The Pen Addict 42/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	42
Title:	Short Attention Span Theatre
Release Date:	February 19th, 2013
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 42
Audio File:	Audio Episode 42
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 42
Length:	6666 min <br />1.1 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 42 of The Pen Addict podcast, a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools you love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined, as always, by The Pen Addict himself, the most intrepid of all explorers that traverse the aisles of stationery stores across the globe, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello, Myke, how are you? Saving that one up. That was a good one. And you know, you've already got me sidetracked. I'm the worst. I'm like short attention span theater over here. You mentioned, you know, traversing the aisles of the stationery stores, right? Well, I got an email about a post and an episode we did, I don't know, a long time ago about how disappointed I am in the stores, you know, that there's no new products. I mean, I got like a thousand word email today from a listener saying, you know, thanks for doing that episode. I feel the same way. So anyway, I totally hijacked our show the very first sentence out of the way. But it's funny how things like that stick around and, you know, kind of become truths. And, you know, it was good to hear from a listener that kind of feels the same way. So anyway, now that I've totally blown us off track right out the gate. So how's it going?

Myke Hurley: Very well. Very well indeed. Welcome back to us.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you could. I figured you were going to drop a sick boy reference in there or something like that.

Myke Hurley: It wasn't your fault.

Brad Dowdy: But I know it was it was it was a rough week at the the pen addict household. I think my kids between the two of them, I think they only went to school together one day all week last week. It was a rough week. So glad that is out of everyone's system. And we are back on track. And I missed talking to you last week. I was I've been anxious to get today's episode underway so I could talk to you and we could talk pens again.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So we had a topic, but we've both got so much follow up that we're probably going to do an entire entirely follow up episode. Because we've got so much to talk about. And we've both in our little Google Drive document that we have, we both put in pretty cryptic notes. So it seems like there's going to be a lot of surprises for for each of us today.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, I was totally ready to record last Tuesday. I had a whole episode planned out. I mean, you saw you saw the document. I had links and notes and articles and everything. I had a whole episode planned out. But if we tried to catch up from what we missed last week and try to fulfill that episode and do it justice, we'd be here for about an hour and a half. And yeah, I don't think we can swing that. So we'll we'll do what we do best and just roll with it. And I'm looking forward to the topics we are going to cover. And we will we will cover the the episode that I already had planned out here in the coming weeks. So it's not going anywhere. Yeah, it looked like a good one. So we'll get back to that at some point.

Myke Hurley: So do you want to kick off today? Yeah, sure. Sure.

Pen Cleaning

Brad Dowdy: I want to I want to talk about one thing, which is follow up from our pen cleaning episode that we did not too long ago.

Brad Dowdy: And I have really gotten the hang of cleaning out fountain pens with the aspirator, using the pressure of the aspirator, filling it with water, cleaning out the nib, cleaning out the section when that's all cleaned and rinsed, using the aspirator to blow air through it again, you know, just pressurizing that air, knocking it through. And what I found is when I've been doing some of the ink reviews from all the ink samples I have with my TWSBI mini, I can I'm getting like when I when I'm focused and doing it just straight in a row, I can do like three ink reviews in an hour. That's starting with a clean pen, filling it, syringe filling it with one of the ink samples that I want to test, playing around with it, writing an ink review, then dumping the ink back into the vial, which I had never done before. We had done that episode and everyone a lot of people recommended that. Sidney sent that in his video, you know, about dumping the ink back in the vial, cleaning the barrel, cleaning the nib and drying it out and loading up a new ink in about 10 or 12 minutes. And I'm off writing another another ink review. And yeah, I'm getting I could do like three ink reviews in an hour where before I was too chicken to even try more than one a day. Like I would do do an ink review, clean out my pen and just let it sit there either soaking overnight or drying overnight and just being real chicken to to swap out inks. And I had no issues at all. I feel like I've I've found that groove now. I feel like I'm a pro. I'm a professional pen cleaner. So I can I can knock them out now. I feel pretty good about that.

Myke Hurley: So I've also been trying out some new ink stuff, been changing some cartridges and stuff, going through some of the J. J. Rob Mel inks, I believe it has to be pronounced. And I've been just blowing into the like the back of the nib, like where the ink goes, like Sydney told us we should. And that has really helped with me for me, too. So that's definitely I agree with that. Adding air pressure definitely seems to be the key.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So I'm adding water pressure, adding air pressure and stop being so, you know, tentative while I'm I'm doing it, you know, just force it through there. Get it done and, you know, not worry about, you know, did the slightest shade of ink remain, you know, in the nib? Because I kept wondering if I was going to see, you know, see discoloration in the new ink samples from old ink being in there. And it was almost no problem whatsoever.

Myke Hurley: So you published a few of your ink reviews now, haven't you? How are you finding it overall?

Brad Dowdy: Pretty good. I'm still not sold on the style and format that I'm doing, but I haven't figured anything else out yet. I definitely I love the Twisby mini for an ink reviewing pen. I think it does really good at showing off the ink properties.

Brad Dowdy: Then as soon as I settle on that, you know, everyone wants to know, well, how does it write in the extra fine nibs that you always write with? You know, can you do a sample of that? And that's when you get into a real juggling act and act and trying to do a review that can end up really taking a lot of time and a lot of effort. And, you know, so, you know, there's a there's a break even point, you know, where I just kind of I have to stop it somewhere. So it's one of those things where I can maybe follow up down the line with different nib sizes on some of the same colors and things like that. And what that might be is, you know, when I decide out of these ink samples, if I decide to purchase one or two bottles, then maybe I follow up do and I'm able to do, you know, a wider range of nibs and do testing like that. Because actually the ink samples aren't aren't very large and you go through the ink pretty quick.

Myke Hurley: You can kind of use this as a qualify, like qualification sort of criteria. And then if you're happy with it, then you go on and purchase for actual use.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And the first two that I did, I did the Noodlers 54th Massachusetts and I did the Pilot Oro Shizuku Konpeki. And it's bad that I did those two first because I really like both of them. You know, I'm like, man, this is going to end up costing me a lot of money in ink bottles because I could see using both of those inks on a daily basis. They're really good.

Brad Dowdy: So, but, you know, I've got some other ones upcoming that, you know, I like the ink. They reviewed well, but they're not inks that I would use on a daily basis. But they're still pretty cool and I'm still going to review them and post about them because they're, you know, there's so many, a lot of the inks, especially in the Noodlers that I'm finding, have so many different properties in, you know, in waterproofness and pigmentation and, you know, all kinds of different aspects of the ink. So there's definitely a lot to go through, a lot to talk about there.

