The Pen Addict 639/transcript

• From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 639. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad. Hello, Myke Hurley. How are you today? You know, I'm... That was an unfair question. I already regret it. Yeah, I feel like you're bullying me, to be honest. I know. I will start by saying I have a cold. Okay. You know, that's gotten me a bit under the weather today. Sure, sure. I will follow it up by saying that I didn't get much sleep last night. Sure. And then also, I don't know, man. You know, here we are. We're back in it again. Like... Yep.

American politics and its impact on listeners

• I don't... This year, I have tried to not get involved in this. Like, I'm just... I don't particularly want to spend a lot of time talking about American politics. Like, it's just not a thing that I am currently in my life interested in doing. Right. But I know a lot of our listeners live in America and a large portion of them, I'm sure, will be sad today. And a large portion of them will be happy today. And I lean much closer, obviously, to the Americans who are sad today. And I just, you know, I feel for them. I feel for you. I know that you're in that group too, obviously. And we're just going to do what we're going to do. So, we're here to entertain and inform you. And we're just going to keep on that train. That's what we do. It's what we can do. It's how we can help. I mean, I lean more to the entertain part than the informative part. Sure. But yeah, we're going to talk pins today. And there's going to be plenty of time for us to discuss other things. And, you know, yeah, it's a mess. You know, I think my beliefs are pretty well known. I wear my beliefs on my sleeve pretty hardcore. And, like, that's okay. Like, we're going to keep working, keep going, keep moving forward, even though we've been dealt a huge setback. So, with that said, let's talk pins, Myke. Welcome to November. You know what, actually? How long have you been workshopping this? Just right now. Now I realize that the pencil month should have been this month. So, we could have called it No Pen. No Pen. No Penber.
• Should we have, though?

Discussion of Ticonderoga pencils and "No Penber"

• Well, I mean, it could have been argued we shouldn't have called it Ticonder October either. Because I don't think we spoke about a Ticonderoga at literally any point during the entire month of October. It does. It shockingly rolls off the tongue a little bit better than No Penber. No Penber. No Penber. No Penber. But, no. It is fully Penber. It's fully Penber. It's definitely. Yeah. It's Pen season back. Pens are back on the menu. Let's go. And you can tell we're just, like, totally distracted by our shenanigans already. And I'm here for it. Pens. Like, I think we should just say, we should just do the show. And it'd be just like a sketch. I don't think we could do it for, like, 50 minutes where we just said pens over and over in different inflections.
• We would lose more listeners than we already have today. That feels like an exercise from an improv acting class. Yes. Exactly. Right. That we have to keep saying the word pen backwards and forwards in, like, different emotion. You know? Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. But I do have pens back on the menu here at home. I wasn't super strict. It wasn't a no pen November or October in my case.
• But it was 90% pencils in October. And I'm happy to have done that, which we talked about last week. And I am officially back into using pens. And, like, it was a good thing to do because I did miss a lot of the pens. Like, today, which we're going to talk about what we're using, like, I'm using a different pen in the Field Notes notebook that I've used in over a month. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I like how this works. I like how this feels. And it's really cool. So I'm glad to have some fountain pens back in the rotation, the regular writing rotation. I got to do all my planning and journaling this week in pen. And, yeah, I love pens. Pens are better than pencils, even though I love pencils. Let's call it, it's probably a little more 60-40. It's probably, like, 70-30. Yeah, I would have bet more than 60-40. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I love pencils. I use pens 80% of the time, so probably. So it was good to have that dalliance, though. And I actually do actively miss using pencils, like, already, like, this week. So I've still grabbed some pencils to do some writing with, which is good. Like, everything that was my intention to happen in October with my stationery, let's be clear. Other things did not happen.
• Worked. Like, I got to use pencils again and rekindle a love. So it was good to have that experience.

Transition back to using pens after a focus on pencils

• So I guess let's talk a little bit about what I'm most excited about right now as far as what I'm using. It's a pretty short list for me because that pencil usage did kind of also give me, serve as a reboot, right? You know, clean a bunch of pens, get a bunch of things reorganized, pick out a few things I haven't used in a long time, and start using them again. Number one being the Platinum 3776, and specifically with an ultra extra fine nib. So this model is the Chartres Blue model. It's the deep, kind of deep blue, translucent, kind of like sapphire blue, translucent with rhodium trim. They don't do a lot of rhodium trim barrels. So this one, when they came up with this one a few years ago, I jumped on it once I could get it in the UEF nib, which is ultra extra fine, which is not a nib I recommend to many people, right? Like it's a very, as the name dictates, it's a very, very fine pen. Very, I hesitate to call it delicate. I have much more delicate nibs. It's shockingly sturdy for a nib that writes that fine and for a gold nib. But it's just kind of a joy to use. Yeah. Because it brings me back to the gel ink idea and the way my writing was before I got into fountain pens when I was on the hunt for like a 0.3 millimeter gel ink pen. This is probably writes a line in that range. I haven't measured it. I don't know the exact line width or the tipping size. I think the UEF, I believe if I could go look at the specs, which I didn't beforehand, I think they call it a 0.1 millimeter tip. But that doesn't mean the line width is that way. Like with fountain pen ink, it spreads wider, right? You're not getting that effect.
