The Pen Addict 469/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	469
Title:	Does it BEND?
Release Date:	July 7th, 2021
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 469
Audio File:	Audio Episode 469
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 469
Length:	6868 min <br />1.133 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 469. Today's show is brought to you by micro.blog, Harry's, and hello. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Brad: Hey Myke, how's it going?

Myke: Pretty good, pretty nice, some would say.

Brad: It's a very nice, nice episode, nice intro. I thought you really, really did an exquisite job on the intro this morning. Thank you. You know, it's always like, you know, you're always like a solid 9.5 to 9.8 out of 10 like every week. This was a solid 10. It was very, very nice. I liked it. This is what they pay me the bit bucks for, you know? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I have a question though for you, a little bit of random off-topic-ness before we start. Is that okay?

Myke: I would love it.

Wedding Anniversary

Brad: Are we actually recording on your wedding anniversary?

Myke: Yes, yes, we're doing that, yep.

Brad: So that is literally today, and we were talking to this fool about pens today on your wedding anniversary.

Myke: Yes.

Brad: Do I need to have a talk with Dina after this?

Myke: No, we celebrated last weekend. Okay. And we're doing some stuff today. That's why I'm recording at home today. I didn't go to the studio today.

Brad: Oh, see.

Myke: So we're spending more time together today than we usually do. Gotcha. Plus, we had like a whole big thing that we did on the weekend, and we're having a nice dinner at home tonight. Very nice. Don't worry. And also, surprise, flowers just arrived. Just got like a whole thing going on over here. Nice. Don't you worry about me. I'm a Casanova at heart.

Brad: All right. Well, congratulations to you both.

Myke: Thank you very much.

Brad: All right. The rest of the show, I'm just going to be congratulating myself, Myke, because I have a lot of new things I'm very happy about. So we're just going to go like, yay me all the way through on this. But no, I really... We haven't had like a product catch-up discussion in a few weeks. And I like to always revisit the things that I use, talk about the things I review. Because a lot of times, say, like if I review a pen, like the review just kind of exists, and we don't always recap them on the show. Not that we need to. I'm not saying that's like we need to. But sometimes, reviews are difficult for me to write, and it's easier to talk about a pen like the Platinum Procyon on the podcast. I find it to be a little bit easier to discuss that, you know, with you and the listeners than actually writing that review. Because it's one of those pens that I love. I love the Platinum Procyon.

Brad: I don't know who I would recommend this pen to.

Myke: Yeah, so this is an interesting pen, the Procyon, right? And I reckon it's one that even the most seasoned of Pen Addict might not be that familiar with. Because of its quite peculiar place in the market. It is the upgraded, upgraded version of the Preppy.

Brad: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I do have a tiny correction I need to make in there, although I don't think it changes the premise. And I keep meaning to get to this. The Preppy nib is actually a little bit different than the Procyon in the feed. But it doesn't really change much. But we'll talk about that in a second. But the Procyon, like you say, I love all of Platinum's pens. I especially love their entry-level pens. I mean, obviously, I love their gold nib pens, too. They're some of my favorite. But just across the board, Platinum does a good job. But what Platinum excels at in my book is the entry-level type of product. I think in general terms, they are probably the best $5, $20 pen. And, you know, depending on the model, the Preppy being about $5 and the Plaisir being around, actually, it's only about $17. Because of the nib and the writing experience. And then they have, no matter the price point, they have the slip and seal feature in the cap, which allows you to ink a pen, either cartridge or converter. These are all cartridge converter pens. And as long as the cap's on, the ink's really not going to dry out. Like, I've had a Preppy inked, and then it gets set in the closet of doom and not be touched for a year. You uncap it, and it just writes immediately, right? It's a really neat technology, and you can get that in their $5 pen. So, they ramp that up into the Plaisir model, which goes from a plastic barrel in the Preppy to an aluminum barrel in the Plaisir. Same type of nib, same filling system. A little cooler, you know, more fancy look. Like, you know, like a gradient type of aluminum anodizing on the barrel, and they're less than $20. Hey, great. It's like, I got my Preppy. I figured out, hey, I like fountain pens. I want to discover more. Here's my upgrade. Well, then you take that idea, and you turn it into the Procyon, except you're now charging over $60 for that. And I'm not sure what you're getting for that $40-something price difference. And that's what it was hard to explain that in the review, because I'm not going to talk bad about this pen at all, because there's nothing bad to talk about. It's excellent. It feels good. It works good. The nib is awesome. Like, I like the cartridges that Platinum uses. I like their ink, and it just feels great.

Brad: But you have competition, like anything from Twisby in this range, which you get, I don't want to say more bang for your buck, but I guess that's the best way to say it. You get a piston filler, and you get more heft, and you get, like, a more serious fountain pen.

Myke: Nicer design, too, I think.

Brad: Yeah, it could be.

Pen Review - Procyon

Myke: I think the Procyon's a bit boring. For my taste, I think it's got a bit of a boring look.

Brad: It's basic. Actually, the Plaisir has a little bit more style and aesthetic than the Procyon is very ABC design. You know, it is the dictionary definition of what a fountain pen barrel should look like, right? Just the shape and the size and the overall aesthetic of it, which is fine. And then the one thing they do is they tack on some bright colors. Like, you can get yellows and oranges and some cool things like that.

Myke: And which one? The Plaisir or the Procyon?

Brad: Oh, the Procyon. The Plaisir is the one that has, like, the two-tone barrels, like purple and the pink and, you know, those type of things. So, it's just weird. Like, it's, like, I will use this pen all the time. I just don't know where it exists in the grand scheme of things. And those are the things that I always find interesting. I was like, why does this pen exist? What was Platinum's idea when they made this pen? Because if they knocked $20 off the price, it's probably getting close to making some of my top five lists, right? If this was a $35 to $40 pen, it fits into a different category. The category, the price point category that it's in. And, you know, I'm assuming Platinum has the best intentions that this is just how much the pen costs. So, this is how much it needs to be sold. But where it landed, put it in a confusing area. Because you can get some really, I think, better pens for the same price, even less. Pilot had the same problem with the Pereira, right? The Pereira is just widely regarded as a great pen. I love the Pereira.

Myke: It's one of my first fountain pens.

Brad: Same here. Same here. It's smaller. It's lightweight. It's classically designed. It's got some cool colors. You can shop around and find a pink barrel or a translucent barrel. And then at one point, they had raised the price up almost to $50 on the Pereira. And I was like, oh, no. This is a different solution we're getting here. And I'm not sure it's the answer to a lot of these questions. And now, I don't know if the price has fallen, but you can get Pereira in the $30 range. This is what I find the Procyon to be. It's the Pilot Pereira, which means it should be $40 or less. And then I would be shouting from the rooftops at how great this pen is. But, you know, it's picking nits, but that's what I do because I just think the number they put on this is just strange. So, the one thing that does interest me and I think is even more compelling is that they have released some of the Macchie Procyons, which is kind of weird after saying this about the pen. But you can get, like, painted on, like, the Japanese artwork. There's a couple of different models. I'll put a link in the show notes to Warbler on a plum tree. And that's the Procyon barrel with artwork on it. It's $140. I'd argue that that's, like, the better purchase, right, for something special. It looks beautiful. Yeah. Like, I would rather pay $140 for that than $65 for the basic black one, right? I agree. Does that make sense?

