Editing The Pen Addict 494/transcript (section)

== Unboxing Segment Introduction ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's the last thing I need is another domain that I'm not using.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, when you eventually decide to create a new one, which is literally only a matter of time, go to Squarespace because they are the all-in-one platform to build your online presence and run your business. Squarespace really have everything from tools to make websites and online stores to managing them with marketing tools and analytics. They've got the whole kit and caboodle. You are covered with Squarespace. You can combine cutting edge design with world-class engineering. That's what they do. Right. So you get all of that. So basically with Squarespace, you will get yourself free unlimited hosting, top of the line security, award-winning 24 seven customer support, domain name registration options, SEO and email marketing tools, beautiful templates that are instantly customizable with just drag and drop tools and clicks. So you can customize the look, feel settings, the products you have on sale and more in seconds and everything is optimized for mobile. And they have great iOS apps where you can look at all of the stuff behind the scenes, but also make edits to the site. They really are amazing. Squarespace will let you turn your big idea into a new website. Whether you want to promote your business, publish a blog post, create a portfolio, announce an upcoming event and so much more Squarespace are the place. Me and Brad have been using Squarespace for over a decade now because it's so easy. I know when I have an idea, when I want to put something online, when I want the world to see something, I could just spin up Squarespace website. I can get it done super quickly and get it out to the world. One of the things I love is something you will benefit from is their free trial. If you go to squarespace.com slash penaddict, you can sign up for a trial. You don't need to give them your credit card information and you can build your whole website and make sure that it feels right for you. Then when you're ready to launch, use the offer code penaddict when you sign up for a plan and you will save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash penaddict. And when you sign up, use the offer code penaddict to get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of the penaddict and RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Can I give Squarespace a shout out for their support as well? They do a good job. Like, you know, not everything goes perfectly all the time. And sometimes you have like little foibles you need to figure out. And I had a comments issue crop up all of a sudden. And I don't know why. And where people couldn't leave comments. So I had people test. I collected that information, put it in an email to Squarespace. Squarespace. They looked at it and they didn't just give me the stock. Like, hey, have you turned it on and off again? They looked at my information, said, do this. And I did that and it fixed it. And then our ticket was closed. Like, that was it. That was our communication. It wasn't like, okay, I've tried all these things and that didn't work. What's the tier two thing? Like, they took my info. So they said, press this button, do this, and tell us if it worked. And I'll be like, yep, that worked. Thank you. The end. Like, it doesn't get any better than that. So I appreciate their support is generally helpful like that. So it's really cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. All right. New segment on the show. Mm-hmm. Myke unboxes things. Yeah. And I am very anxious to see what's about to happen here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We don't really do this very much, which is kind of surprising, really. But I think it's just because we're both just too excited when new stuff comes in. But I had something arrive today. I thought I would keep it for the show. I believe it's my drill log.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I haven't opened the box yet.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Watch it not be. That would be great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, it's some socks. So I got my knife here. By the way, I love my James Brand knife.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a good. They do good stuff.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do you remember that? I bought it a really long time ago.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I lost my little bitty one, my little pen knife that they make. Right. It's about an inch long. And I've lost that because I love it so much and would carry it around.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I actually also, by the way, so I own the, what's the name of the one that I own?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, man. I'm looking on their website now, but now I can't find it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, now they have more. When we were buying them, it was like one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Knives, product knives. Now they had a bunch when I bought mine, but now they do have way more. It's the, not the Carter. It looks like it, but it's not the Carter. The Folsom?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Folsom is the original.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So that's what I have. I have it in the green, but I just bought the Draplin orange and black one. Oh, nice. Yeah. I couldn't not buy it. Because I have a few of them and it's so cool. And Stephen has, because he's done two of them. The Elko, which I think is the one that you have. Mm-hmm. And he's also done one of the Folsom ones. And Stephen bought both of them, I think. And they look really good. Yep. And I have the Folsom one at home. I'm at home today. But I wanted one for the studio. And so now I've ordered one of the DDC ones.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Perfect. So good. Now you're going to make me go look after the show.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, they're really great. They're really, really great. Yep. So. Highly recommended.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's now an EDC show. I guess so. Although this drill log, if this is actually a drill log in the box, that could be a weapon.