The Pen Addict 574/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	574
Title:	Smells Fuzzy
Release Date:	July 26th, 2023
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 574
Audio File:	Audio Episode 574
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 574
Length:	6767 min <br />1.117 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 574. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace, Pen Chalet, and Factor. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Unibrad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Brad Dowdy: I can't believe that was last week that I was there. I don't know, it feels like yesterday, but it also feels like months ago because we've been talking about it for a long time. But I did the thing, Myke. I went to Uniball, did my talk, and I have tales to tell. So I look forward to discussing that today.

Weekly Muji Polycarbonate Fountain Pen Report

Myke Hurley: But we got some stuff to cover first. We got our weekly Muji Polycarbonate Fountain Pen Report. Yes. Got Pen Addicts checking in from all over as always. Rob from Dublin. No. You know, Brad, I actually was out in the city the other week and I walked past a Muji store. Uh-huh. Like it was on the other side of the street. I was like on my way to an appointment and I was like, shall I go in there? And I did think to myself, I was like, I could do it for the meme, but I know it's not going to be in there. So it's kind of a waste of my time.

Brad Dowdy: No, that's, no, that would be, that's the, that's the information we need. That's the data point we need. So Muji will listen.

Myke Hurley: Some point in the next couple of weeks, I will, I will go into the Muji store because I'll be back in the city again.

Brad Dowdy: So they will restock the Muji in London because I'm just going to assume they not have it. They're not going to have it because that seems to be the majority of the issues. Um, except, uh, Daniel in Singapore did find them and they've had them in stock for quite a while now, just went down to the physical store and they're selling them, uh, Singapore, uh, dollar seven 90. So I don't know that translation, but it's all about five us, us dollars, uh, only one nib size O three, which I think is the norm. So I think again, Canada and Singapore were the two online sites that had them. So I'm not surprised that they have them in the physical locations. Now we have, uh, a spanner thrown in the mix. Myke Jeff from Shanghai with a field report from the Muji store. The Muji store here sells a version of the polycarbonate fountain pen, but it's not the preppy. The item name is PC fountain pen set name in Chinese spells out polycarbonate in full in case there's any doubt. So it's about an, it's about an $8 us dollar pen description on the back. There's a factory in a Shuzo. Uh, so it seems to be locally made and sourced Muji stamping on the nib, simple snap cap, standard international cartridge, pretty pleasant to write with. I don't recognize it at all. Maybe for this one Muji just did a collaboration with a local factory pictures attached. So I did include one picture. I've never seen this before. I didn't scour the Muji sites to see if I could see this. Like if you just Google like Muji fountain pen, like none of this, this one doesn't show up. It's usually the aluminum one. Um, this first thing to me, like the Muji gel pen. It does.

Myke Hurley: Right. It's the same design. Yeah. And like the, the kind of squared like clip.

Brad Dowdy: Mm hmm. Yeah. And I did have another picture I can put in the show notes later. I just put this one in for now, but it does have like a little Muji, just the MUJI stamped on the nib. Yeah. So this one's, this one, the price point is in between the platinum polycarbonate white barrel one, which is about $5. This one's about eight and the aluminum one's about 16, but I've never seen this one before. So this was a interesting, uh, spanner in the works as they say.

Myke Hurley: The mystery continues.

Brad Dowdy: Mm hmm. But I love, I love, I, I, I said this last week. I love that. This is a thing. This is one of my favorite things to, to, uh, to talk about, um, Muji worldwide.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I got a late breaking, uh, entry. Okay. From, uh, B who says, Muji Malaysia stocks it in store in almost all of their branches. Mm hmm. You will see it on their website as they use Shopee slash Lazado. It's similar to Taobao in China. Okay. It doesn't get much attention in store because it's placed to odd places with the rest of the stationery unless you ask or you know what you're looking for.

Brad Dowdy: Interesting. So it's kind of, uh, hidden away, but it exists. So what do we have? Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, and Australia. I've got another one. Uh oh.

Myke Hurley: These all came in today. That's wild. From Mort. India calling. Success. I scored a couple of the polycarbonate fountain pens from the online Muji store, which is operated by Ajio AJIO in India and had them delivered home in Mumbai. They are priced at 590 Indian rupee each.

Myke Hurley: So we're seeing a thing here. It seems like they're available from like the third party stores that they use.

Brad Dowdy: So like in the Asian market, it sounds like there's a third party routing of this product. Um, so that's India, Malaysia, Singapore, all seem to, to have that type of representation. And then the, the, the colonial countries, they're just in the store, you know, the Canada's and Australia's, uh, the colonies, I guess, uh, have them in store. That's a strange thing to just throw in there for sure. So I need you to, I need you to do this. I need you to solidify that and make the trifecta there with London. Um, probably to go to the true, the true colony store, right here in the UK. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Not very comfortable with this, but yeah, no, that was, that was like probably not the right thing. So my apologies.

2023 Limited Edition Vanishing Point Discussion

Brad Dowdy: Just tying them all together, Myke. Um, speaking of tying it all together, let's tie up this year's vanishing point in the grand scheme of all the annual limited edition vanishing point releases. So I'm going to let you go first. I want initial thoughts of the 60th anniversary, um, edition. Uh, let me get the proper name. Uh, boy, I don't know.

Myke Hurley: The 2023 limited edition vanishing point. That's the name.

Brad Dowdy: I know, but there, there is a proper name for it. Oh, they have like a proper name for it? There, there's a name for the 60th anniversary, which I put in the second link. It starts with a K. Con, Con Recki. K-A-N-R-E-K-I. Con Recki. So it's a six, six decades of life is, is what this means. So let me read this from Fountain Pen Means. Then I'll get you to talk about the pen. Um, in Japan, one 60th birthday holds a profound significance. As the sun completes its journey around the whole zodiac five times, marking six decades of life, Con Recki unveils itself as an emblem of wisdom and experience. Uh, a red suit and hat symbolizing youth, a new life, is donned for that celebration. Thus, Con Recki marks a rebirth of sorts. So, this is, uh, uh, celebrating 60 years. Uh, is this 60 years of the vanishing point? That's, that's pretty wild. So, yeah, I guess it did start like in the 60s. So that would be about right. That's crazy. All right, what do you think about the pen?

Myke Hurley: The pen on its own? Mm-hmm. Boring. Not interested.

Brad Dowdy: I kind of had that initial reaction too. Um, so I put a different link in the show notes. Um, because I instantly thought of the metallic releases that they did. I think they just called it the metallic series, right? Um, like five, six, seven years ago where they did five pens, uh, blue, red, green. Oh, I guess I could pull up the image. I did put an image in here. It was hard to find an image. So, blue, red, purple, orange, and green. And these were all like metallic barrels with black trim. The only difference is these had a silver nib instead of this is a black plated nib in the 60th anniversary edition. So, I was immediately kind of thought the same as you. But I think I'm, I'm obviously liking this one a little bit better because the red just goes, goes big on this pen. I want to see this in person. Um, you know, I think it's a storytelling pen, right? As opposed to let's design something cool pen, right? They did it to represent the 60th anniversary.