Myke Hurley: No doubt. Yeah, it's a new place for you to go. It's interesting.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm still feeling it out and it's really fun. I enjoy messing around with these inks and, you know, trying different things that I've never had a chance to try. But as far as, you know, the presentation on the blog, doing a review, I think there's still some work to be done for me there. So we'll see how it goes.

Myke Hurley: Did you say that you'd posted the, oh, I can't say it, the Iroo Shizuku?

Brad Dowdy: Did I not post that one maybe?

Myke Hurley: You haven't posted that one yet.

Brad Dowdy: If not, it's upcoming. I must have posted the Roar and Klingner Alt Goldgrun. Is that the one I published?

Myke Hurley: No, you've published. You've published Noodlers and T-Tam and T-Tam? No. That might be quite old. No, there's 54th Massachusetts. 54th Massachusetts and the Jei Abanguage.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I haven't posted a third one?

Myke Hurley: I don't think so. Not that your site search is telling me.

Brad Dowdy: See, I wasn't, my kids weren't the only one that was sick last week.

Myke Hurley: If I look at your ink review category.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, well, hey, I don't know if I'd trust that because I'm a horrible, horrible categorier and tagger.

Myke Hurley: I did a site search for ink review.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: And that was what it gave me, so.

Brad Dowdy: Let me see. It's bugging me now. You could very well be right. But I thought I'd posted two of the first three that I did, but. Oh, I think you're right, Michael. Well, those are the ink reviews you have to look forward to.

Myke Hurley: Giving the game away.

Brad Dowdy: Well, no, I'd posted a picture on Flickr of the first three that I did, which were those three that I just mentioned. Right. Just kind of a quick sample. So those are no secret that those are the first three. I just haven't gone live with the other one. So I'll do one of the other two this week. I'll do the Oro Shizuku later this week and do the Alt Goldgrun next week.

Brad Dowdy: I did those three first because those were the most, when I put out a call for ink samples, you know, what did everyone want to, what was everyone's favorites? I think those were probably the three most popular.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So I wanted to get, I wanted to try them out for myself and I'm pretty happy with all three. They have some really unique properties. So, yep. I will look for those reviews soon, I guess.

Myke Hurley: So we're going to get back to ink a little bit later on in the show today. Okay. So I have something ink related that I want to talk about. But do you remember, Brad, many moons ago now, I made a JetPens order. Yes. Well, that order came in and I have some things. It was like a month ago by now. I made the order on the 18th of January, so it was a month ago.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So would you like to know what I bought? Absolutely. So one thing was I bought a clip for my Fisher Space Pen. Okay. Because I have the... I like those. Yes. You go.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, no. I like those. There's a couple of pens where you can order clips separately. The Fisher Space Pen for one and the Kaweco Sport line for the regular sports classics and the AL Sports. I like the Fisher Space Pen clip. I think it does a better job, just my opinion. And plus, it fits on other pens, I believe. You will have to test that out for yourself. If you ever have a... Finding yourself a clipless pen, since it's a pretty general size. Someone mentioned that to me along the way. Over the years. And I never tried it out for myself. That Fisher Space Pen clip will actually work on a couple other different pens.

Myke Hurley: Good to know.

Brad Dowdy: So what do you think about it?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it works great. It's just exactly what it needed it to do. I haven't got too much else to say on it, but I ordered it.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I like... I do like... I will say, I do like having a clip on that small of a pen. Because it'll get away from you in a pocket.

Myke Hurley: Exactly. Plus, because it's perfectly circular, you put it down and it just rolls away. So... Yep. I like it for that. So I bought the pen mascot of the show.

Myke Hurley: Do you know what this is?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Not exactly.

Platinum Time

Myke Hurley: I bought a Platinum Time fountain pen. Oh, look at you. I bought one.

Myke Hurley: I went for the khaki green. It's a nice color.

Brad Dowdy: You know, if you were going to buy one, I would have bet money that would have been the color. That's a good looking one.

Myke Hurley: It's nice. Looks good. Medium nib. Okay. So, my impressions are as follows. It comes in a very nice box and the pen is built very well. It is weighted very well. It's got an excellent weight to it. The clip has one of those satisfying clicks. Let's see if you can hear this.

Myke Hurley: So it's got a very nice, satisfying click to it. It's a medium nib, as I mentioned, but it's definitely not a European medium. Which I don't understand why. Okay. And if they say it is, I would be very surprised because this line is much finer than my Lamy lines. Which is a weird phrase. That sounds very strange. And in all honesty, it's okay. It's definitely not worth $30.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So, let's do a little comparison from some other pens I know you have. So, between this pen and your two Lamy's, your Safari and your AL Sport, what is your thoughts comparing, say, those three pens? What are your pros and cons? And what do you like and dislike?

Myke Hurley: I find the build quality of the Petygnum to be much higher. And so, the actual build quality of the pen is good. And it looks really nice. And it looks quite classic. The Lamy's look good, but they're plastic, right? This is not.

Brad Dowdy: Sure. Well, the AL is aluminum, but still. Same general design. Plastic grip.

Myke Hurley: Even the aluminum kind of feels like cold plastic. It's not very thick.

Brad Dowdy: I agree.

Myke Hurley: It doesn't really add a lot to it.

Brad Dowdy: It's not substantial.

Myke Hurley: I've just read on the page that the body is crafted from brass.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah, that makes a big difference.

Myke Hurley: So, this is what annoys me the most, I think, is that it's very nice. It's just not comfortable to use. I find the nib to be inconsistent and quite scratchy. It actually takes a bit of force to lay a consistent line. And I don't like to force fountain pens. Do you know what I mean? I feel like you have to really press to get a good line.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that should actually be the last thing, the last way you'd want to write with a fountain pen, right? I mean, it shouldn't take that much effort.

Myke Hurley: Exactly. And I find that if you just let it glide across the page, it's not a very comfortable or consistent experience, which is a shame. I mean, and also, but my main issue with this is the cartridges that it takes. Mm-hmm. I don't know what cartridges they are. They're longer cartridges that once came with it. But you know you have, I'm trying to think how to say this, the part that goes into the pen. Mm-hmm. The actual, like, that little sort of cuff. Yeah. Is longer than a standard cartridge. Hmm. So a standard cartridge, I use in some of the J.E. I love saying that now. Using some of their inks do not fit in this pen. Because they're too short, so it won't pierce the ball.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah.

