Editing The Pen Addict 509/transcript (section)

== Aesthetic Appeal of Pens ==


'''Brad:''' Right. Aesthetically, it makes you pick it up, right? And then you decide, you know, okay, is this the right shape for me? Because it does come in other Franklin Kristoff shapes. And then, well, what do I want to do on the front end to complement that in a nib? And then what ink do I want in it to kind of put it all together? And you have this whole concoction that just ends up, you know, being perfect. And I really like that.

'''Myke:''' Brad did mention his newsletter. I'll take an opportunity to mention it more completely. Bradley, Brad has a wonderful membership newsletter called Refill, which goes out every week on Sundays. And you can go and check it out for yourself by going to penaddict.com slash members. I love Refill. I read it every week. And this past weekend, was it the weekend before we? Yeah, it was this past weekend's edition. You showed off a lot more information about all of the stuff that you bought. So I know you're going to publish individual things and more on the blog. We'll talk about more on the show. But also there's a thing called the penaddict rating system, the PAR. We should probably do a show on that.

'''Brad:''' Well, this was always the plan, right?

'''Myke:''' This is the first time we've mentioned it. One day we're going to talk about the PAR. But I think your plan is to eventually make some of that information more public. Yes. It's a fascinating extra thing where Brad has been assigning a rating system to a selection of well-known products. It's really cool, actually.

'''Brad:''' It's something I've wanted to do forever. And I've never been confident enough that I could pull it off and it be worth everybody's time. I've gotten more feedback on that than almost anything I've done in a long time. Well, yeah, because you're making some real moves. I mean, some of them I don't. And it's not on purpose. It's just like the words I want to get out about things. So, yeah. Yeah. So we'll share more of that. Like I don't intend to keep things private, but I do run a membership program. And, you know, members, you know, you always want to. You get it first. You get it first and talk about it. So, yeah. But the rating system does require tons of context, right? It's almost you kind of need to look at it as a whole, a big picture type of thing. So I needed to like put in the work to start building that like over the first year. So it's been fun so far. I'll have another one coming out this afternoon.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. I want to break down a bunch of them later on.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. We'll do. We'll. That will definitely be a show in the near future. Maybe this summer sometime.

'''Myke:''' Right. Yeah.

'''Myke:''' All right. So should we do a couple of. Well, actually, we'll do some nice TPA, but let's go some follow up. Because before. Yeah, let's do the show. Yeah. We had a message from Craig and Craig wanted some help finding a pen over a hundred dollars. And I believe that you've met Craig at the show.

'''Brad:''' It was awesome. So poor Craig. So Craig, shout out to Craig for being extremely patient.

'''Brad:''' I got the full. He got the full pen addict experience in the few minutes that I was. I met him and said, yeah, let me go help you. And let me go show you a few things of what I was talking about. And then you can take it from there. And if you have any questions. And from the time I met Craig said, hey, let's go look at some things. It was probably another 15 to 20 minutes of me talking to other people, getting stopped, taking pictures, doing the whole pen addict routine at a Saturday morning on a pen show. Knowing that I also have to leave in about 30 minutes. I felt kind of bad for Craig. But we got there. We got there. And he was very happy with what he ended up going with. He sent me a picture on Twitter. He ended up getting a Pilot Custom 74 and some ink and some paper. And he was real appreciative. And I tell that to anyone at a pen show. You know, if you see me at a pen show, I will help you shop for things. And help answer questions. And I do that a lot at pen shows. And, you know, a lot of the pens I bring to pen shows are representative of things that people might want to research at a pen show. So they can try. Like I had, you know, a friend trying to decide, you know, what type of Japanese. They bought a Pelican. And they wanted to have like a Japanese pen now. You know, a comparable. You know, so do we look at a Pilot? Do we look at a Platinum? Do we look at a Sailor? And, you know, they were able to test out a few of these things. You know, what about a Pilot 823? I hear everyone raving about that. So I have an 823 there for them to test. Or maybe they're considering getting a nib grind. And, you know, I have a few different nib grinds on certain pens. And we can discuss why this grind over this grind. Or what, you know, these type of things, these comparisons are. And that's my favorite part of the pen show is helping other people out. So, yeah, it was cool. It was cool to meet Craig. And I'm glad he had a good time at the pen show. And I hope I helped out a little bit. But...

'''Myke:''' Well, that's like the prime service, you know.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, yeah. I love it. Direct help. Yeah. I tell people all the time. Like, especially people that it's their first pen show. I was like, hey, if you have any questions, just come find me. And I'm glad to help out.

'''Myke:''' All right. Should we knock out... Talking of helping out. Should we do some Ask TPA?

'''Brad:''' Yeah, yeah. We have a bunch of Ask TPA. And I apologize. We have some really long and detailed ones that I want to get to. I don't know that we're going to be able to get to them this week. But we'll hit maybe this one this week. And then maybe we can do like a full Ask TPA show pretty soon. Because I know I'm behind on a couple of these. And people are probably already moved on from me trying to answer these questions. But let's hit a couple and see what we can do.

