The Pen Addict 704/transcript

From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 704. Today's show is brought to you by Enigma Stationery. My name is Myke Hurley and I have the pleasure of being joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. What a pleasure of that intro, Myke. It is a pleasure. It is a pleasure to talk to you. It's a pleasure to talk about pens. Yes. Because we have a lot to talk about today. As you know, February is big product launch month. Did I know that? Did I know that? It's something I say every year. I was like, if y'all want to, like February is when things turn up.

Why? Because we've cleared the holidays, right? So they've done all their summer work to get fall releases, which lead into the holidays. I guess all the sales are done too, right? Yeah. Because you don't want to launch a new product in a sale period, in theory. Right. Right. So then we tool up on January to get all our marketing dialed and, you know, all our release schedules dialed for the coming, like, really the first six months of the year. Lamy is the one I always talk about doing this, is when they release those limited editions. Like we talked about Flamingo and Pine recently.

Have you gotten those yet? I ordered mine just yesterday. Oh, I ordered them. Yeah. No, I'd forgotten about them. They have not arrived. I'd forgotten that I'd ordered them, but I had. I ordered them both from Coldpens. Maybe they're just going to take their time to come in or whatever. It might have been like a week ahead type of pre-order type of thing. Like a very soon type of pre-order. So by the time I get mine, maybe we can talk about them together. Like, again, not going to be a lot to talk about other than to say they're really good. I think they're going to be excellent in person.

And we'll both just be able to talk about the ways in which we have Frankensteined them, because that's absolutely what I'm going to be doing. Yeah. I think that's totally the play with that one. But anyway, historically, Lamy's been just kind of the leader of February launch. And it just seems like, you know, pen shows around the world are getting cranked up. We've had Philly in the U.S. We have California this weekend. We have Manila over in Southeast Asia going. So like companies are wanting to bring their new stuff to the new year shows and events and things like that.

So we got an email from Kaweco where they honestly go off Kaweco. So it's like, I don't know what's going on here, but yes, please. Thank you, Kaweco. So we got a bunch of Kaweco news. The biggest news is the Kaweco Perkyo Iridescent, Myke. So lots to discuss here on a $17 pen, essentially, because they did the Kaweco Sport Iridescent. I don't know if you remember this several years ago in this exact same pearlescent material. And then they followed that sport up with another sport. They did an Apricot Pearl, which still had this iridescent, but it was more of an orangey yellow one.

And then they started teasing a couple of days ago. Hey, new. They were showing like the iridescent, just like a closeup of the iridescent. I was like, what are they going to do with this? Turns out they're going to do it on the Perkyo, which is a lower priced pen than the Kaweco Sport. Always has been. Like this is kind of their entry level, right? Their Platinum Preppy, their Pilot Kakuno, even though there's other cheaper Pilot Fountain pens. But like it's in that Kakuno range, the Platinum Preppy.

Regardless of the iridescent barrel, it's a great pen. I speak highly of it regularly. I bought the Infrared one years ago, and that's still one of my favorite pens that I own. The curious thing about it is it has been released at a price that is cheaper than the stock level Perkyos, which I don't want everyone to yell at me if this is a mistake. But it can't be because it's on Kaweco's site at the low price. And all the retailers, obviously they get a price listing to know what to sell it for. But the standard Perkyos are like $20 to $25, and this one's $17, $18.

It's like, okay, cool, let's do it. Order all your iridescent Kaweco Perkyos. But this is a full-length barrel. Most people are familiar with Kaweco for making shorter barrels and pocket-sized pens. This is a full-size pen, plastic barrel, great nib. All-around good, good pen. The other interesting thing is I don't believe, and I could very well be wrong on this, I don't believe they've ever done a Kaweco Perkyo rollerball before. And they have the same iridescent barrel with a rollerball in it. I've certainly never tested one.

That doesn't mean they've never done it. I don't recall seeing it before. But I'll be sure to get both of these, especially the rollerball to test the iridescent. I just want for myself. So it's really good.

If that wasn't enough... I'm trying to work out why it's priced the way that it is. Mm-hmm. So my initial thought was the material may be different. Mm-hmm. And the one thing that I can tell you... Okay, and that doesn't help, actually. So for some reason, the infrared one is listed on Kaweco's site as weighing 15 grams. Okay. What's the price? I'm not looking at it because I know the price that I paid for it. 96 euro. Yep. Yep. I paid $29 for that. Gladly. The iridescent is 14 grams, which is the same weight as the standard one.

