The Pen Addict 498/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	498
Title:	Caveats!
Release Date:	January 26th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 498
Audio File:	Audio Episode 498
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 498
Length:	6565 min <br />1.083 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 498. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, Ooni Pizza Ovens, and Trade. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad. Hey, Myke Hurley. How are you? I'm good, my friend. I'm very good. I'm excited. Excited? Why? Why are you excited? Because we're building up. We're nearly there. And we have a plan for episode 500. We actually have a plan. We said it couldn't be done. We actually have a plan.

Brad Dowdy: A plan. We have a plan for episode. It says it like that, exactly, do you think?

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, we have a plan. We're going to share that plan with y'all today. Hopefully you dig it. It's a simple plan, but I think it's a good plan, one I'm up for. But first, we need to cover some follow-up from last week.

Myke Hurley: Do we?

Brad Dowdy: Is there anything we need to cover from last week's episode?

Myke Hurley: Oh, certainly not from me.

Episode Plan

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah, me neither. All right. So let's talk about episode 500, Myke. All right, let's do it. Two weeks from now, episode 500. So I've been sweating this a lot, if y'all couldn't tell, being that we haven't had any, you know, real concrete answers on what we're going to do for episode 500. So I decided, like, the things that I don't like, right, are talking about myself, talking about how great the show is, you know, all of those things that, you know, getting people to call in to tell you their favorite thing about the show. Like, I get all that. Like, all of that's fun. I like hearing it for other shows. I hate putting myself. I hate putting myself in those shoes. So, and 500 episodes. It feels like, like, when we did episode 400 and 401, kind of the new starting point, that feels like yesterday to me still. I don't know why. I think they were just such good episodes, right? And they kind of had this good kind of stake in the ground type of bit. And so it's been two years since then. And we've obviously got some new things we can put in, maybe episode 800, you know, the new starting point. So I was trying to figure out what we could do to celebrate. And I think what I want to do and what I've set up for us to do is to get some listener involvement and hear from you, specifically, not what you think about the show. So, again, like, I don't need to hear, like, the love fest. Oh, I love the show. It puts me to sleep every night. We've done it enough times now. It's not a complaint, right? I appreciate it. Obviously, we love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Brad doesn't like talking about himself. I love talking about myself. But we've, you know, we've had a bunch of anniversaries on this show over the last, will be 10 years. 10 years, yeah. Yeah, we've had more than enough anniversaries. And we've spoken about this kind of stuff already. So now we're asking not for that, but to celebrate something else.

Brad Dowdy: What I want to do is take episode 500 and tell everyone that listens about everyone's favorite stationery. So I've created a form, a Google form, where you can tell me and Myke, what's your favorite stationery? What's your favorite pen, your favorite pencil? Why do you love it? Why is it special? And me and Myke are going to commit to reading all of those answers on episode 500.

Myke Hurley: Caveats! Hello, I'm Myke Hurley, and I'm here with caveats. Brad has, like, a very grand idea, which I mostly agree with. But I have a couple of things. So just write what you feel. I know it's a big question. So the question that we're asking you is, tell us about your favorite stationery item and what makes it so special. This could be in history. It could be now, right? And it could just be, like, something super simple. Maybe it's your favorite eraser, whatever. We just want to know what is your favorite piece of stationery and what makes it special to you. We will read all of them that are readable. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, that's my caveat.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm down with the caveats. There will be some editing if necessary. Yes. And we will read all of the answers that are fit to print, if you will.

Myke Hurley: And this is the thing. We are going to do all of it, no matter how long it takes.

Brad Dowdy: I made Myke commit to it. So, like, I don't know, are we going to get 10 replies? Are we going to get 100 replies? Are we going to get 200 replies? I don't know. But that's our commitment to you, is we're reading everybody's favorite stationery for everybody else who listens to the show. And that's what I want to do for episode 500. And I hope y'all are cool with that.

Myke Hurley: Which has made me think, I wonder if we should start that episode a bit early.

Myke Hurley: We could. We could. Should we do it an hour earlier? I'm just kidding, because I do two shows on Wednesdays, which is actually, it's pretty good because I was going to mention, you know, we do record this show live. And we record it live every single week, usually at 10 a.m. Eastern time. But we'll record this one an hour earlier. So, yeah, we'll confirm that next week, but that should be fine. Yeah. So this would be the plan. It'll be February 9th is the recording of the episode and should be now at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern time, 2 p.m. GMT. You can listen. If you're a RelayFM member, you can listen in the RelayFM members Discord and there's a live chat there. Or you can go to RelayFM live and you can listen along live, too. Just in case you want to hang out with us that day, because it's going to be a special day. Because just as a reminder, the reason why this episode is triple special for us, I guess, because episode 500 records on the exact 10 year anniversary of this show. So we recorded episode one on February 9th, 2012. So that's why we wanted to do it all. And we have spoke about it a bunch of times, but making it all kind of match up. And so, yeah, we're going to be recording and we want your involvements. If you go to the show notes, which you can find in your podcast app or at RelayFM slash PenAddict slash 498, you'll find a link to a questionnaire there called the PenAddict episode 500 questionnaire. Click it. Give us your name. It can be however you want your name said on the show and your answer to the question. We will remind everybody next week. But obviously, you know, you have to get your answer in before the episode begins.

Brad Dowdy: You have two weeks. You have two weeks.

Myke Hurley: So I would say February 8th is probably your likely deadline. Right. If you want to make sure you're on the episode, get the answer in before February 8th.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'll be doing like a general audit the day before at least. So get your answers in. I will put it on the blog as well so we can bury Myke's time frame that day as long as we can. And who knows? Maybe it's a two-parter, Myke. Maybe we have to go to episode 501. That'd be fun. But yeah, I think it'll be fun. That's why I'm giving us the extra time. All right. I think we can do it. We can do it. All right. Another thing I can do, Myke, is sell out of everything I have for NotCo as I wind it down this year. I put out the inventory update yesterday and it is almost gone. Okay. So it's been good. Everyone has been waiting for this last inventory update. If you are not on the NotCo newsletter, I'm sorry. That's where it was announced. But there's still stuff available. So go check it out before it's gone. I tried to get almost everything in there that I could. And who knows? When I'm done shipping this, there will not be a big inventory push. There might be a few things left over that maybe I'll take to the Atlanta Pen Show. We'll do an Atlanta Pen Show episode coming up soon and give you at least my plans on that. I don't know if Myke and I are going to do anything for that yet. We haven't even discussed it. Is there one? There is one and I have told Jimmy that I will be there and give me my regular tables. But to be determined, things change every day. So I'm not guaranteeing anything.

