The Pen Addict 650/transcript

• From Relay, it really is Relay now, this is The Pen Addict, episode 650. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley, I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Introduction and Podcast Rebranding

• Finally. Finally. Finally. Can we talk about copyright and trademark this episode? No. Just to get the pens in stationery. Are you sure? Don't want to talk about it, but what I will say is that we are now officially Relay. You can look at your podcast artwork in your podcast app and you should see, if your podcast app is doing a good job and also if I put the right artwork on today's episode, you will see the, not two things, you will see the new Relay logo and we are now just Relay, we've dropped the FM and you'll also see with that, we've done a little bit of a refresh of all of our show art and just kind of simplified it, punched it up a little bit. Like for example, The Pen Addict is more just The Pen Addict than it's ever been. You know what I mean? It's just like right there, bang in your face. I'm really happy with it. I'm happy that we finally got it to come together. This has taken a long time. We announced on stage in July last year that we wanted to do this and then seven months later, here we are, or six months later. Sheesh. Sheesh. Sheesh. That also ties in with a little bit of our own anniversary. Happy episode 650, Myke. Thank you. Big, big, big, large round number. I don't know what that means. Is there a gift for 650? We're probably the first people that have ever asked that question.

Personal Stories and Episode Milestone

• So I have two little stories for you, Brad. I have two little stories for you. So one is for the audience and one is for you. So like last week before we started recording, we were like, oh man, it's 649. And it's like, we're not going to do anything for 650. I feel like we're now, the show's been going on for so long. We really can only celebrate the 100s now. Yeah. If we do that at all. Like, I don't even know if we will make much of a deal of episode 700. Maybe we wait for episode 1000 now. Like, you know, you get to a certain point. And like, I mean, we had this with Relay, right? Once we passed five, it wasn't really worth celebrating these single digit years anymore. And so then we waited to 10 and now we'll wait to 15. And then 20 and then probably like 30. You know, you get this like weird thing over time, like the longer something's around. The other thing is, so my month has been taken up by parenting classes. So I've been going the whole month. Well, the last two weeks, I've been going to three parenting classes a week. It's a long story, but I've been over indexing. We've been over indexing on parenting classes. And we're at the point now where people are actually starting to talk about stuff that aren't the baby. Like when you kind of just like chit chat and some people can talk about jobs more. And so I've been talking about what I do and people find it interesting. And I did get to say to somebody like, you know, I've been doing a show about pens and paper for 15 years or whatever long it's been. And usually met with like a, what? So yeah, I've got that going for me. And also I noticed one of our instructors for one of our courses, a breastfeeding course that we were doing, was using a Toosby Eco. Oh, I was very happy to see that. I was very happy to see that. And I did when we were doing the introductions, going around the room doing the introductions. I'm like, this might be the time. Like if anyone is going to know me, this might be the person. But she didn't that and I did so I'm going to assume that she doesn't know me. But if you're out there, if you're out there breastfeeding instructor in London, let me know. Let me know. But yeah, she was using the Toosby Eco with purple ink in it of some description. And I thought that was great. I mean, that's for real. Yeah, that's all in. Yeah, that's beautiful. The thing is though, right? So see if you would agree with me here. I feel like the Toosby Eco is still not a pen where I would feel comfortable like kind of saying, kind of bringing it up to someone as if they would know a lot about fountain pens. I feel like that is now like the Lamy Safari, right? Where like, you saw it in a shop or like you saw it, you Googled best cheap fountain pen because you wanted one and you grabbed that. Like if she was using a sailor or if she was using like a TWSBI vac or something, right? And we're maybe into a different pocket here. Yeah, so I don't know. I don't know. I think I'm weird to bring this stuff up. Yeah. No, I would go right in like almost immediately after introduction. I know you would. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because TWSBI Eco is a choice because it requires a bottle of ink, right? Anything that requires a non-cartridge, I'm going right in. If I see like a Lamy Safari at the coffee shop, I'm probably not saying anything, right? Yep. But if you're rocking a TWSBI Eco, you have made a certain choice. You have crossed a threshold into where I am comfortable just having like a basic conversation. Oh, it's clear you like fountain pens. This may be your only one and purple might be your favorite color and this is all you ever use in your life. And you know, that's great. But like that's where I'm going with the TWSBI Eco. So yeah. Very fair. Yep. So yeah, episode 650. Thank you all so much for being with us and hanging out with us. All these years, I told Myke I wanted to thank the Academy today, but even though we don't have anything special planned, but I just feel like that's always an enjoyable thing to say. But I did want to have a quick conversation, if you'll allow me a minute or two just to chat about social media and some of the challenges I'm personally having in this really world burning on fire moment that we're having, not just in the US, but around the world. And social media plays an outside role of all of our lives. And this isn't a this isn't a scripted statement I'm wanting to say, but I just really, really want y'all to, you know, take care of yourselves. Be kind to each other. Like that's, I mean, there's so, there's just so, so many people are so mad at each other. Everyone's mad at each other. Right. And like, even, even me saying that, I mean, I've learned this already in the last couple of weeks, even me saying, daring to say that people are mad at each other, not saying even who makes people mad at me. Let's just be calmer. Like, we just took after each other. You don't have to agree with each other. Just like, let's just be nice to each other. Is that too hard?
