The Pen Addict 311/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	311
Title:	The Worst Possible Paper
Release Date:	June 6th, 2018
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Mike Matteson
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 311
Audio File:	Audio Episode 311
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 311
Length:	7575 min <br />1.25 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: Hello and welcome to episode 311 of The Pen Addict Podcast, your weekly fix for all things analog. I'm your host, Brad Dowdy. I'm usually not on this side of the microphone, but I do have Myke on the other end. It's just not the Myke you're used to. So say hello to Myke Madison, Mr. Ink Dependence. How's it going, Myke? Hey, it's going great, Brad. It's good for me this week because I don't actually have to remember your name. I can just say, hey, Myke, what do you think about this? And I'm still good, right? Yeah, yeah. All Mikes are interchangeable. Okay. Well, you at least have the proper spelling of Myke. And for that, I'm greatly appreciative. So, real quick, why don't you tell everyone who you are? I think a lot of our listeners know, but just give a little quick rundown of who you are, what you do.

Myke Madison: Yeah. So, I'm Myke Madison. I've run a YouTube channel and a blog called inkdependence.com for, I don't know, six or seven years now, I guess. I actually had to look it back up and see how old the blog was. But I do mostly ink, but also pens, paper, writing, paraphernalia, all manner of things like that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I've been following you pretty much since the beginning, and we've known each other for a long time. And we see each other traveling around the globe to various, various pen shows. So, we always like hanging out and chatting with each other. So, I figured right after we finished the Raleigh pen show, or the triangle pen show, I'm going to mix those things up. I interchange them constantly. It's a sickness of mine. Most of us do, too. It's totally fine. The triangle pen show was this past weekend, and this is actually your local show, if you will. That's air quote local, right? You're at least in the ballpark. It's definitely the closest show. Yeah, it's about an hour from me, which is not bad.

Myke Madison: So, how long have you been going to this show?

Atlanta Show

Myke Madison: Since about, I don't know, 2011, maybe 2012, something like that. I'm not actually sure, because I only started, I think my first post about it on my blog was in 2012. But I don't think that was my first trip. So, probably the last, I don't know, seven or eight years.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think that's about when I started going to the Atlanta show, which is my local show. And I know the first year or so, I didn't write much about it or blog about it. So, I'm like, I think it's 2012 or something like that. But what do you, just over the general scope of the time you've been going there, how do you think this show has improved or gotten worse or changed or anything like that? Have you noticed really any difference in the past several years of this show?

Myke Madison: Well, I mean, we've got a new venue this year, which is pretty darn cool. As far as that change for it, I mean, it's gotten bigger, for sure. There are definitely more vendors than when I started going. Good. The, sort of the public response kind of waxes and wanes. I think it really has a lot to do with, one, weather, oddly enough. And, two, like, it's a very nice day outside. Sometimes it's slower. But, and, two, I think it has to do with, you know, how well we get the word out each year. So, every once in a while, I don't know, there have been a couple of years where they've done a newspaper article and that sort of thing. And that seems to have really helped out attendance. So, you know, it kind of waxes and wanes a little bit. But, overall, it's a kind of calm show anyway. It's not like your DCs or Chicago's or something. It's pretty chill. But it really, it's a good show. I like it a lot.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's what I enjoy the most about it. Like, so we, this is my second year in a row attending this show. And I bring Nock to sell all of our Nock Co. goodies there. And I find that people who are first timers to this show, which there were a bunch this year, too, which is always fantastic. They want to know, okay, this is my local show. How does my local show compare to all the other shows you go to? And, like, they want to know how it compares to DC. And I'm like, well, I mean, you can't, you can kind of compare them. But it's not really the same thing. What Raw, and I always say, like, what this show provides is something for everyone. Like, you're not missing out. If this is your show and you can't make it to DC or Chicago or San Francisco, you don't miss out on anything. It's just like the overall size is bigger. Okay, DC might be three or four times the amount of tables. I don't know, I might be even selling that short. The huge amount of crowds. But you get all the same vendors, right? And you actually get time to talk to the vendors. You're not spending your time elbowing your way to the front edge of the table to see what's going on, right?

Myke Madison: Yeah, I think so. I mean, so Raleigh has all the modern stuff you want because it's got Anderson and Federalist Pens is there. And Crazy Allen's Emporium shows up with modern stuff and paper and whatnot. And you've got a bunch of, oh, Van S was there this year, which is a first. Yeah. You get a bunch of vintage dealers. You've got a good auction. So it's got a good smattering of things. So while it doesn't have everything like DC will, it's got some of everything and probably, you know, most of what you're looking for. Yeah. And you get to keep your sanity, you know. Right. Yeah. It's got about 70 tables. So it's actually not that small. It feels kind of small, but 70 tables is actually kind of a lot of tables.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I thought it was, the setup was awesome. It was one of the better rooms, just like physical room setup that I've been in, just from the space in the aisles and the lighting. I mean, those are two things we rarely talk about, right? But that helps a lot when it's like comfortable to get around and you're not going blind, like trying to see like old writing on a pen barrel.

Myke Madison: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So that's super helpful.

Myke Madison: I mean, as somebody who takes a lot of pictures at shows, or at least I used to, the lighting is actually really important. And for people that are, you know, smaller makers like Brooks and Franklin Kristoff and Krusek and these folks, like you need to be able to see these things to appreciate how good they are. And a lot of the times you have what we call vendor lighting, which is this terrible yellow lighting.

Mike Matteson: It's just awful.

Myke Madison: Yep. But this show is in the new location has really nice white lighting, plenty of room, which I think is underrated. There are lots of shows that are kind of cramped. So, you know, when people ask what stage to bring to a pen show, they're like, don't take a backpack. You can take a backpack to Raleigh because these aisles must be, I mean, what, 10 feet across or something? It's huge. There's so much room.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, pretty close. And we even had room behind the tables. Usually, like the vendors, like when I'm standing behind the table and have someone else behind me, we practically have to stagger ourselves from, you know, not bumping butts the whole time, you know? Yeah. But this time we probably had five feet behind our tables, if not a little bit more than that. It was absolutely fantastic. And it just, you know, it allows the crowds to get through there better because sometimes you can't get clogged areas in the aisle. And this isn't a place, like a pen show is not a place where you're like rushing through from like store to store to store. Like in a mall, you want to go and you want to spend some time looking at what people have. You want to talk to the person behind the table to maybe learn more about what they're selling and what they're doing. So, I don't know. I think this is kind of, you know, the perfect setup, especially for a first timer, but, you know, experienced people like yourself. You're not missing out on anything from a show like this. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. From a not perspective, just to let everyone, kind of give everyone like a baseline of how we do at shows like this. We did more in sales this year than last year. So, that's always hugely successful for us. Like when I can, you know, track those numbers and see what we did last year versus what we did this year. And, you know, we had bigger sales this year. Hey, I can't complain, right? I mean, that's pretty awesome. Awesome.

Brad Dowdy: So, did you end up buying anything at this show?

Myke Madison: I mean, I bought a couple of things.