Myke Hurley: When is it?

Brad Dowdy: First weekend in April, I believe. I don't have the date in front of me. That's why I said we'll kind of go over that, the dates and times, if it's looking like it's a go. There's no Kickstarter campaign still this year. No, no, no. We're not doing anything like that. So Myke might not even travel for this one. It might just be like a little party.

Travel Uncertainty

Myke Hurley: Well, there's no campaign for Atlanta. Who knows what the rest of the year may hold. Yeah, exactly. But there won't be a campaign for Atlanta.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, it's even hard for me to talk about travel stuff right now just because it's literally minute to minute up in the air type of stuff. So I have no idea. But I'm planning on it if everything's okay. So who knows? Who knows? So that's the last big update. We did, I don't know, the first time we did almost a thousand orders. This time it's already been like almost half of that, which is about what I estimated once I put the inventory in. So yeah, a lot of stuff, a lot of shipping ahead of me again, which is cool. Like I'm ready to, you know, move on and we'll see what happens next. Once I get done with this, then we'll decide, you know, am I going to keep a couple of things one-off wise, you know, and sell them through the pen out of shop or what exactly is going to transpire. I don't have any concrete thoughts on that right now. So we'll take this first quarter of the year to get it all wound down and then we'll decide from there.

Myke Hurley: All right, let's take our first break and thank our friends over at Pen Chalet for the support of this week's episode. Pen Chalet sell authentic, amazing, rollable fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, ink, carrying cases, refills, converters, everything you're looking for. Limited edition pens and their accessories from your favorite brands. They have very fast and reliable customer service. Pen Chalet are adding new products every single week and they're also doing discounts as well. You're going to find stuff being added in all the time over at Pen Chalet. There's always something new to go and look at. They're also bringing in more and more stuff over time. What's great about Pen Chalet is if you're in the US, you get free shipping on orders of over $50, which is very easy to achieve. They also do international shipping with great shipping rates as well. And Pen Chalet has low prices and high quality pens and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on everything sold at Pen Chalet. So take yourself right now to PenCalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. And click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password Pen Addict for this week's special offer and to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet.

Brad Dowdy: What have we got, Brad? Two separate things. So we will get to our specials page in a minute. But Pen Chalet just launched their next Leonardo Memento Zero special editions with Brooks barrels.

Myke Hurley: Look at that. Wow.

Brad Dowdy: These look good. Yeah. I just noticed these Monday. I don't know how long they've been up. I think they just came up. So there's four different like barrel section colors with different cap and finial finishes. They're all black caps and finials, but some are gold, some are matte, some are shiny. So it's a really cool mix and match with the barrel colors kind of to feature, you know, the colors and match the colors of the barrel. So check those out.

Myke Hurley: I think I kind of like the black cap and black finial with this. I think it's like modernizing a classic style.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So I have one of their original. Pen Chalet did a batch early on with Leonardo. And it's kind of this turquoise barrel, but with a matte black and silver hardware cap and finial. And it's just it's fantastic. And I think it might even have a black nib. I'd have to look at it. But yeah, it's it's really cool. They do a great job. And these are some some neat barrel colors that are are just really cool.

Myke Hurley: They do have a they have a ruthenium nib on the Mother of Pearl edition. So they have different color nibs depending on the pen, too.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And then over on the specials page, they have a couple of Viscontis that you don't normally see that are highly discounted. The Visconti Opera demo. A couple of different colors in that. There's red velvet. Where's the other one? That was a pinkish kind of corally one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So they are available at a really exceptionally good price for you to check out. The Tabaldi N60 is another good quality pen. That's a really good discount. I like that. And if you like the Leonardo's and the Montegrappa's in that like $200 price range, $150 to $200, this Tabaldi fits right in there with that. So again, once again, really cool stuff. Got the Montegrappa Elmo 02 still in there. So that's really, really good pens. Really great prices. So go check out penshalet.com.

Myke Hurley: All right. Yeah. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password of Pen Addict to get your hands on this offer and to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Penshalet. Thank you so much to Penshalet for the continued support of this show and Relay FM.

Sponsor Update

Brad Dowdy: So did you expect the TWSBI swipe to get the first new colors ahead of the TWSBI Go, even though the TWSBI Go has been out longer?

Myke Hurley: I wouldn't say I expected it, but I understand why this has happened. Exactly. Because the body of the swipe is made of, I assume, the same or similar acrylic to the rest of their pens. So they probably have much more control and an understood process of color.

Brad Dowdy: It's a normaler pen. Is that a word? It's a more normal pen. That would work for me, normaler. So like the Go, we love, right? We love the Go. Give me, you know, some weird, wild Go collaboration. But I think what I've always said about the swipe, once I got to, you know, play around with it, use it, review it, all that stuff, that this could be like, you know, kind of like a standard product lineup. And what TWSBI tends to do with the standard product lineup is keep making the same pen over and over again, but with new fun colors. In this case, Myke, Salmon. What do you think about the color?

Myke Hurley: It is the most Salmon-y color I've ever seen, I think. I think they have nailed it.

Brad Dowdy: Is that because it's on a plate of salmon?

Myke Hurley: Well, because I can see it, right? Like if you tell me it's salmon and show me salmon, I'll be like, yeah, I agree. But I will just say that because usually salmon is pinker. Like I feel like when you see something, like you buy something, it's salmon. It's like a pink color. Where really salmon has that kind of mixture between orange and pink. Correct. And I think they've done a good job of replicating that with this pen color.

Brad Dowdy: I totally agree. I totally like it. This isn't the first color edition swipe. They've done some regional editions. I think the China editions was like a solid orange and a lime green, if I'm not mistaken. But this is the first kind of worldwide universal edition. And this tells me what I need to know about this pen, that it's doing well, right? Like they are going to continue to do this. I'm happy about this. I'm big time happy about this. Yeah, my assumption is they're going to do this continually. And it's awesome. Like I love this type of stuff. We talk about Twisby so much because they do so many good things at the price point that they offer. Like it's a really good bang for your buck product. And they keep it interesting by launching new products pretty frequently, changing up the colors pretty frequently, eliminating products that don't do as well or colors, and just doing fun stuff to keep the conversation going around their brand. And I just, I appreciate that. Like I'm, you know, I don't know that I'd call myself a Twisby super fan as far as like products goes. Like I use a lot of their products, a lot of them frequently. But I'm a super fan of their business model and how they go about things and how they've really kind of grown the brand and ingrained themselves as, hey, this interesting stationary manufacturer, right? They're interesting. Everything they do, like the glass ball that we talked about, the bottle last week, which I will allude to in a minute. Because I want to talk, Myke, not just about the salmon, but about the equally, maybe even more impressively named Twisby pipe.

