The Pen Addict 271/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	271
Title:	Anti-Myke
Release Date:	August 23rd, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 271
Audio File:	Audio Episode 271
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 271
Length:	6767 min <br />1.117 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict episode 271. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello, Myke Hurley, from yet again an undisclosed location in the United States of America. I'm in Brooklyn, New York. You're just never going to go home again. Brooklyn's in the house.

Myke Hurley: It is feeling like that way. I still have more time here. I still have more time. But this is my final episode before I am back at home.

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of episodes, we need to talk about next week. So, next week, Myke will not be on the show. I will have a special guest recording with me next week on the show. Would you like to know who that is, Myke? I would. Yeah, I would too, because I don't have one yet. Okay, good news. But I have an idea. I've got a plan. I'm hoping it comes to fruition. I'll know here. I will text this person once I am done with this show and get that sorted out. Can I tell the people, and we should have covered this before we got on the air, can I tell the people we will be recording live? Like, I should get Stephen to have a live stream or I should just record, send the father Stephen, no live stream.

Myke Hurley: No live stream. The amount of work that would require for you is not worth it for the one episode. Like, the amount of stuff that you would have to do to get things ready to stream live, it's not worth it.

Brad Dowdy: It's crazy. Yep, that's what you've told me. So, that's what I figured. So, next week, we will have an episode. It will not be a live episode, and it will be me and a special guest. So, I'm hoping I can – well, I will have someone for sure next week. So, the issue that I didn't realize when I agreed to this was, you know, the show is published on Wednesday. I'm not getting home from San Francisco to, like, 10 o'clock Monday night. So, I got to get this done on Tuesday sometime to get a show out on Wednesday. So, I didn't realize my schedule was so tight next week, but that's okay.

Myke Hurley: Well, I'm going to be on vacation, so whatever you do is on you.

Brad Dowdy: Are you going to be vacationing in San Francisco? Nope. You don't want to come to the pen show with me? I could use your help. I don't think you understand what a vacation is.

Myke Hurley: You haven't been on one yet? You've been working this whole time? Yeah. Yeah, this isn't a – like, I'm in a different place, and I'm doing different things in new places, but the rest of – like, my daytime is just filled up with working as normal, right? Yeah, for sure.

Brad Dowdy: You got to. Such is the life of our professional podcasters.

Myke Hurley: Exactly.

Pen Review

Brad Dowdy: All right, so let's talk about the life of a professional pen reviewer, because I got this new pen, and I can't wait to talk about it.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So, last week, you know, I mentioned the fact that I only had two pens inked up, and I knew that would change sooner rather than later, likely before the San Francisco pen show, which it has because I got in the Platinum 3776 Shungyo. I will definitely need some pronunciation help on this one. It's the new red and rhodium-plated Platinum Limited – I don't know if this is even a limited edition. I think it might just be a standard edition. I thought it was beautiful from the pictures, right? The red transparent barrel looks great with the silver trims, silver nib, you know, silver-plated nib, or rhodium-plated nib, I should say.

Brad Dowdy: And pretty much all the 3776 special editions look great to me. You know, they've had some blue ones. They did the Nice Lelos, right, earlier this year, the pink one that we both fell in love with. And I thought, okay, this will just be another one in that line of great-looking pens. But, yeah, I don't necessarily need it. But I want to try it because I love Platinum pens. Well, this one, I did something a little bit different. And I got a soft, fine nib on this pen. So it's a Japanese gold nib, fine nib, and it's considered a soft, fine nib. That means it has a little bit of give in the tip when you write with it. It's not a nail, if you will, like my Auroras. I consider them like a nail or my Murex. That's a nail. Very, very firm. This is not firm, but it's not flex. It just has a little bit of give when you write with it. And what I'm discovering, and I can't believe it took me this many years to discover, it makes my line even thinner, which I didn't think was possible. I thought the soft would actually make it. I can't fathom that that is true. This writes like an extra fine Japanese nib. Because I put, you don't have, the reason is you have to put no pressure on the nib to make a line because of that softness. I write with a heavy hand. With this pen, I can write like I'm dragging a pencil across the page and it makes a line about the width of a Japanese extra fine, which doesn't make logical sense. But it's amazing. I am, every time I pick this up, I'm like, ooh, this is great. Ooh, this is fantastic. Ooh, I want to use this pen. And I'm, I'm thoroughly enjoying this pen. And for some reason, and I haven't gone and checked, even though I could go check like on Jetpens, they have the barrel weights. This one feels heavier to me. And this is a very, very fractional heaviness. And it may just be my, you know, newfound love of this pen. But all the 3776s are very, very lightweight, airy, if you will. This one feels normal, not heavy, definitely light, but it feels heavier than other 3776 models that I've tried. So something about this pen, Myke, and I think it's the nib. Because I've never had this kind of writing experience that's just such a joy for me. I write teeny, it allows me to write teeny, teeny, tiny with no pressure at all. And it's, it's really good. So you don't have any pens with a soft, fine nib, right? Or any soft, no soft, medium nibs or anything like that.

Myke Hurley: To my recollection, no, I don't have any, any soft nibs.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So I have a couple of Sailor hard, fine nibs and they're great. And their line is wider than this nib, which you think would be the opposite. You would think the hard, fine nib would be finer and drier. This soft, fine is the finest line I've gotten out of a fine nib. And it's really great. I super love it. I'm fascinated with this nib more so than the pen, even though the pen is absolutely perfect for me. So yeah, I'm going to be, I'm going to be talking about this one a bunch just because it's kind of opened my eyes to a different nib. Even though I know I've tried soft nibs plenty of times, but for some reason, these Platinums are just crazy, crazy good. Their nibs are, are fantastic. You know, that's why everyone loves Platinum because you can get that Nakaya feel from a Platinum pen. Because they're all intents and purposes, the same nib. It's just fantastic. So anyway, have I, have I prided on enough about this? It's, I really, really love it. And it's because of the soft, fine nib.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I still have the, um, the nice Lilas just rattling around in my future purchases somewhere. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So the other reason why I like this pen so much because the nice Lilas has a faceted barrel and the grooves in the barrel are extremely sharply cut. Like it's not bad when you're writing because you're not gripping your fingers there, but you can feel it like when you hold the barrel. This one has more of just an etching on the barrel so you can feel a texture, but there's no edge to it. So it's, uh, I I'm liking this one better than the nice Lilas for sure. Even though that one's the pink one's really, really pretty, but this is, this one's me. This is, I'm really glad I got this one and held off on the nice Lilas other than just reviewing and had a loaner. Um, this one, this one's legit good. I'm very, very pleased with this. And, uh, yeah, so that's, that's enough of me, me going on about this pen. Cause it's not going to stop unless you stop me.

