Editing The Pen Addict 577/transcript (section)

== UK pen shows overview ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Hey, Myke. Hello. This is from Peter. This is from Peter. Hey, Myke. What UK pen shows have you been to and what were the differences to the US shows?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I've only been to the London pen show and I've been a few times and this is the, is it tips?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Tips is the Tokyo pen show, international pen show. Okay. What is it? The London? London writing. No. London writing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Writing. Writing. Equipment Society. LWES. LWES. LWES. LWES. That's it. The LWES shows. They've, I've been to this a few times and having been to the shows that I've been to in America. The London show does not compare, which frustrates me because it should. Um, the London pen show feels like it is the pen show that it has maybe always been. And the, at least the last time I went and the wider, which was, I don't know, probably 2019 or something. And I, and I've went a few times before that. There's way more vintage stuff. Like the vintage room that you find in most pen shows is basically, is the largest room in the London pen show when I was going. And, you know, the, the more times I've been, the more like smaller creators were popping up, but it was nothing like even the smallest, like it was nothing like even Atlanta the first time. Right. Um, and so there's a very different vibe there. It's, there isn't like, people aren't like traveling to the show and like staying over, you know, it hasn't.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's generally a one day. It's generally been a one day show.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. And they do it, but they do it a couple of times a year. Yes. Yeah. I just, it's not really my thing. Like I like the shows that we talk about the American pen shows and, you know, I'm sure even Tokyo has the same vibe, but yeah, there was going to be a show. Uh, there was going to be a new London pen show and it was going to be in the summer of 2020 and it looked really promising. Yeah. And it's going to be a couple of days. It's going to at least be a couple of days. They were bringing a bunch of creators in from all over and like the, you know, they were having events and like, it looked like it was going to be the start of a pen show that was like the ones that I'm more used to, but you know, something got in the way and it, and it never got off the ground.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. Um, so yeah, I, I, the best thing I can say about the UK pen shows or the, at least the, the L West, um, is that they seem to be growing a little bit from what I see on Instagram and from the different UK bloggers that I read. And like, they're getting like some of like the post COVID mojo growth a little bit. You know, I definitely would like to see like, could it be a two day event sometime or is it just going to stick with one day? I do appreciate that they have it twice a year, you know, instead of just one day, once a year, there's, they'll have like a spring and a fall. Like I don't have the schedule pulled up in front of me, but you know, like six months apart, they'll have the show. I was like, Oh, that's cool. So, and I think we're starting to see like some of the vendors that I see going to those shows just, you know, from, like I said, Instagram and things like that. It's like, Oh, okay. Like this is getting like a pretty, like they're, they're catching up to the, to like what you would normally have been saying, like about like some of the US pen shows and you know, maybe we'll, we'll just keep going and hopefully, hopefully see that continued growth and continued support, um, uh, of the shows in and around London and the UK. So yeah, it'll be good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' One day.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Rob. I've been into the fountain pen hobby for a few years now, but I've yet to venture beyond stock fine nibs. I'm going to my first pen show in San Francisco this year. I wanted to get some nib work done, but I had some questions that I hope you can answer. So there's three questions here. We can go through them all. Maybe you like, I'll go through all of them or do you, would you like me to go through one at a time? All of them. Okay. Do I need to get on a nib worker signup sheet before the show? And is that typically limited to one nib? I want to take advantage of this show and maybe get three or four nibs done. I should take the pens empty, right? Or any other tips are greatly appreciated.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So love this question. I'm glad we got this one before the San Francisco pen show. So hopefully Rob will listen before then. So getting nib work at a pen show is obviously a huge highlight, right? That's a huge reason. A lot of people go to pen shows. So Rob's specific question. Let's, let's break it down a little bit. Do I need to get on a nib worker signup sheet before the show? If you can, yes. So a lot of nib workers are very busy at the show, so they will take signups ahead of time. That way you can go ahead and lock in your time. If you know you're going to be there for multiple days, I would definitely take advantage of anyone who's doing signup sheets prior to the show. Because that way you can, you're not getting stuck on like a Saturday trying to force your way into like a list that may be full, you know, that may have filled up this morning. Some don't do advanced signups and you do have to sign up at the show, but I'll get to that in a second. And is that related to that, if you get up to a nib worker for their, their signup, is that typically limited to one nib? If you're look, if you're going to sign up, they will usually have the details. A lot of them will allow for two nibs and they're kind of booking in 30 minute increments. And that's generally you could get two nibs done in that time frame. But if you're having a single signup, like if you just sign up with one nib grinder, you're basically signing up for a time window and you're not going to get three or four done. And that would be actually too much to ask for. So I would limit it to one or two per, but you could sign up for two different windows. You could sign up for two different makers. You know, I've been to shows where I've had three or four nibs done by three or four different nib grinders. So if you're sitting with one nib grinder for one appointment, you're probably not getting more than two done, but they will let you know whether they're going to limit you to one, two at the most, I would guess. And almost never going to be three or four. So you would have two different appointments for that or use two different nib grinders. You should always take the pens empty. That is correct. If you do have them inked, like they will flush them out. Like I never put that on them. Like if I have a pen that's inked and all of a sudden I have a whim to get a nib grind and I'm able to get an appointment, I will actually go try to flush it out myself. Like in the hotel restroom, I've done that plenty