Myke: It makes perfect sense to me because now you've taken it and you've made it special. Like, and yeah, it's a lot more money. It's twice the price, basically. But now you have something, like, you have an artisan pen now, right? Yeah. Someone's painted that on there for you. Like, if this is, if you want Mac IE, like, if you want that, like, on a pen, this is probably one of the cheapest ways to get that effect on something that you know is going to be a decent writing experience. Right.

Brad: And Platinum does this with other, they have their own, they have a line that I've reviewed before. It's still a steel nib pen and I forget the model name of it, but I did a Mount Fuji one. They do, Platinum does a good job of having these types of art-based pens in the $100 range. And, like, I would prefer, and, you know, everyone's situation is different, right? A new person coming into the hobby is never going to buy this pen. That's silly.

Myke: Unless they fell in love with the design, right?

Brad: Right, right, right. But if I had, you know, a choice of one of two pens, like, I would rather spend $140 and get something, like, completely enjoyable than something more basic like the Procyon. I don't know. It's weird because it is so good. Like, it is a legitimately good pen. And I just, it kind of vanishes in the sea of pens based on the price point. So, anyway, that's my thoughts on that. And, like, I will be looking to use this pen. I enjoy it, but, like, I just don't know that I can just blindly recommend it to anybody just because of what's around it. So, anyway, I just wanted to get my feelings out, again, on the Procyon. But, yeah, there you go. Some new inks that I'm tempted by, Myke. Like, Susan reviewed on the Pen Addict last week, two weeks ago.

Brad: Scribo. So, they're an Italian brand. They make great fountain pens. I have not used them. I've seen them. Susan's reviewed one for the blog. They're very nice, very expensive pens. You know, like $500 to $800 pens. Really, really beautifully made. And they came out with an ink lineup in the past year or so, sometime last year. And they were the ones, I don't know if you recall, Myke, and I don't know if we actually discussed it on the show or not. But they're the ones that come in these gigantic glass bottles that are the biggest, heaviest ink bottles I've ever seen in my life. They're, like, doorstop level ink bottles, right, and what they feel like. But the inks in them are brilliant. Like, she reviewed Blue Capri and Arancia di Sicilia. Shout out to Italy for winning their semifinal match in the Euros yesterday. This blue is awesome. This orange is off the charts. That's, like, my kind of orange. It's bright. It's got shading. It's got some character to it. It's not flat, right? Kind of like what I think about, you know, like, with Fire on Fire. It's like, yes, it's orange. But, like, what else do you get from this? And this has a little bit more of a peachy feel to it, which I normally don't like. But the orange is so bright. Like, the redness kind of comes out in an interesting way. And I'm kind of fascinated by this. And I don't have any of the Scribo ink bottles. And I kind of want one because they're chonky.

Myke: They're so weird. They're, like, so... I mean, I'm going to put a link in the show notes to Apple Bomb. I found them on Apple Bomb. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was googling around a little bit while we were talking. And it's basically like a cube of, I'm assuming, glass. Yes, it's glass. And only 50% of the height is actually ink.

Brad: Because they're stackable.

Myke: They're stackable. Okay. Because I don't understand. It's, like, so much wasted space.

Brad: Yeah. It's literally, like, you could build one of those, like, glass kind of pretend see-through walls, you know? Made out of these things. Like, hide your cubicle out of these bottles. These bottles are no joke. I can't believe... Like, I don't know how you get to making the decision to make this bottle. Again, I'm trying to be other people's business people. But shipping these has to be just a flat-out nightmare.

Myke: They look so big. But I don't know if I can get... I can't find a weight, like, how heavy the package would be.

Brad: Yeah. There's just... The scope of these ink bottles is enormous. It's enormous. And just the size and the weight of them. Yeah. It's crazy. So, we'll have to look into the actual weight. I'll have to... I'm going to end up getting this orange just to test out. I don't have it yet. But I'll get the ink bottle in hand and actually weigh it. But, I mean, shipping on these must be a nightmare. So, it's great. The inks look awesome. I haven't tested them out myself. But I plan on it. And Susan's review really got me looking into them a little more.

Myke: So, I've had the... I particularly like the orange. But I don't need another orange. I know. I don't need any of this stuff, Myke. You know, I had a thing the other day. So, I mentioned before, I have a selection of pens here at home. I have a selection of pens at the studio. And then some of my kind of more... I can't think of another word. Precious items I carry with me in a NotCo Sinclair to and from the studio every day. And the plan is always to kind of swap those out every now and then. And I kind of do that by like as some of them start to run out of ink, I'll fill the ones that I want to keep and swap out with other pens that are at home. Like which ones I want to keep in the Sinclair to have with me back and forth. And I realized when I was changing them out this time that of the six pens that I had in my Sinclair, because I am a Sinclair stuffer, I put six pens in one of those things. I'm good with that. I had no orange and I couldn't believe it. It's like, how is this possible? I have like 20 orange pens, like pens that have orange ink in them. And I didn't have that. I rectified it. But it was quite surprising to me.

Brad: Yep. Yep. I have a similar comment about the missing ink colors here in a little bit we'll get to. So yeah, I think that's definitely interesting. But you need to get some orange back in your life.

Myke: It's easy for me. All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends at micro.blog. If you're a pen addict who's looking to share your love of pens, ink, and stationery, you can join micro.blog where you'll find kindred spirits. But no matter what it is that you're into, you're going to find a community here on micro.blog. It is an easy to use blogging platform where you can write short or long blog posts, share photos, videos, or even host a podcast of your own. But it's more than just a place to post your stuff. It's also a friendly community of people with a wide range of interests who share and comment via micro.blog social timeline backed by a strong community, strong community guidelines, I should say, that are enforced, which I think is awesome. I really love the feel of this community and the fact that there are so many communities there. They really encourage it. You know, like people listen to the show. You like a certain thing, you can find people with similar interests over at micro.blog. But my favorite thing about it is the amount of control that you have over your content. Your content is yours and it can live wherever you want it to with your domain and everything. There's no ads. There's no behind the scenes algorithm that chooses which posts will appear on your timeline. And also, similarly, there's no algorithm that says like if somebody wants to follow me that they're not going to see what I post. If you always wanted to share your love of pens or anything but have felt lost or discouraged by bigger social media sites, check out micro.blog and you can meet fellow enthusiasts and the rest of the community who share interesting things that they love. Micro.blog hosting starts at $5 a month, but you can use your own domain and even cross-post to Twitter, Tumblr, and Mastodon. Using your own domain, your posts reside on a blog under your control and you can use it via the Mac, iOS, Android, as well as the web. If you're ready to try a different blogging and social media experience, head to micro.blog slash penaddict where you'll be able to sign up for free and try out all of the features of micro.blog for two months. And micro.blog have doubled that trial period for penaddict listeners at micro.blog slash penaddict for a two-month free trial. Our thanks to micro.blog for their support of this show.

