The Pen Addict 607/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	607
Title:	Mellow Writing Taste
Release Date:	March 20th, 2024
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 607
Audio File:	Audio Episode 607
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 607
Length:	5858 min <br />0.967 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 607. Today's show is brought to you by Enigma Stationery and Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Myke Hurley, how are you today?

Myke Hurley: I'm good. Why do you say it like that? I feel like I'm in for something there.

Brad Dowdy: You're in for having to deal with me because, let me just preface this, I love my job. I love that we get to talk about the most insignificant things in a very significant way. Like, I place so much importance on all the little minutiae we get to talk about and it's literally about pens. And I love every minute of it.

Myke Hurley: What have we got in today's docket? I know you're very excited about the first segment.

Brad Dowdy: We actually have a lot. Like, the first segment is the hot start, but it's like the least thing I want to talk about. Like, it ranks pretty low, but let's get it out the way. In the beginning, I can't believe what I've seen in the Uniball bracket. We're down to the final four. We discussed this last week. What is wrong with people? What is wrong with people?

Myke Hurley: I don't know, man.

Uni-Pen Fineliner vs. Kuru Toga in the pen bracket

Brad Dowdy: Like, I generally want to know, how does the Uni-Pen Fineliner beat the Kuruatoga in the round of eight? Like, can you explain this to me? Was there, like, all the Posca fans from the Uniball, like, did they round up the art community to put the Fineliner vote ahead of the Kuruatoga? Was this just, like, out of spite or something?

Myke Hurley: No, I think this is the issue of putting the mechanical pencil in the pen bracket.

Brad Dowdy: True.

Myke Hurley: I think that's, like, Uniball only have themselves to blame. Like, they put the pencil in with the pens. It's like a cat amongst the pigeons.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You know? I think, like Kate's saying in the chat, which is what I'm saying, I think the artist showed up. They have a huge Posca presence on Instagram, right?

Myke Hurley: Because that's the most... What is that word you keep using?

Discussion of Posca markers and their artistic applications

Brad Dowdy: P-O-S-C-A. What is that? That's their marker and paint pen lineup. Right. So, if you just do a search for Posca, like, on Instagram, you'll just be inundated with, like, beautiful, beautiful artwork, right? So, in the Instagram community, I guess I could see why the Fineliner wins, right? Because that's where this poll is at. And they're doing their poll through Instagram stories. And they really lean... You've got to consider your audience, you know? Yeah. They really lean into that audience because it's so visual, right? Like, much more so than the Curitoga, right? Like, what's really visually appealing about the Curitoga.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you weren't kidding. There's some great art when you just search the word Posca.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, that's a whole thing. So, I could see it's, like, the fish in the barrel thing. It's, like, yeah, well, I guess maybe the Fineliner should win if I was considering the source and the location of this poll. But I'm really shocked because I thought the Curitoga would just take down the whole thing. Because it's such a unique, interesting pencil product. So, I totally get that. So, but that one caught me off guard. And just to nail down the final four, we have the Vision Elite, which is not a surprise. We have the Standard Jetstream, which is not a surprise. We have the Gel Impact, which is not a surprise given the pins that it was up against. I don't know. So, it's probably going to be Fineliner versus, hmm, Vision Elite or Jetstream. I think it might be Fineliner versus Vision Elite. Fineliner might take this whole thing down. Now that it's beaten the Curitoga, let's just take it to the house, right?

Myke Hurley: Well, you say all of this, but basically what I feel like is we can't trust you here. We can't be trusted, so.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, no, no, no, no. I'm just very singular-sided for what I want. So, you can trust that I'm probably wrong.

Brad Dowdy: I'm not lying. I'm just probably wrong. I think there's a difference.

Myke Hurley: No, no, it's not trust as in, like, you're deceiving us, but, like, we just can't trust your odd making.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. I would not. If I was a bookmaker, I would be in bankruptcy, yes.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Sorry about that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Sorry. My apologies. You never know. The wisdom of the crowds is always right, right?

Brad Dowdy: Okay. With that bit of fun out of the way, let's get into some more fun.

Myke Hurley: Wow. Just fun out of the fun. Man, today.

Brad Dowdy: This is all fun. This is the more serious entrant. Maybe the one serious topic to talk about today, but we're going to have fun with it. Uniball, this is literally the Uniball show today, apparently. So, Uniball has introduced the Jetstream Light Touch Inc.

Brad Dowdy: And this has me very, like, spun up on what is happening, what are they doing, what are they making, in a very positive way, right? Like, not in a bad way. Not in a, oh my gosh, what are you doing? But in a, okay, this is new. This is interesting. This is the stuff that gets me excited. This is why I led the show with, this is why I love my job. Because we were talking about this on stream yesterday, and I'm just fascinated by this, right? Like, this is what gets me going. If listeners want to know what excites me about stationery, it's something as, what could be seen as simple is a new Jetstream Inc.

Jetstream Light Touch Ink and product features

Myke Hurley: So, Brad, I'm having that thing happen again. So, I opened the webpage in Safari for the Jetstream Light Touch Inc. All right? I'm going to read to you from the auto translation. Which I will say, by the way, in Safari, which is pretty cool, they have actually translated the text that is in the images.

Brad Dowdy: I have seen that, and it actually makes things worse. Yes. I mean, it's cool that they can do that. As a feature, it's great, because I was doing the same thing, and I was like, what are these words that I'm reading? So, you'll be our official translator today.

Myke Hurley: The reason I'm jumping in now is because I want to read what this says before you actually tell us what this product really is. Okay. So, equipped with the newly developed Jetstream Light Touch Inc., it's a habit, smooth writing taste. Newly developed Jetstream Light Touch Inc. with a more mellow writing taste from the world's first revolutionary ink series to realize.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They're very big on the mellow. Smooth writing taste. Yeah. They're very big on the mellow. Whatever word they're using. Yeah. Mellow and taste are, like, all through that page in the translation. So, it's amazing. So, we'll find out why.

