The Pen Addict 397/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	397
Title:	Why Did You Make This Decision?
Release Date:	February 12th, 2020
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 397
Audio File:	Audio Episode 397
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 397
Length:	6565 min <br />1.083 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 397. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley. I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hello, Myke Hurley. How are you? I am tired, Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: So I don't know if you know this. I follow you online, right? I didn't know that, actually. That's good news. You've been a busy boy. Would you like to tell us what you've been up to? Can we launch all the things right now and just tell us why you might be a little bit groggy today?

New Podcast Launch

Myke Hurley: I actually can't talk about everything that I've got going on right now, but I will soon. But I have a lot going on. One thing yesterday is I launched a new podcast. It's called The Test Drivers. It is a technology-focused podcast, but covering all of technology. So previously, I've been pretty focused on Apple products, but on The Test Drivers. We're going to look at the entire landscape of all of technology, try everything out that we can, and recommend to you the products that you should be using as your daily driver. And I'm working with a YouTuber, tech YouTuber, Austin Evans, whose videos I've been following for years. I've been a huge fan of his work for years. And we're now working together on this new project. It's called The Test Drivers. You can find it at relay.fm slash testdrivers.

Brad Dowdy: Pretty darn cool. I think that's going to be a fun show. Thank you. I've downloaded but not listened yet, but that's really all you care about. No, I want you to listen, bro. I will listen. I will listen. It is queued up. I'll probably listen to it this afternoon, to be honest. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I think that's going to be fun because, like, you know, with pens, you know, you can relate these things. The technology depends is you get pigeonholed into, like, certain things. And we're not going to – we're going to, you know, really stay on brand the rest of this show. But, you know, that's a very, you know, good way to break out of certain habits that you have and make sure you're accounting for all the things in the areas that you speak about. And I think it's only good. And I like the concept of this show. So I think it's going to be fun.

Myke Hurley: Thank you.

Retro 51 Document Discussion

Brad Dowdy: So we have a lot of recurring conversation this episode, lots of follow-up from last episode based on a lot of the topics, a little bit more detail and analysis of certain things, including the Retro 51 document that I made that was quickly, quickly, quickly usurped by good friend of the show, Alexander Kramer, coder extraordinaire, built a better mousetrap, if you will. So we'll have the link in the show notes. I've sent it out. I've blogged it. I've tweeted it. And we have 555 submissions as of last night when I was checking for people to vote on their favorite finial design for our Kickstarter. We're going to the working, working date for launch of this Kickstarter will be somewhere around episode 399 of this show. So about two weeks from now, we will have this done. This submission is not a final version of what is actually going to be displayed on this pin, but it was to give us a good idea of what needs to be on there, what we need to look at. So I put the, out of the submissions, so with 555 submissions and five choices each, there's, you know, 2,500, you know, individual votes. And I put a link that we will share in the document of the leaders in the clubhouse so far. So the top 10 finial designs are Apollo. Shocker. It was, I was wondering a little bit in alphabetical order. It's like, you know, there's some really quick ones here right out the gate that are pretty great. So Apollo, Buzz, and Dimitri are one, two, three, which are all great finial designs. You know, the image may not have pulled in on this little, little thing I've sent you, but Apollo is the space boot footstep, which is just glorious. Followed by Birds and the Bees, Mercury, Eiffel, Gemini, Rosie, and shocker to me, Dynasty, which it's in, in the end is, it's a really great finial design. And it's from, I think they released that pin last year, early 2019, maybe late 2018. The really blue, blue, blue swirly design of the Dynasty design for that pin. I think that went over really, really well.

Myke Hurley: I'm super surprised that not even one of the sports ones is in the top list.

Brad Dowdy: They almost universally rank at the bottom.

Myke Hurley: That's wild.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. The baseball one has the most votes. Almost every other sports ball one is in the bottom 10.

Myke Hurley: I'm wondering if the basketball one, though, has been split. You got the vote split across three, three basketball finials.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And, you know, I certainly lean towards the red, white, and blue one. I think that was Swish. Swish All-Star.

Myke Hurley: That was two Swish. Swish. One of my favorites, which is in here, I didn't, I've forgotten the name of this pen. It was, I just said to you when you asked me, it's the red and white striped one. It's called Yipes. Yes. It's one of my favorite, just one of my favorite Retro 51s. It's the one that Idina stole from me. Yep. But the finial isn't, it's the thing where, like, for me, the pens that I have wanted included, they aren't necessarily my favorite finial designs. They are my favorite Retro 51 designs. Right. And I think that it's important that I don't think people necessarily just have to go for their favorite finials if you're thinking of this as, like, a celebration of your favorite Retro 51s. That's kind of where I'm coming at it from.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. And I think from the sports aspect of it, which they do so well, the best sports one they've done, I think, and, no, is Stan, which was the hockey mask, right? It's a brilliant design, right? And that's absorbing all of the sports votes, I think. Yeah, that's a good one.

Myke Hurley: That's the one that looked like it was made of ice, right? Yep. Yeah, that was very clever. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So, you know, and this is, like I said, this is just to give us a baseline of making sure we cover everything. You know, there's going to be some that make it, some that don't. We have 50 to choose from. Like, I think there's only, like, 55, you know, choices in this drop down.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so they're basically all going to be in there. Once we've removed some of the, like, duplicates of the sports ones, by and large, there's going to be representation of most of them, right?

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. And, you know, I want to be sure to hit some of the special editions. Like, you know, Retro 51 already said that Pink Robots is going. I don't care what you said. Fine. That's going in there. You know, we are getting a lot of calls for the system, you know, finial to be in there. That's great. Wasn't that just orange?

Myke Hurley: I don't think so. I think it was just orange because it was the sun.

Brad Dowdy: Maybe. We're getting calls for the London skyline to be in there because it's got the little corgi, I think, on there. On that finial. You know, there's lots of little special editions that I think we'll just have to work in there. So, yeah. So, I wanted to get a good grasp of what everyone wants.