Myke Hurley: I want to thank everybody that has checked out and or said nice things about our membership episode that we did. Um, you can still become a relay FM member. You can still get access to the bonus episode of the pen addict along with all of the great bonuses that we're doing. Uh, please go to relay.fm slash membership and you can sign up to support any show at relay FM. You get all the same bonuses along with a bunch of other great perks. Uh, if you haven't done this, you should rectify it because there has been some amazing content so far this month. And for the next few weeks of bonus episodes that you can only get as a relay FM member. So go to relay.fm slash membership to sign up.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So thank you that to everyone who joined and listened to our episode specifically because I got so many emails and tweets, um, saying how much they enjoyed our episode on joy division. And I don't know that I've listened to, I don't listen to podcasts that I'm on very much. Like sometimes I don't even listen to the pen addict podcast because I just recorded it myself. I think I've listened to the joy division episode like four times now and I still want to hear it some more. Um, I don't know. I, I don't want to like totally self pimp myself, but I really enjoyed doing that and enjoyed telling those stories. So it was fun.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it was really good.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So I'm heading out tomorrow, Michael, to San Francisco. About a month ago before DC, I was kind of dreading the month of August because I know how exhausting pen shows are to work. And we had two of the biggest ones on the calendar within a span of three weeks. So DC at the beginning of August and San Francisco towards the end of August. And I, in July, like at the end, I was like, Ooh, this is going to be tough. Like I always look forward to it, but I was like, it's going to be tough. I'm exhausted. I'm going to be exhausted. And I've just got a lot to do with not to be ready for these shows and lots of planning, lots of scheduling, all that stuff. And then DC happened and we had a really good time and I came home and, you know, I was properly exhausted. And, you know, for about a week, I was like, Oh man, one more show, San Francisco. It's like, I can get through this. I can do this. And then about a week ago, I was like, San Francisco, it's only one more show. I'm not going, I'm not going to any more shows the rest of the year. What is, I need to fix this. This is, I need to do something. This is going to be amazing. Like I'm so excited to get to San Francisco and I'm sad that it's my last show of the year where like a month ago, I was like, whew, I'll be glad that's over with. And, you know, so I can take a break. But you don't feel this way next week. Yeah, maybe not. Maybe not. This is, this is definitely my longest travel show. I guess LA is right there with it, but I think it's a little bit longer flight to San Francisco. Totally across country for me. You know, it's a five hour flight each way. So I will definitely be tired. And this is a good, this is a extremely busy show. I mean, if anything, based on last year, it was Friday, Saturday, Sunday, full days, nonstop. It was crazy. I hadn't seen anything like it, but I'm, I'm legitimately going to be sad that this is my last show. You know, I could make a solo trip to DC or Columbus or something. If it worked out on the schedule, that's 99% sure that's not going to happen. Knock will definitely not be at any shows the rest of the year. I will almost definitely not be in any shows less the rest of the year. So I'm feeling kind of sad that this is my last show of the year. And, um, I'm a little bit scared too, because I haven't done much shopping these last few shows that I might go a little bit berserk because it's my last show. So, so you've been to two shows now, you know, at a lot of the shows, you kind of get a feel for what everyone's stocking or carrying, you know, kind of what's on the market that you've been interested in. And I had pins that I've been interested in for years that are at every show. It's like, is this the show since it's my last show, am I going to break down and go crazy and buy something, you know, like a, uh, pilot, uh, Yukari Royale. That's like stupid expensive or some crazy thing just because, you know, my, my FOMO, right. This is my last show until sometime next year. So can I handle those six months to the next show and not, not making up a big pin show purchase? So I don't know. It's, uh, I have mixed feelings. Like I'm very excited to get there. I think San Francisco, you know, I've only been once, but, uh, and we'll discuss it after this year, but it could be my favorite show on the calendar. Um, I need to give it another year or two to see. And I just really look forward to it. Um, yeah. And we're even doing something with the pen attic party. We're doing, uh, uh, San Francisco. The promoters there do a great job of doing extras, you know, not just a pin show. They make it like, uh, Matt's pin show primer video, which we're going to talk about in a minute. He calls this show more of a pin convention because they do things like have a planner meet up and have a band, you know, come and play like a mini concert for everyone. Um, they do it a little bit differently at this show in a good way. So one of the things we're going to try something new for this show, we're going to call the pen addict, uh, meetup that Ricky and the other show promoters allow us to have there at their space. We're going to call this the pen dash. And what we're going to try to do is get everyone moving around the room to meet other people in the community in a better way. Then just having everyone come in and hang out. We're going to actually have tables set up and you're going to get to go. So each table is going to have a host and that host is going to have something to talk about. Like Anna is going to talk about, you know, ink samples and, you know, do all the ink stuff and coloring. And like Le Reyes is going to talk about fountain pen art. And Matt's going to talk about flex pens or vintage pens.

Myke Hurley: This is cooler than what I thought you were trying to describe there. Yeah. Which is exactly everybody else in the chat room is like went down the same line of thinking that I did. I thought you were establishing a system of speed dating.

Brad Dowdy: Well, it kind of is. That was the impetus for it, except it's going to be in more of a group setting.

Myke Hurley: Well, no, but also it's like I thought that your intention was to just get other like pen fans to meet other pen fans. And that's not what it's about so much as it's like meeting with experts and talking about specific things. But you don't but you can still be with a friend, right? You're not because everyone's not going to be split up. So like I like that a lot better. That's that's way better. Right. Yeah. Like you'll move around in groups. Yeah. You're only asking really the people presenting the tables to have to talk to new people. Right. Right. So if people don't want to talk to new people, then they don't really need to. Like this is very reminiscent for me. I spoke at a conference a couple of years ago called Release Notes. And they have a tradition that they started on the first year and they've done it the last year and they're doing it again this year. They call it the dine around. And every speaker goes to a restaurant with a small group of attendees. Yeah. And everybody has dinner together. But the speaker there is there to talk about what they spoke about or to answer questions or, you know, to talk to the other attendees like you're kind of the focal point of the meal. Mm hmm. And it reminds me of that, but better in a way because everybody can get to spend time with everybody if they want to.

