The Pen Addict 488/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	488
Title:	Your Warranty is Voided
Release Date:	November 18th, 2021
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 488
Audio File:	Audio Episode 488
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 488
Length:	5959 min <br />0.983 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 488, and today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley, I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Brad: Hey Myke, how's it going? Pretty good, my friend. How are you? I think good, to be determined. We'll see how this show goes. Alright, that sounds like a threat. Yeah, it does sound like a threat. That's what I'm saying. Threatening. That's the energy you want. I know, I am ready to get after you a little bit later in this episode. We're just going to hold that thought. It's in my head.

Myke: We were chatting before and Brad kept, I don't know what it is, but Brad keeps saying to me, like, I'm in trouble for something. And I don't, I have yet to understand what that might be. I guess we'll find out. We have some follow-up on a state of stationary conversation that came through from CY. Did you want to talk about this?

Brad: Yeah, so it was, I need to go, I'm actually going to go back and listen to that episode and take some notes, just kind of see what I said. Because, like, I wrote a whole bunch of notes for that episode. But then when you, when you're talking about it and thinking about it, you kind of lose track of, of how it's going, right? It's really hard to put all these things in your head and get it, get them out in a coherent fashion as I'm doing right now. Like, so wonderfully. But one of the bits of feedback I had was from CY. He says, I think y'all are missing the Chinese manufacturers on innovation. I would venture to say that hundreds of thousands of new fountain pen users have been introduced to the fountain pen world thanks to their innovations in manufacturing at scale. Pen BBS, for example, introduced lots of folks to higher end filling mechanisms for less than $50 loads of color options and now nib sizes too. On the Japanese side, I'd say that the Kakuno was industry changing as well on introducing kids to fountain pens. So, yeah, like, one of the points I made to him was when I was considering innovation and the discussion around innovation, I didn't consider scale, right? I was thinking more of design innovation as opposed to, like, manufacturing scale innovation. Because really the only manufacturing scale innovation we're seeing right now is, hey, we're buying a ton of gold nibs and they're costing us more than ever, so we're going to charge more for them. And that's our scale right now. It's like, I think about Pelican when I talk about this. It's like, they have to invest a lot of money in natural resources. And even at the scale that they purchase things, it's still, like, very, very expensive and those costs get passed on to us. But in the getting new users aspect, I like the idea that CY presents that, okay, are we getting more people using fountain pens because there is actually a scale, like in China, for example, to where the fountain pen market can be more widespread? And does that lead? And does that lead? I hope that leads to actually more design and technical innovation with scale innovation leading that way. And his point about PenBBS, you know, is similar. And that's why I like brands like Twisby, right, for their low-cost piston mechanism and Opus for a low-cost eyedropper filler mechanism, relatively low-cost, compared to, you know, like if Montblanc came out with an eyedropper, you know, it's going to be, you know, $700,000, where you can get an Opus eyedropper filler eyedropper for, you know, $100. And you can see if this type of system is interesting and works well for you. So, yeah, I think the scale is beneficial in that it gets the product into more people's hands. And the benefit of getting it into more people's hands is then you find out the small amount of people who it registers with on a different level, and they start thinking about products differently down the line, right? That's my hope for manufacturing at scale is not the scale itself, but the access it gives to someone in an office somewhere who gets an idea because they were part of the receiving end of this economy of scale, but then takes that and works it through their head and actually create something new and innovative down the line, you know, 10 years from now. So, like, I think that's a very positive thing.

Brad: So, that's the way I look at that. But other than that, like, the feedback was positive, you know, it was pretty tame. Like, I must have done a halfway decent job, which is a miracle in itself, Myke, that I didn't get raked over the coals for much that I said last week.

Myke: I thought you did a good job. Maybe you'd said a bunch of things that were wrong, but everyone just thinks you're right. Do you ever think about that?

Troubles with Feedback

Brad: Yeah, yeah, that's the, like, the person who yells the loudest is the rightest. Yes. Yeah, well, I'm always willing to admit when I'm wrong or when, you know, my opinion needs to be tweaked and changed. And this was a good perspective because it wasn't something that I considered, which is why...

Myke: I think CY came at it from just a completely different angle to what we were thinking about, but it's also very valid.

Brad: Right, and that's why I was saying, like, that's why I like to do this publicly, and that's why I keep myself accessible. Like, you can reach me because then we can have these conversations. It's like, hey, did you think about this? And I was like, you know what? No, I didn't. And, like, I enjoy having those conversations.

Myke: How's Nano Como going?

Brad: Wow. Wow. So, good up until a couple days ago. I've had some life events that have put a damper on my riding. It has stopped it cold for reasons that life is more important right now for me. But, like, right up until, say, Tuesday, I was going pretty good. Let me get my notes out here because I did a little calculation on Tuesday. Tuesday, because Tuesday was the 15th or the 16th, whatever. We passed the 15th, which is the halfway point of the 30 days of November. So, I've been through 15 days. I had missed three days up until that point, and I had written 16,500 words in 15 days. So, a little over 1,000 and something words per day, 1,100, whatever that means. So, like, I was feeling pretty good about that, and now I'm in, like, a rut of where I'll have, like, several zeros in a row. But, like, I'm not actually worried about that because I am actually enjoying this product. This product? Project.

Brad: Words are going to be hard today, Myke. You'll just have to keep me in line. What I'm finding is there is no way I'm stopping what I'm doing, right? Even though I've hit a wall as far as time goes right now, right? I don't have the two plus hours a day that I need to be able to, or the mental capacity to be able to sit down and transcribe a novel. That said, after, like, the first three days, and I mentioned this last week, I have come to, like, love doing this. I miss when I'm not writing. I think about, you know, like, if my day is going along and I'm very busy, and I think about, hey, I'm pretty soon going to have this window to write, and I'm going to enjoy it, right? Like, that's an interesting place to be for me. Like, it feels good, and I'm learning things as I go about my writing, about my time management.

