Editing The Pen Addict 269/transcript (section)

== Sailor King of Pen ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' I have, you know, over time made fun of Brad's King of Pen, Sailor King of Pen for many reasons because, one, the name is ridiculous. King of Pen is just a hilarious name. And the nib on the King of Pen, it's like five times bigger than any nib you've ever seen in your life. And it actually makes the whole pen look like a club of some description. Right? It just looks monstrous because the nib is huge. Like, it's really, really big. So, I had always kind of laughed at it but never tried it. And I was like, hey, let me try your King of Pen. Like, I've never actually tried it. Nearly died. Oh, my God. Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Because it fell over on you and, like, smothered you? Or because you enjoyed it?

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's almost a part of me that wishes that was the case. Because I fell in love. Like, oh, my God. It's incredible.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's a very different pen. I couldn't believe it. It was so good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It feels like, to me, like, everything that I like about the pro gear, but more of it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And as it turns out, it's not too big. Right? No, it's not. It's gigantic. But when you actually use it to write with, you're like, oh, okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And, oh, my God. I immediately went to just go look around. And I found one at the Anderson's table. It's, like, a clear one. Like, a demonstrator clear. Like, completely clear, which I also really loved. You have a blue one, which is beautiful. But I really, really do like the clear one a lot. And it was, like, $790.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. That's what I paid for mine. So, I think when I did the review of this pen, or when I've talked about it before, this is an almost an impossible pen to recommend because of the price. Because are you really getting that value if you break it down that way? People will say, well, it's a clear plastic pen with a big nib. How is that? $790. I don't have an argument for that. But I use it, and I love it. So, it's been worth it from that aspect. But I totally get the price slash value argument for this pen. Because it's just not there. When you can get a killer Pro Gear Standard for, like, $280. You can get, you know, a Black Luster, you know, or 19, or Imperial Black for, like, $340. And even though this pen is physically double the size, it's not, you know, insanely, you know, it doesn't look like it's a crazy amount more money that it should cost. And it's still a cartridge converter pen. So, you know, it's just one of those things. Like, it's super hard to justify the price until you, like, pick one up and use it. And then you're like, oh, I kind of get it. And even then, it still may not justify the price for you. It's a hard pen to pen down in that way. But I absolutely adore it. It's one of my most used pens. It's probably, like, in my top five current pens. Because it rarely goes uninked. I'm always using it because I enjoy it so much.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Punky nailed it in the chat room. He says Myke is angry that he likes it so much. And that is the perfect way to put it. Like, I love this pen. But it's $800. And I nearly bought it. Like, I only didn't buy it because I'd already spent quite a bit of the show. But this pen has rocketed to the top of my list. Because I can't even explain it. But it is just unbelievable to use. It feels so good. And everyone that tried it was exactly the same. Right? Because after I was talking about it so much, a few other people were like, I was like, okay, let me try this thing out. And it's like, oh. Like, there's just something about it. Right? Like, it is wonderful. It is a wonderful pen. So, it's going very high on my list, I've got to say. I've got to say. So, that's something to be worried about for the future. Yeah. I, Eric asked, why doesn't Noodler's Ink crack the top five inks list?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's two reasons for me. One, there's such a variety in the ink that you have to research the ones that you're buying to ensure they're not going to affect your pens negatively. That you don't have to, you know, be extra careful which pen you use it in. You don't have to be, you know, do extra cleaning. Which is all fine. There's some really cool colors. You know, there's some tame ones. Like, 54th Massachusetts is one that always is popular. It's kind of a blue-black. And it works well with everything. And I used it for a while. But the second reason why it doesn't crack the top five is mostly because I just don't want to deal with Nathan's politics. And, like, I'm very open politically. You know, I really don't, you know, I'm good with whatever you believe in. But if it doesn't line up with, you know, necessarily what I believe in, I just, why deal with the drama? I don't understand why you insert drama into a product like Fountain Pen Ink. So, I just choose not to deal with it. So, therefore, I don't have any Noodler's inks that, you know, I use at all. But, you know, if you're looking for, like, the ones you always hear about if you wanted to try some out are 54th Mass, Heart of Darkness, and Apache Sunset. Those are kind of the three super, super popular Noodler inks if you want to dive into there. But I'm never going to, they're never going to crack my top five list because I just, there's so many more inks that I find better. I mean, they probably wouldn't crack a top ten list for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. I mean, I only have Heart of Darkness and I can't even remember the last time I've used it. There was like a, there was a Noodler's, there was, there was a distributor at the DC show and there was a Noodler's table. And I wished, I don't, I actually took some video of this, which I'll put in the vlog, which was so perfect. because there were boxes of Noodler's ink that were covered in ink. And I was like, that's Noodler's. To me, that's just what it is, right? Like it looks, they put boxes on the table of ink that are clearly basically exploded in the box. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' For some reason, that is Noodler's to me. Nathan fills them to the lip of the bottle. Yep. Always has, always will. And it's just kind of crazy. You always see that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I just have this image. I mean, I don't really know much about Nathan or how the inks are made. I just have this image of this guy making ink in his shed. Like that's how it feels to me. Like, and it's a real deal. Like it's, there's a lot of stuff. There's good stuff in there, but it just has that feel to me of just like the guy, you know, pouring the ink in bottles himself from a funnel and then like printing out a label and sticking it on and then putting it in a box, right? That's just kind of how it feels to me. Punky has said, because he does make ink in a shed.

'''Nathan:''' So it's like, it's basically what it is. Like people, I got it right. Like I was imagining the guy doing the thing that he's actually doing. This is hilarious. Everyone in the chat room was just like, yeah, no, that's what it is.

'''Nathan:''' So there you go.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh my gosh. I think we'd all be surprised at our favorite ink makers or like one man shops, you know, with like the, like the witch's brew cauldrons going, you know? Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh my gosh. That's hilarious. Yeah. That is hilarious. All right. Piscotikas asked, what is the purpose of what they call the fins on the back of fountain pens? And does it matter if one gets bent or breaks off and he includes, they include a picture, which I'll put in the show notes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Let me look at the picture. But yeah, it's for the fins on the back of the feed is basically for additional ink to hold there. You know, keep your nib wet, keep the, the ink flowing from where the nib actually physically touches the top of the feed and gives you a better continuous ink flow. Even though some feeds are solid, they don't all have fins. So if they get like, if a single fin gets broken off, it's not really going to affect anything on your pen. It should write completely fine. It might just bother you aesthetically. It's not going to affect any technical parts of you writing the pen. So writing with the pen, but it's generally to keep the nib wetter and flowing, you know, as a good, in a good ink flow. So it holds a little bit more ink back there and things like that. So I want to know what Nick did to this pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It looked like it went through some real trouble. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, you know, these, these feeds can be designed different way to hold the ink, but that's basically what it's for. And just a single fin like that getting damaged, it's not really gonna, gonna give you any issues, you know, other than like, so that's something that would drive me insane just visually.