Platinum Preppy

Myke Hurley: And looking at, yeah, looking at the page, it seems like there are specific Platinum Preppy fountain pen inks.

Brad Dowdy: Well, no, don't say Platinum Preppy. That's different.

Myke Hurley: That's not what I meant to say. But for some reason, they're in the, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: But I can't.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because I'm looking at the ink cartridges just on the pen page. And I guess they do look a little bit longer without looking at them. And I see the ink cartridges as well. I mean, it kind of looks, I'd have to go look and see. I don't have it in front of me. It looks a little bit like a Lamy. I think the Lamy's are a little bit longer in that direction. But, yeah, I'm not sure. But that's interesting.

Myke Hurley: Let me see. I think I've got a Lamy cartridge here.

Myke Hurley: Get away from me, Brad. Okay, I'm going to pop the ink cartridge out here.

Myke Hurley: Let's see.

Myke Hurley: Try not to. No, it's much longer.

Brad Dowdy: The Platinum.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Wow. I say much. It's a tad. It's narrower.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I mean, yeah. In those dimensions, it's much longer. Yeah. When you're talking fractions of millimeters.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's noticeably longer. So, I don't know if a standard cartridge would fit this.

Brad Dowdy: Interesting. And then, that means that a converter is an issue. And I don't see the converter offered. So, yeah. I wonder if you're, we'll have to do a little bit of research and see if you're really pigeonholed into using proprietary cartridges.

Myke Hurley: On the JetPens page, they list the Monteverdi mini fountain pen converter. But again, I don't know if that would definitely fit it. Sure. But they have specific, sorry, specific Platinum fountain pen ink cartridges.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. I see those. Well, that's too bad. That's too bad the nib is not up to snuff. And it's probably going to prevent you from really, you know, getting a lot of use out of the pen.

Myke Hurley: It will probably go in the cup now. Yep. In all honesty. I bought a Zebra four-color pre-fill. Okay. Multi-pen. They had a special edition New York edition, which I purchased, which is now out of stock.

Myke Hurley: It just looks nice. So, I went for it and thought I would try it out. It's very nice. I like it a lot. I have a pencil in it as well, which is kind of cool. Yeah. It's fine. I mean, I haven't really got too much of an opinion on it compared to, say, the Colito. I feel that they both do the job very well.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, this one, I actually did review this one, and it is actually live on the blog, unlike my other pretend reviews that I was talking about earlier. I was very happy with the way mine performed. And I did a little bit of a ranking, because I get that all the time. You know, how does this pen compare to this pen?

Brad Dowdy: Of the kind of the Japanese multi-pen ranking, just how I felt. And the Colito is far and away the best, but I put the pre-fill at number two. I was, I'm really happy with how it writes, which you would think it would not write any different than, like, well, I would at least hope, like, the Zebra Sarasa clip. Just a basic gel ink pen. But, you know, as I found with the Pentel Sleechies, why they rank so low, they're my least favorite Japanese gel multi-pen, is because the pens do write differently than the standard Pentel Sleechy single-cartridge pens. They absolutely do. And, you know, it's too bad, because it was a good idea. But, you know, that's not a multi-pen that I recommend to anyone. But I would definitely recommend this pre-fill. I'm pretty happy with mine. And, yeah, they did a good job. And, like you say, there's not too much to say about it. It's an inexpensive pen. You can get a three-barrel or three-cartridge barrel, four-cartridge barrel. And, you know, it's got some neat barrels like the one that you did. And there's some other limited edition ones. And, yeah, very good choice, good pen. And I'm pretty happy with it.

Myke Hurley: So the next one, this is every once in a while I peruse. This is the last item, actually, on this order. Every once in a while I peruse, like, the new arrivals and stuff. And there was a fountain pen that caught my eye, and I knew I had to buy it. And it's called the AG Spalding and Brothers BRFT220. BRFT.

Myke Hurley: BRFT. I don't know that one. I've got my hair. This thing is beautiful.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I've got some other AG Spaldings in there, Tiller. Okay, yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's maple wood orange body with – let me see what metal it uses. It doesn't say. But it's like a silver detail. So the cap and where the nib rests and sort of the tip of the pen as well. This – It's like a – I purely bought this as a statement pen. It's just beautiful.

Brad Dowdy: And in person, it lives up to the beauty on the page. Because this is one of my favorite-looking pens ever. I missed – they made one that was a black-coated maple that I missed out on. This would be my next choice. I think it's just – it's one of the best-looking pens I've ever seen, honestly.

Myke Hurley: I totally agree. You should buy it because it's fantastic. It's not necessarily the most comfortable to hold. Like, if you look at the second image, you'll see, like, the grip area is just metal. And it has, like, two levels to it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, there's a lot going on right where you grip it.

Myke Hurley: Get a good hold on it, and you're okay. You know, and I even at some points hold the wood area. And it works. It's – I've got the medium. It's definitely a European medium. It's very comfortable. The ink flow is fantastic. I haven't used it in a few days, picked it up. And I've got a Jé-Hobain ink in here, and it's perfect. I really, really like this pen a lot. And it's probably one that I keep at home just because I would like to just use it because I just – and I like having it on my desk because it's just fantastic looking. It's easily one of the best-looking pens that I own.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. I think you've sold me on that because this is one I've had, you know, wish-listed or kept an eye on for years and years and years. And probably just the medium nib threw me off, you know, kind of turned me off, I guess, in the beginning. But I've really gotten over my nib size phobia and I've come to appreciate the wider nibs and the variety that you can get.

Myke Hurley: They have a maple wood beige body as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. See, I actually have the rollerball, the beige rollerball, and then a solid silver rollerball, like a torpedo-looking pen. But I don't have one of the fountain pens. But I have like the – I guess you could say the sibling to the fountain pen and the rollerball, which I don't even know if it's still available on JetPens. But it's actually one of the oldest reviews on my blog. It's probably like an early 2009 or 2008 maybe review.

Myke Hurley: This is one of the things that I love about you is I think I found something random. But not only have you reviewed it, it's like on your list. I just think that is amazing. You just know everything about this stuff. You really – like you just got it all down.

Brad Dowdy: I definitely don't know everything. I'm learning every day. That's what it's all about.

Myke Hurley: So what one did you review? Did you review the fountain pen?