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I'll find out. I have no idea. All right. You ready? Let's do this thing. Let's do this. All right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do you hear this? Probably not. Yeah, barely. This is like some serious tape.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Then it must be because I made the same comment when I opened mine.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's like structured.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's like band-aid tape. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Where it's like got cross fibers, but it's soft like a band-aid. So this is totally the drill log.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's really. I was really impressed with the tape too. I did a whole Twitch stream where I was just messing with the tape.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. So I've got some foam. Oh my God. There's so many boxes. Yes, it is the drill log.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. You must have bought a lot of pieces, parts.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think I did.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think you bought like the kitten caboodle type of thing where I already had a bunch of the stuff.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Let me check. Yeah. It's just some paper. Okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Very nearly stabbed myself. Good. That's fine. All right. I've got some paperwork here. One is a little thank you card. One is how to maintain my drill log.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm not going to read that. Who maintains pens? Am I right? Not me. I mean, they sent that to the wrong person.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I've got a writing paper block and it says present for you on it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. I have that right here on my desk.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Thank you. And then I've got three little boxes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Should we start with the little boxes?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Yes. I know what one of them is. I don't know what the second one is. You must have ordered something extra.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We'll find out. All right. One is...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. That's one nib.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Oh, did you get two nibs?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I have the double-sided pen, so...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, well, there you go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I thought two nibs would be important.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, there you go. Yeah. Makes sense.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So then I got the other nib.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So you have a 0.5 and a 0.8 nib. I believe I... Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I believe I went with the two sizes. Mm-hmm. That was what I wanted. But again, this was a complicated thing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I'm going to stop right here and say that I still can't believe you back this. Because this wouldn't have been a topic... I mean, a product that I would have picked for you. I got my color puddle. Oh, it's also cool. That's what I was wondering if you got here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The color puddle is a lot smaller than I was expecting the color puddle to be. Yes. But this is a serious piece of metal they've got here. This is one of those things which is way heavier than it should be.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So it's about... For those playing at home, it's about the size of a roll of washi tape. But weighs... I don't know. It weighs a lot. As much as like a roll of pennies.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, and it comes with a little pipette thing so I can...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Has it got the weight?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So a color puddle is like a... It's like a little ink holder to where you can have like six different colors of ink in a little container on your desk and where you can dip in and out of the different colors.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah. All right. So that's that. It comes with a little thing so I can refill it. I guess.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm not going to try the color puddle. Like a little ink palette. Like an ink palette. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And now I guess this one's going to be the pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, it's in a box in a box.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, Brad, it looks good. I got the black with the kind of orangey grip section.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yeah, I would say that's orange, not red. It's nice. Like, it's very nice.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I got the one that's like twisty.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They have all the names, but it's complicated. Sorry.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But just the center is twisty.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I guess I can just put these on somehow. Mm-hmm. Oh, are these caps? Wait.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So you'll unscrew. It is a capped pen, right? So the nibs do have caps over them. So you'll unscrew both black ends.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And then you'll dual-wheel lightsaber it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And can I screw one? Yeah, I can screw one cap onto the other. Nice. Yep. Nice. I will say, again, I've forgotten a lot about this product, honestly. Mm-hmm. I'm surprised it's capped because it's not like it's going to dry out.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, but it also protects the tip. Like this was the best design. Right. This was the best designed non-standard. I'm going to call it a handle.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't remember if you said this. You probably already did. But like my brain wants to put my fingers on the place where I should not be putting my fingers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Big time. Like that's the only part I want to touch.