. We'll build out a prototype. I'll start carrying it. And then Jeff will start carrying it. Then people will say, well, that looks interesting. And I could use it for this. And you kind of build on, you know, like you said, it was essentially two years in the making. You didn't know it at the time. But you have all that background. And you know that, hey, we might have something here. I think that's kind of how the best designs come about. And then just, you know, you're never just going to sit down and say, okay, today I'm going to design this pin and this is how it's going to be. But just having that trial and error in the shop the whole time, you know it's going to come out pretty strong. And honestly, it did. I love the length of the pin. It's killer. I had only seen the all black version before Massdrop got in touch and sent out one of the models that they're selling. So I didn't know when I got mine for Massdrop. I just assumed it was going to be that black model. And I opened up the box and out comes this two-tone copper and aluminum. And like my jaw just dropped. I get this little, you know, this little grin on my face like, oh, that's so cool. You know, I had no idea the materials were going to be this way. And the tumbled finish on the one I have, I think that's what really sold me. I like that kind of matte look. Now, are all these tumbled? I guess not the black anodized one.
Dan Bishop: Well, they're all tumbled. And then the black ones are then anodized afterwards. There's raw tumbled. But then the copper and brass are tumbled too. And what that does is it gives you the grooves stay shiny. And the rest of it is kind of a matte finish. So it's a visual accent but provides grip. Some people in the chat room are asking if we can buy the front section separately. I don't know. I'd say probably not because we prepare them differently. They're designed as like an entire pen more or less. And so if people wanted to buy it and swap it out, it's probably, I don't know. I'm not going to say no, but for right now, no.
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: So I noticed that about the grip section, the copper. You know, it's starting to, you know, get the patina on it. But like the grip rings are still bright, you know, almost kind of like the original copper. It's a really neat look. You can kind of see that in the review I posted of the EDK today on Pen Addict. Like it's just a really, really sharp look. And then I think I'm going to have to go in and order the black one. And then I can mix and match the barrels with the half black. And so I can have like a retract with the, I mean, my retract that I have is aluminum and black. And so I can have an EDK that's aluminum and black and then black and copper as well. So I get all excited. I get all excited about those kind of things. It's like Tinker Toys. It is. It is. So tell us about the decision to go with MassDrop. This is something you and I have talked about, you know, in the back channels off and on. And I think it's a really interesting decision. And I'm actually interested to see how this goes for you. I mean, I know it's just the first day on there. You know, has it met your expectations? Why did you decide to go with that as opposed to directly or with Kickstarter? So tell us a little bit about that, how the whole MassDrop decision came about.
Dan Bishop: Well, in a nutshell, it's all tied to Kickstarter, like you said. We used to launch products on Kickstarter. But then, as you know, you have a time period where, you know, you've got, you know, the funding period. And then you've got to wait for the funds to come through. And then you, you know, then you're sitting on a bunch of people's money. And then you want to make sure that you make the stuff, you know, in a timely manner so they don't get upset that it's late. Well, we're at a point now where we're making and stocking our own pens. And we decided, well, let's make this pen and, you know, try to have them ready to go. And do a, you know, in a small batch. Obviously, we're not doing huge, huge batches, but do a smaller batch. And then since we already sailed through MassDrop, see if it's a viable channel for us to do something like this. Because Kickstarter, the logistical end of it, as you know, isn't always the best for fulfillment. Whereas we already have a good system worked out through MassDrop for shipping and all these things. So it alleviates a lot of the problems that we've had in the past with Kickstarter. And like I say, problems in quotes. Because it's not that big of a problem. But for us to be able to streamline the process, it helps a little bit. Plus, it kind of lets us know where our customer base lies. You know, who's buying what, what they like. And lets us, you know, give an exclusive to MassDrop, who's been so good to us in the past, selling our products. I think, you know, I was in talks with them from the very beginning about our product. So it's just good for everybody, I think. And to develop into a full-fledged company, you know, we started out on Kickstarter. And there was just a couple of us, you know, me and Bill. And then we hired another guy. And now we're, you know, nine or ten employees strong. And we're putting a lot of effort and time into becoming, you know, the next American pen company, as it were. Right. So we're not going anywhere. And to stand on our own two feet and kind of shout to the world that we're here and that, you know, you can purchase from us. And that we're willing to put time and money and effort into having stock on hand and to give things to the public at a good price and at a good quality. It's kind of a big deal for us.