Brad Dowdy: No, it was a rollerball. I've never owned the AG Spalding fountain pen, but there was a rollerball.

Brad Dowdy: And like I said, I don't even know. You'll have to look on JetPens to see if it's even carried anymore.

Myke Hurley: I think they have the solid silver one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I had that one and then I had the exact maple one there.

Myke Hurley: I found your review. The imagery is definitely a lot better now than it used to be. When was this? Oh, my God.

Brad Dowdy: It's tragic, I'm sure.

Myke Hurley: 2008. Yeah. Yeah. It's much better now. Yep. Looks like you're using a Moleskine as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. When I started the blog, the first thing that came to mind for me to do reviews was a reporter notebook because I didn't want – I didn't want a standard bound notebook because I thought taking pictures, there would always be kind of a roll in the middle of the page. I could never get it to lay flat. And at the point, I hadn't found a writing pad that laid flat that I enjoyed writing with like the dome paper or rhodia. So, I used the reporter style, you know, the flip top Moleskine for my very first reviews.

Myke Hurley: There you go.

Brad Dowdy: I got over that pretty quick though. That didn't last too long.

Field Notes

Myke Hurley: So, can I talk about one more thing and then we'll take a quick break and then I can hand over to you for some of your topics? Sure. Yeah, please. So, a couple of Field Notes related items. So, good friend of the show. We all know our show mascot by now, Kuni Renashin. She sent me and she got hold of and sent me a Field Notes International Division badge. Remember we were talking about the American tradesman?

Brad Dowdy: It was the traveling salesman.

Myke Hurley: Traveling salesman. That's the one. Yes, that's it. And you were mentioning about badges. They did an international division badge and I now have one thanks to her.

Brad Dowdy: That is cool. That's cool because, yeah, when I was reading up about them and researching them and it said, you know, they did them for different regions of the U.S. Like I got a Southeast, whatever it said. And they didn't mention that they did an international one and then when I – I don't know how we got to talk about it. She said that, oh, yeah, when they sent them out, it says international. And I was like, that's really well done on their part. I mean, that's those extra things that, you know, not everyone notices but that's pretty impressive that they would take the time to do that.

Myke Hurley: I was very happy about that.

Brad Dowdy: That's cool.

Myke Hurley: So, also, we have a very new friend of the show who goes by the name of Topher Surovek. Yes. And he is at Topher on Twitter and I'll put a link to his blog in the show notes. He got in touch and said that he had a selection of field notes books that he wasn't using and was willing to send some over. So, I think he sent this to me and then I quickly alerted you. I don't know if you took advantage of it. I'll find out in a moment, I'm sure. But I was able to get my hands on and I now have here two Raven's Wing field notes which make me a very, very happy camper indeed.

Brad Dowdy: That's awesome and definitely the jealousy has already spawned on Twitter from some of our Twitter friends. Mr. Hackett is very upset at you right now for acquiring those.

Brad Dowdy: But what are your thoughts on those? Because that's probably one of the top two or three ones in my opinion. It's probably top two, honestly. They're just beautiful. They are just stunning.

Myke Hurley: I don't know what it will take for me to use this.

Brad Dowdy: Right. That's tough, isn't it?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, I would be very surprised if I can think of something that another field notes book couldn't just be used for, you know?

Myke Hurley: So, I think I mentioned this before but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be buying a Colors Edition next time around. So, the next time that they have something.

Brad Dowdy: Just go ahead and man up and subscribe instead of dealing with the one-off type of stuff.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, definitely.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think that's fair because you get two of the three packs, right? It's two, I think, for your subscription. Two per.

Myke Hurley: And what's great about Topher is because now I look inside now because I've become that sort of person and he was in the original 15,000 of these.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. So, exactly.

Myke Hurley: He was in the Colors subscription. So, Topher, thank you very much for getting in touch. And I know that I think that we both sort of tweeted out and I saw a follow-up tweet from him. Basically, his whole collection that he was willing to send off is practically gone now.

Brad Dowdy: It was an unbelievably generous thing that Topher did and I'm very appreciative. I was able to get some Mackinac Autumn and Packetful of Sunshine ones that I did not have before. So, it was cool to add those to the collection. And he was so generous. In fact, he made like a spreadsheet out and said, here's what I have. Here's how many I have. And you tweeted out to everybody and said, tell me what you want. And then about, I don't know, an hour or about two hours later, he tweeted out a picture. He had like a stack of six or eight envelopes he was getting ready to mail out. I thought that was pretty cool. And, you know, I was very happy, very happy camper to get those. And we definitely appreciate it, Topher. It was a very, very cool thing.

Blackwing Pencil

Myke Hurley: He even threw in a Blackwing pencil and a Sarasa clip in my package.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, same here. Same here. I got that too. I forgot about that. I love those pencils. I mean, I'm not a pencil guy at all. And I've talked to some of my pencil friends. And that's another episode down the line that we've talked about doing a woodcase pencil. That is an awesome pencil.

Myke Hurley: I don't want to ever use it. I think it looks stunning. I don't want to ever use it.

Brad Dowdy: If you took that to work one day and committed to that and not using any of your other pens or fountain pens, just use that pencil all day, you would be very happy. I promise you. Really? It's really good. It's a good pencil.

Myke Hurley: That's very interesting to say that. That's a very – yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's got a very different feel to it. And I enjoyed writing with it.

Myke Hurley: I don't want to use it. This is something about it. It just looks fantastic.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So thank you, Topher. That was great. I know we both really appreciate that. And I'm sure the other people that you sent some out to greatly appreciate it as well.

Myke Hurley: Indeed. Indeed. So shall we talk about Squarespace and come back? Do you know we're already half an hour in? Good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We probably got another half an hour of just rambling. So yeah, let's do it.

