The Pen Addict 514/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	514
Title:	Through the Moon
Release Date:	May 18th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 514
Audio File:	Audio Episode 514
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 514
Length:	5959 min <br />0.983 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 514. Today's show is brought to you by the Kanilea Pen Company and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by the first and last word in Lego bricks, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad: Maybe the last word.

Myke: Last word ever in Lego bricks.

Brad: We had an eventful build this year, Myke.

Myke: Oh, it was terrible.

Brad: And we did everything possible to preserve our sanity going into this and we failed miserably. How did we fail so bad?

Myke: We underestimated the complexity of the Lego set that we were building.

Brad: That's what happened. Small does not equal easy in Lego.

Lego Build Challenges

Myke: So we built the architecture sets for years, right? I've been thinking about this, Brad, like why was this so hard? The architecture sets, there aren't complicated pieces. You're mostly just building like squares in different ways. You know what I mean?

Brad: Like our historical toughest piece was the washing machine and how it orients.

Myke: But it was more like the way the pieces went together. So like in this build, so we, for RelayFM members, you can sign up at relay.fm slash membership. You get tons of fantastic benefits, access to the Discord, tons of bonus content going back multiple years now. I think five years of bonus content you get, as well as like monthly stuff that we do bonus for our members. We have like back, it's called Backstage is one of our shows where we kind of talk about what's going on at RelayFM. You can hear me and Steven talk about what it's like to run this company. We have Fusion, where there's a crossover show between multiple hosts of different shows. Steven hosts every month as well. Tons of great stuff, including the annual special episodes. Ours, again, this year, we built a Lego set together and we chose a model of a Formula One car. Now, here's what I was thinking about, Brad. The form and shape of the build, I think, was the problem. Because there were things that we were building that were just like visually complex and fiddly. And that was the issue. Basically, the main problem, it was complicated the whole way through. The main problem is a piece got added somewhere where it shouldn't have. It is unclear, as we stand at this time, whose fault that was. Whether Brad gave me a poor direction or whether I just picked it up and just randomly put it down. I would say at this point, 50-50 on that. Yeah. Could have been either of us. No one could tell. Definitely. Someone could tell, but nobody has told so far. We have at least one build completed. You know, actually, points to the person who can work out the answer to this for us. Yeah. There will be points awarded to you.

Brad: Because we've already had one completion of the set through the podcast. And they sent us a picture of the piece that we lost during our build or misplaced as a, here you go. But they didn't have any statement on how this came to be. Like, well, Brad missed this piece. He put it in the wrong place. Or it just might magically attach it to something else that it shouldn't have attached to. We don't know. Because we are definitely not going back to listen to this. Because we almost killed each other on this episode.

Myke: As you can tell, the fact that we are here making this show, mine and Brad's relationship is as good as it has ever been. Yeah. This was the biggest test of our friendship. There was a little bit of name calling on both sides. We were both agitated.

Brad: And we are two people that don't get agitated very easily. And we were agitated at each other.

Myke: And I was on the clock. I thought this would be easy. And I booked in a dinner. Which I didn't know. Because I didn't think we were going to take three hours to do this. Right? So I didn't even feel like it was necessary.

Brad: So Myke sent me a picture afterwards. Like, here's my dinner. And it's like, thanks, jerk. That you made me late for, Brad. No, you didn't make me late.

Myke: I was just late. We made me late. At the moment, it's 50-50. Because we lost about 20 minutes trying to find this piece. Easily. And so I would have made it just one time.

Brad: Yeah. I was wondering just how much you edited out of that part. Because it was bad. It was bad.

Brad: There were regrets, Myke. Oh, gosh. So, yeah. This is us talking about the tensions of this. And we had fun. We made up and made it through. And got it taken care of. But, yeah. Gosh. We failed in our own task of trying to make it easy on ourselves. So who knows what this will hold next year.

Myke: But I don't know if we're going to do another Lego. As I sit here right now, I'm not sure if we can do it. We might do something new. It might be time for something new anyway.

Brad: Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. It's just that we thought we were setting ourselves up for something that just is not possible anymore. It's a complicated thing. And it's fun. And it might be time to move on. So we're taking applications for future Penn Addict membership topics. So. All right, Myke. Let's. That was fun. We're going to talk about a lot of fun things the rest of this episode. But I want to talk about one. After this next thing. After this. I want to talk about one non-fun thing that you would be just as happy if we didn't have to discuss. I feel that I don't want to discuss it, but I feel we need to discuss it a little bit. And that is, of course, the new.

Myke: Let me just say, because I know what you're saying, but I don't want to get my. I get confusion. Just to my. I wish that we didn't have to talk about these things. Yes. Because they were things that didn't happen. Not that, like, I wish that we just wouldn't talk about this thing that has happened. Does that make sense? These are.

Brad: These are important things to discuss.

Myke: Absolutely ridiculous things that still seem to occur. But yet we find ourselves back in these situations again while we're talking about them.

