Editing The Pen Addict 561/transcript

{{Infobox podcast transcript
| name            = The Pen Addict
| number          = 561
| title           = BAT!
| date            = April 26th, 2023
| hosts           = [[Brad Dowdy]]<br>
[[Myke Hurley]]
| guests          = 
| link            = [https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/561 Episode 561]
| audiolink       = [https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thepenaddict/The_Pen_Addict_561.mp3 Audio Episode 561]
| length          = 53
}}

'''Myke Hurley:''' From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 561. Today's episode is brought to you by Squarespace and the Canalea Pen Company. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. What's up buddy, how are you? I'm good man, how are you?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I am good, I think. I have been busy as we all are. I feel like I'm in a pretty good writing and using stationery flow. I'm excited about pens and ink and paper. I mean, I always am, right? But I don't know. You ever get in those grooves where you're just like, I want to use all the things? Where last week I was struggling and I was like, oh yeah. You know, it's just those ups and downs of all of our lives these days. Sometimes you get in the downswing and you're hoping there's an upswing right around the corner and I'm in the midst of one right now. Like everything I see in the stationery world is just fire. It's the best. Good. So, very happy to be here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Now, you do such a great job of our show notes. Always. Always. But today, something has been added to the show notes, which I haven't seen yet. Okay. So, I don't know what this is. Okay. But you've put WTF.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. This went in on the follow-up section on the first item of the show notes. So, this was mandatory. Start the show with this item. So, what do you see here?

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. Let me go look at it. I haven't opened it yet.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's an Instagram link.



== LAMI monologue pen design ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' And it says, may we introduce the LAMI monologue, a pen that is hugely impractical, absolutely ridiculous, and inspired by complete and utter disregard to usability. Okay, we're kidding. This writing instrument was, in fact, not developed by us at LAMI, but by ChatGPT. Because sometimes, the best solution you have to... So, they've got, like... I don't understand how ChatGPT created this image.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That was... Yeah. If you want to keep going, I can answer that. But I didn't know if you wanted to finish or anything.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, I'm done with reading the thing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, someone asked, it's like, okay, this is horrible, right? How did you make it this horrible? And they said they actually provided some inputs. They didn't give... They didn't list the exact inputs they used in this Instagram feed. But later on, there was a question of like, hey, like, how did you get it to do this? What did you do to the chat bot? And LAMI said, we asked ChatGPT for a description of a pen, and then we designed it according to its recommendation. So, they must have... They gave it some prompts, like, design a wacky and quirky pen that's uncomfortable and impractical, you know? And then, I guess, add an Eiffel Tower nib. So, that's part of the pen. It's awful. I mean, so, the question isn't necessarily this. The question is, where did they get this idea from, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Who could know? Well, at least they know we've heard our letter, I guess.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. I went straight into... When I got this link, I went straight into the comment section of the Instagram and said, Orange 2000 win. So, like, I'm putting my blast. I just went in and liked that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Just calling them out. So, the funny thing about this design, they did this, like, you know... Like, you know, it's just supposed to be a joke, and it is. It's kind of funny. It still has, like, the traditional Lamy clip, which I just find completely hilarious. It's like, we have this... We're going to design an awful, unusable pen, and it came up with our traditional Lamy clip. So, what does that say?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it's probably safe to assume here that they just can't help but put it on everything. It's probably what's more likely to have occurred than ChatGPT being like, oh, I'm putting this clip there. I have a great idea for it. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, if we're making a terrible pen, like, at least put the clip on sideways or something. Make it non-functional. Like, the grip section is completely non-functional, right? Yeah. But, no, it's just a traditional Lamy clip. And I was like, okay. Hey, that's saying something without saying something there, Lamy. As someone who absolutely loves the clip, but I know there's a lot of people who don't like it, that's kind of like, hey, glad to see the clip ended up in your terrible pen design.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Looking at the Lamy Global Instagram account, which is not an Instagram account that I follow or am not familiar with, it's super interesting to me that when they write Lamy, they capitalize it, but they don't italicize it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And then, okay, so I think about this a lot when I'm writing reviews, right? Yeah. Because I want to use the proper, you know, the proper styling of the words. Yeah. They, I could be wrong, but it seems like this is more of a new thing to where it's very consistent now. But if you go on their website right now, and I'm not pulling it up, I think you can find a lot of just capital L Lamy stuff, which is how traditionally I've always done it. Yeah. But they are really leaning into this all-cap stuff right now. And I've just noticed that as a difference to me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And the all-caps is like fine. Like, it's just like, it's the styling. But it's just interesting to me that they don't then italicize. Like, they don't have to use the font. I think that's what like trips me up, is it's like the font that they use is close enough to their brand font. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Right. Because like, if you look at the Lamy logo on the Instagram page, it's italicized, right? It's capitalized and italicized. It's italicized. But in their text graphics, it's capitalized, but not italicized. So, yeah. And I think in the past, like on their graphics, when they do, if you scroll way down, I found one a second ago. So, there is an image. Gosh, it's the Lamy PB0110. I don't know. It's a leather accessories post. But the digital graphic on there has the italicized Lamy because it's like a magazine type of imagery, right? Yeah. But then their imagery on these just overlays on Instagram are all just standard Lamy. So, I don't know. And then you look down later and there's hashtags with Lamy in it. It's just capital L Lamy, right? So, they're all over the place. So, I just traditionally go with capital L Lamy, but I've been starting to see the all caps recently because I actually overly think about these things.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I wonder how many people sat in a room and had this discussion about the capitalization and the italicization. I'm going to go with many. Yeah. It was a lot of people that sat in a room and decided about that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, yeah. There's very many meetings about this, for sure. For sure. I think Pilot's been having some meetings, too, Myke.



