The Pen Addict 669/transcript

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  • From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 669. Today's show is brought to you by The St. Louis Pen Show, Enigma Stationery, and Factor. My name is Myke Hurley, I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. Hey Myke, long time no talk. Well, so we did the membership episode again. Another part. It's at least going to be three parts. And the third part will be coming in a few weeks' time. If you're a member, you'll be able to get it in the member feed. At the end of this week, you'll get to part two of our LEGO build.
  • We're saving our souls by splitting this one up, because each time we have decided to end is a time where I think if we continued, things will go bad, you know? Yeah, I agree. I agree. But I do feel by the end of this, even though it's like obviously taking a long time to the shock of everyone but us, no one but us. I think I can add to my CV if I was applying to be a mechanic for like an F1 team. I think I might be in now. Like, I think I'm going to be to the top of the interview queue after building this car. We'll see.
  • I don't know. It's... That's my code for saying it's been complicated. So now I know how to build an F1 car. Like, mostly.
  • A type of F1 car. Yeah. Which is a LEGO one. Yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah. I mean, side pods, they don't have to be on the correct side for proper aerodynamics. Spoilers! It's okay. Spoilers! It's okay. Just teasing, teasing everyone. Teasing everyone. So yeah, we have one more round to go. It's going to be a couple weeks out, right? We're going to take a little bit of break just because we have a lot going on here the next few weeks. Yeah. Yeah. So good stuff. Honestly, having fun doing it. Yeah. It just takes longer than we anticipate every single time. Yep. And again, this is only 269 pieces. Mm-hmm.
  • Wow. All right. So, all right, let's switch over from LEGO and F1 into pens. What do you think? I love it. All right. So I want to talk about... I realized, I guess last night, since you've come back, we haven't really caught up on what we're using. Even though we always talk about what we're using. I'll talk about recent reviews and just things that have crossed my desk. Lots of new products, things like that. But there's still kind of a difference in what I'm talking about and what I'm actually using for my own personal use. So I thought we'd do a quick update on what we've been mostly using. And I'll kick it off. I have a few fountain pens. I'm down to maybe six or seven fountain pens inked. But the ones that are getting the most action right now, I got sent a Pilot Elite from my friend Kimberly, who also writes for the Pen Addict and has also been a guest on this show.
  • And this is a... We've talked about the Pilot Elites before and that they make a modern version called the E95. It's the short pocket pen. It's beautiful. Everyone really likes it. It's got a gold nib at a fair price. But it's a small, thin, skinny pen purposely designed that way. But they've been making this, I want to say, since at least the 60s. This one is a little bit different in that the nib stamping for the nib stamping size is posting, which if you're a longtime listener of this show, know that I love a posting nib. It is a firm, nail, pointy, you know, stabby nib. Like not... The reason why Kimberly sent it to me, she's like, no, no, this looks good on you, though. She's like, I can't use this, right? This is not a nib for everybody. And I enjoy it. I inked it up. And it's really good so far. It doesn't have as much of a downturn as my stock number 10 Pilot PO nib. But it does have the same kind of firm, nail-y type of thing. This is a great pen. Any Pilot Elite in any nib size is a great travel pen, a great pocket pen. It's kind of the ultimate OG EDC pen, right? You can get these for relatively inexpensive prices, like $50 at a pen show. And Sailor and Platinum have both made very, very similar pens. In fact, it's very difficult to tell them apart just by the exterior designs. And I could not recommend them highly enough. I love using them. So I've got that one in action. I just popped in a Pilot Blue Black ink, which is what I generally use on all my vintage pilots, just for ease of use. And it's an ink that I love and enjoy. Second up, you're just going to have to pry a Lamy Safari from my cold dead hands, Myke. Okay. Why? It is the best pen ever. I can't speak highly enough about it. I mean, I have spoken highly enough about it for 668 episodes. So why not make it 669th episode of the Lamy Safari talk? I just love the pen. And I have an extra fine nib. I have a stock Lamy blue cartridge. And I absolutely love picking that pen up and writing with it. It's the goat. Like, it is my favorite. I'm using a white glossy barrel with a red clip. It was a pseudo. Oh, that's. Yeah. It was like a pseudo limited edition. Yeah. It's sick. It wasn't like, it wasn't part of a series. It was just, they do like one-offs. Like sometimes in the summertime, you'll see, hey, look, pen. And I was like, you know what? Yes, please. I will have the red and white one. And it's absolutely sick. And I, I'm sorry. Like, I'm just not going to shut up about it. And like, I can't, I can't let it go. Somewhat related is a pen I just inked up. I built a kit this weekend for Pen Attic members, which y'all can go check that out. Pen Attic.com slash members. And I included the Y Studio resin pen, which is a classic pen for me that I like. It's similar to the Lamy in that it's just like a plastic barrel. This one's faceted though. And it has like a brass grip section, just cylindrical, no molded grip section like the Lamy. It's about three or four times as much as the Lamy. And I have a needlepoint Franklin Christophe nib in there that I love. And I inked it up with Papier Plume Rebirth, which was a show exclusive at Washington DC from Papier Plume two years ago. And it's a great combination. It's one of my favorite needlepoint nibs. And I kind of keep it in this pen. The pen is kind of like a long and brush stroke-y type of pen. So I like having like the super fine nib in this one. It just seems to work super well for that case. The pen that kicked off this kit was one of those pens that I love but haven't used in probably over a year. It's the Kaweco AL Sport gel ink pen. So it's the metal barrel Kaweco Sport style, but with a gel ink refill. This was a special edition with an artist called Ombre years ago. I've talked about this a bunch. I've reviewed the pen on the blog. I'll get a link in the show notes for you.
  • For that one. And Kaweco's gel ink, it's a 0.7 millimeter Parker style refill. It's great. It's super smooth and dark. And I really, really like it. So that's kind of the pen rotation right now. Minus one that I'm going to talk about that just came in yesterday. I'm actually using for show notes today. I want to discuss it. Paper-wise, I'm pretty stable in that I've been using this Life Noble Hachimanjia notebook A5 softcover notebook all year so far. It's been fantastic. One of my favorite products I've ever used. It's practically in the Lamy Safari camp. I like this notebook so much.