• But I believe that's the marketing for the UEF, if I'm not sure. But yeah, I wouldn't recommend this pen to everybody. But for me, it's perfect with my writing. I inked it up with platinum carbon black, which that's kind of like an if you know, you know situation or people will think I'm absolutely crazy because that's a pigmented ink. But the way platinum carbon black works, it works for these really fine line applications and it cleans out of pens very easily. It's one of the more outstanding inks on the market. But as long as you do, you don't have to overmanage this ink as far as like cleaning and monitoring and usage. But it is different than a standard, you know, just pigmented water based ink that can, you know, I could rinse off in the sink. This will clean up very, very well. My expectations are always high with platinum carbon black ink because it just works really, really well. It's easy to clean and it's it's one of the just like the darkest blacks out there. And depending on the page, you can even leave a little bit of a I don't know, like a little bit of a glossy kind of dry time on there. You can't really see that with an ultra extra fine nib. But a lot of artists use this ink because it is waterproof and people will use it as the base base dark lines and then color or wash over it. So it's very good.
• I've paired it mostly with the Midori Cotton MD and the plotter paper. That's kind of the two papers I'm using right now, even though right now I'm using the field notes for my show notes. I didn't put that in here because my focus has been on the plotter, which I just put in the end of the year planner pages, like from now through the end of 2024. And then I've been doing some updates and just like the notebook section and using this pen. And it's really, really great.
• And the Midori Cotton MD is a paper that's been around for a while, but I haven't really put time in with it and wanted to review it. So that's part of the reason why I'm using that for a lot of fountain pens right now. And then I'm using a standard pen. I'm using the Spoke Pen Model 2. So I have a, I should take a picture of this one with the blue, Chartres Blue Platinum because this is a blue and silver one as well. And it has a 0.5 millimeter Uni Signo DX black gel ink refill in there. And I use that refill because that's the refill we sell with the pen. So I always try to keep that in mind when I use this pen, even though I could swap it into my preferred 0.38 millimeter black Signo DX.
• I want to just have that full product experience. It's one of those weird things that I do with products that I make. I want to have, like, I'll have, I have other pens that I've modified and put in weird refills in. But I do want to have, like, a stock experience a lot of times with, like, the products that I make. So that's the pen I'm using today for show notes, field notes. And been using a lot since the calendar turned over to November. And I've gotten back on the inky side of the ledger. So that's, I'm really happy with, like, just that right now. I have plenty of other fountain pens inked up. I have other paper floating around. But, like, you know, one of the things going back into pens after using pencils for so long is I haven't gone completely wild on just, like, ink up everything. Use everything. Give me all the inks. Do all the stuff. It's been a little bit more metered going back into it, which I'm happy for. So, yeah. All good in the pen neighborhood over here, Myke. What about you? I just got a couple today. I'm obviously using my Sidekick notepad to take my notes on when I'm recording, as I always do. But today I have paired that, because we're in November, with the classic, I think, for me, the Sailor Pro gear in orange. So is this the one with the black grip section?
• Yeah. Or is this the Royal, this, yeah. No, this is just, like, the standard orange. This is the OG classic. Yeah. Like, this is, you actually don't see this pen very much anymore. No. It's hard to find. I couldn't really find it online. Yeah. But it is just, this is actually, this pen's specifically important to me. I bought it at the first pen show. Yep. The Atlanta pen show. I specifically remember this.
• This is, I would put this exact pen in this exact color as almost one of, like, the canonical Sailor Pro gears. When I think of what a Pro gear design is. Just because that's when, kind of like you, that's when that discovery phase was happening for me. And this pen was a big deal back then. For those who are not familiar with this pen, this was the stock lineup.
• Sailor Pro gear at the time, when they weren't doing as many limited editions and, you know, changing them up every few months. Sailor actually did have a stock lineup that contained pens that weren't black. And, you know, they would do different colors. And this was one of them, like, literally in the stock lineup. And you just can't find this anymore. And it's just a classic, like, one of the best looking pens ever. One of the best writing pens ever. It's just that good. I don't own one of these.