Lamy Popularity

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. Because, like, Lay is so popular. And I know in Chicago a lot of people didn't get to get, like when she was, you know, holding court in the bar, not everyone could get a seat to go talk with Lay and try out her nakayas and all of her flex nibs and all the crazy stuff that she does. This way, you know, if you want and if you're there, you'll have an opportunity to kind of cycle through a table where Lay is, you know, talking and hanging out. And it's just it's totally casual. Like, it's nothing it's nothing scheduled like teaching or, you know, here's what we're going to discuss. Like, it's just, you know, off the cuff casual. But you kind of have this person here leading the conversation, if you will, and you can ask them things or or do different things like that. So what's good about this is we can test this out in San Francisco because it's such a easy to work with promoters that we can talk about, you know, doing something different like this to see if this is a good idea for future shows. So it's just, you know, something we want to test. A bunch of us have worked on this to see it has a very high likelihood of craziness. You know, trying to learn how to do this the first time. So please be patient with us for that. If you're there attending the show, we also just found out that our location might be moving. So Ricky has on the site the location of the pin dash party. It might change. So just check with me. It's Friday at 530. So after this, I mean, excuse me, Saturday at 530. Not Friday. You don't even know the day. It's definitely Saturday, but I keep thinking it's Friday. It's definitely Saturday. And then just check with me and the show promoters. They'll have everything updated on where it's actually going to be. But it's going to be fun. You know, you get to roam around the room and, you know, just not hang out, you know, in the corner and feel like you can't talk to anybody. You can go and, you know, every 10 or 15 minutes or so, we'll move everyone around the room, go to another table and sit there and talk, learn about something new. But it's we all everyone involved is very excited about this. It's just how fine tuned can we get it the first time. So we look forward to everyone's feedback who makes it to San Francisco this year. If you want to what we can do better. And would you like to see this at other shows that a lot of us attend where we can put this together? So I'm excited.

Myke Hurley: I think like on paper, this is a good idea because the meetup, like the panel meetup is effectively just what happens for the rest of the time. You know, like I think over time, just like as the pen shows are settling and the groups are settling and stuff, it's the same thing. Everyone's hanging around together and looking at pens and trying pens. But that happens every single night in the bar. So having some kind of programming is a good idea.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So like we do the hangout stuff already. So we don't need, you know, necessarily have a specific hangout, hangout place. You know, the only thing different we do is we, you know, give away door prizes and things like that. Which we will still do for this. So we'll have some things to give away. So you should come. From a business perspective, I'll be manning the NOC code table. Well, this will be my first San Francisco show with NOC. So I worked for Van Ness Pens last year and I will be adjacent to Van Ness Pens this year. And we will be in a different location. So for those of you who went to the San Francisco Pens show last year, when you entered the main ballroom, we were immediately to the right. This year, we're going to be straight to the back on the back wall. It'll be a pretty good spot. We'll have the banners up on the wall. It'll be kind of at the end of the ink testing station. So I know Lisa Van Ness will be happy about that. And then I will be off to the side somewhere. But we will be on the back wall. It's kind of interesting, Myke. I already know where my table's at at this show.

Myke Hurley: What a novelty.

Brad Dowdy: I just want to throw that out there.

Myke Hurley: Imagine. Imagine such a novelty.

Brad Dowdy: So I can tell you today, when you walk into the ballroom, if you were looking for me or you're looking for Van Ness Pens, you just walk in and you keep walking straight to the back wall and you can't miss us. So it'll be really, really good. So I think that's going to be a good location for us. And I'm anxious about getting it all set up, doing a, you know, packing a little bit different this time. We'll have all the same goods. We have a few special goods. Not quite as many as we had in D.C. because we had such a short turnaround this time. But otherwise, you know, it'll be all the same notco goodness. And I brought more, Myke, because I think San Francisco is probably as busy as D.C. Yeah, you're going to need more. Is it just you? It's just me. Oh, God. But Van Ness actually has extra help at this table. So that's why I go next to them, because I know if I need to run to the restroom, I can grab someone if they're not too busy to just hold down the fort for a couple minutes. I might have a special guest stop by for an hour or two to man the table. Mr. Andy Wellfley of Woodclenched and Erasable Podcast fame, your arch nemesis, is going to come help me out. So if you all want to meet Andy, we'll figure out the time. If you want to meet. Anti-Myke. Anti-Myke. You can meet him at the table. So Andy's going to come, hang out for a couple hours, sign autographs, take pictures. You know, he's a big deal. So I told him to bring some glossy headshots. So Andy will be there making an appearance. So I think that'll be fun.

Andy Wellfley

Myke Hurley: Now that me and Tony, we've rekindled our love, there's no rivalry anymore between me and Tony. My rivalry has moved to Andy Wellfley. Andy Wellfley.

Brad Dowdy: Well, we'll get y'all together one of these years. Me and Andy have spent a bunch of time together. That's right. Y'all have been out WWDC and all that stuff. That's right. So I just met, I met Andy at last year. He, uh, the pen show, he came to the, uh, to the party and we have a great picture of us. Like I'm trying to stab him with a pen and he's trying to stab me with a pencil. It's really good. Um, so this is going to be a really good show. And on my shopping list, you know, I have all these crazy big expensive purchases and I'm about to get someone in trouble right here, but I'm going to do it anyway. I hear Ryan Krusak might have something special for the show. And you know, I love Ryan's work, especially since he's changed over to these Ebonite sections and these new legend models. I say that knowing that he also had a machinery malfunction last week, just like Brian Gray did before DC that put him behind schedule. So Ryan, you know, I love you. I'm not trying to get you in trouble, but I hear rumors of something, whether he could get them done with his machinery failure. I don't know, but, um, I will be talking with him when I get there. Um, cause I want to see what's up, but that's what I'm going to do. That's just, uh, I have little birdies that, um, told me this. So now if you've never been to a pen show and you live in the area, you need to make a plan to come to San Francisco and Matt Armstrong, who will be there working for Van S pens. He did a video this week called the pen show primer. It is absolutely fantastic. He kind of went through everything that anyone who's new to a show or even experienced with a show would think about. Like he covered so much. I like, I couldn't think of anything that he left out. It's like 30 or 40 minutes long. And this is good for any pen show. This isn't San Francisco specific. It's general pen show. Um, you know, information, especially to give you a paint that picture. The first time you're going to a show, a couple of things that Matt mentioned that I wanted to elaborate on were one, bring your own paper. Like that's not something a lot of people think about, but if you want to test out inks, you don't always have paper available at whatever table you're at or the ink testing station.

