The Pen Addict 474/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	474
Title:	Grippier Grips
Release Date:	August 11th, 2021
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 474
Audio File:	Audio Episode 474
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 474
Length:	5454 min <br />0.9 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 474, and today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad.

Episode Introduction

Brad: Welcome back, Myke Hurley. I've been on 474 episodes. How many have you been on?

Myke: Maybe like 460, maybe 455, something like that. Have you been on all? Yeah, you've been on all of them, right? But you haven't skipped any. I don't think there's been any episode where you've not been around.

Brad: Like we've taken weeks off, right? We've had a gap in a week, like at the end of the year, you know, holiday type of stuff, which we rarely do.

Myke: This show isn't called The Myke Show, is it? It's The Pen Addict. It's you. So, you know, what am I supposed to do?

Brad: You know, what are we going to do about that? I've actually never literally thought about that.

Myke: So if you're not here, then what's the point, right?

Brad: 474 times that I've never actually thought about that.

Myke: The branding is one and the same at this point. It's our very unique relationship that we have here.

Guest Mention

Brad: So you were gone last week. I brought in an amazing guest, the Nib Doctor herself, Audrey Madison.

Myke: That was an all-time guest episode, I think. I thoroughly enjoyed that episode. So I would also like to extend my thanks to Audrey for filling in for me last week. And, you know, in many ways, as some of our best guests do, doing a better job than I can.

Brad: I feel great about how that episode went. I'm glad you said that. We got a lot of great feedback from the community. Everyone really, really enjoyed my conversation with Audrey because she's awesome. And it was really, really good to just like, it was one of those conversations where we basically, we would kind of have mostly the same conversation if we were just sitting around hanging out. I mean, obviously, you know, I had to direct, you know, a little bit, hey, tell me about the Franklin Christophe Nib thing and how did that go? But in general, our conversation was just like our conversation that we would normally have. Luckily, I've known Audrey for years and it was easy to do. And it was just fantastic. So I'm very, very glad that she joined us last week and I'm glad you are not here.

Myke: Yeah, I honestly, I hope that she'll come back on the show at another point because I feel like you two could have gone into even more detail if time would have allowed, you know?

Brad: Yep. You might have caught, I don't doubt you listened to any of the after edit, but as soon as like we stopped the show show, I said, we could have done three more hours on completely new topics. And she was like, I know. So yeah, that's exactly how it went. So good. Glad, glad you liked it. Um, what's, what's been your stationary status, you know, the last couple of weeks, I feel even when I have like a week off from talking to you about pens, I don't know what your like pen and paper status is like, where are you at in like using things? What's, what's tickling your fancy mate?

Myke: Uh, well, I don't really, I took some stuff with me, but I didn't really use any of it. Like for me, stationary for me typically is I'm, I use it when I'm working. If I'm not working, it doesn't get used, you know? So when I was traveling, I was in Romania last week visiting family. Uh, I didn't really use too much. Uh, since I came back, I mean, I'm working on a new product for Cortex Brown right now. And I have prototypes of that. So I'm super jazzed about that, but I'm not going to say anything more. Um, I have been really digging still the pen addict to Johto pen.

Brad: Yeah. First batches in, in people's hands now. And, uh, they're, they're loving it. I'm loving it. I, I love, I love the texture on that thing. It feels really cool. I'm enjoying using it and we'll have a lot more in the October timeframe for those of you who are still looking. I'm good. I'm glad you still like that.

Myke: Yeah. I'm still really digging it. Um, and the, I got my blue Mark one as well. Oh yeah. Nice. Which is also super good. And it took me days to realize, uh, that they put a blue refill in it. I just, you just didn't really pay attention to it. I don't know why. And it was the right call.

Brad: Yeah. Schmidt blue is pretty dark. Like exactly.

Myke: Maybe, you know, I just, I don't expect it. I like the Schmidt blue, but it's just harder to find. So I tend to just end up with the black one. Uh, they do a bunch of colors, but it's just really people only tend to want the black one. Uh, but I liked it. I liked that, uh, addition. So yeah, I've been using those and, uh, just like partnering around and nothing too special going on right now.

