The Pen Addict 407/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	407
Title:	A Pen With an Instruction Set
Release Date:	April 22nd, 2020
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 407
Audio File:	Audio Episode 407
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 407
Length:	5858 min <br />0.967 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Introduction

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 407. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Harry's. I am joined, as always, by the man with the plan, Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hey, Myke Hurley, thanks for having me today. Is that how this works? Mm-hmm. Oh, okay. I appreciate you having me on the show. Oh, good. Thank you. You've had me on 407 consecutive episodes, but I still appreciate it. It is a trade secret that I am actually the owner and proprietor of ThePenAddict.com. It was a poker game, and I won the rights, and that can be entered into the lore of the show. Yeah, yeah, there you go. There you have it. So, appreciate you having me back for the 407th time.

Myke Hurley: We'll see how you do. Maybe I'll have you back next week.

Brad Dowdy: I think I'm doing okay, Myke. I'm efforting this Kickstarter pretty well. I'm not going to lie. I'm doing a fine job over here. If I do say so myself. If I do say, in Kickstarter management world, I'm crushing it. Like, this is no Visionaire happening over here. We're not putting India ink in your fountain pens, people.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, except for the part where we have absolutely, completely not been able to fulfill anything at all. We're doing pretty well on this one.

Brad Dowdy: This is like a total fake Kickstarter. Like, we just did a project to collect money to spend on a different project. Yes. That's where we are right now. Just kidding. Just kidding. I have the pen, Myke. It's here. That's it. Prototype. It's a prototype. It's not the actual thing. Oh, yeah. I don't have 888 of these here. So, that would be quick production. So, I have the prototype. I have signed off on the prototype. I've paid a 50% down payment for the production of the pens. And I'm feeling pretty hyped about it. So, that's where the pen manufacturing is. Now, we're working on the poster manufacturing with Anna and Bob at Skylab Letterpress. So, we have a sneak peek of the poster that, you know, like, again, this is in the early stages. And, you know, the layout could change. And we're working on, I finished out fleshing out the names for the, all the top disks. You know, we're going to have an index, right? We wanted, if we were going to do this pen, we knew, myself included, people would have questions. Oh, what is this? What is this finial design? What is that finial design? And so, part of the campaign is we're also making a poster to give you the index. So, you can look up, say, oh, that's a really neat little top disk. What pen was that from? And that's what this poster will be. So, what do you think about that? It's going to be an 8x10 poster. So, you think you can, you know, maybe big enough to frame, but you can at least hang it and have a reference to it.

Myke Hurley: So, I have a question for you. Look into the poster. The poster will be in the show notes if people want to see it. So, there are some blank ones right now. Well, it's, and I'm assuming some of the blank ones are because you don't know the names of them.

Brad Dowdy: Or we wanted to get the official names, yes. So, that has all been taken care of as of this recording. Excellent. It's not on the physical copy.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. The number one, the 1951, was that designed for this campaign?

Brad Dowdy: No. Oh. Do you know what number one is?

Myke Hurley: No.

Brad Dowdy: It is pinball, which I thought it was a generic, but it's the bumper. Or it's, you know, the top, not the bumpers, but what are the circular discs that bounce the ball? Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I know what you're talking about. That's actually that design from pinball.

Myke Hurley: I don't remember the pinball version. Okay. Yep. So, that is just a 1951 logo. Because I was going to say if they made that for this campaign, then that should be called celebration. Because funnily enough, there isn't a top disc for this pen then.

Brad Dowdy: Well, 51 is the top disc, but it's the classic retro 51 logo.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I was looking at it the wrong way around. But, okay, so here's the question I'm going to ask them. Have they ever used that logo as a finial design before?

Brad Dowdy: I would wager. So, what you're getting at is can we call it celebration?

Myke Hurley: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: I'll find out.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Other than that- That's a good question. I like that question. Any of the blank solid colors, have they all been used?

Brad Dowdy: Any of the blank solid colors?

Myke Hurley: You see, like, number 34 is just a blue. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: So, that's part of the design, right? So, under the clip are four solid colors. Red, blue, green, and silver. Those are the original four finial colors from the very first tornadoes that they made. So, there is a historical significance to those.

Myke Hurley: Amazing. I'm loving learning all these little details.

Poster Details

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. But, since they were kind of playing, they go under the clip. Right. Like, it's the perfect item to go under the clip. And, there's a couple mistakes in this. Like, 32 is listed as Pen Addict, but that's the system. That's Myke Dudek's system. Yes. The orange disc. It's 42. But, we have one through 51 completely filled out. This was just an early sample I was kind of working off of. This is fun.

Myke Hurley: This is a fun little part of the project, I think, to have this little, what I would call a key. Yes, it's a key. I think all of the best products come with a physical key.

Brad Dowdy: Especially a pen. We're making a pen with an instruction set.

Myke Hurley: Genuinely, this poster, I think, is becoming one of my very, very, very favorite parts of this whole process. It's like having that all listed there. It's really nice. And then, we'll have to see who is going to be the first person to memorize the 51 of them.

Brad Dowdy: There is. When I was going through this yesterday, I was doing it on Twitch because I had to finish. I had to get all this information to Anna. So, we were going through and I was getting help. There is a huge amount of these that I did not know the name of. Oh, sure. Sure. But just cannot recall the name. And then, there's some really special additions on here, too.

