The Pen Addict 623/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	623
Title:	A Formal Vendetta
Release Date:	July 10th, 2024
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 623
Audio File:	Audio Episode 623
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 623
Length:	6565 min <br />1.083 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

• From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 623. Today's show is brought to you by Heinz Pens, Factor, and Enigma Stationery. My name is Myke Hurley and I have the pleasure of being joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. You're going to have the pleasure of being joined by me in person in a mere two weeks. Two weeks, let's go. I'm looking for it. Yes, I will mention this now as kind of maybe like a final warning for people, but we are going to be doing a live show in jolly old London on the 27th of July. This is going to be an extravaganza event where we're celebrating 10 years of RelayFM, which is happening this year, if you could believe such a thing. Crazy. What this event is, is for us to celebrate the fact that we, as a community, have made this company last for a decade, if you could believe it. So, I hope that you'll be able to join us. It's crazy. I've been talking, like explaining to my non, you know, the people in my life who don't really know what I do. Yeah. That we're the 10th anniversary of the podcast network and that my podcast about pens actually predates those 10 years by a couple years. And they're like, what? You've been doing this that long? I'm like, yeah, like, it's pretty crazy. So, yeah, it's awesome stuff. Awesome stuff. So, I'm finally, I haven't totally turned my head towards the trip yet, but I'm like on that precipice now where I'm trying to wrap up everything that I need to get done before I go. And, like, I'm knee deep in the pen addict shop stuff, right? Because I had a big product launches last week. I started shipping this week. The orders have been outstanding. The feedback has been great. I appreciate everyone's support. The shipping has started. I'm like a solid halfway through the initial batch. I feel like I'm in good shape to, you know, like within a week, I should be 100% caught up, you know, outside of, you know, new orders coming in, you know, in the coming days and week. But, yeah, like the thoughts of packing for London are in my head. So, I think on next week's episode, we'll talk about stationery packing for a trip like this. Because I'm having all kinds of weird ideas on what I want to do with no, you know, no solid absolutes that I want to take and bring for stationery stuff. Because, like, I'm not going to bring a lot, right? But there's definitely things I want to bring and I want to carry. So, yeah, like I'm kind of pinging back and forth. So, maybe between this episode and the next one, maybe I will kind of dial that in a little bit and see where we're at as far as possible. So, good stuff. So, again, thank you everyone for who checked out all the new stuff I had in the shop. Quite a bonanza of good. So, it's been fun.
• Yeah, I mean, I'm proud of you. I said it last week and I'll say it again. Like, the Retro 51 is just like, it's so good. Yeah, I am. It's just so good, Brad. Yeah, thanks. The more I reflect on it, it's just like, this is probably the best collaboration idea you've had. Like, you know, like, it was almost like I'm jealous that you didn't think of this idea when we did the Kickstarter one. Sure, sure.
• But, yeah, you crushed it, man. You crushed it. I mean, shout out to Retro for allowing me to do this, right? Like, they could have said no, right? Because it's a little bit weird. They had to do the work, too, right? But they, yeah, this caused them extra work, right, to figure some things out. They knew, though. They knew it was a good idea. They were game from the jump. Yeah. And made things happen. And, you know, for that, I'm forever grateful. And I'm obviously really happy with the outcome. So, y'all can check out last week's episode. We dig into it more. I don't want to repeat myself. But, yeah, I look at it and smile. Like, that's, you know, all I can hope for with a project like this. And I felt that would be the case. And, you know, I'm glad that it has been the case and that other people like it, too. So, that's always, you know, my philosophy on these things. So, make something cool. Hope other people like it.
• We've got some follow-up on some of the RSTPA questions we've done over the last couple of weeks. Yeah, good stuff. This one comes in from Nathan, who says, In episode 621, Sam said that they liked the Lamy Safari less and asked how well Starter pens represent a brand's full lineup. Remember we were talking about that? Yep. Like, how good of an entryway is it? Well, Nathan says, Your discussion mostly focused on nibs with steel versus gold. If nibs are the main consideration, we should remember you can buy many of Lamy's nibs separately, including the gold ones, and easily swap among pen models. This may help someone like Sam try different Lamy pen bodies and nibs to find a combo that they like. And Nathan recommends trying the Lamy Studio with the rubberized grip and different nibs. And, like, that is actually a really good point. Like, the main thing that we were focusing on is the nibs that are unlocked within certain price categories. And Lamy is one of the rare brands where they sell those nibs and they're very easily replaceable. So if you want to try what a gold nib might feel like or something like that, you can do that, right? You can go ahead and try that out. So I thought it was an interesting thought experiment. It is because, specifically with Lamy, they're one of the few that will make sure their stockists have loose nibs, right? Like, if you have a particular retailer to buy from. I bought the Lefty nib from the San Francisco store. Yep. Yep. So they're pretty easily accessible. And I think Lamy does that because they make a nib, as you mentioned, that's easy to swap. It's literally just like a friction fit nib that slides onto the feed. So you can slide it on and off. And it's very stable when it's on. So, you know, don't worry about that or removing them. And same with, like, the Lamy gold nib that Nathan's mentioning. I actually have one Lamy gold nib that I got ground into a needle point. And if I'm using, want to use a gold nib Lamy, I just move that nib around to whichever one I want. It stays in my studio a lot. I've never done the studio with the rubberized grip. You know, that's maybe something like, I think you can just actually buy the grip section for that studio, if I'm not mistaken. It's kind of weird because it kind of goes against the aesthetic of what the studio is in a weird way.
