The Pen Addict 675/transcript

Podcast Introduction and Sponsor Acknowledgment

• From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 675. Today's show is brought to you by our friends at Enigma Stationery. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy.
• What's up, Myke Hurley? Hey, buddy. How you doing? It's pen time. I'm good. It's pen time. I'm good. It is pen time. It's getting ready to be pen season for me. We got a lot going on in the next couple months, which I'm not sure. I'm excited about. Is it not pen season for you? Actually, no. Yeah. There might be a day where today is not pen day, but it's pretty much pen season, 365.
• 365. Yeah. 365 pen season. Yep. Which I'm here for. I love it. I wouldn't have it any other way. I mean, regardless of whether it's pen season on the podcast, it's always pen season on my desk. And, you know, recently, Myke, to get into our first topic, I was sent some awesome, amazing Grafilo paper by my good friend Jacob at Food Day Fan. And guess what, Myke? What? It's already discontinued. Womp womp. I was going to do the womp womp sound, too. So this is one of the more hilarious things to happen to me in a while. But it's just like a perfect encapsulation of what we've been going through in the paper industry, stationary paper industry, recently with all kinds of changes over the past, say, five years since the Tomoe disaster. Now I just laugh, right? It's to be expected. Like, we can't have nice things because we don't count. And I say that in relation to paper printing, right? We are not generally, you know, the stationary industry is not the primary reason a lot of these papers get discovered, which we've discussed ad nauseum, right? We're happy accidents for a lot of these large printing companies who make a paper for one reason, and then all of a sudden, you know, degenerates like us find out that they're really good for fountain pens or just good for writing in general. So anyway, Jacob sent me this Grafilo paper, and he sent it in like the hole punch size, the Bible size for like the system techos, you know, your plotters, knocks, different things, anything that takes like these hole punch, ring-bound, small pocketable planners, which are hugely, hugely popular in Japan. Sent me the paper, and I immediately noticed just how nice it was, right? I explained this last week. I was just like, oh, this is really, really good. I'm going to look into this. It's like, I've been aware of Grafilo. I literally had a Grafilo notebook sitting in my stash, just really never dug into it more. But Jacob sent it to me, so I was like, oh, well, I mean, that's the person's whose opinion I respect more than anyone's, and I loved it. How did you? Literally after we finished the podcast last week, within less than an hour, like literally within minutes, I got a message. Brad, do you know the Grafilo that you like, that you have in your hand, has been discontinued as of like, you know, within the past few days, like recently? And I was like, I just did this whole bit on how I love this paper, and now you're taking it away from me. But it's not all bad news, Myke. Okay. So, the latest episode of Tokyo Inklings came out, Jacob and CY. Y'all should go listen to that. I actually have a few things to talk about from that episode today. But mostly, you know, they were laughing about me falling in love with the Grafilo. But the good news is, Jacob already has the new model. So, if you're looking for new Grafilo, it will be marked R6. So, I don't know what the existing one is marked as, but like the model number, if you will, of the new paper is called R6. And Jacob, who does a great job on his YouTube channel, which I've called out many times before, did a side-by-side comparison of the Grafilo he sent me and the new R6. And the R6 might actually be better in a very, like, fractional way. It's not noticeably worse, which is a huge win if, you know, you're someone like Grafilo is a very, very, very small paper company. Very small percentage usage rate. It's, you know, it's not going to show up anywhere and everywhere. They don't have a lot of retail presence, if you will. But, you know, they're made by a Japanese company. And, you know, you can find it. And it's pretty great. So, the new stuff is actually pretty good. Jacob, you know, went through several features of it. And kind of the cons list, or at least the changed items list for the new Grafilo were actually things that make me even more excited. Like, the paper has slightly more tooth. And the line width is finer. Like, it's a little bit more accurate in line width. And then the color representation stayed almost identical. Like, he has great pictures up on his videos.
• Um, about the paper. So, yeah. It's, uh, it's... Luckily, you know, we don't normally get this in our paper changes.
• In our pedantic nature around these paper changes. We normally don't get an improvement. But I think we actually might be better off in this case. So, keep your eyes peeled. If you want to test out a good Grafilo. Or a good paper for Pound Pens. Uh, as Jacob calls it, it has good Instagrammability. Which I really love that he continues to say that about pens. And, like, I think without me describing, like, what a feature of Instagrammability would be. Like, you could tell me, like, what Instagrammability is. Right? It's, like, accurate color representation. And things are going to pop for showing other people. You know, without a lot of manipulation. Right? Of good accuracy. Good color. Um, good realness to what's shown on the page. To what other people can expect when they use the page. So, I thought that was pretty hilarious. So, uh, Instagrammability is high. With the Grafalo.
• Um... Do you ever heard of the Gruffalo? I have not heard of the Gruffalo. What is the Gruffalo? It's a story. I mean, I remember when I was a kid. But now I've been reading it to my daughter.
