The Pen Addict 75/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	75
Title:	Nerdiness In Its Purest Form
Release Date:	October 8th, 2013
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 75
Audio File:	Audio Episode 75
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 75
Length:	5050 min <br />0.833 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 75 of The Pen Addict podcast, a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools that we love. So dearly, my name is Myke Hurley, and introducing the Yoda to my Annie Pen Sky Blue Walker, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Stretching it out there. Really trying the best that I can. That was good. Well done. So how's things going?

Myke Hurley: Really good, sir. How are you?

Kickstarter Updates

Brad Dowdy: Very good. Very good. Glad we got to record on a Tuesday this week, which is our normal day, of course, because both you and I had a busy, busy weekend.

Myke Hurley: Yes. Yeah, very busy. I mean, I have lots, but let's start with you.

Brad Dowdy: All right. We have lots to talk about this week.

Myke Hurley: So we wanted to, we were going to talk about sort of the process of comments and updates on Kickstarter. We mentioned it. I don't know if you want to talk about that, or maybe we saved that, and maybe we just talk about how Nock is going on.

Brad Dowdy: What do you want to do? We can cover it real quick. Okay. It's a pretty easy topic. I mean, we said we'd do it last week, and there's really not too much to say. Okay. You know, with the Kickstarter projects going really great, we're just a tick under 49,000 in, what, a little over a week, so eight days, I guess. So that's obviously exceeded any expectations Jeffrey and I had.

Myke Hurley: You've done all right, I guess.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, it's done all right. It's done all right. So it's like now we're getting greedy. It's like, why isn't it moving more? You know, you get spoiled there in the beginning.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It was like, the beginning was great, and it was like, oh, this is going great. Then when it just kind of went gangbusters so much, it was like, you know, we're starting to sweat a little bit. It was like, are we ready for this? Are we prepared for this? And then once it kind of settled down and, you know, as the days go on, you know, and we've done some planning on the back end, we're like, yeah, okay, this is good. This is right there. We can handle this. You know, ship dates are good. Everything's tight. So we're doing good, and we're working on some stuff on the back end. Maybe we can announce next week if we're done or how we're going to handle it, but we're going to try to get an early start on production. So we'll have more news on that as we get everything finalized. But the ball is rolling, if you will, to kind of get us a head start to where we'll be in good shape for fulfillment in January, just as we promised. Excuse me. But, yeah, just a quick word on the comments and the updates. It's never having run a Kickstarter project before. I didn't know what to expect with the comments and the messages and just the quantity of stuff going on there. And, you know, the first two or three days, it was just like, you know, machine gun, you know, in the inbox. It was just constant, just message. You have a new message, message, message, message, comment, comment, comment. And I like to try to – I try my best, and Jeffrey does the same, to respond to everyone. I don't want to leave anyone hanging.

Brad Dowdy: So I think we've done a good job at that. The comments section is a great place if you have any questions, just general questions about the product, you know, specs, designs, colors, plans, all that kind of stuff. You know, we're in and out of the comments section all day. And then, you know, you can also send us a direct message if you have more of a specific question related to, you know, your pledge level or something like that. And trying to figure out when to do the updates. The updates are interesting because doing an update, a creator update, allows me or Jeffrey to basically send an email out to everyone who's backed the project. And I want to be careful with that. You know, I don't want to have an update every day and start spamming people's mailboxes. So, you know, I've just done – I guess I just did the third one this morning, I guess, just to kind of give an update on how the first week went. You know, we've got some reviews in on the cases which have been real positive so far. And, you know, I wanted to share the link that we talked about on the last week's podcast where I went kind of in depth on just the whole project in general. So, any of the backers who aren't necessarily familiar with that, which there are probably plenty who've just picked up on this, you know, through Kickstarter directly. And, you know, not necessarily, you know, listen to the podcast or read my blog or anything like that. So, they can go in and click the link, listen to the podcast, and kind of get some more information on where this whole NotCo thing came from. So, it's been real good so far. We've been able to keep up with all the messages and comments and updates. And, honestly, it's going along swimmingly.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it is.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we had – I'm not going to lie. We did have some panic moments last week going, oh, my gosh, can we fill – you know, can we fulfill our shipping dates? But we're going to be totally good, and we're going to be even better if we get an early start, which I'm 99.9% sure is going to happen. Excellent. Maybe by next week I'll have more information on that. We're not – we don't have everything finalized yet. But, you know, the way Kickstarter works, and I think a lot of people are familiar with it. But for some people, it's their first time backing it, so they don't know what to expect from us, you know, the project creators. What happens is when this project ends, like the minute it ends, that money doesn't get transferred into our bank account. It can take some time, so there's often a gap from when it ends to when the money is there for us to use to start purchasing materials, start purchasing equipment, start the – that gets us starting the manufacturing process. So every little delay backs up everything else. So we're trying to get ahead of the game using some of our own funds to get the machinery and equipment since it's obviously going to fund.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you can feel confident that even if you're dipping into maybe a savings account that you're going to be able to fill it back up again because the money is there.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we'll be able to recoup that directly because it's obviously the money is there. It's just it's going to be a while before we get our hands on it. But we want to go ahead and get started just for, you know, planning purposes and sanity purposes just to get everything going. And I don't think that's going to be an issue at all. I just don't have all the details to share yet, but I will say that things are in progress for getting that done.

