The Pen Addict 160/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	160
Title:	Let's Keep Being Addicts
Release Date:	June 22nd, 2015
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 160
Audio File:	Audio Episode 160
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 160
Length:	6060 min <br />1 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 160. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, great deals on high-quality pens with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, and Harry's, an exceptional shave at a fraction of the price. The Pen Addict is a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools that you love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley, and I'm joined by the Prince of Penmanship, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Michael: Oh man, I wanted to get, you know, not one person mentioned that last week. I know. After a follow-up. It's probably because you made everybody so mad last week, Michael, what did you do?

Myke Hurley: It wasn't even me, it was so you.

Moleskins

Myke Hurley: I don't know why I just went along with you. Let's talk about Moleskins. Let's talk about Moleskins. I want to just run over this again. Alright. I think that we did a really bad job talking about this last week.

Myke Hurley: And I think fundamentally what it comes down to, at least me, I'm not saying there's anything specifically wrong with Moleskins. I just don't think they are good enough to have gotten the amount of success that they've received. Because Rodia make a pad that is exactly the same in format and it's way better paper. Right. And many people criticized me. And I actually want to take a moment to talk about this because I was actually pretty annoyed about this. So I'm going to address this. Many people criticized me for field notes and said it was because they were a sponsor. That their paper isn't good enough for fountain pens. And they were saying to me that, quite a few people say this, you obviously were going that route because they're a sponsor. If you have listened to the last two years, at least, you would know that I only use field notes. And how much I have loved them. They have been a sponsor two times out of 160 episodes. And you can go back far. You'll go back far enough. You'll hear that I use Moleskins. And then you will find out that I switched to field notes and never look back. And the paper isn't perfect for everyone for fountain pens. But I use fountain pens in my field notes all the time. Because it works well enough for me. And even the non-really thick paper. I use fountain pens at work. And I used to take notebooks. I used to take my notes with my fountain pens in my field notes notebooks. So, look, I don't sell out. We don't sell out. That is not what we do. And we never would take advertising that would mean we had to change the content in any of the shows. Field notes were a perfect fit for an advertisement because we loved their products. And we would have spent two weeks talking about them. And instead, we just did it with a wraparound and an offer. That was all it was. And it annoys me that anybody that's listened to this show would think that my opinion was swayed because their response. So, it really upset me. That's how I feel about that.

Michael: Yeah. So, I see why. And let me take you off the hook. Because it was my fault that I did not clarify exactly what I was talking about when I say Moleskine. And so much so that I even wrote a blog post saying, let me clarify. Because we're getting lots of rage pointed at us. And I did a bad job on the podcast not clarifying. When I say Moleskine, I'm talking about one specific product. And that's the 8 1⁄4 inch by 5 inch hardbound black journal that you see everywhere. That's it. That's the only Moleskine product I'm talking about. So, the field notes are actually not even in this conversation. And they shouldn't be. Because they don't fit the scope of what I was talking about. Although, I did a bad job of not mentioning that on the last show. So, your feedback is well taken. It's not relevant to the discussion. In what I'm talking about, a Moleskine. And that's the product that I'm talking about. The 8 by 5 journal that you see everywhere. That the press is latched onto. That, you know, everyone thinks is the cool hip thing. And we've all used Moleskines. That's like the gateway drug for the people who listen to this podcast, right? There's so many people that... I started my blog writing in a Moleskine reporter journal. The flip up reporter. We've all used Moleskines. We've all been enlightened over the years, hopefully, that there's other things out there that are just as good, if not better, and suit our needs better. And I'm happy that so many people like Moleskines if you're happy with the product. If it fits you, and the type of writing you do, and the type of pens you do, that's all you ever need. You have to find that thing that's perfect for you. And Moleskines are not perfect for me. They're not perfect for the type of pens I use. They're not perfect for the type of writing I do.

Michael: And they're just not a good fit for me because there are other things that are fit better. And I think probably most people that listen to the show saw my post last week, but we'll have it in the show notes. And everyone can take a look at that. And disagreement is good. I finished off my post. You know, let me read the last little bit. And, you know, a bunch of people mentioned this. It says, I just ask that you keep in mind one thing when reading this blog or listening to the podcast. You don't have to agree with everything I say. And you shouldn't. Disagreement is good and healthy. We all have specific needs that we're trying to solve for. And within that journey lies the fun. I'll keep having opinions. And you should, too. I'm huge on having opinions. I don't like wishy-washiness. I don't like... I mean, there's obviously cases. Well, okay. Sometimes it's mediocre. And sometimes it's good and bad. Whatever. In general, though, I prefer a solid opinion. My opinion is that the Moleskine Classic Journal is so far down the list of quality products in that range, it's not even funny. There are good Moleskine products, though. One of the best Moleskine products, just so people don't think I'm just, like, totally killing Moleskine for no reason, their sketchbooks are fantastic. The ones that are actually sold as the sketchbook. I had some listeners remind me of that. And that's true. The problem is, I didn't do a good job of clarifying what I was talking about last week. That it was the one hardbound black journal that we all see. You know, a lot of people love the kai-es, the small ones, the small pocket journals. That's where your field notes and Doan and Knock and all these other things come in. Except that wasn't what I was framing the conversation around either. So, whether you use those or not really wasn't part of the conversation. So, I'm sorry for doing a bad job of framing my conversation last week. That doesn't change what I think about Moleskine in general and the marketing around it. But I'm really not a fan of the one specific journal that everyone seems to latch onto with the Moleskine. And then that's where I think most people would be served by doing a little research and seeing what else is out there. But, if you use Moleskine, if you use this classic journal, and it's hardbound, and it's blank, you know, and it's perfect for you. And, you know, you have the perfect, you know, ballpoint pen that you're sketching it with. Amen. That is awesome. I am stoked that that's a perfect fit for you. It's not a perfect fit for me. And I'm glad that we can have this conversation and disagreements.

Michael: But I need to, I did a bad job last week of kind of... Having too broad of a conversation and not being more specific in what I was really railing on. And I got off the rails and just bagging on Moleskine hard. And they do make good products. I love their pens. As a matter of fact, they make great pens.

