The Pen Addict 316/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	316
Title:	Let's Build a Pen
Release Date:	July 11th, 2018
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 316
Audio File:	Audio Episode 316
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 316
Length:	5555 min <br />0.917 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 316. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's and Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello, married man Myke Hurley.

Myke Hurley: Yes, that's true. That is a thing that happened. That is a thing that happened in my past. It was a good day. Good. I am glad that you had a good day on your wedding. There was much emotion. No one knows. No one knows. So, I am, by the time you're, as we mentioned last time, I am, by the time you're hearing this, married, but at the time we're recording it, I am not.

Brad Dowdy: I felt like we, our listeners love it when we mess around like that. So, I am fine doing things like that. And hopefully, our listeners are fine with an entire show dedicated to hashtag Ask TPA Myke. What do you think? You think they're going to listen to this? So, you think they're just going to turn it off and say, ah.

Myke Hurley: Because everyone wants to know if it's their question that's been picked.

Brad Dowdy: That's true.

Podcast Topic Selection

Brad Dowdy: It's a high likelihood it was picked for this episode. Because if we're going to cover 45 minutes to an hour of podcasting topics, we need lots of questions. So, I've been hitting everyone up for the last couple of weeks collecting questions for this show. Got a bunch from Twitter. Got a bunch from Slack. Got a bunch from the email. I guarantee we don't get to all of them. Really? Okay. I'll make you that bet. I'll make you that bet. I think we do get to all of them. And these are in no particular order. So, there's not any running themes. We're going to have some hard breaks between questions. You know, switching topics. But that's good. You know, we're answering the questions that you asked. So, we're going to start it off with Evgeny. Which I really liked this question. If you could launch any of your beloved stationary items into space for all time as a testament to our community, what would it be?

Brad Dowdy: You, I think, took the easy route. I don't think so. I think it's a great answer. But I think everyone goes, oh, I know what Myke's going to say.

Myke Hurley: Well, I think it makes sense. One of the space theme retro 51s. I feel like, you know, sending a little pen that looks like a space rocket into space. That makes sense to me.

Brad Dowdy: That's kind of cool. Like, I saw your answer. I was like, yep, that's Myke. And that's also the correct answer. I had a tough time with this, actually. Like, I put some thought into this. And I chose the Notco Brasstown. And it's like a super selfish thing. But it's something I'm super proud of. And I want it to live on. I want the alien colonies to discover this pen case. And, you know, put their needles in that they stick in our human brains and suck out the liquids for later. And this is going to be like their hypodermic needle storage when it gets into the outer space and picked up by the roving spacecraft. I felt a little weird like that. But then I'm like, no, I'm proud of this. And I want that to be, you know, the stationary item that lives in outer space for all time. I want it to be a Brasstown. And, you know, maybe we'll put some pins in it or something. I don't know. Maybe we'll put Myke's retro 51s in there and then launch the whole kit together. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, sure. Let's do that. Maybe I'd even put the Dudek one up, you know, so it's got a little map of space. Anyone finds it and know which way to go.

Brad Dowdy: We can see if it makes it all the way to Pluto and then Pluto can become a planet again. Or just feel better about themselves. Yeah. Yeah. Just a little special gift to make Pluto feel better and write us a note that we'll see in several hundred thousand years from now. All right. Hard break. All the Hobbies wants to know. Does the stationary, pin, podcast, blog, vlog world have room for more podcasts, blog, vlogs, etc.? What advice do you have to folks thinking about jumping into one of these ventures?

Myke Hurley: I will start by saying off the top that the internet has no maximum capacity. Right? So, yes, in theory, of course, there's space. Like, no one can stop you. The problem is, the problem is. So, I can come at this from a world where what is happening to the pen kind of community has already happened to the technology community. So, if you are, you know, a person who is interested in, like, commentary on Apple products, that world is full. Like, it is very, very, very difficult in 2018 to get a podcast or a blog or even a technology-focused YouTube channel off the ground today because there is a real saturation of voices that exist right now. And, honestly, if you are kind of somebody in that world, by and large, what you're looking for is diverse voices now, which is a great thing. And there is work going on in kind of that corner of the world. And I hope that it continues. And we're trying what we can at RelayFM to do what we can in that realm as well. So, like, yeah, if you are a person who is considered a minority in a community, whether that's by gender or race or background of other kind, then that will help you, of course. Because if that's what people are looking for, then great. But, by and large, I would say that in the technology community, like, if you wanted to start a podcast about Apple products today, it is very unlikely that that podcast will become popular because there are millions of them, right? Like, there's hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, definitely thousands of podcasts focused on this topic. So, over the time that I've been involved in the pen community, we went from being, like, the only podcast about stationery that I could find or that ever made it to a point where it was known. And now there are many, right? And that keeps growing. I'm sure you would see the exact same thing with blogs, right? You were, like, one of the reasons that the pen app is as successful as it is is because you started doing something before people started doing it, right? There are other reasons, like in the fact that you are very good at what you do, but you identified a niche and you catered to that niche. But now there are lots of people that want to do the thing Brad Dowdy did. And what that means is it becomes way, way, way, way harder. So, the advice that I will give to all the hobbies is the same advice that I give to people who ask me about starting a technology podcast. Only do it if you... Okay, if you want to be successful, like, very successful in this, you have to find the thing that makes you significantly different to whatever exists right now. If all you want to do is do this thing because it's a thing that you love and you want to have fun and you want to do something with your friends, then go for it. Like, no one's going to stop you. But if your plan is, I would like to make this a successful thing one day, then you need to find the thing that makes you different. If you're going into any of these things with, I want to make money, stop. Just stop and reframe and start again. Because you cannot go into any kind of creative side project like this hoping, like, with the idea of, I'm going to do this so I can make money. That's not how this works. Like, because people that work like that, they tend not to have the right frame of mind when it comes to commitment. Because I will tell you right now, it takes a long time to make any money in basically every case. So expect you're going to be doing it for free. Go out there and do it. And if it's good, people will come to it. And then maybe one day you could turn it into a thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I'll add a couple of things.

