The Pen Addict 265/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	265
Title:	I Know It All And I Can't Tell You
Release Date:	July 12th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 265
Audio File:	Audio Episode 265
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 265
Length:	5656 min <br />0.933 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 265. Today's show is brought to you by our friends at Squarespace and Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley. I am joined by Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: I have a confession to make, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Uh-oh.

Art Supply Posse Podcast

Brad Dowdy: I feel really bad. I cheated on you last night. Again? I recorded a stationery podcast with someone else. I can't believe this. I'm sorry.

Myke Hurley: I will once again look away at this.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, but I was on the Art Supply Posse last night with our good friends Kathy and Heather, and we had a good time. And it was an awesome show. I don't know when it's going to come out, but hopefully soon. But we had a great conversation, and they are always fun to talk to. And I know you will forgive me because they are quite awesome.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, if there's one podcast that I will forgive you for, it's this one. The pencil one, I will never forgive you.

Brad Dowdy: I like going on that show, too. They're always fun.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. It was fun. So, it will be out soon. It was episode number 48 of the Art Supply Posse. Awesome. And look for that in your podcatcher of choice.

Myke Hurley: Go subscribe. I put links in the show notes. Go subscribe.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, yes. So, it looks like it will be out tomorrow. So, you will have plenty to listen to between this show and that one. Or you will be sick of me, you know, whichever you choose. So, this week, we had lots of new items show up in my Twitter feed, mostly.

Brad Dowdy: The first one that caught my eye was the new Pilot Vanishing Point. I know you're not a big Vanishing Point guy from a use perspective, but you generally, aesthetically, like the pens, right? Oh, I love them. And you do follow the limited editions and kind of ooh and ah like the rest of us do.

Myke Hurley: Some of the most, you know, beautiful limited editions that exist, right, at Vanishing Points. They're just absolutely stunning pens. And it comes from the fact that they're so beautiful anyway, right?

Brad Dowdy: Right, exactly. So, they have this unique style and they're very sleek in the way they're built. But just, they have a lot of room to play with on the barrel to do cool things. And this one coming out this year is called Crimson Sunrise. And it's kind of, I don't know if it's supposed to be related to the, like the purple and blue one they did two years ago. Yeah. That looks so beautiful, kind of that faded. What's the word for that when you do that?

Myke Hurley: I want to say pearlescent, but I don't know if that's correct.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's like the way the colors vary. In there. So, yeah. So, it was called the Twilight. So, this one's called the Crimson Sunrise. So, it's kind of, they got that red gradient, I think is the word I'm looking for. It's got a red gradient. Oh, I see what you're saying. Okay. In the barrel. And it has silver furniture. So, of course, I like that. And I think it looks fantastic. Like, this isn't something like I'm jumping through the screen trying to buy and make sure that I get, but they will sell the heck out of it. I mean, it'll definitely sell out just like any other one. It looks fantastic. I just, I think I've got like four or five vanishing points. And it's going to take really something insane for me to pull the trigger on a new one. But that doesn't mean this thing doesn't look awesome. And I'll probably get one to review. And I'll see if I can get one to review and maybe give away. So, that would be nice. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I will say, like, I know what you mean. Like, I don't really have a desire to own another one of these, but the right special edition could push me. You know, like, every time I see one of the Raden ones, you know, I'm just torn. It's just so torn to want to get one. Because they are, they're just so special looking. They really, really are special looking pens. So, I don't get it.

Brad Dowdy: I bought the Giyosh one last year, which I thought was a stunner. But I still use my Stormtrooper one the most out of any of the ones that I own. And, like, the bamboo ones I thought were gorgeous. You know, they had black bamboo and cherry wood colors. Those were beautiful. I didn't buy that one. I didn't buy the Twilight. But it's going to take a lot for me to buy another vanishing point. Because I think I have the Stormtrooper. I have the Gunmetal. I have one of the orange limited edition. I have a black faceted one. And I have a Giyosh one. So, yeah. That's five right there. Yeah, you're okay. I don't need some Crimson Sunrise. Yeah, I do need to go through the chat room saying I should sell some. I do need to go through a purge here. I don't think I might have time before DC. But depending on what I come home with from DC, there might be a post-show purge. Because it's already been quite a year of pin purchases so far. So, I keep saying I'm going to do a purge and sell another five or ten pens to fund some purchases. So, that may be coming up soon. But it's not high on my radar just yet. Another pin that might make me do it is the Aurora Minerale. We've talked about this before. But now they finally have all the official release stuff out. Like we had kind of the preview release stuff before. But now the colors are out. The prices are out. And I want to give a special shout out to Calligraphy Nut on Twitter. Who seems to be posting all the links that I'm retweeting. So, thank you for being awesome and following all this news stuff. But the Minerale. It's a model 88. And it's going to come in five colors. Blue, green, amber, red, and purple. And, you know, it's a demonstrator 88. Like they have the demonstrator Optima. And colored finials to match different minerals. And limited editions of 388. So, I think this is a cool pin. I actually have one sitting on my desk right now. I got the one I was able to take pictures of in Chicago. Has made its way back around to me for review purposes. So, I'll have a review coming soon. It's an amazing pin. I probably won't buy one. Just because it's so expensive. Again, it's like the vanishing point. I have an Optima demonstrator. And I have an 88 Nebulosa. Do I need an 88 demonstrator as cool as they look? Especially for over $700. I think the price is... I'm actually surprised that the price is more than the Flex nib ones.