• Right. And like, you know, I know I'm preaching to the choir a little bit here and in things, but like, you really gotta, like, and again, I'm speaking for myself. I'm not telling anyone what to do, but like, I've really had to manage like my time on social media, like things like Instagram and, and, you know, I'm not on a lot of social media these days. It keeps winding down. I'm very focused. Mastodon seems to be the most comfortable home for me. I dabble in blue sky a little bit. I'm trying to post some of my images to those platforms as opposed to Instagram for now. We'll see. Who knows? But anyway, I just, I just, I just want to make sure everyone takes care of themselves. Part of my being nice thing. And this is something that I absolutely know that there'll be people in our audience that don't agree with me and I'm fine with that. Try and be chill with people that are just trying to make a living. Like, yeah, some of these platforms, there's kind of nothing we can do anymore. And so like, I know you're, I understand why you're, you're maybe not wanting to post to Instagram, but like, you also kind of need to like, realistically. And I just think we need to get some, some, like that, that is part of the grace of like, people can still agree with you and want to support you, but they may have to still participate in certain spaces that you might not like anymore. And that's cool. Like, and everybody should be able to make their own decisions, but like, you can't always be, you can't always just take your belief system and overlay it over somebody else's. Like it's, things just aren't as simple as that. I mean, let's not forget what it, what honestly, like, I mean, you know, I think it's, it's easy to say like for a lot of people in our audience, oh, like, let's not go back to 2016 to 2020. No, let's just like, think about the last 10 years, right? We can't, things are, things are getting real difficult on social media. And like, I just think it's easier if we will just be nice to each other. I'm with you. And like, I don't begrudge anyone for using any platform they need, especially when they're running a business. Like I totally get that. And like, I think like, I'm going to stick the flame here a little bit. Just, I think for an example for the way I try to manage it, and this doesn't mean how you should try to manage it or anyone should try to manage it, but let's take for a, let's take a penatic example and talk like Noodler's Inc. Right? Like I don't, I don't, every Noodler's Inc. post I see on social media, I don't go into the responses going, you shouldn't use Noodler's Inc. because of something I believe in. Right? Like you don't have to do, like, that's not helping my sanity. Right? Like that's not helping my stress levels to go in and tell everyone else what they should be doing all the time. Like I get that. And maybe you want to, maybe they're not informed and maybe you want to teach them. But when you do that like 10 times a day, it's like, what do you, I like take a break for a second. It's going to be okay. Focus on some real positive stuff. Share some of your positivity and not just like bringing down, um, others, you know, they just might not know or might not have these things. So, you know, share the things that you love out there on social media, you know, fight for the things you believe in. Like I'm always going to stand up for things that I believe in very strongly on social media. If you follow me, follow me, you know that. And like Myke says, be kind to others. Like, like it's, it's really, really tough right now, uh, for a lot of people. So just, uh, have a little bit of grace and, uh, little patience with others and, uh, help where you can. And, uh, just don't stay quiet, but you know, there's take care of yourself first. So there you go. Brad, let's get the politics out of our fountain pens. You know what I mean? Yeah. Come on, man. Come on. Let's get it out of here. Y'all can send me emails. Hello at penaddict.com. You can email me. I want to put ink in my fountain pen. Let's get the politics out. Get it out. Yeah. All right. Uh, speaking, this is political, Myke. Why can't I have the Lamy M17 Jetstream refill in the U S because you're not a cool Japanese person? That's the problem. I know. So I got a message from a retailer after we talked about last, last week, the Lamy M17. So the Lamy ballpoint, if you not caught up like last, last week, um, the Lamy ballpoint is going to start using, uh, having an option for an M17 refill, which is, um, there's their stock ballpoint refill is called the M16. The M17 is going to use Jetstream ink. I got a message from a retailer that they're not going to be able to order them in the U S a U S retailer, um, that they're going to be Japan only. And that stinks. I didn't consider it last when we were talking about it last, it makes sense. The way uni has handled these things in the past, just last year with the Jetstream light touch, right? That may or may not make it over to the U S market. You know, that hasn't me prevented me from getting them or anyone who wanted them getting them. Uh, it's just not as widely available. And hopefully that's just the beginning thing because this refill, I think is a huge jump from the M16 in that it should just be straight up replaced full product line replacement worldwide replacement. And I don't think it wouldn't make any experience worse, right? It's that good of a refill. Whereas when they had the Jetstream and the Jetstream light touch, it's less of a jump, right? Like I know I can tell the difference between the Jetstream and the Jetstream light touch, but is it that drastic of a difference for, you know, the normal person picking up in the shop? No, I don't think so. I think with the Lamy ballpoint, it would be a clear definitive upgrade that should just be universally across the product line, but we'll see. We'll see how that goes. But, um, Japan only from the beginning, we'll see. Uh, hopefully it's not Japan only. Like a name brand naming thing. Like, you know what I mean? Like, oh, maybe this product is called this here, so we're going to do it differently?
