The Pen Addict 670/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	670
Title:	L
Release Date:	June 18th, 2025
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 670
Audio File:	Audio Episode 670
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 670
Length:	5757 min <br />0.95 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

• From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 670. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. What's up Myke Hurley, how are you? I'm doing real good. Good. I'm glad to hear that. I'm doing real good as well. My first father's day. Right, right. How did that go? Was that... It was really good. Did you cry? Multiple times. Yes. So, basically, the night before, so Saturday night, the baby took a lot of effort to go to bed. And putting her down for the night sleep is left to me. It's like Idina will feed her and then she'll go to bed because she's going to wake up again, right? So, however long it's going to take, that's my job to do with. And it was a particularly long one. And so, I ended up going to bed pretty late. Because usually, once I put the baby down, I've then got to go do a bunch of things. Like, I've got to go do the washing up. I've got to get Idina's coffee ready for the morning and like everything, you know. We have a very good coffee machine that turns on on its own. So, when she comes down, it's all ready for her. And so, I got to bed. Like, time I went to sleep, it was like nearly two in the morning. It was crazy. And so, then Idina was like, I'll let you sleep in. But then, when I woke up, the baby was sleeping again. So, like, it kind of like delayed the morning because I obviously wanted to wait to read the card and see the gifts that she got me over all of her own decision.

Personal anecdotes and parenting experiences

• And so, then I was having some breakfast and then when Idina brought her downstairs, I just burst into tears. Right? That's not my usual way in the morning. I mean, you know, number one, yes, it's going to happen because you're a parent and it rules. Number two, you're exhausted. So, those things happen quickly and unknowingly. They just happen.
• Yeah, it was a lovely day. Very lovely. Very, very lovely. Yeah. As they get older, like, I had a great Father's Day weekend because I did nothing and everyone pretty much was working except for me. So, I just kind of chilled. So, it's very funny. All of my friends that are dads that, you know, I was talking to and they're like, Happy Father's Day. Like, you know, I'm reaching out and stuff. And I would say to them, like, what are you doing today? You know, like, people who've got older kids, you know, even like toddlers or whatever. And they're like, oh, perfect day. I'm on my own. Or like, I'm doing this thing. It's like, it's very funny that, like, it seems that once you've had the first one, then you just want peace and quiet on Mother's Day. Like, that's the best thing that could happen. But for the first one, you know, you want to be with the baby. I watched some of the race. I watched all of the race. I watched some of the golf. And like, you know, everyone started getting home about five. We had a little dinner and that was a great day. Great day. Yeah, I did. I actually, that I did have that. So I could, you know, I did, you know, took the all like the shift of, so I put like a bedtime shift kind of thing. So I could watch Formula One. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's right. Cause yeah, I was actually, this is one of the races that's actually much later for you. I'm normally on your schedule. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. True. I didn't think about that. Yeah. Interesting race. So we'll leave that for another day. Maybe another Lego episode in the future. Yeah. I've got some follow-up from journaling. Okay. Let's do it. Joseph wrote in and said, I find my journaling habit also critically depends on the physical location of my journal on a given day and do miss in, like I do miss or backfield days. I use key wording similar to what other people were described. I do something that was not mentioned though. I snap a photo to use as a prompt for me to fill in later on. They're automatically organized by date, readily available on multiple sync devices, and can be taken one handed without even unlocking my phone. So this is actually reminding me. So when I was, remember I said to you, I was going in and like filling in some of the baby's first days into my journal a couple of years after she was born, the way that I was remembering what I had done on those days was to look through my photo library. Yeah. Yeah. So that's good.

Discussion on journaling and digital tools

• Yeah. And I use, I haven't, this round of journal app, this is on the digital part of the ledger here. This round, I haven't been using the photo part as much, but in the previous like month or two, like earlier this year when I was in, I did it for about two months, I would say. I actively, like almost, almost daily type of photo capturing and just, you know, especially when you're going back to fill in some stuff, like a lot of journaling, like it's okay to like skip days and go back and fill them or, or not like, like it's all of this is okay. Right. Like don't get bogged down in, in the actual, Oh, I missed a day or I skipped a day or whatever. Like just let yourself be free from that. But it's great when you do, if you do have time and you want to go back fill to have these other prompts, that's where I use the digital part of my journaling to fill in those blanks. So I still keep, I'm still keeping my five-year journal. So what am I two and a half years through it or three and a half? I don't even know. Let me look at this thing, but I'm still on, but like, I don't feel it. I don't every day. I don't fill in yesterdays. So yeah, I'm in a two and a half years. I feel like I would want to put an air tag on a five-year journal. Yeah. So I have filled in through the 15th and we're recording this on the 18th. Right. So I'm like, two days, two days behind because I wouldn't have done today yet. Right. That's completely normal, but it's a five-year journal. I have to write just two or three sentences and I will use like the digital pieces of like the journaling app. I'll look at that to remember like some of the highlights, maybe a low light of the day and go back and put that in my five years. So all of this stuff works together. Right. And it's, it's important to remember, like you can have a lot of tools to, to use and solve like some of the things, like, I don't want to call them problems. Like these are just like, you know, ways we work and things we do. So yeah, it's the, it's good to figure out these systems and like I'll phase in and out all kinds of different ways. Like I said, I don't use the journaling app all year long. Right. I use it when I need it. And I feel that's an important aspect of it too. I, but I do keep the paper, paper journaling going pretty consistently. Yeah. I would just give another update, like another kind of weekend. This combo approach is really working for me. So I have a, like a task in Todoist, which I always have anyway to write in my journal, but now I have a secondary one to write in day one. So like I can kind of, whatever I need to be reminded of, I'll be reminded of that day. And then it's much easier for me to get a two minute thing with day one, right? Where like I've got my phone in my hand and I see the reminder and I'm like, Oh, I can just like, I already in seeing the reminder, I can do it. You know what I mean? It's super easy. And then this earlier this week, I copied out all of the entries into my journal, which is like best of both worlds really. Cause one of the things I love about journaling is getting to use the tools, like use my pens. It gives me an excuse to use them. Um, at this point, like I am comfortable with journaling enough that I don't need to write on pen and paper. Like when I started doing it, pen and paper was the only way that I could kind of get my thoughts down. Um, but now I kind of understand how to like plug into my brain a little bit more like that to pull out the journaling entry. So it's