The Pen Addict 559/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	559
Title:	Overbooked My Brain
Release Date:	April 12th, 2023
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 559
Audio File:	Audio Episode 559
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 559
Length:	5959 min <br />0.983 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 559. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Enigma Stationery. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad. Hi, Myke. How are you?

Brad Dowdy: I'm good, my friend. How are you? Good, good. I'm back from vacation, back in the desk, in the proper desk setting. Although it feels like kind of a repeat show from last week and maybe the week before. We have lots of follow-up, lots of recurring themes here. But I'm still kind of excited to talk about all the same stuff. I mean, it's pens. You know, sometimes we're going to talk about the same pens every week because they're interesting to me.

Lamy Pens Bracket Breakdown Winner

Myke Hurley: Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner of the Lamy Pens Bracket Breakdown. Would you like to share the information?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think most of our listeners are like, finally, we can stop talking about this. But I find it interesting. I find it interesting. So it's like, I wanted to see who won, even though I think we both realized who was going to win and it's the Lamy 2000 over the Lamy Safari.

Myke Hurley: I'm happy. I didn't think this was going to be the result, did I? Remember?

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah, I think you did think the Safari, like more, we decided that you thought more people, the numbers of the Safari would take over, would outweigh the 2000.

Myke Hurley: I thought the 2000 should win. I didn't think it would.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. The only thing I wanted Lamy to do was to give us some numbers, but they just kind of did just like an Instagram comment count, which seems like super annoying. So I, last week, went behind them and put it to the listeners of the show, Myke. So I was curious how the listeners would vote on this if they weren't following on Instagram, Lamy's feed on Instagram. How would they vote? So I just did a little Google form said, pick one, Lamy 2000 or Lamy Safari. Lamy 2001 at a rate of 55% of the votes to about 45% of the votes for Lamy Safari. I think that's pretty accurate, right? Like if you could draw it up, would you, maybe you have reversed it for the Safari. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: Well, the way that our audience voted is what I could have, like what I would have voted, right? Or like what, sorry, what I would have expected them to vote at our audience. And I would have expected it maybe to be flipped for the general sailor audience.

Brad Dowdy: But, okay. Just to begin with. But you can see, I have a little diagram of the listener vote here. If you want to see that in the show notes, we'll put a link. But I mean, it's 55-45 for the 2000. That brings us to listener follow-up, which we will have a lot of this show. And I like how we've kind of mixed in this. You want to tell, read here what Aaron has to say, because boy, do I have a lot of comments on it.

Myke Hurley: Well, so I thought this would be particularly interesting to ask this question now, considering that Lamy Pens has a new favorite pen. Aaron asks, when will we be able to buy a Lamy 2000 with orange macrolon and a black DLC furniture and nib?

Brad Dowdy: I would pay $500 for that tomorrow. Yes. It's not going to happen.

Myke Hurley: Well.

Brad Dowdy: Like Lamy will have to change their philosophy on pen design for that to happen. That is not their style. In the 2000. In the 2000.

Myke Hurley: Right. Here's what I was asked, right? If Lamy Pens USA did this poll, right? It's not like a small account. It's not like an unimportant account. It's a legit account. It's the at Lamy Pens account. It's like as big as it could be, I suppose, like from a decision-making perspective. If you find this information out, that your audience loves the 2000, could it not be a piece of intel to pass back and be like, hey, people really love this pen? Or I guess they already know how many they sell, so.

Brad Dowdy: Correct. This is not new information. Yeah. This is not new information. Do you know how long people have been yelling for the 2000 since they did the Johnny Ive Project Red one, right? That was a holy cow. They did it. Now, they did it like for an auction. It was a very like special case type of situation. But they did a red macular macular on with silver trim. And it was like, holy cow, they can do it, right? They did it, right? So then years pass. And then all of a sudden, they dropped the navy blue one with the silver trim. And I was like, hey, that's okay, cool. You did it. It doesn't look much different than the regular one. It's also $500. And it seems like that's cool. But is it different enough? And then they did the, what did they call it? Black amber? Another dark, you know, macular on barrel. They haven't come out with like the real crossover macular on color yet, right? Which to me is the bright, like bring back the red, which they won't do, which is fine. But you know, I'm talking like purples or bright blue, like something that yellow macular on Lamy 2000 would be absolutely nuts, right? And I feel like if they can do red, they should be able to do yellow. But for them to actually do say orange and come out with a black clip and a black nib, I think that's like two steps beyond Lamy's comfort zone, right? I think like they do black nibs for some of the studio pens and the safaris, like they do black nibs. And they do black clips on a lot of these things. I think their idea of the Lamy 2000, they would have to rethink, they would have to say, we're going to modernize this classic and do something like really like almost like an EDC type pen, which that doesn't seem like in the philosophy of the organization of Lamy. Am I making any sense? That's like why I'm thinking like, this would be my number one thing to make. And I don't think they would do it. It would be orange with silver trim and silver plated gold nibs, right?

Myke Hurley: I want to believe, but I believe that you are correct. Like that they're not going to do anything particular with it. They're not going to do anything magically special with it. Like it's just going to be what it's going to be. Right. So you put a link in the show notes. Yeah. That red Lamy was from 2013.

Brad Dowdy: Wow.

Myke Hurley: It's 10 years ago.

Myke Hurley: That's wild.

Sotheby’s Auction and Johnny Ive’s Pen Set

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So you found the link. There was a Sotheby's auction of, they did a full set, which I didn't realize. So they have the fountain pen, the roller ball, the ballpoint and the pencil. They did a full set of this. It's glorious, right? Like it's amazing. Like I love looking at this. So make sure to put that in the show notes. It has a new owner. Like I, yeah. Yeah. So this is like a one-off deal, right?

Myke Hurley: No, this Sotheby's lot that I've found, it looks like someone is reselling the original set.