• But, I don't know, it might be fun to play with. I'll have to check out and see if I can get that. So, yeah, I think this is a good idea. The other option that I have done is Pilot will often sell interesting nibs in their very cheap, like, shelf packaged pens. These are the Plumix. Comes with a cursive italic nib. And it's like an $8 pen. The Penmanship comes with an extra fine steel nib, which for a time, that was the easiest way for me to get extra fine steel nibs. For Pilot pens is I would buy the Penmanship. I'd buy, like, three of the Penmanships. You can get them for, like, six bucks each. I'm basically just buying it to put the nib into, like, Pilot Prayer or something like that. So, I have bought pen bodies just to take the nibs from and put them onto different pens. So, it's a good way to play around with different things. Yeah, I think so. And this comes in from Pete, who says, I sympathize with Ben, who is wishing to care for his plotter. I went with the plotter accessory, quote, leather ring supporter, to keep the leather cover nice. And there is an added benefit of protecting the rings when the notebook is in the bag as well. All that being said, we've got to embrace the patina and let the thing wear out a little bit too. I actually forgot about the leather ring supporter because that's the first thing I bought for mine. It's kind of like this little hidden thing you don't notice on your day-to-day use of the plotter because it would be the first thing you put into your plotter. You have your base cover and your rings. And then you put this little, it's kind of like an overlay piece of leather with cutouts. So, what it does is it prevents the binder rings from rubbing against the leather cover as much, right? So, you can still see little bumps where they come in, but it's basically a barrier. And it doesn't add any thickness or weight or complexity to the plotter, but it does protect those rings, you know, gives it a little bit more structure and a little bit more durability. I thought, this is a complete no-brainer so much so that I just assumed, like all plotters should come with this. Like, I think you should have this in your plotter, to be quite honest. But that's how these build-your-own systems work. I think you should embrace the wear of the thing. I think products become more beautiful when they're broken in like that. Well, this is just an internal thing. And then it's actually, it's more for external support, right? So, it's buffering the outside of the cover from hitting directly on those rings when the cover is closed, right? So, it gives it a little more structure there. But you can still, I actually still see like six ring marks on my external. So, like you can feel that. And I can see the discoloration from where the rings are wearing. But it's not as aggressive as it would be. And I think it does give it a little bit of added protection. So, I have totally embraced the patina on this. I mean, it's a leather good. It should only get better with age. Yeah.
• All right. One new product I wanted to mention this week. It's a product I've talked about a lot in the past. Actually, we've probably talked about it in like literally the entire run of this show. Yep. But they rarely update it. It's the TWSBI VAC 700R. They have a new color out called Kyanite Blue or Kyanite. I don't know the exact pronunciation of that. But I wanted to mention this because when they did their last 700 release, another 700R, the Iris, which is still available. It's like a stock edition. They changed and tweaked some of the design elements of the TWSBI VAC because the original TWSBI VAC, it was a little bit of a challenging design. Like there were some inconsistencies I felt in the visuals and in the aesthetics.
• And while the new 700R models of the VAC didn't 100% change everything, like for example, the clip texture is still different from the other hardware texture. They made it more, they made it work together a little bit more as a complete package of a pen. Before it felt like, you know, just grabbing a bunch of random blocks out of a Lego kit. And, you know, all of a sudden you have, you know, like a Millennium Falcon with like a TIE fighter window sticking off the edge. Like there was all kinds of weird parts on there. Like I just didn't feel like it worked together as a product. Yeah. But when they came out with this one, I think it's been two years. I haven't looked at the launch date for the Iris model, but it wasn't last year. So it's got to be like two years ago, I think. So this is the first update that they've made. And I found it interesting that they really just did a color update and it looks really, really good. So, you know, same, this last design change for the 700R model must have, must have stuck with the brand and turned out to be a very good one. And, and I would agree because I gave the original 700, you know, pretty poor marks other than like the technical aspects of it. Like the vacuum always worked, right? That was always a good part of it. But it was a struggle to actually use the pen because it was like chunky and clunky and hard to use.
• 700R made it more of a usable pen to one it's, I actually enjoy using it. And this new color looks fantastic. Like I, I don't need one of these, like this is one of those, like I haven't bought a Twisbee for my personal collection in a while because you know, they just do a lot of colors on a lot of the same pens, which is okay. Um, but I like, I might pick this one up as a second fact to have, I love the, I love the two-tone nib as, as well. That's like this, this blue, blue plain looking nib. Yeah. But I could see like, people might not like the nib, like also wondered, like, does the nib go with this? But I think it looks good. I would say the color is nice. I don't like the way that they have put it on the pen. Like the kind of two-tone wing thing. Sure. That, that, that style does not do it for me. Yeah. Um, was, did the 700 also suffer from the quality issues that Twisbees used to have? I don't think so. Okay. Um, cause it maybe it was a more expensive one. It kind of like, yeah, I don't know about that, but I think the, this pen uses a pretty thick plastic, like it's a kind of a dense pen. Okay. Um, which some Twisbees can feel that way, but some do feel like the, like the 580s tended to have, I felt like, like thinner sections and I could be like speaking out of pocket here, but just in not grabbing these pens and putting them right in front of me. Yeah. Um, this one felt more like structurally sound. Uh, this one's always felt like you could hammer a nail with this type of pen that doesn't prevent cracking or anything like that. But yeah. Um, I haven't seen any issues. To be clear, like, I'm not saying that this is an issue for this pen in general, but just more like in wondering why it maybe didn't get like stellar reviews, uh, to begin with, you know, like in the first instance that might've been part of it, but I don't know. Honestly, I just felt it was straight up ugly. Like I thought there were so many problems with the design and the way they put it together. Um, and good for them. They corrected a lot of the issues that I had with it. So it's, um, it's good stuff, but it's interesting that this is getting the once every two years update when they'll, uh, they'll push out some, they'll push out some ecos, won't they? Yeah, but you know why though, right? I mean, eco's the best. Eco's the best. Yeah, but the VAC is like a lifestyle. It is. It's not for everybody. No. It's not for everybody. Because realistically, like if you want to use the VAC to its fullest, you've got to get their bottle, which is so cool that their VAC filling. Yeah, that's true. That's true. You know, you've kind of got to go to that too. Like it's not as flexible, um, as, as other pens. And it also, it, it's still, the mechanism creates a size issue potentially, depending on how you look at it, which creates weight imbalance, I think. It does. In a pen of its, of its side class. So it makes, I don't think that this pen would ever be a big enough seller to do more than this. And I think people who are fans of the VAC should be happy that they, it's still a product in Tuzube's lineup and they are still kind of, they're doing things with it. I think that's cool. Yeah. And I'm interested to see the price, a quick real time follow-up from, uh, from the chat. Lisa says, it looks like the Iris was all the way back in 2020, October, 2020. Um, which is just astonishing. That time compression comes to bite you, huh? Yeah, man. Like there was a few years around there that didn't happen. So like, I feel confident saying it's about two years old, uh, when it's really four. So yeah, like honestly, seeing this kyanite blue has made me want to get my Iris VAC out and consider bringing it to London because vacuum fillers are one of the best like travel pens because you can seal off the, uh, the front end. Ah, yeah. We'll table this discussion until next week when I have more time to think about it. Yeah. See how you feel about it then. Mm-hmm.
