The Pen Addict 48/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	48
Title:	Ooh, You Said A Bad Word
Release Date:	April 2nd, 2013
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 48
Audio File:	Audio Episode 48
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 48
Length:	4848 min <br />0.8 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Pen Addict Podcast

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 48 of The Pen Addict podcast, your weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools you love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined, as always, by the grand juror of Gel Inc. That is Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Wow, am I getting called for jury duty? Sure. Okay. I like that. I like that. You know, I'm getting... We talk about going in cycles a lot on this show. So, don't you like how you just chime in and then I just totally, you know, take us off track like this?

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: But we talk about going in cycles a lot and, you know, we get both getting... I don't want to call it a rut, but we both get kind of get, you know, enamored with one product and, you know, use them a lot. So, I've been using a lot of fountain pens and now you mentioned the gel pens and I've actually been using a lot more gel pens recently. But, unfortunately, it's not anything different. I'm still... I've been using my Hi-Tech C's a lot more and, you know, the Uniball Sino DX's a lot more. I miss my gel pens when I don't use them. I do say that. Do you ever have that problem? Do you ever, you know, you use certain, you know, maybe two or three pens for a month or two and then, you know, do you ever start missing some other pen that you haven't used in a while?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And what I tend to miss are, like, things. So, for example, I mean, I've been using my Twisby a lot and then the ink... I've run out of ink pretty much. There's like a little bit left and I keep forgetting to bring it home. Mm-hmm. But one of... But there is still some ink in there, but I know it's only going to last me a couple more days, so I need to remember to bring it home. But I've been missing the convenience of the Retro 51.

Brad Dowdy: Ah.

Myke Hurley: So, I've been pulling those out of the pencil case a bit more in the last week or so. Yeah. And just using those. My favorite, actually, I'm pretty sure my favorite overall now is the bamboo model.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah. That's one of the best looking ones, I think.

Myke Hurley: It's a stunner. And it's just slightly thicker than the other ones. And it's also because it's nice to hold. It's more comfortable. Mm-hmm. I'm not even sure that you can still buy that. I bought it from a reseller. I don't even know if they still have it for sale, but if you are able to find a bamboo Retro 51, then you are in for a treat because it's a really nice version of that pen.

Brad Dowdy: That's actually the first Retro 51 I remember seeing is the bamboo model. Someone reviewed it. It might have been Brian at Office Supply Geek or something before I'd ever used a Retro 51. That was the first one I ever saw being reviewed or something like that and always thought it was a really good-looking pen.

Myke Hurley: I like it a lot.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah?

Myke Hurley: It was a special edition one, I think, for charity.

Brad Dowdy: Ah, okay. Yeah, I think you're right. It might have been World Wildlife Federation or something like that. It might have been. I can't remember now, but yeah, I think you're right.

Myke Hurley: I think it's something to do with Save the Pandas.

Retro 51 Snapper

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Well, speaking of Retro 51, we talked about the Retro 51 Snapper a couple weeks, two weeks ago now.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And how both you and I had done a product focus group for when they were bringing this pen to market, and both of us had pretty similar issues with the pen, and both of us felt that it wasn't quite up to snuff, at least what we're used to for Retro 51 products. So I said during that episode that I will do my best to purchase an actual production version of the Retro 51 Snapper Tornado, because they just came out. That's why we started talking about it. They just released them to market. And gosh, before, practically as soon as we got that podcast episode posted, our friend Mary Collis, she sent me a link, because I had mentioned, you know, if anyone knows where I can get one, tell me, and she sent me a link to Daily's Pen Shop, and they had the four colors of the Snapper available for sale in the U.S. So I ordered one. I ordered the chrome version. So there's four colors out now. There was yellow, a blue, a confetti, and the chrome. And I just went with the chrome because I thought it looked best. But after I ordered it and got it in, I was like, you know, maybe not an exact comparison to the one that I have, because the one I have was like the white lacquers version, you know, which was similar to like the yellow and the blue one and the confetti one now. So I don't know if the chrome is actually a little bit heavier or, you know, maybe a little bit different build. But the whole premise behind it is, of me ordering this, is to find out has it improved from the model that we had.

Brad Dowdy: So to recap, the model that Myke and I had, we both felt like the knock was, I guess, a little loud. What's the best way to say it? Like we felt that the mechanics of the pen were loud. There was lots of clicking, lots of jangling going on.

Myke Hurley: I found it to rattle a lot.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, rattling. That's a good way to put it. Like when you're writing, when you're, you know, between letters or between words, when the tip lifts off the page and then the tip goes back down, you'd often hear a click or a rattle or something like that, right? So we wanted to find out if the production model was any better. And I have to say it's a little bit better. It's noticeable. I can tell a difference between the two pens. Because the knock section, the difference that I found with the prototype version and the production version is the knurled knock at the top on the demo version that we got moves. Like I can rotate it, okay? Like it spins around the barrel. On the new production version, it does not. It's fixed. Good. So it's a little bit more stable as far as the sound goes. I don't know if you can hear this.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that sounds better.