Brad Dowdy: Right. That's my point is Johnny Ive did one set as like a fundraising type situation. Now this set has changed hands, allegedly, based on what we're reading here. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So interesting.

Brad Dowdy: So that's when we're like, okay, Lamy can do it. Like they did it. Like I get that they did it like a one-off, but now they did some, you know, the blue and the black amber, which like are totally good. Like they're, they're fine, but it's like, I want this. Right. I like, why can't I have this Lamy? That's what I, what I say. I go to bed at night, Myke thinking like my last thing before I go to bed is like, why can't I have all the fun things Lamy? That's literally my life. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I would just, I would go with Aaron's question. Just give me orange Macrelon. Like there, I fully believe they will not do black DLC coded furniture and nips in the 2000. It's that is anti 2000, right? Is it is antithetical. Is that the right word to what the Lamy 2000 is? I believe what they think the Lamy 2000 is.

Myke Hurley: Is it an?

Brad Dowdy: There's a, there's a word there.

Myke Hurley: Antithetical. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Antithetical. Something like that. Sure. Anthracite. Sure.

Brad Dowdy: That's different.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: That's different. Anyway. So like I've, I've, I've, I've banged this drum for a long time. And, and we should have a lot of commentary on these types of things in this show today on things I banged the drum for. And I would love to see it. I just don't have my hopes up. So, you know, it's fun. It's really hard to see these red ones though. And go just like, yeah, that was great. One time you should stop now.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like, oh, let's, let's stop now. It's like, no, let's, let's, let's, let's lean into this a little bit and, and charge me for it. So anyway, good stuff. I'm glad we pulled up that link. I can't believe that's been 10 years.

Listener Feedback and Apple Boom Podcast

Myke Hurley: That's hilarious to me. An anonymous listener sent in via our feedback form at penaddictfeedback.com the link for the Apple Boom podcast in audio version. That's great. They seem to produce and upload themselves. It was just not linked on the video, but if you want the Apple Boom podcast as audio, you can get it. I'll put the link in the show notes if you want it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And this is for the, the Apple Boom bites show, the main interview show, which I think is super fun because I will listen to it in podcast audio form more than I will listen to it on YouTube.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And Joe wrote in to say, I ordered some brass cartridge plugs. Not good. They stretched the opening rendering the cartridge unusable. Good in theory don't work in practice. What I will probably add to this is I imagine it could work under very certain circumstances and very particular tolerances.

Brad Dowdy: Right? That's my exact response. There's a tolerance question on both sides of the ledger. Mm-hmm. Right? Because cartridges aren't perfect and don't always match between manufacturers despite fitting, having the same fittings. That's, you know, challenge one. Challenge two is the brass cartridge. What, you know, what is it built to? Is it going to fit that exact same tolerance? Yeah. Is it going to be tight? Is it going to be loose if it's too tight? Does it end up stretching the cartridge and the cartridge leaks when you put it on to the pin? So I get that. Like, I get that. So it's better to eventually, even if you don't have these brass cartridge plugs, if you were refilling cartridges, which a lot of people do, you eventually loosen that seal just by using it over and over and over again. It's just bound to happen. So people who do that, they'll use a cartridge. Maybe it's 10 times, right? Whatever that number is. And then they'll have to throw out that cartridge because it's gotten too loose and it's more prone to leaking. So yeah, I get that with the brass cartridge plugs. I would rather have like the hot glue wax seal type of situation if I was going to do the portable stuff because I would still be worried about knocking these brass plugs out, right? Like, I just, I would not be as comfortable with that, just kind of banging around. So again, I'm never going to do any of this. I'm just going to use, you know, take extra cartridges with me and not refill it. But I still think it's a good exercise. It's a good experiment if you wanted to do that and refill your cartridges, but have refills handy at the same time. What do you do? So I still think I'm leaning towards something different besides the plugs. Just my comfort, my comfort level.

Myke Hurley: If you do want to use the brass plugs or any kind of cartridge plug, I have the perfect pen for you. What? Twisby swipe.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because the spring will keep the cartridge in place.

Brad Dowdy: It's going to force it in there.

Myke Hurley: We finally found a use for it.

Brad Dowdy: That's what the spring's for. Man, who knew it was such a long, this is a long con by Twisby. Long con, baby, by Twisby. They know what they're doing over there. Man, maybe whoever asked that first question was just a Twisby plant and they were just waiting for us to get to it and they're like, yes, my plan has come together. Buy a Twisby swipe because it forces the cartridge down onto the back of the feed and it'll never leak.

Myke Hurley: The show has been infiltrated by the Twisby marketing complex.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, at least it's not like a shoulder strap duck inkwell or whatever that was that time.

Myke Hurley: What?

Brad Dowdy: Wait. You don't remember this when we got got that time? You don't remember when we got got that one time with a way outlier question that we took seriously till we realized we were being had? I forget exactly what it was. But it was like a shoulder mounted inkwell. Yeah, this is like 300 episodes ago. Someone will find this and send this to you.

Myke Hurley: No, I remember someone wanted to put an inkwell on their shoulder. I don't even remember why we tried to talk through some of the logistics. And it was like, and they're like, haha, I got you. It's like, I still don't. I still don't understand. Like, there's not a joke. You know?

Brad Dowdy: Like. I think it was a person who like did that on the regular to like people. Like it was like a prankster type of situation. Yeah. It wasn't like a listener going, hey, let me try to get them. It was, I think it was almost more outsider-ish.

Myke Hurley: But there's still, I don't get it. You know? I just think I'm thinking.

Brad Dowdy: This is what happens when you do a podcast about pens for like 11 years, right? Yeah. Like you bring up things that you don't even remember happened. I just have a vague memory of it.

Myke Hurley: It's kind of fun.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. Yep. It was funny.

Myke Hurley: Let's shift gears and talk about something more exciting than a shoulder inkwell. I'm pretty excited right now.

