The Pen Addict 214/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	214
Title:	The Garish Quota
Release Date:	July 20th, 2016
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 214
Audio File:	Audio Episode 214
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 214
Length:	6969 min <br />1.15 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict episode 214. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Bradley Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Do you know my name really is Bradley?

Myke Hurley: We've had this conversation in the past and I could never remember which way around it was, whether you were or weren't Bradley.

Brad Dowdy: I am Bradley, but with no E.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah, because that's your email address, right? Or like you have a domain or something without the E.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So, Doug Beal, you already get your title struck down because you spelled it wrong. Bradley with no E. Don't ask me. I have no idea why.

Myke Hurley: Well, it's like my mum, her name is Deborah and it is spelled D-E-B-R-A.

Brad Dowdy: Ah, yeah, that's legit right there.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's a great way to spell that name rather than with the O in the middle. Yeah. D-E-B-O-R-A-H. That's not a good name.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I mean, you're Myke with no I, so... Not technically. I think the conversation ends there.

Myke Hurley: My mum didn't give me that name.

Brad Dowdy: For all intents and purposes, though.

Myke Hurley: She doesn't even call me Myke. She calls me Michael. I can see that. Everyone in my family does.

Brad Dowdy: See, no one calls me Bradley. Never, never have. And I don't mind. I like Bradley. Bradley's a good name, but it's one of those things.

Myke Hurley: What a peculiar start to this week's episode.

Brad Dowdy: I know. Well, I mean, it's just a carryover from the pre-show routine that we were having. And, you know, the first topic we're going to talk about is the Trump pin that we talked about. So there's lots of names that can go with this pin, right? So we were asked in one of our Ask TBA questions last week about if Donald Trump were a pin, what would he be? And we both immediately jumped to the chaos pin. And we actually let a bunch of people down, Myke. They thought the Scribble pin was the clear answer. What do you think about that? A lot of people said Scribble.

Myke Hurley: Scribble. And I kind of agree with why people say Scribble. But the thing is, whilst Scribble was ridiculous, it's not real. Trump is real.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But then I thought the Visionnaire was another good choice that several people mentioned. But it hit me after the show that if I had time to think about it more, I would have totally gone with the new Estabrook. Because that's real. And it's a phony. You know, it's an American brand trying to revitalize America, trying to make American pins great again by making their pins in China and India. I'm like, if that's not the perfect Trump pin, I don't know what is. Plus they're tacky and gaudy and overpriced. I mean, that's it. I mean, it's got to be right.

Myke Hurley: When I saw you say that somewhere, I was like, actually, that was the best option. That's the one we should have gone with.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep, totally. Or we could have gone with the real Donald Trump pin, right? So we got this linked a bunch. Well, he already is a pin. There's the talking Donald Trump pin. Have you seen this?

Myke Hurley: Only because it's in the document.

Brad Dowdy: So it has all the quotes listed in there. If you scroll down enough, it says, like, one of the quotes is, I love China. I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China.

Brad Dowdy: This would be a great pin. We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with winning. That's a great quote.

Myke Hurley: It's just tough for me to even find it funny. You know?

Brad Dowdy: It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. So I think the final conclusion is that Trump is the new Estabrook. I think that's the most perfect matchup if I've ever seen. If I've ever seen. So we will stick with that. And that'll be our final answer. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I like it. Well, considering there is no better option. That's what I'm going to go with.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. All right. So better options are definitely on the docket today than Trump. But we had to clear that up because there was some good response from that. So I am a Blackwing Volumes subscriber. I have been since day one. And when they very first teased the Blackwing Volumes edition, they did this montage video where they just kind of had all these representations of different things. Music, arts, film, sports, music. And in the teaser trailer, this is well over a year ago, they had a gentleman by the name of Jackie Robinson, which was the first African-American baseball player. And his number 42 is retired throughout the major leagues. Like no player on any team can wear the number 42. So I thought for sure that eventually we're going to get a number 42 Blackwing. And they pulled a switcheroo and did another really cool thing with this latest release. It's Blackwing Vol. 56, the Joe DiMaggio edition. And I know this doesn't really resonate with you, Myke, and understandably so.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I can get it, though. Like I know why he is a big deal. I know why this would be a big deal. But like the fact that I know the name Joe DiMaggio, like it tells me all I need to know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, well, I mean, he was married to Marilyn Monroe once, right? You know, he's famous in that way. You know, his name's in songs. You know, here's to you, Mrs. Robinson. You know, his name is in that. So people, you know, have always heard his name. But they did this volume 56 because it's considered one of the most unbreakable records in baseball history. He had a hit, at least one hit in 56 games straight. And no one's really come close in my lifetime. Like maybe, I think there's been a couple in the 40s, like in the past 20 years. There's definitely been plenty of hit streaks in the 30s. So I thought it was pretty cool. And the kicker is, you know, Joe DiMaggio is most famous for being a Yankee, I think, you know. And the Yankees are, you know, the Manchester United or like whatever the premier football teams are. The Dallas Cowboys, you know, every elite franchise. The Yankees is the elite historical baseball franchise. And I've never been a Yankees fan. But they did such a really good job with this pen. It's white with the blue pinstripes, gold ferro, blue eraser. And luckily, since I love the paint job so much, I'm thankful that it uses the Blackwing 602 core, which is the firmest one, which is what I like. Like if this one came with the soft core that came in the moon, I forget the one with the film that was compressed onto the barrel. I forget the exact name of it. I don't ever use those because it's a really, really soft core. And the 602 is definitely the best, definitely the firmest. So I was ecstatic to get to see what this was. And then when I got it in the mail, the first thing I did, I mean, when I opened it, I opened the box. And right on the top of the box is a coin. And I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I was like, what is this? I don't recall any conversation about this. And what it is, is a challenge coin. I'm guessing you're familiar with that, right?

Myke Hurley: I've heard of it from, is it Radiotopia that does them or 99% Invisible or something? There's a podcast that has challenge coins.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, 99% Invisible does it. And I wasn't really totally familiar with them until one of our followers, Austin, is in the military. And he's put up some of his challenge coins on Instagram and stuff that I follow. And it's basically the idea is you're part of this club. You have this coin. And you should carry the coin with you. And if another member comes up and shows you their challenge coin and you don't have yours on you, at the time, you basically owe them something. Either in a challenge, right? They make you do something. Or like Blackwing recommends, well, you have to allow them to steal one of your pencils, something like that. So it's just kind of cool. It was an unexpected surprise. And for all the members who have been a member since the beginning, it marked the year one membership. And a friend of the show, TJ Crossgrove, designed the pencil side of the coin. So I thought that was pretty cool. He reached out to me when I took a picture of mine. And I told him, we need to get him on the podcast. So I have his pencil. Gosh, what did they say? International pencil something. T-shirts that he did. So he's a really cool dude. He's over there in your neck of the woods.

