The Pen Addict 383/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	383
Title:	Resoundingly Average
Release Date:	October 30th, 2019
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 383
Audio File:	Audio Episode 383
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 383
Length:	5454 min <br />0.9 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 383. Today's show is brought to you by Moo. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad Dowdy. Hello Myke Hurley, how are you today? I'm very fine my friend, very good indeed.

Speaker 02: Good, good, good. I am very fine as well. I am back from a trip to Houston, Texas to visit Dromgoos, which we will talk about momentarily. But I was just sitting here thinking right before we got started, for not having any pen shows, we've had some pen show, pen related travel. You know, even though you didn't really do anything super pen related in your little jaunt to Copenhagen, we got to talk about the pen store you went to. Then I went on this awesome trip down to Houston. And yeah, it seems like we've been on the road a lot. But I think I'm in for the rest of the year. At least I'm pretty sure I am. So you never know what might come up. But no travel plans the rest of the year. Although you're not so dedicated to the show as me.

Brad Dowdy: I just, this just doesn't feel fair. You say things like that.

Trip to Houston

Speaker 02: So let's talk about my trip. It was fun. I had a really good time. So I went last Friday down to Houston, Texas, which is where Dromgoos is. And thank you to all the fine Dromgoos folks for having me down there. And Friday, I got in about 2.30 ish in the afternoon to their shop. And it's just the coolest hangout place. Like it's designed, this is more like it's a pretty large retailer. I mean, it's a very large pen retailer. But it's really like a clubhouse for pen nerds is what it seems like. Like that's the vibe you get. But like there's, of course, like the big old Mont Blanc, you know, built-in store, which we've talked about. You know, Mont Blanc has its own area. But like it doesn't even matter. It's just this cool vibe about being in the store and hanging in the store. So I got there Friday and just hung out most of the day.

Speaker 02: They had a viewing party for the Major League Baseball World Series. The local team, Houston Astros, were playing that night. And I was able to help cheer them on to a victory.

Brad Dowdy: And congratulations on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You did it.

Speaker 02: I did it. I did it. So there is a running joke with that, that I'm the good luck charm because since I've left, when I arrived, so sports ball time here real quick. This is a seven-game series for the championship, right? So the Washington Nationals, who were the underdogs, won the first two games. Because I showed up in Houston. Houston won the next three games. And then they were off Monday and then played last night where I was, guess what, at home. And guess who won that game, Myke? The Washington Nationals. So now we go to the decisive game seven. And, you know, Houston's only won the games where I have been in Houston, Texas this season. So, you know, take that for what you will.

Brad Dowdy: I will take it to mean literally nothing.

Speaker 02: Yes, I figured. I figured. No added commentary on that at all. No, you're good.

Brad Dowdy: That Houston Astros have a cool kit that you are.

Speaker 02: They do. They have some of the best in the game. So enough of that. But anyway, what's interesting is that they had a bunch of people show up to a pin shop for a baseball viewing party. There was probably like maybe 30 people at the time. Like that maxed out was probably between 20 and 30 people total. And this game didn't start until 7 o'clock local time. So this was essentially after shop hours. People showed back up to come hang out with their pin friends and watch a baseball game and eat and drink. And it was just an all-around good time. So good people, good crowd, good game. Winning. Yay. And then the real event was Saturday. And I was just going to hang out while they brought in David Oscarson, who makes his own pins, which we'll talk about both of these in a moment. And John Lane, who is the VP of sales for Pilot North America. So that was the event.

Speaker 02: That was the event on Saturday. So they were, you know, there from 10 to 4. David Oscarson makes. You might be familiar with his work. I'm not totally sure if you are, Myke. He was at D.C. when we were there. But that's not something. So like getting to talk with David, I guess I'll go ahead and get to this now.

David Oscarson Pins

Speaker 02: His pins are not for everybody. And he understands that, right? It's a very high-end, luxury, jewelry, art style of design. And like, I think the base-level pins are like around six grand, right? They're like, and he makes like eight of them, right? It's a super specific customer that he has. So like David knows that I'm not his customer. And like the pen addict, you know, readers aren't necessarily his customer. But what I got out of talking to David, like even though, like I will probably never be a customer of his, that we could talk about the art and design and the process that he goes through. And you can tell someone who like is really passionate about those things. And you get to learn about his craftsmanship, which is really, it's essentially jewelry design. The way his pins are designed with this layered enamel and, you know, all these different design elements and looks and styles and rare materials and things like that. So it was a great conversation with David. But I've never got to spend time with him before, other than just saying hi at a pin show when I see him regularly. And it was cool to learn about that, even though, you know, like I said, like that's not the type of pin that I'm going to use, right? So, but he stays busy. Like he goes down there like every two, three months because he has like a good client base in Houston. And like his customers came and saw him all day long and he showed off like his newest artwork. And it was just a really cool experience to get to spend some time with him.

Speaker 02: And then John Lane from Pilot, I had actually never met in all my years of doing this and all my years of going around to shows. Our paths had just never crossed in person to where we could even introduce ourselves. So like this was my first time even meeting him and he brought pretty much everything that Pilot does, which that's not a huge amount, right? Like he can have all of like Pilot's standard lineup and one like large, like, you know, 30 pin case or whatever, right? You know, it's your baseline up stuff like the 74s and he didn't bring like the very, very small stuff like the Metropolitans and the Explorers and prayers and things like that.

Brad Dowdy: But that's a great question from Tony in the chat room, which I don't think you would answer unless I asked you. Did he know who you were?

