The Pen Addict 665/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	665
Title:	There Are Four Zentos
Release Date:	May 14th, 2025
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 665
Audio File:	Audio Episode 665
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 665
Length:	8181 min <br />1.35 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Introduction and Sponsors[edit]

From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 665. Today's show is brought to you by The St. Louis Pen Show, Canalea Penco, and Enigma Stationario. My name is Myke, Enigma Stationario, they paid us. I've got to do it correctly. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. Yeah, this is how the pre-show started as well, except it was on my side, you know, just behind the scenes. I'm a little fired up today for literally no good reason, other than I got to talk about pens and stationery. And that gets me fired up, and apparently, I have contaminated Myke. We have cross-pollinated, and he is equally as losing his mind now. I think I'm just a little loopy today. I just think I'm a little loopy. What's going on? I mean, that's fair. That's fair. Like, I mean, why not be? Loopy's a good way to be, so. All right. And we have some good topics for Loopy, which is interesting that this first topic is the most probably straightforward one we're going to talk about today. And then we'll kind of get into the madness that I'm living in right now with other stationery products. But I wanted to revisit a product I think I talked about while you were gone because the news of it dropped. It's the Platinum 3776 Mountain Mist fountain pen. And so, you and I, obviously big Platinum fans, we have for years talked about their various special editions that they've created. They've created some beautiful ones, like the nice Lelus always pops up. The Kumpu always pops up as some of, like, the best designs that they've ever made. And those have generally come, well, not generally, those have definitively come directly from Platinum in Japan. And they'll do, you know, they're essentially worldwide releases for these. And, you know, they're, you know, not super limited. They usually, since it's the 3776 and it's Mount Fuji is 3,776 meters tall, they'll make 3,776 pins. So, that's just kind of the background if you're not familiar with Platinum's exclusives. So, here in the U.S., their distributor is called Luxury Brands, and I'm good friends with them. And it was neat to see that they were able to work with Platinum in Japan, the mothership, to do a U.S. exclusive.
Even though I feel, again, this is a worldwide market. This is not a highly limited edition. You know, just like if Platinum released 3,776 pins in Japan, I could get one if I wanted to, right? So, yeah.
But, again, it was kind of cool that this was the focus. I guess it's limited to who can distribute it, right? So, like, as a customer, you can buy it from places that will ship worldwide. But it's just like the distribution of that pin is only going to go to retail that is located within the geographic boundary that they're set, I guess. Yes. And that's a great way to put it. And, you know, there's lots of companies that do this. And, you know, Sailor has done this in the past. Pilot, I don't think they've necessarily done a U.S. exclusive, but Pilot's distributor here in the U.S. gets to design the Vanishing Point limited edition every other year. Like, that's one thing they get to do. So, there's always kind of this give and take of, hey, the parent company in Japan, especially I'm speaking of Sailor, Pilot, and Platinum, working with distributors around the world to do regional editions. And what this shows is that the company, Platinum, and in other cases Sailor and Pilot, have belief that they can deliver a really good product through these distributors here in the U.S. And I'm obviously speaking in a very U.S.-centric because I know these people behind these distributorships, right, and how kind of this stuff works. And it's not always easy to execute this. And I'm sure this was a couple years in the works. And what I'm curious about, Myke, is what you think about this design of the Mountain Mist, because it's a little bit of an outlier for a couple of reasons we'll go into. But I just want to talk about what you think about the pen. So, at first, like, the image that is on the kind of lead image on the Goldspot website that we have in the show notes, whereas the pen is in front of, like, I guess the inspiration image for it, which is – I don't think they picked the right inspiration image, but I get what they're going for. Like, it's fine. It's like whatever. But then in the Instagram link, there's an actual, like, photo of the pen sitting on some rocks. And, yeah, it looks like a winner. I really like the frosted look of the two kind of separate pieces, the blue kind of body and the gray cap. I think it's really nice, and the special nib engraving looks really good, too. Like, that nib engraving is doing a lot of work for kind of evoking the image that they show of the kind of, like, mountain range or whatever.
Yeah, I'm not sure that this pen, like, really gets to the brief, right, of, like, a misty mountain range. But I like the – if you just kind of decouple it from that, I think this is a really, really good-looking platinum. I think – I like the colors that they've chosen, the gray and the blue, and I really like the kind of frosted look of it. Yeah, so the concept is based on the Blue Ridge Mountains in the U.S., and, you know, it has that kind of blue haze. But, again, once you get into mountains, you're always seeing, like, green and trees and things like that. It's not, like, a high-peak mountain, like a snow-capped mountain range, like, you know, Mount Fuji, which is, like, a singular in nature. You know, Blue Ridge being a range of, you know, thousands of miles.
So, yeah, like, I don't think Blue Ridge Mountains, but I do think Mountain Mist, and, like, I think the naming's good. The nib is – obviously, the nib is unbelievable.
And it took – it's one of those nibs when you – if you have – it's a no – if you have a no context on this nib, it's like, oh, this is a cool tiger pen.
But then you – as soon as you look at it, you go, oh, yeah, that's the – and understand the concept of the pens. It's like, oh, yeah, that's the mountain range and, like, the valley and the range, and it's kind of set off perfectly. I really wanted to see this pen in person because of the matte finish and the colors they used. There are actually four different tone sections in this pen, which is hard to pick up until you get this. So, you have the blue barrel and the gray cap, okay? The two finials are a lighter gray than the cap. And then the grip section is smooth, clear acrylic, which is better for gripping. Matt, I didn't even think of this. Is the texture of the body different, do you think, to a typical – because I just wondered if it's, like, frosted on the inside. No, it's on the outside. So, it's not really – it's not aggressively matte. It's more satiny. Yeah. But it does have the texture. You know, it's got that texture. But the grip section is completely smooth, clear acrylic, which is better for gripping, right? Your fingers, at least in my case, tend to grip better on the smooth acrylic. So, I'm actually more impressed with this pen in person than in pictures. The pictures, I was like, yeah, this is cool. But, like, I'm really – I really want to see this in person to see how this works. And it really – it does work because I'm someone who likes these patchwork type of pens, right, where you get different pieces in different areas and kind of put them all together. I like these kind of fun designs where it's not necessarily singular in nature. You know, like the Kumbu was the classic singular in nature pen where it was all teal with the rhodium trim, but it had, like, the waves going through it. It was sick. Like, it was one of the best they've ever done. And this is kind of, like, a different tact. They have done this type of pen where the caps and the finials and the barrel are all different colors. And maybe even matte in the Japanese market, there's some with, like, brighter colors. And I forget, you know, they might do them for pen clubs or shop-exclusive things like that. So, it's interesting. It's fun. I really enjoy it. So far, I just unboxed it yesterday. And I do not have it inked up yet, Myke. So, I'm trying to sort out, like, how I would do that.

Ink Selection Discussion[edit]

What ink I'm going to choose. It's pretty much, like, a no-wrong-answer type of pen, but I'm going to go full-on matchy. So, we've got to go blue or gray or blue-gray or something in that category.