Myke Hurley: We very likely do. So of course, this episode is brought to you by those fine folks over at Squarespace.com who give you absolutely everything you need to make an amazing website. So you will know by now that Squarespace give you a fantastic range of tools for building your own website, blog, or portfolio. They take care of domains for you, hosting, design, scaling, page building, award-winning customer support, iOS apps, built-in analytics. They have the whole shebang. But what I want to tell you about today is something new that Squarespace has. So going along with all of these fantastic features that allow you to build an amazing website, Squarespace have just launched Squarespace Commerce, which is incredible. So you can take any new Squarespace site or existing Squarespace site and turn it into a commerce site. It's never been easier to start selling something online. Squarespace Commerce lets you add a fully integrated store to your website and instantly start accepting payments. They've partnered with Stripe to accept payments, and you can sell anything. You can easily add a store to the site and start selling both physical and digital goods immediately. They've looked at every part of the store management service, and they've taken care of it all and made it totally painless. You can manage your inventory straight in Squarespace if you're selling physical goods. You can process all of your customer orders. You can print packing slips for sending stuff out in the post. Customized emails. You can have codes like download codes can be generated for digital goods and much, much more. They have fantastic settings that let you quickly set up multiple shipping methods if you need to do that. Tax rules, coupons, and much, much more. These can all be painlessly integrated into your site. They've thought of absolutely everything, and I'm blown away. When I saw this launch, I was absolutely blown away. It's just another reason to use Squarespace for your website. It's like we were mentioning Tofa. He could have set up a page. Or Brad, you could do this. I know we've been talking about your Field Notes page. If you ever wanted to sell any now, you could set it up and sell them straight with Squarespace. It's very impressive. So go on, Brad. What was you going to say?

Brad Dowdy: No, I'm completely jacked about this product. You know, we've talked for a long time about, you know, me getting into the pen business and things like that. And, you know, let's just say, you know, I'm never going to be a full-on store, at least not anytime soon. But I've always wanted to get into a few things, and this definitely has the wheels turning. Let's just say many emails have been sent and many sketches have been done. And it's all because Squarespace launched this product. And I didn't see it coming. And I knew there was something coming, an announcement coming. And when it came, I was really taken aback by it. I was like, oh, my God, this is perfect.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I didn't see this coming. This is incredible.

Brad Dowdy: I don't have it turned on or active yet. But give me a few months, and we'll see. I'm pretty excited about it.

Myke Hurley: So Squarespace starts at 10. Actually, go to squarespace.com forward slash 70 decibels. You can start your free trial there, and you can also find out more about Squarespace Commerce as well. Squarespace plans start at $10 a month for their standard plan, $20 a month for their unlimited plan. If you sign up for a year, you'll automatically get 20% off. If you sign up for two years, you'll get 25% off that price. There are some additional fees for Squarespace Commerce, which you can find out more about on their site. If you decide to purchase for Squarespace, click enter an offer code below the pricing information at checkout. Use the code 70DEcibels2, and you will get an additional 10% off your first order. So go check out Squarespace, everything you need to make an amazing website. All right. So I believe it is your turn now, sir.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so we're going to continue on the Field Notes bandwagon, and we're going to do a live package opening here. Because I've got – I made another trade with the same lady I made a trade with a few weeks back where I got that purple XOXO edition. And that orange DDC design factory floor and the Renegade Pencils one.

Myke Hurley: All the ones that we were very jealous about.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I talked to her, and I had a couple more editions she wanted. I had the Balsam Fur, the original Colors Edition Balsam Fur. And I want to circle back on that, Myke, so don't let me forget that I need to make a comment on that, and I will. And the Threadless – there was a – the T-shirt company Threadless did a special edition where they had grids, and they kind of overlaid like a little T-shirt logo. So you could do your T-shirt designs on there. So I had a pack of that. She wanted both of those. So I traded her. She sent me – I know I've got – I'm trying to remember what I traded her, which is why I just got this out the mailbox before the episode, literally five minutes. I said, well, I'll just wait and hold this and open it on there because there's something in here that I hope is in here that I'm going to be pretty excited about if it's in here. So hang on. I'm literally cutting open the envelope as we speak. I'm pretty sure there's some Mackinac Autumn in here, which I'm happy about. But there's something else that I hope I'm going to find.

Myke Hurley: Let's see here. Anticipation.

Brad Dowdy: I know. Sorry. It's very excellent packaging here. Let's see.

Brad Dowdy: I'm getting there.

Brad Dowdy: This is exciting radio. I'm very excited, actually.

Myke Hurley: This is the most elaborate packaging system of all time.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, there we go. I got it. So what I have in my grubby little hands, aside from the Mackinac Autumn, I have a single Butcher Orange and a single Butcher Blue Field Notes.

Myke Hurley: Wow. These are pretty cool. Wow. These are pretty cool. That's awesome. So they're the first two, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. 2009 Field Notes brand special Butcher Extra Blue edition of 1500.

Brad Dowdy: 1500? And the orange is a Butcher Orange limited retail edition of 3000. So that's pretty awesome.

Myke Hurley: You got the original of the blue and the retail edition of the orange. Yep. That's awesome, man.

Brad Dowdy: That's awesome. And she also sent me a Raven's Wing, which we didn't even discuss, which, you know what? Mr. Hackett, if you're listening to this podcast, I will send that to you, sir.

Myke Hurley: Oh, look at you.

Brad Dowdy: Because I did not know that was coming, did not expect it. And I know he would like one of these, so I will send that to him. Well, cool. That's awesome. She said she was going to surprise me, and I kind of knew what was coming, and she generally told me. But, you know, since I've never seen them, I've never had one in my hands, so I'm pretty happy with this. So thank you, Pauline. That's pretty cool. So will you use those? I will not use those. No. For sure. I will for sure not use those.

Myke Hurley: I've been thinking about, like, as I collect my free packs, just to at least keep one of each. I'll use. And I wish I would have done that, because I have some Norvalese, and I think that you sent me, and I've used them both, and I wish I wouldn't have done that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I kind of came to that realization late in the game, where I never ordered less than two, three packs. So, I mean, you know, the idea behind these is to use them to write things down.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but if you've got a couple, like, you sent me two of them, and I used them both first, because I loved the way that they looked. But now, I wish I would have at least kept one of them. And then, you know, so I just will always have one of each edition as just part of, to build my own personal collection. Yep. Because I now have, I have stacks of these books all over my desk now. Exactly. Exactly. I shot a little Vine video, which I'll put in the show notes, too, of my collection. But this was before I got the Raven's Wing, so.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so should I do Vine? I've been avoiding it for, like, I just don't need another time suck. But, like, for things like showing off a new pen or a notebook, it's awfully dang convenient.

Myke Hurley: For that, yes, there could be some benefit to it. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I've been avoiding it on purpose. I mean, it's not. I don't have time for lots of things, and that's probably one of them.

Myke Hurley: It's nothing sort of crazy, to be honest. It's a bit like, you know, whatever.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, maybe I'll give it a shot. We'll see. Maybe I'll do something with these new field notes. Yes. So I said, let me get back to the balsam fir.