So my expectation is... And also, the standard Perkyo's are kind of in the 15 to 16 euro range on their website. The iridescent is 18 euros. Mm-hmm. And the infrared was 26. So I think it may have just been this one was more expensive because of the process in the plastic. And actually, the iridescent is closer to what Kaweco would charge for Perkyo. It's actually still a little bit more. So I think that maybe the infrared was more of the standout than the iridescent. Yeah, because the infrared...

It's easy to get those names mixed up. Was released as a limited edition. And I'm not sure that they're calling this any type of limited anything. It doesn't have the word collection in the name. Right. But at least on Kaweco's website, the iridescent is a little bit more expensive than the more regular color way. Gotcha. And I was just bouncing through the US retailers. And on all of those, it's less than the standard color ways. And they're just doing a discount for some reason. I don't understand.

Maybe they also could have had this in-house for a while and are doing a nice thing by just like passing on the, you know, hey, here's what we paid for it. So here's what we're going to charge for it. We'll pass along the savings to you. Yeah. Um, there were three things in this email. So that was the big one, I think. Um, the pink series collection, the Skyline Sport. Um, actually it's not the collection. It's just the Skyline Sport where they do a barrel color. Get the names right, Brad, please.

We all know Kaweco is very particular and very to the standard on their naming. This is Kaweco Skyline Sport. There's no collection in the name. I think I typoed that. Um, see, okay. Actually, I didn't typo that. Do I really want to go down this road? I think I might want to go down this road for a second. What is going on, Kaweco? Like, what are we doing? Like, you know, the... Historic problem. Just let's say for the record, historic issue. Yes, the infrared is collection sport. Yes. Fountain pen.

That collection... Sorry, I keep jumping in. Collection is their limited nomenclature. Right. Kaweco Collection Fountain Pen Perkyo Infrared is the name of that one. And this is Kaweco Skyline Sport Fountain Pen Pink. So what is Skyline? To me, my... As the best of my understanding, Skyline is silver trim. Silver trim sports. Good stuff. I believe. So silver barrel paint, silver nib, silver hardware. When I Google... When I search... Sorry, Skyline on their website, everything has got silver trim.

So what is the gold called? Classic, I believe. I love it. Ah, this is madness. What are they doing? Why does everything need four names? Do you want to talk about the Titan at all? No, I do not want to talk about that. Never again. Yeah, someone's going to tell me, oh, in German, Skyline means fountain pen. You know what I mean? Here we go again. So the Skyline color that they're releasing, they do a full lineup release. So fountain pen, mechanical pencil, clutch pencil, ballpoint, and gel. So that's the five main products.

I can't believe clutch pencil is that popular. You know what I mean? That is a big surprise to me, that that product line is that popular. It's not even this one. It's the metal ones that I think really do the work for the clutch pencil. Those get a lot of love. The brass barrel clutch pencil, it's one of the most beautiful products you'll ever see. Right? That's why it gets a lot of run. It's so Instagrammable. So photogenic. It's just... And it's good. Right? And it works. So... Here's where I'm going to get in trouble, Myke.

Okay. The next thing, the third thing that they buried at the bottom of this newsletter. So Kaweco for, I think, two full years now has done the DIY Sport, where they basically have a Build-A-Bear model of pen that you can go, and you can only get this one in person at either retail stores, pen shows. There's like a little machine that's involved with it that like seals the cap on the end of it, puts it all together. It's a whole thing. And the first one was, I forget the names, it was like a cranberry-ish color.

The second one was a nice green color. Myke, what they did here is the best kind of FOMO that a brand should do. They made a Kaweco glow-in-the-dark Sport that you can only get in person. Yeah. And as much as you want to hate FOMO, this is absolutely what a company should do. Yeah, it's good. To make you go to a store, which is great for the stores and retailers and pen shows, wherever these products are going to be, and get this pen made, and you have this thing now. And I think it'll get some hate because, oh, I can't get it unless I go.

And honestly, I'll take any hate I get. I think they crushed it. Like, this is how you should do FOMO. And like, I want, maybe it's because I want this pen badly, and I'm going to have to figure out how to get it. It's sick. Like, I'm just all in on this. The good news is they've expanded the DIY build options, right? It was not as prevalent. It wasn't in a lot of areas when they started it. But it's become successful, and now I think they're trying to expand on it. Like, yeah, this is going to be a problem.

I find the Conveco DIY thing to be very disappointing. In the beginning, I totally agree. No, I still think it is. Like, this is a cool pen, but you don't get to make any choices. Correct. Like, the only choice you make is the nib. Like, if I'm going to be putting it together, I would like to be able to choose. Like, would I like maybe a gold finial or something? You know what I mean? Like, give me some options. Like, all you do is you just get the parts to build the pen. It's like, I'm building this pen for you.