So, I'm going to try to figure that out. Do I go with just a straight gray? Do I go with, like, a blue-black? I mean, I could throw in the classic, famous platinum Mount Fuji ink in there, which seems like it would break. Like, I would probably, like, open up a fissure in the space-time continuum using the Mount Fuji ink in the Blue Ridge Mountain pen.
I don't know. I don't know. So, what would you put in here? I don't think I would match. Yeah. I think that's kind of been the consensus, but I'm bucking that consensus on this one. I think I would want, like, a foresty green kind of color. Damn it. That's what everyone else says. Yeah. You've got to put in the mountain that isn't there, you know?
I mean, the color I would choose for this would be pink. Like, pink would be awesome in this. Huh. Like, a magenta-y pink, but that doesn't evoke what I want out of this pen. So, it's funny, as I listen to myself rave about this pen. Like, if Sailor didn't do this every other day, I would talk about Sailor pens like this pretty frequently.
Right? Well, we used to. But Platinum doesn't. Yeah, we used to. But Platinum doesn't do this every other day. So, here I am, like, raving about a pen for five minutes where I love Sailors, but it's like, every time I turn around, there's another one. Like, yes, I rave about them, but, like, it's not new news anymore. So, this was a cool little injection of life into the Platinum lineup I felt was pretty good. And I think it's been pretty well-received. I think people are digging it so far. So, I will report back next week on what ink I choose. It's going to disappoint you. It just is. I plan on disappointing you by next week. It's going to be some Platinum blue black. Because everyone, so many people said Forest Green, and I'm just very not feeling that at all. Like, that has, I mean, almost 0% chance of happening. Like, at least in this first run of inking. So, you know, I might capitulate the second time, but I don't want to fill it and be mad and then have to clean it out immediately and put in what I wanted the first time. So, we'll just go with this. We'll report back. I think it's a difficult task to fill this pen, unlike some others. I'm very happy to say, Brad, that today's episode is brought to you in part by the Saint Louis Pen Show.

Saint Louis Pen Show Overview[edit]

It's back. Let's go. It's Saint Louis Pen Show season, baby. Let's go. The exposition. Wait, let me get my mug.
The exposition de Stilo Saint Louis is back for another year. If you love the feel of cursive writing with a fountain pen or documenting your thoughts and ideas through journaling or, hey, even just doodling. The 2025 Saint Louis Pen Show is the place for you. It's Thursday, June 26th through Sunday, June 29th. And this year, their Friday night event includes a vintage pen panel, a, quote, pen tasting. You can work that out for yourself. Yes. And a free dessert party. Especially don't get the pen tasting and dessert party mixed up. There are some exciting new classes for 2025, including writing with a quill. You also learn copper plate, cursive, flourishing, book binding, letterpress, and card making. There will be classes on the four types of journaling and a class on celebrity signatures and how to make yours special. Or you can sit in on the significance of writing with Brian and Lisa Anderson. There are over 20 classes over four days. So there's something for everyone. Okay. So you're probably thinking, I love the sound of this. How can I get there? The Saint Louis Pen Show is at the Sheraton Westport Lakeside Chalet on the beautiful Westport Plaza. There's plenty of free parking, loads of restaurants, and it's just 10 minutes from the airport. You can also get a special pen show room rate of $143. Breakfast included. Oh, man. I love it when the breakfast is included, Brad. It's like one of those. Same, same. That means there's going to be a sick buffet. That's what that means. Well, I actually don't know that, so don't quote me on that. That's usually what that means, but who knows what the breakfast is like at the Westport Plaza, Sheraton Westport Lakeside Chalet. There will be 95 vendors from 42 different states at the show, including Sailor, Pens Empire, Retro 51, and Specialty Hues, as well as Artisan Pens and Pencils from Countrymade, Heinz, Derail Pens, and Magnolia, and so much more. Go and check out the St. Louis Pens Show website at stlpenshow.com. You can find a link in the show notes to that as well. You can buy your tickets at $10 per day admission, $20 for a weekend pass, and $30 for a trader pass for all show access. For a fun-filled and educational weekend, don't miss the St. Louis Pens Show this June. Visit stlpenshow.com for all information and tickets. That is stlpenshow.com. Our thanks to the St. Louis Pens Show for the support of this show and all of Relay. And we got a late addition to the ad read, Myke. Oh, I love it. Right before publication.
We have some online exclusive-only St. Louis Pens Show t-shirts that are going to be available pre-show, so you can get them and wear them to the show. So they are the Got Ink t-shirts. We'll have a link in the show notes. All kinds of different colors with, you know, maybe a horror story type of situation, ink spill going on on the front. I've seen that. But you can pick your favorite ink color. I can get orange if I want it. You know, there's purple, there's blue, royal, gray, burgundy, all the things out there. So Got Ink. If you can't even attend the St. Louis Pens Show, you can get a shirt. I love this t-shirt so much. I think this is hilarious. I've got to say just in general, St. Louis Pens Show, heck of a team over there. Great sense of humor, if you remember from last year, which is why I like shouting St. Louis. The Exposition to Stilo, St. Louis. I have a great mug that you brought from London to me in London, I think. Yes. Yeah. I brought it last year. So I have learned there will be another mug this year. It will not be the same design. So just keep your eyes peeled for that. I hope it still carries with it the flavor. You never know. You never know. I mean, do you have faith in this show? I do. Because, I mean, when you lead the show content with all the fun classes and activities you can do, just count me in. I'm going to disappoint my wife one year and go to the St. Louis Pens Show. Because that's the running joke that I've mentioned a thousand times. It's always my wife's birthday week or weekend. So I'm never home or I'm never free to travel to a Pens Show. So that's the running joke. And, you know, one year, you know, maybe I'll save that for like, you know, a couple years, you know, when she hits like a, you know, a real landmark birthday. I was like, honey, we're going to St. Louis for your birthday. Buckle up. Pens Show time. I definitely had forgotten the reason that it would disappoint your wife. I was like, has she got like a feud coming on?
The Pens Show organizer's like, what's the deal? Yeah. Yeah. So she's not a fan of St. Louis. You know, dislikes the Mississippi River.
You know, it's just very. She doesn't like, you know, like curved architecture in the sky. Who does? The St. Louis, like the St. Louis Arch is like, it, you know, gives her vertigo just looking at it. So, yeah, we're not going to be able to be in St. Louis. I think we did an ingenious about the St. Louis Arch. Yeah. No. Nice. Nice. All right. Thank you, St. Louis Pens Show. I look forward to hearing all about it and should be, should be epic. So. All right, Myke, we got a shout out of the week this week. Shout out of the week.
Where are all the emails? Okay. That's the name. That's the name of our friend June Thomas's. Email. I've been on our email list for a while. It has changed over the years. And this is the new title of it. And June, way back, Myke, this, I looked at it. She was on Pen Addict episode 189. Yep. The problem I had with that is the date on that is 2016. I'm like, that's almost 10 years ago. That's horrible. That June was on the show. That's wild to me. In like my headcanon. Like that messes me up. Because I still talk to June frequently, you know, a couple times a year, just checking in. But she's awesome. And her emails are awesome. Awesome.