• The only thing I could think of, I, I, no, I don't. You get what I'm saying. I do. The only thing, there's not necessarily Jetstream brand name recognition outside of Japan. Hmm. I wonder if like, maybe, you know, like in America it's called the A14 refill, so. Yeah. Well, we're about to get, we're about to get to that in this next little follow-up here. All right.

Listener Feedback on Pen Recommendations

• What, what, what do we have here? This one's from Rodolfo who says, How did you miss the Univision Elite as a rollerball replacement for Lamy? It is my favorite ink that's not fountain pen. Awesome call out here, Rodolfo. So thank you for bringing that up. I, and I did, I totally missed that. Um, because, I missed it because the Uniball Vision Elite is in a weird spot and it always has been. So, in Uniball's product lineup, the Vision is their main rollerball ink. And I, I missed that last week too. So, this is all related.
• But I, I, the Vision has a lot of lovers. And, and what I was going to talk about, Myke, and in the rest of the world, the Uniball Vision is often called the Uniball Eye. So, like in the UK market, it's called the Uniball Eye. And that's a lot of people's favorite pen.
• Um, it's maybe, I don't know that it's my least favorite main band pen on the market, but it's pretty close. I actively dislike the Uniball Vision. The ink is very, very, very too, too, too wet, too bleedy, too feathery. The Uniball Vision Elite ink is far, far, far superior. But they make it a more expensive pen. The refills are practically an entire pen refill. It's one of the most ridiculous looking products I've ever seen.
• But if they, I would hope they would use the Vision Elite ink if they ever did something for Lamy, as opposed to the Vision ink, because I do think they're different.
• I, I just, I don't know what Uniball's stance is on the Vision Elite. It's kind of like a premium product that they don't do a lot with. They did a BLX series of the Elite probably five to seven years ago, where they did the black plus color combinations, which were amazing. You know, black plus purple, black plus green, black plus red, black plus blue. So they had that series for the Vision Elite, but they haven't done anything with it since. And it's just at such a premium compared to even like the sick, the good gel pens, like the Signo 207s. There's, it's still more expensive and harder to refill for people. So as much as I would love it, that, that would be, that would be a barn burner if they did that. I just kind of don't think they will, even though that would, that would be the clear, clear choice, like Rodolfo was saying. So last week, I, we were talking about Sprinkle Ops because you had the fountain pen. And I was wondering like, where did this start? And Chris wrote in to say, it came from a misspelling of desert warrior as dessert warrior. So this is from the American Knife and Tool Institute. They wrote an article about this. So in 2020, a company called Blade HQ were noticing that people, they were noticing that people were misspelling their popular desert warrior knife line while they were searching on their website. And they were often calling it like writing dessert warrior. So they were putting the wrong amount of S's in the word, where honestly now, like as I'm looking at them written down together, I'm getting confused. Okay. So desert is one S, dessert is two S, correct? Oh yeah. This makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And so they ended up as a joke making this kind of the Sprinkle Ops, as you see it, like the sprinkle kind of blue and all that kind of stuff. They made a knife in that color, one of their popular knives. And then it kind of caught on because people in 2020 were crazy, brother. I don't know if you know that. We were doing all kinds of things. So people had a bit of money in their pocket and they bought the knife with sprinkles on it and then flash forward five years and there's fountain pens. So that apparently, according to ACTI, the American Knife and Tool Institute, this is where this came from. Love it. That's where the best ideas happen, right? Happy accidents, right? Just fun. They were having a bit of fun and it turned out to be really popular. Yeah, that's great. Which I think is fantastic. I love this. These knives are so good. They look so good.
• Marty, like a couple of people at the pin show had this one, like so they could carry it with like the pin and the sparkle. Yeah. Sparkle Ops pin and knife combo. It's pretty great. I do say that, even though I like it, you said, I still find it weird the idea of people carrying knives around, but like that's just me. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even to match them up. Like I get it. But like, yeah, they do. Sure. You can get field notes in this colorway that I think Blade HQ worked with. And Blade HQ just now also sold just like a ton of merch. Oh my God, this is out of stock, but they have a kitchen knife collection. Oh my God, that looks so good. Some of the stuff on their website, it looks fantastic. Yeah, it looks like there's a Zippo in the picture. Yeah. They do everything. I mean, this is clearly like a big seller for them. It's a thing. It's a thing. Bags. I know there's a lot of bags and like pocket carry stuff. So fantastic. Because it's basically the Homer Simpson donut. Like that's the color. Yes. That's the color. Like that's the way it looks. Yeah. Man, it's so fun.

Discussion on Sailor Fountain Pens

• All right. Speaking of looks, Myke, I want to talk about sailor fountain pens real quick.
