The Pen Addict 710/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	710
Title:	The Midas Touch
Release Date:	April 2nd, 2026
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 710
Audio File:	Audio Episode 710
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 710
Length:	5757 min <br />0.95 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 710. Today's show is brought to you by Enigma Stationery and Factor. I am Myke Hurley, and I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad.
I thought you were going to say you were my father or something.
This is one of these things that, like, I woke up this morning, my throat was a little sore, but I felt fine, and then I spoke, and I was like, uh-oh.
It was much worse than this earlier, and even then, like, starting the show, I didn't know how I was going to sound, and it's like, okay, this is how I sound, because I've not done a lot of speaking in the last couple of hours either, so here we go.
I could tell you even kind of caught yourself off guard there.
I was like, oh, it sounds like that. That's really cool.
I've heard this enough times to know when Mike catches himself doing something on the intro, and I was like, oh, he knows.
I mentioned to you as well before we started, so basically, we were in, like, a parenting class for the baby stuff, right?
So, like, you kind of go through all of the things you want to learn about having a baby, which means we've made friends with people whose babies are all born within, like, six to eight weeks of each other.
So, we've done five baby birthdays in the last two weeks, and, like, parties, like, two and a half weeks, like, five baby birthday parties, and I think that's what's going on.
Because also, as well, a lot of these babies have started nursery.
Sophia has.
Oh, yeah.
And so, like, that is just, like, when the superbugs.
Yeah, say goodbye to your immune system.
Yeah.
Sophia is going to be going to nursery later on this year.
We decided to push it a little bit later, partly because we couldn't get a space and partly because we're not forced by any timeline.
Like, we can kind of work around it ourselves, so we're doing that.
So, I'll look forward to that kind of towards the end of the year.
But until then, I'll get the little offshoots like I have right now, I guess.
Yeah.
Wonderful stuff.
Wonderful stuff.
Well, around here, it's just the yellow pollen is just covering everything.
I've also got hay fever stuff going on as well, so, you know, it's good times up here.
Exactly.
Can I just – I'm going to hijack the stream real quick.
So, yesterday on –
You're such a streamer.
I mean, stream.
I was about to talk about stream.
Stream is hijacking chat.
So, I had it out of my head.
So, I'm going to hijack the podcast.
So, I did the Pelican Edelstein Pyrite.
The super gold.
Oh.
You know, the gold lava.
The liquid gold.
Liquid gold.
Yeah.
So, I did some swatches yesterday.
I got a bottle in.
I did some swatches yesterday.
Okay.
So, they're still sitting on my desk.
And I just accidentally touched it while I was adjusting my microphone.
And I didn't see it.
I was like, oh, I've got gold on my thumb.
And then I wiped it off.
And I was like, oh, no.
Now, I've transferred it to my hand.
And now, it's on the microphone base.
There's gold everywhere.
There's gold everywhere right now, Mike.
Wait.
So, you swatched yesterday.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it's still...
It's not that it's not dry.
It's that, you know, your hands, like my hands are just like a little moist, right?
So, I didn't even see that I did it.
And I just brushed up against it.
And it wiped off on my thumb somehow.
Wow.
And I caught it.
And then when I tried to, you know, just like if I got a blue dot of ink on my hand,
I'm just going to like rub it and make it go away.
I just like, I spread it.
Just like the germs you have.
It's great that you're being called gold-handed now.
Like everything you touch is going to turn to gold.
You're like Midas.
Exactly.
So, now I have moved the Midas gold out of my reach so I can stop fidgeting with it
and get all this stuff off my hands.
You know who actually really is made of gold, Mike?
Can I actually, just before we move on, what did you think of the Edelstein Pirate?
I'll stand by my statement when I first saw the pictures.
This ink will instantly sell out.
Okay.
And I will not use it.
Yeah, that's fine.
But you're impressed with it, though.
At least.
I'm impressed with it.
It's really kind of crazy good.
That's great.
It's, it's, it, the look on paper with the swatches lives up to the imagery you see in the bottles.
Okay.
If that makes sense.
Like, it's a really intense, like, marketing they have behind this and all the videos they shot of it swirling around the bottle.
That happens in person in the bottle and on the page.
Yeah.
It's legit.
It's very, very legit.
It will probably never see a pen of mine.
I'm guessing.
This will be a good ink to, like, play with.
Okay.
And just, you know, do, like, ink swatching and things like this.
I've done some, like, super, super shimmers where I, what I call, like, 95% or 100% shimmers where you're writing and that, that's how much of the ink looks like contained shimmer.
And they generally work fine.
And I think this one will probably work fine, too.
I don't know.
Maybe I'll get, you know, get a bug and ink it up.
But it's great.
It's great.
It's going to do super, super well.
I think people are going to be very happy with this.
We'll be seeing this ink a lot because it just shows very well.
Okay.
All right.
You messed up my golden transition.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
To the true, to the true king, our goat, Michael Kuprele.
He's leading the show this time.
As I call him, Michael Kuprele.
Michael Kuprele, which is very accurate.
You beat me to that punch.
I just said Kuprele the goat.
I only know about this news because you keep tagging me in all of the related Instagram posts.
Are you disappointed by that?
No.
No, no, no.
I'm happy.
I'm happy to know.
Yeah, they rule.
They rule.
So, we got a new one.
So, Michael Kuprele's aura is off the charts.
Unbelievable.
Right?
Like, he is unbelievable, right?
So, and we've talked about this for, I don't know, when was the pen torching?
That's got to be a decade ago at this point.
He has become myth and legend since we found out about him hand torching the lily puts,
right?
Yeah.
So, he would hand torch the lily puts.
When the lily put came out and they did the torched ones, there was imagery of him sitting
at the desk with like his office desk with like a little blow torch and doing all the
lily puts.
And so, you know, I've been a huge fan ever since then.
Of course, I love Kaweco products regardless.
Latest is him basically unboxing a hat.
I was like, I don't know where this is going at all.
I was like, but knowing him, like, first off, this suit is just straight baller alert.
