Editing The Pen Addict 164/transcript (section)

== Tier One Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, we ready to get into the main topic?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Sure am.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, so, we've talked about in a couple of episodes now, kind of, sort of in passing, about a tier one level of pens, where we've talked about how many pens is too much, how do you decide what pens to sell, do you sell any pens? Just like I just read David Brennan, he doesn't, you know, that's, he has a defined way to collect pens and use pens, and that's his way to do it. A lot of people will maybe purchase a wide range of pens over the span of a few years, and then, as they use them over those years, they realize that some become favorites and are always inked up, and then some don't get inked up as much, and how do you determine that, and what do you do with those pens you're not using, do you sell them, do you give them away, whatever. So, you know, I came up with kind of, how would I determine this for myself? Like, what would make me sell a pen, how should I determine whether a pen should be sold, or whether I'm using the pen enough, and I decided to tier them. Like, I made a tier one of pens, which I posted on my blog today, which is a list of pens that are like, the most perfect for me. The way I use them, the way they feel, the way they're built, the way they're designed, they fit me, the nibs on them, it's really, it's, you know, this is about myself. This is not telling other people what pens they should buy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep, because we've been talking about this for weeks, and we kind of came up with this term a few weeks ago when we were talking about Jelly, right, and we started talking about tiering system.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah, and I think it was with Joe Crais, actually.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Was it with Joe?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay, it was with Joe. Yeah,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm pretty sure it was with Joe. And then I think we did carry it on in the conversation with Ed, so it's like the same kind of conversation has kind of been, you know, permeating through these episodes, so I wanted to get it down in writing. Yep. Like, here's my thoughts on building this type of list, and if I had to put it together of my collection, what would be my tier one pen? So I wanted to put that down. And so I kind of think about it in a way where it's basically what pens would I miss the most if they were gone? You know, like, either just irreplaceable or meaningful that, you know, the one particular, even if I could replace it easily, it wouldn't have as much meaning. The new, the replacement pen wouldn't have as much meaning. These are the pens I would just not consider getting rid of at all. So do you want me to go through my list or did you have something to say kind of about that?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I want you to go through the list, but I read the blog post today and I want to pull out a couple of things that I found interesting because you mentioned it there and this wasn't something we really spoke about before, but there seems to be a lot of sentimentality displayed in this list that I wasn't expecting. That it seems that there are a few instances like the 3D Edison and your Murex, which you said, Thomas gifted this pen to me towards the end of my fountain pen education and it may be my single favorite pen I own. Didn't know that. I definitely didn't know that. I don't know if I've ever heard you said it before that the Murex is your favorite.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I like the sentimentality, but it's interesting to me because what it shows is that for you, there's more to tier one than performance. Exactly. Because you say, for example, about the Lamy 2000, it's not on your list because it's always available. and you said that like it kind of felt to me like you were saying if I lost any of the tier ones, I'd be gutted. Yes. So clearly the tier one list is very different to the best list.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Very. Yeah. Very, very different. And that's why my tier one list is reasonably small. I think I would have seven pens. Whereas like if I was coming up with a tier two list, that list would be gigantic, you know, that's a huge list. And then whatever didn't make that tier two list is probably in, I guess you'd call it tier three. And those are the pens I'd probably consider that I'm not using very much and maybe I should sell them, give them away, do something else with them. Right. So like tier two would end up being like the Lamy 2000s, like all the other pilot pens that I love and the sailor pens and the platinum pens that I love and all the Twisbees and Kawekos and things like that. So let's go through this tier one list.