The Pen Addict 490/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	490
Title:	Orange-Flavored Pens
Release Date:	December 1st, 2021
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 490
Audio File:	Audio Episode 490
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 490
Length:	5454 min <br />0.9 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Welcome to The Pen Addict episode 490. We're on the road now. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and the Canalea Pen Co. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad. Hey, Myke. How's it going? You made me nervous. We're on the road. We are, is an event horizon like situation now as we barrel towards episode 500.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, we're going to barrel into something, that's for sure, because there is certainly no planning going on for 10 episodes from now. That is, that is not on my radar.

Myke Hurley: That is a very good point. So we have, again, as a reminder, we have set it up in such a way that we're not taking any time off, which is also why this episode was recorded in advance, because I wasn't going to be available on the week that this episode was coming out, so we had to record this episode in advance, because we cannot skip an episode now. Because if we do not skip an episode, episode 500 comes out on the exact day of mine and Brad's 10th anniversary of recording together. So just, you know, those two things tying up was too good. That's all I've been thinking about. I haven't been thinking about what that episode would be. Right. I don't know if we need to, because I feel like we just did episode 400 or whatever. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We put a lot of work into 400 and 401. But yeah, gosh.

Myke Hurley: I guess we'll just, you know, we'll take, we'll do a mostly regular episode and take us some time to just cry or whatever.

Brad Dowdy: Maybe, maybe. Could be, could be that way. So who knows. But until then, we're just going to keep talking about pens and paper and inks. And I'm going to do an especially large amount of talking today, because I'm going to do something that I've threatened to do for years. And I do on my own, but I've never really shared the process. And I keep saying I'm going to do this. So basically, what I want to talk about today is how and when I get new products, what do I do before I review them? Right. Like, you know, I don't have any like strict testing plans, but like I always use, I like to use things before I talk about them. And what does that look like from my side? And I've always wanted to just kind of share like initial thoughts, right? Like what are, what were my initial thoughts of this product when I unbox it and start to use it versus say like several weeks from now when I might, when I've used the product for several weeks and then decide to put my thoughts down for a product review or something like that. So one of the issues I have doing this is me whining constantly about how many pens I have inked up, especially if it's fountain pens, right? I get, I start to like panic when I get into like double digit pens inked up. So that limits me sometimes from inking up the new things and getting them in the rotation to start working on. But I decided for this episode, I've had a bunch of pens sitting here, unused, newly received that are really review pens, right? So that's another thing, right? We talk about like I have my own personal pens that I buy from my own pen library. Then I have an even larger amount of pens I get in that are review products. So these pens, they've just been sitting here staring at me for some of them weeks and weeks, unused, fresh in the box. And there's some really cool stuff. So I thought today I would go through, before this show, like I, a couple of days ago, I started inking these up and they're all, mostly fountain pens. So I just inked them up, started testing them out. And so this is like what my initial thoughts on these new products are. The first up is a pen that I love and that a lot of people love, but it's very weird in one certain fashion. And we've talked about this before, the Faber-Castell Ambition. So specifically, I have the Faber-Castell Ambition Op Art Sky Blue with a medium nib. A part. A part. This is a great pen. It's a great quality. It's a great style. It's a great price point, right? This is like a $75 pen that is just classy looking, right? It's classic modern, right? It's got that historic kind of Faber-Castell look, right? I can tell like it's a Faber-Castell pen, but it's modern. Like the barrel has a little bit of a, like a wave design on it. It's an interesting material. They call it Myke Precious Resin in the description. But, you know, it's not like the acrylics. It's, it's, I don't even know how to describe the material. It's plastic-y, but not like you would think of like a polished acrylic, like on, say, like a Brooks pen or something like that, right? It's lightweight. It's just a cylinder, right? The barrel is cylindrical. And that leads to the big question about this pen. And it's the step down. I won't even call it a grip section, right? I don't think you're supposed to grip it on the metal. So you'll have to look in the show notes if you've never seen this pen. And it has, like, right above the nib on most fountain pens is where you would grip the pen, right? And that's called the grip section. And that's usually like an inch-long space where your fingers go to hold the pen when you're writing. This pen has, I don't know, a much, much shorter air quote section, even though that's where the pen, you unscrew it and get to the converter, things like that. But you kind of have to grip this pen back on the barrel. I don't like that. So it's a little bit weird for people. And I'm a low gripper, Myke, which means I tend to grip pens closer to the nib or closer to the page, right, as opposed to further back. So this pen poses a challenge. But I have enjoyed so far, right, that will be a big part of the review, right, is how you grip it. And is it good for you? But overall, I've enjoyed, like, my first look at this pen. It's comfortable. It's beautiful. Faber-Castell nibs, their steel nibs, are just great. Like, they're some of the best steel nibs. This one's a medium nib, and even I like it because it's just a clean, consistent line, right? It's not overly rounded. It's not, you know, blobby around the edges. Like, I can get, like, sharp lines. Like, I really, really like it.

Grip Issues

Brad Dowdy: Aside from the grip questions, my other issue is kind of twofold. One, it did not ship with a converter. Okay? So this is short. This is international fittings, right? So your standard international converter fits, allegedly. I grabbed a standard short international converter, Schmidt. Went to pop it in. Didn't fit. The diameter. So the top ring. So if you look at a converter, and you have the black twisty mechanism, okay, at the top, like, where you spin the little piston. And then before you get to, like, the chamber of the converter, you have that metal piece, right, that connects them.