== Pilot product line evolution ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' They are slowly but surely turning on the faucet of having a little bit of fun with their standard product lines. You know, not a store special type of edition, which they have been doing for years in Japan. And we're actually going to talk about one specifically. But in a broader release of a basic pen. And so, the Pilot Custom 743 is a classic Pilot shape. It's basically the Pilot Custom 823 without the vac filler. So, and without the demonstrator barrel. But it's the same shape, same nib, same kind of curved ends, rounded ends, sections, finial, cap finial are rounded. And with just a cartridge converter filler. And it's always been traditionally a black barrel with gold trim. And now, boom. U.S. exclusive Verde Grease in gold. Right? Gold trim. Green Pilot. Yeah. Come on, Pilot. Like, this is not hard. Right? Like, this is exactly what I've been asking for. Give me something once a year. I don't need the Sailor treatment. Like, I'm fine with that. If I want the Sailor treatment, I'll go to Sailor. Where I want all the things and all the pens all the time. Once a year is awesome. Right? So, now, I have a 743 in green. Thank you. Like, I just can't say thank you enough. Like, that's it. Right? There's, there's, you don't have, I'm not asking for more than this. Right? I'm asking for this once, every once in a while. You know, toss us something like this. So, this is a U.S. exclusive green custom 743. Great, great. It's absolutely fantastic. It's very unique looking green. Yeah. Which I like. I like it better. I think it's unique enough to, like, not have, like, the deep dark green and gold. I would rather have this kind of unique, unique green. I mean, I've actually ordered one. I have one on the way. I'm curious about it. You know, to see, to see what it's like. And, like, I want to get one in person. And I think this is, like, worth reviewing just to have this discussion. I was like, thank you, Pilot. I just, just one. Like, I'm not asking for a million things. Right? Give me one. I would love, like, a 912 one of these days. Maybe we'll get it. Like, they're turning it on just a little bit. Just a little bit. Now, over in the Japanese market. I mean, they have already turned it up to 11. Like, they've done some blue, like, 823s in the past. And they've had some really exclusive store specials. So, I had to put in this one from Fude Fan. I mean, this is a Pilot Custom 845. Custom Jade. I mean, it's just straight up knockout. But this is a store exclusive. They made 70 pins for a small shop in Japan. They sold out immediately. Like, it's freaking gorgeous. It's gorgeous.

'''Myke Hurley:''' These don't even look like a Pilot to me. Like, this 845. It does to me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I guess I'm used to this shape. Yeah. It's a higher end pin. You know, this is like, oh, I could be wrong. But I think over $500. Like, $500, $600, $700 type of pin. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This reminds me of, like, an Omos or who made that? Is it O? That pen that you really like. Oh, my God. What is the name? You were talking with the founders a lot. Oh, my God. Not the Elboyd. No. Begins with an O, I think. I mean. I think one of the companies that span out of the other company that went bust. My brain is not working today.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, like, like, like Omos is one of them. But I haven't talked to them very much. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's not the one then.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, Anoto? Anoto.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Maybe.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Maybe. Maybe.