• Not always, but yes. I mean, I'm always willing to have the discussion, you know? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So side note, I almost bought another sailor at the Philly pen show I held off for now. I'm just like, you know, I don't know. I don't know. So I love sailors. But again, you know, my standard routine on sailors, it's like, it's just kind of the same thing over and over again. So I noticed just recently when I was just kind of looking around at fountain pens, I saw this plus X sailor pro gear slim fountain pen, the jellyfish one. So it's plus X sailor or sailor X plus, depending on the links you go to.
• I find this weird. So this is, I had to look this up a little bit, did a little bit of research. This is the eighth plus X sailor release that they've done. And I find it strange because plus is the owner of sailor.
• And it's kind of breaking my head. It's like, why isn't it called? I don't know what they're doing here. Why is a plus pen different than any like sailor thing? Is it just like a marketing so they can get the X in there? Yes. Even though it's straight marketing, right? Like this would be like. The X doesn't mean anything. People listen to this show know my feelings on this. It doesn't mean nothing. That's why I brought it up. But I could like, I should just, the next pen I should make just be the pen addict X pen addict pen. Well, I mean. Like it's the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean. Just for marketing. Well, actually Brad, what it would be. I mean, this isn't the same, but the closest I imagine you could get to is like pen addict by spoke.
• Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Sure. Which when I say that. Except there's no ownership though. Yeah. But you own both of them. I do not. I mean like not. You have ownership of both of them. Right. So like that's. I'm a participant. I feel like that's kind of the closest. Because we don't know how sailor is runs in the plus structure. They may kind of run as an independent subsidiary. Yeah. Right. So like it may actually require meetings between both teams to agree that they're going to do this. You know. Yeah. So yeah. I think. I think. I do think you should do a pen addict by spoke pen. Yeah. I'm actually using an orange spoke today. I'm actually using an orange spoke today. That'd be pretty fun. Yeah. There you go. Pen addict X Brad. That's what Lisa in the chat says. Pen addict X Brad. That's. That's. Do you own Brad?
• Technically. Yes. Interesting. I own Bradley with no E. That's what I own. Yeah. Okay. I mean. That makes sense. So this is all like my jokey set up to the actual comment I want to make on this. This is what I want to see from sailor going forward. It's good looking. And I don't want this to be a limited edition or I want this to be broader releases. I almost want sailor. So like sailor just came out with this year's like manual set, right? It's five more pro gear slims and all these great, like every single one of them is fantastic looking. It's just, you know, we're going to have 20 of these in the first quarter of the year, right? All in the same kind of mold. The jellyfish has the same kind of barrel idea, you know, with the different translucent sections and the different colors, like what we'd see like in the, I'll just say the manual setup of right now, because that seems to be a popular one. But then they have this added artwork on the outside of the barrel. Um, and it looks great. Tells a little bit of story, ties it in with an ink. And I feel like sailor could actually, I would actually like to see more of this to where they do almost like one of these a quarter as opposed to 20, you know, mix and match pro gears a quarter. I don't know. Like I was actually pretty compelled by this pen was my reason for putting it in here. And it's something I would like to see sailor do more of in a wider scale. It's like, what do I want from sailor? That's different. And this feels a little bit different for me. Um, it's just still sailor is just such a high volume, similar release, you know, cycle that they're in been in for years. There's like not a lot of differentiates, um, each particular sailor than, you know, you going to find the particular color that's, that speaks for you. And then like you're, you're covered. This I think adds in a little bit more and I don't know, I'm, I'm interested not in like buying this pen. I'm interested in the idea, even though they've been doing this for a while. Like I said, this is the eight plus X sailor pen. Um, I would like to see a regular lineup stops type. Oh, I should say a broader release like platinum 3776. When they do their special editions, they'll get on a run where they'll release like, you know, for a year. Right. And they'll do like a huge number. They'll do like 3,776. Right. And like, I am more interested in that than, you know, 20 sailors every quarter of the year and, and having that like volume. So I don't know, it's, it's not going to change anything. It's just me wish casting a little bit, but that's a long way of me saying, I really like what they did here and I would like to see more of it. I mean, I don't know.
• Is this, is this scalable? This design? Like, is this hand done? No, no, no. I mean, I'm saying no, there's no way this is hand done. This has to be some type of like, I don't, it's not, uh, it's way too inexpensive to be hand done. Okay. So it's just a little bit of a premium and it comes with things. So this is like three 40. So it's maybe like a hundred dollars more than the standard pro gears. Like, but for a limited edition with the extra work, I don't think this is. It's super good looking for something that isn't hand done. I'll say that. Yeah. Yeah. It comes with an ink. Um, one weird comment I wanted to make on this.
• Yeah. Nib sizes.
• What if I told you your only choices anywhere you go? This isn't a vendor specific thing. The options for this pen in nibs, and this is a 14k, uh, pro gear, slim nib, extra fine, medium, fine, and broad. Truly chaotic.
• Right? Like it's chaotic.
• It's a chaos nib selection. I don't understand that part of this whole thing. No medium and no fine. No medium, no fine. Extra fine.
