The Pen Addict 404/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	404
Title:	Maybe a Pen Canoe
Release Date:	April 1st, 2020
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 404
Audio File:	Audio Episode 404
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 404
Length:	5252 min <br />0.867 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 404. Today's show is brought to you by Uni. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by a lost co-host, Brad Dowdy.

Myke Hurley: Right off the gate with the 404 jokes, right? Yep. I mean, I've never had the opportunity to have an episode 404 before, so... That's true. This joke will play way better on my tech shows, but I have to wait a couple of years to get it. Right, right. Yeah, it's not too often you get to the 404 episode not found level.

Brad Dowdy: We're also going to find out today if a 404th episode works in our CMS.

Myke Hurley: I was thinking that, and I didn't want to say it. When we were talking to Stephen earlier, I almost said that out loud, and I said, that might be a jinx. Today we will find out if episode 404 will work on that.

Episode 404 Jokes

Brad Dowdy: This might actually be the lost episode.

Myke Hurley: Well, I mean, you've imported other shows' episodes that are in the 500s and stuff that exist.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good point, good point. I guess this isn't the only 404th episode of a show. It's just something that I've done. Yeah, Mac Power, you've just got up to 404.

Myke Hurley: It'll just be the first fresh input of a show, so we'll see. We'll see what problems we cause. You know where else we cause problems, Myke? We cause problems on Kickstarter. Do we? No, no. We run the best Kickstarter campaigns. We do. The world causes problems for us. And even when they're completely off the rails, like this one is, I think it's done a pretty good job.

Brad Dowdy: It's kind of funny in a macabre way right now to me to, like, read the description and be like, not doing that, not doing that, not doing that.

Myke Hurley: Scratch that. So when I was updating the Kickstarter text, they don't allow a strikethrough. I was going to make liberal use of the strikethrough in the Kickstarter text. But we're still making a pen. And, I mean, please, that's all anyone cares about, right?

Brad Dowdy: Can I just say, I don't know how I've missed this, that our pen will glow in the dark. How is this a thing that I have missed up until this point?

Myke Hurley: I mean, you're going to have to answer that question. I have shown you artwork on multiple occasions.

Brad Dowdy: But I've never read the text underneath the thing on the far right. And I know I'm not the only person here that's going to have had this revelation. I just thought that that was some kind of printing chart thing. Because in the image, you've got the pen, then you've got the gloss finish. And it's like this. I was like, okay, that's the representation of all the artwork. And then on the far right-hand side, it's just like, oh, that just must be some kind of printing code. But no, that's showing what will glow in the dark and what will not. We have never mentioned on the show that the pen will glow in the dark. So I guess this is your final push. Because as we are recording this, there are only three days left to go on the Kickstarter campaign. So if you want one of these pens, there's only 166 of them left. If you don't get it now, you may never get one. We're not planning on selling these anymore. We're just going to order what we get.

Myke Hurley: Yep, yep. I will let you slightly off the hook on the glow in the dark piece. Because the very first image we shared only listed the color as GID. And it did not have the blue representational background.

Brad Dowdy: You also never told me that it was going to be glow in the dark. So I'm very happy about that. But I will... There you go. This is an added feature and benefit for you.

Kickstarter Text Update

Myke Hurley: This is fresh new Kickstarter content. We decided to add glow in the dark. Just kidding. It's been there the whole time. That's just how we roll.

Brad Dowdy: Stretch glow. Stretch glow.

Myke Hurley: Free stretch glow glow in the dark.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. We are going to be recording this very weekend the special video episode that me and Brad are going to be doing. Where we're going to be...

Myke Hurley: Our Atlanta Pen Show episode?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, kind of. It's going to be just... We're going to do something we've never done before. Which is kind of wild to think that we have not done this. Is to do some kind of video bonus. Where we get to show some of our personal pen collections. So I guess we'll pick out a bunch of the pens that I talk about a lot on this show. And I'm sure Brad will do the same. And we'll just get to show them off. We're going to be using webcams. It's going to be Zoom-like, I guess, really. And it's fitting in with that whole hashtag work from home life. And then I'm hoping that it will be available before next week's episode. And it will be sent out to the backers of the campaign. This is only going to be available for Kickstarter backers. So at any level. So you can just do the video level you get this. Or you can get a pen and you'll get this. This is going to be one of the two videos that will be produced this year. So I'm really actually looking forward to it. It's going to be fun. It's going to be a nice, relaxed conversation showing off some of our favorites from our personal collections.

Myke Hurley: That's exactly right. And the issue for me is I have to travel to the proper studio for this. So packing the correct pens to bring. That's going to have to be some thought put into this. So if anyone's listening and wants to see anything specific for me that I've maybe talked about randomly but not frequently. Hit me up on Twitter or something like that. But I think I'll I don't have a crazy amount of things to choose from. But I am I'm going to bring a lot Myke just so you know there's going to be a lot of things.

Brad Dowdy: I know exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to pick up my long wooden block thing put it in front of me and then just show off every single one of my sailor pens.

Video Bonus Episode Planning

Myke Hurley: Yeah I'm already thinking about re-fidgeting with two of the biggest pen cases that I have that are easy to carry. Actually the retro 51 pen trays that hold like 16 pens. So and if I have two of those. So that's 32 right there. I think I can get that.