Brad: I'm thoroughly enjoying the products that I'm using. You know, I've finally gotten into some non-fountain pens, right? Like, I use the Kaweco Sport Gel Roller, the Ombre Edition that we have talked about, you know, probably about a year ago. I use that for a segment in the book, in the writing. I've used a mechanical pencil for the first time. So, I use the Wingback Mechanical Pencil. It's something they sent me. It's a new product they got. I don't even know if it's on a Kickstarter or if they're just selling it directly. But it's kind of a shorter stainless steel mechanical pencil neural grip, and I love the pencil. But what I've learned from it is that my grip pressure is much, much more intense with a mechanical pencil because I'm pressing really hard to make sure the lines are dark enough, right? So, I can read them as I'm writing them. And then I stopped after two pages of that, which is about 600 words.

Brad: And normally, most pens will – I'll go for five pages, which is about 1,500 words. But my hand was so tired using the pencil. And, like, I learned this, right? Like, I use mechanical pencils all the time, but I'm not just, like, constantly writing, you know, sitting down and writing for 30 minutes to an hour in a row. What do you think the difference is?

Myke: Like, why do you think one type of thing hurts more than another?

Brad: In this case, I really think it's the darkness of the line on the page, right? I wanted to be sure I'm getting a dark graphite line.

Myke: Right, so you're pressing too hard.

Brad: Yeah. Whereas if I'm using a fountain pen, even if it's small, I'm using a blue or black ink most of the time.

Myke: Yeah.

Paper and Ink Contrast

Brad: And that, you know, that is visually easier on the eyes on this ivory-colored paper or cream-colored paper, I guess this probably is, than a graphite. So it comes from me wanting to see the words that I'm writing.

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: And you just kind of do it accidentally until I got about, I was really, I noticed it pretty quick. I was about halfway through the first page. I was like, huh. You know, like, the pencil itself is not bothering me, but my grip pressure is. So then I switched. I wanted to, I kind of doubled down. Right after that, I didn't go back to a fountain pen. I have the Tactile Turn Stealth pen that they sent me. We'll talk about that. Well, maybe I'll do a whole breakdown of that next week.

Brad: And it has a Pilot G2.7 millimeter refill. I was like, okay, let me go, let me see if my idea is correct, that it's just the pencil, and use a standard pen, right? A gel pen instead of a fountain pen. And I wrote three pages with that pen, no problem. So, and that had us a dark black ink. And it really was this idea of me forcing my hand onto the page to just get this darkness, you know? And it's like a subconscious thing, right? You don't notice you're doing it. Yeah. But your eyes are telling you as you're writing, it's like, I want to make sure this is dark enough for me to read. So, even if you're only writing with like 5% more pressure, anything like that changes how your hand and grip feels. So, yeah. I am going to try a wood case pencil soon just to see how that works for me. To see, am I going to have like the same feelings of like intensity on my hand pressure as I'm writing. Because I'll choose a little bit darker core, a little softer and darker core. And the wooden pencils are lighter anyway. And I can hold it a little bit further back. I don't know. I have a feeling that I'm going to get the same results, right? Because it's almost a subconscious writing.

Brad: Separate from that, I learned two things about some fountain pens that I use. One, my Nakaya Piccolo and Kikio Blue has a stock EF nib. I can get 400 words a page on an A5 page without like any pressure at all. So, the day I used that, I only wrote three pages. But it was 1,200 words, which is kind of crazy if you think about it. You look at it, you don't think it's that much smaller than some of the other pages. But in totality, by the end of the page, that's what it came to be, right? Yeah. I actually noticed it. But, you know, I'm just kind of freewheeling my word counts, right? I'm not counting my page. I did an estimate in the beginning. And I get just over 300 words a page, no matter what pen or nib size I've been using. But this one was noticeably smaller. So, I made a point to stop and count. And like the first page I counted was like 408 words. And the second page I counted was like 410 words. I was like, wow, I guess I get 400 words a page in there. So, I did allocate for that when I was adding.

Brad: The most recent pen I used, and this gets into the broader topic of what am I learning.

Brad: As I'm doing this, I'm learning I'm enjoying switching pens and inks a lot, right? But I don't do that on a day-to-day basis because I'm not writing this many words necessarily in a consistent fashion. So, the last pen I've used was the Pilot Custom 823.

Brad: And mine has a fine nib that I had ground into, a cursive italic nib. And this is the best pen I've used so far. It feels great in the hand when you're writing with it. It's like well-balanced. It's not too heavy. It's not too light. I don't use it posted, obviously. The vacuum mechanism. You're a monster. Yeah, I'm not a monster. I don't like that.

Brad: So, the vacuum mechanism gives it a little bit of added weight, but not too much to where it's a heavy pen. The grip section and barrel threads are all very soft. It's hard to describe how that feels, but it's a smooth, slightly tapered section. The grip threads don't get in the way. It's just exceedingly comfortable. And the nib, this is the first nib I've used, the first modified nib I've used, right? I've used all... Oh, what is this? So, it's a fine nib, but I had it ground into a cursive italic, right? So, it's a little bit squared off, but still small, right? Like, my words are small. I haven't taken any pictures of these recently, but I'll take... I have some catch-up pictures to put on with, like... I'm going to do the Nakaya and the 823 and the pencil, just to show some of the differences that I've had. Because I've been kind of keeping track of some of my favorites as I go. And this 823, I could write the entire book with this 823. I see why this is... I mean, we already know it's such a popular pen, and it's a pen that I rave about, and it's a pen that I love. But I love it because I heard so many good things from other people who were using it before me. And, you know, this is the Neil Gaiman pen that, you know, a lot of people talk about. Like, he writes some of his work with, and it's just good. It's just good. I dare to say it's probably one of the best bang for your buck pens on the market, even though it's, like, very expensive. You know, it's around $300, give or take, I believe. I don't know if the price has really increased. I just haven't looked. But based on all the other prices of other things increasing, this becomes almost best pen in any category for, like, a hardcore fountain pen user. Like, it's just that good, that quality of a product. So I've been loving that. So that's led me into kind of the last little topic on NaNoWriMo, and that's the using of things. And I am just searching. Not searching. Searching is the wrong word. I am just avidly going through my collection of pens and wanting to ink up literally everything that I have. But I ran into a problem, Myke. I pulled a trick straight from the Myke Harley playbook. I went to ink up a pen. I was like, oh, look at this.

