The Pen Addict 248/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	248
Title:	We're Extraordinarily Particular
Release Date:	March 15th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Matt Armstrong
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 248
Audio File:	Audio Episode 248
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 248
Length:	7878 min <br />1.3 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 248. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, Squarespace, and Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined, as always, by Hype Man extraordinaire, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Hype Man week is finally here. I leave. As soon as we're done with this show, I'm finishing my packing because I'm driving out to Little Rock for the Arkansas Pen Show. I'm leaving about 5am my time tomorrow to get in the car.

Myke Hurley: You've got your air horn ready? One of those things, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. I ordered one of those suits from, you know, that shop where you get all the crazy suits, so I just ordered a crazy suit. I'm going to go in there and just be crazy.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah. Or you just have Jeff make one out of Cordura for you.

Brad Dowdy: That's true. We should have done that.

Pockets

Myke Hurley: Should have done that. Bunch of pockets.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I got enough going on in that shop. I don't need to be making a knock case. We have talked about doing, like, you know, one of those characters out on the street, you know, in, like, a big knock pen case.

Myke Hurley: I think one year you've got to make us all matching fishing vests.

Brad Dowdy: We'll do it. We'll do it. Jeff's talked about it. That would be great, man. Jeff has talked about it. Speaking of fishing vests, I know our wonderful guest today has, at one point, attempted his own fishing vest. So, welcome, Matt Armstrong from The Pen Habit. Tell us all about your fishing vest.

Matt Armstrong: Thank you. So, it will be making its debut in Chicago. Nice. It is under construction at this very moment. And it is made of the most ugly, garish, horrible custom printed fabric covered with pictures of fountain pens, nibs, and logos. It is going to be so spectacularly ganous. I can't wait.

Brad Dowdy: That is the only way to do it. And I expect nothing less from you. This is going to be killer. I can't wait to see it. Yes. Well, thank you for joining us today. Oh, my pleasure. I will be the first to admit this is about 200 episodes too late to get you on. I don't know what has been my problem. I'm kind of a slacker, I guess. But I'm glad to finally get you on.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah, I think I just had to, you know, kind of establish myself a little bit more. It had taken a little while.

Brad Dowdy: So, hey, you're like super famous. I mean, the listeners have been wanting this forever and ever. And just, you know, I got to get on the scheduling bandwagon a little bit better. So, I'm glad to finally do it because we have lots of cool stuff to talk about and lots of, you know, listeners, you know, may not have heard of you. So, we're going to talk about the beginning for you. Can't wait. Yeah. So, it should be fun. Before we get all the way into the pen habit stuff, we have a couple of follow-up items we want to hit real quick. And the first one, Myke, you put this in because you saw our good friend, all of our good friend, Anna Reinhart, teasing a new product she is creating, right?

Myke Hurley: As I referred to Anna in the show notes. So, like we have a kind of a joke, like friend of the show. I've referred to Anna as best friend of the show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think that's fair. I think that's fair.

Ink Swatch Book

Myke Hurley: So, Anna's working on a pretty sweet looking new product with her actual husband, the wonderful Bob of Skylab Letterpress. It is an ink testing swatch book. So, there's like two inch by four inch cards with a binder ring that are in them. So, you can easily pop them out and move them around, which I think is really cool. And it looks like, I mean, you can maybe give me a bit more info on this, Brad, that Anna went to kind of great lengths to source some paper for this.

Brad Dowdy: She has been working on this six months, maybe, if not more. It's taken her a long, long time to get the paper she's wanted. And I know, Matt, we're going to talk about that too with your goods. I know it's taken you a long time to find like, what's the paper I'm going to put my name on, right? That's kind of a big deal.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah, and there's news about that too, which we will get to.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, I've made sure to bring that up because I want to hear about that. But yes, it's taken her a long time and it's finally just come like right down to the gun where she wanted to launch this at the Arkansas Pen Show. Her and Bob are going to have a table there and they will be available. So this came about because a lot of people in the pen community used a product by Moramon. They had these kind of educational note cards on a ring and a lot of people just, you know, use those for ink swatching notebooks. And they discontinued it probably a year or two ago. So Anna came up with something awesomer.

Myke Hurley: Custom made for the task, right? Yeah. Rather than having something that was kind of like retrofit to do this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So that's a good way to put it. And she made a great post about it, did all the testing, and now is ready to send it off into the world. So it should be good.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So as Brad said, she's kind of demoing, like previewing them. I think you'll probably be able to pick some up at the Arkansas Pen Show. But then they're coming soon after that for $10 plus shipping. So great looking product. I'm looking forward to picking up some of my own. Just to basically test Hiroshisuku over and over and over again, I guess.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the 100 swatches of Fuyugaki. Yep.

Myke Hurley: You know, for me, I would want a product like this for when I go to pen shows. Just so I have some like good paper that is like, not quality control isn't the word I'm looking for, but like standardized testing environment, like for pens as well as ink. Right? So it's like, I know how such and such pen works on this paper because I use it. So now I get to like test pens against each other and find out what works for me and what doesn't. So I think it may be for more than just ink. I think it's like the thing that you clip to your belt on the fishing vest, I guess, when you're walking around the pen show. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Well, yeah, I think that's important. I know, Matt, when we're at pen shows, you like if we're working for Lisa Van Ness or if we're just walking around the show and someone asks one of us a question, you know, about either a nib or an ink. A lot of times you have kept a record like in a notebook, you know, you've pulled that notebook out several times when we're talking, you know, about pens and inks and you just kind of have a record of what's used. You find that useful, I assume, right?

Matt Armstrong: Oh, yeah. And so both the notebooks that I carry around with me and I have I've been using these artist trading cards for my swatches that are about the same size. And I just keep them in like a filing cabinet. But something like this would be great, especially to break it up by because I've got so much ink. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. But to break it up by brand, you know, to have a notebook for each brand or parts of notebooks for each brand is something where I could do lots of comparisons and stuff. So, yeah, I'm excited. I'm hoping she's going to be at Chicago because I want to pick some up there, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. So you also teased in here, Myke, that Myke's coming out with some. Well, you put it in here. I put it in here.

Myke Hurley: But, you know, Jeff is the teasing mastermind around all of this.

Brad Dowdy: Jeff is he's wanted to make a kind of crazy note card for probably two to three years now. It's essentially your standard note card just folded. So, I mean, it's not like, you know, rocket science here, but it's it's basically a double sided, a double fold note card. It's basically four sides for a single note card. And he wanted to make it in the three and a half by five and a half kind of pocket notebook standard. So it fits in all these things. And it's called the Gigante. And, you know, it's our it's it's just something that's been rattling around in his head for years. And we're finally getting to the point where we thought it'd be cool to make it because it's it's going to be kind of cool. We're excited.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: When's the kind of the timeline on this should be ready for the Atlanta pen show.

Myke Hurley: Nice.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And then we're also making like a petite one that we have Gigante and we're going to have petite, which is the standard business card size because Jeff uses that a lot. So like we always do, we make stuff we want to use and have fun with. And, you know, when we get the opportunity to do something cool like this, we we try to push it through and see what everyone else thinks. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Myke Hurley: Nice. So, yeah, I wanted to put that in there because that's a fun little thing for sure.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Should be ready for Atlanta.

Myke Hurley: Cool.

Brad Dowdy: I think we might have something else ready for Atlanta, which I'm kind of scared about. I have a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot of printed out colorful images at the show. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: Don't encourage them. I didn't think of this.

Brad Dowdy: They've already started. They've already started that. That's why I'm bringing it up.