Like, there is nothing. I'm just doing the labor. Like, they don't offer any, like, what I want is to be able to mix and match some stuff, you know? You're not wrong. And this is exactly what I thought the exact same thing in the beginning. I was like, well, this is kind of lame. But apparently it's working because it's the only time you can get this color barrel, right? So does it fall short of what the DIY could be? Yes. Is it executing on Kaweco FOMO in a good, positive way for the brand and for retailers?

I also think yes. Yeah. So, like, I, like, actively am going to have to find out how to get one of these pens. Like, and that's good for Kaweco. Like, good job, Kaweco. You got me. Right? I can't be mad. I can't be mad at that. Yeah. Well, they have a list to participate in retailers. Yeah. Yeah. And so. They're all in Europe. It'll move around. So, yeah, they'll eventually expand. Hopefully at a pen show. Like, you know, maybe they, I don't know if they'll do it at, like, a stationary fest type of thing.

Who knows? Well, you let me know because there's a bunch of places in the UK. So I can just go get you one. Sweet. Like, I can go make one and get you one. So you let me know what you want me to do there. Yeah. Yeah. So, good job, Kaweco. Yeah. They did it. Like, it's just one of my favorite brands, like Lamy, to where they make a great product for a fairly, you know, relatively inexpensive price to, like, what we all used to. So it's great. So really good job there.

Let's move on to another favorite of mine, Myke. The Uniball Jetstream. Happy 20th anniversary, Jetstream. Yes. Who knew? Who knew? I would have guessed a little bit older if I had to sit here and think about it.

Maybe, like, 25 years, right? Like, I don't know. Not a ton older. But, yeah, okay. 20th anniversary. So they put this post up on Instagram where they're having a community vote to make, they released, what, eight colors or ten colors of a Jetstream. And the top four vote getters are going to be made as the 20th anniversary editions. It took me a while to figure out, like, all the steps involved to get, to be able to vote. But you can. I have a link in the show notes. And it takes you to the selection page is what they're calling it.

And down at the bottom, you can click the button to take the poll. Did you have time to take the poll? You may not have. I haven't. I didn't know I could take the poll. I didn't know that it was a button. Sometimes these things are just images. It's tough. Like, it just looks like an image, which I think it is, except for the button. Yeah, so I had to go, I had to, like, translate all kinds of different areas to finally get it. It was actually pretty easy once I got it all translated and stuff. But if you get, the link we'll have in the show notes, you go to the bottom.

Maybe we should just link directly to the voting page. Where you can check the box for your four favorites. So I picked, so when you all see this, there's, overall, there's, like, a green, like, a tan, an orange, a light blue with gray trim, a gray trim, pink, yellow, blue with orange trim, translucent, and then kind of like a charcoal gray. So those are the 10 choices, and you can pick four. I picked the dark green. I picked the orange. I picked the blue McLaren Gulf Livery, of course. Yeah. That was my number one selection.

And then I picked the translucent one. So those are my four choices. And then you can, basically, out of your four, you can pick, okay, which one's your favorite. And I picked the Gulf Livery McLaren one, even though the orange just looks a little bit dark, but still blue with the orange's trim. So, and that was it. So I like that they're doing something fun like this. And this is just the standard Jetstream Sport. Like, to me, the most popular and best kind of all-arounder Jetstream is this one.

And this is the one, this is the famed Hackett pen that I recommend. And this is the one I still recommend a lot because it's just standard. It's quality. It's, you know, like $2.250. So, great product. I voted the blue with orange to pastel blue as number one. And then I also went for the neon yellow, the active orange, and the khaki, what they call khaki brown, but it's green. I don't know what's going on there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's green with brown on it. I like that green one. I didn't look at the names yet, but I don't know what you're talking about.

I thought you meant, when you said it, I thought you meant the one next to it. Yeah. That's called beige brown. At least, maybe this is the translation doing this. No, the khaki, the khaki does get into that green category a lot. Yeah, they are the translated names though. So, they're translated to khaki brown, beige brown, active orange, active blue, two-tone gray, two-tone pink, pastel yellow, pastel blue, sheer white, and sheer black. They're the translated names. Okay. Okay. Interesting. Okay.