Brad Dowdy: That metal piece is like a two-step design on most international converters, okay? You just have to roll with me on this. See, this is why. This will be better in the review because I can take pictures of this. But this is what I go through in the initial steps before I even get to the reviews. Think about these things. Any converter that has a step on that metal section does not fit in the diameter of the interior of the barrel.

Brad Dowdy: I had to dig through a box of converters to find a converter that fit into this barrel. I finally found one. It was a lot harder than I thought because most of them have that little lip or edge in there. And if you're going to make an international fitting pin and don't ship it with a converter, it better fit most converters people are going to pick up, right? Because a lot of times, someone like me, they're just going to pick something that they have at hand. And it took me a long time to find a converter that would fit. That's problematic. Like, I have more problem with that than I do with the grip section. So, anyway. I love how this pin writes. I'm going to continue to use it and write with it. But the converter is a bigger problem than the grip section. I inked this pin up with a brand new to me ink company. Dominant Industry Myke.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: These are some really new inks in these fun, unique bottles. Cool colors.

Brad Dowdy: Really good performance. I chose Lake for this pin. It's kind of like a light blue green. You know, you got to go matchy-matchy sort of with the barrel here. So, it's like a blue barrel, light blue barrel. So, I chose a lighter blue ink. It's really perfect. The ink is... The ink flow is great, right? This is my first time with Dominant Industry inks. The ink flow is great. It's a really pretty color. Good shading. It's just kind of like a really good quality, consistent fountain pen ink. Like, I have no questions about this ink, right? It wasn't overly saturated. It wasn't too thin. It didn't do anything poorly. It's just kind of solid. It's expensive, though. So, it's 25-milliliter bottles. Stunning bottles, by the way, for $17.

Myke Hurley: I really love the look of the bottles. They're very unique. I don't really know how to describe them, to be honest. Like a light bulb?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, if you turn it over, it looks like a light bulb. When I was joking around on stream, I was putting them over my head, right? Like, ideas. So, it's like a reverse light bulb type of look. So, they're great. The question did come up on stream, since you mentioned that. What is your favorite fountain pen ink brand name? Dominant Industry or Lennon Toolbar?

Myke Hurley: I mean, they're favorite for different reasons. You know? Dominant Industry is a better name. Lennon Toolbar is just fantastic to say. Lennon Toolbar.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Lennon Toolbar. If you had to name your ink company, Myke, are you going with Dominant Industry? Yes. Or Lennon Toolbar? Yes, I'm going with Dominant Industry, because Lennon Toolbar doesn't make sense when you say it. Oh, because Dominant Industry does.

Myke Hurley: It sounds, you know.

Brad Dowdy: That's like the bad guys in the Pixar movies. Dominant Industry.

Myke Hurley: I mean, one of my original names for Relay FM was Colossal. So, I like that kind of aesthetic.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Okay. That seems like you. Yeah. I probably go with Dominant Industry, too. So, I think that's kind of a fun name. So, anyway. So, when I test these out, I try to do, since it's a new pen, I'll pick a new ink. So, that's why I went with this Faber-Castell Ambition and a new ink in the Dominant Industry. So, like, I write these notes down. Like, I'm writing kind of like my thoughts in a notebook. And, like, I could take a picture of it later. But I just have a page full of notes for each of these pens. And so, like, for Dominant Industry Lake, I wrote, bright blue with a hint of green, good shading, flow, kind of a perfect fountain pen ink, not too light, not too dark, great character. Right? So, like, that's like the initial thoughts when I first put the pen to the page. So, I do that for a lot of this stuff when I'm trying to figure it out. Next up, Myke, I'm surprised it took me this long to ink this pen up. But, as you'll see, we also have a converter issue here. This is the Y-Studio Classic Revolve fountain pen. So, this is the larger-sized, more standard shape, you know, cousin to the Y-Studio Brassing fountain pen that I've talked about so much for years. That's one of my favorite pens, right? So, it's got the same hex barrel shape. It's got that same kind of matte lacquer finish. This time, they did a couple things differently. One, they did a lot of colors, right? So, there's red, green, blue, black, and then I think standard brass. Yeah. Looking at them, I think that's the color line. I have red.

Ink Reviews

Brad Dowdy: This was impossible to pick which color it should be. I don't know. There's no wrong decision on the colors of these. I like the green one. I think they're all great. Yeah. Green is great. They also updated their logo. The Y-Studio font is just kind of a little bit different. This is their 10th anniversary pen. So, what's interesting about this pen is the price point. It comes in cheaper than the Brassing, even though it's a little bit bigger pen, a little bit bigger nib, aesthetically. Like, it was hard to figure out the size of this nib. Like, I don't know who makes this nib. I think Schmidt made the previous nibs. Then maybe these are still Schmidt. But if I could say anything, it's like a five and a half size nib, right? Like, it falls in between, like, the Kaweco number five nib and the Yovo number six nib. It's in between those two. So, I don't know what the official sizing in this is. It's a steel nib, and this is a fine nib in here. This is the finest, sharpest steel fine nib I've used that I can recall, right? It reminds me of, like, a TWSBI extra fine nib, if not finer than that. And that's a fine line. I already think that TWSBI's are fine nibs to begin with. So, I don't know. I'll probably have to ask some questions about this nib, right? That's on my list to figure out, is who makes this nib and why is it so fine? Because I love it, right? I want, that's what I want. Like, the nib is perfect for me, but it is really fine. Like, I would put an extra fine on this, if not even finer than that. It's sharp.

