The Pen Addict 711/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	711
Title:	Super Inky Guy
Release Date:	April 9th, 2026
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 711
Audio File:	Audio Episode 711
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 711
Length:	5959 min <br />0.983 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 711. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Pen Chalet. My name is Mike Hurley and I have the pleasure of being joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.
What a pleasurable intro that was, Mike Hurley. How are you today?
Yeah, good. 7-Eleven. That's where we are today.
So, are you getting a drink from 7-Eleven? What's the convenience store you're going to, like, in the UK that would be, like, a traditional 7-Eleven?
I don't think we have anything that is, like, so strongly ingrained in culture.
Is it actually Costa?
Well, no, because that's a coffee shop.
Right, but it's got other stuff.
Yeah, but it's like a Starbucks, there's other stuff too.
If we have them, like, there's, like, a brand called Cost Cutter, there's a brand called Nisa, but, like, they're not, like, 7-Eleven feels like a thing.
These don't feel like things, you know?
Yeah, true, true.
Yeah, even where I live, there's not really, where I live, it's just gas stations, petrol stations, right, are the leading thing.
They're not really, you're not going there because it's not the Japanese convenience store model.
Right, you're just going for other things.
But there are 7-Elevens in the U.S., but, like, it's things like Circle K, and I don't even know all of them because I don't go to them.
So, yeah, 7-Eleven, big in Japan, everywhere else, who knows?
Who knows?
Who knows?
What's big today in today's show?
I'm big ink boy today, which is not normally my street, right?
Like, I love my fountain pen inks, and I talk about, we talk about inks all the time, and we've recently talked about Pelican Elysine Pyrite, which we're going to continue to talk about today.
But I even want to talk about more inks today, which is funny.
I'm in this weird situation.
I'm actually auditing my ink shelf.
You know, I have, I think a year or two ago, I put all of my inks in Fountain Pen Companion, and it was, like, over 250 inks.
Yeah.
It's more than you think, Chad.
No matter how many inks you think you have, you're short by half, I think, on the count.
And, you know, what I'm doing is I'm going through is, like, I haven't used this in so long.
Let me just give this away, right?
So I give away a lot of stuff on stream and other areas.
So I've just been pulling them out in batches, and the inks that I don't think I'm going to use for the future, like, I'm just giving them away.
Because I get a lot of inks for free.
I buy a lot of inks.
Like, ink is a great way to get into stationery because it's less expensive than a pen and equally as fun, I would argue.
So I've been back on buying some inks as I'm trying to thin out my inks right now.
And I'm okay with it.
Like, I'm testing out some new stuff and some things that I don't normally do.
So let's get into the pyrite review, which, you know, we've mentioned this ink a couple of times now.
And I got it in hand, and I wanted to review it because if you've listened to these episodes where we've been talking about it, it just looks like liquid gold, right?
From the bottle, it looks just like, how is there any ink?
How is this going to flow?
And I was like, I have to test this out, right?
I'm normally not going to jump right into any ink, much less a shimmer ink, and just go, I need to test this immediately.
But this one was because it was such an aggressive shimmer.
And you can just tell, like, if you have any shimmer inks, just comparing this bottle to one of your more standard, if you will, shimmer ink.
You're like, yeah, this is like two or three times the shimmer.
So I started writing with it, and I used my Bennu pen with a fine Schmidt nib.
And that sounds like it's pretty narrow for shimmer, but I have used this pen many times for shimmer in the past because it does flow so well.
So I wanted to give it a shot in this pen that I have experience with shimmer ink, like the Robert Oster Fire on Fire on Fire, which is my ink that I sell, is a very shimmery ink.
And I had no issues with that, writing with it.
And the pyrite kind of failed in this nib.
And you can see in my writing samples how I tried a couple of different ways to get it going, and it would just die out.
And that's always a concern with shimmer.
But to be honest, if you're managing your pen, like what pen you're going to choose, right?
Like how the ink flows, if you have an experience pen, experience shimmer ink pen that you know and expect to write well with shimmers, like I wouldn't have a problem putting shimmer ink in almost any pen.
So I was a little bit let down in that the writing would just stop.
And you can tell just like the gradient I was getting, and you could just like see it stopping in the lines.
Every line was lighter than the previous line, just down until it eventually stopped writing.
So I was like, fine.
Like I get it.
Like sometimes it's going to happen.
But what I couldn't figure out with pyrite is why and where it was stopping.
Because a lot of times with shimmer, and if it's going poorly with shimmer ink, you'll see it clogging the feed, right?
You'll see a bunch of shimmer gunked up in the feed, and you might have to shim it out and, you know, clean up the nib a little bit to get it flowing there.
Or you will have just kind of like a bulk shimmer situation at the bottom of the converter or where it connects to the feed inside the pen, right?
Because if you're writing with it a lot, that verticality, the shimmer, you know, gravity is going to pull that shimmer down to that area where it's going to kind of clog the flow.
So, but even during my writing, I would, knowing that I'm having an issue, I was kind of shaking and turning the pen.
I was agitating it to ensure that there was good flow.
And it was, I was still having a problem.
So I'm a little bit flummoxed on why, I mean, I shouldn't be.
This is so shimmery.
I shouldn't be, I should be like, yes, this is how it should behave.
But actually, I want to try it again, like maybe, maybe it was the pen, maybe it's the feed, right?
This is a one, you know, I tried one thing, right, to get it going.
But the one thing is an experienced shimmering pen, and I've never had a problem before.
So a little bit frustrating in that aspect because this ink looks so good on the page.
Even, and I didn't really show it in the pictures because this was more about just the writing failures that I had.
Even the last lines where it's skipping letters, those lines have, that ink has shimmer in it, which is kind of wild to me.
So if you can get a consistent flow, it's going to look amazing.
But again, I just go back to the point where I was before I even owned this ink and we were just looking at it.
I still think it's, with this level of performance and having to like fight to get the writing,
I just think it's going to be an ink swatching ink, an artistic type of ink.
