The Pen Addict 684/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	684
Title:	The Montblanc Cloud
Release Date:	September 25th, 2025
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 684
Audio File:	Audio Episode 684
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 684
Length:	5555 min <br />0.917 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 684 for September 25th, 2025.
Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet.
My name is Myke Hurley and I have the pleasure of introducing to you Brad Dowdy.
Hello, Myke Hurley.
Long time no see.
We're back into the no see-um zone, where we're not going to get to hang out in person, but we just did and it was glorious.
We had a lot of time together.
Yeah.
Maybe...
You sat...
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
That sounded like aggressive, like too much.
No, no.
It wasn't enough.
I think it might be the most time we spent together, like in one block.
Maybe.
Maybe.
Because we were doing the same things at the same time the entire event.
Yes.
Where in sometimes we'd go and do things like Relay 5 or Relay 10, we weren't always together.
No, we weren't.
Like this one, we were just...
And even any of the pen shows.
We were doing dinner, work.
They were always short, but no, we were like together all the time.
Yeah, I'd see you first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
Yep.
Yep.
It was glorious.
It was really good.
We had such a good time.
We were together because we were fundraising for the Kids of St.
Jude Children's Research Hospital.
I think this might be the last time you hear us talk about it.
It's possible we'll mention it again next week.
So I want to...
I'll definitely do a wrap up of my campaign next week.
Good call.
Good call.
So I want to remind people what we've been doing all month, which is raising money for the Kids of St.
Jude Children's Research Hospital because it is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
And for the seventh time in a row, it's six years, but also seven times.
You know what I mean?
You get that weird thing.
It was like the first podcast I was on, the first time we raised money for them was zero.
Bro.
You know?
Gotcha.
It's weird, isn't it?
You know what I mean?
It is.
Like we do it for six years, but we've done it seven times.
I don't understand how math works.
St.
Jude has a very simple mission, and it's to make sure that no child loses their life to cancer no matter where they live and they need our help.
You may have caught the 2025 podcast-a-thon, which was just an incredible amount of fun.
We'll talk about it more in a minute.
Our listeners showed so much generosity.
We raised over $100,000 during the stream, which was unbelievable.
But there is still time to make an impact.
And we're asking you, to do so.
Because, did you know that an estimated 400,000 children around the world get cancer every year?
In many countries, four out of five children who develop cancer will not survive, and this is largely due to lack of access to quality care.
St.
Jude Children's Research Hospital and all of us here at Relay find that to be frankly unacceptable and just something we don't want to occur.
Curing childhood cancer is a tremendous undertaking, so St.
Jude needs our help to do it.
The generosity of donors everywhere supports cutting-edge research that saves lives and ensures that families never receive a bill from St.
Jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food.
While we were there, we got to tour Domino's Village together, which is part of the housing and food.
So Domino's, the pizza company, they have donated a ton of money, and they're a big supporter of St.
Jude.
And it helped build this incredible facility where it's on campus where kids can have their treatment, and then they just walk over a bridge and in their home.
And there are these beautiful rooms, it's such a wonderful vibe, and everything's taken care of.
Food, toys, entertainment, everything.
They do such an incredible job of trying to give a little peace and kindness in what are horrible days for these families, who ostensibly their children or child is being treated for cancer.
So St.
Jude just continues to just want to make it as good as possible.
Really, I always get the vibe that they just, they want to make sure everything is holistically taken care of at St.
Jude.
They're going to take care of your treatment medically, but they want to make sure that you're in a good spot too, because I think, you know, speaking for myself, I'm able to look after myself and look after the people around me when some of these basic needs are taken care of for me.
And they make sure to do that, because every child deserves a chance to live their best life and celebrate every moment.
And, you know, when you support St.
Jude, you are doing a bunch of things.
You're making sure that there are cures that are possible for kids with cancer, as well as providing them with a good life, because together we can save more lives.
And so what I want you to do is go to stjude.org slash relay and ask you to give whatever you can.
You know, you may have heard us talk about this throughout the month, and you're like, you hear people give $50, $100, $1,000.
If you have 10 bucks to give, that's 10 bucks that they don't have.
It's massive.
Like, it's like, no joke.
It's huge.
All of the small donations make up such a huge part of fighting this cancer.
Like, I know that sounds so crazy, but if, you know, if 10,000 people are able to give 10 bucks, that's a lot of money.
You know what I mean?
And it really does add up.
And so I want you to go to stjude.org slash relay.
You can make a donation today.
Maybe as well, your employer will match your donation.
So when you make your donation, you can click the blue search employer button on the donation summary page.
This can double your donation.
You can also, if you don't have the ability to raise money yourself, it's still time just to donate money yourself.
It's still time to become a community fundraiser.
And you can get a bunch of great incentives that are available for amounts raised.
They start at just a dollar.
If you're able to just raise $1, you'll get an awesome challenge coin that will send you in the mail.
There's other, there's also an entire set of coins, desk mats, and a backpack.
It's the way you sign up and you go out to your friends, your family, your coworkers, your community, and ask them to donate to St.
Jude.
So look, this is quite simple.
Donating this money, whatever it can be, will help cure childhood cancer.
I'm sure of it.
Because the leaps and bounds that St.
Jude have made, all of the different cures and treatments that they have developed over the last 60 years, there's no reason why it won't continue.
It's a simple mission.
Please go to stjude.org slash relay.
You make a donation today and you'll help give them more tomorrow's.
Stjude.org slash relay.
Yeah.
The podcast-a-thon was amazing.
During that time, my campaign's still going, my campaign's still rolling along.
I need to come up with like a final few incentives here.
Can we just say, rolling along, this man is just destroying, obliterating, making everybody else look bad.
$23,230.
It's not me, it's our listeners.
Our listeners and followers are the best.
That's true.
That's true.
We've known this for a long time.
And I'm just proud to be able to be part of this and shine a light on it.
And yeah, it just makes you want to do more.
And when you get to go to the hospital and see the campus and see how important even the smallest details are there, which I talked about during the podcast-a-thon, it just makes you want to do more.