• I've owned one in the past. Yeah, you did. I mean, I bought it because you showed it to me and I fell in love with it. So what happened to it? Yeah, I don't know. I'm kind of regretting that. There's two old sailors I wish I had. It's this one. And then there's a Pro gear, this exact size Pro gear that's fully translucent orange. That was also a pretty much of a stock item. They did orange pink. That was your first review as well, that one. Yeah, I reviewed the orange one and it was on loan. So I sent it back and didn't buy it. And then I figured I could get it later and then it went away. So they did that one. So they did the translucent orange, pink and green were it wasn't even a limited lineup. It was just, you know, they had it for like a couple of few years and you could get them. And then they did some in the Pro gear slim lineup too. I have a green one in the slims, but it's the full size Pro gear is my favorite. And yeah, this is this is a really good pen. I should not forget about this pen. It's great. Yeah, it's a classic. What's it inked up with? Fire on fire. Yeah. Duh. Obviously. What do you think I am? What even is this show? I need the most orange in this. I'll go fire on fire. The most orange. Yeah. What a great pen. Like I like I miss this sailor a little bit. Like it would be okay if they had a few stock items, but they've kind of changed, changed that up a little bit. Yeah. I don't know. That's a whole conversation. What sailor does, what pilot does, what platinum does. They all do their thing in their own unique ways. And I love them all equally. This episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just getting started or managing a growing brand, you can stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience and sell your product services, even the content that you create. 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So that's why I love Squarespace because I had this little idea and I could go in and just get it done. It wasn't a big project. It was just an easy thing for me to do. And the pages that I'd used previously, I was able to just hide them. So I keep them. It's still around. The work that I've done is there. All of the other stuff I've had on that website, they're just hidden pages. And now I just have the one page in a contact form. Go and check out Squarespace for yourself by going to squarespace.com and signing up for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash penaddict and you'll save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict when you decide to sign up and you'll get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of Relay. You know, I went and looked at mikehurley.net to check out the image. And while that is a fantastic image from our 10th anniversary show, I was kind of hoping we would get one of those Vogue-esque Cortex brand merchandise pictures that were all up in my internet feed. Oh, smoldering, baby. Oh, Brad, it kills me. Let's go. It kills me, man. Like people keep mentioning it to me. No one's mean, right? Like everyone's very nice. They're great. But it's so... It's just not you. It's so cringe to take photos of yourself, you know? But like I really wanted this year, we're selling our subtle stuff at cortexbrand.com right now. And I wanted some like just actual photos, you know? Like rather than just like pictures of like disembodied t-shirts. And I was like, well, I have all of these. The easiest way to do this is just for me to just do this. But yeah, it is very cringy to take photos of yourself. Yeah.
• I did that for the hat that I sell, the Ebbets flannel hat. Yep. I was like, well, like it only does so good when you see a hat just kind of like sitting on a shelf or, you know, on the stoop in my case. So I guess I need pictures of it with it on my head. So yeah, my wife got me out there posing. I'm like, oh, great. So yeah, it's good stuff. It's good stuff. All right, Myke, shout out of the week. Shout out of the week. I can come back this week. Yeah, you're back this week. Miss G's Crafties. I don't know if I've shouted out Steph before, but Miss G's Crafties is a longtime friend of mine. I get to see her at many pen shows. I've taken her classes at pen shows for journaling. She is also a streamer and helps me out a lot on the Twitch. So I wanted to give her a special shout out because I had a new setup going and some new tech setup going. She was a huge help. So if y'all follow me on Twitch, you need to go follow Miss G's Crafties on Twitch because she does a lot of journaling streams, like hardcore journaling streams. Like the class I took from her in Orlando was like a creative journaling class. So really great, really fun stuff. So we'll have a link in the show notes to go follow Steph. And they're just awesome. Great friend of mine. And I just wanted to say I appreciated her very much.
• All right, Myke.

Introduction of new Kaweco products, including the piston filling Kaweco Sport

• Last minute addition to the show notes. Last night, I started getting links to some new Kawekos. And while I was not surprised to see one of them, which we'll get to in a minute, I was surprised to see the piston filling Kawekos Sport in plastic.
• We talked about earlier this year, they released the AL Sport in piston, a piston filling AL Sport in an aluminum barrel. That's what the AL designation is for Kawekos. And at the time, I was like, yeah, cool. It's great. I've enjoyed the pen. And I've reviewed it on the blog. And I like it. And it's like $180. It's not cheap or inexpensive. And I was like, why did they do this first? Why did they put in a reasonably hot for Kawekos? That's a pretty high end. And I just assumed, like a lot of people assumed when they teased that they were doing the sport a couple of years ago, that it would be plastic based because that's the majority of their pen lineup. Well, now it's available. And it's going to be less than half the cost of the aluminum one. So it's over $75 in the US.
• And it's a little expensive, but it's a piston filler. You know, like I'm okay with the price. Just like I was kind of okay with the price of the aluminum one. It was priced high. But yeah, this is the one I want. Like I love the aluminum one. Like it's great. It's classic.
• This is the one I wanted because this is the one I think they will kind of play around with a little bit more, even though they do a lot with their aluminum barrels, different colors, different finishes, different materials.
• This seems more Kaweko-y to me. I don't know. What do you think about this pen? This is not really your cup of tea as far as like pen sizes and usage goes, but like just in general, any thoughts? I think it's cool that they've done it. I think it solves, I probably said this at the time when we first saw this. I think it solves one of the biggest issues of the Kaweko, which is how much ink you can put in it. I'm expecting you can probably put more than a cartridge worth of ink in this. Yeah. I'll have to look and see if this capacity matches the aluminum capacity. I would assume it does because... But it's definitely better than using a cartridge converter, right? For sure. That's for sure. So you can get more of whatever ink you want in this pen. So if you really like the Kaweko, you can go for it. But it's a bit longer, right? The body?