Speaker 02: I didn't see it. He did not know who I was.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Did he know what the pen addict was? Yes.

Speaker 02: Yes. He kind of. Yeah. He didn't totally know.

Brad Dowdy: Ah, so he was aware of a thing called the pen addict. He did not know who Brad Dowdy was. Correct. Okay.

Speaker 02: I think that's fair. That's the feeling I got from him anyway. Like he didn't, he didn't say, oh, you know, he's like, oh, okay. Like when I introduced myself or someone introducing to him is like, oh, that registers.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Which I guess in a way, I don't know, is more important really that he knows what the pen addict is than you. Maybe. I don't know.

Speaker 02: Yeah. But like, he doesn't know, like, do I even review Pilot pens? Like we never had a discussion about the blog or anything like that. Sure. So, yeah, I would say he generally didn't know me, but other than hearing like the phrase pen addict and passing kind of thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 02: So, you know, he brought all the things and he brought the seven gods set from the 100th anniversary. And you'll be proud of me, Myke. I didn't make a 101st anniversary joke. Yes, I am actually proud of you that you didn't like to joke to the man. Even though some of Dromgoo's customers and our listeners were prodding me on to, hey, have you mentioned the, I'm like, you know, I don't think I'm, no, that's probably not the time or the place. And he's, he's a super nice guy. And we, we talked a bunch and I got to learn a lot of things from him about how Pilot USA interacts with Japan. Um, for example, our capitalist 20 desk decimo talk that we had last week about the 20 limited edition decimo capitalist vanishing point style pens that were being released. Um, you know, mostly in Japan and the Asian market. Pilot USA has an opportunity to get those. And he explained to me in no uncertain terms and in very great detail why that's probably not going to happen in the U S market, right? They're restrictive on how you can order the pens and they're very expensive. And he's just not sure that his customers, which are retailers like Dromgoo's and every other retailer we use, we'll be able to sell them. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So like, cause it was, I mean, you explained this in reef. Phil, you're a wonderful newsletter that people should subscribe to. Um, but basically you have to, as a retailer, order them in sets of five. You can't order specific colors and that's that. And if you want to order any set of five, you have to commit to all 20 sets that were 20 pens. So it's not very retailer friendly, incredibly hostile to retailers.

Speaker 02: Yes. And expensive to boot, like over $200 for these pens, like in the $230 individually for these pens. So like he was very open, like, and sat there and had this conversation with several of us who were interested in this pen. Well, I guess the biggest takeaway that I had from this was that pilot USA is available to get certain things. It's just got to make sense from pilot USA as a business. It's almost like the businesses run, they're the same company, but the business is run separately from Japan. Japan's not saying, Hey, here, sell this. Pilot USA is saying, we're going to choose out of what you have available to us to sell that we think is going to work best in our market.

Multinational Corporations and Pen Shows

Brad Dowdy: This is something that's very normal to multinational corporations. They are effectively run as multiple singular companies that have a link between them.

Speaker 02: Yep. So it was a great conversation. Like, and we talked about, you know, just vanishing point limited editions and, you know, will there ever be anything and then different in the 823 that, you know, we might be able to get our hands on, you know, these are all like in the maybe category, his favorite phrase to me the whole time. Like I've, he's never been, he was never asked a question by myself or anyone there that he hasn't been asked a thousand times before. And he brings these up to Japan and his answer to us when we were asking these questions where they didn't say yes, but they haven't said no. So like, that's where a lot of this is, like he gets all of the customer feedback and like anything like we could come up with has been approached. And, you know, it's just basically like he brings this up and they didn't turn it down. Right. They didn't say yes, but they haven't said no yet. So that's where a lot of this is with pilot. And, uh, it was really interesting to get to hear all of this type of thing. So it was, uh, it was pretty cool. I appreciated his insight, uh, you know, and we've obviously traded information now and he was, he was, uh, you know, he liked what I did and, you know, maybe, you know, if there's ever a chance we'll work together in the future, like, but you know, I worked through all the retailers anyway. So, but it's good to have like, to be able to ask him a question. Like I said, he's gotten all the questions, right?

Brad Dowdy: That's a cool contact to have.

Speaker 02: It's a cool contact.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, if anything, that makes the trip worthwhile.

Speaker 02: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean the trip worthwhile was just being able to see this stuff. Like he brought like the $9,500 emperor pen for this year's 2019 emperor pen, which is right.

Brad Dowdy: You never would have been to see otherwise.

Speaker 02: Yeah. Nor did I need to see it. Like that's not something if it was at a pen show, I would hunt down because I need to see that. But getting to see it was very cool. Right.

Brad Dowdy: It's like a curio really, you know?

Speaker 02: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it's just neat. That's what's when you get to talk with, with people like John and David, you get to see the things they're working on and see what's in the hopper and see what's, what's important to them right now. And like what's popular. And then you get to see some like, get some rare insight at different things going on in their, in their brands. So it was very cool. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed my time with them at, at drum goals this weekend. So it was great. Now being around these people and being around this store for essentially like a day and a half straight, you can't help but browse around. Right. Naturally. Naturally. No. I mean, and I knew going in that I'm going to buy something or multiple things like for various reasons, either for myself or giveaways. And I even made a small list of sailor inks, which we'll talk about in a little bit. And like one of the things at the top of my list was to see the sailor 4 AM, which is the North American limited edition.

Brad Dowdy: That we spent a bunch of time talking about last week.