You may not be able to use it in a pen.
You might just want to use it in your dip pens and for artistic purposes.
And it's going to be amazing, right?
It literally looks wild, right?
Like these ink swatches on the different papers, they all look the same.
You know, it's so much shimmer.
Maybe you can't write with it.
And I was, I always, with shimmer inks, I always hope for writing.
And this one wasn't it, at least on this first iteration of my testing.
And I might honestly give it another go because I think it's such an interesting ink.
Um, why do you think that it was stopping?
Why do you think that it was, it was kind of failing on you?
I think just the volume of shimmer when it's in the writing position, it just mitigates the liquid flow.
Right.
And, but I can't see it happening, right?
Because if it's, if it stops writing like it does, and I take the barrel off the back of the pen, and I look at the converter, there's no shimmer just like collecting there at the bottom.
Um, and then I take off the, um, take out the converter and look into the feed, into like the, um, the back of the feed where it posts on there.
And it's like, it's not clogged at all.
It looks so clean.
So I don't know if it's just the amount.
It's almost like if you had a vacuum pen and you didn't pop the post to let the ink flow past it when it's in the writing position, is there just too much shimmer to allow for proper consistent flow?
Even though when you turn it upside down and shake it, it, it really didn't make it better.
Right.
I, I was trying to manipulate it as much as I could to continue this, but it just wouldn't.
So maybe it's a feed flow thing.
Um, so we'll see.
I, I'm normally I would just punt on an ink and just say, yeah, you know, we'll just use it for other things other than writing this one.
I'm, I'm not just like totally determined to make this work, but I, I think I should give it another attempt to see if we can get a better, uh, even more of a gusher of a pen.
I, I would, yeah.
Because this is a wet pen.
I think it, but I think it would be fairer to give it a nib that isn't a fine nib and just see.
Yeah.
Because, because you were right in pointing it out, like you even defend it to say like, oh, it's fine.
So like, you know that like, in theory, a fine nib isn't the move.
Right.
And I just, I might, I chose it because I've had shimmers work fine in this pen.
Yeah.
So I wanted to, to get this go.
But maybe.
It did not work fine, but it may not be.
Abroad might be your better answer here.
And honestly, it would probably show the, the benefit of the ink even more so.
So one of the links I have in the article is to a review I did of Monarca Ray Jaguar, which
is previously probably the most shimmery ink, uh, I've ever used.
And I use that in even a finer nib.
It's a Yovo fine, which is way finer than the Schmidt fine.
As far as like the flow of this nib is much drier and it didn't, it didn't blink.
Like I just write, write and write and write and write, write with that nib.
Okay.
So, um, but as we've learned with stationery, it's not always a one-to-one comparison.
I will say just paper matters, nib matters, ink matters, everything matters.
Before we do move on from the central dimension, like your, your swatches, I've never seen anything
like it.
Like on the swatches, it looks like gold leaf.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
It's unbelievable.
Yeah.
You look at the swatches and you immediately say, there's no way this will work in a pen.
Yeah.
Right.
Like my, my experience should be normal.
When you look at the swatches, you go, yeah.
Oh yes.
I see why this will not work, but that's just like basic swatches.
That's just like a few dots of ink spread around with like, um, uh, a muddler and like that's
taken in my light box.
So it's not even like extra lighting on it and no editing.
Like that's on Sands and Tomoe river 52 on Canopus paper on era full and on coloring.
It's, it's kind of wild.
It's kind of wild.
And it's like, oh yeah, clearly this is not going to work in a pen.
Like it doesn't look like it should work in a pen, but dang it.
It's pedicle Pelican Edelstein ink.
And you know, I want to like, I, I finished the, uh, the article with, uh, I want to see
them put it in a Pelican and 1000 because I think that would probably be work because
Pelicans are actually probably pretty good for shimmer.
Um, they, I just have great flow, great ink flow.
So they wouldn't make this ink if it wasn't, I know they're testing it with their pens,
right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I don't really have a big Pelican to test with, but, uh, I do have other things I can,
I can try and I would like to do that.
So we'll see.
We'll see.
It's just, it's interesting.
It's so interesting.
I like interesting products, whether they're good or bad.
I just, I like interesting.
And this just makes me question everything.
Right.
Um, which, which I like, that's like my favorite thing is not necessarily like perfect products,
right?
It's, it's products that are flawed in some way, but I want to try to learn about them
and figure out like, can this be great?
Is it just destined to be poor?
Or, you know, what is, what's the, what's the concept here?
What is, what was the, you know, what was the definition of this product before we, we
implemented it?
Are we meeting those goals?
So I don't know.
That's how I think about it.
Like this next one, Mike, the color verse 2025 top three color event, special editions,
long name.
I put this in here because one, I've bemoaned the fact for years that I have not gone down
the color verse rabbit hole as much as a lot of people and color verse, I do think
does a brilliant job with inks and storytelling, right?
They do a really, really good job.
So what this is, so this kind of starts with Diamine.
You can't tell this story of the color verse, uh, uh, ink vent without telling the story
of Diamine ink vent, um, because Diamine did it first and what would happen.
So if you've listened to the show long enough, the couple of companies do, uh, an ink vent
set for December and behind every door from December 1st to December 25th is a different
ink.
So what would happen is with Diamine, people would latch onto a few of the best inks out
of the 25 and clamor for those to be made into the regular product lineup.
So eventually, uh, Diamine capitulated and would pick, they would do like a community
polling and choose a few inks and make them into the standard ink.
Great.
I love that concept.
It's like a little proof of concept.
It's their own little Kickstarter.
We're going to make all these inks and we'll make your favorites, right?
So color verse just latched onto that, um, and does the exact same thing with their ink
vent and then they take a vote and the thing about the color, uh, the color verse ones,
they get weirder, weirder every year.
And this was the year I was like, these are so weird.
And these are the inks people voted for.
I'm just going to get them all, all three of these inks.