Michael: So, it's not everything that Moleskine touches. It's some general, some specific items that I feel are super, super poor in relation to what's available on the market. And we're, if you're listening to this podcast, you're in a fortunate place where you've probably... You're able to do some of the research and find other things that, you know, might better fit you for that specific thing. But most people don't listen to this podcast. Let's face it. It's unfortunate. You know, they have a hole in their lives because of that. I'm sure. But, you know, they're going to keep using their Moleskines. And that's A-OK by me.

Myke Hurley: I, yeah, as I said, I think we just did a bad job. I think we got carried away and went down the wrong path. But my overall feeling is basically I don't understand why that product became as popular as it did. I don't think it warrants the popularity that it has. When there are other very similar products that are of a higher quality in my opinion.

Michael: I was more ticked off at the article and the way the article was presented than I'm ticked off with the Moleskine itself. You know, the article held it up as this standard, you know, as this perfection. And that's what all these people use because of the all these, you know, famous people that used to use it. And I just make that when I hear that every in every Moleskine article, it makes me want to vomit. It's lazy. It's lazy writing.

Myke Hurley: Because they're just regurgitating the marketing that's in the back of every thing in my cheek.

Michael: So that's honestly what got me ticked off last week. Not necessarily the product itself, but the framework that the article was around. And just hearing this regurgitation of crap, it really frustrated me. Then I took my frustrations out on the Moleskine itself. But I do not like, I'll be clear, it's one specific journal I don't like. And that's because there's better options.

Myke Hurley: So anyway, time to move on again. Anyway, we don't ever want to upset anyone or offend anyone for their choices. So we both apologize for that if you felt offended or upset due to anything from last week's episode.

Michael: I got called names, Michael.

Myke Hurley: I got called names. Yeah, so did I. But, you know, that's what happens. We should have watched our words a little bit better.

Michael: Yeah, I let it get out of control a little bit. And that's my own fault. And I apologize for that.

Myke Hurley: Just the only thing, again, that I will not accept is being called a sellout. I will not accept that. I will not accept that.

Michael: Well, it's a flat out lie. But what happens is when you get called that from... It doesn't matter who calls you that when. Even if it's coming from a point where they don't know the entire story. But it's still out there. And once people read something, they think it's true. No matter whether it's true or how much insight they have into the whole process. So, yeah, you do hate to hear that. And anyone who really listens to the show knows that is absolutely not the case. Anyone who reads my blog knows that I'm a sellout to no one. And that's the way it's always going to be. So, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Let's take a break here so everyone can calm down. Because we can be happy about our first sponsor. And then we can continue with the rest of the episode. What do you think?

Michael: Yeah, that sounds good.

Myke Hurley: This week's episode is brought to you by our friends over at Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have all of their favorite brands like Pelican, Monteverde, Pilot, Lami, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco as well. They are an authorized dealer of all of them. They're always adding new styles of pens. Every single month they've got new stuff adding. And a couple of times a month they have closeout specials as well to get rid of some of their old stock as well. They're always putting new things through their site. As well as all of these brands and these pen types that they have, they also sell a bunch of carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pens, converters. Basically everything you need to help kit out the new stuff that you have been buying.

Myke Hurley: They're very reliable, very fast customer service. This is something that means so much to the guys and girls over at Pen Chalet and it shows. Because, you know, they really care about this stuff. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee that's backing it up. They have low prices on high quality pens. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States. They also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates too. So, you want to head on over to PenChalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. And use the code PenAddict to save 10% on whatever you buy. You can get 10% on your order there. Or, what you should really be doing as always is clicking that podcast link at the top of the site and enter the code PenAddict for even more savings as well as your 10% off. This week's pen is the Platinum President fountain pen. It's available in black with a Rodian trim at 40% off plus the 10% coupon. So, it retails at $275. Once you get the 40% off, it takes you to $165. And then you're at $148.50 with that additional 10% off on top of that. It's an incredible deal. $275 down to $148 for the Platinum President. Thank you so much to Pen Chalet for sponsoring this week's episode of the Pen Addict.

Michael: Can I make a quick mention? Of course.

Michael: For all of our paper fans that we were just talking about all this paper, they carry tons of paper products like Field Notes and Rhodia and all these things like that. And getting 10% off paper products is generally a pretty big deal. Because paper's expensive. It's expensive to ship. You know, you should check out, you know, like when our sponsors like Pen Chalet have 10% off. When you're, you know, looking at great deals like they have for the pens, like the Platinum, which... And the... I still... I've said this a thousand times. The Kaweco Art Sports are down to $7290, which is a really good deal. So, look at what paper they have too. Because you rarely get, like, percentage off of paper products. And if you're getting 10% off everything in your cart, paper is actually a good place to apply these types of 10% off things. So, that's something to keep in mind. It's something we never talk about. And, you know, I'm learning more about paper as I go along as far as, like, shipping it and making it. It's not cheap. So, when you can get anything off, any discount on paper products, that's generally pretty good. So, keep that in mind. And thanks, Pen Chalet.

Myke Hurley: Awesome.

Vanishing Points

Michael: All right. Let's get to some new stuff and lighten up the mood a little bit here, Michael. So, we got some new vanishing points that came out. I've just noticed them being talked about in the past few weeks. Did you know that they came out with bamboo models?

Myke Hurley: I had no idea. I haven't seen these at all.