Yeah. I think that's good. Yeah. Yellow. Yellow was close to me. I thought the yellow and pink were a little light. I want them to be a little bit more vibrant, but I think that's the whole series. It's kind of slightly muted, right? It's turned down a couple notches from contrast. I find this pen design to be very aggressive. Really? Visually, yeah. There's so many lines. I think it shows up that way in this version. If you look at the current stock, say you get a black Jetstream Sport with a blue refill,

it has the blue racing stripes in it, and this is the exact same base as the current model. I find the Jetstream base in general to be very aggressive. Sure. It's just like- Yes. It is also worth noting, there are two products. It's not super clear on the thing. You've got the multi-pen and the regular Jetstream, right? It's like, that's what they're showing. Because it kind of makes it look like, here's the side view and here's the front view, but no, they're different pens. Yeah. But the regular Jetstream, I like the multi-pen design way more than the regular Jetstream.

Yeah. And that regular Jetstream, I know you're looking at the white and black one now. Yeah. That's just the literal standard base level Jetstream. There's just so much going on. Aggressively designed. It is. There's just so much going on in that pen. It's like angles that are moving in opposition to each other. There's like some of the rubber is like ribbed for some reason. Yeah. There's just like a lot going on in the Jetstream. I am a known, not hater, but just not a fan of the Jetstream. No need for you.

Yeah. Like it has, provides no use to you at all. The classic capped Jetstream is equally as aggressive. And I actually, I think terrible, but the ones you'll get at like the office supply stores that have been around forever and really haven't changed. Those are the ones I never recommend because just the barrel is just not good. Not good. So good stuff. Good stuff there from Jetstream though. I appreciate bringing in the community on the anniversary. Yeah. We have more Big Pen news. Myke, you ready to get into this?

I love to know about Big Pen. I don't think I mentioned this. I had this in my notes from like two weeks ago and I had to go back in the podcast and I don't think I mentioned this. Did you know that the Pilot Friction has now officially sold 5 billion units? That's crazy. That is crazy to me. I don't think we mentioned this before. And it's not quite 20 years old. It says it launched in, oddly enough, launched in Europe in 2006 and Japan in 2007, which, okay, that's interesting. Maybe they just launched it on New Year's Eve and there was like a time difference problem

or something. I don't know. Sure. That also doesn't work, but you know. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, I don't think that's how it works. Yeah. Yeah. 5 billion with a B. I must like, this is just an assumption and I, it seems right. That's got to be anything with the friction name on it. Right. If it has friction in the name. Right. Because it can't just be like a single unit because they don't sell just a single type of friction. Even if they said like 5 million units of the friction product line, it's still as impressive.

Right. Like I know you're not saying that, but it's like, it kind of, it doesn't really matter or how, how they get there. Yeah. But I, it, I actually do have a broader point on that, but I am saying it is like, okay, they have friction highlighters and friction markers and friction stamps. Like if it has the friction name on it, I imagine that counts. Yeah. Um, because I was also reading in, when I, I found that article, I was in pilots like PR news links. Um, they announced their financial results from 2025 and I'm not going to do a Jacob food

day fans job here and totally go through that, but we'll go through a little bit of it. But I found buried down in that the pilot G two has only Myke only sold 4.8 billion units. That seems impossible. Yeah. Cause that has been around for like 160 years. Yep. And is the best selling gel ink pen in the world. According to pilot. Well, luckily the friction is a gel ink. I think, yeah, I guess it, it friction is gel. They market it as a gel ink pen. Well, so, well, that's not right then, is it? There's something going on there.

Um, yeah, maybe they might market it as gel, but it's like, no. Yeah. So my, my point is the G two has way fewer skews than the friction was my point to the top, top line. Okay. So like what they may call this, the G two sells more than what's called the friction. But if you include all of the friction spinoff products, it sells more than the G two. Yeah. That's a horrible, let me just say, I just want to think in the world. This is, I'm assuming here there's, I, it's not spelled out specifically like that.

Okay. Yeah. That, but that's my assumption. There's, that's the only way this is possible though. Yep. I believe so. Which still, those are, those are numbers that are just insane, especially the friction, how relatively new it is. I mean, I'd argue it's only, it's probably done 75 to 85% of those sales in the last decade, not in the first decade. Right. I imagine it's done three or 4 billion of that in the last decade, which is crazy. So, um, a couple of notes. I did scan through the financial results.

They do a beautiful PDF of all the talking points and all the numbers and figures and all this stuff. It's gorgeous. I will link it to the show notes. It's something I can read and understand. You know, I'm not going to go through the line by line financials, but they list out the numbers and they say, Hey, you know, we were mostly flat, maybe a little bit down. Here's where the areas of the world where it was lower. Here's the areas where it was fine. Here's the areas where we were up and they list all that stuff down.

