The Pen Addict 258/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	258
Title:	Kind of Not Interesting
Release Date:	May 24th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 258
Audio File:	Audio Episode 258
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 258
Length:	5757 min <br />0.95 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 258. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Blue Apron. My name is Myke Hurley. I am joined by Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hype man! Brad Dowdy in the house, everybody.

Brad Dowdy: Actually, I don't have much to hype today, but I got my Hype Man chop finally. Brought it home, Myke. So, you're not the only one with the fancy Glen HK wax seal now, are you?

Myke Hurley: No, I'm not. I saw your Instagram picture. It looks real good. I like that you did the kind of, like, not completely full wax. It's, like, broken, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Not completely. That was a really nice way of saying you're horrible at this.

Myke Hurley: No, no, because it makes it look like you're cool, right? It's like, ah, I just throw this thing together. I don't worry, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's exactly what I was going for. I wasn't going for, let's not catch the desk on fire. That's how that happens. There's some real danger in all of that, right? Like, it's a whole big thing. So, yeah, now, like, I thought this was going to be easy, but I have, like, legit questions on wax seals, which I didn't think that thing was something I was ever going to say. But, so, when you're dripping the wax onto the surface of the page, are you holding the, let's call it a candle, the wax stick, are you holding the candle at a horizontal, or are you holding it at a vertical to where the flame goes, like, straight up and dumps more wax?

Wax Application

Myke Hurley: This is why I think we're doing it fundamentally differently, right? Because the little kit that I bought, it has a little spoon, so I cut off a piece of the wax, put it in the spoon. That's right, you're tied off. And then heat it over a candle. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly right. And then just drip it onto the page, right? That's cool. Like, I don't know, like, trying to melt the whole wax straight from the stick just seems like a nightmare to me. I bet that's how all the cool kids do it, but I don't think I'm at that level.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. So, the theme or the answer seems to be diagonal, so somewhere in between what I'm doing. Because if I hold it just horizontal to the page, it doesn't drip enough. Like, I think it's going to dry out before I stamp, right? You got to have a nice puddle there. And then if you hold it, I said, okay, well, then I must need to hold it vertically so the wax will really start dripping, and then it just started, like, sparking and shooting crap everywhere. So, that wasn't a good idea either.

Myke Hurley: That doesn't sound like it went very well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, I eventually got there, but it was taking, like, longer than I thought. And I was concerned about, like, it was taking so long, I almost had the ash from the wick fall into the seal, which wouldn't have been a good look. Or maybe it would be a good look. Add some flavor to it. But, yeah, this is fun. It's going to be a problem. Mine says, hashtag hype man and pen addict. And it's got some nibs and ink bottles on there. It's really cool. I need to get some brighter wax. It obviously didn't photograph very well because it's a dark navy blue wax. I don't even know where I got this from. But I knew I had some. I had to dig it out.

Myke Hurley: I was just saying, man, there's tons on Amazon. Like, seriously, like, on Prime. It's crazy. There's so much of that stuff. I couldn't believe it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, and when we were at the Chicago Pen Show, Matt from the Pen Habit came over with a fistful of wax sticks from Renzo at Papier Plume. He's got some beautiful, like, swirly stuff. It looks really nice.

Myke Hurley: It's a whole big thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, yeah, this is a whole thing. So, I'll figure it out. I'll do a better stamp, better seal. So, I'm still not writing any letters yet, but now I guess I'm going to have to to use these fun new toys. So, we'll see. We now both have ours, our Glenn HK stamps, wax seals from Glenn, which is awesome. Thank you.

Myke Hurley: Glenn is the man.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: All right. So, talking about the man, Thomas Hall did some detective work regarding the new Edison filling system for me. You know, I asked the question last week if my Menlo could be converted into their new drawer filler. It turns out it can't. It's not possible. Right. It makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense. It makes sense. But it was just like on an off-chance hope, right? And basically, from Edison Penz, they basically said that the interior of the drawer filling barrel has a very precise internal bore that matches with the O-rings. So, it can make the drawer filling action correct. So, like, you'd basically destroy the barrel to try and retrofit it. Gotcha. Gotcha. So, I mean, so here's my thinking around mine. I've just, I've got my Menlo in my hand right now. I'm going to today try and give this thing a thorough, thorough clean, like, everything I can possibly do to it. I'm going to, like, pen flush it and all that stuff, right? Because I haven't used the JB Pen Flush yet. And then I'm going to give it a go and see if I can, see if it performs okay. You know, my concern is that maybe I just haven't been as nice to this pen as I should have been. And that might have contributed to some of the issues that I'm having. If it doesn't seem like it's any better, then I think I'm going to have to send it to them to take a look at it.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, you'll know real quick if the ink's leaking out the back. I mean, it's not like a sieve, but it starts getting into other areas where it shouldn't get into. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Like, right now, I think I'm going to need a bit of force to even get the end section off. Because there's just, yeah, some mess in there.

Brad Dowdy: So I'm actually considering getting one of these draw fillers. I want to see them at the next show Brian's at. Maybe he'll be at DC. I don't know. I'm sure he's planning on it. Might get one there, see what kind of special ones he makes for the show. But I am kind of interested in it now.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because, I mean, I just love the pens, right? Yeah, they're awesome. It's one of my favorites. But maybe I chose the wrong filling system. But I was just so excited, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Well, it was the right filling system. I knew going into it is going to be very difficult to maintain. But it turns out it's even more so. And there's some issues with it on top of that. So it's tough. But, yeah, we'll see. I would get yours reworked if it continues to leak because it's an amazing pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I love it so much. And I don't use it as much as I want to because of it.

