Editing The Pen Addict 136/transcript (section)

== Estabrook Pens ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Ugh. They're Farnese pens, which I actually just used for the first time about two weeks ago. I bought the Montblanc JFK ink. I got a sample of that. And we'll be talking about that more because it's a really great ink. That's the only place I could find that has it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think I've got a Retro 51 from these guys before. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They're a really well-known pen store. They're very popular. Been around for ages and ages. This Estabrook thing doesn't have anything to do with them at all. They just happen to. This is where Estabrook is pointing now. The new Estabrook that we've talked about in the past is pointing people saying, hey, Farnese pens now carries this pen. They don't have, Estabrook does not have them on their site yet. But what made me want to talk about this is, number one, I've had some emails. Hey, have you done any follow-up on Estabrook? And I hadn't. And B, friend of the show, Anthony York, tweeted me saying he just got banned from their Facebook page.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Wow. What was he doing?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Which is always fun. I don't know. I don't know. I didn't ask him. But it's just typical. It's how they're running their stuff. So you're forewarned is all I can say. You know, these Estabrooks, in my opinion, are ugly.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Overpriced. But the biggest problem I have is the way the people that own the company are handling themselves. What they do is, the first sentence in every thing about the pen, their new pen or their new product. Let me just say, the regular fountain pen is $70. The high-end one, that silvery one, is $350. And they have a rollerball that's $60 or $65, I think.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I can't work out how you jump from $70 to $350. Yeah. Well, not the way that these look. Apparently, it's made from solid sterling silver, which has been hand-etched with a unique check pattern and hand-polished.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Available with a German iridium silver-plated nib medium.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. They need me to hand-polish anything. You know? Let me know. I'm pumped.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, here's my biggest problem. Everything you read from these guys pumping out about this pen, it says, Estabrook, comma, America's original pen company since 1858, comma, and then carry on. These pens are not made in the U.S.

'''Myke Hurley:''' How do you know that?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because they won't answer the question, where are the pens made?

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's a good enough reason. Yeah. I'm just, I'm poking you. I want to hear what you're saying here. You know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's so simple, Myke. So simple. Hey, where are your pens made? We are proud to have our pens made in the U.S.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, you'd say that, wouldn't you? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Never, ever, ever. And they, I'm guessing that's why Anthony got kicked off their Facebook page. I left them a message a long time ago, last time we, last time I yelled about Estabrook, and they never answered it. I don't know if it eventually got deleted. I didn't care that much because they just annoy me. Um, it's super frustrating to see a company handle themselves in this manner. And it, there's not many things that bend me out of shape than, than actions like this. It doesn't have to be this way, but, um, they're obviously, um, trying to, I don't know. I don't know what they're trying to do, to be quite honest. Just, they're trying to re, re, uh, relaunch this brand. They're just really bad at it. So anyway, that's my Estabrook rant. And, uh, I, uh, you know, more to come, but there, there's no way these pens are made in the U.S. and they just won't answer the question.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Who's going to be the first person to buy one? Yeah. Like in the circle and, um, try it out.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'd be super wary of even carrying them, to be perfectly honest, but I'm not a retailer. So who knows? I'm sure they're perfectly fine overpriced pens. Yeah. I'm interested.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I also don't feel like I'm the right person to judge it. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, that's what you have me for. Yeah. That's what you have me for.