Brad Dowdy: I, that's very well said. I couldn't agree more. And, you know, when you said you were, you told me you were going to do it on MassDrop, I was like, huh, that's interesting. And, you know, I didn't, you know, think about it at the time. But the more I thought about it, the more it just seemed like the perfect space for like a new product launch. So how do you think it's gone today? So today was the first day that EDK has been available on MassDrop. It was a little over 200 and something units before the show when I looked. I haven't looked recently. So how do you think it's gone for you guys today?
Dan Bishop: So far, so good. We had no, you know, definite expectations. So it's good. I mean, if we hadn't sold any or had like five, you know, that would be a problem. But we have a whole week and we're able to, you know, get it out there and see what what they're capable of, because this is kind of a first for us and kind of a first for them, too. I think. I mean, they've done some special editions of things, but I think this is one of the first time, if the first time, maybe I'm not sure where they've launched a brand new product on MassDrop.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So as a maker myself with NOC, I am definitely interested in watching this very closely, just, you know, from a from a business person's perspective. And, you know, I think it's certainly a viable option from that route. And all the things that are tied in with that, with like the initial exclusivity and the additional marketing and the, you know, coming together all in one spot to to make the purchase and to talk about the product. I think it's a really legitimately good idea. And I'm anxious to see how this goes through. And I know it's it's already a success for you guys. And I just I know it's going to be one question I got before the show about the EDK. Talk about the refill choices on that, because I mentioned it in my review. So it comes with the Schmidt P8126, which is a killer refill. It's a rollerball. Most people know it. If they're not familiar with that refill by name, they know it as the refill that comes in the retro 51s. It's just a great all around writing pen. How can you retrofit other refills if someone's interested in playing around with their EDK and fitting in some other refills? Tell us about what all refills fit in there.
Dan Bishop: So as you pointed out and some other people pointed out, the 8126 comes with the pen. But you'll notice that it doesn't protrude out visually like like some other refills people are used to. I mean, it's the bit more or less what happens is this is an element of the knock mechanism. If you want to use a Fisher Space Pen refill or if you want to use an Easy Flow or a Parker style refill, the adjustment had to be made to where the 8126, which is actually shorter than those, can still work. But still function with like a Fisher Space Pen refill without it sticking out while it's retracted. Gotcha. So it's kind of a balance point. Aesthetically, I kind of would have liked to have it a little bit farther out. But in order to make it work with all these other refills, we had to make that one accommodation and it still works fine. And, you know, I've been using it and it, you know, it's kind of grown on me. But that was the reason for that choice, not because it just, you know, like was a crappy, crappily made part. It was more just because it was a conscious choice so that people would have more options if they chose to use something different.
Brad Dowdy: Well, that makes sense. That makes sense. So what other refills? It'll fit all the Parker style. You have to have the Fisher Space Pen. You have to have the Parker spacer added to that, right? The PR4. Yeah. And then have you modified any other refills to put in there? I'm not a big, people ask me all the time. I'm not a big refill modifier guy, you know.
Dan Bishop: No, not on this pen. Yeah. If someone really wants to be able to use a G2 or something, we make a pen. It's called the retract, you know. And so if someone really wants to hack down a refill, they can do that. But we're not actively promoting this. This is more an off the shelf thing. And this is another thing that I would like. We are now shipping all of our pens with refills included.
Brad Dowdy: Okay, cool.
Pen Refills[edit]
Dan Bishop: So we've, in the past, because we were catering to pen addicts, everyone had their favorite refill. But as our audience has grown, people would get the pen and they go, oh, wait, there's nothing in this. So we made the decision to now include refills with our products so that those who are new to the pen world have something nice to write with out of the box. But then the pen addicts, you know, they can throw it in a drawer, they can use it or however they want to do. But we've just kind of, like I said, we've been trying to step up our game a little bit to be more customer friendly in the end.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think that's a good point. And I didn't even realize you were doing that now because it did, like you were saying, it doesn't affect me because I just go into the refill drawer and grab something that I know that I like and pop it into.
