Editing The Pen Addict 412/transcript (section)

== Transition to Ask TPA Questions ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' All right, so he sent us a question. Challenge, you have to get out as soon as possible. You can only take one Brasstown and one bottle of ink. What are you taking?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So unfortunately, Myke, the context of this is our good friend Glenn lives in Hong Kong and he's thinking about if he has to evacuate quickly because, you know, lots of issues going on in Hong Kong right now. He's like, you know, if I have to come up with this, you know, what would I take? So let me pose the question to y'all. What would you take if you had to, you know, the fire alarms going off of the house, but you actually have time where, you know, you would actually pick up some pens. You know, normally you just run out the door. Let's be clear, you know, the first thing you should be doing is getting your significant other and vacating, not grabbing a set of pens. Purely fictitious. Purely fictitious. Purely fictitious. If you could grab Notco Brasstown, which he purposely chose because it has six pen slots. Which I knew from memory.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Absolutely. No, I did. Absolutely. I would assume you did. I knew you knew that. You were always a good Notco employee, Myke, when you were behind the table. So, and what would you fill it with? And what bottle of ink would you take?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So the bottle of ink for me is easy. I will always want an orange ink if I can only have one ink. And my favorite orange ink is Brad's ink, Pen Addict Fire on Fire. So if I can only have one orange, that's the one that I'm going to take. If I can only have one ink, it's going to be an orange ink. That's kind of just the way it goes for me. Mm-hmm. Then I have six pens, right? And what I decided to do was to try and go for six pens that provide me with different experiences rather than like my six favorite or my six most valuable or whatever, right? Because if I figure then the rest of my pens are gone, I would maybe want six pens that are all kind of different to me for different reasons. So one is the Platinum 3776 Galaxy Starlight. Mm-hmm. Love that pen. It was an expensive pen and it's a beautiful pen. I love the nib in it. I love the way it looks. It's wonderful. The Sailor 1911 Tangerine King of Pen. It's my favorite Sailor that I own, I think. I love the color of it and it's got a wonderful nib in it and it's just a beautiful pen. If I could only have one Sailor, I think I would want it to be one of my king of pens and that's the one that I would choose. The Pilot M90, which I think I will often say this and I feel like it now, is the best pen that I own. Just from a design performance spectacle type of aspect, it does that. I would take the Brooks Urushi Pen Addict Pen. So the pen that Jonathan Brooks made for us, because it's got a lot of sentimental value in it and I just adore that pen. The Canalea Haleakala Silhouette. I would have to take a Canalea pen and the Haleakala Silhouette is my favorite. This is the yellow one. And then I figured, let's also take one non-Fountain pen, the Mark I Apollo edition.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's a really good list. And I look at this list and I realize how impossible it is to answer this question, right? Because you have to leave something off. And when I wrote this up, it was good timing for Glenn's question because I wrote this up for the Pen Addict members, my top three pens. Like literally, if I could only have three pens out of my entire collection of pens, what were those three pens? So they're easily the three that I pick to get this list started. And that's the Namiki Yukari Milky Way. The very, very beautiful, stunning Namiki Pilot pen that I have that I bought last fall. It's continually inked and in use on my desk. It's probably, it's easily my favorite pen. Second is the Nakaya Portable Ayo Tamanuri. So this was my first Nakaya, still my favorite Nakaya. I just love the black ebonite barrel. It's clean, no clip. And the light blue-green undertones of the Ayo Tamanuri finish, which is pretty uncommon to see these days. It was only available at nibs.com. It wasn't like a regular color and they only did a certain amount of them. And then I picked the Edison Pearl G10, which is definitely the most Brad pen of all the pens that I have. It's this beautiful, bright orange material that is, you know, never going to be made again because it's just, I've told the story a million times how it tore up Brian Gray's machines and making it. It was an experiment. And the experiment worked in that it made it clear that he could no longer use that material in any of his machinery. But it's just kind of the perfect shape pen and the perfect color for me being orange. And I just love everything about that pen. So those three I had down, those were locks. Picking the next three, anytime you have to like in the, you know, there's an end point on the list. It's just, it's such a struggle. So I went, I also went with the King of Pen and I went with the King of Pen Sky. So this is the Pro Gear model. This was my first King of Pen. It's my favorite King of Pen to this day. It's just got a stock medium nib. It writes amazingly. I just love the color. I love, you know, the trim. It's everything about that pen is, is really good. The next one is kind of along the lines of your M90, but I'm taking the Pilot Murex because I prefer the Murex over the M90. And this pen, again, it's got its sentimental value to me. Thomas Hall gave me this pen way back in the day. And, you know, his generosity all these years ago has helped guide me in how I like to do things for other people in this community and give back as much as I can. And that's, that's kind of like the, the pen I hold up, you know, for myself to, to remember like how lucky I am and how, you know, great someone else was to me. And I want to, you know, remind myself to pay that forward at all times. It's definitely like a core pen for me. Kind of related. Thomas also loaned me at one point a Pilot 912 with a posting nib. Right. And I have that pen. That is going to be my sixth pen because not only is it this great pen that's like perfect for my writing, it also has special artwork that I sent off for years ago to Japan to get some maki artwork done on it. It's affectionately known now as the Mango Pen, but it's got this great koi design on there. It's one of my most used pens. It's one of my, yeah, it's one of my most special pens. And I just love it. So if I'm filling, filling up the brass town and just getting it and going, those are probably the six. And like, it's super unfair to have to leave all the other ones behind. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Good call on the Mark one Apollo to bring something besides a fountain pen. Oh, I got to pick a bottle of ink. I, yeah. The bottle of ink, uh, the chat already picked it out immediately. So three cheers or I owe Patrick a high five in the chat. He said, I'll bet anyone a high five that, uh, Brad picks pilot of Roshizuku Shinkai and Patrick is correct. That is the ink bottle I would pick. It's my favorite ink.