The Pen Addict 390/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 390 |
| Title: | Why Do We Have This Question |
| Release Date: | December 18th, 2019 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | No guests this episode |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 390 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 390 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 390 |
| Length: | 7171 min <br />1.183 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 390. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad.
Brad Dowdy: Hey, is it really Myke Hurley? You had a pause there, like you weren't sure if this was Myke Hurley or not, but it sounds like you. Is this you? I was going for the dramatic drama, you know. No, really, I just got distracted by an iMessage.
Brad Dowdy: Such is life of world-famous podcasters. So, I'm glad you're taking some time to spend with me talking pens today.
Brad Dowdy: We've played musical schedules here recently, so I appreciate this recording, our last recording of 2019, Myke.
Myke Hurley: I know.
Introduction[edit]
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, so we're going to do, we have a couple of notes, but the thing I wanted to do in this very last episode is clear out the backlog of Ask TPA, because we have a lot of them. And I feel guilty when I don't get to the questions in a timely fashion, especially if I think they're good podcast Ask TPA and I don't reply. I'll say, hold that thought, I'll answer it on the show, and then people are stuck waiting for an answer. Like, is that fair? I don't feel that's fair sometimes.
Myke Hurley: Well, then, hopefully we can get to those today then, and then it will be fair and right in the world.
Brad Dowdy: We are zeroing out the Ask TPA doc today. So, this is all the open questions. So, if I missed your question, it's gone, and you should ask me again. If it's not covered today, I don't have it, and you're not getting an answer. So, ask me again. So, start again. Start over. Yeah. Yeah. What time should they ask?
Myke Hurley: The time is now, but if they want it to be cool, well, okay. So, I was on Instagram a couple of days ago, and I saw from Aaron Draplin a watch. He's collaborated with Timex to make a watch, and I was like, oh, wow. That looks amazing. When does it go on sale? And obviously, because of the timeline, you know, the way things work, right? You see things, and you might see them out of order. These watches, they went up for sale and were gone in, like, minutes. Yep. And maybe, it looks like there's going to be more at some point, but it's going to be pre-orders, and it's going to be a while. So, hopefully, I can get one, because it's priced really well, too. It wasn't expensive at all, and it is absolutely stunning. I think it is just a beautiful, beautiful watch. It's all black and orange and white with, like, big, chunky letters. There's 250 of the first edition of them. It's a real stunner, and I really just really want one.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's great looking, and I'm very similar to you in that the first time I was made aware of this project was when I saw a tweet from Aaron Draplin saying, boy, that went fast. They're all sold out, and I'm like, what are you even talking about? And it's this Timex collaboration. Like, you've seen my Timex Todd Snyder watch, the red and black bullseye, I think. If not, I can share it with you. Like, I like this style of watch. I would not have bought this one. I don't like the black faces in general, but if there is a white face version later down the line, I might have to jump on it because I like this style of watch. Like, it's a very casual watch, but it's got a cool theme and feel to it, and it's just neat. I like it, and I know they sold out, like, quickly, like, in the span of minutes, if not more than an hour.
Myke Hurley: 1,080 seconds as per the blog post.
Brad Dowdy: Wow. They were $85. Oh, wow.
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: I didn't even realize that because I, like, paid twice that for mine, which I still was happy with. Like, I paid, I want to say $140, $160 for the custom Timex I got for that price. Yeah. I might have just bought one for that price, right?
Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, I really hope that I can get one in the second edition, which will be in a few months' time or whatever, but I really loved it.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's kind of just a perfect, good-looking knockabout watch.
Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.
Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Speaking of knockabout, Myke, the Lamy All-Star does not really like it when you knock it about. It's an aluminum barrel. Did you know that?
Myke Hurley: I was aware of that.
Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's why the Safari is the best Lamy, but we don't know what Safari Special Edition is in store for us next year, but we do know what All-Star Special Edition is out there for us in 2020. And I feel like I've seen this before, maybe somewhere in the past. What do you think about Tourmaline, the Lamy All-Star Special Edition for 2020? So I'm confused.
Watch Discussion[edit]
Myke Hurley: Because what is Tourmaline? Tourmaline.
Brad Dowdy: It's a almost turquoise-y looking color. Is it? I don't know what Tourmaline is. Well, because- I know what Turpentine is. I know of Tourmaline. T-O-U-R. Right. Right? This is- Yes. We've had conversations about this on the Twitters, that what is happening with this spelling, and we've had some Germans check in saying, yes, that is the correct German spelling of Tourmaline.
Myke Hurley: Okay.
Brad Dowdy: So that did come up. So you're not alone in that thought process.
Myke Hurley: Because I had assumed it might have been a spelling thing, but in Googling, I could not find it. But- Really? Yeah. Ah, okay. I mean, I've now found some German pages that seem to reference it. Google did that thing to me where it shows me Tourmaline, right? And like- It knows better than you do. Yeah, yeah. So that's why I couldn't find it. But okay. Yeah, I mean, sure. It's like just a turquoise blue. Like- Yeah. It's great looking, right? It's so exciting, though.
Brad Dowdy: No, no. It's great looking on its own, but it's- This is like the safari run we had where everything was some shade of bright green, right? Mm-hmm. There was like three years in a row where it was like, okay, yellow green. Okay, apple green. Okay, like fluorescent green. And it's like, y'all can stop. Like, just pick something else. Pick orange or purple or do something. And they eventually did. But this seems to be too close. Maybe there's some reason for doing this, you know. I don't know what it would be. But what was turquoise two, three years ago at the most? It's very, very recent. Yeah. So, yeah. I just like- Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That's all I got. It's fine. It's going to do well. I'll be interested to see what ink comes out of this and if it exists already in the product lineup. Like, I don't know if the Lamy Crystal inks, the newest batch of inks, has a color like this because Lamy is known for multiple, on multiple occasions, matching their special edition ink to the pen with an existing color of ink and just renaming it. And all of us going, isn't that the stock turquoise that you sell that you're now calling Pacific Blue or whatever it was? So, I look forward to the ink. Because that will be pretty. But, yeah. Tourmaline is tourmaline. It's going to do well. And I'm anxious now. They usually come out at the same time. Right? The announcements for the annual All-Star and Safari colors. And we hadn't seen the Safari yet. They usually tend to drop in a very, very close time frame. And nothing yet. So, we'll keep our eyes peeled. Do you have any hopes? No. I mean, orange. Always. And not because I like orange, but it's because they haven't done any. One of the rarest safaris that they've ever done was an orange with a red clip. And they've never done orange since. They've done different shades of pinks. They've done purples. They've done, like, the dark blues, like the petrols and the dark lilacs. They did the copper orange, which I don't think really counts, in my opinion. That was the All-Star color with the copper orange. Plus, it's All-Star.
Myke Hurley: And who likes those? Right.
Brad Dowdy: Right. So, just give me an ABS plastic bright blaze orange.
Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. I would like that a lot, actually. With a matching ink.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah.
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: So, we'll see.
