Editing The Pen Addict 469/transcript (section)

== Pen Review - Procyon ==


'''Myke:''' I think the Procyon's a bit boring. For my taste, I think it's got a bit of a boring look.

'''Brad:''' It's basic. Actually, the Plaisir has a little bit more style and aesthetic than the Procyon is very ABC design. You know, it is the dictionary definition of what a fountain pen barrel should look like, right? Just the shape and the size and the overall aesthetic of it, which is fine. And then the one thing they do is they tack on some bright colors. Like, you can get yellows and oranges and some cool things like that.

'''Myke:''' And which one? The Plaisir or the Procyon?

'''Brad:''' Oh, the Procyon. The Plaisir is the one that has, like, the two-tone barrels, like purple and the pink and, you know, those type of things. So, it's just weird. Like, it's, like, I will use this pen all the time. I just don't know where it exists in the grand scheme of things. And those are the things that I always find interesting. I was like, why does this pen exist? What was Platinum's idea when they made this pen? Because if they knocked $20 off the price, it's probably getting close to making some of my top five lists, right? If this was a $35 to $40 pen, it fits into a different category. The category, the price point category that it's in. And, you know, I'm assuming Platinum has the best intentions that this is just how much the pen costs. So, this is how much it needs to be sold. But where it landed, put it in a confusing area. Because you can get some really, I think, better pens for the same price, even less. Pilot had the same problem with the Pereira, right? The Pereira is just widely regarded as a great pen. I love the Pereira.

'''Myke:''' It's one of my first fountain pens.

'''Brad:''' Same here. Same here. It's smaller. It's lightweight. It's classically designed. It's got some cool colors. You can shop around and find a pink barrel or a translucent barrel. And then at one point, they had raised the price up almost to $50 on the Pereira. And I was like, oh, no. This is a different solution we're getting here. And I'm not sure it's the answer to a lot of these questions. And now, I don't know if the price has fallen, but you can get Pereira in the $30 range. This is what I find the Procyon to be. It's the Pilot Pereira, which means it should be $40 or less. And then I would be shouting from the rooftops at how great this pen is. But, you know, it's picking nits, but that's what I do because I just think the number they put on this is just strange. So, the one thing that does interest me and I think is even more compelling is that they have released some of the Macchie Procyons, which is kind of weird after saying this about the pen. But you can get, like, painted on, like, the Japanese artwork. There's a couple of different models. I'll put a link in the show notes to Warbler on a plum tree. And that's the Procyon barrel with artwork on it. It's $140. I'd argue that that's, like, the better purchase, right, for something special. It looks beautiful. Yeah. Like, I would rather pay $140 for that than $65 for the basic black one, right? I agree. Does that make sense?

'''Myke:''' It makes perfect sense to me because now you've taken it and you've made it special. Like, and yeah, it's a lot more money. It's twice the price, basically. But now you have something, like, you have an artisan pen now, right? Yeah. Someone's painted that on there for you. Like, if this is, if you want Mac IE, like, if you want that, like, on a pen, this is probably one of the cheapest ways to get that effect on something that you know is going to be a decent writing experience. Right.

'''Brad:''' And Platinum does this with other, they have their own, they have a line that I've reviewed before. It's still a steel nib pen and I forget the model name of it, but I did a Mount Fuji one. They do, Platinum does a good job of having these types of art-based pens in the $100 range. And, like, I would prefer, and, you know, everyone's situation is different, right? A new person coming into the hobby is never going to buy this pen. That's silly.

'''Myke:''' Unless they fell in love with the design, right?

'''Brad:''' Right, right, right. But if I had, you know, a choice of one of two pens, like, I would rather spend $140 and get something, like, completely enjoyable than something more basic like the Procyon. I don't know. It's weird because it is so good. Like, it is a legitimately good pen. And I just, it kind of vanishes in the sea of pens based on the price point. So, anyway, that's my thoughts on that. And, like, I will be looking to use this pen. I enjoy it, but, like, I just don't know that I can just blindly recommend it to anybody just because of what's around it. So, anyway, I just wanted to get my feelings out, again, on the Procyon. But, yeah, there you go. Some new inks that I'm tempted by, Myke. Like, Susan reviewed on the Pen Addict last week, two weeks ago.

