The Pen Addict 237/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	237
Title:	Oh Myke! Noooo!
Release Date:	December 28th, 2016
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 237
Audio File:	Audio Episode 237
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 237
Length:	5454 min <br />0.9 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 237. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello, Myke Hurley. So, um, did you have a nice Christmas? I had a wonderful Christmas. You did? And, uh, yeah, it was a great, uh, great weekend. I'm glad it was over the weekend. Had a nice, long, relaxing Christmas weekend. What'd you get for Christmas?

Myke Hurley: I have no idea.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah? Why's that?

Myke Hurley: Because we're recording before Christmas.

Myke Hurley: You did a really good job. I was so proud of you right then. Yeah, I was wondering how long we could keep that going. Hey, great episode last week.

Myke Hurley: What, you mean like ten minutes ago?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, totally. It was a great one. Good show. It was. It was excellent. But this one, we're gonna step our game up and make it even better, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, we're double recording because I'm gonna be away over the Christmas period and Brad is the world's best co-host and he will do anything I ask of him because he's so lovely. But, uh, we have an action-packed episode today. Um, I think in, we have a couple of traditions in this show now. One is the gift guide. One is the live show. And I think the other is like a pen adding resolutions. And we're gonna discuss those a little bit today. But with a little twist. Yes. Which is new for 2016. I really like the twist. But we do have some follow-up-y and mini items that we wanna discuss and get out of the way before we, uh, break into our main topic today.

Product Items

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, a couple product items to discuss. A couple of email items to discuss. Like this first one, which I thought was kind of pertinent for what's going on, um, you know, in the northern hemisphere where it's cold. And someone emailed me the other day saying, you know, I live in a cold environment and my fountain pens are leaking. How can I combat that? So, you know, I don't live in a constantly cold environment myself. You know, I'll get down to, you know, like around freezing for a few weeks, um, in the south where I am. So, I don't have to deal with it too much. I don't put a lot of thought into it. But how do you handle inks and fountain pens in cold weather? And just so happens an article popped up on Urban Sketchers. It's called Cold Weather Urban, Urban Sketching Tips. So, there's a bunch of good stuff in there about how if you're crazy like the Urban Sketching crew is, and I mean that in a good way, where they're going out in the snow, in the elements. They're like talking about wearing like these super weather rated boots and, you know, gloves are hard to wear. You just have to let your hands freeze for a couple minutes so you can do your penciling and then put the gloves back on to warm up. But it was good. And as it related to fountain pens, I got to thinking with the person I was emailing with, I think it's kind of like flying with a fountain pen. You want the ink to be fully inked, I would think. And someone can correct me if I'm wrong, who has more experience with this. But the heat and the cold are going to expand and contract in there. That's in the barrel. It's probably going to push ink through the nib when you least want it. But if you have a full ink capacity, you don't get that pressurization change like in an airplane. So would you get that same change from the hot and cold and the, you know, essentially resizing of the ink in the pen? I don't know. I haven't tested this out for myself, but that seemed like a logical thing for me.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know how cold it gets where you are. You're probably closer to me where it's not, it'll get really cold, but not like brutally freezing for like any long stretch. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: People aren't in danger when it gets cold, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So you don't really have to concern yourself, you know, walking outside with a fountain pen where a lot of our listeners do. So I don't have the perfect answer for that. It seemed like the full barrel capacity seems like the way to go. If you give air a chance to expand and contract and the coolant, the heat, I wonder if it's just going to push the ink around a little bit more, maybe cause more leaks. But, you know, I'd love to hear from any of our listeners who have experience with this. And you'll notice like a lot of retailers, they pause shipping ink or, you know, until the weather is the right temperature, like above freezing, you know.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. We've seen pictures of like exploded ink inside of packages in the cold, right? Like they pop up every now and then.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And so those bottles are generally pretty full. So maybe my theory is already, you know, discarded. Maybe it's just the, yeah, something different about the temperature. But, you know, it's an interesting question this time of year. So I'm definitely looking for some help. If anyone out there, you can shoot me an email, shoot me a tweet, something like that if I'm missing something on that. But this post from the Urban Sketchers was really good. It covers lots of things about getting outside and using your stationery in the cold, cold temperatures. So I thought it was pretty cool. So the next thing is a product that I thought was pretty cool when it launched. It's the Blackwing Point Guard. Number one, I love the name. What is this? What does this do? It's a play on words. So it's a pencil guard. Right.

Myke Hurley: So you put it on to start from digging into things and from breaking, right? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So now that I use pencils frequently, I always carry those little tin pointy things that you get. You know, I got mine from CW Pencils. I think JetPens had them for a time. You get like a four pack for three or four dollars and they just go over the tip of your pencil, prevent your lead from breaking. Blackwing came up with a fancy schmancy one called the Blackwing Point Guard, which is more of a big blockier aluminum one. And so I ordered these. I don't have them in yet. But I'll have them in soon. But what's interesting is like what I'm seeing so far from the people that have got them in is they don't fit the Blackwing. I don't know what's going on with this. So, yeah. So people are saying it's like an extraordinarily tight fit. So I'm anxious to get mine in so I can talk about this because the tin ones.

Myke Hurley: Couldn't that be purposeful though? No.

Brad Dowdy: No? I mean, it's the Blackwing Point Guard is designed to ensure your Blackwing pencil gets wherever you're going in one piece.

Myke Hurley: No, but like for it to be a tight fit.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, but it shouldn't press down the edges of the hex barrel. Oh. Like that tight to where it's marking the or changing the shape of the pencil essentially.