  • Also, I've talked about it before. And plotter. Like, if I just need two notebooks, like I have my work notebook as my plotter. Like, that's a lot of work and planning and calendar. And then my everything else notebook is the Life Hachimanjia notebook. Like, I'm good. Like, I don't have anything new or unique in paper. Despite, I test a lot of paper. There's lots of other paper laying around. That's all I need. Those two things. So, I'm trying to keep it simple with paper for the most part. One pen. I don't know that it totally classifies as what we're using because I literally just unwrapped it.
  • And this was a hate purchase, Myke. I have a pen that I've traditionally hated. I guess that kind of goes in the name. It's the Pentel Trotio.
  • And I don't understand what this pen is. And this is the classic Trotio with the triangular fibrous tip that I can't explain. So, I put some links in the show notes where I did one in 2009 where they sold it as a two-part pen, one-pin barrel, two types of tips. So, it uses like a liquid ink cartridge refill.
  • And, well, not a cartridge. It's all built in. But you can swap out this full refill. And it had a rollerball tip and then the fibrous Trotio tip. So, at 2012, I did, it's called the Pulemon. But it's the same thing. And the tip is the problem of this particular pen. So, what they've done in the intervening years since 2009 and 2012 is take this barrel, the Trotio barrel, which is legitimately good. And it's a Pentel product. And they've put Energel refills in them, which have been great. And I've reviewed that. They have made a fountain pen out of this same barrel. And I reviewed that. And it was great. What's not great is the very original tip that they designed this pen around. And the reason that I'm kind of wanting to rethink it and kind of maybe, I don't know, give it another chance, even though, as you can tell, I'm definitely stacking the deck against it. It's $15. Like, I had to buy this off Amazon. It's $15. And it is in no way going to be worth that. And the reason I bought it is a friend actually sent me this. They make a matching set. So, there's a new series of the Trotio called Sport Chic. And the Sport Chic set comes with, well, can come with, a matching Pentel Sharp P-Series pencil to where they're the same color. So, there's a black one. And then there's a blue one. And there's a green one. And they all have, like, an alternate color racing stripe on there. They're really, really good looking. I really want the pencil. But, like, I have enough Pentel Sharp pencils. That's my favorite. One of my favorite pencils of all time. I'm good. So, I was like, fine. I had to order, like, some supplies or something. I was like, I'm going to buy this pen. And we'll see. I'm probably going to review it again.
  • At first glance, it feels better than I remember it. The tip, I don't know if I alluded to it in the review, but I still have PTSD from it. The fibers would flick if you move the pen in the wrong direction. I don't know if I said that. I didn't reread the review. But that's what I remember from this tip. So far, the tip of this pen feels better. And the ink feels nice. So, we'll see. So, that's where I'm at right now. That's what I'm using. What are you up to? So, I'm actually going to start by talking about something which is somewhat similar. Have you ever come across Tom's Studio? Yeah. Yeah. So, I have one. I've sent it to Jeff to review. But go ahead and talk about it. And I'll let you know what I've reviewed related to this. There's been algorithms. Like, Instagram has been serving me ads for this company for a while. They're another British brand. They're aggressive. I'm intrigued, right? Like, I'm always intrigued about what people are doing kind of on Instagram. And so, like, I followed them. You know, it was like another pen brand. Or like a product brand. And then I was like, oh, I'll try out this stuff. So, I bought a bunch of stuff from them. Yeah. Their main products are their refillable pens. The REN and the Lumos.
  • Which are like these. They're kind of plastic tip pens. But you can fill them with fountain pen ink by dipping this little, like, wool. It's like in a tube. And it kind of sucks up the ink. And then distributes it through.
  • There are a bunch of different considerations about how you would use this product. How you would clean it. But they have refills and methods. But for me, it's like you choose one ink and just be done with it that way. I feel like it's probably the easiest way to go. I bought a bunch of stuff. I bought the Lumos Pro, the REN, their Studio Fountain Pen, and their Mechanical Pen. For me, the Lumos Pro, the Studio Fountain Pen, and the Mechanical Pen, they all are horribly weighted. Like, the balance on these products, to me, is madness. Like, they're too heavy. And, like, the Lumos Pro is way too long. And I know why they've done it because they want to give you more ink. But to me, it just feels really uncomfortable to use. The Mechanical Pen, similarly. Like, the products just do not feel balanced in a way that I like. But I got one of the ones called the REN Write-Off, where it's an aluminium body and a plastic cap, which is made of recycled dry erase marker bodies from English schools. Okay. It's a fantastic idea. This is why I bought it. I love the idea. That pen, I love it. The balance is right. Because, you know, if you post it, you're not adding too much weight. You're just adding length. I think it's fantastic. And it's a lot of fun. I actually filled it with Ackerman 28. And I love it. It's a really, really fun pen. So I think their smaller pens are better than their bigger pens. Like, the Lumos Pro, it just, it's super long. And it doesn't feel comfortable. Because there's kind of nowhere good to hold it. The Lumos Pro does have, you can get single tip or duo tip. Which, the duo tip makes it more of a reason why it would be so long. But if you're just using it in a single tip model, then you just end up in a scenario with, like, a very, very long cylinder pen with no defined grip section.
  • Their stuff looks really good. Their packaging is a lot of style and not a lot of quality. Like, I feel like there's, like. I'm laughing because I have thoughts. Yes. There's, like, a lot of, like, really nice design on their packaging. But the construction of the packaging is poor. Like, I would prefer them to just make the packaging do its job better. Like, nothing comes out of the boxes cleanly. But, you know, there's, like, so much stamping on it.
  • They have built, like, a really good brand towards artists. And I think it's interesting. And they make some cool stuff. But I just, there are just some tweaks that I would make to their range that would suit me a little bit more. Yeah.