So the three inks are Polar Night, Erebus Crater, and Follow the Water.
So it's one shimmer ink, one multi-shader ink, and then I don't even know what we're
calling Erebus Crater.
It's, it's not a standard ink.
It's, it's got some, it's got some dual shading properties.
It's a little bit interesting.
So they do this little set and you can get like a 15, um, milliliter set of all three
and a pen for like 45 bucks and try out all these weird inks.
I didn't go that route.
I just went for the big bottles.
You can get them individually in big bottles.
And I just, I like the concept of getting the consumer involved in choosing the products.
And then for myself, getting those products that the consumers chose and to see how right
they are.
And I mean, in this case, they're pretty right.
I mean, Polar Night's not my favorite ink.
It's never going to be my favorite ink.
Like, I don't know how writable it is.
It's a kind of a light pink lavender ink.
But Erebus Crater is actually what made me get these inks.
You can see in the image I shared how different it performs on different papers.
It's like grain on the Canopus and like blue on the Aerofall.
Yep.
Yep.
So it's weird and it goes down weird on the page and it dries weird.
And I, I, it's a great writing ink and it's cause it just ends up being weird on the
page, but totally legible.
Right.
It's a great, that's probably like the best ink out of these, but follow the water kind
of, uh, I've kind of latched onto that one because it's like a, what'd you say?
Is that like a caramelly brown base?
Um, something like that with a, like a blue.
To me, it kind of reminds me of like copper because it's like, you know, like the brown
and then the bluey green.
So it's like oxidizing copper.
So I haven't seen, I'm sure there's other shimmer inks with this mixture, right?
A brown ink and a blue shimmer.
Something about this one, man.
I don't know.
So I'm usually not, uh, like this super inky guy.
I need all these inks and I want to talk about these inks, but I'm kind of, I'm really
digging all of these colors.
So I, it's really not much to point out other than like, I like the fun inks.
I, my goal with inks personally is I need to be able to write with them from a nib, right?
Like pyrite.
If I can't write with it in a nib, like it just needs to go because I'm not going to do
a bunch of swatching and a bunch of painting with it and things like that, right?
The goal for me with any ink is I write with fine nibs.
Does this ink work well enough for the way I use things and not just in a special, like
artistic type of fashion, right?
There's kind of two different ways you can go about this.
And I think these are, and I'm probably going to review, review some of them soon.
So I don't know.
I like reviewing inks.
They're, they're fun.
And, you know, I've said it many, many years ago, you know, our, our fountain pen ink solved
and it clearly not because I just keep finding new things that I enjoy.
Even if some of the colors have been done repeatedly by other companies, like, you don't
know, it's, it's, it's fun.
It's, it's a good way to get into this.
You could have one pen and five different inks and just mix and match as you go and just
have a load of fun with fountain pen ink.
So I'm a, I'm a fountain pen ink lover.
Um, although not as committed as some others, but, uh, I, when I find some fun, interesting
ones, I kind of dig into them a little bit and want to talk about them on the show.
If you hear about these inks and want to grab some for yourself, I've got a great place for
you to go.
And that's the pen chalet, because not only do they sell all of the pens you may want and they
may, so accessories, I say accessories you may want to, they also sell inks.
They sell refills, fountain pen converters, and so much more.
So you can put this great stuff to the test.
They have fast and reliable customer service.
They're an authorized dealer of the brands that they carry.
And they're always running special discounts.
A couple of times a month, you're going to go there and find new discounts, as well as
new products being added to the site often too.
Pen Chalet do international shipping with great shipping rates, and they also do free shipping
on orders over $75 in the US.
Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens, and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
So go to penchalet.com slash penaddict, and you'll be able to get a code you need to save
10% off anything at Pen Chalet at any time, and to see some exclusive offers, because you
listen to this show.
What have we got, Brad?
We'll get to those exclusive offers, but I did want to mention the inks I was just mentioning.
I wasn't doing it for the ad, but they do have the kit that I was talking about.
It's three, those three colors, so, um, Erebus Crater, Follow the Water, and, uh, what was
the purple one?
I'm not even looking at it.
Um, in 15 milliliter bottles with a, um, pen.
So you can get, like, this little kit for, like, 45 bucks, um, what's it called?
Polar Night, Polar Night, Erebus Crater, and Follow the Water.
So they, um, come in three 15 milliliter bottles, and they give you a translucent pen in
there, and it's, like, 45 bucks, and you can use your pen out of code for that.
Um, on the deals page, Mike, they have this pen.
Do you remember the Plonjour, Mike?
Absolutely, I do.
So it's, it was a Narwhal titanium pen, and when they introduced it, it was, like, the
first one that they had done in this, so they have this, um, Nautilus shape, Narwhal
dust, that's really popular, piston-filling pen, and they've done acrylics and ebonites, and
they did a titanium one, and they called it the Plonjour, and it was just a limited edition,
I guess, kind of like a test run.
Well, now they've, they've done a couple other editions.
They have a TI, a titanium in black, that is, like, half the price of what I paid for
my Plonjour, and I'm still, to this day, really, really impressed with that pen.
Um, I really, really like it.
And alongside that, they have a crazy price on the Narwhal, uh, Eclipse, uh, the Navalure
Eclipse fountain pens, which is the retractable one that I reviewed positively.
I didn't think I was gonna like this pen, and I was like, turns out, it's pretty good.
And it's just a ridiculously low price, as pen chalet is wont to do on, on these ad pages.
And then they have a bunch of, uh, Le Boeuf, uh, fountain pens, which I've never used.
It looks so classic.
Yeah, these are classy fountain pens, they have, uh, different theming on them, so I don't
know all the themes there, but they look, they look really nice, and they're a really,
really fair price, so.
And then, the last time, um, we mentioned this, the Caran d'Ache 849 Mosaic, they still
have those available at just a super, super, super low price, so, uh, go check out everything
over at penchalet.com, great stuff, um, this week over at the Chalet.
Okay.
