Editing The Pen Addict 321/transcript (section)

== Ink Discussion Shift ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' All right, let's take our second break and thank Mack Weldon for their support of this show. Mack Weldon make the most comfortable underwear, socks, shirts, undershirts, hoodies, and sweat pants you're ever going to wear. Mack Weldon is better than whatever you're wearing right now. They are so confident of this. They have a no-questions-asked return policy. Mack Weldon are so sure that you're going to be super comfortable in whatever it is you buy from them. If you don't like your first pair for any reason, you just keep it and they will refund you. No questions asked. Mack Weldon pair premium fabrics with meticulous attention to detail and wrap it all up in a simple shopping experience to deliver you a new level of daily comfort straight to your door. They make undershirts that stay tucked, socks that stay up, and waistbands that don't roll. Everything they make is made of premium cotton blended with natural fibers and their website is built to get you in and out as quickly as possible so they don't waste your time. I am such a fan of Mack Weldon's products and I recently, for my vacation, I bought some of their shorts. They have wonderful, wonderful shorts. I bought the, I think, what are they called? The four-way? Yeah, and I bought some of those. I really love those a lot. They're really, really nice. And I bought some of their swim shorts too. I'm actually wearing their board shorts right now. I have a pair of them and the Royal Palm Tropic, which is like these, like, palm pattern. I love these shorts. They are so comfortable. I was wearing them on the beach. I was wearing them in the ocean and I now wear them at home because they're great for everywhere. I really love my Mack Weldon products and I really seriously recommend that you go and try them out. They have a bunch of cool science stuff like their silver underwear and undershirts that are naturally antimicrobial, which means they eliminate odor. Their stuff is great for all kinds of uses, no matter where you are, what you're doing. And listeners of this show can get 20% off their first order at MackWeldon.com just with the code PENADDICT at checkout. That is 20% off at MackWeldon.com, M-A-C-K-W-E-L-D-O-N.com with the code PENADDICT at checkout. Thank you so much to Mack Weldon for their support of this show and Relay FM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think I saw some of your fancy shorts in your Instagram pictures, at least on your honeymoon pictures. Very, very handsome. Yes. I very much noticed them. All right. We got a bunch of Ask TPA. I think I actually even cut this short this week when we were putting these together. You put a bunch in here. I had a few others to add and I think there were still some extra ones. So we got some good ones this week and this first one's from Todd. He says, the Pelican M805 has been a recent game-changing pin for me. What was your most game-changing pin from five plus years ago and or more recently? Do you have something back in the day that kind of clicked or made you think differently about fountain pens?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, man. Pilot Pereira. That's more than five years. I have to go back more than five years for that. But the Pilot Pereira was like a real game-changer for me. Like I'd use like Lamy Safaris and stuff like that. But to my memory, it was my first Japanese fountain pen and it was super cheap and really amazing. Like I was super, super excited about it. It really made a big change for me, a big difference to the way that I think about this stuff. And it opened my mind a little bit and ended up taking me to like the vanishing point and then onwards. So it was very good. Very, very good. But then more recently, my Sky at Night pen from Jonathan Brooks. It, you know, seeing that pen from Jonathan and it being this like beautiful thing from someone who was kind of new to me really changed a lot of my habits now about the pens that I buy because now I really go for material and color and body more than in some cases brand or nib or performance. Right. So like it just opened me up to a different world of pens where like I now really care a lot more about who's making it. And I really care a lot more about how it looks and that look being unique. So yeah, that really changed me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I thought this might take me a longer time to come up with an answer for, but the answer is really the Pilot Custom 912 with the posting nib. That's that pen turned a corner for me in two ways. One, the size of the pen was the perfect size for me to hold and write with comfortably. You know, I've been in the past, I'd used smaller pens, you know, not small pens like the prayer is a small pen, right? But it's considered a full size pen. Like when you post it and it's great, but it's a smaller pen, you know, the Pelican M205s, that's a smaller pen. And, you know, the Sailor Pro Gear slims are smaller pens. The 912 was the first pen that had a larger body size and a larger nib that really felt good in my hand. On top of that, it showed me that there's a nib that's perfect for my style of handwriting, that you can get something that a fountain pen exists that can be that fine and that firm and that smooth all at the same time. So, so much when you look at that pen in pictures, it looks like the most basic pen. It's black with rhodium trim. And everything about that pen changed how I think about so many other pens for me personally, just in the way it feels and the way it writes and the way it performs, the way it's different, the way that it's made in Japan. You know, all of these things is, are what I like personally in a pen. And that was the first pen that made me realize that, oh, I can get something that's really specific for my own use and not settle for something generic that can be used by everybody. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I can find something very specific for me. So, I felt that the 912 with the PO nib was kind of my game changer back in the day. Currently, I think the Sailor King of Pen has kind of ruined me a little bit. The Pro Gear model, I'm having a hard time wanting to use the smaller Sailors because I enjoy writing that one so much, writing with it. And I've bought plenty more Sailors since the King of Pen. But that one's kind of ruined things for me because it's so good for what I enjoy in a pen. Just aesthetically and feel and nib quality. And, you know, I still genuinely think it's overpriced for what it is. But I enjoy it as much or more than any pen I own. Just for the other things, like I was just mentioning. So, that one's been kind of a game changer in the way I shop now. Even though, you know, I still, you know, pick up some of the other Sailors in the smaller sizes that I like, like the Tangerine and the Ocean recently. But they'll never compare to, like, my one and only King of Pen. And I don't even need another one. Like, I don't, like, I don't know. If they come out with other colors, I'll certainly, you know, pick one up. But, like, they did the Ocean, but I didn't have any interest in that. You know, maybe down the line I'll get another one. But I kind of like it. It's kind of ruined me for some of the other Sailor pens. So, we'll see if that holds up. The Pelican M805 has also been kind of an interesting pen just because of the way it fits and feels. It's really, really cool. So, those are kind of my choices there. It's a good question to think about, like, what pens have driven, you know, your future or past purchases. That was a good question. So, we have a question here that the crowd can help us out with. I poked around a little bit. Not sure if I got a great answer, but we'll try. So, man wants to know, the very first ink I bought was the Edelstein Tourmaline, and it's my favorite. So, of course, it's no longer available. I think it was a 2012 special edition. Is there anything out there close to that ink? So, it's a pink ink, but it's dark. It's not quite magenta-y. It's a little bit hard to explain, but it looks like I've seen that color. So, I poked around at some of the colors. The first thing that popped into my head was Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses, I think it's called. It's kind of got that darkish pink. You want a little bit of black in it, just a little. That shows up, but kind of keeps the pink. The Monteverdi Garnet ink might be kind of the closest one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, it's really... These inks... The pink really kind of pops. It's kind of bright, but in a subtle way. You know, it's not a bright pink. It was definitely a challenge to get something close. But those are the two that I came up with. One place you can go and check out a bunch of pinks on the same page is Kelly at Mountain of Ink. We'll put a link in the show notes. She has her swabs sorted by category. And you can put them all on the same page. So, I found the pink ink page. We'll link that in the show notes. But she's got it for all kinds of colors. And I actually scrolled through that page. There's not much that registers with the tourmaline, which I was surprised. Because I wouldn't think it would be that hard of a color to match. But I felt that it is, Myke. It was a little tough for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, the only thing you can say is Califolo and Drenopel, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because it's the only thing that I have any real experience with, right? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a little brighter.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I took a look at the ones that you recommended. There's a lot of very good inks there. But yeah, matching the exact, that's always a hard thing to do, right? Like, it's always hard to be like, this ink doesn't exist anymore. Can you replace it? And the answer is typically, exactly no.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I actually thought this was going to be easier than it was. Which is why I wanted to put it in there. Because it was not easy at all. Speaking of inks, ATP just ran out of their first bottle of ink. I'm not sure if I should recycle it, wash and reuse, or keep it as a memento. Absolutely keep it as a memento. You can wash and reuse it if you want to put something else in it. Or what you could do is get that bottle engraved. Because it was special. So I've got an engraved ink bottle that Vinesse Pens did for me. It wasn't my first bottle of ink that I've emptied. That would be kind of a cool thing, though, to get engraved. You know, just as a little memento. I totally think you should keep it, though. You know, you can use it for other things. Plus, it's just kind of a good memory thing. And, you know, something maybe neat to have on your desk. You know, that you can tell stories about or something like that. So, absolutely keep it in my book. What about you?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think keep it. Right? Like, find something to do with it. Don't just, like, put it in a drawer would be my feeling. And so, you know, you could use it for something else. Or get it engraved. Or put it on a shelf if you want to. But there's stuff to do. I recommend finding something to do with it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So, Jim wants to know, if you're going for a small pocket fountain pen, pros and cons between the following three. Koveco Sport, one of their various body materials. So, plastic or one of the metals. Pilot Prera or Twisby Mini. Mainly looking for the best nib straight out of the box. I prefer fine or extra fine and wet. So, we can answer this in lots of ways. Best nib straight out of the box, to me, is Prera. Especially for fine or extra fine. Those Japanese fine lines are going to be the finest you can get. Pilot's fine lines are amazing. Twisby Mini out the box is also good. The lines won't be as fine as Prera. Koveco is eliminated from that question. Because their nibs can be hit or miss. That said, if we stop the conversation before the best nib straight out of the box. That's a caveat. I'm picking the Koveco Sport over the Prera and the Mini. I just think it's the best pocket pen out of the three. The way the cap sits on the pen. It makes it smaller, more compact. The plastic barrels will be as light as or lighter than the Prera. The metal barrels will obviously be heavy. If that's something you want to look into. The kicker is, though, they don't have the best nib straight out of the box. So, that's kind of a hard question to answer. If I'm taking everything you put in here, best nib straight out of the box and fine or extra fine, out of Koveco, Sports, Pilot Preras, or Twisby Minis, I'm picking the Pilot Prera out of the three. It's a pen I actually really enjoy writing with. It's very small, very lightweight. It's one of the few pens I write with that I post the cap because it makes it the perfect writing link. Do you have anything to add to any of these?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Any comments? Well, I mean, I've already spoken highly of the Pilot Prera in this episode. So, I really recommend it. I think it's fun. You can get it in a bunch of colors. It's not very expensive. And it's kind of built like a tank.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, if you're going to get down to the fine or extra fine range, that nib is top notch. It's really, really great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And, of course, if you want to go fine or extra fine, you should be going Japanese anyway. Right? Yep. If that's your bag, if you even consider extra fine, then you should be going Japanese.