The Pen Addict 664/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	664
Title:	It's Like a Tree
Release Date:	May 7th, 2025
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 664
Audio File:	Audio Episode 664
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 664
Length:	6666 min <br />1.1 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

• From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 664. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace, Pen Chalet, and Factor. My name is Myke Hurley, I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. Hey Myke Hurley, how are you today? Oh, I'm good. I'm real good. I'm tired actually, I'm a little bit tired. Well, I think you probably have good reasons to be both, to be good and tired. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, you know, lots of life reasons, lots of product reasons, which I want to talk about today, because that's what we do on this podcast. One of us, not named Brad, had a product launch this past week, and I want to talk about the Sidekick Pocket Notebook, which we've referred to, like we talked about it last week, you know, that it was coming soon. So, give us the rundown of this finally getting out there into the world. Sidekick Pocket is the newest product from Cortex Brand, and it is a series of pocket notebooks in three layouts. We have lined, to-do, and dot grid. They each come in a great color, which is the first like real big color that we've added to our product lineup, which I'm really excited about. So, we do have, the lined is yellow, to-do is blue, and dot grid is orange. You buy a two-pack of 60 pages in each. The paper, I'm, so some, I did a stream yesterday, Brad, where I kind of showed off the product. So, I'll put a link to that in the show notes. Someone asked me, like, if you sent them to Brad yet, and I was like, no, because I'm scared. I'm always, I'm scared to send stuff to you. But if you do want a pack, I will send you a pack. No questions asked, but it's terrifying to me. But I am genuinely really intrigued for your opinion on the paper that we're using. So, we're using a 100% recycled paper called Accent from our friends at GF Smith, which is not the paper that we use in all of our products. We use Munkin Links for that. That was going to be my question on the last thing you sent me, which I didn't think it was the recycled paper. So, yeah, that was, that's Munkin Links. We use that on everything. But we use this here. And there was a couple of reasons for this. And, you know, this is actually, so we're trying our best to sell this at a price which we think is really good and really competitive. Which I actually think for a two-pack, with the pricing as it is right now, it is really, I think it's great. This is genuinely, Brad, the first time in a long time people have said, hey, these are really good prices. And no one ever says anything positive about our pricing. Because we make all these products in the UK. They're inherently more expensive because of that. And we use very premium materials. But I wanted to play around with materials of this one. We're using a different cover, which is Colorplan, also from GF Smith. But we're, because of that, I wanted to, like, play around with the paper, see what was out there. And they recommended I try this paper. I was very suspicious of recycled paper. Sure. As a fountain pen user, essentially recycled paper causes a lot of issues because the fibers are inconsistent in recycled paper. I mean, fibers can be inconsistent anyway. I've learned so much about paper fiber direction and how it can affect the way that fountain pens feel. But with recycled paper, you could have fibers from all kinds. And it can create an experience where you're writing with your fountain pen and it skips or, like, splurts ink all over the page because it catches on a fiber. But one of the things that they tried to do with this was to make the paper as consistent as possible. So, there's, I, you barely, if ever, see any flex in this paper either. I feel like I see flex of non-gloy color in this paper as much as I do in regular paper, right? Because it can always happen. There can be things that get into the pulp. But there is not, like, little flex of a color in this. And it's not, they're not bleaching it to achieve that. They're just working very hard to get good paper going in to get a good result on the other end. And it has created a paper that genuinely works for fountain pens, which, that's my feeling. Now, this is, again, it's like, I said it's about all of our products. We do not make fountain pen products, but I think all of our products are fountain pen friendly. And I think the sidekick pocket, even with its 100% recycled paper, fits into that. Like, I often forget that we're using the recycled paper in these products because I think it's genuinely really, really good. And so, yeah, it's like the other sidekick products, flip over cover, very hard backing board. So it doesn't flex.
• And it's also the same, it's made of the same paper that the cover is. So there's a color consistency throughout the product. Rounded corners on the bottom and perforated pages. So you tear them out when you're done with them. But unlike other sidekick products, you can more easily keep a couple of pages in this one and just flip it around. It actually works pretty easily for the pocket notebook. Yeah, I'm really pleased with it. I was very nervous about putting this product out into the world because there's a lot of new things going on here for us. But the response so far has exceeded my expectation. I've been very happy. People seem very excited about it and the sales have been really, really positive. Like, I'm very pleased with it. And there's been way less pushback than I imagined. Like, I was expecting a lot of, yeah, but I would like this color. And like, yeah, but I would like this layout or something. And we've got some of that, but not much. And most people who say it have said to me, I would like yellow with a dot grid, but I bought the dot grid anyway. And because I do believe with these products, like, be open-minded because these covers, the colors are so incredible that I think people will dig it when they get them. Even if you're a bit like, do I want an orange notebook? I will tell you right now. I don't think I need to tell listeners of this show. But the answer is yes, you do want this orange notebook because it looks amazing.
• All right, a couple of things.
• You mentioned flex and flex. So this is a pen-pen situation. So when we're talking about recycled paper, flex, F-L-E-C-K-S, being, you know, like pulps or fibers in the page, while flex being the stiffness of F-L-E-X, being the stiffness of the backing board, which are two awesome features. I think recycled paper these days, I've tested some that has been fountain pen friendly. It's not an instant no-go for fountain pen users these days. I've tried some that have been good. I've not tried this, obviously. But I look forward to testing it out. I will definitely get some and take a look at them.

Color selection process for products

• So yeah, I'm curious about the colors. Why did you choose these three colors? I think I understand the yellow one. But, you know, what made you go with blue and orange as well? So we had access and we have access to the entire G.S. Smith color plan range of which there are tens of colors, like so many colors.
• And basically, I whittled the colors that I liked down to a list of about 12. And then me and Gray sat here in the studio one day with samples of all of them. And we just did a knockout competition until we found the three that we liked the most.
• And then there was some stuff that we weren't sure about. Like there was one point there was a green and a red. But green and red can have particular connotations, you know, like go and stop and danger and stuff. So we knocked those. We got like real highfalutin over here. Sure. And we ended up with a short list of four. And then it went down to these three, which was the yellow, the orange, and the blue. Blue was an obvious one for us from the beginning. It was just about what blue. And the blue that we're using is called Tabriz Blue, and it's fantastic.
