The Pen Addict 555/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	555
Title:	Lamy, Call Your Boys
Release Date:	March 15th, 2023
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 555
Audio File:	Audio Episode 555
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 555
Length:	5454 min <br />0.9 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Welcome to The Pen Addict episode 555. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Hello Myke Hurley, how are you today?

Myke Hurley: I'm good. I'm feeling five.

Brad Dowdy: Five, five, five.

Myke Hurley: I'm feeling pretty five today.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I feel like there should be a joke there, but there's not.

Myke Hurley: There was, but it wasn't good. I was trying to say it like fine.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I got it. Then it was a joke. You got it. It was less than exceptional.

Portable cartridges and sealing solutions

Myke Hurley: I have some follow-up on portable cartridges.

Brad Dowdy: Boy, do we ever have some follow-up on portable cartridges.

Myke Hurley: On the last episode, we were trying to solve the issue of can you fill up an ink cartridge, seal it, put it in a bag. So this was Stefan's question. So Marsha wrote in and said, I bought some of these cartridge stoppers long ago when Great Fountain sold on Etsy. I haven't really traveled with them, but I use them for the rare times I decided to stop using a partially filled cartridge and switch to another color. So this is from the Hamilton Pen Company. It's like a little stopper that goes on the ink cartridge for Italian, sorry, for international standard pens. So that's why. It looks like you kind of push it in there and it's like knurled a little bit so you can get some grip and like pull it out. It's made of brass.

Brad Dowdy: It's like a little brass metal stopper.

Myke Hurley: Joseph wrote in with some very particular instructions.

Brad Dowdy: This was an epic, epic entry into my inbox.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you got an email. I also got a version sent to the feedback form. It's great. So Joseph said, buy a 7-Alt. This is like seven zeros is like the classification number.

Brad Dowdy: Number 0000000.

Myke Hurley: So it's a 7-Alt EPDM rubber stopper for use of international or platinum cartridges from a company called WidgetCo.com. Trim the outside end to prevent accident removal and the inside end for ink storage. Fill the cartridge of a syringe. Seal the cartridge for later use. Store securely for travel.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, there's a lot of options, more options than we thought. Because I was thinking like, hey, could you get some 3D printed thing made? Well, it turns out there's already for the standard international size, which is probably the most common cartridge. Cartridge size, at least for the short ones. Yeah, someone already makes them. So we got a bunch of links to that.

Myke Hurley: These are like rubber stoppers. Yeah, this is. These feel, I don't know, to me that's still, I believe that Joseph has made it work. This to me feels less safe than the Hamilton thing.

Brad Dowdy: I agree. And I'm still not, I'm still like 5 out of 10 safety on the Hamilton thing, right? Because like as soon as I knock that, as soon as I knock that cartridge around, it's going to like unseal a little bit. So I don't know that there's any pure way to do it. I did get a lot of hot glue gun mentions. Yep. That I was like really close to talking about, you know, the wax seals and things like that. I got several mentions. We'll just use hot glue gun and that will seal it off pretty well. Like I feel like those options, like the, you know, the wax or the glue type seals are going to be safer, but less functional when it comes time to use them, right? Because you're going to have to peel off whatever's on there and those other, like if you don't do it really cleanly, it might get into your pen or whatever. Where these stoppers, two different stopper types, you can just pull off and go to town. Also got a shout out for parafilm, just, you know, a little thin, thin layer of seal over there. I guess you would have to like use a little tiny rubber band or something to, to tighten that on there. But like I wouldn't, wouldn't have a problem with that either. So shockingly amount of options for this.

Myke Hurley: I didn't mention the other stopper. It's from a great fountain, Italy. It's the same as the Hamilton pens. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So we got a bunch of links that like, it was hard. But when you would search for this product, it was kind of like the same product coming up in different places under different names, but the same kind of little brass stopper idea. So it was good.

Myke Hurley: I'll be honest. I still wouldn't trust it, but. Same. This is an option. At least someone makes this product, whether it actually does the thing. I don't know. I would still like to see someone create a product, which is more focused around this, like truly like. Sealable ink cartridges that are expected to be sealed.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right.

Myke Hurley: Refillable and sealable.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's not like, we're not like coming up with hacks to do this. We're coming up with like a real deal. Or like an aftermarket thing or whatever. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: That's not what I would want. Right.

Brad Dowdy: And the problem is like, I would want platinum seals or sailor seals or pilot seals. And every single one of them is different. So that's when you get into this whole nightmare that makes it not worth it for anyone to invest in creating like a real solution for this. Because it's super particular and super finicky.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Feedback on famous signatures

Myke Hurley: We got some more feedback on famous signatures as well. Yeah. I have a lot to say about this. This is great. Okay. This came in from Myke. Myke says, you discussed the quick sloppy signatures of Formula One drivers. Enter Richard Petty, the king of NASCAR and the NASCAR Cup Series all-time wins leader and even 200. His elaborate signature takes five to six seconds to sign and rarely, if ever, turns down an autograph request. Even as he approaches 86 years old. Before we talk about this, let me give you some more follow-up from Brian who said, Listening to the latest episode's discussions about signatures and autographs made me think back to my days working for NASCAR legend Richard Petty. Yes. Yes. The guy we just mentioned. Yes. Take a look at his signature and remember that he would sign autographs all day for thousands of people exactly the same way every single time. His philosophy is, if the fan is willing to pay for a ticket to see a race and stand in line to meet him, he wants the signature to demonstrate his respect for them. His signature is an extension of his brand.

Brad Dowdy: Heck to the yes. This is what I'm talking about, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Have you seen his signature?