Brad: Yeah. I still like the black Schmidt refill a Johto at one point with a previous order of mine. They sent me one of each of the colors, which is the standard, um, black, blue, red, green, um, rollerball refills. And I have like, I have the blue in one pen, but I really just stick with the black and then the red and green are just kind of laying around just because I wouldn't use them that much. Like the pen would be too nice for me to put a refill in it that I'm not going to use. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I've been using like one of the things I wanted to do since I hadn't talked to you in two weeks is like, what are the things that I've been using recently? Even if we've, we've talked about them before. And I have a couple of things. Um, one that I'm actually using right now, as we're talking, that we're going to talk about later in the show. So I'll hold it to then, but I've got some new spoke stuff that I teased on Twitch that we'll be bringing out weeks, weeks away, maybe by the end of the month. If we're lucky. Um, but the icon, the fountain pen barrel, the modular barrel, we got some new barrel colors. We have brass inserts for that. Myke, we have a brass sleeve and a brass grip section. Oh yeah. And it feels good. I'm, I've, I've got that right here as well. I'm using that. Is they available for sale? They will be in like about three weeks or so. Right. You've got to, so we've got some finishing, finishing up to do, but, um, and then we have some grip sections that have, um, like grooves. You know, for better grip. Cause the, the previous, like the, just the anodized grips are pretty slick. Right. Yeah. So people were wanting some grippier grips. So we have those, we have titanium parts in, um, lots of new barrel color. So it's going to be fun. So I've been using that, um, pin I made a, so you will like this one. It's like a British racing green icon barrel with a brass sleeve and a brass grip. It's, it's pretty slick. I'm not going to lie. I do like the sound of that. I know it's my own thing, but like, I really like it. It's really good. I'm happy with it. Um, on top of that, oddly enough, well, not oddly, if you know me and I, I guess you said it, this is my show. My name's in it. Um, the Pentel carry mechanical pencil, the one that caps that I about once a year, I just fawn over publicly, even though I use it kind of all the time, but I always get like a bug to talk about the carry because it's still just an extremely underrated mechanical pencil. And I have an orange one that was a special edition that I bought from you, Seiko stationary, and it just sits on my desk. And I've been using my planner, um, using it, uh, in conjunction with whichever pen I've chosen for the week, which happened to be this spoke pen and this orange, um, Pentel carry. And I just love that combination. I love the idea of that pencil. I love having my planner, which that's also in the, what I'm using phase. I'm, I'm digging the hourly layout that I have. So I like, I'll write that part in pen, which I'll have like a pen of the week and write out my whole week in the schedule. And then I'll use the pencil for a lot of notes and a lot of, you know, the arrow going here and the scratching out going there.

Myke: So you're still really digging that, huh?

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. That's been a good setup. I'm still, I am going to look at new planners. We'll probably do a whole planner show like in the next month or so, because Hobonichi is going to launch before the end of the month, I think. And I just want to see what kind of layouts are out there. I found one layout like this William Hanna that I like. I just, not that I want to switch out of the William Hanna, but I just want to see what my options are now that I've changed how I do a planner setup. So we'll do a larger episode on that coming soon.

Myke: Do you think the Hobonichi is going to still be using the paper? What is it called? Oh my God.

Planner Discussion

Brad: Tomoe River paper. That's a great question, Myke. And we're going to cover that later. I'm going to type this in. And so we don't get too sidetracked. I'm going to type this in right here. It's being added to our show notes as we speak. Yeah, because I actually have some commentary on that from our good friends at Tokyo Inkling. Spoiler alert, I'm going to be talking about that podcast momentarily. And that's one of the topics we will discuss. On top of that, my Nakaya Decapod. That's kind of the move. The Midori Tamanuri with the extra fine, slightly flexy nib and the Bungu Box Imperial Purple Ink. I've written a bunch of pages in what I have listed here as redacted in the sheet. So I have basically two notebooks going. One of them I can't talk about yet. Another couple weeks, maybe another few weeks. I'll get to talk about that. So embargo, one embargo busted, which we're going to talk about later in the show, the Estherbrook JR Pocket Paradise. That was one of my embargoes. I got to finally came clear on the date. And then this next one we will talk about in a few weeks. So I am excited to talk about it. It's a product I'm using very actively. And I think you will find it very interesting. Do I know anything about this? Absolutely nothing.

Myke: When will I know something about this?

Brad: About three weeks, maybe.

Myke: That's a shame. Hmm.

Brad: Hmm. It's unfortunate for you. It's not for me because I'm getting to enjoy it.

Myke: Hmm.

Brad: Hmm.

Brad: Hmm. Hmm. So yeah, that's the stuff I'm using. Oh, one other thing. With my planner, this whole planner, everything's driven by my planner as far as like the things I'm using the most. So I'll pick usually a fountain pen, sometimes my Ajoado to be like the quote pen of the week, right? That's where all the planning gets done with this pen. And then I'll have the pencil. And, you know, I've used a Pentel graph, which I've reviewed recently. I'm using the Pentel carry right now. I'm using the Pentel Fitline highlighter still, the one with the interesting tip that moves, bends, question mark. And I'm really a big fan, Myke. I haven't done it yet. I haven't done my ruler roundup yet, Myke. But the Traveler's Brass Ruler is the one I reach for every time. So Ruler Mafia is not going to be happy with me that I'm not going to use one of the hinge rulers. I haven't got a ruler.

Myke: Like nobody recommended a ruler for me. Like I think Rosemary Orchard recommended one that I like, but it was out of stock everywhere. Outside of that, I got nothing. Remember, what I'm looking for, in case you know and forgot, 30 centimeters, nice. That's all. That's my two. The two things I want, 30 centimeters and nice. I want a premium ruler. I don't just necessarily want a plastic ruler. What I really want is a 30 centimeter version of the Brassing Ruler from Y Studio. But they don't make it. Yeah. God, that's a good looking ruler.

Brad: Maybe we can talk them into making that. That would be good.

Myke: Maybe you can.

Brad: I'll work on that. I know people.

Myke: Mm-hmm.

Brad: Yeah. I would be in. That would be the ruler. I'm with you. Give me that Brassing Ruler in 30 centimeters. Yet, that would be a nice alternative to my 15 centimeter skinny brass traveler's ruler. So.

Myke: I have started to get into the mindset that I'm sure you are in sometimes now because of where you are in your life, which is ultimately, I think, quite a dangerous one, which is, well, I could just make it.

Myke: Right. I don't want to. I'm not saying anything.