Speaker 02: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I was questioning, you know, and as a lot of people were the idea of, well, why don't you make the nib match the black ion plating of all of the hardware on the pen instead of, you know, the rhodium plating, like the bright silver plating on the nib. And like, I was totally on, let's make it black ion and charge me $60 more. Like, I think, I think that's, you know, a fair stance to take, but in, in person, like when I saw it, like it didn't, the shininess of the nib didn't stand out to where I felt, wow, this is a real outlier for this design to make me not want it. And of course I bought it. I bought the large size. This is the, this is actually the first 1911 large. So this is how I justified it to myself. This is the first 1911 large that I own because I really just got into the 1911 with the Royal Tangerine. And that was the small one, the standard. I really hate that whole, their whole naming convention thing. It just causes confusion anyway. So the large I bought and I really like it. I bought it with an extra fine nib. The color is awesome. The black ion plating of all the external hardware is awesome. And the nib of course is great. It's extra fine. And honestly, it's not too fine, which is great. I already have a needle point. So in a Rialo that I just got that I love, and this is way different than that. So it's just an all around good pen. And while I was sitting there debating it, this was definitely the hottest pen in the store that weekend because it was new. Everyone likes Sailor. It's a decent enough price point.

Speaker 02: And people were trying them out left and right. And I know they sold a bunch of them this weekend. People, the consensus was that people liked them and didn't have an issue with the silver nib, which I figured was going to be the case. I said, they'll sell all of these.

Speaker 02: But I did get to thinking, well, I have two black Sailor nibs at home. I could swap into this if it's really bothering me for some reason. The Black Luster Sailor pen, which is a 1911 model, but it's got a metal grip section and a black nib. And then the Imperial Black, which is a Pro Gear model, also has the black nib. I could pull one of those nibs, put it in here. But the more I got to looking at it, the more reasons I found to not make that swap and just stick with the Rhodium plated nib, which I really, really like. And I think it looks good. It writes good. It's that pen, right? I could mix and match all kinds of pens and do all kinds of different things. But then I get into a bad place of having everything mixed up and forgetting where things go, even though this one would be pretty easy to reverse if I wanted to. But I was like, well, let's at least try it for a while with the standard nib that it came with. And I quite like it. I like it a lot, actually. And I think I would use this pen a lot. So very happy with it. The one thing about these black nibs that I thought about popping into this 4am, I got them both out and photographed them for Instagram because people were asking me, you know, did they match and what did they look like? The Black Luster nib would be an exact match to it. The Imperial Black nib, which I've used a lot more and cleaned a lot more, did not look good. And it looked like it's starting to, I don't want to say corrode yet until I go clean it more, but it's not pretty, right? It's got some, you know, the exterior is breaking down, if you will. And it didn't look that great. I think I can probably clean it and it's fine, but maybe it's just an effect of overcleaning in the past and not using it a lot recently to keep it in good shape. But this would be a mark in the column of why would you want a black nib in the first place? Because I do think they feel different and they're going to change more physically, you know, either in looks or whatever over time as you use them, as ink interacts with them, as you clean them. And, you know, this is maybe what it would look like down the line. And do you really want that? So I have very much less of a problem with the nib choice in retrospect. And I'm really enjoying this pen so far.

Brad Dowdy: I think that it would look really cool with the whole nib, like in grip section from the black luster, like the metal one. I think that that would actually look really good. I will probably do that. Yeah, I think you should at least give that one a go and see what it looks like. I think that would be a kind of a cool customization. Yeah. That's also kind of fun to like customize it in some way.

Speaker 02: Yeah. And that's a dead simple swap, right? Just screwing off the front end grip section. And someone on Reddit did that, which I just happened to see. I was like, oh, yeah, that's the idea that I was thinking about. And it looks really good. And the good thing about that for me is that nib in that pen is a medium. So I have two very different feels I will get from swapping these up. And I will definitely do that eventually. But initially, I wanted to go with the stock nib.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Mm-hmm. Just at least so you can get an idea like, you know, this is how they decided to sell it and et cetera, et cetera. And then you can kind of work out what you want to do after that, I guess. Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. I don't know if I'd somehow missed the Black Luster or like forgot that it existed. Mm-hmm. It's a cool pen.

Speaker 02: It's a fantastic pen. It like, this was years and years ago and it just appeared and then vanished. Like all of a sudden, I don't know that it was limited. I don't know if they just did like a stock thing. I don't even remember the story about it. But that was one that I knew I wanted like immediately. I remember getting it very quickly when it came out. And then it just went away and you never heard about it again. They've kept the Imperial Black going, which is the one in the Pro Gear lineup. But this one, they don't for, I don't know why. It's fantastic. And it's different enough from what they offer to where I would think they would continue it.

Brad Dowdy: Talk about fantastic. Yesterday, my sparkling royal Pro Gear arrived. Sparkling royal purple from Pensacchi. I absolutely love this pen.

Sparkling Royal Pro Gear Arrival

Speaker 02: It's really good.

Brad Dowdy: It came in a Wancher box, which makes me feel like it's a Wancher special edition.

Speaker 02: Maybe. I would imagine so. You would think they would say in like the product thing, probably. Yeah. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: I haven't seen anything. It doesn't have any branding either on it.

Speaker 02: Yeah. But Wancher does several Sailor limited editions.

