Editing The Pen Addict 52/transcript (section)

== Pressurized Refill Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' The next one, number five, is a pen that I fell in love with a couple years ago and actually forgot about until I started writing this article. And I might have to get it back out because I really enjoyed it when I used it. And this is another branch out type of pen to where if you haven't used something like this before, you want to – this is the one you want to look at. It's the Kuretake Fudego Kochi brush pen in Superfine. So, brush pens, most people think about having a large, very large, flexible bristle tip pen. This is almost more of a porous tip pen. It's the Superfine. It's got a firmer tip. It's not a very expressive brush, if you will. It's more of a finer, firmer brush tip. And I use this pen to write notes with – I mean, I've had a lot of – got a lot of enjoyment out of this pen. And I think this kind of – this pen is – it kind of really sums up the whole feel of this list. This is kind of a list you want to look at for something if you want to branch out from the norm. That's kind of the gist behind this whole list. You can't find these pens regularly. Maybe you've never tried a brush pen before or something like that. So, this is kind of the first one you might want to consider trying if you've ever thought buying a brush pen or a different kind of pencil or a mini pen or anything like that. So, that's kind of the gist behind this list. I enjoy that pen a lot. And the number six item on this list is one I recommend a ton and is also one of those branch out items. And I think you have this pen on my recommendation. It's the Kokuyu Beetle Tip Highlighter. Of course. That's – I mean, in my book, it really can't be beat for a highlighter just because of its functionality. You can do different things with it, different line widths, wide, medium, super fine, underlining. It does it all. It looks cool. It will freak your friends out when they see it. So, it's a really good highlighter. It's about the only highlighter I recommend. And, you know, you just can't pick up something like this at Staples or Office Max.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The next one is, I think, tied for the – it's another $10 pen. But I had to include it because it's – you can get some similar things at the store, but nothing really as great as this. And that's the Tombow AirPress. And this is a pen I don't talk about enough. This is a pen I like to keep in my car because it is a – it uses a pressurized refill. It's a ballpoint pen. Pressurized refill like the Fisher Space Pen. It comes in a really great barrel. It's really – it's really well designed. It's really durable. Yeah. It's got a super, super fantastic clip on it. The knock mechanism is really solid. You know, it's not the purest ballpoint writing experience, you know, compared to like a Jetstream. But the functionality and the type of things that you use this pen for, it's one of the best. It's really kind of like the all-weather pen. It'll write in the rain. It can stay in the freezing cold. It can stay in the super hot. That's why I said I keep this pen in my car with the journal I keep in my car because I know it's not going – nothing's going to happen to this pen until I ran out of it. And I've already run one of them out. I've used it so much in my car.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's one of the best pressurized refill pens. Like I said, like at the store, I think Pilot is starting to put their downforce. I think I've seen that in the store shelves, which is a pressurizing refill pen. But it's not as good as this AirPress. It's actually not even close, just mainly because of the barrel design and clip and knock and looks of it. This is a killer pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Excuse me. The next one, I wouldn't be surprised if one day it did come into the office supply stores. Out of this whole list, if any of them showed up besides maybe the Uniball Sino DX, it would be the Pentel Vicuna. It's a – it's Pentel's version of the hybrid ballpoint ink pen, like the Jetstream, like the Sorare, like the Pilot Acroball. This is Pentel's version. It's the Vicuna. I didn't like this pen at first. I thought it was a little bit globby, a little bit messy. And then I ordered a 0.5 millimeter, and I ordered the multi-pen, and I kind of fell in love with it because I used the black ink on it, which I'm more of a blue ballpoint ink guy. I don't like the blue as much, but the black Vicuna is really, really dark and rich and clean and writes a really good line. So I was very – I'm always very happy with this pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like I said, it's a base hybrid ink ballpoint. So I wouldn't be surprised one day if Pentel put it in the store, named it something, named it something other than the Vicuna, I guess, because I think that's the rule for any pen company. If they make something in Japan and it's successful, they make it in the U.S. and change the name, which makes complete sense, right? Okay. Sorry. I'm so negative.