Myke Madison: I actually wasn't really. I didn't have anything in mind. I didn't have a list. I often don't bring a list anymore, which, you know, may be trouble, but whatever. I'll run that risk. But I did get a few things. Mostly, I got auction stuff. So, if you want to save that for later, we can. But the first thing I bought was I walked in and there's a guy named Rob who has – he's often got pin stands and display cases and all kinds of stuff that he schleps around all these shows. And they're awesome, but they're always too big for me to fly with. So, he didn't have some of the huger ones that I was really into, which is good because it's expensive. I don't have the space. But I did pick up this really awesome Acme pin stand. So, it holds, I don't know, a dozen pins or something. It's sort of this arc with primary color shape things going on like Acme does. And so, I picked that up. So, that was my very first pin show purchase. I got a couple of inks. I got Colorverse Sunspot and I got the new Krishna ink from Hippo. And I haven't really had a chance to try those out. I've swabbed them, but that's all I've done with them. And then I ended up buying a really nice pocket knife from a guy who was one of my viewers who brought a bunch of knives to the show to show me because he knows I'm kind of a knife guy. And I guess that's – oh, and I got one of the Noxa pillows, which is pretty cool. Nice. And then some auction stuff, and that's really about it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I saw you walking down the aisle after you purchased that Acme display, and I just looked at you and I pointed. I was like, where did you get that? But I didn't say that. You just saw it in my eyes, and you're like, oh, that guy down there. I'm like, that's really cool. That's just a neat little display. I was pretty anxious to go down there and check out what else he had. No more of those cool Acme displays, but like you said, he had some Retro 51. And I didn't end up going back. I went down there, poked around, and I was like, oh, I'll come back later. And I kind of never did. So, that's okay. But yeah, I can – since I drive to this show, I'm able to pick up a few extra things like that. So, that's the right place to pick up on those bigger things. But kind of like you, I didn't really – I don't think I bought anything in the show proper, but the auction I did. And that's kind of – that's where all my funds were allocated this year. Not purposefully, necessarily, but I did get some good stuff. And I picked up a Parker Dual Fold Centennial Big Red. I'm actually trying to figure out the exact name of this one. Like, I found it on parkerpens.net. And I'll put a link in the show notes for everyone to go see it. But the naming convention on this pen and these modern ones, like this looks like it's from 2015, is really confusing. Because once you say Parker Dual Fold and Big Red in a search term, that's like 100 years worth of pens for Parker, right? Yeah, right. So, it's impossible to like – I haven't totally nailed down the exact name or model. But it was an orange one, which, you know, that always speaks to me. And it had gold furniture, and it looks really nice, and I'm real happy with that. But – and that pen and this next pen, which is the Yard of Lead Viceroy Grand, I've had a Parker Dual Fold and a Yard of Lead pen just on the mental list for years. Like, I don't own either of those pens. I have always wanted those pens. Both of those pens tend to be somewhat expensive when you're shopping for other things as well. They've never been at like number one on the list, but it's always been, I would like to have one of these eventually. So, when they popped up at auction and I was able to get them for good prices, the Yard of Lead, you know, more of a deal, if you will, than the Dual Fold. You know, I'm happy to like add those to the collection. Those are things I've been looking for for a long time. And then the last one I picked up was a Rotring 600, which I already have the lava fountain pen with a steel nib. I wanted a 600 with a gold nib, and they just happened to have one there at the auction. That 600 has a gold nib on it, huh? Yeah. I wouldn't have even bid on it if it was the steel nib, unless it went for really low. But that's the only reason I bid on it was it had a gold nib.

Myke Madison: I remember looking at it, and I thought it had the silver ends on it, so I didn't even open it up. I was like, ah, I've got one of those. It has a gold nib, huh? I think that might be an aftermarket gold nib then.

Brad Dowdy: It's got the Rotring label on it, and it's got the gold band on the outside of the pen. Oh, does it? I must have just missed it. Well, I'm glad you got it. Actually, it's not just a gold band. It's the entire gold top. So the top finial is gold.

Myke Madison: Yeah, I must have missed it. But I'm glad it went to a good home. I've got the black version of that pen. I've got a few Rotrings as well. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's great. And that is a broad nib, which is actually kind of hard to find, too. So that's really cool.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so that's where I don't let the nib size get in the way of me getting a pen that's really cool and that I want. I'm not normally... Like if there's five of these out when these came out and I have a choice of an extra fine nib, of course, I'm going to buy that. But I wasn't going to pass this one up. And what's weird about this nib, it's so broad that it's almost like a stub. It's a little bit squared off. So I kind of like riding with it so far. I'm not going to get it changed or tweaked or anything. I kind of like what it offers as far as the line goes. Yeah, don't change it. I'll trade you a medium or something. Don't change it. I'm not going to change it at all.

Platinum Pens

Myke Madison: Not at all. So what did you get at the auction? So I picked up... The first thing I got was this little lot of Platinum pens. There were a bunch of lots of like duos and trios and even like six pens at a time at this auction. Which was nice because there's already 120 something lots. But the Platinums I got, one of them is just like a... It's a Platinum pocket pen that looks a lot like... It said NYU style on the auction sheet. But in reality, it's more like the Pilot E95S or one of those sorts of guys, the short longs. But it's got a nice blue section. It's got a fine nib, which is very fine. You'd probably like it more than I do. Yeah. But that's in really nice shape. Still got stickers on it. And the other pen in that lot... And that pen doesn't really have a name. I'm not able to find a name in any of the Platinum stuff or just a Platinum short pen. Yeah. Which is annoying, but whatever.

Brad Dowdy: I did this purposely because I picked up an old... Something similar to that at a pen show a couple of years ago. And I found Pilot's history page that was actually... I could find my pen on and get the name of. So I'll try to remember to send you that afterwards. Oh, this is a Platinum though. I meant Platinum.

Myke Madison: So yes, it was Platinum. Yes, I meant that. And the other one is confusingly named the Galaxy. Because there are at least two or three other Platinums that are also called the Galaxy. But this Galaxy is in silver. And it doesn't say sterling, but I think it probably is. The listings I've seen online say sterling. But it's got this sort of nice crosshatch sort of tweed looking pattern in the barrel and cap. It's totally pretty. With one of the nice inlaid nibs. They've got clear feeds on them, which is kind of cool. So I got a couple of those and I'm pretty happy with that. And then the other pen I bought was a... Shoot, what's it called? It's a Balance 2. Which came out in like the mid to late 90s, I think. And this one was in jade. And I got it for Audrey because while we were walking past the case on the way out, I was just like, oh, what's that green one? And I wanted the one next to it. But she liked the green one. And so I went for the green one and I didn't really have any... I wasn't really bidding against too many people for it. But it turns out that pen had all kinds of problems. Oh, no. No, it's not. It wasn't good. Like you couldn't see the cracks in the section when you just looked at it. But when you fill it with ink, it... Yeah. And that was after we got some mold out of it. So I'm going to have to get a new section and nib for it.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that stinks. That stinks. Because those pens were really pretty. Like if I was interested in that type of pen, I would totally have been in on that. I got lucky in that both the Yardo Led and the Roach Ring had never been used. They were both completely brand new with their original boxes and their original cartridges and different parts in there. And the dual fold, it looked like it'd been inked maybe once or twice. It was essentially brand new, but no box or anything. But it was... That's one of the tips, the auction tips, the main auction tip. If you're interested in some of the pens, you can go early and check them out. Like they had the pens on display like Saturday afternoon to where you can go and handpick things. But just like you said, the Schaefer, you weren't really looking at that. And you're not going to go through all 120 lots and probably 200 plus pens that were on sale to see what you're going to do. But you can pick out a few of them early and kind of scope them out.

Myke Madison: Yeah, that's what I do is I make a note on the list. I'll like underline it or circle it or something and put maybe a number if you have some idea what it's going to go for. Like if you have a top number.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Madison: The only one I looked at ahead of time was the Roach Ring.