  • Yeah. If I can jump in real quick before you go. So, I bought the Wren at the Atlanta Pen Show. I've sent that off to Jeff for review. I like the concept of the ink refillable options. I've gotten a set of them from Kuretake before. Just, they use just, they more just focus on the tip and the tip replacements. And they send you just, like, a plastic barrel, right, to mess around with all this stuff. And Tom's Studio has taken either that product or a similar product and built, like, something around it, which is great. Like, that's what we do for Spoke Pen. You know, take, like, a, you know, a refill and build around it, right? So, they sent me a Lumos back when they launched, like, two years ago. And I didn't really care for it, kind of like you. And what was hilarious is the packaging was, I raged against the packaging. I did it on stream. I've never done, like, a product review. I hated the packaging so much, I wouldn't shut up about it because it was just, like, convoluted and over. It was incorrect in every way. It's, like, over-engineered and not engineered well is, like, the way that I'll describe it. It's, like, nothing sat in the box in a way that was favorable. Right. So, the REN came out later. Like, the Lumos was the launch product. The REN has come out, like, in the past year. I think that's kind of, like, the go-to. I think that's going to be the one that's going to be good. I didn't even know they made a pencil. I think the REN is a really, really fun product. Because it does everything you need in a package which is comfortable to use. I just don't find the... You know, they make a product called the Lumos Mini, which would also work better.
  • There's too much aluminum. Like, it's too heavy. It's too big. Yeah. Yeah. So, anyway, good stuff. People like them. So, that's why I wanted to get the REN out. I'll get a REN review out there. I think they're finally, like, coming around to where, like, refining the product, which is great. I don't mind, you know, companies starting off and getting some feedback and then kind of adjusting. And I think the REN is going to turn out to be the product as opposed to maybe the Lumos. And the REN write-off is excellent. And it's, like, fun because you get every one of them is unique, right? Because they're making it from post-consumer product. Yeah.
  • Obviously, I'm using the Sidekick Pocket all the time. Obviously. I'm super happy with it. Like, I'm actually sitting here. I just use it on my desk now. I'm using the lined one today. They're using the lined one because I don't have enough at the grid. Like, I just don't have enough. I always end up in this scenario where, like, I never have enough of our product because I'm, like, I'm sending it all kinds of places. So, I had a bunch of the lined ones. And so, I'm using them because why not?
  • Today, I'm using a spoke design pencil. Nice. I think this is the pre-Brad one.
  • I don't remember which model number it is. It could be... If you have a one, like, you're in pretty rare... No, it's not a one. It's not a one. So, it's probably, like, a three. I think it's a three. Four was actually before me, but four is the one that's continued on. Yeah, I think it's a three. Because the four that's on the website doesn't look exactly like the one that I I have. Yeah. But I love my spoke design pencil. Like, I had the Null grip, which is just, like, so good. Oh, my God. I love it. Yeah. Oh, then that's definitely not a one. Yeah. Yeah.
  • I got... Recently, I needed to get something from Studio Neat. Oh, I wanted to get a new Mark II to go in my sling bag along with my... I wanted to get... Because I put a sidekick pocket in the sling that I wear a bunch. And I'm wanting to wear more when... Especially when, you know, when I'm at the point where I'm taking Saphira and we're, like, walking around and stuff. Like, I just don't want things in my pockets and stuff like that. So, I bought one to buy a new Mark II to put in there.
  • And then I also picked up a green Mark III. Because I love my Mark III so much. And I got a green Keen. And I love the green Cerakote. So, I have a green Mark III now as well, which is just so good. And I've also been testing out recently a brand new journal format for a Cortex brand product. And I'm so excited. Okay, sweet. I've told you about it before. Yes. And I've got, like, a new prototype, which is construction complete. And, oh, my God. Oh, my God. So good. I am very confident we'll be able to get a small batch of this done this year. And then we're going to go for that. That'd be great. But I think people are going to be very excited about this. I've told you about this before. You know, August. You did. You did. August is planner. It's the start of planner season, right, Myke, for 2026. Yeah, but I don't think we're going to be ready for August. Like, it will be fall. I mean, are you even a planner company if you don't launch in August? Great question. You know, it's a great question.
  • That's one of my favorite bits recently is, like, come on, people. Like, let's chill. Like, we'll start seeing some at the end of July, which is amazing. So mind boggling. Back on the Studio Neat, the Mark III, I love the recent color palette they have been using with the green and the orange and the blue. They've been really, really great colors. They've made them, like, brand colors now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And no one's really making, doing colors like that. Like, you know, I can only talk about, like, spoke. Like, we make more, like, a vibrant, like, you know, shocking color. And these are flatter and really, really nice. This is what you get access to for Cerakote, right? Like, Cerakote. Yes. Cerakote's a generally flatter, not glossy finish. You can do it every you want. But you can get some bright Cerakote. Like, I got some bright Cerakote oranges from them, so. That's kind of more, I mean, like, with Cerakote, you have much more flexibility than you do if you're anodizing. Yep. Yep. With anodizer, you just got to blast it and hope it's good.