Myke Hurley: So there has been some incredible advancement to the I'm trying to think of a name for not just like the pen addict coloring book webpage, but like the nightmare inducing coloring book that we've had going on for a while that Alexander has built. He's put a bunch more stuff in there that I'm really excited to see, including tons of more color palettes, which are all named brilliantly. Hype orange. We have two Hiroshizukus. Nuclear fallout green. Pink underwear. There's a reference to last week. Sky at night, naturally. So yeah, this is amazing. And there's also some pretty funny sponsor-related Easter eggs in here as well, which makes me laugh that he's gone to the trouble of putting those in. This thing is one of my favorite things of all time. And I love Alexander greatly for putting this thing together. And it keeps getting better and better. And now there are more colors that you can use to create just vastly increasing, horrifying images of me and Brad together.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Emerald of Chavor color palette. Tahitian black lip oyster, which is still the greatest show title ever, probably. Although last week's a contender.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this is amazing. Thank you, Alexander. And my Twitter mentions are filling up with new colors. And I haven't found all the Easter eggs yet, but I see them popping up in some of the images people are sending me. So he really outdid himself with version. We're on version 0.25. So we're iterating quickly here.

Myke Hurley: So thank you so much for doing that.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So let's get on to what the people want. And the people want to hear from Matt. So let's talk about our first sponsor, and then we'll get into business here.

Squarespace

Myke Hurley: Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. Use the offer code INK at checkout, and you'll get 10% of your first purchase. With a unique domain name, award-winning templates, and more, you can make your next move with Squarespace. They let you easily create that website for your next idea. Whether you're looking to create a blog, portfolio, online store, site for your restaurant, maybe a site for your local group or charity. No matter what it is you're looking to put online, Squarespace is the all-in-one platform that lets you do just that. You don't have to worry about installing stuff, patching things, upgrading things. You don't have to do any of the boring tweaking, as I like to think of it. You just get to go onto squarespace.com, set everything up, tweak it to your heart's content with all the fun stuff. So, like, where you can adapt their beautiful templates with colors and fonts, and everything's drag and drop. All of the stuff that you get to do on Squarespace is just the fun stuff, the stuff that allows you to get your ideas out to the world. They have the ability for you to grab a domain name if you're looking for one, and they also have 24-7 customer support if you need any help of anything at all. Squarespace plans start at just $12 a month, but you can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required by going to squarespace.com. Then, when you do sign up for a plan, use the code INK at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for this show and RelayFM. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

Brad Dowdy: Alright, Mr. Armstrong. So, we've known each other for a while, but we really haven't gotten to know each other on a more personal level until, like, the past year or two. And, I'm obviously a huge fan of yours, and I really, really respect what you do and what you bring to the community. And, you know, as we've talked and become closer friends over the past couple years, I realized that I don't really know how you started the pen habit and, like, what your background is with pens. So, why don't you kind of take us from the beginning, like, you know, when did you fall in love with stationery? When did you realize that's a thing? And then, when did you decide to want to write about it?

Matt Armstrong: Well, it's, I don't know, it's kind of interesting. It's only been maybe the last, well, it's actually February 23rd was my fourth anniversary of pens, of the pen world. So, it hasn't been as long as it feels like sometimes. But, yeah, I, so I live in Seattle, the Seattle area, and my dad has been using a fountain pen. He's had the same one since 1976. And my mom sent me to the market, the Pike Place market. There's a guy there who sells kit pens, you know, turned out of wood. And she sent me down there to go pick up a pen for him for a Christmas present in the end of 2012. And that idea kind of got stuck in my head. And so, one of the things I wanted to do starting in 2013 was start writing in a journal. And I am never not looking for excuses to spend money. So, I was like, oh, I should go get myself a nice pen. And maybe that will encourage me to write in my journal. And I went and spent what I thought at the time was the most I would ever spend on a pen, which was $65.

Matt Armstrong: We'll just leave that there. And brought it home. And it did not work very well. Which, if you're familiar with super cheap kit pens, is probably not a surprise to anybody. I didn't know any better. So, the very first thing I did is what I always do. I went on the internet to try to find out how to fix it. And that's when I fell down the rabbit hole. So, I've been, you know, within the end of the first month, I had my first probably 10 bottles of ink. And my first 10 fountain pens. And it was just, you know, I stumbled into this world that I hadn't even really known existed before. So, it was, I don't know. It was a really fast start. And I'm one of those, I don't just kind of get my toes wet in anything. I just dive right in to whatever it is I'm interested in and go way overboard right off the bat. And that's pretty much how it happened.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's crazy how fast that was. Like, I think I almost refused to do fountain pens for like the longest time. And I've eaten so many words from things I've said about fountain pens in the past. But it still wasn't quite at that pace. So, what you went from that pace to saying, hey, let me share, you know, what I'm finding and what I'm discovering online. What made you want to start writing and then eventually doing videos about fountain pens and everything you were discovering?

Matt Armstrong: Well, I mean, it was really Brian Goulet and Stephen Brown who got me into it. And so, there was, plus I've always had, you know, I've done several podcasts in the past and I've always had this kind of urge to share what I learned. I used to teach at the college level. And so, I love to teach. I love to be in front of an audience of any kind. And so, it was kind of a natural transition for me. Yeah, plus I felt like at the time, which is funny considering where I am now, that there really wasn't anyone who was kind of sharing their experience as a newcomer. You know, Brian to me felt like a longtime expert. Stephen felt like a longtime expert with way more experience than I would ever have. And I was brand new. And so, I wanted to share my experience from the very beginning, which if you go back and watch some of my old videos is pretty funny. You know, just the stuff I didn't know back then and what I came up with in some of my early reviews is kind of cringe-inducing. I can imagine. We have all been there.

Brad Dowdy: I know that's the truth. Yeah. So, did you plan on the video as being your primary format in the beginning?

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. Right out of the bat, I knew that video was the format I was interested in. So, back in my – well, not back in my tech days. I'm still in my tech days. But my first job after I retired from performing, I worked at Microsoft during the Zune era. If we're all familiar. And I worked on the Zune team. So, I was with the team that was responsible for getting in all the TV shows and movies from the studios. Gotcha. And then publishing those into their video marketplace. And I had done that for about three years and had really gotten into the whole video. I'm a YouTube junkie and have been for a long time. So, it was kind of a natural transition. Plus, with all the equipment I had at my house, I was like, I really ought to be doing something with all this stuff that I bought and is just sitting around collecting dust.

Brad Dowdy: So, that, you know, getting in front of the camera then is nothing for you, right? I mean, that's like – you didn't even have to think about it. You're just like, let's set this up and go.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. I mean, I've got the performer genes and always have. The other thing, I think a lot of people sometimes forget this, is that there's just not – it doesn't feel like you're in front of an audience when you're recording YouTube videos. Because it's just – you know, the way I often put it is I'm sitting alone in a padded room talking to myself. Because that's really what it feels like most of the time is I'm, you know, I'm just in a bedroom in my house with padding on the walls and I'm talking to myself and I hardly even realize the camera's there. So, it doesn't – the hardest thing was just dealing with the feedback that comes from the YouTube community, which is not always great.