Mechanical Pencil Contest Winner

Myke Hurley: Can confirm the Retro 51 system designed by Myke Dudek is just orange because it was meant to look like the sun.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So, it's just an orange disc. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha. So, anyway. That's... We'll wrap this up soon. We'll close it down, you know, probably this weekend or so. So, just to give us an idea and then we'll start working on the final design. I don't know if we'll be able to present an initial mock-up when we launch the Kickstarter, but that will be a work in progress as we go through the campaign. So, yeah. It'll be good. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Related to Alexander, I wanted to make sure we mentioned the Stationery Wiki winner of the Mechanical Pencil contest. So, Dish. I was a voter in this and there was a user ID named Dish who made a bunch of cool updates on the site. I think the Kurutogo was one of the ones he did. I'll have to look him back at his updates. But go look at this. Go look at what Stationery Wiki is doing and go look at all the cool contest stuff that they do. And you should use this, the Stationery Wiki, as a tool when you're thinking about, you know, looking up Stationery and finding information. And if you have something to add, it's super easy to add. And I appreciate Alexander and Matias working on this site all the time. It's always being updated, always something cool coming down the pipe. And I'm glad that I was able to vote on the Mechanical Pencil Day contest winner. So, that was cool. I wonder if we should put the Bung Box 8th Anniversary 4B in the Stationery Wiki, Myke. Because this has become quite the topic of conversation. So, we mentioned it last week. You know, I saw it on Twitter and shared it with you and shared it with everyone and we discussed it. And then at the end, we didn't know the price of it right then. But by the end of the episode, we got the price. And at $880, Myke, what were your thoughts when you first saw this?

Myke Hurley: It's definitely on the expensive side.

Myke Hurley: I mean, it is definitely expensive, but possibly not necessarily over-expensive for what's going on here. Because there's a lot of, as I'm reading from a translation now on the page, like those lines are created by this thing called a Wajima Lacquer Technique. There's Raden as well in the pen. It is quite an interesting design. There's a lot going on. They present it in a nice wooden box. I do not have a problem necessarily with them making a really expensive pen to celebrate a big anniversary. Or like an anniversary, you know. Because bung blocks, whilst being on the more expensive side, typically, they're not wild a lot of the time. This one is. And, you know, it is definitely expensive. It is surprisingly expensive. But I don't have a problem with it.

Brad Dowdy: I don't disagree with it. I mean, I don't have a problem with it. They can obviously, you know, create what they want for the pen. I was shocked, you know, looking at the initial pictures and then seeing the final price. I mean, there's only 88 of them, right? It's very meticulously. Yeah, yeah. So it's very meticulously crafted. It's 88, you know, 88 numbered editions for 88,000 yen. It's kind of just all lining up to be that way. I just can't afford, you know, to pay for this pen. I would, if there needs to be a king of pen for me to be thinking about these prices. But dang, I mean, it's beautiful. Like, but it's just, it's really expensive. Don't forget, 8 is considered a lucky number in Japan. Right, right. I mean, and they'll sell out of this. There's no doubt that we'll sell out of this pen. But what you ended up doing in our show notes. Brad, you didn't ask me. What?

Brad Dowdy: Oh my God, did you order this pen?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I hate you right now. I didn't even think it was a consideration. Yeah, yeah, I ordered one. Oh my God, you're insane. I ordered one. I'm not insane. Well, okay. So getting to my point is you went in and said, since we're on the sailor train, let's look at all these other sailor pens. And this is how I justify not paying the price for that. Even though I want that pen.

Myke Hurley: I never said that. I just said there's a bunch of other sailor pens I found.

Brad Dowdy: I know. But then, okay. So we're going to have to look at all these other sailor pens and go, well, would you rather have this for this price? Or would you rather have the 4B? Apparently for you, I would just have them all.

Myke Hurley: Well, yeah. I mean, you know that's how I live my life. True. True. With sailors. Very recently, this week, one of the big things that I've got going on, I'm super excited about a big career jump. It isn't this. The show is that I'm doing with one of them, but I've done a big thing. I'll be able to talk about it in a week or two.

Brad Dowdy: I think you've told me this thing, right? I think so. Okay. Then yes. Then yeah, absolutely. That lines up. You've always done this, right? When there's a big career or personal life change or movement in there, there's something that celebrates it.

Myke Hurley: I like to celebrate it with a new pen. No acquisitions. People are joking. It's nothing like that. Oh, no. No, no, no, no. It's just like a thing that I've done. It's a thing. It's a good thing. Yeah. Yeah. So, and it's not really related to Relay FM. It's just like a thing for me personally in my working life, which I've been working on for a while and I finally made it happen. So, I've justified my purchase of this pen with that.

Brad Dowdy: I think that lines up with what I know about you very well.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Cool. Yep. Music Nib. Okay. It's on the way.

Myke Hurley: Like, literally, it's on the way. Like, it's been posted already. I'll have it by next week, probably.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, my God. Well, you better bring this to Atlanta. This will be the talk of the show. Yep. I want to see it. I know a good friend of the show, Jessie, also has seen this pen in person, and she's just raving about it. Oh, really? It's like, it's not hard for me not to buy this just because of the price, but I really love how it looks. It's one of the most beautiful pens, but like, yeah.

Myke Hurley: I don't have... My thinking behind this was how hard I fought to get one of the fifth anniversary, and I didn't want to go through that again. Like, that was so like, considering the fact that I did really like it, I was like, no, I'm just gonna go for it. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, yeah, we have some more sailors to discuss. Since you put this in there, I didn't see... So, I did a review of the 1911 Standard Royal Amethyst, which is the Gold Spot exclusive, on the blog on Monday. Then on Tuesday, I posted a giveaway for said pen. It's a stunning, awesome, limited edition pen. Highly recommend. And this pen just looks fantastic. And, you know, everyone seems to dig this pen. And then you filled this show doc up with one, two, three, four more that I have not seen at all. So, I'm gonna talk about these real quick. So, what do we have here?

Myke Hurley: Well, I just wanna say I really enjoyed the review of the 1911. And I completely agree with you that sailors need to standardize their namings. Right? Because you have Pro Gear Slim and Pro Gear Standard. Right? And then you have 1911 Standard and 1911 Large. Yes. And it doesn't make any sense.

Brad Dowdy: To this very moment, I get confused doing this. I have to verify myself every time I say it. And I say it wrong all the time. It's just confusing. So, yeah. Those pens line up in their catalog, right? The two small pens and the two large pens are always around the same price. Like, they're for the same market. So, I would think at this point they could... You're not losing anything by adjusting those descriptors, right? It's the Pro Gear and it's the 1911. Those are the names of the pen. But the size descriptors could serve to be lined up and synchronized a little bit, I think, just for my sanity, basically. I'm asking for a favor. That'd be nice. But yeah. And I love the 1911 Standard, which is the small size. And I love the Pro Gear regular, which is the large size. Like, those are my two pens in those lineups. So, yeah. I love this Royal Amethyst. Then you started showing me a couple more that I definitely have commentary on. So, the first one is... I did see the Shamrock green one from Rauncher. Yeah. This is the only one I've seen before.

