The Pen Addict 652/transcript

From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 652. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Factor. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad.
Hi, Myke. Oh, that's very, you sound very sad. What's the matter? I just, I'm not. I just wanted to do something different for a change. I always say, hey, Myke, how's it going? Yeah, I didn't like that, though, you know? I just wanted to trick people. It wasn't comfortable for me. Okay. No, that's not Brad. That's not how Brad goes. I'm not going to joke around with that. All right. Hey, Myke, how's it going? Oh, now it feels good. Now I'm ready to rock. I'm feeling good. I was going through a lot of feedback this morning and a lot of blades in the feedback.

Recap of Last Week's Accessories Episode

I kind of thought that might happen after last week. I asked. I was actually hoping it would happen. Yeah, we both of us hoped it would happen. So if you are not caught up on last week's episode, we did an accessories episode and there was some different things, you know, that we talked about from scissors and washi tape and all kinds of accessories I use outside of like pens and ink and paper. So we did ask for some feedback. So I think we just I think we just need to go down this list. We have like a half a show worth of feedback here. I think it's pretty great stuff, though. It's like, oh, yeah, I'm I'm shopping now. Like this first link is is going to be a problem for me. Are you familiar with Ernest Wright scissors based in the UK? I wasn't until I clicked this link this morning. Yeah. So this was literally the first link that I got once we ended the episode. This started popping off in the pen addict slack where people said, Brad, have you seen this? Have you seen these these scissors from Ernest Wright? They're very like custom, not custom made, but like very handmade, beautiful craftsmanship, purpose made. That's a great way to put it. You know, a lot of their scissors have have jobs like back in the day when, you know, machines weren't cutting everything. We needed dressmaking shears and quilting scissors and, you know, tailoring shears and snips and all kinds of things that like I've used different basic, cheaper, you know, versions of. But this is the kind of stuff that, you know, like if a chef takes care of their blades, you know, in the kitchen, these are the type of scissors that people, you know, like a tailor is or, you know, a dressmaker or, you know, a costumer is going to keep on their own person. And it's going to be like the goat scissors, like and priced accordingly, but honestly, not ridiculous. Like for for a tool that should last you like a really long time. Well, OK, I did look at the shears, the big shears, the big 13 inch shears, $700. Like that's OK. Yeah, but that's probably out of my price range. Yeah, but I need those. You need those. You need those. But if you're a tailor there on high street, Myke, like you might want these. Like if you're if you're doing all this hand work, like the tool in this case, the scissors, the shears are going to make it make it better. Hilarious. It's funny. Like I'm looking at some of the stuff. Like everything's out of stock. Like everything is out of stock or on back order. Sounds like the pen business, right? If you find like the really good, nice thing, you know, it's you might have to wait a little minute. Even their back order. I'm looking at their back orders are like 12 weeks, 12 weeks. So like one of the things when when we had knock and we had our shop and we had all our sewing machines, we just order like cheap little snips. Snips are like the the fine thread cutters. Right. So they have like this. This company, Ernest Wright, has like a fancy pair of snips that's like 75 bucks. I was like, heck, I would have bought that. Like if I was if I was like still going to town on all this stuff, I was like, heck, yes. I need like my fancy snips where I can like sharpen the blade instead of having like disposable. We'd buy like a 10 pack of disposables. Right. So they do have some normal scissors, if you will, like some normal short scissors like I might use at my desk. And those are also around like 70, 80 bucks. So, yeah, I'm going to keep looking at it. Our friend David Parker from Fig Boot on Pins has used these. It's talked about these before. Or really likes them has a pair and it's probably going to get a second pair. So a lot of people were talking about Ernest Wright handmade scissors and rightfully so. Pretty amazing stuff, right? These are beautiful. I don't know what pair I need, though. Yeah. That's the thing. I'm not sure. Yeah. I was looking to see is like if I was going to order one, like the stork embroidery scissors are amazing. But like I feel like that blade is not for my type of work. But I did find one of their standard general purpose scissors. The shortest pair of general purpose scissors is like six and a half inches, I think, is the shortest one. And it's $84. I think that's kind of the one I was looking at. I think realistically for me, the 12 inch paper hanger scissors would be the best. Yeah. Yeah. For your type of constructive work. I'm typically cutting like A3 size pieces of paper into smaller things, you know? Yeah. And so I actually think these would be pretty nice for me. Because I use the X-Acto blade for it a lot, but I don't, you know, X-Acto blade and a ruler. But that's not always the thing that I need. And that takes longer than I would want sometimes. Like getting it straight, you know, that can be a bit of a pain. So these might be pretty nice actually for me. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll be looking at like the six inch blade and like the 12s would probably be good for you. Because I'm looking at like smaller papers, like A5 and smaller is what I'm looking at. And when you're cutting into the larger papers, those big ones would probably be helpful. So like, yeah, the other, like they have a six inch quilting scissors, $82. Like I would pay that for like an amazing tool, right?