Brad Dowdy: So I think I mentioned this on the show last week, but it was funny to think. It's my third standard size Pro Gear. Mm-hmm. Like I only have three. You think of all the Sailor pens that I own. This is like the third one that I have that's a standard size. The rest of mine are slims mostly. And I have some esoteric sizes. This pen, everything about it, I love. I love the transparent purple. I have a gold, like a converter with a gold, like a gold part in it, which is great because the gold matches with the gold furniture, which also looks fantastic. Did it come with that converter? Can I ask you that? I bought it. I added it on. Yeah.

Speaker 02: I have never seen a Sailor gold plated converter. Yeah. That comes with a pen. So that's great.

Brad Dowdy: That's a cool match. As an extra. Sure. The fact that the sparkly part is multiple colors. And they've done a really great thing of like, it looks like it's, well, it definitely is. It's inset throughout all the resin. So when you look at it, you see like a layered effect. Gotcha. Right? So there's depth to the sparkliness in the body. It looks as good on the, you know, it looks as good on the finial. And I really love the white cap, white grip section. Um, I just think that that really sets it off. I mean, I don't, you know, I now have like two Sailor pens that have a lot of white featured in them, but on the magic of Alice, it's like, it's more dull and it has the sparkly in it. But on this pen, it's like a real bright, like ivory white. Um, I, I really, really do like this pen an awful lot. Uh, and I filled it with the, uh, Colt pens, Philip, which is a purple one, which is purple and gold. If you can get a sheen on it. Uh, it's also, I also got a medium nib for this one, which is also a reference that now my second medium nib, um, in Sailor pens. I seem to buy much more weird nibs of Sailor pens. I don't know why, but now I haven't, now I have another medium.

Speaker 02: Yeah. That's funny. You say that one about the weird nibs. One sailor offers them, right? Not everybody offers as deep of a line.

Brad Dowdy: I have like two or three zoom nibs just because I can have them. Right.

Speaker 02: And two, I bought a zoom nib in the standard 4am. Did I do that right? I don't even know the name, the smaller 4am to give away on the blog. So I have a giveaway this week on the blog where I'm giving away the 4am. So if I'm going to do a giveaway, I'm going to do one of the cool nibs, right? Like zoom.

Brad Dowdy: So I absolutely adore Sailor's zoom nib. Yeah. It's not for me. Oh, I love it. It might be like, it's high up there. It's one of my very, very favorite nibs.

Speaker 02: Crazy.

Brad Dowdy: It works for me so well. It's just like a crazy broad.

Speaker 02: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just didn't get enough variation. Like there should be, there is variation. Like it's designed to have a type of variation based on the angle you hold the nib at. And it wasn't different enough for me.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 02: But you and I, you and I write differently though. Right. So we do.

Brad Dowdy: And like, for me, you know, like the, the, the sailor zoom nib is just like a big round, like broad nib. And for it being so round means it works almost flawlessly for me. Like I never get scratching or skipping, like no matter how weirdly I hold the pen. Right. Like there's always like a good, good coverage. So it's one of the reasons I find it so smooth because it works really well for me. But anyway, but back to the, the sparkling royal purple, a big fan. I love it. It looks great. Excellent addition. This is going to be one of those pens that like in a couple of years I bring to a pen show and people are like, what is that one? You know? Totally. So it's got that look to it for sure.

Speaker 02: Yeah. I think they're great looking. I am, you know, it's, it's not enough for me to jump through the screen and throw money at it, but I think it's awesome in, in the same aspect. Right.

Brad Dowdy: I really love the weird collection that I'm like, I've been asking. Like between this, like the magic of Alice and then the Japan steel. That's like those three, like they, they will turn heads at pen shows. So does the, the fifth anniversary bong box as well. The gold one.

Speaker 02: Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Because that has the metal grip section too. Right. Which I love. You are, you, the black, it's also got the black nib. You are making me think how fun it might be to start mixing and matching some of these pro gears. Totally. I have so many now I could start making my own.

Speaker 02: Just keep track of it. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's it. Oh, who knows? Yeah. Maybe I need to start it. Before I do that, I need to start a number spreadsheet. Right. Right. Right.

Speaker 02: So the sailor portion of our show, I think maybe some people would like it to be over with, but I'm not ready to go there yet. We can't. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: We have things to talk about. Sailor is a big part of the show. I will not accept criticism. I won't.

Speaker 02: So I want to say, okay, before I do this, I did want to mention one thing about purchasing this sailor 4am for me, for my personal use at Dromgools. It is the one pen that stood out for my personal taste, style, and writing style in that entire store that I wanted to take home with me. Like it just fits me. So that's like why I like sailor so much because it fits me and what I like to get out of a pen. You know, I had my choice of every pen in the entire room and I picked a pen of which I now probably have over 10 of, right? Even though not the same style, you know, the same length and shape. But like I could not, if I bought a different pen, I would not enjoy it as much as this pen. You know?

Sailor Ink Studio

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 02: So, Sailor Ink Studio, Myke. I picked out a handful of colors. I had zero other than a couple of samples. And I knew I would be able to get some of Dromgools.

Brad Dowdy: This is the ink that I learned about mostly from Adina. Like I knew that it existed, but I mostly ignored it because it's like an incomprehensible naming scheme. It's just like, they're just numbers and that's it, right? And that doesn't work for my brain, especially when it comes to ink. But the Sailor Ink Studio is like, this is where Sailor will allow for companies to create their own inks in the same way they allow them to create pens. And then the ones that they think are the nicest combinations, they release under the Sailor Ink Studio line. But they are typically just three-digit numbers are the names of the inks.