Stationary content from time to time. She's a big stationery person in general. So y'all should go follow her email because she rules and her email is epic. Brad, I'm going to have to ask you some clarification here. What exactly are we linking to?
Oh, yeah. I didn't put in the link to sign up to it. Yeah. I just like how do you follow emails? Do I have to hack them? Like what am I doing? It's an email newsletter. Okay. And I seem to have gotten bogged down in finding the episode she was on and forgot to paste in the link to actually sign up. Excellent. So where all the emails. Myke, I will tell you where all the emails are momentarily. And we'll put that link in the show notes. Is it Pugtown's newsletter? Is that the one?
I'll get it for you. I just want to make sure I get you the right link. So.

IA Writer Notebook Review[edit]

All right. Well, this is a good lead in. This silliness is a good lead into this next topic because I don't actually know where to take this. Okay. So the IA Writer Notebook. Yeah. That we have discussed in the past. It won a Red Dot Design Award. Okay. Okay. So this was like I'm on their newsletter or somehow it came through. This is a really cool notebook that we discussed probably for like two years. They announced it about a year before they launched it and then they launched it. And, you know, it's been a long running topic. And you bought one. Like, you know, we both like wanted to see this notebook in person. It's very expensive.
So like I held off on it and you ordered one because like you're in the making business. You wanted to see what was up with it. So the concept of this notebook, just to give a lead in, it's a, I call it letterpress lined notebook. It's where the lines of the page are basically indented into the page. Right. So there's no visual printing on the page for lines. It's a line notebook. It's considered to be a line notebook. But those lines essentially vanish like from sight when you're writing. You have the texture and feel of a line on the page.
But to keep your, you know, your handwriting, you know, on, on the level. But it essentially looks like a blank page. So this is not a, this is a design that some other companies have played around with. Like, like Potter's had some. Midori, I think, might have had some. So this is a thing in Japan where a few manufacturers have done this. And that's where IA Writer's Base. That's where they made this notebook. So anyway.
Cool. Cool notebook. And you got one. Can you remind me, like, of the, of your review of the notebook? Because it seems like while design is beautiful, functionality may be a little bit lacking. Yeah. I actually broke it out today because I wanted to remind myself. Because I remember I didn't like it, but I didn't remember why. Like in my mind today, I was thinking, oh, did, did like the, the letterpress or indented lines get in the way? They don't. I mean, it's very subtle, which I think is, you know, is actually a pro-Anecon, right? Like at the same time. And, you know, as I said last time, like it's the most, it's the most out there packaging I've ever seen for a notebook, right? It's like the notebook is inside of an actual wooden box that they made, which is then inside of a paper sleeve. Like you're getting something that feels like the money it costs, right? Like it's actually bound incredibly well. It's really nice. The thing is the paper just doesn't feel very good. Like I tried a bunch of things and I did it again today. The only writing implement that felt nice or like even like that I didn't notice felt bad was a mechanical pencil. Like I used a Mark 1, I used, I used my tactile turn, I don't remember what refills in my tactile turn. But, you know, and then I used. Is it a big one or a small one? Like a large. The kind of medium-y one. Yeah. So that's probably just like a Schmidt Easy Flow. Yeah. And then I used a few fountain pens of different thicknesses. And it's just like, the way I would discover, I think the texture is just too rough. It's not that like, you know, my fountain pens don't catch on it, but everything feels like a slog to write with. Like the feedback that you receive is unpleasurable. Like I just, I don't think that whatever paper they chose to get the lines that they wanted, I think undermined the quality of the notebook. And I've fallen into this trap. I think all makers have fallen into this trap. If you have an idea and the compromise that you make to reach that idea lowers the overall experience. I don't know what a non-pen person would think when they use this notebook. I'm not sure that they would notice. I don't know. Right? But like I know that I notice and I know that I do not find it a pleasurable experience at all. But I know why it won this award. Because look at it. Right? The idea is really good. And they execute it upon the idea that you're seeing. The part that is lacking, which to me is the most important part, is not the most important part for probably most of the people that buy this product.
But it is important to me. Yeah. And I think about maybe for the people that vote on these awards too. Right? Exactly. I was really trying to understand the concept of the Red Dot Design Award. And it's a pretty cool thing. Brad, I would say to you that the majority of people that voted for this have not actually used Snowbook. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you don't need to use it to appreciate its design.
In fact, it's actually better if you never use it. Because it just looks better when it's not used.
This is a design award. A product design award. And depending on your definition of product design, this thing either excels or doesn't. You know? Yeah. So, honestly, I swear, I am not trying to denigrate this award at all. Like, I've used Red Dot Design Award winners. I love looking at who they choose for this. It is a fee to submit your project to Red Dot, right? And they don't have the 2025 list up on the site yet, which I have a real problem with their website, like managing it. But, like, I pulled up just the results from 2024. And there were 3,695 winners from 2024. So, then I pulled up, like, the stationery category. Like, they cover all categories, right? And, like, the stationery winners from, like, it's like an office accessories and furniture. So, like, pens are right there with, like, office chairs and stuff like that. So, like, one of the products that won is the Ohuhu Honolulu S Series Soft Chisel and Brush Alcohol Markers. It's basically your Copic copies, pens, right? So, they look exactly like a Copic, but this is what won, right? Then there's the Aurora. Because Copic probably didn't submit. You know what I mean? Right. You've got to put yourself there. Right. There's the Aurora notebook with Northern Light. So, it's like a Northern Light gradient cover notebook. Obviously, really beautiful. And matte-coated paper gives a pleasant and tactile feel. And that just makes me cringe a little bit. There's a product called the Slide Note, which is a loose-leaf paper notebook with, like, a metal binder over the edge. You know, that could be fun and functional. You know, I was just on the IA website, just real quick, to go back to that. And they say that fountain pens are the best pens for this product. And they recommend finding medium nibs. Now, maybe I just, you know, maybe I just don't have enough. Find the product on the site. It's on the… Oh, you're saying from the IA site. On the IA website. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Like, they say that fountain pens are best. And they recommend fine and medium nibs. Now… So, they use a Platinum 3776 in the product imagery and writing, you know, Japanese characters on the page. You know? And today, I was using my M90, which I know is a medium. All right? And so, like… Yeah. You know, I used… When I initially tested it, I used, like, 10 different… Different pens of different… Different things… You know, different properties. And today, I used a few. I didn't use any fine nibs on it.
Maybe it works great with fine nibs. I just… For me… I'm really surprised that they recommend this as a fountain pen notebook, personally. I mean… It is in the sense of doing what they say, which is the paper that is designed to handle the patent pen ink without bleeding or feathering, which I agree with, ensuring smooth writing and clean lines. Now, it depends on your definition of smooth. I think maybe they mean smooth ink to the page, which it does do. Like, it's a good quality paper for that particular purpose. I just don't find it nice to write on. I really want you to buy one of these. Yeah. Because that… So, that is done. So, yesterday, I was like… I was… I rage bought it. I was like, I'm buying this dang notebook once and for all and figuring it out for myself. Because I'm tired of talking about it without using it. Yeah. Right? So, I need to use something. If I'm going to continue to talk about this, I need to use it. So, I actually bought two.