Myke Hurley: Well, but there were ones that I requested to be in the list that I don't know the names of the pens. Totally. No. Like, so, which one is one of the ones that I wanted? It's the... I need to bring the poster back up again. But it's the red and white striped pen. And I did never remember the name of it. And it is number 22, which you don't have the name for on the version that's in the show notes. But, like, I just said to you, like, I love this one, but I don't know the name of this pen. Right. So, that's a fun thing. I like how Gone Fish and it's in there. I'm pleased we got snuck that one in there. Yes. That's ended up being, like, in the pen addict lore a little bit.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. And that was actually at Retro's request. Not saying that we... Not saying we have to have that, but it's like, oh, you should do this one because it's, like, right now. And this was before all the Lunker stuff came out. They knew why. Like, we decided on... Yeah. Yeah. So, they were ahead of the game on that one.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And I'm happy that we did say to them, like, as you said to me, and you looked at yourself, like, what ones would you like in there? Sure. This is a collaboration. This is a joint project. Like, this is very different. Like, this, you know, in case you hadn't worked out by now, like, this is a very different design process to, like, the regular Retro 51 design process, where it's kind of, like, a little bit more like we give, you know, we would give them a design. They would say what they could do or couldn't do with it and maybe simplify it and go forward. And then we would pay them for the privilege. But this time, it is a little bit more like, all right, we want to do this thing with your brand. So, let's all kind of, let's collaborate a little bit more on it.

Brad Dowdy: And plus, you know, we kind of need their approval to put all these logos on this poster and on this pen.

Myke Hurley: We have contributed maybe one, two of our own, mostly your, I think all your intellectual property to this pen. Everything else belongs to Retro 51. Yeah. All my good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Or there's a Joey Feldman. There's a Matthew Morse in here. A couple other things. There's a pen chalet one in here. So, a couple things like that that we asked to include. So, the only thing I haven't tested on the physical prototype that I have is the glow in the dark part of it. But I sent Tyler. Tyler was running by my desk one day at home. And I said, hey, come do something for me real quick. And he's like, what? And I gave him the pen. I said, go stick it in the window in the sun, then glow in the closet and shut the door. So, he's like, okay. And so, I said it glows in the dark. Like, I told him what I was going to do. I said, it should glow in the dark. So, he went over there, stuck it in the sun, went over the closet, shut the door and goes, oh! So, that's all I hear from him. So, it must be pretty good.

Myke Hurley: You assume it works then. Yeah. I'm assuming it works. Or there was something completely unrelated hilarious.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Or there was something that they snuck in there that I haven't seen yet. But I doubt that. So, yeah. It should be good. It should be good. So, I'm loving this. So, the next steps.

Brad Dowdy: We're probably close to not talking about this as much. Because once we go into production, we'll just sit for three months or so and wait for them to be done. So, once I know that they're in the queue and we get a production date, we'll share that. But otherwise, we'll just be waiting. You know, we'll have the poster finished up, signed off on. I have to work on packaging. Me and Ana are working on that. Just, you know, on how to physically package the pen and the poster, you know, in the best way possible. But, yeah. We're about to go into probably a quiet time for this project until it's time to ship. And then I might just have to use the Kickstarter funds to fly you over to help me with the shipping and fulfillment of this project.

Myke Hurley: Good luck. Good luck. You know? Right?

Brad Dowdy: I would do it. But, like, good luck getting me on a plane. I know. Yeah. Yeah. The last thing I want to do is go through the Atlanta airport and you the London airport. I can't think of any less place that I want to be than the world's two busiest airports.

Myke Hurley: I will offer to you right now, if you want to bundle up all of the European orders and ship them to me, I will fulfill them from home. Nah. Not a big deal.

Brad Dowdy: I'm just playing. So, at least the packaging will be easy. This will not be a months-long shipping process. I should have a reasonable workflow created when it's all said and done.

New Pen Review

Myke Hurley: I have some follow-up. I received a pen yesterday.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah? What'd you get?

Myke Hurley: Mark 1 Apollo. Solid. What do you think? It's wonderful. It's not what I expected, really.

Brad Dowdy: It's very different, wouldn't you say? Yeah. Based on your expectations of the Mark 1, right? Yes. Like, you know what the Mark 1 is. Uh-huh. And then you get this pen, and to me, it feels very different. Why do you think that?

Myke Hurley: Well, the click is still very satisfying, but it is different. I don't know if you found that to be the case. It feels slightly different to me.

Brad Dowdy: I think it's the finish and the materials, right? It is made of different materials. It's slightly heavier, right? So, there's a little bit more of a thud as opposed to just a lightweight thud. This is a heavyweight thud. It's less clicky, I find.

Myke Hurley: Yes. Like, the original one has more of a clickiness to it. And yeah, so thud is a good way to put it. Right. Still very satisfying, but different, right? Like, it is different. But like I say, it's not surprising. The entire thing is made of stainless steel, I believe, right? Like, I think even some of the mechanism is. I know it's different, anyway, to the standard mechanism. It is heavy beyond the level that I expected it to be. Really? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I guess I'm such a stainless steel pen fan that it doesn't. I don't notice it as much. I don't have a lot of feet in metal pens. I notice the weight.

Myke Hurley: Right? Right. I definitely don't use any that are not aluminium, right? Like, a heavier metal for me, like stainless steel or brass or copper, I don't use very often. So, like, I'm a frequent user of my regular Mark I. So, comparatively, like, it feels the same when I pick it up, right? Like, it feels the same length, right? The same shape, size. So, it's a surprise when I'm writing with it and I can feel my hand being pulled down to the page, right? Like, it is a very different beast. It's, you know, it's absolutely beautiful. Like, the finish that they have is so good to look at and it, like, it picks up, like, fingerprints and stuff in a way that I find very satisfying. And then you can kind of polish it. And, yeah, this is a, they did, obviously, a great job. I immediately swapped out the Fisher Space Pen refill for the Schmidt refill.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I got the blue Fisher Space Pen that I, that refill that I like, the fine blue ballpoint I prefer. All right, so, I'm going to, I'm going to make you pick one. We're going to, I think we're going to play this game a lot, this, this episode. Original or Apollo edition for Mark I? You only get one.

Myke Hurley: Original.

Brad Dowdy: This is actually harder for me.

Myke Hurley: This is a special edition pen that I'm really pleased that I own. But if I had to use one of them every single day, I would use the original. I think I pick original, too.