Enigma Stationery and Product Features

Myke Hurley: This episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Enigma Stationery. I'm very happy to have Enigma Stationery back as a sponsor of the show. They are a family-owned and operated business that offers unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands, including products from The Traveler's Company, Field Notes, and many more. They have an exclusive new pen release this week that we're going to talk about on the show. It is the Studio Neat Mark I Enigma Edition. This is a unique shimmering teal colorway for the iconic Mark I rollerball pen. Every pen features the classic all-metal retractable design that these pens are known for, with a three-step finish, which is new for this model, that ensures durability for the brilliant teal sparkle. The black PVD-coated knock complements the teal barrel and, of course, provides the signature click that the Mark I is known for. This edition includes 100 pieces. While Enigma Stationery would love to make more, nothing is currently planned, so if you want one, get one while you still can. Now, one of these is flying across the Atlantic to me right now, so I have not seen it in person, but I've seen many images. Now, Brad, I believe you have not seen images, but yet you have one right in front of you. Is that correct?

Brad Dowdy: Well, you're making me cackle with the description. So, based on my vacation and our document writing, I didn't know Enigma Stationery was a sponsor until today, when I opened up the show doc this morning, you put them in. So, I was like, oh, that's funny. I have an envelope from Enigma Stationery that I received over my vacation, and I tend to wait to open things, right? I'll just do unboxings or whatever. Like, I don't, like, rip right into my mail when I get stuff. So, thankfully, I didn't run into this one. I was like, oh, well, let me open this, and there's my packaging right there. I was like, Myke, do you just want me to wait and, like, surprise open this for the ad read? And it was a problem that you were giving me the description. I couldn't, I don't know if you heard me, like, giggling while we were doing it. I was like, oh, my God. I cannot wait to open this up now. So, like, number one, I like Studio Neat's little Mark 1 packaging. So, we're going to talk about that later. And an unrelated thing that I added to the show note before I knew what I was getting into here. So, let me open this up real quick.

Myke Hurley: I will say while Brad's doing that, there are just 100 of these available. So, if you want one, go to enigmastationary.com slash penaddict, and you can use the code penaddict to check out as a listener of this show. And you will receive free shipping on orders of over $40 or more, along with a free gift. Now, what do you think of it there, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: Have they done a black knock before? I think maybe, well, the Apollo one was kind of that silvery.

Myke Hurley: The black PVD knock that you're looking at was created originally for the Cortex Mark 1. But, you know, I'm just saying.

Brad Dowdy: It is.

Myke Hurley: So, here. So, I will say I love the black knock.

Brad Dowdy: It's my favorite color of the knocks that they do. Yeah. And I don't own the Cortex one. So, that's why I hadn't seen it before. So, what this is, if you want me to describe this to you, the color, this is Lamy Petrol All-Star with shine on it. Like, it's a dark teal Lamy Petrol color, but cooler because it's got, like, the sparkle is very subtle, right? You have to see it in the light. Like, if I had it laying on my desk, you would think it's a teal pen with a black knock, and it looks great, right? Then, up close, you can see it's just loaded, loaded with sparkle. This is fantastic, and this is going to sell out, like, immediately. I would guess you probably need to go over to Enigma Stationery. Like, ASAP. This is really, like, top tier. Top tier Mark 1 action here. This is what Lamy should be doing, Myke. Like, they should lean in. Like, Mark 1 made a classic pen, and guess what? Now, they're doing fun stuff with their classic pen, and that's what you get here with this Enigma Stationery model. It's fantastic.

Myke Hurley: So, what we're saying is we want the Enigma Stationery Lamy 2000. That's what we're looking for. Yeah, there we go. That's what we're trying to look for.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Dan, I'm going to need you to work on that. Yeah, if you could just go and do that. Dan needs to lean.

Myke Hurley: Because you clearly got it all settled. Like, you know how to do it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this color is so good. This color is, like, right on the money. I like the feel of it. I guess I'm used to the ceramic coated ones. I don't guess that I have one in this type of coating. And I just can't put it down. It feels really good. So, yeah, I'll be using the heck out of this. Wonderful.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's really a beautiful addition. And it's just worth going to look at. I will tell you right now, I know just by looking at the images of this, this is just, like, one of those pens that's really hard for you to photograph. Right? Like, as of all of the good shimmery stuff. But this is just a top-notch, beautiful Mark I. And I cannot wait for mine to arrive. It will go into my wonderful collection. So, go to enigmastationary.com slash penaddict to secure your Enigma edition of the Studio Neat Mark I. And use the code penaddict to check out to receive free shipping on all orders over $40 plus a free gift. A thanks to Enigma Stationery for the support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Great job by both of them. So, here's the funny thing that Myke enjoys. And our listeners will not believe me when I say this. But I think my reputation is pretty intact. I put in the shout-out of the week before I knew what our sponsor was. My shout-out of the week was for Studio Neat. For something different, it's because I got my Mark III pencil in. Right? So, I gave my shout-out to the week to our friends Tom and Dan over at Studio Neat. Who make awesome stuff. They're good friends of both mine and Myke. And, you know, it's cool to be able to shout-out some makers in our shout-outs of the week as well. It just so happened that we kind of got a twofer here accidentally. Because I just opened my Mark III right before the show as well. Because, again, I like to hold these things and be surprised and kind of give my first impressions. So, the reason why I like the Mark III is it's mechanical pencil. Right? So, they launched this on Kickstarter.