What is it?
Like, corduroy?
It's a wide, it's a wide whale corduroy.
The whole thing, you know?
Yeah.
Come on now.
Yeah.
The whole thing.
Waist coat and everything.
Let's go.
Yeah.
And it's like a very high neck.
Yeah.
In the vest.
You can tell this is just like fully custom made.
Like, you can tell pretty quickly what these things look like.
So, number one, he strolls in in this suit.
It's like, dang.
And he gets his hat out.
Behind him is his Gubelay group.
And I like the way group is spelled.
That's fun.
That's German.
I like that.
Yeah.
That's very German.
So, yeah.
And he breaks out this hat.
And I'm like, you know, I'm not a fancy hat person.
I don't know what kind of style you call this hat.
You know, it looks like it's from like the 1930s, 1940s, whatever this style of hat is.
You know, you see it in the gangster movies, right?
But then the company that made this hat, SimSec Hats, has put in two pin loops on the band.
It is a Kaweco hat.
It's a Kaweco hat.
It's a Kaweco hat.
And it's got pin loops on the hat band.
And it's glorious.
Not very good pin loops, I think.
Eh.
I mean, it's a hat pin loop.
That's true.
It can only be so good.
That's true.
It can only be so good.
I have a pencil.
This is in place of feathers, right?
You know, you see some people put a feather in their hat.
He's putting some Kawecos in their hat.
Yeah.
So, like, I have a Musgrave one with a pencil loop, right?
So, like, they can only be so good.
It's very average, but it's just kind of a fun thing.
So, anyway, I thought we were done.
I thought we were done with this.
Yeah, he's like, look at my hat, you know?
Yeah, he's like, look at my hat, check it out.
It's got, well, he's got, like, a brass sport and then, like, a classic sport.
And he's got his pins in there and everything.
And then, you know, he just keeps it rolling.
They're actually going to give away another hat with the pin loops on it.
So, I keep tagging Mike in all these posts because I'm dying.
It's so good.
I love this so much.
Well, I guess by tagging me in the second one, you're also technically in the giveaway now.
That was on purpose.
Yeah.
I figured that's what you were doing.
So, I usually don't do the Instagram where they, like, make you follow people.
Like, I don't do my giveaways that way.
I don't generally, like, I tell people you can tag me all you want in all your Instagram giveaways
because I know people, you know, are hesitant to do that.
It's like, just tag pin addict.
I don't care.
And a lot of people do.
But I tagged you in this one and now I'm officially in.
Well, I said, I actually, I didn't think about it.
I tagged you and I was like, oh, am I entered now?
Then I had looked and I was like, oh, you got to follow the two accounts.
I was like, you know what?
I tagged Mike.
I'm going to go follow the accounts.
Yeah.
We'll see.
You went, you're in for a penny and for a pound.
That's right.
That's right.
So, anyway, sort of stationery related start to the show today.
I don't know.
I feel fully stationery related.
It's a pin hat and with our goat.
Can I be real grumpy for a second?
Just on a tangent.
Of course.
April falls, man.
Come on.
Yeah.
I'm so over it.
Yeah.
I'm so over it, Brad.
It's just not fun anymore.
I heard someone saying this on a podcast I was listening to.
I don't remember which podcast it was now.
It was one of the kind of funny podcasts and they were saying that like, it used to be
fun, right?
I think the problem is, is brands.
Brands are the problem.
Yes.
And I'm talking brands of all size, small size to big size.
What was fun is like fake news articles and stuff like that.
And like, yeah, the beginning of brand stuff was fun.
And or, or what, something I like about it is when a brand is actually launching something,
which is a bit out there on that day, but it's a real thing.
Yeah.
Gmail, right?
Gmail was launched as an April falls, but it was real, right?
Google would, were giving email.
Right.
And I just, you know, I think doing stuff to your friends and, you know, in York, you
know, like that kind of stuff is fine, but just like you got us, the brands, you just
got to stop.
It's not funny.
It's just not funny anymore.
I got like four different companies that I follow.
We're like, Oh, we're changing our names.
Like, go away, go away and leave me alone forever.
I don't want anything to do with this.
It's not fun anymore.
That's what I got to say.
I'm complaining.
For sure.
There are, there are a few stationery companies that do some things that I like.
I thought launch terms was good.
They made, um, 1,917 page notebook, you know, just go ahead and make that.
Like, just go ahead and make that.
That's what I mean.
I feel like if you're going to do an April falls, you have to commit to it and actually
do the thing.
And look, and before anyone in our discord or in our community reaches out to me, I know
that we do relay April falls and I will tell you right now, I protest this every year.
I don't like it.
It was fun for the first year.
Steven loves it so much.
I just let him do it.
And like, so actually I, he knows I don't like it, but I don't, I don't like just say,
no, I'm never going to do it.
You know what I mean?
But I hate, you know, I hate, I hate April falls now.
All the fun is gone.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll do like a silly, I've done in the past, like some silly reviews and things like that,
but I haven't done anything in a while.
So, um, it's, it's, it's moderately fun.
It's mostly just eye rolly now.
It's no more, it's not interesting anymore.
It's eye rolly, uh, for the most part, there's a few, few good things.
Again, a wearing old is another one that actually does make a product.
Um, they did a Pandora's ink box this year where, you know, if you open it up, you get
to see if the bottle's half empty or half full and they do a nice, I love that.
I'm like, I'm all down for that.
Like if you want the market, they actually make the product.
Yeah.
If you want, if you want to get the marketing bump, commit.
Yeah.
You know?
Yep.
Yep.
I'm with you.
All right.
Are you done?
Uh, maybe.
I was like, man, we, we've got off to a fiery start.
You can hear my voice.
You know where I am in life today.
I know.
I know.
All right.
Um, quick bit of followup on the pocket notebooks breakdown.
Um, got some good feedback from that last week.
Enjoyed here and what y'all like.
And we got, we covered most of them.
One, I did want to mention, which came up right after the show.