Brad Dowdy: No, that's actually the demo version. Oh.

Myke Hurley: Well, then it sounds the same.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And then the knock part, the new one, doesn't really do as much. It's a lot more. I don't know. I'm sitting here. I got both of them in my hand. And I'm clicking. And you can't tell anything by me clicking. And you probably can't tell anything by me writing. But you hear that?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's the demo version. Yeah, I know that. Like if you're just tapping it. That sounds familiar, right?

Myke Hurley: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: And that's the new one. It's a lot more solid.

Myke Hurley: That's miles better.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Well, I'm pleased. I'm actually very pleased.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So in the end, I mean, like we discussed, the problem, well, not the problem, but the issue it boils down to, it's an all-metal barrel pin. There's going to be some noise, right? But there's things you can do to limit that. And it looks like they basically, I think they've tightened up the mechanism on the knock from the demo version that we originally tried to this production model that I just ordered. And I will say it is better.

Brad Dowdy: Mechanically, it seems better. Now, functionally, you and I, we're not a huge fan of this pen just because it's a ballpoint. That's a whole different story. But it does fit the Moleskine gel refill. It fits a standard Parker gel refill. I put mine in and it works fine. So you should try that on, swap that out on yours one day and see if you like that.

Myke Hurley: It's all about that Schmidt refill for me though. Oh, that's true. That makes the pen as good as it is. It's that specific refill that they use in the Retro 51 in the rollable version that I love.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it kind of feels, it makes it feel like a Retro 51, right?

Myke Hurley: That's, as I said, like for me, when I first put the pen to the paper of my orange one that I bought, which was the first one because you convinced me because of how it looked and I was blown away. I think that experience sort of opened me up to this show more because it showed me the type of quality that you can get if you look outside the pen store.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, that's right. I mean, there's, yeah, that's episodes and episodes worth of conversation. But the differences, the minimal differences that make a big change in your writing or the performance of the pen are out there. And, but people, you know, you just have to discover it. And once you discover it, then you're down the rabbit hole with the rest of us. Yep. Yep. And you're, you're downloading all 47 episodes of the podcast and having a marathon, a weekend marathon of the, of the pen addict podcasts.

Myke Hurley: People do that.

Brad Dowdy: They do. We get, do we get tweets all the time. I got one today. Hey, I just found the podcast. I'm catching up now. I'm on episode five. I'm like, sweet. That's awesome.

Myke Hurley: This is a good show. I think to listen to from the start.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, for sure. And, you know, and it's changed a lot, you know, and I think we're, I think we're getting better with age, Michael.

Myke Hurley: So just like a good wine.

Brad Dowdy: That's right. Or girly drinks.

Myke Hurley: Just like a good girly drink.

Brad Dowdy: That's right. That's right. All right. So what else, what else do you want to talk about? We got, we got some new field notes in the pipeline. Yeah. Have you gotten yours yet?

Myke Hurley: No.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, don't, don't feel too bad. You know why?

Myke Hurley: Why?

Brad Dowdy: I haven't gotten mine either.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I don't feel so bad.

Brad Dowdy: And I, I ordered mine in the first 15 minutes of was live and people started getting theirs yesterday and I haven't gotten mine yet. So I haven't seen them yet.

Myke Hurley: Mine's been shipped as part of my subscription, obviously, but international shipping and there's been double bank holidays.

Brad Dowdy: Oh yeah.

Field Notes

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So yeah. Now tell me, Brad, what do you think of the new field notes?

Brad Dowdy: That's not fair. I was going to ask you that first.

Week Summary

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So this is how my week went last week.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: I was in, you know, I worked third shift, so I'm usually not up during the daytime when things like this drop live. So I usually don't get to see them. Right. Well, I happened to be in a training class. So I was, I was, I was a normal person for a week and this landed, you know, right about, right about lunchtime one day when I'm in at class and I was able to just order it, look on my iPhone. So the, the post, we get the email, you know, if you're on the mailing list, I don't know that it matters anymore because so many people tweeted out once, once the mailing list comes, when the mail comes, you're not supposed to, you know, tell the world that, Hey, these are up for sale. It's supposed to be for the mailing list subscribers only first. But I think they're, they're past that threshold now where they print so many of them that it doesn't really matter. They don't really care. Um, but when it first landed, I wasn't impressed.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Um, and that's kind of unfair just cause I, it's different. I, you know, the, the, um, expedition edition was different. This one's different in a different kind of way. It's visually different than the traditional books that they've made.

Myke Hurley: This is the biggest departure they've made from the field notes style.