• This episode is brought to you in part by our friends over at Heinz. Well, the Heinz Pen Company to be precise. Whether you prefer classic, elegance, or loud, sparkly, colorful resin-based pens, Heinz has something to suit your needs. Founded in 2017, Heinz has grown from a one-person shop to an internationally recognized brand. One of the more unique signature features that you'll find on Heinz pens are their color electroplated nibs and matching hardware available in more than 20 colors. This little addition can take a stunning pen over the top. You've likely seen their fantastic color plating on some Estabrook pens like the Pink Sands Estee and their Northern Lights Candon series. I have the Pink Sands Estee and love it. Heinz offers a wide variety of pen sizes to fit your personal preferences. From their Tashin-stift pocket pens to the giant Koenig and sizes in between, you'll also be able to find a comfortable pen to fit your hand. Artisans Jim Hines and Rachel Neal craft each writing instrument with care in small batches using traditional methods. Hines also incorporates a variety of quality artisan resins, ebonite, and a variety of unique materials. You can find Jim Hines and Francisco Lopez, the Hines guys, at most major pen shows around the country over the next few months, including the Pacific Northwest, DC, San Francisco, Orlando, and Dallas. You can see these incredible pieces in person. In addition to their website and pen shows, you can find Heinz pens at our friends at Pen Chalet and Atlas Stationers too. Plus, you'll also find them through small collaborations with Gentleman Stationer, Vanna's Pens, Brad's Pen of the Year 2023 from Enigma Stationery, and a forthcoming pen for the Pen Attic Store, which is available now, right? It's not forthcoming anymore. Not forthcoming anymore. Launched last week. It has forthcome. The Toschen Stift. It has forthcome. Brad. The Toschen Stift Break of Dawn. Why don't you talk a little bit about why you wanted to work with Heinz? Like, you know, give people an idea of like the quality of this product. So, one of the best things I can say about working with Heinz is that they're willing to take risks and take chances. Even though like the pen that I created, which we'll talk about in a minute, isn't like a huge risk or a huge like experiment. They are willing in their product lineup to experiment in all kinds of different things and all kinds of different shapes, different models, different hardware, you know, the nib coloring and the clip matching. All of that stuff is not easy for these small makers to dabble as widely and as wildly as Heinz has done, which means there's a pen there for everybody. They make some really, really large pens that I know some friends of mine really enjoy that are their favorites and they make really, really small pens, which is what I have in the Toschen Stift in the model that I stock at the Pen Addict shop and everything in between. So, like this isn't my first Heinz pen and it's definitely not going to be my last, but they're just so easy to work with. They're willing to go the extra mile to do anything and everything you're looking for in a pen. Like if you have an idea, bring it to Heinz and, you know, they probably can work with you to get something done. But on top of that, just their stock pens are glorious. Like I usually pick one up, you know, about once a year, add to my collection just from the cool materials that they have, the cool shapes that they make and the cool matching electro painted nibs and clips that they do. So, yeah, I'm a big Heinz fan. That's the big difference maker for me and it's why I have three pens that are either Heinz completely or have been, you know, enhanced within a Heinz nib. Yep. That color plane can really, if you've got the pen that is very heavily themed, it makes so much sense to have a electroplated color nib, right? Like, cause it continues the theme. So yeah, really cool. You can check out the Heinz pens today over at Heinz pens.com slash pen addict. There's a special offer available to listeners of this show. You can get 15% off your purchase using the code pen addict or by visiting Heinz pens.com slash pen addict. That is H I N Z E pens.com slash pen addict. This is good for one use. So use it wisely over at Heinz pens.com slash pen addict. Our thanks to Heinz pens for their support of this show and relay FM. All right, Myke, we got a shout out of the week. Shout out of the week. A little bit different this time, but I've followed this blog since I've been writing the pen addict and I think they've at least been around this long and it's called uses this by internet. The internet's favorite, a wafer baby who goes by at D on Mastodon. So I'm a Mastodon follower of theirs. But what uses this is, it's, it's a literal, literal meaning. And the idea, well, I'll read their intro. It says uses this as a collection of nerdy interviews, asking people from all walks of life, what they use to get the job done. So it's very tech heavy as you might imagine. But the reason why I follow it and the why and why I enjoy it so much is because even the most deep in the woods, computer people say, you know, they're going through like all these words that I've never heard of. And it's someone who's like very IT adjacent, like myself, you're hearing all these things. I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about. And then they'll go, oh, and I use, you know, a Midori MD notebook and a Sakura Pigma Micron. And, and I can't live without, you know, this mechanical, this Pentel Sharp mechanical pencil. So there are these great interviews that I just get a lot of joy from reading about, you know, seeing the switch from the most technical, you know, type of interview into like this pure analog love. And it's fascinating when I see that happen. So if you haven't seen me, you've probably seen me sharing links from there for years. But if you haven't go check it out. Yeah. 1,282 interviews since 2009. So there's lots of stuff there to keep, keep track of. So good stuff. Very cool. All right, Myke, I want to talk about our good friends at Sailor. Okay. You know, the moratorium was lifted, you know, earlier this year. Yep. But they, they've, they've continued on a path where. They didn't stop. You just wanted to stop talking. Oh yeah. You know, like they're out there doing their thing and you were like, no more of this. But Sailor were like, we don't care. No, they don't care. They don't care. They're doing their thing. It's obviously working. But I wanted to mention something specific about the Sailor 1911 large, or I think it might be a common different size, but it's basically the gold spot exclusive Cthulhu 2024 edition. So this is a gold spot pen exclusive. So they've done something different with this pen while essentially keeping it similar to everything else. But I wanted to give them a shout out and gold spot a shout out for designing this because what Sailor tends to do is take the pro gears and the pro gear slims, anything in the pro gear lineup, including the king of pen. And there it's basically like color by numbers at this point, the way they build out the pro gear lineup in the special editions, you know, what colors the body, what colors the finial, you know, are we going to do, you know, is there translucent here, opaque here, solid here, metal grip section, no metal grip section, and they'll just jumble it up and make them. And so a lot of the pro gear lineup is similar in like the Build-A-Bear aspects of it. Right. And that's, there's nothing wrong with that. Like, I think some of them look absolutely sick, right? Like I love how some of them look, but it's kind of the same formula. Well, they've actually taken that formula and this, I'm actually going to praise them using that formula in a model and shape that they rarely do this on. Right. So this Cthulhu edition has the finials on the 1911 are rounded, right? So they're a little bit different than the flat ones on the pro gear lineup. So they've actually used the glitter translucent green in both finials and the grip section, which for 1911, I'm not saying they never do this, but if you go look