Myke: I'm already unhappy with the categorization of this. You inked up the pen, and it was perfect, and you loved it, and you had a great time, and everyone was happy.

Brad: It didn't exactly go that way. So I was like, oh, I haven't inked up my 1911 standard tangerine. So the small 1911 tangerine in a while. And I've always loved that smaller size pen, right? It's a great writing pen. So I was like, okay, this one's going into the rotation. So when I got the 823, I pulled out the Montegrappa Mia, which is about to go in the rotation, and then I pulled out the 1911, which I wanted to ink up. So I unscrewed it, go to ink it up, and guess what I find? A converter stained with dried out ink that I somehow stored without cleaning, which I never, ever, ever do. I don't do that. And all I could think about was this is one of Myke's pens that he's left inked for a year. This is unacceptable. And just like now I know how you feel. I never have this, though.

Pen Storage Issues

Myke: This never happens to me where I'm like, oh, here's a pen that I like. Whoops, I left it for a year, and it's all dried up. This never happens. They all get used. They just have ink in them for a really, really, really, really, really long time. But they get used. So this doesn't, I don't have this sensation of, oh, no, it's all dried up.

Brad: Well, I mean, this sounds like a location argument to me, Myke. Like, mine was actually put away. Yours is theoretically, I mean, like, air quote used because it's not put away. It's in the big block of madness.

Myke: That's the life hack, isn't it? You don't put, never put them away. And then they get used. Then they don't dry up. You see?

Brad: So right before the podcast today, I tried to clean it out as best I can. So it's sitting there soaking for me to check back out after. I had to disassemble the converter. It was just all caked up and gunked up. That never happens to me.

Myke: The only pen that has ever happened to me, genuinely, is the Pikachu Lummy Safari, where I had, I think it was the Pilot yellow ink in it, and it just all crusty and stuff, and I didn't want to do it. And it's like, I was like, oh, I don't want to. And I did do it. I cleaned it all out, and I put one of the Sailor Ink Studio inks in it instead, which is better to it. So I have had that. So I will say this. The only time I've ever had that where it's like it's got all dried and crusted and terrible and gross.

Brad: And that's funny that you say that because this was an orange ink. It actually might have even been Fire on Fire, and those yellow, orange, red inks are going to be, are the crusty ones, right?

Myke: Yeah, Fire on Fire can get like that. Mont Blanc Lucky Orange gets like it too, so I have to keep my eye on it.

Brad: Oh, that's a different level. That's a different level. That's like it's the ink is basically solid. Yeah, it's the greatest ink in the world, like crusty-wise, compared to Lucky Orange. And I use Lucky Orange. It's great, but you don't use that pen for a week. It's just, it's growing stuff.

Myke: Yep. Nice. Yeah. Tasty.

Brad: So that's my update. I actually have, I'm staring at three new pens I want to ink up. It's fun that I'm thinking about like future review pens, right? Like I always try to test things out, some before I review them. So this is a good way with the Nano Como, copying, inking up pens, you know, testing out new inks and pens as I go.

Myke: I think you're finding out something really interesting here, to be honest, which is like, I don't know if we would have suggested that the custom 823 would have been so good for this job. Like this is like a different thing that you're working out here, I think, which is like endurance, like for endurance, which is like a different, could be an interesting thing to include into reviews.

Brad: Like, yeah, and like I mentioned, I mentioned last week that like my physical endurance is changing as I go through this. Like I remember the first few days, I would just complain about my wrist and my grip and my fingers. And, you know, you know how if you grip something for too long, like you can't, you know, release out your fingers, they get all stiff. And like the physical aspects of my hand have improved to better handle my writing.

Physical Endurance Changes

Myke: You're becoming stronger every day. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Unstoppable. Yep. All right. This episode is brought to you by Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, refills, inks, converters, accessories, everything you're looking for, they've got it. And they are an authorized dealer of all of your favorite brands. Pen Chalet believe in giving you the very best service that they can. So they make it fast, they make it reliable, and they do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the US, but they sell internationally. You can ship all over the world. And they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their high-quality products that they offer to you at the lowest prices that they can. Pen Chalet is running special discounts twice a month, close-up specials as well, as well as adding new styles of products. You're always going to find new pens, new stuff over at Pen Chalet, so it's always worth checking back in. So go right now to PenChalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, and click the podcast link at the top of the website, and enter the password Pen Addict for this week's special offers, and also to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet. What's jumping out to you this time, Brad?

Brad: Big Bennu party over here at Pen Chalet. Oh, Big Bennu Energy over at Pen Chalet. Big Bennu Energy. So there's several models that I love here. My favorite Bennu model is the Euphoria, which I have reviewed on the blog. Wow. That one is going to be one that I will be inking up to use in the book. These pens, they really are very striking. They're not for everybody.

Myke: Yeah, but they don't look like anything else. If you want to have a pen, like, genuinely, if it's something you want is I want to have a pen that looks like a pen that nobody else has, you can go get a Bennu.

Brad: Yeah. I tell this story a lot, and I'll share it again. When I would work at pen shows for Van S, and we'd have tons of ink and tons of pens, if we had Bennu pens, I would sell more Bennu pens to people than all the other pens combined. It's just, it's a really cool pen that comes in all these wild materials and wild shapes. So, like, the Briolette is just, like, a crazy price right now. It's kind of the smaller torpedo-shaped one. And then that goes in huge contrast to the Grand Scepter, which may be one of the most popular Bennu sizes.

Myke: This is my favorite design of them, to be honest.

