The Pen Addict 358/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	358
Title:	Direct Vertical Upstroke
Release Date:	May 8th, 2019
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 358
Audio File:	Audio Episode 358
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 358
Length:	5252 min <br />0.867 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Episode Introduction

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 358. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Moo. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad Dowdy. Hey, Myke Hurley, how are you? I'm good, how are you? You don't sound like you've been to a pen show.

Brad Dowdy: I have not been to a pen show and actually, as I was replaying last week's episode in my head, because I never replay it in my podcast listener, I just rewind the whole thing in my head. I realised I made a whoopsie by not mentioning, hey, by the way, the Chicago Pen Show is coming up this past weekend and whoops. But I was not there, but I wanted to talk about it anyway.

Myke Hurley: It's like, if you're not there, does it really happen? If a Brad Dowdy isn't at a pen show, does anyone around know there's a pen show?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's not fair. That's not fair. Because the Chicago Pen Show is one of the good ones and I hate that I forgot to mention it, even though, like, not that it would have made any difference, but I'd like to say, hey, by the way, Chicago Pen Show this weekend, we just got, sometimes we get in that show doc and we just go, go for it. So, we have some recap-y stuff to talk about. Mostly, I just, I, you know, always follow along on Instagram, you know, on the various pen show hashtags and I like that Instagram has it to where you can, like, sort and save a hashtag and you can look at the most recent pictures, like, Chicago Pen Show 2019 hashtag and all the pictures look great. It looked packed. It looked very busy. You know, I've been there to that show in that hotel area before and I know it can get crowded and it looks like it was a pretty good crowd. So, I always hate that I miss it because Chicago is a good one. I talked to Anna a bunch during the show. This was her first Chicago show where she had her own table for the Well Appointed Desk and Skylab Letterpress, you know, her husband Bob's, you know, letterpress shop. So, she had all of her stuff out there. She had some cool color rings with a special edition Chicago cover, which looked really, really neat. Those came out spectacular. And I know over at the Well Appointed Desk that pretty much the entire writing staff over there did something at the show. So, Anna had her table, Laura worked for Van Ness Pens, and Jessie had her own table for her vintage pen shop, which y'all are all familiar with Jessica Coles and everything she does with her vintage restoration. And they're all going to have their recaps up this week. Anna's went up yesterday, I think. She took a lot of awesome pictures. Definitely go check that out. We'll have all the links to these in the show notes. Something caught my eye in that post, Myke. My good buddy Scott Franklin, does he own a BlackBerry? I found this to be a very questionable picture. And I think there's a BlackBerry phone in front of him. I didn't know they still made those. If anyone would own a BlackBerry, though, I'm sure it would be Scott.

Myke Hurley: So, BlackBerry now make Android phones. So, that's an Android phone.

Brad Dowdy: So, good job by Scott there. That's definitely on brand for him. That's a very Scott Franklin phone.

Myke Hurley: I endorse that lifestyle. Like, if you're going to own it, man. If you want a hardware keyboard, you go for it. I'm all on board.

Phone Discussion Shift

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, I'm sitting there scrolling. Oh, look at the pretty pens. Oh, there's some of the people I know. So, hey, what's that keyboard phone in front of Scott? That's how I read that post. So, it was awesome. Definitely go check that out. Because, honestly, it's a great picture of Scott. Like, it's a good picture.

Myke Hurley: There's some great photography in here.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Ana told me that she said, hey, for a change, I took my real camera and you can totally tell. You can tell. Like, the pictures really came out. Really came out nicely. Laura's recap went up yesterday. Her recap was basically, OMG, I was so busy I didn't take any pictures. And that's pretty much how it goes when you're working for Van S. Pens, right? That's the deal. So, and I know Jessie will have her recap up. Myke Madison also had his live Friday show video up. We'll have that link to his YouTube video in the show notes as well. And we will have a pen addict recap up because Sarah Reed, who writes for the pen addict, went to the show. And I had three separate emails full of pictures because she had so many pictures they couldn't all fit in one. So, that will be up on Thursday.

Myke Hurley: So. How in Chicago is the Chicago pen show?

Brad Dowdy: Not.

Myke Hurley: I mean, that's not a criticism of this show. Pretty much every single pen show is like this. They're never actually really where they say they are.

Brad Dowdy: It's one of the furthest away from reality of any pen show. That and San Francisco, I think, are probably both 45 minutes from their respective cities.

Myke Hurley: Yes. The San Francisco pen show is in a straight up different town.

Myke Hurley: Well, so is.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, so is this one. This one's called like Hawthorne Estates or something like that. Right. I don't know of two pen shows that are further from their respective cities. The DC pen show is pretty bad, too. It's getting there. Yeah. Well, I guess it already was.

Myke Hurley: Because that's technically in Virginia, right? Like it's not even in DC, right?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. I mean, we've been in Maryland and in Virginia. We've never been inside the border of DC. So, yeah. That's one. Yeah. You land at the airport and drive away from the city. Right. Right.

Pen Show Ideas

Myke Hurley: We should do like the New York pen show and set it in like Alabama.

Myke Hurley: That would be amazing. How far can we stretch it?

Brad Dowdy: We can pull that off, I think. Yeah. Maybe we can just talk Scott into renaming the Philadelphia pen show into the New York pen show. Because that's like within range of these other shows. Like that's, you know, where the Chicago is in relation to that city. You know, we could just do that. But no, I like the New York pen show in Alabama. That would be amazing. Actually, we need to find like, do they have like a little city? Do they have like Syracuse, Alabama? And we could like have it there and pretend it was like New York. That would be cool.

