The Pen Addict 224/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	224
Title:	My Ink Smells
Release Date:	September 28th, 2016
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 224
Audio File:	Audio Episode 224
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 224
Length:	7171 min <br />1.183 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 224. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Cricket. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, Myke Hurley. How are you? I'm good, Brad Dowdy. How are you? I'm very good. Very good. Been a good week. Been a busy week. Been a stressful week. Been a happy week. And now I'm happy to be talking to you.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so let's start off the show today with just a quick Kickstarter update. So as we record today, what are we at? Let me go and take a look. I'll open up the Kickstarter page. You guys are at 478 backers, $45,160, which is absolutely fantastic. 21 days to go. Congratulations to you. Thank you. Congratulations to you both. Yes, thank you very much. So what does the last week look like?

Brad Dowdy: So I was realizing today how whacked out on last week's episode I was. I mean, I know we recorded for a long time, but I'm realizing this week how stressed out I was last week just with all the stuff going on at the same time. So this week, it's obviously calmed down some, right? Because you have that first initial burst. This is pretty much standard Kickstarter operating procedure, right? This is how it works. You get everything up front. You hope you do have a really good first couple of days. And then you kind of plateau. And then right at the end, you get another bump. So you have this whole range, middle range. So that's what I've actually been working on trying to get the word out, spread the word on the bag, send it to send links to people who I think might would cover it, you know, on their websites, things like that, try to get some features written about it. And basically just putting the business Brad hat on, you know, trying to get more money, right? I mean, we're running a business. This is what we're trying to do. So I've had a calmer week from, I guess, pace wise, like I was answering questions and reading feedback and, you know, just bouncing around like crazy all last week. This week, it's more like, okay, let me try to direct some more eyeballs on this case and then doing different things, you know, by talking to different bloggers and websites and doing things like that. And then on top of that, we announced a stretch goal, which, you know, Jeff and I have a stretch goal philosophy in general that we don't believe in stretch goals as they were traditionally done, especially in the early days of Kickstarter.

Brad Dowdy: So we didn't even have a definitive plan for the stretch goal when we launched. Most people who schedule a Kickstarter project will schedule out there, will have the stretch goal plan laid out ahead of time. We weren't sure we weren't sure we were going to do it. But we both wanted something. So we tried to work it into this campaign. And I think it's going to work out well that it's a it's an A5 soft cover side bound notebook, you know, a knock notebook, you know, with the dot dash grid and all the good stuff you're used to from from knock, you know, the great fountain pen friendly paper, good paper for everything. And importantly, it's side stapled. So people have been asking us to do a side stapled notebook for ages. And we're starting to work that entire lineup now we thought this was a good project to announce that. So a lot of people have already been adding what I mean, the stretch goals for 50,000 to basically activate the notebook. But people are already adding, you know, their pledges in, you know, $10 or $20 based on their $10 a pack on Kickstarter, which there'll be much more than that after the Kickstarter. So people are already who already pledged for them.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, to make it clear for anybody who doesn't like, basically, once the campaign reaches that level, the 50,000 level, all you need to do is add $10 to your pledge, and you'll get the notebook, which is a big discount.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it'll be a big discount off of the full retail. And that's a way we can do this edition just for the Kickstarter project. This won't be a stock edition if for some if if we over like we'll have to overprint if for some reason we have 100 packs left, we'll sell them. But it's just limited for this project. This is the colorway. The colorway. Yeah, you'll probably will keep this product right. Yeah, we'll keep the product, but it'll be different colors. But then that'll also allow me to add a pledge level for just notebooks. And those will be for people who want to support we've had a lot of people that want to support knock who don't necessarily need the linear in their lives and which is understandable. And that way they can get some they can be a part of this too. So you'll be able to go in and back this project just for notebooks if that's something you're interested in. They'll be a little bit more expensive, just related to the linear backers because you'll have to pay shipping for those. So it'll be you know, like around $15, you know $10 plus $5 shipping, whatever I still have to do the math. So anyway, we're pretty excited about it because it's a it's probably both mine and Jeff's like favorite size format of a notebook to carry around, you know, it's not pocketable. It's a little bit bigger than that, but it's made to fit the A5 pouch for the linear. So I'm pretty pumped about it.

Myke Hurley: So everybody who's back the Kickstarter, you should go and do what I'm doing right now you go log on you go to manage your pledge change your pledge amount, change it by an extra $10. And you're good to go.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. So you certainly don't have to do that. Now you can wait, you know, until we actually cross the 50. But we'll definitely hit the 50. You know, hopefully by the end of this week.

Myke Hurley: You're just nicer than I am. I just tell people flat out to go do these things.

Brad Dowdy: I know. That's how I roll. You know, I try not to it. So this is Kickstarter is a hard thing for me, right? Because I have to do a lot of asking. Well, all of it is. And you have to you have to I mean, it's it's business, right? So but I also try to be conscious of the supporters and our listeners and things like that. And you don't ask too much, you know, and that's my thing. So I leave that to you. You do the you do the extras. I do the hard sell. Yeah. But yeah, you can just add $10. Some people added 20 $30 to their pledge for how many packs. And if you've never been part of Kickstarter before, it basically all comes out in the wash in the end. At the end, you'll get a survey say, you know, we can see how many dollars you've added, you'll put in how many extra packs of notebooks you ordered things like that. So yeah, it's all good. So it's moving along. We did get the Kickstarter project. We love tag, which is always a happy maker. And yeah, we're just going to keep going from there. I'm going to try to get some more coverage for the case around the internets and just keep going. Watch this thing keep on on ticking up. You asked me before the show where I think it's going to end, right? Mm hmm. And I'm guessing between 60 and 65,000 at the pace we're on right now.

Myke Hurley: I mean, last week, you said that your goal was a six figure. So you're thinking it's not going to be that. How does that make you feel?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, completely fine. That was my that was my like, blowout goal would be six figures. I would love it if it hit that it's not going to hit that at this rate. Unless something crazy happens, which could still theoretically happen mathematically possible, not likely.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I do similar goals like this for like business revenue and stuff, right? So I have goals that are like, this is the goal that would be great if we hit it and is kind of realistic, like it's still stretching us, but I think we can do it. And then I have the goal of like, this is dream scenario.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: And dream scenario is significantly higher than even the goal I think I could maybe just get.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. So I talked about getting to like where our last one hit like that 78 $80,000 range, that would be a really great goal to strive for. So that's what I'm trying to push for. What I think is going to happen is a separate thing. And I think that's just the way it's tracking right now. And which is fine, because like the way this project set up, there's one item, right? Our other Kickstarter, there was like six or eight different pledge levels. So there was all kinds of different things people could support. And that's not how this project set up. So, you know, we understand that. And, you know, it may not hit that number, but we're completely ecstatic with where we're at right now and where this is going to finish because, you know, it's going to finish, you know, a decent amount higher than this. But it's hard in that middle, just watching it plateau for two weeks, you know, in the middle where it's just trickling in.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah, this is the slow portion.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. But we've already like surpassed what we needed to do this project. And everything is completely on track and looking good. So we're happy about it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because like a very basic level, it's set now. It's done now. You got what you needed. You got more than you need now. We're all good. Like you can now go ahead and make this product and sell many more of them into the future.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. So that's the plan.

