The Pen Addict 499/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	499
Title:	I'm Gonna Drink It
Release Date:	February 2nd, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 499
Audio File:	Audio Episode 499
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 499
Length:	4949 min <br />0.817 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 499. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. Do we have to do this episode? I mean, this is like the last one before everything changes, I feel like. You know, like I just, it's like we're about to like cross that line. There's no going back. Like, right, there's, it's only taken you 10 years to realise there's no going back from this. Well, it's no going back from 500. You hit like 500, it's like now, now what, you know? It's like mega, mega bod. Yeah, it's quite, quite a thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, so I'm actually, this is gonna sound wrong, I'm actually for a change excited about 500. Like, I've been nervous about 500, right? Like, I think it's in my right to be nervous about 500. But yeah, I'm very excited about episode 500. But we have to record episode 499 before we get there. Just a reminder, though, about next week, about episode 500, we want to hear about your favorite stationary products. We want to hear about your favorite pens, your favorite pencils, your favorite notebook, something that changed how you do things. Whatever you want to tell us about is what we're going to talk about next week. So we're asking for your participation in our 500th episode. We're going to make it all about y'all, the listener, and figure out what things you're into, what your favorites are, and kind of get some inspiration from y'all. And we have a form that I created, a Google form, and we'll put that link in the show notes. So far, Myke, we are expected to read 136 responses. Okay. And I'm sure after this episode, it will be quite a few more. I feel good about that number. Like, I was, I said, you know, 100 last week. And I was really thinking that, like, that might be a good number. And we can do that in a reasonable amount of time. I have not audited any of this. So we're going to turn this form, I'll turn the replies off on Sunday at some point this week, at the end of this week, just to give me time to kind of, like, quickly audit. I don't like to read ahead, but, you know, I want to read through and see, you know, if anything that we just need to go ahead and clean up in there, if you will. I don't know what's in there. I have not spied on the answers. Don't worry. We're going to be working together on that.

Myke Hurley: I have it as a task for next week, too, so we can tag team this.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Just letting everyone know, just go ahead and answer it by Sunday if you're interested, because I will disable the ability to reply to the form at some point on Sunday. Probably Sunday night, so something like that.

Myke Hurley: So, yeah. So we have time to start working on it from Monday. So, again, if you want to go to the episode channel, it should be in your podcast app. Or you can find it at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 499. And you can find the form there. Fill out the form. And there's a very good, as long as you want to keep it clean, you will be included in the episode. Right? Yeah. That's kind of it. We are recording. We always record live. We record the show live every single week. There's a wonderful chat in the RelayFM members' Discord. People hang out. But anybody can listen live. If you go to relay.fm slash live on February 9th at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, 2 p.m. GMT, that is when we will be recording the episode live. If you're a RelayFM member, it's best to kind of hang out in the chat. But, you know, you can listen to it whenever you want on our live web page. So, if you want to just come and hang out with us, just join in the celebrations for episode 500. Maybe you want to hear your response read out live. But, of course, we will be putting the episode out later on that day, as we always do. I kind of can't believe it. We're getting real close now. 499 means it's happening next week. I mean, this is really, again, there is a no chance it's not happening kind of thing. Because I reiterate this, we've said it a million times now, but February 9th is also our 10-year anniversary of working together.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Like, I have a huge grin on my face, like, about next week, finally. Like, it's like I've been nervous about it for some while. Like, that's just how I am. That's how I roll. I get nervous about these things. But I'm actually super excited about next week, and I'm really, really looking forward to it. But on that note, Myke, I did a thing for the first time ever in the stationary game that we all play, at least for 10 years on this podcast, for longer in my blogging and for longer in my life. I bought a pin to celebrate. No way. An event.

Myke Hurley: Oh, okay. Oh, yeah.

Pins

Brad Dowdy: I buy lots of pins. That's the problem is, like, I'll see a pin I like, and I'll generally just buy it, and that's okay. But this time, Myke, I did the celebration pin thing. And that's something that you have done in the past where you've made a purchase to mark, you know, an event of some kind, big or small. It doesn't matter, right? Like, the size of the thing doesn't matter, right? You could buy something like when you started RelayFM, you know, which is a big deal, or, you know, for, you know, your wedding or anything. You could buy it for, hey, I made it through the week. Like, sometimes that's a good thing to celebrate on a weekly basis. But I've never really gone out of my way to say, hey, I'm going to tie this purchase into this event. And in this case, the event is obviously our 500th podcast episode. And I'm doing this mostly to justify the expense of what I bought and make myself feel better. Yeah, whatever it takes. Right, right. Whatever it takes. So, you know, I've done, like, I've spent a lot of time buying pins in the past, right? Thinking about a pin like my first Nakaya, right? Like, I always say it took me two years to buy my first Nakaya because, you know, I had to think about it. Like, I had to feel like I had to get it right and, you know, save the money because it was expensive and just do all the things. Or, you know, I bought the pins that I'm supposed to buy, like the classics, like the Lamy 2000. And, you know, or Pilot Vanishing Point or a Pelican M series, you know. I buy those for a reason. Like, those are kind of like landmark pins that, you know, certain pin addicts feel like, hey, you should have this. Like, if I'm going to talk about these things, you need kind of the classics. But I've never bought this, what I'm calling the Celebration Pin. So, I went out on a limb and bought something that I have not tested. I have not tried. I've only read about and viewed online. I bought an Elwood Pocketmaster.