Myke Hurley: You just need to hope that Kickstarter or Amazon don't go bust in the next month.

Brad Dowdy: I know, right? I think you're okay. Yeah, I think we're all right. They seem pretty on solid ground.

Brad Dowdy: So we'll see. But hopefully I'll have more to share on that next week. But yeah, that ball is rolling. We're going to be in good shape. And yeah, hopefully it'll just keep on cranking. And we'd like to see some bigger numbers at this point because we think we can handle it. Good. Yeah. I'm ready. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited for what's to come, you know, once we get this, once it does fulfill and the project, you know, closes. And then we get all these shipped out and get all these in everyone's hands and then see, you know, the future is looking bright for NotCo. I'll say that.

Myke Hurley: Good man.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, sir.

Myke Hurley: Okay. What else have you got?

Pen Clubs

Brad Dowdy: I had an interesting, fun, very cool thing happened to me this weekend that, you know, starting into the whole pen addiction thing, you don't think that these types of things exist. But as it turns out, they're quite prevalent around the country. I was honored to attend a meeting of the Southeast Pen Collectors Club.

Myke Hurley: Man, that's so awesome. Just this.

Brad Dowdy: So I don't know. I didn't know a lot about this club, but my friend Mark Backus invited me to it. He's been involved in it for years. He's been president of it at one point in time. And he's explained to me, this club's been around for 20 years. This isn't a new thing. So it's been around for 20 plus years. It's based out of Atlanta. They meet at, you know, different members' houses, you know, throughout, you know, the city and surrounding areas. And they happen to be in my town, which is Macon, this past weekend. So Mark had emailed me a month or two ago saying that they were coming, you know, would I like to go with them? I was like, absolutely, I would. And fortunately, my schedule worked out to where I was able to attend it. And I had the best time.

Brad Dowdy: It was at one of the members' houses. And I'd actually met him at the Atlanta Pen Show the past two years. His name's Dan Lanford. He's kind of a vintage pen collector and repairer and things like that. So he's got a lot of, you know, a lot of Parker 51s, Vacumatics, Esther Brooks, Pelicans. You name it, the guy has everything. And I'll talk more about that in a second. But just the meeting in general was very cool. It's very laid back. You know, they don't really have a program or like an official, you know, time. It's a timeline of events. But it's basically just, you know, you meet with other like-minded folks. You discuss pens. People bring some of their pens to share.

Brad Dowdy: You know, you get to meet some people that you exchanged emails with. Like I met a nice lady and her husband, Michelle, she'd emailed me before the meeting saying, hey, we're having this meeting. I'm pretty sure it's near you. And I said, yeah, I'm going to be there actually. So, you know, I got to meet some people that read the blog. Got to meet some people that listen to the podcast. There was a gentleman there named Tom who said he's listened to every episode of the podcast. So I told him he better listen this week because I was going to talk about him. Tom's a real nice guy. He's a computer science professor. And he actually brought some pens that I got to check out. You know, as part of the deal, like I brought some of my pens for other people to look at. I didn't know what to bring. You know, I was talking to Mark. And I was like, well, what do you bring? Do you bring anything? He's like, yeah, just bring whatever. You don't have to bring anything. Some people don't bring anything. Some people bring, you know, some pen to look at. Like Mark brought a bunch of his collection. But I think he brought a lot of it to show me. Him and I met beforehand at Starbucks. And he brought some of the most drool-worthy pens that I've seen in a while. His collection, the stuff that he buys or collects or uses is a lot of the stuff that I like. Like he had some of the old Pilot Murexes, Pilot Mayus, a bunch of the old sailors. You know, all these really like vintage Japanese pens. He actually gave me a pen while I was there. I forget the name. I'm blanking on it. He gave me a sailor. He's got some, you know, just rare and unique items. And it was fun sitting in. We were sitting in Starbucks, you know, going. We had his whole pen collection laid out on the table. Like we'd have a lady come up. It's like, oh, I love pens. You know, it was just, it was interesting. Interesting to see and interesting to go through his collection. That was fun. But back to the meeting at Dan's house. So Dan is retired. He's been retired for like 10 years. And so he just, I guess, just collects fountain pens. And he has a whole workshop in his garage. I've got a couple images I need to share. They're still on my phone. I haven't posted them anywhere yet. But like I've got a couple images of his workshop. And what was cool about his house, he's got his workshop set up. Then he has like a sunroom in his house that's like the pen museum. He's got all the rare stuff that's like his collection, like the stuff he doesn't sell. And so we got to go through that. And seeing all this stuff is just fascinating. He's got the way his collection is set up. I mean, it's basically on display in his house in a big room. I mean, well, I say big. It's probably five by eight maybe, something like that, which is pretty sizable room for just pens and pen displays and things like that. And he has all this old collector stuff. Like if you see like an old Pelican display or an old Schaefer display, he would have like the display. And then he'd have all the pens that were in the display originally. It wasn't just like some blank display. I was like, goodness gracious. How what? I don't even know how he came across all this stuff. So it was fascinating. But I did get to try a couple of other of the members pens there. And Tom had some really cool pens that I liked. One of them I had read about and had seen before but never seen in person was a Mont Blanc Agatha Christie model. It was a limited model. I guess they came out with a few years ago. And it's this really intricately designed pen, I guess based on Agatha Christie's work. And it's got this cool like snake clip. And the design of the nib has this snake on the nib.