Brad Dowdy: Twisby has a lot of great product names. I'm not sure there is a greater product name than the Twisby pipe.

Brad Dowdy: I am here for this. My problem.

Myke Hurley: Something's happened over there. I think they had like a hack week or something. Uh-huh. Genuinely, like I think something's happened because they've released the ball and the pipe. Right. Within a week of each other. I don't know if the pipe is available to buy, but they're showing off. February 11th.

Brad Dowdy: To be honest, they've used the bowl and the pipe in conjunction with, you know, maybe a different material, if you know what I mean. Yeah, no. And then had. Fine. You didn't have to even spell it out. Hack week, you know, is, yeah. It's good times.

Myke Hurley: Did they call it? No, it wasn't called the bowl. Was it?

Brad Dowdy: The ball. I said ball. You said ball. Okay. What are you thinking about, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Get out of town.

Brad Dowdy: So, Twisby pipe. I have a legitimate question, though. Why isn't pipe in all caps?

Myke Hurley: Not all of their products are.

Brad Dowdy: Why? I want them to be in all caps. Swipe is in all caps. Eco is in all caps. Go is in all caps.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but VAC isn't.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, VAC isn't.

Myke Hurley: I don't know why they do it. I don't know. Twisby ball was in all caps. Ball was in all caps. Yeah. So, I don't know why. You're right. If they did ball, I don't know why. Maybe it will be. They just wrote it incorrectly in the Instagram post. Because we should explain what the hell the Twisby pipe is.

Brad Dowdy: So, this is neither new nor unique to anyone who's been around the fountain pen world. But to Twisby's customer base that may have started and ended with Twisby's, what this is, is like a needle extension to draw up ink from the bottom of a bottle that you can attach directly to the front end of a pen. To the Twisby's, specifically Twisby's pen, the 580. And, you know, other companies have done something similar in the past for the same type of reason. And it's always this, it's a very, very simple attachment. I don't understand how this works. So, let's say you take your Twisby 580, okay? Yeah. And you take off the section completely. Yeah, no, no. I get that part. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Myke Hurley: You're like extending. It's an extended piston. But what, like, because, you know, the piston only moves so much. And it's just like, there's so much distance to travel through the pipe.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but it's, as long as the seal is tight, it's, there's no air getting into it and it'll just pull it right up like a straw.

Myke Hurley: It's going to pull the same amount, even though it's going over a further distance. Okay. Yeah. Do you see why it took me a second to get my head around that? Yeah. Because it is weird, right?

Brad Dowdy: Because it's so thin. Yeah. You don't want, you wouldn't want something wide in that aspect, right? So, yeah, there you go. So, I, it's cool. Like, I'm glad TWSBI has this. Like, it's honestly, like, it's, it's not like this some innovation. Like, the ball thing is like really neat and weird and wild and it may work terribly, but it's at least, you know, something cool. Like, this is something cool, but it's like, yeah, like, this is just, you know, this has been done before. But they're just kind of retrofitting it. Because I think they just say the Diamond series, which to me is just like the 580 and the Mini. Huh. That has that type of section. I would say it's a shame. The Eco doesn't have a removable section.

Myke Hurley: That's because it's a shame it can't work with the Eco. I know why it can't. But it's a shame they did not design, or that the Eco couldn't have been designed to enable something like this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, then you're, I don't know how much this costs, but then you're like, it's such a higher percentage of cost of the original item, right? Where the value for the people who have the Eco, it may not be worth it, right? This is a very small, small scale type of thing. I just think it's cool. The best part about it is the name, right? Like, it's the TWSBI pipe, and you know I'm going to get one. And I literally may never use it in my lifetime, but I will get the pipe. I did not get the ball, though. I don't know that anyone got the ball. I'll have to see when the people start to get theirs, how they work. The biggest hang-up with that was, of course, having to use the TWSBI ink bottles. But, yeah.

TWSBI Ball Availability

Myke Hurley: The TWSBI ball is still available on their website.

Brad Dowdy: That makes sense. It was very expensive, right? $60, $70. $60, yeah. And essentially proprietary, for lack of a better term, right? You're going to have to use TWSBI's 70-milliliter ink bottles with it in conjunction.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. If you're looking for a desk accessory, you know, go for it. But as far as, like, an everyday functional item, I think that's the hesitancy, right, for the price point. So, it's good stuff. I like seeing it. We talk about TWSBI a lot for a reason. And these are the reasons why. I like their little innovations that they make. And even if it's just the same color of the same pen, they've hit on a formula that I just can't help but be impressed by. Speaking of formula, Myke, I've had this in my notes for several weeks now. And I don't have too much to say about this because I don't totally know what's going on. But Dominant Industry is a new-ish ink brand in our market. And it's a Korean brand. I don't know exactly how long they've been around in Korea, but I don't think that long. But they are going straight for the jugular. I don't know exactly what their backing is or what their plans are for this business bottle. But according to their Instagram page, they are launching the Dominant Industry Ink Library. And for those of you who are not internet accessible right now and can't see the pictures, they are literally making, like, a Sailor's Ink Bar type of setup to where you go in. And you can go into the library, the ink library, and purchase either ready-made products or you can work with someone there. You can schedule an appointment to make your own ink. And let me read this translation on this Instagram image, Myke. And I think this will make a little bit more sense. It's almost like a whiskey club. It's a private members club. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: They made a private members club for Ink is genius. This is an absolutely genius idea.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So let me read this. In Dominant Industries Ink Library, you can also purchase our ready-made products. But if you make a reservation by phone in advance, you can write or produce your own ink. Ink production is two bottles. Now, this is the important stuff. Recipe, library storage, or personal storage. Okay? So you can have... You can store your ink there like the whiskey. Right? The recipe is sealed and can only be read by the person who made the ink. This is messing with my brain in like all the good kind of ways. Right? It's like a little club for your ink. And it's almost like you can bring the ink out of the club, but it's kind of set up for you to not. Right? So like do you have to go there and fill up your pen or something? Or do you take one bottle home and leave one bottle at the ink library so you can go to the club and like hang out in like the leather sofas and the wood paneled room? And, you know, you have your own little private setup of ink with your own recipe that's only private to your eyes. It's completely awesome.