Brad Dowdy: The converter, again.

Brad Dowdy: This shipped with a converter. It shipped with an exceedingly nice converter. A Y-Studio, it's basically a Y-Studio brassing converter, right? So, like, the metal parts I was talking about before, on this converter, they have the brass Y-Studio parts. It's great. It didn't fit on the post and the pen. Like, I went to place the converter, you know, into the grip section, right, into the back of the pen, and it wouldn't go on. Like, it would not. What? It would not connect. And I'm like, do I shove this on here? How aggressive do I need to be? So, I emailed Kenro, who is the distributor of this, of Y-Studio in the U.S. They didn't send me this pen. I ordered this pen from a site sponsor, Pen Chalet. And they're like, yeah, we've made Y-Studio aware that the fitting is too tight. So, you can get... I eventually became overly aggressive, and it snapped on there. Like, it made a snapping sound. A standard international converter will fit if you're not comfortable doing that. Yeah. Also, Y-Studio is working on fixing that measurement so it doesn't require that anymore. Okay. It doesn't require people to be, like, overly aggressive in putting this on because it has been a problem for them. And they're going to have to make a change to the product because of that.

Myke Hurley: That's a weird thing. It's a weird thing.

Brad Dowdy: To help them. So, like, they ship it with the converter. That's one of the coolest converters you'll ever see. And it did not attach.

Brad Dowdy: And I finally did. I finally just worked at it slowly. Like, I wasn't just going to go in there and start, like, really being... Pushing it. But I eventually got it on there. So, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. They have not had the best luck with their converters. The Y-Studio resin, which is one of my favorite... Another favorite of mine. It didn't fit the barrel diameter. Like, the... It was similar to the Fabric Castell that I talked about, right? Certain converters didn't fit inside the barrel. I was like, you're making these things and shipping them. Make sure that they all fit. So, anyway. So, there'll be a comment on that. So, this is how my notes go. I inked it up with Birmingham Pen Company Shortleaf Pine. It's a green... Kind of like a mossy green ink. And I think this would be better... Not knowing how fine this nib was going to be. This would be better and more like a medium-sized nib. And I thought this fine nib would be plenty broad enough. But it's a little bit lighter green. I will enjoy writing with this while it's in it. And I think the ink independently is good. I just think certain inks deserve certain nibs. And this is one that would deserve a broader nib. Because it's not a bright green. It's more of a, like I say, a mossy green. It's got a little bit of gray in it, if you will. And I think it's fantastic. But I think you just want to... You want to show it off a little bit more and put it in a broader ink. Excuse me. A broader nib. So...

Myke Hurley: I have a question for you with the Y Studio. Yep. Is it like the... I know it kind of comes pre-brassed, if you'd call it that, where you can see the brass through the paint job. Does it rub off or do they include one of the little sandpapery things?

Brad Dowdy: They include sandpaper with it.

Myke Hurley: So you can continue to adjust it? Yes, yes. Oh, that's made this a much higher on my list now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I tend to not. My last... So the very first Y Studio I got was a rollerball. I don't want to adjust it myself. I want the world to do it. Yes. So the first pen I got was a rollerball. And I used the sandpaper. Because that's what I was reviewing it, right? I wanted to see, hey, what does this do? And I was like, oh, that's cool. But then my brassing fountain pen, I've just let it be natural. And I'll pretty much just let the natural world happen with these pens. Especially like my brassing fountain pen. Like that's essentially a pocket pen for me. So it gets beat pretty good. I like it. I like it that way.

Myke Hurley: Or you can put it on the lanyard, you know. True.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. Oh, so that's last point on this. This pen is like $30 cheaper than the brassing. Even though the brassing is a little bit narrower diameter. I think there's a few just a little design differences that make the brassing pen more expensive. Like that lanyard holder. Like this is just a straight flat cap on both ends of the revolve.

Myke Hurley: Which I think is a better choice for most people.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like I think this will be the main line Y Studio fountain pen, right? Yeah. And the brassing is a little bit more of a specific, a little bit more expensive product. Even though it's technically like a little bit smaller, smaller, narrower. It's more expensive because there's a little bit more design and manufacturing work to it, I believe. So I think this, the revolve is going to be the main line Y Studio fountain pen for that reason. It's more standard that way.