Brad: Yeah, this one passed through my hands, and I sent it on to Sarah, but when I got it, I was like, I could get into this. And then I kept the Euphoria for myself to review. It's actually the most traditionally shaped, but has all the Bennu wild features in there as well. And then they have the Bennu Supreme, which I've never tried, which is their more, the most normal-looking, and I mean that in the best way possible. These pens are wild. These are great prices. They are eminently enjoyable. I love my Bennu pen, and I think they're fantastic. One more thing. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, Myke, the Stipula Netto Patented Filling System Pen Care Filling Ink Pot that you can get at just an amazingly low price.

Myke: So, if you want to check these out for yourself, go to P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T, penshalet.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict. So, thanks to Pen Chalet for the continued support of this show and RelayFM. So, how's knock shipping going?

Brad: It was going great up until this week happened. I had finally, I had gotten down to like 150 orders, which I'm pretty happy about. And then I just hit the wall, what, Tuesday, Monday, Monday maybe is when I, or whatever, one day early this week. I was like, I finished my day. I was like 150 left. I was like, yeah, I can probably get these done like in the next week, 10 days. And then I've just hit the wall since then. But I should have time this weekend to catch that up. And I have received the kind of final batch of goods from the factory. So, I'm going to have some big inventory updates for a couple of products, like a couple hundred more cases, like Lookouts and Pencil Cases, some things that sold out early.

Myke: So, this is stuff that you had to pay to get released. Is that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brad: So, it was already built and they just hold it. Like, it's just, it's how that business works. So, yeah. No, they just hold it until I build the whole order. They go ahead and build everything, save it's 500 cases. And then I'll say, okay, ship me 150. And then in two weeks, they'll send me whatever I want. They'll just send me whatever after the big batch is made. So, yeah. So, I have those in. And so, what's going to happen is once I finish this round of shipping and get to just, you know, a handful of orders coming in a day left, I will re-inventory the whole shoot and match. And we'll kind of have one more big round of final send-off stuff. And then, you know, we'll see where we're at from there. That might be the time where, you know, the site, you know, everything is listed as sold out. And then we'll have, like, maybe a last hurrah in Atlanta next year or something like that. With anything else I can scrape up and, you know, all the things, all the one-offs and two-offs that it doesn't really benefit to put on the website at this point. So, it's – everything's been going really good as far as that goes. You know, it's just put me behind because there was so much love for all of our cases. And I appreciate everyone – appreciate everyone's kind words and hope everyone's enjoying their cases. Yes.

Myke: It says you're never going to get rid of it all. Every time you sell out, there's always going to be more. You're just going to be – you're going to be closing this company out for the rest of your life.

Brad: I know it's not going to happen until next year. So, it's going as good as I hoped other than just, you know, the shipping is taking a long time. And I appreciate – everyone's patience has been excellent.

Myke: It's slow. It's just a slow process when you've got one person shipping out hundreds of orders. Like, it's the time.

Brad: Yeah. And this isn't, like, a prepackaged good that I can just do in bulk. I still, like, literally inspect every case. Right? That's the time process. That's one of those proud things about Nock that we did is how we do our QC. And it's just time-consuming. Right? It just is. Like, I'm physically touching and inspecting every case still to this day. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Previous Sponsor Discussion

Myke: So, last week, we were sponsored by Kenro Industries. And we were talking about the – You were sponsored by them. No, we both were. I mean, it all came around and went around by the end for me anyway.

Myke: And they were showing off the Estabrook Pink Sands. This is not part of that. Like, the reason we're talking about it is because I have one. You purchased one. I purchased one because I was really intrigued by it and I wanted to see it. And there were so few of them, I was kind of like – Well, they only made 50, right? And I wanted to show – It's all sold out now, I believe. Yeah. It's sold out that day, I believe. I ordered it on Wednesday and it arrived on Friday, which I do not understand how they did that.

Brad: I was shocked to see this in the show notes today. Put it that way.

Myke: I did have a funny thing too where it kind of went missing for a few hours. So it was FedEx delivering it. And they said they'd delivered it, but they had not delivered it. Like, they said they left it outside the front door. It was not left outside the front door. And then a few hours later, like, you know, I checked the mailbox and stuff. A few hours later, Idina checked the mailbox again and a slip had arrived in the mailbox and said it was left to someone else. It was really weird. I don't know what happened. I feel like maybe the driver had a target and just said that they delivered it and then just brought it later on in the day, which is strange.

Brad: That's just how fast it was. Like, it broke the space-time continuum.

Myke: It shipped out on Wednesday, I think, which is what. But the reason I was concerned about this specifically is there was only 50 of them. If one was lost, there was only 49, right? So it was like a bit of a concern. So I would say overall, like, body of the pen kind of looks, feels as I would imagine. It's like my other SD, you know? Like, I don't know what they call their acrylic kind of pattern, but it's kind of like, I don't know, like broken glassy type. Yeah, kind of mosaic-y. Mosaic is a good one, yeah. So it's got that similars to it. The color is very vivid.

Myke: I would say it's definitely more of a coral pink, like the body of the pen itself. And it feels great. But the reason I bought this is for the nib, right? So the nib has got this coating on it, which it's difficult to describe. Like, it's a kind of rosy, goldy pink color, I think is probably the best way to describe the color of the nib itself. And so, yeah, it looks fantastic. I mean, and it works just as great as my other rest of work. And so I was just really intrigued by this nib. And it honestly looks to me like it's kind of like a, I don't know if this makes any sense, but it's like they made the nib out of some kind of pink material. Like how a gold nib looks like it's made out of gold, right? Right. This looks like it was made out of something. It doesn't look like they painted it. It doesn't look like it was like energized, you know, or whatever. Like it really has a look to it that it was made from something. And that something just so happened to be pink in color. Yeah. So it's very impressive.

Brad: That's a very positive comment I take. Yeah. A takeaway. That's a very positive takeaway, I think. Yeah.

Myke: Like it doesn't look like it was plated. It doesn't look like it was colored. Like what is it? Rhodium? Is that it? Remedium? That's like a, what am I thinking of here?

Brad: I mean, there's rhodium plating on like the pins that I get, like my Nakaya that's sitting right here. Like it's anything that's silver looking on a gold nib is usually rhodium plated, but it looks natural.