of times. Because I don't want to waste my time with a nib, with a nib meister having them clean out my pen before they work on it. So yes, they're generally covered in ink, but they don't need it from your pen. So definitely take it clean. So the nib grinders who don't take advance appointments, what you want to do is go find them first thing in the morning on whatever day you're there and get on their list that morning. So say you have four nibs you want to get done and you're able to get one appointment ahead of time. So you can say, hopefully you can get two nibs done from that one appointment. Now you have two other pens that you want to get done. I would go find the other nib workers who didn't take online appointments and say, can I ask them, you know, can I get on the list for later today? And they will usually have a sign up sheet at the table where they will take your name, your cell phone number to call or text you when your appointment's ready. But they can give you a general, some of them can give you a general time. Say, hey, if you're signing up at 10 o'clock, okay, come back at 2. You know, I'm going to put you down for this 2 o'clock spot. Or some will say, okay, you're 8th in the list. We will call you when the person ahead of you is sitting down. So that's the kind of things you want to look at on the day of. And you're not going to be able to sign up on a Friday for a Saturday appointment, usually, unless people are taking online appointments. So a lot of them will just have the day of sheets. And they will be able to give you some good guidance on when they can see you, how many pens they can work on for you. But you want to do that first thing in the morning. Like if you're there Saturday, and if you haven't signed up for nib work, like in the first hour or two Saturday, you're probably not getting nib work done. And especially at a show like San Francisco, that is huge and busy. So just a few things to keep in mind there. Hopefully I got all the questions out there. But yes, that's generally how I think about it when I'm getting nib work done.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I mean, this is one of those things that's always so popular, right? Like you've got to prepare for it in that way.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So an example from the DC Pen Show. I bought my Monarch nib from Ian Schoen. And I knew I wanted to get a grind on it. But I wasn't, I didn't pre-book a time to get a grind on because I wasn't, I hadn't bought the nib yet, right? So I wanted to wait. So I got that done on Friday at 1 o'clock. I bought my nib or like at 2 o'clock I bought my nib. So right then when I had the nib, I walked over to Gina from Custom Nib Studio. What appointment do you have between today and tomorrow? Do you have anything available? And at 2 o'clock on Friday, I got 4.30 on Saturday was my appointment. So just got to keep that in mind. Like it's tough, right? To do something like on the fly. So you want to take care of that stuff as early as possible or ahead of time if you can.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And last question comes from Peter. Just wondering, in the aftermath of a pen show or large pen purchases, how do you store your pens, ink, paper, and other items? Do you keep track of what you've bought in some way? I currently track what ink I've got so I don't buy ink again when I see something I like and I've already bought it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So Peter is clearly way smarter at this than me. Like I am just like a whirlwind. I have no clue what's going on, generally speaking. But no, I generally have an idea going into a show what I'm looking for. And if I've thought about that at all before I've attended a show, like I'm not going to duplicate things. Like I'm not looking for like 10 new inks to bring home with me that I might have before. Like at DC, I was looking for new inks, but I knew they were all show specials. So I knew I didn't have them. And, you know, they were all just being launched at the show. So that was easy. The pens I definitely don't track.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So yeah, I am. I'm trying to think like what other people do. So I know deaf people will bring up different type of ink spreadsheets that they're keeping or they will bring up their fountain pen companion link. So that's if you're thinking about inks, I would highly recommend to fill out a fountain pen companion profile. Just go to FBC dot ink and enter all your inks and you can just pull that up and you will know. And I will be sitting with people who will be trying inks and looking at samples. Then they'll go, hang on. Let me see if I have this already. This is for people with like hundreds and hundreds of inks that just can't keep up with all of them. And they will I will be sitting with people who will pull that up like on their phones and say, oh, yes, I I would. I already have this or oh, no, I would like to try a sample of this or whatever. So if for inks, I would do that for pens. You know, it's a little bit different. You just have to know your personal collection a little bit better. And how I store things, Peter, we're not going to discuss that in public. It's called the closet of doom for a reason.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We don't talk about the closet.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, we don't talk about the closet of doom. But yeah, but it's Peter has great points. Right. And you should think about these things ahead of time to, you know, have a list of what you're looking for. Right. I don't have a shopping list per se for a pen show, but I haven't basically an idea list. I want to see this. I want to test this out. I want to try this pen. I want to look at this ink and have that kind of list going. And you should be covered as far as like being careful about, you know, buying duplicates, things like that. And I definitely can't recommend FPC.ink highly enough to to go fill out what you already own. And that'd be a good way to track that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm. If you would like to send in a question of your own for a future episode, just go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send us in stuff there. If you would like to find out what Brad's up to in between now and the next episode, go over to penaddict.com. You can find Brad online on all the social media. He is penaddict on Instagram and threads, right? And Mastodon. Mm-hmm. I'm iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. You can find Brad streaming multiple times a week over at twitch.tv slash penaddict. Are you back to normal schedules now?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Normal schedules for the foreseeable future? Yeah, I guess my Orlando pen show pre-leaving will be a little bit weird. But yeah, pretty normal schedule from now through the rest of the year.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Wonderful. Thank you so much to our sponsors of this week's episode, Enigma Stationery and Squarespace. But as always, thank you for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

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