Editing The Pen Addict 461/transcript (section)

== Future of Pen Shows Post-Pandemic ==


'''Myke:''' I'm really intrigued to see how some of these pen shows go. To my understanding, there are some in this summer, right?

'''Brad:''' Yeah. So, Raleigh is happening in June sometime, but that's a smaller show. That seems way too early. Yeah. Which is, you know, it is pretty early. But the two big shows are San Francisco and Washington, D.C. They're both in August. So, that's when we'll see. And then I think Chicago is in September.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. August, September feels to me like the very earliest that something like this could happen. Yeah. But to me, for my personal taste, it's still too soon. I wouldn't go.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, if I lived in San Francisco, would I make, do a day trip or like a spend, plan on an afternoon there? Yeah. But I'm, me, I'm not traveling across country to go to San Francisco in August. Mm-hmm. Right. I think those are the differences where we're at now. Where next year, you know, that calculation will probably be different.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. It's going to be an interesting one to track.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Yeah. You know why, Myke? Why? It's interesting because I can buy some pretty cool pens online too.

'''Myke:''' Oh, look at you. You're so smart. Look at that. It's beautiful. This episode is very kindly brought to you by the Canalea Penco. Canalea Penco make stunningly beautiful pens inspired by images of Hawaii. Canalea's founders, Hugh and Carol, believe that these locations can help recharge our spirit and connect us with nature and they embody that in their products. The execution of these pens, though, is what truly sets them apart from the rest. Every single Canalea Pen is handmade in a process that means that no two pens are ever going to look alike and every nib is tuned before it ships to a customer. So Hugh of Hugh and Carol make sure that every single nib works great. So you're going to get something that's perfect and unique just for you. And we're going to remind you about something that they've got right now, which is truly very special. To celebrate their fifth anniversary, Canalea have created the Honokalani Mailei Lei. This design of the pen that they've got here is really fantastic. It is inspired by Hugh and Carol's first ever trip to Hawaii. It's based on these stunning visuals of Honokalani Beach with crystal blue waters and glistening black sand. And these elements are captured beautifully in this pen, which has these wonderful clear like parts of the blue acrylic with these beautiful black like kind of rock like sand kind of ribbons, I think is the way we described it before that kind of flow through the body of the pen. You should go to their website and look at it. It's fantastic. But what makes this pen even more special is the band that they have around the cap. It's designed to evoke a lei made of Mailei leaves crafted in Argentium silver. A Mailei leaf lei is used to signify special events in one's life, which makes it the very perfect accompaniment for Canalea's fifth anniversary pen. This model featuring the Mailei lei band is only offered in Canalea's classic style of pens. It's got like the larger cap to the body. But the Honokalani colorway itself is also offered in the classic pinched and classic slim models as well. So Canalea pens feature Yowa number six nibs and you can buy steel or 18 karat gold nibs directly from Canalea. They offer sizes from extra fine all the way to 1.1 millimeter stub. And every pen ships in a beautifully packaged keepsake box. There are also many more beautiful models of Canalea pen for you to check out. There truly is one for everybody. If you order now both the Honokalani Mailei lei with or without the band so that you can get the Honokalani as well, will be shipped within four weeks. And a portion of every sale will be donated to the Maui food bank and a homelessness resource center in Hawaii as well. Go and see for yourself right now at Canalea pen co.com. That's Canalea pen co.com to choose your aloha today. And Canalea also wanted us to send a special thank you to listeners of this show for the wonderful reception for the Honokalani so far and for all of the messages they've received congratulating them on their anniversary. Brad, I have not been able to put this pen down. I'm using it right now. I have fallen in love with it.

'''Brad:''' Here's what I want to say. And this is a general, well, it's not general, it's specific to the Honokalani. So Canalea doesn't make pens. They execute on a vision and they execute on a story and they try to tell that. And I think this pen is one of the best executed in quite some time. And that's saying a lot because they're all generally executed very, very well for what story and vision they're trying to tell. This pen feels like I have the ocean in my hands and just dug my fist through a big, big pile of black sand. It looks like I'm right there. It's really cool. I love this pen. I think it's exceptional. They did a great job with it. I think it's one of the best executed in some time.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. Something I didn't mention on that note. When I first opened this pen, I opened the pen box before I looked at the related materials. And when I took it out, I was like, oh, that's like black rock faces in a blue ocean. And I looked at the image and I was like, yeah, that's completely correct. That's exactly what the image is. So that was quite an interesting experience. So our thanks to Canalea Pen Co. for the support of the show. You should go check out their wonderful pens right now, especially this new one. Let's round out today's episode with some hashtag ask TPA questions. First one comes from Winter Charm from the Relay FM members discord. I currently have a Lamy 2000 extra fine and was wondering if anyone had ink recommendations for it. As my pilot Hiroshizuku Kompeki is finally running low. So it's time for another ink. I want something fancy that stands out a bit, but it's okay to be used in a work environment. So not too colorful. I'm hoping for maybe a gray ink that has some kind of fun splash to it, but also won't jam an extra fine nib. So nothing too shiny, but a tiny bit of sheen is okay. What do you got, Brad?