Myke Hurley: But there's got to be like New York somewhere, right? Like another one. That's good.

Brad Dowdy: Just go all the way and go for Paris, Texas and have the Paris pen show. There we go. The Paris international pen show in Paris, Texas. That's the one. That's, I mean, if we're going to go big, let's make it that.

Myke Hurley: Or we could do the London pen show up in Ontario, right?

Brad Dowdy: Like. Oh, that would work. That would work too. That would very much work. So, yeah. We could do a lot of things. But yeah. Chicago pen show. Not really in Chicago is the point. So, but it's, it's actually, it's a good area for vendors because we're tied to the hotel the whole time. And right outside within walking distance is an outdoor mall with tons of restaurants. So that's always any bonus to any type of pen show. But it's a, you know, completely suburban area, nowhere near Chicago proper. And it would take an event to actually get to the city from there. But it's a wonderful show put on by great, you know, great promoters. And it always draws a good crowd and good vendors. So I hope everyone had a good Chicago pen show. It looks like they did from all the pictures I saw and all the comments I got from my friends who were there. So, yeah. I just wanted to give a shout out to everyone who was there and send y'all over to all of their recaps. And if you've never been to a pen show, reading these recaps and like watching Myke's videos are always give you a good idea of what the show spectacle is like.

Japan Blue Discussion

Myke Hurley: I want to talk about the Japan Blue, Japan Blue Pro Gear again.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, that's a shocker, right? I did not see this coming at all. I needed to talk about it.

Myke Hurley: I didn't think I was going to talk about this pen again, but I needed to talk about it again. Because last week I had had the pen for like two hours, right? Right. Before I actually used it for that amount of time, right? Before we got to talk about it. And I've spent the last week using it every single day. And I am absolutely in love with this pen. Like, good. It is wonderful in every way. Like, I just picked it up now and it is freezing cold. Which is such a nice feeling. Because I don't really have a lot of pens that do that. But like, I'm just handling it for a minute and it's warming up again. And I've really come around to the weighting of the pen. Like, now I'm used to it, right? Because like, at first it was like super weird. But now, like, I'm really on board of it. And I like that they made it the size that they did, right? By adding that extra on because it really helps with the balance. It's taken such a proud point in my collection right now. Like, I am so, so pleased. I own this pen. I love it. It is wonderful to use. It's even better to just hold. It feels so different. It looks so different. Yeah. I wanted to just put a full stop on it to be like, yeah, this was an incredible purchase. And I'm very pleased that I made it.

Brad Dowdy: I think the thing about it is, is you took something you already love and then you found the thing that kind of turned it up to 11. Like, it's a real outlier even from a King of Pen or any other of the types of sailors you own. But it's still the sailor that you know and love in the internals and in the writing experience. But it's taken that thing that you already love and just turned it up to a completely different level. That gives you, like, a fresh perspective of, hey, this is why I like this brand so much to begin with.

Myke Hurley: I mean, and when I first, you have 100% encapsulated that better than I did. But I think at first, I had, like, an uncanny valley feeling with the pen. Right? Where it's like, you are so close to what I'm used to, but slightly different. And, like, and I had to adjust to that. Like, the weight and the size and the feeling of it. And, like, there's, like, it looks like a sailor pen, but why is there no clip on it? And why is the cap so big? Right? Like, there were just all these little things where it's like you look and act like what I'm used to, but there's something different about you. And once I got in, once I kind of got used to that and could appreciate the differences of this pen for what they are rather than for what they're not, it completely, like, just settled in my mind. Yep. I also cannot believe this pen costs $400.

Myke Hurley: It could be twice this. Yes. It's $490. So, it's $500, right? I don't know if I'll go up to $1,000, but, like, that feels a bit much. But, you know, this could be an $800 pen, like, quite easily, quite comfortably. Because it's very special. It feels very special. Without a doubt.

Brad Dowdy: I want to give you a little bit of a segue into our first sponsor. And this wasn't in the show notes. And it relates to the Chicago Pen Show. I got to see pictures of the Sailor Lighthouse pen. I obviously have not seen it in person. It is not remotely black. I have, like, the pictures of people buying them and sharing them online do not look anything like the retail pictures that I have seen. It's a kind of a really nice kind of pure gray. It reminds me of, I have a Karis Customs decograph that uses a kind of a darkish gray acrylic. It really reminds me of that. All the pictures I saw make it look very, very gray. It is, and all the pictures I see online look very, very black. And if you were interested and did make it to the Chicago Pen Show, I know one of our fine sponsors carries the Sailor Lighthouse. New North American fountain pen limited edition. And that's our good friends at Pen Chalet, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they most definitely do. They are an authorized dealer of all of your favorite brands, and they sell all of the stuff that you're looking for. And the great thing about Pen Chalet is not only can you get your hands on that stuff, because you're a listener of this show, you can get a discount, which I'm going to tell you about in a minute. Pen Chalet, they always are trying to get the best prices that they can for their customers. They're always running great deals. They have fast and reliable customer service, and they do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the U.S., and they have great shipping rates for selling overseas as well. But that's not where it ends. As well as believing in low prices and high-quality pens, Pen Chalet offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. They want you to be happy with the product that you've purchased from them. They also do a bunch of accessories as well, like carrying cases and refills and fountain pen converters and so much more. And we have some deals on some of those things this week, too. So go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website, and use the password Pen Addict to get your hands on the 10% off code that you need to save on anything at Pen Chalet. You can go there at any time and use that. You just go to penchalet.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website, use the password Pen Addict, and you'll get that code, along with a selection of special offers. So a couple that I wanted to highlight this week, there is the Pen Chalet Endless Notebooks. These are $11.99, and they feature Tomoe River paper with a hard leatherette cover. $11.99, yeah, is an incredible price for a notebook. How many pages is this?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. And it's dot grid. Yeah, this is like full-size A5-looking notebook. How did I miss this? That's cool. That's a great price, too.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so is there anything else on the list that jumps out at you this week?