Brad Dowdy: It's pretty crazy looking. You'll have to check it out. We'll have it in the show notes. Have you looked at this yet, Myke?

Myke Hurley: I was just looking at it. Wow.

Brad Dowdy: It takes a second to come up.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it does.

Brad Dowdy: But it's like the snake has little jewels in its eyes. And I had seen this pen and heard about it before and knew it was kind of a famous pen. But getting to get one of those in your hands and use it for a minute and just kind of look at it up close. That was pretty fun.

Brad Dowdy: So Tom had that. He also had a Pelican M800, which is a pretty easy to get a hold of pen, pretty standard pen. But it's an expensive pen. And doing this, you get to see, like, you know, I've started to get pen modifications for a lot of my nibs. And using something like his Pelican, he's had it ground to a stub nib by a gentleman named Pendleton Brown, who's also in the Atlanta area. He wasn't at this meeting. But just getting to see, not only do you get to see the other pens that people use and other pens that you might have been interested in but are never able to get your hands on to test drive. Going to a meeting like this, you get to test these things out, right? So you get to try out these pens that maybe are on your wish list or maybe are on your dream list. And then on top of that, you get to talk to people about the experiences they've had with, you know, other, you know, nibmeisters or other people working on their pens and, you know, getting to see what that work is like and how that feels on the page. So I got to test out this Pendleton stub nib. And it's just, it's so smooth. You know, I might have to try to get, try to have, have to get something like that myself. It was just, I'm starting to get into the stub nibs more. And I was really impressed with how the nib came, turned out. I was trying out some of his, some of Tom's pens and how smooth they were thinking, boy, I really need to get some more. I need to spend some more money to get my, my nibs worked on a little bit more. But it was a fantastic experience. There was probably, gosh, 15 to 20 people or so. We were there for probably three hours, you know, food and drink and just a real casual meeting. Everyone, you know, I kind of got to talk to everyone, got to learn a little bit about everyone. And, you know, people were asking me questions about, you know, pen addict and, and knock and, and things like that. And what all I did and what type of pens did I like and how did I use my pens and things like that. It was just a real, real good conversation to have. And it was a blast. And I look forward to being able to, to do that again. So, um, I had a great time. So I don't know. I know there's groups all over the country and it's very open to new fountain pen users or new pen users in general. Like there was at least two or three of us there that it was our first meeting and everyone is so nice and they just want to talk to you and learn about you. And, you know, then, and you have the one thing in common, you know, you have these pens in common and that's just a great jumping off point for conversation. And, um, that's what it was all about. You know, I met a lot of great people and, uh, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Myke Hurley: It's just a group of like-minded individuals.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, yes. And it was perfect. And Dan, Dan's collection is so gigantic. He actually had like a whole table full of pens he was selling. Like if, like he was at the pen show, I mean, his, his, uh, the amount of stuff at his house, I could, I could reel off a whole, whole digital roll of film, taking pictures of everything. But, uh, I was too busy talking to get too many pictures, but, um, it was fun. It was, uh, it was an eye-opening experience. I really got to, he has a real nice, uh, pelican collection. So I was checking out some of those, um, kind of rare and, and unseen pelicans that I haven't even, didn't even know such a thing existed and actually got to, you know, hold them and check them out and take a look at them. It was, it was, it was fun. It was a good time.

Myke Hurley: I got pelican envy this weekend.

Brad Dowdy: We're going to talk about that. Yeah, that's a, that's a, that's a problem. That's what happened to me. I had no interest in pelican pens really at all. And my friend Thomas just happened to send me a couple that, you know, I was, I was working, you know, able to review some of his pens and he knew I liked all the Japanese pens. And so he was sending me a bunch of pilots and sailors and he slid in a couple of pelicans and that was, that was all I needed. They were, uh, they're kind of a different animal. I, they're hard to explain to be quite honest. Um, and maybe we'll talk about that a little bit more. Um, when we, we talk about what you did this weekend.

Myke Hurley: I think that we should, this would be the perfect time to take a quick break though. All right, let's do it. It feels like it's just the right spot. And then we'll talk about it.

Brad Dowdy: You're the pro.

Myke Hurley: My fun weekend. So let's take a quick moment to thank Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio. For a free trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com and use the offer code Tallyho10. Me and Brad love Squarespace. We use them for our personal websites. I use Myke Hurley.net as a Squarespace site. And Brad has, uh, well, I've just remembered I need to update my, my, uh, page on my Squarespace site with my field notes on it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yes, that's true. I need to take a picture of my new one as well.