Myke Hurley: Literally never heard of this company at all. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, I would say most listeners haven't. Unless they read Refill, your pen addict member's newsletter. I have discussed this pin because my friend Anthony at UK Fountain Pins ordered one. It was in the links, right? It was in the links. So, people may have clicked on the link and seen it. Yeah, I don't think I did. And so, we'll have the link to Anthony's post. You can get kind of a good breakdown of this pen. It's essentially a highly engineered pocket pen, right? And I don't mean engineered in like the over-engineered kind of way. I mean engineered in like handmade, fine materials, you know, all the little bells and whistles you can get in a highly, like, almost like customized. Pocket pen. And Elwood doesn't just make pocket pens. You know, they make, you know, full-size pens as well in their same style. But Frank at Elwood, who is the maker, uses lots of really, really cool materials. Makes all the pens himself. You know, has a really distinct style. It's very simple and clean in the lines of the pen.

Myke Hurley: Where are they based?

Brad Dowdy: Germany.

Myke Hurley: Germany, okay.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, I've shared some emails with him over my time making this order. So, what happened was, so, Anthony, this is kind of like how my process goes. And we talked about this in the past. So, I see a pen that someone else has or see it at a pen show or see it at a retailer or whatever. And I just kind of add it to the mental list. Like, hey, I like this. Let me kind of investigate what's going on with it. You know, do other people have experience with it? What type of setup would I want? You know, what type of materials would I want? Because at Elbowood, you can buy just basic, like a full metal pen. Like, was the first thing that I thought I might get. So, he has a stainless steel barrel pocket master. I was like, hey, that's like kind of perfect for me, right? I love the stainless steel materials, right? That's one of my favorite, like, pen materials if I'm going for a metal pen. And then he posts, like, something on Instagram. Like, I follow, you know, Frank on Instagram and see all the things that Elbowood's producing. And then all of a sudden, he puts up, hey, here's a bunch of ebonite I bought. I think I'm going to make pens out of them. And, oh, by the way, there's this really nice teal-looking one in there. So, like, in the span of, like, a couple of weeks of me thinking about, hey, I'll eventually get a pocket master one day, right? Because they're, like I said, very expensive. He posts something that triggers me into, like, okay, I am emailing Frank. And I'm saying this is what I want. And is it possible? And he said, yes. So, I have a teal ebonite, which I have a link in the show notes to this, Myke. You can see some of the ebonite rods that he got in. And there's one in the picture that we'll link in the show notes called U5.5. It's just how it's marked. I don't know what that means. Like, they're swirled ebonites. They're solid ebonites. But this teal-looking ebonite, I was like, you know I like the silver, you know, hardware type of based pens. And I thought that would look perfect. And if I'm going to celebrate the 500th episode, I'm going to go all out. So, I actually have a silver barrel teal ebonite pocket master with a gold nib coming. Like, I did, like, the full setup. So, I was originally thinking about the stainless steel model, which cost about half of what I ended up going with. So, I'm a little bit... These look really good, man.

New Pen Company

Myke Hurley: I've never seen these pens before. And they are speaking to me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm a little bit excited about this, if you couldn't tell. Like, it's hard for me to, like, ramble about it. Because I don't have it yet. So, when I place the order, I've paid for it already. Talked to Frank about, you know, the setup and the materials and all that. And so, it's going to be here probably, like, end of February. So, probably, like, a month from now. Something like that. End of February, early March. Something like that. I know. Like, these are all custom. Really beautiful. Custom made. They're all handmade, right? So, these take a lot of time and effort to make. So, like, I've put in my order. I'm in no rush.

Brad Dowdy: And yeah. So, they, like, have the full size. They have a full size model. They have the pocket model. And just the craftsmanship and attention to detail looks from, you know, all appearances that I see and reading Anthony's review and looking at the finished products, like, on Instagram. Like, I'm in. Like, I want to see this in person. And...

Myke Hurley: I'm really keen to know what the weight will feel like, the balance of it.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It'll be interesting because there's the full size, which Elwood calls the long cap. And then there's the short size, which I got, which is called the pocket. Right? Right? So, think of the pocket master like the Kaweco Sports.

Myke Hurley: They have long cap and short cap and pocket master.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, okay. There's a short cap as well. So, you can get the various ebonites that Frank was showing in the Instagram, or you can get just metal barrels, you know, brass, copper, silver.

Myke Hurley: The way that looks is the cap screws on to the grip section, like in the pocket master, so it still shows the grip section. Yep. Where the long cap covers the grip section. Gotcha. Right. So, yep. I see that now.