Pen Repair

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Speaking of which, and I didn't put this in the show notes, but I mentioned in the members newsletter this week that my Optima is back from the Shoptima.

Myke Hurley: That's good news. What happened to that?

Brad Dowdy: It broke in half, which is not hilarious. And I'm sitting here giggling. So it was the damnedest thing. I've never seen a pen do this before. But and since it's a limited edition, they can't just like swap it out for me. They had to I basically got a rebuilt barrel on there. So they had to rebuild the cylinder and make it again.

Myke Hurley: You know me, man. I raised my eyebrows at something like that. Right. That shouldn't happen, especially on how much of those pens cost.

Brad Dowdy: This one cost me like five hundred dollars.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there's just no there's just no world in which the pen should break in half at five hundred dollars.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I know. And you know me. I mean, I'm the world's worst like and I can't live without this pen. I can't live without you, Myke.

Brad Dowdy: So it's like I'm forgiving of it because it is such a perfect pen.

Myke Hurley: Well, I mean, they swapped it out with no fuss, right? It seems like.

Brad Dowdy: Sure. Now, if it happens again, if it happens again, we've got a problem. We're going to have a talk. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. We need to sit down. We need to put Aurora in the corner and give them a real talk into it.

Triangle Pen Show

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I'll be checking out the latest and greatest from Aurora at the Triangle Pen Show in two weeks. Myke and Raleigh. Actually, not in Raleigh. It's outside of Raleigh in a town called Cary in North Carolina. June 2nd to 4th. Come see me. Come hang out. If you're in the area, come visit. I think Franklin Kristoff might do an open house. I got to find out from them. So this is my way of asking them publicly and putting them on the spot. That would be cool to go see their shop while I was there. And you're going to get to meet one of the littlest pen addicts. My daughter, Elizabeth, is coming to work her first show. So she will be there. She is traveling with me as we set up the knock table. And we'll be slinging some pen cases and some paper there. And I'm looking forward to it. It's a new show for me. And I think it's going to be awesome. I'm really, really excited. So we can, gosh, I guess we leave a week from tomorrow. So it's not even two weeks away.

Myke Hurley: So what will people be able to expect from Brad Dowdy of the show, do you think?

Brad Dowdy: Well, I don't know. I'll be there. And I'll say hi. And there'll be hugs. And there'll be beer. The hugs are the important part. Yeah. That's generally what you can expect from me. So it'll be fun. And we'll, of course, have some knock stuff you can only get at pen shows these days. Jeff's working a little magic for this show. Some people have been asking for a certain case. So they're going to be super ticked off when they see it and can't get it. Which is, you know, we got to have some stuff that's pen show only.

Myke Hurley: No, I like that. I think it's good. I mean, it's encouraging people to come out to their local pen shows. I think that's a great idea. Yep. And plus, as we said before, like for people that already own your entire product line, of which there are many, this gives them something else to buy from you, which is always a good thing. Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: We are in business to stay in business. Heck yeah, you are. You know, so yes, we sell things.

Myke Hurley: So yeah. So we have some new products to talk about today, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And some of these are new as in brand new, just announced this week. And some of these are old and I miss them. One of them's even from last year. Um, I get the Farnie's pen catalog, which I would normally not even flip through, but it's kind of cool to see all the pens and all the things and, uh, see which terrible Esther Brooks they're promoting this, this time around, because my God, that guy still exists. And which I didn't realize until like I got to the second to last page of the catalog. And, um, there was some tragic, tragic stuff in there. Um, but I noticed two pens that, um, should have been on my radar and weren't just to discuss. One is the Fisher space pen 50th anniversary pen in the catalog. Um, I don't know when this exactly came out, but it's kind of cool. I've become a Fisher space pen fan. I mean, I guess I always have been, but I find myself using that format of small pocket pen more these days with the way my work goes at knock. You know, I just want something small to throw in my pocket. And a lot of times it's the Fisher space pen, or at least something like the shown pen with the Fisher space pen refill 50th, uh, 50th anniversary. One is black with a gold section and has the five phases of the moon and a 50 on there. Uh, what do you think about this one? I think it looks pretty cool. It's beautiful.

Myke Hurley: As far as like a limited edition goes, it's really good. Cause it's sticking to what it is, right? Like it's space and right. But like what they've chosen, the design that they've chosen is just a good looking design. Right. You know, like that doesn't need to be a 50th. It could just be a design and you'd be happy with it. I think it's really, really nice. I think it's really, really nice.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, um, there's your, uh, your next gift to our friend, Stephen Hackett. Um, he will, uh, I don't know y'all, y'all that relay space pen y'all did for us was so cool. I still like that one a lot. Yeah. This is pretty great.

Myke Hurley: Me too. That's, that sits on my desk. Like I absolutely love that thing. I will give that as a tip to anyone like space pens with engravings on them are great gifts. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. This next pen, I guess is a great gift, but I have some real questions about it. So I've, this is another one I found in the catalog and it's a cross pen, which I don't necessarily, you know, we don't run in those circles. Like when we had the cross with the tracker, um, we talked about a few podcasts ago where you can, if you lose your pen, you can Bluetooth track it with the tracker software. That was something not on my radar until someone sent me this. No one sent me this, but I saw it in the catalog. It's called the pure peerless Fondery 47 collector's edition. So what this group of pens is, I'm going to read this real quick. This special edition rollerball pen supports Fondery 47's efforts to help stop gun violence in war torn regions of Africa by removing assault rifles from circulation. Awesome. Right. That's a, they have a very, you know, it's a plan, you know, they're going in, they're trying to do something good and where they lose me is they make the pen from recycled AK 47s. AK 47s. So what you're asking someone to do is support the removal of AK 47s from the planet, specifically in Africa, by buying a pen in, that you would now hold in your hand that represents a destroyed AK 47, including the serial number of the weapon.