been very easy for me to do it in my iPhone. Um, but then I still get to use the pens and paper, um, by writing them down in my journal when I'm done. So I've been really happy with this. Um, and I've also kind of, I've really relaxed just to make it easier on myself. Like I've, I've relaxed what I'm doing journal wise. Um, and I'm just kind of like writing down something in my day, whether it's a moment of gratitude or a moment of frustration or just some kind of reflection on what's going on. Um, as opposed to like the more, the more kind of rigid structure I have, I have had used before with the theme system. Um, I have mine pretty structurized when you don't have to do that. Uh, but I did. And, but that's just not really achievable for me at the moment. So I'm just keeping the habit going by making it easy. And then later on, I will, I will kind of increase the complexity again. Yeah. Like I love talking about this, because like, we don't have to do a whole show on this every week, but we can do five minutes every week. And I think it's very interesting because things change like the, we're, we're a shining example of how quickly some of this stuff changes, um, in our own day to day usage, you know? Um, and, and I think it's pretty cool, uh, on your air, on your air tag comment, uh, for the five year journal, it literally never leaves my desk, right? That's not a, that's not a field type of, uh, journaling system. It does. Because that would just be a devastation to lose that, right? Like I feel like it would stink. I feel like if you had some kind of, if you did what that, like if you had like a five year journal, you should absolutely employ the combo method. So like if you're traveling, you can still keep it up, but not take it. Like that's just a hundred percent. My God, can you imagine Brad? Like, you know, you're four years into it and you leave it on a plane. That outbreak. That would be just, I actually haven't considered that because that's never left. And now it, it will definitely never, definitely never at this point it is, it is never going to move. So, uh, so yeah, but in the beginning, like if I would have lost it, that would have been bad. But now that we're two and a half years into it, the, the amount that's in there would be just crazy. And I just want to be clear to the listeners out there. I write just nonsense in there. I was like, you know, like this is like, I'm going to go back and there's going to be like some like really cool stuff I'll read like years later, but most of it is just like, you know, basic daily stuff. Like, you know, Hey, busy day today, or Hey, slow day today, or Hey, I took the afternoon off and, and it, but it's, it's, it's cool to just kind of, kind of go through that. And, uh, but to your point, like sometimes it'd be like basically the same thing, like three or four days in a row. If I'm working on something that's like really bugging me or whatever, um, I'll just keep like writing the same kind of thing over and over again. Um, but that's just how it goes sometimes. Yeah. But to your point, the, the digital aspect is actually really key for a five, something like a five-year journal that is, does not have a daily schedule. So it's good. And should never leave the house. And should never leave the house. Yes.

Listener feedback and product-specific queries

• Uh, I also got some follow-ups and in via the feedback form, uh, from SH who said, I was listening to the sun's remorse episode and you had a question about the Lami Jetstream refill, the M17F. I live in Asia and I've just returned from, uh, Fukuoka, Japan last week. Uh, I bought the M17F from Smith, a stationery and gift chain. Uh, it was going for 990 yen, which is around $7. There was no restriction on the number that I could buy, but I was surprised I could find them. I couldn't find it a bigger chains like loft hands or a toy. That part kind of makes sense to me that if this is a desired item, you're more likely to find it in the places that the, like the diehards wouldn't think to look maybe. Right. That like a more kind of run of the mill store, which is how it sounds like this is being described. Um, rather than the kind of like the bespoke stationery store where they're, they're absolutely going to go out of stock. Yeah. And I, I love that this is, this is a thing now and I appreciate the feedback because what the goal for me in this is what I didn't know was the real MSRP for these refills because, you know, getting them imported into the U S and then me buying them from here. Um, there's like all kinds of premiums tacked onto that. And thus just the scarcity of the product right now, while it's just being rolled out, um, there's all kinds of premiums involved to that. So I wanted to know what the real price of it. And it looks like seven U S dollars, which, um, that lines up with what Pete said last week, you know, six 95 essentially. Yeah. So yeah, cool. Like still super expensive for a refill, but like, that's these premium, this is the premium refill world we're living in the, the jet stream refill, the Parker style jet stream refill when it launched, it was six or $7. And now it's already up to like close to 10. Like, like we, we used to use that at spoke and then we just had to stop using it. It's just too expensive. Right. So $10. Um, yeah, it's crazy, but like, I don't want to say that's common now, but I'm seeing more and more, uh, just refills like for, for pens, the re we're getting into like the refill costs more than the pin stage of the game. And in some of these, some of these cases, which is wild to me. So it's like, you know, that's kind of defeating the purpose, but you know, whatever it's fine. But yeah, I, I appreciate the feedback and, um, it's super cool. So I, um, I love, I just hope they continue to, to, uh, propagate around the world. I, I feel that like a refill will like more so than like someone like the, the more unique pens and pencils like this. Come on, let's just push this refill manufacturing. Let's go. Yeah. It feels like this, it shouldn't, shouldn't be logistically difficult to produce this product and to move it. Um, yeah, it's way more widgety than like pens and notebooks and things like that. Yeah. But what do I know? I'm not in the, I'm not in there making them. So, but you know, like if you want to ship a thousand of them to a U S distributor, it's like one box. Yeah. Like if you were shipping a thousand pens, now we're, now we're into crate territory. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like I could literally hold a box of a thousand refills in my hand, like, and just, you know, not be that heavy. But again, it's like the thing that we could come back to. We don't, we just, we just don't know what the deal is. Like, is this a very complex product to make? They don't have the tool in right yet. Like we, we just don't know. I, I honestly think with their original decision, maybe they still aren't planning to release it worldwide, which I think, I think is a huge mistake, right? Like I will, I will bang that drum forever. Yeah. Like if, if they're, if Mitsubishi is putting the Jetstream ink into Lamy, which has a huge worldwide presence into a Lamy based refill and keeping it in a certain region, like I'll, I'll never agree with that decision. It won't, that decision will never make any sense to me. Even if you, you could limit the tip sizes. Like I got extra fine, which is abnormal for this refill for the M16. They know they don't go lower than like a fine ballpoint. Um, I could see, okay, maybe we're not going to sell a lot of EF, right? The EF is never going to be the stock nib that we, the stock refill that we put in the ballpoint, but like at a minimum, like the medium should be the stock refill around the world and it should just be the M17 and just the 16 just needs to go away. I could understand it if they were building some kind of like unique bespoke pen, but they're just changing the refill in a product that's already internationally available. Yeah. They're just changing the ink in the refill body. Even more so. Yeah. Even more so. See, I don't know. I would be surprised too, if it's like, no, this is just the Japan one. It's like, but why?