Myke Hurley: Maybe it shouldn't be circular?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I don't know. Then what? Let's see. But you want it to fit other pencils too. I mean, Blackwing's obviously designing it to fit their pencils, but you know. Well, you say that.

Brad Dowdy: So we'll see. I'm anxious to see that because I'm like, you know, reading in the Erasable Group, you know, a bunch of them have ordered them. They're like, wait a minute. I'm having to like jam this on there or it's not fitting super well, you know. So I don't know. It's an interesting product. It's like, you know, a bunch of people are complaining about the price. I'm not too concerned about that. It's expensive for what it is, especially when you can get the little tin ones that are more adjustable to any pencil you want to use and are very nice.

Brad Dowdy: I do like the design. I don't mind the cost. So I just want to see if they work because if they do, I'll have a couple of them. But this next product though, Myke, early. Whoosh. Whoosh.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That was my reaction when I took a look at this link yesterday.

Robert Oster Fire and Ice Ink

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So you're going to get sick of the entire stationary blogosphere talking about this. And it's the Robert Oster Fire and Ice ink. I saw pictures of this when they first launched it. And I was very impressed. And then I went over to Van Espen's and they were sold out of it. So I got the little notification thing when they restocked and I ordered immediately. It's an amazing ink. Um, it's dark blue, light blue, and sheens red. Um, the Fire and Ice is very appropriate for the naming of this ink. It's, uh, it's cool. Like, it's got everything I like about an ink. Like, I like the bright blues, the dark blues. Cool sheening that's kind of purplish, kind of reddish. Um, I've put it in a Pelican so far. It really looks great. Uh, what do you think about this ink?

Myke Hurley: My, my feeling on this just looking at the pictures is this is, uh, this is like an ink that suffers in the way that a lot of these types of inks do for me. It's like, you can get the beautiful red sheen on it if you're basically pouring the ink all over a page. Right? Like, when you're writing with these normally, you don't really get a lot of that. Like, this is the problem that I have with, like, the ink that has all the shimmery stuff in it and stuff like that. It's like, you can really get that effect, but not in any practical way. Am I wrong in thinking that?

Brad Dowdy: Um, a little bit. Um, it shows up in standard writing and in some more basic writing papers. You know, it's, it's very, it's more paper dependent and nib dependent. Right? You know, wider nib on a smooth paper. It's going to show up more. Yeah, but that's what I mean. Like, that might not necessarily be the most practical. It might not be your everyday use. Yeah. But I look at this ink and using it so far, like, this would be an ink. If I was custom designing an ink, like, it wouldn't be orange. Like, orange would not, if I'm going to make a pen addict ink, okay, I should make an orange. But I think there's not a lot of room in the orange market. Like, they're kind of done. And blues obviously have multitudes more, but, like, this is a great ink. Like, if I could, if I was, went into a shop where I could mix my own ink, this is, like, something I would come out with. Like, with the dark blue and the light blue. It's like, uh...

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it does look beautiful. It does look really, really beautiful. I agree with that.

Brad Dowdy: Which is why I like Ackerman number eight. Um, it's a little bit darker, but it's got these blue, these bright blue streaks that run through it. That's, like, some of my favorite inks. Um, so I'm really fascinated. I can't even work out the science as to how you can make a blue ink for a red sheen. Yeah, I don't know. That's the one thing I don't know. We need to get a, we need an ink maker on here. Maybe we'll have Robert Oster on here. Yeah. And tell us, like, how do you decide the recipes? Like, what is involved in a recipe, ink recipe that, where your results are X? Like, what are you trying to do? Like, I'm just as interested in making, like, the purest, darkest black as I am with something, with this fire and ice, to have these different shades of blue in the sheen, right? Like, super, super black seems like a difficult thing.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: So, if you had to, if you had to make an ink, what are you, what are you ending up with? What are you, what are you mixing?

Myke Hurley: I mean, it's, it's, I don't know, it's probably going to be some kind of orange, something or other. Right? Like, or maybe something pinky. I've always liked pink ink. Have I ever told you, I must have said this on the show once, that, um, in, uh, when I was 15, 16, and we have, um, what we call GCSEs here, which is, like, uh, before, you know, like, they're the exams that you take at 16 years old. Mm-hmm. The qualifications that you get. Well, for English, you do a lot of coursework, and it's a lot of essays and stuff like that that you write out. I wrote all of my essays in, uh, pink pilot fountain, you know, like those disposable pilot fountain pens? Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I used a pink one and a purple one for all of my coursework, and it drove my, uh, my teacher insane. Like, she had to photocopy, like, she would just take everything that I gave her and photocopy it. Mm-hmm. So, it would be black. That's fine. But I was just, I was a little bit rebellious then. Like, I thought I was too smart for everything, you know? Like, I wasn't, I was still doing all the work that I needed to do, but I would do it late, and I would do it in pink, you know? Like, I thought I was, I thought I was too smart. Like, I thought I was better than this. You're a rebel. So, that was kind of the way that I rebelled. And, uh, yeah, so she had to, to photocopy all of my stuff, because she knew, and she actually dealt with it perfectly. It was just way better to deal with that than to try and fight me over it. You know? Like, just, just photocopy it. Like, it would take 20 seconds, and then just, she could just mark it and hand it into the exam board.

Brad Dowdy: That's amazing. No, you've never shared that. That's great. I love it.

Myke Hurley: I was categorically told that I can't use that pen in my exams, which I didn't. I took that advice.

