Editing The Pen Addict 569/transcript (section)

== Platinum Curidas Limited Edition matte fountain pen ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' I guess is the bigger question. So we got the Platinum Curidas Limited Edition matte fountain pen. What am I looking at here, Brad? I've been seeing this all over social media. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I got to test these out at the Baltimore Pen Show at the Luxury Brands table. They had each of the colors. So there's three colors. So the Platinum Curidas is Platinum's retractable fountain pen model.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' These are kind of have that rubberized matte finish exterior, which you've seen on other pen barrels, like gel pen barrels before. It's kind of got... It's not like a metal matte finish. It's like that rubberized grip, which I like. I don't have a problem with that. And there's a red, a blue, and a gray or black, they're calling it. But I got to handle them. And I was trying to discern in the few minutes that I had with them, what is different about this model than the original Curidas, which was released a couple of years ago. And I was thinking as I was using, I was like, well, maybe like one of the biggest flaws with the Curidas design is basically what I call the shark fin, which they conspicuously hide in all the product imagery on the backside of the pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is my biggest question, because I can't find the frigging image at the back of this pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No one shares that image. Even Platinum, like they just don't show it. And I don't, you know, all the product images, like none of them show the backside of the pen, because this little, like literally shark fin sticks out the back, and it kind of gets in the way of your finger. And I was trying to decide, like, did they adjust this? Did they move it? Like, did they relocate this bit a little bit? And I felt maybe at the time that they did, but the more I look at this, the more I think this is the identical barrel, just new colors or new shapes or new styles to the pen. So I don't think there is a technical change, but I want to get one and test it out side by side to see if there was some slight adjustment, because I don't see any differences.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' If you liked the Curidas before, you'll like this. If you didn't like the Curidas before, you're not going to like this. Like the general size, shape, functionality is identical to before. So I don't think this is going to change your opinion on the pen. And I guess what I'm looking for is Curidas V2, where this is Curidas LE, right? So I don't think there's any design changes that were made in this pen. But I will definitely pick one up to try to have to compare. The problem is I don't like any of the colors. So I'll have to figure out which one I'm going to get to review or to have for comparison, right? This isn't, like, it's fine. But like, I don't know. They did blue and red and green and black before. So this is just the solid version of those. And it's like, yeah, okay. Like, it doesn't get me going.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because when I saw it, I was like, well, this looks different, right? Because it has kind of changed the profile and shape of the pen, like this new coating that they're doing. So I was hoping it was a bit more of a rethink, but clearly not. But there must be some change here.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's why I want to get it. I want to only, like, I had like five minutes with it, right? And that was like, at this point, three months ago. So until I get it and am able to spend some time to see if there's any, like, technical changes, I'm not betting on that there are any technical changes. Which is unfortunate given the gap of release time between the original and this essentially second version, which looks just to be, you know, like a coating change as opposed to any, like, technical improvements. So I want to see that. So I want to see that for myself. So I will hold my thoughts on that until I pick one of these up for myself.

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

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And do some proper comparisons, right? So. Yeah. We'll see.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We'll see. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So I could pick that up at the St. Louis pen show this weekend, Myke, but I'm not going to be there. But I did want to give a little bit of a pen show update to everyone. So a lot of people are heading to St. Louis this weekend for a really, really big show that a lot of people enjoy. So I hope everyone has a great time in St. Louis. And if you're in the area, you should definitely go check it out. I'm really, I, the last thing I need is like another show exclusive ink, but their, their ink this year is, is really nice. So, um, I didn't put a link in the show notes, but I'll find that, uh, in the end here. Let's see if I can find it for you real quick. It's called a Missouri crawdad, I believe is the name. And there we go. So yeah, Missouri crawdad. It's a, it's a blood orange, uh, uh, fountain pen ink. So I'll put that in the show notes for everyone to check out. I'm kind of, uh, interested in that. Um, I have booked my ticket to, or my hotel room for the Orlando pen show, which will take place in September. I am also going to be in DC in the beginning of August. So my summer of pen shows, I'm pretty much off during the first couple of months. And then I get back into it in August with DC, September with Orlando. And then I also wanted to note that I happened to see on Instagram this week that the Boston pen show had moved to a two day pen show this year, which was kind of interesting. And now that, um, Apple boom has a presence in Boston, uh, it was kind of interesting to see like their participation