Speaker 02: Yeah. So, there are a hundred inks in this lineup. There is some rhyme or reason to the numbering convention of this.

Brad Dowdy: I'm sure there has to be because if there's only a hundred inks, but one of them scored 941, then there has to be a code, right?

Speaker 02: Yeah. Yeah. But we don't have enough time on this podcast to lay that out. So, we have some good links in the show notes that I used when I was shopping for mine. One mountain of ink. Kelly did a swab sampling of all 100 inks. Whoa.

Brad Dowdy: What a beautiful image on that page.

Speaker 02: Yeah. So, Yagen at Macchiato Man also did the same thing. Did a hundred swabs and broke down the naming numbering convention as best as possible. So, if you want to figure out why they're numbered, how they're numbered, he takes a crack at it. Because it's not official, right? He just, he basically sorted it out as best as he could. And it made a lot of sense. But, yeah, you'll have to go read that. And we'll put the link in the show notes. Because these are two great resources for these inks. And that's what I used to pick out these swabs. I had both their sites pulled up. And I just kind of scrolled through and looked at, if I was on one site, I'd find a color that interested me. Then I'd go to the other site to see if they kind of had the same representation of the swab. And if I felt that that was like a good choice for me. So, out of these ink colors I picked, I wrote down five. I came home with four of them. So, 450 is a purple. 767 is a bright green. 941 is kind of a tealish blue-black. And 773 is an orange. So, I sampled them on stream yesterday. And I love the 941. Which, shocker, is the blue-black with teal. That's what I have inked up in my 4AM. It has a lot of character when I was doing the swab. And then that was about it. I wasn't like head over heels with the rest of them. Which means I need to test them out more in pens. So, the 450 purple was a little bit brighter than I was thinking was going to be. But it's really pretty. It's not as bright as something like Imperial purple. But I like a dustier purple.

Speaker 02: 767 is a good bright green. I want to try that against Graffon Faber-Castell's Viper Green. I think 731 has more yellow in it. I want to try that. And 773 is like the super hot popular orange. And it is really red in my samples. Which, I don't really care for red oranges. So, I want to ink that up and try it in some pens. And see what the effect gets. So, you know, I think. I don't know. I may just end up keeping one of these inks. The 941. And giving these away. And I got four more ink colors. Which I didn't even write down to give away. So, Dylan, the ink sommelier. Okay. At Drom Ghouls. He is a big fan of the Sailor Ink Studio. So, I told him to pick out his four favorite colors. So, I'm going to give those away as well. So, look for more giveaways for Sailor Ink Studio. I just may be giving away some of my own stash. Because with ink, I have to want to use it more than what I already have. And the only one that I feel right now without more testing is 941. Which is a really pretty kind of blue-black. So, you know, do I need all these inks? No. Did they knock my socks off? No. So, I don't know that I'm like rushing out to try to dabble in more. I'll look at some more samples, right? This is the concept that brought us Sailor 123 ink. Right? So, that's the ink that made this entire ink studio lineup happen. Become a thing. Because it is such a different looking ink. And there's very few other inks in this 100 that live up to that. And, you know, there are a couple other ones that I would be interested in seeing. That are really out there. But this more standard ink.

Brad Dowdy: I have somehow never seen this ink. And that is bananas. Yeah. It's like purple-y green with some pink in it. Yeah. It's weird.

Speaker 02: Yeah. It's weird, right? So, that's the ink. It probably sells two or three times more than any other ink. Because it's so different. Right? Anyone can get something probably pretty close to the 941 that I love. I probably have it in my closet of doom right now. Right? But there's nothing like 123 out there. So, it's just really neat. So, I brought home a bunch of inks. Brought home a bunch of inks. And including 123. So, that was one of Dylan's favorites, of course. And we'll be giving that away as well. So, yeah. There you go. That was my initial dalliance with Sailor Studio inks. And I'm just resoundingly average on them.

Brad Dowdy: Sounds great.

Speaker 02: Hey, buy them all.

Brad Dowdy: Today's episode is brought to you by our friends over at Moo. The online print and design company specializing in customizable business cards, postcards, stickers, and more for you and your business. If you're new to Moo, you can order a free sample pack on their website. Just go to moo.com. So, you can see what their products look like and hold in your hand. And then you'll know they will be perfect for your next business card, for your next product. And, hey, they have an amazing sale right now, which I'm going to tell you about in just a second. But you don't want to miss it if you've been sitting and thinking you want to buy some Moo products. Now is the time. Moo offer a full suite of products, including business cards, postcards, invitations, letterheads, stickers, flyers, so you can seamlessly promote yourself and your brand. And the holiday season is coming. I know you don't want to hear me say that because it feels way too soon. But, like, we were thinking about our holiday cards. Moo do greetings cards. So, we're probably going to get ours. Well, we are actually going to get ours made at Moo. Nice. Because they have such wonderful finishes, such wonderful details they can add to your products. Gold foil, silver foil, raised spot gloss, letterpress. All these little touches will make you stand out. If you don't fancy designing your own business card, Moo recently rolled out templates for them. So, they're inspired by the most creative customers, so you can really make something that looks fantastic. They have wonderful notebooks as well, like their luxurious hardcover, which features Swiss binding. Every page lays flat. And it's all premium paper and a tough tactile cover. So, Moo has a flash sale going on right now. They are offering 30% of stickers and labels, greetings cards, postcards, note cards, invitations, flyers, and accessories. It's 30% off a whole host of products. It is the perfect time to create the holiday greetings cards, invitations, and gift labels. The sale excludes gift cards and shipping, but it does include everything you need to get ready for the holidays. So, go to Moo.com slash relay right now, and you will get 30% off. That is Moo.com slash relay, and you will get that discount automatically applied at checkout. 30%. Don't miss it. Moo.com slash relay. Go now. Thanks to Moo for their support of this show. Wow. I saw something exciting on Twitter. Yeah? That you and Brian have finally shipped the final spoke pen.

