The Pen Addict 405/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	405
Title:	The Biggest Flex
Release Date:	April 8th, 2020
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 405
Audio File:	Audio Episode 405
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 405
Length:	6666 min <br />1.1 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 405. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, ExpressVPN, and Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hello, Mr. Myke Hurley. How are you? Fine and dandy, my friend. Fine and dandy. The Kickstarter is complete. We did it. We did it. It feels so weird. It feels so weird, but we did it. Not exactly to where we thought we were going to be, right? We ended up with 825 pens sold, which I think was about 50 off what we thought we were going to be. Yeah, which is cool, though. I'm totally happy with that. Oh, I mean, come on. It's our most backed campaign under every metric ever. Most backers, most money. So, again, thank you so much to everybody that did back the campaign, and we have already delivered on reward number one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. How about that, Myke? We got together and recorded a video this past weekend.

Brad Dowdy: I didn't know what to expect. I mean, I kind of did, because we talk about these things, but we're usually not staring at each other in a monitor, which I admittedly struggled with a little bit in the beginning. But it was fun. All of our backers should have a video via the Kickstarter messaging system. I can send it out. It's a private video, right? It's just for backers of the Kickstarter campaign, so that's why I have to send it out that way and not just publicize it. It was fun. I had a lot of fun doing that. The feedback's been great. What did you think of the results? Not that I've rewatched it myself, but how did you feel when you got done with it? Because we didn't totally talk about it.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I was really happy. It came out kind of exactly how I wanted it to, honestly. Like, when we were done with it, I was like, yep, that was what I wanted. Right? Like, that was kind of how I felt, right? It was just like, this was longer than we expected, which I thought was good. And we ended up talking about a bunch of stuff. And it was effectively a pen addict episode with video.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, we just, Myke and I just grabbed a bunch of pens. Myke had them all in front of him, as he showed during the video. And I brought various boxes of pens over to Studio B to record, which, it was fun. Yeah, it was just an enjoyable experience. I liked talking about pens. And a lot of those pens are stuff we've talked about for years and years over the show. So, we got to rehash and relive some of that. So, it was good.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and it's interesting to see it so far. Like, I think we were right that, like, people wanted to see it. Because it's gotten more views than the vlog videos and stuff that I've done in the past. So, I feel pretty good about that, actually.

Brad Dowdy: Good, good. I'm glad you do. Because we had a little, I had a little panic attack in the very beginning. I'm going to let y'all into a little bit behind the scenes. As soon as I got on with Myke, he goes, you sound terrible. And that's when it clicked that he realized that I wasn't recording on my normal good studio equipment. That I was recording on the OG Yeti. We did that old school on that one, Myke. So, I got a kick out of that.

Myke Hurley: But, well, but it was like, as well, we were just audio for a bit and I could 100% hear it. When you combine audio and video together, the video raises the audio. It's kind of a strange thing. Like, people don't pay attention to it as much.

Brad Dowdy: It rarely comes out good unless you're sitting in the same room and have, like, a real setup. Like, what we did, like, there's no way to be, like, the audio guru for that type of setup. You just go with what you have and let the content do its thing and then let all the other stuff fall to the wayside.

Sailor Pro Gear Limited Edition Blue Dwarf

Myke Hurley: So, obviously, that video included a lot of Sailor discussion. And I thought, well, I saw another Sailor and I just wanted to bring it to the show today. I saw this in Wonder Pens. Sailor Pro Gear Limited Edition Blue Dwarf. Which is a very bright Smurf, almost blue, with sparkles in it. And I wanted to see if you'd seen this. I don't know if this is an exclusive to Wonder Pens or what the deal is. Like, I haven't seen it anywhere else. Had you seen this?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think it's – I had not seen it. I think it's a general limited edition. I don't even think that it's regional. I think it's more like, what was Purple Cosmos? Right. Like, everyone kind of – which that would make sense. Blue Dwarf, Purple Cosmos. They're all kind of in that same series. It would make me think it's that kind of worldwide limited edition. Like, we'll just make it this year and kind of go away. But I have to take some pictures of this Pilot Custom Heritage 91 Bug Box Edition that I've talked about recently in comparison with this pen.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I just found the Blue Dwarf on a pen chalet, too.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, if you would have just shown me this and let me glance at it, I was like, oh, that's my pen. But this is clearly a sailor. It is almost an identical material. I need to share this 91, this Pilot 91 that I have because it's a really unique bung box release that not many people are aware of, which I've been talking about it recently because we were getting ready to shoot this video on the weekend. And I haven't been using that pen and I wanted to ink it up. So, I did that in an effort to take some more pictures of it and share it. It is eerily similar to this pen, which means I don't need this pen because I would like to get them side by side one day. I know some people are going to buy this one. Are you going to buy this one? Like, does this head to the collection or no? This full size or slim? This is slim. It looks like a slim.

Myke Hurley: I'm not going to be buying it anytime soon. I like it a lot. It would match a couple of pens that I already own, which intrigues me. But I'm not running for it just because I have bought too many recently.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's how I was about the 4AM, right? I was like, this is one that maybe later, like you don't have to have it so you're not jumping at it. But if you see it in person and it kind of clicks when you see it in person, then maybe you go for it. That's exactly it. Because that's how I was with the 4AM.