• The orange, I just just fell in love with it. And then it's so good. It's called Mandarin is the name color. And then the yellow, which is called Factory Yellow, I couldn't resist because we put it on the lined notebook. So it looks like the Apple Notes icon. That's why we chose the yellow. If you have an iPhone and you look at your iPhone, you'll see it. And I feel like I couldn't resist it. And so that's why that's the way that that is. But it's a great yellow. It's a great yellow. Now that you've told me the name is Factory Yellow, like I get it. Like, I mean, I understand. It's like, you know, almost like a hazard yellow. But like the old Factory Records and Hacienda artwork was yellow and black, like a caution. Like a caution. So that makes me think of that. But yeah, I love all three colors. All the colors work super, super well together.
• And as is always the way with these things, it's so hard to get the colors to look right in imagery. Yeah. Because they're very vibrant. They're like very, very vibrant colors.
• And so I think people will dig it when they see them because they really stand out. I'm so pleased with how they came together. All right. So my final and maybe most important question, at least for myself and listeners of the show, how did you come up with the size of this? Oh, yeah. So, well, there's two things, really. So when I started out on this journey, basically the way that this product started was Gray wanted a pocket notebook. He wanted a pocket notebook for perforated pages because that is his favorite format of paper. He uses pocket notebooks all the time, writes little notes, tears them out. He uses them in his research process. He lays them out on a table and stuff like that. So he's like, I want us to have one. And so I started down this route. This is probably like nearly two years ago now. And where I began was field notes size and field notes format, you know, like a notebook staples down the middle. You could pull out the pages. And I was just like, I just don't I don't like this. Like it didn't feel like I was doing anything of interest. You know what I mean? Like it just this was like I'm not adding anything here. So why go down this route, you know?
• And then one day I was doing some stuff. I was cleaning some stuff out of the studio and I picked up a Game Boy Pocket.
• And then it all fell into place.

Inspiration behind the product name

• The name because then the name Pocket got in my head. I was like, oh, my God, we could just make a small version of the sidekick. Like I'd never considered that. And also the Game Boy Pocket is this like little tiny little brick thing. So like that kind of the idea of like a thick notebook, which they feel very thick. They're like 60 pages. I mean, you get them in the packaging, which is lovely. The two of them together really feels like that Game Boy in its kind of dimension. But with the sizes, I mean, so it's 14 by 9 centimeters. It's about the size of a pocket notebook that you expect, like five and a half by three and a half. And we got to 14 by 9 just based on how it felt. Like, you know how I am. Like, I don't believe in standardized sizing. I go by feel. And we started with like that kind of the field note size. And then we adapted it a little bit because the way that our product is bound, you lose a little bit of height at the top. And so we were kind of tweaking it until we got to where we were. And I work in centimeters, 14 by 9 centimeters. Yeah, that's good. I know the size and shape. It's about a centimeter thick. It's like 9 millimeters thick when all the pages are in there. All right. I found one more question. All right. As Brad overanalyzes your product. Your product. Is the printing on one side or both sides of the page? One side. Because it doesn't say. Okay. One side. My assumption was one side the way these are laid out. Yeah. Which is fine. Yeah. I mean, we would only do it on one side because of the way that the products work. It's the same with the sidekick notepads. Like, you tear the pages out. So what are you going to do with it? Yep. You know, as well, I'll tell you, I'm so surprised at the lack of bleed on this paper, too. Like, someone was asking me yesterday while I was streaming. So there's like a part of the stream where I even busted out, Brad, my stacked platinum nib on this thing. Sure. I just want you to know, right? So we had no problems with that incredible monstrosity. But, like, I was running down ink and flipping it over. And, like, there is barely any bleed through. Like, there's, with any kind of big nib, you're going to see something, especially if the ink's dark. But, like, it was, it's very good. I'm very happy with the paper. I'm very keen to get your expert opinion on it. Yep. Yep. I'm on it. I'm on it. All right. These look great. Congratulations. Thank you. On an awesome lot. This is a good fit for the product lineup as a whole. Absolutely, yeah. Like, it fits in with what y'all are doing. So it's lovely. I'm hoping that eventually it'll be something where, like, somebody comes to the store, they buy something, and they're like, I want one of those, too. Like, that's kind of the, that's what we're trying to do, right? We're trying to make our store more of a place that when people come to it, they're met with a lineup of products, and they might want more than one. That's the hope in the long term.
• Good stuff. Good stuff. All right. Anything else on the sidekick? Like, this will be a, this isn't not, this is not a short-term product. This is going to continue on. This is part of the core lineup. Yeah, it's going to remain in the lineup, but if these sell out, I don't know when they'll be back. Yes. Business ebbs and flows. Yeah. But this is part of it. Small businesses like ours. Yes. For sure. This is definitely, this is part of our product lineup, but we may, if we go out of stock, it might be out of stock for a little bit before it comes back. But yes, this is, because we ordered like a minimum amount and we'd need to, you know, we have other things going on and, you know, you're pulling together an amount for a bit. I'm learning about pallet sizes now.