It's nice to see this is a public company, so they have to do this, but they presented in a glorious PDF file. That's just insanely well done. The aforementioned friction in G2 absolutely run the show. Um, if you didn't figure that out already, every area where they're talking about sales, that's if, if those products are not doing well, they're not doing well. Um, that's seems to be, and I didn't, I'll have to go back. I'd have to scan back through. Um, cause we were talking about the, there was an article with the pilot president recently

and talking about new products that they're going to make new, you know, toys and ceramics and all these other things. Um, the stationary line item is still, it was somewhere in like the 80 to 90% like of what we do type of thing. So, um, very little product talk in there for fountain pens. They listed a few new products that I snipped out a little image of we'll have in the show notes that are already kind of out. These were all like December, November launches. Fountain pens in FY25 was 6% of their business.

Mm-hmm. Um, toys 3%, industrial materials 3%, markers 11%, uh, refills 10%. Wow. They make more money on refills than they do on fountain pens. That's insane. Yeah. Um, so yeah, that's just great context. They are big on, um, what's the highlighter? They, they repeat this highlighter, um, through here, uh, like a million different times. That's, it's pretty much right there in line with the G2 and friction and the amount of times they mention it. I've, I've seen it before. I forget. It's got, it starts with a K.

I can't remember the name. Um, but yeah, I'll, I'll find it here. But anyway, the new products, I was like, oh sweet. No. Okay. Kiri Na. Right. So it's got this, I don't know. It's like this framed tip. I don't know how to describe it. It's got these plastic bits on the outside of the highlighter. I don't get it, but sure. Um, the new products, I was a little let down. I was like, oh, they've already launched all these. The juice pilot juice plus the friction synergy three, the air step mechanical pencil, which

I have not got my hands on yet in a friction ball switch, Myke, um, multi pin. So 44% of frictions are sold in Europe. That's crazy. 29% in Japan, 15% in America's 6% in Asia, and then 5% Africa, middle East and Oceania. Yeah. Yeah. I would have lost that bet by quite a sizable margin. It is. And the G2, 81% in the Americas, 11% in Europe. That I get. That I understand. I don't understand why those two are so different. I don't understand why they're so different. Yeah. But, um, one of the reasons is your historic brands have like a hundred year head start

in brand name familiarity, such as Faber-Castell, um, you know, in that area, uh, Pelican, Statler. Yeah, but how is the friction so popular? Because it's different. Yeah. It's not the same item that's next to it on the peg board. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And, again, they, whatever they did with the friction, they just crushed, right? No one has been able to match this. Mm-hmm. So, they've, they've done a really good job. So, anyway, that was, uh, and I, I have a friction. Maybe we'll talk about another, in another episode.

But, like, I've found a friction that I might really, really like. It's a 0.3 millimeter friction. Uh, the Friction Synergy Knock, which, uh, I just got and I just started to test. So, one of the things they bring up, um, as part of their new products, this Juice Plus and this Friction, they use this, these Synergy tips. They're like a needle tip in shape, but have a very nice consistency rollerball, um, thing. They've been out for a little while, so people have been using them, but they're really good.

Um, I'm enjoying them, so I'm gonna play around with those a little bit more before I have any, like, real statements, but I bought one of these 0.3 millimeter Frictions, which... I love the design of this pen. It's great. Compared to the tribal tattoo, especially. They, they still mix that in. They still do. Some of the products. And I don't understand it. Like, I just can't imagine how that happened. You know, how it happened? That's how we got the Europeans, Myke. The tribal tattoos? Yeah, that's the launch product.

That was the launch pattern. And the Europeans apparently big into the tribal tattoos. I mean, I'm not gonna say no, you know? You know I'm right. I'm saying nothing on this one. This is all Brad. Hello at penaddict.com. This is your knowledge. If you need to reach it. But I'm looking at them, like, on gel pens now. Like, these are the US gel pens. But they still have, like, a, like, a hidden tribal tattoo on them. They do. What is that about? It's 20 years on, we're still doing that. It's crazy to me.

They're bringing it back. They still do it. It has never gone away, Myke. It has never gone away. So, yeah. Great stuff out of Violet. That person must still be employed there. They just love it. Yeah, they're going down. They're going down with the ship here. Maybe this person just went wild in the early 2000s and just got a ton of these tattoos and now fills the requirement to justify it by being like, well, look, five billion of these pens were sold. So, it must be popular somewhere. Yeah. They're like, they're like, scoreboard, more tribal tattoos, baby.