Brad Dowdy: I agree. And, and that's including the expedition edition, the expedition edition, the style was the same. It's just the properties of the paper were different.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, it had that sort of that, that like lacquered raised finish of the map, but you can't really see that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You can't really see it. It's slightly raised, but you have to have it like in the right lighting to see it. So when I saw this one, I thought this was the biggest departure from the normal. And I understand exactly what they're doing. Like if you followed field notes all along and you've seen Aaron Draplin, you know, the whole reason behind it were these old, you know, crop diaries and things he'd get from, you know, American farmlands in the thirties and forties and fifties that he's picking up at garage sales. Well, that's what the, some of these images look like. You know, I thought, I thought the American, uh, the, uh, the crop edition, you know, kind of handled some of that.

Brad Dowdy: So this one, the, the departure here is they basically used an image for the front of the book as opposed to a solid or some, some type of solid color letter pressing. And for me personally, I, I, I'll, I'll withhold judgment till I get them in my hand, but I wasn't like, Ooh, ah, like a lot of people were.

Myke Hurley: My jaw hit the desk.

Brad Dowdy: Really?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I think that these are stunning looking. They're totally different, but on their own, they look beautiful. And I cannot wait to get them. And I'm so happy that I'm got the, that I'm going to be getting two sets because of the subscription, because there, I never want to touch one of these sets.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'll definitely, definitely stash these away. So the thing I, the thing I thought about this was, I think, I think I might use this edition more than any, but we'll see. It's also one other thing to mention on it. It's a lined edition where all the other ones have been graph paper. Oh man. Not all that.

Myke Hurley: I feel like I need to buy a million of them now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Not all the other ones. The, um, the, um, traveling salesman, which was one of my favorites was ledger style, which is basically lined with a couple extra columns in it, which I love that addition. That's one of my favorites. But, um, this, this was made to be like a, you know, like a, it's very like 1960s looking. And I think they pulled it off beautifully. I just don't know that it's going to be one of my favorite additions.

Myke Hurley: I think that this, it was full, full bleed imagery, both, both lines. And it's got this like white, um, bar at the bottom, which says America, the beautiful. And it has the individual name for each of, because it's three different images. Yeah. It's like the desert, a cornfield and mountain, a mountain range.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And it comes with like a, a wet transfer sticker that you can put on your car or you can, you, you can just spam the, uh, spam the tube windows.

Myke Hurley: I might do that. When you, when you go, you know, just graffiti. I'll have two, right. So I might, I might do it, but I'm, I'm very excited for this, this set. And now that they're lined, I feel like I shouldn't buy more. I'm getting two. It's, that'd be insane. But I know that I will love the, I love lined. Um, because I, but I don't really like the traveling salesman because of the, all the added columns. Right. But the, the traveling salesman is very useful. And I use one, um, every couple of weeks because when I'm, um, totting up all of our network numbers for the month, I do it in a traveling salesman guide. So I can write the name of the show and then write the total download numbers and that sort of stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's super useful.

Myke Hurley: And for me, lists and stuff and checking things off.

Brad Dowdy: So I'll, I'll withhold judgment until I see it. Um, you know, it didn't, it, it didn't knock my socks off. Put it that way. It's believe me, it's going to be totally fine and it looks cool. Um, I, I guess it's just something about that, that traditional solid field notes cover, you know, brands are going to change. And, you know, do things to make things better and things like that. So, you know, they got, they have to do something like this and they, um, I'm sure they pulled it off. Well, everyone seems to be raving about it. Um, it just didn't, it just didn't strike me as some of the other additions have.

Myke Hurley: It's a really large print run.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. What's the number?

Myke Hurley: 45,000.

Brad Dowdy: Holy cow.

Myke Hurley: Which is less than the expedition edition, which was 60. But the traveling salesman was 24,000.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So that's what I was thinking. So we not counting the expedition because they actually made that to go into regular production. So they probably printed that even larger because of that.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Um, yeah. From 25 to 45 is stunning.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because the expedition edition says temporarily out of stock, which they usually don't say. Right. They usually just say out of stock. So with that sort of level in mind, I might buy some more when I receive them. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I, um, I just lost my train of thought. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So like with the expedition edition, they'll just come out with it and, you know, it'll say, you know, second print run or whatever when, you know, when they make the next batch, I actually just opened up a new, a new pack to use. I just finished a Dome utility book and I kind of go back and forth. I use like one Dome utility book, then one field notes. Cause I like them both. And so I just opened up a package. It's like the regular red blooded edition. And it's actually, you know, like it says first print run, you know, it's from one I've had sitting in the closet or something. But since that's a regular stock edition, when they run out, they'll just go and print, you know, 10,000 more or whatever. And it'll be second print edition or something like that.

Myke Hurley: So anyway, you know, you can't mention Dome at the moment without people asking you questions.

Brad Dowdy: You know, as soon as I said that, I was like, ah, you know, I probably shouldn't have said that cause I'll, that opens up a can of worms. Um, I don't know what to say about that other than I've talked to Chad. Um, I don't have a lot of specifics, um, but we'll just leave it at Chad's taking a break and he does not know whether he will continue after he takes a break or it will go away after it takes a break.

