The Pen Addict 578/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 578 |
| Title: | Business Crush It Vibes |
| Release Date: | August 23rd, 2023 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | No guests this episode |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 578 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 578 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 578 |
| Length: | 6161 min <br />1.017 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 578. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Factor. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad. Hey, Myke, how are you? I'm pretty good. I was low energy today before I got started. And then me and you just chatted beforehand about a song by T-Rex called Get It On. We spoke about that for a bit and Battersea Power Station. This was all for people, the small amount of people that listen live and none of this makes any sense to anyone else. But, you know, we're just friends, just, you know, talking as we do. And now I'm in much better spirits.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think that happens to me a lot. I always talk about how it doesn't matter the mood I'm in going into The Pen Addict podcast when I come out, I'm always just like floating. Like, it's always such a good talk. And you know what I think it is, is that we're such good friends, but we don't talk to each other every day, right? So we'll, sometimes we don't even talk between shows. Like, we'll talk in like show prep if I need something or whatever. But most of our talking happens between like Tuesday and Wednesday. And then, you know, we're always interested to say, hey, what's up? How's it going? And we always get off on these little tangents and puts us in good moods to talk about all things stationery.
Myke Hurley: And, you know, we're going to know, do you want to bang the gong? You know what I mean? Get it on.
Brad Dowdy: I do know what you mean.
Myke Hurley: This is one of the things of like why I started podcasting and like to continue doing it is because I actually have an excuse to talk to my best friends every single week, which is not a thing I do with my best friends that aren't my podcast co-hosts. We do not talk for an hour or two every week about the things that we enjoy.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And honestly, not to get too meta about the whole thing, but that's actually I think what makes this a good show is like our relationship outside of this. Yeah. Even though we don't talk to each other like every day, right?
Myke Hurley: I mean, I recognize it in the shows that I enjoy. The podcast that I enjoy most, there tends to be a good relationship between the hosts or even like a host and a guest. Like I listen to some shows that have like do not have two fixed hosts, but they have fixed guests and like these people are friends and they have good relationships. So you could still hear the camaraderie. But yeah, the shows that I enjoy most are the ones where like you can just tell people we're friends when it's like we're a couple of co-workers and we're just doing our job here. There is a place for that kind of thing. It's just not for me.
Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. That's the those are the transactional podcasts. Yeah, that's fine, but you're not going to end up with 578 episodes of a podcast about pens if we're just having a transaction here once a week.
Live podcast event announcement
Myke Hurley: Speaking of speaking of feeling a connection to your favorite podcast, why don't you come and feel that connection in person? On July 27th, 2024, Relay FM will be celebrating its 10th anniversary live in London, England at the Hackney Empire. Tickets are on sale now. Tickets have been selling very fast, Brad. We are way over half sold by now, which I would just say we have currently sold more tickets for this show than we have sold for any show that we have ever done in the company history. And we have sold those in like four days or something. So the venue seats 1,200 people. It is a beautiful, historic theater in London. Pictures are amazing. It's unbelievable. We're talking velvet seats. We're talking like there's like gold leaf everywhere. It is beautiful in there. So I went to the Hackney Empire a couple of months ago. I saw a show there. And while I was sitting there, I looked around and I was like, this is it. And we made it work and we are going to be celebrating our 10th anniversary at the Hackney Empire. It's going to feature many of our favorite Relay FM hosts. We're going to be playing a game of Family Feud like we did for our 5th anniversary show. So it will be fun for all the family. Like this isn't going to be too techy or too stationery-y. Like it's just going to be a good time. We're going to hopefully have a bunch of hosts. Details to be determined a little bit later on. But it's going to be a really good time. This is a show. We're not going to have any video of it. We hope to have an audio recording of it. Basically, if you want to enjoy this show, the best way to do it is to be live and in person. If you're in the UK, this is a no-brainer. If you're in Europe, it's a little bit still a no-brainer. If you're in America, it's going to have a good time. We've heard from so many people, Brad, who are like, well, we wanted to do that trip to London. It's like, come on over. I tell you when, July 2024. We're going to have a good time.
Brad Dowdy: So I will be there. I will just go ahead and stake that straight up.
Myke Hurley: A new podcaster approaches. This is my thing that I want to do.
Myke Hurley: We're probably later on going to do it visually rather than me just shouting into a microphone. You're familiar with Super Smash Brothers? Yeah. So when they were announced characters to Smash, they would announce it as a new challenger approaches. And so my idea here is that I want a new podcaster approaches. So you are now the second person to, I'm trying to think of the word, like you are committing to being there.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, publicly committing. Yeah. Publicly committing to being there. Who was the first one?
Myke Hurley: Federico.
Brad Dowdy: I was going to say Tici, so yeah.
Myke Hurley: Currently, the confirmed hosts are me and Steven, Federico, and Brad.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So more to come soon, I'm sure. Yeah, we'll be. Still, it's a long ways out, but it's like really close, especially for someone like myself who is planning on bringing the family again, your European vacation family style. We had such a good time, my wife and I, the last time we were there for your wedding, that we have been wanting to get back like every year since. So this is the biggest no-brainer for us since we've been waiting to do this and bring the kids to their first big trip out of the country. You know, got to do the whole passport thing. Like it's a whole big thing, and we're very much looking forward to it. So we're actually going to start planning here soon. Can't plan soon enough for something like this. So yeah, I hope to see everyone there, and Myke and I are going to work on some other things up our sleeves to be announced.
Myke Hurley: There will be some specifically related pen addict activities, I think.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we'll do at least a pen addict thing, if not multiple things. So there will be, you know, outside of the, obviously the live event, we'll have a separate thing that we're going to work on that we have previously discussed, and we think we can pull off.
Myke Hurley: So go to relay.fm slash London is where you can find out more information and buy tickets. Tickets are selling pretty fast, so don't delay on this one.