'''Brad:''' So gray is traditionally a tough ink color to get exactly what you're looking for in an ink, right? So you can get like a good standard gray that's like a good writing ink. And it's like, oh yes, this is gray and it seems fine. Or you can get these grays that have all these weird offshoots and almost like these pastel-y undertones and just some wild, wild stuff. The best thing I can tell you if you're looking for a gray for the Lamy 2000, which is, I think it's a really, really good choice to be honest. Go to Kelly's blog at Mountain of Ink. And I'll put the link directly to the gray ink page. So, and I think there's two inks in here that I've-

'''Myke:''' Can I just pause you for a second and just once again underscore how incredible a resource Mountain of Ink is, the website? It's so good.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. I brag on her every week in refill. Like she does, she's really exceptional. Kelly's just the best.

'''Myke:''' Kelly provides a service to the pen community.

'''Brad:''' Absolutely. Absolutely.

'''Brad:''' So yeah, so she has a gray ink page and you can do this for any color. And there were two that stood out to me and I'm just saying the ones that I've used. You can go and sort through all these reviews. Click on this, on the swab, take you to the review. The Diamond Earl Gray is a darker gray ink, which I think is really, really good for work, right? It may not have this ultra character type of stuff that you want, but it's a good gray, good shading. It's dark. It's going to be dark enough to read at work. The second one is an ink that surprised me when I use it. It's Robert Oster, Australian Opal Gray. It's a little bit lighter than the Diamond Earl Gray, but it has some interesting characteristics to where you get some like purple undertones and some just really interesting looks. So go check those out and get some ideas from there. But those are two that I've used that I would certainly recommend and that would work in the Lamy 2000. I think the Earl Gray might be a better choice just from a readability and an extra fine nib. But if you had a broader nib, the Australian Opal Gray might be a good choice.

'''Myke:''' Let's do another question about the Lamy 2000. It comes from D Green. Hypothetically, this means it's not hypothetical. Hypothetically, if a new to you Lamy 2000 find was quickly becoming a favorite, even though it wrote a little wide, but it took a tumble and then wrote slightly broader and more scratchy. Who would you send it to? To get it writing perfectly again?

'''Brad:''' Number one, I like all these Lamy 2000 questions. Number two, you're in pretty good shape, not because you dropped and broke your pen, theoretically, hypothetically. But if, say, if someone were to do this, that's a decent enough pen and a pen that a lot of people have experience with that you could send it to almost anyone to get it taken care of. So I don't know where D Green lives, but, you know, if you're on the East Coast of the United States, for example, you could send it to Mark Bacchus. If you're on the West Coast, you know, you could send it to Gina at Custom Nib Studio. If you're in Europe, you could get in touch with Applebaum and have Annabelle take a look at it. And so, you know, tell me where you are, email me, and I can give you some specifics. But, like, there's so many people I would recommend for this work because I don't think it would be a massive challenge to get this fixed, especially from what you're saying. This would actually be an easy fix for anyone, I believe.

'''Myke:''' All right, Compasaurus2 asks. It's funny that there is another Compasaurus. Anyway, new to fountain pens, but enjoying them immensely. My pilot Metro seems to be unscrewing itself. Am I doing something wrong? Also, how do you feel about demonstrator pens?

'''Brad:''' So the Metro, the only thing I can think of is the Metro is a snap cap. And if you're uncapping it but putting a twist into it, that could be, like, a telling factor. Otherwise, you shouldn't be doing anything wrong. That threading is strong enough to hold tight while you're writing with it, right? Unless for some reason you have, like, an ultra, you know, pressure handwriting that could cause some type of tension there. But I really, really doubt that's the issue. I bet it's some form of twisting when uncapping. Because I think, am I, now I'm second-guessing myself. Do those actually have a snap cap? I think they do. So that would be my guess. Otherwise, you're probably doing something wrong. Because that should not be happening.

'''Myke:''' It's the way you're storing it, right? Like, there's something going on with the way that it's being stored.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, like, if you put it in a, like, in an active, if it's actively moved, like, in a pants pocket, right? Where you clip it and it's always going to be slightly moving. Then, yeah, it might get a little bit loose. So how do you feel about demonstrator pins? Give me all the demonstrator pins. I'm 100% in demonstrators. I understand why people don't like them. I'm on the opposite end of the ledger. I could have every pin be a demonstrator, just about. I love them.