Matt Armstrong: But once I kind of thickened my skin and got used to that a little bit more, it was just a natural fit.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I know that that feedback is hugely challenging. And we've talked about it like crazy amounts, like when one person – like, is there anything you can do to change that? Like, how do you handle that? And there's still no great answer for that, unfortunately. But what I've noticed over the years of following you is there is no one that – I'm not a YouTube junkie like you and Myke are. But there's no one that I watch who does a better job with the video, the quality, the production, the writing, if you will. I mean, you have to – your videos are 20 to 30 minutes long. You know, you have to plan this out. I'll just get on there and ramble for like five minutes. But you've – this is serious high-level stuff. So, what got you into – this is a huge commitment, right, to make a single video for a fountain pen. I can't fathom what that process is like knowing, you know, kind of what's going on behind the scenes. I can't picture that. So, let me in inside like how long it takes you to put together like one of your videos.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. So, if I were to break it down by hours, it's about 20 hours of work for every 20-minute video. Wow. 15 to 20-minute video. And my videos keep getting longer and longer and longer, and I'm trying to rein that in. I'm not always successful because I like to talk. But – so, usually the way it works is I'll get a pen, I'll ink it up, and use it for a couple of months. I generally – because the turnaround time for me is so long, I can't often do the – I just got this brand new pen. I'm going to turn around a review really quick. So, I'm almost never the first one out with a review of anything. Right. But I'll use it for a couple months. During that time, I'll take – ideally take the photos. I'll sit down and record, and I record with three cameras simultaneously. So, that actually speeds up the editing process later. But – so, you know, I'll – usually on a Saturday or Sunday, I'll sit down in my studio and record three or four videos at once.

Matt Armstrong: I'll edit them one at a time. I create After Effects transitions to go in there, you know, music and color correct all the video and all that stuff, edit it. And then I write a written blog post to go along with the video, and I usually do that last. I used to do it first, but sometimes I just couldn't get to it and didn't want to hold up production until I did. So, I do that often last, and then I'll publish the whole thing together. So, that's kind of my process. It's – it's, you know, it's just a lot of work. It's not – nothing out of the ordinary. It's just a lot of work. Yeah. No big deal.

Brad Dowdy: No big deal. Just flip my hair. Yeah. Like, you just gloss over music. Like, yeah, just put the music in, you know, and overlay it wherever. Where you – the part you left out is where you composed the music originally, right?

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. That's what I do during my hiatuses is I compose all the music and make the big changes. So, you can actually see from season to season to season, which is something that's different for me than a lot of other video producers. There's usually big changes in the format of the show between each season because I use that time to kind of tweak and write new stuff and learn how to use After Effects. And, you know, all those other things because the thing for me is, like, you can tell when the end of my season comes because I'm so bored with the process that I just kind of zone out and go into automaton mode. And so, for me, the thing that's most important is making sure that I keep learning and experimenting and trying new things and adjusting the format and tweaking because otherwise it just gets so boring. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So, what's been the hardest part? And say over the past, you know, couple of years as you've kind of perfected what you're doing now, I think, what was the biggest hurdle to get over and just, you know, the technical aspects of it? I mean, this takes a lot, a lot of time to do.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. So, the technical aspects, I think the big thing was just making sure that I established a really solid process and I understood, you know, you hear people like photographers or videographers talking about their workflow. Making sure I had one established and I understood every step of the way. And even still, that's a little tricky for me because I'll publish something and realize I forgot to color correct one of the video streams or I forgot to turn it back on. So, there's these huge black gaps in the video where the picture just disappears or things like that. So, just making sure I know my process and stick with it and don't change it up too much helps a lot.

Pen Chalet

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, you mentioned your seasons and I want to explore that a little bit more. But first, I want to talk about one of our good friends and one of your good friends, Matt, our buddy Ron over at Penn Chalet. What do you have for us this week, Myke?

Myke Hurley: You know Penn Chalet. Come on, dear listener. You know all about Penn Chalet. You know what they sell. You know how good they are. I tell you every couple of weeks, but it doesn't matter because you should have bought from them by now, right? I think every listener shall have bought something from Penn Chalet. If not, why not? They have free shipping on orders of over $50 in the US. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. They have great shipping rates for international orders too. They have fast and reliable customer service. They have all of your favorite brands. They have everything you're looking for. If you're looking to buy a new pen, you should always go to Penn Chalet first because we can get you 10% off anything. Go to PennChalet.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password PennAddict. This is where you will get the code that you need to save 10% and also some special offers. This week's special offer is 50% off all of the Monteverde Impressor pens in the pearl with blue trim. This is the all of the models, ballpoint, rollable, and fountain pen of the Monteverde Impressor in the pearl with blue trim, which is a very interesting colorway.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Monteverde does some nice metallic looking pens. This is in that series where you've seen some of the grays and reds and other colors. So the blue and silver looks extremely sharp. I like Monteverde's nibs. Their steel nibs are really good. I enjoy writing with them. The price is ridiculous. I didn't know that it could go this low. I didn't know that was a thing. I didn't know that was in the availability of Penn Chalet to do this. So you should definitely click over and see what this is all about.

Myke Hurley: Without a shadow of a doubt. So go to PennChalet.com.

Brad Dowdy: By the way, Ron keeps throwing in this one platinum into the featured offers below the primary offers this week. He's done this a couple of times now, and it's really causing me a problem. You'll have to see what it is.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, go look at that. I've never seen that thing before.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I've seen it at Penn Shows. It's crazy.

Myke Hurley: It's a only Ron can do this type of discount. Yeah. I'm not really sure how, but that's Ron for you. Go to PennShalet.com. Find out more. Thank you so much to Penn Shalet for the continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Seasons

Brad Dowdy: All right, Matt. So let's talk about Seasons. So when I first saw how you were doing this, I was like, I don't quite get this. And then I thought about it, and I was like, oh my God, this must take him forever to do. And you can't just run this infinitely. So is that how breaking your reviews up into Seasons came about?

Matt Armstrong: Yeah, that and I'm just lazy. Please. No. It's.

Myke Hurley: Your laziness is relative. All right. Like we're not, you know. Yeah.

Matt Armstrong: So one of the things, one of the most best and worst things about living in Seattle is we have the most glorious summers you could possibly imagine. We also have about eight months of miserable weather. And so there are few things that make me die more on the inside than having to spend my gorgeous summer days stuck in a windowless room recording videos or editing videos. It just, it rips me up on the inside. And so in order to keep from completely burning out, which I almost did, I almost just stopped making videos entirely back at the end of my, what became my first season. Yep. Yep. I was like, you know what? I need to, I need to take several months off every year and, and just recoup. And so I have kind of broken it up into Seasons. And that also gives me the opportunity over the summer, like I mentioned, to, to make changes to the video format and also to, to create a backlog. I still work over the summer. I'm just, I just don't force myself to do it. And so usually by the time the season starts at the end of September, I've got 15 videos that are in the can and ready to go. And all I have to do is publish them. Right. So it, it allows me to go between September and the end of May, putting out videos on a regular basis, usually cough, cough, without completely burning myself out the rest of the year as well.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's awesome. Like you've, you've set the expectation early, right? Like I couldn't just up and say, I'm going to take these three months off now because that's not what I've done in the past. I mean, I guess I could, but it would be kind of damaging where as you essentially laid the groundwork in the beginning, here's how it rolls. And this is what's works best for me. And it's going to give, actually, you know, it's going to give the, your followers and watchers, you know, the, the best results anyway. Right.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. But there, I mean, there is a, there's a downside to that as well, which I'm sure you guys know from doing the podcast every week, like clockwork for so long is that. Especially when you're so reliant on your viewers and your sponsors to, to recoup the costs of, of the time taking three or four months off in the middle is it's painful. Um, you know, basically I'm not taking much money from sponsors. My, my rates drop in half, uh, for sponsorship rates. I'm not making very much money on either YouTube or through Patreon, that sort of thing. So there's, it's, uh, it's, it's a little difficult to keep the momentum. It also makes it really hard to do the stuff people are interested in right now. I mean, one thing about our community is they love what's new. It doesn't really matter what it is, but they love what's new. And because of the type of video and the, the, the formats I'm getting requests right now from, from lots of different manufacturers. Like, would you review this? Would you review this? I'm like, I will, but it's not going to be out until October.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Matt Armstrong: So, um, that there's, there's pluses and minuses to it, but I really like, um, I like having the summers. I'm a gardener, so I love to be able to just go out and enjoy the 75 degrees and sunny weather for four months straight. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And your, your garden pictures are awesome by the way. And I'm going to go ahead and give a shout out now to Luke, the dog, and I'm sure he'll come up later in this episode, but you have the most amazing golden retriever. So anyone who follows Matt for his, his pin reviews alone is, is missing out some, uh, awesome Luke, the dog action. He he's amazing.