• Uh, the Gruffalo. It's just a storybook. And they made a movie. Mm-hmm. Um, it's like this little mouse who's trying to scare off predators. By saying that, like, he knows this big monster called the Gruffalo. And, like, explains the Gruffalo. And then, spoilers. At the end of the book, a Gruffalo appears. Oh. And every time you say Gruffalo, I think of the Gruffalo. Oh, nice. I'm looking at the picture, it looks like a wild thing, like, type of creation. It does look like that, doesn't it? Whatever those... Or, I don't know if those monsters have a name. Where the wild things are. Yeah. I often get where the wild things are and the Gruffalo confused. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So... Yeah. That's awesome. I love that. I will... I could totally read that book. I could see myself reading that book. So, yeah. Oh, there's a movie? Yeah, there's a movie. I am. Nice, nice. Um, so, yeah. Gruffalo, Gruffalo. Either one is good, right? I feel like in this situation. So, just another quick call-out. He also talked about Kanopas Paper, which I think we'll be hearing about soon. So, this is a Yamamoto Paper production, which, if you follow the podcast or the blog or my travels any length of time, I'm a huge fan of what Taizo at Yamamoto Paper does and creates. And he actually created another of his own paper formulas, if you will. It's called Kanopas. It's somewhat in the Cosmo Air Light range. So, for people who like that paper, this is going to launch at San Francisco Pen Show later this year. So, I'll make sure to get my hands on some. I'm not going to be there, but I'll have plenty of people there. We can grab some. I'm not a Cosmo Air Light fan. Like, it has different properties that I don't like in pages. Like, it's the opposite of what I like. But it has probably the highest Instagram ability of any paper I've ever seen. Like, it's perfect for fountain pen innings. So, check out that. I have links to the videos, the new Graffalo R6, the Kanopas Paper. Jacob does a good job. Jacob could read me bedtime stories. His videos are so good. His voiceovers are really good. He could read you the Graffalo. He could read... Oh, man. Jacob. All right. So, you have a task. No, I'm just kidding. Make a story called the Graffalo. And just replace all the references to monsters to different paper traits.
• So, he'll hear this because they were making fun of me. Well, not making fun of me the last episode. Just like, oh, man. Poor Brad. I just sent him this. And, like, literally within a day, I had to change it. So, another thing they go over quite extensively. And one of the best things that they do, and my favorite things that they do, is cover some of the business aspects of stationery in Japan. Yeah. So, they did a Sailor business update in this episode. And it sounds... Like, it hasn't sounded good for Sailor since before Plus bought them. And it still doesn't sound particularly good. Right? Like, there's just... They're getting hammered on gold prices. So, they go through that.
• I don't know what Sailor's going to change or what they do. At this point, I just think of Sailor as a robotics company. And this fountain pen business is like a side gig to me, is what it sounds like, even though we don't think of them that way. But that's the way the business probably runs. But I don't know the different line items. But historically, the fountain pen line item is only a smaller percentage of the business than the rest of the business. But yeah, like, you know, gold prices are, you know, taking a huge chunk out of their profits. But, you know, and they talk about through the podcast about how, you know, they're going to make a focus on... Like, they're actually made... Sailor actually made a point to say that they're going to focus on some of their high-end products, which kind of blows my mind, right? Because I don't know how much that moves the needle in the grand scheme of your overall profitability. Like, you can only make... The conversation was around the bespoke nibs. So, Sailor, if a lot of people might see them online, they've launched... You know how they always had, like, the fancy nibs, like, where you get all these custom, like, the bespoke nib series, like, the different stack nibs, like, the cross-concord and all that stuff. And then they went away years ago because, like, they just couldn't keep up with production. And now they've been slowly rolling them back over the past few years. And now they're getting, you know, now they're offering, like, a real, like, triple stack one, like, again. And, like, you can only sell so many of these. Like, even if you... They were talking about they're going to make 30 of this new bespoke nib. I was like, well, that's nothing for a bottom line. I mean, I would understand it if they were like, we're going to focus on the high-end stuff and we found a way to produce more of it. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's what we don't know. Yeah, CY actually went through a bunch of that. It was like, have they found a way to have some efficiencies in this production to where they can actually make more than 30? Yeah. Like, but even in the end, and this was CY's point, is, like, whether you're making 30, 300, or 1,000 of these nibs, is it going to really move the bottom line for, like, this publicly traded company in Japan? I don't know that it is. So it was a good conversation just to think about, like, what is Sailor's business these days? And, honestly, I don't know. No.

Shoutouts and Paper Review Highlights

• Huh. So, anyway, shout out to Jacob and CY. Great episode this week of Tokyo Inklings. If you're not listening to them, go give them a listen. And at least check, if you're on YouTube, check out Jacob's paper reviews recently. They've been good. The last thing on the paper, just rewinding, I meant to say this. He did a side-by-side comparison of the new Grafalo R6 with the Sansan Tomoe River, and it made the Sansan look like garbage. It made it look like a paper I would not be interested to use. And it made me sad, right? Like, it kind of made me sad that this was just such a standout brand and unrivaled quality paper that it's now gotten to a point where people are actively avoiding it. So, that just kind of stunk. But it is what it is. It is what it is. All right. So, we got some follow-up from our big STPA episode. John wrote in and said, on postcards, this is on the postcards, got a couple of things here. John says, if a letter is too long and a postcard is potentially not sufficiently private, why don't you put the postcard in an envelope?
• Yeah, 100%. And I actually did get that feedback aside from John. But that is absolutely something people do, especially if, in my case, where I might be thinking, or not specifically in my case, but in someone who's doing a more artistic thing on a postcard that doesn't want it damaged by the Postal Service in transit, go ahead and put it in an envelope, mail it that way. I don't think that defeats the purpose of what the postcard is. But I enjoy the destruction, I think, as part of the art in postcards. But I do think people do send the postcards in envelopes just for protective or privacy, which is totally valid.