  • Blast it. All right. This episode is brought to you by the St. Louis Pen Show. If you love the feel of writing with a fountain pen or documenting your thoughts and ideas through journaling or, hey, even just doodling, the 2025 St. Louis Pen Show is the place for you. I said St. Louis again, aren't I? I'm really getting stuck on it. St. Louis. The St. Louis Pen Show. Exposition di Stilo San Luis. It's Thursday, June 26th through Sunday, June 29th. And this year, their Friday night event includes a vintage pen panel, a pen tasting, and a free dessert party. I will tell you again, don't get those mixed up. There are some exciting new classes for 2025, including writing with quill. You can also learn copper plate, cursive, flourishing, bookbinding, letterpress, and card making. There will be classes on the four types of journaling and a class from Dan Martin talking about how numerous cartoons actually started in St. Louis before going national, Popeye being one of them. That sounds like fun. Or you can sit in on the significance of writing with Brian and Lisa Anderson. I hope someone announces them like, welcome to the significance of writing. You know, like this. And there's like that, like, that kind of thing. There are 20 classes over four days, so there's something for everyone. You're probably thinking at this point, I love the sound of this. How do I get there? The St. Louis Pen Show is at the Sheraton Westport Lakeside Chalet on the beautiful Westport Plaza. There's plenty of free parking, loads of restaurants. It's just 10 minutes from the airport. You can also get a special pen show room rate of $143 breakfast included. There will be 95 vendors from 42 different states at the show, including Sailor, Pens Empire, Retro 51, Leuchtturm 1917, and Specialty Hues, as well as artisan pens and pencils from Country Made, Scopus Pens, Derail Pens, and Magnolia, and so much more. Check out the St. Louis Pen Show at stlpenshow.com. You can buy your tickets at $10 per day admission, $20 for a weekend pass, or $30 for a trader pass for all show access. And you've got to pick up your mug, which is in line with the Got Ink theme, and will once again be a limited edition sold only at the show. Just some Easter eggs on that mug. They shared it on Instagram. Wonderful. Endorsed. For a fun-filled and educational weekend, don't miss the St. Louis Pen Show this June. Go to stlpenshow.com for all information and tickets. That's stlpenshow.com. Our thanks to the St. Louis Pen Show for their support of this show and all of Relay.
  • They're funny on the mug post. They're like, sorry, we're making funny y'all a little bit, having some fun with y'all. And we're like, no, no, we like this. This is what we want. This is great. This is what we want. This is why it's turned into an awesome thing. The mug rules. The mug literally says St. Louis on it. It's the St. Louis Blues, and it says Myke was right on it. I appreciate it. It's so good. We'll have a link in the show notes for y'all to check it out. Go check out the St. Louis Pen Show if you can. They're awesome people, clearly. Shout out of the week, Myke. Shout out of the week.
  • Blake's Broadcast. I can't remember if I've ever shouted out Blake's Broadcast before, but we've definitely talked about Blake's products over at the Paper Mind.
  • A longtime friend of mine. A longtime stationary blogger. People who have been around a while may remember a blog called The Unroyal Warrant back in the day, which was Blake's early outlet. Now he's just making YouTube videos for the most part and products over at the Paper Mind. And so a recent video came into my feed where he takes, he does the, what do they call like the tier lists? Where you do them online. Yeah. But like the online one where you just, you know, I mean, I know it's called a tier list, but where you, you know, pull the logos into the- Tier list maker. Yeah. Yeah. Tier list maker. So Blake did this for Fountain Pens, the best and worst of 2025. I implore y'all to go watch this video because it is really, really good. And there's a lot you can take from this outside of Blake's specific discussion on the topics that he's bringing, like the specific brands. Because like, as he says, like many times through this, this is based on his experiences, right? So like everyone's experiences can change with pens and that may, that means they can land a different place on the list. So this is what I really like about this community is because there's so many options for so many people and so many people like different things. You can't say anyone's like right or wrong. You can say, hey, this is like really good for you or this is really bad for me. Yeah. And that's like just another point of information like you take in. And that's why I like stuff like this. Like this is an opinionated list, right? Opinions cannot be objective. This is the thing that I deal with all the time. And it's the thing I'm dealing with significantly in the last 72 hours or whatever, right? Like lots of people have opinions about liquid glass. Yeah. Apple's new design system. And they express these opinions as facts, which is not the way that it is. They're just opinions. Yeah. Yeah. So like I'll give a good point. I watched the video yesterday, the day before. And like he rates Leonardo very low and I would rate them higher than him. But if you watch the video, Blake had like a really bad like customer service experience with them and a repair experience with them. Yeah. And that's like that's super valid. And that's how Blake should rate his experience with Leonardo, right? So that's why I like this content. And that's why I appreciate him like bringing that up like throughout the video. And that's what we try to talk about here. And I especially try to talk about it in the reviews. It's like, you know, I'm not like the one and only like source for anything, right? You should just take it as a point of information. People have experiences. People have different experiences. People could have completely opposite experiences and all of that stuff's valid. And I just thought it was a really good video to kind of like point all of that out. So it was good stuff. So y'all go watch that and check it out. I did think overall, like my rankings would be very similar. It's very similar to his. And he had a lot of good points about a lot of the products. So it's good stuff. All right. We got a little follow up here, which I didn't know Pete was listening, but let's see what we got, Myke. So Pete wrote and said, I have to redeem myself. After leaving you high and dry with the local price of the M17 refill in the last episode, after searching and translating the receipt, I can confirm the following. Bought from Loft in Shibuya at a cost of 1000 yen, which is 10, uh, 10, 70 Australian dollars. So $10, seven cents, 70 cents Australian, which would be 695 USD at the time of writing this to you limit of one, as you noted in the episode. Perfect information. Perfect information. Because the reason why I wanted this number and thank you, Pete, uh, for doing this. And thank you for that post. That was a really great post. I've saved that post to share with other people. Um, is this is going to get us the regular street price for what the refill should be, regardless of what we're paying in an import market in the U S for the price. So 695 is what I should expect to pay eventually in the U S maybe 795, right? By the time whatever conversions and everything needs to happen. I think $11 is the, there's an extra jump in there with some secondary markets, distributorships. Um, there, there's an extra layer I feel in the current price. And I hope when things settle down and this becomes a regular product that it's not more than like 795, which is still very expensive, but it's not $11, right? So that's what I was getting at with. I don't know what the real price of this refill is supposed to be, right? Because we're going through extra channels to acquire it right now. So this was great information. So thank you, Pete.
