The Pen Addict 438/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	438
Title:	I’ll Take a Kilt – Holiday Gift Guide 2020
Release Date:	November 25th, 2020
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	Ana Reinert
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 438
Audio File:	Audio Episode 438
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 438
Length:	8383 min <br />1.383 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Holiday Gift Guide

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 438, and it is our holiday gift guide for 2020. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace and Good Made Better. My name is Myke Hurley, and I have the real pleasure of being joined by Anna Reinert. Hi, Anna.

Anna Reinert: Hello, Myke. So good to hear your voice.

Myke Hurley: And you, you get top billing today, I've decided. Brad's also here. Hi, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: I was trying not to laugh, because I didn't catch it at first, but once you said you had the real pleasure, I knew it wasn't going to be me. And then I tried not to bust out laughing right there, because it was accurate.

Myke Hurley: It's not that fake pleasure that I usually have. Brad is also here with his busted arm. Hi, busted arm, Brad. Hey, busted arm, Myke. How are you doing? So, quick, just decide, are you doing okay?

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep, all good. Gets better every day, which is what you, I think, want to say when you have a break like this. So, yeah, very content with, you know, the situation progressing.

Myke Hurley: Well, we are, the band's back together, and we are doing our 2020 holiday gift guide. I think still with ample time to make sure that you have the gifts in mind for, so what I like, actually, what I like about our holiday gift guide is, you can give this to somebody in your life, and they can pick things, but this is also a place where if you're thinking, I need to tell people what I want for the holidays, we are now here to give you a bunch of suggestions for things you can tell people in your life to buy you as a pen addict. So, as we have had for the last couple of years, Brad has put together some categories for us, and then the three of us have some suggestions in each category. So, would you like to explain how we're going to start this thing off, Brad Dowdy?

Brad Dowdy: Yes, so, we always kind of talk about how do we set up the gift guide episode, and it's worked out better in this format where we just pick a general category of gift. There might be a budget involved, there might not be a budget involved, but instead of doing strictly, okay, what do we buy for $25, what do we buy for $50 a weekend?

Myke Hurley: Or like, what's the best ballpoint, what's the best fountain pen? It gets a bit repetitive.

Brad Dowdy: Like, Ana has plenty of articles about that, I have plenty of articles about that, you can find out those things. You can ask us directly, I'm sure Ana would, you know, be glad to help you, you know, pick out whichever specific pen you want, but these are kind of little groupings if you have less information, but still have a budget, or just kind of an idea you want to surprise somebody. Some of these are pretty standard ideas, and then some of them came from our Twitch chat the other day, gave us some little one-off categories to feature to have fun with. So, yeah, it's pretty standard gift guide setup, I would say, to be quite honest.

Myke Hurley: So, where are we starting? The basics and beginner.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we're starting with the basics, and that's kind of how we'll go. We'll kind of start small, start with the basics, then we'll ramp up into some weirdness as we get through. We'll each, you know, take the category, we'll each give our own answers, and we'll just kind of rotate through the answers. I'm up first for the basics beginner set, and I put in a little sentence of note for what each category is. This one is build out a kit for someone, also a kilt, but that's a different category.

Myke Hurley: I'll take a kilt if that's what we're doing. I wasn't prepared.

Beginner Kits

Brad Dowdy: I'm not wearing a kilt. Build out a kit for someone who's just starting to show interest in the hobby, budget of $50. So, I was thinking, you know, we always have the beginner pin question, but this, I thought the idea was someone who is a little, maybe just past the beginner phase, where they've kind of got the hook set, and now you've got to reel them in. So, I went pretty basic on this category. I'll go first, and then Anna will follow, then Myke on this category. I went pretty basic, and I'm kind of realizing as I went back through some of these answers, this is a lot of stuff I want.

Brad Dowdy: So, like, this is a very Brad answer. So, it's, of course, the TWSBI Eco, but specifically the cement gray one, which I think is the big underrated Eco of the year. They have all these bright ones. There's a reason it's underrated.

Anna Reinert: It looks like they forgot to paint it.

Brad Dowdy: It's amazing. It's the best looking TWSBI Eco of the year. I love it. It's the best.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Number one. But to Anna's point, maybe that's why it's still available. So, that's why I put that on there. So, you can still find it.

Myke Hurley: The most utilitarian looking pen I think I've ever seen. You have to be into that, right? Yeah. We clearly both are, but it is very, like, it's boring.

Brad Dowdy: So, the idea is, like, you may not always be able to buy the person the pink pen without knowing them, like, the depths of their love for the thing. So, the cement is pretty basic, but then it's got that clear barrel, and you can put this purple ink in it. Like, I put Monteverde Rose Noir ink in it, but you can pick, like, these Monteverde inks are really great. I think Anna will vouch for that. Yes. And there's, like, 50 colors you can choose, and you get that big color swatch in the middle of the Eco, and paired with the Clairefontaine Triumph pad, which is the most ridiculously priced, high-quality writing pad out there for $5 for 50 sheets of the Clairefontaine Triumph. It's really good. I think it's kind of a good setup for a beginner where you kind of get the one-of-each type of thing.

Anna Reinert: Well, you heard my comment on the cement gray.

Brad Dowdy: Fair, fair.

Anna Reinert: And, you know, one of the things is that on a lot of websites, the color doesn't, like, it's very hard for the photographers to get the color balance right because it is the most neutral shade of gray. So, sometimes it looks like the photograph is black and white.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. And let's be clear real quick. Sorry to cut you off, Anna, but I want to set this up for the rest of the show. This show started, the gift guide started, because Anna and I fight over the choices. This whole idea of a gift guide episode started because Anna came at me, bro, during our first gift guide episode.

Anna Reinert: It was a rebuttal.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, with the rebuttal. So, this is going to be how the show is going to go. We're going to fight the whole way, and that's kind of the best part of it. So, all right, what you got?

Anna Reinert: It's all in good humor.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, absolutely.

Anna Reinert: So, what I did was thinking about, again, a beginner who may already have purchased a pen or two that might just, like, want the next step, you know, again, to get the hooks into them. So, I went with an ink sampler kit idea. Ink Journal has an ink sample box. It's, like, one of those, like, ammo, plastic ammo boxes that has 10 assorted samples in it. So, it's just sort of like a random assortment of ink samples, which I thought it was a great sort of get into different kinds of ink. It's a great way to just try out a bunch of inks if you haven't kind of delved into that side of the hobby yet. And then, of course, if you're going to have all those inks, you're going to need a color ring.

Myke Hurley: Yes, you do.

Anna Reinert: Like, I feel like there should be a bell every time I self-promote.

Myke Hurley: You know what? I, this is so funny. We had the exact same thought. I have a bell, but I don't have it here at home except my studio. But when I, as we were getting into this conversation, I'd forgotten. And I got up to go see if my bell was here because I was going to institute the anytime one of the three of us talks about one of the products we make to ring the bell. So, today, we will ring the bell just by saying there's the bell, but there is no bell.

Anna Reinert: Because then, of course, the next step would be to select one of the daily grind nib rubber stamps that we create, which is an assortment of sort of familiar to most people looking nibs.

Anna Reinert: But we tried not to, like, you know, break any, I guess, copyrights. I don't know if you can copyright the shape of a nib, but you know what I'm saying. I think you can do.

Brad Dowdy: I'm sure you'd hear from Montblanc.

Myke Hurley: There is a phrase, I guess, called trade dress. It might come under.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. So, we went, we've created, so far, there are, what, six sort of standard nibs, and then we have three fantasy nibs.

Anna Reinert: So, the fantasy nibs aren't in the daily grind set, but we also have them. So, if you know someone who is particularly fond of octopi, octopuses, we have one named Squidney. Nice. That looks like an octopus, which is one of my favorites.