Brad: I'm not saying anything because I may or may not have seen like 3D printed things of things I discuss.

Myke: So, you know.

Brad: I don't want to make a ruler.

Myke: Right? Like, that's not. Well, at least not right now. That's not going to be a bestseller.

Brad: No. That would not be the bestseller. We're not going to call that one the bestseller. But I have.

Myke: It's just that once you've got into a point where like, like, we're kind of where I'm starting to move towards a way you kind of are, where like you have experience with product manufacturer. You've ended up getting into a point, which I am now, where it's like, I have 2.5 products that I have dreamt up because I want them and now they exist. So, it's kind of like, well, can't I just do it? No, I'm not going to make a ruler.

Brad: Yeah. I have ruler prototypes floating around and that's not why I'm talking about them. Just because, hey, I'm setting y'all up to drop a ruler on you later. It's just that, oh, by the way, you know.

Myke: Let me tell you the exact reason I never would want to make a ruler. That thing has to be perfectly straight.

Brad: You don't trust yourself or your manufacturers?

Myke: I just, with all of the issues I've had with various manufacturing processes over the last couple of years, I do not trust that.

Brad: I bought a wood scale once, like, you know, the triangular scale. Yeah. And I, like, literally used, I ran, like, a pen or a pencil across it one time and just threw it out. Yeah. Because it was crooked. It's like, how do you make something like this? Crooked or there's a little chip in it. It's, like, wavy.

Myke: Yeah, it's, like, wavy. Or you haven't measured the millimeters correctly. You know?

Brad: You do have to be very correct.

Myke: This is the thing, which is a precision tool. Uh, I have not gotten to the part in my manufacturing experience where, like, guaranteeing precision is something that I feel like I can do. So, that's not gonna happen. You mean, you're not taking it? But why studio? You should do it for me.

Brad: Yeah, why studio should do it? You're not taking, uh, you're not taking your creations over to, like, the Lord's measuring scales and of officialness to verify their spacing.

Myke: Go to, like, the kilogram, you know? Yeah, exactly. Measure against the kilogram. Mm-hmm. This episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Pen Chalet. You know, Pen Chalet do make guarantees, by the way. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their high-quality pens because they want you to be happy with what you buy there. And they have everything you're looking for from all of your favorite brands. Whether you want a new fountain pen or you're looking for a mechanical pencil. Maybe you want to buy somebody in your life a ballpoint pen or a rollerball. Doesn't matter what you're looking for. They've got it. They also have a ton of accessories. They have ink. They have carrying cases, pen holders, refills. And they have so many brands. Like, I have a list here of what would be the favorite brands. You know, brands like Pelican and Lamy and Pilot. But you can just go to Pen Chalet now and you just click that button at the top. This is brands. And that page just goes on and on. They have Y Studio products. They have Rickshaw products. They have Parker products. Colorverse, Clairefontaine, Caran D'Ache, Estabrook, Lamy, Namiki, Pelican. It just goes on and on and on and on and on and on. So many products. So many things from all of your favorite brands. And that's one of the reasons why I love Pen Chalet. Because also, they have fantastic prices on those products. They're always doing discounts. They have specials. They have extra secret specials for pen addict listeners. And they do great shipping. They do great shipping prices for overseas, for international stuff. Great shipping rates there. And if you're in the U.S., $50, orders over $50, I should say, free shipping. So if you buy over $50 at Pen Chalet, your shipping will be free in the U.S., which is awesome. So go to PenChalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password Pen Addict for this special offer. And to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time. So what have they got, Brad? Ron always tells me I've got special things to you this week. So he says to me.

Brad: Yeah. He's not lying. This is a stock up day. If you're a Colorverse fan, two things. One, the Colorverse Nebula Premium Memo Notebooks. Those notebooks are excellent for fountain pens. And these are like crazy inexpensively priced. This is a thing that if you like this paper, this is the time where you stock up on it. But on top of that, Colorverse Inc., which I rarely see go on sale. Three colors of the Eye on the Universe set, which we all really, really enjoyed talking about when they came out. The Hippocamp Comet combo, the Hubble HST combo, and the SM1 CoStar combo are all like crazy on sale. And like then you drop your 10% off coupon on top of that. But there is a slew of Bennu fountain pens here, which I enjoy very much. And some different shapes and some different sizes from the Briolette, which is one of the first ones that came out. To the Euphoria, which is a shape that I like. To the Supreme and the Talisman. Like they're all on sale. Then Ron dropped a secret down here at the bottom. You got to scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll. That's the great thing about this page. Which Opus 88 Halo is like one of the classically really excellent Opus 88s. And let's just say it's less than 88. That's all I'll say. That's shockingly good. It's a crazy good price for a really, really high quality pen. So I'll let you finish this ad, Myke. And then there is one more item on this list that I would like to discuss. But I think it needs to be post-ad. All right.

Myke: Penchalet.com. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website. And use the password of Pen Addict to see these special offers. And get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Penchalet. Our thanks to our great friends at Penchalet for their continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Pen Discovery

Brad: On this list, Myke, I have found something I have never seen before. And it is called the Stipula Netto Patented Filling System Pen Care Supplies. I mean, it's basically the filling system. Yeah. Stipula Netto Patented Filling System. $250, Myke.

