The Pen Addict 527/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	527
Title:	1-800-FIX-NIBS
Release Date:	August 24th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 527
Audio File:	Audio Episode 527
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 527
Length:	5656 min <br />0.933 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 527. Today's show is brought to you by Trade Coffee and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. Oh my gosh, it's Pen Show Week, Myke. Oh, here he goes.

Myke: What are we going to talk about today, I wonder? We're losing so many listeners because of me, Myke. Shocker. No, they all love you. Everyone loves Brad.

San Francisco Pen Show Prep

Myke: Brad Downey. Yep. Oh boy, so yeah. Now, we're getting ready to hit the road here at Pen Addict HQ, heading to the San Francisco Pen Show, which we're going to talk about in a minute. But we had some new topics I've kind of mixed and mingled into this as I talk about the Pen Show prep that I'm working on for this week. Mm-hmm. Remember, we've investigated why it's that name in the past, but I have not right now. But I thought this was interesting enough, Myke, that they finally addressed the Tomoe River paper changes that have been going on for the past several years. And I'd like to read this page. It's not very long, and I think it provides some good insight on what Hobonichi's plans are because a lot of their identity is tied into the paper they use, right? Yep. So, that paper is the 52 GSM Tomoe River, the beloved page that a lot of us have used for many, many years, probably going on to close to a decade now, maybe not quite that long, but since it became very, very popular. So, I'm going to read this page real quick, and we'll kind of break it down as we go. Mm-hmm. So, first things first. The 2023 edition Hobonichi Techo books all contain the same Tomoe River paper that you've used over the years. There has been no change quite yet. The Hobonichi 2024 will be the first edition to feature this new Tomoe River paper. When the production and sale of the Hobonichi Techo's Tomoe River paper by Tomoe Gawa Company ended, it was transferred to a company in Ishikawa Prefecture called Sansin Paper Manufacturing Co. So, we have talked about Sansin. Tomoe River paper is the reason the Hobonichi Techo is able to stay so portable despite its high page count, and after over 20 years, this ideal Techo paper will be enhanced with paper that's lighter, at the same thickness, and even more resistant to ink bleed with adjustments that make the writing surface even more crisp. The Hobonichi Techo 2024 lineup, which begins sales on September 1, 2023, will have the first books to feature this new paper. And then they just have a little caveat that the Hobonichi Techo weeks will not change until 2025. So, it says, give the new Tomoe River paper a try. We'd love for everyone to be able to experience how the new paper will feel and write before the switch happens. So, we'll be including Tomoe River test paper for the 2024 edition. The test paper will be included in the 2023 edition of the original, the cousin, the planner, and the day free. Use your usual writing utensils in the new paper to compare, and if you would please tell us your thoughts about the new Tomoe River paper here. So, they have a link we'll share in the show notes for feedback. We look forward to hearing from you. All right. So, what are your thoughts on this? I mean, I have thoughts. I don't know if you have thoughts. You don't totally care as much as I do. But, you know, do you have any comments?

Brad: I'm thinking about this as a business owner rather than a customer. And my kind of takeaway is a little mixed on this. Yes. Okay. I think in some places they're doing a good job of hyping up the new paper. And in others, I don't know, I feel like not so much. Like, they focused a lot on how perfect, how perfect, how perfect Tomoe River was in a way that if I was writing this, I wouldn't focus so much on how good it's been, right? Because that's just kind of like sowing the idea that like what we currently have is exactly what you want. Because they can't do anything about this. Like, you know, if I would. It's not a choice. Because it is completely out of Hobonichi's hands. Right. I feel like that all they can do and all they really should do is extol the benefits of the new paper. Because they have zero agency in this matter. Right. And I feel like saying things like this product was only possible because of Tomoe River. Like, that's one. It's not actually true anyway. Like, there's other paper that is thin like this that provides similar results. Right. Like, it's not like maybe this is all they could get their hands on in these sizes. But, yeah. I wouldn't say that. And I would maybe spend more time focusing on these other like what they're saying these features are, right? The enhanced paper, lighter at the same thickness and even more resistant to ink bleed. Like, those kinds of things. I would kind of just like do that. And I'm also, I am, for me, like, the jury's still out on whether I think it's a good idea or not to include a test sheet. Really? I'm not sure what I think about that.

Myke: Okay. Like, yeah.

Brad: I definitely see why you would do it to alleviate people's concerns in advance. Right? Mm-hmm. But if, like, okay, let's just say that somebody gets it and they're like, it's fine to, I don't really like this so much. Mm-hmm. From using it just this one time. They're not going to get a new journal next year potentially, right? Right. They're going to be like, well, I don't want this now. Right. Right. If they just bought the journal and wasn't that comfortable with it, but now they've got the journal and then they just, I guarantee would just get used to it and be fine with it. If they had the journal. You know what I mean?

Myke: See, we have some differing views on this whole thing.

Brad: I'm not sure that this is, like, accurate. This is what I'm saying. Right, right, right. You're just kind of thinking out loud. Yeah. I think I see two paths to it. Like, I think it's a good idea in the sense of alleviating the concerns of people. Mm-hmm. But what I'll say is I only believe that's true if Hobonichi are convinced that this is better. Mm-hmm. If there's doubt, I don't think this is a good idea for their business. I'm not, like, trust, listen to what I'm saying, right? Yeah, yeah. I'm not talking about, like, what is best for the customer here. I'm talking about what's best for their business. That's just what I'm intrigued about when thinking about this conversation. Because this is, like, as we said before, not their choice. Right. They would prefer to just keep using old Hobonichi forever, but they can't. So if they want to keep their business running, they need to make some very particular decisions about it. And so my feeling is if they're like, oh, we're not sure people are going to like this, let's include a test paper. I'm not sure that the outcome for Hobonichi there is positive.