Myke Hurley: The pen show after dark kind of mentality of people hanging out and trying their pens in a welcoming environment constantly.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. It's genius. So there's like 10 images in this Instagram post and like they take the recipe and it looks like they seal it up with like a wax seal. So, you know, if it gets, if the seal gets broken for your recipe, I love everything about this. And I hope that we get some listeners or some friends that goes to explore this. Right? Like this isn't something like Sailor's ink bar could be not quite portable, but like they can pop it in a storefront and it could, you know, the multiples could exist. I'm not, this is more of like a singular type of thing that really places an importance on this as an event or a destination. And I really like seeing that. It's really unique feeling and kind of cool looking. And I hope someone gets to try this and shares their experience with this because I still have a lot of questions on how they're doing it. It's basically not just like a, like a walk up and, and make your ink. It's like, you got to put in some work to, to do this. So I like it. So I hope we hear more about it.

Myke Hurley: I think it's a wild idea.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like. And there, and the, the visuals. The wood paneling and stuff. Yeah. They're making it very kind of clubby membership-y. Which I'm interested to see how that plays for what's ostensibly like a $20 bottle of ink. Right?

Myke Hurley: And because as well, I mean, there is a maximum limit. Right. That they can keep or meet. Yep. I don't know if that's a, like, going to be an issue. You know what I mean?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. It's, it's not necessarily infinite. I mean, it kind of is, but it's cool. All right. Last cool new item. I ordered a pen, Myke. I shared with you this pen. I don't know if you like this pen, but I'm a fan. It's called the Tactile Turn GT. Yeah. It's their next quarterly release. This is the first one I've actually ordered. They sent me the last one. Tactile Turn did at no charge. The stealth one, which is really, really good. This one, I have just gone ahead and ordered. Like, I don't ask for, I don't email people and say, hey, send me this. I just, like, I like what you do. Let me pay you for it. And this one is the first of the seasonal releases. This is probably, like, the fourth one maybe now. This is the first one I've just gone out and ordered. I think it's awesome. I love the idea behind the pen, right? It's called the GT. It's the classic racing kind of design with the light blue and orange. You know it's right up my alley. And you get to add in, if you want, you can add in a racing number on the clip, which is a cool option. So what do you think about this pen? Oh, fantastic. I don't even know if you like it. Okay, you love it. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Myke Hurley: So this is orange and blue, which is a Vulcan, the livery, the colors of Golf, G-U-L-F, Golf Oil, as a sponsor. And this has been used in racing for years. One of the most popular is the colors of the Ford GT40. It was got, like, there was a Ford GT40 in his colorway. And recently, McLaren have used this colorway as well in Formula One. So they have a partnership with Golf Oil again. And they've used this, I think it was at Monaco. And it was just amazing. So I have ordered it with the number four, which is Lando Norris's number.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's what I did too. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So this is my, again, a Lando pen. I just ordered it. I'd meant to. And then you reminded me. And now I've done it.

Brad Dowdy: I literally did it when I put the link in the show notes. I was like, oh, that's my reminder to go order it. Which size did you get?

Myke Hurley: The standard.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So I had the standard in the previous one. So I tried short this time. Just for something different.

Myke Hurley: I love that they're using Cerakote. Like, Cerakote feels real nice. I bet this is going to be fantastic. I'm really excited about this, honestly. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. So this is the fifth one. So this is the fifth one. They have the past releases at the bottom. So yeah. Like, I just think it's cool. It really kind of checks all the boxes. Even if it, if it, I haven't started, you know, getting into, you know, like F1 and racing in general. I would still get it. Because, like, these type of colors speak to me. And when you kind of set off on a path of, like, creative color matching, right? Like, these are not necessarily something you put together. But when you see them, like, it really nails, like, what you're trying to execute. And I just appreciate about that, about this pin. And actually everything that Tactile Turn has done with this type of series of pins. And plus they change it up.

Myke Hurley: Plus recently, right? And we both commended them. Because I think that they have done with this better than I necessarily would have expected. Not, like, nothing on them, right? Right. But just, like, this is hard to do. And it's hard to do well. Correct. And all of their seasonal colors have been really good and really well thought out. Reminds me of Blackwing, honestly. Yeah. Of, like, how Blackwing came out of the gate. And they're like, we have a bunch of great ideas. And you're like, oh, all right. All right.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. And there's a real, it's a fine line to get this right. And I think their execution has been good. And plus this one, so the difference between this one and the previous one, this is the side click. The previous one was the standard bolt. So I like that now I have, like, two different.

Myke Hurley: I'm happy because I don't like bolt action pins. I don't like the feeling.

Brad Dowdy: I agree. I do not discount that idea at all. I would prefer not bolt pins. I like bolt pins. But something like the side click or just, like, a really tiny type of bolt system or just a basic knock would be my preference. But, like, their bolt is pretty good. But I understand the disdain for a general bolt pin. I completely get that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, anyway, props to them.

Brad Dowdy: Great execution. Again, just like Twisby. Like, I like the ideas of just, like, really, really good execution of products. And, oh, by the way, all of these products happen to be great, too. So, you know, when we're in this, like, consumerist mindset where, like, just buying stuff that we don't need, right, it's nice to be able to support companies that kind of, you know, kind of fit your style and aesthetic.