Myke Hurley: By Alexander. It was previously mentioned on the show. Alexander sent this to me.

Brad Dowdy: Because he also has a Sailor custom, you know, fountain pen color builder, too. So, of course he does.

Myke Hurley: And so, this, the Shamrock green, this is a green version of the Sparkling Royal Cosmos purple one that I have. Which is stunning.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like, I like the purple more than the green, but this is pretty killer looking.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I really like the look of it. And I was just like, as when I see something like this, I just think to myself, oh, I'll just go look on Pensaccia, see if it's there. Right? That's a mistake. Because sometimes, sometimes, like, the prices of these are surprising, you know? Like, you can get them for like a couple of hundred dollars or whatever, which just doesn't make any sense for some of these additions. But it happens every now and then. So, I went to take a look. And I couldn't see it on Pensaccia yet. Although, I'm pretty sure they will have it. Because this is where I got the previous one-to-one. And just as usual, when I go on Pensaccia, I found like a selection of sailor pens that I'd never seen before. Yeah. So, the first one is a sparkling green. So, it's a very bright green with rose gold trim, I think. Rialo, which is a demonstrator. So, it's like bright green with sparkles in it. It's very good looking.

Myke Hurley: I love this pen. I wanted to include this in the show notes today because when I saw this, I knew it was for you.

Brad Dowdy: I would not pay $600 for this pen. So, this is where the pricing conversation comes in. It's like some you don't understand and then some you don't understand, right? On both ends of the spectrum.

Myke Hurley: This one, for what it is, is too expensive for me. $600 is too much for this. It doesn't feel like it's enough, you know? So, that's why I'm like, I'm not going near it.

Brad Dowdy: But this is a me pen all the way. This makes me, like, you know how questioned, like, how much I questioned myself when I bought my YY Pen Club Rialo and that was around $500. And I thought that was just outrageous, outrageously priced, but I still did it. Like, I don't need another one for that's even more than that. But this one's really cool looking. I love this. This is like, this is like hotel lobby cucumber water. Is what it is. That's wonderful. Which isn't very nice. And I mean that in very positive. It's light and refreshing and sparkly. I love this. I love this pen. I love this pen. I don't know what else to say. I don't need it for $600.

Brad Dowdy: The next one, though. Let's see. Am I getting this? Do I have it? Yes.

Myke Hurley: This is the Wakukasa Green.

Brad Dowdy: I would like your commentary on this pen.

Myke Hurley: It's super weird. It's like, so it's a pro gear with a green body and a green finial on the cap. Then you've got a blue finial on the body and a blue cap and then a yellow grip section. This just looks like one of those sailors where they were just like scrambling around in the parts bin and they just put it together. The colors all look really good. Like there's like a deep kind of matness to the colors. It's got a very like child's building block aesthetic to it. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: This is my first sailor limited edition. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: That is what it looks like.

Myke Hurley: I just thought it was weird. So I thought I would show it to you.

Brad Dowdy: It's very strange. I don't know why this happened. I get it. I get it. But it definitely feels like the Lamy ABC, like the my first sailor limited edition. Yeah.

Sailor Limited Edition Discussion

Myke Hurley: It may have just been that exact thing because a lot of these are special editions for retailers or whatever. So it might have just been like, we'll let you do it, but you've got to choose from these standards. And they're like, well, why don't we just do one of all of them? But there's nothing. There's nothing like it's not bad looking.

Brad Dowdy: It's just it has a certain look than when you compare it to the last one you put in the list. None of which none of these I've seen before you put in the list. This one's called the Crimson. So this is a Pro Gear mini Crimson. So this is the the Sapporo, the old Sapporo style, which I love. This is outstanding. It's just a wild one, right? It's like, give me this pen. Like, this is like my Hello Kitty. Yep. Pen that I want.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so it's like red body, like red demonstrator body, red finial on the body, red grip section, pink cap and red finial on the cap. I'm in like 100 percent. Do the Sapporo minis typically have the same size cap as a Pro Gear?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So I don't own one of these. It's just the barrel shorter. It's like a short barrel kind of cartridge only deal. Same nib size and same cap, but truncated barrel, if you will. So you can't get a converter in there. But the style is, it's just on it. Like this is a, this is a me pen right there out of this whole list. I mean, cucumber water looks pretty good. But when you're like comparing the price, I would rather pay 265 for a mini pen in this color way than 600 for the Rialo.

Myke Hurley: But this is one of those things where like, this is what I'm saying with pen selection. I think 265 is a great deal for this pen. Yes. Right. I have no, I have no problem with that. I think that is a very good price.

Brad Dowdy: So even though, even though, let me, let me say one thing, the sailor, like the Pro Gear and 1911 limited editions are priced more around their base level limited editions where the minis are priced very much higher than their minute editions. Does that make, does that make sense? Yeah. The price difference is, is like proportionally higher. From the base level. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Which is fine. Like I would totally pay that for this, this mini.

Myke Hurley: I think it's great. Penside, you still do have some just amazing king of pens on their website available.

Brad Dowdy: I'm not going to look because I hadn't seen any of these. And so we're going to say everything I just said about how much I love all these pens. One of the best looking ones right now is available at our good friend, Pen Chalet. And I want to talk about it once we talk about our ad here.

Pen Chalet Promotion

Myke Hurley: That was beautiful. Pen Chalet is so authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have all of your favorite brands, brands like Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Kaweko, and of course, Sailor. And we're going to talk about one of these in a minute. I'm very excited to hear what Brad wants to talk about. So Pen Chalet have the best, fastest, and most reliable customer service around. They want to make sure that you're super happy. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their high quality products because they care about you as a customer. They want to make sure that you enjoy your experience from start to end. Which is why if you are in the U.S. and you spend over $50, which come on, super easy to do, they'll do free shipping. If you're international, they do great shipping rates. I've always had great luck with Pen Chalet's shipping. They're really, really great with that sort of stuff. I think they're fantastic. But it's not just pens. It's not just fountain pens. It's not just ballpoints. It's not just mechanical pencils. If you want ink, you want pen holders, refills, cases, whatever you're looking for, Pen Chalet have got it. You should always go to Pen Chalet first when you're going for any pen purchase because of the great discount available for pen addict listeners. If you go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website. Use the password pen addict and you will get your hands on this week's special offer and the code that you need to save 10% at any time on anything at Pen Chalet. Maybe even, I don't know, Brad, maybe even pens that can't be discounted.