Anti-Semitic Label Controversy

Brad: Yep. Agree. Thank you for that clarification. That is accurate. So, as you can tell, number one, this is going to be about the Noodlers issues from last week. And number two, as you can tell, I wrote down zero notes because I just want to talk about this and see what happens. So, Noodlers did a thing again last week. Really right when we were starting to record last week's episode, podcast episode, all this Noodlers stuff came out. And I think the best way to start this conversation off is to tell you how I found out about it. But before the podcast, I got an Instagram message said, hey, did you see this thing from Noodlers? And, you know, there's kind of a hubbub about it. And I went and looked, like, real quick, as you do in Instagram messages. And I said, yeah, we talked about this a few months ago. Nothing new. And we recorded our show. And then I looked at it afterwards. And I was like, oh, this is actually not the thing that I talked about. Like, I think I talked about it on stream when it happened earlier this year. A certain product label that the Noodlers, Noodly Man, decided to make, you know, caused a bit of a stir. And I thought this was that issue from a few months ago. Turns out, Noodly Man did it again. Noodly Man's a bigot. I'm just going to call it as it is. And he thinks he's some kind of edgelord putting these, what he deems as funny ha-ha labels out there that are actually grotesque, harmful, and bigoted.

Myke: It was an anti-Semitic image. Yes. That was as part of like a collage, one of the collage kind of labels that. Yeah. What's the guy's name?

Brad: Noodly guy? Yeah. Nathan Tardif.

Myke: That's it. That's like, that's the guy, Nathan, who runs Noodlers Inc. Yeah. Seems to, you know, it's like this culture now, like you see it, like it comes from Elon Musk, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. It's like this, this like, oh, I'm just saying funny things. Right. And here's the thing, like, you know, free speech, right? You can do that if you want to. Yeah. Absolutely. You can't then expect everybody's going to go along with you. Right. And that seems to ultimately have been what happened here.

Brad: Right. So this was a new label on a new product he released.

Brad: Extremely, clearly anti-Semitic tropes. And the biggest thing that I will repeat several times during this conversation, it is not new.

Myke: This is not a new experience. That we were talking about. So I'll say, I honestly do not remember this the first time. I don't know if we ever spoke about this on the show, Brad, because I have zero memory of it. We didn't.

Brad: I thought about it. I talked about it on stream.

Myke: Okay. And so like, apparently there'd been something in the past where an image, there was like connotations of anti-Semitism in the image that he used. And he claimed to be unaware of this. And I, as a person who makes things online, I find myself in these situations where I say something that I don't know the connotations of that thing. Right. But then when people tell you, you apologize, you learn, and you don't do it again. Right. Right. Like that's, and like, it's not that you never make mistakes again. Right. Right. Because I make mistakes all the time. Correct. I like to feel like I don't make the same mistake multiple times. And if you seem to have, like, by your omission, stumbled upon an anti-Semitic image and chose to use that on your product label, you should be more smart about the images that you don't know the connotations to later on.

Brad: Right? Right. Right. And Noodle Guy is not that smart. He is, he knows exactly what he's doing. He is choosing these images purposefully. And he is showing his, his just completely wild mindset that is fueled by hate and fueled by disrespect. And I, I guarantee knowing these types of people, like he thinks this is fun and funny, but guess what, Myke, this time it really hurt his business. So, we get the business PR apology, which I don't believe a word of. This has been the most impactful pushback on Noodlers in like probably the past decade. He's been doing this type of stuff for this long. Right. This is not new. But the challenge that we have as a community is there's always new people coming into the fountain pen community. Right. Like Noodlers is, has been on my no shop list for, I can't tell you how long, five, six, seven, eight, ten years maybe. Because I just don't like the guy. He, he's just not a good person. He's not someone I want to associate myself with. He's not someone whose products I want to support because his belief system is so flawed and just shows a complete lack of empathy and awareness to humanity. Like he is just one of those types of people. So, I don't support him. And that's been going on for years. But there's new people that are just, that have kind of, Noodlers has always been kind of like this gateway product, especially with inks. They have a big, a big footprint in our industry, if you will, on the ink side of things. And a lot of people are familiar with the brand and they find something they like and they want people, as a habit, continue to want to buy the things that they like. This time it, it impacted the bottom line in a big way. Pretty clearly there were, you know, apologies, air quote. Like we're not going to link to any of this stuff. Y'all can go find it on Instagram. I implored no one to read the comments, never read the comments. But it's just, it's just a mess. So, given all that and given, you know, my opinion of the Noodle Guy, I think the conversation needs to be focused now on how do us as consumers continue to, you know, shop, support businesses that carry products that we disagree with. And things of that nature. And from my perspective, what I want personally doesn't really match up with the reality of the situation. What I want after Wednesday is for Noodlers to, no one to, like every vendor and retailer to stop carrying the brand, right?

Myke: By or large, they have, right?

Retailer Dilemmas

Brad: It depends. So, we're going to, there's some nuance there. So, like what I want is honestly, like I understand that that's also not realistic. Like I'm not going to completely bag on any retailer for continuing to carry Noodlers for the time being. Because there's a lot more that goes into that, right? Into that decision then, hey, my customer, you know, may no longer support this brand, may no longer buy this brand. But like these retailers have inventory. Most of these retailers are smaller businesses. These smaller businesses have payrolls to meet and they can't just, you know, throw the ink in the trash. Like my two bottles of Noodlers doesn't impact me. It impacts real businesses with real bottom lines and real responsibilities to themselves and to their employees. So, I'm not going to really like get into each individual retailer's decision. But the way I see it as a business person myself, I also have a moral code, right? And it's easier for me because I'm a single employee to apply my morals to a very clean black and white decision, right? Like I don't like Noodle Guy. He is a bigot. Therefore, I will not support him. A retailer that's carried this brand for a decade has a different set of questions that they are having to ask themselves. How do I continue? Do I continue to support this person? Do I continue to allow these products to be sold? How does my choice to carry this brand affect my relationship with the upline distributor, right? And this could go for any brand, right? I'm not singling out like Noodlers or any particular retailer or any particular distributor, right? It's not a singular decision like me, Brad, can make that vendor X has to make against the choice of either stopping and carrying the products, continuing to carry the products until they sell them through, making any kind of statements on the products, things like that. My only question for retailers is, is it worth it in the end to continue to carry the brand? And the first one is, well, the first reply to that is, well, they must make them a lot of money if they continue to carry the brand. Aside the fact that I wouldn't be making decisions based on money, I'd prefer decisions to be made around morals. How much money can they really be making? If Noodlers is the number one ink seller for the biggest retailer in the world, what is that percentage of sales? Do you think?