One of y'all is either going to be fortunate or unfortunate to win this whenever I'm going to buy… I'm going to review it, then give it away, which is… And give away a second one, which is what I probably do. It is a design piece. Like, it is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Like, truly. I am not knocking them whatsoever for this. But, like, I just want to know about… Like, the actual usage part of it is what's kind of breaking my brain a little bit. So, just because I know you didn't have, like, the best time with it. So, we'll see. We'll see. So, I put my money where my mouth is. I have two of them on the way.
Oh, my.
Yeah. Yeah, like $150. Yeah, like $150 worth of notebooks coming my way. But I wasn't going to buy just one. I wanted to give one away. Like, that's just kind of my mode these days. So, we'll see. It should be fun. I look forward to seeing it. Like you said, it's… God, it's gorgeous. It's gorgeous. But we'll see. We'll see if it works. So, all right, Myke. If you need to buy other stationery, we have a new stationery map out there for people to check out. People are always emailing, say, hey, I'm going to such and such place. What stationery place should I hit up? And there's been different maps and things that people are keeping tabs of. But you can literally go to stationerymap.com. This is put in place by my friend Connor, who runs Pentadex, which is an app, an iOS app for stationery, which, you know, disclosure, he has advertised on the Pentadex blog several times, maybe on this show in the future. But what he's really doing is building out the stationery store map. So, right at the top of the map, there's a submit store info. So, if you're, you know, around the world listening to this and don't see your favorite stationery store on the map, go send it in. Submit it and it'll get added. And this will be a good reference point for all of us as we travel and check out stationery stores. So, really cool thing that I wanted to make sure to get in here.

Uniball Zento Analysis[edit]

Okay. I'm still trying to recover from the IA conversation. And now I have to talk about the Uniball Zento, which I clearly have thoughts on.
And I don't know what those thoughts are, is where we're at. So, the Zento from Uniball, this is kind of funny because just last week, I think, you know, I talk about Uni Mitsubishi as just like one of my favorite companies in the world. And that they create and release the Zento is one of the reasons why. So, the Zento is essentially a new ink formulation for them.
And I can't tell what it is.
And I've tried. I've really tried. I've got all the press releases from the Japanese site. I've got the U.S. marketing. I've got everything. One of them calls it a liquid gel ink pen.
The Japanese, on the U.S. site, it's called a liquid gel ink. In Japan, they call it a water-based ballpoint.
I mean, that's technically correct, right? All pens are generally ballpoint pens. So, I'm really trying to understand the ink formulation. And I think that's the point we've reached with Uniball to where I need a chart. I need to know why someone should choose the Zento pen. You can tell me that the Zento is great. And it has this wonderful smooth ink. And it dries quickly. And that's great. But how many other pens have the same marketing in your product lineup? And I made a list that I'm going to go through here in a second. And I don't think I even covered everything.
But my job as a pen reviewer is to explain what this pen is good for, why someone might like it, versus the pen right next to it, right? What does it offer? And I can't discern why you should buy the Zento over. Let me go down this list, Myke. So, this is just from the Uniball US site. These are different ink formulations. Not different pen models. Ink formulations. Jetstream.
Jetstream Light Touch.
Power Tank Ballpoint. So, that's their ballpoint category, those three. In the gel, we have the Signo. The Signo DX. The Signo 207. The Signo 207. Plus.
The Signo 307. The One. O-N-E. And the Zento. O-N-E, yeah. And the Zento, which is listed in the gel ink category. Oh, by the way, if you go over to the rollerball ink category, guess what's there? The Zento.
Is it one pen?
Like, is it possible there are two? I think it's... Okay. We're going to get to that. Okay.
Trust me.
The answer's no. There's four. So, we're going to get to that in a second.
Settle down. That's not what I expected. Settle down over there. Okay.
The rollerballs. You have the Vision, also known as the Eye, over there in the UK.
Extremely popular pen. The Vision Elite. The Uniball Air, which is a liquid ink, but with a different tip style. So, I don't even know what ink that uses. It could be just the standard Vision ink. Like I said, the Zento is listed under the rollerball. And then you have your standard rollerballs, which are the Onyx and Deluxe, which those are the traditional Uniball office supply cabinet pens that have been around for 20, 30 years. So, what is that? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Well, Zento's in there twice. So, 14. And that's...
Which one should I buy, Myke, out of these 14 pens? And... How much overlap is there in this... In these categories? Like, the Signo one has always been the one that's bothered me, right? Because how many different ink formulations can one pen have? And believe me, they've tried. This one's smoother. This one's darker. This one dries faster. That's great. Where's my quiz to say, this is what I'm looking for in a pen, and give me an answer? And the problem I think they have with that is because you could answer 10 or 20 questions and end up with, like, 3 or 4 pens with the answer. Like, there's a lot of overlap here, I think.
So, to answer your question, there are four Zento's. Because they... This is a little bit different, I think, in how they've handled some of the other product releases. Although the one was pretty close, but they did kind of trickle it out a little bit slower. They just went in full product lineup from the jump on this one. So, there's an entry-level pen that's just, like, your basic Jetstream or Signo.
There's an upgraded barrel with, like, a half-and-half aluminum grip section and then, like, rubberized upper barrel. There is a...
What do they call them? What's the difference between standard? So, there's a... Okay, gosh, this is so confusing. So, the Signature model is the high-end one. So, I hadn't even talked about that one. That's, like, a $25 full metal capped pen, really nice executive-looking pen. The Flow model is the half-and-half aluminum barrel, half aluminum, half light touch. That's, like, a $10 pen. The standard model, which is what I have, is your basic, you know, looks like a Jetstream or a Signo pen, you know, like your $2.50 or $3. And then the basic model, which is only designed... It looks like the standard model, but it only comes in black, red, and blue in one tip size.
Okay.
So, not only do I need a quiz to know which Uniball to have, which Zento should I buy? Like...
So, at this point, I think... And I've done this before when the One came out because it was the same confusion that I had. Why is the One better than the Signo? Is it better than the Signo? Are you telling me this pen is better than the Signo if I like gel ink pens? Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. They're just different. How are they different?
Like, what is... What is the difference between these pens? I need a chart. I need something from Uniball at this point because I'm just getting overwhelmed with choice here. The problem is a good one in that they're all good. Right? There's kind of no wrong answer. So, I've been taking... I'm going to review the Zento and I'm going to have some of the comparisons with, you know, all the... I have most of these pens. Shocker.
And, like, not all of them need to be compared to the Zento, but the One does. The Signos do. Maybe even the Jetstream just for a visual comparison.
When I've been testing these out, the more the Uniball One stands out above the fray. Okay. The more I think that is the pen that's the future of their gel ink and rollerball ink products. The dark black ink product, I think, is leaning towards this One ink formulation. And the One ink formulation was a pigment-forward, kind of color-forward ink formulation. But it's still really smooth gel. Dries, you know, as, you know, reasonably quick. Like, it's darker than, like, the Signos stuff. It's darker than the Zento, which is a rollerball. I'm putting the Zento in, like, in the roller gel category. Is that even a thing? I don't know. So, it's lighter in, like, so I'm using the black ink. The Zento's lighter than the One in the Signo to me. But using the 0.38 millimeter in all of these, which I have, the Zento, the line is a little bit finer, which is interesting.
