Editing The Pen Addict 526/transcript (section)

== Pen Show Plans ==


'''Brad:''' Maybe next week I'll talk about my plans for the pen show, like what I'm looking for shopping-wise and things like that, but I've talked about in the past, like I'm finally going to get a nib worked on to use in my Canalea pen. So I've got three Canalea pens now, and they all have the same nib, which is fine, but I want to have one that's different. So that's one of my tasks. One of the top things on my list at the San Francisco Pen Show is nib work. Like I don't even have any...

'''Myke:''' Do you have a nib in mind, or are you going to have one of the nibs of the current pens adjusted?

'''Brad:''' Current pens adjusted. So with the gold Yovo extra fine nibs, they're still wide enough for me to get like a little cursive italic grind on there. So it'll be like a Japanese fine cursive italic, which is kind of my sweet spot for just long form, enjoyable writing. So I'll get one of them done, and then that way I can move the nib from pen to pen as I use it. Because I don't... If I have one of the Canalea pens inked up, I only ever have one of them inked up at a time. So yeah, we'll talk about that next week. Like the list of things that I'm going to do, which is actually, like I said, pretty short. Like I'm not necessarily shopping for anything personally, but I am going to get a lot of nib work done, and we'll talk about that.

'''Brad:''' All right, Myke.

'''Brad:''' Mr. Inconsistent Project Boy over here is a big fan of starting projects.

'''Brad:''' The finishing of them, that's up for debate. But we have got to get, and by we, I mean me, I have to get my top five pens page fully up to date. And it came to bear when I was talking to Allison Stewart at WNYC, Myke. I don't know if you heard. Oh, were you?

'''Myke:''' You were on the raid? Oh.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, news to you. But she was referring to like one of the lists on the top five pens page, and I was like, oh, God, I had an update. I looked at the date I updated it. It was like 2020. I was like, I really need to update it. Even if a list hasn't changed, it needs to be touched and analyzed and thought about and say, hey, yes, today, this is still valid, right? So I started this week, and I'm just going to go straight down the list. I don't know if I'm going to get to one a week. Some weeks I might be able to tackle two or three of the top five categories. But I started at the top this week with the top five micro gel ink pens, and that's kind of the category that's really near and dear to my heart. It's the category of pen that made me decide to write about pens on the Internet, you know, discovering that, hey, there is such a thing as a sub 0.5 millimeter tip out there in the market. It just so happens they're in Japan and not the easiest thing to get, but look at where we are now. Almost 15 years later, we can get these types of pens anywhere. So I wanted to break down that list. That list is now updated as of last night on the top five pens page on the pen addict. And in the update section of each of these categories, I'll put the date that I updated so that we'll know that these categories have been updated. So only the first one's been updated so far, and I updated it yesterday. So I'll put that date on there. So this list had a little bit of change, but nothing changed in the top three spots. And I think this is really a two pen list that separate themselves from the remainder of the bunch. And those two pens are the Uniball Signo DX 0.38 millimeter, which is number one, and the Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.4 millimeter, which is number two. I think those are far and away the best sub 5 millimeter gel ink pens. The DX might even separate itself from the Sarasa Clip even more than grouping them together. Like there might be a pretty decent delineation there. As far as, again, just to recap, if you're new to the show and new to the pen addict, the top five pens are my recommendations. Okay, this is if someone asks me a question and it lands in this category, here is what I would recommend to you. Does that always line up with what I would personally use? And the answer is no. So I just want to make that clear. That's in the intro, but not everyone reads the intro to these things. But I like to mention that this list is a recommendation list. It's not a personal list as such. Not a personal list.

'''Myke:''' There's an interesting nuance there, right? But it's like... It is. I have all this information. I've tried all these products. What am I going to suggest the majority of people buy?

'''Brad:''' Right. And it comes to bear, that exact thing comes to bear in this list all the time, which we'll get to towards the end.

'''Myke:''' The pen that's fallen off this list is the biggest tell.

'''Brad:''' Exactly. So 1 and 2, Signo DX 0.38. It's a standout refill. It's wonderful quality. The way it performs is very, very consistent. The line is always good. They have a ton of colors. They have a really nice barrel, which isn't always the case in this category. When you're talking about $2 and $3 pens, sometimes the barrels are lacking. Sometimes they're pretty good. Like most of these, I'd say, are pretty good that are on this list. But there are some times where they do fall down a little bit. None of these on the list. I think they're all fine. It comes in a huge amount of colors. My favorite is the lavender black. I love that ink color that Uniball gets really, really right. That a lot of other companies don't necessarily get those colors right. So they're great. The Sarasa clip is like the DX, but where it is a little bit different is you can have a similar tip size, say 0.4 millimeter versus the DX 0.38. Why they have these, why 0.38 became a thing for Uniball. I'll never know. Just maybe it's marketing. The 0.4 millimeter of the Sarasa clip, people call them a little bit scratchy. Like, and they are, right? So they're a different feel on the page. But again, a lot of it for me, when you're talking about a pen tip this fine, is the consistency. And yes, the Sarasa clip refills may be a little bit scratchier, but they're completely consistent. Like, they're just fantastic.

'''Myke:''' And I mean, they're all scratchy to me, right?