• Yeah, I mean, it does kind of take away some of the magic of the postcard, but I get the point, right? Yep. It makes sense. And Brittany writes in and says, while I'm not a mail carrier, I've been processing mail pieces for USPS for nearly 14 years, and therefore I've seen a lot of postcards. I'd only be embarrassed as a postcard writer if I tried to smash the address into the, quote, for Postal Use Only space at the bottom, like a fair number of people do. Yeah, Brittany, I feel that.
• I am overly particular about my address space on a postcard, especially if I have an area that's just blank, like a card that's just blank, right, where you can use it as a postcard, but you need to leave room for proper addressing and visuals and scanning abilities for it to actually get to its destination. So, yes, I am overly conscious about that, and I try to. As much as I would like to fill every square millimeter of the postcard, keep some spaces free. So, shout out, Brittany. I appreciate that. And on red pens, Sergio wrote in and said, check out the Lamy Safari in Strawberry. It's matte red of a red clip. Yeah, so this was a limited edition two, three years ago. Yeah.
• It's probably still available in more areas than you would think. This is a really good pen. It could be a little bit orangey. Our goal was to not get as orange of a red. The strawberry tends to lean more orange than pink, which I think a lot of strawberry reds can lean pink. This one leans a little bit orange, at least in images.
• And when I had it, I had some in hand. It's just a little bit lighter red, right? It's a little bit lighter than what you would think is just like a standard ABS plastic stock red would be. I feel like I struggle to see the, like, when people say, like, this red is orangey or whatever. I'm not sure that I... To me, orange and red are very different.
• So, on this link that we're going to have in the show notes, it's the JetPens. Okay? And there's two pens listed on here. They have the Strawberry Edition. Well, what they have in the second picture is the stock red fountain pen right next to it. They are vastly different in my eyes. Like, there's totally a difference. And it's not just the black trim. So, if you hover over... Like, it's like a mistake. Like, this picture... This pen should not be on this page, right? It's in there. It's not the Strawberry one. Yeah. I mean, I see the differences between the two of them. It's different. But I'm still... I just... I can't see orange in that. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's just a way to describe the red as lighter. Yep. Yep. Pink and orange are generally lighter red descriptions.
• Nathan wrote in and said, take a look at Karas Customs for red pens. Their anodized pens have a beautiful finish that stands up well in my experience. While I'm mindful of questioner, Chris, saying they've only been into fountain pens for a year, I think a Karas pen could be a worthy spend if they find one with the right color and style for their taste. Totally agree. Red anodized actually works really, really well.
• It pops. I'm actually selling one right now.

Exclusive Pen Deals and Anodized Red Discussion

• My Iron Man for, like, quite a steal. I'll let people go find that. I'm not going to link that in the show notes. We don't want to sell that. We don't want to, like, promote, overly promote this. It's like, hey, Chris, have I got a deal for you? Bye, bye, bye. You can email me. But red anodized, like, if you just do, like, a straight-up red anodized, that's one of the colors that comes out really well. Like, we've done that with spoke pen and things like that. Red always, like, crushes and anodized in Karas makes good pens. So, yeah, that's a good call from, like, a machine pen, anodized pen perspective. Reds tend to stay out of, like, the pink and orange range. So, yeah, those are good. Last one is one that I got feedback on. And this was like a head smacker when they said it. I'm like, oh, yeah, this actually might be the perfect answer. The Pilot Explorer comes in red. It's inexpensive. Like, it's a $25 pen.
• The red is very, very solid. It's a plastic barrel, but it's kind of slightly metallic-y looking. Black trim, black clip. I actually think this might be the answer to the question. And I forgot to write down who sent that to me because I'm not as smart as you are. And as soon as they said that, I was like, oh, yeah, I think this actually might be the one. So, this would probably be at the top of my list if we rewound to last week and I remembered to include it. But, yeah, there you go. I think the Pilot Explorer is a pretty good answer to this one. And on fountain pen-friendly sticky notes, Simone wrote in and said, I was recently gifted this sticky note pad and it's perfect for fountain pens. It seems a bit like OK Fool's paper. So, I have a link in the show notes to the Life by Yamamama. Yamama? Yamama? Oh, my word. How many M's and A's are there in here? Yamama. Yamama. No, no, no. Yamama? It's just Yamama. It's just Yamama. Like the joke. Yeah. Life by Yamama's stationary faux leather-covered sticky notes. I'll put a link in the show notes. I have never seen these and I want them. If this has good stickiness, I trust Life Paper. That's the notebook I'm literally using right now as we're doing our show notes. These look awesome. They look really small. What is the size on these? They look tiny. They look like positively tiny. Like postage stamp size. 80 by 60 millimeters. All right. That's not that bad. So.
