Editing The Pen Addict 730/transcript (section)

== Faber-Castell Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's pretty cool. So it's called the Faber-Castell Polyflow fountain pen. So Faber-Castell, and this goes the same for Pelican, and then maybe Lamy to a lesser degree, but these German, historic German brands, they do really well on the school pen and entry level fountain pen market, right? Because in the past, they've had to make like thousands and thousands of these because they were used in school, right? So they have that pretty dialed in to make a lower cost fountain pen product to, you know, I'm talking like, this pen's like $22, which we'll get to in a minute, which is a fantastic price. But I'm talking like $5 or less pens that they would just sell in bulk to schools, and they had to have good nibs, and they had to work well and be easy to clean. And so they have this experience, and now they're adding in the style. And that's what the Polyflow lineup is. It's this gradient, like minus purple and orange. What's it called? Something I'm... Punchy Melon, which is a great name. Punchy Melon. You're a punchy melon. And yeah, I am today. I am every week, I guess. And they did, you know, they've been doing this for a while. Faber-Castell has several, let's call it $20 or less fountain pens, where they'll make a black one, or they'll make a silver or a gray one, and then they'll do something absolutely ridiculous. Like there was this mermaid-looking one, like a couple years ago. And it's just fantastic that they have like the classics, and then they make things like punchy melon. But it's only as cool as it is, because it actually works exceedingly well. And that's what makes me the most happy. Like I bought this pen because of how it looks, but I really wanted to test it, because again, it's $22. And that's definitely in the entry-level range these days. I think, you know, you have your Platinum Preppies in like $7. And then you have your Pilot Cocoonos that are like $12 to $14. And then you're getting up closer to $20. Like the next batch is like the $18 to $22. And that's where this one is. This is like cheaper than like your Lamy Safaris and TWSBI Ecos and all that stuff. And it works just as well. The nib is great. It only comes in medium, so that's a drawback. But that's just kind of how I think a lot of these brands do that for this price point of pen. They limit the range of nibs. So that's an issue. But I thoroughly enjoyed writing with this medium nib. I'm going to keep writing with it. It's just a fun pen. And it does have a triangular-shaped barrel, which if you just look at my pictures, you say, oh, that's a nice cylindrical pen. It looks round. It's kind of an optical illusion because it's basically a rounded edge triangle that goes through the barrel and through the grip section. So if you're not a traditional grip holder, you may not like this as much because there is some ridges there in the grip section. But overall, I'm insanely impressed with the quality of this $22 pen. And like I said, it comes in basic black, like if that's not your thing. But you like a style, like a plastic barrel pen that's going to take a beating. It doesn't come with a converter. It fits your standard international cartridges. But overall, like I can't speak highly enough of this product, this product line. And then like just the Faber-Castell school pens as a whole. And I'm just going to go ahead and throw in Pelican as well because anything I've tried from Pelican, like in the $20 and below range, it's just shocking how good of a writing experience these are. So it's something fun to play around with, even if you're an experienced user to have one of these to throw in a bag or a backpack and throw it in your pocket and go and know that it's going to work really, really well because these were essentially designed to be destroyed, right? These school pens are designed to take a beating and then have some cool style like this. I just could not be more impressed with this pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I love the look. It's just such a unique design. I feel like I don't remember seeing something that looks like this, which I think is cool to come from a company like Faber-Castell, right? To have like this ombre, essentially. Yeah, exactly. I just think it's really, really great looking. And the fact that it's matte too, really like and solid goes hard. Love it. Also, love that you took that top-down picture. I never would have noticed that this was a kind of triangular look. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And even then it throws you off because the nib opening is a circle, right? And then you have to kind of look and see, oh, it is. But that goes through the entire barrel. The entire barrel holds that shape because sometimes if I go to blindly cap it, the cap wouldn't fit on if you're like going against like the triangular shape of it, right? You have to put it on. You have to slot it in correctly so everything lines up, right? So even the cap and the barrel have that shape into it. But you cannot see that in just a standard picture. It looks cylindrical. Which just goes to the quality of the finish on these pens. It's really... I don't... Like I'm raving about this pen. It's like really good. Like it's never going to be my Lamy Safari beater. But like because that's my favorite pen of all time maybe. But dang, this is a good pen. And they have other colors. And this isn't the first time that they've done this. But this is the first time I've chosen to review one. And I'm just really happy with it. So it's good stuff. I would buy another one of these if I could get one in like an extra fine nib. But even this nib wasn't too wide for me. I enjoyed it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. If you want to catch the links to the stuff that we've spoken about today. They'll be in your podcast app of choice. So you can find them on the web at relay.fm slash 730. You can also find everything you need there to go support the sponsor of this week's episode. Which was Enigma Stationery. Thank you to them for their support. I would like you to go to the Pen Addict website. Go to penaddict.com. You can read all of Brad's great work. Go to spokedesign.com. You can buy his products. See him live streaming three times a week. Over at twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can find Brad there. You can find this show over at relay.fm. You can find me at theenthusiast.net. And at cortexbrown.com as well. We'll be back next week. Until then. Say goodbye Brad. Goodbye Brad.

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