So it's really, really cool, cool stuff. So I appreciate everyone sending these. Ooh, print embroidery. What is this one? So I'm fascinated by this little thing. They only have like 12 models, but each one of them is like super unique and interesting. So you mentioned X-Acto blades. We got several varieties of feedback on this one. One of the pen makers in our realm, Rob, from Rob's pen work in the past, he's basically started making pens because back even before he was using fountain pens or any pens at all, he made acrylic holders for X-Acto blades for his job. Right? He was in engineering. He was in engineering. And they would use stock X-Acto blades. A spoiler alert. I'm having a meet your maker. Caroline's meet your maker with Rob is coming up Friday. So I got to read a lot about this ahead of time. So look for that on Friday at penannic.com. But Rob basically started making pens because the first thing he ever made was a tool he needed for work and was basically a fancy X-Acto blade handle with a screw on cap. Just like you would think of a fountain. Basically a fountain pen, you know, barrel and cap, but it's fitted to an X-Acto blade and able to, you know, replace the blade and things like that. So just kind of a cool thing. The only catch with this, like in your situation, can't really get them. Like Rob doesn't make a lot of stuff. But that's something if I saw him at a show and he had one, like I could grab. Right? So Rob doesn't have a store. He mostly just does like commission-based stuff. So we'll see. Then really nice. This is not what I want.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I need a utility product, not a fancy product or something. Not what I'm looking for. Well, you say that, Myke. Yeah, I do. And I think this next thing is actually what I want. I think this next thing is going to be a problem.

Discussion on X-Acto Blades and Japanese Craftsmanship

So we got an email from Myke, not you. Not me. And when we were talking about X-Acto blades, Myke's comment was, I recently asked for the same thing, basically, like the concept that you're asking for. What I found, of course, was answered by Japanese craftsmen. A kiridashi is a razor sharp, single beveled blade used mostly for woodwork. They're typically used for carving tasks, but can be an extremely versatile utility blade that is easy to sharpen and hone due to the edge geometry. They come in a huge variety of sizes for your needs, just like X-Acto blades, but are sturdier and will resist edge wear better than a disposable blade. An 18-millimeter blade lives in my desk right now and with minimal edge maintenance, handles any task I ask of it. So that was from Myke. So I had to go look this up. He didn't send me any links, so I went and found some.
I'm fascinated by this. I don't know if this is what you need with the single blade situation, but oh my gosh. Yeah, you found some really nice examples. This is, again, this is a very beautiful piece of equipment.
I'm banging this thing around. Like, I don't, you know what I mean? Like, this is a... It's gonna take it. Yeah, is it though? Like, is it not gonna dull over time? Yes, and you sharpen it. Like, this is made to last. Right, but that's it. It's the sharpening. I don't want to do that.
Come on. Look at it.
Look, look, look, look, Brad, Brad. I'm on board. This is a beautiful piece of equipment.
There are things later on in the document that are exactly what I'm looking for, I think. And this is not it. Yeah, I think this is what I'm looking for. As far as a small detailed blade that's not an exacto blade with, like, an interesting handle, super craftsmanship. Again, the difference between your needs and my needs right now are, like, size and scope, right? Yeah. Me, smaller. Yours, bigger, thicker, heavier. You know, mine's smaller, thinner, you know, types of things that I need to be kind of like this. So, like, I look at this. This is a beautiful tool made for beautiful work. Look, this product is not in the mindset of the work that I'm doing. Like, for me. Like, this is like, I would, you know, I'm going to love this if I'm cutting some stuff up to put in my journal or whatever. But, like, I don't know. To me, this doesn't fit the environment that it will be living in, I think. Fair enough. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah.

Listener Recommendations for Craft Knives

All right. So, what else do we have? So, we also got Gareth. Gareth wrote in to say, Swan Morton scalpels are excellent. I was introduced to them by some very good model makers when I was living in the UK. And they're still what I use in my model making. I actually set mine down to respond to this question. I recommend the number three handle. The number 10 blade is closest to what you would get with an X-Acto. But my personal recommendation is for either the number 15 or the number 15T. The curved edge helps with chopping.
Another British brand here. Like, in the medical field. But, like, this is probably the type of tool that you want. Yeah. So, clearly there's something going on in Sheffield with blades.
Huh. I wonder if that's one of the classic industrial steel towns. Is that, like, I obviously don't know my English history. Swan Morton. I know this brand about knowing it. Sure. Okay. Right. So, like, as soon as I saw these, I was like, oh, I know this. Like, I just know this. This is, like, what they do. And I am very intrigued by this one, actually. Because it's...