I was like, how did I forget this?
And I wrote down in the notes.
It's like, I don't know how many of last week's notebooks I said were my favorite, but
this one might actually be my favorite.
What, why'd you forget it?
I don't know.
That's, I was, I was aghast because I'll, I'll tell you why.
I want to tell you what this product is.
The Robiki note.
Okay.
And the reason why I forgot it is because their initial product they came out would
not fit this category.
It's a tall skinny.
It's like a three and a half by eight inch notebook, which is crazy good, which I love
that notebook, but it didn't fit into the pocket notebook category that we were doing.
And I forgot they actually do make a like three and a half by five inch version of the
same notebook.
So forgive me for that, but I've used the very tall ones, tall, skinny ones.
And I haven't used the small ones, but this is a Yamamoto paper product who makes really,
really great products.
And they use a paper called Soliste in here, which is good for fountain pens.
These are a little bit expensive, like all things considered, right?
It's an $8 60 page pocket notebook, which, you know.
It's $8 for one.
Yeah.
For one.
Okay.
Right.
So relative to their category, that's an expensive product.
Sure.
Right.
But they do the, have you ever felt the wax infused covers?
Have you ever tested out, you know, it's like craft paper, but it's wax infused?
Yeah, I think so.
Mm-hmm.
It's really nice.
And it wears well, right?
It wears without self-destructing.
Yeah.
Like field notes will eventually self-destruct from the wear.
This one will last longer just because of that.
With that reinforcement.
Cover.
Yeah.
And it just feels good.
I don't know.
Really good paper.
I like them.
And fun cover styles.
Oh, you see, I was going to say maybe this is a bit controversial, but I think they need
more plain ones.
Like there's a lot going on in these.
They do have a one series of solid colors.
Okay.
There's like three.
There's like three.
Okay.
I don't have it pulled up in front of me, but there's like three or four just like.
Oh, I see.
Plain.
A green one, a, you know, kind of a peachy colored one.
I'm not looking at them, but yeah.
But the other ones are basically like traditional Japanese patterns and artwork, which are very,
very like busy looking.
Yeah, they're nice, but there's a lot of opinion in that, you know?
Um, yes, yes, for sure, for sure.
So anyway, I thought I wanted, I wanted to bring those up because that's one that I do
like very, very much, um, for literally every reason.
I think if I was doing a trip soon, this might be my choice out of all those choices
we made.
We were discussing last week, um, you know, using the field notes like I normally do.
I might actually switch to this row beaky.
So I actually, I ordered one of the small ones cause I don't have one.
I just use the tall ones.
So, all right.
It is the bracket final from Uniball has come out.
And I said, when we, when they launched the, the full bracket, uh, breakdown that we would
wait until the end to see who won.
So the, I chose in my bracket, my final four were the Uniball 1P, the Pin, which is their
fineliner, P-I-N, the Zento, and the Kuruatoga.
That's a pretty strong final four there.
And then in my final, I had the 1P versus the Kuruatoga, and I had the winner, the 1P.
So, which is the Uniball 1 in the short barrel is the 1P.
So, that was my guess.
And that's how I filled out my bracket.
Their final four, I got two of the four right.
The 1P and the Zento were both in there.
The 207++, I'm aghast.
I can't believe that this process, just to describe it, this is 207, P-L-U-S, and then
the plus sign.
Yeah.
Why is it called that?
I don't know.
That's wild.
It's an ink formulation.
It's an ink formulation differentiator.
And it's, it makes no sense.
I guarantee Uniball can't even tell me what that means.
Because I assume it's just called 207+, right?
That's its name.
But it also has the plus sign.
Yes, I'm only going to call it 207++.
That's just fine.
You know, I'm all about plus plus, but you know.
So, it beat the stock 207, which I never would have thought it would have done.
Because the stock 207 is just an OG.
That's like, that's essentially their pilot G2.
And I swear, there's no way that enough people buy the plus plus to beat the 207.
But whatever, it's an internet vote.
And that was in the same bracket as the Uni pin and the Air, which the Air is a terrible
pin.
Yep.
So, I knew the pin would win.
I thought the regular 207 would win.
But the 207+, didn't lose until it played the 1P.
So, their final was the 1P.
And then, the other, the fourth, their fourth of the final four was the Jetstream Prime 3
color.
Crime.
Crime that it didn't win or crime that it made it?
Which way?
A crime that it beat the Kuro Toga.
Yeah.
It's criminal.
This is a crime that has been committed in this ballot.
What is going on?
So, what I said here when they launched this, this was the singular outlier pin.
And then, this is a $40 pin compared to all of the stock level pins that the rest of the
bracket is.
A bunch of people were buyer's remorse voting for the Jetstream Prime 3 colors so they feel
better about their purchase.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, this is, this was, I think this was a mistake in the bracket.
Like, this was a out of bounds category.
Yeah.
Bad seating.
Um, I don't know how it beat the Kuro Toga even then.
Yeah.
Um, the Kuro Toga should go to the final.
I think.
Is this the best mechanical pencil ever made?
And, and none of these are the best pen ever made.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Like, they were really good.
But the Kuro Toga is like, ah, it's the best.
It's, you know.
So, the Kuro Toga would have gone up against the Zento.
And I think that would have been a fight.
And I think, I chose Kuro Toga there, but I, they, they have marketed the Zento so well.
Yeah.
That it made it to the final over the Kuro Toga.
And the 1P, I thought was an easy choice.
So, I, I had the 1P and then the, the community had the 1P.
I thought the 1P might actually beat the Zento, but it didn't.
So, the Zento won again for the second year.
Um, which is fine.
I just, I'm going to go out a little bit of a limb here.
I don't know what staying power the Zento is going to have.
I don't, the more I use it, the less I like the ink formulation.
But, they've done everything right with the branding of it to make it a thing.
Even the name is, that's a good name, right?
That's a good name.
It's better than Signo, right?
Yeah.
Um, so, it, I, I would like it to, to take place of the vision and the eye.