Brad Dowdy: Well, the top-line item is the Monteverde Regatta Limited Edition Rollerball. I do not own one of these pens. I probably won't own one of these pens, but I see them at pen shows all the time. They are really cool-looking, and I see a lot of people... I've seen a lot of people purchase them just because they're kind of this cool... It's not like a modular pen, but it has a modular style build to it. Like, it's in very different sections that look like it's all kind of snapped together, even though it's not. It's a cool-looking pen. But aside from the notebook, which I completely missed on the first viewing, I am a big-time Pilot Ageless fan. So it's this really unique ballpoint and rollerball pen. This is the ballpoint model that Penchelle has on sale. And they're like half their normal price, and I think they're fantastic. The only kicker is this. It's a proprietary refill, so you've got to stick with those refills. It's like if you're used to the Lamy Pico, and they have that little short Lamy. I think it's the L11 refill on there. This is another short proprietary refill to fit this pen. But the way these pens work and how pocketable and functional they are, this is a ridiculous price. So I will get another one of those and add a notebook to my order as well. I'm going to be making a lot of orders today after this show. I've already written down one thing that will come up later that I keep failing to do, and this is another one. So yeah, good stuff at Penchelle this week.

Myke Hurley: Thank you so much to Penchelle for the continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad's Ink Situation

Brad Dowdy: As I say, I'm going to buy more stuff, Myke. I went, as I said in my Instagram picture yesterday, I went full scorched earth on my fountain pen cleaning. So I ended up with, you know, I didn't even count them. It was probably a dozen ink pens. Let's just say right around 12. And, like, that's cool. Like, I'm okay with that. And, you know, it kind of stemmed from the Atlanta pen show. I think I had inked up about six pens to bring with them, bring to that show, bring with me. And, you know, over the past month, I haven't cleaned out any of those. And I haven't really used many of those. But then I've also inked up more pens to do more things with. And, you know, I find myself getting into about this number of pens before I, like, freeze. Like, I just get complete brain lock and cannot use any of them because I just have the choice that I can't make. It's an impossible choice for me to make. When I see this many pens inked up. And that's just kind of the cycle I live in. Right? I'll ink up a bunch of pens for a specific reason. Say, taking them to the pen show. And I'll just, you know, say, let me pick these six pens to take to the pen show. Because these are pens that people ask about a lot. And I can show them to them. So then I come home. And they're always pens that I really like and use frequently. So I'll keep them inked up for that reason. And I'll want to use them. And then I'll need to do a different review. An ink review. A pen comparison. And I'll say, well, it doesn't really fit any of these pens I have already inked up. So let me ink up some more pens. And some more pens after that. And the next thing you know, I'm about here. Which is a lot for me. But I know, like, for you and for other people. You know, once you get up into, like, the 20s or 30. Everyone has a different, you know, kind of hard stop on, like, okay. This is out of hand. For me, it's about when I hit double digits. The problem is that, which I alluded to, is I stop using any of them. And it just becomes a frustration point for me. Because I'm mad that I'm not using them. I'm mad that I'm wasting them. You know, the ink that I've used to fill them with. Or a cartridge. But I can't just leave it be and say, okay, let me pick this one pen and do the one thing with it. While these other 11 are sitting over here inked up and filled up. So I just swoosh, just cleared them all off yesterday. Cleaned them all out. So I had no fountain pens inked. And I knew, because this came up, because there was another pen and another ink I wanted to use. I was like, I can't just keep adding to this pile. It drives me insane. So I said, I want to use this new pen and ink. And I'm not going to use it until I clean up everything. Even though it's kind of wasteful in doing that. So I did it. And I'm happy with it. And I'm going to try this thing that it's set up for failure. And you should never go into any project knowing that you're going to fail. And I know I'm going to fail this. Because that's how I work. I have to have, so I have one pen inked up right now. It's this Pilot Custom Black Stripe. It's got this integrated nib. And I wanted to use a Pilot Blue Black cartridge, which I need to review. And I don't know. I just wanted to get to this, having this one pen inked up. So I'll just focus on it, review what I need, and use it as much as possible. And, you know, maybe run out the ink cartridge. And then pick another pen. And, like, I'd like to keep the one pen I have inked up and in use for a purpose. Like, a review purpose. Like, if I'm going to ink up a pen, it needs to be reviewed.

Brad Dowdy: Where I've gotten myself is everything's inked up and I'm reviewing nothing. And I know it's going to fail. Because at some point, I have to reference other nibs, other pens, other inks to do comparisons. Right? So, like, I did a review we're going to talk about later on Monday for a micro Architep nib grind. And I had three or four other pens that I used to do line comparisons with. Well, now those pens are inked. But I just inked them up for that comparison. And now they're added to the pile. So, I don't know where I'm going with this. Other than I'm trying something. I'm setting myself up for failure. I know this. But I really want to focus on the singular pen I have inked up for the singular reason of reviewing it.