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I figured like, I, I love fountain pens, but I wouldn't want all fountain pens. And also, you know, I just have something else there. Right. It's like, it's also just a very different pen. And I love it. I love the Apollo, like the Mark one Apollo. If I didn't have the Mark one Apollo though, I would still pick the regular Mark one, you know, cause it cannot be understated how much I love that Schmidt refill. Um, so, so yeah, I think that's what I would choose on my list. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I, I might have to rethink like if it was a real emergency, I might not pick the Roshizuku, uh, Shinkai just because that bottle is like less than half full. So I might want some more ink than that. If I was going to worry about that part too much.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Gotta go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't even think if in those situations I would even consider pens really.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, I wouldn't. I honestly, I would, I would like, I'd get my phone in my wallet. Out after I got my family, my family and my pet, I'd get my phone in my wallet because I can access everything I need on my phone and have my IDs. And that was, that was about it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Should we do some hashtag ask TPA questions?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We should do a few. Like these have been building up slowly over the weeks and people are waiting on these answers. And I think I even have a couple more that I didn't put in here. So let's knock out a few. Oh, we still need more. So we can start to make, oh, we, we need more. We're probably at the point where we're just going to have to turn on a full ass TPA show, right? Like they're building up here. So let's knock out, let's, you know, let's hit, let's hit a few and see where we get to. And then we'll take on some more for next week.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Side Rose asks, how many pens is too many to bring to work? I usually have three on my person and between nine to 13 in my bag stored in various not co cases. My job does not involve handwriting multiple copies of war and peace in case that was a question. So I would say you've already exceeded. I feel the amount of pens that are too many. I think the three on your person is probably enough. I don't know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think you've hit the max, but not exceeded, right? I like the three on your person. And then I'd probably have like another six in my bag is I'm thinking back to when I was at my IT job. I easily had that many pens with me at all times. They would live in the bag.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That stayed at the office in a locked drawer. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, I rarely did that even if the drawer was locked. So, right. I had, I had my, um, I had my bait cup, right. With all of the pens that I, that was on the desk that stayed out there for people could steal if they wanted that I didn't care about. And then anything I cared about like side Rose, I'd have, you know, one or two on my person. And then I'd have a pen case that I would take in and out of my backpack. And then I'd probably have another pen case. I'd taken it out of my backpack as I, as I needed things because I use gel pens. A lot. And I use, I wanted my fountain pens for other things. So I bet I, at any time I had probably six to 10 with me every single day, um, because I would, I would kind of run the gamut, right. I'd have mechanical pencil and I have highlighter and I'd have marker and then I'd have like whatever my favorites I'm using at the time. So I just had all my bases covered. So I side Rose, I think you're in the range. That's, that's the range I'm at.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Uh, paper airplane 09 asks, if you have an old pilot custom 74 roller ball, can I convert it to a fountain pen by swapping sections with a modern custom 74 nib? And they've included a picture, uh, of a, of a set here.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I don't think so. Um, this section is a little bit off for swapping a nib into it. Like you have to have the, the whole nib unit to be able to screw in there and you know, the back end of the feed, the way it works in there. I don't think that front end is fully swappable with a 74, but I don't have one to test, right? Like, could you just swap the whole front end of the 74 into the pen? Yeah. I don't know. The more I think about it, I wonder if you could.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I would, I mean, I would be surprised if they were built the same.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I mean, companies didn't really think about that at the time, right? There are companies now that say, Hey, we're going to make one barrel and we can manufacture more efficiently, efficiently. If we can just swap these front ends, right? The section on down to have to, to where you could use a roller ball or fountain pen, but there's usually some sacrifices you had to make in that case, right? To fit one or the other, like you couldn't fit the refill correctly, you know, on, you know, a roller ball refill, you know, if you were swapping it in to the fountain pen barrel, things like that. So I would go with, I would assume not, but boy, I sure would like to test it. Now I'm curious.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. Our next question comes from the ink sampler. Do you have any tips on what stationery to use to start a gardening journal, paper, pen, journal organization? I would wonder if you would want one of those like indestructible paper journals for a gardening journal, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' A hundred percent what you want. You want the right in the rain products. And they, what they have is they've really expanded the range from just kind of standard spiral bound notebooks to really not custom type of, of journals, but they have so many layouts. Right. So not only like with your garden journaling journal, you could have like a grid in the right in the rain notebook to where you could lay out where your rows are and where your spaces are and, you know, keep notes on, you know, the planting and the rotations and the watering and the fertilizing. And it's going to be able to handle any dirt you have. It's going to be handled, be able to handle getting wet. It's going to reject both of those things like the dirt and, and the, um, the water you can just wipe right off because the paper is essentially a plastic paper. So you'll have to use a ballpoint or a roller ball, um, excuse me, a ballpoint or a pencil is going to be your best bet for that. But that's what you want to choose anyway. If you're outside getting those pens dirty, something that's more disposable. Um, you can, you can find, so I would use right in the rain. You could go just straight into like a Fisher space pen, which is going to handle like that dirt and things like that, uh, easier and pressurized. Like it'll write, like if you have to write on a post that's vertical, like the Fisher space pen can handle that, but right in the rain notebook of any format of your choosing, because you'll be able to find one that meets your needs. And then any type of ballpoint or pencil, you're not going to want to use that. You can use roller ball gel or fountain pen inks in a right in the rain notebook.