Myke Hurley: There's an image of an ad with a lady standing on a lake with a reflection of clouds, and it says, to the heart, lightly.

Brad Dowdy: Have you gone to the Instagram page, just the main page? Yeah. So, they're doing the blocking, right? Mm-hmm. So, the lady image has its own, like, six-image, six-panel block of just that image. So, they're, like, leaning into this release. So, yesterday, we didn't have, when we were looking at this online, and we'll have the link in the show notes, so y'all can go click on the Instagram page. They didn't have the laptop image with the notebook and the two-block image. So, they have definitely laid this out for quite some time here yesterday. So, what we have here is a new, it's two things that are new. It's a new ink formulation, and then a new pen barrel, and we'll touch on these separately. So, the ink formulation is obviously what gets me the most excited to discuss and to test. I do not have this in my hands. It is launched in Japan. Some of my Japanese friends have them. We'll talk about that here in a minute. I've reached out to Uniball USA to see when we're going to get them in the States. My contact, I got an out-of-office notification for that, so I don't have any update on that. But I did email to see. Once this pen comes out, and this is, like, a standard issue pen, it should be in the States pretty shortly if it's launching in Japan. And it's a basic pen. So, anyway, the ink formulation is designed, compared to the standard Jetstream, it's designed to be smoother. Tasty. It's designed to be, yeah, mellower. It's designed to be darker. It's designed to be less messy, which the Jetstream is already, none of these things, right? The Jetstream is already the best ballpoint ink on the market. So, they have, theoretically, improved what's already a really, really great product. Now, they've done this in conjunction with a pen barrel that takes from the Zebra Blin, which, when we talked about the Blin last year, the Blin was designed more as a barrel that eliminated vibrations and tip rattle and noise. So, you had this combination of smooth writing and then a barrel that was very stable. So, now, what the Jetstream light touch is taking a new ink formulation and a refill and making a barrel that is quieter, right? So, the ink should be smoother. It should glide over the page better. It should be darker. And all of these things are in relation to the current Jetstream that I love. And then it would have, like, a less, a more stress-free writing experience. So, the barrel has vibration suppression in the knock mechanism. So, all of these things. So, it's doubling down on its Jetstreaminess and then adding in this vibration dampening that the Zebra Blin made very, very popular. So, I'm interested to see how this compares. We have a comparison video I'll put in the show notes. Someone did a video comparing the current Jetstream that a lot of us already have with the new one that they have. And as I was watching the video, it's in Japanese. The person doing the comparison was literally giggling at how different it is. And that's exactly how I am when I do these things. When I do, like, a one-to-one comparison, that it was so much darker and smoother than what we already think is a brilliant pen. That it was so different, it made them laugh. Like, they're like, oh, my gosh, like, giggling. It was pretty funny to see. So, I'm interested in that. So, yeah, like, my main question is, is this the new Jetstream and all Jetstreams going forward are going to be this ink formulation? Or is this going to be a subset of Jetstreams and ink, like we have the Signo gel ink lineup from Uniball? And then we have the one gel ink lineup from Uniball. So, what Uniball is not saying yet is if this is just, like, taking over the lineup or is this going to be a side-by-side? Right? Because the Uniball 1, it wasn't designed as, hey, we've made a better gel ink pen. It's designed as we've made a different gel ink pen. Right? We've made an ink that is darker for this type of pen. And you still have the Signo. Let's just say the Signo 207. It could be anything in the Signo lineup. So, that's your standard gel. And then we have the one gel ink formulation that's different. Right? It is, if you need a more pigmented, saturated color in your gel ink pen for whatever reason, this is the one you want to try. It did not completely usurp the existing Signo lineup. They are together. Right? They're side-by-side. Here's their choice. So, now we're going to have a standard Jetstream pen. And then we're going to have a Jetstream light touch. Because the light touch isn't just related to the barrel. It's a completely new ink formula. Which is a little bit weird that they've combined those two things into one, now that I say that out loud. It's almost like the light touch ink should be its own thing. And then the barrel should be its own thing. And they can use the barrel for other things, too. So, I don't know. That's my biggest question is, is this going to take over the full Jetstream lineup? Or are we going to have a side-by-side saying, hey, here's your Jetstream options? I'm thinking the latter.

Brad Dowdy: Because...

Myke Hurley: That's confusing to me, though. Like, why not? If you're going to have two different inks, right? Mm-hmm. Then why is this a Jetstream? Why can't it be something else? Right. Why is it a Jetstream?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I agree with you. But it's because the Jetstream is 15 years into being one of the most popular pens ever. Right? It's like the Pilot G2.

Myke Hurley: So then why screw around with it?

Brad Dowdy: Because they can. Because I want them to push forward ink technology, right? So maybe eventually it just overwrites all of it and it becomes the new Jetstream refill. But they have such a built-in office supply cabinet Jetstream thing going on that I'm sure they sell millions of those pens in that fashion. And I wonder if this will take over that or if it's going to be like the Uniball 1. The Uniball 1 is not the office pen, right? The Signo 207 is the office pen. And so that continues to exist and push, you know, hundreds of thousands of units, I'm sure.

Myke Hurley: But like, I see what you're saying. But like, I feel like what you're also saying is like Uni can have multiple models, right? So why does this one, why is this called the Jetstream? If it's a different design, a different ink, and it's going to sit alongside the existing one, that doesn't make any sense to me. Like, why is this not just its own pen, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah, I agree. Why? Because they're leveraging the name, right?

Myke Hurley: But they have loads of brands, though. You know what? Like, I don't know if, like, I see what you're saying. I'm just not sure that you need it to, like, I don't think that is imperative. Otherwise, the Jetstream would be called the 207J or something. Right, right. Which isn't.