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, I'll make a couple comments on the pens and that I chose why I chose them and we'll go from there. So there's no ranking within tier one. They're just all essentially the same. They all have the same meaning to me and they're all equally, you know, as meaningful and as useful to me. And the first one I wrote down is my Nakaya portable, the Ayo Tamanuri one, the black with the green that shows through. This is easily my favorite of my Nakayas. I have four Nakayas. This is my favorite because I worked really hard for this pen. not just in, you know, saving money to purchase it, but working hard in, you know, learning about the brand and deciding what would be best for me. So I felt like I put a lot into this pen and I was nervous actually buying it because I put so much into it, but it delivered, you know, so I was like, whoo, that was $800 and well spent or whatever it was. Thank God, you know, I was, you know, it's, you're nervous about it till you get it. Is it going to live up to everything that I built it up to? And, um, it did. And, um, you know, I'm, I'm glad it did. And, uh, I love that pen. The Pilot Murex, like you said, um, you didn't know it was my favorite pen. It is. I think it's probably the one pen. If, if I had to put a number one on this tier one list, it would be that pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Didn't know that. Like that is surprising to me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And I don't ink it up that much and I don't know why. Um, I should, it's certainly a durable pen. I mean, it's a stainless steel pen. It's gonna, it can handle it. It just writes well. It just means so much to me. It's a pen that long ago when I started liking fountain pens, I saw this, just like the Nakaya. I saw this Murex and went, wow.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I want one of these. I've always wanted one of these since the first time we ever spoke about it. I looked at, I've looked at both pen shows that I've been to and I haven't been able to find one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. They're, they're hard to find. You can find them. People ask me where to get them. I mean, you can look on eBay and fountain pen network classifieds. They pop up from time to time. Um, they, they run like in the two to $300 range depending on the condition. Um, but yeah, I, I really, really like this pen. Um, you know, if I just had one pen, uh, to, for the rest of my life, I'd probably pick that one. This one surprised me, even myself. It's the Pelican M405 with a 0.2 millimeter Japanese extra fine nib. There's something about this pen that I'm gravity. I gravitate towards this pen constantly. It's got the tiniest, finest gold soft nib. Like this is a pen. I don't know that I would let other people use because the nib is so fine and so soft, but I really love writing with it. And you know, the M405, the Pelican is, can be replaced anytime. But this nib that I had Myke Masuyama grind and it was my first Pelican. It kind of, uh, it's kind of an important pen to me and I really, really like it. And it fits someone who writes tiny like me. Um, you know, I really enjoy that pen and that's, you'll find that like the Murex is a tiny writing pen. Um, one I'll talk about in a minute is a, it's another teeny tiny writing pen. The Edison Menlo 3D, which I've talked about before. Um, it's my red and blue Menlo that, uh, Jeff, um, had made for me when we started Knock as a thank you for starting the company. So not only is it a great pen that I enjoy using, it's, uh, it's super meaningful in the thoughts and you, you kind of see, like you said, there's kind of a theme here, right? You know, there's a lot of meaning behind a lot of these pens for me. The Newton Shinobi, I wrote, uh, when I wrote it down, um, I said, is this recency bias? And it could be, but I'm having a hard time putting this pen down so far. It's been several weeks. Um, I start writing with other pens and knowing that I had my Shinobi inked, I stopped writing with them and grabbed the Shinobi. So that's kind of telling me a lot about how I feel about the pen and how it fits me personally. You know, when the nib is a fine cursive italic, I can write a really small line with it and it, it just, it kind of fits me. You know, I had to help and I'm obviously designed it. You know, I picked out the colors and the nib and how I wanted it set up and things like that. So, you know, I've got some personal, uh, touches into that pen. So, um, we'll see as we go if that remains in the tier one. It's still new, but I feel already like it's going to be that important to me, um, going forward. The Pilot Vanishing Point black faceted pen is besides the Murex, maybe the coolest pen I own. Um, it gets more comments. I get more comments on that pen than just about any other pen, probably even more than the Nakaya, more than the Murex, just because you don't see them a lot. Um, and it's when people actually get to use it and they've used another Vanishing Point, it's so different in feel than the other Vanishing Points. It's actually a plastic barrel, which is kind of a trip compared to the, uh, the brass barrels these days. But it's such a unique looking pen and I really love using it and I would hate to see that