at the 1911 lineups right now, even limited edition ones, you don't really see this orientation of sections and the way these materials work. Even though in big picture sailor world, this is almost basic to this day in a 1911, it's unique. And I love it for that. Right. I want, I want to see more 1911 special editions, especially when they just take some of that ideas that they have in the pro gear lineup and moving into this. Because when I see something like this, right? And then I look at two of their most recent releases, like I just can't help but like compare them and wonder if they're the same thing. So they have the ocean series and the galaxy series, both just came out with new pins. And I'm hard pressed to tell you that these are from a different series, right? Even though one is from, you know, a four pin ocean series and this one, latest one's called sunlight from the ocean floor. I think it's gorgeous, right? It's a beautiful pin, but then you flip over, they just released the galaxy series, the annual galaxy series release. And it's like, Oh, it's the same pin, except it's black instead of white. It looks cool though. It does. I'm not saying none of these, all of these look cool, but I'm saying this is now the expectation for the pro gear, which I was like, Oh, okay. I've seen this. Okay. They've again, you know, the, the build a bear aspects of it, you know, this part here, this part here, this sparkle here, this clear here, flip them up. And now this one, Oh, this one looks like it should go in the ocean. Oh, here, this one's darker. It looks like the nebula, whatever. Well, they've taken some of that and put it in a 1911. So I guess I'm being a little bit hypocritical, but I'm glad to see this in the 1911 shape for a change where we don't normally get it. So that's all I wanted to say is I, this one stood out to me, even though the formula is the same, the model that they're doing it on is not something that we've seen, you know, thousands of in the past 10 years, right? This is something you don't see that often. And I really like how it turned out. So it brings some new life, life into like the sailor limited editions. And I feel like this is a thing that we have spoken about in the past, right? We've often loved the 1911 and it gets limited editions, but less, and especially in collaborations. Like it tends to be that the limited colors, they're ones that sailor decide on. And the 1911 is a canvas right for something, you know, like it's a beautiful pen. In some ways I prefer it to the Pro Gear, depending on the, you know, the pen itself. But usually I can't get all the fun colors and designs on the 1911. I have to get them in the Pro Gear. So I support this idea. I think this is really cool. Yep. Yep. So I think you're, you get what I'm getting at here and I thought they did well and hopefully we see more of it. And, you know, I dug around a little bit to see, can I find some examples that were similar to this and I couldn't really come up with much. But yeah, I think 1911 is a great platform and I would love to see more. I get why the Pro Gears are that, that anchor finial, like it's a difference maker, right? And as far as style goes in a pen, like I get why they, why they do that. So, and the 1911 obviously doesn't have that, but it's a difference maker. It's pretty cool in its own right. And I really liked this one a lot. So you got it. All right. If you're looking, look, looking for pens, we have some pen shows coming up here in the U S that I wanted to give a shout out to this weekend, this coming weekend in Portland is the second Pacific Northwest pen show. I know last year was a, was a hit. Everyone really enjoyed that. And they've already moved locations to kind of better fit the needs of the, of the attendees. I think they like, they had some parking challenges, right? It's, it's hard to put on a pen show, right? I try not to give them too much grief, especially when they're just starting and pen shows that take and receive feedback and then make changes based on that feedback. I will always support, even though I've never been to this show, I can see so many things have changed just from the feedback from last year's show this year. Like the website's great. All the classes. I was actually looking back at Kimberly's review. She went to the show last year and is going again this year. So I'll be interested to hear the comparison, but just reading last year's review, like Kimberly couldn't find any of the class information online and how to, to handle that. Well, guess what? This year, all of that stuff is, is listed on the website with the times, the days, the times and the prices. Like, I mean, who doesn't want to go to a neuro, neuro graphics class? I can't even pronounce that Myke. You need the class then, don't you? I do need the class. So like, and this is good. This is a Saturday class. So this, this show is Saturday and Sunday and, but they bring in for people who come in Friday night, they have a couple of evening classes as well. Friday night, even though it's Friday's not a show day, but neuro graphics, let me talk about this. This is by Stephanie Shore. Anyone can dive into the captivating realm of neuro graphics where psychology meets art in a mesmerizing fusion of lines and colors. You'll have a unique opportunity to tap into the subconscious mind and unleash your inner artist. Different from the repetitive pattern making of Zentangles, let your hand take the wheel as you channel thoughts and feelings onto paper. Transform abstract concepts into vibrant visual expressions and ignite your imagination. Gain a newfound appreciation for the power of practicing art to connect mind, body, and soul. Like I'm in, like I, if I was there, I'd be going to this class. You know why I would be going to this class also is because it's at 445 on Saturday. I don't have to leave the middle of the show at like one o'clock. Hey, I'm great for all, I'm great for all day classes. Like they have classes from morning till evening, but Hey, I can wrap up my day with a class when I'm kind of done with the show. You know, I've seen everything I need to see, purchase everything I need to purchase. So I like having some later in the day classes. So check that out. That's coming this weekend. If you're in the area in the Portland area, check it out. And then I also want to give a shout out to the Miami Pen show, which is later in the month, July 19th and 20th. This show has been on and off for years, but they're under new, uh, new ownership. So the team behind Andrew William, uh, inks has taken over the running of the show. They've changed locations. They're putting a lot into it. This is actually a three day show Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
• And I look forward to it. I've definitely been talking to them a little bit. Uh, one of these years, maybe I'll make it down there to the Miami show, but again, they have taken the feedback of allowing people to find information online, which these days you think wouldn't be a challenge, but we've always had a challenge in with traditional Pen shows that have been around kind of rest on their laurels with a website. The information doesn't get updated that, that frequently and things like that. You know, I can't find the ticket prices or I can't buy tickets online or I can't, or the vendor list is from two years ago. Right. So they have done a great job having everything on a really nice website. All the information is there. So I just wanted to give a shout out to both of these shows for like running a good, running a good website, which like, I feel like I shouldn't have to shout that out, but it's a little bit of an outlier and I appreciate them very much. So if you're in either of these areas in the U S check out your local Pen shows, you know, maybe, maybe take a day trip to them. And I mean, Portland and Miami are both great towns as well. So to give them a look. I always, you know, find it strange. Just they're not a sponsor of this episode, but just, just get a Squarespace website. You know what I mean? Like how hard. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, I know it's not hard.