Brad Dowdy: But I think that pen is better looking than any pen we just went through on the limited editions. And this is a North American limited edition, but that's a larger scale of limited edition, right? This is kind of the annual colorway. Well, what's multi-annual, bi-annual? It's maybe more than once a year. I don't know what the correct term is for that. I love how the Lucky Charm looks. I like that blue with the rhodium trim. Two-tone nib, I think it's stunning. You can get it at Pen Chalet. You can use the code PENADDIC10, get 10% off. That's pretty tight. So, yeah, semi-annual, that's the word I'm looking for. Thank you, chat room. I think it's great. I think this is a wonderful looking pen. And this falls in the more standard price range, and you get something unique looking. I just think this color is fantastic.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this one I'm having a hard time not buying, right? Because I do not need this pen. I have the 4AM. It's very blue. I have the King of Pen and Sky. It's very blue. I don't need another blue transparent pen in my life. This one's a tough one because it kind of checks all my boxes. But in the additional Pen Antic listener discount category, there's two knockouts in here. I mean, there's always more than two pens in this list, but I can't talk about them all. The Kaweco AL Sport.

Brad Dowdy: The price. It's a deep discount on that pen. That's an all-timer type of pen for me, right? And this is the gold barrel that's been recently released. And then on top of that, they have the Platinum 3776 Carnelian, which I think is better looking than the Pelican Star Ruby of last year. And it's just good. It's just good. It's all good, Myke. It's all good stuff.

Myke Hurley: The price they have on a music nib 3776 right now is superb, right? Like that one right at the bottom of the page. So, you know, check that out by going to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Hit the podcast link at the top of the website. Use the password of Pen Addict and get your hands on those deals. So thanks to Pen Chalet for the support of this show and Relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: So we're professed sailor lovers here, and I know it probably drives some people crazy, but that's okay by me because they do it as good as anyone else. But Platinum, Michael. Platinum. Has taken some sailor mojo with the Curidos, and we actually have one in hand. At least one of us does. So let me let you run with this Platinum Curidos. Oh, look at you. Look at you. There it goes. So let's hear all about the Curidos, and more importantly, maybe the event that you went to.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so I went to the, I believe, the UK launch event for the Platinum Curidos. My favorite store in London that I've mentioned before on the show, Choosing Keeping. Oh, by the way, I found out today that the, my Platinum, the 3776, the Galaxy, the Milky Way, it is on its way from Japan back to England.

Brad Dowdy: Containing what? We don't know yet.

Myke Hurley: They did not answer the question. They have just said it's on the way. I love every part of this. So the mystery remains. We'll find out. I'm actually pretty confident I'm going to get the correct nib. I would be super surprised if they didn't do that, but we'll see. So it's on the way. So, yeah, I was at, because I believe Choosing Keeping, they have an exclusive on the Curidas in the UK right now. So if you want to get one, that's where you got to get one. So you got to go there. We had a, it was a wonderful event that they put on. I met two Panatic listeners at the event. Wonderful. Which is always nice. And they had some representatives from Platinum in Japan come to this launch event. And with them, they brought a selection of pens from Platinum's history. Some of them actually belonged to Choosing Keeping's wonderful store owner. Like they actually had a couple themselves. Platinum just brought like, here is just like a selection of stuff that has been important to us over our history. It was really nice to see that. They had these like display cases. And it was just nice to look around and you could see how some pens had influenced the design of others. Like they, they had brought one of the Platinum Platinum Platinum pens, you know, like the 10 gram one. Yeah. And it was put, I remember that. Exactly. It was put next to the pen that it inspired as well. So it was like nice to see that kind of, that it was inspired by, which is an older pen in Platinum's book. It was really nice to see all of that. And that was for the 100th anniversary last year. Yeah, exactly. So, um, on a quick aside, Choosing Keeping, the store just continues to get better. Like I was like looking around and they had like an Arushi King of Pen in the cabinet to buy. Like their curation in that store is like, it's the best that I've seen in any pen store I've ever been to. Nice. Just like, you know, I mentioned this before, but like their paper aisle is just hit after hit, right? You know, it's like, oh, Nemesign next to Tomorrow River Paper, next to Life Notebooks, right? Like it's just, you know, very, very, very good. If you are in London or are planning to be close to London and want to see a pen store, this is the one. Very, very knowledgeable, very nice stuff. Like they're, they're, they're great there. It's a destination worth making, making the effort to get to. I think so. Like genuinely, like if you care about this stuff, like it is, it's worth attending. It's like just worth going to see. Um, I met a Platinum vice president. Nice. And was talking to them about the Curidas. And they said a few things to me that were really interesting that I hadn't heard before. Uh, and that were kind of curious about the Curidas. Uh, apparently they wanted to release the Curidas this year because of the Tokyo Olympics. Because the first attempt that they had at this pen was also when the Olympics were lost in Tokyo. Which was what? 70s? Something like that. Yeah. So that was, so it was kind of like for them, it was like a great time to do it now. Cause I just said to them like, why now? Like, why are you doing this pen now? Um, I also asked about why did they choose demonstrator colors? Like why, why did they want all the pens to be clear? Yeah. And they said that they believe that these designs attract younger audiences, um, which is who they're going for. And they want to leave the, uh, business professionals market to pilot. Huh. I love that. I kind of, I kind of like that. Mm-hmm. Um, you have never heard anybody more proud of something than they are of the seal in this pen?

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So like, yeah. So like the marketing is pretty clear. Like all the arrows point towards the seal at the, at the opening.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But they, they are very happy about it in person.

Myke Hurley: Oh, they are very happy about it. And like, so I think that's like another, they didn't say this, but I believe it's like another reason why they wanted to go with demonstrator because you can see some of the mechanisms going around inside of it. Right. So it's like, I think that they're again, especially proud of it, but they told, they gave more context to it that I'd not seen before. And I thought was kind of beautiful. So apparently in Japan, there is a pretty much like an agreed upon standard that after three months of, without using a fountain pen, you should be able to uncrap it and start writing a line and that the pen should work within 10 centimeters. Right. Oh, okay. That is like the expectation of what a fountain pen should be able to achieve. So after three months, you should have a pen that should start writing within a line of 10 centimeters. Okay. And the Curidas will do this after, so they have their six month thing, right? Mm-hmm. The Curidas will start writing within three centimeters.