Dunn Paper

Myke Hurley: So this is Chad Dunn of Dunn paper, which you are an extreme advocate for and have been in the past.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Chad's a friend of mine. Um, I've obviously never, never met him in person, but we talk on the phone and we exchange a lot of emails and, you know, when at first, you know, when people first started noticing and he asked me really not to say anything, um, cause he wasn't ready to discuss it. But then, you know, some, our listeners and Twitter followers, you know, reached out to Chad and he replied back to them that he was, you know, taking a break and whatever. So basically where it's at right now is he's going to have a closeout sale. He's it's donepaper.com is back up now and he's got it, um, laid out with a, um, with an image saying on what July 1st, there's going to be a closeout sale. Um, so the best I can say is, you know, check back then. Um, if you're a junkie like me, um, you can, you can order and get stocked up for the next year or two. And then basically we'll all just be seeing what Chad does from there. I mean, I, I wish I had more insight I could share with you. I mean, I would, if I had it, I don't, that's all I know. I don't, I'm not withholding anything. I don't, you know, I've talked to Chad, he needs a break. Um, you know, and that's pretty much it.

Myke Hurley: That's where we're at right now. Make sure you remind me about that closeout sale. I want to see if he's got any of those lever, lever work items left.

Brad Dowdy: He will. He will.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I want some of that stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I've seen the, uh, the flyer for it.

Myke Hurley: Cool. And, um, yeah, I want to get involved.

Brad Dowdy: It's basically, it's basically, they'll basically be updates for, um, the stuff that was there previously. Just, uh, I think new, new leathers, maybe a little bit different shape, something like that. I can't remember offhand. I'm not looking at it, but yeah. Yeah. So we'll see. Well, we'll, we'll, I'm, uh, once Chad's ready to discuss things, I told him he has a open forum on the podcast or my blog or whatever he wants to do. I was here for him, but I'm giving him some, giving him some space too. So, you know, we'll see probably, uh, when the, when the sale gets closer to happening, maybe I'll see, I'll reach out to him again and see if he wants to kind of give some insight, but he very well may not. So. It's his own choice. Yep. Yep. So, uh, I think, uh, in a nutshell, Chad's taking a break and Dome paper may continue to exist and it may not. And that's just kind of what we're all waiting to see.

Myke Hurley: Indeed.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: Um, okay.

Myke Hurley: So there you go.

Brad Dowdy: There you go. There you go. And now people keep pinging me. Um, so, you know, I, if I know anything, you will know something, um, you know, as, as best as I can share. So, but, uh, people keep going, Oh no, Chad's gone. Where's Dome paper? Where'd everything go? And I'm like, yeah, I'm right there with you. You know, I'm with you. I'm, you know, I don't want to say I'm sad because, you know, I'm, I'm happy for Chad if, if Chad's happy. So, but there it goes.

Myke Hurley: So I just had my, uh, field notes, eBay notification.

Brad Dowdy: During the show.

Myke Hurley: I've been, I've lost out a few bids this week again, but, one, one that they've got on there now is butcher orange. They've got a butcher orange sealed pack on eBay.

Brad Dowdy: I saw that. I saw that. What's it up to?

Myke Hurley: $25 one bid.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yep.

Myke Hurley: I don't even, I saw a kind of last given up.

Brad Dowdy: Go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah. I've pretty much given up to the prices are stupid.

Myke Hurley: It's not that it's the sniping. I can't, I mean, I had a bid on a just below zero pack and a packet full of sunshine. Um, and I was the only bidder for a week and then lost it out in the last minute. Yeah. I'm kind of getting a bit sick of it. So, I mean, I would, I would love a butcher orange, but I'm not going to bother. It's, it's just too frustrating. If they don't have buy it now, then I'm not, I'm not interested. Yeah.

Pen Prices

Brad Dowdy: So last week, um, Mackinac autumn went for one 79 48 and a pack of Levi's went for two

Myke Hurley: Oh two 50, $202.

Brad Dowdy: That's just stupid.

Myke Hurley: That is insane.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm kind of getting burned out on that. And I know people are getting burned out of hearing us talking about it, but the prices are, the prices are stupid. Now my kids, my kids would say, Ooh, you just said a bad word. Stupid, but they are. The things a kid flash onto.

Brad Dowdy: But they do. So you got some other new stuff coming?

Myke Hurley: Uh, yeah, I've got a jet pens order on the way. Um, hang on one minute. I'm going to bring it up. I'm just writing who you said, you said a bad word as a title suggestion. This is awesome. Yeah. I'm going to jet pens now so I can pick up. Um, one thing that I have ordered from jet pens is, um, uh, a set of day game edition field notes because they've got them in stock there. So they're like $9. So I was like, yeah, I'll go for that.

Brad Dowdy: We need to start a petition. You know, um, you know, maybe a change.org. We'll start a petition on change.org for field notes that we want the white cover, red lettering, dot paper, day game edition to become a standard edition.

Myke Hurley: I like the sound of that.

