Editing The Pen Addict 355/transcript (section)

== Topic Shift ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Electric Penguin asks, what pens go longest without drying up? The 255ATAL and USB Mini. Are they good because they have O-rings in them? The Kaweco AL Sport? Is it because the cap threads are so accurate? Like, are these good examples of pens that don't dry up very easily? Or do you know what it is? Is there anything specific?

'''Myke Hurley:''' We've covered this, Myke. It's the IndieGraph.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' My God, Brad Dowdy. Humidity.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, humidity, Myke. That's going to keep it. Keep it locked down.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But the answer was in that discussion. It's the Platinum 3776. They actually market the caps of their fountain pens as having a slip and seal mechanism. And it's no joke. It legit works. Like, keep your pen inked for a year, uncap it, and it will write. It's crazy. They work really, really well. So that's the pen that goes the longest without drying up. The Twisbees, I don't have too much of a problem with. They get a little dried out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Kaweco AL Sports tend to dry out more than the Twisbees. But if you want to have more of a guarantee, you want something where you get that additional mechanism in the cap, and Platinum does that best. And they do that from the low end to the high end of their line. You don't have to go to the gold nib 3776. You can get that in, like, the Procyon and the... Oh, what's the one above the Preppy that I'm forgetting? Anyway, but pretty much any of Platinum's fountain pens use this mechanism in their cap, and it keeps the nibs ready to go, like, months later. If you don't use them for months, they're really good.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Our next question comes from Gregco3. I have a tactile turn glider, and I really like it in the refill options, but I find I'm gripping it down pretty low on the pen, onto basically the nose cone. Do you know of any similar machined retractable pens that have shorter nose cones?

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is tough. I thought about this. I looked at all mine. You know, they all have somewhat of a taper. Tactile turns maybe starts a little bit higher than some.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm going to open this up to the listeners and let me know for the machine pen options. I obviously use, and we're going to talk about this in a minute, the pen type B. You know, that's a dead straight barrel, but it's also a crazy expensive pen and just uses the Pilot Hi-Tech C refill and the gliders and pens like that. The Keras Customs retracts, and the other models are fitting the Pilot G2 refills. So I don't own a machine pen. The last one I had was the Sunderland MK1, but he's not making them anymore. It actually has a flare out at the end of the grip section as opposed to a taper. So that's an option. If you can find them, the TI2 Tech Liner is pretty straight. If you like the Uniball Signo 307, there is the spoke pen that I'm making that has a straight section that uses the Signo DX, but that's going to be probably the fall before you can get one of those. So the same refill options as the glider, that's tough. It's all pens that don't exist or are coming or may not fit the refill option that you like. So I'll think about this a little more and see if I can come up with something more specific. But there's things out there if you want to switch refill types that are still equivalent refill types. So something to think about. I will continue to look at this one. Same with this next question, Myke, so I'll take this one. This one's from Robert. I'm in the market for an upgraded metal high-tech C barrel. Years ago, there seemed to be a Kickstarter glut of them and now dried up a little. I have a TI Arto, but find it really uncomfortable for my hand and grip. It's got sharp threads. The pen type A and B are not ideal as I generally clip them in my shirt pocket at work. Does the Render K still support standard high-tech C refill? It looks like only the Cavalier. Thanks. This is a very accurate commentary, Robert. This market has dried up for the Pilot high-tech C because it's a very specific refill. And it's not the best gel ink refill. It's not anymore.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It was for a while, but not anymore.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, because it hit that very engineering, artistic, drafting style. And there were a lot of colors. Yeah, and there are a lot of colors, but it's actually not the best rider by any stretch of the imagination. All these other refills are much better riders. So the high-tech C barrel kind of vanished. The Cavalier is the only regular market barrel that they use. It's a very skinny barrel. I don't know if you like that. It's very quality. I like it a lot. The Render K does not fit the high-tech C refill anymore. They modified it over to the Pilot G2 style because it fits more things. I have one of the original Render Ks with the high-tech C refill. If you're interested in it, shoot me an email because I'm not using it. I use my pen type Bs more than that pen, so I'd be willing to part with it if you're interested. But there's not a lot of options for high-tech C in machine-slash-metal barrels, especially with clips on them. So it's weird how that market went, but I think it was probably the right path for most of these manufacturers to go.