Myke: I feel like I might have had like a Franklin Kristoff nib once, which was black. And it looked like they'd applied something. Yes.

Brad: Traditionally, a lot of the black nibs. There's been some improvements in that technology in that process. But yeah, when you and I were initially buying black nibs, you know, after about the fifth time you've used them or cleaned them, you start to get like gray and it like starts to rub off and things like that.

Myke: It was more really like, because again, I don't know how, I've only had this for a few days, really. I don't know how it's going to hold up over time. I'm super intrigued. You know, there was like a care note in there where it's like, all right, just be gentle when you clean it. Don't use like shimmery inks or whatever. Mm-hmm. Which honestly, I feel like every pen says that, right? And I understand, right? Because like the margin of what is a shimmery ink, you know, like is wide. And so I think it's probably just in everyone's best interest to be like, I'm not covering that. Your warranty has been voided. If you're putting solid things into the ink, like this isn't, I'm not going to, you know, this isn't for me. So I don't hold that against any pen maker that says that, to be honest.

Myke: So yeah, but like with those, with those, like the black nibs that had in the past, it looked like someone had put something on the nib. You know what I mean? Yes. Like it was being coated. Oh, totally. This does not look like a coating at all. That's what I find so impressive about it. So I'm really intrigued. Obviously, this was difficult and or expensive because they only had 50 of them. And I feel like that was 100% a thing of like, this is how many nibs we can get. Like the nib care card was from Heinz nibs. They put that in the box, right? Right. So that came from them explicitly. So yeah, I chose a Sailor Ink Studio 731, but I'm not sure this was the right choice. So it's like a- Isn't that an orange? No, it's like a vividy pink. It's like a pinky. But I'm not sure. I think this might be a contrasting color pen, actually. Okay, sure. It's so pink. I don't think I want pink ink, but I don't know what to have yet. Like for example, my 1911 Wicked Witch is all purple, right? Right. And I have a green ink in it. Yeah, that's exactly what I do. Wicked Witch. But I think I might go for maybe a really bright blue or yellow with this. So it's like corally still. I'm thinking of getting ink which is themed for this rather than matching. I don't think the matching is working for me from a visual perspective.

Brad: Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Theme as opposed to match. Theme appropriate ink. But yeah, it does match, but it's not matchy-matchy, right? It's a coordinating ink.

Myke: And also because there are technically two pink colors going on here. The body and the nib, they match, but they're both two different types of pinks. And we're adding a third. It's too many. It's too many pinks. Yeah, I can see that.

Brad: It's starting to clash. Yeah, I think your bright blue would be good. I think so too.

Myke: There's one of the Sailor Ink Studio inks that we have, which is a really bright blue. I love it. Let me see if I can work out which one. I don't know if it's in my, it's in one of my kind of, the 141 is really beautiful. It's like, it looks like the ocean, like a bright blue ocean.

Brad: So yeah, might go with that one. That's the call. That's the call. Well, good. I'm glad you like it. Every time I click on the links, I'm like, man, that's a good looking pen. It's a good looking pen.

Myke: I'm genuinely really happy that I had the curiosity. Yeah. Because, you know, they sponsor the show. And so, you know, I suggest take it with a grain of salt. But what I'm about to say, I really love these Estabrook pens. I think the Estee is an excellent pen. And so I do recommend, like, if you find one that you like the aesthetics of, it's worth going in on. I think they're great. And I think they're doing really interesting stuff. Which actually brings me to something that I wanted to ask you about. I saw a review for the Edison Gold Spot Newark Orion Nebula Diamondcast, which is quite possibly the longest name of any pen that I have ever seen. And that's because there seems to be quite a lot going on here. Like, there's, like, three different companies that have come together to produce this pen. That's exactly right. And what I wanted to ask you is, the diamond cast material that this pen is made from, is that the same material that Edison is, that Estabrook is using?

Brad: That's correct. So the diamond cast is from McKenzie Penworks. And that's who makes the diamond cast material. So, you know, there's different, you know, just like if you have a Brooks, you know, primary manipulation, you know, there's different recipes. You know, there's just different recipes for, you know, each diamond cast material and different, you know, concoctions and things. I just, I don't know why.

Myke: I thought that diamond cast was an Estabrook thing. I didn't know that they were buying it from someone. But that makes a lot of sense because it's, comparing it to Jonathan makes, because Jonathan makes his materials for lots of different pen manufacturers. Right. I just didn't know that. I didn't, I don't know if I've been sleeping on this, but I don't think I'd heard of McKenzie Penworks or it hadn't logged in my brain.

Brad: Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. And maybe I didn't explain it well enough to you just to say that, yeah, this is, this is like someone making this product. And then other, you know, pen manufacturers using their products to manufacture their pens, just like, you know, what the, the Tanzanite Estabrook I have. I forget the exact name of it that I, that I, that I really love. One of the first ones that they did in the first batch was kind of a teal green and blue one, which came out great. And then this one, the Orion Nebula, which is in the, the Edison Newark, which is Goldspot's model. So yeah, there's three different things going on with this pen. It is one of the best pens I've bought in a long time for my personal use. So like, this is like, again, this is kind of like Myke saying, Goldspot sponsors the Pen Attic blog. And, but I bought this pen from them, you know, regular price.

Myke: Yeah, like these pink sands, I paid my own money for that. They didn't send me that. Which is kind of funny. I ended up probably in the hole, honestly. Yeah, right. On that one.

Estabrook Pens Review

Brad: Right.

Brad: Yeah, no doubt. So yeah, like I just purchased this as normal. You know, I have a 10% off code at Goldspot. And like, that's what I, that's how I got this pen. But it's just cool. One of the reasons I bought it, aside from the looks, which we'll, we'll circle back around, because that's what I think gets a lot of people, is the shape of the pen. So I love a pen model called the Edison Beaumont. It's one of their original models. And it's a smaller sized pen. Not a small pen, but in the scope of all of their fountain pen shapes, it's one of the smaller ones. That's not considered like a mini size pen. It's thinner, shorter, lightweight. And the Newark is just a slightly bigger version of the Beaumont. And I had some comparison pics in the review. And you can see in there, both lightweight pens. And having that shape that I know works so well for me, and then ramping it up with a material like the Orion Nebula, I tried not to buy this pen. Like, this is how my process goes these days. And I talk about it a lot, is like something comes on my radar, and I like fall in love with it immediately. And then I just, I don't do anything, right? I just think about it for a while. I don't run and push the buttons like you did last week. Jamming buttons as fast as you can.