Brad Dowdy: And it complements the Mark I perfectly. That's why I like it. But they did what I believe is the correct design decision is they narrowed the barrel. Right? So, the barrel itself for the mechanical pencil is slightly narrower than the barrel for the standard Mark I model. Which uses the 0.7 Schmidt rollerball refill that I enjoy. And the Mark III uses the 0.7 millimeter lead core for the mechanical pencil. So, they just kind of shrunk it down a little bit, like, in diameter-wise. Which I think is necessary for mechanical pencils. At least for me. Like, when I'm making decisions about the products that I like and want to use. Like, I have certain kind of unwritten rules. You know, the finer the tip, the narrower I want the barrel to be. That's why I can't use. That's why I'm not a huge fan of very large fountain pens with an extra fine nib. Right? That just is a disconnect for the way that I write. So, I need a mechanical pencil to not be overly wide. So, I was glad to see that the diameter of the Mark III. And I've just started using it today. I'm using it for my show notes as we speak. And it's great. Like, this also, I believe, they sell a 0.5 replacement mechanism for it. This pencil is made for 0.7. Right? It's just the exact theory that I just said a second ago. Yeah. Like, I understand that some people are, like, very fixed on 0.5. That's my... 0.5 is my favorite. But I use it in the more engineering-style, narrow-grip-section pencils. If I want to use 0.7, I'm good with having a little bit wider barrel like this. So, like, I have the Uni Kuretoga Dive. Right? And we've talked about this before. It's a very big, very wide pencil. And it's a 0.5 tip. And it's not a great writer because the grip section is too wide for that fine of a lead size. That's what I think the Mark III gets right. So, like, my recommendation for the Mark III is to keep the 0.7 mechanism in it, even though you can switch it out to 0.5. It just feels really great. I'm really enjoying it so far. So, I got the white Cerakote with the copper-colored Noc, which matches my original Mark I from the original Kickstarter. So, that's my shout-out of the week for Studio Neat. They're always doing cool stuff. I know you partner with them a lot.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Including a podcast called Thoroughly Considered on our very own RelayFM network.

Myke Hurley: Yep. We talk about product design and all that kind of stuff. I'm still waiting on my Mark III. I got the white and silver, which I don't think that that one has shipped out yet.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Your opinion on that is, like, more interesting than my opinion on that. Like, I know I'm going to like it. But I know you're not straight up, like, a mechanical pencil guy like I am. Right? But I think, like, for what this is, I think you actually might use it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, I use my rotary and I use my spoke. Like, I use them. Right. But not, like, a ton. But I do use them. I will say I've used them more in the last year or so. Like, I've found a new use of mechanical pencils in product designing. Like, in sketching things out. You know, like, grabbing a ruler. I think I updated you. Remember I was looking for a ruler forever?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, Kathy Campbell bought me a 30-centimeter brass ruler for Christmas. It was either for Christmas or my birthday. Okay. So, like, Kathy, obviously, as, you know, such an organized individual, found the thing, got me, like, a nice 30-centimeter brass ruler. It's exactly what I was looking for. And I use it all the time. So, Kathy did the thing.

Brad Dowdy: I think a listener, we had a listener a long time ago send me a couple. Yeah. I thought I'd maybe send it in one of your packages to you, but maybe not. It might still be sitting in the shipping department.

Myke Hurley: Brad, knowing you, you still have it. I will eventually get it.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I think you would know because, yeah. But you still have it. Exactly. So, I have two brass rulers from a listener. Thank you. Wonderful.

Myke Hurley: I look forward to having three brass rulers maybe next year.

Brad Dowdy: So, last thing related to mechanical pencils. So, I'm sitting here at my desk and I have, like, pen cups and pen holders. I'm not counting those, but, like, literally, like, to my right hand, just laying on the desk of the products I've used recently, counting the Mark III. I have one, two, three, four mechanical pencils. One rollerball, now that I've opened the Mark I Enigma model. I have the spoke roadie, which is a ballpoint, and two fountain pens. So, my point being is I love mechanical pencils. I have four different models laying here because I like picking them up for different reasons. So, you know, one Mark I, one spoke, and two pentel various models. So, yeah. I'm a huge mechanical pencil guy, and Dan and Tom did a great job with this. So, shout out Studio Neat.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke. I am going to go back on something I said very recently. I think within the past two months, I took the stance where I'm just going to let Sailor go for it and make all the things and make all the money and make all the pens. And ever since I said that, the release cadence of Sailor pens has exploded even more than I expected. So, now I am going to go the opposite direction, and I am going to put a podcast moratorium on new Sailor pen releases for the remainder of 2023.

Myke Hurley: You know what, Brad? What? I am 100% on board with this.

Brad Dowdy: It's non-stop. So, and it's not, what gets me is it's not just single releases. So, I have a link in the show notes. They have a new, like, Equinox, what are they calling this? Slim Solar Terms series. So, this is a four-pin series. Again, they can't just make one pen at a time. This is another four-pin set for the spring and autumn Equinox and the summer and winter solstice, right? It's like, it's non-stop. I mean, they're beautiful pens. Like, I have nothing wrong with Sailor as a product, right? You look at these pens, you go, man, that's beautiful. It's four more. How do retailers afford this inventory is what I want to know. Sailor, like I said the first time I brought this up, Sailor must be making money hand over fist to release this many pens, right? They must be selling this because it is non-stop. It's every week I'm talking about this, and it's not just one pen. Like, sometimes it's just one pen, but it's usually three pens, four pens, six pens in a series every week. Like, moratorium. Moratorium the rest of the year. Here's what I would like to suggest. We're done.

Myke Hurley: Just as an addendum to the moratorium. I'm done. You can choose whichever one you want. We either don't talk about them all, or you get one a month.

Brad Dowdy: No, one a month is too many. All right. Like, one a month is normal. Like, one a month is normal. I need...

Myke Hurley: Every week we can do it.

Brad Dowdy: Like, well, I know. I know we could. But like, you know, like other brands, like we're going to talk about this, like as related to like my palette Decimo. We're going to talk about that as it relates to like some of the conversation, not to be hypocritical, right? But like, this is too much, man. I really tried to like handle this in a better way. It's like, I'm just going to lean in. We're going to talk about every single one of them. And I didn't think it would be this nuts as far as releases go. It is completely out of hand. Like, I overbooked my brain on Sailor, right? It's just the problem is, though... I'm overbooked. They're the best.