Myke Hurley: All right. We should get to those last TPA. But first, let me take our first break and thank Squarespace for the support of this show. Make your next move with Squarespace. They will let you easily create a website for your next idea, project, or event. With a unique domain name, award-winning templates are more available to you as a Squarespace customer. I think that you'll be very, very happy indeed. They are the all-in-one platform that will let you put anything that you want online. There's nothing to install, patch, or upgrade. You don't have to worry about any of that. They've got you covered. Because they are the best place for you to put your project online. And I stand by that. Like, I've been using Squarespace for such a long time now. And when it comes to setting something up new and I have a new project, a new website that I want to make, I just go start a new Squarespace site because all I want to do is get my content online. All I want to do is get my stuff out there. I don't want to have to spend a ton of time jumping through hoops trying to get something set up. Because it's so easy with Squarespace. You choose one of their templates. You customize it the way that you want. And then you are ready to go. They have 24-7 customer support if you need any help. No matter what type of website you want to make, they have the tools available to you. Go to squarespace.com slash penaddict where you can sign up right now. And you'll get a free trial. There's no credit card required. You can just sign up and try it out. Then you can sign up for one of their plans when you want to launch your website to the world. They start at $12 a month. But you can get 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain by using the offer code penaddict at squarespace.com slash penaddict. Once again, that is squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict for 10% of your first purchase. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of RelayFM. Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.
Brad Dowdy: You ready for this? This is a lot. Like our normal show doc's about a page and a half, including STPA. We're at eight pages on this one. Do you want to do the alternating readings of the questions and we'll just kind of see how it goes?
Myke Hurley: I think it's probably best that I do most of the question reading anyway because you do most of the question answering.
Brad Dowdy: I am A-okay with that. Great. So let's hit it up.
Myke Hurley: All right. First question comes from Ree Thornton. Paper suggestions for letter writing? Good paper that fits in stationary envelopes? Fountain pen friendly note card sets? I like these questions. It's not really questions. It's just like, please make me suggestions. That's what I want. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: It's like, what do you got for me? It's like, what do you got for me? So what I have for you is when I do write letters, which is never, I would use the Pilot Letter Pad, which is my, I think it's just an awesome notepad anyway, but it's designed for letter writing. It's an A5 pad. It's only 30 sheets. It's not exactly, you know, the most cost effective thing, but it's a beautiful paper. It's got these neat, huge lines that, uh, this huge line ruling space. I don't know what the width is between those lines, but it's very large. So you can make some really, really good looking letters. They have a matching envelope, which is kind of what you want for a set. Um, and it's good quality. It works well with fountain pens. There's a lot of choices for this and a lot of people do lots of different things. But if I was ever to write anyone a letter, I would choose the Pilot Letter Pad and the matching envelopes, both of which I have at the house. I've just never used them for actual letter writing. I use the letter pad for just general writing reviews, things like that. But the note card sets is actually harder. And we've had, uh, Anna Reinhart from the Well Appointed Desk on our podcast to do our gift guide episode. And she answered this question because she would know better than us. And her recommendation, even though it was self-serving, it was completely accurate in that the Skylab letterpress note cards that they sell, her and her husband Bob sell on Etsy. She has to make them fountain pen friendly or she would get grief. And they're really cool designs and they're extra high quality. So I would look at those. I don't know, like, if there's any, like, postcard type sets that would be fountain pen friendly or anything like that. But if you're looking for more of a, like, a letterpress card that you can send as a letter to someone, I would hit up Skylab letterpress.
Paper Suggestions[edit]
Myke Hurley: That's actually a good point because it is an idea of, like, we've had it, you've had it. Like, any product that we make has to be fountain pen friendly. I mean, I would want it to be for my own usage, but people would expect it from us.
Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah, there's a baseline expectation that if you don't hit in a thing that you make that you've preached all these things about and you don't live up to that, you're going to get email.
Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Next question comes from Tim D. Fowler. The Zebra F701 seems to be fairly popular in everyday carry circles. Do you have any thoughts on this? Is the refill actually really good or will it take something a bit more better than what it's stock? Well, my word. Will it take a more better a refill than what it is stock with it? I should have read that one beforehand.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it was purposefully confusingly written. Mm-hmm. Um, so, like, I, let's meta the Ask TPA real quick. These first two questions are ones we get all the time. There's a reason we get these all the time. It's because people are always looking for answers that we, you know, all of these stationary problems that we have, we try to solve. And sometimes people don't discover things at the same time. So, I appreciate getting the questions that, even if we've covered them 10 times already, I'm happy to answer another Zebra F701 question for someone who's just discovering that pen. So, it is hugely popular in EDC circles. I love the pen and the design and the price point. It's like $7 for a completely stainless steel knurled grip knock ballpoint pen. The refill is average. It's perfectly passable and acceptable. The problem comes in this last question. Will it take a more better refill than what it is stocked with? It will not without major hacking. There are complete blog posts and forum posts of people trying to modify other refills to fit into this. And it takes a lot of work. There's no quick, easy swap for the F701 refill, unfortunately. And that's what's held it back. As popular as it is, it would be even more popular if people could just slap a Pilot G2 refill in. Like, that's what they want. Or a Fisher Space Pen refill. But it doesn't. It's proprietary. And you can get other things in there. You can Google, you know, how to hack a refill for an F701. It's going to involve, like, cutting and gluing and taping. And there's just, like, a lot of work to go into your $7 F701. So whenever I use them, I would stick with the stock refill. But it's a great pen.
Myke Hurley: What makes it, like, good enough to go to those lengths, though, right? Like, to do something where you're cutting up refills?
Brad Dowdy: The price and availability of this pen is high. It's easy to access. And it's really good quality. People who want to EDC a pen want that all-metal barrel, which this one has, which you can't normally get when you're going to the grocery store, right? You can pop this one, you know, from just a store shelf somewhere and have a really exceptional barrel with a good refill. Like, fortunately, the refill is good, right? It's not great, but it's not bad. So that's why this pen does so well.
Myke Hurley: And it's all metal, right?
Brad Dowdy: Yep. The only piece that's plastic is they have this little ring around the knock. For some reason, that bit's plastic. And people have never understood that decision. But it doesn't affect the pen in any way.
Myke Hurley: But it's perfect if the zombie apocalypse comes.
Brad Dowdy: It is. It is. Plus, it's the price point, right? It's what you get for the price. It's a great pen.
Myke Hurley: Michael Cannavino asks, Any writing tips for a fellow lefty, like me, like Myke, seem to have trouble with scratching and skipping with all fine nibs happens with field notes and tomoe paper. So point one that I would make is fine nibs might be your starting problem. I would maybe start looking at some mediums, like some Japanese mediums, because there'll be somewhere in the middle of like a German fine and German medium. So I'd give that a go first and see if that is something that is more comfortable for you. Other than that, I don't really have a lot of problems anymore, especially with like scratching and skipping. There is the occasional pen that won't work for me, right? Like we're talking about like the flex nib pens. They don't do it for me, but that's quite like, that's quite particular. I have some fine nib pens and I'm fine with them. Maybe I've adapted my writing style a little bit, but I would maybe try bumping up to a medium first and see how that feels. And then hopefully that will help you understand a little bit more.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And so even though the field notes paper and the tomoe river paper are vastly different in how they behave with ink, they're both, the tomoe paper is so thin that I would probably try something thicker like a rhodia pad. And the field notes is a little bit toothy. The tomoe is a little bit thin. I would maybe try just a little bit thicker, smooth page like rhodia and see how that treats your handwriting.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think so.
