The Pen Addict 81/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	81
Title:	You Stole My Wish List Item! - Gift Guide 2013
Release Date:	November 19th, 2013
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 81
Audio File:	Audio Episode 81
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 81
Length:	7373 min <br />1.217 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Pen Addict Podcast

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 81 of The Pen Addict podcast, a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools that we love so dearly. The Pen Addict is a show on the glorious 5x5 network, and my name is Myke Hurley, and this week I am joined by what can only be described as two of the best pens around, kept in a beautiful leather package. I have got, of course, Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad. Hey, Myke. And we have returning guest, Anna Reinhardt. Hi, Anna.

Anna Reinhardt: Hi, how are you?

Myke Hurley: I'm very well. How are you?

Anna Reinhardt: Pretty good.

Myke Hurley: Thanks for coming back today.

Anna Reinhardt: No problem.

Myke Hurley: We love having you on the show, and all of the listeners do too, sir.

Anna Reinhardt: Thank you.

Myke Hurley: We're a good trio, I think.

Myke Hurley: So, Mr. Dowdy, what's happening today, sir? Where do we go?

Brad Dowdy: Well, we have a little bit of follow-up on a few of the topics we covered last week, but we wanted to get Anna back on to do a gift guide show for this year since Christmas and the holidays are coming up. We had good feedback last year when you and I did it, and then Anna took me to task afterwards on her blog about some of my choices. So, I think, was that the first time we got you on last year, Anna? Was after that?

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah, it was. It was after that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, after that show last year, we had Anna on to talk about some of our disagreements about that. And, you know, luckily we've been able to get you back a million times since then, which I love doing. And I think this maybe will be an annual thing.

Anna Reinhardt: Awesome. Yeah.

Visionaire Pens

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, let's talk about the one topic that I don't want to talk about, Myke. And that's the Visionaire.

Brad Dowdy: So, you go. You have some comments on this.

Myke Hurley: So, I can't remember what it was that took me back to the Visionaire page this week. I think that there might have been an update. I think the pens have started shipping out. Or it may have just been, you know, after the show I wanted to go and take a look.

Myke Hurley: And I was kind of just having a look through it. And I was looking at it. And the comments were... I wouldn't even say they were mixed. Like, the comments that I could see, and I read through quite a few, they were resoundingly positive about the pen, people receiving the pen. But they did seem like novice opinions in many, many places. Not a criticism, just an observation. And I don't know how much of a difference that actually does make. Like, I don't know if potentially a pen novice would be harsher or more forgiving. I don't know, in all honesty. But that was just an observation that I made.

Myke Hurley: And it seemed like, you know, the kinds of complaints that there were seemed like complaints which could be levied against many pens. Like, they were rattling. Like, so the clip was rattling on the cap, which I have many pens that I've paid lots of money for where that happens.

Myke Hurley: And there seemed to be, like... And then I was doing some reading around in forums and stuff, like some of the stuff that we had last week. And, like, there's an argument that... And the argument that I think comes from... What's the guy's name again? Morgan? Morgan. Is that he commissioned this pen to be made. And that this company in China, the factory, used his mould to create their own with less quality materials. And I kind of feel like... I have this, like, moral dilemma about this discussion. Because I feel like, right now, we have... Me and you, Brad, have as much to go on either side of this. Like, we don't know for sure either. So I kind of feel bad when we rip it apart. And then I sort of read about it. And I'm like, well, I have no proof that it is such and such way. So maybe we're being harsh. And it seems like a lot of the people that are saying, you know, this is a rip-off. They actually don't have one yet. And so they're doing it on sight alone. And if Morgan's story is true, then sight alone actually doesn't help. Because if he's correct, if he's being honest and he has a true story, in that he did... Whether he designed this pen or not, let's move past that now. But if he, you know, requested this pen to be made, this Chinese company could be making much cheaper quality versions than what he is sending and is sending out.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, I do think there's arguments to be had on both sides. And, you know, we don't know for a fact necessarily anything because we're not Morgan. But the problem, the recurring... There's so many recurring issues of Morgan's answers and stance on a lot of this to where he doesn't answer any questions or just goes off on these wild tangents that, you know, no one is interested in hearing. And my argument all along, from the very first time we mentioned it, is every single person who backed this project is going to get a perfectly fine pen. And I think that's what we're finding out in the messages of Kickstarter.

Brad Dowdy: Everyone's enjoying their pen. Now, I will say that the vast majority of the comments that are reading are from complete fountain pen novices that, you know, don't know how to unscrew the barrel to put the ink cartridge in. And that's like a recurring theme. Like, this is a lot of people's first fountain pen. And the price point at $37, you know, everyone's okay with that too because it's really, you know, they didn't pay $80 for the pen or they didn't pay $125 for the pen. They're okay with the price that they paid for whatever they received. And, you know, my argument all along is just that this is no different from any $5 Chinese fountain pen that you can buy online right now.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and we kind of, I think, rightly put that, in a way, $37 is more offensive to people that spend hundreds of dollars on pens because I own pens that are $25 to $30, which are incredible quality, the best pens I own.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I mean, the Pilot Metropolitan would annihilate this Visionaire on a side-to-side comparison. And it's less than half the price.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I'm just going to wait and see.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I expect to have mine within a couple of weeks. Cool.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and it's going to be fine. It's just, you know, it's, I don't think, I try to give Morgan the benefit of the doubt, but he doesn't help himself.

Myke Hurley: Sure. I can kind of see the headlines now, like pen addict Myke Hurley embraces the Visionaire as the best pen he's ever owned.

Brad Dowdy: I'd be okay with that. I would be okay with you buying a $5 Chinese fountain pen and saying it's the best pen I ever own.

Myke Hurley: Oh, look at that. See, you can't, okay.

Brad Dowdy: That's fair. That's a fair statement.

Myke Hurley: Yes. Yes, yes.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So I think we've about beaten this dead horse.

Myke Hurley: Alan, what is your take on this?

Anna Reinhardt: Well, I haven't been following the situation as closely as you guys have because I did not actually commit to purchasing one, so I haven't really followed it. I've kind of been listening to what you guys have said over the last few weeks about it. And I do know just from having worked a bit with Chinese manufacturers that their policies about copyright and trademark on designs is not as stringent as it is here in the United States. So it is possible that this Morgan designed this pen and then they just kept making them, you know, after his quantity. And so now they're selling them for a fraction of what they were before. I don't, honestly, I don't know. But I do feel like just from the sounds of things, it sounds, it doesn't sound completely legitimate to me. You know, there's a little, there's a lot of waffling. And I know that there's lots and lots and lots of vendors in Asia that you can buy pens from and buy other things. And especially if you're buying in large quantity, you can say, hey, I like this pen, but I'd like you to make it in a different material or a different color or with a different finish. And if you order enough, they'll make a run of them for you in whatever, you know, treatment you want. I mean, that's, we've, I've done a lot of work in Asia doing that. I want this thing, but I want it this, you know, 20% bigger. And, and they, you know, retool things and make it for you the way that you want it. So, I mean, it could go either way, but I feel like chances are, I don't know. I lean towards where you guys are at and that he probably started with something that was already there and maybe modified it to meet his criteria and then sort of sold it as an original concept.