• Surely if you're offering three, you would go broad, medium, fine. No, no, no. Denied. I, I'm a little bit, I went and checked other retailers. Like I was looking around, I was like, that's what it comes, that's the availability. So I, I understand why they have a lower availability because it's a custom nib. Right? So that, that part makes sense to me. Right? That like, maybe they didn't want to do all the nibs. Right? They wanted to, to, to limit it. And when these things happen, I just tell myself, because I, you know, I see this kind of stuff of Apple a lot too. Right? Or just like any big company. They have the numbers. They know. But it still doesn't make sense to me. But, but Saylor must've felt confident that for this pen, what they should offer was extra fine, medium, fine, and broad, even though it doesn't make any sense to me. Right? But they must know. I mean, I've got to, I've got to, I have to tell myself they must know because otherwise somebody just like tripped, fell on the keyboard and then this is what we ended up with.
• Yeah. That was super interesting. I enjoyed that. I enjoyed being that. Correct. Just like incredible. You know who, you know who carries a sailor fountain pens, Myke? Me?
• You and our good friends at Penn Chalet. Of course. Penn by Chalet as we call them now. Yes. Penn X Chalet. Penn X Chalet. This episode of the Penn Addict is brought to you by Penn Chalet. They sell the products that you're looking for from the brands that you love. Whether you do want to go and pick up a new sailor pro gear, or maybe you want something from Pelican, or maybe you want something from Lamy or Pilot. It doesn't. Look, just go to the website and go to the brands list. Massive. Scrolls forever. Because they're always adding new styles of pens, new products every single month. And every two weeks, you're going to find great discounts, as well as the special discounts that you get because you're a listener of this show. They're not just selling fountain pens. You can buy anything at Penn Chalet. Any type of pen, any type of writing instrument that you like, or all of the accessories that you'll be looking for. Whether you want some new ink, or a carrying case, or a converter. It doesn't matter. Maybe you want a new notebook. It doesn't matter what you want to find, because they got it. They have fast and reliable customer service. Free shipping on orders of over $75 in the US, with great shipping rates overseas, too. Penn Chalet has low prices on high quality products, and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So, go to PennChalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com slash Penn Addict. You'll get 10% off anything at Penn Chalet, and see some exclusive offers for listeners of this show. What have we got, Bradley? So, this one's tripping me out because I haven't seen it before. And I got asked a similar question about a similar pen just this week. So, Magna Carta.
• They've come on the scene in the last few years making really nice acrylic pens. A lot of them. They got popular early because they were one of the first to make the number 8 size nibs widely available, like as an option for their pens. So, they have this one at Penn Chalet, which I hadn't seen before. It's called the Magna Carta Urban Fude Fountain Pen. And I'm looking at it, and it ships with like a steel Fude nib and a nice acrylic barrel. And the price is like really good.
• I'm pretty compelled by this. This is like a deal of a deal. And you get something cool with the Fude nib. If you haven't used a Fude nib, go take a look at this pen, and you can see it's like this turned up nib. It's supposed to mimic like traditional Japanese brush strokes. But they actually work really, really well as general character-filled writing nibs. And it's not something you get with a pen often. A lot of times you have to get special add-ons, you know, get a special nib tuned or turned or built for that specific thing. And to have it as a stock option in an acrylic fountain pen is actually pretty freaking cool. And I'm kind of digging this. The other stuff, they got some great inks. The Kyoto and Three Oysters inks, which we've seen in there before.
• The Lamy All-Star Ballpoints. This is where I mentioned that you can go get your ballpoint in preparation for a future Japanese Jetstream refill option. And the Caran d'Ache Fix pencil, always one of my favorites out there. Lamy Studio Ballpoint pens are on here, which is a really neat one that you don't see too often because it's a beautiful pen. And yeah, gosh, I'm not even close to the bottom of this list. Oh, there's wearing old inks in here. Nice. You don't normally see those.
• Yeah, you don't normally see these. The World Literature Collection has a bunch of great colors in there. So I'll be checking that out once we get done today. Penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com slash penaddict. Our thanks to Penchalet for their support of Relay and the Penaddict. All right, Myke, we got our shout out of the week. Shout out of the week.
• I almost just started jumping in too early. I was waiting for the last second before I knew you were going to jump in. Yep. I actually kind of like hitched a little second. But surprise visit on Twitch, Brian Anderson, Anderson Penco, appeared. Was it Monday night or Tuesday night, which I missed, but a lot of people told me Tuesday. It must have been Monday morning. Appeared with his first stream on Twitch, and he was doing pen repair. So he's always been a great repair person in the pen world. So I have Brian's Twitch channel. If you are someone who likes Twitch streams, go give him a follow. Set the alerts. I don't know when he's streaming or if he's going to ever do it again. But I wanted to throw that out there that this would be really, really fun to go see and learn what Brian's up to, especially from like a repair perspective. If he's going to do more of that on Twitch, I would love to see it. So go follow. Check it out. Very fun.