Myke Hurley: All right. So next up, we have a question that comes in from Lola and I. If you ever had a bottle of Monteverde ink go moldy, I have a bottle of California Teal that I've been using in my Twisby Go. The last time I opened it, opened the bottle to fill another pen, there was a mat of mold on top of the ink. Should I toss the rest of it?
Brad Dowdy: I mean, I've never had it happen, but it does happen. I don't know why. You know, I don't know if it's an ink consistency issue. I don't know if it's an environmental issue. But if I ever see this, I'm fully pitching it.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't want it near my pens at that point.
Brad Dowdy: It's not worth saving your $8 bottle of ink to wonder what is going on with this ink. You pitch it and you move on. I don't know of any ink brand that has a recurring problem with something like mold. You know, people, it'll just pop up from time to time. So like it wouldn't turn me off Monteverde, particularly until I saw it again. And then I'd maybe question it. But, you know, it's something you just got to just watch it, pay attention. If you see it, you just chalk it up to a loss. And it shouldn't be happening frequently. If you run into this repeatedly, then we need to start asking more questions, you know, either of the manufacturer or of the environment that they're stored in.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I agree. Next question comes from R. Windlal. Will the Diamine Inkvent inks, so the Inkvent calendar inks, be available to purchase separately? They missed the boat on those and they sold out quickly.
Brad Dowdy: So first off, shout out to Susan, who is doing an enormously awesome job. I'm loving her Diamine Inkvent posts on the pen attic. So I have to apologize to R. Windlal for teasing all of these inks so beautifully, as Susan has done. Because on the back of the box, it kind of alludes to the fact that these were just made for the Inkvent. But I don't think it reads as a complete exclusive, we'll never do this again. I wouldn't put it past Diamine to release some of these inks. I would not plan on it ever happening the way that they created this set specifically for this set and worded the marketing around it that these were just specific inks made for this set and this set only. So I would not anticipate that they come out for sale. So it kind of stinks. I'm interested to see what they do next year. Because as many inks as Diamine puts out, that's a lot of new ink colors to come up with every year. So we'll see what happens next year. If they do do it next year, I imagine they will have a lot more availability because this went so well this year. And we'll see. We'll see how it goes. I would not hold out hope that these will be available.
Myke Hurley: I wouldn't be surprised if there are a couple that really received a lot of praise. They might want to bring one or two of them out. But a lot of them have very winter-sounding names. So it wouldn't really be a great idea for them to do it now.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. It depends. You don't really need Gingerbread or Jack Frost year-round.
Myke Hurley: Probably not.
Brad Dowdy: But there's some just really great inks like Midnight Hour, even though that's kind of holiday-specific. Like there's no reason. And it's a more common color, kind of a bluish-purply type of color with sparkles that I think would do well. Like a lot of these inks would do well as standalone products. But we'll have to see if they've kind of pigeonholed themselves with this release.
Myke Hurley: AstroPhoenix asks, I want a fountain pen that I can shove in my pocket and therefore always have with me, but won't leak, and preferably not a cartridge converter. Do you have any suggestions? I currently have a Pelican M600 and a Lamy 2000, but those stay in a pen case in my laptop bag.
Brad Dowdy: So my first thought for this was the Pelican M205, because that's how I use that pen. And you already use the M600, so you clearly, you know, you must like Pelicans okay if you have the M600. The M205, it's a little bit pricey depending on where you shop. You'll see them from $80 to like $120 for the same pen depending on where you shop. But I find it to be immensely everyday carryable in pockets, in cars. Like, I mean, keep it with you. I wouldn't want it to live in my car. But like, just going out and about, the 205 works wonders for this type of carry. It's small enough. It can, you know, it's sturdy enough. It can handle, you know, whatever situation you throw at it. It can handle being dropped, you know, and you wouldn't panic over it like you might your M600, something like that. The only other choice are the Twisby's, the Go and the Eco. But they're so much bigger than something like the 205. I would prefer the 205. But those are kind of your other options if you wanted something different. Like the Go, you can shove in your pocket pretty easy, right?
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: As opposed to the Eco. It's just bigger and bulkier. As much as I like those pens, I really think the answer is the M205, though. I think it's just an exceptional pen. And it's kind of made for this type of carry, even though it's a little bit expensive for, you know, a beater pen, kind of.
Myke Hurley: Megan asks, what, in your opinion, is the best bottled ink to start out with? I'm planning to buy a Twisby Eco, but I'm uncertain what to fill it with. Could you recommend one black ink and one shimmer ink? Please and thank you. Love the show.
Brad Dowdy: I love how many questions we get about black ink. Like, we haven't had one on the podcast in a while, but we were talking about it on Twitch the other day. Just everyone really, really wants to know about black ink. Like, I should have a black ink-a-palooza on the blog someday and just get all the black inks and try to figure out which is the best. My favorite is Pilot Black. That's the one I would recommend for your Twisby Eco. It's a great color. It's, you know, it's dark enough. You don't want, I don't like blacks that lean gray or too light. And that's a good dark one. And it's relatively inexpensive. And it just behaves well on all kinds of papers. It's just a really, really good ink. And for the shimmer ink, I'd look at the Diamine shimmer inks. I don't know that I have a particular one. You're just, they have so many options. But they, all the ones that I've used always behave very well. And the colors look great. Between them and Robert Oster, those are kind of my two favorite shimmer ink brands. And I wouldn't pin down one specific one. You know, I like the blues with the silver shimmers. But, you know, you might like purples with gold shimmers. And both Diamine and Robert Oster do a great job with those.
Time Blocking Inquiry[edit]
Myke Hurley: Bad Genius asks, is there any planner you can recommend to do time blocking? What is time blocking?
Brad Dowdy: Just keep reading it. It'll, you'll understand.
Myke Hurley: That has a proper amount of space to write in. I love to Kokoyo, Jibun, Techo. But the space to write in is kind of small. Extra points. If you can log 15 minute spaces. That's how I plan out my schedule, any size.
Brad Dowdy: So, like the Jibun Techo will take your hour and break it down into a 15 minute block per like a single 3 or 4 millimeter grid line. Okay? Yep. And that's on a half page of an A, well, I guess one side of an A5 or A5 Slim notebook. It's not a lot of space for that individual 15 minute block. And I don't know that you're going to find anything with huge 15 minute blocks for like an entire day. But there's got to be something out there. That's why I wanted to make sure to ask this question because there's probably something out there that I'm missing that will have your blocks. You know, like one side of the page for a day broken out into 15 minute blocks. You might have to roll your own with like a bullet journal type system. Um, you know, I put in the notes, the chronodex, which is a time slice tracker. Oh, I know this one. Yeah. So, I don't know if that's exactly what Bad Genius is looking for. It's at least something to consider, even though there's not all, it's not, you can't really get a pre-printed one. I don't know if Patrick ever did the one with Midori. I think he was going to do a Midori branded one, but I'm not totally spun up on that, but you can print your own or you can get a chronodex stamp and use it on a blank notebook. And, um, it's basically slicing as opposed to just a, you know, vertical page lines of 15 minute blocks. So, you know, those are the kinds of things I'd look at, but I feel like I'm missing something. I feel like there has to be a single page layout or like a two day spread on the left page and the right page with just that full day being broken out into a more sizable time slots in 15 minute breaks. I feel like there's something out there. So y'all let me know, um, if you have seen anything like this out there and I'll let Bad Genius know.