Scribo Pens

Brad: So I've been using it a little bit over the past week or two because, like I said from the beginning, like I keep meaning to get back into this. And I don't know if I said this before. It was certainly in my head, so I may have said it before. It's comfortable social media. Like I don't feel like anxious or I feel like Instagram. I feel like, you know, I have to put on like, you know, my best outfit and do my hair and makeup to like go hang out on Instagram or, you know, I have to be like on my A game on Twitter if I'm going to post something. Micro.blog is just like I'm going there to chill and talk to people. And I was like, hey, like this is the pen I'm using today. I was kind of I'm not really doing like a pen of the day thing, but like when I pick up a new pen, I'll take a shot. It doesn't matter. You know, it doesn't have to be staged like for Instagram or something like that. And, you know, I just go and we chat about it. And, you know, like I posted my Milky Way, you know, my new Mickey Milky Way on there. And someone just replied, wow, just wow. Have you shared this pen before? Right. So you're getting like these new people into these things. Like I've obviously shared the pen a lot before because it's it's really fancy and nice to take pictures of. But it's like, hey, cool. Like here's someone else who's interested in this stuff. So, yeah, it's it's fun. I'm enjoying it. I'm going to keep using it. It is on the front page of my phone in the in the old in the former Instagram spot, Myke. So that's what I'm thinking about micro blog blog so far.

Myke: Well, that's that's a big that's big praise right there.

Brad: Mm hmm.

Myke: Can we talk about stacked nibs? Stacked nibs.

Brad: I want you to talk about this. I want to know what you think. So good friend of the show, Andrew, wrote a guest post for the pen addict while I was on vacation. I want you to at least start the discussion of this.

Myke: I feel like you're baiting me here because, you know, I'm reading this and I'm like, I got to get one. I want one so bad. This looks like you. It looks like me, right? Yeah. I really want one. But it's this is one of those things. I will say this is like part. Every hobby has its fringes, right? Yeah. Yeah. And they can feel quite daunting to get into. Mm hmm. And even though I read this fantastic blog post that kind of explains the history and the practicalities and all that kind of stuff and how you get your hands on a stacked nib, which we'll explain in a minute in case you haven't read it. I was kind of left with the at the end of the article still feeling like I didn't know where I could just get one.

Brad: It's not as simple as that. Yeah. We'll talk about that.

Myke: And that's where like the fringes of all these kinds of hobbies, like it's again, it's like similar within the keyboard stuff, too. Right. Like for some of the more esoteric parts of an already esoteric hobby, it can be tricky to get exactly the thing that you find. Right. Where you're like, oh, I've heard someone say that this this switch is keep it like this keyboard switch. A key switch is nice. Oh, but it's actually what they call a Franken switch, whereas you take two different switches that you buy and then you combine parts of them to make. And it's like, oh, no, I can't just go and get this. Right. So a stacked nib is kind of how it sounds. It's multiple fountain pen nibs or components of multiple fountain pen nibs that are stacked on top of each other and welded together to create basically a double or triple nib in one. So you can get vastly thicker lines and vastly more ink laid out on a line. But depending on how it's ground, which is stuff that we've spoken about on the show before, you can get different characteristics where holding the pen at a certain angle can produce a different line width. I mean, I desperately want one now.

Brad: This is right up your alley. Like this is not up my alley. This is up my alley for being on the lunatic fringe. Right. Yeah. I say that as a term of endearment. Like this is this is what I want to see. I want to see people pushing the limits, doing these these strange, weird things and sharing them with the world. Like those are my people. Right. That are really like doing this stuff. So. I guess this kind of became famous from sailors, especially nibs where they started sailors. Basics. Specialty nibs were just like a singular nib. And then they had like a lot of tipping. And then that tipping was shaped into some of their different designs. Like the Naginata togi is kind of like the basic entry level. And then they move into stacked nibs where like you were saying, let's just say we stack two nibs on top of each other. The result is that that tipping on the front can now be combined. You know, maybe not not, you know, necessarily like, you know, through through welding. But now those are they're used in conjunction by the rest of the nibs sticking together. So now these you have like a double width nib on the front and then that can be turned into even more extreme shapes to get different types of lines when you're writing different. Like you said, line widths, lots of variation. And a lot of these are designed to be used flipped over. Right. So you flip. So you're writing with your nib in the standard direction. And then you turn it over 180 degrees and they have so much tipping. The other side of the nib can be shaped into something completely different. Like a lot of these will have like, say, a broad architecture style nib on the bottom. And then you flip it over and it's an extra fine nib on the top. So it's super unique. It's super fun. It's like I couldn't use them personally because that's not how I write. Like my writing like this would be it's too expensive for this to be a toy, which is what it would be for me. But for someone like you, it actually might come in like regular use. Now getting them that did that is the kicker. So the sailor ones are impossible to get a hold of the ones Andrew talk about talks about on in the post. A lot of them are made by just people in the hobby, like single or singular makers like Ralph Reyes or Gina Salarino or Jim from Pen Sloth that they're doing all this stuff and experimenting as they go. It's a long, complex process, highly involved to get this done, which obviously makes them very expensive. You're probably, you know, just for like one of the steel ones in a pretty normal layout is probably between two and three hundred dollars, right? Just for the nib. That doesn't surprise me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like it's, you know, air quote worth it. Like that's the time and energy and materials and everything that goes into making this. That's for steel. Like you get into gold, like you're you're into a whole nother bracket. So I love this. I like I love seeing this. I love using these when I go to pen shows because a lot of my friends have them. And I have never gone away from this going, yes, this is the nib for me. Like I want it, but I love and respect like what they are and what they bring to this hobby and how in in other people's hands, they're just amazing. So, yeah, I think that should be on your list like one of these years.

Myke: Yeah. And this might be one of those things where I feel like I need to try some first. Right. But it definitely feels like something that I would be interested in giving a go, which I definitely haven't before.

Myke: Maybe I kind of I've known of them, but it always felt like a little intimidating. But now kind of getting that primer from this blog post, I definitely from Andrew, it definitely feels like, yeah, I think I want all of the features that this provides. Like this is all of the type of stuff that I tend to like in fountain pens. Right. So, yeah.

Brad: And what we're seeing in the hobby is now we'll be able to go to a pen show and you'll probably never find one of these sailor ones. But, you know, it's like, oh, I know Gina can do this. Yeah. Or I know Jim can do this. Let me just let me just go talk to them about it and look at it. You know, that's why pen shows are valuable. That's why I'm glad the shows are starting to come back because this is not something you and I mean you specifically, Myke, would ever just like go to the website and click buy on this because it's like that unique of an experience. But when you go to a pen show, you get that opportunity. And I'm glad we're starting to have those opportunities again.