'''Myke Hurley:''' My brain's not working for some reason. Sorry about that. But this is more of a different classic design style than what I'm used to seeing in pilots. Like, the kind of the way the cap looks and it's kind of the flattened finial and the furniture. Like, the clip is, like, very ornate. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is a very premium. The, this is, this is on the edge of the Namiki lineup. Right? And with this one, they have actually done, they do it black, as you can imagine, black with that gold trim. They also make this one with a red. And I might be wrong, but they might do it with a navy blue. But I know they did it with the red. So they have at least, but this isn't like, you know, like, just one of the main line pens. I mean, it's a regular product lineup pen, but it's at the upper end of the price spectrum. It's beautiful. What a beautiful, beautiful pen. Like, but yeah, I'm looking forward to this vertigree just to get it in, check it out. I got it with a Falcon nib. So I wanted to test this out. So it'll be a whole, like, testing thing. Like, I don't know if I'm going to keep it, you know, or what, but I really wanted to get this in, test it out. And just, I also wanted to give pilots some props. So, like, thank you. Like, once a year. I, like, thank you. I'm good. On the other end of the spectrum, Twisby is more in the once a month, where Sailor's more in the once a week category. But I miss this Twisby Mini AL in grape when it came out. I think it only, like, got mentioned, like, a couple weeks ago. Like, so it hadn't been out there for that long. But the Twisby Mini is one of the more unique, fun Twisbys. It looks just like the regular bigger 580 with just a kind of a section cut out of the barrel, if you will, to shorten it up. Mm-hmm. And I've always enjoyed Twisby's Mini Pins. The VAC Mini is just an all-time favorite of mine. The regular Mini is something I would use in the past for a lot of ink reviews. Get it with a stub nib. It's just kind of fun. And now they have one with this great, great purple aluminum parts on there. So purple aluminum grip section, purple aluminum piston, and the piston filling mechanism. So it's just kind of a cool model, and it's not something they do in the Mini lineup very often. Traditionally, it's only been, like, clear or black or maybe, like, black and rose gold trim, something like that. So it's cool to see the colors in the Mini. I would love a Twisby VAC Mini Iris. Like, that would be kind of like the dream edition where you get the VAC Mini, and then you get the rainbow plating that you find in the Iris 580 and the Iris VAC. Like, I would buy that one. Like, I don't need the Twisby grape. Like, I'm good, but I love this pen. I think it's a super, super cool color, and I like the continued existence of the Mini AL product lineup. It's a great one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Speaking about good color.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Ooh.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by the Canalea Pen Company, our good friends, Hugh and Carol. They make stunningly beautiful pens inspired by images of Hawaii. They believe that these locations can help recharge our spirit and connect us with nature. And we are incredibly excited to share information about Canalea's newest pen, their newest release, the Kilauea Kai Collection. For this pen, we are traveling to the volcanoes found on the Big Island in Hawaii, with the black and orange swirl design that this pen takes on, kind of like black and orange and gray, taking inspiration from lava flows and the thick gray haze that they produce with the volcanic rock left behind. That is your inspiration for this image. The Kilauea Collection features fountain pens made in Canalea's five profile options, as well as a ballpoint pen. And with this new collection, they are offering the Kilauea Kai Mai Lei Lei, which features Canalea's Argentium Silver Band. This is the perfect model to help celebrate something in a loved one's life. It makes the pen that little extra special, you know, like a lei in Hawaiian culture is to celebrate something, you know, like or to welcome something into the world. And so adding the Mai Lei Lei onto the pen gives it that extra something. And I love that whole design profile. Now, this is super interesting. I'm fascinated by this. For the first time ever, Canalea is offering you the ability to choose a preferred colorway from this new collection. So when you go to their store, you have three options available to you. You can choose your pen to feature more of the hot lava color. So this will be more deep orange with some gray and black. You can choose more cool haze colors. So you'll see mainly gray and black of a little orange or a more equal proportion of the colors, the gray, black and deep orange found in this new pen. Canalea's fountain pens feature Yo-O number six nibs. So you can buy from them a steel or 18 karat gold nib. You get those direct from Canalea. They offer a ton of sizes from extra fine all the way up to 1.1 millimeter stub. And every single nib is tuned by hand by hue to make sure that it's going to be perfectly right and for you when it leaves Canalea. And it will be shipped to you in their beautiful, lovely walnut keepsake box. For each purchase of a pen from the Kilauea collection, Canalea will be donating to charities in the Big Island community, namely the food basket, which helps provide food security to the people of Hawaii and the Friends of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. You can find out more about Canalea's whole offering, including their new collection, and place an order today at canaleapenko.com. That's canaleapenko.com. There'll be a link in the show notes. Our thanks to the Canalea Penco for their support of this show and Relay FM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. I have a lot to say. Can I get into this a little bit?



== Canalea Pen Company unboxing ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Get into it. So we both have one, as usual. Hugh and Carol send us a pen. We get these on – they loan them to us so we can have experience with them before they're available. And then typically we're given the option, if we want to buy it from them, we can, or we send it back.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. So unboxing, I am going into this. And the way they do, you know, the imagery, you see kind of like this black, cold lava rock with the bright, fresh lava running through it. I'm like, oh, yeah, this is about to be on. Yeah. So I'm like – I'm hoping this is like very representative.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I saw their teaser image like a week ago because I knew they were sending one out. And I was like, uh-oh. I think they got me again.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I pull it out of the sleeve and mine is just like around the cap. Like the first thing you see is just this blazing orange. And I'm like, oh, yeah, this is going to be good. So I break it out. And it's beautiful. And it's just like black and orange and gray. And the gray is really – the gray has – is this the Chitoiants in the gray where it's like, you know, the different colors look like they're rising up. It definitely is befitting of the smoke idea with the lava cooling down into the rock. So the thing that fascinated me most about this, and this was me looking at the pen before I really looked at the information that they sent about the inspiration or about anything, is I have this very interesting lava flow in my barrel to where – do you know the experience in a lava lamp when you have like the big lava and then it breaks off and there's like a tiny string and then it connects it to another big lava? I have this like string of orange lava running through mine that I can't stop looking at. It is – this is like – this is the one I would have like picked out if I saw on the tray. And then I read that, hey, you can pick out or you can kind of choose how you want the proportions of the material on this as choosing your aloha with the Kilauea Kai. And I would say mine's balanced, right? The equal proportion so that I think there's an equal amount of orange, gray, and black. Or you can go more orange or more cool grays and blacks, which is – that's why it's cool to always, you know, see the Kilauea pens in person because you can pick out like an interesting one. But now you're going to have that opportunity to do a little bit more ordering online. So I love it. I love the colors. I love this little lava flow experience I have on mine. I also want to just say generally I am so happy with the classic flush shape. It is my shape. And like when you buy pens from a brand, like repeatedly buy pens from a brand, and you get used to like how they do things. Like I've tried to switch, right? I don't know if you remember. I would ask for a different model just to say, hey, I would like to experience these other ones just to see like am I missing something? Like this was my first one, and, you know, should I try some of these other shapes just to get an idea? And I immediately went right back to the classic flush shape I get when I get these pens and ink them up. I just look at them and it's like, yeah, like this is my preferred shape. And that's kind of cool. There's like what, five different shapes you can choose from? So you can find one in your shape that fits your hand better and your style better. So I do really like that. So, yeah, I'm loving it. And I am not even going to tell you what ink I inked it up with because it might be the most obvious thing ever said on this podcast.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, it's what I put in mind too. It's fire on fire.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, there's like there was 0% chance anything else was going. Yeah, as soon as I opened it, I knew what ink was going in there. Yeah, so there you go. I'm loving it. And again, like with the Canaleas, I am spending time looking at it as much as I am writing with it. So another great job.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This pen may be the most like calls for an orange ink pen that I've ever used. Yeah. Because it's just like, well, it's lava. Like what else would you put in there? It has to be lava, right? Right. I don't know if they chose, like I don't know what proportions we got if we, you know what I mean? Like if it would have chosen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' My expectation is we probably both got the like more orange, right? Which would have made sense.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I think mine is very balanced. Like, yeah, I have a huge.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Looking at their imagery on the website, there's one that's got way more orange in than mine. So, you know what? Actually, we're probably pretty balanced, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I have one huge swath of orange in the cap and then one huge like connected swath in the barrel. Right. And like if you look through the colors, it's like 33%, 33%, 33%. Like it really looks balanced to me. Yeah. And that's perfect. Like I said, this is probably the one I would have picked just because of the way I have this little lava lamp connector in mine. I have to take a picture of it. It's really neat. I like it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But yeah, two things for me on this. One, you know, this isn't a new thing, but like I just continue to be like astounded by the depth and sheen in the material. Like, again, we talk about this every time, but I've never seen the kind of finish that Canelay are able to achieve in other pens. Like, you know, like there are spots in this, especially in like the gray for me where I look at it and it looks like I can kind of see through it. But obviously I can't like there's like a depth that they're able to produce, which is truly fantastic. And I got the My Lele again. Of course. I mean, it frustrates me because I like the most expensive one. But I, it really adds a whole next level to the pens for me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think it goes especially well on this one. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's such a nice detail to touch. Like, and it provides a very nice gripping point for removing the cap. True. Yeah. This one, it's going to find its way into my collection, I think. Like, this is too, too pen addict, right? Like this, this one. Right, right, right. It's like in our wheelhouse completely. You know, and also, I was like, I was kind of struck by like, they've made pens, they made a pen in these kinds of colors before, right? Like from the very, very original. Yeah, my first Canelay was. Yeah, you had that one, right? It's the Kohala Sunset.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I have no idea.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There is one that is like that. It's like black and orange and gray, right? And it was from the originals. And still very beautiful, but so different looking to what they do now, right? Very, very. The finish is just so much more complex to look at now than from the original set. And both very beautiful in their own ways, but I know I'm much more personally drawn to this newer aesthetic and complexity that they've been able to develop.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And now that you put the link up on there, that's not the one that they did too in that color. So that's a very segmented off one. Mine was more where it was all swirled together. Yeah. So we'll have to figure out what name it was.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I think that one that wasn't offered for very long, I don't think. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It was one of the very, very first ones I got. I'm looking at the pictures of the different, of this one, where you see some of them have more black and some of them have more orange. It all looks really cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. The ones that are all orange, they're intense, man. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I will see them at the Chicago Pen show, not this weekend, but next weekend. So I'll look forward to seeing these out on the table, seeing what people think about them. Oh, yeah. You can order them now, though. Yeah. You can get to the head of the game and order them now.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. What else have we got going on today?