Matt Armstrong: He's kind of the best dog ever. I have to admit, I got real lucky. He's also my first dog ever. So I had never had a dog growing up. I got real lucky with the first one.

Brad Dowdy: Well, good. So in the, I think in the past year or so, you started doing kind of a side video project called currently ink. So what was the, what was behind that? And, um, you know, mixing that into your schedule, what was the thought behind getting that started?

Matt Armstrong: Uh, there were a couple of things about it. One, and I'm sure you know this too. When you become known in the community, you instantly become kind of like the source of information for a lot of people who are just getting started. And I found myself answering the same questions over and over and over again. Um, and so I, I wanted to say, well, what's a format I could do that isn't going to take a metric, but ton of time. Uh, that's a scientific measure, by the way. Um, I use it all the time. Yeah, exactly. And, um, and we'll help get some of this information out there. And so, uh, you know, Q and A formats are, are, you know, they're popular and they're, they're done quite a bit, but it's the sort of thing where I can just plop down in my studio, turn on the camera and my microphone. And an hour later, walk out with a finished video, basically. Um, I don't do a lot of editing on them. I don't, you know, I don't make it fancy. I don't even do introductions anymore, really, or animations or any of that stuff. It's, it's, so it's, it's a fast turnaround, um, for me. The other big thing that I'm, I'm kind of trying to take a look at as I mature in this hobby is that I'm not buying as many pens as I used to. And I have a harder time getting excited about certain kinds of pens. And so it, I find it a little difficult to get excited about pens that I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like before I even review them. And when you go into reviews with a preconceived notion, that's not really great with reviewing, you know, it, it doesn't really, you're not giving it a fair shake. So, um, so I'm looking at ways that I can maybe not move away from review content, but kind of integrate other types of content into the channel, more educational style stuff and, and that sort of thing. So, um, yeah, I think that's kind of where it led. Plus it's one of those things I can do during the summer in the evenings and, and it's not going to take up a ton of time. So I can still put out a little bit of content during the summer when I'm on hiatus.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And honestly, it's cool to just like geek out with your friends for like an hour and talk about this stuff that you don't necessarily talk about, you know, around the office or with other people in your day to day life. You can go and geek out about something you're really passionate about. And it's fun to, you know, hear what other people have to say. And I really, really enjoyed the, the time I was, I was on there with you. It's just fun to sit and talk to you. And, uh, it's, it's fun for me to watch those videos. I really, I really liked the, uh, the currently style and format.

Matt Armstrong: Well, it's funny because I've found that that is by far the most popular videos. Those are the most popular videos I do. Um, the number of views that those get versus the number of views that my reviews get is it's substantially more, probably 25, 30% higher view count on those videos than the regular ones. So, um, yeah, I mean, it's, it requires less work. People seem to like them more. And, uh, in, in cases like that, the, the focus is more on the content and less on the production, which is nice.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. Well, let's, let's put you on the currently inked spot here real quick. I know whenever we have guests on our listeners want to know what you're using, what's your favorite pin? Why do you like this certain pin? What does this, why is this ink such a favorite of yours? So give me, you know, two or three of maybe not necessarily your current favorites, like what you have to have right now, but like your all time favorite pins that you're inking up and using on a regular basis.

Matt Armstrong: Well, um, anyone who follows me regularly knows that my favorite of all time is the classic pens LB five, which is the gorgeous, um, diffusion bonded acrylic version of the sailor king of pen. Big, big fat 21 K nib. Um, so I've got four of those again, cough, cough. And how many of those are there? I think there's seven. Well, there's seven that have been production line pens. There's only $50, uh, or 50 made in each color. So, um, I think there's, there's seven of them and I've got four. So the other, the other ones are very difficult to find because they were the first ones and they were well sold out by the time I was introduced to the pen. So, um, very beautiful. Yeah. I'm also just a, a huge fan of the Aurora Optima as well. I know Brad, you like yours. I do.

Brad Dowdy: I really love that pen. It's just, it's just something about when it, the way it fits my hand and when I write with it, I just really, really enjoy that pen.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. Um, I've been using the pilot custom eight 23 a lot lately.

Matt Armstrong: Um, so yeah, I mean, I've, I wrote, I've been using the pilot custom eight through pens like crazy. I actually don't even have any of my LB fives inked at the moment. So, um, but yeah, I, and then I've got the new Aurora 88. Um, what is it? The Nebulosa coming? Yeah. Oh, I, yeah. Mm. Excellent.

Brad Dowdy: I have, I don't have the pre-order in as I've paid, but I've essentially said, I want this pen and an extra fine nib when it arrives, please. Yes.

Matt Armstrong: Yes. I, I have done the same. Uh, so I am just now waiting for it to be delivered to the retailer.

LB Five Pen

Brad Dowdy: And, uh, yeah, that's a, that's a, it will be mine. Yeah. Yeah. That's a beauty. Um, I want to jump back to the LB five, um, real quick. Um, I wasn't super, I've always seen, uh, Andy Lambrough around pen shows when I've been, but I've never talked to him. Didn't quite know him or his story or the things he's been into. Um, and then I got to use one of your LB fives at a show and I was like, wow, I really like the size and the shape of the pen. Um, and I don't own one yet. That's in the yet category. It's like, I'm going to end up with one of these. I just know I'm going to end up with one of these. And unfortunately now Andy knows my name. So he's like, Hey, Brad, let me show you. And I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm good. Andy. Thank you.

Matt Armstrong: I have all your hand up to the side of your head and walk away. Yeah. Yeah. Cause he's, he's, oh, you, you meet him at a pen show and he is going to go into full blown salesman mode.

Brad Dowdy: He, he almost got me in Atlanta last year with the Jupiter. Is that what one of the, his models is called? I don't know exactly which model that is.

Matt Armstrong: There's, there's two in the Jupiter finish. There's the LB three, which is a smaller cigar shaped pen. And then the LB eight, which is this mammoth pen. That's like eight sided and gorgeous. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I think it was the smaller one and we went back and forth and back and forth and he was going to make me a deal. And I almost did it, Matt. I almost did it. So one of these, one of these days I will just because I mean, who doesn't like Andy? I mean, he's just a really nice guy and you know, the, the, the pens are stunning.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. He's one of those people who has forgotten more about fountain pens than I will ever know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So one of, one of the nicest gifts I've ever received was from you, um, from a book that I wanted. Andy sends, Andy has, what are the names of the books he's done? The, the two primary ones he sends or he has now.