Myke Hurley: I've got to say, I really wish I cared about woodcase pencils more because Blackwing continued to do interesting stuff. So I know I've had things to say about some of their previous limited editions. I don't think all of them have been brilliant. But what they have done is locked in to what makes it collectible, right? So I didn't like the previous one, the all black one. That's just like, what's the point? But I think maybe half of them I've liked. I like the one that was that moon one. I like the first one, the guitar one a little bit more. But the kind of the plain ones don't really float my boat so much. But I know that they have interesting like graphite inside, which makes them more exciting. But doing things like the challenge coin and stuff like that, like they are now kind of establishing their own path rather than just imitating other companies that do this. Yeah. Right? Because at first, obviously the reason they did this is because of Field Notes, right? Like they're the reason you would do something like this, make something that's collectible, right? Field Notes is, at least I know, the first kind of stationary company to do this type of thing. But now it feels like Blackwing have found their own identity and they're forging forward with it. Like in the challenge coin is a really good example of that.

Blackwing Pencils

Brad Dowdy: I think this is the turning the corner edition. Yeah, it is. Like this is the one where I think people will, I think they'll see a bump of subscribers saying, oh, okay. Now we're talking with this release, even if they're not a DiMaggio fan or a baseball fan at all, it's just a flat out cool pencil with that happens to have a great story behind it. And they did such a good job. It's like, gosh, I don't know. I don't know which Field Notes like kind of kind of turn the corner to say, oh, this is like different. Yeah, probably Raven's Wing when it went all black with the orange band. And I think that's when people kind of noticed it. And I think that's probably exactly when I subscribed to.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's the first Field Notes I remember ever seeing. And I didn't buy them. Right. The first ones that we've been through this before, but the first ones that I went with was the ones that had the Steno. Not Steno, the Lectra Set. What was it called? Oh.

Myke Hurley: The one where you. Dry Transfer. Dry Transfer. That was the first one that I went with because I thought the gimmick was really cool. But I remember, I vividly remember seeing an ad for the Raven's Wing on Daring Fireball. And I was like, whoa, what are these things? But I just didn't buy them for whatever reason. But yeah, I think that was their turning point. And I agree with you. This is raising my eyebrows, right? Right.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And I think it was about the same time frame right after the first year.

Brad Dowdy: This is Blackwing's fifth launch. Let's see. When is Raven's Wing? It's right at the end of that first year. So it's kind of getting their feet wet, if you will, you know, to try to figure out what they want, what they want to do. Then all of a sudden, okay, now it's time to put the pedal to the metal and really do something cool. So let me pull this up. Where's Raven's? Because I want to see this.

Myke Hurley: We should get to look at the Sweet New website again.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So it was number eight field notes. So it was at the end of that first year. So wrapping up, I mean, end of the second year. So, you know, that was about the time where they got their mojo. So this is definitely one of those mojo deals, right?

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So very cool. So good job by Blackwing. I was super excited. I haven't bought any extras. I don't necessarily need more than 12 of these. And I've already given the kids have already each commandeered there. So, you know, I'm already down to about eight or nine. So I might buy one more box just to have. But, you know, I don't go through that many pencils. So I probably don't need it. But anyway, it was definitely a noticeable aura about this release. Like, it's time. And they stepped it up. So good job by them. And they're good folks over there. I enjoy talking with them. We'll talk to them from time to time. And just a bunch of good people. So when I got my Blackwing, I took out my Coom masterpiece, Long Point Sharpener. Which is kind of considered, this is at least what Andy and the Erasable guys, Andy and Tim and Johnny, bought me this sharpener and sent it to me. Because they found it to be the best handheld sharpener. And at the time they got it for me, you couldn't get them very easily in the U.S. So I keep this one at my desk. And it is a really good sharpener. It's a two-step sharpener. So you put it in the first slot to kind of get the long wood kind of trimmed down. And then you put it in the second shorter slot to fine-tune the graphite and to make it sharp. And the blades are nice. The metal is nice. And I put this picture up on Instagram. And everyone's like, what's that sharpener? Where can I get it? What's that sharpener? Where can I get it? And our good friends at CW Pencils were able to start stocking this like a couple of months ago. So if you're interested in it, it's at CW Pencils. We'll have a link in the show notes. It's $17. So it's not cheap. But it makes the point that I like on the pen. I like a really, really long point. Which I can get with my classroom-friendly pencil sharpener. But that's a desk sharpener. It's not going in my backpack. So, yeah. This masterpiece is handmade from magnesium and has a two-blade system with a removable brake situated on the end. What is the brake? I don't get it. Yeah, I don't know. That's the end. The blue part. The blue part. It'll stop the point from you running the whole pencil straight through. Like, there's no stop in this handheld sharpener. So if the blue brake isn't there, you can just keep pushing through and sharpen to infinity. If that makes sense, you can just go through the whole pencil in one shot.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, it might take you like 30 minutes, but you could do it.

Myke Hurley: How interesting.

Brad Dowdy: But it also comes with blades. Like, you can replace the blades. And it comes with it. It's like built into the back of that stopper. And then it comes in with like a little pouch, which is perfect for throwing in my backpack.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there's two things I really like about the look of this. One, the little pouch that it comes with, because that's just cool. Yeah. That it comes in. You get this little pouch to keep it in. Like, it's packaging, but it's what you keep it in. Right. It's like a little material pouch.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's what it sits in in my desk.

Pencil Sharpener

Myke Hurley: But I also love that it just says, the masterpiece on it.

Brad Dowdy: But it's like, they know it. And they're not afraid to just say, this is it, guys. I mean, we're the bomb. And if you're using another sharpener, you're lame.

Myke Hurley: Yep. This looks like a bit of a no-brainer, honestly, if you're a woodcase pencil person.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So give me $17.

Brad Dowdy: It seems to be worth it, though. I mean, you know, I appreciate those guys hooking me up with it. They had to order them from Germany, I believe, and they ordered enough to give out a couple of extra ones, and they were thoughtful enough to send me one. So I appreciated Erasable Guys. You rule. And I use the heck out of this thing, and I carry it with me.

Myke Hurley: Can you believe there's a podcast about pencils?

Brad Dowdy: What the hell are they thinking?

Myke Hurley: How weird. How weird.

Blackwing Pencils

Brad Dowdy: What's funny, I haven't listened to it this week, but the timing is impeccable. They just did episode 56 for Blackwing 56. Just a happy accident. How cool is that?

Myke Hurley: That's the kind of stuff that you can't. Right. It's like when we happened upon episode 150 being the live episode.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Right? It's like that's this kind of magic right there.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. It's all pencil magic, man. They work the pencil magic over there. Love that show. Love those guys. And they had Caitlin on this week from CW Pencils, in fact, which we still got to get Caroline on. What is your problem? What's the holdup? You're the booker. That's your job. I know. I know. I'm the worst. I am the worst booker. Like, I tell people all the time, you should come on the show. And then, like, I follow up. And then I just, like, my schedule gets out of whack. And I don't know what I'm doing.

Myke Hurley: Well, from my perspective, you're the best booker in the world. Because I don't have to do anything when people appear.

Brad Dowdy: Have you ever booked a guest for the show? I'm trying to think. Probably. I booked Tiff. Probably at some point. Yeah. Okay. So, you booked Tiff. There's certainly there's someone in the past. But, I mean, we've had some good guests in the past that people forget. Like, I want to get Ryder Carroll back on. Because this whole bullet. We've had him on twice before when Bullet Journal was, like, a thing. But not, like, a capital thing.