Myke Hurley: I forget every time how much the Aurora pens cost. And so, like, I open that link and I see the picture from Calligraphy Nut. And I'm like, I like these. Maybe this will be my first Aurora. And then I went to... Then I, like, Googled it while we were talking. Found it on nibs.com. Saw the price before you mentioned it. $715. Right. And I'm like, no, I don't think it will be. I just... I mean, okay. So, I've never used one. So, maybe I should actually use one. But I just... You know, that's a lot of money to spend on a pen like this. For me, I feel like they look like they... You know, they look really good. They look really nice. Mm-hmm. But they just don't have the look of a $700 pen to me. Like, it just doesn't look like that. Like, they don't have enough. Now, the Nebulosa one, right? That is like... That's a $700 pen right there. Right? Right. And it kind of shocks me that this... That the Nebulosa and the Mineralia are the same price. Yeah. That doesn't seem right to me.

Brad Dowdy: This one feels a little money grabby to me.

Myke Hurley: Because it's just like, oh, we're making a certain amount of them. And I get limited editions, but they don't... Clear with a little bit of color on it is not enough for me to want to drop real serious money. Like... Right. Like, three quarters of a Nakaya kind of money, right? Like... Right, right. You're really asking a lot for me at that price range.

Brad Dowdy: Like, I will tell you, my review will be super positive about the pen itself. Like, it's an awesome pen. But there's no way I would recommend this over just the regular Aurora demonstrator. I mean, the Optima demonstrator, which is... I think I paid under $500 for mine, which is still expensive. Or, you know, you could get the big Sailor Pro Gear demonstrators for half of that. So...

Myke Hurley: I mean, is it really twice... Is it twice as good as a Sailor? Right. Like, really? I don't know. You'll have to tell me, Brad, because I have no frame of reference.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, like, I love the pen. I don't love the price. I definitely don't see the value in this pen. I would recommend getting an Optima demonstrator for... And save $200 or $300, even though you can't get green or purple. But, you know, this is one of those that's really hard to review. Because the pen is essentially perfect, in my mind. Except the price is not.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, it's hard to even write about that. Because the review ends up going in all these different paths that are kind of conflicting, right? Well, how can you say it's so good, except the price is so bad? You know, it's a hard thing to do. So, I do look forward to it. And, I mean, again, just like the Flex nibs, they'll sell every single one of these. Like, they'll have no issue selling these. And I like this better than the Flex nib. But I just don't see the value there at all.

Canalea Pens

Brad Dowdy: So, the next one, Myke. This is another one. This is another one where the value question comes up. Not going to lie. The Canalea pens. And, you know, people were wondering, why should I pay $400 for a pen with a steel nib? And this is one that when you get it in hand and see it in person, you're like, okay, I get it. It may not be for me. It may not be. It may be too expensive. But, okay, I understand now.

Myke Hurley: Right, but this is like what I'm arguing towards, right? Like, when I talk about, like, what makes a pen that costs so much money, you know, like, what makes it. And something for me is, like, a clear craftsmanship to it that of something that looks difficult and intricate. Like, that, to me, screams price. Like, a clear barrel doesn't do that. And that's just my personal tastes, right?

Brad Dowdy: Well, it's not that. It's the clear barrel and the colored finials, which, to me, and this is completely speculation on my part. And I guarantee I'm probably wrong and I'll probably get yelled at. But the finials, to me, on the Aurora seem like scrap. Those are like the scrap parts from making Nebulosas and Rosas and Soleys and, you know, which I'm sure is not true. They had to make so many of them that they had to, I'm sure they had full rod stock.

Myke Hurley: But it's not about what it is. Yeah, it's about what it looks like. Because that's what everything is at the end of the day, right? Like, there doesn't seem to be a lot of intricate, incredible work being done. It just doesn't look that way. And I'm sure that every pen is hard to make if it's good. But as you say, like, you look at something like a Canalea pen and you're like, something special has happened to make this pen exist. Because they're so incredible looking.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So they are launching a new pen. They've sent out their teaser images, which are kind of cloudy and gray and look like a sun kind of scene in the background. And I'm beating around the bush because I know it all and I can't tell you.

Myke Hurley: I knew you were going to do this to me. Have you seen it?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Do you have it? No, no, no, no. I have the pre-release picture. So next week we'll be able to talk about it a little bit more. This is serious hype for me. Next week.

Myke Hurley: Right? Like, I'm not even kidding. Like, this is... Canalea may be... Well, they definitely are. But, like, they're my favorite new company. Like, at the last year. Just on, like... Well, one, Hugh and Carol are just, like, the nicest people on the planet. Right? Right. But, like, just the product that they are putting out... As you said, I've said it every time I talk about this company, I say it. Like, I've just never seen stuff like this. And it's working. It's, like, them and their ideas and their marketing and their foresight working with someone with the talent of Jonathan Brooks. Like, it is a deadly combination. And I can't wait to see whatever they consider a new model to be now. Right? Because their quality is so good. And the designs are so interesting. I can only imagine. This is exciting. This is exciting.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so we'll table this one for next week's show. And then I'll be able to talk about it more. I know. They're just... They're getting it ready for DC. So... Oh, yeah. I have no doubt about that. It's going to be the launch for that. And they're going to spill the beans next week. So, just... This is the lead up. Just know that your hype is warranted.

Myke Hurley: Ladies and gentlemen, charge your wallets.

