Editing The Pen Addict 214/transcript (section)

== Ballpoint Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So, I'm going to save us right now and let's get into some follow-up from last week where we talked about gel, ballpoint, and rollerball pens, right? So, we had a bunch of people wanting to hear kind of an update of the non-fountain pen scene. And so, we kind of, we went through that. And then I got a really good question.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' From Ryan, who asks, what would you consider the three canonical ballpoint, liquid rollerball, and gel ink pens? If someone wanted to understand the different qualities of these three inks, what three pens would you recommend getting that would be representative? So, I thought about that. The gel, for me, was super easy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it's the Uniball Sino 207, 0.5 millimeter in black. So, that's the most common Sino. That's the one you can find at grocery stores, at office supply stores, at online stores, anywhere and everywhere. You'll see the 207. And it's a really excellent gel ink pen. It's better than the G2, in my opinion. People might prefer the Pentel Energel over it. I don't. But I can see that argument. It's maybe a little bit smoother. But I don't think there's just a better overall writing experience than the 207, just right off the store shelf. That's easy for just anyone to get. And I say black specifically, because I've actually had problems with their blue 0.5 millimeters. The 0.7s don't have the problem. The blue has always run dry for me in the 0.5, 207. So, I never buy those. I always buy the black. So, that one was easy. I think if you've never tried a gel pen and you want to say, what is a gel pen like? The easiest and best thing for you to get is the Sino 207.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I actually completely agree. This is one of my gateways.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And honestly, I think the most popular gateway is the G2 because they sell more. It's more popular. It's more well-known. And that's a good pen, too. If you're asking me to pick just one for someone to go try that's never tried a gel pen, I'd send them to the 207. The ballpoint was harder because the Jetstream's like a cheat ballpoint. But it's also one of those that if you like a ballpoint and use a ballpoint, you don't need to be using a traditional ballpoint ink cartridge. So, I still went with the Jetstream. But in a specific one, 0.7 millimeter, which I think is the sweet spot for them, 1.0 millimeter gets... It doesn't get messy, but I just don't think it's as clean looking. Um, rider. I don't think the output is as perfect as the 0.7, which I think is about perfect. I definitely prefer it in blue, which I like all my ballpoint ink's in blue. And the retractable sport barrel, which is actually the cheapest Jetstream option, I think. Um, I don't like the rubberized barrels that you find, um, on the store shelves. Most of them are like in blue and black with like the silver trim. For some reason, I don't like those refills as much. And I'm sure it's the exact identical refill. But they're also more expensive for the same refill. Um, 0.7 blue in one of the retractable sport barrels, I think is the ballpoint. If I sent you to a store, like if we walked in together, I would go here, try this. That's the one I would pick out.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Rollerball is interesting because there's not a lot of great options on the shelf for what you would think of as a traditional rollerball. Um, cause, because when we say you and I say rollerball, I'm talking about ink properties. I'm talking liquid ink. When other people are thinking rollerball, they're thinking a ball that rolls on the end of the tip. Well, gel ballpoint rollerball pins are all rollerballs. That's how they deliver the ink to the page. So when I'm talking rollerball, I'm talking liquid ink. I, I think, and I, I still might change my mind on this. And the only reason I don't put it as the canonical rollerball ink pen is because it's a needle point. The pilot precise V five was my original answer, but I think because it's needle point, I'd swap to the pilot V ball RT and 0.5 millimeter black. Uh, it's the same ink as the V five. It's just in a conical tip pin. It's an retractable barrel as opposed to the needle of the precise line.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I like the needle points.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I do too. Like that would be my preference. But if I, if someone's never tried a rollerball pin or they want to try it, never tried a liquid ink pen. And at this point, you know, they're, they're probably just not sure what of any pen, if they've never tried, if they don't know what they've tried and they want to try a rollerball pin, I'm not going to, if I'm holding your hand, walking you into a store, I'm probably not going to buy you a needle tip pen. Right. It's just, even though I think that's probably the best for that category, I think the V ball gives you kind of the same performance, but a more traditional style.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, yeah, it could be a little bit intimidating, but I think for me, I find the needle points to be more pleasurable to use. That's the, they run out so fast.