Brad, we have a shout-out of the week.
We do have a shout-out of the week.
Thank you so much, I'm doing this one.
So, uh, friend of the show, Tessa, who you may know as The Stationer, who's a wonderful
online store, and a great Instagram page, too.
Uh, I was very excited to see that she is going to be opening her own actual shop in South
London, um, so Tessa did a pop-up shop late last year, uh, in the same area, uh, it's in
a place called Forest Hill in South London, uh, and I popped in to visit, because I live
in South London, and so I wanted to go support Tessa, so, uh, the family, we went and visited,
uh, and took a look, and we bought some fun little bits and bobs, and she just did a fantastic
job, um, and, you know, I remember talking to Tessa when I was there, I was like, oh, you
should, you should get a shop of your own, look at this, and, like, I remember she was
posting at the time, she was just, she was doing gangbusters, I'll say, uh, really just
fantastic, uh, um, show from the community around, and, uh, she's now doing it, she's
opening a store of her own, uh, it seems like something has become available, uh, in the
same street that she was on, um, so it's going to be in South London, so I'm so excited
for Tessa, um, I love her work anyway, uh, she's also just a really great, I will say,
like, really great content that she makes, too, on her, um, on her profiles and stuff
for the stationer, uh, and is really good at sharing the behind the scenes of, of having
a shop like hers, and seems to have been very successful with it, and now is kind of
leveling up, and actually having a brick and mortar shop in London, so, I love it, I'm
thrilled, I'm thrilled for Tessa, we've obviously known Tessa for, it's gotta be more
than a decade at this point, just a lovely, amazing person, um, I got, I got, uh, breakfast
with her, the last time I was in London, uh, we just hung out, and she's just doing such
a good job, and I love that this opportunity, um, has presented itself, and I know she's
gonna do so, so well, so y'all go give the stationer a follow, and, you know, check out
the videos, I love, the shop is perfect, like, if I could just get, like, a little stationery
shop, um, just have, like, a little one-unit stationery shop, this one looks like it's gonna
be ideal, and I know she's gonna crush it there, and, uh, I can't wait to see what
she does with the place, but, uh, she's excited, I'm excited, and, uh, y'all definitely go support
her.
We're all excited.
All right, speaking of excitement, Mike, we have a birthday.
Happy birthday to...
Should we sing happy birthday to the Uniball Vision Elite?
Sure.
To Uniball Vision Elite.
Elite.
Horrible, horrible.
Um, I'm putting this in here for many, many reasons, because, well, primarily, I have a
lot to say about the Uniball Vision Elite.
Number one, I didn't think it had turned 25, I actually thought it was a little bit older,
I thought maybe, like, in the 90s, this pin came around, um, but no, only, uh, 2001, allegedly.
Um, and, you know, Uniball, Uniball actually does a good job with their social media, and
happy birthday, Uniball Vision Elite.
It's been 20, 25 years, so, yeah, shout out.
This is a good pin that, I'm gonna take that back.
This is a great pin that really doesn't get the love it deserves, and there's traditionally
been a couple of reasons why, although I think one of those reasons has now been changed.
Historically, this has been their premium Vision product, as you can tell by the name.
They have the Uniball Vision, which, over there in the UK and elsewhere in the world, is called
the Uniball Eye, which is a much worse name, um, but it is the more popular and cheaper version
of the Elite.
For some reason, and this is a very Uniball thing, when they came out with the Elite, they
changed the ink formulation from the Vision.
I'm a notorious Vision hater.
I don't like the ink.
It's one of, like, the most wet, it's basically like writing with a marker, which means, like,
artists love it.
Like, the Uniball Vision and the Uniball Eye have just a huge cult following, and it is
probably my least favorite Uniball, popular Uniball product is the regular Vision.
The Vision Elite, on the other hand, has great ink.
Like, it doesn't bleed.
It's, you know, it's metered very well.
Um, it comes in fun colors, just like the Vision does.
It comes in, you know, eight or ten colors, and historically, it was just a little bit
more expensive, right?
So, it was always, like, maybe a dollar more per pen than the Uniball Vision.
But I was going through this, I was like, is the Vision Elite still at such a premium price
to the Vision?
And these days, it's not.
It's more, like, in the same prices, like, all the other premium gel pens and ballpoints.
It's, like, $3 a pen, $3.25, which is now the normal price.
It used to be the premium price, and the Elite has not gone up.
So, it's worth trying out.
It's a great pen.
The only continued flaw, now that the pricing has kind of been fixed just by existing for
25 years, is it has the worst refill, um, what would you say, opportunity.
Like, no one will ever buy the Uniball Vision Elite refills because it is almost like a full
barrel refill.
It's one of the strangest products I've ever seen.
You basically have to buy the full grip attached to the refill, and you're swapping out that
whole attachment piece.
So, it's, like, the grip and then the refill.
So, you're just taking off the barrel and swapping off the whole front end of the pen.
So, therefore, they charge you two-thirds of the price of a Vision Elite just to refill
it.
If you use them a lot, do you come out a little bit better?
Yes.
But for most people, they're just going to buy more Vision Elites, not the refills.
It's one of the worst refill designs I've ever seen, and it's still available.
Like, some of them are, you look at them and it's, like, it's the same price as the pen
because it's almost the entirety of the pen, which is just so, so strange.
But anyway, great pen.
This is, um, if you're looking for a rollerball type of pen and you want a few colors, like,
they have blue-black, which I've always used.
Um, they do a good job with that.
And this is one of the first pens they marketed as airplane safe, right?
Which is not too much of a worry with any pens.
But this is, like, the OG non-Fisher refill airplane safe pen.
Yeah.
But, um, they've really leaned into that at the beginning.
Now, I don't even know what's on the packaging.
I'd have to look at it to see if they even mention it because it just doesn't matter anymore.
Um, so yeah.
Shout out to Uniball Vision Elite.
Happy birthday to you.
And, uh, go on and conquer, I guess.
Good job.
Sure.