But it's still not what I want, though. I do like the curve. But it's still not what I'm looking for. I do like... Like, these have a curved blade. Like, when we've been talking about... Everything we've talked about so far has had a straight edge blade. These have that curve tipping for a little bit of that feel. Like, when I'm not performing surgery, Myke, you know, I like to have a little curved edge on my blade. But, yeah. That's amazing. High-end stuff. They're beautiful, honestly. But, again, these are, I think, more surgical. Like, they're designed for surgery. People use them for craft knives, obviously. Yeah. But I think they're more surgical. But, again... Well, they're made for that. This is what I was sold on. But there's still something coming up later on where I'm like, this is exactly what I'm looking for, I think. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm interested. Both. There's two recommendations for the same product here. I'll read them both. Bailey says, my other expensive hobby is model making. I've been building on and off for 20 years or so. Japan and Germany tend to lead... Sorry. Once again, Japan and Germany tend to lead this space on precision tools. Check out anything Olfa. O-L-F-A. I don't know if it's Olfa or if it's an acronym, but Olfa. All the rebranded Tamiya stuff. Another great brand is NT Cutter for really tiny blades. And then Helen says, Olfa stainless steel cutters with the 9mm snap-off blades. Sturdy and very sharp. Easy to control. I'm a hobbyist in a book binder and use these often to cut small paper bits, cloth and thick book board. So stainless blades, huh? Like, I don't think like the cheap stuff doesn't come with stainless blades, I'm assuming. Right? I don't know. Uh-oh. Yeah. This is something I'm looking in this page. I'm looking at the Olfa page and they have a lot of stuff. Yes. Um, but I'm wondering, yeah, like which different blades do they have snap-off blades, 18mm? Sorry, I can do this offline. But yeah, it looks interesting. It looks like if you're going to go with like this style of blade, this might be the higher end version. Again, then like the generic, like, hey, let me buy. Like, the whole point, my whole point was, you know, have the one nice tool for the nice things that you do and then have, you know, a pair of, you know, three for five dollar scissors to cut open your boxes, right? And junk up. So this could be your upgraded, um, box cutter type tool, but it looks like they have other things stuff. So they have a, they have a lot here. I'm going to have to go look at that one. That's a pretty deep catalog. Yeah. And it's like, if you search all for an Amazon, it's like, how about a thousand things, you know? And it's good though. Like they do, they do kind of everything. But it's good to know that brand. Oh, they have a crap. They have like a, uh, I'm looking, I'm now on, sorry, on Tamiya. They're Japanese. Wouldn't have expected that. Shocker. Shocker. They have a mini like hand saw. That's like an exacto blade, but it's a saw blade, like an exacto shape handle and like a inch and a half long saw blade. That's kind of fresh.
It's like, I don't need that.
Yeah. I don't need that, but that is cool.
I'm in on that. Handy craft saw. So I'm intrigued about the alpha stuff, to be honest. Okay. Cause they, they look like they make like, you know, like really nice art knives and craft knives. So that looks really interesting to me. But this final one, I think is the one that I want.
Okay. Paulina writes in and says a perfect craft knife for Myke would be the Fiskars soft grip detail craft knife. I use it all the time. It's very sturdy and they say it has a full lifetime warranty or whatever that means. This is what I'm looking for in my mind. So it's like an upgraded handle. Yeah. And with your exacto blades. Correct. Like, and it's, it's a metal, I guess it's aluminum. I don't know. Like it's a metal, like a body with a rubber, orange rubber grip. It's like, I think this is the kind of thing that I'm looking for where it's still to me has the look and feel of the purpose that I'm putting it through, but it is better than the really crappy piece of plastic, like that I have right now holding these blades. I think this might be the kind of thing that I'm, that I'm imagining when I think about what I'm looking for here. Yeah. So it's keeping the same like concept of, Hey, long skinny handle for this detailed blade, but it's upgrading the, the actual handle experience a little bit. And okay. Yeah. I like this. Like this is something I could see, see me using. Yeah. For sure. And it's pretty inexpensive, relatively speaking, although you probably got to have, uh, you know, just get your extra blades and stuff like that. So yeah, really, really cool. Although I'm not sure I can actually buy it in the UK, which is, that's heartbreaking. It's not on, I can't find it on Amazon. Maybe I can find it in other places. The Amazon link that I have in the show notes, it just says cannot ship to the UK. Interesting. Fair enough. Interesting. But I'll, I'll be on the lookout. I'm going to try and find one of these. There's all for, I'm already going back to the alpha page. Do they not have something like this? Yeah. The alpha stuff looks really good too, right? Yeah. There's just a lot. There's just a lot here. Okay, cool. Um, amazing feedback. Like this is the kind of, kind of stuff I want to talk about. It's funny. So out of the different topics that we approached, um, washi, scissors, boxes, pouches, all these little things, all the feedback was on blades.
I appreciate it. We'll have good people. Yeah. Yeah. I'm saying, and this is actually where I think the most interesting stuff is happening. There's, there's lots of ways, um, to, to look at these, these different products and solve lots of problems. So pretty cool that, um, you know, our listenership, uh, gave us this feedback. I really, really appreciate that. Me too. I will find some stuff. I will report back on what I ended up going with. Yeah. I think I might have to get, uh, I I'm, I'm starting with the earnest right scissors and going from there, but yeah, I'm going to get something from this, from this list that people were, we're talking about. Oh yeah. I've definitely, I already have, I'm halfway through an order process for one of those.

Pen Chalet Product Highlights and Discounts

So there's nothing, nothing's going to stop me there. Those things are incredible. Yeah, for sure. This episode is brought to you by Penn Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. And they have your favorite brands. Whether you're looking for Sailor, Caveco, Lamy, Pilot, Monta, you know, I could just list forever. You can go to Penn Chalet's website, look at their brands page. It goes on and on and on. And of course they're an authorized dealer of these products. They're always adding new products. Every couple of weeks, you're going to find new stuff being added to Penn Chalet, as well as new deals too. You're going to find stuff being added all the time. It's amazing. They're very fast and reliable customer service. And they believe in making sure that you have the best products as quickly and as easily as possible. A 100% satisfaction guarantee on their high quality products with the best prices around. They do free shipping on orders of over $75 in the US. And they sell internationally as well with great shipping rates. Take yourself to pennchalet.com slash pennaddict right now. And you'll be able to get 10% off anything at Penn Chalet. You'll also be able to see some exclusive offers for listeners of this show. What we got going on, Brad?