• You know what I mean? Just, just give it a go. It's like, have you seen Brad? It is clearly not hard. Just see, see, see what it's all about. It could be fun. You know, you never know. But yeah, shout out to them. Both again, these are both new, new ish promoters from Portland two years now, Miami. This is their first year promoting. So it's, it's changed hands over a couple of years. Yeah. And, and actually hasn't run a couple of years because of that. But yeah, it's good to see. Good to see. Very cool. Very cool. I have a personal vendetta against the Miami airport, but we don't need to get into that today. So yeah, I've only driven to Miami. I haven't flown there. So I'll, I'll refrain. It wasn't the fault of the Miami airport, but nevertheless, I had to spend the night there. Oof. This episode is brought to you by Factor. Warmer, sunnier days are calling. Fuel up for them with Factor's no prep, no mess meals. You can meet your wellness goals in time for summer. Thanks to the menu of chef crafted meals, like with options like calorie smart, protein plus and keto. Factor's fresh, never frozen meals, a dietician approved and ready to eat just two minutes. So no matter how busy you are, you'll always have time to enjoy nutritious, great tasting meals. Make today the day that you kickstart a new healthy routine. Brad, as someone who's been locked inside of the shipping container for the last couple of weeks shipping out all your products, I'm sure meals from Factor can really help you out in those times. Yeah. I should have planned ahead a little bit better, but they're so convenient and this would be perfect for someone who's spending literally hours in the shipping department. And I'll sometimes have to think about like bringing lunch to me. Uh, so Factor works perfectly for that because they take two minutes in their microwave and the taste of these meals is so far beyond anything I could come up with myself for lunch. Myke, this isn't like I'm sitting here, you know, prepping dinner for 30 minutes or an hour. That's what it feels like when you eat one of these meals for Factor. It's like, Oh, someone put some time to put this together and make all the flavors work. All the ingredients are fresh. Everything's like super dialed in and it literally takes me two minutes to have an awesome meal. They spend the time so you don't have to, right? All the planning, getting it ready, getting it to you. Easy peasy. There is so much to love about Factor. With 35 different meals and more than 60 add-ons available to choose from every week, you'll always have new flavors to explore. You can reach your wellness goals of dietitian approved meals and ingredients that you can trust. And why not treat yourself to restaurant quality meals that feature premium ingredients like filet mignon, shrimp, and blackened salmon. You can keep kitchen time to a minimum too. Factor meals are ready in two minutes. No shopping, prepping, cooking, or cleaning up. So enjoy effortless support for your lifestyle. Choose from six menu preferences to help you manage calories, maximize protein intake, avoid meat, or simply eat well. Head to factormeals.com slash penaddict50 and use the code penaddict50 and you'll get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month. That is the code penaddict50 at factormeals.com slash penaddict50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month while your subscription is active. I'm going to give it one last try. Penaddict50 at factormeals.com slash penaddict50. Our thanks to Factor for their support of this show and all of RelayFM. All right, I want to talk about a review on the Penaddict blog that just went live a few hours ago because I think Jeff did a stunning photography on this. He's an awesome photographer.
• And we've already talked about Retro 51 in this episode in my work with them, but this is what Retro 51 does best is make space-themed pens. And so Jeff did a review of the Retro 51 Tornado Mercury 7 Limited Edition. Rollerball. How cool is this pen? I don't recall seeing this launch. It must have just launched here in the past couple months, and I'm assuming it's still available. I think it's limited, but there was 1,958 versions or models released. So yeah. And I don't often see them do the white. This is what makes it? Trim? Yeah. This is what makes this pen is the white trim. I have a thing for stationery that uses white in unique ways, even just like a full white pen or white hardware is very unique in our world. You don't often see that. And it should be, I hate to say it should be used more because I don't want to see too much of it because that's part of the specialness of it. But when it's done well and done right on a pen like this, and I've got a fountain pen with white trim that I love. And I don't know. It just brings out the character of the product in a different way than your traditional trims. So yeah, I always enjoy seeing this. And I don't know. This one just caught me off guard. It's like, I don't have too much to say other than if you're not familiar with Retro 51, I think this is what they do the best is putting together like some of these space or aeronautical types of products. I mean, I don't talk bad about any of their product linux. Like I love the art pens and the Smithsonian pens and the metalsmith pens. Like they do all of it really well. But for some reason, these space themed ones really, really stand out to me. Yep. They're always really good. They're really, really good. So I wanted to give this a shout out and thank Jeff for the amazing work on this review. So y'all should go check it out. It'll be in your feeds now. Speaking of in our feeds, we have a lot of feed back, Myke. Yeah, that's nice. I like that segue. Thank you to everybody who sends in their Ask TPA questions. Remember, you can always send in questions for us by going to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send in your own Ask TPA. First one comes from Nick who says, I recently received my second Studio Neat Mark 1. This time the limited edition number 11 in vintage yellow with the copper knock. This is the correct color. However, protruding from the tip of the pen is a silver color refill tip. Stupid silver tipsies. We hate them. We hate some. That's good. That's a Gollum reference. I asked Studio Neat whether they could talk to Schmidt and get them to make their branded refills gold plated. In my opinion, this would make the tip on the Mark 1 design fully over the edge. They said it would be tough to do. Would it be tough? We have gold plated nibs, pen furniture, and other fiddly bits. So I don't see where the problem lies. This question blew my mind. I have never thought about this in all my years doing this. The ballpoint pen tip, I've never considered matching it to the hardware. And now I can't unsee it.
• So I think Nick's on to something. I actually exchanged a couple of emails saying as much with Nick. And I want to tackle his closing argument on would this be tough to do?
• For small projects, yeah. Right? For small projects. I think the thing here is to kind of speak on behalf of Studio Neat, which I can't, but how I would imagine it. Would it be tough for Schmidt to do it? Probably not. Right. Would it be tough to get Studio Neat to get Schmidt to do it? Yes. Correct. So, and this isn't even a Studio Neat thing. So we can take the Caran D'Ash 849 Year of the Dragon ballpoint review that I did on Monday. And I was just thinking about this the whole time I was doing it. It's a beautiful red and gold pen with gold hardware, gold clip, gold knock, gold highlights in the pen barrel, silver tip ballpoint. And this is Caran D'Ash who's making their own refills or assuming, you know. I've never considered this before, but it is such a good point. Yeah. So I got to thinking about how many gold tip ballpoint pen refills or, you know, in general, this type of refill that we see. And I could only come up with one. And Fisher makes a gold option for the space pen refill. I think they mostly sell silver, but I know I have some gold ones and I went and looked on their site and they do have the gold trims available for that. And there's just not a lot of companies do it. And I'm wondering why, because like, if you look at, if you go look at Pelican right now and you go to just their standard black and gold ballpoint that they're going to sell, I mean, it's, you would think they would match that with a gold refill, but they don't. And it's, this is, I don't know, this question is just kind of blown my mind. I just think it's customers aren't asking for it. So why would they bother? Yeah, I guess. It's an additional complication. You now have a second skew to deal with, right? But I guess it's just, but why do pen companies? It makes sense because the materials, like it starts with the fact that the materials change the experience, right? And that like, if you make a gold nib pen, you can sell it for more. That's where it begins. So then it becomes, why don't we make a steel one and make it look gold, you know? And then, then you're off to the races where like with a ballpoint pen, putting gold on it, it doesn't change the experience. And so why would they do that? Yeah. I don't know. And it's just like, you can, you can absorb the costs better in the higher cost products like the nibs, as opposed to like the mass produced, you know, making a million of these refills a year. But then also, why can't they make a hundred thousand, if they're going to make a million silver ones, can they do a hundred thousand that are gold plated? I don't know. It's such an interesting question. The margins have to be like zero on these, these products.
