Editing The Pen Addict 635/transcript (section)

== Transition from mechanical pencils to pens and Pen Chalet promotion. ==

* If you need the lead rotation mechanism, you know, go for it. But I just love mechanical pencils. So I'm going to choose the one that fits my style the best. And that's the roulette. If you've gotten this far into the episode, you're like, I'm sick of all this pencil talk. Give me some pens. Sick of them. Well, let me help you out and tell you all about our friends over at Pen Chalet because they have the products you're looking for. Authentic, amazing rollables, fountain pens, ballpoints, inks, carrying cases, converters, pen holders. No matter what it is you need, Pen Chalet have got it. They have your favorite brands and they're running the best deals available. They're adding new styles of pens every single month to the site. And every couple of weeks, you're going to be able to find new fantastic prices. But we can get you even better prices as you're a listener of this show.
* Pen Chalet sells limited edition products and all the accessories you want as well as the pens you're looking for. They do international shipping with great shipping rates. And if you're in the US, they do free shipping on orders of over $75. Pen Chalet believe in the fastest and most reliable customer service around. That's what they want to make sure that you, their customers, will have. They offer low prices on high quality pens of a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to penchalet.com slash penaddict and you can get yourself 10% off anything at Pen Chalet. And you'll also be able to see some exclusive offers for listeners of this show. What you got, Brad? What I didn't get was a pencil at the top of the list. Come on, Ron. Ron didn't know we were talking about pencils today. I was going to die if there was... Pens only. Pens only. Pens only at Pen Chalet. It's not called Pencil Chalet, Myke. It's penschalet.com.
* So where did it go? I just saw this really, really cool Heinz pen that's really caught my eye. It's called... It's the Heinz Q24 Leonardo da Pinchi. It's like a pinched... It's a pinched barrel. In the center of the barrel, it has a pinch, if you will. And that's where the cusp of your hand hits. So it's a really cool feature for someone who likes fun, colorful acrylic pens.
* And then has a little bit of shape in the barrel, a little bit of shape in the cap. And it actually kind of morphs into your hand really nicely. Like, I like these kind of mid-barrel pinches in there. The Tabaldi Infrangible lineup has a rollerball that is really, really nice looking. I like Tabaldi's materials. They do some nice acrylics. And I've enjoyed their fountain pens before. This rollerball is at a really, really, really nice price. So I like that. They have the Ranga Abamanyu, which I mentioned last week. The price on these makes it... Puts it, like, clearly in the no-brainer category. Especially for the colorful resins that they use.
* This is, you know, something I would choose. Like, I would put that really, really high up on my list. There's a few more Heinz pens in there. There's a couple Y Studios in there, including the all brass desk fountain pen. Which is always popular for those of y'all that like to have a desk permanent pen on your desk. It comes with a really nice matching base to keep that on there. And I have a different one in the brassing style. I really, really like it. It's one of the few Y Studios that use the number six style nib. Most of their standard pens use the number five size nib. So really good stuff over there at Pen Shillay. So go check them out. Are there size four nibs?
* Probably, yeah. We just don't normally see them. What would a size one be, you know? Yeah. Yeah. How small is that? Who knows? Who knows? Be pretty small. We don't know over here at the Pencil Addict, you know? No, I know. We don't know. Only Pencils here. Go to penshalay.com slash penaddict. And you can check out these incredible deals. Thank you so much to Penshalay for their support of this show and relay. All right. Let's keep it going with an all-time classic. I mean, we're into the top five. We're into all all-timers here. But the Uni Shift Pipe Lock is a pencil I bring up from time to time as one of the great pencil designs ever that no one talks about. This pencil has a grip section that's, I'm trying to describe this, but it basically splits in the middle. It's like a twist.
* And what it does, it extends the barrel and draws in the lead pipe for protection, basically is what it is, right? So that's the feature. And then you push the grip towards the barrel and lock it in. And then the lead pipe extends and you extend the lead and you use it to write. And then when you're done, you snap it back apart. And it's just kind of a cool feature. I just really like the design and style of this pen. Again, it's one of those plastic barrel metal grips setups that I like. So it's really heavy up front, which I appreciate in a mechanical pencil. It's just fun to look at. It's fun to play with the mechanism, the shift pipe lock mechanism. It's fun to say shift pipe lock, Myke. It's probably in the ball knock zone in as far as like fun terminology to say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shift pipe lock. Yeah, yeah. So it's all there. But this is a very underrated pencil, in my opinion. It's not for everybody, but it's one that I am absolutely in love with. Speaking of which, this is the pencil that made me put together the list, Myke. The Pentel Smash. What do you think about the Pentel Smash? Oh, I forgot to do the superlatives, man. Oh, I worked hard on the superlatives. Oh, you know what? You've got to go back. Pentel Carry. Start with that one. Pentel Carry. So we talked about the Pentel Carry. It's the small pocketable pen that's superlative. It's most likely to end up in a washing machine. So this is the one you get lost in your pocket. And, you know, you're never to be finding it again. Then you've got to go buy another one. The Uni Curitoga Roulette. Myke, this is the one most likely to spin you right round, baby. Right round. Like a record? Yeah, like a record, baby. Not only is it the rotation mechanism, the name is Roulette, right? Like, this is the one. Dead or Alive. The Uni Shift Pipe Lock is the most likely to be a fidget toy. Because you will sit there and fidget with this locking mechanism all day. So I'm doing it right now. I need to put that down. Okay. Pentel Smash. Myke. The superlative. I'm going to go ahead and get it out of the way now. This is the pencil most likely to cause FOMO. Because they, they being Pentel, they lean into this product in the Japanese market. And in the U.S. market and the rest of the world market, they just get black. Right. Black barrel. Black grips. I have, I took a picture of one yesterday. Someone brought me from Japan. It's got a blue barrel, a yellow grip, and then the black, black nubbins on there, which I'm sure Myke hates. Gross.
