Editing The Pen Addict 105/transcript (section)

== Model 2 ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' So I'm looking at the Model 2 at the moment, and you made the right choice. I don't – the green one. Like the Model 2 is cool when you get the fire and ice or the smoke and ice. But just solid green, I much prefer this one because that just – it's just a green pen. Yep. Like this has got that extra, like that, ooh, which is what the blue line gives it because it's just – it's so – I've never seen a pen designed like this before.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so my plan was to get the smoke and ice Model 2. And when I talked to them, not only were they sold out of the few that they brought, they are so backordered on that pen that it's going to be months before they even start stocking them again, which I can commissarate with on certain things. Yeah. But so I was like, well, I have to start from scratch now. So I looked through every pen that they had on their table. They had every model of every pen that they had. And nothing stood out to me like this Anderson Pens. Now, Anderson Pens carries two Franklin Kristoff special models. They carry the Model 2 with a black barrel and a blue ring around the section. And it does not hold a candle to the looks of the 19. And I liked it so much, I bought one for myself. I couldn't – it's a pen that I kept coming back to time and time and time again, and nothing was beating it. There was no pen I could find that I liked better than this. So they come with the stock steel nibs. And, you know, Brian said, what nib do I want with it? He'll just walk over to the Franklin Kristoff table. You know, they're a customer of theirs. He said, you know, I'll just switch out whatever nib you want. And this is for stock nib, right? They don't sell it with the Masayama nib. So I said, well, just give me the stub stock nib because I wasn't sure what other nib you would like. But I just figured for a comparison, you could have both of those nibs to compare. And then I went – after I purchased this pen, then I went back over to Franklin Kristoff just to buy the nibs for this pen, right? So it comes with a stock steel 1.1 millimeter stub nib. And then I went back over to Franklin Kristoff to purchase the Masayama medium stub nib. So I bought an extra fine one for me. And then I bought a stub, the medium stub, for you. And I think that was about the end of the day of the show. So I packed these away. And, you know, I was done shopping. That was like my last big purchase with Anderson pens. I've gotten everything checked off the list. I've got your Franklin Kristoff. I've got your Masayama nib and put it in the car. And I went and had a drink at the bar with all the people who had come to the show.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm just going to stop you here. Yep. Because this is – I know that there's something coming here. So basically, Brad teases that he's bought these pens. And he sends me a message. And he's like, it's going to take me a little bit longer before I can ship this to you. I'm like, okay. He's like, there's nothing wrong. We had a conversation. There's nothing wrong. There's something I need to do first. So carry on with the rest of your story.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So that was the day after the next day. I was excited that, oh, I'm ready to ship out Myke's pens. Let me get it ready. Let me get it all packaged up. And I break out the pen. And I break out the nib. And, you know, this is 4.30 in the afternoon after a long, exhausting day. And I'm mentally beat. I just want to sit down and have a beer. So I come home the next day. And I'm ready to ship these out. And I start looking at the nib for mine. I'm going to replace the nib in mine. And I get out the nib. And I get out my pen. And I look at it. And I go, huh, that's the wrong size nib. So these pens, the Model 19, comes with a size 6 nib. So that's the larger size nib that you see in your pen right now. Comparatively, the Model 40 pocket and things like your Edison Perlet, that's called a number 5 nib. Okay? So I bought two number 5 nibs from Franklin Kristoff to fit in the Model 19, which only takes number 6 nibs. So I had two nibs at home that did not fit these Model 19s. So that's okay, except for the fact that I couldn't ship out your pen that day. So I was like, I actually, you know what? I realized this Sunday night when I got home at like 9 o'clock, I went straight to Franklin Kristoff's site and ordered the two number 6 nibs. And they were at my door by like Tuesday. So they came in like two days.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that's how I got the right nib. I was like, well, I can't send them this pen without the Masayama nibs. So I ordered the second set of nibs. And they shipped out quickly. So, which is okay. The number 5 nibs I use, I've already put one in my Perlet. So, you know, they fit lots of other different things. So it wasn't a waste at all. It was just an exhaustion mistake where it didn't even cross my mind that it was a number 6 nib in this Model 19 instead of a number 5. But which any fountain pen person looking at this, it would be a completely normal thing. They would totally know which nib to buy. But it was just something that, you know, I was kind of spent mentally at the end of the day. And it didn't register with me when I did it. So, yeah. So I got home that night, ordered them up. And it's like, it's going to be a day or two before I ship out your pen. Just need to rectify something real quick. So.