Brad Dowdy: What you're saying is like, this is the new Jetstream, make it so, right?

Myke Hurley: Well, that's what I think it could be.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Right?

Myke Hurley: And like, so they're just like, but they're like moving that in. But because you were proposing, like, is that the case? Or are they going to offer both of these? Mm-hmm. But to me, offering both of them seems strange. Now, if this was called the Jetstream 1 or whatever, and it was the same ink with a new barrel type, you know? Or even called the Jetstream Lite, right? It's called the Jetstream Lite because the colors are light and it's nice and smooth and it's got a different thing. Like, but it's still got the Jetstream ink inside. It's like, okay, it's a new model of Jetstream, but this is not, this is a different pen. I agree. It's like a different pen. Yes. It's like, this is like a ship of Theseus kind of thing. If you change the body and the ink, well, we're not a Jetstream anymore, are we? Right.

Brad Dowdy: I agree with you completely. Right? That's the biggest outline question.

Myke Hurley: What we're going to, this is a Trojan horse situation and that if the light touch ink is accepted, that like Jetstream's plan is it replaces the current refill in the Jetstream. That's what I would, that's what I would, that's my bet.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think they're, I think you're right. And I do. And like in Jacob's note, so Jacob from FoodayFan has an Instagram post on this. He's got them in hand as well. So he's saying like, you know, they have at least designed the refills. They're using the same refills, the same shape. The refills are going to be compatible with all the other stuff. So it looks like we're heading down that path. Right? It's just that if you like pull the rug out from the Jetstream, hardcore Jetstream users of the current one, you know, you don't want to have like a new Coke situation happen. So I think they just have to mix this in and then eventually, you know, it's going to, it's going to take over. It's, it's kind of what I'm thinking as well. So it's super interesting. Like this is, this is the, this is the kind of stuff I love because it's, it's so insignificant. It's so insignificant. It's not, it's not. I want to point out before we move on one little note I made this morning that I skipped over and this goes into the translation thing. And I don't think I've ever seen a company do this or at least acknowledge this. And this is like on the main light touch ink page and discussing how, how the pen writes. So the translation says the phenomenon that the ball is difficult to slide and write due to conditions such as paper quality. So they actually called out paper quality when say talking about the ball gliding over the page, right? They're saying this new ink formulation is going to glide better across any page, but it's very rare that a company will just straight up call out the paper quality. Hey, if you use crappy paper, you're going to have a bad time, right? So.

Myke Hurley: But again, to me, that feels like something that Uniball can do with the Jetstream specifically because it's so popular. Yeah. You know, so they're very aware of the fact that like they are not the brand where somebody buys their notebook and their pen, you know, like people are just using their pens on like whatever.

Brad Dowdy: And so that's what I've been screaming for years, right? I think these companies should make paper.

Myke Hurley: Yes. But I actually think they've done it the right way around this time, which is that they've taken that in mind when it came to designing and formulating the new ink of like people are going to use bad stuff. How do we make it better? I'm actually really keen to try this because I don't like the Jetstream, right? Like the Jetstream has never worked for me. I don't like the way it feels compared to the 207, which I love. The Jetstream just doesn't do it for me. Like if you're looking at uni products or whatever. Right. And I'm wondering if the light touch will be more pleasing for me. I'm actually pretty keen about that.

Brad Dowdy: I am, I have very high hopes for this pen. So I'm already setting myself up for failure, but like, you know, I already, I already think the world of Uniball's products, right? I think they just do some of the best work. And, you know, I found this super interesting and like they, they have to deliver on this, right? Because the, the, you don't met, like there's things you don't mess with. You don't mess with the Pilot G2. You don't mess with the Jetstream, right? So it better, they better come correct with this ink. And I have a feeling that it's, it's going to be good.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke, we're not done yet. While I was researching this this morning, I came across another post from Uniball. The new W-speed engine in the Uni Curitoga turns lead twice as fast as the original, ensuring continuous sharpening with every 20 strokes and keeping the tip consistently sharp and precise. I didn't know that there was a new engine in Uni. It is race week.

Myke Hurley: It's powered by steam.

Brad Dowdy: This is a 20 stroke engine. I guess the old one is maybe a 10 stroke engine. It's a hybrid. It's a hybrid. So anyway, we, I, I never knew that. I've never heard anyone like have a problem. It's like, oh, this just does not rotate fast enough for me. Um, so I, I thought that was, I thought that was an interesting, uh, addition to this complete Uniball ownership of this show so far, uh, which leads to my final point, Myke. Do you think Lamy knows what they're getting into here? I mean, like, just, just look at the. Which is good though, right? These are, these are technology driven decisions. This isn't like, hey, let's make another color safari.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but I think that that is exactly what Lamy need. All right. This is what we've been talking about. Like they need a company. They need to be a company that takes its design aesthetic and couples it with, with leading technology. And so I'm actually pretty seeing stuff like this. I'm pretty psyched about it, to be honest.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, just look at like the, the Uni Mitsubishi Instagram page. Like, can you imagine Lamy ever doing something like that? Like they've, they've, Lamy shout out to Lamy. They've done a really good job here recently, like on their social media and stuff and doing a really good job. You know, turning a little bit of a corner into like modernization and fun and, you know, not taking themselves too seriously. But do you think they look at like, do they wonder what is going on over there at UniBall? And, and hopefully they're saying, and can we have some of it? Not like, OMG, like what are we getting into?

Myke Hurley: Well, someone at Lamy said that, which is now why UniBall owned them.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And, and, you know, looking back at that, at the Lamy thing, it's literally like the, the, the Lamy family just like wanted out. Like they were, they're just, there was no real, like, there's not many original Lamy ties in anymore. You know, the CEOs are not, you know, last name Lamy anymore. So I think it was just like, as a company, they were probably just ready to move on. So the, the current leadership is maybe like looking into this as like a super positive thing. Like, I think it could be good.