Brad Dowdy: I didn't look at the Parker or Yarder Lead that I ended up picking up. I did look at the lot that you bought with the Platinums. I think that was probably like my number one like lot I was looking at. Those were some really cool pens. And they had like... They'll tend to kind of group like pens in consecutive lots. So there was like a group of Platinums, a group of Sailors. And there was like two or three other groups of like the modern vintage type of Japanese pens. And I was like, if I get one of these lots, I'm going to be inclined to like buy all of these lots. So I like kind of a little bit bidded. I didn't go really aggressive on those. I was like, okay, I'm okay with that. Like plus, I could see you ahead of me. So I'm not going to bid against you. But that's why I let you get that Yarder Lead because I also wanted that. That was a cool pen. The best thing about that was it was completely tarnished. They had not polished it up. So I think that kept the price down fortunately for me a little bit, which... It did.

Myke Madison: I saw a couple of people say, hey, let me look at that. And they looked at it because it was totally black in that box. But I was like, nope, that's just tarnished, y'all. You're passing up an awesome pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep. So when I got it back to the room that night, once I realized that it had never been used, I got out the polishing cloth and it was like brand new. I turned that thing black. Just working on it. And it still has work to go. But still, it worked out well. So related to this show, I moved up some Ask TPA questions that we can kind of tie into our experience here. So this is from our good Slack friend, Tianta, and our good real life pen show friend, Tianta. She says, Brad, you said your daughter got very deep into the auction last year and pictures show your kids enjoying this year's Triangle Show. Do you see either of them following in your footsteps, either joining the business or starting a side one like Ryan Krusak's daughters? So they are really interested in the business side of things as far as Nock goes. Like they don't really, they can't really relate to the pen addict stuff, you know, the blogging and podcasting and the advertising stuff that goes on with that because they can't physically see that as much. Most of that's on the computer. The Nock stuff they're really interested in, they actually like talking to the customers. They challenge, my two kids challenge each other to like who can actually make a sale with the, so they'll like shoo me. If they're talking to someone, they'll like shoo me away because they want to lock down that sale like it's some competition or something and there's no competition. But they are like, they get into like the working the booth aspect of it. I can see them following in something, you know, along the lines of Nock. They haven't gone into like any side business type of ideas. Not that I've heard them say as far as like what Ryan's daughters do with their pen cases and other things that they sell, which are always great. I always try to buy stuff from them. So, but yeah, they're interested in it and they really had fun at this show. Since they were together, they had more fun goofing off around the show with other people and, you know, just kind of hanging out at the show than necessarily working the table. But they had a fun show. So, this is always a highlight of my year to bring them now, both of them to the show. My daughter just went last year. So, it's very cool. And Teante also asks, are you encouraging your children to enjoy fountain pens or is that something they're getting interested in by watching you? So, I think it's more the second part, just the watching and asking questions part than me like trying to enforce anything on them. Like I don't put anything in their hands that they're not interested in first, right? So, you know, at school, they mostly use pencils and, you know, they're going to have trouble using a fountain pen at school anyway these days, you know, just being kids and fidgety and messy. So, anything that they're interested in though, I definitely try to explain to them and work with them and, you know, let them have fun and that kind of stuff. So, yeah, it's definitely more that they get interested in looking at the stuff and want to try the stuff and then I'll help them out with that. So, the next one, this one's for you, Myke. So, it says, my very first pen show was Chicago this month. And this is from Nibs and Code. Sorry, this is Ask TPA. My very first pen show was Chicago this month and I'm hooked. I feel like I missed out on a lot of vintage pens though because of lack of knowledge. I'm going to St. Louis next month and I want to do better. How do I navigate the bargain bins at the vintage tables? So, what do you think? Like, me and you are kind of on the same page so I unfairly dumped this one on you. Yeah, you did. I know what your answer is. I know what your answer is going to be. It's like, I don't really know.

Myke Madison: That is what I wrote down. Yeah, I don't know, man. I'm not super well-versed in vintage stuff either. I'm dipping my toe in. I'm trying to, you know, pick up bits of knowledge where I can find it. But bargain bin stuff can be great. And oftentimes, in fact, maybe mostly whatever you pull out of that bargain bin is going to be worth more than whatever the cost is. But often they need restoration. That's why they're in there. This show, there was a table off in the corner that just kept throwing stuff in the bargain bins. And the vintage hunters were just over there pawing through these big bins of pins and parts and all that kind of stuff. And I just sort of, I went over there and looked and said, so what's good here? And they said, you know, it depends what you're into. I'm like, cool. I think the best way to navigate those things is to make friends with a vintage dealer and sort of, I don't know, build some trust. Figure out who you can talk to and who will give you information about a thing. And then you can ask. A lot of times, if it's a small show, especially like this one, you can say, you know, I've got this thing. Or you can take a picture of it. Or sometimes you can even ask the vendor, can I borrow this to show to a friend? And sometimes they'll let you do that sort of thing. And then take it over to somebody and say, what is this? That's a good way to do it. But yeah, the bargain bins are intimidating.

Brad Dowdy: I get it. Super intimidating. And that was the feeding frenzy table for sure. When he broke that stuff out Saturday morning, it was just like, like everyone just descended on this guy. And I wouldn't look just to see what the commotion is, but I couldn't pick anything out of there. So, but I was 100% going to say what you said about becoming friends with some of the vendors. So what's Brian's last name that I asked you about? Is it McCree? McQueen. McQueen. Brian McQueen. So he sat behind me and he's a younger guy, like of our generation, who's fully into vintage pens. And he is so helpful, like in just explaining things and, you know, wanting to teach like this next generation of pen buyer, what vintage is all about. He restores pens. So, you know, if you see someone like me or Myke or Anna or anyone who's been to a bunch of pen shows, you kind of know the people who are the most receptive to be able to come up to and ask the most basic simple questions to. And I just had a really fun time and chatting with Brian. I know I sent some people over his way to ask questions about Esther Brooks or Parker's or things like that. So, yeah, I think that's a great idea. And then when you have the vintage table, also you want to get friends with someone who you know is a really good vintage pen restore person. So, you'll end up, if you end up picking up some of these things that need work, you know, you want to have a go-to person, whether that's, you know, Ron Zorn or Martin or there's a whole list of people you could get these pens repaired from. But, yeah, I don't, I'm willing to spend the extra money to get that restored pen instead of digging through the bargain bins. But I have done it before with some, have found some pilot and sailor stuff through these bins. And so, it's always worth a look.

Money Loss

Myke Madison: We're definitely losing money on the table, leaving money on the table doing that. But also, we're maybe losing less money because we're not buying a bunch of junk that we don't know is junk.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, it's a toss up. And it's a learning experience, just like you said, right? I mean, we all have to start from somewhere and, you know, finding friends at the show and learning what they're into and what to expect next. You know, that's kind of the fun, the educational process, if you will.

Myke Madison: Yeah, I've got two or three people that are my go-tos. So, like Brian McQueen is great, but he's a local resource for me, too. He lives not far from here. And then Paul Areno is great at that sort of thing. I talk to Mario Campa a lot about those kinds of things as well, if he's not busy. I mean, Brian Anderson is a wealth of information, but they're usually slammed. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I noticed you sat next to Brian at the auction, and he did some nice Estabrook work there, which he is known for. So, y'all definitely hit up Brian and ask him what Estabrook stuff he found there, because I think he enjoyed a couple of those, right?

Myke Madison: Yeah, he completed a couple of things in his collection that he's like, I have five of the six of these, and this is the sixth one. So, he was pretty happy with what he ended up with. I think they're going to talk about that on their podcast. So, awesome.

Brad Dowdy: So, we'll put a link in that show notes so y'all can go listen to the Anderson Pens podcast, which I'm sure you already do.