London Pen Show

Myke Hurley: Talking about plans. Talking about plans. Someone in the Slack reminded me the other day that the London Pen Show is this weekend. I don't know how I forget this every single year, but I did. But I'm going to go. Good. So it's on the 2nd of October, Sunday the 2nd of October. It's in London. I'll put a link to the London Writing Equipment Show Facebook page. I don't know why they don't call it the Pen Show, but it's called the London Writing Equipment Show. I think it's set up by like the London Writing Equipment Club or something. Like it's based on the name of the organization that sets it up. I really do wish that it was just called the London Pen Show because that's a better name. And I will forever call it the London Pen Show. Yeah. So I, yeah, I'm going to be making a visit. I don't know when because I've got some other stuff happening on that day. So I don't want to kind of be like, hey, everyone, let's go meet up. But if you're going to the Pen Show, you may see me. If you do come and say hi. I'm just basically going to look. I have absolutely no expectations about what they'll have. I have no plans to buy anything, but I'm going to go. I mean, Adina wants to go too. She wants to see what it's like. Cool. So I think it's, I think it's well worth just going and checking it out. And if you're going to be at the London Pen Show, I hope that I'll see you there. Just come up and say hi and we can geek out over some pens together. I don't even know if I'm going to take any of my stuff with me because it doesn't really feel, it doesn't really have the same kind of vibe that like Atlanta or whatever, because I don't know anyone really. It's a different, different kind of crew. I think from my experience of it last time, it's set up very differently. It's purely like a walk in, walk out, don't stop.

Brad Dowdy: So I looked through the site and it looks like I saw links to a gentleman named Sarge Minas. You've heard me talk about Sarge at Pen Shows before. He travels to the big ones over here in the US, but he's a Londoner. He should be there. If you don't do anything, you should go up to his table because he has the most beautiful stuff and you should introduce yourself. Tell him you're, tell him you know me. And, um, um, you know, I will, I really enjoy talking with Sarge and tell him that I say hi.

Myke Hurley: I'll do that. I'll find Sarge.

Brad Dowdy: And hide your wallet because his stuff is the best.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. See, I'm also at the wrong time in my life buying pens, you know, like, uh, but I'm sure I'll buy something small, right? Just so I've, I've done something on the day, you know? Right. Uh, but yeah, I'm going to go swing by cause I want to go and see it. Um, I have like this, like back of my mind plan to, to help these people, you know, or like to do my own. But this is like so far into the future, just like getting you here. Right. And then we, we do our own kind of London based show, but like that'll probably never happen. Um, but it's just one of those things that like, I have it in the back of my brain is like a someday maybe type thing, but yeah, there you go. London pen show. If you're going to be there, I hope to see you. Uh, if you're not going to be there, I'll tell you what it was like next week.

Myke Hurley: And I saw on Instagram, uh, your new retail tags for knock.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So we're going into retail. Finally. Um, that's a finally, um, people of, you know, stores and shops. And online retailers have been wanting to sell our goods forever. And it's been a, quite a process. You know, it's, we've talked a lot about, you know, just knock as a business and how we're three years on now and, and how things are moving towards the future. And, um, this is a huge goal of ours to get into retail and have that kind of sustainable manufacturing. You know, we found an outside manufacturing partner to help us out with this, to allow us to do this. So we have to do a couple, you know, a few little things we want to send, you know, when we send the cases to retailers, we want them to be able to have, you know, know what the product is and, you know, have a little thing for the customers when it shows up. So we just made some hang tags for, um, the brass town on the Sinclair. So they just, they came out really cool. And so we'll be, uh, Jeff and I will be hang hanging, uh, thousands of cases here in the very near future.

Myke Hurley: So what is, what's retail going to look like? Like what is retail for knock? Like, cause you keep mentioning, but now you've got tags. It seemed like they're going to be displayed in places.

Brad Dowdy: So that's just in case they do get displayed in things, places like pen shows, um, brick and mortar stores, things like that. Like some of our retailers have brick and mortar stores. Some of our retailers are online only.

Myke Hurley: So, so there is a list of retailers that you're going to, but maybe you're not allowed to say yet.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. We'll eventually, once we like really, really launch and know the, know dates that the retailer is going to have these things. And, you know, that's all still like a moving target right now. Although it's, it's, it's in the terms of weeks, not months. Right. It's like, it's coming soon.

Myke Hurley: I think it would be really an easy job to guess.

Brad Dowdy: Oh yeah, totally.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like it's kind of a no brainer type of thing. So yeah, it's totally obvious, but I don't want to say yet. Cause I don't want to, there's, there's no official release date yet. So you don't want to do that to your retailers. So, nope. So yeah, that's just something we've done knowing that, you know, this is kind of like a, a needed thing for, for retailers. And, you know, plus I think of it from like a inventory standpoint, they might need to slap a barcode on it. So they know it's something, you know, no, it lives somewhere. As far as inventory goes, they might scan in, scan out so they can add their barcode stickers to somewhere. So those are the kinds of things I have to think about. You know, I don't just want to send essentially a naked case. I don't want to send our belly bands cause they're more likely to get damaged in transit and things like that. So hang tags. It is.

Myke Hurley: I'm excited to see what you do there. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's coming soon. Um, I just don't have a date yet, but like I said, we're talking weeks, not months.

Myke Hurley: One last thing before we talk about pen chalet feels like the new field notes are just around the corner.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I got the, Hey, confirm your address. What about a week ago? Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: And they're doing, this seems to keep happening to us. So next week we're recording two episodes on our usual day. Oh, that's right. Because, uh, you're going to be traveling, right? The week after.

Brad Dowdy: So we have a weird schedule next month.

Myke Hurley: You know what's going to happen. The announcement's going to happen just after we finished recording and then we can't talk about them for weeks. Yeah. So if anyone out there from field notes listening, just, just tell the world before next Wednesday and then we can at least talk about them. We would appreciate that.

Brad Dowdy: Or just tell us and we won't release it till after they release. Yeah. Just tell us. Just send them.

Myke Hurley: Straight. Like, you know, like FedEx them. Directly to me and Brad. Like, you know, like overnight those things. Yeah. We'd be very grateful.

Brad Dowdy: Get on that, Brian.

Conklin Pens

Myke Hurley: This week's episode is brought to you by Penn Chalet. I love this company. I love working with Ron. Penn Chalet. I want to just, like, break from the norm here. Because, you know, you guys know everything about Penn Chalet. That they have all your favorite brands. They have everything you're looking for. Free shipping on orders of $50 in the United States. They sell internationally. Great shipping rates. 100% satisfaction guarantee. You know this because I tell you this every two weeks. And that's what I want to talk about today. This company supports this show more than anybody else. Because every two weeks since they began. Which was, like, I feel, like, very close to when Relay started. And Ron has been with us. And continues to sponsor. With, like, there's not even any question. He just, well, just keep doing it. Like, we don't even talk about it. Like, he's just, like, keep doing it. Every two weeks I send him an email. I say, Ron, what you got for me? He sends me an offer. Which is always amazing. This company helps support this show. Which helps us continue making this show. And they also have great offers and great deals. So you can satisfy your pen cravings. So I want you all, as always, whenever you have a pen that you're looking to buy. Go to penchalet.com first. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. You click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password penaddict. And you will get the code that you need to save 10% off anything at penchalet. So you're doing two things by going there first. If they have it, you can buy it and support the show. If they have it, you can buy it and get 10% off. That's what I want you all to do. There is a special offer this week on that secret penaddict area. The Conklin Jurograph in amber at 40% off. Now that is a big saving. I don't know much about this pen, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I don't own any Conklins, but this is essentially the price of a Lamy Safari for a really nice looking amber acrylic Conklin. You know, very classic styled. It's very pretty. It's a great, great color. Yeah, it's a great price.