Stationery Content Discussion

Brad Dowdy: I think you should jump in to the stationary blogging, podcasting, blogging.

Brad Dowdy: Because the one difference that it has from, say, like Myke's technology comments is that it's evergreen content.

Brad Dowdy: Technology content is not. So technology content is driven by news and timelines and release dates.

Brad Dowdy: Stationary is not. It's more personal. It's more personality driven from a time frame perspective. It's the content I wrote 10 years ago, while things have changed about a certain pen, is still good content. So the sooner you start doing that, the bigger base you have. So you should not hesitate because you think there might be too many of these other things out there in the stationary world. I don't believe. I had a friend last night on Twitter, Davey, who said, I don't see. I'm very interested in paper. I don't see enough paper reviews. Should I start a paper blog? Yes, you should. You should start it immediately.

Myke Hurley: And that's what I'm talking about. Like identifying a niche in the market. Right. Like he's identified in areas like, well, I can't find this content. So maybe I should make it.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. So, you know, I'm going to tell anyone in the stationary game to continue to do it. Right. To start something new, start something fresh. See what your voice is. Is your voice different than what's out there? You know, don't start something like Myke said to make money or run ads on. And that's just something that comes over time if you do a good job, you know, starting things out. So, you know, but I wouldn't hesitate to tell someone to jump in today. Start a stationary blog. Start a YouTube channel. Start a Twitch stream. Start an Instagram account. You know, I think a good example of a recent blog that has kind of jumped right into the middle of the fray because she does an awesome job and she's very consistent. And she's very focused is that's Kelly at Mountain of Ink. Like she's done three, four, 500 ink reviews in the past year or two. Like she went she went all in from the jump and has has been able to stick with it. And, you know, now I love reading her work and, you know, I think she's she's doing a great job. That's a good example of someone, you know, we've all reviewed inks in the past. She says, well, I'm going to review inks, too, and I'm going to do it my way. And here's what I want to see in the blogosphere that I'm not getting and went out and created herself. So, you know, I think that's an awesome thing. So Kim's second part of the question, you kind of answered it a little bit. She says, along those lines, what advice would you give to prevent turning a hobby passion into work for those who aren't going to be doing this as a full time job? Do what you enjoy the most. Don't do it for clicks. Don't do it for follows. Don't do it for eyeballs. Don't do it for money. If you do it from a place of enjoyment and fun and happiness and true meaning to yourself, then it never becomes work. You know, if as long as you're it's only becomes work when you're not being, you know, true to like the things that you really believe in as a person. And that's different for everyone. You have to figure out what that is, what you know, what I believe and, you know, what you believe are different things. And, you know, that goes for everybody. So, you know, you definitely if it starts to feel like a job and it's not your job, then you might need to take a look at it before. And those are some of the challenges I went through back in the day. Myke, you remember these days when I was working so hard at the pen attic and getting burnt out because I was working a full time job at the same time, too. But, you know, I eventually, you know, you have these moments with yourself where you things moments of clarity that don't necessarily come easy at the time. And it leads you down these paths. And I've certainly had struggles and ups and downs through all this. And, you know, it's great to have this this community now to bounce these things off of. And anyone out there who's thinking about starting or anyone out there who has been doing this for a while and, you know, wants to be involved more, let me know. You know, I you know, the stationary community is great because there's no. There's no blogger beef. You know, there's no podcaster angst. You know, we're all one big happy family. We're all happy to support each other. We want to see everyone do well. And I think that's why we're in the situation that we're in right now where there's just such a burgeoning community around pens and inks and paper and stationary and the different formats. We can deliver that conversation now, which we didn't have, you know, five or 10 years ago. So it's fantastic. So long story short, jump in, start today, be yourself and everything else will take care of itself.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Tony.

Brad Dowdy: WTF Tony. You know, Tony, Myke.

