The Pen Addict 207/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 207 |
| Title: | The Right Person Was Me |
| Release Date: | June 1st, 2016 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | No guests this episode |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 207 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 207 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 207 |
| Length: | 7373 min <br />1.217 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
Podcast Intro[edit]
Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 207. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by the man with a plan, Mr. Brad Dowdy.
Brad Dowdy: So how did your knighthood go? We were a little bit late because you were meeting with the Queen, right?
Myke Hurley: It went pretty well. It went pretty well.
Brad Dowdy: Are you a sir?
Myke Hurley: I will be. I will be in the next honours list for my duties to handwriting.
Brad Dowdy: I like it. That could be a thing. I think we could work on that, you know, the handwriting knighthood.
Myke Hurley: I'm working on it. You know, she's very happy. And yeah, we're gonna get it set. So Sir Michael Hurley.
Brad Dowdy: I like the sound of that, actually. So I'm glad your meeting went well. And you weren't too late today. You know, we were a little bit late, but I'll wait for the Queen anytime.
Myke Hurley: I told her. I said, you know, I've got to go. Brad's waiting for me. And she's like, oh, I love him. He's my favourite. So she let me go.
Brad Dowdy: Good, good. Well, good. We have a lot of things to talk about today that might help with your knighthood in, you know, bringing the love of stationery across the world as you've done representing England very well.
Tom Ben Bag[edit]
Myke Hurley: I do my best. So you posted a big review here of a product that you teased a couple of weeks ago, I think, on the show, the Tom Binfield Journal Notebook. Now, this has kind of got a deceptive name, I think, because I think it's a paper product, but it's not. It's a bag. I guess it's both. Can it be both? I mean, it can be both, but I mean, really, it's the bag.
Brad Dowdy: It's a bag with built-in stuff for writing, for field journaling.
Myke Hurley: Yep.
Brad Dowdy: You know, the origination of the product was literal, like, field work. Like, they made it for people who were out and about, worked in the field, you know, geologists, engineers, construction, National Park Service, that kind of stuff. You know, they wanted something for these people to be able to take out, be able to protect their writing, you know. And, you know, that's kind of how this product originated. And I think for, it must not have been doing really well for them because they took it down, right? Like, I did, I reviewed one five years ago, the original model.
Brad Dowdy: And, you know, they had it up for a year or two after that. And then they, it went off the site. And I used to get emails about it because people would find my review of it and wanted to know where it went. And I was like, I have no idea. Yeah. And then I was talking to the folks at Tom Ben earlier this year about a different product. And they said, hey, by the way, you did that field journal review a while back. We're relaunching it. Are you, do you want me to send that to you as well? I'm like, yeah, I want you to send it to me as well. It was like, like that was going to be a no, right? So they did. And I just love Tom Ben. They make, the quality of goods that they make is ridiculous. So the product I was talking to them about was the Aeronaut 45, which is their largest carry-on duffel. So I wanted that for my traveling. So I had been talking to them about that. And then that's how this came about.
Myke Hurley: So I just got my first Tom Ben bag. Oh yeah? What'd you get? Yeah, I got a Ristretto. Oh, nice. So I've been waiting on getting this for a while and I haven't really put it through its paces yet. But it's just whenever I have meetings in town or I want to go and work somewhere or, you know, I'm on a trip that has work involved. I want something smaller and lighter than my Topo mountain briefcase because I just want to carry my iPad around. Right. So I had been waiting for the Ristretto's to come back in stock for a while and I just purchased it. It came a couple of weeks ago. And yeah, I mean, again, I haven't really put the thing through its paces yet. I'm looking forward to doing that. But the quality of their products are amazing. I just want to mention at this point that Tom Ben have been a previous sponsor of Relay FM shows. But I paid for my bag up front.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I got mine for free because I'm a pimp that way.
Myke Hurley: Yep. I don't get it. I have to think about this. I was reading this when I was reading this and I get to the bottom of the page and it's like, oh, I was given this at no extra charge. I don't get nearly as much free stuff as you do. I want more free stuff. Why don't I get more free stuff? I have no idea. You know, Retro 51, they sent me a free pen that's on the way. They do. Right. And I'm happy to get that. But like, where's my free stuff? That's what I want. I want free stuff. So if you hear me out there, manufacturers of things, send them to me. I want stuff like bracket stuff.
Brad Dowdy: That's awesome. So back to this bag, which I, okay, I'll call it a bag. It's essentially a bag.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. See, that's what I mean. Like when I, when I first saw notebook, I think paper notebook, right? Like that's what you think of like a bound thing, but it's not a notebook. It's in that sense.
Brad Dowdy: But I want to, I'm going to reverse course and go back on the quality thing. Yeah. This is, I talk about sometimes with pens, how when I get a pen, like straight out of the post, open the envelope, open the box and put it into my hand. The feeling sometimes you just grin, right? Because you know, like right out the gate, it's that good. Yeah. Like you can feel it in the product. This is one of those products where I just like grab the zipper and look at the stitching and you just grin because you're like, holy crap, this is really good. It's like better than it does not compare to like anything else. It's so much better. And, um, that's the feeling I get with Tom Ben's products. And, you know, I really, really enjoy just the quality of them. So this is obviously the construction and manufacture of this are like a 10 out of 10, you know, it's like so well done, you know, but the functionality of it, that's going to be up to an individual, right? Like this is not a product that I would use regularly. So I'm giving it away. Um, you know, I want to give it to someone who would use it regularly, but that doesn't mean it's not just an elite product. Um, but like the paper, um, it has a three wing, three ring binder, um, attachment in the middle of the notebook of the field journal. Um, which is cool in your case, Myke, you can reverse that three ring. You can rotate it one 80.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. I pulled this part out of your review because that's such a fantastic, um, feature that shows, as you mentioned, a extra level of care to think about the fact that I shouldn't have to turn the bag upside down to be able to use this thing in the way that right-handed people can use it. So yeah, I think that's amazing that they've done that.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Just that they think about that kind of stuff. So, and the amount of things you can put in this, this is a small profile bag, right? This, this paper is like a five ish size. Um, it's yeah. Five and a half by eight and a half paper is, is what's made for this. And you can get three different types of, of paper with it. Like if this was something I would use, I would punch my own, like I'd get Rodea or something and punch my own and cut it. It would work just fine. But the amount of stuff you can put in this, in this field journal is ridiculous. I bet I could get 20 or 30 pins just in the slots. And then there's two or three other pockets you can hold things in. It's crazy. The amount of stuff. So I could see where this was used for like a biologist to go out in the field and do tests. Right. But that's such a specific use case. You know, you're never going to just sell it to like the biology crew. You're not going to sell that many of them. Right. So it's, uh, it's definitely kind of, uh, they're trying to make it into more of a mainstream, you know, portable journaling notebook type of system. Um, you know, I, I just think it's a fantastic product. I think it's a fantastic company. And, uh, you know, I just wanted to shine a little light on it because, uh, I really like what Tom Ben does. And, uh, I want to, uh, make sure that everyone wants to get on the giveaway of this product, uh, that it's going on right now. And we'll have that link in the show notes.
Myke Hurley: Yep. I put it in there. Yeah. This looks real cool. I loved as well. You mentioned about the fact that you don't even think you've found all the pockets yet. And that, that is a real, uh, that's a real thing. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: That happened. That happened with my aeronaut, the, the big carry on, like I was packing it, uh, one of the first times I used it and I was packing and I was like kind of done. And then I turned it and I saw this other pocket and I was like, crap, there's more, more things I can discover. So that, that literally happened with the, uh, the big bag. So I, I'm sure there's something in there that I've missed on the, the field journal as well. So good job. Good job by them.