Matt Armstrong: Fountain pens of the world and fountain pens of Japan. I know. And I, there's one other one. I can't remember what the third one is right off the top of my head.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So Matt is such a good customer.

Myke Hurley: Fountain pens of the USA and the UK is the other one. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Gorgeous books. So Matt is such a, a big, uh, customer of Andy's. He gets a book every time he purchases a pen. So Matt's like, yeah, I got an extra one. Fountain pens of Japan. Um, do you want me to send it to you? I'm like, oh yeah, because I mean, it's like a $200 retail book. I mean, it's a big honking, you know, a coffee table style book, if you will. And it's just beautiful that he puts these together. It is, it just boggles my mind how something like that comes together. And he's done like three of them. It's, it's pretty amazing.

Matt Armstrong: So, well, it, in the San Francisco show this last year, we were sitting out at the bar after a long day because we were both working at the Van Ness table at that time. Yeah. And, uh, we were sitting out and, and Andy happened to wander in and sit down. I think it was the last night of the show, Sunday night or something like that. And we were kind of showing our pens around and I pulled out this Parker duo fold I had bought. And, you know, that's not his, his brand. He's got his own brand. That's why he's there. And he's like, oh yeah, this is the duo fold centennial from 1989. The thing about this acrylic is it's a compressed acrylic instead of a port acrylic. So sometimes it can crack. So you want to be, I was like, how? How in the world do you remember that about this? I mean, this pen is like 30 years old. How in the world do you remember that off the top of your head? It's he's amazing. I love Andy. He's great.

Brad Dowdy: He is great. He's great. And, uh, so I'm, I'm sure we'll see him, uh, see him out and about several times this year. So, um, with the, with the pens you you're using, um, you, you have a bit of an ink problem as well. Um, and I say that lovingly because anyone who listens to the show, uh, probably has an ink problem, but yours is on display quite a bit. And I know you get lots of commentary about, um, the, the inks on yourself. So why don't you tell me how many inks you have?

Ink Collection

Matt Armstrong: 230 bottles. I keep a spreadsheet that is accessible from the pen habit website. So you can see exactly what I've got in my collection at any, at any one time. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So how many emails do you get say, Hey, I saw your video and saw your list. Will you sell me this rare bottle of Caron dash that hasn't been made for like 10 years?

Matt Armstrong: Um, usually it's more along the lines of, I can't see where on the website I can buy that your inks. Um, it's like it, it looks kind of the display I've got in my studio looks kind of like a store. It does. It's a beautiful backdrop. Yeah. People just kind of, yeah, I love that backdrop. It just, yeah, it's a pain to clean, which is why I only clean it during the hiatus every summer. I have to pull everything off the shelf and dust it down. It's like this gets dusted once a year. Um, but, uh, it, yeah, people just mistake me as owning or running a pen store, which I don't. And, uh, yeah, the thing about ink is it's so inexpensive compared to the pens that I'm buying. So I can buy 10 bottles and not freak out the way I would freak out if I bought 10 fountain pens. Right. Um, you know, yeah. I mean, it, and it's that being said.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: 230 bottles later. So give me, give me a few favorites, uh, off the shelf. If you're inking up some of your favorite pens, what's, what's kind of the top things that are going into, into your pens?

Matt Armstrong: Um, so I'm, I've become a big fan of a lot of the bung box inks. Mm-hmm. So piano mahogany is just one of my all time faves. It's just gorgeous. Brown, red color. I really, really liked the first love Sapphire as well. It's probably my favorite blue ink out there. I've, there's this limited edition or special edition Mont Blanc honoré de Balzac dandy turquoise came out a couple of years ago. Yeah. That is my favorite turquoise of all time. They, you know, as with their special editions, of course you buy it while you can. And then once it's gone, it's gone. Um, I really like Caran d'Ache Grand Canyon, which is one of the discontinued colors of the earth inks.

Matt Armstrong: Uh, Diamine Autumn Oak, Mont Blanc, Irish green and lavender purple. I mean, name a color family. I can tell you. Right. Yamadori, Sailor Yamadori is another one. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I thought you do a cool thing on your blog, which I didn't even realize, uh, was there under your FAQ section, where you have like, do you list out the colors and here's my favorites, like in this color spectrum? It's, it's pretty cool. I like how you do that. It's, you can just send a link here. Go look at this.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. That, that kind of falls. And I know there's a question about this, but that's one of those questions I get asked at least five to seven times a week is what's your favorite ink in this color? Yeah. And, uh, so, you know, that's useful.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Helpful. So with, so years of doing this and, you know, way, way down this most serious rabbit hole, you have all these inks and you have all these, uh, pens and you have this growing empire online. You decided, I guess, was it last year where you started making some paper products? So tell us how that, tell us how that came about and what was your idea behind starting that?

Matt Armstrong: Um, so the big thing is for me was, you know, I, and I talk about this a little bit. I hate asking for money. I hate it. It's probably the least favorite thing about being a YouTuber. Um, because YouTube for anyone who's, who's expecting to get on and make it, make it rich on YouTube. That's probably not going to happen. There are a few people who can pull it off. I am not one of them. Uh, and so I, I was trying to come up with a way and I, the thing that I did my second season was I did this big raffle. So if you, if you donated during the year, then you got raffle tickets or, you know, basically you got a ticket into the raffle. What I didn't realize is that's kind of illegal. Um, so starting with season three, I had to kill that one. Um, and then I, I was talking with Sean Newton and he was saying, well, you know, if you sell something and use those as entries to a giveaway, it's not a raffle. Um, and kind of, kind of what he does with his postcards that, you know, you, you buy these postcards, the money goes to charity and, and then, you know, he does a giveaway based on the postcards you bought, which is cool. But, um, the thought was, well, why don't I just sell something that way? I'm not asking for money. I'm letting people buy something that hopefully they'll find useful and then I can make a little extra money off of it that way. So, uh, that's kind of where I, I started the process and I kicked off, you know, paper was an obvious direction for me to go. So I kicked off this process of trying to find a good fountain pen friendly paper to make these pocket and traveler size notebooks, um, for, for my, what became the inky fingers notebook line.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you took the paper very seriously, which you should, like that's appreciated by the community and the people who support you and, and by these notebooks. Everyone I've used has been awesome and you've gone through a couple of different paper styles. Um, what's the current paper choice and what is going on with that current paper choice? Cause I know you've had some news and I know you have a bunch of fans of these notebooks. So tell us what's going on with that.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. So, um, uh, what I use is the, it's a wheat straw paper. So it's the agriculture by-product. Ooh, try to talk today. Agricultural by-product of, of harvesting wheat. So they take the straw, they grind it, add a little bit of tree pulp and make this paper. And it is surprisingly fountain pen friendly and not very thick. And, you know, it's not Tomoe river thin, but it's not Clairefontaine thick. It's kind of a nice medium weight paper. Yeah. Little bit of tooth. I really like the way it feels. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's really, really excellent. It's, you don't expect what you get when you start writing on it. You're like, wow, this is really cool. It's excellent. Yeah.