== Diamine Reddit ink poll results ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I want to talk about a few more inks that I just kind of want to put a bow on the Diamine Reddit inks now that they are starting to become available. They're not. They've started to hit the market. They have not matriculated to all the shops, like any shop that you shop at that carries Diamine may not have them yet, but they are like very much on the way.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So they're like starting to use the inks that were the result of the polls, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. So they Diamine has made them. They've started to hit the market. So you have Celadon Cat and Sailor's Delight. So I will look at these like if someone at the Chicago Pen Show in a couple weeks has them, I will look at them. I feel and I haven't like totally looked at this. They're slightly different from like, you know, by the time you get all the way from the vote to the production might have changed a little bit. I've seen some people's with sailors warning. I was like, oh, that's looks a little bit different than what I was voting for there. But it's still a cool ink, kind of a reddish pink with a blue and purple shimmer. And then Celadon Cat is just kind of a cool kind of greeny copper type of type of feel. You know, when copper, I guess, oxidizes. I don't know if that's the correct word. It turns into that green color. It's kind of like that greenish greenish color that it looks really pretty. I don't know how much I would use it for writing, but I would like to get it to test it out. So anyway, those are if you've been waiting on those for the past few months since the vote, those are going to be at your favorite Diamine retailer soon. I put links into CultPens. Diamine is, of course, a UK company. So that seemed to be one of the few places I could actually find them in stock, which does not shock me. So they'll probably be coming to other places around the world very, very soon, probably on the way right now. Sweet. Kind of like the Sailor's Warning color, wearing old Dracula, Myke, has found its way into a pen of mine. And my intention, I guess, is the way I should start this. My intention with this ink that I bought at the Atlanta Pen Show and had Jesse at Dromgools pick this out for me. I said, just pick out what's the what wearing old ink should I get? And she said, well, get Dracula. That's that's the most popular. And I was like, yeah, this is cool. It's like a it's a red. It's very similar to this. The Sailor's Warning or what is it? Sailor's Delight. I already forgot the name. Sailor's Warning to where it's like a kind of a reddish base with some blue and purple shimmer into it. And I was like, OK, yeah, this will be great. This will be a great ink to review. This will be a great ink to give away. And now it looks like it might be a great ink for me to keep, Myke, because I can't believe how much I'm actually enjoying this ink. It's red, though.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It is. And I don't do reds in general.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, we're in the anti-red ink alliance.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I might have to rethink. Like I have like my one red. Are you telling me, Brad, you're leaving Aria? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I have. I have my one favorite. And historically, like because I feel like I should have one red ink and it's been Robert Oster red candy. Right. It's just a standard red ink. And I was like, hey, this is very good. Yeah. I'm actually writing with this, which is not something that normally happens with red ink and me. Right. Red ink usually has like a purpose and a task and it wants to do something specific. And this one I just want in my pen and I want to use it because it's fun. And it's not even the shimmer part of it. It's that it's a kind of pinkish red that gets it right. I don't know how to describe this ink, really. It is definitely red, but not you think Dracula. You think and probably blood red. And it's nowhere near that. It's like party Dracula. Right. Like this is like pink and shimmery and just kind of cool. And I don't know. I don't know, man. I have seen the red light and it is drawing me in. Next thing you know, I'm going to get bit on the neck. And I was going to say, I think I'm going to fly off. Bat. Bat.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, yeah. Yeah. I get why this thing is so popular. So, that's how it should be. So, I get it now. Like I can, you can see it in pictures. You're like, oh, man, this is going to crush. But is it for me? Not necessarily. And then now that I have it in. And I'm even using it in an extra fine nib. That's what gets me. Right. I'm not using it in some 1.1 stub nib to like really see all this shimmer and like color variation and sheen and shading. Right. I'm using an extra fine nib and just writing with it. I don't know. For some reason that really, really works, which I'm kind of amazed. So, I'll review it. And I'm probably going to keep it, which was not the plan when I went into buying things. That's how, that's what happens when you have so many things across your desk. Sometimes you fall into things that you didn't think you would like that you actually love. So, it's pretty cool.



== Pentel Sharp mechanical pencil review ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' My latest review on the blog was for a Pentel Sharp mechanical pencil, which is really not in the context of the Pen Addict, a pencil that I need to review because I've talked about it for, you know, a decade. I've used it for probably 30 years. It's been around for 50 years. Right. This is an OG mechanical pencil. And I was trying to think about, as I wrote this review of this Delphonics collaboration with Pentel, which we'll have a link to the review. You can go see what that is. It's basically just the Delphonics stamping on the barrel, which, you know, is fine. But it was more, I was trying to figure out why this pencil is so good, why it has lasted for 50 years, why it is beloved across the world. And it's hard to describe the feeling of that pencil like in an audio podcast. But it is one of those products that just kind of morphs into your hand when you're using it and you kind of forget it's there and you just go. Right. And there's a few products that do that. You know, I think that's like one of the features of the Lamy 2000. And like these are also products that some people dislike because of kind of that lighter area, airy feel to where you're just focused on the writing or you're just focused on the output that you're putting down on the page. And this pencil was designed really to be a technical pencil. Right. This was like an originally just like a drafting engineering mechanical pencil. But it's turned into like it's it's still that and they still have like the classic models, but it is turned into more of a fun collaborative kind of statement pencil for Pentel. And I love the fact that they're doing this like there's all kinds of cool colors. They they'll make a few like limited editions every year. They'll make a lot more specific editions for the Japanese market, which is what I kind of went into on this article. If y'all haven't read it yet, you can go check it out from the show notes. You know, again, you know, I love seeing this. And I even had I talk about this so much. The orange Pentel Sharp that I see in Jose Naranja's artwork. He's always drawing with an orange P205, which is the five millimeter Pentel Sharp. I was like, I just need to go buy that one day. That's like it's been available in Japan. It's like twenty five bucks. And these are like eight dollar pencils. Right. Yeah. So like that's a very big premium. And you kind of got I could go get it on eBay. Then all of a sudden I've gotten someone send one to me, which was very cool. And then I got had someone else send me a set of five neon Pentels because this is one of those products that I just kind of I don't want all the things, but I like having all these different fun colors because I almost feel like this pencil shouldn't work, but it is so good. And it's hard to explain why. I just think it's just the entire design of the pencil and the lightweight aspect and the very pointy tip aspect of it. And it's just really, really good looking. It's one of those. It's like right there with the big crystal for me as far as like a very basic design that kind of sets it apart in how good it is from the rest of all the products out there. Like so I love the Pentel Sharp. I hope they keep making more. They seem to be like, I don't know if hitting their stride, they probably already hit their stride, but they are they are not slowing down. And I'd love to see it because I I'm just all about the Pentel Sharp series.

'''Myke Hurley:''' These are quite light, right? Like they're just like very they're kind of made to be. I feel like they were designed to be disposable. I mean, and then they do different like the original design and ensure like these newer ones maybe aren't, especially if they're doing like fun colors and stuff. But this is like you mentioned rotaring in your article. It's like these are I think rotaring are designed to be kept, right? And yes, this is maybe designed to be like you'll just use this and eventually you'll lose it like like a feel of like a jet stream or whatever, right? It's just yeah, you just you could refill this one pen for the rest of your life, but

'''Brad Dowdy:''' you're not gonna yeah, you could like drop it on the floor and run over it with your chair and smash it and you're not going to be devastated, right? Yeah. So like comparison to the rotaring. So just my my quick mechanical pencil sidebar. The rotaring 600 is your S tier, right? If you're rating these right and it's the only one in the S tier, then this is my rating. The Pentel Sharp is the A tier, right? So like it is, you know, like in the grand scheme of like permanence and eliteness, like I think the rotaring does separate itself from this. But what this pencil is like puts it firmly in the A tier right there with probably like the Uni Kuru Toga. And then I'd have to think about what else, you know, as far as like mainstream pencils. But like that's your A tier is probably the the Sharp and the Kuru Toga and then maybe the Pentel Carry are probably all your A tier. And then we'd go from there. So it's a really special pencil. It had I don't think the designs changed since they've launched really, which is just wild to me. Like, I don't know. It's something they just nailed from the jump and like and now it's just become the celebrated pencil. And I'm going to continue to celebrate it as it as it as they keep coming out with new colors and new models. And it's just fun. And it's like one of my original stationery memories is is using this pencil like from my dad's office. Like it's it's just great. It's it really means a lot to me in just like the in my personal history of stationery usage. It's a very important pencil to me. And I'm glad to see that it's just like universally loved as well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. Should we take the next break? Yep, let's do it. Let's thank Squarespace for their support of this episode. Squarespace is the all in one platform to help you build your brand and grow your business online. You can stand out from the crowd, the beautiful website, engage directly with your audience and sell your products, services or content that you create if you want to. Squarespace has got you covered with just however much you want from your website. Maybe you just want to create a portfolio. So simple to do that. Maybe you want to create an entire business with a blog. And you want to have a store and you want to have email campaigns and you want to use SEO tools and insight platforms. No matter where you fall on that spectrum, you get all the tools that you need to Squarespace. You start like anybody does with one of their beautiful templates. You can customize it to fit your needs. You just browse the category of site or business that you're looking to make and you can customize it with a few clicks. You can use their tools for logos. You can use the fonts that they have, the colors. Everything is drag and drop, super easy to do on the web or on their app. You can stand out from the crowd and stand out from the people's inboxes with Squarespace email campaigns. So you can encourage your visitors to sign up as email subscribers and start them on the journey to becoming loyal customers all within Squarespace. Just again, you start one of their fantastic templates. You customize it to fit your brand and then you can send these email newsletters out to your audience with built-in analytics to measure the impact of every send. And then you can also use Squarespace's suite of integrated SEO features and useful guides so you can maximize prominence among search results. These are just some of the reasons why I and Brad have been using Squarespace for like 15 years or something like that. They really are the best and they just continue to get better over time. They have more and more useful features and it's all stuff that you can choose to use or not depending on what you need or like I do so many times. Be like, that's a great new feature. I don't need it right now. But one day when I do, I know Squarespace is going to be there for me. So go to squarespace.com slash penaddict and you can sign up for a free trial today with no credit card required. Then when you're ready to launch your website to the world, use the offer code penaddict and you will save 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict. And when you sign up, use the offer code penaddict to get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for the support of this show and all of RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So our shout out of the week is one of my favorite stationery streamers, Ame, who is out there very few times a week. And I usually stream in the mornings and they're usually online afterwards. I always love to rate Ame. She is so nice. She is a wonderful artist. She does a lot of journaling on stream, does a lot of video gaming on stream. She's part of the stationery brew team and Twitch stream team. So I'll have a link into the stationery brew team so you can go follow other stationery streamers and people in the, you know, that have similar likes and tastes. And, you know, they also do gaming and journaling and all kinds of fun stuff and just really, really cool people. And I got to meet Ame at the San Francisco pen show last year. And I just am taken aback by their artwork. It's like really kind of amazing. And importantly, when I actually rated her yesterday, she let it spill that she will be at Yoseka stationery this weekend, April 30th chat. If