Techo Paper Discussion

Myke: Okay. So two parts from my perspective. The first part, I mostly agree with how they speak about the old paper and then speak about the new paper. I almost think they have a really, like, the one, like, sentence that stood out the most in this whole article actually needs to be, like, their highlight quote, like they did some of these other quotes.

Brad: They should lead with it, right?

Myke: At the top of the page, this ideal Techo paper will be enhanced with paper that's lighter at the same thickness and even more resistant to ink bleed with adjustments that make the writing surface even more crisp. That needs to lead. Like, they should. That needs to be ingrained in your head that what you're getting and it's buried three quarters or halfway through this article, right? And that's the only thing they talk about, right? Yeah. So as far as the new features going, oh, this old paper is great. Like, I love that. Yeah. But yeah, I kind of see that.

Brad: What I would say is, like, could be potentially cultural differences here, right? Sure, sure, sure, sure. In the way the marketing is being presented primarily. I just wanted to just because I know someone's going to say that. So if I say it, then people don't need to say it to us.

Myke: Yep.

Myke: I'm 100% on board with the test sheet because I want to cut this off ahead of any drama from people saying, oh, I didn't know this was different and give me my money back now. Right. Yeah, no, that makes sense. On 2024.

Brad: That makes sense. I mean, there'll still be some of that.

Myke: Yes, but it'll be mitigated by this. Say, hey, I'm either in or I'm out. And if you're out, that's fine. Like, we're going to say, hey, look, this is a business change, right? What you're used to is not going to happen. We think this might even be better and we're going to let you test it. If you're out, cool. We get that. And, you know, that will eliminate a lot of the drama than just dropping it on everyone. Like, I'm more on board with that than just having this stuff show up and telling people. I mean, it's not like they're hiding it. It's like telling people, hey, this paper is different. Well, now when you spend the $50 on the new planner and know it's different, you're just like going to be nitpicking it and you've spent money now. Whereas now you can get this sheet of paper. And it's actually like a folded up four panel thick kind of elongated sheet of paper, like different layouts and things on it. They have a sheet picture of it here, the little tester.

Good Guy Marketing

Brad: This is definitely like good guy marketing. Like, I agree, right? Like they are spending their own money, right? This is money that they're having to spend to get this produced and packed and all that kind of stuff. Like, I just hope that they're confident. That's my thing.

Myke: They have to be. It's literally the core of their business.

Brad: Well, they're not necessarily confident, right? Like, it is their business. It's the business. That's what I mean. Like, I, that's what, if you're going to, my feelings, if you're going to include this sheet, you really got to be confident that it is as good, if not better for most people. You know, we go through this with our own products. Never going to catch everyone. And if you try to do that, you'll get no one. You have to make a product that's good enough for most people, not perfect for any particular group, I feel like. Right. Because you can do that, but you'll have a very small business, right? Right, right, right. Because you won't get all of that group to buy your product anyway. So you kind of have to make something that's good enough, I believe, for everyone, rather than like particularly perfect for one type of person. I just, yeah, this is a fascinating thing. I cannot wait to see what people's reactions are.

Myke: Yeah, so two things, two more things. One, people forget that Hobonichi or the parent company 1101 is actually a publicly traded company. Like, this is like business decisions are a big deal for this company. Like, it's on the Japanese stock exchange, right? That was one point completely separate is I think based on my testing of the new Sanson paper, I think it's going to be good. Like, I have no qualms about the changes. Like, I understand that any change for such a particular item as this one will be, you know, met at a microscopic level. But I think based on my early testing, and this was like the first run of the Sanson Tomoe River paper that Jacob sent me, I think it's going to be perfectly fine. If not, I mean, it's going to be hard for me to ever say anything's better than the 52 GSM Tomoe. But this at least has a chance. Like, it's in the conversation. And I think in the end, maybe 2024 is a little bit of an adjustment period for them. And then they're just right back into it full bore where people are going to realize that, oh, yeah, this is pretty good. It didn't really no real hangups company big scale wise moving forward after that. So I think it's all positive to me, but it's got to be super weird for them sitting in that office trying to figure out what they're going to do. Can you imagine the stash of paper that they've had to still run 2023 out of the old Tomoe River paper? I mean, it's kind of been produced for years.

Brad: Well, oh, really? Yeah.

Myke: Yeah. They shut down the Tomoe Gawa three years ago, maybe two. Was it really? And they set it in there. Wow.

Brad: I feel like that just happened.

Myke: Yeah. Because, no, they switched them. Well, because they switched the machines and it made a bad product, right? So that was in that timeframe as well. And then it went away completely because the new machines were making a bad product. And then the new company bought them just out of like last fall. So, yeah, it's been at least two years, if not three. And to fill that supply for years worth of Hobonichi planners, that's a large inventory.

Brad: Have you seen the new book that they're working on?

Myke: I haven't. I haven't gone through the catalog yet, even though it's full on planner season right now. So we'll talk about that in September. I have not. What are you seeing?