  • Can we put a finally into the Mont Blanc, Wes Anderson, uh, series? I get, can we, I think we can, I think, except for one thing, which we'll get to. No, no, actually it's out. We don't know how much. No, I know how much I found it. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Good. All right. So the Wes Anderson Mont Blanc, which is called the, uh, Schreberling. Um, is available now. Quote unquote available. Uh, this is a product that even though they have an online page for it, I think you can only buy this if you have an arrangement. It's, this feels like a watch kind of thing for me. Like you have to have a person at a boutique and you can buy from them. Um, you have to be in someone's little black book. Yeah. I do think that's the case because I saw in the comments of one of the posts, someone saying, I've had my name down for this for a year or whatever. Gotcha. Um, so I found it, uh, it's 2,110 pounds. Yeah. That's about what we thought. I didn't think it was going to be that much, Brad. I thought it might be a thousand, but when you see. Oh, that's what we hoped it. Yes. When you see what they are doing for this product in the overall package, I see why they think they can charge that amount of money. Um, there's like this whole tin that comes with a special notebook and cartridges and a ruler. It is, it hurts me how much I want it. I think it's so beautiful and I want it so bad. And I, now I've seen the whole package. I want it more than I already wanted it. The set is sick. That surprised me. It's unbelievable. I think, and again, this was a different Australian friend. They told me that that set for that, all that stuff with the box and everything was over four grand. Well, like on the moment. I don't know if that's, I don't know if that's singular or if that was, if that was Australian dollars, that would translate maybe more to like the, the over $2,000. The $2,500 USD. Like we're talking about here. Yeah. You think that's the only way it comes maybe is in the box. I think so. Yeah. Cause like on the website, so this is on the British website. This is the listing for this product and you have two options. Notify me when back in stock. It was never in stock. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Check availability in boutiques. Like that's, that's what you're, you're doing here.
  • And like, okay. So yeah, I think you're right. Send my information to one of the boutiques or from the website and they will contact me to tell me if I can get one. Yeah. So this is what you're dealing with. They will not. Yeah. Cause there's only 1,969 of them. Right. Is that correct? Right. Right. And I love it so much. It hurts me. It hurts me, Brad. Oh my God. I want this pen so bad.
  • I actually don't remember a time in which I wanted a pen as much as I want this one. I'll just say they absolutely crushed this. Right. Yeah. Like, I mean, they're, they're crushing people's wallets along the way. Right. Like I'm not, I'm not going to buy this, but my gosh, I, this is so good. This is ridiculous. I hate it. This is why, like, this is why I rate Montblanc so highly, even though I don't use their pens. Like I do think they do a really just special job with their products, even the base, the base level products. So yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. I just want it though. You know what I mean? And I feel like they don't understand that because I can't have it because I feel like Brad, if they knew how much I wanted it, I would be able to get it. Yeah. You know? So one of the, one of the hangups is when you, uh, side by side with side by side, the, just the pen product with the standard baby edition, which I hate that name, but that's what they called it. Um, is the standard baby fountain pen series or only six, 700, only, only $765. Right. And you can get like the, the new coral one is beautiful. Like I have way more chance of getting that one or I think one day I will get one of these babies. Cause I always loved it. I've always loved the baby. Uh, I've used them right when they came out, a bunch of people had them and I used them and they're, they're fantastic. I think it's a beautiful pen. And then this one just kind of pushed me over. Like I've loved the coral one. They had like, they had a color like this before. I think like a kind of reddish, uh, color. Yeah. I, I, the Rouge Noir baby is like just fantastic. Um, but this, the Wes Anderson one is like a whole special thing. Uh, and as I say, like this is the thing I say, I want it and I do want it really bad. No one let me buy it. Even if they let me buy it, I wouldn't buy it for this money. Right. Right. Yeah. It's kind of like a dual thing here. I can't buy it and I wouldn't, but I want to, you know what I mean? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have no business buying this pen, but man, this is like, it's not like when Montagrappa does those super wild, like over the top, you know, samurais and stuff like that. And it's like five grand. I was like, yeah, good. I don't need that. Like this pen is like, this is like a real, like it's, I know I'm being hyperbolic, but this is like a real user pen. Like it's a writing pen. This is an example of, of high, high fashion, like high luxury fashion where this is a very simple looking pen. But when you, if you saw that without any information, you would know that was expensive. Right. Yeah. You can't really put your finger on, but there's just something about it. Like the way it is designed that you would know. I mean, I don't think you'd know it was two grand because it isn't two grand, right? It is a 700 pound pen with a really beautiful box. Maybe it's a thousand, right? Like, realistically. Is it grand Budapest grand? I think so. And it's two grand Budapest is the problem. Like, I feel like this is a 1000 pound product, right? Like realistically. Yes. But they are charging two grand for it. Because they got to pay Wes Anderson, right? Like that's what's going on here. They literally made a movie. They made a movie for the pen. He's got to pay him somehow, you know? And all the actors he had in it. So they got to get paid. Why is it taking so long though? Why is it taking like a year? What is going on? Now, I will say. It's taken more than a year. It is perfect timing because he has a movie out right now. Ah. But I don't know if that actually. I don't think that's why they did it. But he has a movie out right now. Yeah. Because I don't think they need to promote the product. They sold them all. They're gone. They're done. Yeah. So speaking of movies, which movie is this pen? I mean, I think there's only one answer, but I'm not an expert. Wes Anderson expert. I think Moonrise Kingdom. Yeah. Like just from the colors. Yeah. The color scope of. I think you're right. Plus that's like one of the five. Like I haven't seen all the movies. I've seen movie five. It might fit the new one. Because the new one is, I think there's a bit of like Alpine in it. The Phoenician Scheme. Mm-hmm. That's the name. Yeah. Michael Cera is in that movie. And apparently Benedict Cumberbatch said something like them two together is like man discovering fire or something like that. Yeah. Just like this perfect pairing. I want to see the movie. Idina's going to see it next week. And if she likes it, I'm going to try and see it too. Nice. Nice. Nice. All right. So maybe we can put a bow on that one. Yeah. But that one's been fun to follow up just because we enjoy it so much. And just the design wise. But you know, Mont Blanc, if you're out there, you know. Yeah. Hit us up. Hit me up. No, not us. Us. It doesn't care. Pinaddict.com. Hello at pinaddict.com is our contact email. Yeah. But it will go to me only. Thank you.