Myke Hurley: Yep.
Book Block Journal[edit]
Brad Dowdy: I love this stuff. Another product I got in like a month ago, I want to say is a book block journal. And this happened on Kickstarter, I believe originally.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. When I went to this page, I know I've seen this before.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I'm almost positive. And, um, you know, they'd been contacting me and they contacted a bunch of other bloggers and they, um, got like, um, my pen addict artwork and wanted to make a journal for me and send it to me and, uh, have me check it out and review it, which I'm going to do. That's like in the review queue. Like I did a Periscope mic before the podcast today, since we're running a little late and I had some, some time I did a Periscope, but just realizing how big my backlog of stuff I need to review. And this is, this is one of them. So what they did is they took my pen addict logo and you can choose like different, uh, brands of notebooks to get printed on. So like mine was done on these, uh, Monsieur notebooks, which they can do like this digital print of the pen addict logo. I picked an orange color. They matched the orange color of the notebook, did the pen addict logo on the front, did the text, um, you know, dropped in, um, you know, there are worse addictions right on there. Well, I snuck that in on me, which was really cool. They, they did that without, without me. I just sent them the logo. So that was cool. And they, the quality of like the printing, it's good. But as you put in the show notes, they're not the best notebooks, right? Their choices are Moleskine with, uh, Monsieur, which is pretty much like Moleskine. It doesn't work great with fountain pens. Like, uh, Joe Crace reviewed his, you know, it's, it's good, um, for just like basic pens and pencils. It's not great for fountain pens. Um, and then the, the book block, um, notebooks I'm not familiar with are the Castelli, which are the other options, um, you can get, I love the idea. The idea is good. What they delivered was good. It could be better, right? That's kind of where I'm at on this. Like I even emailed them some feedback on this Monsieur notebook. Like they didn't package mine. Right. So, um, the notebook cover rubbed against the cardboard envelope. Well, my logo is white. So that affected the logo when it arrived, right? That's something easily fixable. They just need to wrap the notebook better. Um, you know, the backside of the Monsieur notebook, um, it has the ribbon, you know, like all these notebooks do like the Moleskine and, you know, all these, you know, have the ribbon closure. The backside of the Monsieur notebooks where the ribbon attaches is not grommeted. So when you have a dark color notebook, you don't have that metal ring protecting it. So it kind of tears it and wears it. And you see the white through, it's just a glaring kind of eyesore type of thing. So there's like some fit and finish the details they need to work on. And I've told them this, uh, through email and sent them pictures of what I was talking about. And this will, this will also be in my review, but like the printing stuff and the ones that I've seen, they do a really good job at that. It's just not the best product for us.
Myke Hurley: It feels like it's kind of perspective that you're putting all this effort in and you're wasting it by putting crap paper inside. Like, I feel like they should at least have the option. Like, do you know what? I looked at this. I looked, I looked at this page and I started scanning and immediately I was looking for tomorrow. River paper. I was like, where is it? It's gotta be on here.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah.
Myke Hurley: That was like what was going through my brains. It's like, you make that, my God, we'll all buy notebooks from you. If you can like put something like Tomoe in here, everyone's going to get one, right?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's probably never going to happen, but something like Rodeo that is more common and could probably get, um, to be able to do this. Yeah. I could see that. Yeah. But, uh, Rodeo is one that does, um, their logo on the front cover where, you know, Moleskine and some of these other ones don't. So maybe they're just getting standard stock stuff instead of getting something built for them. But if they took the time and effort to get something built for them that they could use for this, it would be an infinitely better product, uh, infinitely more useful.
Myke Hurley: From the way that they put it on the website though, you can kind of build it to order. Like you can choose any outside and any inside. So, you know, it feels like it would be possible to, to not have the Rodeo thing on there, but maybe it gets more expensive when you do that. But maybe because it kind of says that the website is like, uh, pick your cover material, pick your paper interior and papers. Like it looks like you can do the whole thing. We can custom make any notebook, any size, just the way you want it. I think put some, put some better paper. Like I know you say it's difficult, but if they could find a way to, to put like the Tamari inserts, you know, like you get the little small inserts cause they have some of those here, chuck a couple of those in a notebook and with a cover that you make yourself and be game over. Be great. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Be great. Cause the, uh, the, the logo work like they do, like the, the, that actual process of getting it onto the cover was pretty cool. They did a good job with that.
Myke Hurley: So yeah, nearly there guys.
Brad Dowdy: It's a, yeah, it's a something and it's just not all the way there yet. So, so it's a thing. So another thing that just launched this morning was the Baron fig Vanguard. When I started like being like really into stationary and getting older, this is like pre pen and attic stuff. So, you know, probably like 10 years ago, my favorite notebooks were the moleskin, the Kaye's, the, the paper cover, the soft cover, not the hard bound. I would have stacks and stacks of the paper cover, the soft cover notebooks. Did you ever use those?
Myke Hurley: No, but my favorites, and you could probably go back in time and get this was the standard moleskins, standard size moleskin, standard thickness, but with soft covers. Yeah. So they would make them with cardboard covers, not the Kaye, not the thin ones. Right. Yeah. They were the regular size, thick, regular ones, regular moleskins, but with soft covers so they could be opened flat and more easily. Like the ones that you're mentioning, I think are the ones where you get them in like a three pack. Exactly. Yeah. But these ones were the regular ones with a soft cover, but yeah, I used to love that.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I'd buy the ones, the small ones would come in three packs. The large ones would come in two packs because they were so big and they had tons of pages. That was always my favorite format. And I love that style. And Baron Fig launched that one this morning called the Vanguard, which is similar. It's that soft cover that I love, love, love, love the soft cover. Um, and they did it in, you can get it in grid. I'm sorry, dot grid ruled or blank. And they have like a light gray and a dark gray cover with their yellow stitching that they use. It looks similar. It looks like a Baron Fig product, but it's in the soft cover. I've reviewed them. They sent me some, um, in advance. I've been checking them out. I just posted some pictures this morning. Um, I didn't have time to do a proper review before they launched them, but they're really cool. Um, the paper, it's just like any other Baron Fig product that you've ever used before. The paper's the same. So it's really good with gel, ballpoint pencil. It's pretty good with fountain pens. My finer nibs have zero issue, no bleed, no ghosting, no feathering, nothing. The wider nibs, um, like I used a medium German nib, um, and that ink, it doesn't bleed through the page. It doesn't feather, but you can see the ghosting, like you can see it on the back. Right. And then like the roller balls, like the Schmidt, which is funnily enough, the Baron Fig Squire that with the Schmidt P81, 26 and 27 reviews, you can see that through the back. Uh, sorry, refill, not review. Um, but it's not, yeah, it's not a lot. It's not anything that I think would prevent someone from even writing on the back. So it's pretty good. Um, but I, I just love the format of these notebooks with the soft covers. I'm a soft cover junkie.
Myke Hurley: What is the difference between the Vanguard and the apprentice?
Brad Dowdy: Uh, nothing. The, oh, where'd it go? I thought I brought it in here. I think it might be a little bit thicker. I don't know that it is actually thicker. It's, it's pretty much the same.
Myke Hurley: I think it looks like on their website, they have now replaced the apprentice with the Vanguard and they have them in different sizes because previously they were just pocket.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So I think they're identical. Um, could you get the apprentice in different rulings?
Myke Hurley: I don't think so.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So maybe they've just, um, maybe it's been usurped with this one. That's a good question. It looks like the same size.
Myke Hurley: Uh huh. And so what is the material of the color? Is it like a cardboard? It's not like a cardboard. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: It's like a thick cardboard.