Myke Hurley: I'm excited about having a Pilot G2 refill in the rotation again. That's a great refill, man. It is. It is. All right. This episode is brought to you by a new sponsor for The Pen Addict, and that is Trade. Look, how do you drink your coffee, right? Do you like a full-bodied roast? Do you have something lighter? Maybe you like something sweet. You want something chocolatey? What are you after? We all have our preferences. No matter what you love to drink, Trade Coffee makes it easy to brew up your best cup at home. Trade sells the freshest roasted and ethically sourced beans from America's best independent roasters. They ship free to you as often as you like, whole or ground. Whether you're a coffee nerd or you just want a better daily cup, Trade's real coffee experts taste test over 400 roasts and use technology to match you to your ideal coffee. Trade coffee based on your preferences and brewing method. Just take their really great coffee quiz to get started, and Trade Coffee guarantees you'll love your first bag. If you don't, they'll replace it for free. Trade has been featured by the New York Times, Wired, GQ, and delivered over 5 million bags of coffee. Their subscription is no hassle. Skip shipments if you need to. Change your frequency or whatever you want. Even cancel at any time. Brad, I have received Trade Coffee and have loved the experience. I believe you have too.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so I just went through their setup quiz a week ago, maybe. Yeah. Yeah, a week and a half ago or so. So it's about eight questions, maybe six or eight questions, just kind of getting your likes, your taste, you know, what you're looking for. Someone who drinks a lot of coffee like myself, I do have. I don't have, like, crazy opinions on coffee, but I do have my likes and dislikes, right? Yeah, I have my preferences. You know, I like a lighter roast. I usually only put either milk, cream, or have it black. And, like, that's the kind of extent. I know kind of the flavor notes that I prefer just from learning, you know, different coffees over the years of what really stuck. So I took this quiz. It paired me up with a roaster who happens to be in Atlanta, Georgia, Myke. Like, so I did this, put in for my first bag. And, you know, once you put in for your first bag, they, like, pair you up and they send you an email. It's like, hey, this is who it's coming from. And you get to learn about that roaster, which I thought was really cool. And I was like, oh, they're in Atlanta. And I got to learn about them because I hadn't heard about them before. And then what really impressed me, aside from, like, all the onboarding and, you know, matching you up with the right roast and the right roaster, was the pace that all this happened. So I think I took the quiz on, like, a Tuesday. And I think the bag was at my door on Thursday, maybe Friday. Like, I should have kept track of it. It was, like, crazy, crazy fast. And then I already had some beans in my grinder. So I didn't open it until this morning, actually, not even knowing that this was today's sponsor. Or it's – this could be, like, my everyday coffee, right? Like, what I answered matched up perfectly with what I received as far as the type of coffee that I like. And it was, like, this is just ideal, like, flavored coffee, the type of coffee that I have. So my –

Myke Hurley: One of the things I really like about them is, like, the idea is that you'll keep getting new stuff, right? So, like, you'll try out new things from new places. But you can also just choose to just buy from. Like, if you find one that you're, like, I'll just get that. Like, it's kind of like you can do one or the other. You could treat it as a shop. Or, like, so I did the whole thing recently and did the quiz and stuff. Loved what they sent. And then I went to the store and was, like, all right, I want some of that. Oh, and then we also try some of this. So I really like they've got that both. So, like, you can do the whole thing of them helping you understand what you like. And then also once you find things you like, you can easily go and buy in some more of them as well. So it's really awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So one little – one last note, and I'll let you tell people more about how to get it. But it's – I got the Portrait Founders Roast, and they send you a little, you know, a little bit of paperwork with it. So it's like any good hairstyle. This coffee is business in the front and party in the back, Myke. Chocolatey sweetness shines up front but yields to a soft yet complexly fruity acidity as it cools. So notes of milk chocolate, citrus, and ripe fruit. And it's perfect. So thank you, Trade. And I'm glad to have met you, Portrait Coffee. I will be looking forward to more.

Myke Hurley: For listeners to this show, right now Trade Coffee is offering a total of $20 off your first three bags when you go to drinktrade.com slash penaddict. To get started, take their quiz at drinktrade.com slash penaddict and start your journey to your perfect cup. That is drinktrade.com slash penaddict for $20 off your first three bags. Our thanks to Trade for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Listener Questions Start

Brad Dowdy: All right. I am coffee-fueled to ask TPA, Myke. So let's hear what questions we have this week. All right.

Myke Hurley: First up comes from Luke. I just wondered if you had any recommendations for pens with unique nibs. What do you think?

Brad Dowdy: So I put this in specifically because this is a mega broad question, right? So what would be a unique nib? Are we talking about something with a weird shape like a fude nib, like a Sailor fude nib, where the nib is kind of flipped up and it allows for like, you know, it's designed for Japanese characters, writing Japanese characters. So you get this weird wild line variation. So that's a nib shape or are you looking for like a unique nib design, right? With a non-standard stamping, something colorful, two tones, different, you know, colorways, types on the nibs. So what do you think unique nibs are? And I think it's probably more writing experience would be my guess for what Luke's thinking about. Yeah. And that's kind of hard sometimes because it usually takes like step two in the process to get that uniqueness, right? You're buying something stock and then having it modified. So for stock unique nibs, like I said, the fude nib is fantastic. Pilot does some unique nibs where they have either the Falcon or the FA nib, which have varying levels of flex. They also have a posting nib, which is a very firm fine writer, which is different than like a standard extra fine or fine nib. So those I find to be unique stock nibs that a company offers. A lot of companies offer stubs or italics, but to get something like Pilot offers with the Falcon, the FA, or the PO nib, I think those are some of the more unique nib offerings. Now, they're pretty expensive. So like outside of like the Sailor Fude nibs, which you can get on a more disposable type pen, they're made a little bit differently. They don't really offer those in like the high-end gold nib pens. You can get those steel nibs in just like the basic barrels for like $15, $20. When you get into the Pilot nibs that are gold, you're talking, you know, like the Falcon is the cheapest of the bunch. And that's probably like $170 for that pen with that nib in it. And then on up for there for other pen models like the 912 where you can get the FA or the PO. So outside of that, yeah, like Luke, if you have a certain type of writing experience that you want to find a nib for, you know, hit me up. Because then we're talking secondary market type of stuff like architects and different grinds and, you know, obliques and some other weird shapes that you can get. But, you know, the other thing, like Sailor does a really good job of their custom nib series. But they're, I mean, we're talking like $400 or $500 just for the nib alone, right? So depends on what you're looking for. Depends on what your price point is. And definitely reach out and we can figure something out.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I feel like as well this is where you can get expensive too though, right? Like I don't know if that's necessarily something you'll worry about.

Brad Dowdy: My path was kind of like this. So it was essentially, you know, standard nibs. Once I figured out I like fountain pens. Stub nibs, you know, stock stub nibs, right? That different companies offer. Like Twisby has a great stock stub nib. Then I was like, well, I like that stub type of writing. But I want it finer and sharper. And then I could find a few brands had some cursive italic nibs. Like Pilot has one that's a little bit hard to find. In the Plumix and Pluminix lines.

Brad Dowdy: That you can like grab that nib and put it into like a different Pilot Pen, like a Prera. And I would do that. And then once I enjoyed that, I was like, well, let's push it further. And by that point, then I'm getting into like customization from nib workers, things like that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And that's where things start to get complicated. Yep. Yep. All right. Jake asks, I'm trying to find some nicer journaling paper for my Filofax desk fax. Any idea on who would make some paper for that size?