'''Myke Hurley:''' B.D. Bombs asks, what are your thoughts on different and distinct filling signal, filling systems like the magnet filler from pen BBS? I don't even know what that is. Also, if you could have one pen that could work over any filling system, what would your pairing be? Mine would be a piston filling 3776. What is the magnet filler?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So imagine you've seen, like if you take, um, it's basically like a drag system, right? So there's a, there's a seal and a metal ring around the seal. And then the exterior, you have a magnet that will pull up, say a disc, right? To suck in ink. Like it's, it's, it's. Oh, okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' These are like these super high capacity, um, filling pens, right? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't even know if it's, I don't even know it's that, but it's kind of like an unnecessary. I won't say it's gimmicky. I guess it kind of works, but it was like, why would you, why would you want that? It seems more of a hassle than, than a cool thing to, to have. So yeah, like, I mean, piston, piston fillers are the best in general. I think, I don't think that's, yeah, I think that's a pretty fair statement that probably everyone would agree with. If everyone could have every pen with a filling, with a piston filling system, I think everyone would agree to that. Um, what pen that's not a piston filler, what I want a piston filler in, I would say Lamy King of pen. That would be dope. That pen deserves a piston.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Hmm. Wait, Lamy King of pen?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, so did I say Lamy King of pen? Yeah, you got Lamy on the brain today. I'm staring, I'm staring at these pens, Myke. Pro gear? Pro gear King of pen? I have three of them. Yes, I would love a clear. Sailor, sailor pro gear King of pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' A clear pro gear King of pen with a piston filling, a piston filling system. That would be incredible.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We'll get Jonathan to just handcraft us a Lamy King of pen. Yeah, I'm sure he could do it. Next time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' How hard could it be? Just keep putting the Urushi on until it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And then there you go.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I've done it. He hasn't let us down yet. So, uh, Lamy, Safari, King of pen, Jonathan's coming at you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And finally today from Trevor Newberry, looking for a new fountain pen to lift my spirits and reward myself for some work accomplishments. I have a $200 budget. Prefer piston or eyedropper. Looking for something as unique as I can get at that price point. What would you suggest?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, number one, congratulations, Trevor. Um, and number two, to answer your question, I think it's kind of easier than I thought it would be seeing that you're okay with eyedropping and want something unique. I think you just have to find something at Frank and Kristoff, like a, um, like a model O2 or a pocket 20 in one of the really unique colors or pocket 66 or a 31. Any of just those really cool shapes. You can get them for like 170, 180 bucks. The colors are awesome. The nib choices are spectacular. You can even get like a custom nib grind on there. And you can eyedropper all of those pens, which the Franklin Kristoffs are my favorite pens to eyedropper mainly because I have all kinds of translucent barrels from them. So, cause I like to see the ink sloshing around and that's totally what I would do in this price point because there's not a lot of piston options in this price point, right? You can get your, you know, your Lamy 2000s or your Pelicans, you know, M205s with steel nibs or something like that with piston fillers in that price range. But I think I would go eyedropper Franklin Kristoff with a very neat nib, right? You can get, you know, all kinds of different stub grinds, cursive italic grinds, sig grinds. So that's kind of the path I would go to get something very special for your reward.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. If you would like to send in a question for us to answer on a future episode of the show, just send out a tweet with the hashtag AskTPA, or you can email them to hello at penaddict.fm. F-M, right? No, .com. Hello at penaddict.com. That's it. I did it. You can find Brad streaming live on Twitch every Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern at twitch.tv slash penaddict. And obviously you can find Brad's work at penaddict.com. I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Brad is at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-S-M, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter, penaddict on Instagram. So I'm all over the place today. Well, because I'm all over the place.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. Thanks so much to our fine sponsors. For this week's episode, Uni Pizza Ovens, ExpressVPN, and Squarespace. And thank you so much if you have become a Real AFM member and support this show. We really appreciate it. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]