Myke Hurley: So, my argument here, right? Like, I like that story. Very funny that it's like the fountain pen memes Instagram account is where you get the action. Right? Yeah, exactly. Like, there is this significance of the 60th and red. But, like, I feel like they haven't done anything to tell that story other than color. Like, I feel like there is more they could have done with this pen visually to indicate that special occasion rather than just like, hey, this one's red.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Maybe some artwork or some detail to the barrel instead of the bright red. Yeah. Maybe some kind of edge change. One more thing. Yeah, one more thing. Right? Because it does feel like, hey, this is a base limited edition. Okay, it's not our stock edition. It's like one up from that. But I think for your annual edition where you're only releasing 2023 of these pens, you go one step further. Right? Yeah. And they're one step further in this case seems to be the box, which I will always, like, not, like, appreciate the full detail that they put in this box. Right? Which the box is kind of cool. But, like, put that money somewhere else.

Myke Hurley: The pen doesn't even appear to have, like, a date on it or anything. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's like the bare basic. Right? Like, put the dates on the pen at least.

Brad Dowdy: You know? Yeah. 60th anniversary. Yeah. I don't see, like, a back stamping if it says that. Yeah. I am. Yeah. Gosh. I can't believe you're, like, I'm turning into your side over here. So, yeah. I think they could have done more. Right? It's going to instantly sell out. Like, it's a good pen. Right? Like, it's and there's only a couple thousand of them. Like, people will buy this pen. People will enjoy this pen. And hopefully I'll get to see it in DC in a couple weeks. We'll see. And, like, I think I'm now more, like, it's, I never thought it was great. I thought it was fine and pretty good, maybe. And now I'm just thinking, eh, it's okay. Like, maybe it's just not enough, right?

Myke Hurley: I don't think so.

Brad Dowdy: All right. You've kind of turned me into it. I want to see it in person because I think it's going to look cool. But, like, yeah. Do one more thing. If you want a red. One more thing.

Myke Hurley: Vanishing point. Like, great. You know, you're going to have a good time with this. But, like, I don't know. I just feel like there could have been a little bit more going on with that, considering there is this story that I didn't know this, right? Like, this is the thing I've learned today about the 60th anniversary or 60th birthday, being in, like, and why that is important. Because, like, it's like the five zodiac turns. Like, I think it's, like, a really interesting idea. You've gone through it five times. And, like, I think that's super cool. I think it would be nice to at least mark that in some way. So, like, even just putting the freaking date on the pen, you know? I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Right. I'm trying to look for more pictures. Because sometimes they'll do a little stamping on the back of the barrel where they'll put, like, Pilot on there. But I haven't seen it yet.

Myke Hurley: Well, it's not on any of the imagery. So, I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the initial images. So, I guess maybe when it's in stock and we can get full, like, 360 images.

Myke Hurley: So, we'll see. All right. This episode is brought to you in part by our friends over at Factor. Now that we're in the thick of summer, you might be on the lookout for some wholesome, convenient meals to support those sunny, active days. Factor is America's number one ready-to-eat meal kit. And it can help you fuel up fast with flavorful and nutritious, ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door. You'll save time, eat well, and stay on track reaching your goals. With Factor, you can skip the extra trip to the grocery store because their fresh, never-frozen meals are ready in just two minutes. And you can treat yourself to more than 34 weekly restaurant-quality options, like grilled steakhouse filet mignon, green goddess chicken, or bruschetta shrimp risotto. Plus, keep your energy up with their lunch to go. This is Factor's effortless, wholesome meals like grain bowls and salad toppers with no microwave required. Factor offer options to fit a variety of lifestyles, including keto, calorie smart, protein plus, vegan, and veggie. And you can select from more than 45 add-ons, including breakfast items like apple cinnamon pancakes, bacon and cheddar egg bites, and smoothies. And you can rest assured you're making a sustainable choice because Factor offset 100% of the delivery emissions to your door, along with sourcing renewable electricity and sustainably sourced seafood. Brad, I know that you placed an order with Factor, right? What food are you excited about?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I got my first box just yesterday, so I made sure to get in there and give it a shot last night. Last night, it was perfect for me. And one of the reasons why I'm going to like Factor and probably continue to use them is because they are single-serving meals. And for someone like myself, who works at home and doesn't always go to the grocery store, it's nice to have a fresh, healthy meal ready for me when I'm just going to eat by myself, right? Like my wife was working last night, my daughter was working, you know, my son is doing whatever. So like I'm on my own for dinner. So I went into the Factor box and I grabbed out a vegan chili with a cornbread dressing and a tofu crema and it was a knockout. It was so good.

Myke Hurley: That sounds so good.

Brad Dowdy: It was really good. It was really good. It was two minutes in the microwave and I was eating because it's not frozen, right? It's shipped fresh and refrigerated. So I opened the box, put them in the refrigerator and just picked one out. Like there were six different meals. I just chose the chef's choice plan, which takes like some of their favorites. But there's all kinds of different categories you can choose. Like you said, keto, calorie smart, protein, vegan and veggie, things like that. So the vegan chili was a knockout. It tasted great, great flavor. And then my son saw me eating them. He's like, well, can I have one of these? So he went and grabbed one of like the chicken and cauliflower and broccoli ones and he crushed that whole thing. So it is father and son approved so far. Excellent. So I really like the single serving fresh idea. It really works for what I need throughout the day to where I can, you know, I'll use these a lot for lunch. Like when, you know, we might cook dinner on our own with the family. But for lunch, I'm pretty much on my own every day. And this just makes it so much easier to have a healthy meal ready for me to go.

Myke Hurley: Go and check it out for yourself right now by going to factomeals.com slash penaddict50 and use the code penaddict50 to get 50% off. That's penaddict50 at factomeals.com slash penaddict50 to get that 50% off. Our thanks to Factor for their support of this show and all of RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Real quick before we get into the next pilot product I want to talk about. I did find some pictures of the Kanreki 60th anniversary edition vanishing point. So the back barrel just has Pilot Japan stamped in black, which is their normal vanishing point. But the barrel band has 60th anniversary stamped into that. But it's like black on black. It's hard to see. Like it's that's not that's not additive. That's not what we're looking for. But I'm just saying something. Yeah, that's where we're at with this. And this red, like some of the pictures like are just like this, like red candy, bright, like candy apple red. Like it's going to pop. But like I'm with you. I'm with you. You've I'm I'm with you a little little bit more. Right. Let's let's step it up just a little bit more for a super special edition like this. Like the you know where they step when you're where a pilot steps it up, Myke. And in the in the Barney pen lineup, the ILM ILY. I like me. I like you. Lineup of pens from from Pilot. I'm fascinated by this. Let me let me let me go for a bit on on this. So I found this new link. I followed them. The ILM ILY JP account on Instagram and they popped in this new these new images and they were dark barreled pens. So initially my interest was peaked because this does not fit the normal aesthetic of what I thought the ILM ILY lineup was. It was all brights and pastels. And I was like, oh, yeah, like I am super excited to see like these dark colored over these gel pens. You know, what exactly is this? What are they showing me? And you look at the the initial image and it says geranium and lang lang were like the two the two pens. And you flip through the next thing and you see lavender and peppermint. And I was like, cool. Like, I can't wait to try these. Try these colors. And then I hit translate, Myke.