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I bought the Visionaire, you know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Way to go. What did I tell you, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Are you going to do it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. You, you, you did, you did it to, uh, you did it for the greater good though. You did. I will give you that. So, um, I will not be buying an Estabrook for the greater good. There's no way that pens a $70 pen. So forget that. So, um, all right, let's get to, um, a quick topic here where we want to talk about our stationary resolutions for 2015. Um, we've done this in the past and we just talk about some things we're either looking at, um, to do, um, you know, in the upcoming year, as far as, you know, pens, pencils, paper, things like that go, um, things we want to change things. Um, you know, we want to try like in the past, like last year, mine was to use the Hobonichi Techo and I failed miserably. Um, so, you know, we always, you know, at least we don't spend too much time on these resolutions. I'm not a big resolution guy, um, to begin with, but, um, you know, I've got some ideas on some things I want to do with my pens and paper. And you, you want me to go first, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, let's do it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So my primary goal this year is to consolidate. Um, I've been by, I still buy plenty of pens and I get plenty of pens from vendors and things like that, but I really want to thin the herd a little bit and, you know, not anything aggressive, crazy. I'm not going to say, okay, I'm only allowed to own 10 pens. I mean, I can barely stay under 10 inked pens. I'm not going to just own 10 pens. Um, there's lots of pens I want to own. There's lots of pens that, you know, I own that may not get used for a year, but that I'll never get rid of, you know, like I haven't been using my Parker 51 very much, but there's no way I'm getting rid of that pen, right? It's just one of those cool pens you have. And, you know, every now and then I'll use it, but I think there's room to kind of trim around the edges of some of the pens that I'm not using, um, as much right now that could actually go to a better home and, you know, I could, I could sell them or do something with that. I just want to kind of tighten up and I want to be a little bit more patient when I'm buying pens. Um, you know, and just not get like a, this hair trigger mentality and just like start, you know, popping the space credits button whenever I see something cool and, um, you know, just kind of take a chill for a minute and figure out where that pen's going to fit in my usage. And is it going to have a, uh, a primary spot in the overall big picture of my pen collection? Um, so that's kind of the big one for me is to consolidate what I have and be more, um, considerate of when I make a purchase, how I'm going to use those pens that I buy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Secondly, I want to break through the blue black ink, um, phase that I'm in and it's not a phase. I mean, it's my favorite ink. Like, so I'm always going to have blue black pens inked up, but if I have eight pens inked up, I don't need seven of them inked up with blue black. And that's literally what I have most of the time. Okay. There's no point of that. You know, use a green, use an orange, use a red, use a purple, use a turquoise, whatever. You know, I get stuck trying all these different blue black and navy inks and I love them so much. I can't get out of it. So I'm going to have more ink diversity. Um, if you will, this year, you know, you're going to see me writing in, in more, more ink colors, hopefully. And finally, I think this was the same one as last year and I failed at it, um, as well then is I need to sketch and draw more. You know, I'm not talking about like creating art pieces like to hang on a wall, but I, I need to get the ideas out of my head on the paper, no matter what they look like. And I've been doing this so far. It's only been a few days. Um, and just, you know, a notebook and just, you know, if I'm listening to music or something like that, I'll just be scribbling little drawings, which I never do. It's a really freeing and releasing, um, kind of thing. It's almost like a meditation. Um, and I, I did not do that last year at all and I really want to do that. So that's something I'm actually going to have to force myself. The other two, I think I can just work into my routine. The sketching thing is something I'm going to have to make myself do and force myself and have time. So that's kind of what I'm doing. And, um, those are, those are kind of my, my plans for 2015.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Explain the sketching thing to me a bit more. Do you mean like sketching out ideas or just like sitting and scribbling like to like, you know, when you're in the conference call or something?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So it's both. I actually have like this one page. I, everything I, it's kind of doodling and sketching if you will, at the same time, like I have, you know, just one of the knock notebooks I have right here on this page. I have like a backpack design that I'm working on. So I'm playing around with that. But then also at the, um, at the same time I was listening to a song, um, called whiskey bottle by uncle Tupelo, which is one of my favorite songs. And, you know, I drew out like imagery of some of the lyrics in the song just to kind of, you know, that's like two separate things. One is like, okay, let me sketch out some product ideas or just goof around with some product ideas and see what, see what happens, see what ideas I get. And then secondly, let's just, you know, really just kind of do something different and, uh, and play around, you know, like I did that little Aaron Draplin sketch the other day that I posted on Instagram. Oh yeah, I like that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I like that a lot actually. That was fun.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That came out of, I wasn't sitting to draw Aaron Draplin. I was like, well, let me draw a hat and then a beard. And I was like, holy crap, that looks like Aaron. It was just, you know, that kind of stuff. You know, I need that expression a little bit more. So it's something that's inside me that I have to get out. And that's a huge, huge challenge for me. More so than like journaling, like then, you know, sticking with a, a, a daily planner for a year. Sketching is much harder for me to, um, to actually accomplish something.