• You know, except, except for, I don't know. I take that back. I mean, between Karen Dash, all the refills have gotten like crazy expensive. The Uniball Jetstream refill, everything. These refills are getting to be like seven to $9 for like these ballpoint refills. And it's just, it's crazy to me. But, but I don't know what they would cost if we got gold plated because they'd have to make a smaller run. And maybe it has something to do with tradition. I don't know. Like maybe it's just, you know, that's the way we've always done it type of thing. Oh, that's hard. I wouldn't say it's tradition. That's just people being stuck in their ways. But I guess my point is, I'm surprised it wasn't the reverse. I'm surprised we didn't have to fight for silver trim refills. Right. Because the classic black and gold design of pens, you would have think the gold refill. So there has to be something technical about it back in the day. The original metals that they used were just silver. Yeah. Yeah. There has to be something that lingered just aesthetically to this day, even though it was maybe technical back in the day. So that's a really good question. I found this question to be endlessly interesting. It's rare that I get completely surprised by a question these days. And that was certainly one of them. Like, it's fun to be asked something that you've just never considered. Like, I've never thought about this ever. Now, I'll probably never be able to stop thinking about it. Yep. Even though this is something we talk about, like you said, in fountain pens constantly. How the, like, I was talking about how the TWSBI nib looked up top. You know, you and I were debating the blue trim on that nib, right? We think about that all the time, but not with other pens. Maybe this is a job for Heinz pens. Okay. Start electroplating some Schmidt refills. There you go. Let's do it. Let's see what happens. Let's see what happens. Rick writes in and said, I've recently discovered through the pen hobby that I am a completionist. I must run my pens completely dry, even if I'm not enjoying the combo. I love holding on to a ballpoint or a rollerball and running it to empty, or finishing a bottle of ink and repurposing the bottle. I'm not cheap or frugal, but I get joy out of finishing pen stuff. The opposite is my ink supply will outlive me. Between high-tech-y refills or writing of a Skippy pen, passing it on to someone who gets joy is great. As you know, to me, it's like posting or not. It's something most of us identify with, the idea of emptying a pen to the end. What do you think, Brad and Myke? There's no better feeling, honestly, in finishing anything in our world, be that an ink cartridge, a bottle of ink, a notebook.
• That joy is one of the things that puts a smile on my face, and obviously Rick's face, and I think a lot of us. But I am not one who will suffer a bad product just to be a completionist about it.
• I'm also probably the wrong person to talk about this because of the quantity of things that I have. But I just finished a small refill the other day, the Pilot Hi-Tech C Coleto refill, which is not a refill that's going to last you years. You can run them dry pretty quick if you're using it with any regularity. And I made a comment about, hey, I finished this refill. It makes us happy, right? It's the joy of using your things that you found something that works for you and the satisfaction of using it up until it's done. So, yeah, I think it's a great aspect of our hobby that we all take pride in when it does happen. But I will, you know, conversely, if I do have a fountain pen ink combination that I'm not jiving with, I'll straight up dump it. I will not sit through it for the purpose of, I have done this, therefore I must finish it. I will bail if needed. I'll agree with that. But in general, this is great. I would do this with fountain pens, right? Like I'll run a fountain pen to empty because I like doing that. And then I will fill them all up in one big batch or whatever is kind of like how I like to do things.
• Me and Eden do it together. We kind of see it as like a filling your pens party when we're like out of ink and all of our various fountain pens. I don't think about this or worry about this when it comes to like ballpoints and rollerballs.
• I don't think about filling them. But the one thing that I will add, though, is I do get great joy out of finishing a journal. Yes. Or one of my sidekick note pads or something. Like when I get to the end of a notebook, that's a great feeling. That feels real good to me. I like that feeling of either all the pages being gone or all the pages being filled. Like I love that. Yeah, so I'm in my field notes that I keep at my desk. It's really just kind of show notes kind of stuff. I have three pages left and I'm like super anxious to finish this up soon. And like I'll be happy. It's funny that we enjoy finishing things so much that staple day in a notebook has become a thing where you're halfway done, right? Have made it halfway. So I get to see the staples like in these field notes. Yeah, it's pretty cool. So I don't know. I love that part of our hobby. That we take pride in this type of thing. So yeah, it's pretty cool.
• This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Enigma Stationery. Enigma Stationery offers unique items from in-house designs along with top brands and hard to find imports. And now we can introduce to you all the new art prints from The Wolf Shop, Bromstad Printing, and Panty Cat. Like The Wolf Shop's Black Noodle Cat in Renaissance Style, Panty Cat's Cheeky Tea Party Print, and Bromstad's Hot Dog Risograph Print. That was actually quite hard to say. Well, I'm not laughing at you. I'm checking out these images. I just pulled them up. I didn't know what we were going to talk about. Heck yeah. These rule. Yeah, of course. They're fantastic. I mean, but yeah, it was the hot dog risograph print was harder to say than I expected. And I just struggled with it again, you know? Yeah. Sushi Cat Renaissance.
• Myke, Sushi Cat. I like saying Renaissance. If you're going to the RelayFM 10th Anniversary Live Show that I mentioned earlier on in the episode, Enigma Stationery will be there. And they're going to be giving out free stickers for fellow RelayFM fans. So if you see the folks from Enigma Stationery, grab yourself a free sticker from them. Thank you to the wonderful people at Enigma for doing that. I've been caring about our... They're actually coming over and I'm very excited about it and caring about our community. Yeah, I saw Dan mention that they were going to be there and I'm super excited because I usually see them at pen shows and I just haven't caught them this year because I've only been to Atlanta. So yeah, I look forward to... I have to go all the way over to England to see the Enigma fam. You know, sometimes you just got to do it, you know?