Brad Dowdy: And being done with it. And then moving on to the next thing. I doubt that's possible for me. I'll see how it goes. Like, I'm enjoying the pen logging. Yeah. Process of it. Like, that's only been a couple weeks. And I like doing that. But as far as whether I'm able to just keep one pen inked up. Because I use, if you look back at my pen log, I use very few fountain pens, right? I don't need 12 fountain pens inked up. I need fountain pens inked up to do something with.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but it's just such a pain.

Myke Hurley: Right? I mean... If you want to ink up a new pen every day and then you've got to clean that pen out at the end of it. Like, it's just a pain.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I wouldn't do it on a daily basis. Like, you know... Okay. This would be, like... I'm not putting, like, a firm setting on that. But it's... We're probably looking at, you know, five to ten days with an individual product.

Myke Hurley: So, like, you're looking to only really... How many pens at a time? One? Just one pen at a time of ink in it?

Brad Dowdy: I would like that, yeah. I don't know that that's feasible for me. That seems really difficult to do. Well, especially for me when I need to refer to other things and answer questions and show people things. Which I'm fine with. But maybe, you know, do I start dipping these pens to show these nibs? I don't know that's the most accurate representation of their performance. I don't think it's a good idea.

Myke Hurley: Because you said it yourself. Like, I don't think that you'll get a good enough idea of how something performs just by dipping it. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, I did this knowing that I'm just setting myself up for failure. But I lose focus when I have too many fountain pens inked up. And that's how I get into the thing that we've talked about with my reviews before where I think I've reviewed a pen. And it'll be, like, two years and I've never reviewed the pen. It's because I have it inked up and in use all the time. But it's just in the stack of pens that I already have, right? So, I think I've done something with it because I use it all the time. Instead of having a pen that I ink up for a specific reason and then be done with it. I don't know. It's kind of a silly thing. It's just how my brain works. And that's how, that's the state I was in. You know, I hit max capacity the other day. And I was like, I'm done. We're going to clean everything up even though I'm going to waste a bunch of ink, which I hate. And I'm going to take this one other pen, ink it up, and do my review on it. Because I've had this pen for, like, two years now. And I've never reviewed it. And I've never reviewed the Pilot Blue Black ink cartridge, which I've probably, you know, used dozens of over the past several years. It's one of the best ink cartridges on the planet. I've never reviewed that. So I have myself set up to do that. It's just how do I get around the pile of other pens. And guess what, Myke?

Brad Dowdy: I'm going to do an unboxing on Twitch tomorrow. So I'm going to have new pens to ink up. New pens and new inks. And, like, I'm cool with, like, all the review stuff. Like, I almost should discount review products from my mountain of regular usage. That's much better.

Balancing Pens

Myke Hurley: I think that's a much better way for you to try and balance this. Because otherwise, this is impossible. You should, like, maybe once a week choose, like, this is the pen that I'm going to use this week. And then add into it all the other stuff. That seems a little bit more manageable. Because I was thinking you were trying to include review products in there, too. And that's impossible.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's not possible. It's just not. And, like, I'm okay with this. This is not, like, oh, Brad has too much stuff. He can't handle it. It's, like, I want to. It's the result of me getting frustrated with my workflow. Right? It's me trying to figure out what's the best workflow for me to do my job. So, like, I'm happy to have all this stuff. And I enjoy using all this stuff. And I enjoy sharing all this stuff. I am. The struggle is my workflow. Right? So, it's not the stuff. It's how I'm managing the stuff. And, you know. So, it's just one of those things that, you know, I threw out there. I know it's kind of unreasonable in a very, like, black and white type of manner. But, you know. If I can just get, like, not all of my personal stuff mixed up into, like, the work stuff, you know. It would help me out just from a mental perspective. Just from a desk cleanliness perspective. Because, OMG. My desk, man. Oof.

Myke Hurley: My situation is starting to build up a bit here. Yeah. I have to make some decisions about some pens that need to be taken off my desk and put into storage. And I just can't bring myself to make those decisions.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's the other thing that led to this is I got some new storage boxes. So, I was trying to just rearrange everything that I had. Which is a lot of stuff. And then I was like, well, I have all these ink pens. I need to build in space for when I clean them up. So, that's the other reason. I just wanted to clean them up. So, I could count them as part of, you know, my storage. My current storage slots and make sure I allocate it properly. So, that was part of it, too. But it was like, I got to stop getting myself into this situation. I've probably talked about this three or four times already on the show. It's like getting too many pens inked up is overwhelming to me. I cannot function that way. So, anyway. Just one of my little tangents that I have. And next week, I'll have like two brass towns filled with pens and things like that. We'll go back to normal. So, that was my little aside for now. And Brad's Delusions of Efficiency. You know, that should be my new podcast name is Delusions of Efficiency. So, put that down.

Myke Hurley: Sounds like a good band name. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Now, my band name is, Jeff and I's band name is Soy Division. Soy Division? Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's just a Joy Division cover band with one vegan.

Brad Dowdy: With one vegan. Yeah. Exactly.

Myke Hurley: And I guess the division is over the fact that one of you is vegan and one of you isn't.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. I mean, it's the perfect band name for us.

Nib Grind Review

Myke Hurley: Very good band name. I look forward to that. To your cover album. Tell me about why you reviewed a nib grind. That's an interesting thing.

