Editing The Pen Addict 132/transcript (section)

== Pen Purchases ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Before we depress everyone, Myke, let's go spend some people's money, please. I got two or three questions about what pens can we go grab at the store that would be a good stocking stuffer for someone.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I thought that was a good question because there's not always great stuff you can just go grab off the store shelves. But there's two things that I came up with. One is the Uniball Sino 207. And they make, I think it's an eight pack of their colored gel ink pens for anyone, you know, it's great for kids or family or students that, you know, might use a lot of the different colors. And it's an awesome pen to boot. And you can find them at, you know, not just office supply, big box retailers, but other like big store retailers like Walmart, Target, any of your big, large retailers like that. And the second one is the Sharpie pen, you know, not the marker, not the permanent marker pen, but the writing pen. It comes in a wide range of colors too. So that seems to be a theme, you know, like around Christmas time, just something to throw in the stocking is like a multicolor set of pens. The Sino 207 and the Sharpie pen would be my two picks for that. They're a really good quality pen and they're really easy to come by. A lot of stores, a lot of stores carry those. So now Myke, now that you're a world dominating podcast network owner, I think you've talked about time and from time to time you go out and, you know, you might work at a coffee shop or something like that. Is that right? Have you been getting that into your schedule?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Here and there, here and there. I've actually just signed up to a co-working space in London. Okay. As well.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So sometimes on the weekends, I like to take the kids to Starbucks or something and, you know, sit and I'll do some writing and, you know, grab a drink while they sit there and draw or play or whatever. And I was asked about pen spotting in public. And, you know, as many times as I've gone and worked in a coffee shop or done some writing in a coffee shop or anything and out and about and using, you know, my pens and paper, I'm always checking out what everyone else is using. And I never find like the hardcore pen addicts like us. You know, I never see, you know, this was from Tony from Everyday Commentary asked this question. He was like, you know, how can you tell like the pen addicts from the crowd? And I thought about it and it's like, I very rarely see them. You know, it's usually with like, you know, loose leaf paper, you know, a lot of students with loose leaf paper in the BICs, things like that. You know, I never see anyone like carrying a rhodia pad. I never I never see anyone carrying a field note. I never see anyone carrying a pen that you can't get at Walmart or something like that. It's super rare that I see that even at, you know, like at a coffee shop. I don't even see like a moleskin very, very rarely. And I certainly don't see people carrying the things that I carry around. Have you ever run into just you've seen someone using something you're like, oh, wow, they must be really into pens or paper.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I feel like I would remember it. Yeah. And I can't remember it, but I will be on the lookout for it now. And I will report back on my on my new travels to see if I can find any anyone like this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Yes. So keep your eyes peeled. And, you know, I do it all the time and I will talk to people. You know, if if I see them, you all make a comment about their pen or paper. And I think I've maybe done it one time only because I saw a girl drawing at Starbucks and I had a bunch of drawing pens in my backpack and I just wanted to give her some of the ones that I had. I think that's the only time I've ever seen it. But it was because she wasn't using good, good pens and I wanted to give her some.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like a good Samaritan.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I was the pen fairy. So, yeah, I was doing a good deed. I was I was giving her a bunch of a bunch of new new pens to write with. So one last thing before we kind of digress into a specific topic.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Stub nibs, cursive nib, cursive italic nibs, italic nibs and line variation.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The comment was basically, you know. Talk about them and talk about that different line variation and the differences between those nibs. And we've talked about it before and there's a good good link I'll have to find. I didn't put it in the show notes, Myke, but it's on Franklin Kristoff's page where Myke Masayama has some drawings that he did for the descriptors of a stub, the difference between a stub and a cursive italic nib. So the main difference between those two, they both leave a very wide line in the kind of in the north south direction and a very thin line in the east west direction, if you will, for lack of a better better descriptor. But the stub nib has more of a rounded edge on it. So it's a little bit smoother and the lines are not as varied as far as line width thickness. They're a little bit wider. There's still some variation, obviously, between the wide and the narrow lines. But the cursive italic is very sharp on the edges and it gives a crisp, cleaner line and it gives thinner, narrow lines, thinner horizontal lines, if you will. So that's the difference between the two. And I find myself really liking that cursive italic nib. And I didn't realize this when I started using fountain pens. I thought I wanted extra fine nibs so I could mimic some of my favorite