The Pen Addict 445/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	445
Title:	Great Day to Start a New Notebook
Release Date:	January 20th, 2021
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 445
Audio File:	Audio Episode 445
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 445
Length:	6666 min <br />1.1 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 445. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. Hey Myke, how are you? I'm good, how are you? Are you? Are you? You seem distracted? Confused? Yeah, busy day. Yeah, busy day. As we were even talking before the show, outside of anything related to this show, busy day, just in general. There's a lot going on. It's a day. It is a day, Chad, as they say. It is a day. So since it is a day, we should talk about what we're using today before we get into some hot breaking news that just dropped right before we went live today.

Myke Hurley: I love it. So what have you got on the table today?

Notebook Naming

Brad Dowdy: So I have been living in this notebook that I use. And I think I have a name for my notebook. Like we talked about Commonplace Journal and Ziboladone and everything everywhere, anything every time.

Myke Hurley: What was that second one? I've not heard that before.

Brad Dowdy: Ziboladone. I don't know if I'm pronouncing it correctly. It's basically the Italian terminology for Commonplace Journal or Commonplace Notebook.

Brad Dowdy: Z-I-B-A-L-I-D-O-N-E. I don't know if I spelled that right. Ziboladone. It's probably like Ziboladone. So something like that. But it's essentially, hey, throw all your stuff in a notebook. And that's what I have here. This is my throw everything in a notebook. I think I'm just going to call it my hashtag notebook because that seems like dumb enough to be, you know, something I would do because I'm fascinated by the whole hashtag Bujo thing. So I think this is just my hashtag notebook. It has literally one page left. Like I've been milking like the last 10 pages for a month as I've not been writing as much, but I'm down to the singular last page of the notebook. I'm going to fill it up this morning. And I've been using that notebook consistently when I am using stationery, which is not a lot these days. Usually I have a very long list of what I'm using, right? Right now it's that notebook and the pencil I'm using with it is the Mitsubishi 9850, which is their base level office pencil. So this is one of those pencils that I recommend to people who don't, who are not interested in woodcase pencils, where you can get something that's high quality, that's not very expensive. And it's just really, really good pencil. I'm about halfway through this one. And it's just, I've been using it for a couple of days in a row now. So that's kind of been my go-to, but this is all going to change this afternoon after I finish this page in this notebook. I have an idea for this last page in the notebook. And then we're transitioning right into the notebook I've been holding off using for about a month and a half. And it turns out today with the changeover presidency of the United States, today's a great day to start a new notebook. And it just so happened that I have a Mitsubishi notebook that I've been holding for a special occasion to start, primarily my ability to write again with my right hand in a non-painful manner. And today is that day, Myke. So this afternoon, I'll be cutting over to the indigo, iridescent indigo, Mitsubishi journal that I bought sometime last year.

Myke Hurley: Will you be having an inauguration ceremony for this notebook?

Brad Dowdy: Maybe I will. Who's going to perform? Who's going to perform? Ooh, that's a great question. I didn't think about this enough. If I was having an inauguration ceremony for this notebook, who would perform? Dang, what a question. You know, I've always said, here's the best answer I have to that. If I was going to ever have a party at my house, right, and a band to come play for like your 50 closest friends to have like a backyard barbecue party, I would get Ockerville River. Have you ever heard of them?

Myke Hurley: No.

Brad Dowdy: You would probably like their music. What's the name? Like they just seem like a good Ockerville, O-K-K-E-R-V-I-L. Because anytime I listen to them live, they just have a really good time. And like, it's kind of like Americana rock country type of thing. And they're just super positive and like a good party. If I was going to do like a real inauguration, it would definitely be Drive-By Truckers because they're like super political. And they're probably one of my favorite bands of all time. But if I was just going to have a party in the backyard to inaugurate this notebook, I think we might throw some Ockerville River in there. They do a great job. So there you go. That's how I'm going to inaugurate that notebook. I will, when I crack open this notebook, I will throw the Ockerville River on.

Myke Hurley: You're going to have a little ceremony.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. The only thing I don't know is what pen to use. Like I have zero fountain pens inked up and I'm not going to ink one up today. I'm not ready for that yet. There's still a little bit of pain in my hand and I can still write okay in, you know, with just like pencils and stuff. So I'm either going to start with a pencil or something like a micron, secure paper micron. So that's kind of, that's kind of my move right now. But I think by this weekend, I'll start inking up some fountain pens and get going on that again. We'll talk about that next week. Because I think I'm going to be ready to ink up some pens. What do you got going on?

Myke Hurley: Obviously I'm using a panel book. Always use a panel book when recording the show. And I'm using two pens today. One is my Platinum 3776 Galaxy Starlight, which is the Arushi pen that I bought from Choosing Keeping here in London that I had some issues with and had to get the nib replaced over a long period of time. It now has its own little story, this pen, which I enjoy. And I'm also using the Sailor Pro Gear Japan Blue from Wancher. And this is the pen, which is like, I don't even know. Hammered. Hand hammered steel. And I saw somebody post this on their Instagram stories. No, it was in the members Slack, the RelayFM members Discord. My word, what is happening to me today? Big day. The RelayFM members Discord is where I saw somebody post a picture of it. Yeah, on their MySpace page. They put it in their top eight. And I immediately had the thought where I was like, I think that might be the best pen I own.

Brad Dowdy: I have a statement. Would you like me to continue on that thought?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Pen Review

Brad Dowdy: I really loved this pen when it came out and I chose not to get it. And I've had an opportunity to buy one and I think it's still kind of available, right? You can order one.

Myke Hurley: You can buy them now. They were initially, they were limited and then they weren't.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's a weird, that's a whole conversation. I've gotten to test out and use this pen several times. It is an awesome pen. I genuinely love this pen. And I don't own it. I probably never will. It's like, I don't know. It's like one of those things. I don't need it. It's great, isn't it?

Myke Hurley: There's only one thing I wished that I had that it doesn't, which is a larger nib. Yes. The nib is too small.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I think it's the, it's the, the slims. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: They should use the nib from the regular pro gear.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like I have a different Sailor that's much larger that didn't use the correct size nib for it either. It's just one of those things that they do. I don't know.