Myke Hurley: I do imagine that there were probably, there could have been a few suitors for Lamy though.

Brad Dowdy: Like, that's great IP. Yeah. You think? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, spectacular stuff from UniBall. Um, this will not be the last you hear of it. I'll obviously get, uh, the light touch as soon as I can. Um, hopefully it won't be too long in the U S market. Um, again, like this is, this is designed. They didn't design the original light touch ink to be like an expensive premium pen. They designed it to be like a $2 ballpoint pen. So I would imagine we're going to have easy access to it here. Uh, it, uh, outside of Japan here pretty quickly. Like it seems like it's going to be a pretty wide release as best as I can tell. Then they have multi-pens.

Myke Hurley: I will be buying one myself when I find them because I'm, I'm intrigued. I'm very intrigued actually. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So they've already, they, what they launched with was like a standard, um, single cartridge and then a four plus one, uh, multi-pen for the, the jet stream light touch. So there you go.

Myke Hurley: All right. This episode is brought to you in part by our friends at Enigma stationery who offer unique items made from in-house designs alongside top brands and hard to find imports. This is really what sets Enigma apart. I think you can go to their website and buy such a range of items. Like for example, they have the new Kaveco collection, apricot pearl. So it's the sport you love in a new orangey hue. They also have a new Lilliput ballpoint pen from Kaveco available in black or silver, but then there's also super cute accessories from blushes, including a plush Anthurium plant for your desk that never needs watering. Yes. Like a great idea. And a huge restock. Exactly. Super cute stamps, washi tape, sticky notes, bookmarks, and enamel pins from the clever clove. This is what I say again, I just love this about Enigma. They have such a great selection of items. This plushie is fantastic. There's also, I think, probably from the same brand. There's a few other things, including a Boba Milk keychain, which I like. Some great stickers, as well as like the pens that you might be looking for, the products you might be looking for. They really make like the best stocking stuffers and like items that you can add to your order. So I think they're really great for that over at Enigma. They're doing some really fun stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I finally got my psychedelic desk mat order in. Oh, so good. Which is like one of the coolest things ever. I'm not actually using it at my stream desk because like it's a little much for the camera, but it's on like one of my regular desks, like in the bedroom that I write on. And it's the funnest thing to look at. And I just love using that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I streamed a couple of weeks ago and I broke it out and people were like, what is that?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I took it out just to show what it would look like. And everyone's like, oh no. And I was like, oh yes. It's amazing. Very much, yes. And then I bought a bunch of washi tape as well. I'm a huge washi tape fan. As you know from my newsletter, I gave a huge shout out to just washi tape in general. Recently that I use it for all kinds of things. And I bought some fun, some cat and dog ninja washi tape, which was like, I couldn't pass that up. And just some really, really fun stuff. And some little ninja sticky notes that I use as bookmarks and notes to like when I'm giving away items, I put a little sticky note on there. So I remember who I'm giving these things away to. So all of this stuff you can find in Enigma Stationery. I love shopping through there.

Myke Hurley: If you want to get yourself free US shipping or discounted international shipping on orders of $50 or more, including a free gift, go to enigmastationery.com slash penaddict and use the code penaddict24 at checkout. That is enigmastationery.com slash penaddict. You can check out all of the new stock that Enigma have. Plus get yourself a free gift and free US shipping on orders of $50 or more with the code penaddict24. Our thanks to Enigma Stationery for the support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke, we got our shout out of the week.

Myke Hurley: Shout out of the week.

Brad Dowdy: Fountain Pen Companion. Our good friend Urban Hafner. We haven't talked about them in a while and everything going on at Fountain Pen Companion. And the reason why I wanted to bring them back up is not only should everyone be aware of Fountain Pen Companion to track your ink collection. If you are, you know, someone who has, you know, a few, even just a few Fountain Pen inks talking about tracking and keeping order of what you have, you know, what you might want to purchase in the future, what other things look like, things like that. You can track them there. And now Urban has a new column for the pens. So I put in a link to a blog post that he made a few days ago that is adding more pen tracking into Fountain Pen Companion, which I think a lot of people will get a lot out of. So just shout out to Urban for continuing to work on Fountain Pen Companion. It's a great resource for a lot of people in this hobby. And you have not checked this out. You really, really should. Urban does a great job over there. So go check them out.

Myke Hurley: My favorite part of Fountain Pen Companion is the leaderboards. I do look at that every now and then. Which is, it's mostly people, like what they have, but there's also popular inks and popular pens. Yeah. But just put it out there. Mountain of ink, naturally, number one, with 3,616 inks. Golly. Where'd you even put them? That's amazing. I mean, obviously there's a mountain of them, but where do they, you know, where does it go? Can't even imagine.

Brad Dowdy: So I think Kelly has reviewed, so she has 3,616 inks listed. I think the reviews on the blog totals over like 2,500, like of actual reviews. Right? So not only does she have that many, she's actually physically done a review. I want it. I mean, I would say. I think it's over 2,500. It's somewhere around there.

Myke Hurley: To be fair, if you're going to have 3,000 inks, you should have reviewed them. You know what I mean? Like, really, you shouldn't have that many inks, otherwise would be what I would say. You know? Because you can't do that. One human cannot deal with that. Like, how does Kelly choose blue, you know? You know what I mean? Oh, I want a blue. Like, what do you do? You know? Yeah. I would like to know. This is on a postcard. How do you make your choices?

Brad Dowdy: Well, she pulls up her blue ink page and goes and looks at the samples and says, yes, I will have that one.

Myke Hurley: I just, the choice, you know? I just, I don't know. How do you do it? I just don't know.