Brad Dowdy: Cool. So, yeah. I am interested in these type of unique pens and makers and stories. Not that I'm not interested in, like, other things. Like, we're going to talk about a very popular pen brand that just released a pen here, like, this week that I'm very interested in as well, but this gets priority in the money that I have to spend on pens, right? So, I ended up spending probably close to $800 on mine, the way mine is set up with the materials that I'm getting and the nib I'm getting. Like, I didn't skimp on what I was ordering this time, which is a little bit out of line for me. Like, normally if I go to a new maker, I'll start with the base pen and see if I like it, right? Yeah. But this one is such a unique material and style that I wanted to kind of get it right the first time instead of doing, like, a two-step to get to the end result pen that I wanted.

Myke Hurley: I feel very tempted by these. They're so beautiful. I think I'm going to... I want to wait and hear what you think. Yeah, yeah. I'm really keen to hear what you think.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and that's what I... That's normally how I would do is, like, hey, let me make this list and think about things for a long time. Like, I've had the Scribo Piuma on my list for probably, you know, not quite a year, but for a long time. And I'll eventually end up with one. But, like, I wait for the time to pounce when, one, I have the money, and two, there's really the perfect model. And this was a situation where I was looking at a model, the stainless, and thinking about it, right? Well, then this kind of perfect-for-me model came along with the ebonite, and I just went forward, which is, it's a little bit out of line for me to just go ahead and jump into the deep end. I, like, I don't mind spending money on pens, but I'm pretty cautious, right, as far as, like, jumping into the deep end on that type of expense. So, yeah, I'm excited. So, we will have a full report once I get it in the next month or so. And, yeah, like, I bought the Celebration pen. So, there we go.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it made me think, when I read this, I was like, oh, man, should I have done that too?

Myke Hurley: Like, it does feel like I kind of should have. Like, you know, if we're going to celebrate anything of a pen, honestly, we should have bought pens for each other, but we're just not thoughtful enough. We're not smart. We're not smart that way. We're not thoughtful enough as podcast hosts. I know. What is the 10-year anniversary gift? Oh. 10-year anniversary. 10-year anniversary.

Brad Dowdy: Probably, like, I'm going to go, let me guess. Let me guess. I'm not looking. Let's see. It's got to be a metal. I think we're past, like, some of those stages. So, I'm just, I'm actually just going to go with brass. Like, I don't think we're in, like.

Myke Hurley: Google says tin or aluminum. Okay. So, that would have been pretty great. Because aluminum, there's loads of aluminum pens.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, that's, uh. I don't even want a tin pen. I'm like, that's going to last.

Metal Pens

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Okay. So, I was in the right, you know, category of metal. You know, we're not into, like, the ultra premiums. We're not into precious. The platinums and the silvers and things like that. So, yeah. Basic. Oh, now then Kate's in here being, you know, the wise one. Says, you know, you can still do it, by the way.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but we've said it now. It's too late.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, now we've said it out loud. We've ruined the whole thing.

Myke Hurley: Well, now Brad bought himself a present. So, you know.

Brad Dowdy: So, go me.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to have to buy myself a present.

Brad Dowdy: There you go.

Myke Hurley: I would genuinely, like, I would really, honestly, I think it would be nice for me to also buy one of these pens that you've bought. Because that just, I don't know, there's something nice about that. Then it's like a team. The same, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm not sure how I would feel about it. So, I want to see what you think.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep, yep. So, and I mean, it's not like I haven't bought other pens recently, like one of which we're going to talk about here down below. But, like, this one, this is a big purchase for me. And I am excited. And I really look forward to it. And, you know, I will definitely share the experience when I get it. You know, the only hang up with this pen that I think most people will have besides the price is, you know, it's just like your Kaweco Sports short international cartridge, right? So, you have to be someone like myself who is totally content with using short cartridges or little refill, little converters that barely hold any ink and manipulating, you know, syringe filling cartridges to get like an ink you want. If you spend that much on a pen, you don't want to skimp on your ink. So, I'll be, you know, refilling cartridges or figuring something out to use all kinds of, you know, other inks other than inks that just come in cartridges. So, there you go. There you go. All right. I got more pens to talk about this week. Where do I talk about them the most, Myke?