Brad: So I was just on the website. It's called, I believe, Hun. H-O-N, but it says pronounced of a long O, which means book in Japanese. Okay. I call it a life book. It's like a hardcover book. It has some cover designs. It's A6 size, same contents as the Hobonichi Techo original. Lay flat binding because it's hardcover, it looks like. And it's like a whole year book, like a 365-day book. This is good looking.

Myke: Yeah. Dang. Okay. I have not gone through the site. I've purposefully not gone through the Hobonichi stuff because I'm rethinking my planner situation for next year. So I just want to sit down with it. So, and when I do, I want to write down my notes for the podcast. So we'll do that maybe in September. Yeah.

Brad: This product, there's more information about it in October.

Myke: This is, this is a very classic style that I appreciate in notebooks, in an annual type of notebook, you know, not just like a kick around notebook. Hmm. Okay. I did not see this and I am compelled. So yeah, that looks great. Looks great.

Hobonichi's Future Plans

Brad: Always working on something over there. I hope the paper works out for them. I'm confident that it will because I do believe that. Yeah. I would expect the larger portion of their customer base either wouldn't care or wouldn't even be able to tell. Like I genuinely believe that. Right. Because they are a huge company. Like I know that there are people that do care and would be able to tell. Probably a lot of them would be totally fine with it. But I expect people buy Hobonichi for all of the other things that they do, which is not necessarily the particulars of the paper quality. It's like the design, the layout, the style, the hype.

Myke: So all of those things are very unique to Hobonichi regardless of the paper. Why we love them is because of what it is like in the big picture. And then, oh, by the way, this paper is killer. Right. It's amazing.

Brad: I mean, I've said this before. I hope that this has highlighted to them the fact that they probably need a better overall plan. But I don't know what that would be.

Myke: It's scary, right? I imagine. Yeah. Just the last several years of, again, I just think about being in that office going, our entire business is built around something that no longer exists. What do we do now? And their growth, like I don't know, I don't follow the back-end business-y style, even though they're a publicly traded company. They have had to seen massive growth over the past decade. And so this has to just be like full panic for the past year or two. So yeah, for sure. It's super interesting. Like we're talking about this a lot, but I think both Myke and I find like these machinations just like crazy interesting just from the stationary business perspective. I think it's great. I think it's great.

Brad: They're in a very unique position to be the size that they are and to be using somebody else's paper.

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: Right? Like that's weird. Most companies of that size, they kind of have their own thing, right?

Myke: Yeah. I think all of us back when some of the initial changes were happening is like, well, why doesn't 1101 purchase the old machine and start their own printer? Like it's, it only makes sense, right? I still don't.

Brad: I can only assume they were, it was declined. Like that they weren't allowed to do it. Like why would you not do it? Even if you couldn't operate it, just get it now and work it out later. Right? Like I don't know. Yeah.

Myke: Who knows? It's fun stuff. Fun stuff. All right, Myke. We're recording early today, unbeknownst to our listeners until I just told them. So that means I've got coffee in hand. Oh boy. And I bet, I bet you can tell me more about coffee.

Brad: Oh, I can. And I can tell you about where to get the best coffee. That's trade. And thanks to trade as always for supporting this show. When you become a trade coffee customer, you'll get the freshest and best tasting coffee you've ever made at home. And the coffee you'll be drinking will be from the US's best independent craft roasters, which helps out these businesses too, which is fantastic. And look, trade coffee team, they make sure they've got the best stuff available. They keep 450 different kinds of coffee live and ready to ship every day from the taste testing that they do of thousands of coffee varieties from different roasters and all this kind of stuff. Everyone has that one coffee that they love and trade is going to help you find it. And here's how they do it. You go to their website and it takes just answering a couple of questions from their awesome quiz to get your own personalized variety of coffees delivered fresh to you as often as you like. Whether your friends call you a coffee snob or you just know when coffee is just perfect for you, trade real coffee experts personally taste test these roasts so they know exactly what to recommend for you. And it's super easy as well. I've done the quiz. Sometimes this stuff can be daunting, especially if you're a newer coffee drinker or you're trying to expand a little bit of the stuff that you're looking for. They ask you some very basic questions of your taste profile. And if for some reason they don't match you right first time, they will get you in touch with one of their coffee experts for you to give your feedback to. And they'll send you a brand new bag for free. This is how confident trade are that they're going to match you right the first time. Coffee, I believe, is best when you have the beans, you grind them and you know, like and this is what they can help you do. It really creates just a ritual, a fantastic experience. Like this is one of the things that I love personally about trade is that they can put me in touch with all of these companies and I get these fresh roasted beans and I'm ready to roll. Like I think it's fantastic. It's super, super good. Right now, trade is offering a new subscribers, a total of $30 off your first order plus free shipping. When you go to drink trade.com slash pen addict, that's more than 40 cups of coffee for free. Get started by taking their quiz today at drink trade.com slash pen addict and let trade find you a coffee. You're going to love one last time. Drink trade.com slash pen addict for $30 off. Our thanks to trade for the support of this show and RelayFM.

Myke: The coolest thing about trade is that they do, aside from like the quiz matching up like your flavor profiles and stuff, they do try to get some regional stuff to where you're located. So they've introduced me to Portrait Coffee out of Atlanta, which is like my new favorite. Like anytime I get a bag from Portrait, I'm like, yeah, that's the good stuff. Logistically, that's helpful for them too, right? Absolutely.