I don't know if it ever will.
That's just one of those that's just historically going to be in place forever.
I don't know.
I, I'm sure I'm wrong.
I mean, the Zento is going to continue on forever.
I just, I think that just from a pure ink formulation perspective, I, I choose the,
the Signo inks, the One inks, and the Jetstream inks over the Zento ink.
But, as Uniball has, has shown us just in this bracket alone, you can have 12, uh, ink
formulations and no one cares.
They keep selling.
So, um, it's good stuff.
I appreciate Uniball doing this.
Um, I didn't realize the Zento had won last year because it was so, it was relatively new
when the bracket came out.
But, um, yeah, still good stuff.
So, anyway, that's, uh, that's a wrap on the Unibrackets.
Um, pretty good.
I mean, 1P versus Into in the final, I can't really complain.
But, uh, um, you know, obviously a couple of things I have a little, little problems with.
But, hey, that's what the internet's for, right, Mike?
Oh, it sure is.
I'll, you bet.
It's all about it.
It's all about it.
All right, this episode is brought to you by our friends over at Enigma Stationery who
offer unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands and hard-to-find imports.
One of our favorite things here to do on the Pen Addict is just to go to Enigma Stationery
and start digging through their wonderful product offerings to see what they have available.
And I'm immediately drawn, Brad, by a couple of things.
One is the aforementioned Kuru Toga is available at a great price and a bunch of great colors,
including a lovely orange one that I didn't know existed.
But I wanted to ask you, these Tombow color pencils, the Erogetan?
Yeah.
These look really nice, like really nice sets.
Do you know about these?
Do I, Mike?
Uh-oh.
This is my favorite color pencil set.
Wow.
And this was, I actually did a proper podcasting today.
I went and looked early before the ad read and I was like, oh, sweet.
The Tombow Erogetan color pencil sets are on here.
So they call this a color pencil library.
So there's actually, I see two sets of three packs of tin pencils here.
So it comes in this little slip sleeve.
I have a review on, um, at penaddict.com of one of the sets.
I think I might have one, two, and three.
I'll have to go back and look.
So I have set one, two, and three.
And then this one has sets four, five, and six, and sets seven, eight, and nine.
Seven, eight, nine.
They have, they take basically all these different tones and you can get them in a pack of, that
gives you 10 adjacent similar styles of color.
Say a pastel range.
And that pastel range will range from like, um, you know, a pink to a purple.
Um, and then they will have a range that is a very dark and moody set that'll have from
like a yellowish green to a blue in these sets.
They, the colors of these pencils are my favorite.
They behave super well.
They sharpen well.
They hold, they have great point retention.
The packaging, I got to give them a shout out.
It's this, it's literally like a bookshelf of color pencils.
One of my favorite products ever made, to be quite honest, it's, it's a, it's, it, they
are very expensive, but I have found them to be extremely worth it.
I mean, they're very expensive only because the, the smallest unit you can buy it in is
a 30 pack, right?
Yep.
So 30 pack for $44 with our pen addict discount.
Like that's, you know, what is a dollar 50 a pencil?
Like, which is fine.
Like if you compared it to like a 12 pack of black wings or whatever they're going to
be right in the same range, but the presentation is so nice.
And the pencils themselves are beautiful.
Yeah.
I always keep them in, in the little booklets, if you will, and always keep them in order.
I don't know.
They're just a really special set of color pencils.
And if you're looking for like, like the set of color pencils, just buy one of these
library sets and you just have to figure out which range you want, because it's just
all, it's all just different tones.
It's not necessarily the same colors throughout the, the three packs of 10 in each of the
series, but there's different tones.
They're all, you basically, you're getting 30 individual colors, just of a different range.
Did you catch the other thing they had on here, Mike?
Well, there's many things.
There is, but like one standout.
They have the Lamy M17 refills in, which are the Jetstream.
These are so expensive because we're still only able to import these into the U.S.
So Enigma is a U.S.-based shop.
This is still a Japan only item and a premium product.
So we're paying big prices for them.
To me, they're worth it, right?
As someone who loves the Lamy ballpoint pen and loves the Jetstream ink formulation, I
couldn't buy this fast enough, even at the price.
And it's lived up to everything that I want out of a refill.
And hopefully one of these years, it'll be a worldwide release and be more reasonable.
But until then, if you're not in Japan, and still even in the Japanese market, you're paying
probably close to like $9 or $10 for them.
They're just a premium, premium product.
But man, they are so good.
Like this is right up my alley.
This one, just put that refill in the Uniball bracket, winner.
Straight up.
Straight to the finals, W.
Just put that refill in there, Uniball.
I dare you next year to just put that in there.
Except the problem is, the people who do that Uniball, that's a Uniball North America thing.
And as far as they're concerned, that refill doesn't exist.
But you know where it exists, Mike?
Enigma Stationery.
That is enigmastationery.com slash penaddict.
Go there.
And if you'll get $10 off on orders of $50 or more by using the code TPA26 at checkout,
that is enigmastationery.com slash penaddict to get $10 off on orders of $50 or more with
the code TPA26.
Our thanks to Enigma Stationery for the support of this show and Relay.
Now that you say that, that's the perfect time to buy the Erojitan set and the refill
and get over $50 and get $10 off what is it, expensive products.
This is the biggest.
Those are like S-tier products.
And I don't know.
I'll stand on that.
And we'll grab a link to my Erojitan review and put it in the show notes.
I reviewed it several years ago.
It's just so good.
So good.
All right, Mike, we got our shout out of the week.
Shout out of the week.
I was not expecting that.
The Penguin Post.
So my friend April, who we've definitely shouted out many times before, just got back from the
SFSF.
Mike, I feel that's like an internet meme name.
So the San Francisco Stationery Fest.
I read Sketch Fest, which didn't seem correct when I initially saw SFSF.
Yeah, SFSF, SFSF, SFSF.
So April just got back.