Myke Hurley: On your website, which is powered by our friends at Squarespace, which, you know, as we approach 500, it's probably worth saying, Squarespace is our longest running sponsor on the show. They have been sponsoring the pen addict for basically the entire time that the show has been running, which is kind of an incredible thing. I might actually look in a minute when was the first time that they sponsored it. I don't know if I have that information, but I'll see if I can kind of try and find it because that would be fun. So, thank you to Squarespace for their continued support of the show. It means a lot to us. And let me tell our listeners why Squarespace is so amazing. They are the all-in-one platform to build your online presence and run your business. Whether you want to make a website, an online store, or anything in between, Squarespace have got you covered. And they back it up with their fantastic marketing tools, analytics, cutting-edge design, world-class engineering, their top-of-the-line security, their dependable resources, and their unlimited hosting. It's an incredible package that you get with Squarespace. I was today just updating something on one of my Squarespace websites, and it's just a case of just clicking around. Like, I want to change the text on the website. I just click the little button and start typing. This is so amazing. It's why I've been using it for so long. I don't want to have to, like, change it on some back-end system and then publish it and go look at it. No, no, no. I just want to see how it's going to look in line. That's what I love about Squarespace. You start with one of their beautiful modern website templates that you can drag and drop and make your own. They're all professionally designed, but you can still customize the look and feel of it. You can customize the settings, the products you have on sale on your website if you want to sell stuff. Just a few clicks, you can get everything going, just what I was talking about. And every Squarespace website is optimized for all screen sizes as well. There's nothing to patch, install, or upgrade. They have 24-7 customer support, domain name registration, SEO, and email marketing tools as well. It's the full package. Whether you want to publish your next blog post about pens, maybe. Promote your business where you sell pen stuff, maybe. Announce an upcoming event. Showcase your work of an incredible portfolio. Or turn your big idea into a new website. Just go to squarespace.com slash penaddict for a free trial right now with no credit card required. You can build that website. You can just build the whole thing as part of the trial. Then when you're ready to launch it to the world, use the offer code penaddict to check out. And you'll save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict. And when you sign up, use the offer code penaddict and you will get yourself 10% off your first purchase. To show your support for this show, our thanks to Squarespace for their continued support of this show and all of RelayFM. And Kate, coming in clutch in the Discord. Episode 2. That's mind-boggling. So, for 10 years from these incredible folks. Wow. And that's also, again, people say, like, how can Squarespace still, you know, be sponsoring? Because our listeners redeem the code. So, thank you to our listeners as well who continue to support the show by supporting our sponsors because it supports us. So, thank you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Like, it's really telling when sponsors stick around for a long time. It's a two-way relationship, right? So, when you see, like, someone, like a sponsor even come back for the second time, that's a really important marker for people like Myke and myself. Like, I talk about that a lot and think about that a lot. So, like, to have Squarespace around for 10 years, thank you so much. It's really cool.

Myke Hurley: Man, they sponsored just, like, every episode, too. Like, I'm just, like, clicking through for a while. Things were really different back then. And the arrangement we had with them was kind of funny. Thinking about that. It's much more official now.

Brad Dowdy: That was pre-relay. I mean, that was a long time ago. That was 70 dB. Yeah. That was some OG. That was probably, like, Squarespace version 3, I think, is probably where I started with them. Probably. Yeah, something like that, which is over a decade ago. So, crazy. All right. I will be writing about these pens on my Squarespace blog, thepenaddict, penaddict.com. In the future. I've just received the Pentel Energel 05. They have chosen to call these the black colors, which I'm not a big fan of the name. But what the...

Myke Hurley: It's just a terrible name. That's so bad.

Brad Dowdy: So, what these are, in the gel pen and in the rollerball ink pen world, some of the companies, Uniball especially, has taken to... And done a good thing and mixed black ink with other colors to make some really interesting colors, right? So, one of my all-time favorite gel ink colors is called Lavender Black. It's a Uniball color that they use in the Signo lineup. And then Uni came out with a whole lineup called BLX, which not a great name either, but still, you know, better than black colors. You know, we can at least say they're the BLX. So, this is very similar. Like, take your black gel ink and mix it with purple and green and red and blue and other things. And just give people a little bit of a different option.

Myke Hurley: This is so funny to me. So, I'm on the JetPens website. And I'm looking at... I have an image, right? Of these, what they look like. It took me a long time of looking at this image to see where there's any differences between the black. Like, to my eyes, it's really hard to see that any of these black colors look any different from each other.

Brad Dowdy: So, I titled this section, Things I'm Loving.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: It's not these. Okay. All right. All right. Fine.

Brad Dowdy: It's not that they're bad. It's that they're not what I think they should be. And they're extraordinarily expensive. So, they're great pens, right? The Pentel Energel 0.5 needle tip. I take these out and write with them. I'm like, yeah, this is just like a tier one pen. It's a great, great, great pen. I cannot, you know, express enough how good this pen is for what it is for a gel ink pen. The problem. The problem. The first problem I have with this, Myke, it's six colors in this set. One of the six colors. Can you guess what one of the six colors is? I bet you can because you've looked at it. Yeah. Well, what do you mean? Like, which one of these does not belong?

Myke Hurley: Oh, charcoal?

Brad Dowdy: No. Oh, just black? Just black. Why are you making a set that mixes the... One of those two.

Myke Hurley: That's why I say charcoal. Because charcoal black and black. Like, what's the difference? I don't really know.