Myke Hurley: Well, I think even more important than that is that you want to be able to test pens and ink on the paper that you're going to be using every day.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. You don't have a baseline. So you bring your paper because you know how pens and inks and nibs act on that paper. So therefore you have something to compare it to. So I thought, I think that's a super important thing. The other one point he made, which kind of came to bear in DC, and I'm kind of sad about because I would normally recommend this backpacks are a tough, tough way to go in a pen show. It's you need a bag, but you need something smaller that can go on the side or the front because it like in DC, it got so packed. If you have a backpack on your bag, you're slinging around, bonking into people and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. And I'm a huge, I'm the biggest backpack fan I know. And I was like, oh man, I can kind of see that. Like, I really want to take a backpack, but you kind of need something smaller inside or front carry.

Myke Hurley: Some of those lines, like the tables and stuff, they get so busy. It's impossible to walk past people with backpacks. Yeah. Yeah. And it's frustrating. Like it's frustrating. It's for everybody.

Brad Dowdy: Smaller bags, smaller bags seem to do the trick. And I thought, I don't know, I thought that was a good point to make, even though I'm like, oh man, I really want.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I just straight up recommend don't take a backpack down to the, don't take any bag down to the show floor because that maximizes the amount of stuff you can carry, which means you'll buy more. So like, you know, my tip is just like, just hold anything you can hold.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. Which I hate, you know, because like Tony says in the chat, backpacks are just more comfortable. Yeah. But you start whacking people, you know, as you're walking and your whole day is filled with, oh, excuse me. Oh, excuse me. Oh, oh, sorry. Sorry about that. So anyway, um, Matt's got some great, great points. And he goes into the experience of working a pen show too. So it's kind of cool if you want some behind the scenes stuff. So I really enjoyed his video yesterday. I laughed a lot and, uh, it was fun. So, and he, he definitely, uh, is on the fishing vest train. So yeah, fishing vests. I see why they're so legit at pen shows, you know, when you, when you talk about it that way, it's the way to go.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Carry it all on your person physically.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So that's that I'm ready. Come and see me. Come say hi. And I'll be around the hotel. Most of the show. I love this show. The people are awesome and there's very few shows I can tell you I will definitely be at next year, San Francisco. You can just, I will, I will book my book, my table before I leave this show. It's that good of a show. So love it.

Myke Hurley: All right. Today's show is brought to you in part by our friends over at Squarespace. Use the offer code ink, I N K at checkout and you will get 10% of your first purchase. Make your next move of Squarespace. They let you easily create a website for your next idea with a unique domain name, award winning templates, 24 seven customer support and more. They are the all in one place for you to put your next project online. There's nothing to install with Squarespace. There are no patches to worry about. No upgrades needed. You don't have to worry about any of these things. They've got you covered. Talking about this being an all in one place, Squarespace lets you create any type of website. Whether you're looking to create an online store, a portfolio, a blog, a site for your business or more, Squarespace have got the tools that you need. I'm using Squarespace right now to build a website for my wedding. So when we send out all of our RSVPs and stuff, I want to be able to give people a URL that they can go to to get information about the wedding, about the planning and all the dates and the locations. As well, we're going to be collecting RSVPs through a Squarespace website. It has all of the abilities to do that. All the functionality is there. If they have wedding templates, I enabled one of the templates. It's got all the pages and I'm just going in and changing what I need to change. Like building, I haven't built a website on Squarespace from scratch in a while. And I am being reminded just how easy it is to click into things, change the text, change the color, change the font or just drag and drop or just clicking boxes. It's so, so easy to do. There is no wonder that Squarespace's templates have won many awards because they all do look so fantastic. You can sign up for a free trial today with no credit card required. Just go to squarespace.com. Then when you decide to sign up, their plans start at just $12 a month and you can get 10% off your first purchase if you use the offer code INK at checkout. And this will also help support this show. I'd like to thank Squarespace for the support of the Pen Addict and Relay FM. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

Brad Dowdy: So attention, pen show promoters, as Matt mentions on his video and it's something we discuss all the time. Go build your site in Squarespace, take online payments, make everybody's life easier by having an updated website and Squarespace is the way to go. It's so simple and it's worth the small amount of time to relieve so much pain in the pen show website landscape. So that's my rant. We're going to talk. I do have a follow-up question about pen shows, but I want to talk about this new recent acquisition you have first.

Myke Hurley: So a couple of weeks ago, we spoke about a pen that Thomas Hall had collaborated with Franklin Christophe, like for a charity pen. So it is a Model 20 edition and you can get either the pocket or full size. And it has a Tubaldi Imperio finial. So we have spoken about this celluloid in the past. We both have pens made out of it, which we got access to this material via the help of Thomas a couple of years ago. And he still had a rod of this stuff left. So it made a small amount. It made this available to Franklin Christophe so they could create a limited run of pens together with the money going to charity. I have mine now. I believe I'm the first person to get mine because of some funny circumstances. Yeah, hilarious. In that there was maybe like one available, which was being used for pictures and stuff. And Thomas, being the wonderful person that he is, because I was already in America, got in touch with Scott over at Franklin Christophe and we worked together and we got it sent out to me and it arrived for me last week. And I have it and I got the pocket 20 because I don't have a pocket Franklin Christophe of any kind. It's beautiful. I love the dark finish on the acrylic. I love something I've not noticed. Maybe I haven't had a recent enough Franklin Christophe, but how the nib is kind of like is like a hood that goes around it now from from the grip section. That feels new to me. They haven't always done that, have they?

Brad Dowdy: No, no. It's they've done it in a couple of models in the past year or two.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. See, I don't know. I haven't bought one for a couple of years. Because the last Franklin Christophe that I got was your one and I don't think that has it, if memory serves.

Brad Dowdy: No.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, this is it. I really love the pocket edition and it's beautiful and the video is fantastic. So I just wanted to mention, I just wanted to extend a thanks to Thomas and Scott for helping that because it just meant that I was already here. I could get it all sorted. I didn't need to worry about the shipping and now I have it and it's on my person and I love it. And everyone hates you because you got it first and we all want ours. Look, every now and then I deserve to get something first because I usually get everything last.

Brad Dowdy: You do. You do. So more real time follow up in the chat room. Myke Madison, Franklin Christophe, Guru Extraordinaire. The Model 20 and the 31 have the style you're talking about.

Myke Hurley: So that would be why because I don't have any, I don't have any 20s.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And the 31 is brand new ish, like in the past few months. Okie dokie. All right. So I want to hit a bunch of Ask TPA today because we honestly didn't have a huge show planned because Myke's traveling. I'm trying to get out of town and there was only so much time this week. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: We're only at 34 minutes already before we even hit the Ask TPA. So just a short one today.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. This is, I always feel the guilt before some shows. Like this is when I felt guilty. Like, did I plan enough? Did I do enough for the people on this show? And then here we are 30 something minutes in. But I want to continue.