Myke Hurley: This is from Jay. I'm buying my first high tech C Kalito and now I am absolutely befuddled by the varieties of body. I have what JetPens calls the 1000, but I honestly have no idea what makes it any different from the 500 or the N3 that you've been repping for so long.
Brad Dowdy: Pilots kind of screwed the pooch on this one.
Myke Hurley: This is the, uh, the high tech C multi pen. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: It's my favorite multi pen. And I've used it since I started the blog, if not before the blog, it's one of the first pens I've ever reviewed. It's fantastic. I love it. I've tried so many of their different barrels. I will tell Jay this. The more you spend on a high tech C barrel, the greater your disappointment level will be. My favorite is the 500 and it's like a $6 barrel. The 1000 is like a 12 or $13 barrel. There's not that much difference at all. And I think the 500 is better. It has a, I like the grip better on the 500, but the basic, I don't even know what the entry level one's called. The three cartridge basic clear body. One is like three bucks. I'd either use that or the 500 because the more expensive ones are still just plastic barrels. I keep, they make them appear like they're metal, right? They have that metallic finish or they'll do them in, you know, like these copper, coppery colors or just like silver colors. It looks like it could be, Oh, cool. Aluminum barrel for the Coleto. That would be awesome. It's not, it's just fancy plastic barrels. So my tip for the Coleto is get by the lowest price barrel that you think is good looking. It's all about the refills. They all function the same. Yeah. What you really want is the refills. On that note, I prefer the three barrel over the four and five. It gets a little bit too wide when you get into the fours and fives there. One of the models has a very thin four slot barrel. It might be the 500. Um, that's actually a reasonable diameter on the barrel, but some of the fours and fives get to be a really wide barrel. And I find when you're using such a fine tip gel pen, like a 0.3 Coleto refill, that wider barrel doesn't work as well for that. And when you're writing with a, a fine nib, a fine tip pen. So that's my, my thoughts on the Coleto. Uniball style fit does the same thing. And it's just kind of annoying.
Myke Hurley: Alexander asks, if you're not finished of a notebook at the end of the year or month, do you force the jump to a new one or run the current one down? What's the cutoff for that decision?
Brad Dowdy: You force the new one or you wouldn't be doing this in the first place. Right? I completely agree with you. It's based on the definition that you set at the beginning of the month that this is December's notebook. Whether you fill one page or 48 pages, it's December's notebook. Otherwise, it's just your notebook. Yep. Right? So this decision's made by the rules you set up at the start. Don't break them. Don't break them.
Myke Hurley: Standard of the system, what do you have? Yep. This comes from Adam. My wife is looking for a comfortable gel pen to take notes with. Other pens have too hard of a grip. This is her current solution. What was the current solution?
Brad Dowdy: It was like a foam insert that they cut out of a box and then jammed the pen through it. It was pretty awesome. But you can picture just like a piece of blue foam like packing material.
Myke Hurley: It was awesome. In a terrible way. So there you go. In a terrible way. Do you have any recommendations for a super soft grip gel pen?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Alpha gels grips are the best. Uni-ball makes those. They make them for a bunch of their pen models. I use the Alpha Jetstream. To this day, I still use that pen. It's a great pen. It's got the squishiest grip. It's very comfortable. And bonus, it's a Jetstream refill. They also have standard Uni-ball alpha gel grip ballpoint pens with standard ballpoint refills. I don't know why you'd choose that other than looks over the Jetstream one. The Jetstream is a little bit of a funkier design than a more traditional design of their regular ballpoints. And then they also do this pen for the Kurutoga and things like that. So anything Alpha grip. I would not suggest the Doctor Grip, which is Pilot's attempt at wider squishier grips. They are much firmer than the Alpha grip. The Alpha grip has way more give to it by a long shot.
Myke Hurley: I hate this question from Greg.
Brad Dowdy: I made sure to put this one in. Not because you hate it, because I think it's a good question.
Myke Hurley: It is, but I hate it. I don't hate... You'll see. How much force should it take to bend a steel nib?
Brad Dowdy: It's like, why do we have this question?
Myke Hurley: I bent a tine by accident, and it took much more force than I expected to realign it. It was a number six Bok nib, if that's relevant.
Myke Hurley: Greg. I love this question. Greg. Greg. I'm afraid you need to replace the nib, Greg. I think at this point. Yeah. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Like, I'm not like Adam Savage over here, like, running tests on, you know, how much pressure I need to exert on a nib to test them out. I will say, from anecdotal experiences, that Bok nibs are easier to spring than Yovo nibs. I feel that they're a little bit thinner and a little bit softer. I don't know if that... That doesn't help Greg at all. But you shouldn't be able to manipulate this without tools. Yeah.
Myke Hurley: And if you're doing it yourself, and you're just, like, making it happen, it's probably not a great idea to keep using it for too long. You should probably start looking at trying to get a replacement. At least it's a steel nib, so easy to replace. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: It shouldn't cost you much. Mm-hmm. You can just get... If you look, you can probably get just the nib without the feed and the collar and all the other parts for less than $10 and just replace it.
Myke Hurley: This is the last Twitter question, and we have some email questions. This comes from MRJ71. How can I get an extra fine Pelican nib to write, like, a fine or extra fine?
Brad Dowdy: That's correct. That's correct. Read it again. This is the correct wording. This is why I love this question so much. Read that exact question exactly as it's written.
Myke Hurley: All right. How can I get an EF Pelican nib to write, like, an F or EF? Currently, it writes almost as a broad.
Brad Dowdy: Do you understand?
Myke Hurley: I didn't finish.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Pelican nibs are notoriously wide. I cannot and will not use anything.
Myke Hurley: The problem was not finishing that question, because if you stop where I stopped, which is where I got confused, you end up in a situation. Yeah. Pelican nibs are serious stuff.
Brad Dowdy: They are the widest, like, bar none, stock nibs out there. Steel, gold, whatever. And how can you get it to write like that? Well, you can't unless you get someone to modify it after the fact. Right? That's why I like when I was talking about the M205 before, I have a steel EF nib in it, and that's the best Pelican nib I own that hasn't been touched. It's better than the gold nibs as far as line thickness and width. So, the extra fine I have in the 400, that's a gold nib, I got modified into, like, a needle point, because I just know it's just not going to write as fine as I want to. Pelican nibs are notoriously wide. If you want something smaller than an extra fine, you're going to have to get it modified in the secondary market. Like, it's as simple as that, even though that's probably not the answer you want.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. I feel, it's just like a good kind of just, like, general rule of thumb. You can't make a fountain pen write differently unless you make a physical change to the nib. Like, you can't change it. You can't be like, oh, this life hack or anything you would do yourself. You're just going to ruin it. Right? Because you can get that, like, that paper. I can't remember what it's called. It's like a very fine grit sandpaper. Yeah. Sure. And you could do, I mean, but you shouldn't do that, right? You just shouldn't. Get it taken care of by a nib grinder.