Myke Hurley: Of course, because it's penchalet.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and of course, I'm going to mention it until Ron sells out. He still has the Platinum 3776 gathered pens in stock, which I think is one of the best looking pens. And may I add to your penchalet conversation with a little anecdote? Yep. So we got a tweet yesterday from Debra. It says, by the way, I ordered a Kaweco student from Penn Chalet on a ride to the Rockies game, which is that's a baseball team in Colorado, based on a podcast recommendation. Love it and love the discount, too. And Ron replied back, thank you. Hope you enjoy the pen. So it was very cool. Like she did it on the drive, ordering, listening to the podcast, ordering from Penn Chalet online and super easy. So thank you, Debra, for supporting us, the Penn Chalet, the Penn Addict, and everything. That's pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: If you buy from the Penn Chalet, tweet at us. Maybe we'll start mentioning this. That was good. I like that. So we can do that. Go to pennchalet.com. Thank you so much to Penn Chalet for sponsoring Relay FM and the Penn Addict. You can tweet at us. You can tweet at Penn Chalet. Let them know that you're supporting the show. We'd appreciate it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, very much. Very much. So a recurring theme we've had in, gosh, since the summer. It's now fall, thankfully, even though the temperature's not changing, is we've had discussions about Ann Truback and the handwriting. Handwriting going away, curse of being taught in schools, all kinds of things like that. And, you know, I've gotten pretty animated over some things in my own little way. I would say I've gotten stern on my beliefs. And just to clarify, because there was some confusion the last time we spoke about this, I'm okay with cursive not being taught in schools. I'm not okay with handwriting not being taught in schools. So there seems to be a little bit of confusion in some of my wording. Like, I'm not going to go to the mat for cursive. If, you know, if cursive is dying, you know, I want to see it continue. If it dies, but handwriting in some way, shape, or form is taught in schools, that's all I can ask for. You know, it's probably going to be cursive if it's taught in schools. So, you know, that's cool. As long as handwriting is taught in schools, that's my platform. That's what I want.

Myke Hurley: So cursive being, as we've said before, called joined-up handwriting. That, at least when I was a kid, you were taught handwriting. Then you were taught cursive.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: Then we were taught italicizing for a reason I will never understand.

Italic Cursive

Myke Hurley: I remember vividly that class. I remember, and I don't know how old I must have been, but I remember vividly just in pain struggling to do this thing because everybody could do it except me. Yeah. I just couldn't get it to work. And I will put it down to my left-handedness. I don't know why that would be an excuse, but that's the only one that I will give. And I remember the teacher coming over and telling me just how wrong it was and showing me everybody who was doing it right. I will always remember that class.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I don't know why you ever had to learn the italic cursive stuff. That was weird. But anyway, so back on to Anne. You know, our friend Tony from Everyday Commentary wrote a massive, I guess you'd call it a Tony takedown. That's what he kind of does on some certain products. So this time he did it on the cursive handwriting. Basically after the, we mentioned the New York Times op-ed piece that she wrote. And he went full lawyer mode onto his discussion. It's a really, really long post. A lot of people read it. A lot of people thought it was overly aggressive in trying to, you know, take her down. But Miss Truebeck responded to him. You know, she was pretty taken aback by the whole thing. And she had a, he posted her entire response, which was long in itself. And we'll have all these links in the show notes if anyone hasn't read any of this. You can certainly check it out if you're interested. And then, you know, Tony wrapped it up saying, you know, he appreciated her. And, you know, here's, you know, my stance on everything. And then yesterday, I got a tweet where Ann Truebeck and I forget the other gentleman's name. Here, I got the link in here. Chris, I believe. I'm sorry. Let me get his name correct. Oh, gosh.

Myke Hurley: Christopher Rulo.

Brad Dowdy: Christopher Rulo.

Brad Dowdy: Talked on a show on CBC Radio, which is Canada's radio station, about is handwriting obsolete in the digital age? So she had a conversation with him on there. And where I'm at in this whole thing, this whole Ann Truebeck thing, is I don't know what she stands for, especially after reading her responses to Tony and in relation to what she wrote in her op-ed piece. So I've emailed her this morning.

Brad Dowdy: And she replied already. You know, I'm asking her to come on the podcast. You know, I don't want this to be a one-sided conversation. You know, I think she deserves a platform to talk about, you know, what she believes in. And she replied back. And she said, hey, I'd love to be on the show. She said, have you read my book? I'd be happy to send you one. I said, no, I haven't read the book. But if you want me to read that before you come on the show, that's fine. I said, but here's what I really want. I said, well, we, this is me, my response to her. Then I haven't heard back. I said, well, we can definitely talk about the book. What I really want to wrap the discussion around is how you have been labeled as anti-handwriting and get your thoughts on that. What is your true stance on handwriting being taught in school, schools, cursive dying out and things of that nature. That's where I'm confused. So, you know, her book, oh, Handwriting Just Doesn't Matter was the title of the New York Times article. I understand that she probably didn't write that headline. You know, most newspapers have their own headline writers. But the book is called The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting.

Brad Dowdy: I think the message is getting lost somewhere on what she's really trying to do just based on some of the wording of the New York Times piece. The title does not help. Handwriting Just Doesn't Matter. The image they attach to it says end of an era. And especially at the end of the article where she says there will be no loss to our children's intelligence. Like, I find that hard to believe. So, I've offered her the opportunity to come on and discuss this. Like, I'll be happy to discuss the book. We can discuss every part of the book she wants. I'll read it before she comes on if that's what she would prefer. But what I really want to know is what her stance is. Because she's being made out to be anti-handwriting by everything I can tell. She may just be anti-cursive. That's cool. I've got no problem with that. Does she want handwriting taught at all in schools? Yes or no? That's it. That's when I want to know what the stance is. If you don't want cursive taught in schools, great. Do you want handwriting taught in schools, period. That's all. I mean, I think it's that simple. I think this has gotten, like, way out of whack in what her stance is. The way I read her stuff, it makes me think she doesn't want handwriting. But the way she answers Tony and the way she answers questions on the CBC broadcast, it doesn't sound like that. But she never really says one way or the other.

Myke Hurley: It's never clarified. Maybe because nobody's asking.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So I said, I told her specifically, I said, that's what I want to know. I said, we can talk about your book all day long. But here's what I want to know. Because you're being made out to be an anti-handwriting villain. Is that true or not? You know, I don't want to keep banging on her. I don't want to put words in her mouth, you know. So we'll see. You know, I will keep efforting that. She's already replied once. So we'll see if we can set something up. I'd like to have her on. And I told her, you know, we're obviously biased towards handwriting on this show. But this isn't going to be some, you know, sneak attack hatchet job. I want to come on and have a conversation. And here's what I want to talk about. You know, I'll give her the floor. But I'm going to ask black and white questions. Do you believe handwriting should be taught in schools? Pretty simple to me.

Myke Hurley: Wash your space, kids.