Brad Dowdy: This is kind of a related question. What things do you automate like social media posts, etc. I forget the context of when this question first came up from Tony. Like, it's like a couple of weeks ago. I saved this because I thought it was a good question. I automate as little as possible. This is a personal thing with me. I want there to be meaning behind everything that I do. Because as someone who creates things and has a relationship with the other end of the screen or the other end of the podcast, you want to. What's the best way to say it? You don't want to be a burden to those who follow you. Therefore, I don't repeatedly link things. You know, I don't have automation schedules that repost content over and over again because I feel like that burns out readers. It's an overload. Like, I'll make up. The only thing that I can think I automate right now is when a blog post publishes. I click a button that sends it to Twitter. And you can say that's automated. I mean, you know, if I schedule my post in advance, say 9 a.m., which is generally when I post the reviews in the morning, that tweet gets sent to Twitter. So I don't have to go type it in myself. But I don't have, in case you missed it, tweets. Like, if you didn't, like, you know how to find me. I hope you enjoy my content. Here's the article I posted today. And, you know, tomorrow I'll have another one. I don't need this constant impersonal actions for, you know, my readers. That's just, it's a personal thing. Like, everyone's different. But I feel that if I am not coming at any type of communication from a direct personal, in a direct and personal way, it's not content that I want to put out there. It's extraneous to me. And I know not everyone agrees with that. And that's okay. Like, I think people should do what they feel is best for them. And I do what's best for me. And for me, that's not automating things. I hope that kind of makes sense. I think you know where I'm kind of getting at, Myke. I don't know if you are, Tony. But, you know, I've talked about, when we talk about blogging and doing it as a business, I have to ask, you know, my readers and followers and members, I have to ask them for support on occasion. And over long periods of time, you build up, you know, I call it, like, just in a mental term, you build up credit with your readership by providing them content, by answering their questions. And you, like, build up all these credits so that when you do put out the ask, like, hey, will you consider becoming a member, that they haven't been overburdened with stuff to think about other than, like, reading your content and supporting you if they're interested in. So I don't like the extraneous fluff that automation schedules provide. So that's me. That's how I tend to operate. So that's it.

Myke Hurley: I wouldn't say I have such a, like, philosophical view on it. I don't really automate a lot of stuff just because if I do it, I know it's going to be done. Like, when it comes to posting of things, you know, like, sometimes, like, you know, we do a bunch of things. So, like, we have some show-specific Twitter accounts. And IFTTT looks at RSS feeds and publishes tweets for those, right? But that's kind of all that I do. I don't really do anything more like that. You know, like, I don't use Buffer or something to schedule a tweet to go. And I have no problem with people that do that. This is just my own personal thing. I don't really feel the need to do it. I employ automation in many other parts of my working life. But it's usually stuff that's just for me as opposed to things for everyone else.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I guess the short version of this whole conversation, just like the last one, is I automate the thing once.

Brad Dowdy: And that's it. So, you know, I send my blog to Twitter when it publishes.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: There's nothing more than that. Like, I can think of maybe I'm missing something. But that's it. Like, I don't automate anything else. Like, that gets published. So, and you know what makes that easy for me to do mine?

Squarespace Sponsorship

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. Squarespace. Squarespace makes that easy for me to do. Nice transition. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. Make your next move with Squarespace. We were just talking about doing creative things. If you have an idea that you want to put out into the world, you need a website for it. And if you need a website, the best place to go is Squarespace. Because you can make your next move with them. You'll be able to easily create the website that you want to make. They have all of the tools that you're going to need. You can very easily grab a domain name. Squarespace offers domain names now as well. So it just becomes that one true package. You can take advantage of and customize beautiful award-winning templates, which very easily allow you to add in a slew of functionality. Maybe you want to add an online store or a blog component to your website. Maybe you want to add a music player or a map to your website. Maybe it's a business site that you're building. Maybe you want to build a website for your wedding. That's what I did with Squarespace. It was so easy to do. They even have pre-made templates just for weddings. It was so simple. Even just kind of from the idea of what you need to have on a wedding website, we could customize all of that. Because you just use the content. And you can blow it all the way. It was a very useful website, Myke. I'm not going to lie. It was very useful. And that's because of Squarespace. They're on only one platform that will let you build just about any website you want to make. It's nothing to install, patch, or upgrade. They have got you covered. And even with 24-7 customer support, they got you back. Squarespace plans start at just $12 a month. But you can go and try it for free just by going to squarespace.com slash penaddict. There's a free trial there. No credit card required to sign up. And then you can make sure you're going in and you're taking a look and you're making sure everything works for you. And then you go ahead and get it all done. Squarespace is amazing. Once you decide to sign up, use the offer code penaddict and you'll get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and show your support for this show. Once again, that is squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict to get 10% off your first purchase. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show. Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

Brad Dowdy: So we've got a few product related questions, as you can imagine. And Lynn wants to know, I enjoy writing letters to my family and friends, and it's a good opportunity to bring out a fountain pen and great color ink. However, I'm challenged with finding good paper to use for this. I'm currently using Rhodia A5 dot pad that has a finely perforated top and a Tomoe River notebook with a glue top that's about the same size. Both of these are okay, although the Tomoe River is a bit too thin for me. Any suggestions for another type of paper that is a bit more luxurious, at least worthy of the time spent to write a leather, and either separate sheets or tears cleanly and won't break the bank. So as someone who doesn't write a lot of letters, I do have a couple of letter writing papers that I use on the occasions that I like to use them. My favorite by far is the Pilot letter pad. So it's kind of expensive. Like it, I don't know where it falls and breaks the bank level, but 30 sheets for $14 is the opposite of cheap. But it's really nice. I like the pad that it comes in. It tears off cleanly. It handles fountain pens well. I've done some reviews on this paper before. The lines are really wide if you write big. I might write like two lines between the lines there. It's a little bit of a weird format there. But I really, really like this paper. That's my preferred letter writing paper. And I guess it's affordable to me because I'm not burning through it. I still have the original pad that I bought. You know, and probably like 10 sheets left in it or something like that. The other one I like, and I think it's a little bit cheaper, is Life does some really nice smaller sheets. Like that Pilot paper is not quite A4. I didn't see what size it is. It's bigger than A5, but I don't think it's quite A4 size. Let's see. Does it even say?