So, yeah, make me a quiz, Uniball. Tell me why I should choose the pen from your product lineup that I should choose.
Don't make me come up there again next year and have to, like, have a full, like, PowerPoint on your own products because they're not organized well enough to differentiate between all the models. Like, we've reached an inflection point. My question to you, no, Brad, is do they care? Like, maybe they're just, they have all these different things to just stock different things at different places. Like, is a customer perusing the entire Uni line to buy a pen? No. So, let's take the general, like a, like a store, like a retail store, big box retailer, right? You go there, you look at the Uniball pens, you're going to have Jetstreams,
Signo, 207s, then maybe 307s, probably the one, definitely the Vision, definitely the Vision Elite, probably the Air, and then now probably the Zento. So, that's like seven or eight pens. So, yeah, I think, like, if you, like, if you go to, like, Staples or, like, a Walmart or something, like, yeah, you're going to have, like, six to eight of these on the shelf. Yeah.
But then, isn't that a benefit, like, if you're a Uniball, you take up more shelf space? Yeah, dude, Uniball's crushing it. So, here's, my argument is this.
Why I love Uniball, and why I mentioned it last week, is because they're in the lab making ink formulations. Yeah. And, they should be proud of that. And, they should be yelling, look what we did.
And, we just get a product in the end that I'm having to sit here and try to figure out why this product exists. I want them to tell me more. Not that this is just a liquid gel and it's, it's quick drying and it's fast, but, I want them to, like, they'll never do this.
But, they should say, this pen is better than the 207. You know, you should buy the 207 for, like, the office supply cabinet. You want to write something awesome? Buy the Zento. Like, now they're telling me everything, they're telling me everything in this lineup is equivalent.
And, they're very much not. And, especially as this product lineup gets deeper and deeper every year. I mean, we just, like, just in the last year, a year, maybe two years, we've gotten the Light Touch, the One, and now the Zento. And, those are all, like, premium elite ink formulations.
So, do they take over these previous product lineups? I, like, I just want them to, I want to know what they want me to buy.
Whatever one looks nicest to you. I genuinely think that's what it is. This is a completely other argument. Do you know how similar the One, the Zento, and the Light Touch look now? Like, I have to double take on my desk.
Well, then I have no more. So, yeah. Like, if you look at, the prosecution rests, so that, you know, when I, yeah, that, yeah, you, that was a misstep right there by the prosecution.
They're using the same colors and same shapes and a similar looking clip. Yeah, they have like, the clip is the same overall with just like maybe some differences in the way they attach it to the barrel. Like a different connection. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't get it. But I'm trying to like,
I'm trying to wonder, right? Like, why, why would you, you know? And so like, the best I can come up with is just like, the more product that they have, they can just take up a wider range of shell space. But yeah, it becomes complicated for a customer of like, outside of what it looks like, which if they did look particularly different from each other, fine, but they don't, then like,
yeah. You know, this, this is, this is the problem of success, right? Like, they're so good at what they do, right? This is why I don't like the Pilot G2 because it just sits there for two decades and never changes. And like, people still like it. I was like, ah, there's so much better options. It was like, which should I buy? And then I go look at the Uni-Ball shelf. I'm like, hey, do you like the G2? Yeah, maybe stick with that because I don't know what to tell you.
So, what is the, what are you going to, what is the result? Is you just hoping they'll contact you? No, you have nothing, there's nothing? No, no, no, no, no. No, I'm going to, I'm going to try to figure it out myself and try to, there's a couple of these pens that I need to buy and I don't know that I'm going to do like all like 14 different pens but I'm going to take some of the, the main popular ones and try to tell you which one's the best. Right.
But like, best is subjective, right? The best what?
Well,
we can't go so far down that layer of questioning because that one does everything. Yeah, it'll be best for me like, and then we'll kind of try to relate that.
Either tier rank them or just top five them. Yeah, that's what I should probably do but like, the tier ranking is kind of meaningless because once you put like, if like the Vision Elite and the Signo 307 are both in B tier, they're drastically different pens, right?
Talking about tier ranking, something you can put down on a topic list for the future. I want to give you a blind ranking of pen brands. Okay. Are you familiar with blind ranking?
Not exactly. So, there'll be like, say like one to ten, right? And I'm just going to tell you a brand and you have to tell me where it goes on the one to ten without knowing what else is coming. Sweet. Okay. Yeah, we'll do that. I also, so we're going to put that on the list and then we're going to,
and this will require some prep, we're going to do, if I were the president of stationery, what's my platform? Oh, Brad, I love it. And we get three things. Yes. So someone submitted that. but we need, we need some, I need some time to think about. Yeah. Number one is Uniball, Uniball, tell me what ink is best. To shrink the product lines. That's so pretty nice. So we'll, we'll do the president of stationery down the line, but yeah, that'll be fun. Love it.
This episode is brought to you by our friends at the Canalea Pen Co. They make stunningly beautiful products inspired by the images of Hawaii that they hold so dear. Canalea's founders, Hugh and Carol, believe that these locations can help recharge our spirit and connect us with nature. This week, we wanted to remind you about Canalea's newest release, the Papacolea collection. For this pen, Canalea are taking inspiration from Papacolea Beach with its beautiful green sand and beach that contains olivine crystals from the volcanic cinder cone that surrounds it. Papacolea Beach is one of the only four beaches in the world with sand like this. So it's incredibly worthy of being celebrated with this brand new collection. The Papacolea collection features fountain pens in Canalea's five profile options as well as a ballpoint. And you can pair your pen with a hibiscus medallion in your choice of Argentium silver, 14 carat gold, plated silver, or rose gold. But with this collection, you're able to once again give your pen the extra special touch with the Maoloa or Mailele band made of lovingly crafted Argentium silver. It makes this already special pen even more so. These bands feature beautiful details that are a joy to see and they're both available in the classic profile of this pen. This is my personal recommendation as always with the Canalea pens now. I really love these bands. They are visually very nice just in general like the artwork that's on them. But I also like that it provides kind of like a visual break with the patterns. I think it helps them stand out even further because you have something that draws your eye and then you can kind of naturally explore the beautiful patterns that they make. And it also makes the capsidule a whole. Especially if you, like me, I don't post my pens. I like to hold my caps most of the time and this makes it very pleasurable in the hand because it adds the extra weight to the cap. Very nice. Canalea fountain pens feature Yoa number 6 nibs. You can buy steel or 18 karat gold nibs directly from Canalea. They offer sizes from extra fine to a 1.1mm stub and Hue will smooth and tune every nib before it leaves their shop so that your Canalea pen will write beautifully straight out the lovely black all-night keepsake box. And with every purchase of a pen from the new Papacolaia collection, Canalea will be making a donation to the Maui Food Bank and the Maui Humane Society to give back to the communities that inspire their designs. You can find out more about Canalea's whole offering and place an order today at canaleapenco.com and there'll be a link in the show notes. Our thanks to the Canalea Pen Co for their support of this show. They didn't ask me to do this nor have they ever. I bought this pen full retail from them so that tells you what I think about this pen. You know, every, I can't buy them all, right? They're expensive and beautiful and gorgeous and love them. This one spoke to me in a way that I put my money down on it so obviously they're a sponsor of the show. I don't have to do that. I can look at the pen and send them back which is what I do most of the time. This one I said send me an invoice. I'm not surprised actually that this one has really spoken to you. Yeah. It is. It's beautiful. It was really nice to hear from Hugh saying that it was a big hit at the Chicago Pen Show which is where they were just last week.