Myke: I mean, how many inks do they carry, would you say? Right. How many brands?

Brad: If they're the biggest pen retailer in the world, they carry a lot of brands. And if Noodlers is the number one ink brand of all the brands that they carry, to the bottom line, how much is Noodlers? My argument, and I mentioned this to you, my argument that it is not more than 1%, right? It just defies logic that it's more than 1%, 2%.

Myke: Because I would assume from all the things that could contribute towards a large part of a brand's bottom line in the pen world, ink isn't it, right? Right. Because ink is much cheaper than other products, especially for higher-end distributors. Right. So, will I compromise? Well, I mean, but this is the thing. But what if it isn't, though? Right? Like, I know what you're saying here, but, like, I don't know what the wholesale price is like on ink. For all I know, it's the largest profit margin that a retailer has.

Brad: Even if it's a huge profit margin, just, you mentioned just a second ago, the scale of a low dollar amount, even if you're making 100% on a bottle, like, say you buy it for $8 and you sell it for $16 and you're making 100%. That 100% still, I would argue, accounts for a very fractional percentage of any business's total bottom line. Yeah. So, where does the moral decision come in?

Myke: If I could add some context to this, a little bit from my perspective. Mm-hmm. This is kind of the price of doing business today. Yes. Like, you know, we have had sponsors that have done things that aren't great, but we stand by them for whatever reason because we think it's, like, okay or whatever. Or we accept their explanation for it or whatever, as long as we feel like, you know, there's, this is all taken care of. Right. We've worked with companies that some of our listeners don't like their product, but some do, right? So, you get, you know, like, oh, I don't like this kind of thing. Why do you do that? Like, for example, one of the ones that, like, we work with Capital One on some of our shows, and it's about their kind of technology, kind of like a recruitment-y kind of message. But some people just don't like that credit cards exist in the world, right? Sure. Like, for that, for me, it's like that doesn't pass my test. But then we have companies that they do something bad or, like, they go in a direction which is really uncertain. And we've had to cancel big deals, right? Mm-hmm. Sure. Or turn down, like, large renewals. Like, because if we were to continue, it would sour the taste of listeners to us. Yeah. This is the cost of doing business in today's world, where, like, consumers have choice, but consumers are also very vocal. Mm-hmm. And you have to understand that. Like, people, like, principle is now, like, people's principles is now, like, a much stronger thing than ever before in the things that they choose to support. Mm-hmm. And so, you kind of have to understand that if you're in a business where you are selling anything to anyone. Right. You are beholden to your customer more now, I think, than you have been before. Right. So, if your customer says, like, I don't want you to stock this. You should not do that. You have to consider it. Like, you have to consider it. And, yeah, you might have a loss. Right. But that's just what it's like now. Like, and I don't... You know, it's complicated. When things are being thrown at me, I can, like, get upset and be like, oh, why are people going to be this way? But also, I understand, like, I understand why people are like that. It's good that people talk about the things that they don't want. Mm-hmm. Because then you know as well, right? Like, if people didn't tell us, they would just stop listening and I wouldn't know why. But this is a complicated thing to handle. Yeah.

Brad: As simple as I want the retail decision to be or the distributor's decision to be to say, hey, get rid of this fool. It's not that simple. And I do understand that. And that's where some of the angst for me personally comes in to where I can make a very clean black and white decision.

Myke: It's easy for you to sit there and say it, right? Because you've got nothing on the line.

Brad: Right. So, I just want people to understand that these retailers and distributors have bigger stakes that they think about than just, you know, let's just fire this brand off into the sun.

Myke: And it is more complicated than what I'm talking about too. Right. Because, you know, we can sell our sponsors if we work hard at it. But the stock issue is the problem. Right. Yeah. That, you know, you've paid for this stock maybe depending on what your deal is. Right. If you're just sitting on that, I don't know what you do with it.

Brad: Yeah, yeah. So, you know, sometimes like I'm wondering like is it just a write-off? Like how much are we talking about? Like it's in some cases it's a lot. So, it's a bigger decision than my individual decisions. Like my individual decision, you know, a long time ago was, you know, fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on you. Noodler's into like fool me a couple dozen times. And there is no redeeming value of this brand in my eyes. But that's a personal statement, a personal perspective that I have from seeing this for a long time. Seeing the people that Noodler guy actively hurts. Actively hurts my friends. And I will not stand for that. But my individual consumer decisions are a much different calculus than retail and distributor decisions. So, you know, I do preach patience with that a little bit. It's not an easy situation for a lot of these companies to be put in. But it's, you know, again, you know, it's a moral stance from me personally. This is my morals align a certain way. And that means like this company is pretty much does not exist to me. So, I hate seeing it continue to creep up and continue to affect other people. And the hate from Noodler guy affecting my friends negatively. It really impacts me on a personal level. So, yeah, that's kind of my thoughts on this. You know, we could spend an hour like breaking down like all the business decisions and all of this. But that's my personal stance. If you have thoughts on that, feel free to email me. Hello at penannic.com. But, yeah, I hate seeing a brand like this detract from what is generally one of the most amazing communities on the Internet. And they are not one of us, in my opinion. They are an outlier and a hate monger. And I'm just not going to stand for anything that Noodlers does. And that's it. All right, you got a segue for this?