Brad Dowdy: I love these stamps. I'm staring at my stamp. I have an ink pad right here. And then I also, I got a shipment from you the other day with a little tester sample nib on there. So, yes, I love these things. Highly, highly recommend it. Very fun. So, they're even in my list later, but we're going to talk about that.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. There may be a few that are currently listed out of stock, but I got notification today that my new order is on the way. So, give it a couple of days, and they should all be up on the site. And then my last thing is that if you're going to be playing with ink to get one of the bamboo-style dip nibs that are available on eBay, these are capped. So, they are a little less fragile. And the nib, while it says it's glass, is actually plastic. So, while you can still drop it and chip the tip, which I have done, it's a little less fragile. The barrel is really nice, closing kind of thing. They're very popular amongst the staff at the well-pointed desk.

Brad Dowdy: Nice. All right, Myke, what you got?

Myke Hurley: Completely different, out of left field. And I really tried today to pick not my usuals, but I'm going with a Rotaring 600 mechanical pencil and a Rodeo web notebook.

Brad Dowdy: I thought that was really smart, actually. Thank you. I saw your answer. I was like, yeah, that's a good, that's a pencil that not everyone's going to buy for themselves, right? But if you have the right person that's into that type of thing, right? It still has to fit this category of, like, not everyone's going to like that 600 style. But if you have that person in your life, that might blow their mind.

Myke Hurley: I feel like the 600, so the web notebook I just picked because it's like a nice notebook, but like it's as nice a notebook as any other notebook. But I like them. And I find the Rodeo paper to be really versatile and it works with lots of different types. And also the web notebook has that Moleskine-like look so people would see it but immediately understand why it is better. You know, like the cover is padded, like it's softer, it feels nice, even though it's still hardcover. And the paper is so much better and it's still got the elastic and all that stuff. So, like, I think that that's a really good step up for someone who's new. And the reason I paired it with the Rotaring is because I feel like the Rotaring 600, it works like a mechanical pencil, but it doesn't feel like any mechanical pencil you've used up until that point. And I think that if you are so inclined, you will immediately understand why it is better. And so I think it's a real good product for somebody who is newer to this because I think that it will give them a real kind of like, oh, kind of feeling. So I think it's a good one.

Level Up Pens

Brad Dowdy: Yep. All right. Next category is the level upset. This is for all of you, you pen addicts out there. And, you know, you start getting into this stuff and your budgets start to increase. And then the breadth of your collection starts to widen. So I gave us a budget of $200 for this kit. And this is for your stationary lovers. You know, what kind of things would they be interested in that they're really into this? How can they add to their collection? So, Ana, you have the honors.

Anna Reinert: So knowing right now that most people who might be into this kind of thing are probably working from home right now due to some environmental factors that are causing everyone to have to work from home. I picked some things that might qualify as sort of desk accessories. You know, in previous years, I think we probably would have mentioned like a carrying case or something that you can put in your backpack. Well, nobody's going anywhere right now. So maybe it's something that stays on your desk. So the first thing I put on my list is the high tide 30 minute sand glass. So it's like a little timer that's like the, you know, like the hourglass kind of shape and it has the sand that drops through. And I thought that that, you know, if you're looking for some way to sort of convince yourself to do the sort of pomodory method or I don't even know how to say it. But you know, pomodoro. Pomodoro. Where, you know, you need to just knuckle down for 30 minutes and get some work done and stop cruising YouTube or Amazon or whatever. Sure. This is a great option. And it's very, it's, it looks nice on your desk. It's very cool. So I thought that would be a nice addition to someone's collection and probably not something someone would necessarily go out and buy for themselves right away.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Can I make a confession real quick?

Anna Reinert: Sure.

Brad Dowdy: So I had this on my personal list, right? Just like this is something that I wanted to buy for myself. And then I saw you put this in the notes. I went over to buy it before. I cheated. I went over to buy it before we announced it in the list.

Anna Reinert: Before it got cleared out.

Brad Dowdy: That's my confession to make that I had been wanting one of these and I figured, well, now's the time.

Anna Reinert: So then the next thing I put on, and I did not realize who this week's sponsor is. So I guess there should be another bell for this, but the Penwell.

Myke Hurley: They're just proving that me and Brad are completely, completely absolved in this situation. There was no.

Anna Reinert: So I put one of the Penwell. I really like the frosted acrylic, but there's also a beautiful stainless steel, like brushed metal look. And I thought for somebody, if you weren't sure specifically, like that they really like a certain shade of wood grain or something like that. And some of the other Penwells are a little more, you know, they have a very specific look. I thought the frosted acrylic or the brushed metal, like would look nice on anyone's desk. It would go with any decor or whatever. But I thought that, again, it's not something that someone would necessarily go out and buy right away. It does seem like a bit of a luxury.

Yamamoto Paper Collection

Anna Reinert: So, and then the next on my list is the Yamamoto Fountain Pen Friendly Paper Collection.

Anna Reinert: We did an extensive review earlier this year on it and tested all of the different papers to see how they performed. But I think it's one of those things that a lot of people, if they had the $45 to spend on it, would want to try it out themselves and see if they liked one of the papers better than one of the others. Because I've seen now that Yamamoto is slowly releasing these papers in like pads or loose sheets of just one or two of the different types of paper. So I feel like it's a good, it's a good way to try something out and then be like, that's my favorite. I love that paper. And I hope Yamamoto has a set of that particular stock. So then the last couple items I put on here kind of go together, which is this new Kuretake Karapo empty felt tip pens. So you can fill these pens up with fountain pen ink or they have like an ink set that's available to like mix your own colors. But an opportunity to play with ink in your own little felt tip pen. So they come and they're completely clear. There's no ink in them. And then you take this sort of like little fiber pad inside and you dip it into either a bottle of ink or into a container with some ink in it. Very cool. Until it absorbs it all. And then you put it in the pen and you can use it. So I put that on the list. And then one of the Colorverse mini collections where you get like, I think it's like four of their little five milliliter bottles. And their bottles are just so cute. They're very giftable. As opposed to just samples.

Brad Dowdy: That's kind of the perfect match for the Kuretake's because those bottles are so tiny and super cool. But that felt is going to absorb the ink, you know, a lot easier than getting your little pipettes and trying to swap over the ink into your fountain pen. So that's kind of a perfect match.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke, what you got?

Myke Hurley: All right. So I think that really a very good level up for people is the Studio Neat Mark 1. Straight up one of my favorite pens of the last few years. I use one probably every day. I think if you're coming from any type of rollable or ballpoint pen, this is just an excellent addition. It's $65, but at $65, it's just excellent value. I really think that the Mark 1 is just a superb product. I think that Studio Neat did a great job of it. I will pair it with the Pano Book. Get a two pack for $40. This is my favorite. It's like my favorite notebook of all time. I use it constantly. I absolutely love this notebook. It's so useful if you work on a desk with a computer. Like that's where it really shines because the form factor means that it will sit between you and your keyboard very nicely. And I love having a notebook available to me constantly in a fixed position, right? So I don't have to think about it if I need to take a note of some kind. So I'm a big fan of those two products. Get ready for the bell. Theme system journal. Ding! I would say the theme system journal is a great product because I made it. Version 2 is coming very soon. We still have some available. If you go to cortexmarch.com, you can get some under version 1. But version 2 is just around the corner. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I think that version 2 is better than version 1 in basically every single way. But the inside layout as such is basically the same. So if you want to jump on the cheaper version, you can get it now because the new one will be a bit more expensive. But it's because it's a higher quality product than what we've made. So it is a great way to keep track of how you're doing throughout the year against the selection of goals and or thoughts and or themes that you have set for yourself. So, yeah, I will talk about the new theme system journal on this show in a few weeks' time once we've actually got the new one. So I want to talk with Brad. Brad has one. And I want to talk about it a bit more in detail. Yeah, we'll do a whole thing. I think a nice step up for people if they're coming into fountain pens is the Lamy Safari. Safari is the best. We all know that. This is something the three of us couldn't all agree on is that Lamy Safari is the best Lamy. And there's no question about that. I think Lamy Safari is a genuinely great pen because it comes in a bunch of colors. And it's one of those pens. There's a reason that it's sold in so many office supply stores because not only is it a great pen, it looks like a step up. You know, you see someone use the Lamy Safari and you're like, oh, this person clearly knows their pens. Like if you don't know anything about pens, that's kind of how you look at someone, I think. It's got that kind of look to it. And look, I love them. I use the Lamy Safari all the time. I mean, granted, the Lamy Safari that I use is a rushi coated. But nevertheless, it still performs in the same way that a Safari would.