Myke Hurley: It will be for me how the blue grabs me. That's kind of what I need to see. Like, how is that blue going to grab me?

Brad Dowdy: But now I'm really anxious to see people with this pen so I can compare it to my 91. It is just eerily similar. And I just wonder if I'm like overplaying that or not. So I'll take some pictures this weekend.

Myke Hurley: Maybe you need to try and get one of these pro gigs for a review from someone and then take pictures of them together. Probably.

Brad Dowdy: Probably. But it's like unfair because you can't get that 91 at all anymore.

Myke Hurley: It doesn't matter.

Visconti Ayo Penna Discussion

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, the next pen you're buying. You're buying this one. I know it. I'm not buying this one. You're totally buying this one.

Myke Hurley: It's the first review that I'd seen. I saw it in refill. Your wonderful membership newsletter that people should subscribe to. Where, Brad? Penatic.com slash members. It's my favorite newsletter that I subscribe to. I absolutely love it.

Brad Dowdy: Now with additional podcast content. I'm moving in on your space, Myke. I need to put that on the sales page. You do?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It is useful to give people an idea of everything they're going to get for the money. I find in general.

Brad Dowdy: I fly by the seat of my pants. Kind of like Visconti did with the Ayo Penna, right? I mean, come on. You need this pen.

Myke Hurley: No, I don't. We made a lot of fun of this pen. Adina needs this pen. No, I don't think she does. I'm going to send it to her. I don't think she's going to like this. But even if she does, she can feel free to buy it. I ain't buying it. I don't like this pen, right? We spoke about this before. We both thought that it was ludicrous in its design. There were so many weird parts about it. This is the pen which is modeled on supposedly to look like a fish and is meant for the younger generation. And it is a $350 Visconti fountain pen that takes standard international cartridges but is longer than any dip pen you've ever seen. And has a rubber, silicone, flexible end to it. Exactly. And it comes in a little case. And then it has like a face on the side of it. It's a very strange pen. And it was reviewed over at Penquisition. And they loved it which I was very surprised about. How can you not love it?

Brad Dowdy: This is the best worst pen ever made.

Myke Hurley: But they don't. But like. So it's Evan, right? At Penquisition? Yeah. Evan doesn't seem to have the feelings that me and you do. Yeah. Like he doesn't think it's the best worst, right? That's like a different thing. He's like very impressive. Which is totally fine. Like I'm not calling any foul here. But it was just a big surprise to me. Because I think.

Brad Dowdy: I just had to take off my glasses because I'm crying.

Myke Hurley: From my perspective, this pen is guilty of many crimes. And I can't look past them.

Brad Dowdy: Of all the crimes. It's guilty of all the crimes, Myke. Yeah. Let's just be honest. If I came. The problem I have with this pen is it needs to be like $50. Yes.

Myke Hurley: This was the original thing. It's like we were making fun of it before we found out the price. And we found out the price was like this is unbelievable.

Brad Dowdy: $350. This is what you find hanging on the shelf when you walk out of the museum gift shop. And it's overpriced for, you know, it's gift shop prices. And that price should be $50. Not $350. Right? But it's amazing. I want to. I'm not going to say I'll never own one of these, Myke. I'm not going to say it. I will never own one of these.

Myke Hurley: Unless they're like bargain bin. And then I'd buy it for like the curiosity of it. If I could get it for like $30. But that's not happening. I just. See, my main thing is like. And so I'll go back to the initial idea of this pen. It can exist. And it can be fun. And people can like it. But the way that Visconti pitched it and what they had delivered are two very different things of like apparently making a pen for the younger generation. Just makes no sense. Like you can make this pen. You can make a pen for the younger generation. This pen is not a pen for the younger generation. Because it's $350 and looks like a child's pen.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And it's just not going to be as nice of a writing experience as like a traditional fountain pen. Like I called this and this still stands. I called this the couture design. Right. This is. This is the Paris runway design. Which again. That you go to show off.

Myke Hurley: Right. Like and if that's what they said they were making. Right. Like I would feel very different about this pen. But they didn't. But they didn't. It's just very strange. Like, oh, it's designed by an Italian architect. Like, all right. And then because like his surname is Pesce. Pesce. Like, I don't know how you've pronounced it exactly. He designed a pen that looked like a fish. I was like, all right. Go for it. Love it. Today's episode is brought to you by ExpressVPN. Working from home. You're probably not thinking too much about internet privacy. You're on your home network, right? You know, you're not connecting to coffee shop Wi-Fi. But we know about incognito windows. Did you know that even in incognito mode, your online activity could be traced? Because even clearing your browsing history, your ISP can see every single website you've ever visited, which is why you may want ExpressVPN. They make sure that your internet service provider doesn't see what sites you visit. Instead, your internet connection is rerouted through ExpressVPN's secure servers. Each server has an IP address shared among thousands of users, which means that everything you do is anonymized and can't be traced back to you. This isn't like, you don't have to be like a bad person to want this. Like you maybe just want to know that your information is your information. And that is a perfectly valid thing to want in this world, even though it is becoming something which is harder and harder to achieve. ExpressVPN is rated number one by TechRadar, Wired, Diverge, and more. You can use the internet in confidence on every device. You just tap one button and you are protected. I have ExpressVPN on all of my devices, so whenever I want to use it, I just turn it on. Super simple. You can also change your location. You know, like maybe you're at home right now watching more content than ever before, and you maybe want to access like web and video providers. BBC. BBC. You know, like maybe you want to be able to access stuff to other countries. ExpressVPN can let you do that. Protect your online activity today and find out how you can get three months for free at expressvpn.com slash penaddict. That's exprassvpn.com slash penaddict. For three months free of a one-year package, that URL one more time is expressvpn.com slash penaddict. E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N. Our thanks to ExpressVPN for their support of this show. EmbrilayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Here's what you need to do. All right. I know you want the IOPenna very much. So you fire up ExpressVPN. That way, no one knows that you went over to Visconti to buy it.