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Pen Show Follow-Up

Brad Dowdy: All right, so we're going to switch from the Triangle Pen Show, and we're going to do a little bit of follow-up on the discussion I had with Myke with a Y last week about the state of the stationary industry. It generated a lot of conversation, as you can imagine. Anytime you talk big-picture stuff and stuff that I admittedly am not 100% on and just kind of perception and observation type of things, I got the most response around my comments on Pelican, trying to figure out what's their business model and how that's going to work going in the future. One of the most common things, one of the most common responses that I got was around Pelican's business in Germany in the school supply market. So apparently, they have a monster market just at home in Germany in school supplies. And I'm talking not just like the school pens, the school fountain pens, but like markers and basic rollerball and ballpoint type pens. They might even do pencils and other paper goods. I've got several mentions and emails about just how massive that market is for them. So, I mean, Pelican's obviously doing great. I mean, it looks like they're just a super healthy company from a business perspective, the way they launch and go through products. So, Myke, I don't want to put you on the spot as far as like, you know, what do you think about the current state of the stationary industry is? But I would like to know, what do you see as someone who's into this stuff and has a blog and a YouTube channel? What do you want to see like over the next few years? You know, what things get you excited about products-wise or companies-wise or just in general terms? What do you want to see over the next few years?

Myke Madison: Yeah, so stuff I imagine are trends I see happening are probably we're going to have, and I see this happening at shows over the last few years, is a greater influx of the younger generation. Like people our age and younger that are, you know, just getting into pens or have sort of been into it on the down low for a while but didn't tell anybody or didn't know that pen shows were a thing. So, I think the young folk market is going to explode here soon, I hope. You also end up seeing more women at these shows, which is awesome. So, it's another demographic. When you think of the pen show demographic, it's usually like, I don't know, dudes and especially older dudes. And I think that that is shifting. I mean, we saw a bunch of kids at the Triangle show this week and that's a pretty small show. Chicago was the same way, you know. So, I think that's going to happen. Also, I think that we're going to see more custom stuff, more small batch makers, more, you know, more people making their own things. And so, that means more color. That means wilder designs. It means maybe less stayed lines of pens. I mean, you know, if somebody, there are some makers that have like a line of pens and they have a name, but there are others that just make pens. And so, that can make it a little bit difficult if you're looking for, I want this particular model in this kind of color. Well, you're not going to maybe be able to collect those. So, maybe the collectible market will change a little bit. But I think we're going to get, you know, like more color and more different designs coming soon. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And I agree across the board on everything there. I wish I, we don't do, you know, like demographic information, you know, with Nock stuff. But we have to be close to, like, my guess would be just like a 50-50, like male-female. I love seeing, you know, the more women in the community, the kids, the youth movement, the custom makers, like the barrier to entry is lower than it's ever been. And you can find the customers easier then. So, I agree 100% with all those topics. I think we're heading down a good path. We're in a good place right now as far as the industry goes, I think. And I think we're still on that upward swing, right, where it's only going to get better. Yeah, I certainly hope so. So, the amount of emails I got around my commentary last week was dwarfed, Myke. And the amount of emails and tweets I got for, and I titled this in the show notes. I don't always read what I type in the show notes. But I'm going to call the title of this article Moron Does Moronic Things. So, I guess this was Friday at the pen show. My Twitter started blowing up and my email inbox started blowing up. The EPA, head of the Environmental Protection Agency and arm of our U.S. government gentleman that runs its name, Scott Pruitt. The article headline was the EPA paid $1,560 for 12 fountain pens. This is taxpayer money, you know. So, that also causes, you know, a huge uproar as it should. But just on headline alone, Myke, what do you think about this article?

Myke Madison: It sounds like they either bought bad pens or got a good deal, honestly. Yeah. So, I actually did a little bit of looking up on this stuff. And it seems like the official pen of the U.S. government right now is the Cross Century 2 in Black Lacquer. And so, I looked it up and there was one from January of last year and it says, Trump administration keeps, you know, the same pen or whatever. So, they ordered like 150 of them. And these things looking at the Cross website go for 130 bucks a piece. There you go. And if you break down the 1500 by 12 pens, that's about what the EPA got too. So, I think this is probably just a totally normal office supply order, honestly. Right. It doesn't seem like that big a deal. So, when Audrey first looked at it, she's like, $1,500 a pen? That's crazy. I'm like, yeah, that's not what it says. She looked and she's like, oh, I added a zero. No, this is not a big deal.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. That's what I said too. I said, well, like, yeah, $1,560 per pen for 12 pens. I was like, well, that's a big time pen. And then I actually stopped and read it again. I was like, oh, well, that's nothing. He did a pretty bad job. You know, if that's what it's going for. So, my non-pen friends were sending this to me going like, oh, my God, look at the price that they paid for these pens. And which, yes, I mean, when it's not your money to spend, it is outrageous, any dollar amount. But from a pen person perspective, it's like, oh, yeah, it's probably not very good. And which, you know, nothing wrong with cross, but I didn't do the research that you did, but I put in the show notes like, this has to be a cross pen, right? I mean, just to get that style of pen and get the department's engraving and that price point, that's what you do. You buy the cross pen and that's the one you're going to do.

Myke Madison: It sounds like they got a discount because the regular one is about $130. So, and if they're getting, you know, special seals added, I mean, these are pens that they're not probably using in the office. These are probably pens that are, you know, gifts to dignitaries or business leaders or whatever. And you don't hand them a BIC, you hand them a, you know, something nice. That's not crazy.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, this was in the pit as far as the pen world goes. Non-story, you know, as far as, you know, government and policy and politics. Yeah, they can have the story. But as far as the pen people go, total non-story here. You're right. It's not a $40,000 wrench.

Myke Madison: It's a medium-priced pen. Exactly.

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Brad Dowdy: All right. So before we have a bunch of STPA, I had a call out for questions for you specifically and some follow-up on that. But before we even get to that, I want to talk about Ink Dependence and what you're doing over at the blog these days and YouTube channel, which I want to dig into a little bit. But for those who haven't heard you talk on our show before or just started following you, you were on episode 234 of this podcast. We talked about your background a little bit, but why don't you do a quick recap on why you do this? Why is there a blog called Ink Dependence that you put your heart into every week?

Myke Madison: Yeah. So there's a blog called Ink Dependence primarily due to the influence of my wife. She started a nail polish blog, I don't know, a couple of years or something, maybe before I started blogging anything. And she said, you know, this is a fun thing to do. It gives you an excuse to dive deeper into a hobby you already have. You're a pretty okay writer. And so people might care what you have to say about things. And I said, no, no, nobody's going to care, but it will give me an excuse to buy more ink and stuff like that. So that's actually how the blog kind of happened. And then you said that I was on YouTube since the beginning. And I was like, am I? I don't know. And it turns out that I kind of have been. The YouTube was a total accident. I was just using it. And if you look back and don't look back at my first few videos, they're like a minute and a half long. I'm going to go find it. Oh, geez. They're like a minute and a half long. It's just like, here's a water test. And what I was doing was I was storing videos on YouTube, just short clips I would film with my phone. And then I would embed that into the sort of static image blog. And so I didn't even know that it was searchable. I didn't know that anyone would care. And then I started getting emails or messages on there saying, hey, what's this blog you're talking about? And my response was, who are you and where are you and where are these comments coming from? How do you not know? And so then I found out that YouTube was kind of a thing. And that's how I started doing it seriously. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So the YouTube content has ramped up probably, I don't know, over the past year. You can correct me, but the more I notice it a lot more and it seems to become, I don't want to say like your favorite form of communicating because you still have the blog and post lots of reviews, but you're on YouTube a lot now. How has that changed? How has your thoughts changed on that platform from the beginning where it was just basically video storage to now you're like actively on there and you're like doing live chats every Friday and things like that. So how did that ramp up?

