Editing The Pen Addict 449/transcript (section)

== Leonardo Pura Collection ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So, I wrote in the document, the header of this segment in the document is Leonardo is on a heater, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, my word.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I want what they're drinking or what they're eating. So, this is the new Pura collection. It's three colors of a satiny, translucent blue. One model is blue. One model is black. One model is orange, gold trim, and silver trim. It's just another really nice job from Leonardo. And I'm shocked at the pace that they're on right now is really pretty intense, right? Like, it's good. Like, I mean, I'm for it. Like, I'm not going to buy any of this new stuff. Like, that's one of the things that I wanted to talk about. It was like, I have my Leonardo's, right? Like, I am well invested in Leonardo's. And like, every two, three months, they come out with these insane new materials, insane new looks. And they're all really, really good. So, how do you manage that as like a consumer and as a pen user, pen hobbyist? So, you know, like that's a whole different conversation. But I can't help but be fascinated by what they're doing. So, I even put in the link to, so we have the link in the show notes to Instagram, Leonardo's Instagram page. But they didn't show, Myke. Like, I happen to see the all black model with the rhodium trim on Insta Emmys Instagram, which is a very popular, beautiful Instagram page. It's got the full barrel with it uncapped. I mean, they're doing a really good job. That is the murder version. Yeah, this is the murdered out version. This is, and these are the piston filler models. So, these are the Grandes. So, they're like 500 bucks. 14K nibs, 500 bucks, piston fillers. I mean, yeah. Like, and like, we've even probably skipped over some of their new releases. Like, they're coming fast and furious. So, they are on a heater right now. Is this the one?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' None of any Leonardo's.

'''Myke Hurley:''' When I was putting this in the show notes, I found one that I hadn't seen. So, they did, and this is going to be a surprise coming from me. They do a primary manipulation with gold trim that I couldn't believe how good looking it was. And I had never seen it before researching this pin, the Pura pin this morning. I hadn't seen that setup before. I'm scrolling through their Instagram page. It's not even on their Instagram page. Where did you find it? I found it on the StilaGraphica.it shop where I used to buy some of my Montagrappas from recently. So, I don't know the name of it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, this is Manipulation 4.