Myke Hurley: And then I can secretly own it and not have to turn on anyone?

Brad Dowdy: Yep.

Myke Hurley: That's how you do it. That would be the biggest flex, right? Like if I just secretly owned this pen and just never told you?

New Stationery Podcast Recommendation

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. That'd be great. Hanging on the wall. You know what? I need it for my Animal Crossing house. You could hang it on the wall. You just put a nail in the wall and you just hang it on there. I'll replace my umbrella handle with the packaging. Okay. Let's talk about some other stuff. I got a lot of other stuff to talk about. Number one, Myke, is a podcast. You think we cost people money? I have not listened to the first episode of this podcast yet. It is queued up, but it's the Tokyo Inklings podcast from Jacob at FoodayFan and CY at Tokyo Station Pens. People I follow on Instagram religiously. People who I talk to about things I need in the Japanese market. People who help me get my Pizza Planet pen.

Brad Dowdy: This is going to be trouble, Myke. This is going to be so good. I am so excited to see what they come up with. The first episode they talked about a lot of the stationary shops in Japan and just going through why they're doing this and all this. So I cannot wait to fire this up and I cannot wait to see what they do with this going forward. So congrats to them for starting this show. And if anyone else is starting anything new, please let me know. I try to keep up with everything. I miss a lot. I miss a lot of blogs. I miss a lot of podcasts. Shoot them to me. Send me an email. Hello at penioc.com. Or tweet at me at dowdyism. I'd just like to know what's going on. And would gladly share anything that you're creating out to all of our listeners and followers. So should you listen to this? I'm worried if you listen to this podcast.

Myke Hurley: I think it might be dangerous. I think I'm going to need some secondhand reports before I add this show into my queue. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah. I'll do that, Tori. That is my afternoon. It's in my afternoon listening queue. So I'll report back to you tonight and let you know, yay or nay, should you listen to it. So either answer is going to be correct for you, right? Because if it's yes, then you know it's good. If it's no, then you know it's really good. Yes. It's dangerous levels of good. Right. Right. So there is no wrong answer. So it'll be good. I got this link this morning and this is what I'm talking about. People sharing things with me so I can, I can share them out to others. Had you seen the Kaweco tower challenge? Myke? I have not.

Myke Hurley: Now I'm so happy that I have.

Brad Dowdy: Right. This is brand new to me. I am losing my mind, not of the tower builds, but of the quantities of Kawecos that some people have. I mean, I'm not going to judge. That is what's tripping me out. You know? No judgment here.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. If there was a sailor tower challenge, it could end up to be quite a thing for me. I don't, it wouldn't work. I mean, it, you, basically it's people taking their Kaweco pens and stacking them up like Jenga, right? Yeah. The sport size pens.

Brad Dowdy: So the small size, which is the most common Kaweco. You say Kaweco, that's what people think, but there are large size pens.

Myke Hurley: But because of their like faceted caps, they have an ability to be able to stand on each other, right? Like circular pens, this would be much harder to achieve.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. This is a level of awesomeness. I can't quite comprehend. When I was sent this link by reader Michelle, she's, and I just saw the hashtag. I was like, why are people just like stacking all their Kaweco boxes? Like I have a bunch of boxes. I could stack them up. And then I clicked the link and I'm like, oh no, that is not what this is at all. How many are in this biggest tower? You think there's gotta be a hundred. Oh yeah. They said it in the, in the post. There is 100 pens stacked in the, in the largest tower. And we'll have the link in the show notes. Um, I could maybe do like a 15 or 20 stack. I don't, I don't even know if I have that many. Um, maybe a 10 stack. Yeah. I've already been thinking about this. It's like, well, what all my metal ones go at the bottom? Is that a stronger base? Like, do you put the brass and aluminum at the bottom? Then I look at one of these pictures and the brass and aluminum ones are in the top level. I'm like, hmm, is this structurally correct? Like I'm already overthinking. I'm already overthinking this mic, which is, which is what I do. Um, for example, I couldn't sleep last night. So I started tweeting at people because I was, uh, yelling at Lamy again. But anyway, um, what are you up?

Myke Hurley: What are you upset about now?

Brad Dowdy: I wasn't, I was just, I couldn't stop thinking about rebuilding Lamy. So, and it was keeping me from falling asleep. I was in bed, so I just grabbed my phone and said, I can't sleep because I want to rebuild Lamy. Hire me. That was it.