Myke Hurley: OK.

Scented Pens and Their Appeal

Brad Dowdy: I don't know if that was a highlight or a mistake. So number one, these are scented pens. So now now it's adding up. Now it's adding up why these are in the ILM ILY lineup. So I guess we have a geranium scented pen, a lang lang scented pen, lavender and a peppermint. I guess they're gel gel pens. This is officially the MLM pen, Myke. Do you know what MLM is? The multi-level marketing. These are essential. These are the essential oils pens. And I am so disappointed. I can't I can't stand it. I went from high. What makes you mad about this? I don't understand. I just don't need a scented pen. I don't need to be reminded about essential oils when I'm using my pen. OK. Like I will buy these just because I love this product lineup for what it is. Like it is so out there in just the weirdest ways. And they completely delivered. I'm not going to totally go through this translation because it's really special. Like it is really good. But let me just say the concept in this translation. It says the concept is a little fragrant, my own private space. I'm like, that's a little TMI right there. Like I'm I'm good. Every time I write, I guess I am reading this now. Every time I write, it smells fuzzy. I found natural essential oils scented pens for adults. Like we're not doing this.

Myke Hurley: Like relaxing with my favorite scent.

Brad Dowdy: Usual handwriting time. A little late. It is weird. So I don't have any prices or any sourcing on this. It looks like it's not coming until October. So I guess I'm in.

Myke Hurley: I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: I think there's someone in my house that would appreciate a lavender scented pen, to be honest with you. I guess. I had to look up what Lang Lang meant. Like what the flower was or what the scent was. Ylang Lang. And it sounds kind of amazing. Like the scent. I was reading like the scent description. I was like, I could get behind that. And I was like, it was sounds pretty cool. So, yes, I will get these.

Myke Hurley: Geranium, Yang Lang, lavender and peppermint. Yeah. As far as scents go, Brad, I am going to stick up for I love me. I love you or whatever it is. I like me. I like you. They're good scents. Like I think I think a lot of these things tend to go for like fruit or whatever. And it's like right much.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Obviously, they may be too strong.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's exactly why the translation says scented pens for adults. Right. We're not doing like strawberry and bubble gum and blue raspberry and stuff like that. So, yeah, I mean, they're going to do well. Right. Like I joke about these things. They're going to sell the heck out of these. Like they totally are. I'm going to buy them just because who doesn't need some Lang Lang in their lives.

Myke Hurley: You need your handwriting in your own private space. That's what you need. Yes. So, you need to go get one of those. Man.

Brad Dowdy: So, thank you ILM, ILY for like we could do a whole podcast. We could do weeks worth of episodes just on this product lineup because I'm completely, completely fascinated by the whole thing. We could do a full episode on vampire fountain pen inks though, Myke. Okay. Why are the vampires all the rage right now? Right. I've got Dracula ink. I've got had some Pannonia. So, Dracula I've had from the book from Wearing Ool. Pannonia had their own Dracula ink. I feel like I'm missing another one. And now Atlas Stationers has a new exclusive vampire pigeon, Myke. Have you had a chance to look at this post yet?

Myke Hurley: I don't understand.

Brad Dowdy: It's exactly what we do here on the podcast. Like, it's completely ridiculous. Yes, let's have an ink for it. Okay. If I can't praise this ink, then this podcast doesn't exist. It is our whole existence. So, all you have to do is go to image number two on the Instagram link that we have. And you'll find the lovely artwork of Brendan and Atlas Stationer.

Brad Dowdy: Outlook. And they decided... He might have used a cherry scented pen for this artwork, in air quotes. It's amazing. How are you not into this?

Myke Hurley: The ink looks interesting, right? Like red and like a metallic gray.

Myke Hurley: I don't... Vampire pigeon just doesn't... It's not very evocative to me. Like, I feel like this would be good as like... Like, Robert Oster Sweeney Todd or something like that. Sure. That I would be all behind, right? You got a bit of industrial there, right? Like... Mm-hmm. I just don't understand. Like, vampire pigeon. It doesn't... I don't get it.

Brad Dowdy: It's a gift from the stationery content gods. Yeah. Like, it's just a gift to us, right? I guess so. Like, vampire pigeon. Like, count me in. Like, I could not be more in. Like, I don't need another red vampire ink. Yeah. Oh, I know. I know. So, uh...

Myke Hurley: Well, it's me. Speaking of which, actually, I don't even know why this next link is in the show notes and all, honestly. I don't either.

Brad Dowdy: I don't either. I don't have that much to say other than I think this is just ridiculous, like, in a negative way. I don't like this at all. So, this is the Montegrappa Automobili Lamborghini 60 degrees. I don't know what the 60 degrees means in this. But there's like five. How many Lambos do we have here? The Kuntuk, the Diablo, the Murcielago, the Aventador, and the Revuleto. How many is that? One, two, three, four, five different Lamborghinis. It's just because it's Montegrappa. And I guess what I wanted to talk about is the volume of these special releases that they have right now seems to be just over the top. And all I can think about is they must sell a lot of these dang pins, right? Because we have all these different Lambo models, orange, white, red, blue, green, black, and gray.

Brad Dowdy: That's a lot of pins at a lot of money. That's all I can think of. This is one of my least favorite ones that they've done recently, despite the colors. I think this would be a challenging pin to use, looking at the grip section and the drop from the barrel, right? This is a buy it and put it on the shelf pin for people who are buying these. And there's someone who's probably bought the entire Lambo set, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't understand why there are so many colors of this pin. Yeah. Yeah, I don't either. I don't get it. I don't.

Myke Hurley: They're all the same.

Brad Dowdy: I got to read a comment. I got to read a comment. I normally don't do this. So shout out Claire Scribbles with pins. Montegrappa has two modes, amazing, beautiful pins, and then this. You know what?

Myke Hurley: That's fair. That's fair. That's fair. The elite, dude. Montegrappa operate in two speeds, right? Yep. Like that's, and this is one of those speeds. Yep.

Myke Hurley: Wow.

