Editing The Pen Addict 608/transcript (section)

== Kaweco Sport Piston discussion ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, we have some fun and maybe funny topics to cover today. We have one topic that I want to hit first that is from a company that has made a product a long time ago and has revisited it here recently. And that is the Kaweco Piston Sport AL. So, Myke, this has been a much talked about wish list item for Kaweco to bring back into their lineup. They used to make, in the before times, probably like in the 1930s, 40s, 50s era Kaweco. I don't have the exact dates, but given that time frame, in the previous ownership of the brand, they made a very similar pocket pen to the Pocket Sports, like the Kaweco Classics that we all know and love right now. The little pocket plastic pens. They made them with piston fillers and in the modern company, you know, over the last, I don't know how long they've owned it now, 10 or 15 years. They have always kind of teased like, yeah, maybe one day we'll do the piston. And then it finally, they mentioned something in the past year or two that they were actively working on it and now it is launched. So, a couple of weeks ago, we got news of the Piston Sport AL and the thing that...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Just to correct you, it is the Kaweco Sport Piston, not the Kaweco Piston Sport.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm not sure if that correction is necessary. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's an entire podcast on Kaweco naming conventions because... And it's mostly my fault. Like, it's not their fault. But there's lots of, hey, we're going to iterate on this one pen, so we have to keep inserting words in different places that I'm used to. Right? So, it's really the same. There does... It's the Kaweco and the Sport is the pocket style. And then the Piston is the mechanism. And there's just a litany of other Kaweco Sport options out there that we won't even get into today. So, the thing that struck me the most, Myke, when this launched, and I think was probably the main talking point from everybody, this is an aluminum barrel pen. Hmm. And even when the first images came out, I didn't even think that it was, right? Until, like, I started reading into it. Like, okay, it doesn't normally look like they're black resin, black plastic Kawecos, which I just assumed it would be. This is actually an aluminum barrel. And I'm pretty intrigued by that. Even more so, like, I wanted this pen badly to begin with. Any Kaweco Sport Piston would have been fine by me. The aluminum one did not... Was not on my checklist of things that I wanted to see. And I'm kind of here for it. I'm not sure that everyone likes it. Like, I get that. You know, it's a little... It's a way to take the modern way of Kaweco building pens, mix it in with the classic style of the Piston. You know, they have their classic design elements with that. I think Kaweco's clip is beautiful. Their integrated clip is beautiful. So, I like that aspect of it. And, yeah, like, this is just kind of a really good-looking pen. It's pretty expensive, right, for a pocket-sized steel nib piston-filling fountain pen. It's probably around, like, $165, you know, give or take, wherever you buy it from and things like that. But certainly not cheap. But, like, I am 100% getting this pen as soon as I can, which maybe this month. I don't know. I'm holding off... We'll talk about next week my Atlanta Pen Show prep. This is certainly going to be on the list. So, what do you think about this pen? As someone who's never really been into the Kaweco thing, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I've had them. For me, Kaweco was very much of a time, like, when I was, like, earlier on, you know? When I was exploring. Because it's a great little pocket fountain pen, right? Like, and they look so good. They have so many different colors. Like, it is a classic.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The piston is intriguing to me. Just because it's, for me, something new. I'm assuming that it is... There's, like, it's a twist mechanism at the end of the pen barrel?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So, one of the big talking points from this design is the use of a blind cap over the actual piston mechanism. So, what that means is there is an integrated twist on the back of the barrel. But that twist knob is protected by a little cap. And that cap threads on. And some people don't like that just for, you know, that's one more piece I could lose type of thing. It's, like, it doesn't affect the technical aspects of it at all. But it's just one more little piece that people feel like they could lose on the back of that. So, that's never bothered me. That's never been a hang-up of mine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But on a pocket pen, I actually see, like, okay, that's, you know, I could see why people would not like that for sure. Because, theoretically, you would be... This wouldn't be a desk pen, right? You would be much more mobile with a pen like this. And then having that little cap exposed that's just threaded on the back maybe could be an issue. Yeah, I don't know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, you remove a piece? Yes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So, you remove a piece to access the actual piston knob that you then twist to, you know, fill the pen to deploy the plunger up and down the barrel.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think that that might be a good design decision. This is a pocket pen, right? So, ostensibly, a mobile pen lives in your pocket. Therefore, could be subject to a lot of movement. I feel like there is maybe more of a chance of accidentally activating the piston mechanism. That's exactly right. If it was built into just the body of the pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like, I think that they've made the right choice there. Yeah. So, I put another link in there where you can go and scroll down to, like, the 7th or 8th image. You'll see the little cap design. Oh, God. I mean, it's well done. This is a normal thing, right? This is not an abnormal design decision. A lot of... Some pens do this, but then if you take, like, a Pelican 101N, which is a similar pocketable type of Pelican pen, it just has the piston built in the back. No blind cap over the actual twist knob. Yeah. So, there's a couple different ways to do it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, no, that's the right call. I'm assuming one of the things that could be really beneficial about this product, and people might be really into it for that reason, is you would be able to get more ink in it than you would a regular Kaweco.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Without question. Right. Now that you say that, I don't... What are they saying is the capacity here? I wonder if they list the ink capacity. Because short international cartridges, you know, obviously are pretty low ink capacity. Do they even list that here?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I wonder if I can find that real quick. I can't see it on any of the links that you provided.