Brad: Much, much cheaper on the sale page. I will let you all go look at the amazing price on here. I am very confused on what's happening here. I'm... Hmm. The Netto Filling System consists... Why is it blinged out like this? Why is it wearing a necklace? It's got like a rope chain. And it's got like a medallion on there. Rocking it out. Yeah. It says... I think it probably says... What is this? I am fascinated. I want to know if anyone has one of these. And why. And what does it do? So, I'm going to read like the second paragraph here. The Netto Filling System consists of a small device that screws onto the Stipula ink bottle in place of the bottle's lid. So, this is basically just like a topper or a cap. When using the Stipula Netto Filling System, fountain pen users can refill their fountain pen without dipping the nib and sometimes the pen section or grip directly into fountain pen ink. Instead, the Netto System allows writers to dip the nib in a clean, dry well. The liquid ink converges in that same clean, dry well through micropipes thanks to the principle of capillarity. I don't understand anything. It makes no sense.

Myke: I don't care what it does.

Brad: What does it do? This is breaking my brain right now.

Myke: I don't know what that means.

Brad: And I would love to test this out, but not even at the sale price. Am I getting like Run DMC ink bottle over here?

Myke: So, it fills it without getting any ink on it? Like, I don't understand what that's meant to do. I don't get it.

Brad: I'm done. I don't know what else to say.

Myke: Without dipping the nib directly into fountain pen, the Netto System allows writers to dip the nib in a clean, dry well. The liquid ink converges in that same clean, dry well through micropipes.

Brad: We're going to need to find a video or something on this. This is...

Myke: I love when like people claim a thing and it's just like, thanks to the principle of capillarity. What does that mean?

Brad: It's science, Myke. Thanks to science. Thanks to physics.

Myke: I found a YouTube video that was showing off the chain. I don't understand. Like, I'm just looking at this video and it doesn't help me understand what's going on.

Myke: But the guy just dipped the thing in and then they came out with ink on it. So, I don't understand what... Well, sure. You know, I think all it means is you just don't dip it in the bottle. You're still dipping it in the ink. So, I don't understand what's wrong with dipping it in the bottle.

Brad: Because you wouldn't be able to spend $250 if you just dipped it in the bottle.

Myke: Yeah, I don't know, man. I feel like I'm going to need somebody to explain this to me. Maybe I'll watch this video.

Brad: I'll put it in the show notes. Yeah, I think we're going to have some follow-up on this one. It's pretty serious. Thanks, Ron. Yeah. I don't know what just happened, but this is why we love... Hey, Brad.

Myke: Talk about confusing.

Myke: I know where you're going with this. The Drillog Kickstarter campaign. So, we mentioned it was happening, but never actually spoke about it. I backed it. I assume you backed it. This is one of the more confusing Kickstarter processes that I've been through for two reasons. One, it's just a lot of information. And two, they are using what appears to be a new feature of Kickstarter that I'd not come across before. Where you make a pledge, and then there's like an almost backer kit-like thing afterwards where you select the products that you want. So, you kind of... With the way that you do it here is you say, like, I want this barrel. And then you go through and add some stuff onto it. It's very confusing. I found it very confusing. It took me quite a while. So, I... And also, like, at this point, I don't even know what I've backed anymore. Like, I can't remember the exact particulars. Maybe it tells me if I log into Kickstarter. But this was a very confusing process. I think I'm getting the twin spiral barrel. I think that was what I ended up going for.

Brad: Gotcha.

Myke: Because I thought that that looked pretty cool.

Brad: And two nibs. I think so. If you order that one, you need to get two nibs. Well, I mean, I assume I have. Who can tell at this point, Brad? I got a lot of questions on that launch for exactly what you're saying. There is a new feature in Kickstarter.

Myke: Oh, because I guess one of the things we didn't mention... One of the things we didn't mention is that we believed that they were going to offer one set of products. And then it ended up that they offered everything. Everything. Yeah. Yeah. But wait, there's more. Yeah, they're doing... So at this point, honestly, I don't know what I have ordered and if it will be correct. I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope that it's right. I think I took a screenshot of it and sent it to you. And it looked like it was right, like from the email. But in Kickstarter system, it isn't very... Let's see if I get it here. Yeah. Twin spiral A plus a nib. So I guess that's an extra... I've got two nibs. Two times nib. You need two nibs. Yeah. And I got a color puddle because I thought it was funny.

Kickstarter Update

Myke: I just like saying color puddle. I like color puddle. To me, it's like a little inkwell thing, which I would probably never use. But it looks like a nice little thing to put on the desk. Honestly, I thought it looked like a nice little fidgety desk toy, maybe. Yeah.

Myke: Yeah. I'm still excited about this product, but it's just the Kickstarter campaign has been quite complex. And now they have added more complexity to it, right?

Brad: Yeah. So when I did my unboxing and kind of mini review, the one thing that I constantly talked about was the length of the barrels. They're all relatively short. And not relatively short. They were short, right? They didn't get kind of over the, you know, your thumb and index finger area, like that kind of little cusp in your grip there. It was pretty low. And like it was fine and usable for me because I don't really have trouble with small pins, but some people do. And that would just eliminate them from literally any offering that Drillog had except for the twin spiral that you bought. Because since it has two caps and room for two nibs, one of the caps screws on the back of the pin, making it a more standard, lengthy pin. And so what Drillog smartly did, even though the Kickstarter process doesn't make you feel smart when you're going through it because of the way this is set up. And this is not Drillog's fault. They have lengthened the standard barrel, the standard aluminum barrel Kickstarter by, oh, I don't have the images pulled up, but a decent amount, like an inch. I can bring it up. It's going to be a really good length.