Brad Dowdy: So very good. Very good. All right. If you want a legitimately amazingly designed fountain pen, let me give our shout out of the week this week. Okay. Sean, Sean Newton at Newton Pens. I don't know if I've ever done a maker for shout out of the week before. I've done meet your maker, the posts that Caroline writes for the blog, which are fantastic. But I'm putting Sean and Newton, Newton Pens in the shout out of the week this week because Sean had a video made by the Arkansas PBS channel where he lives. And it's really good. It's like a five minute hangout with Sean in his shop talking about making fountain pens. And it goes through like some of the basics, you know, like, hey, this is a grip section. This is how I start a pen. I start with the grip section. Then I make the barrel. And this is a filling system. And this is the nib. And it was really good. And you got to see a lot of behind the scenes with Sean. He did such a good job with the video. And the Arkansas PBS channel did a great job shooting the video and editing the video. It was really compelling. It's like a five minute watch. Like you like anyone can go watch this on YouTube and you should. Sean's going to be at the DC pen show. So I'll see him there. I have no Newton pens on my list right now because I bought one in Chicago that was at the top of my list. But I will go see what Sean is up to because he's always creating something cool. And this video will take you a little bit behind the scenes. And you could see all of his creations. It was just a fun, really well done video.

Lamborghini Pen and Montegrappa Designs

Myke Hurley: We're going to circle back around on the Lamborghini pen.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. All right. See, this is why I put it in there because I knew it would get you going.

Myke Hurley: Because I found it on the website now.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: And I just need to give them props for two things. Because look, while I don't like this, I appreciate Montegrappa's ingenuity sometimes. That's exactly right. They have, I don't know what the Montegrappa power push is, but it's some kind of, okay, under the hood, Montegrappa power push places precision hydraulics in the palm of your hand. Experience the power trip of one touch filling as you commence your writing journey. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's their traditional power filler. They just speeded it up a little bit. You know, this is- But also- We're in like mode eight or whatever we are on the steering wheel.

Myke Hurley: So it's a button filling system. So you unlock it and then you press a button. But they put the button underneath a little red thing that you flick up like how you start a Lamborghini. Now that's cool, right? Now that's cool.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, Montegrappa does it. They do it right. Yes. They do not mess around.

Myke Hurley: I don't like the way this looks and I don't know why there's six of them, but I wanted to get the extra details and the details did not disappoint me as this tends to be with Montegrappa.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, who's buying the gray Lamborghini pen? I don't know. I mean, I feel like you're only buying the gray if you're buying all six of them.

Myke Hurley: And Brad, I genuinely like this one. I don't know who's buying the Lamborghini pen. Like there are other stuff. Like they've got like a Le Mans pen right now. It's like, okay, it's a little bit more, right? I think they did Ferrari not long ago either. Yeah, but I just don't understand. I just don't know how much of a- Like why is there so much of a market for a Lamborghini pen? I don't-

Brad Dowdy: Italy, baby. Italy. Yeah, but they-

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I guess.

Brad Dowdy: I guess. I mean, have you checked Montegrappa's Instagram? I mean, they had Christopher Walken on there like yesterday or two days ago. They are like, they are in the big time. They're on a number one. They do not play.

Myke Hurley: The amount of money that their pens are, you sure hope so, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And look, they put the work in. Look at that. Yeah. Wow, Christopher Walken right there. Laura Dern and- Dennis Quaid.

Brad Dowdy: Who's the other one? Dennis Quaid, yeah. I was like, okay. I was like, and they're taking pictures with these pens. It's like, are they going to use those pens? I don't know, but it doesn't matter. Montegrappa- Montegrappa is a baller. Like, let's just say it. They are. Shout out Giuseppe.

Myke Hurley: You know they make Barbie pens? No. Oh, they did. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Did I not see these?

Myke Hurley: They made a Barbie and Ken pen set. I saw this and I meant to put it in the show notes a couple of weeks ago. The Barbie movie icon signature set featuring monogrammed 14-carat gold nibs. Oh, I did see this. And a Deluxe collector's copyright.

Brad Dowdy: You know what? I did see this and I was disappointed in it because this is one of their base pen models. When you see things like the Lambo and some of the other stuff that we've seen, like the Old Man and the Sea, this is a massive letdown, right? This doesn't right.

Myke Hurley: Let me tell you why I'm going to let them off. I bet they didn't have as much time. To put this one together as they do their other products.

Brad Dowdy: I also think it's the market, right? Yeah. This is a different market you're trying to hit. So, I get it. But yeah, I want, like, you could have sold me on like a really intense Barbie pen, like, you know, the Old Man and the Sea or some of the other stuff we've seen. Good colors though. Oh, they're great. But I remember seeing this is an existing model of pen they have. I don't know the model right off the top of my head. That they just basically skinned and built around. Which is fine. Like, totally fine. But yeah. Like, this is not the same level as some of the other stuff that they're doing. But yeah, there's no chance they had time to do this big.

Potential Oppenheimer-Themed Pen Concept

Myke Hurley: I would like to see them take a crack at an Oppenheimer. You know, they put a little actual piece of nuclear material in the cap. Do we really want that?

Brad Dowdy: Don't give them ideas.

Myke Hurley: No, you know what, Brad? I do. I do want to see it. The pen can explode.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, they're not lacking for ideas. I guarantee someone was in a meeting going, you know, what about that nuclear bomb pen? And someone goes, huh.

Myke Hurley: Now that you mention it.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, no. But I guarantee, like, for a split second they thought about it.

Myke Hurley: This episode is brought to you by Pen Chalet. They have your favorite brands. They have the products you're looking for. They believe in fast and reliable customer service and giving you the best prices possible. You should go to Pen Chalet often because twice a month they're putting closeout specials and also adding new products. There's always some discount or some new item being added to Pen Chalet that could be in your hands. If you're in the U.S., they do free shipping on orders of over $75 and they have great shipping rates for shipping internationally. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and products and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It is not just pens. You get pens, you get pencils, you can get fountain pens, you get roller balls. You can also get all the accessories that you're looking for, whether it's inks or carrying cases. Pen Chalet have got it. Go to penchalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. You want to enter the password Pen Addict and you'll be able to get the code you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet and a selection of special offers because you listen to this show like what, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: Right off the top, the Conklin exclusive Symmetric has a special offer tag on it, which means the price is so low. I probably can't say it on here. And if you're thinking about trying fountain pens or you're dabbling in fountain pens, this is something that you can get for like a Lamy Safari price and get like a nice acrylic barrel, a metal grip section, a good steel nib, and something to test out and try for a price that it's kind of hard to beat. And then the Pinnider Avatar demos, they're like 40% off. And these are some really cool colors. I like what Pinnider is doing. I like the grip section and shape. It's another metal section pen. You can tell I'm definitely a metal grip section person. These first two pens are. So this one has more of a concave section in there. And these demos are some very cool colors, blue, lemon, mint. I really, really like the color and shape of these. So those are fantastic. There is a smattering of Pelicans that now is probably the time to buy, given Pelicans changing hands. Over here in the next year or so in ownership, we have the Pelican Demonstrator. We have the Silver White. And these are at great prices, especially the U.S. prices, which we're not used to having the best worldwide prices for Pelican pens. There's some great, great options here. So definitely go check those out.

Myke Hurley: P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. You want to hit the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password Pen Addict to get your hands on these special offers. Our thanks to Pen Shalé for the continued support of this show and Relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: I was on a trip last week, Myke, to one of our favorite towns. I will say that, knowing how you like Chicago. I like Chicago.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I love Chicago.