Brad Dowdy: It's going to be 19 hours long. Yes. But no I think it's going to be really great. I'm very excited about being able to produce this video. So we'll be working on that and should be available to you by before next week's episode. But if you want to get it you have to go back to Kickstarter campaign. So you can find the link in the show notes to do that. As I say it's only a couple of days left. So if you're hearing this kind of what is it before Saturday the 4th you still have time.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So that funny you should mention that Myke. We time this. Yeah. Campaign to end right before we recorded the podcast. Yeah. At the now cancelled Atlanta pen show. Just I forgot about that until you just said that. Great. Great.

Myke Hurley: Good.

Brad Dowdy: Everyone F in the chat. So yeah.

Myke Hurley: Get some F's in the chat please. F's in the chat. Back our campaign. This pen is awesome. You will have a great pen. A great story. You'll have some cool videos. Behind the scenes stuff. And you should do it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We're going to make it worth you all. Totally.

Myke Hurley: Totally.

Myke Hurley: I made CW Pencil Enterprises existence worth their while the other day Myke. I made an order. So you know. I just. You know. It's what I do.

Brad Dowdy: I'm sure the red alarm went off behind the desk.

Myke Hurley: They're ready. Brad Dowd is on the website everyone. Stand back. That's right. That's right. That's right. So.

Myke Hurley: National Pencil Day. Myke. Was earlier this week. Monday. And I. I think I've done this before. When I order enough pencils in random times. But I think I generally make an order on National Pencil Day. Just because I feel like I don't pay attention to all the pencily things as much as I do the pen things. And I was like. Oh. I should go catch up on a few things. And pencils are kind of this little mini addiction. Because they're so cheap compared to a fountain pen. Yeah. Or even like a bottle of ink. I can go nuts at CW Pencil and spend. Like if you spend $70 at CW Pencil. You have enough pencils for like two years. Right.

Brad Dowdy: I will say as well. The stuff that you've put in the show notes. The things that you bought. We're going to talk about them. But like. They are incredibly aesthetically pleasing to me.

Myke Hurley: I think that's one of the things I like the most about pencils. Right. It's a very traditional writing instrument. Everyone knows what a standard yellow pencil looks like. But it brings up those memories. And I know the guys at the Erasable podcast. You know. Talk about this all the time. Like just about how. Like the aesthetics and the tactileness. And the. The smell of the pencil. And the sound it makes when you write with it. Those are all like pleasing memories. Right. So they're just a very very great writing instrument. And I've gotten into pencils over the last few years. And I. You know. Just like everything else. In my stationary closet of doom. I have way more pencils than I ever use. But that doesn't stop me from picking up a few new things. So I wanted to tell you. The few things that I got. Because you're not really a wooden pencil guy. Like I've sent you all the black wings. I don't know. Last year at some point. Like one of each of the black wing volumes. Have you ever. Used those more than like the day I sent them to you. No. Yeah. No. I like.

Brad Dowdy: I like mechanical pencils.

Myke Hurley: I get that. Yeah. Yeah. Like I could. I totally knew that going into it. I was like. Yeah. Maybe he will. Maybe he won't. And that's cool either way. But.

Myke Hurley: Like you said. I find something aesthetically pleasing about all the things. And. I just wanted to show you the things that I bought. One of them. Which I don't think was there when we made our visit. But you know I bought the Viking Caran D'Ache 849.

Myke Hurley: Ballpoint pen set. They had a pencil and a pen set with them. Well I bought. This time around. I bought the Viking collector's pencil. Boxed set. And. I don't know what it is. About Vikings. Art style. But it really speaks to me. It's kind of big and chunky. And bold. And clean. And classic looking. All like wrapped up in one. And I really like their style. And they make pretty good pencils. They. I will say. They're not my favorite pencils. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But they're really good. They're very very. Aesthetically pleasing. And this set. Gives me. A huge range. Of. Their styles. They. Viking doesn't make a ton. Of things that are accessible to. Us. Like outside. You know in the US. You know outside of Denmark. Which is where they're from. And. This is a good. Way to. Grab a few things. At a. Very premium. Price point. So. If you bought these singly. You could probably get them. For much less. How many pencils are in here? It's like a dozen or so. But it's a very cool set. I like it. It's very pretty. I'm going to. Use the heck out of these. As soon as I get them in. I think. I don't have all these in yet. This. I think they're coming today. Um.

Myke Hurley: The next thing on my list. Myke. This was. A hesitancy. For me. And I was like. You know what. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it anyway. And I'm only doing it. Because. It's. CW Pencil. Enterprises. Branded. It's the CWE. Perfect Pencil. Myke. Do you recall. The. Faber Castell. The Graff von Faber Castell. Perfect Pencil. Discussion. That we had. When I bought the very. Very. Yeah. High end. Super expensive one.

Brad Dowdy: Ridiculous. Purchase. I remember.

Myke Hurley: I sold that. I sold that at quite a loss. By the way. Oh. You sold it? Oh. Hell yeah. I didn't know you did that. Yeah. I'm not going to use it. I had someone reach out to me. And said. You know. Like. Look. I know you don't. You didn't like it. I'm not sure if I'm going to like it. Do you want to sell it? And I was like. Yeah. I will. I will happily sell it to you. But. Like. I can't. I'm not going to sell it to you. For like. You know. Close to what I paid for it. Or. You know. Anything like that. Like. How can I. Rail on a product. And then say. Please pay me full price for it. Yeah. But. I remember. When I. When I did that interview. Oh yeah. Interview. Jeez Louise. When I did that product review. On the blog. We'll put a link to that. Review in the show notes. I mentioned. That. The. Entry level. Or like. The step up. From the entry level. Perfect pencil. Is probably the correct purchase. That you want to make. If you're considering this type of setup. Right. The. Faber Castell perfect pencils. Ranged from like. Three dollars. Up into multiple. Hundreds of them. Of dollars. But the sweet spot. Is probably. This. Ten dollar one. Which is like. There's like. A three dollar one. That's very very cheap. And then there's like. A ten dollar. Range ish one. There's a few more. In this range. Some maybe. Somewhere around 20. That are. A metal. Kind of cap thing. So. This one was only ten dollars. And I wanted to try. I wanted to try this. And see. If I have some of the. Frustrations. And. If those frustrations. Are the same. Spending ten dollars. As they were. Two hundred dollars. I can't imagine.