Brad: Because it's coming from the roasteries.

Myke: Right, right. So like most of mine that I get are like on the East Coast, at least like if they're not from Atlanta, like I've had plenty from like New York, upstate New York and some other things like that. But yeah, I definitely get a good batch from, you know, just up the street kind of. So it's pretty neat. So I am going much further away than Portrait Coffee tomorrow. I'm going to the San Francisco Pen Show. Have you heard? Myke, have you heard? I heard the what? I'm going to the San Francisco Pen Show. I had no idea. I can't believe this. It's interesting. I rarely talk about it. Yeah, I don't talk about it very much. I'm not very excited whatsoever. And we're just going to go and see what happens. No, I am. It's go time. So I wanted to talk a little bit just to give some first time show goers. If you're there like the entire weekend, kind of like what I try to do, like for these the days that I'm there, because it can be long and tiring. And especially if you're working, like it's a little bit different now that I'm attending. I could manage my manage my mental health and tiredness a little bit better than if I was working the whole time. So shout out to all of you who are working the show. I know it's got a long weekend ahead of you. But yeah, I am.

Myke: I have a few plans, Myke. And what I was thinking about mostly this week is packing for the show.

Myke: And what stationery should I bring to the show? And I settled on almost nothing. And here's why.

Brad: You're going to buy a lot of stuff.

Myke: I mean, that's part of it. That's kind of like the end. I'm just going to buy it all there. But no, it's like I could bring a lot of stuff. But what I found, the more shows I go to, which is, you know, this is back, you know, pre-COVID. The more shows I go to, the more stuff I see that's accessible to more people. So I don't need to necessarily travel across country with like 50 pins, right, for like show and tell. Because it's covered. Like a lot of people have a lot of things covered, right? So a lot of my goal in bringing things to Pen Show was to share things with people that they've never seen before or wanted to try out for the first time. Maybe it could be just like a Lamy 2000 or something. I've never tried one. And I was like, you know, now we have these opportunities. Like the whole community and business effort to get products in people's hands has really kind of escalated to where there is a lot more like freedom of product movement around the show to where you're able to try something before you buy it and test things out. So, yeah, I do like doing that. But there's been less benefit for me to worry about packing all of those things. Like especially if I'm like doing plane travel and having to ink up a bunch of pens or even just taking a bunch of pens and not inking them and inking them when I get there. So what I'm doing is I'm not going to bring any inked fountain pens, I don't think. Maybe one if I'm feeling frisky and want something just, you know, while I'm waiting around at the airport or something like that to use. I'm bringing three fountain pens that I'm going to get worked on, which we'll talk about in a minute. But like that's it. Like I'm not going to bring a whole bunch of inked up fountain pens unless someone reaches out. Like a bunch of people have reached out to me, say, hey, can you bring this? Can you bring that? But it just so happens I am bringing a bunch of the things to get worked on already and I'll just ink them up while I'm there. So my plans for the show, since I'm not bringing much, is the first thing on Friday morning when I'm there is I'm going to get a new plotter. So I have an appointment. Plotter is doing like custom builds of their notebooks. So I have an appointment like 10, 12 in the morning on Friday. So like right out the gate. And that's going to be my notebook to carry around the show and use. Right. I do like to have a notebook, especially if I'm spending a long time at a show, a fountain pen friendly notebook to test things in, whether it's inks or pens or nibs, things like that. Just something to jot things down. And plotter has some smaller sizes that I'm interested in, like the Bible size or the forget what they call the even smaller one. Mini, I think. So I'm going to check out, see which smaller size plotter I want. And I'm going to buy that right out the jump. Then I'm going straight over to Misubi and straight over to Cornell to check out their new notebooks. So I'm going to be like flush with notebooks from from the jump at the show. So I'm not going to pack my own notebooks outside. Maybe a pocket notebook. Normally, like in Atlanta, I brought my William Hanna Plana where I have like eight or ten different paper types in there to test. Like, I think we're going to be covered. Like, I don't necessarily need to overpack my own stationery to travel across the country with. But coming home, Myke, we will be overloaded with goods. So, yes, you were right in the beginning. It's because I'm going to be buying it there. But this paper, like, I just want to get this, you know, right out the gate. A lot of times on a Friday morning or a Saturday morning or even sometimes Sunday morning, companies will put out their limited edition stuff. So I will grab a couple of things that I don't want to miss out on on those early hours when I get to the show. Also on Friday, I'm going to hang out at Rickshaw for a little bit. Talk about the Sinclair. You know, I don't have anything scheduled or anything like that. But, you know, the Sinclair launch is happening at the San Francisco Pen Show. So I'm excited about that. I have a bunch of Sinclairs that I'm bringing. I'm very, very much going to be excited about that. So I look forward to that. And then probably by like noon on Friday, we take a breath. Like I'm already like super, super anxious just talking about it. So by lunchtime on Friday, we're going to chill. We're going to eat lunch and then we're just going to browse the show. Right. So that's the hardest thing for first or second time Pen Show attendees is to not get overwhelmed. And just listening to myself talk, I can tell I'm just already overwhelming myself. But like that's OK in moderation. Let's just do the things I want to right out the gate Friday and then rest of Friday is just kind of free to browse around. Hang out. See all my friends. You know, go go to all the tables. Go do all that stuff and just chill and then have a nice calmer rest of the day because I know I have Saturday and Sunday to handle anything that I really need to do. So Saturday, I'm taking my first class like my first. I really have to think about it. I've taken like some free classes at shows, but this is the first time I've done like the paid class thing. So I'll be doing the paper class and I'm sure we will talk about Tomoe River a lot in this paper class that I'm taking on Saturday. I look forward to that. And then Saturday at the show, I will be in and out of the show floor a lot because it'll be super crowded. Right. Like I would make since I'll have Friday, you know, to explore Saturday, I'll make some more direct, you know, things like if I want to see something at a certain table will make us point to see that. But we'll probably hop in and out of the show a lot on Saturday and probably just do a lot of sitting and hanging out, you know, especially as the day gets on and it gets more crowded and you get a little bit tireder. And, you know, so it'll just be a lot of just hanging out and not doing anything in particular. Then Myke kind of came up out of the blue Saturday night. We're going to have a get together with myself, CY from Tokyo Inklings, April and Kelly from Stationery Cafe, Drew from the Goulet Pencast. We're going to have a little Q&A session in one of the ballrooms there. And then we're just going to have like a journaling hangout, just like, you know, fun, you know, get out your journals. And and mess around and just kind of mix and mingle. So Saturday night. So that came up, came up here in the past week. I put some details in the on my Instagram page, but we'll have a link to that in the show notes. And you could just show up to that. Right. It's like nothing official. I don't know that it's going to be recorded or video. Maybe someone will. Maybe I will. But it'll just be a fun little hangout. Sunday is actually when I do most of my heavy lifting. Right. So when you're there for a full weekend, Friday, when you get there, you kind of get the things that aren't going to be around all weekend. Right. The stuff you really, really don't want to miss out on. And then it'll probably be Sunday before I start picking up things like for review, for the blog, for giveaways. Like I'll do a lot of buying on Sunday and I'll also get my nib work done on Sunday. Mostly like I have an appointment with JC at the nib tailor. Like I think that's the first time I've signed up online for an appointment. Like I'm doing all these things that are different for me at pen shows. So, you know, with the different pens that I brought to get nib work done. So Sunday, like I feel like by then I've gotten, you know, I know what's going on on the show floor. So I can just finalize anything that needs to come home with me, either personal related like nib work or work related like review items. We do all that on Sunday. We make lots of trips to the room on Sunday to offload offload products so we don't have to carry them around. So that's kind of like what my show just in a big picture way kind of looks like. And then by Sunday night, I will just be chilling out in my hotel room and writing up the show recap, hopefully by that night for Panatic members. But that's kind of the overview. I don't have a big shopping list. I rarely do have a big shopping list for shows, but there are a couple of things. I want to check out one Toyocacraft is going to be there, Myke. So that that could be problematic. I'm going to look at the smaller stuff like some trays that, you know, I can travel home with. Right. I obviously can't get any of the big bulky stuff of and fly home with it, nor do I want to ship it home.