So yeah.
So we're still working on that.
Have you gone back and watched any of the podcast-a-thon?
I have.
Yeah.
A few little bits.
There was a couple of things that I just wanted to see how they came out.
Obviously, I watched to the end.
The last 10 minutes are just unstoppably good.
So we hit a once in a millennium moment.
Yes.
And that's not being hyperbolic.
I'm hyperbolic about everything.
I'm hyperbolic about interviews.
No person will ever do again what Steven managed.
Yeah.
Like, that is just a fact.
And happened to catch it on camera.
And it's still jaw-dropping just to think about what happened.
So go watch the last few minutes of the podcast.
I watched some of the relay race challenges that we do.
I watched a couple of segments.
I really want to re-watch Oregon Trail because you and Brad, you and Kathy playing, you're Brad, you and Kathy playing Oregon Trail is one of the funniest things I've ever experienced in my life.
I want to go back and watch that.
I need to go back and watch that.
Yeah.
It was a great time.
This was my favorite podcast-a-thon.
Like, by a long way.
I had such a good time and it just felt good the whole time.
I didn't have, like, I tend to have this, like, horrible moment at some point where I just, like, want to crawl under a table and go to sleep.
Like, and I didn't have that.
I was just having a great time.
It was.
We were just firing on all cylinders.
You know, I don't make all the decisions around here, Brad, but if it was my decision, you'll be back.
You'll be back and back and back.
Oh, please, please.
You know, you were a fantastic addition to the podcast-a-thon this year.
Good.
And I just really, I'm just really proud of you for really getting into the tradition of making fun of Casey Liss.
Yeah.
He makes it easy.
He makes it easy.
It's an important part of the podcast-a-thon.
I remember what I went back to watch for that specific reason was the paper plane contest.
Oh, my gosh.
The way you essentially eviscerated that man.
Oh, Casey's there.
Casey's listening right now for some reason.
I know.
Hi, Casey, in the live chat.
You got to listen to all the feedback from all the shows, like, at least the first episodes that we all get back to see what everyone else says about you.
Yeah, you see what trash talk.
You're not listening.
Right.
You got to get the trash talk out, and that's what we're doing.
I actually do want to go back and watch my interview with Steven.
I haven't done that yet.
I didn't get to see that.
I caught parts of it, so I want to see it.
Like, that was my biggest, like, nerve-wracking moment, right?
Like, I can deal with, like, all the other stuff, but, like, being interviewed on set like that live, it felt good.
Like, I hope I did a good job for the kids at St.
Jude in explaining, like, you know, everything that I've seen there and been involved with for St.
Jude for a while, and, you know, I never, like, go back and listen to podcasts or watch my own videos or anything like that, but I do want to see that and just see how it went, because, like, when you're doing it, it just flows by.
You have no idea how it went, but it seemed like it was good, and definitely the relay.
I can't, I didn't realize I couldn't walk in a straight line with clown shoes on.
That was a real issue for me.
How would you know that?
I think that cost us the race.
How would you know that?
Yeah, turns out, Myke.
Turns out.
Brad, let me, just spoilers, what cost you the race is my physical domination when it comes to relays.
Okay, okay.
I think that's what it is.
I just want to let everyone know.
I mean, the second relay, I don't, I still don't know how you won.
I should probably go back and watch that.
I wasn't, I was just a judge in that one.
I watched it, and I still don't know.
I watched it, and I was like, I don't know how I did that.
It's the strangest thing.
Physical domination, I think, is the key.
Yeah.
So anyway, our podcast-a-thon is up on YouTube.
Y'all can go watch, you know, and just, you know, find some parts, pick some parts to watch, and laugh along with us, and see why we enjoy doing what we do.
One of the incentives during the podcast-a-thon was viewers could donate and have me review a pin on the fly.
So it was basically like a review that, viewers could choose, and it wasn't just a pin, so they could review movies, a tech item.
There was all, there's a big group of things people could choose to be reviewed on the fly.
Well, I got to review, one of them was pins, right?
So my forte.
And I wrote down, I think I did four reviews on that, on the, during the live stream.
So I wanted to go over those real quick.
And I'll probably go back and look at those reviews.
The only one I stumbled on, I think, was the first one, because I wasn't prepared, I wasn't mentally prepared for this to be turned in, right?
So someone claimed, hey, do a review.
Oh, we want a pin.
And, you know, they weren't, they didn't specify.
So, and actually none of them specified which pin, but that, that works out fine.
Like, I'm fine just going with the flow.
So I said, oh, let me do the Lamy Safari.
So I jumped out, did the Lamy Safari review.
And I just felt a little bit lacking on that one.
I felt like I needed to lean into that one.
But I think I wasn't prepared to just, like, snap, go.
And I was like, hmm.
So all the future ones, I was great.
I was mentally prepared to, like, really dig into them.
So I got to do the Lamy Safari.
I got to do Steven's Uniball Jetstream, which was a great called out.
That was at the end of our interview, one of those donations had come in.
So I did the Uniball Jetstream.
And Steven uses, and this is a pin he had on him.
And it's the pin I recommended to him all these years ago to use with his field notes, because he's a huge field notes fan.
And it's, he's found a system that works for him.
And the pin has been the same.
And it's the Uniball Jetstream Sport.
0.7 millimeter with the blue refill.
And he's used the same pin for ages.
And it's still, to this day, one of the best.
Well, the one I linked is not what it looks like.
No, I know.
But I just, the one he used, I just don't like it.
I don't like it.
See, that's the best looking basic Jetstream, in my opinion.
Like, buy, buy, like, a pretty good bit.
Like, the more expensive, like, the Jetstream premium barrels that, um, God, there's a name for those.
They're, they're very common.
I think those are super ugly.
Like, the ones with, like, the more silvery trim.
Um, that's a lot of people's first Jetstream is this one with the silvery trim.
I really, really dislike those.
The one Stephen has, I think, is perfect, um, for, for writing.
And it's the, it's, to this day, the best barrel.
I actually found a review of mine for the same shape, but a different color barrel from 2008.