Brad Dowdy: That they would be.

Myke Hurley: Right. Because it's. It's a completely different price point. You're. At this. At this price point. Any. Issues. Fall into. Well that's acceptable. For what it is. Right. Where the issues. For a two hundred. Two hundred. Two hundred. Two hundred fifty dollar. Product. Get just. Any minor issue. Gets blown way out of scope. And rightfully so. Right. Like. Completely. Fairly so. But it's a much bigger deal. When you've made that type of investment. Into a product. So. I. I. I probably would not have bought one of these. If it wasn't. Cool looking. Like. Caroline. And team.

Brad Dowdy: They've made it. It's beautiful. They made this one very very. It's like red. It's really neat. With their logo on the side. And it's such a good logo. Like. Yeah. Yeah. This is. I. I really. I think they did a great job with this. I think it's super nice.

Previous Purchases

Myke Hurley: And actually. The. The Faber-Castell branded ones. In that price range. I. Just. Are not that good looking. Right. This is a very good looking. Perfect pencil. Where the. The other ones just. Don't. Don't really do it for me. The next thing. I bought. Myke. I bought the CWPE sampler set. You'll. You'll see a theme here. I really believe in. In CWPE's. Style. And aesthetic. They have very good taste. Caroline has good taste. She didn't get here. Um. She didn't get to where she's at today. Without having. Great. Uh. Taste. In design. And aesthetics. And products. So this is a grouping of products. That. Are all made. By. Companies. They work with. For. CW. Pencil Enterprises. Enterprise. Um. You know. It's got. The Moon Products Futura. Which is. Going in the Pen Addict set soon. They have a. A couple of. Caran D'Ache. Uh. Pencils. Um. You know. Bridge pencil. Baseball scoring pencil. On and on and on. I bought this to give away. Um. My favorite pencil. Out of this group. Future is one of them. But I use the editor. Which is a. Double sided pencil. Myke. It's. Uh. Red on one end. And. Graphite. On the other end. And that's probably. One of my most used pencils. I love that. So I bought this. To give away. Um. In the future. On. The Pen Addict. Nice. Website. Yeah. So I thought that's a good way. To get other people. Into pencils. Um. These sampler sets. That they have curated. There's also a Pen Addict. Sampler set. Out there too. Um. That I. That I helped. Uh. Put together. And we have a couple of. Changes coming into that set. But that's probably on hold. Right now. Because they are not actually. In the shop. They're just shipping. Online orders. They're not. You know. They have other things. To worry about right now. Than. Um. Modifying that set. The Super Sticks. Rainbow pencil. Myke. I'm in. Have you seen. Did you see. The Rainbow pencils. When we went to. Their shop before.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Of course.

Myke Hurley: So it's a different brand. I think they're a Coenor. Yeah. I have.

Brad Dowdy: I have one or two of the Coenor ones. They're like. Yeah. Much thicker.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So they make a thick one. And a thin one. Coenor does. This is your standard size. I don't know. Anything about this brand. Super Sticks. Made in Austria. Um. They're just really bright. They're bright green. Lime green barrels. With different color. Dipped ends. Based on the colors. That are on the interior. Of. Of the pencil. So like. All the little colored pencils. It's just. These are fun to write with. I keep one on my desk. And. I hadn't tried this brand before. So I wanted to try that. And I also. Just randomly. This. I spent. A lot of time. Scrolling through their website. Trying to order things. That I can use. And review. And that were new to me. And this. Pencil sharpener. From NJK. Um. I'd never heard of. Never seen before. But anytime. You say. Pencil sharpener. And long point. In the same sentence. I'm going to be interested. Because that's how. I like the. Um. I like my sharpener to be. So this is just. It was like a $6.50. Handheld pencil sharpener. That I just wanted to try. Maybe it's good. Maybe it's not. But. That's how you get in trouble. At CWPE. Everything is. Reasonably. Inexpensive. And the next thing you know. You have 30 pencils. Um. On the way to you. So. That was my national. Pencil day. Celebration. At the pen addict household. How did you celebrate. National pencil day Myke?

Brad Dowdy: I threw all my pencils out the window.

Myke Hurley: Mm. Nice.

Brad Dowdy: And I like a confetti. You know. To celebrate for people outside.

Myke Hurley: Cool. Cool. Um. Did you hit anyone? No. Because nobody's outside. Oh. So smart Myke.

New Pencil Blog

Brad Dowdy: There you go. Ding.

Myke Hurley: That was so smart Myke. Very smart by you. Golly. Um. Speaking of smart. Uh huh. I wanted to give a shout out to a new pencil blog. Called pencil fodder. I learned of this through. Pencil revolution. I've been following their posts. They. Post a lot about the history. Of pencils. And have some really neat. Um. Fun posts that I've enjoyed reading. I've shared them in refill. A couple of times. And I'm really enjoying. Uh. This blog. So y'all should all add that. To. Your. Um. To your reading. Hmm. Um. And uh. We're not. We're not done with pencils yet Myke.