Brad: Hey, if they got it there, Brad, you can get it back. You know, they got it there.

Myke: You got it. That's right. They got it there from Japan. I can get it to back to my house. Right. I'm obviously going to check out everything that Bungu Box has because I think they just have some of the best products, the best curation of products around. They always do cool stuff for the San Francisco Pen Show. I'm going to check out what they have. On a personal pen level, I'm going to check out a Pilot Decimo if I can find like an interesting, neat one. I might pick that up for me personally. Just because I've always wanted one and I always want to have one to compare to the Vanishing Point. But otherwise, like I don't have a big list of things that I'm going, I need to see this pen and I need to see the new that pen. And it's just going to be mostly just, hey, let's see what's out there. Let's just have a good time talking with people, mingling around, you know, having some fun events and just really having a big hangout session. And it's going to be fun. So that's kind of my show in a nutshell. If you're there, you better come say hi to me. Like just come say hi. Don't be shy. I don't bite. You know, you know what I look like by now. I put my I'm on Instagram and things like that. Just come say, hey, say, hey, I listen to your show or I read your blog. And I would love to say thank you for all of your support. And I really appreciate anyone who who takes the time to come say hi. And if you need help at the show, like if you have questions, let me know. Like I'm super, super free to help anyone. Right. Since I'm not working at shows hardly anymore. I love helping people out, like answering questions. Hey, what about this pen versus that pen? OK, let's go check them out and see if I can help you out. So I love doing that stuff. So don't hesitate to ask if you see me, you know, wandering around the show. If you can get, you know, a few minutes of my time to help walk you around the show and show you things. I love to do that. Like that's like my favorite thing to do. So. That's kind of it. There is one product I want to approach specifically that I am going to going to check out. And it relates to our sponsor, Pen Chalet, which we'll talk about in a minute. So they've put up for presale, Myke. I don't know if you saw this. The Pilot Vanishing Point SE. Did you see these come across?

Brad: I only start from it being in our notes. OK, so.

Myke: I had thoughts on these.