Myke Hurley: So here's my thinking on this. I think that that's cool, but I don't like the fact that they designed it with, so the design, I'll come back to why I think that's a cool thing in a minute. They say like it is designed to look like it's inspired by an AK 47. I think that's crazy. But the idea that it's made from them is good, right? Like the pen is to stop gun violence. So you are literally taking pens, sorry, taking guns, pen violence, taking guns and turning them into pens, right? Like I think that that is cool. My problem is that they've used gun design cues. That doesn't make any sense. That makes no sense.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So what stopped me in my tracks on this pen was the looks. Like I'm flipping through the catalog. I was like, wow, this is a really good looking cross pen. What is this? And then I read the story. I was like, okay, that's great. They're removing guns from this area in Africa. That's awful. And then I look closer at the pen. And I was like, well, it's made to represent an AK 47, which is kind of backwards. If I'm, it kind of crosses the wires there of, do I support, you know, this program by carrying a mini AK 47 pen is what it looks like to me, but it's a sweet looking pen. Yeah. I don't know. It was just the, I am having, I don't care, you know, which side of the, the ledger you're on this pen design plus the story doesn't make sense to me. Like I'm, I, it doesn't jive in my brain what they're trying to do here. Um, besides trying to do good, but I think it was, and they made a beautiful pen, but are the people who support this program going to want to carry this pen? I don't know. It was just that I had more questions than answers when I saw this pen, which I thought was just a really good looking pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's actually one of the better cross designs I've seen in a long time, to be quite honest. It's great.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Retro 51

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But the real, the real new stuff, Myke, I know what you want to talk about.

Myke Hurley: It says a new Retro 51 catalog. So this is their, I think they do every year, maybe a couple of times a year. Um.

Brad Dowdy: So their big, their big release comes this time of year, which is national stationary show time of the year in the U.S. in May. Okay.

Myke Hurley: So there is a, there's a bunch of new stuff. Um, there's some that I like, some that I'm just not interested in, but I can see why people would like them. Like, for example, they have a big shot, which looks like a Cuban cigar. And it's like, I think it looks really cool, but I would never own that one. Right. Like, that's not for me, but like, I can see why somebody might want it. Um. For me, the, the real winners are the vintage metalsmith ones. So they have, they have one which is modeled after the Statue of Liberty, which is awesome. Uh. It's acid etched and printing. Uh. It's got a antique copper finish. So the, the, the kind of copper furniture. And there's one called cursive, which is just basically celebrating handwriting. Right. Like, it's awesome. Uh, that looks really nice too. And that is, uh, that's got copper too. They're both copper. Um. Like, as the, as the, the finishings on them. So they're, I think the two standouts of the, the, the range that they've got. They've got some new, uh, colors in the Tornado fountain pens, which are great. Like, uh, they've got a peacock and orange. So it's like a blue and an orange. They look real good. Um. And then they have some of their, uh, exclusives, right? They're listing some of the exclusives that they have. And there's one. Yeah, I haven't seen them do that before. Yeah, exactly. There's one that's like real nice, which is, is it the Lassay? Uh. Yeah. Lassay Roulet. Tornado, which is from. From Scriptura?

Brad Dowdy: Scon. It's beautiful, this one.

Myke Hurley: Very nice. Yes, I don't know. Very nice.

Brad Dowdy: I've never heard of Scriptura, but I think Anna might have bought these. And it is absolutely amazing. This is super, super cool. Um. Yeah, it's, I don't think I'm going to hunt it down because I don't need it. But wow, does it look good. So I'm, I'm with you on the looks of the new pens. I love the two new metalsmiths. The cursive is awesome. It has the old school line paper with the red and blue dot dashes and lines, um, with different, uh, letters and characters. And the Statue of Liberty one, of course, is a little sell extremely well. The Big Shot Cigar. I'm on the same page as you. The other one is the Big Shot Titanium, which, you know, that old one we got. It's almost like, I don't know if it's a reissue of it. Um. If it has the same, what do you call it? Like, we had that, the titanium, you know, little logo on the back. I don't think this is exactly the same, but it, uh, it actually, yeah. It's pretty close to the same. I think it's a little bit different finish on the ones that we have that one of our listeners sent us way back in the day. Yeah. Slim tornadoes and fountain pens, you know, they're not really my thing. Um, I do have a slim tornado coming from the, uh, last series, which I like better than the solid ones. Um.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they had some interesting patterns, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But that Scriptura tornado is fantastic looking, so. And do you know what? These desk sets, they've been selling out, like, everywhere. I don't know why, but that's a, that's a real popular item. I guess just like the hand. It's a great gift, man. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: What a great gift for someone.

Brad Dowdy: Did you ever get the hand that holds the pen? Did you ever get that one?

Myke Hurley: No, I never got the hand.

Brad Dowdy: That thing was awesome.

Myke Hurley: But like those, these, these, these desk sets are great, like, they're great gifts for someone. Mm-hmm. Right, like for a boss or something.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I know I was talking to Lisa Van Ness about it, and she was like, they were essentially sold before she even got them in. Like, they can't get a lot of them, and they're just great.

Myke Hurley: I love the blue one, the turquoise one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Looks great. Yep. Um, the fountain pens still have the same section that I don't like. Hopefully one day, maybe they can do an upgrade on that, because the build, build, and style of the pen is good. Um, on those old ones I sent you, they don't have the, the new funky section. They have a more normal one, I think. But I, I'd have to go back and look at them, or get you to look at them. But, um, yeah. Good stuff, as always, by Retro 51, and it, and it never stops, which is great. That's one reason why we love them so much. They're always coming up with something new and interesting. And I think out of all of that list, I'll probably end up with the cursive one, just because it's really good looking.