Mid-Show Break

Myke Hurley: We still got more to come. But let's take our first break of this episode and thank Canalea Pen Co. for their support of this show. Canalea Pen Co. makes stunningly beautiful pens inspired by images of Hawaii. Canalea's founders, Hugh and Carol, believe that these locations can help recharge our spirit and help us connect with nature. And while the story behind these pens is wonderful, the execution is what truly sets them apart. Because every single Canalea pen is handmade in a process that means no two pens will ever look alike. Today we want to share a bit of news that Canalea is expanding the availability of their MyLeLe Anniversary Band. So this was the band that was first used in the Holokalani collection earlier this year. Followed by the Manta collection as well. This will now be available on the Aolani, the Kona Cherry and the Kona Snow fountain pens. As well as on future designs from Canalea too. MyLe is a sacred Hawaiian plant with fragrant dark green leaves. And a MyLeLe is used to celebrate important life events or given as a sign of friendship. I think this makes a MyLeLe featured pen from Canalea, I think, kind of a wonderful gift for somebody special in your life for this reason. Or maybe to celebrate a big occasion. This was the thing that Canalea created for their fifth anniversary on Anaglai. So they put it there. And that's the one that I have and love. I have it in the first usage of it. The wide Argentium silver band is what it is made of. It's adorned with a lay of MyLe leaves, which expresses the love woven into all Canalea pens and the aloha that founders and creators, Hugh and Carol, feel for the pen community as a whole. Canalea fountain pens feature Yowoh No. 6 nibs. And you can buy steel or 18 karat gold nibs directly from Canalea. They offer sizes from extra fine to 1.1 mm stub. And Hugh will smooth and tune every single nib before it leaves the shop so that your Canalea pen is going to write fantastically and perfectly. Straight out of their lovely black walnut keepsake box. Canalea also wanted us to share something new that they've been working on. It's a really fun little project called the Pua Necklace. Also made of Argentium silver, this pendant is crafted in the US and adorned with an ethically sourced lab created diamond. Pua is the Hawaiian word for flower, blossom, and hibiscus flower, which symbolizes beauty and joy. It's also what Canalea use for their logo. Though each fragile hibiscus blossom lasts only for a day, the new Pua Necklace captures the delicate fleeting beauty of the hibiscus so it can be enjoyed for years to come. This wonderful pendant is available right now on Canalea's website as well. So go and see these wonderful products for yourself at CanaleaPenco.com. That is CanaleaPenco.com to choose your aloha today. Our thanks to Canalea Penco for the support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: I know we did our gift guide episode last week, but if you wanted to win the holidays, you pop that Kona cherry under the tree with the My Le Le Band on there. Ooh, yeah, that's going to be the way to go. That is kind of like the perfect holiday gift surprise, big surprise right there. I would love to see that under the tree.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, two things. I love that they're bringing the My Le Le Le to more. I think it's really special, and I think it really does take the pen to the next level. I adore mine. I really, really do love it. I feel like this is not going to be the last Canalea Pen I have with that band. Really, it just adds another level to the pen. Yeah, it's a completely different pen. And also, I love the necklace that they're working on Lab Created Diamonds. It's something that I think is really cool and was taught about a few years ago. And there are a couple of different ways of doing it, but I think it's just a great way to get that effect and also not participate in an industry that can otherwise be pretty tricky.

Brad Dowdy: Pretty tricky. Yep, for sure. For sure. All right, speaking of tricky, Myke, this is why I do kind of my own personal previews that I happen to be sharing on the podcast this week. I usually just kind of keep all this stuff to myself. This is the Pen BBS 456 is their vacuum filling fountain pen. This is one of those pens that I would never buy for myself without doing research about it first. But I'm in a position to where, hey, I can just take a chance on getting a few of these products in and seeing how they work as opposed to just blindly buying stuff online, which is why I like to do this, which is why I do the Pen I blog, to be able to share this information and how this stuff works. What are the pros and cons of buying a pen brand you may have never heard of or experienced like a Pen BBS? A lot of people know Pen BBS for their inks, so they make pens now. Myke, this is a heckin' good pen. I am shocked at how much I am enjoying this pen. It's a vacuum filler, so it has the long vacuum mechanism, you know, like the Twisby Vac 700 or the Pilot 823. The thing about it, Myke, is it's only $56, right? So it has this mechanism in here. It works really well. It filled up the barrel very well on like on the first fill. Yeah. The material I chose. So not only did I choose this pen, which is an outlier for me, I chose a material which would be an outlier for me. If you look at like the four colors that are available, like I got this from JetPens, like this would be like probably like the last color I chose, like if I was at like a pen show and picking something off a table, right, as opposed to like the blue and the blue and purple and the galaxy and stuff. I bought this Moon River one because it's such a different kind of material. Like it's like a cracked ice looking green and pearlescent white. It's even better in person than the pictures. I kind of adore this material. I'll spend a lot of time with this pen testing it out. The only thing I don't love so far is the nib. Like it's good, right? There's no problem with the nib, but it is one of those nibs that I find to be overly smooth, right? It's like overly polished to where it's almost like sticky on the page. If that makes sense, right? There's no like texture. It's a little bit more grabby on the page. It writes well, but the difference between this nib being a fine and the Fabric Castell being a medium and wider, writing a wider line, the edges of the Fabric Castell lines are much cleaner and sharper to where the edges of this pen BBS nib are rounder and a little bit more uneven. Now, that affects me because of my writing style. If you write in cursive, you would probably love this, right? So like you got to take these thoughts into like what I'm discussing. Like I try to pose this as, hey, this is how I'm testing it because this is how I write. And while it may not be perfect for me, it actually might work extremely well for you. But the nib is so polished, it feels different on the page. So that's definitely a thing. But overall, this is a really comfortable pen. Like I am actually surprised at how much I'm enjoying writing with this pen. Even with the nib, like the nib's perfectly fine. Like no quality issues. But as far as like that's a preference issue, right? There's not a pen issue with the nib. It's a preference issue. So I ink this up with the Kala Island sweet potato balls, Myke. We put some sweet potato balls in this pen. I dislike this ink. I thought it was going to be great. I want to scream sweet potato balls from the top, from the mountaintop. But it's, it is too light. It's, it's not working for me on the page. When it's dry, it looks pretty good. It's one of those things that goes on so light, it's hard to read as you're writing. But when you're done writing with it, it looks fine. But it's still, it's, it's too light for me. So like I'll even, like I may not even review this ink, right? Because I would just be kind of frustrated reviewing it. The bottle's great. The design's great. The name's great. The idea is great. The ink is good. It's just not, like we have a lot of ink choices these days. And like, if, if you're going to make sweet potato balls, it's got to be a little bit, a little bit better than this. And like, I want to like this ink so much, but I, it's the least favorite ink I tested in this whole batch that I'm reviewing here. And that's the thing is I try, like this was the most, this was the easiest ink to choose. This is the most, the ink that would be most like the things that I like, as opposed to the Dominant Industry Lake or the Birmingham Penco Shortleaf Pine, or we're talking a minute about TWSBI Crimson. Like those, I chose those specifically because they're not something I would normally use, right? The Sweet Potato Balls is kind of an orange ink.