• Just logistics, man. Good stuff. The logistics are just horrible. I wish that I didn't have to do any of the logistics. Like, that's what I wished, that it just didn't exist and everything worked easily and well. Or, and, but it doesn't, doesn't, doesn't work like that at all. It's like similar logistics, you know, I've said the main thing that I've heard in the last few days is the thing that I always hear, which is you make these in the UK, ship them to the US and ship them back to the UK again, you know, for people that want to buy them here. It's like, yeah, that, that is, that's exactly how it happens. You're right. Because we have a logistics partner who has one warehouse. I mean, I've spoken to businesses like ours too, who are like, yeah, even if they have the option for multiple locations, they don't do it because it's logistically very complicated. But there is like an answer that I'll, I'll say to you, I try not to say it to people very much because I don't think it's super helpful, but like, you just know where I make my stuff because I tell you. Like, products are made somewhere. They're very seldom made in the place that they're being shipped to. Right. Like, oh yeah, totally. We make them in the UK, but like, would you feel better if you made them in China and sent them to America? Like, would that make you feel better? You know? Right. It's like a, it's like a weird thing. I'm proud of making them here. So we talk about it. And like, and I know that it's like with anything, once you talk about something, you open yourself up to criticism of it. So I understand it, but it is just like a, yeah, we make them here. I tell you, we make them here because I'm proud of it. And unfortunately it means that, you know, now that they're made here and ship there and come back again. And I understand it, but that's kind of global logistics. Yeah. Yeah. As long as you know where they're made, it's largely irrelevant where you're then ordering from. The products are only made in one place or only shipped from one place. And then we all, we ship worldwide. So if, you know, any combination of that, you know, is, is maybe, is probably not what 99.9% of the people have to deal with. Right. So. And usually people don't talk about what the products are made. Right. Cause it's not necessarily interesting. Um, you know, like realistically, unless there is like a pride element to it. And we have that pride element. So we talk about it. Like, I love it. This, at this point, like with the sidekick pocket, I'm banging on now, but the, everything is here. The papers will, but the paper is milled in the United Kingdom and sent to a factory in the United Kingdom that produces them for us. And then we ship them out. I'm so proud of that. Like, I love that. Like that, it means how products are expensive, but that's a differentiating factor for me. Like, I think it's, I think it's important that we're able to support these places here in the UK who are manufacturing products using old school methods. So much of it is done by hand. Like the corner, the corner, um, the rounded corners, the way that they do those, they have this big machine that looks like it was from like 1850 and they load them in by hand as someone steps on a pedal and it cuts the corners. It's like, I love it, man. It's so good. One day I need to make a video showing all of this. Cause I think people would like to see it. It's something I want to do at some point, but I just kind of have to speak to everyone and be like, are you sure you're okay being on video? Like they always went on there, like take photos, come on, take it. And I'm like, yeah, but like, do you really want that? Um, but yeah, they're, they're an incredible group of people. Um, and, uh, I'm very proud that we can manufacture in this way. Yeah. That's awesome. I have another, uh, made in the UK brand to talk about. Once, once we hear from our good friends over at Squarespace. The only one website platform designed to help you stand out and succeed online, whether you're just getting started or scaling your business. Squarespace gives you everything you need to claim your domain, showcase your offerings of a professional website, grow your brand and get paid all in one place. So easy to get started to Squarespace. Their tools are so intuitive. I love how easy it is to drag and drop everything on the website and kind of build it visually because that's how I think. And when I want to get something online, I want to get it out there. I don't want to be imagining how and trying to, trying to like, you know, Google how to build a website. You know, I just want to go to Squarespace and get it online and do it. And they've made it so easy. They are making it always easier. And so they have a new system called Blueprint AI, which is their AI enhanced website builder that lets you quickly and easily build a site bespoke to your business. You just input some basic information about your industry and the goals you're looking for. Plus, we already know and love Squarespace that are professionally designed and award-winning templates. So however you start, you're going to have beautiful design options of no experience required. You can even offer your services and get paid to Squarespace from consultations to events and experiences. You can showcase your offerings of a customizable website designed to attract clients and grow your business. Think built-in appointment scheduling, email marketing tools, and more. You can keep everything cohesive with on-brand invoices and get paid easily with online payments. But don't just take my word for it. Go and check it out yourself right now by going to squarespace.com slash penaddict and sign up for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use the offer code penaddict at checkout. You'll get 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict with the offer code penaddict to checkout. You'll get 10% of your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of this show and all of Relay. All right, Myke. I got a good mail day just yesterday. I wasn't planning on talking about this today, but the Johto pocket pen showed up. And this was a Kickstarter we discussed last fall that came out because it was super, super interesting as it relates to Johto's traditional designs, which I'm a huge fan of. So this pocket pen was something that, you know, you wouldn't, you know, I don't think of a Johto and think, oh, like this is, you know, the style of pen that they make, but they did a very highly engineered pocket style pen. I put it up on Kickstarter and I was a backer because I'm a Johto fan and I like pocket pens. And this one was, had enough interest going on to me to back it because it's not cheap, which we'll talk about here in a minute. But, but I got it in hand and wanted to talk about it for those who might be interested. You'll probably start seeing some of the Johto pocket pens pop up now that people are receiving them and that they're available on their website now and things like that. So it's a, it's kind of a pocket knife style pen to where the barrel folds into like a sheath, right? So it's like a half pen. Then you fold it out. It kind of flips out. It's very EDC. Like I think that was what I said at the time, which was like, you're saying it's like, it's not like they're like a Johto's products before now are very elegant. Yes. And delicate. And this is very aggressive. I think. Very EDC. In EDC. Very. Right. You see, you know, the big clips and the exposed screws.
• Yeah. Like this is a very classic EDC pen, which is like, again, it's an outlier for their lineup. But luckily, like their, you know, machining and engineering and design of these types of products is like top tier. Right. So it was a, it was a stretch for them to make this. And I think, you know, a lot of their customers maybe didn't know what to do with it. Like the Kickstarter was fine. Like it didn't, you know, go gangbusters or anything. Um, just because it was such an outlier. And I'm really happy with, so, so far I've, again, I just opened it yesterday and started playing around with it. So, um, I have, uh, like the clip model and, you know, it fits a D1 refill in the front end. The machining is spot on. Again, made in the UK. So designed in the UK, manufactured in the UK. Um, you know, all of their products are. And it's just put together nicely. It's got some really fine details that I like. Like I had to actually go double check this. So when you open the barrel, like when you flip it open, it's got, um, this kind of crescent area with a little, I, forgive me. I'm not using the technical terms, but it's got like a little knob or like a little plug in there where it goes along this channel. And it kind of, there's a bump at the end where it kind of like snaps into place. So when the pen is engaged in writing mode, the barrel isn't flying around like in your hand. It's not moving. You don't want it collapsing either. Right. Collapsing. That's a good word. Yeah.
• So it shouldn't because, you know, of how you hold the pen, but it, that's a nice little, nice little feature. And, um, yeah. So like the, the D1 refill is great. So it's a rectangular barrel, which is going to be a turnoff for a lot of people. Rightfully so. Right. You have to have a pretty traditional grip to hold a rectangular barrel pen, which I do. Um, so I've always used like the, um, CW and T pen type C that flip pen, you know, that is not a pen that anyone can use, but it fits me for some reason. I can really work with these rectangular barrel pens. The only hangup I have on the design. And I don't know that you could change this necessarily. Like this is how this pen is, is built. Um, the refill, you don't have a clear line of sight depending on your writing angle. Does that make sense when I say that? So like if you're looking at a typical conical pen, right, where you have a, a, a symmetrical shape and the refill is coming from the center of that shape, you have good visual clearance. I talk about visual clearance a lot when I'm writing on certain pens and certain pens designs. So this one, it's not centered for the reasons of it being able to fold on itself and the refill be protected. Right. So when you fold it up, there's a little notch where the refill goes in. So you're not getting ink anywhere. So when you use it to write, depending on your writing angle, you could lose a lot of, uh, tip sighting, which is important to me, right? Like that's something because I'm a low gripper as it is. So I kind of have to get in and, and, and look around, um, the tip a little bit to see the pen. So probably the more I use it, the more it'll work. And that's the other thing about this pen. This is not a pen, like pens that are designed like this are not designed to be your all day, every day writing pen. Right. This is designed to be like a carry pen. Like it's probably going to go like in my backpack. It's like a good backpack pen. Like I got the little key chain and carabiner for it because I thought I would clip this somewhere to where, like, it's not going to live on my desk. Right. To use as my daily writer. Or it's going to be used as a tool when I'm, I'm going somewhere or doing something probably in a bag. Like, I don't even think it would be great for like a field notes, like attaching to the notebook because the clip is on the narrow side of the pen. So you're actually getting the full width of the pen poking out. Right. It doesn't lay flat. The flat side doesn't lay against like a notebook or like a jeans pocket or something like that. So it's more of a bag pen for me. So there's a lot of little things that will make this pen not for everyone. But I like what they've done here. And like this is probably going to go like in my backpack and something like that, something to play around with. Super cool. Super fun. Super functional.