Myke Hurley: I need to do that. So I'll do that. I'm getting my field notes out now. So I remember to do that later. So what I'm talking about is both, I don't even know if I did finish saying about the, the offer code. I've got so caught up with thinking about my own Squarespace site because I love to update it so much. Me and Brad have our own sites. I have Myke Hurley.net. He has the pen addict and knock co are both on Squarespace, but it's something that we mentioned before. So we both have pages on our sites where we, uh, we highlight our, um, field notes collection. So we both have pages on there where we take pictures of our field notes and the ones that we have, and then we post them on there. It's really easy to do that. So what I'm going to be doing today, I'll take a picture of my field notes and I will upload it to Dropbox. And then I will just drag and drop it from Dropbox right onto the page, um, into a little image block and it will format for me. And I can add a little caption in which I will do. Um, and it's, it's just so easy to do. Like I, I don't need to worry about any nasty stuff. It's just drag and drop. And I mean, if I wanted to create an image gallery out of them, I could just point Squarespace to a Dropbox folder and any images I add to that folder, just go into a gallery. Like just little things like that. Just make it so awesome and easy to use. They have beautiful templates that you can use. They have 24 hour a day, seven day a week support, but you don't need to hear any of this. Just go to Squarespace and try it out for yourself. Go to squarespace.com and sign up for a free trial. You're going to be able to get your hands on all of the features that they have. Um, there's no credit card needed for this, for, you know, to start the trial with them. Squarespace plans start at just $8 a month. It includes a free domain name if you sign up for a year. And if you're anything like me and Brad, and I know that you guys are because you're smart, like-minded individuals too. Um, then you're going to love Squarespace just like we do. So go check out Squarespace, use the offer code Tallyho10 to get 10% off. Thank you so much to Squarespace for their support of the pen addict and all of 5x5.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Thank you, Squarespace. So what'd you do this weekend?

Myke Hurley: I went to the London pen show. Woo! Woo! So, I'm very happy that I did this because I remember last year, um, I, we were talking about your pen show. Mm-hmm. Or we were talking about a pen show or something like that. And I looked and to my memory, if I remember rightly, the show had pretty much just concluded.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think that's right. It was like right there within a week or two of when we talked about it.

Myke Hurley: So at that point, I found out when the next one was and I put it in my diary. And a couple of weeks ago, I was going through my diary and I saw that it was coming up. So I made sure that I went. Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend as much time at the show as I had planned to. Um, my sort of day got a bit thrown out of whack. So I ended up not being able to meet with anyone, which was a shame because I really wanted to do that. But I basically had enough time to go to the show and kind of just get out of there. Which ended up being for the best.

Myke Hurley: But I'll explain that in a bit. Pelican Envy, I'll start with that because it's not too much of a topic. I saw some Pelicans for the first time, fell in love, saw the price tags, decided I shouldn't do that. They're expensive, man.

Pelikan Pens

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's the... Wow. I think that's probably what turned me off at first from Pelican. Just when you compare that pen price-wise to other like pens, they're more expensive. I mean, and it's kind of not even close. You know, say like, you know, you can get, say like the Lamy 2000. That's a nice classic design. 14 karat gold nib pen. It's about 150-ish or so. And then like the first gold nib Pelican that you can buy is about 250, you know, or 275 or something like that. Which the M400, I think is the first gold nib Pelican. And they start like it, yeah, like around 250, 275. So, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But go ahead. So you like them? You like the style?

Myke Hurley: Oh, love them. Really, really love them.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think that's what got me about the Pelicans is how they feel in the hand. Like the way the barrel is designed and the sections designed. And just the complete pack, the total package when you're writing. It's just a very effortless, comfortable, beautiful looking pen. I mean, they're beautiful looking.

Myke Hurley: A purpose if he didn't pick one up.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, man. Yeah, you should.

Myke Hurley: No, I shouldn't.

Brad Dowdy: You should. You should. You got to. So that way you can compare it. And, you know, you don't even have to, you know, that can be on the two to three years down the line list. But it would be nice to know what to experience one. And even I've started to get into the steel nib pens, the steel nib Pelicans a little bit now. And they're very expensive relative. I've got a review coming up of the M205, which is the steel nib, one of the steel nib. It's considered kind of an entry-level Pelican. And a lot of what I talk about is that price justification. Because it's way more expensive than like a TWSBI, which we recommend all the time. You know, probably twice as expensive. So why should you buy a pen that's twice as expensive when you're going to get such an excellent performance out of something like a TWSBI for half the price? So I'll talk about that. I've got a review coming up. I don't have a date yet. It's not finished. But that's a dilemma I have had with the Pelican. I'd actually kind of like to hear from other people too. I know a lot of people collect Pelicans. And, you know, there is a justification. I guess you would consider it a premium brand. So they're charging a premium for it. But are you getting the value out of that price? And so, yeah, that's something I'll talk about later. But I'm totally hijacking your pen show experience. So let's go on.

Myke Hurley: The level of nerdiness is a level of nerdiness I have yet to experience in my life. And I sent you a text message. And I will say what I said. I have stood in San Francisco on the roof of the Macworld Magazine building discussing the event. The ergonomics of the PlayStation 4 controller with a group of friends. Being at that pen show is the nerdiest I've ever felt in my life. I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just I've never been to something where the enthusiasm is that high. And basically it is like being a computer nerd 10 years ago. Because the average person doesn't care about pens. Like the average person didn't care about computers. So it's nerdiness in its pure form. Not like this nerdiness these days where everyone's a nerd because they own a smartphone. Right. You know. This is a level of nerdiness I had not really experienced before. Being around people that. Like just overhearing the conversations. Some conversations are exactly like the ones that we have every week. Mm-hmm. Some.