• I don't understand the scale of this image. Right. The scale is it's throwing me off because some of the pads are split pads. Right. You have some styles that are singular for like the whole rectangle of the pad. And then there's other ones where that's split down the middle into two different paper formats, which I love. I love all of these. They still look really small. Then they still look really small. Yeah. 40 sheets per pad. Nine bucks a pad. Like this is a, this is very like put it on your desk photography, like prop item. It's beautiful. I love, I love this. I have not seen these before. So thank you for sending these in. I'll try to get some one day, but that I, I trust Life Paper. Like I trust Midori Paper, right? If Midori's sticky notes, you know, is why I recommend them because I trust their paper. So then you just hope the stickiness tends to manage how you want it, either sticking well or not ruining the top of the page. You know, that the previous note just came off of. Sometimes you have a hard time writing in that pre stuck area with a fountain pen, right? It kind of rejects the ink a little bit. So that's always the challenge with sticky notes, not just in, Hey, is the paper any good to write on and doesn't feather? But when you remove a sticky note, can you write in the area where the sticking, the sticky substance lives? And we should probably move on to the next topic.
• Which is you have a request. I do have a request. Next week's episode, we're going to do our pre Washington DC pen show prep show, our preview. And I'll be talking about my upcoming trip to the show, what I'm going to get up to, what I'm looking for, what I'll be doing there. And I wanted to put out a call. If anyone has any pen show questions, like pen show etiquette questions, you know, my first show, what should I do? Or this is my 10th show and I still can't find X. Fire those away. Send them into the, to the feedback. What's the feedback URL, Myke? Penaddictfeedback.com. All right. Send that to penaddictfeedback.com or email me. Hello at penaddict.com. And I'll add in some Q and a, if y'all have them, like any specific pen show, Q and a, we'll jump to the top of the list for next week's episode. As I do, I'll do like at least a full segment, maybe two on the Washington DC pen show. It's been a, been a little bit since I've been to a pen show. So I've got kind of a lot of things I'm, I'm looking for at that show.
• This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Enigma Stationery. Enigma Stationery offers unique items made from in-house designs, along with top brands and hard to find imports. It's the last call for Enigma's limited time offer until July 31st. So you do not have long, like a week left. Every fountain pen you buy for $150 or more will receive a special gift of a value of at least $30. There is no code required for the fountain pen special. Just click on fountain pen special on the pen addict landing page, which is at enigmastationery.com slash penaddict or anywhere on enigmastationery.com to see which pens qualify for this offer. And also when you use the code penaddict25, you'll also get a free gift and free US shipping on orders of $50 or more. That is enigmastationery.com slash penaddict, where you can see all of Enigma's latest stock and their fountain pen special, where you can go to enigmastationery.com slash fountain dash pen dash special, but it's easiest to get to from our page. There's a big link right there. Brad, do you want to talk a little bit about any of the pens that are part of the fountain pen special? Well, the most interesting thing I see, Myke, in a sea of interesting things is my former pen of the year, the special edition number three, the Enigma, which is just a beautiful kind of tapered barrel, beautiful material. I think this was a house material. Oh, look, I'm quoted in here. I rarely put it down after inking it. And I think about it constantly when it isn't inked. I said that Myke, those are words for me. Yes. Pen Addicts 2023 fountain pen of the year. I didn't know they put this on the page because, you know, after, after I buy something or actually I think they gave this one to me. Um, I don't normally go back and shop for it again. So who knew it was there? Um, so that one's sick. I've had the mystic magenta in hand before the pink. I love pink translucent, like kind of cotton candy looking fountain pens. So that's spectacular. And then, uh, the Bennu Astro gem, like this one's down. You got to scroll a little bit. These are some newer shape Bennus that I really, really like in really like some of the best color combinations that they've made in a while. So there's like some bright pink and purple ones, but then there's some like, you know, a little bit darker moody ones. Like the Kilo is a little bit darker and the Juno is like really, really bright. So yeah, take a look at these. These are great. So take yourself over to enigma stationery.com slash pen addict. Our thanks to enigma stationery for the support of this show and all of relay. All right. Can we get into like my big distraction here? Also from Dan and enigma stationery. Uh-huh. Yeah. Um, he sent me a link after listening to last week's podcast on the sticky note. So this is more sticky note follow-up. And I was making a comment about the, um, the Midori stuff with like the fun, like, you know, cute animal designs, um, which is something enigma like curates really, really well. They also have a plane set, um, with some different materials on there. So I'm gonna put a link in there. Dan did some testing on a plane, a craft, and a translucent sticky note. So go check those out in this link and you can see what some of the performance characteristics are. Um, I got some translucent, um, sticky notes from someone in the mail and they're like, they're going to be like this Sharpie fun like thing. You can't really use, you can use like oil-based ballpoint pens on there are okay, but like Sharpies on the translucent, um, translucent sticky notes is like a game changer. It looks amazing.