Myke Hurley: Should we take a break?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, let's, because I gotta, let's take a break, because I have a lot of reading to do out loud on this next segment. Oh yeah, you need to take a breath.

Pen Chalet

Myke Hurley: You need to take a breath. Mm-hmm. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet sell amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and more from your favorite brands, like Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweka, Monteverde. All of them. All the great brands. And they're an authorized dealer as well. They have great shipping rates internationally, and offer free shipping on orders of over $50 in the US. Pen Chalet have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That is what they care about. They want to make sure that you're happy with the orders that you receive. And I've seen many people who have had questions and queries for Pen Chalet, and they've wrote to us and be like, oh, they're great. They really helped us out. We know that this is the thing that is in action for them. They sell tons of different accessories as well. They have refills. They have pen holders. Whatever you're looking for, they've got it. They're always doing great discounts and great deals, and they're very fast and reliable customer service. So go to penchalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password penaddict, and you will get access to this week's special offer and the code that you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet. Now, we have one of those offers this week that I'm not allowed to talk about. It is a fantastic pen that Pen Chalet have on offer. It's discounted in some select colors and nib sizes. Now, this is a pen that is very good to get any discount on, but you can get 30% off this pen plus the 10% coupon as well. You really need to go and look at this. It's penchalet.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password penaddict, and you will be able to take a look. There's, I think, three or four pens there, but there's one of them specifically that is the special offer this week. You should go and look at it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you should go. It's lower than I've seen anywhere ever, I think, for a pen that we recommend very highly. So you should go look at this. Hey, one of the ballpoints on here, there's a ballpoint on here. I don't know if I can say it or not, but it's pretty awesome, too. I've got this thing for ballpoint pens recently, and this one is really nice, and it's very, very, it's way under half price. So it looks good. So go to Pen Chalet this week. You will not be disappointed. I mean, you never are, but this week is even more special than usual.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, if you're listening to the show and you haven't gone yet, you should, because they might already be sold out. Thanks so much to Pen Chalet for the support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke. So I've had this email for probably like two months in my inbox, and I keep saving it in my inbox because it's great information that was passed along to me. And I want to share this information, and I actually wish I could post it somewhere. Maybe I'll see if I can repost the email on the Pen Addict because it's, I learned a lot from this post, and it's on a very simple pen. And I'm calling this the specialness of the Uniball Sino 307. So listener of the show, Adam, who lives in Japan, has been listening to the show. And I'm going to read, I think, this entire thing, and then we can talk about it. Maybe I'll stop. You can stop me if we want to talk about something in the middle. But I want to go through this whole thing because it kind of goes all together. And I'll try to clean it up a little bit because there's some jargony stuff in here. But this is about the Sino 307 or Signo 307, I should say. So Adam says the key feature to the Signo 307 line is the refill. Most Signo pens use the UMR-8 and then the character to denote their tip width refills. And some have an N on the end. But the 307 series refill has an E added on the end instead. On the Uniball Japanese website, the UMR-8 E refill is listed as compatible only with the 307, even though the shape and size of both refill types are identical to the non-E refills. So basically he's saying, we have a new refill on the 307 that's denoted with an E.

Brad Dowdy: So he says, the true gem of the 307 ink is that it uses cellulose nanofibers, which is denoted as CNF, to reduce viscosity and increase ink flow. That's why the 307 writes flawlessly. Also, since CNF is derived from plant fibers, it has the added benefit of being eco-friendly compared to other synthetic ink additives. We have links to all, like he sourced out this whole email. I have links to everything. And it just keeps getting more interesting to me. The drawback is the price. A kilogram of the nanofiber gel costs between $50 and $100. He also has a link to that. So clearly it costs more to make ink than includes CNF. This informs the design changes compared to the 207. The 207 had a metal clip and barrel. The 307 has plastic for both. I believe these are cost-cutting measures to keep the pen at a similar price point. The pen series has expanded since you wrote the review in 2015. There are .38 and .5 tips now. In Japan, the 307 has completely replaced the 207. I can't find a 207 anywhere. I hope this illuminates the specialness of the Signo 307 series. I think it is a preview of future inks. So here's why I find this interesting. Number one, when the 307 came out, everyone was raving about it. Rightfully so. But me, and I think probably everyone, thought it was the same refill as the 207, and the body style changed. But when you see big companies like Uni, Mitsubishi, or Pilot doing this level of work to upgrade their gel ink, it makes me happy. This was one of the most exciting emails I ever got, because I'm that kind of dork, right? Like, I care about this. It's important to me that stationary moves forward somehow. And this is something that no one in their right mind would ever notice, right? It's nothing I would ever notice. I would notice, oh, this writes a little bit better than the last version. They must have done something. And I would kind of leave it at that, right? But this just makes me grin from ear to ear that a company in this day and age will invest that much into technology and research to use a different type of material when making the ink to reduce viscosity and increase ink flow. Like, in a $3 pen. Like, that's a lot, that's a big investment that doesn't translate to your normal pen user, right? No one's going to care that this has all these features added into the ink. They just care that their pen writes well. But to me, it gets me excited that, oh, that's cool that they did that. What can they do next? You know, what other cool thing are they going to have? Is this ink going to go into all the different inks? And Uniball is one that stealthily adds this stuff, right? When the Jetstream added Super Ink Technology, which is their archival features a few years back, they kind of didn't announce it right up front. It was in their liquid ink pens, the Super Ink Technology, and like the Vision or the Eye. And then they put it in the Jetstream. Jetstream, that was kind of a big deal because it's a different ink formulation completely. And now just all their pens by default have this Super Ink Technology to keep the ink from getting washed out or modified or anything like that. It essentially adds permanence without being a permanent pen. I don't know. This is just something about I've wanted to share this email forever, even though like I'm the only one that probably gets excited about these things. Because I have hope in this industry and something little like this makes a big deal. Plus, I eventually want them to knock off the Pilot G2. So Pilot will change their design and change their ink, which is a decade overdue. But they're the best-selling pen in the world. So, you know, is Uniball going to be able to put a funny YouTube commercial out that says, Hey, this ink's awesome and we're better and then all of a sudden take market share? It doesn't really work like that, right? But I don't know. This gets me excited. And, you know, I need to get some of the new 307.38 to have the .5s. And so, yeah, that's just something I wanted to read and share with everyone because that's what gets me. This is what gets me up in the morning, Myke. Pen industry news.