Myke Madison: Uh, yeah, so I really, the basic truth of it is that YouTube is kind of easier to do than a static blog. A lot of times, um, I think it's a, it's kind of a better medium to show pens, um, just because you can twiddle it around in your hands. You don't have to worry about getting that one angle that somebody is looking at for a blog and like, yeah, but how does it look compared to this? I mean, you can do that sort of live and if they want to pause it or whatever they can, you can scrub back and forth. I don't know. It's there's, I mean, there's pros and cons to the, to the YouTube thing, but I found that I get a lot more interaction on YouTube than I ever did on the static blog. Um, just from the, you know, YouTube comments and that sort of thing. A lot of people say that YouTube comments are all full of vitriol and just terrible people. But, um, I found that by and large, my YouTube audience are like interesting, engaged and like fun people to deal with. Um, and then I started doing the live streams, oh, I don't know, months and months ago, I guess. I just sort of, I got the technology to do live streams. They made that easier. And so I said, well, I'll just try this out and see how it goes. I've been doing Q and a videos and people love those. And, uh, as you know, ask TPA. And so, uh, I was like, well, what if I just do this live and people show up? And so it's become a regular Friday occurrence and, uh, I love it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And it's cool. You add in the, uh, you've even done it at a pen shows, but you know, you had one from Raleigh this weekend, Friday, you walked around the show asking questions. I remember in Baltimore, uh, you were, you were posted right, uh, on, on my backside at the, uh, Baltimore show. So I vividly remember that one, but I think it's a fun way and a faster way to communicate directly and, you know, more accurately with your readers. Right. I mean, we can do, we can blog all day long, but it's more of a static thing. Like, you know, you post words, you take pictures and you get feedback and comments, but having that live feedback or even the video feedback to where you can show more, you know, you can sit there and cap and uncap the pen. You know, what does that sound like? Is it a really solid cap? Is it kind of smooth? You know, is the knock mechanism, you know, tight or squishy? I love those aspects of the video. That's where like the video dominates over any blog, anytime. Right. Yeah.

Myke Madison: I think that's true for sure. And so there, there are kind of pros and cons to the, the, the pre-recorded Q and a and the live thing. I mean, if you're doing it live, you got to think on your feet and pretty much everything is a hot take. If it's not something you've thought about before. Right.

Brad Dowdy: That's true.

Ink Properties

Myke Madison: But, and so you might get more thoughtful answers in the Q and a, but also it doesn't mean my hot take is wrong. Right. And a lot of times I'm perfectly comfortable saying, I don't know. I, that's a, um, in my profession, that's a thing that I just kind of got used to doing. Like, I don't know what that is. I'll check it out. Try to figure something out for you. But that's, uh, yeah, it's a lot of fun.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Speaking of your profession, man, you're, you're good at this podcasting thing. You led me right into, right into another question. So, um, like I, being around you as I am, I know you are, you're a big fan of bags. So I'm always commenting on whichever bag you're carrying at a time. And I think you actually probably have a worse than me in the bag realm. And we got an ass TPA along these lines, combining your bag and your work. So this is from a pen addict reader, Lisa. She says, I also teach at a university. I'm interested in his being you, your EDC for work. What do you bring to school? Notebooks and pens. What do you carry it in? Do you use fountain pens for grading? Is everything on a computer? Do you use a paper planner? So let's, uh, let's talk about your profession, uh, and how you integrate analog tools and everyday carry items into it or not into it at all.

Myke Madison: Yeah, totally. No problem. One of the things I've actually gotten asked for as a video is for like a bag dump sort of thing after you and Myke were talking about on a previous episode and I keep forgetting to do it, but I'm good. I'm definitely going to, I'll give you the voice version here and then I'll do a video sometime later. But, uh, yeah, I have a lot of bags and that's kind of exploded here recently. Uh, but, um, and I, it gives me the ability to match my bag to what I need to carry. So my, my carry to school depends upon the day. It depends on my course load. For those who don't know, I'm an ethics instructor at university. Uh, and so that means I'm in classrooms, but I may be teaching different kinds of classes. They may require different kinds of things. So, um, I, I've been really, I started out with Osprey bags a while ago. I really liked my Osprey comet. It's a pretty big bag. It's like 35 or 40 liters, I think. Um, and so if I have a lot of stuff to carry, that sucker will swallow everything, uh, which is awesome. Uh, but if I don't need that much stuff, I'll use like a, a Rickshaw, uh, zero, uh, or I don't know, some other sort of thing. I just got a peak design. I'm pretty psyched about. Um, so here's, here's what's in my, my carry on a pretty average day. Uh, firstly, my MacBook pro I've got a 15 inch MacBook, um, generally an iPad of some kind, either a mini or a pro, uh, a bunch of things to go along with those like, you know, laser pointers and dongles and cords and that kind of stuff. Um, so that's my, that's my digital side and then everything else pretty well is analog. So, uh, I usually carry a planner. I do totally use a paper planner. It's, it's so much better for me than a digital planner for some reason. I think just, just the, the writing it down aspect really helps me. Uh, so I carry a, uh, Kokyo Jibun Techo, which is an awesome planner. I love that thing.

Brad Dowdy: Um, yeah, I might have to do that one next year. That one's, uh, definitely on the hype train. I'm, I'm, I think I might go, uh, go for that next year.

Myke Madison: Yeah. I need the week and a day, like the, not the week and a day, the week at a glance sort of things. I need to just open it up to that, that, that ribbon marker and boom, I've got my week there and it's got it broken down by hour. It's fantastic. So I totally recommend that one. And it's also skinny. It's much smaller than the old one I used to use, uh, which is kind of nice since I've only begun my bag dump here. So that, um, oftentimes I'll carry a Franklin Christophe Vagabond, which is like their traveler sized, um, wax canvas, you know, notebook and cover sort of thing, uh, for taking to meetings and notes and all that kind of jazz. I've also got a Franklin Christophe Padfolio and a five, a five. Yeah. A five. Um, and I have a Fabriano Ecaqua in there and that's just for course notes. Um, so that's, uh, I don't know, like three different paper products. Uh, then I've got, you know, stuff that, uh, like if I have, if I'm teaching a new class and I need to have my notes with me, I'll have some other notebook with me. So lately that's been Morimon or it's been, um, uh, Lloyd's term or something like that. So I've got one of those in there. Uh, I've got, uh, just the stuff that teachers need to have. So dry erase markers, um, pens of some kind, at least a two or three fountain pens, usually in the two or three regular pens, I'll have paper clips, a tiny stapler binder clips, you know, all that kind of jazz. Um, that's, that's sort of my normal carry. And then if I have to do video stuff, I've got other video things that I'll bring. So sometimes I add a tripod and, uh, this little robot thing called a swivel. There's all kinds of stuff that, you know, you need to pack in there. Hand sanitizer. Yeah, for sure. You better believe it. Uh, and so do I use fountain pens for grading? Um, yeah. If I have paper stuff that I'm probably using a fountain pen to grade, uh, I didn't this last semester have any paper grading that I needed to do. So fountain pens are just for class prep mostly, but, um, so a lot of it's digital, but if I have class stuff, you know, paper things, yeah, definitely. I use fountain pens.

Brad Dowdy: When you were grading, did you have a specific, uh, uh, pen nib ink combo that worked better than others because you weren't necessarily getting to choose your paper?

