The Pen Addict 277/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	277
Title:	A Low Chance of Succeeding
Release Date:	October 4th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 277
Audio File:	Audio Episode 277
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 277
Length:	6868 min <br />1.133 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 277. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Bonfell. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hi, Myke Hurley. How are you? I'm very well. How are you? Good, good. It's been a good week here. I had a nice, quiet weekend, and there was an event over in London I didn't make it to, but I'm wondering if you made it to the London Writing Equipment Show this past weekend?

Myke Hurley: The London Writing Equipment Show, yes. I popped by.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and how was it? How'd it go? Give me your show report.

London Pen Show

Myke Hurley: It was the London Pen Show. Honestly, it was no different. Every time I go, I kind of hoped that the show was going to be a little bit more modern, like every time, but it kind of fails to do that. There are the same amount of modern pens and companies every year, right? So, like, you might get a vendor or two that's selling Twisbees and Lamys and some that's selling, like, Luchterm, and then you've got some that sell good inks, like, all the shimmery inks were there, all the Diamines, all the Geobands, all the KWZ inks were there. I saw some Sailor Gentile, and I can't remember the name of the vendor that had all of these inks, but it was, like, a ton of really great ink and stuff like that. But there's just a real lack of interesting pens for me at the London Writing Equipment Show. Like, John Twist was there again, and I very nearly walked away with a Twist pen. It was, like, it was dangerous. It was one of those pens that has two nibs, right? One on either end, and, like, two filling sections, like, two, and it was two, like, demonstrators, like, touching each other. Very close to buying that, but I pulled myself away at the last minute.

Myke Hurley: And then the rest of it is just, like, Parker 51s everywhere. Like, it's just, you know, tray after tray after tray of Parker pens. And then you get, like, the parts bins. And, of course, Sarge is there, right? But, like, unless you're ready to drop a grand, you're not going to walk away with anything from his table. You know, because he has a lot of interesting stuff, but, like, his really interesting stuff is, I understandably, really expensive. Yeah. Yeah. You know, what I want to see is what I see at pen shows in the US, right? Like, where there is all of this stuff, but there are also more people like John Twist, right? Because there are loads of people in the UK that are making pens, like, putting them on Kickstarter. You know, like, where's a Johto? Why aren't they at this pen show? Right? Exactly, yeah. And it's so frustrating. I mean, it even comes down to, right, we get there, we go to get in, go to pay. They won't take card, just take cash. Hmm. And it's like, you understand what's going on here, right? Like, what this is all about, right? Like, and the amount of money that people are going to be putting in there. Like, so it's like where the ATM, don't even know where an ATM is. Like, it's such a, it feels like such a, you know what it is? It is what it is, and I'm expecting it to be something different.

Brad Dowdy: Well, it's, yeah, it's the conversation we've had over here of transitioning into a different type of selling realm. Do they have this pen show more than once a year? There's multiple, I don't know that this particular organization that puts this on does more than one show, but I know there's some more regional shows around England.

Myke Hurley: There are, there are, like, we saw advertisement for the Newcastle pen show and stuff like that. But this one's the big one. But this is the London one. I mean, I don't know if it's a big one, Brad, but it should be, right? Like, it's the London show.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I watched the video online posted by, I believe it's Grand Mia Pins, and it was basically just a walking around the show for, like, 10 minutes. There really wasn't any talking. It was just, like, a visual. The place was packed. It was packed to the hilt.

Myke Hurley: It's always like that, which is something that makes me so sad because it's so busy, right?

Brad Dowdy: And if you haven't, if you haven't seen this video, I just want to give people a size relation. If you've been to the Chicago pen show, it's, like, that big. It's pretty big. Like, there's a big ballroom, there's some side rooms, hallway stuff, and it looked like a zoo, to be quite honest.

Myke Hurley: Yep. And it's like that. It's been, every time I've gone, it's been like that, right? It's always difficult to move through the aisles. Like, people are there because they want to check out what's going on. But, I mean, my personal opinion is that there just isn't enough variety of vendors. Like, there are too many tables of people that have brought their small collection to sell. You know, which is great, and there should be a place for that. Like, definitely. But, in my opinion, like, there is no reason that Atlanta should be the size that it is. Like, even when we started there, with London being the size and variety that it is.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Right? Like, I feel like there should be more going on. Like, the London pen show should be a huge pen show. It should be the pen show of Europe. Right? Like, and it frustrates me that it's not.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think there's some other big European shows that get more run than the London show. I think the one in Madrid, I think, supposedly pretty big. I think, I don't know if it's the one in Netherlands or the one in Germany. One of those is pretty big. I don't know if it's Tilburg, maybe one of those. But, yeah, it seems like this should be the premiere up and coming. Like, let's do things that plan more to the future than getting our buddies together. Which is, I guess, kind of what you're saying?

Myke Hurley: I think it's just in the past. Like, I think it's just this is the way it's always been. And they have let a lot of the social media stuff just pass them by. Right? Sure. And a lot of the stuff that's going on now. Like, I saw people tweeting about it and stuff. Like, cult pens, you know, they're not there. Right. Right? The first time that I ever went there, the UK retailer, the writing desk, was there. And I bought an Edison from them. But they're not there anymore. And so, I don't understand it. Right? Like, it seems so peculiar to me. I feel like there should be those retailers should be there in the same way that you'll get, like, you know. What is the name of Jimmy's company? At the Atlanta show?

Brad Dowdy: His proper company is Total Office Solutions.

Myke Hurley: Right? So, like, they're there with, like, just a vast array of stuff because they're a big vendor who can do that. Right. And there are huge vendors that operate out of the UK that could be at these shows. Like, I don't know what it is. Like, I don't know if it's, like, the US pen show culture is different. I mean, it probably doesn't help that it's not even called the London pen show, which is just wild to me. Like, it's... Everybody calls it the London pen show, but they refuse to acknowledge that. It's like... I'm just gonna... Look, I'm really sorry, everyone. But, like, the Writing Equipment Society is not a brand name. Right? Like, it's not a thing. I'm not gonna win with this. Like, the only way I can... The only way I can make this better is to do it myself, and I'm just not gonna do that right now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. All right. So, before I want... You have a couple products to talk about from this show besides the twist, and I have one I want to talk about. But I want to mention a post. I believe his name's Anthony. It's UK Fountain Pens. And he wrote a post called Losing My Pen Show Virginity. He was at this show this weekend. And I want to read one little paragraph from his that I think you feel exactly similar to. So, he says, There were probably 10,000 pens in the room, 80% of them vintage, lots of Parkers and Schafers. I found it helped me to ignore the vintage pens almost completely and pick out a few things I wanted to focus on. But interestingly, there wasn't much in the way of accessories, even ink. William Hanna was there, and I saw some Leuchtturm paper, but it was pretty much all pens. So, not only was it all pens, it was mostly vintage, which is fine. Like, I like to look at and shop for vintage pens. But that was it from table to table. There was no one selling really much ink, no one selling much paper. Is that pretty... I mean, you saw the same thing?

Myke Hurley: 100%. Like, there was stuff, but there wasn't a lot of it. Right?