• And, this is to bear in mind, because of this trip, there is going to be an Enigma summer shipping holiday and it's last call for orders. July 14th is the final day to place an order before they'll take a summer break. The shop will be open for browsing, but checkout will be disabled until August 5th. So get in now, check out this wonderful stuff before Enigma takes their summer break. If you want free QR shipping or discounted international shipping on orders of $50 or more, plus a free gift, head to enigmastationery.com slash penaddict and use the code penaddict24 at checkout. That is enigmastationery.com slash penaddict to get your hands on the wide range of new prints, which are really good fun and so varied and wonderful, plus a free gift and free US shipping on orders of $50 or more with the code penaddict24. Our thanks to Enigma Stationary for their support of this show and Relay FM. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to need these Panty Cat stickers that they have. Like I keep browsing. These stickers rule Panty Ross. So it's like a Bob Ross, but a cat in underwear making a painting and it rules. And then there's another one that says I'm hot trash. Like this is my jam right here. So yeah, I can't do the rest of the show because I'm just going to keep browsing the site because this stuff rules. They do such a good job over it. I'm just going to start reading questions. Yeah, ask me a question and I'll start closing tabs because I got too many tabs. There's a hot dog Risagraph print. This question comes in from Ethan who says, This cat is eating the noodles. In your estimation, what is the best way to divest oneself of multiple low value pens? I have a handful of pens that are about $60 or less, some with dings and scratches or uncooperative nibs. I don't want to keep them around as I never use them and they take up mental space, if not much physical space. I'd feel terrible just chucking them out but neither do they seem that they have much resale value. What are my options? Yeah, great question. A lot of us go through this. I mean, you could just do what I've done which is put them all in a big box in the loft and hope to get to them at some point in the future. I mean, you know what I mean? So if you have ideas, Brad, I'd actually quite like to hear them. Well, idea number one does not work for you and it may not work for Ethan but if you have a workplace, you take them to work, you put them in a cup and say free pens and then maybe one person goes, oh, is this a fountain pen? Will you show me how to use it? And then you set your hooks in them and then you offload all the rest of them onto them. Very cool. That's trick number one. I employed that trick when I had a regular job and could offload some of my stationery. After I did it once, people asked me when I'm going to do it again. So it was pretty funny. Yeah. You know, you bring your extra pens, your notebooks, like stuff you can't sell, stuff you may not be using but it's not worth the hassle of trying to sell.
• So that's like my number one suggestion. If that opportunity is available to you, which is not available to everybody.
• Secondly, you can sell them in bundles for lower prices, especially the damaged ones and you sell them as, hey, do you want to learn how to grind nibs? Do you want to learn how to repair pens? Look at all of these pens that I've ruined and you can sell, you know, five of the pens for the price of one and someone will take you up on that just for parts or replacement nibs or practicing repairs, things like that.
• Anytime you can do like either of those things and then, you know, just kind of if you have the opportunity to enable anyone like in your family or things like that is what I would do. But, or you could even take it upon yourself to experiment with these pens. Like, do you want to try to make one of these nibs into a needlepoint nib, you know, just with the tools at hand and have fun because if you're not going to use them, you shouldn't care about destroying them and then maybe you can learn a little skill or something like that. But those are kind of the things I've done and then, you know, I'll just give away as much as I can. So, yeah, I guess so like a tad on to that, like maybe you don't work in a traditional office place if you're part of like a club or something, you know, like maybe you could bring them there or I'm also sure that like some of this stuff would be good for donations to a local shop, society, school or something depending on what the items are.
• Outside of that, I don't know if, it's difficult. Yeah, I don't know if a library is an option for that. I don't know if anyone, anyone could, I know we have a lot of librarians in our orbit. I don't know what a library,
• like I would almost think that would be better than a school because like, especially like a fountain pen is going to be tough for like school and children. But like, I don't know if a library that might be a step beyond what they would be willing to like take on. I don't know. I have a friend who asked me for some advice recently.
• They had found a, when clearing out a family member's belongings, had found a fountain pen and their child wanted to try it out. And they brought it to me because they just weren't sure about it. Never used a fountain pen before. And it was a metal pilot metropolitan. And it was super easy, right? That's like the best, that's the best kind of pen to be given. It's not like a, an heirloom pen. It's not like a vintage pen or it's not something like a vacuum filler or something. I'm like, oh, this is really easy. And so I just like opened it up and showed them that and obviously they weren't familiar with the cartridge anyway, right? So like they'd opened it and looked at it, but it didn't look like an ink cartridge to them because Pilot have their own proprietary thing, right? Right. And so I was able to be like, oh no, these are great. You can just get these on Amazon. You can get them anywhere, right? And I showed them what they needed to buy. And part of the reason that they're interested in understanding this is that their child is going to a school where they require fountain pens. Wow. Isn't that cool? That's rare these days. It's super cool. Super rare. I love it. Yeah. So it's a bit of an old school school, but I was just very happy to hear that at least some places are still doing that. Yeah. I'd be interested to hear what their pen of choice is. My assumption would be it would be base generic, you know, something cheap and easy, but if it was not, I'd be very curious. Yeah. I mean, I expect it. They just bring your own or whatever, and maybe the school would make a recommendation. True, true, true. Because, I mean, what they're obviously expecting, people just go and buy a Lamy Safari, right? It's probably, you know? Yeah. All right. Next question comes from Connor. Do you have any recommendations for business card-sized index cards like the Nock cards of yore?
• I have an open question to a friend. That friend's name is Anna Reinert, who will not reply to my email, so I'm calling Anna out right now. They're a little busy. I get it. Get it together, Anna. A little busy. Reply to his email, you know? But I want to do a thing for myself, like not as a product, right? And I'll just hold those thoughts. But it would kind of, I don't know that it would answer or solve this question because, you know, these little small cards do come in handy from time to time, right? Like, it's not a, it's not necessarily a bulk thing that, you know, people are going to find this and use a lot of, but like the reason we sold these Nock cards is one, because we found a really great card stock that worked great with fountain pens, and we made a product that fit a business card, we made it around a business card size, which in the US is a weird, you know, two and, you know, five, six. It's some weird measurement.
• but it's this weird standard business card size. Well, all of them are this weird shape. So, it's a great pocketable, you can slide it in other notebooks type of thing. So, I have an idea that I want to do and I want to see if I can do it. But as far as like to answer the question, the only things I've seen is it Morriman or Kikuyo? Gosh, let me see if I can find it real quick. They make, unfortunately, what you're going to run into is you're not going to, you can find paper this small, you're not going to find the heavyweight stock that you want. Okay, so I'm just going to cut to the end here because even what I'll show you will be, like you could find things around A7 size, but they are just sheets of paper, right? They're not going to have that thickness that you would expect from an index card or a note card. So, to answer the question, I don't have an answer, Connor, but this is something that I clearly enjoy because I've made them in the past and I would like to do something with them in the future.