Myke Madison: Yeah, no, you don't choose your paper and you can assume that it's going to be the worst possible paper. Um, it's not always sometimes students will have a good paper. Like this is really good paper. Like, yeah, I know I picked it. I'm like, awesome. You are a good student. But, uh, as far as the other thing, no, I'm my, uh, my ADHD, I think kicks in and I can't stick with one particular pen nib ink thing for very long. So I'll usually switch like every paper or two. So, um, yeah, it just depends on, you know, if I find one that just isn't working on that paper, I'll just kind of set that one aside and not try not to use it or just use it for big X's and not small notes.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's, that's a good way to use all your pens and ink anyway, right?

Myke Madison: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. It gives me an excuse to ink up more pens. Yeah. Well, cool. Um, so wrapping up on the, on the whole ink dependence thing, what do you, what do you want to do? Like, what do you see yourself, you know, doing over the next couple of years just with the blog, anything you want to change, you know, you want to do more on YouTube, less on the blog, what types of things do you want to, do you want to keep working on?

Myke Madison: Um, yeah, I don't know. That's a tough question. Um, uh, I, I think I feel like I've done less on the regular blog than I have on YouTube lately, just because I've been doing more paper and more pens and those seem to work better on the, uh, on the YouTube than they do on their static blog. So I don't know, like it might be that the blog gets less use and it becomes more of a front page for YouTube, but I'm not ready to give up photography yet. I really like doing that part too. So, um, hopefully I'll keep both going, but we'll just see how the works, the workload goes. Um, as far as things I want to do in the future, man, I, I don't know, I kind of stumble into these things and I find a thing that I really enjoy that the viewers really like, and then I'll add that to the repertoire and that's, that's how it went with the live streams. And that's now become a fixture. Um, but it's not something I planned on becoming a fixture. I didn't like do market research or figure out, are people going to like this thing? It's like, I don't know, people might like this. Let's see how it goes and they do. And so I'll keep it up. So that's probably how I'll continue stumbling through, uh, this hobby.

Brad Dowdy: But, uh, I think that's the best way, man. You let the audience tell you, it's not like we have some magic formula behind the scenes that we're all, you know, sitting there with spreadsheets and calculations. Okay. I know which, I know which review is going to do the best next. We just do what we like, you know, it's, it's, you know, it's fun. Like, you know, and, and keeping it fun and getting feedback and going down those paths. It's, uh, it's always the best way to go, I think.

Myke Madison: Yeah. The thing I'd like to improve for myself is consistency. So my, my posting schedule is just all over the place. And that's one thing that Audrey keeps telling me, you got to be consistent. I'm like, yeah, I know. But sometimes I get busy on a Tuesday and I can't do a post or what have you. Um, and you know, if my, if my real work that I actually get paid for, you know, ramps up and I'm too busy, maybe I'll only post one thing a week during the summer. Like now I might post, you know, three or four things a week. It just depends. And so that's, uh, that's, that's just kind of a necessity given my workload. I can't, I can't, you know, keep a schedule of every, you know, post every day or post every two days or something. It's just not really viable. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And that's okay. I think it's, uh, you, you've built up really good following and everyone loves when you, you post stuff anyway. So there'll be, there'll be ready for you no matter how many times per week it is.

Sponsor Mention

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Brad Dowdy: All right. Since you've been so kind to join me and fill in this week for the incorrectly spelled, Myke, I'm going to pin you down with some Ask TPA questions. Is that okay? You ready to tackle some of these? Some of these are easy. Some of these, yeah, not so much. You ready to give it a go? Let's do it, man. I'm into it. All right. So I want to know this about you because I talk about it frequently enough. So Franz JPM wants to know, how does one manage pen-related item storage when space is at a premium? So how do you store your pens, Myke?

Myke Madison: Mostly just all over the top of my desk, which is not the best way. You know, the answer that I wrote down here in all caps is Ikea. I think that they've got a lot of good storage stuff. I keep a lot of pens and pads of paper and all kinds of things in these Ikea storage things called Helmers, which are pretty big in the craft and collecting communities, I think. And they are super useful. They're not terribly expensive. Little metal cabinets with drawers. That's where I keep most of my pens. Like not my fountain pens usually because I want those in front of me. But I have just, I don't know, mountains of non-fountain pens and all kinds of things stuffed into those. So, I mean, find whatever small storage works for you. But I mean, something like a container store or an Ikea or something, if you have a small space, can be a godsend, I think.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And Myke, with a Y, is a big fan of one of those Ikea drawer cabinet type systems. So I need to look into that myself. I think he uses the Alex, right? Which we've also got one of. And those are good. Yeah. Those are really good. Yeah. So, yeah, I think that's the right path. Ikea always seems to come up for pen and stationary storage. And I think that's probably a perfect choice.

Brad Dowdy: Kay Grushko wants to know, does anyone make a fountain pen friendly American composition book? And the answer is no. At least not that I've found because I'm a very traditionalist for one staple signature tape binding, the proper size. And that's just something that's mass produced and cheaper paper. So you can get them in all the office supply stores, things like that. Baron Fig does like a faux cover, make it look like a composition book, but it's not quite the size you're looking for. But it does have decent fountain pen friendly paper. There was a Kickstarter project called Comp. That was another faux composition book project that did not have good paper either and actually had a very strange style. So this is something that's been on my short list for our printer to tackle at Nock for like the past two years. And the kicker with this is, you know, if we do try to mimic an American composition book and have fountain pen friendly paper, it's going to be about 10 or 15 times the cost of the one you get at Walmart. So and maybe there's a market for that. Maybe there's not. So that's kind of what you're going to fall into. I love the format. I love the style. It's just technically and price challenging. So don't give up hope, though, because if we do find one, I'd love to see one and maybe we'll just make it ourselves.

Myke Madison: Yeah. Every once in a while you hear rumors of, hey, there's this fountain pen friendly comp book and it's just like the regular comp books. But, you know, you look on the back and it's got a particular country or something. But that's sort of that's sort of hunt, I think, is I mean, you're spending a lot of time trying to get 50. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And actually, now that you say that, I'll put a link in for Kay Grushko. Les at Comfortable Shoes Studio did like a three part composition book roundup, like everything she could find in the store. So maybe one of those is a winner. I can't remember it right offhand, but I will put that in the show notes. There's like a three part article she did testing all these things out. So we'll add that in there. So my friend Bump wants to know, how important is the National Stationery Show? Is it worth attending or is it really only for retailers? It's pretty much like a wholesale trade show for any market you can think of, right?

Myke Madison: You can't even get in as a regular civilian. They won't give you a pass. And it's very expensive even if you're a wholesaler. I looked at the tickets and I was like, wow, these are very expensive. And they want four different kinds of credential to prove that you're not just some plea off the street looking at pens or something.

Brad Dowdy: It's so 100% right. Like I could go as not and go as an attendee. It's still, I don't know, it still might cost me like four figures to get in. I can't remember. The table spaces are very expensive. I don't think it would be like super beneficial for like where we're at as a company right now. But like a lot of large retailers and distributors go like Retro 51 had a booth there. I know Execlare does go there because they have Rody and Clairefontaine and Jay Herban and Covatus and all those things they display there for lots of retailers that come and place like their wholesale orders for the year. So it's definitely more trade wholesale businessy show than anything just like a listener of the pen addict or ink dependence would go to if you could even get in.

Myke Madison: No, I couldn't. And in fact, if you wanted to get in as an employee, so if you wanted to say, oh, yeah, no, Myke's totally an employee of mine, I would have to show, I think it said two pay stubs or something showing that I was an actual employee of the business. I had to work there for months and have like, I don't know, faked record. You'd have to pay me. I can't even go. It's crazy. And I don't really understand why they have those shows, but I guess it's...