Michael: Yeah. I just saw them, like, a few weeks ago. Then people have already started buying them and getting them in. Yeah. Getting them in. And they're really nice looking. And, you know, they did that last year. They did the limited edition with the, I don't know if it was white maple with the gold trim. It was, like, a $500 and something vanishing point because I think they only made $500 or $1,000 of them. And now they just have, like, a stock bamboo barrel pin. It's a, there's a black one and then there's kind of a burgundy, is it called, cherry. Cherry bamboo and black bamboo are the two barrel colors. The black looks spectacular. It's not something I'm necessarily interested in purchasing because I think they're a lot of they're, like, $288, $200. They're over $250. I don't know the exact price. We'll have some links in the show notes. You can check them out. But I know some people have already started ordering them and getting them reviewed and things like that. And they're really pretty. I don't know that it's for me because I already have three vanishing points. I don't necessarily need the full range of vanishing points. But that's pretty cool. But what I do need that's also come out this past week is the pilot vanishing point stub nib replacement unit. So I guess you can order these as a stock item. But the Goulais did a video of this new nib last week. And I'll definitely be ordering a new nib unit for one of my vanishing points. I keep... I think I have one extra nib unit right now between my three vanishing points. And you can kind of rotate them. That's kind of what I like about the vanishing points. I have an extra fine, a fine, a medium, and then one broad that I had modified into a stub nib. So now I can actually buy a stock stub nib for a vanishing point, which is actually really good. I'm glad they did that because it's going to be fine. It's going to be something that I like as far as width goes. Pilot stubs. I think what Brian Goulais was saying was they're around like 1.0 millimeter or 1.1 millimeter, which is pretty good. I prefer like 0.9 would be kind of my sweet spot. But I can definitely deal with this. Would you be interested? You don't like the vanishing point anymore.

Myke Hurley: Do you even know what happened to mine?

Michael: You sold it to somebody, didn't you? No.

Myke Hurley: Or gave it to somebody? I sent it to Brookwicky.

Michael: Oh, okay.

Myke Hurley: Because he couldn't get one. Do you remember? Yeah. And I felt bad for him. And I was like, I have one at home that just sits there. So I cleaned it up and I sent it over to him.

Michael: That's right. Because he's getting something special done to that nib.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah?

Michael: Yeah. It's actually in Sean Newton's hands right now. Oh, interesting. He's getting something super tricky done with that nib. I haven't seen it yet. I think it's on its way back to Jeff right now. I think it's completed. So we'll see. I'll get the rundown on that and maybe we'll talk about it because it's something they were experimenting with. So we'll see. Interesting. Interesting.

Pen Gifting

Myke Hurley: But yeah, I decided I didn't really like the pen anymore and thought it deserved a good home.

Michael: But what if it was a vanishing point? All point.

Myke Hurley: It's like one of the most pointless products in the world.

Michael: How has no one sent me the link to these things? How long have these been out? And I mean, I guess it's pretty telling that no one sent me a link to this. That kind of tells you everything you need to know, right?

Myke Hurley: I didn't know. I thought you were going to tell me they were new.

Michael: I guess they are. They got to be new. But I certainly hadn't seen anyone saying, hey, look, this is new. You know, this is some new product. Like I was just when I was looking at the other the real new vanishing point fountain pens, I saw these ballpoints. I was like, what is this? It's a vanishing point with a ballpoint cartridge. That's something I don't get at all. I mean, I mean, if you want to spend $100 so you can have a vanishing point barrel with a ballpoint refill, I guess that's good. I mean, you know, I'm going to bag on it. Then I'm going to end up with one in here in a few months. Right. But I just don't see the money for that. But I'd be interested to know if anyone has one to see what the deal is and see what the ink refill looks like. And, you know, at first I thought it was just a rollerball pin and fit like the G2 cartridge.

Myke Hurley: But I guess that's I don't know if that would be too long or not. It seems like a really just it.

Myke Hurley: It's not even like. Oh, I just I don't understand this product. Like all ballpoint. Well, not all, but like, you know, any retractable ballpoint is like it vanishes. Like the point of the fountain pen is there are not a lot of ballpoints. A lot of fountain pens where you can get that. I don't understand why this was required.

Michael: Yeah. And I'm looking at the refill now and it's actually like a shorty type pilot specific refill for this ballpoint. So you can't even get like a good ballpoint refill like the Acroball in it. Um, it's just like the standard metal. I don't know. I almost look it's about the size of a Parker refill, if you will. It's shorter than, you know, a G2 or a juice or an Acroball, one of their standard refills. Um, yeah, I don't I don't get this product. I am. I'm with you on that. But I'd be anxious. You know what? I would love to see a review on this just out of curiosity to see what someone would think. But I think it's pretty telling that I'm getting all these links and tweets and say, hey, have you seen these, you know, bamboo vanishing points? And ooh, check out this vanishing point stub nib. Not one word ever about a vanishing point ballpoint. I think that says a lot, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it does. I can't imagine they sell all these things.

Anniversary Ink

Michael: Yeah, yeah. It's pretty tricky. It's pretty tricky. Um, this next one's pretty tricky. And this is going to be one where I'm going to have to, uh, eat my words on the new G Herbon.

Myke Hurley: G Herbon.

Michael: Anniversary ink. So the sparkly inks, right? So the gold, the, sorry, the gold, the, um, the stormy gray sparkly ink that came out last year that blew up the internet, right? Super popular. Everyone loved it. Except me. Well, I didn't love it either. I mean, it's completely fine. I just don't want all that sparkly glitter in my pen and have to worry about cleaning it out. And actually we came to find out come around the Atlanta pen show time that they actually changed the formulation to make it easier to clean all the sparkles and stuff out. But still I didn't. And then they added the sparkles into the previous two 1670 anniversary, um, the ocean blue and the rouge hematite. They added sparkles into what just used to be standard inks. So they had the red, the blue, and the gray. Now they've introduced the emerald of Chivor. I guess that's how you say it.

Myke Hurley: Chivor. I would go with.

Michael: Okay. Okay.

Myke Hurley: Because it seems like an Irish word.

Michael: It's actually a, it's an emerald. One of the, the Chivor mine was discovered in the middle of the 16th century by Spanish conquistadors, but it doesn't say where.

Myke Hurley: Oh yeah. It's probably like Chivor then.

Michael: Mm-hmm. So I'm going to have to get this ink.

Myke Hurley: Oh, how come?