  • This episode is brought to you by Enigma Stationery. Enigma Stationery offer unique items made from in-house designs with top brands and hard to find imports. Enigma always have great deals on and their latest is one for the fountain pen lovers. From now until July 31st, every fountain pen sold for $150 or more will include a special gift of a value of $30 or more. And don't forget to treat yourself with the best prices yet on more than 200 items across the shop. So forget about duties and focus on doodles with Enigma Stationery. Plus, when you use the code penaddict25, you'll get a free gift and free US shipping on orders of $50 or more. That's enigmastationery.com slash penaddict to shop all of Enigma's latest stock. And for their fountain pen special, head over to enigmastationery.com slash fountain dash pen dash special. But you'll also find it on the site. Our thanks to Enigma Stationery for their support of this show and relay. Can I do a live unboxing of my last Enigma order? So they got me in our last ad. So like same ad this time. So they did a lot of great new fun artwork for their pride specials and supporting the Trevor Project. And I ordered a bunch of stuff and I have not opened it. I asked Myke if I could do this real quick while we're on the episode. So here we go. Oh, it's taped. It's taped very heavily. Oh, but that's the case. They care about you over Enigma. You know, they want to make sure that your product's not getting destroyed. Oh, do you bought the washi tapes, right? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I just ordered stuff. We were talking about them, that we liked them so much. Yeah, I got washi tapes and sticker sheets. All right. Okay. Get to this. Okay. Here we go.
  • What did Brad order? What did Brad order? I know I'm not talking directly in the mic. It helps to do that. I know.
  • Okay. Let's see what we got here. Oh, man. The sticker sheets are so good. Okay. Oh, there's a note. Let me see.
  • Thank you for your order and helping us support the Trevor Project. We added a few extras to add to your giveaway stash. Thanks for your continued support. Oh, they're so nice, Michelle, Dan, and Penn. So thank you all.
  • Yes, I'll have to figure out what I ordered and what they gave me. So the pride stickers are the sticker sheets. I think that's what I learned the most. Okay. Yeah. They're really big. They're bigger than I thought, which is a good thing.
  • So yeah, the pride. Oh, I see. So the pride flag sticker sheet, it's probably eight inches tall, like eight by four. And like the top batch is like the large nib stickers and the bottom batch is like some smaller nib stickers. So it's got like two sizes on there. So I got a couple of sheets of those. I got a couple of individual like progress pride nibs, which I already have the enamel pen. Let me see what washi's I got here. Oh man, they packed this up so well. Oh, then I got all the pride nibs in the washi tape. So that's cool. And what else? One more little thing here. And then I'll do some giveaway stuff later.
  • Very cool. Let's see here. Sorry. Is this ASMR? Not really, no. It's just a lot of silence. I know. See, you can't hear it. Okay. I got some sticky memos and some Kawekos to give away. So awesome.
  • I can't wait to use these stickers. Thank you, Michelle, Dan, and Penn for doing everything you do for the community, supporting us. And I'm glad to support you back. I love this stuff that you make. So I appreciate that. Sounds good.
  • All right. Let me clear off my desk and get back to where we are. Let's talk about, let's continue the pride theme here, Myke. I thought Diamine did a really good job recently bringing out a set of 10 pride colors in their 12 milliliter ink bottles. It's over, I saw it over at CultPens is where I got the link from. I don't know how, I think this is a CultPens exclusive, if I'm not mistaken. And this comes into play. Well, it's got that logo on it. It's got their logo on the bottles, right? So, which CultPens has always had a top relationship with Diamine. They do, they've done a lot of stuff with them for a lot of years. So this set might help solve the problem of matching all the colors to the rainbow that Kimberly and I had a month ago or so on the podcast, trying to define the perfect rainbow color. And Diamine said, you know what? We got you. We got you, fam. Here are the colors. And you know what? You look at that rainbow and you go, yeah, no changes. Perfect. 10 out of 10. No changes. And they did the progress leg too, which is like extra plants. Exactly. So yeah, this is the full deal, you know, including like the browns, blacks, light blues, pinks. It's just, it's awesome. Like they nailed it. Like I, I'm so happy about this. Someone sent me this link the other day. I was like, yes, finally. I, I, not only do I feel relieved, like I can answer this question a little bit better now and just with one link, it's like, Hey, here you go. Buy them all in one shot. It also, you know, is awesome to support the pride in our LGBTQ plus community. And it's just cool. So good job, Diamine. Good job, Cult Pens. And I will keep that link handy. Up next, we got an interesting one from Twisby, Myke.
  • Are you, I can't remember this. I always ask you this before. Are you a Twisby fan slash user?
  • Well, yeah, of course I am. Okay. I just didn't know. I just didn't know what you have. So I like Twisby's, you know, Twisby's aren't for everyone. They have historically had like some cracking problems and a lot of people have sworn them off for very good reasons, right? Like historically, they just, you know, haven't come through in some QC or some manufacturing issues. I've had pretty good luck. So I've been sticking with them and they have recently, they did a very subtle one. I forget the name of it, like earlier this year or late last year where they did like a subtle marbled cap. They're not changing the style of the pen, right? Which I'm hoping for a new model one day. This is still the EcoBase, which is one of my favorites. And they've, you know, mixed in the colors in the cap and the twist knob on the end. I love it. Yeah. Like, it's cool. It's fun. Like, you know, they've, I think they've finished the rainbow, kind of like Diamine just started the rainbow there at Cult Pens. I think Twisby might have finished the rainbow. So they have to do something else, right? This is a really nice adaptation of this. I've never would have really thought about this for them, but I think this is really clever. And I saw the image earlier and I was just focused on the cap. I didn't notice that it was also in the, like the twist vacuum portion of the repo. I don't know what you would call it. The little twisty at the end. Yep. That's really smart to put it at the back there too. I love this. I think this is really nice. Yeah. You do a pin like this, you just can't slap a black piston knob on there or even clear. I mean, it could have been clear though, right? Clear would have worked, I guess. It would have been fine, but this is way better to do it this way. Yeah. Yeah. The only thing I don't know is I can't remember what the last one was, but like, are we going to get up how much, what's our premium on this? Right. Because the eco is running like the low 30 us dollars. I think some of the limited ones get up in the fifties. Like, is this going to be like in the 50 range or are we going to like bump up from there? Like if we start getting this model, like closer to like the 70 or 80 us USD range, it's going to be a little bit more of a tough ask, but we'll see. We'll see what they, just because they built a baseline of what it is. It doesn't mean like it may not be worth it. It might be worth it to some people, whatever, but I'm just saying they have like a price structure that they've kind of stuck with. Are we going to, are they going to expand that? Are they going to broaden that a little bit on the high end when doing materials like this? We'll see. We'll see. But I really liked this one. This might be the first twist. I haven't bought a twist in a long time for myself. This one I will definitely check out. I don't know if it's something like I would keep or use permanently, but I want to see it in person. All right. A little bit of follow-up slash topic, Myke. This is something we just barely spoke on last week and it was your journaling problem.
