Editing The Pen Addict 306/transcript (section)

== Mechanical Pencil ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So what makes this pencil different to what is currently available in the marketplace?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mostly the size and shape and design and appearance of the pencil. It's a large mechanical pencil made from brass, which is shockingly not as heavy as you would think. They have thinned this out appropriately so it's not an overbearing weight. A lot of fountain pens we've used in the circles we run in, like from Karis Customs or Nomisu or there's been a few. Pretty much any company that's made a metal pen, Tactile Turn has made brass models. And they're just outrageously heavy. This is not a heavy pencil. And the style of it is just stunning, right? You look at it and you go, wow, they really knock it out of the park. And being a fan of Y Studio like I am, I fully expected that to be the case, that this is just a wonderful, wonderful looking pencil. And I love the copper knock on the end of the brass pencil. That's like really, really good looking.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I would not have thought that brass and copper would look good together, right? But it does. It actually really does with this. But I think maybe the bigger story here is what's wrong with this? Like what is this pencil lacking? Because I think something that probably surprised the both of us, you didn't really seem to like it that much.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So I would have, I got this pen on loan or pencil on loan from Van S Pens. And if I didn't get that for review, I probably would have just bought it like sight unseen, right? Like I love Y Studio, I would not have considered the things that I ended up finding out about this pencil that I didn't like in retrospect. I would have jumped at buying this if, you know, all things considered, if I didn't have a review unit of it. So what I found real quick on this pen, pencil, God, I'm going to keep doing that the entire show, aren't I? I always, I always do that, is for a wide barreled pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Soul.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Soul. I'll fix it for you. Don't worry. I've got you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's not comfortable to write with a fine tip. So the wider your fingers are, the wider the tip needs to be.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's too much of a harsh change, right? Because it really goes down to, obviously, a super fine mechanical pencil lead. Yeah, it's 0.7 millimeter. Right. But compared to the hot dog you're holding in your hand, right, like that is a very, you know, that's a very different scenario. Like what's actually being output is vastly different. And I can imagine, especially with the weight of this thing, maybe it doesn't stack up very well to be a pencil.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. So it feels weird making small marks with such a large pencil, right? It's like, I don't know, it's like you're holding a log and, you know, trying to write like a math equation, you know, in a graph sheet of paper. So it's a little bit uncomfortable. It would be the perfect size. If they made this a clutch pencil that holds like the 2.0 millimeter leads and you use larger, wider strokes, it's more for drawing and sketching. That would be like the perfect use for this barrel. The other thing I found, which again, I did not realize this, like it didn't even cross my mind, would have never crossed my mind before I bought this pencil. Was that the hex barrel in a mechanical pencil doesn't work well because you have to rotate the pencil when you're writing. So everyone does this and they don't realize they do it because it's just such a natural habit. When you're using any type of pencil, wood case or mechanical, you're always writing a few letters, the twisting the pen in your hand. It's just like a natural motion. The pencil. Damn it, Myke, you didn't fix it there. Sorry. So you have this motion to where you write a few letters, twist, write a few letters, twist to always keep the sharp edge of the graphite going in the pencil, right? It's like, it's just a natural thing. And I talked about how the Uniball Curitoga, it's so popular because it corrected that. Like if you don't want to twist the pencil in your hands, the Uniball Curitoga will just rotate it for you. So the reason why it's an issue on this pencil is the width of the barrel gives it a wide, I don't know, wide hex dimensions, if you will, the flat parts. So when you twist and that hex shape runs all the way through the gripping area of the pencil and you rotate like very frequently, like every second or two, you're rotating, you know, just as you write, you just don't even realize you're doing it. I end up on top of the hex, like on the ridge and I, you, your grip is not solid then. So I have to stop, get on the flat part and then keep writing. And it would just happen over and over again. I was like, it's, it's like too much, even that we're talking like microseconds, it's destroying like my flow because I'm, I'm, I'm twisting. And then I hit a spot where I have less of a grip on the pencil than I did a split second ago when I was fully in the flat. So I didn't realize how much of an issue that would be because we've all used regular wooden pencils in the past and all of those are hex barrels. Why isn't that an issue? Well, it's because one, they're narrower. Your fingers cover more ground on those pencils. You're probably on the ridge to begin with. And those, those ridges are generally more rounded off. So you'll notice that not a lot, no, you know, wooden pencils, you don't notice that as much as you're twisting them while you're writing. But with this pen, it really stood out just because of the size and it ended up being uncomfortable and it was not something I expected. So there's a few pencils that are made this way, but 99% of the mechanical pencils, you go look, let's just look at the rotary, you know, hex barrel, round grip, everything, any popular mechanical pencil that has a hex barrel morphs into a round grip of some kind. And there's a reason for that. It's because it's actually uncomfortable to write with, which I wouldn't have, I didn't pick up on before I bought it. Like, I mean, before I got this on loan, I would have totally bought this pencil just because I love it. Love the brand. But functionally, it did not work for those reasons.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I just want to say before we run this out, there is a picture that you put in this article of the rotary sitting atop the Y Studio pencil. It is so beautiful. Like, I had to look at it for a while. I was like, is this like, at first it looked like it was like a painting or something. Like, I was looking at it and I was like, what's going on here? Like, there's something about this image. I absolutely love it. It's very good, Brad. You did a good job.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I lucked into that one. And I mean, I knew what I wanted to do. My idea was I wanted to, I was trying to show how much wider the Y Studio pencil is compared to a standard pencil. And there's no better standard mechanical pencil than the Rotring 600. So I was able to sit it right on top. And I, you know, I didn't put this down specifically, but it's almost two millimeters wider. I'll have to look at the, I did it in my write-up and then I forgot to transfer it. You can really see it though.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like, it's really, really clear to see it. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So like, when you look at like the numbers on a page, you're like, oh, like a millimeter is not that big of a difference. But when you're holding it in your hand, it's a gigantic difference. So when my wife saw this picture, she thought that the Y Studio pencil was cut open and that was the interior. You know, that was like the insides of the bottom pencil showing through on the top. So now that I see that, I was like, man, that's a totally weird picture, but it came out really good. And it did exactly what I wanted it to do. It just showed how a small difference in grip section width can make a huge difference in your writing experience. There are cases where wide barrels are good. You know, like I talked about it in the post where like, if you have hand issues or arthritis and you can't really have these fine motor skill motions, you know, you need a wider grip. But correspondingly, you get a wider tip to write with besides a 0.7 millimeter pencil. So I was surprised a little bit on this one. I thought this was going to be just like a lock, one of my favorite things. And it turns out like it's really not. And it took me to use this pencil for a while. I realized it pretty quick when I was rotating it, that it was going to drive me crazy the way I rotated it in my hand and kept landing on these ridges and then had to move again to continue writing. I was like that, that double, that double stop in between letters was super frustrating. So it was a good review for that aspect from a learning aspect. So I have really enjoyed this review. I got some kind words on this review, just saying, you know, thanks for like breaking it down in that way, other than just like a, like a spec thing. You know, that's what I'm, I'm trying to do more of and, and, and relate it, relate it to like actual usage. And I found that, that I love this, the looks of this pencil, but I don't love using it. So there you have it.