Brad Dowdy: I didn't go look at it. Let's pull it up right now.

Myke Hurley: All right. I got it here. An article from Fox Sports. The coolest signature in NASCAR. Yeah. It is a sight to behold, this thing. I would say maybe a little too much, but you know, you do you, Richard Petty. It's incredible.

Brad Dowdy: This is exactly what I was talking about last episode. It's not that, hey, I'm going to sign as many autographs for as many people possible. Like, I appreciate that philosophy, but the idea that I'm talking about is the respect for the fan. And even if maybe I can't get all to everybody like Richard Petty has made the point of doing, I'm still respecting your time and your effort to come see me. And I'm going to put something cool or legible on there. Instead of Myke, what I put into the show notes, I saved this last week. And my guy, Valtteri Bottas. Oh, my gosh. What a horrible signature. Like, this is what I'm talking about. This is the little flippant little Sharpie squiggle that is absolutely trash. If you didn't have a picture there, would you know what that said?

Myke Hurley: No.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's horrible. It's like, it's a Z and a Y is what it looks like. It's like, it's.

Myke Hurley: Okay. So we've got Frederick Vassour there, previous team principal, and Joe Gwennu as well. Do you rate these any differently?

Brad Dowdy: No. They're all terrible. Okay.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. No, but Valtteri's is the worst. Right. Vassour's is the second worst. And then Joe, I don't even know what's happening there, but it's at least moderately cool looking. Looks like a fishing line. Like, he's, I don't know what's happening there. So, um, yeah, this is what I'm talking about. I mean, they're sitting there signing hundreds, if not thousands of these things. And like, they're just going and like Richard Petty's over here going like, I'm going to make an effort for this fan and do something cool that they will respect. Like I, I just, it drives me crazy. So, um, further followup, which I didn't put in here, which is kind of related to the Baltimore pin show later. I had a couple of people come up to me as like, you have to give me the, you have to give me the take your time signature at the Baltimore pin show. I signed up a pin case. No. Okay. I was like, no, for like one person, I took them over to a table so I could sit down and do it right. Instead of standing there and just going in their notebook, you know, I like, I was like, yeah, this is awesome. Let's go. I'm gonna go sit over here and do this. And then like another one, I signed a pin case. Like I took my time and like, you know, it may not be like exactly legible, but it was at least an effort behind my part because they made the effort to come up and say, Hey, would you do this for me? And like, I just think it's like this mutual respect thing. And, you know, I know it's ridiculous to, to talk about these, these athletes that are signing like, like literally tens of thousands of autographs a year. It's like, I get it, but it's just like, it, it bugs me when I see that Valtteri signature and so it's like, it's not even worth it. I would just rather have a selfie with the mullet and then move on, move on from there than your little, then like something like I could just make like just a little crazy little mark. Well, it's like basically like a check mark. I was like, what's the point? What's the point? So anyway, props to, uh, props to Richard Petty. That's hilarious that we got like double, um, double feedback on that, but it's clearly a thing for him and I appreciate that stance very, very much.

Myke Hurley: Oh, there you go.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

New product discussion

Myke Hurley: You have something new for me?

Brad Dowdy: You can't make this stuff up, Myke. Like I, like for all the, the praise I gave sailor last week, I, am I going to have to like take it immediately back? Like, what was I getting into? What was I getting into? We have this week, this week in sailor, we have the 1911 L. Pen of the year, 2023 golden olive. And it's like, it doesn't stop. I guess that was kind of like the point of putting in this in there. I was like, oh my gosh, like we're already, we just did like massive releases of all these kinds of pens. And like, this is a great looking pen, right? Like, this is just a cool looking pen, but it's just like, oh, it was exactly what I was talking about last week. It was like, um, you know, they just get to make anything they want. And I guess it's kind of impressive because they must be selling all this stuff for them to keep pumping out the products like this. Right.

Myke Hurley: I mean, this is fine. This is fine. I think it's great. It's like, it's, it doesn't feel very olivey. I would have liked them maybe to have some red in there for the little like pimento or whatever in the olive. You find it kind of funny, but I guess it's probably not what they're looking for. It is called golden olive. They already have a drink series. To be fair. They already have a drink series for that. So maybe they want some gold in there. Yeah. I mean, this is fine. It's sparkly. It's demonstrator. It's a good green. I actually quite like the green. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: So I was browsing around and there's, there's still some, um, old pricing, uh, 1911s out there and pro gears out there. But, uh, the new one, like the new price point is 440, which is, I mean, it's just a lot for like your standard sailor. So it's, it's cool looking, but it's just, uh, I don't know. We're just going to have to have like a weekly, we should just have like a default segment in the show now every week for whichever sailor we want to talk about it, whatever they release this week. And, uh, sometimes it's a lot.

Myke Hurley: I mean, isn't that, isn't the default sailor segment always been like been a thing for years at this point?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yes. It's the new, uh, it's the new field notes.

Myke Hurley: Oh man. Do you remember that? I do. I do. We went hard on that for a long time.

Brad Dowdy: We did. I don't even know where they're at as far as like, um, if we've like missed a release or something like that.

Myke Hurley: I don't think so. I got an email from them, you know, about like, we've got one come in, please resubscribe kind of thing. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. So I think they've got something coming on the way.

Brad Dowdy: I do like talking. I do like talking about the field notes because they do the game. Well, yeah. And they do technical stuff that I, that I like. Right. So they're, they're always into like the technical printing details, which that's what we've always appreciated about them anyway. Right. Yep. They do things a little bit different in a, in a very good and positive way.

