The Pen Addict 7/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	7
Title:	Not Your Grandfather's Fountain Pen
Release Date:	March 29th, 2012
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 7
Audio File:	Audio Episode 7
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 7
Length:	3434 min <br />0.567 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to The Pen Addict podcast, a show all about pens and paper and all of the analogue tools that we enjoy so much. Hello, my name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by your host, Mr. Brad Dowdy of The Pen Addict. Hello, sir, how are you?

Brad Dowdy: I'm great, Myke. How are you today?

Myke Hurley: Dandy, dandy. Glad to be back in this chair for this episode.

Brad Dowdy: Good, good. I'm excited as well.

Myke Hurley: So what are we going to talk about today?

Brad Dowdy: Well, we've noticed over and our listeners have noticed over the first several episodes that you've developed quite a pen purchasing habit.

Myke Hurley: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: And you have another pretty cool purchase that, number one, I want to talk about, and number two is going to serve as our jumping off point for the rest of our episodes. So why don't you fill us in with what your latest fascination is?

Kaweco Sport

Myke Hurley: So my most recent purchase, which I'm very pleased arrived and hoped it was going to arrive last week, but it didn't, is a Kaweco Sport. I got a white one. It's just the regular Kaweco Sport. Right. I haven't been able to use it too much yet, and I'll get into a minute why.

Myke Hurley: I've really loved the form factor.

Brad Dowdy: So just real quick for the listeners, this is the Classic. The model that you purchased is called the Classic. There's a few different in the Kaweco Sports. So just wanted to throw that out there just so we're all on the same page.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, mine just says Kaweco Sport on it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they don't say Classic or Ice Sport until they get into the different body styles, which we'll talk about. But yeah, go ahead. Sorry.

Myke Hurley: So it's like a very light plastic, which is nice. It's nice in the hand. It's very compact. So the majority of size of the pen is like, when it's closed, seems to be taken up by the cap. It's got a really large cap. And the body of the pen itself is very small. So the idea is you unscrew the cap and you obviously cap it to the end of the pen, which, believe it or not, Brad, I have been doing with this.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, good. Interesting. Yeah, I could see that, though, because it's really lightweight and really small if you don't.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's too small. It kind of falls in my hand. Like, it doesn't rest on my hand very well. So I've been attaching the cap to the end, but it doesn't feel uncomfortable to do so. And I think that's because the cap is so large. I don't feel the cap in my hand, if that makes sense. It doesn't feel like it's counterweighting anything because it's the majority of the weight.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it kind of, when you uncap it and post the cap on the back, it kind of overextends itself over the back of the barrel, right? It comes down like halfway past the – it doesn't clip on the end of the pen. And it slides all the way down, maybe not quite halfway, two-thirds, maybe a little bit more.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So when you're – like, the cusp of your hand is probably midway through the cap, not anywhere near the – like, the seam.

Myke Hurley: As I usually find it anyway.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: I've only really been using this pen at home, and that's not really what I like to do because I do a lot – I write the show notes for all of the shows, but I do a lot of writing at work. So I like to always take my new purchases on the road with me. But the Kaweco does not come with a clip. Mm-hmm. So I usually keep my pens in my inside pocket. Mm-hmm. And I wouldn't dare put a pen in my inside pocket unless there was a clip to attach to. That makes sense. To the pocket. So I have ordered one.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. I was thinking you ordered it with it, but you ordered it separately.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't know why I did that. Gotcha. And then I also made the mistake of – I did actually order it before the Kaweco arrived. So when I was looking at the images, the image that they had showed the – there's like a little gold ending on the camp. And on the images, they were all silver, so I ordered a silver one, which is upsetting. So what I have decided to do is, yes, I will use a silver one, but later I will buy a new Kaweco.

Myke Hurley: This is how I would justify it. That's right. It's going to be unfortunate. That I'm going to have a white pen with gold accents and then a silver clip.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that would drive me crazy too. Maybe you can just send me the silver clip.

Myke Hurley: Okay, I'll do that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Because I have a few Kawecos and I don't have a clip for any of them, but every time I see – I was like, you know, this is a small pen. I throw it like in my front pocket. When you're talking about clipping to a pocket, you're talking about like a suit jacket pocket generally, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

Brad Dowdy: So me, I would take mine and just throw it in my front pocket of my jeans or something. So the clip was not as important to me. So I've never ordered one. But every time I see a picture of one, I was like, that looks kind of cool. You know, I didn't think there was any use for it and I thought it would look kind of silly, just kind of like this extra clip on there. But I think it might actually be the opposite. I think it might kind of add a little bit to it.

