Editing The Pen Addict 387/transcript (section)

== Good Made Better Penwells ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think one of my, the classiest products that I've had in a while and I think is a super fun accessory are the Good Made Better Penwells. I think it's a really fun little product to have on your desk. A lovely little like pen, just holder that looks like a classic penwell that you can just pop any pen into. You pop the cap into it and then you just rest your pen back in the cap. It's like a really fun, cute, but useful product. I'm a big fan of these.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And what he's doing now with the materials, like it's not just like wood. There's like some inlays in there, like some turquoise inlays. He does like frosted acrylic. He does, they're really, really cool. I'm keeping my eye out for like some of the like acrylic styles, like some of the real ceramic and acrylic looking ones that look very, very cool. So yeah, a very good choice.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Dan Keller runs Good Made Better and making really good stuff.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Good stuff. All right. And that's actually a really good gift item too. So very cool. All right. Let's hit a few of these listeners questions. And then I got shopping carts to complete. So the first one is from longtime listener Sebastian. Can you recommend an ink set for a person who has many fountain pens, both modern and vintage? I've seen Monteverde, Diamine, Pilot, Colorverse, and Ferris wheel sets online. And there are probably others that I've missed. I would like a set that is safe to use with any fountain pens with a mix of interesting colors, all presented in a box that looks good as a gift. My budget is between $100 and $200. Thank you. And happy holidays. So Ana, why don't you start with this? Because you had a little note in here, and I think you're very correct in what you're saying.

'''Anna Reiner:''' So I made a note here, and we did talk about a couple others sort of earlier on. But my instinct is to say that of all of the ones, if you're looking to put ink into a vintage pen, the only one that I would feel comfortable with would probably be Diamine. But I would not recommend putting any of the super sheening inks or any of the shimmer inks into a vintage pen. But Diamine, sort of across the board, is one of the inks that I most frequently recommend to people who kind of want to use an ink in all sorts of fountain pens. And I'm usually most comfortable with recommending it as least likely to stain pens or cause any sort of feed issues. It tends to be sort of in the middle in terms of wetness or dryness. But like some of those sets, like the ink vent calendar that they did, includes some of their super sheeners and some of the shimmer inks, which look really fun. But again, I probably would not recommend putting those into any of the vintage pens. Yep.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And I'll second that. And Diamine offers some sets currently that you can find, like the guitar set, like the Gibson set, the music, the other music set that they offer. There was a flower set recently. I don't know if those were scented or were they just basic colors? I can't remember.

'''Anna Reiner:''' I think those are just basic colors.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But Diamine sets are very nice. And they're all like in that $100 price range. Like I would love to tell you, you can still get the Pilot 100th Anniversary ink set if you were only using modern pens. But I would be hesitant to use the Orochizuku in vintage pens with sacks. Not that there's been any like direct problem, but you hear things every now and then. Like I use Orochizuku in everything modern, but I'd be a little bit tentative. So I would stick with the Diamine, like Ana was saying. Yeah.

'''Anna Reiner:''' And some of those, like the more modern inks, I will play with with a vintage pen, but I tend to just dip the nib. And it will pull up some of the ink into the feed. So you'll be able to write for a good half a page or a page. But then I will clean them out immediately because I don't want them in the feed. But I'm not using really expensive vintage pens. They're often things that I picked up at an auction. Usually one of those auctions where we've had a couple of beers and I'm like, sure, I'll pay $30 for that. Okay. And then I'm like, I wonder if this thing writes.

'''Anna Reiner:''' So anyway. All right.