Brad Dowdy: Very minimal choice. Nothing that struck your fancy as, Oh, this is new, or Oh, I've heard about this, and I should pick some up. Nothing like that. Just your standard...

Myke Hurley: Well, like I said, there was this one vendor that had a bunch of the sparkly stuff, right? The stuff that is cool right now. Like, there was... I can't remember the vendor's name, but it was one vendor who had a bunch of ink that was cool. Like, it looked like a fresh, young company, right? Like, that was the type of company I expected to see more of. I wish I would have written down who it was now.

Brad Dowdy: Well, now that I think about it, why isn't Diamant at this show? That's a UK company. They're a massive company.

Myke Hurley: This company had a lot of Diamant ink. It even had Noodlers ink, right? Like, they had everything, you know, that you would ideally want.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: But they were right at the very back, sandwiched between, like, six vintage tables, right? Like... Mm-hmm. And again, like, I really don't want to rag on the fact that there's vintage pens, because, like, it's totally fine, but there needs to be a balance. Like, there has to be a balance. Because, look, let's face it, most of these vintage tables, they have the same stuff. Like, it's just in varying condition and varying prices. Mm-hmm. And, you know, and every now and then, you'll pick out a diamond, right? Like, there'll be something in there that you've never seen before. Right. But when you're just scanning the tables, it's much and much the same. And it's just a frustration to me, because the first time I went, it was fun, because it was different. But every subsequent time, it's been more frustrating, right? Because it's like it's refusing to acknowledge the world outside. So did you purchase anything? No. The reason I didn't buy the twist pen was because I stood and stared at a Sailor Emperor for like 15 minutes. So I'm looking at this picture.

Expensive Pens

Brad Dowdy: So I'm going to put this in, this will be in the show notes. Yeah. This is quite the pen, Myke. Yeah. Yeah. So this is very much a staring at for 15 minutes pen.

Myke Hurley: Like, I get it. It was 900 pounds.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, that seems completely reasonable for that pen. From what I'm looking at in that picture.

Myke Hurley: John Twist had a couple. He had like two different ones. This was one of them. And he was selling it. It was a pen show special. It was like 900 pounds. And I was standing and looking at it for so long, because I knew it was a fair deal. Right? Like, I was looking at it, and I was like, if I'm ever going to get something like this, like, this would be it. But I just, I can't part with that right now. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. For sure. That's really pretty.

Myke Hurley: And again, it's like, you know, every time I get into that bracket, I think of all the other pens that I want to own that cost that amount of money. Yeah. And it makes it so difficult. But I'm not kidding, Brad. Multiple minutes, I was just looking at it. I didn't touch it. I was just looking at it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's where you, what you do. So I've learned at pen shows that if you touch it more than once, you're going to buy it. Yeah. Right? So you don't touch it in the first place, you're covered. But once you pick it up that second time, you're probably spending money and you may not want to spend money. So that's a word to the wise there.

Myke Hurley: And it had the limited edition, what are they called? The special nibs.

Myke Hurley: Oh, wow.

Brad Dowdy: That makes it even a, that makes it even a better price. I mean, it's not, by no means is this a value, but it was certainly reasonably priced for what it actually is.

Myke Hurley: It had the medium fine, like the MF nib I could put, I could have it with, but yeah, I didn't, I didn't pick it up. I didn't try it because I knew, I knew what would happen. Right. So it's like, well, that just stays in the box and I'll stare at it. And then it was like, because I was, I was like dead set on buying the, what are they called when there's two nibs? Is there a name for them? Like, what do you mean? Like stacked on top of each other? No. When there's like the, the, the, the pens where they have a nib on each side and a, an ink for it's just a double sided pen. So say that. Well, so I, I was like dead set on getting that. It's one of the first pens I saw when I went in because I made a beeline for the twist table. But because I didn't buy this pen, I decided I wasn't going to buy any pen and we just left.

Myke Hurley: I bumped into a few pen addict listeners on the way out the door there, which was funny. Oh, nice. Like I didn't, I didn't see anybody the whole time. I was like, oh, okay. Like it must've just been a fluke clutched yet. And then just, as I was walking out, I just bumped into like a handful, a small handful of people. It was quite funny.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's great. That's great. So I saw in these videos and in the, um, in the notes for the, uh, the blog post I just read, the coned giraffe. Did you happen to stumble all across this at the show?

Myke Hurley: I saw, um, the vendor that had coned pens. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And twerp or pin world. Yeah. It was one of them.

Myke Hurley: They had a lot of them and it was pretty busy and I'm not massive on coned pens. So I didn't really bother looking. So I'm sure that if I would have paid attention, I would have seen this.

Brad Dowdy: So I updated the link in the show notes. So I had one originally, but I put in the actual one. Have you seen this red one?

Myke Hurley: Um, let me do it. Yeah, I did. Go take a look at that. Yeah, I did see it. That was, I didn't pay attention to it seriously, but I like, they had a bunch, they had like a few of these red pens in a big illuminated case.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like I don't get this pen. Like I'm cool with the big, long desk type pen style, but this is a capped extraordinarily long pen. I haven't looked at the dimensions. It's gotta be seven to eight inches long. I'm guessing. I, it's absolutely insane how long and skinny this pen is. And I, I, I don't know, someone can explain it to me maybe, but I'm not, I'm not understanding the need for this pen. Um, and it's certainly expensive. Like, and I love what Kona does. I'm still waiting to get the one that I want. And I just haven't bought it yet. Cause it's like all their pens, they're expensive, but I don't get the giraffe. Like sometimes like just because you can do it, I don't know if it means that you should, you know, it seems like one of those things like, oh gosh, it's, it's boggling my mind. I'm sorry. I'm kind of rambling about it, but I really don't know what to do with this. Um, yeah, I guess, I guess I'll do nothing with it because it's not for you.

Pen Size

Myke Hurley: I expect honestly that these pens are like the bigger the pen, the more important you are at the table, right? Like when I look at some of this stuff, I'm like, it's not for us. It's for executive, right?

Brad Dowdy: It's one of those man, one of those man spreading pens.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's like the pen version of man spreading. It's like, I'm just going to have the biggest pen at this table. And like, it sounds like I'm making a joke, but I'm not, I'm being deadly serious. Like, right. There's this whole bracket of pens that are like this, right? Like all of those like Mont Blancs, the size of Billy clubs, like, right. You know, just these monstrous things because it makes you look good, right? Like it's like every six, $700 Mont Blanc rollerball. Yeah. It's like, what's going on? Like, why? You know, like this, it doesn't make a difference how much it is. The refill's still the same. It's like, it's that kind of stuff. It's like, it doesn't make sense to me and you because it's not for what we enjoy.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah. You know, I just, I wanted to bring that up because I'm, I'm in trouble wrapping my head around that. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I didn't pay close attention to it, but I do remember seeing, cause I do remember seeing Conant, a red Conant, a couple of red Conants in a case and I expect this was one of them.