Myke Hurley: Cause another thing I used to like about the Moleskine ones is they had that same covering, you know, like the faux leather covering. Yeah. They would put those on the soft cover ones that I used to use. And I used to really like that cause it was something a little bit more durable than paper or cardboard.
Brad Dowdy: Right. This is more like the Kaie that had the cardboard covers. And that's how this is. So it's cool. The cool thing about the pocket size, which I have told people several times, um, the, the old apprentice and now I guess the new Vanguard pocket that fits your traveler's passport size. That's what size the small one is. So that's a good option for people that are looking for something different, um, in their, in their passport, um, Midori passport books to, to check out.
Myke Hurley: As usual with Baron Fig, um, I really liked the naming of the, uh, sizes, pocket flagship and plus they're really nice names.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's perfect.
Brad Dowdy: Perfect. So I, I've used, I chose the flagship dot grid to start with. So that's the one I've been playing around with. I like it. Good. I very much like it. Um, and I have some of those to give away. So they sent me a whole box full of them. I got about six or seven packs of them. So I'm going to do a giveaway maybe next week, maybe the week after. So stay tuned for that. Um, more stuff on my desk, Myke, more, more making you mad, even though this one's not necessarily for you. I don't think you would like this pen. And actually you put a note in the, in the, in the review that it's not for you at all. But I, Ian Schoen has made, um, pocket pens for a while. He started on Kickstarter a few years ago. He's always had really cool designs here. Let me get this out of its case real quick.
Myke Hurley: Ooh. Ooh. Ooh, do that again.
Brad Dowdy: That's just in its, uh, it's got one of those cardboard, uh, tubes, but it's so tight. That's great sounding. That's just, that's out of its, uh, storage tube. I've been carrying this. It's a little pocket pen. It fits the Fisher space pen refill. He started out making aluminum pens, sold them on Kickstarter, started his own site. He's done real well. He does a really good design. Um, so now he's making them in other materials. The one he sent me is stainless, uh, which he's also sent to our buddy, Myke Dudek. And Myke has got his review up on it. Um, this is a heavy sucker. Like it's heavy. I don't know how to compare it. It's like, it might be the heaviest pen I own. It's probably ranks up there with some of the full size Karas customs, uh, brass and copper pens. You know, I haven't weighed them side by side. It's got some density to it. I mean, that's bouncing off my desk right there. So I carry this in my pocket. I actually don't notice the weight in my pocket. Like it's, I thought it would be, I thought it would bug me in my pocket being too heavy. It's not where it does get heavy. Sorry. As I, as I unscrew that is when you post it, like writing unposted is fine. It's long enough for me to write unposted. I've been carrying this at knock every day. Um, because I liked, I'm in and out of the office and the shop constantly all day, all day, all day. And I need a pin sometimes. And I ended up not carrying, um, a pin clipped to my shirt because I'm up and down, bending over, pulling stuff off shelves, whatever. I think it's going to fly out. So I care. I've been wanting a pocket pin. I've been carrying this one for a week and I've been using it and I love it. Um, the only downside is the weight is too heavy for me when it's posted. It becomes a very unwieldy pin, if you will, just because of the weight. But I think some people would like that. Um, other than that, I really like it. I'm going to, I'm still working on that review. So that's another one coming soon. That's another one I will probably give away because I wanted to go to someone who will use it more than me, but I don't know. I've been carrying it a bunch. So maybe I'll have it so banged up. I did drop the, drop this on my foot once. Um, luckily it like hit my, I was wearing like a flip flop. Luckily it hit like the strap or else I'd probably have a mark.
Myke Hurley: I just don't like how it looks.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah.
Exposed Screw[edit]
Myke Hurley: I can understand that. It's really, it's really not for me. Like the exposed screw in the end of it. Uh, that like the way that the, the grip section is like significantly different in size, like thickness. Yeah. It's just not my kind of style. It's, I've never been a big fan of tactical looking pens, you know, I think like the Karas custom stuff, like whilst durable has a real nice sense of design about it, you know, like I guess that would be the closest that I would come because they're like big and heavy stuff, you know? Right. Um, but you know, even then I prefer the more elegant ones that they make, like the ink over something like the bolt. Right. Um, yeah, this, it's just not, they're just not for me.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. This is definitely not a pin for everyone. And I would recommend it, it would have to be like a very specific problem you're trying to solve. If you were, if this came up, like in my recommendations list, like if I had an email saying, you know, certain things, um, you know, there's all kinds of different pins I recommend for different things. Um, this one would have to hit a specific set of circumstances, uh, for me to recommend it, but that doesn't mean it's not a good pin for me. Um, it's also expensive. I think this model runs right around a hundred dollars. So not a cheap pin. Um, but it's, uh, it's not going anywhere either, man. This thing is, uh, this thing that's gonna, it'll, it'll definitely withstand the zombie apocalypse. I'm, I'm fairly certain of that.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. I think you might be right there.
Brad Dowdy: My next pin might, um, withstand the zombie apocalypse too. Although I'm not sure about the nib because it is a fountain pen, but I got the, uh, my orange Edison Pearl G 10 that I bought at the DC pin show last year. Um, it had a, it had a sibling there in black that, uh, another, someone I knew bought. And, um, you know, I always kind of told him if he ever got rid of it and to let me know, and I'd be interested in turns out a few weeks ago, he was interested in selling it and, uh, I bought it. So I now own an orange and a black Edison Pearl G 10. How many of these actually exist? I think it's just these two.
Myke Hurley: That's what I was just about to say. Do you own all of them? Yeah, I think you own all of a line of pens. How do you feel about that?
Brad Dowdy: I don't know that that's a total fact, but I believe that's the case. The, uh, Brian Gray just made them as just to see how the G 10 material would work in a pen. Um, and he made these two and he gave them to, uh, Bryant with Chatterley, uh, to sell. And, uh, Bryant actually couldn't sell them, um, until the right person came along and the right person was me. I like very particular things in a pen. And when I see something, um, in a design, in a shape that I like, in a material that I like, in a color that I like, uh, you know, it just happened to be the right match for me. And I think that happens with a lot of pens, right? That's why we have our, all have our own particular tastes and styles, but I think these are the only two I could probably email Brian Gray and clarify, but, um, I think these are the only two that he made because they damage his machinery so much. We wouldn't talk to him when I bought the orange one, cause I wanted to learn more about it. Um, because it's such an interesting material and I wanted to ask Brian what he was trying to do with these pens and he was trying to make G10 pens and, uh, what G10 is, it's like a fiberglass. It's like a heavy duty fiberglass material. You see a knife handles a lot. So it's a very, very dense, fibrous material. Um, and it ended up like overheating his machines cause it was, it was hard to manipulate in, in all the machinery that he had. So he ended up not making them. So are these the only two? I don't know for sure, but, um, I'm glad I have these two cause they're pretty cool. I like them. So it's, it's my kind of pen. Like you want to design a pen for Brad? This is, this is the pen for me. So it's very cool. So welcome home Edison G10 in black.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. Um, what do they feel like? It's like a, like a acrylic or something, right?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But like really hard, really dense. Let me get, let me, so here's the thread. So you can tell there's some tactile-ness there. Like it's not a smooth threading, but the barrel is dead smooth. But listen to this sound. It's different than you would think.
Myke Hurley: It sounds more metallic.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But it's like a really hard plasticky fiberglass type material. It's really hard to explain until you get it into your hands. It's very, very solid, but lightweight.
Brad Dowdy: So it's a interesting material. So you've, you've, you've used my orange one before and, uh, like it's hard to like grasp it, like what actually it's made of. Cause it feels so different from anything else.
Myke Hurley: Look at you buying up all the stock.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah.