Brad Dowdy: Is there a difference? So there's six colors. Bordeaux black, charcoal black, crimson black, indigo black, olive black, and black. Why are you giving me the base black gel pen in this? Like, I don't understand that decision. Give me a different color. Give me green. Like, I know you have olive. Like, it's not... That's more of a yellowy color. Give me, like, a green black or something. You know, something different. Pink. I don't care. Just not, like... Or make it a five-pin set. No one cares that it's six pins. You know, give me, like, Uniball or none of... Everyone else sells just a standard black gel. I don't need... I don't need this set because these pins are almost $5 a pin. $4.80. $28.75 for the six-pin set. What you get in color differentiation from a standard black ink, as you alluded to right at the jump, is not a lot. So, people like Uni's BLX colors because there is a little bit of differentiation on the page. Now, if you look closely, and you can see it, right? Like you were saying, and I have written with these.

Myke Hurley: I had to... I mean, like, I opened the image, and I was like, there's absolutely zero difference. And then it was... You know when you kind of, like... If you're in, like, a dark room, and you go into a bright room, and then your eyes eventually start to adjust? It's like, as I left the image open on my computer, I could kind of start to see the separation between the colors. Right. It's there, but it's very subtle. And I agree with you that they kind of wasted one of them, which is a bit of a shame.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Crimson black is the standout as far as, like, the color differentiation from a standard black. Right? So, crimson black, like, if I'm writing with those, I can tell that's crimson black. Everything else is a challenge, especially, like, charcoal black, like you were alluding to. Like, it's not even gray. It's, like... It's just... It's light black. There's black, and there's light black. So, like, you've wasted, like, two pins in this set that nobody needs. So, maybe I'm down to a four-pin set now, right?

Charcoal Black Ink

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because as well, like, charcoal black is actually not a color. Like, charcoal... It's not a color. Mm-hmm. You know? And this is called black colors. Mm-hmm. And that's what initially made me laugh, is that black is not a color anyway. Right? Right, right, right. And so, that's funny on its own. But then, two of them don't even have a color to them. Like, Bordeaux and crimson, you can see, like, a red in there. Indigo, you can kind of see... I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Indigo is probably the second, you know, most colorful. So, it's crimson is a standout in differentiation. Then indigo and Bordeaux, next. And then olive is almost black to me.

Myke Hurley: But you can see... I mean, at least in the image, I can see there's a little green in it.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But... That's funny. Anyway...

Myke Hurley: Is indigo a blue-black, basically?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's actually a little dark. They're all a little dark. I shouldn't even... Like, I said that. Like, I didn't even mean to say that. They're all a little dark. Yeah. It's fine. It's fine. But, like, if you're going to charge me $5 a pen for this... Wow. ...you need to come correct on some color disparity here.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I agree.

Brad Dowdy: That's expensive. So, that's all. Because I was so excited for these. And I will still use them. I will still love them. And I'll go, hey, look, you know, I can see these colors in here. But I can't help but feeling that they could have done a better job, like, with what they were trying to do. But, I mean, they didn't call these, you know, other colors with black. They called these black colors. So, maybe they're supposed to be dark with just this little tint. You know, maybe that was their idea. But I'll just buy the black Energel for $2 or whatever it is instead of $5 for all of black, right? Like, you're not selling me enough difference to make up, you know, two and a half times the price. So, that's all. Like, I love them, like, just for, like, quality, right? But for what you're telling me these are and the price you're charging me for them, it doesn't quite add up. So, there you go. So, that's my quick.

Myke Hurley: I actually have an ask TPA question that I brought in today to the document that I think is probably good to ask right now. It comes from Don. Can you explain what makes a blue-black ink truly blue-black to you versus just dark blue? Do you consider any of the following inks to be blue-black inks? Waterman Mysterious Blue, Pelican Edelstein Tanzanite, or Noodler's Aircore Blue-Black? There's two parts to this question.

Brad Dowdy: All right. This is a good question. And Dan has, oh, excuse me, Don has, like, the right idea, right? Like, I tend to call dark blues any darker than standard, like, royal blue, like the school blue fountain pen ink that, like, Lamy ships as a default or Pelican ships as a default. Anything darker than that, I tend to call blue-black, even though they might be navy blue, right? Or they might just have some dark blue. Okay. Things like that. I tend to call anything with any level of darkness, even if that darkness is only by adding darker blues into the ink, not really blacks a blue-black. And that's just probably my terminology. You're pretty generous. Not exactly. Yeah, I'm pretty generous on that. I'm not very strict. I call Waterman Mysterious Blue a blue-black. And I call Pelican Edelstein Tanzanite a blue-black. I'm not familiar with Aircore blue-black. So I can't say on that one. Um, Waterman Mysterious Blue more so than the Tanzanite, maybe? Um, Mysterious Blue has a big difference between, like, Waterman's basic blue that it looks like it has mixed with black into it, right? Like, not all blue-black inks look like there is more of a black presence of ink in there than just saying, hey, this is a dark blue. Like, I use one of my all-time favorite inks is Mont Blanc JFK. And it's marketed as a navy blue. I just call it a blue-black because I like those shades of darker blues. Um, so I'm trying to think off the top of my head what would a pure blue-black ink look like? And I'm having to think about that because a lot of them call them, like, Sailor is in that line. Sailor's blue-black I think is probably a really good blue with a lot of black in it. Mm-hmm. Um, whereas something like an Aroshizuku, Shinkai, I call a blue-black, but it's really just a dark blue with a lot of character in it, right? But it's just easier to give it that nomenclature and say, hey, this falls into that blue-black category because it's really a dark blue. So it's hard to clearly define unless you're going to go and say this is, like, a 50% blue and a 50% black. Aurora would fall into that category for me. Um, those tend to be your darker blue-blacks. Diamine blue-black, Aurora blue-black, Sailor blue-black. Those are your really dark, dark blue-blacks. Those are the ones I consider to be the true blue-blacks. And those usually don't land at the top of my blue-black ink list because I prefer them a little bit lighter and a little bit grayer. So I'm not sure I answered Don's question at all, but I think about this a lot. And I don't have an answer. I just know I personally categorize a lot of things as blue-black that probably are just dark blues or navy or things like that.

