The Pen Addict 603/transcript

From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 603. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Enigma Stationery. My name is Mike Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy.

Hi, Brad. Hello, Mike Hurley. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Just thinking about inks and, you know, spinning my brain around in circles all over stationary stuff, which is why we're here, which is why I do what I do. It's never not interesting in the stationary world, which is a funny thing to say out loud.

So I have some follow-up for you, Brad, which is in regards to our listener who wrote in last time that they'd had a house fire and the pens were damaged by soot and there was a cleaning offered by the insurance company. We both had some feelings about what we would do, but we wanted to see if any of our listeners had any experience of this.

So we had two people write in. Sarah wrote in to say, I would opt to have them attempt to clean them as long as there is a clause to allow for refurbishment if the cleaning is not successful, especially if you have some unique items. Good luck. Insurance claims are rough, though.

Yes. The type of coverage will impact it as well. Replacement coverage or standard coverage could make a difference. Replacement coverage entitles you to more specific replacements, but on unique items like pens, they may be specifically excluded unless itemized and approved. And Jenny says, unfortunately, I believe these pens are gone.

My mother's workplace had a fire and there were items not burned, but covered in soot. We tried to salvage some pens that were there, but even though they were intact visibly, they smelled so badly of smoke, there was no way of using them. Even though they might be able to make the pens look normal, they may have damage, chemical leaking, etc.

If there are pens that are very likely important to this person, maybe keep them in a vitrine to look at, but the smell will most likely be terrible and there might be unseen damage on the material level that could be even more harmful. Yeah, I think this goes back to why I replied the way I did and said I would just take the claim, right, and just write off the whole thing and be done with it.

Because I'm always going to have this unanswered question in the back of my head, and I personally don't do well with that, having that information. I would rather just have a clean slate and go from there. Thank you for the feedback. I did share this feedback with the person who was going through this, and they mentioned to me that they did attempt to clean them, and it was not going well, and that they were pretty sure they were just going to be able to take the claim.

They were not be made, as Sarah is discussing, what level of insurance do you have. They weren't be made completely whole, but they felt good about at least getting something, and that was kind of the path that they were going down. So it stinks. Yeah, that's really bad.

Yeah, yeah. So I do appreciate the feedback. That was a really – I appreciate someone, like, reaching out with that question because, like, that's not an easy thing to do, and, you know, not having an answer and having the community who – I would – I told this person, I said, I would bet money we have someone out there that's gone through something like this.

So it was nice to get some of the feedback from all the listeners. So I do appreciate that. Speaking of feedback, Mike, I have some for Lamy. Oh, again? Again. Lamy, Dark Lilac, has entered the chat, Mike.

What are we going to do? What are we going to do here? So this is going to be a difficult – I'm actually kind of dreading discussing this because it is not a black and white type of situation, and it's just very weird in how Lamy's handling this, and I don't know what's right and what's wrong and what's real and what's not.

So let me at least give a little bit of background about what we're talking about. So most recently, the Lamy Pink Cliff and Violet Blackberry are Lamy Safaris, two new special editions for 2024. So those pens have launched. They're out. They're available. They have matching inks, also named Pink Cliff and Violet Blackberry.

Hey, what color do you think Pink Cliff ink is, Mike? Just, you know, sidebar. As in, what should I think it should be, or what do I think it is looking at the thing? I mean, I think it would be pink.

Yeah, you would think it would be pink, but what color is it? It's more like blue? Yeah, it's like blue-black. So, I mean, the most of the pen is blue.

Is there a place called Pink Cliff? Like, I don't understand. Yeah, it's probably for a different podcast. I don't know. I don't know that one.

So, like Pink Cliff and Violet Blackberry, you know, Lamy did the whole kit of special editions. So, you have the Safari pens, two. Yeah. Two rollerballs, two ballpoints, and two inks, okay? So, they've done, like, the full send with this.

And I think they look awesome. I like these. I've bought all the things. Like, I don't have them in yet, but they're all on the way. But people are starting to be able to test the inks and test them out, and everyone's liking them.

And I think, you know, it's pretty well received, this special edition, okay? So, that's part one. Years ago, I want to say 2019, Lamy made a purple special edition called Dark Lilac. And this was around the same time they also did Petrol.

So, they made the Safaris. There was a purple one. There was a blue one. They had matching inks, a purple ink and a blue ink.

And the Dark Lilac ink ended up being a very, very popular ink. So, it was 2016. Thank you, Chad, is correcting me. Wow, that was even further back than I thought.

So, the Dark Lilac was very interesting in that it had this really neat green sheen, right? And that was kind of an outlier for Lamy. And purple inks always do super well. Like, I love purple inks.