Sorry. There's some cool stuff down at the bottom of this list. But I got to start at the top, Myke. Always. The Magna Carta Urban Fude fountain pen we mentioned last time. This is interesting to me to have a Fude nib in like a pre-made fountain pen. I'm hoping to check these out at the California Pen Show this weekend to see, you know, how it feels in the hand, what the shape is like. But just for someone buying online to get a Fude nib in a nice acrylic barrel like this, it's a pretty great price. And it seems like a pretty great option for a fun, unique nib.
A little bit down the list, they have the Caran D'Ache 849, one of my all-time favorites in the Paul Smith edition. It looks like they have some new colors on that. They do like a... They've done different series of the Paul Smith. And then this time, it's like a two-tone barrel.
To where there's like a top color and a bottom color, which all the colors look really good. Chartreuse Rose, Sky Blue Lavender, Warm Red Melrose Pink. Really, really cool. This Gioia fountain pen in here is a really good price.
We've reviewed those in the past on the blog. Been very, very happy with their quality and performance. And it's, you know, at 40% off its regular price. And then what made me giggle, Myke, it's going to cost me some money. They have a pink Fisher Space Pen. And I kind of need it. But it's the traditional, like the traditional bullet space pen is the best, in my opinion. Like by, I think probably everybody's opinion. Clipless, small, just really, really compact fine pen. I haven't seen this pink model before. And it's such a great color. It's like, I kind of need that. So, yeah. Well, we might be getting in on some of this action later today. So, yeah. And then, man, there's wearing wool links on here. So, God, it even made my voice break. I was so excited. I wasn't going to. I actually chose to leave you alone on that one. But you got in there for me.
There are your links. Good stuff over at penchalet.com.
P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com slash penaddict. Our thanks to PenchLA for their support of this show and the Pen Addict. You know, maybe I'll get a stealth Ron from PenchLA sighting. One of the last times I've seen him was at the old LA Pen Show. Yep. I've seen it. He's shown up in two places, LA and of all places, Philadelphia. And I haven't seen him in years. So, we'll see if I can spot the Ron this weekend. Who knows? Tell him I said hi if you do. All right. I will. All right. We have our shout out of the week, Myke. Shout out of the week. The Ink Pony Club over at Olive. Ink Pony Club. Yeah. That's been amazing. Yep. As soon as I started, I was like, yep, love it. Let's go. So, I had a stream a couple of weeks ago where I just titled it Ink Pony Club. And we were just playing with inks. And that song was in my head. Pink Pony Club from Chapel Rhone. Incredible. It was in my head. It's an amazing song. And I love it. And I was like, well, let's have the Ink Pony Club. And then my friend Lisa over at Olive Octopus Inc. Took it even further. Has a page now on the website called the Ink Pony Club. With a printout of a prancing horse for you to print and color. So, this is great. I wanted to give them a shout out. Because we're actually going to be talking about painting with inks here in just a minute. So, that's the setup for what we're about to talk about. But Lisa is my ink dealer and my painting supplier. So, she should have this wonderful Ink Pony Club. So, paint your own ink pony and send it off to Lisa. Add it to the page. And let's get a lot of colorful ink ponies out there. I like the way you say that, you know. Yeah. It's nice. Yeah. Yeah. So, a few weeks ago. Well, maybe a month ago. Maybe two months ago. Knowing me. Lisa sent me, also from Olive Octopus Inc. Also in the chat having a panic attack right now. That I'm talking about them.
Sent me a kit, Myke. So, Lisa paints a lot with fountain pen inks. And experiments a lot with inks. Like, that's her thing. And she streams on Twitch. And just has always let me check out, like, all the cool inks that she has. And then will surprise me with different inks at different times. This time, in my mailbox, arrived an entire kit that she created for me. So, I'm going to have an ink in the, a link, an ink in the show notes. Wow. Ink link.
Ink link. I have a link in the show notes to Lisa's how-to on painting with fountain pen inks. And I thought this is, you know, if you would have asked me, Brad, would you ever do this? It probably not. Just because of, like, my, my creative, you know, you know, inabilities, right? It just, like, a personal, not because I didn't want to or wouldn't find it fun. But, you know, it sometimes does take someone to put something in your hands to make you do the thing and realize, like, oh, yeah, this is pretty enjoyable. So, the short version of this, and again, we'll have a link in the show notes you can go follow along if you want to try this yourself, was basically, I needed a water brush, which Pentel makes a water brush that people can find at lots of different shops, craft shops. You can find them online. They're very inexpensive. And a little ink palette, which you can also find.
Lisa sent me a little 3x3 ink palette that couldn't have been more than, like, 3 inches by 3 inches, probably even smaller than that. And then a few drops of several different colors of fountain pen inks. I think I used, like, five or six different colors. Put a few drops in the palette. And then used the water brush to paint. And so, my concerns were, okay, I have this water brush. How does this work? How do you control this? Does the ink, you know, change out well enough between colors? And, like, all those fears were unfounded. It's kind of an amazing tool to just play with ink on your notebooks. And you don't have to have the coloring sheet. Like, she sent me a coloring sheet from Dominant Industries ink archiving book. This was, like, the, gosh, what do they call it? The, I don't know, it was the C-based one.
Gosh, I'm blanking now.