Anna Reinhardt: I'm sorry. I have a sneezy cat. Is that sneezing?

Brad Dowdy: Wow. That's all right.

Anna Reinhardt: Everybody is sick.

Brad Dowdy: I know. Myke sneezing. I've already gone mute twice just so I could, you know, cough on. So we're all sick. It's the, it's the sick podcast.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there must have been some, some contaminated ink somewhere. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But what, one, a couple of things on what Anna said and I think she's, she's totally right and on point. And I've also, one of the things I've always said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with getting your pen manufactured in China or, you know, buying any, you know, Chinese merchandise. It's that I don't think this is what Kickstarter should be used for, for one. And then, you know, it just kind of defeats the purpose of that whole creative thing. I mean, I guess, you know, I don't know. I just feel like there's not enough originality in this pen to say that this was an original design by, by someone. And when you might, he might've put his stamp on it, you know, his, like you said, you know, here's, here's kind of some of the specs I want. But, you know, all of that's pretty much pre-made stuff.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah. And when you put it up against some of the other pens that have been on Kickstarter that were more original designs like Karis Customs, where they're hand tooling them, they're making a point of making them in the United States, and they're making them one at a time. You know, I mean, it's, you feel like you're really supporting a small business, trying to get their feet under them, and get a business, like a business model going, where I feel like this guy is sort of a one and done. He's going to do this. He's going to make his bankroll or whatever. And I don't know that we'll ever hear from him again. You know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. We might, I don't know, he can, he might can design another pen and just kind of go the same route. I mean, it's just the same as, you know, some of the, some of the American retail, online retailers that stock, you know, all the basic Chinese fountain pens like Jin Hao and Hero and some of these that would just stock them, but except for they're selling them for what would be a normal retail price, you know, like in the $5 or $10 range. But Morgan's like really jacked up this price. And I just don't think it's fair or fair is not the right word, but I just don't think people who are purchasing it understand what they're purchasing it, purchasing. And that, that, that has kind of never gotten through to a lot of the backers on the Visionaire. And, you know, there's nothing we can really do about that. But I, I just think, you know, things like Morgan, I think it's very telling, Myke, when Morgan's, okay, so the Visionaire is $37, right? And when he says things like he's spending all this money, like on packaging, like he said, he spent $5 alone on the packaging. That's extremely telling to me. Which he didn't plan for up front, the packaging. It came after the fact. And he's saying he spent $5 on each of these packages. That's 15% of the total, or about 15%, I guess, of the total cost of the pin that he didn't plan for up front. So what is he paying for these pins? That's what it's telling to me, which makes me think it's exactly what we, what I think it is. Does that make sense?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I get it. Okay. I agree.

Brad Dowdy: So that's, that's, these are the things that are coming out that are, you know, I'm, I'm trying to, trying to justify in my head. And in, in a lot of it, I'm, it, it doesn't add up to what it should be. Anyway, I said, we're going to stop talking about this. It's just hard because we keep getting asked about it too. So, but yeah, I, but I also, I do see your point, Myke, where there is a fair probability, or there is at least some chance that it could be perfectly legit. But I, I mean, legit, it's not, and Morgan's not doing anything illegal or bad. You know, I just think, you know, it's, I don't know. It's just not right through Kickstarter to, to do this type of thing. So anyway.

Myke Hurley: How's not co going?

Brad Dowdy: It's going good. Um, I w I was behind on the sewing machines this weekend again. Um, Jeff keeps throwing me behind there. Um, you know, hopefully I'm doing a good job. I think I am. So it's fun. Um, we finally got all the money transferred as of like Friday. So we were, we were able to order, start ordering. I ordered a bunch of products, a bunch of stuff, a bunch of materials this weekend. Um, actually in the, in the, um, like our famous, uh, UPS driver ringing the doorbell during the, uh, during the podcast several times back in the day, it's very possible that an 18 wheeler could be rolling up with, um, packaging supplies.

Myke Hurley: No way.

Brad Dowdy: Any minute. Um, while we're, how much have you ordered? A lot. We got a lot of cases to ship. So, you know, humble brag. Yeah. Well, there was 2000 and something backers. There's nothing, nothing humble bragging about it. It's right there in black and white. So I'm sending out at least that many orders. I can tell you that.

Brad Dowdy: So, but yeah, I, I ordered so much packing supplies. It has to come on a, uh, on a large semi truck. Wow. It's too much for like UPS and stuff to handle. So, yeah. So that actually might be rolling up. I heard my phone ring out, uh, out in the kitchen. So I'm wondering if that's the truck driver saying he's close. So we'll, we'll see if he, uh, he rolls in during, during this episode.

Myke Hurley: It's like, I imagine you've, you've always dreamed of something related to your pen hobby arriving on a truck.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I never, I never thought of it that way. Um, I didn't think it was going to be, uh, envelopes, but yeah, still it's, it's cool. So I'm going to be the, uh, the shipping department, uh, here at my house is going to be kicking into high gear in about, I don't know, maybe a week or so. So, and we have most of the early bird stuff done already. So I don't want people to think that it's getting ready to ship and they should expect it any day now, but hopefully, you know, by around another week, week and a half, I can start getting some packages in the mail to the post office and some of the early bird people will start seeing their stuff in early December. I hope. So that's the plan right now.

Myke Hurley: Yay. Yay. That's awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We're excited. We're excited. So, uh, we're just cranking away. We've got lots more cases to go, but, um, everything's going pretty good so far. No change in shipping dates or anything like that. So everything's looking just fine. So go planning.

Brad Dowdy: We'll see if we'll see if we pull through, but yeah, it's going good, going good. All right. One last, one last thing that just popped up on my screen before we, we got on this call and before we get into the gift guide episode, which I'm actually really excited about doing. And I want to hear about some of these, these pens and, and papers and things that we're all, uh, that we all like and want to recommend to other people. But, um, our friend and listener and five by five Jackal, Mikey reach, um, sent me a tweet right before I got online that one of my, um, old, I guess one of my old pen reviews for a pilot G two, a mini pilot G two and turquoise landed on Reddit in the penmanship porn. Uh, subreddit for an, under the title of that sexy architect penmanship.

Myke Hurley: Yep. That's, that's you all over buddy.

Pen Puns

Brad Dowdy: And it was just too funny to not, to not share this in the, uh, in the show notes and talk about it on the episode, but it's just hilarious. Cause it's really, it's a poor example of my handwriting. Um, I felt, and I actually responded if, uh, I won't tell everyone my Reddit name, but if you go in there, go in that thread, I have responded to that thread and you can figure it out. Um, my Reddit name. Um, and I, I've replied back with basically, you know, here's a, here's a link to what I think is my good penmanship that, you know, puts that, uh, puts that one that they link to in shame, but in, in typical Reddit form, the highest ranking, uh, reply to the original post is, is a pun on one of the, uh, I guess a pen pun on one of the words or one of the sentences that I put in there. And, and we all got a, quite a laugh about that. I don't know if I can say that on the episode.