Matt Armstrong: Um, so one of the problems with at least paper here in the U S is that 98% of it's garbage when it comes to fountain pens. And so it's, we went through probably 40 or 50 different papers trying to find the right one. And we absolutely stumbled across this. I was talking to my printer about, Hey, can we, maybe if I were to bring in some Tomoe river paper, it's only 52 GSM. It's really thin. Can your machines handle it? And he said, I don't think so. Yeah. A lot of printers can't handle paper like that. And so, or won't. Um, one of the things I discovered is if a paper hasn't been certified for use in specific, in the, the printer's machines, they just won't use it. Ah, interesting. Um, and so he said, but just a second, I've got something that might work if, you know, if Tomoe river is based on rice, it might be, I don't know. And then he said, let me try this. So we pulled it out and I was shocked. And I said, I love this paper. So we, we proceeded and I printed up this small batch of 500 notebooks, took it to the DC show in 2016. Uh, and basically gave a bunch away. Actually, no, I, I was giving it away even before then. Yeah. Oh, it was, I was, it was LA actually. It was the LA pen show last year. Um, is where I started giving them away and then during the summer, I had another run printed of that same wheat straw paper and the printer I was using kind of wasn't able to, to meet the quality that I wanted to with the paper and, uh, and, and the final fit and finish of the notebook. So I went to a new printer and someone who specializes in using this particular kind of paper. And he just informed me a couple of weeks ago that it has been discontinued. Oof. Wah, wah. So, um, yeah. So I am back to the drawing board in terms of finding paper. This new printer should be able to do the quality of work I like and I, I want, um, but we just have to find a paper that works and that's really hard to do with fountain pens, especially if I don't want to become an importer of some huge volume of paper from overseas, which I'm not completely against, but that's a lot of extra work. So kind of defeats the whole purpose of making a little extra money without asking for help kind of a thing.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. So I want to make a point of something you said and that I, I find to be a constant theme from people in our community who have gone on to make things like you, like Anna, like myself, we're extraordinarily particular. You know, we are, it's a different type of manufacturing. Process than I think you find on just a general basis. Like we are really kind of understand what the expectations are for our community and for ourselves, right? I mean, we don't want, if we're putting our name on it, it's very important that it's right. And sometimes working with people who aren't used to our particularness, it's very difficult. And I thought that was a good point that you made. Like you really care about the paper, the performance, what the final completed output is going to look like from the printer. And that's not, that's not easy. I mean, it's a challenge and we appreciate you being that particular, like it shows in the end. Yeah.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think there's this, a certain level of fastidiousness that comes with using fountain pens in today, you know, right? 60 years ago, you didn't really have much of a choice. If you're using a fountain pen today, it's because you are willing to do all the extra little fiddly stuff you have to do to use a fountain pen today. And you enjoy that extra fiddly stuff. So cleaning it out, adjusting the tines, you know, the standard pen maintenance stuff, finding paper that fits you. So there's a certain kind of personality type, I think, that really gets into fountain pens today. And I think that fastidiousness about your pens and the twiddly stuff you have to do with it is it translates very, very closely into I want the products I use around this to be as attentive to detail as I am. And so I think that's where the, that all comes from.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right. And I think that completely shows in like everything that you do. So I think that's fantastic. So we have a bunch of listener questions I want to get to. But before we kind of wrap up the, all the pen habit background and current status, what's next for you and the pen habit? You know, what's the next year look like? Are you getting out to pen shows? You have anything new coming on the blog? What's, what's on the, what's on the docket for you this year?

Matt Armstrong: For me on the blog and the YouTube channel, it's just make it to May. I'm kind of in the, just focus down and make it to May and see what happens from there. Over the summer, I'm going to be taking a pretty hard look at the type of content I create and what changes, if any, I want to make. So one of the things I'd like to really spend a little more time on is educational content as opposed to review content. I still enjoy doing reviews, but I don't think I will be able to continue doing the kinds of reviews that the audience wants me to do. Right. And, and, and to be honest about it, you know, there's just a lot of, my tastes have changed. And, and so I'm going to be taking a look at that. I'm not making any decisions yet, but the one area that I think I'd like to get into is some of the stuff that Brian Goulet did early on. And, you know, the fountain pen 101 and how to adjust your nibs and how to use an ultrasonic cleaner and that sort of thing. And focus a little bit on that going forward.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I, for, I would eat that stuff up. I think that's awesome content that never, there's always new people coming in that need to know these things. And it's, it'd be a great resource. I'd love to see that. So you also mentioned you're going to be at the Chicago pen show.

Matt Armstrong: Is that right? I am. I'm going to the Chicago show this year and I'm probably going to go to DC as well. It's going to kind of depend on work. Gotcha. But I'm, I'm planning on going to DC. DC is such a fun show. It's just, it's fun to be there. I'm working at the Chicago show. So I'm going to help out the Van Nessas again.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I will be adjacent. I will be adjacent to you. I'm stealing one of their tables for Knox. So we will be neighbors this year.

Matt Armstrong: We will get up to our regular old shenanigans.

Brad Dowdy: Just like old times, right? Exactly.

Matt Armstrong: Our, our, our smart Alec approach to pen shows. It's a, I'm trying to, I'm trying to censor myself as I'm talking here because I know it's a family friendly podcast. But yeah.

Brad Dowdy: We keep, we keep our sanity by being together.

Matt Armstrong: Exactly. Exactly. So, so that, that should be a lot of fun. And then we'll see what happens with DC. I had a great time at San Francisco last year too.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Matt Armstrong: So I'd kind of like to go to San Francisco again. It's just so close on the back of DC that I don't know that I'll be able to take the time off of work again this year. So, right. So, yeah, we'll see. Cool.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that sounds awesome. And I think let's hit some of these questions, Myke, after I get a clean shave.

Myke Hurley: You're going to go do that right now?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Oh, brilliant. I mean, you're kind of long winded sometimes. Oh, well, look at this. This is just not fair at all. So this show is brought to you, I would just like to point out actually that I haven't spoken for a while. So maybe I'm not as long winded, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I know. But I've been with you for 248 episodes. So I stand by this.

Harry's Shave Cream

Myke Hurley: Today's show is brought to you by Harry's. Harry's was started by just a couple of guys, Jeff and Andy, who were fed up of being overcharged for razors. So they decided to fix it. They went ahead and bought a factory of 100 years of blade making experience so they could not only make their own products, but that they would be high quality as well. Then sell them online and ship directly for half the price. With Harry's, you'll be used to just paying $2 a blade compared to the $4 you may be paying when you go and buy from the jailhouse drugstore as they lock everything away. Harry's razors include everything you need for a close, comfortable shave. They have a weighted ergonomic handle, five precision engineer blades of a lubricating strip and trimmer blade, and travel blade cover as well. And Harry's have all of the extras you need, like amazing shave gel or cream. Brad, what is your favorite of all of Harry's extras?

Brad Dowdy: It's the shave cream. And I have a travel pro tip that I just realized that I do as I was packing for Little Rock this week. The shave cream that I use now comes in two sizes. So I order one medium for every two larges that I use because the medium just stays. It's the perfect travel size. So it stays in my travel kit. I don't use it except when I travel and I don't have to hunt down or lug a big, you know, big tube of shave cream or any other product with me. So keep that medium in the travel kit and it's good to go. So that's what I do.

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Matt Armstrong: And allow me to say I'm going to probably go over and sign up for Harry's as soon as we're done here because I have been using one of the other subscription services and I'm not particularly happy with the quality of the blades. So I'm excited to give them a try. You've got to. Come on. If for no other reason to have me on the show, it's to finally switch me over to Harry's.

Myke Hurley: That's awesome. The podcast is, you know, all of our guests, it's just like a slow march towards moving them over. That's all this is. This is just a shell, really, this show. Mission accomplished.

Brad Dowdy: That's right. Well, our good friend Scott, who is in the chat room and on Slack, this is the paper late segment of the podcast where he submitted six questions for Matt. I'll see if I can get through all of them here because I have some other questions from other people I want to hit. But there are he had some very interesting ones that I wanted to discuss. And that starts with the first one he submitted. He said, does Brad ever think about doing videos? And does Matt ever think about doing a podcast? So what do you think about that, Matt?

