Editing The Pen Addict 103/transcript (section)

== Hobonichi Teco ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' How are things working out with the Hobonichi Teco?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Horribly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But it's me. It's not you, Hobonichi Teco. I'm not a planner person. I knew this was going to be the case when I ordered it. This is why I haven't ordered a planner in years. The Hobonichi Teco itself is an elite product. I actually hardly use it these days. And when I do use it, it's just because I want to write on the Tomo River paper. So all the days that I've missed this year, you know, I'll have, you know, like fountain pen ink tests on them. So I'm using it for not its intended use. I'm not a planner guy. I tried to stick to it. Totally the same. Can't do it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't like to be restricted so heavily.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I don't think I made it through February daily. It was close, you know, maybe through the end of February. And since then, it's just been blank. And I actually stopped carrying it with me. And then sometimes I'll break it out just to scribble in it because that paper is awesome. If Hobonichi came out with like a gridded bound Tomo River paper notebook, I would buy 10 of them. But the planner portion itself is just not a functional thing for me. So I won't be ordering one again despite the fact it's one of the best products I've ever seen. As far as planners go, I just cannot personally use a planner. That is not my style, not my system. But it's not a knock on the Teco itself. So there you have it. It's been a fail for me using it. But that doesn't mean it's not an awesome product.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Kanuni Rineshen, I think she's distraught now that she doesn't have a list to keep. So she wants to know, do we need to add anything else to the pens that shall not be named list?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' She needs a new list to keep, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's a good question. Because, I mean, aside from my mention earlier in your mention, like we don't talk about the retro and the vanishing point like we used to.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think probably, I don't know, maybe the Pelican M205 because I talk about it so much. Do you have one that you talk about more now than?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't think so. I think it's pretty well spread around. And I don't think we have an overwhelming pen that's always talked about. Except maybe the Visionaire, just out of spite.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We don't talk about that anymore.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah, I don't think we have one right now. I don't think we're okay. We'll do our best to find another one, though.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I mean, that's what we're always trying to do, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. Yep. I would love it. Whoa. Hey, there. Jim Cant. He says, oh, talk about your grinds. See, if I just ended it right there, would you have to change our rating on the podcast?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't even. Probably, actually.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Or you can just tell me what you had redone to your Lamy 2000. So, yeah, my Lamy 2000 2013 Atlanta Pen Show, I got Myke Masuyama to grind it from an extra fine, stock extra fine nib into like an extra, extra fine 0.2 millimeter.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What do you consider? Like a Japanese extra fine nib.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Just a needle.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Really, really super, super fine. The problem with that is that's a very, on a gold nib, which the Lamy 2000 has, it's a very delicate nib. So, it was fine for a couple of months, and then I think it just kind of got out of whack with me using it, and it started to pick up paper and dig into the paper a little bit more. So, it wasn't as smooth as it used to be. So, I brought it back to the Pen Show this year, and I basically had Myke Masuyama kind of back that off a little bit. You know, there wasn't much I could change about it, but he almost kind of rounded it off and doled it down, if you will, to now where it's more like a Japanese fine nib. And it writes super smooth now. It's not grabbing the paper anymore. So, yeah, that was all I had to do with that. It just, it was almost too extreme. What I had done to it the first time to where it became so fragile, I think it just stopped working the way I wanted it to work. So, luckily, we were able to just back that off a little bit, and now it's working perfectly. I used it all night last night, and I love it. So, yeah, it's back to a good shape now, probably like a Japanese fine instead of a Japanese extra fine, or even, I might have had it even finer than that. I mean, it was really, really, really needly. So, you got to be careful with those gold nibs and getting these extra, extra fine nibs. It can be done, but they take a lot of care and a lot of patience. And, you know, someone like myself, I don't think I write with a lot of pressure, but when someone like Myke Masuyama