Editing The Pen Addict 383/transcript (section)

== Nib Matching ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I was questioning, you know, and as a lot of people were the idea of, well, why don't you make the nib match the black ion plating of all of the hardware on the pen instead of, you know, the rhodium plating, like the bright silver plating on the nib. And like, I was totally on, let's make it black ion and charge me $60 more. Like, I think, I think that's, you know, a fair stance to take, but in, in person, like when I saw it, like it didn't, the shininess of the nib didn't stand out to where I felt, wow, this is a real outlier for this design to make me not want it. And of course I bought it. I bought the large size. This is the, this is actually the first 1911 large. So this is how I justified it to myself. This is the first 1911 large that I own because I really just got into the 1911 with the Royal Tangerine. And that was the small one, the standard. I really hate that whole, their whole naming convention thing. It just causes confusion anyway. So the large I bought and I really like it. I bought it with an extra fine nib. The color is awesome. The black ion plating of all the external hardware is awesome. And the nib of course is great. It's extra fine. And honestly, it's not too fine, which is great. I already have a needle point. So in a Rialo that I just got that I love, and this is way different than that. So it's just an all around good pen. And while I was sitting there debating it, this was definitely the hottest pen in the store that weekend because it was new. Everyone likes Sailor. It's a decent enough price point.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And people were trying them out left and right. And I know they sold a bunch of them this weekend. People, the consensus was that people liked them and didn't have an issue with the silver nib, which I figured was going to be the case. I said, they'll sell all of these.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I did get to thinking, well, I have two black Sailor nibs at home. I could swap into this if it's really bothering me for some reason. The Black Luster Sailor pen, which is a 1911 model, but it's got a metal grip section and a black nib. And then the Imperial Black, which is a Pro Gear model, also has the black nib. I could pull one of those nibs, put it in here. But the more I got to looking at it, the more reasons I found to not make that swap and just stick with the Rhodium plated nib, which I really, really like. And I think it looks good. It writes good. It's that pen, right? I could mix and match all kinds of pens and do all kinds of different things. But then I get into a bad place of having everything mixed up and forgetting where things go, even though this one would be pretty easy to reverse if I wanted to. But I was like, well, let's at least try it for a while with the standard nib that it came with. And I quite like it. I like it a lot, actually. And I think I would use this pen a lot. So very happy with it. The one thing about these black nibs that I thought about popping into this 4am, I got them both out and photographed them for Instagram because people were asking me, you know, did they match and what did they look like? The Black Luster nib would be an exact match to it. The Imperial Black nib, which I've used a lot more and cleaned a lot more, did not look good. And it looked like it's starting to, I don't want to say corrode yet until I go clean it more, but it's not pretty, right? It's got some, you know, the exterior is breaking down, if you will. And it didn't look that great. I think I can probably clean it and it's fine, but maybe it's just an effect of overcleaning in the past and not using it a lot recently to keep it in good shape. But this would be a mark in the column of why would you want a black nib in the first place? Because I do think they feel different and they're going to change more physically, you know, either in looks or whatever over time as you use them, as ink interacts with them, as you clean them. And, you know, this is maybe what it would look like down the line. And do you really want that? So I have very much less of a problem with the nib choice in retrospect. And I'm really enjoying this pen so far.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think that it would look really cool with the whole nib, like in grip section from the black luster, like the metal one. I think that that would actually look really good. I will probably do that. Yeah, I think you should at least give that one a go and see what it looks like. I think that would be a kind of a cool customization. Yeah. That's also kind of fun to like customize it in some way.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And that's a dead simple swap, right? Just screwing off the front end grip section. And someone on Reddit did that, which I just happened to see. I was like, oh, yeah, that's the idea that I was thinking about. And it looks really good. And the good thing about that for me is that nib in that pen is a medium. So I have two very different feels I will get from swapping these up. And I will definitely do that eventually. But initially, I wanted to go with the stock nib.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Mm-hmm. Just at least so you can get an idea like, you know, this is how they decided to sell it and et cetera, et cetera. And then you can kind of work out what you want to do after that, I guess. Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. I don't know if I'd somehow missed the Black Luster or like forgot that it existed. Mm-hmm. It's a cool pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a fantastic pen. It like, this was years and years ago and it just appeared and then vanished. Like all of a sudden, I don't know that it was limited. I don't know if they just did like a stock thing. I don't even remember the story about it. But that was one that I knew I wanted like immediately. I remember getting it very quickly when it came out. And then it just went away and you never heard about it again. They've kept the Imperial Black going, which is the one in the Pro Gear lineup. But this one, they don't for, I don't know why. It's fantastic. And it's different enough from what they offer to where I would think they would continue it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Talk about fantastic. Yesterday, my sparkling royal Pro Gear arrived. Sparkling royal purple from Pensacchi. I absolutely love this pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's really good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It came in a Wancher box, which makes me feel like it's a Wancher special edition.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Maybe. I would imagine so. You would think they would say in like the product thing, probably. Yeah. I don't know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I haven't seen anything. It doesn't have any branding either on it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. But Wancher does several Sailor limited editions.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I think I mentioned this on the show last week, but it was funny to think. It's my third standard size Pro Gear. Mm-hmm. Like I only have three. You think of all the Sailor pens that I own. This is like the third one that I have that's a standard size. The rest of mine are slims mostly. And I have some esoteric sizes. This pen, everything about it, I love. I love the transparent purple. I have a gold, like a converter with a gold, like a gold part in it, which is great because the gold matches with the gold furniture, which also looks fantastic. Did it come with that converter? Can I ask you that? I bought it. I added it on. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I have never seen a Sailor gold plated converter. Yeah. That comes with a pen. So that's great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's a cool match. As an extra. Sure. The fact that the sparkly part is multiple colors. And they've done a really great thing of like, it looks like it's, well, it definitely is. It's inset throughout all the resin. So when you look at it, you see like a layered effect. Gotcha. Right? So there's depth to the sparkliness in the body. It looks as good on the, you know, it looks as good on the finial. And I really love the white cap, white grip section. Um, I just think that that really sets it off. I mean, I don't, you know, I now have like two Sailor pens that have a lot of white featured in them, but on the magic of Alice, it's like, it's more dull and it has the sparkly in it. But on this pen, it's like a real bright, like ivory white. Um, I, I really, really do like this pen an awful lot. Uh, and I filled it with the, uh, Colt pens, Philip, which is a purple one, which is purple and gold. If you can get a sheen on it. Uh, it's also, I also got a medium nib for this one, which is also a reference that now my second medium nib, um, in Sailor pens. I seem to buy much more weird nibs of Sailor pens. I don't know why, but now I haven't, now I have another medium.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's funny. You say that one about the weird nibs. One sailor offers them, right? Not everybody offers as deep of a line.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I have like two or three zoom nibs just because I can have them. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And two, I bought a zoom nib in the standard 4am. Did I do that right? I don't even know the name, the smaller 4am to give away on the blog. So I have a giveaway this week on the blog where I'm giving away the 4am. So if I'm going to do a giveaway, I'm going to do one of the cool nibs, right? Like zoom.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I absolutely adore Sailor's zoom nib. Yeah. It's not for me. Oh, I love it. It might be like, it's high up there. It's one of my very, very favorite nibs.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Crazy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It works for me so well. It's just like a crazy broad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just didn't get enough variation. Like there should be, there is variation. Like it's designed to have a type of variation based on the angle you hold the nib at. And it wasn't different enough for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. Okay. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But you and I, you and I write differently though. Right. So we do.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And like, for me, you know, like the, the, the sailor zoom nib is just like a big round, like broad nib. And for it being so round means it works almost flawlessly for me. Like I never get scratching or skipping, like no matter how weirdly I hold the pen. Right. Like there's always like a good, good coverage. So it's one of the reasons I find it so smooth because it works really well for me. But anyway, but back to the, the sparkling royal purple, a big fan. I love it. It looks great. Excellent addition. This is going to be one of those pens that like in a couple of years I bring to a pen show and people are like, what is that one? You know? Totally. So it's got that look to it for sure.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I think they're great looking. I am, you know, it's, it's not enough for me to jump through the screen and throw money at it, but I think it's awesome in, in the same aspect. Right.