Editing The Pen Addict 398/transcript (section)

== Zebra Blend Ink Pin Revelation ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' I do have more follow-up. We did the OKB general election recap like a couple of weeks ago. It's the big Japanese poll of stationary users for their favorite pins. And we were at the time, we had no clue what the number two ranked pin of the entire list. Yes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That was when I was using Google Translate on the screen, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes. So then we figured it out. And it's called the Zebra Blend, which is one of their emulsion ink pins. And a very kind reader went and bought me that pin and sent it to me. And I have it in my hand right here.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh. Okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So this was the number two. Number two overall. It was like Jetstream, which, okay. Yeah. Great. This pin. And then like every other pin that you have heard of, like Zebra Saracic Clip and Uniball Signo DX and just on and on and on. All that good stuff. But this one was just like such a huge outlier for me. The idea around this pin is not as much as the refill, Myke, when I read the marketing of it. So like it is a lot around the refill, right? It's supposed to be this hybrid ballpoint ink like the Jetstream. You know, it writes like a rollerball. I mean like a ballpoint, but it's very dark like a rollerball. So great. But what the blend tries to be is a pin that cuts down on any of the vibration when you're writing. Like the way the grip section is made and the way the whole front end of the pin is weighted differently. Like it has a brass weight inside the pin body near the tip and, you know, it makes the center of gravity lower. And the grip is like very soft and comfortable and it's supposed to absorb the vibrations. So it's like a whole, it's a whole thing around this pin. So yeah, there's the, there's the zebra blend for you. And that's why it's number two, I guess.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't fully understand. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I mean, do we understand lots of things?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, like the, the weighting thing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Like I look down, like if I unscrew the barrel and I look down, like I see this brass ring around the inside of the barrel. Like it's, but, but you can't really, if I didn't read that, it's not that noticeable. You know, I don't go, oh boy, this tip pen is really front weighted, you know, or something like that. I don't particularly notice it. It's not, it's not, you know, an outrageous type of feel. It feels pretty normal. Like, which is, it, this is the long way of saying, I really don't get why this pen is number two. It's not that great. Right. Like I wouldn't put it, like, it's probably not top 10 out of that list for me. Um, part of it is because the ink is not that great. I think it's, it's far inferior to the Jetstream ink, even using this pen in the last couple of days. It has what I call, uh, spider webbing or spidering. It's like when you're writing with a ballpoint, you'll stop your letter, lift the pen and then start a new letter. And there'll be a string that connects that sometimes from a ballpoint. Do you know what I'm referring to? Like when I talk about that with a ballpoint ink, it's almost like a little sticky bit. Sure. Yeah. Just say, yeah. And, um,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, I do. I 100% know what you mean.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like if you're making, if you're marketing me as your, this is your super fat, fancy ink, I want it to be a little bit cleaner writing than that. Um, it's just not as clean as like a Jetstream is. So yeah, I would, I would, I would, uh, knock it for that. Um, this wonderful listener also sent me another pen. It's called the Zebra Fordia. F-O-R-T-I-A. Um, it's the Fordia M, which is E-M, which stands for, of course, emulsion. At least they changed the Zemulsion out and just went with a regular emulsion. It's a really nice metal barrel pen. It's a, it's a slim barrel metal pen. And I think it's only like four bucks. I would honestly go for this pen more than the blend, I think. And this pen, actually, when I look back on the list, it was number 42 on the general election results. So it's, um, also seems to be a pretty popular pen. I would, like I said, I would kind of go, I like this, the way this Fordia feels more than the blend. So, but like I said, neither, um, do themselves any favors by having this Zemulsion ink. I think Zebra's gel ink is, is far superior. And the Uniball Jetstream hybrid ink is going to beat the Zebra's emulsion ink every time. So there you have it. That's my vote for the OKB general election. Thanks.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. Should be heavily weighted for you, though. You should get like super delegate votes or something. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. Make your next move at Squarespace because you can create a website for your next idea or project. They give you everything you need to put your next work online. Whether it's getting a unique domain name so people know where to go, right? So you have your website address all set. Take advantage of award-winning, beautiful, customizable templates that you can set exactly how you want. And they have so many options that you can choose from for different types of website. But you can also just build one from scratch. You can just use their tools to do that. But no matter what template you choose, they're super customizable. And the templates are so fantastic because they also have like page structure and stuff. So we used one for our wedding website and it gave us an idea of what we actually need to include on a wedding website, which is really useful. But you don't need to just build wedding websites or events or blogs. You can build anything with Squarespace. Portfolios, online stores, they have a full capability for an online store. Physical digital goods, integrations for services that you need. You can even send out email campaigns to Squarespace now. They are the all-in-one platform that will let you put your project online. There is nothing to install or patch or upgrade. You don't have to worry about any of this stuff because they have got it covered for you. Squarespace have award-winning 24-7 customer support. So if you need any help, they can help you out. I've been using Squarespace for so many years