And I'm interested, since I was at the Atlanta Pen Show last weekend here on the East Coast
of the United States, over on the West Coast in San Fran, the same group that runs the San
Francisco Pen Show in the summertime, did their first Stationery Fest this year.
So if people are curious about how that went, April has her write-up.
Kimberly, who writes for the Pen Act, will have her write-up on Friday for that.
She was at that event.
It was great.
I'm getting a reading a lot of good feedback from the event.
Everyone seemed to have a good time.
And yeah, if you want to know about April's trip and about SFSF, you should go check that
out.
I'll have to figure out when, when I'll have to make that.
One year when it's not the same weekend as the Atlanta Pen Show, I'll have to make that.
Which, there's always a chance next year that the Atlanta Pen Show moves weeks, because that's
what it does.
That's what it does best.
Speaking of which, you want to get into it, Mike?
I want to know, how was the Atlanta Pen Show 2026?
It was great.
Okay.
Um, I didn't go back and listen to last year's podcast, but I read my recap of it.
I was, I was, I was angsty.
Yeah, you were not in a good mood about it.
I was very unhappy with last year's Pen Show.
Um, I'll grab the link.
Um, it's in, it's in this year's link to the show where my, my previous year's post.
And you can just go read it.
And I was pretty down.
And the reason was, the best way I could sum up the 2025 edition of the show was that
the whole show just felt like an afterthought, right?
There was, nothing went into it, right?
Just got a bunch of vendors in a room and that was it.
And that's not what I'm looking for from my Pen Show experience.
Now, there is some validity to that.
And, you know, just coming to an area like Atlanta who does not have any stationery shop representation
and allowing that community to have nice things.
Mm-hmm.
Fine.
But as a destination show, um, and maybe it, and then maybe I'm putting things on it that
it didn't have to be.
It doesn't have to be a destination show.
I just, my expectation and my hopes were for more, right?
Give me a little bit something.
Give me just, I mean, show me that you care slightly, right?
Yeah.
In, in 2025, I didn't get that.
I didn't get warm fuzzies.
I was like, we're just standing up a bunch of tables, having some cool vendors, you
know, rightfully so.
And the crowds came and it seemed fine.
But overall, and talking to vendors after the 2025 edition, like it was pretty, like
they were not very happy.
I do think, you know, I'm probably rehashing something we spoke about before, but you said
it's a destination show.
No, I'm saying it's not.
I'm saying I, I have these false hopes that it's, I want it to be, because it's been that
way in the past.
It was when we were doing the podcast.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So like, it's, I agree.
Part of, we're part of the problem.
Or I'm the problem.
Yes.
Really?
Yes.
For the Atlanta Pan Show.
I agree.
Yeah.
I do agree to some culpability in that.
But, let's just say it, not to big up us that much, but it did ride some coattails.
Yeah.
Right?
Of just being, and of capital E event, as opposed to just, you know, a pen show with a bunch
of vendors.
Right?
It was no longer an event.
And it hasn't been for years, since post-COVID times, it hasn't been.
And that's fine.
Like, that's totally fine.
But there was just no energy last year.
It was just like a dead, I was like, this is the end.
Like, this is not good.
So, going into 2026, after, for probably like six months after last year's show, I was like,
I could not go to the Atlanta show in 2026 and be happy.
Like, and I wouldn't miss, I don't feel like I would miss anything, which has made me sad.
So, late 2025, like November-ish, the team over at Trufay, which is a pen store in Greenville,
South Carolina, which is owned by Chris Henline and our friend Kerry Yeager now works for them.
They're about three, three and a half hours north of Atlanta.
So, pretty reasonable.
They emailed me and said, hey, we're getting involved in the Atlanta pen show, and, you know, I just, I'm not asking for anything,
but I just want you to stay tuned, and we're going to try.
And I was like, sweet.
Like, these are people I trust.
These are people who have a good grasp on the broader scope of this arena, right?
These pen shows, they go to a lot of shows, they're involved in a lot of things.
These are two people that have been in the business for a long, long time and do a lot of things and are very involved in the pen show calendar.
I was like, sweet.
And at no point did they, they didn't ask me for anything or anything like that.
They just showed me, hey, here's our new website.
We have a new website, and we've updated it, and it's current.
You would think that wouldn't be asking for much, but in the history of pen shows, that's a big deal, right?
Historically, pen show websites are pretty poor and not kept up to date.
You know what you could do this year, Mike, which you've never been able to do?
You could buy a freaking ticket online, which is spectacular.
Like, little things.
Show me that you're, just show me that you're trying.
And, like, we could buy the tickets online.
They had a schedule that was kept.
So, I ran down kind of, like, the differences this year on this year's kind of, like, short little recap post.
Last year, there were zero classes to be had, which, historically, Atlanta's only had a few.
They just, it's not a big show, and they do have some space for it, but they're not running, like, you know, multiple classes every hour type of thing, like some of the larger shows.
And that's fine, but something.
Last year was literally zero, and they never updated any of that.
And I heard from people, like, trying to teach there that they couldn't even get a response about could they teach a class there.
This year, there was probably eight or ten classes scheduled, right?
So, someone put in the effort to get with the hotel, to get the rooms, to get with the vendors or the class teachers and schedule these times and sell these classes and promote it.
My gosh, they were active on Instagram ahead of time.
Like, none of these things, singularly, is that big of a deal.
But collectively, when you see that someone's trying, it makes a difference.
And the vibe was instantly noticeable on Friday when I got there.
So, I got there at open on Friday, which was 11, for the VIP pass holders.
Like, I had the weekend pass, even though I was only there for a little bit on Saturday.
Yeah, it was good.
It just felt good.
The tables were pretty much sold out.
Like, a couple people had to, like, cancel at the last minute, you know, for health or family things.
That's fine.
But, like, it was busy, right?
There were new, there were a lot of new vendors that I hadn't seen at this show before.
Kiwi Inks, right?
We're going to talk about them in a minute.
A few individual sellers, which I hadn't seen before, which I enjoyed looking through, you know, their stuff.
So, the rooms, it's an oddly shaped show, if you've never been.