Michael: These, it looks beautiful. I I'm into this color now. This is, this has been a hot color for the past six or eight months. Um, the Sailor Yamadori, um, the Kujaku Irojizuku ink, um, the Midnight Emerald, the new ink by Franklin Kristoff. Um, it's just this kind of greenish blue ink color that I've been enjoying a lot. The gold doesn't seem to be as rampant in the ink samples that they did, um, in the swabs that we'll have linked in the show notes, um, over on the blog at, uh, Gold Spot Pens. And this has, when you, when I see green and blue inks have a red sheen, that like makes me go, ooh, ah, that's a super fascinating thing to me. I really liked that look on the page more so than the stormy gray when it came out because it really didn't have any shading or sheen variations into it. It was a gray ink with sparkles in it. This ink is all over the color spectrum when it's on the page. And I'd like to see more of this ink. This one's actually going to be, uh, I have a feeling that this one is going to be the most popular of them all. Um, maybe because of a new shiny, but I think the color is better for more people. And if they've managed the formulation correctly now that they've been doing all these other, their previous inks in a better formulation with the gold flex, um, I think it's worth a shot and I'm going to be hunting one of these bottles down and I think it's going to be super popular and I think we will see it all over the blogosphere. But, um, I, I, I'm in on this one. I got to admit I'm, I'm in. So we'll see it. Uh, yeah, I may fail miserably once I get it, but, uh, I'm in for now. I think it comes out in August. I think that's the release date. And as with all their, their limited inks, well, they've kind of stopped making them limited. They're always hard to get up front. The first push of them. And then once the restocks come, they're generally pretty easy to get. So if you don't get one right out the gate, they'll, they'll be around. No worries there.

Michael: All right. So we've got a new, uh, pin blog of the week this week, Michael. It is on fountain pens, which is a Maybelline Tan's blog. She's been a listener and reader for a while. And I'm surprised I haven't linked to her before because she does really good. Um, she has a really good blog, does lots of posts, does lots of reviews, does giveaways. And one of the things I noticed when I was looking at her blog last night, getting ready for this, you know, I reviewed a, uh, Statler fountain pen today and on pen addict. And she had taken pictures recently of a Statler limited edition, um, that was made for, it's the exact same model that I reviewed on the blog, except it's got this really great, uh, paint job. It's called SG 50 floor and fauna. They only made 98 of them. It's super pretty. It's on her blog. It's on the front page. You can scroll down a little bit. Um, this is a really, I was really impressed with the pen itself and looking at this one on her blog makes me wonder if, uh, Statler's going to really make a push in the fountain pens. And I think they have a good enough product, uh, to where they can, can kind of do it. They're trying to make a little bit of a higher end pen, you know, not totally off the chain. It's like, um, you know, super high end Mont Blancs, but like, you know, several hundred dollar and nice pens. And I was pleased with the one I got in this one in her blog review. Um, that's a special edition for, uh, Singapore is, uh, it's really nice. So check out, uh, check out her blog. She's got lots of reviews, um, lots of great pictures, lots of great posts. So, um, yeah, there you have it on fountain pens.

Myke Hurley: Nice pick.

Michael: Yes. I like it. I like it. All right. So we've got plenty more to get to. So let's talk about another one of our friends here real quick before we, before we push forth.

Myke Hurley: This episode is also brought to you by Harry's for many of us. Shaving can be uncomfortable. It can cause nicks, cuts, scrapes, and razor burns. And it can be super expensive too. You know, it hurts the face. It hurts your skin. It also hurts your wallet. You know, nobody, nobody wants that. And this is what Harry's is here to do. Harry's is all about creating a better product without having to pay an arm and a leg to get it. Harry's make their own blades. They work with and own a high quality, high performing German factory. They're blades that are being crafted by shaving experts who've been doing this for years and years and years. And this enables Harry's to have really great razors with their blades being at great cost. For example, on average, an everyday shaver could save $150 each year on blades. Using Harry's. That's the kind of savings that you can expect to see if you shave every day. And shaving every day is much, much better if you're replacing the blades. Because then it's much smoother. You know, if you're replacing the blades more often, then you get a smoother and better shave. Harry's razors. They are high quality for about half the price of other big brand blades. They're going to ship for free right to your front doorstep. You don't get that anywhere else. And they have a great starter set, which you can get for just $15. It's going to get you one of their razors. Moisturizing shave cream or foaming shave gel. And three razor blades, which is an absolutely fantastic deal. If you're a first time customer, in a moment I can tell you how you can get that for just $10. With Harry's, your satisfaction is super important to them. So much so that they guarantee it. Mr. Brad Dowdy, you are a Harry's customer. Could you tell me about some of the stuff that you like for your Harry's products?

Michael: So it's not just me that's a Harry's customer in my household. I've got my wife hooked. And now my daughter even has her own handle for Harry's. You know, we use the blades religiously. They're the best blades I've used. And the price is ridiculously cheap. And aside from that, I am a shave cream guy. The shave lotion guy, I should say. You know, the tube where me and you are on the opposite end of the spectrum. You like the foaming gel. I like the tube. It works out well. And I just recently bought two of the large bottles of the aftershave lotion because I use that stuff so much. I like how it smells. And I like how it makes me smell. So, yeah. I'm a huge fan. I'm all in on Harry's. So I think that's pretty well established at this point. It's great stuff. And I just keep loading my shelves up with it when I run low. Order some more. And fast shipping. Great prices. Great product. You can't really ask for more.

Myke Hurley: You cannot. If you want to experience a clean, close, comfortable shave like Brad does, you should be shaving with Harry's. Go to harrys.com right now and they'll give you $5 off if you use the code PENADDICT with your first purchase. That's H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com with the code PENADDICT at checkout for $5 off and you can start shaving better today. Thank you to Harry's for their support of this show.

Pocket Notebooks

Michael: So we've talked about God knows when what episode about notebooks, especially pocket notebooks and filling out the information like on the front cover, Myke. Do you do that?

Myke Hurley: I usually put my name and my email address.