Myke Hurley: I mean, it's still unknown as to whether we've done enough for the people, right? It may have been terrible at this point, but we've, pure minutes wise, I think we've provided adequate enjoyment.

Pen Show

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yes, yes, yes. So I want to follow up on this pen show topic real quick because this has been a conversation since DC and my good friend, Jim, who is one of my favorite people in the community. Shout out to Jim. Y'all all know Jim. If you've been to DC or Atlanta, Robo Jim in the Slack, he wants to know, what are the challenges of adding a new show to the entire pen show circuit? Where and when would you like to see a new show established on the calendar? So this, like I responded to him in the chat room. This is a huge question. Like, I won't be able to cover everything I want to say about this, but we've talked about this. It resurfaced after DC, but this is something I've been looking into for probably a year and a half now for myself or with other people in the community. You know, can we bring a new show somewhere? Can we do a better existing show somewhere? How do you go about doing this? How do you go about building it? And it's intimidating. I will say that. It's very intimidating to think about the things that have to happen to make a new pen show. So the biggest challenge is getting vendors to commit, I think. I think that's the biggest challenge because you have to have enough vendors to have a show to have the audience, you know, be satisfied with your show. But the vendors have to have another, enough other vendors there to see that, hey, this is going to be worth my while and I'm not going to lose money. So that's, they're coming at it from the perspective of, is this going to be profitable for me? You know, sure, some of them will believe in the cause and have more altruistic motives, you know, the first year, maybe the first, second year trying to build something new. But you have to have this buy-in up front. And I don't mean like a month up front. I mean like a year up front to get these vendors into what you're doing and why you're doing it and where you're doing it and when you're doing it, which are all the questions Jim asked. I think that's the biggest challenge. I've watched the group from the St. Louis Penn show show up at every show I've been to this year since I think Los Angeles. They've been at every show talking to the vendors, you know, telling them about the show, telling them what's going on.

Brad Dowdy: Then seeing the vendors at the next show and the next show at the next show, sharing information, sharing how they're growing, sharing what commitments they have. They've been super involved in trying to build that show for its very first show. So St. Louis will be a new Penn show on the calendar next year. I think they've done a really good job at that. And I think that's a huge challenge. It can't be overcome. But I think that's a huge challenge. Where and when would I like to see a Penn show? Well, I know where I would like to see a Penn show. I even own the domain. But, you know, it's a challenge of finding a hotel and things like that. But I think when I was asked about this, the three places on my short list were Kansas City, Nashville, and Austin because they're centrally located.

Myke Hurley: What about London?

U.S. Cities

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, well, London would be great. So, I mean, if you want my city recommendations in the U.S., those are my recommendations. I think Nashville would be the winner in my book just for things to do. I mean, Austin would be too. Kansas City I think would be great. That scene up there is really, really good and it's centrally located. You know, I think there's a lot of places. We talk about Seattle. I know Matt is dying to have a show up there. I think that would be amazing. I think it's also hard to get people across the country. But I think Seattle would be a big enough draw. So, you know, I think there are locations that could handle a show. The time of year, the calendar, is the challenge. I look and look and look.

Brad Dowdy: I wouldn't pick summertime because I think it's harder travel-wise for people. For example, the early part of the year springtime is packed.

Brad Dowdy: And then you can't go too late into November. I always thought October was a really good time frame for a show. I think the only show in October is Denver, if I'm not mistaken. And then the last show of the year is Columbus, which is the first week in November. So, from Dallas in early September to Columbus in early November, somewhere in that two-month time frame, I think, is the spot I'd be looking at. People are in their normal routines. There's not school issues with vacations. There's, you're getting closer to holiday season, so you'll have maybe a little bit extra shopping. So, you know, that's kind of the time frame I've looked at. And the other question, I think those are my general thoughts. The other question that I think what Jim, he didn't ask specifically, but I think is also on the table is, well, what if you do an alternate show on the same time window as an existing show? Like DC. That would be scary for a lot of people.

Myke Hurley: That's a bad idea. I just don't think that's a good idea.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I don't know that you could get enough buy-in to go up against an existing show. Not that it can't happen. The challenges are infinitely greater at that point. Because history. I mean, what DC has going for it is history. Even though it ran like a train wreck this year, the history the show has clearly didn't affect it that much. Because it was insanely busy. Absolutely freaking insane. And all the vendors did insane business. So, like I said, this is a huge question, a huge topic. This is something I could go on for a long time about. Because I've researched this. I've called hotels. I've tried to get pricing for rooms and hotel rooms. It's a lot of work. And certain friends of mine are pushing me to do this.

Brad Dowdy: And, you know, maybe that's something I can be involved in and someone else run. I think there's a lot of other people that would be super great at running a pin show. So, maybe we could all kind of get our collective heads together and could do something different. Like, I have different ideas of what a pin show could be than what they currently are. That's why I'm such a fan of San Francisco. Like, I would want to do different things. So, I can go on and on about this topic. Because I've spent a lot of brain cells on it. So, we'll talk about it more. And I'm open to, you know, hearing feedback on what you would want in a pin show. So, you know, if you were building a pin show from scratch, what would you want? So, I think that's a good way to pose the question. So, if you want to email me, tweet me, I think that'd be great. If you were building a pin show from scratch, what would you want to see? So, we'll take it from there. And, you know, there's nothing in the works right now. But there's a lot of people thinking about this topic. And I think it's a worthwhile venture to spend your time on. So, we'll see what happens. But like Jim says, it's a challenge. There is absolutely no doubt it's a challenge. If it wasn't, I would have done it already. Because, you know, I think it can be done. But it's a big undertaking. So, all right. Let's hit a few more questions on this abbreviated, unabbreviated episode. This full-length episode, Myke. I want to hit this question because we've had it before. We haven't approached it again. And I think it's actually pretty quick to answer. And we'll give some pointers here real quick. And I'm going to read this whole email because it's a good one. So, it says, hi, Brad. I've been a reader and listener of the Pen Addict website blog for over a year now and really enjoy your work with Myke. I always look forward to a new review or podcast episode. I'm looking to start my own blog. Not on stationery. But I'd like to know how you started the Pen Addict blog. Was it a free blog originally? As in a free WordPress blogger site? And then eventually you upgraded it to a paid website through Squarespace when the blog became more popular? If so, at what point did you decide to upgrade? Or did you straight start up with a paid site? I'm having trouble deciding which route to go since I'm not sure how much money I want to commit. But at the same time, I don't want someone to take the domain name I want. I'm thinking of buying the domain name and starting the free blog and seeing how it goes. In any case, I'd like to hear your thoughts on starting a blog. And if you have any suggestions for a blogging newbie, thanks so much for your time and help. I really appreciate all that you do for the fountain pen and stationery community as a whole. And I'm reading his name because he says, sincerely, Pen. P-E-N-N. It says, P.S. Pen is my real name. It's like my parents didn't give me a choice about being a pen addict. I'm from Thailand and the name refers to the full moon. So thank you, Pen. That's awesome. Thanks for putting in that context. But we've had this question several times. Do you want to go ahead and give Pen the stock answer? Because it's accurate, I feel.