Brad Dowdy: I think it's a shockingly good fit for the rest of this set. Right. It's like the right answer to go. Like if you're buying all of this together, even though you like you have the Mark 1, you have the Safari. It kind of fits with everything else. I think. I think so. Cool.

Myke Hurley: And then my last one for your Lamy Safari is grab a bottle of Robert Oster ink. Robert Oster ink is my favorite ink collection. Personally, I love the colors. The performance of them is great. And there are so many of them. The only thing I don't like is the bottles. Because they're plastic, I'm always terrified I'm going to knock them over when I'm filling up them. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. They're a little bit tall. And I have that in my next selection, too. So my level upset. I'm a very, I have a very fountain pen theme going on here with all of my stuff. I guess that's what I'm thinking about right now. It's like, what are the things that I want? And I put in.

Myke Hurley: It's because you can't use fountain pens right now. That's what I see. You just lost enough of the things you want.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's probably very true. So the Leonardo Memento Zero. I picked specifically the green blue rhodium. Despite the terrible name, it's a beautiful pen. But you can pick any of the Leonardo Memento Zeros. And if you're someone who's, you know, getting into fountain pens and you're trying to figure out what that level up, you know, pen is going to be for you. I think the Leonardo Memento Zero is kind of right in that category. You know, it's $160. It's not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. But relative to the other pens on the market, I think it's just a really, really good value. It's a great writing experience. Beautiful. Well made. And then I match that up with Robert Oster Deep Sea Inc. It's kind of in that matching theme, that bluish green to go with the green blue pen. And put that all with an endless recorder notebook. I think the Tomoe River is always a really good step up for fountain pen users when they're starting to get into things. And see the unique features that Tomoe River paper offers. You know, maybe you find out it's not for you. But most people with fountain pens and fountain pen inks tend to have their eyes open a little bit how that paper operates with this, you know, with a fountain pen. And I think that kind of setup with, you know, a new pen, a cool ink and a great paper, I think is a really good level up option.

Anna Reinert: I'm just sitting here trying to come up with a better name for that pen.

Brad Dowdy: But since the moment it launched, it makes my eyes pop out of my head because it's just called green blue and then the trim name green blue rhodium, green blue gold.

Myke Hurley: Well, it's, the full thing is Leonardo Memento Zero Green, I couldn't do it. Leonardo Memento Zero Green Blue Rhodium. It's not a good name. No, it's not. At least it's, you know, they could have called this one Loch Ness Monster and then everyone would have been happy. Oh, totally.

Anna Reinert: Yeah, because it does, it's like, when I looked at it, it's like Jade Sea or, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Anything but green blue. Green blue rhodium. Luckily, it's a stunning looking pen. So we'll forgive the naming. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And everyone will be happy.

Anna Reinert: Call us.

Myke Hurley: All right. This episode is brought to you in part by Good Made Better. We all love using great pens, but sometimes great pens aren't very user friendly. This was the situation that Dan at Good Made Better found himself in. He wanted to use his favorite pens for work, but he was generally taking quick notes and found himself spending more time capping and uncapping his pen than actually using it. He figured if he could fix his pen cap in one spot, he'd have simple one-handed use of his pen. So he could pick it up when he needed it, put it back when he didn't, making it so much handier. And if it was handier, he'd use it even more. This is where the pen well became. The writing tool that makes capped pens as handy as click pens. The pen well sticks to your desk with a micro suction pad. The pad is repositionable and reusable, so it can be cleaned if it gets dirty and you can restick it down. It has a soft foam insert that grips and holds onto your pen cap, so you can cap and uncap it securely with one hand. You just simply rest the pen back in the cap between taking notes. This makes threaded caps even more convenient because it will hold onto it. Plus, your pen is so secure that it will no longer be rolling away. You're not going to have to chase it down. It's not going to fall off the desk. And it's always in the same spot, so it's easy to grab without ever needing to look for it. They offer a couple of different models, the Classic and the Traveller, in different materials and finishes. And this is available right now. And then also, as we spoke about last time, the Kickstarter campaign for the Penwell Craftsman is going on right now. I absolutely love my Penwell products. I've been using the Craftsman for a couple of weeks, and I really love it. But just the regular Classic as well has been a fixture of my desk for a long time. And look, we didn't pay our necessities. She already told you as well earlier in the episode how great it is. They also offer a skeptics guarantee. If you don't love it, within 30 days, they'll buy it back and pay shipping both ways. But chances are, you're going to love it. Because Penwell is a unique and genuinely useful tool to help make the pens that you love even more enjoyable to use. If you want to make a good writing experience better, head to goodmadebetter.com and use the code PENADDICT for a 15% discount on your Penwell purchase. That's goodmadebetter.com and the code PENADDICT for a 15% discount on your Penwell purchase. Our thanks to Good Made Better for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right, the next category is something we've never done before. And this one's called the Mega Set. This was an idea from Twitch chat. Basically said, if you had unlimited budget, what kind of stupidity could you get into? Would you do something crazy? Would you just do, you know, just like really up your game on your desk and make it just like the perfect thing? Would you buy the Chaos Pen in Myke's case? You know, what would you do? The Abs Pen. I thought about putting that, but I wouldn't want to wish that on anybody. So the Mega Set is your budget unlimited category. And Myke, I'm going to go first because I screwed up the order here. But if I change this one around, it's going to screw up everything else. So you should be going first here. I will admit to the error of my ways. I went first in the ad, I guess.

Myke Hurley: So that's how that works out.

Brad Dowdy: There you go. We're tired of hearing you. So take a break for a minute. So I really, when I put this category down since we didn't know. I mean, since we've never done this before, I really didn't know how to answer. Should I put the Chaos Pen on down there? But I tried to just go with like, what's a really expensive kind of outrageously priced pen, but I think is really cool and unique. And the Visconti Homo Sapiens Blizzard, ever since they launched that a month or two ago, has been stuck in my head. Again, this is my shopping list. So all listeners take note that the Visconti Homo Sapiens Blizzard has my interest peaked. And I can't stop looking at it. I want to try this one out. This is an expensive pen at $636 for Visconti Homo Sapiens. That's about right. But I still have a hard time with that budget not testing out beforehand. So that's something I'm going to be looking into. But if you know someone who's really into this stuff, this would be a huge surprise. And you have to pair that with a Misubi notebook. One of the specific ones, the Peruvian one, where the Peruvian natural cotton colors, it's this black and white, or it's really kind of a black and cream color cover. I'm obviously a huge fan of Misubi. We all are here on this podcast and love what Daryl does for the company and the brand. And I think that's kind of the great matchy-matchy situation with the pen, with the Blizzard. And then the ink was kind of hard. This has been my move for this whole gift guide, pen, ink, paper. And the ink on this one, I was thinking, what's the most... Is there a thing that's the most expensive, fancy ink out there? And there's really not, right? There's not this elite, crazy, expensive ink. I mean, maybe the Louis Vuitton ones they used to make. I don't even know if they make them anymore. But those were outrageously priced. It's like, what kind of stupid ink trouble can I get into? Then it hit me. J'ai Herban. J'ai Herban. 500 milliliter bottle of blue myos... Myosotis? Mitosis. Mitosis. No, myosotis. Myosotis. I don't know. Who knows? But anyway, I was like, that's big enough and dumb enough to put in with the unlimited budget. You basically get unlimited ink with this. And I would actually use that with the Blizzard. I think that would be a cool... I think blue ink with the Blizzard would be pretty cool. Because I was thinking what ink even goes with that Blizzard pen. And I couldn't do black with that. Black would be too simple. So I think a good blue might work well with that. So that's my setup. And if anyone needs my shipping address, just let me know.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Anna. What you got? Okay.