• Yeah. So hopefully, uh, I, I have faith in this one that we're, we'll be all good in the end. Uh, once it starts, once it starts becoming the stock refill for the ballpoint, it'll be, that's when they'll be comfortable having it available worldwide because people will go, oh, this is much better than the previous one. Where can I get more? And they can't be, oh yeah, you have to import it. No, because they don't want that. They don't want people to be, it's just not helpful for them, for people to be doing that. Cause then it's like, uh, the Kuro Togo dive problem. Uh, as I mean, like the thing is that if people are interested, you have the ability to sell it to them and you can maybe charge a little bit more, right? Like that's what they did, right? With, with the Kuro Togo dive. Um, even though, you know, I know you were unhappy about that, but the market showed that there was the ability for them to make a bit more money out of it. And it's better for you to make that money than for people on eBay to make that money. Yeah. As if you are, if you're a Mitsubishi, right? So, right. We'll see. All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Squarespace, the all in one website platform that is designed to help you stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just getting started or you're scaling a business, Squarespace gives you everything that you need to claim your domain, showcase your offerings of a professional website, grow your brand and get paid all in one place. Giving you everything that you need is exactly what Squarespace does. And it's why I love it. It does not matter what your skill level is. It is really easy to build a website with Squarespace. They have these beautiful templates to help you get started to design. And it's all very customizable. Like you can go in and tweak to your heart's content, but they've made it easier than ever. Thanks to blueprint AI, which is their new AI enhanced website built 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 your goals, and they're going to help you get started. Plus Squarespace, you know, they have their professionally designed award-winning templates that I love. And so no matter however you start, whether it's using blueprint AI or taking one of their templates and customizing it with their drag and drop tools, you'll have beautiful options and a great looking website with no experience required. You can also offer your services and get paid to Squarespace from consultations to events and experiences. You can showcase your offerings for customized a website that is designed to attract clients and grow your business. Think about 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. The breadth of Squarespace's offerings is fantastic. They have everything you need. It's going to grow with you. But don't just take my word for it. Go and try it for yourself by going to squarespace.com slash penaddict and you can sign up for a free trial. Then when you're ready to launch your website to the world, use the offer code penaddict and you'll get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict with the offer code penaddict to save 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of this show and relay. All right, Myke, we have our shout out of the week.

Social media discovery and influencer mentions

• Lilith Blackbee. Lilith Blackbee. That was perfect. This was one of those where I got algorithmed and it said, hey, you might like. And I was like, you know what? I do like and I will follow them. They have almost 400,000 followers. So it's on Instagram. So it's not like the, you know, this is probably highly recommended to a lot of people who are into pens. But what I am into is the detailed artwork, right? This is fine line, repetitive artwork. So just scrolling through this and they use fountain pens, brush pens, gel ink pens, ballpoints. I've even seen like a, like a repeatograph type pen in here. It's just super cool artwork. So go check out that account. It's kind of spectacular. Probably a lot of y'all already follow this account. I'm just late to the party. I want to call out the one project that they're working long term project. I don't know if you scroll through here, Myke, and see a lot of times written or a lot of numbers written. So this is called the Now Project. And I'm going to read you this because I can't explain it really well. So what they're doing is, let me find. I want to write every hour, minute, and second of an entire year.
• That's the project. I am estimating that it will take me between 50 to 60 years to finish it. What? What?
• So that's when all the numbers, all the times you see are in order from the beginning of this year to the end of this year, every second. So they're writing down basically the full, you know, like 11, 11, 11, you know, would be like hour, minute, second type of thing. That's crazy, man. Yeah, it's crazy talk. It's crazy talk. So what actually what got like jumped into my feed was they were they make mistakes in this, right? So like there's errors when you do this, and they're using a gold paint pen to mark out some of these errors. So that's what I wanted to see. And it's just kind of a cool look in there. So it ends up being like a little piece of art. It's sad how long some of the gold lines are, which indicate that it took a while to realize the problem. And then they have to start all over again. Yep. Yep. So this whole project's wild. This is bananas. This is such a huge thing to do. Wow. Like I have projects that I'm in the middle of that I'm going to finish one of these years, Myke, but yeah, not like this. So that's wild. But I just generally like the detailed artwork and the lines and stuff like that. Crazy, man. Crazy. Speaking of lines, we do lines here, Myke, with refills, you know, carrying on our refill talk. So this is a bit of follow up from our Zento talk in an episode, but was it 665, where I had gotten the Zento in? And this is Uniball's newest ink formulation.
