The Pen Addict 617/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	617
Title:	Orange Slander
Release Date:	May 29th, 2024
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 617
Audio File:	Audio Episode 617
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 617
Length:	5555 min <br />0.917 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Speaker 01: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 617. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Heinz Pens. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by The Pen Addict himself, Brad Dowdy.

Speaker 00: Hello Myke Hurley, the podcaster himself.

Speaker 01: I'll tell you a little story here. So, we made some fun of our friends over at the San Luis Stilo. I forgot what it was.

Speaker 00: We got a lot of feedback on this.

Speaker 01: Yeah, and they sent you an email and in their email they were like, oh, in the next ad, because they're coming up again in a couple of weeks, can you mention this thing? So I sent it to Kerry, our chief sales officer, and was like, oh, just so you know, they asked if you could put this in. And she was like, oh, why did they didn't email me? They emailed Brad? I was like, yeah. She's like, oh, is everything okay? I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We were just like having fun with them or whatever. And she's like, does Brad know them? I was like, Kerry, Brad knows everyone. I said, you can rest assured that if you're ever dealing with anyone in the pen world who wants to sponsor the show, Brad knows them. It's fine. And she was like, duly noted. So that's my little story about you for the day.

Speaker 00: Yeah, so I've actually purposefully saved that follow-up for, I guess it's next week's episode. So we'll hold on that. But needless to say, Anne, who runs the St. Louis Pen Show, since we had such a funny little bit on the whole idea last week, sent a great email, a great follow-up. It really enjoyed what we did and then actually had some specific follow-up for us. So we'll hold that till next week because I thought it was- Yep, I want to keep that. It's like a great little thing.

Speaker 01: But yes, I hope they would be lighthearted than they were. So that was good. The St. Louis Exposition to Stilo. That's the-

Speaker 00: They need a t-shirt with like the main name and then maybe on the backside.

Speaker 01: That's a freebie, all right? If you want that and you want to make merch, not only can you make it, we'll promote it, you know? Here's what I need to do. We'll put it in the show.

Speaker 00: Here's what I need to do. And I said we're holding all this till next week. I'll get my friend Myke Antowiak, who I need to get on the podcast one day. He does- You would recognize his ink art. He does a lot of the Sailor 50-state artwork. And that's his local show. I should get him to do like a logo of the French name for the-

Speaker 01: Saint Louis Exposition to Stilo. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 00: So I owe him an- He has an email in my inbox right now that I owe him. And I'm doing some ink samples for the show. And so I will get in touch.

Daily pen usage and preferences

Speaker 01: Brad, do you want to know what I'm using today?

Speaker 00: I do.

Speaker 01: What's funny to you?

Speaker 00: You. So behind the scenes, here we go. Here we go, Myke. I always got to tell our secrets because I think they're funny.

Speaker 01: They're supposed to be secret.

Speaker 00: They're supposed to be secret. Brad was a little bit frustrated yesterday afternoon. Brad's had some long days and a lot of work going on. And I was texting Myke. He's like, I don't got it, chief. He's like, I don't got it. I'm working. I'm working here. And then they were like, okay, break glass in case of emergency plan has been instituted. Let's talk about what we're using, which is it's not even like a break glass in case of emergency. I like to do this. I just don't want to do it.

Seasonal trends and their impact on pen discussions

Speaker 01: It is the perennial topic that we have available to us when there is otherwise not a lot of news, but is inherently interesting to this show because it's kind of what the whole point is.

Speaker 00: Yeah, exactly. And let's be clear. Like this is one of those times a year where you start to hit the doldrums like in the stationery world until we get into like July. Things don't really start ramping up. Yeah. So if y'all have topics, I want to hear. I have a whole list of topics we can cover. But if you want to get, you know, on the topic list, not just like necessarily an STPA, but if you want to, you know, reach out with some topics, let us know.

Speaker 01: Yeah. You can always go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send that stuff in. One of the things I wanted to talk about today, because, you know, look, my what I'm using is pretty similar. And I'll tell you like the two things that I'm using the most right now, obviously the Sidekick notepad and the Mark III. I've kind of like that Studio Needs Mark III mechanical pencil, which I kind of feel like is the perfect pairing really for a notepad that's on your desk open all the time is a writing instrument that you don't even need to engage. Right. Exactly. Like a mechanical pencil can just be ready to go all the time in a way that a pen can't be. Right. And so I've been I've been really enjoying the pairing of these.

Speaker 01: There is a couple of pens that are new for me, but I wanted to mention. Well, not new. There are a couple of pens that are specific. One is actually new. I've not spoken about on the show yet, but I wanted to talk about something a bit different, which is like I spent the last couple of days building some furniture here at the studio at Mega Studio. Because as things are changing for me, like I've been in the studio for four years nearly over four years now. I signed the lease on the studio in February of 2020. Asked me how that went. Wow. That's a date. Yeah. That is a date. Yeah. One of my favorite things to do every now and then is I go and look back at this post I have on Instagram from like early March. And it's like the studio is getting closer to being usable because I finally found like the soundproofing material that I needed. And because I was struggling with echo here at first. And I bought on this post, I take a little picture of like a desk that I bought. I've got the curtains around it. And I'm like, can't be here for a few weeks, though, out of an abundance of caution. That was like early March 2020. I did not start working in the studio until March 2021.

Speaker 00: Yep. I was thinking like you didn't make it like the entire year, the rest of that calendar year. Yeah.