Brad Dowdy: It's great. It's great. So, I have an irrational number of inks, but it is nowhere that would come close to this leaderboard. I would, if I had to guess, like if I went in there and counted, it's probably 200, I guess. I don't know. Maybe not that many. Probably 150 to 200, I'm guessing. One of these days I'll count because it's, you say it's not that many when you look at something like this, but when you say it out loud, it's like, that's a ridiculous amount of ink. So, there you go. So, yeah, go play around with the leaderboards. And hey, like Myke said, you can go see what inks are most popular. What inks were most popular? I literally just closed the page when I asked that question out loud. Let me go back and see. Oh, the most popular inks. I'd already closed it too. Yeah. Let me see. I got it right here. I want to look now. Now I'm invested. Leaderboards.

Myke Hurley: Pilot, Oshizuku, Yamabudo. Really? It's the most popular ink. Yeah. Okay. Do you have a top five? Yeah. Diamine Oxblood. Okay. J'ai a Bon Emerald of Chivu. Wow. Okay. That doesn't surprise me because I feel like that was an ink everybody bought when it came out. Yeah. Right?

Brad Dowdy: Like, even if you don't like shimmer or you want to try shimmer, that's the one.

Myke Hurley: Or even if you're not using it now, right? Yeah. It's singular. Ancient Copper. All right. Classic. Pilot, Oshizuku, Kompeki. Interesting. I'm just going to give it the full 10. Okay. Diamine Earl Grey. Oh, that's a surprise. Diamine Writer's Blood. All right. Not a surprise. Yeah, that's a surprise. Diamine Aurora Borealis. Mm-hmm. Noodler's Apache Sunset. Mm-hmm. And Pilot, Oshizuku, Shinkai. So really, this is dominated by Diamine with Oshizuku following up, which is interesting. Interesting. Yeah. I'm surprised that, like, half of the top 10 is Diamine. Like, that's just like, that is, considering how many inks there are available. Yeah. Like, how many brands. That is a surprise to me that is so heavily dominated by one brand.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Earl Grey is the real outlier to me here. Right. Because it's grey. Like, grey inks are true. We've spoken about it before. Grey inks are traditionally very hard to get accurate, an accurate idea of grey ink on a page. And that's one of them. So that's probably the only one that's actually a surprise to me that it's on the page. But I guess because grey, you buy one grey ink and you're good. And that's probably, like, the one. So that makes sense. So interesting. Good stuff. All right. Fountain Pen Companion. Awesome stuff. Thank you so much. Speaking of awesome stuff, Myke, you have one week left to get in on the Notice Sector Dive GMT Pen Addict Edition watch. I'm excited to get mine. I'm actually going to get the prototype that's been going around that Michael's had that he did the blog post on. I'm going to get the prototype here in a week or two to play around with wear it. So if you're interested in this really fun project that we're doing with Notice Watches, we'll have a link in the show notes. We talked about it last week. We had an interview with Wes Kwok from Notice, and we got a lot of great feedback on that. So go check that out. The pre-orders are open for one more week, and then they're going to get going on ordering and construction and building the watches and get them out to everyone this summer. So I very, very much look forward to it. Wonderful. Since we were so busy last week, I held over the Kaweco DIY sport conversation I wanted to have.

Kaweco DIY Sport retail store experience

Brad Dowdy: So what Kaweco is doing here, seeing the headline of this got me super excited. Kaweco DIY sport. Like, yes, give me a build your own Kaweco. And, you know, let me mix and match the parts. Let me build all this stuff. And then I looked at it. And what they've literally done is asked people to finish the assembly of a singular pin in stores. And it's kind of ridiculous. Like, the concept is awesome. The execution, I think, is lacking. Because it's singular in choice. There is no... The DIY part is, hey, we didn't finish building this pin in the factory. We're going to send all the parts to a store, and you can finish the assembly of this pin. Now, that's fine. Like, people may, you know, like, be super into that. But you have no input on color, style, anything like that.

Myke Hurley: I support this as a retail store experience, right? Yes. That you would go in and do it. So that's what this is. Like, when you go to the Lego store and you build a minifig, right? But it should be, as you're alluding to, I think, mix and match.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You have no input on color or style or anything like that. I guess the only choice would be nib size, right? But it's literally just, like, the final assembly of this pin. Now, it is cool that it's a store exclusive, right? This is not an online experience, right? So you have to have a brick-and-mortar store to be eligible to receive these DIY sports. And I think it's super cool. So maybe, you know, everything has to start somewhere. I don't want to give them a hard time for this because this is exactly what I would love to see, right? If I went to a store, even, like, given, like, all the pins I have and everything, all the sports that I have and all the Kawekos that I have, I would 100% build this, right? Just because, like, it's cool and neat and unique. I think it's awesome. I just, you know, I would just like to have some, a little bit of say in choice. Give me, I don't know, give me three color options. I don't know. But, again, I'm glad this is a thing. Like, I don't want to give it a hard time. And hopefully, you know, eventually, like, if this goes well, if the stores, like, people getting into this, I think will super love this. Being able to go to a pin store and getting to assemble this pin and just going from there. And now, hey, they have a Kawekos. And maybe they're a Kawekos customer now, right? So, this is a very kind of introduction to fountain pens type of thing, which I'm super, super for. So, I don't want to pretend like, I don't want people to think I'm giving them a hard time. I think this is really great. But I did find this. I was like, okay, where are the other options? I was like, oh, there's not. So, it's cool. I want to see, again, I say this a lot. I want to see round two, right? I hope this goes well. And I hope we see round two. And then we'll go from there. Speaking of round two, the Kawekos Apricot Pearl is round two of the Sport Collection Iridescent series. So, they did the Iridescent Pearl two years ago. I think it was a 2022 release. That was, like, the pearlescent, literally, like, the white pearl with, like, the green and purple pearlescents in there. Beautiful pin. Kind of caught everyone off guard. Kawekos did a really good job on that. So, this is the second one, the Apricot Pearl, which I ordered. And I really, really like it. My stance on this, seeing the pictures, was like, I think this one might be better than the Iridescent Pearl. And I have retracted that statement. It is not. It is really good on its own. I think the Iridescent Pearl. If you're putting the two Iridescent or the two Pearl series pens, Iridescent is, like, the more, like, striking one. But this Apricot one is really, really cool. It's better for me. It's, like, that it's literally Apricot. You know, it's, like, peachy, orange color. It has a little bit of the green and purple iridescence. I bought a gold clip for this pin, Myke, because it has gold trims, right? Like, the letterings in gold, the finials in gold, the nibs in gold. And it's really, really nice. I'm enjoying it. It's kind of been my main pin this week. I love the sports. I try not to buy too many of them because I've probably already got, I don't know, six or eight of them. We'll go with less than ten, I'm pretty sure. It's such a good pin. I just, I throw it in my pocket and just, you know, carry it around. And I got a really good extra fine nib with this one. I've inked it with Diamine Bilberry, which is a purple, like, blurple type of ink. It matches really well with the pin. So, really, really having fun with the Apricot Pearl.