Myke: And it's because of the price. It's because of the price. Yeah. It's because of the price. We both have. We bought lots of pen things where it's like, oh, I wonder what this is going to be like. But we would be, you know, if you're looking at $300 for a nib, there's not even got a pen attached to it. Right. So, like at that point, I feel like I need a little bit more experience with it.

Brad: Yep. Yep. Exactly right. So, they're fantastic. So, yeah, definitely check out that blog post if y'all haven't. It was great. And Andrew put a lot of time and effort into it. What a collection of nibs he has. That's wow. Wow. All right. More My Speed, Myke, which I'm actually a little bit shocked the more I think about this. I unboxed this pen yesterday. And it is from Woodshed Pens. This is the Shimmer Collection Kickstarter that Myke Allen did last year at some point. And I backed. You're familiar with Myke's pens. You have some of his pens, I believe. Yeah. At least one or two. I love Myke's pens because it's always the same shape. And the shape is perfect for me. Right? It's just kind of a great pen for me. So, he did the Shimmer Collection. And I was like, yeah, I'm in. I'm going to buy one. And I backed the purple one on Kickstarter. And it arrived. And it surpasses expectations. Like, I don't know how to describe it other than that. But the way the purple material, the color of the purple material, in combination with the green glitter that's in it, it just completely pops off. And I'm not as much of a glitter guy as you. I feel like you're a little bit more into, like, the glitter styling in barrels than I am. Like, I have, like, a couple other sparkle barrels. I don't really have, like, a full, like, translucent, fully glittered out barrel. I can't stop looking at this. And it feels great. And it writes great. Like, okay. That's, like, secondary. It looks great. That's the best part about it. It's like, man, this pen looks cool. And I can't believe I'm saying that. Like, obviously, I knew I would like it because I like woodshed pens as they are. But the material exceeded my expectations. So, well, job well done, Myke. And I inked it up with the Dorchester Blue, which comes with it. It's, like, a blurple. So, it's kind of, like, a bluish purple. It's mostly purple. When I was testing it out, I've inked it up with that in a 1.1 stub nib. I will be using this pen a lot. I just, it just came out great. I was, I don't want to say I'm surprised. Like, I know, I mean, Myke, I love Myke's work. So, I'm not surprised about that. I guess I'm surprised at my own reaction to it. Because I don't normally go for this type of pen. And I was really kind of taken aback by it when I opened it up and looked at it. So, yeah, it came out great. Really, really like it.

Myke: These feel, like, simple and effective. Yeah. I really like the difference with the acrylic frosting. Right. With the body and then, like, the ends, the finials of the pen. Where they're not as, like, frosted. So, it looks like it's added on.

Brad: But it's actually the same piece I expect. I keep grabbing that area of the pen to see if I can, like, twist it off.

Myke: It's, like, polished. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's very nicely done. It's very nicely done.

Brad: So, yeah, I'm very happy with that. So, good job, Myke. I'm glad Myke, not you, Myke. I'm glad Myke was not running a Ponzi scheme to get these out. So, yeah, I appreciate that. Oh, I also got crackers and cookies with it. So, there you go. It was a bribe. It was a bribe. The next product, Myke. How'd you find this? It was not a bribe. I was scrolling around JetPens, as I do, in the new arrivals section. Do you do that a lot? Probably once a week.

Myke: I expect JetPens is one of the companies you would do that to more, right? Because if there's a big pen release, you're probably going to find out about it. I expect a lot of companies contact you. But JetPens has all their, like, weird and wonderful stationery and little accessories and stuff. So, I can imagine it would be one to poke around with. I've definitely spent a lot of time with the new arrivals of JetPens.

Brad: Put it this way. They used to have an RSS feed for the new arrivals. Really? I didn't know that. And I used to subscribe to that. And so, you'd go. And it doesn't, like, trickle in, like, every day there's something. But it'd be, like, say, like, Thursday morning, like, 50 things would show up in your feed. And you're like, oh, I'm going to look. So, I don't subscribe to that anymore. I just hit the new arrivals button. And I saw this case, right? So, here's how this went. So, this is the Sunstar Deldi Smand pen case. Great branding. Just wait. Like, it's going to get even better. Like, this is the way. So, I looked at this, Myke, and I was like, oh, cool. Like, it's this really neat kind of structured triangular pen case in cool colors. Click buy, add to cart. The end. It shows up. Okay? Like, that's how this went. Just grabbed it, threw it in the cart, showed up at the house. So, I unboxed it yesterday on stream. I'm like, okay. You know, this feels great. This looks good. Here's the zipper. It's just opened into, like, a standard open pouch. I was like, oh, this is going to be really nice for my highlighters. And then I started poking around the case. And I was like, what is this front panel? Like, I thought it was just, like, stitched in aesthetic thing. But what it is, the front panel on these cases, if you see the link in the show notes, you click them and you see it's like a two-tone. Well, that, say, I have the blue one with the yellow panel. That yellow panel flips down. And it has, like, the rubber strips on it for you to stand your phone up on there. Or stand whatever. You could stand your book up on there. Right? It's designed for you to lean something against it. And the theory is it's so smart. Once I discovered that, I literally had no idea when I purchased it. I just thought it was, like, this cool triangular pen case. But what it is, is, like, it's that plus a stand for other things. So, like, people would use that to draw. Right? They could have their reference material up. They could have all their pens and pencils in the case. Have their reference material up while they're sketching in their sketchbook. Either, you know, have it on their phone or have a picture or anything like that. And I was just like, this is the way. I was like, this whole thing blew my mind. And on top of that, Myke, it's called Smand. S-M-A-N-D. And I don't know what's happening here, but it is the worst, best name ever. Smand. Like, can you figure out where this came from? Like, I'm not setting you up. I don't know. Like, it is an amalgamation of several words. It's like, I would say, like...

Myke: I mean, do you know what country this comes from?

Myke: Korea or Taiwan. Right. Okay. Okay. Because I was thinking it might have been like some kind of Nordic word or something.

Brad: Right. Right. Right. Right.

Myke: Oh, you know what it is, Brad?

Brad: Hmm.

Myke: That's like stand.

Brad: Right. Right. But what? It's stand, but... With an M.

Smand Case Discussion

Brad: That's why I can't get all the way there, Myke. Smart stand? Small stand? Smart... Smart... Smand. Smand. Smand. Smand. Hmm. Smand. Some star smand. Smart... Smart stand? You think it's smart stand? Maybe. We're going to go with smand for, like, Bennifer here. Like, smart stand. Smand.

Myke: Smart phone stand.

Brad: Smart phone stand. Smand.

Myke: That's what I think it is.