Brad Dowdy: And I love this pen so much. I love this pen. I will say, just a sidebar, anytime I sneak a Mark I into a picture of mine, it's inevitable that I will get asked, ooh, what is that pen? So, they just, they, people like these pens. They did a good job.

Myke Hurley: I was thinking about this, like, why do I prefer the original? And I think it's because the original is, like, the, the perfection of the design that they created. And then the Apollo is a different version of that. Right? Yeah. Where, like, maybe if you were starting from scratch with all these materials, you would come to a slightly different place. Like, there's nothing wrong with this pen. It is amazing. But it is different. And I am just, like, such a big fan of the original. This isn't the original. It is a special thing. Right? Where it's like, I have Pro Gears that I've paid way more money for, but are not better even in usage than an original Pro Gear. Because, like, you've added different materials to them. You've made it way differently. You've made it, like, perform differently because of its additions. So, it's, like, a similar thing to me in that regard. But, like, yeah, I am all, I am all about this pen. Like, I absolutely love it. And it's, like, just as a object. One of the better looking objects that I own. Right? Like, just bar none. Like, this thing is stunning. Like, it's, look, this, I don't, you know, I know how they did it, but still don't know how they did it. Right? Like, this really dark finish. It's, like, it looks like it came out of space. It really is. Very, very cool pen. It's executed perfectly. As you would expect. Mm-hmm. All right. We have something really special to talk about today. But before we do that, let me thank our first sponsor of the episode. That's Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet. Have your favorite brands and all the products that you're looking for. Whether you want stuff from Sailor or Kaweco, Lamy or Pilot, Pelican, Monteverde, and many, many, many, many more. They are an authorized dealer of all of these products. They sell roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, pen holders and refills, converters and cases, and so much more. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the U.S. They sell internationally with great shipping rates. Pen Chalet are doing discounts as often as they can. Like every couple of weeks, they have new products and also new discounts. And they're offering high-quality pens with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you go to PenChalet.com, that's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, and click the podcast link at the top of the website, enter the password Pen Addict for this week's special offer, and you can get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet at any time. And also to get a look at some special offers that Pen Chalet have purely for Pen Addict listeners. What have you found, Brad?

Shopping Withdrawal

Brad Dowdy: So I've been going through a little bit of withdrawal, like shopping withdrawal. Like we didn't get to go to, you know, the Pen Show, Atlanta Pen Show, and there's nothing, you know, on the calendar these days. And I thought I would be able to hold out a little bit longer. And, I mean, right up to this minute, yes, I've held out, but I'm breaking Myke. And the things that Pen Chalet has that interest me, the Leonardo Messenger, which is not quite the material depth of the Memento Zeros and the Furores, but it's a really neat, unique color pen. The price is going to make me get one of these. There's five different colors and 366 of each color for this model. And I'm exasperated that I probably need to go get one of those. And I've already bought one of those. I did for a giveaway. Secondly, the Monte Grappa Monte Grappa fountain pen is on sale. And I actually got an email about this from, yeah, from a listener was talking about, you know, that range of pens, like the Monte Grappa Elmo that I enjoy so much. She's like, well, would you get the Elmo or would you get the Monte Grappa? And with the discount, it's in the same price point. I said I would get the Monte Grappa because of the filling mechanism. It's a great price. It's like, yeah, it's in with the with the coupon. It falls into that category, which is it's a new realm for that. So, yeah, there's in the page just keeps going on and on and on. At the very bottom, Ron has snuck in a little Pelican M205 Star Ruby. He must have his last few ready to roll out. So if you missed out on that one, that one's on there as well. So, yeah, really, really good stuff as usual.

Myke Hurley: Penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Thank you so much to Penchalet for their continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Myke Hurley: So we have a very brand new, brand spanking new pen to talk about today. We are working once again with our friends at the Canalea Pen Company to talk about their brand new release. So I will say right now that Canalea have sponsored the show in the past. They're sponsoring in the future, but they have not sponsored this episode. But they have provided both me and Brad with their new pen. I've had it for many weeks. Brad's had it for less time, which is a once in a lifetime thing for me to have had a pen before you. I got to see it before you because, yeah, it was only like a week ahead. But it was stupid. Look, Brad, for me, that's amazing. You get everything first, right? I get everything last. That's the way these things tend to go. But Hugh and Carol sent it to me. And what I like about this, they never send us any information, right? We never get any information. The first information we get about the pen is in opening the package. So this pen is called the Kona Cherry. And if you don't know about Canalea pens, all of their designs focus on something from Hawaii. And it's typically an image of some description that makes the pen itself. Now, Kona Cherry is themed after the world famous Kona coffee from Hawaii. Everyone's heard of Kona coffee. And the pen is red because of the cherry of which the bean is in. I think that they made the right move rather than making a fully brown pen, right? To go with red. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That would be a roasted Kona.

Myke Hurley: So we both have the, what is it? The classic, I think. Classic flush. Classic flush. Flush. I always forget that they have other designs. Because there's only one in my mind. I'm totally stuck on this one. Yeah. Which is classic flush. All of mine are that design. But they do have a bunch of designs. We'll talk about availability of the pen in a minute. Because they're doing some interesting stuff. Because I think this was supposed to be launched alongside of a pen show. But obviously that didn't happen.

Brad Dowdy: I think this was going to be timed with Chicago. Like Chicago would be coming up in another week or so. So that would be like the time frame. And I think they were going to be at the Chicago pen show. So you want feedback on this pen? I want to know what you think. You want me to go first?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: I bought it.

Myke Hurley: I know you did. I saw the email.

Brad Dowdy: This is the second Canalea pen that I own. I've owned a third one in the past, but I've sold it. I now own two Canalea pens. So that tells you what I think about this pen. And here's why I purchased this one. And why I didn't purchase. What was the purple one called? I meant to pull this up right before that you have.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I have the purple one. It is called the Aolani.