Brad Dowdy: That's because both you and I, that's one of our favorite single individual notebooks period and across the, across all the ones. And, uh, that would be, they don't have a, they don't have a stock dot paper. So I think we'd have a, we'd have a shot with this.

Myke Hurley: So my, my thinking is for the time being, whenever I order something, if they've got day game edition, I'm just going to keep adding it to my cart.

Brad Dowdy: And are you going to use all the white ones first and then leave the brown and the green for later?

Myke Hurley: Yep. I mean, they're all nice, but that white and red is a, is very attractive. And, uh, I'll stock up while I can. So let me tell you what else I bought. I bought a Nudas Conrad Flex fountain pen.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, cool.

Myke Hurley: Because we had somebody, you know, tell us about them on Twitter and I went and they're beautiful. They remind me of the Edison Collier, you know, like the tortoise shell design. Um, I think I might've bought the last one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I saw, I was looking, uh, last night and I think there were about 12 different models and I think they had maybe two left that weren't sold out. Something like that. It was, they, they did a good job. I don't know what the stock levels were to begin with, but they've sold those very well.

Myke Hurley: So I thought this would be a good ink testing pen. So it's kind of what it's for. It's like a piston refilling. I bought a, I then raided the list that we're going to talk about in a moment that you put together. And I bought an Autographic liner. Mm-hmm. Um, I bought a Sakura Pigma Micron.

Myke Hurley: Um, which I've not used before. Wow.

Brad Dowdy: I didn't realize that.

Myke Hurley: I bought a Sakura pen, but bought the brush pen instead by accident.

Brad Dowdy: Oh yeah. I remember that conversation. Sure did. Sure did.

Myke Hurley: Kind of went out of my head. I bought a Kokoyo Beetle tip freeway highlighter. Cause I thought that looked awesome.

Myke Hurley: And a Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen.

Fountain Pens

Brad Dowdy: Oh, cool. I still don't have one of those. I need to rectify that.

Myke Hurley: Somebody, I think it might've been Stuart Housley. Uh-huh. Um, he suggested that this pen to me, I believe. Somebody did. And I think it might've been Stuart. Um, and it was $14.50. So. Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: So let me tell you the theory on that pen. And this is what everyone's saying from all the reviews that I've read. And the only reason I haven't bought it yet because it only comes in medium nib. But I think that maybe that's all that's going to come in. So I'll just buy one. But the theory is it's the exact same nib as the Prera. And you're getting it for about $40 cheaper than a Prera.

Myke Hurley: That's interesting.

Brad Dowdy: So that's the theory.

Myke Hurley: I mean, medium nib for me is like the same issue it is for you. Because medium Japanese is like fine. Uh-huh. Um, so I don't know how I'm going to go with it. But for $14, I'd give it a shot.

Brad Dowdy: I haven't read a review of the Metropolitan that has not raved about it. Put it that way.

Myke Hurley: It looks nice. I've got it in gold. It was, again, the only color that they had, which isn't necessarily the color I would choose. Right. But it was what they had. So I went with it. It's not an unattractive pen. It looks quite nice. But I would have preferred the silver or the black.

Brad Dowdy: And what's funny, there's a real funny thing about the Metropolitan.

Brad Dowdy: And then I'll have to do some more research on this. But, okay, there's a Pilot Metropolitan. And it comes in, what, maybe four barrel colors and a medium nib. There's a pen that's essentially an American pen. If you think of the Metropolitan is essentially the American version of the pen. There's another version called the Pilot Cocoon. And if you look that up on JetPens, you'll see it looks exactly the same. But it's got different colors and doesn't have, like, each of the Metropolitans has, like, a little pattern design on them. Some are solid. Some are, I forget what they're all called, like a wave or a grid or whatever.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: The Cocoon is solid, but it's, like, the same nib, the same barrel. But that's the Japanese model. And it's, like, $45.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they're actually metal, though, I think. And the other ones are probably plastic. Are they?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'll have to look into that. But they look exactly the same.

Myke Hurley: Because these are silver, titanium, metallic gray. So these are metal. But, yeah, they look exactly the same.

Brad Dowdy: So most people have been buying the Metropolitan just because the Cocoon is – it doesn't seem to be as good a deal. But, you know, the reasoning is that the Cocoon actually comes from Japan, from the Japan distributor, I believe, while the Metropolitan comes from the U.S. distributor. So there's lots of customs issues and shipping issues that also, you know, raise the cost on items like that. So people are freaking out about the price difference. And I think that's why. You know, I'm not 100% sure. I haven't done all my homework on that. But I think that's the theory between the Metropolitan and the Cocoon.

Myke Hurley: The Cocoon comes in fine, too.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah. Exactly. You've got that for you. Exactly. Well, cool. It looks like you did the – I'm very anxious to see what you think about the Oto graphic liner and the Secura and the Beetle tip. But those are – you've obviously been – do you read PenAnnec.com? Is that a – have you heard of this blog?