$3 Pen

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah. So, after the... All these limited editions and all these expensive pens, the thing that got me the most excited last week was a $3 pen, Myke. And I just did a review within the past month about the new Uniball Signo needle, the DX. You know, 0.38 millimeter DX. We spoke about it a week or two ago, didn't we? Yeah. The best gel pen ever in my book. And part of my review was based around, why can't we have these in other parts of the world? Why are they only on the store shelves in Japan? Or we have to buy them from importers like JetPens, which we're obviously all happy to do. The price is great. It's not a big deal. But not everyone shops online. And not everyone gets to discover wonderful stationery in their local stores. And I'm talking big box retailers. So, friend of the show, Jacqueline from Inkpothesis, sent me a tweet. And it says, Staples is stepping up their game in Indiana. And it is an eight pack of the Uniball Signo DX in 0.38 millimeter ultra micro in kind of a rainbow pack. And they did it. Like, this is what I've been asking for for the longest time. And I just mentioned it a week or two ago. And here they are. So, I hope this is a sign of things to come. I hope it's not a local thing. I think Sanford, I'll have to look up. Is it Sanford or Newer Rubbermaid? All that is up in the Indiana, Illinois area. So, I don't know if this is like a location thing. Because they would have been close to them and got them first. But she got them at Staples. I went to a Walmart here. They didn't have them yet. But they do have these new white Uniball packages there. But I didn't see any of the DXs yet. But this is just fantastic news. I'm glad that these are now available. I don't know what they cost. I mean, this eight pack has probably got to be like 15 bucks. It's not going to be cheap. But that's still better than, you know, just buying one-offs. It's, I'm, you were hyped about the Canalea thing. I'm pretty hyped about this, Myke. I'm not going to lie.

Myke Hurley: I think these two things are our warehouses completely, aren't they? Yeah. Right? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Like, this is, these are the things, like, I've always wanted. I always want the best stationery available to more people. So they can discover more things and say, oh, this is different than what I've been using. And it's awesome. So, you know, I love seeing the one pin that I've praised the most in all my time blogging. You can actually get it at a physical big box retailer now. Yeah. Because it should. You should be able to. I don't know what's kept Uniball, you know, so, so long from doing this. But I'm very, very glad to see it. And I'm going to see if I can hunt some down myself.

Myke Hurley: Well, you have to buy loads of them so that I keep doing it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. When I first saw the, when I first saw the Pilot High Tech C come to the stores as the G Tech C, they sold them in a blue, black, green, red four pack. I'd buy like three of them. Just so I was like, I told myself, I'm going to buy these so that they see that they're being sold. I seriously did that in my head. I said, I'm going to buy a bunch of these so they get marked as being sold in their inventory and they see that people want these pins. It didn't really help. They eventually vanished and I haven't seen them in a while. But I hope, I hope this one is successful for Uniball and it looks like the exact pin. Like sometimes there's differences, but just from an exterior perspective, it looks identical to what I would have hoped had would come over here. So this is really good.

Myke Hurley: All right. This week's episode is brought to you in part by our friends at Squarespace. Use the offer code INK at checkout and you'll get 10% off your first purchase. Squarespace lets you easily create that website that you have for your next idea or project. You can make your next move with Squarespace. They have the ability for you to grab a great domain name and take advantage of beautiful award-winning templates to make your website jump out of the screen to your visitors. Maybe you want to create an online store, a portfolio, maybe even a blog. No matter what it is, Squarespace is the all-in-one platform that will let you take care of it. There's nothing to install, no patches to worry about, no upgrades needed. You don't have to worry about any of that stuff. Squarespace have got you covered. They have award-winning customer support that can help you with whatever you need. I mentioned that twice because it is so awesome. It's great for you if you need the help, but it's also great if you're trying to set up a site for somebody else. All right. This is a great thing you can do with Squarespace. Maybe you know how to build a website. You just don't need one. But there is like a local group or a community activity or something, and these people need to get a website set up. You can help them get off the ground. And then after that, Squarespace's support team is there for anything else they need. This is a super selling point. Considering plans start at just $12 a month, Squarespace is a fantastic deal. You can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required just by going to squarespace.com. Then use the offer code INK at checkout to get 10% of your first purchase and show your support for The Pen Addict. We thank Squarespace for the continued support of this show, Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

Brad Dowdy: I noticed they just released some new templates for the summer. I haven't updated my blog style in years because I don't need to because I like the way it looks and the way it reads. But I always do like checking out the new templates, see if there's something I need to integrate there. So I'll have to go play around with that a little bit more. I got that email yesterday or the day before, something like that. But always happy with Squarespace. And I did some reviews on my Squarespace site, Myke called The Pen Addict, at penaddict.com or thepenaddict.com. Which you have gloriously stopped bugging me about after I finally bought it.

Myke Hurley: Well, I think I only helped you.

Brad Dowdy: So I did a few reviews and I like how you like to talk about these products now. Because I can usually pull, you can usually pull some more things out of me that I can't get in the type written word. And like this Life Noble mini ring notebook, which is just an amazing little notebook.

Brad Dowdy: And it's kind of like the Aurora Minerale. Like I like everything about it, but I don't really need it. It's a little bit too small. I don't like the format when it's that small to have side spiral binding. Like I love two ring binding, but I like it top bound on a small notebook or side bound on a large notebook.

Myke Hurley: So what are we talking like field note size with a O ring?

Brad Dowdy: It's smaller.