Myke Hurley: I think I'm really looking forward to it because it will mean I can carry it around more. And I can see why the Kaweco line is so popular because it can be thrown into a front pocket very easily and it's a fountain pen. You know, I think that's a real selling point of the line. The actual nib itself, I've got a medium nib. It's nice and comfortable. It's smooth. I've still not used any fountain pen recently, which is as smooth as the Lamy Safari, which I've fallen back in love with this week. And I want to get on. I'm going to talk a bit later. Later on when we're talking about the types of fountain pens, why I've started to use the Lamy a little bit more. Okay. But I'm hoping that the clip will come before the next episode, but we'll see. But yeah, it's very smooth. It came with a blue ink. I bought some cartridges for the Kaweco.

Ink Cartridges

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and right now they're cartridge only. There's no converter. Some people will drain cartridges, clean them out, and use an ink and fill them with a syringe or something like that to get in special colors that they like. But I haven't gone that far yet.

Myke Hurley: That seems like an awful lot of work.

Brad Dowdy: And there's actually some pretty good-looking non-standard colors that Kaweco does that I like. So you're not pinned to just blue and black ink cartridges like a lot of brands do.

Myke Hurley: They look pretty standard, the ink cartridges. So you could get any, couldn't you, really, it looks like.

Brad Dowdy: You know, I haven't played around with them too much. I think it's called, I think these are standard international size. So I wonder if the, we got in the J. Herbin cartridges at JetPens here recently, which are standard international, short international size. I haven't looked them up. But yeah, I think those might actually fit into the Kaweco. I'll have to double-check that. Don't quote me on that, but that's a good thought. And there's about 20 colors of those.

Myke Hurley: The ends of the cartridge look very much like the type of cartridge I used in school or whatever. And I have a cartridge here from the Paper Mate that I spoke about last week. And they're the same size, same shape. So they look like just the international standard, I guess.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep. So yeah.

Myke Hurley: You could probably use whatever cartridge you like, I guess.

Herbin Cartridges

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, those Herbin cartridges look like they might be a good option. I'll have to try that out myself.

Myke Hurley: What's quite interesting, on the back of the cartridge box, there it is, it shows that you can put an additional cartridge in the Kaweco. You cannot. Don't do that because I just did that and it only got stuck.

Brad Dowdy: It's like a double-stack the cartridge? Is that what you mean? Yeah, but you can't. Yeah. It doesn't fit?

Myke Hurley: No, it doesn't fit. And when you try and screw it on, it just jams the other one in, which is never fun.

Brad Dowdy: Now you're making me, now you're going to make me try it just to see if you're right.

Brad Dowdy: Because I'm sitting here fiddling with mine as you're talking about it.

Myke Hurley: I'll be very upset if you somehow magically do this.

Brad Dowdy: I'm sure our listeners are loving this.

Myke Hurley: Oh yeah, should I just shake the inks a bit more, maybe?

Brad Dowdy: It's not even close.

Myke Hurley: No, on the back of the little Kaweco box, it shows that you can.

Brad Dowdy: That's quite peculiar, isn't it? Oh, you know what? That looks like a full-size barrel to me, which is...

Myke Hurley: Oh, right, okay.

Brad Dowdy: That's not a sport barrel.

Myke Hurley: There you go. That's why. There you go. Now we know.

Brad Dowdy: But I've never noticed that, so thanks for pointing that out. And thanks for getting this other cartridge stuck in the top of my barrel.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, see, I just did that, so I muted the mic and did exactly what you're doing right now. Has it come out? No. Oh, you shoved it in a lot harder than I did, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I was like, I'm going to show Myke how to get this thing in there. Well, it's not made for that.

Myke Hurley: No, you shouldn't be that competitive.

Brad Dowdy: All right, I'll set that to the side and I won't muck up the sound on this podcast anymore that I already have with my rattling. But yeah.

Myke Hurley: You of all people would have known not to do that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Too funny. I saw you recently reviewed the Allsport on the blog, which instantly made me want to buy a new one.