• And between then and now, I still don't have clarity on the ink formulation. And I put that in my review, which is what I wanted to link here in the show notes as I went through testing the pen against some of the other. I'm classifying it as a gel ink pen until I'm told otherwise, because that's pretty much how it behaves when I compare it to four other Uniball products, which are the Signo DX, the one that I use the most, the Uniball 1 gel, the 307, which is in the series of the Signo 207, 207 Plus, 307. There's like a whole range of those. That's kind of like the standard store shelf pen, office pen, the Jetstream light touch, and the Zento. So five total. And it's one of those products that's really good, but I still am trying to grasp why it exists, which is kind of like the impetus when I first got it. Like basically in a few episodes ago, that was like my first look. And I'm trying to decide why this pen exists. Why should I recommend it? Who needs this pen? And like, I don't know that it has a place and I'm still not convinced it has a place unless this is going to be like a rollerball concept that they're going to continue to push. Which they might, because this is one of the few pens, as we talked in that episode, that they just straight up from day one went with premium barrels. And not just one, there's two. There's like a $3 pen, a $10 pen, and an almost $30 pen barrel. Same refill, right? And that doesn't, they don't normally do that. Like when a product line launches, like I've talked about this before, you'll launch with like, say like the base Jetstream and then like the Jetstream multi-pen. That's kind of like your two pens. And then we'll make some fancier barrels, you know, you know, six months from now, 12 months from now, 18 months from now, something like that. And this was just a full launch from the jump. I just want more from Uniball on what the expectation of this pen is to be, right? Because it's not the Uniball one. And, you know, that pen has a pigmented ink. And they're very dark and rich colors. It's not the Jetstream. That's a hybrid ballpoint ink. That's just an awesome writing pen. And just a, just spectacular all the way around. And it's not the standard gel ink pens.
• It just, it does seem to flow a little bit differently. But it still has the smoothness of a gel pen. It doesn't feel like a rollerball, like a liquid water-based ink, which they're not scratchy on the page. But you can tell there's, like, not a lot of viscosity when you use a rollerball pen, right? They're just made to just, like, throw down the ink on the page. It does not bleed, feather, ghost, anything like that. So it writes like a gel ink pen. I just want to know more from Uniball. I want them to tell me what to do with this pen in their marketing. Other than, hey, here's another Zento. I mean, here's another pen. It's the Zento. And go. And, like, if you buy this pen, you're going to love it. Like, it's a great pen. I just don't know where it should be in relation to just Uniball's products, not even comparing it to the competition. Right? Like, I can't even figure out where it belongs in Uniball's lineup, much less compared to, like, any Pilot or Pentel or Zebra. So anyway, like, it's a great pen. And I don't have any interest in until I see what they do next with it. But that said, I do have one of the Fancy Pants models coming from my friend Jacob in Japan from Tokyo Inklings Podcast.
• That's the hot stuff over there in Japan, like, the $28-ish Zento model.
• Hard to get. This is back in the Kuretoga Dive territory of hotness, apparently. Except this has less.
• I don't know. Less. This is a more normal pen. Way more normal pen than the Kuretoga Dive was a normal pencil. Kuretoga Dive was far, far from normal. This is very, very normal. So we'll see. We'll see what they think. Do you think with this product, with the Zento, I mean, I know it's like it's come up a few weeks now, right? I'm not sure in a row, but we've spoken about it on a bunch of episodes. Are we hoping, like, for more story than there actually is? Like, we want Uniball to have, like, a defined story, like a reason for every pen existing? Like, that's what we want. But, like, sometimes the reason is just, like, there isn't.
• It's just a thing someone from the product management team came up with. Yeah, I won't even ask for that much. Like, I always talk about story. Like, I actually want less story and more specs on this pen. I know for this one, that's a good point for this one. Yeah. Because there is just, like, a very basic thing that you're trying to get the answer for, and you just don't have it. And it's like, what is this pen? It's, like, not really a question that should be asked, but it is. Yeah, so one of the things in Uniball's recent past, so back in the day, 10 and 20 years ago, when they started rolling out their Super Ink technology, that was a huge marketing point for the ink, right? Like, it can't be, this was, you know, check washing, you know, fraudulent. You write your checks with this Signo gel ink, and it's permanent on your checks. It can't be washed, so you can't, you know, have fraudulent checks written. And now, I think most of their inks do have kind of some sort of permanence in there, but they don't ever mention it in the pens anymore, right? I literally, yesterday, took my sheet of writing that I did in the review, the Zento review. I did, like, a little couple of sentences with each pen, did a little block of ink. Like, yesterday, I didn't think about it, and yesterday, I just went and ran that sheet under the sink. I literally just turned on the sink full blast, stuck the sheet of paper under there. Because I don't know, like, are they, like, does this have any type of permanence? Because that's what they've leaned in on their marketing in the past, Super Ink technology, right? And they don't mention that with the One. They don't mention that with the Jetstream. Because the Jetstream had it in the past, the Signos had it in the past, the Super Ink technology. And you don't really get that type of marketing anymore. Are they leaning in? And they don't have to call it Super Ink. They could just say, hey, this is archival or lightfast or waterproof. And you don't really get that clarity.