A lot of people love purple inks. And that just became this very highly sought-after limited edition, right? I think later on, like up to like a year or so ago, these bottles of 50 milliliter Dark Lilac inks are going for mid-100s. Like $150, maybe even more on eBay.

So, it's very, very popular ink. So, around the same time, Pink Cliff and Violet Blackberry, the 2024 Safaris, have come out. Lamy has now added in certain areas of their website and have told certain retailers, there is another ink available called Lamy Dark Lilac. Currently available. So, we have a link to the German Lamy shop.

You can order Dark Lilac. There are a few European vendors where you can order what's called Lamy Dark Lilac ink. People have received Lamy Dark Lilac ink. People have tested Lamy Dark Lilac ink.

It is not the same as the original. At least, I have not tested these in person, clearly. Looking at images, it doesn't look anything like the original Dark Lilac to me. The Dark Lilac is a very striking color.

Like, you could almost pick that out of a crowd, even if you're not very familiar with these inks. It's a very, very obvious looking color. What Lamy is now has available as Dark Lilac does not match the original Dark Lilac. So, I'm saying all this to say I have no clue what's going on here.

It's interesting, but it's frustrating in the fact that it's just straight up confusing, right? There's this product that exists that's the same name of one of the most popular inks they have ever made, at least in the past decade, if not longer. And it's not the same. They're not recreating it.

There's very little information. And it's just weird. Like, it's just weird. I'm saying all this to say I don't have answers on why this is happening, what this is.

Is this real? Is this not? There's people that are, you can order, you can go order a bottle called Lamy Dark Lilac Ink right now. But it's not anything like what the original was. So, I just wanted to throw all this out there because there's a lot of confusion going around right now.

Yeah. Which is Lamy's fault to be straight up. Like, they've launched this product with the name of one of the most famous products they've ever made and said nothing. There's no clarity. There's no universal agreement on it either. Like, it's super, super strange.

And then all of this happening at the same time, they're launching this special edition that's kind of in the realm of Dark Lilac. Like, we could have reintroduced Lamy Dark Lilac with one of these pins, right? Like, in this special edition kit, right? It matches the color schemes.

So, I don't know. There's going to be now Lamy Dark Lilac confusion out there. And that's the frustrating part. Like, I have no idea, like, what's going on here.

Other than it looks like it actually exists and people can order it. But I'm certainly not comfortable saying it's anything like what the original Dark Lilac was like. So, don't go expecting to find the same type of thing if you're looking for Lamy Dark Lilac ink. And now it's just caused a problem for everybody, to be perfectly honest.

I think it's a mistake. Like, do you think there made a mistake? That's what I can't figure out. Like, they actively added a product on a page called Dark Lilac on the Lamy site.

Is it the only place that the words Dark Lilac exist on this product page? No, there's vendors that have it in the European market. Okay. I mean, so that tells me they're getting that information from Lamy to sell this product. But if you go to the same Lamy site in the U.S. version, it's not listed there.

Do you ever... This is a can of worms. But like, do you think that maybe... I don't even really know how to answer this question. Ask this question. I'm just going to say it in the most disrespectful way I can think of.

Do you think that maybe we just care too much? Like that... Well, okay. So what's funny is... Do you think Lamy... Like, they're not trying to screw people?

They're just like... They just want to call this Ink Dark Lilac. And like, it's just like it doesn't matter to them. But it matters to us. It's funny. Related to your question, the next statement I was going to make before you even asked me that question was, everyone can go erase the last five minutes of this podcast because it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter, right? Like, because they've just created a new ink called Dark Lilac. It's like calling a new ink Blue, right? Yeah. But what you want, that was a thing that existed then.

They've created a new ink now and they've decided they want to call it Dark Lilac, but it doesn't hold the same properties. But like, it's kind of... It doesn't really matter, right? Like, that's the... Yeah. I know these things matter to us, obviously. 603 episodes in. But like, sometimes...

What is the phrase? Like, don't attribute malice to what could be like... Yes. I'm going to come up with a different phrase here. It's like, do not like prescribe malice where it could otherwise just be incompetence.

Yeah. Yeah. Which is kind of what's happening. Because there's no... They should have just given it a different name, like, of course, because, you know, it's not like the pen. The pen isn't called Dark Lilac, is it, that they've released? So like, they should just give it a different name.

Just Lilac would be fine. You know, like, that would also be okay. Just Lilac would be fine. So yeah, it all doesn't matter.