Brad Dowdy: We could find you the driest ink on the least absorbent paper to make the thinnest line possible, but then you're may not going to enjoy it as much. It's not fun anymore.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. Get it, get it, get it, get it mended. Find a good nib grinder and get it taken care of.
Brad Dowdy: So many, so many Pelican users will just send the nibs off to, to get worked and get worked on because the Pelican nib units are so easy to swap in between Pelicans that, you know, people have just like a stock of two or three Pelican nibs that they use and swap between pens and, you know, for different situations. And that's just what you're going to have to do if you want it finer.
Myke Hurley: All right. Today's episode is brought to you in part by Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet sell authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have wonderful accessories as well, like carrying cases and refills and ink and fountain pen converters and pen holders, even everything that you're looking for can be found at Pen Chalet. They have all of your favorite brands and they do. They really do believe to give you the 100% satisfaction guarantee. This is with very fast and reliable customer service and great shipping rates too. You get free shipping on orders of over $50 in the US, and they also sell internationally with really great shipping rates as well. They're always adding new styles of pens every single month and running special discounts and closeout specials every two weeks. Go to Pen Chalet, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, PenChalet.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password Pen Addict. This is where you will get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet at any time, exclusive for Pen Addict listeners, and also to get your hands on our special offers this week.
Brad Dowdy: What have we got? So we have Lamy Safari. The shiny black model, was that a specific model? I know it wasn't a limited model, but is that different from their stock black? Because the shiny black is on sale, and that's a great looking pen, especially for a gift. But it's funny, the next thing is the Acme Studios crayon rollerball pins, which I've actually bought as a gift for people in the past because it looks like a crayon, but it's like a full-size rollerball pin. And the steel of the century is the Kaweco AL Sport. That's at a price that is abnormal, and if you're in the market for that type of pen, you should go look at this deal at PenChalet.com.
Pen Chalet Promotion[edit]
Myke Hurley: Wow. I'm looking at it now. This usually means, if it's a price like that, we'll be surprised by it. It usually means we can't say what it is.
Brad Dowdy: I'm not, just because I don't know, but it doesn't seem like I should. Yeah.
Myke Hurley: What is the Bennu Tattoo Pen?
Brad Dowdy: It is a pen, Myke.
Myke Hurley: What is that?
Brad Dowdy: Well, that's also available, too. That's their newest pen, and to be honest, it is my choice out of the Bennu pens, out of all the things they make. This is the most normal pen, I think. This is the one I would use if I ever was into the Bennu style of pens. They make some really outrageously designed pens, and I've never really been a fan. But this is a completely different shape. This is a new shape for them. This one actually makes me think I could use a Bennu pen, even though I'm not interested in this pen. And this one is considered normal compared to their usual fare, I believe, in my opinion. These are wild. They are wild. Not my thing, not because of the colors, but the grip section is very thin in relation to the barrel. It just doesn't work for me. They're wild.
Myke Hurley: All right. But I haven't tried the tattoo. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. Use the password penaddict when you click that link at the top of the website, and you get your hands on these deals. Our thanks to Penn Chalet for their support all year of this show, and RelayFM.
Brad Dowdy: All right. You got your reading voice on?
Myke Hurley: You bet I have. This question comes from Sasha. I love to listen to your advice for highly specific problems, so I hope you might get some enjoyment out of my recent conundrums. I've been trying to be a bit stricter about the sprawling, overboarding use of my beloved Hobonichi Techo cousin, and have come to the conclusion that I could probably do without the individual day pages. I do, however, get massive use out of the yearly, monthly, and weekly overview. I especially love the weekly at-a-glance style. I would not trade it for anything else. When you talked about the new weeks, I thought that could be my new grail, but alas, it doesn't fit the bill. It's too small and less practical due to the horizontal rows of the days of the week. Do you have any recommendations for a calendar that has dates? I need those for planning ahead. A monthly overview and weekly layout like the cousin. I might be okay with the yearly overview and the dreamy paper quality, but the two features I cannot go without will make me get the next cousin, even if it means lugging a mostly empty book with me, provided that there are no alternatives.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I broke this up into two parts here. This part I wanted to tackle because, Sasha, I think you and I need to start a petition to get an A5-sized weeks layout because that's my perfect layout. That's what I use in the William Hanna notebook because I can get that left side seven-day layout in a bigger format than what the weeks offers. So, that's what I use. And no one really does that full size like Midori does it in the same thin size as the weeks. But, um, Lloyd's term makes a weekly planner where you can get seven days across two pages. So, it's more, I don't know how you would say it. It's like a big block style, right? Spread those seven days across two A5-sized pages. That might work for you. Um, and it still has the other calendars. I don't know if it has every single layout that you want on there, but that's probably the closest option in a fuller size notebook that I would consider. I think it's a very good, good looking style. Like, that's something that I could see myself using. But I like the freedom of the notes page like the weeks has on it. Um, the other thing, which I, I was thinking about this, I thought it might be a fit, but it's probably not. I would probably choose the cousin over this. But the Stology, they have a 365 days notebook where it's a page per day. But I think it has less of the options that you do like, like the monthly and yearly calendars. So it's more of just the core part of the cousin. And I, in, in rereading this, I think I would probably pick the cousin over the Stology. But, um, look at the Leuchtturm Weekly Planner and see what you think about that layout. It may not be perfect, but I think it's close.
Myke Hurley: All right. So there was a second part to this question, right? Mm-hmm. On a completely different note. So this is still from Sasha. I've been wondering what you think about the texture of inks. I mostly hear them described as wet or dry. But when I compare my gorgeous diamine colors, which are all pretty wet, to my precious platinum carbon ink, the latter seems not only wetter, but thick and luxurious, like writing with a perfectly melted tar or something other of rich substance. Have you ever noticed such differences? I constantly try inks wherever I can to find some that I feel like that and have been largely unsuccessful. Please share your wisdom.
Brad Dowdy: I don't know that I have wisdom of why that ink acts like that, but it absolutely does. The Platinum Carbon ink and the Sailor Nano Black inks are beloved because, one, they're waterproof and they're pigmented inks, which is one of the reasons that they're waterproof.
Myke Hurley: Well, that might be why then, right? Like they have these inks for their properties have like a different chemical construction.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but they both have a glossiness that I don't know that you can attribute to the pigmentation because I have a lot of pigment inks that aren't glossy. I have no other glossy inks other than this Platinum Carbon or the Sailor and they're, they are glorious. They are glorious inks. The wet, thick and luxurious is the correct, are the correct adjectives to describe this ink. How it gets that finish, I can't explain, but it is true. And I've only, I only get it from those two inks. So enjoy them, I guess is the best I can say. That's why they're so popular. They're just, you don't have to be an artist to use them either. They're fantastic writing inks and they clean very well out of your, just your day-to-day pens.