Brad Dowdy: Who could be.

Myke Hurley: Hmm. I reviewed a pencil case. I like this. The pen addict. Yeah. That is very much not. A pencil case that you would. In name. Right. No. The La Berlue. Pencil case.

Brad Dowdy: I saw pictures of it. And didn't understand what it was. Like. You know. Like. Kind of. Like. Pictures of. It closed. Or like. Slightly open. And. It was a surprise to see. What it actually ended up being.

Unique Pen Case Review

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And that's the thing. That's why. I appreciated this product. And I did a review. Of it. A couple of weeks ago. And it's just this unique. It's more of a pen. I kind of. Call it like a pen sleeve. Maybe a pen canoe. But it's basically. Two pieces of wood. Where the main. Inner. Part. Is kind of carved out. To hold. I don't know. It holds about eight pencils. It's not. Huge. Huge. Capacity. On the inside. But it doesn't need to be. Like. Pencils are small. Skinny.

Myke Hurley: You know. And they can. You can fit a couple other things in there. Like an eraser. But I just wanted to point this out. I've. I've shouted out. Frederick. And. And his work. At La Berlue. Berlue. A bunch. On Instagram. And on Twitter. Just because. He's very enjoyable. To talk to. He is. He has. A life about him. That I very much enjoy. Bringing out. And. I think his products are really cool. And he's going to keep working on new stuff. And he will let us know. As it. Proceeds. But this lives on my desk now. Right. It's like a desk piece. So you call it a pen case. Because it actually holds pens. Like storage. But it's really. Almost like a desk object. Like. I wouldn't really. Throw this in my backpack. And. Go out to. The coffee shop. And set this up on the table. That'd be a little bit. A little bit past my hipster. Cred. To do. But. It's a pretty great. Pencil case. For what it is. It's. Really. Really unique. And extremely well made.

Brad Dowdy: What level is your hipster cred? I'm not sure.

Myke Hurley: I mean. It's decent. Like. I'm moderate hipster. I guess. Okay. You know. I'm a little bit past poser. I do have some. Some. Some cred. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But I'm. I'm not all the way there. I mean. I'm wearing a. A. A. Backwards baseball cap today. That's not very hipstery. I don't think.

Brad Dowdy: I'm not sure what that means really.

Myke Hurley: I'm wearing shorts. And long socks that are orange. And purple shoes. Is that it? Okay.

Brad Dowdy: I think you're back in. You made it. I think you did it. And a hoodie. I'm wearing a hoodie. I'm wearing a hoodie. I'm going to make you a different kind of hipster right now. I want to make you the kind of hipster that makes pizza in their back garden. I'm so excited. This episode is brought to you by Uni, the world's number one pizza oven company. They make surprisingly small ovens that are powered by your choice of either wood, charcoal, or gas, letting you make restaurant quality pizza in your own backyard. All Uni models are super easy to use and really portable as well. So you have to see for yourself, but these ovens will fit in any outside space. They can reach temperatures of up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit, 500 degrees Celsius, which enables you to cook restaurant pizza, quality restaurant pizza, I should say, in as little as 60 seconds. It is that high temperature that separates average pizzas you make in a home oven from the quality that you can get from Uni pizza ovens. It's at least twice the heat. I had a FaceTime call with Christian, one of the founders of Uni. Uni actually sponsored this show a long time ago when they were a very small company. They are now a very big company. They make lots of amazing products now. They spread out all over the globe. It's really amazing to see how they've grown, actually. It's quite an impressive story. But we had a FaceTime call and he showed me the Uni Coda 16, which is their new oven that can cook up to 16-inch pizzas. And it's gas-powered. It has this L-shaped burner at the back, so the heat is distributed evenly. But he made a pizza while we were on the call and it cooked so fast. I mean, they say 60 seconds. It felt like less. It was really very impressive. Uni ovens start from just $199 and they are free shipping to the US, the UK and the EU. We have two of the coolest models that they make, being the multi-fueled Uni Karu, which can use wood, charcoal or gas. So you can choose, depending on what you want to cook with. Or the Uni Coda 16. But they have many other products and accessories, from peels to cutters to tables for your ovens that you can check out. And get 10% off your first purchase of an Uni pizza oven, which is up to $50 if you get the Coda 16, by going to uni.com and using the code THEPENADDICT at checkout. Americans buy over 3 billion pizzas per year and consume approximately 350 slices of pizza every second. So why not make some of these for yourself at home? Once you try it, you're never going to look back. Uni is the best way to bring restaurant quality pizza to your own backyard. Go to uni.com, that's O-O-N-I.com and use the code THEPENADDICT and you will get 10% off your first purchase. Our thanks to Uni for their support of this show.

Myke Hurley: A couple of things. One, I want to personally raise those numbers averages a little bit during this quarantine. Of the amount of pizza you consume. Yeah, me too. Yeah, yeah. We need to push those numbers a little bit higher. Second, and you alluded to this, Christian has been a Panatic listener since I think the beginning. I know we started talking to him early on and it's like, here's this guy and he's got this idea and he's making these ovens. And I remember his first Kickstarter campaign and all this stuff. And to see his success over the years and he's just, it doesn't seem to have changed him. He's still the same down to earth cool guy. Like we talk on Twitter.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. He thinks over 50 employees now with offices in Scotland, in Europe and in Austin, Texas as well.