Upcoming San Francisco pen show
Brad Dowdy: Yep. Speaking of tickets, Myke, in the opposite direction from me, London is one direction. San Francisco, Myke, is the other direction going west. San Francisco pen shows this week, and I am having the biggest FOMO ever. So we've been talking about this for a while, and I've been alluding to the show, because this is definitely one of my favorite shows. Like, I think the DC pen show is the biggest. It's probably going to continue to be the biggest. If you want to have the best argument, that's a different argument in San Francisco, is certainly in that category, especially for someone like myself, who has just such a huge love for Japanese stationery and stationery from the Asian market. You know, that's the tendency for San Francisco. We'll draw from that side of the world, where DC draws from the European side of the world. So what I did for this week's show, because I know a lot of people are going to the San Francisco pen show, and a lot of them might be first-time attendees. I made a list, like I did for DC, of what I wanted to see as if I were going to the San Francisco pen show. So what would be on Brad's list if he was going to be at the San Francisco pen show? I'm calling this Brad's FOMO list. So I went through the exhibitors list and put down, I don't know, maybe 10 things for y'all to check out, maybe not even that many. Because a lot of people you know, you know, this is, even if you haven't been to a pen show, you're going to know people like Franklin Kristoff or Schoen Design, and you obviously want to go see all of that stuff at this show, and they're going to be there. But I wanted to point out a few other things that I would make a point to stop by early on my personal list. Number one on the list, and I did this in alphabetical order, so just going down the exhibitors list, which we'll have a link in the show notes, I would stop by Bungu Box, of course. Yes. See my friends, Kairu and Bruce, who are just two of my favorite people in the world. They always bring fun stuff to the San Francisco pen show from their shop in Japan, and they do a really great job. This is where I got the sneak preview of the 823 Fujiyama Blue last year. It hadn't been announced or launched yet, and, you know, I got to see that at the show. So, you know, you maybe want to swing by Bungu Box to check out what they have going on there. And they always bring, like, a lot, they bring a lot of their pens, a lot of their inks, all kinds of interesting. I bought a glass-dip nib pen that I gave away last year, that Cinderella slipper one, which was so, so cool-looking, like, I couldn't help myself, you know, and pick that up there. So second one is a shop called Cute Things from Japan, which I hadn't seen before. I've definitely seen them on Instagram. I think I follow them there. So they, this is more of, like, your stationery, like, literal stationery, like, notebooks, washi tape, stamps, stickers, all of the cool stuff, but they're coming over from Japan bringing some of their shop-exclusive stuff, some things that were made for them. They're going to have some of the Eric Small Things stuff, which is a designer that I really, really like, has done some very cool stationery-focused items, and we're going to talk about that in a minute. So definitely, I think they will be very popular because what tends to happen at a lot of shows is we go, I'm speaking for myself here, I'll go, and, you know, there's all these big pen purchases that I want to make or look at, and, you know, I'll buy my two or three pens, and then I'm just kind of, you know, kind of taking in the rest of the show, and I end up buying a lot of just, like, smaller stationery, a lot of paper goods, washi tape, stickers, stamps, all that stuff, and Cute Things from Japan is going to have that kind of thing. So I'm sure they will be very, very popular this week, because I think this might be their first San Francisco pen show, if I'm not mistaken.
Brad Dowdy: It is not Aboia's first San Francisco pen show, and this is the one, Myke, that right now is causing me the biggest FOMO problem. They have been posting some of their pen designs on Instagram of what they're bringing, and oh my goodness, like, this is my type of pen. So I have one Aboia pen that I bought from them at the San Francisco pen show, pre-pandemic San Francisco pen show, so I have one. And they have been putting stuff on Instagram that is absolutely ridiculously cool.
Myke Hurley: There are some very upsetting things on this Instagram page. It's bad. Oh, boy. I'm happy I'm not going now.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like, I've never gotten anyone to mule me something from a show, just because, like, I have enough opportunities. I don't need to try to, like, go nuts in between there. But they are putting stuff out that is so right up my alley.
Myke Hurley: That red, white, and blue one? That's exactly the one. I knew it. I knew it. I mean, we're 100% like we locked in on these things. Yeah. Yeah, I want that one. That's the one I want.
Brad Dowdy: That entire image, all three of those pens, put that link in the show notes so people can see what I'm talking about. And I think I was, like, embiggening that picture. I think the in-person view of that pen is going to be even better than what you can get on this feed. I think, like, I was zooming in and putting it close up. It's, like, almost, like, got some texture color in there. It's wild looking. So, yeah, this is a problem. Like, I would just have to fly out Friday and just have a return flight Friday. And just because I would be done. I would be just completely done on the first day just going by a Boya. So, Lusso Fountain Pens, Atelier Lusso. Eric had a Meet Your Maker on the blog in the last couple months. His craftsmanship looks really, really cool, and I've never gotten to see it in person. So, I've only seen his work online. And I think he's been to a few pen shows, and I think we keep missing each other. Like, he wasn't at last year's San Francisco pen show. So, and, like, whenever he's in – he's based in California, so he'll do some of the California shows. He doesn't go to all the shows. So, anytime I've been out there, I've missed him. So, I would be looking to swing by his table, like, pretty quickly and seeing all the wonderful stuff that he has there for the show. So, my friend Daryl from Musubi is launching a new paper at San Francisco pen show, his own in-house pen – his own in-house paper, I should say. It's called Rasa. And I'm sure this is going to be a popular topic of conversation at the pen show, getting people to test it. This is the release of it. So, a lot of people will release new products at the San Francisco pen show, like just we had in D.C. People releasing new products there. So, this paper he will have at San Francisco, and I look forward to hearing what people think about it. It's really, really – it looks really cool from the initial, like, post that he's put and the testing that he's done. It looks like it's going to be a really high-quality fountain pen paper. And Musubi's craftsmanship is just off the charts to begin with. So, getting some of this new paper, I would be very, very anxious to get. I will say – and Daryl, I have not talked to him before I'm about to say this – there's only so much paper that can travel with him. I believe he's based in the Philippines. There's only so much paper. Anytime I've ever seen Daryl in person, by Sunday, he's wiped out. Like, there's very few things left. So, if you're interested in Musubi, you want to go there Friday or Saturday. How do you even do that? Because there's only so much paper you can travel with.
Myke Hurley: How does he even do it? Yeah. No, like, seriously. Like, how? How do you do that? Do you not?