Myke Hurley: I couldn't even understand what people are saying.

Brad Dowdy: Right. It's a whole different language.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And I was like wow. I really. I'm not even near you.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So paint a picture for me. Give me the big picture London pen show set up. Is it a hotel like ballroom kind of meeting room kind of thing?

Myke Hurley: It was like a hotel meeting room. It was much smaller than I expected.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Like when you tell me about the Atlanta pen show. Mm-hmm. And you can tell me if I'm wrong. I imagine like a huge room. I don't know why. No. Like a. Maybe like a gymnasium or something. No. Yeah. So it's probably quite similar then. It was like a hotel conference room. Yeah. You know. And it had like four rows of tables. Four or five rows of tables. Like two tables deep. And then tables around the outside. Okay. Sort of like to make a square. Mm-hmm. And there was just enough space like to walk through. To have like two people walking side by side through the. Through there. But it was really busy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It was really busy. Like it was difficult to move around.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well that's good. It's good to see so many people there.

Myke Hurley: Did you have to pay an admission?

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because I think that they're. It's probably the same. Like they're run by an organization. Right. Like I think this is the London Writing Society. Or Writing Society of London. Something like that. That puts this on.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And this. Yeah. Like in Atlanta. I think it's really just like a promoter. But I mean he's affiliated with. You know. Other. He might do other pin shows. But yeah. I mean I think he charged. Seven dollars or something like that. Admission.

Myke Hurley: And I don't know if this is bad. And I don't know if like. Listeners will get upset at me for saying this. But. I saw more young people there than I expected.

Brad Dowdy: No. Why wouldn't anyone get mad?

Myke Hurley: I don't know. Because it makes it sound like. I'm saying that. I was just expecting older people. Which I was. Yeah. I was. That's good. Like I was expecting to be the only person of sort of my age group there. But I saw there was a young couple there. And there was actually a girl of my age who was selling.

Brad Dowdy: Oh wow.

Myke Hurley: She didn't really have anything impressive. But it was clearly something she was just interested in. Like me. And instead of going to buy. She was just going to sell some stuff.

Myke Hurley: But yeah. I found that quite interesting.

Brad Dowdy: That is interesting. That's pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: There were so many pens.

TWSBI Pens

Myke Hurley: Like there was just. Like it was. It was honestly overwhelmed. I was completely overwhelmed. So like I'm texting you. And I'm like I don't know what to do. Like there is just too much. So like I went. With two pens in mind. I wanted to get a Parker 51. And a Parker Vacumatic. I did not even begin to. Sort of estimate. How many of those there would be. Right. The 51 a lot more than the Vacumatic. Every table had a selection of them.

Myke Hurley: So I want to talk about the 51 for a minute. Before I talk about what I actually came away with. Because I didn't buy a 51. Okay. So I'm going around from table to table. I can easily spot what the 51 is. I don't have a lot of knowledge of the pen really. But I know it's like. It's like the part metal part plastic body. And the plastic goes all the way up and covers the nib. Right. Right. Plus a lot of them are nicely labelled and stuff to say that they're 51s. And this is our section of 51s and stuff. So first I'm just walking around. And I'm just making note of maybe some of the colours that I like.

Myke Hurley: Maybe just looking. Not really paying too much attention. But doing what you told me to do. Which is to walk around and look at every single table first. So I did that. Which I was actually glad that I did for the things that I ended up buying. If I would have just bought straight away. I would have blown my budget on the first two tables. And that would have been it. So I went around and I took a look. And I was like looking. And I'd be like okay. So I made some mental notes. Like that table had a good selection. That table had a good selection.

Myke Hurley: And then I started to like. Like.

Myke Hurley: So once I sort of picked out the tables that I knew had good 51s. And I went and picked up some of the ones that I liked the look of. Like that they weren't too beaten up. They looked relatively good condition.

Myke Hurley: And the colours. And I liked the colours of them as well. So then I started taking the caps off.

Myke Hurley: And just looking at the nib. You know like. Just bringing it close to my eye. And you know. If I'd see any that had gunk in them. I'd just put them straight back down again. Right. Because I figured they're not being. Clearly not being taken care of. Not like if they'd been used today. But if you could tell that they've not been cleaned very well. Right. I was like well I'm not even going to. I'm not even going to entertain this. Because if it's not been looked after. If it's second hand. Then it's this old. I want it to be as well looked after as possible. Right. That was my thinking anyway. Right. No. Some of these. Good thinking. Quite expensive. You know. Some of the good looking ones are like 50, 60 pounds. Mm-hmm. So. And like considering how common they are. And were. I should be able to find one for a good deal.

