Editing The Pen Addict 378/transcript (section)

== Ask TPA Questions ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. So there you go. You can check out the ask TPA word cloud in the show notes. So thanks to Jay for doing that. All right, Myke, this first question keeps me up at night and I've sworn to do something about it, but let's go for it. Anyway, Arden Burrell says I was just given a retro 51. I'm a colorful ink person in my fountain pens, mostly purple and orange are the retro 51 brand refills. All the retro 51 brand refills seem to be blue and black. What's a good color refill for the retro 51. I need to make the all encompassing retro 51 refill post. I just need to do it. So I have reference to answer this question that comes up a lot and it's a totally valid question. It's a great question. Um, but the answer for like the color refills that go in the retro 51 or Monteverde's refills, um, you can find the retro 51 match, um, refill, um, from Monteverde and it's, you know, it's your basic like Parker style refills fit into there. So Monteverde does some good gel color ink refills and that's what you want to use for retro 51. But big picture wise, Myke, I need the singular resource for this. So I need to either build a page or build a blog post that I can just a short link and say, here's as many options as I can find that fit natively. Here's as many options that you can hack and then let it keep growing just for the retro 51. So, and that style of pen, because it comes up all the time. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah. Really. Yeah. That would be a good one to have. I'd like being able to have resources like that. I think when people say to me like, Hey, where's somewhere I can go in London. Right. Right. Yeah. So like the old thing stationary map.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So yeah. Anna keeps a general refill guide on her blog and I have a short link to that in text expander that I send everyone, but I want to do a retro 51 specific one. Like she has it, I think in part of the section on there, I just want to pull it out and like expand on it and do hacks and all the different things that people like to do with the retro 51s. All right. Fibber would like to ask TPA, is there a label or tape that would adhere to the spine of notebooks, composition books permanently? I have a quarter of a century of notebooks. I would like to label. That's pretty amazing and impressive. I like the Leuchtturm labels, but I want options. Thank you. The only thing I can think of is like the, the Dymo label makers, right? Like the, the printed, like machine computerized labels. I don't know what sticky labels you're going to get that. I mean, they might be the same generally, but like I would go for the little small handheld label printing machines where you can like just, you know, digitally print whatever information you want to put on those spines. And I would assume they're going to stick pretty well. I mean, they're made to stick on all types of different things, indoor, outdoor. I'm sure there's some, even some strength variants in the tape models, you know, for standard office use and maybe extreme. So I would look into, I don't know if, if Dymo is, is the king in that area or not. There's probably a lot of small handheld label makers that you should look at. I don't have a recommendation, but that's, if I'm taking on this project, that's how I'm attacking it as opposed to doing a handwritten label and probably a less sticky sticker, to be honest.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Have you, did you ever label like your, your drawers on your, your cabinet where you keep everything in or, or no?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, I never did that post, but obviously, cause it's kind of like it changes a lot.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sure. Sure. Okay. I remember, I thought that it might've come up and I can remember, but I mean, that's, that's what I'm leaning for this type of project. Um, you know, shoot me a message on Twitter if you want to get more specific on that and we can see what we can find out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Next question comes from pens to what is the general opinion of noodlers inks? I've read fantastic reviews and some scary reviews regarding damage to feeds. Um, any recommendations for stationary or pen stores in San Francisco as well?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So the first part is you've basically answered your own question. The reviews are mixed. So with noodlers inks, you just have to be aware. Like I would not avoid them. Like I don't have a problem saying that, but there are inks that are very, very strong. Like Baystate blue will eat parts of your pen. If you have to have that ink because you love that ink so much, you pick a pen for Baystate blue and that pen only gets Baystate blue and Baystate blue goes in none of your other pens because eventually it might cause internal problems for your pens. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use it. It means that you have to take extra care and that goes, I mean, that goes for more inks than noodlers, right? You have to have some level of responsibility to have good fountain pen hygiene when you're using any ink. Noodlers may be a little bit more for some of their inks. You need to pay attention even, even more. But then some of them are just like, you know, completely normal, regular writers, like, you know, Apache, Apache sunset, 51st mass, and then people's experiences will change. So I wouldn't not, I wouldn't avoid them. But if you like the colors, I would just pay extra care. But I think that just goes in the general statements of, of fountain pen inks and clean, keeping up with cleaning your fountain pens.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, second part. I got this question in email the other day, and there's actually no great stores specifically like for fountain pens in San Francisco. But there are a few good stores you can check out. Mido and Kinokiniya in Japantown, and also the Lamy Boutique got high praise from some of our friends who were in town for the pen show. So those are the three. Mido, Kinokiniya, both in Japantown, and then the Lamy Boutique. So that's kind of what I would check out. I don't know anything other than that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And our final question this week comes from Sarah. Sarah says, I love using fountain pens and always want to have one or two of them with me. The problem is, I also love to carry a nice handbag, and I get nervous that one day I will have some sort of explosion and ruin an inexpensive bag. Do you know of any pen cases that are leak proof? I've been on the hunt for a pen case that has a clear PVC interior so I can see my pens when I open the case, but I still want to have pen sleeves that will keep my pens separated. Have you seen anything like this? If not, could this be something that Nock works on in the future? I love this question so much.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Just everything about this question I love, because that's a thing that people think about when they use fountain pens. And, you know, am I going to get it on my shirt or my pocket or my bag? Or is it going to make a mess somewhere that I don't want it to? So how can I protect against that? I've never seen a pen case that's leak proof, but we've always talked about, and I've never researched it further, is the cigar, like the sealed, like pressurized cigar holders that would hold there. They also happen to be kind of fountain pen sized. You know, would that type of thing work in this situation? It may not be the glamorous situation that I or Sarah would want, but it might be an effective solution to the problem of, hey, if it leaks, will it stay contained into this case? That's something I've threatened to explore over the years, and I don't have any good resources on that. But that's the only idea that ever comes up in these types of situations, because they make these little miniature pressurized cases. I don't know. I mean, if they're pressurized, that would mean that they should be leak proof because they should be airtight. So that's something I got to look into. I don't think that NotCo would get into that project. Although we do have a manufacturer that makes like the like plastic cases, you know, like Pelican cases, right, like the traditional spelling of the name, not the fountain pen spelling of the name, you know, that are the popular like camera hard cases and things like that. But I don't and like I have a pressurized case sample sitting here, but I don't think I would do that for fountain pens. It just it's a little bit bulky, right? So that's the kind of things you run into on that. So that's my only idea, but I don't have it explored enough to be able to give a definitive. All right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If you would like to submit a question to be answered on the show on a future episode, just send out a tweet with the hashtag AskTPA and it may be brought in to be answered in the future. Thanks to Backblaze, Penchelet and Carol for their support of this week's episode. Thanks to Brad for his great feedback and for not causing me to have some kind of heart attack live on air. So that's good news. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, knock.co. He is at Dowdy as I'm on Twitter. Twitch.tv slash penaddict as well. And penaddict on Instagram. I am imike on Instagram. I am YKE. You should go follow me there if you know it already. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

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