Brad Dowdy: So that'd be it. Cause it was a special version for this company. So they've been doing some limited edition ones. Like they have a great orange looking one from Fanta Plumo, but I'm, I'm holding off for the, the one that I want specifically that orange one's hard to, hard to pass up though. So, so anyway, well, I, you know, I was going to say, well, I hope you had a good time, but and I think you did, but I think it's, it's just interesting. Like there, there's definitely more that you and maybe our audience would like to see. But on the other hand, the show promoters certainly had a bang up day or weekend just looking at that crowd. So what's their impetus to change?

Myke Hurley: This is what's annoying to me. Right. And I don't, I don't necessarily, you know, I don't wish them ill will. Right. No, gosh, no, no, no, none of us do. The show is, as I'm saying, it is what it is. I just wish for more.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You know, one last, one last thing before we move on and welcome a wonderful new advertiser to the show. When I was watching that video, I saw so many vendors from the U S that I knew, like a lot of people, a lot of vendors that were at the DC show and do other shows like Cliff Harrington was there. The guy I bought my last vanishing point from was there. I can't remember. I'm blanking on his name. I saw Ann who's putting on the St. Louis pen show there.

Myke Hurley: That's even more frustrating to me then. Yeah. I saw traveling.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So they were all, I saw tons of people I knew there. I saw David Nishimura there. You know, there was just lots of, lots of familiar faces from the U S scene and circuit, you know, making their way over there. So anyway, I just wanted to point that out. Go watch that video. It's if you, you'll get a good idea of the size of the show. But that was the most interesting thing to me. Like I want to understand the size of the show. And I got to say it's, it's pretty big compared to, you know, a lot of shows in the U S I'd say it's definitely probably bigger than Atlanta or at least on par with not bigger than Atlanta. No way.

Myke Hurley: The Atlanta ballroom is the, the, just the main room where, where me and you are. It's way bigger.

Brad Dowdy: Really? Okay. Then I think it's just a little bit thrown off. Then in Chicago, then it's definitely not as big as Chicago because Chicago is bigger than Atlanta.

Myke Hurley: So like both of those rooms, the Atlanta rooms, like from when we started going there, they're both bigger rooms. Okay. Then, then the one primary room. Yeah. Yeah. Cause there's only one room and then there's like two hallways. Gotcha. But yeah, Atlanta is definitely bigger than this. They cram a lot into the space. Um, and I think that makes it look even more busy, but like Atlanta is larger because Atlanta has probably as many vintage, uh, people, right? Like vintage salespeople, but then it has all of the other stuff as well. Like even when we started going right, like Franklin Christophe, you know, stuff like that. Right. Um, so like there may be actually fewer vendors in Atlanta, but there's more stuff to buy in Atlanta. Right. Sure. Cause people take multiple tables, which I don't really think is a thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Gotcha. I see what you're saying. Except Sarge. He just needs to have the show by himself.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. He, he, he has like three or four tables or something. Yeah. I understand.

Brad Dowdy: He's the man. He's the man. I love Sarge. All right. So let's, uh, let's change the subject and talk about our new good friends at Bomfell, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I want to tell you about Bomfell. They are the online personal styling service dedicated to finding the right clothes for you. If you are a modern man, or, you know, a modern man who you think could do with a refresh to their wardrobe, maybe to streamline the stressful parts of having to buy clothes. Bomfell is the service for you with Bomfell. You can update your look with brand new items and refresh your wardrobe. When you sign up, you'll be paired with a stylist, your own stylist, who will hand select items that they think will work for you. They look through menswear collections around the world and find the clothes that they think you will look great in. You only pay for what you keep and your returns are free. So it's a smart way to shop. Bomfell is completely flexible. You can push up, delay, or skip shipments at any time. All you do when you sign up, you tell them your measurements and they will look for clothes that they think that you're going to look great in based on some questions that you answer for them. You get an email from your stylist of all of your selections. So you can take a look through. You can change anything. You can cancel it if you want to. You have 48 hours to do this from when you get the email from them with all the style selections. Then when your clothes arrive, you have seven days before any payment's taken. So you can try it all on, get some feedback from loved ones, you know, feel good in the stuff and send back anything that you don't like. You're in total control. So Brad, I know that you have worked with a Bomfell stylist and I'm interested to know what your experience has been.

Brad Dowdy: It's kind of crazy and in a good way. So I worked with a stylist and what you do when you set up your account, you talk, you go through like this quiz thing where you, you know, have check boxes and fill in the blank forms about your body shape and size. And those who know me, you know, I am moderately tall and probably more than moderately wide. So I'm not the easiest to fit clothes on, especially from a lot of these, you know, online companies that are in this type of business. With Bomfell, I was able to see that they actually had clothes in my size that would fit me, that would look good and I get to try them before I commit to buying them. So once I filled out all this information, the stylist got back to me and, you know, just asked if I had any questions and I got it and it had a pants, pair of pants, a t-shirt and a long sleeve button up shirt. And I just started dying laughing. It's like this perfect thing for me. It was khaki jeans. So not pants, but, you know, jeans and khaki color, a navy blue t-shirt and a gray plaid, of course, cloth button down shirt that you wear over the top. So it's an outfit, right? They didn't just give me individual clothes. They gave me an outfit to put together. And I thought it was awesome. I just died laughing. And even better, I tried on the clothes and they all fit. Like I didn't have to send anything back. Like I'm not an easy person to fit. You know, once I find shirts or pants that I like, I tend to buy the same thing because I know they're going to fit me because I'm a challenge to fit.

Brad Dowdy: They all fit me. I didn't send one of them back. And like, I'm excited to see what they can do in the future. So I'm super, super happy so far.

Myke Hurley: Can't get any better than that. It's time to upgrade your wardrobe and feel great in the clothes that you wear. Go to bombfell.com slash penaddict. That's B-O-M-B-F-E-L-L dot com slash penaddict. And you will get $25 off your first purchase. That's bombfell.com slash penaddict for $25 off your first purchase. Bombfell. Open and close. We would like to thank Bombfell for their support of this show and RelayFM. All right. So fancy, fancy Brad time. Fancy, fancy Mr. Fancy over here.

Brad Dowdy: My fancy Bombfell gear.

Content Partnership

Brad Dowdy: I had a little announcement to make on the blog yesterday. This has been months and months in the works trying to figure out what we wanted to do. But our good friend, good friend of the show, good friend of the community, Bruce Iman, has been getting me in touch with a Japanese stationery web magazine. They don't call themselves a blog. Called My Boon.

Brad Dowdy: And they do. I've been following them for a while. And I love like everything that they review. I was like, oh, this is like the perfect stuff for me. And Bruce is like, well, I've met with these people. I've been on their podcast. And we should do something together. We should figure out a way to work together. And I'm like, I'm all for this. You know, anything I can do to cross over into that market is like right up my alley of things I want to do with my life. You know, get involved in the Japanese stationery market. So we talked about it. And what we're going to start with is a monthly article that My Boon will write and I will post on the Pen Addict. So Bruce will be doing the translations. It'll be on Japanese stationery. Well, we'll do it once a month. And then we're going to kind of see how it goes. You know, I think it's going to go well. I certainly intended it's going to go well. And that might lead to me having content on their blog. It might lead to some other collaborations. Kind of everything's open right now. But we're going to start with kind of a content sharing deal up front just to kind of get the ball rolling, see what the feedback is going to be like, see how the process is, you know, see what the workflow is like, you know, for Bruce, who's having to translate a lot of this stuff. So it's very cool. You know, I know people have a lot of questions and I don't necessarily have a lot of answers because it's just going to be some blog posts for now. And then whatever comes from that, well, we'll just see. We'll all see together what happens down the line. There's certainly nothing planned other than getting this ball rolling and see where it leads to. So I'm really excited to have them aboard.