Myke Hurley: Yep. I know about that. All right. Do you want to take a break? Yep. Let's do it. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Squarespace. They are the all-in-one platform for building a brand and website, growing your business online. You can stand out one of the beautiful websites, engage with your audience and sell products, services, content that you create. It doesn't matter. Squarespace has got you covered. Talking about that, whether you sell physical or digital goods, it's super easy to get a store set up with Squarespace. They have all of the tools that you need to start selling your products online. And then once you've got going, they give you all the insights that you're looking for either. If you're wondering where your sales are coming from, how people are finding your website, which channels are most effective for you, Squarespace lets you analyze all of this within their platform. You don't have to do any extra work to enable it. Then when you're armed in that data, you can improve your site and build a marketing strategy based on your top keywords or most popular products and content. And let's imagine you are building a website as a store. I think it's also super useful to have a blog too, so you can write content about your products, explain what's going on, what you're working on, build the story of your brand. Squarespace has powerful blogging tools for you to share your stories, photos, videos, and updates. You'll be able to categorize, share, and schedule your posts to make your content work for you. So I love Squarespace. I've used Squarespace for like 15 years. If I ever want to get something online, I just go there because I know I can get it set up. I know it's going to look professional. It's going to be easy for me to manage and maintain on my own so I can just get started on doing the thing that it is I want to do. So go and check it out for yourself today by going to squarespace.com slash penaddict and you can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required. Then when you're ready to launch, use the offer code penaddict. This will save you 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict. And when you sign up, use the offer code penaddict. That's all one word. To get 10% of your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for their continued support of this show and Relay FM.

Baltimore Pen Show highlights

Brad Dowdy: We got a shout out of the week. Myke, this was something that came up out of the blue at the Baltimore Penn Show. I ran into my good friend Joshua Danley of the Pelican's Perch. So long time followers of me know how much I hang on Joshua's every word about Pelican. We reference his blog all the time. I think it's one of the most well written, well researched blogs in the stationery realm. It's just a true joy to read. And I got to say hi to him this week at the Baltimore Penn Show. So we're going to do a full Baltimore Penn Show recap here later in this episode. But I wanted to give a shout out to the Pelican's Perch because I just accidentally ran into him there. I'm like, hey, it's Joshua. And the Pelican's Perch is one of my personal favorite blogs. And y'all should go read it as well.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke. What are we looking at here, Brad? What is this? We're getting ready to brawl. This is going to be great. I'm so excited about this. So it is bracket season in the U.S., Myke. March Madness, right? March Madness. March Madness, the great college basketball tournament here in the U.S. I know absolutely nothing about like literally anything going on with that. But anytime it's bracket time, you know, then in the tournaments coming up, all companies like to go and, you know, do different brackets of different things. And I love them. I love all these little breakdowns. So Lamy has decided that, hey, we're going to have our own bracket break breakdown. And would you guess that I have a lot to say about this, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Well, I mean, they've done it in probably the worst possible way it ever could be done. And the seeding is so bad.

Brad Dowdy: Well, okay. So what makes you say that? Because literally my first comment is this is not how you do seeding. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: The seeding is horrific. So first round. These are first. I'm going to give you two first rounds, right? That they have chosen.

Brad Dowdy: First round matchups.

Myke Hurley: The Lamy 2000 versus the dialogue. Why would you seed those two together? I don't know. Right. They should be on opposite sides. Yep. But the worst round one. All-Star versus Safari. Why would you do that round one? That should be the final. You should seed that. So you hopefully get that as a final. That is madness. Why would you give that away immediately?

Brad Dowdy: I've tried to sort out why they seeded it this way.

Myke Hurley: Why would you do it? Why would you do it?

Brad Dowdy: I can't.

Myke Hurley: My only thought is that they actually don't want to do this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You know? They completely broke it from the jump. And I don't. I can't figure out. I'm trying to give them an excuse here. To say, oh, we did it this way. Like there's a full fountain pen bracket. Or there's a full ballpoint bracket. There's not even that. Like it's not even broken down that way. It's just completely. Okay. And this might be.

Myke Hurley: Are they seeding by price?

Myke Hurley: I mean, it doesn't make any sense. But like, is that what they're doing here? Like, are they putting pens against each other that are similar in price? I think so, right?

Brad Dowdy: As I look at it, it looks kind of dialed in that way. Which is just.

Myke Hurley: Which is madness. Because what, I mean, what you're saying is like the only differentiator between your products is their price. Like, that's not how it works. Right. Why? Why would you do it this way?

Brad Dowdy: I'm glad you had that. I'm glad you saw exactly what I'm seeing here. I figured you would.

Myke Hurley: I opened it and looked at it, but didn't look at it in detail until now. Right. I just, I don't. Why? Why would you do this? This is such a fun idea. Why would you do it?

Brad Dowdy: Right. At a minimum, you have to have a clear four seed. So there's 16 pens in the bracket. Right. So you have to have a clear top one, two, three, and four seed. Which to me is the Safari, the All-Star, the 2000. And then you could pick one of like several different ones.

Myke Hurley: I think the dialogue would have like a very rabid fan base. Like the people that love that pen. That's their retractable pen. Like the people that love that pen probably love that pen. Right. Also, why?

Brad Dowdy: So if the 2000 is one, you don't put the dialogue in the same bracket.

Myke Hurley: Somebody explain to me why they chose the 2000 Rollerball as the option.

Brad Dowdy: Is that in the picture? Oh, I didn't see that. I zoomed in. Oh, no.