Brad Dowdy: And I didn't get to see the town because I was in and out in about 24 hours. But that whirlwind tour was very worth it because I got to visit Uniball North America offices and speak at a meeting that they were having, their annual corporate sales and training meeting. So it was like an official meeting type of situation. So I've been talking about this for weeks on the podcast. A lot of long-time listeners have heard me talk about this. But I just wanted to do a quick synopsis of how we got here, if you're just picking up the podcast today. I ripped Uniball a new one about two months ago about a pricing situation they had with the Kuretoga Dive Mechanical Pencil, a unique Japan release that was brought over to the U.S. And the price was raised on it. And I felt that was very, very out of line from a company with the stature of Uniball. So that started a conversation I had with the North American office and specifically the CEO, Myke Parker.

Brad Dowdy: And it was a great conversation. He was open to the criticism. I was open to listening to his side of the story. And it just started a conversation that we were having. And prior to this conversation, they were planning a meeting in July for their annual meeting. They bring in different Uniball vendors, different Uniball staff. Most of it's local to Chicago. But then they bring in, you know, like Uniball Canada team. Again, it's North America, right? So and then they have some of their retailers like Walmart and Target were there. So they were bringing these people into their annual meeting. And they have sometimes have like guest speakers at their annual meeting. And they even despite my destruction of their their choices with the Curitoga dive, they asked me to speak because they thought I would have something to say to this group. And I agreed to it. So it was very, very nice of Myke to ask me. Like I said, we had a great conversation. We hit it off. Well, you know, I felt the conversation was good. So, yeah, of course, I will come and talk. So what would I talk about? And the obvious thing for me to talk about, especially for people who may not listen to this podcast, may not know anything about the pen addict or what I do is how I got here. Right. Like how I started a business where I talk about stationery for a living. Right. Like that's literally my job is I talk about pens on the Internet. And so I started on that story and I was sweating it pretty hard. Right. I've never had to do anything like that. Like me and you can sit here and talk all day about pens or someone can ask me questions and I can just riff all day. I'm very good at riffing about stationery, but presenting. Right. That's a different animal for sure. And, you know, you get up, you have 20 to 30 minutes to deliver a story. And I was I sweated that pretty hard. But I'm glad I I mean, I had no question I was going to accept it because also I wanted to do this. I wanted to push myself. I wanted to challenge myself and see what I could do. So the premise of the story was, you know, basically my journey through stationery and going from, you know, my regular day job as an IT employee and turning it into a full time job. You know, you know, talking about pens and the thread and the through line could only really work. But at Uniball because it was the Uniball Signo RT 0.38 millimeter in black was the pen that made me start the pen addict blog back in 2007. So that was the core. Right. That was the that was the through point. It's an easy end, right? It's like a thing. Yeah. It's like a way to stop the conversation. Right. Right. So it's and it's true. Like it's literally that pen is what made me start writing about pens on the Internet, start posting reviews about pens I found because of that pen. So, you know, and then the overarching theme, if that was the through line, the overarching theme was, you know, your basics kind of, you know, like one pen in the hands of at this specific time in the hands of the specific person, like literally changed my life. Right. That's the cliche part. But it's true. Right. Like it's it's cliches are only cliches because they were true. Right. So that that one pen changed my life and it really did. And I was trying to get through to them in in general on the talk that Uniball sells itself. Right. It's such a big, well-respected, high quality brand. It sells itself. Right. So like your sales staff doesn't have to worry about, hey, am I going to fulfill like all the Walmart account stuff or the Target account stuff? You know, that stuff's just going to keep selling. Right. That stuff sells itself. Uniball is going to be on the shelf everywhere. But at the end of the day, it's a single person with a single pen. And what are they going to do with that? And how can you make sure you're not forgetting that when you're selling, you know, thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of pens to a big box retailer? How can you not forget at the end of the day that it's one person with one pen? And making that experience the best and wondering, you know, ask them, like, be curious, what's that person doing with their pen? For me, it made me ask more questions. Right. If I found this one point three eight millimeter pen, could I find more? And then that just started me down this path that I'm on. So that was the whole premise of my talk. It took me a long time to get there to finalize it. I wrote and wrote and wrote and recorded myself. And I had five or six different written iterations of this speech or this talk. I don't like calling it a speech. I had just notes everywhere. I had index cards. It was just like, you know, it was like, you know, putting together like the crime scene with all the threads on the wall. Right. Trying to link everything together. You know, all of this work for like this 20 minute talk. And I just I just kept at it and kept at it. So it was a lot of lot of prep for that. Like, I really, really worked hard at it all the way up until the day of. So my so this wasn't like a pen show trip or a pen addict event trip. It was literally they were in a two day meeting and I spoke at 1115. Like I wasn't there to hang out. I wasn't there to be part of their corporate meetings. It was like, Brad, you're scheduled to talk at 1115. Why don't you get here about 1030? I was like, cool. You know, because they don't have time. They're literally in like their annual meetings. And I was like, yeah, great. So I showed up that morning at the Uniball offices and they just happened to be on a break, which it just luck of the draw. It was good for me to walk in and get to kind of meet people and got to meet Myke in person for the first time. Not me. And yeah, not you. Not you. I immediately got called out for the spoke pen. I had clipped to my shirt. Someone was walking by. They didn't know me at all. There's like, oh, we need to get you a Uniball pen to put in there. And they're like, you know, we're pointing at my spoke pen. I was like, oh, just you wait. And I and Myke started laughing. Myke was standing with me. He's like, oh, yeah, he's he's good. Believe me. And I open up the pen because we build it around their Jetstream refill. Right. So and they were like, oh, OK. So Myke was like, yeah, Brad's going to talk to us about this later. Like, OK. So they let me off the hook. But I got called out instantly. It was kind of funny. And they're like on the hunt, right? Oh, man. You do not walk in that building without a Uniball without a Uniball in your pocket. So, yeah, it was pretty funny. So, yeah. So they went back into their meeting and I just like sat in the lobby in the couch. And there was a couple of people I talked to. Got a little quick look at the office. And like, it's not this is not a big office. You know, again, there was like 40 people at the meeting, I think. Like, this is pretty small. And a lot of those are from out of town. So they probably have half of that working there at this office. So this is a very small operation for a very what's a very big business. So I sat there, you know, after talking with someone, talking with a couple of people looking at the office. I had everyone was back in the meeting and I had time. I read over my note cards again. Right. Because I use note cards for my speech. I didn't use like, you know, like a PowerPoint or whatever type of any type of digital parts of my speech. It was just I just wanted to talk. So I had these note cards set up to just kind of think about my talk, just kind of have it in my head mostly, but have reference there if I need it. So so then at like 1115, they came and got me out the hallway and Myke started introducing me to the crowd. And Myke told the story of how we started talking about how I gave them a really hard time about the Kuru Toga dive. Oh, he said that. Oh, yeah. So like he got up and did an introduction and he's like, let me tell you the story about how I met Brad. And so that was a really good icebreaker. Right. And that gave me like the the the time to like settle in like, OK, I'm going to be able to deliver this talk like pretty comfortably. Right. And like I wasn't stressing about that. I had prepared for I I can't tell you how many hours I put into this because I didn't count and I should have. You'll probably yell at me for that. But like I put in a double digit like I put in a lot of time into this. So it would come off easy. Right. Because I wanted it. I wanted to do a good job. So I put in the work. So I did my talk and it went smooth. Like I didn't I didn't really stumble