Myke Hurley: I don't know. I don't think I'm familiar with it.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Okay. Well, you should check it out. That guy, Brad, he talks a lot about those pens.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: You know, he's got some good ideas, some good top five pens. We should probably talk about that, you know, after we do a little sponsor hit from Squarespace, our friend at Squarespace.

Myke Hurley: Sounds like a perfect idea to me.

Brad Dowdy: All right. All right.

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Brad Dowdy: All right. Hey, it's pretty cool how my kids don't wait to yell until you start doing the Squarespace read.

Myke Hurley: I heard a whisper.

Brad Dowdy: It seems like they're good for about 20, 25 minutes, and then about as soon as we do Squarespace, I start hearing WrestleMania going on.

Myke Hurley: You're in a different room today, right? We're trying out a different room.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we're trying to do some different things just to see if we can quell the crazy people, but I don't think it's going to work.

Myke Hurley: I think they are now as important to the show as I am.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, it's a feature now at this point, hearing my kids yell in the background. It's to be expected. We haven't heard the UPS driver in about a year now, so the kids are the new UPS driver.

Myke Hurley: That will work.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So you mentioned on your JetPens order, you actually, last week I did an updated top five pens list, and you went and picked out a few things on that list. So what did you think about the layout of this list that I did on the site?

Myke Hurley: It's a lot more comprehensive than it ever has been before.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because I think that was a lot of – one of the reasons – what I did in the past was I would just make a simple blog post, say here are the top five pens that I'm currently using, just kind of give people a flavor of what are the pens that I'm reaching for on a daily basis over the past few months. And I kind of got bogged down in not changing that just because I just – I don't know. The five pens seemed kind of boring to me just on its own. I mean people still liked that post and wanted to see what I was using. And then it became a thing where if I didn't update it for a few months, people would say, you haven't done an update. What's the latest update? Or what are your top favorite pens that I could buy at Office Max? Or they'd give me all kinds of ideas on what they wanted to see. So once I finally unlazied myself, I decided to come up with a top five pens list that incorporated, one, the things that I'm using the most, just kind of like an overall general list of, okay, I go to work tonight. These are kind of the pens I have handy and might use tonight. Or just basically the pens that I have been in the heaviest rotation, say, over the past two or three months. And then I elaborated on that and added in specific subsets of top five pens lists, which people have been really happy with. I got a lot of good feedback on that post for, you know, thank you for breaking it down into these few different things. And I think this page was so easy to create. I think this is really just the start of what I'm going to do with this page. I think, you know, right now I've got one, two, three, four, five, six top five lists. And I think before I expand that list, I've got a couple more that I want to add that people have mentioned that I thought were really good ideas. I want to, you know, add in for each list, you know, a little bit of commentary, you know, a sentence or two on why I like this pen, you know, and just give people more information to help them, you know, discover new pens and things that they might find useful. So I was pretty, pretty happy with how it turned out.

Myke Hurley: Sorry. If you changed your link colors again.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I like it. Blue and green.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah. So it was purple, wasn't it? It was purple and orange. And then it was a lighter, a lighter blue and pink. And now it's a darker blue and green. I hate, I don't know. I'm a fidgeter and I like this one the best.

Myke Hurley: So I like that a lot. And not to continue the sponsor, but it's easy to do it with Squarespace. It's not, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Well, yeah, that's why I keep changing it because it takes about two minutes. As long as I decide on a color, I can go change everything in about two minutes. So, yeah, that's why I do it. But, you know, the purple I liked, but you couldn't read it. It matched too much with the black and people couldn't see the links, like if they were in line and text. So I changed it to, when I very first started the pen addict on an old blogger template, it had like a light blue and pink theme. You know, it's not as hideous as it sounds. So I kind of went back to tradition on the links on this page, and it just ended up not looking very good, I don't think. So now I found two colors that work well together, and I think I like this the best. They show up, they're readable, and all that stuff. So, yes, I did that last night because I knew we'd be talking about this today, and it was bugging me. Oh, dear.

Myke Hurley: So, what? You just make me laugh. Huh? You just make me smile.

Brad Dowdy: Sorry, sorry. I try. I try. So I have issues. You know, I write a blog called The Pen Addict. You know, it's pretty clear that I have a whole set of issues that have gone undiscovered.

Myke Hurley: Man, I just found my way onto your Flickr page.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that was a mistake.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and I found the image of your orange render, K?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Oh, mama.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that thing's bad.

Myke Hurley: That is a good-looking pen.

Pen Render

Brad Dowdy: So let's sidebar from this main conversation, because I wanted to talk about this at the end, but you mentioned it. Thank you to everyone for all the kind words about last week's podcast. I got more positive feedback about that episode than any episode we've ever done, I think. Myke, I don't know if you heard anything specifically. I didn't get too much.

Myke Hurley: No, I didn't get too much.