Myke: It's from 75.5 millimeters to, oh, I'm confused because they've got, it's a size range.

Myke: 95.5 to 100.5. I don't think they've decided on the final dimension. Okay. Yeah. So it's not available yet. 95.5 millimeters to 100.5 millimeters.

Brad: Yeah. So they said at the end of August, they'll know which one it's going to be.

Myke: It's basically 20 to 25 millimeters larger.

Brad: Yeah. And like, I'm going to have to go in and change my pledge to this longer barrel because it is going to be better. If you, if you ordered the classic barrel, the classic material AL, which is just the, the cylinder. And a lot of them are anodized colors. You're going to like the longer length of it. Like you, it doesn't matter, Myke, because you're going to end up getting like a long length pen.

Myke: Yeah. And also, I mean, for me, I wanted the twin one because it's just, this is already a weird pen. I want to make it as weird as I possibly can, you know? That's the best.

Brad: That's my favorite barrel out of the bunch. But to use it effectively, you really do need two nibs. So you're adding a lot of cost in that. So I get it though. So that's the best barrel I've, I've felt, but so I backed it for the classic, but I will be switching to the longer, what I'm calling the drill log long boy. Oh boy. I will say they have it available.

Myke: Look, this is confusing and it is complex, but on both of the things that have made it more complex, I actually tip my hat to them listening to what people want. But yeah, like people didn't want just the standard one. They also wanted the weird ones. So like, all right, we'll put them in. Yep. And then people like, this might be too short. So like, all right, we'll give you an option to make it longer. And yeah, it's tricky. Maybe this is tricky for a couple of reasons, right? Like one, it's hard to follow some of it in some places because there's like, there's a lot of Japanese on the page too, right? Which just makes it like really good. Like, you know, I'm not meaning to be mean or like, but like when I'm coming to the page, sometimes I don't know what I'm reading or like what I should be reading. So that can make it a tad tricky. And I don't know if this is just a kind of a byproduct of Kickstarter's Japanese like platform now. I feel like maybe they should split them out, right? But I don't know how it's working there. You know, because I have Kickstarter Japan. Nevertheless, because I can't imagine it makes it more helpful for people in Japan either to have a bunch of English on the page. Like it's just tricky. But it's also this other system like this, which I actually I applaud Kickstarter for having this. They should have this, right? Where like, yes, on their platform, you can add extras and make choices. So you don't have to have 70 options on the thing, right? So you're like, right. I want to go in on this level. And then on this level, I want these choices. And it's been bananas, I think, that they haven't had this. And like we were looking up, this is brand new, this feature. And Drillog is using it, which is the right thing for them to use. But it just adds to the overall confusion of it all. But I think it's great that they've done it. I will be astounded if they meet their November date. Because they keep adding stuff, right?

Brad: Where are we? Yeah. But like I'm not like for me, like I'm not going to buy more. I'm going to switch what I have. So it's not necessarily like a plus one that I'm getting. But I would have assumed that they will have more.

Myke: They like pre-made a bunch of stuff. Skews. And like now it's like oopsies. Now we've got to. Yeah. You know, if we're going into end of August and they don't even know how big it's going to be.

Brad: Yeah. And it was the right decision. It was the right decision to do this. So they could have either taken the short barrel and threaded the back and allow you to post the cap or just make a longer barrel. Either way, I'd be fine. I don't necessarily need both options because then you just have more options. But the Kickstarter side of it is just this will make life easier for people, for curators in the future to just it's the easiest way to add on things up front without having to answer a lot of support emails. How do I add? I want to. How do I, you know, how do I manage my pledge to do that? And it was always a manual process. Well, now you can pledge for one and add the second one like on the next page. So it's good. But yeah. So Tokyo Inklings podcast. Jacob has done a lot of stuff with the drill log. He was one of the first ones to get the drill log living in Japan. So he's talked a lot about this. If you want some more. I finally been able to catch up on some podcasts and that's why I wanted to talk about Tokyo Inklings. I finally listened to like the last three episodes and they see why and Jacob do a lot of deep dive stuff that I really am glad that they do. So I don't have to do it. And nor do I want to do it. Like I've gotten a lot of emails about like, hey, what is Kaweco up to as far as like copyright and patent challenges they're putting on Moonmen in different countries and things like that. I'm like, you know, I really don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's like, okay, I've heard like the top level discussion of this and I'm not really tracking. Like I'm sort of tracking. But like Jacob and CY likes Kaweco put out a press release saying why they're actively like trying to attempt to protect their patents. And allegedly it seems like they're failing at doing that, which is probably the right answer.

