Editing The Pen Addict 419/transcript (section)

== Ink Colors ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' OK.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So Uniball's regular purple gel is a very bright purple. So this darkens it up a bit and makes it like if you weren't looking like if you just looked at it real quick, you just pass it off as a black ink. But if you pay attention, it's actually a very dark purple ink. So it's nice. I really love it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' OK.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And they do that in I think the RT one is their retractable pen model. They have lavender black. They I think they might have done that in the 307. They did some they did a few. They did some green black, red black, blue black, purple black in the 307 model.

'''Myke Hurley:''' OK.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I believe as well. But that's just one of my favorite, favorite combos. If I'm not using black 0.38, I'm using lavender black 0.38 and then blue black 0.38. Those are kind of my go to's for the Signo DX and putting them in the spoke pen. And then to just go full company man here, I'm using the spoke model for mechanical pencil, which is actually the pencil that got me talking to Brian way back in the day. My partner at spoke, I think this is just one of the greatest pencil designs. And he changed. He inverted the grip and made a brass grip and put it with an orange barrel. And it's just it's just the daddy of all pencils. Like it's it's which one is that one? My pencil. So it's spoke model for orange barrel brass inverted grip.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I just noticed on the website, the model five. Yes. That's new to me. Yes. How new is this?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Uh, early this year, six months.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's nice looking.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Very professional. Maybe not. Maybe not. It's great looking. It's have been very well received. So it doesn't have the separate grip section. And it's basically like a unified barrel as opposed to the model four, which is a separate barrel and grip section.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I would say like the model four is the fun version and the model five is like the business version.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And we and the model five can now come in point three as well, which we had a lot of requests for. And that's done very well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And are you now involved in the mechanical pencil part of the business too?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. So it's all kind of rolled up together now. So any of the spoke design stuff I am, I am a part of now.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You have input at least. Yes. Yeah. Because I remembered you saying that, that like the thought was if the Kickstarter was a success, then you were going to become a partner in the business. Is that, is that, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Essentially that's correct. So, so yeah, I, I definitely have say in the, in the product design and I'm, I definitely say we need to charge more for the spoke pencil. So we're working on that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Business spread.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They're too cheap. They're such, there's, they're legitimately good products, even though I'm biased in saying that completely. But, um, I love them. I have my model four right here. Yeah. That's why I want to be part of a company that does that. It's the same thing with knock, right? Like I really believe in the product. So I'm, I'm willing to just say, you know, how great they are because I believe in them that much. Um, last thing I've kind of been using in the non fountain pen categories, the black wing Ravi Shankar pencil. It's so pretty. It's just really good. It has the extra firm cores in it. So it's, it's a dark firm lead. It's this beautiful yellow pattern pencil with the yellow eraser. It's just, it's really good. I'm sure this one's sold out. If not, it's on the way to being sold out. They did a really, really great job with this black wing did. And, um, I always keep some pencil handy. I have way too many pencils, but I just, I like them. There's something about a pencil, Myke, that gets me. I know you don't, you don't share the same, the same feelings and that's, that's cool. Not wood. Um, not wood case. Yeah. Yeah. Not the wooden pencils. Yeah. I totally get that. So, um, last thing, which I just got in and I want to say, I'm going to use it in like ASAP, but I'm really trying to be a good boy because I got in a Misubi notebook to use for myself. So I've, I've ordered some products from Misubi, um, after we talked last week, or maybe even before we talked last week about the Tomoe river paper and the blog post that Daryl, Daryl wrote. And there's been some updates to that link. So y'all can go find that link in the chat or in the show notes from last week. And I placed an order because I've, while I've bought several Misubi notebooks, I've always bought them to give to other people because they're really, you know, exquisite there. They really make an impression and I've never ordered any for myself. So I did that and I'm about halfway through my current notebook, which it's going to take me like another couple of months to get through. So I have this Misubi notebook waiting for me when I do, I got iridescent indigo. It's just glorious. It's glorious. I'm very happy with it with a bank paper on the inside, which is, uh, give it a good feel for all types of pens and inks and pencils and all the different things that I use. You see how many non fountain pens I use on the regular. I don't necessarily, that's why I've never really gone for the Tomoe River notebooks as much as I appreciate and enjoy them. I need a paper that's going to be, um, work well with many, many types of writing instruments and the bank paper is it. And the iridescent indigo cover is it. And it's going to be hard to not crack this, crack this open, but I'm, I'm holding strong. The iridescent notebook philosophy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Indigo bank paper. Oh, it looks nice.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Mm-hmm. It really does have a little bit of iridescence to it, but I, I really like the fabrics that Daryl chooses, especially the vintage denims and the wools that, that they uses for the, um, for the covers of the notebooks. That's my style. You know, the blues and the blacks and the grays.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, I also ordered a pen case, a pen sleeve, the two pen sleeve, which I never had. Like I bought one of those too and I give it away. So like, they're just such good, good giveaway items. They're spectacular stuff. So yeah, I loaded up at Misubi and I'm, I'm keeping it this time. I usually give it all away. I'm keeping these for me. Ha.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What is bank paper?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's hard to explain. It's, it's definitely more of a non-coated paper and it's got a little bit of texture on it, but it holds fountain pen ink very well. Like it doesn't bleed or feather. Like you, you feel this paper and you think, oh, my inks are going to soak into this paper, but they don't. So it holds up well to fountain pen inks, but it's not going to have like the, the sheen that you'd get out of Tomoe river and it's going to work better since it is textured. It's going to work better for pencils and markers and different types of pens like that. So I did a review of the life bank paper pad and I enjoyed that style of paper. It's a very different feel. Like it's not even, it doesn't even feel like a Leuchtturm or something like that. Something you'd say is a non-coated paper. It has more texture to it when you're writing on it. And some people just flat out don't like it. And that's fair, especially with, you know, maybe with like extra fine fountain pen nibs, it might not be the best paper.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, I think looking at the pictures in your review, I know this kind of paper. Or like I've used paper that it's reminiscent of where it's just like bleed through. Well, what about just see through? It's like, you know, you're in a different world now, my friend.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. So I've liked how it performs, but some people, you know, like heavy fountain pen users might just swear it off completely because it's not the perfect fountain pen paper, even though it's good for fountain pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Your dry time is going to be a long period of time. I see them on paper like that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's not as bad as you would think. Like everything, everything about this paper for fountain pens is not as bad as you would think, which makes it ends up in totality, makes it a good paper for fountain pens. So, but yeah, it's, it's a, basically it's a, it's a different flavor of paper, if you will. Right. It's, it works the same. It looks the same, but you kind of got to, it's an acquired taste maybe.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And just on the Musubi, they're referenced on the website as diaries, but they're not printed diaries though, are they?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, not at all. Like my bank paper one is blank. I think a lot of times that I've seen in Japanese and other Asian stationery brands, diary references a shape or a size, almost like the A5 or a even smaller, it doesn't have to be A5 size, but it has to be a thicker bound style of book as opposed to a spiral bound or a glue bound, some type of, of almost hardcover bound book that has a decent amount of pages in it. Right. Okay. So it's kind of, I think it's kind of a more of just a generic term in this situation. Whereas if you were, there was some US maker that made a diary, I guarantee if we went to the product page, it would have like calendars and dates and all that type of stuff in it. Right. It would have different kinds of sections.