Myke: Sometimes you have to do things for science. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you do.

Brad: So what I did was I actually bought one of these to give away for Pen Act members. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to buy one for me too.

Myke: The material, the images that you have is really beautiful. It really, the colors look so great.

Brad: Yeah. Like, this is kind of one of those pens that just ticks all the boxes for me. It's kind of like, it's really got everything. This is why, also why I love like steel nibs. Like, I don't need a gold nib to feel like the most satisfaction I can get in a pen having a gold nib. Like, I can love a pen even if it has a steel nib. Like, it's not a downgrade to me because the writing experience really, really works for me with steel nibs and the firmness of steel nibs. And it's, the material is one of those that you just have to stop and look at the pen every now and then because, like, you'll be writing away and it's like, oh, let me spin this around in my hands and check out all the magic that's happening here. It's a really spectacular material in a pen shape that I love. And, you know, just the way it feels when I write. So, yeah, it was an all-around winner for me personally. I'm a big fan of this pen. This is going to be, this is a, I'm trying to think of all the pens I've bought this year, which is not that many. Like, there's two that really stand out as kind of like the top of the heap and like heavy rotation pens. And that's this pen and then the Blizzard of Visconti Homo Sapiens.

Myke: This is a big surprise to me. I mean, like, just because of the way you described it, it feels like it might have been too small and or light for me.

Brad: Yeah, a lot of people don't like the Beaumont shape because it's smaller and lighter. But I've always leaned towards those smaller, lighter pens. And despite the fact I was just raving about how the 823 writes, which is, I'd say that's above, that teeters on the large size of pens. It's maybe not like the biggest, but, you know, that's enjoyable too. But there's just something about these smaller pens that really clicks with me. And the Newark shape is definitely one of them.

Myke: Yeah, I think this is cool because I feel like I don't hear about Estabrook pens as much anymore. So, like, I'm really pleased to hear that you've got a new one that speaks to you. Or Edison pens. That's what I meant, Edison pens. I get those Edison, Estabrook, and Estee. Trust me. It must be worse for you, for sure. Like, I mix those up so much. Yeah, I feel like I haven't heard about a new good Edison in a while. Like, they were all the rage, you know, a number of years ago. Because they were doing something that really nobody else is doing. They were, like, the innovator of the acrylic.

Brad: And filling systems. Like, Brian Gray really, like, leaned into unique filling systems. And still offers all those unique filling systems.

Myke: One day I'll get mine repaired. One day I will get mine repaired. But what I wanted to ask you about for this pen, the Newark Orion Nebula Diamondcast, is about the price?

Brad: Yes. It's a premium with the diamondcast material. So, the stock, what you would think of as a stock Edison, is, like, the basic acrylics, like you were talking about. So, the stock acrylics, which are still, like, beautiful, just standard acrylics, are $169, which is a great price, honestly. Nice. For, like, custom-made, like, you know, small batch manufacturer pens with steel nibs, like, that's the price, right? That's what this range, you see a lot of people in this price range. It's a great price. So, the upgrade is, what, so that's $65, $66 of an upgrade. That's, you know, a third of the original pen costs or so. Is it worth the upgrade? I mean, for me, it wasn't even in consideration. Although, before this one released, I almost bought the green one. There's a green Newark and just the standard acrylic. Because I like, again, it's a shape thing for me. It's a pen shape thing. But, yeah, like, you have to think about the Diamondcast Premium. Because it's an ultra-premium price point. For this pen, the Estabrooks are an ultra-premium price point. Like, they go from, like, what, $170 to around $300, if not more. Because it's a bigger, wider pen, right? The Estabrooks, especially the Oversize, it's a wider diameter, longer pen. So, it requires more material, right? So, there's an even bigger percentage upgrade. So, that's just a personal thing. You have to decide, is it worth the upgrade? So, this one was $225. And, like, I mean, everyone's different. I didn't blink. Like, it was a non-consideration for me. The difference in price. Like, I just thought it was just easily worth it. Like, not even questioning any... To me, they were the same price. If that makes sense. I don't know how to explain it other than that. It felt worth that extra premium for that material. And that was the least of my consideration, was that price difference.

Myke: All right. This episode is also brought to you by our friends over at Squarespace, the all-in-one platform to build your online presence and run your business. From websites and online stores to marketing tools and analytics, they have got you covered. They do this by combining cutting-edge design with world-class engineering to make it easier than ever for you to establish your home online and make your ideas a reality. Squarespace has all of the tools that you need to create a beautiful, modern website. You start with one of their beautiful, professionally designed templates, use drag-and-drop tools to make it your own, and customize the look and feel, settings, all the products you have on sale, basically everything with just a few clicks. And all of Squarespace's websites are optimized for mobile as well, so they're going to look great on every device. You get free unlimited hosting, top-of-the-line security, there's nothing to install, patch, or upgrade. You get access to 24-7 customer support, you can grab a unique domain name, and take advantage of SEO and email marketing tools, and so much more. Squarespace can let you do anything you want to do with a website, whether you want to announce an upcoming event, promote a business, publish a blog post, publish your artwork, or even just take the idea that you have and give it a place online so people can find out more about it. Squarespace has everything you need to make this a reality. It's why I've used them. It's why Brad's used them for a decade, over a decade, both of us. So it really is just the place to go if you want to put something online. Go to squarespace.com slash penaddict, and you can sign up for a free trial today with no credit card required. Then when you're ready to launch, use the offer code PENADDICT, and you'll get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash penaddict, and when you decide to sign up, use the offer code PENADDICT, and you will get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for their continued support of the Pen Addict and Relay FM.