Brad Dowdy: So on that subject that can get a little intense, we have maybe the exact opposite of that. Have you heard of PPAT, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Well, this is one of those things that for whatever reason, it hits a nerve with people. And then I start getting it sent to me in like a snowballing effect. And it is picking up. And I'm pleased we're talking about this today because otherwise it's going to continue. You want it to stop? This is just something that seems to be a little bit of a meme now. It's this very peculiar song that has come from somewhere in Asia, I'm assuming. I don't know the exact origins of where this song comes from. There's kind of no information about it at all. And I don't I cannot recognize which language some of the subtitles are written in. But it looks to me like a like an Asian language, maybe Korean or Japanese or something like that. And but the song is in English and it is called Pen Pineapple Apple Pen. So obviously people send it to me because it has both pens and pineapple in it. And well known for my love of pineapple pepperoni pizza, which Jason Snow introduced me to. So it is one of those things where it's just like the perfect crossover of things that I talk about and enjoy. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: I can't explain what this is. I don't I have no idea what this song is. It makes me uncomfortable to watch it. I watched it for the first time just before we recorded today. It will be in the show notes of this week's episode. Just pause the show and go and spend 90 seconds watching this. Yeah. So you understand what we're talking about. Yeah. But you've got to know that you're going to feel like physically uncomfortable when you're done.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, this guy's a straight up baller. I mean, oh, apple pen.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You're going to be singing it the rest of the day. Pen Pineapple Apple Pen. Oh, it's weird. It's weird. I don't like it. I do not like it. It's totally amazing. You know, it's amazing. And you're going to be singing it all day and you can't wait to show Adina.

Myke Hurley: It's very Gangnam style, I think. Yes. Kind of.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, this thing's got 7.7 million views on YouTube right now. So how many of them are you? Something's going on. 0.7 million? Maybe three. Maybe three.

Myke Hurley: Oh.

Brad Dowdy: Oh. Apple pen.

Myke Hurley: Dear, oh, dear.

Brad Dowdy: Why are we sticking the pens into apples and pineapples?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't know. And then why do you put them together? It doesn't make any sense. This is why it makes me uncomfortable because I feel like he's not singing about pens and pineapples and that's why I don't like.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. That's why you can go, oh, in there.

Myke Hurley: Because he's freaking me out when he looks right into my eyes and makes that sound. It's not good. It's not good. So we should stop doing it because it's probably way worse coming from me and you.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, it's going to last at least another week. I'm pretty certain of it.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. This is, you know, now I have Gangnam Style in my head. That is just a great song.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So what I will not be doing, I will not be showing this to my kids. Yeah. Because the Gangnam Style never died. That took like a year to go away. This will not be viewed in my household. Well. As long as I can control it. Yeah. As long as I can control that.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. So that's a thing. So we have a bunch more to get to on the show. We have a bunch of Ask TPA. And I want to have a little mini topic here that comes up in Ask TPA a lot. And it comes up in my inbox and Twitter feed a lot. And it's something we've covered before. But as it continues to, you know, be a thing, I want to kind of revisit the topic of selling a pen.

Pen Selling

Brad Dowdy: So we've discussed this plenty of times on the show, where to sell a pen. We get a lot of Ask TPA questions, where to sell a pen. I've never really kind of elaborated on things. And I've been doing that. I've done this a couple of times in the Pen Attic Members newsletter, which is called Refill, which you should totally subscribe to. Myke will vouch for me. Love Refill. I'm pretty sure.

Myke Hurley: It's my Sunday afternoon email list thing that I read, newsletter. And it's the only newsletter that I receive that I will never delete until I read it.

Brad Dowdy: Well, thank you, sir. So, you know, early on in Refill, you know, maybe in issue 10-ish ballpark, you know, I had a podcast, a little mini show with Dr. Deans of Pen Economics.

Brad Dowdy: And he had challenged me to sell one of my pens. Because we had talked about that, you know, having too many pens, you know, too many pens not being used. And I wasn't sure I could do it. And, you know, I ended up selling four pens. I was like, okay, like I can actually do this. You know, it was a little bit of cathartic experience, a little bit of cleaning out, a little bit of thinning the herd. You know, if you're not using a pen, you know, maybe it can be rehomed somewhere else. So that kind of falls into the why. You know, why are you, why do you want to sell a pen? Well, maybe it's you have too many. Maybe you found the perfect one that's for you and you want to sell everything else that you've tried. Maybe you need the money for something else. Me, I've been selling, I haven't sold any since that first batch of four. Um, and that was to buy other pens, you know, use it to fund a bigger purchase or a different purchase, um, bigger, smaller, whatever it is. So the topic now comes up. Well, how do you do that? Like people who are following this show, you know, have bought fountain pens, you know, or are new to the show. Haven't really considered this topic because you, you would never sell like in the past, if you had like jelling pens, you're really, you're, you just don't sell those. You didn't pay very much for them, but with fountain pens, you can actually recoup some of your purchase price. If you're not using the product, just like anything else, clothes, backpacks, cars, whatever, you can recoup some of that cost, use that money for something else. So there is a secondary market for fountain pens. And so the question always comes up, where do I sell, where and how do I sell my fountain pens? The first place I always send people to is probably the least, um, thought of place. And that's the FP geeks message board. Um, I think it's probably the most, um, reasonable group of people on a selling channel where you can have, you know, your post up, um, lots of people checking out the board. Um, that's a good community over there, a strong community. Um, it's not the biggest fountain pen network is the biggest, but their classified section, is high volume. Like your post might go missed, like on fountain pen network. You know, if you're looking to buy something that's hard to find, I would look at fountain pen network first. If you're looking to sell something, I'd probably go to FP geeks first because it's a little bit smaller, a little bit more manageable, but still you're getting enough eyeballs on posts to, you know, if you want to sell something, that's a good place to do it. Another place that doesn't get thought of, and it comes up from time to time. And I mentioned it is on Reddit. There's a board called pen swap. That's actually a pretty decent place to sell. There's good moderators over there that, you know, you don't necessarily, you know, you never a hundred percent guarantee that the transaction is going to be perfect, but they do a good job of managing, you know, any bad seeds, just like FP geeks.

Myke Hurley: That would be the same with the FP geeks and fountain pen network as well though, right? Sure. That's what makes me uncomfortable, by the way.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's why people ask this question because there's no perfect answer, right? I mean, eBay is not the perfect answer. And you notice eBay is not even on my list. That would be my last option unless you're a seasoned eBay user.

Myke Hurley: See, I would have thought that eBay would be the best one because they have all the protections in place. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, but you hear stories of people having to, you know, run the gamut of getting all that fixed afterwards. Sure.

Myke Hurley: But like FP geeks and fountain pen network, they don't even have a gamut to run.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: Right. Am I being unreasonable here? Like if the concern is, oh, you have to fill out a bunch of paperwork and forms if the transaction goes bad. Isn't that better than tough nuggies?

Brad Dowdy: No, because hopefully in places like FP geeks, it's handled beforehand, if that makes sense, by not having a Wild West type of community like eBay where anyone and everyone can come through, even though that's a possibility. I mean, sure.

Myke Hurley: But if something does go wrong, the likelihood may be less, like a lot less, but if something does go wrong, you're out of luck. Sure. I would agree. There's no system in place to help you.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Okay.

Myke Hurley: That's just what I want to put out there because maybe I'm talking as the person in fear, the person who needs these suggestions. But this is why I never sell pens. Right. I just don't want to deal with that.

Brad Dowdy: Right. That's why this is a topic because there's not an easy answer. Right. There's no perfect answer. Even on the pen addict slack, sell trade channel. I mean, we never have any issues, but that doesn't mean there couldn't be an issue. Right.

Myke Hurley: See, I'm uncomfortable even selling my pens to friends because I wouldn't want to do something bad, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Sure. Some people would rather not have a friendship with the people that they're selling to.