Log of Atlantis. So, it was, like, an undersea version. They're coming out with the Log of Elixir here pretty soon, which we'll have a link in the show notes. So, she tore out a page from there. And I just used my ink palette and my water brush to color this page. It was so much freaking fun. Like, I'm going to do this more. I'm going to get the new book whenever it comes out. The Log of Elixir should be coming out soon.
This is a really gigantic book. It looks like it's, like, 200 pages. Yeah, 252 pages, 100 GSM paper. And it's, like, $22 over at our Friends at Pen Chalet.
It's a great opportunity to use your inks to kind of, it's basically adult coloring with, you know, watercolor, essentially. Right? But using your fountain pen inks and a water brush. And I just had so much fun. And I got to play around with the inks and see how the inks handled mixing with water and how heavy could I make this color or how light could I make this color? Could I mix colors? You know? So, you know, my end results are up on Instagram. I'll put a link in the show notes to that. And I just had fun. And, like, that's what this stuff is all about. We buy a lot of stuff. We use a lot of stuff. But, you know, there's always, I'm always looking for ways, especially with ink and color, to explore a little bit more. And this was a fantastic way to do that. And I'm going to continue playing around with, especially, like, this water brush. Just get a water brush. Add a water brush to your toolkit. And you almost don't need anything else. You can just play around with what you have at home and make different colors and paint and color out a bunch of things. So, it's great.
All right.
I got an email, Myke. We got one new product to talk about today. Because it relates to one of the first products, one of the first specialty products that we ever discussed here at the Pen Addict. And this is the Love Pink from Bung Box. From Bungu Box. You have the original Love Pink? I know I have it. I think it's called Pink Love. Pink Love. Pink Love. Pink Love. So, they have redone this one. So, a few of their popular ones, they redo every few years. Like, Fujiyama Blue. Like, I have a second or third version. They've done this one a bunch of times. Like, you have one. I think I have the second one. Adina has one. Yeah. And it has a clown on it. Yeah. I have the first one. I forget what's on it. I could go. It seemed like it was a Clover. But I'd have to go look. What they did this time is made it in the Rialo, which is the piston filler. Yeah. And I'm pretty enamored by this. Yeah. This is a problem. This might be a problem.
Man, are they going to be at the California Pen Show? I haven't even looked. So, that's what we're talking about next. I'm going to bring up the vendor list. I don't think they're going to be there. But, you know, maybe in San Francisco. Maybe I'll order it online. I don't know. It's not. We're at the point where I see, like, a price of, like, $400 and something dollars. And let's go, oh, that's not ridiculous. I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous. But, like, for this pen and this color, for something that hits, like, checks all my boxes, like, perfectly.
I was like, I would pay, like, whatever they're asking for this pen. And I might just do that. I haven't committed to it yet. I haven't really bought, like, many expensive pens in a while. This is the first one that's kind of tempted me. And plus it'll go along with my original, which is spectacular. So, pretty cool stuff. I wanted to point that one out. It's available.
Yeah. So, the ink was released in 2010, they say. The original ink. And then I'll have to see when the pen was. The pen was probably between, like, 2012, 2014. I would have to go back and look. But that's when I remember getting mine was somewhere in that time period. So, amazing stuff. Amazing stuff. So. It's beautiful. Yeah.

Upcoming California Pen Show Plans

I doubt they're at the California pen show. But now I'm going to go bring up the vendor list just to check. But that's where I'm heading tomorrow, Myke. Heading out to the LA area to the California pen show. This will be my first time at this version of the California pen show. There was previously, years ago, an LA pen show, which was, for lack of a better term, kind of a joke of a show. Okay. And it was a problematic promoter. And it was just not really, it was not very attendee focused in how it was run. So, that's neither here nor there. It's under new ownership, new location. And now it's back to being, hey, look, a more traditional U.S. base pen show. Huge list of vendors that, you know, I was just in Philadelphia last month. And, you know, got to see a lot of vendors there. And then over here in LA, across the country, you get to see a different group of vendors. Even though we'll see plenty of the same there. But I'm looking forward to a really, really fun show. I don't have a list, kind of like I did in Philadelphia. And I did really well for myself in Philadelphia with the one pen purchase I made. The Navalur Plongeur. And that I'm actually using for show notes today. It's a really nice pen. I think this show might be a problem. We'll see. We'll see. Plus, I was kind of getting the itch there in Philadelphia. I was like, oh, look at that. Look at that pen. I really like that. Should I think about that? And there's going to even be that times two at this show, I think.
It's going to be interesting. And I can't wait to get out there. I'll be there Thursday night. I'll be there at the show all day Friday and Saturday. Then I'll be gone Sunday morning.
Vendor list looks great. I did sign up for one class. Like I mentioned in Philadelphia, the enjoyment I got not just from the class, but from the break that it gave me. From two days at a show, I signed up for Anna Reinert's sigils class. So I'll put a link in the show notes because this is a new class she started at the end of last year. And I'm pretty excited about this. If you want to learn what this class is about, just go read the link if you ever make it to a show that she's at and gives this class. Check it out. But I'm going to take this class this week. I have set an alarm in my phone to remind me to go to it. So that's a problem for me. He loves to make an entrance. This is one of the things people don't know about Brad Dowdy. He loves to make an entrance. That's the last thing I do. I literally like crawl into the back of the room when I took Kimberly's glass. You know, I'll just hide in the back. Hide in the back. Just like a Chris Farley entrance.
Shrink your table.