Brad: All right, I did a review on my Squarespace blog earlier this week, Myke. Like the Diamondcast from last week, as passionate as I am about talking about that, Edison, X, Goldspot, Newark, Orion, Nebula, Diamondcast, Myke, I love gel ink pens, especially microtip gel ink pens from Japan, and I want the Secura Balls line to be one of the next great pens, but it's not there. It's not there.

Myke: I hadn't realized until you said it. When you said it out loud, I realized how much I hate the word ball sign. It's really bad. It wasn't so much of an issue when I read it, but when it said out loud, I do not like it.

Brad: Yeah, and this is a ball sign ID, right? So that's a whole different, you know, You go to ID the ball sign,

Myke: I've always lost the point, you know?

Brad: Yeah, yeah. But this is Secura's, once again, repeated attempts at getting, breaking ground in the gel ink pen market. A very tough competitive landscape that is dominated by Pilot, Uniball, Zebra, and Pentel, right? I don't know that anyone would argue that those aren't the top four gel pen manufacturers, and then you have this whole subset of manufacturers that is just kind of picking at the crumbs of whatever those big players leave behind. You know, your Secura's, your Oto's, your Ray Mays, your whoever. You know, and I kind of want one of these pens to make a difference in, you know, kind of like nip at the heels a little more. This one's close. It's not there. I think there were some inconsistencies in the refill, but they have changed. They have made a barrel that works, and they have a refill and an idea for the inks that works, right? The ball sign ID uses...

Myke: Ball sign.

Brad: Ball sign. Lennon toolbar. Ball. It uses the mix of black plus a color ink, right? So that's black and purple, black and red, black and brown, black and green, black and blue, right? That's a very cool thing to do these days, and it's a .4 tip, and it writes really well. It kind of writes like a Uniball RT1 refill, and it just needs a little bit of tweaking. Like, it's a little expensive for a little bit lower quality barrel. I feel like they do something which none of their competition does, really, and they have a metal clip, but then they don't match the nose cone of the pin with that metal same aesthetic, right? Some pins have a plastic clip and a plastic nose cone. Like, that's fine. Some pins have a metal tip and a metal nose cone where it matches. This has a metal clip and then a plastic nose cone that doesn't look like it fits the quality of the rest of the pin. So, like, I really overanalyze these cheap jet-link pins because I think the market is interesting. It's like, if Secura could, like, tighten this up, like, five or ten more percent, like, this could be, like, a really good, like, competitive pin. I don't think it's there yet, but you can tell by how I talk about it and how I review it that I really want them to do something to, like, you know, like, poke the bear at the top, if you will. But, I mean, Secura is a big enough company on their own for their other products. So, this is, like, a sub-product for them, almost. Like, they're, you know, they're the Secura Pigma Micron people, right? That's the whole thing. Like, that's kind of their deal. And I'm sure they sell, like, tens of thousands more jelly roll pins than they do this pin, right? Because that's what the kids buy. But this is, like, that office supply core pin that all the other competition has on lock. And this is kind of their attempt at that. And I just see it, like, it's close. And, like, I want these types of things to continue to, like, be a thing and improve. I wouldn't rate it above any of the other pins that I mentioned yet, but, man, it's close. Like, it's getting there. It's like, come on, Secura. Like, I'm trying to pump you up here. It's like, you're close. You are really, really on the right path here. But there's some changes you need to make.

Myke: All right, let's finish out today's episode of a couple of Ask TPA questions. The first one comes from Nibs On Point, who asks, I just found my first fountain pen from what was 30 years ago. I remember Myke's first fountain pen from the show, which was the yikes fountain pen of all knowledge, in case you like a memory. What was Brad's first fountain pen?

Brad: I wouldn't bet my last dollar on this being my first, because I think I had, like, a Platinum Preppy. You know, I tried, like, the Platinum Preppys and the Pilot Varsities, like, your disposable types, before when I was just testing things out. But the first one that I remember kind of reviewing and kind of trying to decide if this is a thing, and I remember not even, like, totally liking it, at the time, was this Lamy Safari, and it had, like, this chartreuse barrel. I think it might have been a limited edition at the time. And the review's up on the blog. I'll have to go find it, but it has to be that pen. And there were fountain pen reviews before that, but that's the one that sticks in my mind as my first, because at the time, like, the Platinum Preppys or the Pilot Varsities, like, didn't really leave, like, a mark on me, right? But the Safari did, because at the time, I didn't get it, right? It didn't, like, click with me. And, like, I'm sure that review says as much. Like, there was no, like, oh, my gosh, this is it type of thing. It was like, okay, y'all wanted me to try a fountain, like, a real fountain pen. I did, and it's a pen, and I'm just going to stick with my gel pens, I think was probably kind of how the review went. And this is me not even recalling it from probably, I don't know, it's probably been 10 years ago at this point. But I'll find it and put it in the show notes. What was the model name again? I don't know. It was, like, this bright yellow green. It's, like, a chartreuse-y looking color, but I don't know the official name of it. I probably just did, like, Lamy Safari fountain pen review. So we'll just have to look at the date. But that's what I consider, like, my first fountain pen. And I don't have that one anymore. I ended up giving it to someone. I kind of wish I did have it, but not a big deal. Do you want me to read this?

Myke: It's not very long.

Brad: Yeah, yeah. All my reviews were really short back then. Okay, go ahead.