Myke Hurley: Well, we had him on when it just came out. Right? Remember when he unveiled the website and kind of blew the pants off the stationary world? We had him on then. And then we had him on at the Kickstarter.

Brad Dowdy: Right. But it's gone to a whole nother level of crazy. Yeah. Like, legit crazy.

Bullet Journal

Brad Dowdy: Bullet Journal stuff. Now, I'd like to get him on to get his perspective of what's changed. So, Ryder, if you're listening, I'll shoot you an email.

Myke Hurley: Episode 70 and episode 124 were Ryder Carroll's appearances.

Brad Dowdy: So, he's long overdue because so much has changed. Like, it's funny. I look at all this Bullet Journal stuff now. I'm like, do you even know where this came from? Like, you're just seeing it now from, like, the fancy Instagram post. But, like, do you know the origin story? And do you know who Ryder Carroll is?

Myke Hurley: We knew Ryder Carroll before he was a super megastar.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, you know, and we've had super, like, see, this is like this fun digression we had before the show. We've had superstar sketchnoter Myke Rohde on a couple times. We've got to get him back on. He's super famous now. You know, we knew these people back when, right? And just like we knew our first sponsor way back when they started, and that's our good buddies at Pen Chalet. Oh, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Look at the bullet. That's so good.

Brad Dowdy: I'm legit strong today, man. Bring it.

Myke Hurley: You are on fire today. I'm so impressed. Pen Chalet. I've got a great deal today, actually. I think you're going to like this one.

Brad Dowdy: I'm going to go look.

Myke Hurley: Pen Chalet sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils. They have all the stationery that you're going to need. They have all the accessories you're going to need. Carrying cases, holders, refills, fountain pen converters from all of your favorite brands. What if you like Kaweco? What if you like Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, or Namiki, or Sailor, even? You can go to Pen Chalet and get them. As I always say, Pen Chalet should be your first stop when you go to buy a pen because there are many good reasons here. They do a 100% satisfaction guarantee. They sell internationally with great shipping rates. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States. And you can get 10% off on anything at the Pen Chalet at any time and also support this show. All you need to do is go to PenChalet.com. You click the podcast link at the top of the website. You enter the password PenAddict and you will get the 10% code for the week because it changes every week now. And also, you get access to a whole host of special offers. This one is, maybe it was last week or the week before, we spoke about the Lamy Pico. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, this is one of my current favorite carry pens. So, we talked about, the discussion came about because I'm using my fountain pens less because of my work situation, how I'm working these days. You know, I'm traveling to Nock three days a week. When I'm at Nock, it's not a very fountain pen friendly environment. Like, I'm not sitting at a desk and my pens are there and I'm writing on, you know, the perfect, you know, display, desk area that I have set up for writing. You know, so, I'm like up and down and writing notes as I go. It could be on a sewing table. It could be on my hand, you know, holding the pad in my hand. It could be on our shipping desk, whatever. So, I've been carrying three pens recently. One is the Fisher Space Pen. Two is the shown design. I did the stainless for a while while I was reviewing it. It's too heavy. I talked to Ian about that and he kindly sent me the aluminum version, which is way better.

Brad Dowdy: And then I've been carrying the Lamy Pico because it's just a kick butt pen. And I'm actually kind of mad because the only one I have now is the white one. I haven't seen this blue one before. I'm wondering if it was just released. I got the orange one in for review. I sent it to Jeff. So, I gave up my orange one. But this black one is just kind of pretty sick. People do like to make fun of my white one, but I do like white pens from time to time.

Brad Dowdy: I'm going to have to get one of these other colors, though. The orange is super hot fire orange. I mean, it is like lava orange. The chrome is pretty sick, too. But I think I might have to get a black one to go with white. It looks like a smooth matte black. And these are a really good deal. I mean, under $30 for the Pico. It goes down into like a small barrel when you have the nib retracted when you click it. And when you have it extended, it's a full-size writer. If you can't tell, I really love this pen. And Lamy ballpoints, they're maybe the best standard ballpoint ink refill I use. Because I use the, besides the Pico, I use the Lamy 2000 ballpoint. Both of them in blue. They ship with blue. I love companies who ship blue ballpoints instead of black. I never use black ballpoints.

Brad Dowdy: They're really good. Better than, certainly better than a Fisher Space Pen refill. And, you know, without the pressurized option, of course. So, have I babbled on enough about it? Because there's some other cool things on this page.

Myke Hurley: You have. There's tons more. I mean, Ron basically heard you talking about it and was like, I can do a deal on it. So, he's doing a great deal.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm going to order a black one when we're done. Maybe a blue one. I don't know.

Myke Hurley: They retail at $45.

Myke Hurley: They're on sale for $33.30 for pen addict listeners. But you can also get your 10%. Right? So, you get $29.97. You'll be able to pick one of these up for. This is in the orange and blue to get the deal.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, good. So, then I can get the blue to get the deal.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Nice. Then you get it for $29.97, which is a fantastic deal. As always, go to penchalet.com. P-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Thank you so much to Penchalet for sponsoring this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: I'm going to talk about one more pen on his page because I have to ask the listeners to tell me about. And I've been eyeballing this pen. And I've had it in my cart several times. But I never pulled the trigger. It's the Visconti Millennium Arc Moonlight Fountain Pens. It has this kind of that crescent filling system where it's got a little ring sleeve that folds over this lever. It's like a crescent. It's this arc system that they use. And you pull that to fill, you know, the fountain pen to draw the ink in. It's like a little sack in there. So, it just kind of pressures it in there. So, I'm just wondering. I've seen a couple reviews. The reviews have been hit or miss. It looks like an interesting filling system. But it's a really good deal on the pen. And it's like 200 bucks. So, I might research that a little bit more myself when we are done with this wonderful episode of the Pen Addict Podcast.

Myke Hurley: This Visconti has more of what I hate about Visconti.

Brad Dowdy: They do some weird stuff. I'll admit. That's my hesitation.

Myke Hurley: It's like, okay, we've given you a regular clip. Oh, amazing. It's not like a horribly garish clip. But we stuck this thing in the middle. It's like, oh, God. And I know loads of people like them. Rightly so, right? They're cool looking pens. They're great. You know, people love them. It's just so not my style at all.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. There's one garish minimum per Visconti. So, when they took care of you on the clip, they had to...

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they know they can only do one thing. There's like, you know, there's a boardroom and they're discussing the garish quota on the pen. We just can't do it. We just can't do it. All right. Tell me about the Platinum Plaesier. I don't even know.

Brad Dowdy: Plaesier. Yeah, I'm gonna go with Plaesier. I've definitely reviewed it. I don't know if we've talked about it on this pen. It's kind of... One of my Twitter followers tweeted me this week and he had been in New York. He actually lives in Atlanta. He had been in New York doing the stationary tour that we do, right? Nice. That we did with June. And I'm gonna get to see June at the DC Pen Show and you're not gonna be there. So, aha. I just want to throw that out there. Yep. And he reminded me that I should reconsider the Platinum Plaesier for the top five less than 20 pens, which is pretty much the beginner fountain pen category. And he's absolutely right.

