Editing The Pen Addict 312/transcript (section)

== Estabrook FJ Ballpoint ==


'''Madison:''' Super cool. Super cool. All right. So this next link I wanted to put in as it refers to the Estabrook FJ Ballpoint review that I did on the blog a few weeks back where it had the Shapeways 3D design refill apparatus. What is the word I'm looking for? It's basically a molded refill to fit a proprietary old school refill so you can get a new refill into an old pen. So I knew that my friend Les at Comfortable Shoes Studio had a clip also from Shapeways that was built to fit on certain pens. I don't know if it's just the Baron Fig Squire pens. That's what she was testing it on. I don't know if it fits other pens. So I'd asked her about it. I was like, you talked about doing this review of this clip that you got. She said, yeah. She hadn't put it up yet. She had all kinds of problems with working with him to get this done. And she finally put the review up this week. So she sent it over to me. And I was reading the review. And I'm going through and I'm like, holy crap, this thing is ugly. This is like the ugliest thing. And I was like, okay, but, you know, it solves a problem. It's a pen. I mean, it's a clip for a pen that doesn't have one. And I see that. And I'm like, okay, whatever. Then I get down and, you know, she's talking about it. And then I get down to the part where she's essentially like, okay, holy hell, this thing is ugly. And I just started dying laughing. And it was pretty hilarious because as good of an idea this is, do you see yourself ever putting something like this on one of your pens that needs a clip?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Heck no. Like, all right. So I need to try and explain this to people so they can understand what we're talking about here. So this is a, it is a clip which has a kind of ring around it. And the ring has got some holes in it. So it will allow some flex. And it is 3D printed in, well, at least the one that is being shown here is what looks like a kind of cheap version plastic, right? Like a very simple plastic.

'''Madison:''' Same as what the ballpoint adapter was that I used. It's like this cheap plastic resiny material.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But because it is 3D printed cheaply by design, so it can be worth a couple of dollars to buy, it has that kind of 3D printed look to it where everything is kind of a little bit texturized in a way that is probably not intended. Right? Like it's a little bobbly, I guess. And it has clearly been extruded from a machine. And so this clip could be made out of slightly different material at a higher production value and look better.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But then it wouldn't be worth it, I think, for you to buy it. It would be too expensive.

'''Madison:''' Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Exactly. I mean, and they sell, like they have a professional version on Shapeways, which is like three times the price, which I'm sure would look a little bit better. But ultimately still what you're getting is this huge clip, plastic clip with a big cuff that goes all the way around so it can stretch around the pen. I mean, quite frankly, for me, like I understand why you might want something like this. But personally, I would prefer to not use a pen than to put something like this on the pen. I think it kind of ruins a lot of what I like about a pen, like the way it looks. Yes. You know, this was my whole feeling about the Mark 1, the Studio Neat Mark 1.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Every time they added any kind of clip design to that pen, it ruined it, in my opinion. Like any time that they were trying to like, can we add a clip to this? Would it work? Would it not work? It didn't work because the pen's beauty was its simplicity. And adding a clip to it is almost like adding, and this is in the post that you mentioned, right?

'''Madison:''' That it's like a wart. Yeah, it's a third nipple, right? I mean, it's just not supposed to be there. So two things, and one you just covered. It goes against the original design of the pen. Like you're breaking up the original design. Like the Baron Fig Squire is sleek and minimal. And then you tack this on there. But secondly, I'm also glad that this is happening. I'm glad this exists. And that's why I wanted to put this in here. Because it can get better. Like eventually maybe we'll have something that works well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If it's good for you, like if you're fine with that, like this is great. Like if what you're looking for is a clip and you don't care about how the clip looks because you just need it, it's awesome that a product like this exists. But like this is just a very different use case scenario than anything I would be in.

'''Madison:''' Yeah, but also like you said, you're not buying the pen in the first place if the clip is like the number one or two most important thing in your purchasing decision.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, that's the other part of it, which is kind of interesting, right? Which is like if you would care enough that you would buy this to put on a pen, why do you own the pen without the clip in the first place? You know, that's like a funny thing to me, right? Where it's like clearly, clearly clips are very important to you. It's interesting to me that like then you would buy a pen without a clip on it.

'''Madison:''' Yeah. So I think this post is worth a read. Les talks about the difficulties she had getting this ordered as well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I love it. It's a very, very well written post. And it's very funny too. I like it.

'''Madison:''' Yeah. Yeah. So it's a really good post. And like I want to see more of this stuff. And it's going to be bad for a while. But, you know, maybe we get to a point where there are uses. Like the refill adapter looks terrible as well. But you don't have to look at it because it's on the inside of the pen. It's perfect for that. Yeah. So I like seeing this innovation, even though this one's kind of trash right now. Maybe, you know, maybe we'll have other use cases come out of this. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the new Paris Skyline Retro 51 Gold Spot exclusive is a work of art. What do you think about this pen?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I feel about this pen like you feel about the platinum we were talking about earlier. Where like, so this is one of the, I think it's like the annual Gold Spot limited edition that they do. There's like 537. Yeah. Skyline. Yeah.