Myke Hurley: Oh, they make a ballpoint version now.

Brad Dowdy: Hmm. Interesting. Wonder what a refill that fits. I mean, Sailor makes refills. They're generally not good, but I wonder what shape it is, you know, so we can modify that. Didn't know that. But I, I don't know that the price would be worth that. Like I'm pro expensive ballpoint. Yeah. There is a balance. There's, there's a, there's a range in there that I just couldn't do for a ballpoint.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: That's probably beyond where I'd be comfortable. I would just, if I'm doing that, I'm buying the fountain pen. Yes. So yeah, it's good stuff though. I am not only did I love this pen when it came out, I actually like it even more now. So I found it interesting that you

Myke Hurley: put it in here. Yeah, it's beautiful. I, it really is just a superb pen to use like, and it's helped by the fact that the nib that I have feels very good too. Like exceptionally good, even amongst my other pro gear slims. It's, it's very, very smooth and it's a medium nib. But it, you know, it, it writes very, very well. The weight of it's so good and it's so beautiful to look at and so different. So it's, it's really high up for me, I think in my favorites.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. Cool. Um, quick question I was thinking about before we even put this topic in the notes. Mm-hmm. Is you're back on lockdown. Yeah. Uh, unfortunately. So you're back home now. Did you have to like relocate any pens? Did some pens stay behind in the studio? Like, did you consider any of that stuff or that wasn't really like on the table for this? Cause you

Myke Hurley: have enough stuff at home. Some stuff has stayed at the studio. I didn't change the things that I'd taken. So if you remember, like I took a, I took a selection, um, and I kind of split a bunch of the pens that I use and really love, but then would keep in my backpack every day. Um, three or four pens that were kind of the ones that I really love to use that were higher in value. Um, and so they're back at home now that I've just taken them out of the, uh, Sinclair that I had them in. And that was my Arushi Pro gear. Um, I also had, I had the Japan steel in the 3776 and the, uh, sometimes this would change out, but at that point I had the, uh, Tangerine King of Pan as well. Ah, yeah. And so I would take those with me back and forth because I like to use them and they were just pens that it would maybe hurt me the most to

Brad Dowdy: lose out of the ones that I took to the studio. Yep. I I'm with you on that. Like, I think that's the, the move I would go with. Cool. Um, yeah, I'll be interested next time we'll do this. We need to try to do this every month, just like catch up on what we're using. I've never used less stuff right now just because of the risk situation. Yeah. I put this in the document today

Topic Shift

Myke Hurley: and I was a little hesitant before that reason, but I thought at the same time, it might be interesting to see, uh, what your, what your dailies look like even right now. Yeah. I was a

Brad Dowdy: little hesitant and I agree because the switch is about to flip, um, on getting back to what my normal day to day usage and writing is. So is it, how soon is it? How soon is what

Myke Hurley: am I saying? The switch is about to flip. Like the switch is going to flip for me when

Brad Dowdy: I start using fountain pens regularly. And I think I'm going to try to do that this weekend. Like I'm feeling good enough with pencil writing. I'm going to try some like standard pens today and see how it feels when I'm writing. And then once I'm convinced I can ink up a fountain pen and actually use it instead of the ink, just sit there and not be used. Um, I, and I think that point is going to come this weekend. Um, it's tracking pretty well. It's healing pretty well. Like I don't have any, um, you know, brace or anything on it right now. So I'm going to physical therapy twice a week. And like the only place that it hurts when I write is like on the back of my hand. And that's all from stiffness from basically being a cast for nine weeks. So right. Like I got to get my hand back into that kind of shape. It like the break part doesn't hurt when I write. Okay. It's other, other things that make it uncomfortable for me to write. I should say. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, so yeah, the next time we'll do this, I'll have a full compliment of a full arsenal of pens and paper

Myke Hurley: that I have just like normal. All right. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. You can make your next move with Squarespace and create the website that you want for your next idea or project. Squarespace is an all-in-one platform that will let you build any type of website that you want to make. They'll give you all of the functionality that you need. So you don't have to worry about installing anything, patching anything, upgrading anything. They take care of all of that stuff. So you don't have to, and they give you tools like domain registration, uh, beautiful templates that are wonderfully customizable and even online store functionality. So no matter what type of site you want to make Squarespace have the tools and they have 24 seven customer support to back it up. So if you need any help with anything, you got stuck in anything, they're there to help you out. I really love Squarespace's iOS apps as well. You can go in and change the content on the fly. You can also rearrange and change the design of your site now from the iOS devices as well. And they also have great, uh, great app for statistics. So see, in case you want to see how many people come into your site and what they're doing, that kind of stuff. Squarespace's templates aren't just like a visual thing. They also can help suggest page navigations to you. When we set up the site for our wedding, uh, we ended up using a Squarespace template for this. And it was so helpful because it kind of gave us an indication of the type of information people would expect from a site like that. You know, like they had like pages for location pages for RSVP. And it just really made it easy for us to go in and like customize the text and the imagery, but keep the structure the same. So super, super helpful stuff. Go and try it out for yourself right now. Go to squarespace.com slash pen addict. You can sign up for a free trial, no credit card required to do so. And you can build your entire website. You can test it out, get it to look exactly as you want, and then just sign up for one of their plans when you're ready to launch it to the world. And they start at just $12 a month, but you can get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and show your support for this show. When you use the offer code pen addict to check out, go to squarespace.com slash pen addict and the code pen addict for 10% off your first purchase. So thanks to Squarespace for their continued support of this show and Relay FM Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

Brad Dowdy: So is this called burying the lead? Like what we're about to do? Yep. Is that like the dictionary definition?

Myke Hurley: Well, I think more it's like you have an entire show prepared and then you have to throw it all out at the last minute. So you're just trying to find the best place to put it in the document,

Brad Dowdy: really. All right, Myke, what's going on?