Myke Hurley: A little smaller than field notes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, just a little bit. I think it's five inches by three and a fraction. So it's beautiful. It works well. The paper's too creamy ivory color for me. I'd like it to be a little bit more white. And it's not great for the pocket with the spiral going vertically down the spine. I definitely like on something I'm going to put in a pocket to have the ring binding top bound. You know, like you can get those little smaller notebooks that are top bound, ring bound, which I think are better. But you're not going to get better paper than this, you know, as long as you don't mind the ivory. But I tend to use everything but like black and blue ink for the most part. So you can't see like the bright blues and the bright greens just don't show up as well on the cream colored paper. So, you know, it's a cool product, beautiful product. I'm glad I have one, but I don't really need any more than that. And that's what I tried to express in the review. Like, it's really great. But here's the things you need to consider. And especially the price. Like, just on a one-off, if you see it's like $5, you think no big deal. But compared to other things, it's really kind of expensive. But all of life's products are expensive. And that's to be... I don't want to say that's the way it should be. But it's kind of a given seeing that they're imported from Japan and they're just expensive.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they're very attractive. I just don't think I would enjoy a spiral bound or a ring in a format that small. I just don't think that would work very well for me personally.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. It's great for little notes to rip out and give to someone. But I just can't carry that small with the ring bound. So the other paper product we reviewed recently, Susan reviewed the Goulet notebooks with the Tomoe River paper in them. These are really great. This is a big deal. Yeah, a lot of companies have started to do this. Jetpens has been making pocket-sized ones for a while, having them made for them. Goulet's are having these in all kinds of formats. That's what surprised me the most about this notebook, is it comes... They do a lot of different shapes and formats. So it's really cool to see these starting to become a thing now. And getting them printed and made up and, you know, self-branded and things like that. But I really like the...

Brad Dowdy: Having A5 sizes, having traveler's notebook sizes, having smaller sizes. And you can also... I don't know if the Goulet's have them. Yeah, they do. And they also have the two different weights of the Tomoe paper. So there's 52 GSM and then the thicker 68 GSM. So, you know, this is a very cool product, something we always love. I know a lot of us are waiting for our Hippo Noto notebooks. Yep. Which are the big, big honking notebooks, which I can't wait for. I have two of those coming.

Brad Dowdy: And... Like you said in the show notes, no-brainer. It just is. It's a fun paper to have. Is it the most absolute functional paper you can use on a daily basis? No. Is it one of the coolest papers you can own and use regularly? Yes. So there's kind of a difference there.

Myke Hurley: Like this is something that, you know, if you're buying something at Goulet, you should be adding this to your cart if you don't already own one. Like they've got them at such great prices. Like you can get... They start at like $6 for the smaller ones, the pocket size, and they're like $9 for an A5. Like... Right. You should be adding one of these because if you've never used some of my paper, this is a no-brainer. Right. Right. Really awesome. I'm pleased to see that they're doing this.

Aurora Duo Card

Brad Dowdy: So what do you think about the Aurora Duo card that I reviewed last week and I'm giving away this week? Actually, I have still time to get in on the giveaway. Sorry there was a typo in the ending date, but the little application shows the correct ending date of this Saturday. But I'm giving away an Aurora Duo card. I reviewed the black and silver model with a medium nib. And what is your take on this pen before I continue?

Myke Hurley: So the first time I was reading it, I thought that you'd bought a vintage pen. And it's not that, right? Mm-mm. So this is a pen that they still make now, but it was first made in the 50s and it keeps the design?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, it's not even a still make. It's a brand new remake, if you will. Right. This isn't something that they've always carried. They just did it. They actually, the story, and you can check out Matt's review at Penhabit to get the full story or on one of the Aurora pages, but they had an Italian company come to them wanting to make some pens, do something special for their employees for some anniversary. So they basically pulled this one out of the archive and made them, you know, a huge run of these Duo cards to give to their employees. Well, then they decided that, you know, this came out pretty well.

Brad Dowdy: So they offered it up for sale as like a normal product item. So that's kind of how it came out. But it was a popular item for them back in the 50s. One of the first cartridge pens, I believe.

Myke Hurley: The name comes from the fact that it holds two cartridges in a barrel. I assume that's for storage purposes.

Brad Dowdy: So the original pen, and you can go hunt down some pictures. I didn't link any in my post, had like a metal sleeve inside the barrel and just picture like two international cartridges, which you'll see some pen vendors do these days, you know, just more for storage reasons. You would have these two cartridges, one engaged, and then one in the back of this little metal container in one of the vintage pens. And that's where the name Duo Cart came from because it was kind of a big deal at the time. Nowadays, it's a non-deal. And it doesn't, the new pen doesn't come with, you know, that metal insert to hold the two small cartridges. It just comes with cartridge or converter. It holds international cartridge size or international converter. So I just use the converter that comes with it. That makes it better for me. But the Duo Cart is the original name of the pen when it first came out. And it's clear what they did, right? I mean, it's identical to the Parker 51 for the most part. There's a few small changes, but when I put it next to my 51, it's really hard to tell the difference, isn't it?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah, they're very, very, very similar looking. Like it really does have, I mean, because when I first saw the review, like I literally just thought that this was like a new old stock kind of deal. Like I was wondering, why did you choose to review this vintage pen?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. They did do some of them actually with the original boxes from like the 50s. They found some. Mine did not come with that box, but some of them came with the very original box. I wonder if it's just the Burgundy model. For some reason, the Burgundy model wins 20 more dollars than the one that I reviewed. And that gets into the kicker, right? What do you feel about the price? They're about $150, 155. I think there's definitely some pushback there, right? Understandable.