Myke Hurley: I love the idea. Just the phrase of like content partnership. It makes you sound so fancy.

Brad Dowdy: I know. This is kind of a fancy announcement. It was even like up on display at like the stationary conference. They had like a slide. What is this thing?

Myke Hurley: Where was this?

Brad Dowdy: In Japan. In Japan. And I was on the like the.

Myke Hurley: But like what was the conference though?

Brad Dowdy: It was a stationary conference. I forget the name of it. Okay. It was an actual stationary conference. Like not like a pin show. Just like a conference. Like a game conference would have, you know, like an E3 type of thing. I'm guessing it was like a TV. Not like that size or scope of course. But yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's like an industry event, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. That's a good way to put it. Thank you. I was struggling there with the word.

Myke Hurley: This is exciting to me, man. Like. It's cool. It really opens up some doors for you. And I'm excited about that. It also makes it one step closer to when you're going to Japan one day.

Brad Dowdy: Well, like Bruce, Bruce wrote that. Bruce wrote that announcement and he's the one that put in the pin attic live at the Budokan, you know, which is the famous arena over there where you, all of your favorite bands have played and issued their live albums from. My favorite live at the Budokan is Blurs. That's my favorite one. So yeah, you can find lots of X band live at the Budokan. So pin attic live at the Budokan. Yep. Me and you.

Myke Hurley: I'm really intrigued to see how this turns out, right? Like it's, and I, obviously we don't really have a lot of grasp for what it's going to look like yet because nothing's been posted. So I'm really keen to see what type of content we're going to see, because I expect it's not just going to be the Japanese take on the same pens. Like it's not, you know, it's not gonna be like, oh, here's the review from the American guy. And here's the review from the Japanese person. Like I can't imagine it's going to be like that. So I'm, I'm really keen to see what it's going to be like.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Me too. Me too. So, um, I appreciate Bruce thinking of me when this was coming together and, um, I, I couldn't be more excited to see what happens with this. So it's going to be fun. So, yeah, that will be, I think we're going to, we're trying to, we're shooting for our first article this month, but, uh, you know, as always to be determined, but you will see it, uh, as soon as, as soon as I get it and we'll, we'll get it going. But, um, definitely let me know your thoughts on this when you start seeing them pop up on the blog and what you think about them. So we've got a couple of news and follow up items. One of them is our good friend Squishy Inc. who did the Hippo Noto Kickstarter, which I am a proud backer of. I think I ordered two from them, uh, during the Kickstarter, they are open for late pledges. So they have a, they have a ton of extra notebooks. If you did not get in on the Kickstarter and you are interested in a very cool, large notebook filled with Tomoe River paper, this is kinda, kinda your way to go. These, um, these look good. We got to see the prototypes at the DC pin show. I was thrilled with them. So if you were late to the Kickstarter party and are still interested in getting the Hippo Noto, you can get them now. And, uh, I, I think you should and, uh, help support Crystal and the Hippo Noto project. And they're such good people. And, uh, I would love to see that, uh, continue to be a thing.

Myke Hurley: I'm very excited about mine arriving because, uh, I am about halfway through filling up my seven C's Crossfield that I've had for a while. Um, it's like my favorite just scribbling paper or, you know, my, it's the notebook that I grab if I'm watching a movie and need to take notes on it or whatever. Or when I watch Firefly with Casey, I take all my notes in my Crossfield. So, like, that, that will eventually, I'm going to use the Hippo Noto for that when, when mine arrives. So, like, I'm really, really excited about it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And you'll be a good one to compare the two because there are different formats, right? You know, the, um, Crossfield's straight up A5. And this one's a different dimension and more pages. So it'll be interested to see how it works out. But I think it's going to work out super well. So, I mean, I, I just, I really liked what the colors and the build of them from DC. So I'm just, uh, I'm just ready to get it. So they'll be coming soon. They posted, Crystal, uh, posted some, um, pictures of all the boxes of notebooks, like, in her living room. So I know they're starting to ship now.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, I'm keen to do a, well, on the show that to do a comparison between these two notebooks because they, they kind of fulfill a similar, uh, role, I think. Yep.

Podcast Mentions

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So the next two topics, Myke, uh, one of them, I cheated on you. The other one, I lied to you. So are you going to break up with me?

Myke Hurley: Wow. This is, yeah, I already know what you've been up to, but yeah, go on, fill everybody in. I see all this stuff. I got my eye on you all the time.

Brad Dowdy: Excuse me. So I cheated last week and was on another podcast called the Productivity in Tech Podcast. Listener, uh, Jay Miller, um, asked me on, we, he's, uh, he submitted some Ask TPA questions before and we've gotten to talking. And I heard him on the relay, um, show with Aline Sims and, and K Tempest Bradford originality. So I heard him and talking about bullet churning. I was like, oh, this guy's pretty interesting. You know, uh, so I started following him on Twitter. Then saw he had a podcast and I started listening to his podcast and I liked it. And he asked me if I wanted to come on. So we worked it out this week and it published on Monday this, uh, this week. And it was a good time talking to him. So I posted that and we'll have that link in the show notes. If you want to listen to me talk about, uh, talk, talked a lot about community in there and, uh, how awesome the Pen Addict community is and just the stationary community and hobby as a whole is. So it was a, it was a fun talk. So I appreciate Jay having me and fun fact. I did not know he was originally from where I currently live in Macon, Georgia. So he is out in California now, but he, uh, he knows, he knows my stomping grounds here. So that was fun to talk about as well.

Brad Dowdy: So I lied to you. So that was my cheat. My lie was the Pen personality quiz. I said, we take during the show this week. And I was like, I think I'll do that for the refill members instead for the Pen Addict membership. And it was fun and I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I, I lied to you, but, um, I wanted to see. If you took the quiz and what you thought of it.

Myke Hurley: I took it. I'm pleased that we didn't wait for it. Kind of the same. Yeah. Um, it isn't really, uh, what I thought it was going to be. Like I was expecting to, the answer to be like, here's the type of Pen person you are. Right. But it just seemed like a regular personality quiz that gives personality types, like analytical, thoughtful, all those kinds of things. Right. And then just had some like Pen things thrown in there. And I have no idea how any of it related to the other. And then also I got to find out what type of animal I want to be. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I didn't really get it. It was lost on me, honestly.