Myke Hurley: I would leave it out, but people can go and can go and find it themselves. Now they're extra curious. Yeah. People will definitely go now. So you'll find it in the show notes, which you can find at five by five dot TV slash pen addict slash 81.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So you can see all the pen, the pen puns that, uh, everyone enjoyed, uh, posting and that are all that have, uh, been upvoted the most. And then you can, you can find my, my secret Reddit name if you, uh, if you want to stalk me on Reddit now, which I'm not very active on Reddit, but I do have an account just for things like this. So I can reply if I need to, but anyway. All right. Let's get into this gift guide, Myke.

Myke Hurley: All right. Well, before we do that, we should take a moment to thank our sponsor.

Brad Dowdy: I think. Absolutely.

Myke Hurley: Would you agree, sir?

Brad Dowdy: I very much agree.

Myke Hurley: So let's take a moment to thank our fine sponsor for this episode. Just the great people over at squarespace.com.

Myke Hurley: Squarespace are the all in one platform that make it fast and easy to create your own professional website online or online portfolio, maybe a site for a store, a blog, whatever you want to put online, they can help you out with a free trial and 10% off your first purchase. You want to go to squarespace.com and use the code Tallyho 11. Now you've heard us talk about the great stuff at Squarespace, like the 24 seven customer support. They have beautiful templates, which make it really easy to make your pages, design your pages. I redesigned my blog a couple of days ago. Just took me half an hour. I tried out a few different themes, picked one that I like, made some more tweaks to it. And I love it. I'm really happy with it. But I wanted to take a moment today to talk about something very awesome that Squarespace have just released in the last couple of days. They have released some new iOS apps and there are some Android apps coming very soon. And what they've done is they've completely overhauled what they had on iOS. So they've got two new apps now, one called Blog and one called Metrics. And with the Blog app, you can easily draft, post and schedule. You can also review your posts there too, if you maybe you've got a multi-author blog. And what they've done is they've fully integrated it with their layout engine system, which is their page building system. So you can really easily format text and markdown for your posts. But my favorite thing is when you insert an image, you can tap it and hold it and drag it around the page to position it. I've never done something like that on iOS before in like a blogging application. I've never seen that before. And I think that's really awesome because it allows you some real good control with how your images are going to be seen. And also the Squarespace Metrics app, what they've done is it has all of the statistics that you'd find in Squarespace. So like your page views, unique visitors, and they can give you projections as well for your website as well to guess how much traffic you can get over a certain period. But they've also integrated with social stuff. So you can see how many, you can like have your Twitter accounts in there and your Facebook accounts and your Instagram accounts. And you can see how many friends and followers and stuff like that that you have. So it's a couple of really cool apps. So just they come free with all Squarespace accounts. So you have to have a Squarespace account to use them. And I think that it's just another thing that makes Squarespace superior to everybody else when it comes to building a website. Brad, did you have anything that you wanted to say at all about the apps that I haven't?

Brad Dowdy: Well, the apps, the first round of apps, Squarespace has been doing these iOS apps since I guess Squarespace version 5, I'm guessing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it was 5, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and they've been a real challenge for Squarespace. And people like myself who update their blogs frequently had constant issues with the old versions of apps to the point where I would delete the app and not use it. And then I'd add it back. They'd make some update and then I'd add it back. And still the functionality just wasn't there. And the old app combined the blog piece and the editing piece and it had the metrics all in that same app. And it was all in one app, just like one blog app. Now they've broken it out. And I just downloaded it last night so I haven't played. One of the worst things in the old app was editing an existing post. Like if I put out a post and someone pinged me later that I made a typo, which I love when people do. I don't take offense to that at all. It's horrible. And I want to be corrected because I'm a terrible speller. And sometimes I don't catch everything. In the old app, if I'd go and edit them in the app, I would just end up destroying my whole post through the iOS app. It just didn't work for me. And the markdown wasn't integrated very well. And I wrote all my posts in markdown. So it just something would happen in there. So I think this new app is built with things like that in mind.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, definitely.

Brad Dowdy: So it's going to be a lot easier to work with my blog in these apps. And I don't know. I might start. I'm going to maybe test doing some posts in that and see if it would make it easier. Because I think the one thing, I use my phone for pretty much everything now except for writing. And just because I don't have to put all these images and links in my posts. And that's harder to do on the phone than just writing straight text and formatting it with markdown links or whatever. So I'm anxious to try this out. And I'll tell you what, they look beautiful. They did a good job on the design. And so I'm anxious to give it a full run through and see how many improvements they've made. But it looks like it's on the right track so far.

Myke Hurley: So if for any reason you've heard about the app not being perfect, I mean, in all honesty, and this isn't me just saying it, I never had a problem with the apps. I know that people did, but I was always fine. Maybe it's just because I don't really post too often. So it was okay for what I needed. But you can go and try them out for yourself now. Go sign up for a free trial. You can give all the stuff at Squarespace a whirl. So you can start a free trial now. No credit card needed to do so. And when you decide to sign up, then you use the offer code Tallyho11. That's T-A-L-L-Y-H-O-1-1. It's going to get you 10% off your first purchase. And we'll show your support for the pen out in all of 5x5. So that's Squarespace. Everything that you need to create an exceptional website.

Myke Hurley: So let's do this thing. So we have our gift guide. So we have a few categories for the gift guide. We have regular pen, fountain pen, ink, paper, accessory, and then some sort of random picks at the end. I think we've got a couple of those.

Myke Hurley: I seem to have personally not put in a wishlist item. So I will be doing that. We also have a wishlist item as well. So I will come up with one of those.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, that was official show mascot Kanuni Vanishin's idea. We were talking about doing a gift guide. She says, yeah, do the gift guide. But I want to know what you guys want for the holidays too. So that was at her request.

Myke Hurley: I will think of something and put it in.

Brad Dowdy: She will write bad things about you.

Myke Hurley: I know. I must make sure that I will suffer at the wrath of our mascot if I do not provide a wishlist item. So by the time that we get around to that, luckily it's the last one, I will definitely have one. Because I have some lists of stuff that I don't like anyway. I will start off being Mr. Obvious. I feel like my list is not going to be as exciting as Brad and Anna's. I feel like most people could probably just guess mine. And if you just stop the show now and have a guess, you'd probably get them. But I feel like some of my stuff is excellent. And I will obviously start off with what I consider to be one of the best pens ever made. For my sort of regular pen is the Retro 51 Tornado Rollerball Pen. I just think for $20, they range from about $20 to $25.

Jet Pens

Myke Hurley: Jet pens have a pretty good range of the colours and styles. I just don't think you can get better. The build quality and the look, they're so distinctive. They look so much more expensive than they are. And they're a real sort of talking point pen. They have some special edition ones that go up to like $30, which are made out of really cool metals. I've been speaking about these pens for ages. And it seems to be like a staple of the show that people will buy one as an entry pen. And then we'll send in pictures of us or tweets to us where they say that we're right and it's an incredible pen. If you are getting started or you know somebody in your life that wants to get started with looking at pens in a new way and buying some nicer stuff, I don't think you can do any better for the quality, for the price limit that you get with the Retro 51.

Brad Dowdy: I still think to this day it's probably one of my most recommended pens by far.

Myke Hurley: I just can't see why you wouldn't be able to use it. Like I just can't see how it could be a problem for somebody.

Anna Reinhardt: I have even bought one this year and I like it too.

Myke Hurley: Excellent.

Anna Reinhardt: It's a big pen. Hey, it was green. What can I say?