Brad Dowdy: Who knows? Yeah, it's a who knows size. So it's probably, I don't know, whatever B5 is, B6. I don't know what those sizes are. Not B6. That's too small.

Myke Hurley: 9.8 inches by 6.8 inches. That's the size of it.

Brad Dowdy: So that's really good stuff. So Life paper is wonderful. It's a little bit cheaper. This is 50 sheets. It's the Life airmail letter pad. I think this is more like A5 size though. It's smaller.

Brad Dowdy: And it's really good quality paper. It is thin like the Tomoe River. So you may not like that as much, but Life has some other regular sheets that tear off cleanly from pads that are good for writing as well. So they have a thicker pad as well. And you can also get like the L brand writing paper. That's the one I'm talking about. So that's really good stuff too. So it's 30 sheets A5 for like $625. I'm looking on JetPens right now. So those are really good. And you can get matching envelopes for those. You can get actually paper and envelopes for cheaper than the Pilot paper. I just have a, I don't know, have a sweet spot for that Pilot paper. Like maybe because it is expensive and I use it when I do fancy stuff. So you know me, I'm a fancy man.

Brad Dowdy: Like our next caller, Myke. This is a live radio show. So we have callers. So Chewbacca, Chewbacca is gonna, he filled up the Ask TPA queue with some good questions here. And he's making pens right now. So this is an important question to him. With all of the swirly acrylic pen materials out there saturating the market, what do you see as the next trend in pen material designs? That's a super tough question.

Myke Hurley: I have an answer.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, you go first. Cause I have a couple.

Myke Hurley: Whenever Jonathan Brooks comes up with.

Brad Dowdy: So my answers come from seeing off the market Jonathan Brooks stuff because he's someone who experiments with a lot of things. I think you're gonna see a lot of different, you're gonna see some layered materials cut at differing angles to bring out different patterns in those materials. Interesting. Think of like the, like that Arco material that's got so much, you know, layers and depth to it, but like cut at different angles or, you know, manipulated different ways to keep a same look, but have a different underlying pattern. So you're gonna see some, some non-traditional swirl stuff coming soon. Like, you know, once you've seen, there's a few swirl patterns that are so popular. It's like you see them throughout a bunch of different makers. And that's okay, you know, but like you're at, like you're saying, Brian, we're getting to the point where some of it's getting a little bit saturated and people are looking for new things.

Myke Hurley: It becomes less special over time. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, like you see, see similar things happening over and over again and the specialness starts to fade and it's like, oh, that's like that type of pen. And like, don't get me wrong, like you can still be surprised. There can still be like a color thing that grabs you. Sure. It's like you become accustomed to seeing a specific type of thing but it looks like, you know, there will be a change because there's going to be the next thing that blows people away.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I think we're going to see a lot more layering and a lot more angle cuts of that material that doesn't really play out in traditional acrylics which leads into the cost question. These certainly, these things are going to be more expensive. That's why these acrylics have become so popular because they're easier to make and cheaper to buy and easy to manipulate and easy to turn into pens. So, these next, these next materials are going to be harder to make and harder to manipulate and harder to turn into pens. So, the cost will be associated with that. So, Brian also wants to know, do you have any concerns carrying a fountain pen in your pocket when the temperature is over 90 degrees Fahrenheit? That has never crossed my mind. So, I guess I would say I have no concerns.

Myke Hurley: Straight up, I don't even know why that would be a problem.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because I'm not outside in that temperature for 12 or 14 hours. So, you know, popping in and out of hot and cold may actually be worse. I don't know. Just the, oh, if you're going out in a really, really hot temperature and then back into like the air conditioning. But, those have never really concerned me. Maybe there's some filling mechanisms that might have an issue with that. But, I've never experienced anything as someone who lives in an area where it's 90 plus degrees for probably four months consistently out of the year. I've never seen any issues. I would not leave anything in my car when it gets, you know, that brings the temperature up to probably 120, 130 degrees inside of a car. I would never do that. I would be worried in that case. But, outside with movement and not being hit in the direct sunlight, I would, it's never, never come up.

Fountain Pen Filling Systems

Brad Dowdy: So, Brian, aka Chewbacca, saved his fighting question for last, Myke. It's a very simple question. What is the best filling system for a fountain pen? You go first.

Myke Hurley: A converter system.

Brad Dowdy: See? We're gonna fight. I mean, it's a piston filler. Like, a piston. I disagree. A built-in piston is the best.

Myke Hurley: I like them a lot. They're a lot of fun. But they come with uncertainty. Like what? If you have a converter, right? Something gets stuck in the converter or whatever, right? Like it starts to jam up a little bit. Just pop it out and put a new one in. With a piston filler, if you can't see what's going on, right? How do you fix that?