• All right, Myke, we got our shout out of the week. Shout out of the week. Penquisition. I think I've given them a shout out before, but I'm thinking about DC and I'm thinking about seeing, uh, Evan and Julian from Penquisition at the DC pen show. So they'll have a bunch of 3d printed stuff, but they also run a blog over at pen, cause with penquisition.com. And they just, uh, they, one of their writers did a review of one of the great recent Benu pens. So take a look at that. But if you're planning on going to DC and even if, even if you're not go check out Penquisition and see all the, the cool things that they make, um, accessory wise for, uh, all of us in the pen community, and I might have something coming soon. If we can, uh, get that worked out with, uh, with the team over there at Penquisition, uh, something that might be complimentary to a certain pen. I might have coming out later this month or not later this month, later this year. And that brings us into a related topic. Myke, did you see the retro 51 35th anniversary pen? I saw it too late. It's pretty much same. Um, well, the fountain pen is still available, but, um, at least when I looked yesterday, but the roller ball is not, but this is a pen in collaboration for retro 51, 35th anniversary that they did with Jonathan Brooks of the Carolina pen company. And it is a beautiful acrylic that Jonathan made. I haven't kind of seen this, this pattern before. I really liked the blue and green swirls. They did it in a roller ball and a fountain pen. And then you could also buy the set and, uh, buh-bye they're gone. Uh, the fountain pen is still available as I look now, but boy, did these look good. But like, are you, are you sad? Are you? Oh, I'm super sad. I would have, I would have bought one of these. Yeah. Yeah. They only made 351 of them, which is fun. Um, yeah. Yeah. Well, no, no, they, they made like 500, but some were limited to as a set, right? So 351 singular roller ball, all options, but I think it's like, you know what I'm saying? I get you. So then like the set was, yeah. Okay. 51 of the set. It's still, it's whatever it is. It's not a lot, right? They're not going to make, it's harder to make like a thousand of these, you know, with the custom acrylics and getting all this done. I imagine that's a, that's a, that's a mess. So this was going to be short anyway, but yeah. So to your, your point stands, not a lot were available. They're amazing. And therefore they're gone. So, but you can still pick up, still pick up the fountain pen. Congratulations to retro 51. Yeah, really? Congratulations. 35 years. That's awesome. I'm so glad that they, you know, the new ownership team has like done a great job.
• You know, moving the, moving the company forward. I'm sure I'll see them in, in DC here coming up at least a couple of them. So that'll be fun. I had to shout this one out, Myke, cause I think I actually might buy this one. It's, it's been a little bit since I've bought, I bought a retro 51. Shout out. I love, this is a, this is a permanent shout out episode. Um, the sushi limited edition from gold spot is sick. I, I, are you a no on this one? No, I like, I mean, I like it. It's not, I would, I wouldn't, I don't think I would buy it, but I like it. I think it's fun. Yeah. I'm super in on this one. I don't know why. It just makes me laugh and smile. It's kind of hilarious. The sushi is essentially like characters, right? So, you know, they have sushi as faces, um, which it makes you sad if you're, you're going to eat them. Um, and they have a little personality. Like, that's not cool.
• Fish are our friends, Myke, not food.
• We have lost the plot today. Totally. Um, I love this one. I, I, I want it. And, uh, it's, it's cute. I, I might get it. We'll see. We'll see. I haven't bought it yet. So I like data, Myke and wearing all recently put out a post on Instagram. I'm going to assume that they're just, they didn't say exactly how they got this information, but I'm going to assume it's their best sellers for the first half of the year. So they call this the most popular inks of early 2025. How is it even a question as to where that information came from? I mean, obviously that's where the information came from, right? I mean, you have a lot of faith. You have more faith in companies.

Inventory Strategy and Product Placement Debate

• Where else would that come from? I mean, yeah, but I mean, you know, you could, well, what if this one just didn't really make it and we could slide this one down or maybe we have the most stock of this one in, in first place, Myke, maybe we need to move it up first. So people will start buying it more. Do you ever think of that? I had not thought of that. That's what I like. That's where I fail.
• Anyway, we're, oh, we're going to get to like me. Like, yeah, just wait. We have a great topic coming up later. Anyway, I, I assume this is, yeah, they're, they're real sales. Like looking at the colors here, my point is in, in why I wanted to share this and why I find it interesting. Right. So they listed nine inks on their best inks of 2025 collection so far.
• And only one of them is a standard ink.
• And by that, I mean like a non shimmer or non like super shader, right? Not it just a kind of what we would consider a standard writing ink, not, not an ink with added shimmer or overly sheeny. And I just trying to think of what that means in the grander scheme of things. It means nothing. Literally, it means nothing except right now, like the shimmers are popular. And I think like the chroma shading colors, like the lighter colors, lighter color inks that I don't think are really good writing inks in a fountain pen, but they show off a lot of different colors, a huge range of shades. It's when you use like a dip pen on a page, or it can get a lot of ink down on the page. So I thought this was kind of like a good little insight of what's popular right now for inks. And I guess it has staying power. Like, I mean, the shimmer inks have been a thing for a long time and now we're getting chroma shading and shimmer and we're getting like all the things like, you know, we've thrown the kitchen sink at inks right now.