Brad Dowdy: I have really good ideas, but I've given enough free ideas. The rest of the ideas are going to cost money.

Myke Hurley: Maybe we should just make our own Lamy. We'll show them. We'll show them. Lamy 51. That's what we're calling.

Myke Hurley: Who can stop us now?

Brad Dowdy: That's right. It's on. Um, the, the Kaweco tower challenge was good time. Because I got a new Kaweco in the mail, Myke from City Lux in Singapore. So they reached out to me, I don't know, like a month or so ago. And they're like, Oh, we love the pen addict. And we have this cool, I know you're a Kaweco fan and we got this special edition. I'm like, yes, please. So they sent me this for free. Just disclosure. They have the Kaweco skyline sport, which is my favorite because it has the silver trim. The skyline and the color is called ocean blue. And it's a beautiful kind of, I don't even know how you describe it. I don't want to say dusty blue, but it's a really, really pretty color. Um, it reminds me of the band ocean blue, Myke, that I'm no, you're familiar with, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm gonna go with no on that because you're, you're not that old. Um, but it's a wonderful color. This is like a color right up my alley and I'll be reviewing this on the blog and I've already inked it up. The thing I wanted to mention about getting this pen is I think Kaweco's redesigned their boxes and they're so much better now. They have a little insert. I'll take a picture of this for Instagram, but they, you're familiar with their, their little tin, like Altoid tin boxes, right? You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. So, and they have a little drop in molding that the pen kind of sits in. And then, you know, the rest of the accessories, like the, uh, ink cartridges and little paperwork thing, I'll kind of sit in there. Um, and they've redesigned it to fit in there better. Like they have a little notch built in for the, for the ink cartridges. And it's just this whole neat little package. Like they redesigned it. I don't know why I'm telling you this. It just fascinates me because usually, you know, it's just kind of a hot mess of a little tin and now it's like officially cool. So, but I inked it up with the Kaweka Midnight Blue ink cartridges, which is what comes with it. So, um, it's really cool. I love it. And I will be using it a bunch and I will be photographing it a bunch. What are you doing to me, Myke? What are you doing to me?

Sakura Season Pens

Myke Hurley: Anyone that's playing Animal Crossing now, especially is familiar with, uh, Sakura season, right? It's the cherry blossom season, which is the thing that happens in Japan is the trees. Cherry blossom. While I was surfing with my friends over at Pensachi, you know how I do. Just go there, just poke around. They have a two limited edition sets right now. These pro gears with like a stick called Sakura gold and Sakura pink. And they're like, it's like a set. I think that you get a pen and a book and an ink. They're beautiful.

Brad Dowdy: This isn't fair.

Myke Hurley: Aren't they beautiful? Beautiful.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, this is like, I mean, number one. Yeah. Beautiful, Sakura cherry blossom. You'll always, I'll always, you know, be into that. We have some huge cherry blossom trees in our yard that I just adore. And we didn't get a really good cherry blossom season this year. Yeah. These are not fair. Okay. Let's play a game. Okay. Let's play a game. You can pick one of the two. Oh yeah. Which one do you, which one?

Myke Hurley: Oh, I know. I'll go with the gold one.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Well, I'm going with the pink one. Like to me, it's not close. Oh, interesting. And I thought you would pick the gold. Yeah. Oh, it's Barclay, you know? Oh no, this is like, this is like the 9.9 versus the 10, right? It's that close. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: BC, it's got one of those lighthouses that you love on your version.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah. I like the little clear finial. This is a problem. I don't need anything.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You don't need anything really. No, no, no, no. And I'm not going to buy it, but this is extraordinarily nice. They're beautiful, right? Yeah. I have not seen this.

Myke Hurley: I'm not going to get them either. Because I really like them. I don't $320 like them. Sure. Right? I mean, I know this is a limited edition set, et cetera, et cetera. But if this was $200, it would have been more of a consideration for me. I just, in this current climate, in this economy, you know, I don't want to, I just didn't want to spend that amount of money on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Again, I'm going to send this link to Adina when we get done.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I already did. Don't worry. I already did. And her response was that she thinks it's very kawaii, which is correct, but a bit too much for her. Yeah, it's not too much for me. No, it's not too much for me either.

New Y-Studio Resin Fountain Pen Review

Brad Dowdy: Too much money right now, but not too much kawaii.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: So there you go. All right. I got another new pen. Okay. You want to hear about it? Yep. I got the Y-Studio resin fountain pen. Oh, you got it. Okay. We were talking about it. We were talking about it. I have it in hand as of yesterday, so I haven't had much time. So I got to choose, and we'll put a link in the show notes for this pen. It's a different Y-Studio pen than their normal metal barrels, right? They'll do brass, copper. Yep. It's what they're really known for. And they have the, what do they call it? The brassing to where you can, you know, wear, you know, see the wear on the barrel of the pen. And these are a completely different material. It's like a, it's a, it's a resin, it's a plastic, but it's not like those clear barrel sailors that you just, that we just saw, right? That you just linked to me. It's more of a thicker, not really rubberized plastic. I don't know how to explain it in fountain pen terms. Like it feels different than the Kaweco Sport type of plastic, right? It's a little bit denser, a little bit thicker, right? So it's a new model. It still has the same hex shape of the barrel and it has a brass grip section. And I was concerned if I would, what I feel about this pen. And I really don't know. I don't have an answer for you yet, but I like it better than I thought I would. I was a little concerned when I first saw it. It's like, oh, this is a little bit weird. This doesn't feel like Y studio, but when, now that I have it in my hand more than the few minutes I had it in my hand at the Baltimore pen show, I'm like, okay, I kind of get it. Like it's like a 70, $75 pen. It's not as expensive as the brassing models and it comes in black, red and white. Do you know what color I chose?