And I, I still, to this day, use this pin.
I'll have to get Stephen, who's also spying on us in, in live chat, by the way.
Um, I'll have to get him a Jetstream light touch.
So, Stephen's unaware, but they have added a, an ink formulation to the Jetstream lineup, a premium ink formulation.
And I'm not saying it's going to be better for him, but I'd like to try, for him to try it as someone who's used this exact pin for like a decade to have the same pin, but with a little bit of a different ballpoint ink feel.
I'd like to get him to try that.
So, I'll work on that, get him some to test out just to get his opinion on that.
The third one was the Ajoado pocket pin, which we haven't talked about since their Kickstarter.
And this was my day of show pin carry.
Mm-hmm.
For the main reason is that I could attach it to my clipboard.
Um, it had a, a big clip.
This isn't basically an EDC pin.
And if y'all aren't familiar with it, we'll have a link in the show notes for you to go see.
And you'll go, oh yeah, I remember them talking about that.
I know you have comments on this and I just want, I'm not trying to get out.
I'm not trying to front run you on this, but I don't disagree with things you're going to say about this pin.
I don't think it's a great pin.
I think it's too expensive and it's not going to be the most functional thing, but for what I used it for, it crushed, right?
I needed this to clip to my clipboard.
So we all had clipboards with a run of show on there.
Every 30 minutes we had a sheet.
So we all had run sheets for every block and I, it fell out of my pocket once.
I wasn't paying attention.
I had to go find it.
I found it sitting in a seat and then I realized I could just clip it to the wire on my clipboard.
And then I could just flip it open and write with it.
I wrote so many notes during that 12 hours of show.
That pin was a lifesaver for this.
It's again, it's probably not a pin I'm going to recommend, right?
There's, we always talk about how there's differences in products, right?
There's things, you know, I can use for situations, but it's not necessarily, doesn't necessarily make it a great recommendation, but I thought it worked flawlessly.
Despite being a pin, like I'm not going to come back home and sit here and use this pin every day, right?
It's, it's not made for that.
So interesting pin.
Did you have any comments on it?
You got to use it.
Cause like, you're not like a fan of this and I totally get it.
Yeah.
I, I don't really understand this product if I'm being honest.
Um, I don't, it's a lot.
I don't like the look of it.
Um, I don't think that it is as, um, aesthetically pleasing and simple as a Joe Toast pen seemed to be.
It feels like that they are trying to attract a different crowd, which is, that is a fine thing to do, but I don't like the execution of the product either.
Like, I don't think it's balanced very well.
Um, there's so much weight in the front.
I don't find the actual pen itself comfortable to hold like the shape that they've chosen.
It's just not a natural pen shape.
Um, and it feels odd to hold it.
Uh, even the mechanism itself of unfolding the pen, it doesn't have like a lock.
It just, you just open and close it.
And they, I don't, it just, it, this feels like a, like a lacking, uh, product to me in a way that I am not used to, um, from a Joe Toast.
It feels like they kind of had, I don't know, right?
Like, I don't know, but it feels like they had, they had a product space to fill rather than an idea of a pen to make.
Yeah.
Fair.
Um, so yeah, take everything I just said about that, uh, about the pen and I agree on a hundred percent with everything you just said, right?
Like we can, we can have both of these things.
So yeah, I fully agree.
Last one I recall, uh, reviewing was the bit crystal, uh, ballpoint pen.
That one I kept in my, kept in my back pocket.
Cause I thought that would be just a good review.
Um, just to, to drop on people and tell people how good the bit crystal really, really is as a, as a product.
So, um, it was fun.
So yeah, that was, uh, that was the pen content, the dedicated pen content to the podcast a thon.
So I appreciate y'all sneaking some of those in and I appreciate everyone who donated and said, Hey Brad, review a pen.
And I thought it was funny.
It worked out well.
All right.
While we were gone, Myke, we had a podcast.
Did you know that?
Well, you didn't, you didn't have a podcast.
I had a podcast with Anna.
So, uh, Anna Reiner from the well-appointed desk.
I wanted to give her a shout out.
She's such a joy to talk to.
Um, I could spend hours and hours talking to Anna.
So I just wanted to give her a shout out.
If y'all didn't listen to last week's episode, please go listen to, uh, we, we have on all on a lot for gift guide episodes and we'll probably do that again this year.
We were talking about that because I thought last year's went exceptionally well for like a little bit of change that we did.
We like, we kind of took it easy.
Like we didn't just like hammer all the, like the product lineups.
We just kind of like went off the board and said, Hey, these are some fun things to think about for gifts.
So, um, the last minute update to that show, uh, I made it, it made it into the show notes, but I wanted to point this out because this is something I'm going to order.
So she has the, the gamify your life player's handbook.
This is a class she teaches at Pen show.
She taught about this.
She talked about this, excuse me, during our podcast and, uh, how popular it has been for her classes at Pen shows and it comes with a zine and a player's kit.
So you can do this at home.
Um, you know, if you take the class in person, you get all this to take home with you, but, um, it is available for people who can't get to Pen shows and want to play, uh, play along, uh, online and at home on your desk.
So yeah, that's, uh, I just wanted to point that out because I am going to order that myself.
So we'll do that.
You got some followup, Myke.
Okay.
Yes.
So this is on DVDs, the, the, the little pieces of plastic metal that come inside of the DVD security tag.
Can I just say, can I tell you how much I love this type of topic?
It's so good.
It's so good.
So James wrote in, James was the original, uh, person who wrote in to say that they work so good instead of brush shims.
And James says, to be clear, I don't have any DVDs either.
Lies.
Yeah.
I went to my parents' house and went through their TV stand.
All the strips were stood inside the cases stuck up above where the DVD clicks in.
Yeah.
Um, I am when I, I have two brush shims and I keep one at my desk and then one with like another, uh, bit of kit laying around.
Oh, and actually keep one at the spoke, uh, spoke design, uh, assembly table.
So I guess I have three and they last a long time because you trim them, right?
You get, it's like, um, I don't know, it's not that big.
