Editing The Pen Addict 316/transcript (section)

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' So we've got a few product related questions, as you can imagine. And Lynn wants to know, I enjoy writing letters to my family and friends, and it's a good opportunity to bring out a fountain pen and great color ink. However, I'm challenged with finding good paper to use for this. I'm currently using Rhodia A5 dot pad that has a finely perforated top and a Tomoe River notebook with a glue top that's about the same size. Both of these are okay, although the Tomoe River is a bit too thin for me. Any suggestions for another type of paper that is a bit more luxurious, at least worthy of the time spent to write a leather, and either separate sheets or tears cleanly and won't break the bank. So as someone who doesn't write a lot of letters, I do have a couple of letter writing papers that I use on the occasions that I like to use them. My favorite by far is the Pilot letter pad. So it's kind of expensive. Like it, I don't know where it falls and breaks the bank level, but 30 sheets for $14 is the opposite of cheap. But it's really nice. I like the pad that it comes in. It tears off cleanly. It handles fountain pens well. I've done some reviews on this paper before. The lines are really wide if you write big. I might write like two lines between the lines there. It's a little bit of a weird format there. But I really, really like this paper. That's my preferred letter writing paper. And I guess it's affordable to me because I'm not burning through it. I still have the original pad that I bought. You know, and probably like 10 sheets left in it or something like that. The other one I like, and I think it's a little bit cheaper, is Life does some really nice smaller sheets. Like that Pilot paper is not quite A4. I didn't see what size it is. It's bigger than A5, but I don't think it's quite A4 size. Let's see. Does it even say?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Who knows? Yeah, it's a who knows size. So it's probably, I don't know, whatever B5 is, B6. I don't know what those sizes are. Not B6. That's too small.

'''Myke Hurley:''' 9.8 inches by 6.8 inches. That's the size of it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that's really good stuff. So Life paper is wonderful. It's a little bit cheaper. This is 50 sheets. It's the Life airmail letter pad. I think this is more like A5 size though. It's smaller.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it's really good quality paper. It is thin like the Tomoe River. So you may not like that as much, but Life has some other regular sheets that tear off cleanly from pads that are good for writing as well. So they have a thicker pad as well. And you can also get like the L brand writing paper. That's the one I'm talking about. So that's really good stuff too. So it's 30 sheets A5 for like $625. I'm looking on JetPens right now. So those are really good. And you can get matching envelopes for those. You can get actually paper and envelopes for cheaper than the Pilot paper. I just have a, I don't know, have a sweet spot for that Pilot paper. Like maybe because it is expensive and I use it when I do fancy stuff. So you know me, I'm a fancy man.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like our next caller, Myke. This is a live radio show. So we have callers. So Chewbacca, Chewbacca is gonna, he filled up the Ask TPA queue with some good questions here. And he's making pens right now. So this is an important question to him. With all of the swirly acrylic pen materials out there saturating the market, what do you see as the next trend in pen material designs? That's a super tough question.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I have an answer.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay, you go first. Cause I have a couple.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Whenever Jonathan Brooks comes up with.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So my answers come from seeing off the market Jonathan Brooks stuff because he's someone who experiments with a lot of things. I think you're gonna see a lot of different, you're gonna see some layered materials cut at differing angles to bring out different patterns in those materials. Interesting. Think of like the, like that Arco material that's got so much, you know, layers and depth to it, but like cut at different angles or, you know, manipulated different ways to keep a same look, but have a different underlying pattern. So you're gonna see some, some non-traditional swirl stuff coming soon. Like, you know, once you've seen, there's a few swirl patterns that are so popular. It's like you see them throughout a bunch of different makers. And that's okay, you know, but like you're at, like you're saying, Brian, we're getting to the point where some of it's getting a little bit saturated and people are looking for new things.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It becomes less special over time. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, like you see, see similar things happening over and over again and the specialness starts to fade and it's like, oh, that's like that type of pen. And like, don't get me wrong, like you can still be surprised. There can still be like a color thing that grabs you. Sure. It's like you become accustomed to seeing a specific type of thing but it looks like, you know, there will be a change because there's going to be the next thing that blows people away.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so I think we're going to see a lot more layering and a lot more angle cuts of that material that doesn't really play out in traditional acrylics which leads into the cost question. These certainly, these things are going to be more expensive. That's why these acrylics have become so popular because they're easier to make and cheaper to buy and easy to manipulate and easy to turn into pens. So, these next, these next materials are going to be harder to make and harder to manipulate and harder to turn into pens. So, the cost will be associated with that. So, Brian also wants to know, do you have any concerns carrying a fountain pen in your pocket when the temperature is over 90 degrees Fahrenheit? That has never crossed my mind. So, I guess I would say I have no concerns.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Straight up, I don't even know why that would be a problem.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, because I'm not outside in that temperature for 12 or 14 hours. So, you know, popping in and out of hot and cold may actually be worse. I don't know. Just the, oh, if you're going out in a really, really hot temperature and then back into like the air conditioning. But, those have never really concerned me. Maybe there's some filling mechanisms that might have an issue with that. But, I've never experienced anything as someone who lives in an area where it's 90 plus degrees for probably four months consistently out of the year. I've never seen any issues. I would not leave anything in my car when it gets, you know, that brings the temperature up to probably 120, 130 degrees inside of a car. I would never do that. I would be worried in that case. But, outside with movement and not being hit in the direct sunlight, I would, it's never, never come up.