Brad Dowdy: Because – no, I don't. I don't know if he ships the boxes ahead of time, I would guess. But I know one time – there's been a couple years ago – he made a travel post. And it just kind of wrecked my brain, right, on the things that he would go through. Because they just make notebooks, right? And that stuff is so expensive to just ship regularly, not much less, like, send it, you know, across the Pacific Ocean to a pen show. So, yeah. You should check them out pretty early if you're interested in that type of thing. So, next up, Skogsy Pens. My friend Zach Skogsberg and his wife will be at the San Francisco Pen Show. They were a hit the last San Francisco Pen Show. I picked up a Micarta pen from them. He's making, if you look on his Instagram feed, some shorter pens that are, like, super cool and weird looking in the best way possible. Like, acrylic barrels, Micarta caps, and vice versa, things like that. So, I would definitely – another person that sold out by Sunday. I think they even left because they were out of pens by Sunday. So, you want to hit them early on your Friday and Saturday. Take a look. I am sad that I'm going to miss my friend Matoshi from Stilo Art. So, let me – what can I tell you about Stilo Art? This is a table, if you have not been to the San Francisco Pen Show, and I think they've made it to D.C. like once. Some other people might have seen them. This is a table you have to see in person because of the craftsmanship that goes into these pens that they make at Stilo Art is some of the most impressive work you will see anywhere from any pen maker in the entire world. Right? This is a destination shop. And it should be a destination table for you at San Francisco just to go see. Go to Stilo Art and look. And it's one of the more fascinating pen companies in the world to me. And it's just all kind of made in-house and just beautiful wood and different lacquers and Arushi finishes and just all kinds of unbelievable stuff. And they don't travel that much. So, this is a really, really great opportunity to see them and their work in person. Finally, I wouldn't miss Yamamoto Paper. My friend Taizo. I hate that I'm going to miss him this year. They bring, again, just paper. I don't know. I'll have to ask him how they ship all the paper that they bring because I think they had like three tables last year just full of paper. And I'm still using – I'm literally staring at one of the pads that I bought from him last year at San Francisco. That's what I use on my desk pretty frequently because they'll make bank paper pads and sends into my river pads. And I just use them a lot for testing and things like that. So, I love Yamamoto Paper. Definitely go see what they have to offer. And this will be the place where you can go test out a bunch of different papers and build your own boxes full of papers. I'm assuming they're bringing that again this year where you can get these neat little – pick like five packs of like, I don't know, three by – probably not even three by three type of little cubes worth of paper and build your own. And I did that last year and it was really, really fun. So, those are kind of like the top of my vendor list. Obviously, there's a million people I'm leaving off. My apologies to everyone I'm leaving off. And I did want to point out the classes that they have some pretty unique classes. And if you haven't signed up now, you're probably out of luck on a lot of these. But there were three I wanted to point out. Well, two I wanted to point out and then a general category. One, Eric Small Things is having a stamp class in partnership with Traveler's Notebooks. So, I'm sure that's probably like instantly sold out. And we'll have a link in the show notes. You can go check them out. It would be worth sending emails. Like if you're very interested in this, I would go ahead and like still contact the show. Even though you're probably – by the time you listen to this, they're probably long, long sold out. The second one is a class I took last year with the aforementioned Taizo from Yamamoto Paper and Bruce Iman from Bungu Box. Every paper has an origin story. That was a massive highlight from myself at last year's show and from everyone who was in that class. We had the best time like learning about papers from Taizo and Bruce. It was spectacular. And then one thing San Francisco does, they have a lot of different urban sketchers and journalers there. So, there's all kinds of different journaling, art, sketching classes that we don't see at a lot of other shows. So, definitely check out the different classes that they offer for that and maybe take one or two and see what they have. But it's going to be a great show. I definitely have the FOMO. And I'm going to be watching. I'm sure we'll have some follow-up next week. If we get any good stories from there, I'm sure I'll talk about it. And Kimberly will be there for the pen addict. I think she's working for Franklin Christoph there. Actually, she doesn't work this show because this is her local show. So, she's too busy helping people out during the week to actually work the show. But she'll have a write-up. It should be hopefully next weekend or next Friday. And I look forward to hearing all about it. So, this is a new location. So, definitely I would love to hear your feedback on the show. I'm sure it's going to be great. The showrunners put on. They do one of the best jobs in the business at making sure everything is taken care of, handled, and wonderful for vendors and attendees alike. So, I look forward to hearing from you. Hope everyone has a great San Francisco pen show this coming weekend.
Pen Chalet sponsorship and product highlights
Myke Hurley: But, as always, if you cannot attend a pen show, why don't you have a pen show at home with our sponsor, Pen Chalet? They have the products you need from your favorite brands. Whatever you're looking for, go to Pen Chalet to find it. They're going to have it. Whether you're looking for a new fountain pen, a new mechanical pencil, some inks. Maybe you want a carrying case or some refills or a pen holder. No matter what it is, go to Pen Chalet. They're always adding new styles of products every month. You can find new stuff. They're always doing discounts. Every couple of weeks, you can go to Pen Chalet and find some new prices on some excellent products. They have fast and reliable customer service. They also have a bunch of limited edition products and accessories. They do free shipping on orders over $75 in the U.S. They sell internationally with great shipping rates. Pen Chalet believes in low prices on high-quality pens of a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That's what they are all about. Go to PenChalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. And click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password Pen Addict and you will get this week's special offers and the code you need to save 10% on anything at any time over at Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet.
Brad Dowdy: So, I am seeing something new on Pen Chalet. And I'm actually having to dig in here and try to read a little bit more about it off the top. But they have some new glass dip nib pens.
Myke Hurley: Ah.