Brad Dowdy: Next up, Myke, is more fun. And I have a question for you. Are you familiar with Fraggle Rock?

Myke Hurley: Yes. Used to watch it as a kid.

Retro 51 Fraggle Rock edition and branded pens

Brad Dowdy: Okay. I would have bet yes. Would you have ever bet that there would be a Retro 51 Fraggle Rock edition? Because I would have said no.

Myke Hurley: There have been a lot of Retro 51s that I would not have expected to have existed, you know? So, they're making it happen.

Brad Dowdy: This is one of the coolest Retro 51s I've ever seen. And you know what? Give me two weeks. I'm probably going to say that again, right? I'm a Retro 51 fan.

Myke Hurley: The inherent nature in a branded, like a branded one, like it's a company that is allowing for this. That it has, I think, the potential to be a little bit more on point. This is the full brand experience. Yeah. Where, you know, it's somebody who really cares is going all in. I mean, and this is an all-in model. Like, they even have like a collector one where you get a challenge coin and like a beautiful box. Like, this is a really, really nice product. I'm not familiar with Octo, the brand that is in collaboration with them to do this.

Brad Dowdy: Never heard of them. So, I'm wondering if they're just the...

Myke Hurley: It's a collectibles company.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I guess they just put out the licensing. Oh, now that I've gone to their page, they've actually done Retro 51s before.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they're the vendor for this.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, so they've... Okay, so they've done a bunch of stuff. Like, I literally didn't go this. So, they do this. They seem to have a lot of brands. They were the Rocketeer one. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. This is cool stuff. I like it. Okay, they have a ton of Retro 51s. Okay. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but... All right. So, what other brands do they have that they haven't done? The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Shining, Iron Giant, Rocketeer, Fragile Rock.

Myke Hurley: Oh, they have a pretty great Rocketeer one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, that's one of the first... I remember the Rocketeer pin, because they did, like, the comic panels.

Myke Hurley: Well, they do Simpsons. They have some Simpsons stuff. Oh, okay. But it's just action figures. But I actually don't... It doesn't look like they have the brand for these. They're just vending them from reaction toys, but... Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, there's some cool-looking stuff in here. I would like to see maybe a little bit more from them, but... Why not? Yeah. Yeah, this is a really, really nice one. It is a really nice one. And I like that they have two models of it, where you can get, like, the kind of regular one, or you can go all in and get the collector's one, too. I like that.

Brad Dowdy: Do you have a preference? Because when we talked about this on stream yesterday, there was a very strong preference for one over the other. Do you have a preference? I like the gold one. That was the one that won. Yeah, I like the gold one. I prefer the silver one with the... I have a thing for that yellow painted clip, right? So it's kind of an outlier on the design. Yeah. That is really nice.

Myke Hurley: I like the gold one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think that was the most popular one. Anyway, I haven't bought a lot of Retro 51s recently. I think I bought two probably in the last, I don't know, six months or so. I might have to pick one of these up. It's really cool. So good job. So yeah, that was a surprise. That was a surprise for sure. So yeah, we have more surprises to get to today, Myke, including a Fieldnodes launch before the podcast, which I can't believe. So but let's talk about our friends at Squarespace real quick.

Myke Hurley: This Squarespace, they are the all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online. And they are supporting this week's episode of The Pen Addict. You can stand out from the crowd of a beautiful website, engage directly with your audience and sell products, services, the content you create. They have everything you need all in one place. It's so simple to get started with Squarespace. You just choose from one of their professionally designed, beautiful website templates. Squarespace has designs for every category or use case that you may want to build a website for. You can so easily customize the look, update all of the content and add the features that you need to fit the needs of your site or your business. You can make your Squarespace template do whatever you want. So your idea, brand or business will stand out on every device. This is powered by Fluid Engine. Squarespace is drag and drop technology for building your website. It allows you to customize every design detail and stretch your imagination online, whether on desktop or mobile. And it's built in and ready to go on any new Squarespace site. I mentioned selling things. It's super simple to set up a store with Squarespace. They have all of the features that you're going to need and the integrations too. So they make it incredibly easy for you to sell physical or digital goods. And you can track the performance of everything, your content, your sales, everything with Squarespace's analytics platform. You can learn where your site visitors are coming from, where your sales are coming from, analyze which is most effective for you channel-wise, you know, like where am I getting the traffic from? And you can double down on that. This is going to improve your website and allow you to build a marketing strategy based on your top keywords or most popular products or content. What I love about Squarespace, kind of where they are now, they have all of the tools that will allow you, that you can take advantage of as your website grows. Like you may start with one thing, you know, maybe you've got a blog. But then over time, maybe you want to offer some products for sale. You can do that. Maybe you want to have a newsletter system. You can do that. It's all available with Squarespace. Go and check it out today at squarespace.com slash penaddict. And you can sign up for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use the promo code penaddict. And you will 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 and you'll get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of this show and all of RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: You know, one of the pages I used to have on my Squarespace site was a field notes ranking. I think I probably stopped like around 30 editions. It got to be a lot. And plus, you know, when at the time when you were posting like, hey, I've got like butcher orange and butcher blue, like the emails would not stop coming in for trying to access those. But we have a rare field notes launch prior to the podcast. You know, usually we record a podcast and then the field notes will launch after. That's been a recurring joke for years. But we had a Tuesday release of the field notes flora edition. And I wanted to just one, give them a shout out because we can because it came out right before the show. And two, because we won't even play the game. Myke, these are spectacular. Like I love these so much.