Brad: But like you can go find out more from Tokyo Inklings. And that's why I wanted to make sure to bring them up today. Just the last episode, they covered this Kaweco PR mess that Kaweco is kind of digging themselves a hole. It's honestly not a great look. Like there's a couple different ways it can go. And it just doesn't seem like, seems like they're trying to fight some public opinion battle. And I don't, it doesn't really look great from what I'm seeing from Tokyo Inklings. And then they talk about like things like where we get a lot of our sailor information from CY and Jacob because they can get like sailors, you know, public PR releases because they're a public company. And their quarterly reports and their earnings reports. And they talked about how like sailors earnings are up. So maybe now's the time that plus is going to actually finally do the takeover because that's what plus was waiting for to get, you know, a lot of the books cleaned up and get the numbers running. Right. And you asked about the Hobonichi. Well, they found like the Hobonichi press release coming up. Hobonichi is using the old Tomoe River for this run of books. Like they've bought enough to be covered for this year. They haven't announced what they're going to do in 2022. But well, you know, for 20, that's actually probably 2023's launch. So we're about to launch 2022 stuff. All the 2022 stuff is going to be classic Tomoe River, just like you've always expected from your Hobonichi. So my point being here is y'all should listen to Tokyo Inklings podcast. Yeah, I'm behind too.

Myke: Travel.

Brad: I save them. I save them depending on like I'm starting to listen to podcasts more. Like I always go in cycles with podcasts. So it's like an all or nothing thing. So right now I've listened to those last three episodes in, you know, the last three days probably. So it's good stuff and y'all should check them out. I got another pin. I want to talk about Myke. The Shown Design Brass Faceted Pocket 6. I finally got my review up on this. I've had this pin for a while. It's been out for a while. And I wanted to tell a little bit of the story about how I first saw the pin and why it was a memory for me being my last pin show that I attended in person. Baltimore 2020 pin show was like right before like the mega lockdowns started to happen. And I got to see this pin and I didn't buy one at the time. And then Ian kindly sent me one to review or to really to do whatever I wanted with. Well, I decided to use it and review it. And it's great. And the reason I'm bringing that up is because the DC pin show happened this past weekend. And before the pin show, Ian had started dabbling with this faceted design in aluminum, which I thought was really strange. Like the brass one looks cool and it makes a lot of sense with the brass having that extra weight and that thickness of the barrel, being able to handle all this design work on the exterior of the barrel. And it looks awesome. And I was like, oh, I would have never thought that would be an aluminum. And he did just like the basic raw aluminum type of pin body the last couple months. And then I saw pictures from DC. We'll put a link in the show notes from the gentleman stationer. Our friend Joe was at the show at DC. And he was talking about how he bought the actual the brass one that I reviewed here recently. But he had some pictures on Ian's table. And I saw this from other people at the show. So the aluminum faceted barrels have the wild anodizations that I like in Ian's other pins. Does that make sense that I finally get there from here? Yeah. So the aluminum barrels have like the pink and purple anodizations, which you don't see on the brass. And the faceting. They look really good. Yeah. They look awesome. So I saw some pictures.

Myke: The pink and blue one I like the look of a lot. Yeah.

Brad: Yeah. So we'll have the link in the show notes. I think y'all should check. Just check this out. Like if you liked what you saw from this brass faceted review, Myke and I have talked about the Ian's pins for years and years since you were in DC with me. It was when we first really got into like the ballpoints, you know, and that's when we were buying like the Dexter pin and the Lisa Frank pin. And that's when he first kind of did the anodizations. And now just to see him like really escalate everything. Like I'm here for it. Like that's my jam. So I love it.

Myke: What is this black Ultem? I thought you could only get Ultem in that weird brown color.

Brad: So it's the two colors. The amber Ultem has been the more popular of the two. Right. Or I don't know if it's maybe it's been an availability thing too. So there is a black Ultem option. And I don't know. Part of the part of the fun with these Ultem pins is they're really good for eyedropping. So you don't get to see the ink sloshing around as much in the amber. But also the amber is not necessarily everyone's favorite color. It's it's an odd color. I happen to like it a lot. But there is a black option and Ian selling those. And I would like to see that in person before I like jumped in on that one. I definitely love my amber. I have two Ultem pins. They're both amber models. And I would want to see the black. I'm sure it's great. But if I had a choice which one would I check out? You know which one would I like really really want? But I bet the black looks pretty cool. The material is so wild Myke. I want you to see one of these one day. Because it's it's hard to explain. It's air light. It's like it's like if a packing peanut was a pen. But the packing peanut was also indestructible. It's wild.

Myke: Yeah I don't really know what that means. It's light.

Brad: It's lighter than any pen you own. And it it it kind of messes with you. Like in the feel of it. Like it's really thin really light. But really strong and cleans really well. So it's just a cool material.

Myke: DC pen show.

Brad: Yes. Any regrets? Not going? No. No. Zero. I couldn't. Like I'm happy I didn't go. Yeah. If that makes sense. Like I'm totally happy that I was not there. I'm glad people went. I'm glad people had a good time. I would not have handled it well mentally.

Myke: You just would it would have been uncomfortable for you? Yeah.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. Like I would have wouldn't have minded like going to the show and hanging out going to the show and walking around the show with the mask on. And then I probably would have just like gone to my room. And like there's no fun in that. Like part of the show is the people. Yes. And it's like I don't know that I would have wanted to just like hang out for like hours with around a lot of people. Yeah. If I didn't have to. So that's like that's just my choice right now. I don't have to go. So I'm okay not going. Like it's fine. There'll be shows next year. Hopefully we'll be back to normal.

Myke: Yeah. I think that that's definitely the thing. Right. Like you could just go there and see it. But then all of the other stuff you can't really. I don't really think you can you can really participate in. Yeah.

