Editing The Pen Addict 377/transcript (section)

== Nib Size Discussion ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I would scratch that Ultra Extra Fine off your wish list right now. Why is that? It's awesome. It's too fine. It is levels under an Extra Fine nib. Even Platinum's Extra Fine, which is what my answer would be to this question. It's Platinum's Extra Fine. Platinum's Extra Fine, I might be wrong, which is normal. It's around a 0.3 millimeter tip size. The UEF is 0.1. It's extreme. So unless you have a crazy light hand, that's a nib like very few people get along with. It's very specific. I'd want you to be very careful if you purchase that nib without trying it first. So I would go with something like the Platinum EF nib, which I think is fantastic. The Pilot makes some of their pens now in that price range. Some of the Gold nib pens with the Extra Fine nib. Also, the Pilot's Fine nibs are pretty fine as well. They're close to the TWSBI 580 in fineness. So Pilot Fine, Platinum Fine, Platinum Extra Fine, and then maybe Pilot Extra Fine if you can find them. They are in a few models in that $120 to $140 price range. The $95, the $74, I don't know if it comes in Extra Fine, but it comes in Fine. So just be looking around at those. Those are what I would go with as opposed to the Platinum UEF. And I will say the Platinum nibs and these Gold nibs are going to be softer than your 580 Extra Fine. So just be prepared for that. TWSBI is a very firm nib, which I love. I think it's great, but there's a difference in writing with them.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. I've never gotten near them, and I can't imagine I ever would either.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There's no need. Like, I don't even enjoy them, and I like writing small. Like, I'm using my Sailor needlepoint that I had ground down, and it's amazing. And the Platinum UEF is probably around the same size, but the Sailor nib is firmer, and that's where the Platinum nib kind of gets you. It's a little bit softer.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. Randall Mark asks, would Noodler's Apache Sunset and a small Sailor Pro gear be the real Slim Shady?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What's this week's sponsor, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Backblaze! Thank you so much to Backblaze for their support of this week's episode. The unlimited cloud backup for Macs and PCs that starts at just $6 a month with no gimmicks and no add-ons. It's a five-year anniversary of my worst data disaster. A month before RelayFM started, I knocked a pint of Coke, I think, into my laptop, destroyed it. And I was not backing up properly with that machine. I did not have a cloud backup in place, and I was a fool. And I took my laptop out of commission a month before I was starting my new company. And I know I lost some data. I kept a lot of stuff in, like, Dropbox or whatever, but I didn't have everything in there, right? But that's the problem with data disasters.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Sometimes you don't know exactly what you've lost. That is, like, the scariest part, right? Like, you've lost something, but what was it? Are you ever going to know until you try and find it? Nobody wants to live that way. That's a horrible way to live. I am urging everybody to sign up for Backblaze. Because it will back up all of your documents, your music, photos, videos, maybe your drawings. No matter what the projects are, everything that is important to you can be backed up with Backblaze. Sometimes you need to access a file on the go. And once you've got everything backed up, you can use their mobile apps to access all of your data anywhere in the world. Backblaze have backed up 750 petabytes of data and counting. That is the equivalent of 750 million gigabytes. These folk know their stuff. I use Backblaze now. I love Backblaze. It's so easy. I just have it sitting on my iMac and it's just backing everything up for me. It backs up all the stuff I have on Dropbox. It backs up everything that's on my desktop. I never have to worry about losing a file ever again. Go to backblaze.com slash penaddict and you can try it out for 15 days. It's a fully featured 15-day free trial. And let them know that you heard about them on the Penaddict. So that's backblaze.com slash penaddict to sign up today. Trust me. Please go and check it out. Backblaze has saved me from many more data disasters. Make sure they're doing it for you too. And thank you for their support of the show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm a little concerned about this next question, Myke. Are we going to get run off of our own show? It's possibly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So Seth says, my question is for Adina. I'm slowly coming to terms with the idea of buying an expensive pen after years of recreational use of Twisbees. Islamis and the like. I like that recreational use. My one previous fancy pen purchase was a Waterman Kareen. It's a beautiful gold nibbed pen, but was an underwhelming writing experience. That is my experience of all Waterman pens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's fair. That's fair.