Myke Hurley: Yes. You made the right choice. So Anna, what is your recommendation in this category?

Anna Reinhardt: Well, I kind of expected someone else to mention the Retro 51. So I decided to go a little bit different with a regular pen and assume that maybe this is another pen addict trying to sort of get a friend, family member interested in something other than what comes out of their office supply cabinet at work. So I suggested maybe doing like a multi-pen set like the Pilot Juice has a 12 color set that you can get for $20.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Anna Reinhardt: About 20 bucks, which is just they're nice pens. They're retractable gel ink.

Anna Reinhardt: I like them. They've been my sort of go-to pen this year, the one that sits in the cup on my desk.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, those are awesome pens. I keep – that's something every time I order something from JetPens, I usually throw one or two more of the juice in there, especially since they come in the .38 now, which I like.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah, me too.

Brad Dowdy: And they come in all these great colors. That's an awesome idea. And then plus you can put a little note with the link to the website in it and they can go have some more fun.

Multi-Pen

Anna Reinhardt: Absolutely. And then, I mean, if buying somebody like a whole set of pens wasn't something that appealed, my other option would be to do like a multi-pen. So, if you were looking for something that was like a higher end, the Zebra Charbo, which comes in at about $50, but will hold – is it two? Two plus one. Two plus a mechanical, or you can put a gel or ballpoint in there. Yep. But that seemed like the kind of thing where you could, again, maybe buy the case for somebody and then give them a gift certificate for JetPens to fill it themselves or at least get them started with some stuff. And if, you know, $50 for a Charbo is too much for somebody, something like the Uni Style Fit, they have a new one called the Meister. I hadn't seen it before. It's a three color and it's $16.50. It seemed like a good option. And of all the multi-pens that I have, I tend to use the Uni Style Fit more than I use the Hi-Tech C Colito or any of the other ones I have floating around. I keep them all at work and they just sort of randomly go with me to meetings. So, I really like the Unis. They write really well even after they've been sitting on my desk for a year.

Myke Hurley: The Colito would actually be my choice. I bought one of those well over a year ago and I don't use it very often, but I did really, really enjoy it. I like that a lot. A lot of really cool colors you could get for that too.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Well, like you, Anna, I assume for my regular pen category, I assume someone on this panel would mention Retro 51, so I didn't go there either.

Myke Hurley: Mr. Predictable.

Brad Dowdy: So, I went a little bit off the reservation and this is a new pen. I just, I bet I've only had it not even a month and it really caught me off guard how much I like it because I thought it would be okay. I didn't expect to love it like I do and that's the Lamy 2000 ballpoint.

Brad Dowdy: It's, when I buy a pen and I spend as much time just looking at it and holding it as much as I do writing with it, I know it's pretty special. So, it, I've shown this pen to a couple people like Jeff, my partner at Knock and he's just like blown away by the construction of it. But, um, I was a little bit worried before I ordered it about the refill. And, you know, if the refill was no good, I was going to be disappointed. Um, the refill is actually spectacular. It's very smooth, very clean writing. Um, and as a matter of fact, my wife has already laid claim to this pen. So, if that tells you anything, um, I'm going to have to order her some blue refills for it. But, um, I no longer have this Lamy 2000 that I just bought because she liked it so much. Um, I, I gave it to her. So, she's going to use that at work. But, I was very impressed with this pen. And, um, surprisingly so. And, and liked it enough that I think it's, uh, it's well worth a recommendation for, uh, if someone's looking for a good gift for someone. I think it's $65. So, it's not exactly cheap. But, compared to the rest of the Lamy 2000 line and as beautiful and classically designed as this pen is, I think it's a pretty good deal.

Anna Reinhardt: Well, my initial thought as soon as I heard regular pen was to recommend the Karas Customs Retract. But, I don't think that they're finished with their Kickstarter yet. I went and looked at their website. And, um, it says you can pre-order. But, I don't know if they'll have them ready in time for the holidays.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. That was on my short list as well, too. And, I just got mine in, uh, from the Kickstarter campaign, uh, last week. And, I'm liking it a lot.

Anna Reinhardt: Which one did you get?

Brad Dowdy: I got the, the regular, the standard aluminum. And, I have filled it with the Uniball Sino RT .38 millimeter blue black refill. And, it's killer. Fits great. Works great. Looks great. It's awesome.

Anna Reinhardt: I'm curious about the weight on the, uh, the aluminum. If you get around to, uh, weighing it, I'd be curious. Because, I have a brass one and it weighs a ton.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Anna Reinhardt: It's beautiful, but it's heavy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Myke, I sent Myke the Render K in brass. And, I have the Bolt in brass. And, they're all way too heavy for me.

Myke Hurley: No, I have the Bolt in brass.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, you have the Bolt in brass. So, I have the Render K in brass. I'm a mistake. And, those crossed up.

Myke Hurley: It's a lot lighter. I've had my retract for a while. Because, I'm special. Yeah. And, it's, it's much, much lighter than the brass Render K. I think, the brass ones are just heavy. Works heavy by nature, you know.

Anna Reinhardt: I like keeping it on my desk as a potential weapon.

Myke Hurley: That's, do you know what? I kind of feel like the Karas Customs guys would like that, in a way. Oh, yeah. Totally. I think they would be happy to hear that people are protecting themselves with their pens. I thought that's something Dan would be happy with. So, moving on to fountain pens.

Myke Hurley: So, I, recently I've been using the stuff that I bought at the pen show. However, due to a package that I received from our guest today, I came in possession of a Twisby nib in fine. And, I put it on my Twisby 540. Which, I have the 540 ROs. The Rubber Cochina, the ROC Special Edition. And, I've fallen in love with the Twisby 540 again. It's all I've used for the last week. Sweet! I just, I'd forgotten how incredible this pen was. Because, I'd been using the Mini. And, I'd loved the Mini. And, then I moved away into other things. And, now I've gone back to the 540. And, the fine nib is just incredible. So, like, as I've moved towards that a little bit more as well since the last time I used this. And, it performs excellently on all paper types. So, I can write. I love having a fountain pen that I can reliably write in field notes with. When it's clipped to my field notes, it's pretty much just the same size as the book. Which is good. And, having the full size pen again has just been fantastic. And, in the same vein as the Retro 51.

Myke Hurley: If you can, the thing is, if you can find a 540. Because, they're more difficult to find now. Because, they, I'm right in thinking that, aren't I Brad? That the 540 is a little bit harder to come by.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the 580 is essentially replaced the 540.

Myke Hurley: Now, it may be that the 580 works just as well. But, I haven't used that. So, I wouldn't want to recommend it. But, you can grab it from Colt pens. Colt pens have a few colors of the 540 left. And, it's pretty well priced. I mean, it's 42 pounds. Which, for the quality of fountain pen that you're getting. I mean, obviously, if you're in the UK. It helps with not having to do the exchange. I just think it's absolutely excellent. And, thank you Anna for highlighting this pen again to me.

Anna Reinhardt: No problem. Actually, I think the 580, the only change was they did some improvements on the plastic. Because, I guess some people were having issues with the plastic on the 540s cracking. So, I think there's an extra ring somewhere just to protect the plastic from, I think maybe people were over twisting the cap or the nib. Do you know Brad?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, there's a metal piece in the section now. So, to help prevent that cracking.

