Editing The Pen Addict 59/transcript (section)

== Cult Pens Sponsor ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' So we have a new sponsor this week.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, I'm excited.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Very, I'm thrilled, actually, that we're sponsored this week in part by Cult Pens. Now, we've spoken about Cult Pens a bunch of times before on the show. And we're both, me and Brad, are really, really happy that they decided to sponsor us this week. At cultpens.com, you will find one of the largest range of pens, pencils, and refills on the planet. They have an unrivaled collection of over 11,000 products. And they specialize in classic, hard-to-find in niche pens, pencils, and refills from the world's biggest manufacturers. Which I think is music to mine and Brad's ears, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' For sure.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Cult Pens, they pride themselves on customer service and they process orders promptly. They also offer comprehensive pre-sales and after-sales service and are very happy to answer any and all question you have, no matter how odd, broad, or specific, because they have the knowledge and the know-how to get it answered for you. So, they're recommended by the customer service departments of Pilot, Pentel, Uniball, Zebra, and many more, and are the recommended UK retailer for brands such as Faber-Castell, Schneider, and Coico. So, that's a lineage.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There are some companies that we love. And one of the things that I really like about Cult Pens is that you're able to buy items like refills individually. So, you remember a couple of weeks ago, I was testing out some refill options for the Render K. And I bought a bunch of different refills. Remember, I was going through them all? Well, I bought all of those from Cult Pens. And rather than needing to buy a whole pack of like four of each, I was able to buy each one individually. And then when I decide which ones I want to stick with, I can go back to them and buy packs as well. Cult Pens are based in the UK, but they ship worldwide with very affordable rates and competitively priced products, as well as exclusives as well. I want to highlight, just before we wrap up, a couple of products that Cult Pens have got at the moment, which seem very exciting to me. So, they stock Twisby notebooks and pens, and they even have some Twisby pens that you can only get from them in the UK. You can't get them from anywhere else. They have inks like the Cult Pens Deep Dark Blue, which Brad just recently reviewed. And that was what you mentioned a couple of weeks ago that you bought. So, that ink, which Brad loves a lot, actually, and I'll put his link into the show notes, that is a Cult Pens exclusive. They had that made for them. And they are currently offering a two-for-one deal on the Pentel Sign Pen. And I'll make sure there's links in the show notes to all of those. So, please go and check out Cult Pens and consider making your next purchase from them. Not only do they offer a great all-round service, but it will help support the show. So, just go to cultpens.com and let them know that we sent you. A great place to do this. So, if you want to buy from them, you love what they got, you want to help support the show, tell them on Twitter, and they are at Cult Pens on Twitter. That's a real great way to tell them that you heard about them on our show. And that will encourage them, I'm sure, to sponsor with us again, because we love to have sponsors on the show that are really good for this show. And I think that Cult Pens are a perfect example of that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's fantastic. And definitely let them know on Twitter. Whoever manages their Twitter account, it's probably a couple of people, they do a fantastic job. I've had some lengthy conversations on Twitter, you know, talking about refills or talking about certain pens. They are very knowledgeable, very smart, very witty. Good conversation to have. So, definitely tell them, you know, that you heard about Cult Pens from the Pen Addict. And just to give my own little aside, on Cult Pens shipping from the UK to the US, I ordered, this was, like you said, weeks ago, where I just, I'm into, I'm knee-deep into fountain pen inks right now and trying to find, you know, all these different shades of blue that I like and which ones are my favorites. And I found out, it might have even been from Cult Pens, I don't know where I found out, that they had their own special ink made by Diamine, a Cult Pens Deep Dark Blue. And, well, I was like, well, you know, if it was red or green or something like that, I probably wouldn't have ordered it. But, you know, Deep Dark Blue, you know, it's just like, let me hand you my credit card. And so, I ordered a couple bottles of that and I ordered a couple bottles of Pelican Blue Black from them. So, I ordered four bottles of ink from the UK. And I think they shipped, it was less than, it was probably like maybe seven business days, seven or eight business days that I got it. And it was totally reasonable, packaged great, had no problems with shipping, don't have to deal with customs like Myke does the other way. And, you know, I got it and I love this ink. This ink's awesome. Actually, I posted the review yesterday on it. It's hard to photograph fountain pen inks accurately. So, I had some funky coloration in that. But it's a really rich, deep, dark blue, just like it says. I mean, this is a very descriptive name. It is deep, dark, and it is blue. It's not, it doesn't dry black like some dark blues do. It doesn't have a lot of shading, but it's a beautiful color. This is an everyday use type of ink. I'm a big, big fan of, I was a fan of the Diamine inks anyway. They behave very well. They're easy to clean out of pens. They work well on all kinds of papers. And their colors are really, really good. So, I was happy to see that they partnered up to make an ink so cool. And I'm very happy with it. And I will definitely be reviewing the Pilot Blue Black that I got from them as well, because that's another ink that you can't get in the U.S. So, yeah, I'm stoked that they're a sponsor. And this is good stuff, Myke, definitely.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This is cultpens.com, C-U-L-T-P-E-N-S.com. And they are at cultpens on Twitter. Thank you very much to Cult Pens for sponsoring.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, thank you, Cult Pens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, I've got a pretty lengthy topic here, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We might need to chop it up.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, we might need to chop it up. Let me see what I can do here. We're at 40 minutes. I know. And normally, that's about an average length. But I don't want to just stop right now and leave people hanging. I think this is a conversation I can get started, and then we can wrap up on a future episode. I don't know if it'll be next week or later down the line. But this is a topic that I've had so many people email on, and I keep getting asked to do a show on fountain pen inks. As I've been doing more ink reviews, people have a lot of questions, and they keep asking me, is there a podcast episode you can point to where you go over fountain pen inks and tell me what I need to know about fountain pen inks. So, I've been trying to put this together. And I think that's probably a pretty long conversation, but it ties in with the ink review I did for the blog yesterday with the Colt Pens Deep Dark Blue. Let's just start talking about fountain pen inks, and we'll get to a good stopping point, and we might have to pick some up later. But I basically want to talk about just kind of like a fountain pen inks 101. You know, what are some of the basics? Why, you know, people use certain types of inks? What are some of the terminology around fountain pen inks? And this is all something that, you know, I'm looking for feedback on too. You know, I'm liable to, I'm not as well versed in fountain pen inks as a lot of people are. So, I'd love to hear some feedback, and what other topics you would like me to hear, or any corrections you have to make on anything I'm saying that's incorrect. So, basically, we'll just get started with, you know, why people use the different types of fountain pen inks that they use. And it's, you know, just like anything else with pens. It's all a matter of personal preference. You have to determine what your use is going to be. You know, are you using it at work? Are you using it for artistic type of work? Are you using it on cheap copy paper? Are you using it in a fine nib? Are you using it in a super broad type of nib? Are you using it on high-end paper like Claire Fontaine? There's so many variables that go into a fountain pen ink, and how it's going to perform for you and your individual situation. So, let's just go through a few of these terms, and we'll just kind of try to tie it up into a cohesive package. And I don't know how well I'll do because I'm still learning about this myself. But some of the terms that you'll hear when I'm reviewing fountain pen inks on the blog or that we talk about on the show, you're going to hear terms like saturation. That is really, I kind of say saturation is like the depth of the ink color on the page. You know, how solid or strong or deep the ink lays down on the page.