Myke Hurley: So before, just before the show began, the Relay FM members discord lit up while in posting some information from Goldspot pens on their Instagram story. They posted what looks like a letter or email that came from Retro 51, assumingly to partners and suppliers. I haven't seen this posted anywhere else as of our recording time. And it says, greetings. About a year ago, I let you all know I was going to retire. All right, I'm going to stop right there. We're going to stop right there. So this is written from George, the founder and owner of Retro 51. This I was going to retire thing, that wasn't the initial announcement. It was like, we're retiring, right? Because that was the whole thing we were talking about at the time is that the original announcement made it seem like everyone was

Brad Dowdy: going to retire. Yeah, it was we're closing down. Like, I'll have to go back and look at it. But it was essentially, hey, we're it's I think it said we're shutting the doors or something like that.

Retro 51 Update

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But anyway, it's on it's on Retro 51's blog. Now we have it on the blog. We'll put that link in the show notes. I will. So we'll have both both instances if you want to see it. So I will now move over to reading it from the blog. Greetings. A year ago, I let you all know I was going to retire. After many conversations of loyal fans, collectors, well wishes and prospective owners, an agreement has been made, a deal formed and completed. First, I want to thank you all for your support, business and personal, your purchases in funding our endeavor and your passion in spreading the Retro 51 message to all of our fans. Second is to say a little bit about the future. The new owners are fans and collectors, as well as accomplished business professionals. There will be some minor changes to come, but the guidance of the existing stuff, the basics will be the same for now. And then it goes on to talk about the individuals. Do we want to read this part? You do, because like I wanted to comment specifically on this. Vicky will continue dealing with the existing factories and the products will not change. Richard will remain as design guru, so the hits will keep on coming. Dan will train the new sales team as he winds down into retirement. Customer service will continue with the same passion for excellence that it has so rightfully earned. And I will be available with my opinion for at least one year. For the future, in the interim, I expect a shortage of standard items, but the pipeline is up and running. And we're back at full force quite soon. As my buddy Dan says, thanks for working, George. I just want to say just, you know, again, to underscore, congratulations to George, right? Built an incredible business, deserves to retire. And I'm pleased that there is a future. But I would love to know more.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's all we got. We have no idea who the purchasing partner slash partners are for this. You know, did, was it, is it, you know, private individuals? Is it a company that we know? I literally do not know. I'm not being coy here. We've tried. We've tried to find out.

Myke Hurley: It's a consortium of business owners that, like, or business individuals. I think it's like, it's not, we thought it might have been a company or a distributor or something. But there was always this outside thought that it was just going to be, you know, a bunch of people got together and made an offer. But it's kind of where it seems like it is.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, let's remind everyone of where George came from and the business ties that he has. I mean, his family runs in circles with billionaires, right? So there's outside people, maybe not just pen fans, that, you know, may want a piece of this. Like, it could be people we just don't know that we want to invest in saving this, in seeing this company continue. I shouldn't say saving. They're not, they didn't go away because they weren't, you know, doing a good job. So it could be absolutely someone we don't know as an industry. It's interesting. I'm glad to see the for now section, even though it does say for now, that these people will be saying because I'm friends with Richard and I'm friends with Dan. Richard is like the key to this, the designs. He's been there for like 20 years. Dan, I thought was actually gone.

Brad Dowdy: But he's still there and heading into his own retirement. But yeah, like I, it's been an interesting year from retro 51 as a fan of retro 51. Like it's been a long year, year. Like I've not known what to think. This is the way it's been tracking the whole time. I think we're in the beginning. I don't know. I'd have to go back and listen to what we said. I would be pretty shocked if we said, yeah, they're just going to shut the doors and be done with it. Like, I think we were all pretty confident in this was going to transition to somewhere on somewhere, somehow. Right. Um, so we'll see what's next. I'm glad they're not going away. I've been a little bit burnt out with the bum rush of products in the past six months to be perfectly blunt. Um, but I will, you know, look forward to what they're going to do next. I look forward to seeing who the owners is. And I look forward to, uh, supporting any company that supports the community that, uh, that we have. And that is the stationary community as a whole. And if the, that community still gets to play like a big part in, you know, seeing all these special editions for pin stores, like I love seeing that, that, you know, they're able to get specific products for, for themselves. And hopefully that will continue along the same and we don't skip a beat, but you never know. So, um, we'll be looking forward to the next step and we'll let y'all know as soon as we do.

Myke Hurley: I'm intrigued. I'm happy to see that the people responsible for creating the products will be sticking around for a while. Um, any business change will change the business and the products. That doesn't mean for the worst, doesn't mean for the better, but things will change because it's different people's opinions, right? That are involved. Right. Um, I'm just keen to see who these people are. I look forward to hearing from them. Uh, I look forward to hearing why, you know, like, why did you want to buy this company? I, I don't feel like, I'm not saying this is like prove your credentials to me. Like, I don't care, you know, like you don't have

Brad Dowdy: to prove nothing to me. Yeah. So the sentence is the new owners are fans and collectors. And so I'm looking forward to hearing as well as accomplished business professionals. It seems like it's going to be someone we know, but it may, I'm opening the door to that. It's not, but

Myke Hurley: so like, I'm just excited to hear from these people, right? Like I want to know what made them do it. Like, I want to know what drives them. What do they want to do with the company? Where do they want it to go? What areas are they looking to focus on? I'm excited, I'm excited about that. Um, I never wanted it to go away. Right. That's like the whole thing. And then the, the frustration that we've had over the last few months is nothing happened. Right. And, and it, it's not that we deserve to be answered or whatever, but it just seemed like the announcement was made and then nothing changed right in any direction. Right. It was like, we're going away, but also we're going to completely continue with our cadence and pretend like it never happened. And it was very peculiar. So I'm pleased that we have at least a partial answer now, like we know what's happening. We know that retro 51 will continue under some new ownership, maybe some new, well, definitely a new direction of some kind. And I am eager that we will maybe by next week's episode hear a little bit from these new owners. Um, and I guess we'll extend an invitation to these people. If they want to come on the show and talk about it, we would very happily welcome that. Yep. They have big shoes to fill. Yep. So I would love to be able to talk to them as well here and ask them my questions.