It's like an inch and a half by an inch and a half little sheet.
And then as you wear down the corners, you just trim the slightest little bit off and then you have new short corners.
So they're going to last me a while.
But I know Myke, when I am done with one of these shims, uh, I'm going straight to the video game cabinet where there's, I can't tell you the last physical video game, uh, that myself or my son has, has bought, but there's, there's a bunch there.
And I bet I can, I bet I can score, score some of these little metal strips in there and then we'll report back.
Give me like five years.
That's probably about when I'll need it.
Um, but yeah, we'll report back, see what I can find.
I would like to report back the messages in my inbox for the Mont Blanc digital paper, Myke.
Yes.
While we were gone, this dropped and I got notes on this.
It's like, take a look, take a look, take a look.
And, um, do you, do you, why don't you drive on this a little bit?
Because you have some adjacency with another product that we have covered on this show before.
So I'm going to read from the verge.
The $905 Mont Blanc digital paper writing tablet combines a basic black and white e-ink screen of a digital pen modeled in the company's Meisterstück.
Meisterstück.
As you'd expect, you can jot down notes, sketch, and even annotate books in EPUB or PDF format.
Now I have been trying to do some research on this product today to work out who is making this because it isn't Mont Blanc.
I'm convinced of that, right?
Like Mont Blanc is not making this product.
Somebody is making it for them.
Everybody on all of the subreddits and every, everywhere you go just makes the same joke.
Well, that's remarkable, right?
Like, because it really does look like one to the point that I was wondering is remarkable making this for Mont Blanc.
I've come up with zero answers.
I don't know if you've had any more luck than me, but I have, I've come up with zero answer.
Now this, and again, there's like, this product is not available yet, but it looks like it does kind of the basics.
Like it, you can write notes on it and it has some layouts and stuff like that.
Um, but like, and, and it also talks about the Mont Blanc cloud for, for sharing things.
Okay.
Uh, I have no idea if it has integrations with, uh, like third party software.
Um, like say like the remarkable does where you can like sync things to Dropbox and stuff like that.
Like, I don't know how you get stuff onto this thing.
Like I know that there is an app and it connects with the app.
So maybe that's a way to do it.
Um, you know, the key to this product really is that it is a Mont Blanc product.
And so it actually does look pretty nice and they have nice folios, nice leather, and the stylus looks like a Mont Blanc too, to, to as much as it can.
Um, you know, it's still got a little button on the side.
Like it doesn't, you know, it looks, it looks like someone made something that looked like a Mont Blanc, if that makes sense.
Like it's, you know, there really isn't much more to it than that.
I don't know who this product is for.
Um, I know it's for people, if that makes sense.
Uh, I don't know who, but I know they exist.
Like when I was on the Reddit, uh, subreddits looking at this today, trying to find information, I saw some people that bought it because they were intrigued.
And one of these people referenced having just gotten back from the boutique.
So I think it's like they got the call, like you get the call after you went to Vegas, you know, you're on that list.
Yeah.
I'm on the list.
There's anybody called you about this yet?
No.
It's a matter of just a matter of time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I would love to know more about this product.
I can't find it.
You know what I mean?
I'd love to know more.
It doesn't exist.
The more does not exist.
That's where I got stuck yesterday.
I was like, there was only so much I could see and any, uh, and I'm just speaking for my personal usage and experience.
Like there is 0% of this is for me.
Right.
I, do you have the remarkable, um, one of the more remarkable tablets.
So they've done some different stuff recently.
I just want a comparison.
I want to know that the pro the differences.
Yeah.
I've been intrigued forever to get remarkable and I've never done it, but they just released a small one and I have bought the, it's called the remarkable paper pro move and it's, it's their pro one, but you know, like a handheld.
So it does color and stuff like that.
I have, it has arrived.
I have not set it up yet because I am in like testing iPhones and time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
True.
But I will be talking about this on the show some point over the next couple of weeks.
Yeah.
Why don't we circle back, put it in the parking lot and put it in the parking lot and circle back on it.
Yeah.
We'll put a pin in that for now, but you know, this is remarkable is the market leader here.
Yes.
Um, which makes you think back to your initial point.
Yes.
What's, what's the underlying technology here?
Who, who has done this for Montblanc?
Like, yeah, is it remarkable or is it the factory that makes remarkable?
You know what I mean?
Like, how is this, how has this happened?
And like remarkable, they have a bunch of features and they also have a bunch of integrations so you can like move things in and out.
Like they have apps right there.
You can move stuff and move documents around and that kind of stuff.
People always want these things to do more, which I understand.
Like they're, I don't really think the remarkable has much of an e-reading experience, which I always see people saying that they would like it to do more of that.
But you can put, you can put e-pubs and PDFs on it.
So in theory you could, but I don't think it's exactly what people want all the time.
And then of course you've also got these like, like the books products where it's essentially just as an Android phone with an e-ink screen, you know, so there are lots of options now, but remarkable is, is the market leader.
Um, and I am intrigued to see, I'm intrigued to see more about this digital paper, which is what it's called, which is a wild name.
Uh, Montblanc, a digital writing is the term.
Digital paper is the product and the digital pen, which is the Meisterstuk.
So that's where I kind of like, we'll see how this goes longterm.
And the, the Mark, the remarkable, the people who use the remarkable tablet, like they have a lot of great, great, uh, things to say about it.
And there's no doubt that it's like really good for some workflows and, you know, a lot of digital, digital work.
And like, I totally get, it looks fantastic.
Honestly, the remarkable, uh, the Montblanc, I did find one video, like a, like almost like a Montblanc produced short, uh, where they were tapping through someone like the, the journal and the calendar.
And I was like, ah, that's a really expensive journal and calendar.
Like, um, and, and I need, I need to see more.
So like, to me, this, this product seems more like, um, this should have been like a remarkable X Montblanc and Montblanc just makes the pen, like basically the pen casing for, for the stylus, which I can't believe we're like in the stylus market now.
Um, but the, the, the, the full Montblancification of this product makes me, if I'm in this market, makes me more interested in the remarkable, not the Montblanc, uh, piece of this market.