Myke Hurley: Fair enough. Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of inks, I love this Sailor Tea Time Fika Coffee ink. And this is problematic for a lot of reasons.

Brad Dowdy: One, it came and went, like, in a snap. Like, if you blinked, you missed it. It was, like, a limited series. And apparently I wasn't the only one that liked it.

Brad Dowdy: It's a brown ink that might be the brown ink that I've always been looking for. You know, I've talked over the years about how I want to love brown inks, but I've never completely clicked with one to want to, like, have a bottle or continually have it inked up in a pen. And, like, one of my not blue-black, blue-black inks that I always seem to have inked up. I want that brown ink for me. Like, I want to settle on a brown ink that I really love. It turns out it's this one that's inaccessible pretty much. So it was a small bottle, expensive, limited run. 18-milliliter bottles, like, 20 bucks or 20 milliliters for 18 bucks or whatever. It was expensive. It's great. It's just freaking fantastic. It's just this dark, rich brown. Like, it's not light, but you can see that it's brown ink. Unlike if, hey, there's the ink that Energel needs instead of the black one. Brown black. Put that in your list. Take black out and give us a brown black. So that's the one you need. Um, it's great. And now I'm not going to get it anymore. And that's okay. Because in the past, I would buy multiple bottles of ink, right? But this has given me a color and a shade of ink that now I can go look for in other colors to try to match, right? So this is why I don't chase, like, limited edition inks at all. Um, because I used to do that with, like, Sailor Apricot in the past or Sailor Sky High. Well, it turns out that your own company might re-release the same exact ink a few years later. And you'll live without having, you know, the perfect orange ink for a few years until it comes back again. Or maybe you make your own. Whatever. Whatever. This brown ink is my brown ink. And it is no longer available. Like, I don't even know how it became available, when it became available. I looked into a bottle, like, at the moment it was available. And now I can't find it anywhere. And I almost hate mentioning it. Mentioning it? Mentioning it? That's a hard word to say. You got it. Third time's a charm. It's good. Like, if I, this is the ink I've been, brown ink I've been looking for, for daily use. And I'm really, really, really happy with it. I just, you know, I'll finish this bottle. And, you know, we'll see what other comparable brown inks I can find. So that's a challenge to all of our listeners out there. If you happen to have Sailor Tea Time Series Fika Coffee ink, see if you can find one that's exactly the same. I don't know. It could be easy. It could be hard. No, use your ink. Don't hold on to it. No, hold it. I'm going to, I'm going to drink it. It's coffee ink. It's not scented though. It's probably for the best. Mmm, definitely. It's definitely for the best. It would not be on my list if it was scented, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I appreciate the scent when I want the scent, but I don't want flannel of it.

Myke Hurley: I don't ever want scented inks.

Brad Dowdy: I don't mind scented markers. No, I don't want them. Mmm.

Myke Hurley: I don't want them.

Brad Dowdy: No scent whatsoever. Like, what's a, what would be a great smell? Like a, you know, fresh cookies baking. Like, you wouldn't want that on an ink. Yeah, I wouldn't either.

Myke Hurley: Because I don't, see, this is, it's why I also don't like, like those automatic air fresheners. So yesterday, I visited my mom yesterday, because it was my birthday this week, right? So I went to visit my mom yesterday. Happy birthday. Thank you so much. And we were sitting in the room, and then she has one of those automatic air freshener things, you know, like every now and then. Yeah. And I hate it. And we were sitting there, and she's like, I don't like this smell. And I said, well, what are you, why is this here then? She's like, well, I don't want to waste it. It's like, but you don't like the smell. Nobody else likes the smell. It's like an attack every 10 minutes or whatever. Why do you have it? You know? I don't understand those things. Because a lot of the time, I end up finding, like, if there's, like, a bunch of family over or whatever, I end up, like, grabbing a chair, and I always tend to put it down basically where that thing is. And every now and then, I turn around just at that moment, bang, in the face.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. What's the smell? What was the smell of this one?