'''Myke:''' All right. Next question comes from Side Rose, who asks, if you were to pick, this one was pretty much for me, but if you were to pick a specific ink to sponsor a Formula One team, who would you pick? I'll first go with Monteverdi, California Teal for Aston Martin. I was, at first, frustrated to see a California ink sponsoring Aston Martin, who is very much a British team. But then when I looked at the ink itself, it's kind of a green of a pink sheen, which is, that's exactly Aston Martin's colorway this year. I have two answers. I was thinking about this for, I think, too long this morning, as I was preparing for the show. So, one is kind of a joke. Actually, I have three. One is kind of a joke. This is probably one for F1 fans, which is, considering Ferraris seem to love bright green so much, I'll give them some Ackerman 28, because clearly they love bright green now. This is a joke, which is dead for Brad, but it's very… Yeah, I got nothing. But F1 fans will get it. Fire on Fire for McLaren. McLaren's papaya orange, they call it, but I think a good orange ink they need. And I would go with Sailor Ink Studio 223 for Mercedes, because it is a really nice gray ink, which has got some, like, purple-green in it, which would look particularly good on Lewis Hamilton's car, because they are a gray and black. The livery of the car is gray and black. Mostly black now, but it's got some gray, and it used to be more silvery gray than recently. They changed it for a good reason over the last couple of years. But Lewis wears… He has a lot of purple in his helmet, because he's sponsored by Monster, I think, is the reason for that. And so, that would work very well for him. So, now my three.

'''Brad:''' I love… That was my favorite one, because I went and looked at that ink, and, like, I went and looked at the car. So, you're right. Like, I know F1 from, like, a headline perspective, right? Like, I recognize, like, three of the driver's names and, you know, some of the teams. So, I went and looked at the F1 team colors. Like, they have, like, all the cars, like, on a page.

'''Myke:''' So, if you look on that website that you've put in the notes, right? So, you've got all the colors. They've got all the cars here. You see Ferrari. Yeah. It's number four on this list. It's all red, right? Click. Yeah. Click it. And take a look at the actual picture.

'''Myke:''' And they've got that big green M. So, there's a couple of things about this. Oh, wow. Right. Here's some controversial stuff for this. So, one…

'''Brad:''' And it's got an arrow in it.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. Well, one, you'll notice that it's not in the actual official coloring, because they can only have this in certain places. Because this is a company called, or an organization called Mission Win Now, which is one of the worst logos ever created in all of human history, because it just looks like Mission Win Now. It's so bad. Like, their actual written out logo. And Mission Win Now is a collaboration effort between Ferrari and Philip Morris, the tobacco company. Now, tobacco companies used to be the big sponsors for Formula One. Sure. Right? But when tobacco… Then tobacco got outlawed for advertising. Right? You can't advertise tobacco anymore. So, that was a big loss, actually, for Formula One. So, Philip Morris and Ferrari created this company, which is really nebulous of, like, fostering innovations for the future. But they don't really seem to do anything. Like, I can't… But so, they've created this thing together, and for some reason, an incredibly unknown reason, they decided that they were going to make the Mission Win Now coloring on the Ferrari this year bright green, which is horrific. Yeah. But also, it's not on the, like, official livery of the car. I think, one, because it's so ugly, like on all the imagery. But two, they actually cannot have this logo in every part of the world. There are some parts of the world where they take it off.

'''Myke:''' Terrible. That is terrible. Ruined the Ferrari car this year.

'''Brad:''' I mean, if you're going to make it that bad, at least, like, at least make it Italian green. Right? Like, make it the Italian flag green or something. Yeah. Yeah, actually, they could have gone away with that. It's just a bad logo and a bad location and a bad color. Right? Yeah. It's just a bad design decision. So, I looked at this. I looked at the main page, right? The 1 through 10 team list. I couldn't really think of any inks, but I thought of two pin things right off hand. One, the McLaren that you did the Fire on Fire ink. Like, just the main page image looks exactly like the roadie Bondi to me, which is a blue and orange pin. And that's, like, all I see when I look at that car. And second, if a pin company were to sponsor, like, to be the headline sponsor, not just, like, a side sponsor, of any team or any car, this Alfa Tari car, the way they have their logo looks like it could be something from Mont Blanc. Like, I could see a Mont Blanc logo being, you know, swapped out for Alfa Tari's main logo here on that car that looks like a Mont Blanc car to me. So, that's my takeaways from this. But I wish I, F1's one of those things that, like, I might slow roll into in a few years like I did soccer. Let me tell you. But I can only do so many things at a time.

'''Myke:''' I mean, if you're intrigued, watch Drive to Survive, the documentary on Netflix. Because that's what's getting so many people like us hooked on the sport now.