Brad Dowdy: Hmm.

Myke Hurley: This week's episode is brought to you by Harry's. Harry's is so confident in the quality of their shaving products, they're now offering you to try them for free. Harry's amazing free trial set, which comes with a razor, five blade cartridge, and shaving gel is free for you when you sign up for a Harry's shave plan. All you need to do is pay just $3 for shipping. Harry's have amazing five blade razors that include a soft flex hinge for a comfortable glide, a trimmer blade for hard to reach places, a lubricating strip so everything feels nice and soft, and a textured razor handle that gives you more control when your hands are wet. So many companies will charge you for this high quality, and the more quality that they get, the more expensive it's going to be. Not with Harry's. When they improve their products, they keep the prices the same, and their products keep getting better, and those prices stay great. For example, an everyday shaver will save $150 a year on blades using Harry's, because they're about half the price of big brand blades. Harry's believe so much in the quality of their razors that they guarantee that quality. You will get a full refund if you're not happy. How's it been with your Harry's stuff recently, Mr. Dowdy?

Brad Dowdy: Crazy good.

Myke Hurley: Staying nice and comfortable and smooth every day? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And don't forget the aftershave gel. Of course. The lotion. Not the gel. The lotion. It's, I'm cracking up because I'm hearing my kids. They're like, ooh, you used that stuff, didn't you? I'm like, yeah. I use that stuff. And it's my Harry's aftershave lotion. It cracks me up. They're like, no. They're like, yeah. That's the good stuff. I'm like, yep.

Myke Hurley: Oh, man. But so you are continuing to use the stuff. It makes you happy. It makes just not you happy, actually. It makes your whole family happy.

Brad Dowdy: It makes my whole family happy. My entire extended family happy. My pen addict family happy. My online family happy. Harry's is just a happy maker because it's, you don't understand how good of a quality it is for the price. It's ridiculous. It's really, really amazing stuff. And it's one of the most no-brainer purchases I could ever recommend to anyone.

Myke Hurley: You can go to harrys.com right now. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S.com. And use the code penaddict to check out to claim your free trial set. And because you're a listener of this show, you also get a bonus post-shave balm added to your order for free. All you need to do is pay the shipping. That's harrys.com, code penaddict to get your free trial set and free purchase. Post-shave balm. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show. I'm really a fan.

Brad Dowdy: So, do you like the new pen that I got?

Myke Hurley: What is this?

Fountain Pen Copper

Brad Dowdy: I got, that's a, that was kind of the reaction I got a lot, a lot of times. So, my friend Patrick Ng on Instagram and on his subscription blog, and he's just been someone I followed for years and years and years. I've looked back, like on my Twitter, sometimes you look back and see, okay, who's the first person I followed? I think he was like number two or number three person I followed. That's how long I've been following his work. So, he's a stationary buyer over in Hong Kong for a store called City Super. And he always kind of gets advanced stuff, you know, from different companies, you know, getting ready for merchandising and things like that. So, he posted, I don't know when this post was, it was a few weeks ago. So, he had this pen he was setting up on display, and it was, I could tell it was the Y Studio brassing pen, right? Which is what I reviewed, you know, several months ago. It's that black, it's a brass pen with a black coating, and you can use like the sandpaper to kind of show off the patina underneath. You can self patina it, or however you want to say it. You can, you know, sand off little areas, make it, you know, kind of your own style. Well, the one he put on this post was different. It was tied to his belt. So, the cap had like a little piece of leather slid through it with a bead. So, it was actually hooked to the pants. And I was like, what is this? And why is it there? And I haven't seen this before. And he told me it was the Y Studio fountain pen, which was a new release by them. And I was just like, I have to have this pen. I don't know what it was. It was just so unique. And I was familiar with the Y Studio already. And I love the build quality of their products. And I was just like, I have to have this pen. And then I kind of forgot about it. This was four weeks ago when Patrick put up this original post. And then my friend, Tico, who runs a shop called Cozy in Amsterdam, he emailed me. And he sent some stuff over for review before. Actually, he sent me the Y Studio Brassing. And then he did send a different company's concrete pen. He emailed me. He's like, hey, I got those fountain pens in. I was like, well, damn, I'm going to buy it now. He's like, they're not here yet. And I'm only getting a few of them. He said, just put in your order. And it's like a pre-sale. So I did immediately. The interesting thing was they actually come in copper. And I almost bought that one.

Brad Dowdy: The portable fountain pen in copper is actually the same price as the one in brass. And I bet the copper would look really, really cool. But it's just one of the smelliest metals. It just is. Like brass, I can deal with. It's moderate. Right. Right. There's some smell with brass. It doesn't linger. Copper is very strong. I knew it would look. It was all I could do to not buy the copper one. But I went with the brass one because I love the black finish and the actual brassing ability of it. You know, we're like this one. I'm not going to use the sandpaper on. I'm just going to let it do its natural thing. So he emailed me. I put in my order. And he emailed me. He's like, I got them in. Your order is getting filled. And I got it like a week or so ago. It's amazing. I love this stinking pen.

Myke Hurley: It's beautiful. My what.