Michael: Okay. So like when you have a field notes, you'll have your name and your email address. I never do. And I don't know why. It's just one of those things I never got into. But friend of the show and friend of us, Anthony Waller, who we saw at the Atlanta PEN show. He's a he lives in Atlanta. You may have seen him at WWDC. I don't know. I know he goes out there for that. He had a really scary loss in a rental car. He left his NotCo Hightower filled out with three fountain pens, which looks like a Lamy 2000, a Lamy Studio and a Lamy Dialogue. And he had his NotCo.dash notebook in there with his information filled out in it. And National was able to get back in touch with him and ship him his case full of pens and his notebook still intact. And this one was really cool to see. We'll have the link in the show notes to Anthony's tweet about it. He's got the picture where they FedExed it back to him. And he was so excited. And, you know, he sent him pizza afterwards.

Michael: What did you think about this, Myke? I thought this was really cool.

Myke Hurley: I think that that is very lucky that he did it, that they found it and that they sent it to him like that. Like FedExed, it was really awesome.

Michael: Yeah, yeah. And the National Rental Car Company got, you know, a lot of love in our little realm of the Internet. You know, a whole maybe 10 responses. But still, it's pretty cool to see. And Anthony had all his information filled out. I know Tim Wassum just asked me a couple of weeks ago, has anyone ever used this field, you know, in your Nock notebooks and emailed you saying, hey, I found this notebook. And no, they haven't, but this just goes to show you that it actually works, you know, when you leave your stuff, you know, behind in a rental car. And they're able to contact you very easily and get it shipped back to you. I thought that was just a super cool post. I was laughing and really enjoying that and talked with Anthony about it. And that was really, really cool. So that made my day to see. Now, I got, we've got some Ask TPA, hashtag Ask TPA follow-up. But the first one actually got in an email and I got a question. And this is more of a fun exercise than anything as opposed to, you know, a real Ask TPA. This is more of a fun topic. A gentleman named Joe sent me a question, says, hey, I'm a huge fan of field notes and generally try to pair fountain pen colors to the notebooks that I'm using. For example, right now I'm using a red-blooded with diamine oxblood. It would be really cool if you guys made a list of matching and complimentary fountain pen inks for each of the field notes editions. Oh, my word. I guess the Two Rivers editions would be a challenge. And he said certain editions like Northerly Cold Horizon Expedition would probably have to be excluded since they're not fountain pen friendly, though. I replied, I said, this is an awesome idea. But I didn't do it for fountain pen and ink. I did it for just the pen in general. So I did a whole list of this, Myke, and I put a link in the show notes. And I'm going to read these off to you and see what you think. All right. So I did this the other night. I did this in my electrical field notes edition workshop companion. I'm using the electrical. I went straight for electrical, too. Yeah. It's really good looking. I think I'm going gardening next if I go if I have time to fill up another one. Oh, that green looks pretty good. But so I took every colors edition of field notes and I matched up a pen that I personally would use in the edition or have used to fill out the edition. So we'll start right at the top with Butcher Orange. I went with the Pilot Hitec C 0.3 millimeter black. The Butcher Orange is one of the first is was the first colors edition. And when I used one of my Butcher Oranges, what, a couple, I guess it's last year, last summer I was using it. I used the Pilot Hitec C 0.3 millimeter black a lot in that one. So that one stuck in my head. For the Butcher Blue, I chose the Sharpie pen. There was nothing that really latched on to me with the Butcher Blue for as rare as that edition is. It doesn't really inspire any great pens to be used with it. But I like that style of pen in field notes notebooks, the drawing pens and art pens. And you'll see that throughout my list a little bit that I enjoy using those pens. Again, this list is just for me. If I was picking up, if I went into the closet right now, grabbed this field notes edition and picked out the perfect pen I wanted to use in it. That's kind of what I tried to do here. So the Grass Stain Green, the Uniball Sino DX 0.38 millimeter in orange. I just think the orange and the green looks good together. I think that's a cool matchup. I'd have to go back and look in my old Grass Stain and see, but I think I just used random stuff in it. The Mackinac Autumn was actually a pretty hard one. And I also chose another DX, the brown black one. It's a fall color. I love using gel pens in my field notes, unlike Myke, and this goes back to our very first topic. I don't like to use fountain pens in my field notes. So I use gel pens, ballpoints, pencils, whatever. So the Sino DX is one of my favorite field notes pens. So the brown black for the Mackinac Autumn. Just below zero was almost impossible. Like, out of this whole list, how many editions are there? 24, 25, something like that? So about 20 of them, I knew pretty quickly what I've either used in them before or what, if I was picking it up today, what I would use. Just below zero was hard. And I thought that the Kuretake Fudego Kochi Superfine Brush Pen would be a good matchup to it because I like that. But it's a little bit weird, and it's not a pen that everyone uses. And this is kind of a little bit weird addition, I think, on the Just Below Zero. It's got the cool printing on the cover, and it's kind of silvery and shiny. And I don't know. I just thought this brush pen would look good in that edition if I filled it up. Packet of Sunshine, I went with the Zebra Sarasa Clip Viridian Green. That's one of the best green inks, I think. And this, you know, it's a spring edition. It's bright. It's shiny. The green looks like grass. I think it's a perfect matchup for that. The county fair, I went for the Pentel Sharp Carry Pencil. And the reason I did that was twofold. One, the county fair edition just screams, like, use a pencil with me for some reason. And I went mechanical pencil, and specifically the Sharp Carry, because the county fairs are a very travel-centric notebook, and the Sharp Carry is a capped mechanical pencil. It fits good in the notebooks. It's good to, you know, travel around with. And I think it's a really good option if you're buying the county fair edition, which you can still get all the 50 states. They still make them. And you can get them anywhere. And I know a lot of people buy them for travel when they're going to those locations. The Raven's Wing, I went with the Oto graphic liner. The black ink, the black pen, the black notebook.

Michael: I think that's just, you know, you got to keep that all together. So, and the graphic liner is one of my favorite pens, and it works great in the field notes. The balsam fur edition, I went with a red ink pen, because it's very Christmas-centric. So, seeing red ink in that balsam fur edition would look pretty cool. So, the Energel Euro needle, .35 millimeter red. I really like that for that edition. Dry transfer edition, Myke, I went with the Pilot Friction. It just seemed like a good fit. The good erasable.