Pilot Ink Changes

Myke: Before fully reading the description. And I was like, what what's going on here? Like, I'm a little concerned, Pilot. What are you doing with with the Vanishing Point here? And I put this in the show notes and in the show notes, the literal San Francisco pen show notes section in our document, because Pilot should be there at this show. Pilot of America's. And apparently at the last show, they had these there for people to review. So this is actually on my list, not from a shopping perspective, because they're not released yet, but from an inspection perspective. Not that I want one. But, Myke, I thought, based just on imagery alone, that this was the standard style of Vanishing Point limited edition pens. You know, the annual limited edition pens, like the gradients, for example, where it's essentially just a wrap around the brass barrel. And I thought, well, these are like the marble wraps. OK, they look great. Like, it's no problem. They look fantastic. These are just kind of, you know, just generic. And I've seen Pilot do these kind of swirly things before. And wow, they're three hundred and twenty dollars. That seems like a lot for just like a wrap pen. They're not. They are not that at all. They are acrylic wraps, if you will. So they're not just, you know, like the the gradients, for example, to where they're just like an like a layer of whatever they print that stuff on, you know, which is great. Like, it looks nice. It's completely fine. That's like what I'm staring at my vein, orange vanishing point right now. And that's all it is. Right. It's just like a wrap around there. But these are like actual acrylic bodies that are around the barrel now. And I see now why the price is more. And I want to see this in person because this is a different kind of upgraded vanishing point that they've done in the past. I mean, they're charging you for it. Like, don't get me wrong, like three hundred and twenty dollars. Like, it's no joke. But it's at least something different for the vanishing point. It's kind of like how we've seen in the past some smaller makers make their own barrels, you know, fittings for the vanishing point. And this is Pilot kind of doing it themselves. And I want to see what these feel like, what these look like. I have absolutely no interest in owning one for myself. Like, I have enough vanishing points. Like, if I do anything, I'll buy the Decimo for myself because it's at least different than what I have. But I think I need to be able to talk about this one. I want to see how it feels compared to some of the other vanishing points and what that material looks like. And, you know, did they do a good job on it? Which it's Pilot. I'm sure that they do. So I think it's interesting and I hope to get to check these out. So stay tuned for more on that. But yeah, it's certainly interesting. And I was certainly wrong about them in the beginning. I think it was just like the standard LEs with the basic wraps, not like a full-on acrylic exterior barrel. So it'll be cool to see. I still think it's over like a brass interior, right? They still have to have the interior to build these parts around. But I think it's going to be an acrylic. And I think it's going to be nice. So we'll see how they do.

Brad: Yeah, it doesn't say on the pensionite page. It just says body material metal.

Myke: Right. So like it confused me. Something inside.

Brad: Yeah, there's some cool still.

Myke: Yeah. So all of the vanishing points interior, like under like the color sections of the top and the bottom of the barrel is brass. Yeah. So that gives them the weight that they have, which is not, it's not a heavy weight, but it is basically a fully metal pin with something around it on the exterior. And this time the around it is more of an acrylic as opposed to more of just like a layer of, you know, whatever material they use for these wraps. There's like a thin, I hesitate to call them sticker. That doesn't do them justice because they're very high quality. Yeah. But it's different than a standard vanishing point.

Brad: It's like a thin sheet of whatever the material is, right? Yeah. And then they just, that's just adhered to a metal core. I wonder if these are thicker.

Myke: Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Right.

Brad: Because if they still have the metal core in them and now it's actually a piece of resin, I would assume that these are a little bit bigger. I don't know.

Myke: The picture, the picture doesn't really allude to that. So they look correctly sized from a traditional vanishing point. That's why like this is completely on my list to observe and to check out and to try to figure out what's going on here, but not necessarily to buy. Like that's a lot of my list is like, hey, I need to check out product X, right? I'm not saying it's on my list to go buy product X. It's like, hey, I need to go look at this. So I am more informed, you know, later about it.

Brad: Yeah. Because on the pen chalet page, they have like product specifications. They are exactly the same as the standard vanishing point. And I don't know. Right. Like could they really like even down to the weight? Like I don't know if this is like standard vanishing point specifications.

Myke: Yeah. What made me question my initial thoughts on this was seeing the price. I was like that price doesn't add up for what they're selling here. And then I was like, oh, when we had a discussion, it's like actual like these acrylic acrylics that they're using. So we'll see something. We will definitely follow up on that. See if it's see if it's a compelling product or not.

Brad: So talking about pen chalet, if you want to go and get one of these, check them out for yourself. You go check out our sponsor pen chalet because they have all of the products that you're looking for from your favorite brands. Pen chalet also running discounts all the time. Every couple of weeks, you can go and see different discounts on pen chalet. And also every couple of weeks, you'll be able to go and find new products. Pen chalet are always adding new stuff all the time. They've got the things that you're looking for and they do it at fantastic prices. They're very fast, very reliable customer service, free shipping on orders of over $75 in the US. And they sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. Pen chalet has low prices on high quality pens and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Now because you're a listener of this show, if you go to pen chalet.com, that's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password pen addict and you will get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at pen chalet as well as being able to feast your eyes on some special offers just for being a pen addict listener. Like what, Brad?

Myke: So before we even get to the special offer page, the new Iguana Blue Kaweco AL Sport. I just saw it. Good grief. Like that's just now launching. So I think it's in like pre-order phase. But I mean, what a knockout. Like that is just a beautiful blue and gold pen. It looks like, I mean, everyone knows that I love the Kawecos. I love the AL Sports. I love the regular sports. If this one was at the pen show, like I might come home with this one, right?

Brad: It's good looking.