Brad Dowdy: Platinum's nibs on their cheap pens, if you will. They're not cheap pens, but they're inexpensive pens. Starting with the Preppy, which is like a $3 pen, up to the Plaesier and then up to the Cool. Um, are exceptional. Especially for those like me who like a fine-tipped, uh, fine-nibbed fountain pen. They do fine. And I think in the Preppy, they even do an extra fine. These are wonderful, wonderful pens. Wonderful writers. I've never had a problem with the most inexpensive Platinum. I guess they get a little bit lost in the shuffle. Because if you put it up next to the Metropolitan side-by-side, they look great. It matches it in looks. The Plaesier is feather light, where the Metropolitan has that brass barrel. Um, so it's got the, it's got a little bit of a heft that people probably look for in this price range. That, that, that's what makes the price range stand out. You pick up that pen, you go, oh, this is only $15. Where the Plaesier, you're like, oh, this is really nice. Wow, it's really light. You know, I kind of expected something more. So I think that's the only hang-up. But when you try it and use it, it's actually a really, really great pen. I, when I reviewed it, I fawned over it. I remember, I haven't gone back and looked up that review. But I remember how much I enjoyed that pen. But I do think it gets lost in the shuffle because of its lightweight. Um, so I end up not recommending it as much. Because I think for someone who's never used a fountain pen, they will kind of go, aha, this is wonderful. More with a Pilot Metropolitan as opposed to a Plaesier or Safari or even the Eco. So, um, but it's certainly one worth mentioning. And especially if you're into the Japanese fountain pens and you like those fine nibs, that's a wonderful, wonderful writer.

Myke Hurley: Never tried it. It's worth it.

Brad Dowdy: It's, the Plaesier is one of those pens that's worth owning.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: It's just a good pen. Um, and the nibs are exceptional. They just are.

Myke Hurley: All right, I'll take a look. Yeah. Our next pen that we wanted to discuss today is something that you are convinced we have spoken about on the show. But I have never heard of it before. Okay. Then we must not have. So, I don't know if, like, it's completely gone out of my brain. Like, I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I'll tell you, once we talk about it, I will tell you my story of why I think. But it may just be in my head.

Montegrappa Pens

Myke Hurley: But this is a Montegrappa monstrosity, I guess. Like the chaos. You know, it's another in their monstrosities line.

Brad Dowdy: It's not quite to that level. But, yeah. We're, it's on the path.

Myke Hurley: Well, this one kind of, I think of it as, like, a monstrosity. And what they're attempting to do or what they're trying to, I don't know. What they're kind of saying. Oh, by the way, the plays here is on pen cheller. Yes, definitely. I've just, I've put that in the show notes. I was looking there to see if you could get it. So, I was wondering what a place was to get it. And, of course, pen cheller is the place to get it. So, the, I don't even know why this pen, well, actually, I do know why this pen exists. I don't know why anyone thinks they could make it. So, it is a fountain pen with four bays, I guess, for ink cartridges. So, you put four ink cartridges in it. And then there's, like, a bolt mechanism to twist the cartridges around. To, I guess, to reconnect them to the feed or something. The mechanism is a little lost on me.

Brad Dowdy: It's basically a revolver where you put six bullets in, except you put four ink cartridges in.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because there is, it does kind of look like a gun.

Myke Hurley: Right, so, go ahead. It just seems ridiculous to me. Because, like, they talk about in this article on Quill and Paddle, like, how does it work? Like, wouldn't it just, all your ink is going to get mixed up when you change them around, right? Because it's all going to be in the feed. And Monte Grappa provide this little cleaning system thing. So, you can clean out the feed. But I just think, at that point, why are you even doing it? Like, if you haven't come up with some kind of magic to be able to swap the colors around real easy, like it's a multi-pen, then there's no point in doing this. Because if you've got to carry around this little cleaning equipment and clean it, then you might as well just have an extra cartridge in you. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense to me.

Brad Dowdy: Well, none of that's the problem. Right? I mean, tell them what the problem is.

Myke Hurley: Oh, how much is it? Is that the problem? It's $10,000. Yeah. I mean, yes, of course that is ridiculous. But I'm just, like, from a technical perspective, it's $10,000 for aggravation.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, for a pain.

Myke Hurley: I don't really get it. I mean, I know, as I said, I know why it exists. Because to non-Fountain Pen users, this seems like, wow. You know, for the same reason that chaos exists. Right. It's like, oh my God, look at this thing. Like, you can put so many ink cartridges in it. It's amazing. Really, there's no function to it.

Brad Dowdy: It can't be functional. Right. It can't be functional. And, I mean, this is well over a year ago. Right? I mean, when this article came out. That's April. I know we talked about it back then. Because I was talking with Kinro, because they carry Montegrappa. That was the time when I was reviewing some OMOS for them. And they sent me the link of, hey, look at this. And I went back through. I have an 80 email thread with Kinro. So, I didn't dig through all of it. But I know at some point last year, we talked about it. I looked through some of the show notes. I couldn't find that. We actually linked to it in the show notes. So, I can't say what episode. But everyone in the chat room is like, yeah, we've talked about this. We've heard about this. We've seen this before. And I know it sticks in my head because I knew the price before I even looked at it. Because we've gone through this before.

Pen Discussion

Myke Hurley: I do not remember it. And it is not in the show notes, which is a surprise to me. So, here is a challenge, Pen Addict audience. Find it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Maybe we didn't. And maybe it's all a dream. But I've talked about it somewhere. Because I'm familiar with it.

Myke Hurley: What my thought was, it might have been in your Pen Addict member podcast. No.

Brad Dowdy: No, it wasn't? No, because it was last year.

Myke Hurley: You might have brought it up, though. I don't remember ever talking about this. No. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, I haven't talked about it recently. It's been well over a year. Well over a year.

Myke Hurley: Well, there's your challenge, Pen Addict audience. Yeah. Find it.

Brad Dowdy: Because I know we didn't talk about it more than we're talking about it right now. Like, it was like a passing thing. It was like a quick, like, oh my God, look at this thing.

Myke Hurley: That might have been why I don't remember it then.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But normally we would still link it in the show notes. Because I know I had a link to the landing page of the Pen back when we talked about it. Or I talked about it at some point.

Brad Dowdy: So, whatever. But yeah. It's interesting. It's an interesting discussion topic. But there's no way this works, right? I mean, there's just no way it works.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I'll tell you what also doesn't work. Huh. When you put your pens in the wash.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I'm usually pretty good about this kind of stuff. And I've been pretty set on my little everyday carry kit here recently. And I've been posting it a bunch. And it just kind of sticks with me. It's the Fodderstack XL with a Pen Addict Kickstarter notebook. And I either switched between the Fisher Space Pen or the Shone Design, which is what I just put in it. And I was real busy this past weekend. And I was carrying that around with me. And then at some point, I couldn't find it. But I didn't think to look in the laundry because I had cleaned my desk. And my desk was, like, stacked high with mess. And so, I figured I'd just put it somewhere. And I would eventually come up with it.