Myke Hurley: Okay, so what I like about this pen, if you like vintage looks, it's great because it's modern manufacturing for vintage looks. Like if you buy vintage pens because you like the look of vintage pens, this is a perfect pen for you because it looks old, but it's made new, right? And it's going to be warrantied and all that sort of stuff. So big thumbs up. I don't like, I don't particularly like the look personally. I do like the hooded nib thing. Like that is nice, but there isn't really enough going on here that would make me want to spend $150 on it, honestly.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so this is probably never going to be someone's first pen, right? If you're going to ask me to pick a pen in this price range, this one's not going to make the list. You know, you're going to get Lamy 2000 and Pilot 92s and all kinds of other things around this price range. But as a fun throwback pen, and you've always wanted a Parker 51, but never wanted to commit to buying something you don't know that's going to work for sure, this is an option. I think I would like this pen, and there was two things that kind of held me back from even, from maybe buying my own. One, the cap is more of a slip cap and it doesn't like snap on or have this firmness when it's on the barrel. And I noticed Matt had the same issue with his. Like it's completely fine sitting on a desk, but if I put it in my pocket, I'd be worried. And that's what I think this pen is. I think it's a great pocket pen. And I would also have to get the nib modified because it only comes in medium. Now the Aurora's nibs are fantastic and this one is a wonderful steel medium nib, but that's not for me. I'd want, if I could get like a tight fitting cap and an extra fine nib in this pen, this pen, I think I would like carry in my pocket on a daily basis. Like it's, it's that style of pen. I really, really enjoy it. But yeah, I can see the hesitancy, but I think they'll do well with this pen. And it's got a really good aesthetic. And yeah, you know, the, the price is not, I don't think the price is outrageous. I mean, it just kind of is what it is.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. 150 is not, not crazy, crazy. I'm just wondering like how it would compare to other pens in that price range.

Carondash Pen

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You know, well, it doesn't, it honestly, it doesn't. Okay. You know, there's, but I mean, you know, there's a lot of pilot, a lot of the Japanese pens you can get, or German pens you can get with gold nibs in that price range. I mean, you just can. And you know, that's going to make a lot of people's buying decision. That's why I say this is not your first or second pen in that price range. This is something extra.

Myke Hurley: All right. So what else do we have on the, on the dock today?

Brad Dowdy: This is one I'm waiting to review. And I wanted to include this because we've been talking about this for a while.

Myke Hurley: Such a good looking pen. It almost kills me.

Brad Dowdy: So the Carondash 849 pen, it's finally become available. I know we talked about a month ago when, when Anna was on the show actually. And we, we actually got in trouble there for a second, for a second. Like it's not ready yet. But yeah, exactly. It looks good. I've got one on the way to, I'm really anxious to try the nib. Like I know I like the style and look of the pen. And as I read Anna's review, I see that the section's really small and has a step down. I think that might be a kicker for some people. For me, it's not as much like I use my Y studio, which is probably more skinny and maybe more of a step than this pen. I'll do some comparisons or shots when it comes in. But I don't think it's going to bother me, but I think it might bother some people, but I'm really anxious to see how the nib works. I specifically asked for an extra fine and I see that's what Anna got too. And I really like how the line came out. It looks nice. It looks like maybe finer than like a Lamy extra fine. So if it's, if it's something like that, I will be very happy with this pen. And this is another one that's going to go in that. It's not quite entry level. Like where does it land kind of pen? Because it's about, was it 55, $60? Yeah. Yeah. 50 bucks. So it's in that middle range. Do you recommend this over, you know, the Twisby's in that range, you know, how about a Safari or an Eco? You know, which Anna talks about all this. So you should go read the review. I just like Caran Dash's style and I'm anxious to see how this goes. So I, I'm looking forward to reviewing this for myself. So very, very cool by Anna. And of course she got bright pink.

Myke Hurley: Natch.

Brad Dowdy: Natch. All right. I had a, I had a big, big Harry's event this morning, Myke. I hadn't, I hadn't shaved in days and boy, Harry's made my life easy this morning. I could, I just, I just tore through that stubble like nobody's business. So tell everyone else how they can do the same.

Myke Hurley: Harry's is all about great shave at a fair price. And they are supporting the pen addict today. This, this idea of great shaving at fair prices is exactly why over 3 million people switched to Harry's. The founders of Harry's decided to create the company because they were fed up with paying high prices for their razor products. They bought a German factory with over 100 years of blade making experience to ensure that they could make the highest quality blades. They sell these to you at half the price of the leading five blade razor brands directly to you over the internet. And all of Harry's products are backed by a 100% quality guarantee. Harry's is so confident you're going to love their blades. They want to give you their trial set for free. You just need to cover the cost of shipping. The free trial set includes a weighted ergonomic razor handle, five precision engineered blades with a lubricating strip and trimmer blade, the rich lathering shave gel, and a travel blade cover. This is a $13 value for you to try out. Brad, tell everyone just how comfortable that shave experience was for you.

Brad Dowdy: It was very comfortable. Like I'm an every other day shaver as it is, right? I don't, I mean, I have a beard and I do shave. I don't have a neck beard, so I shave my neck. Wow, this is getting very specific. Please be as specific as you would like about your shaving experience. So I'm an every other day shaver just by habit because I don't need to shave every day.

Brad Dowdy: And, you know, it's summertime. I'm extremely busy. I'm running around like a crazy person. I'm not getting up on a schedule in the morning. So sometimes my, my shaving escapes me. So it had been like four days since I shaved. I was kind of like in the past. I would worry like, Oh, how is this razor going to handle my stubble? This is going to be a rough shave. I mean, it was like I was shaving on just brand new skin. Harry's handled it perfectly. So even your, your days old stubble, it, it can handle, um, very easily without any issues at all. No roughness, no redness. Um, and, uh, I, I just feel perfect for having used it.

Myke Hurley: Hashtag be like Brad. Stop messing around and get started shaving with Harry's today by going and claiming your free trial set. Just go to harry's.com slash pen addict and get started. All you need to do is cover that cost of shipping. Thank you so much to Harry's for the continued support of this show and relay FM. I like be like Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Hmm. Okay. That could be a thing. I guess. I don't know. Hashtag be like Brad. I don't know that I want that, but apparently you're going to start it. So now it's going to be a thing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. This is it now. This is the new thing. Oh, awesome. Awesome.