Brad Dowdy: So as best as I can tell, and Jake will have to tell me if I'm wrong. The desk fax comes in an A5 size. So I'm going to assume that we're talking about an A5 sized Filofax. And there are a few papers that I would recommend that you can get in like 100 sheet pads or 50 sheet pads. That you can then just like easily remove them from the pad and then punch them for your Filofax. If it's like a standard ring type Filofax, I'm assuming you have a punch. But the Clairefontaine Triumph, it's a stark white paper, unlined.

Brad Dowdy: And it's really, really good with fountain pens. So it'd be great for journaling. Like it has a really kind of a great feature set where it handles fountain pen inks. Well, it shows off the character, but it doesn't have an obscene dry time. And it's a really, really white based paper, which you don't get a lot. Secondary to that, I prefer, and this is more of a very personal preference, Life's Bank paper. It comes in a 100 sheet pad. I believe it's 100 sheets. I'd have to look at it. It's a cream colored paper. It's got a little less smooth texture than the Clairefontaine Triumph. But it also comes in an A5 pad that's reasonably priced. I use both of those papers in my William Hanna disc bound planner, right? So this is the A5 types of papers that I remove from the pad, hole punch them, and then put them into my William Hanna to test out different sizes of paper. So the last one, if you want a big bulk type of paper, Kikuyo makes A5 printer paper in reams of like 500 sheets. Like if you need a lot of paper, you can get that. You can find that at like Amazon and stuff like that. I've ordered some. I have some sitting here in my desk. I also hole punch that and or disc bound punch that and put that in my William Hanna planner as well. And that's a good. Think of it more like a copy paper type of texture, but something that handles all kinds of pens very, very well.

Myke Hurley: Poor Penman asks, okay, what pen do you buy to celebrate a new job, an engagement, and a birthday? I've been busy. Yeah. Yeah. So congratulations and happy birthday.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And congratulations and happy birthday for me as well. So this is like, this was like two weeks ago. He sent me this and I'm like, oh my gosh. And I put it in the show notes because I don't know that I have an answer. That's a big, that's a, oh man, what do you do? I don't know. You probably.

Myke Hurley: You're made. That's not where to go. You got to go, got to go to your Jonathan Brooks's, your Newton pens, your Edison of the world, in my opinion. And you get something that's unique to you and you always remember. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Like I always, I always talk about, you know, get something that you can tell a story about, right? Like why did you get this pen?

Myke Hurley: I was able to get a three nibbed pen to celebrate the three things at once.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, don't give Jonathan any ideas because that man does not know how to say no.

Brad Dowdy: So we're going to have this Darth Maul handle pen coming pretty soon. So yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Like it's, this would be hard to like say specifically do this, but I like the idea of participating in the creation of it. Like Myke saying, you know, with a custom maker. So I would probably go that route as well. So think about a material that you like and what maker is good with that material. Then think about, well, if I could pick out my own of that type of material, what, you know, colors or style, you know, it could be wood. It could be, you know, whatever type of pen, micarta, ebonite, you know, then figure that out. And then just kind of like work through that with, you know, a smaller maker to kind of really lock down something that's going to celebrate all of this awesomeness happening at once. So there you go. I think hashtag Myke was right on that one.

Myke Hurley: Nice. Love to hear it. My pen needs ink. My pen needs ink asks, if you ink up a pen with an ink and nib combination for the first time and you discover quickly that though it does put ink down on paper, the particular combination just doesn't work for whatever reason. Do you dispense the full ink back into the ink supply bottle or down the drain?

Brad Dowdy: Down the drain. 100% of the time. I've gone back in the bottle. Like, it's fine if it's like immediate, but like I just always worry about it. And if you have so much ink that those, you know, 1.2 milliliters in that converter is not a big loss if you just have to dump it down the drain. And I would rather be safe than sorry. Contamination wise, even though I've never seen it actually happen with anything that I've done in the past. But right now it goes down the drain.

Brad Dowdy: You seem to hesitate on that.

Myke Hurley: Because I genuinely do not know.

Myke Hurley: I don't think I ever really make that decision that quickly that I'm still in like pen inking mode. So it probably just goes down the drain. Yeah. Because, you know, I would like fill it, check that it works. Yeah. Then move on to the next pen or whatever. Or like I'll try it out for a little bit. Because there's a reason I picked it in the first place. And I feel like I don't get the answer of this is working or this isn't working for a little bit of time. So if I was to be a person who made those decisions immediately, say more frequently, I probably would put it back in the bottle just because it would just be wasteful. Yeah. But because I'm likely not making it at that time, then I'll just dump it.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's fair. I think that's fair. If, you know, you're convinced you have like good clean pens, like you have good pen hygiene and you ink it up and you know within that little short time frame you're willing to just dump it back in. And then there's nothing that's going to get back in there. I'd do it as well. But I just tend to not because just volume. Right. It's just like it's it feels more wasteful than it actually is like percentage wise. Right. Even though it's it's all waste is waste. It's just not that big of a deal to just go ahead and dump it.

Myke Hurley: Plus, you don't keep your pens clean enough.

Brad Dowdy: Some people.

Myke Hurley: That's the biggest problem is you just you contaminate all the ink.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You just never know. Like I have. Hey, I'm really good at cleaning pens. And then sometimes like I'll see like if I've inked up a new pen and I'll see like a little discolor, like a little color that I'm not expecting. That means like I didn't do a really good job like up there in the feed and the nib where all the settings are.

Myke Hurley: So we actually under the hood, if you will. We have a good pen cleaning question. But before we do that, let's thank our final sponsor. This week's episode. And that is our friends over at Uni Pizza Ovens. Uni is the world's number one pizza oven company for a very good reason. They make surprisingly small ovens powered by your choice of either wood, charcoal or gas. This lets you make restaurant quality pizza in your very own backyard. And Uni Pizza Ovens are incredibly easy to use and portable, too. They're going to fit into any outside space. But there's a lot of power in that tiny package. Uni Pizza Ovens can reach temperatures of up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit, 500 degrees Celsius, letting you cook restaurant quality pizza in as little as 60 seconds. It is that high temperature that you want to separate these pizzas from what you'd make in a conventional oven. Uni have a couple of models that are really popular. One of them is the Uni Coda 16. This is a gas powered oven that can cook up to 16 inch pizzas with an innovative L-shaped burner at the back to give you even heat distribution. And also the multi-fueled Uni Karu is another favorite. This can use wood, charcoal or gas. But they have a whole range of products and you're going to find the right one for yourself. Uni Pizza Ovens start from just $299 for free shipping to the US, UK and EU. They even have an app of their own to help you perfect your dough recipe and give you loads of pizza making tips. What is your best pizza making tip, Brad, from your experience with the Uni Pizza Oven?