one go and I wrote down that this might be the toughest to replace if I actually did lose it. I think I could get another Murex before I could get another black faceted Vanishing Point. And the last one on the list is a very common pen to be quite honest and has just made it over to the US and it's the Pilot Custom Heritage 912. but this one has the PO nib which is the posting nib which is that really hard fine nib that kind of hooks down and writes it basically writes like my Pelican extra extra extra extra fine nib but, um, in a stock nib. And this one is one of those pens that I went holy cow this is made for me. Like this is, this is a Brad pen if there ever was one. Um, you know, I rarely recommend it to anyone because the nib is so extreme. Um, I've actually, I actually bought mine from a reader who bought it didn't like it and I hadn't ordered mine yet so he's like would you just want to buy it off of me? And I'm like sure, yeah, I'll take it off your hands. So, that's actually how I got this one. So, you know, is there a common thread between these? Kind of like you mentioned there is some, you know, stories behind these pens. You know, it's definitely been a journey in some of these pens and, uh, you know, I'm pretty happy with how the list turned out. It's not overly large. I don't know that I can think of anything right offhand that didn't make the list that should. I think probably like the next thing that would make the list is like my Pilot Vacumatics just because they're so cool looking. I really enjoy them but I don't use them as much. Um, I wrote that in the, um, in the end section on vintage pens like the golden web that you bought for me and the Vacumatic I'd bought previous years the gray and silver one. I love those pens and actually use them a lot at home. I don't take them out a lot. I don't take them to work a lot. Um, those are probably like the next two out from the list. I also didn't include things like gel ink pens, um, mechanical pencils, things like that only because, not because they're not awesome. Like I thought about including a TI2 tech liner because that's what I use. I use that pen almost daily, one of the ones that I have and I just feel like, you know, I can get another one. If something happened to the one I have in my hand right now, well, I can just get another one. You know, if I lost, um, you know, my vanishing point, I'm going to be like, oh my god, where's my vanishing point? I really want that pen back. It's kind of a different thing. It doesn't mean pens that aren't on the list aren't awesome pens. You know, pens not on the list are ones I would recommend more than what's on the list. What's on the list fits me personally the best. So, that's kind of the whole thing about that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Cool. Cool. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I have my own list and I want to, before I give my list, I want to do a little preface about the sentimentality thing and how that applies to what I've done. But before we do, let's take a break. Yes. This week's episode is brought to you by the Pen Chalet. You know the Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have all of your favorite brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, and Kaweco. They're an authorized dealer of all of them and they believe in customer satisfaction at their very core. Pen Chalet offers their great stuff at a 100% satisfaction guarantee. This is backed up by their very fast and reliable customer service as well. At Pen Chalet, they're always adding new styles of pens. Every single month they have new stuff going on and they also run discounts twice a month and they have closeout specials every two weeks as well. So they're adding stuff and they're getting rid of the stuff. It's great. They're a great place to find new things. They're a great place to get older things at a great discount. As well as all the brands and types of pens that I mentioned that Pen Chalet have, they also have all the accessories you're going to want like carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pen converters, and so much more. They sell internationally. They have very reasonable shipping rates on that as well. But if you are shipping within the United States, you will get free shipping on orders of over $50. So go to penchalet.com and this week you want to use the code penaddict anywhere on the site and you will save a special 15% on any order. So that is our special deal this week with the Pen Chalet. You will get 15% off anything that you buy, which is really great as you're listening to me and Brad list off these great pens that we love. Hear any of them, if Pen Chalet carry any of them, you'll be able to go there and get 15% off. But don't forget, as always, click that podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password of penaddict. You'll see some other savings on some of their stuff there, only available for penaddict listeners, but you can also continue to get your 15% off for this week on any of those as well. Thank you so much to Pen Chalet for their continued support of Relay FM and the Pen Addict podcast.