Brad Dowdy: Uh, yeah, absolutely. Cause I have them. We'll say. Yep. So interesting stuff. A long time in the making, I guess it was, it was, it was a weird journey to be perfectly honest. Um, I'm glad we're finally getting somewhere now, no matter what that somewhere is. Yeah. And, um, we'll go from here and, uh, see, see what's next. I, I look forward to it. Just like you said, have you seen the Nemisu N1 pocket pen, Brad? So I saw it pop up yesterday in my email and in the tweets, but I didn't see a picture and I didn't click the link until you put it in the show notes this morning. Then I went over and clicked it and checked it out. Should I continue from there? Yeah. I backed it. Okay. Um, it, it looks cool. You know, it's like my style. I like the pocket pen style. Of course I am once again shocked at the price. These things confuse me as someone who makes stuff. Not that I want it to be more expensive. I mean, if you can make it for this, that's awesome. But I'm like, wow, that's a price. Like that's a good price. It starts. Okay. So this is the

Myke Hurley: Nemisu N1. It is a pocket pen. Um, they have fountain pen and rollable options. Uh, there's no price difference to choose between either. Um, they have a couple of different materials that they're using. So the entry level is aluminium and steel. And then they also have some different finishes and also titanium is the, um, kind of the best material. It's interesting to me that the product is actually called the N1 titanium pocket pen, but most of the versions of the pen are actually not made out of titanium, but you can get it made out of titanium and they're offering titanium nibs as well. Um, but yeah, they have aluminium, aluminium, steel or titanium, um, in a couple of different colorways. Like they have one called petrol, which looks like it's been, it looks like it's been through the fire, but I don't know how they're doing that. Uh, exactly. Um, and the steel and aluminium entry version is for me, it's 37 pounds. Um, I don't know how much that is for you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I wanted to see if it auto translates it. I just backed it and I don't, I don't recall what the, what the, um, exchange rate was at the time. So I can look it up real quick, but that's the level I backed, um, to just, you know, just the basic aluminum model, but even like the PVD coating. So $50, 37 converts about 50, $51. So yeah, I mean, that's a good deal. Then the PVD coating ones, you know, getting up there closer to like a hundred dollars. They're like, what, like 60, $70. Yeah. $69. Um, nice. And they, I don't know, it looks cool. Like Nomisu does a good job.

Myke Hurley: I like that product. They traditionally have. Um, I know that I think one of them, the campaign didn't go very well, but I have always loved it. So the campaign that didn't go

Brad Dowdy: well was at the time a few years ago where Bach could not meet order. So it got delayed. And then on top of that, the QC was really bad. I think it was the Ixion. Yes. Which I loved. It was the barrel one. I really loved it. Most people did. Yeah. It just got super delayed. And then a high rate of failure on the nibs from a QC perspective. So in general though, I like what Nomisu does. I like the, I like the clip design on this. I like the knurling on the barrel. I don't like the O-ring, um, on the barrel as much. So I want to see how that is in action. So that's why I backed it to see like, Hey, does this work, um, better than I think it's going to work or does it bug me? Like I think it might bug me, but for the price, I, um, yeah,

Myke Hurley: the rollable option is the Kickstarter dialing the Schmidt P8126. Um, I remember calling this a long time ago that this was going to become the refill that every Kickstarter pen ended up taking. Uh, and that has happened. Um, I do, I think studio needed to blame for that. Honestly, because the Mark one, I think exposed it more because obviously it was in the retro 51 and was it always the, um, Baron fig squire refill? Yes. But Baron fig were a little bit, I get it. Like they, they didn't really talk about it too much. Like, because you combine it from Schmidt and brand it and they did. Yeah. So like the first

Brad Dowdy: one I recalled doing, it was a Johto that came before those. Yeah. And that's the refill that they used for that style of pen. But it was kind of my, my thinking at the time, which

Myke Hurley: I think is, is, is Baron correct is that, uh, after the Mark one, it was going to like exponentially change. And I think, I think that it has, but nevertheless, well, this is, I want to say one

Brad Dowdy: thing about the refill. This is a discussion for another day because I get this question a lot. There is no good Parker style gel refill that all of us would get behind. Okay. That is not a product that exists. And if that product would ever exist, we would see a sea change in people, common refill. Uh, it, it just doesn't exist. I get this in my inbox like twice a week. Well, what's a better refill for this Parker style refill? That's a 0.5 gel. I'm like, well, Monteverde makes some and the end, you know, it's a tough, it's a tough jam. And, uh, I would like to see, you know, if that ever happens, I don't know who's, we need Uniball to continue making the Parker style refills just now put their gel ink in it. Like they did their jet stream ink. And that's what I'd love to see. Yeah. And if that ever happened, it would, uh, it would usurp the, the 8126. And in my opinion, but, um, there's still different refills, you know, different, different types of ink. So that's my thoughts on that. And, um, you know, I I'm just, I don't know why that's

Myke Hurley: such a thing. I went quiet there for a second as I was looking through the original Ajoto page because it is still bears the point that I think I was trying to make is they didn't talk about

Brad Dowdy: what it was. Right. It was just, that wasn't on the, um, like the, the, the checklist of features.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Where the Mark one campaign was focused around, this is the best refill and we're making a pen for it. And I see what you're saying. You know, so I think it exposed it a little bit more to people that may have otherwise not known too much about it. Um, that it was like this commonly available thing that you could even get branded yourself if you bought enough of them, which is what Ajoto did is student needs done it too, right? Like Schmidt will allow you to do it. You can put your logo on the side of it. So people do it. Um, but anyway, this might not even be accurate what I'm saying, but that's the point that I was trying to drive at. Um, this, uh, Nimisu pen is not for me visually that I don't like it. Uh, it's a little too EDC for me in a way that their upper products are not. And so it doesn't, this, this design style really doesn't work for me very often, like knurling and yes, uh, rivets and that kind of stuff on a pen. Um, it, it's not really what I'm looking for from the Misu. I've found their design to be a little bit more elegant in the past. I think that it looks great if this is your taste, this is not my taste. Plus, you know, I'm not like a big pocket pen person anyway. Uh, Kate's made a good point, which I like is very engineering-y,

Brad Dowdy: which it certainly is. Which is why I like it, right? Yeah. So this is more your style. Like we,

Myke Hurley: we, we differ. This is like this type of style was where me and you differ the most, like pen type A, for example, which I really don't like, but you love. Totally. You know? Yeah. Um, I like the options. I am stunned about the pricing. I think the pricing is just unbelievably good, especially that the roller ball and fountain pen are the same price. If you just get a standard one. Right. And they use, they use him Bach nibs? Correct. Your mileage may vary for Bach nib.