Brad Dowdy: It really is. It feels great. Patrick actually replied on my thread when I posted it. He's like, is it not too small for you? And I was like, no, it's not even close to too small. I think he's talking about the grip section. It's a very narrow grip section. But I told him, you know, I use the Kaweco Lily put and that's not too small for me. I'm not going to have a problem with this being too small. It's a thin section, but it's no way too skinny for me. Um, I've been using this pen religiously since it came in. I haven't tied it to anything. I may not tie it to anything, but I do have like the leather strap, like, um, hooked onto it with the, with, um, the little brass bead. And I like to play with it and fidget with it. That's kind of like a cool fidgeting piece. Um, the barrel is super comfortable. It comes with a Schmidt nib, uh, steel nib, which I swapped out for one of the Franklin Kristoff, um, Myke Masayama nib. So I've like totally pimped out this pen and I'm absolutely in love with it. It's as good as it looks like, and it looks amazing. So you're going to see this, um, and a lot of my fancy, um, mod of three pictures when I'm staging my photos. Um, you're going to see a lot of this pen, uh, in there because it, it's a stunner, but it's functionally awesome. So it's not just good looking. It works amazingly too. So it's, I don't, I don't know what else to say about it. I'm really enjoying it. Really enjoying using it.

Myke Hurley: All right. So we should do our little, uh, well, I want to get into our resolutions, but we have a thing that we want to do first. Um, which is just something that popped into my head as I was listening to last week's show, uh, the show a couple of weeks ago with you and Dudek. And you're talking and you and him were talking about like changing out pens, cleaning them out, that kind of thing. Right. And I thought to myself, I never do that. Like I leave my fountain pens inked up mostly indefinitely. So chills. I know. I wanted to do a pen addict confession and talk about all of the things that I do that I probably shouldn't. And I have no doubt that this is, that these things are going to horrify some of our listeners, but that's kind of the point. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: When you said this, I was like, this is such a great topic. Why didn't we think of this before? Sure.

Myke Hurley: So these are the things that, these are my confessions. The confession number one is that I leave my fountain pens inked up almost indefinitely. I only ever clean my pens when I change ink. And I never leave them on it. Like I never leave them empty. I will just then fill them up again. The only times I ever clean out a pen and leave them empty is when I'm bringing them to Atlanta.

Brad Dowdy: It's the only time. So let me ask you two questions. Number one, how many do you think you're leaving inked up?

Myke Hurley: Every fountain pen I own probably. So who knows? Like 30, 40, 50? Who knows?

Brad Dowdy: I wasn't expecting that. Okay.

Myke Hurley: But they're not in like what I consider to be my rotation though, right? Like they're in drawers and stuff. Like a lot of them are pens that I may never really use again. Yeah. So you should clean them. Why?

Brad Dowdy: So the ink doesn't do any damage.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but.

Brad Dowdy: Even though theoretically the likelihood is not good, but it's not healthy. Well, sure.

Myke Hurley: But, you know, it doesn't bother me because I don't really care about those ones so much. This is a confession.

Brad Dowdy: Am I the preacher? Are we like in a confessional booth here? I think so. Father, now that I have sinned. So my second question is, okay, so you have a pen inked with Fuyugaki. You run it dry. You're just, you don't clean it. You're just straight up refill Fuyugaki right away, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Okay. That's what I thought.

Myke Hurley: Unless it's something like a Twisby because their mechanisms get a bit weird. So I will clean those out before I fill them. Mm-hmm. But I'm also leaving the ink in there for who knows how long.

Myke Hurley: Wow. Okay. Like, you know, I have no idea how many fountain pens I have inked up, but it's like if I just imagine how many fountain pens I've bought over the years, like pens that I'm never going to use again. I never emptied them. They're just in a drawer now.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Confession number two, I do not like the look of the pen type A. Never have, never will. All right. I think listeners of this show will know this, but I just wanted to mention it because it's something like everyone in this community thinks it's the most beautiful thing ever made and I can't stand it. No. No. No. That's okay. And also all of the pens that have come around trying to be that, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, that's fair. The pen type B, though. What do you think about that one?

Myke Hurley: Same thing. I don't like it.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, now we're going to fight.

Myke Hurley: Wait, let me go look at this again.

Brad Dowdy: I thought you just hated the A. The A's the one with the ruler. The B's the one with the brass sleeve.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but it's got that thing that I can't stand where it's like, oh, here's a piece of metal we just chopped off the end. It's like it goes flat and then there's like another small piece on the inside. I can't stand it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this confessional is going to turn into Fight Club real quick.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I know. I know. That's the point of this. Also, I note that I've put many more in than you did. I do not own any blue-black inks.

Brad Dowdy: That a little bit surprises me, but not totally. I have blacks. I have blues, but no blue-black. I was going to say you started off basically with black and then you made the jump to like orange pretty quickly. And I never hear you saying you use a blue.

Ink Colors

Myke Hurley: Well, I have...

Brad Dowdy: Just a traditional blue, not even blue-black. Okay, okay. That's right. That's a good one.

Myke Hurley: I went to Compaq U before for Yugaki.

Brad Dowdy: That's true. I remember this now. Yep.

Myke Hurley: All right, here's the one that's going to freak people out. The worst, right? I have an eyedroppered Franklin Kristoff that leaked on an airplane that I still have in a Ziploc bag that I never cleaned. And it was when I came home from Atlanta. I hate you right now.

Brad Dowdy: Oh my God. What are you doing? You moved with this.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it was in my travel case. I opened my travel wallet thing and it was still in there.

Guest: And I was like, oh.

Guest: I will clean it eventually.

Myke Hurley: Oh my God.

Guest: I'm not going to be allowed to come back on this show. This turned out to be a terrible idea.

Brad Dowdy: What ink? It's like all in the Ziploc.

Myke Hurley: I don't want to tell you.