Myke Hurley: And it is not the 2000 Fountain Pen.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. That's a problem. Well, we're going to, we're counting this as a fountain pen because that's just. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I mean, they're counting their lines. They're counting their product lines. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So like, could they have done like a rollerball bracket, a ballpoint bracket, a pencil bracket, and a fountain pen bracket? They probably have enough products to do all that. So I don't know. It's a mess. So the seating's a mess, but we're going to go with what they have minus the 2000 thing. We're counting that as a fountain pen because that's just dumb. Because that means, spoiler alert, that's got to be the winner, right? So let's, let's break this down real quick. So the first, the first match is the Lamy CP1 ballpoint versus the Lamy Scala. Um, I, I, I, I did the whole bracket on, on a sheet over here. Okay. So that this one, the CP1 wins, uh, pretty easily. The CP1 is a very underrated pen and the Scala is one of the worst designed, uh, Lamy pens. The cap design for that is just so overweight. It makes the balance of every Scala product just completely out of a line. So the CP1 is just a really, really neat, clean design. So that one moves on from the first match, um, on that same bracket, it's the Lamy Ion. Again, the rollerball, not the fountain pen Ion versus the Lamy accent. And I'm going to take the accent on this one because of its retractable nature. If we're doing a rollerball or a ballpoint, um, I want the retractable, uh, version. So we have the CP1 and the accent moving on from the first round there. Then we'll go into the Lamy 2000 versus the dialogue. I mean, I, I didn't see that it was a Lamy 2000 rollerball.

Myke Hurley: So I don't, I don't think it matters.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So it's, it's the Lamy 2000 over the dialogue.

Myke Hurley: I genuinely think the way they, they've structured this. It's like, it's the whole line, right? Like, yeah, it's just the line. It's similar to be like, I get the AL star in a, and I think the Safari in a rollerball, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So like, there's no Safari ballpoint in here, which is one of the great Lamy pens designs, I think. So like, that's not in here. So you get some of that. So I get you. We can just think of it as the entire product line. I would still choose the, um, the previous one, the accent over the I am. Okay. Um, next one is the logo M plus, which is a ballpoint versus the Zivo. The Zivo is their newest ballpoint, which I really like, but I think the logo is more classic Lamy. They do it in more fun colors. Um, the Zivo is just very new. So we have the Lamy logo moving on, on that side of the bracket. Um, on the opposite side, we have the Lamy Noto versus the Lamy Pico. Um, the, the Pico definitely wins in this battle. It's one of the, it's one of the more unique designs that they have and just a technical Marvel type of a product. Yeah. Um, on that, in that group, we have the Lamy Next versus the Lamy Joy. Um, I think it's the Lamy Joy. Um, I just raved about it last week.

Myke Hurley: I knew you were going to say Joy because of like, you were going off on one about the Joy last week. You were very excited about that.

Brad Dowdy: And the Next isn't bad, but it just doesn't rate versus All Stars, Safaris, all of that whole range. It's like towards the bottom. I would have put, I would take that eye on over the Next.

Myke Hurley: If I was reading this, as it should have been done correctly, I would have put the Pico versus the Joy.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And that's, that's like a difficult design decision.

Myke Hurley: And also because it's like, they're both like kind of kooky, like weird pens with like, they're going to have like big fans, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Well, here's, this one might actually be the weirdest one. So in the next, uh, in the bottom bracket, we have the Lamy Studio and we're going Fountain Pen versus the Lamy LX Fountain Pen.

Myke Hurley: This is legit good seating, these two, right? Like I think this is a good matchup.

Brad Dowdy: It is. But I, my argument is that the LX is no different from the All Star and therefore shouldn't be included. I agree with you.

Myke Hurley: I think they ran out of pens. I think is what happened here. Because the LX is just an All Star with no window. That's all it is. Right, right, right.

Brad Dowdy: So like maybe this is an easy, easy moving on from the studio here. The studio moves on here. And then Myke, we have to put up the All Star versus the Safari in the first round, which is just stupid. So I'm, I mean, I'm going to pick the Safari because that's who I am. But like, I mean, you can make an argument like either one of these, these should be the All Star and the Safari need to be in the final four on the opposite sides of the bracket.

Myke Hurley: Because for me, the All Star would have gone to the final unless it hit the 2000 for me. Right. Right. That's exactly right. And it would have been anything else on this. So that's what's so wild about it.

Brad Dowdy: It's probably like the third or fourth best pin in this whole bracket.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So.

Myke Hurley: All right. So we're going on to the next round. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Next round. So that puts the CP1 versus the Accent. And I have the CP1 getting through. I think it's a really underrated design. And the Accent is really kind of a basic design. They do a few different things with like the grip section, like they'll do a wooden grip section there. But I just think the CP1 is one of the cooler Lamy models. On the bottom part of that bracket, we have the 2000 versus the Logo M+. And that's not even a competition, right? It's the Lamy 2000 every time. So that side of the brackets final is going to be the CP1 versus the 2000. We'll get back to that in a second. So on the other side, it is the Lamy Pico versus the Lamy Joy. So there you got your matchup that you were talking about from the first round. I'm going with the Pico. Yeah, I can see that. I think it's that unique of a product. Again, it's kind of like in the CP1 category. What stands out amongst these products? It's also more widely usable. Yeah. Yeah. I just think the Pico is that cool of a product. So then in the bottom part of the bracket, we have the Lamy Studio versus the Lamy Safari, which like that's pretty tough. Like the Studio is a great pen, but I'm still going to pick the Safari here, right? So our final four is the Lamy CP1, the Lamy 2000, the Pico, and the Safari. So I think that's a pretty decent final four. So the CP1 versus the-