So it's interesting.
We'll see.
I want to see more videos, more usage, but there was, it's very limited right now, but it's coming out soon, right?
Like it's coming out in the next month, I think.
So maybe we'll see some unboxings and some people actually using it because I, like, I'm compelled.
Like when Moleskine does this stuff, like I'm always compelled and they've had, they've made some, uh, strides, uh, Moleskine specifically has made some strides in just like the digital, um, basically like the OCR capturing of your writing and things like that, that has Moleskine has got to a good place on that.
It's just, it's not enjoyable for most people to use this despite like the technical prowess of it.
Um, so I'll see, you want to see how this goes and, um, yeah, see where this becomes additive to people's workflow.
I think that's the thing that like I most work look for.
Like I'm not pro or con these things.
I'm pro or con.
Is it good for my workflow?
Right.
So yeah.
I'm going to see.
Like if it really does feel like people fall into two camps where they either love it or they return it.
Gotcha.
It doesn't really feel like people were kind of like, yeah, it's fine.
It, it doesn't, it doesn't really seem like it's the way, at least the experiences that I've had of people that bought these things.
Yep.
Very aspirational product.
They're remarkable.
I'll tell you that people see it and they're like, I want to be that person, whether it ends up working out for them or not.
Yeah.
And the last thing I'll say on this is I do want to see companies do this.
That's why like I praise Moleskine when they do these things, right?
I want to see, you know, I want to see them keep, keep trying and testing.
Um, a lot of these products have failed over the years, pretty clear failures, but they keep trying and keep trying to make something that's going to stick.
Um, is this going to be the one I, I, I put my money on?
No, but like I want to keep going there.
Right.
And I'm, I'm glad these companies do it and I want to keep going there.
So we'll see.
All right.
This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Pen Chalet.
They sell authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain point, fountain pens, ball points, fountain points.
I was going to say, I think we're going to talk about a fountain point, uh, in a minute, which I'm looking forward to, uh, mechanical pencils and so much more.
They have all your favorite brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, you know what?
Just go, the list gets, I could sit here.
They, you know, they don't pay for an hour for an ad.
If they did, then we could sit and list all the brands that are available over at Pen Chalet, of which they're an authorized dealer.
There's so many.
They're adding new products all the time at Pen Chalet.
Every time you go to the site, you're going to find new stuff as well as great new deals.
Uh, every couple of weeks, you're going to find new special deals available to you as a Pen Chalet customer.
And also, uh, to you as a pen ad listener, we have even more special deals, which we'll talk about shortly.
Uh, there are always adding new products as well as pens.
Uh, you're looking at carrying cases, pen holders, fountain pen converters, inks, and so much more.
Pen Chalet sell internationally.
They have great shipping rates and they sell, uh, in the United States, free shipping on orders of over $75.
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They have low prices on high quality pens and Pen Chalet offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
So take yourself over to PenChalet.com slash pen addict, and you'll get 10% off anything over at Pen Chalet, and you'll see some exclusive offers because you listened to this show.
I'm going to get to that list.
Um, it's kind of spectacular this week, so I want to spend some time on it, but not before I mentioned, I was going to give this its own just little mention, but I really don't have that much to say about it other than I think it looks cool.
The new TWSBI Eco Carrara with Onyx.
So it's in one of their, um, you know, slideshows on the, on the homepage.
It was like the first one.
And this is, so with the Eco, they release them, you know, pretty much every other month, different colors, different colorways.
And they've been dabbling with some of the black trim and hardware, and they've been dabbling with some of the marbling in like the plastics that they use for the twist mechanism and the cap.
And then they could just kind of combine it all in this one.
And it's, I think it's a really cool looking, uh, Twizbo, Twizby.
Um, they, they all look, I was going to say the, one of the better one, better looking ones in a long time, but I'm, I'm a Twizby Eco fan.
So I think they all look good, but, um, this one's neat.
I, I, I really, really liked the colors and, uh, the things that they've done with this, but what's really cool is if you go over to our podcast page, Myke, um, I'm a Karen dash eight 49 fan.
They have the, uh, pencil and ballpoint pens and the blue wing lavender, kind of a gradient, gradient colorway.
This is spectacular.
I love both the pen and the pencil, uh, for this.
So that's a great one.
Then if you scroll down, there's something that's going to require my personal investigation.
The Scribo Puma has been a long running pretty much permanently on my shopping list, but I've never really, you know, just like committed to buying one.
So this one I have not seen before.
It's called the Hane Kuro fountain pen.
And I'm wondering if it's some type of a rushi finish, uh, because the, the standard price is very expensive and it's like half off and it looks just outrageously cool.
So this is a pen that I want.
And if it's in just like a, a much more unique finish than, uh, like some of the acrylic options are fantastic.
This one looks good.
Um, and then, uh, there's a set of the, the Benu Jolly Roger, um, the Benu Pixies, uh, they do a three pack, um, that's on a great sale for all three pens.
And then let me say, finally, if you don't own a Lamy Pico and you like standard pens, the chromium model that they're selling, uh, for a good discount on pen chalet is the best Lamy Pico you can buy in this exact one, the chromium model.
Like I have a, like fluorescent orange one.
I have a black and yellow one.
I think the chromium is the standard by which all Pico should be compared.
And if you don't have this pen, it's such an interesting, uh, mechanism to use.
Um, and it, it, it's fantastic.
So, uh, killer, killer stuff over there on the, um, the pen, pen chalet, uh, website.
It's spectacular.
Go to P E N C H A L E T.com slash pen addict and check them out right now.
Thanks to pen chalet for the continued support of this show and relay.
All right, Myke, we got our shout out of the week.
Shout out of the week.
Incredible colors.
That's ink credible colors.
If I didn't enunciate that correctly, I'm pretty sure we've shouted them out before.
So way does a great job.
Um, doing a lot of trip and travel reports, a lot of store, uh, visits.
I, I linked to them all the time.
I, I write them up all the time.