Myke Hurley: We'll see. That's my pen, man. I like it. All right. This week's episode is brought to you by Harry's. Listen up everyone. Father's day is fast approaching and a Harry's shaving set will make the perfect gift. Not only do they look cool, they feel special as well. And it's something that will be a joy to use every day and remind that father in your life that you got them something lovely on father's day. Don't just buy another tie or a pair of socks. Harry's have got you covered. While supplies last, Harry's is offering a special limited edition shave set for father's day. But Hey, there's no reason why you can't buy one for yourself as well. Over 1 million people have switched to Harry's because they offer a high quality shave at about half the price of other big brand blades. On average, an everyday shaver saves $150 each year on blades using Harry's. And you're able to order online easy peasy. They make great quality products. You're going to get a close, comfortable shave with their five blade German crafted cartridges, which feature a flexible hinge and lubricated strip as well. And Harry's offers a quality guarantee so there's nothing to lose. Now let me tell you a little bit more about that special limited edition father's day shave set. It includes a matte black razor handle, a chrome razor stand, Harry's moisturizing foam shave gel, and three of Harry's handcrafted blade cartridges and a travel cover, all for just $40. It comes in a sleek giftable box with the option to add custom engraving and a personalized card as well. Harry's also offers shaving sets at all different price points starting at $15. So you'll find the right set. Now, Brad, I believe you have one of these shaving sets.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So Harry sent me one so I could talk about this when, you know, we were when it was getting around to Father's Day because it's such a cool kit and I am a diehard Harry's customer. So number one, Myke dropped it on me without me knowing it's coming. Number two, when I opened the box, I went, oh my God, look at this. It's really cool. Then I texted you like, look what Harry sent me. Look how cool this is. You're like, yeah, I know. I'm like, okay.
Myke Hurley: I knew it was coming.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So what stood out about this is number one, the handle. The handle feels different than any of the other handles and I've tried them all. The black matte finish is very cool. It's got some weight to it. And the one thing I don't have in this kit is the stand, you know, the little razor stand, which is a, is it a block of?
Myke Hurley: A block of aluminum.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So that's in the kit. And that's the one thing out of all the Harry stuff that I have. I didn't have that. So I really want that. But I've kind of got a dilemma, Myke. So Father's Day is coming up. And guess what my father in law's name is?
Myke Hurley: Is it Harry?
Brad Dowdy: It is Harry. Oh, the outside of the box of this whole kit says Harry's shave set.
Myke Hurley: That's kind of perfect.
Brad Dowdy: That's kind of perfect. So it's been sitting there on the counter in my bathroom unused because I got to decide if I'm going to give this thing up to the father in law. I think that's totally the right move. Don't you?
Myke Hurley: Well, Brad, why don't you just buy another one? Right. You keep this one. Give the other one away.
Brad Dowdy: And I wouldn't even have to engrave anything because it already says Harry's shave set on it.
Myke Hurley: Perfect. So this is a perfect gift for all fathers. But if their name is Harry, it's even more perfect. Go to harrys.com right now and you'll get $5 off with your first purchase with the promo code PENADDICT. Free shipping for Father's Day ends on Friday, June the 3rd. So act quickly. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S.com. Enter the code PENADDICT to check out and you'll get $5 off the perfect gift for Father's Day. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM.
Desert Island[edit]
Brad Dowdy: So, Myke, do you ever wonder, if you were stranded on a desert island, what one pen, one ink, and one paper would you bring with you?
Myke Hurley: It's difficult.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Our friend Tony, friend of the show, Tony's in the chat room today. He's created a website called DesertIslandDesks.com.
Myke Hurley: Which is a really, really fantastic name. Yes. Good job, Tony. Because of Desert Island Disks.
Brad Dowdy: Yes. Exactly. I used to love Desert Island Disks. That was one of my favorite things to always read and I'd always make my own list for that. So, I should do that one day, make my own Desert Island Disks. But I want to make my own Desert Island Desk, Myke. So, Tony has set this up on Tumblr because you can submit to this. So, he has a submission page where you, you too, Michael, can let Tony know your one pen, one ink, and one paper. So, what do you have? Do you, can you answer your Desert Island Desk right here live on the podcast?
Myke Hurley: Yeah. I think, I think I can. Okay. So, ink is easy. So, first off, I thought about Retro 51, right? As being mine, as the ink and the pen all in one. But as much as I love them, I think I would miss fountain pens too much, right? Like, if I only had a Retro 51 with me, I'd probably miss the fountain pens. Plus, the bottle of ink, the one bottle of ink that I have would probably last longer than the refill. Right? So, I'm thinking smart here. Yeah. So, I would probably, as I speak right now, I reckon I would take my Pilot M90. Hmm. Because it is so beautiful, right? Like, it's a toss-up between that and the pro gear, but I think I would, right now, I would go Pilot M90.
Brad Dowdy: I didn't think about that one for you, but I think that's the right answer for you. I like that. Good call.
Myke Hurley: Naturally, I would go with Hiroshizuku Furugaki.
Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.
Myke Hurley: And whilst it maybe isn't the best paper for the job, sometimes, maybe, I don't know, I would definitely take field notes. Mm-hmm. Because I would, again, I would miss that too much, too. Like, in the same way that I've missed fountain pens too much, I would miss my cool field notes. Yeah. So, I don't know what one I would take. Probably, probably Night Sky. Mm-hmm. That's good. Because that's, I think that that is my favorite edition of all time. Gotcha. Gotcha. Um, so I would probably, I'd probably take those.
Brad Dowdy: So, I think the paper's the hardest to answer.
Myke Hurley: The paper is the hardest. Because I'm thinking, like, if I wanted to take the very best paper, that's something completely different to what is my favorite notebook. Right. So, it's like, if I was going to take the very best pen, I would take the Pro Gear, because I think the Pro Gear is a better pen than anything I own. Mm-hmm. But I would miss that, oh, do you know what, now I'm looking at my Sky at Night over here.
Myke Hurley: And, because this thing is the most fun pen that I have. Yeah. But it's not very useful, it wouldn't be very useful. It's difficult to write notes with this. Yeah. Because it's, I have the music nib on it.
Brad Dowdy: Right, right, right. Yeah, that wouldn't match up with your field notes very well.
Myke Hurley: No.
Brad Dowdy: So, I think I would have to take my Pilot Custom 823. I've been fawning over this pen since I first got it. It's the vacuum filler, the big, big boy Pilot. It holds so much ink. It writes so well. It's durable. It's strong.
Brad Dowdy: I think I could write with that one pen for the rest of my life on a desert island. I think that would be a good choice. And I would probably ink it with, golly, I think a Roshizuku Kanpeki. I wouldn't go blue black.
Myke Hurley: Ooh, strong choice. Strong choice.
Brad Dowdy: I wouldn't go blue black. I'd want something with some more pop that would be more enjoyable.
Myke Hurley: I'm very surprised you went with a Roshizuku, you know.
Brad Dowdy: I think my second choice would have been Sailor Apricot.
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: But I think I'm going to go with the Kanpeki. It's just so bright and happy, you know. And it will look cool in this pen, too. So, you know, you want to, you know, if I'm stuck on a desert island, you know, I want something that's going to be a little bit uplifting. And I think the paper, like I said, that's the hardest. I think I would probably do the Nanami paper, the Crossfield journal with the Tomoe River paper just because it's the right format and has a huge quantity of pages because that paper is so thin. That's a really, really cool journal. It's not the most durable or functional choice. But I think if I was set up with the 823, the Kanpeki, and the Crossfield, I'd be a pretty happy camper on a desert island. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: I think that's what I'm going with. So, you know what? And I will work on submitting that to Tony as well to get some love on his desert island desks. And, you know, Dave Forsythe, thank you for choosing the NotCo 3x5 index cards as your paper. That's pretty killer. I'm pretty happy about that. I'm not going to lie. And he wrote some nice words about them. And to have our product on a desert island, that's pretty cool, I think.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I like this. It's a nice site.