• And does anybody write with them? It's what I look at. This is like, who is writing with these inks? Is anybody writing them with them in such a way that they can actually see these effects? Yeah. Right. Because, you know, you know it, right? Like you have to kind of write sometimes of it in practical, uh, nibs to really get the effect here. And like how much of your daily writing other than, I don't know, your, your Bujo day heading is not, it is written with a nib where you actually see that, that, that would be my question. Does this stuff just look good when swatched on Instagram? Yes. Yeah. The Instagram ability is high with wearing old inks, right? Oh, this is, this is the word of the day. Instagram ability. Like, like ink number one, two,
• six, and eight. There's no way those are readable in like a fine nib fountain pen. Yeah. Like it would be really, really tough. Um, so like half of these are just like Instagram inks, right? It feels like to me, which is cool. Like I'm, Hey, I'm not complaining. I would buy these inks and sling ink around a page. Like I'm the no knock on this. I was just looking at it from the perspective of like, Oh, which ink out of this list goes in a fountain pen. And there's two. And then one of those two is a super Sheiner, which is not everyone's thing. So the Phantom of the Opera is a super Sheiner. Um, Robinson Crusoe is the ninth listed ink. And that's the only kind of standard ink. And it's a kind of a bright bluish green is really pretty. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it was just more of a, Hey, this is interesting because I think a lot of companies that make a wide range of ink, like from with a lot of characteristics in with like, okay, we make shimmer inks, we make shading inks and we make sheening inks. I bet their charts look a lot like this too, was kind of my point. I think that's where we're just where we're at right now. It's a very visually appealing reason why inks are so popular right now, because we're seeing other ways to put ink on the page than through a fountain pen feed and nib. And I think that's cool. Like I'm, I'm not knocking this. I'm in on this, right? I just, it's, it's curious. Like it's a high volume of like the most popular inks are Instagrammable inks. So I just wanted to say that word again.
• Speaking of Instagrammable Myke.
• No, this might be the worst episode ever. I don't like this one. This is, this, this pen or me saying Instagrammable this, this pen or this collection is, this collection is sick. Okay. So this is, I have a specific reason why I don't like it. Okay. I can get to. Okay. So this is the Karen dash Germania collection. This is a fashion designer, Kevin Germania. I don't know how to pronounce it. I've never heard of him before. Have you ever heard of them before? Absolutely not. No. Okay. Me neither. All right. Before I get into it, like this is a super outrageous, colorful, pricey Karen dash collaboration with basically a fashion house. And Myke hates it. And I want to know why. Okay. So the pen, they've got a few different products here, right? From the regular eight 49 all the way up to like a Ecuador. Yeah. Which that is that the fountain pen?
• Well, it's the silver one. Okay. But they have one. The fountain pen is an auction item. Okay. So essentially the main idea of this is what if pens, but with gems on them and like balls and stuff. Right. So like this, it's like bedazzled, bedazzled colored balls stuck to the pen. Yeah. All right. The problem is on the eight 40. Problem is you. No, as a reason on the eight 49, they have just put cut, like they can't, they're not going to actually stick the gems on. So they've just painted it right. With little dots. It's, it's the boss. It's debossed, right? There's holes. So you can feel them dense. Okay. I can't see that. No, I think you're right. I think it's painted on. I think it's just painted Brad. The Ecuador, the silver one is debossed. That one. Yeah. And that's why that's like a billion dollars. That pen. No, how much is it? Like 800, 448 dollars. That one. Yes. Where the regular eight 49, they're just 70 bucks and they've painted them. Okay. Are you familiar with trypophobia, Brad?

Phobias and Trypophobia Exploration

• Uh, not exactly. So I kind of know, I know thassalophobia. Yeah. I know arachnophobia. What's this one? Trypophobia is, it's one of these things where like, if you Google it, you may realize you have it. And then like, that's the end for you. Um, it is essentially, I don't really know how to describe it. And I won't Google it because it freaks me out. I have this where collection of like holes all close to each other can freak you out. Really? This pen has this for me. It's just looks like a bunch of holes and it's freaking me out. All right. You know what, Myke? That's a very valid complaint. Yeah. I must not, I must not have that. No. I mean, this is the thing. You know, if you have this because anytime, so one of the, one of the key kind of trypophobia freak outs is the Lotus plant. Like the Lotus flower. Mm hmm. Um, I think, yeah, like the, yeah, like the Lotus, like split the holes in it and you can cut them up. Yeah. Right. That, that is like big. Oh yeah. Interesting. Okay. So there you go. That's why I don't like it. Cause I look at it and I'm like, all right, you're freaking me out. You're freaking me out, man. I don't like it. Fair, fair. Myke, your feelings are validated. Thank you. Um, as someone who does, is not afraid of holes. These are just fire. Why would you say it like that? That is not fair. Cause I couldn't remember the name. That is not fair. I couldn't remember the name. That's not fair. What's the name? Afraid. Afraid is not fair.
• Trypophobia. Trypophobia. Okay. Someone. Trypophobia or tryptophobia. I can never remember which one. And again, I refuse to Google. Cause when you Google it, you're just shown the images. Oh yeah. No, don't do that. Don't do that. Unless you're curious if you are afraid of holes or not, then. But don't come in. Don't like show up in the feedback form and be like, Myke, why'd you do this to me? I told you not to Google it. All right. So like, if you've Googled it and now you've got this problem and it's one of these weird things, if you have it, but at least for me, I'm like drawn to it in a way. Like I hate looking at it, but I can't help it. Like it's weird. Sure. It's not like how I feel about spiders where I'm like, no, get them away from me. I don't want to be anywhere near them and I don't want to see them. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry about that. It's okay. I do think. Sorry for your loss. Sorry for your loss, Myke. Look, genuinely, very rarely comes up in your life. You know what I mean? So like, it's not a problem. Yeah. Just for the record, we are going to have a lot of feedback on this episode. Yeah. This one is a feedback magnet. This episode. I want this pink one. They're too expensive, like for what they are. Like I'll be the first to admit that. Caran d'Ache is already expensive. You know, when we're talking about products and I do like them. I've never really thought they're worth the money that they are. They're not like, these are like double the price for like the fancy, like the 849s are $70 and they're normally like, you know, like $30. So like, I don't like them that much. If there was a fixed pencil, I actually might consider it. What I did find weird as someone who is a Caran d'Ache fan, the Ecuador model is really kind of crazy. expensive compared to, I bought the Keith Haring Ecuador model and it was only like, Oh, I say only, it was crazy expensive, but it was like 130 bucks, maybe 140 bucks. And this one's like 450 bucks. And it seems kind of like the same concept. So I was like spinning my wheels trying to figure out, I was like, why is this Ecuador that much more crazy than the Keith Haring one? And I really can't find like, is this one made with like silver or like what? Like they're not, they're just like aluminum pens. And I couldn't, their product description is not accurate on the Ecuador page, which bothers me. Like, so I was really curious why this one was so much more expensive. Keith, Keith Haring is the, the same concept here and was like a third of the price. So anyway, I guess how much money does this person want? You know what I mean? Like maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking, speaking of which Myke, let's talk about the Estherbrook niblet. Niblet. What a great name. I love it. Do you? Yeah. I mean, I love the name. The name does not match the product.