Myke Hurley: Well, yeah, I mean, of course. This is like the people say to me, like, how can you do a weekly show about pens? And I'm like, well, because every industry has news, right? Like it's every industry. There is an industry for everything. I want to repeat some of this back to you, though, Brad, to make sure that I've understood what's going on here. So the 307 was introduced a few years ago, right, to replace the 207 effectively. Right. And when you reviewed it, it had this new ink technology in?

Brad Dowdy: I can go look at those pens that I still have and see if they have the markings because he's just saying he found this a few months ago. Okay. So now... Yeah, like a few months ago he's found that. Right. So I don't... But I don't know. Right. Was it always there and no one caught it till now? You've got to try it then. You've got to get some of these. Did they just... Well, I have the old ones. So I just need to go look at the old ones to see what kind of markings they have on the refill.

Myke Hurley: Because they've got to have the E on them, right? If they've got the E on them, then they've got this new special technology in them. Right.

Brad Dowdy: So for the show notes today, you know, my favorite Signo is the DX. What I call the DX, which is actually denoted as the UM151. Where they're coming out with a needlepoint, 0.38 millimeter that I have the early version of. And I'm using that because I wanted to look at the refill to see did it have this E on the refill indicator. And it doesn't. Right. So this is a purple pen, you know, maybe, okay, they've only solved this problem for black and red and blue so far. Is it going to propagate through other Signo lines? Is it going to propagate through the rest of the uniball lineup? I don't know. But I think it's interesting enough to pay attention to. Yeah, of course. Because that's what I do.

Myke Hurley: So the main property that they're trying to solve here, or the main property that they're adding to solve a problem, is to make sure that the ink flows evenly, right?

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. So you want just a dead black smooth line that never fails. That's the ultimate goal. So you don't want any white space or skipping.

Myke Hurley: You know how you were talking about the super ink? I guess they're doing the same, right? They're adding this to kind of test it at scale before they talk about it and then add it, I guess, to this technology, whatever it is that they're doing. Well, I mean, you've explained it, but to me, it's still like whatever that is. Like, I don't know what that is. Right. Like whatever it is that they're doing, then they'll add it to their other pens and their other lines or other refills in theory, right?

Brad Dowdy: Right. And it also, I think it's also telling that they're willing to spend, right? They're not trying to, how can we do this and do it cheaper? They're like, how can we do this better? And it's going to cost more. How can we figure out to charge the same price?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And they just reduce some things that are kind of not important, like the fact that we're with the metal. The clip on a pen that costs a couple of dollars is plastic or metal, right?

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. They're not committing to a race to the bottom. They're committing to a better writing experience, even at an added cost or maybe some blowback because of that. You know, because it's not the cheapest gel ink pen on the market. That's why Pilot beats them.

Myke Hurley: Right, because here's the thing. If you're making a pen like this, which really is intended to be mass market, you buy 20 of them, you lose 15 of them. I don't know if writing experience is the thing you should be, you know, you necessarily try and solve, right? Like if you want to increase the sales of the pen, make it look nicer, right? Like for that sort of market, that might be the best thing to do. But of course, we don't believe that. And I'm happy to see that a pen maker who makes the level of pens that they do, right, like in scale, also cares about the writing experience and not just like, how can we make this more visually appealing to sell more of them? Or like, for example, right, like why do you see the Lamy Safari in so many stores, right? Like it's a great pen, but you see it there because it looks good. And like people buy Lamy's because they're like, this looks cool. And I mean, I wouldn't say that the Uniball 307 looks very cool. It doesn't. I actually think personally, like aesthetically prefer the G2's design, which is probably why it sells so many. Because people like the way it looks, they buy it, it works great, then why would you change? So, I mean, I'm happy to see that still a company like Uni would put the effort in to the way that the ink flows as a way to try and gain some ground. I think it's a, at least for pen addicts, a good thing to do.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Because in the past, they've always been beaten by G2 in darkness. The G2 ink has always been blacker in my comparisons. Right. So now they're getting into, okay, well, we're just as dark of, you know, where the black is black ink and we're just better now. You know, it's going to write better. G2s always have been a little bit more rough writing, a little bit, you know, scratchier and things like that. But they just win in, you know, the darkness. It's like the first upgrade pen that people get, you know, when they're tired of what they're using at the office. They'll see a G2 at a grocery store. No more bits. Grab them and they're done. And it's funny, the chat room is looking at their 307s now. We already have a report in, hot off the presses from Hot Couple Loving, has the Sino 307 with a UMR87E refill. So that's the right new refill. So that's interesting. So now I need to check my old ones, which are, I guess at this point, closely, close to being three years old now, if they did that originally or not. So anyway, like this is the silly stuff that I could talk on and on about, you know, for ages, even though it's kind of not interesting. But in a big picture to me, it is.