Anna Reinert: Well, in keeping with it, I didn't play by the rules at all. I didn't pick out a pen, a notebook, and an ink.

Brad Dowdy: That's good.

Anna Reinert: I selected items that, again, thinking about like a lot of people are working at home. And if I were to, say, buy something for one of my pen friends, who I know have every single possible pen that they want, and I wouldn't risk, even if I won the lottery, buying them a pen that they already had, I decided to go with, again, like accessories and things like that, which would probably be something that they would not have or maybe didn't find on their own. So the first thing I found was called the schoolhouse lap desk. So it looks like those old-time wooden school desks, but it has like a padded pillow bottom. So you can still open it up and put things inside of it and then close the lid so you can sit it on your lap and use it on the couch or in bed or wherever it is that you may actually be doing your Zoom meetings.

Myke Hurley: And you feel so fancy.

Anna Reinert: You feel so fancy.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Anna Reinert: And a little like you were back in school.

Brad Dowdy: The old Zoom meeting. I'm a lap desk fan. Like I'm a perennial lap desk user. This is really cool.

Anna Reinert: I thought that one was extremely cool, and I found it purely by accident because it came from a place called Victorian Trading Company, which I would never have looked for on my own volition, but a friend of mine was applying for a job with them. And so we pulled up the website, and I was like, there's some really cool stuff in here, stuff I've never seen before. So there was a lot of joking, like, why was she applying for the job? I should have been applying for it. But I said, no, you get the job, and then you can hire me. And so in keeping with Brad and the ridiculously expensive ink, I chose one of the miniature sets from Jacques Rebon.

Myke Hurley: Jebon.

Anna Reinert: No, this is the Jacques line. Oh, this is the full name. This is so fancy. Yeah, this is so fancy it's the full name. But they have, like, a little, basically, like, their sampler set of, like, four or five different colors. And, you know, I think it's when budget isn't an issue, spending $84 on ink samples seems totally reasonable.

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely. That's a deal.

Anna Reinert: It's a steal. But there's also a Three Oysters DIY ink starter kit where you get, like, 12 different colors and, like, empty vials. And so if you want to be all, like, science-y and make your own ink, because my friends are all on the top of the Fountain Pen Companion ink list, so picking out an ink for them is almost impossible. But if they can make their own, I think that's totally legit.

Brad Dowdy: Ooh, so what do they do if they come up with a good one on their own and name it out of a mixture? Do they get to put it on FPC? We'll have to ask Jessie about that.

Anna Reinert: Yeah, Jessie. That's exactly who I was thinking of when I added this. I'm like, what would I buy for Jessie? Because I sure wouldn't buy her a pen. I'd probably buy the wrong one. But, yeah, getting this kit was, like, if I had the money, I would totally do it. So the next thing that I put on the list was the Caran D'Ache Paul Smith Super Color Special Edition Pencil Set.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Anna Reinert: Because buying, like, eight colored pencils for $35 just seemed ridiculous to me. But it comes in a cool little tin, and the colors are very pretty and super Paul Smith-esque. So, and then last, I did actually put something that is, like, carry it with you thing, which is a Superior Labor Engineer shoulder bag in Navy Stripe. Their bags are so cool. So it's, like, the wish list of when we can finally go places again.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Anna Reinert: Like, this, to Brad's point, this is if I was putting together my unlimited budget Christmas list,

Brad Dowdy: this would be on it.

Anna Reinert: So.

Superior Labor

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this would probably be on mine, too. I'm a Superior Labor super fan. Like, I have, like, one thing of theirs, but I love looking at all their stuff. It's so amazing. No, I have two. I have a bag and a pouch.

Anna Reinert: You have a bag, too?

Brad Dowdy: I have, like, no, not, like, a big bag. Like, they have a large pencil bag with, like, a dipped two-tone thing on there. I'll have to show it to you. It's great. Yeah. So, yeah, good stuff. All right, Myke. I was interested to see, like, the challenging categories. Like, we have Anna on here, number one, because she's smarter than both of us. She makes this gift guide way better and way more interesting. But then I feel like, okay, I can put together some of the weird stuff and interesting. Like, what would I do with an unlimited budget? But then I kind of feel like, I wonder what Myke would do. So, I was curious to what you would say about this. So, what do you have for the unlimited budget items?

Myke Hurley: Well, what I like about this round is the three of us all approached it completely differently. So, Brad approached it as, here's some stuff I would like. Anna approached it as, like, what do you get for the person who has everything? And I approached it as, I am going to give you a selection of the more expensive products that I own that I think are the best. So, I wanted to pick things that only I had used as my way of getting this across. And it's like, alright, so here's the stuff that Myke has, which is really expensive, but he loves. So, one of them is just any Sailor Pro Gear King of Pen. There's no particular one that I would tell you to buy. Just find the one that you like the look of the most. I wouldn't even say to you, like, I have a 1911 and I have a... So, I would even say, go for the 1911. Just any Sailor King of Pen. They're both fantastic. I wouldn't even actually really tell you that Pro Gear on 1911, which is better, because they're pretty equal to me, especially when you get to that size. Just find one that you like the look of and go for it. You will not be disappointed, because I just think it's, like, the best pen ever made.

Myke Hurley: Then I will go for the Platinum 3776 Galaxy Starlight. It's a very special pen. I adore it, but it is monumentally expensive.

Myke Hurley: You know, long-time pen addict listeners will know that this is the pen that broke for me immediately. Remember the nib snapped? The nib. Yeah. But it got fixed. And what I like about this pen is this is as close as I could get to the classic black with gold furniture pen. Yep. But it's got rotten all the way through it. Every inch of it is covered in rotten. Right? Like, this is as close as I can get to, like, the Black Pen Society. Right?

Myke Hurley: And I adore it. I absolutely love it. The nib is just stupendous. The nib is specific to this pen. It is... Yeah, I just... I get such a kick out of this pen. And it's a very, very, very special pen to me. And even though it was frustrating that it had a bad start, I love it all the more for that. Because now this pen has a story as well. There's a story for why I bought it. And then there's a story... I treated myself to this pen after... I believe it was the fifth year anniversary of Relay was when I bought this pen.

Myke Hurley: And so it has that. But now, honestly, I don't... As I said, I don't even remember that so much because I just remember this as the pen of, like, oh, it broke. So, which is fun to me. For... If I was going to recommend to somebody, like, an indulgent notebook, it would be the Nanami Crossfield. Because it is just a big, thick notebook full of Tomoe River paper. Which just, to me, it just feels like an indulgent thing. Which I, you know, I really love.

Notebook Value

Brad Dowdy: Can I say, it is one of the best-priced, unlimited-budget products out there. I'm still surprised it's only $28.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't understand it. Because I feel like I would pay twice the price for this notebook. So I don't know why they charge $28. But I'm pleased that they do. When it comes to inks, I love orange inks. And one of my favorite orange inks is Mont Blanc Lucky Orange. And it's also not easy to get. So, if you can get this, you'll be happy. Yes. And then the last one, I just wanted to include one more ink thing. So I went with, like, buy a whole collection, a 10-piece collection, of the Monteverde Suite Life inks. We have five or six of these at home. And I love all of them.

Brad Dowdy: They are really good. Yeah. I have the mango. And it's just great stuff. That's you and Anna are big fans of the ink sets. I was looking at those. And I couldn't quite pull the trigger on any. But, man, now y'all are selling me some stuff on this gift guide.

Myke Hurley: The Suite Life is so good.