This is four billion of the five billion because of this. Unbelievable that this is still a thing. I am fascinated with this, especially from, like, a Japanese company. Like, this doesn't add up to me totally. It's great. I love it.

All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Enigma Stationery. Enigma Stationery offer unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands and hard-to-find imports. It's always one of my favorite things to go to Enigma Stationery and take a look at what they've got new. I very much enjoy doing that and seeing all of the weird, wonderful, beautiful, fantastic things that you can find for yourself over at Enigma Stationery. Brad, is anything catching your eye right now?

Y'all are going to think I'm crazy. It's already February 19th as we're recording this. I would still absolutely buy one of these desk calendars that are on sale because they're just sick art. I, like, I love, like, I don't care that you've already missed a month, month and a half. These are so cool. And, like, they're blowing them out, right? Like, you know, they're, like, half price. And they're the coolest looking calendars you will ever see. I've actually, I don't know what it is. I've had this thing about desk calendars here recently.

I haven't bought one for myself yet. But I keep seeing all these really neat designs. And this might be the best of the bunch here. And they're, like, a closeout price because, obviously, like, you need to sell them because the years are underway. And, yeah, we're two months in. It doesn't matter. Like, I would enjoy going through all the days I've already missed and things like that just to get through it. So, yeah.

I don't know. We've gotten off to a silly start. And that's a good place to be when you're going to Enigma because then you get to find products like Naptime Doodler Anime Burger Stickers. Yeah. Like, I'm in. Like, how are you not in? There's chicken burgers. There's fish burgers. There's cat bus shrimp burgers, Myke. Totoro Veggie Burgers. No Face Surf and Turf Burger. Classic. And Soot Sprites Bacon and Egg Burger. How are you not getting these Ghibli burgers, right? Um, it's unbelievable the stuff that they find in Source at Enigma Stationery.

And if you want to have fun with your stationery and support an awesome business and just have quality products, like, just go to Enigma Stationery and browse around. And you will just have the best time. And then your desk and your stationery will appreciate you adding some fun and whimsy to your everyday writing. So I sometimes see these videos on Instagram of people with tweezers applying beautiful stickers to a scene. Yeah. You ever see these? Oh, do I? Yeah. Yeah. They have some of these sticker things.

So basically you get, like, a sheet that is a room and then you have, like, a sheet of stickers. And you can choose which stickers you want to apply to design the room the way that you want. Very satisfying to watch. I think I would do a very bad job. But I like seeing people do it, you know? Yeah. I'm threatening to become a tweezer guy. It has been on my... Stickers, Myke. Okay. I have been anxiously looking at all of these things. I was like, I love these little stickers, but you kind of need the tweezers.

I have some small ones. Yeah. I think I'm going to become a tweezer guy. So, yeah. Enigma Stationery. I just searched for the word tweezer on Enigma and nothing came up. So, you know, Enigma Stationery, get some tweezer stickers in, you know? Yep. We're going to be up to the races. Yep. Love it. Just absolutely awesome stuff. So, yeah. Go check them out. If you want $10 off $50 or more on orders of $50 or more, go to enigmastationery.com slash penaddict and use the code TPA26 at checkout now. That is enigmastationery.com slash penaddict to get $10 off on orders of $50 or more with

the code TPA26. Our thanks to Enigma Stationery for their continued support of this show and Relay. All right, Myke. We got our shout-out of the week. Shout-out of the week. Meet Your Maker, Reese Wilson of Reese's Pieces Fountain Pen fame. So, this is the latest Meet Your Maker article. I've been forgetting to give them shout-outs and Caroline deserves all the shout-outs. Caroline Foda, who writes these articles for the Pen Anik. Just absolutely amazing work that she does every month. Gets with a maker.

Does an interview. Finds out their story. And shares, like, some of their work. And, like, this one is great. Like, literally all of them are great. I don't want to play favorites here. But this is just fantastic. And I told Caroline that I was going to embarrass her. She is super nervous about this. So, y'all need to go. If you're going to the Baltimore Pen Show, she is actually going to do a Meet Your Maker class at the Baltimore Pen Show where she's going to talk about maker pens and, like, what you're looking for.

And, like, there's no one better to do this than Caroline who really talks with all these makers. Yeah. And she's going to talk about maker pens and, you know, all the wonderful people in our hobby that are making stuff. Like, that's one of the things that you and I love the most is the people who make these fantastic products. Like, you know, I've sat in here and talked about Big Pen all day long. And, sure, you know, I've got all my frictions and jet streams laying around here. But I know what gets me excited is seeing the really unique and fun stuff that all of the stationary makers in our community make.