Myke Hurley: But, you can't get the beautiful 540 ROC. No. No. No. That was one of my favorite purchases. I think it's potentially one of the, if not most, beautiful pen that I own, in my opinion. I just love it. I love it so much. Especially with blue ink in it. Because, it's got a clear body. So, yeah. Thanks to Brad for first planting that seed in my mind.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, I bought you that one too. Well, I mean, you paid for it. But, I ordered it for you. You did?

Myke Hurley: Without you, I wouldn't have got it.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes, sir. Awesome. That's a good one.

Myke Hurley: So, Anna, what is your fountain pen of choice?

Kaweco Sport

Anna Reinhardt: Well, I have been seeing a lot of people posting the Kaweco Sport art editions. And, I thought those would be absolutely spectacular as a gift because the plastics have that wonderful sort of modeled look. Brad, didn't you just get an amber one?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It is beautiful.

Anna Reinhardt: And, I think Ed Jelly just recently did a post that he got one of the amber ones too. But, I found a website that showed all the different colors. There's a wonderful sort of yellow. There's a purple. And, then there's one that's – and I'm going to butcher this pronunciation. But, it's like Aksahir. Yeah. Does that sound right?

Myke Hurley: Aksahir. I was just about – that is incredible.

Anna Reinhardt: It's amazing.

Myke Hurley: Why haven't I seen these?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I haven't figured out – I'll have to email Kaweco and see. But, I don't understand. These apparently have been out for like six or eight years. What? At least in a couple of the colors. And, then they keep adding colors. But, none of the retailers here in the U.S. really carry them. So, it's very odd to me because it's an amazing pen.

Myke Hurley: Oh, man. Maybe this is my wish list item. I had one. But, now maybe it's this. Look at this thing. Wow. Okay. Well, I'm –

Anna Reinhardt: You know, I'm a Kaweco fan to begin with. So, for me, this would be like – yeah. This sort of moves into sort of wish list territory. But, I think, you know, it's a good pen. It's good quality. And, it's something that's very unusual. And, a little, you know, would be harder for people to find. So, it would make a good gift.

Myke Hurley: Where did you get yours from, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: Kaweco themselves. They sent it to me.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. Of course. Yes. Because you're –

Brad Dowdy: As part of the – they did a blogger package where they sent a bunch of pens and inks out. And, that was one of them. Okay.

Anna Reinhardt: I was so jealous.

Myke Hurley: I will stand by awaiting the podcaster package to arrive.

Anna Reinhardt: The guest on the podcast blogger package? I'd like one of those, too.

Brad Dowdy: We should – We'll put in a mention. Excellent. You're up, Doughty. All right. So, mine's also on the mini-pin bandwagon here, like Anna's Art Sport. The Franklin Kristoff Model 40 Pocket.

Myke Hurley: Oh, here's another wish list item now. Yeah, no kidding.

Brad Dowdy: This pen is amazing. This is – I'm going to cut to the chase. This is my favorite pen I own right now.

Myke Hurley: Oh, what? Oh, Doughty. Wow. Why are you doing this to me?

Brad Dowdy: This – it is so cool. It is just the coolest thing to look at. I've taken a bunch of pictures. If you follow me on Instagram at all, you'll see all my little pictures of this pen because it is just so cool looking. It's the smoke and ice. It's this acrylic with this smoky kind of finish on it where you can see the inks through the barrel. I mean, it's really, really well done. And the thing that really sets it off is the nib that I chose, I think. And that Franklin Kristoff does a whole set of standard nibs. And they're one price, like for the Model 40, I think for the standard nibs, it's $119.50 with a steel nib. And you can choose every size, extra fine, medium, stub nibs, whatever. Then they have a second set of nibs that have been finished by Myke Masuyama, who I always talk about, who does fantastic nib work. And he does specialty nibs where you can choose a steel needlepoint nib, which is finer than the extra fine. Or you can choose a cursive italic, a medium cursive italic, which is the one I chose. Plus another few Masuyama nibs. And there's $135 or $139. It's either $15 or $20 more. That is well worth the cost. This nib I have is spectacular. I started working on the review for this pen last night. And there's not a pen in my collection right now that I'm reaching for and using more than this Model 40 pocket.

Myke Hurley: You did the crazy thing with the ink, though, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yes, I converted it to an eyedropper. So it's a cartridge pen, just like any of the Kaweco Sport pens. You pop the small international cartridge in and you're good to go. But the way this pen's designed, especially on the clear models, I think it comes in some solid barrel models, black and green and some cream color and some various other non-translucent barrels. But for the translucent barrel, there was no way I wasn't going the eyedropper route. And they designed it to accommodate that. Franklin Korsoff did. So you just put a little silicon gel around the threads. I was nervous about doing it because I've never done it before. And this is a pocket pen that you literally do carry in your pocket just because of its size, like in a pants pocket. And I was concerned about it linking, but it works so well. And it's cool. This is the coolest pen I own right now. I'm having more fun with this pen than I've had with any other pen in a long time. Sorry.

Anna Reinhardt: Troublemaker.

Brad Dowdy: I know. Yes. How's your wish list looking now, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Well, now I've got three things on it now.

Myke Hurley: So we're going to ink now. And I think for me, you know, I can only really recommend the ink that I've been using all year, which is the Hiroshizuku Konpeki, which is a deep azure blue ink. It's by Pilot.

Myke Hurley: I just love the color. The blue color is just fantastic. I really like the orange ink that I have as well from the range. But I think just as a, you know, you can't really use orange ink everywhere all the time. So I think this is a really, really beautiful blue. And it's a purchase decision that I was very, very happy that I made.

Brad Dowdy: And it looks good in the rock.

Myke Hurley: I'm sure it does.

Anna Reinhardt: Well, I took two different paths. One of which is to say if you're looking for an ink gift for someone else, then Goulet Pen's ink drop subscription, totally the way to go. So they get to try a bunch of different kinds of ink and then sort of make a commitment to what they like. But the U.S. subscription is $10 a month and it's $15 a month for overseas.

Anna Reinhardt: And they have a prepay option. So if you were to buy it as a gift for a friend or a family member, you could just say, I'm going to buy three months worth or six months worth or a year, which I think is really cool. And I've had a subscription now for going on two years and they've yet to duplicate a color. So you get five samples each month.

Anna Reinhardt: And so I have, what does that mean? I've probably got over 200 sample bottles.

Myke Hurley: There's a thing about that though for me where I'm worried that yes, it's awesome to get all these sample bottles. But then how many bottles of ink am I going to buy?