* They're so cool. I love this pencil so much. This is the pencil that actually made me want to do this list. Because it's such a unique, fun pencil that we don't get a lot of in the U.S.
* And it's not that expensive. Right. They did a special edition a handful of years ago that they charged like 18, 20 bucks for. The normal ones are like $12. That's still, it's expensive. But it's such a good quality pencil. It's the only pencil on this list, I think. Let me double check. I say that. Let's see. I'm not looking at all of them. Let's see. That one, that one, that one. Yeah. It's the only pencil without a, it's the only pencil with an integrated nose cone. So if you look at all these other pencils on all these lists, they all have like a very defined nose cone. That's just like a feature of mechanical pencils, right? That little plastic, excuse me, metal triangle shape cone on the front.
* This, the smash, and one of the reasons I like it is theirs is integrated into the grip section and it just flows right into the pipe where the, where the lead comes out. And it's just this really, really cool design. I think that's my favorite feature is that integrated nose cone design. Not to mention all the fun colors, all the wild colors you can get. This is an eBay problem. Like if you live not in Japan and you go look on eBay, there's so many different colors and styles and varieties. I love this pencil so much.
* Number three, spoke model four. I had to put this in here. I appreciate the restraint for putting it at number three.
* I think it's fair. And the, the, I think the two ahead of it, uh, are, I think it actually makes a lot, at least makes sense to me. Um, the spoke model four is the pencil that Brian designed that made me reach out to Brian and say, Hey, can we make a pen? Um, this one, this was the one that kind of like changed everything for me as far as design goes. Um, I just think it's a, it's an awesome design. It's a fully, uh, the, the model I have, there's different models, uh, with different grip styles. I have just the cyan barrel and it's got like the black, uh, spokes. And then it has a, um, sandblasted, uh, titanium, uh, groove grip. So it's not a knurled grip. It's just the shape and design in the feel and how it's machined and how it's all put together. Like, again, like I disclosure, if y'all don't know, like I'm part of this company, like, you know, I'm part of spoke design. Um, I have an ownership stake. My superlative superlative for spoke model four is most likely to give Brad money.
* I mean, the other ones, how likely are the other ones?
* So yeah, this one, if you buy these, I might get money, but that's not why I'm putting it on here. I'm putting it on here because I think it changed, uh, my perspective of like machine pencils and how cool they can be. And then it actually got me into, um, working with Brian just simply because of this design. I said, Hey, this is like really has an aesthetic that I like. And can we do a pen from this? And just, I guess, I don't even know how many years that's been now. We're probably going on four or five years. And I think the spoke model four is still like one of our best sellers and one of our best designs. So number two, the Pentel sharp, guess where the nose cone of the spoke model four comes from, Myke. It's the Pentel sharp. Yep. So this is another pencil that's been around for like 50 years. This has the most simple, basic, lightweight plastic barrel design that hasn't changed at all in that timeframe.
* It's the lightest of all these pencils that I have. It's one of the most unique designs because it's so simple that it's hard to mimic, right? No one's been able to like really nail like a copy of the sharp. And that's why it's been around for so long. It's also one of their most popular pencils at Pentel because the price point is really, really strong. When I was growing up, these were in the office supply cabinet, my dad's work. And we're talking like early 1980s, right? They would stock the cabinets with this. And this pencil to this day is less than $6. So I can't imagine how inexpensive it was back in the day when they're buying these by the dozens, by the boxes. And it still rates this highly for me because of what it is and just the lightness, the airiness, the shape, it's narrow. It's got this slight taper. It's got the best nose cone. The mechanism always works. I don't know. There's just something about this pencil that just really knocks my socks off as from a design perspective. And it's not the most popular pencil today when you have other options out there, but it still holds its own. If you put it up like in a one-to-one battle with any other pencil, it's going to hold its own. Despite not being the most flashy or most unique or anything like that. It's really, really good.
* So the Pentel Sharp, the superlative is most likely to show your age. Like if you love the Sharp, you're probably 50 years old. So that's my deal with the Sharp.