Brad Dowdy: So they have, I'm picturing a lab, Myke, with all these pens laid out and timeframe set and like official measurements happening. Like there's no doubt in my mind that this pen can do this based on just the Japanese in general and how much they believe in this type of thing.

Myke Hurley: Yep. That's awesome. Let me tell you, I have absolutely no idea what all that reference to twist was about, Brad. I think that might've been a translation issue. Okay. Fair enough. There's nothing twisting in this mechanism. Okay. It's just a knock. Gotcha. Like if there's something twisting, I can't see it nor feel it. Right. So like, I don't really know what was going on there. They had all of the colors of the Curidas. I like the green and the red the most. The clear is also nice. No. But the green is what I got. And I have a fine nib in mine. Nice. To get to the refill, I also got like, they gave me a goodie bag at Choosing Keeping. I believe they're sending one to you actually. Oh, nice. But it has a blue-black ink in it, which is made from the water from Mount Fuji. Excuse me. There's water from Mount Fuji and they use that to create this blue-black ink. I'm going to need this. You have some. Good. They're in cartridges. It's coming to you. So that's what I have in my Curidas. Okay. I just thought it was super cute and I love that idea. Okay. Let me tell you, my friend, this is the absolute craziest system of getting to a refill that I have ever experienced. You feel like you are opening a vault at Fort Knox. Like, it's bananas. Bananas. All right. So you have to unscrew the pen, right? So you'd like unscrew it. You take it by half. So like in the middle, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. And then there is like this mechanism. So you can see you then have the whole pen mechanism, right? That's what you're left with. Okay. Where you have to push the body down and to the left to kind of like unlock it, you know? So like you push it down to like part engage it and then you turn it and you pull it out. Okay. Right? So you like turn, twist, pull.

Brad Dowdy: There's like a seating that you have to unseat it to get it out of the exterior, the interior out of the exterior.

Platinum Curidos Mechanism Details

Myke Hurley: Yep. Okay. But then to get to the, then you have to do the same thing again with what's left. So you're left with like the refill attached to the nib mechanism. You have to then do that again to be able to expose where the refill goes.

Myke Hurley: Okay. I've never seen such a convoluted system before. Mm-hmm. And it's very curious to me as to why it is the way that it is. Okay. They've, this, this actually goes towards my biggest problem with this pen. Mm-hmm. They have over-engineered it. Okay. So this isn't an issue. Like I just find it like a funny thing, the way that you get the refill into it. But the over-engineering where this pen falls down is the backside of this pen. So towards the nib end, there is like basically what looks like a vent. You will have seen this in pictures and stuff, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Myke Hurley: And what, what that vent is for is because when you have engaged the nib, right? So you've, you've, you know, you've, you've clicked the knob and engaged the nib. Yep. The little door that creates the seal. Very proud of that seal. Very proud of it. For some reason, it has like a protrusion on the back of the door. Yes. Which leaves the pen body through the hole that they have created.

Brad Dowdy: That's the part I need to see in person. Yep. I'm with you. But yes.

Myke Hurley: That makes this pen incredibly uncomfortable to hold.

Myke Hurley: Right. Because it is completely in the way. And it's not just me. Adena's having the same problems. It's not just like a left-handed problem. There is kind of nowhere to really comfortably hold this pen. Mm-hmm. Because then they have the clip. And I took the clip off and that made it easier. Mm-hmm. But there's too much going on on this pen.

Brad Dowdy: If I described it, this is the picture I have in my head. And I don't know if you'll understand or even the listeners will understand. If I describe this as, do you know those, it's basically like a, almost like a portable sailboat or like a portable kayak. Where you have a rudder that is, you can pull it into the body of the boat. And then you can, when it's time to have the rudder, you push it down and it protrudes out from underneath the boat. And then you can, okay. So it's like that design, right? Yeah. That's what it's like. That's a thing. That's a real thing. I need to see this. Or I need to hold this.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I'm a little disappointed by it. Because I, I really like this pen. Like it's weird and fun and it actually looks pretty good.

Myke Hurley: But it's, it's just not good to hold. Mm-hmm. And that's, that's a problem. Sure. For a $90 pen.

Brad Dowdy: That's always the problem with the retractable pen. It's over-engineered because it has to be to exist.

Myke Hurley: Because it's incredibly difficult to engineer.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. This is why we don't see a lot of these on the market. This is why we're so excited to get something like this, right? Yeah. Because, man, this is hard to do. And did they really do it? And maybe, you know, maybe, you know, I, but you're not the first one to say that.

Brad Dowdy: Talk a little bit about the clip, if you will.

Myke Hurley: Well, I don't have a ton to say on it. The clip is-

Brad Dowdy: It's removable. It comes on and off, right? Is it easy to, to, to make that happen? I really, really struggled to get it off.

Myke Hurley: I've heard, okay. This is why I'm asking because I've heard this. I don't understand what the tool that they included was supposed to do. Like, I had to basically wrench it off, like, myself. Like, I had to, like, get, like, a, a, something thin and thinner and slide it underneath the clip to pop it off. The tool that they included was, was useless for me. Like, I couldn't, I couldn't use it. I didn't understand. Because also, I don't know if this is normal, but there were no instructions in the box on how to remove it anyway. So I had to kind of just work it out on my own. So maybe there was a way to do it with the tool that they included, but I couldn't work it out. So I just had to, like, basically pry it off there.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I've gotten a message from a little birdie who has already broken their pen because of that mechanism. You know, the additional little part and removing the clip and has already snapped the clip or part of the barrel trying to remove it. So I really want to see, like, we're not done with the Curidas yet. We have a lot of work to do on this pen.

Myke Hurley: I would say I'm actually able to use this pen for longer periods of time than the Vanishing Point because the Vanishing Point gave me nowhere to hold. But when I can, like, there is a way in which I can hold this pen for longer periods of time, but it's not the way I would naturally hold a pen. But I could never find a way to do it with the Vanishing Point because so much of the body had the clip on it, right? Where, like, if I just hold this pen a little bit higher than I normally would, I can use it. But it is, when it is wrong, it is significantly more uncomfortable. It's actually painful to hold this pen where I can have that problem with the Vanishing Point, right? So, like, there are higher highs and lower lows compared to the Curidas to the Vanishing Point. Another funny thing to me is, it very typically takes me, like, two attempts to actually engage the knock on this pen because it's so much longer than you expect it will be. So, you're not used to the travel that it takes to engage it? So, like, I push it down maybe, like, four-fifths of the way because it's already at that level significantly more than any other pen, but it's still not enough. So, I very frequently, I pick it up and I, you know, I do this, right? And that didn't do it. That was, like, a quarter of the way, right? So, like, I'm very frequently, like, I have to put, you have to put a lot more into it than normal.