Brad: That's what's happening in the meeting. They're all going around the room, and someone, like, this is how the room, right? So there's, like, a conference room, right? You all know the meeting, and there's, like, eight people sitting around there, and this case is up on the board, and everyone's, like, locked in. Like, all right, we're going to figure out what to call this. This triangular pen case, and it holds your phone up. And they're going around the room, and everyone's going out, you know, saying, like, all these classic names, and, like, oh, it's the triangular-thon mecca pen case deal. And Bob's back there with a powdered donut. He just looks at it and goes, smand. And everyone goes, oh, Bob, that's it. Happy day again, Bob. Bob. And Bob's like, what? I was just enjoying my powdered donut.

Brad: Like, that's how I think this happened. And that's how I vision this anyway.

Myke: I found the product page from Dell Day. But, of course, it's all in Japanese. But it says, well, it says, introducing the pen case, smand, that allows you to place your smartphone horizontally or vertically. So I really think it's smartphone stand.

Brad: It's got to be smartphone. Smartphone stand. Smand.

Brad: I'm just going to stick with smand, because it's just a great word. This is a legit good pen case. This pen case now lives on my stream desk, because as I'm recording this, my phone's sitting on it.

Myke: Oh, Brett, do you know why they made this? This is so friggin' smart. In recent years, there have been increasing opportunities to study while using online classes with smartphones. So it's like you're reading, or you're on your Zoom call or whatever, on your phone, and you're still doing your schoolwork. It's all in one.

Brad: And all your pens and pencils are right there in the case. It's awesome.

Myke: Great product design. I love this case.

Brad: Like I said, I'm staring at my phone on this case while I'm talking to you right now. It is going to stay on my desk.

Myke: Super good. Yep, it's good.

Brad: It's good. Smand.

Myke: Smand. Let me tell you about another nice product. Nice. Hello. Hello. Hello make incredibly comfortable buckwheat pillows. My favorite pillow. My very favorite pillow. I've slept on a hollow pillow every single night for years for many reasons. One, because I get great support. It supports your head and neck, unlike a regular fluffy pillow. Because it's made with the buckwheat, the buckwheat hulls. They're kind of like, I don't know, it's close to like a bean from a bean bag kind of idea. Like it's an individual little thing and you have loads of them. But because they're all these little individual buckwheat holes. I really struggle to try and explain. But they're like little individual pellets, let's just say, for the sake of trying to allow you to envision something. It means you can remove and add them. So you can make the pillow the exact size that you want it. Exact size that you want it. Because you can just change it however you want. But also, it doesn't compress down. It can only compress down so much, right? Because it's like a physical thing. It's not smushy like a foam or like a feather or something. So you really get that support. Also, it allows for air to flow through the pillow more easily. So it doesn't get warm and humid. You don't have to do that flipping to the cool side of the pillow anymore. Because the pillow always remains cool. People have been sleeping on buckwheat pillows for many years. They're popular in many countries in the world, including Japan. They can sometimes feature on a pillow menu at fancy hotels. I have yet to find a hotel that has a pillow menu, but it is a life goal of mine now. So I can say, hey, bring me the buckwheat pillow. Because then I know I'm going to get a good night's sleep. Because we just slept in a hotel last weekend when we did something for our anniversary. We stayed in London. And I had two regular pillows. And it was like sleeping on an envelope. Right? Because I'm so used to my hollow now. I have one pillow and it's nice and thick. And it stays that size. And it doesn't squish down or anything. And I think it's super comfortable. Hollow pillows are made in the USA with quality construction and materials. They have a certified organic cotton case, which is cut and sewn for durability. And the buckwheat is grown and milled in the United States as well. I'm sure you're pretty curious to try one of these out. You can. You can sleep on a hollow pillow for 60 nights. And if it isn't right for you, you can just send it back for a refund. Go to hollowpillow.com slash penaddict right now to get your very own buckwheat pillow. That's H-U-L-L-O-P-I-L-L-O-W dot com slash penaddict. And if you buy more than one, they have a special discount of up to $20 off depending on the size you opt for. Hollow have fast free shipping of every order. And 1% of all profits are donated to the Nature Conservancy. So give it a try. And if you like it, keep it. If you don't, just send it back. Go to hollowpillow.com slash penaddict. A thanks to Hollow for their support of this show. And Relay FM.

Brad: The best products are the ones that ruin all the traditional products for you. And this is one for me. It is ruined pillows for me. I like it that much. I almost wish there was a hollow pen so I'd stop buying all the pens. Yes. But then we probably wouldn't have 469 nice episodes of this podcast. Nice. All right, Myke. I want to talk about my planner again, but not really. Okay. You know, we'll talk about my planner more. My planner changes more. Like, you know, give me a month or two as I get into it and figure out the pros and cons of my new format. If you want to hear about that, you can listen to last week's episode. But I want to talk about the additional tools I am using in my planner, which was honestly one of the underlying reasons why I switched. Now, I switched my layout because what wasn't working for me, my existing planner wasn't working for me, so I needed a new layout.

Brad: But the bonus of this new layout, Myke, is not only do I get to use a pen, I get to use other stationary items with this, and I want to talk about them. So the way I use my planner is I pick a single pen, and that's the planner pen for the week. Right? It could be a fountain pen. You know, this week is the Domeki Milky Way, which I use a lot. And I try to only use that pen to plan the days, right? This is one of the ways. This is going to come up later in STPA if we get to it today or even next week of how I rotate my pens and make sure I'm using as many things as possible. So it could be a...

Myke: Is the planner pen physically attached to the planner?

Brad: Never.

Myke: Okay. You just keep them around near each other? Yeah.