Brad Dowdy: So if you're looking to sell a pen and you've never done it before, like go to FP Geeks and browse around, you know, see how other people are doing it, see what the community is like. And, you know, you're going to have to have a certain comfort. If you really want to sell these pens, you're going to have to jump in somewhere, be it FP Geeks or eBay. There's never going to be somewhere that gives you the perfect warm, fuzzy feeling that everything is going to go absolutely perfect. I mean, there's no such thing. So don't my advice is just that is spend some time browsing first, you know, unless for some reason you have an emergency and need to sell things quickly. That's a different story. Someone mentioned yesterday on Twitter when we were talking about this, that Instagram is a good way to do it if you want to post things. But then again, you're at the same, you're in the same place. You may not know, you know, who's buying from you and things like that. But if you're actually looking to move things quickly, Instagram is actually not a bad idea.

Myke Hurley: Because you can post pictures and then you will like have direct message conversations with people, I guess.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. And I follow a couple of people that do sell pins, like some pins that they restore, some really beautiful stuff. And, you know, then they sell the pin through Instagram. I thought that was kind of cool.

Myke Hurley: Not to hammer on this, but if there's no rules and regulations, then it doesn't matter where you do it. Like really, like the Instagram is as good as any forum.

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So, you know, I've had success, you know, you know, I just sell things directly on, you know, I'm lucky in that I have a platform to be able to do that.

Myke Hurley: And who doesn't want the pins of Brad Dowdy, you know?

Brad Dowdy: So speaking of which, I think I've come up with seven more that I'm about to sell.

Myke Hurley: Whoa. You're going to get the skinny on the show? Get people, get the pump primed, as it were?

Brad Dowdy: I guess. I mean, I've listed them all out. I need to go work on pricing and figure out what boxes I have and get all the specs of the pins and stuff. What are they? I want to know what they are now. I'm not telling you. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Is there anything I might want?

Orange Pins

Brad Dowdy: I mean, you know me, there's probably always something you want. Yeah, that's true. There's actually, I'll give you a shocker. There's actually two orange pins.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, see, that's what I'm thinking. I'm wondering what orange pins you have to go, because I might want one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You know what I'm going to tell me? No. The worst.

Myke Hurley: See, I don't get anything. I don't get anything. I got the line here, but whatever. I don't get anything for free around these parts, kids. Oh, my God. Nothing. You're going to go there? Nothing from this guy.

Brad Dowdy: We're like the most fortunate people on the planet.

Myke Hurley: From you? From other people? Yeah. I get lots of stuff, and I'm very happy.

Brad Dowdy: I like to pay it forward. But yeah, these are all pins that I've bought with my own money, and I want to make that clear. I never sell anything that was given to me. Okay. I'll give them away. I'll give them away.

Myke Hurley: Ah, yeah. That's a good system.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. I don't hold on. I've given away tons of pins. Selling pins is hard. Harder, because actually, if I'm buying a pin, it's usually for a reason, because I want it for some reason. But sometimes you fall out of love with that pin, and it's time to move on. You got other things. I am saving up for a pin, which is why I have these on the market. It's that Sailor 105th anniversary, which we talked about. Oh, you're saving for that thing. I just like to do it, because I know you hate the 105th anniversary. It sounds so dumb. I'm not going to disagree with you there. That's pretty funny. It's just like, oh, here's a round number. But it's a cool pin, so I'm saving up for that.

Myke Hurley: I'm on the waiting list. Crazy Bob was in the chat room. Just gave a little story that I have to read out, because I think this is kind of funny in a macabre kind of way. Still chuckling at one auction I saw where someone is selling two Sailor pens. The photo shows his credit card bill and a BIC next to it, painting a depressing story that they have bills to pay and had to resort to BIC. It's kind of sad, but at the same time, you can't help but laugh.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I am not selling the Sailor pink love. That will be a hard one to part with. Sorry, Christine.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to launch a Mission Impossible-style heist with, like, rappelling from the ceiling to get that thing. So you better have it in some tight security.

Brad Dowdy: I do. Highly secure.

Cricket Shirts

Myke Hurley: This week's episode is brought to you also by a new sponsor, and that is Cricket. Brad, I think you're going to like this one. And there might be an interesting story in the middle of this ad that you may not know about, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So Cricket is a company that was founded in the pursuit of the perfect polo shirt. The founders of Cricket were unhappy with the polo shirts that they were finding on the market, so they decided that the only way to get what they were looking for was to go out and actually make them themselves. Cricket shirts feature the perfect mix of old-school style and modern design, and their shirts are all about being better than what you can find out there in the market today. They're better fitting. They're not too baggy, not too skinny. They have a better collar. They feature removable collar stays to help your collar look crisp and new. No more ruffled-up bacon collar. Bacon collar, right? This is the thing where, you know, you've got, like, a polo shirt. I like it. And you've been wearing it for a while, and it goes, like, kind of wavy. It looks like bacon. Yeah. So they have these little collar stays. And I got a bunch. Like, I got a couple of shirts from Cricket. I'll talk about those in a minute. But they also sent some extra collar stays. So you just pop them out, like, when you're washing it and stuff. But you have extra ones. You pop it in, and it keeps the collar nice and crisp. This is what you usually get on, like, nice, expensive dress shirts and stuff. So that's a really, really smart addition. Cricket have a better shopping experience. They have no hassle, free returns and exchanges. And they have better fabric. All of Cricket's shirts are super soft, 100% certified organic cotton to make their shirts as comfortable at the 19th hole as they are on the 18th. Brad, what's the 19th hole?

Brad Dowdy: So the 19th hole is the bar you go to after you finish your round of golf. So there's 18 holes, generally, in a general round of golf. So a lot of golf courses will have a bar for you to come in, settle up your bets with your friends, grab a bite to eat, grab a few beers. And they call that the 19th hole. That's the meeting place after your round. So you hit the bar, and they're generally called the 19th hole.

Myke Hurley: And Brad, why specifically do you know this?

Brad Dowdy: I was a golf pro for about four years. So I worked at a country club, giving golf lessons, running the facility, things like that. So I have been in the golf business in a previous incarnation of my life. So yeah, I'm quite familiar with the 19th hole.

Myke Hurley: This is one of the Brad facts that I forget every now and then. And then every time I'm told it, it's like I'm learning it for the first time. Like I remember that I knew it, but I get the joy out of knowing that thing every time it comes up. Brad Dowdy, golf pro. So the 19th hole is where you relax. This is the mentality of cricket. They want these shirts to be as good on the 18th holes they are on the 19th. They want them to be perfect for whatever scenario you need them in, whether you're getting stuff done or you're relaxing. That's what it's all about. And their clothes fit the bill. They look great. The colors are great. I had a lovely green polo shirt. It's so soft. Like it feels really good. It hasn't got that kind of stiff feeling that I've found from polo shirts in the past. I think the collar stays are really smart. I love that. I've been thinking about like where is my 19th hole? I think it might just be in bed and I would totally wear one of these. In bed because they are that comfortable. You can go find out more about cricket shirts today by going to this is a special URL, right? It's not how it sounds. The URL is C-R-I-Q-U-E-T-S-H-I-R-T-S dot com. So cricket shirts. Cricket is spelled C-R-I-Q-U-E-T. So go to cricketshirts.com slash penaddict. There will, of course, be a link for this in the show notes. And because you are a listener of this show, you'll get a lovely 20% off your first purchase when you use the code penaddict at checkout. Thank you so much to Cricket for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: So one other thing you may or may not know under hashtag Brad Facts. I worked for Brooks Brothers as well. Are you familiar with Brooks Brothers?

Myke Hurley: No.