Myke: No, let's just talk about the next thing.

Brad: Let's put on our shades, Myke. I just threw some shades. Let's put on our shades. How about some Kaweco sunglasses, Myke? I know when I saw this, I looked at my calendar and said, Hey, Brad, is it April 1st? Is it April 1st?

Myke: Who is Michael?

Brad: Michael Guprele. Oh, my God. The man who torches your fire blue fountain pens, Myke. Why is he not melting these things? You know what I'm saying?

Brad: Clearly, you have not gotten the images that I have of, oh, there it is, last image in the thing. That's Michael Guprele. No, I see it, but it's like, why just Michael?

Myke: It's not like Prince.

Brad: You know? What is he going to do? Michael G?

Myke: Yeah.

Brad: Kenny G.

Myke: Sure.

Brad: Oh, my gosh. So, Kaweco is selling sunglasses, 149 euro, made or in collaboration with Kaweco collector and CEO, Michael Guprele. See the world from Michael's point of view. With the limited sunglasses designed by the passionate Kaweco collector and CEO, Michael Guprele, you become part of the Kaweco family. The stylish and timeless design of the hour model ideally takes you through sunny days. I need some sunny days in my life after that previous segment. So, I'm just going to abstain from putting on some glasses so I can continue to bathe in the glorious sunlight that I need. And if I did need sunglasses, Myke, they're not going to be Kaweco branded on both sides of my head. I don't need Penn Company branded eyewear, especially premium eyewear. Swag eyewear, you're going to throw me in a bag that, you know, we can post on Instagram and joke about. Knock yourself out. 149 euro fancy eyewear with Kaweco on it. Hard pass. These are soon, these are getting ready to be your five-year anniversary gift at Kaweco for working because I don't know. I don't know what's happening here. They're about to be gift with purchase. This is, this is a lot of self-importance happening. I get it. It's supposed to be fun. Do your thing, you know what I mean? Like, if that's what you want to do, do your thing.

Myke: But it's all just very funny to me.

Brad: Yeah, so I got that in my, in my inbox yesterday, I think. And I was like, what did I really, I was like, April 1st? It's not April 1st. And this is a real product by Kaweco. We're going to talk about someone in a minute after our sponsor who does do some really special creative things that we're going to have some thoughts on. Multiple products. But first, I want to talk about a product that you and I have, a product that I love specifically. And that's the Le Volani from our good friends at Canalea Pen Co.

Myke: Canalea Pen Co. Makes stunningly beautiful pens that are inspired by images of Hawaii. Canalea's founders, wonderful people, Hugh and Carol, believe that these locations can help recharge our spirit and help us connect with nature. And they actually bring that spirit, that visual, to a beautiful product that you can hold in your hands. The execution is really what sets Canalea pens apart from what you might find elsewhere. Every single Canalea pen is handmade. In a process that means no two pens will ever look alike. And when you buy them, you know, they come to you perfectly tuned. Hugh smooths and tunes every single nib himself before it leaves Canalea's shop so that it's going to write beautifully straight out of their lovely black walnut keepsake box. Canalea fountain pens feature Yoha No. 6 nibs. You can buy steel or 18 karat gold nibs directly from Canalea. They offer sizes from extra fine to 1.1mm stub. Today I want to remind you about the, as Brad mentioned, the new Le Volani collection from Canalea. This design represents the sky at night in Kauai with its deep, beautiful dark blue with vibrant stars and a visible shimmer of the Milky Way. That's not just the image that they use. That's what the pen looks like. It really is incredible. The Le Volani collection consists of the fountain pen offered in five styles. They have a ballpoint and also the return of the Mailele band, which is a wonderful option made of Argentium silver, adorning Canalea's classic fountain pen profile. Canalea also now offer medallions and clips made from Argentium silver too, so you can add that little bit extra to this beautiful new pen. We got tons of great reports from Hugh and Carol about the energy of the Chicago pen show. They were just at last week or a couple weeks ago, and they were showing off the Le Volani to people that were there. They actually told us that many pen addict listeners were there checking out the new collection because they'd heard about it on the show. Nice. I also want to just thank pen addict listeners who let Hugh and Carol know that they heard about it from us. I think that's really great. Talking about pen shows, the next show that Canalea will attend is the St. Louis Pen Show from June 24th to 26th. This is the first time they are attending this show, and to celebrate, they have an awesome surprise for those that will be attending. We'll be telling you more about this episode on June 15th, so stay tuned. But this is one of these things that Canalea very rarely tell us things in advance. They have told us what this is, and I am so excited for the people that are going to be at that show and incredibly jealous for them. So you'll hear more about this in a few weeks' time.

Brad: Yeah, both of us. We get individual content packages from Canalea, and this was something I was like, did you get the thing that I got? And he's like, yeah, I got the thing that you got.