Myke Hurley: This is, uh, the nib is fantastic. Right? I would expect nothing less. Yeah. It's tiny. Sure. But it is superb. I got a fine. I really wanted to test myself with it. So, I got a fine nib. It's a steel nib. And it's superb. I'm just really disappointed about, about that, the protrusion on the back. I wonder if it would be better if it wasn't, like, like a, like a two, I'm trying to think of the way, like a valley that they created, basically. Where it's, like, it's, it's, like, two planes with a hole in the middle. I wonder if they just completely enclosed it, if it would be a little more comfortable to hold. Mm-hmm. Um, or maybe if they just made the entire bottom of the pen a little bit thicker to include it. Or basically found a way to not have to have a piece fly out the back. I can't work out, looking at the mechanism, Brad, why they even needed to do this anyway. Right. My only thinking is, it's, like, to keep it closed. That, hmm, maybe so when you've got the pen upside down, the door doesn't open. But, yeah, maybe. But this is the part that they have cheaped out on compared to the vanishing point. Right. So the vanishing point has a door, right? But it's obviously more complicated than the Platinum's one. The Platinum one. And it might, it may have been that, like, for them to achieve their big thing that they wanted to achieve, which is this, like, six months it will continue writing thing. That's what they had to do. But it might be that the reason this pen sits down for six months is because I don't want to use it.

Myke Hurley: Right? So, like, you know, you can tell me, oh, you can pick it up six months later and it will still work. That's great. But maybe that's because it pains me to use the pen. Right. So I don't pick it up for a few months at a time. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So I think we're learning that, you know, making a retractable fountain pen is hard. And it's what are you willing as a company and as an engineering team to sacrifice? Because you're going to have to make some type of sacrifice to make a retractable fountain pen. What are you willing to take? Where are you willing to take your stands during that design process? Right. I'm just, I would love to see how Platinum think people hold this pen.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I can't wait to get one. Like, I need to see this. Hopefully I'll see one in Baltimore for sure and get some feedback on that myself. I'm anxious because, yeah, I'm super curious now.

Myke Hurley: But this is a pen that I'm happy to own because of its peculiarities now. Absolutely. I'll totally own it. The Curitas is at its way into pen addict infamy, you know? Yes. Without a question. But it is a much better pen than any other pen that is in that hall of infamy. Right? Like, this is actually an excellent pen. Yes. With some significant drawbacks. Yeah. And I would love to see a, like, Curitas 2 where they can refine this process. And I believe they can. But I want to see that happen because they were so close, Brad. Like, I'm telling you right now, if it did not have this protrusion on the back, this rudder system that it has, I would 100% flat out fully endorse and recommend this pen. Gotcha. Because it's weird. It's got some cool colors. The mechanism to get to the refill is just, like, a funny thing. Right? Like, it's just, like, this is hilarious. Every time you're filling it, it's, like, this six-stage process. Like, you're cleaning a rifle or something. Right? Like, it's, like, this whole to-do. And then the knock is weird. Like, it's weird but in a fun way. But, and then the performance of the pen itself is fantastic. It has that idea of you can just leave it for a while, which is just, like, a cool performance thing for it to have. But then when you're picking up the pen to use it, I mean, it doesn't hold up. And that's the key thing. Right? Right. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: You want to be able to write with it every day. You do. And if they've created this pen for the workers, right, which is what they have, young workers. These are people that should be using their pens all day.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I couldn't use this pen all day.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And it's, let's be honest, as much as we like the price, it is not an inexpensive pen by any stretch of the imagination. Especially if they're going to market it the way they sound like they're going to market it. This is an investment for a lot of people. And if you're making that type of investment, you, like you said, you want it all day, every day. Agreed. Yep.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, we'll see. We'll see. I'm intrigued to see what the general consensus is. I know I actually have this pen early, right? Like, I know that they're not, it's not easy to get your hands on it immediately right now. I don't think there are a lot of stores that are carrying it, but choosing keeping was. So, I had it for basically a week. And I've been using it every day. And it was such a shame for me because at first my notes were like, this thing's amazing. I can take the clip off and hold it however I want. And then just like over the days, like I had to keep deleting those lines and rewriting them. Like at first it was like, oh, I have to hold it like a little bit differently. And then it just became like, I can't hold this pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I think it's going to be a thing. I'm upset about it. So, Curidas, maybe to no choosing keeping, definitely yes.

Brad Dowdy: Nice.

Sponsors Introduction

Myke Hurley: Love it. All right. You have the Wansha Bakelite, right? Yeah, I do. I do. All right. Let's hear about that after we hear from our friends at Harry's. What if there was a 50% off sale happening every single time you wanted to go shop for razors? Wouldn't that be amazing? Well, switching to Harry's is basically that because they offer premium blade refills as low as $2 each, which is up to 55% off compared to the price of blades like the Gillette Fusion Pro Shield. Harry's believe everyone deserves quality shaving supplies at a fair price. They don't inflate prices or add unnecessary features to their razors like flex balls or heated handles. These are the tactics that other leading brands have used to raise their prices for decades. Harry's keep it simple. They combine an ergonomic design, which is simple and nicely made, with five sharp blades. That's what they do. They source their steel from Sweden. They manufacture them in their world-class factory in Germany. They cut out the middleman and ship directly to you, saving money and time. And Harry's stands behind the quality of their products with their 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you don't love your shave, let them know and they'll give you a full refund. And 1% of their proceeds are set aside for non-profit organizations devoted to helping provide access to better healthcare for men and veterans. Brad, tell me something about Harry's.

Brad Dowdy: I placed a $60 Harry's order on Monday. That's a lot of blades. I'm just in. I'm bought into the system. So it started with the handles and blades. And all that stuff's good. I don't ever need new handles. I go through blades. I buy replacement blades. Well, now... I mean, it's the only shave cream I use. So I'm always replenishing that. And now, like, I'm totally hooked on their hair putty. Oh, nice. Which, of all things that they sell. So, like, I bought replacements of that. So, like, I bought... When I was going to do that, I was like, well, of course, I need the blades and the shave cream and all that stuff. And now I just threw into my cart, they have a two-in-one shampoo and conditioner. So I'm going to give that a shot. So I seem to be a Harry's man through and through, Myke, and my bank account shows. But the funny thing is, like, that's about the price of, like, two packs of blades from one of the other, you know, locked away at the grocery store companies. And I got, like, all of this stuff, including my blades. So, yeah. I'm in. I like Harry's. Did you know that?

