Editing The Pen Addict 358/transcript (section)

== Topic Shift - Parker Pens ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Hmm. Okay. Uh, Fibber asks, I think Parker's US HQ is somewhere in Atlanta. Have you ever thought about interviewing anyone from there?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This was a, this was a great tweet. He sent me this last week. And number one, I didn't realize that. Like, so Parker is part of a conglomerate, formerly called Newell Rubbermaid. And I think they used to be in Ohio. So I just assumed they were still there. But apparently Atlanta is their new corporate headquarters and their new name is Newell Brands. But I don't ever think of them as Parker. I didn't even know Parker was part of their portfolio, but they are Sharpie, Rotring, Waterman, Expo Markers, you know, Elmer's Glue, all kinds of things. So yeah, I don't know that I would ever like necessarily talk to like the Parker person, but I bet there's people there that are in the writing. They basically have a writing category. And, you know, it would be kind of cool to reach out and say, and just like try to figure out how they plan products and market things and like that. I think that would be super interesting. So yeah, that's something I'll look into because they probably have a dozen or more writing brands. I would, I think something like that. So it's, and it's, oh, Paper Mate's another one. Paper Mate, Sharpie are the big ones. And then I think then Rotring, Parker, Waterman, and I can't remember the rest. So yeah, there's a whole handful of them. So yeah, it'd be interesting to see because as the chat room's saying, they don't do a very good job for people like us, right? That's, you read those brands. Those are your mainstream brands that go into OfficeMax, Staples, Office Supply Stores, pretty much across the board, except Rotring. Rotring is an outlier there. All of those other brands are mass market type of brands that we rarely talk about, right? Unless Sharpie does something cool, like I'm all about that. But yeah, it would be interesting to get that perspective because like that's a company that would have no idea that we do this thing, right? It's just not in their purview. And as the same, in the same token, we don't really look at their products because they're not marketed towards us either. So it would be an interesting conversation to have if I could do that. And I don't see any reason why I couldn't. So that's on the list.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. Next question comes from Leleni. I've had many inks in my TWSBI Eco without issue, but I put KWZ Meet Me in St. Louis from St. Louis Pen Show. It was their ink of 2018. And it regularly drops out a lot of ink, like it burps ink when writing. I've had this ink in other pens and not had this issue. Is maybe this ink just too wet for this pen?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I just find it hard to believe it would be an ink issue, even though it's consistently with that ink. And I haven't heard problems with that ink. I own that ink. I've used that ink. I only seem to have, you know, pens that burp ink when I know I've done something weird. I've either jostled them correctly, flown with them, traveled with them, had some kind of, you know, atmospheric weather change with them, as opposed to the ink specifically causing the problem. I hate to say this, but, like, I want a bigger sample size than this, right? But, you know, maybe Lerlini is seeing this consistently. If so, I don't have an answer. Like, that doesn't make sense to me. You know, I would take apart the pen, clean it, reseed it completely, just to make sure it's tight, even though it sounds like you're using other inks intermittently between usages of the Meet Me in St. Louis ink. I have a hard time thinking that it would be a specific ink to cause that problem. I would think the problem would lie elsewhere.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Hmm. Okay. Next question comes from Jay Casabona. Are the Retro 51 fountain pens any good? Do you guys know? I love the Skyline one that Goldspot just put out, but is it worth $90? I haven't tried one yet.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's on the list. So, they finally redid their grip section and nibs in their newest fountain pens, and that's after years of feedback of people asking for primarily a better grip section. The nibs were fine. They used Schmidt nibs in the past. They're okay. Like, I didn't have any problems with the nib. I used on the old one. I really disliked the grip section. It was cheap feeling. It was slick. It did not match the rest of the pen. So, they redid that. They have a nicer grip section now. It's molded. It's shiny. It should hold your grip a little bit better. They use Yovo number six nibs now. So, not only is the stock nib good, you can swap it out with lots of other things. So, I want to hold judgment until I get my own. I think I might have one coming already. I'll have to look at what I have. And I will review it ASAP. That will go high in the list. That will jump a lot of things just to get some feedback on it because I've been one of the main complainers about it. And I think it looks good. There's a review up on the Well Appointed Desk recently that they enjoyed the change. The Skyline on Goldspots, more expensive than the normal one, right? Because it's a special edition. And it looked... Man, that pen looks killer. I don't know if you've seen it, Myke. But you saw their Skyline Retro 51. Did you have... You have London, right? I don't think so. They sent you that. I don't know. You don't think so? Maybe I have it for you. I think I... If you don't have it, I think I have it for you. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But they do... They've done New York City, Paris, and London, I believe. So they did the Skyline New York City on the fountain pen model. It looks spectacular. But I'm going to try just one of the basic ones, which are around $50-ish. So, yeah. I'll be anxious to give it a look. Initial signs point to it being a nice option.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. All right. Next question comes from Davey Chin. Best black or blue black ink for signing a marriage certificate using a new 2SB Eco Transparent Orange with a fine nib. Congratulations.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I almost took this question out because he got married last weekend. So now the answer is back to Davey. What ink did you use? So, there you go. We'll need to... I think I'm... I don't know if I answered him on Twitter or not because I knew his marriage was coming up soon just because we follow each other on Twitter. And so I can't remember if I answered him, but I think I did. I think I probably said like Roaring Cleaner Salix or Platinum Carbon Black is I think the answer I gave him. So now it's back on him to let us know what, in fact, he did use.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sorry for failing you. I went in there and I highlighted the whole thing to delete it. And then I was like, nope, this is a good opportunity for me to turn it back on Davey.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. So the next one comes from Todd Crane. I just noticed the only mention of gel pens on your top five pens list are micro and 0.5 millimeter options. Have you thought about expanding that to non-micro gel pens?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It kind of, sort of is in the top five pens of the store in the store, although it's not spelled out specifically. Hey, these are the 0.7 options, but like the Pentel Energel's in there. That's the best 0.7 millimeter gel pen. You know, it's not explicitly stated as the 0.7 millimeter option. You know, the Uniball Signo 307 has a 0.7 option. You know, those two are kind of the best, even though it's not specifically stated that way. So maybe I should just add into those lists that I can say like the Energel is up to 1.0 millimeters, something like that, and it'd be good. So it's, the idea is there, but the specific wording could be updated to say, hey, Pentel Energel 0.7 and 1.0 millimeter are fantastic. You know, something like that. So it's going to be the same brand. It's not going to change and the Pilot G2 will not make it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. So next up comes from Matt Erickson. I've been playing around with fountain pens for a little while. I'm hooked. My parents kindly agreed to get me one as a graduation gift when I graduate from law school in a few weeks. Would you recommend the Sailor 1911 or Pro Gear for my desk?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think, I think 1911.