Myke Hurley: Not a fan of that pen, man.

Michael: I know. Myke doesn't like it. Have you tried any of the newer ones? Like, they keep updating them. No, I haven't. They're actually pretty decent pens. Now, the black ink one is not my favorite. But when you get into some of the colors, they are much better than, like, the black and the blue. And there's some models out there that are actually really good. And if I handed one to you, you wouldn't even realize it was a friction.

Michael: The American Tradesman edition, it's shipped with a carpenter pencil. But I couldn't go that easy on it. But I did stick with a pencil. And I stuck with a red one. And this is the Uni Shift Pipe Lock pencil. I think this is one of the most perfect matchups. One, because that red goes so good with the American Tradesman blue covers. And I just love the look of the Shift Pipe Lock Uni pencil. The Fire Spotter was pretty hard. And then it hit me. And I knew, okay, I got that one. That's the TI2 Tech Liner. The Fire Spotter is, you know, the out-in-the-woods kind of edition. And having the TI2 Tech Liner, like a titanium metal barrel pen, that'll be good for getting beat up, you know, out in the field with your Fire Spotter. I like that matchup. The Northerly edition was another tough one. And I went with the Copic Multiliner. And that's because the paper is actually kind of hard to write on. It's the reverse grid, right? It's the gray paper with the white lines. So, you wanted a good black ink pen to kind of get on there and stick to the page well. National Crop Edition has to have a bullet pencil. It just has to. That's the perfect matchup for this. The Machine Shop CT bullet pencil. I think for the National Crop Edition, I think that's the way to go. So, it's just the classic farm edition. And you need a classic farm writing instrument like the bullet pencil. The Day Game, I chose the Field Notes pencil. The wooden, the natural wood, you know, looks like a baseball bat. It's perfect for the Day Game Baseball Edition. And I think the pencil works really good in that for baseball scoring, things of that nature. The Traveling Salesman, I also went with the Field Notes branded pen. And this time, the Bit Click. The Traveling Salesman is the old school retro ledger book where, you know, like the encyclopedia salesman, he's traveling around. And what better than the classic Bit Click to use in the Traveling Salesman edition to log all your sales as you're going door-to-door selling your cleaning supplies, Myke. That's what you do, right, when you're not doing the podcast, door-to-door salesman.

Myke Hurley: It's the only way I can make any money.

Field Notes Paper

Michael: Okay, good, good. Expedition Edition, the Uniball Jetstream. That's one that I actually tested out lots of different pens on because it was such a different paper, the Yupo paper. And the Jetstream worked the best on that one. So that's kind of a no-brainer. America the Beautiful. I went with a classic fountain pen on that one because this is one of the first fountain pen-friendly papers that they did. And I went with a classic American pen in the Parker 51. I think that's a really good matchup. It's good. That is a good match. Yeah, they're both very, very classic editions. You want a fountain pen to use with it because that's one of the best papers to use that Field Notes has done for fountain pens. And just those classic matchup was real good. Night Sky Edition, totally the Fisher Space Pen. That's, you got to go that route. It's just made for each other. Night Sky continues to be, I think, probably one of people's favorite editions ever. I think it's safe to say. And the Fisher Space Pen makes a good matchup for that.

Myke Hurley: Although the Fisher Space Pen is also a really good matchup for the Exposition. Yes. Because Field Notes put them together.

Michael: Yes, they match those together. But I switched up a little bit on that one.

Michael: This is one of my favorite matchups and one that I did a lot of. The Drink Local Edition, which you know is one of my favorites. It's, they have this yellow grid and I use the Kuretake Zig Mangaka, the purple pen that I love so much. That's always in my top five pens, always one I carry around with me. I don't know that out of this whole list, I don't know that I've ever been more happier with a pen and paper matchup than that Drink Local yellow grid with this purple pen. But, you know, that's just me. I love that edition. Cold Horizon Edition. That's on the other end of the ledger. I don't know what to use for that one. So I picked a real standard pen that I enjoy. And again, it's the Secura Pigma Micron. With, or I was going to say again, it's a drawing pen. Like the Copic Multiliner in the Northerly Edition. The Cold Horizon didn't have the best writing paper, in my opinion. So you need something that's going to really attach to that paper well. And I think the Micron does a good job with that.

Michael: Shelterwood. I had to pick a wood case pencil to match this one. I picked the Blackwing 602. I think this is a good, good matchup. You see that Shelterwood. It's a real classic looking notebook. You see the Blackwing set up next to it. I think that looks really good. The 602 graphite is really nice. I like that a lot. Arts and Sciences. I went with the Rotring 600 for the engineering aspect of it. I think it's kind of made for that scholarly type thing. The Rotring is a great engineering pencil.

Michael: Math, sciences, you know, all that type of thing. What would you pick for the Arts and Sciences? I know you're a big fan of that one. I'm guessing you use your Retro 51. Probably a lot in that one. And fountain pens, I guess.

Myke Hurley: No, currently it's still the Colt Pens pencil. Oh, nice. I'm still using this thing to the point where I'm really seriously considering a Rotring 600. And I think a mechanical pencil actually works well with the theme because pencils for drawing, the Rotring side for technical stuff. Yes, exactly. It fits quite nicely. I think there's a nice duality in that.