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

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is a completely different type of color.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Oh, wow. It's got some depth. It's got gold trim, which is normally not my thing. It's like rose gold, though, right? But that really kind of... That one made me stop in my tracks, to be perfectly honest with you. Yeah. Like, I love these Puras, right? Like, I think these are cool. But that one, I was like, number one, where did this come from? Because I haven't seen it before.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, it says coming soon, so...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. Yeah, it's pretty fascinating. We'll put that in the show notes since we're talking about it. Save that link to that. Does it have a full name? That's the other thing, is it's in that Grande Primary Manipulation genre that they have. I mean, they're kind of specific.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Memento Zero Grande Primary Manipulation 4.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So, I don't know what's different about this one, but this one stood out to me in a way that I didn't think it would. Like, this one, like, stopped me in my tracks.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is really beautiful.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So, that might be the one. I don't know. And, like I said, I hadn't seen any details on that before, and it was really cool. Related to this, Myke, I wanted to bring up Visconti's new, similar, thought-out pens. These actually released first, and this kind of came out in the, you know, a couple weeks ago, after, two weeks ago, showing. And, you know, didn't have any time to bring them up with Adina last week. So, Visconti made a Homo sapiens model that's also, like, a demonstrator. And I'm bringing this up because I actually got people, like, freaking out on the prices on these. And it's like, I don't want to, like, compare. Like, the Leonardo's, like, 500. These Visconti's are, like, 800.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I can't believe this is $800. Yeah. I'm sorry. It's too much. You know what this looks like to me? Visconti's entry.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This looks like their entry-level pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. With the jewel. The stone. The stone thing. Right? The finial.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's the coloring of the name and the clip.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It kind of has a vibe to me of, like, hey, you know, we're Visconti. Here's your 1, 2, 3 starter version. Yeah, this should be the Visconti. By the way, it's retail 995.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This should be, like, the Van Gogh collection level. Like, the 200 to, like, the idea behind this pen is that this material, I don't, there was, it's some story about this material. Like, this way these are handmade from, like, a single, I don't know. Like, it's a whole, it's a whole thing. Like, it's a whole marketing thing, right? Which is a lot of Visconti's prices. Prices. Because I look at the Homo sapiens that I want to get. The Lava, you know, the new white, red, and brown ones. They're, like, $180 less than this. And then that's where Visconti loses me, right? That's where I get confused about what are we doing with these new demo stones ones when you have this killer one that's, like, $620. Which is obviously crazy expensive. But then, like, we're at least talking then. We can have a conversation then. And then we do this. It's, like, $800. I was, like, is this the same company? It's, like, I try to, like, line these things up in my head. And I really shouldn't, right? But I do. And, like, I just wonder about this one as much. And someone, we had an ask TPA about this. Actually, I had multiple ask TPAs just questioning the price point of this pen. And it's, like, there's nothing I can say. I have no idea. Like, it seems like a lot. It's too much money. It seems like a lot. It's too much. But, like, on the same token, I'm sitting here going, boy, I would really, thinking about that $620 one, like, does that make me a hypocrite? Right? So who knows? Who knows? So good times. But it was funny. Leonardo and Visconti both came out with a not similar looking pen, but similar concepts of these solid, bright colors. And I think they both look good. The Visconti, I'm with you. I know you don't like the Visconti clip. I do like the Visconti clip. But the...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is one of the better interpretations of it. I think this is one of the nicer looks of it. I like the enamel fill that they're doing. I actually think that it makes it more attractive. But just the overall look of the pen, I can't believe that they're saying, like, hey, the suggested retail price of this pen is $1,000. Like, I'm sorry. I just can't get on board with that. Like, when the Leonardo's are half that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I think it's, you know, like the chat room is saying, there's a lot of additional work to fully polish the interior. That's why the Leonardo's are the satin finish, right? Because it's a lot of work. Like, I get it. It's marketing. I know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But this is clear acrylic. Like... Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? It's like, yes, you can continue to work on something until it costs $20,000. But it doesn't mean I want to pay for it. Like, these are decisions you make, not me. Right? I haven't decided that you're going to continue polishing it until I can see clearly through it. And I don't think I need that. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, like... I think your point was valid about, like, this is in the... This would do better, in my opinion, and this is piggybacking off your point, this would do better as a $350 steel nib, my first fancy Visconti pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I agree. I just... Again, it's like... I'm trying to think of how to describe this. Like, if you... I'm really going to boil this down to a point that I think is not intended to be disrespectful to Visconti, but it's kind of trying to make the point. Like, you take, like, a plastic carrier bag that you get from a store, right? Mm-hmm. If you made some kind of, like, artisan version of this, which is, like, handmade in some way, but still looks like a plastic carrier bag, and tell me it costs 15 grand, like, it doesn't mean that it's going to look expensive. Like, this... I don't think I've made a very good metaphor here. I understand, like... It looks... It just has a look of a pen I've seen many of. Maybe in person, I'll be like, wow, the clarity of this thing, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' But... It's funny you said that. I really want to try the blue one and see it in person. I think I would super enjoy it, but would never want to own it. I think it would look really cool, but I could never justify buying it, which is... I mean, that's Visconti's move, right? Like, that's why I don't own one, because I haven't quite justified the cost for what they're selling me. And, you know, this one's in there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I get luxury goods, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you know, I understand a lot of that stuff. Oh, yeah, totally. But this just... For me, it just... It really isn't it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. So, anyway. So, we had some comments on that. I just wanted to touch base. Real quick, and a little bit of follow-up from some issues I was having with my Nakaya mic, and then we'll get into some Ask TPA. Yay. So, my first Nakaya, the black and green one, the Nakaya Portable Ayo Tamanuri is the finish. My first, my favorite, still the best for me. I generally, a lot of times, just pop in Platinum's ink cartridges into there, because I love their blue-black ink cartridges. And I have the Mount Fuji water ones, right? The Mountain Runoff blue-black cartridges, which are my favorite, because they make me giggle, and the color is a little bit better than standard. Pop that in there, and it wouldn't flow. And Platinum's one of those cartridges that, when you pop it in, it's usually engineered to get down through the feed, out the nib, in a reasonable time frame, right? I've had some ink cartridges, like, say, a short International Ink cartridge that may not always, depending on what pen you're using, may not always flow immediately. But the idea of cartridges is it should be a quick change, and you're ready to write pretty soon. You might have to scroll a little bit, get it flowing. I worked on this, I let it sit, you know, I was swirling it, I was shaking it, couldn't get it to write for, like, a day or two, so I let it sit, tip down, see if I could get the ink flowing, would never flow.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Did you just not use it for a while?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I mean, yeah, but that doesn't have anything to do with it. Because, I mean, it was cleaned out, like, pristinely before, so it's, like, basically like picking up a new pen, popping in an ink cartridge. So, like, the matter of not using it is irrelevant in this case. And then I even, like, after, like, two days, I was very confused. I was like, I want to see what happens here. Like, I've carried it around in my pocket, nibbed down. I've done, like, everything I think I should do normally for this pen to just work. And it wouldn't. So, like, by day three, I had taken it into the kitchen and disassembled it, like, completely. Pulled the nib, pulled the feed, pulled everything out, cleaned it, you know, flossed the tines, did everything. Put the ink cartridge back in, nothing. So then I was just like, forget it. I'm just going to go and grab a paper towel, and I'm going to shake it, like, really, really hard and see what happens. Like, I really didn't want to do that. And boom, that was it. Like, the ink started flowing then. Like, I could have done that the first day, the first minute, but I, like, I really shouldn't have had to.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I don't know. It's not that big a deal, but I was making a big deal about it on Instagram because it was annoying me. And I don't know. It was just, like, one of those little frustration things. So now if I get an ink cartridge and it doesn't write, like, in the first, like, five minutes or so, I'm just going to go toss it around a little bit. And make sure it goes. You know, this, I've never had an issue with the ink flowing in this pen. I use this pen a lot. I've used it with converters and ink bottles. I've used it with cartridges. I was just a little flummoxed, but it's writing now. So I can stand down from, you know, throwing my Nikai across the room, which I would never do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Let's finish out today's episode with some hashtag Ask TPA questions. O-S-A-U-T-S says, My favorite pen brand is firmly Aurora, and my best writing pen is arguably the Pilot Custom 823. So why, then, is my favorite pen I own, the Estabrook SD Rocky Top with the journal and nib? The material and the writing experience are perfect, but the dollar doesn't equal best.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So my comment that I wrote in this, and I very much believe, is the money spent doesn't equal the best, and it never has, and it never will.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I firmly believe, a lot of people don't like this kind of thing, but, like, how something could be favorite and best, and they're different. Yes. You can have something that is your favorite. Like, so you can have your favorite film, but you can also have a film that you think is the best film that you've seen, you know? It doesn't mean that they're the same thing, because your personal tastes and your appreciation of art can and should be different.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I mean, this falls in my realm that I love the Sailor King of Pen, you know, just for what it is, how it feels when I use it, but, like, the Nakaya that I use is, well, they're about the same price, but, like, I use the 1911 more, right? Like, it's a better all-around pen, it writes wonderfully, it's half the price. That doesn't mean it's any less of a pen than, you know, a pen twice at its cost. It's what you,