Brad Dowdy: So this is a new thing, Myke. I just found out about this, this morning, even though it's been in the works for a while. And to say I am overwhelmed by it would be an understatement. So what's happening is, um, friends of the show, sinister inklings and, uh, squishy ink are putting together a table at the DC pin show. They've bought a table and they're calling it the pay it forward table. So I've got a link in the show notes and they've been working on this for a while. And this came out from some conversations in the Slack room, which you guys and gals are just amazing in that community. The way you handle yourselves and the way I am, I get to brag on everyone who's part of it. Um, and it's just such a nice thing to be able to talk about a community that, uh, interacts so well together. And this came out of it. So this, uh, I'm going to read one little bit off of this. It says the pay it forward table will provide two different purposes. We're hoping to have some fountain pen starter kits with introductory pens, ink, and small notepads or notebooks for new users and children. We also don't want to ignore our veteran community members and we'll have miscellaneous items that you can take, or you can also place items that you think would better deserve a new home. If you feel like you don't show them enough love. So it's literally a pay it forward table. They're going to give things to kids and new members, new people who aren't experienced with fountain pens. And in the past, I've noticed, you know, people coming to shows, you know, one person will be very much into fountain pens and then they'll have a spouse or a partner who doesn't know anything. And then they end up getting into it. So like being able, having them, giving them opportunity to be able to pick something up at no charge to them to test out and try. It's could be a life changing experience. I mean, that sounds overly dramatic, but I don't think it is. It can change, you know, how they write, how they think about writing, you know, how they think about stationary, how they use stationary. And for someone to put this together at the biggest pen show in the world, just because they want to give back to the community, it blows my mind. So they're operating this table as a nonprofit. So they are taking donations to help cover the costs, cost of the table expenses. Like I said, we'll have a link in the show notes where you can go read all the details and you can, you can find some things out about it. And I'm just so proud of this community that this just happens on its own. Like some people that are part of this community say, Hey, let's do something cool. And this is what they come up with. I'm, I'm speechless. Like I am just really, really amazed at this. And I love it. So thank you all for putting this together. And I am obviously here to help out any way I can, you know, I made my donation this morning and anything I can do to help you have my full, full, complete support. So we'll be talking about this more as the DC DC show comes, comes up and we'll get some more information out there, but fantastic. Love it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, this is fantastic. This is great. I'm excited about this. I'll donate to.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. yeah. So very cool. And like I said, we'll, we'll be visiting. That'll have to, that'll definitely have to go on your, your video from the show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So the chat rooms, the chat rooms can, can tell when I get a little bit, a little, get a little bit emotional. And I tend to get emotional over, over people who do awesome things. And I do, you know, my, my eyes are, my eyes are welling up a little bit. So no full on tears. So you're off the hook chat room. We don't have to link this one on the wiki to where Brad cried, but it was close. We need a, a teary eyes.

Pencil Question

Brad Dowdy: All right. So let's hit some ass TPA. And this first one is from those pencil guys, Myke, our good buddy, our good buddy, Andy Wellfleet, who I love. And you apparently, you apparently hate. So we're going to, we're going to start a battle here, but I love Andy, Tim and Johnny. I think they're amazing guys. No,

Myke Hurley: I love them. I just hate everything I stand for,

Brad Dowdy: you know?

Brad Dowdy: See, I'm pretty much one of them. So I, I, I'm definitely on board the pencil train. So Andy has this question. I remember him talking about this before. He's either talked about it on the erasable show or he's asked me and he's never gotten a real good answer. So he says, Hey gents, I have a rather involved question for an ass TPA. So I'm going to read this note. He put on Twitter. It says maybe 10 years ago, I was obsessed obsessed with the Uniball vision roller balls in evergreen. It was a deep, vibrant green and was included in box dozens with blue, black, and red pins of the same model. Since then, I can't find evergreen, but just regular green. It's crap compared to evergreen, thinner and bluer. Amazon claims to sell every evergreen. But my, when my friend and yours, Myke Hagan, he is a Mr. Ledfast bought a box. It was just regular green. Do you know the story on this? Any idea of where I can buy evergreen Uniball visions nowadays? I'll take my questions off the air. I love this question. And I remember this from before. And I don't know where the evergreen model came from originally. I do know and agree that the vision green that they sell is absolutely tragic. It's one of the worst colors I've ever seen. And this is from a company who does color pigments really well. Their regular green is terrible. Like I can't, it's unusable. It's like water green. It's terrible. So I don't know where evergreen comes from. The only thing I can think of is if they made it in some of their rainbow packs, because they used to make visions and purples, oranges, pinks, and maybe the evergreen was the green that was part of those variety packs, but it was never sold as the individual green. So I haven't seen one for sale. I would know where you could find one. A lot of people have been trying to help Andy to try to find the closest green. I think you would like the Zebra Saraciclip Viridian Green. I think it's really, really close to evergreen. It comes in 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.7. It's my favorite green gel. It's dark like the evergreen, but not too dark. It has a little bit of brightness. It doesn't look like anything like a basic green color. You can tell there's something different with it. It's called Viridian Green. It's amazing. That's where I would go, Andy. I don't know that you're going to find the vision in evergreen. And if I ever do run across it, I'll let you know. But I, I think that one's a lost cause. And they should be embarrassed with their regular greens, to be honest, and rollerballs. It's one of the worst colors I've ever seen. It's unusable. So this is a, this is a real issue. I, with Andy, he, he loves that color and he can't get it anymore. So, um, we'll try to find him something good, but check out the zebra Saracic clip of Viridian green. I think you might like that one. It's certainly worth a try as long as gel is okay, because the visions of rollerball ink, um, that's going to be harder to find a color to match evergreen in a liquid ink, as opposed to a gel ink gel ink. You'll get a lot closer, I believe. So if anyone comes up with any evergreen uniball visions, let me know, but, um, beware because like, uh, Michael Hagan found out just because they say evergreen, doesn't necessarily mean that they are.