Myke Hurley: Next question comes from Jacob. I imagine this or something similar may have been answered in a past episode. If so, point in a way. Now listen, is there such a thing as a planner like a Hobonichi, but at the very least a monthly and weekly layout with paper that soaks up ink really quickly without bleed through? I'm a lefty. My current pens are in the extra fine to fine range in Pilot and TWSBI. Mine is a 1.1 TWSBI stub that I'd like to get more use out of. I take my planner with me, so I'd like to have something I can quickly jot an appointment in and then shut it and be on my way without having to let the ink dry. I like how soft the right notepad to paper feels, but I don't think they have something that meets the above preferences. Maybe an unattainable combo. If so, I'll keep using my Mark 1 with the 0.5mm Jetstream. About as perfect a pen refill combo as you can ask for, unless you're taking the Tungsten Special Edition needed. It would be nice to be able to change things up a bit if possible.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so anything Tomoe River is out. Anything Kukuyo, Jibo and Techo is out.
Brad Dowdy: Outside of the things I've already mentioned, like Leuchtturm is a quick dry paper that I mentioned above, the styology. I really hate saying that word, Myke. I want to say styology, but it's styology. It's S-T-A-L-O-G-Y.
Myke Hurley: I always read it as statology. Yeah. Stology.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, styology. I just don't like saying that word. That one is reasonably quick drying. And the only other one I could think of that is quick drying, I think Leuchtturm is the fastest probably. But the Midori is not bad. It's like a tweener. So like if you want something nicer and a good layout, various layouts for different planners and journals, I'd look at what Midori does. The one I would recommend if you can find it is one I used a lot last year, which is the Sumkin planners. That handled fountain pens really well. It dried very quickly, but they've kind of gone almost more notebook-y diary style than lots of journal options this year, or at least that's easily accessible. That was a fantastically quick drying page. You could just write and shut it and everything would be fine. I think Leuchtturm is probably the best in that category otherwise. But I would try the Midori just to see. It dries pretty well. And I kind of like that paper too.
Myke Hurley: Next question comes from Travis. I've come to a weird stage of my pen journey as I have hit a void of want and need. I love the pens, inks, and paper that I have acquired over the years and have been fortunate to play with many grail-worthy pens at pen shows. I don't have the FOMO bug anymore and I see special editions whatsoever me like a gentle wave weekly. Is this normal? Am I broken? I have become picky in my aesthetics for pens, favoring silver hardware, flat ends, integral filling systems, and a need for a clip. I shun vintage American pens out of no reason other than in taste. I tend toward the extra finer stub ends of the nib spectrum as I print everything. And it favors my handwriting. I love most Japanese nibs and companies I would kill for a Pilot 823 or Platinum 3776 without the damn rounded ends. For disclosure, I do own a Pilot 823 without the rounded ends, amber acrylic, and gold furniture, all of which makes it a unicorn of my collection as it was a love at first right and being the antithesis of all that I appreciate still holds an amazing charm to me. The closest I have found to my platonic ideal of a pen is the Sailor Pro Gear Rialo. And I suppose my question is, where do I go next in my stationary adventures? I think I have an answer for this, Travis. Travis?
Brad Dowdy: I think I do too, and I'm very interested to hear what you have to say.
Myke Hurley: Just wait. Like, if the thing is that you feel like a part of your hobby is in the collecting, I totally understand that. So like the idea of being like, well, I've collected for so long, and I surely haven't run the end, but I feel like I'm done. And then you start to lose a little bit of the identity that you've attached to this hobby, which is the idea of trying new things. I have been in this place many times, and then will eventually find myself into a new corner of it. So my advice to you would just be to just wait it out. You're probably in a period of being happy with what you've got, which is fantastic. So enjoy that. And eventually something's going to catch your eye, and then you'll be lost down a new rabbit hole again.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it finds you is kind of how I've dealt with this. And I could have written this exact email, right? This is very much kind of a cycle I've gone through. And I totally agree with everything you said. You know, you're past the point. You figured out what you like, and you're past the point of having to try everything because your likes have come so well defined that maybe nothing out there is meeting what's those exact likes are. And that's okay. It's okay to not buy something that you're not just dead set in love with. I will say, based on all of these descriptions and layout of everything that Travis likes and dislikes and styles and everything, I think an Aurora Optima might fit that next one to look at. You know, if I wanted to spend some of his money, like it's expensive, but it has that flat top piston filling very, even though it's an Italian nib, these are finer than normal nibs, which is why I like them so much. It's a good style, good aesthetic, something like that. But, you know, there's no need to rush into buying anything from, you know, a $2 pencil to a $200 pen to a $2,000 pen. Like it'll find you. You'll know when it'll feel right. And just don't rush into anything.
Myke Hurley: This next question comes from Mariska. My 2020 fountain pen goal is to own a few gold nib fountain pens. I own mostly steel and would like to branch out to more gold nibs. My questions are, sorry, there are a few. These are really a gold nibs 101. So, okay, we can do that. Yeah. How much of a pen's price correlates to the nibs material or the gold in the nib? And what is or are your favorite entry-level gold nib fountain pens?
Brad Dowdy: So you want to take these kind of by, let's just break these down by a little section here.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, we're going to break it down even more. All right. How much of a pen's price correlates to the nib? A crap ton. Yeah. Especially when you start getting into gold.
Brad Dowdy: For the gold nib pens, all you have to do is look at the answer that I'm going to give you to this question. It's the Platinum 3776. The barrel is simple. It is not special. It is nothing to write home about. It's the reason why I held off on buying this pen forever because I couldn't justify at the time they were probably like $130, you know, pretty reasonably priced. It had to be a hundred of that was in the nib, right? Like that's what it felt to me. That's how not special the Platinum barrels felt to me. The gold nib makes up a huge amount on the lower end. Obviously, the higher end pens you get, the more those numbers even out and, you know, the math changes for different reasons. But for entry level type stuff, it is overwhelmingly high percentage of costs is in the nib compared to the barrel. And you'll see that when you start picking up the pens and feeling the pens. So, yeah. So, my favorite is the Platinum 3776.
Myke Hurley: That's a very, very good one. That's a very, very good one. What part of the nib consists of the gold itself? Like what is the, where is the gold ally in a nib?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's all of it. Yeah. So, it's the full, even the part that's up into the feed and collar that you can't see. If you remove that nib, the entirety of it is gold. So, it is a physically gold piece of metal. Like it's stamped from a sheet. Think of a, think if you're making cookies, right? And you have a cookie sheet and you stamp out a shape. That's how a gold nib gets made. So, the entirety of the sheet is gold. And then that is turned into the nib.
Myke Hurley: What is the function of a gold nib that cannot be accomplished by modern stainless steel? I read that fountain pens used to be or still are iron gall ink that is corrosive to steel, right? So, iron gall is corrosive to steel. So, you wouldn't want to use that. But as I understand, modern stainless steel is pretty resistant to iron gall.