'''Myke Hurley:''' it's what the product does to meet your own personal expectations. Like, the price doesn't matter, right? That's why I love, like, a Jetstream or a Hitec C, because it fulfills this expectation that I have of what I want to experience, right? And then the dollar figure doesn't matter. But the more you spend is never going to, like, change, like, whether it's necessarily good or not. It's going to change a little bit more about how you feel about the product, not how it functions. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Instantiate, this says, if you were a pen, what pen would you be? I think I would be the more pen from the 1920s. Not that impressive from the outside, but my insides are kind of a mess. But when I flex, oh boy,

'''Myke Hurley:''' why flex?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I love that. This is really funny. I, like, I had to think about this. And I picked a Nakaya, but I actually picked one I don't own, but I picked the one I want to own. And it's the most basic. I'm the best pen in the world. No, it's the most basic. It's the single most basic Nakaya. Right. It's the black with the red, which is the Kuro Tamanuri. So it's the Piccolo, which is the small one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And it's black with, like, the red underlying color. And I just think it's the epitome of Japanese design, right? It's extremely simple, but it's highly complex. I wrote down subtle, but deadly. Like, that's the kind of pen, like, I want to be. I don't want to be showy. You know, I don't want to be flashy, unlike some people who are about to talk.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But I like, I like the subtleness. I like the craftsmanship. I like the idea. I like the history. I like the looks. I don't know. It's, it's subtle, but deadly, Myke. I'm gonna have to go with, like, the very, very basic Nakaya, Piccolo, Kuro Tamanuri.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I was looking around my office and trying to come up with something and I didn't feel like I could really come up with a good answer. But I saw a pen that made me chuckle to think about, and it's the Retro 51 Chiopino. Yeah. And it's like, because, it's super regular on the inside, right? This is the same as every other Retro 51 Tornado you can buy. The refill is the refill. But on the outside, it's trying so hard, maybe even a little bit too hard to be fancy. So, I feel like maybe that, maybe that's me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. If I had to think of what you have, like, I obviously don't know everything you had. If I was thinking of a pen, the one that came in mind, it kind of falls in the line of this one, is the Alice in Wonderland Sailor. Like, that pen's got a lot going on. It seems like a, it seems like a very, like, like, Myke could be that pen. Like, it's got a lot going on. It's very cool. It's got some neat, neat things going on, you know. I don't know. So, I don't know. That was my, my thought while you were, while you were thinking about this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And the last question today comes from Brooklyn Baker. Hey guys, I feel like I should know the answer to this considering how often Retro, Retro 51s come up. But is there a difference in between the models, like the Tornado's and whatever the limited editions are? And what is your preferred refill?

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is, it's surprisingly a hard question. Well,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' because there is some nuance to this question. Yes. Because, so, for as much as I can tell, they used to be. But I actually, now, can only find, like on Retro 51's website, they seem to only have Tornado's there. Yeah. Where they used to make, like, Tornado's slim for a while, and they had one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They used to have some retractables as well. Yeah, it's so,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I can never remember the name of the retractable because they call the Tornado's poppers. Right. And that should have been what they called the retractable one, but they didn't. Right. But basically, every Tornado. They did,

'''Myke Hurley:''' actually, sometimes call them poppers. I swear they had a retractable that was a popper, but yes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But, so, the Tornado's are technically called poppers, and they are all the same on the inside. The refills are all the same.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. But, do they not have any with the ballpoints in there anymore? I guess that's the question, right? Like, figuring out, I'm with you, I 100% agree with what you said, but I, I'm remembering, like, they've had some ballpoint refills, maybe it was the slims that had to fit a different refill size, you know, things like that. But right now, as far as I can tell, it's just the Tornado, which is the shape of the pen, right? It's designed to look like a Tornado, so, you know, small, small tip, and then it widens out just a little bit as you go up to the top of the pen. Uh, favorite refill for them, I use the P8126, which is the one millimeter smaller than the ones that the Reftro 51 ships with by Schmidt. And then I use the,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' P8127.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm. And then I switch some of them out to a refill called the Oto Flash Dry, which is a 0.5 millimeter gel needle tip. So, it's not necessarily aesthetically as perfect as the Schmidt refill is, because it's a needle tip, right? So, it kind of, uh, it's a little bit jarring in the taper in the front end, but I, it works for me. Like, um, those are, those are my favorites, so.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, I think that wraps it up, uh, for this episode, right? Yes. 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 RSTPA, or use question mark RSTPA in the RelayFM members' Discord. You can also email them to Brad at hello at penaddict.com. Penaddict.com is where you can find Brad's writing. Also, knock.co and spokedesign.com for Brad's products that he works on. All very, very good stuff. Uh, you can find Brad on Instagram. He is penaddict. On Twitter, he is dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. Brad streams on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. Eastern over on twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can find me online. I'm imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Uh, this show is a part of RelayFM. If you would like to find a new show for yourself, why don't you go to relay.fm slash shows, and I'm sure there'll be a new podcast there that you can add to your queue. Thank you to Squarespace for their support of this week's episode, and thank you for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

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[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]