Anna Reinert: Yeah, the Suite Life, I had the, I mean, mine was in the 10-piece box set when I got it. And initially, there were a couple colors where I was like, oh, these aren't as, like, exciting as some of the other ones. Like the iced cookie and mango and some of these really bright colors. There were some that were, like, the pumpkin. And there's, like, a brown. I can't remember what sweet pastry they associated with the brown one. And I was like, oh, these are, hmm. And then October, November roll around when you think, you know, the leaves are changing color. And I was like, oh, these are great. The pumpkin's perfect for this time of year.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Anna Reinert: It's a good set.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Again, Monteverde, underrated inks. Like, it's a surprise. Y'all get on that. All right. This is another category that came out of Twitch chat. And I kind of loved it. And, you know, to everyone who follows us, listens to us, you know, knows some of the other things that we're into, the other hobbies that we're into. And we're wondering if you were also into that hobby or someone that you know was into these hobbies. Could you buy something that matched the hobby? So, for example, Myke, I told him to pick a stationary match to a keyboard or his keyboard hobby. If you knew someone that was in the keyboard hobby, what type of pin would you buy for them? Or what type of stationary, I guess, in general would you buy for them? What kind of matchup could you do? What kind of crossover?

Myke Hurley: This is difficult because it's not like as simple as that. Yeah. So what I would say is, I don't have like a particular product that I could recommend. But what I would say is, the great thing about keyboard and pen hobby is how much design there is in these hobbies. So like keycaps are full of every color possible, right? Like every combination is possible. It's like one thing that I want to do, like as I get further into this, I want to take, you know, I'm trying to take good pictures, right, of keyboards. And one thing I thought that I could very easily do and will be doing is matching up keyboards and pens. And it's like pens is like set dressing. Because I know that like for any keyboard I have, I have a pen that will match with it color wise. So that's one thing that I would say is like these two hobbies are quite, they overlap in interesting ways because you can pick things for your own personal aesthetics. One thing that I have put in the notes, which is kind of in an offshoot of this, is a keyboard for pen users. Now, this is a keyboard which you cannot buy right now because it had a sale and that sale is over, which means at some point in the future you'll probably be able to buy it. But it's called the J01. And the reason I have, I put a link in the show notes to a website called Geek Hack, which is where people put what is called interest checks and information about keyboards. This is how you put it up there, see if people want it. If enough people want it, you make it and hope people will buy it kind of thing. And the reason I've included this is you'll see when you look at the pictures of this keyboard, there is like a metal rail along the top of the keyboard. That is a pen holder.

Anna Reinert: Oh, that's super cool.

Myke Hurley: That's super cool, yeah. I'm really bummed out that I didn't get one of these.

Myke Hurley: I believe that they were sold by Raffle because this is, the keyboard hobby is just wild when you start thinking into it. Like the commerce situation in this hobby right now is bananas. Like everyone's trying to catch up with the increased desire and demand and it's just, it's not really working out for anyone at the moment, but it's going to get there. You know, it's scaling. But I hope to be able to get one of these one day because it is a beautiful keyboard and it's produced by somebody who is in the UK as well. And so I would like to be able to get one. But yeah, this is a really, really nice looking keyboard. And I love the idea of there being a pen rail on the top.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's pretty cool. I love seeing that. Nice, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And my hobby or, you know, side thing is sneakers, of course. And I think I could, it's kind of like keyboards. It's like a weird, raffle-y, infighting kind of thing that can kind of happen with the sneaker community for like limited editions and all this stuff.

Myke Hurley: Oh, there was one thing I wanted to mention though, real quick. Yeah. Is I just want to put this out there. You know, hey, all my answers and pen makers, it's time to start making keycaps. Yes. I'll tell you right now. Like some of these people that we know that produce these absolutely beautiful acrylics, start looking into keycap making because all you need is a mold. You just get, right? That's all it is. And you can get the mold. You can buy molds really easily. Just saying.

Brad Dowdy: I'm in.

Myke Hurley: There would be an overlap. Big time.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Count me in. So I think kind of like you, Myke, I want to take a picture of like, you know, what pens can I match up with my sneakers? And, you know, some of the most classic color sneakers ever are Michael Jordan's sneakers, the Jordans are just known for their black, red, and white. And I have a pair of Jordan 11s, which are very outrageously patent leather, black, red, and white. And I've been shopping. I've not been shopping. I've looked at this one pen that I put in here. It's a limited edition that's still available, but they're not that easy to find anymore. It's the Aurora Optima Cento 100th anniversary. I've picked this pen up at several pin shows going, man, this is my kind of pen. I really like this. The style, you know, I like the Aurora Optima is one of my favorite barrel shapes. Yeah. This is a Brad Dowdy pen. Like, it really is. Yeah. That's a me pen. And it really matches with the shoes. So that was like my matchy matchy combination. You know, if I ever got that pen, it'd be, I'd be taking a picture with these sneakers for sure. So yeah, it's very, very cool. I love that pen. And yeah, I shouldn't have done this episode.

Anna Reinert: This one always costs us money.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, for sure. All right, Anna, what you got?

Anna Reinert: Okay. So I snuck in my own recommendations to match y'all's hobbies. Oh. To speak a little southern. Yep. Um, and for Myke, knowing about his keycap habit, his, his, uh, keyboard habit, I found the Retro 51, uh, typewriter pen. Yes, this is very good. Which has keyboard, you know, vibe to it. And I think they are now available in a couple different colors. So there's like one with a red trim, one with mint trim. And then I think there's one that's just sort of all metal. And if I were to buy Myke a Christmas gift this year, this was, would probably be what I would get him knowing that he probably hadn't gotten it yet.

Myke Hurley: I had not. But that is, that's a fun, that is a very fun suggestion. I like that a lot.

Anna Reinert: And it kind of goes, so it would, it would be the kind of gift where it was like, I recognize both of your hobbies in one item. And you might be like rolling your eyes like, oh yeah, okay. I've been nailed by my hobbies, but at least there was an effort made to like recognize all the things that you do. And for Brad, I remember some of his extremely colorful, uh, sneakers that he's worn at various events. And so I found, um, a, um, 2021 hanging calendar that has the same sort of color feel as some of the sneakers I've seen him wear. And I, so I thought, I think he would, I think Brad would dig this. This is totally his, you know, kind of his aesthetic and kind of goes with all of that. And then I also found a Tokyo glow in the dark furoshiki, which is actually the wrap that they use to like wrap gifts. And, um, when they're taking things to people, they'll wrap them in these like very large handkerchiefs. They're just like a very large handkerchief, which you could just use as a handkerchief or as a, you know, um, you know, tie it around your neck or, you know, put it in your pocket as, you know, that kind of thing. It's just like a really nice and it's beautiful and it glows in the dark. And again, reminded me of Brad's, like the aesthetic that he gets into for his sneakers.

Brad Dowdy: It's got Mount Fuji on it. And like you said, it glows in the dark. I, yeah, this is, this is a problematic episode for me. So yeah, those are awesome. Thank you so much. I love them. And it's funny. I've been talking about like wall and desk calendars recently, so I might have to, uh, break it, break this one out. I love the colors on that. That's awesome.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. And the site, that particular site called, it's a little Atsu, which is a shop in Portland that specializes in all kinds of Japanese stationary kind of vibe. Had a lot of really cool stuff. It was very hard to pick just one. I'm like, Oh, this one. Oh, I think you might like this one. Oh, I kind of like this one. Um, so yeah, there was a lot of that going on. So anyway, uh, so for my particular category, there was a lot of question marks about like, what would I pick? Would I go with my knitting hobby? Would I go with my, uh, penchant for all things Star Wars? Um, but I realized that when I get on the whole Star Wars thing, I start to get angry because there are no good Star Wars pens.

Brad Dowdy: There's at least one or two.

Anna Reinert: There's one or two, but they could be so much better.

Brad Dowdy: That's an entire episode.

Anna Reinert: That's a whole episode. Um, like all the pen makers who have licensed with LucasArts call me.

Brad Dowdy: I have thoughts.