Myke Hurley: This is a really, really great edition. I'm happy that they worked with an outside artist to produce something like this. Because I feel like that this style that the artist Emmy Star Brown has produced feels very unique. Right. So like I'm sure that they could have had one of their designers do something similar. Right. Like if this was like a style that they were going for. But this clearly feels to me like this artist's thing. Right. Like, yeah, this is what they are good at. And like looking at their Instagram, like, yeah, this is what they do. I'm actually going to give her a follow because I like her art a lot. Exactly. And this is how I feel. Like this to me is a fantastic addition for a very specific type of person, but of which there are a lot of. Like this to me is like the, and I don't think they're necessarily doing this, but I think it will appeal. It's like if you like Bujo, you like this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. She has a pickleball paddle on her Instagram.

Myke Hurley: The aesthetic of the Flora edition is like, it's so good. Yeah. And I feel like will really appeal to specific people. So yeah, I love it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I am super way in on this. They're also doing like a print collaboration. Yeah. Yeah. Just as a side. I actually want the prints more. I think it's pretty cool. That's what I want. I like the art a lot. Yeah. The prints are pretty fresh, but like Emmy's art really like stands out in like the mural. So that they do. So definitely go check out the video. You know, we've always talked very positively about the Field Notes videos that they create. And this is a really good one where she talks about the challenge from going to the giant. And building size murals to this small cover, you know, format. So I thought that was a really interesting aspect of the interview and the video that they did. So a really great job. It was really fun.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's pretty good.

Brad Dowdy: Last new product this week. I wanted to give my thoughts on the Blackwing 2X Firm Core, which is their latest extra, extra firm core. And I think as best as I could tell, they're calling it the 2X Firm, which I honestly, I feel like they're just setting us up for a triple X pencil at this point. But we'll see what they do. It's very average. So I don't have a lot to say other than this is my least favorite Blackwing Core. But that's in context to the Blackwing Core. It's like it's a perfectly fine and good pencil. I just didn't feel that it was special. And Blackwing pencils need to make me feel special because I'm paying essentially $3 a pencil for these, which is at the highest end of individual single woodcase pencil pricing. And like I get the price. Like they're beautiful looking. There's a lot that goes into the designs and aspects of this one. And this 2X Firm only is available in this Volumes 2 edition, which just came out here about a month ago. So it's not a stock lineup core yet. In the past, they've tested out other cores. That's where the extra firm core came in to play. They put it in the volumes first. Everyone liked the core. It is now a stock item. Will the 2X F be a stock item? I don't know. Maybe. It is the least special of all the Blackwing cores in my mind. It feels like a stock HB. Like if I picked up a Ticonderoga, no knock against the Ticonderoga. If I picked up a Dixon Ticonderoga and I picked up this 2X F core and did a blind test, I'm not sure I could tell the difference. And I don't feel like I could say that against the other Blackwings. I think I can really feel like the quality or the core. And this is also a very specific thing, right, to each individual person, right? Like this is how I feel about these cores. Someone else might absolutely love this and think it's their best core yet. But where it falls in their product lineup for me, out of five cores, it's the fifth, I would say, by a pretty good margin. Any of the other four cores I could use for any given task that I needed and be very, very happy with. This one's just like, eh, it's another pencil. And I didn't find it to be spectacular. And that's unfortunately what Blackwing has set up for me to think this is spectacular. And I appreciate that about them. And I just think this core did not deliver that spectacularness.

RSTPA question and discussion on Tomoe River paper

Myke Hurley: I want to finish today's episode with an RSTPA question that we got. Yeah. Because I thought it was a really good one. It comes from Jim. We have lots of good ones, but I really wanted to answer this one today. Yeah. Jim says, what is Tomoe River Paper? I mean, I know what it is and I use it. But is it a genericized common noun like Kleenex, Jell-O, Thermos, etc.? Is it a proper noun? Is it a brand, a product, a style? What is it? When it was said that Tomoe River Paper was going to be discontinued, what exactly did that mean? For example, if Kleenex was discontinued, there would still be other tissues available.

Brad Dowdy: Great question. I love this.

Brad Dowdy: So it is not a genericized common noun. It is a brand. So that's the first difference. This type of paper is a specific brand of paper. The reason why you hear it spoken of so much is because it went through a huge transition, not just in quality, but in ownership. So without getting into all of it, I'll have to look. Food Day Fan might have done an article on this. Maybe while I'm talking here, you can go to fooddayfan.com, see if Jacob has written up a comparison, a story of why, what happened with Tomoe River Paper. But essentially, the short version.

Myke Hurley: I've got a thing called Tomoe River, the full story. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Could that be it? Yeah. So we'll link that in the show notes, but it's good for everyone to read. I'll do just a quick abbreviated version. But essentially, there was a print company called Tomoe Gawa. And they were essentially a commercial printer. And they made this one paper called Tomoe River Paper that was not used in stationery products. I think it was mostly used in magazine and promotional and that type of products. Turns out this product was found to be really good for fountain pens. And so a lot of stationery companies started buying this paper to use in various notebook products, the biggest of which at the time was Hobonichi. So they used this paper. So the reason why people enjoyed it is because it was very thin. So you could get a lot of pages in a notebook. And it held fountain pen ink extremely well and showed off all of the ink properties for the ink without bleeding or feathering. Basically, it was like this unicorn type of paper that was so thin yet so acceptable to ink to where it wouldn't bleed in feather. It's kind of one of those things that shouldn't happen.