Brad Dowdy: It's the historic men's brand, if you will, started in the 1900s. Are you familiar with Marks and Spencer?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So Marks and Spencer ended up buying Brooks Brothers like in the 90s or 2000s, something like that. But anyway, it was considered a higher-end men's and women's traditional clothing shop. So one of my favorite products, I've just looked through this cricket stuff while we're talking. They actually have a long-sleeve shirt. Yeah, I have one. That looks like the shirt I used to have at Brooks Brothers. That was my favorite long-sleeve polo shirts. You don't find good quality long-sleeve polo shirts. You can get short-sleeve anywhere. These long-sleeves look killer. So I'm going to have to get in on the long-sleeve cricket shirt action here after the show.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you should.

Long-Sleeve Polo

Myke Hurley: I'd never had or never even seen a long-sleeve polo shirt before. And it was kind of interesting when I got it. I was like, what is this? I've never seen this before. And I was like, oh, this is kind of nice. This is different.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so that's one of my favorite clothing items. But it's just generally a fall-winter thing here, which we don't have too much. So I miss them when I don't get to wear them. So I'll be checking these out as soon as we're done.

Myke Hurley: Awesome.

Myke Hurley: All right. What's up next? Ask TPA time? Hashtag Ask TPA time?

Brad Dowdy: Yes, it is. And we have a couple. This first email is pretty cool. I'm excited about this first email. And we have a couple other email Ask TPAs. And they have a bunch of Twitter questions. And so if I don't get to them all today, I'll save them for next week and keep them coming in. Because we have a lot of shows to fill early in these next coming weeks. So we will be getting to lots of Ask TPA questions. So keep sending them in. But this first one is from a listener named Pablo. And he's from Mexico City, which he lets me know in the title of his email. And I thought this was really... Hola, Pablo. This is really cool. He says, Hey, pen addicts. I write to you from Mexico City. I must say I'm not really a knowledgeable pen user and consumer. However, I have the good fortune of living with a wonderful woman who happens to be a true pen addict. Excellent. She is a devoted fan of your show. She's starting to build her own collection. She bought a Pilot Vanishing Point, a Lamy Vista, a TWSBI Eco. And if she knew I was butchering the names of her pens, she would have a fit. And I think the Pilot Custom 74, he says. Even though she is really fond of pens and is learning every day, she has not written to you or anything. She's a bit shy that way. I write this because I wanted to ask if you could say hi to her in an upcoming show. I know it would mean a lot to her. And surely it means a lot to me. Her name is Patricia. Your show is great. And know that you guys have a loyal listener in Mexico City. All the best, Pablo. How awesome is that?

Myke Hurley: That is awesome. So I will now say hola to Patricia as well.

Brad Dowdy: Hola, Patricia. We're so glad you listened. And it sounds like, you know, Pablo knows what's right here. So he is looking out. And Patricia, it looks like you have a guy that wants to feed your pen addiction.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, Patricia, you could use this the next time you want to buy a pen and Pablo's like, oh, I'm not so sure. You can just say it's his fault. That's right. Because he's making you more and more of a pen addict, right? By having you be getting a shout out on the show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So hola, Patricia. Write to us anytime. And I even have, if you go to the contact page of penaddict.com slash contact, at the bottom is my mailing address. If you ever want to write a letter, we take written letters as well. So have fun listening to the show. And if you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to drop Myke and I an email. And thanks, Pablo, for sending this email.

Myke Hurley: I really like the idea of written Ask TPA. So I'm going to propose something which you may end up regretting. I would like to do, at some point in the future, a full episode of written Ask TPA. Okay. So, ladies and gentlemen. So we need to pick a date. Well, just start sending them. Because, look, they're going to get sent forever.

Brad Dowdy: That's what I'm saying. We need to say, like, in November, this date, you know, have them in before then. You know, it gives people, like, a month to start sending in letters. And we'll do that.

Myke Hurley: You pick a date. Yeah. It's on your mailbox.

Brad Dowdy: So, here. We'll pick a date right now. But let's just give everyone, how about exactly a month? October 26th. Have your letters in. Because we will be recording that day for the November 2nd show. Which we will do all written as TPA. So, we'll put a link in the show notes to my PO box address. So, you can get your letters out. And give you a few weeks to get them in the mail. And get them in front of my eyeballs. So, we can prepare for that show. Great idea, Michael.

Myke Hurley: Awesome. And we'll remind you. We're going to remind you as we run up now to that episode. So, you need to get them in by October 26th. To have a chance. We have your letter read out on the show.

Brad Dowdy: Perfect. Perfect. All right. So, next as TPA is from Oscar. And this is kind of a timely one. And I wanted to bring it up just to discuss the Pelican Hub. So, Oscar wanted to know. With this year's Pelican Hubs wrapping up. I was wondering what your thoughts are on this event. Which takes place all over the world. On the same day. At the same time. As well as they're spending a small fortune on sending out goodies. This year's Hubs received a bottle of Edelstein Ink of the Year. Pinsleeves. And a notebook for every participant. Do you think that is something that may expand to other brands taking part in similar events? What they do is kind of amazing. Did you follow any of the posts on that? I linked to them in this week's refill. Aziza and Steven in Amsterdam helped host one. Joe from Gentleman Stationer in Nashville helped host one. And we sent some things from NOC to the one in Washington, D.C. I know the Pelican's Purge was involved in the Philadelphia one. It's kind of a big deal. And Pelican puts a lot, a lot of time and effort and money behind this event. So, what do you think about this, Myke? Why do they do it, do you think? It's just a marketing event. And they want to give something back to their... You know, Pelican's one of those brands that has loyal customers, right? I mean, there's an entire blog, which I just said, the Pelican's Purge. People, like, it's one of those brands that they follow, like, you follow Apple, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They want to give back to those people by saying, hey, we're going to have this event. You know, we'll send... We'll have someone in all of these towns that will be... Basically, they call them the Hubmaster, where they'll send all this products to. And you plan this get-together on this date and this time. And you talk about Pelican stuff, but it's really not... I think it's awesome.

Myke Hurley: I think it's awesome that a brand like Pelican, a long-standing brand, is giving away free gifts to anybody who loves their kind of stuff enough that they're willing to kind of get together with other fans. I think it's awesome. This is like an extension of the pen show idea, right? And Pelican are being very smart and they're kind of centering them around them. And I think it's a really smart idea. I think it is an idea that is, with no offense to anyone, smarter than what you tend to see from pen companies, who are typically a very kind of old school and by the book and not doing much that changes. I think this is one of those things where it's like, yeah, good on you guys. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So they sent out full... So like the hub master would basically say, I have 12 people RSVP'd for these events. And it's basically like a local pen meetup. So you get to meet other people that you may not know in your area that are into fountain pens, so it has that added benefit. But they sent full bottles of the Edelstein Ink of the Year, Aquamarine, I think is this one, to each participant. Like if you went to this event, you came home with like a full bottle plus all this other swag, all from Pelican at no cost. That's kind of amazing. That's a huge expense for them. Yeah. But I think it's worth it from a marketing standpoint.