But like, this is what we love to talk about. But yeah. This one is extremely weird because there is no... Like, I don't have an answer. Like, there's no clarity on it.

And I don't know. But it's fun to talk about. We got it from Togo. It's Hanlon's razor. Yeah. Which is like a...

Like, Occam's razor is about like the simplest thing. Hanlon's razor is never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. But like, I don't want to say stupidity, right? Sure. Because that's... For me, it's just like...

It's... Maybe we need to make Mike's razor. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's just like... Do not attribute to malice what could be answered by... It's not... I mean... A lack of attention.

It could be as simple as this. Someone that's been with the company for two years may not have like the full grasp of... That's exactly what I think has happened. The Lamy Dark Lilac experience from eight years ago, right?

But also as well, do Lamy even know that people love this ink? That's a different podcast. We've had that podcast a thousand times. I think they might not even know.

Does Lamy even know? Yeah. Like, why would they even know? Like, is it even important for them to know? Do not all of their special links sell out?

So like, why is this one? You know? Like, it's... It reminds me of like Mont Blanc Lucky Orange, right? - Yeah. And all the... Do you remember? Oh, yeah. That's a whole thing. And there was the Lamy one, right?

Do you remember the cartridges that we had? Yeah. So it was Pacific Blue? What do they call it? So they made turquoise.

Well, the orange... We had the bronze cartridges that were the orange cartridges Yeah. That were like not for retail sale. Yeah. I still have like 10 packs of those that someone sent me. Like, from a retailer.

But Lamy has duplicated in ink in the past. I want to... Gosh, y'all chat will have to correct me what color it was. But Lamy turquoise was basically repackaged to match an AL star. I think it was Pacific Blue.

Evan has helped create... Evan has helped create a given better wording. This is Mike's razor. All right? Okay. Ready, go. Do not attribute to malice that which could be attributed to other people not caring as much as you do about that one hyper-specific thing. There we go.

Can that be the show title? I don't think it would fit. I mean, we could try. I mean, let me see what happens if I paste that into the CMS.

It'll probably break, but we'll find out. But yeah, so that's the reason we have to ask these questions is because Lamy, for people who have been around a long time... Brad, it fits. Okay. So let's just see what happens. That's the episode title.

So Lamy has done this before where they've taken an existing ink and renamed it and said, hey, look, Pacific Blue. And it's like, no, that's like turquoise. You've already sold that. Or you sell that part of your regular lineup, which is totally fine.

Just be straightforward with it. Like, I don't know. We've already spent way too long on this. And I knew that's exactly how this would go because there is no clear answer to this.

This is all like gray. And so I knew I would just talk in circles around this. But Lamy's doing weird stuff. Shocker. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Squarespace, the all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online.

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Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of RelayFM. All right, Mike, we have a shout-out of the week. Shout-out of the week. That was accidentally Squarespace, by the way.

I didn't realize we were having Squarespace sponsorship today, but the Fountain Pen Pharmacist runs on Squarespace, and I love their site. They always do really good ink reviews. I really like... Checking out the matching palettes that they always set up, what other colors match. They've interviewed so many inks over the years that they're able to pull from what they've reviewed previously, look at comparable inks, and it's just a very consistent, good quality site.

If you aren't following Fountain Pen Pharmacist, at their Squarespace site, FountainPenPenPharmacist.com, or on Instagram, you're missing out because they do a really fantastic job. Very cool. All right, Mike, since we were on Lamy, I figured I would keep playing the hits, and let's talk about Sailor for a minute.

We'll have a temporary... We'll have a temporary moratorium lifted because ninjas, Mike. But before we get into the ninjas, I just want to say why we have a Sailor moratorium. Since January 31st, Mike, so 20 days, in the last 20 days as we're recording this podcast, Sailor has released 11 special edition pens.

Let's go. The Iris Nebula has released two pens, a Pro Gear Slim and a Pro Gear. The Smoothie Series has released five different pastel color pens because they've never done that before. And then most recently, in the past few days, they've released four ninja pens. So I just want to be clear, that's a lot of pens.

Literally, in 20 days, they've released 11 pens. But I did want to talk about the ninja pens because a lot of people have asked me to. A lot of people have shared this with me. They're really cool. The reason we don't talk about Sailor not because we don't love them.

I love all my Sailor pens. I love everything that they make. It's just a lot. It's a lot. It was getting to be too much on the show to just keep talking about every single pen that they made.

Yeah, yeah. So they finally broke me about a year ago where it was just like I couldn't keep up and it was getting frustrating. Because now I'm on the West side. Did you know they made a sterling silver 1911? I think so. That is a great...