Brad Dowdy: Sorry. It just, it just flows. It's an orange ink, which should be like right up my alley. It's, I guess, cause I can compare it to like 20 other orange inks. It's just, it doesn't rank. Like it's, it's a little bit too light for me. So we'll, we'll talk more about, about that later. But yeah. Um, overall I'm very pleased with the PenBBS. This is my first PenBBS. Um, it's, it's enjoyable. I, I want something different on the nib and that's something maybe I can, I can deal with on my own. But, um, the ink was, was, was not impressive. The Sweet Potato Balls were not impressive, Myke.

Brad Dowdy: I'm sorry. I mean, that's, that's just what it's called and that's the way it's going to go. And now it's a Saturday Night Live sketch.

Myke Hurley: Okay. I don't really have anything to add to this one, Brad. I'm not going to lie.

Brad Dowdy: I have a few more things I'm testing. This one is a little bit, this one's a little bit self-serving and these won't, these next ones won't be as long as the, these other ones. But I built a, a spoke icon for myself, another one. So I've been using the British racing green with the brass parts, right? The brass, brass sleeve, and then a brass grooved grip. Just because like, I need to test these things out, see how they wear, see how they do. I've been loving that one. So I wanted to test out one of the titanium grips. And so I built one with the cobalt blue barrel, which is really, really sharp, bright blue. Like it's a, it's a dark ish blue, but it's like a kind of got this brightness to it. So I put the titanium parts in there. So the, the sleeve is not titanium, but it's silver to kind of match the, the, it's a similar aluminum to kind of match the titanium of the grip. So I have a shiny titanium grooved grip in here and it's great. Like that's just, now it's my second one that I've, I've, I've stolen from the inventory recently just because I wanted to have this different build in this different grip test. So I've been working on that. Like that may not be a review thing, but that's a testing thing for me, right? Like I have to use this stuff and make sure everything's, everything's going well. I also hadn't used one of our new nibs, even though they're the same Yovo nibs. Um, this, the ones with the new patterns, right? They removed the scroll work Yovo did. So we got some new, uh, nib sizes with just the, like the line work and I haven't tried one of those. So it looks good. And I ink that up with the TWSBI 1791 crimson, which I am not a red ink person whatsoever. This thing's pretty good, right? It's, it's maybe a shade or two darker than what I'd consider just like a standard basic red ink, right? Like if you look at a red gel ink, those are very bright. This has a little bit of darkness in there. I guess maybe that's why it's called crimson. Um, I'm surprised as, as much as I wanted to like sweet potato balls and I don't, I didn't think I was going to like crimson and I do, right? This is why I have to test all this stuff out to get these preconceived notions out of my head and into like actually the, the facts of what I really think about them, right? Like if you would ask me to review your sweet potato balls, Myke, just out of the blue, I said, Oh, this is going to be great. Like it was the mindset I had going into it and it's not. And then TWSBI crimson, I was like, well, I really don't want to review a red ink because I don't really care for red inks, but this one's good. Like that's why I do these types of things and write all these notes out. So it's fun. All right. Last couple of things are not fountain pens. One is the new black wing volume 651, the Bruce Lee version. Have you seen these?