Jenny's Review[edit]
Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So, very cool. So, you wanted to talk about our good friend Jenny's Sweet Tooth review?
Myke Hurley: I just wanted to mention it and point people to it in case they haven't seen it for the photography. Yeah, she's out of hand. It's in the levels that Jenny reaches photography wise with her reviews of the Field Notes issues just continue to get better and better. Like, my favorite points on this review is when Jenny is showing the Sweet Tooth colors in context with all of the other colors that have been used. So, the green belly band is the same green as the soybean from the national crop on the inside. And then she shows all the yellows, all the blues, and all the reds together. That's my favorite part. But just all in all, the photography, it's just absolutely, absolutely incredible. And it's worth going to just to take a look at that.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, definitely visit it. This is, to put something together like this is a lot of work. Just for one single post on one single blog. It's really cool. She did a great job setting it all up.
Brad Dowdy: Photographing it. Reviewing it. Again, yeah. She does awesome stuff. So, you should definitely go see Three Staples. And we'll have to see about getting her on the podcast sometime, shouldn't we, Myke?
Myke Hurley: I agree with that. I agree with that.
Myke Hurley: I also wanted to just ask you the question of what's in the box. You posted a picture on Instagram that said Top Secret. And it's like a bunch of bubble wrap stuff. And I am just too nosy. And what is all this madness here?
Brad Dowdy: You should have watched my Periscope earlier today. Oh, yeah? Because, so I took that picture three days ago. That stack of stuff is in the exact same state that it was when I took that picture. I have a stack probably eight or ten inches tall of an order from JetPens. And that's probably as much as I can say. It's all JetPens stuff that's coming soon, if you will. So, this is me getting ahead of the game. Adding to the monstrous stack of reviews that I have to do. And, unfortunately, the bubble wrap. I could go take this picture again right now. Because it has not been touched since I received it. So, it's just another one of those stacks I have to work through, Myke. Busy man. Keeping me busy at Pin Addict LLC or whatever it's called. Just all this free stuff all the time. Free stuff, free stuff. Working it, man. Working it.
Myke Hurley: But, got to get them reviewed. Got to keep them going. Busy boy. Yes. All right. You got some Ask TPA for us?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We got a bunch. So, we'll see if we can get to all of it. We maybe can. We can probably fly through some of it quicker than others. Because there's some I want to elaborate on. And there's some I can get through quicker. But this first batch. So, our questions are split up in two halves. One is a bunch of Slack questions that I got out of the podcast channel in our Slack room. If you want access to our Slack room, it's available to anybody and everybody. You just have to get me an email address I can send the invite to. So, get me on Twitter. Send me an email. Facebook. Whatever.
Myke Hurley: There's no link anymore. There used to be a link. The link doesn't exist. Now, you have to go through Brad. Which I think is maybe the first kind of line of vetting. Maybe.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And I've never turned anyone away. Just in case. But it's just instead of having it. It's gotten so large. Instead of just having it wide open. We'll just have this one little step. You got to make the effort to send me an email. Say, hey, I would like an invite to the Peninnoc Slack room. And then I send it to you. So, that's it. So, this is a bunch from the Slack room. So, I want to be sure to get these in for sure. So, Kvilhana. You know, we have Twitter style usernames in there too. So, wants to know about our summer plans and which shows you and Myke are planning on attending. I'll let you go first because you're attending a show that's not a pen show. It's not even a show. But what are you about to do?
Myke Hurley: Well, I'm going to Barcelona this weekend. I'm going to Primavera Music Festival. I'm going to be seeing Brian Wilson.
Brad Dowdy: Nice.
Myke Hurley: He's performing as part of his kind of 50th anniversary of Pet Sounds. Have you ever seen him before? Yeah. I know how big a fan you are. Yeah, this will be my fourth. Okay, cool. I've seen him twice on his own. I've seen him once with the remaining Beach Boys. Massive, massive fan. Yes. So, I'm very looking forward to that. And then I'm going to be off to WWDC.
Myke Hurley: Just after that. So, the week after we go out to San Francisco. I haven't got any pen shows planned. Maybe I'll swing by London. We're going to talk about that, right? As we spoke about last week. So, we might maybe try and get a small London crew together and roll up to the London pen show.
Brad Dowdy: We're going to have the desk of Adam on next week as our special guest. So, we'll get some questions for him about London and do it up like we did with Tessa. So, yes.
Myke Hurley: So, that would be awesome. Aside from that, no. I mean, I am really tempted to do DC. But I don't think I can make it work this year because I've got some other travel in August. Yeah. But I think next year I've got to do DC.
Brad Dowdy: So, I will be at the DC pen show in August. Which is like the first week of August. Then I will be at the San Francisco pen show towards the end of the month. And between now and then, I'm just working my tail off at Nock. And I own the pen addict stuff. So, getting, you know, making sure all my business is in order. Getting everything straight for the summer. Because I'm going to be busy this summer just with family stuff. You know, the kids are out of school at the end of this week. They're off for about nine weeks. We end up doing a little bit of traveling. My parents live one direction. Her parents are in another direction. And so, we just kind of bounce around a lot during the summer. Between that, I'm going to be up the road at Nock. We are cranking on all cylinders right now. And we'll have some more news to share towards the end of the month. About, you know, getting our house in order, if you will. And getting everyone the cases they want. So, that's my focus. The next two months. Then August, I'll be traveling to two pen shows. So, it's going to be busy.
Myke Hurley: What do you think is the chance that DC would be interested in a... In a live episode of the Panadict? Zero. Okay. Too big?
Myke Hurley: Too clueless. Too big, too clueless. Alright, well.
Brad Dowdy: It would be such a hassle. We would have to do it completely off-site. And just completely ourselves.
Myke Hurley: Nah, it doesn't sound like fun.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah.
Myke Hurley: So, next year, I'll probably swing by. Yeah. To hang out for a couple of days, maybe. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that'd be cool. Get-togethers or whatever, but maybe no live show. Right. But, you know, I have thought about, and we have thought about, like, at some point, taking this show on the road, as it were. Yes. So, we're thinking about that. You know, where else could we do it? I would really like to do something, maybe East Coast or something like that, just so we can try and get some different people that can't usually make it out to Atlanta or whatever. So, we'll see. We'll see in the future.
Brad Dowdy: Yep. Something we always talk about. It's always on the table. So, keep thinking about it. All right, RoboGym wants to know, wants us to talk about what makes some pin makers a little boring, so to speak, and why they don't get much coverage comparatively. So, I mean, this is a really, really long, convoluted question that could be answered in so, so many different ways. But I think these days, it boils down to what brands are embracing, like the social media aspect of things, like historic brands, like Parker is the first thing that comes to mind. Why are they boring and why don't they get much coverage is because they choose to be boring and not look for coverage.
RoboGym Inquiry[edit]
Brad Dowdy: You know, they don't do anything socially. They don't make anything necessarily interesting. They've had a couple good designs recently, but their price points are way out of line with what their competition's doing. So, that's like a standout. You know, some of the historical brands like Parker, Waterman, Cross, all those companies just don't get coverage because they're not making anything interesting within the price point that they need to compete at. And that's what it boils down to. I've enjoyed some of the Parkers that I've used recently, some of the current Parkers. They're just never going to compete with what else is out there on the market.