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I mean, it's just like trade shows in other industries, right? I mean, you see, you know, like outdoor retailer or E3 or, you know, even some of that's open to the public. It's still pretty much for like the wholesalers of these products to go in and make the next six to 12 months orders and see what's coming up down the line. So, yeah, nothing we really need to focus on as a hobby ourselves. So, Abbey Normal 23 loves the Pilot Juice 0.38 millimeter and the Hitec C 0.3 millimeter. I have small handwriting. I use field notes almost exclusively. Is there a fountain pen that offers comparable performance or should I buy a pen type B and stick to the Pilot refills? You probably shouldn't buy a pen type B because those are crazy nuts expensive. So, unless you really, really want to have that pen, go for it because it's amazing and it works great with field notes. I don't use fountain pens with field notes. Myke does. Myke Hurdley does. This has become a problem. I have to clarify now, Myke, during the show. But there are some fountain pens you can try that I think would work. The Pilot Metropolitan with the EF nib and they have a pen called the Penmanship that also has the EF nib in it. And the Platinum Preppy has an EF nib. And I think those would do really well in field notes. I haven't tried them exclusively, but on just the spots where I have tried them in the past, they've been perfectly fine. Do you use small gel ink pens, Myke?

Myke Madison: Or are you not really in that realm? 0.38 is definitely my floor. And even that is really too small for me most of the time. I'm usually more like a 0.5, 0.7 sort of dude. Yeah. So, not too much. Not the 0.3s. I've got like a 0.18 over here and it's just a thing for stabbing holes in paper. It doesn't even write. Chase the cat away with it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. What about fountain pens? What type of nibs do you use? Just general question.

Myke Madison: It kind of goes all over the place, but usually fine is my floor. I try not to go below that. And like a Japanese fine is pretty much, sometimes it's uncomfortably small. So, I think they've all got their uses. I generally like to use bigger nibs. So, mediums, broads, extra broads, that kind of stuff of whatever kind. But if I'm using my planner, I need a small nib because it's got small spaces. So, I'll use a fine. If I'm writing notes, I'll usually use something smaller so I can cram more on a page. All right.

Overrated Pens

Brad Dowdy: Brian Donovan asked probably the hardest question this entire STPA segment. Most overrated pen? And that was it. That was the extent of the question. I don't know how. I didn't know how to take this. I kept trying to think fountain pen. What's the most overrated fountain pen? And I couldn't really come up with an answer. And then it hit me what I think the most overrated just pen in general is. It's the Pilot G2. So, I'll get some hate mail for that. And the Pilot G2 is not a bad pen. It's just not the best gel ink pen in that market for me. You know, it's perfectly fine. If you love your G2, go for it. You know, you're not going to have a bad time. But I prefer the Signo 307. I prefer the Energel. So, I think the G2 is the most overrated pen. Do you have an answer for this at all?

Myke Madison: Yeah. That was what I struggled with because I don't really... I'm not really in the business of throwing shade. I feel like this is a question that's like, hey, throw some shade. And that's not really my jam. But so, the one thing that has never worked for me is any Pilot medium nib. I've got a bunch of Pilots. And every medium nib I've ever had had to be adjusted. And it may be just that I'm attracting all the bad nibs and sucking them out of the market for everyone else. But that's the thing that I had a problem with. But the G2, I think, is a great answer. There are a lot... Gel pens are great. But that's just not the best of the bunch, for sure. And it's definitely... I think it's the most common one, right? I mean, they've got the biggest sales on that one. But I mean, the Sino beats it or Signo beats it. There's a bunch of them that beat it really well. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: They marketed it as the top-selling gel-ink pen in the world. And I was like, I'm going to go verify this. They're like, can they prove it? So, I emailed them. This was a couple years ago. I emailed them and got part of the documentation, whatever marketing group had this survey done. And they sent me that it was at the top. And I was like, okay, you win.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Whatever. Pilot G2. Definitely overrated. All right. Cancoy. I never know how to pronounce this. Cancoy. Cancoy. That looks fine.

Myke Madison: Cancoy. Oh, yeah. Let's cancoy today. Cancoy. They know who they are.

Scorekeeping Tools

Brad Dowdy: Best pencil or pen for scorekeeping kids' baseball games. My retro 51 bled through the paper. Yeah. That's a bad idea for... So, there's two or three things you have to keep in mind when you're scoring a game outdoors. One, it's hot. Two, it's sweaty. And three, it's dirty. So, there's two things that can handle that page when it's all kinds of gunked up. And one is a pencil. So, I use the Cron Dash Fix pencil instead of a regular wooden pencil most of the time because it has a little sharpener in the end of it. And it has a metal barrel so it can take a beating. You know, you're outside. You might drop it, you know, get bumped into, whatever. And secondly, I'll use a Fisher Space pen just because I know it's going to write when I need it to write. Any type of fountain pen or rollerball pen or even jelly pen just doesn't do well in that type of environment. So, that's what I use. How about when you're scoring your kids' games, Myke? What do you use? When scraggles. I've literally never scored a game.

Myke Madison: So, I didn't actually know how to address this question. So, I'm super glad you had some answers. This one was for me.

Brad Dowdy: I'll post about scorekeeping sometimes and I do it outside. And it's just like a gross thing because like your arms are sweaty and you get the paper all wet and you have to have something that writes in that environment. And it's never going to be anything you really want to write with to do the best. So, stick with a ball, pour, and a pencil and you should be all right. So, here's one of our popular types of questions. Jadezilla is an industrial deckhand looking for a rollerball pen with colorful refills to match her uniform. A bright orange and navy shirt with reflective silver stripes, tan boots, and a white hard hat, preferably rustproof. Any ideas? Did you have any ideas for this, Myke?

Myke Madison: I do. Yeah. And this is one that doesn't get talked about enough. And then I looked up their site and like, oh man, they're not in production right at this moment. But the one that I really like is the TI Scribe Bolt. It's my favorite Bolt pen. And it's one you don't see a whole lot about. But this guy, Kevin, who makes them is currently redesigning these guys and they're going to be even better. And they take the sort of, they take all kinds of refills. There's a long list of refills they take. And what I keep in mind is the Inkjoy gel refill. And so you have every kind of color of ink you could want. And these pens come in, you know, all the popular metal stuff. So you've got brass and copper and titanium and all kinds of things. And they come in pen and pencils. And I think that's probably what I would go to. I was thinking somebody who is, you know, a deckhand would need something that would like survive weather. And I think solid metal machined pens will. And you want to be able to actuate it with one hand. So the Bolt thing is really good for that. So yeah, that was my, that was my go-to, I think. Or I mean, anything in like the plastic versions of things. Those won't rust either.

Brad Dowdy: That's a great call because that TI Scribe is a skinny bolt, if you will. It's not a big honking wide bolt. So it's a, it's a great pen. You can, like you said, you can actuate it with one hand. That's a, that's a really, really great call. I also went the metal machine pen route. I'm a big fan of the Keras Customs EDK or Retract. The Retract has more gel ink options. So you can do different matching colors because you can fit the Pilot Juice refill in there and probably 30 different colors. The EDK fits more of your Parker style rollerball refills, Schmidt, Fisher Space Pen, that type of thing. And then you can mix and match the barrel colors to match, you know, your outfit a little better. Like you could do a silver and orange barrel in either of those pens, I think, you know, something like that, or a navy and silver or navy and black. Any kind of things like that. But yeah, I love the, the TS Scribe Choice. And any of those metal pens are going to be, most of them are going to be rough proof because they either are stainless, aluminum or brass or copper. So they should be good. Good to go. Speaking of Keras Customs, Ari Thornton wants to know, how many pieces of clothes, clothing have you lost to pens or ink? My Keras Customs ink came uncapped in a pocket today and my shorts are now a very Robert Oster right green color. Have you ever had the full on ink explosion in a shirt or pocket or bag or anything?