Anna Reinhardt: The crazy thing, to be honest, I have to admit I don't actually buy that much because I know I'm going to get five more samples next month. So I know I'm going to have something else to play with. And so a lot of times I'm sort of satisfied with, I really like this color. It was great for, I mean, because there's enough in the sample bottle for at least probably two loads on, you know, on a larger sized pen. Probably three if you're just like refilling cartridges or something like that. And at a certain point, you hit a point where you're like, okay, that color was fun. What else can I play with? So I really like that. But I also like the idea that you can pick inks based on someone's other interests because ink manufacturers name their inks after all sorts of different things. So like Scribble inks has, all their inks sort of have a steampunky name to them. And they're really nice inks. So they have like Kraken and Nessie. And so, I mean, if you know anybody who's really into steampunk and pens, a couple bottles of Scribble would be cool. If somebody's into history, Noodlers has so many different inks that are, you know, Air Corps Blue or Antietam or Burma Road. You know, so it's like in each of those colors. And I mean, every one of these brands, they make great inks. So it's, I mean, it's just a matter of picking either colors that you like or colors that maybe would mean something to somebody else. Like Diatramentus did a series of literary figures. So ink colors based on a literary figure. So there's Sherlock Holmes. There's Jane Austen. There's Charles Dickens. And yes, I realize one of those is not an author.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, actually, I ended up with the Ben Franklin Diatramentus. And that was shockingly good. I think it's very nice.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah. So, I mean, I just think there's so many different, you know, I mean, if you know somebody who's particularly, you know, interested in a particular topic. Like, Diamine has a whole set of, like a box set of inks that are all based on flowers, like inspired by flowers. So if you know somebody who's a gardener or into flowers or just would think it was pretty. And there are, like, slightly smaller bottles. So there's, I think there's 10 bottles in there. And it's about, I think, $89. A little pricey for a gift, but kind of cool.

Roar and Klingner

Brad Dowdy: All right. I went with the Roar and Klingner Scabiosa. And the reason I did that is because I don't think this thing gets enough love. It is such a.

Anna Reinhardt: It's because of the name.

Brad Dowdy: It's totally because of the name. So I'm going to keep calling it. I'm going to keep saying it. The Scab Inc.

Anna Reinhardt: Maybe it can sound more like Harry Potter, like Scabioso.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I know. It's totally because of the name. I think that it doesn't get enough love. But when you see this ink on paper, it's one of the coolest, coolest inks going. I always make sure I have some pen inked up with this. Usually a wider nib pen because it's got good shading, like a stub nib. It's in my Twisby Mini Stub a lot just because I like writing, you know, letters or notes with that and sending them off. And people always comment, what's that ink you use? What's that? What is that ink? And it's Roar and Clingner Scabiosa. I don't even know if I'm saying it right. But I guess it's – I've looked it up before. I guess it's a plant or a berry or something like that is where the name comes from. But it's a beautiful kind of a dusty purple ink that I never thought I would like until I got a sample of it. And now I own a bottle of it. And it's always loaded because it is just that good.

Myke Hurley: It's just a shame about the name.

Brad Dowdy: It is. It is. So I'm going to keep saying it. And that way people will just buy it and they'll go, oh, I should have bought this Scabiosa a long time ago.

Anna Reinhardt: Brad's Ink has Scabies.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Man, it does. It does.

Myke Hurley: So in regards to paper, I mean, I think I may be not going with the obvious choice. I'm going to pick what's probably the best notebook that I've used in the last year, which is the Rodeo Web Notebook. I've only used one of them just because I've had things like field notes and stuff kind of get in the way. And I don't really use this size of notebook anymore. But if you are like a – maybe you've got somebody in your life who is a professional person and they work in an office and everybody has the Moleskine notebook. Well, you can get them one of these and you can get them either in orange or they have a bunch of colors now as well, as well as just the black and orange standard. And they have like turquoise and purple and loads of different really interesting colors of the web notebook. And they have them in different sizes too. But the paper quality is bar none for this type of notebook. And I think that especially if somebody in your life is a fountain pen user, then they're really, really going to love the Rodeo paper.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's a great choice. I'm very happy with all the web notebooks and pretty much any Rodeo product you can't go wrong with.

Anna Reinhardt: Absolutely.

Brad Dowdy: So what do you have on it for paper?

Word Notebooks

Anna Reinhardt: Okay, I got two things. One is the new standard memorandum agenda from Word Notebooks. Have you guys seen this yet?

Brad Dowdy: Yes, I've seen the pictures and it looks killer.

Anna Reinhardt: It's so beautifully designed. Damn you, John Contino.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm a huge John Contino fan, so that's kind of a no-brainer.

Anna Reinhardt: It's interesting because he did the covers on the Doan notebooks, right? Right. Their pocket notebooks.

Brad Dowdy: He did the special edition. He did the special edition. There was a Doan, John Contino edition, the one with the burgundy cover.

Anna Reinhardt: With the white lettering.

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Anna Reinhardt: But yeah, so this standard memorandum, he kind of, John did a bunch of research about, I guess his grandfather had these old little pocket agendas that he kept. And he, like, noted the weather or any event that happened. And I guess he found this whole, like, box of his, you know, like, 20 years, 30 years of his grandfather's life sort of documented in these little notebooks. And he's like, I want to make some of those. And so he worked with Word Notebooks. So it's like a tall, skinny format that would probably fit pretty easily in a back pocket or a shirt pocket. And then the books themselves are $11 for 2014. And then they also have leather covers that you can slide the book into, which they're selling for $45. And you get the book and the cover for $45.

Brad Dowdy: So. Yeah, I think I might have to get, I might have to break down and get one of those. Because I really like how they look. I think I like the format.

Anna Reinhardt: The designer says yes. Like, everything, the type is beautiful. The, like, everything he did aesthetically is really nice.

Myke Hurley: Hopefully they're functional. They'll give you a monogram. They'll do a monogram for free on the leather cover as well. Which is kind of classy. Nice.

Anna Reinhardt: So hopefully they'll keep doing this each year and you can just refill the leather cover each year.

Anna Reinhardt: Kind of just keep track of sort of those little life events and stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Well, my paper choice was definitely on the obvious side. I picked up Myke's obvious mantle here. But with a specific intent in mind, since a lot of times during the holidays, one of the biggest gifts that people give each other is booze. So I thought that for all your booze-loving friends that the Field Notes Drink Logo Ales and Lagers Pack is, like, it's probably one of the best gifts this Christmas. Even for people who don't use paper and might, you know, use notebooks like we use. And if you want to get them into something that's cool and they just don't think, yeah, you sent me a notebook. You know, it comes with, you know, all the notebooks have the different beer names. Plus it comes with this cool coaster that they can use. So I think just from a gift perspective, I think this would be one of the coolest things. And if you get a pack of each, that's $20, which is a pretty good gift range price for people. I think it's kind of a no-brainer Christmas gift for a lot of people that want to, you know, either throw it in, you know, someone's stocking or give it to them as a gift, you know, along with their bottle of whiskey or their case of beer.

Anna Reinhardt: Or you could start somebody's Field Notes subscription this month. Oh, look at you. And they would get the Lagers and Ales in the package, I think, that comes in the little cardboard carrier that makes it look like a little six-pack.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep.

Anna Reinhardt: And then they'd get three more over the course of the year plus a set of, two sets of craft.

Brad Dowdy: A set of mixed and a set of graph. Is that how it was?

Myke Hurley: I think so.

Brad Dowdy: But anyway, on a side note there, the email came out this week. It did. So stay tuned.

Myke Hurley: New edition.

Anna Reinhardt: No way. I missed my email.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Anna Reinhardt: My junk mail filter's working overtime.

Brad Dowdy: I think it came out this morning or last night, something like that.

Myke Hurley: I think it was yesterday. And do you know what, Brad? This marks my renew time. Ah, cool.

