Editing The Pen Addict 516/transcript (section)

== Exploring Different Brands and Nibs ==


'''Brad:''' I think it's a great question. And this is, like, the always important question, right? Like, this question comes up a lot because we get a lot of people just starting on this journey. And there's so much to learn and there's so many things out there. And honestly, a lot of this stuff is really expensive, you know. Like, for someone just getting into this, a $25 pen is insanely expensive. Like, that's a big decision to make. So, I'm just, it's hard to say to, like, try a bunch of different things. But I really think that's important in the beginning.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, because you could buy, like, four or five of these lower level pens of all different shapes and sizes instead of getting the Lamy 2000. Yep. And I reckon you'd have more fun. Yeah.

'''Brad:''' Who knows? Who knows? So, it's a great question and something we will continue to explore.

'''Myke:''' Yep. Thank you so much for that. No, Brian, I'm sorry it took us so long. It was a very good email.

'''Brad:''' I think that was the most aged of the STPAs. STPAs. Sorry, Brian.

'''Myke:''' Brian's already got his first Nakaya, you know.

'''Brad:''' Brian's on episode 265 now.

'''Myke:''' Brian, if and when you ever hear this, please let us know what you ended up going with. I'd be very keen to know. Yep.

'''Myke:''' I'd tell you a place where you can buy some of those pens, Brian. Ooh, let me hear it. Penshela. Because they have your favorite brands. They have the products you're looking for. Whether you want a rollerball or a fountain pen or a ballpoint mechanical pencil. Pens of all sizes, all shapes, all prices, all brands. It's all over at Penshalay. And they're always doing great deals. Twice a month, you'll find closeout specials. You're going to find discounts. You're going to find new products being added all the time. Whatever they can get their hands on, they're going to put it online and then they give it to you for a great price. Penshalay do great prices on the products you're looking for. They have really great, reliable customer service. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the US. They also sell internationally as well. I bought a bunch of things from Penshalay myself. They also have limited edition products and they have accessories too. Carrying cases, pen holders, refills, converters, ink cartridges, ink bottles, so much more. So as a pen addict listener, not only will you get low prices on high quality pens, not only will you get a 100% satisfaction guarantee, you will also get 10% off anything over at Penshalay. If you go to penshalay.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict, you will be able to get your code to save 10% on anything at any time. And you will also get to feast your eyes on some special deals. Now, every once in a while, me and Ryan have a conversation. And he's like, got some good stuff on there, but you can't talk about it. And this is one of those times. So if you want to see some deals that are so good, we can't even tell you about them, go to penshalay.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website, enter the password penaddict, and you will get to feast your grubby mitts on these special offers and get the 10% off code that you need to save anytime over at Penshalay. Our thanks to Penshalay for their continued support of this show and RelayFM.

'''Brad:''' All right, this next question is kind of a follow-up and a continuation of what we just went through. So let's go forward. Do you want me to read this one? Do you need a break from the reading?

'''Myke:''' No, man, I got you because you're good at all the answers, you know. So I get to say some stuff and you get to answer and then I get to say some other stuff. If you read the questions and give the answers, I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs and like spinning my fidget spinner, you know what I mean? What am I going to do?

'''Myke:''' This comes from Andreas. I have a few pen brands that I am really intrigued about that I have yet to try. So far, I have Lamy, my first love, Twisby, and Pilot. Brands I would like to try include Sailor, Pelican, and Platinum. My question is, what is the true entry level of each brand to get a taste of what I can expect from the higher level offerings? I don't want to shell out $300 on a brand I have not tried. For example, I see the Sailor Compass at $30 with only one nib, and I wonder if that pen would give me a true sense of what the brand offers and maybe explain the love fest you two have for them. So for these pen brands and others, if you care to, what are the true entry level offerings? So we mentioned some of these a moment ago, right? So like with Twisby would be the go, with Platinum is the preppy, Lamy is the safari. What's Pilot? Metropolitan?

'''Brad:''' I'm going to change it up a little bit from what you're saying a little bit. Pilot is probably the Metropolitan and then maybe the Pereira, but they're different feels but use the same nib.

'''Myke:''' I prefer the Pereira.

'''Brad:''' So you're kind of getting a nib idea with the Pilot. So with Pilot, like that's what I'm looking at, either the Pereira or the Metropolitan to give you a nib, you know, kind of idea, at least from line width. Now you got to have to understand that these steel nibs and gold nibs that make up a lot of the price difference between these pens, there's a different feel, right? There's different firmness, you know, there's different softness, there's different smoothness. So it's a little bit tough to say apples to apples that this Pilot pen is going to compare to the next Pilot pen, you know, when the gold, when you're considering a gold nib in there. But I think the, for Pilot, I think the Metropolitan and the Pereira is a good example. For Platinum, I think I would actually step up the preppy and to get a more overall feel in the barrel from like the Prefonte or something like that, or the Procyon, whichever one is like the $20 Platinum, that's the one I'd be looking at. It's a little bit upgraded barrel. And I don't know, it's, it's, the nib is the same as the preppy. So you could just go with the preppy, but I don't know. I just like the feel of, of that kind of $20 Platinum pen range. For Pelican, I honestly think it's more like the, the, the 205 series, like the M205, which is over $100. That being an entry-level Pelican, because your next, most Pelicans that people buy and use are gold nib Pelicans. So getting the same kind of mechanics in the barrel, like from the piston in the same shape barrel as the 405 series Pelicans. I think the 205 is a great, it's a very expensive entry-level pen, but I think it's such a high quality entry-level pen. Like that's what you're looking for at Pelican. You're not looking at some of the really like $20 or $30 Pelicans. Sailor is the hardest one because I think this, I don't like the Sailor Compass. I don't think it's representative of gold nib Sailors, which is really kind of the entry point for Sailors. They, Sailors tried. Sailor is not as good at the entry level as Pilot and Platinum, in, in my opinion. They don't have the quality there that the other brands have. They don't have the barrel consistency that the other brands have. And I, I really haven't enjoyed some of the nibs that the Sailor Steel nibs. I think they're the least representative. So for Sailor, you're actually looking at a Pro Gear Slim as your entry point, in my opinion. And that's more like a $200 pen, right? Which is not really entry level. It kind of defeats the purpose of this question. But I don't, I think my point is they're the least representative comparison of the lower end as it would relate to getting a feel for the higher end pen. So I think Pelican, Pilot, Platinum, I think I like those answers for that. For Sailor, I don't think there is as clear of an answer. So there you go. That's my thoughts.

'''Myke:''' All right. I love how I'm like, oh, I've got some ideas. No. No.

'''Brad:''' What do you know? You may not. You may not. No, but I mean, you were right about that. No, you're right. You're right. You're right. But I think, I think Pilot and Platinum make awesome entry level pens. I think Sailor does not. Yeah. And then Pelican does make entry level pens, but the pen you're leading into is not represented by their entry level pens. You got to bring it up a little bit.

'''Myke:''' Mm-hmm. All right. We'll go back to another question from Andrew. If DC is the fountain pen super show, San Francisco has all the fun from countries like Asia as well, and Chicago is the oldest, what are the non-American pen shows known for?

'''Brad:''' Being cooler than all of the American pen shows.

'''Myke:''' London hasn't been, though.

'''Brad:''' Eh, okay. Minus London.

'''Myke:''' We had that hope, you remember, the 2020 hope of like, oh, I was a new pen show, and then it obviously didn't happen.

'''Brad:''' But I mean, look at the Dutch pen show. Look at Madrid. Look at Toronto. How different was the Toronto? How different was that from what you've experienced?