Myke Hurley: This final four is good, but we should have the Aostar instead of the CP1. Yes. This is how it should be going into this, right? I feel like, although I still think the dialogue maybe should be like against the Pico, right? Like I would have put the dialogue and the Pico to the opportunity that they could fight each other. Yes. You know? Mm-hmm. Because again, there's better seating available.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So the CP1 versus the 2000 on that side of the bracket, then the Pico versus the Safari on the opposite side of the bracket. So the 2000 will take down the CP1 for sure. That's easy. But like the 2000 really didn't have any competition except in its first round matchup against the dialogue. That was the only competition the 2000 had on that entire side of the bracket, right? There was no consideration. Like it's going to trounce everything on that side of the bracket. The other side of the bracket, we now have the Pico versus the Safari. And I'm still going Safari here, but this is closer than you think, right? I think the Pico is a product line that a lot of people love that may not use fountain pens. And again, it's just such a unique product that like I think that would be like a pretty close matchup Pico versus Safari here. So that gives us a pretty clear final matchup is the Lamy 2000 versus the Lamy Safari. And I've already alluded to it as much as I love the Safari, the Lamy 2000 should win, I would think.

Myke Hurley: That's what I would do. I think for me, no matter how you, good or bad, you do this bracket, for me, the 2000 is going to win it. But I think we're similar in that, like that's how it comes out. But that's not how it should go. It should get to the point where the AL Star and the Safari are in the final, which I think is probably what would happen if you did it the way that they're doing it with a public vote. But like put it up to the point where it could do that. But I am agreeing with you that if I was running the bracket, I would also have the 2000s as the winner. It's the best pen they make. Like, yeah, it is. If you get a good one.

Brad Dowdy: Definitely. Definitely. So this was fun. Like I, again, I would reseed the whole thing and I would actually swap out in and out a couple of products. But I think you're still going to end up with a ballpark, the same results. The All Star just got done wrong for me or in other, if you were an All Star fan, the Safari would have gotten done wrong in the first matchup.

Myke Hurley: The dialogue. Yeah. The dialogue got. The dialogue got done wrong. The dialogue maybe got the worst treatment here because. Yeah. The AL Star and Safari were probably always going to go against each other. So at least, at least what they did here was guarantee that. Right. Like, because if you did, you know, if it's me and you, right, and you did put them on opposite sides of the bracket and me and you were doing it, the All Star and Safari are not going to fight against each other. So at least by doing it this way, you'd guarantee that. I would say if you really wanted to do that, you should have just put them on the same side of the bracket, but. Right. In different buckets or whatever. So you get it in either the second or third round. Although I reckon you could get it in third round.

Lamy pen bracket analysis

Brad Dowdy: So they're doing the way they're doing these brackets. So now Lamy, the Lamy Pens Instagram is doing it's I don't know how they're going to really track this because they're just doing it by comment voting. So like they have the image up CP1 versus the Scala. So it's like, OK, comment to to win. And and, you know, it's hard to tell, like, which is going to win, like having to manually do all that. Like, I think, can't you do that in like stories or something like little votes or things? But maybe it's not a long enough time for that.

Myke Hurley: So all of this is is very reminiscent for me, like why I have so many like feelings about seating. Early on in the pandemic, Stephen, you know, like people were just doing things, you know, like because we all just have more time and just you wanted things to do. So Stephen created a bracket called Mac Madness.

Myke Hurley: And it was the same idea. Right. And it was just like weeks. He had a huge bracket. It was massive. So there were 40, 32 entrants in the bracket. Right. So there were four rounds, round one, round two, five rounds, I guess. Round one, round two, semifinals, finals. It's quarterfinals, semifinals, final. Right.

Myke Hurley: But he seated them like randomly. Uh huh. And people were so mad for like six weeks. He was dealing with this. It was really fun to go through it. Right. Like it was like a lot of fun to experience it. But his seating was really bad and like it was like a regret that he had like after week one. But you're committed. So he just carried on going. And it was a really fun project to go through. But I think he's never done it again because it was just so controversial. It was really funny.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I just but like you at least did that on purpose. You had a rule. Okay. Randomize seating go. And you can at least say, hey, this is how the randomizer spit it out.

Myke Hurley: Like that was just how he did it. He just randomized it. Randomized it. But like.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Where Lamy, like there's no way like this was random and it could have been done better. Yeah. Where Steven in retrospect is like, well, random doesn't really work for this. We should. We should.

Myke Hurley: I think what would have worked for Steven, which I actually think works good in a lot of these is randomize. Then do some manual seating. Because like. Yeah. I don't think you need to manually. Like in some of the. You know, manual seat all of it. Like that doesn't make sense. But just make. Just like move some stuff around. So it looks like you're going to have some potentially interesting matchups. Right. Because some good Macs got knocked out so fast because of who they were up against.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. So it's great conversation. It's fun. I like the Lamy bracket breakdown. I don't know what products I would do for like. I'd have. I need to do like a bracket breakdown one of these days. I keep trying to figure it out.