gel ink pens. I wanted to mimic that writing experience. But actually the best writing experience for me is more of a blockier style, like a stub or cursive italic. And I've really become fond of the cursive italic nib grinds. And whenever I can, I usually get that done to a pen that I love a lot because I like that squared off, sharp, crisp line and have some of that line variation. And so that's kind of line variation 101. And we'll put the link in the show notes so you can check out the pictures that explain it better than I just did. So, all right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Should we thank our final sponsor and then move on to the last topic today? Let's do that. This episode of The Pen Addict is also brought to you by our friends at The Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils and so much more. They have all of your favorite brands like Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor and Kaweco. They're an authorized dealer of all of them and they believe in very fast and reliable customer service. This is what makes Pen Chalet awesome. They're also always running special discounts. They have closeout specials and they do these great offers and deals with us. And I'm going to tell you about what we've got in a moment. They're always adding new styles of pens every single month. And as well as all the brands that I mentioned earlier, they have things like pen carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pen converters and so much more. Loads of stocking stuffers for the holiday season. They have free shipping on over $50 in the continental United States. And they sell internationally as well, very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Now, go to penchalet.com and use the code penaddict or one word to get a very special for this holiday season. 15% off your order. This is perfect to get that last minute shopping in. Or what you should be doing though is clicking that podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password penaddict for even more savings as well as your 15% off. This week's special offer is the Conklin Stylograph fountain pen at 50% off. The pen retails for $145. And once you add your penaddict discount on top of it, on top of the discount that you already see on the page, it takes us down to $61.63, including US free shipping. Goodness. You happy with that one?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. These pens are cool looking. I don't have one of these Conklins yet, but I like the mosaic pattern on these barrels. They're very nice.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It reminds me of the... You know what it reminds me of.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The old pen that we both have. The one that looks like a tower block. Vacumatic? Vacumatic. Yeah. Reminds me of that. Yep. This is a super great looking pen. And there is just... And it looks even better in person. It's what Ron is telling me. He made great pains to tell me how fantastic this thing looks. And I do believe him. There's one note that he just wanted me to pass along to you. The picture shows a chrome colored nib on the site, but the fine nibs only will be shipping in a cool looking black color. Which is kind of special sounding. So, you want to make sure you go to penchalet.com, hit the podcast button at the top, and enter the code PENADDICT to get access to a bunch of special offers. And don't forget to use the code PENADDICT at checkout as well, and you'll get your special 15% off anything at Pen Chalet. Thank you so much to Pen Chalet for continuing to help us over at the Pen Addict Podcast.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, just to be clear, when you go over there and you see a pen that's discounted, and it says 50% off like this Conklin Stylograph is, the 15% Pen Addict coupon stacks. So, you get 50% off, then you get another 15% off. So, there's some really, really good deals to be had. I'm scrolling through all this. It's pretty crazy right now. So, yeah. Definitely check this out. And, yeah. I think that's the first time Ron's done 15% off. So, that's really nice of him getting everybody ready for the holidays. So, awesome. Awesome. All right. So, from time to time, I get into some topics here that aren't the happy, fun topics that I like to keep it generally happy. Happy, fun time here, Myke. And sometimes there's some topics that get under my skin. And...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Sometimes the best ones.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Sometimes the best ones. And this one, I'm not going to get full crazy on because there's still information to be processed and parsed. But I mentioned it a couple weeks ago just in passing that Estabrook was relaunching, right? You remember that topic where we mentioned they're coming out with a new pin and they put these links out and we both thought they were very ugly and they don't look like Estabrook's. And what's going on here. So, things have kind of ramped up since that time. That was probably like a month ago that we talked about that, right? Um, so, since we saw that first little hint of Estabrook, they have started posting what's going to be the main line pin. So, those first pins we showed were going to be a limited introduction, okay? Like 150 of each of the colors. And we'll have all these links in the show notes so you can play along. So, then the new owners of Estabrook went on to Facebook and posted what all the new stock versions of the pin were going to be like. And the internet, the fountain pin internet had a conniption. They thought these acrylic base level models looked horrible, number one. Looked nothing like an Estabrook, number two. And were basically a Chinese, Indian, cheap acrylic kind of knockoff like you would expect to get like a $5 fountain pen from. That's basically what everything was being compared to.