I think I did see that. It's made for, as they say, to celebrate life's milestones. It is a good pen for like weddings and stuff. Yeah. I bet that thing is...

Yeah. Like that's a... It's like... It's a statement type of pen. Yeah. So how much is that? 49 grams. 49 grams. I thought you were going to say 49 grand.

That would have been... 49,000 grams. Just to put into perspective, a usual 1911 is 17 grams. Okay. So that's quite a bit heavier. Yep. So the ninja fountain pen has four different models where there is artwork done on each of these pens to...

I guess talking about these ninja missions, night raids, sabotage, and assassination. But the most important mission was to invade the enemy's camp, gather information on the enemy's situation, and convey this information to the Lord. So this is from the Muromachi period, 1336 to 1573, to the Edo period, 1603 to 1868.

So we have artwork characterizing these eras. I mean, I think it's like legit cool. Yeah, they're great. I don't have any interest in getting one of these for myself, but I love looking at these. And I would love to see these in person.

I think they're pretty neat. What the process is? Is it makei work? Or is it print?

It doesn't specifically say. Link to the page. Let me double check. Oh, this is a better link.

Oh, it is makei. Yeah, so here's a better link. Let me put this in the show notes. PMMA resin with Yubu Makai.

So I'm going to add this link here. Very cool. Which looks like a little bit of a different. So yeah, so one, two, three, four. Yeah, four different pens.

They have some close-ups on this page. The artwork is great. I don't know. I really like these. I just want to be sure to give them some props.

Lift the moratorium temporarily. I just kind of appreciate what these pens are. And they're kind of cool. I do like the other ones too, though.

The Iris Nebula is a really cool looking pen. Iris Nebula is cool. I mean, smoothies. Demonstrator, blue, sparkly. They need to break out of whatever they're doing with the smoothie series just in the broader context. Like every five pen set is always like these past.

It's either drinks or birds or inks or something. It's all the same kind of category. It's almost the same extra parts. I don't agree with you.

I think that all they're doing is just trying to find reasons to release five pens in five different colors and they're just giving a name. Like, isn't it better to give them a name than just to be like, here's the blue one? Because you know what will happen?

Someone will have like a favorite blue one and then they'll release another one called blue and then everyone's going to get really mad about it. Yeah, I know. I know. So they just give them names. Yeah. No, I'm just saying they give me something different. But this is why there's a moratorium because I just get overwhelmed by all the releases.

But that doesn't discount the fact I think they're really cool. Like, I really like the smoothie ones. Like, they're super awesome. It's just like as soon as I turn around, like there's going to be another set out there and it's going to be really awesome too.

And it's just a lot. It's a lot. All right. Something I've been asking for for years is actually happening. And I'm a little bit surprised that Morimon, one of my favorite paper brands, is making a hardbound notebook. So I've always praised Morimon for their paper quality, probably since the beginning of the Pen Addict, right?

I've always thought that was one of the best papers that's on the market. But they've only ever come in different types of spiral bound. And then if you count, they have a couple other smaller ring bound and like pad bound type of staple bound type of books. But they've never had like a traditional hard bound notebook and they're making one.

So this is the Nima scene journal notebook. It's going to have 90 GSM paper, 120 pages. So I'm interested to see how this compares to their regular paper because it's a little bit thicker. And any time you have a paper that's amazing and then, you know, a brand that you love and they kind of mix in a different like paper, even though this format is awesome.

It's like, ah, I kind of want to see it, make sure it's good. So that's kind of where I'm at on these. I'm guessing it's going to be good because they have a lot of different paper types that have always been like really, really solid. The only thing that's a little bit weird about this is they're making it as a limited edition.

And I guess that's fine if they're going to do a test run to see. But like there's no reason these won't do well. And hopefully they just become part of the regular rotation. But they're doing how many colors?

One, two, three, four cover colors for their 20th anniversary limited edition. Hopefully we see it. One, hopefully they're good because I'm very excited that this exists. And two, if they're good, I hope they continue because this has been something I've asked for for probably five or ten years.

It's like I would love to have a nice Maraman Nima scene hardcover book. So we'll see. We'll see. This is completely off topic. Nima scene. In the scene. It always throws me off the word. To me, it sounds like something medical.

Do you know what it means? I've known many times over the years what it means. The Greek goddess of memory, which is a great idea. But I'm not. That name is very complicated.

It is. And that's why I can't remember it. There's something about it. I don't know if it's. I think I think I go to for some reason linoleum.