Brad Dowdy: They, they've always used Bach. Um, Bach has been more consistent to me, at least in the past year or so then in the past I would avoid just completely. I was like, I just can't do it because it's a crapshoot. And now I think it's, I think they, they must've just gotten over a hump in the factory from a few years ago when they had all those problems. And like they've, to me, they've been more consistent. You know, you're like you said, your mileage may vary, but, um, yeah. So I, I don't have any problem with Bach nibs whatsoever, especially the, the more current models of them.

Myke Hurley: Yep. April shipping estimate.

Brad Dowdy: Wow. Get on it. Yep. It's fast. Breaking all the rules. Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Too cheap and too soon. I, I, I believe that they can do it because they're experienced if

Brad Dowdy: they think that they always have. Yeah. I mean, I know the Ixium is an exception, but it's

Myke Hurley: already met its goal. So if you're interested, they've already met the call. So yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: 24 days to go. All right, Myke, we got to get an apology ahead of these Ask TPAs. All right. I requested a bunch of Ask TPAs and I got them. We didn't plan on some of these things happening.

Myke Hurley: I thought we were going to do pretty much a full show. No, everything up until now in today's show wasn't in the document this morning. Like we've had a lot happen today, I guess.

Brad Dowdy: So I guarantee we will get to all of the Ask TPAs. It just may not be all of them today, which was my initial hope. Yes. But I think we can get to all of them by next week. Yeah, maybe. We'll get to a bunch of them. We'll get a bunch of them today. But a lot of these are really good like conversations to have, not necessarily just like black and white answers and we can move on and cut through them, which is why I like these questions so much because we can have these discussions, you know, even if a lot of these are topics we've discussed before. Yeah. So let me lead off with the two questions I got in the snail mail. Is that okay? Yes, please. So the first question from longtime reader Emil, who sends me, writes me letters, you know, a few times a year. Emil would like me, first off, to not forget to shout out the upcoming Enco Rino month of February, where you write a letter a day at a minimum. It's a fun thing. We'll link to it and talk about it more maybe next week because I know a lot of people, get involved in Enco Rino. It's a good way to use your stationery. It's a good way to write some pen pals. It's a good way to write some letters. I'm sure all those letters will be delivered in the month of April. I just opened a Christmas card yesterday. It was cool.

Brad Dowdy: So Emil wanted me to mention that. But secondly, his question in his letter that he wrote me is, why aren't there many stationary related books? And what stationary related books can you recommend? And what he means is the non, you know, coffee table style pictures of pens books, right? He's talking about like the pencil perfect from Caroline, where it takes like a historical story and explains, you know, the origination of how like a pencil can be. What are the storytelling type of stationary books? And that's a really good question because there's not many of them that I've read. Like I have plenty of, you know, the pens of Japan book and, you know, historical, you know, Parker pens and, you know, all those types of books. But that's not really what he's talking about here. The one I got for Christmas a couple years ago, it has a really long title, I think. Let me read this title here.

Myke Hurley: Ballpoint. A Tale of Genius and Grit, Perilous Times and the Invention that Changed the Way We Write by Gheorghe Moldova.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I read this book, I got it as a gift for Christmas, and I read it and I enjoyed it. And I remember talking about it on the show here, that it had, I think it took a lot of liberties in the story, right? It was an enjoyable book. But in the forward, even the author kind of alluded to the fact that there might be some embellishment type storytelling. And I was like, well, that's not really the setup I wanted, but it was fine. Like it was a good book. And it was good to kind of get some of the things in the invention of the ballpoint in my head, even if you kind of need to do your own research afterwards to check the authenticity of the author's statement. And then there's a few other ones. The chat's mentioning the perfection of the paperclip, which I've heard about that book. I have not read it, but that has been recommended several times to me. I found a website, which it's called Books About Pens. And it's got like 40 pages of links to books, most of it being the exact book that we're not looking for, right? The, hey, pictures of pens or, you know, the assembly of pens or the construction of pens, not necessarily the storytelling of products. So if you have any more recommendations, I'd be interested. You know, I have a book called The Secret Life of Ink, which I haven't read yet. So that might be a good option too, but I haven't looked at that yet. But yeah, there's not a ton. You know, you can start getting into things like Analog by David Sachs, which has like a one chapter on, you know, pencils or stationary stores or things like that, but you can't, it's hard to get like an entire book. So I'm open to recommendations and I will definitely pass them on to Emil if you have any more. How many, what, what stationary books do you have, Myke?

Book Recommendation

Myke Hurley: Like all of them. I don't have any, I mean, I have Caroline's books.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but they just don't, it's not a thing that it really exists. Like it'd be cool if there was

Myke Hurley: more, but. What it might suggest though is like maybe the stories aren't there to be told, like really riveting stories of pen production. Well, yeah. And I think in the day and age that we're in

Brad Dowdy: right now, like, like Emil, I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I'll say it from my perspective. Like I'm good on the originations of Parker, right? Do I need the Parker history book? It would probably be fine and I would probably enjoy it, but I would like something a little bit more modern, more modern tales. And I don't know that we're, we'll get these or not. So, you know, interesting. Second letter. If you want to send me a letter through the snail mail, maybe for IncoWriMo, my PO box address is on the contact page at penaddict.com. You can go get that information there, which is where this question from Michael and Natalie came. Okay. Says, hi Brad. I'm a new member of the pen addict and relatively new to collecting fountain pens. I had a question. Maybe you can answer in a podcast. How can one justify spending a couple of hundred dollars on a universal converter fountain pen? I feel like you get more for your money when I buy a piston filler pen. I have not been able to justify buying a converter pen yet. Should I continue to avoid them or suck it up and buy one? So here's a clarifying question here.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean like universal converter, what is, I would assume meaning like standard?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Any cartridge converter pen versus a mechanized filling system pen, such as a piston