Fountain Pen Usage

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this is a seriously awesome pen. This is my favorite fountain pen that I own right now. And that's kind of what we're going to talk about today is just some fountain pens that you and I use on a, I won't say daily basis because I honestly don't use a fountain pen every day. But when I do, there's a handful that I use. And we've covered them on other episodes, but we wanted to dedicate an episode just to talk about the fountain pens that we use.

Brad Dowdy: You know, in my general everyday usage, I have never made it to the point yet in my fountain pen habit to where I've gotten into, say, like the old classics or the very expensive styles or any, you know, really super fancy, unique pens. And I kind of go for the more utilitarian brands, if you will, and looks and feels, you know, something, something I can throw in a pen cup, throw in a pocket, throw in a backpack, not have to worry about, you know, dinging it up or losing it. You know, heaven forbid I drop, you know, $200 on a fountain pen and, you know, lose it. You know, that pen's going to stay at my desk. Every fountain pen I own is, I consider it portable. Yeah. And that's a big deal for me because, you know, I'm not always a sit at my desk writer. And not only is the AL Sport extremely portable, just like the classic, it might be my favorite fountain pen that I own just because the build is so, so nice. I mean, it's an aluminum barrel. It's the exact same design as the classic that you have. But just imagine a fully aluminum barrel, a little more weight. Like the one thing I was surprised, I owned the AL Sport before I owned a classic. Okay. So I'm used to that weight and then I get in a classic and I'm like, holy cow, is this thing light? I mean, were you shocked at how light it is, your classic?

Myke Hurley: I was actually because even the other plastic pens I have have more heft. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So that's kind of where the AL Sport comes in. You pay a price for it. It's, what, three, three and a half times more expensive, about three times more expensive than the classic. But I've never, this is the best feeling fountain pen in my hand. The nib is super smooth. The looks are killer. And, you know, let's be honest, that's important to me. You know, some of these, some of these pens are kind of funky looking and, and maybe that's why I don't like, I call them traditional fountain pens. I'm not knocking them. I'm not knocking a traditional style fountain pen. But, you know, that, that whole saying, look good, feel good, feel good, play good. Right. If it, if it looks good, I think it's going to make a difference.

Myke Hurley: Do you hear that sound? Yeah, it's a phone call, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: There's a phone ringing somewhere. Yeah. It's like the, the bat phone.

Brad Dowdy: Sorry. What the heck is going on? Anyway, sorry about that. We always have some phone related issues. I tried to be good this time and at least have vibrate on and the other phone out. But, um, I did get a lot of comments about, uh, my R2-D2 ringtone last episode. They thought that, people thought that was hilarious. But anyway, I'm totally off subject now. The AL Sport, um, the other cool thing, which the, the classic is the same way in, as the AL Sport is, what we're talking about, you can just throw it in a, in a front pocket and go. It's because the cap threads onto the barrel, right? It does not snap on or click on. It's, there's actually threading there. So it screws on and all the times I've carried it, you know, I've never, it's never budged, you know, in my pocket. And I literally carry this in my front pocket of my jeans. I carried it around, I carried it, this in a field notes notebook around in my pocket today on some errands I had to run. Um, it's the ultimate portable fountain pen. At the same time, it's a beautiful desk pen just because it's so cool looking and it, it writes like a champ. Um, you know, I have, I have an F nib in both my AL Sports. Um, I bought the first one, which was the gray one, which I actually prefer out of the two. Um, and then I got the second one as a sample from jet pins. So I couldn't really pick up the nib on that sample one. They both happen to be F nibs. I really want to try an EF nib. So one of these days I'm going to get a, uh, Kaweco EF nib pen because everyone keeps asking me how that compares to everything else. And unfortunately I do not have one handy. So I'm going to have to rectify that one of these days.

Myke Hurley: EF just terrifies me.

Brad Dowdy: It, it shouldn't extra fine.

Myke Hurley: I assume, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yes. But not in the, I mean, in the, you know, in the German brands like the, um, Kaweco, it shouldn't terrify you at all. In a Prera, it should. I mean, that's a really, really different. Well, and it's not even an EF, it's an F. Then the F is so narrow on the Prera. They don't even do an EF. At least not that I've seen. I, you know, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there's an EF Prera.