Cat Stationery

Anna Reinert: Um, but so I decided to choose instead the crazy cat lady vibe. Yes. And the first thing that I found, which was what led me down this path is the Le Chat, uh, fountain pen by tools to live by. And amazingly enough, engraved on the nib is a little cat face. It does not look like the one that I did for my fantasy nib, which we call shadow, but it's really darn close. And I was like, Oh, money. So that just led me down this whole path. So again, being stuck at home, um, I found a cute cat USB humidifier and diffuser that just looks like a little cat head. And I was like, okay, well that, that goes right into this category. Oh, that's cool. And, um, uh, Yoseka stationary in New York made their own custom washi tape called Esther's paws. And this is going to make me choke up a little bit, but I used to have a Siamese cat named Esther who passed away a couple of years ago. And so like, as soon as I saw the name, I'm like, I'm going to have to buy a roll of this because it's Esther's paws. She was a Siamese and their cat, I guess it's their shop cat, um, is like a calico, but still. They're Esther's paws.

Brad Dowdy: That's awesome.

Anna Reinert: So, and there's tons of like washi tape out there that are, that have cat themes like MT always makes great ones. I found one called Neko that I really liked. Um, I found a, a cat roll-up pencil case from notebook therapy that, um, they have a ton of different designs. So you can get one that looks like a calico. You can get one that looks like a Siamese, which is what sold me because I have a Siamese named Rosie. Um, so I was like, Oh, look, I can get it. Cause I have one of those other, um, pencil cases. That's the one where you slide it down and the top of the case unzips and the pen sort of pop out of the top. I have one already that looks like Lucy. So I'm going to spread the love a little. Um, and then I found some erasers that are like shaped like cats and they're like, instead of just being like a flat cutout, like a lot of those like cheesy erasers are, these are like sculpted into like three-dimensional shapes. So they're like little black, they look like little black silhouettes, um, of cats in various poses. And I thought they were adorable.

Brad Dowdy: And, oh, that's awesome.

Anna Reinert: If you have anybody who's into cats, there you go. I have taken care of their stocking stuffers and Christmas gift lists.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. I love that list. So next up, I see I screwed up my, uh, order again.

Myke Hurley: You're really bad at Ron Rob and Brad. You just like, so bad. And the next one's wrong after this as well. I normally take this very seriously.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I normally take this very seriously, but Myke, I have a broken wrist. Oh, here we go. Here we go. There it is. There it is. You got to drop it in there. But yeah, cause now like the goal is to have the last person not have to keep talking, but now I've ruined the whole thing. So. Well, you know what we can do? You know what we can do?

Anna Reinert: Myke, do you want to go first?

Myke Hurley: What if I take our second break now? How about that?

Anna Reinert: Okay.

Myke Hurley: All right. Does that work? And then we can give Anna a moment before, uh, we put her back on the spotlight again. My apologies. Just accessories.

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Brad Dowdy: All right. Our next category is favorite desk accessories. And this could be, you know, storage, organization, tools, things like that. I honestly think this is kind of the best gift-giving category for penaddicts because, like Anna was mentioning, it's really hard to buy someone else a pen, you know, knowing exactly what they like because, you know, that's a, it's number one, it's a big expense. And number two, it's a very particular custom, customizable thing that, you know, you really want to perfect for someone. And penaddicts such as myself tend to put their budget towards pens and maybe the desk is an afterthought. So what kind of cool things, Anna, can you help penaddicts with, you know, around their desk or with storage or things like that?

Anna Reinert: Well, I went with, let's hope that there's a positive outlook for 2021. And I went with calendars. So I found two very distinctly different calendars. One of them is the High Tide Penco calendar. It's an A4 size and it is classically utilitarian looking, would be perfect in a shop or, you know, workshop space. But if you have a very simple aesthetic, it's great. And they, one of the suggestions that they made was to actually clip it onto a clipboard and then hang the clipboard up. And I think that's just, it would look so like all business kind of vibe. So it's, I just really like it. And it's just a monthly calendar. And I think everybody needs that calendar that you can glance up at as you're doing your meetings or whatever and be like, yeah, next Monday is fine. Looking at the calendar and knowing you have four days left or whatever.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And it's 12 bucks. I mean, it's kind of like a no brainer. It's a no brainer.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. And, and it avoids that whole thing of if you don't know what someone is into, like what their other interests or hobbies are. It's just a simple calendar. It just does what it needs to do. It doesn't have, you know, pictures from the MoMA or, you know, views of Italy or anything like that. Um, but if you know what someone.

Myke Hurley: Or like those inspirational things like cats holding onto a tree branch.

Anna Reinert: Yes, exactly. Although if you know that that's what somebody is into, I was on Etsy for a good half an hour. And if you type in 2021 wall calendar in the search field, there are tons of possibilities. So if you know that you have a friend who's very into a specific sort of aesthetic or art, you know, they love plants or they love astrology or motorcycles or whatever, whatever they're into. You can find a calendar that's going to like fit that niche and would look really nice on their wall. It's sort of instant art. Um, but then the last one I found was the Shin Nippon Sora calendar, which is a, a page a day calendar, but it has the phases of the moon like on the calendar. And the way that the paper is, is very translucent. So you can sort of see the next day underneath. So as you're peeling them off, you see like the moon waxing and waning. It's just, it's so beautiful. I was like, this is the coolest thing I've ever seen. And it tells you like when certain stars are visible in the sky and what they mean and things like that. It just, I was like, okay, this is super cool. I want one of these.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's wild. So like I look at those two calendars, right? And I want the high tide pen coat for myself and I want to give all my friends the Sora calendar because it's just awesome.

Anna Reinert: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's very cool. All right, Myke, what you got?

Myke Hurley: All right. So for this one, I kind of went along the lines of like good stocking stuffers. And I thought of these products for some for pen people, but also kind of like just for people that like nice things.

Myke Hurley: People need knives typically for box opening. You can get by with one of those little ceramic cutter things that you can get on Amazon, but why not get a nice knife? And I have a nice knife. It's by the James brand. It's called the Folsom. I love this knife. It's super sharp, but it looks really good. And that's what I like about it. So it is my favorite packaging destruction knife. And I really, really love it. This was something I bought this a couple of years ago and I've never looked back from it. It's a beautiful thing. And it's just like a nice object to have on the desk. It also doesn't look like a normal knife. It's like, I have like a fluorescent green one. I'm not into like the knife design, you know, like EDC, like it's not for me. And the James brand make products that I think look really stylish without looking aggressive. And so I'm into that.

Brad Dowdy: And then the knife people vouch for them too, right? They're really good quality. That's not like, you know, how you can sometimes not, you can find the knife maker. That's just really like, oh, this looks wild and crazy, but it may not actually be a great knife. These are actually great knives. Yeah. And a lot of knife people, very well respected.

Myke Hurley: They just did a collaboration with Aaron Draplin. I saw that. Yeah. I didn't get that, but Steven did.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I didn't either. I have that little knife though, the Elko, which is one of my favorite little pocket knives. Yeah.

Field Notes

Myke Hurley: I had no real need for another, but like super, super, super, super good. Really love this product and the brand is super nice. Next up, Field Notes. Super good stocking stuffer, like for anyone, you know, people like little notebooks, people like pocket notebooks. Field Notes come in so many designs that they are just like a really good stocking stuffer product, I think. And they have so many different styles now that I'm pretty sure you could find the right little notebook for somebody in your life. And then because Brad hasn't rung the bell himself so far, I will ring the product bell for Nokko products, bar none, the best way to store your pens. I have in my backpack a Sinclair with four pens in it, four of my most loved pens, a couple of notebooks, and I put some enamel pins on the front of it because they go right through the cases really nicely. Excellent. Just superb products up and down, but with the Sinclair being my personal favorite.