Brad Dowdy: So, the Pen Chalet El Dorado glass dip pen. And I'm trying to find out the specifications on these. But what they have is at this price. So, Pen Chalet glass dip pens are each hand-blown individual pieces of art serving as reminders that we don't have to go on a quest for El Dorado, the lost city of gold. El Dorado. Like play around with it a little bit. And you can. They're easy to clean. You know, you just dip in water. Wipe them off. And, you know, you can try a bunch of different inks at one time. If you want to do your ink sampling, you know, writing on a coloring, things like that. That's a really, really great thing to do. Separately and not on the list and actually a good thing for a glass dip nib pen. I know Pen Chalet has been trying to get the Platinum Chokuru, the blackest black ink, Myke. So, they do have the bottles now. It was originally just coming in a set that you could buy. Those sold out really quickly. Now you can buy the individual bottles. So, you can find those on the website. And their sale page, Myke, has a pen that's actually been on my shopping list. This could be my pen show purchase. I'm not because it's pretty expensive. And maybe that's why it's like stashed down here at the bottom. But the Aurora Burano limited edition fountain pen. It stood out to me. Yeah. It's a great pen. I've seen this ever since it's come out. Like this is my kind of pen, right? The style of the material. It's like a very rainbow-y, marbled type of pen with rhodium trim, gold nib, and the Aurora 88 model it looks like.
Brad Dowdy: It's very, very cool looking. And these types of pens usually don't go on discount. And it's not like a crazy discount, but it's less than normal. And it's a pretty cool pen. So, I am staring at that a little bit too hard. So, yeah. Definitely make sure you always, whenever we do these pen chalet reads, there's too many products for me to read out individually. You got to do a little bit of scrolling. And sometimes you'll find a surprise like that there at the bottom. So, there you go.
Myke Hurley: I mean, the thing that stuck out to me, again, is the price of the 3776th century.
Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, yeah. He's been keeping a few models on there. So, if you're ever looking for a 3776th, I would stop there first and see which ones Ron has available at pen chalet.
Myke Hurley: P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for the support of this show and Relay FM.
Brad Dowdy: All right. Our shout out this week is the S. Shout out the week. We need a little jingle for that. No, I like to do it every time. The SNS Collective, which it may not come quickly to your memory, but I have shared them before. So, and this is a little bit of a follow-up to us talking about raising funds for the recovery from the fire and the devastation in Maui. So, this is a more direct link than I shared last week. And I wanted to make sure to put this in there. So, this is also John Tello from Hello Tello Studios, Tesori Pens, and the like. This is the site used for the different fundraisers, the different auctions, and the different products you can purchase to help raise money and find more direct information about getting involved in helping. Right? You can just buy things as simple as stickers. Right? And then you get entries into Raffle for some of the pens that they're making. And then they have different auctions for pens with all of the proceeds going to help out. So, definitely go check out and bookmark the SNS Collective site. And we'll have the link in the show notes for everyone to check out. And they've got some really cool things going on. Always trying to help out in the community and just wonderful stuff. So, please go check that out. Follow the links. You know, buy some stickers. And help support everyone that's involved in this. So, it's really, really great to see that they have like a more just like direct website where you can find all this information. It's great.
Myke Hurley: You got it.
Discussion of specific pen products and materials
Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke. I want to talk about a couple of products this week that snuck onto my radar. This one, especially first. The Kaweco Ebonite Sport.
Myke Hurley: Well, I have a question for you. Okay. Start off. Are you sure it's not Ebonite?
Brad Dowdy: I am not sure it is not Ebonite. Well, that's what it says on the pen, Brad. It does. It does. I'm going to say Ebonite because... No, man. Ebonite.
Myke Hurley: But you know what? Actually, is this German?
Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah, yeah.
Myke Hurley: Like, is that how you say it in Germany, maybe?
Brad Dowdy: It probably. And you're right. Like, it is Ebonite on the... Like, etched onto the pen. Like, you know, the traditional... If you're not at home to see the picture that we have linked in the show notes, it does say... Like, you would say, Kaweco Brass Sport. And the brass would be in, like, the big capitalized letters, B-R-A-S-S. This is E-B-O-N-I-T. So, yeah. So, Ebonite. But, yeah. It is the Kaweco Sport with an Ebonite material. And I know I don't have the full specs because this is... I usually get the specs. Like, Kaweco will send out, like, these, like, PR sheets. And I haven't seen one come in for this. But this is on the Stilo Estile Instagram. And I'd actually gotten a picture of this a couple weeks ago. But I wasn't allowed to share yet because it hadn't been publicly released. It's beautiful. And I'm wondering, outside of Japan, I know Germany makes another... Their Ebonite is very, very popular. I'm assuming this is probably German Ebonite given it's Kaweco.
Myke Hurley: All right. So, I'm struggling with this here.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Myke Hurley: Ebonite is a brand name, which I did not know was the case. Like, it's actually not... Like, it's a brand. Okay. Because Ebonite is a hard rubber. Yeah. Because, like, I just found, like, a German website. Like, I'm doing some investigation over here. Where they refer to it as Ebonite with an E. Like, I don't think this is a translation thing. I didn't know it was a brand, honestly. But it turns out it is. Because it's just, like, a brand of hard rubber. So, from Wikipedia, Ebonite is a brand name for a material generically known as hard rubber obtained by vulcanizing natural rubber for prolonged periods. So, I don't understand. Maybe they've just decided to brand it that way. But, once again, like, that is just perplexing to me. But that's Kaweco, man. I don't understand them.
Brad Dowdy: So, you're going to understand this even less as I go forward on this. So, can you... This isn't really your game to play. Can you guess, like, how much you think this might cost? Because they don't list the price in here. But I got... I have an estimate on what this is going to cost.
Myke Hurley: Well, what is... Refresh my memory. What is the standard Kaweco price?
Brad Dowdy: So, let's... So, the breakdown is, like, your classic plastic barrel sports are $25 to $30. Then you get into aluminum, which is around $60 or $70. Brass is starting to push around $100 with stainless. And then bronze, which is the most recent, was up around $180.
Myke Hurley: And how much is the brass?
Brad Dowdy: So, right around $100. It started out lower, but I think it's gone up over the years. It used to be $80 when it came out, but I think it's more like $100, $110 now.
Myke Hurley: I mean...
Myke Hurley: I don't want to... You know, I could say a crazy number, right? Mm-hmm. But, like...
Myke Hurley: Realistically, so that... I expect it will be a premium because it's going to be rare and it looks really cool, right? Mm-hmm. But I can't imagine pricing it higher than brass. Like, I don't know, but that just feels like it would be more expensive to deal with. So, I'm going to say $150.