I don't know why. There's one. Nima scene. I mean, Maraman is one thing. Yeah. Yeah. It goes on. It's hard. Yeah. Plus, it's it's to me, it's less the the name itself than how they use it. It's like for this very particular paper line like this, like the higher end paper because they have different products that don't use the Nima scene name.

So that's more of a weird thing to me. It's almost like, well, we started with this. So now we just got to keep going. I feel like that's where we're at with this because most people don't call it that.

They'll just call it the Mormon notebook. So but when someone does say it, I know exactly what they're talking about. So maybe that's a good thing, too. So. All right. I have another a few other new products I want to talk about this week because I always mention.

I mention this every year that February is the time of year where we get like all the new product launches happen. And that's exactly what started like the past few weeks going into this month. This is when everything rolls starts rolling out. So we have a new Kaveco iridescent pin, the apricot pearl.

I think this is better than the first one, which was kind of like the pearlescent iridescence, right? It was a white one with the kind of green and purple iridescence. I think this look, I mean, it's just an image so far. I want to see it in person.

It could fail like in, you know, real light and real life situations. I think the product image of this is so cool. I'm very, very much into this one. And I think it's better than the previous one.

So we'll see how it goes. I do have this one coming in to check out myself. If and how it says apricot pearl on the flip side of this pin. Yeah, this is the only image I have.

So did the last one, I'm trying to think if the last one said iridescent. I don't know if it does say apricot pearl, it's going to be in a different font though. I mean, that's just how it's going to be, right? There's going to be like three different fonts on the thing.

Kind of like the V-carb or the Williams livery. Lots of different fonts going on there. Do you know, by the way, that the first two races of the season are on Saturday, not Sunday this year? I knew the first one was, but I didn't look at the second one.

This is your PSA for Formula One fans. PSA. All right. Yeah. So we'll definitely mix in some livery talk when we see these pins. No one's really doing an apricot pearl livery this year. They should though. They should. I know, right? Someone should. Maybe McLaren. Yeah. Maybe McLaren.

This could be the alternate. Maybe they could do papaya ball. Yeah. This could be the gulf livery for Mario. Yeah, there you go.

Just, there you go. The next one. So as cool as the apricot pearl is, this one really caught me off guard because it's one of my favorite brands in Y Studio. They are doing a, basically an etched pin. So they're known for their brass barrel pins, right?

So it's a full brass barrel. It's a very, you know, it's a good platform for like artwork, etching, things like that. And they've done some interesting limited editions over the years. And this is one that it's just, it's carved, right?

It's carved. So I don't know how many of these they're making. And I was all about it. And I did realize it was a $739 pin, which I will not be getting this pin. I don't like it that much.

They have another one too. Did you see the other one? They have a rollerball one. I saw that. No, they have two fountain pens.

Okay. In the classic Renaissance series. Oh, so this one I've seen. So this one is the first, this one they've had for a few years. This is a gold leaf overlay.

It's beautifully done. I've almost bought this one a couple of times. I don't think it's as quite as much as this one. I'd have to look. You have the link up.

But this one, the price is woof. Like there's no way I could pay that much for this pin. $739. The other one too? Yeah, the gold leaf one.

Okay. So they did this dragon, the dragon foil one. I'd have to look, probably five years ago. It's been a while. I don't remember it being that price when it launched, but maybe now it is.

But it's beautiful. I love Y studio. I love these pins. Hopefully I get to see one and check them out. I would like to see them in person.

So Kenro Industries is the U.S. distributor. So I will see them at various pin shows throughout the year. So hopefully I'll get to take a look at one of these. Maybe I could pry them for a loan of one.

But I don't think I would ever add one to the collection. But boy, do I like them. So there's lots of good information on these. If you want to look about the artwork that goes into this, there's lots of details and some videos on how it's made and some just really, really cool stuff.

So this is like a very, very cool setup for a pin. I really like this one a lot. And the last one, speaking of Kenro, Esther Brook collaborated with Tamanuri Studio to make some limited edition Arushi Estes. They've already pretty much sold out.

As a matter of fact, Mike, the link that was live yesterday is now no longer live because I think they're completely sold out. I mean, I looked at it this morning. Yeah. So there were two models. Yeah. When I put this in the show notes yesterday, there were two models available.

And one of them was sold out and one was still available. And now they just must be completely gone. And there's no more picture. And there's nothing else for me to talk about because all my information is now gone.

So they don't exist. You can also ignore this section of the podcast because if you did not see these. I found a page on the Esther Brook website where they're kind of talking about the Tamanuri. These are fantastic. But I have a question for you.

What is going on with the little base on them? What is happening? What do you mean? You can stand them up on that little base thing. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. But that base is metal.