Anna Reinhardt: Mine too.

Myke Hurley: Came around quick.

Anna Reinhardt: I'm hoping my husband gets me another subscription for Christmas. I made a point of saying, that'd make a great gift, hon.

Myke Hurley: It was a great idea for you. So yeah, I'm going to be renewing mine this week. One of the best purchases I made in the last year. I love it. Absolutely love it. So I recommend that too. Awesome. That actually leads quite nicely into my accessory pick. And I know that we spoke about it at length last week, so we don't need to go into too much detail. But the DoxyFlip, I think, is a really, really awesome accessory for the person in your life, the pen addict in your life, especially if they use the small notebooks. Like the Field Notes allows them to digitize them and just sort of bridges the gap between pen and paper and technology. So I would pick the DoxyFlip as a real great accessory.

Anna Reinhardt: You guys have me very interested in those.

Myke Hurley: It's definitely worth it. If you put a lot of notes into a book like a Field Notes, I would really recommend it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's very cool. I want to bring this thing around and let other people use it just so they can see how cool it is because it's that portable and that easy to use. And, you know, it's one of those products that just works and it does a really good job at what it's intended to do.

Anna Reinhardt: Well, speaking of things you can do with your Field Notes, my recommendation for an accessory is the Groove from Mr. Dudek.

Myke Hurley: Nice. Excellent choice.

Anna Reinhardt: I'm surprised at how much I like mine. I told Myke, I said, you know, I saw them and I thought, yes, that's a very masculine, it's kind of a dude thing. And then I got mine and I'm like, no, it looks awesome with all my vintage Estabrooks standing upright and proud.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it is extremely well designed and it's just cool to look at. I think that's Myke's best product yet.

Myke Hurley: Oh, easily. I use mine every day. When I come home, I put my Field Notes in the groove and that's where they live. And it's where I put most of my pens. I think they're fantastic. I really, really love it.

Brad Dowdy: My accessory that I chose is also something kind of, sort of, we've talked about recently, at least talked about one product. It's the One Star Leather Goods Kaweco Sport Pen Case. Now, I don't have this yet. I was going to order it and it just happened that Keegan and I, from one, Keegan from One Star happened to be conversing about his products and he offered to send me one. I don't ever ask vendors or retailers for products. It just happened that the timing worked out extremely well. I was hoping it would be in before this episode, but it is not yet. But regardless, I would order it and I'll probably order a couple more because I'd like my mini fountain pens like the Kawecos and like the Franklin Kristoff. And that's what I'm going to use it for is for that Franklin Kristoff Pocket 40. And I'll probably order another two or three of these just because they're a good price. It's $25 and, you know, Myke, you know how well that leather is made and how well it's stitched and how cool it looks. Yeah. I just think for something, this is something I've been looking for, for individual small fountain pens. And it looks ideal to me. So I can't wait to get this in.

Myke Hurley: Remember last week I was talking about an iPad case?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: One star?

Myke Hurley: I don't know what you're talking about.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah. I don't know what I'm – that was a – I'm sorry I sneezed right there. Sorry.

Brad Dowdy: You can edit that out. It's a bad sneeze.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So now we have a random pick. I figured, you know, since, you know, we had, you know, some defined topics, we could include anything from any of those other topics or any other random thing we wanted to think that would, you know, make a good gift guide selection. So what do you got, Myke?

Myke Hurley: The Cosmonaut Stylus by Studio Neat. Oh, that's a good call. I mean, I know there's been some talk today about this new stylus from the people that make the paper application.

Brad Dowdy: I hadn't seen that yet. I'll check that out.

Myke Hurley: I did see that. Yeah. The guys, I think it's 53 is the name of the company. And they've made a new stylus called Pencil. And it's like shaped like an architect's pencil. And it actually looks like it does some really awesome stuff. But they don't ship to the UK. But also, I mean, they've obviously done something really great. But I think it's, to me, clear that they've taken the cue from the Studio Neat guys in that they've not tried to create a pen. They've tried to create something bigger than a pen. Because an iPad does not have the precision to make a line like a pen. It just doesn't exist because their pressure sensitivity is not built into the screens. So Dan and Tom at Studio Neat, they came up with the Cosmonaut, which is, it feels like you're writing with a dry erase marker on the iPad. And it's built excellently well. And I really, really love mine. I've had it for a couple of years. And I still use it. It's absolutely fantastic.

Myke Hurley: So that's my choice.

Brad Dowdy: It's awesome. I'm actually on my second one because when we moved, I lost the first one I ordered. And I said, well, I don't really need a stylus. I can get along without it. And that lasted about a week. And I ordered a second one.

Myke Hurley: Oh.

Brad Dowdy: It's that good. I love that stylus.

Myke Hurley: It is really, really cool.

Anna Reinhardt: I was looking at the paper 53 pencil today. And to me, it looks more like a carpenter's pencil. Yeah, that's what they look like. Like a flat, wide.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Anna Reinhardt: But the price point is, I don't know, for a stylus, it makes me a little nervous. How much is it? The U.S. price is about $60. They have one that's actually like a birch. I think it was a birch or some sort of wood. And then they had one that was aluminum. And I think the black aluminum was maybe $10 cheaper. But still, people always talk about how can you possibly spend $50, $60, $100 on a fountain pen? Because, you know, they always say, oh, I always misplace mine. I always lose mine. That's how I am with stylus. I go through them like, I don't know why. They just vanish. I cannot keep them. So I cannot bring myself to spend $60. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So this one has got Bluetooth technology in it as well. And it's doing some funky stuff. I think that's why it's a bit more expensive. It's expensive.

Anna Reinhardt: Yeah. But I'm curious to hear more about it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, me too. I really wish I could get my hands on one because it does look really cool. But maybe if somebody wants to help me do such a thing, let me know.

Cocktail Shaker

Anna Reinhardt: I'm sure we could find somebody who can help you. So, well, I went totally random on my selection. And I have been eyeballing a mason jar cocktail shaker.

Brad Dowdy: Nice.

Anna Reinhardt: Because the sound of ice clinking in a cocktail shaker is the happiest sound in the world to me. So, but my problem is like the metal cocktail shakers, I can never get those stupid things open. So my alcohol is trapped inside. I can't get it out.

Myke Hurley: Which is the worst possible thing to happen.

Anna Reinhardt: The worst part one is actually a twist top. So I think I can open that.

Brad Dowdy: Man, I love that. I'm going to have to check that out. That might go on my list. That's pretty cool. So for mine, for my random, I actually had a couple things down. And Ana, you covered one of them. The Goulet Pens Ink Drop, I think, is a great choice for a gift. Just for all the things you said, you get to try all these inks. You can purchase it for X amount of months as a gift. And along those same lines, my other choice is also a subscription type service that you can give as a gift. And that's Art Snacks. They do a cool little box. Once a month, you get four or five different art supplies. This is a great one for kids or for teenagers that are into art in school or even for your significant others that like to draw and experiment with new products. This kind of forces your hand by sending you different things that you maybe didn't know that you wanted or liked. And you can try different things. I mean, it comes with all different types of pens or paints or brushes or erasers. Just really all kinds of cool little things that you get in a box once a month. And Art Snacks, they sponsored the show before and they've always been on my radar as a great gift option for someone out there.

