Editing The Pen Addict 2/transcript (section)

== Pen Barrel ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So the barrel can be a little bit brittle. And the second thing is sometimes the needle tip needs a little bit of scribbling to get going. I call that priming. A lot of pens that would frustrate me if every time I had to, every time I uncapped it and started writing, that it didn't write right immediately. That doesn't happen all the time with the Hi-Tech C, but there's a few times that it does, and it takes a little bit of priming to get it going.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, you probably see that most in ballpoints, right? Yes. So if you've got a ballpoint that's just been sitting around for a while, you have to go scribble, scribble, scribble until it starts working.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Exactly. It's a little bit dry to start with. And the Hi-Tech C gets that way too, a little bit. But once you get it going, it usually doesn't stop unless you cap it and put it away and come back tomorrow. Maybe you have to do it again. Maybe you don't. But I have found that to be the case. But I get over it for this pen because when it does write, it's the best pen for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So what I know of the Hi-Tech C is people consider it to be one of the best pens ever made. But it's more the refill than it is anything else, right? So that's exactly right. They're not commenting on how great it's designed.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, exactly right. Yeah, there wouldn't be so many Kickstarter projects trying to redesign the barrel if it was the greatest pen designed. And personally, I don't think this is the greatest pen ever made. Myke, if you came up to me tomorrow and asked me to make a pen recommendation to you, I would never, ever tell you to use the Hi-Tech C. Why? To be that first foray into this type of pen. Because if the only thing you've ever used is the pen from your office or the pen from your office supply store, this pen is going to be very foreign. And it's going to write differently than anything you've ever used. And it would probably turn you off more than it turns you on.

'''Myke Hurley:''' See, I have a 0.5. And even that feels too scratchy for me. I mean, we spoke before, I like 0.7s. I'm ridiculous about that. Right. Which Brad hates me for. No, no, not at all. And he's trying to educate me in the ways of smaller point sizes. But even the 0.5, it does feel like I'm running a needle across a page. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. And my whole goal is not to tell people they should use micro-tip pens. You know, not to use something, not to use a 0.3 or 0.4 millimeter pens. My whole point in doing the pen addict and doing the things I do is to let people know that there are choices. Yeah. And that you can think about what pen you use. You're not stuck with what's offered to you at the bank. There's actually other things out there that might be better. They might not be. But I just want people to be aware that there are choices out there. And, you know, I would never, you know, say this is the only way to go. And, you know, I certainly use 0.7 millimeter pens on a regular basis and love many of them. So, you know, it all boils down to personal preference. And the one thing I want to make clear is that, you know, there are so many options out there. And we're all going to have different tastes in pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So let's move on to ball points. What is your favorite ball point?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' My favorite right now, as much as I talk about the Uniball Jetstream, it's not the Jetstream. It's a pen that's in the same category. It's a hybrid ballpoint ink pen. It's called the Pilot Acroball. And we talked a bit in the glossary episode about what a hybrid ballpoint ink is. And it's an ink formulation that these companies have started to use to make a smoother writing and more consistent ballpoint. Darker colors.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Less. I talk about white space in ballpoint lines. If you've ever used, you know, just a basic ballpoint, you'll be writing, say, a black ink ballpoint.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And that line will have kind of white spots in it. That's because the tip of the ballpoint is not really rolling that smoothly and the ink's not sticking to it very well to give you that solid line. These new hybrid ballpoint inks are kind of aimed to solve that problem. You get a very solid line. It almost looks like a, you know, just a gel ink line or liquid ink pen line. Now, one of the things about the Pilot Acroball, and Myke, you're a good candidate for this, is that not all pen – okay, how should I put this?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Are you about to offend me?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, no, no, no, no.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Surprisingly enough, the pen market is regionalized, okay? So the Pilot Acroball does not exist as the Pilot Acroball in the United States. The Pilot Acroball in the United States is called the Pilot Easy Touch Pro.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So while I say I like the Pilot Acroball, you can't walk into a store and buy this pen. But if you knew what you were looking for and knew that in the U.S. it's called one thing, in other parts of the world it's called a separate thing, you might be – you might get a good surprise when you purchase your next pen. So that's something I wanted to make aware of. The Pilot does it with the Hi-Tech C also. In some parts of the world it's called the G-Tech C.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That doesn't even make any sense.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It doesn't.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like it's so close. What's wrong with Hi?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I have no idea. I have no idea. But you're going to find that on a lot of pens and I've noticed a lot in the U.K. a similar pen to what I might have on my desk. I mean the exact same design will have a different name. I'll see if I can get some more examples for you but it's pretty prevalent.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You'll have to do some pen spotting. Yeah.