Myke Hurley: Because you're going to kill me when you find out what it is.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, so it must not be Fuyugaki, which makes it bad. No, it's not Fuyugaki. That would have been, I mean, relatively okay.

Guest: What do you think was in there? What do you think was in there?

Brad Dowdy: I'm trying to think of what you use.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know.

Emerald Shafuor

Myke Hurley: Emerald Shafuor.

Brad Dowdy: Oh my.

Myke Hurley: No.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I know. I couldn't come up with that if I tried. I was thinking, well, like what iron gallings does you use? I don't think very many. I couldn't come up with anything. And that was worse.

Myke Hurley: I know. It's dead forever.

Myke Hurley: Like the amount of cleaning that I'm going to have to do to this thing is insane. But that was it, right? It's like I came home from Atlanta and forgot about it. And then I've opened it up and I'm like, oh.

Myke Hurley: This is amazing.

Myke Hurley: And the last one is one that many people know. I'll talk about it last time. I have more field notes than any human could actually use. But that one isn't too bad compared to the other ones. I want to just state for the record. All right. Just state for the record. The pens that I genuinely really love, I take a lot of care of her. I think they are treated very well. Yes. But the stuff that I like have bought and I very much get attached to a specific set of pens. And once something is not in that set anymore, it may never actually get used again.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: That's just my style. Like the way that I do with this stuff. Like I have like a top nine or top ten. And those pens will be, they're in like constant use. Outside of that, they kind of just sit in drawers. And then a lot of them have remained inked. Sorry, everyone.

Brad Dowdy: This is amazing. Oh my God. Okay. So yeah. Ignis in the chat room says, is that why you got a passport, Brad? So you can stage a rescue?

Myke Hurley: He's going to rappel in from the window. All right.

Myke Hurley: We need to get to my confessions because I'm going to kill you.

Myke Hurley: You're so tame. You've got to have something worse than the ones you've got in here that you're hiding.

Brad Dowdy: I'm trying to think.

Brad Dowdy: I'll think of something. I'm trying to think of anything more. Like these are the first ones I wrote down. Like when you noted the topic and then I tried to put some brain cells on some more and I got to come up with something. But I mean, it's going to be kind of hard to beat my Emerald of Shafoor blew up on an airplane and I haven't cleaned it for six months. I mean, that's going to be kind of tough to top. But my first confession is I've never finished a bottle of ink, which is sad in a way. You know, looking at all the ink I own, I think the closest I've come is my Orochizuku Shinkai is probably about two thirds gone. Probably have about a third of it left. I like to switch inks a lot. That's why I have so many inks. So I'm always trying something different, always using something different. I'll always go back to a few favorites. But that ends up, you know, when your shelf looks like mine and I've never completely finished a bottle. So that's one. The second one, I actually didn't know how to word, but it's one that it's a thing that bothers me. Um, and I wrote it as I have more notebooks started than finished. But what I mean is I have a ton of notebooks with like the first three pages filled out and then not used anymore. Right. Like, I think that's a horrible thing. A lot of it is review based. And then I never go back to them. But a lot of it is, ooh, this new thing is cool. I'm going to use this. And then squirrel, I switched to something else. Right. And the next thing you know, you have 20 notebooks started and none of them finished. When if you used one of them, you could have filled it up by now and then move on to another one. So that's the, uh, the notebook thing. I like, I'm super, I'm more guilty. I feel more guilty about that than I do about never finishing a bottle of ink. Um, the third one I put down was I'll always buy a new pen instead of buying a refill for a pen. That's something I've always done.

Myke Hurley: Is that the same with fountain pens? Like you run out of ink in the car or you just buy a new, like a new sailor or something?

Brad Dowdy: No, no. It's for my, for my other pens. Um, you know, for like my high tech season, things like that, you can buy perfectly fine. 0.3 millimeter black refills. I'll just buy a new pen. Um, that's, you know, not the environmentally friendly way to go, but it's just a mental thing. Like, you know, if I had just one pen and I stuck with it and I would probably do that, but I don't. So I always just buy a new, new pen. The only refills I buy are to use the refills and other pens like Kickstarter pens and things like that. So, um, yeah. So those are kind of my confessions. You thought you think they're pretty tame, huh?

Myke Hurley: Compared to mine. Yeah, for sure. I found myself under the bus here, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I'm not as mentally unstable as you, clearly.

Myke Hurley: Thank you so much. I would like to mention at this point, um, please don't send me your advice.

Brad Dowdy: You're like, I know, I know. I don't need to hear it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I know. I understand.

Myke Hurley: You know, like I take care of the things that I want to take care of. You know, like someone said to me in the chat room, like, oh, the poor Murex. Like, no, the Murex gets used every single day. Right. Like, it's my favorite pen. The same as my Sailor, my Twist pens. I've got my Edison in there. My Lamy 2000. Like, they're used so frequently. Those things are taken well care of. Like, it's the stuff like I have a Lamy Safari that has ink in it. Right. Like, I have some Kickstarter pens that have ink in them. Like, I mean, admittedly, the Franklin Kristoff should not be in the state that it's in. Which is why one of my resolutions for next year is to actually take care of that thing. Like, just fix that problem. That, you know, I say next year, like, I'll do it soon. It'll be part of the unpacking. But like, you know, I take care of what I take care of. And I use the pens that I love and the ones that I don't get put in a drawer. And maybe it'll never get used again. And I'm okay with that. Right. So, like, I don't need people to tell me, to give me, like, thorough instructions. Yeah. Yeah.