'''Myke:''' All right. First comes from Kathy. So this is Kathy Campbell, who is our community manager here at RelayFM and host of Roboism and Conduit. So after last week's episode, where you mentioned the Estabrook Esty, the candy one, I immediately sent this to Kathy. Because Kathy loves unicorns. She is the unicorn sidekick. Yep. And I took one look at this pen and I knew it was for Kathy. So I sent it to her and she bought it immediately, as I expected. And then asked the question, what ink should I get to match this pen?

'''Brad:''' Number one, they just need to change the name of this pen to the Esty Cathy fountain pen. Yeah. I actually don't think candy is a great name for this. Actually, I don't either. I would have been fine with cotton candy as a whole.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. Because when I think of candy, just candy is red and white. Mm-hmm. Right? That's what I imagine. Yeah. You know?

'''Brad:''' What do I imagine if I just say candy? That's a good question. I'd have to think about that. But it's not this. This is definitely cotton candy-ish. It's unicorn. Like, this is unicorn-y. But it's more unicorn-y than anything. It's pink and purple and gold and sparkly. Like, it's all of the things. It's amazing. It's amazing. Which makes it a little bit difficult to nail the ink. So, my first inclination is to just go for the straight-up hot pinks that I love so much. Specifically, Pannonia cotton candy. Shocker. To go in there. I also just bought Pilot Orochizuku Tsutsuki, which is another hot pink. I like all the hot pinks and magentas to go in, like, the pink and blue pens.

'''Myke:''' I mean, always got to give a shout-out to Califolio Andronople.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Califolio Andronople is right in that same category. But those are what we would consider standard inks. And as you and I both know, Kathy is not a standard person. And I mean that in a loving way. She's amazing. So, she almost deserves more sparkle with this pen, don't you think? Like, what can we do for sparkly?

'''Myke:''' I mean, this really calls for a shimmer ink, right? It kind of does.

'''Brad:''' I think it does. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I would probably, in that case, if I'm going shimmer, if I'm going writing ink, I'm going with, like, magenta, you know, hot pinks, things like that. If I'm going sparkle ink, I'm going to pick one of the purple sparkly inks, kind of, to go with this, to complement just the swirls. And have, like, the gold sparkles. So, I don't have one specifically offhand, but, like, the Robert Oster shake and shimmer and the diamine shimmers.

'''Brad:''' What have I tried in the past? I tried one of the grape ones. I think it's a little too dark.

'''Myke:''' My issue with this is I agree with you on the shimmer ink. I have not tried a shimmer ink in a color that I think would match this pen. That's my problem.

'''Brad:''' There's some purple ones out there.

'''Myke:''' Oh, I know. I'm sure that there are, right? But I haven't tried it.

'''Brad:''' So, that's what I'm saying. Like, I've tried the brand of shimmer ink, say, you know, the J. Herban or Robert Oster. But the exact color in those inks, like, I don't know that I could pick one out. But we could. But I know, like, if you pick one from those brands, it's going to be good. So, let me look real quick. I'm browsing. I don't know if I'm going to be able to find something fast enough. But let's see.

'''Myke:''' What about Robert Oster, Shake and Shimmer, Las Vegas? Oh, what does that look like?

'''Brad:''' It's like, it's purple. Oh, that's the new one. Oh, and it's a bright purple, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's probably a good choice. That looks pretty fun, right? That's probably better than I want to come up with. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

'''Myke:''' Purple with, like, a little green in there to give a bit of contrast.

'''Brad:''' And so, the second one, I will tell you, let me get the name. It's one of the Vinta Fantasy inks. And there's a bluish, pinkish one that actually might be the best color. But it's brand new. I don't know where I can find it real quick.

'''Myke:''' Okay.

'''Brad:''' So, vamp for me. I'm going to get this.

'''Myke:''' Well, my vamping is currently looking at a website called Pure Pens. I've never heard of them before, I don't think. But they have Vinta inks. Okay.

'''Brad:''' I know I can find the link. I just, the name is weird, so I can't recall it.

'''Myke:''' Because one of the things that I was wondering about this pen is, because there's so many colors. Like, would this be one where you wouldn't try and match one of the colors? Like, you would go with something off base?

'''Myke:''' No. That, like, thematically matches, but color, but doesn't match color? Like, I was wondering about that, you know?

'''Brad:''' No. I think you kind of want to go reasonably matchy.

'''Myke:''' Because I was thinking a gold ink would be fun.

'''Brad:''' Here it is. It's called Lock Bay. I'll put the link in here. Okay. It's blue with a pink shimmer. Okay. Oh, let's see here. But I couldn't remember the name.

'''Myke:''' Hmm.