• But to answer the question about the waterproofness at a minimum, they were all waterproof. They didn't run at all, right? So... It's weird to not mention that. I just want more specs. I just... Yeah. Actually, I'll never ask for less story. But I think this time I'm asking for less story and more nerd specs on this ink formulation is what I want. Seems like maybe what they actually have on their hands is a bit, like, of assuming that the customers will just know more about their products than there is actually a reason for them to know. Like, they should be mentioning that these inks don't run underwater. Like, that's just, like, a good selling point. Just because all of your pens do this doesn't mean you shouldn't mention it. Right. Right. So, yeah. That's fascinating to me that they have this, like, great feature and they're just like, nah, don't worry about it. Maybe you'll find out as an accident. Yeah. I'm pretty sure I'll have to go back and look at the Ones marketing. I don't think they mentioned it in there either. But I'll have to go back and check because it's actually out of their, like, communications now. Like, you don't see Super Ink, like, TM, you know, propped up in any of their communications. And Super Ink meant that it was, like, water resistant. Yeah. Archival, light fast. Like, it was, they don't say permanent, right? But it's basically going to last forever and not be able to be washed or be able to be faded. Yeah. It's not permanent in the way you think about permanent ink. It's not what a show is doing. Right. Exactly. But I, my gut tells me that it's almost like the default now. Like, just whatever the base, like, it's just like, it's such a standard that it goes without mention now. Which is actually how I feel about it. So, it's interesting. It's interesting to me. So, another quick thoughts on a product that we've been talking about for months that I've been using for about a month now. And I just wanted to give my feedback on it because I don't know if I'm going to do, like, an actual review on the blog. But I've been using the Bennu Pixie for a while. And I say I may or may not do a review because Kimberly's done a review on the blog. And I think both Jeff and Sarah, I've each sent them a Bennu Pixie. So, we don't necessarily need four Pixie reviews. But we do do multiple reviews because we all have different tastes in pens, right? That's kind of like a feature of doing multiple reviews. We all have different thoughts and feelings. And I actually wanted to go last on this because I'm the pocket pen fan and I love Bennu. I think pretty much everyone on the staff likes Bennu, I think. But not everyone likes pocket-sized pens. And the Pixie, which we talked about, it launched back in March and April time frame.

Review of a specific pocket pen design

• I was very interested in this because I like pocket pens. But the shape in the pictures, like, it looked interesting in that I didn't know if the wide middle of the cap would get in the way of handwriting. So, having this in hand and using it for a month, I actually very much enjoy using it. But like the Zento, I don't know where this would land in my, like, favorite pocket pens type of category, right? It's interesting because there's not a lot of, there's shockingly not a lot of competition in this price point. It's not exactly super cheap, like a Kaweco Sport, which we're going to talk about in a minute and compare them. Because I think that's the real, that's the leader in the clubhouse as far as pocket pens goes.
• But it's perfectly Bennu in its style, shape, and design, right? So, I give them a ton of credit for that. Like, this is a Bennu pen. You look at this and you go, that's a Bennu. Why is it so tiny? It's like, oh, yeah, they made one called the Pixie. Great name as well. I think it's a little less comfortable than the Sport, but it's not uncomfortable.
• The width of the cap when it's posted, I can't use it unposted. It's too short, right? It kind of stabs into your hand when it's unposted. Like, if I was writing, like, one sentence, I could deal with it. But if I'm just writing, like, notes as we're talking, like, it's going to be posted.
• It's great. It's lightweight. I think I prefer the Kaweco Sports more.
• But I can't totally define that. It's just kind of a feel thing just from the size of the cap. It's truly mad to me looking at Kimberly's images to see how much smaller it is than a Kaweco Sport. Like, when the Kaweco Sport, to me, already feels about as small as I could use. And that, like, there is a pen that is actually smaller is wild. Yeah. Spoiler alert. I've already recorded next week's episode, Myke. And the conversation around the Kaweco Sport came up with our guests. I'll keep that secret for now. But I proposed that Kaweco, as a brand, is a love-hate. There's, like, not a – Kaweco is not a middle ground brand, right? Because, like, 90% of their pens are small and pocketable. And that's just not a category some people are going to use. So, therefore, Kaweco is immediately dismissed. And then you come in with this Bennu, and you look at it compared to the unposted Kaweco Sport, and it's, like, almost an inch shorter from the jump. Like, you just can't use this unposted, I feel. But posted, it's great. Like, I – my gut tells me that this is going to do really well for Bennu. But from my perspective, like, I'm good. Like, I like this one that I have. I'll probably keep buying Kaweco Sports, if that makes sense, right? It just fits me a little bit better.
• I have one that's only available at Bennu. It's part of the – oh, gosh, what's it called? Magenta Madness set. It's so beautiful. I love the look of this pen. Like, I'm going to use it forever just because it looks cool. But I think the Sport is a better mini pen. And the thing is – the other thing about this pen is I say it's relatively expensive.
• So, like, the standard colors, like, if you could just get, like, a simple black, blue – I think there's a brown one. Those are, like, $50-something. And then, like, the colorful ones, like I have, get up into, like, the 70s, 75, 79. I can't remember which. And, like, that's a pretty big ask when you have the Kaweco Sport to compare it to. Even the Kaweco Aluminum and Brass Sports, they're a little bit more expensive. But they're a very, very different pen for a similar price. Then you have, like, the Twisby Mini is, like, $54. And that's a piston filler. That's fine. The Kaweco Lilliput Aluminum, which I actually think is too thin of a pen for most people, that's $58. It's a weird price point.