'''Brad:''' Exactly. Exactly. So, no, that's all I've heard. And I just haven't had time to do it. And, like, I'm super tempted. Just like I was super tempted by soccer and fell in head over heels. I know I would get that way with the way F1 works and operates, too. So, yeah, be cool.

'''Myke:''' And then let's bring this right back around to the beginning of the episode. All right. Given Sailor's recent price increases to the small and medium-sized pens, does that change their order in your top five 100 to 200 and 200-plus categories?

'''Brad:''' Absolutely. So, I haven't looked at these lists in a little bit. And they are ripe for disruption now. And that was the thing always with these lists is there wasn't a lot of change in this list because there wasn't a lot of movement or there was nothing new that necessarily came and took out these spots. So, you know, looking at the top five fountain pens from 100 to 200, it's the Platinum 30. This is what I had them ranked one through five. So, I had the Platinum 3776, the Sailor 1911 Standard, which is the small one, the Pilot Vanishing Point, the Lamy 2000, and the Pelican M205. So, this is a wide range. And there's a lot of options from 100 to 200. That's almost too big of a range. Sailor 1911 and Standard would be out completely because they're not in that price point anymore. Yeah, I think Platinum 3776 is still the best, probably in that range. But they're one price increase away from being over $200, right? Like, they're up to $180 something now, $188 maybe, where before they were in like $160s, something like that. So, you know, and...

'''Myke:''' I think my question to you is do you revise the entrance in the categories or do you revise the category amounts?

'''Brad:''' I think it's both. Like, I wouldn't revise the amounts to forcibly fit groups, right? I would revise the amounts because that's what the market says is a popular range now. Yep. Right? So, like, I think this range should probably...

'''Myke:''' If all the pens that were $200 are now $220, then... Right. You know what? Like, the market's changed.

'''Brad:''' Right. So, this range should almost be $150 to $300. Because sub $150, the only one in this list is the M205 now. Every other one has increased in price. Some all the way over $200. The others on their way, right? So, I think this is actually a bracket change. Um, and even then, like, the Sailor 1911 standard would not be on that list. Um, you gotta include things like the Leonardo Memento Zero. You know? Things like that. And then you probably still keep, like, the Vanishing Point and the Lamy 2000. Just because of what this list is trying to say. Um, you know, it's not a personal preference list. It's what, like, I would recommend in this list to people, you know, starting out in this hobby. And then that shifts the $200 to $500 price range as well, right? Like, the... Like, is that the proper... I've never liked that price range anyway. Because there's so much variance in there. And you're paying for different things. Because in that wide of a range of price, it's, like, the Pilot Custom 823 and everything else, to be perfectly honest. Right. In that price range. Which, that would still be the same. But, like, would I add something like the Montegrappa Mia or the Montegrappa in there? And the answer is yes. One of those would get added in that list. Because I think that's just a good recommendation pin to just jump straight into, you know, a pin at that price point that would give you a good experience, right? That's what I'm trying to solve. That's the question I'm trying to answer with these lists. It's, like, okay, I'm going into this price point. What's gonna... Where am I gonna get my money's worth and have that level of experience? And, you know, I think some of this stuff needs to be switched around.

'''Brad:''' And Sailor would probably make the second list. But I don't know if it would be... It might crack the end of it. You know, because I think you're starting to have a different value proposition for a $400 Sailor Pro gear than a, you know, $300 Sailor Pro gear. So, you know, it's something to think about and something I should explore. I need to explore a little bit more because I think it's time that these lists got shook up a little bit. Those two lists in particular.

'''Myke:''' All right. If you would like to send in a question for a future episode of the show, just send out a tweet with the hashtag AskTPA. Or you can use question mark AskTPA in the RelayFM members Discord. If you become a RelayFM member, go to Relay.fm membership or click the link in the show notes. You can sign up. You will get access to the Discord. Plus our wonderful specials, including me and Brad trying to build a Lego set for three and a half hours where I have the instructions and he has the pieces. It's a lot more fun than it sounds. Maybe you want to build along with us. Maybe you just want us on in the background and have that wonderful sense of joy and mild frustration for a few hours in your life. It's a big fun time. You can find our links for this episode at Relay.fm slash PenAddict slash 461. You can find Brad online at PenAddict.com. He is at Dowdeers. I'm on Twitter and at PenAddict on Instagram. Brad streams live on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. Eastern time over at Twitch.tv slash PenAddict. I'm at iMike, I-M-Y-K-E on Twitter and Instagram. I stream live every Friday over at Myke.Live where I build custom mechanical keyboards. You can go and follow me there as well. We'll be back next time. Thank you again to Canaleya, Penco, Uni, and Squarespace for their support of this episode. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

'''Brad:''' Goodbye, Brad.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]