Myke Madison: So I know I'm going to jinx myself here, but I actually, I haven't had that problem with a fountain pen. The only thing I've lost is I've lost a, well, I have stained a pair of jeans. I didn't really like that much anyway. And I totally stained a pair of shorts that I did like with a retro 51 that that roller ball refill is one that I immediately take out and chuck and put in a ballpoint because like pocket lint gets stuck in there and then it just wicks the ink out into your pants. And so it was both of them retro 51 wrecked two pairs of pants basically. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So I have, I'm going to jinx myself too. I don't want to say it too loud, but I haven't really had that problem. But retro 51 is the worst offender exactly for what you say, because that's a, that water based ink, just like a fountain pen ink. If it comes in contact with anything, it's going to run. I mean, it's gone and you're just going to see a huge, huge spot. So I haven't lost any clothing to that. Anytime I've spilled fountain pen ink on a shirt or shoes, it's been, it hasn't been a permanent one. So I've been able to wash it out. So no, I haven't lost anything yet. So we'll knock on wood and hope we don't. I know you have an answer for this one because I, I wanted to quiz you about it. Cause I saw you answer this question not too long ago. So DV flame artist says, I know you love this Fisher space pen. So this question is all for you. Pressurized cartridges aside, is there a higher quality refill? I can hack into a space pen body. Easy flow 9,000 or the like would be much preferred. The basic Fisher refill leaves much to be desired. So I saw you answer this somewhere recently. Like you have a favorite go-to Parker style refill. What is it?

Myke Madison: Yeah. So my favorite go-to is the, uh, the Monteverde soft roll. I'm a huge fan of those. I've got them in, I don't know, anything that can take it. Basically. I I'll buy a pen that can take it and I'll just go over to Berto, uh, Bert and, um, uh, just buy packs of the Monteverde. Cause I think those are the, those are my, definitely my favorite ballpoint. Um, the other, and I agree. I I've got one Fisher space pen and I do not like that refill at all. It is not good for me. I mean, it's good for, you know, extreme conditions or whatever. And sure. But for everyday writing, it's not my, not my jam. Um, but here's a thing that I just found as I was searching this, see what fits in them. Cause these space pens are often these little bullets sort of guys. And it's a weird shaped refill, but, um, Anna from well appointed desk has a post on hacking, um, uni style fit refills to fit into these things. What? And those uni style with just a little bit, like just wrapping a little bit of washi tape in a few places. And those uni style fits are one of the things I'm really into right now. I love multi pens at the moment. And the uni style fit is my favorite and they come in a zillion different styles. So, um, I think that's the answer.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So we'll add, we'll find that article added to the show notes because I love the style fit also. And yeah, if you can, uh, make that happen easily, I'm all in. So we'll figure that out. All right. Last two, we'll end on a couple of fun ones here. Our friend, Sarah, who unfortunately couldn't join us this weekend in Raleigh. We were hoping she was going to be there, but she needs a garden update from you, Myke. What's up with the garden?

Myke Madison: Uh, so many things are up with the garden. It is, uh, it is the beginning of summer here. Well, yeah. Beginning ish of summer here in North Carolina. And so things are growing. I've been digging out garden beds for, I don't know, it feels like forever, uh, just sort of making my backyard look good. But, um, I've got, uh, my, my baptesias, which are false indigos are a thing I'm super into right now. And those are just kind of finished blooming. Uh, so there's sort of big bushy looking things, but, uh, my Shasta daisies are coming in, uh, strong. My hostas are blooming, which is awesome. Yarrow is all over the place. Um, and, uh, here's a weirdo plant for you. The amorphophallus has just started coming up out of the ground. Uh, Google up amorphophallus, but also you can Google, um, uh, and it's spelled just like it sounds. Okay. I was going to say it could look interesting. Be careful. Yeah, no, that's what it's going to look like. But if you Google that, not just the other, not just the second part, it's fine. Uh, but also they're known as corpse flowers. You see posts about like the, the Titan, uh, Titanus and all these sort of things are these, you know, 20 foot tall blooms. And that's the kind of thing you get, but they also smell like rotting meat. Mine hasn't bloomed yet. Fortunately slash unfortunately, but they're just a cool looking plant. So those are just started peeking out, but, uh, yeah, all kinds of good stuff is coming up. Hibiscus will be out soon. Gladiolus will be out soon. It's going to be very colorful here at the, the Madison household soon.

Brad Dowdy: I'm jealous. I love gardens. I love looking at them and I think they're beautiful. Sarah wants to know, do I have any garden things I'd like to share? And not really, you know, we have your, your basic, uh, azaleas, roses, Japanese maples, um, you know, around the house, nothing we're totally actively, um, doing every year or twice a year, you know, depending on the season we have, we have space for vegetables, which we haven't done at this house. In our previous house, we did, uh, we grew okra and peppers and some things like that. And, uh, a few herbs, but no other like hardcore gardening stuff, uh, here at the pen attic household. But, uh, you know, maybe one of these years we got the room for it and we've always done it in the past. So, all right, last one. This is one for me that came out of the Raleigh pen show, uh, was, was, was popular on the Instagram.

Myke Madison: I'm so disappointed.

Brad Dowdy: So, Kimberly wants to know, why did you want Oscar in a box for your Kickstarter request? Well, I mean, I'm just a weird guy and I like to have fun. So, when I filled out the survey for the pay it forward Kickstarter, you know, you put in your name, your address. I ordered one of the pens. So, I had to put in my pen information. And then at the end, there's a little box saying, do you have any other requests? And just being the silly person that I am, I just typed Oscar in a box on my Kickstarter survey, what, like three months ago. Um, so I wouldn't even know that I even typed that, you know, it was just on a whim at the time. And so, I'm standing there at the Raleigh pen show and around the corner comes a luggage cart with a box on it with a piece of paper taped on the outside. And it's my survey responses from the pay it forward Kickstarter with a little circle around Oscar in a box and out pops Oscar from this box at Raleigh. So, the pay it forward team and Oscar delivered everything I asked for on this Kickstarter project so far. I had a special delivery of Oscar in a box and it was wonderful. I then put him back in the box and shipped him away because it was also a little bit creepy.

Myke Madison: Well, the way he popped out was startling.

Brad Dowdy: But that was fun. And that's why you should come to a pen show and hang out with me. And hang out with Myke and everyone there. We have fun. Like, you know, yes, it's work. Yes, it's business sometimes. But more importantly, it's about the people and about the fun time. And I thank you, Myke, for coming on and talking about the show, recapping the show, telling us what's going on in your world and helping me out awesomely with these Ask TPA questions. So, tell everyone where they can find you on the great internet.

Myke Madison: You can find me at inkdependence.com. You can find me on youtube.com slash Michael Madison, which is my real name. And I'm sure there'll be a note in the show notes for that. You can find me on Patreon. You can find me as at inkdependence on Instagram and at Madison on Twitter. I wish I could consolidate those things, but sometimes it's not possible.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I know. Same here. So, we will have links to all those in the show notes this week, which you can find at relay.fm slash penaddict311. You can find me on Twitter at dowdyism, D-O-W-Y-I-S-M, and on Instagram at penaddict, because I too cannot consolidate all my names into one because people have them. And I've tried to buy them off them, and they won't take my money. So, that's a wrap for this week. Myke with the Y will be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Myke. Goodbye, Myke.