Myke Hurley: I do. And I'm pleased. Harry's have a special offer for listeners of The Pen Addict. You can get... If you're a new customer, you can get $5 off a trial set just by going to harrys.com slash penaddict. This is a five-blade razor weight with a weighted handle. Foaming shave gel with aloe and a travel cover. So join the millions of people who have already switched and go to harrys.com slash penaddict right now to claim your offer. Our thanks to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM. Tell me what's going on with the Wancha 7Cs, because you got one.

Wancha Bakelite Pen Review

Brad Dowdy: I did. I did. It showed up. We talked about it last week, the Wancha Kickstarter launch for the 7Cs. It's a Bakelite fountain pen, which... That's a very interesting material. I still won't profess to understand fully, despite reading many articles and an extremely long Wikipedia page. It has gone through several transitions over the last many, many decades as a material. And now, it's...

Brad Dowdy: Whatever its current form is, Wancha is using it for a fountain pen barrel. And it's pretty cool. So, the short version... I think there's two conversations to have here. So, the short version, the TLDR version of the Wancha Bakelite 7Cs fountain pen is... It's an excellent pen. I think it's priced correctly. It feels like a good deal. It's very well made. It's fun to hold. It's, you know, a great size, a great shape. It feels and looks and acts like I expect it to do. And I feel like the price point is good. So, like, Wancha has made a good pen.

Brad Dowdy: The longer version of that is I still have a lot of questions, right? So, number one, it's a very large pen. So, if you have small hands, this is probably going to be too big of a pen for you. Like, I likened it to the modern Parker Dual Fold, which is a very large pen. And we'll put in the show notes our friend of the show, Drees, from the Pencil Case blog. He has a very thorough review of the Bakelite. I'm going to call it the Bakelite. The Bakelite fountain pen, just because that's what I'm used to calling it so far. And that I'll be referring to his review a lot because he did a really good job. But he referred to it as, like, a modern Parker Dual Fold shape. It's a big pen. So, I had my King of Pen, my 1911 King of Pen next to it, Myke. It's almost identical in size length-wise and pretty close in diameter-wise to the King of Pen. But I'd say it's at least twice as heavy. Like, I didn't put them on a scale next to each other. But it's not overly heavy, though. Like, if you have, if you like a larger pen, it's not outrageously heavy just compared to other types of pens. This Bakelite material has a density to it that leads to a heavier pen. The most interesting thing about this pen is the filling system. You know, outside of the design, which is very classic, it's very well done. Like, the manufacturing really, really feels on point. The filling system is a piston filler-ish, right? So, like, it's definitely a piston, just as in, you know, a converter uses a piston-type mechanism to fill. This one is built into the pen. And to fill this pen, since Bakelite can be and is a somewhat porous material, you don't want to get ink on the barrel because it could stain it, right? I haven't tested that. It looks like the exterior of the pen is coated well enough to where, like, if you get some ink on it, I don't know that it's going to, like, stain immediately, but I guess there's some protections in there you want to take, you know, instead of dipping the grip section into an ink bottle to fill it. The section actually removes itself, Myke, from the pen. Just the little grip section screws off. And it leaves you with an exposed plastic tube where the nib is fitted into. It's a very strange look. I haven't seen a fountain pen like this.

Myke Hurley: But where is the piston?

Brad Dowdy: It's inside the barrel. So the piston knob moves. It twists on the back end. But the knob does not move up and down. It's more like a ratchet system, right? So the knob on the back of the pen is kind of loose all the time. It doesn't lock in, right? So that's a little bit of a negative thing for me. That's a concern. Yeah. There's other pens that do that. But they tend to lock in a little bit tighter. Like there's a definitive start and end. And like when I uncap the pen. So like if you pick up a pen off a desk and it's capped, a lot of times the back end of the pen is in like the palm of your hand as you're unscrewing or in your fingertips. And you can, you feel that back knob moving. Like I would worry about like it being a little bit too loose and knocking, you know, knocking the piston and maybe budging the ink a little bit out the tip. Yeah. I haven't had that. I haven't had ink come out yet, but I do notice it's like, Oh,

Myke Hurley: I've used pens that have this kind of system, but it takes force to twist them.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Like I have the Monte Grappa, Monte Grappa, which I love. It has a similar type system.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Or the, um, uh, the Aurora that I have. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So like, it's fine. Like it works well, but the issue more than that piston knob is this section to where you unscrew it. And I'll, I'll post some pictures. I I've just started taking some pictures. I'm going to review this on the blog in a couple of weeks. I need some time to spend with it. I don't understand my first impressions here.

Myke Hurley: Why you can take it apart.

Brad Dowdy: Uh, so the thing is you can't take it apart. That's actually my bigger problem with all of this. So, uh, if you look in Dries's blog post, if you scroll down, you'll see the image with the section removed from the barrel. And his actually looks a lot nicer than mine. Mine is pretty gross looking to be quite honest. I don't like how it looks. It's not, it doesn't feel, it doesn't feel.

Myke Hurley: I see what you're saying now. So this, the, the, the, the grip section, you can just take it off. Yes. And then, but then the rest of the pen remains intact. Yes. What's the benefit of this? To not stain the bakelite. When you're filling it. When you're filling it. That seems too annoying to me. It's very particular. That wouldn't, I know it's not a lot, but that, that feels like, uh,

Myke Hurley: in a way it's kind of similar to the cure it as, right? That there's like a whole to do to fill it. But the cure it as one is fun. Cause it's weird. This would annoy me because it's like, you, you chose to make the pen out of bakelite, but I will, if I mess this up, I'm going to stain this pen. Right. Like if I forget to do this and I would, because I don't need to do this to any other pen that I own, that I would, if I was, because what I tend to do with my pens, I do like a filling day. Right. Where I'll go in and say like how much ink is in this stuff. Oh, this one ran out a couple of weeks ago or whatever. And it's usually like predicated on one or two of my pens running out of ink. Right. And I'll be like, all right, time to fill them all. So like, I'll get them out. I'll clean what I need to clean and then I'll fill them all up. And so I get into kind of like a rhythm and this is like a weird thing. I've never come across a pen that does this. How does it even unscrew? Is it just like through tension? So it's,

Brad Dowdy: so it's, it has a threading on the interior of the barrel. Wow. So if you look in the pictures, the threading you see on the barrel is for the cap. Oh. This thread on the section goes underneath that. It's like a thin cut. Yeah. That's interesting. It's actually pretty, it's actually pretty well done. That's that. I mean,

Myke Hurley: I will say that that is like very clever, very intricate design. And I would be concerned about the strength of that area of the pen because threading on both sides is going to leave some very thin material in certain areas. You get what I'm saying?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty thin.

