Editing The Pen Addict 112/transcript (section)

== Pen Reviews ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Alright. So, we got a... What I want to do today, Myke, is since we haven't had a show where just you and I talk about just pens in a long while, I don't think. Um... I want to do that today and kind of go over some recent pen and pencil reviews I've done. Get your input on some of them. And, um... I... You know, answer some questions that people had about some of the pens I've, uh... Reviewed recently. So, before we do that, we have a pen blog of the week. And I cannot believe... This hit me yesterday when I was putting these show notes together. How has Gourmet Pens, our friend Aziza, not been pen blog of the week?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Um... It's a grave oversight. It is a grave oversight. She's been around forever. Her tagline on her about page is good old fashioned crazy. And that's pretty much right. Um... If you ever talk to Aziza online, she's just always positive. Always, um... Has good spirits about her. Does a great job with reviews on her website, Gourmet Pens. Which you can find at gourmetpens.com She's, uh... She's got all kinds of good things up there right now. And, uh... She's reviewing the Tactile Turn, Shaker. And she does all kinds of ink reviews. Um... She's a big fan of the, uh... Pink Bolt Carers Customs. That she always, uh... Teases me about. And Dan always teases me about. Because I actually like how that looks a bunch. So I'm gonna have to get Dan to get me one of those Pink Carers Customs Bolts. I figure that's about the most manly pen you can get right there. It's a... It's a big, strong pink pen. And it's awesome. I love it. Um... So yeah. Check out Aziza's site. And, uh... She's another one that I've said, Myke, in the past. I gotta get her on the podcast. So... I gotta... I gotta a lot of work to do lining up these interviews.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I'm gonna get on that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Please do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So I'm gonna get into some... Some reviews I've done recently. And get your opinion on them. And the first one, I think, is probably... It might be the most divisive out of this whole thing. It's the Rotring 800+. Now we talked about it when Rotring released it... Mmm... A month ago. Maybe two months ago. They started... You know, they did their PR push where it showed up on all these gear and gadget sites all at one time. And then they became available. And I think I asked you about it then. It's basically the traditional Rotring 800. Which... Rotring does three mechanical pencils. I think it's a... I'm gonna butcher the first one because I'm not looking at it. I think the first one's a 300. Which is a knurled grip with a plastic barrel. Then the 600 is the classic full brass barrel with the knurled grip. And the 800 is also the brass barrel with the knurled grip. But it has a retractable sleeve for the pencil lead. So you can... You know, if you're carrying the pencil in your pocket or you're not using the pencil... You don't have to be afraid of dropping it and bending the pencil sleeve. Because that'll pretty much trash it right there. So that's what the Rotring 800 does. It retracts the pencil sleeve. And in the Rotring 800 Plus... What they've done is where you retract the pencil... They've added a stylus tip to it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Now, what were your thoughts on this when you first saw this? I remember talking about it. And I think we're both on the same page. Neither one of us are big combo pen stylus fans. Or pencil stylus fans, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I'm not... It's just not really something that I'm interested in, to be honest.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I don't... It's a good idea. I mean, they did it... Well. Like, they... The actual execution is decent.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The... Lead sleeve... Pops out through the... Stylus tip.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It looks okay. It... It came out okay, I guess. I just don't see the need for this. Except for very... Specific use cases.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, something like a client meeting. Where you're having to bounce back and forth from maybe like a tablet to paper. Or something like that. But on daily use, I would think you're going to have the pencil out. You're going to be using that. And then when you're done with the pencil, you're probably going to put it away. I don't know that the... The stylus really adds a lot. Some people like the 800 just for the retractableness of it. I'm pretty much going to always recommend the Rotring 600. Even though it doesn't retract. It's just so good looking. And I don't like the gold trim on the 800 series. If they made that in silver, maybe I'd change my mind. But I think the 600 series is just a more solid pen. That's the... The pencil, excuse me. That's the one I reach for the most. I have the 600 and 800+. I'll reach for the standard 600.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Way more than I ever will the 800. I've actually been carrying the 800 with me. Just to see if I would get some use out of it. And I'm not. It's in one of my pen cases. And I just rarely use it. I'm actually using a wood case pencil over this pencil. So, I don't know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I just can't go back after using the Kurutoga and that system.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And that's the other hang up. That works so well. Especially for everyday use. The Kurutoga does. Again, you know, a very specialized artist, architect, drafter will want more of a line variation of a non-rotating lead.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Outside of the Kurutoga. But for just people in general, the Kurutoga, I think, is probably the best on the market. But the only people who don't enjoy the Kurutoga, who need that, you know, need shading or need a line width variation. And they would have to manipulate the Kurutoga too much. That's the only negative I've ever heard about the Kurutoga. Otherwise, it's brilliant. And I think that's still probably the go-to pencil. After that, I think I would go straight for the Rotring 600. I like the 800. I see the usefulness in it. It's just something about the 600 that's more simple and better looking and almost better feeling and better functioning. So, I enjoy the 600 more than I've enjoyed the 800. And I like the 800.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' One pen I just reviewed last week, I think. The Kaweco Lilliput Brass Wave fountain pen. This pen knocked my socks off. There's no two ways about this one. We had seen pictures of the new Kaweco Brass lineup. They were doing the Lilliputs. Which of the Lilliputs?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Boy, oh boy. I hadn't seen this until now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, the Lilliput is the little bitty small pen, right? It's smaller than the AL Sport. The AL Sport is kind of the perfect pocketable size because it gets, when you post it, it gets to practically a full-size pen. So, you know, it's a very normal writing experience when you're writing with an AL Sport. The Lilliput is probably half the width of the AL Sport, just, you know, for a reference point. I'm sure that's not an exact measurement. But it's much smaller than the AL Sport. And to post it, you have to actually screw the cap on the end of the barrel. And then that makes it a full-size pen and you're able to write with it. But it's a much narrower barrel. So, they came out with these brass ones. I started seeing pictures of them a few months ago. And they were just beautiful, beautiful. But I never saw this Wave model until JetPens got them in stock. And this is not normally something I would go for. I generally prefer the smooth brass. You know, just a standard smooth pen. And that's an option. But I said, let me get crazy and order the Wave model. And I'm fascinated with this pen, Myke. Like, it's... I have the regular Lilliput, which is an aluminum barrel. It's really lightweight. I've liked it. But it almost gets lost, like, in your pants pocket. It's so light, you can't feel it. It's ended up in the laundry basket for me more times than I can think of. The Lilliput, the brass, it's not overly heavy. It's just this perfect weight. You can actually just feel it just a little bit without it being heavy in your pocket. And when you post it and write with it, it's just balanced really well. The weight is very well. It's much better than the aluminum Lilliput, in my opinion. And I've kind of fallen in love with this little guy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's really small.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It is really small.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's very good looking, but I think it's too small for me. Because I wouldn't want to post it still. You know me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, you have to post this one. This is one you have to post. I still don't know if I would.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because I don't post the sports.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I can sometimes get away with not posting the sports. But on the Lilliput, if you don't post it, you're basically just gripping it with your two fingers. Right? There's no... It doesn't lean up against your hand. Right? It's too short. But when you post it, you can see I have a picture. If you scroll down, it goes a good half inch past the end of your hand to a very comfortable writing. But you can see where it screws on, how it would fall short of that. And kind of be oddly uncomfortable. So you pretty much have to post this pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Where did you get your nib from?