Editing The Pen Addict 61/transcript (section)

== Retract Mechanisms ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' of sketchbook usually. Okay. That's cool. Cool. Well, um, I think, uh, I think when it's time for us to get into the, the retract and the everything around that, do you want to, um, do you want to do our sponsor first, Myke, or you want to go into the retract?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, let's, let's, this is a nice, um, break point.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Yeah, let's do that. And then we'll, uh, we'll get down to brass tacks.

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'''Myke Hurley:''' So that's T-A-L-L-Y-H-O 7. And I feel like I should do it properly and give you Tally Ho 7. Tally Ho.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's awesome. I like that. That's perfect.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So go check out Squarespace. Everything you need to make an amazing website.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Thank you, Squarespace. All right. Dan, for those who are new to the show, since you know, I guess it's been several months since we've talked to you before. And now we're on 5x5 and our listenership's growing and things like that. So let's get, let's, why don't you talk a little bit about you, what you do, what Karis Custom does. Just kind of give, kind of give the listeners a little bit of background on, you know, everything that you guys are doing and kind of how these projects came to be, if you don't mind.

'''Dan Bishop:''' Sure. Like I mentioned previously, I'm a designer. I started working at a machine shop out of curiosity slash necessity when I became unemployed. And one thing led to another and I kept throwing ideas at the owner. And now I pretty much just design stuff for us and for customers. So I'm doing what I was trained to do, but with a little twist, I basically make stuff out of metal at the shops. So we do everything. We started out with some, some iPhone cases and we've been on a run of pens because people seem to really, really like them actually. To the point where we're, we're talking about, you know, if that's going to be what we're known, known for primarily in the marketplace rather than anything else we do. So that's about it. I don't know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's the, this whole pin, this whole pin aspect. And we've, we've talked about it before and we've talked about, you know, the, the owner, uh, Bill Karis that, you know, this is just, does it still seem odd to this day? Cause this is, this is the third pin project you've guys done. The first one was the render cave. Right. Um, which was, it's still my, still my favorite. Um, you know, it fit the height. It was basically, it was generally based around the high tech C refill, although there's, there's, there's, you know, you can get other refills in there, but it's, it's really, you know, it was made around that originally. Um, and that did extremely well. Um, I mean, I think probably, you know, exceeded any expectations you guys have and, uh, not to, not to put words in your mouth, but I imagine it was kind of a shock to you guys. No, it was, uh, our original goal.

'''Dan Bishop:''' Cause on Kickstarter, you set a goal, uh, and you know, a time period. So we, we had a goal of $2,500 and our time period was 30 days. And we, we blew through that 2,500 in the first 24 hours. And we were, I figured we were going to be at least, you know, 15 to 30,000 bill didn't tell me until later, but he said, no, I figured we'd do like three grand or something, but it ended up, it ended up at like 69,000, which is, seems insane. Everyone's like, oh man, you guys got rich off pens. But then the excitement wears off when you're, when you think, oh wait, I need to make, I think it was like 1100 and some change. Like we had to make 1100 pens. And so our little shops just churning out pens, you know, for, for weeks on end. And, um, it was fun. We got to take videos and pictures of the process and show everybody along the way. And, uh, it was interesting cause when we came up with our second pen, the bolt, um, you can comment if you on Kickstarter, they can comment and ask questions on the render K. There was just tons and tons of questions and comments. And then when we did the bolt, it was like crickets. It's just, it's almost like they all went, oh, okay, cool. They got another project. Here's my money. And we'll just wait.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I think, I think people don't have the, the buyer's fear when they, when they see that you've done it before.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You know, you, you, they can look at your previous projects and they go, oh, this, this guy made a pen before. Like I'm waiting on a, um, a Kickstarter reward, um, of a pen that I backed a while ago by a British company. Um, and.

'''Dan Bishop:''' Oh, I know which one you're talking about.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's called, uh, make your mark the pen with a twist by a Johto.

'''Dan Bishop:''' Hmm. Is that the one that's got the straight knurled end and chrome or, uh, brass body? I think so. Yeah.