• But I don't know. I think it's going to do well because it was something fun and different from Bennu. But, like, I'm of mixed – I'm not of mixed feelings of what it is. I'm mixed feelings of how much I'm personally going to use it versus some of the other choices that I have. Like, I think on its own in a vacuum, it's a really good and fun pen, and it's going to do well. So, anyway, my thoughts on the Pixie. We'll see. I might review it. I might not. But, like, when I don't review things, I like to talk about them here on the show just so we can kind of – I like being on record about things and products and stuff like that. And speaking of products, Myke, where can we find the Bennu Pixie amongst other pairs? Oh, he's a pro. Stand back, everyone. Brad's a pro. Go to Penn Chalet. Penn Chalet because they have the Bennu Pixie. There's a link in the show notes for it if you want to look, but that's not all they have. They have products from all of your favorite brands. They're adding new products every week. There's new stuff showing up on Penn Chalet, and they have the best prices around. They have fantastic deals on products that are there in closeout, but also just great deals and new stuff too. Penn Chalet are fast and reliable customer service, and they do free shipping on orders of over $75 in the United States. They sell internationally with great shipping rates. They offer low prices on high-quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Brad, I nearly said they have high prices on low-quality pens, which is absolutely not what's going on at Penn Chalet. They have the best stuff at the best prices. They have fountain pens. They have ballpoints and mechanical pencils, but they also have everything else. Whether you want to grab yourself a new rollerball, whether you want to get yourself a bottle of ink or a pen converter or a carrying case, no matter what it is, go to penshalet.com slash penaddict. You can see some exclusive offers for listeners of this show and see how you can save 10% on anything at Penn Chalet. What have we got, Brad?
• I can't vouch for this pen because I haven't used it, but the price and style I'm seeing for this Schaefer VFM fountain pen, which looks like probably one of their entry-level pens, it looks like a really nice pen for very little money as someone might be getting started in this hobby or wants to try a fountain pen for the first time. This looks good. It looks like it's – I don't know. Like I said, I can't vouch for it, but I'm actually really surprised at the style and the price of what this is. They have some of my favorite other pens from Y Studio, the Brassing Portable Ballpoint, which I really like. That's just a cool, fun ballpoint-type pen that I do use regularly. Then they have some of the entry-level Pelicans. We might be getting ready for back-to-school. It's not really back-to-school time. We've got like another month before we start seeing those ads. But, you know, if you're wanting to get your kids into writing, they have the Pelican Twist and the Pelican Pelicano. Those I can vouch for. Those are super high-quality, super fun, super functional fountain pens. Like I say, they're for beginners, but I would use this every day. I've used the Pelican Twist a lot, and it's one of those pens. You pick it up, it just makes you smile. It is – it does have an aggressive molded grip section more so than like a Lamy Safari. So if you don't like that, you can look at the Pelicano, which is kind of the more traditional – I think the Pelicano was more of the school pen style. It's been upgraded and kind of jazzed up a little bit in the barrel. But they're such good pens for such low prices. And then you can just, you know, once you get the Pelican and the Pelicano – I mean the Pelicano and the Twist, you know, on lockdown and you enjoy those pens, well, you can just move right up into the Pelican 200, which they have for a really great price. One of the classic black and gold with green ink windows there. over at penchalet.com, and that's just a fraction of what we have listed on our page. Pelicano is never not funny to me.
• Yeah? Why? Pelican Pelicano. It's just funny. Yeah. Oh, it's just funny. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's awesome. It's like I made a new pen. It's called the Brad Bradio, you know? Like, it's funny. This is something I would totally do. Like, if I'm in the marketing meeting, oh, it's the Pelicano. And everyone would go, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Well. And then we go, like, then no one else has a better idea. And you know what? We sit on that for a minute. And you know what? It's called the Pelicano now. Let's go. I look forward to the Spokespokio. Yeah. We'll get right on that. Coming someday soon, I think, is based on what you're saying. Yeah, exactly. So, we'll get right on that.
• Thanks to our friends at Penchalet. You should go to penchalet.com slash penaddict. Thanks to Penchalet for supporting this show and Relay. I have another new old pen I want to talk about. Okay. And this is one of those pens that only I talk about because it's kind of, like, lives in the Japanese market and only pokes its head out every few years. And I'm talking about the Pilot Timeline. So, this is a pen. It's got to be close to 20 years old as far as, like, introduction, like, the style of it. And they keep every few years, they'll do something new and interesting with the materials. And this one came about, people know I like this pen. So, they sent me this link from Pilot Corp on, which is the Japanese mothership account over on Instagram.
• And what they've done, it cracks me up because the timeline is great. So, it's this, let me explain what that is first for those who don't know. And click this link to go. And we'll have a few links in there so you can see what this pen is about. But it's basically a shorter ballpoint pen that has a twist mechanism. But the twist mechanism is a two-stage mechanism to where the nose cone of the pen fully retracts into the barrel.
• So, when you're... That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So, when you're... When it's... The pen is stored, you just see the barrel and the grip. Okay? And then you see on the front end, like, tucked away is the nose cone. So, your first twist engages the nose cone. And then your second twist, in the same direction, engages the refill. So, it's like a two-phase. And then backwards is the same way. You reverse it. The tip, the refill goes into the nose cone. And then the nose cone goes back into the grip section. It's just cool. Like, I think it's cool. It's never really took off because it must be kind of expensive to make. There's a really neat, interesting mechanism if you look in there. Like, this is a $38 pen, I think I wrote down. And I've actually paid more. I think the one that I have in my hands right now went and got mine. So, I have an all-black model with a wood grain barrel. This was like a Japanese exclusive. I think I paid like $70-something for mine. But these are $38. And what made me laugh about these pens is because Pilot cannot get rid of this acrylic marble that they started using a few years ago. Oh, my God. That's hilarious. The way you say that is very funny. I just thought it's like, oh, because you have another link which you had to talk about. I thought you were saying it's like, oh, they're just like, they're doing it again. But no, you think they're just like, they had a bunch of this stuff. Yeah. So, they've made full barrels of, it's five colors. It's always the same five colors. They did a full series of Custom Heritage SE, which is like a, like a 91, like a Pilot 91, I think. Or is it like a, so the Custom Heritage SE marbled is, you know, one of the pens that they made. That one came out first. And then, like a year later, they did a whole Vanishing Point lineup using the exact same marble.