Brad Dowdy: White. That is correct. Why did I choose white, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Cause it looks nice.

Brad Dowdy: Well, yes, it looks beautiful. I love white pens. And if it's this resin material that doesn't feel like the smooth resin of a sailor barrel that the ink will just roll off of, I want to know if it stains. So I want to be able to tell people how fingers work on this barrel. Like I could get black, I could get red. I think white is pretty, but I want to know what this is going to look like. Yes.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I'm taking one for the team, if you will. Although I probably would have picked white anyway, but that was really my incentive. And I inked it up with this really kind of dark gray, almost black ink. It's a standard bindery stargaze. I don't know what color this ink is. What color would you call this?

Brad Dowdy: This is like the Yanni question. Yeah. I could go. Yes. Yes. It looks green on the page. I think it's gray, almost black. And sometimes I see blue. Like this is a super tough ink to nail down. So I'll worry about that later, but I really just wanted a dark ink in there to kind of see what my, see how it would handle the barrel. And you know, if it would stain or ink, there's no way that this stains, right? They know better than to design something like this. There's no way it should.

Brad Dowdy: Like I have my faith in Y studio that they have, that they have done this correctly. Yeah. But just as far as the build and the feel and the style of it. Yeah. Thumbs up. Oh, there is one major flaw I've found, which will be in my review, but we'll talk about it now. So it's a number five Schmidt nib, which is great. Schmidt nibs are totally fine. And that means it fits the standard international size cartridges, converters, except it doesn't. So the barrel, the interior barrel diameter, which I think the whole interior might be brass. And then this resin is over the top of it. So the diameter opening, it ships with a short international cartridge, not a converter. Because if you take like a standard Schmidt converter that would normally fit this, the metal circular part near where the piston turn is right towards the back of the pin, that does not fit through the hole. It is that tight of a fit. So I had to go find an international converter that was narrower in that spot. The Kaweco ones are. So the Kaweco one I can slide through, but not even Schmidt's own converter will fit in the barrel diameter opening. And I think that that's a poor design decision.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's no bueno. No.

Brad Dowdy: Because it's a, like the Schmidt international converters are the most common converter. That's what most people use in their, for their, you know, white label international converters. Yeah. And this is a Schmidt nib and a Schmidt feed and a Schmidt fitting. And the Schmidt converter does not fit through this opening in the barrel.

Myke Hurley: Do you have any converter options? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So this Kaweco, I'll have to see what this style of converter is called, but people who are familiar with the international converters, this is the one with the clear twist knob as opposed to the black twist knob. And people, people are, should be aware of that one. This one is Kaweco branded, but I think other companies sell it. And this one fits fine. Like it slides on through, but it took me a minute. I went and tried to ink it up and then tried to put the barrel on and it, I didn't even consider that it wouldn't fit, but it doesn't. So yeah, that's going to be a thing. People are, if people want a converter, they're going to have to buy a specific one because their normal everyday converter is not going to fit, but you can find one that does. But that's just going to be a conversation we're going to have to have when I review this pen.

Brad Dowdy: Interesting. I found it. What is it like?

Brad Dowdy: It's not lightweight. So I think now that I'm looking at it, I think the whole internal sleeve is brass. Okay. It's a very thin wall of brass. So when I look in the barrel and then the resin, the white acrylic is on top of that. But it doesn't feel, yes.

Myke Hurley: Because the grip section appears to be brass from the images. And so brass grip section and just resin body would be really mismatched.

Brad Dowdy: It does not feel airy. It feels substantive. Substantative.

Myke Hurley: Substantative. Substantative. Substantative. It feels good.

Brad Dowdy: It feels good.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So you can buy that pen at Pen Chalet if you want to. And they are a supporter of this week's episode. So brilliant, right? Brilliant. Pen Chalet sell authentic, amazing rollables, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have everything you're looking for from your favorite brands. And they believe in fast and reliable customer service. Pen Chalet are adding new products all the time. As well as the pen stuff, they also have a bunch of accessories. Whether you're looking for converters, refills, pen holders, carrying cases, ink bottles, ink cartridges, they've got it all. Pen Chalet runs special discounts twice a month, including closeout specials every two weeks. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States. And they sell internationally as well. And they do the best they can. And I think they have very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens. And they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So, go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, and click the podcast link at the top of the website. And enter the password penaddict for this week's special offer. And to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet. Including one of those Y Studio pens if you want. So, Brad, what have we got on deck this week? Anything catching your eye?