Brad Dowdy: So it was pretty much a straight up personality test that involved pens. It didn't have anything to do, like you said, with, you know, what your pen personality would be. So far, I don't know anyone that took it that hasn't turned out to be analytical. So I'm interested to see if there's other answers because I was getting emails saying, I answered so many different questions than, I answered so many questions differently than you. And I got analytical as well. So maybe that's the only answer that comes out in the pen personality quiz. And if so, then, uh, it's even more of a joke, but it was fun for about a minute. And, um, you know, I got a couple of things out of it, but really not much. So kind of, I'm glad we didn't do it live on the show. Although the, the animal talk would have been, would have been interesting. What animal did you choose? There was gorilla, lion, dog. What was the first one?

Myke Hurley: Uh, I don't know. It was a gorilla, a lion, a dog, and there was one of them. I don't remember what it was. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I think it was an owl. It was an owl. Owl. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I chose owl just for funsies. Cause I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Right. I chose dog. So whatever. It was fun. Y'all go take the quiz. And there is people in the chat room say they got, uh, uh, expressive driver. Uh, so yeah, that's, that's interesting. So good. I'm glad some, uh, some other people got some different things. The next one, Myke is one of my favorite times of the year to sit on the sidelines and watch as I do with NaNoWriMo, as I do with national writer letter writing month. I do it in October, inktober in October more than any other, because it's such a visual, um, project. I guess you would call this that people get involved in all across the internets. Um, one of my favorite artists and, uh, someone I talked to on occasion, if he needs some new not goods, we should, we ship, uh, Mr. Jake Parker, some index cards. He's a fan of, um, he has this whole project. That's kind of taken a life of its own called inktober 31 days, 31 drawings. And he kind of leads it up and gives you a prompt list for every day and people will take it either literally to his prompts or we'll just use inktober to do a drawing every day of something that they're interested in, not necessarily the prompts, but following just the whole inktober pattern of making a drawing every day and sharing it. So Brian Draghi, who is a big follower of the show and reader, and I followed him for years. He actually wrote some guest posts for the pen addict. He's doing my coolest one that I've seen so far for inktober. He's doing sketches of his EDC objects. So it's like the one I clicked up today is day three of EDC carrying gadgets. So he has a lighting cable and, uh, lightning cable adapter with his Copic multiliner and he's done the Lamy Pico. He's done a knife. So I, I, I love looking at inktober and I love going through the hashtags and, uh, looks like one of our good friends is doing this as well.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, there's, there's a bunch of people that do this stuff and I will say that, uh, so this sketch, Brian's sketch shape, right? Like is sketch scape sketch scape. Sorry. Their series is unbelievable. Like it's so cool. And they are wonderful. I need to follow him on Instagram because I've been seeing you retweeting them. They are. Cause I love them. They look like they're just jumping out of the page. It's really wonderful. Um, I would say they're so simple. Yeah. Yeah. I would say just friend of the show, Tiffany Arment. She is, she's doing it this in an interesting way. Um, she's just doing little sketches to put in her son's lunchbox. Oh, now that's cool. And they, they're really cute. And she's been tweeting them out every day as well. So, um, I'll put a link in the show notes to, to her Twitter account. So you can go and see those. It really flies around. Inktober is one of those things that I've seen popping up in more and more places. But there's, there's also this part of me that's like, oh my God, there's so many things. Right. Cause I, I also follow the game design world. Right. And there's also a thing right now called Blocktober that's going on, which is where game developers are sharing, um, early versions of the designs of their games. So like, even like Naughty Dog have been sharing, um, images of like Uncharted, like really early on. And it's just kind of like, there's, there's so many things. There's so many, there's so many months. Right. And then NaNoWriMo. Cause that's where it all starts. Like NaNoWriMo is the originator of this, right? The National Novel Writing Month where you write something every day.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm sure there was something before that. Sure. But like, I think the thing that sparked this stuff now, it's NaNoWriMo.

Myke Hurley: I'm sure there's a, there is another one. Oh yeah. Cause there's the letter writing month thing too, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yep. IncoWriMo. IncoWriMo. It's February. And then during the summer is National Letter Writing Month is like July or June. And that one doesn't get a lot of run because people do, people really go all out for the February IncoWriMo, um, for the letter writing. But yeah, I, it's cool. There are a lot. Um, I participate in none because I'm just that way. I don't know. I, I, I'm, I'm tough with a commitment, I guess. It's hard for me to commit to these things, but I love, I love the fact that these types of things exist and then I can live through things and go, boy, I wish I could draw like Brian and, and do my Lamy Pico just like he does. Cause it's really cool. So I love it. Y'all keep it up. Everyone who participates in these things, share them with us. And, uh, I'll be retweeting a bunch throughout the month. The ones that catch my eye, cause I have a lot in my Twitter feed and I think it's really cool.

Myke Hurley: All right. Should we take a break? Let me do some last TPA.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, boy. We, uh, I keep adding to this list and not narrowing it down. So I'll see what we can do this week.

Myke Hurley: That's good. Also, uh, we need to, we need to bug people about field notes questions. So we'll do that in a moment. Yes. Just after I take a moment to thank Squarespace, uh, you want to enter the offer code ink, I N K a checkout and you'll get 10% of your first purchase. Squarespace lets you easily create the website that you have for your next idea. Make your next move with Squarespace. No matter what type of website you want to build, they are the all in one platform that will let you do it. If you want to get a unique domain name, you can do that. If you want to take advantage of award-winning templates that you can very easily customize, you can do that. If you want to add an online store to your website, you can do that. If you want to add everything that you need to create a portfolio or blog, a site for your band, a site for your business, Squarespace has all of it. All the functionalities there. If you need it, you can just turn on and turn off what you do and don't need. There's nothing to install. There are no patches to worry about. No upgrades needed. Everything is done within the web browser and you can design your Squarespace website. You can manage it on the go with their apps. It's fantastic. Squarespace have got you covered with 24 seven customer support and a rock solid system. They are the right choice for you today to start a website. Trust me. I have used them and continue to use them for, oh my God, it's got to be nearly 10 years now. Wow. And I wouldn't use anybody else because they are the company that I use to get stuff online. The Pan Addict is there. Knock.co is there. The RelayFM blog and store is there. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Squarespace version four was my first version. So however many years ago that is, it's got to be six or seven.

Myke Hurley: It's longer than that, man. Like seriously, longer than that. Like you're, you're probably on 10 like me.

Brad Dowdy: Roundabout. No, no. Cause the blog's only been around 10 and it had a couple stops before we landed on Squarespace. Close then, let's say. Close, close, close.

Myke Hurley: Squarespace plans start at just $12 a month. You can start a trial today. No credit card required. Just by going to squarespace.com. It's completely open. You can try everything out, play around. And then once you've got the website that you want, you can sign up for a plan and use the code Inc at checkout and you'll get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for this show. I'd like to thank Squarespace for the continued support of the pen addict and Relay FM Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

Brad Dowdy: And I want to thank the listeners for their continued support of us and using the code because I get asked for it pretty frequently. Say, hey, what's the code again for Squarespace? I'm setting up a new site. Boom. Inc. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Myke Hurley: So should we talk a little bit of scheduling and the field notes thing?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Let's do that before we get into Ask TPA. So due to our upcoming travels, the pen addict podcast recording schedule is a little bit off kilter for the next two weeks. So jot these down. This will be updated on the Relay FM show calendar as well. Our next recording will be Monday, the October the 9th. And what time is that show, Myke? Is that a 9 a.m. Or a 10 a.m.? 9 a.m. Eastern, Monday, October the 9th. We will be live at home still just like this, but we had to move it up because we were traveling later in the week. So mark a calendar for that.