Myke Hurley: But also Lamy. Next time. Call you boys. You know what I mean? Lamy. We could have fixed this so fast. Like. Yeah. 10 minutes and we would have given you a better bracket. Because you've now got to own this bracket for like a month.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Things happen, Myke. Things happened in Baltimore this weekend, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I was so jealous. Oh, God. I was dying. I was so jealous of you. And I don't even. Don't even talk to me about the pen you bought. I don't want to hear it. All right. You keep it to yourself.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Okay. We can do that. So we ready to dig into this a little bit?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Go on then.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I actually. I kind of have a lot to say, but not a lot to say in a weird way. Like it was great. Right. It was. It met expectations. Certainly could have exceeded expectations. It was fun. And smooth. And easy. Right. It was. You know, when you're not working the show, you don't necessarily have to worry about, hey, did the promoter put my table in the right place? Or what is my location? Or are my neighbors going to be annoying all weekend? Things like that. So like all of that's eliminated by just attending the show. Right. So there's less that can go wrong from my personal perspective. Um, so I just go with the intent on hanging out, doing some shopping, you know, and, and just talking to people and having fun. So when you're coming at it from that aspect, like it should be a good show. Right. And, and Baltimore delivered on that front. I want to start out, um, by just saying how like cool the hotel layout is for this, which I led this off in refill when I did the, um, like the quick recap and photo dump for Panonic members. Uh, when I was traveling home, just talking about how nice it is to have a show hotel that has space for you to chill in right outside the show floor. It doesn't necessarily have to be the bar or restaurant area, but in this case it was the bar area, but this hotel was sprawling for seating and tables and chairs and couches all over the place. You were never without a place to just go hang out with your friends or hang out by yourself and just chill or talk about pens or grab a table and spread your stuff out all over the top of it. It was like such, I, I don't want to say this is overlooked by a lot of pen shows, but certainly as a show promoter, it's not at the top of the list when they're thinking about, you know, hey, I'm going to have a pen show at this hotel. The top of the list is, Hey, what room space can I get for vendors and how will the table layout be? And is there a bar or is there a restaurant? Yes, but not necessarily how those areas lay out for, you know, people who are spending the night or taking in multiple days of the show and staying at the hotel. And this one does, this one actually just kind of worked out in that reason. Like, I hope that's like a consideration for shows and like, especially if a new show is coming online, the, the hangout and social spaces of the show outside of the vendor spaces of the show. And, and Baltimore actually does that pretty well at this hotel. So the show space, I also like because it is one singular large room, right? So just, it's your typical hotel ballroom where you would just walk in from the outside of the exterior of the ballroom and there's a hallway and kind of an L-shaped hallway where there's vendor tables out there. And then you go into the main entrance and it's a main room. It's great. So it's one big room plus a hallway vendors. No one is kind of lost in the shuffle. There's not, oh, don't forget this room down here around the corner with, you know, another 15 or 20 vendors in there. You know, there's no one kind of off to the side that it's not getting the foot traffic. It just kind of flows correctly for the most part. So that's just like the general layout and facility idea of the show. The rest of the show, just the things and the people was all top notch. Like it was great to just go and see everyone again. It had only been, I don't know, what, six months since I was in Orlando, something like that. So it hadn't been that long, seven months. But it always feels like forever when it's the first pen show of the year. It feels like, okay, I haven't done this for a while when it's really probably only been six or seven months. So it was really just a good hangout. Like Friday, I landed, you know, mid-afternoon. I was at the show by 2.30 or so, show hotel.

Brad Dowdy: You know, saw some friends, hung out in the hotel lobby. My room wasn't ready, so I had my luggage with me. And just kind of sat and chilled. Got to hang out with friends that I either haven't met in person or have only talked to online, which is really cool. You know, always to finally meet the people in person that you've talked with, like for some cases years online, right? That's always a highlight. And then I went into the show floor, not really planning on doing anything, but I knew I kind of wanted to track down one pen, which shall not be named, just to see if it was for me. Turns out it was. You can talk about it. We'll talk about it in a minute. We'll talk about it in a minute. So like Friday, the show went until six o'clock, so I knew I only had just kind of a, I wasn't trying to accomplish anything Friday necessarily, right? I was saving like all of that for Saturday. So that worked out well. Like I was able to walk around, see everybody, you know, say hey to all kinds of vendors. All kinds of friends, you know, and not take it to like, you know, hey, let's get down to business and do, do pen show stuff. It was just kind of, let's see how it goes. So that's where I made my one purchase for myself, which was the, the Edison pen. You don't want me to talk about full name, full name of this pen, Myke. It's the limited edition Beaumont Baltimore 2023 Palomino Waltz at sunset. So that is the full name of the pen. I'm gonna have to shorten that somehow. But yeah, it's a really cool Edison Beaumont. Like we talked about it. I showed, I talked about it in the preview that I wanted to see this in person, see if it was for me. And because I knew I liked the Beaumont shape for me, it's a smaller design. I knew I liked this material from seeing images, images of it online before the show. And then I went to got to check it out in person. I was like, sure. Like if I'm gonna, I didn't really have a shopping list for me personally, right? So I take things, I do kind of split things up when I go to pen shows, right? What is going into Brad's personal pen collection versus what is, what am I buying for review or giveaway? So this was the only pen I bought for myself. So that was kind of my Friday, right? We just hung out in the hotel that night, ate dinner at the hotel, hung out at the bar. Really great bar set up there. So it was just a good social event night. They had pen shows after dark. So a lot of people were hanging around the hotel. Like it was literally, like I still want someone to confirm this to me, but like compared to like the Atlanta show, which you've been to, where like the evening, the after hours evening in the bar for a little while, it's, you know, 30, 40, 50 people. There had to be just like a hundred people plus mingling in the bar. Like that's how much space there was. That's how much it allowed for, right? It allowed, people felt comfortable going around and hanging out because there was always room, always seating. The staff was nice. The service was great. Like, hey, shocker. That's pretty cool, right? So, yeah, that was kind of Friday. That was kind of my, hey, get in town and chill out day. Saturday moved into like, okay, let's do the pen show thing from open to close, which was 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. So, that's pretty much what I did on Saturday. I went in, checked out all the tables, checked out all the products, talked with the makers, right? Like, right when you walk in, you could see Ian Schoen. So, I talked with Ian for a while. I tested out the Monarch nibs. I tested out various varieties of the Monarch nibs, talked to him about what's coming, right? Doing Brad business things, like figuring out like, hey, what's coming up soon? Yeah. What are you making now? What's coming soon? How things are going? And then on to the next one and on to the next one. So, that's kind of what Saturday's like for me. So, you know, talk to Ian.