Brad Dowdy: Because it was kind of an outlier. And I talk about, it's one of those things where I've talked about it enough I needed to have a reference point to send people to. Right. So, you're talking about the micro-architect nib grind that Mark Backus from Nib Grinder did for me. He did it a year ago after the Atlanta Pen Show. I remember it was Sunday at the 2018 Pen Show. He says, hey, I didn't have time here, but I've been working on doing my architect grind on little fine nibs as opposed to, you know, broader nibs. You know, I talk about all the time that architect grind is best on a wider nib, like a broad or a medium nib. It gives a wider line variation and it gives the person doing the work, the nib grinder, more of a, more room to actually do their job. So, doing it on a, the micro-architect isn't a style, it's just micro because it's done on a finer nib, which is harder to put that type of grind on. So, he made this for me, said, hey, I've got this nib grind. I think you will like it. And I do. Like, it's a really, really fine architect nib grind is all it is on a steel nib. And I just, I just put it out there because I talk about it so much, like I said, and just wanted to be able to send people to go look at it and also to say that this may not be the nib grind for you. And we talk about that a lot on the show to where, you know, whether I like a product or you like a product, it may not be for everybody. And this one is a very clear one in that category. Like, I referred to it as the Pilot Hitec C 0.3 millimeter of nib grinds. And the reason I did that is because that is one of my personal all-time favorite pins that a lot of people hate, right? It's very fine and it's very finicky. And that describes this micro-architect nib perfectly. Like, it is very fine and it's very sharp. Like, I have basically, have you ever heard the term, like a toe pick from an ice skater where the tip of their skate digs into the ice? Yeah. It's like, if I get this pin going in the wrong direction, it just stabs right into the page.

Myke Hurley: I couldn't live that way.

Brad Dowdy: But it's also my fault. Like, it's a pace. It's a writing pace and a writing angle thing. So if you want this, you have to take these things in consideration. So, you know, I want to put those words out, you know, that this might sound like fun and cool and sexy, but it may not work for you at all. And you may, you know, have just lit $45 on fire or whatever, you know, this nib grind costs.

Myke Hurley: It feels like the architect grinds are something you should really try before you buy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. And you definitely want to start with a wider one. Like, that's what I did.

Myke Hurley: And I really enjoy... This is like nuclear.

Brad Dowdy: This is extreme. This is extreme on the end of it, just because it's small. Like, it's on a very fine nib. It works really well for me in my handwriting style. And that doesn't mean that it's perfect for me either. Because like I said, if I did... If I was going too fast and did like a direct vertical upstroke, I would just dig the nib right into the page. There's not a lot of room for mistakes when you're writing with this pen. So, I wanted to put that out there just to point these types of things out. And I linked it to my previous architect nib grind, which people enjoyed, where I talked about the broad platinum, which I think is kind of the perfect platform for an architect nib grind for any nib grinder to use and for you to try, you know, for anyone to try. So, it's kind of right in that sweet spot of size and ink flow that you need to get a good line from this architect nib. And it explains, you know, what makes it an architect nib grind. So, this article and the one I linked within it are important to read if you're interested in these types of things to see, you know, do you want to go down this path and why it may or may not work for you. So, that's why I wanted to put that out there.

Brad Dowdy: So, and that, like you said, why would you review a nib grind? I rarely will, right? Yeah. Because they're pretty, I won't say they're straightforward. They're obviously very special and, you know, particular to each individual person. But now that we're getting into a lot more experimentation, which I love, like I love trying new and different and weird things, we're getting into the outlier realm and I think need some more conversation around those things.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think it's, it is definitely a bit specialist, right? Even for, even for you, right? Yeah. You're already in a specialist space anyway, but it is something which is of interest to people, I think.

Fountain Pen Market Trends

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I think it goes to the bigger picture of where this entire fountain pen market is headed. And this is not a topic for this show, but maybe a future show, that specialization is where it's at. I think we're finding, you know, like in the community and at pen shows and in retail and in those type of markets. I know we're sheltered in our little highly specialized worldview, but I think it is playing out on a larger scale to where there's so many options. And the more specialized to an individual it can be, the better it's going to be. It's the more attractive it will become. Yeah. As opposed to like large scale, large market type of products. So, you know, that's just, that's a more meta conversation that's for another day. And it's still just speculation, but that's what it feels like to me.