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Number nine is a pen I reviewed in the first one or two months of the Pen Addict back in 2007, maybe early 2008. And it's still popular. It still sells a lot, and it's still not available in a store and probably never will be. But the Platinum Preppy fountain pen is a really – you're not going to find hardly any fountain – you'll find a few fountain pens under $10 at the store, like the Pilot Varsity, I think, is one you can find at the store. I was not a fan of that pen at all. The Platinum Preppy, on the other hand, it's got a really fine nib. It comes in a lot of colors. I mean, I think for about $350, it's a really good writing pen. It does a good job on paper. It's fun to use. As a matter of fact, when I – back when I was at my current job, but before I went and left for JetPens, I left a bunch of – I brought everyone a bunch of pens before I left. And just this morning, one of the guys was using one of the Platinum Preppy fountain pens that I had left in our meeting this morning before I left work. So I thought that was pretty neat because he's probably had it for a couple of years now, and the ink is just about out of it. I don't think he uses it every day. But I thought that was kind of funny that just this morning he was using the green Platinum Preppy that I left there before. So that was kind of neat. Have you ever used the Preppy? Have you ever? Have you ever? No, I haven't. Just throw one on there? Yeah. It's like a – I mean, it's a complete disposable fountain pen. But it's got nice colors. Like you can get a blue-black one, and they're fine, fine nibs. Very firm, fine nib. It writes very cleanly. It's a really, really popular disposable fountain pen, and it's actually not all that disposable. People have made these into eyedroppers and done different things with them. I've seen it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But I thought this would just be a waste. I'm not going to use it. Like it would just be a waste, really.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. I mean, it's a fun pen to try, but it's not ever going to replace any of my main fountain pens or anything like that. Or I'm not going to use it instead of a high-tech C or something. But it's a fun pen to try if you've never tried a fountain pen. I think that was the first fountain pen that I bought from JetPens. I don't think I'd tried really any fountain pens before that point. So I wanted to just try something out and look where I'm at now. So it's a gateway drug. Be careful.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, totally.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The last one is the UniLive Pigment Sign Pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I use a lot of marker-style pens, a lot of drawing-type pens. And this is a really, really inexpensive pen that leaves a really dark line. It's pigmented ink. It's got a porous tip.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, it's one of those pens. It's a good spot on number 10 because it's nothing special. But it's one if you used it, I think you would really enjoy it. I use a lot of secure Pigma Microns, which didn't make the list because they actually are available at a lot of retailers.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is kind of a replacement for that that I've never seen at a store. And it's just something I like a lot. So, you know, it's a good marker-style pen, which I don't think on this list I really had anything like that. Because actually, that's one thing the retailers do a decent job at is the marker felt-tip style pens. You can get some pretty good ones in the store there, you know, like the Micron or the Sharpie pen and things like that. So, yeah, that's my top 10 list of pens under $10 that you cannot buy at the store. So I appreciate Brian sending that question. It was fun trying to put this list together. And like I said, it was harder than I thought. I really had to do some thinking about it. And it actually got me thinking about some pens that I haven't used in a while, like the Kuretake brush pen, which that's an awesome pen. I love that pen. I'm going to go get it out after this show so I'm bringing it to work tonight and use it because that's a fun pen to use.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Give us what we've all been waiting for.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. So I've got a rant. And I don't want to be unfair because that's not my intention because I understand where these folks are coming from. But this is in response to a tweet.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Let me give a little background. I made a tweet. I don't even remember what day it was on. I don't know. Is this weekend maybe? I'll have to look at it. I'll link the conversation in the show notes. But I made a post about – these are all my fountain pens I had currently inked up. It's a lot of pilot products with a lot of pilot inks like Iro Shizuku and Blue Black. I don't even – I can't even remember which all I used. Anyway, all I said was – my tweet said currently inked. And it showed a picture of all the little ink samples that I just wrote. Pilot Pen USA responded. They said, now that's some ink we'd love to see. Which pilot pen is assisting you today? Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So let me back up a little bit. I've talked with the – I don't know who runs the Pilot Pen USA account.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's me. No, it's not me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They are very nice. They talk to me. They DM me all the time. They've sent me the acroballs in the past. They're very, very good. This is not a knock on them because I just don't – my rant is basically I just don't think they know everything. And it's not to be expected. So it's – I don't want to be unfair to them. I think the people behind that account are totally fine. But what happened was I said – they said, which Pilot Pen is assisting you today? I said, I love the Custom Heritage fountain pen. That's my P.O. Niv pen. I said, bring it to the U.S. And then I had someone chime in. It's like, I second that. And so Pilot Pen's response, and this is what got me on the rant. It says, thank you for your suggestion. In the meantime, they're available on Amazon here. And that really upset me. And maybe I'm reading more into this than I should. But number one, this is a product – so they linked me to the Pilot Custom Heritage 92. So I wasn't specific in the number that I asked them for. So they said they're available. They linked me to the Pilot Custom Heritage 92 on Amazon. That rubbed me the wrong way for two reasons. Number one, if they're linking me to a pen that their company carries and sells in the United