Just an awesome, awesome blog blog.
Um, and way, um, chimed in one and to reply to our ask TPA from Elliot about going to the Tokyo international pen show.
And way wrote me a full like email response to my commentary on that and our answer to that.
And I thought I would read that to y'all because I've had so much feedback, um, from other people wanting to know what Elliot does.
Elliot, if you're listening, we need some feedback from me, please.
Um, and wanting us to follow up and we've had a lot of tips come in, but way has been to the last two, uh, tips.
So the Tokyo international pen show and wrote me an email.
And if you'll allow me, Myke, this is going to take me a couple minutes to get through, but it's not too long, but I thought the details were spectacular and, um, I would be glad to pass this on to, to Elliot or anyone who's, who's interested.
So, uh, this email says, hi Brad, that's me.
This is my feedback for an ask TPA question in episode 681, where Elliot asked about going to the Tokyo pen show.
Uh, not sure if it has already been answered as I've not listened yet.
So, um, I pardon me if I, I kind of like backtrack this email.
So way says I visited this pen show for the last three years.
So I'd like to share some information.
Could you kindly pass this on?
And instead of like sending it directly to Elliot, we're going to give it to everybody because again, I've had so many questions, uh, about this, um, you know, following up.
So the half day sessions that Brad mentioned were part of COVID safety measures and are no longer implemented.
So I had mentioned that you had to go pick like a morning session or an afternoon session, um, that was during COVID times.
So that is not currently active.
So I was partially wrong there.
Like I had it stuck in my head that that's how it ran, but that was a specific, uh, COVID safety measures, um, thing.
The tickets are for specific days and each day is priced differently as a crowd control measure.
When purchasing the tickets, you also had to select time entry slots where, which are at either a 15 or 30 minute interval.
Um, regardless what your entry, entry time slot is, you can freely enter and exit the venue as long as you keep the provider wristband.
So, uh, the tickets are now available.
I actually got a follow-up, um, from the process in the past way had wrote me, written me about, and then followed up to their follow-up, um, with this ticketing, um, question.
So just a quick update.
There's a change in the platform for buying Tokyo pin show tickets this year.
The tickets are sold via Shopify, which should make it easier for international customers to buy the tickets.
So this kind of falls into like Elliot specific feedback about getting in, getting around.
The tickets are separated by dates and entry times.
The resignation times, uh, registration times are also listed and, uh, are before the entry time.
For example, if you bought the ticket for 10 AM entry, you're encouraged to register at the venue from 9 AM to 9 40.
So there is a little bit of that planning.
You don't just have a ticket for the day.
Like if you bought a 2 PM ticket and you show up at 10, like, well, you're not getting in.
Right.
So they do try to meter the attendance.
So it's just not overly swarmed.
Uh, I believe is how it, uh, works.
So not necessarily in blocks, like I mentioned, but you do have, you do buy, when you buy your ticket, you do choose an entry time.
The pin show covers two floors.
While there are a lot of people, it's not packed and there's plenty of elbow room it's indoors and maybe a little warm.
So wear an outer layer that you can take on and off.
If you start to get hot or cold, I recommend downloading a translation app.
I can't speak or read Japanese, but it hasn't held me back from interacting with the exhibitors.
Most Japanese exhibitors don't speak English, but they're very friendly.
I use the Google translate app to communicate with them.
And we managed international exhibitors usually speak English also bring enough cash.
Some exhibitors accept credit cards, but not all of them.
International exhibitors usually only accept cash.
Um, and then I'm including two links, uh, from ways recap of tips, 2023 and 2024 to so two separate blog posts and 2025 is in the exact same location.
So you do kind of get a feel from these last two reviews that we sent over and way has written up on the blog.
Um, so that's pretty much it.
So the tickets you can buy online and then you have to pick a day and then pick an entry time.
And then you show up like 30 minutes before your entry time, uh, to, to queue.
The show is large, but accessible and you can move around and communication just works.
Like we'll all figure it out.
We're all, we're all dealing with stationery here.
We can all figure these things out.
Um, and yeah, and bring cash.
Uh, you can use cards sometimes and, uh, others are going to take cash.
So definitely go read the recaps, uh, which will do a better job of, of capturing like my random, uh, reading different parts of different emails there.
But yeah, I think that was a great feedback for tips.
It's coming up in about a month from now.
Yep.
So, um, and tickets just were made available.
So I'm sure everyone's working on that stuff now.
So go take a look at that.
All right, Myke, let's get into, let's get onto a topic.
One of my all time favorite topics.
Um, one that a friend of mine sent me a link to and said, uh, I'm going to need your commentary on this.
So I knew it was going to be good.
Um, and this is article is from the strategist, which is a New York magazine.
Um, what do you, what do you call these?
Like, uh, like a sub, like, I don't know.
It's, it was part of New York before I think.
And then got bought.
Yeah.
Like the wire cutter is to the New York times.
The strategist isn't the exact same thing, but they do have these individual like types of topics, you know, uh, uh, beauty home kitchen style travel, basically, um, affiliate link platforms for the, for these websites and magazines.
I just want to be clear on why they're writing these.
Um, and I actually do have a point about that later, um, which again, don't yell at me.
I'm pro affiliate link, but I'm just saying, understand what these lists are right.
Going into it.
So this one's by Martha tuber and it says, I'm extremely picky about my pens.
After years of testing, I have 10 favorites.
So I wrote in our show notes, OMG, we're going to fight.
And I don't mean me and you, I mean me and Martha.
Oh yeah.
And honest, honestly, there's some really legit good stuff in here.
But as soon as I scroll down and I'm going to, I'm going to jump right to, to the kicker for me.
And then we'll circle back and talk about a lot of the stuff in here.
The best fountain pen for writing craft design technologies, tradeo fountain pen.
It's not a fountain pen.
It's not a fountain pen.
I don't understand this.
The rest of the list, Brad, I will say it's like, well, it's like, this is a selection.
We can talk about them, their decisions.
I don't even understand why the author put a fountain pen in the category and then chose, that just didn't choose one.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It hurts my brain.