Myke: Like it's that good looking. And, you know, they're not exactly cheap, but they're under 100 bucks, like 92 bucks. And you can use your pen addict offer code on that as well. So like that's a great looking pen.

Brad: $82.80. Yep. Yep.

Myke: So then you jump over and click on the podcast button and put in the code pen addict. I think there's two standout products here on this page. The Monteverde Super Black One Touch Stylus Tool Fountain Pen. Yep. It is crazily priced for a pen that is normally, normally people use this one for the rollerball or the ballpoint tip. And this is one of the style, barrel styles that uses the fountain pen cartridge rollerball tip. But this is actually the fountain pen model of it that is at a price that I have never seen before. And it's a pretty popular pen for that price. It's really great. Secondly, the Pineder Avatar. This is a really interesting Pineder pen for a price that is really crazy. Like we don't talk about the prices because y'all need to go look at them. And that's part of the deal here. We can't announce these prices because they're almost too good. And it doesn't make sense. We've got to get you to go there. You know? We've got to get you to go there. Come on. Get on. We've got to be hashtag sponsored. But yeah. Like that's a really good pen that I know a lot of people have enjoyed. That pen that is, it's just an unreal price. So yeah. Go check out everything that Pen Chalet's got to offer. Have your own pen show at home at penchalet.com.

Brad: Beautiful. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the code PENADDICT. Thanks to Pen Chalet for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Nib Storage Solutions

Myke: I want to continue on my nib talk from what I'm getting done at the San Francisco Pen Show and kind of translate that into some things I'm working on on the home storage front. So the longer you're in this hobby, the more you learn about yourself, what type of pens you like, how a fountain pen works for you on the page, and how you can make it better. And that inevitably leads you into custom nibs, right? Custom grinds, you know, pre-ground nibs, you know, stock stub nibs that a lot of companies offer. Anything different than the basics, you know, extra fine, fine, medium, broads that we normally get. And so when you've been around a while and you start to figure these things out, it's like, oh, I love this, but if I could adjust this nib, it would be even better. So then if you're someone like me, you end up with a wide range of nibs for a wide range of writing situations. And a lot of these nibs replace the stock nibs on some of your pens. So circling back to the Kaweco we just talked about, I have a ton of Kaweco pens. Probably, let's just say I have 10 Kaweco Sports. It's probably somewhere around there. I have two Kaweco nibs that I use all the time. I have an extra fine that is, that I move around, that it's really, really, you know, a really great writer. And then I have a broad, or I think, is it a medium? It might be a medium. It's a medium or a broad nib that I had ground into a cursive italic. So now I have these nibs because I never have 10 Kaweco Sports inked up. So I'll ink one up, move the nib from the last pen I used it into the current pen. And now I have a loose Kaweco nib. So what do I do? So I went through these on stream last week, maybe two weeks ago. And I probably had, again, like 10 loose Kaweco nibs. What do you do? What do you do with all these nibs? So that's what I'm trying to decide. So I'd love to hear from our listeners what they do. So I started to organize them. I basically just had them in a cigar box, just everything dumped in there, right? Which is fine. Like if I'm not going to use them right now, that's fine. But I also didn't know what I had. So I went through this whole cigar box on stream. And Myke, let me tell you, I found a couple of gold nibs in there that I didn't realize I had. I found some custom ground nibs in there that I must have swapped out at one time from one nib to the other and set it aside. And they ended up in this bin. And so I basically have like a little small fishing tackle box now that I've sorted all these nibs in.

Brad: That feels like kind of a good solution, like tiny little metal things, right? That's what they're made for, those boxes.

Myke: Exactly. So little small compartments, you know, you can pile all the nibs in there. The one thing I don't have is a way to track like the custom grinds, right? Like you spend a lot of money on these custom nibs and you want to be able to either one, use them or two, know where they are when you're not using them. Are they loaded into a pen? Which pen are they loaded into? Are they loose in your little tackle box? You know, and if they're loose in your tackle box, is it marked to where you know what's the grind on this nib and who did it, right? So there's obviously database options, spreadsheet options, notebook tracking options.

Brad: That's complicated because you've got to be able to see the grind. And like, I mean, you know, if you have five architect grinds by five different people, could you really tell just by looking at it which one is which? No.

Myke: No. And that's a problem. Like you got to go from the jump. So that's what I'm thinking about, you know, especially when I'm about to head to get some nib work done. You know, I'll have a couple of nibs.

Brad: Like, you know those little card catalog kind of things where like it's all got those little card dividers. What if you put the nibs in little envelopes?

Myke: Oh, yeah. That's a good idea.

Brad: And put them in something like that. And then you could just like basically have a little box that organizes them and you could just you could sort them by type and then you could write which one it is on the little envelope.

Myke: You could check them out. Right. You could check them out. Yeah. Right. And then you would have a log on the little thing. That's actually one idea, Myke, that did not come up on the stream. That's a very good idea.

Brad: So you've got to get that out of the box thinking. You know what I mean?

Myke: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Or in the box thinking, I guess. One of the one of the common ones was using the ink sample vials. Right. To hold the nib and then marking the exterior. Right. That's a good storage.

Brad: I've had nibs sent to me in those before. But that's to me too much physical space.

Myke: They're pretty small. They're pretty small.

Brad: But it's still like.