Yeah, so follow up from Chicago I think went really well. New location. Also the Little Craft Fest in Houston went well. I think we might have mentioned them a little bit last week but looks like we had a good couple shows the last couple weeks and I'm interested to get back out on the road here soon. I gotta make some plans Myke.

Ask TPA Segment Transition[edit]

Alright, let's do some Ask TPA. Let's do it. This question comes from Kat who says I've been recently reorganizing my stationery and wanted to ask how do you organize or store your various pen and pencil cases for me they're cloth when they don't actively have anything in them. I am very out of sight out of mind when it comes to organization and I only use my cases when I'm leaving the house so where do they go when they're empty? I'm a big fan of out of sight out of mind over here at Pen Addict HQ I have what's called the closet of doom that's where things live when they go out of sight and I have a very specific area for pen cases I have a plastic bin since those cases like you're not going to stack those on a shelf generally speaking unless you have the same singular type of case so I have a case because a lot of my cases are nylon or pliable in some way excuse me a bin so like a like a not a full like tall sided bin so I'll have so I can see like the bottom of it right because sometimes I'll use different cases for different things but I literally have them in a plastic bin in a closet but I have them together like pen cases stay together because when I need to solve whatever carry situation I have I want to be able to find what I I need even though I have a lot of stuff it's somewhat organized and I can kind of find it so yeah I literally put them all in a plastic bin because you're not going to be able to stack that stuff on a shelf it's like it's like notebooks they're all different sizes different shapes different materials they sit differently they stack differently so put them in a bin and try to make sure I can see you know maybe have like a like two layers of cases you know I don't need to dump them in like a really like you know 18 inch tall bin and dig stuff out the bottom I need to see what I have so that's what I do and it's easy to just pull in and out and find what I need I shove them in a drawer because like I find with especially with cloth based cases it's like one of the only things a pen hobby person can actually shove into something like everything else is like rigid you know like it's going to take up the space that it takes and there's nothing you can do about it right like ink pens boxes of stuff these things they smoosh down so I just like shove them in a drawer you know I literally like in my bin I will literally like kind of file them right you kind of just push them back like a like a you know card drawer card catalog drawer I don't know if y'all remember those I'm old and then slide the next one in and just kind of push them back so yeah they have give which is lovely yep Joseph writes in and says this is a follow up to my previous Ask TPA my last question was about permanent inks for use in my five year Hobonichi I've tried many iron goals and now I wanted to ask about other inks I like that Joseph had an unpleasurable experience which I think I wouldn't be surprised if we had said at the time that maybe it wasn't going to be great but Joseph says what are the easiest to maintain pigment inks what are the easiest to clean platinum carbon black is my black ink but I would like to add a good blue black and more varied colors octopus fluids recommends immediate cleaning pilot warns about staining my use case is a little writing each day over several days or weeks this is a good question because I stroke pigment inks are a little bit tougher on the staining front that I've found than iron galls especially the colorful stuff which I think is where Joseph is leading to right we can have your wonderful platinum carbon black which I think is extremely well behaved it's so easy to clean and it's such a great black ink then you can have like your blue iron galls that I use a lot of which like roaring cleaner salix is one of the great underrated inks of all time it's a beautiful shade of blue it's iron gall ink so it kind of darkens on the page and is so easy to clean it's never stained a pen it just performs well then you go to pigmented inks and by design they have a little bit more going on in the ink formulation so a lot of the pigment inks I'll try I'll try orange right because I can't really get that in a good iron gall ink it just doesn't look right that's not going to work when I've used these pigmented inks after a couple weeks take for example let's see it was the roaring cling nerve whether they have an art and draw series I didn't pull up the link but they have a pigmented ink series separate from their iron gall ink series right and I used the orange one it performs great from the nib but then by the time I went to clean it I used a pilot and a pilot converter and it cleaned from the pen perfectly but the converter had an orange tint to it when I was done and that was only like a couple weeks right even if that ink is static right generally static in the converter right so it's going to stain even if you're using it every day because the ink is always going to be in the general same location whether you have it upright writing or laid down
they know they know what they're selling you right so we're going to cover ourselves by saying yeah clean this like pretty quick you know pilot says you know this might stain you know the answer and like some people can do this some people can't I can't is have a dedicated pen or at minimum a dedicated converter for your pigmented ink knowing that long term you might have some staining I don't know that you're going to have like feed damage or housing damage or nib damage or anything like that but you're probably going to lose a converter maybe over time unless you want to switch inks so the answer is to dedicate a pen to your most stubborn inks your shimmer inks or your pigmented inks or your iron gall inks if you're very concerned about them like for example there might be there's probably certain pens I could list off that I would never put a pigmented ink in right I'm probably not putting them in a piston filler even though I could get in there and clean it easily I don't know what's going to get up behind the piston things just happen right so make sure it's a pen you can clean easily maybe dedicate one to that I
new diamine they just introduced a new colorful pigment and ink lineup I haven't inked it up yet but that's going to be one that I'm not going to keep it in a pen for two months because the converter is going to be stained unless I want to dedicate it to that ink so pay a little bit attention to that think about having a dedicated at a minimum converter and yeah just you know as long as you practice good pen hygiene I've never really lost a pen to an extreme ink but I'm pretty adamant about cleaning things when I'm not using them so just be careful and like it's totally fine totally fine to do what is like what is going on in a pigmented ink like what is what is that makes it different it's the particles in there so there's
right because of the actual pigmentation in there so there's a lot of good inks that are made this way like sailor has had a good like not a lot of people know but they have really good pigment and ink lineup and like if you get a red pigment in ink it's just going to be a vibrant permanent red right a lot of people are looking for permanence and color which you
color right you know there's like turquoise iron gall and purple iron gall but they end up being a deep color whereas if you get a red pigment it's going to stay red and be bright and vibrant and be waterproof and permanent so people are looking for a permanent ink that has brightness and that's where the pigment inks come in yeah I've been I've had a little bit more experience of pigment recently so like on the psychic pocket the foiling is pigment rather than clear or metallic or whatever that we've done before the colors the options that are available like in the swatch book that I have like some of the colors are so amazing they're so full of color you know and I guess that's the pigment at work yep so it's a balance right you just gotta you have to pay attention and you know I think you should I'm a believer you should go forth and use them but just pay attention Tomas writes in and asks I'm curious to know what the consensus is when it comes to fountain pen nib tuning and preserving the original characteristics of a pen for example do people want a pilot to feel like a pilot a pelican like a pelican and a mon
it seems odd to me if I buy a pilot it's because I like how a pilot writes it comes to mind because I bought a sailor recently that writes poorly and want to think about adapting it this is a great question what is the soul of the pen brand yeah so a quick anecdote before we get into this answer in Japan they the nib meisters would never modify a nib