  • And I had some thoughts on this a little bit more than last week. You had some more thoughts on this. So why don't, can you do a little recap and then kind of say where, where, where we got to and where we're at now, just like a week on. And like, I think both of us have had a couple little more thoughts on this. Yep. So for years I built like a really good journaling habit by keeping my journal on my desk. And then I would spend a few minutes during the work day where I would write down in my theme system journal, like I would fill it out, like all the bits and bobs that I fill out, like my good, bad thing I'm grateful for, thing I'm looking forward to. And then the daily actions in the back, I do it every day. Um, and then I was also working on this second journal thing. So I ended up for a point, I was using two journals a day. Um, then the baby came and, uh, one, I stopped doing everything for a while. You know, it's really easy to lose a habit if you just stop doing it for a long period of time. And then the, but the bigger problem is I am not at the studio as much as I used to be. Like I'm, I'm trying to come here only three days a week rather than five days a week that I was here and trying to combine my work, like crush my work days into three. And also I'm not dawdling or hanging around as much. Like when I'm here, I'm like nose to the grindstone the whole time until I leave. And so I'm losing space in my day to sit down and journal. And that is frustrating to me. And even the days where I do, if I put it in my bag, I won't use it. If I put it on my desk, I'll use it when I'm here, but I'm not here all the time. So I wanted to at least be like writing down at least something that I'm grateful for every day. But I was just, I was struggling with that. And then we spoke about it last week and you recommended digital version. So I've been using day one and I've been, it's been great. Like just, I am at least getting something down most days now. And my plan is to start copying some of those back out into my journal at some point in the near future, like to try and find the time to do that. But I don't know, but at least I'm trying to keep the habit up until I can get the written part back down again, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I think that's great. And, you know, maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but it's, I think it's good to try something. And that's kind of where I got at, got to this week or in the past week, I added the Apple's iOS journaling app and which I guess you said is now coming to iPad and Mac next year, which I won't use it on either of those systems because I use it very specifically because what I, this is like a personal thing with me and my anxiety is I don't do good with free time and like being still. So like, I'm good when I'm working, like, you know, you and I have been working together all day. We've been recording podcasts. We've been, you know, you know, doing all kinds of things and it's great. I like, I'm never anxious, never have any problems. But when I stop or like I'm taking a break or, you know, maybe I finished work for the day and don't have anything to do. I started getting super anxious.
  • And so, you know, normally you think, well, Brad, you have all these notebooks and pens and all that. And it's like, yeah, like I use them throughout the day. Like I write all the time, but it's hard for me to have like this brain dump. Like I just need to clear, I need to erase things from my head. And the quickest way for me to do that, I found has been the journaling app to where I just, whatever today's date is, like I'll just make a page for today and then just write whatever stupid stuff is in my head just goes down there. And like that doesn't work in a journal, in like an analog sense for me. So I guess my point in saying all of this is you can have both and you have to find the tools that work for you. And my bigger, more thoughtful, like sit down and plan thing out journaling, that's all analog. You know, my tasks are mostly analog. I have reminders digitally, right? Because I don't want to forget some things because my plotter doesn't actually have an alarm mic. I don't know if you know that. So we could work on that. I'll talk to them about that. Yeah, they should get that implemented.
  • So I do need some digitals. But like sometimes like for someone who is analog focused as I am, I really do need digital tools to satisfy like some of my personal challenges and finding like a quick access brain dump app. Like I could just use a notes file. I could use anything. But I found that the journal app to way it just separates into days. Yeah. And I don't use it for like full journaling. Like I'm not doing anything more than like I need to smash a button and spew some words. And that works for me. So, you know, not everything has to be analog. Not everything has to be digital. And I think it's pretty clear, pretty obvious to say that, hey, why not both in this world that we live in right now? Since it's just what you have access to and what's at the tip of your hands. And like I've tried carrying notebooks around the house all day long. And like that's good in concept. And it's done some good things for me. But in the end, like when I really, really almost have like a mental emergency, I need to just put it in the phone and be done with it and, you know, move on. So that's just something I've been thinking about a lot recently. And, you know, like things are like super challenging right now, like in the world. So it affects me like personally. So like my work is my distraction. And when I'm not working, I sometimes get confused and don't know what to do and need these little things to help me get through my days. Luckily, the journaling app, Apple's journaling app will be on the Mac and iPad later this year. Yep. So that'll be interesting. I'll be interested to see if I use it like on my Mac. I don't know that I'd use it on my iPad, but I'm on my laptop a lot. So I don't know. But when I'm on my laptop, I'm always next to a notebook and a pen, like almost universally like every moment. But we'll see. We'll see how that goes. This episode of the Pen Addict is brought to you by Factor. Summer is finally here. More sun, more light, more time to do all the things that make summer so special. But here's what you don't want to be doing. Spending hours cooking inside. And that is where Factor comes in. Factor's chef-crafted, dietitian-approved meals are ready in just two minutes, taking the hassle out of eating well. Factor meals arrive fresh and ready to eat. Perfect for any active lifestyle over summer and beyond. With 45 weekly menu options, you can pick from gourmet meals that fit your summer gains and goals. You can choose from options like calorie smart, protein plus, keto and more. Factor powers your day sunup to sundown. With nutritious breakfasts, on-the-go lunches, premium dinners and guilt-free snacks and desserts, Factor has your whole day covered. Enjoy more this summer and get Factor if you want all the flavor and none of the fuss. You've heard Brad mention a ton of times on the show about how much he loves Factor. And I agree that it's amazing, right? You want to be able to grab something to eat and not have your whole day disrupted. As Brad has said before, right? The quality is super good, especially when he's at home. You can grab something. It's just him, right? So he can have something on his own. It's not like a big production. You can get that single meal and it's done super quick. You just throw it in the microwave and you end up with great quality, great tasting food, done fast, and you can fit it into your busy lifestyle. Get started at factomeals.com slash penaddict50off and use the code penaddict50off to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. That's code penaddict50off at f-a-c-t-o-r-m-e-a-l-s dot com slash penaddict50off to get 50% off plus free shipping. One last time, factomeals.com slash penaddict50off. Our thanks to Factor for their support of this show and all of Relay. We've got some RSTPA questions. Adria asks, is there something about the 2024 Lamy Dark Lilac that gives it extra staining power? It's my go-to ink for fountain pens. However, cleaning the pen, my hands, and unfortunately inked surfaces seems to take extra effort. And when I re-ink my pen, I can see the green sheen specific to the 2024 version co-ink parts to the nib. I love Dark Lilac and will keep using it, but is there any way to make any kind of cleanup a little easier? In case it helps, I use a Platinum Prep with a fine nib.