And I know Mike knows, it's literally hadn't changed from when you've been, except the podcast room now has vendor tables, which is great.
So, they've just kind of expanded a little bit.
But, it was a good crowd.
It was a good vibe.
So, everything went off great on Friday.
I did most of my shopping and, you know, checking everything out on Friday.
And then, on Saturday, I just spent the day kind of wandering around talking to people and taking some pictures.
And I was kind of getting a vibe check from vendors that I know were there in 2025.
What they felt, and I wrote this in the article, and almost to a person that I talked to, just noticed how much better this year was just in feel, right?
And that translates, for vendors, translates into sales, right?
I had several vendors tell me, they did better sales-wise just on Friday of this year than the entirety of the show last year.
I had vendors tell me that they would not have been back unless Truefay had gotten involved and reached out to them and said, hey, we're trying to make changes.
I had two vendors tell me that, that they would not be here if Truefay didn't get involved after what happened last year.
It's just not worth it for them to travel, right?
This is a big expense.
You know, they have to, you know, attempt to break even at worst.
And, you know, once you start losing little parts of this, right, if the promoter's not doing their job, then the vendors don't come.
If the vendors aren't there, the customers aren't going to come, and it just, like, steamrolls everything, and it just vanishes.
Yeah.
Like, quickly.
Like, it would happen pretty fast.
And they quickly reversed that this year, and I just want to give credit to Chris and Carrie at Truefay, who I have, just for disclosure, I have zero, you know, work relationship with.
They're just friends of mine.
Full credit to them for just coming on in the last few months and making some changes that made a difference, and it was clear.
How close are they to the Atlanta Pen Show?
Yeah, like, three, three and a half hours, I think I was saying.
So, it's relatively local for their Pen Show, I guess.
Yes.
That's the closest kind of, like, big Pen shop to Atlanta.
You know, there's nothing like their store in Atlanta at all.
So, yeah, three, three and a half hours, I think, if I'm not mistaken.
So, pretty, yeah, pretty reasonable for them.
I've never asked them, and I've not been told, are they going to take over the show?
Like, is that a thing that can happen later?
I have no idea.
I hope so.
If I can wish cast something, can they just have the show, please?
I would actually like it to be moved out of this hotel.
I actually think the hotel is a pretty good location.
It's far from the airport for those traveling.
But as far as, like, things to do in an area of town, it's nice.
But the ballroom setup is kind of wonky, right?
There's, like, there's definitely, you know, one of the challenges, and you witnessed that,
is when you do get a crowd in some of those rooms, it's pretty tight.
And luckily, they had the crowd, and it was pretty tight, right?
So, like, not everything's perfect.
Yeah.
And the aisles get crowded.
Like, Sunday, Saturday, it was packed.
Like, it was crazy.
Like, I was like, wow, this is great.
But even me, without, like, a backpack, much less someone, like, in a wheelchair with a walker,
could barely get through the aisles.
Like, and I would have to, like, change course and go around, you know, other ways.
So, there's challenges.
This, they would have to move hotels, though.
This hotel does not have, like, you couldn't adjust the setup to make it a bigger area for a room.
So, who knows what their involvement's going to be going forward.
I hope they keep me in the loop and let me know, and I'll be happy to share their changes
because I clearly have a personal attachment to this show, and I want to see it succeed.
Especially in an area that just doesn't have stuff for stationery shops.
They have some smaller stuff and things like that.
So, anyway, any questions just on the show before I get into the stuff?
I was very, I won't say pleasantly surprised.
I was just very impressed with the quick changes that they implemented with just a few months prior to the show
to get some updates done and get the feel, at least get the feel of the show back
from a pretty down year last year.
I thought 2026 was great.
Do you think that, like, even with the right amount of attention,
let's imagine that the desire was we're going to turn this into a destination show.
Do you think that the Atlanta Pen Show would actually become that?
Like, I just mean, like, you think of some of the other places,
they're much bigger spaces, and, you know, they're in different places.
Maybe they're more central to a location.
Like, do you think the Atlanta Pen Show could ever truly become, like, a destination show?
Not without just kind of some sea change in the location and the presentation of the show.
I think it would need to be in a more spectacular hotel.
Yep.
I definitely think it's hotel and space limited.
They could do a lot of cool stuff, and there's a lot of cool areas in Atlanta
that actually pretty much closer to the airport, even,
that could pull off more of a different feel for the show
and over time ramp it up into, like, there's, like, no reason this couldn't be
up on the level of, like, a Chicago show.
I don't know if you're ever going to get, like, a D.C. or San Francisco show level
out of Atlanta, which is fair.
Like, not everyone, we don't necessarily need that, right?
Yeah.
But could it be more of just an all-around higher-tier show like a Chicago?
Like, I hold Chicago in pretty high esteem for what they do.
Baltimore's up there.
The new L.A. pen show shows that you can come, you know, with a new show
in the past three or four years and do something, like, pretty impressive.
Yeah.
I think that's kind of, like, the – that's probably, like, the blueprint
for new shows coming on if they're not going to keep it small, right?
Yeah.
You can keep it small and do cool stuff.
That's fine.
But if you want to, like, escalate it, like, the new California show
is, like, a pretty decent blueprint for that as far as, like, hotel space,
hotel vibe, classes, types of vendors, things like that,
without being your behemoth like a D.C. or San Francisco.
So, yeah.
I do think it can.
All right.
Let's take a break, and then we'll talk about what you actually acquired.
Yeah.
This episode is brought to you by Factor.
It's been a long day and hunger strikes.
There might be something healthy in the fridge that you could be making,
but you want to make a good meal, but you want it fast because you're busy.
Eating healthy isn't always a willpower problem.
It's a setup problem, which is exactly what Factor helps with.
With Factor, you can hit your nutrition goals this season
without the plan in grocery runs or cooking.
Factor has meals built around your goals, whether that's weight loss,
overall nutrition, more protein, or GLP-1 support.
And for strength and workout recovery, you can check out Factor's Muscle Pro collection as well.