Myke Hurley: Yes. So it's amazing to have watched Christian do this and like see like his dreams come true. And I'm just wanting to say I'm proud of him. And I think he's just an awesome dude. And he deserves like every bit of success that Uni is having right now. And they're just completely blowing up. So congratulations to him.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Christian and Darina, the founders of the company, and they're just wonderful people. And they have done like such an impressive job. Like their product offering now is amazing. Yeah. Super awesome. Super awesome.

Myke Hurley: Yep. All right. So I was thinking about topics for this week's show.

Brad Dowdy: As you do.

Myke Hurley: As you do. But do I? Sometimes it's kind of difficult. Sometimes it's sometimes I know as soon as we stop recording one week what I'm going to talk about next week. Yeah. Sometimes I know the morning of the show what we're going to talk about. This one came in a little bit earlier that I kind of had this idea. And it's a really simple idea. And everyone's going to go, oh, really? He's going to talk about fountain pen inks. That's what he's going to do. But yeah, I'm going to talk about fountain pen inks because the more I dove into this topic, the more I learned a little bit about myself and the kind of times we're living in and the things that I'm appreciating right now. So if you'll allow me a story in the beginning here, Myke, to kind of explain like this is pure Brad rambles for five to ten minutes about a nonsensical topic. But that's why we have 404 episodes of the of the pen addict. But I almost stopped buying fountain pen inks like two years ago because it was just too much. It's like I was very happy with the inks that I have. You know, my blue blacks, my bright blues, some pinks, some greens, of course, oranges here and there. But I kept watching all of these new ink brands, new ink companies come out and I just it was overwhelming to me. Like what is happening in the ink market? And I had to take a step back. Like I stopped buying inks. We kept reviewing on the blog. I kept ordering them, you know, and I kept shipping them out to the reviewers. And I said, let me let them review them for a while. Like I need an ink break. And, you know, I've probably got I don't even know if I counted my inks is probably bordering 100 inks, you know, bottles of ink. And I was just like, I got to stop. It's just too much. I can't keep up with this, which I don't think I've ever said about any stationary item ever. It's like it's too much. I can't keep up. So that led me into my theme for 2019 was I just had this ink frustration in 2018. I was just like, I'm done. But the ink companies didn't care what I thought. They kept coming out with more stuff and it kept drawing me in. So I made 2019 theme the year of experimentation. And I chose that name because I was going to force myself to experiment with fountain pen inks. Now, the year of experimentation meant more things than that. But to be perfectly honest, it came exactly from me wanting to try more fountain pen inks.

Myke Hurley: I didn't totally succeed in that experimentation. Like I started strong. I bought some weird colors. I wanted to try things that I never wouldn't normally try, right? Brands I've never used. Colors I would never use. Things like that. So I did okay in the beginning and then just kind of, you know, got out of the habit. You know, went right back to using blue, black and orange and bright blue. So I gave myself probably like a D grade on that. My habits of usage for inks just kind of stayed the same. And I was trying to break out of some of those habits. By the end of last year, my thoughts changed. I don't know how or why specifically.

Myke Hurley: But there just kept being more and more ink. Like from 2018 to 2019, inks just exploded even more. Like I thought we were at peak ink in like 2018 and I couldn't have been more wrong. And I was trying to avoid it back then. So when I saw that I was wrong about that, now I'm kind of like, I want to lean into it again. So I've started to be impressed by some of these new ink makers that are coming out. And seeing all these new shades coming out that I want to try. And seeing all these stories that are interesting. And those are the things that have always excited me about stationery. But it was the inks for whatever reason for a time period there, I was just overwhelmed. So I'm still using...

Brad Dowdy: Ink is so much harder to get a handle of in that regard. Because there's more of it. And it's harder to judge on the surface, I think. Right. You can't just look like you can at pens. It's way harder, I think. That's exactly right. Because like the bottles show you nothing. Even honestly, like swatching doesn't really help that much. Because it's dependent on the paper that you use, right? And the pen that you're using. Which is not the same for pens. You can judge them aesthetically by just looking at the finished product. Yeah. And go yes or no.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. So that's why I love Kelly at Mountain of Ink for this. Because she really takes an ink and uses as many different pens, nib sizes, swatches, swabs, paintbrushes, paper. To give you a better example of that. And like the pen addicts never... I'm never going to do that because I would go crazy, right? I like too many other things.

Brad Dowdy: That's a specialized thing. Yeah. It's specialized.

Myke Hurley: And she's the best.

Brad Dowdy: What I like here is the fact that Kelly uses different paper. Yep. In the images that they represent. So you can like... You get a better idea of, oh, I used this type of paper. So I might... It might look a little bit more like this.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And a review she did this past week or a week ago that I put in refill kind of got me down this path of wanting to talk about this topic today. Because she did a review. I think it's called Diamine Classic Green. And on name alone, on general swatch color alone, I would have never even considered this ink ever to make a purchase. But I'm looking at her review and seeing how she presents it. I was like, oh, there's more to it than the name and the bottle shape. Della Mad Green?

Brad Dowdy: No.

Myke Hurley: No? No. It's literally like classic green. Okay. Diamine Classic Green, I think. Multiple Diamine Greenings. It was a very recent one, like within the past week or two. All right. I'll find it. And it kind of looks like British Racing Green a little bit, which is what intrigued me. It was like, I would have never picked this up. Like...

Brad Dowdy: I see.

