Editing The Pen Addict 530/transcript (section)

== CY discusses starting his blog and entering the fountain pen community. ==


'''CY:''' Okay. I didn't post anything, but I bought the domain. Uh, I started up my WordPress and I said, you know what? I'm going to do this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it's interesting getting a little bit more detail about, you know, kind of how you got started in fountain pens. I have two questions from what you were just saying. Number one, do you still have that original Mont Blanc?

'''CY:''' Um, I actually sold it. Uh, I sold it to our good friend Kelly's mother. Okay. Nice. Well, hey, it's going to a good home.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's, that's.

'''CY:''' That Mont Blanc has a, has a funny story actually. Um, I lost it once. Um, I went to graduate school in the UK. Uh, so very close to, to Myke. Um, and, uh, and for some reason I was possessed to bring my Mont Blanc everywhere and, uh, and I brought it to a nightclub.

'''CY:''' Of course you did. That's what you do, right? Yeah. Just, you know, in my blazer pocket. And, and then, you know, the next day it wasn't there anymore, but it has my name inscribed into the, into the clip. So I went to the Mont Blanc store and I said, Hey, if, uh, somebody comes into the shop with, uh, with a pen with my name on the clip, you know, that's a stolen pen. And they said, Oh no, we're not going to help you. If somebody comes in, we're just going to swap out the clip for them.

'''CY:''' So I was very, very mad, but because my name was on the clip, some kind soul picked it up. You know, they, they found me on Facebook and they actually gave it back to me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Wow. That's unreal.

'''CY:''' Yeah. And, um, and, and then afterwards, you know, like five years later, I sold it to, to Kelly's mom and she's kept the inscription on the clip.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Absolutely. Absolutely. That's, that's great. All right. So the second thing I picked up on, which probably leads us directly into like literally the entire rest of the show is I'm wondering as you started like finding Yahoo auctions and you're in, I guess even back from the Parker sonnet, you were interested in, it sounds like you were interested in like how these things work, what can I do to make them better? How can I manipulate this? How can I repair this? Like most people, I would say, you know, probably 95% of people are going to get that crack section and go like, Oh man, this is bad. And I'm going to send it back. Like, I'm, I don't have any interest in trying to figure this out why this keeps happening. Um, you ordered three more all with the same problem. And you're like, Huh, this is interesting. How can I get around this? Um, is, is that accurate in kind of how you see things maybe a little bit differently? Than like, say myself in the fountain pen world and why you kind of do what you do now?

'''CY:''' So I would say that, um, more than how this is interesting. I thought, well, I've already spent 50 bucks. What's another 50? So it was a sunk cost fallacy. Yeah. You fit right in around here. Um, but, but to go into the repairs and, and, and the modification, that stuff, actually, I have to credit Aziza. I didn't tell her this when I, when I saw her, but the reason why I got into nib grinding in the first place is because I've read Aziza's blog. And at the time, uh, another reason why I felt that I had been finished with my, um, fountain pen journey is that most, uh, factory settings come only with, you know, fine, medium, broad. If you're lucky, you get like a, you're like, I don't know, like a medium, fine or something, but you know, what's the point of that? Um, excuse me. I, I retract that medium finds are great. I was about to go, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slander. Yeah. But, but, you know, they're, they're essentially just in between fines and mediums. Standard stuff. Yeah. And, and, and then I saw her article on music nibs and she had this vintage Waterman music nib, which was, which was flexible. And I thought to myself, oh, I really want one of those. So I go on eBay. I look up, uh, I look up the relevant keywords. I found one. It's like $350. I said, $350. I don't want to spend that much on just the nib. You know what? Because I, you know, have these genius ideas. I'm going to make one. And then I thought to myself, well, how am I going to make one? Uh, so I bought a bunch of pilot music nibs and, um, started grinding away at them. Well, $3,000 later, I managed to make, yeah, I managed to make a flexible three-time music nib, which is actually, um, my logo. A lot of people think it's a light bulb. Oh. Yeah. But it's actually a three-time nib and, um, and it also serves as a location pin. And, but anyway, uh, so, so yeah, I, you know, several thousand dollars later, I've been, um, I've been, you know, again, sunk cost fallacy. I've got to do something with this, with all this machinery. So, so then I decided to explore, you know, making other nibs. And I, I've said this on a, I think on a video with, um, Inky Rocks. Shout out to Inky Rocks. Shout out. Fantastic. Yeah. Fantastic. Um, YouTube. Adding that to the show notes right now. Uh, but I said on, on one of the videos, why I'm interested in fountain pens is because I view fountain pens as, um, really like a machine. If you think about it, we've actually regressed in writing instrument technology. Um, like I think, you know, gel pens, ballpoint pens, that they're all great, but essentially they are some form of ink. And then you, you know, push the ball and because the ball rotates, you got ink kind of, you know, stuck on the ball and, and then you're, you're writing, right? Um, but fountain pens actually use, you know, capillary action. You have to think about, um, ink delivery. You have mechanisms. And in a way I, I, I, I think that it's really almost like a celebration of human ingenuity. And it's, it's really a reflection of this phrase that I learned when I was in school, uh, man, the maker, um, you know, how we've, we've created and invented things to, to help us, uh, achieve our goals in life. And in a way a fountain pen is, is like an over-engineered piece of that. Right. So, so that's what I, uh, grew to find interesting. Um, and then, yeah, as you said, you know, that's when I went, huh, that's, that's interesting. And, um, and yeah, the rest is, I guess, history.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So were you trying to, why were you trying to solve these problems? Like why, why did you want to buy all these music nibs? Were you trying to find a better writing experience for yourself? Is it that simple in the beginning?

'''CY:''' I just thought it looked cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay.

'''CY:''' And, and, and it wasn't available, uh, that it's not available was, was a challenge, you know, like I had to do it because nobody is doing it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Well, that leads me perfectly into one of what I want to talk about next, but, uh, you, you mentioned my podcast host, Myke, just a minute ago. So I'm going to throw it over to Myke real quick for an ad read. And, uh, we're going to pick this right back up in just a second.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So this idea of the things not existing or, you know, it's rare or it's different and unique seems to be a theme with what you do now. So following you kind of since the beginning, you know, I've just kind of watched your transformation. I love following everything that you do because I learned so much. Right. That's one of my biggest things about you. And I'll tell you a secret about your podcast later in the show if it comes up that I get from it. But, you know, following you and your transformation, like from the jump, the information was different than like someone who consumes content in the stationary space, you know, it was different content. And you have kind of like if we jump into like the present day, you've kind of made a name for yourself for doing things very, very differently. It comes from grinds or stacking nibs. So tell me about how, you know, from, hey, let's figure out these these pilot music nibs and make this, you know, wild flexi music nib to like really the the experimentation that you have going on now.