Brad Dowdy: It turns out I didn't put it somewhere. But I did eventually come up with it when I got a pair of shorts out of the washing machine and was transferring them to the dryer. And I saw, like, orange fluff everywhere. I was like, I think I know where my EDC kit is. So, yeah, the notebook thankfully stayed in the Fodderstack or else it would have been over the entire washing machine. The Fodderstack stayed intact pretty well. The notebook's done. But it was at least all in one piece besides some of the cover shaking off. The pen stayed in my pocket of my shorts. It came out of the Fodderstack but stayed in the pocket of the shorts. And it didn't have a mark on it. It didn't have any water in it. This is the shown design aluminum. And the refill was the Fisher Space Pen. Thank goodness because that ink's not coming out. Any other refill, that ink's everywhere.

Brad Dowdy: Thankfully, it was that. And I just took it out and it started writing right away. So, the pen's in good shape. Everything else is kind of jacked up now. But that hasn't happened to me in a long time. At least I found it and know where it was because it bothered me for like three days. I was like, there's only X amount of places that I put my stuff down. Why is this thing that I carry every day not where it should be? And I just chalked it up to I did a huge cleaning and rearranging. It must have just gotten eaten up by something I moved and I'll come up with it eventually. And eventually ended up being in the washing machine. So, have you ever done that? Have you ever had like any like huge damage kind of accidents like that?

Myke Hurley: Luckily not. Luckily not.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, Glenn HK in the chat room says knock expands into fashionable shorts. That's Jeff's category. He gets a lot of grief for the shorts he wears. So, if y'all want to see, we did a new history page on the knock site. Which I don't think we've talked about yet. So, like on our, I think it's on our about page. I'll have to pull it up actually. We did a new timeline history. And there's a, he's actually sitting in the, in this picture. But we had an outtake of the other picture. Where he was standing. And he got a lot. We posted that on our, the knock Instagram. And he, he got a lot of grief about his shorts. So, Jeff wears short shorts, if you will.

Myke Hurley: They are so short that when you just glance at this photo, it looks like he isn't wearing any shorts.

Brad Dowdy: Well, they're also like that camel brown color. So, they're close to skin color.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That's an interesting shot. I guess you're going for, I guess you're going for the sexy, right? On the about page.

Brad Dowdy: I have no idea. I have no idea. He just, he stuck a chair out in the, in the parking lot and set up the timer on his thing. So, we had no clue when it was even shooting off. I think he was hitting it on his watch. So, yeah. It's funny. I like that photo a lot. So, yeah. I do. Actually, I do like that photo a lot too. So, anyway. That was our, I wear long shorts. But if I wore short shorts, I probably would have noticed that I had a whole. Pen and notebook and pen case in them when I took them off.

Myke Hurley: So, there you go. See, Jeff's got it made. He does have it made. He understands.

Ballpoint Pens

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, I'm going to save us right now and let's get into some follow-up from last week where we talked about gel, ballpoint, and rollerball pens, right? So, we had a bunch of people wanting to hear kind of an update of the non-fountain pen scene. And so, we kind of, we went through that. And then I got a really good question.

Brad Dowdy: From Ryan, who asks, what would you consider the three canonical ballpoint, liquid rollerball, and gel ink pens? If someone wanted to understand the different qualities of these three inks, what three pens would you recommend getting that would be representative? So, I thought about that. The gel, for me, was super easy.

Brad Dowdy: And it's the Uniball Sino 207, 0.5 millimeter in black. So, that's the most common Sino. That's the one you can find at grocery stores, at office supply stores, at online stores, anywhere and everywhere. You'll see the 207. And it's a really excellent gel ink pen. It's better than the G2, in my opinion. People might prefer the Pentel Energel over it. I don't. But I can see that argument. It's maybe a little bit smoother. But I don't think there's just a better overall writing experience than the 207, just right off the store shelf. That's easy for just anyone to get. And I say black specifically, because I've actually had problems with their blue 0.5 millimeters. The 0.7s don't have the problem. The blue has always run dry for me in the 0.5, 207. So, I never buy those. I always buy the black. So, that one was easy. I think if you've never tried a gel pen and you want to say, what is a gel pen like? The easiest and best thing for you to get is the Sino 207.

Myke Hurley: I actually completely agree. This is one of my gateways.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And honestly, I think the most popular gateway is the G2 because they sell more. It's more popular. It's more well-known. And that's a good pen, too. If you're asking me to pick just one for someone to go try that's never tried a gel pen, I'd send them to the 207. The ballpoint was harder because the Jetstream's like a cheat ballpoint. But it's also one of those that if you like a ballpoint and use a ballpoint, you don't need to be using a traditional ballpoint ink cartridge. So, I still went with the Jetstream. But in a specific one, 0.7 millimeter, which I think is the sweet spot for them, 1.0 millimeter gets... It doesn't get messy, but I just don't think it's as clean looking. Um, rider. I don't think the output is as perfect as the 0.7, which I think is about perfect. I definitely prefer it in blue, which I like all my ballpoint ink's in blue. And the retractable sport barrel, which is actually the cheapest Jetstream option, I think. Um, I don't like the rubberized barrels that you find, um, on the store shelves. Most of them are like in blue and black with like the silver trim. For some reason, I don't like those refills as much. And I'm sure it's the exact identical refill. But they're also more expensive for the same refill. Um, 0.7 blue in one of the retractable sport barrels, I think is the ballpoint. If I sent you to a store, like if we walked in together, I would go here, try this. That's the one I would pick out.

Brad Dowdy: Rollerball is interesting because there's not a lot of great options on the shelf for what you would think of as a traditional rollerball. Um, cause, because when we say you and I say rollerball, I'm talking about ink properties. I'm talking liquid ink. When other people are thinking rollerball, they're thinking a ball that rolls on the end of the tip. Well, gel ballpoint rollerball pins are all rollerballs. That's how they deliver the ink to the page. So when I'm talking rollerball, I'm talking liquid ink. I, I think, and I, I still might change my mind on this. And the only reason I don't put it as the canonical rollerball ink pen is because it's a needle point. The pilot precise V five was my original answer, but I think because it's needle point, I'd swap to the pilot V ball RT and 0.5 millimeter black. Uh, it's the same ink as the V five. It's just in a conical tip pin. It's an retractable barrel as opposed to the needle of the precise line.

Myke Hurley: I like the needle points.

Brad Dowdy: I do too. Like that would be my preference. But if I, if someone's never tried a rollerball pin or they want to try it, never tried a liquid ink pen. And at this point, you know, they're, they're probably just not sure what of any pen, if they've never tried, if they don't know what they've tried and they want to try a rollerball pin, I'm not going to, if I'm holding your hand, walking you into a store, I'm probably not going to buy you a needle tip pen. Right. It's just, even though I think that's probably the best for that category, I think the V ball gives you kind of the same performance, but a more traditional style.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah, it could be a little bit intimidating, but I think for me, I find the needle points to be more pleasurable to use. That's the, they run out so fast.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's just inherent to any liquid ink pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But the, the precise V5 and V7, I mean, those are pens that people buy by the dozens and, you know, swear their life by and lock them up, you know, in their office desk. They're really, really good pens.