Factor meals are fresh and never frozen.
There are over 100 rotating weekly meals, including globally inspired flavors like
Mediterranean and Asian, so there's always something new to look forward to.
And they're already in just two minutes.
Factor does the shopping, the prepping, and the cooking and delivers straight to your door
so you have more time for everything that you love this spring.
Brad, can you talk about something you've enjoyed from Factor recently?
Well, it's hard to narrow it down when we talk about it like that.
But I'm generally a meat and fish eater.
And every time I have even just something that I don't pick out,
like I pick out a lot of the meals and I actually need to do a new round here.
And I'm bouncing through the site.
And everything's so good.
It actually makes me experiment a little bit into, like, I know if I get like a grilled
chicken, it's going to be great because they make it with, you know, good flavor, good sides
and everything like that.
But it's also, okay, grilled chicken can kind of be boring.
A factor doesn't make it boring.
But then I can go, oh, what about this fish?
You know, what about this salmon?
What about these vegetarian meals?
Like, I don't, you know, I'm obviously not a vegetarian.
I just said I eat meat.
But like, I order some of the vegetarian meals just because the flavors are so good.
Like, I've had vegetarian chili in the past.
And I was like, that's just really, really good.
So they just do a great job.
And one of the cool things that they do is they really tell you, like, all the details
of everything that's in there.
You're not just ordering, hey, can I get this pork chop meal, right?
It's like telling you how much protein, how many calories, what these sides are, you know,
everything that's involved in each of these meals is super detailed if you're into, like,
tracking all these things.
And it's just fun to kind of put all this together.
And then it's just like a little cornucopia when the box arrives.
And it's really impossible.
You know, I'll get six meals at a time.
And it's impossible to choose which one to pick first.
You know, I try to pick my favorite first because I've always talked about how my son
will steal them as soon as I get them.
So I better make sure I get what I want.
But I seriously haven't had a bad meal with Factor.
But I tend to lean towards, like, either some of the pork meals or some of the fish meals
are kind of my go-to ones in some of the seafood stuff, which is great.
Because it's all fresh.
And, like, I'm comfortable buying the seafood from them because it is fresh.
And, you know, just made, like, right before I get it, really.
And sent to me and eaten, you know, within a couple days of arriving.
And it just tastes spectacular.
Head to factomeals.com slash penaddict50off and use the code penaddict50off to get 50% off
and free daily greens per box with new subscriptions only,
while supplies last until September 27, 2026.
See website for more details.
That's factomeals.com slash penaddict50off and the code penaddict50off.
Our thanks to Factor for their support of this show and all of Relay.
So I went into the show with a very short list.
Like, I'm pretty good on my current, like, new-to-the-market fountain pens, right?
I kind of have the things that I want.
We're also in a transition zone, which we've talked about ad nauseum here,
of where the prices are adjusting.
And not everything's settled yet in that scope, right?
So a lot of the gold nib pens, we're seeing a lot of price increases.
And then we're seeing some newer pens come in at, you know,
in the $100 to $200 price point with steel nibs.
And that's still kind of all shaking out.
So there wasn't anything in those, like, standard retail pen market
that I had to have during this show
because I honestly think we're still kind of in this, like, transition zone.
So I didn't have any pens on my shopping list, per se,
but I did pick up one for myself.
I bought a Franklin Christophe Pocket 45,
which is one of the short pens that I didn't have.
I don't have one of these models.
I don't, I think I have, like, a Pocket 66 of theirs,
but this is an even shorter model.
And they did this really great color from Turnt Pen.
The material they use is called Makumagane.
I think I'm saying that right.
And a 2026 Atlanta Pen Show Edition
in, like, four different barrel styles.
I don't know, it's a really cool color.
I got this short barrel.
And it's great.
It's inked up with espresso ink from Tom's Studio,
which I eyedroppered at the bar on Friday night,
or I should say my friend Lisa eyedroppered it at the bar for me
sitting there because it's a little pen.
It just takes, like, a short international cartridge.
And I wanted a cool ink in it because it's a cool-looking pen.
I like the material.
So, yeah, I'm very happy with that.
I've been using that ever since I got home.
It has Audrey, the Franklin Kristoff nib doctor,
put on a SIG grind on my pen, and it's great,
and it's one of my favorites.
So, really good.
So, that's what I bought for me.
And I always have to caveat this when we talk about the things.
Things I come home with a pen show,
sometimes it's just for me,
sometimes it's for review,
sometimes it's both.
So, that one I bought with the intention,
like, that is my pen and goes into my collection of pens.
Then I did get a couple of other pens given to me.
So, I got this, the Heinz Pen Co.
How do you say this, Mike?
Is it Sleipnir?
Well, I couldn't tell you.
Sure.
Sleipnir.
Is this a word that exists in the world?
This is a word that exists in Norse mythology, Mike.
This is Odin's Eight-Legged War Horse
because this pen is an eight-faceted barrel.
Okay.
You're with me now?
I'm going to say, yeah, I'm going to say Sleipnir.
Sleipnir.
There we go.
That sounds good.
Sleipnir.
Yeah.
S-E-S-L-E-I.
So, yes, this is Odin's Eight-Legged War Horse
because it's an eight-sided pen,
and it's kind of sick.
And this is a new model from Heinz,
so Jim gave me one to check out,
so I'm going to be playing around with that pretty soon.
Got to ink that up.
And then I also got –
so that's one very unique pen,
another very unique pen.
I got the Willow from Fountain Telling
from Kristen over at Fountain Telling.
This pen, Mike, is shaped after her dog, Willow.
And if you look at it close enough,
this is not my pen in the link,
but this pen goes through the story of this pen design,
and it's shaped very uniquely
to kind of match Willow's shape,
which I just found just kind of fascinating,
and it came out really, really good.
It fits my hand really nicely.
It's not a small pen like my Pocket 45,
but it's not an overly large pen,
so kind of the kind of shapes in the barrel
work very, very well.