Myke Hurley: or a vacuum. Right. I mean, cause like sailor and pilot don't have universal. Right. I think

Brad Dowdy: that I think we'll, we'll include sailor and pilot in this conversation as cartridge converter pens. Okay. Even though they are not a universal, but the idea behind the question is general converter versus hardware filling system, right? I mean, right off the bat, one thing that I would

Myke Hurley: say is that I ever had bad reliability issues with non cartridge converter filling systems, which, you know, like I have pens that I've spent a lot of money on. I mean, I was actually just going through these on the weekend. I was just looking, me and Nadine were looking through, it's just some of my stationary stuff. We'd like, see if there's anything in there that could be used or what that neither of us are using. And I found a couple of pens that like, I need to have repaired because something's not right about them. And one of them is a, is a piston filler, but I don't know what the problem is because I can't get in there and see it. So I think I understand the point, but like an initial pushback that I would have would be that, which is these, they could be more finicky and maybe

Brad Dowdy: more expensive because of it. Yes. Um, so like to the, the part of the letter I want to focus on is should I continue to avoid them or suck it up and buy one? You should never suck it up and buy one, right? Like if that's, if you think there's no need to ever buy a converter pin, if you just don't like the idea of converters and you feel like you're not getting your value in a product for a converter. For me, the filling system is never a priority or mostly not a priority for some people agree with Michael completely that the top priority is, let's just say the piston filler and it could be a vac or it could be whatever filling system, right? And it's not a real fountain pen unless I can get that piston filling mechanism. And that's a valid, valid point too. You just have to decide is like, do you feel that you're missing out by limiting yourself to one style of filling system? And if you don't, then there's no need to ever buy a cartridge converter filling system pen. And that's perfectly okay. There's people that will never buy a cartridge converter fountain pen. So don't feel that you have to do it by any stretch of the imagination. But I think the broader picture, which is what you were trying to say is that there's really not that much difference, right? I get more enjoyment from the physical pen and the nib itself, regardless of the filling system, right? Exactly. There you go. All right. Let me let you read off a couple of these. All right. I definitely, definitely want to knock

Myke Hurley: out as many as we can today. Okay. This one comes from Blake, from Zoe. We're gonna start with Zoe's question actually. We'll get to Blake's question in a moment. I don't want to miss this one. Like many people, COVID did a number of my finances this year and bonus things like stationary indulgences don't get a place on the budget anymore. But now my FOMO is a lot worse. Are there any limited editions or hard to find stationary items that you regret not purchasing? Or do you always find a new best thing later on? And do you have any ideas for it or advice for enjoying what I already own? Like it's the new hotness that I can't buy besides having to learn to write with my non-dominant hand.

Brad Dowdy: It's an important question, right? Like I really think about this from time to time as someone who gets caught up and buys too many pens. I don't have any regrets, at least like in the near recent term, which is many, many years. Because just like Zoe says, whenever I feel like I'm missing out, I know for a fact there's going to be something later that when the budget allows or the life situation allows that, hey, I can pick this up and enjoy it and not regret missing on the thing.

Myke Hurley: This is also a hobby where things come around again. Like you may be able to pick one up later on from somebody else. Yeah. And I've been in that multiple times.

Brad Dowdy: I was about to have a hissy fit on Sailor this weekend with Inks, but I decided not to put it in the show notes because it just makes me mad. It's the epitome of that. They're one of the worst of the things coming around again or the best, depending on your views of it. But yeah, I do too. So you should never regret not purchasing anything. So do you have any ideas or advice for enjoying what I already own? Yeah. Again, like it's the new hotness that I can't buy.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And you want to go first?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. If this is more, my advice is not for if you have no budget, but if you want to have still a very small budget, you could find some smaller upgrades to your existing stuff. So when the budget allows maybe a new nib in a new style to what you're used to, you know, maybe you go to an extra fine nib, maybe you go to a stub nib, maybe pick up a new ink, new ink, you can do a number on making a pen feel different. So they're the kinds of things that I would consider like that when your budget does open up just a little, buy some kind of ancillary item to the pens that you already own to help them get that new feel.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Perfect. And my suggestion was to take what you have and really refine it down to an understanding of what works best for your handwriting style. If you're a fountain pen fan, do you have extra fine, fine, medium, and broad nibs? One of those is going to be the best for your handwriting, you know, and maybe you, you, you enjoy that style of nib more than the other ones and you can sell, you know, any of the other ones and stick with maybe a medium. Or if you like gel pens, is there a certain style of gel pens that makes your handwriting look better? Like I have pens that I know for a fact are going to make my handwriting look better than the pen right next to it. So take what you already have, go through a little testing and discovery phase, rediscover what works the best for you, and then focus on that going forward. That will allow you to make a more refined purchasing decision, especially when the budget is in play, right? If you really have to think about what you're buying, you'll be more confident in when you do go to make a purchase that, hey, I'm really going to use this product because it fits exactly what I need from a writing perspective.

Myke Hurley: All right. Blake asks, I tried to distance myself from social media for various reasons over the years. And so that has meant missing out in the communities that I want to be a part of. I'm wondering what my, uh, your thoughts are on the influence of social media and on the growth of the industry while also potentially alienating folks who want to be in on the conversations without the time sucking social media channels.