starting last year, but this year the show got canceled. So I just wanted to bring that note up to everyone. And it was nothing more than hotel issues, right? So the timing was such that they had to cancel as opposed to kind of reshuffle and find a new location or change dates. It was just too difficult to, to make that type of move. You know, you say it might be three months out from now, but that is like no time when you're talking about putting on an even, you know, a small event, um, in, in a hotel is, is a quick view. So I wanted people to be aware that this year's Commonwealth pen show did get canceled. It just happened over the past week or so that this news came out. So, um, it stinks, right? They were actually trying to do a little bit bigger this year with an extra day and, and finding things. And sometimes like the hotel situations just didn't work out. So that was news on the, on the pen show front. Um, so yeah, I wanted to, to put that out there and, uh, let y'all know, um, related to this next topic that I have, I will not be at the San Francisco pen show, Myke, despite people trying to get me to go. But I am doing something for the San Francisco pen show. I can't remember if I talked about this on, on the show or not, but I was asked, have you seen at pen shows, the ink trays, the ink sampling trays, right? Like it's a, in San Francisco.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like the built-in tray, they have all the pens stuck in them and have inks you can test out and things like that. So I was asked, so San Francisco, I don't know how many ink sampling trays they have, but I was asked to fill up one tray from the pen addict ink storage vault. And one tray means a seven by seven grid of pens. So that means 49 ink samples, Myke, 49 ink samples. I committed to building for the San Francisco pen show. I am about 36 samples into it. I've been doing this on Twitch and it has been quite the journey so far. I'm learning a lot, um, of, uh, on how to do this. And I think about, you know, companies that sell ink samples or people that make a lot of ink samples from my first sample. We have changed a lot of the ways that I do this, Myke. And I have made several purchases to make my life easier to fill from an ink bottle into an ink vial. And what I'm doing is I'm not just making the 49 ink vials that individual inks vials for the San Francisco pen show. I'm making three of each ink color that I choose. So it's going to be what a total of 147 ink vials that I'm filling because I'm going to give away some of the other ones. Um, I figured if I'm doing this, we might as well go all the way. And instead of just sending those 49 inks to San Francisco, I'll send a few batches of smaller, smaller sample sizes to, uh, to other people. You know, I do a lot of giveaways and things like that. So in the sneak any base day blue in there, like your villain era. So you definitely know the answer is no, because I don't own any, which is pretty crystal clear. Um, but I mean, I have snuck in some limited edition, some rare stuff, which like, that's a challenge.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. There's, there's, there's the villain mode then. Yeah. I like this ink. Well, sucks for you. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But like my thought process is, well, someone may still want to try it to see if they can go find a match for it somewhere. Right. So like a friend of the show, Jacob, uh, food, a fan sent me a wonderful, like one of my favorite, unfortunately, one of my favorite inks. It's called a pilot Orochizuku Ito Murasaki. And it's a purple, um, it's a Japan exclusive Orochizuku. It's like, well, you know what? I'm putting this in the tray and I'm going to make people mad because it's in there. And, you know, someone may not be able to access that ink. So maybe they can go take a sample of it and write it in their notebook and then take it around and try to find a match to that. So that was, that was one of the first questions is like, how do I decide? Do I decide the most basic, you know, does the ink have to be available to go in this tray? Right. So I have 49 choices. Do all of these inks need to be available? And I decided no, because some inks are classic enough and important enough that people might want to try. And even if they can't go buy a bottle of it, maybe they can find something similar. Someone might say, oh, I've heard of, you know, Sailor Sky High. Maybe I can go find something close to that. So, you know, and then, and then a lot of it is, you know, mainstream, um, inks, but, you know, just trying to put my, put my touches on it. So it's been a really fun project. Um, I'll probably be done with it in the next week or two. I need to get those out to the show so they can fill up the ink station. Um, but I'm going to do a full writeup of this. We might talk about it later because I've actually bought tools that have helped me fill this. I've bought a pipetter. I don't know if you know what that is, Myke, but it's basically like a medical device where I'm, I'm basically like a chemist at my desk now. And fortunately there hasn't been any catastrophes, but, uh, there's still time. There's still time for a catastrophic results, but so far so good. I have 13 more inks to go and, uh, I hope to have that wrapped up soon, but that has been a fun, fun experience for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Very cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Um, I wanted to touch base. Uh, the last time we talked live on the show, I went shopping, uh, at our good friends, Pen Chalet during the show and finished my purchase afterwards. So I've already talked about these products and why I wanted these products. Um, but now I have the products in hand. Number one is the Lamy balloon, which I went ahead and did my review of that. I was able to turn that around pretty quickly because it's very straightforward. What I think about this pen, it is a horrible writing pen, right? It is just, there is