Myke Hurley: This is one of the coolest. It's dope. It's really good. It's so simple, but so effective.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly right. So I didn't, I missed this announcement. Like I didn't even see this at all until I was just looking online at like some new arrivals and stuff. And I was like, is this really like the next volumes edition? Like I didn't, is this like, I couldn't decide if it was like a one-off or a volumes, but it's a volumes edition. And it's just, you know, a black and yellow stripe pencil, but executed really well in normal black wing fashion. Like it represents kind of like one of the last, like one of the last famous outfits that Bruce Lee wore in his movies. And then that was, we, you know, our modern age, you know, related to Uma Thurman's outfit and Kill Bill movies, because that's her outfit was designed on the Bruce Lee outfit, right? So it's like this whole thread of importance of the design of this outfit. And it was just a very bold, striking design. And that's was executed in this pencil. So I had to buy a box of those and they're great. And they have the X, honestly, if they didn't have the extra firm core, I probably would have skipped it. But this is the first batch I bought in the last two or three, I think. But I like them. I already have it in use. Really like it. And then Myke, my friends at Morimon sent me a big care package of a new notebook they're releasing. The Simple Note Basic lineup has already been around for a while. It's kind of their student notebook. You know how a lot of the Japanese brands have their premium notebooks and they have their student notebooks like Kikuyo Campus, right? They have just complete lines of more, you know, price conscious, still high quality products. And that's what the basic is. And they didn't have a dot grid design before. They had them available in blank, lined, and graph. But they're going to launch the dot grid in the U.S. market only, it looks like for now. In A4, A5, and B5 sizes, they sent me a sample of all these. I think they're going to be ready out in January. That's what I did all this fountain pen ink testing in. This paper is awesome. Like this is going to be like my, it's a spiral bound, you know, kind of craft paper cover. Really built to be like a student notebook. But it handles fountain pen inks and all other inks so well. Like this is going to live on my desk. When these come out for a wider release in the U.S., like you're going to hear me raving about these. You can already get them now in blank, lined, or graph with the same paper quality. Like I've missed these in the past that the paper is this good. But the dot grid, when they come out here in the U.S., you'll hear me raving about them and recommending for people to pick them up. But you can pick them up now in the standard, the other standard formats. And you will be impressed, impressed with the paper quality. I know I was.

Myke Hurley: They look really cool. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Like I put the paper quality right up there with the, like with the top tier of the Japanese papers that I love. Like it's, it's in the same category as like Midori and Life and Travelers and all the premium. Who made the Kroki? Morimon. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So is it similar to that?

Paper Quality Discussion

Brad Dowdy: It's a different paper style. This is a more, Kroki is a little bit different paper feel for a lot of people. It's like, it's a little bit of a crinkly harder paper, which I prefer, which is why I like the, like the bank paper style. This is more of a standard notebook paper. And it's also a white paper, right? It's not cream or ivory. So I think people will like this as a more standard usable paper for, for regular everyday use. It's fantastic.

Myke Hurley: All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Pen Chalet. They sell the very best and products from all of your favorite bands. Whether you want to get something from Pelican or Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweko. And every time I go to Pen Chalet, I click the brands tab and that list is just growing and growing and growing. They really are adding stuff. Every single month they're adding new products and it shows because the amount of options of wonderful stuff you can get over at Pen Chalet just continues to grow. They have all types of products. So if you want a fountain pen or some ink or a carrying case or a mechanical pencil or fountain pen converters, roller balls, ball points, everything, they've got it. And they do the very best prices that they can. They have really great prices on all their products and do great shipping stuff too. So if you're in the US, you'll get free shipping on orders over $50 and they have great rates internationally. They run discounts twice a month on loads of different products. As well as I mentioned before, adding new stuff every single month too. It feels like it's more than that. It feels like every week, maybe every couple of days there's new stuff kind of landing on Pen Chalet. They sell limited edition products as well. So you'll find that on there. And they also work with some companies as well to create some of their own limited edition things as well. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So head over to PenChalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. I'll click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password Pen Addict. This is where you'll get a code that you'll need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet. So if you've ever got a product that you're looking for, you've seen it maybe on Instagram, you want to go buy it, just go and check out Pen Chalet first, see if they have it because you'll get 10% off for yourself, but you'll also be supporting the show too. So you go to PenChalet.com, you click that link at the top of the website, type in the password Pen Addict and you'll get the code because the code changes. So you can go and get the code there. Also, when you're logged in there, you will get to see some special offers that are just for Pen Addict listeners. This is one of those weeks where we can't tell you about the offer. You have to go and check it out for yourself. So PenChalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and do the password. So Pen Addict and you will get to see some special offers and get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet and you'll also be supporting the show. So thank you so much to Pen Chalet for the continued support of the Pen Addict and Relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: I saw they have in stock the new Kaweco collection cyan, which is the basic sport, but the more limited color run, right? They do. I don't know what the schedule is on those quarterly, biannually, whatever, but man, that's a killer color. That's definitely one that I am picking up soon.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's a nice looking one. I didn't seem to do anything weird with that one.

Brad Dowdy: No, no, it's very basic and hopefully like all the text is correct for what they want to do. But yeah, really cool stuff. So check out our good friends over at Pen Chalet.

Myke Hurley: Thank you.

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of good friends, Myke, our friend David at Fig Boot has his next round of Leonardo slash Carolina Pen Co. Pen's coming out soon. So he did a small run to kind of test the waters. I don't know, a month or so ago, maybe a little bit longer. I was longer than that. Yeah, was it? It was back in the summer, I guess. Back in the summer. Where he had 100 pens available and it kind of tests the waters and it went well enough that he has another pen in the works with our good friend Jonathan Brooks and one of our favorite makers at Leonardo. This is what is this one? The Carolina Midnight Resin. So it's a dark blue with some silver or light gray accents and different shades of blue in there. So what he's going to do this time is it's going to be kind of like the tactile turn model where it's going to be an open order edition for a certain, a small time frame. Like, so if you want the pen, you can order it, right? You're not limited to like the first hundred people or whatever it is to order it. You can go in, you can pre-order it. David's going to have the information up on his website and he's going to have a YouTube video out.

Myke Hurley: It's not a very long pre-order though.

Brad Dowdy: It's a short pre-order window and then whatever that number is, they will get ordered. You know, have the pens made. 9 a.m.

Myke Hurley: December 4th to midnight December 5th and whatever time zone.