• It wasn't much. I'll have to go... I obviously don't have this in hand and have the full specs on it. It looks from the images. It looks just a little bit longer. And let's say I would like that, right? Because that would mean I wouldn't have to cap this pen to use it. So you know what? I actually think for $75, this is good. This is actually... And could be fantastic, honestly. Yeah. If I'm being... Like, just thinking about... They're good pens. Kaweko good pens. Good nibs. Very reliable. They're very classic style design. It's a fun thing to have a piston filler. I think a piston filler of this quality for $75, I think, is good. That is good. Yeah. I think I will use this more than the aluminum version, which I don't know why. Like, I don't run that through, like, my regular rotation as much, even though I enjoy that pen. I don't know. I just have this image of Kawekos in my head as the small classic sport, and that I just throw in my pocket and we go to town. And I don't know. I treat the AL sport a little bit differently, a little bit more precious, if you will, which I'm not very precious with my pens to begin with. But I don't find myself reaching for it all the time, despite the fact that I really enjoy it. And I think this one will be a more frequent usage, if you will. And I'm glad they're doing it. I mean, it's funny, it's almost, you know, you don't normally see kind of the second tier, the higher tier pen going first and then the base tier pen going second. But that's what they did in this case. And I'm glad they did. Like, maybe there's some issues getting the mechanism right in the plastic. Like, I can't imagine this is easy to fit the parts in correctly and functionally in this size of a pen body, which I'm glad they did it. So on top of releasing the sport piston, they did the Olivine in the AL sport. So they do a bunch of different colors throughout the year in the AL sport. They're okay. Like, they don't really float my boat, just because I have enough, really. Like, but if these colors, you know, kind of check your boxes. Like, I think this is a, I kind of like the Olivine better than the Ruby, which was kind of last year's. But they're a good, they're good Christmas praying if you need wine. That's a true wine on both situation. But I wonder if that's why they did that, because it does match up well with the Ruby. But this is one I would actually. Very goldy, isn't it? Yeah. That was coming out of my mouth. This is one I would want to see in person before I committed to this color. Like, I like the color, but what does it really look like when in real life instead of in images? Because the images we're getting are all, like, the Kaweco shots. So I would like to see more. Because actually, like, looking at the Ruby, like, I'm on Penn Chalet's site. The Ruby actually looks more vibrant in reality. Like, in the real pictures that aren't the, like, the Kaweco product shots.
• And I think it looks better. So I'll be interested to see what the Olivine looks like as well. So good stuff from Kaweco as always. I'm a fan. I like the smaller pens. And they're just fun. So kind of the opposite end of the spectrum. I do like some larger pens too. And one of them is the Pilot 823. It's one of the larger pens I use on a regular basis. And I did basically an updated review. We've talked about the 823 for almost as long as I've been into fountain pens on this podcast. Because it's a very unique pen in that it's a vacuum filling fountain pen from Pilot. This is the Pilot Custom 823. And it's just a real workhorse type of pen. Like, if people want to just buy, like, one nice pen, what would they get? It comes up a lot as an answer in that category. Historically, it's been priced really well for what it is to have the vacuum fill, to have a 14-karat gold nib, and just have, like, the build quality that it is. Even though it's like a plastic barrel, it's, you know, thicker walls, kind of sturdy. It's got some density to it. And it just works, right? This is a pen that a lot of people put through a lot of ringers, and it just keeps working. And it's a true writer's pen in that it holds a lot of ink. It's very comfortable. You don't get fatigued from the weight of it. But it has some weight to it, right? It's not an airy pen to hold. It has a little bit of weight to it.

Overview of the Pilot 823 and its features

• And it's just great. The limitations on it, historically, have been it's only come in three colors, and they're all translucent, so it's not everyone's style. There's an amber translucent smoke, which is a darker gray. That one's closer to being, like, a solid color. And then there's a clear barrel, which is the one that I own, and it's also the one that I reviewed this time around. The amber barrel, for a long time, was the only one available outside of Japan. And so that was my original hang-up in the 823. I like the amber barrel fine, but they literally have these other two barrel colors here. Why can't I have one of those? Well, now you can.