Speaker 02: Woo-hoo. That's Brian. Let's give a big round of applause to Brian for, like, hammering out these last two months of spoke pen shipments. He crushed it. It's been a long process. I know we're both happy it is done. But the last of the Kickstarter spoke pens shipped out yesterday. He is very relieved. I am very relieved for him because he did the lion's share of the work of the assembly and shipping for this. So, thank you, Brian, for sticking with this and fighting through all the challenges that we had during this campaign. And thanks to everyone who supported us and was patient with us. The feedback has been out of this world. Like, it's been, like, even beyond Brian and mine's wildest dreams of what people think about the pen when they get it in hand. So, I'm very happy about that. But, so, now we're going to take, we have a call this afternoon. I don't have dates or times for when they're going to be available on the site. But we're going to talk about that. But it's not going to be imminent because we're going to take some time to build up some inventory before going live with that. So, how long that will be, I don't know. It will be before Christmas sometimes. But, you know, it could be a, we might just take a month to just build so we have inventory to ship instead of the other way around. Instead of selling and then having to build to meet all the sales. So, stay tuned. Follow SpokePen online, all the socials. And we'll let you know when they're ready to roll. Also, I got the second to last shipment of Burton pen cases in. The A5 pouch that we did for the Kickstarter. That project is done. But I knew I'd have about 100 left over to sell directly. It's going to be a problem selling these because they're just going to, we have way more people wanting them than I have inventory. So, I'm just going to put them out through the newsletter. You should sign up to the NOC newsletter. And I don't know what day it's going to happen. It won't be this week. I will tell you that right now. Um, but next week I'll probably have an email one day in the afternoon to try to get through, to try to allow as many people to buy them as possible. But there's going to be some upset folks because, uh, to pat ourself on the back, just like I did with SpokePen, this design really resonated with people. Um, I'm very happy with it. Jeff is very happy with it. And our customers are very happy with it. I'm very happy too. So, we'll do some more next year at some point. But for this style, this model, um, it will, uh, it, it, I, there will be like a hundred and I know that's going to be a problem. But, you know, it is what it is. That's kind of, uh, you know, that's kind of how this one wrapped up. But, uh, I'm thrilled with it. So, we'll get those out probably next week. But just sign up to the NOC newsletter if you're not. And that's going to be how I'm going to notify people.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Jeez. Just sign up to the newsletter. What's wrong with you? Jeez.

Speaker 02: It's like, I'm not going to do lotteries. And I'm not just going to, like, put it online. Like, if you're in the newsletter. It's not that popular.

Brad Dowdy: Right? Like, you know, it's like it's not worth going to those limits. Yeah.

Speaker 02: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. But, like, people will be upset. Like, I want everyone to have the case that they want. But, you know, it's not going to happen.

Brad Dowdy: So, just resign to that fact. They should just throw money at you and then you can make more of them.

Speaker 02: You ready to hit some Ask TPA this week?

Ask TPA Segment

Brad Dowdy: Yep. We've got the Ask TPA question to, of all Ask TPA questions to start off today. It comes from Mark. Mark wants to know, what pen should I buy?

Speaker 02: All right. So, there's a story here. And, um, you will enjoy this. So, I'm at Drum Ghouls. And this is, gosh, was this Friday? Yeah, I think this was Friday night. So, Mark, who you do not know, except you do know on Twitter. He is the gentleman who, last year, around the time I was going to Drum Ghouls, was listening to, like, 14 episodes a day. And was telling you every time he finished episodes. Oh, I remember Mark. He's pretty sure you hate him because of that. I don't hate him. I don't hate him, but I do remember him. So, that's Mark. So, Mark just walks up to me. He goes, Brad, I haven't asked TPA.

Myke Hurley: If I remember rightly with Mark, it was one of those things where I asked him to stop, but he said he wouldn't. If I remember, it was like the way that went. Okay.

Speaker 02: That's it. So, he's like, I'm pretty sure Myke hates me or has me blocked or something. I was like, yeah, maybe so.

Speaker 02: But, yeah, he just walks up to me. We'd already talked a bunch that day. And he walks up. He's like, hey, I have an asked TPA question. I'm like, okay, let me write it down. He goes, what pen should I buy? And I just started dying laughing. Like, it was hilarious. I found that to just be hilarious. Plus, I wanted to tell you, to remind you about Mark's thoroughness in informing you of his listening habits. Because I know you appreciate it. I'm just pleased he's caught up. All right. So, what pen should he buy? What advice do you have for him?

Brad Dowdy: I'm probably going to dip back into the world of last week for like the all-time fave, the Lamy 2000.

Speaker 02: So, you're not going to believe this?

Brad Dowdy: Is that what you told him?

Speaker 02: No. I didn't give him an answer. I said, I'm going to put this on the show. But later that night, Mark said, hey, I am going to – I'm learning shorthand. What fountain pen do you think would be good for that? And I said probably like the Lamy 2000 or the Pilot Falcon. And he ended up behind the Lamy 2000. So, that's kind of hilarious. Boom. Did it. Nailed it. Kind of hilarious.