• So price wise, it's, it's also expensive. Right. Again, like a Johto stuff, like the way it's made and designed, like I get the pricing. So I think I paid like 110 for the pen and the carabiner clip keychain piece. So it was like a little combo pack on the Kickstarter. And I think now it's like a 149. So like, that's, that's a pretty serious ask for a pen. You may not use all day, every day, but as far as like what it was designed for, they did a really good job. It's just, you would have to decide like, is this a pen that you would, that is worth that amount of money for the amount of use you would get to it. But if it is like everything about it, it's perfect. Right. Like it's really, really well made. So I do like it for that. But yeah, we'll see. I'm going to keep using it. I want to pop in a, it takes D1 refills, which I said, but I'm going to pop in like a, it has a nice like black, you know, probably like a 1.0 D1 refill, really nice and smooth. I want to get some Jetstream refills for that and pop that in my bag. And that'll probably be like a really good travel pen for me. So there you go. That was going to be my question to you. Was like, what, what refill are you using in there? Yeah. So the stock one's nice. They're not, they're not marked. So I have no clue who, who made them and it might be on the product page, but they're, they're just like a clean barrel, a clean barrel refill. So I can't tell, but like, you know, Schmidt makes like really good generic D1s and this one, it writes well, but I will pop in a blue Jetstream D1 in this.
• You know, it's, if I can find them, I might have to order some more. So I've used it in a few different pens, but that'll be the move for me. And yeah, really, really cool. So glad I have it. And we'll, we'll, we'll keep, we'll keep carrying it. So I'm going to keep it on my desk here for a little bit. Then I'm going to give it a home in a bag. Probably my main backpack that I used it for travel. I feel like this pen should have come with a clip as standard.
• I was actually surprised when I went back and looked at my Kickstarter. I didn't realize that the clip was an add on. Yeah. Because yeah, it should, it's, this type of pen should come with a clip. This, this, this pen, the option should be to remove the clip. Not to. Yeah. Right. That's how I feel. Like this is so obviously made for that. Yeah. It's quite surprising that they don't have it as, as a standard. Yeah. Like I got the little carabiner key chain. I was like, Oh, that was probably extra. But I didn't realize that the clip was actually extra too, from the jump, which like, I think it's mandatory for this pen. Like you're saying. Yeah.
• But I don't know. Some people don't, don't necessarily like the clip, you know, just like the, the classic Fisher space pen. Yeah. No, I get it. It's so small and tiny. Having an option to not have it is great. Right. But like, I, I, I think it should start out with clip. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. The way this one is, is built probably so. But yeah. I don't know. I'm a clip guy in general, but you know, I have a, um, you know, my Fisher space pens, like I have that, like the add on clip for that just because I do have a preference to that. Yeah.

Introduction of a new product - Dominant Industry Ink Archiving Book

• All right. We got another new product, uh, one that we have talked about before, one that again, I've just started using and that's the dominant industry ink archiving book. Mm-hmm. Myke. Um, this is something we've talked about in the past. This is the second version. Um, the first one was like Atlantis or something that's, it's kind of themed. So dominant industry is an ink maker and they also make kind of ink swatching accessories to where, you know, like little tools to help you explore, um, your ink colors and play around with the inks and see what you can do with them. And then last year, or maybe two years ago, their first ink archiving book came out and it's this really thick, you know, probably like 200 page book that has a really fountain pen friendly paper to color. Right. And not just any type of coloring, like fountain pen ink coloring as you've so perfectly put in here in the show notes, extreme adult coloring. I know we've spoken about this product a bunch of times. I don't think I understood truly what it was until I watched your, your stream. Like I watched a clip of, I watched you using it on stream, but that you're, you're just, it's, it's, it's, it's like a, an excuse to put ink on a page, right? You're coloring in essentially with fountain pens or like swatching. I don't know how this didn't click with me, but I think it actually took me seeing how you were using it to understand exactly what it was for. Yeah. So there's a couple of ways that I did it. And like with any type of coloring or, you know, swatching or testing, you have to find the way that works the best for you, right? There's different ways to do it. So the way this book is laid out and I'll find a picture or we'll put a link in the show notes to this one page that I did. I'll find it and send it to you. On the left-hand side of the page, there is kind of a, the, the concept is, Hey, what colors are you getting ready to use? Right? So there's little squares and little lines where you can color in the square. Say it's this color. Like for example, the first one on my page is pilot or Roshizuku Toro, which is like a yellowish orange. So I colored it. So I took a standard dip pen and dipped it in the ink bottle. So I got the full color expectation of what that color would look like using it in a traditional fountain pen. So on this left-hand side of the page, there's room for like eight, there's eight boxes for eight different colors. I use six and played around with these six colors. So on the left-hand side, I use the dip nib, right? So I can get the, what is the pure out of the bottle color? Okay. Then on the right-hand side is like an image. So mine is like a little town. And it's got like some houses, a street, you know, a horse-drawn carriage, an elephant. Like, you know, there's just all kinds of whimsical, like there's cats, you know, and an elephant and a cat riding a horse and just fun stuff like that. It's a long walk, the design. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this book is intense. Like, and it's only like $22 for this book. And it's like, it's crazy how much stuff is in here. So on this side of the page, what I did is I have a little palette where I dropped some ink from each of these bottles that I used on my testing page, right? So these six inks that I used in each little palette section, I took some drops of ink, put them in there. And then I took a water brush and then I took the water brush to the actual scene and just tried to paint however you wanted. But it's really for playing with color and seeing what types of ranges some of these colors have. And then also just like having fun coloring, right? Like, you know, coloring this elephant and coloring this house and seeing how these inks behave on a really, really good paper when they're washed, right? They're washed with like a color. And, you know, they're lighter and darker depending on how much water in this water brush. It's essentially water coloring with fountain pens, but you're using this like a, I use a singular water brush and you just kind of clean it, rinse it between uses here between switching colors or you can mix them all up, right? It's just a fun way to use your fountain pen inks and just have a little, you know, little you time spending coloring. And it's so enjoyable and so fun. I love trying to pick out the colors. Like before I looked at this page and looked at what colors I wanted to use. And I tried to pick a range of colors that I would use that would give me kind of the aesthetic that I wanted. And it's just fun experimenting with that. Like, you know, there's just have fun, make a mess, explore the colors. Like I really, really want to just like keep going on this. And this paper is like really good for this. Like it holds your water well. Like it's, it's, it, it, you think it would be like, I don't know, kind of tough to use, but man, it, it shows off the ink well, holds the water well. And, uh, it's really good. So I highly recommend this. If you have a lot of fountain pen inks and this feels like what to do with them all made for the person who bought too many ink vents. Yeah. Yeah. This could be your ink bit filling notebook. And you would like, what am I supposed to do all these vials? Exactly. Provide the product for you, you know? Exactly. So yeah, it's just fun to mix and match. So like the next, next page I'll do, you know, I'll pick a bunch of new colors and see how that goes. And you can skip around, pick whatever colors you want, you know? Um, there's so many pages you could cut some out, send them to friends and things like that. But like this, this, like a lot of notebooks, this book is made to be destroyed, but, um, they, they kind of, the way they designed it, it makes you just want to fill up the whole thing and, and, and use it. So it's really cool. Highly recommend, um, this ink archiving book. I'm definitely late to the party on this and, uh, could not be more pleased with, uh, everything that it offers.