Myke Hurley: All right. Let's round out today's episode of some Ask TPA questions. But before we do, let me thank our second sponsor. And that is Moo, the online print and design company that offers a variety of premium print products, including business cards, postcards, notebooks, and more. Moo deliver to happy customers all over the world. And I am one of them. I have been a very happy Moo customer for many years. I have notebooks of them that I use now, which they did send those to me, but I love them. But I have been buying Moo business cards for, I don't even know how many years I've been buying them for. Way before I needed business cards, basically. But now, like, I have a bunch of conferences and stuff coming up over the next few months. And I will make sure that I will have a handful of my wonderful Moo business cards with me at all times. Because networking is important. And you do not want to be in that situation where you need to have a business card in an important moment and you don't have one. You can be prepared and show your creativity by having your business cards made with Moo. Moo believe that great design is at the heart of what they do. There's nothing like a slick, well-made business card. And not only are their business cards super easy to design and order, they also offer a bunch of extra special touches as well, like gold foiling and spot gloss to really allow your artwork to stand out. They have wonderful paper options. They have some great recycled stuff and some, like, eco-friendly stuff. They have thick textured paper as well. They have glossy, they have loads of wonderful things. You can get everything that you want for a high-quality, memorable business card. It's wonderful to see your designs, your hard work on screen, but it's even better to hold it in your hand. You can count on Moo to help you make a great first impression, whether you need business cards for an upcoming event or meeting, customized flyers, stickers, greeting cards, notebooks, or postcards. Their notebooks are available in soft and hardcover. You can customize them of your brand if you're ordering 50 or more. The hardcover has a tough tactile cloth cover, and the softcover notebooks are lightweight with sewn binding as well, and they are wonderful quality. Whatever you need, Moo have you covered with their easy customization options, and you can get 15% off your order right now when you go to Moo.com and use the promo code PRINT15 at checkout. That is Moo, M-O-O dot com, and the promo code PRINT15, PRINT15 at checkout for 15% off your order. Thanks to Moo for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Moo, let's get physical. So I told you before the show, I have a list of things that I needed to purchase, and I keep saying I'm going to get my Moo order in, and the only reason I haven't is because the notebooks are easy to order. I need to order some business cards, and I haven't gone through to lay them out yet, so I need to do that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they have great tools as well, like if you don't want to have a design. It's really easy to upload designs to their system. All right, Tim D. Fowler asks, is there a list somewhere of all of the Robert Oster exclusive inks? I know Fire on Fire, Carolina Blue, and Campfire, but there must be all fire. There must be more. My Google skills are failing me, so I will ask the expert.

Brad Dowdy: There's so many more, and it sounds like we need to get the stationary wiki on that. Maybe it's already there. Maybe there's a Robert Oster page, and maybe within that Robert Oster page, there could be a limited edition ink page because that's another one where it gets close to infinity, as in there may not be thousands of them, but you will never know all of them, but if there was one place to track of them, it would be at the stationary wiki, so we'll put the link in the show notes to the stationary wiki, and if you know of a Robert Oster special edition ink, that would be the perfect place to track it.

Myke Hurley: There you go.

Brad Dowdy: But yeah, I don't know, and if not, I'd go over to Mountain of Ink and look at Robert Oster and start there and figure out which ones are limited editions and where they came from. Just recently, I've got the ones that Tim spoke of, and I've got the Hipponodo ones. I'm trying to think of what other special ones I have. I don't have too many, more than four or five, counting my own. But you know there's a jillion of them out there, and that would be the perfect place to track it.

Listener Question - Back Pain

Myke Hurley: All right, our next question comes from the one and only Father Kyle. Lately, I've been having some lower back pain issues, and normally when I write, I lean over the desk partly because I write so small. I notice that this affects my back pain. Is there a proper posture for writing?

Brad Dowdy: There has to be. There has to be, right? I don't know what it is, but here's the thing that I run into, Father Kyle. My biggest issue is desk height. So if I'm not writing at a properly sized in height desk, I have problems, especially if they're taller than me. And I'm tall, but I'm not like super tall. But if I have a desk that's like an inch higher than what I've normally been writing on, my arm fatigues like that. Like it's super quick. I get really bad arm fatigue in my shoulder. So there has to be, I don't know what the rules and parameters are for that, but it has to be, you know, a straight back and a loose arm and shoulder. But I just feel that desk height is playing into some of that too, because that's the problems that I run into personally. But what the specifics are, what the math or geometry is to have the perfect posture for writing, I don't know, but I bet we could find some articles out there. I'll do a little bit of digging, because I'd like to know myself.

Myke Hurley: You've got to assume that there is one, right? Because like those artist desks, you know, like the things that they lean up, right? That there's the degree. I bet something like that exists, you know, for a reason.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But yeah, my biggest issue that I find is desk height.

Topic Shift - Parker Pens

Myke Hurley: Hmm. Okay. Uh, Fibber asks, I think Parker's US HQ is somewhere in Atlanta. Have you ever thought about interviewing anyone from there?

Brad Dowdy: This was a, this was a great tweet. He sent me this last week. And number one, I didn't realize that. Like, so Parker is part of a conglomerate, formerly called Newell Rubbermaid. And I think they used to be in Ohio. So I just assumed they were still there. But apparently Atlanta is their new corporate headquarters and their new name is Newell Brands. But I don't ever think of them as Parker. I didn't even know Parker was part of their portfolio, but they are Sharpie, Rotring, Waterman, Expo Markers, you know, Elmer's Glue, all kinds of things. So yeah, I don't know that I would ever like necessarily talk to like the Parker person, but I bet there's people there that are in the writing. They basically have a writing category. And, you know, it would be kind of cool to reach out and say, and just like try to figure out how they plan products and market things and like that. I think that would be super interesting. So yeah, that's something I'll look into because they probably have a dozen or more writing brands. I would, I think something like that. So it's, and it's, oh, Paper Mate's another one. Paper Mate, Sharpie are the big ones. And then I think then Rotring, Parker, Waterman, and I can't remember the rest. So yeah, there's a whole handful of them. So yeah, it'd be interesting to see because as the chat room's saying, they don't do a very good job for people like us, right? That's, you read those brands. Those are your mainstream brands that go into OfficeMax, Staples, Office Supply Stores, pretty much across the board, except Rotring. Rotring is an outlier there. All of those other brands are mass market type of brands that we rarely talk about, right? Unless Sharpie does something cool, like I'm all about that. But yeah, it would be interesting to get that perspective because like that's a company that would have no idea that we do this thing, right? It's just not in their purview. And as the same, in the same token, we don't really look at their products because they're not marketed towards us either. So it would be an interesting conversation to have if I could do that. And I don't see any reason why I couldn't. So that's on the list.