Myke Hurley: I have no idea, man. It's some floral nonsense. I was going to say, was it floral? Yeah. And it was terrible.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Florals are strong. So, anyway, scented inks, I get. Like, I understand. But I'm like you. I just, I've used some that you go back to the page, and there is still a scent there. And then that's when I, that's a challenge. That's when I'm just like, that's enough for me.

Scented Inks

Myke Hurley: The issue that I have with the scented ink stuff is, like, I don't, it's like, I don't always want this very specific scent. You know what I mean? Like, I don't always want that one thing. And that's why I'm not into it. You know? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Sometimes it's perfect and perfect timing. Sometimes it's the worst.

Myke Hurley: Uh-huh.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, I'm going to say, to show you something now, that it's pretty perfect, but not necessarily for me. But I got this link a bunch this week. Visconti dropped another Homo Sapiens pen, the Demo Stones, which they have done before. But this time, Myke, they did it in orange and purple. And they're pretty amazing. And I'm not going to buy them. Because I just spent a lot of money on a pen. And this pen is not perfect for me. This orange is ridiculous. This reminds me of the Sailor Pro Gear orange.

Myke Hurley: Oh, my God. That looks good, man. Even I'm into this. Because you know what? The clip. Putting the color in the clip. Color in the clip. This is kind of like, this is like if Thanos was going to get, you know, some pens that be like this. It's like the Infinity Stones of pens.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, like, the jewels are on the top. That's my hang-up. Like, if it was a flat top, I don't know if I would have ordered the Elbow. Like, it's okay. Like, I don't dislike it. But for the price, you know, $800. Yeah, I don't like that either. It's not, like, completely perfect. Like, that's a price range.

Myke Hurley: See, the one time I'm willing to accept the clip, they go and put, it looks like a stylus tip on the top of the pen. And that's ugly. Totally.

Brad Dowdy: And this is a series continuation. They've been doing this for, like, two years now. So, there's been, like, red and green. And they've been doing other colors. Blue. And I don't know what this other color is. Like, a burgundy. So, yeah. They've done other colors. So, this is, like, a continuation of the series of this demo stones series. And the demo stones is that finial thing.

Myke Hurley: The thing that's kind of frustrating to me about this is it's not actually a stone. Right. Right? It's just an acrylic dome. And I know that that would be maybe completely cost prohibitive if you want to put, like, a piece of sapphire on the top of the pen. But it's kind of just, like, if it's not that, then what's the point of putting the little, like, nubbin on the end?

Brad Dowdy: So, here, I want to read this. Homo sapiens demo stone fountain pens are designed and created in Visconti's Florentine workshop. The barrel and cap are made with tuned acrylic resin and hand polish with special felt tools. So, there you go. So, it's basically just...

Myke Hurley: I will say, as well, like, $1,000 retail for a plastic pen.

Brad Dowdy: Well, these are always MSRP ones. Visconti was the one that years ago would not list. They were logged in for MSRP. I mean, were logged in for real price companies, right? You couldn't publish the real price because I don't know why. Like, I've never understood that idea. They'd list the MSRP and you would have to log in to find the true price. Well, the true price is always 20% less. Like, and, like, everyone knows. No one has to click the button to see the price. So, Visconti's always done that. So, this has always been the price structure for Visconti. So, yeah, it's an $800 pen, like, that I might... If it went to $500, I might think I might be okay with the jewel. I don't know. Because the orange is so hot. Like, this is the correct translucent orange that reminds me of Sailor's Orange.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, it's really, really good. So, I don't know. Like, I have no interest in buying this pen, but I sure as heck want to see it in person.

Myke Hurley: Like, I have other plastic pens, you know. Yeah. Like, that are expensive. But it is difficult. You know, you've really got to think about it.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Like, I only have budget for, you know, not many $800 pens. Like, that's a luxury that, you know, I don't take for granted.

Myke Hurley: If a pen is made of plastic and it costs $800, it has to be perfect to my desire for taste. You know?

Brad Dowdy: Right. Right. I don't want to always be thinking about the jewel on the top because that's the only hang-up I have with this pen. And if I spend that much money and I'm constantly thinking about it, well, I've made a bad purchasing decision. I made a bad decision with my money and I don't like to make bad decisions. Even though I'm taking a very big risk on the Elwood, right? That's a risky thing that I don't normally do. But it looks beautiful, though.

Brad Dowdy: I'm pretty sure it's going to do well. Yeah. So, anyway. Anyway, I wanted to point that out because everyone was sending me that link. And Visconti nailed it. Like, straight up.

Myke Hurley: Colors are so good.