• You can't hide them from me. I see that they exist. They're literally right there. Give me one. So back in the day, I bought mine from Japan. Like, I bought the clear one from Japan because it was like, at some point, I just gave up. I was like, well, I'm not going to settle for the amber knowing that these other two pins exist. So let me just figure out how to get one. And I did back in the day. Well, fortunately, we don't have to now. You can get the clear and smoke pretty much worldwide, I'm thinking. Even though Pilot and their oddities didn't release those at the same time, they gave us the smoke one first. And then about a year later, they say, okay, clear now. Yeah, now you can have clear. So there you go. Now I'm just waiting for all the nib options, right? So we've talked about Pilot's number 10 and number 15 size gold nibs and the range that Pilot is creating these in. So the 823 takes the number 15 size nib. Pilot has like 15 or 16 nib varieties. They don't offer them all in the 823 right now in all the markets in the world. They might offer them in Japan. I'm not 100% sure. I couldn't totally find that. But like if you look at a US retailer or a UK retailer, you'll see that they have fine, medium, broad. And then they added one called Signature, which is a really good fit for this pin because it's kind of like a broad rounded stub. I don't know totally how to explain it, but they really do market it as the name Signature nib. Like it's like it's a great signature pin. Like if you have a big, broad script writing style, this pin is something you're going to enjoy. It doesn't have the complete round tipping that a broad or a double broad will have. It's flattened out a little bit. So there's slight line variation between horizontal and vertical strokes, just a little bit. But you can tell that it gives your lines a little bit of character. Like it's not great for my everyday handwriting in that I print. Like if I, you know, like the short form writing that I did for the review, it looks fantastic, right? Like I really enjoyed using it. I couldn't use this nib on a daily basis. But for someone who writes in a certain way and likes to see a lot of ink done on the page and just, you know, wants a really good quality pen, it's hard to not rate this pen like super highly. The only kind of knock that I think a lot of people have on it is they don't like how it looks. And I totally get that, right? Like I think it's gorgeous, but like this is not a design style that everyone likes. And I totally get that. So I don't hold out for Pilot to ever do any solid barrels or do more colorful barrels, even though this is one of the things that I always harp on them about.
• But it's hard just to not recommend the 823 extremely highly. Even at the price, like, you know, they've been hit with the price increases, gold increases. Materials increases across the board. It's still only like $330, which is, yes, in a vacuum, outrageously expensive. But for what it offers and compared to the marketplace where it lies, where it sits in the market, it's still a good deal. So, yeah, it's just a great pen.
• I am very intrigued by the signature nib. I think I am the person that you're describing. I think you probably know that about me, right? Like, so I would really like to try this. I think it seems very intriguing. Yeah. I think, like, the next time we get you to a pen show, I think this should be towards the top of your list. We're trying. Not only do I think you like the nib, I just think you would like the pen, the way it's constructed and the way it feels. Right. So, yeah. So, yeah, not a surprise that, yeah, okay, maybe I don't really need this nib. But boy, my handwriting sure looked great with it, right? I'm just not going to use this to, like, journal or write with, you know, in my planner or take notes with. It's just, it's really fun to use for me, but it's not an all-day, everyday pen nib for me. So, hopefully, one of these years, you can get even more nib options on there. So, if you're holding out for anything with an 823, I'd maybe hold out, maybe, see, for the nibs, I wouldn't hold out for any different colors, even though, you know, like I tease the one rare special edition I have in here, the Fujiyama 823 from Bungu Box. Like, these are few and far between and not the easiest things in the world to access. You know, they'll drop some special editions here and there, but this 823, it seems to be just a core of their product lineup, but not something they do a lot of specialty work with, where they do a few things with a few other models. They don't do a lot to begin with. So, I wouldn't hold out unless you wanted, like, an FA nib or something on there. You could probably find. Do you know if the signature nib is available worldwide?
• It should be because it shows up as a stock option for, like, every retailer I checked. Because when I was checking, like, all kinds of retailers, just in the U.S. to see, does anyone offer, like, all the nibs for this? And it looks like Pilot's North America is offering. It includes the signature nib as stock, but then only fine, medium, and broad, which has historically been what's available. But, so there's a pen called the 743,
• which is essentially, I think I have that number right, essentially the 823 without the vacuum, right? So, it's the same torpedo shape. It's got your solid barrel.
• And then it's just a cartridge converter fill. And that pen, you can get the 15 nibs in. 15 nibs. Oh, yeah, I remember that. You got that, like, box, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have a link in the show notes, I think, to that. If not, I'll put it in there. I meant to grab that. So, yeah, where you can get, you know, fine, medium, medium, fine, soft, fine, medium, like, on and on. This is where the posting nibs and the FA nibs and the Waverly nibs come in. But signature's part of that group on some of these sizes. And it's... Was that the 743 you had when you did that? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Oh, Kimberly did the 743s. I did the number 10 size nibs, which were in the 912s. Okay. So, there's two different links. That nib is smaller than this 823 nib. But the 743 is newer.
• I mean, not the pen, but the nib options. So, the 10s came first, that group of 15 nibs. Now, they have that group in the next size up nib, which is what the 823 takes. Right. I found those notes there in the show notes. There's links there for people that want them. Yeah. I totally meant to do that. I meant to grab that. So, yeah. Yeah, Pilot, like, they might be the best pen company in the world for me. Well, let me tell you, Brad. Just from a stock. Where can you get some of these? I can tell you where you can get that exact pen if you want to. Nice. With the signature nib. Chalet. They do it with the nib. Yeah, they do it with the signature nib. Yeah. Pen Chalet. So, authentic. Amazing. Rollables. Fountain pens. Ballpoints. Mechanical pencils. And so much more. They have your favorite brands. They have Pilot. But they also have Sailor, Kaweco, Namiki. Retro 51. The list goes on and on and on and on. Like, their brand's page just gets bigger and bigger all the time. Because Pen Chalet are adding new styles of pens every single month. As well as having discounts every couple of weeks. You'll find new discounts over at Pen Chalet, including special ones for listeners to this show, which we'll talk about in a moment. Pen Chalet believe in the fastest and most reliable customer service around. And great shipping prices, too. They do international shipping with great shipping rates. But if you're in the US, you'll get free shipping on orders of over $75. Pen Chalet has low prices on high-quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. But it's not just pens. They have carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pen converters, all the accessories you're going to need, inks, and so much more. Take yourself over to penshalet.com slash penaddict right now. And you'll get 10% off anything at Pen Chalet. And you'll see some exclusive offers for listeners of this show. What have we got, Brad?