• And now, they put up this link and I saw those grip sections. And I was like, oh, my gosh. They're using the exact same colors. And I went and checked. And they are the same five colors. So, they must have so much of this material they don't know what to do with at this point. I'll say I'm glad they did it in the timeline because it looks really good. Like nothing against this marble. All of them are really, really great. They just charge, they just charge a pretty good premium, you know, on the barrels, on the fountain pen barrels. Like this is some kind of limited edition, you know, marble acrylic material. And then, it just keeps showing up in other places. And I just got a huge kick out of that as someone who follows all this stuff. I was like, is that the, and I'm like, yep, it's the exact same stuff. So, anyway, this pen looks great. If you're interested in this pen, just one, not even a caveat. But this is kind of in the Lamy ballpoint category where this is a proprietary-ish refill. So, this uses something called the BRFN-30F-L refill from Pilot. Can you repeat that back to me, Myke? L. Yeah. So, it's basically the BRFN-30. It's a short ballpoint ink cartridge. Standard ballpoint ink. This is, again, I would love it if they would use the Acroball formulation for this. This is a standard- Big refill for nice lines.
• Okay. Nice. Nice.
• It's a good standard ballpoint, right? So, it doesn't skip. It doesn't have, like, any white space in the lines. Like, it's just nice and smooth. Classic blue ink ballpoint is what I use. So, know that if you're going into this. And there's not a lot of refill. You can't really swap this out because of the design of this pen. One note, and this will go to literally one person listening to this show will know what I'm about to say. But there's a classic Pilot pen that I've always loved called the Pilot Explorer. So, I was mad when they made the Explorer fountain pen because they stole the name of this old rollerball pen that they used to have.
• And those refills are long gone for those. Like, if you have a barrel for those, you can't find a refill. This refill fits that one. Fits that pen. I've always said I was going to do a post on that. But, like, literally no one cares because you can't get the barrels anymore.
• But you can find a Pilot Explorer review on the blog. And people have, like, a fascination with that pen from their childhood for good reason. It's just a very cool and unique pen. This refill fits the Pilot Explorer if you need to resuscitate one of those pens. So, there you go. For the one person who actually has one of those pens laying around. But it's one of those core pens of my youth. So, yeah. There you go. Pilot Timeline Marbled.
• I'm interested in this pen, like, you know, for people to check out. It's not cheap, which is why it'll never be as popular as, you know, like the Zento. Or even, like, the premium Zento is going to outsell this one, like, a hundredfold. But it's just a great pen and super fun and super functional. And I like the mechanism.
• Is it going to be a top five? No.
• Okay.

Updating the top five pens list and its criteria

• And I can confidently say that because I've been thinking about it's time for a top five pens update. So, I have this top five pens page at penaddict.com. And it's time for an update. Like, the entire page needs to be updated. It's been two and three years since the categories have been updated. And it always takes a decent amount of time just because I have to think about it a lot and figure out what's changed, what hasn't changed but might move around, what's, you know, what is really standing the test of time. And this has been a good long-term project. I can't even remember when I first launched this page. I could probably archive.org it. Yeah. Yeah. But it's not as frequently updated these days because there's not a lot of change. But after a couple of years, like, there's things that need to go in there. So, I'm going to start looking into this and give myself a goal of a full-page refresh by the end of 2025. Okay. Like, this takes some time for me to do just because I want to, I have to think about how things compare and what am I missing? You know, what goes on the list, what comes off the list, what moves up, what moves down and what new stuff has happened since I previously wrote this. So, the first two categories I want to touch are the top five micro gel ink pens and the top five fountain pens for beginners. So, let's talk about the micro gel ink pens first. I'm starting to wonder if I should change the category name into the top five micro tip pens.
• And that might be leaning, that might be pushing it a little too far to what I want and then to what this page exists. This page exists for recommendations, right? This is more of a universal guideline, not Brad's favorite pens. This is not Brad's favorite pens page. This is what I would recommend to you in this category if you were going out shopping today.
• And I, I'm wondering about changing the name because a pen for one pen and one pen only, and this is a personal mission that I'm on and it's the, the jet stream 0.38 light touch. So, that pen has come out clearly since, you know, I've updated this.
• That pen would not have a place in my current categories. Um, it's not a micro gel ink pen. And for standard pens, the other standard pen category I use is top five pens in the store. So, the jet stream does go on that list. And what I mean is that's like, if you go down to the grocery store or to the office supply store and, you know, up there on the wall on the peg is this pack of pens, which one is a good one? The jet stream lives there, right? But that's a 0.7 millimeter pen that I'm recommending there. And it's the standard jet stream because the light touch doesn't exist there in that category yet. But the 0.38 millimeter light touch is one of my favorite pens going right now. And I think it deserves like a mention in this micro tip category. So, I'm thinking about doing that. Plus, I think there's definitely some, some movement on this list because the Uniball 1 is not in there on this list. And I think that's probably, um, an option for this list. It wouldn't be near the top. I think there's still some inconsistencies with the Uniball 1. But right now, the micro gel ink pen list 1 through 5 is the Uniball Signo DX 0.38, Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.4, Pilot Juice Up 0.4, Uniball Signo RT 1 0.38, and Pentel Energel Cleaner 0.3 or 0.4.