No. I do make a quiet entrance because I know my friends are going to pick on me, which is well-deserved. And Kimberly picked on me last show, and I know Anna will pick on me this show. And I'm here for it. So I love my friends. I want to support them. Plus, I want to take a cool class, learn something new, and take a break in the middle of the day. So if you're at the California Penn Show this weekend, please say hi. I don't bite. You can interrupt me. You can stop me anytime. You can ask me any questions. I love what I have a lot of free time. If I'm around the show floor, ask me for help. I'm glad to help you because I'm not doing anything that I can't stop and come back and do later. So I'm mostly just hanging out and talking to people and having fun. So I look forward to it. See you all there this weekend. Very cool. Very cool. Very cool. This episode is brought to you by Factor. Are you ready to optimize your nutrition this year? Factor has chef-made gourmet meals that make eating well easy. They're dietician approved and ready to heat and eat in just two minutes so you can feel right and feel great no matter what life throws at you. Factor arrives fresh and fully prepared, perfect for any active, busy lifestyle. And Factor Keto means you can help meet your weight loss goals. They've conducted a randomized controlled clinical trial with Factor Keto, though it's worth noting results will vary depending on diet and exercise. With 40 options across eight dietary preferences on the menu every week, it's easy to pick meals tailored to meet your goals. You can choose from preferences like calorie smart, protein plus, or keto. Factor can help you feel your best all day long with wholesome smoothies, breakfast, grab-and-go snacks, and more add-ons. And reach your goals this year with ingredients you can trust and convenience that can't be beat. The convenience is pretty good, right, Brad? So good. We got one yesterday. I got a box yesterday. Okay. And again, I say this every time, but it's keeping my son out of the box first to steal his favorites that might be my favorites, too, is always the challenge. So I had unpacked it, and I told him we got him in. And then like 5 o'clock yesterday, just randomly for a snack, he's in there shuffling around. I was like, hey, what did you just steal?
And he's like, I got the chicken whatever, whatever. So yeah, he's all about the Factor. I'm all about the Factor. We had that for dinner last night because boys will be boys last night, and I didn't feel like cooking, and everyone else was out of the house. So I had some great easy Factor last night. Knocked it out. Two minutes to cook. Great food. Great taste. Great flavors. So yeah, super convenient. Love them. Amazing.
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Ask TPA Segment and Listener Questions

Should we finish out with some questions, maybe? Yeah, let's hit some Ask TPA. Ask TPA. Tio asks, the question on everyone's mind, will Myke be signing the birth certificate with the Visionaire? Yeah. Seriously, though, does Myke have a special pen and or ink picked out? I feel like I've answered this a couple of times, but it keeps coming in, so I'm just going to do it again anyway. I just don't want to be weird. That's like a big thing. I just don't want to stand out. And so I'm not going to be the guy who's like, hey, let me use this pen. Not the pen you've given me. I'm just going to go with as simple as possible. I would love to use a pen that means something to me, but I will just sign the birth certificate and just get out of there.
I'm honestly the same way in those type of situations.
There's different opportunities to have the pen to sign the document that I want to just use just for like, hey, this is going to be a better writing experience if I have to write a lot. But if I'm just signing like the paperwork, you know, I did the same thing. Like I didn't bring a pen to either of my children's birth to sign anything. So I had other things on my mind, I guess. Although Myke is one of the few, the proud, the many that own a Visionaire. So, you know, there's always an option. I don't want to put in the work to find that pen. I don't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't put that curse on anybody.
So I don't expect I will be taking a special pen because I really just don't want to be that guy. But we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Yeah. You might throw something in the bag. I would probably will do that and then we'll see what happens, you know? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Jason wrote in to say, I recently got a Pilot Murex and I was wondering if I need to use a Vintage Safe ink since it's an older pen. Or can I fill a cleaned out Pilot cartridge with whatever I want and just have fun? Is Vintage Safe more for the filling system or does this include the feed as well? Excellent question here. So. I don't even think I've ever heard of Vintage Safe ink. There's, you know, there's some tamer inks and then, you know, just like some more modern inks, you know, do you want to put a sheeny ink in there, right? Like an aggressively sheeny ink and just from a cleaning perspective or how is the, how are the internals going to handle, you know, some of the modern technology? So what I do as a Murex owner and a Murex fan, it is one of the few pens I keep it simple with. And I only use, I've only used Pilot cartridges or Pilot inks in my Murex Basic. I'll just, I love filling my Pilot Murex with just a Pilot Blue Black ink cartridge. That's one of the few pens that I will just not go wild with and use anything because it's special to me. Like it's my favorite pen, like of all time. So I do try to be a little bit particular with it because it's not easy to take apart on the inside, right? So when you're talking about filling system in this particular case, it definitely includes the feed. And the feed for the Pilot Murex is a little bit weird, right? It's this solid, solid block. You could probably, I'm sure there's places online we can find how to disassemble a Murex and get it fully clean. I don't want to have to worry about that with a pen like the Murex. So just my opinion in this situation, I keep it basic. I don't go as far as like what is the absolute most safe thing. I'm using Modern Pilot Blue Black ink cartridges, right? Or blue or black or whatever. I don't think I've ever put an Orochizuku ink in there. Not that I wouldn't. I just love blue black. It's a vintage traditional pen and I feel like it deserves like the basic blue black ink in it. That's just me. But like would it look pretty amazing with a hot pink in there? Yeah, it would. Yes. I'm just, I'm going to put the hot pink in a different pen. That's just me. I'm not saying that's the right answer. I just have a certain feeling about that pen that I do want to protect a little bit. That said, this is a pen like I throw around and we'll bring to a pen show and let like everybody under the sun test it out. But for the ink, ink I'm just putting in Pilot cartridges and it gives me one less thing to worry about, right? For a pen that I love, I don't want to muck it up. So I use in my M90 for kind of similar-ish reasons. I use Pilot cartridges because I just figure it seems safe-ish. But also because Pilot's proprietary cartridge system, there's a lot of ink in those cartridges. They're pretty good cartridges, I will say. And considering how small the pen is, like I wouldn't want to use a converter in this anyway. Yeah. For the M90, I do use Pilot's purple ink cartridge and I think you might as well. I use the red. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, like I don't have a problem just using stock Pilot cartridges and I've never been led wrong so far with any of those. Even like the colors. You can buy the colors like for the Pilot Parallel. You'll often see them selling. They sell like red, turquoise, purple, green maybe.