Matt Armstrong: I have not thought about doing a podcast because why would I try to compete with you guys? No one can compete with us. All right. Exactly. I let you know right now. You're so far ahead of me right now. No, I've done podcasts before and I enjoy them. But I really I love the video format and I don't feel like I could do anything better on a podcast than you guys are already doing. So to me, it's an additional voice. Yeah. Yeah. I I don't see that there's a need for it for me anyway. I you know, if someone else wants to do a podcast, I won't stop them. But you guys do such a great job. I'm not sure what the point would be.

Myke Hurley: No, the thing is, if anybody wants to do a podcast, we will try to stop them. Like, I think I need to make there is there is room for just one pen show.

Matt Armstrong: And it is this one. Why do I have this vision in my head of like a Jets and Sharks West Side Story style rumble at a pen show? I just could totally happen. Yeah. Myke and Brad snapping and creeping toward each other using Bob Fosse choreography. I've got this vision in my head. I think we need to make that happen at the DC show this year. Definitely, definitely need to make that happen.

Brad Dowdy: We can we can totally swing that. The YouTubers versus the podcasters. I don't know which side would Myke be on. He's kind of he's kind of turning on me. Podcast forever, baby. That's right. That's right. Me doing videos. It's it's it's very much the same thing that Matt said. There's no way like I look up to Matt's like technical acumen and quality of content. Like that's like the gold standard is like, why would I want to embarrass myself? It's hard. It's hard to do.

Myke Hurley: It's hard to learn, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Plus, I have all of these time commitments already and knowing how much time Matt puts into that like that. I could never do that just with all the I mean, just planning on the podcast alone. Myke knows how that goes. It's you know, a lot of times it's late and last minute because just of the time commitment it takes, which makes Matt's work even more impressive, Scott. So, yeah. But I think about it all the time and realize that I'm never going to do that. And if I do anything, it'd be, you know, live Instagram or live Facebook things, you know, where I can just fly off the handle and not script out and plan.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah, I love doing that stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I started watching yours and I was like, I need to do this more. That just looks like fun. Like I did Periscope for a while, but the Instagram stuff looks very, very simple and easy to use.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. And it's just fun. It's one of those. I've got half an hour. I'm not doing anything. Let me make my bed. So the background looks like I've got my life together as an adult. And then I go, you know, sit there and just answer questions and chat for half an hour. It's fun. I enjoy doing that kind of stuff.

Paper Late Segment

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So the next question from Scott is one you kind of already mentioned, but I wanted to bring it up purposely because you mentioned it. So Scott says, do the questions you both receive point you towards gaps within the community regarding information that needs to be shared more broadly? I've noticed neither one of you has found it necessarily necessary to duplicate the great fountain pen 101 videos that Goulet pens has produced. But are there other gaps out there based on the questions you receive? So I thought you're mentioning of the video and, you know, trying to do more educational stuff. I think that's right on point.

Matt Armstrong: Yeah. And, you know, it's interesting in a lot of ways, I don't feel like there's a lot of information missing. It's just people don't always find the information they want in the avenue that they want it. So, you know, you can find out about vintage pens, but you're probably going to have to troll through a lot of old forum posts to find it. Or, you know, you can find out information about, you know, how to adjust your nibs, but you're going to have to go through three or four different videos on YouTube to find it kind of a thing. So the information's out there. I think my focus is people just won't always go to the effort of looking for it and they just expect you to answer their question for them. And so finding ways to make content bite-sized and easily discoverable, I think is going to be the key for me going forward. Because most of that information's out there. That's how I learned it. It's by trolling the different websites or not trolling. Well, trolling is the word I want to use, but not the way people, you think of it on the internet. It's more like fishing trolling.

Myke Hurley: Trolling, not trolling, right? Like there's just a very close pronunciation, very, very different connotation. Trolling, yes.

Matt Armstrong: So, yeah. So that would be, yeah, I think that's kind of the direction I want to go.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And let me interject a quick question here that you said something that made me think of it. Just overall in your pen buying and you're saying your tastes have changed over the years. And I think, I don't know, my observation is that you enjoy more of the modern pens, but you do have a thing for vintage pens too, right? I mean, just there's some very particular ones that you like. Do you find where your tastes are leaning now more towards the modern or the vintage styles?

Matt Armstrong: Oh, it's still very much modern. But I am branching out into some of the vintage stuff. I found some vintage pens that I really like, but I do like larger pens and that's a little tricky when you get into the vintage world. So I've got a vacuumatic oversized from 1937 that I just adore. It's a beautiful pen and it writes like a dream. Some of the old watermans because I love my flexi nibs. Right. And I found an ever sharp skyline recently that I also really, really like. So nice.

Vintage Pens

Brad Dowdy: Nice. All right. So I'm going to roll Scott's question three and four kind of together because we've already answered part of this. He says, what have you both learned from the experience of making and selling notebooks? This includes things like paper quality, vendor relations, distribution, online sales, et cetera. So we kind of covered that with how our particularness very much plays out in like everything in that question, the quality, the vendors, distribution, sales, everything is like super, super particular. But then he leads into what other products and or services have you two considered? So what have you considered doing anything besides notebooks, Matt? Because people always wanted me to make a pen and I just kind of refuse to do that. I'm not saying I never will, but that doesn't interest me. Have you considered doing anything? I really haven't.

Matt Armstrong: And I don't know why I haven't. I think it's just not something that's ever been a huge focus for me. I like the note. I like paper and it's fun. That kind of stuff is fun for me. Plus I have the skills-ish to do it. So that's an area that – and there's still so much more to do in that realm. All I've got is a blank aligned and a currently inked log. But I've got ideas for probably 20 or 30 other products and a bunch of different sizes. And so I think there's still a lot of realm to explore there before I get bored with it. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And I think that kind of leads into the next question that Scott had. He says, Brad, you have monetized your refill newsletter and I find it to be outstanding value. Has Matt considered any type of subscription service? And I don't see that necessarily like a subscription service. I think I would pose the question more, have you thought about any more ways – and this is an awkward word to say and I don't like it – but to monetize anything you do. And I think creating more notebooks, like you're saying, that's on the radar. Is there anything else you've considered either maybe a digital good or a subscription service? Have you thought about any of these types of things?

Matt Armstrong: I've thought about them. I've kind of roundly ruled out a lot of them largely because it's a time commitment thing. So in addition to doing the pen habit, I do still have a full-time job and will continue to have a full-time job for a long time, I suspect. But I also run my own audiobook production and distribution company and narrate a lot of audiobooks. So I'm kind of running three businesses simultaneously or not – you know, I've got a job and then I'm running two separate businesses simultaneously. So it's adding more things that take up my time is not really in the cards anymore. I've kind of – I'm at peak Matt right now. So I think from here on out, it's going to be how do I minimize my own input or find ways to bring other people in. And if I can do that and make it work, then that's something that I'll consider. But anything that requires more of my time is kind of out.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. And I think this kind of – I'm going to jump into the next question from Robo Jim – talks about this very thing and how, okay, I transitioned, you know, from, you know, standard job, what people would consider a standard job into turning the pen addict and knock into my full-time job. And you make it very clear that you enjoy your full-time job and keep, you know, the pen habit and inky fingers as a side gig. What challenges, you know, besides time? I mean, I think time is probably the best thing. But, you know, are there any more challenges to keep both of these things going? Is there any reason that you say don't want to make the jump to doing fountain pens and stationary stuff full-time? Have you thought about – has that ever come up in the dream scenario?