Myke: I'm really excited for what this will mean for their pen show there at St. Louis. As a reminder, every purchase from the new Le Volani collection, Canalea is also giving back to conservation funds and community programs in Kauai and the North Shore community. So go and see these wonderful products for yourself, including the new Le Volani collection at CanaleaPenco.com. That's K-A-N-I-L-E-A-P-E-N-C-O.com. Just find the link in the show notes. That's CanaleaPenco.com to choose your aloha today. Our thanks to the Canalea Penco for the support of this show.

Brad: Myke, I am so excited to talk about these next few topics. Okay. I want you to lead the first one.

Montegrappa F1 Speed Limited Edition

Myke: I feel like I've seen this before. Have you? The Montegrappa F1 Speed Limited Edition. I've seen the red one before.

Brad: That's what threw me off. So when I saw this pop up in my feed, I didn't see the red one. Right. Because I thought we'd seen this before. They had the black one, and I think the black one's new.

Myke: The black one is new. Yeah, it's the 2022 one.

Brad: So it's the follow-up. I wonder, do they do one every six years when the regulations change? Is the racing red model different in style from the podium?

Myke: I can give you all the answers. I have all the answers for you. Thank you. Thank you. The F1 collaborated with Montegrappa in 2020 as part of the F1 70. So in the 2020 season, I don't know how aware you are of this. It was the 70th anniversary of Formula One. So they partnered with Montegrappa, and they made a Formula One-themed pen. Carbon fiber, red and black, and all that kind of stuff. Now, this year, they have made a new one, which is they're called Podium Black, a high-gloss black lacquer finish. One of the things that I really like about this pen is that they have an exhaust on the end of it, which is heat-treated.

Brad: I wonder if they hired Michael Gubrele for that. They could have. They contracted him for that. He's a very professional torchbearer. But I have faith in Montegrappa that they could pull off their own torching because they make some of the wildest, most unique pens ever. And this is just a classic. I think the wheel is my favorite. The actual in the finial wheel of this. It's just really kind of neat. And, you know, on one hand, I hate everything about this pen. I hate the way this pen looks with a fiery passion. It's so ugly. On the other hand, it's like, okay, I see you, Montegrappa. This is what Montegrappa does the best, right? Yeah. They take the premium thing and take it over the top, right? It is over the top. And I just wanted to be sure to share this latest edition. So this is the newest edition. Even though the pen is the same silhouette, there are different features in the podium black model from the racing red model. So it's quite the looker. And you can take that every which way you want.

Myke: I want someone to get a Formula One license and make a pen for every team. But they look good.

Brad: That seems like an ST DuPont thing that they could pull it off. They've done not really like team branded stuff. But they are another one like Montegrappa that they will have the high end licenses. You know, like they'll pay for like a Star Wars license and do a really special high end thing.

Myke: Because obviously like that is what I've asked for is unrealistic because nobody has the ability to give you the license to every team. Like Formula One doesn't have that. Like Montegrappa has got Formula One. They haven't got McLaren and Mercedes and Ferrari. You know, like blah, blah, blah, blah, right?

Brad: Yeah. Like just the Ferrari license would be outrageous, right? Like and then you have to get all 10. It would be extreme. But you're also, you know, marketing these pens to a customer that could probably afford it if you look at the Miami race and the prices of things there. This is the marketing. So I appreciate this pen while simultaneously disliking literally everything about it. Totally fine. But yeah, that's what Montegrappa does best. So they do some wild stuff. This one, Myke, I'm going to tackle because I'm not sure even you really care to appreciate what's going on here. And this is the Cinderella slipper glass pen from Bungu Box that I got in my email.

Myke: So you hit the wooden. You put these links in the show notes and I looked at them.

Myke: The words that you have put in the show notes do not match my feeling for what this is. So I want to hear what you have to say.

Brad: I want to be very clear. I have no desire to own a product like this. This is a high-end, ultra-premium glass-dip nib pen. And the reason why I'm putting this in because, you know, listening to Jacob and CY on Tokyo Inklings podcast, they've talked for, I don't know, over the past year or two that one of the hottest items in Japan were not simply glass-dip nib pens, but very specifically made, expensive, custom, unique glass nib pens. And this is, you know, a $200-plus glass-dip nib pen. And it's stunning. Like, this looks like a $200 glass-dip nib pen, right? It looks, you know, almost handmade from start to finish. It's got some really unique features. It has a lot of craftsmanship that went into it. You know, this is not a product I ever have any desire to own by any stretch of the imagination.

Myke: I don't understand why this is Cinderella. Cinderella.

Brad: Yeah, I guess it's just unique kind of. Yeah, so it says, I don't know, it's glittery and blue and, you know, it's a magic story. You know, it says, there was once a girl covered in soot, and as soon as a magical spell was cast on her, she was transformed into the most beautiful green-blue glass slipper. So we have captured this magical story in a glass pen. So, you know, it's, you know, theoretical.

Myke: Sure, it's like, you know, the story you tell is whatever it is, right?

Brad: It is, it is. But in collaboration, Myke, which really seals the story, and this is the product I'm the most excited about.

Myke: This makes sense to me, what they're trying to do here. There is. It's the Cinderella-ness of this next part.

Brad: Yep. There is a Cinderella slipper silver ink bottle cap ornament that fits these specific bottles that Bungo Box makes for their sailor inks.

Myke: I love that it's not actually, you don't actually get the bottle. It's just the add-on. It's just a little metal part, a little crown that goes on top, basically.