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So maybe you should sketch in a daily planner. Therefore you have to do it every day. What about, I could like cross those streams.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, it's actually, um, I did get the idea a little bit from Patrick Rohn, who in his Techo every day, he puts in a little mini sketch, you know, just of something. So he's like committed to doing it. Um, and I, I kind of got that idea because I kind of sketched like him. My sketches are like really, really small, um, like footprints, you know, like on this one page and a three, three and a half by five and a half notebook, I've got like probably six or seven different images. You know, I, I do that stuff like really, really small. So anyway, so that's what I'm working on.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Sounds good. Right. I have, I have a, I have a few of my own, uh, but before we do that, how about we thank our second sponsor for this week's episode?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that'd be great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The holidays are over and now's the time to start fresh and start making smarter decisions. And you can do this with our friends at Harry's. Many of us are thinking about what we're going to do. Differently in 2015. Maybe you're thinking about going to the gym. Maybe you want to eat healthier. Maybe you want to draw every day. Well, why not start giving a bit more love and attention to your handsome face? It's time to make the smart switch to Harry's. Harry's have high quality German engineer blades that are crafted for sharpness and precision. We're talking half the price of big name drugstore brands. None of the hassle that you have to go through to buy them. These are blades that are great quality. You don't overpay anymore and they get delivered to your door. That is like a perfect mix right there. Harry's.com was started by a couple of guys who are passionate about creating a better shaving experience. It reminds me a bit about like, you know, Brad and Jeff. They're a couple of guys that love what they love and they wanted to make something. So they did it in the way that they wanted to. And this is something that the guys at Harry's have done too. They have created products that look fantastic. I have a Harry set of my own and I love the way that like the classic design of the blades and the handles and stuff like that. I just love how it looks. It just harkens back to like a simpler time, which is quite nice when you're doing something which is so like,

'''Myke Hurley:''' it's so old school shaving because, you know, if you're doing it with a blade, because it hasn't really advanced that much, you know. You've got companies like Gillette that are throwing all kinds of things on there, you know, like 25 blades and 16 L.O. Vero pads. But it's still like effectively the same thing. It's a razor blade on your face. Like that's pretty much the same. And like their products really kind of signify that. And I quite like it. And, you know, as well, of course, the products feel great on my skin. I love the way that the gel feels. I love their foaming shave gel, which is like this little gel and you kind of rub it in your hands and it turns into this big foam, which is really interesting. I like the way that looks, but they have that great smelling stuff. It's all great. You know, they bought this factory in Germany that has been crafting some of the world's highest quality blades for almost a century. They saw what these people were doing and they wanted it. So they decided that they would buy the factory and cut out the middleman. And that's how they can give you their great blades at a great cost. The starter set is just $15. This includes the razor, three blades, and your choice of Harry's shaving cream or foaming shave gel. Shipping is free, so you don't have to worry about the price jumping up when you get to the checkout screen. Go to harrys.com and they will give you $5 off if you use the code PENADDICT with your first purchase. That's harrys.com and the code PENADDICT. Start shaving smarter today with Harry's. Thank you so much to Harry's for sponsoring this week's show and helping us out at RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So not only am I a Harry's customer, and we've spoken about this, I was a Harry's customer before they even started sponsoring our show or shows on the network. My wife is now a Harry's customer too. Oh, yeah? Yeah, I bought the last time they sponsored was before Christmas and they had those new handles. They had kind of like this icy blue one. So I bought that to upgrade my orange acrylic one. And when it came in, I was like, you know, I think my wife would like one of these. So I let her pick and she picked the new icy blue one. And we are now both Harry's customers and very happy about that as well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, it's something, you know, I definitely focus on the man aspect because that's my mindset. And obviously, they're kind of focused around that. They make their blades tailored to that. And there are different considerations to think about for women. Sure. And my understanding is that they are looking at it. But obviously, they can be used for both.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Totally. Yeah, she loves it. Very good.