Brad Dowdy: Nice. Yeah. Really, I'll self-talk about that. But the high tower and the chimney top and some note cards fit really great in a stocking. And, you know, very inexpensive. We've been selling a bunch of those recently, that little combination. So I wonder what people are up to. So yes, thank you, Myke. And I definitely approve that. I picked something that I didn't think I would like, and I've ended up really, really enjoying it, and it's the Ugmonk Gather. So I got to meet Jeff from Ugmonk virtually this year. We started talking just like business-y stuff because he runs his own business. And we were talking about Knott products. I forget what we were talking about. And we ended up trading a bunch of products. Like I sent him a bunch of Knott stuff. He sent me a bunch of Ugmonk stuff. So I didn't have to pay for this. And the Gather is like this moddable desk accessory to hold all kinds of different things. And I didn't think this is something that I would find super handy on my desk necessarily. And it turns out I was wrong. I reach for the things I have in this little contraption all the time. And you can move the different components around. And there's like places for pens and, you know, vertical pen storage. And you can put your, set your phone in there. And you can have note cards in there and have all these little things. And you can arrange them how they work best for your desk. And I find it to be like super functional and, you know, really cool looking on my desk. And like I said, I didn't think I would necessarily like it. Like it's expensive. It's not cheap. It's $149. But it's got a really nice walnut base. It's heavy and dense. And it holds all the things very nicely. And I'm surprised at actually how much I use it. So it's very cool. And I would recommend that for sure.

Myke Hurley: I wonder what you were going to say about this. Yes, I've always seen it. And it's like it seems like a really nice product to me. But I don't know if it is something that I would use.

Brad Dowdy: Totally. Like I didn't, like I knew about it, right? And you see all the pictures. And you're like, yeah, cool. Like I don't know that it's for me. And the things that I keep in there are things that I reach for all the time that don't necessarily have a home. Like my pocket knife is in there. My binder clips are in there. I have a set of pins that are in there. My phone rests on there when I'm at my desk. And it just turned out. It's like, huh, I'm actually using the thing that I didn't think I would. So that's what makes a good product for, you know, I think. You know, when you see it, you understand what it is. But you're like, you know, I probably wouldn't use that. And then you get it. And it turns out that it's actually pretty fun and functional. So there you go. All right. I wanted to make sure this will be a little bit of a longer segment, but we'll kind of go through them here. I want to make sure we talk about all our small maker friends and companies that we work with directly. We have used, we can, you know, send other people to, and it would be really great places to do your shopping this holiday season. It's always great to support smaller businesses. And, you know, we're obviously huge, huge supporters of all these types of businesses on the Pen Act. I don't know Ana as well. So the first thing I put on my list was the Well Appointed Desk Shop. Now, I was assuming Ana would put a couple things in there of her own. But I wanted to make sure because I use several of the things that she makes. And the one thing that she brought up in the beginning, and I refuse to take this out, even though she already said it. The Daily Grind rubber stamp set is something you should get. Like, it's just cool to have fun with these stamps and throw ink on the page or the Colodex cards or anything you want to use for these little stamps. It's just a cool thing to have for your notebooks, for anything you want to do. I found so much fun out of the little stamp that I got sent. And I just, I think it's really, really neat. And you should buy those. The more recent thing that I saw her doing, being the Star Wars nerd that her and Bob are, is the Do or Do Not notepad. Oh, my God. It's really, really smart. You know, it's definitely got some Mandalorian vibes. Got a little Baby Yoda going on there. It's a Do or Do Not checklist. It's kind of amazing and super well done. So all the stuff, all the stuff on the Well Appointed Desk shop, you should go check out. And like, it's stuff on my desk right now. And, you know, even if I didn't love Anna like I already do, I'd be using this stuff. Like, it's such good stuff. So you should go check that out.

Anna Reinert: You guys are making me blush.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, you deserve it. Like, people who do awesome things should be told that they're awesome. That's my rules.

Anna Reinert: I'm going to put in a little aside here. We did open an Etsy shop because one of the issues that I have is not doing a lot of international shipping through Big Cartel, which is the service that I use to host our online shop. So Etsy makes it a little bit easier to do international shipping because they do some – the pricing is just better for the international shipping. So there is an Etsy shop available. If you see something on our regular shop, on our Big Cartel shop, that is not listed on Etsy, you can message me directly and we can build a custom listing for you. And the same thing with the Skylab Letterpress Etsy shop. So if you see something in their shop and something in our shop, like, just send me a list of what you want and we'll put together a custom listing and it can be shipped out from either Skylab or from the Well-Appointed Desk since they are both run out of the same 12 by 12 square foot space.

Myke Hurley: Do they do that thing – is it like how eBay does it where you can send it somewhere and they'll send it on? Yes. Yeah. It's really cool, actually, the way that eBay do that. And so I'm not surprised that Etsy have a similar thing.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. I did get notification from the shipping service that I use that they're starting to add some of that export – simple export rates. So it sounds like they're going to start doing some of that mail forwarding as well. So hopefully come 2021, we may be able to do more of the shipping from Big Cartel because our – generally speaking, the shipping prices that I get from my shipping service is better. I'm sorry. This is a lot of how the sausage gets made. I'm sorry.

Myke Hurley: We care about it. Shipping is our biggest thing. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't think it was interesting.

Anna Reinert: But so we're going to try to get more of it back over to the Big Cartel site and sort of have one place where you can order everything. But right now, like Etsy has made a good avenue. And it's also a good way for people who maybe had not found our shop otherwise to locate us. But there is a link in the shop now under Shipping and International to the Etsy shop. So if you have trouble finding it.

Stationery Zines

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. So speaking of Etsy, I want to give a shout out to some of my favorite stationary zines. These are perfect stocking stuffers. So you have the pencil revolution on Etsy. You have the word distribution. I support both of those as well as Les from Comfortable Shoes Studio. She has her coffee shop for useful journaling. I've been getting all of their zines. It's kind of like my new little thing to do. I enjoy reading those things. I also want to give a shout out to Angela at Inky Converters who runs one of my favorite fountain pen friendly stationary shops. She makes killer stuff, killer stickers and pens and buttons and lots of fun little items. I've ordered several things from her in the past. And also, we're going to talk about, we'll have a billion links into here to all of our favorite pen makers. But I went down the machine pen makers path here with Shone Design. These are people that we obviously love and make really cool things. I'm not going to break down all of their offerings. But Shone's pocket pens and pocket fountain pens are some of the best. Will at Tactile Turn does a great job. The new safety first pen is... It's a battle of will. No pun intended to not buy that pen. It's really, really good. That's probably going to be one of the super hot stationary gifts this year. Spoke Design. Myself and my partner Brian, who is the brains behind Spoke Design. We have some awesome pens and pencils for you to check out. Matthew Martin's fountain pens, his machine work is just stunning. Really cool designs, cool shapes, cool materials. And last but not least for me, a bag maker who I discovered earlier this year. Reload Bags out of Philadelphia make one of the coolest bags that I've bought for myself in a long time. I bought a messenger bag, but they have tons of all different sizes bags. Made there in their shop in Philly. Super awesome people to work with and could not recommend them more. If you have someone who's into bags and things of that nature, definitely give them a look. All right, Anna. Talk about yourself some more.

Anna Reinert: No, no, no. I already did that.

Brad Dowdy: You guys already heard all that.

Anna Reinert: Okay. I will say this much. There are a lot of new products coming. Unfortunately, because of the whole pandemic, we've had, you know, things just take longer than we expected. But there's new stuff coming. There's new old stock coming. There's, I mean, I want to tell you guys everything, but I think it'll just make everything worse. And anybody who watched Brad's Twitch yesterday, that thing is real. That was causing problems. That thing is real. It is coming. It will be limited edition. And in regards to how much it costs to ship that darn thing, $12.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's better than I thought. Minimum of $12. I would have guessed $20, to be honest.

Anna Reinert: Well, I was able for you to ship it through the, like, what is it, B, like priority mail B or something like that. And the fact that I could put it in the priority mail box and just leave it flat saved me a little heartache. I'm sure that's probably not what they intended those for, but it worked. So, yeah. Anyway, that's coming as well. That will probably not be available until the, probably the first of the year because we have some other irons in the fire that we have to take care of. But save up your pennies.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All right. Who else do you want to give a shout out to?