Myke Hurley: But that, as you said before, that thing, that sort of size is just going to start cutting through stuff.

EF Lamy Safari

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. The F Nib Prera is infinitely finer than my EF Lamy Safari. There's no comparison. No comparison. EF Lamy, this is a question I get a lot for people that are new into fountain pens. They want to know, you know, they're used to writing with gel ink pens or ballpoint pens. They want to know, okay, I like writing with a 0.5 millimeter pen or a 0.7 millimeter pen. What nib should I get in a fountain pen? And that's just, that's a super, super hard question to answer. But I would say, in general, the Lamy EF Safari is going to be somewhere around a 0.7 millimeter gel ink pen. While the Prera is going to be a 0.5 millimeter gel ink pen, if not finer.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: And to me, the difference between a 0.5 gel and a 0.7 gel is very large. I mean, that's a big difference to me. You know, not everyone, everyone might not see it that way, but that's a pretty big jump to me.

Brad Dowdy: So, anyway, that's the Kaweco AL Sport Black Body. That's what I've been using. It's stealth. I look like I'm in the CIA when I carry this around.

Brad Dowdy: It's my stealth pocket fountain pen. I'm really just a stealth nerd. It's all it means. That's the only thing stealth I am.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, but, um, that, you know, we kind of jumped to the end there. That's probably my number one favorite fountain pen right now. Um, bar none, just because it does, it does everything well, which includes leaving the house with it, you know, and, and that's, that's kind of a big deal to me. But, you know, I want to tell people, go through some other fountain pens that we have, um, between you and I that a lot of people ask how to get into fountain pens, what should they start with? And, you know, I've got a couple of recommendations. You've got some too that, that you, so let me, let me start off with one real quick. Um, and it's the Platinum Preppy. When people talk about a disposable fountain pen, they're talking about a lot of times, um, you, you, you can find fountain pens if you go to, you know, a re you know, a big box retailer, you know, big, make some, um, pilot, make some, uh, pintel makes, they make, they make some that are generally disposable, maybe a little bit more fancy, but you know, they'll just be like a look kind of like a marker pen type body with, you know, an ink reservoir and a nib on it. And those, I really don't have a lot of good luck with, but when I do have good luck with is the Platinum Preppy and people who have used this pen and have never used a fountain pen before are usually kind of fascinated by it because it's a very simple plastic barrel, see-through barrel, um, with a fountain pen nib comes in a lot of colors and it's only like $3 or so, um, to get in and test out a fountain pen. It's kind of a no brainer just to see if you're going to like writing with a nib. Some people, some people probably can't handle writing with a nib with their style. Um, you being left-handed, it's not the nibs as much as it is the ink probably. Um, that that's a challenge, but you know, some people maybe twist their hand, uh, too much. Some people might have too firm a pressure. Um, there is a little bit of a learning curve when you're first starting to learn how to write with a nib, but this says if I can interject, it's a really high quality cheap pen, if you put it that way.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. With the, with the left-handed thing. So yeah, ink is an issue, um, because obviously left-handed people drag across pages unless you are, you know, well-versed that doesn't, that never happens to me because I know how to use a fountain pen as a lefty. Um, so really the, the nib is also a very important part of it. Um, because you have to, because of the way that you're then positioning your hand, you have to hold the pen in very specific ways and the slightest change, um, in that. So like, you know, I know a lot of left-handed people like me will tend to curl their hand around and right from the top. Mm-hmm. So the slightest change in angle, the fountain pen can completely change it from smooth writing to scratching. Yes. Um, and that, that is a big, that is a big hurdle as a left-handed person. Um, and I know that it would turn a lot of people off sort of instantly when trying to, to, to use a fountain pen as a lefty. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I, I could imagine that that's a pretty big challenge.

Myke Hurley: Because also you're writing in the wrong direction as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: You know, we're going from down to up. Yep. Sorry, up to down, which is exactly how you should not be doing it. So you have to, there's a lot of, there's a lot of learning that is involved in using it, but, um, I personally feel like it's worth it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, there, there is definitely in, so a learning curve to it. And actually I think the preppy might've been the, one of the first fountain pens that I tried because I've never used a fountain pen growing up or, you know, really in my whole life. And, and actually I didn't like it at first. I was like, you know, I'm not sure that, you know, it feels scratchy to me. And I'm not sure that this, the, you know, the feedback, you know, the nib on the page feedback was enjoyable for me, the whole writing experience. But, you know, I kept trying a few different things and then I moved, you know, I said, well, let me take a chance on another pen, which I love and you love. And that's the Lamy Safari. So you were talking about your Safari earlier that it is now your favorite fountain pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I've, um, I spoke last week about the Noodlers Inc. Um, and I received the converters for both the Pereira and the, uh, and the Lamy.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Um, and the, the, the Lamy's just taken on a whole new world.