Brad Dowdy: Okay. You're pretty far off. I played the same game with the person who sent me this and I was actually pretty close. My guess was $325 and I was short.
Myke Hurley: Okay. So, here's what I'm going to say before you tell me the price and I will react to that in a second. So, my gut was saying, like, $350 because it was just, like, this big special package. But then I got thrown off by, like, trying to judge the cost of materials. Yeah. And I forgot, like, I'd seen this image before. I forgot it comes in, like, special packaging and stuff. So, like, my gut was saying $350, but I got completely thrown off by the price of the brass. Right.
Brad Dowdy: So, the special packaging has, looks like a special cartridge setup. It's got a clip. It's got a few other things. The one benefit I had is they made a model called the Art Sport, which was these nice acrylics. And those were closer to $200. So, I knew it was going to be, like, in the threes. It is not a piston filler. So, they have not made their piston filler yet. I was like, when I first saw the picture, I was like, ooh, is this a piston filler? I was like, oh, no, I see it now. It's ebonite. It also has a steel nib, which I feel like if we're going to go for this, right? So, I think I don't have a definitive price, but I think the MSRP is going to be, like, $395. So, 20% off that would put it, like, in the three, what's that, $60, $340-ish range. So, I was pretty close on my guess.
Myke Hurley: It's a lot of money for a Cavit or a Sport of any material. Like, it's a lot of money. But what I'll say, in their defense, is this is clearly a fan's pen, right? So, like, this is a collector's pen. So, you know, go wild if you think your customers will want to pay that. But, like, that is a lot of money for a pocket fountain pen.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I actually don't have a problem with the price. Like, it's not for me, right? Like, that's just too much. Especially with the – I would – if they told me it was $495 and it came with a 14-karat gold nib, I would be like – I still wouldn't buy it. But I'd be like, well, now we're just going for it, right? Like, I appreciate – like, if you're giving me this fancy barrel, I want you to just go for it all the way, right? They're giving us a clip. The ink cartridges are a 10-pack of all of Kaweco's ink colors. That's kind of cool, right? You get 10 individual little colors. But, I mean, that's super cheap. That's not really additive to the price. But, like, just go for it. I don't even know how many of these they're making, like how limited it is or whatever. So, more information will come out. But I kind of want – like, I kind of want to just, like, lean into it, like, really big and charge even more, which is kind of silly to say. I don't want it at this price. I don't want it at the more expensive price. But it's like, man, if I'm going, like, 350 for an ebonite sport, I kind of want the gold nib, right? Or, at a minimum, premium nib. Are we going to get the premium nib with this one? You know how they did the premium nibs last year? Do you remember all that kerfuffle?
Myke Hurley: Yes, I do now. The premium steel nibs.
Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. Yeah. I don't have the full spec sheet on this. So, I will follow up on this in the next week or two as they come out. But they're coming soon. I think they're going to be available in September. So, yeah. That was the first pictures I see. I think a lot of people are going to like this. I think it's going to do very well, even at that price. So, it's a complex issue. Kaweco has put itself in, given, like, their standard pens, to, like, massively upgrade them like this. And they've done things like this in the past. But I almost want to see them go, like, even more. Just, like, turn this up to 11 and give me a gold nib.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Next product, Myke. I think this is turned up to 11, but in a very different kind of way. Did you get a chance to look at this beforehand?
Myke Hurley: I did look at this.
Yoseka Lab two-month weekly planner
Brad Dowdy: Okay. So, the link I've provided, Myke, is the Yoseka Lab two-month weekly planner. What is this, Myke? As someone who has not dialed into this as much as I am and has, like, really researched this, can you explain to me what this is? Or do you need me to do the explanation? Because it took me several times to sort it out.
Myke Hurley: Right. I've looked at this two times today. Like, I just looked at the images. I haven't read through all of the stuff. Right. Because the words, there's so many words on this page. And here's what my initial thought was, like, well, this seems like too much. And there is, like, a thing. I feel like I, you know, maybe more than most people, probably not more than you, but more than most people, I am, like, I've seen lots of layouts of planners. Yes. Yes. Right? Because I buy them for research now. So, I have. Exactly. Like, drawers of planners. And, like, I've been trying to find a phrase to use and I haven't come up with it yet. But, like, I've seen a lot of these planners where I just feel like it is, there's just so many pages that you're supposed to fill out. Like, that, because I was, like, really trying to judge this with the journal, right? We have, like, two sections that you fill out every day. And I find some of these planners and stuff, you have, like, 20 sections you're filling out every day, right? Like, and it's, like, a lot. And this one, there are so many page layouts in this notebook. Like, I genuinely cannot conceive of what you're supposed to do with it.
Brad Dowdy: So, you're supposed to, Myke, use this as a sampler to figure out what you really want.
Myke Hurley: This is a sampler.
Brad Dowdy: This is a planner layout sampler.
Myke Hurley: Let me tell you, that needs to be the product name. Right?
Brad Dowdy: Like, why doesn't it say that? It took me so long to sort this out. But that's what this is.
Myke Hurley: This is a great idea. But this product does not give me that. It gives me, like, business crush it vibes. Like, I've seen these kinds of planners, right? Where you're supposed to, like, write all this stuff down. Own the day. Crush it. Okay. This is a great idea.
Brad Dowdy: Right? Like, but it took me a while to get there. Just like you. I'm glad we just went through this process. Because all this is, is it's a very simpler, simple sampler set. Because of what you alluded to in the beginning, I don't know what format works for me.
Myke Hurley: Yep.
Brad Dowdy: And how am I supposed to know this? Well, Yoseka has taken, how many did they pick?
Myke Hurley: Three monthly and ten weekly spreads in varying formats. Now, I will say, I've done the thing that annoys me with people is I didn't read. Right? Like, I have people that write to me and they say to me, you should put this on the page. And it's on the page. You know? Like, it is there. Like, people are so mad that I didn't put a piece of information on the webpage. Right. That they write to me to tell me that. But it is on the webpage. Right? So, like, I've done it. I just, I think for me, the fact that this is called the two-month weekly planner.
Brad Dowdy: Yep. I literally went into this going, am I going to buy, like, a six-pack of these for the year?
