Editing The Pen Addict 605/transcript (section)

== Pilot's core fountain pen inks ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Super great question. So Pilot has a set of core inks, core fountain pen inks, like we were talking about the Lamy inks before. They're basically their house inks, their standards. So Pilot has blue, black, red, purple. There's a couple of their very basic inks. Okay. And then Pilot has their luxury brand called Namiki, where they actually use the same ink as their stock Pilot blue and stock Pilot black, but put them in the fancy Namiki ink pots. It is no difference if you buy a bottle of Pilot black or if you buy a bottle of Namiki black, they are the exact same inks. And then, so those are your base core inks that the brand sells. Then Iroshizuku is considered their premium ink, maybe not necessarily in performance, but in character and style, right? These are their step up. Hey, you like Pilot blue? Cool. Check out these different blues we make as part of this Iroshizuku ink lineup. You can get a brighter one. You can get one with more character in it. You can get a lighter blue, things of that nature. So all good quality inks. And you'll find in this industry, a lot of companies will have a core ink lineup. That is their basics. Like Sailor will have Sailor blue, Sailor black, and then they'll do some more experimental or premium lineups of inks where they expand on their color palettes and characteristics of the ink. So, but just in Pilot ink versus Namiki, Namiki only has blue and black, I believe. I could be wrong on that. They're the exact same as Pilot blue and black. So if you're buying the Namiki inks, you're buying them for the bottle, which I have definitely done before because they're rad.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I have found for me, Iroshizuku, like the reason I like it is it's very, very fast drying. Like it's one of the things, like it's one of the properties of that ink that I enjoy and it makes it kind of stand out a little bit.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And so just real quick, the Iroshizuku lineup will not have the base colors because those are already colored. Like there's not Iroshizuku blue. If you're looking at blues and Iroshizuku lineup, it's going to be very different. And even the black, I don't think is as black as Pilot's black. So the Takasumi, I don't, it's a very black ink. I think Pilot black ink. I would just go for that if I was looking for a black.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Matt says, I'm considering a few different pens to celebrate a job promotion. Most of my pen usage at work is note taking. So I'm looking at quick to deploy pens like the Decimo, the FC Model 20 and the Otto Hut 03. Any recommendations for pens in this category or price range?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Those are three really good recommendations. So just to categorize these, the Decimo is retractable. Like it's the best retractable front pen, you know, either this or the vanishing point, depending on your preference for barrel diameter, Decimo's being thinner, vanishing points being a little bit wider, exact same type of mechanism and knock system. I love those for, you're not going to get a quicker deployment than that. The other pens Matt lists, the FC Model 20, it is a slip cap pin, right? So it's just like a friction fit. Even though it's an acrylic barrel, it's just friction fit on there and it gets on there pretty well. There's no, it's not loose and you can just pop it off. You don't have to thread the pin. So it looks like Matt's looking for like snap caps, which is what the Otto Hut 03 is. Um, it's hard to think of other pens outside of these three, because I think these are three good. I think the FC Model 20 would be my last choice because the fit of that cap gets on there pretty good, like shockingly well. So it's definitely, it might sometimes be a two hand deployment, right? Which you can get the Decimo and even the Otto Hut 03, uh, a one handed, uh, uncapping or deployment pin. I don't think you're going to get anything faster than a Decimo or vanishing point. So that's where I would look, um, you know, for, or a, a non-threaded, non-threaded pin. And so I'm in the Decimo vanishing point. If I'm looking at this category, then secondarily, I'd like the Otto Hut 03. And then maybe you could look at the Y studio, uh, brassing fountain pen, which is a very particular pen. It's just something I really like. Um, it's kind of like a snap magnet cap, uh, on there. So that's another one that would work pretty well. But yeah, I would actually eliminate the model 20 from this list. Just in my experience, that's got a little more stick to itiveness than the other ones. And it'll be a little bit slower to deploy.