Brad Dowdy: Then the printer, the physical printer that made this paper broke. And they shifted to Moegawa as a company, shifted it to a different printer. And the results were different. So that became, this paper became beloved. And then the formula changed. And then it was like, oh, nope, we do not like this paper. And then to Moegawa had to like go back and forth trying to figure out, hey, can we do this? Can we make it off the original printer? You know, long and short of it is they couldn't make the original anymore. And then they ended up selling the brand name Tomoe River to a different company called Sansen. And Tomoe Gawa worked with Sansen to formulate as close as possible to the original Tomoe River paper from the original good machine. And they just can't duplicate it. And so it's just been this long running story and saga of the most beloved fountain pen paper ever that can no longer be made. But Sansen has continued to market it as Tomoe River paper. Much to my consternation. But I see why. So, yeah. It's a saga. It's a saga. But they make a real, Sansen to Moe River paper is a really good fountain pen friendly paper. And you should try it. But it is not the Kleenex or Xerox of papers. It is literally a brand.

Myke Hurley: But I think what made Tomoe River particularly different is we do not typically know by name and talk about the name of a paper in a notebook. Yeah. It is. Most companies just don't bother telling you whether they want to keep it a secret so it's their thing or whatever, right? But, like, very few and also very few companies in the world actually produce their own paper for their notebooks, right? Because there's just not an economy scale that makes sense there unless you're going to sell it to someone else. But, like, we're very familiar with Tomoe River in the fountain pen community because it was so good and therefore so many products. It was used in so many different notebooks and products. And it was just like a mark of quality. Like, oh, that's good because it's Tomoe River. Like, I use a paper called Munk and Links. It's fantastic. But it doesn't have the brand name associated with it outside of people that are aware of what goes inside of a notebook. You know what I mean? Right. Like, I would imagine that not many of our listeners are even familiar with that, like, at all. Right, right. And it would make sense for you not to be. But, like, Tomoe River is kind of this unicorn. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, like, in the broader context, the papers we all use, like, in our beloved stationery, is generally coming from large commercial industrial manufacturers that have no clue what these products are being used for. So, you're relying on people like Myke, who's building a notebook, to go and test all of this stuff and trying to find this quality paper, right? That something to go on.

Myke Hurley: Munk and do not make a paper. Like, Munk and are not making links to work well with fountain pens and be a good all-rounder. Right. This is just the paper they make. Right? Exactly. It just so happens that I found this one to be acceptable for everything, which is what I'm more going for, right, with my products. I'm not trying to, like, be specific from one. It's just, like, it's good for it all, which is what I found with Munk and links. But that's not what they're up to. Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. So, Tomoe River was the same way. It was not a stationery paper. No. So, yeah. It's good stuff. It's a great question, Jim. And I love talking about this stuff. But definitely go read that link if you want to read about the saga because there was this time in the middle before they got sold. And it's stabilized now. But where it was just, like, this wild west of Tomoe River paper, right? Just whether you were getting the real thing or from which print. Like, we got down to, like, it's, like, say, printer number seven. If it didn't come off printer number seven, it's not good or it's not the real thing. So, it's a wild thing. So, good stuff.

Myke Hurley: All right. If you want to catch all of these links, there's a great place to go. Well, they should be in your podcast app. All good podcast apps have show notes in them. But if you don't or if you want to get more information, you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 607. If you want to find Brad between now and next week's episode, I've got a bunch of places for you. Oh, you just get ready. Penaddict.com. Spokedesign.com. At Penaddict on social media. And Brad is also over at twitch.tv slash penaddict where he streams three times a week. So, you go watch him. Don't just listen to him. Watch him. Come on. And go buy Brad's watch, you know. What are you doing? Watch him and then watch the watch.

Brad Dowdy: It's not my watch. It's not my watch. Well, I mean, it's not not your watch, Brad. It's the Penaddict watch. Go buy that. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I mean, like, you know, it's not not yours. It's more yours than anybody else's.

Brad Dowdy: Facts.

Myke Hurley: Facts. Yeah. Facts. Well, again, it's like it's not the watch from your wrist. Yeah. You know, it's not Brad's watch.

Brad Dowdy: Technically. I could, you know what? I could fly out there when they're ready to ship, put them all on. Just so.

Myke Hurley: I think, you know what? I think 100% of buyers would prefer that, which is, which would be abnormal for a watch. But I can't imagine anyone that would go like, no, I don't want Brad to wear it first.

Brad Dowdy: Officially worn by Brad. I would pay money just for that stream.

Myke Hurley: If you're just like putting on all the watches.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Wes. If you're listening, I'm coming out to LA to put on all the watches.

Myke Hurley: All right.

Brad Dowdy: At the same time.

Myke Hurley: You can find me here on RelayFM and over at cortexbrown.com. Brad, let me tell you, I've had a weird week, like in a good way. We've had a real blow up for the Sidekick Notepad. It's like going crazy right now. It's fantastic. Love it. I'm having a great time over here. Love it. It's one of these things where like, I'm getting what I want out of it, which is like loads of Instagram followers, which is what I'm looking for. Sales, I've changed, but it's not like, oh, let's go, you know, but that's not what I expected anyway. I want the followers because I want to get us over 10,000. It will happen today, I think. Interesting. Love it. I'm very excited about. Very excited about. Very happy with that. You should be. Good job. Good job. Thank you so much to Enigma Stationery and Squarespace for their support of this week's episode. But as always, thank you for listening. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.