Myke Hurley: Exactly. I feel like the first line explains it, right? The Yoseka Lab two-month weekly planner was designed by Bethany and Amy, originally aimed to create a kind of weekly layout sampler to help users find their ideal planners.
Brad Dowdy: But it's even hard to get to that because you're kind of just taking, like, what is this two-month weekly planner?
Myke Hurley: But they have gone on to say that they also, I mean, they consider it, like, you can use it like that, but also you can just use it. Like, just use it. Don't use it as a sample. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: It actually took me to look through the images to see, for it to come true, to, like, me, like, wrap my head around it. Because I saw the Midori monthly calendar layout, which I dislike.
Brad Dowdy: And once I saw that, I was like, oh, there's all the formats in here. Then I, like, really went into the description. I was like, oh, I see. And that's why it's only, like, $950, right? It's inexpensive, right? Because it's supposed to be just kind of this random sample thing that you pick up, try this out, and then you go back and you say, hey, this is the one I like. Which notebook contains this layout? So it's really cool. But it took me so long to get there.
Myke Hurley: Branding is hard. It's tough.
Brad Dowdy: It's tough. But I think they did a really good job on it. Like, this is great, right? Mm-hmm. You know, they could have these in their shop and, you know, not even having to make a purchase. Like, if you're local, they could just have these laid out on the shop so people can, like, look at some of these other formats, right? Because if you're looking at a shelf with 20 different planner layouts on it, you know, a lot of them are sealed up or whatever, and you can't really get a good idea of what's going on on the inside. They could have these in the shop for people that are there physically say, hey, look at this. What do you think about this? What are you looking for? And they could point to something in there and say, oh, yeah, this is what brings it. So it's super smart. I really, really like this product. Speaking of products I like, Myke, tell me about our good friends at Factor.
Factor sponsorship and meal delivery service
Myke Hurley: Yes, this episode is brought to you by our friends at Factor. With a busy fall season just around the corner, you may be looking for some wholesome, convenient meals for your jam-packed days. Factor is America's number one ready-to-eat meal kit, and it can help you fuel up fast if chef-prepared, dietician-approved, ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door. You'll save time, eat well, and stay on track with your healthy lifestyle. With Factor, you can skip the extra trip to the grocery store. Their fresh, never-frozen meals are ready in just two minutes, and you have more than 34 flavor-packed options to choose from each and every week. And if you want something special, level up with their Gourmet Plus options, prepared to perfection by chefs and ready-to-eat in record time. So you can treat yourself to upscale meals with premium ingredients like broccolini, leeks, truffle butter, and asparagus. Plus, you can keep your energy up with their lunch to go. Factor's effortless, wholesome meals like grain bowls and salad toppers, no microwave required. Then, to finish your order, choose from 45 add-ons, including breakfast items like apple cinnamon pancakes, bacon and cheddar egg bites and smoothies, and so many more. Brad, can you tell the Pandemic listeners a little bit about some of the food you got from Factor?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so the one, there were two. Factor sent me a box that covered a week worth of meals, which is one kind of microwave meal a day, or I think it was six that I got. So, my two favorites, I think, were a vegan chili that they had with like a cornbread dressing, which, and this crema sauce, which was just like a knockout. And then they had a pork chop with the broccolini and a different, gosh, what was it? A cauliflower, like a cauliflower, mashed potato type of cauliflower. And I can't get them out of my head. They were so good. And I've been telling my wife over the past, like, week, is like, I need to reorder these factors. Because what I use them for, they're so perfect for me working from home that I can have, like, a good, healthy lunch. It takes me, like, they literally take two minutes in the microwave because they're not frozen, right? These are meals you order with an intent to eat them, like, within the next week. And, you know, if you eat one a day, you can order the six-pack and you're good for a week. So, I'm going to reorder these as soon as we're done with the show because I've been actually missing the ease and quality of these meals. The only problem for me is that they also sent me some smoothies to test out, and my son got a hold of them. And he would not shut up about them. So, I might have to be in for some smoothies on top of the meals as well. But the meals were a knockout. They are the absolutely perfect thing for me to have for lunch. And my wife can take them to work for lunch. My kids have been eating them on the weekends. So, they are fantastic, like, single-serving, high-quality, easy-to-fix meals. And I'm a big fan. I'm going to order some as soon as we're done today because I've been running a little bit behind in getting some in. So, I'm ready.
Myke Hurley: You can also rest assured that you're making a sustainable choice because Factor offset 100% of their delivery emissions to your door, along with sourcing renewable electricity and featuring sustainably sourced seafood. Head to factomeals.com slash penaddict50 and use the code penaddict50 to get 50% off your first box. That's the code penaddict50 at factomeals.com slash penaddict50 for 50% off your first box. Our thanks to Factor for the support of this show and all of RelayFM.
Brad Dowdy: So, last week, I did just a little segment on all of the things I'm working on for mostly the Pen Addict blog and, you know, things I'm sharing on stream. So, one of the things I forgot to mention in the San Francisco Pen Show is I did a write-up of my ink sampling that I had to make all of these ink samples for the San Francisco Pen Show for an ink testing station. So, I said I was going to write up that article for Monday, which I did. I was able to get that done and talked about all the tools that I used to make this happen and how I got it all done. And I was glad to get that. What is that thing? It's called a pipetor. So, Myke's looking at an image where you take this kind of little handheld device and you attach. See the long, long pointy tube thing? You attach that on there and you have like this connected together. It's probably 14 inches long. I think it's longer than a foot by the time you put the tip on there. So, what it does, if you look on the little dial of the pipetor, so you'll see it says 4.00. It gives me an exact four milliliter draw from a bottle every time I push like the knock button on the top of the...
Myke Hurley: Did you get this from Mary Beth?
Brad Dowdy: No. Okay.
Brad Dowdy: My wife's a pharmacist, so that's why I'm like switching.
Myke Hurley: Like, are you stealing pharmacy equipment?
Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. I definitely had some sketchy things going on at my desk with all this equipment. But it was so much fun and it was so easy to use. And I put it on Instagram and I know Van Es pens, they do a lot of ink samples. So, Lisa Van Es chimed in saying, yeah, one of our employees did a thousand ink samples one Saturday using a tool like this.