Myke Hurley: And I still may never. I still may never pick this up. But it just got me thinking of how many decisions I've made just on, you know, the name and the bottle. And then that expanded into like my Aurora Orange ink review that I did on Monday. Yeah. Yeah. Which, where I mostly talked about the buying decision of choosing that ink. Even though I didn't pay for it. But you understand, like, my premise behind it. The soap process. Wasn't, here, let me tell you about all this orange ink and how it handles on these papers and how this does. Let me explain why I think this, someone would buy this ink or not. And, I don't know. I got an email or a text saying, like, that's exactly how I would have written this review too. Like, it's just, I think about these things in a weird way. But I enjoy sharing that thought process as well. As opposed to, here are the technical details of this orange ink. Right? So, that's how I've, a lot of times, I've reviewed things in a more storytelling fashion than a strict X's and O's fashion or details fashion. I think it makes sense.

Brad Dowdy: And I enjoy that. Because you make a good point in this review that, like, calling something orange, just that's the name of your ink. It's a bold move to make. Right? Like, you're not saying a lot. And, as you say, right, like, it's expensive and it's part of, like, a special edition. A little bit more in the naming, like, branding department would have gone a long way for what is a very nice looking orange.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's a great ink, right? So, I was thinking about all of that is if you just put the same ink in the same bottle and call it tangerine, my feelings are completely different about this. So, I get just thinking a lot about the marketing of the product. I don't know that. I guess that's one of those things I do because I have a lot of my hands in a lot of products. I also, you know, buy and review a lot of products. I want to understand what companies are thinking at the time that they're deciding on these things. I don't know. So, I find that conversation interesting where, you know, I lean on someone like Kelly to give me, like, the details of, like, is this actually technically a good ink or not? So, it's, I've found this weird, I'm in a weird place with inks again because now I want to try them all. Mm-hmm. And it wasn't, like, a year and a half ago. I, if I never saw a new bottle of ink again, I would have been fine. Like, I was really, like, upset at the ink market. I was like, stop. You're crushing me. I don't know what to do. And now I'm like, can I try them all? Like, it's a weird place to be. But I do have, I am going to continue to, like, experiment with inks, right? I am trying some of the new brands. Like, I put, I listed a couple that I've just gotten, I either have in or have on the way, like, Standard Bindery. They're a stationery shop in Australia. And now their inks are available at Van S Pen. So, I got a couple of those bottles in to try. Venta inks, which came out last year and I found super interesting. But I never really explored them. So, I'm kind of digging into them a little bit. But I still like every sailor formulation that's out there, whatever they're making it with Bung Box or Kobe or wherever, whatever specific stores they're making it. And I still like those inks. So, the one thing I have realized is I really don't want ink samples. So, no one should get an idea of, say, hey, let me send all my, Brad, my favorite inks in a bunch of three millimeter vials. I will lose my mind. I will buy bottles, meter them out over the time, you know, not get too many at one time. You know, and a bunch of these are going to other people to review. But I'm kind of back, oddly, on the fountain pen ink bandwagon. And the biggest takeaway is I don't know why. Like, what has changed that made me do this because the ink markets only exploded more when I was shunning it, you know, a couple years ago. It's only bigger now. And now I want to dive back in. I find that a little bit interesting. And I don't know if it's because, like, these weird times that we're in. Am I thinking about, like, the products I have differently? Am I thinking about not spending as much on a pen but I can get enjoyment from a less expensive product like an ink or a paper or pencils? You know, things like that. So I don't know if this is my new escape type of thing that just kind of happened based on the world that we're currently living in or if it's just, like, a product thing as a stationary blogger that I have found renewed interest in. I don't know. I thought it was interesting enough to talk about because I've had, like, a complete 180 turnaround just in a short period of time, really, like, about a year, year and a half of wanting to try all the inks. And I don't know. I just wanted to say that out loud because I don't have the answers, but I'm enjoying it. I'll enjoy any new stationary I get to use. But, yeah, I'm into inks again, Myke. And I'm going to keep reviewing them, keep talking about them, keep trying some new stuff. Maybe the year of experimentation never ended, which themes don't necessarily ever have to have it ended, right, Myke? Like the last thing as you want.

Marketing of Product Names

Brad Dowdy: And also as well, like, we've never really had a year where the world has imposed so heavily on everyone. My year theme, I mean, I'm thinking about it now. Like, the theme is still the same, but I'm actually not able to achieve what I wanted to from it. But it's not for any fault of my own, which is not normal. Usually if I don't achieve, it's because of me. But that's not the case now. So it's just a different, we're in different times.

Impact of Animal Crossing

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Have you found yourself latching onto anything that you maybe either weren't into before or have were into before but have taken it to, like, a different level type of thing? Because I've always loved fountain pennings, obviously. But now I feel like I'm, like, I'm in this state of, like, want to take it to a different level. I mean, it could be digital. It could be analog. Do you have anything that you've seen?

Brad Dowdy: Animal Crossing. I laugh, but that's not a joke, right? Like, the new Animal Crossing game is, like, for both me and Adina, it's, like, a massive, massively important thing in our lives right now. Like, it is providing more structure because the game runs in real time. So there are things that you want to do at certain times of the day. It is providing us with something, like, a new shared thing to talk about. It's a new, like, little hobby. It's a lovely little escape. Like, serious, like, Animal Crossing, New Hope. Sorry, New Horizons. New Hopeless. Woo! That's a Freudian slip. That's correct. That's the movie. The movie coming. But it really is, like, this isn't a unique thing. Like, everyone is posting about this on social media right now because everyone's playing. And, like, this is going to be probably, it may end up being Nintendo's best-selling game of all time. It is already, I think, close to, if not the fastest-selling Switch game of all time. It's helping Nintendo in Japan especially. They have broken all records for Switch sales over a weekend period. They beat their launch weekend. Wow. So, like...