I guess I'm surprised it still exists, despite being a great pen.
This is, it's, uh, it's also the famous Obama pen.
This was, uh, Barack Obama's pen of choice.
He had, uh, to the shock of no one, he has exquisite taste.
And, um, that was his pen of choice.
So that was a big thing.
Uh, and we talked about it.
This was a big pen for me, too.
Division Elite, like, back in a long time ago.
Division Elite made you feel special at the time.
Yep.
That was a very special pen.
I mean, it still is, comparatively, but there's just so much competition.
Yeah.
Where, back in the day, if you went to, like, the office supply shelf, that was a standout pen that you could pick up.
So, um, speaking of standout products, I wanted to go through this Kikuyo Design Awards link that popped up in my feed.
Um, it's a little bit strange.
At first, when I went into it, I was like, oh, sweet.
Let me check out these products that, you know, are out there and people are making, and Kikuyo gave them a shout-out.
The more I read this, Mike, what I actually think this is, is, like, a, like, a car prototype competition.
I don't think these products exist, or...
No, absolutely don't.
Yeah, these are all...
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, it's like, you know, you see all those, the cars, like, all the concept cars.
Like, this is concept stationery.
Yeah.
Right?
And the customer can pick out how many they want and have them bound for their personal size notebook.
The end.
Yeah.
I, I, okay, sure, but, like, this exists, right?
Like, you can go to stores in Japan, Kakamori for one, and make your own notebook.
There's a lot of stores where you can just go...
So, I, okay, I have a, not, I don't have a problem with this, but I have, like, a thought about this whole project, which is, like...
Yes.
It's what I would call is, like, designing past the problem.
Yeah.
It's, like, a phrase I would use, and this happens a lot, right, like, in, like, big thinking about design.
And, like, because this is essentially a design competition, it's a design award.
So, it is, it, this should exist, like, that, that kind of mentality, the mentality that this project appears to have is correct for, for, for, for kind of, like, the, what's happening.
Which is, you are designing so hard, it's actually not useful.
Like, it's just, like, right?
Like, it's just because you're trying to, like, create a physical manifestation of, like, a problem or a thought.
Where, like, utility stops actually making sense.
So, like, this first one that you're mentioning, the winner, the Grand Prix winner.
Yeah.
It's a notebook without a cover.
That's all it is.
But the idea is, like, you know, you can, you know, it's, like, you should decide how much you need sustainability.
Like, I get the idea, but it's, like, this is not a good product because the pages would just fall apart from the notebook.
Like, nothing is protecting it.
It's just glued.
Yeah.
I was actually so excited for this article.
I was, like, oh, sweet, we're going to see some new stationery.
And the deeper I got, the more I just got frustrated with it.
Yeah.
No.
So, the second one I want to mention is actually could be a real thing.
I think it's reasonable and it's called Gram.
It's a pen.
And this concept is five different pens that are insanely basic, right?
This is the most basic design of a pen.
Just the standard single shape hex barrel with a knock.
But each pen color denotes a different weight of the pen.
I like this one.
Customize it to your preferences, right?
Light pen, medium weight pen, heavy pen.
And a range of five.
Cool.
Like, I get it.
Like, that sounds pretty sweet.
That'd be a cool Kickstarter, you know?
Well, I actually saw it as you own all of them.
Oh, okay.
And you just keep picking them up.
Okay.
And you use a different one.
I think that would be fun.
I like that one.
I think that's what this project is intended.
It's the way I read it.
It's like you have all of them.
And you pick it up and you feel the difference.
And you kind of feel the comfort or discomfort.
And the sensation of holding a pen of different weights.
But they're all yours.
Yeah.
Okay.
The third one is actually, and this is like the runner-up, essentially.
It did not win.
Yeah.
This is the one I actually like the most.
Because it's the simplest.
It's just like, here are some notebooks or some colored edges that you can.
And I know people make these things already.
Yeah.
But it's like, no, but this is the first one where I'm like, that's a real product.
It is.
But, like, even Kikuyo already makes this.
I know.
Oh, I know.
But it's the one.
This one drove me insane.
Yeah.
Well, no, actually, for me, it's the next one.
It's the next one.
This is when I fully understood what we were doing here.
So, it is a diary.
It's called the Gradients Diary.
Yeah.
It's a diary where there's just like a suggestion of a space to write in.
So, you could write across the page.
What this reminded me of, Brad, this reminded me of your favorite notebook.
The notebook about the lines, but they have the lines.
What's it called?
Yeah, yeah.
IA Writer.
The IA Notebook.
It reminded me of that, where it's like, oh, you're just, what you're saying is nothing.
Right?
So, it's like, while the amount of scheduled tasks you have varies from day to day, some
tasks might span multiple days.
We questioned the way such planners are designed, so we created the Gradients Diary.
This planner has no lines, and each day is separated only by a gradient of white and
gray.
The writer can decide the size of each square based on the amount of tasks.
So, he can write down schedules spanning multiple days while retaining a sense of continuity.
They have a good idea.
The execution isn't good.
Because, yeah, the problem with this is, yeah, okay, but let's say I have a lot of tasks on
Monday.
They don't become Tuesday tasks, just because I have a lot of them.
So, you're not solving the problem.
I mean, this isn't like a particular criticism of anyone.
It's like, no, that is just inherent in this kind of thing, where it's like, we're coming
at this with big ideas.
These ideas don't necessarily mean anything or help you in any way.
Yeah.
This is the one I had the biggest problem with, because the theory that they've written
down does not match the execution of what I see on this page.
But, yeah, it's still, it's a completely gridded calendar.
Yeah.
There's no movement between the days.
As if, like, lines that are usually printed are physical barriers that you cannot cross.
That's essentially what they're trying to say is the case, that if you remove these,
you can start writing across them.
It's like, no, but you still have a format.
Yeah, you still have it dated.
Yes.
You still have it dated and dated, so it's still square.
The way that you solve this problem is a very light touch format.