Myke Hurley: Because I guess it's just a case of pressing two buttons, right? And that's it?
Brad Dowdy: Yes. It's so fast, right? Once you have the volume dial set, it's like two clicks. You click to draw, click to deposit into the vial. And you just go back and forth, back and forth. But how do you... Like, you could probably do a whole bottle in vials in less than a minute.
Myke Hurley: How do you deal with ink mixing?
Brad Dowdy: So, the vials are reusable. So, as soon as you finish and want to swap colors, there's like an eject button, which is one of the most fun parts. It just like shoots the nib off of there. Just go clack and it fires off. So, I would just put those in a cup and grab a spare one. So, you buy like a hundred tips. But they're not disposable. They're reusable. So, I just put them all in a cup and you just run them under the sink and let them dry. And I would use them again tomorrow.
Myke Hurley: These are like plastic tips that go in the end, right? So, like if you were changing color, you just pop that off and then grab another one. And then you wash them all out later on and they're ready to use again? Exactly. Okay. Because I was saying like that would be wild. You're just like washing it each time. Nope.
Brad Dowdy: Nope. It's so fast and so easy. And they rinse out like their medical devices, right? They're made out of good plastic where they're not getting stained even by the inks, even though they're not meant to use for that. They cleaned out flawlessly. I didn't have to throw any away. Like the little handheld pipettes that I use, the little plastic things that a lot of people have seen. Those stain, right? So, I would end up having to throw some of those out. So, yeah. It was really great. I had more fun doing. I didn't think when I started this project there was any way like I would end up with something like this. And I'm actually just kind of fascinated by the whole thing. And I'm glad I had this.
Myke Hurley: I can't believe this piece of equipment is just $35. That's awesome. Right? Yep. Like, yeah. This is great. How fun.
Brad Dowdy: It was fun. So, it worked out well. I could knock out these samples. I ended up doing 147 samples in total because I was like, well, if I'm going to take like one sample from an ink bottle, I'm going to go ahead and take three samples from an ink bottle. One to send to San Francisco and then two more for me to just have and give away later. So, I'm going to do some like ink sample giveaways. That's just a fun thing. It's a good way for me to get rid of some ink too, right? Like I have too much ink on the shelf. And it's a good way to share some of my ink with other people and really fun, really fun process. So, that project got done. The next project is the 15 Pilot nibs, right? So, the 14 carat number 10 size nibs that Pilot uses for in the 912 lineup, the Pilot Custom Heritage 912 lineup is the primary place you can pick one of these 15 nibs from, you know, like our friends at Pen Chalet will have all of these options for that pen. So, I have the full testing set of that. And I said, that's my next project I was going to work on. And so, I started this week in an effort to write it up next week. What I did yesterday was I wrote with all of these nibs. Now, the caveat here is Pilot preferred that I only dip test these pens into an ink bottle that they provided, the Takasume Orochizuku Ink. I know. Yes, it's going to be – that's going to be the caveat at the start of my write-up. So, it's not the best way to test all these nibs.
Myke Hurley: Why? Like, what's going to happen to them? I don't know.
Brad Dowdy: I don't know, but I'm following their rules, right? It's their rules.
Myke Hurley: Yep, yep, yep, yep. You've been given this thing. Yes. If you want to accept it, you've got to play by the rules. But that's – I don't – I do not understand that.
Brad Dowdy: Well, I already broke the rules. You'll be proud of me. I just went straight in and I inked like five pens immediately.
Myke Hurley: Okay.
Brad Dowdy: And then my friend Myke Madison from Ink Dependence, he's like – because he had this set before me. He's like, you're inking the pens? They didn't allow me to ink the pens. Like, they said I just had to dip them. And I was like, oh, really? Maybe I should go read this email. And sure enough – sure enough, I broke the rules from the jump. But anyway, pilots, nibs, and feeds are good enough to where I could get a pretty good test from just dipping them. But that is still – that's a big asterisk when I write this up. Like, dipping and filling is not the same thing. But I was able to manage. And it actually worked out pretty well. After I got a few dips and writing samples out of the way, I felt more comfortable with the accuracy of what I was getting for the nibs. So I tested all 15 nibs on stream just to get my – I needed a baseline to start with, right? So what I've decided to do – when I first got these nibs, I'm like, well, I'm going to do an Instagram post for each nib and take a picture of each nib and tell you about each nib. And I was like, that's a good idea. And I was like, well, I would like to compare them some way between each other, like, all together. So I'll write a few blog posts with a few categories of nibs because I think there's some clear kind of groupings in this batch of 15 nibs. You can kind of, like, sort out if you like to write with fine lines. Here's the group of nibs you should consider if you like, you know, a wider line if you need to be creative. Here's, like, the groups. And I was going to do an individual article for each of those. But I think what I'm going to end up doing in the end here is I'm going to do one big blog post, and I'm going to rank all 15 nibs from 1 to 15 in my personal ranking of all these. And then this is going to allow me to say, hey, you know, this may not be for me, but it might be perfect for you type of thing. But I'm still going to kind of, like, tie it into, like, my personal feelings on all these nibs. So I needed to get them all out at once, go through them all at once, dip them all at once, write with them all at once to get kind of this baseline before I can have an idea and write them up. So I did that yesterday. And there are a couple of surprises. One, I was really anxious to try the Waverly nib. So maybe we can find a link to, in the show notes, to put the Waverly nib in here. So this is a turned up nib. It's not really a Fude nib. It's not that much of a turned up nib. And I was looking forward to testing this nib out and seeing what type of line variation I could get, because you should have a little bit wider horizontal lines, more architect-y, where your horizontals are wide and your verticals are thin. And I really wasn't getting a lot of variation with this. So I'm actually...
Myke Hurley: Yeah, this is not turned up very much. Yeah. This straight up looks like a broken fountain pen.