• Shockingly, we have a Kaweco Heavy offering today. Pen Chalet is going to offer those Kaweco Sports and Olivine AL Sports when they're available. They're coming soon. I don't think they're released yet, but they're coming really soon. So this is an interesting list. And there's some things on here from Kaweco that I've never seen posted on the Pen Chalet deals page. The Kaweco Lilliput ballpoints are my favorite Lilliput. I have the Lilliput fountain pens.
• They're a little bit weird to use the way you have to write with a fountain pen. And because they are so tiny, the Lilliput ballpoint absolutely just works as it is. Because it doesn't have to be capped. They don't have to account for like cap threadings and different things like that. So it's just the right length to stay small and be comfortable to write with in your hand. So they have the stainless steel and the copper version. I have the stainless steel. I have all the Kawecos in stainless steel, every model. This is one of my favorite, personal favorite ballpoint pens to just like throw in a bag, throw in a pocket, throw in with a notebook and go. I've never used the copper, but I imagine the copper is even more popular than the stainless steel. They also have the Lamy CP1 ballpoint, which is always a classic, really great option. If you're thinking about gifts already for the holidays, like this is kind of like a good surprise gift stocking stuffer for someone who likes pens, but maybe not, wouldn't be into fountain pens or doesn't know what they want. You can't go wrong with like the Lamy CP1. It's a fantastic freaking pen. And these Lilliputs I'd get for yourself. So there's some really good, there's other, there's Kaweco All-Star, All-A-L Sport roller balls. And there's a Kaweco original 250 fountain pen, which is their full size number six nib pen. All of these are at ridiculously low prices. And this is definitely, you should check out this time of year. So really, really cool stuff over there.

Tattoos inspired by stationery brands

• So take yourself over to penshalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com slash penaddict. And you can find these offers right now. Our thanks to Penn Chalet for their support of this show and relay. All right, Myke, I got a question for you. You have some tattoos. How many do you have? How many tattoos do you have? Two. Two? Okay. So would you ever consider getting a stationary brand tattoo? Not a brand, no. Because that's kind of what we have here. And I have to say, I am very into this. This is a good tattoo. Mainly because of what the brand is. No, this is just a good tattoo. This is just a good tattoo. So we're going to share this on there. This is from Notebook Historian. This is who, this is not their tattoo, but a friend's tattoo. This is who wrote the book.
• Oh, shoot. What's the book? History of Thinking, Writer of the Notebook, History of Thinking on Paper. So I have not, I might ask for that book for Christmas. So I haven't bought or read that book yet. But the Erasable Podcast had Rolly Allen on. And he shared, I follow him on Instagram. And he shared this picture of a friend. I bought this book, you know. Yeah. Oh, did you? Yeah, I bought it already. I don't remember where I saw it, but I own this book. It's been permanently in my queue. And as we get closer to the holidays, I was like, you know what? This is just something easy for someone to get me. So I'll just hold off. And I've got a couple other books in the queue. So I don't think I've said what this tattoo is for those who are not listening or are not able to click on the link right now. No, just don't tell them, Brad. Yeah. I hate when podcasts do that, where they don't say the name of the person they're talking about for like five minutes. So it's a Pentel P205 tattoo. And what it is, it's just the barrel markings. So it's not a pencil. It's not a mechanical pencil tattoo. It's literally 0.5 millimeter. The Pentel logo and the P205 marking. And it's freaking great. Like, I love this so much. Yeah. Like, this is as if that this person's arm was a pencil. Yeah. On their right forearm. That's what I like about it. Because I don't really consider this a stationary brand tattoo. Right. Yeah. This is somebody loves this pencil. And so they have a tattoo of the pencil. Right. Right. But not of the pencil. Yeah. Of the markings on the pencil. Like, the arm is the pencil. I know. I was just trying to be descriptive. Yeah.