When I was looking at it yesterday, I was like, no. No, I will not. Does it just have to screw into it or something? It's very confusing to me.

No, no, no, no. I think it's just, I don't think that comes with it. I think that's just a... You think? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's just, I think that's just something they used. It's probably part of the artisans like set up when they're working on the pins, I bet to a degree. Oh, okay. So it's, I think it's just, I think it's just a visual stand for a picture. It doesn't ship with a pin.

They sit on there? Nor would I, nor would I ever put my Urushi pin on a metal stand. But these look great, right? So I, like, I don't even know the names of them, but there was one that kind of had some like gold stripes on it.

And there's one that's more of like a traditional, just solid sparkly with some color variation. They looked amazing. And they were like $995. I think they were like right around $1,000, which like all these pins were, we've talked about a lot of expensive pins today, but a lot of them are craftsmanship based.

Yes. Like I'm reviewing the Navalurikaku, right? You know, that's an Urushi pin. Oh, you've got that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm testing that out.

I'm testing it to get a first impression for you on that. I mentioned it last week, I think, or the week before. I really, really like it. Oh, yeah. And I just can't, I just can't pay $699 for it, right?

Like, like both of those things can be true. It can be really nice and not for me, right? So that's kind of like the base. I think it's a good pin.

I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I kind of want it. I kind of want to see it's like, hey, can you cut me a deal on this? But I don't, I don't think I will.

I think it's just too much. Just like, but there's clearly a market for this. These Estabrooks are sold out, right? Like, I mean, yesterday we had an active link to, to buy them and now they're gone.

So yeah, there's clearly a market for this type of product. It's just, you know, in the overarching thing, like that's, that's an entire podcast topic is like, how do you spend this much, this frequently? That's why I get on Sailor for dropping 11 pins in 20 days that are all, you know, $300 plus pins.

And the Ninja ones, I didn't even look at the price, but I imagine they're more like 500 or more. You know, it's just, it's a lot for anyone to keep up with. And like I said, it's an entire podcast topic of how not to worry about keeping up with the Joneses and, you know, use what you love and it doesn't have to be expensive.

It could be, you know, platinum preppy, which y'all will catch me raving about, you know, the platinum preppy perping up as much as any pin that I have. And that was a $7 pin, right? So that's a, that's a whole topic for another day. We'll save that. But yeah, I, I love this stuff.

I love seeing the creativity. I love seeing the art, artwork, the craftsmanship. It's, it seems like a, like just the stationary business as a whole is in a pretty good place that we get all of these smaller things. Like we can talk about Lamy on one hand and like the thousands and thousands of pins that they make at a, at a time.

And then we can talk about someone who's making something really cool where there's, there's 20 of them. We can talk about them in this, in the same context. So that's why I like talking about all this stuff. This episode is brought to you by Enigma Stationery.

Enigma Stationery offer unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands and hard to find imported products. Some of the newest items available over at Enigma Stationery feature the unlimited quantity of the 140th anniversary Ebonite Kaweco Sport Set, new BGM stickers and washi tape, including a new set of London sticker flakes, perfect for anyone planning to journal about Relay 10 coming up soon.

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1988 was a dragon year. I need to figure out what I am. I like that about me, you know, that I'm a dragon. Yeah. This, the, one of these dragon inks that's on the page looks really, really cool.

It's good. It's got some nice shimmer to it. I think it's called like blue dragon glistening silver or something. Yeah. So with that set, they did a base blue and then they took that base and then they did three more colors. I think with a gold shimmer, a silver shimmer and a red shimmer.

Glistening gold, glistening silver, glistening blue. Blue. Okay. Not blue, not red, blue. Yeah. So the, which I think is a kind of a cool concept, to, to have those options. And plus the way color verse does it, there are 15 milliliter bottles, right?

So you're not committed to, you know, like a 50 milliliter bottle of like a shimmer ink that you, you know, you may get bored of and it's nice to have like the smaller options out there. So that's very cool. And the Kusaguru bags, there are more of those.

These are the ones with the funny cats on them. Those are always super popular. They're really weird and good. Yeah, they're good. That's kind of the way to think about it.

It's just a weird and good. And there's a lot of that kind of stuff over at Enigma Station, which I like. Like they have the pens that you want. They have the inks that you want, but they also, and like all these fun exclusive items, but they also do a lot of importing of interesting, weird and wonderful things.

Like the stuff that you add to your cart and you're happy you added. They've got that kind of stuff there too. Yeah. Any, any website that has a menu item that says shop by character, like I'm in, just count me in. Plus it's the last call over at Enigma Stationery for 2024 dated items, including Midorian Traveler's Company products.