Brad Dowdy: Yes, it's very slight turn up. And the idea is that the lower your writing angle, the wider the horizontal, and the higher your writing angle, the finer the horizontal. Well, that's almost like too much work to... Like, I could get the pen up to 90 degrees, like vertical on the page, and it would write awesome. But it's like, do I want to do that, right? So I was hoping for a little bit more on that one. So that one might be a little... That one was one I had high hopes for and was a little bit let down. On the opposite side of the ledger, Myke, I can't believe these words are coming out of my mouth. The Pilot Broad nib is spectacular. And it's not even close to the broadest nib in the set. But I was going through these pens in order to test them. From the finest lines to the widest lines. And then the more creative nibs at the end. And I got into the soft fines and the fine mediums and the super fine medium and the medium. And I was like, yeah, I mean, these are fine. They're just regular old medium nibs. And it's like, whatever. And I was like, all right, here comes the broad. And I'm going to hate these. And this is going to stink. I was like, I like this better than the medium and the fine nib. I don't know what it was about this. I don't like round tips. Like fine. Excuse me. I don't like broad, round nibs. Right? Like I like wide stub nibs. Those are fine because you get line variation in them. But general stock broad nibs or medium nibs with just your basic round tipping for writing. Generally don't work with my handwriting. But I kind of like this broad a lot. So I'm going to test that one out a little bit more.
Brad Dowdy: And then.
Myke Hurley: I could have told you this. You know what I'm saying?
Brad Dowdy: Yeah.
Myke Hurley: Pilot broad, baby. Let's go. Let's go.
Brad Dowdy: It's like legitimately good. I know. Like I don't know that it's going to crack like the top five. But it's going to be way higher than you would think it would be for me personally. Yeah. Right? So the last one and maybe the biggest surprise. I don't know. The broad is probably the biggest surprise. The Sutab, which is their stub nib. It's called SU. I have had one of these before and I didn't care for it. And to the point where I actually got rid of it.
Brad Dowdy: Because there wasn't enough line variation. And it just didn't. It wrote more like a standard broad nib. Well, this one. This Sutab nib is exactly what I expected from my original one that I bought. And if I can get a nib that writes like this, I would be all over their stub nib. Because it has good enough line variation. And it's still like it's in that lower 1.0 line width range. Like maybe like it's. So you get a lot of stock nib. Yovo stock stub nibs are 1.1 and 1.5 nib. I think it's like in between those, which is a good place to be. Because I prefer the 1.1s. But I like writing with the 1.5s. This is kind of in between there. And to be able to get that with a gold nib and in one of Pilot's pens, I think that's pretty compelling. Like that's going to be, that's probably going to be like a top five nib. The broad nib is probably going to be in the middle five. And the Waverly nib is probably going to be in the bottom five. And I think all of those, all of those nibs I would have had in the opposite spot to what I would think they ended up to be. Which is a fun experiment to have. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to write these all up in a personal ranking. Hopefully for Monday. Next week. And to be able to detail out what you might be looking for. What people are looking for if they're shopping for a Pilot nib. And under the idea that, hey, here's what I think personally for me. But here's how I write and this is why. So you might consider some of these other things. So I think that's where I'm at for next week. So it's been an eye-opening experience. Even though I'm having to dip all these nibs. I think it's going to work out okay. Even though that will be the, like I said, the huge asterisk at the beginning of the article I write next week. But I'm looking forward to it now. So now that I've gotten them all tested, all in one shot and getting to compare them. Yeah, it's going to be pretty cool. I'm very, very happy with what I've seen so far. And learned a lot of things about some of these nibs. So, which is the best part about the whole thing.
Myke Hurley: I am excited to see the results of this.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's actually going to cost me money. Which I didn't think going into it. Uh-oh. I think I'm going to have to get a suit tab. So, spoiler alert.
Myke Hurley: I'm intrigued to see more of what that looks like. Because that one, I'm struggling a little bit to fully understand why it's not, like what's different between it and a regular stub. Like, so I'll be keen to see the writing samples and stuff like that. Yes. But then there's always the thing with me of like, well, literally any of these work the way I expect of my weird handwriting.
Brad Dowdy: Right. That's why you like the broad.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. Because it's forgiving, right? Like I find it very forgiving. Right. And so, you can't beat that for me.
Brad Dowdy: And see, I'm very much the opposite. I like rigidity. And I don't mean firmness. I like edges and sharpness. Because I don't write in cursive. I don't write flowy. I write in block print style, right? So, it's those. That fluidity doesn't work for me in my handwriting. But this one, this one's pretty good. So, there you go.
Myke Hurley: Very cool. All right. If you want to find the links to everything we discussed today, it's very simple. They should be in your podcast app. But if they're not, you can always go to relay.fm slash penaddict. And this episode slash 578. This is episode 578 of the show. You'll find links there for everything we've spoken about, including tickets to our live show. Go to relay.fm slash London to learn more about that. And hopefully, we'll see you live and in person next summer. If you want to find Brad online until next week, go to penaddict.com. That's where he's going to have all of this pilot stuff. And I'm sure a bunch of images will find their way to Instagram. Brad is penaddict on Instagram. You can also find him as penaddict on your favorite social network of choice. Except probably, well, I mean, except X, but I don't think you were there anyway.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm not there anyway. I exist on Blue Sky. I haven't looked at that in like a month. So, I've never posted there. Yeah, I've never posted there. I look at threads probably once a day. I just don't post much there. But I keep looking at it. So, maybe I'll eventually start posting. But I'm still mostly on Mastodon if you need me quickly.
Myke Hurley: Brad also streams three times a week. Go to twitch.tv slash penaddict and you can find Brad streaming all of your favorite stationery products. You did the ink thing on stream too, right? Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so there's some, I have the replays of that on my YouTube channel where like you can go back and see. Like when I talk about these Twitch streams, you don't have to be there. Like I save off the videos and they're on a YouTube channel. You can just search for the penaddict. I think it's called the penaddict channel because most of the names were taken. So, you can see all my initial experimentation with all these pilot nibs. I did that yesterday. It's up on YouTube.
Myke Hurley: I'll put a link to your YouTube in the show notes. Thanks. You can find it easily if they want to. You can also find Brad's products over at spokedesign.com. I am at iMike, I-M-Y-K-E and you can find my work over at cortexbrand.com. Thank you so much to Factor and Penn Chalet for the support of this week's episode and we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.