Brad Dowdy: Ah.

Myke Hurley: Um. And that was the Heart of Darkness Inc., I believe, right? Yeah, the Heart of Darkness, yeah. Now, um, you know, we all know that I like, I like medium nibs, um, and, and the Lamy's medium is a very generous medium. Um. Yes. It's very thick. But, uh, what's great about the Heart of Darkness is it dries so fast. Uh-huh. It's, it's crazy that, that, that a lot of ink is being dispersed, but it dries very quickly. Um, which is, I know that's one of the things that people would say about Noodlers Inc., I believe, is that it does dry quite well. Okay. Um, and I've been having a lot, it's not really, it's not seeping through my pages, it's been fantastic, and since using the converter, the Prera has become quite mischievous. Um, I'm gonna include a link in the show notes to what it did to me. Um, it exploded over, over one of my pages. Oh, no. A couple of days ago. Yeah, it was a, it was a shame. Just write out the nib? Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was pretty bad.

Brad Dowdy: Wow. Um, but. Because actually, I have a converter in my Prera. I haven't, I haven't had that happen yet, but I just noticed that I've, I've run it dry, so I need to refill it, so we'll see what happens.

Myke Hurley: It may have just been, you know, it may have been a user error, I might have done something a bit funky with it, um, and, and I'm, the Prera is still sitting in my pocket, and I want to get back to using it again. So I do go through this with pens. I, I will sometimes retire them for a short period of time before bringing them back as the daily use, as most people would, I'm sure.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, I absolutely do the same thing. I've talked about how, I'm usually kind of on about, it seems like it's about a two-week cycle for me. You know, I'll, one pen's the best, best pen in the world for about two weeks, and then I have a new best pen in the world.

Fountain Pen Cleaning

Myke Hurley: Which is, um, I did want to talk to you about this, but probably not today, about cleaning fountain pens.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You know, that, that is one thing about, um, you know, if you're getting into fountain pens for the first time, there is a maintenance aspect to them. If you're, if you're not going for something disposable like the Platinum Preppy, um, you know, even if you're doing a cartridge-based pen, you're, you know, you gotta be, you know, you gotta pay, at least pay a little bit of attention, um, to the maintenance of them. And then once you get into, you know, using converters and inks, um, then, you know, that's a whole nother level.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I think that the, the Prera could probably do the clean actually because of the explosion.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. We can talk about that. It's, it's actually pretty straightforward. Okay.

Myke Hurley: Um, I'm going to add that to the, to the episode topics.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. At least, at least the way I do it. And, you know, since fountain pens are not my specialty, I'll make no bones about that. I love to hear from, from the readers and listeners of, of the pen addict for any feedback that you may have, you know, any corrections you have on, on all things fountain pen. Um, and especially when it gets to inks, converters and, and cleaning some of the maintenance aspects of them. I'm just not that experienced with them. Um, you know, it's, it's, it's really a whole new world for me, but it's, um, it's pretty fascinating.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So please get in touch and we'll give you all the contact information at the end, but I would also really love to know that. So if you can do that, so a way that I can see it would be great. Like if people have any videos or whatever. Um, so the, as I said, the Safari has, has been really been a, my pen of choice this week. I think, um, it's, it's, it's got a great, you know, it does have a great build quality and the nib size is really comfortable and it, I never, it never does me wrong ever. Yeah. Um, I've, I've never had a problem with the Safari where I felt like it was scratching, um, which I did with the Pereira because it was finer than I'm used to.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. I agree with that.

Myke Hurley: Um, like, I mean, I, I am, there is a part of it that maybe, I mean, is there a larger than the medium in the Pereira?

Brad Dowdy: I believe they have a bold.