Stationery Collection

Brad Dowdy: My only other confession could be, it's just very general and generic, is, like, I have an obscene amount of stuff. Oh, yeah. Like, uncontrollable stuff.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: You know, and I do get guilty with that sometimes, especially when I've, like, run out of space to put stuff and stuff piles up. And then it's, like, makes me mad.

Myke Hurley: So, my other resolutions, my confession is that I want to turn to resolutions. Okay. I want a blueback ink. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, it might be a nice one. So, I'm going to do some research, see what maybe I could get there. And as I mentioned, do something about the field notes. Yeah. I think we've come, last week we came to kind of an idea on that. Who knows? By the time this episode goes up, I may have a firm plan in place.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's still not the easiest answer. Like, I don't have a great answer for you there.

Brad Dowdy: On the blue-black inks, I do think you should look at Orochizuku Shinkai.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: That's been a long favorite of mine. Like, for years and years and years, that one never goes away. It's got a little bit of character that a lot of blue-black inks don't.

Brad Dowdy: Standard Pilot blue-black is just a really good all-around ink, too. Oh, I like the look of this one. Yeah. You have many, many, many, many, many, many choices. You know? But Shinkai is just a classic. I never get tired of it. My resolutions is I want to fix the ink issue. And that's using more of what I like more consistently. And that likely means selling the rest of it. So, I've sold some fountain pens. I'll eventually sell some more fountain pens, but I don't have any pressing desire to do that right now. What I do, what I am considering is selling some ink. Where I go overboard in ink. Especially, like, Japanese ink. You know? Where I'm definitely a two-as-one when it comes to, like, hard-to-get ink. Not, like, stock ink. Like, I'm diamine. I'm not buying two of something. But I do buy two of lots of things. Which is just dumb when I've never even finished a bottle of one. Right? So, I need to get out of that mentality. And I need to sell some of the ink that I have. Just because it could go to a better home. It's some cool stuff. And I should sell it. Like, and use it for something else. You know? I also don't have a fix for the notebooks. And this is not necessarily related. This is everything but field notes, really. Like, I use so much stuff on a day-to-day basis. But it's just random. Like, and this has been a thread for us for years. It was, like, one notebook at a time. But for me, that's not possible if I'm reviewing stuff. Well, then I review stuff. And even if I like it, you know, I'm trying more stuff next week. And more stuff next week. And then the next thing you know, I have 20 notebooks that have been started. And, like, I can't give all these to my kids. Like, I give a lot of it to my kids. But they don't need that. I don't need them running around the house throwing paper everywhere. You know? I'll give them one at a time as they use them. I don't know what to do with all these started notebooks. And, like, that's, like, an unanswerable problem.

Brad Dowdy: For me, I just don't. I don't know what to do about that. Paper is the biggest storage problem for me. Because it's all different shapes and sizes and configurations. And some of it's used. Some of it's not. And, like, paper is a lot. I need to figure something out about that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it is cold. I could start a fire.

Brad Dowdy: You know? With some of it.

Myke Hurley: Just as a way to get rid of it. I don't know if it's a good way. But it is a way.

Brad Dowdy: It is a way.

Pen Purchases

Brad Dowdy: It's part of. This isn't necessarily a resolution. But it's kind of related. Do you have anything you're looking for for next year? Like, so, Sebastian in the Slack channel said, For both you and Myke, complete this sentence. In 2017, I want to buy myself a blank pen from this brand. Like, is there something on your radar?

Myke Hurley: Wow. I mean, maybe I could say it and say that 2017 will be my Nakaya year. Hmm? Maybe it will be. Maybe. It's all I have on my mind is getting one of those. Like, I mean, you know, there's a bunch of pens that I still want. You know, like, I still want a Kalua. Help me. Canelina.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, Canalea. Canalea. Canalea Pen Company. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Myke Hurley: I still want one of the Canalea Pen Company pens. Yeah. Because they're just absolutely insanely beautiful. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That looks like a U-pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it is. And I'm planning on getting one of those. I'm thinking about maybe making that a pen show purchase. Mm-hmm. So I can actually see one in person and then, like, choose the one I want based on what I can actually see rather than just the photos, you know? Right, right, right. But, you know, maybe this will be Monakaya. I would love it to be, honestly, because I've wanted one of those for so long now that I think maybe this should be the year.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, maybe so. For me, I'm not dead set on anything. I'm going to the pen shows last year. I kept looking at the Namiki Yukari Royale, which is a big, expensive, bright red pen. And it's funny, actually, Susan's reviewing that for the blog this week. I didn't even know she had it or had one, and I haven't read the review yet. But that's a pen on my radar. I don't know if it'll happen. And I don't have anything that I'm at the top of the list. I'm sure that'll change quickly. Like, once I get out to shows, like, the first show's in L.A. And last year, I bought a Stylo Art and an Aboya. And both of those have seen lots of use for me throughout the year. So I'm assuming they'll both be back to L.A. this year. And that's just going to start my year off on the wrong monetary foot, seeing both of those vendors there, again, because they just have wonderful stuff. So I don't have any one single thing. I got a lot of stuff this year.

Brad Dowdy: I'm not saying I'm going to buy less stuff this year, but I'm just, you know, I'm at the point where I'm pretty particular, like, at pen shows and things. And it's okay, like, if I don't buy something unless I really, really want it. That's what I need to tell myself because I do get too much stuff. Like, this last month has been, like, crazy amount of stuff. And I thought it would be dying down, but it never does. And that's okay. I enjoy it. But I got to have somewhere to put it. That's my biggest challenge these years. That's my biggest challenge these days is where do I put all the stuff? So I just cleaned off my desk because I ended up needing my desk to have more workspace than storage space. So I've rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic to at least give me some more desk space to work at.