Dan Bishop: I like that you have a refill drawer.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So like Maverick Track gets the Pilot Juice 0.38 blue black. Like I have two or three of those refills. So I know when I run it out, you know, that's what goes in that pen. And I'll put it in there and go. So but I think it's smart for, you know, growing, you know, and bringing in new people that where they don't have to question that and they get the pen and they don't realize it, even though it says, you know, when you order it, you know, it doesn't come with a refill. They it's a better experience for the new people or the first time buyers to have that refill and they can, you know, go from there if they want to change it out or whatever. So I think that's great. So.
Brad Dowdy: Seeing where the EDK fits in the Keras lineup.
Brad Dowdy: What's next? Like, I mean, I know you can't, you know, we haven't even talked about it like on the on the side, but like how so your lineup is is like really, really strong right now. And you're doing all these crazy things with the ink, which I'm I'm really anxious to see the new the new ink model. I'm I'm all over that when that drops. So how what's the what's the vision plan here for for other products and other things that you're going to be working on?
Dan Bishop: Um. Like we've talked about it in the past, we're looking at the possibility of doing some kind of mechanical pencil and it might end up being more along the aesthetic lines of the EDK. I'm not sure. Um, maybe, um, experimenting with, uh, different materials and, um, possibly, you know, branching out into the fountain pen line a little bit more. Um, I don't know. I mean, at this point, um, we kind of have some stuff slated, you know, on the whiteboard in the, in the office, you know, where we want to go. But I mean, I always have a couple of designs kind of in the can of stuff that I designed in the past. And we sometimes revisit those and then revise them. There was the EDK was actually a different pen before that we completely, you know, didn't go with. Um, and so, uh, it's hard to say, you know, it's nice having options instead of trying to scramble to find something.
Brad Dowdy: So, right. So I want to go back to a comment you made, uh, earlier about being, you know, a great American pen company. And we've talked about this the last time I had you on, or maybe even the first time I've had you on, cause it's been multiple times that I've had you on that. This was such an outlier from what Bill Karras built this business on. And now it's like turned into what, is this the majority of, uh, is our pins the majority of Karras business these days? Because it didn't start out that way. Right. I mean, it started out as a machine shop and making auto parts.
Dan Bishop: And yeah, it's a large portion of it. We have some, like, I call them legacy customers that we still do parts for that. There's no reason to chase them off. Um, sure, but it's, it's our focus. I mean, we're, we don't do phone cases anymore. Um, some of our other products are going away, um, cause we're focusing on, on manufacturing pens because, uh, it seems to be a good fit for us and people, as long as people keep buying them, we'll keep making them. So.
Brad Dowdy: Man, that's awesome. I, that's, it, it makes the businessman in me makes my heart go pitter pat. I just love hearing that y'all, I mean, I'm, I'm love hearing that this is a viable business, right? I mean, that's a big freaking deal. Like, yeah, it's well.
Dan Bishop: And the other thing that the advantage is because we make them and, um, we, we sell them direct to the public. It helps. It's made in USA. And the fact that, you know, when we sold phone cases, people would buy one, you know, right. How often do you buy a new phone case? But with pens, people, you know, they buy them as gifts or they, they own multiple, you know, and pens to, you know, different refills or whatever. And it's just that the, the pen community has been really, really good to us. So we try our best to reciprocate that. We try to do giveaways as much as possible and to do things to, um, keep the public engaged. You know, when we did, uh, when we had 10,000 followers on Instagram, we did 10 weeks of giveaways and, um, we just try to keep that customer base, um, engaged and, uh, hopefully keep them interested because I mean, I, uh, selling pens is awesome, but also having people who like your product is even better.
Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. And y'all, y'all do such a good job, um, with social media stuff. Um, you know, especially on Instagram, you know, we're with all the, all the photos and product photos. And I appreciate y'all and, you know, y'all include knock, um, in a lot of your product shoots. And I really appreciate that. And, um, it's fun to see all the success you've had over the years. And I still feel like it's just like a scratching the surface thing. And, uh, you know, I, I, I'm sure y'all probably feel the same way too.
Dan Bishop: Yeah. Um, it's been great. Like you said, you know, especially with you, you know, I remember emailing you way, way back when, and it's just been kind of amazing to, you know, to think that if, if I hadn't, you know, drawn up the render K, where would we be, you know? Right. Where would the, I mean, cause I mean, not to, you know, cause we're, we're running pretty late here, but, um, the idea of that, um, Kickstarter, you know, we kind of, we were one of the first companies that jumped on after, you know, the pen type a. So, you know, and we've come back, you know, a few times with new, with new products, but you know, what would happen if that didn't happen? You know, what if I had just said, yeah, you know, or hadn't pushed bill hard enough to make them, you know, who knows what we would be.
Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. Well, that's super cool, man. Um, I, I'm certainly excited for everything that you guys do. Um, I'm a fan. All of our listeners are fans. We, we, we love all the Karis products and, uh, we definitely, we, we really appreciate you coming on, but I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna let you off the hook yet. We're gonna, we're gonna, I got one more question for you and for Myke.
Dan Bishop: Okay. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: This weekend, Saturday, is Halloween. What's your costume?
Dan Bishop: My costume?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah.
Dan Bishop: Hmm. Uh, it depends. I, I, uh, I have several. I could either be a pirate or Nacho Libre. I don't know.
Brad Dowdy: I could totally see you Nacho Libre in it. Michael, Hurley, what are you doing?
Myke Hurley: We don't really, well, we don't really do Halloween here so much. I mean, more people do it these days, but like, I don't have kids, so I'm not going trick-or-treating. Yeah. Uh, I don't, I'm not going to any parties, I'm afraid.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I'm actually, go ahead.
Myke Hurley: But I was gonna say, we already have a, the, the best suggestion of Halloween costumes.
Brad Dowdy: Oh, we did, we did get the best suggestion, but I'm working, so I'm actually not going. We have the American Field Show in Atlanta that Nacho's going to be at on Saturday and Sunday, this Halloween weekend. But the, um, the Halloween costume of choice this year seems to be, uh, going as the pin addict himself. Did y'all see this? Yep. I almost fell over when this came through. Uh, it's from Pinterest on, well, not Pinterest, but Pinterest on Twitter. Um, he pretty much nailed, nailed the pin addict Halloween costume. So if anyone is, needs a last minute suggestion, we'll have a link in the show notes on how to dress as the pin addict, uh, for Halloween. And, uh, you know, send all your pin addict Halloween, uh, pictures in to us at the show.
Pen Chalet[edit]
Myke Hurley: Just one last thing before we close out today. Yep. Um, I literally just, as we speak, got an email from Ron at Pen Chalet, uh, to ask if it was not too late to mention. And I thought that maybe the listeners would like to know this. Sure. They just got a shipment of Franklin Christoph pens, um, in some exclusive colors. I don't know what they are yet, but they will be up on the site tomorrow. So Tuesday. So you want to go and check that out. Don't forget that discount as always.
Brad Dowdy: Oh, awesome. Yeah. We will check that out for sure. I will be, uh, all over that. I'm intrigued to see what they are. I am intrigued. All right, Dan. Well, we appreciate you coming on. It was, it was too long since last time. Um, we need to have you on, uh, more frequently cause I always love talking to you. And, uh, I really appreciate you making the time for us and the listeners and telling us all about the, uh, Karis Customs goodness that's going on because it looks pretty awesome.
Dan Bishop: Yeah. No, no problem. My pleasure. And, um, anytime.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. Thanks, Ben. I'm so happy to see you guys are doing well cause you really, really deserve it.
Dan Bishop: Well, we wouldn't be here without, without our awesome customers. So it's really all them.
Myke Hurley: I thought you was going to say us, but you know, whatever.
Dan Bishop: Oh, wait, start, stop. Wait, we've got to do this again. No, no guys. Really. It wasn't for the pen addict podcast, you know, happened. So you guys, you know, you're the best.
Myke Hurley: It's all down to us really. I don't know.
Brad Dowdy: We'll, we'll edit, we'll edit that first part out and just put that good, that part in.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. Don't worry. I'll take care of that. I'll take care of that.
Brad Dowdy: All right. Thanks, Dan. And Myke, get us out of here.
Myke Hurley: I will. Thank you so much for listening again. Thanks to Dan for joining us. You want to go and check out Karis customs, of course, and there'll be some links to all the products that we discussed today over in our show notes at relay.fm slash pen addict slash 178. If you want to find Brad online, he's over at penaddict.com and he's also a dowdyism on Twitter, D O W D Y I S M. And he's pen addict on Instagram. And I am at I Myke, I M Y K E on Twitter and on Instagram. We'll be back next time. Hopefully we're feeling a little bit better and we'll be able to talk from one in 30 seconds at a time. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week. Say goodbye, guys.
Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, guys. Goodbye, guys. Bye, guys.