New Product Releases from Favorite Brands

• All right. We have a bunch of new releases all this week, pretty much, or within the last week, from some of our favorite brands. First one up here, the CW&T Pencil Type C, Myke. So I'm a pen type C fan. So this is the little rectangular flip pen where you like, I don't even know how to explain this. You have to go look at this. If you haven't heard me talk about this before, the pen type C is a pen that I've used a lot in my time. And I love it. And it really works for me. So they've modified that style using the same essential silhouette and the same concept to make a pencil version of this pen, of the pen. So Pencil Type C.
• And I actively dislike this. I don't know any other way to say it. Wow.
• Huh. Okay. It breaks my brain in weird ways. I want to like this. What could possibly be wrong with it?
• The knock is throwing me off a lot. It's like, I get it. Like, I love, there's no one that loves CW&T more than this guy right here.
• I don't know about that anymore, you know? I know. I'm on the list now. So, same way he's going to email me. He's like, Brad, I thought we were friends. I genuinely, I can't get my head around how if you like the pen type C, you wouldn't like this. Like, it's very weird to me. Maybe you're just too familiar with it. So, like, a change in the form is upsetting to you. I don't know. Yeah. So, what this doesn't have, I think, okay, so I think maybe the deal is, is this doesn't have the flip wire, right? Because then it would interfere with the knock. And that's the whole point. So, the tip is always exposed on this. Right. Where with the pen, it's always, it's visually exposed, but it's protected by the flip wire. Like, we'll have to get, so if you scroll all the way down, there's a section called siblings, and it actually shows, so people are looking. Why can't they put the flip wire on this? Because it'll get in the way of the knock. You would have to kind of work your way within the wire. But doesn't the wire, like, sit higher than the pen body, or does it push down? It's, no, it's high. It's, which is a beautiful part of extending the pen. Yeah, I don't understand how it would interfere. Like, maybe I can't get my head around it. But, like, when I look at these two side by side, there is so much clearance for the wire. Yeah. And it's not like you're constantly having to click the knock, right? Oh, because you would have to get your thumb in there. And, yeah, see, I don't think that would be a problem. Right, because you're not actively doing it every 30 seconds, right? Yeah. Yeah. And why didn't they put it on there? So, I don't know. This one's tripping me out a little bit. And, like, I should love this. I should be, like, I should have banged that back button, Myke. Backed that project. The funny thing is, this is the first time I've ever considered one of them. Like, it's not for me still. It's not for me still. But this is the first time where I'm like, oh, okay, I can see it. Because the pen type B, is it the B?
• It's the pen type C is the same model. Okay. The B is the tube guy? The one with the big sleeve. The B is the tube, yeah. Yeah. And the A is the block. Yeah. The ruler block. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The triangular guy. Yeah.
• It just, to me, I don't think I would enjoy holding it. Like, I've always kind of felt that way. Sure. But I know people love it. And I love that. I love that people love it. Yeah. I see what you're saying about The Wire. I'm just, I'm surprised that you don't like it. That is odd to me. That is odd to me. I don't hate it. I just don't want it.
• I'm not going to, I am not interested in it. Which means now, again, like, it's going to show up in my mailbox. Like, if they still listen to the show. Like, it's just going to arrive one day. With a mean note. It's going to come through the windows attached to a brick, you know? I wouldn't be surprised if Saewe just did one with a clip and just sent it to me. Like, with the wire. Just sent it to me. Just like duct tape on the side, you know?
• Actually, they do sell a box cutter blade holder. So, maybe they'll just send me that instead. There you go. Here, try this instead, Brad. So, anyway. It's interesting. Like, I just can't get there with it. I can't get there with it. Okay. Shout out to them, though. Like, don't stop, right? Don't stop. Like, they're just out of hand with this stuff. But I love it. If I do buy this pencil eventually, I'll just wait until they do, like, the other colors. Right? So, the pen type C ended up becoming so popular that they do all kinds of weird colors and fun anodizes and stuff with that. So, we'll see. But I'm going to pass on this one. The next one, Myke.
• Studio Neat Limited Edition 014. Man.
• This is rad. Let me tell you what I love and hate about this.
• It's the same thing, which is just how good their marketing imagery is.
• And I'm going to put a link in the show notes to their Instagram post where they have some different photos, like ones that I love even more. I'm glad you said that. They do such a good job with their imagery at Studio Neat, and I'm so jealous of it, you know? But, like, they just, they crush it. And they really understand it. Like, there's this one post on their Instagram where it's, like, the pen on this, like, squiggly background. Yep. And also, the Mark II in this, I actually like more. This is the first time I've, I haven't totally paid attention to all the Mark II releases. This is the first time I've seen, like, the full, the full kitted out Mark II. So, maybe there's some other versions with that, but I don't recall. That is a newer thing if this is not the first time, is my understanding. Okay. They've actually had, like, the whole family. Because you could also get a Mark III in this colorway, too. Yeah. Actually, I think that's the most compelling of this, is the Mark III. It's just really expensive for a mechanical pencil. I was like, I'd rather just buy the pen at that price. Because I think I would use the pen more. But, actually, I kind of like the Mark III in this color. But I wanted to point up the squiggly imagery, because that needs to be on the product page with all the trapper keepers and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I went to go find that to show someone yesterday, and I went to the product page, because that's the first image that I saw. And that image tripped me out.