Brad Dowdy: I mean, they're consistently more consistent for one. They don't, they're not as, they're not as fragile as converters. But yeah, I mean, yeah, but converters are like, that situation is user repairable. Yeah, but I guess in the, all the pistons I have, I'm coming at this from a perspective is I've never had to repair a piston. Same.

Myke Hurley: Well, okay, that's a lie. Twisby. I've had problems with Twisby systems. That's Twisby.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, right? Yeah, that's fair. I've had to re-grease a Twisby piston, yes.

Myke Hurley: All right, and there you go. That's the kind of stuff you have to do. It is the, I prefer to use in my own pens piston fillers. Like, it is my favorite, but I don't think it's the best. I think best and favorite are different. I think best is because you get to bring as much ink as you want, you can vary the size of the converter, you can change different types of converters depending on whatever features you might want, like the ideal filling system for you, whether it's like a twisty one or a squeezy one. And also, if something goes wrong, you can pop it out and it will cost you cents to fix. Like, if you have a pen that's a piston filler and something goes wrong, you're looking at a lot of convenience and potentially a lot more money to fix.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but I think that doesn't even register on majority of modern piston fillers. There's so much more ink capacity. There's so much easier to use. There's less parts to lose and fidget with. it's just a far superior filling system. If I have a choice of, you know, a piston or a converter, I don't know any situation I would ever choose a converter, a cartridge converter fill pen.

Myke Hurley: I'm not disagreeing with you. Like, this is how I personally feel about my own pens. But like, if the question is, like, Myke Hurley's making a pen for the masses, he's putting a converter in it so he doesn't have to deal with the problems, which is the reason I expect that Chewbacca's asking this question.

Myke Hurley: Right? Like, if he's making pens, right? Like, what do we think, right? And I genuinely think that converters are easier to deal with over time because there is less potential place for problems. But if you want what is probably the most, like, people's favorite system, it's a piston filler. But if you want to, like, as a maker, just make it as simple as you can on yourself, I would recommend a converter.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I don't know. I don't see any, like, a converter wouldn't even register with me for best filling system. Like, that's how inferior I think it is. Like, it's the most useful and most functional as far as convenience-wise. It's just not the best.

Myke Hurley: I think that your grading system of inferiority is, like, so minuscule, though, right? Because the ways in which a converter is worse than a piston filler, the differences are very small. Like, you can rank them, but, like, okay, so, like, ink capacity. It's not like a piston filler in most cases would necessarily be, like, five times the amount of ink, right? Like, the variance between these two things and all of these points is comparatively very small, in my opinion. but you can rank them and say, like, this is better than this on all of these points, but, like, that graded scale has got to be really small.

Brad Dowdy: When you are filling a new pin, would you rather dip the nib in and fill it with a piston filler or open up the pin barrel and fill it with a converter?

Myke Hurley: You're not gonna change my mind because I've already told you, me personally, what I want to do is always piston, right? That is my personal feeling, but, like, if we're looking for what is the best, no, no, no, no, favorite. There's a difference. It's like if you say, what is the best movie of all time? What is your favorite movie? They are two very, very different questions. What is my favorite filling system? Piston. What do I think is the best filling system for everyone in the world? Converters.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Pen Preference Debate Ends

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. You see, I knew this would be a fight and it's a good fight and, you know, I, you know, best is, Brian asked this question correctly in leaving it completely open, right?

Myke Hurley: Because favorite was easy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, favorite's easy, but best and best for who? Like, he didn't say best for you, best for the world, best for his pins, you know, so, these are the, these are the best questions to fight about and, as usual, you're wrong. So, next question's from Donut Jimmy. What is your opinion of buying pins, et cetera, on Amazon from Japan? For example, the ProGear Imperial Black, which is listed at 240 versus 450 in the US and the implications with regards to American retailers. So, this is always a good question and we've kind of answered this several times over the years and I've been known to use both types of, of, of buying where I've bought a pin that was not really available from a US retailer overseas. In the case of my Pilot Custom 823, the only option I had was Amber from a US retailer, but I could buy Clear from Japan. So, that was an example of where I chose to go from to Japan for a pin that I really, really wanted and wasn't going to settle for what was available in the American market. That's not necessarily a retailer problem. The issue with the ProGear Imperial Black is a lot of, say, US vendors carry the Imperial Black at a very high price. You can get it from Japan for a much, much greater discount and I don't know that, number one, I don't tell anyone how to spend their money, right? If you can get a large discount and that's the most important thing to you, you should. And in the case of these dollars, which I haven't verified, that's an enormous difference in price and no one would fault you for doing that and no one would fault you for spending your money as you best see fit. So, you just have to understand from an American retailer's perspective, those prices get you a lot more. You know, if you're paying a premium, it's because you're getting more in service, you're getting more in support, you're getting more in education, which doesn't always show up in the bottom line when you're comparing prices in a black and white format, but the additional things you get from, you know, your local retailers, and let's not even say American, you know, just from your local market to an outside market, you're getting, supporting those local to you retailers is important for all the additional benefits you get, whether that manifests itself in the black and white price of the pen. So, there's no easy answer to this. You have to make an individual decision. I've done it both ways. I would prefer to buy everything from, you know, say my local retailers, if you will. There's some situations where that doesn't work out as simply as possible, but I do understand the benefit of going through a retailer as opposed to Amazon. That's where I would be a little bit more hesitant, certainly like through Amazon if you're buying a pen. So, you don't necessarily know what you're getting. Not that there's going to be a problem or anything wrong, but there's a lot more risk in going through Amazon for a comparable pen if you don't know the store on the back end who's providing that pen, right? Which on Amazon in some cases you don't. So, I don't know. Those are kind of my thoughts. Do you have anything to add to that?

