Editing The Pen Addict 568/transcript (section)

== Focus on fountain pens ==


'''Frank:''' The focus is on fountain pens at the moment.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it's funny when I was putting together my show notes, I'm doing all my reading and making sure I'm dialed in, and I eventually landed on a page. I was like, what is this rollerball? I have never seen this before. And I've obviously followed you for a couple of years, but that was kind of the original thought and design of the first pens, your first kitless type of pens.

'''Frank:''' Yeah, I can show it to you. Nobody else will see it. I'm sorry.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, we will have a link in the show notes so everyone can see what it looks like. Because even I was surprised when I found that on your website.

'''Frank:''' I hold it very close to the camera now. It's made out of brass. It's made out of ebony.

'''Frank:''' So exactly as I said, those were the materials I was thinking of building the boat. And it's a rollerball pen that you have to turn to have the, is it called nip? No, the rollerball thing to come out. Yeah, the refill. So you don't press on there, you don't click on there, you have to turn. And everything I like about writing instruments is that they give you a good time. So there is no need to hurry to make them work. Yes. And I try to design writing instruments that start giving you a good time even by making them able to write, if that makes sense for you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So for listeners, I'll have the link in the show notes, but what kind of stopped me in my tracks with the rollerball design was what Frank was showing me here is the deployment mechanism is this interesting twist mechanism that you've got to spin it a few times to have the refill in the writing position and then obviously reverse it to retract it. But the idea of it, what I see and is what you're describing to me is enjoying that slow process. That's also part of the design and part of the reason why you're picking up this pen to write. And it doesn't have to be this fast, quick deployment and like, oh, I got to get to write. It's like, you design things, which we'll get more into the fountain pens here in a bit, but you design things individually to be meaningful and enjoyed and to slow down, right? Writing just by its nature is a slow, thoughtful process. And just that little twist mechanism on your pen, which I just discovered days ago, I'm like, yeah, like I get it. This looks like Frank. This looks like something Frank would do. And this was the first thing that you, one of the first designs that you made.

'''Frank:''' It was the first design I made. And this one, I did not make all my myself. Obviously, I did it with my teacher together after my ideas. And then we designed directly on the lathe. That is how I work until today. I'm not very good in 2D or 3D designing CAD on computer. Of course, I need it when it comes to measuring the measurements inside, which are just a thousandth of an inch or hundreds of millimeters. Yes, very precise. But I work more like a sculptor on the lathe. You put in a massive solid rod of material into a lathe and you take your tool and you start forming. That is a totally different design process than modern designers would do it on a computer screen and turning it in every direction and figuring out. I want to see and feel it on the lathe. It's just the way I am most comfortable with. And then I see a form that I like. And after that, I have to go to the PC, the computer, and find out how can I make the nib inside their fit or the rollerball inlay and stuff. And if I figure that out, I leave the computer as quick as possible.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So how did you go from this ballpoint design, working with kind of a mentor in designing this, to deciding that you wanted to start a company that makes pens?

'''Frank:''' It was deriving out of a discussion with my teacher. He is 20 years older than me and he was always thinking of marketing as I'm a tinkerer, I'm an artist, I have this wonderful atelier and you have to come and find me first, which was not so easy to find him because he did not have a good website or whatever. And if you managed to find him, then he would not talk to you. He would have a cigar in his mouth and look at you and you on your own had to find out the exquisitely and the special stuff about his work. And I said, people, I don't think that people have the ability to do that on their own. I think you have to help people to tell how special that is, what you're doing. You need, art usually needs a room to be recognized. There are experiments like very famous violin players. When they're standing in New York in one of the biggest ball houses and people are willing to pay $400 a night or even more to see them, then the same person stands in the underground station, plays the same quality of music, people might not notice. They might notice, oh, that's something good, but they will walk by because they are not in the room, in the mood, in the sense, in the context to realize what high-quality art they are wearing. So these were the kind of discussions. And I think he was more of a tinker. He built one thing, was excited, put it in a showroom, and if somebody comes, he sold it to him. No marketing, nothing at all, because he was on the next step to the next product already. And we had this discussion on, well, I think I need to present it. I want to present it for what it's worth. I need to be bold enough to prize it for what it's worth, which is usually a hard step for an artist to prize their own work because it's loaded with emotions. Especially in the beginning. Especially in the beginning, but it never ends, actually. You get more self-confident, of course. But it's always a struggle for an artist. Because everything you make is your baby, and you have a different perspective on it than if you would be a marketer or something, marketing somebody else's products. So out of these discussions, I had the idea, I want to present the world that I had the idea of giving the customer, I like when you go to a tailor, a bespoke tailoring service. You want a suit, and you say, I want the white shirt, I want the black collar, I want the silver knobs, whatever. And the tailor does the custom suit to your measurements. So I was cutting down woods, I was cutting down ebony rods, I was cutting down metals to make up a little building case, which you know from my website, I think there are pictures of it. And I give you the possibility to choose that wood combined with that metal, and then you can take that nip and the collar that suits your taste. And after that, I would start working.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I'm over here giggling, Frank sees me giggling, because this is how he got me on one of his displays. We'll talk about that later. But this is exactly how the presentation was. And I was like, oh, yes, I need that one. No, not that one, the one, you know, two more over, that one. So we're gonna, we'll talk about that. But I think what I want to start with, with the brand and with Elbwood and what you create is, I guess, give me the idea behind the Pocketmaster. And I don't want to simplify the brand into like a single product. But I think what I appreciate about the Pocketmaster is not just like the size and the craftsmanship is that, and I don't even know how to describe this, but there is a beauty and simplicity that I see out of this product that it is not overbuilt, but it is so finely crafted. It feels special. So can you kind of give me the idea of how just this like singular design, either the Pocketmaster actually comes in a couple of different sizes. We'll talk specifics and I'll have links so y'all can see all of these in the show notes. But how did you go from making a rollerball into coming up with a unique pen design that you wanted to share with the world?