Myke Hurley: Shh, don't say that. They'll stop listening.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, no, publicly, yeah. Like I can see, I was like, oh God, Brad's talking about $3 gel pen ink technology. Whoop-de-damn-do.

Brad Dowdy: But I think it's fun. I didn't delete this email because I wanted at some point to read it. I just had to find the right time. And today was your lucky day, Myke. You got to learn more about Uni gel ink and we're all better off for it. So tell me how I can feed my belly.

Blogging

Myke Hurley: Blue Apron. That's what you got to do. Today's show is brought to you by Blue Apron, the number one recipe delivery service with the freshest ingredients. Blue Apron's ingredients are what really make them stand out. They believe that they want to support and they do support a more sustainable food system. They set the highest standards for their ingredients, the highest standards for their suppliers to make sure that they are getting the best ingredients to put on your plate. Everything that Blue Apron sends, so all of the ingredients in all of the meals I'm going to tell you about in a moment, they all come with a freshness guarantee. Every ingredient that arrives in your Blue Apron meals arrives ready to cook. If it doesn't, they'll make it right. For less than $10 a meal, Blue Apron will deliver seasonal recipes with these incredible ingredients. They all have these great recipe cards. So it's easy, step by step. You can follow along and prepare these meals in 40 minutes or less. And all of these fresh, lovely ingredients that I've been telling you so much about, they all come pre-portioned. So you get just what you need, which is awesome. And it's all labeled up so you know which recipe includes which ingredients. Very, very cool. You can choose from a variety of recipes every week or let Blue Apron's culinary team surprise you. You can set your dietary preferences as well so they'll know what to offer and what to send. And no recipes are repeated within a year. Right now, you could cook food like crispy salmon and roasted potato salad with pickled mustard seeds and creme fraiche sauce. Or maybe even baked spinach and egg flatbread with sauteed asparagus and lemon aioli. Blue Apron delivers to 99% of the continental US and there's no weak commitment. You just get the deliveries when you want them. Check out this week's menu and get three meals for free with your first purchase, including free shipping, by going to blueapron.com slash penaddict. You're going to love how good it feels and tastes to create incredible home-cooked meals with Blue Apron. So go to blueapron.com slash penaddict and we thank them for their support of this show. And Relay FM, Blue Apron, a better way to cook.

Brad Dowdy: So Myke, if that last topic wasn't thrilling enough, let's talk about blogging. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: No, see, I could do this, right? Like I can talk about the intricacies of blogging for hours for as long as you can talk about the viscosity of gelling.

Brad Dowdy: Actually, this is a topic that I really enjoy talking about. And Paul, who writes at the Poor Penman blog, who I met out in LA, he had a sweet Fallout hoodie on, so I knew he was a good dude right then. And, you know, he sent me an email a few weeks ago just wanting to talk, you know, about blogging and stuff because he's been doing it for a little while now.

Myke Hurley: Can I start off here, Brad, by giving some advice to Lovely Paul? Yeah. What do you think my advice is going to be?

Brad Dowdy: Get off the WordPress domain.

Myke Hurley: Get off the WordPress domain. You have a, you know, I don't know if your domain is available, but you need a domain. You need a domain that you can just say without dots in it other than .com or .co, right? You should be having, if it's available, the poorpenman.com. That's what you should have. No .wordpress, no .squarespace, no .tumblr. Get a domain name.

Review Process

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So let's get into his question and then I think we'll have a lot to say about, you know, the topics that he brings up. So he said, this feels like an Ask TPA thing, but I have a question for you about the business of blogging. To preface, I don't want to become the sort of blog that subsides completely on free or review sample products from manufacturers, but my budget-minded blog is somewhat self-limiting as I cannot afford to buy all the hot new products in the pen and stationery world. Whatever I spend my money on has to be worth it. So here's the questions. In your experience, what are vendors, manufacturers looking for in bloggers or reviewers when it comes to requesting stuff to write up? Is there a minimum average viewership I should shoot for? Let's stop there. He has a bonus question, which is completely separate from this. So do you want to go into this? Do you want me to start?