Brad: Yeah, it's, this is the storytelling tying everything together, right? So we have the pen, and it's individual, and the pen is telling a story. But you need the ink to, to match with that. And there's, you know, we've had, you know, different, different ink bottles, and Bungo Box always kind of collaborating, you know, a product with, you know, a pen and an ink kind of together. This one takes it even further, and it is an accessory for your ink bottle. And I think it's beautiful. Like, I would never use this. I would never want this. Like, it wouldn't be, for me, it wouldn't be money well spent, right? Because I wouldn't, like, get the joy of seeing that sitting on my desk using my Cinderella glass pen in the same ink bottle with the glass zipper ornament. But I like this. Like, unlike the Montegrappa before, it's like, I like this a lot. And I think, like, in the market that Jacob and CY were talking about, and the prevalence of this type of product with the glass-tip nib pen, I mean, who better than to be on the cusp of that than Bungo Box? And I appreciate, like, literally all of this from the pen all the way down to the bottle cap.

Myke: And I just think it's fantastic. For me, so the little cap is like a little crown thing, kind of looks like a building. It's kind of cute. And it's got a slipper on top, but the slipper's not glass.

Brad: True, true. I didn't think about that, but, you know. Yeah, makes sense. I see what you're getting at there. I see what you're getting at there. I feel you. Yeah. So, anyway, it is definitely more of a monopoly piece.

Myke: This is for a specific type of person that's not me. And I'm fine with that. And I don't think everything needs to be for me. Exactly.

Brad: Exactly. I was just completely taken aback by this whole thing in a respect kind of way. Oh, yeah. Big, big respect for you, Bungo Box, for making this. It's stunning. For this customer, they will be, you know, just like we would fawn over certain pens. Like, this is a thing that people will jump through hoops to acquire and to cap it off with a literal bottle cap. I think it's just so smart in the silliest kind of way. Yep. Appreciate the commitment. Related to all things Japanese, Jacob, who I just mentioned with Tokyo Inklings, he followed up on kind of a topic that we've mentioned that he mentioned before. So, this is just a big, big circle of friends here. About the different colors of the Pilot Custom 912, which is the drum that I've banged for years. Like, hey, Pilot, give me more 912 options. I think this is your platform pen, and I think it should be available in more than just black and rhodium trim. So, they came out, or we got the news, I don't know, really not that long ago, earlier this year, that there was, you know, some different barrel colors. Some translucent blue, green, and red barrel colors for the Pilot 912. And the interesting thing about those is they only came with basic nib options. And one of the reasons I want the 912 to continue to grow and expand and gain in popularity is because they actually have quite a few of, you know, really interesting nib options, you know, outside of just like a fine, a medium, you know, or a broad, you know. The 912 fits Pilot's Falcon nib, and it fits the stub nib, which is not a normal thing that they sell. And it fits all of these different kinds of nibs. And it looks like for this model, the Pilot Neo Classic 912 in blue, you can get, how many nibs is this? 15. One, 15, thank you. 15 different nib choices for this pen. And I'm like, yes. Like, is this really happening, right? Again, like, this is not the pen for me, but it gives me hope that one day I'm going to see an expansion of the 912 lineup to retailers, not specialty shops or, you know, one-off limited editions. That Pilot will expand the 912 lineup universally, not only with interesting barrel colors, but the availability of 15 different nib choices in a single pen platform and still be at an awesome price point, like under $300. Like, the Pilot 912 is just a classic great value pen. Like, it's by no means inexpensive, but for what it is and what you get, like, I think it's fairly priced and a good deal. And I just feel that this is the model that I want to see Pilot lean into the most. And they've done it here. And this link we'll share in the show notes that Jacob and CY shared on Tokyo Inklings is to a company, Pinto Note, that will ship to the U.S. So if this is something that you're interested in, like, I'm willing to hold off for a while and see what continues to happen here as Pilot expands, hopefully expands this. Like, I'm going to bet on them doing more. So I'm going to wait on this. But I absolutely, I'm through the moon with this decision by Pilot to do this for this model of the 912.

Myke: Through the moon.

Brad: Yeah. That was a couple of mixed metaphors there, right? You're over the moon and through the roof. Through the roof. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. That's how excited I am, Myke. Over the roof and through the moon. I cannot even metaphor correctly. That's how excited I am. So, and I'm assuming you just share my excitement.

Scribe Inks and Esterbrook Cosmic Wine SD

Myke: I wish I understood what all of these meant. Yeah. Right. That's my issue. There's a chart. There's a, yes, but the chart is an image. So I can't try and translate the chart. I can translate all of the text. Like, so I can get, like, rough translations of the names of the nibs. Right. Right. I don't actually know what it means. so like I can get a translation that tells me that the MS nib is music or the C is special bold or what about WA which is translated as Waverly right like I don't know what that means

Brad: so yeah it's like yeah you'd have to go you know I'd have to go do some additional work you know like Waverly is a little bit of a turned up nib SU is stub

Myke: I just don't like the 912 I want to see this on a different pen yep I'm with you