Brad Dowdy: Can we give props to Mariska for this line of questioning?
Myke Hurley: Some serious research has gone into this. I feel like I am not up to snuff, right? Like I don't know enough.
Brad Dowdy: I love this so much. I love this so much. So, yeah. I mean, I think that was the impetus for the original gold nibs, right? They're going to be resistant to those chemical changes. Modern stainless does not have that problem. There are no issues whatsoever. Okay. I don't want to say no issues whatsoever. Very limited and minimal issues with any steel nibs and any iron gall inks. I will never say never, but I have never had a problem. But there could be problems out there. If you get a really bad nib and a really aggressive ink, okay, maybe. But, you know, that's not going to really... You're not going to really run into corrosion problems as long as you have good pen care and maintenance habits and, you know, are not doing anything, you know, too crazy with the nibs or the ink. So, that's not something to really worry yourself about in the modern nib and ink market.
Myke Hurley: But in regards to the function of a gold nib, it's like softer, it's smoother, it can feel better. I mean, that's what I've found, right? Like, why would I want a gold nib? Because they feel nicer to me for the way that I write than a steel nib does.
Brad Dowdy: Yep, totally.
Myke Hurley: Is there a difference between gold nibs versus steel nibs in terms of ink flow of writing? And do nibs vary depending on the gold content, 14, 18 versus 21 carat?
Brad Dowdy: So, as you were just alluding to, yes and yes. So, steel nibs versus gold nibs. So, first, you've got to understand that every manufacturer is different. Like, I was talking above about the Aurora Optiment gold nib. That is a very firm gold nib when you compare it to a Pelican gold nib, which is a very soft gold nib.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't personally ever really think about whether I prefer gold versus steel. I do it kind of like by manufacturer. Right. Right? So, like, I have no problem with steel nibs in general, but I hate Pelicans. Right. Right.
Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, that's exactly right. I think that's a fair way to look at it. So, it does feel different. You know, in the general terminology, steel nibs are firmer, gold nibs are softer. That doesn't mean that's going to be your experience across the board. The gold content does matter. The higher the gold content, the softer and more bounce the nib will have. So, a 14 carat gold nib of the same size will not be as soft as a 21 carat nib of the same size. Right. The size of the nib, you know, whether it's a smaller nib or a large nib, also matters when it comes to gold. Because with the greater gold material, the larger the tine is going to be cut. And the more give that nib is going to have where a smaller gold nib will not have as much opportunity to flex or give as, you know, a larger nib. So, there's a lot to consider there as far as materials go. The price obviously goes up as well when you have the greater gold content. But if you gave me a blind test of, like, say, a number 10 size or number 6 size, I should say, 14 carat nib and a 21 carat nib, I could maybe tell the difference. But it's not drastic. It's not something that's going to make a world of difference in my purchasing habits between those two nibs. And I'm going to go, oh, this is so much better. Like, I will never notice that much difference. I might notice a little bit different in the feel of it. Like, I could say, okay, maybe this one's softer. But in the end, in a purchasing buying decision, if they're identical, it's not going to matter that much.
Myke Hurley: Okay. So, still on this gold nib question. If the nib is rhodium-plated gold, would it have the same performance as a gold nib or is it just for cosmetics?
Brad Dowdy: Basically. Basically. So, there's a little bit of, I don't even know what you call it, material transfer to the page feel difference, right? So, like, a gold nib versus, say, like, a rhodium-plated nib versus, like, a black ion-plated nib. You might can tell a little bit of a feel difference on the page, but it's pretty minor. Like, the black coatings on nibs tend to be a little bit rougher to me. And that just might be anecdotally, like, to me and how I feel it. Like, there's a little bit more sound to them where just a pure gold, uncoated gold nib would just feel smoother without almost like that, I don't know, like that tactile, scratchy type of feeling. But I don't feel that in rhodium-plated. Those feel almost identical to me as just a regular gold nib. But when you get into, like, the black coated nibs, those feel a little bit different to me.
Myke Hurley: I think that's it. Oh, Mariska also asked Rodina to come back. She will. Yeah. And I agree. She'll be back. Don't worry.
Brad Dowdy: I made sure to put that in there.
Myke Hurley: Okay. Next question is from Gleb. That was amazing, though. Thank you for that. That was a great question. Thank you. Really thoughtful. From Gleb. Okay. So, can you help me find a notebook that would serve me well in a school environment? I don't mind the cover as it's going to be in my leather cover that I have for it anyway. But I need it to be A5 sized and no larger. There's some other details I would like about it. So, here we go. Lined, blanked, dotted, or gridded. Basically, any kind of paper. No specifications. So, it can be any of those. A reasonable amount of pages. I would love a definition of reasonable, Gleb, but I get it. I'm going to say greater than 80. They do not want spiral bound. No spirals. When folded out on a table, the pages don't curl up together. It's going to be lay flat. It's available in, as they say, Australia, which is Australia. It's less than $20 Australian. Is there anything that fits these requirements that's worth your time to answer? I'm asking about this because I've listened through to your show from episode 1 to 354. Before getting there. So, it might be a while before Gleb gets to this question. We'll see. And it's been surprisingly interesting listening to two adult men that I don't know in person talk about pens for 150 hours. Over 150 hours. That's very true. More than that. Way more than that.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, he must listen at like 5x speed. Yeah.
Notebook Recommendation[edit]
Myke Hurley: He's like 400 hours. But I recently finished using up a notebook of mine that served me for quite a while. And the main issue I had of it is the fact that it had a spiral bound. And that it was hurting the hand. I felt that, too. That's why I have to be very particular about what spiral bound stuff that I do use and how I use it. So, yeah. There you go. What do you got, Brad?
Brad Dowdy: The Rhodia web notebooks are fantastic. They're in the $20 price range. I know I banged the drum on Lloyd's term. But it answers so many questions. It's a different feel than Rhodia. Rhodia has a more coded page. So, it dries a little bit slower. It's maybe a little bit better for fountain pens. But both of those are going to be exact A5 sizes, which is important. They come in all of the lined options, all of the format options that you can choose from, which, you know, you're not specific. Well, you have all the choices. They both, I think, are the 198 page base model for those. They don't have binding. Importantly, both of those lay flat, which is the mention about when folded out on a table, the pages don't curl up together again, right? There's no curling up in the middle. They have lay flat binding. They are both available in Straya down under. They should both be easily accessible. And, I mean, they're kind of going to, like, tick all the boxes. The Lloyd's term is probably easier to find than the Rhodia. But I like them both. I use the Lloyd's term much more than the Rhodia. But as far as a lay flat option, those are the kind of the two that, like, jump to the front of the queue for me.
Myke Hurley: Next question comes from Alex. I've been on the hunt for a beautiful royal blue ink with some character. I decided to try Akamon 5 Shocking Blue. But shockingly, it won't flow into my Edison pen, with my Edison pen. Thinking it was something to do with the nib, I swapped out my normally wet medium for an extra fine, but nothing. Thinking maybe I'd left it uncapped for too long, I primed the feed, and for some reason it spewed out at the base of the nib and feed, and they were right tight in there. Thinking maybe it was an issue with the feed being too close to the nib, I swapped out the whole housing unit for another one. I primed the feed, and it still wouldn't write. I then cleaned the nib and feed, and replaced it with Sailor Gento 2 Shoe, and it grew up perfectly. Have you ever experienced this with this ink or any other ink? I've read this happening, but thought it was a myth. Is there any explanation why certain ink will work and others will not? Are there any other deep royal blues that you could recommend?