Myke Hurley: It differs. Like, I'm not going to say one is right and one is wrong. Well, there is no. Yeah, I don't think there's a right or wrong. And you know what I'm going to do too? I'm going to put a link in the show notes to the most recent episode of Thoroughly Considered where we spoke about the complexities of Made in America and Made in China. Yeah,

Brad Dowdy: I need to go listen to that. That's in my queue.

Myke Hurley: I think you'll enjoy that one. There are, this isn't the exact same discussion, but I think there are parallels where the idea of like, sometimes people can get lost in supporting the home team when there are sometimes benefits in different ways. So like, for example, if you say, in what you have available to you and also price. So I recommend listening to that. I think that it helps maybe put some stuff into perspective, which I think is quite important.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. All right. This is a company I support a lot, Myke. One of our good friends and sponsors of this show, Harry's. Why don't you tell us about them?

Myke Hurley: Harry's founders decided that they wanted to create this company because they were fed up with paying for overpriced razors full, chock full, of unnecessary features. They knew, Harry's founders know, that a great shave comes down to having great blades made of sharp, durable steel that lasts, and they cut out the unnecessary costs and allowing them to deliver to you one perfect razor at a stunning price. By selling directly to you over the internet, Harry's can offer their blades at a price much lower than the leading brand. You pay just $2 per blade compared to maybe $4 or more that you'd be paying for other razor brands. Harry's bought a factory. This is how they were able to make sure that they could have great consistency and they could also sell them for cheap. This factory has been making some of the highest quality blades in the world for over 95 years and now they make Harry's blades for them. They even offer a 100% quality guarantee. If you don't love your shave, let Harry's know within 30 days and they'll get you a full refund. Brad, why will people love Harry's?

Brad Dowdy: Well, I'm going to ask you that, Myke. I'm going to flip the script here. I mean, how good did I look at your wedding?

Myke Hurley: The very best. Smooth, crisp, smelling good, just like the Brad Dowdy that I know.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, and you know how I got that, right? That is all thanks to Harry's. It's the only way.

Myke Hurley: It's the only way. Brad without Harry's is almost like a Yeti human. He needs it. He needs it. It's the only way he can achieve the gorgeous looks that you're used to seeing is by using Harry's products.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. That's right. They travel well. Made it across the pond. So, yeah, look good at the wedding, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Harry's stands behind the quality of their blades, but they know that switching razors is not an easy decision. This is something you're probably very, you know, you're used to who you use, so they want to make it easy for you to try them out. New customers can get $5 off of a shave set at Harry's. You can get any of their shave sets. You get $5 off with the code PENADDICT at harrys.com. That means you can get a trial set that comes with a five-blade razor, weighted handle, foaming shave gel, and travel cover all for just $3 plus free shipping. All you need to do is go to harrys.com and use the code PENADDICT. That is H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com and the code PENADDICT at checkout and you get $5 off a shave set, which means you can pick up an incredible set for just $3 if you want. Join the millions of people who have already switched. Go to harrys.com use the code PENADDICT at checkout and you'll be able to get that wonderful discount to claim your offer. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Pen Building Discussion Begins

Brad Dowdy: All right, let's build a pen, Myke. I think we've answered kind of this before, but I'm not sure that we have, at least not in a while. So Jacob wants to know if you had the requisite skills, tools, and materials and you were going to make your own custom pen, what would it look like?

Myke Hurley: So straight up, we start with a converter, right? That's what we're building the whole thing around, the most important part of a pen, the converter.

Brad Dowdy: That's disappointing.

Myke Hurley: No, piston filler, right? Piston filler and it's going to be a demonstrator, right? I feel like, let's build this together here. I think that's more fun. So piston filler, demonstrator, right? We need to choose the color, but I think we could both agree that we want to be able to see through it.

Brad Dowdy: this, we can just cut the chase and get sailor to make an orange demonstrator king of pens and then we're done.