Myke Hurley: They're so good. Like, to use. Yeah. Like, that's why. Right. I'm such a fan of Sailor Pro Gear. That's which is why I agree with you on the moratorium. But it also makes me feel uncomfortable at the same time because I love them so much. But I do feel like from a content perspective doing the show, I'm not sure... I'm not sure if it's worth talking about them so much as we do.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I didn't think I would be this exasperated this quickly. Even though like I came out of exasperation last year, I was like, okay, I'm fine to start talking about these again because between like all the price increases, which are fine. Like, I don't know. That's, you know, you got to do what you got to do. And the releases, like I was burnt out at the end of last year and I was like, okay, they're just... It's not going to stop. So, I'm just going to lean into it and like I've just... I've overdone it. So, moratorium for 2023 on new sailors. We'll see if I can... We'll see if I rescind this at some point or have any exceptions. But I feel like a moratorium is an order after what we've seen in the last couple of months from their release schedule. How do retailers afford this? Like, I don't get it. I don't know. I don't know. That's why I'm not in retail because it hurts. It hurts my brain. It hurts my wallet. It hurts the bank account. Like, I'm just so confused.

Brad Dowdy: So, I wanted to relate this to the Pilot Decimo, which we talked about last week from my Atlanta Pen Show haul. We talked about I finally got my Decimo. And I'm sitting there in that review clamoring for more Decimos, right? So, can I say I want more Decimos and less sailor releases? And I think that's fair to say. Just like I want more... I want a colorful Lamy 2000 while I want less sailors, right? Those two things can coexist. So, the Decimo I bought was part of 20 Decimos that they released in 2020. Like, it was a big release for Pilot in Japan only. And, you know, that was kind of an outlier for Pilot, right? To do that. Where the difference with sailor is it's the norm, right? They could release 20 pens this month and 20 pens next month and 20 pens the month after that. It's like, oh my gosh, that's a lot of pens. Where Pilot did this was an outlier. And I'm asking this for what I'm asking out of Pilot is I would like to see a little bit more Decimo love outside of Japan is, you know, what I'm asking for in the review of the Decimo. So, I talked about the Decimo. Do I like it better than the Vanishing Point? It's hard to say. I mean, I love them both. I'm, you know, I'm trying to let the new shine, the new shiny new toy, you know, off the Decimo and just keep using it and keep seeing what I think about it and see if I actually have a preference over the narrower Decimo barrel versus the Vanishing Point. Like, I think they're both going to be pretty equivalent and pretty good. The issue was we kind of only had Vanishing Point choice over here. I would like some more Decimo choice was the extent of my review, if you even want to call it that. It was more, I called it a stump speech. I was trying, I want more Decimo options outside of Japan, like in our market. But I get that one of the things I always say refers to Lamy, refers to Sailor. Like, I can, it refers to Pilot, like I can talk about all this stuff and say what I want. I will always defer to the brands they know better than me, right? I can still say, like, what I want, what my dream pin would be, what my dream scenario would be. They still know better than I do. I'm just a guy that talks about pins on the internet, right? So, like, they know. They have the numbers. They have, you know, they have the ideas on that. But I can still hope and wish that we get a little bit broader release for something like the Decimo limited edition. Why can't we have one Decimo limited edition a year outside of Japan? I feel like that's fair, right? Asking Lamy for an orange and black PVD-coated clip, Lamy 2000. That's unfair, right? Asking Pilot for a singular limited edition Decimo outside of Japan every year. I think that's fair. I think that's a fair ask. I think it's reasonable. So, anyway, that's my follow-up to the incoming. Well, you just said Pilot did 20 Decimos in 2020. It's like, yeah, I know. But they don't have a history of doing this every year or every month. So, there we go, Myke.

Brad Dowdy: That's how I'm feeling about all this stuff right now. So, it's good stuff. Like, I feel overall, and this next link is something that I normally wouldn't put in the show because it's just like a singular pin. And I don't always just do every singular pin review or every, like, new release news. But I think we're in an interesting place where we're getting a lot more customization and a lot more interesting, highly specific releases. And I'm talking about the Benu Alluring Anime Pin. Like, my jaw dropped when I saw this. Not that my jaw dropped for wanting it, but that it exists in the first place. That they made a choice to design this pin. And I think it came out amazing, despite it, like, it's not for me whatsoever, right? But I think this is more interesting than our 101st sailor release of the year. Am I wrong? Or I don't know. I don't know what you think about this.

Myke Hurley: It is a very interesting design. I think it's super cool that it's painted. So, the context for me here, while I'm, like, struggling on this one so much, is the keyboard hobby. In keyboards, people put anime girls. So, this is a Benu pen, which is pink and blue with tons of sparkles, as they do. And it's beautiful in the way that they put their designs together. And it's a limited edition with a hand-painted female anime character. Right? Mm-hmm. That's fair to say, right? Did I reference this? Yeah. Mm-hmm. In the keyboard hobby. Yeah, like Warrior Woman. Great. In the keyboard hobby, people put anime girls and everything. And so, I'm a little burnt out of anime girl appearing in, like, on products as a way to sell products. Yeah. But if this is your thing, fantastic. You now have a pen for that, right? Which is great. But, like, I'm just, like, a little, like, I feel like I see through the anime girl too often, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, here's what I think. So, I think it's, like, I'm not even looking at it from an anime girl perspective. I brought this one up because it's very much an outlier for our industry, generally speaking. But it's more representative of Bennu doing, about every month, doing some hand-painted release, right? Right. Anime girl or not, right? They've done, since, like, the end of last year, they've kind of almost had, like, a monthly hand-painted release. And they've all been exceptional. And I actually think they're getting better and better as they get more experience doing this and whoever their artist is. Doing this. I think they're getting higher quality and higher quality every time. So, I think it's more of a... Very detailed. General sense. Yeah. Yes. This one. Yeah. So, and this is a follow-up. Like, they did a fish one not long ago. They did one for the holidays back in December with, like, you know, like a reindeer and antlers. Like, they're all very beautiful. And, like, just to prove the point that I wasn't necessarily bringing it up for the anime aspect of it, that I love these Kaweco Sports that Rose Studio does. They were at the DC Pen Show last year. They're pretty quiet on Instagram right now. But they're out of Turkey. They traveled over with Galen Pens seeing these hand-painted Kaweco Sports, right? Like, someone's taken the stock Kaweco Sport and added art to it, right? And I think Bennu's kind of doing the same thing, even though it's all singularly in-house, right? Kaweco's not painting these that I'm going to put a link in the show notes to. But it's the same concept. And it's the same idea. And it's these are the things, the creativity I like to see. As opposed to... I love seeing the new sailors, and I think they're beautiful, right? But, like, I'm good. Like, I thought I was better with them, but I guess I'm not. But I love seeing the hand-painted. I love seeing artistry, right? I love seeing creativity. And that's what this little topic brings to mind is, like, I want to see more of this type of stuff. You know, regardless of the anime part. I don't care about that. But just the idea of making very specific, very artistic style pens. Like, I'm very much behind. So, yeah, I think it's cool.