• Let me tell you a place where you can get this Dominant Industries notebook. It's where I got mine, Myke. With a great discount. It's our friends at Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, all the accessories you're going to need, like notebooks and refills and converters and carrying cases. They have products from your favorite brands at the best prices you're going to find. Pen Chalet runs special discounts twice a month. They have closeout specials every two weeks too. And they're always adding new products to the site. You're always going to find new stuff being added to Pen Chalet. New products from brands that you know, and maybe brands that you don't. They're really good at curating an excellent selection of products. Pen Chalet have fast and reliable customer service. They ship internationally with great shipping rates. And they do free shipping on orders of over $75 in the U.S. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to PenChalet.com slash PenAddict. It's there that you'll find a code that you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet. But you'll also see a selection of exclusive offers because you listen to this show. What have we got, Brad? Here's what we're going to do, Myke. We're going to do what they call in the business a call to action. Which, you know, like is a horribly creepy thing to say. Like it's words that I hate, but here's what we're going to do because this page is set up for us. You go over to Pen Chalet and you buy your dominant industry ink archiving book, right? And then you go click on the YouTube radio podcast button. You type in the code PenAddict. You don't even need to do that. You can just go to PenChalet.com slash PenAddict. You know, you can type it in. Yeah, there you go. And it brings you right to this page. Monteverde color changing collection found pennings. Let's go. Right there at the top. So you have not only a set of fun colors to play with, these colors also change with this little solution that they have. So you have like double the pleasure, double the fun with all of these inks, Myke. So you can get black to green, blue to neon yellow, burgundy to orange, deep blue to pink. Imagine all of these colors in the dominant industry ink archiving book. I'm just saying it's something to think about. Brad, even more, once you scroll down the page, incredible prices on vials of inks. Oh, yeah. So Colorverse inks, Hiroshizuku inks, Private Reserve, Sailor, so many more. So again, like perfect if you want to do the dominant industries thing. Yep. And if you don't, if you're just looking at fountain pens, say, Brad, I just need a fountain pen. I need some cool fountain pens. They have the Endless Captiva here, which is the kind of like twist piston that I've always said I was going to buy. And now it's at a really good price. It's got this barrel cut out on the back end of the barrel that it has like the piston mechanism in there. It's really cool. The Kaweco original, like if you don't like the shorter Kawecos, this is the full size aluminum barrel Kaweco. That's a great price and a really, really great pen. And Estabrook JR, they did the Fantasia edition. And so this is a good limited edition that is now on sale over there at Pen Chalet. So yeah, lots of stuff this week to go check out. So go to pennchalet.com forward slash penaddict. And that's where you can get your hands on these incredible deals and discounts. So thanks to Pen Chalet for their continued support of this show and all of Relay. All right, Myke, we got our shout out of the week. Shout out of the week. Did I do okay for you this week? You left me space. I feel like I've been letting you down. Yeah, I did. Which is the important thing. I had to get back in the routine. It took me a while, admittedly, admittedly.
• My routine is apparently to continue to shout out many people that we have shouted out before. This week, I want to shout out Sugar Turtle Studio. Tom's a great friend and a great part of our community. Was just at the Chicago Pen Show. Always has a great table. Always teaches great classes on journaling. And this time, I wanted to bring up the Sugar Turtle Studio Instagram because Tom did a fun post where it's called, birth month equals you as a pen. So I want to read these, Myke, and see what you think about your choice. And people can go look at these and see what they are. This is just something, you know, Tom's making up and does a really, really, did a really good job with this. And it's super fun. So this is you as a pen, what your birth month says about you. So January, you're a dip pen diva. I hate it. Okay. Yeah, hate it. Can't handle this dip, honey. I'm a January baby. And I don't like to be. You're January? Yeah, I don't like to be described as such. Why was I thinking you were February? All right. Because I'm January 31st. Like, I'm at the end. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what it is. So yeah, lots of people, like someone in here is like, I would like to file a formal complaint as a June baby. So there's all kinds of fun stuff in here. So Myke already is taking the L. Myke is a dip pen diva. Sorry, Myke. February, you're a cocoon cutie. I don't know. I thought you were a cocoon cutie. Yeah. I'm so close to it. But my baby is. You know, she's one in February. Exactly. Perfect. So your baby's first pen will have to be a cocoon then. So that's a big first pen. But we can see what happens.
• Maybe a Cortex Mark 1. March, you're a mild liner magician. That's our friend Rob. I don't know if he's born in March, but he is a mild liner magician. He's already testing other highlighters and going, nope, it's not as good as the mild liner. So, which is just a fact. April is a Pilot G2 OG. I'd feel pretty upset if I was for April, April baby and stuck with the G2. So who knows? April would be, I don't know, maybe a Johto. May is the Mont Blanc mama. That's a big W. Yeah. If you're in May, I'm starting to think, what's the name of the person who runs Sugar Total Studio? Tom. Tom. I think Tom was born in May is what I think is going on here. Yeah. Yeah. That's an elite. That's the S tier right there for May. Then we have June. June's pretty solid. June is the big bitch, which I feel like I can say. No, you can't say that. So this is the first time in pen addict history I think I'm going to have to bleep you. Man. Man, that stinks. Yeah. But I don't know. So June is pretty solid. I'm down with June. Mine's coming up soon and I don't even know what it is. I forgot. All right. July is a brush pen beauty, which I can get down with that. I like my brush pens and you can have fun brush pens. So August. Let's see. Let's see what I am. August. Found pen freak. Yeah. Let's go. Now, come on. This is cyberbullying.