Ink Preferences Discussion

Myke Hurley: How much money will I give them? Oh, hang on a second, all of my money. I mean, honestly, like that's what I would want. That is exactly the pen, right? Like a king of pen, demonstrator, orange. Like if we had the skills, tools, and materials, i.e. if we were sailor pen co, that's what we would make.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that pen is something else. So yeah. I don't, you know, if we want to get this like on a personal, like one-off, like one and only, and go like ultimate pen, I did answer this on the BYOB podcast the last time I was on there, and I would, I didn't have like specifics, but I would get an artist involved. Like I would pick, you know, find an artist that, you know, I really enjoy and do something, while not like a, like a gaudy art piece, but something subtle, like Nakaya-ish, but with someone that, you know, I support and believe in to, to do the barrel and then just kind of go from there. That would be like if I did that, but if I'm doing a pen to make and to sell, man, give me an orange king of pen. It's over. It'd just be over at that point.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think that's probably the perfect thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. All right, Daniel, I put in this question. Daniel's in the, in the Slack room and I put this question to call him out because I, I, I copied this exactly how he wrote this. Somebody that listened, did he answer my question about when I can give him money for the 12 pin case? So number one, I'm disappointed that you didn't listen, Daniel, and you're, you're asking for input from somebody that did. And I found that completely hilarious when I was reading these questions yesterday, but it brought up the broader question of pen case design, which is why I put this in there. So we have a 12 pin case prototype we've been carrying around for knock and I don't think we're going to make that case, but the wheels are in motion in Jeff's head to design something for larger capacity, larger quantities of pens. So it won't be like purely a 12 pin case. I don't think, but we have some ideas for different ways to carry large amounts of pens and we're always messing around with things, trying new designs. It's a slow process as anyone who's followed us over the years knows to manufacture something from, you know, a thought in your head to an actual product that other people can buy is an extraordinarily long process, especially for us. so, you know, there's things in the works. I don't have a 12 pin case that's imminent, but we do have an idea for a larger pin case that we want to try. We don't even have the prototype yet, but we've got the sketches and designs and materials and layouts. So we'll make a prototype. We'll be teasing y'all with it at some point, probably later this year, and then see if it becomes a real thing because we do a lot of, we make a lot of prototypes that always don't make the cut. And so the one I'm carrying now for 12 pins may not make the cut, but something else might.

Brad Dowdy: So Daniel also wanted to know, since I gave him a hard time about the beginning of that question, what do you think the ink world is missing? And my answer to that is nothing. I think my stance on the ink world is crystal clear. I get asked to make an ink all the time. There's a reason why I haven't made my own pen addict ink is because I don't think I can do anything new. And that's important to me or different, you know, something to stand out. Can you think of anything possibly that the ink world is missing, Myke?

Myke Hurley: No, I'm not attuned to it enough. Like there's already too much for me to even begin to understand.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like I don't feel like I'm lacking anything. Like what am I lacking? And when I look at all the inks that are available to me, do I go, boy, I wish I had X. I mean, I think people would always love like a faster dry time, you know, just in a general sense. But there's technical limitations to that, right? You lose things when you have that. So as far as technical aspects, I think there's done. There's definitely, I'm not missing any colors, that's for sure. That doesn't stop me from buying colors that are close or similar to other things. But I just don't see, yeah, I got nothing for this. So I'm not seeing anything. I'd be interested to hear if any listeners, you know, after they hear this episode, if they think we're actually missing something. Like the only thing I can even think of is dry time. You know, that would be to be able to get dry time in all the inks that ink colors that you love and it to work well. So that would be a technical challenge for someone. All right, Mr. Dookie, I'm having a hard time finding a finer refill for my retro 51s. We get this question a lot, Myke. The Schmidt and retro 51 capless refills are awesome, but I can't seem to get anything thinner than 0.6. Monteverde makes a 0.5 millimeter gel that's super popular. And that's if you want something to just pop right in. If you want to manipulate a refill to where you have to hack it a little bit, some of the uniballs and pilots and zebra refills can be hacked to fit into the Schmidt retro 51 P8127 style, something that'll fit in there. And we'll put a link in the show notes. Myke, I'll add that to the doc here. Anna has a really great refill guide and goes through some of the things that we'll hack into there. So that will be something to check out. We'll put that in there in the show notes.

Brad Dowdy: E. Scott Mitchell says, my favorite ink is private reserve ebony purple, dark saturated black with a subtle purple secret. lately I've been getting some crystallization in some, not all pens. Can either of you think of another interesting black with a twist or a secret identity?

Myke Hurley: Oh, I like that phrase, secret identity.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so that's good.

Brad Dowdy: So a couple of things on this. One, private reserve is kind of known for weird ink effects, which is honestly, I don't use them because of that. two, if you want to keep that purple flavor in there, Monteverde has come out with a new ink lineup. I don't exactly recall the name, but they started to do some black mixtures into there, into those ink colors. You know, green blacks and purple blacks and aside from blue blacks, which pretty much anyone, anyone can do. And the third one, which I'm vamping here, Myke, trying to find the ink name is the one I use. It's a black ink that doesn't necessarily have a hint of another color in, but it's just a shade of black that seems it has more character than any flat black would. And it's the, the, from the, the Kyoto no Oto ink lineup. And I can't remember the name off the top of my head and I am searching. Uh, someone can tell me in the chat room as I search for this. Let's find it here. Almost there, Michael. So it's the Nure Biro ink. So we'll put this in the show notes. It's like a raven's wing. Like you see the iridescence of, you see a black raven, right? And you can see kind of those, uh, iridescent colors on their wings or their feathers. It's a really, really neat black, ink. It's one of the most enjoyable black inks I do. I use, um, cause I don't use very many of them cause they're mostly boring. This is not a boring ink, but it's pretty much black without any undertones. It just has a little bit of extra character to the, to the sheening of it. And it makes it look really cool on the page.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Mia Thet. You were just discovering stationary and jet and jet pens and want free shipping. How do you allocate your $25? This is an easy question for me. And it's pretty much a repetition of things you could pull off my top five pens list. You're getting a Uniball Signo DX. You're getting a Uniball Kurutoga. You're getting a Rodia A5 pad of some shape or form, you know, probably, you know, either, you know, blank or lined or gridded.