It's kind of like, I mean, they are coming at this the way that I came at the Theme System
Journal, right?
Which is, like, I'm not going to pre-print dates on this product.
So if you want to use multiple pages at a time, it's up to you.
And, like, we didn't make that, like, a big deal, right?
But that was one of the reasons that there's no pre-printed dating, because it's like,
just use as much or as little as you like or whatever, you know?
Yeah.
All right, let's end it on a good note.
I will talk about one more, and it's the last one on the list, Mike.
It's called A Glimmer of Inspiration.
Okay.
And what I think this is, it's really hard to tell by the description and the image,
but it's almost like a mini post-it size light box you put under your page.
Yeah.
I like this.
Like, I couldn't, like, I have no need for this, but I was like, I could see this,
like, this could be, like, a designery type of product, right?
That's how I see it.
I don't know totally how this works.
It would be terrible.
It would be terrible.
I guess.
Because now your notebook's elevated from the page.
Like, it's, like, from the desk.
But you move it around.
Yeah, I know.
It's a nice idea, but again, these things do not, they probably shouldn't exist.
What this reminded me of is, you remember when I went to a design, I did a design course
for a week?
Yeah.
We did this, right?
Yeah, true.
Here's your idea, and you come up with a solution, which is, like, here's a thing, but, like,
it's not a thing anyone wants, and it won't work, right?
Like, it's not a criticism of these people.
That is what these kind of, it's what this kind of process is like.
But, like, these processes, I think, probably seldom create a useful product at the end of
them.
That already exists.
Yeah.
This should be, I think I got thrown off by the Kikuyo Design Award title.
It should be the Kikuyo Stationery Concept Award.
Yeah.
Then I would have gone at this a different way.
I think I kind of got, I tricked myself, and then the more I got into this whole page,
the more agitated I got.
I was like, what are we doing?
Why are we doing this?
This already exists.
This is stupid.
It's so unfair.
It's just the inherent issue with this.
Like, this is just what they're saying.
It's Kikuyo's fault.
Yeah.
It is.
I don't blame the creators.
I blame Kikuyo for saying these are the design awards for concept cars.
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All right, we have a little mini topic from an Ask TPA question because I really had to
think about this question.
It was harder to answer than I thought, so I thought I would spend some time and try to
help everyone out like we did with the pocket notebooks recently, the fountain pen-friendly
pocket notebooks.
This one is from Miles, and let me read this question.
Recommendations for a pocket pen that writes like a fountain pen, aka is a fountain pen,
with a slip or magnetic fast deploy cap, no threads.
I've tried a good dozen pocket fountain pens.
They all have some issue, primarily leaking into the cap or my pants pocket.
For reference for years, I used a Fisher Space Pen.
Worked fine, but not very special, and I prefer writing with fountain pens.
So, I'd like something that writes like a fountain pen and isn't so expensive that I'd
cry when I lose it.
So, pocket fountain pen, no threads, you know, quick cap, so like a slip cap type of situation,
and reasonably priced.
So, in case you do lose it, you know, as a pocket situation, you're not going to cry about it.
There's literally no answer for this.
I have answers.
I don't think any of them fulfill any need.
Main category being the price.
We can get proper design, which isn't as easy as you think, because most pocket pens have
some type of cap thread.
Yep.
For obvious reasons, you don't want the cap coming off.
But I think there are enough pens with a slip type cap that can snap and not worry about it.
What I don't think, I think there is a little bit of an idea that you are going to have to accept
some ink flying around in the cap if you're literally carrying this in your pocket.
It's going to happen with any fountain pen.
I don't care what the format is, right?
It's not going to dump ink into the cap, but if you uncap it, if you've been walking around
and you uncap it to right, you might see some ink on the nib or in the cap.
Like, that's a pretty difficult problem to solve.
You just have to be accepting of some of it.
So, not a huge category here, but I did grab a few.
So, number one, the Traveler's Brass Fountain Pen, which is kind of a neat, compact, snap cap,
brass pen that will patina over age.
You know, small number five nib on it, pocketable, postable.
It's 75 bucks.
Like, for this list that I have, that's pretty good.
That's going to be, like, on the lower end, right?
Because I have eliminated anything with a thread.
Like, just, I didn't do that.
The price was harder to get down.
So, I'm not saying this is number one, but that's number one on my list.
I don't know that there is a number one.
A second one is the Nemisu N2, which I have seen.
I think it's across my desk.
It's, again, a pocket fountain pen.
I think this one's titanium.
Yeah, titanium, the one I linked.
Has a clip.
It posts on its barrel.
It has some O-rings to secure the post, and it's not threaded.
It's a good design.
I think people do enjoy this pen.
It's $112.
Next one, I think this is the best choice, and it's the Pilot E95.
But it is far and away the most expensive because it uses gold for the nib.
So, that price, this used to be, like, a low hundreds dollar pen.
Now, it's high hundreds, like $176.
The key with this one, this is where I think you could do some work if you wanted to do this, Miles.
So, the Pilot E95 is based on a concept called the Pilot Elite, and that's a pen that's been around since, like, the 60s.
And then Sailor mimicked it.
I think Pilot went first.
I'm not sure.
But it's all this pocket pen style.
Sailor, Pilot, and Platinum all have this pen design from the 60s and 70s.
You can find regularly for about $40 to $50.
That might be the way to go.
They're great, but you're not going to necessarily just go online and buy these.
Like, if you can get to a pen show or something, you can find stacks of these pens because they're relatively inexpensive.
They still have gold nibs.
And they're about $40 to $50.
They're the same shape as this E95S that I'm showing you, but at a fraction of the price.
So, I think this is a great, great pen.
It's just very, very expensive, and you would cry if you lost it, probably.
Those three are all considered pocket pens.
I think the answer might be the Pilot Prera, which isn't necessarily in the pocket pen category, but it is a smaller, full-sized pen.
And it's $67, which is still very expensive.
It posts pretty small.
I mean, even unposted, it's very small.