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's just inherent to any liquid ink pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But the, the precise V5 and V7, I mean, those are pens that people buy by the dozens and, you know, swear their life by and lock them up, you know, in their office desk. They're really, really good pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Jet pens have some great colors in the V5 as well. I'm looking like a turquoise one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That looks, that looks good, man. Yep. Yep. Yep. It's good. So those are the three. Like if you've never tried any of those pens, those are the ones that give you, would give you the best overall idea of what that style of pen would be like. So, and, um, they're all easy to find, you know, there's something you can pick up at almost any store, um, any store around. So then Ryan also asked, would it also be possible to cover refills? That's a longer conversation, but we'll get into it a little bit. One thing I do, I actually have a text expander snippet for people that, uh, ask about refills and always point them to Anna's epic refill reference guide. Um, because she covers a lot of this information. So about once a week, I'm, uh, invoking that, uh, snippet, sending it to someone. Hey, take a look at this. I bet you'll have some, uh, I bet you'll get a lot out of this article, but he asks, what's the main type of refills? What's a Parker refill? What's a G2 refill? What are your favorites? So a Parker refill is probably the most popular, um, because Parker has been around so long. They have a, what was, I guess, once a proprietary, proprietary refill design that now a ton of companies have made a refill in that same shape. So you can get a lot of different options across the Parker lineup, like the space pen. Um, it comes with a little, uh, plug on the end that you put on the end. So it'll fit a Parker, uh, refill, if you will. Um, my favorite Parker refill is the Moleskine gel refill, which is becoming harder and harder to get in 0.5 millimeter. I almost never see it anymore. I don't know if they're doing away with them or what. It's just not an easy one to find and they're very expensive, but that's my favorite Parker refill because it comes in gel. Not many Parker refills come in gel. They're mostly ballpoint or liquid. Um, if you do find a gel one, hang on to them. They're pretty good, especially if you're in a gel ink pens. A G2 refill became one of the most common like Kickstarter refills to use because so many other pens mimic and will fit what the pilot G2 is based around. Like a Mont Blanc refill with a little bit of trimming will fit in a pilot G2. Um, other pilot refills like the juice will fit in a G2. I believe the zebra Sarasa clip refill fits the G2. So that became a really popular more recently. So out of those, out of all refill types, 90% of pens are going to use one or the other Parker or G2. To confuse matters in Europe and probably, I don't know if it's in Asia or where else, the G2 designation means Parker refill.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Which I learned about a year ago, a year or two ago when I was reviewing a pen, said it's compatible with the G2 and they shipped it to me with a Parker.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And then I learned that the international designation for the Parker size refill is G2. So that kind of blew my mind. So be careful. Um, if you're, if you're looking for that. So a lot of people, if you'll see Parker and then like G2 in parentheses, it's Parker for sure. It's not going to fit like your longer pilot G2 gel refills. Just keep that in mind. Um, so that's it in a nutshell. You know, the only other uni ball, um, it's hard to match their refills without a little bit of trimming. You can get them to fit in some of the G2 stuff. Um, sometimes you have to make, um, special barrel designs like the, the TI2 tech liner that I'll use so much. It fits the uni 207 and the jet stream, but it doesn't fit really other pins very well. Um, so they're harder. Same with the high tech C pins that are built around the high tech C are generally just built for that refill. It's a little bit tricky in the shape. So there's modifications and different things you can find, but just for a straight, like one-to-one refill swap, they're not really compatible with a lot. So it's Parker, it's pilot G2, and then it's everything else. And Ana's, uh, refill guide will, will guide you and help answer a lot of those questions.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's in the show notes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm. All right. So other than that today, we have some more ask TPA we're going to do, but should we take a break first?