So, Caroline's going to have a class, a free class, or, like, basically, like, a conversation on maker pens and, you know, what you can expect from these makers. And I think it's fantastic for her. And I'm super excited. And y'all should go check that out if you're in Baltimore. Love it. Love it. All right, Myke. I put out an article on the blog yesterday called Analog Defaults, which is an idea that has been a long-running thing in the tech world called pretty much App Defaults, which, unfortunate shout-out to Rob, our friend Rob Knight.

We'll put a link in the show notes. He is a curator of one of the App Defaults pages that I love. We're all voyeurs at heart, right? We like to see the tools that people use. I like to know as a mostly digital guy as well, right? Digitally and analog. So, this all comes from an episode of a podcast called Hemispheric Views. Yes. Where they had this as an episode, and then it spurred, like, a bunch of people in the tech blogging sphere to create their own versions of these. Yes. So, I follow these.

I like to know the tools that people use to get things done. Yeah. And it scratches that voyeuristic itch we all have of what is this person used or what are people using for X to accomplish X, right? What mail app are they using? What note-taking app are they using? So, I've always had this kind of bug to do it in a stationary manner. So, I created analog defaults. If you couldn't tell, like, the last few months of me talking about products, I've really kind of, like, focused in on a handful of products that really do the work for me.

Like, the Secura Pigma Micron and the Pentel Sharp and the Uniball 1F. And if you notice, probably, like, since December, I've, like, really been leaning on those products as just, like, my core set of tools to get the junk done. The junk done. That wasn't good. You know, the work done. No, no. It's all junk. It's all junk. It's all junk. I was going to say something worse and junk came out. Yeah, yeah. But I'm pleased for that part, at least. But I didn't mean junk. But, yeah. Like, in... It's just that matriculation of tools to the top of the heap.

Yeah. That always get chosen, always get selected to do this particular job, whatever that job is. And when it's the same product repeated over and over that I'm choosing to do that thing, well, that's telling, right? That's telling what I think about a product. So, I wanted to write it down, essentially. And so, I made a list of the defaults that I use. The analog defaults is what I'm calling it. We don't necessarily have to go through everything, but I am going to just, like, jump into the categories real quick.

Like, I did a gel ink pen, a ballpoint pen, a rollerball pen, and a fineliner, right? Those are, like, all just classic pen styles that I use regularly. Almost all of those on a daily basis. Maybe not the ballpoint daily. And you can see all my picks for these on the page. The fountain pen part was not difficult. It's going to change the most, right? I think it's, that is something that doesn't, it's not as sticky as, say, like, the gel ink pen, where that's pretty consistent. The fountain pens are going to rotate.

But these are the, like, I put in, I put in two fountain pens, like a Pilot Custom 74 and a Sailor Pro Gear Slim Mini. Those are really, really enjoyable to me right now to use for a list of reasons. So, you know, you have those. And then I have mechanical pencil, wooden pencil, highlighter slash marker, planner, journal, and pen case. That's it so far. Like, you know, I might add one or two other things. Like, I was thinking I should probably add scissors. Because I'm pretty adamant about using good quality scissors.

And I have a pair or two that tend to get used at least weekly, right? So that's probably a good enough sample size to say, hey, this is really the one that's working for me. And, like, scissors are not going to change that much. But, you know, like I said, fountain pen or, you know, fine liner or something might change a little bit more frequently. So I also got some good feedback already. And someone created their own page and sent it to me. I said, hey, can I link this? Should we be like Rob and collect some of these links from the community?

And they said yes. So I already have one community analog default at the bottom of the page now that has been shared by a wonderful friend, Lisa. And so, yeah, if anyone wants to share their analog defaults, you know, send them my way. Hello at penatic.com. And the whole goal of this is to update it frequently, right? This should be – I'm calling it a snapshot of what I'm using. It's – I'm not classifying it as the best or, you know, the pick or the one and only, right? This is, like, what I'm using to do the work and just get it done.

And that's going to change. And as frequently as it changes is how frequently I'm going to update this, right? So, like, my planner, that it's not going to change, like, all year and probably not next year either because it's been, like, three years now I've used the plotter and arrow, right? So that's just not going to change. My journal, that's new. And, you know, maybe I like it now. And we'll see how that goes. So it's just something I've always wanted to do. And then these past few months of usage, my personal usage has really solidified, okay, I think I can just make a page out of this where I can track some of this stuff.