And posted, this is one of the very few pens I use posted because it's such a small pen.
So, I would actually consider the Prera first and see what you think about the size.
Because this would handle, like, just the plastic barrel and how snappy this cap is.
It's going to handle being jostled in a pocket, like, pretty easily.
It's also the material.
Like, it's not going to get banged up.
Yeah, it's plastic.
It's not going to get banged up.
And if it does, it'll look great.
Like, you know, it's going to look fine.
Just like the brass pen, the Traveler's brass pen.
So, that's it.
There just isn't.
I mean, I think at some point in the past, the Prera price would have been fine.
But the Prera price is not fine anymore.
It's like $70.
And so, it's like, you know, it reminds me of, like, what is that thing?
You can have it.
There's three things.
You can have it either cheap, fast.
Cheap, fast, or.
Cheap, fast, or something.
Is it good?
Good.
Yeah, I think it's good.
I said good.
Cheap, fast, or good.
Yeah, pick two.
Yeah, cheap, fast, and good.
These three are available.
You can only have two of them.
And that's kind of what you're dealing with here, right?
Yeah.
You cannot have, what are we looking at?
Cheap, a fountain pen.
Yeah.
Right?
Or the deployment.
And not threaded.
Yeah.
You can only have two of those.
Yep.
And yeah, so none of these fall into the cheap category.
No.
Like, there historically has been an insanely cheap one, and I did look for this, so it's
called the Pilot Pettit.
It was like a $3 mini capsule pen that was just post, but I couldn't find, like, that they
currently make it.
So I didn't put it on the list.
That would be the ultimate one.
Is this not petite?
Petite.
Yeah, sorry.
I do that all the time.
Pilot Pettit.
But it doesn't have an E on it, so I always say it funny.
I think it is petite.
I agree.
It makes sense.
Yeah.
Petite.
But it doesn't have an E, so it would bother.
I get tricked.
Yeah.
My brain tricks me.
So this is a real insanely tough category for a non-threaded pen.
Like, obviously threaded smaller pens are much more common.
The list is much, much larger.
I think the Pereira might be the answer, even though I don't consider it a pocket pen.
It's literally probably the smallest full-size pen that I use.
Yeah.
It's practically a pocket pen.
It's a small pen, not a pocket pen.
It doesn't have any of the trappings of pocket pen, the Pereira, does it?
Unlike the other ones that you're mentioning.
Yeah, like, the E95 is clearly a pocket pen.
Yeah, all these are clearly a pocket pen.
And it'll be super, super lightweight.
You know, that and the E95.
I think the Nimesa is a pretty good call.
Yeah.
If you want to, like, invest in one, that's probably the one to, like, if you want to pay
the money for something, that's what I would do.
The aluminum one is 60 pounds, so I don't know what that is in dollars.
Oh, true.
I linked the titanium one, yeah.
So, it should be the same.
So, I actually meant to do that.
I was looking at both of them, and I only grabbed the other link.
So, that's like 80 bucks.
I mean, so it's only $10 more expensive than the Pereira.
So, I think that might be the winner, honestly.
Maybe.
Maybe.
But, like, I would love to hear some other, you know, if anyone has something that I
missed, I'm sure I have.
But, like, this was difficult.
This was hard enough as it was.
Once I realized the E95, I was like, oh, that's the answer.
And then I looked at the price.
I was like, man, these have really gone up.
Like, they used to be, like, 100 bucks.
So, and it's such a good.
That would be the easiest recommendation if it was, like, 100 bucks.
But they have just ramped.
Crazy stuff.
Crazy stuff.
Let's do a couple of Ask TPA questions today.
Let's do it.
To finish out the show.
This first one comes in from Steph, who says,
I got my first fountain pen in high school in the 60s, and I used it through my college
years, but stopped until 2018, and then since then I haven't looked back.
I now own over 20 from Sailor, Platinum, Pilot, Diplomat, Conklin, and others.
Yeah.
One of us.
This video feed is filled with pen companies that I don't know anything about.
Any insight into Ellington pens, Webson Gill, Wordsworth, and Black, Executive Vivibay, Modern
Fuel?
I want to expand my horizons, but I'm reluctant to try companies I know nothing about.
Good job to be reluctant, Steph.
So, let's take, I'm just going to discuss the names you mentioned, because I want to eliminate
Modern Fuel from the group of Ellington, Webson Gill, Wordsworth, and Black, and Executive.
I'm going to call this one Executive Vibe, because I'm not saying Vivibay.
Vivibay?
I'm just not.
Yeah.
The Vibes are bad, bro.
Yeah.
So, Modern Fuel should be removed from this, but not out of the pens that are getting promoted
to you.
They're just a different category.
Like, Modern Fuel manufactures their own pens.
They're basically a machine shop.
Think of, like, a Tactile Turn, a Karis Customs, things like that.
So, Modern Fuel, we're just going to eliminate them, because the rest of the brands are all
in the same category of what I call Alibaba pens.
So, these are just marketing companies.
And if you buy an Ellington pen, if you buy a Webson Gill pen, if you buy a Wordsworth and
Black pen, if you buy an Executive Vibe pen, you're going to get a perfectly fine pen, right?
I want to be very clear.
You're going to get a perfectly fine pen.
But what you're doing is you're going to pay, like, 10x than if you went and bought that
same pen, because they're just rebranding pens from Alibaba or the like.
I'm not saying exactly, but I'm saying as a concept, right?
These are catalog pens, if you will, that, say, if I wanted to start a fountain pen brand,
Brand X, and I can go to a catalog and choose all these pens to have manufactured and now
brand them myself and then unload on the marketing, because I've paid so little for this pen.
And I've paid $5, $10, and I'm going to sell you a pen for $50, which still seems like an
insanely good deal, because I'm relying on the fact that you've never seen the source of
where these pens have come from, right?
And again, you're going to be happy with the pen.
But I'm just saying, you can get it for $10 instead of $50.