Michael: Yes, exactly. That's why I thought that was a good match. Unexposed edition was actually kind of hard. I thought on that one and thought on that one. And then I thought it finally hit me that the Retro 51 Tornado in the lacquers edition, that's got, you know, like 15 different colors where you can choose like the purple Retro 51 Tornado lacquers edition and violet would go great with the Unexposed edition, I think. I think it's a good visual match. It's obviously a good writing match. The refills are great. And I think that's a good. Unexposed is still another favorite edition of mine that's like way under the radar. I know a lot of people didn't love that edition. I happen to like that edition a lot. The Ambition edition is one I didn't care for a lot. But I think with that off-white paper, you need a good black gel ink pen. And I went with the Pilot Juice. You know, I like that refill a lot. And I think with that, the way the Ambition, all the different, the ledger, the calendar, and the journal, I think the black actually, for as simple as an ink that is, it actually goes the best with that color paper and that format and that gilding and the way they built out that Ambition edition. The Two Rivers pen hit me like a bolt of lightning. I had no idea what to pick for Two Rivers. I actually didn't use the Two Rivers that much compared to these other editions just because of timing. It seemed like those three months went by fast, and I just didn't have time to get into them. So I didn't. I was like, what would I use for Two Rivers? You know, that covers wild. It's got all that cool letterpress. And then I was like, oh, the Kaweco Lilliput Fire Blue. That is the coolest pen. It's wild looking. You know, it looks like you're on an acid trip. And that's what it pretty much looks like on those Two Rivers covers.

Myke Hurley: You've got some really good ones there.

Michael: I worked on this. This was hard. Clearly, I couldn't do this.

Myke Hurley: I just have Retro 51 the whole way down. Just keep it simple.

Michael: And the last one, which is the Workshop Companion, which is the one I wrote this list in, and will have the picture of my writing in the show notes. The Keras Customs Retract Two-Tone in black and silver aluminum. When you look at that pen and it's retro style with the retro style of the Field Notes Workshop Edition, it's like a killer matchup. I have the .38 millimeter blue-black Pilot Juice refill, but use any refill. Just use that pen style-wise, matchup-wise for this edition of Field Notes. It was pretty cool. So, that's what I've been using mostly in this edition so far. And that's my list. It was kind of tough. Like I said, I probably got 15 of them right out the gate. I was like, this is exactly white. This is what I've used. This is perfect. And then the next few, I had to think for a minute. And, okay, I got something perfect for that. And there was probably three or four at the end that just left blank. And I had to really think on them. So, that was a good exercise to do. It's just something fun, something different. And I was like, yeah, I'm going to put this together. I think it'll work. So, yeah.

Michael: So, now I'm going to make you do it next, Myke. And like you said, you can just write them all down. Then just do one of those big brackets. And then they all lead to Retro 51, right?

Myke Hurley: Well, you know, there's so many different styles. You're definitely going to find something to fit it all. Like, for example, the bamboo fits the...

Myke Hurley: The... Shelterwood. Shelterwood. That's the word I'm looking for. Thank you.

Michael: Yeah. So, you could just have a Retro 51 matchup for each one of those.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Ask TPA Follow-up

Michael: All right. So, let me do a little bit more of a Ask TPA follow-up. A couple of questions we had from last week that I got answers on were to clean up the rubber grips on pins. And I got an email saying, use scotch tape or masking tape. On the rubber grips to get that off. That makes complete sense. That's a good one. And then the fountain pen friendly stationary note cards or thank you notes. Several people mentioned both Paper Source and Crane & Company as very fountain pen friendly, you know, like stationary cards for to use. All right. So, the new questions. Let's see how many of these I can get to. I don't know if we'll get to all of them today, Myke. But Sketchgate, Brian Dragging, he was in the chat room a minute ago. He wants to know, how do us addicts justify multiple purchases of the same item? And he had a really good... I think this came from one of his Instagram posts. He had a top-down shot of his desk and was just loaded with notebooks and pens. And so, how do you justify multiple purchases of the same item, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Collecting.

Michael: Yeah. I mean, I think it's fine if you use them. I mean, I generally...

Michael: About the only thing I do buy multiples of is field notes. And I probably need to slow that roll just because I have a lot of them now. Don't buy so many extras. You know, buy one extra and stash it away and use the other one kind of thing. Um, but, I mean, it's... It's easier for me to justify because I'm like, eh, I'm gonna review it. Or, you know, I have this kind of, like, false thing. But, you know, it's... We're always on the search for something. And when you're working that hard to find the perfect thing for you, you end up buying multiples of it because you don't want that thing to ever go away again. And I think that's what happens a lot of times. It's like, I found this great notebook and I love it. And now I'm starting to use it. And all of a sudden, I don't have a backup to that notebook. Right? I'm using it. So I need three more to sit over here on the shelf while I'm using the one that I'm using. Just in case it goes away somewhere.

Myke Hurley: I have four boxes of the Workshop Companion.

Michael: You got gifted a couple of those.

Myke Hurley: Gifted two, bought two.

Michael: Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. So it happens. You know, it's okay. You know, you're among friends here. We can talk about these things.

Michael: This was an interesting question from Dave Gaber. And I don't know that I have an answer for it. But I thought it was good enough to mention here and get some feedback on this. He says, Any advice and what to look for in a pen if we were to venture away from your reviews and recommendations? There are tons of brands you never mention.

Michael: That's tough to answer.

Myke Hurley: I don't have an answer. I don't have an answer. I don't have an answer.

Michael: And it's a fair question. You know, I can't review everything for one. So I try to... There's some general... Types of pens I don't review, which are the most generic and the most available types of pens that are available to everyone. And maybe I should do more of that because they are the most available. But generally, anytime I've reviewed those types of products in the past, they've been poor. And, you know, maybe it's an unfair assumption to assume that all of them are poor. And maybe I could do more random stuff, kind of like I did in the beginning of the pen attic, where I would just grab anything that I saw and just review it. And I could probably do a little bit better job at that, Dave, to be quite honest. But any advice on what to look for in a pen, that's totally specific to you. If you tell me what you're looking for in a pen, I can maybe help you out. But, you know, I don't know how to answer it other than that. So this is a scary question from Mary Collis. She says, on Sex and the City, Carrie calculates how much money she spent on shoes and is shocked. Have you ever done the math with pens? Absolutely not. Not ever. No way. Why would you want to do that to yourself? She says, I refuse. And I'm with you on that. There would be no way. That would be a bad idea.

Michael: And this next question, I actually meant to lump it up with Dave's questions before.