medium nib and I took it to a nib meister they're going to tune and smooth that to maybe fix maintain yeah they're going to maintain the original pilot feel because that is their belief of the perfect writing instrument they're not going to say if I say hey put a cursive italic grind on that they will not do that things have changed over the years there's a lot more independent nib meisters in the area in the region who will break the code yeah yeah yeah but that's a classic historic anecdote right a nib meister is not what we think of when we go to a pen show and get a nib grind modified right so think about that in the Japanese market that was the belief we built this thing specifically right and pilot's nib feels different than platinum's nib and platinum's nib feels different from sailor's nib and sailor's nib feels different from pelican you know all these things have their own characteristics it depends on what you want if you want to keep the characteristics I don't think you can get it modified I personally want the end result of my handwriting to look the best possible and do I enjoy the pen as an object the totality of the pen not just the nib do I enjoy the pen as an object that I want to use and how do I choose to use that pen how am I choosing to pick a pen to ink and it's the combination of the writing experience the look the feel the design the story of the pen so I will then take pilot for example I will take a pen that I love and enjoy and want to use and make it even better for my writing so now that pen has elevated for me the total experience even though I have now changed the pilot nib experience from changing it from a medium nib to a cursive italic so it's a personal thing right what I think you are you're going to change it right and if you're doing any kind of shaping to the nib it will lose the original pelican feel or montblanc feel but you might gain an object that is now more suitable for you to actually use right would you rather own a pen and have it sit there because you won't get the nib tuned or modified or would you rather have the perfect writing experience in totality right of the pen of the design of the story of how it makes you feel what are you looking for as the end result so if you're like a pelican purist maybe you don't touch the nibs other than to get them smooth and tuned right if you're a writing purist maybe found the most beautiful pelican ever and now I'm going to put a stub nib on this broad nib and my writing is going to be even better and I'm going to use this pen even more so you know it's it's a personal it's personal but yeah you're going to change the original characteristics if you modify the nib not if you tune it and smooth it like you should be you keep the same characteristics right if you get something fixed if
it will write like the sailor again but if you get it modified it's not going to write like that original nib did I think I could be I think no actually I am of the persuasion that it's like well if you don't like how this feels you should have something else yeah right like that maybe you would be better a different pen with different characteristics would suit you better rather than like I want to buy that pen and then I want to modify it to the point where it's like a different thing like I have like I have bought pens that I liked the look of the pen but it didn't work for me and so then I would have and had done a pen shows I would have a pen grinder help me get it to the point where it works for me as opposed to what many people including you have done before like I'm gonna go like we're gonna pick from a menu here and like I want this pen to be like this in like completely different thing right like I'm gonna buy a broad nib but I want it to be cursive italic right or I want it to be an architect grind or whatever and I can see it's interesting like you know I could imagine a way that makes sense to me is like you buy a separate nib right and you're gonna swap the nib out completely but there is something I think I kind of while I made the joke at the start of like the soul of the pen like I feel like you are kind of like messing with it you know like this thing is a thing that was considered by somebody and designed to be a certain way and you you've decided you don't want that it's like it's a I think it's actually quite complicated yeah I think the overarching thing I come at this with is a much broader thing is I am a user not a collector right so I don't want to own a pen that I'm not going to consider using frequently so that can mean that fits in a lot of categories right it could be the style the shape the feel the weight the balance or it could be the nib or if I'm a pelican collector and I want to honor what they've done you know I'm probably going to be stricter on how I treat those nibs so it's a great question and there's no right or wrong answer it's what do you want to do what are you trying to get out of this hobby are you trying to get the pure authenticity of the pelican writing experience then maybe I wouldn't modify the nib are you trying to make your letters look better on the page but you love a pen and it's not working for you maybe I get the nib modified all right this episode is brought to you by our friends over Enigma Stationary Enigma Stationary offers unique items made from in-house designs
collection items and pre-orders are now available at Enigma Stationary their progress pride nib premium canvas bag has been a top item since its launch I have one and I love it and now Enigma have 10 new pride nib designs for stationery lovers to choose from Enigma Stationary newest pre-order items include the new pride nib sticker sheets and pride flag washi tapes both set for delivery in June every pride collection item sold adds to Enigma's fundraising efforts and gold to raise $10,000 for the Trevor project in 2025 to be a part of that journey and get free US shipping or discounted international shipping of orders of $50 or more plus a free gift head to enigmastationery.com slash penaddict and use the code penaddict 25 at checkout that is enigmastationery.com slash penaddict to get your hands on any and all of Enigma's latest stock plus a free gift and free US shipping on $50 of orders or more with the code penaddict 25 our thanks to Enigma Stationary for their support of this week's show yeah definitely go and shop and look at all the stickers and all the washi tape this is all new stuff I already have the pride enamel pen which is gorgeous and the same tote that you have but this washi and the stickers yeah we're going to handle this this afternoon thank you Enigma Stationary for doing this and thank you for being a part and supporter of the pen addict this is beautiful I love the washi tapes yeah they're just the flags it's perfect yeah but like in like the you know just like an extended tape design it's brilliant that's great I really like that a lot it's very smart 100% very well done alright a few more questions before we finish out today's episode Hannah writes in and says I'm relatively new to fountain pens have been wanting to branch out a bit with some different nibs I have a 1.1 stub and I love the line variation it provides but the vertical lines are a bit too wide for my everyday writing could a nibmeister bring an existing 1.1 stub down to a stub with a medium-ish vertical line if so would this be a tedious or painstaking request I don't want to tick off any of these talented folks so early in my hobby should I stick with altering abroad I would actually like a nib grinder to
100% sure I think the way let's just take a stock Yovo 1.1 stub could a nibmeister bring that down to a more to .9 .7 width yes 100% I think it might look a little bit weird because they're going to have to shape the wings the wings are designed for the exterior of that 1.1 stub right so the outside of the tines right so you're going to the taper I think is going to look strange I think it technically could be done I see no reason why this can't be done and they would just shave 100% I think it shouldn't in the way of giving you the line variation like the shaping affect that it shouldn't but I also wonder about the feed on these and I'm not sure if the feed starts since you're going to have to cut back you're going to have to cut up the wings so the feed starts coming into play visually it would be way easier to get a medium or a broad standard nib to put into a stub that's what I always do right if I want a finer stub I start with a finer nib which they don't always like that either nib grinders are particular nibmeisters especially if we're depending with the sole of the ! I know
I'm curious on what a nibmeister would say about taking a stock yoke because those stock 1.1 stub nibs they're flat right so there's no tipping on there so there's nothing to shape so they're only going to have to take down the edges of the nib which I don't know what that result would be I there's no reason technically they couldn't do it I just don't know
it would look good and you would enjoy it it would just be weird so that's why they would use a standard you know full tipping like a standard broad or standard medium nib to get you you know more of like a 0.9 or 0.7 stub so if you have a different option for the nib I would choose that I'm very curious I will do some follow up on this