Brad Dowdy: And this isn't specifically for the balsam fir, but it's something I've been tracking over the last few weeks. Ever since we first started talking about the field notes special editions, I guess back in December, we did our field notes episode. And then field notes themselves came out a few weeks back, you know, with their own videos going through each different release over the years since they first started doing the color subscriptions. In the past, I'd say the past three or four weeks, maybe even longer, I've been tracking the eBay auctions for field notes. You know, and back in December, there was nothing coming up. None of the out-of-print editions, none of the rare editions, anything. You know, there might be something once in a blue moon, you know, like a packet of sunshine will show up and, you know, we'd get a few bids and it would sell. And then, you know, a northerly edition might pop up. I mean, this is like once every two or three weeks, something might show up. Now, all of a sudden, it's full bore, out-of-print editions left and right, and they're going for pretty good money. I mean, there's hardly one that goes by that's not going for $50 for a three-pack.

Myke Hurley: I've just gone on eBay here, ebay.co.uk. And the Neon ones?

Field Notes Editions

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Summer Camp.

Myke Hurley: $7.95, are they still available?

Brad Dowdy: It's possible. They were available a few months ago. They might have stopped selling them. I can't remember.

Myke Hurley: Because if they were, I was going to say $7.95 is quite…

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's real good. And there was actually two editions of those. There was an early edition that's already gone, that's long gone. I haven't seen those for sale in ages. But there was a newer edition, which is what I believe is called Summer Camp, which I have.

Myke Hurley: These are Neon Ice Pops.

Brad Dowdy: You'll have to send me the link just to be sure.

Brad Dowdy: But, you know, if you go on eBay right now, and I'm not looking at it, but, I mean, there's Balsam Fur, and there's Dry Transfer Edition, and the Packet of Sunshine, and, you know, I'm recognizing some of the names of the people on Twitter who collect these and are selling them. You have extras are selling them on there. The market for these has gone pretty berserk, which I find interesting. You know, they're priced for what the market dictates, right? But the level of engagement now on field notes collecting has kind of gone through the roof. And it's interesting to watch. I don't know if it's fun to watch because now all these old editions that, you know, I might have wanted to buy or trade for are now going for, like, crazy money. Like the Balsam Fur and the Threadless Packs that I just traded for these ones, they both sold in the past week for over $50 each. And I wanted to make a comment on the Balsam Fur specifically is if you're getting into this, you need to know, you know, understand what you're buying because just on eBay right now, there's two Balsam Fur editions. There's one from the Color Subscription Edition, and you can tell that by the red and white band around the books. And there's one from the Retail Edition, which just has a black and white band. And, you know, people who are listing these items don't realize that, I don't think, or, you know, either that or they're trying to get over on you. There's differences between Color Subscription Editions and Retail Editions, just like my Butcher Orange that we're talking about. If this was the Color Subscription Butcher Orange, it would say a $1,500.

Brad Dowdy: So, but I'm happy to have any Butcher Orange since I have zero. So, I knew ahead of time what I was getting. And if you're thinking you're getting the Color Subscription Edition, you know, just by looking up Balsam Fur and purchasing the one that's, you know, active on eBay right now, you may not be getting exactly what you think. And there's nothing wrong with that. You just need to just make sure you have all the information, I guess is all I'm trying to say. That was the Balsam Fur made me think of that when I saw two separate editions up there. And, you know, just if people are getting into this, and I haven't bought any from eBay, but, you know, know what you're, as with anything else, know what you're buying, do your homework. You know, question why the band is black and white when you see the pictures of the other ones that are red and cream color. So, there's a difference. So, anyway, I just thought I'd bring that up because the, you know, I saw an American Tradesman with the white pencil. You know, we talked about was the last run of pencils, and there's American Tradesman with the red pencils. It's amazing the stuff that's popping up there now that this is, field notes collecting has now become a thing, apparently. And, you know, maybe we had a little role to play in that. Not that I'm necessarily happy about that, but it is what it is, and, you know, it's ramped up big time here in the past month. And if you're looking for something, go on eBay. They're there. I recognize some of the sellers. If you have any questions, let me know.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm going to, I think I'm going to get, I am going to buy now on eBay the Day Game Edition. Mm-hmm. Seven pound ninety-five a free postage. Yeah. That's a steal. Seven pound ninety-five. Yeah. That's stupid, and I would get them from field notes.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's good. So, that's bought now. Good. Yeah, so, I think that, you know, I'm sure that most people have, but if for any reason you haven't watched that video, that was where I think we both learned quite a lot about what to look for with the differences in the editions, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. All these years of me buying field notes, I never knew that they listed that information in the back cover. I don't know why. I've just never registered to even check something like that. But they've done it since day one, as evidenced by these, you know, Butcher Blue editions. I mean, that was the second edition they ever made, and it's right there in the back. That's not something they came along and did later. So, you know, on any non-standard edition, they have it printed right there in the back, which is, you know, gives you all the information you need. But, you know, if it's a sealed, if it's a sealed-up three-pack, you're not going to know either, right? So you've got to take into account the other things like they talk about in those videos where, you know, the band is going to be different most of the time from the color subscription edition to the retail edition. So, and you definitely won't be getting the accessories with it as well with the retail edition, like the pencils, the carpenter pencils on the American tradesmen and the buttons with the traveling salesmen and all those different one-off things. So, anyway, just wanted to make people aware if you were into the field notes collecting and are going the eBay route, just pay attention, just like with anything else.

Myke Hurley: Exactly. Like, I'm, I don't know if I'm going to be getting with this pack here, I probably won't be getting the book, but that doesn't bother me. Right. I just love the colors that these books are in. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: And I like those because they're dot-gridded too. That's the, one of the only ones I think they've done that's dot-grid.

Myke Hurley: Oh, really? Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: And I did the same thing as you did. They did the exact same thing. I didn't really care for the book, even though I'm a huge baseball nerd. I, I bought the, just the regular three-pack edition, like the retail edition of those. And I love the, the colors that they did and the dots. So, yeah.

Myke Hurley: I like the, the white with the red.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. That's my favorite too. So, the baseball one.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah. That's cool. So, um, what else have we got?

