Editing The Pen Addict 89/transcript (section)

== Ink Nibs ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' So this is from Karis Customs. They did a survey of the backers of the ink project as to whether they were going to do medium or fine nib. They originally offered a medium nib, and lots of people wanted them to do a fine nib. Now, they were only going to make one nib size for the ink. They wanted to not have to complicate things any further. So basically, they put out this survey, and they put out an update, which I'll put in the show notes. Show notes are at 5x5.tv slash penaddict slash 89. And basically, from the survey, they had people answering fine nib outnumbered those answering medium nib as the nib they wanted 4 to 1. So they're going now with a fine nib for the ink. They've changed the original specifications of the pen, and it's going to be a fine nib now. Now, as they've mentioned, some people now no longer want to have the pen, so they can, I guess, cancel. But I just wanted to throw my hat into the ring on this. It's a bit strange, obviously, to change something halfway through the campaign. 68 hours to go, by the way, nearly at $90,000.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I guess for anybody that's listening to the show and is a bit unsure of this, over the weekend, I was playing around with my Retro 51 Tornado fountain pen, which has the same nib. And I've mentioned that I'd used the nib before. That's the pen that has it. It's a Schmidt medium nib. For me now, that nib is not usable. It's too wet.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It gives far too much ink on the medium for me. So I personally am happy with the fine. I'm going to assume that the fine nib will be closer to a more standard German medium than this. Brad, do you have an ink?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I do. I do.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And that's the medium nib. And what do you think? Do you think that, I mean, I'm putting you on the spot, but do you think that they've maybe made the right decision going with a fine nib?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I do. And, I mean, but, you know, it's personal preference. But for me, obviously, I would prefer the fine nib over the medium nib.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The medium nib was pretty wet and pretty wide line, so I'd be anxious to see what the fine does. I didn't realize it when I answered the survey, and maybe that's my ignorance and my just rushing through it real quick. I didn't realize that they were going to change what it shipped with based on the results. And only go with the one nib. You know, I thought there might be, let's see how many people want fine and how many want medium, and we'll do both. I didn't know one was going to be cut off, you know, kind of based on the results of the survey. So it was an interesting decision.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, the justification is that, you know, if we ordered all these nib sizes and let everyone pick, it would delay our shipping and manufacturing time. Because we'd have to treat every order as a custom order instead of making, you know, one set of pins using the same nib for every pin that we make. We'd have to spend extra time sorting out, okay, does Myke want this? Does Brad want this? Does Bob want this? Does Jane want this? And that takes extra time. And that's what we're going through with Nock. And we, I mean, it's a different, completely different set of parameters on there. And we're, that's just exactly how we needed to set ours up. But on Dan and Kara's Customs case, I can see why they would want to do it that way. And they're going to offer the other nibs available for sale after Kickstarter. So, that's good if people want to swap it out. And, you know, these days, I can understand why some people would have a problem with it. There's no doubt. But these days, now that I feel like I've gotten a pretty good grasp on fountain pens, I'm not so worried about nibs as much because I know I can switch them. And I know I can do things that, you know, maybe not everyone who's buying their first fountain pen understands that they can do. But, you know, people, the argument would be, well, I shouldn't have to do anything. And I can see that argument too. So, anyway.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, there you go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I just wanted to throw my hat into the ring because people know that I'm a medium aficionado. And the medium that I have is closer to a bold, really, in some of the stuff that I've used. So, I think people, if you've backed the project and you're unsure, I would say go for it still. And I'm sure that, you know, it'll be simple enough to get a replacement nib for a reasonable cost. But I think people will be happy with it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And these nibs aren't going to cost very much, the replacement nibs, I'm guessing. No.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, you can find them, you know. Righty-ho then, Shell. We take a quick break. And I have rearranged the order of the next batch of topics because I have something that I want to talk about which might take a little bit of time. And just in case it takes too long.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's good because, yeah, these other topics can be held until next week if we run out of time or such.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, yeah, totally fine. Because I really want to get the ball rolling on this thing today. Okay. It's part of my New Year's resolution. I like it. So, this episode is brought to you, of course, by the fine folks over at Squarespace. They are the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own website. For a free trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com and use the code, the offer code, Tallyho1. Squarespace is constantly updating their platform with new features, designs, and more support. They have fantastic-looking templates for you to get started with and tons of style options for you to adjust so you can really create your own space online. Squarespace takes care of hosting, SEO, and even makes sure that your site automatically looks fantastic on any device. It's incredibly easy to use, but if you need any help, over 70 Squarespace employees are on their customer care team, which are based in New York City. Squarespace truly cares about design, and it really shows throughout their whole site, which are always updating with fun at new branding. That has won numerous design awards, as well as just their templates and everything else that they do winning awards, because they are amazing. They have two brand new iOS apps for Squarespace customers. Squarespace Blog, which lets you easily draft, post, schedule, and review posts to manage and monitor your comments to your blog. And also, Squarespace Blog is fully integrated with Layout Engine, allowing you to easily format text, markdown, and tap and drag images within your post. And they also have Squarespace metrics, which allows you to monitor website analytics, like KPIs and page views, unique visitors, and it gives you projections and charts for your websites. These are all at your fingertips. These are just some of the amazing features that Squarespace have to offer. I've been using them for a long time, as has Brad. I haven't got enough good things to say about Squarespace. Big fan. They've been around for 10 years now. These guys really know what they're doing. I want you to go and try them out for yourself, because I know that you'll be hooked when you do. Go over to squarespace.com, sign up for a free trial. There's no credit card required to do this, and if you decide to purchase it, plan to start at just $8 a month and include a free domain name if you sign up for a year. And make sure that you get 10% off and support the show by using the offer code TALLYHO1. That's T-A-L-L-Y-H-O-1. Thank you so much to Squarespace for supporting 5x5 and The Pen Addict.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Two quick things on that. Please.