Matt Armstrong: Yeah, it has. I'm a little hesitant to even entertain that notion too much for a couple reasons. One, Seattle is a very expensive place to live. And for me to continue living here in the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed, I would have – I mean, with the dog. Yeah, exactly. I've got to keep him in milk bones. Yes. So I would have to make so much more money than I'm making on the pen habit. I mean, like 10 to 15 times more than I'm making just to maintain where I am right now. And I just don't see how pouring more of my time into it. I would have to try to build an empire. And I don't know that I have that in me. So we'll see. The other thing is I find that once I turn a hobby into a job, it stops being fun. Yeah. And I – this is one of those few things that I enjoy enough and have been able to maintain for as long as I have. That I'm afraid of trying to turn it into more than it already is. Otherwise, I'm afraid I'm just going to, you know, put the pens in the pen box and not ink them up anymore because I'm so burned out. Right. And so I don't want that to happen. I also don't have a spouse. I'm not saying that that is the sole reason you've been able to be so successful doing what you're doing. But it is nice to have that additional support and that additional, you know, income in case you have a bad month. And I don't have that. So, you know, I've often laughed. I'm not cute enough to have a sugar daddy and not rich enough to be one. But, yeah, you know, if we get to the point maybe where I've got a spouse and we could – it's something I would certainly consider. But there would have to be some scenario changes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it was certainly kind of a perfect storm of things. And, you know, me having my wife who's had a stable job for 15 years and insurance, it makes it easier to have that to fall back on to be able to make, like, crazy decisions like I did. And definitely, like, the cost of living totally is a thing, too. Like, I live in the country. Like, last night, I was driving my daughter to guitar practice. I almost road-killed a turkey, then had to wait for a hay truck to cross the train tracks in front of the taxidermy shop. So, I live in a very low-cost area.

Myke Hurley: That is one of the weirdest sentences I have ever heard. Can you say that again, please?

Brad Dowdy: That was my drive last night to guitar practice. Like, it's all woods, like, where I live. So, it's, like, I don't pass, like, a single retail establishment, like, until I get to, like, where a guitar practice is. It's like a 20-minute drive. There was this huge turkey that crossed the road. And I was, like, slamming on the brakes. The kids were cracking up because he was huge and running around like crazy. And then, you know, we have to cross over these train tracks. And there was, you know, there's all these farms around where I live. It's all horses and cows. And there's always hay trucks moving hay from one location to the other. And he was kind of stuck on the train track, which is where the taxidermy shop is where I live. So, yeah, it's kind of crazy. Okay.

Matt Armstrong: So, why am I hearing the soundtrack from Deliverance in my head right now?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's totally. You can imagine, like, some of the, like, we won't get into it. But you can imagine some of the struggles I have in this area. But it's, you know, it's where we live. So, it's not Seattle. That's for sure. So, those are the things, like, that I, you know, that have made it easier for me to, you know, the decisions I've had to make about, you know, my business. You know, it's really a perfect storm kind of situation. So, it's a little crazy. So, all right. So, last couple of questions. We'll get through these real quick from Sebastian. He wants to know, what do you want to see happen in the future for the fountain pen industry? For example, for me, it's the arrival of new manufacturers such as Twisby who offer great products at good prices or that all product pilot products are available outside Japan and at better prices. So, do you have anything that you say, boy, I wish this industry that we all love so much and are a huge part of, what could they do to make it even more awesome?

Matt Armstrong: So, I have a couple things. One, I would love for someone to figure out how to make good old-fashioned style flex nibs. If for no other reason than I could stop answering the question, why can't anyone make flex nibs like they used to? Because that's probably the most frequently asked question I ever get. The other one is I would like to see pen companies start operating on a global scale and not on several small local scales. Kind of what Sebastian said in the question was some of these games that the companies are playing with the retailers, you have to have a brick-and-mortar store to get access to our inventory. You have to sell all of it or sell none of it. We're only going to bring these products into this country, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I feel like the companies that have been most successful are the ones who have realized that style of business does not work in the modern economy and have gotten away from that. I'd like to see many more retailers do the same thing. I also would like to see a pretty hefty focus on the increase of quality control in nibs. Even in just the last four years, I have seen nib quality control go down pretty substantially, I think, especially with some of the luxury retailers or luxury brands. They're just not putting as much focus on their nib quality as they used to. I think there's some that are, but not as many as I feel like used to maybe four years ago. Maybe that's just I have more experience and can recognize what's wrong more than I used to be able to. Those are kind of my big areas that I'd like to see focused on.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly on we're in a global market now, and I wish some of these manufacturers would realize that and make it easier for us to love you and to give you the boost that comes with being part of a global stationary community. There's definitely some companies that are very much stuck in their old habits, old business models and things like that. I would definitely like to see a more open worldwide community from a manufacturing perspective, how they're releasing products, how they're handling promotion, how they're doing things to continue to grow this market because it's pretty clear it's growing. So I would like to see more openness from the top down, if you will.

Matt Armstrong: And to be honest, I don't think it will always continue to grow. Yeah, sure. Now, if you're going to innovate and you're going to change your business model, now is the time to do it because you want to be well positioned for when the market starts to slow down or starts to decrease again because it's going to happen. Markets are cyclical. Yep. So, yeah, I feel like there are a couple manufacturers out there who are doing a really good job of it. Aurora being one where they seem to have gotten the wake up call that the market is not what it used to be and they're making some pretty serious changes. Right. And I appreciate that. I feel like there are other ones who are going the opposite direction, kind of digging in their heels and saying, no, we like it the way it used to be. And companies that do that are the ones that operate themselves right out of existence.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly right. Exactly right. All right. So we're going to end it on this fun question. And I had to put this in here. And this is from Daniel. A ballpoint user is quickly approaching your house, unknown to you because you're doing the gardening. But Luke, the dog, can smell the threat drawing nearer. How does he warn you to get to safety?

Matt Armstrong: Is licking someone to death an option? Because that's probably about it.

Brad Dowdy: So he is going to welcome the ballpoint fiend with open arms and just licking it up. As will I.

Matt Armstrong: Because anyone – I don't care if you're into ballpoints versus fountain pens. If you're a stationary nerd, you are my people. Right. You know, yeah, I focus mainly on fountain pens because that's what I like. But, you know, anyone who can get excited about pens and paper is just nerdy enough for me.

Brad Dowdy: I couldn't say it better than that. Thank you, Matt, for joining us this week. This has been a blast. This was awesome. We could go on for another two hours knowing you and knowing the things that you're into and the stories we could tell. Well, we have shared some experiences and I can't wait to share my next experience with you. And I hope to see you soon. Yes, I'm sure I'll see you in Chicago. Yes, I'll be there. All right.

Myke Hurley: If you want to find our show notes for this week's episode, head on over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 248. If you want to find Brad online, the place to go is penaddict.com. Or you can go to Dowdy as on Twitter, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. And he's penaddict on Instagram. I am iMike, I-M-Y-K-E on both. If you want to find Matt, you can go to his website. You can go to penhabit.com. And he is at penhabit on Twitter as well. Thanks again to our lovely sponsors for this week's episode. The fine folk over at Penn Chalet Squarespace and Harry's. We'll be back next time. But we and Brad will anyway. But Matt, thank you so much for joining us. And thank you all for listening. Until next time, say goodbye, guys. Goodbye, guys.