Myke Hurley: It's an expense on both ends, right? They're losing the sale, potentially. You know, like you can have your own opinion on whether they got it in the first place. But they're also shipping them.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So yeah, to see that commitment from Pelican and to see this event, it's been going on for a little while, to continue to grow like this, you know, maybe next year I can get involved in the Atlanta event and things like that. You know, it just kind of snuck up on me this year and I wasn't able to do anything. But it's really cool. I'd love to see other companies be more involved with the local communities of pen fans and online communities of pen fans. It gets all of us together to talk about the things we love and to have someone as big as Pelican to be behind it. It's pretty great. So wonderful stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of ink, Michael, how do you test ink and organize all the inks you own or like? Do you use an ink journal? Separate cards like I see in many online reviews? Something else. Do you record pen and ink combinations? Certain inks seem to work better in certain pens. When you find a killer match, do you keep it that way or do you continue swapping out ink and experimenting? And this is from Justin. So Justin is asking this question and I told him how to answer it on the show. This is one of the things that I fail at in my fountain pen and ink love. I don't track the inks as well as I should. Like I look at like Anna at the Well Appointed Desk and Matt from Pen Habit keep essentially card catalogs of ink swabs. So they can pull out, you know, if they have a new turquoise, they can pull out other turquoises too. So people have a point of reference when comparing. They say, oh, I have this turquoise. This is how I relate to it. I think that's awesome. So there's lots of different ways you can do that. You know, there's, you know, companies that make like the, like I reviewed these Moramon little cards that, you know, work really good for ink swabs. Some people use the NotCo dot dash cards. Um, but I haven't put together a library or a catalog of my inks and I really should because it's, it's super useful when I'm talking about other things to be able to show people that Matt also does a thing called the currently inked log, which we'll put an ink link to that in the show notes. It's where you take your currently inked pens, put down the information on the pen, on the ink, the date you filled it, then you can come back and you can put the date you cleaned it right now. Um, when, you know, when you clean and you can put that date and you can have some notes, how did it work within the pen? So that's a really good way to track. I think that's probably the best way is to use something like a currently inked log and, you know, mats are great. They have great paper. You could just log it in a notebook, you know, if you want as well, I've tried that and, you know, you can put a little swab of ink on there as well to keep track of it. But, um, those are kind of the two different ways. I don't really do either of those things religiously. Um, although I do see the benefit in doing that and I'm going to guess, um, you just have one ink swab and it's Fuyugaki everywhere.

Myke Hurley: It wouldn't take me long to do this, would it? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Wouldn't take you long, but that's okay. That's actually a good thing.

Myke Hurley: I think it's better in some ways.

STPAs

Brad Dowdy: All right. So I'm gonna get to some of these STPAs and we've, uh, I've, I've missed them for the last couple of weeks or so. So, um, princess chalk on Twitter to either of you boys know a Canadian based online pin store. Our exchange rate is hurting and I need to get my pin fix. This is so easy because I follow her and talk to her a lot. Wonder pins based in Toronto has a great online shop. Liz is wonderful. She, uh, runs a great blog. I, I subscribed to their blog just to read it, even though I've never ordered anything from it, uh, from her, you know, being in Canada and all, you know, just like, you know, princess chalk wants to find somewhere, you know, in her country to order from wonder pins is an excellent, excellent choice, excellent retailer. And if you're in Canada, um, you should definitely check them out. And even if you're not, you should check them out because they do a wonderful job, um, with their store. Boom, boom, easy, easy mode. That was the easiest question I'll answer all day.

Brad Dowdy: So Luke AR wants to know what's the best ballpoint refill? I use fountain pens mostly, but my job requires writing on carbon paper a lot. So it's the Uniball Jetstream. It's the answer I have all the time.

Brad Dowdy: It's not going to fit in every pin, but it's going to fit in all the Jetstreams. They have all the models. If you had to pick, Myke, what would you pick?

Myke Hurley: Uh, Pilot G2.

Brad Dowdy: That's a gel pen.

Myke Hurley: Wait, is that rollable? It's a gel pen. Well, then I have no answer. I don't like them.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. But you're over there mocking me with your noises.

Myke Hurley: And I don't even know, I don't even know what, what a rollable is clearly.

Brad Dowdy: Well, it's a ballpoint. So you're way off.

Myke Hurley: Oh my God. I've fallen apart.

Brad Dowdy: You have fallen apart. I guess it was, you've drank the Fuyugaki juice too much.

Myke Hurley: It's too far gone now.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. But anyway, it's, that's the best ballpoint. Um, if you want to try something different, other ballpoints I like are Lamy's ballpoints. They come in various pin sizes and price points. You know, I use the Lamy 2000. That's kind of expensive, but you can get them in, in other cheaper models. So they have a really good ballpoint refill. That's a standard ballpoint.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I can't remember the last time I used a ballpoint or even a rollerball. I just don't use them.

Brad Dowdy: I've actually been using them quite frequently, which is also helpful when I'm trying to sell some pins too. So it kind of all works together. One big happy pin family. So, Oh Truffle wants to know, what syringe do you recommend for filling cartridges? Jacquard needle tip was not skinny enough to allow air to leave the cartridge. Myke, you're an expert on syringes. So what say you?

Myke Hurley: I don't even know what you're getting at.

Brad Dowdy: What was this? What is this? I don't, I just thought you might know. I don't know. Okay. So I'll take this one. I actually am an expert on syringes, even though I don't know the names of them, but you just want to make sure you get, um, order from one of the pin companies online. They're all starting to stock these, um, flat, uh, blunt nose needle tips. So you're not poking yourself, um, with your, uh, syringes. I don't actually have a brand name, but any of them, as long as they have a blunt nose needle, you're good. They all work fine. And you'll, you'll get, um, you know, you want to look for the wider gauges. So they have a wider holes openings, but I haven't had any issues with air not flowing through when, when getting, uh, when getting them, I think she's talking about, or he is talking about like the plastic, uh, tip needles that you have to really like seal off when you're refilling a cartridge. They kind of block the airflow. These traditional syringes, um, you can get it, you know, Anderson pens, Goulet pens, jet pens. I think they all carry, carry them now. So just shop for one of those and, um, you can even probably find some on Amazon, but I haven't looked there.

Brad Dowdy: So hot cup of loving, which I just love saying that Twitter handle. I talked to her all this. She's a, she's a, she's an ATL in. So, um, uh, I always want to answer her questions. So although not co covers my case needs, when I take my fountain pens out of the house, I need a nice case for home under $60. So the price point may be an issue because I haven't looked, but the case that I would recommend is, uh, from Franklin Kristoff. They have these, um, pocket, uh, gosh, not the pocket, the flap, uh, leather cases that are very sturdy, very well made. They're very popular, um, among people who, you know, carry their pens, but that's like a six or eight pin. Um, if you're looking for something bigger, Franklin Kristoff also carries like the larger folder folio type cases. So I would look at what Franklin Kristoff carries, um, for that. And, um, yeah, they make, they make really, they have a really good stuff. So that's where I, that's where I would head first.

Rollerball Pens

Brad Dowdy: So Matty J Williams wants to know if we have any rollerball recommendations that take fountain pen ink. Is there any benefit over just using a fountain pen? This is a really good question. And we've talked about this from time to time over the years. There are specific pens made by specific companies. J Harbaugh comes to mind. Uh, Kaweco comes to mind that make a rollerball, a cartridge, a fountain pen cartridge filling rollerball pen. And across the board, they're terrible. It's just not something that should happen because fountain pen ink is generally not viscous enough to have the ball in the rollerball write smoothly across the page. It can be done and it's a thing and pen companies do it. It's generally not a good writing experience. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I've used a J. Urban one and it's a nightmare.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It just, it feels like you're writing with like a rock because it can't get any kind of smooth turn on the ball and the tip of the pen. So it's really ragged and rough. It's just not a comfortable thing. So I don't see that there's any benefits of using that. You use it just to kind of have fun. You know, you know, it's a thing, but it's never been a very useful thing, if you will.