And I put a link in the show notes just to give you just a general idea of what a catalog
pen is.
And you can just go click this link that we'll have in the show notes.
It just goes to Alibaba.
And you scroll through this, and you're like, oh, I've seen this pen before.
I've seen this pen before.
I've seen this pen before.
And you can just go through and do all this stuff.
It's basically, these are marketing companies that are selling you, that are basically reselling
a generic catalog pen.
And, you know, so they don't all get up in my email.
The pens are perfectly fine.
You're just overpaying for what it is.
So that's my insight on those brands, when all the pens look the same.
And you can go, like if you pulled up Ellington, Webbs & Gill, Wordsworth & Black, and Executive
Vibe all next to each other, you will get a picture painted of their offering and go,
oh yeah, this is all.
They're not ordering from the same source, but it's the same concept of a company.
Okay.
So does that make sense?
Did I do this justice?
Yeah.
I mean, they're white labeling at best, right?
And it's like, that is not bad.
No.
They're not doing a bad thing.
They're doing a legitimate business practice.
But that does not vibe with what we care about, right?
Like, they are selling products to the masses on Instagram.
They are the visionary, right?
Like, they are just like, hey, look, I've got a good story to sell around this product.
That is not what we care about.
What we care about is, and I think like a general thing is, if you see a product on Instagram
from a brand that you don't know, if you can't see someone putting it together, don't buy
it.
Yeah.
You know?
To a degree.
Like, if it's not a major brand, you've never come across this company before.
If you can't find on their Instagram, like, evidence of them building the pen, like.
Oh, they'll have, they'll have, a lot of these will do like diagrams and design, design
things, but it's just not, not the case.
But at the same time, if you see a Viva pen and you're like, this looks great, like, buy
it.
It's not what, we're not saying don't do it, but it's like, just understand what you're
buying.
And it is stuff that is probably made just as well as any of the other big brands as
well.
But it's like, you're, you're not buying something from a maker, even if they may present themselves
as such.
Right.
Yeah.
You're going to get a perfectly fine pen.
Of course you will.
Maybe because look, I'm just like the visionary.
It is the visionary.
Yeah.
I'm reading a really good book right now, um, called Apple in China.
And, uh, it, it talks about how Apple kind of have established themselves in China.
And one of the things that it really focuses on is like the way that Apple makes things
and like the way that they push technology has meant that there can be a bunch of other
phone manufacturers in China.
It's just a similar thing here where like, yeah, this stuff can be made in China mostly,
I would expect, because that's where the other products are being made.
That's where the big brand products are being made.
So they're teaching the skills that are needed to, and like the tooling that is required to
build these high quality products.
And now, now we have, you know, now these people, they, they understand how to do it.
So they just make it cheaper and put it on Alibaba or whatever.
Yep.
Yep.
So that was a good question because we're starting to, they, they, these companies market
so hard that I started to get a lot of questions about them.
Yep.
Um, so yeah, just, it's an awareness thing.
It's not a bad product thing.
It's an awareness, uh, type of situation.
So just trying to explain that a little bit, um, is good.
Glenn writes in and says, as a regular user of Traveler's Planner inserts, I was asked
on our local Fountain Pens Australia Discord group if I had any experience or if I had experienced
any performance or drying issues with my planner this year.
I'm curious if you have heard anything.
So far, we only have a small sample size of about five, uh, of our members, but they
have tested with multiple pens and inks.
Do you think we have someone just with bad luck?
I have heard some people in the past say they've had issues, but I never have.
So I haven't heard anything about the Traveler's, let's, let's say, I don't want to put words
in Glenn's mouth, but let's say 2026 Traveler's Planner inserts.
Um, so new product and I haven't heard, I haven't gotten any feedback or heard any conversation
about, um, those being a poor quality or having issues with a batch, but this is a good, this
is a good ask TPA to where we can ask the listeners.
If you have, let me know.
And like, we can share information if anyone's having any challenges.
Um, this is not a product I've used recently, so I couldn't, I can't specifically say, and
unlike, you know, Hobonichi from a year, year and a half ago, where it was a prevalent issue
that people were having where you would actually hear things.
I haven't heard anything about this.
So I'd be interested if, uh, anyone else has, and let's say like a current issue Traveler's
Planner.
I'm saying 2026, they're undated, right?
But I'm saying something that's been made, you know, either like 25 or 26, something
recent, uh, that you're using for this year.
So yeah, good question.
And, um, you know, you can send us some feedback on that.
Last question, and we'll finish out today's show, comes from Nathan, who says, I visited
the right notepads webpage today, and it seems like they are only doing custom B2B orders
now.
Have they stopped retail sale?
Yes.
Uh, unfortunately for us, uh, they were great, great products.
Great people too.
Great people.
I've known Chris for years.
I haven't talked to him in a while.
Uh, Chris Roth, the owner of right.
And they, they were always a B2B print shop.
They were always just like a printer, right?
Like, and then the notebooks were always a side gig.
And so I'm sure it just came to the point where that, that became a little bit overwhelming
and they're just back into their, uh, traditional right notepads ways, which it stinks for us.
Selfish.
It's one of those selfish things.
It's like, oh, I totally get it.
Like I get it.
That's how business goes.
But like selfishly, they made one of the best pocket notebooks for fountain pens out
there, but I didn't list them, uh, in the episode a couple of weeks ago, uh, because
they don't make them anymore, which stinks.
That's why that would be a reason.
That'd be why.
A reason.
Uh, please send us in your questions.
Uh, I would like to do more RSTPA over the next few weeks.
So if you have a question you would like to hear us answer on the show, please go to
penaddictfeedback.com and you can send your questions, your follow-up into us there.
If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com, and twitch.tv
slash penaddict.
Uh, I'm at theenthusiast.net and cortexbrand.com.
Thank you so much to our sponsors this week, Squarespace and Pen Chalet.
But most of all, thank you for listening.
Until next time, say goodbye, Brad.
Goodbye, Brad.