Myke Hurley: Listen to this.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. That was my last one.

Myke Hurley: I still get it every month. Nice. You've been liking it still? I don't use a lot of the stuff that comes in it. There's been a few things where I've used, but I really like receiving it. It's not that expensive and I end up with a bunch of really cool things. There are stuff in there. There's a bunch of markers that I have. So I have a bunch of cool permanent markers now. And they've got loads of jewel pens, brush tips and one side and a fine felt tip on the other. Just really cool stuff. And they include an American suite in each one, which I enjoy.

Brad Dowdy: What was the latest?

Myke Hurley: Oh, I think it was some... Oh, I think it was Laffy Taffy. Okay. Which I've never had before.

Anna Reinhardt: How much is the subscription?

Myke Hurley: I think it's 20 a month, I believe. Yeah, something like that. That's not bad. You just end up with a really random list. Like, you just have really a sort of random box of stuff. It's $20 a month. And you get four to five items in each pack.

Myke Hurley: I think it's cool. It's just a cool little thing to get. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Very cool.

Wish List

Myke Hurley: So we're onto the wish list now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Let's see what we want, what our listeners are getting us for Christmas.

Myke Hurley: So aside from the two that I've had added to my list, which is the Kaweco Art, and I'm really interested in the Axe here, which is like a silver black and a silver one, which is really nice. And the Franklin Kristoff, of course. I want a pelican.

Myke Hurley: I don't know what one I want because I'm scared of them. Oh my God. I think.

Anna Reinhardt: You stole my wish list item. Oh no.

Myke Hurley: Well, I haven't given a specific model. So I just want a pelican. I don't know what pelican I want. I'm kind of intimidated by them. So basically for me, I want one that somebody picks for me that they know is the right one.

Anna Reinhardt: Interesting. Well, I put on my wish list is the pelican M205. And when I told a friend of mine that I was thinking about getting one and I wasn't sure, fine, extra fine, something else, you know, she actually made a point of stopping whatever she was doing and writing me a letter with her M205 fine. To show me what it would look like. Oh, wow. And mailed it to me. And then like two weeks later, her pen case, I guess she left it on the train and she lost her M205. She did. She lost her M205 and she lost her Twisby and a couple of other pens. So I sent her my Twisby 540 because I felt so bad. I kept my mini, but I sent her my 540. But yeah, because I couldn't really replace her M205.

Myke Hurley: This is something you need to do with knock, Brad. You need to make an unlosable pen case.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, we're going to put some tracking in there and I'm going to get started working with the NSA. Yeah. I'm going to give them a call.

Anna Reinhardt: Because you can imagine somebody found her pen case on the train and was like, I don't want any of this stuff. This wasn't money. This wasn't credit cards. This is a bunch of pens and a glue stick.

Myke Hurley: Damn it. And they threw it. They probably threw it out. Oh, man. I know.

Anna Reinhardt: Isn't that awful? Yeah. So anyway, so M205 is on my list. So it's two pelicans. Which pelican? Oh, you know, I've gone back and forth. I've started with the white. Then I said red. Now I'm on to black. So any of the colors would be fine. Which one are you going to get me?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They're all good. They're all good. I thought you might go demonstrator style with the green.

Anna Reinhardt: I thought about it, but it comes with the double broad. So I'd have to have somebody buy me an extra nib, too.

Brad Dowdy: The classic red, white, or black, it's hard to go wrong with any of those.

Anna Reinhardt: I know. They're beautiful.

Brad Dowdy: So a pen that's been on my wish list for a while. And I don't know if or when I will ever get it because it's pretty expensive. But I've been fascinated ever since he introduced it. And that's Brian Gray's Edison Menlo pump filler. So what it is is Brian took an old-style filling system and modernized it into fitting his pens, which you know I love Edison pens as it is. And this is – it looks like the old vacuumatic-type filling system, which no one makes anymore. And that's maybe oversimplifying it. I think it's probably a little bit more detailed than that. But we'll put a link in the show notes. You can read about this filling system. But ever since Brian has released this pen, I've been eyeballing it. But it's pretty expensive. I want to say it starts like around $350.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it starts at $350.

Brad Dowdy: But – and since it's not a production line pen, it's a signature line pen in the way that works with Edison. If I did get to do this – well, he does have some that he makes, I guess, that are standard colors. There's a group of standard colors. But what you can do is you can actually specify some of the colors. I think that's a little more expensive to do that.

Myke Hurley: Dear Lord, they're beautiful, though. Oh, boy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I don't know. This isn't something I'm getting for Christmas. But it's one of the top items on my wish list just because it's – I mean, it's super stunning looking.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I can't say enough about this pen. I'm going to send this link to Anna that I just found. And she's going to yell at me. Oh, great. I just happened to stumble across this as I was scrolling through the Edison page.

Brad Dowdy: It's pretty awesome.

Anna Reinhardt: You are evil.

Brad Dowdy: I guess I should share this with Myke so he could see what I'm yelling at. But I found a nice translucent green one on there that I will have to – that's pretty sexy. So that's pretty close to the top of my wish list. So, yeah, the Edison Menlo pump filler. So that's something I want.

Brad Dowdy: I also put down that, you know, even if I didn't get a fountain pen, like for Christmas, one of the things I've been waiting for is for Myke Masuyama to get relocated out to L.A. so I could send him three or four pens for nib work. I mean, that's a good gift to give to myself because it's not cheap and it's not something you do all the time. And you've got to send your pens off for a month or two at a time. But I've been saving up for – and having some nibs to keep getting worked on. And, yeah, so that's really what I want to do for myself probably for Christmas.

Myke Hurley: There we go. I think that's it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, I think we got some good ideas here for people, hopefully.

Brad Dowdy: Maybe people should send us what's on their wish list for Christmas. Oh, yeah. I think on Twitter. They can send me and you and Anna.

Myke Hurley: That would be awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Because I would love to see – you always learn so much from our listeners and our Twitter followers and things like that. So see what's on everyone else's radar.

Anna Reinhardt: Totally. I would love to see that.

Brad Dowdy: So, Myke, you want to tell them how to get in touch?

Myke Hurley: Yes, please. I would love to. So you can get in touch with me. I am iMike. I-M-Y-K-E. If you'd like to get in touch with Mr. Brad Dowdy. He is at Dowdy. And, Anna, you are at WellAPT desk, right? APPT. APPT. Oh, so close. That's okay. And, well, at well, A-P-B-T desk. And Anna also writes at the well-appointed desk. And Brad is at The Pen Addict. So is that everything for everyone?

Brad Dowdy: I think we got it, sir.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Excellent. Anna, thank you for joining us. It's always a pleasure having you on the show.

Anna Reinhardt: Thank you for having me on again.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's a real pleasure every time you're on.

Anna Reinhardt: Thanks, guys.

Myke Hurley: And that's it for this week's episode of The Pen Addict. If you'd like to grab any of the links in our massive show notes this week, you can go to 5x5.tv slash penaddict slash 81. And me and Brad will be back next week. And if you need our shipping addresses, then just let us know. And thanks so much for listening. Say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Say goodbye, Anna.

Anna Reinhardt: Goodbye, Anna. Goodbye, Anna.