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke. The hottest deal of this is the Pelican Sueron 600 at a price which shall not be named on the Chalet. It's very good. There's not many nib options, it looks like, for this particular color. I'm also a little bit intrigued by this Penider avatar UR demonstrator ballpoint pen. Um, because it's really neat looking and the price is kind of outrageous. The Penider Arco is not one I've tried. Um, a couple of people have tested. It's the one with the Flex nib. That's also at a good, good price. And, yeah, there's just... Oh, there's more stuff. The, um, the Penider Snorkel. That thing is cool. That comes free with your Penider purchases. It helps you draw up the ink into the, uh, inkwell. And the Monteverte. Monteverte Engage One Touch inkball rollerball mic. That one you can fill with an ink cartridge. And get fountain pen ink in it. And it's a rollerball. And it's supposed to be pretty cool. I did get a question about these pens. Can you put glitter ink into the Monteverte Engage One Touch inkball? I advise no. My advice was no. Well, no, here's the thing, Brad. And if you have tried, I want to know.

Myke Hurley: You're thinking too small, my friend. You can do anything you want, you know. But whether it works is a... I mean, yeah, you can put it in there. Sure. Right?

Brad Dowdy: But it might stop working immediately. Yeah. These are the questions I get. And I very much appreciate that question. Because I'd never even considered that. But, um, that would be... That would be pretty cool. So, yeah. Go check all these out. The page just goes on and on and on. There's a Montegrappa Fortuna down here. That's a great price. So, yeah. Really good stuff.

Myke Hurley: All right. If you want to go find out more about these yourself, go to penchalet.com. P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T dot com. And click the link at the top of the website. And then you'll be able to put in the podcast link, I should say. And use the password penaddict to get your hands on these deals. And 10% off anything at any time with Penchalet. Our thanks to Penchalet for the continued support of this show and Relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: All right. I kept scrolling. And there's a Leonardo Memento Zero ballpoint that matches my fountain pen, Myke. Although it does have gold trim. That's kind of awesome. I know that's not your pen style. But we're about to talk about the Leonardo a lot. So, yeah. That's an interesting find there. So, I did a review Monday, Myke. Mm-hmm. Where I talked about the Estabrook Estee. Lilac in particular. Lilac's the color. It's a very pretty purple. Yeah. Redium trim. Extra fine nib. Love the pen. Very happy with this Estabrook pen.

Myke Hurley: These Estabrook pens are really cool, actually. I wanted to get, and I just didn't, the honeycomb one. Yes. At the San Francisco Pen Show. I like the design of them in general. I think that they look modern but classic at the same time. And I love that they have that little extra that you can buy. The nib adapter. Where you can use your vintage Estabrook nibs. Because I think this whole package, you know, it was like when it started, it was like, hmm, I wonder. Like, what's this going to be like? Yeah, same. You know? And I think that, it's Kenro, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think that they have done a great job with making this a brand unto itself again.

Brad Dowdy: Same here. And like, you can see it from when they started, like the first release of the pens, like the, I don't know, maybe three colors that they did. You know, they started, I don't want to say basic, that sells it short, but safe. Okay? They started safe. You know, you had your black one, then you had kind of your blue acrylic and maybe a green acrylic. I can't totally remember all the colors. And just your regular gold trims and silver trims. And it was fine. And like, they got really good reviews right out the gate. And, you know, I've just been watching them, waiting for like that style, also waiting for them to handle some business so I could review them again, which they did. And the waiting paid off for me in the colors, right? The early success of the pen, I think, has allowed them to be able to branch out a little bit and do a little bit more wild stuff just from a color perspective. You know, the shape is very traditional and classic. The colors are modern. And that's kind of what I wanted to talk about because I find myself very attracted to this price point of pen being, that price point being $150 to $200, where you can get, you're not getting like these technical marvels of pens in this price range. Most people aren't reinventing the fountain pen experience, but they're opening up the color palettes a little bit and making styles that are very modern in just look and feel and shape. And I'm just wondering if I'm kind of out of my head thinking that like this is the primary market for new companies to play in right now, this $150 to $200 price range. I don't know, but I have a lot to say kind of about that because that's a lot of money, right? This is not, I'm treating this like this is like your base level fountain pen and this is cheap. You know, it's neither, right? It's a conversation, right? So like a $5 pen is an outrageous amount of money to pay for a pen for a lot of people. And like, that's totally fair. But once you're into it, like we are, and like a lot of our listeners are, you go $150, $200 pen, you know, that's not like, let me just slap my money down. That's like, let me think about it, you know, and I can budget for it. And, you know, let me consider that. Like, that doesn't seem outrageous. And the quality that you're getting for that is really good.

Myke Hurley: So let me say a thing for me, which is interesting in this category, right? Because that, that kind of category of pen, like $150 to $200, I buy less pens in that category.

Brad Dowdy: Right. I'm saying this is a new thing for me. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Exactly. And so there is a strange thing for me where like, I'd say the most of the pens that I buy are within the $200 to $250 range, right? Like, I know that seems funny, but like, there are a lot more pens in that range than like, at least fountain pens, at least with the brands that I buy. So like $150 to $200, I would actually pause a little bit more than $200 to $250, because in the $150 to $200 range, it's typically a lot of brands I'm not that familiar with or don't own that many pens from. Mm-hmm. So I'm more likely to be like, I don't really know this. Let me look into it a little bit more and kind of see what this company is all about. Or, you know what I mean? Or like, I might be in that, like, I'm not just going to buy this. I will go and check it out in person first or something like that. You know what I'm saying?