Brad Dowdy: So it's only like a day. That is. A little day, day and a half. Gotcha. Thank you. So it says on the website. Okay. So yeah, whatever that number is, they'll get that batch made, turn them around in about 90 days, which is I think a pretty quick turnaround if I'm being perfectly honest. And yeah, I like seeing like our community members and other makers and other creators in this space do cool stuff. So I definitely want to give David a shout out and I love this collaboration. And who knows? I might have to break down and jump into that queue as well. Who knows?

Myke Hurley: I dig the colors. I think it's a really nice mixture. Yep. Yep. Yep. I'm just stated, but impactful at the same time. Right. Like it's not big and brash, but it's very classy. And I, yeah, I think it looks, I think it looks really, really nice. I think it's a nice collab.

Brad Dowdy: It's got that subtle coolness that I like in it. Yeah. Yeah. From a, it looks, it looks good from afar, but then close up, it looks spectacular, right? Yeah. I think it ticks all the boxes.

Myke Hurley: Really good with the dark nib as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So that's an option. You can get the, the, the, the silvery rhodium or you can get the ruthenium, which is the darker, the darker trims. Which I think is the right move. That might push me over, that might push me over the edge to, to jump in on this one. So we'll see. We'll see. Very nice.

Myke Hurley: Good work. Very nice.

Myke Hurley: All right. Shall we do some hashtag ask TPA questions to finish out today's episode?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think we got some good ones we need to get to here.

Myke Hurley: All right. First comes from Rob. What are the top three sub $300 pens to pair with Fuyugaki, which is an Hiroshizuku ink and orange. Hiroshizuku ink.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I love these highly specific questions.

Brad Dowdy: And this one, the, like the first one you put in was probably the first one that came to mind as well, which is the Sailor 1911 Tangerine.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Pen Pairing Recommendations

Brad Dowdy: I don't know if you can still get it, but I, I looked around, look around. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: It is still possible.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. And it's at the old price, right? So like if you want that pen, it will eventually go away, but it's priced. Like they didn't raise the price on the old pen. Sailor didn't. So you can get this at the previously, still pretty high, highly priced, but you can get it for under $300. Um, and I think that's a great match. I threw in the Pilot 823 or the 912 with the FA nib. Um, the 912 should come in under $300. The 823, depending on where you shop, it might be over $300. It's pretty expensive. Um, but with that FA nib, it gives you that character that Fuyugaki deserves, right? It's a bright, bold ink. That orange really pops on the page and the FA nib will, will throw down a good amount of ink and give you some line variation. I think that would be a nice pairing. For a standard pen, maybe, I don't know if it's better than the Tangerine, but it's close, Myke, the Leonardo Memento Zero Mango. Close.

Myke Hurley: I still, I mean, the 1911 jumped in my mind and that was an easy one. Yeah. Because I do think that, I believe the 1911 Tangerine is the best orange pen ever made. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And you and I are both in the matchy matchy category. So we're picking out orange flavored pens for orange inks.

Myke Hurley: I have two though. I have the regular. I do too. And I have the king of pen.

Brad Dowdy: Now that you say that, it's one of the only pen colors that I have two of as well. I have the king of pen and the small, the whatever, the standard. So I don't have the large size, but gosh, now, now I have to go search for a 1911 L, don't I, to create, to finish the trifecta. Uh-uh. Whoops. Whoops. So, no. But yeah, that's a great pen. But I like the Mango as a less expensive option, like in the $200 range. And it's, I mean, it's a Leonardo Memento Zero.

Myke Hurley: I would like to throw in a runner up, which is just the orange pro gear. Okay. Also great.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Nothing wrong with that. But orange pro gear, it's a less vibrant orange than the tangerine and black finials, I believe, on that. But with the rhodium trim, it looks super sharp. It's a great pen.

Myke Hurley: I'd say that is probably my longest running pen and ink pairing is the orange pro gear with Fuyugaki in it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that was my first big boy sailor.

Myke Hurley: It was mine too.

Brad Dowdy: Because I fell in love with yours and then immediately bought one like three days later. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. I have since sold that pen years ago.

Myke Hurley: I've got mine right here on the desk of me today, Brad. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. It's a great pen.

Myke Hurley: It's a classic. Classic. Classic. All right. I can't believe you sold that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, you know what? Like, you don't keep things. I don't do too much sentimental stuff.

Myke Hurley: I was going to say, you have no sentimentality.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, sentiment. What? I don't need dust collecting on my sentiment.

Myke Hurley: That's a very weird sentence. Luke asks, aside from Noodler's Blue Ghost, what of a fountain pen safe invisible inks do you recommend? I know that lemon juice used to be a way to do this, but wasn't sure how this would work in a fountain pen. I could probably do something like get a preppy to use and abuse, but I was wondering if there was a more off the shelf option. I have a lot of questions that I can't get answers to, but I want to know what Luke is doing.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, he's like applying to Treadstone, I guess. What is that? That's the Bourne group that brainwashes the assassins, right? So you need to write in invisible ink if you're going to train to be an assassin trained. Mm-hmm. So Luke has some other questions to answer for and probably a background check that's incoming. But no, Blue Ghost is the way to go because I don't know any other answer. And I'm not sure I would trust any other answer. But I know people do it.