Brad: but I'm ecstatic and I just hope this is again something that is the beginning of a bigger longer term trend with the 912 because I have been beating that drum forever alright next up the Parker Penman Sapphire Myke is one of the most famous inks in fountain pen lore it was a ink made by Parker I want to say early 2000s late 90s early 2000s that was a color that quickly became everyone's favorite right up until it destroyed their pens so there is always been it's always been held up as one of the greatest inks ever made except for that part the destruction part right everyone liked the color and like the depth of the ink the shading of the ink everything about that ink was kind of everyone's favorite blue and ever since that ink went away two things happened one people hoarded that ink and started charging ultra premium prices for it you know because it was rare and sought after now and two companies have tried to replicate that what if I told you the person who made the original Parker Penman Sapphire is now making their own copycat inks that look similar behave similar similar but won't destroy your pens and that is what the guest post I had on the pen addict on Monday by our friend Michael Harris Michael if you didn't put two and two together Michael is one of the two people behind the pen addict annual survey along with Catherine Palmisano this is the the other half of that glorious pairing to get us our survey data so Michael wrote this guest post because he has interviewed the chemist behind this and gone through all of the Parker original Parker Penman inks and the new scribe or new-ish scribe inks that were designed to match and this I know this isn't necessarily up your alley nor is it up mine to be perfectly honest but I think the idea behind this that we have someone involved with one of the most famous fountain pen inks ever trying to duplicate that in a more healthy fashion and doing it on their own I think is pretty neat and I wanted to make sure that people share people saw this article and shared it because I think it's just kind of the cool stuff that we can get in this community to where we have this creativity and this desire to make something that everyone loved but is no longer available and I thought Michael did a really great job so I wanted to give him a special shout out for this and this is something that I think a lot of people have enjoyed and I wanted you and everyone else listening to enjoy it as well

Myke: it's good to know it's out yeah

Brad: so I knew of this I knew of these scribe inks I didn't know that they had made tried to make a match for all of the penman series that happened so it's Parker Penman Sapphire is kind of like this one standalone standout ink but there was actually a lineup of I think eight inks but this is it's one of those things where 90% of the volume was probably the blue and then 10% comprised like the seven other colors right it was the Parker Penman Sapphire was the entirety of this ink lineup but there is a whole range of inks they look very very similar to the originals as you would hope they would with the original chemists being involved in trying to work on making a more sustainable less damaging ink that is still just as beautiful as the original so I thought that was a great a great post and I wanted to make sure to share it and give Michael a shout out and thanks for doing that because I learned a lot just from reading and reading and posting that

Myke: this episode is brought to you by pen chalet they sell the products you're looking for from the brands you love whether you're looking for an amazing rollerball a perfect new fountain pen maybe you want a mechanical pencil maybe you want a carrying case or a pen holder maybe you want some refills some fountain pen converters all the accessories that you're looking for are over at pen chalet they're always adding new styles of pens and new products every single month you'll find new things being added so you get to keep your eye on it because also they're running special discounts every couple of weeks you're going to find closed out specials and new deals over at pen chalet but you get even more special better ones for being a pen addict listener but before I tell you about those let me tell you about their wonderful pricing and guarantees pen chalet has low prices on high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee for their products they want you to be happy they sell internationally with great shipping rates but if you're in the US they do free shipping on orders of over $50 which surely is easy to hit go to penchalet.com that's p-e-n-c-h-a-l-e-t !com click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password pen addict for this week's special offer and to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything anytime over at penchalet now Brad Ron told me he was putting some special stuff up this time

Brad: yeah can I can I before we get to that can I tell you about the esterbrook cosmic wine SD that I just happened to see yes I just

Myke: saw it too I'm like hang on a minute

Brad: what are you yeah that caught my eye too Myke you could say I'm through the moon on that one too

Myke: I mean all I'll say genuinely reminds me of my the galaxy 3776 that I have

Brad: yep yep exactly it's a really it's a really great

Myke: stunning pen for a fantastic price

Brad: yeah I hadn't seen that I hadn't seen that before so what Ron snuck in here which I think I see what he did here he's got some sneaky pelican stuff in here that you shouldn't be able to to this is not your normal pelican sale right so this is your pelican special edition golden barrel this is your pelican suveron black with red stripes this is like your elite tier one pelican stuff that you want to check out you want to get in here browse around this page and you know aside from you know the great fountain pens like these pelicans the always popular for me Karen Dash 849 claim your style ball points in there Myke you know there's just some really really cool stuff as you scroll down there's a retro 51 in there which you rarely see happening there's even a set of pelican rollerballs which I have not noticed before so this is a great great lineup featuring several really really interesting and neat pelican pens so thank you Ron for hooking us up supporting this podcast and taking care of our listeners I appreciate it

Myke: so that's penshalet.com click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict our thanks to Penn Chalet for the continued support of this show and Relay FM

Brad: are we actually going to answer some Ask TPA

Myke: we're going to do a couple yeah and this was mainly because I kind of lost track of the show should have done another ad about 15 minutes ago but here we are so we're going to finish out with some Ask TPA today

Brad: all right let's do

Capsule Technologies in Fountain Pens

Myke: it Fibber asks aside from Platinum's capsule tech are there other capsule technologies for fountain pens I noticed that the Bic grip had an inner cap to seal the rollerball vents for the outer cap