If you're looking for, if you've been slow on the uptake of getting your date products, you can still get them. Right. Or you made a mistake and you don't like the layout that you were in, which one of my blogging friends did not like, or they had like a job change in the beginning of the year.

Hey, they need a better layout. You can still get these 2024 planners that are, if you need to make a change early on in the year, it's a good idea. If you want free shipping in the US or discounted international shipping on orders of $50 or more, plus a free gift, head over to enigmastationery.com slash penaddict and use the code penaddict24 at checkout.

That's enigmastationery.com slash penaddict to check out all of the new stock that Enigma have, plus a free gift and free US shipping on orders of $50 or more with the code penaddict24. Our thanks to Enigma Stationery for their support of this show and RelayFM. All right. I got to go back and look at the show notes because I'm still shopping on Enigma.

All right. Hang on one second. I'm going to go into Ask TPA now, Brad, so I can handle this part for you. All right. Ask TPA. Hit me. What do we got? Eric writes in and says, I recently took a new job that comes with a pay raise.

I want to commemorate it. Hey, do you need a new 2024 planner? You can go to Enigma Stationery. Yeah, you probably do.

Sorry. I want to commemorate it with a new pen. My current stash is all steel nibs. A couple of Y Studios, a Caran d'Ache 849, and a Monteverde Strata. I like thinner but heavier pens.

I can't stand the look of demonstrators. What should I be looking at to celebrate? Wow. That's a tough question. Thin and heavy, a little bit celebratory.

You know what's an awesome pen, which I think you can actually get, and this is probably, I don't know, that hammered sailor that you have? I think they still make that somewhere. This is terrible of me that I don't have a link. That's one of the first things that comes into mind because, number one, it's thin, and it has a little bit of extra weight to it.

So I think that's pretty neat. A random one that might work, it might be too wide. God, the thin, the thin's the kicker. I was going to say the Kaweco Supra, and you could upgrade that with a gold nib, but I think that's just problematic all around because I think it's probably too wide.

And then the gold nibs they have, I don't think, are the number six sized. So scratch that one. It's the Japan Blue Sailor from Wancher. It's the collaboration between Wancher and Sailor.

You can still buy it on Wancher's website. I was thinking so, yeah. It's not cheap. No, no, no, no. To me, I should see it in pounds, 400 pounds, but I adore this pen.

Like, I think that's a really good call. Yeah, that's a celebratory type of pen. Yeah. Right. Trying to think of that. They already have Y Studios.

Yeah, this is not easy. I kind of like that Sailor. Because it is small, and it's heavy. And it has a gold nib.

So it's definitely like the step-up type of pen. Yeah, like in sizing. And it's a non-demonstrator. It's kind of a little bit longer than a standard pro gear, but slimmer than one.

Sarah says, I remember a few years ago, Brad, that you broke your dominant wrist. While I remember you talking about how it affected your stationary usage shortly after the injury and during, I don't remember how the long-term recovery period went. I broke my dominant wrist a month ago in a skiing accident.

I get my cast off in about a week. I want to know what I'm in for. Yeah, so depending on the severity of the break. So I did not have to have surgery, but I had a pretty bad break.

It was like a twist in the break. I forget what they call it, like the type of fracture. But I didn't have to have surgery. So it has never affected my writing, and it doesn't affect my day-to-day life.

So it's been probably three years now. But I can literally, if I reach over with my left hand and grab my right wrist in a certain area, I can still feel like I can make it hurt, right? Like if I do something wrong, I will feel it. But on my general day-to-day life, it's 100% has not affected quality of life or changed anything.

I don't really have like lingering dull pain. But if I do something weird, I know that I broke my wrist a few years ago. I was like, oh, yeah, that's why it still hurts. So it's probably always going to be like that, especially given my age, right?

You know, those things heal fully. But there's always this little subtle reminder when you do something wrong. It's like, oh, yeah, you were a dummy a few years ago. Remember that time? But, yeah, it doesn't bother me on day-to-day.

But I can literally, like right now as I'm talking to you, if I bend it a certain way, I can feel it. Like I can make it hurt, right? Jordan writes in and says, I've run across a Sailor Dipton ink online that I believe I would really like.

However, it looks like these are intended for dip pen usage. Is there a reason not to fill a converter with a Dipton ink, specifically looking at Dark Cave, if that matters? This is a super good question because not only is this a very specific ink that Sailor has, essentially has a product warning on.