Myke Hurley: All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Squarespace. Squarespace really is the all-in-one platform for helping you build your brand and grow your business online. You're able to stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell anything. Your products, services, even the content that you create, because Squarespace has got you covered. With Squarespace, it's super easy to get started. You just go and sign up for a trial. Go to squarespace.com slash penaddict. You can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required. And you get started by choosing from one of their beautiful templates. They are award-winning, best-in-class website templates that you're able to customize to fit your needs. It is as easy as browsing the category of your business or site that you want to make to find a perfect starting place. And you can customize it with just a few clicks. And they give you all of the tools to make any website that you want. You can set up a site for a restaurant, if that's what you have. Maybe a band, you know, like whatever. Maybe you have a business. Maybe you have a photography business and you want portfolios. They have all of these templates to really help you get started. If you want to have a blog, Squarespace has powerful blogging tools for you to share your stories, photos, videos, and updates, which you can categorize, share, and schedule your posts to make your content work for you. And if down in the future, you know, like me and Brad have, you want to set up an online store, it's very easy to do that. Whether you sell physical or digital goods, Squarespace has all of the tools that you need to start selling products online. And you can measure how everything is going with their insights tools to see where your site visitors are coming from, where your sales visitors are coming from, which channels are most effective for you. This is all possible within Squarespace. So go to squarespace.com slash penaddict and sign up for that free trial. And then use the offer code penaddict when you're ready to launch a website. And you will save 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 to get 10% of your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for the support of this show and all of RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: One quick thing on the Squarespace, like the commerce and marketing side of things. One thing they've integrated, which I don't use because I don't have the need for it, is they have the integrated email list with it now, which I always thought was something I would totally use if my shop was set up to be that type of shop where I needed to communicate with our customers pretty frequently. And that's all in-house now. I think that's kind of a cool addition. So there's always stuff like that going on.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's really helpful.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep, yep. All right, let's hit some Ask TPA. First off, Myke, where can people send us feedback? Because the feedback is booming right now.

Myke Hurley: Booming. We're in a boom economy for feedback. If you want to send in a question for the show or you want to send us in some follow-up, just head over to penaddictfeedback.com and you can submit it there. We have gotten loads of questions recently. I brought a lot of them into the document, so we're slowly getting through them all. But if you have a question for us to answer on the show, go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can leave it for us there.

Brad Dowdy: Keep those questions coming because we're going to have some opportunity for some full Ask TPA episodes in the future with our recording schedule over the next few months. So if we don't get to your question quickly, it's coming soon. We have a lot to work through, but don't hesitate to keep them coming.

Myke Hurley: Our first question today comes from Josh. I think Josh wrote in recently about Pilot Metropolitan and we gave them some advice. And Josh says, I've recently switched to a Pilot Con 40 converter with no more problems. They were having the converter issues. Was it the Con 20 they were using?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they have a squeeze converter. Yeah, it's a squeeze converter in the stock metropolitan, which is very, very weak.

Myke Hurley: No good at all. Josh says, I have one more question for you, though. How am I meant to refill my pen without getting ink all over my hands? Or should I just resign myself to being sure I never have to re-ink in or near public people?

Brad Dowdy: You should resign yourself to getting ink on your hands. It's almost impossible to get none. It's as simple as that.

Myke Hurley: You know? Right. Like, you'll get better over time.

Brad Dowdy: Like, you can get not... Yeah, you can get not too much on there, but you're probably going to get some on your hands, right? Yep. So, where I tend to get the ink in my hands... So, don't hesitate to dip the nib pretty far down into the ink bottle, but you want to have a paper towel to wipe off the section when you pull it back out. And since it's usually, like, a two-handed operation, like, one, to twist the converter, and two, to actually hold the nib. Like, you don't want to set the nib in the bottom of the ink bottle. You don't want the tip of the nib hitting the bottom of your ink bottle, right? Like, it could bend it, like, if you put pressure on it or something like that. Probably not your steel nibs, but regardless.

Brad Dowdy: But I usually get, like, if I'm right-handed or I'm spinning the converter, the end of the converter with my right hand, my left hand is right above the ring opening of the bottle. And that's where I will get ink on my hands, just from kind of sitting my fingers touching the top of the bottle. But when I bring the converter and the nib unit out, that goes straight into a paper towel. So I'm wiping that off before I get my hands fully inky on there, right? So I'm going to get a little bit inky on my hands, almost certainly. But I'm not getting too much because I'm now going to remove the nib from the ink bottle and kind of wipe it off with a wet paper towel. And then that's about as good as you're going to get, I think. So it's, unless you're using just exclusively cartridges, you're going to get some ink on your hands from time to time.