watches me write, and he like goes, ooh, you press hard, and I think I'm just barely writing. So, yeah, you kind of get an idea that you can actually do some damage to these nibs just writing with them when they're that fine. So, on this very same note, Lindsay Resnick, what should you do if you got a nib modification but now absolutely hate it? I tried it out at the show, and it was okay, but not anymore. You got to talk to the person that you had the nib work done with originally, and they will make an adjustment for you, usually at no charge, or if it's been a while, maybe at a discounted charge. But if you're not happy with it, everyone I've ever worked with on nibs will take it back and retweak it to get it to how you want it. As a matter of fact, I didn't expect anything from Myke Masuyama this time on my Lamy, but he only charged me $10 to change it again. I said, well, why just $10? He said, because it's a rework of what I've already done. And I said, okay. So, that was it. So, it just cost me $10 to get it. You know, it had been a whole year. You know, he probably, if it had been a month, he'd probably done it for free, you know. So, Lindsay, definitely, I don't know who you used, but I would get back in touch with them and send the pen off to them, say, hey, this is the work I had done. This nib grind is not really working for me, and can you adjust it into this? And I can almost guarantee you, they'll say, yeah, no problem. Send me the pen, and I'll get it adjusted to make it to where you like it. So, it's hard to judge something immediately at a pen show. You do the best you can, but it's not like you're going to sit there and write a novel to test it out, right? So, you kind of got to spend some time with it, and if you have to get it adjusted again, maybe that's something you have to do.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But I would say, I mean, you probably would say the same if you're not already. Be a gentleman or gentleman lady, offer to pay the shipping. Oh, yeah, no doubt. Don't just be like, hey, do this for me for free.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, no, no, yeah. Pay the shipping, ship it back out, pay the ship it back. But, you know, hopefully they'll do the work for no charge.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's kind of the experience that I've had, and I think that's pretty common, actually. So, don't think you had some kind of outlier experience, Lindsay. I think it's a common thing. It's just, you know, it's hard to tell immediately after you've had it done, is this the right work for me? And it's okay to ask them to readjust it further. That's the business that they're in. All right. Garrett, Mr. Gaz Kubat on Twitter.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a two-parter, or it was at least in two tweets. Consider your favorite pens in regards to the dollar value. Do the more expensive ones seem drastically better than cheaper alternatives? I think a lot of people worry about the big price tag and whether it represents a much greater experience. This is like a whole episode worth of answer. But I would say, in general, does the big price tag represent that much greater of an experience? And the answer is no. There are reasons, specific reasons, why people will spend a lot of money on a fountain pen. But some of my favorite pens are because they provide such a great value as far as the cost versus the experience, if you will. That's why I praise pens like the Twisby 580. You can't get that pen. Any other company that makes that pen is going to charge over $100 easily, or at least around that ballpark. That's why it's such a great pen. Because, one, it's a great price. And two, it provides an immense value for the price. Spending $200 or $300 on a pen, I don't think gives you a greater experience, necessarily. Actually, I'd say probably not at all. Well, I get just as much enjoyment using my Twisby 580 as I do my Pelican M405, which costs like $280.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, the pen was five or six times more expensive. And I consider those pens almost peers, if you will, in the enjoyment that I get out of using them. I would pick up the Twisby 580 as much as I would the Pelican 405, despite the one costing five or six times more. They're almost peers in the enjoyment I get out of them. So, this is a topic we can explore more.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I think the overall value of the pen gives me a better experience than the overall cost of the pen, if I'm making sense. Do you have anything to say on that, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' 100% agree with you. 100%.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Yeah. And, you know, it's hard to justify spending the high dollar.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There's give and take with everything, right? I mean, you know, someone like myself, I end up talking myself into things just to try. And, you know, fortunately, I'm able to do that and play around with, you know, spending, like I said, $280 on a Pelican M405. You know, I probably use the 580 more. But I spent, you know, a huge amount more on the Pelican. I'm glad I have the Pelican. I enjoy it. I don't want to get rid of it. But it didn't provide that much greater experience than it did than the $50 or $60 TWSB 580 did. So that's the facts, Jack.