Pizza Making Tips

Brad Dowdy: I don't know that I have a good pizza making tip. I'm a basic pizza guy, so I just want like a really good pepperoni on mine. And my Uni Pizza tip is to watch the pizza while it cooks because it cooks so fast.

Myke Hurley: That's a top tip.

Brad Dowdy: Like I'll cook an entire pizza in less than 60 seconds, right? So and I have the Coda, so it's the L-shaped burner. So you want to do like one 180 degree rotation in about 30 seconds. Yeah. So this is it is so quick and fast and good that you do have to pay attention to it, right? So watch your pizza cooking. I have the little temperature thermometer. I can hit the stone and see what my temperature is at to know that I'm at the right level to go ahead and throw that fresh dough in. Have it crispy in about 30 seconds. Throw it around, spin it around 180 degrees with my little pizza slider thing and then have it on the counter in 30 seconds after that. It's like madness how great this thing works. So yeah, it's really cool. And portable. Yes, it is portable. Very portable. Mine is mine. I store it away in like a closet. And then when it's time to use, I take it like literally two steps outside my back porch, my back door and pop it up, hook it up and it's good to go.

Myke Hurley: Listeners of this show can get 10% off their purchase of an Ooni pizza oven, which could be up to $50 off an Ooni Coda 16. Just go to Ooni.com and use the code PENADDICTFM21 at checkout and you'll get that discount. When you're there, you'll also find a great range of accessories from peels to cutters to oven tables. Everyone wants to make pizza at their own home, you know, especially as we, you know, people want to get that food. They want to get, you know, they want to be locked away. They want to get pizza. You can get it with an Ooni pizza oven. Super great. This is the perfect tool for the job, which explains why Ooni pizza ovens are always in high demand. So don't miss out. Ooni pizza ovens are the best way to bring restaurant quality pizza to your own backyard. Just go to Ooni.com. That's O-O-N-I.com and use the code PENADDICTFM21 for 10% off, I should say, for 10% off PENADDICTFM21. Our thanks to Ooni pizza ovens for the support of this show and Relay FM.

Myke Hurley: All right. Next question comes from Frames and they ask, how do you clean your pen after you've used a shimmer ink with it? I'm looking to dip my toes into the shimmery pond and I'm concerned about the maintenance aspect of using shimmer inks.

Brad Dowdy: Valid concern that I have shared in the past. Yeah. And I used to be super hesitant about using any shimmer inks. And in the beginning, I think some of those, in the beginning of shimmer inks of their popularity, rise in popularity, I think there were some valid concerns about how they would clean out of a pen. But the combination of the ink makers doing a better job with those formulations and people actually paying attention to their pens when they clean them, that it's almost no extra maintenance for shimmer inks. That is what I've learned over the time that I have used shimmer inks and had to, you know, clean pens once I've finished using the shimmer ink. You just have to pay slightly more attention to the feed, right? You want to go ahead and remove the nib in the feed as opposed to sometimes I don't always remove the nib in the feed. I'll just flush water through the nib in the feed. I want to go ahead and remove them just so I can, like, soak them. You don't even have to soak them, but just give them a full rinse of the feed to get any glitter out. But I've never had any, like, issues with clogging or anything stuck in any of my pens from shimmer inks. You just have to, you might have to do a little bit more, you know, flushing of the water through the barrel or through the feed. But we're talking, like, a small percentage more, right? We're talking, like, if it takes you, like, two or three passes for your normal pen, this might take four or five. And you're good to go. Like, I don't have anything to recommend other than I would go ahead and take the feed out completely and rinse that separately instead of just trying to flush water through the feed while it's still in the section of the pen.

Myke Hurley: I think maybe it might be a good idea to use a pen, just in general, like, use a pen that maybe is on the lower end of the scale price-wise. Totally fair. But also one that you're comfortable with removing the feed from. You can do it with most pens, but it can be a bit of a scary experience sometimes. Agreed. So if you want to get that practice, this is another thing to just build your confidence. You know, like, now I'll take an expensive platinum and I don't know where to get it out of there. You know what I mean? Right. But the cracking sounds it can make and the creaking can be a bit scary. So maybe you don't want to start off with one of your nicer pens for that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, like, the Twisby Eco that a lot of people use, and a lot of people use shimmer inks and Twisbys because they are easy to clean. The Eco is the simplest to clean because there is no section to unscrew. The nib and the feed are just friction fit. You just literally pull them right out and you can slide them back in easy without any real worries of damage as long as you're, you know, just paying attention. Like, I don't even, you don't even have to be careful. You just have to pay attention to what you're doing. Easy peasy. Yeah. So don't let shimmer inks scare you. I admittedly used to be scared of them. You just got to, you just got to pay attention.

Myke Hurley: All right. Got a question from David. I'm fond of my two millimeter clutch pencil and I'm looking for a lead that would equate to a black wing extra firm core. Any ideas, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: Man, I wish I had an answer to this question. I would love to know the answer to this question too, because everyone knows I'm a fan of the 2.0 millimeter clutch pencil. And generally, when you get a 2 millimeter lead or a stick of graphite, they are mixed with clay to strengthen that type of core. Right? So it's a, it's a generally not just like a straight stick of graphite that I've seen for most instances. So they have a little bit of a different texture when you're writing with them, a little bit smoother texture because of that. And I haven't found one that behaves in the way that David is asking it to behave. But that's actually a great question because what if there is something like that? And now I want it. So I'm going to, I'm going to poke around. So I don't, I've used, you know, obviously the Karen dash stuff I've used. I'm trying to think if I've used one other kind of 2.0 millimeter.

Brad Dowdy: But any, any 2.0 millimeter I've tried always has that clay texture to it, right? Like it's a little bit softer or a little bit, a little bit less graphite-y. And to have that extra firm core, I don't think you're going to be able to do that. I don't think you're going to be able to have that kind of like graphite mixture to make that stick of graphite. So, yeah, I'll poke around a little bit and see what I can come up with because as a big proponent of the 2.0, I would like that as well. I'm very curious now how that would work. It may not work at all, which is why we don't see very much of it.