• I think one of the things I try to do with these lists, accessibility is a key, right? Even if it's only available online because it's imported, you know, like for the DX for a while was not in the US. It wasn't in, in Europe. It was just basically a Japanese only pen, but now they've kind of like spread it worldwide. Right. So, I like, I also want to have access to these products. So, um, like the Energel Cleaner, like it's not very accessible. And that's always one of the challenges I've had with that one because it's such a good refill, but they've, it's just kind of static and they've really never done anything with it. So like something like the Uniball 1, I need to think about putting on that list. Does the Jetstream Light Touch need a home? I think it does. I think it's as good as like the Pilot Juice Up or the Signo RT 1, right? Maybe it's not a Sarasa Clip or a Signo DX, but like, I don't know where else I would put it because there's not a category for that. So anyway, those are the type of things I'm thinking about for that. And the other, the other category is probably the single most popular category is the top five fountain pens for beginners, because we always have new people coming in and almost all, well, I'm not even gonna say almost literally all of these pens are great for experienced users too, right? These are fantastic freaking pens. They just happen to be at a price point. That's more, um, attainable for a beginner, right? They're willing to spend, you know, five to $20 on a pen, not, you know, a hundred to $250 on a pen, right? So, but we all know these pens and love a lot of these pens, no matter how many expensive pens we have.
• There's a little maybe change in here, but this is a category where I could sit here today and say, there's not a lot of new options I want to have. One thing I do on here is I'm not putting, I'm putting in also pens that I believe have, if you're buying these from a retailer, you're going to have a good like support, good, um,
• um, customer service. Like if you have an issue, like, especially for beginners, right? So like, I'm not going to put necessarily like a lot of Jen house or, or moon men's or some of the, you know, cheaper, good quality pens that you might just mostly buy off of Amazon, which I literally nothing wrong with that. Like I have a, like some that I really, really enjoy, but I'm generally going to put like big company, widely supported, um, good customer service options, types of pens. So you're going to get your Platinums, your Pilots, your Kawekos, things of that nature on here. So I don't know what changes on this list, right? I think I might be leaning towards, you know, there's like the Platinum Prefonte is, is a great addition. So right now I should say it's Platinum Preppy is number one, Pilot Metropolitan, number two, Cocoon, Pilot Cocoon, number three, Kaweko Perchio, number four, Faber-Castell Grip, number five. I really think the Metropolitan has fallen off some. It's, it's, it's gone up probably $10 since I've had it on this list. Maybe it stays on the list, but not at number two. I think that it's probably like Platinum Preppy one, Pilot Cocoon 2, and then everything else. Kaweko Perchio, the Platinum Prefonte is not on this list. That's a great pen. Um, I might bring back like the Kaweko Classic Sport. That's just a, that's a challenging one.
• Um, for a beginner because it's just a different shape as much as I love it. It's maybe not first fountain pen friendly being the smaller pen. I don't know. So yeah, those are the two that I'm looking at. Um, I think there's some change in the, in the micro tip category. I don't know that there's a lot of change in the beginners. Maybe a little reorganization. Like I think the Pilot Metropolitan might just fall off this list because I think maybe the Explorer is better, even though it's the same price. I don't know. The Metropolitan's a weird pen. It answers a lot of questions for beginners, right? It feels, it's, it's, it's like a dictionary definition fountain pen. Um, so I don't know. Maybe it stays on the list, but we'll see. So those are the things I'm thinking about. And the point I'm bringing this up is if y'all have any feedback or want me to consider some things or you need, Brad, you need to look at this a little bit more, you know, send me an email. Hello at penatic.com. Um, and, uh, I'd be happy to take a look because again, as I go through this, um, there's very few categories that's going to have wholesale change, right? Like I think we're in a pretty good place on the list, but it does need some freshening up and some new pens need to be listed in there.
• My, um, request to you when you refresh this page, uh, each category should have an image of all five pens. Okay. Yeah. I think that'd be nice. I think it would help break up the page a little bit. Totally. Maybe a bit more readable, maybe easier for people to be able to like scan it and see what they're looking for. True. Because, um, yeah, the visuals do matter. Like if you put the pilot metropolitan next to the Kaweco sport and you've never heard of either, you're going to have an instant reaction. Yeah. Right. To either love, hate, love both, hate both, something like that. So I think that's good information.
• If you would like to send in feedback about this episode, it's very easy. You can also send in your questions. We'll hit out some mass TPA in a couple of weeks. So as Brad mentioned, uh, next week is going to be a guest episode because Brad is traveling. So very, I'm very thankful that he recorded in advance and said, it'll be a fun interview. So we will be back the week after that. Uh, but you can always send in your feedback, follow up and questions by going to penaddictfeedback.com. And there's a link in the show notes. If you want those show notes, they should be in your podcast app of choice. It's where we put links to the products and things discussed in this episode, but you can also go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 670 for today's show. Uh, talking of today's show, thank you to Squarespace and Penn Chalet for their support of this episode. If you'd like to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com, any streams at twitch.tv slash penaddict. Uh, I have a blog now, uh, that people can go and find it, theenthusiast.net. The enthusiast, I'm still like struggling to say it out loud, like in a way that is clear. Um, I learned this from psychic notepad, which people think I say instead of psychic notepad. Nice. Hey, I have a hard time saying Brad sometimes. Yeah. Broad, broad daddy. Broad. If you want to find him. Uh, yeah, you can also find us on social media too. We're there. It's too hard now. You'll find us. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, broad. Goodbye, broad.