Editing The Pen Addict 42/transcript (section)

== Pilot Vanishing Point ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' The way I came about it is, you know, everyone knows my love for my pilot Vanishing Point, my black mat Vanishing Point. And I had a reader and a listener who found one in his desk or found a fountain pen in his desk, basically. He didn't totally know exactly what it was. And he did some research online and came across my black mat Vanishing Point. And he said, hey, you know, I found this pen. I probably got it, you know, 10 or more years ago as a graduation president. And I've never used it. It was just right on the ground on my desk. I don't have the original box or paperwork or anything. And then he said, I saw it looks a lot like the Vanishing Point that you have. So he sent me some pictures of it. And it's this really cool old-style Namiki Vanishing Point. And the way the old-style ones were designed is the nib is more integrated into the barrel design, I guess is the right way to put it. It's very obvious. All the old Vanishing Points have this style. But what's unique about this one is it's a black barrel. It's faceted, which is, you know, like your Twisby. You know, it's kind of got the ridges on there, but it's just like straight lines. I don't know how to explain this. It's like hexagonal, but it's called faceted barrel. It's just got ridges on it as you look around it. And what makes this one unique is that the clip and the knock are also black.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They made a – I think they made – the normal release of it was the clip was silver and the knock was silver. But this one's fully black, obviously, except for the nib. So I was pretty happy to, one, see this pen and, two, be able to buy this pen from this reader. And we'll definitely talk more about it because I got to do a review on it because it is so different than the Vanishing Point that we have right now. I couldn't even do it justice explaining it. But it's – the first thing I can tell you is it's made out of plastic instead of brass.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, wow.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it's lighter weight. It's narrower in diameter. And it's just a really unique pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I remember that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' A lot of people prefer this model over the current models that we use.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I remember when you were originally looking for this pen. This was the one you were looking for. I remember us talking about this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. So it's cool. I'm a little scared to use it because it's so much lighter than my other one. I don't want to ding it up. My other ones – I use my other ones so much it's all dinged and, you know, it's got character now. You know, I enjoy using the pens. I don't want to ever – you know, we talk about field notes and, you know, putting away one pack and using one pack. I don't ever want to get to the point where I'm buying fountain pens and not using them. You know what I mean?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like I do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, no. I mean I don't want to get to the point where I don't want to spend, you know, $800 on some rare Mont Blanc and it just sits, you know, in a display case.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. If I'm going to spend, it's got to be an amount that I'm comfortable with if I don't think I'm going to use it, you know, and that's too much.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. Or dinging it up or whatever. You know, I don't know. You know, my opinion is always subject to change. But, you know, the pens I buy right now I really want to use. And I've been kind of chicken on using this one and, you know, really giving it a full go. But it came with a medium nib. And I'm actually going to try something with this nib. I think I might get it worked on and reshaped. So we'll see how that goes. That's a plan for another day. I haven't really thought it out. But it would be interesting to try. But anyway, that's my latest pen. And that image in Twitter I can find for you if you haven't already. And we'll put it in the show notes. But you'll be seeing more of it because I'll do a review in comparing the old version Vanishing Point to the new version Vanishing Point. Both of them are the black stealth editions. And it's crazy how different these two pens are. They barely seem related other than the retractable mechanism on them. So it's pretty cool. I'm real happy with it. It's a really neat pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I found your image and I put it in the show notes. Thank you. It's very different looking. It is. I would like if you, when you review it, if you could take some of those images that you originally took where you show the pen nib retracting into the body. Because I don't know if I know exactly what you mean when you say it was more integrated.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, I may have misspoke. The clip is integrated into the body, not the nib. I must have misspoken there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Is the clip more comfortable?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I would say it is, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't know how well you can see it in that picture. That was with my iPhone. It was kind of dark. But you can see, you know, on the regular Vanishing Point, we have, you know, it kind of, it looks like the clip is like bolted on, right? And in this one, it's built into the design of the pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It also looks like the clip starts much later down the barrel. Yes, yeah. It's moved down.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's moved down a fraction, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I can imagine this one being a lot more comfortable to hold.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it's, I'll do some weights if I can find my little scale. It's got to weigh half as much. You would be shocked to pick up this pen if you're used to the other one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It really kind of, I mean, I'm sure you will come to this conclusion, but it looks to me like they actually went backwards and made it less comfortable. Because I think that the Vanishing Point is too heavy for long periods of time. And the clip is awkward.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And it seems like this version may have been better for that, but I'm sure you will let us know if that's the case or not.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I mean, a lot of people swear by this version with the more built-in style clip.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. And, I mean, there's tons available. You can buy these all day long in this design. Maybe not necessarily the exact style that I have, but this design of Vanishing Point, they're available constantly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, they only stopped making them, I think, in the 90s, so they're pretty readily available. You know, and you can still get them. They're still around the same price, you know, between, say, $100 and $150 in that range. You can find one of this style Vanishing Points somewhere. You know, eBay, Fountain Pen Network, something. I mean, they're pretty easy to come by.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Very happy with it. So, now I just got to need to start using it or get the nib worked on and something like that. Because the medium nib is, this thing is like butter smooth. It's like I almost don't want to mess with it, but I'm just not an all-day, everyday medium nib writer. I just won't use it as much if it is. So, I want to see if I can get this converted into a stub nib, and I'm going to take it to the pen show when I go and see what the possibilities are.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Cool. Cool. That sounds exciting. I want you to do that because I'm excited to hear what that process is like.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, well, I'm definitely taking my LAMI 2000. Awesome. So, and I think I might tack this on there now that I have bought it. So, yeah. It'll be an interesting conversation. I'll be learning a lot from that experience.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Indeed. Yep. Great stuff. So, there's a few ways you can get in touch with us. I've already mentioned some of it, but you can get in touch with Brad by going to thepenaddict.com or penaddict.com. And you are thepenaddict at gmail.com, right? To email you. Yes. And you are dowdy, D-O-W-D-Y on app.net. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on app.net and Twitter. Brad is dowdyism, D-O-D, sorry, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter. Thank you very much for listening to this episode. I think this has been a fantastic episode, Brad. So, thank you. Thank you. And until next time, bye-bye. Bye.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]