$500 Challenge

Brad Dowdy: So that was a challenge to do. And speaking of challenges. New challenger. New challenger. New challenger.

Brad Dowdy: We did that $500 challenge. And our friends at Hand Over That Pen, friends, Catherine and Pam, they did a blog post on it, which I thought was great. And we got a new challenge. I was tagged in a post at the Field Notes group. And I thought this was very cool. It's very kind of simple. But not easy to answer. So the Field Notes Facebook group said, pick your favorite three concurrent releases from the Field Notes Colors Edition. So there has to be three releases in a row that would be your favorite. I think a lot of people ended up on the answer that we ended up with when I went back and looked at it.

Brad Dowdy: You know, I thought it kind of stood out as like, that's the answer, right? Solved. Even though that's not necessarily fair. I came up with America the Beautiful, Night Sky, and Drink Local. Like, those were three releases in a row. And that's a really good setup. Like, I used to not be on the America the Beautiful bandwagon, but that changed over the years. Night Sky. Is that your single favorite edition ever still? Like, is that the one?

Myke Hurley: It's close there. I need to think about that again. But it has been in the past. You know, if it's not number one, it's probably number two, right? Right. That's been high, high, high up there for me, always.

Brad Dowdy: And then Drink Local is actually probably my favorite of those three, which isn't everybody. So I was surprised Drink Local got as much love as it did. But I personally love Drink Local. So you came up with the same answer?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I couldn't. I looked through them all and I couldn't. There's like twos, you know, there's like pairings that have been better. Yeah. But then like the third one might let it down. I think that you nailed it. That's the best one. I would say, and probably the reason this came up is because Black Ice, Lunacy, and Byline is probably a close second. Mm-hmm. But America the Beautiful, right? That was the one that sent me Gaga because of the paper. It was thick enough to run fountain pens. Night Sky is probably my favorite of all time. I'm a second favorite of all time. And then, I mean, who can argue with Drink Local?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So I wanted to, when I did this, I was like, I want to get something like American Tradesman is just an amazing issue. And it was right next to Fire Spotter, but it was like bookended with the Dry Transfer Edition, which is fine, but it's not that spectacular. And Northerly, which a bunch of people like and I do not like. So actually, my second concurrent release, my second three in a row was National Crops, Day Game, and Traveling Salesman. Like that was the next best three I could come up with. National Crops is fantastic. Day Game has probably my single favorite cover of all of them, the white one with the red lettering. And then Traveling Salesman was just such a unique and cool addition. Lots of green spread through those three additions, which is kind of funny when you think about it. National Crop had one or two green colors in their day game, had a green, and then Traveling Salesman had green paper. So that was my next challenge answer if I had a second one. So it was cool. That was fun to look at, but it's like a lot of people ended up on the same answer, kind of, you know, which is good. I mean, that was a good run, mate.

Brad Dowdy: All right. You want to hit a couple of ask TPAs and then we'll, gosh, we'll wrap this up for the year, right? Wow. Year's done after this episode. We'll be in the new year next episode, right? So you want to hit a couple of these real quick? You bet. All right. So paper late. I took a bunch of questions from him. He had a bunch of good stuff. So I'll break these down. Do you have a favorite limited edition pen from 2016?

Brad Dowdy: I like my Sailor King of Pens a lot, the Sky. I guess that kind of counts as limited edition. It's more of a special edition. If I had to go limited edition, I did buy the 105th anniversary Sailor. That's a limited edition. And that continues to amaze me every time I use it. I, I, that's one pen I've been keeping at my desk. I use it at my desk a lot. I haven't been taking that out and about, but I use it a lot. I keep it inked up. And, um, you know, that's just kind of been one of my favorites. Did you have anything in particular? I don't know that you don't really do the limited edition stuff like I do. And I don't even know if you bought anything this year.

Myke Hurley: Nope. I don't have one that I bought, but I know that there's one that I love. What? Which is the Sailor Bung Box, uh, slim pink.

Brad Dowdy: Oh man. I forgot about that one. That was such a good, that might win. I am so mad that I missed it. So mad that I missed it. So yeah. Wow. That pen was stunning. I am. They, I think that might be the answer. I think that's better than the two I mentioned. It's a pen that I desperately want. Mm. Such a good looking pen. Such a good looking pen. I don't use it enough. I should. Should. Oh, that's a good pen. I'm going to have to ink that up when we're done.

Brad Dowdy: Um, he asked our pen related resolutions, which we kind of covered. He also asked what pen shows are you likely to attend? So right now I'm definitely going to LA, Atlanta, Chicago, and DC. I am planning on going to San Francisco and then maybe one other one. I don't have for sure. For sure's yet on those. That's kind of the, the working plan. Um, the first four are essentially definites and then I'll figure the rest out. Kind of as we go. Um, Myke, how about you?

Myke Hurley: Atlanta and DC is the plan.

Brad Dowdy: We're going to make that happen, right? Yeah. I mean, we got to, this is the year.

Myke Hurley: That's the plan. The plan is two pen shows this year. Two pen shows, uh, one live show of an audience. That's, that's the minimum plan that we're looking to achieve right now.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah. Which Atlanta will be the, the live, the live podcast stuff. Atlanta is going to be like we usually do. Do it big, do it with the audience, do all the live stuff, get the video crew in there. Um, DC will be more, if we can work this out, we'll be more of a appearance. We'll visit.