Myke Hurley: Jet pens have some great colors in the V5 as well. I'm looking like a turquoise one.

Brad Dowdy: That looks, that looks good, man. Yep. Yep. Yep. It's good. So those are the three. Like if you've never tried any of those pens, those are the ones that give you, would give you the best overall idea of what that style of pen would be like. So, and, um, they're all easy to find, you know, there's something you can pick up at almost any store, um, any store around. So then Ryan also asked, would it also be possible to cover refills? That's a longer conversation, but we'll get into it a little bit. One thing I do, I actually have a text expander snippet for people that, uh, ask about refills and always point them to Anna's epic refill reference guide. Um, because she covers a lot of this information. So about once a week, I'm, uh, invoking that, uh, snippet, sending it to someone. Hey, take a look at this. I bet you'll have some, uh, I bet you'll get a lot out of this article, but he asks, what's the main type of refills? What's a Parker refill? What's a G2 refill? What are your favorites? So a Parker refill is probably the most popular, um, because Parker has been around so long. They have a, what was, I guess, once a proprietary, proprietary refill design that now a ton of companies have made a refill in that same shape. So you can get a lot of different options across the Parker lineup, like the space pen. Um, it comes with a little, uh, plug on the end that you put on the end. So it'll fit a Parker, uh, refill, if you will. Um, my favorite Parker refill is the Moleskine gel refill, which is becoming harder and harder to get in 0.5 millimeter. I almost never see it anymore. I don't know if they're doing away with them or what. It's just not an easy one to find and they're very expensive, but that's my favorite Parker refill because it comes in gel. Not many Parker refills come in gel. They're mostly ballpoint or liquid. Um, if you do find a gel one, hang on to them. They're pretty good, especially if you're in a gel ink pens. A G2 refill became one of the most common like Kickstarter refills to use because so many other pens mimic and will fit what the pilot G2 is based around. Like a Mont Blanc refill with a little bit of trimming will fit in a pilot G2. Um, other pilot refills like the juice will fit in a G2. I believe the zebra Sarasa clip refill fits the G2. So that became a really popular more recently. So out of those, out of all refill types, 90% of pens are going to use one or the other Parker or G2. To confuse matters in Europe and probably, I don't know if it's in Asia or where else, the G2 designation means Parker refill.

Brad Dowdy: Which I learned about a year ago, a year or two ago when I was reviewing a pen, said it's compatible with the G2 and they shipped it to me with a Parker.

Brad Dowdy: And then I learned that the international designation for the Parker size refill is G2. So that kind of blew my mind. So be careful. Um, if you're, if you're looking for that. So a lot of people, if you'll see Parker and then like G2 in parentheses, it's Parker for sure. It's not going to fit like your longer pilot G2 gel refills. Just keep that in mind. Um, so that's it in a nutshell. You know, the only other uni ball, um, it's hard to match their refills without a little bit of trimming. You can get them to fit in some of the G2 stuff. Um, sometimes you have to make, um, special barrel designs like the, the TI2 tech liner that I'll use so much. It fits the uni 207 and the jet stream, but it doesn't fit really other pins very well. Um, so they're harder. Same with the high tech C pins that are built around the high tech C are generally just built for that refill. It's a little bit tricky in the shape. So there's modifications and different things you can find, but just for a straight, like one-to-one refill swap, they're not really compatible with a lot. So it's Parker, it's pilot G2, and then it's everything else. And Ana's, uh, refill guide will, will guide you and help answer a lot of those questions.

Myke Hurley: It's in the show notes.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. All right. So other than that today, we have some more ask TPA we're going to do, but should we take a break first?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, let's take a quick break and then we'll hit this ask TPA. I don't think any of them are like super long and involved like, uh, like that one. So I'd like to knock them out if it's good with you.

Myke Hurley: You bet. Thanks so much to Harry's for their continued support of this show. If you are still, still for a reason that I can't understand, not a Harry's subscriber. If you don't have Harry's products, if you don't buy from Harry's, if you don't do any of those things, I don't know what you're doing. If you shave, if you are a person that shaves, you need to be using Harry's because you will be able to get a comfortable shave at a great price. If you're not using Harry's, then you're either paying too much or you're settling for something low quality. You don't want this. You want a company that you know can provide you with a great shave every day. A company that makes their own blades, their own German engineered five blade cartridges that are going to give you a close, comfortable shave every single time. You want a company that guarantees the quality of their products. You want a company that will give you a full refund if you're not happy. This is why over 1 million people have switched to Harry's and it's time for you to be one of them if for some reason you haven't already. On average, an everyday shaver saves $150 each year on blades of Harry's and it's super easy to buy their stuff as well. You'll be able to go to their site, get what you need and check out in 30 seconds and it will be shipped to you for free. For just $15, you can get a razor, moisturizing shave cream and three razor blades. It is a set called the Truman set and you'll be able to get something. I have one of these and I think it is fantastic. It is way better quality than only $15. It's kind of insane that you can get a really great razor handle and all those products for $15, something that looks good as well. Like it doesn't look like it costs $15. It looks like it costs way more and they have loads of other options. They have loads of other styles and materials that you can get the handles made out of. You should go and check it out. It's time to stop overpaying for a great shave. Go to harrys.com right now and you'll get $5 off if you type in the coupon code PENADDICT. Who's your first purchase? It's H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com. Coupon code PENADDICT. All one word at checkout for a special $5 off. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show and Relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Thank you, Harry's. All right. So let's hit a few of these. And number one was actually a few people asked this question in the Slack yesterday. And this is from Expert Addict. Rachel wanted to hear thoughts on the best, safest way to transport inks while moving. And also, why does she have so many bottles of ink? So, I don't think this is rocket science. But whenever I move and I have to handle anything that's either one very important or two very fragile or three both. The first thing I do is move those myself. Like, if I'm not moving myself and there's someone else involved, they don't touch things like the fountain pens or the inks. Those get packed in boxes. They go in my car. So they go away from other people's hands. No one else transports that kind of fragile, important stuff. Two, I would pack the inks in small boxes and deal with carrying a large quantity of smaller boxes as opposed to one or two larger heavy boxes. Even if you think you can get them all packed in there nice and tight and packed, I would opt for smaller, tighter packed boxes.

Brad Dowdy: If they have to go into a moving truck or they're being transported in some other way that's out of your hands, I'd almost individually ziplock some of those in case they do bust during transit.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, that's asking a lot of time and effort to do. But, you know, it may save the ink from getting on whatever else it's sitting on at the time while it's moving and happens to get broken. But I don't think there's a perfect answer. I don't think there's a perfect way to do it. I'm definitely open to suggestions if anyone has any great ideas. But I definitely believe in packing them in smaller boxes. You know, use eight small boxes instead of two large ones. And then moving them yourself, keeping your hands and eyes on them as opposed to letting anyone else touch any of that stuff. Because you never know what's going to happen because they won't be as considerate as you ever will.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I don't do it. Like, I would just put it in bubble wrap and then as much like saran wrap or something and tape, like to basically make it that nothing could get out of that package. Right. That's the thing for me. It's not necessarily protecting it from breaking because there's kind of nothing you can do about that, in my opinion. Like, if it's going to break, it's going to break. Like, you can put it in bubble wrap, but bubble wrap's not going to save like a big box being dropped on it. You've just got to package it that it won't leak. That's the key part, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. Exactly. All right. So, the next question was a holdover from last week we didn't get to, but I wanted to ask you this, Myke, because I'm actually having a little bit of a tough time with this, but I have some ideas. So, this is from Nestlive on the Twitter machine. What is one combination you've tried of pen, ink, and paper that work on their own but don't in that particular combination? Why do you think that? So, if you've had like a pen, ink, and paper, like, you know your pen's awesome. You have a great ink, and this paper's like really, really good. But then you put all those things together, and you're just like, this is not a good combination or a good setup. Have you ever like run across anything like that?