Myke Hurley: All right. This is a longer question. Yep. And it comes from Johnson who says, My Lamy logo, which is my first EDC pen, has finally bit the bullet after close to 10 years of use. Bravo. Now I'm in search of a recommendation of perhaps something a little bit more special. My absolute favorite thing about it was the hinged clip, which allowed for easy clipping to the front pocket of my pants, as well as being relatively secure. So I think it sounds kind of like the clip on the Lamy 2000 where you could kind of press the top of it and it would go inside the pen a bit like on a seesaw mechanism as a hinge. Exactly. All right. Yeah, fair enough. My requirements for this pen are it must be a ballpoint. It must be clicky and must have a clip that allows for ease of clipping. My dream Frankenstein EDC pen would have the clip of the Lamy logo, the silent click of the Caran d'Ache and the refill from a Montblanc M ballpoint. I'm very much considering the Caran d'Ache Various ballpoint at the moment, but it's slightly over my price point by a lot.

Myke Hurley: I am hoping to aim at around $300. I feel that one. I don't know this pen. I'm going to Google it while we're talking. I'm looking it now, too. I finally, it's okay. Yeah. So that's where we are. $300. Do you have any ideas?

Brad Dowdy: You don't have to spend near that much.

Brad Dowdy: You know, at that point for ballpoints, you're paying for the materials, right? That's an expensive pen. The Various is an expensive pen. It's like a thousand bucks. Yeah. Let me see here what this shape is.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I just want to get an idea of the shape here. Okay. So, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Well, they're between in pounds, I can see. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: $615. I got it in a US dollar. So, the base one is $615.

Brad Dowdy: So, Myke was onto something accidentally before. I love the Lamy 2000 ballpoint. It has the same hinge clip. It has a slightly louder knock than the Caran d'Ache 849. Not much. It's a little bit more clicky. I think Lamy's blue ballpoints. Ballpoints, even though they're proprietary cartridges outside of the weird Monteverdi copy that you can get. I've never used that one. I think they're excellent. I think some people don't care for them. I don't mind them and actually enjoy them. And that's like 70 bucks, maybe? If you wanted to... That's going to be... That's going to help solve like some of the clip questions that you have. Because not everyone makes that kind of rocker style clip that you're liking in the Lamy logo. But the 2000 does. And it's an exquisite pin. Myke, the design is just wonderful. So, outside of that, like I hate reverting back to something we just talked about. But those tactile turns, even if you don't like the GT, to have the side click, even though it's a little bit more thunkier than like the top knocks of the 849 or the Lamy 2000. Like it's going to snap back. It's a good mechanism. It's a simplistic mechanism. But you're... In that style of pin, you're not going to get like a spring back end on your clips, right? You just... The clips are designed to go over like pockets and edges and, you know, jeans and backpack pockets and things like that. But they're not going to have the movement that the Lamy clips do. But they're going to be like really, really solid. It's going to fit your ballpoint refills. And are just going to be just all around nice, right? To have that type of retractable pin. So, I think like out of the retractable pins that I use, I use the 849, you know, which is your standard Caran d'Ache, you know, on the lower end of the Caran d'Ache scale. I use the Lamy 2000. And then I use like the bigger tactile turn, even though I have a gel refill in mine. You can... If you get the medium sized one, that fits the good type of ballpoint refills that you like. And it's still a retractable pin with the click mechanism. Like those are my... Like some of my favorite ballpoint pins to use. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I like the Lamy. I like the texture. It feels special.

Brad Dowdy: It's one of the kind of best bang for the buck type of fancy ballpoint pins. Because for that price, it almost doesn't seem correct, right? Because it's well less than half of the fountain pen. And I know the fountain pen has the gold nib, which is where all the price comes from. But it's crazy similar, but includes like the knock mechanism as opposed to the capped that the fountain pen and the rollerball have for the Lamy 2000. I just think it's an extremely underrated pen, in my opinion. I've said that for years.

Myke Hurley: All right. Last question today comes from Carol. I store inked fountain pens horizontally. Is there any rationale on how to store in-use ballpoint and rollerballs? Does it create a worse flow if I store the point down versus point up?

Brad Dowdy: I thought this was a really good question. We never talk about this. We talk about it with fountain pens all the time. We get this question a lot. Most people, myself included, store their fountain pens horizontally, right? It's just kind of the best. I know, but I mean, you have that big block and they're all nib up. And like, it's okay. Like, I would rather nib up than nib down. Yes. I think. But I think other people.

Myke Hurley: You're looking for trouble.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's the only thing I'm hesitant with on open tip ball, excuse me, rollerballs, like retros. I store them tip down, but those are the ones where you'll see a little bit of funkiness in the tip, like where maybe there's some extra ink collecting. Or if you store them tip up, they're just harder to store, right? No one stores like rollerball pens, generally stores rollerball pens tip up just because they have the clips in the way and there's just, they're too hard to point up. So I think rollerball pens, like tip down is how I do it. But they tend to get a little bit messier if you leave them unused for too long. But that said, they're also quick to rectify that problem. You know, just wipe off the tip and you're good to go. Like the pen's just going to start writing. So it's not that big a deal. So gel refills, rollerball refills, ballpoint refills are all designed to be like airtight capacity refills, right? Like there's generally not air getting into those refills. So you can store them any direction you want is the short answer. But I do think about rollerballs sometimes when they have uncapped tip down rollerballs that they do get a little messy. But outside of that, I don't think it's a big deal to store standard pens just because the refill, the way the refills are built, they're going to manage better than fountain pens who oftentimes have air getting trapped in there in places you don't want.

Myke Hurley: If you'd like to send in a question for us to answer on the show, just send out a tweet with the hashtag RSTPA. Use question mark RSTPA in the RelayFM members Discord or you can email them to hello at penaddict.com. But the most important thing we want from you is to go to the show notes, click the link, which is the Pen Addict episode 500 questionnaire and fill that out. We will remind you next week. But the sooner you do it, the better it is for everyone.

Myke Hurley: Thank you so much to Pen Chalet, Trade Coffee and Ooni Pizza Ovens for their support of this week's episode. If you want to find Brad online, you go to penaddict.com. You can go to knock.co. You can go to twitch.tv slash penaddict. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. Eastern Time, Wednesdays after we record. What else, Brad? I think that's it, man. All right. Oh, Dowdyism on Twitter, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. Oh, yeah. I'm iMike, I-M-Y-K-E, and you go to cortexmerch.com. You can find some cool stuff there, too. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.