'''Frank:''' Well, the rollerball was the start with the teacher to come to a final product and the discussions got this idea of going into this pen making thing and I was pretty sure I needed fountain pens to do it because there is in the niche of high quality writing instruments, the fountain pen is king until today and it's usually equipped with an gold nib, 18k gold nib, etc. And that was the niche I was looking out for myself. I did not want to do the ordinary, I did not want to compete with mass manufacturers who would do it much better than me. I wanted to go the slow way which is, I think, the special way. So in the pocket master is one day it arrived from tinkering around on my lathe. I wanted to make a small thing because I read, I think I read an article about pocket fountain pens and I have one. I think you will ask me if I use pens from other manufacturers later or something. Yes. Actually, I only have one from other manufacturers but there are, of course, models from other people I see on Instagram that I like and admire. Of course, I only have one, it's the Kaweco Sport and Brass.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I have been using it. Not a shock. If you said, Brad, please guess, the singular fountain pen and you haven't told me this before, that would have been my exact guess. Yes. But you didn't know, I didn't tell you. What? No, no, no, no. I would have guessed that 100% accurately.

'''Frank:''' Yeah. And the only thing I do not like about this model is the size of the nip of the one I have. It has a small nip. Yes. And then I read an article about some weird competition between manufacturers making the smallest pocket fountain pen in the world, something, which is weird because the smaller a nip gets, the harder it whites because it cannot bend.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. It's just physics prohibits. Yeah, they're stiffer. The smaller nips are stiffer. They're stiffer.

'''Frank:''' And the smaller a fountain pen becomes, the worse the whiting experience becomes, especially if you have huge hands like me. Yes. Very fair. And I was discovering that there was this competition. They became smaller and smaller, smaller nips, lighter and lighter. And Kaweco did something different. They used an honest material, brass, heavy, and they had this very simple design. I think it was an hexagon or something. Actually, it's made simple but very, very clever. And they made some round pieces to it so you can turn the other side on the end and you have a full-grown whiting instrument. I like that. Yeah.

'''Frank:''' And so I came up with my own idea which is not actually some kind of innovative design. There are other people who have a thread on the end of the pen and you screw the cap on the end. But as usual with design or in photography there's a saying why should I become a photographer? Everybody else took pictures of the Rocky Mountains. Yeah, but not you. You can go there and find your very personal perspective and I think it's the same in pen making or with every kind of art or craft. You can start today and make your own thing, your own design. I cannot tell you how I came there. I just can tell you I was having sleepless nights and endless tries and one day suddenly it was there. It was the pocket master and I used a very special bronze. I call it its ship. What's the propeller? Boat propeller bronze. Very hard. Very unpleasant to work with. Obviously it has to survive in the sea without getting rusty and stuff. so I made one out of boat propeller bronze and went to my teacher to show him and he was very very critical. Always. He usually did not like what I showed and he got silent and he said that's pretty good and out of his mouth that is comparable to the Red Dot design award or something. Yeah,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' that's the peak.

'''Frank:''' And it gave me so much confidence. I said that's it. Stick to it. refine it and it took me two more years to refine all the small steps that might not be obvious when looking at it but you have one in your hands and I think through time and through use you experience that all the small details are quite worked out.