Myke Hurley: So I might even like to try that because I, what I love about the Pereira is the look and the feel of that pen is, it's a pen. It's still my favorite looking of all of my pens. Mm-hmm. Um, and the, as, as we said on, on whatever episode it was, I was going back through my notes as you can hear now. Mm-hmm. Um, what episode did I pick up the Pereira? I think it was in episode four. It's.

Myke Hurley: It was when, when I first, when I first got the Pereira and, and the, the feel of, of replacing the cap and stuff is still. Right. Fantastic.

Brad Dowdy: It is good. It is good. Um, but yeah, with the, um, but with the, with your Safari, the ink really made a huge difference, huh?

Myke Hurley: Massive.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. See, I need to do, I'm, I'm really weak on my inks and I actually just got my second ever bottle of ink from, uh, our friend, uh, Michael Ram on Twitter.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Pelican Brilliant Black

Brad Dowdy: He, uh, I, I saw him last weekend and also our friend Aaron Manke. Um, hi guys. Um, Michael brought me a bottle of Pelican Brilliant Black, which I have a Lamy Vista here, which is essentially the same build as the Safari, except it's the totally clear body, you know, clear barrel, clear cap. Um, it's maybe, I don't know, it's fractionally heavier, but, um, I've got a converter ready and I just have not, um, had the time yet to, uh, to get that going. And it's a, uh, it's a medium nib on this pen and which I have never used. So I'll, I'll be interested to see how wide that is and if it drives me berserk.

Myke Hurley: I can imagine you throwing that pen out of the window. I tell you right now with, especially with ink, medium nib on the Lamy is that is thick. It's, it's like a thumb tip. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I've got a bad feeling about this.

Myke Hurley: It really is. I don't think you're going to like it very much personally.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Cause I have a, I have a medium Prera, which is probably about an extra fine, uh, Safari nib and that's bearable, but, uh, medium Safari, uh, or in this case a Vista nib is, it'll be interesting. I mean, but you know, you gotta, you gotta try new things, branch out sometimes. So, you know, luckily I have the opportunity to do so. So, um, you know, outside of those, um, the Safari and the Vista, you know, I also have a, a Lamy next, which one of my friends, uh, Brian Gushikawa recently reviewed on the pen attic for me. I have the exact same model. Um, and that's one, I don't know if you, you would like that one or not, Myke. I, it's, it's very different for Lamy. Um, in the fact that it's the aluminum body of the pen is similar to the Safari, but it's got a really fat, you know, unique looking cap. Um, it's still lightweight enough. It's a, it's a plastic cap and an aluminum, aluminum barrel. And then on to top it off, it's got a rubber molded grip as opposed to the plastic molded grips that, you know, you have on the Safari. So it's, it's a pretty interesting pen. Um, you know, I think I like the Safari better as far as build and style goes. So I don't use the next very often.

Myke Hurley: Um, but yeah, I remember seeing this on the site. And I didn't think it's very attractive.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's so different looking. It actually, I, it's come to grow on me as far as looks go, but as far as feel goes, when I write with it, I think the cap's a little off balance.

Myke Hurley: It looks off balance.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's, it's a little much, it's a little much, but, um, I don't know. It's, it's a good looking pen. You know, it's something different from, from, from Lamy, you know, especially with the rubber grip. I don't, I can't think any other ones that have the rubber grip barrier that, that they manufacture. So, um, besides that, you know, we've talked about the Pereira. That's a, that's a really awesome pen. Um, and then that gets into the whole conversation of European versus Japanese nib sizes, which we've, we've covered before. And, um, I think that's why I like them so much because they are much, they are much finer. So, um, so I think that that's, that's really all the fountain pens I use. You know, I've got a few other strays here and there. Um, I just reviewed a, uh, one called the sailor clear candy on the, um, on the pen addict blog. So it's just a, it's an entry level plastic barrel threaded cap pin. Um, they have a bunch of funky colors, um, ink cartridges that you can buy with them. I like, I like orange ink a lot. So I went with an orange ink. Um, for the sailor clear candy, the nib was a little bit too scratchy for me. I think overall, um, good pen, neat pen, pretty cheap, good entry level pen.

Brad Dowdy: Maybe it needs some more breaking in time. I'm not sure. I like the ink color though. Do you ever do, do you ever do, uh, any weird kind of ink colors or you stick with black, blue, blue, black standard kind of fountain pen inks?