Myke Hurley: There's something quite funny about that. There's an irony in, I think, that the evergreen isn't really evergreen after all.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's not. I see what you did there.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there's something kind of funny about that. I feel like they're playing tricks on everybody.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, they are, they are. And, uh, this is a dirty evil trick, Myke. I don't like it. Don't play with our ink colors.

Myke Hurley: Uh-oh.

Brad Dowdy: You have enraged the dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: All right. The real nib creep wants to know, are the nibs on the platinum 3776 close to Nakaya's? I'm considering 3776 and medium and would decide on medium or fine for the Nakaya based on that. I think they're very close. It's a high correlation there. I mean, like really, really highly correlated in the way the platinum nibs feel to the Nakaya nibs. Um, I don't know what to say more than that, other than in a blind test, I could maybe tell, but I'm not sure that I could. They're that close. So basically,

Myke Hurley: I think it would be fair to say that if you had a strong opinion, whatever that opinion might be about the platinum 3776 nibs, it will probably carry over to Nakaya's, right?

Brad Dowdy: Right. I would make, I think making a decision off the platinum nib to match the Nakaya nib would be a fair thing to do. You'd be pretty safe at that point.

Myke Hurley: Yep. That is an educated guess. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, all right.

Brad Dowdy: Lerlini wants to know, vintage style pens, have you used an Estherbrook diplis pen? And I didn't click this link before because I don't know what this is. Okay. So it's essentially a dip pen with Edison's screw in nibs. So it does hold a little bit of ink. I've never used this exact pen. I'm sitting here reading this because...

Fountain Pens

Myke Hurley: I've never seen them before. So they're basically pens that hold one or two ounces of ink in them. So you don't need to dip them as often.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So it's like a desk style pen. I have never used one of those, but I am a big fan of dip pens in general. I actually had Sean Newton make a holder, just the barrel part for my Estherbrook nibs, because they just screw in and you can use, they have so many, you know, hundreds of different styles of nibs. And they just screw in. So I use that barrel if I want to use an Estherbrook dip nib, but I've never, I've never even seen one of these for purchase, although I haven't been looking for them. I'm sure they're available, but these look really cool. Like I would buy one of these if I saw it, just because it has that added ink capacity.

Myke Hurley: They look nice. I mean, I can imagine these being very nice desk pens. Yeah, exactly. You know, like you have them in the little ink thing and you take them out when you need them. It's kind of nice.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. All right. Kim wants to know if we have any advice for nice pen displays. And I think I answered this or wrote back saying I need more information because you can go a lot of different ways. Are you trying to have like a dudek modern goods holder where your pens stand up vertically so they're easy to access and look good on your desk? Do you want a storage chest kind of things with three drawers and you can open the drawers? Do you want a glass top fountain pen? Are these fountain pens? You know, I need more information for nice pen displays because there are a lot of options out there. Some much more expensive, some much more reasonable and feasible, but depending on what you want to do, there's a lot of different ways you go. But I look at dudek modern goods for like vertical pen holders. And then I just search for like cigar boxes with glass windows or some type of window on the top if you want to see through and have the pens lay flat. So I don't have any specific ones to point you to, but I can definitely point you in the right direction if I figure out more what you want to do.

Myke Hurley: You cannot go wrong with a dudek modern good.

Brad Dowdy: Nope. Nope. But I have both types of things on my desk. So I have the dudek blocks and then I have cigar boxes with clear tops. And you can find lots of pen cases that hold, you know, around eight to 12 pens and you can display them real nicely with like a glass lid. And it looks real pretty. So Jane wants to know, is it wrong to encourage pen addiction and friends so I have people to talk to in real life? If not, what's the best way to do it? It's definitely not wrong to encourage pen addiction, Jane.

Myke Hurley: But there's something you have to do though. If you're going to, if you're going to do this, if you're going to try and encourage friends in your life to become pen addicts, they also have to be encouraged to listen to the podcast. That's, that's what you must do. You must get your friends to listen to the show as well as getting, as listening yourself and or, and or getting them to convert to buying stuff. Very important. Two step process.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You went one step beyond there real quick. You're like, come join us and listen and buy all the things. You're welcome.

Myke Hurley: Yep. I think it's pretty simple to be honest,

Brad Dowdy: but yet, but no, what you want to do, Jane is you want to have a starters kit because you never know what someone's going to like. So carry a starters kit with you or plan. If you're going to meet someone, you know, have that starters kit ready, have like a 0.5 gel, have a 0.7 ballpoint, you know, nice stuff like uni ball stuff. Um, have a Sharpie pen, not the marker pen, but like the drawing tip pen, you know, have a mechanical pencil, have a nice wooden pencil, like a black wing and lay all these things out there and get a nice pad of paper. You know, right pads, if you want to do something fancy, um, and lay them out, let them try, talk about what the differences are for each and they'll click with something. And once they click with that one thing, well, now you have a path to talk about the other things and what other pens related. Do you like it? Okay. Do you like this gel pen? Do you like it finer or wider? Now you can keep going down this route. So, and then you can get them into looking at other pens, like a retro 51, you know, that's more expensive and, uh, things like that. So you just got to open the door a little bit. And most of the time they'll either just flat out, not care, or they'll latch onto something. And once they latch onto something, then you can just go from there.

Myke Hurley: And Brad, what is the best possible pen case to, uh, assemble a, uh, start kit in, do you think?

Brad Dowdy: probably like a not co Brasstown or a Sinclair.

Myke Hurley: Good, good idea. Good idea.

Brad Dowdy: I'll have to look those up. You're like in full pimp mode today.