Myke Hurley: I don't know what the issue would be with Noodle's Blue Ghost, but considering the ink already exists, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's just wondering if there are other options. But a lot of people do letter writing things for people and have hidden designs or do, you know, like envelope art that's not visible until you get your little UV light beam posted on there, you know, shine on there. So yeah, I think it's a really, really cool thing to do. I just, I'm not even aware of a singular other ink than the Noodler's Blue Ghost that would,

Brad Dowdy: that's made for fountain pens, right? You can probably find plenty of like invisible inks and trip shops.

Myke Hurley: Oh, look at this. What's he saying? Luke likes to send invisible bonus messages to some Discord members who are pen pals. There you go. There you go. Now we actually, I actually got the answer. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Can I just say one, this is, I think Blue Ghost is probably what you want to continue with. Can I just say, Noodler's is the weirdest company in our community. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I, that's, I'd say factually correct. Especially since it's just like a single person.

Myke Hurley: Like everything about it's weird. The packaging's weird. The labels on the packaging is weird. The names of the pens, the names of the inks are weird. And just like the offering, you know, it's like Noodlers. Oh, they'll sell you some colors that are nice. They'll also sell you invisible ink and they will sell you ink that will destroy your pen.

Brad Dowdy: They sell it all. Yes to all.

Myke Hurley: It's kind of incredible, really. And I like to imagine it's just a guy in a shed of a bunch of like pipes and tubes and funnels.

Invisible Inks

Brad Dowdy: Essentially, you're not far off. This is what I imagine it to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Incredible. It is incredible. So I think we've probably just alerted many people, including myself, to the fact that there is a like commercially available, readily available invisible ink if you want it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. And you need like the little, it's like UV active. So you need like a little, you know, you can get a little pen light that's UV reactive. So to see all that stuff. It's fun stuff. We've had some stuff here. The kids have messed around with that, but it was always a blue ghost, right? I've never tried anything else.

Myke Hurley: All right. Got one from Judith. So this is a longer one. Aside from the Opus 88 and Conard, if they ever start making pens again, are there any pens that have a double chamber or otherwise sealable ink reservoir? I live in the mountains and any out of town trip includes a significant altitude change and I'm tired of cleaning up ink when I overlook something. A couple of Opus 88s have made it into my collection and they offer a simple solution. But now that I'm traveling more again, it would be nice to have a wider range of pens that are good traveling companions. I know about flying with pens that are either full or empty or you've got to store them up right. I'm just tired of adding what pens will be full or empty enough to go down the hill and full or empty enough to come back when I come in home. And how should I fit them into my luggage? That's a list of things to think about when packing for a trip.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So two things immediately came into mind. One, Visconti markets their sealable reservoirs as like a huge selling point, like a double reservoir and seals off very well. So look at those. They're obviously very expensive. Although the Conards are very expensive as well. But any of the classic vacuum fillers, like the Pilot 823, like it's not a double reservoir, but the way the mechanism works, it completely seals it off to where ink cannot get out when you have the piston screwed down completely, right? It's not a piston filler, but it's a vacuum filler. And what that vac does is create a seal when it's all the way screwed down to where the ink can't get out, right? So like that would be my number one. That's more along the coned lines of engineering mechanisms. The Pilot 823 would be my number one choice. Plus you can see the ink levels in there too, if that's a thing you're interested in. Visconti's do have some options to where you can see it, but some of them are closed off.

Myke Hurley: Where's the ink not coming from?

Brad Dowdy: You know what I mean? I mean, so it's just an altitude and pressure change, right? So depending on how, if you have like a normal converter or a normal piston filler, there's enclosures you can't account for like sealing off completely. Right, okay. Right? So it's just like in case of accident or it basically, Judith doesn't want to have to worry about anything. Just seal off the pen and go. Okay. Like if I'm taking my Leonardo Memento Zero, either the standard converter one or the piston filler one, I'm never going to be able to completely seal off those ink reservoirs from my travels, right? No matter how careful I am, you know, I could make a mistake and there's something going to be open. But where with a Pilot 823, I can for a fact seal off my ink reservoir and I could just not ever have to worry about that type of design of the pen to cause leaks leaking from presser changes. So same with the Visconti. Right. Same with the Conan, things like that. But like those types of vac fillers where you can get the pure close off seal, that's the way you want to go. And like I think the 823 is one of the best of the bunch.

Myke Hurley: Very cool. Mm-hmm. I hope that helps, Judith. I hope that helps. All right. If you'd like to send in a question of your own, just send out a tweet with the hashtag AskTPA. You can use question mark AskTPA in the RelayFM members Discord or send a longer question to hello at penaddict.com. And then go to penaddict.com where you can read Brad's work and along with many fine contributors. You can also check out Brad's membership newsletter, Refill, there too, which is one of my favorite reads every single week. I read cover to cover. I read Refill every single weekend. You can go to twitch.tv slash penaddict where you'll catch Brad streaming a couple of times a week. You can go to spokedesign.com, penaddict on Instagram, Dowdy as I'm on Twitter. I'm iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. Go buy a journal. Go buy a theme system journal at cortexmerch.com. It is the season for that kind of thing. You can also check more out about what that's all about at themesystem.com as well if you want to. Thank you so much to our wonderful sponsors of this week's episode. That's Penchale and Canalea Penco. Please support them as they support us. And as always, thank you for listening. And Brad will be back next time with a special guest. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.