over anything. I feel like I got like the story, like the linear parts, like pretty well in order. I felt like people were paying attention and engaged. And it went probably a little over 20 minutes. So that was good. It's like I hit my marks, got my story in. And then, you know, I said, all right, thanks. Thanks for having me. So Myke was standing in the back of the room watching me give my talk. And he's like, OK, let's open up the floor for any Q&A, any questions y'all have. Brad, he's he's free to answer y'all's questions. We got a little bit of time for lunch. And then instantly just so many hands went up. And that was like such a relief. Right. Like when you have I sat there and talked to them for 20 minutes and felt pretty good about it. Like there was good reactions. You know, I had a couple of jokes in there. People laughed at the jokes. Right. Like you hit all the marks. And then at the end, when they want to know more and like it wasn't just like someone someone wasn't like taking the hit to ask the one question. It's like, well, no one else is asking a question. Let me just raise my hand. So the person talking doesn't feel bad. There were so many hands that went up. It was like, whoa. I was like, OK, then we started the Q&A session. And that's where I vibed completely. Like that was my jam. Like I went off in the Q&A session. I'm not even like I wrote this up for Panatic members and I'm a pretty humble person. And I said, I'm not going to be humble about this Q&A session. Like I crushed it like that. I was made for these Q&A sessions because I have a lot of experience that people in that room don't have. They have Uniball experience and they have some market experience. But they wanted to know so many things like not just about pens and what I think about, you know, the Uni Jetstream or the Signal RT or erasable pens or things like that. They wanted to know how many downloads does your podcast get? And I'd tell them and they're like, whoa. Like, wow, that's a thing, huh? And it was many people. How'd you? Yeah. Yeah. That was like, yeah. Oh, that was a lot, wasn't it? Yes. Whoops. Yeah. Maybe we should think about that. It went so well that Myke had to cut him off for lunch. He's like, OK, y'all got to stop. Lunch is getting cold. Brad's going to be here for like another hour until we got to get until we have to go back to our meeting. So feel free. Y'all need to go eat and stop asking questions. And then Brad will take them. So I immediately went outside the room and then had more people asking questions. Like it was great. Like I lived for it. It was fantastic. So that's when the meeting was done. I was outside the room. Most people were going to eat lunch and I was fielding questions from one of their local employees. They were talking about like the Signo 207 and doing some different things with that. And, you know, what I thought about that pen. And then there was a group of three Japanese men standing right there. Like you could tell they were like waiting to talk to me. So I finished with this one gentleman. And then I said, I said hello to the group standing here. And they said, we really enjoyed your talk. And, you know, one of them that was talking pointed to a different gentleman and said, I'd like to introduce you to someone. This is the man who invented the pen that you talked about today. And I was like, what? I was like, yeah, this is the man that invented the Signo RT. So Mr. Ryuji Sekiguchi was sitting in the audience while I delivered this talk. And I hadn't, they didn't know what I was talking about. They didn't know I was talking about the Signo RT. Right. Like Myke asked me, like, did I need anything for my talk? Did I have? And I said, I've got it covered. I didn't talk about the, I didn't talk about the conversation. I didn't talk about the specifics of what I was talking about. Right. So I threaded my whole talk around the Signo RT and this guy sitting in the back of the room, the guy that made the pen. So they introduced me to him. It was really, really cool to get to talk to him for a minute. I was kind of in awe. That was kind of like the first time, like, I didn't know what to say. You know, he didn't, obviously didn't speak like super great English. So we were just had, you know, general conversations, you know, some basics. And then the man that introduced me to him was more interested in asking me other questions. Like he wanted to introduce me to the inventor of the Signo RT. And then he was more interested in multi pens. They're like, okay, let's talk multi pens. I'm like, okay. So that was it. I was like, I didn't get much time to talk about the Signo RT or I didn't get to ask him, like, what other pens did you have a help in designing? Like, I didn't get like his whole story because like we were so time limited. But I could have spent like a lot of time like picking his brain, figuring it out. But they were, they really like, they came to me for like for a specific question. All right, let's talk multi pens. I'm like, okay. So we did that. And then I went and ate lunch, you know, took some more questions, talked about the erasable pen market a lot, which I put in my newsletter that, you know, they know that they're getting trounced by the pilot friction. And like, what can they do about it, that type of stuff. So we talked about that. And then when everyone's kind of filing back into their meeting room and I'm getting ready to go, Mr. Sekiguchi comes back and he's got three pens in his hand to hand to me. He said he wanted me to have these pens. It was two Jetstream multi pens, four plus one. So four refills in pencil, one metal barrel, aluminum metal barrel, one with a bamboo grip. He really specifically told me he liked the bamboo grip one. And then the alpha gel switch mechanical pencil, which is uni's kind of combination of their popular products, the alpha gel grip with the Kura Toga interior. Like he was very happy about that pen too. And he handed me that stuff. And he said, I wanted you to have these. And like those pens are like, you know, they're regular off the shelf pens, but that he handed those to me and felt important that they were important pens to him. Like those are very special pens to me that he thought enough to like go grab those and bring them back to me before I left. So that was really, really cool. So that was definitely a highlight of for him to hand me like a set of pens that he was very proud of. So that was that was a neat thing. So and that was it. Like I was out the door within like five minutes after that. Like they were back in their meeting at one o'clock and I was on my way to the airport. So it was like bang, bang, bang. And my gosh, it was so good. It was I was just overwhelmed with all of it. I could have spent a couple of days there just like talking to people and kind of quizzing them. Like people were asking me questions. I didn't get to ask many questions, which is usually my gig, right? Usually I'm the question asker. And this was the script was flipped a little bit on that, which was kind of neat. I was I really, really enjoyed that experience. I came home with a bunch of Uniball products, of course, like mega, mega swag bags full of stuff. Some of it they even had to ship to me. It was like so huge, like because I only brought like a backpack. I was just overnight. So I couldn't carry all this stuff home. I got home a little bit after midnight. So I left. I flew out like at four o'clock Tuesday afternoon and I got home at midnight or like 1230 a.m. Wednesday night. Right. So it was a quick, quick turnaround. And I didn't sleep well. I think I was just so amped still just from the visit and from the travel, like traveling's tiring. And then I have, you know, like an hour and a half drive home from the airport. So I got home. I only slept for like five or six hours and I got up Thursday feeling pretty good. I was like, you know, just kind of reliving it all. And then about an hour after I was awake, I was like, I am dead tired. Like I was going to stream and do all this work. I just pretty much took all of Thursday off just to recover from not just the physical travel, but like the mental stress I put myself through for this. Like I take this stuff like really seriously and I work really hard at it. And that takes a lot out of me mentally. So I was drained come Thursday. And then Friday I was back at it again. So it was an amazing trip, a trip of a lifetime. This is something I will never forget. I'm still thinking about it to this day. I'm still going through all the stuff that they sent me home with and sent with me afterwards. All the Uniball swag. I guess I'm in the pockets of Big Pen now. They sent me so much stuff. I'm an official hashtag PenFluencer, I guess. I got the Big PenFluencer box from Uniball, which is kind of amazing. I'm going to take a picture of all the stuff in there and play up the PenFluencer aspect. But it was legitimately fun, worthwhile, kind of, I don't want to say career defining, but I felt like I delivered on something I've been building up to for a long time. And that's very satisfying to me because I don't say those things about myself very much, like patting myself on the back or anything like that. But I'm really proud of this and I'm very happy with how it turned out and that everyone enjoyed my talk and the Q&A session after there. And it's just super satisfying to get to this point. And yeah, I loved it. And I don't know that I could do it again because I don't know how I could top something like this.