• It rules. It's absolutely awesome. I saw this. I was like, oh my gosh. And it's for real. It's not fake. How do you know? No, it's not. Can you tell anymore? Does anybody know? Can you? Does anyone know? I think actually, rewinding back to the beginning, we might be living in a simulation. One can only hope. One can only hope. So I was thinking, and the reason I worded the topic title as brand tattoo is because I think a lot of people would get an imaginative, colorful, fun, stationary design tattoo. Right. Something, you know, big and bold and brash, but not necessarily like a highly specific,
• you know, for lack of a better term, in this case, logo type of tattoo. Um, and I was thinking, is like, is there anything like I would get? Like, you know, I love the Uniball Signo DX. I've already talked about it. It's like, I'm not going to get a DX 0.38 millimeter tattoo, but the Tombow Mono tattoo might look pretty good because I think their like logo design is like super clean. And even people like who don't know what that is, um, might like that. I don't know. I don't, I have no tattoos. I've always wanted tattoos, but I, when there's, I'm definitely, one of those persons, if there's one, there's 10. So maybe on my, uh, sixth tattoo, I will get the, uh, the Mono eraser tattoo. I think that would be a pretty good one. So, um, yeah, anyway, I just wanted to shout out this tattoo, especially right after Ticonder October. This is one of my favorite, this was my number two pencil, like, uh, on my rating. So of course I love it. So it's really, really good. So, all right. But in the not so fun category, Myke, Mitsubishi bank paper is going away. Um, I don't have like an official link, like from Mitsubishi or one of the Japanese sites linking to this. But I heard this back, um, at the San Francisco pen show in the paper class that I took with Taizo Yamamoto who runs Yamamoto paper and literally knows everything about paper in Japan. He advised us back then that this was happening and the announcement would be coming like in September. And it came, I think in September, October, still, I don't have that direct link, but it's pretty common knowledge that it's going away. And actually, um, my friend Blake from the paper mind who makes a wonderful bank paper notebook, I'll put a link in the show notes, um, has actually confirmed this because he gets notebooks made in Japan using the Mitsubishi bank paper. Um, and he said, yeah, they're like his sources, like there's no more, it's done. Um, this isn't a long line of recent paper that has just kind of vanished for stationary, stationary for stationary users.
• And the reason, like thinking back to Taizo's presentation at the San Francisco pen show, the reason this happens is because none of this paper is made for stationary, right? These are not producers of stationary paper, right? They're making these papers for larger business applications. Oh, by the way, they're good for fountain pens, you know, or whatever feature that this paper has.
• So our community is, you know, not something that they're looking at when these things are getting produced, right? We're just like a happenstance, uh, that these, these papers tended to be good. So my point in telling everyone this, I, I think if you know me that Mitsubishi bank paper is probably my number one favorite paper and I'm not going out and FOMO purchasing all the paper in the world just because it's my favorite paper. And like, I've learned this lesson over the years. There's always going to be something else. There's always going to be something comparable. There's always going to be something new I can discover. You know, I, I always tell the sailor apricot ink story when I talk about FOMO, right? When sailor apricot got discontinued as my favorite orange ink. So I bought like three bottles and then like two or three years later, sailor made an ink that was really, really close to it called Kinmokuse and other companies make colors that are really close to it. Papers particular, as we found out with Tomoe river, the original Tomoe river 52 GSM, no one has been able to mimic that. And you know, it's just, it's just gone and we lost like a really, really good paper. But again, it's just not specifically made for stationeries made for magazines and books that needed like thin paper.
• Um, so yeah, like don't over FOMO things like paper and inks, um, just because you're going to find something comparable. I am trying the Midori cotton MD. Like I mentioned before, it has some of the characteristics that I like, uh, of bank paper in that the page is firm. It's like a crispy paper. Like that's one of the features that I like about paper, very firm paper. Um, it does have more show through on the back, the, the cotton MD, um, then bank paper, but then there's Mormon croquis, which I like, and they seem to be using a little bit more. Like that's a good paper. I like everything that Midori does. I like the plotter paper. So I'm not overly worried about it. Just like I wasn't overly worried about Tomoe river, other than it stinks. You know, I prefer it not to go away. Right. Uh, like the Tomoe river, like it's been pretty clear that no one can make something that's similar to what it used to be. And that stinks. But, you know, from my personal experience, I'm not going to just go out and buy like three or four bank paper notebooks just because it's going away. I'll be all right.