Brad Dowdy: You got another new pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I did. So this, this is all, this is really awesome. So, um, I'm going to see if I'm going to get this guy's name as opposed to just his Twitter name. Because I, I don't just like, you know, this person says they have their name read out in the air. So, um, their Twitter account is like, probably like Junior Martz, Junior? It's John Martin. Um, and he is an American gentleman and a very kind soul who totally out of the blue said, I have a, uh, Twisby 540. Um, and I want to send it to you. And I was like, okay, great. So, I am now the proud owner of a Twisby 540 in, um, ice blue. I think it's the color. Mm-hmm. And Mr. Dowdy.

Myke Hurley: Boy, oh boy.

TWSBI Sapphire

Myke Hurley: Did I make a mistake? Oh, sapphire it is. Did I make a mistake not getting one of these sooner?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I've, I've said it before. And this podcast and to you personally, if there was one pen that I knew Myke Hurley would fall for, head over heels, without question, blindly purchasing a pen, it would have been the Twisby 540. I would have guaranteed, I would have bet any amount of money that you would have really taken to this pen.

Myke Hurley: And it was my own foolishness, really, for, for wanting to get the one that you had, because I like the colors of it the most, and then letting that go by when I could have actually bought it one day, and then just not picking up another one like a crazy person. And so I, not only is that, I mean, this is, like, just, all of this is obviously awesome. But what makes John even more awesome is that he knows that I would have loved to have, obviously, a broad nib. And this is a broad nib. Mm-hmm. It's awesome. So let me tell you about what I love about it. I love the way it looks. For a pen which is clearly plastic, it is weighted so well. It is.

Brad Dowdy: It's real nice.

Myke Hurley: So, and I assume that's because of the mechanism inside. It's like a piston mechanism?

Brad Dowdy: Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, it's a piston filler.

Myke Hurley: Which is also awesome. So all you do is you just dip, you sort of screw the end, dip into the ink, and screw it again on the other end. It just fills up with ink. Yep. But there is one problem. I have one problem. And this is one of the things I need. I need your help, dear listeners. I am currently using Noodler's Heart of Darkness. It's the only ink that I have. I have a Mont Blanc ink, but I can't imagine that's actually that good quality, thinking back.

Myke Hurley: Especially not as good as, like, the little stuff that we find now. But, yeah, I have this. I have Noodler's Heart of Darkness. That is the only bottled ink that I own.

Myke Hurley: And I'm having serious problems with the amount of time it's taking to dry. With this being a broad nib, it's laying down quite a thick, wet line.

Myke Hurley: Which, being a left-handed person, is an issue for me. So I need an ink that dries, like, really fast.

Myke Hurley: So I am petitioning to you, dear listeners of The Pen Addict, I want to know a good ink that dries quick. That's practically all I want. And then I am sure that once I have this ironed out, I will have found my favourite pen of all time. That's awesome. From the moment I inked it and put it to the page, it was perfect. Like, the actual way it writes is just to everything I want in a fountain pen, this writes exactly like that. And I have, in all honesty, I've had this same issue with Noodler's before. When I've used Noodler's in a converter, I also find it does not dry quick enough. I don't know if that's just the heart of darkness or if that's all Noodler's. But it doesn't, and right-handed people might not notice this, but I am having serious issues with it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's definitely not all Noodler's. I can tell you that in the few that I've tested, some dry faster than the others. And, you know, you asked me this question offline, and I didn't really have a great answer for you. So we definitely want to hear some responses. I know there's some that are specifically made, you know, to be quick drying. And back to John Martin, he also sent me a couple of ink samples that I have yet to test, one of them being Noodler's X-Feather, which I need to try out. So, yeah, let us know what your quickest drying ink is, because I think we'd both be interested in something like that, as would our listeners.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and this is the thing that you mentioned to me that it might be expensive. Basically, I will take your recommendations, and if you tell me this is definitely what I need, and it's like $20, $30, $40 a bottle, I will pay it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I guess what I was relating to you is, you know, what I've seen from these Hiroshizuku inks is they dry relatively quickly. I don't know that they're the fastest or quickest drying ink, but, you know, they're probably double the cost of the same size bottle of, say, a Noodler's or some other thing. So that was just the point I was making. And, you know, like you're saying, you know, price is no object in this endeavor.

Myke Hurley: No, because this is about me finding an ink that's going to last me for a long time and give me great satisfaction from a pen. I mean, and if it is, I mean, if I get recommendations of the, I can't say it, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Hiroshizuku.

Myke Hurley: Hiroshizuku. I mean, there's so many colors. Again, let me know if there's a specific color that you've used because for all I know, different colors have different drying properties.

Brad Dowdy: They do. Yeah, they'll definitely need to be specific on color, and they will. People who are into that and worry about things like dry time, they will be very specific, I can assure you.

Myke Hurley: And I know that we have some listeners that know this information, so please don't be shy. This is important to me right now because I'm now using it. Basically, it has been promoted to my work pen, and that is the most important pen that I own. Wow. Because this is where I do my writing. And I've actually found myself recently moving away from fountain pens at work and going back to the tornado. But this has sold me because it's a joy to write with. I just need a better ink than what I'm currently using. Heart of Darkness is a fantastic color. And it is very beautiful, actually. Even though it's just black, it's such a deep black. It's absolutely fantastic. And I've used it in other pens, and it has worked. But, for example, in my medium Lamis, it's much more manageable. Right. And in the Praera as well, it's much more manageable. But in this broad line, it takes far too long to dry. I can't turn pages in my notebooks. Ah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: You know? So it's really taken a long time.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's taken a long time. So I need something, and I need it quick. Please, please just tell me. I mean, basically, if somebody gets back to me tomorrow, I will probably buy it, and then we'll end up spending hundreds by the end of the week because I'm going to keep buying all these things. But I need good recommendations from people for a good quick drying ink. If you are left-handed, then you must get in touch with me because you will understand my plight. But you can email us, 70decibels.com forward slash contact, or I'm on Twitter and app.net, iMike, I-M-Y-K-E, and you will have my eternal gratitude. So you have one more thing before we finish today, right?

Brad Dowdy: I do. And this is a pen that I'll probably be talking about more, and I haven't reviewed yet. But it's one I just finalized a transaction for, a very cool pen. I tweeted out a picture yesterday, and honestly, it was a pen I did not know existed.

