Editing The Pen Addict 138/transcript (section)

== Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So we're going to get into the great crossover product here. And that's pens. But before we do that, we want to talk about another one of our really good and actually very timely sponsors, our friends at Pen Chalet.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Pen Chalet sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. And they're here for us again to sponsor the Pen Addict podcast. Pen Chalet have all of our favorite brands like Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco, and many, many more. They're an authorized dealer of all of these. And Pen Chalet provide awesome, fast, and reliable customer service. They're always running discounts. They have great special deals all the time. They always have special offers for Pen Addict listeners. I'm going to tell you about a couple in a moment. Pen Chalet also sell limited edition pens and pen accessories like carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pen converters, and so much more. They sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. And, of course, they sell in the continental United States with free shipping on orders of over $50. Pen Chalet has low prices on high-quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to penchalet.com. And you can buy anything at Pen Chalet and use the code Pen Addict to get 10% off your order. But what you really want to do is click the podcast link at the top of the website on the homepage and enter the password pen addict for access to even more savings as well as some exclusive savings as well. And there's a couple of things I want to draw your attention to today. So there was something that me and Brad noticed on Pen Chalet before we started, and that's the Kaweco Art Sport Fountain Pen. Now, these are some limited edition Kawecos with absolutely stunning effects. Now, these are acrylic versions, right, Brad?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep, yep. They're acrylic pens. And I was surprised to see these, to be quite honest. I get lots of questions. I've reviewed one in the past that Kaweco has sent me. It was a brown tortoise art sport. And they've never been really, really widely available. And I get emails about once a month, hey, where can I find an art sport? And I'm like, I don't know. You're really kind of out of luck. And Myke and I stumbled on this today, actually. That Pen Chalet has about four of the colors in. And I'm shocked. They have the Akashir, which is the kind of blue, excuse me, the black and white swirl. They have the lapis blue. They have the rosette red. And they have the granite. These are not easy to come by. And I'm curious that they're on here now. I'm wondering, are they starting to sell more of them? Or is this something that Pen Chalet was just able to get a hold of in a special run? But this is kind of a big deal for people that are looking for the art sport line. It's such a good upgrade to like the classic, the regular molded plastic barrels that the Kaweco Classics come in. These art ones are really, really beautiful. The one I have was stunning. I actually sent it to our friend Anna at Well Appointed Desk as a gift. Because I knew she would like it. And these are just, I'm really, really shocked to see this. And the price right now is, what, it's $81. And another 10% off with our Pen Addict code, Myke? Is that how it's working?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, with the Pen Addict code, you can get one of these Kaweco Art Sport fountain pens for $72.90. So that's after you get the discount by going up to the top, hitting the podcast button, typing Pen Addict. And you go through there, and then when you put the Pen Addict code in at checkout, it's where you get $72.90. But I also have another exclusive, Brad. I don't know if you know if you know this is happening. You can get 25% off a Pilot Custom 823.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, yeah. That's an amazing pen. That's Pilot's vacuum filler. That's a big boy pen. That's a lot of people's grail pen, the 823. It's a really, really beautiful one. I know Ed Jelly has reviewed its pen before. I do not own one of these, but it's been on my radar for a while just because it's a super beautiful, highly functional with the vacuum filling system that gets rave reviews. A lot of people swear by this pen. This is their one and only pen. So the Custom 823 is an awesome deal.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So you can usually pick one of these up at retail. They're $360. But from the Pen Chalet for Pen Addict listeners, you can get one for $243, which is 25% off, which is an incredible discount. So go to penchalet.com. Support them. Support us. They're great, guys. Thank you so much to Pen Chalet for continuing to be so awesome.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I'm stumbling over myself here because I can't believe they have the art sports. That's pretty fascinating. I'm going to have to give Ron an email and see what's up with that. So that's very cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I can tell you. I have to give email a Ron. You know, you're struggling over there, buddy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I am struggling. That's not something you see every day. So I will be taking a look at that further. All right. So Tony and I did something cool. It's been, gosh, it's been like a year and a half or so now since we did this. And when we, you know, kind of started talking, you know, when Tony was starting his blog and we were kind of going back and forth about pens, he wanted to try out the Pilot Vanishing Point because it looked like it would be kind of a good pen for his blog. You know, his readers might be interested in something like that. You know, the retractable and usefulness of the Vanishing Point. And he was offering up one of the, you know, best knives, you know, probably ever made. I, you know, I'll let Tony explain it, why it's so special a little bit more, but it's a Chris Reeve Sabenza 21. And he sent that to me to review. So we kind of did this, we did this swap where, you know, I reviewed one of his knives. He reviewed one of my pens. And I got huge, you know, feedback on that. Everyone loves seeing that knife review. And I know the Vanishing Point, you know, kind of became a thing for you on Everyday Commentary. And you ended up getting one finally for Christmas, right?