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Thank you for going through all of that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It ended up making for a good story. It was fun. It was fun to do. And I hope you enjoy the pen sincerely. And, yeah, it's just one of those pens I just kept coming back to where you just sometimes you just kind of know. And then I just had to hope that you would like it. I knew that I liked it because I couldn't really find anything better looking than it. So that's the story behind how your Franklin Kristoff came to be. It's a good story.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So thank you, buddy. Genuinely, I enjoy it. And I've been using it a lot. So.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You are very welcome. And I actually use mine a lot, too. I really like the size of it. It's big. It's a big pen. It's actually bigger than you think. Even, you know, when I was at the show, I was like, oh, this is a big pen. But until you get it home and kind of compare it to some of the other pens that you have, you realize how large it is. But I don't think it's overly large, especially unposted writing with it. It feels wonderful to write with. It's a great weight.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I've got something in the mail, too, this week. Or was it last week? I guess it was this week. It was Tuesday. My Nakaya came in.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I am super, super excited about it. And I don't want to spend too, too long discussing it. But I know people were anxious to hear my initial thoughts about it. So I can at least explain what I actually bought. And then, you know, later on after I review it, maybe we'll talk about it more. But I ended up purchasing through nibs.com, which we've talked about before. I guess they might be the only U.S. authorized retailer of Nakaya. I'm not sure. I think that's right. So they have a lot of Nakayas in stock. And I really had a hard time picking the model. I knew the color was going to be probably this AO Tamanuri finish, which is a blue-green. It's a black lacquer with a blue-green color underneath it. So I was pretty sure on the color. The problem I had and what took me so long to decide on which model to order was I didn't know which barrel design I wanted. And they have all different kind of barrel designs. And then what I'm going to do, Myke, is I'm going to put together a post on how I bought my Nakaya, how I came to the final decision that I made. It's almost too long and too difficult to even talk about on the podcast. There was a lot of thought and research that went into picking out the model. But the model I went with was the portable cigar AO Tamanuri with a rhodium-plated nib and a medium cursive italic grind on the nib. And I am 100% satisfied with the pen that I purchased. The barrel is exactly what I wanted. And that was the hardest thing because I had never held the portable model in my hand to just see how it feels. I've tried a few different – I've tried the one called the Nakaya, which is similar in length to the portable. When I say portable, I don't want anyone to think it's a small pen. I don't know why they name it this way, I think, because there's probably a story behind it. But this is a full-size pen. It's not a mini pen or a small portable pocket-type pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I went with the clipless model, which is called the cigar, which means there's no clip on it at all, which is scary to do because it's such an expensive pen. You don't want it rolling off the desk or rolling off the floor. But I thought it would just interfere with the beauty of the pen. So I risked it and went clipless. And I'm happy with that decision by the way the pen looks. And the color I knew – the color I'd actually used and actually seen on the site before, and I was pretty sure it was going to be this color. There was one called Heccy Tamanuri, which is a brown with a green underlay. That was kind of in the running. But I think for my first Nakaya, I knew I wanted a black base with some pop of color. And the blue-green of the Aeo Tamanuri is really, really great. And then the nib, you're able to choose the color of the nib. They actually have the gold nib, which – the gold color nib, which is stocked. They're all 14-karat gold nibs. They have the gold nib. They have the plated nibs in rhodium or ruthenium or rose gold or two-tone nibs. So there's lots of nib choices you can make to go on there. And then you tell them if you want any additional modification. So I told them I wanted a fine nib, and I want it ground into a cursive italic point, which John Mottashaw is well-known for his very, very top-notch work on grinding pins. And he's the man behind nibs.com. I have to say that it's awesome. I mean, I'm totally happy. I would not change a thing that I purchased with my Nakaya, which is good because it's a very expensive pen. But there was some mental risk in doing this because I haven't necessarily used everything that I was buying. I was like, I hope this works out right. But I figured I did my research. And like I said, I'm going to do a whole write-up on this, the whole purchasing process. But it's definitely unlike any pen I've ever used. This is the most – I'm struggling to find the words to explain it, Myke. You really have to try it. And I know you actually tried this exact model that I have.