Myke Hurley: But I'm going from table to table. And I'm looking at them. And I'm like. These are everywhere. And I feel like I don't know enough of what I'm looking for with this pen. With the Parker Vacumatic. There was a lot of them. But they weren't on every table. And there were varying. Wildly varying levels of upkeep. But the 51 had quite a uniform. Like all of them looked okay. Mm-hmm. So I was like. Oh. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

Myke Hurley: Also at this point. I hadn't worked out the etiquette for trying them. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So I'm like. How. What do I do here? Because like I'd only seen at this point. So this is like a little while in. I hadn't really seen anyone using pens. Which was strange to me. I was expecting to see people sitting down and using them. The most that I'd seen was a guy with another 51. And he was just running it across a piece of paper without any ink. And I'm like. What is the etiquette here? I have no idea if I can use these pens.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: So then I'm like. Right. I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm going to go look for a vacuum attic. So I started looking around. And again. I found a couple of tables. Again. There was. There wasn't so many of them. But there were many different styles. Like different. Sort of barrel sizes and stuff. Mm-hmm. And so some were larger than what I expected.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: There's a few. There's a few different links. I forget the exact names of them. But. Yes. There are. They'll look the same. But then they vary in the overall length of the pen. And diameter. There.

Myke Hurley: So I wasn't really too sure. What to do. In that regard. So because. You know. I'm like looking at them. And I'm like. Oh. You know. What sort of size do I want. And then. As I'm looking around. I end up coming to a. Right. Okay. This is. The sort of the price range that I want. This looks like the one that Brad has. Size wise. So I'm going to go with that. You know. I'm going to. I'm going to look for. For ones in this range. And then again. Like. As I'm looking around. Prices. Varying. Wildly. Which is. It makes it difficult. Because you don't really know. If you're getting a good deal. Or a bad deal. And also I'm like. Unconfident with the haggling.

Pen Purchase

Brad Dowdy: Sure.

Myke Hurley: As well. I'm not. You know. I'm not. I've never. I've never haggled. Before. Right. So I'm like. Well. I don't really know. What to do. In this instance. Like. Do I say. Okay. I'll give you $10 for this. Like. I've literally no idea what to do. Right. So. I'm. Going around. And I come up to this one table. And there's some people buying. At that table. And I'd already decided. That I was going to buy. A. A. Vacumatic from this table. Because. They had. They were pretty well priced. But they looked in really good condition. So I was like. Right. This is the table. That I will get one from. And luckily. As I walked over. There was people buying something. At that table. So I was like. Right. I'm going to. Just look at these pens. But I'm just going to see. What these people are doing too. One of them then asks. If he can try it. So the guy. Like the vendor. He. He. Breaks open. Like a bottle of ink.

Myke Hurley: And I'm like. Great. This is what I need. So then like. The guy just dips. The pen in the ink. And just uses it. Right. So I'm like. Obviously. As you're saying. That's the way it's done. I assume.

Brad Dowdy: A lot. A lot of times. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because you probably don't want to fill the pens up. I don't know. That makes sense to me.

Myke Hurley: So I'm like. I'm looking. And I'm like. Right. And then I find the one I want. And it's the same colors that you have. That was the one I wanted. So.

Myke Hurley: It was a. Sort of a. Like a black vacuumatic body. With the silver flex in it.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: And I actually. Was lucky. When I was looking. There was a guy. Who was talking to his wife. I assume it was his wife. About the vacuumatic.

Myke Hurley: And he's like. Oh. You know. These ones look nice. And he's talking to her. A bit about the history. And he's like. Oh. You know. Look at it. And he said something that I really like. He's like. Look. If you look at this. It looks like. The lights in a skyscraper.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It does. I said.

Myke Hurley: That's really nice. And he was saying. You know. This one's. A bit more expensive. Because it's this sort of body. And like. He was paying a lot of attention. On this table. And he clearly knew. What he was talking about. So I was like. Right. I've made the right choice. Good. Because also. It was well. Like one of the main things. That I was looking at. Is the. The sort of the silver. Like the chrome on them. The silver. Yes. The gold. They had a real mix. Of looking okay. To looking terrible.

Brad Dowdy: Sure.

Myke Hurley: So. Take. I find the one that I want. And. See how much it costs. I was happy with the price. Tried it out. Fell in love. And I own one.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. So you're happy with the pen. You've been using it.

Myke Hurley: I've only used it a little bit. And I'll explain why in a minute. Sure. It doesn't seem to take much ink in.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean. It's. Yeah. I mean. I've only got the one. The experience. With. But yeah. I mean. It. It. Mine seems to take in a decent amount. But dumb. It's not a ton.

Myke Hurley: No. It's not as much as some of my other pen and pens. And I think it's just because it's got that weird sort of like. I don't even know what you call it. The filler mechanism.

Brad Dowdy: Vacumatic. Okay.

Myke Hurley: But it's like. Like you push the button down. Yeah. And then it sucks it up. Yep. Talking about Vacumatic. I saw a VAC 700. Is this to be a VAC 700?

Brad Dowdy: Sure. Yeah. They are huge. It's a. Yeah. It's too big.

Myke Hurley: I'm pleased that I saw it. I mean. I always thought that anyway. But they are huge.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's a good looking pen. But it's a little big.