Brad: Like I would have I would have been fine if I live like locally and I would have gone and done a drive by and spent the day you know a few hours there at the show and then left.

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: Which is why I just didn't want to travel. I don't want to put myself on an airplane. I don't want to go through the airports. I don't. It's just my headspace right now. Mm hmm. Especially with where I live. Like things are escalating where I live. It's making me uncomfortable just being out even though like my entire family is vaccinated. Like so you know it's an easy choice for me to make. And I just hope you know I just hope people that are going you know make make those right choices to you know make sure you're wearing your mask and clean you know washing your hands and doing all that stuff and keeping socially distanced and everyone has a has a good safe time. I'll just I'm going to keep waiting. I'm good.

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Brad: Speaking of Squarespace, Myke, penaddict blog, penaddict.com, proudly run on Squarespace forever, has had a little writing change, Myke. The awesome and amazing Susan Piggott's last post was a couple weeks ago. And Susan wrote for the penaddict for like six years. Like we have very little turnover in the writing crew at the penaddict. So Susan made a wonderful final post. She's got some life changes that's going to uproot her for the next year or so. So we'll have a link in the show notes. All positive stuff, though. All great stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just worth mentioning that. Just, yeah. But like no time to write for the penaddict anymore on a schedule. And like writing one review post a week is a lot of work for these writers. Like I don't want to undersell like how much effort it takes for one person to do one review per week on a schedule. It is more than you think. So Susan did that just amazingly for the past six years. And Sarah still going strong. Jeff, I'd have to go back and look. Jeff might have a decade under his belt at the penaddict. I don't even know at this point. Probably at least eight years, if not more. And then Sarah has been there for three or four. So it's crazy. It's crazy to see like, hey, Susan's not writing anymore. At least right now. At least probably for the next year. She's going to drop by, do some guest posts, things like that. So I had to fill her spot. Big shoes to fill. No pressure for my friend Kimberly Lau, who wrote her first post on the blog. She's going to be filling Susan's role where she's going to be like a permanent member of the pen addict review crew and writing a weekly post. She just wrote a, now the pen shows are happening. Now what? So it has some great tips. Like if you do go to a pen show, like how to be safe and how to respect, you know, other people's space and how to work with the vendors. And like, this is all new to us, even though like someone like Kimberly has been to two or three times as many pen shows as I have. It's still new for attendees and vendors in these pandemic times, like how to handle that. And she did a great job in her first post. She's probably going to do a DC recap, hopefully, one day. And yeah, I look forward to seeing Kimberly's work. So y'all definitely give Susan a big thanks and Kimberly a warm welcome because I'm excited and thankful to just have these awesome people in my life that want to do this.

Myke: Very nice. Yep. You do have a great crew.

Brad: Really do. Really do. Um, you know, I, hopefully they have fun doing it. I think that they do by how long they hang around and put up with me. So yeah, it's great. I'm easy to work for Myke. I don't know if you know this, Myke. I'm.

Myke: You are a good person though. Like when it comes to these things, cause it's like, if what you like is to review new pens, well, you brag against them all. So you will get your hands on it, you know, man.

Brad: You are the segue master today because I want to talk about a new pen and then I got my hands on Myke. And this could go up in the, the, what is Brad using, uh, section as well. But I wanted to give this its own little tidbit because I wanted to ask you what you think about the Estherbrook JR Pocket Paradise. So a little, uh, rewind. So Estherbrook, um, the new Estherbrook has made the SD and you know, it's a pen that I like and I like a lot actually. And they came out with the JR in kind of a throwback pen and you and I talked about it. And I can't remember what you thought about them the last time. Cause you've only been able to see them in pictures and I've had them in hand, uh, before. What was your thoughts on the JR and what do you think of the Pocket Paradise?

Myke: I need to try and remind myself of the colorways of the JR. Yes. Is it JR or is it Junior?

Brad: I call it the JR. I feel like it's Junior. I think it's JR because it was the Estherbrook J was the main brand. Right.

Myke: And I guess they haven't, they haven't lowercase the R that's both uppercase.

Brad: It must be Estherbrook JR. Although I think Junior is cute, but you know. I think Junior's cute because it is a smaller pen, but I think it's actually like J revisited. So like JR.

Myke: Okay. I think that the new ones are really awesome. The old ones are a bit standard and maybe that was the point, like play it safe with colors and stuff. But I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the color choices that they have gone for here. They are really great and bold. And I think it's awesome. I love that they have the contrasting finials. Are they all blue?

Brad: No. The orange is on, let's see, yellow is on the blue pen and blue is on the orange and yellow pens on the finials.

Myke: Okay. Yeah. I think they look fantastic. I think they look really fun. They're super fun pens. Very summer fun style. I'm into it.