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, so it turns out last week Hans was the guy's name who I couldn't remember, which I felt terrible for. And I'm really pleased that he contacted me so I could correct it. He has a cigar portable.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep, so you were able to try the exact pen that I purchased, the exact barrel design, the length. So it's not a small pen. It's a normal-sized writing pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, he has the black-red Kuru Tamanuri.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah, that's a really good look. And that was definitely on the short list too.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's really hard to explain this pen in words. It's the most cohesive pen I've ever used. I don't even know if that's the right word. It's – when I'm writing with it, there's nothing happening except writing. There's no – there's nothing getting in the way of me writing with this pen when I'm using this pen. It feels like the entire pen is the nib, if you will. It's – I don't know how to put that in words. It's just like there's – it's one unit where, you know, different pens with, you know, metal sections or, you know, I don't know, different things on the end cap. You know, different screws like a piston filler. You know, it's got extra mechanisms. There's no extras. It's like perfect minimalism for a very not minimally designed pen. I'm going to have to figure out how to express this in words because it's really hard. And even written words and pictures aren't going to do it justice. You have – I've tried to take – I've taken some pictures and they're in my Instagram feed. It's impossible to get the color right, get the depth of the lacquer right, the finish of the pen. It's amazing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, the Rushi lacquer is really – it has a lot of depth to it. It – yeah, it looks like you can see through the pen, but you can't. It's – and I don't know. So, it's something I'm going to have to spend more time with to learn how to explain it properly. I don't think I'm doing a very good job. But I do know that I'm ecstatic with it. I've never used a pen like it. I've never used a pen that's just felt just like this totally complete writing unit that it is. It's awesome. I'm really happy with it. And, you know, hopefully I can discuss it in better terms than rambling on about it like I am now once I kind of write it all down and do a blog post about it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Why did you go for the no clip rather than a clip?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because of the beauty of the finish of the pen. I didn't want anything to interrupt that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Does it not roll away though?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It does. But I keep the kimono that it comes in. You know, that little pouch that they come in. I guess Hans had his, right? Yeah, he did, yeah. So I carry that. It's really funny. Our Brasstown pen case for Notco, you know, it's got the extra space, you know, the extra pocket space. It's the six roll pen wrap pouch. So I have the pens in the roll section and then I take the kimono and put it in the pocket section. So it fits perfect. It's like the perfect case for that. Perfect case for your pen case. So I use the kimono as my roll stopper. So I put it on the edge of my pad and then just lay the pen on top of the kimono so it doesn't roll away. So yeah, I'm concerned about it rolling away. But for my first Nakaya, I wanted the kind of the raw experience just to see the quality. And I mean, it's like an art piece. But I'm not using it and treating it as such. I'm forcing myself to take this pen anywhere and everywhere and not worry about it. And I'm totally content doing that, which I know that that means I think I've actually finally turned the corner. And which is why I was ready to finally buy the Nakaya because you don't spend this kind of money on a pen and not use it. So that's what made me finally, you know, realize I was ready to buy it to, you know, not treat it with kid gloves. It's an instrument made to be used. And I'm going to use it anywhere and everywhere. I'll even I'll take it to burgers with you and Hans. We'll get some grease on it. But yeah, that's that's kind of that was the biggest thing when I knew I was ready to do that, take it anywhere and everywhere and use it. And I knew I was ready to order it. And I'm extremely, extremely happy with it. And well, I'll definitely do a lot more talking about it. And once I get some some time to sit down and put my thoughts into words, because it's really hard to explain without holding it in your hand and feeling how it writes, how it's different than any other pen I own. So totally it's totally been worth it. And I'm really happy with it so far.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So now starts to count until I buy one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You think you are? I kind of I kind of thought that wasn't really on your radar.