Brad Dowdy: I am the king of us TPA now. I just think that – I've said this before. I haven't said this for a long time. I think. But I think if you are a pen addict who has a substantial collection of pens and the Lamy 2000 is not a part of that, you should rectify it. Because it is one of the all-time greats. And it unfortunately gets forgotten about a lot. Mostly because Lamy basically have forgotten about this pen, which they're sitting on. What could be an absolute goldmine for them if they just put some colors into it? Right? Like just release new ones. I mean, it's a real easy fix. Hybrid. It's very easy to fix this situation. It's just hybrid. But they seem to refuse to do it. And maybe they can't. I mean, I don't know what the reasons are. But, you know, I don't really know if there's constrictions around that material that they use. I don't know. But it seems peculiar.

Speaker 02: You know, I go back to my conversation with John from Pilot. But there's reasons that we're not privileged to. Right? Even though we're still going to yell and complain. Believe me. They've had that question asked probably tens of thousands of times by now. Right? So, I just think it's funny.

Brad Dowdy: So, we don't typically do shout outs on the show. Because I feel like the show would then just become shout outs. Like that would be like this whole other section. But the serendipity of this email that I received from Stefan made me want to read it. Because I think it's really fun. So, some time ago, my wife April and I were riding in the car together. And I turned on Upgrade. So, that's another show that I do with Jason Snell. She looked at me and said, Is that Myke Hurley? I listened to him on The Pen Addict. And Stefan said, It was our Pina Colada song moment. You know, you're like Pina Colada. You go dancing in the rain. I love this. So, they were both listening to different shows. So, Stefan was listening to Upgrade. April was listening to The Pen Addict. I mean, there's no reason why it would necessarily come up. Yeah.

Speaker 02: It's their independent feeds, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And it's also just like I listen to podcasts. Me too. Like you don't necessarily talk about it, right? My assumption would be that Stefan is interested in technology. April is interested in pens. And maybe they don't share a ton of overlap in those interests. Right. So, they just listen to what they listen to. But it must have been such a weird moment for them. Totally. To come across that. But Stefan, he told me a little bit about his wife, who seems like a really amazing person. And I wanted to read just a little bit about this. I thought it was really nice. So, April has recently been identified as a Richmond Times Dispatch Person of the Year in Virginia. I know Richmond, Virginia. That's where Casey's from.

Speaker 02: And Goulet Pens.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Casey always sends me pictures when he drives by. Every single time. He's lovely like that. She has developed and runs her amazing Pathways to Science program, providing STEM opportunities for high school-aged Latinas. She also runs her N-O-Y-C-E program. Nice. See, as a fan of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, all I see is noise. But she runs her noise program, working to give college students free tuition in exchange for a few years teaching in disadvantaged schools after graduation. So, she's a little awesome. Yeah. There was actually like a whole list of things. I had to like trim it down. Like, April seems to work very hard for education. But Stefan said, most important to me, she is a great wife and mother. She doesn't do it as the accolades just because she cares about everyone having an equal opportunity. So, I wanted to just mention that. April, you seem like an awesome person. Stefan, you seem like a great husband too for writing in for this. And I just found it all a very heartwarming moment that I wanted to share with our audience.

Speaker 02: True. So, yeah. We don't normally do this. And I feel like awesome to be able to do this sometimes. So, April, you're amazing. And Stefan, thanks for sending this in. And this is just fantastic. Y'all made my day. And, you know, maybe I can live up to be as awesome as April one day. She's fantastic.

Brad Dowdy: Next question comes from Peter. Thanks to the pen addict, I'm a new lover of fountain pens. I've acquired my first, a Pilot Metropolitan with Pilot Namiki Blue Black Ink. And I've truly enjoyed adding an analog form of writing and note taking to my life. As I delve further into fountain pens, I'd like to get something that fits with the other themes in my life. As my favorite video game is Portal, I was thinking about how it would be to have a set of Portal themed fountain pens. One orange and one blue. I did a bit of searching, but I didn't come up with anything that felt right together. Given Myke's playthrough of the game, I was wondering if you'd have any suggestions for a pair of pens, even glad I'll sort of approve of. And if either of you happen to have strong feelings about orange or blue inks to fill the pens, I'd love to hear them. Do we have opinions on orange and blue? You know what I'm going to say for the orange and blue? Pilot Orochisuku Kompeki and Pilot Orochisukugaki, they matched the Portal colors very closely.

Speaker 02: Yeah, I won't argue with either of those. And for the pen, all I can think about is back when Karas Customs started doing their first round of anodizing, they did orange and blue together. And I think at the time we might have even called them the Portal pens. This was years ago, but that is stuck into my head. So you're going to have to get something like that anodization from one of the metal pen manufacturers to get something to where you can get two pens, right? Like you can get two Sailors or two Platinums or whatever, but are you going to find something that is that complementary? You know, you could kind of maybe do it with the translucency in the Pilot Custom 92, I think it is. The one with the rounded tips, they have a translucent orange and a translucent blue. That might be a fun thing to do. And then those inks would be really good as well. So, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I was thinking if Twisby made an orange Twisby Go.

Speaker 02: That would be very Portal-ish. Yeah, because it's also clear. I wouldn't put it past them.