shape of a stock 1.1 stub that already exists so it's a good question next question comes from Matthew says I'm just getting into fountain pens and there's some pretty basic stuff so far prior pens were two cafeco sports in medium and fine I was recently gifted a cafeco perkyo medium nib and a Conklin durograph topaz whirlwind that's a big name with an extra fine nib my real question is
right with it is this normal for an extra fine nib generally speaking steel extra fine nibs are pretty firm and I'll have to check on the whirlwind and see what size it is what's like a number six size nib or five size nib because the cavecos are also a smaller nib that would be considered like a number five size nib so the durograph topaz whirlwind yeah so this looks like a number six style nib and I I'm struggling with is this normal for an extra fine nib yes but it may also be the particular nib right like it can be normal to feel firm with an extra fine nib but a lot of times it shouldn't be a struggle for you to write with it right no nib I don't care how fine or firm should be a struggle for anyone to write with the nib should be designed as long as you have moderate hand pressure and you're not trying to stab through the desk you should be able to get a smooth
right it may not be for you but it should technically work and I'm wondering in this case if there's more of a nib problem as opposed to hey this nib is too firm does that make sense I don't know if I'm making sense here like I think there's I think there's maybe two issues here the nib could be too firm and fine for you the nib should still work
nib works it's not for me you should not struggle to write with it those are two different things and one might not cause the other I'm more leaning to there might actually be a technical problem you know maybe the tines are too tight or the tines are splayed or touching each other right like Matthew feel free to email me hello at pen and we can discern this a little bit more
say that this is definitively the extra fine nib issue as opposed to a general nib issue because Myke doesn't use extra fine nibs like I do I could give Myke my finest firmest driest writing extra fine nib and Myke should not struggle to write with it Myke should dislike it he would but you would still be able to write with it normally and not enjoy it I think they're two different things okay writes in and says my love and trip passport travelers notebook with the matching pen loop just arrived but now it needs some pen the notebook is a rich burgundy color I would love your thoughts on an affordable accompanying pen and an extravagant choice so two like both an affordable accompanying pen and an extravagant choice fountain pen rollable I'm open to anything that's a smooth operator oh well I don't know if Carlos signs is available but if he was that is the choice let me tell you now I'm distracted okay this is an awesome question because I too bought the pen loop for my travelers notebook and so there this neat little pen loop you know like metal clip clamps on the back
like I got my Lamy Safari ballpoint pen in there that's one thing I was carrying in there um wow affordable accompanying pen and extravagant choice I did not prep for this one I did not go this far down the list Myke so I believe there was a 3776 that was in burgundy yeah the burgundy that's my extravagant option for you man what a choice what a pull that's a legit pull so the way that I like I'm fully on board with this so the way that pen is designed it's a deep burgundy and you can get it with a gold trim I think they might offer both in that one but I know the primary one at least the original one came with the gold trim I totally think that is the right choice for that so yeah the borgone gold trim wow that is the match of all time I think what can I say yeah wow I thought I was the pen guy here so like I don't know how you step down from that and have another options like do you my question is do you want it to still be a fountain pen because then I would get something like the TWSB eco and do it a little bit different I think rollable right yeah I think like a rollable right so you're not thinking okay so yeah I was thinking yeah non fountain pen I think the fountain pen like a medium nib if you're going extravagant with that if that's not your style I actually think like the ecos in like the the coffee colors like the creme rose gold or the cafe bronze like those are going to be like a complimentary if like if the bourgon is like out of your price point right it's like a $200 pen but it's man it's perfect something like one of the TWSB like in the like they've done like several brownish gold trim cream color like these are very complimentary to that now for the non fountain pen something in gold like so you could get like a Y studio like one of the enamel ones that's good those are really pretty that like you could spend more on that than a TWSB eco right so it's not exactly budget friendly or affordable like that's a really sick pen for the travelers just as a whole like it's it matches that aesthetic right like it really really fits yeah I would say Y studio is probably a good option for like you could run the gamut on whether you want to choose the expensive or not you know that could be your expensive pen or your cheap yeah well that could be your expensive daily use and then you could get like a TWSB espresso or cafe bronze or something that's like complimentary in a different way that red resin one would go
I don't know if that's actually brass it says it is but I don't know if it's brass plated because it's only $39 this one that red one is like a perfect match for this product yeah I like it feels like it's at the level like I'm not going to tell you to get a uniball one right and it doesn't matter that it's a great pen and I love it it
similarly the classic what they call the classic revolve which is the brass pen I think now yeah it's what we used to call the brass pen but anyway that red one again it's the same beautiful yeah it's good man I forget about some of these pens incredible edition ones I
like I pens yeah huge box it comes in yeah this is sweet so yeah I think that's two good choices I don't know if we like those are some very specific choices for K and like if you want to get some more specific detailed choices let me know we can we can help you out with that there is something funny about like the traditional Y studio being a pen in a loop because
last question comes from Johnny who says I've been loving my platinum preppy in extra fine and it makes me really consider getting a 3776 in extra fine or ultra extra fine I expect a big difference in the nibs between the preppy and a 3776 but was wondering if you could give me some idea of just how different they would be since I love the preppy is it a ! bet
UEF from the conversation it's too extreme without trying it first if you can get to a pin show and test out a UEF and you like it cool so let's say we're going to go platinum preppy EF to a 3776 EF the difference you're going to have is the tipping of the preppy is more rounded than the 3776 so I'm if I'm a betting man and I
a finer line or at least what you will consider not as smooth of a line despite it being a very smooth pin because of the way they do the tipping on the preppy to be easy to use I think you will still love the 3776 and EF you might even consider an F and that's probably going to be around the same line size as the preppy and EF the
EF preppy nibs but EF or F you should be happy with it would you love it just as much yeah I definitely think so the Platinum's gold nibs have this what I call like singing nature to them like they have a different feel on the page than their steel nibs do right because of the tipping and the way they're finished but it's something I personally love and just find extremely enjoyable the EF is designed to be really easy to break out go on any page and feel good about it the EF the 3776 is slightly more specific the way they designed the nib is different right but it is their flagship pen and nib for a reason and I do think you will enjoy it even though I don't think those lines are a one to one comparison nor is
if you would like to send in a question of your own for a future episode go to penaddict feedback dot com and you can send us in an ask TPA question there as well to send in follow up or feedback about today's episode I would like to thank Enigma stationery and the St. Louis St. Louis St. Louis Pen Show for their support of this episode if you want to find Brad online go to penaddict dot com knock oh my word what is happening I've gone into I've slipped into a time warp today go to penaddict dot com spoke design dot com and you can find Brad over at twitch.tv slash penaddict streaming three times a week you can find me here at relay go to relay dot fm you can find this show along with many others you can find my work over at cortex brand dot com we'll be back next time until then say goodbye Brad goodbye Brad bye PC PC