Brad Dowdy: Aolani. Which is stunning. We helped launch that with an ad on the site. I mean on the podcast. I loved that pen. But what the difference to me in that pen and this pen is the translucency. So the other Canalea pen that I own is the Hanamabe, which has these yellow sections in it that are translucent. They're my favorite Canalea pens are the ones with part solid barrels, part translucent barrels. And the Aolani was essentially all solid. It had this really cool depth to the material, which we both discussed how we like. This one has some of that depth in the material, in the swirls, but then it's broken up with translucency. And I just can't stop looking through the pen. And the way the translucency is done, if you're not looking at it the right way, it looks like a solid piece of material, right? It looks like there shouldn't be translucent materials. Like it's kind of not noticeable. It's subtle, right? Because it's all red. And that's what took me... That's what made me want to purchase this one. Because there's no breakup in the color, right? Yeah, it fits my aesthetic with the translucency in it, right? I don't know. It just stood out to me more. And I'm comparing pens that are nines out of tens with each other, right? But it goes into your personal style. So we actually have a question in the chat that's related to what I want to talk about. I've considered eyedropping this, but I started with the converter before I decided to buy it, right? I didn't want to eyedropper it if I hadn't paid for it. Because I didn't want to have to clean all that up. So you can hardly... I'm having trouble seeing the converter in here with the material. So it's very, very cool. Like you don't see it outstanding.

Myke Hurley: One of the things about canalea pens, they're all different. I have a translucency, which I'm not kidding you, is the entire body of the pen. Like I have one strip that goes the whole way down. I have prime candidate for eyedropping over here. So like I can see the entire converter through the side of the pen body.

Brad Dowdy: Really? So like I have a ring around horizontally where I can see the entire nib, a 360 degree rotation of the nib.

Myke Hurley: I do not have that. I can see the feed in the cap, but I can't. And I can see the grip section in the cap.

Brad Dowdy: So we'll take some pictures. We hadn't been able to share them before. So we can take some pictures of what we're talking about. But I love this pen. The thing that I always go back to with canalea, and I've said this before, and I'll say it as long as it holds true. The fit and finish of the pen is better than any maker that does this type of work, right? Any small maker that's getting acrylics and turning them into pens, this one feels different than any other pen I own, the canaleas do. Like I could do a blind test. You could put 10 acrylic pens on a table and one of them be canalea. I guarantee I could pick that out of the table. It feels that different, like in a good way.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they're like made.

Myke Hurley: They're made so perfectly. They're turned so perfectly, right? Mm-hmm. And yeah, it's unbelievable.

Brad Dowdy: So I mean, I love this one. This is now my second canalea that I own that is in the collection. So Hanamabe and now Kona Cherry. And that doesn't mean I dislike any of the other ones. I just haven't, I can't buy them all. So I pick and choose very carefully which pens I own and add to the collection. And I have put up the funds for the Kona Cherry and I'm very, very happy with it. And I think I will eventually eyedropper it. Right now I have the Pen Attic Fire on Fire. It was hard to figure out what ink to go with this.

Brad Dowdy: You know, so I went with an orange. I was thinking about going with a bright green, like the Ackermann number 28, to kind of go with the leaves, like the coffee leaves. But I wanted to see what this looked like with the converter compared to like filling it with a darker ink. Yeah, so I don't know. I mean, I love it. It's great. This is, it's now my pen. So yeah, love it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I just haven't yet bought it. Yeah. Right. I am very much planning to. It's just because I think it was a very bold. And I would say like on paper risky. Move to go solid color, like just one color. Right. Because I think Canalea's most popular pens feature multiple colors. Right. Like that's the thing that they are known for. Right. Like this pen looks like a beach. This pen looks like a volcano. Right. Like these are very like specific designs. So this one looks like a gecko. Right. Like, or this one is like a sunset. So like all the one color reduces their like ability to wow people in that way. But I think from looking at the progression over the last two pens, I think from the Aolani to this one, I think what they've realized is like this kind of new depth like catching process that they seem to have fallen upon with whoever it is that's making these rods for them is adding something new. Right. Right. So like when you pick these up and again, this is just like like any like really good pen like this. It's impossible to photograph like to the point where you can understand it. But you pick it up and turn it around and it catches the light in a way that I've not seen before. And that's what we're talking about with this depth that you look at the pens and they look like it looks like there's like chunks in it. Right. It's very peculiar. And but it makes for like a really like a really stunning finish. It's I mean, it's so good. So good.

Brad Dowdy: See, I see it a little bit differently than you. I think this one fits their lineup more so than the Aolani. And I think the Aolani fits their lineup. It's just that the Aolani is in the group with the Gecko and with the Koala Sunset, all the solid barrel pens, Nui Nalu and Mauna Kea and those pens. And then Kona Cherry fits in with Maui Makai, which has I don't know what their sales rankings are. Maui Makai has to be like number one. That was my first one. Like a 10 out of 10 out of 10. And like the only reason I don't own that one is because it's like really hard to pick out like the perfect one. And also everyone that owns it owns that one. And then Kaha Kai, you know, that's another very, very popular one as well. But I think this one actually fits in with like some of their most popular styles, even though like side by side, they look pretty different, I think. But I think it's a really good addition to the product lineup when you line them all up together. Like this one really fits to me. Where the Aolani is a stunning pin on its own. But does it fit totally with everything else? I don't know. Maybe it does. But regardless, like I said, this is like comparing pens that are like 9 out of 10s and 10 out of 10s with each other. Right.

Myke Hurley: They're all great. Do you see the links that I put in the chat room? They'll be in the show notes as well. I just took some pictures of my body and pen caps. You can see the translucency of them.