Myke Hurley: So one of the interesting things about the Vacumatic. I'm really pleased with it. It's in really good condition. You know. I was just looking it up. And I was like. This pen was made like. Potentially between like. 1935 and 1955. And I can't believe how well it works. Yeah. It's clearly. Old. Like. I've had it. I've been carrying it around with my other purchase. In my DONE. Leather case. For the last few days. Yeah. And. It's like showing like. Quite a bit of ink. On the nib. You know. Okay. So. Sure. I wouldn't say. I wouldn't say leaking. But as it's being like. Thrown around and stuff. It's not dealing with that as well. As newer fountain pens.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That makes sense.

Myke Hurley: I don't know if that's an age thing. But I figure. You know.

Brad Dowdy: Probably so.

Myke Hurley: As. As things get older. They. Have more. Trouble. Retaining. Liquid.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: There you go.

Writing Desk

Myke Hurley: Wah. Wah. So. I'm walking around. And. It seems to be on the whole. Independent vendors. But then I come across. The writing desk. Now. We've mentioned them. In the past. They are a. UK. Based. Company. That sell. Like. Colt pens. Jet pens. They have. A table. Cool. I was like. Great. So. I had. Had a quick look.

Myke Hurley: Um. So. I was sort of like. I was just scanning around. Like. Oh. They've got some. They've got some. Uh. Iro Shizuka inks. Um. I'll take a look at those. Later. I thought to myself. You know. I'll probably come back. I'll buy. I'll buy myself a nice. A nice. Color. Maybe a nice. Iro Shizuka. Of some kind. Um. I'm like. Oh. Look. They've got some Twisbees there. That's kind of cool. And I'm like. I'm listening in. And I'm a guy talking about Twisbee. To one of the guys. At the writing desk. Like. Oh yeah. These are nice. And then I stop. Dead. So. They have a wooden. Box. It has inside it. A selection of Edisons. Mm hmm. Trouble. Trouble. Trouble. Exactly. I was like. I was like. I don't. What am I going to do?

Myke Hurley: So. They had. Um. Had a couple of Edison Collier.

Brad Dowdy: Mm hmm.

Myke Hurley: Um. They had. A couple of Edison Beaumont. And Edison Perlette. As well. So. I put a link in the show notes. To the writing desk. The actual company. They've got. They've got images of all of them. And I'm like. Oh my God. How much is this going to be?

Myke Hurley: So.

Myke Hurley: I like. I walk up to them. I look at them. How much are these? It's like. They're 115 pounds. I was like. Okay. That will take me. Slightly over my budget. But I really wasn't expecting this.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: Like it didn't even. Enter my mind.

Myke Hurley: Because. You know. I've spoken on the show. About how much I love the way. That these things look.

Myke Hurley: And then the guy. At the writing desk. Quickly. Pointed out. That was for the steel nib.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: And I was like. Yeah. I'd assumed. That it wasn't 115 pound. For the gold nib. I didn't say that to him. But yeah. Like. Okay. Yes. Sure. So I was like. Okay. I want to try the pearlet. And he gives it to me. I pick it up. And. I'm. Struck by the beauty of it. I tried an indigo one. The nice. Nice dark blue one. Which I believe is what you own. It is. And I was like. Okay. This is. This is nice. I like this a lot. So. Like the weight is. I mean. I actually. Went back and read your. Review on it. And you said that the weight. Sort of surprised you. Didn't really for me. I don't know why. Like it's light. But it wasn't so much. Where I was like. Oh. Wow. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah. No. I agree with that.

Myke Hurley: So. You know. I was like. This is. This is nice. And. Took it off. Took the cap off. I found it comfortable to hold. And I tried it out with a fine nib. And I was like. Take it.

Myke Hurley: So. We were. You know. We were just talking about it for a bit. And he was like. Do you want to try any other nib? And I was like. No. No. It's fine. So. You put it in the box.

Myke Hurley: And then I was like. I want to get. An ink as well. So. I went over and. Spoke to. The lady at the desk. I assumed. Whether rightly or wrong. That they were a family. Because there was a child with them as well.

Myke Hurley: Which. I liked that. I thought that was quite nice.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. For sure. You'll see that a lot at. At pen shows.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. There's actually on there. About us. Oh yeah. It's Anna and Martin Roberts. I was talking to Martin. They've got a picture of them. At the London Writing Equipment Show 2009. On their about page. So that. That was what I was at. Okay. Writing Equipment Society. That's the. The institution. That sets up these things. Nice. So. I. Went and took a look at the samples. Like they had like a. A piece of paper with. Different colors of Hiroshi Zuko inks on it. And I was like. Okay. Oh these look. You know. I was like. Obviously know that these look nice and stuff. I was like. Let me see what ones I want to get. And I went with. The.

Myke Hurley: Fuyugaki. I'm going to say. Which color is that? Orange.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know that one off the top of my head.

Myke Hurley: It's orange.

Brad Dowdy: Orange. Oh nice.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Really bright orange too.

Brad Dowdy: Oh cool.

Pelican Ink

Myke Hurley: Oh they have the. Pelican highlighter ink. For sale.

Myke Hurley: Interesting.

Brad Dowdy: I still need. I still need to try mine. I got mine. My Pelican with the highlighter ink. I know. I haven't had time to ink it up yet.

Myke Hurley: I really want to hear you talk about that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I definitely will.