So this is going to be a fun one to play around with.
So I'll have both of those pens.
I haven't even inked up either of those pens yet,
so I'm going to do that this weekend.
And I'll be doing reviews on those
because something like the Franklin Kristoff
that I bought for myself,
that's something I've talked about before,
even though I don't own one.
But I might review that one.
I don't know.
But I'm definitely going to review the Heinz pen
and the Fountain Telling
because they're new and they're different,
and that's the kind of things I want to shine a light on on the blog.
So I appreciate both Heinz and Fountain Telling
for sending me home with these pens to tell their stories.
So I appreciate them trusting me with that.
On my shopping list,
I did have Kiwi inks
because I have never tried any.
I've heard of them for a little bit.
They've made some really interesting ink colors.
Quetzalcoatl, Mike.
I don't know, again, pronunciation.
I think that one's spot on.
Yeah, okay.
They didn't have quite enough of them at the show,
so I'm going to order that one online.
But that's their popular...
That's the ink that kind of set them apart
in the community for people to start checking out
because it was...
You can't even describe the color of it
because it's like all the colors, right?
So I did not come home with that one,
but I did pick up a shimmer ink from them
and a standard ink from them.
So those will be...
I will be testing both of those out.
I'm going to put you a link here
to Quetzalcoatl.
And I'm going to order this online.
They did do a...
Oh, yeah, you got it.
It's a wild ink.
So I'm going to order this one online.
So they did give out a code for free shipping
since they didn't have it at the show,
so that was nice of them.
I learned about Quetzalcoatl on the rest of this history.
Okay, nice.
I need to...
I would actually like to read that.
Or listen to that.
They did a series about the Aztecs.
Okay.
Yeah, so like what color is that ink?
Olu?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's accurate.
So I didn't get any too wild there.
I did get a shimmer and a standard ink.
So I'll be testing those out.
That is something, you know,
I just wanted to have like good reference for
and that's something good to review.
Maybe my favorite thing I got, Mike,
which I'm being annoying about,
is this goat stamp.
Maybe it should be called the Goop Relay stamp.
I don't know.
Mm-hmm.
But I got this from Lighthouse.
Oh, gosh, what's their name?
Lighthouse Stationers.
God, that's not their official name.
But anyway, they were there.
I had some Midori products
and some, you know, washi tape
and some stamps and stickers
and I bought a bunch of this.
I like my little pre-ink goat stamp
because he just has like a scroll of paper.
One, that he's bitten,
like he's taken a chunk out of, right?
Because goats eat everything.
But two, it's just like this little billboard.
You can have an ink swatch there.
You can write things in there
like iHeart, Michael Gubberley,
Lighthouse Paper Company.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chad.
And it's just cool.
Like, why wouldn't you want this goat stamp, Mike?
So we put a link in the show notes there.
But I think I'll use it for ink samples
and then for like Michael Gubberley commentary
on his little paper roll there.
I guess you would write in the scroll, right?
Yeah.
That makes sense.
Yeah, and then maybe, you know,
maybe like ink color the goat,
like, you know, just do some different colors
with the goat and then write things
or do like a swatch in the stamp.
I thought it was just the perfectly sized
and laid out stamp and it's a goat.
So it's cool.
Last thing, this was actually on my shopping list.
So the Kiwi Inks and the Pengineer 3D mic.
This was on my list.
I'd seen him at previous Atlanta shows
and it's basically 3D printed pen storage
and ink bottle storage
and different types of holders,
like for your desk.
And they're modular
in that you can buy different base sizes.
You can buy like a one, two or three slot base.
You don't technically need the bases,
but, you know, they work well with the whole system.
So I bought a double shot base,
which is two space for two of the various holders.
And what I bought was just called
the pen fountain pen roulette.
So it's just like an eight,
eight pen capacity spinning,
you know, kind of pen holder cup situation.
And I bought those in pink and the base is blue
and it's pretty awesome.
And I'm pretty happy with how that turned out.
So very popular at the show.
He does a ink bottle one,
which I didn't really get
because I know I wouldn't use it,
but that was a very popular thing.
So the ink bottle one can fit into one of these bases
and it's shaped to be adjustable
to hold various ink bottle sizes.
So it's a neat little thing
that y'all should check out
if it's something you're interested in.
You know, if you're inking a lot at your desk
and you have oddly shaped ink bottles
and you want a way to kind of put them together,
but I think the pen storage roulettes, right?
Like just the pen holders
and then the ink sample ones are super popular.
So you can put a little,
there's a shorter version of the pen roulette
that I got to hold ink samples.
So it's very cool.
So that was the main things that I picked up for myself
and then some other stuff for review.
And then I just got a couple of, you know,
random things, some stamps, some prints, some.
I got, I did get one Midori notebook,
which I hadn't seen before.
It's a very thick 365 page notebook
for obvious reasons there.
One page a day, but a blank.
I mean, it's a dot grid.
It's an undated notebook.
I was like, oh, I haven't seen this before.
It's like, I don't need this, but, you know, got that.
So just some random things like that
that I'll be going through here over the next week
and seeing what I think.
But overall, could not have been happier
with the Atlanta pen show.
And I'm glad that I'm able to say that
after a challenging last year, to be quite honest.
Well, I'm pleased that it came together pretty well.
And I hope that this is the start of brighter days again
for the Atlanta pen show.
If you'd like to catch the links to the products
that we mentioned in today's episode,
they'll be in your podcast app of choice.
Or you can head on over on the web
to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 710.
While you're in your web browser,
why not go to penaddict.com,
spokedesign.com, twitch.tv slash penaddict.
That's where you're going to find Brad.
You'll find me at theenthusiast.net
and cortexbrand.com.
I want to thank Enigma Stationery
for their support of this show
and Factor as well.
There was both of them.
I don't know why I just stopped at Enigma.
But thank you to both.
Very appreciative of you both.
And I would like to thank you all for listening.
As always, until next time,
say goodbye, Brad.
Goodbye, Brad.
Goodbye, Brad.