States, they should be able to link it on the Pilot Pen USA website. That's number one. Number two, they have several vendors, several vendors that I support and you support and that are my friends like Jet Pens and Goulet Pens and Anderson Pens and Richards Pens that carry the Pilot 92 that they linked on Amazon and they didn't link to these fine retailers carry this product. So I got a little – I didn't respond, obviously. That just – it rubbed me the wrong way, I guess. You know, my response was – you know, I was very passive in my response. I said that's just the 92, the 91, the 912, and the Roshizuku color demonstrators are needed. And the Goulet Pens chimed in. And that's when it really got me thinking about this whole topic. Like it says – Goulet Pens correctly responded, said it's already here, though just in clear right now we would love to see more colors. That means Goulet Pens like, hey, we're a customer of yours. We carry this pen and it's getting linked through Amazon. Maybe I'm wrong. You tell me if I'm wrong. But it just – it rubbed me the wrong way that number one, they couldn't even link a product, a fountain pen product that is very awesome on their own website to show me more about a product they carry in the U.S. And then number two, they link to it on Amazon when there's all these vendors out there like the Goulet's and like JetPens that carry this product. So I didn't say anything to them because I'm not an extremist. I don't want – I'm not going to – I'm not trying not to be that guy. But it – just those two things about it really kind of rubbed me the wrong way. And it's not the people behind the Twitter account. It's not – it's by no means their fault. It's not an indictment on them. They just maybe not – don't know. But it just kind of solidifies my thoughts about the state we're in with pen products in Japan versus pen products in the USA and what the beliefs of these companies are in supporting bringing over products that are great from Japan and then supporting the vendors here in the U.S. that purchase their products from them. So that's my rant. I don't want to – it's not an indictment on the people behind the Twitter account themselves. It's just more the overall topic of importing pens and handling the products that you carry and knowing your product lines and things like that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So the seller that they linked to is some mom and pop shop called Premium Japan. And they're a husband and wife team that sell Japanese products on Amazon. So they will buy things for you and ship them to you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is not the people they should be linking because they are not – they sell everything. I'm on their page now. They sell a bunch of pen and paper stuff. They sell knives, like cutting knives for food. They sell small action figures, cameras. What they should have – and as well, more than anything, they shouldn't be linking to a specific vendor.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Pilots should not be doing that unless they have one vendor that they sell through. They should be linking back to a Parker page that says you can buy it here, here, here.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's what they should be doing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I thought the link should have gone – that's the first thing I looked at. It's like, why are they telling me this pen's available in the U.S. And then don't send me a link to the Pilot Pen USA website that shows this pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's what it should be.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So that's when it got me thinking. And then the Goulet's responded. And I was like, well, yeah. If they didn't link them to on their website, they should at least be linking to say, here's some vendors that carry it. You know, Goulet, JetPens, RichardPens, things like that. It just struck me as very odd the way they did that. So anyway. And like I said, this is – gosh, this is not an indictment on the people that run that account. I mean they just may not know. So – and like I said, I've talked to them online and offline and they're super nice. But it really struck me as odd and it kind of fits in with a lot of the thoughts I've had about – Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, this is a problem that me and you keep coming back to, which is the issue of the Japanese companies that set up United States subsidiaries who then don't carry the same products or even acknowledge in some instances that they exist. Right. This is a problem that is across the industry and it's not the fault of the person who's operating the social media account because they don't have – clearly don't have an official line from Pilot about this because Pilot doesn't even talk about it on their page. So what can they do? Right. They have to make a choice. Whoever they choose, you know. If they chose Goulet, then there's going to be other places, you know, JetPens and places like that. They're also going to be out of luck.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, right. So on Pilot's page, to their credit, they do link to the Nakaya brand and then they link to a bunch of the pens that fall under the Nakaya brand, which is a higher-end fountain pen line. And it's got a lot of the pens that I'd love to see more of in vendors across the U.S. And a few of them carry, like Richard's pens goes a little bit deeper in this product line. But like the pens specifically that I was discussing and that we discussed, it's not listed on that page either.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But they do list a lot of other similar pens on that page. So there is some fountain pens, some rare or some higher-end special Japanese pens on that page, but not the particular one that we're talking about.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Where is that on the Pilot, Peg?