Myke Hurley: Well, okay. So, like, I mean, I don't do this, right? But, like, I have some level of experience with it. So I'll just say straight up that, like, I get lots of offers from companies to take their products and talk about them. And I never do it on the podcasts. I just never do it. With the YouTube stuff, like, I'm more inclined to do that because it's just me. Well, the reason I don't do it on the shows is because we take sponsorships. And I like to keep the sponsored content, right? Not sponsored content. The sponsored sections, I should say. And the actual regular topics content of the show separate. So I don't take free things to review, right? Like, it's not something that I do. I don't think I've ever done that for the show. Like, people send me gifts and I might talk about them. But there is never discussion of review. That's for all of my shows. And I would say, right, like, oh, someone sent me this thing. But I never take reviews for products. Just because I don't want to and I don't need to. Now, and that's because I don't have a podcast about reviewing things. If I had a technology product review show, that would be different, right? Right. You know, I mean, and sometimes people might send me codes for apps, but it's never something that I wouldn't have reviewed in the first place. Right? Like, I don't do this stuff because I don't have this defined review world. Now, if the Pen Addict podcast was a pen review show, then that's a different story. And the reason, I mean, because the reason that I don't take these products, it's not a moral thing. I just don't do it because I don't want to mix stuff up. But if my show was focused completely around talking about a new pen every single week, I haven't got enough money to do that myself. Right. Right. Like, I would have to take the review content. Right. Which is why I understand why thepenaddict.com does. Right. Because where else are these pens going to come from? Right. That's a really long way around to saying that. Like, I don't have a problem with it as long as it's clear. But I just wanted to, like, set my focus here on the fact that I just don't get involved in this for the shows because it feels like a bit of a mess. It is a mess no matter whatever it is. Right. It's always a mess. So if I can avoid it, I do.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And, you know, I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum in that I run a review blog. But at the same time, I'm also glad to have the pen addict because I can keep the pen addict podcast because I can keep the blog more reviews based. And I do get gobs of free stuff. And that's, you know, just built up over time. That's a long, long process that it came to be, you know, in the past two or three years running completely differently. So to kind of get into the questions. So Paul doesn't want to subside on free stuff from manufacturers, but also doesn't have the money to buy everything. And I guess he's, I guess to put words in his mouth, to keep the blog fresh. Right. So he wants to keep the blog fresh. So how does he get there? And that's kind of the hardest thing because there's no quick solution to that in my mind. You know, it's a matter of putting in the time, putting in the content, working on the exposure, you know, getting things out there publicly, being active on social media. And it kind of just all works. And then your links start bouncing around when you write something good, you know, among people on Twitter. And you start getting mentions and comments in other places. And then, you know, vendors might see you and, you know, want to send you some things or you can reach out and say, hey, this is what I do. And, you know, I've gotten some good response on these types of reviews. Would you be interested? And I see that you carry these types of pens. Would you be interesting in sending me a few products that I can write about? Now, the gotcha with that that you have to be very careful on, which I'm always careful on, is I never promised anyone anything, right? That goes from when I'm going to do a review, what I'm going to write about. Is it, you know, am I going to guarantee someone a positive review? Clearly no. So, you know, I just had a review on Monday where I received a very expensive notebook and I pretty much didn't like it. And I said that in the review. So, you have to commit to those types of things. And you can't worry about, okay, if I'm getting products for free, you can't worry about where the next free product is going to come from because of what I say and let it bias your review. You can't be always positive. Because you're done at that point. You're over. You're done. Yeah. And most people realize that. I mean, the pen industry has been very good about understanding where bloggers play in the whole, you know, arena of what we do, of stationary online. And I have never had anyone ask me, you know, make sure you say something nice or don't knock it or don't anything. I mean, you know, we did a big Aurora review. Susan did a big Aurora flex review. And pretty much, you know, she didn't kill the pen, but she was like, basically like, I don't get it and I don't see that it's worth the money. And, you know, I took a bunch of heat from that.

Myke Hurley: I think that was a really good example of the way that, I mean, okay, we're not trying to toot your horn here, but I'm going to for a minute. Mm-hmm. But it wasn't toned down.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: So I think that was a good example, like to show that really it is important to keep the honesty, right?

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah, you have to. Like, Susan was actually worried about it. She would email, she emailed me at least twice while she was doing the review and while she was using the pen. And, you know, she was worried about it being too negative. And I said, look, I said, are you being honest? And she said, yes. I said, then I don't care what you say. And that's it. Like, there was no discussion for me about it. I didn't change a single letter in her review. I just want to know, are you giving me your honest opinion on what you think about this pen? Yes. Then we're done. Like, there's nothing else. But, you know, I'm also in a different place than Paul is because he's trying to get started. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Like, this is the problem with saying this about Brad Dowdy. Right.

Brad Dowdy: My experience is super different than anyone else's.

Myke Hurley: Like, you can trash a company and they'll send you their next pen.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: But that's not going to be how it is for other people. But you just need to understand that when you're going in, right? Okay, so let's say you get a pen and you hate it. Well, you've got to write the review. You've got to say you don't like it. And you can keep working until the next company comes. And then hopefully that next company sends you a good product. Right. There is a real, like, I remember. So, example of this for me. There was a time many years ago where I was starting a blog where I wanted to do technology reviews. And then eventually it would become a podcast as well when it's like time together. And I wanted a Samsung Galaxy Note to review. So, I went through all the hoops and I spoke to a PR representative of Samsung. And they're like, we will send you one. But first, we're going to send you a Chromebook. I said, okay. So, they sent me this Chromebook and I hated absolutely everything about it. And I said that. My review was about how bad this product was. Like, that was the angle. It was just like, this sucks. And I never heard anything back from them again.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, I think the takeaway is if you're worried about losing a vendor, vendor access for future product reviews, that's not a vendor you want to work with in the first place. Right. You don't want to continue down that path of sacrificing your beliefs to keep access to products. Right.

Myke Hurley: Are you going to feel happy? That way.

Brad Dowdy: You know? Like, is that going to make you feel happy? I don't think so. It makes you feel gross. Right. I mean, so, that's why it's never phased me. If someone doesn't want to work with me anymore because I gave an honest opinion about a product and they didn't like it, I mean, that's just the way it is. There's a lot more products out there. Right. You know, there's a lot of things. So, I don't know if we're helping Paul or not. I hope we are a little bit. But, you know, Paul, you've set the blog up to cover a very specific thing. So, you just need to focus on that very specific thing repeatedly and let your personality come out in the post. Be specific about your likes and dislikes. Have an opinion at the end of the post. Not every product's great. Not every product's terrible. It's hard. It's kind of hard to review those products in the middle. Right. Those are the tough ones to review. That have a good list of pros and cons. But lay it all out there. Be clear in what you're doing.

Brad Dowdy: You know, share those things online. You know, talk to other people. You know, on Twitter. And, you know, spread the word about it. But just, I mean, y'all have heard me say it a thousand times. But you've got to be able to sleep at night with your decisions. And that's the way I look at it. You know, am I doing something that I'm not comfortable with? And you've got to say no a lot. And that's okay to say no. So, you know, be honest. Be truthful. Have an opinion. Those are kind of my top things that, you know, I look for when I read other reviews. Are they, do I feel they're giving me their honest opinion about the pen? And do they, do they actually have an opinion? Or are they just playing it safe? You know, I'm not saying be overly aggressive one way or the other. But you can tell when someone's playing it safe. And sometimes there are products where, well, it's just kind of in the middle. So, does it come out looking like, well, I just played this safe? Yeah, I guess so. But you really kind of need to take a stand, I think, on products. At least, at least for me. That's what I've always believed. But, you know, have an opinion and make sure that opinion shows in your writing.