Myke Hurley: All right. Next question comes from Leleni. I've had many inks in my TWSBI Eco without issue, but I put KWZ Meet Me in St. Louis from St. Louis Pen Show. It was their ink of 2018. And it regularly drops out a lot of ink, like it burps ink when writing. I've had this ink in other pens and not had this issue. Is maybe this ink just too wet for this pen?

Brad Dowdy: I just find it hard to believe it would be an ink issue, even though it's consistently with that ink. And I haven't heard problems with that ink. I own that ink. I've used that ink. I only seem to have, you know, pens that burp ink when I know I've done something weird. I've either jostled them correctly, flown with them, traveled with them, had some kind of, you know, atmospheric weather change with them, as opposed to the ink specifically causing the problem. I hate to say this, but, like, I want a bigger sample size than this, right? But, you know, maybe Lerlini is seeing this consistently. If so, I don't have an answer. Like, that doesn't make sense to me. You know, I would take apart the pen, clean it, reseed it completely, just to make sure it's tight, even though it sounds like you're using other inks intermittently between usages of the Meet Me in St. Louis ink. I have a hard time thinking that it would be a specific ink to cause that problem. I would think the problem would lie elsewhere.

Myke Hurley: Hmm. Okay. Next question comes from Jay Casabona. Are the Retro 51 fountain pens any good? Do you guys know? I love the Skyline one that Goldspot just put out, but is it worth $90? I haven't tried one yet.

Brad Dowdy: It's on the list. So, they finally redid their grip section and nibs in their newest fountain pens, and that's after years of feedback of people asking for primarily a better grip section. The nibs were fine. They used Schmidt nibs in the past. They're okay. Like, I didn't have any problems with the nib. I used on the old one. I really disliked the grip section. It was cheap feeling. It was slick. It did not match the rest of the pen. So, they redid that. They have a nicer grip section now. It's molded. It's shiny. It should hold your grip a little bit better. They use Yovo number six nibs now. So, not only is the stock nib good, you can swap it out with lots of other things. So, I want to hold judgment until I get my own. I think I might have one coming already. I'll have to look at what I have. And I will review it ASAP. That will go high in the list. That will jump a lot of things just to get some feedback on it because I've been one of the main complainers about it. And I think it looks good. There's a review up on the Well Appointed Desk recently that they enjoyed the change. The Skyline on Goldspots, more expensive than the normal one, right? Because it's a special edition. And it looked... Man, that pen looks killer. I don't know if you've seen it, Myke. But you saw their Skyline Retro 51. Did you have... You have London, right? I don't think so. They sent you that. I don't know. You don't think so? Maybe I have it for you. I think I... If you don't have it, I think I have it for you. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: But they do... They've done New York City, Paris, and London, I believe. So they did the Skyline New York City on the fountain pen model. It looks spectacular. But I'm going to try just one of the basic ones, which are around $50-ish. So, yeah. I'll be anxious to give it a look. Initial signs point to it being a nice option.

Myke Hurley: Okay. All right. Next question comes from Davey Chin. Best black or blue black ink for signing a marriage certificate using a new 2SB Eco Transparent Orange with a fine nib. Congratulations.

Brad Dowdy: I almost took this question out because he got married last weekend. So now the answer is back to Davey. What ink did you use? So, there you go. We'll need to... I think I'm... I don't know if I answered him on Twitter or not because I knew his marriage was coming up soon just because we follow each other on Twitter. And so I can't remember if I answered him, but I think I did. I think I probably said like Roaring Cleaner Salix or Platinum Carbon Black is I think the answer I gave him. So now it's back on him to let us know what, in fact, he did use.

Brad Dowdy: Sorry for failing you. I went in there and I highlighted the whole thing to delete it. And then I was like, nope, this is a good opportunity for me to turn it back on Davey.

Myke Hurley: All right. So the next one comes from Todd Crane. I just noticed the only mention of gel pens on your top five pens list are micro and 0.5 millimeter options. Have you thought about expanding that to non-micro gel pens?

Brad Dowdy: It kind of, sort of is in the top five pens of the store in the store, although it's not spelled out specifically. Hey, these are the 0.7 options, but like the Pentel Energel's in there. That's the best 0.7 millimeter gel pen. You know, it's not explicitly stated as the 0.7 millimeter option. You know, the Uniball Signo 307 has a 0.7 option. You know, those two are kind of the best, even though it's not specifically stated that way. So maybe I should just add into those lists that I can say like the Energel is up to 1.0 millimeters, something like that, and it'd be good. So it's, the idea is there, but the specific wording could be updated to say, hey, Pentel Energel 0.7 and 1.0 millimeter are fantastic. You know, something like that. So it's going to be the same brand. It's not going to change and the Pilot G2 will not make it.

Myke Hurley: All right. So next up comes from Matt Erickson. I've been playing around with fountain pens for a little while. I'm hooked. My parents kindly agreed to get me one as a graduation gift when I graduate from law school in a few weeks. Would you recommend the Sailor 1911 or Pro Gear for my desk?

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: I think, I think 1911.

Pen Choice Discussion

Brad Dowdy: I actually think 1911 too.