Brad Dowdy: You know, like if they did an orange one, you match it up with the blue one. But you could also go with a blue and orange Twisby Eco. Yes, definitely. That would work too. Because they're also like, they've got the great colors to them and they're also, they also have a lot of transparency to them. So they could be cool. And then also, you would see the inks lushing around inside. Right. So that's going to be my pick, Twisby Eco.

Speaker 02: Anytime we can like do video game or any type of, you know, let's try to match up the thing questions I'm all about. Even though we're probably wrong, like that's a terrible idea most of the time. So this one I feel pretty good about. So yeah, I think we can get this done. So yeah, it should be good.

Brad Dowdy: TimesReader writes in and says, What would you recommend to someone who is not core pen audience, doesn't want to spend a lot of money, and is just interested in a basic, durable, nice, reliable pen to jot down random bits and pieces for later processing?

Speaker 02: I have never pen-abled someone harder than your buddy, Stephen Hackett, with the Uniball Jetstream Sport.

Speaker 02: I know that's not the answer you were looking for. It is what it is. You were thinking fountain pen. They didn't specifically say fountain pen.

Brad Dowdy: No, I wouldn't have gone with fountain pen for this. That doesn't seem right.

Speaker 02: If you want durable, nice, reliable pen, it may not fall in the nice category. Technically, it's very nice for what it is, but it's like a 250 rubber pen.

Brad Dowdy: I know this pen very well from knowing Stephen.

Speaker 02: He's used it for years, since the first time he came on the Pen Addict back when we started. And he's never changed. I can really appreciate that. John Gruber has been singularly using the Zebra Sarasa clip. He's now switched, actually, to the .5, he says, because his eyesight's getting bad. He's using .3 before. This is a tougher question than it should be, because I take it too seriously. But that's why I said the Jetstream first. This is a pen you get that you can get at the grocery store sometimes that is better than every other pen you're using on a daily basis if you're not into pens. It just is. So I don't know if that's the sexy answer, but I feel like that's the answer. You know, the pens off the store shelf, like the Sino, Signo 307, Uniball. Signo 307, awesome pen. Uniball Vision, Elite, awesome pen. So, you know, like you can get some really killer stuff if you know which one to buy. So I'm open to elaboration on that, Times Reader. If you have some more specifics to hit on, we can do that for sure.

Brad Dowdy: So Praxis needs some planner advice. What would be your recommendation for weekly planners? I've been checking out the Hobonichi Techo Weeks and Midori Pouch Diary, but want to know if there's anything more that I might be overlooking. I've never heard of the Midori Pouch Diary.

Speaker 02: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that one either. I'll have to look at that. So my recommendation is the Traveler's Weekly Planner, which is similar to the Weeks, but fits in the Traveler's Notebook system. So I think that's great. I used Sumkin this year. They made that style. They're not making it this year. But look at what Sumkin's doing. That's something different. And they make unique kind of diaries like that that are more Weeks style, the Hobonichi Techo Weeks style, than your big bulky stuff.

Brad Dowdy: I bought Idina for her birthday. Sumkin making a sketching planner.

Speaker 02: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Which is really nice.

Speaker 02: It is really cool.

Brad Dowdy: And it's also a very clever thing to do.

Speaker 02: They're doing a good job. I really like their stuff. And that's kind of out of nowhere. The only other thing, and this is adding, this is where your decisions between what you're looking for matter the most. Like the Weeks and the Pouch Diary and the things I've recommended tend to be simpler and easier to use. And then you get into the Jiban Techo, which can be overwhelming. But if you need, if you just want to lay eyeballs on something completely different, check that out. It's the kind of one of the bigger popular planners, like the full size Hobonichi Techo, the A6 sizes and the A5 sizes. So it's like that, even to the nth degree.

Brad Dowdy: And our last question today will come from KS Mahoney, who asks, have you seen or used notebooks from the company Back Pocket?

Speaker 02: Yeah, we've totally seen these. They did, I think they did those space notebooks, like years ago. Right, right. So I don't, even then, I don't ever think I use them. So I don't know. But they're cool. They're nice. They lack something for me.

Brad Dowdy: They look a little unfinished.

Speaker 02: Sure, sure. You know, straight edges, basic staples. I like the designs. Like it would be worth trying for the designs, but I can't vouch for the internals because I've never used them. So, yeah, they look cool. I like the styles of them. So I would totally give them a shot and just know that, you know, you'll have to test the paper when you get them.

Brad Dowdy: All right, that wraps it up for this week's episode. If you'd like to send in a question to be asked on a future show, just send in a tweet with the hashtag AskTPA. You can find Brad online. He is Dowdyism on Twitter, Pen Addict on Instagram. Go to PenAddict.com. And if you want to catch Brad's Twitch streams, go to twitch.tv slash PenAddict. When, Brad?

Speaker 02: Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 10 a.m. Eastern Time. Fresh lighting set up coming Thursday. Be there to see me in all my lit up glory because we had a tough time on Tuesday.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Big illuminated boy, Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Thanks to Moo for their support of this show. If I'm iMike, I am YKE on Instagram, you should follow me there. And I'm going to be away next week, but Brad's going to have a wonderful guest. You remembered this, right? You got the week right this time? Yeah. Good news.

Speaker 02: You know, it would have been fine. I could have recorded and we could have published it in any way and I wouldn't have been in trouble. But then you wouldn't have showed up today. Except I wouldn't have shown up for today. That's exactly right.

Brad Dowdy: So it wouldn't have been that great. But yeah, I'll be back in a couple of weeks. Brad will be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Speaker 02: Goodbye, Brad.