Myke Hurley: It's pretty loaded. This question, Blake, I'm going to say, uh, it's a fair question. It's a good

Brad Dowdy: question. Language. It is tricky. It is. Well, it is a very personal, how you handle things question, because I, to me, I am not guns blazing on social media. Give me everything all the time injected into my veins. I'm a very refined social media user. That's why I say I'm comfortable saying I like Twitter and I love using it and I love reading it because I have refined it into an experience that works best for me where a general statement would be Twitter is a cesspool, right? Those two things are so far apart and unrelated. Like I couldn't even tell you because I've turned into something that works for me. Yeah. Same thing goes for Instagram, which are those are the two social networks that I use are, are Twitter and Instagram. I've actually been using Instagram a little bit less because their algorithm is very frustrating to me, but that doesn't really help with this question. So the influence of social media on the growth of the industry is enormous point blank to answer that question. Does it alienate folks who want to be in on the conversations without the time sucking social media channels? You have to get your information from somewhere. You know, if you're avoiding social media, which is a totally valid thing to say, how are you, but you like stationer and you want to keep up, are you subscribing to, you know, retailers newsletters? You know, what are these places where you want to get information? Because a lot of it happens on social media. You know, you can subscribe to a lot of blogs and you subscribe to newsletters. Yeah. And those are kind of the ways to get it outside of social media. And I think you can, you can get 90% of what you want. I think from, from doing that, if you want to try to avoid the social media parts of it and like that, I think that would be valid, but my social media for usage for my own mental health is best defined by the word refinement. And I really have it locked down on what I want to see and what I want to get involved in and have learned over the years how to be restrained with that where in the past I have not been.

Myke Hurley: Yep. I mean, the thing about this is though, it's where people are. Mm-hmm. Right. And, and I understand if you don't want to use it, but there are still, as you say, there are still blogs, there are still closed communities. Like, I don't know if you consider things like discords and slacks part of social media. I wouldn't, but, but you can, but if, you know, I understand that like, if you don't want to be on Twitter and Instagram, you're going to miss out and stuff, but it's kind of like, there was always a thing you could have decided to ignore. And I don't think that there's anything different about now. Like if 15 years ago, you're like, I'm not reading these internet blogs. I'm going to wait for the newspaper, like, or the new, the printed newsletter. I'm going to wait to read this in pen world. Like going back far enough, there's always a new thing that you could ignore. And if being on social media is better for your mental health, which I totally understand, that's fine. But I don't really think people can be, you know, I don't think it can be criticized that that's just where the conversation's happening. Like, unfortunately, I think that this is just a thing that you'll have to find a way around. And that might be is, joining private groups, forums, that kind of stuff, if that's something you're more comfortable with.

Brad Dowdy: It's another form of FOMO, right? Like, are you okay with missing out on the timeliness of information? And as long as you're okay with that, you know, you're going to be happy. You're going to be content. So I'll tell you, you just got to figure out what works best. If you're not on Instagram, you'll save money. That's a fact. Let's spend someone else's money this next question. We can spend some money on this next one.

Myke Hurley: All right. That sports gamer asks, I really like the perforated corners that some planners have to keep your place. The planner I got for this year doesn't have them, but I'd like to find a cutter to make them myself. Do you know of any that will do this nicely?

Brad Dowdy: I'm going to say it, Myke. All right. The theme system version two has the best corner perfs I've ever used. It does. Because your boy worked on it for ages. They have not failed yet in using corner perfs in the past. The expectation is that they are going to fail, either not pulling out cleanly or going too far.

Myke Hurley: Or that you have to do some kind of pre-folding or whatever. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: These work flawlessly. That said, taking your existing notebook and adding in a corner perf, I think would cause you to pull your hair out.

Myke Hurley: Because you'd have to, every day you're doing two things, right? You're adding the perforation and then taking the perforation off.

Brad Dowdy: And then pulling your hair out when it fails completely. So the items we've talked about, perforating notebooks, like we'll have a link to Amazon to this one that I have not tested. I do not want to vouch for this, but you know, I've been sent it as people who perforate full pages. I think this product would work, right? It's just like a roller that will put it, put in that perforation that you need. I don't think you're going to get a leverage, the leverage that you would be happy with in the corner with an item like this, unless there was a style that was more of a punch style as opposed to a roll style. So I think that would be, be scary, but like, again, at what cost is this for you? And are you going to get the value out of that? Um, yeah. So I haven't used anything outside of the theme system recently with good corner perf. So I don't have a pure recommendation for that, but making your own, you can try one of these rollers, but I would look for more of a punch style.

Myke Hurley: And, uh, sad Madifax asks, I have an eight year old fountain pen that's been writing very spotty lately. Ink stops running every time I picked up the nib, that kind of thing. I recently cleaned and reloaded it with a new cartridge to see if that helped, but it seemed to make it worse. Do you have

Brad Dowdy: any advice? So sometimes just like cleaning and depending on your cleaning, um, system, I guess, um, you know, it does, it might not get everything that you need. So the first thing that when I hear about this is thinking that there might be something in the tines, like paper getting in the tines that like a regular rinsing would not necessarily clear out, right? You have to kind of split the tines open, even on your thumbnail, like in rinse it or get like a little brass shim to, you know, slide through there. I'm wondering if that's what it could be. If not, the second thing, depending on the pen, you want to pull the nib off the feed and make sure that there's that getting behind the nib and into the feed and yeah, you got to clean the feed separately. If it's, if it's never been cleaned, that might be more of the issue. Um, if it's never been cleaned separately, I'm not saying you don't clean your pen, but now we're at a point where new inks or your cleaning routine is not improving the writing. I think we've got to look at going a step further in actually, um, removing nibs, cleaning feeds separately. And if you do that already, then we might have some type of issue. I don't know what it could be, but like, I would want to hear from you to see if, if you're doing that level of cleaning, because you do that once you feed do, if you do this feed cleaning once, you don't have to do that every time you can wait another, you know, six months or a year to completely, um, take apart the nib and the feed. It's really, depending on the pen, it's, it's really easy. Don't get overwhelmed by me saying this. It's, it's pretty easy.

Myke Hurley: All right. We have a, uh, four part question to round out today's episode.

Myke Hurley: All right. So this comes from scrolling. And so question one, I was gifted a vintage shafer with a touchdown filler, which is a bit of a family heirloom heirloom. I would like to use the pen, but it needs some work done specifically. A new latex sack. Uh, maybe the, as a bit, the clips got a bit of wiggle to it. Um, and probably maybe some nib tuning or something like that. Do you have any recommendations for someone who would be willing to do this work for me?