Myke Hurley: Like I would be a little bit concerned about that. Like just making sure I was careful with that.

Myke Hurley: Hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, here's the best way. Here's the best way I explained this little filling system deal is that you're probably dealing with that 2% of the time. You're dealing with this pen. If you like the pen, you're going to be writing with it. I just,

Myke Hurley: why did they make a piston filler?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I, I, no one made them make a piston filler. I am in agreement with you that, but what they've done is they've made the 2% of the time, the talking point of this pen, right? The 2% usage of this pen is the only thing we're going to talk about. Yeah. Because it's weird.

Myke Hurley: If the material you choose can be stained by ink, don't make me put the body of the pen in ink.

Brad Dowdy: Correct. I would be totally content to pay the exact same price. If it was a standard cartridge converter filler.

Myke Hurley: Although even though, even if it was a cartridge converter, if I put a converter in it, I would still fill it by dipping the grip section in anyway.

Brad Dowdy: See, but it gives you the option. It tells you like, I feel, you know, converters directly in the bottle or I feel converters with a syringe. There's at least different filling as opposed to having this system. Like when I take my pictures of the interior of this, it's going to look much worse than Dries's. Dries's looks very nice and clean. What's wrong with yours? It's, it's dirty. It's ugly. It looks like it's, there's like ink under it. And this was before I inked it up. Huh? Like I, I likened it to, um, Darth Vader with his helmet on and then removing the helmet. And you're seeing Anakin's bald head. Like that's what it looked like. With all the gross scars and like, yeah. That's what it looked like underneath mine. And see, like this conversation is taking away from really, what is a really good pen, right? This is the, this is the reviewer's dilemma, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Well, this is just what we do with the curatus too. Right? Sometimes there are decisions that are made that are small decisions, but they become frustrations over time. Yeah. And then when you see that kind of thing, like, why did you, why did you make this decision?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And it's like weighted. I feel like it's weighted unfairly for what this pen actually is, which is a very good pen. Like the TLDR is, this is an excellent pen at a good price. If you like how it looks, you're going to enjoy this fountain pen for what it is.

Brad Dowdy: But then there's a whole bunch of context that you're leaving out on what's going on under the hood.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Huh?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's a, huh? But yeah, I mean, I just, I mean, I love writing with it. The nib is great. I have the stock steel Yovo medium nibs, you know, with the launcher stamp. They're great. It's fantastic. No, great nib choice. The, um, the barrel design is beautiful. It's, do you find the warmth in the material? Absolutely.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Because it's, you don't feel a texture, but you're like, you can see some like little different colorations in the material, which I like, right. That makes you know that the material is something different than your normal acrylics that the pens are made from. Um, the artwork on the top of the pen, of course, is stunning. Um, you know, mine is like a red, red sparkly with like a gold leaf in it. It looks really pretty. Like it's different from trees. This is green. Like you see in the picture. So like, they're not all the same, I guess. Um, yeah, it's just a, it's a really great pen, but there's some big butts, right? There's some, like, it makes me think other things, even though, you know, 98% of the time I'm using the pen to write with and enjoying it. There's these underlying things that make me question stuff. Like what is bake light, right? You know, how do you explain, explain the chemical composition of bake light and how it's going to function, right? Um, you know, what is this filling system and why can't, you know, like it took me twice to fill this pen, to be honest. Um, the first time I thought I filled it sticking it in the bottle. And then I started writing with it and I was like, Oh, there's actually no ink in the barrel, but I couldn't see that visually, right? There's no visual indicator. It's like a black hole inside the pen. You don't know what the, what the ink status is. There's no ink window or anything like that. Like I'll get over that, but that's just like one more thing. It was like, I sat down, I put away everything and started to write. And I was like, well, this isn't going well. And then I realized that there was actually no ink in it. So the second time I did it, I filled it up correctly, but you know, one of those things, but I couldn't, the point is, isn't that I couldn't fill it up. The point is that I couldn't see it if I had been successful or not.

Myke Hurley: Right. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Like you could with a converter or a piston with a window, you know, things like that. So anyway, it's like, I like the pen. Like I, I have, I have no negative to say like about the build and the feel and the writing experience and the, the looks and the style of it. It's, it's really good, but it's just got some weird stuff going on. It was like, it's a little bit extra.

Myke Hurley: It's been the kind of a theme of this episode.

Brad Dowdy: I guess so. I guess so. So yeah, I'll have a full written review up probably in a couple of weeks, probably before the Kickstarter Kickstarter ends. I can't decide if I'm going to back it yet or not. I'm going to wait and spend some time with this pen. I've gone back and forth. I was like, yeah, no problem. I'll back it. Now I'm like,

Myke Hurley: Hmm,

Brad Dowdy: maybe I just, if I back it, I won't use it. Like, I don't know what to do yet. So I'm still working that out. I'll know. I'll know by the time I review it though, what I'm going to do.

Myke Hurley: Well, I hope so.

Brad Dowdy: That'd be weird, right? Like, it's just a, it'll just be a deciding whether to pay money for it or not. So yeah. Yeah. It's always a tough decision.

Myke Hurley: All right. If you want to find links to this episode, you can go to relay.fm slash pen addict slash 397. There's a bunch of stuff in there, including all the sales and stuff that we were talking about earlier on. Thanks so much to Harry's and Pen Shillet for the support of this show. You can go to pen addict.com for Brad's work. You'll be able to see that review. Follow us on Instagram. Brad is pen addict. I'm I Myke. I M Y K E. Brad streams live at twitch.tv slash pen addict. Twice a week, Tuesdays, Thursdays, 10 a.m. Eastern. And don't forget to check out my new show, the test drivers. I hope that you'll enjoy it. If you have any, any, uh, care about technology, it's a show for you. Uh, thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. tittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittittit