The Pen Addict 89/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	89
Title:	I'm The Best At The Worst
Release Date:	January 15th, 2014
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 89
Audio File:	Audio Episode 89
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 89
Length:	5959 min <br />0.983 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Pen Addict Podcast

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 89 of The Pen Addict podcast, your weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools that we love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by the ayatollah of Hiroshizuku, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: I like it. How's it going, Myke? Good, man. Very, very well. How are you? Good, good. I like you. I think that's a good one there because you have serious competition with the main man, Keegan, from One Star Leather because I purchased a wallet from him. And again, I got another little special introduction on my envelope and this time I am the best Disney princess.

Myke Hurley: Well, you see, where I agree that that's awesome, that's not stationery related.

Brad Dowdy: I know, I know. But the ayatollah of Hiroshizuku, I am totally down with.

Myke Hurley: I mean, to save follow-up, I am perfectly aware that that is not meant to be alliteration, it is merely assonance. I know the ayatollah is not spelt with an I.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, yes. I just want to save myself. It was well done. And we have another intro. It's become a thing when we get further down the list here. But we got a lot of follow-up items. So I say we get right into it today, man.

Myke Hurley: If you heard a bang, that was my iPad falling from my desk to some boxes below. Wow. Did it survive? Everything's okay. Everyone's okay.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, good.

Myke Hurley: Everyone is well. Good. All right. And I missed what you said, because I turned around just in time and saw it crash to the ground.

Brad Dowdy: No, I was saying we got lots of good stuff to talk about today, so we should probably get into it. Because, yeah, I want to hear about this TWSBI customer service that you have received since our last episode.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, so last week I mentioned that I'd contacted TWSBI to ask them for a new cap for my ROC. And it has arrived, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: I'm stunned.

Myke Hurley: It arrived like three days ago.

Myke Hurley: And it's an ROC cap. They didn't send me like a blue or a red cap. It's a TWSBI 540 ROC placement cap.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's got the band at the bottom of the cap. It's got the little special ROC designation, right?

TWSBI Cap

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. And it has the sun logo on the top.

Brad Dowdy: Wow. Where did it ship from? I'm curious. From? California or from Taiwan?

Myke Hurley: It came from Asia. I feel really bad because I can't remember where.

Brad Dowdy: No, that's fine. I was just more of a curiosity for my part.

Myke Hurley: It's from wherever TWSBI are based. Because I don't want to say because I feel like if I say like China and I'm wrong, then I feel like I'm just being journalistic or whatever.

Brad Dowdy: No, no, no. I just think one of the – I didn't mean to put you on the spot, but I know one of the guys, Speedy from TWSBI, works out of California a lot. But I think the main shop is in China or Taiwan. I don't even know exactly sure. So I was curious if it shipped from like California area or from the Asia area. But the Asia area. I'm pretty impressed they still have some of these caps.

Myke Hurley: That's what I don't understand. I guess they just have replacement parts. I guess they just have replacement parts. I just guess that they're there for these sort of scenarios.

Brad Dowdy: That's a smart thing, I guess, yeah. I mean to have that back stock for a certain amount of time until it's gone way past when they're being sold. I mean these haven't been sold for a couple of – two or three years now, I'm guessing. So is it like good as new? It's good as new. That's so cool. So they – and that was fast too. I mean like ridiculously fast.

Myke Hurley: It was like three or four days or something silly like that.

Brad Dowdy: Good on them.

Myke Hurley: So congratulations. I mean if you needed yet another reason to purchase TWSBI products, their customer service is now that reason.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, we're going to give you even more reasons right now.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, what – you need to tell me about this because I – as is usual with the TWSBI Facebook page, I don't really understand what's happening.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's a fair sentiment and I will agree with you on that. On the TWSBI Facebook page, I don't know what's happening most of the time either because they post a lot of prototype stuff. They say, hey, we're working on this. We might do it. We might not. So I don't know how many things are real, how many things are not, how many things are going to go in production. And if they do go in production, it might be a year from when they post a picture on there. But they've posted one of the coolest things I've seen from them in a long time. And I'm a huge TWSBI fan, so I think everything is pretty cool. But this kind of takes the cake. It's the 580, you know, the 580, Diamond 580 with aluminum piston and section, colored aluminum piston and section parts. And it looks amazing. It's the clear demonstrator barrel with, and the aluminum is colored in blue, green, orange, purple, and red. And I think it looks outstanding.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, I, it's like I want one of these yesterday and they may not, they may not even manufacture it, right? It's really hard to tell.

Myke Hurley: You don't know any more then?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know any more. I mean, and they're not, I mean, and they'll, they'll come out and say, I don't know. I don't know what we're going to do. Yeah. Cause actually the, the capture on the photo is we've been testing the aluminum piston mechanism for years. I don't even remember when we started. Now it's final done. The turning mechanism is very smooth. Most of all, I'm happy with the result of the pin in original aluminum color. So what does that mean?

Brad Dowdy: Are you going to make it or not? I don't know. But they've shown off things like, you know, way back. I don't even, I couldn't even find the dates if I wanted to probably, but the rose gold 580 that they just launched what a month or two ago. I mean, that's been on their Facebook page for ages. The classics been on their Facebook page for ages. So they just kind of use their Facebook page as this testing bed to get feedback on what the prototypes look like, I think. And of course, every time they do that, everyone just like rages for them because they all look so good and everyone wants them. I mean, there's this, there's this white Delrin looking pin further down the page back from November that I've never even seen before. Never even heard before. And it's got this cool filling mechanism and this cool translucency in it. So I don't know what to make of it, but I wanted to post it out there because it's awesome looking. And you know what I feel about the 580 in general. As a matter of fact, I was using it last night. And every time I use it, I always very much enjoy it, especially last night when I shot ink across the meeting table in a meeting I was at my day job or night job. As you will, my 580 made a mess on the table. I don't know how. I've still yet to figure that one out.

Brad Dowdy: But that was fun. And I don't, I don't think anyone, anyone caught me last night, but I think I accidentally flicked the pin somehow and I shot ink about two feet across the table. I had to mop it up when I was done. Anyway, I digress. But I will, I want this aluminum piston, TWSBI.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I want, I want them bad. Like I saw them and I was like, oh yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Make it happen, TWSBI. Make it happen. So that's a, that's a temptation right there. So I'd be curious to see because that will probably be a little bit more than, I'm guessing probably be a little bit more than the standard 580. But I bet it's still probably like, I don't know, they have the, they do a good job of keeping it all in the reasonable price range. It seems like maybe like a 70, $75 pin, something like that. Maybe. Who knows? I'm just pure speculation on my part, but probably a little more than the regular 580, just for the parts and the added cost of the parts. But man, I gotta get that. Yeah. So what else you got?

Myke Hurley: Where else are we in that document?

Ogami Notebooks

Brad Dowdy: What's Ogami notebooks. I know a little bit about this, but you've been kind of driving this one here.

Myke Hurley: Yes. So we had, so yeah, what do you know about these things?

Brad Dowdy: It's stone paper, right? That's all I remember.

Myke Hurley: Yes. So we had a listener contact us, Alexander Putz, got in contact to say that he'd found these really interesting notebooks and that he wanted to send them to us. So basically what we've got is, so I have them here, Brad, and I'm putting yours in the post. Because I told him to send them both to me and then I would send yours on to you.

Brad Dowdy: Right. That's what he told me he was going to do. Because he's in Europe somewhere, right? Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because I said, you know, let's save you some money rather than, you know, his books. Right. So I'll read from the back. Ogami uses Repap, I don't really know what that means, in all the product lines. Oh, here we go. Repap is made up of 80% calcium carbonate and a small percentage, 20% from non-toxin resins. The calcium carbonate present in Repap comes from limestone recovered from caves and used in the creating Repap, a resistant and durable as well as waterproof paper. A paper that is also soft, smooth and bright white. One of the strangest notebook products I've ever received. So we have, I have a couple of different sizes and I've got the smaller size, the pocket size. Um, like this is like a field note size one. Okay.

Myke Hurley: Okay. So they don't feel like stone. I would hope not. But they feel like stone.

Myke Hurley: So it feels like paper, but you know how like that feeling you get when you rub stones together? Mm-hmm. And, oh, actually no. Hmm. You've been to the beach, right? Have you ever been to a pebble beach? No. So we get these a lot in the UK. And there's a really interesting thing. When stones get wet, um, they, they, they give off this like strange feeling like a, like there's a film covering the stone. Mm-hmm. And this obviously is the breakdown of sand and stuff. Right. It kind of feels like that a little bit. Like the paper is kind of, it's smooth, but there's a definite texture that you can't put your finger on. It's like a rough texture. Um, and when you sort of using the pages, they rub together in a strange way. Like there's an awful lot of resistance between the pages. Okay. Huh. And what you're left with is a paper that feels like it's glossy, but isn't shiny.

Myke Hurley: Okay. Which is really strange. So it has the feeling of like magazine paper, but it doesn't shine. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Interesting. Yeah. Because the, the thing that threw me off the most about it was not the stone in the makeup of the paper, but that it's waterproof on top of that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I haven't tested the waterproofness of it.

Brad Dowdy: That just, that seems like, I don't know. Interesting. There's a lot, a lot going on there because I've had a, a guest review of stone paper on the pen addict before. And, um, I've never actually tried it myself, but you know, stone paper has been around for a few years now is when I started seeing it. Um, and there's some interesting, the guy that did the review on my blog is for the Oxford stone paper notebook. Um, I don't know if it talks about, yeah, it talks about it being strong, durable, and waterproof. That's interesting. That's interesting. And he also lifted on fire. It's kind of a fireproof. Why don't you try that real quick?

Myke Hurley: Nope.

Brad Dowdy: No. Okay.

Myke Hurley: This reminds me of the expedition edition.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And it's tear proof as well. So that's interesting. So how does it handle? Yeah. How does it feel when you write on it?

Myke Hurley: So it doesn't tear like I'm trying to tear it right now. And so, well, it does if you get it right, you know, but it's that it doesn't rip like you have to like really sort of go for it to tear it. Right. Um, it's really interesting. Interesting. Like, interesting to the point where I'm like, hmm. Okay. Hmm. So basically I wrote down my notes whilst writing on the paper itself. So I will write, I will read to you what I was writing down. Slow drying time. Not incredibly slow, but slow, as you'd expect. It leaves an interesting line on the page. Um, and what I meant by that is like the way that pens feel on this paper is interesting. And the way that the ink dries is unlike other pens. So when I was writing with fountain pens, I was writing with a Pelican, my Pelican. And the way that it dries, it doesn't look like the way it dries in other paper. It's like, it's kind of like drawn on it and it just stays there. It doesn't get absorbed.

Brad Dowdy: Hmm. Yeah. I can see that, I guess, happening because that's how the expedition paper was, right? It would never.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's super. No, no, no. I don't mean it's not drying. When it dries, it's like, it's like, it doesn't look like any ink has been absorbed. It looks like it's just dried in place. Gotcha. But it's dry.

Brad Dowdy: Oh yeah. That's weird.

Myke Hurley: You know, obviously it's not, you know, it's absorbed by the paper in as such that, you know, there's not ink or words all over the place. But when it dries, there's no feathering, nothing. You just write on it and it dries. Hmm. So it's like kind of writing with a permanent marker on plastic.

Myke Hurley: I gotcha. It doesn't get absorbed. It just will stay there. The ink drying is good, all things considered. Like for time, to be honest. It doesn't dry instantly, but it dries pretty quickly. But the way it looks is incredible. Fountain pens, it feels like you're writing on glass. It's amazing. So smooth. And I've never had the Retro 51 perform so well. Really? It's like a different pen. That's crazy. The Autographic liner really doesn't work.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I could kind of see that.

Myke Hurley: To the point where I wrote on this yesterday, still smudges.

Brad Dowdy: Oh my goodness.

Brad Dowdy: But the fountain pens don't.

Myke Hurley: You have to really go at it. I mean, after a certain amount of time. You have to really go at it. So I can go to my ink yesterday and really rub it and it will smudge, the fountain pen ink. But the Autographic liner, if I just touch it, the ink comes off. It's a mess. Interesting. So that's, you know, that's not ideal. But just don't write under the Autographic liner. Like if I really sort of rub on this, the ink will smudge. But it kind of will do that with paper as well, like for fountain pen ink. If you really, you know, it's going to do something weird anyway.

Notebooks

Myke Hurley: Basically, I recommend this. I think this is a really cool, different and interesting product. And the paper is good. It's good quality. They're nicely made notebooks. They've got a nice little character to them. There's a bunch of different sizes. I'm definitely going to use it more. I think it would be a really interesting sort of just ink testing notebook. Because it will produce such peculiar results.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I like that there's a pocket size one too. So that's pretty neat. So I look forward to testing it out.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to get them in the post to you today. Yeah, no hurry. So thank you, Alexander.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, thanks, Alexander.

Myke Hurley: So that's sitting in my groove from Mr. Dudak.

Brad Dowdy: Awesome. So how was your penmanship in there? Because we got a nice email from a listener talking about penmanship. So how's your penmanship working these days? Same. Same? Yeah, I know, right? Same as it always was. Yeah, like it changes a lot. So we got an email from Josh. And the subject is Myke's left-handed problem. So this is a really interesting email. They caught me off guard. I didn't know what to think about this.

Myke Hurley: I don't. I'm just going to. I can't actually know. You say read it first. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'm going to read the nuts and bolts here. And I'm especially going to read the beginning. It says, to the man who takes his power from the mighty mythology of the heavens, Brad Orr, the pen god. How did I do? Very good, actually. It says, I've been listening to your podcast with great enthusiasm during the past few months. I can't believe how ignorant I was to the wide world of writing utensils outside of the big ballpoints, which I used to so thoughtlessly buy and lose in bulk. I was particularly interested in your evolution into fountain pens. Like Myke, I'm a lefty. I struggle to write with my now beloved pilot Prera and my divergent left-handed oddness. But I've recently overcome this problem. I write with my right hand.

Brad Dowdy: So let's stop right there. What were your thoughts when you read that? When I got there, I was like, I can't wait to read the rest of this email because this is insane.

Myke Hurley: I have a fundamental problem with it.

Brad Dowdy: Like, I just... It's just unnatural. Whoa. You know... Like a nature fundamental problem with it? Well, it's very 1840s. Like you're going against the laws of nature kind of thing?

Myke Hurley: It just feels like a... Right. You know, it's just like kids being forced to write with their right hand. You know, it's just... It feels very... Sure. Sure. I don't like it.

Brad Dowdy: So let me read this next little bit and then we'll talk about it some more. It says... Yeah. It says, The solution of mine is not for the faint of heart, but nor is it as difficult as you may assume. Writing with my right hand is merely taking consistent and dedicated practice. I write just one page each day. In the beginning, I was not able to complete the full page in my allotted practice time, but I've been able to increase my writing speed significantly in the past four months. I'm down to about 20 minutes per page now and my handwriting, while still somewhat slow, is much better than I can scrawl with my left hand. So it's interesting on a lot of accounts, right? So your issue, and I'm totally with you on that as a... Yeah, because I... You know, it used to be kind of a stigma, right? To write with your left hand so people would force people to change. But, I mean, he's obviously doing this on his own and it seems to be working for him. So, I don't know, is this something you'd even consider or it's just not... There's no reason to ever even go there.

Myke Hurley: I'm proud of being left-handed.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Like, I don't want to change it. I don't feel like I need to be fixed. And I don't feel like maybe that this, you know, this is what is being... That Josh is saying this of me. Or of himself, even. No, no. But I don't feel like the way to fix my penmanship is to force myself to be right-handed.

Brad Dowdy: So, I think the most important thing he said here, honestly, and when I get questions about penmanship, this is what I say regardless of what hand you are.

Brad Dowdy: It takes consistent and dedicated practice to change your penmanship.

Brad Dowdy: So, it's very possible he could have done this with his left hand. I don't know if he tried. Maybe he did. But... And I wrote some notes actually last night just to kind of thinking about a new blog post just about penmanship. Because people ask me how I get my penmanship. And it's strictly a practice thing and an evolution of a lot of repetitive action. I mean, there's no simple way to make it better. And my handwriting, and I've said this several times, my handwriting right now is infinitely worse than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Because I don't practice anymore. It's all about speed now. And that leads to a little bit of, you know, poor handwriting. So, I'm working on some notes to write up a post just about handwriting in general and how to learn to write better. Not that I have all the answers, but just kind of how I evolved into the handwriting that I have now. How, when it was good, why I think it's bad now, and how you can change things. But it's legitimately, it just comes down to, Josh said it best, consistent and dedicated practice. I mean, 20 minutes, 20 minutes a page.

Brad Dowdy: You know, if you can spend that every day for the past, like he said, the past four months. He's been doing that. I promise you, no matter what hand you use, your handwriting is going to be better. It's just the way it goes, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But, do you know what? I'm not interested in changing my penmanship.

Brad Dowdy: I like the way I write. I do too. And trust me, it is not bad. We just like to give you a hard time. It just kind of became a thing, and I'm never going to let it go.

Brad Dowdy: Well, good. Good for you, Myke. Own it, baby.

Myke Hurley: Thanks, Papa.

Brad Dowdy: I'm not going to go tie your left hand behind your back and make you walk around town all day just using your right hand.

Brad Dowdy: It's very Shakespearean.

Brad Dowdy: All right.

Pentel Pens

Brad Dowdy: I got another email just about a new product that Pentel is coming out with several years ago. And I used to get emails on this from time to time. They had a mechanical pencil that was 0.2 millimeters. And that's, like, ridiculous for a pencil lead.

Myke Hurley: Humans.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I've used as much as I like fine tip pens, and I've used 0.3 millimeter mechanical pencil leads. 0.3 millimeter is too fine.

Myke Hurley: Sorry.

Myke Hurley: Sorry. I translated the page.

Brad Dowdy: It's great, isn't it?

Myke Hurley: Can I read this to you?

Brad Dowdy: I was actually going to put something in the show notes about the translation, but yeah, I didn't. I'm glad you're enjoying it. But we have this link to the show notes, and I just wanted to mention this. It's called the Pentel Orens, I believe is how you pronounce it, O-R-E-N-Z. Pentel is the only one that I knew of that used to have a 0.2 millimeter lead mechanical pencil, and I never got one. Jet pens stopped carrying them. You could never find it. I could never find one. I just wanted one to see what it's like. 0.3 is too fine for me. Obviously, 0.2 would be as well, but just to have something that fine would be fun to play around with. And they stopped making them several years ago, despite the fact that they still manufacture 0.2 millimeter lead. The pencils aren't easy to find, and now they're coming out with a new 0.2 millimeter pencil. So for anyone who's interested in that, and I know a few people are based on some of the emails I've gotten in the past, I don't know when or where you'll be able to get these, but it looks like they're going to make it a more, it's not completely a, it's not a totally drafting engineering style pencil. It looks like more of a mainstream design. So I'm guessing we might see these at places like JetPens and other retailers and things like that in the coming months or years, depending on how long it takes people to get on board. But it's a new product for 2014, and I thought it was a cool link. You can get lost in some of these Japanese pen pages, huh?

Myke Hurley: 2014 mechanical pencil that is not broken core marvelously. Even ultrafine 0.2 Urenzo will be released from the sun. That was the part that I saw. It is the extra lead sharp microfiber that can be used. So Urenzo. Oh, man. It just doesn't. It just doesn't. You cannot do direct translation of languages that use a different syntax. It's just not.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But that release from the sun part was killing me last night when I saw this.

Myke Hurley: I don't even know what that could have come from. Why did it?

Myke Hurley: Very quick. I want to give one last piece of follow-up.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm going to let you take this one.

Ink Nibs

Myke Hurley: So this is from Karis Customs. They did a survey of the backers of the ink project as to whether they were going to do medium or fine nib. They originally offered a medium nib, and lots of people wanted them to do a fine nib. Now, they were only going to make one nib size for the ink. They wanted to not have to complicate things any further. So basically, they put out this survey, and they put out an update, which I'll put in the show notes. Show notes are at 5x5.tv slash penaddict slash 89. And basically, from the survey, they had people answering fine nib outnumbered those answering medium nib as the nib they wanted 4 to 1. So they're going now with a fine nib for the ink. They've changed the original specifications of the pen, and it's going to be a fine nib now. Now, as they've mentioned, some people now no longer want to have the pen, so they can, I guess, cancel. But I just wanted to throw my hat into the ring on this. It's a bit strange, obviously, to change something halfway through the campaign. 68 hours to go, by the way, nearly at $90,000.

Myke Hurley: I guess for anybody that's listening to the show and is a bit unsure of this, over the weekend, I was playing around with my Retro 51 Tornado fountain pen, which has the same nib. And I've mentioned that I'd used the nib before. That's the pen that has it. It's a Schmidt medium nib. For me now, that nib is not usable. It's too wet.

Myke Hurley: It gives far too much ink on the medium for me. So I personally am happy with the fine. I'm going to assume that the fine nib will be closer to a more standard German medium than this. Brad, do you have an ink?

Brad Dowdy: I do. I do.

Myke Hurley: And that's the medium nib. And what do you think? Do you think that, I mean, I'm putting you on the spot, but do you think that they've maybe made the right decision going with a fine nib?

Brad Dowdy: I do. And, I mean, but, you know, it's personal preference. But for me, obviously, I would prefer the fine nib over the medium nib.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: The medium nib was pretty wet and pretty wide line, so I'd be anxious to see what the fine does. I didn't realize it when I answered the survey, and maybe that's my ignorance and my just rushing through it real quick. I didn't realize that they were going to change what it shipped with based on the results. And only go with the one nib. You know, I thought there might be, let's see how many people want fine and how many want medium, and we'll do both. I didn't know one was going to be cut off, you know, kind of based on the results of the survey. So it was an interesting decision.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: You know, the justification is that, you know, if we ordered all these nib sizes and let everyone pick, it would delay our shipping and manufacturing time. Because we'd have to treat every order as a custom order instead of making, you know, one set of pins using the same nib for every pin that we make. We'd have to spend extra time sorting out, okay, does Myke want this? Does Brad want this? Does Bob want this? Does Jane want this? And that takes extra time. And that's what we're going through with Nock. And we, I mean, it's a different, completely different set of parameters on there. And we're, that's just exactly how we needed to set ours up. But on Dan and Kara's Customs case, I can see why they would want to do it that way. And they're going to offer the other nibs available for sale after Kickstarter. So, that's good if people want to swap it out. And, you know, these days, I can understand why some people would have a problem with it. There's no doubt. But these days, now that I feel like I've gotten a pretty good grasp on fountain pens, I'm not so worried about nibs as much because I know I can switch them. And I know I can do things that, you know, maybe not everyone who's buying their first fountain pen understands that they can do. But, you know, people, the argument would be, well, I shouldn't have to do anything. And I can see that argument too. So, anyway.

Brad Dowdy: So, there you go.

Myke Hurley: I just wanted to throw my hat into the ring because people know that I'm a medium aficionado. And the medium that I have is closer to a bold, really, in some of the stuff that I've used. So, I think people, if you've backed the project and you're unsure, I would say go for it still. And I'm sure that, you know, it'll be simple enough to get a replacement nib for a reasonable cost. But I think people will be happy with it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And these nibs aren't going to cost very much, the replacement nibs, I'm guessing. No.

Myke Hurley: So, you can find them, you know. Righty-ho then, Shell. We take a quick break. And I have rearranged the order of the next batch of topics because I have something that I want to talk about which might take a little bit of time. And just in case it takes too long.

Brad Dowdy: That's good because, yeah, these other topics can be held until next week if we run out of time or such.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah, totally fine. Because I really want to get the ball rolling on this thing today. Okay. It's part of my New Year's resolution. I like it. So, this episode is brought to you, of course, by the fine folks over at Squarespace. They are the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own website. For a free trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com and use the code, the offer code, Tallyho1. Squarespace is constantly updating their platform with new features, designs, and more support. They have fantastic-looking templates for you to get started with and tons of style options for you to adjust so you can really create your own space online. Squarespace takes care of hosting, SEO, and even makes sure that your site automatically looks fantastic on any device. It's incredibly easy to use, but if you need any help, over 70 Squarespace employees are on their customer care team, which are based in New York City. Squarespace truly cares about design, and it really shows throughout their whole site, which are always updating with fun at new branding. That has won numerous design awards, as well as just their templates and everything else that they do winning awards, because they are amazing. They have two brand new iOS apps for Squarespace customers. Squarespace Blog, which lets you easily draft, post, schedule, and review posts to manage and monitor your comments to your blog. And also, Squarespace Blog is fully integrated with Layout Engine, allowing you to easily format text, markdown, and tap and drag images within your post. And they also have Squarespace metrics, which allows you to monitor website analytics, like KPIs and page views, unique visitors, and it gives you projections and charts for your websites. These are all at your fingertips. These are just some of the amazing features that Squarespace have to offer. I've been using them for a long time, as has Brad. I haven't got enough good things to say about Squarespace. Big fan. They've been around for 10 years now. These guys really know what they're doing. I want you to go and try them out for yourself, because I know that you'll be hooked when you do. Go over to squarespace.com, sign up for a free trial. There's no credit card required to do this, and if you decide to purchase it, plan to start at just $8 a month and include a free domain name if you sign up for a year. And make sure that you get 10% off and support the show by using the offer code TALLYHO1. That's T-A-L-L-Y-H-O-1. Thank you so much to Squarespace for supporting 5x5 and The Pen Addict.

Brad Dowdy: Two quick things on that. Please.

Layout Engine 2

Brad Dowdy: One, they introduced Layout Engine 2, what, about two weeks ago now? Actually... Something like that.

Myke Hurley: I think it rolled out slowly, but it kind of... So maybe not everyone has it. Yeah, they have it now. Everybody has it now as of last week.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, so I've had it for a couple weeks, and it's really nice. They've done a good job. I was a little bit confused at first on how to use it, because it was funny. They rolled it out like I got mine before they even launched the blog post on their site.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, see, I didn't have it until the blog post went live.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, I had it like a week before that. So I was a little bit confused. I couldn't figure out exactly how to do stuff. In the end, I think it works better for me than how it was set up before. You can manipulate things a little bit better. So that's worked out well. And secondly, the iOS app, oh, man, it totally works. The previous app in Squarespace knew this, and they would have no problem admitting that it was literally garbage. It was unusable. It just flat out did not work. This new app, I'm actually able to edit and mark down links, which I wasn't before, and save them on the fly on my phone. Like if someone says, hey, I've got a typo, or hey, my links, I had some bad formatting, some self-inflicted bad formatting and some links like a week ago. And I was able to fix them on my phone in about a minute. And before on the app, I would never have been able to get that working without a huge amount of frustration. And I was actually nervous going in. I was like, all right, I'm going to test this thing out and see if it works. And it was kind of like an aha moment. It just worked, and it was awesome. So hallelujah to those iOS apps actually being able to work now.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, when they upgraded to their version 6, the apps had some problems. Yep. But they pushed some updates out, which fixed a bunch of stuff, but they decided they needed to go back to basics of it again, which they've done. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: And it just works now, and it's actually a useful tool instead of exercise in frustration.

Myke Hurley: Also, it's also more in that it's like a useful tool as opposed to just the only option you have when on the go. Yeah. So instead of the iPhone app being just like, oh, this is all I can do, it's now like actually this is just generally good to use.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, no, I could actually write a full blog post in there if I was comfortable doing so without hesitation, where before you had no shot of accomplishing something like that. And now it's really great.

Myke Hurley: So one of my resolutions, my main pen resolution of the year is to help someone in my life find the perfect pen for them. And I have somebody in mind that I'm trying to get this through with. So over the weekend, I took a selection of pens, a selection of fountain pens for this person to try out. And I took notes. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to run through, Brad, the pens that I was able to get, that we were able to try out together. And then run through some sort of overall comments. Okay. Because I need help. Okay. To find this pen. So I need the pen addict listeners to be as awesome as they are and help me on this treasure hunt. Maybe you will just be able to give me the answer. We'll see. So the pens that we tried out were a Kaweco Sport Mini. Sorry, Medium, I meant to say. A Kaweco Sport Medium Nib. A Vanishing Point Medium Nib. The Parker Vacumatic. In whatever size nib that is. Nobody knows. An Edison Perlette. The TWSBI 540 ROC, which is a fine nib. The TWSBI 540 in a medium nib. The TWSBI Mini Stub Nib. The Platinum. Because I just figured why not.

Myke Hurley: The Pilot Metropolitan. I'm going to put links to all these in the show notes, by the way. In case anybody's new to these. Pilot Metropolitan only comes in a medium nib. The TWSBI 1010. The TWSBI 1010. The TWSBI 1010. Which is why I was using it. A Pilot Pereira in medium nib. An AG Spalding pen in medium nib. The Lamy AL Sport in medium nib. That's the list of pens.

TWSBI Mini

Myke Hurley: Okay. So, basically, the favourites out of this were, for a nib, the TWSBI Mini. Because of the stub. Which, okay, yeah, that had the stub nib. Because it's interesting. That's what I was told. But the overall favourite pen, to which I have now given this person, they now have this pen, because I don't use it, was the Pilot Metropolitan. Now, when I go through my summary of what they're looking for, it will maybe help explain that a bit. A sleek, simple design. Not clear plastic. Can be plastic, but not clear plastic. Doesn't want to... It's not intended to look like plastic. Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Medium nib. Stub preferred.

Myke Hurley: From all the nib sizes that we've got to try out, it was clearly going to be either a medium or the stub, because it was interesting. Must be light. Smooth to write. She's very perceptive of how a line is drawn. Any of my pens that I consider to be slightly rough, considering my stringent... The way that we are as pen addicts, she picked that up 100%. She's like, don't like it. So, for example, the Prera, she couldn't stand it. She could not stand it. She hated it. Also, didn't like the design of the Prera, but loved the cap thing, actually, because it's so amazing.

Myke Hurley: Must have good ink flow, and must be full size, not mini. Otherwise, the Twisby mini would have been what she would have wanted, because even though it's clear plastic, she loves the design of it, but doesn't like that it's mini. It's a mini pen.

Myke Hurley: So that's it. I mean, overall, she actually doesn't... The obvious one would have been a Twisby, right? But she doesn't like... 580. Yeah, but she doesn't like the overall style of the Twisby.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: So that would have been the easy one, right? Because I could have got a stub nib, no problem, job done. Right. But the overall design of the larger Twisby's, she doesn't like, which is interesting. But there are some differences between the minis and the full size and the way that they look.

Myke Hurley: I mean, it's an option, but it's kind of... It doesn't fit the... Because I don't think that Twisby's are really sleek or simple. They're quite big and bulky.

Brad Dowdy: Right, they are. Yeah. Actually, I've had someone emailing me in the past couple weeks. You know, they definitely... They kind of went through a list like this. You know, I need this, I need this. And one of the high... You know, they were, one, concerned about price. And then, two, you know, they said they had bigger hands, so they needed a larger pen. So I pointed out the 580. And they're like, oh, my gosh, that's exactly what I need. Because it's a little bit larger pen compared to... You put that side by side to the Pereira, and you realize how small the Pereira actually is.

Myke Hurley: So, you know, it's clear to me the type of thing that she's looking for. I mean, I feel like I can see that, you know? Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: And she's in love with the Metropolitan, which is funny to me, because it proves what we were talking about many, many moons ago, about the fact that it was such a fantastic pen. But I just didn't really... I just wasn't blown away by it. But I guess for somebody who's not as fanatical and obsessed as we are, it just didn't have all the other things that I like. It wasn't interesting enough to me, that sort of stuff. I had it in gold, which I wasn't happy with. But it was, you know, as I said, I wasn't surprised by it. It performed perfectly well.

Myke Hurley: I remember saying that at the time.

Myke Hurley: So this is where we are. I mean, kind of the Metropolitan would be... We'll be fine and we'll do the job. But I really want to find something different for her.

Brad Dowdy: What did she think about the Perlet? Because that's got the most different... Well, besides the Vanishing Point, that's got one of the most unique barrel... Yeah, so... ...feels, I guess, than most of everything else on this list.

Edison Perlet

Myke Hurley: Oh, do you know what she picked up? Which is amazing, I thought, because it's something that I noticed but never really paid attention to. The Edison Perlet sounds interesting when you write.

Myke Hurley: And it's true. I never... And I could hear it, but I never really noticed it. The nib on the paper... Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. ...has a really amazing sound. She thought it was weighted really well and liked it a lot and liked the barrel construction, but did not like the pattern.

Brad Dowdy: Sure. That's... Because it's... I mean, it's a smaller pen. I mean, it's the... It's not necessarily a mini pen, but it's definitely not what I would consider a full-size pen.

Brad Dowdy: But that barrel style and material, I think, is really nice. And there's bigger options, like in those Edisons. They're not exactly cheap, obviously. But something like an Edison Beaumont might be something to consider because it comes in the solid materials. It's full-sized. It's lightweight. You can get a stub nib.

Brad Dowdy: That's one of the first things, depending on her feeling of the acrylic barrel of the Perlet, that, you know, the Beaumonts come in similarly nice materials. And for a full-size pen, it's awfully light, but it's extremely comfortable to write with. And you have that nib variety. Now, out of that list, it's probably the most expensive pen on that list.

Myke Hurley: So my caveat is I don't want it to be too expensive because I'm going to buy this pen. And if she doesn't like it, I'm kind of screwed. Because then I, you know, I haven't got a price limit. I guess under $100, I think, is probably where I want to go with this. I don't want to go much higher than that, or really any higher than that. If it's more than $50, it makes it, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Okay. So, no, that's a good thing to know. I mean, if it's the right pen.

Myke Hurley: I mean, the other thing is if I don't have one of them and it's a nice pen, then, hey, I've got another pen for my collection. Right. Right. But I would prefer for it not to cost too much more. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: No, no, that's fair.

Brad Dowdy: Another one I'm thinking of is, and I don't have one of these, and I keep going back and forth on whether I like it or not. I have a hard time getting past the gold nib, just because I prefer the silver or rhodium-plated nibs, is the TWSBI micarta. That's a pen that's always fascinated me. It's a different material.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know if that would be her style, but it's under $100. It's full-sized and very lightweight because of the materials it's made with, and it comes in a range of nib sizes. I think it's like $80 or $90.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't think she's going to like that because it's kind of like snake skinny looking. Yeah. It's really weird.

Brad Dowdy: Actually, the listeners can totally correct me on this, and I don't want to give out misinformation, but I think micarta is like some type of cotton filament type of pen, the way it's made or wrapped. I could be wrong, and I'm not looking at it. I wasn't prepared to do the research on that. So that makes it a lot more lightweight pen, Myke, than like a solid plastic pen. But it's totally full size. I mean, it's full barrel width, full length, everything. And it's cool looking. I've held one, and I would buy one if it didn't have the gold nib. So maybe that's something I've got to look at, find another replacement for. But that's always been kind of in the back of my mind is a pen that I would like and would want to try.

Brad Dowdy: What else? What else?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this is a good exercise, actually. Because this is what my email inbox is like. Yeah, I know. So it's good. No, it's fun. It's fun to try to, you know, people give you a list of, you know, this is exactly what I'm looking for when people are looking for recommendations. You know, she's obviously, she's very precise in what she wants, and that's good. Like I wrote down, I was writing all this down, as you're saying, you know, we want a pen that's sleek and simple, non-demonstrator, with a medium or greater or a stub nib. It's lightweight. lightweight. It's smooth with a good flow. It's full-sized, and it's under $100. Yeah, that is a great decent list.

Myke Hurley: And I guess the real benefit that she's had that other people don't get is somebody to sit down with her with a whole selection of different types of pen and be like, right, try this now, try this now. And then I can make sense in our speak of the things that she's going through when she's trying them out, you know. And I can ask her questions that will give me those answers, like, how do you feel of the weight of this pen, you know, because then they can tell me a little bit about the types of materials that she wants to use.

Myke Hurley: I mean, she seems, as I said, she's very happy with the Metropolitan, which led me down the pilot route. But I kind of now want to find her a stub nib.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, you can get – it's not hard – excuse me. It's hard to find, but you can get pilot – the Prera comes with a calligraphy nib that you can get.

Brad Dowdy: I think all those are clear-barreled, the ones that come with the nib, but you can buy a nib and swap it out into a – you know, if she likes the Prera barrel.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, she doesn't like it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, too small.

Myke Hurley: She just doesn't like the way it looks, which I was surprised about. She just didn't like it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So we'll put some more thinking into this, and we'll get some feedback from the listeners, too. And I'll put some more thought into it. I'm thinking Twisby micarta right now, but, you know, being put on the spot, I might be thinking of not being – I might be overlooking something that's right in front of my face. But I'm trying to think. Like, the $50, let's say like $60 to $100 range in pens has always been a challenging range, I've felt. There's very few things that just nail it that are worth it in that price range. It's like you can get a better value in the $50 to $60 range or below, and then you've got to go to like $125 to $150 to kind of see a real difference there. I've always felt that that range in the middle is a little bit more challenging. Sure. For me.

Myke Hurley: One thing that I am willing to do, like, for example, you mentioned like the Prera has like a calligraphy nib. If we can find a pen body that matches and a nib that I need to get from another pen, I'm willing to Frankenstein this thing. Sure. You know, and get together the right thing.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. You know? So I think I've got enough to work off of, so I'll see if I can come up with something else. And I think we can figure this out. This is what makes it fun.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's like a treasure hunt. I feel like I've personally gone as far as I can go. So like I've been looking around and I'm struggling now to come up with much more than what I have. Right. Because I seem to keep finding myself, like leading myself down paths which have no clear end. Like, you know, I'm like, right, okay, she likes this. Let me look at this then. I'm like, great. This is the perfect pen. Right. Cannot get a stub nib for it. This company doesn't make stub nibs for as much as I can find. So then, you know, you end up running round and round and round again.

Myke Hurley: The Metropolitan, I mean, it surprised me that people seem to love that thing so much.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, man. It's unstoppable. It really is. Everyone loves that pen. And I can see why. I mean, for the price, it's amazing.

Myke Hurley: But there's just a part of me that's like, I just wanted to have something better. I know. I know. I would be disappointed in myself if the best that I could source would be the Pilot Metropolitan. As great a pen as it is, just because the thing is made of plastic and it's like just a standard run-of-the-mill fountain pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, just remember, as the great Stephen Patrick Morrissey said, these things take time. So we're going to have to, you know, maybe the Metropolitan is the thing for now. Yeah. Oh, it is. It's working fine. Yeah. Then eventually, there's going to be something that clicks and they're going to say, I need this. Or, you know, I'm looking for something a little bit different. Or, you know, there's always that gateway drug.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And, you know, there's no, you don't have to rush it. You know, you know how long it took me to get into fountain pens.

Brad Dowdy: And, you know, some of the things that I found in the beginning that I thought were like the ultimate pen ever and, you know, don't use anymore. You know, things like that. So, you know, it doesn't have to be force fed. So if the Metropolitan is the one, there's no really argument with that. And you know what? What you can do is you can buy a Pilot Plumix. It's P-L-U-M-I-X. We can put a link in the show notes. It's less than $10. It's got the calligraphy nib. And you can put that right on the Metropolitan. Huh.

Brad Dowdy: Boom.

Myke Hurley: Well, look at you. Mm-hmm. That could be it. Yep. Hmm. Well, well, well. Before we wrap this topic up. So I've forgotten about this. So prior to me going through this, I was sent by this person a list of designs that she thought was interesting. It's quite funny, the stuff that she's picking out. So simple, sophisticated pens.

Quaker Pen

Myke Hurley: And what she sent me was the Quaker. Mm-hmm. Right? So that style. She doesn't like the cap, but she likes the whole thing that is simple. Right. And matte plastic. She likes them more. Then shiny plastic. Hence the Metropolitan, right? Mm-hmm. She then sent me some other pen I've never seen in my life, so I will forget about that. It's labeled Pocket Founding Pen. She was on Pinterest, basically. Gotcha. Then she said something funky. She likes funky. Mm-hmm. And so she sent me a link to the Pelican Twist.

Myke Hurley: You familiar with this?

Brad Dowdy: No. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: It's a very strange-looking pen. It's one of those learn-to-write fountain pens.

Brad Dowdy: That's kind of what I was thinking it was, but I can't picture it.

Myke Hurley: Yep. I'll put it in the show notes. But this thing is like $10.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: It's exactly like that one that you were showing me last week, or showing us. Like, this show is just me and you.

Myke Hurley: This is just our conversation. What was the name of that one that we were looking at? I don't even remember. Do you remember? It was like the colorful one with the smiley face on it. Oh, oh, oh, yeah. The Kakuno. The Kakuno, yeah. Love that. Yeah. So that was one thing that I forgot to mention. Likes quite funky designs as well. Okay. Gotcha. Just because I don't have anything like that.

Myke Hurley: What else do we have here? Maybe something girly and charming. Do you know what she sent me? What? A Nakaya. Oh, gosh.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, dream on. You can carry on down that little route. Oof. And she said, and I also like nibs like this that are beautiful to look at. Do you know what she sent me?

Brad Dowdy: Mont Blanc.

Myke Hurley: Pelican M1000.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, Lord. Yeah, that's a similar looking nib. That's huge. Beautiful, beautiful nib. Yep. Crazy.

Myke Hurley: That's good.

Brad Dowdy: That's good. She knows what she likes.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's more around design. Clearly, she's picking good stuff. Yep. That's funny. So, yeah, I'm probably going to get this Plumix. Let's see if it's on Colt pens because I'll just throw that in a cart along with this Pelican thing. Yep. So I can see what she thinks of those.

Myke Hurley: Plumix.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the nibs are really easy to change.

Myke Hurley: No, it's not on Colt pens.

Brad Dowdy: And you can get some funky Metropolitan barrels now, too. They've come out with more than the gold, silver, and black. Yeah, they're not. They've come out with white and purple and patterns and things like that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, well. Maybe that's the ticket. They're not that exciting, though. They just changed the...

Brad Dowdy: No, no, no. Not for me. I'm just saying they just have more... A wider range now than the ones that when they first came out with. That might be Upper Alley.

Myke Hurley: So I can get... If I grab the...

Nib Swapping

Myke Hurley: Plumix, I can remove that nib, put it on the Metropolitan. Yes. Cool.

Myke Hurley: It's a shame Colt pens don't seem to carry it, which is a shame.

Brad Dowdy: You should be able to find it somewhere. It's... I mean, it's one of those pens that, for a time, it was on the shelves in the US at, like, Target, you know, just like a big box retailer. So it's a somewhat common-ish pen, but I don't know. I don't know how often... I don't know if they're still manufacturing as many as they used to when they came out a few years ago.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But if not, you know, I can come up with one for you.

Myke Hurley: Are there any other Pilot pens that carry that nib that you're aware of?

Brad Dowdy: No. No. I mean, just the Prera, which you're going to have to spend too much just for the nib.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah, I'm not going to spend 43 pounds on it.

Brad Dowdy: So what Pilot does, there's two pens that are bought by people like me who like to change nibs around for use in other pens, like the Prera. It's the Pilot Penmanship, because you can get the EF steel nib, which doesn't come in the Prera or the Cocuno, and the Pilot Plumix, which has the calligraphy nib, which doesn't come in those.

Myke Hurley: So... Why didn't they just offer the nib?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I don't know. But both of those pens are under $10. Like, I bought like three or four penmanships. I think they were like $8.50 each at JetPens. Oh. Just for the nibs. I mean, I don't even use the pen. I just take the nibs off and put them in my Preras or whatever else fits.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to assume that the Pilot Parallel does not have a removable nib. No.

Brad Dowdy: Damn it.

Myke Hurley: This is a 1.5 millimeter.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but it's a completely... It's 90. It's a pure calligraphy nib. It's a very squared off, rough edge nib. It's not a stub nib. It's got a little bit of that roll on the corners.

Myke Hurley: You really do know everything. No. Gosh. You do. I've thrown these random Pilot throwaway pens at you. You're like, oh yeah, well no, this one has this. I think I do this show with the right person.

Brad Dowdy: Good. We should keep doing it.

Myke Hurley: Oh yeah?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Huh. I think it's got staying power. This baby's got legs. Yeah. We should look into that.

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of legs, I need to run.

Brad Dowdy: Let's wrap this bad boy up. Dear Lord, that was maybe one of the worst. I'm good. I'm the best at the worst. I will tell you that right now. That's an interesting way to look at it. Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: All right. Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you today, sir. Thank you very much for your assistance.

Myke Hurley: We'll be back next week with another episode. If you'd like to find the show notes and links and contact information for me and Brad, go to 5x5.tv slash penaddict slash 89. I am Myke Curley. I am at iMike. I am Y-K-E. Brad is at Dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. And he writes at ThePenAddict or PenAddict.com. I want them both. Because I made you. Thanks so much for listening. And we'll be back next week. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.