• That's like just I think Tom was maybe Tom has no clue what my birthday is, but I feel like, you know, I'm just going to pretend like he did and he's just like sucking up to me right now with the found pen freak. So we'll we'll we'll give Tom a shout out for that. So September novelty pen nincompoop. Wow. Like I think you got to take the L on that one in September. If you're September, you like you're using like floaty pens and just other like silly stuff. Maybe you're what is your yoinks pen?
• Yikes. Yoinks. I was watching Scooby. That's a Scooby-Doo pen.
• Yoink shaggy. October multi pen meanie. So Tom is Tom is not a multi pen fan, apparently, because the slide for October for multi pen meanie has a picture of the the classic Bic four click and it says you're dumb in any color. Ha ha ha ha. Wow. That's aggressive. That's aggressive. Yeah. Unnecessary. I think Tom is the multi pen meanie. Wow. That was just not nice. Not nice at all. November needlepoint nitpicker. Yeah. I've been there. I've been there like, oh, needlepoints only. Right. Needlepoints only for me. And finally, December. Free pen freeloader. I kind of vibes with December. Like I feel like that's kind of the kind of the one. So, you know, they have all the it's like your your your medical pharmacy swag pens or you're just like logo pens and just generic hotel pens, things like that. So anyway, that was fun. Sorry for the edit, Myke, but I felt like it was it was worth saying just for just for the call out. So censorship comes for us all at some point. Brad. Yes. I am restricting your First Amendment rights. OK, well, we're going to have to talk about that. There's no First Amendment rights on the pen addict. Yes. None here on the pen addict. There's no constitution here. We run free. You know, my apologies, but at least I did it on purpose and it wasn't an accident. Right. Like I just I was just reading. OK, Myke, I was interested in that is a very interesting way to look at it. Like it's good because I did it on purpose. Yeah. I was just reading what it said. Yeah. Yeah. I was I was honoring the source material, Myke. And I think we can respect that. It's the kind of guy you are. Very respectful. All right. The kind of the kind of guy I am is talk about this Mont Blanc Heritage Rouge, a noir baby special edition only because it's just more reminder that the Wes Anderson pen has not come out yet, even though we just talked about that here recently. It's this month, Myke. This month is supposedly Wes Anderson month for for the mini pen to be released. But I do. We talked about the baby when it came out like two years ago. It's so. I just want it so bad. And then this color to the region. I just I want it. This is the one. Brad, but what is it like a billion dollars? Like how much? I don't know, but it's probably like half the price of the Wes Anderson. So I looked up the Wes Anderson like we talked about twenty five hundred dollars MSRP, which is stupid. So this has to be over a thousand. The first the first babies that came out, the white and the black one, I think they were under a thousand dollars, which is beautiful. Yeah. I say that like it's a deal. It is not a deal whatsoever.
• But I am on there. I'm digging the Mont Blanc visual style on their Instagram right now. It is very Mont Blanc. Every post says Mont Blanc. Like just massive.
• Just huge text. But it works, though. It works for them. Did they? I mean, obviously, I know they did, but I don't recall. They changed the logo.
• Right. They changed the word mark. Yeah. The word mark looks different. I mean, it was definitely a long time ago, but it's good. I like it. Obviously, it's focused. It looks like a mountain. Like that's what it's going for. Yeah. It's the A and C part. The end of the word looks drastically different from what it used to be. Yeah. Now that you say that, I didn't I didn't really notice that before. They've done this a long time ago because I'm like scrolling through their Instagram and I can't see any different because every post says it. Yeah. It's hilarious.
• So, yeah, like it's not Mont Blanc is not always like a company we always follow for different things. But here we go, Myke. The Rouge Noir Baby 765.
• It's a deal. That feels like a deal. That feels like a huge deal. I just got 25% off. That's amazing. That's more than I want to spend. But yeah, it's a quarter of quarter of the Wes Anderson. I've spent more on pens. Yeah. Many times. It's a quarter at the Wes Anderson, but 90% the style. Like it's it's almost there. I want that Wes Anderson one though so bad. I feel like there's no way in which it's an amount of money that I would want to pay, but I still just want to see, you know, like what happens if and when that pen ever exists, which I don't think it will. You still you still don't think it will. It was so I went and checked before the show. They're still marketing it.
• One thought. So there's only Myke. This is their copy. Only. Oh, it was done in March. The redesign. It looks like just finding it. Sorry to interrupt you. It was in. Okay.
• It looks like they changed it in March. Okay. So no wonder that we missed it then. So what I was going to say is the Wes Anderson limited edition, only 1969 are going to be made, Myke, at $2,500 a pop. So, you know, there you go. You found it. There you go. Well, I mean, just the marketing on it there. I haven't found it for actual sale yet, but that's all the details. Yeah, I don't want to pay $2,500 to honestly.
• Yeah. All right. I have something, you know, more affordable, even though still relatively expensive, I'm sure. I think I missed this, but I was doing an article for the Panatic members in refill this weekend where I was talking about like brands I like or like, you know, brands like I keep an eye on. And Uni Mitsubishi is one of my favorite companies in the world. And I was browsing through, I was writing this article over on the Japan site. You know, I don't always look at it, but they always have either something in the news section or in like their PR section on like product releases. And there's a Kuro Togo wood mechanical pencil. I don't think we talked about this. No, I've never seen this before. Okay. But this was from March. March. So it made me wonder, it's like, did I mention this? Or maybe it was while you were gone and I didn't do as many. You won't do it as much as much new stuff. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. So like it may have, you may have slipped by. Oh, what a stunning, stunning pen. Oh, I hate it because I love it so much. And I went looking today and obviously they're only on eBay and they're like, it's like a hundred pounds for two of them, like for both of them. Wow. And I don't want to pay that, Brad. So the regular price is around $25. I don't want to pay that. It's so good looking. This is spectacular. Is it real wood? Yeah. They, they don't do these without, without having the, like the real wood. Uh, I can't, I don't see that it's half in English, half in Japanese. I don't have a translated yet to see what type of wood, but, um, it's a forest green barrel and like a slate blue kind of barrel. Those are the two color choices, which they're just perfect. Let me see if I can translate it real quick and see if we have like the type of wood, but it just looks like. Uh, let's see. Yeah. I'm looking to it. Wood and aluminum, wood and aluminum, wood and aluminum all over the place. It's not helpful. Uh, it just says natural, natural wood. Yeah. Uh, for the grip, a tree species characterized by heavy and characteristic black, brown color and beautiful wood grain. Uh, so. But we won't tell you.