Myke: It's probably less physical space than like if you have this card catalog envelope system like you're talking about. Like you got to have a big enough envelope to be able to write on for like the checkout system. Which I'm actually like I'm all in on this. Like I'm thinking about this. I was like, this is really smart. That way I know where the nib is or the last place the nib was. Right. Because sometimes I might. There's. I have so many pens. You know, I might not use a pen for six months, but I might want the nib that I left in there. And where is it? And I can go look at this little card catalog entry and figure out, oh, it's in my Franklin Kristoff Mar 45. You know, keep me around. That's a super, super smart. Idea. So I like that. I'm going to proceed with that. I think then we'll talk about what else we can do with that. And I would love to hear any other solutions. So the second issue, it's a really a non-issue, but it's what can you do with all of the stock nibs? Right. So I've replaced a lot of stock nibs. So therefore, I have stacks of back to the Kawekos again. I have stacks of Kawekos stock nibs. You know what people were telling me to do, Myke, with all those extra nibs? Go on. Nib grind them myself.

Myke: What else am I going to do with them? Right? I don't use them. Maybe I try something on there. Maybe I experiment. I don't use them. I don't use them. I don't use them. I don't use them.

Brad: I don't use them. I don't use them. Yeah. Why not? Why not?

Myke: Like, I'm literally not going to put these... I want a Brad Dowdy signature nib.

Brad: That's what I want.

Myke: Now, I have zero interest in being a nib grinder on the regular. But what if I could play around with some of these nibs and figure out, you know, how to do, like, my own cursive italic type of grind, which is, like, one of my favorite grinds. Like, it's a simple... I say simple. You know, air quote simple. But it's not like an architect grind, right? It's a different level. It's one of the more base type of grinds, which I like. So maybe I, you know, try to manipulate these nibs a little bit on my own. Like, I'm literally not going to use them, but I'm not going to... It's like, you don't throw these away, right? So maybe I experiment. Maybe I can send Myke a fun little nib. Or, now that I'm really thinking about it, or maybe I just send them all to our friend Jim, Mr. Pen Sloth. Send him, like, five Kaweco nibs and tell him to stack five, number five Kaweco nibs into something and let him play around with that. So now I'm really thinking out of the box here. So that could be fun. So anyway, if you have a nib problem, Myke, call 1-800-FIX-NIBS. If you have a nib problem. No, if you're going to find yourself in this situation and have some solutions for either storage or what you're doing with these stock nibs, I would love to hear it. So hit me up. This is something I'm thinking about because my organization for nibs is poor, and I'm missing out on some of the fun in these nibs that I have here. So I need to organize them a little bit better.

Brad: This is good stuff. I really want you to try the nib grinding.

Myke: Yeah. That's, yeah. Like, I'm sitting here thinking about it. I was like, yeah, I have no idea what I'm doing. So it could be fun.

Brad: I really want you. I'd be fascinated to know how that goes. Like, I know this is not me saying that, like, I think this is, oh, you're going to do a terrible job. But it just, I just think it will be really interesting to see what you could do because you know what you want maybe more than other people might.

Myke: Well, I know the end result that I want. Can I get there? Right. Exactly. Yeah. I know where I want to end up. Is it possible for me to get there?

Brad: How cheaply can you get a kit, right?

Myke: Like, what do you need? The basic, I think, would probably be just like one of the small handheld Dremel tools, which I might already have. Oh, yeah. Like, less than 50 bucks.

Brad: That seems like the fastest way to destroy a nib, too.

Myke: Absolutely.

Brad: If you need to do that.

Brad: Why not? Like, what else are they going to do?

Myke: They're just sitting there. They're just sitting there.

Brad: Well, I hope you have fun at the San Francisco Pen Show. Yep. I look forward to it. I look forward to a full report on next week's episode. And then we will not talk about the San Francisco Pen Show for 11 and a half more months.

Myke: Allegedly.

Brad: Sounds fair?

Myke: Sounds fair.

Brad: All right. If you'd like to find links and information about this week's episode, you can go to relay.fm slash pennaddict slash 527, but they should be in your podcast app of choice. If they're not in your podcast app of choice, you should consider a different app. Would be my recommendation.

Myke: Yes.

Brad: Because they all do it now. All the good ones. Like, Spotify has links. Apple Podcasts has links. You should at least be using those. If, you know. But I recommend Pocket Cast, Overcast. There's two. Kind of one for iOS, one for Android, or Pocket Cast is on both. So, check those out if you haven't already. I don't know why I'm doing this new segment of Myke Blame's podcast apps. I'm not really sure where this has come from.

Myke: Well, I mean, you run a podcast business. Yeah, true. You're dialed into this.

Brad: True, true, true. If you want to find Brad online, I'm sure Brad will be good to follow on social media. I would expect Instagram is the best place over the next week. You can go to pennaddict on Instagram. Brad is dowdyism on Twitter. Brad streams usually a few times a week at twitch.tv slash pennaddict. And obviously you'll be able to, I'm sure, find a write-up at the San Francisco Ben Show over at pennaddict.com at some point. And of course, if you are a member, a pennaddict.com member, you get the refill newsletter. I know you'll be doing the picture essay, which I always enjoy. Yep, yep. That'll be good. I'm ready to roll, Myke. He's ready to roll, everyone. You watch out. All right. I'm Myke. I am YKE. Thanks to Trey Coffee and Pencholet for the support of this week's show. And until next time, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.