Myke Hurley: And that episode will come out on, as usual, on the 11th, on Wednesday.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So if you want to listen live, listen in on Monday. That's when we're recording it. It will drop for everyone else to download on Wednesday, the 11th. The following Wednesday, we are not doing a normal episode where we get in front of our microphones at home and talk and share the recording. We're posting our interview with Jim Kudal and Brian Bedell of Field Notes fame. So you will get to hear our interview with them on the following Wednesday, which is the 18th. So that will be a show that will go live and you can download then. So do I have that pretty squared away?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. We may be able to stream live the Pen Addict recording, but there is a less chance of that than normal. So if we are going to be able to, we will let you know, but it's safe to assume we probably won't because this one's going to be just a little bit more tricky than usual. So just to let you know about that in advance.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So we're definitely going to try. There is a low chance of that actually succeeding. So you may just have to wait until Wednesday to hear the show, but I promise it will be worth it. So on that note, you should send us your questions for the crew at Field Notes. I think I have about three or four now so far. After last week, we asked for more. If you have any questions for Brian or Jim or me or Myke, we would love to have your questions for those guys. They're super interesting and do lots of fun stuff. So tweet them to us, email us, however you want. Yep. I'm collecting all those and we'll be ready to roll next week. Man, it's finally here. It's getting close.

Myke Hurley: I know. I have to say as well, I've started my preparation for the questions and it's fun for me to dust off my interviewing skills again. I don't get to do that so much anymore.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So I haven't started my prep yet. I'll probably do it this weekend. I'm thinking I should write all my questions in a sweet tooth.

Myke Hurley: Maybe just rip them off one by one when you lost them. Bring that.

Brad Dowdy: It's perfect. You just rip it. You just throw it over your shoulder. It's done. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see about that. So anyway. All right. Ask TPA. I had a couple of lengthy emails from last week that I wanted to get to because I thought there were some good questions that we can all benefit from or I can get some help from the listeners. So this first one's from Nancy. She says, hi, I've been listening to your podcast for about eight months and I'm slowly becoming a pen addict. I'm a hobby artist and first got into fountain pens because of some of the YouTube videos I watched with people sketching using fountain pens. So my first pen was a Duke 209 with a calligraphy nib. After I started listening to the pen addict, I got a Pilot Preppy. Then you were all talking about Susan Wirth and I watched a video of her demonstrating an italic nib and it looked cool. So to test the waters, I got a Pilot Plumix and I love the italic nib. I have converters for all of them and use Noodler's ink because I like to have waterproof ink in case I choose to use watercolors with my sketches. So obviously I'm budget minded and consider utility over beauty. Now here's what I want and I'm wondering if it exists. I would like black ink cartridges that are waterproof and I would like a pen with a broad italic nib that the cartridges fit in. I get a bit confused and concerned that I'll buy a pen, won't find the appropriate cartridges to fit it and I would like the cartridges for convenience. Can you help me? So this is a super particular question I had a hard time answering and the only things I'm coming up with are kind of roundabout answers because of the cartridge situation. So you can get black waterproof ink and cartridges, Sailor, Platinum, Faber-Castell, but the only ones that's not proprietary is the Faber-Castell, at least the only thing that I know of. So I'm looking for more cartridge-based waterproof inks. So the Faber-Castell Carbon Black is the only one I know that's an international. And I say that because Sailor and Platinum don't really have any options for budget stub or italic nibs. The only thing I can think of that does and can use an international cartridge are the Kaweco calligraphy pens, which you can buy a pen and it comes with a set of nibs, or you can buy a pen and a nib and buy extra nibs of different sizes. So you could use the Kaweco calligraphy pens and the Faber-Castell Carbon Black cartridges. And that's like all I could come up with on this question. So I'm open for more suggestions if you have them for Nancy. Tony in the chat room says Nemusine. That's a great call because they have stubs and italic nibs and will fit the international cartridges. So that's a good call. And they're pretty readily available too. You can get them, you know, at all your favorite pen vendors now, things like that. So yeah, so that's a good choice. But there's not a lot that are going to fit your waterproof black ink cartridges. So that's kind of the hang up here, you know, and I definitely get the utility aspect of it. So, you know, that's kind of that's the way to go, I think. So check out the Kaweco or the Nemusine and the Faber-Castell Carbon Black cartridges. And we'll have a link in the show notes to both of those items.

Brad Dowdy: So Ankum has a really good question. He says, I enjoy listening to your show and keep up the good work. Thank you. He says, I'm a student in high school and a Boy Scout and have ADD. One of the things I do because of my ADD is write things down that I need to remember in notebooks. For school, I've used composition notebooks, but I dislike them for use in Scouts because of their size. I would like something that I could fit in my Scout Pants cargo pocket, which is 6.5 inches square. I prefer a lined paper for this because it helps guide me when I'm quickly writing something down. It does not need to be waterproof because I'll mainly use it indoors, although the more durable it is, the better. I'll be writing in this book with a ballpoint pen, although it would be nicer than a standard pen. Finally, and in this case, least importantly, I generally like plain single colored notebooks and red or maroon are my preferred colors. Do you have any suggestions? So let me tell Ankum, number one, thank you for the email. And number two, it's amazing because of this is the type of detail that we're all about here at the Pen Addict, right? He's got everything that I need to know. And even though it's very specific and even though it's not a normal notebook situation, we can kind of find some things that would work. And what you want to do, Rodia makes square pads. They're mostly in graph. You know, I kind of think you might want to go with an A6 hardbound notebook like a Leuchtturm because they have them in cool colors like red and maroon. You can get them lined. They're going to be durable. They're not square, but they're going to fit in that pocket size. So the A6 size, I don't know if I said A5 a minute ago. I meant if I did, I meant A6. So it's a little bit smaller. It's going to fit in there and it's going to look really good, you know, for that type of style. And it's going to be able to withhold, you know, going in and out of your cargo pants just fine. So that's kind of where I would lean for this. But there's a lot of options in the A6 or memo book size for you to give it a shot. So thank you, Ankum.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So this one, Myke, I wanted to explore with you a little bit and see what you think. So this is from Alex. I think I've outgrown my first few fountain pens in the sub 50 range. And especially after seeing your updated top five list, I'm ready to spend probably one from either Sailor, Pilot or Platinum. The issue is I know these all have different nib fields and I don't yet know which one I want. I'd like to try them all first, but I don't live close to any pen shows and I can't think of any way to test these pens before I buy them. Are there any stores that have a sample program, maybe where they send me a couple of pens? I try them, then send them back. Or can you think of any other way to try pens if there are no pen shows nearby? So we have a business idea, Myke. So it's like Warby Parker, but for pens. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: I think it's a really good idea, except the problem of all of these things is, right? So like something like a Warby Parker, the reason they can do it is because the expensive part is the lenses. Yeah. That's the expensive part. So you can send the frames and like they're not the expensive part. Unfortunately, the thing that people like Alex want to try in a pen is the expensive part, which is the nib. That's the part you have to try.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I say this because I don't have a great answer for Alex. Like I, you know, people are suggesting, you know, well, just shop somewhere with a good return policy. And, you know, I think that's a pretty common thing to do. But not everyone's, you know, interested in doing that. But, you know, it's hard if you're not in a metropolitan area and there's no pen clubs around that you can get involved in and go check out other people's, you know, different pens and nibs and styles like that. And you can't get to a pen show, which I guess you probably can't because you're not in a metropolitan area. I don't have a great answer for this. You know, it would be a great idea to have Warby Parker for pens. But, yeah, the overhead to start something like that up would be astronomical. And I don't even know how you could do it because, like you say, it's these nibs that are, you know, kind of the kicker. And that's Alex's problem, right? We're trying to solve Alex's problem. How can he figure out what he wants? Because a Lamy 2000 is different than a Pilot and it's different than a Platinum. You know, all these are different. So how do you, you know, how do you get around that? And, you know, I don't have a great answer. Except starting a new business just for Alex.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So we have a new budget game, Myke. And we used to do these in the past. And I think this might be our lowest dollar one yet. So this is the $30 budget game. Derek is wanting to know. He says, I'm new to the obsession and I don't have much to spend. So here's a question. If you could recommend any number of pens to someone with a strict $30 budget, what pens would you choose? Could be 20 different gel pens or a single Lamy. Interested to hear what you think. So I don't have... Man, I wish I had like $35. I want to manipulate the rules a little bit. Because I would get... Honestly, I would get two pens. And it would be that simple for me. I would get a TWSBI Eco. And I'd get a Uniboss Signo DX. And the issue, the reason I hesitate is because I don't have money in my budget for ink.

