Editing The Pen Addict 67/transcript (section)

== Colt Pens Fountain Pen ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' So full disclosure, previous sponsor of the show, Colt Pens have a, a new fountain pen, a mini fountain pen that they have been developing in conjunction with Kaweco. They've actually made it for them. It's called the Colt Pens mini, mini fountain.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And it's a very, it's a small, it's a mini slim fountain pen. It's, I don't know, I assume aluminium.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Anodized, anodized aluminium with a matte brushed finish. Now, also worth pointing out as well, the guys over at Colt Pens sent me this. I, I, you know, I feel like I should say that. Definitely. You know, I feel like that's important.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. And they are sending me one as well. I have not received it yet. So they sent Myke and I these pens to review at no charge.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't want to get into it too much today. I wanted to mention that it was there and give some very initial impressions, but really I would like me and Brad to talk about it back and forth a little bit when he receives his, which might even be by next week.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I would wager it probably is. So hopefully next weekend we can dedicate like just like a review slot, dude, and we can go back and forth about it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So the pen is very well put together. It's very well built, as you would expect from Kaweka.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's nicely balanced. It's very small. It is so small that it has to have the cap on really to fit in my hand.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But it is weighted in such a way that that is not necessarily a problem for me. You know, sometimes there are some pens that work like that. This is one of them.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It is very nice to look at. The anodized aluminium, the brush finish is quite nice. I like that a lot too. Again, I also haven't had as much time to use this as I would have wanted to.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So that's another reason why I want to be able to give it a little bit longer before giving a full review. There was one thing that I wanted to mention about this pen. So all in all, it is really nice. And if people have been holding off to see what our thoughts were before they bought one, I would say if you trust my opinion on these things, then you're going to like this. Because it's kind of everything you would expect and want from a product of this type. It's very well put together. It's extremely well valued for money.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It looks great. Works great. I mean, because you don't need to be concerned about the Kaweka nibs, for example. You know, because you know that they're good because you've used them before. Or we have. And we know that they are. So I know that Brad would say that that's fine. Because they are the same nibs. They are Kaweka nibs. Yep. So I had asked for a medium nib.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And our friend Greg, he said, look, cold pants. He's like, why don't I send you a couple? Why don't I send you a few? I was like, okay, go for it. So he sent me a medium, a fine, and a broad nib.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I tried the medium out, and that was okay. I mean, you know, it was perfectly fine. It was what I've used in Kawekos in the past.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But a little on the fine side of the medium for me. And one of the reasons that I never really liked the Kaweko, as in a daily user. Like, I've always liked the pen, but I've never really fell in love with it. Because the medium was not really medium enough for me. So I thought, because of that, I'll try the bold.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I tried the bold nib and didn't like it. Really? Yeah. It gave the right line, but it felt like there was some issues with the flow for me. I just wasn't a big fan of it. I mean, it worked fine. It just wasn't blowing my mind. Okay. Like, it wasn't laying down as much ink as I usually expect from a bold. And I found this from Japanese pens, really, in general. That bold nibs don't give me what I want from a bold. And medium don't give me what I want from a medium.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. Personally. Except these are German nibs.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, you were waiting, weren't you? How long were you going to allow me to continue around that road? Okay, well.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, no, no, no, no. You just said it. You were... Do you want to finish? Because I do have a comment on that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, no, please.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Go. What... I know, I'm collecting my thoughts here. Oh, okay. What you're saying about Kaweco's nibs, I agree with 100%. And I found two companies, and someone, a listener, can maybe tell me if there is similarities in the manufacture of these nibs, because Kaweco does not make their own nibs.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Kaweco nibs and TWSBI nibs, which TWSBI sources their nibs from Germany. Bach nibs, I guess, or Jowo. I don't know which one they're using today. They've gone back and forth. I wonder if Kaweco and TWSBI use the same manufacturer, because I find, in comparison to other German pens, to other German nibs, that the Kaweco nibs and the TWSBI nibs are finer than their other German counterparts, say Lamy, Pelican, something like that. So if you take a Kaweco extra fine and a TWSBI extra fine, they're going to be much finer than a Lamy extra fine or a Pelican extra fine, despite the fact that they're all German, air quote, nibs.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I think that's what you're running into. So that's just, that's not, you know, scientific data. That's just from using all these nibs. That's why I rave about the Kaweco EF nibs and the TWSBI EF nibs, because they're a tighter and a finer line than a Lamy EF nib. Then, you know, then like if you were categorizing them in the big bucket of German nibs versus Japanese nibs, there's some variance, right? Not every nib is created the same. And I find that Kaweco and TWSBI nibs, right, identical to each other, which I think is why I love them. But that's why I think you're running into, you know, like the medium, which would be if you went into the store, Myke Hurley goes in to buy a fountain pen. He buys a German medium nib, that would be his expectation of what you would like, where this Kaweco one is probably a little bit finer for you than what your expectation would be.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So that would make sense why I expected that they were Japanese style, because they're finer. So, but saying what you did about the comparison to the TWSBI, it's very interesting to me, because the nib that I've fallen in love with is the fine, which is the same as the TWSBI. So, I really, really like the fine nib. It's not scratchy, it's very smooth, gives a good distribution of ink, and it's a nice legible line, and it works really, really well for me, and I've been enjoying the fine a lot with this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The Colt Pens Mini Fountain Pen with a Fine Nib, that is my recommendation.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that's yours. So, okay, cool. So hopefully I will get mine this week, and we can kind of, we'll go through head to toe when I get it, and we'll have some conversation around it, and expand on it a little bit more. So I look for, hopefully, I would wager I will get it in time to be ready for next week's episode. I hope so. Yep.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right.