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's an inch. It's more than an inch probably counting the threading of the nib. It's a long nib.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. I can immediately see a problem with this. Okay. It is both too small and too big.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So if I don't cap the, if I don't post the cap, it's too small. Yes. Where I have to hold it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' If I post the cap, too big. You will get used to the too big. Okay. Because it's not heavy. No, it's not.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The balance is good.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So that one works the best when it is posted. Like I said, this design that you got is my favorite design. Yeah. From a functionality perspective.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think that was why I ended up going with it. Like we were talking through all of the different ones. And this made sense to me. Because I remember I wasn't going to back it. Because they didn't have this at first. And then they added it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And I got to test all of the shapes and the barrel shapes. Except for the elongated straight barrel. Which they didn't make until after the campaign started. Which I ended up getting. I got the elongated one. Because that's the only one I didn't have. But the one that you have is my preferred barrel. Okay. Especially for dual wielding.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm opening the writing paper block now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. This is just a pad of paper. Why did they include this, do you think?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It was some add-on. Like I didn't even realize it was coming in the box. And when I was opening it, the chat was telling me that this was like some kind of like bonus thing. That value add. Yeah. Whatever.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like thank you. We made more money than expected. Yeah. Exactly.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It was one of. What do they call those on Kickstarter? Stretch goal. Yeah. But it wasn't a stretch goal. Because I don't think they told anyone.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean. Because it wasn't a thing. I don't think. Like if we make this much money. Right. Right. This is the kind of stuff you can do when like you overperform to the point that you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You've made some extra money in your margins. Yeah. So you can put some money back in.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Thank you. It's a nice block of paper I'll keep on my desk. I haven't tested it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Pretty thick paper.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's nice. It's like 150 sheets. It's a. Yeah. It's a chunky block. It's a brick.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's no joke. So what? Should I go get some ink now then?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think you should. And then we're going to have a conversation. So you go do that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What kind of ink shall I get? Is there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Do you have a recommendation for me? That's a great question, Myke. I don't. So we're going to have a problem. So grab at least two different brands, if not three. All right. So we want to look at brand. And or style. Will I go get some ink? Grab. Okay. You have a shimmer ink, right? Surely I do. Yeah. Yeah. If not. Grab a normal ink and a weird ink. At least.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Cool. BRB.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So Myke's going to BRB. And here we're going to find out the biggest challenge that all of us drill log owners have is finding an ink that works. So we're going to circle back on this in a future podcast. I told Myke beforehand that I am going to have to work on a list of compatible inks because I'm already getting emails. And I know Jacob went through this in the beginning. Like there are ink consistencies that work well with the drill log and that do not work at all with the drill log. So there's going to be, we're going to have to make a master list of some kind for drill log users of drill log friendly inks. So we're going to have to work on that as a group. So I remember one of the first inks I grabbed might've been Shinkai and it would not attach to the nib to get a good ink flow. But then I've had other inks that just grab on and just, you can write, you know, a half a page or so with it. So we're going to work on that. So we'll, we'll have a, we will eventually get to a drill log master list. So is Myke back yet? Did he find any inks? He has not. So he only has a few inks. I don't know if y'all remember last week or two weeks ago, Myke has like three inks. So this is going to be a struggle for him. Although he could probably carry them in one hand where me, I would have to relocate into the closet of doom and grab one of the 200 plus inks that I have. So we're going to test brands and subsets of brands and figure out what works the best. I'm most excited to try and I haven't yet. I'm back.

'''Myke Hurley:''' My home office is a disaster right now. So that took a little bit longer than I expected.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So let me finish the one statement I was going to make just so there's a continuity there. I was telling the listeners, the thing I'm most excited to try for myself is my iron gall ink collection. So I'll be looking forward to testing those. So my explanation, Myke, is this is going to be a challenge. We're going to have to make a master list of some kind of what inks work and what inks don't because there's going to be some complete rejection of inks on this tip. They're just not going to flow right on the nib and then you're going to find something that's going to be perfect. Do you also have a way to clean the nib like a glass of water or something?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I brought a microfiber cloth. Is that not going to do the deal? Am I going to need water?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Probably want a little bit of water because they stay in the grooves. The ink stays in the grooves. So you're just going to want to swirl it around.