Myke Hurley: Couldn't agree with you more. It boils down to, do they make things that tick our boxes? Mm-hmm. And if they don't, then it's highly unlikely that we're going to talk about them. Right. Right.
Brad Dowdy: So, Tambone wants to know about pin purchase regrets. Um, her story is she got obsessed with getting her hands on a Sailor Pro gear, the all orange one, Myke, and ended up paying too much for one. So, she said, then it came and I was like, what is my problem? Any pins are that either you or I got caught up in the hype and were disappointed with purchase. You know, she's not necessarily saying like, that's a bad pin, but she got so obsessed with it, she probably overpaid instead of waiting. You know?
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: It is more like she had to have it now and then was disappointed. Is there anything you had to have now and was disappointed in? I'm trying to think myself.
Myke Hurley: I don't know in that exact way that like I maybe bought something that I shouldn't have bought. But I have definitely bought some pens that I've ended up regretting. Hmm.
Brad Dowdy: You know? Do you have a name?
Myke Hurley: Well, like the Vanishing Point. Sure. Okay. That's a good one for you. Yeah. I ended up like I kind of really put that pen on a pedestal without ever having actually used it. And after using it for a while, like I noticed immediately that it wasn't right for me, but tried to kind of like not think about it for a while. Right. And I was just talking about all the things I liked about it, but it was never comfortable for me to use. Yeah. Um, so, you know, that's definitely one, uh, outside of that, I think I would struggle to, I mean, I definitely got caught up in my, uh, custom made Edison. Um, and I paid more money than I should have, you know, like not that it wasn't a fair price, but like having a gold nib put on it was pointless. I don't know why I did that. Like I didn't necessarily need that. Um, their steel nibs are fantastic. Like I just went overboard. Okay.
Brad Dowdy: So you're not going to like this one, Myke. I think the one pen I regret getting is my orange Nakaya Nagoro.
Brad Dowdy: Not because it's not a beautiful, awesome pen. It's because I did almost what you did where it was like such an impulse buy like, and I never use it because I don't love the nib on it. Like I bought it secondhand and I've never gotten the nib to where I want it to be to where it's my everyday carry pen. And that's what I want that pen to be. That's a pen that's made to be used. And I never ink it up because I don't love the nib.
Myke Hurley: What is the nib?
Brad Dowdy: Um, it's a fine gold nib, but it just, and I've had Myke Masayama work on it and I've never gotten it to where I want it to. It's either not firm enough or not fine enough or not smooth enough or all of the above or none of the above. It's just, it's, it's in my head now at this point. Right? So I want to, I think I want to send it off and just get a new nib and that way it's mine. Right? That's the issue with buying something secondhand, especially something expensive secondhand. You'd never know. And while there's nothing technically wrong with the nib, it's just not mine. It's also gold, which is fine on that orange pen. It looks good. But I think if I had a rhodium plated extra fine or rhodium plated medium stub, I would use it so much more. So I don't regret owning the pen. I don't regret that it's sitting there on my desk. I do regret that I spent the money for something that expensive that wasn't like dead perfect for me. I like got caught up in like, there's one of the most amazing pens ever that looks exactly for me and I have to have it now. And that's kind of what I did. And I think that's kind of what Tammy did too. So I didn't have to do that at the time. It's like we talked about with your Nakaya. It's always, it's going to be there, right? There's going to be another opportunity. And I think that's one I regret a little bit, but I don't regret owning it. And like, but you know, I'm going to spend 200 more dollars to get it for me. You know, does that make sense?
Myke Hurley: That's the problem. That is the problem.
Brad Dowdy: And I've been holding off on that because I don't want to spend 200 more dollars on it. So it's, I end up not using it because of that. So I don't know. I got to fix that. So, all right. Bellro wants to know, and I like this question a lot. Are you or Myke having any issues with limited edition fatigue? It seems like every vendor under the sun is releasing limited pens, limited inks. Heck, there was a limited edition traveler's notebooks for collectors. What say you?
Myke Hurley: I mean, luckily I don't buy into too much of it, right?
Brad Dowdy: So I'm shaking my head. Yes, vigorously.
Myke Hurley: So, you know, I like the limited edition of the things that I like. Yep. But the things that I like limited editions of are things that are already like collector's stuff, right? So when I came to Field Notes and when I came to Retro 51, they were already like had a history of making their like whole businesses around making things that are only available for a certain period of time. Like new items in their catalog. So limited editions fit within there. But I'm not a completionist of any of this stuff, so it doesn't bother me too much. But when there then starts to be like everyone jumping on that bandwagon, it gets a bit like I'm able to just be like, oh, this is ridiculous. But I don't buy into it. But I can see how it ends up being a problem. I wish that people wouldn't do it so much. Like I know that people really love the Blackwing, but it's just, you know, you look at it and you're like, what an original idea you had, Blackwing. You know, like it's like it's so clear that they, you know, that they looked at what Field Notes were doing and were like, we can get in on that action. Especially when I feel like a lot of the time, with like maybe one exception, in my opinion, they've not been very impressive. They're not impressive to new people in the way that Field Notes are. Field Notes can be impressive to people that don't care about notebooks because they do really interesting things. Not all of them, but lots of them. Yeah, but I do have the feeling of like, it's just too much.
Brad Dowdy: So I do think there's maybe some market fatigue. I don't, there's not any personal fatigue on my own because I don't buy, like you said, I don't buy into that. I'll buy a limited edition, not because it's a limited edition. I buy a limited edition because it's a product I already love, already use and know I'm going to use it. So, and I don't have to have it all, right? I've gotten to the point where, you know, maybe I used to, you know, have that fear of missing out on the limited edition thing. And I've gotten over that. So personally, I don't have limited edition fatigue. I like, I enjoy some of the releases of the products that I like in limited editions. And I'm happy to buy them and I'm even more happy to use them. I don't ever buy anything to collect and hoard, right? So, I mean, I buy it to collect it, but I'm buying it to use it, if you will. You know, it's not going to sit there and it's packaging. The market as a whole, maybe. I could see that where you're coming from with the comment. Maybe there's some limited edition fatigue within the marketplace as a whole.
Brad Dowdy: I don't know if that's going to change. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. We'll see. I mean, you know, things go in cycles right now. That's a pretty hot thing to do. You know, and we certainly do some of that stuff with Nock. And because we like making smaller batch things that are kind of cool. And so sometimes those things are limited. So, you know, I'm certainly part of that as well.
Myke Hurley: You're the problem, man.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I know. Right. I'm playing both sides of the fence, Myke. All right. So Penhall wants to know what makes Customs Pen so good? Ignoring the fact that they are personalized to use, strictly looking at a quality and performance. Are they worth it? I find that they're very much worth it. And you can't ignore the fact that they're personalized to you.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. If you remove the fact that they're personalized, then there's no point in them existing.
Brad Dowdy: Right. So I can pick out a material, pick out a barrel shape, pick out a design, and have the nib modified to fit into that and have it how I wanted and have that one-on-one service. That's what makes the Customs Pen so good. You can't ignore the personalization aspect of it. Quality and performance, they're just going to be different than if you compared them. Like, I have an Edison G10, the pens I've talked about today, the three pens I have inked up are a Pilot 823, which is a stock pen, a Pelican M205, which is a stock pen, and I have an Edison G10 Pearl, which is a completely off-the-charts custom pen. They do not compare at all. Like, you cannot put one of those pens up against each other. They're so different. Even though the Pelican has amazing quality and performance, the Pilot has amazing quality and performance. The Edison also has amazing quality and performance, but it has a material that I love and a shape that I love that's personal to me. That's what makes it such a good pen for me. That's why I paid $350 for it. It's not cheap. It's individually made. So, it is, they're so good because they are personalized to you. So, you can't really compare them otherwise. You know, you have to include that into comparing an Edison Pearl to a Pilot 823. You just do.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. Look, if you want to take all the personalization part out of it, then you are just paying for nothing.