Brad: I usually carry like a pen case and the planner kind of move together. Yeah. Makes sense. So they'll stay together. And there's other pens in there, but I still only pick the one for the planner. So, you know, last week it was the Procyon because I was in the middle of reviewing it and, you know, working on getting my thoughts down on that. So I just use it and use it and use it. And before that, it was in a Johto pen, you know, where it could be, you know, a rollerball. It could be a gel pen. It could be a pencil. Whatever. I try to stick with one, but then I have like the notes section in the planner and then that section I can use whatever I want, right? I'm not saying I'm only using one pen per week. I'm saying like the planner, like the dates and time stuff that I try to use the same pen for a week. In addition now, with the way I'm planning, I get to use a highlighter because I want to keep family stuff doesn't necessarily make the schedule breakdown, right? So like when I talked about my planner, I now have like a breakdown every 30 minutes, you know, 8 a.m., 8.30, 9, 9.30. So like all those little spots are for my work or my day, how my day is going to go. So and then on the kind of the right edge of those time slots, I'll highlight, say if my wife is working from 8 to 8, I'll run a highlighter down the edge, the right edge of that. And I'll write in the highlighter, highlighted area, you know, Mary Beth work 8 to 8, right? And then like if, you know, my son or my daughter has something, those are different highlight colors and different lines as well. So I'm able to see my day a little bit better. It's a better visual in this layout than what I was using before. So I'm using the Pentel Fitline double-sided highlighter in pastel colors. I've really gotten into these pastel color highlighters as opposed to the traditional like highly fluorescent highlighters. I like the little bit lighter colors that the Zebra Mildliner has made so popular, right? They're really, really good. Just accent colors, right? They're not, I'm not highlighting a textbook to come back and make sure I don't miss that. I'm accenting a note that I want to have a good visual on just in general. So I bought the eight color set of the highlighters. I'm kind of like in the, like the minty green one so far has been the move. In that highlighter space, I use a pencil. So this, I don't know if you can tell, Myke, this is how excited I get about all this little stuff that I get to use for my planner and stationery. This is why like I do the pen addict, right? Because I get obsessed about, okay, I just made a highlighter mark. What is the writing instrument? I am now going to write the information inside the highlighter mark in. So I do it backwards because I'll put the highlighter mark down first and then write on top of it because I might be using some pen that may not do as well if you're running a highlighter over it. So I decided for now I'm using a pencil. I'm using the Pentel Graph 1000. It's a limited edition Pentel Graph. This is the, this is the little brother to the Pentel Graph gear, the famous Pentel Graph gear drafting pencil, which a lot of people know. This is the more, I won't say subdued because these are really bright and bold colors, but it's a plastic barrel as opposed to a full aluminum barrel for the full graph gear and the grip is a little bit different. And I just really like the colors. Like I have the red one, which is a red and pink gradient. And that is now the pencil that goes with the planner and the highlighter. And, you know, I'll mix that up sometimes. Maybe I'll use a pen there, but right now I'm using the pencil. I like the option of having a pen, a highlighter, and a pencil so far. My challenge, Myke, I know, I know you cannot wait for this section. The challenge I'm having is I want my highlighters to be in a straight line. And I'm, I, my kids have stolen all my good rulers. So this is what I was talking about on stream the other day. I have this, one of those triangular like architect or engineer rulers, you know, the triangle ones that have like the vertical part to them, you know, you just turn them around and they like, it's basically like a six sided ruler. I don't want that for my planner. I want a flat ruler, right? So I went shopping for rulers because my highlighter line, I want it straight. I want it straight in my planner.

Myke: Yeah. This is like, you're a step away from Bujo country.

Brad: I'm, I'm there.

Bujo Country

Myke: Yeah. You're in it. I'm in. Stickers now. I'm learning the Pinterest font.

Brad: There's washi tape right here, Myke. I got this. You're in it. It's not, it's not on the, in the, in the dock because I haven't used it yet, but I have this one. It's really thin and it's got planets on it and they're foil and they're shiny. Oh man. I can't wait to use it. I haven't figured out how to use it yet.

Myke: No shade, by the way. I'm not, this is not me throwing shade. It's just like a different type of thing. It's like a whole practice.

Brad: Yeah. I'm really enjoying this. I'm really enjoying having my little setup and you know where all this stuff goes, Myke?

Myke: Tell me.

Brad: Smanned. Smanned. Right there on the desk with the planner. All my highlighters, my pencil, my ruler, my planner stuff besides the fountain pen, if I'm using a fountain pen, goes in the smanned and it's all hangs out together. So yeah, I'm looking at rulers. If anyone has any ruler recommendations, send them my way. But I ordered the high tide clip ruler and I ordered the Traveler's Company brass ruler. I'm going to test those out. If those don't work, Y studio, of course, my beloved Y studio makes a brassing ruler, Myke.

Myke: I would immediately buy this ruler if it was available in 30 centimeters. Yeah. They only do 15?

Brad: Yeah. Like I'm good with the 15s to stay in the A5 book. But yeah, they're great. It's good.

Myke: For my use case of a ruler, I typically need a 30 centimeter ruler. Yeah.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to have some ruler testing going on, Myke. Just like I do with the pen testing and the pencil testing and the paper testing. We're about to have some ruler testing. So yeah. Good. It's, I am in on planners. I'm in on hashtag planners.

Myke: Feels like it.

Brad: I'm going to be hashtag planning all the things. I like doing the hashtag planning streams. I haven't gone like full hashtag planning stream, but I'm like starting to mess around with that.

Myke: That feels like a good thing to do. So in case people don't know, like this is one of the many things that people stream about these days. One of them is just like, I'm going to set up my planner for the week and that's going to be my Twitch stream. And, you know.

Brad: I watch them all the time.

Myke: I bet you do. Because it feels like it would really overlap with.

Brad: I mean, I'm clearly getting inspiration from that. Like the way I've never done what I'm doing now in my planner and I'm enjoying it. Good. And the thing that people should know is you figure out the things that work best for you and the layouts that work best for you. Like I'm never going to be like the hashtag Bujo person that has art drawn all over their pages. But I watch people who do this. And it's not necessarily for the art per se, but it's for how they're envisioning the planner working for them. And what can I get from it? Right. So it's a great learning experience.

Myke: I want to ask a little bit about these Pentel fineliners. So they're like the double side ones. One of the images. Oh, do you have questions about this? Why? What? What? What is it?

Brad: I want to see what you're going to say. If you say what I think you're going to say, it's going to be great.

Myke: Okay. I don't know if I'm going to. I feel like I'm going to let you down now. All right.

Brad: I'm unzipping my smand right now to get one out. Oh, my. Do we need to edit that out?

Myke: This is a family show. So the larger side.

Brad: Yes.

Myke: Thicker side. Yes. Does it bend?

Brad: I'm so glad you asked, Myke. I was going to put this in the show specifically to call out. And it's like, you know what? Nothing good is going to come out of this. So I'm just going to leave it out. And then you notice this, Myke. Okay. It looks like a hoof.

Brad: Does it now? Is that what it looks like to you? Yes. Okay. It does look like a hoof.

Brad: I'm leaving it there, by the way. I had a real problem with these when I discovered what was happening with them. I ordered them because I thought the colors look cool. Again, like the smand pen case, I didn't know it had this additional feature. I'm like, looks cool. Add to cart. Send to my house. When I opened these up on stream, I was like, why is there a notch going around the highlighter tip? And I was like, is this for like, is someone using like a ruler that high up to get it closer to the paper or to control the line?

Brad: And even chat was kind of flummoxed by this whole thing. Then we went and looked up the copy for the product. And it's designed to give you a flex in the highlighter. I was like, who needs a flex tip highlighter?

Myke: Also, the way to describe this, this kind of marketing is frustrating to me. As if just by making the statement, it makes it true. So it just says, the sturdy chisel tip flexes just enough to stay flush with the page, keeping your lines clean and straight. Hang on a minute. Hang on a minute. Is this a problem we had? Like, I don't think that this was an issue.

Brad: Here's the final theory that chat came up with in Twitch the other day. And I kind of buy it, but I don't know that it's necessary. So say you have your large textbook and you're in the middle of it and you have the curvature towards the center of the spine. It allows you to have a break when you're highlighting on that curve and the tip stays more on the page around that curve because the tip flexes.