This goes into the broader context of pen warranties that most of us don't think about. Like, take, for example, Pilot may only warranty your pen for damage if you've only ever used Pilot inks. No one pays attention to that. I promise you. This is a little bit of a different case that I kind of would trust Sailor's warning or would heed the warning a little bit on this one because these are a little bit more saturated, highly intense inks.

They have two different kinds, one with shimmer and one with sheen. And they made them for these Hikoro and Hikoro dip nibs and to market them with this as a set, as a combination set. I think technically, I would do it. You would do it?

I would not do it. Oh, okay. This is one of those times where I would actually listen to Sailor and not do that. I'm trying to remember if I have a link that someone tried this and it really, it's just, it ends up being sticky and gunky and hard to clean out.

I would not do it. A lot of times these warnings are overly cautious, right? For, you know, legal and warranty reasons, especially from large companies. I think this one I would heed.

This one, I'm not putting this in a pen with a feed. I just feel like if you really like it, just buy a dip nib and have fun with it. Yeah. But don't, don't. Right. Don't. They tell you for a reason. Like, yeah, there is a reason. Yeah.

They would love you to be able to buy this and use it in any pen that you want because then they would sell more bottles of it. But yeah, they're aware. Like they would not be willing to put this in the warranty of their pens, right? They're not going to do that.

And that tells you something. Final question comes from Tyler who says, I'm curious how good the pass-through is on the Apple Vision Pro for handwriting. I love taking notes by hand and I'm wondering if I'll still be able to do so while wearing a Vision Pro or if the camera or screen resolution isn't good enough for it.

So I tested this out before the show today. For me, at least, I can very clearly read my handwriting, but I can't get too close to the page because then it goes out of focus for me. You mean visually? Yeah. Like you can't visually get too close to the page.

If I get too close, and this is the same for anything. If I put something too close to the Vision Pro, I can't read it. And this might be a consequence of me actually using prescription lenses in the Vision Pro. But yeah, I think that there's just something about like the cameras and what they're trying to show you.

But if I just use, like if I'm just sitting up straight and writing on my Sidekick notepad, I can read what I'm writing clearly. Plus, I think the bigger benefit is the latency is so low that you don't even notice it. Like the latency is so low, it does feel like you're looking through it.

So just for clarification for people who may not be familiar with the Vision Pro, the pass-through comment is seeing what's actually in the real world, like on your desk, your pad, through the Vision Pro screen, if you will. What you're looking through is cameras, right? So they have cameras in the front of the product.

And so like the image typically is a little grainy, like you're looking in low light. And that's because they prioritize latency over everything else. So the image quality isn't as good. So like there are videos of people playing like table tennis wearing the Vision Pro, which is kind of incredible if you think about it, like the latency that you would need.

Like basically what you're seeing through, like in your eyes is what's happening outside, but it's going through a camera and a computer to get to you. Interesting. And they're able to handle that. Like it's the latency so low they're able to play. Gotcha. Wild. That's wild. Yeah, interesting.

So I haven't really thought about it from that aspect. Yeah, that's cool. I like it. If you would like to send in a question of your own for a future episode of the show, please go to penadicfeedback.com. You can send in your questions for Ask TPA. You can also send in your follow-up there as well if you have any that you'd like to send in about the show.

Thank you so much to everybody that does that each and every week. And similarly, thank you to our sponsors of this week, Squarespace and Enigma Stationery for their support. Thank you for listening. If you want to find Brad online, please go to penaddict.com where you can find his wonderful work, all of his writing and the writing of many talented others who contribute to Pen Addict.

You can go to spokedesign.com for Brad's products. You can find Brad online. He is at Pen Addict. And you can also find him on twitch.tv slash Pen Addict three times a week streaming stationary goodness.

You can find me online. I'm at iMike. I-M-Y-K-E. You can find my products at Cortex Brand. Sidekick notepad is a year old today from when we first put it on sale. So congratulations. And we're out of stock for the first time. Happy anniversary. Thank you.

You can't have one. Thank you. Well, this is kind of timed out just right. I went and approved a shipment today. So we'll have more stock in about 10 days because we're flying some of them over at additional cost to us so people can get them as soon as possible.

Because that's what I care about. And then we're putting the rest on a boat and we're going to send them. But yeah, we also, Brad, we have paper packaging now. Nice. For the Sidekick notepad.

So no longer, we're not using shrink wrapping anymore for it. Good. That's cool. We have a book wrap, a paper book wrap, which I'm really excited about. Oh, that'll be neat. Yeah. And I want to try and roll that out to other stuff, but that's going to take a little bit more time.

But for the Sidekick notepad, we're able to do it. So I'm excited about that. Love it. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode. And we'll be back next week.

Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.