Brad: I don't know of anything offhand outside of anyone trying to mimic Platinum's technology right other companies have put these little kind of cup and seal mechanisms in there I can't think of another one off the top of my head but I've definitely used pens to where they will do it not as nice as Platinum has done it and try to have this insert when you put the pin into the cap tightens against the seal of the cap to the barrel to help seal off the nib from airflow I don't know that any of them are special enough or interesting enough that beat what Platinum's done I'd be interested to know what other people think at one point probably two years ago Myke I don't know if you recall this there was a Kickstarter where you could have liquid humidity in the cap created do you remember this conversation there was a cap with actual liquid in there which like I understand the idea but I don't understand the desire for people to want it I don't understand the marketability for that product right is like I get what you're saying that this might technically work I also do not want this anywhere near my fountain pen nip right I just do not want this so that was interesting I don't think it was necessarily useful or compelling decision making so outside of that just from like a cap seal technology Platinum obviously clearly does it very very well they stand they put that at the forefront of a lot of their marketing for good reason and I can't think of anyone else who hasn't who has done anything interesting and if they have they've done it kind of as an afterthought like yeah this might work like if you jam this cap thing in there and you seal it off and like that's gonna be good but they're not gonna they're not gonna lead their marketing with this kind of like afterthought Platinum Copycat deal that is probably the only thing I've seen before

Myke: and I guess you can't go too heavy on it because then you're clearly copying Platinums which I'm sure are patented technology

Brad: yeah so the the key that what Platinum has solved that the other implementations of this that I've seen haven't is the small size of it it does not get in the way at all it's barely noticeable and the other ones have that I've seen are very kind of clunky type of type of mechanisms in the cap that look like outliers where Platinum Platinum is completely built in almost seamlessly

Myke: yeah it's got the little spring in it I can see on my 3776 it's not I mean

Brad: people will argue that that's like visually poor right with the translucent pin in the spring in the top and like fair fair enough but no one else is doing that as well as they're doing

Myke: perspective the Platinum really do make a difference like they're good to go way more than my other pens are so it's a good technology and Chris asks have you ever figured out how to wipe a nib without smearing ink between the tines I love this question from Chris I think it's impossible you can't

Brad: do it yeah

Myke: just by the nature of how the technology works right like

Brad: yeah nor should you attempt to do it and I'm gonna tell Chris something that I think for most things is bad advice but for this one I think it's good advice and it's just to get over it you have to worry

Myke: about there being ink on the nib like if something's happened and it's like burped maybe you've got like a drop get that off there but you're just gonna smear the ink on the nib like there's no way around it like this is just how it lives

Brad: you know I think for life advice telling someone to get over anything is terrible advice I had to learn to get over having ink on my tines and just living with it and not and stop making it worse by using a paper towel or using a microfiber cloth or trying to wash it because it's even if you do the most amazing job give it five minutes of usage or cap the pen again it's coming back

Myke: you use a paper towel and then you get some fibers in the nib and then you're dealing with a whole lover it's not worth it aggravation it's just

Brad: not worth it yep so that's one of the things I learned a few things back when I was a new fountain pen user I had to get over that was number one is why is there ink here you know whether it was on the tines or with a translucent barrel pen and you put an ink cartridge in and you see it kind of go through the feed system is like why is all this ink inside my pen well it's supposed to be there and then also getting ink on my fingers like all of those things I had to get over and realize that that is part of the experience and there is no way to fix like getting the ink off off the nib or between the tines without just making it worse or just you know pushing pushing the rock up the hill right it's it's it's coming back down like eventually so you just have to learn to love it and enjoy the beautiful color ink on the outside of your nib because sometimes it's going to be

Myke: there if you would like to send in a question for us to answer on a future show just send out a tweet with the hashtag rstpa use question mark rstpa in the relay fm members discord or you can send them via email to hello at pen addict dot com in two weeks time we're going to have an episode where we're going to aim to just do rstpa but because of some scheduling stuff we are recording that one next week we're recording two episodes so what i'm saying is if you have a question send it in before next week's episode so it could be included in the one in two weeks time

Brad: yeah we have five pages of stpa that i'm still looking at right now no i'm saying for me we're long overdue getting this done and we can do more if we're doing a dedicated

Myke: show the problem is and the reason a lot of these haven't been answered is a lot of the questions we have are really long really long so they kind of need a dedicated time but similarly though i would like some shorter questions to also go into the episode two so it's not just like me talking constantly for 20 minutes and then you giving a one minute answer and then 20 minutes and be talking again you know

Brad: what i mean yep so if you have questions for us you want to get them in before next

Myke: wednesday which i mean of course time is relative we are talking about the 25th of may in the year 2022 you can always send them in though we're always answer them but just absolutely you know just a relative thing because there will be people listening to this in i bet 2032 and they're gonna be like oh

Brad: no by next week or or hey it's been 10 years they just got to my question that's that's

Myke: more likely that is more likely if you want to find brad online in the meantime go to at dowdy is on twitter at pen addict on instagram you can find brad streaming live on twitch over at twitch.tv slash pen addict three times a week you can find brad at pen addict dot com and spoke design dot com i'm at imike i-m-y-k-e and you can find what stuff that i'm working on over at cortexbrand.com and you can also find this show as part of relay fm where we have a ton of wonderful shows for you to check out shows about creativity and technology and we say creativity technology obsessiveness is that a thing the three words technology no it's creativity curiosity and obsessiveness i think that's it so like you know on our challenge coin we have like three things and that it's not technology it's creativity curiosity obsessive if

Brad: you keep this up you're gonna be through the moon so my challenge coin

Myke: kate's on the other desk that's the problem so my challenge coins over there uh i'm trying to find relay fm is an independent podcast network for people who are creative curious and maybe even a little obsessive just like its hosts that's it creativity curiosity obsessive that's that's the three anyway uh thanks so much to canalea pen co and penchillay for the support of this episode thank you for listening go check out our members episode relay dot fm membership as a piece of follow-up uh lisa suggested that you were right and i was wrong until next time say goodbye brad goodbye brad you