now. It's the place that I go to build websites. I just don't go anywhere else. I know how to use Squarespace. It's super simple. I don't have to worry about all of the pain points, the things that I don't understand about how you get a website running. You don't have to worry about hosting. Exactly. None of that. I don't want to think about any of that stuff. I just want to do whatever it is I want the website online for. There's a reason for it. I don't want to put a website on the internet so I can run the website. I don't care about that stuff. I just want to be able to produce the work that goes there. And Squarespace enables that for me and for so many other people. You can go to squarespace.com slash penaddict right now and sign up for a free trial. No credit card needed. Then when you want to sign up for a plan, you can build your entire website. Sign up for a plan to launch it out to the world to see it. Their plans start at just $12 a month. But you can get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and show your support for this show by using the offer code penaddict. That is squarespace.com penaddict and the code penaddict for 10% off your first purchase. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of RelayFM. Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm glad you put the Namisu. Are we going to go with Naos? Naos? N-A-O-S?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I don't know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. The Namisu Chaos pen. I'm glad you put this in because we were just talking about it on stream yesterday. I hadn't seen it before and someone brought it up and wanted my opinion on it. And I got to say, at first glance, it looks great. It is a very Namisu product, right? You look at this and you go, oh, that's a Namisu, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So they're going with Naos. Naos. I just listened to the audio of the video to confirm that because I'd forgotten. Naos.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I wasn't even close. Okay. Cool. Naos. Does it mean? Is there a meaning? Probably, Brad. There's probably like a Greek. Probably. It's probably like the Greek god of swappable pen tips, right? That's what I'm thinking. Sure. Okay. Okay. Because that's what this pen is. So, right? It's a singular barrel with two grip sections. Grip section for the fountain pen style. Grip section for your ballpoint rollerball. Grip, I'm guessing this is Parker style. But a couple of things I wanted to point out. One which I already did.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's an ancient Greek temple. See?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I was close.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You were so close.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it's also a hieroglyph depiction of a temple or shrine.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. Well, this pen body is a wonderland, I guess. Yeah. It's really well done. You know, it's typical Nemisu. This is a Nemisu product. You can see it from a mile away. And I think it's great. The price point is outstanding. I think the bronze pen might be the way to go. Yes. Even though it's the upgraded one. It's the one I would buy. That's pretty great.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's the one I would buy. It looks the best. Yes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And it's not even that much more of a price bump. Maybe $10, $20, something like that. No, it's a little bit more.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a little bit more. Yeah. $42. I see it in pounds to $56 if you're on the early backer thing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So $73 US dollars, which I think is pretty great. So, like, we both like the Ixion when it came out. The Nemisu. The problem they had is they ran into Bach issues, right? It was not Nemisu problems, but they had a fulfillment issue because Bach's got into a production slowdown. And people weren't able to get their nibs. And Nemisu ended up getting them late. And then, like, the QC on them was poor. But in the past couple years, I haven't seen that out of Bach nibs anymore, right? That was the hesitancy in the past about Bach nibs is they went through this real struggle with QC and production. And it seems to be completely solved, as best as I can tell in any Bach nibs that I've received recently. They seem perfectly great. So, yeah. Like, this looks like a good pen. Like, I would be in for it. I haven't backed it yet. If I did, it would be the bronze as well. I don't know if I need it. So I'm thinking about it. But, yeah. The bronze one looks good. So anything you want to add to that?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think that it looks great. I just got lost in Nemisu's Kickstarter page. Did you know they had a canceled project in July where they were trying to make ebonite pens?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No. I don't know how I missed this. I would like to go read the details on this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So they were trying to make ebonite pens. They ended up, they weren't going to. I've looked at, just looked at now. The funding was canceled because they just weren't going to do it. Because their customers thought it was too expensive. Sure. Because it is expensive. And they have, like. It is. Customizable roll stoppers. I put the link in the notes so you can take a look at it. It's not a great looking pen, really. Okay. I think. It might have been the biggest problem. It's like, it doesn't really spark my interest. But it's funny because, like, I found out about this one immediately. The new one. But I feel like I didn't even know this one existed. And it's just a curiosity. But, anyway. The Naos, whatever. I've forgotten how we're calling it now. I think it's beautiful. Now. I like the removable clip. I like that you can choose whether you want rollable or a fountain pen. And you can just change it out. Right? I think it's really clever.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This would be an instant buy for me if they had kept the hexagonal pattern on the cap.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I guess they're just trying to make it different than their other pen, though. Totally get it. Like, what product do they have, right? Then it's the same.