Brad Dowdy: Shockingly, Myke, I have the perfect person. Okay. Normally, normally if it was anything, but like a Schaefer or maybe like a Parker, like if we're starting to get into some, some specific things, I may not have the perfect answer. I might have an answer, but I have the perfect answer from you. And that's my friend Stacy at paper, once a pen, um, I'll it paper, once a pen.com is the website. Uh, I'm friends with scrolling on Twitter. I can send them the link to Stacy's work. He does some of the best Schaefer restorations I have ever seen. He's like a Schaefer pro and he does other pens and does other work, but he crushes the work on Schaefer's and I would send him my pen without hesitation to get it fixed. And I am not the only one of that opinion. He does awesome restoration work and, um, I'm sure he would be happy to take a look at your pen. Question two, I keep my pocket pens in

Myke Hurley: my purse, but since many of them are metal, I don't feel comfortable having them loose for fear of what they would do to the other stuff in the, my phone, especially. That is a good point. Uh, any recommendations for pen holders that are sized for pocket pens? So I have a Kaweco denim sleeve

Brad Dowdy: that I like for this. Not a lot of people make the nylon ones. Rickshaw does some different size single pen holders and they're not always in stock, but you can always, I think just get a custom one made, but shown design does have them in stock because Ian does make shorter pens. So they're kind of a stock thing for him. Look there. If you like that style, if you don't like that style, I'd look at the Kaweco denim ones, which I think are super cool. Um, and outside of that, there's really, really not a ton. Like I had to rack my brain on this one, but for like shorter pens, I tend to just throw them in my pocket without a case or use the Kaweco sleeves. Um, I've used the Kaweco leather sleeve in the past, but we're trying to avoid that here. Um, so yeah, like the Kaweco, like Lily put sleeves, you can find those or the sport sleeves. Um, they're pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: All right. Next up is question three for sketching. I much prefer square over rectangular paper for a sketchbook, but these don't seem widely available. I found some square watercolor books, but the per page cost is prohibitive. Do you have any recommendations? So when I first

Brad Dowdy: answered this question, so scrolling sent this like two weeks ago and I answered this question, there was a, a product called the Quattro, um, which in the past has made a square notebook, but in their current offerings, they do not. So I was a little flummoxed in this. Then just yesterday, our friends at right notepads came out with a seven inch by seven inch engineering notebook. Now it may not have the paper style that scrolling is looking for, but this is one of the only, uh, I'm trying to find the link right now. Someone sent it to me yesterday, but it's one of the only just like pure square notebooks here. I got the link. I'll put it in the show notes that I've seen. I'm going to order this for me because it looks great. Um, Rodia also makes some square notebooks, but they have, they are generally harder to find than their standard notebooks, right? Like if you have a Rodia supplier, they may not choose to carry the square notebooks. You don't always see them in like product offerings, um, from people that carry a lot of Rodia. So the only ones I know right now are the Rodia one and the right pads one. And I'm not sure if that's going to work for the type of writing you want to do on these notebooks, but take a look. And I would like to explore this one more because I like square notebooks, as long as they're like the seven by seven would be like the max size. I wouldn't want anything bigger. Um, but yeah, that that's new right pads. I it's called the engineer, but notebook, and I am a hundred percent all over that. I will be ordering that for myself.

Myke Hurley: Finally, a bonus discussion question. Do you ever have products where you prefer the stock lineup over the special editions? And do you worry that as a community, we get too invested in the special editions? The second part I can answer easily. Yeah, of course, but that's, that's what hype's all about. Yeah. Except for any, um, any hobby. All right. So I want you to think, do you have a product

Brad Dowdy: line that you love or let's just go with enjoy? It may not be your, even your favorite where you would take, you use more of the stock releases than the limited special releases.

Brad Dowdy: So I'm thinking about this. Like you look at the Japanese brands, right? Sailor, a hundred percent, not stock because they've kind of given up on that. So pilot. Yeah. Pilot. I use a lot of stock products from them, from the vanishing point, even the base colors, vanishing points, the nine 12s, the 90 ones, those are pilot does a really good stock lineup because maybe it's because they don't do that many special editions. They'll do like one, one here, one there. Um, you know, um, it's like the stock lineups are dwindling. Like I think the biggest stock lineup out there is Pelican, right? But it's the same stock lineup every year because it's always the stripes, right? You get the green stripe models, the blue stripe models. Um, and they're in every size range, but then Pelican mixes in so many special editions. Once you've bought one stock edition and you enjoy that pin, where's there to go next, but into the special edition. So does the community get too invested in that? Yes, but it's because we love the product, right? If I fall in love with a Pelican 600 green stripe, the only thing net Pelican now offers me if I want a second one is going to be a limited edition style, right? So I do think of it from that point, like once you have one, if you're a heavy user and you find something you really love and you want a second one, maybe for a different nib size, you're probably not going to go back to the stock edition again. So I, I value the special editions and limited editions. There is a lot of times where we place too much investment, um, in those special editions, but it's, we're also a community that tends to have more than a singular pin, um, stock lineups right now. I think pilot does it really, really well because they're not mixing things up as much as like sailor Pelican, for example, but this is a good question. Yeah, I think it's just

Myke Hurley: like a preference thing where just like, I feel like I've used all of the stock stuff and each of my tastes just go towards the things that are different and then that, and they just end up being limited. But going back to what we were talking about earlier is I'm happier to let a lot

Brad Dowdy: of this stuff go now than I used to be. Right. I think Kaweco does a very good, um, stock edition lineup as well. That's one I'll continually buy stock lineups. Um, they do a good job either in the plastic barrels or the, you know, other material barrels. I don't consider those special edition.

Myke Hurley: All right. That wraps it up for today, right? That was the, we had a great selection of questions. We have many more great ones that we will get to over the coming episodes, but we do always encourage that you please continue to send in your questions for our Ask TPA segment. You can tweet with the hashtag Ask TPA, or you can use question mark Ask TPA in the Relay FM members discord. If you have a longer question, you can email it to hello at penaddict.com. Penaddict.com is also where you can find Brad's work. Uh, Brad also streams on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. Eastern over at twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can find Brad on Instagram as penaddict and dowdyism on Twitter. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E, and I stream about once a week, uh, from my Twitch page, which you can find at mike.live. Um, we'll be back next time. Thank you so much to Squarespace for their support and thank you for listening. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.