Editing The Pen Addict 184/transcript (section)

== Karis Customs Pens ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' You bet. This week's episode is brought to you by Karis Customs. Karis Customs, you know who they are. They're an awesome pen maker based in Mesa, Arizona, and all of their stuff is made in the U.S. of A, which is something they are super proud of. This is something that they take very seriously. These guys make a whole range of awesome pens like the Render K, the Ink, the Bolt, the Retract, and the all new EDK and Fountain K. And these newest pens feature new colors and textures not previously available on any of their other pens. And their Fountain pens now use nibs manufactured by Peter Bock, known for their quality. These products, Bock nibs, you can say this, Brad, right? Bock nibs are awesome.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, they are. They're legitimately awesome. I'm trying out. Dan from Karis Customs sent me the newest model ink and the newest model Fountain K. And they've been inked up. And I've been carrying them ever since he sent them to me. These nibs make a huge difference. The Schmidt nibs that they've used before, completely fine. I mean, really good nibs. Totally solid. I prefer the Bock nibs. They're a little bit firmer. So this is definitely a personal taste thing for me. They're firmer, cleaner line. I love these nibs. And I love what they've done with the slight modifications they made on the Fountain K. And the latest ink, they're two of my favorite pens I've been using these last couple months or so. I showed my wife the ink last night because she was wanting a pen to address Christmas cards with. And a green ink. And it just so happens I have the brown anodized ink loaded up with one of the Iron Gall inks from KWZ. And she really loved the pen. And then she was raving about it. Then my daughter came over. She's like, oh, can I see? And she's like, oh, this is nice. So, you know, wife tested, kid approved. All the ink.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You can choose the materials that your Karas Customs pens have that they're made of. You have aluminum, brass and copper. So you can kind of customize it with the right balance and weight. And the material that fits you perfectly. And if you go for one of the aluminum ones, they do a bunch of awesome colors as well. They're really bright, really vivid colors. They allow you to express yourself with some flair. The folks over at Karas Customs, they're really big on having a connection with their customers. This is something they're proud of. They make these pens by hand. They ship them out to everybody. They love seeing people interact with them. And they're really active on Instagram, for example. And it's a great way that you can see the products that they're working on. And that they can kind of see what you guys are excited about and interested in. And we love Karas Customs. They're a big part of the community. We love Dan Bishop. He's always in the chat room. And we've had him on the show a bunch of times. Our friends over at Karas Customs are offering a fantastic 15% off for listeners of The Pen Addict. If you use the code PENADDICT, you want to make sure that you add that when you're at the shopping cart before checkout. This offer is good from December 1st to January 1st. So it's still great for last minute gifts and also to buy a little gift for yourself. Maybe if you don't get what you want this holiday season because it goes all the way up to January 1st. The holidays roll around, you didn't get what you wanted. You can go over to Karas Customs and get yourself a lovely new pen. Karas Customs are also offering even cheaper shipping options than before. So go and check them out. Thank you so much to Karas Customs for supporting this week's episode of The Pen Addict and RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, one more thing on the Fountain K and Ink and some of their other pens. If you're not doing the mix and match materials, you're not doing it right. So you've got to get like the aluminum barrel with the brass section or the copper section or the brass barrel with the copper section or just something to really, you know, pimp out your Karas Customs pen and really make it unique and make it your own. So I love having those kind of two-tone looks. I think the three Karas Customs pens I use the most are all two-tone different material pens. So they're awesome.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I wanted to talk about some hacks, I guess.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, this is interesting. I'm glad you brought this up because we've had some questions on this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I've been kind of hacking my iPad and my pencil a little bit with a few little things that I've been curious about. So the first is I have affixed a Leuchtturm 1917 sticky pen loop. So this is a little black pad which has an adhesive on it and then an elastic pen loop. I have fixed that to the back of my iPad. So the kind of the pen loop is just right at the edge, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it looks like it's about the size of a square reader. If you're familiar with those.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes, it is about that size. And then then I can slide my Apple pencil just in the little pen loop and it's right there on the edge of my iPad. So that's a new thing that I've kind of been playing around with. It's losing a little bit of stickiness on one side, but everything else, it seems to be really, really strongly covered, right? Like it's real tough on there. So I don't think it's going to come off anytime soon. I bought a couple of them, though, because I assumed that they would happen. Yeah. There is a slight downside that the smart cover of my iPad doesn't perfectly attach when I flip it around now. It kind of holds there. But if I let go, it falls down. And it's because obviously now it can't touch right directly flush to the back because the sticker is kind of, it's got a little bit of depth to it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. So it doesn't have that full magnetic connection to make it secure.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If I'm holding it, if I'm holding my iPad with the smart cover wrapped around, the top of it affixes to it, right? So it's not flopping down. But if I let go of the smart cover and continue holding the iPad, it hasn't got enough strength to support itself. That isn't a massive downside to me, considering the upside of having the pencil there all the time. I also bought a Fisher Space Pen clip.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So we were thinking this might be an option for you. And what's the result?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Totally fits. Yeah. Perfect.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Awesome.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Now, it has the same problem that the Fisher Space Pen has, but worse in that the clip doesn't really like to stay in place.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sure, sure.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. And this is an issue that the Fisher Space Pen has. But obviously this one is a lot more slippery. So it fits great and it does what I wanted it to do, which is completely stop it rolling. Right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So you prevent that weighted mechanism from getting away from you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. It's just with this on, I never have to worry about it rolling away because the clip stops it. The problem I have, though, is aesthetically it doesn't look as great as I would have hoped because the clip is super small and the pencil's really large. Yeah. So it looks kind of weird. I can see that. But I've kept it on because the aluminium matches up with the aluminium on the pencil, which is fine, but the clip is just way, way, way too small.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm more likely to remove this than I am to remove the pen loop. So the pen loop is really cool and it kind of stays out of the way and the downsides are not that large, but I kind of don't really like the way the space pen clip looks, to be honest.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So the pen loop will hold the Apple Pencil without the clip? It'll slide in there and it'll hold it fine?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, because it's elasticated.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so it's a solid fit on the pencil when you put it in there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I wouldn't trust the pen loop to keep anything from falling out of anything.