Myke: I mean, that's a mighty fine theory if it works out.

Brad: The thing is, the tip doesn't flex. Like, it does not work like that. You have to, like, smash it into the paper to get the bend.

Myke: My favorite thing, Brad, is so you've got that image of the hoof. The very next image on JetPen's website is the image of highlighting, which is not straight. Right. Which is hilarious to me. That's super crooked.

Brad: Yeah, okay. Yeah, it's a non-feature feature, right? Yeah. You will not buy this to use the flexibleness of the highlighter tip because it does not bend unless you smash it. Like, it's a very thin notch around there, right? This is not, you know, it's not like you're holding, like, an apple stem, you know, connected to the apple. It's basically just, like, one entire thing with, like, a little notch around it. And it just doesn't do that. No one needs this.

Myke: I guess to actually get it to flex, you'd be pushing it down so hard it's probably too much ink that would come out. Yep. Yep. When you bought these, was your intention to use the thinner end or the thicker end? Like, what are you putting? You're doing the thicker end.

Brad: Here's the thing. Here's the thing again, Myke. I want to implore that. I am not making this up. I didn't know they were two-sided until they showed up.

Myke: I've had that, too, though. I just bought them because they look cool. I've had that, like, oh, there's two sides. It happens a lot with highlighters because in everyone's mind, you know what you're getting with a highlighter. You're getting the thick tip, right? I never use the thin ends of highlighters. I don't know what the thinner end would be for, really. Because what made you, I mean, because I think old favorite is the Kokoyo Beetle tip.

Brad: Sure. Yeah. I mean, they have, that's, like, the number one highlighter ever. It's just traditional colors. You know, it's traditional highlighter colors. I like the pastel-y. Yeah. I'm surprised. Like the mild liners.

Myke: I'm surprised. Like, I'm just on a Japanese page for Kokoyo. They don't really have a lot of options.

Brad: Yeah. And if you look at these, like, some pastel highlighters can be too light. But if you look at the writing sample, these are actually very, very reasonable colors. These are like, oh, it's just a lighter. It's just, like, those fluorescents turned down a little bit. Not a complete, complete change. So, I'm so glad you've, I was going to put this in there. I was like, nah, this will be, like, this will be a whole thing. And then you noticed.

Myke: The whole time we were talking, I was just looking at the image. Like, the whole time. Because, like, I was just like, oh, what are these all about? And, like, I was just looking. And I'm like, what? What is it for?

Brad: Hang on one second.

Brad: All right, I had to zip up my smand.

Myke: Oh, is that that noise? Wow. I thought you were going to sneeze or something.

Brad: Mm-mm.

Myke: This episode is brought to you by Harry's. You shouldn't have to choose between a great shave and a fair price. And with Harry's, you don't have to. Harry's is offering listeners of this show a starter set. Just go to harrys.com slash penaddict and you can check it out yourself. Harry's delivers a close, comfortable shave at a fair price, which is still as low as $2 per refill. And they're actually designed to stay sharp. A recent study found people who shave four times a week said their eighth shave of a Harry's blade was as smooth as their first. Harry's is a relatively young brand, but they have embraced centuries of blade-making tradition. They bought a German razor blade factory that's been making blades for over 100 years. Harry's doesn't believe in gimmicks or unnecessary features that are going to make things more expensive. Their design team combined a weighted ergonomic handle with their signature blade cartridge. It is a smart, simple razor designed for delivering a close shave along all the contours of your face. Harry's also believe in fair prices. Owning their means of production and using only the most crucial features allows them to keep their prices as low as that $2 per refill. And Harry's stands behind the quality of their product so much that they have a 100% money-back guarantee from harrys.com. Brad, can you tell listeners what you enjoy about shaving of Harry's? Everything? Okay. Tell me what you like about the handle. That's what I would like to know.

Brad: Well, I use the handle that has like part metal and then the part rubberized grip, right? So I'm still using like my pride handle from about three years ago that they sent me. And I just, I don't know, it's lightweight. It's cool looking. Like, it's funny. Like, you don't need your handle to be cool looking necessarily when you're shaving, but it's an added bonus. I kind of like that. Why not?

Myke: It sits out in the bathroom all the time. Like, you don't want it to be ugly.

Brad: Oh, and I use the little Harry's like aluminum little cube stand for that. So yeah, like I got the whole Harry setup going on. Again, it's just one of those products that it's legit good. It's ruined other products for me. And I appreciate that completely. Like about, you know, product design and manufacturing and making of things is like, if you've made something like this good, like I respect the heck out of it, that you've changed my mind about what I've used to use in the past. And that's what Harry's does.

Myke: Harry's is giving their best offer to listeners of this show. New customers can get a starter set at harrys.com slash penaddict. You'll get a five blade razor, a weighted ergonomic handle, foaming shave gel, and a travel blade cover, a $13 value, all for just $3. There's never been a better time to try Harry's. Go to harrys.com slash penaddict to redeem your offer today. This is for new customers. Our thanks to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad: I'm excited about this first Ask TPA question because I think it's going to wreck your brain a little bit, but we'll get there.

Myke: I know. I've read this one about four times in the last couple of weeks.

Brad: It took me a minute. It took me a minute, but I think I got there.

Myke: Yeah. This comes from Sean. If you had a $1,000 budget and you had to choose only one of the following budget categories to spend the money, which category would you spend it in? $0 to $100? $100 to $200? $200 to $500? Or $500 plus? Is the category you selected? So this is the second part, which we'll get to in a bit. Is the category you selected the same as the category where you think the most innovation is currently happening in the industry? So when I first read this question, I was like, oh, I have to fill out a $1,000 budget. It's like, no, that's not the question. And then when I read the question the second time, I thought, am I giving suggestions for every category? No, that's not the question either. The question is, if we only had $1,000 to spend on pens, what kind of budget range would we go for? So would we get like five pens that are $200 or would we get two pens that are $500 or whatever?

Brad: Right. And you can't, like if you choose the $200, you can't go outside of that range. Yeah. You have to spend all your $1,000 in the $200 to $500 range. You can't say, well, I'm going to have this $300 pen and then this $50 pen and then this $500 pen, right? You're fixed into that range. My only question is, are you, you said it, but the question didn't say it. Are you saying this is only pens or do we have to have like paper and ink and all these other things? I'm guessing it's only pens on the price range.

Myke: I think it has to be pens because if you go at the $500 category, you can't buy anything else.

Brad: I mean, have you seen those Scribo ink bottles?

Myke: Right. But like what notebook are you going to get that costs $500? I know.

Brad: So yeah. So pens only. Yeah. All right. Where are you going to, you're fixed in the range that you choose to spend $1,000. Which group would you go?

Myke: This is pretty easy for me. This is pretty easy for me.