Myke Hurley: What can I say?

Brad Dowdy: I like, yeah, I like you.

Myke Hurley: I like you. So, all right. It's because I've realized how much money I'm going to spend in DC. I need to make sure that we're, we're breaking everything impossible until then.

Novice Pen Users

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. So we're going to help Sam out. Sam is a novice and he, this is an awesome question. And it kind of relates to the last question. So listen to the previous answer again, Sam. He says, how do I know what I will like? I don't want to buy things that I'll end up not appreciating. This is something we've all gone through. I believe at some point in time, especially with fountain pens, but I don't know if Sam's talking about regular pens, fountain pens, pencils, but you really have to start with just the very basics. Like I said on this previous answer, get kind of a one of each sampler of ink styles and tip sizes. So you want to try a gel, a ballpoint, a liquid ink, a pencil, and then maybe an inexpensive fountain pen. And you could buy like all those things for like 15 bucks total and get a decent, decent paper, not just the regular copy paper, sit down and use them. Commit to each of those pens for a day, figure out how they work with your writing style, what you like and what you don't like. And the way I got into fountain pens was I like my micro tip pens. And I always told myself, well, I can't find that in a fountain pen. I can't match my writing experience in a fountain pen. And then the more I use my micro tip pens, the more I research different types of pens. And the more communication I had with readers and the community as a whole, I realized that, oh, wait a minute. There are nibs that can write the way I write. And wait a minute. I can use orange ink in a fountain pen or purple ink or lime green ink.

Myke Hurley: Hold the damn phone. So yeah,

Brad Dowdy: Sam, I mean like my fountain pen experience started because I liked micro tip gel ink pens. Yep. And I figured out not only could I match that writing experience, I could match it to me even more and make it more customizable. It's not a quick thing though. You're not going to go tomorrow say, well, the Lamy 2000 is the pen for me. You're not going to know that for a while. So start small, figure out what makes your handwriting the best or whatever you're trying to do. Yep. What makes it the best. And then go from there. It's a slow process.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Go to a pen store and try out some stuff. Make, you know, if there's, if there is a pen show in your town or near it, like even better, right? Cause you can go and you can see people and you can play around with things. Like I really, that's, that's my number one recommendation is find a way to try out stuff that you won't, afford or can't afford or don't want to buy yet. And then it gives you a place to kind of work up to, which I, that's, that's really helped me over the last few years, go into pen shows, seeing what is around and what is out there is getting, getting a large exposure to some of the more fringe things to try and help me narrow in on what my aesthetic and what my tastes are. Right. Hence acrylic pens, all the great acrylics, you know, that's where my life has gone because I've seen just some of the unbelievable things that you can get a pen show. Right. And you know, the, all of the acrylic stuff lends itself really nicely to being, to seeing in person anyway. So, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Just, I, I gotta, I gotta reiterate you. Please take it slow in the beginning. Don't go crazy.

Myke Hurley: 100%. That's why I was saying like, go to these things to try and get aspirations in mind and help you put your tastes together. But really you should start the way that me and Brad started, right? You start with some gel pens and some, then you start moving to some weird Japanese stuff you find on jet pens, right? Like you get like a copic multi-liner and stuff like that. And then maybe once you've kind of gone through that, you could pick yourself up an entry level fountain pen, something like a Safari or a Metropolitan or a TWSBI Eco, move up to something like a vanishing point and then go on from there. Right. Like you shouldn't be spending in the three digit range for months and months.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. If not years.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. If not years like me and you.

Brad Dowdy: If ever. Like, and you don't, don't even think that you need to do that. You could be perfectly happy with the best $3 pen that fits your needs for the rest of your life. And you'd be thrilled.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But my caveat will be if you find a thing that you like and you find, and you have the ability to go down that route, then do it. Right. Like if it's what you want to do, don't also don't limit yourself. Right. Like if you discover real quick that you love fountain pens and there's this one that you like, that's $200 and it's perfect for you and you've tried it and it's perfect. Go for it, but don't feel like you have to. There's a, there is so much interesting stuff below $50 that is out there for you to go and try. If you haven't yet, there's no need to, to, to graduate more quickly. Right. Like, you know, I was just checking before this show, we're like, you know, five and a half years old at this point. Right. And there is, there is such a long, if you've not, you know, especially if you're new and, and I think the wiki is helping with this a lot, like you can go back and listen to the beginning episodes of the show and hear how we kind of really slowly, I think ramped up to where we are now. It's a five year process before we, you know, to, to get to where we are today. That's a long time.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So play along at home.

Myke Hurley: You should, you should talking about that wiki. It's always great stuff going on there. You can go and check it out. It's a, it's a wealth of information about this show and others and lots of different stationary items. And you can also contribute as well to make it even better. Just go to stationary.wiki for that. You can send in your questions for this show by the hashtag ask TPA on Twitter. Thank you to everybody that does that every week. Please continue to do that because we love to see what we can do to try and help you and get you involved in the show. I was joking around with this earlier, but I really do mean it. If you enjoy the pen addict, share it with a friend. Like if you think, you know, somebody in your life that would enjoy this show, then please, please do that. We would appreciate it. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to pen addict.com, knock.co for his work and his goods, all the great goods. And you can find him on Instagram. He's pen addict and dowdyism on Twitter. D O W D Y I S M. I am I Myke. I M Y K E and all the social networks. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode. Uh, if I also, Oh, let me thank Harry's and Squarespace again for sponsoring the show. We appreciate their support as much as we appreciate yours. We appreciate yours more actually, but don't tell them. Uh, thanks so much, Brad, for being here as always. And to you for listening, we'll be back next time. Until then say goodbye, right? Goodbye,

Brad Dowdy: Brad.