• Hardwood of the bee family. Again, this is translated. I don't know. So, um, yeah. Yeah. So we'll have to find out, um, find out this, but what a, what a great looking pencil. So yeah, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on that one day. Hopefully, maybe, maybe not. You never know. I want it. You never know if we can get it. I want it too. I don't want a hundred pounds. It, you know, I don't want it that much. I want to buy it. Like I want, I want to go to a website and just buy it, um, from uni or from a distributor. That's what I would like. It seems like that is an impossibility, especially with anything Kuru Toga anyway. You know, like what was the dive, right? That just. Yeah. It was like $4 billion on eBay. Yeah. You still can't easily get the dive. Like you can find them now, but there's no way I can get this one. Like there's no way I can get this one. I will keep you in my thoughts. When I find one, I will get you one. Thank you. Um, do you have a color preference? I like the green one. That's so good, isn't it? Yeah. I think the green one. It's such an outlier. I think the green one is the way because it's like, I got, I got enough blue pens. Yeah. It looks great, but the wood is just as a good combo. Cause it's like a trick. Cause I'm saying this, like I'm going to, I'll go shopping for you one day because I already have something to send you that someone sent me that you don't know about. So it's pretty cool. I love that. Pretty cool. Oh, we'll, we'll talk about it on the podcast one day, but I haven't really used it yet. Well, we can talk about it in October.
• Okay. Cause I'm being just realistic about when you have something to send me. Fair. It takes so long. And so you may as well just bring it to Memphis now. You know, that was such a shot at me that I, it just went right over my head. Like that was aggressive. But it's not untrue though, Brett. It's not, I did not say it is actually very true. It hurts because it's true. That was factually correct. And a little bit painful to hear. Sometimes it's hard to get your, to get your, your, your misgivings just directly at you. Well, yeah. But like, I only have one thing right now. I'm not going to just send you one thing. So that's why I need to get the Kuro Toga. Right. Then I would be, have the impetus to like actually send something to you. It would be silly to send one. In October. Yeah. In October.
• Send me something else, Myke. Yes, I can do that. And I can tell you about our friends at Factor who are also supporting this week's episode. Why not make this your best season yet? It's easy to do with nutritious two minute meals from Factor. Eating well has never been this simple. You just heat up and enjoy. It makes eating well on busy days a breeze. Get outside instead of prepping and cooking indoors. Factor meals arrive fresh and ready to eat. Perfect for any active lifestyle. With 45 weekly menu options, you can pick gourmet meals that meet your goals. You can choose from calorie smart, protein plus, keto and more. Factor powers your day with satisfying breakfasts, on the go lunches, premium dinners and guilt free snacks and desserts. It's easy to savor more this spring. Factor meals pack in the flavor with none of the fuss. Brad, I know you're a big Factor fan. I am. We've been crushing it the last couple weeks or the last week ago. Got some really great meals from Factor. I always love the quality and the time it takes. That is everything. That is valuable to me. It's something great. It's great food and it's quick. Even though I work from home and I'm not necessarily on a schedule, I don't like to spend an hour making lunch or 30 minutes or whatever it's going to take. I can pop this in the microwave, two minutes to have an awesome meal and carry on about my day, which is vital for me and I love them. So don't just take a word for it. Go check it out for yourself. It's amazing. You're going to love it. Go get started at factomeals.com slash penaddict50 off and use the code penaddict50 off to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. I mean, that is an incredible deal that you can just go try out. That's the code penaddict50 off at factomeals.com slash penaddict50 off to get 50% off plus free shipping. Thanks to Factor for the support of this show and all of Relay.

Discussion on eyedropper pens

• All right, let's hit some ass TPA, Myke. I put this in as a topic, but it's really an ass TPA. It came in from Tomos. I'll let you read it and I'll answer. I'm at the point now where I'm interested in trying an eyedropper pen. In particular, I like the idea of one with a clear barrel to really show off the ink, but don't know where to start. Perhaps you could discuss some options for pens and the do's and don'ts of eyedroppers.
• Yeah, so the don't is don't unscrew the barrel with the barrel pointing downwards like we do with converter pens. So that's we're starting there in the deep end because people who have eyedropper pens have either A, done this or B, almost done this. So the eyedropper filling system is essentially an open barrel in a fountain pen that you fill with ink. Now you can't do that with any pen. You have to have a certain type of pen, usually plastic. A lot of times there's some extra sealants in there either through the form of like a silicone grease or some companies will add in O-rings for you to specifically eyedropper a pen.
• So the concept is you get bulk ink inside of your pen for a lot of writing. So a converter, let's, you know, I'm bad at math. Let's say it holds, you know, 0.6 milliliters of ink in a converter and an eyedropper could hold like a full three milliliters of ink in there. Right. So just, you know, don't don't check my math. But, you know, it's it's a huge, huge quantity of ink is generally the feature of why you want an eyedropper pen if you're using a lot of ink. So when you're looking for an eyedropper pen, you want to see if the manufacturer is specifically calling it out as eyedropperable, something that's eyedropperable. Now, there's plenty of pens you can eyedropper that aren't marketed that way. Right. Like a lot of people will take the Kaweco Sport, the standard plastic sport, silicone grease the threads, which is what you need to seal off there. And you do that on the barrel threads and you do that on the nib housing threads. Right. So we'll and I'll find some links for Tomos or I'll reply directly. Like it's this is a complicated topic to talk about in a few minutes on the podcast without clarity. But you can get there. Right. With with something like a Kaweco Sport or you can look at something which is what I would recommend for someone trying their first eyedropper is something like an Opus 88 that does the Japanese eyedropper style where it is built for you to essentially pour ink into the barrel. But it has a design that's going to preclude it from leaking. Right. It's got a stopper in there with Japanese eyedroppers. They have like a piston rod in there. But it's more just for closing off the barrel. That's kind of like my recommendation. If you want to get started into eyedropper, see if you like that. Plus Opus has a lot of clear barrels or translucent color barrels where you can see the ink in there. That's one of the features. That's one of the cool features of the eyedropper. It's kind of boring to eyedropper a pen that you can't see through. Like I have a couple and it's like, I'll just maybe use a converter in those because like I don't want to go through all the mess and clean up of of an eyedropper. For me, I don't think it's worth doing unless you have a clear barrel. It's like why? Yeah. To me, it's like I don't know why you would do it. You just don't. Exactly. Yeah. And also like I'd say one of the don'ts is like don't just do this. You know, like I know you said this, but like just as like a thing to think about. Don't just be like, I'm going to do this. Like you have to if you're going to get a pen which you want to eyedropper, you have to make sure that you prepare correctly. Like you can't just you can't just do this. It doesn't just work and it doesn't just like in a clean way. You have to have like the silicone grease and stuff like that to make sure that you're keeping a good seal. Yep. If the pen wasn't made to do this.