  • You've kind of hit on the challenge with Lamy Dark Lilac in that it is an aggressive sheener. And inks that are more sheeny tend to, and I apologize, I haven't had an ink maker on yet, but they have like, more chemistry is involved, more chemicals are involved, more components are involved, and whatever causes the sheen outside of air, whatever's in the liquid, is just a little bit more aggressive for your pens, right? You might see a little bit more staining in your cartridges and your converters.
  • There's no way to solve the ink. Clean up, you could use the slightest dab of dish soap, like a Dawn, like that type of dish soap, not like a hand soap, but like something designed for like dish cleaning. Like the slightest fraction of that in like a solution, and let that, you know, run that through your nib, let them soak for a little bit. It should help some.
  • But yeah, that's a challenge with sheening inks, is they are fractionally harder to clean, and you do have some after effects from using that aggressive M&M ink. Like, I don't know, I hesitate to say that it's going to do any damage. I don't know that it does, and I don't know that people really talk about that. I haven't gotten much feedback on that. But it just takes a little bit more elbow grease to clean, and that's part and parcel with these aggressive sheening inks, I believe.
  • Matcha asks, what are three pens you could never get rid of? Not the best, not the most expensive, but three that you would never allow to leave your collection. All right, you go, because I haven't totally thought about this one yet, but I have at least two I can think of. So I have three that hit on different things. So one is the Pilot M90, because I love that pen so much, and I'm not sure I'd ever get another one.
  • Because I feel like over time, that is a pen that's just going to get harder and harder to try and acquire. I do have two, but you know. Yeah, it'd be easier to buy a vintage Mew than it is an M90 by far. The other is the Platinum 3776 Galaxy Starlight. This pen has, I feel like I've gone on a real journey with it, right? The nib broke on day one. I also bought it to celebrate five years of relay. I bought it at Choosing Keeping. Then I got the nib back after a long time, came straight from Japan. Then I chipped the cap, and now it's got a stacked nib from CY in it.
  • And I just love this pen so much. I mean, I've always loved the way it looks, but now I feel like it's got so much added meaning that it just means a lot to me. Then the last one is my first Orange Sailor Pro Gear. For two reasons. One, it started my love affair with Sailor, and the other, I bought it at the Atlanta pen show.
  • Nice. I think the first Atlanta pen show. Yeah, the first one. I think that's the one where you ignored advice, went straight over, bought a pen, and came right back within five minutes of entering the room. You know? Why would you wait?
  • That's my advice, don't wait. I remember that. I remember that. All right.
  • The first one for me is easy. It's the Namiki Milky Way. Oh, yeah. My Arushi Galaxy version of this pen is just so cool. It's kind of like the perfect pen for me. That's my expensive pen. That's why I don't need something like the Wes Anderson pen because it's never going to beat out this pen for me.
  • And it was very expensive, but it's so usable, and I do use it quite frequently. And it's just enjoyable for me to write with. It fits me perfectly. This is kind of like your Galaxy Star, like the same theory here. Right? It's just a really, really cool, beautiful pen that I'll never get rid of. After that, I think there's, you know, this is where you get into that. There's probably like 10 pens that fit into this category. So the first couple that I can think of, number one, the Bungu Box Pink Love because that's my storytelling pen, like your Orange Sailor Pro Gear. That was when I discovered Bungu Box and really had to jump through hoops and hurdles to get through the ordering process to get this. And I don't use it a lot, but it's still to this day like one of the most stunning pens I own and one of my favorites, and I should probably ink it up soon.
  • Last one, this one's going to make you mad because you're going to want it in your list now. And that's the Rushi Lamy Safari that Brooks made. It was close. So honestly, it was either out of that safari or the Pro Gear, and I had to go with the Pro Gear. Yeah. Like this Rushi Lamy Safari is so unique and usable and fun and again, great story behind it. This is like in our early Brooks days of working with Jonathan and Carolina Pinto. Yeah, like I could slot in a few. Like there's definitely a handful of others. I hadn't mentioned any Nakayas. Like my Murex is always special to me. So yeah, but I think those three would make a good three that just are never going anywhere. Love it. All right. If you would like to send in a question for us to answer in a future episode of the show, go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send those in to us. We really appreciate it. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com and twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can find me here on Relay. My products are at cortexbrand.com and I've set up a blog recently called The Enthusiast, which you can find at theenthusiast.net if you want to check out what I've got to say. Thank you to our sponsors this week. They'll find folks over at Factor, Enigma Stationery and the St. Louis Pen Show. And we'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.
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