no redeeming values in the writing of this pen in the refill. So it's called the Lamy M11 refill or excuse me, T11. And I don't know if Lamy uses this refill for anything else. I hope not because it is that bad. Like I don't dislike Lamy refills that much. Um, like their ballpoint refills are pretty good. Right. I like them. Um, but some of their other refills, like this one is just like, why is, why is this a thing? Like this is, this is not good. Um, it, this shouldn't be in a pen, right? I, I'm going to read this comment that I got actually on, uh, on my Instagram posts. I put it out there. So I'm going to read this. This is from ADR underscore three 10. This is concerning the refill or my review. It blotches, it skips, it railroads. It's very inconsistent. My money has been wasted. Went to the Lamy website and requested that a better refill be offered for the $36 I paid for both the pink and the green. I certainly expected the pen to write decently. I agree wholeheartedly with the pen addict to avoid the Lamy balloon. So I felt a little bit justified in their angst. Unfortunately, they had the angst, right? But it's just a basic truth about this pen. And it's a horrible writer.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's a shame.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I want this pen to exist because it's coming, Myke. It's, it has to be happening the way that they still are iterating on the Lamy balloon gives me hope for my biggest thing, which is the, the, the point I really don't want to belabor is that I think this is going to eventually, we're going to get to, um, color barrel Lamy vistas, right? Translucent color Lamy vistas. That's the end goal here. So they've modified the balloon in a way that makes it even more likely that we see something like this in the Lamy Vista lineup. So that's why I choose to review the Lamy balloon, even though it, I wanted to review it again because it had been 13 years and I had hoped that the, the refill had changed or improved. It, it, it has not. This was my same like performance review from 13 years ago. The refill is horrible. Um, the, the refill remains horrible. I could not recommend this pen to anyone from a writing perspective. Um, it is not enjoyable to use, but I'm glad it exists because, uh, I want to see other things from Lamy and this is, this is my gateway. This is what gives me hope, um, that I'm going to see what I really want from Lamy in the coming years. So there you go. That's my review on that. The other pen I bought, um, is something we've, we've definitely covered, um, which is the, the Navalur horizon fountain pens. So it's kind of the newest model and shape from, uh, Navalur and they did some really fun color, some fun, uh, designs. They had some, uh, the cap band on this pen is kind of like has a scalloped wavy edge, which kind of threw a lot of people off. You were either pro or con, uh, on that design, but I wanted to get this pen in because it was a little different shape from, uh, Narwhal, uh, excuse me, Navalur and it has proven to be a rock solid workhorse of a pen. Like I am very impressed with this pen so far. I'll be reviewing it in the coming months. This is one I want to spend some time with like the Lamy balloon. I don't need to spend a lot of time with like the refill is bad and that's what the review is going to say. This one I'm going to see how it performs because it's a piston filler. I bought it with a stub nib, which is new for, uh, Navalur. And I want to see how just the construction of this pen holds up because this is the like kind of the most sturdy Navalur pen that I've used so far. Like it, it feels awesome, right? It's just structurally sound. The, the pistons worked very well so far. You know, I've been filling it from the piston filler. Um, the added weight that the, the piston mechanism and the, the metal pieces of the barrel feel really, really good. I love the materials. I went with twilight, which is kind of the greenish Brown one, um, which is a really neat cover color. I had a crazy difficult time deciding what ink to put into this. Um, I ended up going with, uh, Robert Oster Australian opal mauve, which is kind of a purplish color because I couldn't settle on a Brown or a green that I was going to be happy with for matching. So I went kind of, uh, opposite complimentary.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What do you think of the color of the furniture on this pen?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I, I'm very happy with it. I love it. So this is, I think this one out of the four colors, this is the outlier one, which is why I ordered it, right? It would have been very easy for me to order the dusk or dawn, which are your bright oranges and yellows and pinks and purples and blues. That would have been simple. And then the black and gray Aurora, you know, it has classic silver trim. This one has kind of like a gun medley, almost Brown, um, type of finish on there. And so when I buy pens to review, which is I bought for this, I will try a lot of times to buy the one I wouldn't buy if it was something that I was adding to my collection. I know that sounds kind of backwards, but it was like, it would be so easy for me to just, Hey, give me the dusk, you know, or give me the dawn and just be done with it. Like, Hey, fun, bright rose gold looks beautiful, right? It's going to take, you know, amazing pictures. It's going to look amazing in photography. Well, this one I think is the weirdest one in color and I love it, right? Like I'm, I'm really happy with it. Like I wouldn't have bought it if I thought it was going to be like a color I disliked. Right. But this would have been like my third choice probably. Um, so I do that a lot for reviews because I want to have, get kind of that broader perspective of, you know, what a, you know, take a, take away my love for the material color, for example, and, and try to focus on what the pen is, what it offers. How does it feel? How does it work? You know, does