'''Brad:''' Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, if you're in this category, you have to have an expectation that they're going to be scratchy, right? This is not a 0.7 millimeter gel or a Schmidt P8127 rollerball, things like that, right? Your expectations need to be set when you're shopping in this category. So there are pens that are smoother than the Sarasa clip, though, if that's your main category. But again, you might not be dabbling with these fine tip sizes anyway. So third is where it actually, there's kind of a jumble. Like, you could make any, like, between 3, 4, and 5. Like, if you said, you know, any of these were in any other spot, I'd be fine with it. So I have the Pilot Juice up at 3. This is the 0.4 millimeter. The Uniball Signo RT1 at number 4. And the newest pen, which I'll elaborate on in a minute, is the Pentel Energel Cleaner 0.3 or 0.4 millimeter. So let's take the Juice up and the Signo RT1.

'''Brad:''' I don't know why. What's so funny over there? Juice is just funny to me. It really is. Well, I'm still proud. How did the Juice? I'm still proud of Pilot. And they've kind of gone away from this. But when they launched it, do you remember all of the colors and all of, like, the fruit combinations that they had with it? They, like, really leaned into the Juice name back when they launched it.

'''Myke:''' Is their initial website was only in Japanese. And we were trying to translate that page using Chrome. And it was hilarious. It was great. Because it was so wrong.

'''Brad:''' It was great. It was great. So they've kind of gone away from that now. And that's with the standard Juice. So there are two different pens, just like Uniball has two different pens on this list. There's the Pilot Juice. And then there's the Pilot Juice Up, which is an even funnier name. Juice Up. The Juice Up is a nicer barrel and a needle tip. Where the Juice is a standard clear plastic barrel with a conical tip. So I prefer the Juice Up in this scenario. I like the needle tip. They're very smooth. They're very consistent. They have a nice knock and a nice grip on the barrel. They're cool colors. Cool design. I really, really like them. The Signo RT1 has been around for a long time. And they've kind of modified it a little bit and made it better over the years. So it's basically the retractable version of the Signo DX. The DX is the only pen on this list. And it's number one that's capped. So all the other pens on this list are retractable. That doesn't totally play into the rating. But that is something to note. All of these pens are retractable minus the Signo DX. So the RT1 is the retractable version of the Signo that I like so much. To me, it does feel slightly different. Like the refill manufacturing does feel different. But maybe that's just some kind of inherent bias that I had. That I like the feel of the barrel of the DX more than the RT1. But it feels slightly different to me.

'''Myke:''' I would consider retractable to be a positive for this type of product.

'''Brad:''' Yes. Yeah. I would agree. I would agree. And the DX has never come in a retractable model. They make a needle tip model. But they don't make a retractable model. Unless you start going into the multi-pins. Which is a completely different category. So last on the list. But I want it to be first in my heart. Is the Pentel Energel Clean'em. So the Pentel Energel is probably going to end up being the new number one pen in the store. So this is the next list I'm going to work on. I love the Energel so much. It is a wonderful pen in greater than 0.5mm tip sizes. Right? 0.5 and 0.7. It's one of the best gel pens out there. Bar none. Like I'm certain it's going to be number one on the top five pens on the store list. They have never really leaned into a standard micro tip pen. Except for the Pentel Sleechy. The Pentel Sleechy is flawed due to its barrel design. The refill is exceptional. But the barrel design is thin and uncomfortable in the grip section. The way the ridges are in the grip. It's not comfortable. It's very thin. Which I can get along with thin gel ink pens pretty well. But the Sleechy. All of these other pens I would prefer over the Sleechy. So what Pentel has never done. Is made like all of the ink colors. And all of the tip sizes in the Sleechy. Which start at 0.25, 0.3 and 0.4. And then they have a couple. I think they might have a 0.5. But I'm only worried about micro tip. They've never taken those refills. And built a more standard size traditional barrel around them. If they did that. It would be probably number two on the list. So what they have kind of dabbled with is taken that refill and made something like the Kleena. Or my favorite Pentel is the Energel Euro. Which has a little bit thinner barrel than the Energel Kleena or the standard Energel. The standard Energels have a wide diameter barrel. It's not overly wide. But once you start getting into these micro tip sizes. You want to have like a more just traditional diameter barrel. All the other barrels on here are thinner in diameter in the grip section than the Energel Kleena. So that's fine when you have a 0.7 millimeter gel. But not as comfortable when you have a 0.3 millimeter. So Pentel is kind of sort of getting there slowly. Where the Kleena falls short of the four pens ahead of it. It is very limited in colors. Right. All of these other product lineups ahead of it have full rainbows and more of colors. Like dozens of colors for each of these. The Kleena has a handful. Kleena looks great though. It's wonderful looking. And like they even have like a brown gel ink. Like which is great. Like that's cool. But they don't have all the things. And the barrel is a little bit wider than I prefer. But.

'''Myke:''' It is interesting that there's no taper at all on this pen. Right. It is just a solid tube.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Yeah. The Energel is traditionally like a big pen. It's. This is. That is straight up the Energel barrel style. Right. They own a barrel style. And you look at it and you go. Oh. That's an Energel of some sort. And that's what this is. And I think they could change that a little bit. The Euro has changed it. The Euro is a capped Energel barrel with a thinner grip. And it's not thin. It's more standard. Where these are traditional Energels. I consider them wide. Like I said. Which gets to be a mismatch with a wide grip and a tiny tip on the pen. Right. Wide grip. Wide line. You know. Tinier grip. Tinier line. So. That's generally how I look at it. So.