• And I went to go, I was like, you got to see this image. And I went to this page. I was like, oh, it's not on there. I had to go over to Instagram and grab it. So, throw that up there on the product page. And then, what I want, Myke, is the next pen, or maybe a year from now, I want them to flip that image and do a squiggly line pen.
• And have a green background. I don't think they've done anything like that. They've never done a pattern pen. Yeah, they've never done a pattern pen. Maybe you can't do it. Do you know what, Brad? I don't know if you can do that with Cerakote.
• Yeah, maybe not. I think you'd have to. I mean, I don't know. Actually, I'm probably wrong there, because I bet those Sprinkle Ups, that's all Cerakote. Yeah. So, I'm sure you can do it. I don't know how. I don't know what the process is. So, that would be very, not off-brand, but everything's been pretty solid or kind of like sparkly, like singular. I would hazard a guess that they would say that that was off-brand, but I think they should do it too. Because that's all I could think about is like, I want the pens with the squiggly lines. Because that image did everything for me. That image made me want this pen, which, you know, is very good. Like, I appreciate that kind of execution. It's great. So, next one, Myke, Tactile Turn Groove. So, this is their quarterly release, seasonal release. I guess this is winter. This is a really neat concept where they've taken, you know, your standard vinyl look. And if anyone can kind of pull off this look, it's Tactile Turn because their barrel is already kind of a grooved base barrel. So, they just leaned into it a little bit with, I guess you would call it track spacing. Which is genius. Yes. Yeah. Like, so... There are many people, I think including me, who would have just been like, let's just do lines down the pen. To add the track lines where they're just, it's thicker. That is very smart. That is very smart. So, I had to go look. So, the question is, is like, is this a real album that they took it from? And I found it in the copy. It says, fun fact, the track gap spacing on the pen bodies exactly matches side A from one of our favorite albums. Bonus points, if you can somehow figure it out. Impossible. That's an impossible task. Impossible.
• Bonus points? See, give that person a check. Like, you know what I mean? Jeez. Yeah, you should get one of each of the set of this pen if you can actually answer that question. So, I thought that was pretty great. Put up the bounty, Tactile Turn. Stop being a chicken.
• So, I actually have one of these on the way from Tactile Turn. They're sending me.
• Usually, when they send it to me, I can pick which model I want. So, they did two different ones. So, they did like your traditional black vinyl, and then they did like a limited edition. You know how a lot of vinyl now, like I'm not a vinyl person, but I follow like music, obviously. And a lot of vinyls will have like the colorful, wild, limited edition pores on the wax. So, they have like a limited edition LP. But that just looks like a standard anodized pen, even though it's got the groove. So, I went for the black. Like, I went for like the traditional one. And I got the full size one this time because I wanted the maximum grooviness. So, I'll be checking this out. I'll be reviewing this one sometime down the line. But I'm very, very happy with the execution on this one. They've been, just like Studio Neat and CWT, they all do such a good job. That's why we talk about them so much, just because I'm impressed with the total packages that they put out. It is very impressive to be able to have enough good ideas and execute them on that frequency. Yeah. And I will say, just in a general sense, both Tactile Turn and Studio Neat, I think, do their limited editions right where there's a buying window. Right? Like, it's not always available, but it's not limited to like the, you know, the first 200 people that smash the button and are able to get in there. If you want the pin, you have a time to consider if you would like to purchase it.
• And, you know, like I'm good with that. Especially companies that do like quarterly releases. Like, that's the best way to do it. As I say, we're making 500 and that's it in general. So, I like how they do that. But that's a lot of work. That's an insane amount of work to do. You don't know how fast quarters come around. It makes it so sustainable from a business perspective to do it that way because you're not taking risks. Right? Exactly. I mean, of course, you have to make a minimum, which is complicated. But then you have your stock products on top of that to kind of like stabilize everything. So, yeah. No, I think it's smart. I think it's smart. So, there you go. Next one, Myke. Last one for today. My turn. New product. What you got? Your turn. We've been teasing these for a while. It took a little bit longer to come together as these things often do. We have two new layouts of our Sidekick product. We now have a whole family. So, we have four of our wonderful desk notepads sit between you and your keyboard. So, we have the Sidekick notepad, which is the OG. We followed it up with Sidekick Calendar Companion last year. And now we have Sidekick Planner and Sidekick Freeform. Sidekick Freeform is basically a blank page. It's got a date box along the top and some guide markers around the edge if you want to divide the page up a little bit. And then Sidekick Planner is what is the exact opposite of Sidekick Freeform. Sidekick Planner is the most structure we've ever put on a page. I kind of think of this one as a bit of like a command center. You have a space to put your schedule so you can write down your calendar for the day, like all your meetings and stuff. You have three priorities. A box of three priorities because nobody should have more than three priorities in a day. If you have, then you need to cut some. So, you've got some notes and then also a place for your tasks as well. So, this kind of can be your kind of like command center for what you want your data to look like. So, they're both now available in somewhat limited quantities but not super limited quantities over at cortexbrand.com. And I'll also include in the show notes, Gray made a YouTube video kind of showing these off a little bit if you want to see that. Nice. Nice. And I like how you do the little Sidekick stampings a little bit different. Different foil colors. On some of the products. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool. So, notepad is clear but we're probably going to change that to black because it looks black so we're going to make it more black. And then calendar is silver, free form is gold and planner is bronze and the bronze one is my favorite that we've done. The silver also looks really good but the bronze is a nice, nice, nice color. Love it. Love it, love it, love it. Now available. Now available. As of yesterday, like literally just now available. Yeah, it's an interesting thing because we're now into the more than before because now we're four of them. I don't, this is like a new era and I don't really know what it's going to be like of managing SKUs. Yeah. Because we now have a bunch to keep in stock.
