Editing The Pen Addict 313/transcript (section)

== New Releases ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' But everyone's spending an hour of their day with us today, Myke, on the pen addict podcast. Let's talk about today. We're talking about all the new things today, which is... We're pretty good at this. You know, I like getting new things, and I like talking about the new things, and people want to hear about the new things.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It hasn't happened by the time that we're recording, but I'm expecting a Field Notes drop.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, yeah. Is that today? I was thinking maybe next week.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I feel like it's got to be today. I already... I got my shipping notification last week.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, I feel like it's probably this week. I was really proud of a joke I made on Twitter last week. Sometimes I pat myself on the back. Like, they had their power blown out by a balloon getting stuck in electrical wire. Like, one of those, you know, aluminum balloons got up, blew out the electric wire. I said, oh, is this a hint for the summer release? I was really happy with that joke. It fell kind of flat, though. That's okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's all right. They're already on a rampage this morning for other reasons. You can go follow their feed for all the shenanigans. But I'm not here to talk about Field Notes unless it drops during the show. We're here to talk about Blackwing Volumes 1001. Hopefully, I said that right. We did a lot of Instagram pronunciation on my Instagram stories this morning, Myke. So, I'm hopefully pronunciified up. Is that a word for today's show? I think you've already ruined it by saying pronunciified. Yeah. Yeah. There's always a safe bet that I'm going to ruin something. But anyway, the newest Blackwing Volumes came out, the 1001.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Uh-huh.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And have you ever heard of a puzzle called the Kin Kin Puzzle? Absolutely not. Okay. Me neither. I maybe kind of heard of it at the time. Whoops. I just threw the pencil on the floor. Hang on. That's the point you have in front of me. So, that's the puzzle. You drop the pencil, you pick it up. Um, so, it's, um, you know, it's, I don't want to relate it to Sudoku, but they're probably in the same category of puzzle, you know, boxes and filling out numbers. And it's kind of like a crossword, cross mix. And the creator, his name is Tetsuya Miyamoto, invented this puzzle form in 2004. I'm reading this from the Blackwing site. And so, they made an addition to celebrate this puzzle. Um, and it came out really, really great. It's a beautiful looking pencil. I don't know how to explain the color finish on this. They call it a red stained barrel. It makes it almost look like a, uh, cypress wood or a cedar, like that red color in the cedar. But it's slick. So, it's not, uh, an unfinished pencil. It's a pencil, you know, it's got a coating on it. And what's interesting about this pencil, and it may be the only pencil I own that is this way. It's a five-sided pencil. And now, I know you don't have one of these in your hands. And I know you're not the biggest wooden pencil guy. But this is really strange, um, feeling. You wouldn't think for a pencil, you know, with this narrow of a diameter, those types of things, like, really change how the pencil feels in your hand. But one less side makes it weird. Like, I've used three-sided pencils plenty of times. And I've used six-sided pencils. And I've used round pencils. Heck, I've probably even used a four-sided square pencil at some point. But this five, um, five-sided pencil, it's a little bit weird. Like, if I think about it too much, it bothers me. If I just pick, pick it up and write, it's fine. Like, it's totally fine. It fits like my other six-sided, six-sided hex pencils. And it's good to go. But since I know it's five-sided, I think about it too much. And it's bugging me. So, I gotta use this more. But all signs point to this being a winner. I think it's a winner. It's got the 602 core, which is the standard firm core, which I love. Probably my favorite core, even more so than the extra firm. It holds a point nice. It's really sharp. And it's still got some softness to it. Their firm pencils are still a little bit soft. So, don't think of it like you're writing with a nail. So, I'm all in. And I continue to forget to send you pencils, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, tell me. Why would they do something like this? Is it because... I mean, the design of this pencil isn't as wild as their previous one. So, like, have they put their time into making it the five-side? Like, is that like the gimmick of this one?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, it's the gimmick. And it's also they like to tell stories about things that they find enjoyable and important. That's what all of these types of subscription services do. They want to tell a story that they think fits the brand. And the method of Miyamoto's puzzle making, you know, inspired them to do something to, you know, support that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' To honor that specific shape, right? That is like a classical shape. But it's not widely used now. Is that kind of the... Because you said, like, you've never had a five-sided pencil.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't think I own a five-sided pencil. And you wouldn't... Most people, if you just saw this pencil laying on a desk, picked it up, you wouldn't notice it. But I noticed it since they told me it's five-sided. And now I can't get it out of my head. And I'm sure there's other ones out there. I'm just not the pencil expert, as my friends at Erasable are, to know if you can get other, like, common five-sided pencils. So it's interesting. It's neat. The design is really, really good looking. They have been on quite a roll. I'm a big fan of these volumes from Blackwing. I've been a subscriber since day one. I enjoy them. You know, sometimes I buy... You get a dozen with each shipment. And every now and then I'll buy an extra dozen. Like, I won't buy an extra dozen of these pencils. They don't do it that much for me. I like some of their previous editions better. And I don't need that many pencils. But yeah, overall, I think this one's really, really good. So this one will be... If you're interested in it, just like the past two or three editions, they've been knocking them out of the park. They'll sell out quickly. So you should check them out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think that they've clearly done a good job here. Because I see people getting as excited about the Blackwing release as Field Notes. You know, like I feel that maybe of all of the subscription services, stationary subscription items that have been released in the subscription boom of the last couple of years. I think Blackwing have been the most successful. I mean, it helps that they already had a huge, well-respected base and product, right, to begin with. But they have clearly captured the imagination of people. You know, because I see, for example, on CW Pencil's Instagram stories or whatever, they were saying, oh, they're on the way. We don't have them. I'm like, please stop asking. They'll be on the site when we get them kind of thing. And yeah, they said it in a nicer way than that. But it was clear that they were getting bombarded by people who wanted to buy the single editions. Right. Because they go out to retailers more slowly, right? Then they go out to customers, it seems, which makes sense. But clearly, they get bombarded with it, which means that even amongst that community of people who are really excited about pencils, you know, like that's what they care about. The people that buy that stuff, they want this product, too, which I think is good. I'm pleased, you know, because it's nice to have good quality items like this. And I think that it's cool that Blackwing have been able to do it. Yep.