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, let's take a quick break and then we'll hit this ask TPA. I don't think any of them are like super long and involved like, uh, like that one. So I'd like to knock them out if it's good with you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You bet. Thanks so much to Harry's for their continued support of this show. If you are still, still for a reason that I can't understand, not a Harry's subscriber. If you don't have Harry's products, if you don't buy from Harry's, if you don't do any of those things, I don't know what you're doing. If you shave, if you are a person that shaves, you need to be using Harry's because you will be able to get a comfortable shave at a great price. If you're not using Harry's, then you're either paying too much or you're settling for something low quality. You don't want this. You want a company that you know can provide you with a great shave every day. A company that makes their own blades, their own German engineered five blade cartridges that are going to give you a close, comfortable shave every single time. You want a company that guarantees the quality of their products. You want a company that will give you a full refund if you're not happy. This is why over 1 million people have switched to Harry's and it's time for you to be one of them if for some reason you haven't already. On average, an everyday shaver saves $150 each year on blades of Harry's and it's super easy to buy their stuff as well. You'll be able to go to their site, get what you need and check out in 30 seconds and it will be shipped to you for free. For just $15, you can get a razor, moisturizing shave cream and three razor blades. It is a set called the Truman set and you'll be able to get something. I have one of these and I think it is fantastic. It is way better quality than only $15. It's kind of insane that you can get a really great razor handle and all those products for $15, something that looks good as well. Like it doesn't look like it costs $15. It looks like it costs way more and they have loads of other options. They have loads of other styles and materials that you can get the handles made out of. You should go and check it out. It's time to stop overpaying for a great shave. Go to harrys.com right now and you'll get $5 off if you type in the coupon code PENADDICT. Who's your first purchase? It's H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com. Coupon code PENADDICT. All one word at checkout for a special $5 off. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show and Relay FM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Awesome. Thank you, Harry's. All right. So let's hit a few of these. And number one was actually a few people asked this question in the Slack yesterday. And this is from Expert Addict. Rachel wanted to hear thoughts on the best, safest way to transport inks while moving. And also, why does she have so many bottles of ink? So, I don't think this is rocket science. But whenever I move and I have to handle anything that's either one very important or two very fragile or three both. The first thing I do is move those myself. Like, if I'm not moving myself and there's someone else involved, they don't touch things like the fountain pens or the inks. Those get packed in boxes. They go in my car. So they go away from other people's hands. No one else transports that kind of fragile, important stuff. Two, I would pack the inks in small boxes and deal with carrying a large quantity of smaller boxes as opposed to one or two larger heavy boxes. Even if you think you can get them all packed in there nice and tight and packed, I would opt for smaller, tighter packed boxes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' If they have to go into a moving truck or they're being transported in some other way that's out of your hands, I'd almost individually ziplock some of those in case they do bust during transit.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, that's asking a lot of time and effort to do. But, you know, it may save the ink from getting on whatever else it's sitting on at the time while it's moving and happens to get broken. But I don't think there's a perfect answer. I don't think there's a perfect way to do it. I'm definitely open to suggestions if anyone has any great ideas. But I definitely believe in packing them in smaller boxes. You know, use eight small boxes instead of two large ones. And then moving them yourself, keeping your hands and eyes on them as opposed to letting anyone else touch any of that stuff. Because you never know what's going to happen because they won't be as considerate as you ever will.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I don't do it. Like, I would just put it in bubble wrap and then as much like saran wrap or something and tape, like to basically make it that nothing could get out of that package. Right. That's the thing for me. It's not necessarily protecting it from breaking because there's kind of nothing you can do about that, in my opinion. Like, if it's going to break, it's going to break. Like, you can put it in bubble wrap, but bubble wrap's not going to save like a big box being dropped on it. You've just got to package it that it won't leak. That's the key part, I think.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. Exactly. All right. So, the next question was a holdover from last week we didn't get to, but I wanted to ask you this, Myke, because I'm actually having a little bit of a tough time with this, but I have some ideas. So, this is from Nestlive on the Twitter machine. What is one combination you've tried of pen, ink, and paper that work on their own but don't in that particular combination? Why do you think that? So, if you've had like a pen, ink, and paper, like, you know your pen's awesome. You have a great ink, and this paper's like really, really good. But then you put all those things together, and you're just like, this is not a good combination or a good setup. Have you ever like run across anything like that?