Brad Dowdy: This is always a tough question, because everyone has different experiences with ink, and you think that would be consistent, but it does matter what pen and nib you're using in. And like Alex was saying, they tried all kinds of different setups, nib swapping and things, just to get this ink to work. You know, I have not really experienced this, other than I have had inks that do not like the air as much as other ones. And what I mean by that is, not all fountain pens are designed to completely seal off airflow, even if you have them capped. And some inks will handle that differently. So dryer inks, like some of my Oranger inks, may not flow the moment I uncap them in certain pens that do not have like a platinum slip and seal mechanism. That's not a requirement for all pens, but some pens handle that better than others. Whether that's the issue in this case, I don't know. You know, I've had other Edisons that, you know, have worked fine. And, you know, the Yovo nibs tend to work normally fine with that. It could be shocking blue. I've never used it. That's a very popular ink, because of its vibrancy. And I don't know if it's just like a, like the chemical makeup of that blue being such a saturated color that maybe there's some property with that ink that is causing that. I don't know. I, you know, I would, you know, I've sold so much of that ink over the years working with Van S. That's like always our number one seller. And I've never really heard of any specific problems with it. So I, I don't know that it's the ink, but I wouldn't put it past it either. Like it seems like, you know, maybe a more saturated ink. I don't know if it's just the way it's handling, like just the airflow and drying it out more where the, the, the sailor ink is just a little bit more lubricated. It's going to flow a little bit easier. It's going to, it's going to rest in a more, you know, unaffected fashion in your pen when you're not using it, as opposed to drying out like the shocking blue. I don't have a clear answer for this.
Myke Hurley: I've never had this happen to me either that like, it's just like it refuses to work in one certain pen.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. It's a rarity for sure, but it happens. Like people will have this exact same question and it'll be, you know, a different ink and a different nib, right? It's like super hard to narrow down any one thing with this. Um, so I would just say, you know, try a completely different, different pen and nib, you know, and see, you know, you know, what, what kind of answers you get. And then maybe it is, maybe it is the ink, you know, I, I don't know for sure, unfortunately.
Myke Hurley: And I have a final question from Rob. First of all, I want to say a huge thank you for introducing me to a wonderful hobby. With a lot of my other interests, they involve prohibitively, uh, while a lot of my other interests involve prohibitively high costs, my guitar collection, for example, grows perhaps by one purchase every five years, you have opened up a world of exciting products to try that are a price point that I can accommodate alongside the expenses that come with a new baby and other life commitments. While my early forays into the world of fountain pens was so, uh, through what were through so-called luxury lifestyle blogs, which only dealt with the likes of Montblanc and Montegrappa. It wasn't until I stumbled upon your website and later your show that I realized just what a wealth of quality pens, paper, and inks there are at the entry level price point from brands I previously never heard of. I love that you can talk as passionately about a 30 pound Tosby as you can about a 600 pound Nakaya and discovering my likes and dislikes through modest purchases. Don't break the bank has been great fun. I love that. Yeah. Here's the question though. I'm currently studying for a professional qualification and my style of learning is to make a lot of handwritten notes like three, a four Rodeo dot pads filled cover to cover so far. And I'm not even a quarter of the way through the work. That's insane. That's a lot, a lot of notes. I don't know what qualification this is that requires that many notes as a little reward. And to keep me motivated, I treat myself to a new ink and occasionally a new affordable pen. Every time I start a new module for the next one, I would like to try an orange ink, preferably one with some nice shading. I know of an ink like that, but I can use to full effect in my Tosby Eco with a 1.1 millimeter stub. The really important thing is it needs to be very legible as I am taking notes that I will later need to reread in preparation for my exams. Can you recommend an orange ink with a nice amount of shading? It's easy to read in large boxes of text without straining your eyes. Does such a thing exist? Straight up, Brad Dowdy's Fire on Fire created by Robert Oster fits the bill. It does.
Brad Dowdy: I mean, it does. It does. So the one conversation I want to have about this answer, and I would like, it was hard for me not to say something besides that. I do have an answer besides that, but that's really fits the bill. But it does,
Myke Hurley: because it is shading as shading to it. And it's not too bright. It's got a bit of darkness to it, which makes it legible.
Brad Dowdy: So the catch with orange is you can have shading, but it ends up being lighter, right? So if legibility is very important, that's where you can't go into like Sailor Apricot, right? Which is like one of my all-time favorite inks. I would never recommend that for that. The Robert Oster Fire on Fireworks, my other choice would be the Ackermann Orange Boven, which does not shade as much, but it is going to be highly legible because of its brightness. So it doesn't have the yellow aspects that you get in a lot of shading orange inks.
Brad Dowdy: But, you know, if you want, you know, I think it might, I think Fire on Fire is the answer, to be perfectly honest. And then I would look at like Orange Boven, and then maybe, oh shoot, what's the Edelstein? Mandarin. So those are kind of the brightness and a little bit of shading, even though the Ackermann doesn't shade as much as the Fire on Fire. But that's kind of like the level of orange you want. You don't want to get into the yellow oranges like Sailor Apricot.
Myke Hurley: Did we get that?
Brad Dowdy: We didn't.
Brad Dowdy: Good work. Ask TPA, ask TPA. I love, I love that we have the opportunity to do this.
Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. If we can be helpful, like what a great thing to be helpful with.
Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So we have, we have cleaned it up for the year. We have caught up on all the Ask TPA. It took us to the end of the year to get there. Some of these questions I've had for a month or two. I'm not going to lie. But you know, there's a shocking amount of stuff to talk about in the pen and paper world, Myke. And we're here for it.
Myke Hurley: There most certainly is. And we will be, well, we'll be here for it again in a couple of weeks. This is our last episode of the year. Yes. So we're going to be back now in the first week of January. And I believe, well, is it the first week of, yeah, we're going to be back in the first week of January. We're going to be recording on Thursday though. So the Thursday the 2nd, if you do listen live, or if you're expecting the episode to come out on Wednesday, it'll be out on Thursday. We are going to talk journaling, our journaling plans for the year.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Big episode. People have been asking for this for a while. We've, we've gone on and on about, you know, teasing it. We've been both been holding our thoughts until the first of the year, which I think is the right time to do it. So that's going to be a fun episode. I really look forward to that.
Myke Hurley: So if you want to find out more about this episode, go to relay.fm slash pen addict slash three nine zero. You can find Brad online at pen addict.com and he is dowdyism on Twitter. You can go to twitch.tv slash pen addict as well. It's a great place to find Brad's work. Anything else? That's it, buddy. All right. You can find me on iMike, I-M-Y-K-E, and we'll be back in 2020. Have a happy holidays. Happy new year. We'll be back soon. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.
Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad. Brad.