Myke Hurley: My, my, my current plan is DC will be like the first Atlanta. So like we'll record an episode, but like it, it will just be me and Brad and, and there probably won't be even video of that one. I don't think cause we won't be able to get a video crew. So yeah, it's more like a, we'll be, we'll both be there. Uh, at DC. Right. Right. And then, you know, maybe in, in future years we could try and ramp up the DC thing, but we need to kind of get a grips of what DC is like together.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. You know, you read, you need like a promoter that is so fully on board with what we're trying to do. And we have that with Atlanta working with Jimmy and Suzanne is wonderful. That's hard when you don't have that personal relationship for the things we try to do because it's a little bit outside the norm. Um, luckily with Atlanta, we've been able to do that. I, um, I don't know how that translates to other shows. There are some that would definitely be, uh, amenable to that. And then some would probably go, huh? And then, so yeah, we'll work on that. But, um, we would like eventually to, you know, spread the love around to other cities and shows and, you know, do different things. Uh, yeah, I did get my passport, my passport showed up yesterday. Okay. I'm ready. I'm ready. We'll do that one year. Um, he also asks, and this is, uh, directed at me after the retro 51 and Franklin Kristoff pen addict additions. Are you considering anything else? Yes. Um, no definite plans yet, but I have a list of companies I want to work with. I have companies that I have had contact with and we've had discussions. Um, I have things like I really would like to make a custom ink for the pen addict or, or two, maybe an orange and a blue black, something like that. So, you know, those are the things that I've found out that I enjoy doing the most. They're the most work. They're the most expense, but they're the most enjoyable to do. Um, you know, t-shirts and stickers and swag are fun. Um, and I'll probably, you know, I already have a logo design I want to do a hoodie for. So maybe that in the early part of next year, but I will do that more as a teespring model, as opposed to like an in-stock model. Like we'll just kind of have like a one shot deal where you can go order stuff. Um, and then the pen stuff like pen and ink or pencils, whatever, you know, I'd like that to be recurring type of things. So yeah, I definitely have plans to do more stuff with pens and pencils and paper and ink as opposed to doing, you know, t-shirts and stickers and coasters, which are fun and I enjoy and I have them all over everything, but I can, uh, so my wild oats better in the pen stuff, if you will. So, um, paper late with all the questions today, Myke. Um, but they're really good. And, you know, I actually had, there were some more questions, but I thought these were so good. I'll just go with all these. So I'd like to hear your thoughts on buying used versus new pens by used. I don't mean vintage, but buying a used pen, which is still available new things to consider might include deprecation, condition, resale, things like that. So we'll wrap it up on this question because I do have a lot of experience with this. Um, and I have no issue buying used pens. Um, I do put in the work to make sure the seller is valid and make sure the quality is good. You know, ask questions, you know, about how long you had it. Are you the first owner? How many people have owned it? You know, can you show me some closeup pictures of the barrel? If there's a flaw, you know, can I get some explanation on that? But it allows you to get some really cool pens and some great prices. Some of my favorite pens, like both of my sailor, um, black luster and imperial black were bought secondhand and they're both amazing. I absolutely adore those pens. Um, they're not something you come across all the time, but they are available, but I was able to get them both secondhand. I have no issue with doing that. I've bought loads and loads of used pens. I think that's a way to go to save a little bit of money, um, to get something that you really, really want. I think you should be open-minded about it. Um, there's always risk involved with any transaction like that. You know, you know, it's, it's hard to say, you know, where to buy that first pen from, you know, I bought a lot off FPN, uh, back in the day. Now I pretty much buy it off the Slack channel from a lot of people I know. And that's been a really good marketplace for that. And, uh, I'm a fan of buying used pens, used current market pens. Like I, it seems like a no brainer to me. Someone's a pen that doesn't work out for someone, you know, is probably going to be a good value for someone else that it may work out better for. And I've definitely, uh, done buying and selling on the used market. And I, I have no issue with that. Do you have any, anything to say on that?

Myke Hurley: No, I've never bought a secondhand pen from somebody I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Um, cause it seems like a lot of aggravation. Um, and I liked, and if it's somebody that I know and trust, then I feel like they would have treated it better than I would treat it, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Apparently. But that's the problem, right? Would you buy a pen from me? No, you wouldn't, but I could tell you it's been taken care of.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it depends. I would buy a pen from you. Like, like I can, I mean, you know, it's part of the lifelong experience, which, you know, I say lifelong in jest of, it's been like four or five years, but the more you deal with the stuff, the better you get it picking things out and understanding the condition and okay, is it perfect? No, but is it really, really good for me? And it's a pen I really, really want and I can clean it and make it spectacular. Yeah, I can do that. So yeah, it's, there's a lot of comfort level involved with that too. So, but I think it's a good question because I, I really believe in kind of like that secondary market. I, that's where some of the best pens come from.

Myke Hurley: All right. So that wraps it up for this episode and for 2016. Thank you so much for listening to episode 237 of the Pen Addict. You can find our show notes at relay.fm slash pen addict slash 237. Thanks to Harry's for sponsoring this week's episode. And I want to take a moment to thank you all for listening throughout this entire year, because it means a lot to us. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com and knock.co. You can find him on Instagram. He's penaddict and Twitter. He's at dowdyism. I'm at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Until next time, until next year, say goodbye, Brad.

Myke Hurley: Goodbye, Brad.

Myke Hurley: Goodbye.