It hurts my poor little stationery brain.
Is this even billed as a fountain pen anywhere?
They, yes.
So this has long been my problem with it.
Right.
So I can see how, maybe I can see how she's gotten into this situation.
Yeah.
But it just ain't, you know, it just ain't one.
It's also not a craft design technology product.
The tradeo is a Pentel product.
And as we've talked about craft CDT, which is craft design technology, basically skins other people's products.
Right.
So they put green on the Pentel tradeo fountain pen, which I'm saying that's part of the name.
So I'm going to keep calling it that just to see where the problem lies.
So you're paying like double for this pen to be green.
So there's multiple things I have.
I have an issue with this.
This is just, this is like causing an unnecessarily unnecessary problems, right?
This is a marker, right?
It's not a fountain pen.
And like, it's fine as a marker, right?
But this, this name has just caused me so many problems over the years.
I have trouble with, with seeing this pen even recommended for anything because it, this pen, if you count it as a marker, it's not better than any marker.
Like it's just not, and it's $14, right?
So Martha talks a bunch about fineliners, Secure Pig Microns.
Awesome.
Even Martha's one of their favorite writing pens is the Secure Pig does a Micron PN, which is a different tip design made more for writing.
That pen rules and it never gets any love.
Like under no circumstances should anyone buy a tradeo.
They, Martha even has the Papermate Flare in here.
The Papermate Flare is a better pen than what you get from the tradeo.
It's not going to be anything better than every other pen she recommends in here.
So it's just a confusing product that should not exist, but for some reason it keeps existing.
And like, I I've gone on my, like, I'm, you can tell I'm already agitated about this because I just did this like a couple of months ago.
Um, I was like, I bought one of the new ones just to see, am I missing something?
It's something different.
And it's not like, it's just a terrible pen.
It's a terrible product.
It's not a fountain pen.
There's no fountain pens on this list, which is, that's fine.
Like, I don't care about that, but like, don't pretend this is a fountain pen.
Okay.
Restless is really good.
Myke.
Yeah, I really don't get it.
I do have a problem, but I'm not going to say I have a problem.
Everyone has their own opinions, right?
This is Martha's opinion.
The very best pen for writing the very first, the first pen and the pen that's gotten, uh, like the most run, uh, from this, the very best pen for writing is Antarique's ultra low viscosity ballpoint.
I just did a review of this one.
Um, I don't know, a couple of months ago I did it with the brass barrel.
So the barrel doesn't change the refill.
The refill is the same.
The refill is very average, right?
This is a style over substance pen.
I like it.
I will continue to use it.
The refill is subpar compared to, compared to like, they have the bit crystal next on the list.
The bit crystal is a better refill than this refill.
I didn't like it.
It actually almost bled through some papers, like in my plotter.
Like I could see like ballpoint ink, you should never see any bleed through the back of the page.
And I just had, I, it doesn't work on some papers.
Uh, it's not good.
The pen looks amazing.
Um, and like, I'm fine owning the one that I own.
I don't need several of these, you know, they're not inexpensive.
They're like, this one's $12.
I think the brass one I bought was around 20.
Um, they look beautiful.
It's definitely a style over substance.
If you're interested in this pen, go read my review.
And I talk about it.
And it also has a link to the gentleman stationer.
If you want to buy this pen, that's where you should buy it from.
You don't need to grab this one, uh, from Amazon, um, from this article.
So bit crystals on there.
Awesome pen, uh, pilot juice up.
That was a little bit of a surprise because it's a needle point 0.4 millimeter.
Very good.
Um, so what else?
The, this curious that I talked about the pilot, super petit pilot, super petit, which is again, uh, Martha seems to be a very, very big fineliner fan, which I can get all aboard with, you know, there's the, the, uh, brush pen, brush pen tips on the, the, the markers, which are great.
Um, so yeah, overall, really, honestly, this is a really good list.
I just get really agitated with the Pentel Trottio, Pentel Trottio, uh, fountain pen, uh, gives me real problems.
Last comment I want to make.
This is weird.
Yeah.
Honestly, like legit good list.
Martha has a really good taste, um, in pens and knows what they're talking about.
The last comment I wanted to make is I was looking at the YouTube, excuse me, the Instagram comments on this post.
That's what got shared to me.
And everyone is just yelling Muji, Muji, Muji over and over.
And they have just got people just, um, like they got the wool pulled over their eyes.
Yes.
And like, I can't scream that loud enough.
They it's, it's not a Muji refill.
Right.
And like people should be aware that, Oh, you could just go get that uni ball pin or that zebra pin or that Pentel pin.
Um, Muji makes some good barrels.
I do like their minimalistic barrels, but they're not making their internals for their pins.
That's just something I always like to mention.
That's a white label.
They got people, they got people like on the walk for them.
Yeah, they do.
Like they, you can't like, it's, it's awesome to see.
It's like that whole comment section on Instagram was yelling about Muji.
Muji is the best.
Muji is the best.
I was like, you figure it's the stores, right?
Because you can go and try them all.
And so I get it.
Yeah.
People are going to the stores, they're trying the pens, they realize how good the pen is and they buy it.
But if they were to do that in another store with the products that they actually, you know, the refills are, they would have the same experience.
But I don't think it's as, I don't know, like, uh, accessible or desirable.
Um, in other stores, Muji, Muji's whole experience is a good one.
Um, and so people kind of just, they fall into that truck.
And I like, I like the Muji barrels.
They, uh, and I haven't been in a Muji in a little while, but for a time there, when you go look at all of their, their pens laid out and they have like those kind of like translucent clear, um, gel pens that most people enjoy.
And, or that's the one people are talking about.
They actually have a solid color hex barrel pen and that uses the Pentel Sleechy refill.
It's spectacular.
It's so much better than the, that's, that's one where the barrel is actually better than the original pen that the refill comes in.
And I can't recommend that pen highly enough.
Um, that's one I wish Pentel, that's the one where Muji actually beat Pentel in, in making a barrel for their refill because the Sleechy barrels are, they're like very, very thin, um, and not that great, not comfortable to hold.