• Yep. Which we didn't have before and so that's going to be interesting and I expect rocky for a little while. Because it's like, go on. I was going to say, can I put you on the spot real quick? When are the small notebooks coming? I have already placed my first order. Okay. So, those are really cool. Those are going to be a good addition to the product lineup. Yes. So, we've been working on this for ages called Psychic Pocket. This was easier to do first because it's done.
• But I'm hoping they should be finished next month. It's going to significantly crash with my paternity, clash with my paternity leave. True, true, true. But that's fine. It was kind of by design. I kind of think by the time that they will be ready to be on sale, it will be fine for me to do it. Because my paternity leave is a bit structured in a weird way, the way that I'm going to do it. And so, I'm hoping towards the end of March, we'll have the first stock of those on sale. And then I have one more product this year that I'm not talking about yet. But that one I'm like mega excited about. Nice. I know. I need to get myself in gear with some products I want to do this year too. So, I started the process on one of them. And then I have a couple other things I want to work on. So, we'll see. We'll see. All right. You want to wrap with one or two STPAs? Yeah.
• Let's hit this one at the top. And I think that will be our last one today. Because it's also kind of a bit of follow-up. Yes. This comes from Sarah. And so, this is kind of referencing ink. So, Sarah says. I think it's more of a statement. I'm just going to get your opinion. Well, this was. So, the setup was last week. We had a listener that was listening from like 2015 to 2017. It stopped. Yes. Okay. And so, we were discussing. So, yeah. I can read. Let me read this one. Because it's kind of a follow-up. And we were saying like, hey, what did you miss? And Sarah basically emailed us like, oh my gosh. You missed inks. And I was like, yeah. So, this is Sarah's note. It says. The inks in has positively exploded since 2017. I think that was right when Diamine did their first shimmertastics. And now you can't turn around without bumping into a cool shimmer ink. And now we have ranges like Sailor Ink Studio. Not to mention things like Diamine Ink Vent. And then all these new brands. You know. Colorverse. Wearing Old. I'm not going to read the whole list. Pannonia. Dominant. Ferris Wheel Press. Linen Toolbar. Linen Toolbar. Like, it's. The inks have exploded. And I overlooked that one answering that question. That's a clear, clear difference. You don't want the inks to explode, Brad. You don't want that. You don't. Unfortunately, all the inks exploded. We now have no ink. We're in a post-apocalyptic ink wasteland. That happened in 2019.
• So, yeah. But if you were just following this from 2015 to 2017, the ink landscape is so different. So different than. Yeah. That is.

Changes in the Ink Landscape Over Time

• I think, funnily enough, I would actually say that is probably the biggest thing that has changed. Yeah. Like, now reflecting on it, of like, there are new products from brands that you know, and they're doing new things. But like, if you think about where have the majority of new companies formed, it's probably an ink. Right?
• Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure that we could list. I mean, I don't know. There's like 15 brands here. Do you feel like you could list 15 pen makers that have been from 2017 that are all doing great work at a good scale? Hmm.
• Probably not. I think that's harder to do. Like, I'm not counting. I wouldn't count small makers. I would count companies like on the scale of like a Leonardo, right? Sure. Like, I think that's one that I brought up last week. Like, on that scale, are there 15 companies doing that type of work?
• You know, smaller makers, yeah, probably. But like, yeah. So, no. Even for small makers, what I'm getting at is, not like here are a bunch of companies that we found. But like, all of these brands, these ink brands here, the ones you mentioned, they're all making products frequently that you've used a bunch of and they're all good. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Super high consistency. Yep. Quality. Yep. It's real good. So, yeah. That was definitely something we missed.
• If we ever do miss anything else, just go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send it in by follow-up feedback. Or if you have any questions for us to do for Ask TPA or more, you can always go there and send those in. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com, twitch.tv slash penaddict. And he's on social media as penaddict. I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Or not. I mean, I said that and it's not always that. It's actually find me. Just find me. Whatever, man. Just get off my back. Find me. Go to cortexbrand.com, relay.fm. We didn't change the website URL because that would be truly bonkers to do. Oh, no. Yes. And also, we call it relay.com. So, we're still relay.fm, but we are relay. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Pen Addict. We're back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.