you are in New York on April 30th and are interested in going to Yoseka and seeing Ame there, she has made a bunch of stickers, a bunch of stamps, just a bunch of amazing artwork she's going to have there at her mini pop-up at Yoseka. So Sunday, April 30th from 1 to 7 p.m. in Brooklyn at the Yoseka store. Definitely make plans to go see Ame, go see their work. I'm just like a huge fan of everything they do. And they're a cool person. They're just awesome. So yeah, great stickers, great design work. One of these days I should commission something because it's just crazy. So we'll have the Instagram, Ame's Instagram in there, the Twitch stream and all the information. So shout out Ame. Yay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We have some RSTPA questions for today. Let's do it. This one's very topical, comes from James, who says, I'm going to the Chicago Pen Show this year. My current fountain pen collection is a Twisby Go and a pen made from ebonite. I've also had a Safari and an AL Star. My question, what maker would you recommend going with for a purple and silver swirl acrylic pen? I have a budget of about $300.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So James, you and I need to shop together. So I would be happy to help you out because I am looking at one specific maker. This show that I haven't gotten to see for a while, which I'll get to in a minute. But you are not going to be in short supply of makers. You should have Franklin Kristoff there. Edison is going to have... I'm assuming Edison's going to be there. I haven't looked at the vendor list. We'll have tables of swirly pens, whether they have something purple and silver. I don't know. I know someone who definitely has purple and silver is Canalea. I forget the model name. You can look at that while I'm rambling, Myke. But they did one a year or two ago.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm looking at it on my desk right now. But I'll know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's a great... I can't remember the name of it. But James, the one thing on my shopping list is I haven't bought a Newton pen in a while. So I'm going to be looking at Sean Newton's pens. You're probably also going to have Heinz pens there. So between Heinz, Newton, and Edison, and Canalea, and Franklin Kristoff, you are going to be completely set for options. Hopefully someone has something purple and silver-ish. So we'll have to see about that. But you're going to have your choice of makers. And I'll be glad to help you out. I want to look at... I haven't bought anything from Sean in a while. So I wanted to look at some different shapes and see if I find anything from Sean this time. That's been my recent pen show idea where I'm buying maker pens. And because I can get the standard retail pens from the retailers anytime. But seeing the makers and getting to pick out things in person, whether it be from Sean Newton or Canalea pen, getting to pick out your own specific pen from them. I'll be glad to help you out, James. And that goes for anyone who's at the Chicago Pen Show. I'll be there from Friday afternoon and all day Saturday. And then I'll be heading home Sunday morning. So catch me Friday afternoon, Saturday. Ask me to... If you have any questions or to give you some assistance, I'd be glad to do it. Aolani. Aolani.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Thank you. Brian asks, Fellow pen addict Eric and I were discussing the awesome Retro 51 Phoenix pen. We were talking about that last time, I think, from Penchalet. And we agree that it would be a decidedly great match for Robert Oster, Fire on Fire. As many mentions, one of the greatest inks in today's episode. Brian says, Is there any way to hack a Schmidt refill to put fountain pen ink into it? We were worried that even if you could reseal the refill, the viscosity would be wrong for a rollerball anyway.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Not that I've heard. I'm sure there's someone out there who has attempted something like this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There might be an option. Schmidt does not make an orange ink. At least that I'm aware of in the P8127. But sometimes Monteverde does... Let's see. Monteverde does do orange. I'm just wondering if they have a refill shape that would fit. So that's what I would do. As far as hacking that refill, I can't imagine under any circumstances that would be worth it. Other than just for personal satisfaction. Just cleaning that out and opening it up, cleaning it out sounds like a nightmare to me. And like a horror story waiting to happen. But maybe you should go for it because you still have a few months to get in your horror stories. So maybe... That's true. If you want to be ready for October... We can go ahead and give you an idea. But aside from that, I would look at Monteverde refills and see if they have something that matches. I'm trying to scroll through real quick. They might have something that fits that Schmidt. Secondly, I think a closer option... I think people use the Uni RT1 maybe? Refill and trim some of that off. Trim the end of the barrel. I think that one might fit, but I haven't done it myself. And I think they do an orange. So I'm saying that with a big question mark if you couldn't tell. But that's what I would check. I would go see if you can find a matching Monteverde because I know they do orange ink refill options. Outside of that, I would look at different hacks other than emptying a Schmidt refill and filling it up with something else. That would be amazing though.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The thing is though, Brad, orange is orange, but fire on fire is... You know, that's a whole different thing. I like that it's become a thing. Props to me on that one. I did good on that one. Props to you. Props to you. Who would have thought that orange and orange would work well together? Well, it actually does.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Who knew? Who would have known?