• Whether that will happen, I don't know. So, that's a long way of saying I don't have a good answer unless you want to go into just a thinner paper style and then we can get a couple things. I think Morriman, Kikuyo, they make these little small, some of them are even, I think they even call them business card size. They're smaller than A7, I believe, but they're more paper, paper style. anyway, here's one I was trying to, those are too big. Let me see if I can find this one real quick.
• It feels like those are all too big. You need to be the one, you know, we can rely on you, you've got to make it work or just answer his email. You know what I mean? How hard is email? Very hard is the answer. Yeah, but yeah, my idea is to bring it back, bring it back old school. So I have an idea. So we'll see. We'll see. Open question. Product idea out there. Just waiting on reply.
• Peter wants to know, I was wondering how much ink does Bradley typically use when testing a pen?
• Number one, Peter, thank you for spelling my name correctly. I appreciate it. The Bradley. That was impressive. Yes, you're Bradley with no E, right? No E, Michael, no E. So yes, great job, Peter. And this is, I don't know if I'm going to answer this question how Peter wants, but like I fill the pen and probably use the whole fill of whatever I'm using. That is good to know. That's interesting. I would not have expected that. I expect you to fill it, but I didn't think you'd use the whole thing. I mean, maybe not before the review, but I use a lot. I use a lot before I do the review, which is why I don't ever, I don't always have like the most timely reviews like product, like my reviews may not line up with the product launch day if I can't get the product early. I want to spend some time with the pen. So a good example, Kaweco Piston Sport.
• So I filled that up and I just used the pen, used the pen, used the pen. And I bet I used half of that pen before, half of that fill before I used it. So maybe that's probably a better answer. That's how I would typically want to experience a fountain pen before writing up the review is, okay, I filled it up and I bet you with that pen, I probably used half of it before I wrote down my thoughts on the product. So that's maybe a more clear answer. Like I have, I'm looking at, I have one pen I need to review here and it's the Retro 51 fountain pen, the coffee one that Gold Spot does. And I've had that inked up for a couple weeks and I'm just using it, right? So I won't use the whole thing before I do my writing, but I bet I'll use like a pretty good portion of, in that case, a converter. To the UK, you know? Will I get kit thrown out? Will that be confiscated at customs? Depends, depends on the product description.
• Don't bring it. It doesn't want to be here, you know? Yeah. But yeah, I guess like a better, better, more direct answer for Peter is like, I'd probably like to get like half of a fill, like, you know, down. That's a good, that's a lot of writing or a lot of testing to kind of get a good idea. You know, it would be great if, you know, I could use a product for a year before reviewing it, but that kind of defeats all kinds of purposes, including my own for using that and, you know, fill it up five times or something like that. But it's not like that. Like, I'm not running through tons of ink before putting words down, but I'd say half of a fill is pretty standard.
• And Grizz asks, I'm very new to the show and the world of fountain pens, and I've only tried some entry-level pens, some stuff that's under $50 from Sailor, Pilot, and Tewisbee, and I found myself really enjoying the Japanese extra fine nibs, especially from my Kakuno. So I'm looking to explore more in this category. Can you make any recommendations for me? Nodding my head vigorously over here, Grizz. Great job. Glad you found the show. Glad you're enjoying it. And I am glad you found that you like the Japanese extra fine nibs, and you're done.
• There's not a lot of options. So this is my category, Grizz. So this is how I started. This is how... One of the... One of my favorite writing experiences is Pilot's extra fine nib, which, as Grizz mentions, comes in the Kakuno.
• They use that nib in other models like the Metropolitan. I don't know if they do extra fine for the Pereira, but it's the same nib. So once you've tried it, you've discovered it. The challenge now is duplicating that in these other brands.
• Platinum is probably your next best choice in the steel nibs in the beginner pin category that you'll find a comparable extra fine size nib. I believe they call theirs O2, like in the Preppy. Maybe fact check me real quick while I'm talking, but I believe that is the O2. O3 being their fine size, so you want to go O2, I believe, is their extra fine, which is not as common. So that's the problem, Grizz, is that these nibs are the outlier of what they sell as a product. So you're going to have to... Yeah, O2 is extra fine. Okay. So you can find that in a lot of Platinum's entry-level pins from Preppy to Procyon's, Prefonte, some of those other ones, I think. Maybe not all of them come with extra fine, and that's the challenge. Not every Japanese maker goes all the way down to extra fine in all of their product lineups. So after this, you're going to have to move into a gold nib to get into some of the more specialty nibs that these companies make. So Platinum makes one called UEF. That stands for ultra-extra fine. That only comes in their gold nib lineup. What about you, you, UEF? No. Well, you can get that done by a nib grinder. Yeah. That's the 401 level class for Grizz. So that's a little bit down the line where you get a custom grind into the fineness that you want. But that's where, once you get into the gold nibs, Pilot,
• Sailor, and Platinum all have options for that. Sailor, the least of the three. I think Pilot has the extra fine and the posting nib. Sailor's extra fine I think is the third rated one between Platinum and Pilot.
• But they're just not widely available in the lower price point pins just because they don't sell those as much. But they're glorious when you find a good one. So I don't know that I'm totally helping you Grizz other than saying that you found something really special and that you found something you enjoy and it's a tough category to like move up in the world in different pins just due to availability. Because once you start finding out that hey, I like this Pelican but their extra fine is like a Pilot broad nib you start to get a little bit frustrated and go back to those Pilot extra fines. Like it's a challenge. So definitely if you have any questions you can pass them on if you have more specific pins you want to discuss. And that goes for everyone, Myke. Yes. It's very easy to do it. Just go to penaddictfeedback.com There's always a link in the show notes too and you can leave us a question. It can be follow up maybe you've got something to add from something we've spoken about today. Maybe there's like a product that you found that we haven't spoken about and you want to hear what we think about it. You can always send that stuff in to us along with your questions if we can try and help or assist you in your love of pens, paper, and all analog tools. If you want to find Brad online you can go to penaddict.com Don't forget to check out the penaddict shop and all the wonderful wares that are there right now. Brad is at penaddict P-E-N-A-D-D-I-C-T and he's over at twitch.tv slash penaddict where he streams stationery goodness three times a week. You can find me here on Relay FM where I host a variety of shows and you can find my products over at cortexbrand.com Thank you to our wonderful sponsors of this week's episode Enigma Stationery Factor and Heinz Pens but most of all thank you for listening. Until next time say goodbye Brad. Goodbye Brad.