Platinum Curidas updates and impressions

Brad Dowdy: One of the cool parts of the show was the Platinum Distributors were there. So, that's Luxury Brands USA. And I got a sneak peek at some upcoming products. I'm not supposed to talk about them. But Platinum Japan sent out an email today announcing the new Curie Doss is coming. Excuse me?

Brad Dowdy: So, I had the new Curie Doss in hand. It was, I feel okay mentioning it now that Platinum themselves let the bag out. But I told Luxury Brands, like, yeah, I won't talk about it. It's fine. Even though they were using the new Curie Doss at the show publicly, I said I wouldn't talk about it. But now that Platinum has let the cat out of the bag, I'm going to talk about them. The new Curie Doss is coming, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Do you have any opinions? Has it changed? Are you allowed to say anything about it?

Brad Dowdy: I'm, since they announced it, I mean, I'll kind of say, like, I'll kind of confirm what Platinum's little email said. It was a really short, weird email. No images or anything like that. But it's going to, instead of, like, the translucent barrels, it's going to be like this, it's kind of like a matte satiny finish. But it's kind of that rubber coating. I don't know how to describe that. But, you know, when you coat a barrel with, like, that really thin type of rubber, but it feels kind of like matte or satiny. So these are going to be solid, more solid colors, and then black trims on there. And I think they made, I'll need to confirm it with the old version. I think they made one good design tweak for comfort of holding in the barrel. So I think it's going to be good. It's just going to be, it's just, it's the exact same kind of shape and size, right? It's a very large pin. And with the solid barrels, the visuals are very different. You know, if you think, like, a solid Lamy Safari versus, like, the clear Lamy All-Star, like, what things stand out on those. So you'll see the clip more and the knock more, like, stand out in the design. But I think they're going to do well.

Myke Hurley: What's changed about the physical comfort?

Brad Dowdy: I think, and I'll need to confirm this with the old version, but I think the fin on the back has been pushed lower, like, out of the grip area. Like, before I would hit it with my finger, and it was kind of uncomfortable or awkward. And I think it has been adjusted lower, more towards the tip to where I felt, at least, like, in the minute or two that I got to play with it, I felt like I had more clearance.

Myke Hurley: Did you get to talk to them at all about, like, what obvious changes they've had to make to fix the pen? Like, from an engineering level? Not too much. Because obviously they've had to. And considering how long it's taken them to release more, you would assume they've done something, right?

Brad Dowdy: I think it's just the externals and maybe moving that fin down. I think the internals are identical, but I didn't get too much time to break it down much further than that.

Myke Hurley: It's the cracking, right?

Brad Dowdy: Well, that was a feed thing that they ended up fixing, like, with the first version of the Kyri-Dos after the first batch. It was just, like, a pressure of the nib cracking the feed type of situation that they eventually got grips on in the last version. So I don't anticipate that's going to be an issue this time at all. So, yeah, I think it was more last time. It was just more of a comfort issue, right? Yeah. Like, the things were in the wrong spots for most people.

Myke Hurley: Well, that was my issue, but they did have the cracking problem, right? I think that was the biggest issue for them. Yes, definitely. Feed.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, it looks cool. Like, I wonder, you know, obviously want to get it in hand and give it a good workout and give it a good test and see, like, okay, what did drastically change? Oh, I should rewind that. I don't think anything drastically changed. It's a big pin still, right? There's no, like, slimline version 2. It is a big, chonky pin that if you like the first Curidos, you'll like this one. I don't know that this is going to get, like, new Curidos customers, right, necessarily.

Brad Dowdy: It's if you like the one before, I think this is probably going to be a better version of it. Will it get new customers? I don't know. We'll see. I also, I didn't get to test out there. They also distribute Endless, which is going to be that Endless creator pin. And they did not have one there for me to try out, but they got to test that themselves when they were on a recent trip. So they're looking forward to get that in. All of these are going to be coming in. Let's see. The Platinum is not until May. And then hopefully the creator from Endless is going to be end of this month, early next month. It sounds like as a Platinum fan and any other Platinum fans out there, there's going to be a lot of movement from Platinum over the next year. Like in, like, a creativity type of way. Like, they're going to be releasing a lot of products. So I look forward to that. I don't have any details other than that. Other than they were saying that just the general Platinum releases are going to be plentiful. So I look forward to that.

Brad Dowdy: So from, like, your bigger distributors, like Pilot was there. Pilot goes to most of the U.S. pin shows just like luxury brands does. Pilot just makes such a great pin. Like, when I compare it to, like, a lot of the other brands around, like, Pilots are so good. And that's confirmed to me every time I see all the Pilot stuff. They have every price point covered at, you know, the Pilot distributor table from, like, the entry-level Cocoonos and Metropolitans all the way up to, like, the, you know, the $10,000 plus Namikis, right? And you just look at that stuff and it's just like, that is such a good company. They do such a good job. So interesting. And it's a little bit different from Platinum in that aspect. And, like, I think Platinum is there, too. But the scope of what Pilot does is just kind of mind-blowing. Like, they have all 15 of their size 15 nibs out there for you to test, right? Like, it's just really cool to see. And, like, you can go to the Platinum tester, too, but it's, like, five nibs. Like, nothing wrong with that. But it's, like, it just goes to show you that what Pilot is doing is really cool. So, a lot of makers at the show. Some new-to-me maker brands out there. That's ended up what I was buying the most for review and giveaway. Like, I bought a pen from Hardy Penwrights. And I bought a River City Pen Co. pen from Lucky Star Pens. And I bought a Shown Design Pen, you know, all for, like, review and giveaway stuff. I didn't come away with any mainline pens. I didn't come away with a Pilot or a Platinum or a Leonardo or even a Lamy or anything like that. It was really kind of maker-focused for me. And that was not the intent going in. There was no intent going in. That's just what happened, right? Once I saw all of the things, like, I'm super interested in the new Leonardos. But, you know, they're pretty close to the previous ones. So, let me try a new maker pen that I haven't used before, right? Like, a Hardy Penwrights pen, you know, things like that. So, that was kind of my idea there.