And, you know, just a few like standard like normal colors. And then you can get a Roshizuka ink cartridges in different colors as well. So. Yeah.
Richard asks, I have an old bottle of Pilot Shinkai. It's around four years old, which is about halfway empty. I've noticed the ink seems much darker and blacker than before. Is this common with aging inks or was I supposed to keep shaking the bottle before refilling my pens? Thanks in advance. Because I guess what Richard's saying there is that maybe there was a separation in the ink. What do you think? You shouldn't see any separation with Roshizuka inks. They're pretty just standard formulation. I would not. My expectation would be you do not ever need to shake a bottle of Roshizuka inks. I mean, people do it out of habit and things like that. You know, if you have an ink where you feel like it's settling and separating, it's probably not a good ink. And I don't really see that problem in most modern inks. You know, all your standards, basics, sailors, diamines, you know, Roshizuka, Shinkai, all that stuff. I wouldn't expect any separation to be to say, oh, I need to shake this before I use it. You know, it's not a shimmer ink or anything like that. I would also just say, like, don't shake them. Like, no matter what. Just, like, agitate. Just, like, turn the bottle backwards and forwards. Don't shake it. I would hate for you to introduce some kind of explosion, you know? Don't shake it. Yeah. So, as someone who's used, I guess my bottle of Shinkai is about three quarters, if not more, used and probably eight years old or ten years old. And I have not seen any change whatsoever in the ink. My question is, what temperature would be, where and how are you storing this? Because it sounds like it's either gotten air or light affected to it. So, either the cap wasn't sealed or some type of light or temperature change has affected it. Because this is probably my most used ink and I've never seen a change. And probably, it's, this bottle has to be ten years old. And it's still as good as the first day. So, I would stop using this bottle if it was me. If I saw this drastic of a change. And then I would, I would replace it and think about, just make sure you're storing it in, like, you know, temperature control, dark place. You know, mine's, like, literally in a closet. But, just in my house. But, like, it's not out, right? It's not in the, it's not out, you know, catching light from a window. Not that this has happened to Richard. But, something has happened. Yeah. And I would be done with this bottle, personally.
You know, as an ink that I use consistently and know what to expect from it. If it, if those expect, this goes for any ink. If I've used an ink for years and my expectation is one thing. And then, all of a sudden, one day it's different. I'm done. Just straight up. Like, I, but that's, I can't say that that's ever happened to me. Right? So, but I would, I would stop using that. I would move on, replace it, and, and think about, you know, how I'm storing it. Or, did the seal get loose or something like that? These are, I don't know a better way to put it. These are, like, chemicals. You know, like, this is what they are. And they're going to have reactions. And sometimes, like, I mean, it's in the same way that, like, certain inks get crusty. Right? Like, just because of what the, the properties of the dyes that go into the inks. So, like, they're going to have some weird reactions sometimes, I think. Yep. So, things happen. Like, I don't think it's a drastic thing. Right? I don't think it's like, oh, my gosh, it's going to ruin, you know, a pin if I use it. I just, it's okay. Like, I just stop using that one. Chalk that one up as a loss, and I would move on from that one, though. Listen to this, then, from Keith. Okay. Okay. I picked up my Twisby Eco last week, having not used it for about a month or two, and the ink inside Sailor Gentle Blue. Stop it. Look darker than I expected. When I wrote with it, the ink looked super dark and concentrated on the page when it had fully dried it as a super cool sheen. I loved the de-intensity of this color. Is there a reliable way of getting an ink to concentrate like this? Come on, Brad. Yeah, there is. He needs to email Richard and trade for the bottle of Shinkaia. Yes. Yes.
Yes, there is a way. Put the bottle on the counter. Leave the lid off. Come back in two months. And use the ink. And it'll probably be in the situation that you want. If by reliable, you mean destructive. Yes. There is a way to do that. But what I would do, Keith, like this is not healthy. This is not a healthy experiment to conduct. I would find an ink with the features that you like because you can find a cool sheen. What's happened is like you've lost a lot of water content in this ink. So it's aggressively saturated and sheeny right now, right? So you can let some of your other inks evaporate and probably get this effect. But what I would do is I would shop around and try to find like a valid bottle of ink, a fresh bottle of ink that performs in this way. Because I bet you can because there's a lot of great blue inks you can find with some great sheen on it that you don't have to chemically de-hance in this situation to make the ink color that you want.