Myke Hurley: Uh, yeah. At the moment I've got, I've got, um, I have an old Lamy that has red ink in it at the

Brad Dowdy: moment. Lots of fountain pen users use red. I've noticed that a lot. That's more so than, you know, kind of just traditional pen users. Lots of fountain pen users, you know, fountain pen users, they have more than, they don't just have one pen loaded with ink. You know, they'll have their standards. Then there's all, there's always a call for it. Hey, what's a good red fountain pen ink? So, you know, our listeners can let us, let us know that too. Cause that, that outside of the basics, red seems to be a really, really hot fountain pen ink for, um, people wanting an answer on. So that's interesting. You're, you're ahead of the curve on that one.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. What can I say? I think like as time goes on, um, I can see that I will be talking a lot more about fountain pen. Cause it's my preferred style of pen and it maybe isn't yours as much. And I have got some, some different pens on the way at the moment. Um, I have, I had to buy a Kalito for last week. Yeah. So I've got a Kalito on the way. And I also, cause we had a talk off, off the air for, for a bit about some other pens and I've, I've also got a, um, retro 51. Yeah. Tornado. I've got one of those on the way as well, which is a rollable, which is very different for me, but I just love the way that pen looks.

Brad Dowdy: I, I think that's a pen you personally will really enjoy just based on hearing you talk about your writing style and how you write and what you like, um, you know, the, the feel and the, the output to be, I think that one's going to be right up your alley.

Myke Hurley: So we'll see. I mean, they, they do a, a fountain pen version of the tornado and, and I found it in random places online, like through Google shopping searches and stuff. So it's not cheap. It's like 70 bucks.

Brad Dowdy: Oh really?

Myke Hurley: But if I really like the, the, the retro 51 tornado, like the ballpoint or the rollerball, sorry, then I will, uh, I will consider it.

Brad Dowdy: Interesting. Yeah. I hadn't even seen that one. So yeah, I mean, I'm interested to see what you, what you think about the rollerball cause that's a really cool pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Look, it looks amazing.

Brad Dowdy: It does. It feels as good as it looks. It feels equally as amazing. I will say that. So hopefully I'm, yeah, I'm hopefully I'm not setting you up for disappointment.

Myke Hurley: Well, we'll see.

Brad Dowdy: Nah, I don't think I am. I, you know, just listening to you. I'm, I'm pretty confident you will, you will like that pen. I will, I will go out on that limb. Cool. But if you don't, I want to hear about it too. So I mean, that's, that's what this is all about, right?

Myke Hurley: Indeed. That's what we enjoy about it. Yep.

Penaddict.com

Brad Dowdy: So I think that's about covered it for me today.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Should we, should we wrap up?

Brad Dowdy: I think, yeah, I think let's wrap up today. And, you know, you can find me at penaddict.com or you can find me on Twitter at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. And you can also email me any questions you have. My email address is thepenaddict at gmail.com. And I love hearing from you guys. And I have noticed all the, the ratings and reviews in iTunes have been killer lately. I really, really appreciate that, you guys. And so that, that makes my day when I, when I see that type of feedback is really awesome. So thank you all very much.

Myke Hurley: It is. The response to this show is fantastic. And I love that I'm learning along with a lot of our listeners as well, which is, which is a real cool journey to take.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, I'm learning myself.

Myke Hurley: So you can, you can find me at mikehurley.net, which is M-Y-K-E-H-U-R-L-E-Y. I'm on Twitter at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Um, this podcast is part of a, the 70 decibels network of shows. And you can find out more about that at 70 decibels.com. Um, again, I'd love if anybody's got any tips on cleaning fountain pens or talking about inks this week. If you could do, if you submit that by the contact page, which is 70 decibels.com forward slash contact. Um, I'd love to hear from that because that way it will go to me. And then I can send it over to Brad for his comments too.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, that would be great.

Myke Hurley: Um, until next time.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, until next time, I'm going to try to get this, uh, fountain penning cartridge. I have stuff in here trying to get that out of my barrel. That's what I'll be doing until next time. So, uh, have a good evening, mate. You too, buddy. I will talk to you soon. See ya. Bye.

Myke Hurley: The Pen Addict Podcast is a 70 decibels production in conjunction with Brad Dowdy. Brad is an employee of JetPens.com who do not have any affiliation with this podcast.