Speaker 01: I mean, the only things like I did podcast a thons from here, but that was easy to do because I wasn't actually using the studio yet. So like I could fill it with like the balloon room and all that kind of stuff. But now it would be basically impossible, especially because of this reason. So I've been here for long enough now and some things have changed. One, I'm like rebuilding my recording area to be better for video. I'm doing more video now when I record podcasts. So my view right now is terrible. So I'm actually working on that over the next few days. But I also wanted to like I've desperately wanted to have a desk focused around product design, like a specific space in the studio. Because at the moment I have like samples and inspiration notebooks and all kinds of stuff just like stacked up on my regular desk, like on the streaming, like on my where I would use for streaming stuff like my PC part of the desk, which I also use for like keyboard projects and stuff. It's like my projects desk. It's just for, I don't know, the last two years nearly just been stacks high of stuff. So I've bought some new storage for like inspiration materials and also a new desk. It's a standing height desk from Ikea called the Mitsun. It's like a conference room table. And I just put that together yesterday and I'm already in love with it. Like it makes me so happy to have like a dedicated space. Like it makes it feel a little bit more real that like I sit and do this stuff and I've just got on the desk right now. Like I've got some prototypes that we're working on. I've got some like I've been buying, as I said to you a few weeks ago, I'm buying like everything, you know, like I find anything I find interesting now, like notebook wise. I just buy it to like look at it and handle it. What do I like about it? What don't I like about it? And like to try and build my overall knowledge, especially we are starting quite an ambitious product, which is like Christmas 2025 at the earliest. But we're starting that. And so that's like new materials that I need to understand and new manufacturing stuff. So anyway, I've got this desk and I'm really happy with it. It's like standing height and I have these stools that I can sit on. I can stand on it and I'm putting like all my like like my, you know, the drawing pens that I have and my cutting mat, all that and like a little storage thing underneath. So this is making me very happy. And I felt like I had a bit of an overlap with the show because it's about stuff.

Workspace organization and design for creativity

Speaker 00: Yeah, it's a super smart idea. And having like a dedicated design space, especially like a dedicated creative space where you're not reaching for the other stuff on your desk that might be getting in the way. Yeah. Or having to rearrange your desk just to make more room or not like I knock things over.

Speaker 01: Like I have like a large space to just lay things out and look at them all, you know, like that's, I find that to be quite, quite valuable. And it feels good. It feels like tactile. I mean, these are tactile things. It feels nice to be able to interact with them in that way, you know?

Speaker 00: Right. And I think the most important thing about this desk, because it kind of checks all my boxes, is that it's standing height. Yeah. Like a lot of my design work just has to be done standing up. It's how I work the best when I'm doing it. In that creative mode. I don't want to be sitting in a chair.

Speaker 01: I've started to discover in myself that I didn't necessarily know was a thing before, you know? So I've been enjoying that too. Yeah.

Speaker 00: So I'm threatening to redo some of my like stream and shipping setup. And it would definitely involve some taller workspaces to go into like the sit and stream workspace.

Speaker 01: It's so normal for any kind of working setup like this, right? That you start it and then eventually you actually understand how you use it. Like you set it up in a certain way and then you're like, oh no, I don't. I don't use it like this at all. You know what I mean? And then you end up like changing it all up again. And I've been in this place for long enough now that I feel like, all right, there's a few things I want to adjust. It doesn't mean that the studio is getting more and more full. Like I have in total now four desks in this studio. It's just me. Yeah.

Speaker 00: No, that's what I'm eventually going to have if I combine like all my areas. Yeah. Like I have one desk where I'm at, but my shipping department has three more. One, two. Yeah.

Speaker 01: I really like dedicated spaces for dedicated activities, you know?

Speaker 00: Yeah. So I just want to put all that stuff in one room. Like I have a room that's big enough for all that stuff, but they wouldn't be in different parts of the room to where they wouldn't be overwhelming.

Discussion of specific pens and their features

Speaker 01: Yep. So the two pens that I've been using, one is a new one I've had for a little bit and haven't spoken about it. I got it last year. You sent it to me. And it's a Hello Tello Studio pen. They said they made us like, I believe they made it special, like a pen added version. Just for me? Wow. Yeah, yeah. This one was for you. I didn't know. I thought you had one too.

Speaker 00: I have a couple of different ones that I've bought from John over the years, but he told me he wanted to make one for you.

Speaker 01: And so it's all orange and black. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it has a special nib, which is awesome with an engraving on it. It is the Venice pen. And I really was surprised by this pen, actually. Like when I first saw them, I didn't think that I would dig the grip section. Yep. Because the grip section is the same width as the body, and then it just drops off to the threading for the cap. And when I first saw the Venice pen, I was like, oh, I'm not sure that this is going to work for me. But it turns out that it's very comfortable in a way that I wasn't expecting. I think this is just a case of if you get the full width of the barrel correct, like it's not too chunky, then it feels good. And it's one of these things where I'm like, have I kind of been lying to myself thinking about what I need from a grip section? This pen has made me kind of question that a little bit, which I like. I like to answer that stuff question. But I really love the design of the pens. I love the acrylic that John uses. But obviously, John's signature is the...

Speaker 01: What he does in the caps. Yeah. And I really love it. It reminds me of like a really beautiful boiled sweet. That's how I see them. It's what it reminds me of. But yeah, say it again. What are they called?

Speaker 00: Millifiori. Okay. It's a Venetian glass. Yeah. It's these little small, almost like a little tiny, tiny piece of stained glass. Like he has to put them in with like tweezers type of thing to like lay them out properly. It's very cool. It's not like a ring he's putting in there. Those are all individual pieces, like each piece you see. And they can be on the top of the pen cap. They can be on the butt of the pen. They can be on both. And he does different designs for each and just kind of really, really goes all out on these pens. They're really impressive pens. Yeah.

Speaker 01: It reminds me of like a Venetian glass look, which it's supposed to, right? Like, and I know that from watching. I don't know if you've ever seen the Netflix glass blowing show, Blown Away. No, but I've heard of that. It's like a British bake-off, but for glass blowing. The first few seasons are really good, but it's kind of fallen succumb to the American reality show style. And like where everyone's characters are like they're out of comic books, but in a bad way. But I like the first few seasons of it. And one of the things like learning a little bit about the glass styles and Venetian glass is like a lot of what they call cane, where you heat it up and pull it into these like long strands. And then you combine them. And this reminds me of that because it looks like a cane, essentially, that you've then kind of cut in like as a cross section. And that's the cap. So, yeah, this is a really cool app. Really, really nice.

Speaker 00: Yes. So, I'll put a link in the show notes to Millifiori, like the Wikipedia page. So, people wonder what is that word Brad's attempting to say. That's what it is. And you'll get an idea of the design.

Speaker 01: Yep. And then the last pen that I've been really getting kicked out of recently is my Canalea Haleakala silhouette, which I have landed on is my favorite design of theirs. Like the kind of yellow and black and kind of like rose goldy look. This pen is also extra special because it has my Tokyo Station's pens stacked platinum nib on it.

Speaker 00: Was this also the cover shoot pen? I can't remember. Yes.

Speaker 01: So, the story goes that the Haleakala silhouette that I chose at the DC pen show was the model that was on the cover of Pen World. Pen World. Yep. But I don't exactly know why, but for some reason, Hugh and Carol were selling that model. But the way that Canalea works at a pen show, they kind of just have them all there and you can just pick the one you like the look of. And I just, because of my obviously impeccable taste, happened to pick the one that was considered cover shoot worthy.

Speaker 00: Yeah. And we have never lived it down.

Speaker 01: Oh, there's not living down. I'm proud of it. I tell you right now. That's hilarious. But yeah, this is my absolute favorite design of theirs. Mm-hmm. And so, yeah, I've been, I'm very happy with that pairing. And I have a great yellow ink. I think it's the Sailor yellow ink in this.

Speaker 00: Yeah, you've given me the number before. It was 770.

Speaker 01: 770, which is, for me, the best yellow ink that I've found. And I tried loads for this pen, right? Like, I wanted a really, really good yellow ink for this pen. And I think 770 is actually just like a very usable yellow, which is not easy to find. Usually, I've found a lot of yellow inks, they either didn't look very good, like the yellow was not a great color, or when you would write with them, they would kind of, you'd just lose it, right? Like, you would lose any kind of definition. But this, 770 does a great job. I also think does a great job without resorting to shading.

Speaker 00: Right.

Speaker 01: It's not like they put orange in it, and that makes it show up. It's just a very, very...

Speaker 00: What an orange slander.

Speaker 01: Wow. No, no, no, no. Look, Brad.

Speaker 00: It's not like they put orange in it.

Speaker 01: No, but it's not like that the only way it's readable. It's because they change its color, right? That's what I'm saying. Which is like... Something I've found in a lot of yellow inks is that to make it stand out on the page, they would add a sheen to it. Correct. So it would provide some definition. But this is full, just yellow. And like, there is a little bit of color variation, but that's just because of the ink color. But it's not like it's anything else going on. So I really like this pen a lot, this ink a lot. No orange hate.

Speaker 00: No orange hate.

Speaker 01: If it makes you feel any better, I have fire on fire in the Hello Teller.

Speaker 00: Nice. Yeah, and I think my favorite yellow does actually have this hint of orange in it, which makes it illegible, which is why I like it.

Speaker 01: Yeah, that's what I mean. But what I like about 77E is it doesn't resort to that to make it usable.

Speaker 00: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just like a nice saturated yellow that's readable.

Speaker 01: It's really nice. And obviously in like a double stacked music, you know what I mean? You're definitely going to be able to read it. It's like a highlight of this pen. I love it.

Speaker 00: Yeah. You don't want to use it with an extra fine probably. You'll eye strain and all that. Can I make a little off topic commentary on your two pen choices here? Yes. And this is, I think, why I love this so much. And I'm just looking at literally the two fountain pen choices you chose here. You, and I'm speaking like you personally, like, or even me, because I've gone through this with some Hello Tellers and some Canaleas. You look at these pens and you're going like, I don't get it. Like, necessarily, like the Hello Teller Venice, right? The shape of this is like, oh, this is like, this is not what I'm used to. And then you think about it and you pick it up and you feel it. And it's like, oh, this is kind of interesting. And then you acquire one and you're like, oh, well, this kind of works. And I really think about these things. And I lump that in with the Haleakala because that's just a colorway that's very strange, right? Like, that colorway would not work for everybody.

Speaker 01: No, it's very unique.

Speaker 00: Mm-hmm. I think about these things a lot in our little world, that we all have these little things that we, you know, we may not get in the beginning. And then we start thinking about them and start using them. I find this happening to me a lot. And I use a lot of products, way more than you do, that even I, like, have my initial thoughts changed, usually positively, about like, oh, this won't work for me. And then I think about it a little bit more. And I'm kind of getting a little bit more intrigued. And, you know, generally, I love, like, the craftsmanship. Like, seeing the Hello Teller or the Canaleas, like, oh, I love the idea of these pens. But maybe the shape's not for me. Or maybe the color's not for me. And then I tend to find myself falling harder in love with these pens that I maybe kind of not dismissed in the beginning. But, like, okay, yeah, not for me. But then I fall harder for them. Like, the Hello Teller model, like, is one of my favorite pens. And I didn't think it would work for me in the beginning. So, it's just a little meaningless diatribe about, like, why I like this stuff. It's because you can find all these little things that you didn't think would work for you. And they turn out to be, like, some of your favorite items. And those two pens that you chose are kind of, like, the epitome of that for me.

The value of pen shows and in-person experiences

Speaker 01: It does also reinforce the benefit sometimes of pen shows and pen stores. Yeah, definitely. Being able to go and handle some of these items is an important part of the process. Until you have more greatly understood your taste profile.

Speaker 00: That's true. Like, I do have that benefit, right, of the ability to, you know, have been to lots of pen shows and try lots of pens. So, I don't want to discount that.

Speaker 01: As I said, even if you think you know what you like, you can still be surprised. And so, that also adds the benefit where, like, I thought that the Hello Teller models would not work for me. And I was incredibly wrong because I've been using this pen. I think it's a real joy.

Speaker 00: Yeah. And that's what keeps me going in doing this is the ability to be continually surprised by a simple ballpoint pen, right? Like, that's what keeps me going. So, I share a lot of those thoughts on a website that's run by Squarespace. Myke, what are our friends at Squarespace up to?

Speaker 01: They are providing our listeners with the all-in-one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just getting started on managing a growing brand, you can stand out from the crowd of Squarespace and succeed online. They have beautiful websites that you can customize to your heart's content. You can engage directly with your audience in a variety of ways and sell your products, services, or even the content that you create. Squarespace has got everything you need, all in one place, all on your terms. Squarespace's blueprint AI and SEO tools make it so easy to get started. You can start a completely personalized website with their new guided design system, Squarespace Blueprint. This lets you choose from a professionally curated layout with styling options that you can tweak to build your online presence uniquely from the ground up, tailored to meet what you're looking for from your brand, optimized for every device. It doesn't matter whether people are using a phone, a tablet, a desktop. It's going to look fantastic. They consider this with all of the design choices that they give you. You can then easily launch a website and get discovered fast. Squarespace is integrated, optimized SEO tools. So you show up more often to more people and grow the way you want. The SEO stuff is like an exact reason why I recommend Squarespace, because you can have someone who's taking care of that stuff for you. This is what Squarespace is so good at. You know there are things that you need or things you might want, but it's really complicated to do. And really what you want to focus on is building your brand, building your business, putting your home online. Squarespace take care of all of this for you. Right. So if you want to sell stuff, they have all of the tools you need to sell exclusive content on your site by adding a paywall for courses or content. Or you can sell physical goods as well. They have the SEO tools. If you want to email people like you want to build an email list, you have Squarespace email campaigns, which is super flexible. Again, you have the ability to design things the way that you want and they have great analytics. They also have analytics for your website. All of this is built in. You can even integrate flexible payments to your site to make checkout seamless for your customers as simple but powerful payment tools. You can accept credit cards, PayPal and Apple Pay and in eligible countries offer customers the option to buy now and pay later with after pay and clear pay. So go and try it out for yourself today. Go to squarespace.com and you can sign up for a free trial. Build your entire site. You don't need users all in the trials. You can go there. You can see what all the tools are. You can play around with the layouts. You can even start putting content on your website. And then when you're ready to launch it to the world, go to squarespace.com slash penaddict and you'll get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict. And when you decide to sign up, you will get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of RelayFM.

Speaker 00: All right, Myke, we got a shout out of the week.

Speaker 01: Shout out of the week.

Speaker 00: Blice Tift. One of the OGs in the stationery space, mainly pencil reviews and commentary. Matias has kind of like moved away from like just pure reviews. And one of the cool things he does is always posts about stationery in real life, whether it's a movie, a TV show, you know, what's that pen? What's that pencil they're using? You know, different different ways we're seeing stationery and trying to figure out what this front, what the where the items from or what item they're they're actually using in there. So I always enjoy the content from that. It's a lot of stationery in the real world stuff, some trip reviews, some shop visits and just some really fun stuff. And it's been doing this for a long time. So shout out to Blice Tift. One of my favorite reads. Always enjoy when I see something popping up about some TV show and what pen or pencil they're using. It's always it's always fun to figure that out because people always have questions. I do. I play the same game all the time. I was like, oh, I just saw this. What is that? Right. So, yeah, it's it's fun to track, fun to follow. All right. I've got my what am I using here? And the most recent review that I did was for Tasha Ainzou Inc. And the pen I chose is one that I really, really like. It's the Skagze Chola in micarta. It's a black micarta. So it looks kind of a gray, gray looking pen. I love the micarta material. And this particular pen, it takes yoga number six nibs. But I've always kept the same nib in this one because I had a really nice architect grind on it done by the nib tailor. And it's on a broad steel nib. And it's a really clean architect nib that I enjoy writing with. So I. I. I find myself with this micarta material just holding the pen a lot or holding the cap in my hand when I'm writing with it. And even though it's not like this completely tactile, it's not like it's rough right on the outside. It just feels different than the acrylics that we use in a lot of our pens or the metals that we have in a lot of our pens. And it's just something like super enjoyable about holding micarta. And I just like the concept of micarta as a pen material. I did want to bring up one comment on micarta for people that might not be familiar with. And it's something that comes up, came up in this pen and myself and Scogs, he talked about this, that micarta as a material is actually will wick moisture out of the air. Right. Like you don't notice it. Right. It's not like something you see, like if you leave it out in humidity, your pen is going to be wet. But what that affects is when you have a nib and a feed in a cap in a very dry, arid space is what this really is. So sometimes you get hard starts out of micarta. And that's, for lack of a better term, a feature. Right. That's like the expectation is that, oh, I'm going to have hard starts with this pen. And then when you combine it with a very dry ink, like I did with Tasha Einzu, every time I pick it up to write, if it's been more than a day, like if it's been a couple of days or a week, I have to work to get the pen writing. And that's just a property of micarta material. A lot of times when they're sealed in the cap. Even though they're technically airtight, right? It's a fibrous material. Right. So that's why the more I use this pen, you'll see my hand oils like on the pen. It's going to change the character of the pen. That's why I like my pen, right? Because it does change. It patinas. Exactly.

Speaker 01: Does that also mean you could stain it? Like with ink? A hundred percent.

Speaker 00: That's like the easiest thing you can do is stain this pen. So you don't ever dip the grip section into a bottle of ink. I just fill the converter from the bottle and then put the converter into the nib unit, into the section. So yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 01: I can tell from this article though, you didn't know this information when you were using your TWSBI.

Speaker 00: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So my old TWSBI is soaked in ink. No, I did know that. So that's a completely different story. Okay. This was a huge TWSBI QC issue. We had cracked housings. So that ink actually came from the inside. You know, the enemy was on the inside in that case. So that was not dipped in there if you look at pictures.

Speaker 01: The TWSBI MacArthur is like an old school pen addict conversation. Like they did that one and then they never came back to it, right?

Speaker 00: It's just like, no, this is a disaster. And then they stopped. Well, they did one that was such a disaster. They immediately did a second one. So I got one of the second ones that was technically better. And it was, but there was a nib housing issue that just with mine that just caused that ink. So yeah. Micarta pens, if you like clean, pristine pens, you don't want a pen that patinas and micarta. It can get you in trouble. Like even like an ink splash. Like if you just happen to splash it, it's likely that it's going to seep into there because it's, it's essentially fiber on the inside, right? So it's, it's a fibrous material. So anyway, I just love the feel of it. And I love looking at it. That's just one of my personal favorite type of materials to use. I don't have many because they don't come in a lot of styles or colors necessarily. So you don't need a bunch. But the ones that I do have, I love and I use them a lot. So that one is always, if I'm not, if I don't have this pen inked up, I'm always thinking about inking it up because I do enjoy it so much. A little bit more of a random one. And so I have, I don't know, like 10 pens inked up right now. So I'm trying to go through them. And I need to do a cleaning and ink up some new pens, but I'm trying to write a bunch of these pens dry all at the same time, which when you have 10, it's, it's, it's slow go. Um, but I have three Kaweco's inked up and we're going to talk about one in particular later, uh, in the show, if we have time. But I'm kind of finding myself picking up the plastic Kaweco collection, um, apricot pearl edition, because I like how that pen looks. I like how it feels. I have the little gold clip attachment on it and a gold plated extra fine nib that writes really well. And I have diamine bilberry ink in it, which is a blurple, which looks great on the page. And I don't know. I feel like sometimes you get the perfect setup from the jump and I don't want to use anything else in this pen or use it in any other way. I think that feels like this is a pen I'm going to use anytime, all the time. The nib is great. It's extra fine. Um, the, the cartridge, uh, the diamine ink is perfect in it. And I just really like using this pen. So I talk about Kaweco's a lot. And like I said, we're going to talk about another one here in a minute. Um, but yeah, I don't know. I'm one of those people. That's just like, I, I don't wouldn't say I'm like a super fan, but the Kaweco size just works for me where some people, they don't work for them at all. Like some people have zero interest in a Kaweco because it's just not something that's going to fit their style. And that's perfectly okay. But for some reason it works really well for me. And it's a really enjoyable writing experience. Even if I'm using one of the expensive plastic barrel ones, when I have a steel one and a piston one sitting right next to it, I keep grabbing the plastic one. And I don't know. I think that's kind of telling.

Speaker 01: Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 00: Yeah. Um, I also have, um, my, the Uniball Jetstream Light Touch. I'm still using a bunch. Like if we're talking about like what I'm actively using, like, especially like this week, these are the pins that I'm grabbing the most. We talked about it last week. I won't, um, rehash that, but I'm gonna have a review coming up on it pretty soon. Um, still like everything I said last week stands. Um, I'm not finding really any issues with this ink formulation at all. So it, it's been really good. Um, a couple of notebooks. I'm using the Hobonichi A5 Tomoe River Notebook, um, which is a really good format. I like the paper in it. I like the grid format. It's like a four millimeter grid. The grid pages are kind of, say, I don't know how many pages this is, are in this. Say it's 198 pages. Every, I don't know, divided that by five, the color of the grid changes like every like 30, 40 pages or whatever that math works out to, to be. So like, I'm in like the red grid section right now. Then there'll be a green and then there'll be a blue. And I think there's a brown and a purple. So this is for, I mean, I guess they did it like if you're a student and wanted like a notebook and you could like put some file tabs on the exterior and kind of segregate it a little bit more for like class work or projects or different things like that. But like, I won't separate it at all. I'll just use it straight through. But it's, it's one of my favorite notebooks. Paper cover, tape bound. And that's kind of my jam, which is like the other notebook I'm using, the Midori MDA6. Same idea. It's just smaller.

Speaker 00: Paper, soft cover, tape bound, just really high quality paper on the inside grid. I definitely have a theme with the notebooks that I personally like to use. And that's just kind of my like scrap paper notebook. Like I use, like when I need to get my Skogsy micarta, I need to get the Tasha Ainsu ink flowing. I get out that notebook and just start scribbling until I get it going. So like, y'all, I have to have a notebook like that. So I don't end up with a bunch of scrap paper all over my desk. And I don't like destroying like my Tomoe River notebook that I'm using for other specifics. I don't want a bunch of just scribble pages in there. So I have an entire notebook that's just junk. And that's currently the MDA6. But I want it to be enjoyable junk, right?

Speaker 01: Yeah, of course.

Speaker 00: Yeah. So that's kind of the thing. That's kind of my two main notebooks that I'm using. I use countless other notebooks on a daily basis too. Like I've already used my Plotter today. I have my Hobonichi five year. Like those are just, I don't talk about those as much because they're just always there. And that made me think about what products are just ubiquitous on my desk. Like they just live here and I use them. And I kind of have to have them close by because when I need them, it's exactly what I want. One of those products is the Copic Multiliner SP, which you're familiar with. I was doing some ink samples in the Tomoe River book for my review on Monday. And since I didn't have all those inks inked up, I wanted to write down what each one of those inks were. And I wanted to look the same. So I grabbed my Copic Multiliner and just wrote the name of the inks on there. Right? Because that's a pen that I know looks good. It reads well. I like my handwriting in it. It's the right size. It's a black ink one.

Speaker 00: The Secura Pigman Micron falls in that category too. I tend to pick up the Multiliner a little bit more because I like the barrel a little bit more than the Microns. Barrel. But that's the same category. And the Microns kind of in there. My Spoke Roadie, the small spoke pen with the, I currently have a Jetstream refill in it. I'm waiting to actually have to change the refill out on that. I use that pen so much. One of the Parker Style Jetstream refills. I have to be about done with this refill. I use this pen so much. Like it just lives here. And I need it here. So it's like, I have a multi, multi, multi liner. You know, the Copic. And I have a ballpoint in like the Jetstream. The gel pen I've been picking up recently is the Uniball 1F, which we've talked about before. And I've reviewed very, very positively on the blog. And then like I have a mechanical pencil. Like when you were talking about your mechanical pencil, your Mark III earlier, you're exactly right about why that pencil. For me, it's a spoke model 4.5 millimeter. It just lives on the desk because all you have to do is pick it up and go, right? You don't have to worry about, you know, the ink or the cartridge or the refill or anything like that. You can leave the lead exposed if it's laying on your desk and you're not carrying it around and you just pick it up and write. And like those are like, I don't know, the non fountain pen standards on my desk, right? A multi liner, a fine gel pen, a mechanical pencil and a ballpoint. Like those things just live here. And I think I don't talk about those all the time, but those are the things like I'm super passionate about those things too. And I get so much joy from using those types of products. So, yeah, I just I was thinking about that. It's like, OK, I have this list of what I'm using now, like what's really speaking to me. And then I have stuff that just lives here because they're perfect for when I need them. They're exactly what I want. And that's where that list comes in.

Speaker 01: Very cool.

Speaker 01: Anything else for the list today?

Speaker 00: There's always more for the list, but I think that's good for today. I mean, we're going to have to break glass in case of emergency another time, probably this summer. So we might as well save them for more because actually I'm about to like do like a whole scorched earth cleaning and do everything out and then a bunch of new stuff in. So we'll talk about that later.

Speaker 01: Sounds good to me, man. So this episode is brought to you by our friends over at the Heinz Pen Company. Whether you prefer a classic elegance or loud, sparkly, colorful resin based pens, Heinz has something to suit your needs. Founded back in 2017, Heinz has grown from a one person shop to an internationally recognized brand. Brad, can you tell us a little bit about that, like your experience with Heinz?

Speaker 00: Yeah, I was trying to think about when I first met Jim Heinz. And I think if I have it right, it was at the 2018 Arkansas Pen Show. And I was there, you know, just hanging out and going to the pen show. And there's this guy and he had a table. I think he was by himself at the time. And he had a table and it's, you know, just all, you know, acrylic pens, all the stuff that he turned. And I was like, oh, this is this stuff looks really good, really good. Looks really nice. And I hit it off with Jim. He's obviously a very outgoing, fun loving guy. He's easy to talk to. Loves what he does. It's like super passionate about what he does. I'll follow back up on that in a second because I have a story about that. But seeing what he does and what the rest of his team does with, you know, everyone making all the different products. They make some materials in-house now with Starry Night resins. And just really seeing the expansion from when I saw them first, I think, again, 2018, I think is when I saw them. If they started in 2017, that would make sense. Seeing how they have become kind of a staple brand in the maker space to where other makers go to them to help create things, help solve problems. That's what I was going to talk about. I know for a fact Jim helps so many other makers when they run across issues to try to solve problems. Whether, you know, it's a clip design, like Jim makes a lot of their own clips for the pins. Or whether it's a material where they can, you know, work with Starry Night resins in-house and try to figure out an idea. Or just like doing the really cool matching plating when you work on a collaboration with Heinz. Which, you didn't know this, but I do have something in the works. It's just, I feel like that should be a good disclosure that I have a project in the works for the Pin Attic shop, right? They're just really fun to work with. Super high quality materials production. The quality on the pins is spectacular. One of my favorite brands out there in the maker space. So, I'm really happy to have them on board as a sponsor of the Pin Attic this week.

Speaker 01: Yeah, I know that like the way that I became familiar and am most familiar with Heinz is the incredible colors that they apply to nibs. Like it is really special. Like I have two or three pens now that have Heinz nibs on them. And every time I use them, I'm like, dang, how did I do this? You know, like it is really, really cool. It's very unique. The electroplated nibs is their signature. They have matching hardware as well, right? So, you can get a matching clip in the same color. It's available in more than 20 colors. This is the addition that can take a stunning pen over the top. You will have seen their fantastic color playing on the Estabrook Pen, the Pink Sands SD, which I have, and their Northern Lights Canton series. Heinz offers a wide variety of pen sizes to fit your personal preferences. From their Tashin Stift Pocket Pens to the Giant Koenig and sizes in between, you'll be able to find a comfortable pen to fit your hand. Artisans Jim Heinz and Rachel Neal craft each writing instrument with care in small batches using traditional methods. Heinz also incorporates a variety of quality artisan resins, ebonite, and a variety of other unique materials to make their products. You can find Jim Heinz and Francisco Lopez, the Heinz guys, at most major pen shows around the country in the next few months, including Pacific Northwest, DC, San Francisco, Orlando, and Dallas. In addition to their website and pen shows, you can find Heinz pens at our other sponsor, Pen Chalet, and Atlas Stationers. Plus, you'll find them through various small collaborations with folks like Gentleman Stationer, Vanna's Pens, and Brad's Pen of the Year 2023 at Enigma Stationery. Right? That was a Heinz collaboration. Yep. That's one of the ones that I have, too. And a fourth coming from the Pen Addict Store.

Speaker 00: Yeah. Right around the corner. Yeah. Can you repeat the name of that, the small pocket pen, the, what was it called?

Speaker 01: I'm pretty sure it's called the Toschenstift.

Speaker 00: Yeah. So, you're going to have to work on that. Just saying. Like, that's a name you're going to be hearing. Well, what is it, Mr. Pronunciation? Well, no, I don't know. Like, I'm with you.

Speaker 01: Oh, I think I got it right. And I don't think anyone could say that was incorrect.

Speaker 00: I'm just saying, we might be having to say that name a lot.

Speaker 01: Oh, okay. Coming soon. Coming soon. Half of it I'm familiar with because of the Toschenberg Leiter, right? Right, right. So, it's either going to be Toschenstift or Toschensteift. That's, I guess, true. Yeah, or Stift. Stift. You can go check out Heinz Pens today at HeinzPens.com slash Pen Addict. There's a special offer for listeners of this show. You can get 15% off your next purchase using the code Pen Addict by visiting HeinzPens.com slash Pen Addict. That's H-I-N-Z-E-P-E-N-S. HeinzPens.com slash Pen Addict. This is good for one use and it expires on July 1st, 2024. So, go now to HeinzPens.com slash Pen Addict. Our thanks to Heinz Pens for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Speaker 00: Yeah, that's a great deal, too. I don't even get that. Man, I don't even get that cut at the pen show when I'm sitting there. I'm going to have to talk to Francisco and Jim. Well, you can also just go there. Y'all need to go take advantage of that. You can just go and do it, too. Well, I'm about to buy a lot of pens from them. Right. See, you can get the discount.

Speaker 01: Like, I heard about this great discount available for one use.

Speaker 00: It's a one-time use, huh? You don't say. So, yeah, go check them out. All right. Go check out this Bungu Box, Estabrook. All right. Here we go, Myke.

Speaker 01: What are you doing to me here with this pen, you know? Oh, boy.

Speaker 00: This kind of relates to what I was talking about earlier with your pens, the HelloTelo and Canalea. I saw this and I was like, huh, okay. And then I just looked at it and I looked at it more. And I couldn't stop looking at it. And I went from, like, this is a perfectly cool pen to, like, wow. This is, like, really, really awesome.

Speaker 01: I don't know. This is incredibly special. How? Do you know how they made this?

Speaker 00: No, no. Okay. So, they've done, so Estabrook's done a similar type of material, I believe. I don't know if it's the exact same, like, process, but they had, like, a white pen before that had kind of, like, this subtle swirly material with some translucency in it. But it wasn't really set off like this one has been with the pink in the material. And then the black and gold that you see through the barrel. And that was my initial hang-up. Not really a hang-up, but I was like, wow, this is a lot of transparency and a lot of interesting, you know, design elements all kind of thrown into one. And does it work? And that's really what I wanted to talk about is because in the end, I think, yes, it kind of works amazingly. And I'm almost looking at it as, like, this shouldn't work, right? This should not be a thing, but it's actually kind of perfect for me in style. It reminds me of the clear Pilot Custom 823. Even though that pen doesn't have the type of swirl in the clear parts, it's a clear pen with a lot of black and a lot of gold showing through on the pen. And it reminds me a lot of that with the added bonus of the pink and then having, like, the color converter, which you also see through the transparency. It's kind of ridiculous. And I was like, okay, okay, I like it, I like it. And then I, like, I, then I couldn't stop staring at it, right? And there's a couple of pictures.

Speaker 00: If you, if you look on the page, I don't know, it's about the seventh or eighth picture you scroll through where it's just laying on, like, a wooden tray. It's like it's glowing. It's like the pen is glowing, like, off. It's like it's jumping off the tray. It's like it doesn't even look real. Like, it's really cool. I'm very impressed by it.

Speaker 00: I, like, I, yeah, I don't know. I really want to see this in person, right? Like, like, I guess, you know, I'm not going to, like, rush out and buy one. I kind of slowed my roll on that. But, like, I want to see this in person. I don't want to see people have this pen because I think it's kind of neat and unique in style. I'll let you know in a couple weeks. Yeah. Okay, good. Like, this is an aggressively designed pen, right?

Unique and innovative pen designs

Speaker 01: It's incredible. Like, I, every now and again, a pen comes along and it's so different, you know? And, like, yeah, I bought one of these. Like, this is just so within my wheelhouse. Because, to me, this feels like such a great pairing with, like, the Progear Japan steel, I think it's called. The one, like, the hammered steel. Oh, sure. It has, like, that kind of, to me, of just, like, this finish you've not seen before. Like, I genuinely don't know. I would love to know if anyone can let me know how they did this. Because, like, it looks like it's, like, what happens to glass. A lot about glass today for me. I think it's called, like, heat shocking.

Speaker 00: Okay. Sure.

Speaker 01: Where you take something super hot and dip it into something cold and it fractures the glass. Like, that's what it looks like they've done here. And it still, like, remains as it cools. It hardens again. So, like, it doesn't fall apart. And I imagine there's something similar going on here of, like, a heat shock to crack the acrylic like this, but for it to remain structurally sound.

Speaker 00: Well, maybe I'll reach out to my friends at Kenro and see if they can give me some details.

Speaker 01: I would love some. But, yeah, this is a stunner. Because, yeah, this just came out yesterday, so it's a surprise. This is a stunner. And I love that they've got the jewel branding on the cap. Like, Bunglebox one side, Estabrook the other side. I think that's really nice. Yep. And then they have the Etch Nib, which is new for this. I understand why they wouldn't do this. I wouldn't do this in the same scenario, but I'm just saying it would have been cool. If they would have written the Estabrook name in the style of the Bunglebox.

Speaker 00: Oh, yeah. You know? Like the handwritten. Right. The little, like, yeah, it looks like a handwritten character. Yeah. That would be fun. But, yeah, like, no one's going to do that. I understand why you wouldn't do that. It's your logo. You know what I mean? Right.

Speaker 01: So it's like, no shade, but it would have been cute, but I also know why you wouldn't do that. But, yeah, this one, like, you know, I've seen people send to Discord, like, because it's a demonstrator. They've matched the internal materials, which is not something you don't always get, right? Like, the internal materials are the same color of the rest of the furniture, and it's a painted converter. Yeah, this is... Honestly, the price is right. I can't believe this pen is $195. Yeah. It doesn't make any sense to me. This is an absolute knockout edition. Like, bravo to everybody involved in this, I think.

Speaker 00: Yeah, so one of the random things that you mentioned that not everyone gets right and that they did is having the converter trim gold. So if you look around, if you have any number of fountain pens, if you go and look at all the different converters you have, you could probably count the number of gold trim converters on one hand, I'm sure. Right? It's not the common converter color, unless you're platinum.

Speaker 00: And, yeah, just getting the simple things right with this one.

Speaker 01: Also, I think, what is it, the feed housing? Mm-hmm. Like, even having that be the correct color. Like, it's all just considered. This is just well-designed, well-considered, top-to-bottom, very special-looking pen, and I will be adding one to my collection.

Speaker 00: Now I'm tempted. Like, I was like, well, this is like on the FOMO list. It's like, well, they're not going to be around forever. I should probably maybe think about it. Like, we'll see. We'll see. I do really enjoy it. But, again, like, I can't express this enough. The reason, like, I love talking about this stuff. This is absolutely not for everybody, right? But, like, when it checks your boxes, when you find the products that check all of your boxes, it's like, yeah, like, everything comes together, and it's just really, really nice. So, yeah, like, it's not something for everyone, and that's good. Like, I feel like that's okay. Like, I've always been on the side of, like, you don't have to design for everybody, right? So this is a good example of that. I don't know if the Kaweco Sport fountain pen, piston sport is designed for everybody, Myke, but it's designed for me. I'm really liking the piston sport so far. I've had mine in hand for a couple of weeks now. So I just want to give a little, a few initial thoughts on it.

Speaker 00: It's great. It's expensive.

Speaker 00: It can be a little fiddly. And I think Kaweco super fans are going to love it. The end. But that's not really it. Never is. So what surprised me when this, when they announced this and released the pictures of it, and like a month ago or so, maybe, maybe two months ago, was that they chose to build this in aluminum.

Speaker 00: That, I think, caught everybody by surprise. Maybe it shouldn't have, because they use a lot of metal barrels and metal materials for a lot of their pen models. But it did catch me by surprise, just because the traditional Kaweco is plastic acrylic. But this is a good way to modernize. It's, it's, it's the right combination. Something that Kaweco does very well is they combine the modern and the classic all in one pen. So this has the classic, like kind of curved clip design that Kaweco uses on some of their, some of their pens where the clips already integrated into the barrel. and tie that in with like the modern aluminum materials. The piston mechanism is fantastic. I'm loving the size of this. It's the same size as any other Kaweco sport, right? No bigger, no smaller. It's got the same feel to it. There's been a little bit of conversation around the blind cap. So if you're not familiar with a blind cap, that's a essentially a cover that goes on, on top of the end of the barrel to cover the actual piston mechanism. So if you think of a Pelican, that piston mechanism is integrated into the whole end piece of the pen. And this one has a cap over that piston mechanism. So that can get a little bit twisted inside the barrel. If you're not careful, I haven't really had that problem yet, but it is something to be aware of to where you could actually twist off the blind cap inside the cap of the pen. If you're not thinking about it, it doesn't happen easily, but it can be done. But otherwise I'm thoroughly enjoying this. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to write up this review because it's, I'm very, very happy with it. It's a, it's a weird price point. Um, but I think it's a correct price point. I don't have a problem with the price point. Like, could I argue maybe, you know, 149 instead of 170 might be better, maybe, but like, again, what's the point in that? And that's just how much things cost these days. Um, I'm interested to see longterm, obviously how the piston mechanism works. Um, no one knows that yet because we've all only had them for like a month. And I'd say just overall, if you're remotely interested in this, I think you're going to be happy with it. Um, I'm very happy with it. Um, I have an extra fine steel nib in this one. It's glorious. I chose the, there's two models you can buy. You can buy a set that comes with a bottle of the Royal blue ink, or you can just buy the pen by itself. I bought it with the Royal blue ink, just so I could have that classic style experience to kind of what this pen throws back to. And I'm enjoying that Royal blue, the Kaweco Royal blue ink in with this. And I don't know, I think you'll see when I do my review, the, the nib writes really, really well. You're going to enjoy, like I'm enjoying my handwriting with this nib, even though it's the same nib I have in a billion other Kawecos. Uh, this is a really good one. And mine generally tend to be very good on the extra fine side of things. And yeah, like I really no cons other than, you know, you have to be thoughtful about the blind cap on the back unscrewing and be willing to pay, you know, a pretty decent price for, for a pocket pen that may not be everybody's style. And it's, it's not a faultless purchase, you know, like a, uh, Kaweco classic for 25 bucks. It's like, yeah, I'll take a shot on this. Well, this is 170 bucks. It's a little bit different than just taking a shot on it. So overall, very positive thoughts. And I'll have that review coming out, uh, here, just like the, uh, just dream like touch here in the next couple of weeks.

Speaker 01: Sounds good. If you want to catch those reviews, you've got to stay locked to pen addict.com where Brad posts all of this stuff, but you can also find as well as on this show, you can find Brad over on Twitch, over at twitch.tv slash pen addict. And he is at pen addict everywhere else. I'm at, I am I Myke. I am Y K E. You can find my products at cortex brand.com. You can find Brad's spoke design.com. Thank you so much to Heinz pens and Squarespace for their support of the show. Don't forget if you ever have, uh, questions you want us to answer and ask TPA, or you have follow-up or topic ideas for us, you can always go to pen addict feedback.com and leave it there. We read all of the stuff that comes in. Well, I read all the stuff that comes in there. Brad reads all the emails. That's how we, we can't split. What is it like divide and conquer? That's how we do it. Divide and conquer. Yep. Thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of the pen addict. And we'll be back next time until then say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Brad. Matt.