• Cause the product is more serious. No, it's more serious. Niblet is funny. Oh, okay. Right. Sure. That is a funny word. And like the product is very serious. And let me just say, Brad, we don't know much about this. I looked at these images today and I was like, God damn. Yeah. That is a good looking. Yeah.
• What if I told you, Myke?
• That you could get the same pen that didn't have Estherbrook writing on the side or the little logo on the nib for less than a third of the cost. Is this actually the case? Like, are you presuming? No, it's actually the case. It's not the same materials. So here's the story. Okay. There's a company, there's a company called Fry Fine Writing International.
• They've been around for a while. They make years ago, they got popular because they made these pens with translucent barrels, but they had kind of like these etched gold or brass ends, like the finials, like the cap was brass and the, the end of the barrel was brass and they were just really cool looking. So they, they've been around for a while, but fine writing international is also an OEM manufacturer, right? So they make their own stuff, but they also make stuff for other companies.
• So Estherbrook is made by like the standard. Estherbrooks are made, assumed to be made by fine writing international, just as a thing, like, which is totally fine. Like literally zero issue with that. Like OEMs are there for a reason. A lot of companies work with partners to make their products, not an issue, but fine writing at international has already released this pen shape as the pen kit, which is a much worse name than the niblet. Um, I guess it's, and C K E T pen kit. Yeah. It's, it's a smash up of pocket and pen, I guess. Like some people, Brad need to be stopped. All right. This person, no one was there to stop them.
• It's a really bad name. Uh, it's, it's the same pen. Like I, I, I don't know what to say. And so the pen kit and call your pen pen kit and not have a clip on it. I'll be honest. I guess, I don't know. It's got a roll stop. I think these pens look great. Like they do look great, but the, but the FWI fine writing international, I'll say FWI probably a lot, uh, is $52 for the pen kit. And if you just flip over to the Esther brook niblet, which I'm assuming I'll see in DC, it's a hundred and seventy. Yeah. A hundred and seventy five dollars. And it's just, it's one of those things where, uh, like we got a peek behind the curtain accidentally, I think. Right. I think is what happened here. So who's making these? I'm assuming fine writing international. Right. Esther brook does not, the Kenro does not, is not their own manufacturer. Right. So they're having these pens made. And when you have a pen made, you have an OEM and the OEM in this case, fine writing international. And it's just funny. The fine writing international sell their own pens. I think that's the mistake here.
• I actually agree with you. And they don't, that they're selling, that they've already sold a design that they are now selling to a customer. Like that doesn't, that's bad. Like, like this is, let's be clear. This is not a, yeah, this is not a Kenro thing. Like I think FWI is the one that kind of, they screwed up here. Yeah. Because this pen for 175,

Product Design Appreciation and Value Assessment

• I buy like, you know, to me, it's like, these look good, right? The design is nice. The materials look high quality. And I know I'm getting a good experience. So I see this and I'm like 175,
• fine. But then if you see, go ahead. $52, you're like, hang on, now what? Now, I don't know what nibs these are using. Oh, they're also using joe nibs. I mean, I wasn't sure if the FWI one was different. Nope. You can see it clear as day. Yeah. So I'm, I feel bad. Like this is, I feel bad. I feel bad for them. You know, this is, this is embarrassing. I, yeah, I actually think this is an FWI problem, but it does also, it like, it drops the curtain on how OEMs work, how manufacturing works, how pricing works, how marketing and branding works all in one big, you know, price differential here. Right. So it just makes you think, it makes you go, hmm. So there's a thing that happens, it used to happen. Through no one's fault. It doesn't really happen anymore because it's kind of a pointless story, but every year when the iPhone will come out, someone will release the bill of materials. Right. And be like, why does this phone cost $1,000 when the bill of materials, the cost of this phone is like $400. And it's like, well, because you've not factored in anything else of which the cost has to, like the cost of marketing a product, developing a product, and the materials that they're overseas using different materials. I don't know if they're more or less expensive, whatever, like all of that is in, in the cost of the product. Right. Because, because where else is the money going to come from to pay for these things? Like to pay for your people, to pay for your support, right? Like all of this stuff has to be included in the cost of the product because you don't pay for that extra as a customer, right? You're not like, right. Oh, I'll buy the pen from you for $51. I'll also pay a $20 marketing surcharge. Like it's not, that's not how it works. And like, so this money has to come from somewhere. And so like, I look, I mean, I don't know how you feel, but I look at this page, I have my relationship with Vesterbrook, like as a customer. I know the quality of their product. I know what I'm going to get. I see some of these colors that are just like incredible. And I'm like, Oh, 175. Sure.