Brad Dowdy: Anything else on that before I get to the second part of his question?

Myke Hurley: No, I think we've said what we want to say. Whether it's helpful or not is, I don't know. Right. Right.

Blogging Advice

Brad Dowdy: So, when I was thinking about his question, I went to my notebook and I wrote down everything about starting a blog. Like, that's another half an hour worth of conversation. You know, that's not the question that he asked. But I ended up writing, like, basically from the beginning. Like, this whole, you know, hierarchy outline in my notebook. So, maybe I'll work on fleshing that out a little bit more and do a post on the blog or something like that. Because it gets asked a lot from time to time. And I love seeing new writers in the space. And anything I can do to help and support them is one of my goals. Like, and this goes along with his next question. So, let me read this a little bit. So, bonus question. Where or how do you find and select your guest reviewers for the Pen Addict blog? What does it take to get on that short list? So, anytime I've had an opening for help, I've posted it either on the blog or in Slack. And I've been lucky. Just this morning, Jeff realized that he's been writing for me for four years. Every week for four years, which is pretty amazing. I didn't go back and look at Susan's history, but it's got to be in the two to three year range. So, I've never really needed anyone. Up until recently, I was getting busy. Then I put out a call on Slack because I knew a lot of the people in the Slack. Like, I could tell, you know, what type of person there are from how they interact in Slack. So, I put out the call in the Slack room and lucked out into Sarah. Like, when I read her email wanting the job, I knew immediately. Like, that's the one. So, I'm good as far as regular reviewers. But guest reviewers is a different thing. I'm open to anyone that wants to guest review anything at any time. You know, I don't put that call out just because it takes up a lot of time to work with a guest reviewer. Like, I have a workflow with the writers for The Pen Addict. Guest reviewers, I'm open if you want to send something to me, an idea, a pitch idea, just for any kind of basic review. I'm wide open. And I love to shine the light on anyone and everyone in this community. Like, I don't do this for me. You know, it's a weird thing to say because I obviously do do it to make a living. You know, I do it to put food on my table. It is my job. But my job also includes shining the light on the community as a whole. You know, I'm a big believer in the rising tide raises all ships. I want the spotlight shined on anyone who wants it. And I am glad to share, reblog, tweet, you know, regram anything that anyone wants. You know, if, you know, I think it will help. And I would love to help anyone who's getting started with you having you on to do a guest post so we can get like a big traffic bump over to your site. I mean, it happens. You know, my site's large enough to where if you post an article, you're going to see some traffic increase. And I love doing that. I mean, I will spread the word about anyone who wants to. So there is no guest review process for having a post on The Pen Addict. Send me an email. Tell me what you want to talk about. And we'll decide if it's good.

Brad Dowdy: You know, there is a certain level of, you know, quality it has to be. And it's pretty much you have to, you know. But it's a low bar to cross. But I have unfortunately had to turn some people down because I don't have a lot of editing time. I've had to turn people down because they can't take a picture or things like that. And it just doesn't work. When it becomes too much work for me, it's not going to work out.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. Anyone is welcome to submit a guest post inquiry. I don't have an official process for that. But I am happy to have anyone at any time. You could do something, you know, regularly. Once or, you know, every few months. You're welcome to throw something out. And I'd be happy to share. So my inbox is open. As are my DMs. So you can slide into my DMs, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Anytime you want, big boy. All right. I think that's the end of this week's episode.

Brad Dowdy: Are you saying you're tired of hearing me ramble? No, I'm not.

Myke Hurley: I feel like we've done all we can. Okay. You know, I don't know what more we can give in the way of advice, I think, for that.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. Well, I'm happy to help anytime. Just like Paul, you know, I could have written this all in an email. But I felt it was better to say it on the show.

Myke Hurley: Because it gets a wide audience. There are definitely other people listening to this show who are thinking about this, right?

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. That's why I ended up writing all these notes about blogging in general. So, yeah. Absolutely.

Myke Hurley: So you can find us online over at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 258. That's where you'll find the show notes for this week's episode. Don't forget about the wiki. Stationary.wiki. Go and fill it out. It's filling up more and more and more. Please, please, please continue to do what you do in that wiki. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Big gains in the wiki. I know Phil's in the chat room today. He's a big help with the wiki. He's just added the RSVP podcast in there. That's a new podcast that you should all go listen to and support D and Lenore and Les as they build up, trying to build up a new podcast. And they're doing a great job so far. So, yeah. All kinds of things are going on in the wiki right now.

Myke Hurley: And all I can do is just please ask if someone can try and fix the numbering. I think I might have a potential solution.

Brad Dowdy: I think Matthias was looking at it. I can't remember the solution. I haven't followed it in the past week.

Myke Hurley: A potential solution could be to number all of the episodes of zero something something. Sure. That might do it, right? So if someone wants to do that, that could be a way to try and do it. Stationary.wiki. There's so much great stuff going on in there. So thank you to everyone that's doing that. And also, don't forget, we have a subreddit that you can go to. Reddit.com slash r slash penaddict to find that. You can find Brad's work at penaddict.com. He is dowdyism on Twitter. Penaddict on Instagram. I am imike. I am Y-K-E. Don't forget to go to knock.co to buy some amazing goods as well. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.