Budget Game

Myke Hurley: Yeah. For the Eco. That doesn't count. So that doesn't count. You can't do it. Right? Because it's not $30 to get in the door. And it's not just cartridges. Right? So you could go to like $32. Right? If it's a pen with cartridges. But you're looking at least like $10 to get a good bottle of ink. Right? That you're going to need. Right.

Brad Dowdy: So I am taking out fountain pens completely. In that case. I'm not going to swap it for a Metropolitan. I would stick with the Signo DX. Some of my... Basically some of my top five pens. I'd get a Signo DX. I'd get a Secure Pigmo Micron. I'd get a Uniball Kura Toga. I'd get a Uniball Jetstream. And I'd probably get... Gosh. Which pad would I choose? Maybe one of the Morriman desk pads. Like the top bound A5 desk pad. To kind of get them to try all those different things. So that would be my list. So the DX. Kura Toga. Jetstream. Secure Pigmo Micron. And then a nice pad. And that will get you in well under $30. Probably closer around $20. Between $25 and $30. I would think. And you get a good variance there. You could even throw in a Platinum Preppy. And still probably stay under budget. If you wanted to try a fountain pen. But I'd almost... Like if I couldn't get the TWSBI Eco in ink. I would pass on the fountain pen. In one of the cheaper models. To be perfectly honest.

Myke Hurley: I would either recommend a Lamy Safari. And a couple. Usually Lamy Safaris come with a pack of ink. Honestly. Every time I've ever seen them. They just come with a box of ink. So you're already set there. Yeah. Lamy Safari. And... You know. I'd maybe go for like a Rodeo or something. Or... I would recommend Retro 51.

Brad Dowdy: Oh. That's a good call. Just get a real nice rollerball pen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So basically I would shop off of the type items on my top five list. And mix and match as needed. But if you can get a bottle... If you can weasel in a bottle of ink. I'd go DX Eco and... God. What's an... Like a Pilot Blue Black ink. Something like that. That's good. Something very basic. Something very basic.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I do. You know. I would. I think if I was pushing though. Like if you're new. If you're new. I would push more towards the Retro 51. Or Brad's multi-pack pick. Rather than going to a fountain pen. I think you should try out the other stuff first. You've got a $30 budget. I recommend for now. Stick into non-fountain pens.

Brad Dowdy: Myke in the chat room has a good one. The new Kaweco Perkyo. Which I didn't think about. I think I'd rather have that. Yeah. Over like the Metropolitan. Just for fun. You know. Even though I'd recommend the Metropolitan more than the Perkyo. That's a really good pen. It's only like $14. You can afford some other things in that realm. And you will get a lot of enjoyment out of that pen. I think it's a real fun pen. So.

Myke Hurley: That was a pen that Dana picked up at the pen show.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: But she didn't like how small the nib was.

Brad Dowdy: Oh. They're not that small. But yeah. I get it. I can get that. Proportionally. It does look weird. I think they're a little bit hooded. Right. They're like covered a little bit. Yeah. So. I can. I can see that. But like.

Myke Hurley: You can correct me if I'm wrong. But they're like the same nibs that they use in the smaller pens. Yeah. Right. So. So. It looks strange when you have a full body pen with a pocket size nib. It does look weird. Well. And because of the inset. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Next question from Anonymous. Myke. Not the Anonymous. Collective. No. This is Anonymous. Anonymous. Anonymous. Anonymous. Anonymous.

Myke Hurley: We help them out. Anonymous. We provide their stationery. Uh-huh. All the stationery needs. It's going to be provided for.

Brad Dowdy: We get Guy Fawkes masks in return. So Anonymous says. I like my 1.1 millimeter Lamy Stub Nib. But I just want solid color ink. No shading. No sheen. I think the unevenness of those attributes together with the varying line width make the page look messy. My taste will evolve. But for now. You know. He wants solid inks. There are many ways to identify shading inks. But I can't find list or reviews of inks that don't shade and don't have sheen. Could you tell us how to find those solid inks? I realize that real blacks is one answer. But how about all the other hues? Would I look for particular brands? Color category? Etc. So the place I'd start is your stock company inks. Like your basic Platinums. Your basic Lamy's. Your basic Pelicans. Not their premium brands. Which tend to have more shading and more shank. Like Pelican Edelstan. And Pilot Orozuzuku. And some of those things. So like the basic Pilot Blue. I guess that sheens a little bit. But like the Lamy Blue. Most of the Lamy inks don't sheen and don't shade that much. Unless you get a bright one like the Turquoise. And they're good. Yeah. Lamy inks are great. Yeah. I think they're fantastic. So what you're looking for is a saturated ink. Where the color is just kind of strong but flat. It doesn't have any of that extra shading. You know you can shop online. Or go to different stores online. Like Pen Chalet and Van Ness Pens. And Goulet Pens. And Anderson Pens. And pull up ink swatches. And you can find. Once you find kind of the brand and color of that ink. You can look at other colors in that brand's ink lineup. To see if they exhibit the same properties. And a lot of them do. So a lot of your basic line inks. Like Schaefer would be a fine one to start with. And like they have a great red. You know if you're looking for a red ink. But it's just very flat. No shade. No sheen. Something like that. And then you can look and see. Well do these other colors have it. I think Visconti is probably pretty good for that as well. So check out the very basic inks from these companies. They're entry level inks if you will. Because a lot of them will make premium inks. On top of their entry level inks. But the entry level inks are going to be your basic writing inks. Where you're going to get the properties that I think you're looking for.