J'erban Ink

Myke Hurley: I can't think of like a devilish trio like that, but like I've had individual ones. Like, you take some of the J'erban ink's thorns with the sparklies in them. Sometimes they work really great in some pens and not in others, right? And it depends on how thick the nib is. Some of them, it's just going to clog them up, right? Or some, like you put this ink in there that's got all this sparkly stuff in it, and none of it comes out because the nib is too fine or whatever. You don't get the benefit of it. Or, you know, and I've used... See, the thing is, I don't feel like I use enough ink or paper, like not enough varied stuff, to really kind of make a real decision on this, you know? Because my paper tends to be quite similar. I mean, I can tell you, like, you know, there are a bunch of, like, field notes papers or whatever that are good, like when they go crazy with them and do some weird stuff. Like, for example, the Expedition Edition is the opposite for me. The Expedition Edition with a Fisher Space pen, it's like writing on a banana or a biro, right? Like, it's incredible. But every other pen on that edition is a nightmare. Yeah. I don't really have a good answer for that question. But yeah, I've totally felt that some combinations work, some don't.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I don't totally have a no-go setup. I will say, number one, on paper, and I'm glad this has kind of gone away, but stone paper and fountain pens is horrible. I'm glad stone paper is not really a thing that stuck around. It's just bad. I don't like it. So any fountain pen ink and stone paper is terrible. I also don't use Fuyugaki in anything.

Myke Hurley: I will not accept that.

Brad Dowdy: So that's just one of those things that doesn't work for me. It's because you're a heathen. I just have so many better oranges that I always use. So... Incorrect. Every time I put in Fuyugaki, I'm like, nope, let's go to something else. I try.

Myke Hurley: Because you know that you won't be able to use any other orange ink afterwards because it's so perfect.

Brad Dowdy: I guess. I'm even using my orange... I'm even using your favorite pen today. But with the Sailor... So am I! Yeah, so...

Myke Hurley: I'm using my orange pro gear right now with Fuyugaki in it. Yes, I... On the byline. I need to just... Aside... I freaking love the byline edition. Oh my god, I love it so much. For the show notes stuff, it's so good. It's so good. The really long, thin format works so good for my desk notes like this. Yep. I get to stand it up and it's in front of my computer and I can see all the edit points that I've got to make and it's really long and thin. And I've still got a bunch of desk space. I haven't got a notepad taking all my desk space in front of me up. Yeah, I love the byline. I should probably buy some more because I've nearly run through one of them already.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I'm using the same pen, the same paper, but I do have a different ink. I have a hard-to-find sailor ink in there and I can't even remember the name because I wasn't planning on talking about it, but I think it's Okuyama. It's a red. It may be like... Was it Grenade? I forget the old sailor color that it kind of mimicked, but it was one of the fall series from like several years ago that I paid way too much for like a limited edition ink that I'm sure is going to come right back and be nice and cheap again. But it's a great ink. It goes... I like red with orange a lot. So I put... I do have red in my orange pens sometimes, except for my G10. That one only has orange.

Myke Hurley: So Punky in the chat room asked me how long it took for me to go through all my arts and sciences. What do you think the answer is to that?

Brad Dowdy: Infinity.

Myke Hurley: They're still there. Right? Like I haven't gone through anything, but now I'm buying more of a different edition because that's just what we do, I guess. So yeah, I'm buying two more packs of Byline right now because I love this edition so much.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm going shopping after the podcast today. There's a few things I want. Notice that I didn't say that I need, but there's a few things that I want. So I just haven't been picking those things up recently.

Myke Hurley: But it's okay to buy things that you want. There's no harm in that.

Brad Dowdy: No harm. So related to that previous question, but I'm really asking Glenn's question more for the second one than the first one. He says, themed ink loadouts besides your infamous blue black party. For me, my best one that is always pretty much the same is my Edison orange G10 with an orange ink. And it's usually a sailor orange ink. And it's either apricot, the super related Ken Mokuse. I don't know if I said that right. And now one of the new oranges. I have tangerine from Bung Box. I have like four sailor orange inks that are all really close. And those always go in my G10. That's my perfect themed pen and ink loadout. And I think you're using your perfect themed pen and ink loadout right now. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. So his second question is, would you queue for an hour for a custom traveler's notebook?

Brad Dowdy: My answer is surprisingly.

Myke Hurley: This is a very specific question.

Brad Dowdy: This is a very specific question because I'm going to turn this a little bit. My answer is yes, because even if I'm not using like a traveler's and I like it, I would like to get a custom one in like an hour wouldn't be long to wait. Would I camp overnight for a custom traveler's notebook is the question that comes to my head. And that answer is no. Right. There's a there's a difference. Like I'm good with an hour for getting something cool like that. Yeah, I would do that in a second. What about you?

Myke Hurley: Probably not for this. Like because I don't really have a desire. But if there was a it's like, for example, if Aaron Draplin was customizing field notes notebooks, I would queue for many else. Right. Right. Like if I got a custom book, you know, like I could go in there and be like, I want it with this poster. That kind of thing. Yeah. I'd queue for that.

Brad Dowdy: So I think overall the answer is yes, we would queue for stationary items. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm assuming that for this one, like the custom travelers notebook would be something that they would want. Right. Like this has been picked out. Like Glenn has picked this out because it's something that he loves. Right. Yeah. But for me and you, that's maybe not so much. There are other things we probably would prefer to queue for an hour for.

Sailor Pro Gear Rialo

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So this next question from Lise Mouflon on Twitter, have any of you tried the Sailor Pro Gear Rialo? Wanted to get one, but read the barrel quality is worse than on the cartridge model. I have not other than in passing both Jeff and Joe from the Gentleman's Station have the Rialo that Bung Box released. It's a bright yellow one. And I've never, it's the shape of the 1911, but it's a piston filler with an ink window. So I've never used it other than just like testing them out like in that moment. So I don't have a great answer from this, but if anyone has any Rialo experience that's been negative, I'd love to hear it because I've never heard of any. It's not a popular Sailor model because it's a little more expensive. You're paying for that piston and people tend to go with either the 1911 or Pro Gear majority of the time. But I would like to hear an answer from this question if anyone out there is a Rialo fan that's had issues with it because that's a pen I will probably purchase at some point.