Myke Hurley: Because I think it fits more with the aesthetic of being on a desk in a, in a, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Why is that? Because that's my answer for the exact same reason, but we have no backing. We cannot say why. It looks more classic. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's got like a vibe to it, which is like, look how fancy I am. Right. The 1911 has that more than Pro Gear. So go for a 1911. You're going to love them both. They share all of the best qualities anyway. So you should go for a 1911.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And get the, the large, 1911 large. Yeah. If you can.

Myke Hurley: Any of them are great though. Like if you, but if you can go for the larger one, go for the larger one.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So congratulations, Matt.

Ink Evaporation Question

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Congratulations. That seems like a really difficult thing to do. All right. The tiny badge asks, what causes an ink to evaporate in a pen? I swear I have to fill my Leonardo Memento Zero every time I pick it up. Usually once every couple of weeks. I've never had this problem with other pens.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, we've talked about this recently and we've talked about this a lot, like with the platinum slip and seal cap mechanism. It's to me, it's, it's gotta be just the airflow in the cap seal, not being, you know, as tight as possible. And the Leonardo may have that, right? It may not have any type or it may not have any additional type of sealing mechanism where like, I mean, like the threads may not, you know, be perfectly airtight when you seal them, like a lot of metal pens have that problem, right? Or, you know, there's just different gaps in the pen that cause the air to get into that nib area and that causes it to evaporate, but it's something like that. And, you know, it's kind of, if you have a pen like the Leonardo, it's just one of those things you're going to have to deal with or not deal with, right? If you find it to be too much of a problem, then it goes away and you get rid of that pen and don't buy any more. But if you, if you like the pen, it, you know, it might not have to be primed, you know, or it might have to be refilled faster than other pens every two weeks seems like a lot, but if you're using a lot, maybe not, you know, if you're using it very consistently, you know, that doesn't sound too wild. If you weren't using it, like if you put, if you filled up that pen and it sat there in the ink evaporated in two weeks, there's a major problem. That's too fast. That's basically like leaving it out open, exposed into the air. But it's probably just the cap seal not being completely tight or as tight as some of the other pens that you have in your collection. So, you know, it's, I don't know what you can do about it really.

Myke Hurley: All right. Our last question is a long one. This comes from Marty. Since late 2018, I've been writing daily in a journal. Up to now, I've been writing in A5 notebooks, Rodier and Clairefontaine. I really like the paper in both. I also recently started writing letters on Tomoe River paper for the first time. I marvel at the smoothest of that paper. The first time I used it, it was a holy cow moment, which is true for most people, I think. After using the A5 notebooks for a few months, I find that this size hampers my writing. It's just too small for me. Left-handed, and that makes it even more difficult. Can you recommend a larger size notebook for journaling with quality fountain pen friendly paper that lays flat? I prefer a journal that has more than 96 sheets if possible. Any direction you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Brad Dowdy: So, I put this in because I got this question twice. Once from Marty, and once from our good friend, David Sparks, who is now hooked on the rodeo. Oh, I told David to ask you. Yes. I got David on the rodeo train, and now he is in love. He's done. Yes. So, David's on the rodeo train, and he asked me about a week ago, I love the rodeo paper. I want an A4 sized sidebound, hardbound notebook. And that's kind of what Marty's getting to here. So, Rodeo has A4 pads, right? They're top bound perforated page. It's not a bound notebook.

Myke Hurley: This is what I said today. I was like, well, they have pads. He's like, no, that's not what I want.

Brad Dowdy: So, this is the exact same question. I don't have a great answer. I had two answers for David, and neither of them I feel are perfect for trying to get the same experience. So, I want to find out from listeners, you know, what else they might have to say. So, number one is the Leuchtturm Master, which is an A4 hardbound notebook, but it's the Leuchtturm paper. It's really, really, really good. It's not rodeo, right? So, it's going to handle your fountain pens well. It's not going to handle them, and the ink's not going to look the same on the page as rodeo. Rodeo is different. The quality is different. So, that's one of them, the Leuchtturm Master. The second one is Life makes a spectacular A4 sidebound notebook that's softcover, and the pages are ivory. And I think it comes in blank lined in graph, so you can get different formats, but it's not the white paper that Rodeo uses in their pads. I know they use ivory in their web notebooks, but it's a softcover. It's going to have the performance of a rodeo, but it may not have the aesthetic or the cover style or the durability that you're looking for. So, those are kind of my two go-tos. So, we'll have to poke around and see if we can find some A4 in, you know, like a hardbound, non-tomoe, more rodeo-style paper for them. So, those were my two options.

Myke Hurley: If you would like to send in a question for a later episode of the show, just send out a tweet with the hashtag AskTPA. We have a document that collects all of those together, so we may be able to pick one out and help you out on your stationary quest. If you'd like to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com for Brad's work and writing and reviews and for all of the crew over at Pen Addict. You can find Brad on Twitch, twitch.tv slash penaddict, where he's always doing great unboxings and stuff. Got one plan for tomorrow, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, that will be there. The hits keep on coming. I went from, like, one nice, solid unboxing to now I have about four different things I want to share. So, yeah, we'll do that tomorrow. After 12 o'clock, 1 o'clock Eastern, somewhere around there.

Myke Hurley: Follow Brad on Twitter, and you'll find out. He's at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. Penaddict on Instagram. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Thanks to Pen Chalet and Moo for their support of this week's episode. We'll be back next week, of course, with another episode of The Pen Addict. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.