Brad: So here's what I want to talk about. And I actually didn't link this in the show notes and I probably should have. This is what I wanted Parker to do when they relaunched the 51. And I hope this is the way it's going to go because Parker could do the same thing. Right. So they've redid the 51. They came out with the base colors. Right. The black barrel, the teal barrel, the burgundy barrel. Well, the Estabrook redid the J. Their vision of the modern J, they did the base colors. They did the blue and the black. And I can't remember the colors. It was three or four colors. Red. They did the basics. Now, round two, we drop the hammer, say, hey, this is what the future of Estabrook looks like to us. Right. And if Parker would do that with the 51, they would crush it. And I hope that's the path we're going to see from Parker, because I think Estabrook has the idea of modernizing the vintage name. Name alone, even if you don't disagree, like, I mean, it's a traditionally styled pen. Does it live up to the Estabrook J and what it used to be? No. No. And that was a lever filler with a sack. And, like, we're just not going to get that. With the J.R., they've said, hey, we're going to respect, you know, the idea of the old company. But we're going to build it in this modern way that the modern market would appreciate more than a rehash. And I think that's where Parker was missing the boat with the 51. Like, the 51, by, you know, all accounts, is a perfectly fine pen, the modern one. But make it special. Make it modern. I'm going to do it. Do what's – give me a round two. I'm not going to do it. They're not going to do it. I know. I tell you what. I tell you what. It's there. It is there, Myke. It is on the table and they cannot see it. Like, if they came out with just a basic, simple, orange barrel, silver cap, Parker 51, do you know how much hype they would get for that? It's so good.

Myke: But the thing is, Estabrook, they have their foot in our community, right? Right. And they understand what the modern pen collector, pen aficionado wants in a way that I don't think Parker do or care about. Like, it's not their business, you know? So I don't think that they're looking.

Brad: I agree. I agree. They're a different company. They're owned as they're part of a conglomerate. And these companies that are part of a conglomerate tend to have different marching orders, if you will, as opposed to a company like Kenro, who marches to the beat of their own drummer. They get to make their own beats where I don't know that Parker gets to. It's just, God, to me, it's just like super obvious and it's not going to happen. It's just not. But that's why I just give credit to Estabrook and what they're doing with these pens. The pen itself, so I'm using the yellow model, which is just completely rad. It's got an extra fine steel barrel. It reminds me so much.

Myke: I think the yellow is my favorite.

Brad: Yeah. So it lost the poll. So Kenro sent me all three colors. And I did a Twitter poll. I said, hey, which color do you want me to give away? And blue and orange were like within a vote away from each other or two votes away. Orange won, but they were essentially one and one A. And then yellow was a distant three. And I'm like, sweet. I get to keep the yellow for myself. People are playing it safe, man. They just want the colors that they always get.

Myke: You know, you want blue, you want orange. The reason I like the yellow so much is because it's rarer than to have that.

Brad: And it looks great. It feels great. It reminds me of the Pelican M205, like a Pelican steel nib. Even though it's not a piston filler, it's a cartridge converter. It's that same size, same weight, same feel. And just good. It's a good pen, right? Like, is it going to be like the top of my list for like the best pen and the perfect pen for me? No. Like, but it's awesome. Like, I want this pen to exist. And it's great. Like, I really love how they just like attack the market with this pen. And I think it's cool to see.

Myke: Yeah, I like it. I like it.

Brad: All right. Last up, Myke. I did a thing that I've never done before. I wrote a forward for a publication. Okay. Have you ever done that before? Have you ever written a thing?

Myke: No, nobody wants my thoughts.

Brad: But that's actually true.

Myke: It's not good for anyone. Nobody wants that.

Forward Writing

Brad: That's why I'm here 474 times, Myke, and you aren't. Yeah, exactly. No one is what I have to say. My friend Johnny Gamber. Pencil revolution guru. Longer running blog than the pen addict. Did you know that, Myke? I think we've talked about that before. I did not know that. So he's run pencil revolution like either a year or two longer than the pen addict.

Myke: I mean, seriously, how can there be so much to say about pencils?

Brad: Well, Johnny can. And Johnny has taken his prolific skills to the zine world. He's been doing the pencil revolution zine and selling them on Etsy for ages and ages. And they're just really good, really smart. And Johnny's just a smart, funny guy. And I love how he writes. And he's always been pen adjacent. He's been a big fan of the big crystal for as long as he's been a fan of pencils. But his real love is pencils. But then he got some vintage fountain pens and he started playing around. And now he is, as they say around here, Myke, he is eat up with fountain pens. And he decided to put out a pen zine. It's called the Pen Post. And he asked me to write the forward for it. And there's a bunch of cool articles in here from friends and people you'll know about inks, about an ode to the big crystal, which I was talking about, forward by me. Just really, really cool publication. And you should go check this out and support Johnny and order the Pen Post. And he's going to be doing more issues in the near future. And it's just great. I love this type of physical publication just put out by someone who's putting all their hard work into this. And I definitely want to support him doing that. So thank you, Johnny, for asking me to be a part of it. And y'all should go check it out.

Myke: All right, I think that wraps it up for today, Brad.

Brad: All right.

Myke: We covered so many things today.

Brad: Lots of things. You know, anytime there's like a gap in us, like just conversing, it seems to be we have a lot of – it's surprising how much new stuff or interesting stuff pops into my brain over the two weeks since we last spoke. And I'm glad we got to cover it.

Myke: If you'd like to find the show notes for this week's episode, you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 474. Or they should be in your podcast app of choice. You should find links to everything we discussed there. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, knock.co, and spokedesign.com. Brad streams many days a week over at twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can also find Brad on Instagram. He's penaddict on Instagram. Dowdy is on Twitter. And Brad on micro.blog. My name is Myke. I don't know why I did that. I messed it up. Why am I reintroducing myself? Welcome to this week's episode of the Pen Addict, episode 474. I'd like to thank our sponsors for this week's episode, Squarespace and Pen Chalet. Say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.