Brad Dowdy: You could pick out a highlighter. The Kukuyo Beetle Tip is like my highlighter that I pick in like this $25. Yeah, it's a great like you kind of get like the one of each thing. You get the Kuretake Zig Mangaka drawing pen. You go down my top five list. You pick the top one item from each of those lists like the non-expensive fountain pen lists. And those are the things that build out your little kit there and you get to $25 like no problem. You get the Zebra Superfine Brush Pen. You kind of just do, it's a one of each thing, gets you like right at $25. I should just do a post for this little kit and put that out there because it's super simple and you get really, really good stuff and you get to try a bunch of different things. So it's a good question to make me remember to do a post about it, but it's real, real simple to build. So just hit that top five list, go off the, pick the top, the top choice in each of the low end categories and you're set.

Myke Hurley: So my recommendation would be to go wild building out some high-tech C-Coleto stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You can lose yourself in that. Yeah. Those are really cool. Like I love those pens. The three and four color ones. I don't go for the fives. Those are too wide.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Doc Ketchup wants to know, I just got a Pilot Falcon and I'm looking for a blue or blue black ink that will sheen when I flex the nib. What are your recommendations? I go straight to Robert Oster for this, even though there's more sheeny blue blacks out there, but like you can get Lake of Fire from Robert Oster, which is pretty easy to get ahold of. It's really well priced and you're going to get, it's like some bright blues in there. Then you're going to get a great red sheen. And even though the Falcon is not a crazy flex nib, there's enough line variation in there to where you're going to see that those characteristics with something like Lake of Fire and a lot of his blues and blue black inks have good shading. So just check out the Robert Oster inks and they're not like hyper shading. Like if you want something that's really, really crazy, you're going to look at organic studio like nitrogen, but I think that's a little bit of extreme. I don't know if that's exactly where you're going out with this question. So more shun Grieg wants to know, is there a planner with a layout comparable to the Hobo Nichi Techo cousin? I adore the look, but don't want to stumble over a better alternative after getting it. The one that people compare the most to the cousin is the Jibun Techo by Kukuyo. So I think those are your two options for the massively huge all the thing layouts. in a planner. So the Techo cousin or the Jibun Techo. And we'll put a link in the show notes to that.

Myke Hurley: Yep, found it.

Brad Dowdy: If you're not going to do those things, then you're probably looking at something Rodia does, which is a completely different layout, more simpler, different paper. But the Techo cousin and the Jibun Techo are the ones, are kind of like the one and two for that type of planner. You know, that's not a planner for everyone by any stretch of the imagination. They're very, they can be overwhelming and complex. But those are the two in a category all by themselves. And Myke, we made it. I win. We're going to get all the questions in.

Myke Hurley: Actually, do you know what? We're going to finish the episode right here. Thanks. No, we'll do this last one. Go on.

Listener Question Segment

Brad Dowdy: This is a good question and I put it for last. It's a real simple question, but without a real simple answer. Sebastian Morissette wants to know what qualifies a pen as tactical. So for me, what qualifies a pen as tactical is if it is advertised as doing one thing that's not related to writing. I don't know if I explained that right, but if you're marketing a pen and in your marketing, there's something listed that is not related to the actual writing performance or, you know, the clip or the knock. I don't think bolt action counts because that's a, that's a, um, that's a, uh, deployment of the, of the writing mechanism. Right. But a pointed end that you can stab somebody with or a glass breaker tip on the end of the barrel, those things push it over into the tactical, you know, it has to have one thing that is a feature that is not related to writing. Um, I don't know how to like define it more than that. Um, some have lots of things that are not related to writing as a feature, but once you move into the non writing feature, and I'm not talking about like a grip, like if a grip is knurled or, you know, there's cutouts or flute fluted barrels, those aren't tactical. It has to have a feature that is in addition to its writing. So that's, that's my definition. That's the way I see it. So anything, anything stabby or punchy or breaky gets into tactical, but like, I am fine with like, you know, some pins that look tactical are more just tactical. They have the aesthetic, but they don't really have the, uh, the additional features.

Brad Dowdy: So that's it, Myke. All right. We did it. We did an entire STPA question. I appreciate everyone sending all the questions. We've been holding some of these for a couple of weeks and, uh, sorry, we're a little slow and getting, getting you an answer, but we had a plan. We got it all out there and, uh, I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we enjoy answering all of your STPA questions.

Myke Hurley: All right. If you want to catch our show notes, head on over to relay.fm slash pen addict slash three, one six. Uh, thank you so much for listening. As always, you can find Brad online at pen addict.com twitch.tv slash pen addict. He's pen addict on Instagram, dowdyism on Twitter, knock.co for his, Oh, it's so long now. You know what you need? One place that I can send people to, you know, I have,

Brad Dowdy: I have brad dowdy.com that I've, I've built out through Squarespace, one of those pages, but I don't even have all the links on there yet.

Myke Hurley: You do that. And then people go to brad dowdy.com. So if anybody's been listening for long enough, this means I will now badger Brad for about two months before he ends up putting everything that he needs on that page. But eventually it will be a good place to go for all that stuff. I am just, I'm like, I am Y K E. And you can go to relay.fm slash shows to find this show and many more. Thanks again to our sponsors, uh, the fine folk over at Squarespace and Harry's. We'll be back next time. Until then say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Bye.