Brad Dowdy: So this next one I want to throw out to the people because there is an answer and I just don't have it. So Cub Buckeye, CU Buckeye wants any recommendations for fountain pen friendly printer paper. There's been people that have done tests on say, you know, the big 500 count sheet packs of printer paper that you buy at the office supply store and have found a couple that have worked well. You're generally going to go with a higher weight. So like standard copier paper, say it might be a 20 pound. I think the 24 and 32 pounds might actually be a better, better thing for you to use and to at least test. But there are people and I'll throw that out to through the chat room and to the listeners to email me what fountain pen friendly paper like brand and spec have you used that have have found to be, you know, a good quality fountain pen experience because some people might want to sneak that into their office and, you know, get everyone drinking the fountain pen Kool-Aid.

Myke Hurley: Like I did. And I forgot what a rollerball was.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We're so in, so in the fountain pens, who knew, right? Myke didn't even remember what a rollerball is. All right. A couple more and we'll wrap it up for today. So the nib creep, the real nib creep, excuse me. Can you think of more blogs or YouTube channels with a single focus like three staples or pelicans perch?

Brad Dowdy: So I think the question is like Jenny three staples focuses on field notes and pelicans perch obviously focuses on pelican. I don't know that I can think of anyone that has that singular focus. You know, like I follow Matt, the pen habit. Well, he does fountain pens and inks, but it's not like, okay, only Omos fountain pens, you know, are on this channel. It's not like specific like that. And there's plenty of, you know, bloggers, you know, Steven Brown and you know, other people that do general fountain pen stuff. I can't think of any product specific YouTube channels that are focusing on something like field notes, pelican as a brand or other things like that. Can you think of anything? And I'm, I'm, I'm definitely not a big YouTuber. You know, I'm not into the whole YouTube ecosystem. I follow the people I follow and I might pick up another one or two here or there. So I don't know if this is out there. So, you know, does someone focus on pilot as a brand, you know, someone focus on sailor as a brand, that would be kind of cool. But I don't know any offhand and I would love to hear it if it was, because I think that would be a pretty good watching because three staples and pelicans perch are two of my favorite reads as it is. I like those product brands, brand focus blogs. They're very cool.

Myke Hurley: Now, knowing the internet as it is, I know that those things exist, but there's none, none that I can recommend other than the ones that you've already spoken about.

Brad Dowdy: So this next one is a very specific question with a general kind of feel to it. So, oh, Eke Berganderson says, my wife bought me turquoise ink from Venice. The brand is Il Papiro, but there is a strange smell to it. Any experience or thoughts? So, very specific. What is the smell, do you think? Well, it's very specific to that. He's saying it's very specific to this brand, but I'm saying it's very general to Inkson as a whole. A lot of them smell. I mean, a lot of them smell chemically. A lot of them smell herbally. And it's the different compounds that go into different inks and they produce a different smell. And it's not on, I mean, it's, uh, it's, um, it's enough, not a purposeful thing. It's more of a, as needed, you know, they might have a preservative that is keeping the ink from mildewing, but it has to be this certain one to make the color accurate to the ink that they sell. So this ink may smell while another one may not, you know, I'm not a chemist, but that's kind of the things that go into these inks. Um, you'll have...

Myke Hurley: And it also translates as Aziz will turn you into taste.

Brad Dowdy: It does translate. They do taste different because of this too.

Myke Hurley: Not that you should know that. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I just want that out. Not all inks are created the same. You know, Sailor is probably my favorite ink brand and they're very well known for having a smell. There's a Sailor ink smell. It's whatever they're using in there to either keep the ink fresh, to make the color accurate. It's a chemical smell. There's nothing wrong with your ink that it smells, but some people can't have that smell. Like I communicate with someone online who has a physical reaction to the smell, like a nauseated reaction and can't use certain inks. And I can understand that. You know, some of them are very strong. Some of them... Most of them you can't smell when you're writing with it. You just smell it from the bottle as a whole. When you're writing, I don't know that I've ever smelled an ink, really. Maybe the Sailor Nano pigmented inks. Those are very strong.

Brad Dowdy: Something like that. But you usually don't when you're writing with them. You know, it's a much more smaller sample than, you know, catching a whiff of the whole bottle. So, speaking of inks, and we'll wrap it up on this one, Myke. Kim herself wants to know if a Fountain Kristoff Coke bottle pen and Emerald of Chavor is it a good combination? I'm concerned about cleaning the pen after. So, for those who aren't familiar, Franklin Kristoff does a clear acrylic, like a light green. They call it the Coke bottle because it was like the old Coke bottles used to use, had that green tint, but it was still transparent.

Brad Dowdy: Emerald of Chavor, if you're not familiar with, is one of the Jehrebon sparkle ink. So, it has gold flecks in it.

Myke Hurley: Which one is the Coke bottle?

Brad Dowdy: It's the light green. Okay. So, I have like some clear ones, like the ice ones. I don't have the Coke bottle. One has a green tint to it. Still the same idea. Clear barrel. And Emerald of Chavor is the turquoise with gold flecks, which is beautiful inks. Is it a good combination? I'm going to go with yes. And I don't think it's going to stain your pen. It could. But, I mean, if you're leaving it in there for a month or two, I think you'll be fine. You know, it's... I don't think Emerald of Chavor would stain your Coke bottle pen more than any other ink would stain your Coke bottle pen. I mean, Jehrebon makes decent inks. The gold flecks certainly aren't going to stick. It might be harder to clean out. I don't think it's going to damage your pen. Those inks are just not easy to clean regardless. So, no matter what pen you're going to use that ink in, it's going to be an issue. I don't think having the clear demonstrator barrel like the Coke bottle pen is any different than any other pen in this particular case.

Myke Hurley: Well, you usually don't see it.

Brad Dowdy: You usually don't see it. Yep. I would agree with it. But I don't... I mean, I would do it. I'm just going to use that pen. I just want to make sure I use that pen a lot and not leave it sitting for a week. But that's more because of the gold flecks stuff clogging up the nibs and the feeds as opposed to what it will do to the barrel. I don't think it'll necessarily do anything to the barrel.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, I have one of my old Franklin Kristoff model 45s. I think not the 45, whatever the small pocket one when they first came out with the fire and ice. And one of those is kind of tinted blue. But that's okay. I mean, it's probably like from Conpecky, something pretty normal. But by the next ink you fill it with, you don't even see it. You do see it if it's going to bug you a little bit. You know, when it's empty laying there, you can see it a little bit. I mean, that's just kind of the deal with that pen. So, my voice is shot, Michael.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you've answered so many questions today. You're going to have to take a break now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm going to take a break, get something to drink, maybe at the 19th hole. Good idea. And, yeah, we'll have a little party afterwards.

Myke Hurley: If you want to find our show notes for this week, which is where you can also find a link to the contact page at the Pen Addict. So, you can get that address for our write-in-us-tpa episode. Go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 224. You'll find links there for everything, including to our lovely sponsors, Pen Chalet and Cricket. Go support them because they help support us. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com, nox.co. And he is at penaddict on Instagram and at dowdyism on Twitter. I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E on Twitter, Instagram. And currently, for probably just a limited time, Snapchat. I'm trying Snapchat, Brad. Whoa.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, let me know how that works out.

Myke Hurley: I'm trying to be down with the kids. Federico convinced me, told me to stay relevant. So, I'm trying my best.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Federico convinces me on a lot of things. That is not one of them. I have tried, but nope.

Myke Hurley: So, you can hit me up on Snapchat. At least for the time being, I'm kind of letting people send me stuff and that kind of thing. So, see how it all goes. I'm diving headfirst. Nice. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.