Anna Reinert: I want to give a shout out to all the little guys. Yeah. All the little shops because I'm kind of on a please try not to buy everything on Amazon this year kick. Personally, it's just a personal thing. But I feel like it's undermining all these little shops who put so much effort into curating these beautiful collections of products. And everybody is struggling to survive through this pandemic because they are just not going to have the walk-in customers that they normally have at this time of the year. So, my first shout out will be for the Yoseka Stationery, which we've mentioned several times already. Little Otsu. Hakubundo.

Anna Reinert: Rikumo. Rikumo. Rikumo. It's another Japanese vibe. They have a little office section on their website that has some really cool stuff. I'm going to get to ones that I can actually pronounce. Hold on. Ohmio, which is a shop out of Philly, which is another sort of more Japanese stationery. Shigori Inks, who of all of the pen shops that we talk about, doesn't get mentioned a whole lot, but they kind of really focus on ink and they have, every time I go to their site, they have an ink I hadn't heard of before. Go Team Go. But then Greer Chicago, wonderful stationery shop. Gentleman Stationer now has his own curated shop. Notebook Therapy and Bomb Cushion, who we mentioned earlier, because of the superior labor.

Artisan Pens

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke, this was, I went machine pens for all the makers we want to link and for everyone to check out on gift guides. What did you put down for this category? I got in the document first,

Myke Hurley: so I could put this in because I figured Brad would otherwise. Shout out some of my favorite, our favorite artisan pen makers. These are the people that make just the most beautiful pens you'll ever see that also perform fantastically. So I'm talking about Canalea Pen Co. You know Canalea, they make just beautiful, beautiful Hawaiian inspired pens and they've had a real banner year in 2020. Just a couple of really just excellent releases that they've had under their belt. Carolina Pen Company, Jonathan Brooks. Jonathan is like, at this point, you know, I don't want to say anything about anybody else, but this industry is revolving around him now. What Jonathan does and has been doing is setting the tone for a lot of people in this market.

Myke Hurley: You would assume that Jonathan's been around forever, but he hasn't. And he really does just produce some of the most exciting pens you'll ever see. And it is no surprise that so many companies are working with him now, right? Like Leonardo, for example. So, you know, Jonathan really does make just some of the most incredible things. And the pieces that I own of his, and I use that word very specifically, by the way, are just some of the most incredible things I own from just a craftsperson perspective. Just really stupendous. Woodshed pens. Beautiful. Really, really fun. Great designs. So, I have, I don't remember the model name, but it's like a nebula-like design that I absolutely love. And then also Newton pens. Sean Newton has been doing this for a long time. And my favorite thing about Sean's work is not necessarily the barrels that he uses or the designs, like the visuals of the pens, but it is the absolutely wild and very special pen models he produces. So, I think that's what really sets Sean apart is some of the barrel styles and mechanisms and all that kind of stuff that you'll find in a Newton pen you don't find elsewhere. So, they're some of my favorites of the artism pen maker world.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Yeah. We'll have a long list for y'all to scroll through and maybe even some more. We can complete.

Myke Hurley: Bananas massive this week. Yeah. All right. To the point that I'm worried some podcast apps might break. Like, that's kind of where we are at this point.

Brad Dowdy: Well, we'll break them up with only one or two more links here because we're on our last question, gang. And I don't get to answer this question because I'm making you tell me what left-handed friendly stationary should I ask for from my two favorite left-handers, Anna and Myke, now with me being a left-handed dominant writer. What's the left-handed friendly stationary I need for Christmas?

Myke Hurley: Well, can I just jump in real quick, Anna? Sure. Go for it. Just because I want to stand up for all left-handed people is, Brad, you know what? You freaking use your right-handed stuff like we had to. All right? Exactly. And you deal with it.

Myke Hurley: Anyway, so now I've got that out of my system. Anna, would you like to make a recommendation?

Anna Reinert: Funny, I was going to say the exact same thing, which is we use exactly the same pens and pencils and notebooks and everything else that you do.

Brad Dowdy: No way. No way. We do. It's true. I don't believe you.

Anna Reinert: But if you want some lefty-centric products, one thing I forgot to list, which is that I'm pretty sure Right Notepads still makes their lefty notebook.

Brad Dowdy: That's right.

Anna Reinert: But you can also use basically any notebook. Just flip it over if you don't want stuff in your way.

Myke Hurley: I was just about to say that. Again, no, Brad, you don't get it. Just turn your notebooks upside down.

Anna Reinert: Yeah. You just put a sticker on the side that you start with so that you know that's the front now, which is what we've been doing for decades. But my other recommendation is I prefer colored pencils like a red-blue copy pencil or just a red or blue like Prismacolor color race instead of a graphite pencil because it doesn't smear as much.

Brad Dowdy: That's actually genuinely smart, good advice that I did not think about. And having a love of those pencils already, I have them sitting here. So I'm going to go get some of those out and put them into the rotation because, yeah, I love those.

Anna Reinert: You can also put that lead. They have red and blue lead that you can put into mechanical pencils too.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. Cool. All right, Myke, what do you think? What do I need to do as a new lefty?

Myke Hurley: Even though I know from talking to you and from reading refill that you're very much like, I'm going to use all other types of pens. I know you're not going to make it through this entire period without wanting to dive back into fountain pens more because I just know you, you can't stop yourself. So when you do... You saw my wish list. Yeah. When you do, use Pilot Orochizuku ink because if long-term listeners will remember, I tried out a bunch of inks and this was the best ink that I could find from Color Choice, Quality and Dry Time. And I still use Hiroshizuku inks today because I've found that the quality is great and they dry fast and that is important. So that is a... Of all the fast drying inks that I tried, this was the one that I liked the most because most of the stuff that is like specifically made for this, not great, which is kind of getting back to that point that we were joking about. But it's true. Like a lot of the stuff that is like made for left-handed people, it's like, it doesn't, it doesn't work. And also if you, if you have had to use products for right-handed people, the left-handed people products don't work for you because you've already like built up muscle memory and ways of getting around stuff that then you end up just needing to get back around it from the other direction. So it's a look. This is true. I love it.

Anna Reinert: In regards to ink, if you're having dry time issues because of the left handiness, um, things like the white lightning from Van Ness can be added to existing ink to get it to dry a little bit faster. Okay. And also staying away from, uh, Tomoe river paper for a little while because it

Brad Dowdy: takes forever to dry. That is a fact that has been put to the side. You might just try one of the

Anna Reinert: other papers. There are lots to choose from the, you use the, the Midori a lot, right? The MD. Yeah. Yep. That's probably a better option. The Midori cotton is really good.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So that's, I'm using the MD right now is pretty much my main notebook. So yeah, it's been great.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, I use Tomoe river paper purposefully. If that makes sense. Right. Well, you know what to

Brad Dowdy: expect and where, what to watch for and how to use it, but yeah, going in blindly to Tomoe river, it could be a frustration. Yeah. All right. Well, y'all are awesome. Thank you for, uh, helping me out there. Uh, and it's all in good fun. I love doing this. I love having this episode. I love having on, on, we were talking before the show that we haven't had on, on as much cause we haven't been as at many pen shows this year to where we can do preview shows and post shows and live shows and all these things. So thank you for coming on, Anna, knocking this gift guide completely out of the

Anna Reinert: park. Thank you so much. Yes. Thanks for having me back. It has been far too long. We said this

Myke Hurley: before we started today. We realized that we haven't had you on the show because we haven't been to pen shows and, uh, we're not going to have make this mistake again in 2021. So we'll have you back not too long. If you want to find the show notes for this week's episode, go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash four, three, eight. There's a lot of them. We have done our best to put all of the products recommended in that list. So you can go through and find what you're looking for. That's where you also find links, uh, to everything at the well-appointed desk and the honors doing along with what Brad's doing along with what I'm doing as well. So I'm not going to do my usual thing. What I will say is, uh, Brad twitch.tv slash penaddict Tuesdays, Thursdays, 10 a.m. Eastern. That's the one little bit of extra promotion I'll give Brad for today. Uh, thank you so much to good, made better and Squarespace for their support of this show. And, uh, we'll be back next time until then say goodbye, everybody. Goodbye, everybody.