Pen Translucency Comparison

Brad Dowdy: That's funny. Mine looks nothing like that. I will take some pictures today. Isn't that wild? On Instagram. Because my barrel is mostly solid. Okay. So your second image. We'll put these in the show notes so you all know what you're talking about. Your second image where you see the converter. That's how I see my nib. Except it's wider.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, okay. Does that make sense? Yeah. So flip that onto the nib side. And it's great. And like all the swirls line up. Like when you screw the pen together. Like all the swirls line up. It's just, it's dope. Um, and I don't have a lot of red pens, right? I really think it's two pen colors that I love, but I don't have a lot of. I don't have any. Or white and red. Yeah. White and red pens I always find very, very attractive. But I have very few of those. And so I had a white pen earlier this week with the Y Studio resin. And now I have a red pen like this. Even though the only other red pen I have is the, uh, uh, Shungyo. The platinum red one. Which is really, really pretty. So anyway, that's enough, uh, for me on, on the Kona Cherry. I love it. I bought it. Um, I can't really speak any more highly than that, that I put my own money, uh, into this. So, uh, it's great. And, um, yeah. Tell them, do you want to, do you have any more to say on that? Or do you want to tell them a little bit about some of the changes that, uh, Canalea has with this. Yeah. With this release.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, uh, he and Carol sent us over some information because it's good to share it. Cause this is not actually a typically a thing that they will do, especially with a new pen. So they're doing, um, more like an online launch than they've done before. Uh, so they're calling it the choose your Aloha celebration. So the flush model, um, which is one of the, is that the standard model? The flush model?

Brad Dowdy: Pretty much so. Right. The other ones will have like the cap will have like an overhang to the barrel. There's, there's a lot of different models.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But the model, the different models, the model that me and you have is the flush model. Yes. Right. Which is like the standard model. They have limited quantities available right now for this pen, like immediately to ship, which is very unlike Canalea to have this since because they, they were making pens to take to a pen show. And right. Right. So they have, they have some inventory. Um, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Usually online as a straight to a waiting list.

Myke Hurley: Yep. They have a limited inventory right now. Um, after this, their shipping will be three to four weeks for, for more of these pens. Um, and that's for all of the models. Which is still good. Yeah. Cause they're usually 12 to 16 weeks. Cause you have to like get out of the line and then yours will get made and sent. So just wait in a couple of like a few weeks for these things is actually pretty amazing. So the flush model is available right now in very limited quantities. Then there'll be three to four week shipping and it's three to four week shipping for every other, um, for every other model. And obviously because Canalea pen company are wonderful people, a portion of the profits of this pen are going to be donated to the food basket, which is Hawaii's islands, uh, food bank and the West Hawaii, uh, community health center. So it's a little bit of extra information and we'll be talking about this again next week on the show too. But yep. Just another all-star hit. Like the Canalea pen company are like the Pixar of pen companies. Right.

Brad Dowdy: That's fair. Yeah. They don't, they don't do it a lot, but when they do it, they do it exceptionally well.

Myke Hurley: Hit after hit after hit. I wouldn't want to be Hugh and Carol, honestly. Like, because I would feel so much pressure every time, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They do it. Well, the longer you talk, the harder you're making of me making this transition until one of the ugliest products you'll ever see in your life.

Myke Hurley: Amazing. Yes. What is this thing? But it's amazing. Well, it's like a Twisby gold needle.

Brad Dowdy: That's exactly what the person said who sent this to me. So I got sent this link via Twitter. Dennis, thank you for sending this. And he said the exact same thing. This is, we talk about syringe filling, you know, cartridges or converters. And, you know, you just use like the standard, you know, medical grade blunt nose tip syringes. And then other companies like Visconti have had these needle fillers things. And this is the damnedest thing I've ever seen, Myke. It's literally like a Twisby Go was turned into a syringe. And it's by Moonman, which people have heard of, you know, from their fountain pens. This is basically a spring-loaded syringe that looks like a rocket ship. It's pretty awesome. And it's only like 10 bucks. Like, you know, I would totally buy one of these. Like, I'm going to need to source one of these whenever they come. Our link is just like to AliExpress. I don't know if they're going to become, you know, in other places that Moonman gets carried. They probably will because I think this would do exceptionally well. If this works for the price, everyone's going to have one of these who's into the stuff that we're into. Right? Like, it has to.

Myke Hurley: I mean, it looks really interesting. I wonder how long is that shipping going to be? Right? If it's AliExpress.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I'm not going to order it from there. Okay. I'm not going to order it from there. I'll wait until it's easier to order. Right. You know, if it's Moonman and it does well, there's a ton of places that carry Moonman. What's Moonman? Pens.

Myke Hurley: I've never heard of Moonman.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They make pens. They came out years ago with like a mini pen that was real popular. And then like an eyedropper pen that was real popular. And now they're coming out with all kinds of different things.

Myke Hurley: This is obviously one of those things where like someone could go back and find the episode where we spoke about this. But it's been absolutely erased from my own memory. We haven't talked about them very much. No, but like we definitely have. Right? Like at some point it's come up. Surely. Totally.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. Because we've reviewed some of the pens on the blog before. So I'm sure it's come up. Yeah. I'm sure it's come up. Anyway, that wasn't the only link I got on Twitter. A bunch of people. I don't know about you, Myke. Have you got the link for the new Apple TV series called Home? Did you get this link with people pen spotting in their various in the TV ad for this?

Myke Hurley: I get them all the time.

Identifying Pens from Poor Photos

Brad Dowdy: I love this. Yeah. I get emails saying, hey, I saw this pen in the show. What is it? And I was like, I have no idea because it's, you know, it's your basic black and gold pen. And the picture quality is terrible. And I can't tell you what it is. But keep sending them because I think it's fascinating. But this one had a...

Myke Hurley: The problem for me is I can never tell unless it's like completely obvious. Like this one, yeah, no problem. I know it's a Lamy Safari. But like people send me like links to these pens that are just like black and gold. And it's just like... If people send them to me and they haven't tagged you, I will at that point usually tag you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And like this is, you know, I've mentioned that I love the show Peaky Blinders. And, you know, it's in the early 1900s in England. And there's plenty of pen and fountain pen usages. And every time one comes up, my wife like yells at me. And I was like, I can't tell what any of these are. I have no clue. Like they all look the same, but they're all different. So, but this one, yeah, the White Lamy Safari, it is completely thrashed. I love this pen so much because it looks like crap. Like the ink's linking out the nib and the connection. It looks like it's never been cleaned. And I just thought it was... That's what I want to see out of people's pens, right? That's a pen that's well-loved and well-used. Like how can you not love seeing that pop up in a commercial like this? I think it was pretty neat. So, yeah, people, y'all can send me some more.