• Yeah. So and then you can like escalate. Like if there's something you really like, you can look at something like Shone Design who builds eyedropper pens with O-rings in them. Yep. So you don't have to do the silicone grease part. They're sealed in the proper spaces and they work really well. I use the like I have a couple of those that I use all the time and I drop. Those are my easiest eyedropper pens because there's not a lot of extra. But yeah, they're more expensive, right? When you're just trying out. That's that's like your upgraded eyedropper pen when you really get into this.
• Just for for Tomos in particular, you can get some really nice clear barrel piston fillers that, you know, you don't have to go through eyedropper and you get essentially the same effect like the the pilot custom 92 like has a basically one they call skeleton. It's crystal clear eyedropper pen. You know, that's excuse me. Piston filling pen, not an eyedropper. You know, that's an option for you if you don't want to go the eyedropper around. But for someone starting out with an eyedropper, take a look at what Opus 88 has to offer. They give you the right tools. It's the right setup. It's the right price point. You know, they give you a little a little literal eyedropper to fill the barrel with with ink and it seals off. Well, you don't have to worry about, you know, have I sealed up all the places with silicone grease, which you can do, you know, later once you figure out if you like that eyedropper style of pen. So it's it can be complicated. Like the one general rule is if there's any metal parts that are any of the threading is metal. That's generally not going to work. Well, like people will eyedropper titanium. Apparently, that's one one metal that will handle the silicone grease without issue. But I think just in general, don't like if like a sailor pen, for example, all those have metal threads in their grip section that connects to the barrel. Right. You can't seal that off well enough to eyedropper that barrel. So you got to keep a lot of little things in mind. So it's always easy to start with something more straightforward. All right. Next question comes from Rob, who says, I stumbled across the General's test scoring 580 pencil recently. I didn't find anything about it on the Panatic website when I was looking, but the company markets it as a favorite for crossword puzzle enthusiasts. I'm curious if you knew anything about it. Have you ever used it? Do you have thoughts on the leather eraser? From what I see online, it seems to be closer to a mass market pencil, but not as far as the Ticonderoga is. So I had someone send me a General's test scoring 580 years ago when I was testing on a bunch of pencils. It's legitimately good.
• And I would recommend it because it is a darker graphite composition than some other pencils around this range because it is literally designed for what the name says. It's designed for those tests where you have to fill in, you know, the little circles on the test. So you need a nice, dark graphite. So that's why they are popular for things like crossword puzzles, especially if you're doing them on, you know, in the past, you might have done it straight from the newspaper. Maybe not so much these days, but such a poor quality paper. You need a good, dark pencil that's soft enough and dark enough to not tear through the page and to be legible. And the General's test scoring handles that. It rates pretty highly. Like, it's a pretty popular pencil for those qualities. So if you want a dark, soft graphite for writing, it's legitimately good. Every time I break mine out, I see it. It's got the, you know, it's not the best looking pencil. So I always kind of smile when I break it out because like, oh, this pencil is probably like junk, but it's legitimately good. I would put it ahead of just like your stock Ticonderogos that you get off the shelf for sure. I would put this ahead of most of those just basic pencils. Like it is a step above and quite enjoyable.

Trends in pen designs and materials

• All right. And Adam asks, while I was listening to the back catalog of the show, I came across a conversation on episode 462 where you're asked about trends in pens. And you mentioned that swirly acrylics like primary manipulation and others like that are both the craze at the point at that time. But you thought that they were going to peak and be on the way out. Well, I'm new to the world of fountain pens. And it doesn't seem like we've hit that point. Wondering if you have any thoughts about this four years on. I love when people dig in the archives and bring up these points because I would never remember this at all. And yeah, this is great because I don't think we've hit that point. And I'm surprised in retrospect that we felt that that was going to happen four years ago because it certainly has not.
• Yeah. So another thing I was wrong about, and I'll get back to answering Adam's more specific question, was fountain pen inks peaking. Like this was like a 2019 take. I was like, I'm burnt out on fountain pen inks. And now I'm like, give me all the fountain pen inks. So back to the acrylics and maybe on the way out. So I think what we're seeing and why this is sustaining is because we are getting some variety. Even though, you know, we're seeing, you know, lots of swirls and, and colorful acrylics, we're starting to get a, like a level up of like the quality and style from the basic classic acrylic swirls. Like primary manipulation style was kind of the beginning. And like, I don't even think that peaked because you can continue to modify and improve these materials. And let's be honest, like they're super attractive, right? That's why they're so popular. So what I think is happening is we're seeing an improvement in the product, right? An improvement in the creativity of the resin and acrylic blank makers, right? They're experimenting more. They're trying new things. They're bringing interesting concepts to the market, right? They're doing their, these resin and blank makers, there's such a high volume of them right now. They can't just make the regular stuff. They have to try to separate themselves from the crowd. And I think that's why we're seeing this continue on. And let's be honest, I hope it does continue on. You know, so I think we're in a good place with that. And it may not be everyone's style, but I think what we're hitting at now is we're starting to get a variety of material. Instead of just like, you know, seeing the same. There was a time, and this is probably, you know, eight to 10 years ago. There was a time where you would go to pen makers, like custom pen makers, and you would see the same material being used by a lot of makers. Just because there wasn't that variety. And you don't really see that now. You see a good dispersion of variety of materials. And I think that's a good place to be.

Closing remarks and feedback invitation

• All right. If you would like to send in a question for us to answer on a future episode of the show, please go to penaddictfeedback.com. And you can do that. There's also a link in our show notes. That's where you'll find the links for lots of the things we've spoken about on this episode. I'd like to take a moment to thank Factor, Pensolet, and Squarespace for their support of this episode. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com and spokedesign.com. You can also find Brad streaming on Twitch at twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can find me here on Relay. And also you can find my products at cortexbrand.com. That's where you'll find yourself a lovely sidekick pocket. But we'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.