It's very – I find this very funny. I don't know why. I just find this like combo very funny of like one person. It's like – I didn't read – I had read the Shinkai one. I hadn't read the – I brought this one up because I knew it was in the document. It's very funny. It's like one of them is like we don't know how to do it. And then the other one is like, yeah, we kind of know how to do it. But I would assume though, again, like if you're basically trying to evaporate the ink to increase the intensity of the dyes and so you end up with less water content, I don't know if that's good for the pen. Yeah. No, it's not. Absolutely not. That was my point. Yeah. Yeah. It becomes a very aggressive ink. And then you're going to have a hard time cleaning it. Yeah. But having – you're going to have less consistency writing with the pen once you start doing this. All right. If you do this frequently. Yep.
And Robert asks, please recommend a smooth and easy writing replacement for the Fisher Space Pen Refill. I don't need the upside down pressurized writing feature. I just want to use a pen that uses the Fisher Refill without having to put up with the thick, slow, thixotropic ink. Mm-hmm. So this is – and this is what – thixotropy is a property of some materials that allows them to become less viscous or more fluid when agitated or stressed and then return to their original state over time. We've got a lot of chemistry. That was coming out of my mouth. I was like, lots of inky questions. Okay. So we have to preface Fisher Space Pen Refill talk with the fact that the Fisher Space Pen is a non-compatible with most pens refill. Okay. So are we trying to put a refill into a Fisher Space Pen barrel or do we want to use a Fisher Space Pen Refill? I think they want to use a Fisher Space Pen with a new refill in it because what they're talking about is not needing the pressurized writing that – the refill. It's the refill that has the pressure, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's – I'm struggling with this because the Fisher Space Pen on its own, if you buy a refill for it, it ships with an extension to the barrel that makes it Parker refill compatible. So there's – if you're using like the Bullet Fisher Space Pen, there's not a refill replacement for that. There's not a hot swap refill replacement for that to where you don't have that refill in there, right? To where you have the Bullet Space Pen with say like a Schmidt Easy Flow, which would be my choice. It's an amazing writing smooth rolling ballpoint pen. It's not going to fit that because the Fisher Space Pen is proprietary. It's shorter by like a quarter of an inch. So when Fisher sells you a refill, they sell you the refill and then they sell a little extension in there with it. That's to fit Parker style pens. You're probably going to have to change pens. Like it's – it's the bane of proprietary refills, right? And the Fisher Space Pen in the Bullet Pen. Now, some of their larger pens might fit other options. If Robert wants to email and tell me exactly what pen they're using, you know, let me know. But the standard Bullet, it's a trimmed down Parker style refill. That's Fisher's default. Like and there's not a hot swap for that. The Bullet is such a great design. It's not going to – you can't swap in some Parker compatible refill with that. Sorry.
All right. If you would like to send in a question for us to answer in a future episode of the show or you would like to send some follow-up, I guess it's probably worth noting now. Next week, hopefully, will be my final episode of the show. Ooh. Before my paternity leave. I say hope. Final. Final. Wow. That was aggressive. What? Okay. What? How would you describe it? How would you describe it? It's like, you know. Before, final, before. Before my break. Before my break. I said final before my paternity leave. Don't get too upset. I'll be back. Don't worry. It's really the – man, the ordering of words scared me there for a second. This will be my final episode.
I don't know.
Everybody knows this is coming. Oh, I guess they could think I was quitting the show, though, right? But I really didn't mean to give that impression, you know? Freak me out. Why don't you? Jeez, Louise. This is how you find out, Brad. Yeah, right. So next week, hopefully, will be my final episode before paternity leave. And I say hopefully because who knows? I might not even make it to next week's episode. That's true. That's true. Anything could happen. But that is the plan. So if you've got anything you desperately need me to know about, you can go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send it in. And then Brad will be having a cavalcade of wonderful guests coming through over the next couple of months. Why is everything so funny to you? What am I doing? Because Brad has planned so thoroughly in advance to manage. Here's the thing. Let me tell you how I feel about this. I've made a very different conscious decision to my usual feeling. So for example, right? When I'm on vacation, I will have a couple of tasks in Todoist and it's to help you. So I'm like, make sure Brad has this. And then I'll be like, make sure Brad is recorded. And then make sure I get the files to Jim. And Jim can edit. And then I'll post it. I have made the decision here that I'm just going to trust you're going to do it. I know you'll do it. Oh, yeah. But I'm just going to trust that Brad's going to do it. And I'm just not going to think about it. And just assume that everybody will get the work done. So like you're saying you haven't booked anyone yet? It's not a problem because I know you will. Yep. Yeah. It is literally not a problem. Like, I got this. I know. I know. All right. I just like to bother you. But I'll be back next week, hopefully. Thank you to Factor and Pen Chalet for their support of this episode. If you want to find us online, there's a few places you can do that. You can go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com for Brad's writing and his products. Go to twitch.tv slash penaddict where you'll find Brad streaming a few times a week. Brad is penaddict on Instagram and other social networks. You'll find me on socials too. It's too complicated. I wish I wouldn't have gone down this road. You can also find me at cortexbrand.com where you can see my products. And this show is part of the Relay Podcast Network. Go to relay.fm. And you can maybe find another show to add to your podcast list for yourself to enjoy. We'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.