Myke Hurley: Yeah I would recommend Pilot too. Like I've used a bunch of the Pilot ink and cartridges. Just the regular stuff. And I've been really happy with it. Like I have just regular. Like the Namiki ink I think is good. I mean I have a purple one that I've used for a long time in cartridges. But like I've found the performance of them to be good. And they're understated. It's not. I mean you know even the. I mean some of the Hiroshi Zukos are pretty good. But I see what you mean. Like it's still a dangerous line to pick from. Because there's some stuff that has some sheen in it. But yeah. I think that if you want to step it up. Maybe that's another place to look at. But I agree with you completely.

Pen Addict Logo

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So three more quick ones for this episode. Tommy Song wants to know. Would you consider changing the line paper on the Pen Addict logo to dot dash? Hashtag ask TPA. This is. We've had this question before. It's. And my business cards actually have a graph in the logo. Because we were able to pull that off on a letterpress. But digitally it doesn't work well. With any type of grid. Or dot grid. That I've seen in the background on those logos. I have samples of all my logos. With all kinds of grids and dots behind them. Lines look the best. So. You know. I'll make that sacrifice for the. For the good of the design. And so. No. It's not going to change to dot dash. But. You know. Our. We do make not co stickers with the logo. And then dot dash stuff behind it. Because. That works out pretty well. But the Pen Addict logo. It's sticking with lines for now.

Myke Hurley: It is. It is strange. Like thinking about that now. That it is lined. And. Yep. This is purely like. What the designer chose. Right. Like this is just what Frank. Well. No. But. Did.

Brad Dowdy: Well no. We had the conversation. I don't remember. Oh no. I have samples of grids and dots. Okay. Well let's do this. And it just doesn't look as good.

Myke Hurley: I think. It just doesn't. So. I like the lined. Because it makes it. More abundantly clear. What that's meant to be. If that was dots. Right. Or plain. It wouldn't look like paper anymore. Right. The lines. Makes it look like paper. And. Yep. That makes it more fun. And it's. One of the very subtle. Changes. Of the artwork. That I like. Is that everything else. Is pretty standard. And colored. But no. But the Pen Addict. Has lines across the middle. Right. Yeah. So. Yeah. And it fits. It does. It fits 100%. Right. Like it's done. Even though we hate lined paper. Right. Which is so funny. It makes it a good little in joke now actually. That I had not recognized until now. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Because I'll get asked about that every now and then. Because I got my business cards done by Anna and Bob. From Skylab Letterpress. And I chose grid on that because it worked on a letterpress instead of the lines. I was like yeah I'll do that a little different even though that's not the logo. I think it's fun. So I do get questions on that from time to time. All right. Todd was the impetus behind the top five most useful pens list when I did that a couple weeks ago. And he said you called it the top five most useful pens but realized no pencils made it. No pencils in a most useful list. And he says hashtag nitpicking with a little smiley face. So yeah. I thought about that a lot. So this is how my brain works. Like I felt for most useful pens I really need a pencil. But if I included a pencil it was going to be a mechanical pencil. And I didn't feel like I had to have one in that list. A woodcase pencil would not make the utility list even though it's probably one of the most utilitarian writing instruments in the world. Because there's extra things to consider such as a sharpener or an eraser and things like that. And I probably could squeeze one in there if I wanted to. But I would pick a mechanical pencil for that list before the woodcase pencil. And I don't know which one I would choose to be perfectly honest. I would probably choose the Pentel Sharp. Because it's just classic. It's durable. I mean it's been around for decades. It looks good. It feels good. It's going to take a beating. And you know you can get the erasers and whatever lead you want. I'd choose it probably over the Kura Toga. And I kind of feel even though the Rotring 600 is the pinnacle. It's too expensive to be in that list I feel like. It felt like it's not a fit. So I would probably if I went with a mechanical pencil in the top five most useful list. It would probably be the Pentel Sharp. Which is just a classic. It's the P20 lineup. So P205, P207, P209 for the lead diameters in there. So yeah. I think that's a good question. And it's something I really really considered. So there you go. Alright. Last one from Robo Jim. He wants to. This is also top five related. And he says interested in your take on this article following last week's revamp top five. So the article he sent me was the Wirecutter's The Best Pin article. So the best pin is listed as the Uniball Jetstream. And I'm not sure if Jim knows. But I helped write that article. So that's kind of my answer. I was part of the Wirecutter review process for this article. I would still pick the Uniball Jetstream for this article. Because I was trying to answer a little bit of a different question than what I necessarily do directly on the Pit Addict. I was trying to answer a question for someone who doesn't know anything about pens to walk into a store, get something that's going to change how they think about pens. And I think the Uniball Jetstream is that answer. Just for its consistency and its quality and its availability. So the Signo 307, while that's a pen I like more. And I might recommend to a lot of people for a lot of situations. The Jetstream is still the best. And it's still at the top of my top five pens on the store shelf article. So it would not change one iota on what this article states as the best pin as the Uniball Jetstream. I definitely still stand by that. Because of the features it has. Because of its availability. And because it's just going to provide a really, really good writing experience to anyone. No matter what. People are used to what a ballpoint pen feels like. And when they try this, it will change their idea of what a good pen can be. Where they may not get, you know, rollerballs or gel ink pens. They understand this. And I think that's why the Uniball Jetstream is at the top. No change.

Myke Hurley: I don't like it. That's fair. It's not my thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I really like the Jetstream. I use gel ink pens more than the Jetstream. But I like the fine Jetstreams. So there you have it. It's the pen for the people, Myke. Yeah. We got to get them hooked. You know, we got to set that hook. Reel them in. And then they're addicted. And then they listen to a podcast about pens. Which I can't believe is a thing. No, it's the best thing. It's the thing that should exist. It's the best thing. It's the, it's, this is, this is the world we live in. All your weirdness belongs here.

Myke Hurley: If you want to find our show notes for this week, there's a place that you can go to get those, of course. And that is relay.fm slash penaddict slash 277. Thanks to Squarespace and Bonfell for their support of this week's episode. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, knock.co. I saw you were shipping out all of the seed cases over the weekend.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the steel, steel and silver dust A6 sizes are in and been being shipped. We've had tons of orders. Thank you all for your support. I will know, I'll have an answer this week on the purple ones. Purple A6 is next on the docket. And I mean, you know, you know how it is. Any day could be any week. So we'll see. So I'll be updating on the Knock Twitter account. That's the best way to follow all the Knock news.

Myke Hurley: Brad is at Dowdyism on Twitter. And he is penaddict on Instagram. Don't forget to send us your questions for our Field Notes episode, which we're going to be recording in a week or so. And you can tweet them to us or you can send them to us over email. Brad, what's the good email address for that?

Brad Dowdy: Hello at penaddict.com.

Myke Hurley: Perfect. And we'll be pulling some of those together to help us with the episode. I am at iMike on Twitter. I am YKE. You can always send in your questions for the show with the hashtag AskGPA as well. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.