Myke Hurley: I like the white one with the gray accents.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it was hard to get that image in there. It's all blurry because it's zipped by so fast. I couldn't really get a good shot of it. But it's a mess in the best way possible. I know how to clean up a mess, Myke. Oh, like a mess on your face? Yeah, a mess on my face.

Myke Hurley: Help me clean it up. Harry's! Oh, boy. It's needed right now. This episode is brought to you by Harry's. You don't want to be overpaying for razors right now. Harry's knows that sometimes it's better to stay inside, which is why they were shipped directly to you so you can experience the quality of a Harry's shave in just a few days from the convenience of your own home. You should join the 10 million people who have tried Harry's. You can claim your special trial offer right now by going to harrys.com slash penaddict. Harry's is a return to the essential. Quality, durable blades at a fair price, just $2 per blade. They've cut out all of the stuff in the middle. Manufacturing blades in their German blade factory has been honing precision blades for a century, which means that you get incredibly high-quality blades at factory direct prices. Harry's is super convenient. Their blade refills are delivered directly to your door on your schedule with or without a subscription. So, Brad, tell me about how you're using Harry's right now.

Brad Dowdy: I just know that I'm happy to have, like, the stockpile of Harry's that I can just order everything online so I don't have to go to the store and pick up any of this stuff. And if any, my hair and beard may not be looking that great in another month or two, but I know my neck and cheeks will be nice and properly shaved from all of the awesome Harry's gear.

Myke Hurley: You're going to be very confusing looking, you know?

Brad Dowdy: It is going to be strange. Like, this is not going to go well for quarantine hairstyle, you know, here in the next probably month or so. We're going to start seeing some things that I'm not sure we'll be able to unsee. But I know that Harry's is taking care of what they can and I appreciate them for that.

Myke Hurley: And you can feel good about your purchase. They have a 100% quality guarantee. So if you don't love your shave, you can let them know and they'll give you a full refund. And 1% of proceeds are set aside for non-profit organizations devoted to helping provide access to better health care for men and veterans. Listeners of this show can redeem their Harry's trial set at harrys.com slash penaddict. You'll get a weighted ergonomic handle for a firm grip, five blade razor with a lubricated strip and trimmer blade, rich lathering shave gel with aloe to keep your skin hydrated and a travel blade cover to keep your razor dry and easy to grab on the go. Go to harrys.com slash penaddict to start shaving better today. Our thanks to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Reflections on Early Episodes

Brad Dowdy: So I got some more Twitter linkage this week. And this one was interesting. And I've listened to this in the past, but not in a long time have I listened to the episode that really was the precursor to the pen addict. And that was episode 104 of Enough. And we've talked about it plenty of times over the years, but I don't recall that I've gone back and listened to it. And I clicked on this link. We were tweeted this link of the archive of this podcast. And I clicked on it. I saw it. So it's 34 minutes. I can listen. Let's see how ridiculous I sound. And so I re-listened to this and I kind of audited my performance on this. So we'll share this link to the archived appearance if you haven't heard this. A lot of you probably have. Before I start, I want to say being episode 104 of this podcast that you were on before we even started this, you've been doing this for like a decade at least. I did. Like people don't realize.

Myke Hurley: I passed 10 years. Like two weeks ago, I've been podcasting for 10 years.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So we've been together a really long time. It seems like we've been together since like the beginning of podcasts, but like. Like basically. But you were there way ahead of that. Like you were so far ahead of the curve, which is why you're really good at what you do. Anyway, that was something I wanted to say.

Brad Dowdy: So what I did is I re-listened to this. I took some notes. I didn't realize. So this was 2011. So we started our show in 2012, I guess. Yeah. I was working at JetPens at the time that y'all asked me on to be the show. You and Patrick Rohn asked me to be on the show. I did not recall that whatsoever. I mean, I obviously recall working at JetPens. I did not know that was the time of in my history. I worked there for 11 months. And during that time, I was on this show, which I was like, huh, really? I don't remember this. I don't remember that little part about it. The show was sponsored by Wet Frog Studios, which was Aaron Mankey's company, which is so funny.

Myke Hurley: Aaron Mankey is now currently one of the world's most successful independent podcasters.

Brad Dowdy: Back then, he was designing logos. He was the 70 decibels designer. He designed the original Pen Addict logo. And his company was called Wet Frog Studios, which is hilarious.

Myke Hurley: I need to just address something before we continue. Yeah. I can't stand to listen to this. Okay. Because I hear myself and I can't cope with it. Because I absolutely hate the way I sound. This is before, you know, this is early on. I've been podcasting for less than a year, maybe. Like around a year, maybe at this point. A year and a half, something like that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And over the years, everybody's voices change. I mean, your voice has changed. But I don't think, I mean, you might disagree. It doesn't really sound like there's much change to your accent and stuff. But your confidence is different. And that's what comes through. But for me, I spent a lot of time over the years trying to, both trying to and not, and also it happening on its own. My accent changes. Yeah. And I basically tried to just like smoothen out what I think are the rougher edges. And they are on show here, like big time. Oh, I can't, I can't, I don't even think I could do a decent enough job of trying to imitate myself. Like, so I call like what we do now, I call it a podcast, right? But back then it was podcast.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I can't stand it.

Brad Dowdy: See, so here's, here's my notes on this. And I took several notes, some in the document, some mental. So my notes on this are one, I sound less nervous than I thought I would be. Number two, I didn't notice any difference in your voice. Oh, that kills me. From then, then to now. What was the point in putting all this work in? Because, because, because number three, you didn't hardly talk this entire episode. Well, that's true.

Myke Hurley: That was a thing. Like me and Patrick, we, we worked together for a long time, but there was a few things going on. One, Patrick was way more comfortable than me still. And two, like the show really was about, at that point, me being there to encourage him to talk, right? Like, and so I would like, ask a few questions and would land. I actually, I just, by design, I just didn't talk very much on that show, so.

Brad Dowdy: And this was specifically a me and Patrick conversation too, right? This was a me and Patrick topic. Like, I'll jump to the end here and I'm going to talk about the other things, but this kind of ties into a question I wanted to ask you is what made you, after that episode, ask me to do this?

Myke Hurley: I think for the reason that you noticed that you didn't really sound much different, which means that you were confident and entertaining, even in your, I've never done this before.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that was like my, I guess, yeah, this is my first ever podcast appearance. And I was like, boy, I don't sound ridiculous.

Myke Hurley: Exactly. So, that was one of the things for me was like, well, that was really easy and felt really good. Like that, that, I remember having that feeling and talking about it with Patrick afterwards. And it's like, well, that was, that was great, right? Like that was super simple. Like it flowed really well. Brad was super interesting, right? And because, you know, especially by that point, I was, I was interviewing people on a weekly basis. So, I was pretty used to like dealing with awkward people, right? Like who just, right. You had several interview shows at the time. So, I was impressed by how natural it was to have, to have conversations with you, even though I wasn't that involved. But the conversation was still happening anyway. Because plus as well, you know, I think we had you on again as well. Yes. And it went just as easy. Because I think I tried to convince you that first time. And also, I was like, in that stage, I was really trying to recruit anyone that I thought was decent. Right? Because I was building, you know, like big time. Right. And anybody that I thought I could have a show with, I was pitching them, you know? And you were one of those people.

Brad Dowdy: Nice. I'm glad I eventually said yes. Mm-hmm. So, anyway, here's some of the notes I took just about the products we talk about. I was a huge fan of the Pilot Pereira at the time. Like, and I remember now going back listening to this, I know exactly the pen and exactly why I had the pen. Which is like the gray slate blue Pilot Pereira, which they still sell. I was working for JetPens. And they sent me a box. I don't know how, it was like a 12 by 12 box. It was, you know, pretty large of products that had been returned that they could no longer sell. Right? So, they're like, here, just play around with this stuff. And, you know, maybe you'll find something that you like. Some of it you won't be able to use because it's like really broken. And this Pilot Pereira was in that box with fountain pen ink. And this was stuff that I really hadn't used very much at the time.

Brad Dowdy: And I was like, oh, this is interesting. I like how this pen writes. You know, it's got, it feels very comfortable. It's got a fine nib in it. You know, my writing is small. It works out well that way. I thought that was interesting. I was a huge fan of the Pilot Pereira back then. And then I talked more about fountain pens, how I was just starting to get into like the Pilot Pereira and the Lamy Safari, of course, were the ones that I mentioned. I did mention that I wasn't pen monogamous. Right? Like Patrick was like, well, do you use one pen or do you just have to like have a desk full of pens and use them all? I've never been a pen monogamist. So, I remember talking about that. And that has not changed one bit.

Brad Dowdy: I believe that cleaning fountain pens was like a two-day ordeal. At the time, where that's not the case anymore. Like yesterday, I had three fountain pens I wanted to clean. I went in there, cleaned them, took about 10 minutes to do it, dried them off, put them back in the box. Like where before, I would go through this whole process of like breaking them all down, leaving them out to dry after I cleaned them, and then putting them back together the next day. I was like, that was a lot. So, and then we got into the Pilot Hi-Tech C and the whole Kickstarter phenomenon. That's around the time frame this was. Like I'd already bought the pen type A by this time, and this was the time where that one set the pace for the Hi-Tech C Kickstarters. And it was like the heyday of everyone making a barrel for the Hi-Tech C after they saw the success that the pen type A had. So, with some interesting topics in there, a lot of what I said holds true to today. We had a huge conversation around index cards and note cards, which I found completely fascinating considering my now making of and addiction to note cards, right? We had a whole conversation about that. I'm going to be talking a lot about note cards coming up. I have some different articles I want to write about them, about note cards. And we had that conversation about how in 2011, how I had six different types of note cards in front of me at the time we were recording, which I did not recall that at all. And I kind of look back at my decade ago self and go, huh, wow, yeah, that was a thing back then, right? Like even then, it's been a thing all along. It's been inside me all along. So, like the things that I'm doing now, you know, it's not just some, you know, Johnny come lately thing, right? It's a thing that was built into me years and years and years ago. So, that felt kind of cool to hear that conversation. So, yeah, it was interesting to hear the details of what we talked about and how much of it held true today. Like there's almost nothing in there. I don't think I wrote down anything in that show that I disagree with now, other than it doesn't take that long to clean fountain pens. It's a pretty short thing, but like, I don't know. It was interesting to me how much has changed yet how little has, right? It was a very accurate conversation back then for what I believed in and that holds true to today. So, I felt pretty good about that.

Myke Hurley: I remember the Pilot Prera.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And I remember, because in the episode I referenced like an ivory one. Yep. Which I bought. I have it. They still make, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And it's still a great pen. It just, the Prera, the problem with the Prera was it became overpriced in its price range, right? It became the high-end $50 pen when it should have been like a $30 pen, right? You could get a better pen for $30. And they finally brought the price back down to a reasonable price point. It's still a fantastic pen. It's just quality. It's just quality. But it's a weirdly priced pen for what it is. So, one more throwback we had, Myke. Big time. I loved this picture that our friend Blake sent of a party. I can't believe this was five years ago. Or only five years ago. It seems like longer. This was at the Atlanta pen show at a knock party we had at the OG knock garage. And don't look too closely at the background of this picture because, whew, it's a hot mess. But Blake sent this picture. And I was like, man, what a great picture. And, you know, it's got young Brad in there and young Myke in there. And, you know, we're looking spry. And it was funny. I was like, I still have that shirt. I still have that hat. Let me go put them on and take a picture. So, I went and took a picture of me wearing the same thing I was wearing in that show. Just in that picture. Just having a little bit of fun with that picture that Blake sent. And I just thought it was really cool. It was a very reminiscent past few days, if you couldn't tell Myke. Listen to my first podcast appearance. You know, saw this picture of us missing the Atlanta pen show. You know, it just brought back. The first one, right? Oh, yeah. That was the first one. Yeah, I remember that party.