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay, did a quick scan. So...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Evan in the chat is saying a milliliter, approximately.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' A milliliter. Okay. So, what would a short international cartridge be? It's got to be half or less of that, I think. Half or less. But we'll see. Yeah, I don't know. I don't have my words.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Google says 0.7 milliliters.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Really? That's close to that. So, three quarters almost. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I thought it would be a bigger gap there. I thought it would have been more, to be honest. But that might... What that might tell you, Brad, is that there's actually quite a lot of hardware in the piston itself. But it is more, and it also allows you to be able to use any ink, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Easier, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I mean, let's be real. I know you can fill a cartridge, but like, come on.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I do. I mean, I just did.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, but like, it is, that's more, that's like significantly more fiddly, right? I agree with you 100%. Yes. I would hazard that most people listening to this show have lots of bottles of ink. And if they have a pen that has cartridges, they'll probably just buy cartridges. Rather than getting a syringe and syringe filling an ink cartridge. But I mean, of course, you can use a converter. Yeah, I realize that now as I'm talking. You can use a converter in a...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But those short converters are brutal. They get even less. They're just, they're like, they're fine if you have to have them. Like, I have one pen that really benefits from that. Otherwise, I pretty much avoid using them because they're much worse. They're lower in capacity than the cartridges in the small pens. Yeah. For sure.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's, looking at, again, I'm just Googling around, but it actually, it's half a milliliter. So, if we're now, I think we actually have the right comparison here. Yeah. This is double the capacity of what would be the comparable thing that most people would use, right? Like, if you are using whatever ink from a bottle that you want with a Kaweco Sport, you're probably using the converter. Right. And therefore, you're getting half a milliliter of ink. But if you've got the Kaweco Sport piston, that's double. You've got double the ink capacity. And that is, that's quite cool, I think. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, as long as you're cool with paying five times the price for the opportunity to do that, right? Like, that's the trade-off.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Sure.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, but I think you're right about the hardware. That's why this can't be like a, this isn't like a bulk filling type of situation where you can carry around a lot of ink. This pen has an ink window. You can see the ink level. And I imagine the piston is right inside the line there that you can't see visually. You don't have a real, you don't have a lot of space for a piston mechanism to roam in a small pocketable pen. But I can't wait. This is at the top of my list of pens to acquire to test it out, try it out. Yeah. I hope it's successful. It's pretty expensive.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because this is a pen that deserves to be in more colors than just black.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' A hundred percent. And this is what I talk about all the time is like, and I, you know, it's a recurring theme for me here on this podcast is let me see the next one. Right. I hope this does well so I can see what's next. Sometimes that works out well and we get to see like, you know, an expansion of the product lineup, new colors, new ideas. Sometimes it's just like, eh, not really much of a change, if any, at all. So, I hope it does well. And I hope, basically I hope the mechanism does well. And I don't really see why it wouldn't. So, I look forward to testing this out. So, there we go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Brad, I have a great place that people can buy one of these from. Where can they check it out, Myke? Over at Pen Chalet. Because Pen Chalet, they are a carrier of Coveco products as well as many others like Sailor, Namiki, Pilot, Lummi, Pelican, Monteverdi. Actually, they have a list of brands that we could, it would take us an entire episode to list the amount of brands that Pen Chalet have in their offering, in their catalog. And they have products of all kinds. Whether you're looking for a new rollerball or a fountain pen. Whether you're looking for a bottle of ink or some accessories. They really have the whole kit and caboodle, I'm going to say. They're always running special discounts. Yes, every couple of weeks you can go and find new great prices over at Pen Chalet. As well as new styles of products. You're going to find new things being added. They believe in the best customer service that can be provided. They want fasted and they want it to be reliable. In fact, they back everything up at Pen Chalet with a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their high quality products. They sell internationally with great shipping rates. And they do free shipping on orders of over $75 in the US. So, take yourself over to PenChalet.com. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. And click the podcast link at the top of the website. Use the password PenAddict for this week's special offer. And to get the code you need to save 10% on anything over at Pen Chalet. Brad, what have you found this time?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh my. This is one you're going to want to check out. I mean, you want to check it out every week. I mean, it gets me many, many times a year through what I see. I started scrolling and I was like, oh, look at all these great limited edition Benus that are available at really good price. And I kept scrolling, Myke. And then, boom. Platinum 3776 Sands of Komodo. This is way cheaper than I bought mine at. And I love this pen. Beautiful pen. Then you scroll down. The aforementioned Kaweco. The Art Sports are now available to PenAddict listeners at a wonderful, amazing, wow type of price. And then, something I've never seen on this page is a pilot vanishing point. So, Ron is up to something with the products on this page right now. And y'all should definitely, it would be worth your while to check out what Pen Chalet has going on right now.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's very easy to do it. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password PenAddict. Thanks to Pen Chalet for the continued support of this show and RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. We got our shout out of the week, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Shout out of the week.