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I wanted a Y Studio pen made by Nimesu. Sure. Sure. That's what I was hoping for when I initially saw the pictures. But I think it's really beautiful. But I'm not planning on going for this one. But I would have loved the whole thing to be hexagonal. It would have been great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. I'm with you on that. That would have been, like, definitely the Y Studio Nimesu. So, the refill fits the Pilot G2. So, it is the ceramic roller size, which is the G2 size, Montblanc size, so things like that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. They're shipping it with a Schmidt.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Not the Schmidt that we love. Right. The Schmidt ceramic roller, which is the larger capacity rollerball. And it's not as good of ink as the one we like, the 8127.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. This is a great deal. This is a good-looking pen. I like this company a lot. I think they make really good stuff. British company. Yep. They've already met their funding goal on this one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And they will. The price looks good. So, yeah. I mean, that's my takeaway. It's like they did another good job, it seems like, to me. Mm-hmm. Right. So, very cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Last couple things I want to get to, then we'll get to some Ask TPA. Okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've updated two more lists on the top five pen list on the Pen Attic site. Probably two of the more popular lists. One which never changes, which is the top five micro-gel, micro-tip gel ink pens, which is your sub-five millimeter gel ink pen category. Right. The Uniball Signo DX is the best pen there. And it's been that way for a long time. The Zebra Saracic clip has been number two for a long time. Like, I think those two are the best by a pretty decent margin. The Pilot Juice Up is number three. The Pilot Hitec C is number four. And the Uniball Signo RT1 is number five. But I really think, like, all of my recommendations would stop after the Signo DX and the Saracic clip. Unless you were looking for something really specific that the Pilot Hitec C can offer you. Now, I love the Hitec C. You know that. Everyone listening knows that. It's my number two behind the DX just because of how cool the line is. But I know that it's just, like, a frustrating pen for a lot of people. So, it ranks down the recommendation list a pretty good bit. So, yeah. That's a pretty stable list over the years. There's not much that changes there. My dream scenario, which I put in the notes section, is if Pentel would get rid of the Sleechy lineup completely. Because the barrel is so bad, but they have a good refill going. And moved it into, just killed off the Sleechy. And then expanded on the Energel lineup. And had some nicer, thinner barrels for the smaller tip pens. But not as thin as the Sleechy. Like, it went too far away from the Energel. It needs to be between the Sleechy and the Energel. That pen would be pretty amazing. But I don't know that they're going to do that. So, you know, this is my little sweet spot of the pens that I like. I know it's not for everyone. But this is the type of pen that made me start the Pen Addict way back in the day. You know, trying to find that micro gel and micro tip pen. And I just have a fascination and a passion for these pens. And I love them very much. Anything to say on that before we get to the real fun?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I have nothing to say on the next one. And I have a lot to say. The first one, I have a lot to say on the next one. So, let's just move straight on to the next one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Top five fountain pens under $50. You made a fantastic change here. Okay. I feel like it's right. But I get stuck in the titles. I get stuck in the nomenclature, right? In the details of, okay, I'm saying this is the top five fountain pens under $50 that I recommend.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But the readers, based on the feedback that I've gotten over the years, use this as this is the beginner fountain pen category.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because that is what it actually is.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And that is what it is. And for years.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It serves this purpose. This is the purpose. Because under $50, that's the beginning. That's it. That's the beginning of a fountain pen. There isn't anything else.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But for years, I made it the top five fountain pens under $50 recommendation. Not considering pure beginners.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There is a difference between this is the best fountain pen you can get for under $50. And this is the best pen you can get under $50 that should be your first fountain pen. That difference is small in wording, but massive in execution because of the filling system. And this is what you outlined, right? Like, whilst both me and you agree, the best fountain pen, the actual best fountain pen you can buy for under $50 is the Twisby Eco. One of the reasons that we think it is the best fountain pen is its filling system. It's great. Under $50, you get a really good piston filler. Right? It's like, you get that. That's what you get. And it's a demonstrator. You can see the ink sloshing around in there. Fantastic. Right? Looks wonderful. And you get a great nib. But for somebody who is starting out in fountain pens, ink is a nightmare. Yeah. Right? You want to start somebody out with cartridges. Preferably that come in the box. Preferably that come in the pen. Right? Lamy put it in there. All you've got to do is push it. And it's ready to go. Right? And if that's your first fountain pen, nobody should start with bottles of ink. Like, you just shouldn't. It's too much. It's too much of a commitment. It's too scary. Mm-hmm. So, yes. Whilst, you know, TWSBI ECO, number one, it needs to move down the list a little bit because of what this list actually represents.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. Yep. So, like, I definitely go back and forth on it. But, you know, my email inbox tells me how people are using this list. And they're saying, I want to buy my first fountain pen. And I don't know that the TWSBI ECO is the right answer for that. So, it's now number three on the list. Lamy Safari, number one. Pilot Metropolitan, number two, which I still hesitate about. But it's still, even with the price increase, it's a classic. Like, it feels like what people have an idea of the fountain pen in their head. That's what the Metropolitan feels like, right?