Editing The Pen Addict 393/transcript (section)

== Sign Pens ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' That's interesting. It's like a man. It's like a, it's like a reporter's notebook for a giant.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They could put that on the marketing page. Yeah. There you go. All right. All right. Dan and Tom. If listening to this has started to whet your appetite for a new pen purchase, then I have the place for you. That is our friends over at Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet believe in the best customer service and the best products. That's what they want to give you. They're selling authentic, amazing roller balls and fountain pens, inks, ballpoints, pen cases, pen holders, mechanical pencils, and so much more. Pen Chalet want to make sure they have as much stuff in stock as possible to be able to get you exactly what you're looking for in your pen life, for your stationary lifestyle. They're always running great discounts. Twice a month, they have special discounts, including closeout specials every two weeks. They are really great at all this stuff and they do great shipping as well. So if you are international, like me, they have great shipping rates and I've always experienced, I can't guarantee this, right? But I've always experienced really quick shipping with them. Like it's as quick as I would expect from an international supplier for the prices they charge, which is very fair. But if you're in the US and you order something of over $50, which probably isn't that difficult, you'll get free shipping. Pen Chalet has low prices and high quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So the next time you want to buy something, no matter what it is, go to penchalet.com first, penchalet.com first and click the podcast link at the top of the website. Because if you enter the password penaddict there, you will get a 10% coupon code for anything at Pen Chalet. So when you're thinking about making your next purchase, not only will you get some money off, but you'll also be helping to support us and a great supporter of the community, which is the folk over at Pen Chalet. And as usual, there is some special offers over at penchalet.com. But these are those types of deals that are so good, I can't tell you about them. So you have to go and look yourself. That's penchalet.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password penaddict to get your hands on these special deals and the code you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet are such a fantastic supporter of this show. So if you ever need to buy anything else in your life, please go there first and check if they have it available. And then you get that 10% off as well. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for the support of this show and Relay FM. So I, a couple of weeks ago, well, yeah, about maybe about a month ago, Colt Pens here in the UK were doing some discount offers and they had a good, like sizable set of the Copic multi liners like they were tweeting about. I was like, oh, that'd be a good Christmas present. So like I checked it out and it was like hilariously expensive, even with a discount. Like it was like hundreds of pounds. I was like, that is not the stocking stuffer that I was thinking of for Idina. Like I know that she likes the Copics, but like not that much. But they also had a box of pens that I had never seen before called the Uni Emot, E-M-O-T-T, all caps. And it's a sign pen. And I thought they looked nice. So it was like a good box, a bunch of colors for a pretty, pretty good price. So I went ahead and got those. And then Idina wrapped them for Christmas. And it was like, oh, it's a nice little thing. It was the Uni Emot fineliner set of 40, which was like, it's 30 pounds now on Colt pens. I don't remember how much it was when I bought it. It was cheaper than that though, because they had a deal. And then like a week or two later, I saw that you reviewed them, Brad, on the pen addict. So I have not used these pens at all, but I know the two of you have. So I'm interested, Idina, in your experience first, because I think you have, Brad only had like a set of five, but you have like a much larger set, right?

'''Adina Hurley:''' Yeah, the 40 pack. Yeah, what can I say? I really like them. I had the, first of all, I was looking right now at the, Myke has up on his monitor, your review, Brad, and I think you call them sign pens, which really confused me because I would think of these type of pens more like fineliners, but that might be just me. And in this category, I definitely had loads around the house, the Staedtler, the Faber-Castell, the Stabilo 0.88. And compared to those, I really like these because they seem to be flying on the page. It's really easy to write with them. And I wouldn't use them for illustration or drawing or filling up large surfaces because they have that annoying thing where they leave a dot of ink at the end of a line. So I tend to use them more for writing in my journal, for making notes, especially as they're so fine.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, see, that's, I'm pleased that you have a good use for them. But like my thinking was to buy them for illustration. So I guess it's like, it's, I failed on that one. Like they're not for that. But like, I honestly, I didn't, I didn't even really look into them. It was just like, oh, here's a box of 40. It was a good price. Like, and there's a bunch of colors. Yeah. But so they are like, Brad, can you explain what a sign pen is? Because like these are called fineliners, but I know what you mean, but I want you to, I can't explain it as well as you can. And like the difference, and I think that this is why you're having the problem that you're having, or they're not fulfilling what you want because of the way these pens are made.

'''Adina Hurley:''' Right, right, right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So it's an impossible definition, really. So I get questioned about it, like how I use the pen. What do you believe a sign pen is? Because, you know, someone else will refer to it as something differently. In general, I look back at some of the original Pentel sign pens, which were a plastic fibrous tip that came into a point where the ink was just at the point of that tip, as opposed to more of a needle style plastic tip pen that's pointy, which a lot of people refer to as fineliners. There's no, I don't, there's probably like a technically correct term for this or that. Um, so like it's good either way. I tend to refer to this. You'll see sign pens with this white tip with the color on the end of it generally tends to be a certain style of pen. And then you'll have your drawing fineliner pens will tend to be the more needle plastic tip pen. And a lot of times those, those are supported with like metal underneath the plastic tip.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And then also you've got the type of fineliner, which is more of a felt tip, right? Like a fibrous tip.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Then you have like the full on marker tip, which is also a sign pen. Like that's the super famous Pentel one, um, which is just a, like a full black marker tip, which is a really wide tip. So yeah, I don't, as to my, like I, I would bet each company defines it differently. Yeah. Um, and then us as consumers kind of fall into like what we've been used to calling the one thing we got from the one company based on their nomenclature and transferring in that into other pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Cause I think it's a weird, I think me and you are pretty similar because I think of sign pens as like these ones with that are plastic. Like they have like a plastic tip and then the ink comes through. Like it's not all one color or made of like a marker, like material, like a fiber, right? Yeah. That they, they have this like hard plastic tip to them. So they are way more used for just like writing as opposed to artwork.

'''Adina Hurley:''' And I can see that as a definite benefit because I, I can see how even after long use, they don't, uh, like the tip doesn't erode or get thicker with time. So it's very durable in that sense. And I like that you bought a 0.4, it's always going to be a 0.4, you know, it's a really nice thing that. And the, the colors I have to say, I always, because I use this for writing usually, and I like, um, using a set of colors. If I did my journal, it highlights different things. I do appreciate in these sets when the colors are modern as opposed to standard. Totally. And I think they do a good job at that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They're really bright. Like selection, the, the 40 selection is very bright. The selection that you got, Brad, was a little bit different. I think it was, it was a little bit dull. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They're contained in the 40, I believe. So this color is a, it's called the retro set, but I think they're part of the 40. Okay. Right. Um, you can't buy all of the 40 set separately, but there are a few groupings you can buy separately. This is one of them.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So you can buy all of them or a subsection of them, but not singular.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Not, yeah, correct. I mean, I'm sure someone will probably break them out and sell them individually. Sure. Yeah. But that's not how Uniball presented them.