Brad Dowdy: They straight up nailed it. They didn't straight up nail it. But the colors are good. The color. The color-wise. Like, it is hot. Like, it is complete. Like, I could use that pen as, like, you know, my desktop background even though I would never own the pen. Yeah. Probably. Yeah. But, yeah. All the colors have the Visconti, the color of the pen in the clip. And that was a good decision. I'm with you on that. All right. So, that's all the stuff that I'm digging this week. Even though I gave the Energels a hard time. It's a killer pen. You just got to think that these are black pens. If you're going to go into that. And the tea, the tea time coffee ink, which is confusing to me. I just wanted to call it the tea ink. Tea time coffee ink. I don't know. But you can't get it, really. So, you have to dig around for that. And the orange and purple, very expensive Homo sapiens. It was a good week for pens and ink.

Myke Hurley: All right. Before we finish up today, I've got a nice DPA question that I enjoyed. All right. It comes from Frames, who asks, Given the torrent of limited releases coming from Leonardo, do you think they will hit, or we may hit, a saturation point with them similar to what we've seen with Sailor in the past couple of years?

Brad Dowdy: I love this question. We get this question from time to time. I speak on this topic unprompted from time to time. And the answer is yes and no. Yeah, I agree with you completely. You have to recall that not every fountain pen user is at the same stage of purchasing of fountain pens, right? So, do the new colors from... Let's just, since the question was about Leonardo, let's just focus on them. So, I bought three or four different Leonardo's, five maybe, and bought all these colors that I like. And I didn't really intend to kind of do that at the first, but they kept releasing new colors, and I kind of liked them. But then I paired them back to, like, the really focus on the ones that I want. So, when a new Leonardo comes out, it's not as compelling to me personally, because I have a couple that I really, really enjoy. But it doesn't mean that Leonardo sees the effect of me not buying the next color, and the next color, and the next color, because they have newfound interest from people just discovering the brand, and they're going, OMG, look at these colors. And now they're on a journey that's at a different stage than I'm at with my purchasing, to where they're going, hey, I'm going to check out this color, and this color, and then maybe they back it back down, and like I did, and kind of refine that over time, and you need, you know, I have less of them, you know, in my collection now than I did previously. And I think this is just, we're always going to see the continuation of the popular thing to a time frame beyond where you're comfortable, you know, continuing to buy them. because you're no longer their customer, maybe, but you appreciate what they do, and the next customer is where you were a few years ago. So there's always going to be a time for these companies to like really lean into the thing that made them popular with Leonardo. It's like these materials, right? Because there's always the next customer coming, and it doesn't matter if I've seen it before or not. Their new customer is going, wow, look at this, and I would like to buy this pen. So they're okay with that.

Sailor Pens Saturation

Myke Hurley: And the thing is, I understand the question. I think the important context to remember is like just the incredible amount of sailors that there have been and are, because so many people and companies do limited editions with them in a way that Leonardo isn't currently doing. It feels like at least every Leonardo is coming from Leonardo by and large. Yeah. With the occasional, you know, smaller batch one or whatever, but, you know.

Brad Dowdy: See, like I say, I say this with Sailor, like it's almost, Sailor has turned me off of them, you know, not overall big picture, but just like today, like I'm good, like skipping, like literally every Sailor that comes out.

Myke Hurley: Less interested in monitoring all the new releases system.

Brad Dowdy: But that doesn't change my overall premise that someone's going, holy cow, look at this. And what does, and ultimately, that's going to continue to keep them going.

Myke Hurley: Do these companies, genuinely, like do they think, oh, what we need to do is sell the same 100 people 25 pens? I don't, I know if I was running a pen brand like that, I don't think that would be my goal. Right. Right. And that's not sustainable. You can keep releasing various limited editions, maybe you'll capture some fans of the brand, but you're ultimately, the more colors you make, the more people you can bring in, maybe.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So the short version of the answer to my long-winded answer is, like, saturation points for companies are not based on individuals' purchasing decisions, right? what could be saturated to me may not be saturated for Myke.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So that's why, that's why you're going to keep seeing Sailor, like every time you blink, a new Sailor show up, right? Because they know better than you and I what's going to sell. Mm-hmm. And if they can afford to keep doing this, and clearly they can.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. All right. I think, I think that's it, right?

Brad Dowdy: All right. Woo! Good show. Good show today. $4.99, Myke. Big week next week. I'm ready. I'm excited.

Myke Hurley: It's going to be a big one. Again, we ask you to send in your, your question, not questions, your answer to our question, Mm-hmm. which is basically, we want to understand what is your favorite stationary item and what makes it special to you. If you go to our show notes, you can find them at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 499, fill in the Google sheet, and your answer will be read out on next week's episode, which is going to be episode 500. It will be recorded and released on February 9th, which is also our 10-year anniversary. We'll be recording live at 2 p.m. GMT, 9 a.m. Eastern U.S. time on Wednesday if you want to come and tune in. Thank you to Squares Space for the support of this show and as again, we mentioned support over the many, many years. But of course, most of all, thank you for listening and we'll be back next time. If you want to find Brad in the meantime, go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com. You can also find him as penaddict on Instagram, twitch.tv slash penaddict and at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E. All right, until next week, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.