Brad Dowdy: I got several emails, several tweets saying, you know, that people enjoyed that episode. And so I just wanted to thank Dan for doing that interview. I thought he did a really good job, and I thought it ended up being a really good episode for us.

Myke Hurley: I agree.

Brad Dowdy: Anyway, you mentioned the render, K. I was going to mention that at the end. Anyway, so thank you to everyone who sent all the kind words about last week's episode. That was fun. So back into these pens. Let's look at my overall list, because that's what people seem to ask me about.

Brad Dowdy: I still use the heck out of my vanishing point. I'm starting to get wear on it, which is good. You know, I like seeing, you know, a pen like that. It kind of, it ages pretty well. I'm not showing through anything, but you can see lots of scuff marks and, you know, rub marks and things like that. It's starting to look pretty cool. I use the, I do switch. I have two nibs for that pen. I have an EF and an F, and I go back and forth. Yeah, I use the EF for probably the last three months, and I just switch back to the F nib, which I think I might be actually liking a little bit better. The EF is really, really, really fine. But aside from the vanishing point, the high-tech C, I've been using the heck out of, too. I just, I love that pen, and not a lot of people do. It's definitely a love-hate pen, and I know that doesn't really, it doesn't really suit your, it doesn't really suit left-handers very well because it's a needle style, and that's a lot of time hard for left-handers. I know you're not necessarily a huge fan of the high-tech C, right? It's just too fine.

Myke Hurley: It's not so much that, because I like my Colito. I just, I cannot stand the standard barrel, but then don't love it enough to go crazy on the Kickstarter barrels for it.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep. Yeah, and that makes sense. I mean, the barrel is a big negative. It doesn't phase me. I guess I'm used to it. They've used, Pilot, as long as I can remember, has used something like that barrel. Like, even in the 80s, they used it on the, what do they call that, ballpoint pen, best ballpoint or something like that. I've actually reviewed it in the past. But that barrel is actually a take on a traditional barrel of theirs that they've been using for 20 or 30 years. So maybe they should have upgraded. And I guess they kind of did with that Mica Mesa barrel that I reviewed a few weeks back. But actually, I still prefer the traditional barrel. But then third is the Secura Pigma Micron. And fourth is the Oto Graphic Liner. And those are the two pens you just ordered. I am always with a Secura Pigma Micron. That's just one of my favorite pens. It's very versatile. It does a lot of different things. And the Oto Graphic Liner has probably been the biggest shock of a pen I've used in the past year. I mean, it's a really good pen.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know how to explain it. But it's like a high-tech C, but it's a liquid pigmented ink. It's not a gel. And it's a needle tip. It just writes very smoothly and neatly. And it's got the added bonus of using a pigmented ink, so it's archival. So just like the Micron, you know, I like those things sometimes when I'm doing different things.

Brad Dowdy: Everyone I've recommended that pen to, that's one of those pens that would go pretty much undiscovered. Unless, I mean, not that I'm some guru or anything, but unless I talk about it, you know, I don't think that people would discover that. That's one of those pens that would go undiscovered, I think, if I didn't keep pushing it and telling how much I like it. And everyone that I've recommended to has bought one has gone, oh, wow, this is a really good pen. I'm shocked. It's been a huge surprise.

Myke Hurley: We haven't always had the best things to say about Oto's products in the past.

Brad Dowdy: No, I have a huge issue with their fountain pens. Their fountain pens, I have – the fountain pens, I have – they're cut off. They're terrible. That's the best way I can say it. I will purchase no more fountain pens, Oto fountain pens.

Myke Hurley: Because I have the Rook, which is horrible. And they are responsible for the terribly named Dude.

Brad Dowdy: Dude. Dude.

Myke Hurley: Rook. The Oto Dude is probably the worst name I've ever heard for a pen.

Brad Dowdy: You know, if they could come up with a cool website like the Pilot Juice, we might rethink the dude.

Myke Hurley: That's true, actually. Yeah, if they can incorporate that name into an amazing website, I would happily rethink that.