Brad Dowdy: Totally. And the funny thing is almost none of these pens contain gold nibs, right? Yes. You can buy gold nib. I can recommend you some awesome gold nib pens for between $100 and $150. And then, of course, over $200, there's all kinds. And there's some, and I'm not including every single pen. Like, I know like the Pilot 912 you can get in this price range, and it's an awesome pen. But it's boring, and that's kind of the thought I'm having in this price range. I didn't used to shop in this range either. You know, some of the older, I don't, older is the wrong word. The traditional? No. Like, so what would you call Franklin Kristoff and Edison? Established. Established. Thank you. These established pen makers that I love have awesome pens in that price range. And I've bought a bunch of Franklin Kristoffs, right? And a bunch of Edisons. Like, I like the Beaumont and the Perlet. Those are awesome pens in that price range. And the Franklin Kristoff Model 20 and the 66. You know, the Pocket 66. Those are in that price range. Like, I love those things. But I'm getting something different from brands like Leonardo, from Estabrook, from Montagrappa, in a smaller sense. And they all seem to be landing in this same price point. And they're just, like, outrageously cool looking to me, right? They're very, very pretty. Using really, really neat materials. So, are they doing this on purpose? Is this where they've just fallen into as a company? Say, hey, we're going to make cool acrylics. Going to put some really nice steel nibs on them. And the price point's going to end up, you know, at $170. You know, like Leonardo. Or $156, like Estabrook. Or $190, like Montagrappa. I'm trying to figure out, are we seeing kind of a switch in the market to where these companies are figuring out that there's a modern fountain pen user as opposed to a traditional fountain pen user? And that's not a knock on any segment of the market. I'm just wondering, why am I shopping in this price range? Why are these companies getting my dollars? Why is the marketing landing in there when it didn't used to? Like, I'm super content with like my $50 and less fountain pens. And I'm super content with my $400 and more fountain pens. And then I guess sailors kind of fall in between. They're like maybe say $300, $250 to $350. But that $150 to $200 price range has really been kind of boring. And like that's where Pilot has a big failure, I believe, in what they're doing as a brand. And that's one of the reasons that I couldn't sleep last night. I was thinking about what we're going to talk about today and how Pilot has let this.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know that this opportunity has passed them by. But they are prime target to do something in this price range. And they're just not doing it. And it blows my mind. But that allows me to go and find these Leonardo's that are beautiful blues and beautiful pinks. And this Estabrook that is purple. And this Montegrappa that has this blue swirly acrylic. And I think I'm even a little bit late to this party, right? This has been going on for a couple of years. Like Leonardo has been around for several years. Estabrook for a couple of years. And they just keep hammering the new products in this price range. And I'm wondering if they're just directly going for the modern fountain pen user. And these traditional companies aren't interested in that. Because let's be perfectly honest. This is a tiny market, right? Like what I'm talking about is not, you know, you're not going to find these like on your high street boutiques, right? These are specialty items for specialty people. But they're focusing on that market. And people like myself notice that. Like if you're going to take care of me in this market, even though I'm, you know, my group of shoppers is 5% of your annual revenue. I notice that, right? Like I understand that like this is small potatoes for some of the big companies. But it's interesting to me because I'm seeing it more and more and more.

Brad Dowdy: Let me break down just a little bit of these three pens that I keep talking about. The reason why I wanted to talk about this, Myke, is because I can't put these pens away. Like I am not inking some of my other pens because these are the ones I want to use right now. They're just always on my desk. They fit my style. They fit my personality. And that's important to me as a consumer, right? When I'm spending, you know, not insignificant amounts of money on a product, I really want it to be personalized to like my styles and tastes. And that's what I find. So like Estabrook, like it's, I think it's the newest of these three. I'm going to talk about Estabrook, Leonardo, and Montegrappa just in this kind of price range. Estabrook's the newest. The quality of this pen build is spectacular. It's, I'm going to say this, and I don't mean this in a derogatory fashion. The shape of the pen is boring, right? It's a standard cigar shaped pen, but it works for what this pen is. And it's a platform to use this really cool material, right? And it fits my hand well. It's well made. Like it's a substantial pen in the hand. And you can upgrade it, like you mentioned before, with like the little converters to use the old Estabrook nibs, which is just a smart business decision by them.

Brad Dowdy: You know, these have steel nibs that they use, Yovo steel nibs. It's fantastic. I have an extra fine steel nib right out the box. It writes like a nail, writes really clean. I love it. I just love how this pen looks, feels. And it was 156 bucks. Like it's not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel like it's a good value. And that's where all of these pens are falling in. Leonardo may be the best value of the bunch. It's also the hypest of the three. It's getting the most play because they solely live in this market pretty much. Like they have gold nib pens. They have ebonite pens you can buy that are like twice as much and things like that. But their core pens, there is basically two designs, the Memento and I can't even remember the other one. So there's a rounded end one, just like Sailors. There's a rounded end one and there's a flat end one. So, and they're all right in that price range. They release probably, I don't know, they probably have two or three, maybe four releases a year where they'll refresh the colors. The materials are awesome. Like just awesome. And I just want to use them. They feel so good. They do what they do very well. And it's like they're not trying to be something that they're not. And they're just really succeeding at it, I think. Like that's why I talk about Leonardo Penn so much.