'''Myke Hurley:''' BRB times two. All right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So as Myke BRBs, I have the long barrel with yellow green anodized drill log. I have not tested this yet because I'm going to sit down with a bunch of inks and try to determine what's the best brand. I think Jacob referred to the surface tension of the ink and I don't know how to measure those types of things. That the ink that you dip it into has to have a good surface tension to actually attach to the metal and allow it to flow down the drill log, the little grooves in the drill log to the page. So we're going to have to figure that out. Not all inks are going to be good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Myke. Okay. Well, I've returned with some ink. All right. Should I start with the 0.8 or the 0.5?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' 0.8.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And what ink?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do you want to know the inks I brought?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I do.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've got three. I've got Mont Blanc Lucky Orange. I got Emerald of Chivor. The Gioban Emerald of Chivor. Is it Emerald of Chivor? Did I pick up the right one? Yeah. And Carla Inks Foxy Neon.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Do you remember those? Let's start. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do Lucky Orange in order. Lucky Orange, Carla, J. Herbal.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that would be, if I'm guessing, that's going to be in the order of performance that I would think, but I have proven myself very wrong in my ink testing that something I think is going to be good is not.

'''Myke Hurley:''' How submerged does it need to be?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All the way. All the way? Up to the, yeah, get up to the top of the grooves because what you'll find is the ink starts working its way down the grooves. You will actually, as you write with it, you will visually be able to see some of the the grooves. Chad is asking me to stream it when I do my ink test and I will.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What do I do about the ink that collects at the bottom?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Just kind of tip it on the edge of the bottle, right? Yeah. Just kind of, you know, you don't necessarily need to wipe it off, but you want to get the bulk of it to run off.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, my God. This feels amazing. This is beautiful. This is weird. Right? It's very weird. Because the ink flows inconsistently in a way I am not used to.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And you'll get, you will learn as you're writing with it that you can rotate it. I just did that, Brad. In the clockwise way.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Because I had, I was, the ink wasn't flowing, so I rotated the nib.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So gravity will help the flow down those channels, right? There's channels in here and a little twist actually makes a difference. So what you'll eventually find is you'll want to find the ink that will allow you to write several lines in one dip.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, I've had inks. I'm writing way more than I expected. There is, this is performing vastly better. So it started out really inconsistent. Sure. Like, the flow was weird, right? And it was almost like there was water on the nib.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because the ink was also spreading on the page. Right. Because it was too much. But now I am writing really consistently and it looks like a regular nib. And I'll say the feeling, I've got a panel book today in front of me. The feeling of the nib on the page, I'm using the 0.8, right? It's very smooth. And yeah. Like, if I had this in a fountain pen, I'd be very happy with the way this feels.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Good. So now you need to remember.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Does not work with the nib flat down on the page. Like, easily. Like, I have to have some kind of slant on it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. So like, the ink has to travel down the grooves and then down those notches and then into like the cone grooves, the lines. So there's actually a flow to this ink, right? That's why you see the glass nibs have that swirl on them, right? They hold ink and then the ink also travels down as it's getting pulled by the page.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I would say on a panel book, I reckon I could fill half a page.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Then, so what we would now want to know is Lucky Orange is a keeper. So like, that goes on the good list.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Because it's flowing pretty well, pretty consistently. I kind of just run out. So I kind of, I divide the pages into three when I write and I've filled up a third of the page, like of a vertical. So I reckon I could maybe do, let's say like a third of the page, not half because it's run out now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And based on my experience, I'd say that's a reasonable output. And then you just dip it again and you keep going.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I'll say my initial impression from using the ink is it performs way better than I expected. And I, I've thought I would need to be refilling way more than that. All right. So I've rinsed it off now, dried it off. Dry it off. Yep. My only concern for me personally would be having an ink bottle open all the time.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, for you, yes. Because I would be worried about that for you as well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. But surely that's got to be a thing for a lot of people. Ink is not a thing you want to spill. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But when I'm using this, I'm going to be dedicated. Right. True. True.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like I never spill over my drinks.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Like I'm going to take 30 minutes to do this thing with this nib and this ink bottle open and then close it up. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I guess if I was going to be doing this as a thing, I would end up knowing where the ink bottle goes. Like the ink bottle has its place.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. And you're going to want, like, if you're really writing and you're not thinking about it as much, you just want to pick, like, once you found a good ink, make sure it's like in a good bottle. Like, to be honest, as much as I love Robert Oster, you're going to tip one of those over if you're not paying attention. Oh, I would never do that. Because they're too light. Like, yeah. Where, like, the Mont Blanc Lucky Orange is a small 30 milliliter glass bottle. It's short and stubby. Right. It's not going anywhere.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, I hate refilling from Robert Oster bottles. I'm terrified of them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Because it's like, I've done it. They take two hands. It takes, like, three hands, honestly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've done it many times where I've caught one. You know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. So I've mixed up the Emerald of Shavuor.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And sticking with the 0.8?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think, let's do all 0.8s.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because, so we have a baseline.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' My expectation is, I didn't think Lucky Orange was going to be that good. My expectation is that the Emerald of Shavuor should be very good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Brad, I got a problem. What? I can't submerge it because the opening is too short on the bottle. It's too narrow. I can't get the thing in.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The grip of the dual wield is wide. Okay. Well, if you can't tip it or anything, then we can fire that one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Can I screw this into the cap?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I don't think I'm going to be able to use Emerald of Shavuor.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. That's fine.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The opening isn't, it's not enough. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So like my, the shape of my pen is more traditional, but yours has almost like a wider grip section.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I mean.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I will, I can test that one. I will, I will get Emerald of Shavuor for my testing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've been able to dip just the very end. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Kate's saying you could use the puddle, but let me tell you about the puddle. That's a whole other ammo. I did not enjoy the puddle.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because the puddle only allows for you to dip the very tip of it in, which I've done, but that kind of defeats the purpose of the pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. It depends. So the puddle is for like real, like legit, like artistic type of writing where you're mixing a lot of inks and just going back and forth just on the tip of the drill log where the tip is just going in and out and switching inks. And it'd be a very colorful, useful thing for anything but writing because you're not going to get the writing. And Kate, you'll see it when we show pictures of the puddle. It doesn't even, it barely gets past, barely gets like halfway up the cone. So it's really like a dip and write and dip and write and dip and write.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've been able to get this to work to the point where I've been able to get ink on the very, like about all the way up to the top of the cone part. So I'm writing of Emerald Chavor right now and it's performing just as well as the Mont Blanc. But I don't see any shimmer in it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's fine. You might when it dries. It's also a thin line, right? Thin lines meter how much shimmer you're going to see.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And that's run out now. I would say I got like a quarter of the amount of ink down on the page as I did when I could submerge it fully. Okay. So I'll tell you right now, using that puddle, that would drive me mad. Yeah. For me, I just thought it'd look nice and would be a nice desk trinket. It is. Especially considering the weight of it. That makes it like, I'm actually pleased I bought it for that reason.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, it's really cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's like it feels like a good fidget toy, but it's not fit for purpose.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's not for writing. It's for art, in my opinion.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Which I think is the point, because what it reminds me of is the, I don't remember what it's called, but the art is like the wooden thing that you put your thumb in. A palette.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Palette. Well, yeah. But yeah, I know what you mean.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's what it reminds me of. All right. So that was Emerald of Chavuil. So the last thing that we're going to try is one of the Kala Neon inks. I have the pink.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So this is a pigmented ink, which is different than your Lucky Orange, which is standard water-based dye-based ink.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Honestly, like one of the reasons I wanted this Drillog pen is for inks like this. The type of ink that you do not want to leave in a pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. And that's what I was saying, like my Iron Gall inks. I want to test them because I'm anxious. Because I would like to have a bottle on my desk of Iron Gall ink capped when I'm not using it, but to uncap it and just use my Drillog when I want, that will be really, really exciting for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. It's laying down very thick immediately.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It does take a minute to kind of get its correct line width, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. But like the ink is like raised off the page. That's a lot. Yeah. But it, oh man, this is fantastic. This is great.