Brad Dowdy: You know, I got to hang out with our buddy, Jonathan Brooks. Always a treat to hang out with Jonathan. Sat with him on and off for about an hour on Sunday. You know, whenever I just chill, go hang out with him. I always love watching his customers come to the table and just look at all the stuff. It's so much fun.

Brad Dowdy: Tasha, as a brand, is doing so much stuff. I don't know that I'm... Maybe I'll own, like, a higher-end Tasha before. We've reviewed some of the more entry-level Tasha pens, which are, like, in the $100, a little over $100 range. But they do some medium to high-end stuff that they are very tied in with, like, Sailor nibs now, right? So, they're basically getting Tasha-branded Sailor nibs. So, they have, you know, the medium-sized pens will have, like, the Sailor 14K and 21K nibs that are used in the Pro Gears and the 1911s. Then they have the larger Tasha pens are using Sailor King of pen nibs with, like, the Tasha branding on there. It's pretty wild. The scope of what they're doing is kind of mind-blowing, and it's a lot of expensive stuff. I love what Estabrook is doing as a whole. Obviously, good friends of mine over there at Kenro Industries, the makers of Estabrook. But they just keep coming out with new, fun colors, great accessories. They're doing a really nice job. I love checking out their new pens, seeing what they had. I didn't really come away with any paper or ink, you know, from the show, which I guess maybe was a little bit travel-restricted for me. Like, I didn't want to overload my suitcase with all of that stuff, which is fine. But there was nothing, like, super compelling that I had to have either, right, from a paper or ink perspective. The Wearing Ool inks were very popular at the show. Everyone really enjoys what Wearing Ool is doing. Sailor inks, of course, obviously do super, super well at shows. So, those were good. And then Colorverse was doing well at the show as well. So, one random find, Sugar Turtle Studio. I want to give them a special shout-out. They were just, like, stickers, pens, coffee mugs, bags, shirts, kind of swag, you know, type of thing. And the stuff was so cool. So, big shout-out to Sugar Turtle Studio. I bought some coffee mugs from them and some stickers and some buttons. Just, like, you know, the fun pen show meme type stuff. You know, it was really, really neat. Really fun to see. And I think they did a pretty good, pretty brisk business on there. It's, like, a really quality kind of fits that pen nerd aesthetic that we all like. So, I was super, that was super enjoyable. And that was kind of it for my show. Like, I did it big on Saturday. And then, you know, like, went out to dinner with some friends that night. Hung out at the bar a little bit more. And then, yeah, got on a plane Sunday morning and headed home. I think, like, in general, it went, my expectations went pretty well for what I was looking to do. I was a little bit nervous getting there on Friday late. Like, am I going to have enough time for everything? Am I going to have enough time for everything? It's, like, yeah. Guess what? I had plenty of time for everything, right? It wasn't too overwhelming. Baltimore's a good mid-sized pen show. Maybe slightly on the larger side. The crowds were good all weekend that I was there. You know, like, Saturday stayed busy the majority of the day. And Friday was busy.

Brad Dowdy: And, yeah, like, it was good. Like, you know, that's the review. The Baltimore pen show was good. And I'm super happy. And it was a fun time. Always good to be back home and kind of empty the bag, see what I actually came home with. And I've got some review products. I've got some giveaway stuff. I've got some fun things coming up on the blog from the show. And there's just going to be more of it. So I'll be back in Atlanta in, like, a couple weeks for the next show. And, yeah, we're just going to go to town. So I had fun in Baltimore. Thank you to everyone who came up, said hi, hung out, and chatted. It was a legitimately great time.

Myke Hurley: Very jealous of you.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, you should be. It was a good time. So to cap off the jealousy, our good friend Annabelle, her F1 notebook is a sight to behold. Like, it is a sight to behold. So I'll just leave it with you. Leave that with you. So sorry for you.

Myke Hurley: I've seen images.

Brad Dowdy: But have you held it? Of course not. I would like to. I have. I have.

Myke Hurley: Although, if there's something like that, something made so beautifully, I'll be scared I'll break it.

Myke Hurley: Excellent. And tear a page out. Ruin everything. If you would like to send in questions, feedback, follow-up for the show, go to penaddictfeedback.com, or you can hit the link in your show notes and send us in to your questions or your thoughts. If you'd like to find Brad online, you can find him over at penaddict.com. He streams three times a week over at twitch.tv slash penaddict, and you can find Brad's products at spokedesign.com. If you want to find me, I host many shows here at RelayFM. Go to relay.fm slash shows, find a new podcast for your listening pleasure. You can find my products at cortexbrand.com, and both Brad and I are on Mastodon. Brad is at penaddict on mastodon.social, and I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E, at mike.social. Thank you so much to Squarespace for their support of this episode, and thank you for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.