Myke Hurley: So I'm very happy for you.

Myke Hurley: I mean, in a way, like I knew you were going to do a good job and like I knew you were going to have a positive experience, right? Like to me, that just seemed like an obvious thing that like you would go, you'd speak your story, people would really enjoy it, they would respect you. The thing that I'm happy about is that you got to meet Sekiguchi-san. Like that is awesome. That is like a moment of serendipity that you would not have expected. And like to have like something that meant something to you, which was that pen and you talk about it for 45 minutes or whatever. And the guy who made it is just like in the back of the room and you have no idea. That's the, for me, is like the bit that I'm really happy about because like that's just like a awesome life moment.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it kind of gives me chills to think about because like the story I was telling was like, I found this Signo RT in 2007 and I decided to write a blog because I found this pen. And now I'm here today, unbeknownst to me, that the person who made that pen is sitting in the room.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Like that's not normal. That shouldn't happen, right? Those things, those two things should not line up this perfectly, you know, 16, 17 years later from when I found this pen to being able to meet the guy unbeknownst to me, right? Like it was like, it's hard to think about because it shouldn't happen, right? Like it's, it's, it's beyond description, right?

Myke Hurley: Do you know if he could understand what you were saying or was having it translated to him because you said he didn't speak much English?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think he knew most of it. One of the persons he was with would reiterate some of the things I was saying. Great. So for sure, like he knew what I was saying. And literally I was more just like starstruck than anything. Like, you know, in retrospect, I wanted to ask so many questions that I didn't get to. Oh, I meant of your talk. Oh, of my talk? I have no idea. Okay. Because I didn't, I didn't know they were there. Like they were, they were sitting in retrospect, they were sitting in the back row against the window. Like I remember seeing them like as I'm doing my talk, but I didn't know who it was at the time. Yeah. Thank goodness. I am very glad. Come on.

Myke Hurley: That's no good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So no, I had no clue on the talk. Like, and just for people who don't follow me in other places and haven't heard me talk about this or aren't Panatic members, there was no recording of this talk or no video of the talk. This was one of their internal meetings. Like I did not have to sign an NDA. I was not even told one time what I could or couldn't talk about. But I think there, I, the way I worded it is, I think there's just a mutual respect when you're put in a situation like that. That's a private corporate meeting that I'm not going to take things, many things out externally. Right. Like I can talk in generalities. I feel comfortable talking in generalities about what we talk about, but I'm not going to talk about specifics. Therefore, there was nothing recorded or anything from my talk that day. So just to, if people are asking for that, so just a heads up on that. I thought that was just the right thing to do.

Myke Hurley: All right. Let's thank our friends over at Squarespace for their support of this week's episode. Squarespace, big supporter of the show. And for, and we love having them around for a very good reason. They are the all-in-one platform to let you build your brand and grow your business online. You can stand out with a beautiful website, engage directly with your audience and sell your products, services, and the content that you create. Squarespace has got you covered with everything that you need all in one place. You will be able to take advantage of their brand new Fluid Engine system. This is Squarespace's next generation website design system to unlock your creativity more easily than ever before. You get started with a beautiful best-in-class website template, which you can customize every single design detail of, and we've reimagined drag-and-drop technology for desktop or mobile. You can stretch your imagination online with Fluid Engine. It's built in and ready to go on any new Squarespace site. But it doesn't stop there. You can sell your products with an online store with Squarespace, whether you sell physical or digital goods. They have all of the tools that you need to start selling online. And you have flexible payment options for your customers. You can make checkouts seamless for them with simple but powerful payment tools. You can accept credit cards, PayPal, and Apple Pay, and offer customers the option to buy now and pay later with Afterpay and Clearpay. They really have everything that you're going to need. You've got all of the tools that you want, whether you want to start a store or a blog or a gallery or a site for an event, a site for your band, a site for your business. Squarespace has got it going. Go check out squarespace.com slash penaddict and sign up for a free trial. Then when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash penaddict and use the code penaddict to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict when you sign up to get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for this show. Our thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of the penaddict and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: One last thing before we do some STPA. I just wanted to say thank you to Uniball, Uniball North America, Myke, Lauren, everyone who helped me out there making my travel a breeze, making the event special, and they did a really exceptional job. I can't say nice enough things about the entire experience, so it was great.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, Uniball have gone up in the estimation of the penaddict podcast, I think, to own the conversation that we had and turn it into this. I think that's very classy.

Brad Dowdy: And the last thing I'll leave it on, you cannot understand how small this operation is for how big an operation in North America that they run. I just want to say that. We're not talking about buildings and campuses here. We're talking about 40 employees total, right? I was thinking about this. And that's from social to distribution to accounting. And this is a literal small company type of feel, which that's what makes it special, right? That they can do very, very special things like this.

Myke Hurley: I expect it's because they're not doing design and stuff there, right?

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. So they're responsible for distribution and marketing in the North American region. Yeah, so it's like sales distribution. So they manage operations, right? They have a warehouse where the stuff comes in Japan and then they get them out to their big box retailers, right? So all of these employees total up to like 40 employees in the North America region, which is just mind melting for a company this large. Because I think I was looking, I was doing some research just on Uniball, like corporate. I think they have like 3,900 employees total, right? But that's probably like in factories and like all kinds of like the big Japanese office. It's literally the office that handles like all of Uniball North America is like 40 people or less. It's crazy to think about.

Myke Hurley: You'd think like if, let's just say Uniball was made here, the team that you went to see would be one department, right? Exactly. They would be like the whatever department for this region. Right. But they just actually have that, which makes sense. They have that department based in the country they're operating in. Right. Yep. Cool. So anyway.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Let's knock out some mass TPA and then we'll put a bow on this episode.