Myke Hurley: You've previously mentioned Aaron Mankey was at that party.

Brad Dowdy: Aaron Mankey was there. Sean Blanc was there. Leigh Reyes was there. So, all the big people. All the big time people were there. So, yeah. That was a really, really good time. It brought back a lot of good memories. It was good to reminisce this week, I think. And so, yeah. That's what I've been doing this week. Is reminiscing a little bit. And then buying domain names for future projects. So, old and new again.

Ask TPA Segment Begins

Myke Hurley: Should we round out today's episode of an Ask TPA question? Let's do it. All right. This one comes in from George. Are broader nibs better for shimmering inks because of a difference in wetness or a difference in surface area of the tipping? That is to say, can very wet nibs of a smaller nib size perform as well with shimmering inks as a larger nib size? How necessary do you find custom grinds to be to the fountain pen using? Oh, there's a few questions here. Let's tackle that first one first.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it looks like we got like four questions in this. Let's, yeah. The first one, it definitely makes a difference, right? So, broader, softer nibs are going to be better for shimmering inks because they apply more ink to the page, which allows more ink, more shimmer to flow in that ink and out the nib when the tines spread, right? So, your extra fine nibs are not getting a very big spread when you're writing, you know, the lines on the page. So, therefore, you're not going to see as much shading, sheening, or shimmer on thinner nibbed pens. So, it's just a nature of the sizing. So, you can get, you know, you can get a very wet nib that's a small size, but it's still emulating something that's larger than it's natively should be, right? Take, for example, a Pelican extra fine compared to a Sailor extra fine, and that's like three deviations of line width. You know, even though it's marked extra fine, it's a giant line in comparison to other extra fine nibs. So, you can get some shading, sheen, and shimmer out of that. But, in general, the broader the nib, the more you're going to see the characteristics of the ink. Okay.

Myke Hurley: Okay. All right. Next question is, how necessary do you find custom grinds to be to the fountain pen using experience? Do you get grinds on most of the nibs you have, or are you content with the normal writing performance in general?

Brad Dowdy: So, there's a lot in this question.

Brad Dowdy: It begins with the word necessary. They're not necessary whatsoever. Now, the second part of the question is, do you get grinds on most of the nibs you have? I prefer it that way because of how I write. Okay. So, this is an individual aspect of how I personally write in a block print style. So, a squared off type of nib works really well for me, and that's a cursive italic, a stub, or even an architect because of my letter shapes, forms, and how my hand moves across the page. Other people who may write in cursive scripts or other, you know, different writing angles, handedness, all of those things, may not be able to use the same nibs that I have. So, to me, they add to my writing experience because of how I write, not the other way around. Does that make sense? Am I explaining that correctly?

Myke Hurley: I think so. Okay. Yeah, I don't have any, like, quote-unquote custom grinds. I've just had things tuned to me because I haven't found a custom grind that performs at a level, like, that I've ever used that performs at a level where I feel like it's better than a good stock nib. For my writing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so, like, your example of what works for you, even though you didn't have to have someone else customize, it would be something like a zoom nib where you can get these different angles, but it's still in a way that works for you, even though it's not a custom grind. It's a specialty nib. Is that fair?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Are there any good grinds to get on a smaller nib? I asked George. I mean, I get needle points, and I'm actually getting ready to send out a couple pens to get them modified, only because that's how I like to write. I think they're really fun and unique, but that's also something that I like. You can get a little bit of a cursive italic type of line variation on something as small as, like, a Japanese fine nib, but you're not going to get that big, huge variation. Like, I get a little bit just for regular writing. I don't expect a big, big line variation, but I expect a more squared-off line than a rounded tipping on a nib, right? So, you can, but, I mean, outside of, like, needle points and then some hugely specialized nib grinds, there's really not a ton you can do. But, like I said, it's relative. You know, if you ask me what I can do, what a nib grinder could do to a Pelican extra fine compared to a Sailor extra fine, those are two completely different platforms.

Myke Hurley: And George's final question is, do you use or recommend any Chinese fountain pens? A lot of pen BBS pens have been interesting to me, especially their filling systems. Do you have any experience?

Brad Dowdy: They're popular. I just don't use them just because I don't want to... Ten, $30 pens laying around doesn't benefit me when they're all kind of similar, right? I would try one or two, and they get good reviews, and I would certainly recommend them if that's something you're interested in based on the things that I've read about them. They just don't intrigue me enough to go out of my way to purchase them. But they seem perfectly fine, and we've reviewed a couple on the site before, and they always get good reviews. So, I mean, I wouldn't have any hesitancy buying one. I just, they're not in my rotation just because it just doesn't pique my interest.

Myke Hurley: Okay. All right. I think that wraps it up for this episode. If you want to find links to what we've spoken about today, that's relay.fm slash penaddict slash 407. You can find Brad over at penaddict.com, and he's at twitch.tv slash penaddict at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That's Eastern time. Go to knock.co to get your paper goods. If you go to our website, relay.fm slash penaddict, or on our show notes, you can see a link to become a member of Relay.fm and help support this show. If you like what we do and want to give us some money and get some cool pucks in return, then please subscribe, become a Relay.fm member, and help support the Penaddict podcast. Brad is at dowdyism on Twitter, penaddict on Instagram. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E, and we'll be back next time. Thank you so much to Harry's and Penchillay for their support. Say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.