Myke Hurley: Well, okay. Well, it's tricky because Squarespace is sponsoring the episode. So I don't want to just straight up say, yeah, you should go build a website on Squarespace because they're sponsoring the episode. So it sounds like... Yeah, I don't think that's the answer. I mean, honestly. I would recommend that you most likely try it out and see if it works for you first. But it depends on what you want to build. I thoroughly do believe that Squarespace have the best tools for building a website. If you don't know what you're doing, I think that their tools are the best. And that can be for any type of site. But you can try and look at something like Tumblr or Blogger or something like that. But I don't think it's going to look as good. But you can at least get a feel for if it's right for you before you drop the money. And you can... But I definitely recommend if you're going to do that, you should get a domain name. And you should own the domain beforehand. Like, you really should do that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so that's the definite part of this. Buy the domain name and start anywhere. Just start getting your content out there. Absolutely own the domain name. Don't use one of the something.wordpress.com sites. Because you can just buy your domain name for $10 or whatever it is. And point it over there and be done with that. And you don't have to commit to the sites yet. You know, build it on Tumblr, Blogger, wherever. See if you enjoy the platform. See if you can build a following. And then you can make the jump over to, you know, a larger platform. You know, more tools and toys like, you know, Squarespace has. You know, I love it. We're obviously huge Squarespace fans here. But you don't have to do that to begin with. But you do have to buy the domain name. Absolutely do that. So, and then we'll put in the show notes. Go back and listen to our conversation with Ed Jelly on getting started blogging. I think a lot of the information in that episode is still applicable. And you should go listen to that. Get some ideas more on this. So, anyway. I wanted to bring that up since we hadn't talked about that in a while. And how I got started. You know, we'll talk about more. Maybe we'll reminisce in November. You know, we'll go back when I hit the 10-year blog-a-versary. And talk about some of these things, you know, way back in the day. So, all right. Next question. Myke again from Leadfast. I actually answered this question on Twitter. But I thought it was good enough to bring on to here. Because I'm finding myself using ink cartridges a lot more. And he wants to know if there's an ink brand that you love to buy in cartridges. I'm totally digging Kaweco Midnight Blue right now. Kaweco cartridges are actually some of my least favorite. Because the colors aren't as strong. As strong. Midnight Blue is the only one out of that batch that I use. The other cartridges I like are Waterman Mysterious Blue. And I've been buying a lot of short international cartridges. Because that's what's most common. And I can use that in my pocket pens. So, I do like that. Waterman Mysterious Blue is one I use the most. Caran d'Ache made their chromatics line last year or earlier this year. In short international cartridges, they're expensive. But their colors are some of the best. There's some really sharp greens and oranges and blues in there.

Brad Dowdy: And then Diamine has come out with a huge range of ink cartridges. That are really, really good. You can find pretty much any color you want in the Diamine range. And the ink quality is good. If you're looking for long international cartridges, the Pelican Edelstein makes them. They have some really good colors. I like those for the long international cartridges. And I'm just talking here about kind of universal cartridges. You know, the international fittings. Not Pilot or Sailor specific. Things like that. So, those are my picks. And those are the ones that get me through, you know, filling and replacing, you know, all my pocket pens like Kawekos and things like that. I switched through the Waterman Caran d'Ache. And I just got some Diamine in.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Sulakism wants to know, Is it normal for Retro 51 tornadoes to leak when retracted just with jostling in a shirt pocket? Would a different refill solve this? Normal? No. Common? Yes. Kind of. Yes.

Myke Hurley: Because they're liquid ink, right? So, like, this is... It's a problem you're going to find.

Myke Hurley: You can correct me if I'm wrong, Brad, but this doesn't happen so often for gel pens. Yeah. I think it's just because of the viscosity of the ink. You can retract it, but it can... With shaking, there can be some leaking. And I guess it's very possible if there is cloth against the tip, like, even though the pen is retracted, like, something could get up in there, and it could start, like, drawing ink out. Like, this is a thing that happens. I know many people this has happened to, but it is 100% not a thing that just happens with this pen because I've never had it happen to me. And I've spent many hours of these in my pockets, especially when I'm on planes. So, I'll grab, like, a Retro 51 and pop it, like, clip it into my inside jeans pocket so I can fill out all of the paperwork you need to fill out on a plane, right? So, I just grab it out of my bag and put it in my pocket. It's never happened to me, but I know people it has happened to. If you have a cartridge that is leaking, I would say even if... Because they're relatively inexpensive to change, just buy new ones.

Brad Dowdy: Like, you know... Or try... You can try the Monteverde gel cartridges to see if it's a better thing.

Myke Hurley: You can try it, but you shouldn't because the standard is so good. Although I also know that, you know, this isn't a cartridge that everybody loves, and you can get ballpoint cartridges and stuff like that. Different Schmidt cartridges will fit inside of the Retro 51 Tornadoes. I recommend picking up a new one if it doesn't work for you. And then maybe also you can track... There's two different line thicknesses as well in this... In the Schmidt cartridge. So, in the rollerball. So, you can try out a different line thickness as well. But it's not normal, but it does happen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I get an email once every month or two saying, this happened. So, it happens.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I get the same for if they skip. Again, like skipping or inconsistent line variation and stuff like that. These are things that also can happen but shouldn't. So, if you're having either of these problems, I recommend just grabbing a new refill to pop in. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So, and it's... Yeah, I know they've ruined lots of shirts and pants from a lot of people. I've never had it happen, but it is absolutely a thing. So, you can try a couple different refills to see if you can get around that.

