Editing The Pen Addict 540/transcript (section)

== Pen purchases outside personal preferences ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. Okay. Carol asks, what is a pen that you purchased that was not in your usual wheelhouse of what you like but is beyond amazing? For Carol, it was an Ironside pen from Birmingham Pens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. Birmingham Pen Company. So, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Is this my Birmingham or your Birmingham?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That is, this is neither. Okay. Well, I mean, technically it's mine but it's not even Birmingham. Right, but they would probably say Birmingham, right? They would probably say Birmingham. Well, no, no, no. I was saying it your way but, yeah, but it's not the Birmingham that's actually the big city. It's actually a region, an old historical, like, in Pittsburgh steel, steel country up in Pensylvania. So, I don't know the exact technical geographic naming reason but it's basically the Pensylvania, Pittsburgh, steel city, that whole, that whole thing. Not actual Birmingham, Alabama, which is close to me. So, aside from that background, there's background from Carol in this. Carol is one of my biggest pen ablers on stream. She is the one, Brad, have you seen this? Brad, have you seen this? Brad, you need to look at this. So, like, I pretty much have a list that just, it's pretty much just called Carol. And Carol's recommendations because she's always right. She's, like, always, like, into stuff that she knows, she knows what I like and will therefore recommend the things. So, she has been on me about this Ironsides pen. And I was, like, I'm not buying this pen. Like, this is not a pen for me, right? It's a, so what the Ironsides is, and we'll have a link in the chat to this over at Birmingham Pen Co., which is, if y'all are familiar with Birmingham or have heard me speak of them before, they make a lot of inks, right? So, a lot of people use a lot of their inks. And I do, too, and I've reviewed some, enjoy their inks. But I've never bought one of their pens and they do some pen manufacturing themselves. So, this is a full metal barrel. You know, like the Enso Puma or, oh, what's that one from the UK that you like? I'm blanking on it. Nexus? What was it? Oh, Namisu. Namisu, Namisu. So, yeah, like, a full metal barrel pen. Like, which is great. Like, I like my full metal barrel pens. Just, you know, in last week's episode, I raved about the Diplomat Arrow. I just don't need a lot of the full metal barrel pens. This one is kind of tempting, right? Because they will anodize color match clips and nibs. So, say you have, like, just a steel colored barrel. And, like, the link I put in the show notes, there's a bunch of different colors. But the one I chose has, like, this mint turquoise-y blue nib and clip. It looks awesome, right? But, like, I'm not interested in necessarily buying this pen because I don't think I would totally use it. And Carol felt the same way. She's like, I'm not sure. And then tried it and was actually, you know, blown away by it. So, have you ever had that experience for a certain product in the past? So, like, that's the question here. Like, that was her. Like, this is not my wheelhouse. But I went ahead and bought it, and it turns out it's perfect. Do you have that pen?

'''Myke Hurley:''' King of pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's such a good answer.

'''Myke Hurley:''' When I first saw the King of Pen, I just thought it was a ridiculous joke. Like, it was like a joke to me. It was laughable, right? Like, it's big, and, like, even the nib was large. That was, like, the thing that really got me was how big and large the nib was. And I just was like, there's no way this is for me. It's way too big. I'm not going to enjoy it. Boy, was I wrong.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yeah. I think that's a really, really great answer because we were thinking the same way. I, like, to the point of, like, this is ridiculous. Like, this is, like, a mockery of a pen. And then, you know, after spending years looking at them, handling them, and finally breaking down and buying one, it's like, okay, yeah. This is pretty good. This kind of works. I don't know why it works. I don't know how it works. But it does work for me. So, that was my first thought. But then I thought of another one. For me, it's the Kusama Una Ultem. So, another big pen, kind of like the King of Pen. Large, wide barrel. Little bit stubby. You know, not really long, but wide. It has a huge titanium metal grip section. So, it was very front-weighted with the Ultem rear section of the barrel. And then had this huge concave cutout for the grip that was dropped back from the front of the pen a little bit, right? Like, the concave didn't taper down to the edge of the barrel, right? It was, like, in the center of the grip section. So, like, this is one of those Instagram pens you see and you go, wow, this looks amazing. And there's no way I will be able to use this pen, right? Just, it's not going to fit in my hand. It's not going to feel right. It's just not going to work for my writing at all. And then, lucky for us, we get to go to pen shows. And other people have these pens. And I was able to test one out. I was like, okay, this actually doesn't just work. It's kind of perfect, right? Kind of like the king of pen. This works exceptionally well for how I handwrite, how I write my hands. But again, like the king of pen, I would never recommend this to anybody unless they got to try it first, right? They're that unique of a product as far as, like, the shape and the balance and the weight. But now, like, I couldn't not have this pen. Like, I'm so glad I finally got one. And it's been everything I hoped it would. It's fantastic.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. I don't think I've ever used this, but I know you've mentioned it before. I know we spoke about it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I don't think I've seen you since I've owned this pen. I've only probably only had it like a year, year and a half. So, I think I got it sometime last year. It's great. This is a pen, kind of like the king of pen. I would buy another one. Like, I don't need five of these, right? But there's some different colors and shapes and different materials. So, Kusama makes, use a lot of the medical-grade plastics like Ultim and Peak and some of those things that we're seeing, like, you know, Shown Design and other makers, Gravitas, Pickup and doing these really unique sections. And I think they're beautiful. And now that I know it works for me, I would probably like a second one. You know, maybe not, you know, a third one. But, you know, yeah, I would definitely partake in another one of these.