'''Anthony Sculimbrene:''' Yes, I did. I did. I really did. I was, that pen was like beguiling. I just could not get it out of my head. I had to buy one. So the whole idea was like, I was trying to find a pen that was sort of, had the same, I don't know, what's the right word? Had the same sort of gravitas as the Sabenza 21. And your review of the Vanishing Point, just like I said, it was entrancing. It was something I had to buy. And so I thought like, oh, this would be really awesome. I want to send you one of my favorite knives ever made. And you were kind enough to send me your Vanishing Point. Although I still feel bad for losing that piece.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So here, let me explain real quick. Any of you Vanishing Point owners know that when you get the Vanishing Point, at least like in my black matte model, you know, they're easily made for cartridge fill. But since there's a retractable button on it, they give you that little, that little metal sleeve that goes over the plastic. So you don't eventually break through the plastic. Not that I would ever think that would happen. And when Tony returned that pen, that piece might have been missing in the return package. And what happened there, Tony?

'''Anthony Sculimbrene:''' I thought that the piece was like, you know, like when you get some of the cartridges, like if you get like the, I just got them today. The Sharpie comes with like a, the Sharpie cartridges come with like a little cap on it. And I was like, wow, this is like a fancy pen. Even the cap has it, even the cap is metal. And just pitched it. I was like, oh, no, that's not right. So dumb.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Hit the trash can. But it's almost an unnecessary, unnecessary piece of the pen. So yeah, not a big deal, even remotely. And if you have more than one vanishing point, you can swap it between them. But I'd rather use that piece anyway. I just usually set it aside. So no worries there. So what did you think about the vanishing point?

'''Anthony Sculimbrene:''' Well, so the thing is like, I write so much for my job that my hands, like if I do a trial, a trial will start at 10. And it'll end at four and we take an hour break. And then there's usually a potty break in the morning and a potty break in the afternoon. And so I'm writing for two, maybe three hours. And it's even worse if you do a deposition. Like in a deposition, I've had six or seven hour depositions. And, you know, it's just, it's an immense task on your hands. And when I was using roller balls and ballpoints, it would kill my hand. And so I eventually switched over to using fountain pens for those things. And the vanishing point, most of the fountain pens I had, I was either, you know, the cap was breaking or was getting crushed. I mean, like I travel so much. I go into really tough places. Like it's really hard to write in the secure psychiatric unit. There's just not a whole lot of places to write. And, you know, so like my pens would get destroyed. And I was worried that if I had a cap on a fountain pen, it wouldn't last. So a retractable fountain pen seemed perfect, but there's only like two or three out there. And none of them have the, you know, like I said, none of them have the gravitas that the vanishing point did. So when you gave me a chance to review it, I was like super, super pumped. And then I just kept trying to figure out a way to get one and like set aside the money. And then finally Christmas came and I was like, oh, done. I'm done. I got to buy this. And I've used it every day since. It is wonderful. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So when you sent me, when you wanted to do this, I was like, I still don't understand what's the deal with this knife and why do I want to try it? And then once I got it in the hand, I was like, oh, I get it now. I understand. And like, if you look at a picture of this Chris Reeves, Sabenza, the 21, you'll say, looks good. You know, you know, seems okay. And then, you know, I tell you it's going to run you what? $350, $400, right? Is that about what those run? You'll be go, wow, really? And it doesn't seem like that. But then you get it in your hand and you flip it open and you lock it. And then it kind of like that puzzle starts to get put together. And you're like, I understand now why this costs what it is. And then you read more about how it's made. And you're going, I see what the big deal is. And when I compare it to, you know, like some of the Spydercos that I have, I see why, you know, this one's $100. And then this Sabenza's $400. And it really kind of grabs you and fascinates you. Like with me, you know, I refer to it like discovering like a Nakaya pen that's such a high-end pen. But then when you get it in your hands, you're like, I kind of get it now. You know, it makes sense why these things cost this much. Just from that fit and feel and finished, it's hard to relay that in pictures and words, right? Until you can get that into your hand and into use and using it for what it's made for, then it kind of starts to add up. And you're like, I get it now. So it was a really eye-opening experience to be able to borrow that knife from you. And I just thought that was a super cool thing that we did to do that switch up. And, you know, I think we'll end up both costing each other money because that's probably the next knife I'm going to buy.

'''Anthony Sculimbrene:''' Yeah, I mean, the Sabenza is really an unusual thing. I mean, it's now in its 25th year of production, which for a knife is really unheard of. I mean, there are a couple knives that have been in production for longer, like the Buck 110. But the Sabenza did things that no one else was doing. And then the things that weren't totally new, it just killed everybody. I mean, Chris Reeves' factory, the machines that he has, he's dialed them in so that the tolerances exceed the aerospace industry tolerances. You know, like when you look at, and I'm sure you know this from like your technical job, Brad. Like when I was working at an audio store, everybody wanted six nines copper. And that meant that the copper was 99.9999% pure. So six nines copper. And like his tolerances, you know, his machines will go out, you know, not a hundredth of an inch, not a thousandth of an inch, like ten thousandth, a hundred thousandth of an inch. And that level of fit and finish gives you a feel in the hand that is impossible to describe in video. You can't take a picture of it. It's really hard to write about. But when you have it, you know it.