Myke: So many readers of this blog are fountain pen fans and have been trying to get me on the bandwagon for the longest time. This is from November 24, 2008. Well, the time has come to get my seat ready because I am really enjoying this Lamy Safari I ordered from JetPens a couple of weeks back. Fountain pens always look beautiful and interesting to me, but I had stayed away mostly because I felt I didn't have much use for them. What good was spending that much money on a pen that was just going to sit in a drawer and collect dust? RIP. If you couldn't tell by the majority of my reviews, I'm a micro tip ink pen fan. Fountain pens are big and messy, right? But the more I read about them and the more I thought that I could get proper use out of one and the Lamy Safari looked right up my alley. In looking at the models available, this lime green body with chrome clip, that's the model, really caught my eye. And as good as it looks on a web page, it's even better looking in person. The plastic barrel is sturdy and looks like it could take a pretty good beating and any other concern I had with fountain pens. I also wasn't sure what nib size to order, but this one came with a fine nib and that's working out great for me. I think any nib size larger than that would be out of my comfort zone and the next one I order, yes, there will be more, will have an extra fine nib. As expected, the ink flow is excellent and the writing experience couldn't be smoother. I'm going to have to tweak my writing style a bit to get the best use out of the pen. Spoiler alert, Brad, you didn't looking at the image.

Myke: I'm going to tweak my writing style a bit to get the best out of the pen because one thing I found is that my normal writing style and angle, my south to north strokes, come across the nib a bit and I lose the ink on occasion. Ah, you may have changed it a bit. Nothing I can't correct and heck, maybe having a fountain pen will make me want to work on my cursive handwriting again. Overall, I couldn't be happier with my first non-disposable fountain pen purchase and unfortunately for my wallet, I think there will be more to come. Oh, little did he know.

Brad: What a review from young Bradford.

Myke: Man, that's like November 24th is next week. That's kind of fun.

Brad: 2008, 2008. So that was one year into the blog because the blog started a year before that, like right around that day.

Myke: 13, oh my God, 13 years ago. I'm pleased we found that.

Brad: Yeah, we're coming up on the 14th anniversary. I want to say like the anniversary date is like November 29th. Right. So this will be the 14th anniversary coming up here in a couple weeks. So yeah, that was good. That was good. Like I was more positive on it than I recall. I got most of the details right except I was a little bit more positive there that there would be more in my future and you know, it escalated. Yeah, it escalated a little bit.

Myke: And TJ asks, this is a longer question. Now that I'm almost a year into my first fountain pen ownership, I realized that I'm starting to need to learn different things. For example, I've gotten to the point now where I have a lot of pens, a lot for me, about six, and I don't use them all every day. Recently, I saw some articles that said you should store fountain pens horizontally and definitely not with the nib or tip pointed down. Is that accurate? I'm willing to believe it, but I had assumed that storing them nib down made it easier for the ink to stay in the nib so it would be more likely to write after not being used for a while.

Brad: Yeah, logically that makes sense, right? So nib down would lead to that, but it leads to other issues as well, such as like pooling in the feed to where if you have it stored nib down that when you get the pen out to write it, it's going to really just kind of like spew all over the page. So horizontally is the best. You will get people to swear by other ways, but I don't store my fountain pens that are inked any way other than horizontally.

Myke: I store them nib up.

Brad: And Myke stores them nib up, which you're just like, that's fine too. Like there's no wrong answer, but you're going to have to manage things. Yep. Sometimes my pens need a minute, right? Right. So Myke has to plan on priming his pens. Like if he picks one up that he hasn't used in a week, it's probably going to take a second to start writing, right? Like that's the sacrifice that he makes for that. If you leave them nib down, you're going to have to like, you might want to start on a paper towel to suck out all the ink that's just kind of pooled in the feed. Like it's not going to run out the nib or anything like that. That's not going to be the problem. But the problem is you might just have like a heavy application of ink like for your first few lines because it's not balanced.

Myke: One of the things that made me comfortable to store my pens like this was we were at one pen show. It was one of the early pen shows. A very good friend of the show, Thomas Hall, he was showing me a pen and it wasn't starting. And he aggressively shook it. Yeah. Like took the end of the pen and just put the cap on and just one big like bang, right? Like just like, ah. Yeah. And then it started writing. And then I was like, well, if Thomas is going to do it, I'll be fine to do it.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I'd say 80% of people are going to say horizontally. And then there's room for other options for other reasons. Yeah. I don't like how much space they take up when they're horizontal. Yeah. Right.

Myke: That's why I store vertical. And if you are going to store vertical, you should store vertical up, nib up. Honestly, to be honest, most of the vertical storage solutions if you're using fountain pens only work that way because the cap is too large to go inside the slot that they've created in there.

Brad: Right. Right. Yeah. I would have, nib down would be like only in case of emergency. Like that actually makes me nervous to store a pen. I'll tell you what I do. It would make me anxious. A nib up I could do.

Myke: My pen well. My pen well craftsman that I use. But that's like, because that's in use. I don't, when I'm finished writing notes, I take it out and put it away. But like right now, I have my, my pink sands Estabrook in the pen well craftsman because I'm using it. And it's just like, right. It's where I put the pen for the time being. But then I don't know why

Brad: that angle makes me feel more comfortable than just like straight vertical. I don't know why. I agree with you. Even though it's the same,

Myke: same effect. But I wouldn't leave a pen in that overnight or like for a couple of days or whatever. It's just like, yeah, it's an in use product. Yeah. Cool. So a good question actually. I like that. Yeah, it is. It is. We'd love some more questions by the way. Please send us some tweets or in the discord. Hashtag AskTPA on Twitter. Question mark, AskTPA in the RelayFM members discord or email them to hello at penaddict.com because we have to, we might be pre-recording an episode in the next couple of weeks. So having a bunch of AskTPA would be great for that. So please, please send them in. If you've got any questions or if you want to hear us talk about anything specifically, it doesn't have to just be a question to be like, hey, I want to know more about this. So hashtag AskTPA on Twitter or question mark AskTPA in the RelayFM members discord. Thank you so much to Squarespace and Pen Chalet for the support of this episode. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com and spoke design.com. Brad is also penaddict on Instagram, Dowdy is on Twitter and you can always find Brad streaming over at twitch.tv slash penaddict. I am at imyke and you can find really beautiful, fantastic journals and notebooks at cortexmerch.com. The end of the year is coming so you want to make sure you have your theme system journal. I'll just say it right now. If you want one by one, if you want one by one. Yeah.

Brad: We do this every year. Yeah.

Myke: We got a lot of them but who knows? Cool. No. Yeah. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.