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I see my next purchase going in one of two ways. Either a canalea, I wonder why, or a high quality Japanese pen such as a Sailor. The canalea designs truly speak to me and Hawaii has been a special place in my life since I met my wife there many years ago. But I've been hearing for years Brad and Myke going on and on about the Sailor writing experience. So my question to you is, since you just bought a canalea and a high quality Japanese pen, which direction would you recommend? So that's for Adina. Seth does follow up with Brad and Myke. I'd love to hear your thoughts as well. I know you both love these pen companies. How does the writing experience compare? All things being equal, I'd go for the canalea, but I am missing something having never tried a higher end Japanese gold nib pen. Thank you for your help and keep up the great work. I look forward to my commute home every Wednesday. So I asked Adina for her answer for this and then we can answer too. So she wrote this down for me today. So this is Adina's answer. From my very limited experience of pens, at least compared to Myke and Brad, I would recommend going with the canalea. I personally think that a pen that means a lot to you will bring you much more emotional value than a slightly better writing experience. Hawaii has a special place in my heart too. And my canalea has this magic about it that feels like it's transporting me back there every time I stare at it. So it makes me happy to write with it because of that. Sailor and Platinum obviously make great nibs. Moving from a Twisbee and all of those and all to one of those won't be a mind-blowing experience, Adina says. If you do end up getting a canalea and you're still wondering whether you're missing out on the writing experience, you could maybe send it to someone like Masayama for a nib tuning. Look at that. That's something other people do in this world and he'll know what to do with it. I love that answer. All right. So I... Okay. So given this question without the middle part of the tie to Hawaii, I would say to go with a sailor pen first. Every time. Yeah. Because the Japanese experience is completely different. They are without a shadow of a doubt, no matter how good other nibs are, no matter how good how they write, you can't beat Japanese gold nib pens. You just can't do that. You just can't. I'm sorry.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You just can't. But... And if that's the price point you're shopping in, you can get a 1911 large. You can get the standard pro gear. You can get the full-size big sailor nib. But every time I'm going to pick that. Like, Seth just has to try to figure out, one, how is he going to use this pen the most? Like, if he's writing a lot and it really matters, like, not that you're not going to get a good writing experience with Ken Alayda. It would be great. But the sailor is going to be that pen for you. Now, if you are going into the emotions of it and the meaningfulness of it to you personally, I get the argument. But if you put those two pens in front of me, you know, as, like, your first big purchase, and if you're not, you know, dead set on one or the other, I'm going to pick sailor. Like, every time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I understand, but I actually, I agree with Adina. So, if you're going to be spending that kind of money, right, you're looking at maybe $400. I think that having a pen that when you look at, just looking at makes you feel good, that is a, I think, when you're jumping into that world, is a more meaningful experience and a better way to spend your money. That's where I'm going with this one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, that's the question that only Seth can answer. Yes. Right. But I believe. So, we didn't make it easy. We didn't make it easy.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No. I mean, well, it's two to one, I guess, depending on how you want to look at it. But, like, I am in agreement with the experience being, like, superior. The writing experience will be superior. But I think that the Canalea pen will provide a level of happiness that you'll feel that you'll be very, very happy with.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. So, that's something to consider. So, that's how Seth should kind of think about going into this, you know, and have that memory. And that means a lot when you have pens that mean something to you. Like, I talk about that all the time. It's like, you know, someone, you know, gave me this pen or I worked hard for this pen and found it. And those, you attach more meaning to those things, right? So, yeah, that's great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And, yeah, I just think that when you're making that jump to that level, for me personally, and I found this myself, meaning is maybe more than experience. Because it's not like you're going to get a bad one, right? That's not what we're saying. But there's just a difference. But I think that having something that means something to you is going to help more.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Definitely a no wrong answer question.