And the Muji barrel is spectacular.
So if you see the, if you see a hex, very colorful hex barrels, uh, get those, those are Pentel Sleechys and they're great.
Sleechy.
Sleechy.
That's one of the, that's a very old, uh, podcast, uh, follow-up, um, because it looks like it should be Slicky or something like, I didn't know how to, that's one that I didn't know how to say, just like Signo Sino, uh, Sleechy now just rolls off the tongue because I didn't say it.
I mean, it doesn't help that Signo is wrong.
Like they made the wrong choice.
I, I, I, okay.
Like I wasn't going to disagree with you, but it's kind of hard to agree to when, you know, we're talking about language and, and how they're pronouncing it.
Who's pronouncing it Sigan?
I'm going to Sigan this piece of paper.
No one's doing that.
It's got an, it's got an O on the end.
You don't want to Sino.
Yeah.
I want to Sino this page, man.
Like it was a coincidence that the word sign is inside of Sino.
Signal, I should say, sorry.
They made the wrong choice, man.
It's the end of it.
I love Uniball.
I'm trying to get them to hire me, man.
Don't you mean Uniball?
Okay.
So you're going to get me.
Uniball.
That's how you say it.
Okay.
They are one of the worst, um, with the word marks and changing them and being inconsistent, um, with capital U, lowercase U, hyphen after uni, no hyphen after uni, all one word.
It's it.
And then sometimes just calling products Mitsubishi just from the jump, like they have a problem.
Sometimes where it's just Uniball with no hyphen.
Yeah.
Oh no.
That's what it is right now.
So I actually have a text expander rule, um, for all the different ways, uh, to spell Uniball.
I have a bunch of brands like this.
So I spell them right.
Like if I type LAMI, it just automatically all capses it.
Right.
Yeah.
Uh, Uniball is all one word, all lowercase.
Now that's the official word mark.
No hyphen?
No hyphen.
Huh?
All lowercase, all one word, no hyphen.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But the logo is a, got a hyphen.
Trust me.
It's, it's bad.
It's the inconsistency.
And I'm sure I'll get an email saying, no, it actually has the hyphen.
I was like, well, that's not what your new products, uh, have on them.
Let's see.
What is, I'm picking up a light touch.
Oh, this is, oh yeah, this is the other one.
I forgot this one.
This one's just uni.
Sometimes it's just you and I.
Yeah.
Maybe if it doesn't have a ball in it, I don't know.
Yeah.
Sometimes it's just uni.
Randomly, it's Mitsubishi, like some of the pencils, right?
Since that, like it's Mitsubishi, the parent company is Mitsubishi Pencil Co.
So they have Uniball pencils and they have Mitsubishi pencils.
When I was Googling, it suggested that the company is called Uni Mitsubishi Pencil.
Serious.
I know.
Oh, I believe it's a publicly traded company.
Yeah.
The company is called Uni Mitsubishi Pencil.
Wow.
So I don't have any products that say uni Mitsubishi on them.
They'll say one or the other.
Yeah.
I don't think, yeah, that's just, yeah, you're right.
It's like, it's the parent company.
They don't, they don't bother with that.
That's, that's like, but they have, they make pencils that say they have pencils that are Mitsubishi pencils with no uni markings on them at all.
Like one of the greatest pencils in the world is the Mitsubishi 9850.
And it, uni balls nowhere on that pen pencil.
I wouldn't have expected it to be though, right?
But they make uni pencils, but the, so the pencils only say uni.
I found what you're talking about.
So the, the UK website had the hyphen everywhere.
The US website is remove the hyphen.
Yeah.
And it just says uni ball.
Yeah.
Or I don't know.
As I will call it now, uni ball.
Unible.
Unible.
Unible.
Because if, if, if sick, if we took a colonic signal, then all bets are off.
Okay.
Fair enough.
Right.
All bets are off.
Unible.
We nibble.
Everybody nibbles.
If you would like to send in feedback, follow up questions for a future episode of the show, go to penaddictfeedback.com.
Uh, we'd love to hear from you.
There's no hyphens, uh, in the URL.
They aren't there.
We got rid of them all.
Uh, if you would like to find Brad, go to penaddict.com, twitch.tv slash penaddict spoke design.
I just, I opened Instagram as I often do while I'm on the show to grab links and stuff.
And when I went there immediately, I saw it as a new spoke pencil come in, which I'm very excited about.
And also disappointed that you didn't have one for me when I saw you literally three days ago.
Yeah.
Well, I just got it yesterday.
So I was on the road all day yesterday for a spoke design meeting.
Just came home with this one.
Uh, we'll probably, maybe we'll talk about it next week or the week after.
So they're, they're not available yet, but, uh, we're starting the assembly process and it's going to take us two, three weeks.
We have two new pencil models.
Looks delicate, Brad.
With some change.
Oh, it is far from.
Yeah.
Far from.
Like, like jewelry.
Like there's like a lot of intricate detail as well.
I mean, there is a lot of details on this one.
There's a lot of modularity in this one.
We'll talk about this one in detail because some people look and see it's got a lot of the flavor that we've, um, you know, built up in the design process over the years that looks a lot like our stuff, but this one has so many changes to it.
A lot that you can't see, um, you know, just from an image.
So, uh, I'm excited to get these one out, get these out.
So we're actually going to have two new models.
I can see some of the changes and that's what I mean.
It looks like it's really, really designed to this one.
So it is, it is, it is.
And, uh, it's going to be great.
I'm, I'm super, super happy with how it, how it turned out.
Uh, if you would like to find Brad on social media, he's pen addict everywhere.
Uh, thank you to Pen Chalet for supporting this week's episode.
If you want to find me online, go to theenthusiast.net.
You can find my products over at Cortex Brand.
Uh, this show is a part of Relay.
You can go to relay.fm and find another podcast to add to your queue.
Uh, we'll be back next week.
Don't forget stjude.org slash relay.
Give what you can.
We appreciate you.
And until then say goodbye, Brad.
Goodbye, Brad.