• Yeah. I feel like their OEM just put them in a bad spot. A really bad spot.
• But you know, it also, now they're going to have to ask, answer questions like infinitely. And I have invalid questions. Like, yeah, I'm not, and I'm, I'm also not like saying, you know, Kenro or any Estabrook should be absolved of this, but now you're going, it's like, huh, why isn't the niblet 125 instead of 175?
• Because they decided to charge 175. Right. Exactly. So, but I was just saying, these questions are now going to be constant. And this is the first time I've seen this. And along, I'm trying to remember if, if we've had this before, where the, the OEM is actively sold to retailers, the same pin that they're now selling. I know it's happened before. I'm just, I'm just can't bring it. I just can't think of it off the top of my head. So my feeling on these things is like, if you're questioning the price, just don't buy it. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I'm actually, that's how I feel on this kind of stuff. I'm going to try to get both. Like they have to be, like it's, it's got to be the same. I mean, who knows? Maybe they feel slightly different. If them, maybe Estabrook are providing materials or they're being prescriptive about material, right. That's being used. We just don't know. They answered to that question. So maybe they feel a little different in that way, but I would expect that by and large, these are the same because they look exactly the same. Yeah. All right. Let me ask you about the pen itself. Yeah. Because I didn't notice this at first. And this is the, like from a, just a pen perspective. And I'll see these in DC, I'm sure.
• So the threading for the cap. So when we're used to pocket pens, you're usually for a cap. If it's going to be postable, take a Kaweco Sport Classic, for example, that cap will just have a deep post onto the barrel. And it's just kind of, you can put it on wherever.
• If you look closely at these pictures, Myke, and I don't, I'm trying to send you a link to an exact one. I don't see it. The thread is in the middle of the barrel where, so if you look in a posted picture, you'll see threading at the end of the cap. And that thread hits the middle of the barrel. And I'm trying to find a picture where it's independent of each other, where you can see this, where the cap. Okay. So gosh, I don't think I can send you this link where the, you just have to find a picture where the cap and the barrel are separated. Yep. The threading is smack in the middle of the barrel. I've never seen anything like that before. What threading is, it's hard to see. Is that the threading for the cap? Because I'm getting lost by the threading for the section too. Yes. It's hard to see. Yes. And so it's done. So it's like a single stop. So you'll have like the roll stop and the logo always being like lined up with the nib, I believe is the theory here. I don't, I haven't, I got one in hand. I mean, I dig that. I just don't know how I would then, because I'm, if I was to use this, probably not post it still. Yeah. Still. Yeah. Or at least we try. Cause I'm just not a fan of that. I mean, if, if I posted, uh, I would like this because that is a nice detail of like making sure the logo and the nib are always aligned. I like that. That's nice. Yeah. I don't know what it does for the aesthetics, but I think it doesn't matter if you're, if you're posting, cause you're not going to see it. So I'll put a link in the show notes. I found one that's actually shows it clearly. Um, in case people are curious. Um, I don't think it's going to get in the way, but I did, I just haven't seen kind of that center barrel threading before. And, uh, it's interesting. So anyway, I, I'm actually looking, I think this pen looks great. I, I love the style and design of it. So I'll take a look at them in DC. Um, hopefully get one. And then I'm going to try to get one of the fine writing international ones too. I just have, I just got to go and order one or something like that. So is this, is this, uh, is this a bit become a bit of a drama? No, it's not, not much. I mean, it's more of a like, huh, why is, why is this pen? It's all it is, is why is this Estherbrook so much? It's not that much of a drama. Okay. It's just, it's embarrassing. Yeah. I would be, like I said, it's very frustrated. Yeah. This is one of those areas where like the, the, you got to peek, behind the curtain where no one wanted that. It was like, whoops, whoops. Yeah. If this is me, uh, I'd be, I'd be really annoyed about this. Yeah.
• Yup. So there you go. Um, did you want any ask TPA today or am I delusional enough for you to just end me right now? We're over buddy. We're done.
• This is the end. Best show ever. If you'd like to send in an ask TPA question for us to answer in a future episode of the show, don't worry. There will be future episodes. You can always go to pen addict feedback.com and you can send in your question there. Uh, I guess what people don't know is while this episode will have sounded loopy to you, please understand that, uh, it is edited down from the original version of the show, which was twice as loopy as what you're doing. Um, um, so just, just bear that in mind as to why me and Brad are so over each other at the end of today's episode. Uh, uh, thank you to Enigma stationary for the support of this show of always, as always, thank you even more for listening. If you want to find Brad online, go to pen addict.com. You can always find him on social media. He's at pen addict. Uh, you can also find him at twitch.tv slash pen addict and spoke design.com. You can find me here at relay. Uh, my blog is the enthusiast.net and my products over at cortex brand.com. Uh, thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of the pen addict podcast. We'll be back next time. Until then say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, the Gruffalo.