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So you're having good, once you get past the initial bulk of the ink, which it's unavoidable, right? Like it's going to be heavy in the beginning. You want a consistent writing for several lines and that's how you know it's going to be probably.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So I'll say with this ink, it has settled in, but it is still a little bit more than the Mont Blanc, like just the amount of ink that comes onto the page. Right. But this is allowing me to use an ink I otherwise couldn't use. And I really like these neon inks. I'm going to tell you, Brad, I'm into this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. I'm shocked. So what you're going to have to do is you're going to have to figure out what works the best. Like you were going to come across an ink. You're going to dip the nib in there all the way up to the top. You're going to put it on the page and it's going to write half a word. And you just got to go, you know what? That ink is not going to work with this nib and just set it to the side until you find one that does. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What inks did you find that were like that?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I need to get them back out. I haven't tested in a couple of weeks. I haven't tested since I got my new pen model in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So here's something I've noticed with the neon. Right. So it's used. It's gone about the same distance as Mont Blanc. However, the tip is still really pink. Like there's still ink on this, but it's not flowing down.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. So that's the pigmentation. Yeah. Right. So every different ink chemistry is going to handle this nib differently.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Big success for me. Good. I really like this thing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think it's going to be fun for you to do like some short notes and writing with. Once I find, once I do some ink testing, I'm going to try to write in my book copying that I failed at in November, but I'm still working on. Yeah. I'm going to see like what it's like to write like several pages with a same ink and kind of get some good testing. But I got to test inks first.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What a super cool looking thing this is too. It's cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's cool. It's not for everybody, but it's cool. It's cool. It's like this, this reminds me of when the pen type A and B came out. Right. Like it is really not for everybody. Like not everybody should go buy this thing, but the people who are into this kind of stuff will probably like overly like it. Right. You have to be really, really like it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Quite committed to pens and inks before you even start this process. Like, you know, like for me, if there were inks that, like if I didn't have inks I couldn't use, I wouldn't want this. Because this is not a better experience than my best fountain pens. Right. No, no, no, no. It's different. But it's because I have a selection of inks that I'm not comfortable putting in my pens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I want to use them. So not an ease of use product. Right. This is a difficult to use product.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, I mean, you've got to have water around. You've got to have a cleaning cloth. You've got to have all this stuff, right? Like just around, which you otherwise don't typically need.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. This is cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Good. I'm glad you like it. So there'll be more experimentation. I will come up with a good list and we'll try to get other people who have drill logs to come up with a good list of, hey, this line of inks works the best. So there's some work to do on that front because I know there's some frustrations out there right now.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I want to try it. I'm going to use the puddle too, though.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You should try the puddle. And you will immediately see the challenge that you have with it. I tested it and I gave up really quick just because I didn't see a way out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because the thing is, right, like if I just committed to one ink, I wouldn't need to clean it off every time. Right. Right. Like because you would just be like, all right, I'm done for the day. I'm out of ink now. I'll put it away. And then tomorrow I'll dip it back in the ink again and I'm good. Yep. But if I use the puddle and wanted to change, I'd have to also keep cleaning materials consistently around too. Because if I'm using like a black ink and a red ink, as soon as I dip the nib in into the red, it's going to turn the ink black. Because it's still going to be a little bit left on the... Yeah. Right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. The puddle is not for the way you and I use pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But like Nick Stewart, who like I follow religiously and manipulates inks, like he's going to be all, like he would be all over that, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, also like if you...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Or Anna would like just manipulate stuff.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, somebody who has a creative journal experience, right? Mm-hmm. So like I'm thinking of like Bujo, right? Yeah. You're sitting down and you're spending your time. But you could have one pen and six inks and you just got to have a little vial of water or whatever. And you can do all of your colors and all of your layout with just the one pen. And you've got this little thing here. That's cool. So, yeah. Yeah. I'm... I would tell you, I was, you know, like listening back to the show, trepidatious about this. I wasn't sure if this was for me. I think this product is for me. I like it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Good. Good. Well, I hope so. I hope you continue to experiment with it. I know I am. I'm really just getting started.