And it kind of scratches that itch for having, like, my favorites because I don't really – the favorites change too. I think this is a better way to do it for me to say this is what I'm using and really enjoying right now. And I hope to keep it updated. So, yeah. So check it out. Let me know if you all have any recommendations. If you want to share your own, I would love to share them or don't have to share them. You know, just share them with me and let me read them. I always want to take a peek and see what everyone's using.

I'm going to do this on my blog. Nice. Nice. Do you have any – I'm not going to put you on the spot right now. But do you have, like – is there, like, one or two things, like, if you think about it in this context that is just, like, this is – and I do kind of classify this even though it could be not work-related. I do always classify it as, like, getting the job done, getting the work done. It's like a tool. Like, do you have, like, one or two things that you would classify immediately as this is my default for this?

I think for Pencil, it would be the Mark – well, I think, actually, for me, like, Pencil and Rollerball is Mark I, Mark III. Yeah. Like, they are just standard. Like – Yeah. Because they also feel tool-y. Right. Right? Like, they've got a heft to them and they're well-made and, like, they're satisfying to use. They're not fiddly. It's like, those are the really easy ones for me. Like, that's set. The fountain pen, I'm probably going to struggle with a bit more. Yeah. Yeah, that's a tough one. And people might notice, and I think I wrote about this, like, I'm never probably going to list a fountain pen ink separately.

Yeah. Right? Because that kind of doesn't fit the nature of what this list is. I don't start with ink and choose pen. Right. Yeah. So, like, I'll say what ink I'm using in my default pen, but an ink is looking at it backwards, like you said. Right? That's not the intention of what this list is. Yeah. So, like, and there will never be a line item for ink. The ink will be part of the tool that is the fountain pen and makes the entire package work together as a unit. So, if you want, like, favorite inks, like, I can, people can ask me and I'll tell them what my favorite inks are.

But I don't think I really want to do a page of favorites and things like that. This is, this feels better to me. This feels more like me. Yeah. In how I use things. As opposed to saying, here's my top five favorite fountain pen inks. Which, like, that's great too. But, I don't know. I just enjoy doing it like this a little bit better. Very fun. All right. One more thing. Something else for y'all to fill out this week. I think we did this a couple of years ago where listener Austin did a, like, a survey and collected some data.

So, let me read his email. Then I'll share with you this survey that we, that he's asked if I would share. And I agreed to do it. So, Austin says, last year I shared out some analysis with the pen community on the writing instrument landscape. And how different companies might group together based on the products they offer. Right now I'm working on a follow-up that might be more directly useful to people. The survey is built to help understand how individuals' preferences and behaviors might impact writing comfort.

For example, does grip, handwriting size, writing duration impact the tools that people consider to be the most comfortable? So, it's, he says, it's something I'm interested in. And I think the results could be useful, interesting to the community as well. I'm wondering if you'd be willing to share the survey link for pen folks to respond to. So, I went and did the survey myself before replying back. And yeah, it seems great. And it was kind of a challenging survey. I really had to think about it.

There's some imagery in there to decipher what your grip style is, which I thought was a challenge. Especially for me, who has a very normal writing grip. Even kind of nailing down which one I was. Like, it's clearly in there. But there was like 12 different ones. Maybe 14, 16 different ones. Grips you could choose from. And then, what qualities of a pen do you prefer, you know, when you're writing? You know, like in general, I prefer a narrow barrel pen. Lightweight. That is weighted towards the tip.

Right? In general, that's my pen. You know, there's always exceptions to that. But I'd say the majority of my favorite products have that front-weighted, lightweight, standard to narrow diameter. Not a really heavy kind of pen. So, there's a lot of questions around that's like your setup. Like the things that you like and the things you don't like. So, yeah. Yeah. I felt good sharing this survey. And I'm sure. I don't know how long this is going to run for. But I'm sure we'll get some results collected from this.

If you're interested in checking this out. It definitely does take like 5 or 10 minutes to fill out. You got to think about a few things. But, yeah. If you do. And I'm sure we'll get the results from Austin here maybe later this year. And see what it's all about. You'll find the link to that survey and all the other things we've spoken about in today's episode. In your podcast app of choice. We have all our show notes there. But if you want to find them on the web. You can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 704.

If you want to read Brad's analog defaults go to penaddict.com. That's where you'll find his stuff. You can also find Brad over at spokedesign.com and at twitch.tv slash penaddict. I'm planning to write my analog defaults maybe over the next few days. And I'll put that over on my website over at theenthusiast.net. You can also find my products at cortexbrand.com. Thank you to Enigma Stationery for their support of this week's episode. But most of all thank you for listening. We'll be back next time.

Until then say goodbye Brad. Goodbye Brad.