Pilot 823[edit]
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Then just buy the Pilot 823, which is an amazing pen, which may be my favorite pen ever. I'm learning to love this pen so much. Very interesting. It's an awesome, killer, killer pen. It was my Desert Island pen, Myke. It's number two to my Nakaya portable. I will say that, but this is the Desert Island pen. If you want to spend $300 on a pen, buy the 823. It is killer. And you have a super large company backing you up. You have tens of thousands of pens. You know that they've already manufactured, so you know the quality is dead on. But getting that little extra that makes the pen for you, that's what the custom pen does. So, you have to count in that personalization aspect of it. So, kind of related to the last two or three questions, Nick wants to know, what are your thoughts on pen credit card debt? Spousal support of our disappointment of pen habit debt. I didn't read that correctly. Not just pens, but related expenses such as trips to pen shows. Can't recall this topic being discussed much in the pen community. I'm a strict believer in you should not have pen credit card debt. That phrase should not exist. If you're considering going into debt to purchase a pen and put it on a credit card that you can't pay off, like in the next month or two months max, you have no business going to a pen show or purchasing a pen. Don't do it. It's not worth it. Our friend Matt from pen habit went through this a couple years ago. And it's not a pretty thing.
Brad Dowdy: Don't do it.
Brad Dowdy: I take cash to pen shows for a reason. It's been many, many shows since I've put a pen on a credit card. I either pay for it for cat out of cash or out of PayPal for money that I know that's been set aside and saved specifically for pen show, specifically for pen show travel. Going into debt to purchase a pen is no. You just shouldn't do it.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I agree. Unless you know you can pay it off, right? That you know that it's like I've got a bonus coming in like two months and I'm going to pay it. It will pay it with that, right? Like, so I'll just put it on here now because I'm buying it now or I'm at the show now. Or like, it's like, you know that you would be able to pay it off in two chunks out of your disposable income. But you just don't have all that money to get right now. That's cool. Like, if you don't want to draw from your savings to do it, you want to put it on the card instead, do it. But there should never be a pen that like sticks on the card forever. I will take a slightly different route to you. If you are putting travel to the show on the card, I think that is more acceptable because that is a life experience. It's a different thing. It is in the way that people put holidays on credit cards. I think that is different. You're going to draw more from that in your life. I believe that kind of experience is like, I understand you're going to be paying it off for a few years because you have to. But don't buy pens on credit cards. Yeah, I can buy that. I'm not saying it's the way you should do it. But I think be more inclined to do that than to buy the pens on it.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you're taking it as your vacation kind of thing. But, you know, all this stuff we talk about on the show and all the stuff we buy and all the stuff we have, it should be coming out of like the rainy day slush fund. You know, don't go into don't go into pen credit card debt, please.
Myke Hurley: I was literally thinking just before you asked this question and I hadn't read the question about like the weirdness of this show existing. You know, you mentioned the pen that was like three hundred and fifty dollars. It's like it's such a large amount of money, but in context of what we talk about doesn't seem like a large amount of money. And, you know, it needs to be said that like we are both in a position that we're very lucky that that we're able to make the money that we make so that we can buy stupidly expensive pens. I know that it differs across our audience. Like Tessa was saying last week that she doesn't she doesn't like the idea of spending a couple hundred dollars or a hundred dollars on a pen.
Brad Dowdy: I thoroughly enjoyed when she said that. I think that was a really good point to make.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. And like she was disgusted kind of like the idea of it. And I think that that is a great way to look at it. And I think that's how everyone should be is knowing what is right for you, what your limits are and sticking to them. You know, I think that's important.
Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. Very much so.
Myke Hurley: It's how like, you know, with me, at least I take breaks from purchases for a long time, like big chunks of time where I don't buy anything. That's kind of the way that I lay it balanced out for me.
Brad Dowdy: That's kind of how I do it, too. But I'm, you know, I'm super lucky to be in a position where stuff crosses my desk all the time that I don't have to pay for. So I know I'm in a lucky position of privilege that way. So, you know, I'm able to hold off and making some of the big purchases, you know, every few months or something, you know, buy something by something big that I've been saving for. I've been eyeballing. So and I also want to save that money for when the opportunity arises, I can buy like this G10 that I wanted, you know, that I'm not having to put it on a credit card or something like that to just to be able to afford something that I want that I don't really need. So let's face it, we don't need all this stuff that we have. No. All right. But let's talk about how we're going to move this stuff. My Glenn HK is moving flats and he wants to move his ink pyre safely.
Myke Hurley: I have been thinking about this recently, you know, just in my life, I'm thinking about the fact that I'm going to be moving at some point and I have no idea how I will move all of my stuff.
Brad Dowdy: Just, you know, the only thing I can say, it looks like in Glenn's case, it's going to be local ish move. Anything pens and ink related, just move it yourself. Don't trust anyone else to do it. You can't pack it safely enough. You can't overpack the packaging, the bubble wrap and everything that you're going to do. And don't let anyone move it except for you. There's certain things that you and only you should move when you're moving locations. Pens and inks is one of them. Those would go in my car if I was moving and had someone else moving like my furniture. The pens, the inks and the computer go with me. You know, keep it safe. Keep it close and pack it well. That's all I can say. I don't have any other like super specific tips.
Myke Hurley: I couldn't agree more. Yep.
Ask TPA[edit]
Brad Dowdy: All right. So let's fire through these last couple. How's that sound, Myke? Sounds good. Let's do it. All right. So this is over on the Ask TPA hashtag on the Twitterverse. Necker Red wants to know some notebook recommendations for pencil users. I can't give you the best because I'm not the most qualified to answer that question. I can give you two options that seem to be very popular for pencils. One is the Baron Fig that we've talked about before. They work very well with pencils. Second is Write Notepads, which I have not personally used, but they get rave reviews for their quality with pencils. What I can recommend you not using is Rhodia. You don't want anything with a coated paper to use pencil on. It can be done just like I can use a fountain pen on a Moleskine, but I'm not making the best choice when I do that. So, you know, those would be my recommendations. Those seem to be the ones that get very well respected for using pencils, pencils constantly and field notes. I should say field notes as well. So they're very good for that. So, Myke, what is your daily carry look like these days? Do you have when you when you're packing up your Restretto? Are you taking any pens and paper with you?
Myke Hurley: Yeah, if it's leaving the house kind of daily carry, it's always a retro 51 and it's always a field notes because they can be banged up. I can lose them. They can get smashed about and it's not going to kill me. But if I'm talking like, what am I using every day? It is a combo right now of the Pilot M90 and today the Baron Fig Squire. Cool. And the Knock Co Spiral Bound. Nice. Nice, nice.
Brad Dowdy: I like those guys. They do good stuff.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, they're pretty good. Pretty good. I carry the Knock Co. They get on the limited edition bandwagon every now and then. I don't like.
Brad Dowdy: They're kind of bad that way.