'''Brad:''' There you go. Take a look at that one. So, that's a brand new ink. They have a fairy tale collection. I'm saying fantasy collection. Oh, this is also really good. Yeah. This one.

'''Myke:''' Does this have, like, sparkles in it? Or is it just a shimmery? It is.

'''Brad:''' It's got shimmer.

'''Myke:''' Hmm.

'''Brad:''' So, this whole fairy tale collection, probably any of these inks. There's one called Plume. I don't know if it's Plume A, but it's more purpley. And then they have a gold one. I would maybe look at the Vinta fairy tale collection. That might be the option. If Kathy wants a shimmer type ink. Otherwise, like I said, if I'm picking just a pure writing ink, I'm going hot pink. Just because I personally like hot pink so much. And I have that pen here, the candy. And I think hot pink would look great coming from that nib. But if I wanted something, if I wanted to get a shimmer ink in there, I'm not going with a pink one. I'm going with a purple-blue type of setup. So, yeah.

'''Myke:''' Makes sense.

'''Brad:''' Vinta fairy tale. Brand new. Hot stuff. We're going to be reviewing them on the blog here very soon. I got samples of all those inks, and they look amazing.

'''Myke:''' And Joe asked, what do you both think of the 2022 Pro Gear Soda Pop? I was bummed about the price increase, but this looked too good to pass up. I'm pleasantly surprised by the slim model, which I thought might be too small.

'''Brad:''' It's fantastic. It's a good looker.

'''Myke:''' Yeah.

'''Brad:''' I mean, I'm going to say the one thing that I'm contractually obligated to say, and it's no knock on this pen. It's that they've done this several times, right? It looks the same as- Yeah, I feel like I've seen it before. Lucky Blue looks the same as a couple of other limited editions they do. But that's the thing I always talk about with Sailor or anyone who does limited editions. Sometimes this is someone's first limited edition. Yeah. Right? And they don't care what came before. Uh-huh. And independently of my past experience with seeing this pen before, it's independently great. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. I think it's almost perfect. So if I'm into this stuff or if I'm looking for my first Sailor pen or Sailor Lemon Edition, like expensive Sailor pen, you're going to be hard-pressed to find a better looking one than this one, in my opinion. For me. Like, it's just fantastic. Yeah. Right?

'''Myke:''' Just really bright blue, completely demonstrator with gold glitter sprinkled throughout the body. Mm-hmm. It's great. Really, really great. I don't know what the finial looks like. I haven't seen an image of that.

'''Brad:''' Probably standard. The nib's standard. So I think most of the pen of the years are pretty standard nib finials. Still old-style nib. It does have the new Anker nib. No, it's got the new Anker. No, it's the new one? Let me see. I just saw it. I thought I saw a new Anker. No, it's the old one. You're right. Yeah. It's the old one. I thought I saw this one. No. No, one picture has the- Yeah, it's the old one. One picture has weird lighting that makes me think it's the new one, but it's the old one.

'''Myke:''' Don't test me. Sorry. When it comes to Sailor, I mean, come on. I know. There's no finial picture. I'm looking at one right now. I'm looking at the nib. Because it still has all the adornment on it, right? Yeah. Where the newer ones, they kind of got rid of a lot of that and just focused more on the Anker. And less on the 1911, too. Yep. I think it's fantastic. It's great. Yeah. I mean, I have a couple of pens that are like this. Not this color, right? But I have a purple one that has this glitter through it and stuff. Right. So sometimes you can get too many at the same time.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. If you're looking for this type of pen, you're going to be hard-pressed to find a better one. Yeah.

'''Myke:''' And I will say for what Joe's saying, the slim is not small. It's just thin. Yeah. Right? Like, the difference between a slim and standard Pro gear, it's not... Yeah. Sometimes I have to look at them a little bit closer. Yeah. Like, it's not the length of... I mean, there is a length difference, but it's a very small difference. Yeah. It's more of a diameter. It's more of a diameter thing. And honestly, sometimes I can forget, like, which ones of my pens are slims and which ones are standards. Right. So, like... I wouldn't let it put you off. And I would actually recommend that these days, the Pro gear slim is probably the one to go for just because of the price increases. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Like, I'm a 1911 slim fan. You know, like, I think that's my favorite of the two smaller models, right? Pro gear regular, 1911 slim. But, you know, that could just as easily be reversed.

'''Myke:''' Mm-hmm. All right. If you would like to send in a question of your own, just send a tweet with the hashtag AskTPA or use question mark AskTPA in the RelayFM members Discord.

'''Myke:''' You can find Brad online in a bunch of places. Go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com. He's penaddict on Instagram, dowdyism on Twitter, and Brad streams multiple times a week at twitch.tv slash penaddict. I'm imike, I-M-Y-K-E. You can find some products that I work on at cortexmerch.com. And I stream keyboard-related stuff on Fridays at mike.live. Thank you to Uni and Trade for the support of this week's episode. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

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