Editing The Pen Addict 415/transcript (section)

== Pen Chalet Promotion ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' But if you do want to buy everything, Myke, if you do want to buy everything, good place to go for that best place to go for that pen chalet. This is actually where I bought my, uh, my 1911 this morning because pen chalet sell authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have your favorite brands like sailor, but also Pelican Monteverde, Lamy, Pilot, Kaweco. They do, uh, not just pens though. So it's not just pens and roller balls and mechanical pencils. It's also everything you need for them. Carrying cases and inks, refills, uh, so you can get ink cartridges as well as bottles. They will fountain pen converters so you can fill your pen nice and easy. And they just do all the great accessories that you're looking for as well. There's always something new going on at pen chalet. They're adding new products all the time and they do great sales all the time as well. Uh, they do free shipping and all those over $50 in the U S and they have great shipping rates and it's, I've always found it to be really fast, reliable shipping. So I've ordered from pen chalet many times. So I have absolutely no problem in doing that again today because pen chalet also offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their products. If you go to pen chalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website, you can use the password pen addict to get this week's special offer and to get the code you need to save 10% at pen chalet. So Brad, what do we have on offer this time?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The scroll bar just keeps going. I'm not sure I've made it to the bottom yet, but there's all, there's all kinds of things. There's, there's the Estherbrook Phaeton. There's a bunch of Monteverdes. Um, there's a bunch of Conklins, a bunch of stipulas, and then you screw a bunch of piniters and you just keep going. And then Montegrappa mini copper mule fountain pen. I didn't know. Number one, I like this shape of the Montegrappa copper pens, the mule and the mule has been around for a while, like five, six years. I didn't know there was a mini version of this to be perfectly honest. I didn't know this pen existed and the price point it is at is, you know, it's laughable like as, as always with, with Ron's deals. I, I don't need to buy any pens, but I find it interesting. The other one I find interesting, which you might be surprised is there's a Pelican K805 ocean swirl ballpoint pen. I've always threatened to buy one of Pelican's ballpoint pens because let's be honest, like the sailor king of pen, any ballpoint pen is going to be overpriced. You're paying for like the barrel and the hardware and stuff. And you're writing with a ballpoint, but this has that ocean swirl material of the 805. I already have the fountain pen. Maybe this is the one, like I didn't know this existed. Desk set, baby. Right. So then we're going desk set for that. And you just keep going. I still haven't made it to the end. Like there's the platinum carnelian still in there. This purple Parker dual fold. I don't know. There's a lot. So yeah, just keep scrolling. And then there's even, I finally reached the button that said view more specials, which I'm just going to leave for someone else because that's a lot of stuff already. Really good stuff from Ron this week. Yep.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password pen addict to get your eyes and hands on these wonderful offers. Our thanks to Penchalet for their continued support of the pen addict and Relay FM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Michael, I reviewed a product on Monday.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh boy, did you? This is one of the rare, scathing dowdy reviews. I wouldn't say that you were unfairly harsh because from what I read, I believe you, but harsh you were.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So yeah, so this is for the Blackwing One Step Long Point Sharpener review. This is the new fancy Blackwing Sharpener. Beautiful looking, really well designed. You know, this could go in your Dieter Rams, Johnny Ive cannon. I love it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I love the design because it's like evokes the shape of the pencil. Like I really like it. Like I think it's beautiful.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's killer. It's absolutely killer design. And this launched earlier this year and someone had one at the Baltimore Pen Show and they're like, here, test it out. And I did. And it didn't really kind of jive with me at the time. I was like, yeah, it's okay. And I'll wait. You know, I wasn't going to make any decisions off of that. I'll wait till I get my own. So I finally got my hands on one. And it's just really bad. And I don't often just like lean into like really bad products. Like they're usually not worth your time reviewing. Like if there's a pen that's just really terrible, I'm not going to spend all my time just crushing it in the review. But there's certain products that fall into a different category in that, you know, the brand is so popular and so well known for making really good products that this one's more of an outlier. And I think it's more of an interesting conversation. So I will spend some time saying like, this really is, it's bad. Like it's legitimately bad. But the problem is, I wonder, as I was writing this review, I wondered, you go look on Black Wing site, and there's like 93 reviews, ranks at five star, no one star reviews. I'm like, what am I missing? Like, how is my experience not at least moderate, right? I'm not expecting perfection. How is my review not just moderate of this product when everyone else seems to be having a great experience with it? So I started looking through my comments. I actually went through, there's no one or two star reviews on there on Black Wing sites. I was like, that is interesting. Then I started getting comments on my post. And I'm looking in my comments. And one of my comments says, I have one inspired by the look. And I also had the same issues. Still looks awesome. But I'm waiting for your review first next time. So what happens when you sharpen with this pen, it leaves a ragged.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The exposed cedar is ragged. It's not smooth. And I have a comparison shot. And you know, all things being equal, it's not like it's been run over by a car ragged. But when you compare it to literally every other sharpener I used in the review or didn't use in the review, other sharpeners I've just used, period, it sharpened more poorly than any of those. And this is a $20 pencil sharpener, right? It's not like a $5 pencil sharpener where I can say, oh, this is junk and toss it aside. This is a $20 pencil sharpener. I expected more. So the next review I get, or the next comment I get on the post is, says, I'm sitting here looking back and forth between your photos and my freshly sharpened pencil in front of me. I can't even connect the two. I have the one step too, but it's as if we're using two different sharpeners. You're not the first I've heard from who had a hard time with it, but our sharpening jobs look completely different. But I know you can only review what you've got in front of you. It's odd. And the very next review is, I honestly don't know what you're talking about. I've had this since it first came out and I've been very pleased with its looks and performance. It's a great sharpener and people who see it always comment on how cool it is.