everything, you know, line up for a good quality pen and so far so good. Um, with this, especially the stub nib, which is a new offering for them. It's a 1.1 millimeter stub nib and, um, so far so good, right? Literally no complaints. And, uh, I'm sure I will, um, review it well when it comes time to, uh, to get an official review on it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Speaking of official, we're going to go very unofficial here, Myke, for a minute. So I know people and I get pictures, I get pictures, uh, sent to me from time to time of, uh, products that may or may not be, may or may not exist in the future. And, you know, I'm pretty good at keeping, keeping those things, uh, pretty close to the vest. So I had this picture a couple months ago that was sent to me that was a pen from Platinum and said, Hey, this might be a thing later. I got an early look at this. This might be a thing later. I don't know. So obviously don't say anything. I have no idea. I was like, Oh, okay. Yeah. Interesting. So Platinum, uh, gosh, I guess we're on two weeks now. They put out a press release on their website on Platinum Pen Code JP, the new 3776th Century Fuji series, Fuji Unke Uroko Gumo coming soon. So apologies on the pronunciation. And I was hoping when you click on the press release page, some amount of detail, right? Give me something. And it's literally an awesome picture, like an inspiration picture with no more words than that. It's like literally just the picture of this beautiful looks. I'm going to go sunrise-ish here. I think as opposed to sunset, but it's Mount Fuji, blue, blue skies, white clouds. Um, and this PR image does align with the images I saw earlier. So what this is, and the reason why I'm bringing this up is that Platinum is actually coming out with their next long running series of Mount Fuji, uh, fountain pens. So they've done this twice in the past where the, okay. Yeah, here it is. So the five Fuji five Lake series they did from 2011 to 2016, one pen a year, five pens in total. Then the Fuji Shunke series from 2017 to 2021. So these were all very popular platinum releases all in the 3776 model, all different unique colors, um, unique, um, kind of designs in the barrel. Um, and so this next one is going to be the Fuji Unke series. And it's, it's a series created around Mount Fuji and the clouds. So we'll see. This is going to drop, uh, next month or so. I haven't seen the official imagery released yet. Um, but everything I have seen is matching up to a pretty cool release coming soon. So I think probably within the next month, we'll get some official pictures where we'll be able to share, but I wanted to drop this out there because platinum just like randomly threw an image upon their PR site and then didn't say it's hype man.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's hype.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So they, they've sunk their hooks into me. They've got me on the hype train.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Um, I'm not saying if you sent me an image, if this image is what this pen looks like, I'm buying it immediately.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So we're not sharing the image with you because I, I do have some, even though like they're very unwritten rules. Like I, I wanted this to be more official, um, and more public that anyone can go see these images and, and then we'll go from there. But I mean, there are places you can, you can see them. It's pretty sick though. Right. Um, but I, I don't want to put that in the, in the show notes yet, but coming soon, I'm sure probably in the next week or two, we'll be able to do a live, uh, pick of it. And, uh, I want to get your thoughts on, on that. We'll describe it more than, but my only hesitancy is where the price points were going, um, in their previous releases.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's probably going to be like $600.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We were getting close to 500. We were in the upper fours on last year's limited releases in the 3776. I am certain we're going to be in that ballpark. Right. So I would pay that. I, yes. Like I, I get you for that. And this is one of those series where people will buy them all one a year for five years. Like people will absolutely pay the four or $500 for this. Um, I mean, they're great pens, you know, I love the 3776. Uh, so I'm interested to see, interested to see, uh, how this goes. And, um, I look forward to, uh, being able to share the image instead of just teasing y'all, but go, go look at the, uh, the Mount Fuji picture. That Platinum thought was, uh, the, the extent of a, a press release release. And, um, yeah, uh, you can imagine from there. Uh, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty close. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They did actually an incredibly good job capturing that image. I think like, it's pretty cool. Um, I like this because I just like Platinum doing this because I adore, adore the 3776. But most of them are too boring. Like we've spoken about this for years now, right? Sure. It's great that they do more and more limited editions because they do really cool stuff when they actually do it. Like they do more so than a lot of their competitors, right? Like most of the pro gears are just colors, like Platinum play with texture too, which I think even more exciting. And I love it because the Platinum nibs are the best in the game, in my opinion. And I want to have a fun pen to put it in rather than something that's like black or red, you know? Exactly.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Exactly. So yeah, I, I, I definitely look forward to this. In the Mount Fuji series that they've done 10 times before, literally 10 releases, I think is the best series. Like that's my favorite series. So I will, we'll see whether I get this one or not, but, uh, I'm certainly looking forward to, uh, the, the next iteration of the Mount Fuji series.