Planning a Stationery-Focused Trip to Tokyo

Myke Hurley: Michael asks, I'm planning a summer trip to Tokyo, and of course, setting aside time from the family for stationery. I'm planning on a Ginza Itoya and Kakamori visit. I am interested in what you think I should be looking for, particularly fountain pens and notebooks that might not be easily obtainable in the United States. I guess Decimo to start, right?

Brad Dowdy: Well, I'm going to get even more specific than that. And this is generally the answer for someone who's not made this trip, but has gotten this advice from other people. And this is the advice I pass on. So related to like the Decimo that we were talking about, it's not just Pilots Japan only releases. It's their store exclusive releases. So what you should do, Michael, is have an idea of products you like. Say if you're a Platinum 3776 fan or a Sailor fan or a Pilot fan or any fan of those Japanese brands, figure out which models you like. And when you're going into stores, you should see what shop exclusives they have. And it's not limited to the Japanese brands, right? You're going to find Lamy exclusives there. You're going to find Kaweco exclusives there. You're going to find our friend Ian Schoen is going to have some of his Schoen designs at some of these shops that are going to be exclusive for those shops. On top of that, you're going to find store exclusive inks. You're going to find store exclusive notebooks, usually maybe not from a paper perspective, but from a cover design perspective, right? Like they might have a special notebook for the shop with interesting artwork or special stamping, you know, where the paper might be the same. So my advice is to look for those store exclusives from brands you already know and love, right? Like if I'm a big Kaweco sport fan and I see something very interesting at Atoya and they have an interesting color, like I would pick that up, right? Even if I already have 10 Kaweco sports, well, I'm going to get the Atoya store exclusives. Things like that is what you want to look for. And that tracks all the way down to like your gel pens and your ballpoints too, right? Like, so don't think it's like fountain pen exclusive, even though that may be what you're looking for. It's going to kind of traverse all the brands and all the styles of pens from the big shops like Atoya down to the very smaller shops. They're going to have a few things as well. So I think you'll be fine almost just kind of winging it as long as you have an idea of what you already like. And then you can expand on that at each individual shop, I think.

Myke Hurley: I would say, you know, having never done it either, I guess the thing that I would probably look out for is like not even just the big ticket items, but there's so much interesting Japanese stationery that's like little things that don't exist outside of Japan very easily. At least as well, not for the prices that you would get there, right? So like little accessories, washi tape stickers, paper clips, like all that fun little stuff. I would look at that too.

Brad Dowdy: That's a fact. I would be loaded up with accessories as much as anything when I go. Like it'll just be like packed, like accessory type stuff, small stuff.

Myke Hurley: Yep, that's what I expect. Little fun trinkets, cases, all that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Andrea asks, what are your thoughts on nibs being laser engraved versus stamped? I see no issue with paying a steel pen above $200, but at that price point, I'm starting to expect mid-tier brands to have stamped nibs like Esterbrook, Franklin Kristoff, Edison, etc. Diploment and Nell Leonardo are doing it, and it makes a big difference in my mind. I fully understand that custom dyes can cost several thousands of dollars, and I would not expect pen makers to do that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I mean, so I have some experience with this. With spoke, we take the stock Yovo nibs and we get them laser engraved, right? So we'll get our logo laser etched on there. We would, like Andrea alludes to, we would never be able to afford custom dyes for stamping. We don't sell enough fountain pens to afford something like that. So that's certainly an idea. I guess, like, I think that is a totally fair expectation for people to have that they will say, if I'm going to pay X amount of money for X pen, I expect this from it. And whether it's a nib or not, maybe, you know, they expect, I don't know, a gold nib, right? Some people, like, if they were going to spend $300 or $400 on a pen, they expect a gold nib. And it's just, like, a personal preference thing. Like, I've never been stuck on gold versus steel nib, right? I am a very big fan of steel nibs, so, like, I think about it that way. I haven't really thought about whether I prefer, like, laser engraved versus stamped. To be perfectly honest, I've never noticed because it does, that's, like, not on my list of things, right? But for Andrea, that is on their list of things, right? That is their list. Like, my list says, hey, I prefer a stamped nib as opposed to a laser engraved or just an unengraved nib, period, right? And I think that's just, you know, different pen companies are going to do different things, and you just might have to narrow your focus into the companies that meet those criteria and know that some of the companies might not meet those criteria, right? So, like, I think that just all gets into our personal preferences. So, my thoughts, if you're asking for my thoughts, is it doesn't make any difference for me. Just the same as I'm one of those people that steel or gold nibs doesn't make any difference to me either, right? So, I'm maybe not. I'm more open to having, like, a cool pen design regardless of the nib material or the engraving stamping on the nib. But that might be an outlier type of thing. It's just, like, one of those things that's never totally registered for me. But I do get the fact that you might be saying, hey, these custom dyes, that these stampings are just cleaner, like, they look, like, better from the factory. And that's just, like, what some companies are going to do, and it's pretty cool that they can do that, like Leonardo and Diplomat. So, I think that's cool, but, like, not everyone's going to do that. So, maybe, you know, maybe you just have to shop with the companies that do offer that.

Myke Hurley: How does it work to have the stamping done? Do you have to, like, have it done by the nib manufacturer?

Brad Dowdy: I would say almost certainly you're paying that at the point. That's where the dye cost would come in. So, like, if I'm working, and I don't know this for a fact, but my assumption is, like, if I'm working with Yovo, and I'm just going to pretend I'm Leonardo, and I have a pretty big standing Yovo order. Or at some point, I'm ordering enough nibs from Yovo to say, hey, what are our options for custom dyes? And they'll say, hey, here's your option. And say it's $2,000 to get the Leonardo logo stamped. Like, that's kind of a no-brainer for them, right? And that would come from the manufacturer almost exclusively, right? You're going to work with the manufacturer, the source manufacturer for the nibs to get the stamping. Laser engraved are aftermarket. That's done secondhand, right? So that's a second step. You would buy a raw nib and then send it to a person or company to get that laser engraved, or do it yourself. The laser engravers, again, like, those aren't cheap, aren't a cheap investment, but it allows more flexibility, different designs on the laser, as opposed to a singular die.