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's definitely caused a shortage. I mean, obviously, the world that we're living in, people are staying in and have time to fill. But still, I think it's partly this game, right?

Brad Dowdy: It is this game, right? Like, this is the only kind of new big thing out on the Switch, right? Like, that's making people want to buy Switches. And it's just an absolute joy. And I love it. And it came at the perfect time. It is the perfect game for the perfect time right now.

Myke Hurley: Right, right. And I think we'll probably be hearing about it for quite some time. And we'll be telling stories about Animal Crossing during this time, you know, to, you know, five years from now when we all get through this.

Brad Dowdy: It is going to be, like, this game will be, like, a touchstone moment. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: There's a video game podcast that I enjoy called The Besties. And it's part hosted by the McElroy Brothers. And they were saying on the most recent episode, which I completely agreed with, like, this may end up being one of the most important video games of all time because of the cultural and societal situation that surrounds it. Like, it is a necessary game for a lot of people to help them with some escapism. And we haven't needed that ever the way that we do now as an overall society. You know, there are obviously pockets of, like, you know, someone can say, like, this game came to me at a time that I really needed it in my life. You know, like, and it's important to me because of that. You know, like, everyone has those stories. But this is a shared one, which is not, it just hasn't happened before.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It's pretty wild. I'm enjoying it. I'm playing it, too. I luckily picked up a Switch, like, you know, a few weeks ago before they went crazy, which I didn't think they would do. And I've been playing it on stream. I mean, I had a Sunday stream last week where, you know, just people came over and hung out on the island. Namiki Island, Myke. Oh, nice. And we just had a good time. So we'll have to get you in there sometime. So, yeah, it's been fun.

Brad Dowdy: So I would like to do that, actually, like, to join a stream and to come hang out on your island and go to my island. We should work that out. I would really want to do that. Maybe some weekend or something.

Myke Hurley: Yep. All right. Should we hit some Ask TPA? Yeah, man. To round out this week. We have a few to get to. And I think now is the time to build up the Ask TPA coffers once again. So use the hashtag Ask TPA on Twitter, at Dowdyism. And we have the magic working behind the scenes to collect all the questions, put them in a spreadsheet for us. And now would be a great time to get in there with all of your questions. So this first one today, what do we have, Myke?

Brad Dowdy: The first one comes from Kate. And Kate wants to know, I have a beautiful Lamy Safari dark lilac of a medium nib. But I'd like to try a fine nib. How do I, A, get one, and, B, fit it into the pen? Is this something I can do myself?

Myke Hurley: So let me take it from the last part there. You can absolutely do it yourself. This is one of the easier nib swaps you can do with Lamy. They just slide off the front. You'll find a video online where you use a piece of scotch tape. Put that on your nib, and it just literally slides off. It's like notched, and the little prongs go around the back of the feed, and it slides on and off. So finding it's going to be the bigger challenge. Lamy offers loose nibs for sale, but they have been through random loose nib shortages off and on for years. So they make them available at Lamy Authorized Dealers. So you'll have to find one. You can order them online. You can find loose Lamy nibs. I'll try to see if I can find some direct links. Not every store carries them, and the ones that carry them may not have the nib size that you want, in this case, a fine nib, in stock because of weird Lamy production cycles with their nibs. So it can definitely be done. It's extraordinarily easy. It took me forever to realize this with Lamy, how easy it was to change their nibs, and now I just do it all the time. It's a very, very cool thing to do, especially for someone like myself who loves the Safari and likes to play around with different nibs. So you can totally do this.

Brad Dowdy: If you were struggling to find nibs and you didn't mind having a second Safari, you could just buy another one in the nib size that you want, maybe in a different color, and just do a nib transplant from one to the other.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, or like I'll buy a bunch of, like Kaweco is a good example for me. I'll buy a Kaweco. I'll buy all kinds of Kaweco bodies, and I might have six, say, that I like to use frequently, but I might have one or two nibs that I swap between, like, the six pens, which is a little extreme, but that's one way I do it. So, yeah, it's very, very easy to do, and they're very inexpensive to buy Lamy steel nibs, like, under, like, it should be a single-digit number, most likely, like a $7, $8, something like that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they're cheap, but they're just not easy to come by.

Myke Hurley: They're not easy to come by. You can find them, like, stores carry them, but it's the inventory that they've been allowed is your biggest struggle right now.

Brad Dowdy: Next question comes from Emil. This is a longer one. As an old punk, my default jacket is a bomber jacket. I love a bomber jacket. As you might know, it has two pen slots on the pocket sleeve. I stuck a Kaweco Sport in one of these slots just to ensure that wherever I go, I'll always have a pen on me. Pretty smart, right? But lately, I noticed that the micro-movement of fabric managed to unscrew the cap. Surprisingly, seeing it two turns, but it happened. Not a major issue, but it can be irritating because you can get dry-outs or risk leaking, that kind of thing. So I wondered, what is a similarly sized pen with a more friction-fit cap? Clip would help to keeping it in place.

Myke Hurley: This is such a good question. It's very detailed. It's very specific. It's right up my alley, and I don't have a great answer. Right? So like some of the mini pens. So something like the Tactile Turn, I think they make a short pen. TI2 Designs makes a short pen that both of them are like metal, can withstand the EDC type carry, but they're not going to be the easiest to acquire. So I was trying to think of what's a more mainstream type of product for this, and I don't totally know what that answer is. Like you can get some mini pens, like mini gel pens, but they're all knock-based, and I don't think you want like a knock-based if it's going to be in your jacket.