• Before we finish up today, you put in the notes that you have some follow-up from previous STPA questions that you wanted to. Yeah. Yeah. Some really cool follow-up actually. So last week, two questions. Um, let me, let me take them from the top. So last week we had a question from James and it was in relation to his sister getting a PhD and they had a pilot metropolitan and they wanted a recommendation for a lighter pen subdued color scheme, like green or Brown. And what recommendations did we have? So we went through a few things and, um, mentioned them. And James actually, uh, tooted me on Mastodon said, thanks so much for asking my question. And I was thinking about Pelican, but was concerned the nibs would write too broad, which yes, definitely. And the pro gear, but I actually ended up jumping on a special edition wonder pens, Franklin Christophe collab. Uh, so I'll put a link in the show notes. So we did to get a re immediate resolution. So they did find a pen. They appreciated our feedback. And this pen that they chose is glorious. Let me put it in the show notes for you. I thought I did, but I had, it's in my document. So I will save that for you. You can throw that in there. Um, it's a beautiful, we did mention like that price range, like that Leonardo, you know, acrylics, interesting acrylics price range with steel nibs, like in that 180 range or things like that, $200 range. And that looks like what they got here. This is a beautiful, beautiful pen and really good job. And, uh, I think it's probably kind of be kind of perfect and kind of special. It's, this is definitely kind of special, uh, from a gifting perspective, especially for like a PhD. Yeah. It looks special. Like, as opposed to like no knock on Pelican. I really love how Pelicans look, but in this price range, you're going to get a gen like an, everybody has this Pelican Pelican, right? It's a normal Pelican where this is a little bit more special, if you will. Yeah. This absolutely looks like more than a hundred and whatever, $50 pen or whatever. Like definitely. Yeah. So I replied like absolutely nailed it. Loved it. Loved it. So the other question that we tackled for a little bit was from Jason says, I have a question about nibs. This is, I'm reading last week's, just a snippet of last week's to, to refresh everyone's memory. So this was, I have a question about nibs. I'm looking at pins to purchase and they have different brand nibs. Is there a way to find out how one nib might compare to another? And this was my, um, comparisons don't matter conversation. Right. And at the end of the show, we talked about a little bit afterwards last week. And then I was a little bit harsh. I knew I was a little bit harsh at the time that comparisons don't matter. The real answer I wanted to give, which I mentioned to Myke after the show is that comparisons are merely a data point and they're not an answer. Right. And even though I think we expressed it that way, I didn't want to like knock what each individual data point is worth. Like my product review is a data point, but it, it does, it's not a one-to-one relationship to what your experience is going to be because it's my experience. So with that out of the way, Jason, uh, Jason wrote back. I'm not going to read the entire email, although unless, uh, I might reach out to him and say, Hey, can I read this whole email? Because it was really good. Um, hang on. I just, uh, I just clicked off of it. Um, so he replied and it's a really long response and it's a really great response. So I wanted to thank him for that. And I'm going to reply back to his email. Um, and I'm going to read kind of the beginning and the end here says, if you want to save yourself some time, you can stop reading after this paragraph. Put simply, I'd submitted a question for ask TPA that you and Myke addressed on the spooky episode. And once again, wanted to say, thanks. It was a hot mess of a question and you answered it well, so well that it in fact might change the way I view my whole life philosophy. It's like, okay, settle down, Jason.
• No, I love that. I really appreciate that. And it is without, I'm going to get to the end of the letter here in a second, but I, it is very much like Myke stated last week. It's very much an art, right? You know, it's very much an art in how we decide like the things that we like. It's not black and white saying you should, you know, you should have this exact experience based on what you see in this comparison chart here. Yeah. Right. There's some give and take, right? There's some balance. It's a data point. It can guide you, but it's not going to be factual. And Jason's point in the entire email was like, they were looking for an answer when they really should be looking for a journey. Right. And let me, that's how he ends the email and, and we, I can send you this and we can look at it later, but says, so after all that, after getting your feedback on STPA, I now realized that the fountain pen hobby and art and probably a lot about life is not so much a quest to a destination, but more of an exploration of the unknown. Sometimes you find treasure. Sometimes you find friends. Sometimes you just enjoy the journey. And that makes me happy to keep trying. Thanks again for being an incredible guide. Like this means so much to me, right? Like that I get this type of feedback. Like I don't go into anything I do looking for this type of feedback. I just try to do the things that I feel and try to share those experiences. And then if I can help guide someone in their own experiences, even if I wasn't trying to change Jason's mind about anything, you know, he took that feedback, looked at things in a little bit different way, different perspective and said, yeah, let me, let me try going down this path. And then maybe has found now a more enjoyable journey than trying to, you know, like check off a box and come up with the exact answer. Like now we're in a process. Now we're, now we're, you know, creating art. Now we're on a journey and now we're enjoying the experience for what it is. And, uh, I thought that was really good perspective getting that back from Jason, um, from an answer that I, I didn't want to be critical, but I just wanted to really just kind of lay out what I believed. And, uh, so yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. I appreciate you, Jason. And appreciate you, James, for both sending that feedback and y'all keep sending in these ask TPA questions, you know, um, we're wrong a lot. We'll give you the wrong answer sometimes, but, um, we, we, we're still trying to give you like, like our perspectives. And again, like we're just one perspective, right? We'll do the best that we can with the information that we have. And I just hope that our passion comes through about this stuff and not that we're right or wrong, but that we're, that we care about this and about y'all as listeners and about a lot of things, right? In stationary and outside of stationary. So before I get completely derailed here, uh, I just wanted to say thank y'all for these great questions and this great feedback. And for the conversation, right? That we can have these conversations that can go back and forth and be respectful. And, um, you know, maybe we both learned something along the way. If you would like to send in that question, those questions, those feedbacks, those follow-ups, go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send that in for this there. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com. He is at penaddict and also at twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can find Brad's products over at sprokedesign.com. Uh, you can find me. I'm at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. You can find this show and many more at relay.fm. And you can find, uh, episode notes for this show at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 639. If you want to find my products, you can go to cortexbrand.com. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the penaddict. Thank you to Penn Chalet and Squarespace for their support. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.