Editing The Pen Addict 42/transcript (section)

== Pen Cleaning ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I want to I want to talk about one thing, which is follow up from our pen cleaning episode that we did not too long ago.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I have really gotten the hang of cleaning out fountain pens with the aspirator, using the pressure of the aspirator, filling it with water, cleaning out the nib, cleaning out the section when that's all cleaned and rinsed, using the aspirator to blow air through it again, you know, just pressurizing that air, knocking it through. And what I found is when I've been doing some of the ink reviews from all the ink samples I have with my TWSBI mini, I can I'm getting like when I when I'm focused and doing it just straight in a row, I can do like three ink reviews in an hour. That's starting with a clean pen, filling it, syringe filling it with one of the ink samples that I want to test, playing around with it, writing an ink review, then dumping the ink back into the vial, which I had never done before. We had done that episode and everyone a lot of people recommended that. Sidney sent that in his video, you know, about dumping the ink back in the vial, cleaning the barrel, cleaning the nib and drying it out and loading up a new ink in about 10 or 12 minutes. And I'm off writing another another ink review. And yeah, I'm getting I could do like three ink reviews in an hour where before I was too chicken to even try more than one a day. Like I would do do an ink review, clean out my pen and just let it sit there either soaking overnight or drying overnight and just being real chicken to to swap out inks. And I had no issues at all. I feel like I've I've found that groove now. I feel like I'm a pro. I'm a professional pen cleaner. So I can I can knock them out now. I feel pretty good about that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I've also been trying out some new ink stuff, been changing some cartridges and stuff, going through some of the J. J. Rob Mel inks, I believe it has to be pronounced. And I've been just blowing into the like the back of the nib, like where the ink goes, like Sydney told us we should. And that has really helped with me for me, too. So that's definitely I agree with that. Adding air pressure definitely seems to be the key.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So I'm adding water pressure, adding air pressure and stop being so, you know, tentative while I'm I'm doing it, you know, just force it through there. Get it done and, you know, not worry about, you know, did the slightest shade of ink remain, you know, in the nib? Because I kept wondering if I was going to see, you know, see discoloration in the new ink samples from old ink being in there. And it was almost no problem whatsoever.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So you published a few of your ink reviews now, haven't you? How are you finding it overall?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Pretty good. I'm still not sold on the style and format that I'm doing, but I haven't figured anything else out yet. I definitely I love the Twisby mini for an ink reviewing pen. I think it does really good at showing off the ink properties.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Then as soon as I settle on that, you know, everyone wants to know, well, how does it write in the extra fine nibs that you always write with? You know, can you do a sample of that? And that's when you get into a real juggling act and act and trying to do a review that can end up really taking a lot of time and a lot of effort. And, you know, so, you know, there's a there's a break even point, you know, where I just kind of I have to stop it somewhere. So it's one of those things where I can maybe follow up down the line with different nib sizes on some of the same colors and things like that. And what that might be is, you know, when I decide out of these ink samples, if I decide to purchase one or two bottles, then maybe I follow up do and I'm able to do, you know, a wider range of nibs and do testing like that. Because actually the ink samples aren't aren't very large and you go through the ink pretty quick.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You can kind of use this as a qualify, like qualification sort of criteria. And then if you're happy with it, then you go on and purchase for actual use.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Exactly. Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And the first two that I did, I did the Noodlers 54th Massachusetts and I did the Pilot Oro Shizuku Konpeki. And it's bad that I did those two first because I really like both of them. You know, I'm like, man, this is going to end up costing me a lot of money in ink bottles because I could see using both of those inks on a daily basis. They're really good.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, but, you know, I've got some other ones upcoming that, you know, I like the ink. They reviewed well, but they're not inks that I would use on a daily basis. But they're still pretty cool and I'm still going to review them and post about them because they're, you know, there's so many, a lot of the inks, especially in the Noodlers that I'm finding, have so many different properties in, you know, in waterproofness and pigmentation and, you know, all kinds of different aspects of the ink. So there's definitely a lot to go through, a lot to talk about there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No doubt. Yeah, it's a new place for you to go. It's interesting.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I'm still feeling it out and it's really fun. I enjoy messing around with these inks and, you know, trying different things that I've never had a chance to try. But as far as, you know, the presentation on the blog, doing a review, I think there's still some work to be done for me there. So we'll see how it goes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Did you say that you'd posted the, oh, I can't say it, the Iroo Shizuku?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Did I not post that one maybe?

'''Myke Hurley:''' You haven't posted that one yet.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' If not, it's upcoming. I must have posted the Roar and Klingner Alt Goldgrun. Is that the one I published?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, you've published. You've published Noodlers and T-Tam and T-Tam? No. That might be quite old. No, there's 54th Massachusetts. 54th Massachusetts and the Jei Abanguage.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I haven't posted a third one?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't think so. Not that your site search is telling me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' See, I wasn't, my kids weren't the only one that was sick last week.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If I look at your ink review category.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, well, hey, I don't know if I'd trust that because I'm a horrible, horrible categorier and tagger.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I did a site search for ink review.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And that was what it gave me, so.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Let me see. It's bugging me now. You could very well be right. But I thought I'd posted two of the first three that I did, but. Oh, I think you're right, Michael. Well, those are the ink reviews you have to look forward to.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Giving the game away.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, no, I'd posted a picture on Flickr of the first three that I did, which were those three that I just mentioned. Right. Just kind of a quick sample. So those are no secret that those are the first three. I just haven't gone live with the other one. So I'll do one of the other two this week. I'll do the Oro Shizuku later this week and do the Alt Goldgrun next week.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I did those three first because those were the most, when I put out a call for ink samples, you know, what did everyone want to, what was everyone's favorites? I think those were probably the three most popular.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I wanted to get, I wanted to try them out for myself and I'm pretty happy with all three. They have some really unique properties. So, yep. I will look for those reviews soon, I guess.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So we're going to get back to ink a little bit later on in the show today. Okay. So I have something ink related that I want to talk about. But do you remember, Brad, many moons ago now, I made a JetPens order. Yes. Well, that order came in and I have some things. It was like a month ago by now. I made the order on the 18th of January, so it was a month ago.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So would you like to know what I bought? Absolutely. So one thing was I bought a clip for my Fisher Space Pen. Okay. Because I have the... I like those. Yes. You go.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, no. I like those. There's a couple of pens where you can order clips separately. The Fisher Space Pen for one and the Kaweco Sport line for the regular sports classics and the AL Sports. I like the Fisher Space Pen clip. I think it does a better job, just my opinion. And plus, it fits on other pens, I believe. You will have to test that out for yourself. If you ever have a... Finding yourself a clipless pen, since it's a pretty general size. Someone mentioned that to me along the way. Over the years. And I never tried it out for myself. That Fisher Space Pen clip will actually work on a couple other different pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Good to know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So what do you think about it?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, it works great. It's just exactly what it needed it to do. I haven't got too much else to say on it, but I ordered it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, I like... I do like... I will say, I do like having a clip on that small of a pen. Because it'll get away from you in a pocket.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Exactly. Plus, because it's perfectly circular, you put it down and it just rolls away. So... Yep. I like it for that. So I bought the pen mascot of the show.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do you know what this is?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Not exactly.