Ask TPA Question

Brad: I think it's pretty easy for me too.

Myke: It's $200 to $500. Yep. But you get, that's at $200 and $500, the variance is massive. Right. It's bigger than $100 to $200. Like. Yep. To be honest, I think Sean's actually going to be easy on us here. Like there's so much in that $200 to $500 range. And you could also like, you could buy one pen that's $500 at half your budget. Then you could buy two more at $200. You've got a great range at that point. That's exactly right. That feels like the easy, like that's the easy answer for me, honestly. Plus as well, I mean, just for my personal tastes, that's where all of my favorite pens live is in that category.

Brad: Exactly. Like I'm in that category and I'm buying three pens. And I'm going to be ecstatic with every single one of them. Right. No questions whatsoever. Right. So there's a lot of options and choices in there. Now, I don't know if, you know, like we're a little bit more experienced than we used to be. Like we, I might've gone like a hundred, $200 before just because I didn't necessarily have the knowledge, you know, and there's a process over time that gets you into these different price brackets. If you're so inclined, right. You don't ever have to be, you know, you can stay in the zero to $100 and be just fricking thrilled with, with your pen. But depending on how deep you get into the hobby, you start figuring out, oh, well, you know, yeah, I'm paying more for this pen. And, but what am I paying for? Is it just like a nib upgrade or is there, is there barrel materials that actually make a difference in what I feel about this pen? And then it gets into more like personal styles and tastes and aesthetics outside of like writing performance. And I think the 200 to 500 gives you the best mix of both worlds. It gives you the best functionality and the extras that make, can make a, like a highly personal pen really speak to you. So I agree with you completely.

Myke: I think this is a, I think this is an interesting question, but I think that it's not surprising to me that we both want the same answer. So, so the second part of that question is, do we feel that the category we've chosen is where the most innovation is happening?

Brad: It's easy. Hmm. I just think, I mean, if I want to be factually correct, the answer's no.

Myke: Well, where do you think that's happening? Is it in like the 100 to 200? Yeah.

Brad: Yeah. Everything below that. Yeah.

Brad: Because like you're getting, you can get a killer piston filling pen for $30. Like what are we, is innovation an Arushi Nakaya or is innovation a piston and a $50 pen? Right. And I think it's, I think it's below.

Myke: It's more like in that range, it's just more colors and materials. It's not actually innovation.

Brad: Right. So like we're not innovating as an industry to sell you a $10,000 pen because we've innovated this new thing. We're innovating in this industry to sell you something awesome for a lower price. I believe.

Myke: Mm-hmm.

Brad: So yeah, it's definitely the lower price ranges. It actually might be the zero to 100 price range. Because companies can absorb the risk better at the lower price point.

Myke: Okay. Todd asks, So this month I am completing my doctorate, which has been a five-year process. I would like to buy a fountain pen in celebration and I could use some advice. I wouldn't say that money is no object, but I would not consider an Akaya impossible, just on the very tippy top of the budget, probably a little bit over. Here's the hook. My last name is peppercorn, which lends itself to a lot of these kinds of themes. Black pepper and yellow corn, popcorn, spices in general, and the like. Oh, of course, Dr. Pepper. Heh heh heh. Dr. Peppercorn. For nibs, I gravitate towards extra fine and ultra extra fine or italic stub nibs. Some kind of fun acrylic pen would be great, but I'm open to anything that might run with some of these themes. Your recent discussion on episode 466 inspired me to think that going for the ultimate writing experience, like a pro-gyro and Akaya, may not necessarily be the best route to take.

Brad: There is a pen that immediately came to mind that fits most of these categories to a T. But I don't know. But it's an aesthetic choice that only Todd could answer whether he likes it or not. And it actually might be, as funny as this sounds, it might be less expensive than you thought this might be. But that sounds like the budget's, you know, probably in that $200 to $500 range that we were talking about, Myke. The Montegrappa Mia in Spice Explosion with an extra fine nib.

Myke: Okay, googling.

Brad: It is.

Brad: It's called Spice Explosion. I have this pen in Meteor Shower, and I love it. Oh, yeah.

Myke: We were talking about this. I love the look of this pen. We've covered these. Yeah.

Brad: Every color of this pen is great. Yeah. This one just happens to be called Spice Explosion, and it's got orange and black.

Myke: Color-wise, this reminds me of Maesterbrook. Yeah. It's those kinds of colors. And I really love the combination of the orange and the black and the silver.

Brad: Yep. And I think if you wanted to fancy this up, I think you might can get like a gold nib in them, but I'm not sure. They do. Montegrappa makes other Mia options.

Brad: With gold nibs, like in different materials than this, so you'd have to poke around. And they're extra fine nibs. So Todd says he likes extra fine or UEF, which is like me, or italics and stubs. These also come in, like they're extra fine.

Brad: Montegrappa steel nibs are more than fine enough for my normal writing. And then you can actually choose a 1.1 or 1.5 stub. Those are actually options on this pen. So yeah, it just depends on if you like the style. Because, you know, otherwise, like you're really wide open here. You could go for a Pilot Custom 823. You could go for a Pelican. You could get an M805 for under $500 if you shop around. And they've done some really cool colors that might match like the aesthetic you want. You may not get the issue with Pelican for me, which it sounds like it might be Todd's issue, is an extra fine is still not fine enough in their writing. So yeah, I'm looking at these Montegrappas, and I kind of feel like that's a good place to be for the style and aesthetic. Or, I don't know, maybe you just go for the Sailor Habanero, Sailor 2 Hot Habanero. But I would probably pick this Montegrappa over that, because I would just feel better about the money I was spending, mostly. You know, save a couple hundred bucks and do something like this. But that's the one that popped into my head. I may be way off base in this recommendation, so Todd knows how to get in touch with me. And we can hash it out a little more if you're looking for something else.

Myke: We'd be interested to know what you end up going with, Todd, as well.

Brad: Yeah, because one of the caveats is the ultimate writing experience may not be the best route. And I don't know that I could define that anyway, because it's different for each of us, right?

Myke: I agree with the thinking, though. What Todd's saying is you don't have to make that the thing, right? And that was what we were talking about. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to enjoy it more, because you do get into diminishing returns up at that level.

Brad: Right, right. So, yeah. Yeah, if I can help narrow this down any, I'd be glad to help.

Myke: If you want to submit a question for a future episode of the show, you can just send out a tweet with the hashtag RSTPA or use question mark RSTPA in the RelayFM members Discord. Or you can email them to hello at penaddict.com. At penaddict.com, you can find Brad's great writing along with the help of many other fantastically talented pen reviewers. You can also find Brad streaming most days at twitch.tv slash penaddict. Brad is penaddict on Instagram, and he is dowdyism on Twitter, and at Brad on micro.blog. Thanks to micro.blog, Hello and Harry's for their support of this episode. If you want to find me online, I'm at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. We'll be back next time with another episode of the penaddict. But until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.