Fountain Pens Notebooks

Brad Dowdy: All right. Phil Major is looking for a good, inexpensive-ish notebook that does well with fountain pens and is unlined, preferably A4 or A5. This is actually kind of a hard question because I don't know what inexpensive-ish means and most of the notebooks we discuss are expensive-ish. So, it's not... This time of year, I get a lot of students asking, I want awesome paper, but it has to be cheap. You know, rightfully so. They're students. They don't have a lot of extra money. They need to use a lot of paper and so it needs to be good and cheap. I think Rhodey is the best bang for the buck when you can get like A5 pads for... Or A4 pads or A... The A5 pads, I think, run about $6 and they're $80 sheets, which is really expensive relative to what you could find at Staples. But it's really inexpensive compared to all the things that I use on a daily basis. You know, from Japan, you know, like Moromon, who's three times as cheap, or Apica is three... I mean, three times as expensive, and Apica and all these other brands fall into the very expensive category. So, it's kind of hard. I think you can get... I mean, I would try a couple of the store brands. You know, every now and then, Staples will have some good paper, like they used to make the sugar cane paper that was really good for fountain pens and really inexpensive. So, poke around, see. I don't know what's currently on the shelves right now. But if you're shopping online, Rhodey is kind of the way to go. It's the cheapest of the expensive papers, if you will.

Brad Dowdy: This next one is not a question that comes up a lot, but it's actually a really good question. I may not have a good answer, but I'm going to give it a shot. So, Nalanise wants to know, what is better, 14K, 18K, 21K nibs, or does the gold content in a nib really matter? My answer is it doesn't matter, hardly at all. You just have to feel how the pen, how the nib is made, and how it feels for you. The 21K nibs are going to be softer because there's more gold content. So, if you like a soft nib, you know, like, I noticed some of the, I don't even know if the higher-end Pelicans, like the 800s and 1000s, are 21K or not. They're crazy soft.

Brad Dowdy: And I don't enjoy that, right? I would rather just have a 14K nib and a smaller nib that's a little bit firmer. So, it's really personal preference, and I really don't think that gold content matters that much. It's just going to matter how it works with your handwriting, whether you like it firmer, softer. And then even then, you know, the nib can be 14K and thin, or it can be 14K and thick, and it's going to feel different in how you're writing. So, you know, it's, I just don't think that's a huge consideration for the pen. It's more just going to be on the feel, and you shouldn't say, well, I only have to have 21K gold in my nib when 14K would be just fine.

Brad Dowdy: Any thoughts on that? You don't really care, do you? No, don't say that. No, no, no. I mean that, like, it doesn't matter.

Myke Hurley: Oh, no, because I don't even think necessarily gold matters over steel. Honestly, I feel like it's in a nib-by-nib basis. Like, I don't make decisions based purely upon material. Like, I try it. Right. If it works for me, then I'll go with it. Like, I have so many steel nibs, but, like, I do not recommend Pelican steel nibs because I just don't like them. I have a gold nib on my Pelican, and I think it's fantastic. Pelican steel doesn't work for me, but I know it works for other people. You know, I honestly feel like this is something that I think every nib is different. The way every nib is made is different, and some lend themselves to different materials more than others, but there's also so many other factors in there, like, depending on the thickness of the nib you want to get and your writing style. I think that everything changes. You know, I have steel nibs that work better for me than some gold nibs that I own. You know, I've tried titanium nibs, and they have, like, a big flaw for me, which is the sound that they make, which I can't, I just can't, can't, can't. Sure. They squeak. Again, this is, I don't think this is a, like, an always thing, but it does happen with titanium nibs to the point that I would never buy another titanium nib because it makes me feel physically uncomfortable to use the band listening to the squeaking. Sure. So, yeah, I just recommend that you just try, and I don't know if, like, 14, 18, or 21 makes that much of a difference. I, honestly, I would say that there's probably not many people in the world that could tell, right, that you'd give them a nib, and they'd try it, and be like, oh, this is definitely 18, as opposed to 14 or 21, because I imagine that they're different, but, like, how different can they really be? You know? So, I reckon you just try it out. Yep. I know that there's so many people that are going, oh, I know the exact difference, and I'm sure that there are people out there that know the difference between 14, 18, and 21, but most people, I don't know. I don't know if you'd really be able to tell.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, I agree with that. All right, the next one is from, I'm going to go with F Nordstrom, and it's probably not meaning what I think it's meaning. It's probably, like, Fred. Yeah, or, like, Felicity Nordstrom. Which permanent pen would survive hand wash? People keep snatching my tea mug, Myke. Preferably available in Europe. So, I love this question. And this is the kind of question that this site and this podcast were built around. Like, what weird question can we ask and get solved? I went with the Pilot Multiball. It was the first thing that came to mind because I know it can write on glass and ceramic, and when you read the description of it, it becomes permanent after six hours. Like, you can wash it initially, but after six hours, the ink's permanent, even on slick materials, just like a tea mug, like a ceramic or a glass. The question was also asked, preferably available in Europe. I looked on Cult pens, which carries the most that type of pen that I know, and I didn't see them. But they should be available where people can get Pilot pens. It's not a very common pen. It's a Japanese import, so it may not be available everywhere, but it does come in a lot of colors, and you can write in fine lines. It's not like a marker. It's more like a gel pen or a rollerball pen, but the ink becomes permanent on weird, slick surfaces, just like your tea mug after six hours. So, that's the pen I would look at.

Brad Dowdy: Capital Y1, an ATLian, one of my friends from the Atlanta Pen Show and local, says, I fill my converter pens with a syringe like you do. Do you do similar with piston fillers? I absolutely do, because almost all piston fillers have a nib unit that just unscrews out, and if I'm feeling like I want this pen to just be crystal clear and clean, I will unscrew the nib unit, stick the syringe up in the piston, and then kind of work the ink down the feed into the nib to get it writing. I'm about 50-50 on that. Sometimes it's just the easiest thing to dip the nib in the ink bottle, suck up the ink with the piston, and get to writing. It's obviously a little bit more fussy to do it filling the piston fillers with a syringe, but I actually do it all the time. So, just one of those things I do from time to time. I actually do it less and less these days, because I tend to just want the pen to start writing, and if you do it with a syringe, it's going to take a little bit longer to get it going through the feed and everything.

Myke Hurley: Before I left for DC, I realized that I had lost my pipette.

Myke Hurley: So, I had to fill an eyedropper pen by pouring ink from the bottle. That was a terrifying experience. It was fine. I did it. I do not recommend it. But I had no other way. I was leaving. I had no other way of filling the pen up. So, I very, very delicately poured the ink from the bottle into the pen.

Brad Dowdy: All right. This is... We just had our first parental advisory... Don't do it. ...warning for this. For this. Please don't do that. Please do not try this at home.

Myke Hurley: No, but I hear it. Listen. That sound. That's the new pipette that I picked up in DC. I had no way of doing it. So, I just had to throw caution to the wind. And it was fine.

Brad Dowdy: That's sketchy. I would at least find me like a coffee stirrer or something.

Myke Hurley: How is a coffee stirrer going to...

Ink Disposal

Brad Dowdy: I don't understand. Just like a straw. You know, you put your finger on one end. Put it in. Drop it in. It'd take a few times. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: No, I didn't have anything that I felt would work for me. I really wish that I had some kind of like super mega rare ink that I could say I did this with, you know? Like just to add... To really piss people. To really heighten it, you know? No, I didn't. I didn't have that. Too funny. That would be fantastic though, right? To do it with something that's like... Basically like gold.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, I've got this Mont Blanc racing green and I... Just pouring it over the sink. Over the sink. And it took me like half the bottle to get a good feel, but I'm pretty happy with it. It looks good. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: All I had was a nice shade of green for a while.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Dilly Esquire found a Parker Jotter in her drawer. Loved the pen. Hated the refill. Looking for a good big box store pen with swappable refill. Honestly, the new Parker refills are really good. So, if you buy an updated Parker refill, the ballpoint for the Jotter or their gel inks, I have no problems with the new models. You can also pick up, like we said earlier, Monteverde probably makes the best refills that are compatible to all these other brands like Parker, Cross, Schmidt. They're kind of the... They have the one of everything for all these brands and they do different colors. You know, they go branch outside of black and blue. They'll have reds and oranges and greens and purples. So, check out what Monteverde offers for Parker. But quite honestly, like my new Jotters that I've bought, the refills have been really good. So, it might just be an old refill and the modern ones are much better.

Brad Dowdy: Chewbacca asked this morning in the Slack room, should everyone just forget about their current Nex pen and just get a Pilot 823 because they're that good? I mean, the answer is clearly yes to this question. I don't have one. You're missing out. They are a pen that's just that good. I have one.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I've been preaching the gospel of the 823 since the day I bought it. Like, why did it take me so long to buy this pen? I could get rid of other pens because I own this pen and it's so freaking good. I just...

Myke Hurley: I just...

Brad Dowdy: Like Chewbacca says, because they're that good. They are. They're just that good.

Myke Hurley: I believe everybody, but like, just some flair would help a lot.

Brad Dowdy: For me. If Pilot took this pen and went crazy... Any color. On the colors... Brown.

Myke Hurley: They would print money. They just would. I think I was talking about this a week or two ago about how someone would get a... I'd be at a pen show and someone would show me a pen that was black with gold trim and they were like, look at this amazing pen that I bought and I just can't understand it. Yeah. Right? Because it just doesn't... It's not for me. And this is it, right? Like, I... Where I am right now, I cannot imagine spending $300 on a black pen with gold trim. It's just not... It's just not where I am, you know?

Brad Dowdy: These are at least demonstrators, but to some people that's less. It should be cheaper because it doesn't look as nice. I like demonstrators,

Myke Hurley: but then again, like, if I want to demonstrate or I want it clear. Like, if I want to demonstrate it,

Brad Dowdy: like, they do clear ones. Yeah, that's mine. I had to go to Japan because I did not want the amber-brown one that they have. Right, you see,

Myke Hurley: so that's even more difficult now because now I have to go to get it from Japan again, which I know many people do, but I'm, like, apprehensive of that because, like, I know how easy it is, everyone. I understand, but I still don't... I still would prefer to be able to just buy it from a vendor that I use all the time, you know, and... Yeah.

Pilot Pens

Brad Dowdy: So, the comparison pen Chewbacca had was the Pilot 743, which I have not used, but it's basically... The 743 is kind of the cousin of the Pilot 912. The 743 is the rounded ends and gold trim, expensive Pilot pen, and the 912 is the flat ends and rhodium trim, kind of like the Sailor 1911 versus the Pro Gear in style. Those aren't vac fillers. I mean, they're cheaper. They're, like, $80 to $100 cheaper. They have... What they do have is they have every nib option, the 743 and 912. I would take an 823 every day and twice on Sundays over the 912, and I absolutely love the 912 because I have the posting nib in that pen. The 912 is an awesome pen. I'd take the 823 every time over it. So, I feel the same would go for the 743. It's a cartridge converter pen. Nothing wrong with that. I love cartridge converter pens. The 823 is different. It just is. So, that's me. All right, last one. And this will get everyone ready for the San Francisco Pen Show buying their first Franklin Kristoff pen if they haven't already. My Wika wants to know are there any models... If I'm thinking of purchasing my first Franklin Kristoff, are there any models that you'd recommend? My favorite is the Model 02, which is a full-size pen and the cap post deep on the barrel, which I enjoy. And the Pocket 66, which is... I don't know if I would call it their largest pocket pen because it's still not that large, but I think it is. Those are my two favorites. The Model 31 is the newest, and it's selling really, really well. I see lots of purchases of the 31. It's a bigger, wider pen. So, my favorites are the Model 02, the Pocket 66. I don't own a 31 yet, but I see that one being sold a lot.

Brad Dowdy: So, you have the 20, Myke. Do you own a different... Do you have a different Franklin Kristoff?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I can't remember the model names, though. You have the wide... You have one of the old, really wide ones, which I like.

Myke Hurley: I have the huge one that you bought me, the black one with the blue bands that go around it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's the Anderson Penn special model, and I can't remember which model number that is. I like the Model 02 and 20 over that one, I think, in the end. And then Pocket 66 for the Pocket model. So, the Pocket 45 is super hot at all these shows. It's smaller than the 66, and has the flat caps and flat end caps, and it's really cool. I have one of those. I still prefer the 66 just because of the size. So, yes, yours is called the 19. Thank you, Myke. FC Guru. I'm going to put that on your chat name, InkDependence. InkDependence slash FC Guru. Except it's really your wife. I know you're just faking.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, I might buy a new Franklin... I've been eyeballing some Franklin Kirstoffs. I don't think I bought any at a show this year, so I might have to get over to one of those prototypes to see what's up. I'm telling you, this could be a bad show for the wallet, Myke. I'm ready for San Francisco. I hope everyone else is, and I hope to see you all there. Starting Thursday night, I'll be there. So, come by, say hi, and tell me what I should buy.

Myke Hurley: All right. If you want to find our show notes for this week, head on over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 271. Thanks again to Squarespace for supporting this week's show, and thank you. If you've become a member, go to relay.fm slash membership to find out more and sign up. We'd really appreciate it. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to knock.co, penaddict.com. He is at dowdyism on Twitter and at penaddict on Instagram. I am at imike on both Instagram and Twitter if you want to find me there. As I mentioned, I won't be here next week. I'm going to be taking a vacation, but Brad is going to have an extra special guest. So special, nobody knows who they are yet. Oh, so top secret. The most special guest possible. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.