Brad Dowdy: So I'm carrying a Knock Co Sinclair, which is limiting me to three inked fountain pens, which is a big change for me. I've been doing it about a month. I'm pretty happy with it. I'm a little bit shaky. Like I want to use some more pens, some more, some more inks and things like that. But I'm carrying the pens I've talked about already in the show. The Pilot Custom 823. That seems to always find its way into my rotation. I'm carrying a Pelican M205 Blue Demonstrator because I'm working on a review for it. And I'm carrying the Edison G10 because I just got it. And I want to enjoy it for a little while before I ink it up and swap it out with something else. In my Sinclair, two Knock Co. Dot Dash notebooks. One black, one Nico Blue because I love our paper. And I have in the middle of it, I have Knock Co. Dot Dash Index cards and my business cards. And I'm carrying a new notebook to test out that I've been really impressed with. It's an Apica CD notebook. I'll have to get the exact name because I just brought the notebook in and it's just all black. It has very minimal branding so I can't get you the exact name of it. But I got it from JetPens. It's exceeding like every expectation I've had of this A5 style hardbound notebook. It's spectacular so far. So I'm going to review it and I think people are going to love it. So that's what I'm carrying. Oh, I've also been carrying my shown design pens around the shop in my pocket at Knock. So that's what I'm going with. Sounds good, man. I didn't have to put this question in, but I did because something came up yesterday. So Snamelit on Twitter. Nice work.
Brad Dowdy: It's like a Harry Potter name. Has NotCo plans for a big bag-in-a-bag product. Hashtag STPA. Okay. So like I've alluded to, we're working on things at Knock. Getting things refined. Getting our inventory ramped up. And yesterday when we got caught up on our orders, Jeff and I had a little brainstorming session. And we came up with something that both got us kind of worked up about something that we would like to carry. It's not a big bag-in-a-bag per se, but we'll just go with ish.
Myke Hurley: That's very useful for everyone.
Brad Dowdy: Yep. Hey, the question was asked. I'm answering the STPAs, Myke. Do we have plans for a big bag-in-a-bag product? Yeah, kind of, sort of, ish. We're working on something. We threw out, we broke out the shears and the chalk, and Jeff put together a couple of testers yesterday. We've already failed both of them, but we're right on the, we're on track. We're messing around with something. So you never know, but maybe.
Brad Dowdy: All right. The Daniel wants to know, why is it so difficult to find Noodlers in the UK? No clue. I don't even know who distributes Noodlers in the U.S. anymore, so I certainly don't know who does it in the UK.
Brad Dowdy: I got nothing. I know it's a one-man show, so I don't know if he runs in and out of stock more frequently and just can't get with the distributor. But I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's also, could also be, you know, ink properties should be, could be an issue with various countries have various restrictions on various chemicals. And he uses so many different things, it's kind of hard to maybe narrow it down. That's just me speculating. I don't know.
Brad Dowdy: Todd Pedrick wants to know, any updated thoughts on the Traveler's Notebook? I don't, because it seems pretty much the same to me. What did they do? Added a color, changed the name. Same system. I love the system. It's awesome. It's wonderful. It's beautiful. It's functional. So, my thoughts are always super positive on it. So, my thoughts are still super positive on their rebranding efforts, which are underway right now. Wazed wants to know, what are some non-Hobonichi planners that have a weekly layout and are fountain pen friendly? So, I don't have an exact one to give you, but I would look at Rhodia and QuoVatis. They make fountain pen friendly planners, and I believe both of them have a weekly layout option. So, those are the ones I would check with. This was a good question that I was having a hard time coming up with an answer with, Myke. So, maybe you can help me. This is Todd from That One Pen. Wants to know, what brand style of pen paper that you have little or no experience with are you most interested in exploring?
Myke Hurley: Nakaya.
Myke Hurley: Tomoe River paper.
Brad Dowdy: What's funny is I was going to say, the only thing I can come up with is like a really expensive thing too, and that's Visconti. You know, I just wanted to like, all their high-end pens look really nice, like up in that 500 and more price range. They look really nice and really beautiful. And, you know, the Homo Sapiens is one I've been looking at. I'm kind of off that bandwagon now, but that's the only one I can come up with. I'm sure there's more, but Visconti seems to make, every time I see a picture of Visconti, I'm like, wow, that looks really good. Kind of like Omos was. Omos, I was late, too late to the bandwagon to get into Omos, but that's how they were. And I think Visconti's kind of that same way with me.
Brad Dowdy: All right. Omos, name lit. Let's get to another question, because this is actually a good question. I have a Schmidt P8126, which writes, uneven, dark words, light words, then dark again. Normal, empty, or dud. This is a dud. This happens with this refill from time to time. I don't know how often you experience it, Myke. I do get mentions on... It's happened.
Myke Hurley: Not often, but it has happened. And I've had other people ask me this question. They say, like, I don't think it's that great. What's the issue? If you use a P8126, in my opinion, and think that it's not good, you have a bad one getting you getting your refill.
Brad Dowdy: Unfortunately, it's a dud, and you're just going to have to pitch it and pay for a new one. They're not very expensive.
Myke Hurley: You get them a pack of three. And also, if you buy the pack of three, you can get them in different colors. I have blue right now. So, you know, usually they ship in black with Retro 51s and most pens. But they do make other colors of them, so at least you get that luxury.
Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, it's a dud. And that just... It's one of those refills that it's so popular and used so frequently. It's just going to happen.
Myke Hurley: All right.
Brad Dowdy: So, now this is a different question, and we're going to end it on this, Myke. Different question than our Desert Island pen, I think. Although, the answer could be the same. Nibin Muck, who is one of my new favorite bloggers. She wants to know, if you had to save one of your pens from a burning building started by pencil shavings, no less, which one would it be? I think this is a different question, a different answer from me than my Desert Island pen.
Myke Hurley: I'm struggling. I really am struggling with this one. Because I have three pens right now that I would immediately jump to mind, and I just can't decide between them. So, it would either be the M90, my Edison, my custom-made Edison, or my Sky at Night. I'm really struggling to decide between the three of them. Let's say, if you had to put me right on the spot right now, that I, again, would probably go with the M90. Just because it's a pen that I've wanted for so long. And I finally got it, and it's the hardest one for me to replace. I could get another Edison made. You know, it might be difficult for me to get the material, but it's not like I used a material that couldn't be bought anymore. The Sky at Night, I could get another one made, right? Because they're being made, the Canon Pen Company are making them, so you can buy them. You can at least try and get one made. I don't know what the status of that material is, but I assume it can be made.
Myke Hurley: But that Edison was mine, and I spent a lot of money on it. So, it's difficult, but I think I would have to go M90. Just because I've wanted that pen for so long, and it would be really difficult to try and get another one in the condition that I have this one in.
Brad Dowdy: And so, my answer is actually awfully similar to yours. It would be my Pilot Murex.
Brad Dowdy: Because it means a lot to me. Because Thomas Hall gave it to me. When, you know, I was just getting started in this, and, you know, we were going through pens, trying to find out things that I liked and didn't like. And, you know, it's a pen that I've latched onto, and I don't ink it up that frequently. But it's one of my favorites, and it has that special extra meaning. Like, I can replace my Nakaya portable, right? You know? And I can replace a lot of these other pens. That one, I can't. And so, that would be the one that I grab. My Murex. My black Murex from Thomas. That's just one of my all-time favorite pens. And it has that little extra meaning, you know, the story behind it. So, yeah. I think that's it.
Brad Dowdy: Cool. Does that wrap it up? That wraps it up. I think we have, like, I've seen more questions come flying in through the slacks and through the Twitters. But we'll just have to get to those in a couple of weeks, I believe.
Myke Hurley: Cool. If you want to go and find our show notes for this week, head on over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 207. If you want to find Brad online, he's over at penaddict.com and knock.co. He's at Dowdyers on Twitter, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. And he's penaddict on Instagram. I am at imyke on Twitter and Instagram. And we'll be back next time with another episode. We have a great guest next time, Desc of Adam. So make sure you tune in. There's another beautiful British accent on this show. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks to Harry's for supporting the show. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.