Myke Hurley: And you can do more than just engraved nibs on a laser engraver.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Right. Yep. Like, we have a laser engraver for spoke that does our barrels, right? Yeah. So we can do barrel designs, but we don't have the right kind of laser to do the nibs, so we send those off, right? So there's different types of lasers that have to do different things. So, yeah, I think that's a great question. Like, it's just a personal preference thing, and there's no right or wrong answer.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. For me, I don't know if I particularly care between laser engraving or stamped. Like, I feel like, obviously, if something's stamped, I feel like you get maybe a little more intricacy. Like, or maybe people just do that more anyway. Maybe it's easier to cover the nib because of the curved surfaces and stuff. But I, either way, I like to have the brand on the nib because it feels like a nice touch. Like, if I'm buying a pen for a couple of hundred dollars and it just says Schmidt on it, it's like, this doesn't feel as complete a package than if you were to engrave that. You know what I mean? Or, like, even just the laser engraving. Like, you know, I know that when Jonathan Brooks added this, it was like, oh, this feels nice. Like, just as, like, a little extra thing. It doesn't change the pen in any way. But you feel like you're getting a fully considered product rather than, like, oh, we only went this far and just didn't bother about the rest. You know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. The thing I don't prefer, which is I'm glad why Yovo has kind of, like, the blank center nibs is I don't like the nib maker's brand. Like, you're saying Schmidt or Bach used to do this, where you would buy the pen and it would say Schmidt nib. I would rather just be a Schmidt nib but blank or a Bach nib but blank or a Yovo nib but blank. Like, I like all those better than having, like, you know, like a Bach on my Aboya pen or something like that. Yeah. Like, canaleas, like, are all blank Yovos, right? Which, that I like. Like, that I'm good with. I would rather it say that than have, like, Yovo on my nib. Like, I don't want that.

Myke Hurley: Which they're probably paying extra for, right?

Brad Dowdy: You would expect. No, no, that's the stock Yovo nib. Oh, okay. That's the stock Yovo nib. Oh, okay. Yovo has never put their name on it in recent memory that I can think of, but Bach and Schmidt do. Mm. To a degree.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I like it when there's a brand on them. Like.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I like it. Like an etching or a stamping.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. I think it's nice.

Brad Dowdy: Nice touch. And now we're starting to see, now we're starting to see a lot of handmade etching on nibs. That's starting to become a thing. So that's a whole different level.

Myke Hurley: Oh my.

Brad Dowdy: So maybe that's something Andrea could look into. I'm seeing some really neat, like, if you don't, if you get a steel nib pen, you can get some really intricate, like, almost like hand-carved nibs. Like, that's starting to happen now. So it's pretty cool. Like, I don't have any yet, but I'm seeing them, like, in Instagram and stuff like that. That's kind of the next frontier for the steel nibs and gold nibs.

Stationery Stores in New York and Amsterdam

Myke Hurley: Our final question today comes from Caleb, who says, I'm taking a couple of trips this summer. I'm going to be in both Amsterdam and New York. What are the can't-miss pen shops I need to see?

Brad Dowdy: So New York, you want to check out Fountain Pen Hospital and Yoseka Stationery. I don't think they're necessarily close to each other. So it depends on, like, if you're, like, in the city, like, what part of the city you're in. Those are kind of, like, my two main ones in there. Then you have some random stuff in New York. Like, we went to, Myke. We went to Kinokiniya and Goods for the Study. Like, you can run, those would be your, like, second tier ones. Not in, like, real ranking. Like, they're great stores. But I would start with Yoseka and Fountain Pen Hospital and then go into the bigger stores, like your Kinokiniya's, your Mooji's, right? Your Goods for the Stationery. That's, like, around, that's, like, second. That would be second tier on my list. And then in Amsterdam, I haven't looked at the list, but you're probably close. I don't, actually, I don't know any of the, all the, is Fontaplumo in Amsterdam? So, you have different stores between Appleboom, Fontaplumo, and P.W. Ackerman, but I don't know that any of them are actually physically in Amsterdam. They're, like, in The Hague, in Utrecht, in and around Amsterdam. Like, if Amsterdam's your hub, they might be, like, an hour train or something like that. I'd have to look at the map to see. And you've linked Tessa's All Things Stationery, Stationery Shops map, which would help out with that. So, I don't know directly if Fontaplumo might be in Amsterdam directly. I'll have to double check.

Brad Dowdy: But there's definitely, like, the Netherlands has, like, some, like, amazing stationary stores. I just don't know the Amsterdam access.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I put Tessa's map in for some things. But, yeah, it'd be cool if they, I don't know who's based in Amsterdam. You know better than me. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But New York. Well, those are the three main stores I know. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are the stores I know that are in the Netherlands, just not directly in Amsterdam. But I think, like, reasonably accessible, right? Like, it's much easier to travel in that part of Europe than, like, you know, going to, like, certain places in the U.S. So, like, a store might be an hour out of town, but it might be, like, a direct train type of situation, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Okay, I think that's it for this week. I said if you want to write in with a question of your own, it's very easy to do that. Just go to penaddictfeedback.com. You can send us an Ask TPA question. You can send in some follow-up if you've got any for us to talk about on a future episode of the show. Until next time, if you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com, penaddict on Instagram, penaddict at mastodon.social. You can also find Brad streaming three times a week over at twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can find me on Mastodon. I'm on mike.social as at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. And you can find my products, like the Theme System Journal and Psychic Notepad, over at cortexbrand.com. Thank you so much to Squarespace and Enigma Stationery for their support of this episode. But most of all, thank you for listening. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.