Addressing Pen Cartridge and Ink Issues

Myke Hurley: Jeff writes in with two questions. First is, I've noticed that if I leave a cartridge in a pen for a while, say for a week, the ink starts to get a bit viscous. It takes on an almost oily texture and will smudge no matter how long I leave it dry. And it's not just leftover ink in the feed. I tried drawing out ink with tissue paper and it seems the rest of the cartridge is all tainted. This is more severe with black ink than blue and Lamy black seems to be the worst. Is this normal?

Brad Dowdy: No. What is going on here, Brad? It is not normal. The first thing I thought of is like, well, maybe, and Jeff answered the question. Well, maybe it's just. So a lot of times when you leave a fountain pen for even a day, much less a week or so, you pick up the pen and you start writing with it. It writes darker, right? Because ink's been left in the feed and that ink is more exposed to the elements than what's left in the cartridge, right? So you sometimes your first few lines will be darker than the true color that you get as you go. That's normal. So what Jeff's describing is not normal and that it only leads to more questions. Like, is this the same pen every time that you're experiencing this? Or is this only the inks? Where do you live? What are the atmospheric conditions? Like, like I live in a high humid humidity area. So I would like question sometimes how my inks perform, but mostly I would take if it's a singular pen that's giving you the problem, I almost think you're not getting a good, a good enough seal somewhere along the lines and that you need to disassemble and clean and reassemble whatever pen you're using. But if it's multiple pens, that's probably not the problem. But if it's singular pen, I'm thinking that you have an air gap in there somewhere that's causing a problem because that should, this should not be happening whatsoever under any circumstances unless you were at like some really weird atmospheric conditions. Like leaving the, like if you leave the fountain pen like in the sun, right? Yeah. For a couple of days, like it's going to, the temperature is going to affect the ink and it's going to make it worse or whatever, whatever. But if it's just standard conditions, if it's a singular pen, I'd be disassembling that pen and looking for an issue.

Myke Hurley: Because I was like, oh, it must be the ink than just like use different inks. It's like, oh, well, I have no idea then. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. What's going on with that?

Brad Dowdy: If it's a lot of pens and if it's like all the pens and yeah, I would, I would, I would probably try some different inks too. Maybe there's like. Maybe your ink got contaminated somehow. Maybe you left the ink out in the sun. I don't know. It could be a lot of little things.

Myke Hurley: If there's an environmental factor at play.

Brad Dowdy: That's what I'm saying. Yeah. It could be. It could be a storage issue where you're storing this stuff. So the short answer is this is definitely not normal. And I think there's some, some things you need can specifically look at and feel free to email me back once you do.

Myke Hurley: Jeff also asked, I guess this is me, any chance of a theme system journal in a traveler's tour format? I've never considered this. I've never considered the theme system. Well, I haven't considered the theme system journal as you currently exists in any of a format. Like it just doesn't really make sense to me, but this is an interesting thought. Like I will take it under advisement. But that's not really a product that I'm trying to tinker with in that way at the moment. But it's a good, good suggestion.

Myke Hurley: Lewis writes in and says, I'm having a weird issue with some of my metal pens that I'm not sure what to do about. So I thought I'd write in the barrels of a number of my metal pens seem to be shrinking with time. What is going on today? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I did this on purpose.

Myke Hurley: My Karas retract, maybe it's retracting, Parker and Right Choice Painting Company pens are all machined from solid metal. They all take Pilot G2 refills and work fine at first. Over the past few months, I've had a hard time getting the nib of the refill through the hole in the end of the barrel. It's as though the barrel has shrunk or the cartridge has expanded. I can force it through, but then to retract the nib, I have to press down into the paper, physically pushing the nib back into the pen. Have you ever heard of something like this?

Brad Dowdy: Absolutely not. What is going on? So I put this in here just to get other people's opinions about metals, but I don't see any way that your metal is expanding and contracting. Like I don't think there's any, I don't think there's a metal issue, which leads me into a refill issue. So your refills, most of the front ends that are passing through aside from the tip are plastic. So those actually do have a little bit of variance, not just in atmospheric conditions could change those things, but they could be manufacturing tolerances. As someone who builds pens that require refills, sometimes refills don't all have the same tolerances. Um, so that's something you got to consider. And in a very far fetched conspiracy theory, uh, aspect of this, I wonder if you bought authentic G2 refills, like consider where you bought the G2 refills last. If you're buying just refills, could they have possibly been counterfeit? Because this is the most popular refill in the world. Um, and I would start trying, I would get like a fresh batch of refills and try them. I really don't think this is a pin. I don't see how this could be a metal pin problem, but I could see it being a refill problem of somehow. And even if they're actually completely like you're convinced they're like completely it's don't get me wrong. Like having like knockoff refills is not like a common thing. Like we don't run into this very much, but it's something to consider for the most popular refill in the world and the sourcing, you know, where you're buying. And if you're not buying it from like a legitimate source, who knows? But even if you are buying the absolute authentic G2 refills, there are size variances and refills, uh, sometimes. So maybe you just got a batch that was like, you know, one thousandth of a millimeter difference. And that makes a difference when you're trying to go through those metal barrel pens. I don't think it's anything to do with your metal pens. I think it's a refill, especially if you're telling me three different pens are having the problem there. There's no chance. It's, it's the pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Try and get refills from somewhere else.

Brad Dowdy: Or just get a fresh batch of refills and try that. Yeah. Or, or, or again, like how are you storing the refills? Right. Like, are they expanding and contracting when they shouldn't be right?

Myke Hurley: It's like, I actually, I had someone similarly write to me recently that they were struggling with their Mark one, their cortex Mark one. And they said that they were going through refills like crazy, replacing them monthly and the pens doesn't get used that much. And it's like, I have no idea what is going on. Right. It's just like, I was like, this is not normal. It's like, maybe it's leaking. Like sometimes I feel like there are like environmental factors at play that I don't understand that can affect these things because they're all, they're all chemistry at the end of the day. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And sometimes that could be from the manufacturing side before you even get it, there could just be an error in the refill and there's like a metal, a metal contained refill that you can't see the ink levels in or the issues with, or even harder to troubleshoot.

Myke Hurley: Maybe it would be a bad batch or whatever.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Like bad batches happen on refills. I've seen that before. So yeah, the first thing you got to do is replace your stuff.

Myke Hurley: If you would like to get an answer about your mystifying pen question that really we may just go, I don't know, you can go to penaddictfeedback.com and submit your questions there for us to answer on a future episode. You can also send in your Muji Field reports if you have them there as well. We'll take them. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com. Brad streams three times a week at twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can find them as at penaddict on threads and Instagram and Mastodon. You can also find Brad's products over at spokedesign.com. I am at cortexbrand.com and at iMike, I-M-Y-K-E on threads and Mastodon. Thank you so much to our sponsors for this week's episode, The Fine Folk over at Squarespace, Factor, and Pen Chalet. And we'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.