Pilot Vanishing Point

Brad Dowdy: The way I came about it is, you know, everyone knows my love for my pilot Vanishing Point, my black mat Vanishing Point. And I had a reader and a listener who found one in his desk or found a fountain pen in his desk, basically. He didn't totally know exactly what it was. And he did some research online and came across my black mat Vanishing Point. And he said, hey, you know, I found this pen. I probably got it, you know, 10 or more years ago as a graduation president. And I've never used it. It was just right on the ground on my desk. I don't have the original box or paperwork or anything. And then he said, I saw it looks a lot like the Vanishing Point that you have. So he sent me some pictures of it. And it's this really cool old-style Namiki Vanishing Point. And the way the old-style ones were designed is the nib is more integrated into the barrel design, I guess is the right way to put it. It's very obvious. All the old Vanishing Points have this style. But what's unique about this one is it's a black barrel. It's faceted, which is, you know, like your Twisby. You know, it's kind of got the ridges on there, but it's just like straight lines. I don't know how to explain this. It's like hexagonal, but it's called faceted barrel. It's just got ridges on it as you look around it. And what makes this one unique is that the clip and the knock are also black.

Brad Dowdy: They made a – I think they made – the normal release of it was the clip was silver and the knock was silver. But this one's fully black, obviously, except for the nib. So I was pretty happy to, one, see this pen and, two, be able to buy this pen from this reader. And we'll definitely talk more about it because I got to do a review on it because it is so different than the Vanishing Point that we have right now. I couldn't even do it justice explaining it. But it's – the first thing I can tell you is it's made out of plastic instead of brass.

Myke Hurley: Oh, wow.

Brad Dowdy: So it's lighter weight. It's narrower in diameter. And it's just a really unique pen.

Myke Hurley: I remember that.

Brad Dowdy: A lot of people prefer this model over the current models that we use.

Myke Hurley: I remember when you were originally looking for this pen. This was the one you were looking for. I remember us talking about this.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. So it's cool. I'm a little scared to use it because it's so much lighter than my other one. I don't want to ding it up. My other ones – I use my other ones so much it's all dinged and, you know, it's got character now. You know, I enjoy using the pens. I don't want to ever – you know, we talk about field notes and, you know, putting away one pack and using one pack. I don't ever want to get to the point where I'm buying fountain pens and not using them. You know what I mean?

Myke Hurley: Like I do.

Brad Dowdy: Well, no. I mean I don't want to get to the point where I don't want to spend, you know, $800 on some rare Mont Blanc and it just sits, you know, in a display case.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. If I'm going to spend, it's got to be an amount that I'm comfortable with if I don't think I'm going to use it, you know, and that's too much.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Or dinging it up or whatever. You know, I don't know. You know, my opinion is always subject to change. But, you know, the pens I buy right now I really want to use. And I've been kind of chicken on using this one and, you know, really giving it a full go. But it came with a medium nib. And I'm actually going to try something with this nib. I think I might get it worked on and reshaped. So we'll see how that goes. That's a plan for another day. I haven't really thought it out. But it would be interesting to try. But anyway, that's my latest pen. And that image in Twitter I can find for you if you haven't already. And we'll put it in the show notes. But you'll be seeing more of it because I'll do a review in comparing the old version Vanishing Point to the new version Vanishing Point. Both of them are the black stealth editions. And it's crazy how different these two pens are. They barely seem related other than the retractable mechanism on them. So it's pretty cool. I'm real happy with it. It's a really neat pen.

Myke Hurley: I found your image and I put it in the show notes. Thank you. It's very different looking. It is. I would like if you, when you review it, if you could take some of those images that you originally took where you show the pen nib retracting into the body. Because I don't know if I know exactly what you mean when you say it was more integrated.

Brad Dowdy: No, I may have misspoke. The clip is integrated into the body, not the nib. I must have misspoken there.

Myke Hurley: Is the clip more comfortable?

Brad Dowdy: I would say it is, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know how well you can see it in that picture. That was with my iPhone. It was kind of dark. But you can see, you know, on the regular Vanishing Point, we have, you know, it kind of, it looks like the clip is like bolted on, right? And in this one, it's built into the design of the pen.

Myke Hurley: It also looks like the clip starts much later down the barrel. Yes, yeah. It's moved down.

Brad Dowdy: It's moved down a fraction, right?

Myke Hurley: I can imagine this one being a lot more comfortable to hold.

Brad Dowdy: And it's, I'll do some weights if I can find my little scale. It's got to weigh half as much. You would be shocked to pick up this pen if you're used to the other one.

Myke Hurley: It really kind of, I mean, I'm sure you will come to this conclusion, but it looks to me like they actually went backwards and made it less comfortable. Because I think that the Vanishing Point is too heavy for long periods of time. And the clip is awkward.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: And it seems like this version may have been better for that, but I'm sure you will let us know if that's the case or not.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I mean, a lot of people swear by this version with the more built-in style clip.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And, I mean, there's tons available. You can buy these all day long in this design. Maybe not necessarily the exact style that I have, but this design of Vanishing Point, they're available constantly.

Myke Hurley: Hmm.

Brad Dowdy: You know, they only stopped making them, I think, in the 90s, so they're pretty readily available. You know, and you can still get them. They're still around the same price, you know, between, say, $100 and $150 in that range. You can find one of this style Vanishing Points somewhere. You know, eBay, Fountain Pen Network, something. I mean, they're pretty easy to come by.

Myke Hurley: Cool.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Very happy with it. So, now I just got to need to start using it or get the nib worked on and something like that. Because the medium nib is, this thing is like butter smooth. It's like I almost don't want to mess with it, but I'm just not an all-day, everyday medium nib writer. I just won't use it as much if it is. So, I want to see if I can get this converted into a stub nib, and I'm going to take it to the pen show when I go and see what the possibilities are.

Myke Hurley: Cool. Cool. That sounds exciting. I want you to do that because I'm excited to hear what that process is like.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, well, I'm definitely taking my LAMI 2000. Awesome. So, and I think I might tack this on there now that I have bought it. So, yeah. It'll be an interesting conversation. I'll be learning a lot from that experience.

Myke Hurley: Indeed. Yep. Great stuff. So, there's a few ways you can get in touch with us. I've already mentioned some of it, but you can get in touch with Brad by going to thepenaddict.com or penaddict.com. And you are thepenaddict at gmail.com, right? To email you. Yes. And you are dowdy, D-O-W-D-Y on app.net. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on app.net and Twitter. Brad is dowdyism, D-O-D, sorry, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter. Thank you very much for listening to this episode. I think this has been a fantastic episode, Brad. So, thank you. Thank you. And until next time, bye-bye. Bye.