Brad Dowdy: Just because I'm such a fan of Sailor and I would like to try a Sailor piston filler. So we'll see. So hit us up if you have any information. So Gray asked, any opinions on the Lamy 50th Anniversary logo M plus ballpoint? Have you seen this one before? I put the links in the show notes. No. So the Lamy logo ballpoint in general, I don't like. I don't like the design or shape of the barrel, so I'm not super interested in it. And what they're doing for the 50 years, they have a special color and they're selling it as a set with a journal. And you can get that set for $25. So it's a really good deal. If you're into that pen, it's not something I'm interested in. And what they did with the notebook, which I am not even remotely a fan of, it looks good on the outside, but it has a bunch of Lamy history. It's like part book, book, book, and then part notebook. And that's, I just hate when people do that. It makes no sense. But the product as a whole for the notebook and the pen is only $25. So can't really complain there.

Myke Hurley: If you want something to commemorate the Lamy 50th, this is maybe the thing to buy because it's not super expensive.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. But the logo has never been my favorite ballpoint of theirs. I don't like the design. And the notebook looks great from the outside, but is not, not for me at all. No. All right. So I run tech on Twitter. I asked, uh, she says she's a teacher looking for a convertible backpack, briefcase, messenger bag suggestions. What do you think, Myke? Oh, topo design mountain briefcase. It's really one of the only ones that hits all three that converts from backpack to briefcase to messenger bag. Yep.

Myke Hurley: Cause Tom bin, they do something quite nice. They're a, they're briefcase thing, but it doesn't have backpack straps.

Brad Dowdy: It doesn't have backpack straps. So I linked in the show notes to like the entire Tom bin briefcase and messenger bag. That would be my first choice. If you can escape not having the backpack straps. So pick anything from there. You'll be happy. If you want exactly what you're talking about, the bag I use the most is the topo designs mountain briefcase. So it has handles for a briefcase. It has a shoulder strap for messenger carry, and it has backpack straps.

Myke Hurley: The only bad, the only downside of the, of the mountain briefcase is the briefcase handles are not good. Like they should be padded or something. And they're not, they're just like Kodura or whatever you'd call it. They're just two strips of that, which is not very comfortable if the bag's heavy. Aside from that, it's basically perfect.

Brad Dowdy: That's that I'm okay with because most smaller size briefcases come with that. You can actually buy a little add on if you wanted to. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I could never find a good add on though. If you, if you know one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I haven't bought one because that doesn't bother me. But what I did do, I think their messenger strap is the weak point in it because it's just a strap with no padding.

Myke Hurley: I actually, um, yeah, you see, I took that off immediately because that just wasn't, that wasn't what I wanted.

Brad Dowdy: I found, uh, one of my friends, Michael at the Chicago pen show was carrying it with a different strap. And I was like, what is that strap you're using? And he told me which one it is. And it's essentially what the, the, the soft, um, strap that Tom Ben uses for their bags that I got off Amazon for like 17 bucks. And it's a game changer. So, uh, I will have to find that, uh, for you and we can link that in the show notes. So I actually have a aftermarket strap on my mountain briefcase. The only other option that I really found from a brand that I respect, I don't own any of their bags right now, but dispatch makes wonderful bags. They have one called a tech messenger. It's not a traditional backpack or messenger bag, but it's got an interesting strap, interesting strapping system that looked kind of cool. Um, and it's got the briefcase handles. So that's just something we'll throw in the show notes for you to look at. All right. Hot couple loving who I think's in the chat room today. Um, said the 2016 Atlanta pen show was my first and things got out of hand fast. What advice do you have for pen show? Number two, Michael Hurley go.

Myke Hurley: Well, I, my first pen show got out of hand fast. The second one, just be chill. Like that, that's my, that is my overall, uh, recommendation for your second pen show. Just be chill. Like you've been to one now, you've seen it, like you've been caught up in all the excitement. Second time you go, like you will be calmer anyway. And just use that as your focus. Stay within your budget. Don't buy everything just because it's a pen show, right? That was what I did the first time. Bought everything. I didn't really buy. I probably bought half. If that in my second show, I think that's the way to go.

Brad Dowdy: Um, it's such a different experience that, um, I, it's even hard to explain. You'll be, you will totally be so much more relaxed. Like Myke said, I think as if you had like the best time ever on your first pen show, I think you will enjoy your second one even more just because you will be less stressed and just get more of like pure enjoyment instead of like the stress on top of it or the nerves kind of thing, you know, I don't necessarily have any tips to do anything differently. It'll just be a completely different feel. You'll feel like, yeah, I've done this. I'm good. I know what I'm doing and I'm just going to go around it and I'm going to do my thing. And it's going to be so much more relaxed and, uh, really, really enjoyable. So yeah, I, uh, I think getting into that second one is a world difference world of difference. And, uh, you will just by default have a better idea of everything to do. So.

Brad Dowdy: All right, last one. It's from Piscatius. I recently got my first Franklin Kristoff, a 40 P with a fine nib, but it's too wet for field notes. Would an EF or needle point be better for field notes? Um, this is where Myke and I fight and to answer Joey's question. Um, we don't, uh, Joey Feldman's question in the Slack room. We don't really fight over, you know, we don't have the old Mary couples fight, but we do fight over this topic. So I'm gonna let you take it. Michael Hurley.

Myke Hurley: Well, okay. Uh, I just think that you're, you're, you're fine. Like just deal with it. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's fair. You know, I think we don't fight over that. I'm just kidding.

Myke Hurley: Just wait for it to dry.

Myke Hurley: Right. If you're having a field notes problem.

Brad Dowdy: And I take, I take the, um, path of not using it. I don't use fountain pens in my field notes, especially, I mean, not the ones that don't have the 70 pound paper in them at least.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, I think it's usable. I mean, if you're having problems with a specific pen, try out, um, a different pen, right? Like if this pen is the only one that you're struggling with, then maybe it's just this pen. I think that they are usable. It's not perfect. Right. And they have some of the heavier paper where it does work better. But for, for me, and I think for many people, it's fine. You've just got to go into it knowing that it's not going to be like, I don't know, tomorrow of a paper or whatever. Um, but if you can take that, if you can accept that because of the other reasons that you like the field notes, then you're fine. But I would suggest if it's, this is a new thing, or it's just this one pen, try out some other stuff. If it still doesn't work for you, go for the thicker paper. If the thicker paper doesn't work, then you're out of luck.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And your extra fine or needle points are definitely going to work better than a medium nib, um, in field notes. It's just not, it's just not going to bleed your feather as much, but you either just have to own it and accept it or not use it. There's, there's just really not a middle ground there. I don't think with the field notes and fountain pens.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So, and, and both answers are good. So, all right. I think that's it for this week, buddy. Good show.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you bet. Um, if you want to find the show notes for this week, you know where to go. Relay.fm slash pen addict slash 214. If you would like to find Brad online, he is, uh, over at the pen addict. So you can go to pen addict.com for that. He is at knock.co at knock.co. He is on Instagram at pen addict. He is on Twitter at dowdyism, D O W D Y I S M. I am at I Myke I M Y K E. We'll be back next time. Thank you so much to our sponsors, Pen Chalet and Harry's. Thank you for listening until then. Say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.

Myke Hurley: Just follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow follow