== TWSBI 700R and TikTok videos ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Elizabeth says, I'm a big TWSBI fan and I saw a sweet deal on a 700R as well as some amazing TikTok videos of that vacuum filling system that the pen has. Your review of the 700 back in 2014, Myke just felt old, was you were unsure. But I'm wondering if you've tried the new and improved version. Is it better? Have the flaws been corrected?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I would say definitely better. Yeah. So the original, one of my hangups with the original VAC was it was technically it worked, but it was more of a design disarray, right? There was a bunch of parts that didn't look like they went together and a bunch of weird, I don't know. It just, it was visually unappealing to me. So the 700R, I ended up picking up secondhand and they, I won't say they fully corrected some of the like design issues, right? Like I think the clip is just, the clip is great, but like it's a different finish than the rest of the pen. Like, and it's fine. It actually works better on this pen, but it's a much better pen now than it used to be back in the day. Um, I would completely recommend the 700R as someone who sold off my original 700 because I just did not get along with it. It's a very large pen. Like that did not change. The size stayed the same. So if you don't like a big bulky pen, uh, I, that did not change, but I did find it to be like completely enjoyable, enjoyed using it. And I actually would recommend it now, um, as, as a very good pen. It's still quirky, right? It's just because it's size. Some of the design stuff is like, okay, that's questionable, but that really doesn't affect its performance or anything like that. Um, I would completely recommend the new 700R without a doubt.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I mean, also like going back to 2014 times, Twisbees were good and they were up and coming, but there was always an asterisk of Twisbees that they would just break like in weird ways, you know, but that doesn't seem to happen anymore. Um, at least not how it did then. Well, like I think maybe some failures are more predictable now or the more like common, not common, but like they are more, if a pen's going to break, it's going to break in a certain way kind of thing. But Twisbees, they would just crack and like, it was, it wasn't awesome, but the product was good when you got a good one, right? Right. But they were very unreliable.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' If you looked at them the wrong way, right? They would, they would, they would break. It really was. The 530s and the 540s were just like very, very questionable, uh, construction. But, um, and I mean, I don't want to give them like a complete free pass. People still have some issues here and there, um, with Twisbees. Um, but I think it's more of a, of, um, correct percentage, if you will, uh, just like any pen brand, right there, there is going to be a certain percentage and I think of failures or issues. And I think Twisbees has now at least, um, gotten into that, that area. And I haven't had a bad Twisbe and I can't tell you how long, like they're, they're, they've all been really good ever since the, uh, kind of like the, the eco timeframe or whatever, since that came out. So, but people do still have issues. So I don't want to, I don't want to like just hand wave all that stuff away. So, but, uh, I am a fan of the new 700R. That's a fact.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And an anonymous question asker to say, I'm in my mid thirties. I have a very good collection of both inks and pens today. I was thinking how in the last couple of years though, I have not used them as much as I would want. I have a two year old and it's taken up a lot of my time. I then thought these are fountain pens that I could return to my hobby full on. Let's say 20 years from now. But I wondered, will all of my inks still be good then? Should I stop buying them and just use what I have until I run out?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Given our listenership, I'm likely to get yelled at to a degree, but I think the common sense says you need to get rid of those inks and not have them centering around for 20 years. Yeah. Is there a chance they could be perfectly fine if they're stored in, you know, a temperature controlled dark area? Yes, absolutely. Would I start filling my pens with 20 year old ink after taking a 20 year break in my fountain pens? Absolutely not under any circumstances, but I'm sure I will get, Brad, you're being silly. There it's good. There's some will be okay. You just need to check them for mold and make sure that they look good and shake them up. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am getting, I'm using them all now. And in 20 years, I will buy a new bottle of ink. I will be okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm not going through all of that. I'm not going through all that. Use them now. Stop buying inks and then wait and then buy a new bottle of ink when it's, when it's time to get going again. Just for just if nothing else for just sanity purposes, right? Could you get through and do this and use all these inks? Yes. Would your sanity let you down a little bit? Maybe so. So just avoid that. Buy a new ink. Use all your inks now. Buy a new ink in 20 years. That's the plan.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If you would like to send in a question of your own for us to answer on a future episode, go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send those in. We'll appreciate them. We still have tons to get through, but we always want more. So go to penaddictfeedback.com. You can also send us in your follow-up and feedback about the show and the episodes there as well. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com. He is penaddict on Instagram. He's at penaddict on mastodon.social. You can also find Brad streaming three times a week over at twitch.tv slash penaddict and find the products that he's working on over at spokedesign.com. I am also on mastodon. I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E on mike.social. You can find my products at cortexbrand.com. I would like to thank Squarespace and the Canalea Penco for the support of this week's episode. But most of all, thank you for listening. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

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