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Everything that's on your radar eventually finds its way to mine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Well, I got to say, this took me probably about a year to just go through the mental process to this pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They get accelerated incredibly when you start talking to me about them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sorry about that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm looking at these and they are really pretty. But the nibs.com ordering system is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. Well, I had a problem with that, actually. Can I just tell people what it is? Sure. Yeah, go for it. So you can buy things online, but you can't add something to a shopping cart. You have to fill in an online order form where you write everything in manually and then you submit it and they send you an invoice back. Like that's so strange. So you would have to write like, so you write like item name, Nakaya, portable cigar, Amairo, fountain pen, quantity one, price. And you type the price in, which is so weird. One dollar.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Very peculiar to me to see that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Let me see if I can pull mine up and I'll read you what I had to write. But yeah, my problem was that I did exactly what you said. I filled out the online form and filled out everything that I had to. And they sent me the invoice. The invoice went to my spam folder. That was the problem I ran into. So like I waited, I ordered it on a Sunday night, figured I'd get the invoice Monday. And then I pay for it after I get the invoice.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And then Monday night, I never got the invoice. So I emailed them again. They say, yeah, we sent it. But here it is again. And then I said, oh, if they sent it, let me check my spam folder. And sure enough, there it was. So yeah, I had a delay in getting it. But that was the problem I ran into. So yeah, I had to write down the style, the finish, the nib, the nib plating, the cursive metallic part, all of that part I'm writing in. And then there's like a note section. And then you have to gauge your writing preferences and your characteristics right. That's a hard thing. Do you want it to write dry? Do you want it to write medium? Do you want it to write wet? What's your writing pressure? All kinds of crazy things like that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Why do you have to put that in?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because he tunes the nib accordingly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That sounds terrifying.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So for the tuning part, I just went, I know I don't like a really wet writing pen. So I went with medium flow. And I know I probably borderline write with heavy pressure. But I went with just a medium writing pressure. Just kind of standard.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All of those choices turn me off. Because then I feel like if something's not right, I'm going to blame myself.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I can totally understand that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I don't like that thought of blaming myself. Well, I think that's why it took me so long to order it. I'm trying to find UK distributors of this. If anybody knows a good UK, a trustworthy UK distributor of a Nakaya, please let me know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So yeah, but you can order straight from Nakaya.org. Which, you know, maybe my next one, maybe I'll order from there just to try something different.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Nibs.com. Aesthetic Bay, which is in Singapore. They're an authorized dealer.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, don't order from Nakaya.org. Oh, wait, hang on. You can change the language.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You have to click the button, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. I was also, oh, no, terrifying. I'll click the American button for English. Yes, I'll click the American button.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's what I want. Click the American button. American button. Just have a big M for America on there. Mm-hmm. But yeah, don't do translate on their page. Click the button that switches the whole site to the EN. And you can order straight from there. But it's still the same kind of thing from there, Myke. Like, you have to type in a bunch of how-do-you-feel-today stuff.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm not up for that. Plus, these are so expensive that I know the customs will kill me. So I might as well just try and get one from the UK if I can.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, maybe at the pin show in October. I don't know. No one carries me. No one has any Nakayas at the pin show that I go to. So who knows? But anyway, there'll be more to come about this. Because I just got it on Tuesday. So I've only had a couple days to spend with it. But it's the only pin I've used since I've got it. And I love it. So I'm very happy with my purchase. And there will be more in the future.