Brad Dowdy: I was thinking maybe a Fisher Space pen could do.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. The Fisher Space pens are good. They don't have a clip on the capped models, but I haven't had the... You can get clips, though. You can add clips, yeah. Yeah. And I haven't had with the Fisher Space pens the twisting of the caps that Kawekos get. Like I know exactly what Emil's talking about because I have, I think, two different Kawekos that have this problem where the cap will just twist on its own. Metal on metal is a challenge, right? So that doesn't keep the seal as tight in the threading as, you know, plastics and acrylics. You know, they tend to lock in a little bit more. The metals tend to, you know, with the vibrations come loose. So, yeah, if anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to hear them. I don't know that I have a brilliant one. Maybe the pilot, Myke's favorite pilot, Timeless. Is that the one? Or Ageless that you hate the name? Ageless, I don't like. Timeless is good. Ageless is ridiculous. They are a twist mechanism, so it won't come undone. They're a little bit more accessible than some of the other ones I mentioned earlier. I think it's a wonderful pen design.

Myke Hurley: And that might be a good option. I think they're really, really cool. They do have proprietary refills, though. So it depends on how well you like the, that's also, you know, a ballpoint, not like a fountain pen, like a sport. So, like the, finding a mini fountain pen, you know, the TWSBI minis would work pretty well. I always like the TWSBI mini as an option. They're shorter. And the VAC mini is pretty cool. It holds a lot of ink. Those caps tend to stay on pretty well. So maybe that's my answer. Maybe it's the TWSBI minis, either the regular mini or the VAC mini. That might be the, that might be the answer, Myke. I might have gotten there.

Brad Dowdy: Debbie B Handmade asks, I'm just getting started with fountain pens and only using cartridges so far. With converters, do you have to fill it all the way up? Or can you just put in a little ink at a time? When you say you're inking up a pen, do you typically fill it up completely?

Myke Hurley: Can I tell you how much I love this question, Myke?

Brad Dowdy: Yes, I never thought of this before.

Myke Hurley: I do this all the time. I don't have to have a full converter. This goes back to this ink deal, this diatribe that I went on earlier about fountain pen inks. You don't have to fill up the converter all the way. You can half fill it if you want to test out an ink. You can quarter fill it. You can do whatever you want.

Myke Hurley: Sometimes you might have a little bit harder time starting the pen, getting it right away.

Myke Hurley: Writing right away, right? If you just use like a quarter, you have a little bit more air. There's not that pressure to get the ink necessarily flowing immediately down the nib, but it'll eventually come out there. You can just fill a little bit and that is okay, especially if you want to test things out. And then if you like it, fill it up all the way, go to town. But yeah, you don't have to do that. So that's a great question. You can just put in a little bit. And I'd say I half fill more converters than I fulfill because I want to change inks frequently, right? I don't have one pen with my ink, right? I'm in a position where I have lots of pens, lots of inks, and I want to use as many as I can. I'm the half fill master, Myke.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I tend to do more pairings, right? So an A pen will get an ink in it and it's unlikely that I will change my mind. So I tend to be like one at a time. Yep. Yep. And Patrick asks, I don't know a more springy nib than Pelican nibs, especially the larger you go.

Myke Hurley: The only one I really think consider like, and I'd say it's even borderline, like the Platinum 3776 nibs. When you get into medium and above tip sizes, medium and broad, they have a little bit of spring. They have more than the custom 823, in my opinion, which Patrick is saying he also has. I think the Pelicans are the most springy, like gold nibs. Something like Aurora is not springy at all to me, you know, for a gold nib. I guess some of the larger sized Sailor and Pilot nibs, but I think that's what you're finding, Patrick, is once you start getting to a larger nib size, you're going to have more of a springy feeling. One, they're using a softer gold. A lot of times they're using 21 karat gold instead of 14. So it's softer inherently. And then when you have a larger platform, if you will, to you just have that bigger nib, you have a longer tine. It's just going to naturally give you more of that springy feeling. So I think that's what you're seeing. So I don't know that if I can necessarily specify what brand, but if you start looking at your larger nib sizes and a softer gold material, like a 21 karat as opposed to a 18 or 14, you're going to see, you're going to get that springy feeling. So it could be, you know, in a variety of pens.

Brad Dowdy: All right, that wraps it up for this episode. Please send in your Ask TPA questions for future shows. You can send out a tweet with the hashtag Ask TPA, and it may be included for a future episode. If you have something that's a little bit longer than a tweet length, you can send them via email to brad at hello at penaddict.com. Right?

Myke Hurley: Good job by you. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Brad streams live on Twitch, Tuesdays, Thursdays, 10 a.m. Eastern, now is the perfect time to catch one of those streams if you haven't already. Lots of new people. Come join us. Good. Good. Yeah. You get to fill up that time, and what better way to spend that time? Again, we only have a couple of days left on our Kickstarter campaign, so go to our show notes at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 404, and you can find a link to the Kickstarter campaign there. So you can come back, you get your awesome rewards. We're going to make those tip-top and great. You can find Brad online at penaddict.com, knock.co. He is also at spokedesign.com.

Myke Hurley: All the things, Myke. You're doing a great job today.

Brad Dowdy: Thank you. Penaddict on Instagram. Dowdyism on Twitter. I am iMike. I am YKE. Thanks so much to Uni for the support of this show, and as always, thank you for listening. Wash your hands. Stay inside. We'll speak to you next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Bye-bye. Bye-bye.