Myke Hurley: We've. Completely gone off. Of course. This is just as I'm looking through their website. To. To find the. Hiroshi Zuko. Yeah. It's like. It's the bright orange. They have like a. They have a. A lighter orange. Called the Yuyake. I know that I'm saying these terribly. Terrible. Terribly wrong. But I've got the. Fuyugaki. Oh. It's just the worst. So then he's packaging it up for me. And I'm paying. I'm like. I would regret that. I said I would regret this if I didn't try. I was like. Can I just try it with the medium? And I've got a medium. Nice. The fine was really nice. But the medium is. Is really special. I am in love. I am in love. With this pen. I am in love with it.

Brad Dowdy: It's a.

Brad Dowdy: Great pen. I mean there's no. I was trying to think of any adjectives to put with it. But there's. It's. It's. It's a great pen. I mean. I actually took that to the meeting on Sunday. And a couple people looked at it. And just. You know. Feeling it. Writing with it. Using it. Writing with it. They commented on. Just how well it fit their hand. And how. Just how nice it was. It's a fantastic. Fantastic pen. The Perlet. But. So I'm. I'm actually stunned. That you. That you got one. And that. I mean. Not. I don't know. Like you said. It wasn't on my radar for you. Necessarily at the pen show. I knew you were going. I wouldn't say. You know. I didn't even think to say. You know. Check and see if anyone's got any Edisons. For you to try out. And. That's kind of what happened to me too. Once I started trying them. I realized how. How well made they are. And how good they feel. And how good they look. I mean. That's an awesome looking. It's not. It's not just a good. Functioning pen. It's a killer looking pen.

Myke Hurley: And there's orange ink. Oh yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm going to have to get that now.

Brad Dowdy: I'm going to put that on the list.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. You need it. You're going to love it. I'm very.

Brad Dowdy: It's always been on the short list. And I've just got so many inks. I need to go through. But yeah. I'm going to have to get it now.

Myke Hurley: So I've got the Compec and the Vacumatic. And the. For you Gaki and the Pelican. Nice. But not Pelican. In the Edison. And I'm enjoying it a lot. It's the only pen. That I've used this week. Also because I. Well not because. But I snapped the clip off of my.

Fisher Space Pen

Myke Hurley: Fisher Space pen.

Brad Dowdy: Oh no.

Myke Hurley: I just put it in my pocket. And it just snapped off. I was like. I need to buy a new one. That's not good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Obviously. A medium fountain pen. Does not serve the field notes very well. But. I love this pen so much. I'm like. Screw it. I'll just use one page. Yeah. I know. You know. And it's like. I love this pen so much. I don't. I don't care.

Myke Hurley: You know. Yeah. I mean. These peeps. I'm trying to think like what.

Myke Hurley: I love Twisby's right. Yeah. I really love this. Yeah. It's different.

Brad Dowdy: I mean. It's a completely different feel. It's a completely different look. I don't know. I love that pen. It's awesome. Oh. What I was going to tell you about the nib. You know. Is. Like you probably saw from the. The people at the writing desk. You can swap nibs. I mean. You can order a different nib. You know. For probably. I mean. It's like. 20. 25 dollars or so. And if you want to. You know. Like a. You know. Have like an extra fine. Or a broad. You could have an extra nib laying around. If. You know. If you were so inclined.

Myke Hurley: I might do that. Like. He actually did swap the nib. In front of me. That was how. Yeah. 20 pounds from their website. Which is pretty good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So just saying. I've got a couple of pens. Like my TWSBI 580. I have. 1.1 stub. And I have an extra fine nib. I mean. It's like. I actually had a note. To talk about this. On one episode. That's two completely different pens. In the same pen barrel. So. Yeah. They do. Topic for another day.

Myke Hurley: They've got stub nibs. For sale.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: Cool.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: Well. That's that. I'm really. Really happy. I'm so.

Brad Dowdy: I'm proud of you for going. It's. It's nerve wracking. I know it is. You know. Having done it for. My first time. And. Not feeling like. I was very experienced. And just the whole. Just the thing as a whole. The show as a whole. It's nerve wracking.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to take more money next year huh? I'm going to take more money next year

Brad Dowdy: yeah, actually I did that too I didn't take very much the first year I went and then by the second year I went I had saved up a lot more money and I was better off and I was able to spend more time spend more hours there going through everything whereas the first year I went I was kind of like you I was done in an hour I was like I've got no money left but cool, that sounds awesome I'm excited

Myke Hurley: so I think that's about it

Brad Dowdy: yeah, I think we got it we had some new experiences this weekend and it was good to talk about it was a great weekend

Myke Hurley: yeah, very much so a great pen weekend

Brad Dowdy: yep, and I'm sure we'll be referring back to this these days more as we go on but yeah, it's very cool learned a lot this weekend that's always good

Myke Hurley: yeah, exactly so if you want to catch up with us you can do so in the following ways Brad is over at penaddict.com and knockco.com and we definitely want to go to both of those places and he is at dowdyism d-o-w-d-y-i-s-m on Twitter I am iMike I-m-y-k-e we'll be back next week for another episode of the well, excuse me we'll be back next week for another episode of the Pen Addict Podcast until next time

Brad Dowdy: bye bye bye bye