Brad Dowdy: Man, that website's so good. But the pen is horrible. It's bad. The Oto rollers are not bad. Their roller balls, they're fine. They're really not that bad. And then the last one of my top five pens is the Uniball Jetstream. I use that a lot in my memo books that I'm carrying in my pocket, you know, for the field notes or dome paper books, things like that. I just, it's, the Jetstream's just a go-to pen. It kind of bounces on and off the list. I get in phases where I'm a huge, huge fan of the .5 Jetstream. And that's actually too fine for most people because it's not even, you know, a .5 Jetstream is probably like about a .4 or even less gel ink pen. I mean, it is super, super fine and needly and scratchy, but that's what I love about it. And I've actually, years ago, when I was really talking about the Jetstream a lot, and when they first came out with the .5 on Jet pins, you know, I recommended it. And people would buy, you know, I had a reader buy like five of them or something like that. And they're like, oh, I hate this pen. It's too scratchy. And I just bought them off of them. I was like, yeah, that's no problem. Here, I'll buy them from you. I like them. So that's, I have a feeling this list is going to change over the next, between now and the summer. I'm going to be purchasing a bunch of pens, I think. I'm kind of, I've been kind of waiting for the pen show to come up in about a week and a half. And I think I might have some change to my top five pens, but we'll see. We'll see. This is a pretty good group of pens that are, that see a lot of use either at home or at work or that I'm carrying around, things like that. So, you know, I'm pretty happy with that list. I think it might see a little bit of change here when I update it. And what this page is going to allow me to do is really update it on the fly to where I don't have to create a new post. I can just come in and edit this and, you know, make the changes I need. And, and I'm also going to add some additional top fives. You know, people wanted me to break down, you know, like micro gel tip pens. That's kind of its own category, right? I can break things down further than what I'm using. I can say, here are the best pens in these other categories. And that's really what people wanted to see because, you know, my personal top five pens, it's not necessarily a shopping list everyone should use, right? I mean, you use it because you're familiar with these things and we've talked about them and you know what to expect. But I would never expect someone to take this top five list and just start go shopping. That would be a huge mistake. You know, this is what fits me, you know, not what fits you.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because there are a couple of bits on there that I knew I wanted. So I figured I'll just go and have a look at the rest and pick out some stuff that caught my eye.

Top Five Pens

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so one of the main lists that people have always asked me about is like the top five pens in the store. You know, we talk all the time about the pens we talk about are oftentimes, you know, you have to order online or they're imported or, you know, we're ordering them from who knows where. You can't just walk down the street to a retailer and purchase these pens. And so I did make a list called top five pens in the store that, you know, if you're looking for a better pen and you just walk into a shop and these are some of the ones you can take a look at that you would, you know, hopefully enjoy using. People ask me that question probably more than anything on this whole list is what can I walk in the store and buy that's a good pen. Yep. So, and then I added one, one I've never done before is the top five fountain pens. I think this list is going to change a lot here in the next few months. I've already got one or two to add. So, yeah, we'll, we'll talk about those in future episodes. And so, yeah, I've got, are there, are there any other top fives that you want to see? Like I talked about last week, you know, we'll do a top five Kickstarter pen, pen barrels.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's good.

Brad Dowdy: I'll do that. And I've gotten a couple other suggestions from other people. Is there any other thing? You know, I'll probably do like a ballpoint. You know, I get asked for a top five ballpoint. I'll probably do that. Anything else you can think of that would be good?

Myke Hurley: Maybe like accessories. So like cases and stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, that's a good idea. That's a good idea. I hadn't thought about that. So, yeah, I'm a huge, I'm a huge pen case fan. So I buy and try a lot of pen cases. So that's a, that's a good idea because I do get asked what my favorites are on that. So, yeah, that's an excellent one. I'm writing that down right now.

Myke Hurley: Cool. Because I want to know as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. Okay. But that's, you know, I, I learned something funny when I wrote this post for the top five pens. You know, I created the page and now I have a link in the sidebar. And then I wrote a post in the blog so everyone could see, you know, so I could point everyone, you know, I'm not making a blog post on my top five pens list. I'm making a page. So I inadvertently, like, doubled my traffic that day. These aren't the things I think about when I'm writing a blog post because everyone went to my blog post and then they clicked on the top five pens. I had, like, doubled the traffic.

Brad Dowdy: You are a pro blogger. Yeah. I have this huge, I have this huge ski slope in my, in my traffic. You know, it was totally inadvertent. I just, the next day I just looked at it and I just started laughing. I was like, oh, that was pretty funny. I kind of, I guess that worked out well and I certainly didn't mean for it to be that way because these, you know, we talked about this before. These are not things that I concern myself with, generally speaking. But I was like, oh, man, that was a pretty slick move by me.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, well done. We can all learn something from you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I was like, oh, pat yourself on the back there, buddy. No, but that was, that was just kind of a silly little thing that I saw. I was like, wow, I didn't really intend to, intend for that to happen. But, hey, look what happened. So, anyway, that was, I got a kick out of that, but it was probably just me.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Well, I think that's, that's all I got for today, man. I've got, you know, while we were sitting here talking, I think I've got an idea for, for next week's show already churning in my head. So, so, so instead of diving into that, let's, we'll save it for next week and we'll get into a couple more things, maybe even referring to this list. But if anyone has any questions or comments or additions they want to see on this list, definitely just let me know.

Myke Hurley: And there's a bunch of ways they can do that. I can email you. You are thepenaddict at gmail.com. You are on app.net. You are dowdy, D-O-W-D-Y, and dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter. I am imike on both services. And always feel free to send across any feedback, suggestions and stuff like that. We always love to hear from you.

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely.

Myke Hurley: So, thank you, Brad, for being here this week as always. It's always a pleasure doing the show with you. And thank you all for listening to this week's episode of the Pen Addict Podcast. I'm Myke and he is Brad. And until next week, bye-bye.

Brad Dowdy: Bye-bye.