Parker Pens

Michael: Gareth Chandran said, thoughts on Parker? I've never heard you talk about them. I've talked about them some. I've reviewed some of their new products on the blog. I think I've reviewed one or two of their pens, fountain pens last year. Was generally pretty happy with what they've done. But Parker, their recent goods have not been that great. They're turning a little bit of a corner though. So maybe you'll see more Parker here coming up. And they're making better pens, better fountain pens, and cooler things to test out and try. It's just never been at the forefront of pen design and value and quality. But they're coming around. The last couple fountain pens I've reviewed from them have been pretty decent. So I think maybe you'll see more. So that's pretty good. So Ohai Vinny wants to know, can we recommend a smooth and not expensive everyday ball pen? I don't know if you mean ballpoint, but it's the Uniball Jetstream all day, every day for me. Here's a good one, Myke. And you're in on this one. Considering my next fountain pen purchase, Sailor Pro gear or Pelican M405? You go first. Do I know the M405? You have a 205 with a gold nib and it's the same build, which is essentially the 405 is a 205 with a gold nib. So you have the same format, style, feel, just not the exact 405.

Myke Hurley: I would say Pro gear.

Michael: I would say Pro gear too. So I wanted to see what you'd say on that one, but it's definitely the Pro gear for me. And this is coming from someone who loves the M405. I have one. The Pro gear is slightly bigger, a little bit more sturdy. You can't go wrong with the Pelican, but I love the Pro gear. If those are my only two choices, I'm picking the Pro gear.

Michael: Um, let's see. I'm going to skip a few of these because I know we need to wrap it up here.

Michael: Todd Pedrick asks, if the Midori Traveler's Notebook is still in the rotation, what your overall thoughts were?

Michael: It's, how do I say this? It's coming back to being one of the most frequent things I carry. I've been up and down with it. And in the past week or two, I've been trying to use it more because I'm working on some new projects. And I found that that's a very good format to me to just throw stuff into notes wise. And I can keep some extra paperwork in there, which I actually like. I like the band attachment for as simple a design as the Traveler's is. I think you're going to see me a lot more into the Traveler's thing. It's taken a while for me to get there. And this is the, and I have the, I forget the names of them, if they're large and small or what they call the two sizes. I'm using the bigger one of the two. The small one's a little bit too small for me, I think. The larger one, I am really enjoying that a lot. And I think you're going to see some more. So what I do right now with my Traveler's, I have two refills in it. And then I stick my Notco dot dash notebook on the outside, on the inside the band. And I can stick a pen in that band as well. And that's kind of like my to-go kit. And that's working really well for me. So I think you're going to see more Midori action from me on the blog. I'm getting there. All right, two more. One, this one's for you, Myke. We know Dowdyism loves orange, but what color does Myke prefer? And they didn't say in what capacity, like ink. So let's say not ink. Myke, if you were buying a pen and you weren't buying like a standard pen, say you were buying a Retro 51 Tornadoes lacquer. We talked about that earlier. It's got a rainbow of colors. My first one I bought was orange. Still love it. My first Render K I bought was orange. My first Karas custom ink I bought was orange. You know, that type of thing. What type of color do you lean towards in like a pen body itself, not necessarily ink color?

Myke Hurley: See, I do tend to go with orange. But if I wasn't going to go with orange, so to give a bit of variation, I like bright blues and bright greens as well. Like bright colors I like if I'm going to be fun with it.

Michael: Yeah, I'm with you. I am a fan of the bright colors as well. All right, last one. And he's going to be mad because he's in the chat room and I don't have an answer for him. TM Trains wants to know, what are your top five things you'd want someone to bring back from Japan that you can't get in the U.S.? That's a tough question because I don't necessarily know what they have. But what in general I would look for is something made specifically for the shop that you've found in Japan. It can be, you know, like if you're going to Bung Box, which that's hard for people to get to. They have things that Pilot makes specifically for Bung Box, things like that. If you go to Itoya, there's probably things that Pilot, that all kinds of manufacturers, it's such a big store, that are made specifically for those shops in Japan. Those aren't the kind of things you can get in the U.S., obviously, but all the big brands in Japan love making like the one-off stuff for each specific retailer. So like, you know, Itoya might have, you know, a special Pelican even. You know, it's not just the Japanese companies. You know, they might have something special from Pilot or, you know, all these types of, and I'm not saying necessarily the store brand, but like one of the popular, you know, Pilot, Sailor, you know, Platinum, and even some of the German brands like Lamy. I know Lamy does several things that are Japanese specific. Those are the kinds of things I look for. I can't narrow it down more specific because I don't know exactly what they would carry that would, you know, be able to bring back. But in general, those are the types of things I would look for because you're really never going to be able to get those in the U.S. unless you import them. So like they did, you've probably seen some pictures recently, Myke, on Instagram and Slack and various things where Lamy did this one for the store called Line, I think, and it's this brown Lamy Safari with the bear. Have you seen pictures of those?

Myke Hurley: No. Oh, yes, yes, for the Line Messenger.

Michael: Yeah. So that came from Japan.

Michael: And, you know, a bunch of people over here ordered it, you know, but those are the types of things I'm talking about. You'll never see that over here, right? So that's the kind of stuff you're looking at. So that's what I'd go with. And, you know, it's hard to narrow down a specific item, but there's some very, you know, each store is going to have something different. So very cool. All right. I think that's a wrap for today. Hopefully we got everyone straight on our Moleskine Love. I mean, it's a Moleskine Love Fest around here all the time. So I hope everyone's cool with that. And we're going to keep loving on them as we move forward. And, you know, we love all the products, Myke. You know, we have our favorites, but we love them all. We're addicts. You're an addict. I'm an addict. Some of us have it worse than others. All of our listeners are addicts. And let's keep being addicts. You know, get out there and give them hell. I like that.

Myke Hurley: If you want to find the show notes for this week, you want to head on over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 160. If you want to find Brad online, he is at penaddict.com. He is penaddict on Instagram. And he is dowdyism on Twitter, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on both. Thanks again to our sponsors this week, Harry's and Pen Chalet. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Michael: Goodbye, Brad.