'''Brad:''' Scribo. So, they're an Italian brand. They make great fountain pens. I have not used them. I've seen them. Susan's reviewed one for the blog. They're very nice, very expensive pens. You know, like $500 to $800 pens. Really, really beautifully made. And they came out with an ink lineup in the past year or so, sometime last year. And they were the ones, I don't know if you recall, Myke, and I don't know if we actually discussed it on the show or not. But they're the ones that come in these gigantic glass bottles that are the biggest, heaviest ink bottles I've ever seen in my life. They're, like, doorstop level ink bottles, right, and what they feel like. But the inks in them are brilliant. Like, she reviewed Blue Capri and Arancia di Sicilia. Shout out to Italy for winning their semifinal match in the Euros yesterday. This blue is awesome. This orange is off the charts. That's, like, my kind of orange. It's bright. It's got shading. It's got some character to it. It's not flat, right? Kind of like what I think about, you know, like, with Fire on Fire. It's like, yes, it's orange. But, like, what else do you get from this? And this has a little bit more of a peachy feel to it, which I normally don't like. But the orange is so bright. Like, the redness kind of comes out in an interesting way. And I'm kind of fascinated by this. And I don't have any of the Scribo ink bottles. And I kind of want one because they're chonky.

'''Myke:''' They're so weird. They're, like, so... I mean, I'm going to put a link in the show notes to Apple Bomb. I found them on Apple Bomb. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was googling around a little bit while we were talking. And it's basically like a cube of, I'm assuming, glass. Yes, it's glass. And only 50% of the height is actually ink.

'''Brad:''' Because they're stackable.

'''Myke:''' They're stackable. Okay. Because I don't understand. It's, like, so much wasted space.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. It's literally, like, you could build one of those, like, glass kind of pretend see-through walls, you know? Made out of these things. Like, hide your cubicle out of these bottles. These bottles are no joke. I can't believe... Like, I don't know how you get to making the decision to make this bottle. Again, I'm trying to be other people's business people. But shipping these has to be just a flat-out nightmare.

'''Myke:''' They look so big. But I don't know if I can get... I can't find a weight, like, how heavy the package would be.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. There's just... The scope of these ink bottles is enormous. It's enormous. And just the size and the weight of them. Yeah. It's crazy. So, we'll have to look into the actual weight. I'll have to... I'm going to end up getting this orange just to test out. I don't have it yet. But I'll get the ink bottle in hand and actually weigh it. But, I mean, shipping on these must be a nightmare. So, it's great. The inks look awesome. I haven't tested them out myself. But I plan on it. And Susan's review really got me looking into them a little more.

'''Myke:''' So, I've had the... I particularly like the orange. But I don't need another orange. I know. I don't need any of this stuff, Myke. You know, I had a thing the other day. So, I mentioned before, I have a selection of pens here at home. I have a selection of pens at the studio. And then some of my kind of more... I can't think of another word. Precious items I carry with me in a NotCo Sinclair to and from the studio every day. And the plan is always to kind of swap those out every now and then. And I kind of do that by like as some of them start to run out of ink, I'll fill the ones that I want to keep and swap out with other pens that are at home. Like which ones I want to keep in the Sinclair to have with me back and forth. And I realized when I was changing them out this time that of the six pens that I had in my Sinclair, because I am a Sinclair stuffer, I put six pens in one of those things. I'm good with that. I had no orange and I couldn't believe it. It's like, how is this possible? I have like 20 orange pens, like pens that have orange ink in them. And I didn't have that. I rectified it. But it was quite surprising to me.

'''Brad:''' Yep. Yep. I have a similar comment about the missing ink colors here in a little bit we'll get to. So yeah, I think that's definitely interesting. But you need to get some orange back in your life.

'''Myke:''' It's easy for me. All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends at micro.blog. If you're a pen addict who's looking to share your love of pens, ink, and stationery, you can join micro.blog where you'll find kindred spirits. But no matter what it is that you're into, you're going to find a community here on micro.blog. It is an easy to use blogging platform where you can write short or long blog posts, share photos, videos, or even host a podcast of your own. But it's more than just a place to post your stuff. It's also a friendly community of people with a wide range of interests who share and comment via micro.blog social timeline backed by a strong community, strong community guidelines, I should say, that are enforced, which I think is awesome. I really love the feel of this community and the fact that there are so many communities there. They really encourage it. You know, like people listen to the show. You like a certain thing, you can find people with similar interests over at micro.blog. But my favorite thing about it is the amount of control that you have over your content. Your content is yours and it can live wherever you want it to with your domain and everything. There's no ads. There's no behind the scenes algorithm that chooses which posts will appear on your timeline. And also, similarly, there's no algorithm that says like if somebody wants to follow me that they're not going to see what I post. If you always wanted to share your love of pens or anything but have felt lost or discouraged by bigger social media sites, check out micro.blog and you can meet fellow enthusiasts and the rest of the community who share interesting things that they love. Micro.blog hosting starts at $5 a month, but you can use your own domain and even cross-post to Twitter, Tumblr, and Mastodon. Using your own domain, your posts reside on a blog under your control and you can use it via the Mac, iOS, Android, as well as the web. If you're ready to try a different blogging and social media experience, head to micro.blog slash penaddict where you'll be able to sign up for free and try out all of the features of micro.blog for two months. And micro.blog have doubled that trial period for penaddict listeners at micro.blog slash penaddict for a two-month free trial. Our thanks to micro.blog for their support of this show.