Myke Hurley: You have been talking about them more and more recently.

Brad Dowdy: Because I can't put them down. I have two of them. Right. I have two of them. That's it. You know, probably one more than any normal human being needs.

Myke Hurley: Do you think that there is something to it that I can't grasp because I don't have one? Or is there a difference in taste here between the two of us? Because I look at the Leonardo pens and I'm like, you know, we were talking about this on the Backers video, right? When you were showing them. I was like, they look nice, but they don't blow me away. And there's a few things I'm like, I don't like the gold lines around the cap bands. Yes. And so it's like, I'm not sure. I honestly, personally, I am leaning aesthetically more towards the Estabrook. Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. Like, so I think I know you well enough that if I put this group of pens in front of you, you would not go, oh my God, like, I need this. Like, I know that feeling. I know those pens that give you that feeling because I've seen it. Yeah. I don't think any of these would do that for you, nor do I think you need one for your collection. Right. Which is kind of why I'm talking about this because I'm not sure I understand it myself.

Myke Hurley: I think one of the things that I do appreciate about this price bracket is they are evocative of the small maker pen and, like, the trends that's happening there, but for half the price. Yeah. Yeah. With similar nibs and writing performance, right? Because what you're paying for with the maker pens is the handmade bodies with the wild materials, you know, that kind of stuff. But they're not going to be using nibs that are any different, really, or, like, that different. But you get it, you get that style, that look, or at least part of that look, right? Like, something evocative of that, which is, like, here is a material that is just, like, really nice to look at for half the price, which is cool, right? Like, if that's what you want to go for.

Brad Dowdy: And that's, I guess, what I'm wondering, are these companies making that conscious decision to make products for a very particular market? Or are they just making what they want to make? Like, is this marketing?

Myke Hurley: Yes. I would assume that a company making pens that look like these at that price range are thinking there is a trend in pens, which is very exciting to people, which is acrylic pens made of these wild designs. Started mostly by Edison a long time ago now, right? But really, like, in the last few years has really bubbled up to a furor, right? Like, there's a lot of people doing this type of stuff now. So, I think that now they're like, well, we have the ability to use materials that we can source, scales that we source them at, production that we source them at, that we can make money at this range. Let's go for it. And in the same way, I reckon one of the reasons that this price point exists to these types of companies is it doesn't make sense for anyone else. Well, the $150 price point is too small for a lot of makers. And it's also too small for Pilot for a pen like this, you know, like to really put a bunch of effort into. It's too small for Sailor.

Brad Dowdy: And it's too big on the converse. It's too big for companies that have locked down, you know, under $100 like Kaweco and Twisby, right? Yes. They don't have any desire to go here. Like, they have, like, Kaweco's got some expensive options, but you never hear about them.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: So. So, yeah. Well, I mean, if this is marketing, I'm happy to be marketed to. I'm happy to see this. This fits my style, my purpose. I want Montegrappa to dig into this more. They're slowly bringing down the price points of their pens. And not that they need to. It's just like they're doing some new things. Like, I have an Elmo, which is, like, under $200. And it's just, I bought it because it looked cool. Like, the materials looked awesome. And that's what I wanted to see. Like, Montegrappa is definitely more of a luxury brand than these other two brands that I was talking about. But they're starting to get their quality and price point down to, like, a more reasonable is not the right word. But, you know, it's just a more cost-effective value type of proposition. Because they're making really, really good pens. And they have very talented craftsmen. And I want to see them kind of explode in that price range, too. They're still a little... Most of their products are, like, $250 and up. And then on to, you know, crazy, crazy pricing. But they're such a good quality maker that I like them. But I don't know. It's weird. Like, I didn't really have a lot of pens in this price point until probably this last 12 months. So, it's pretty cool to see. I want to see what these brands keep doing. I want to see what other brands do in this price range as well.

Brad Dowdy: Understanding that this is probably small potatoes for someone like, I don't know, Lamy or Pilot or anything like that. I understand that these may not move, you know, the numbers for some of these bigger companies. But I like what these smaller companies are doing in this very specific price range. It's ticking a lot of the boxes. Most importantly, the quality is outstanding. Right? That's what you're getting. You're getting the understanding of a really well-made product. And you're paying a good price for it. But it's a fair price. And they're just stunning to look at. They're fun to use. I'm thoroughly enjoying. And I just want to see more.

Myke Hurley: The Montegrappa Elmo is interesting.

Marketing Trends in Pens

Brad Dowdy: It's a little bit thinner than some of their other pens, like the Montegrappa.

Myke Hurley: But I mean more in just like, it's interesting to me to see Montegrappa going into this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And they introduced the Elmo a while back, but just in basic colors, like black and silver. I was like, oh, that's fine. It's a black and silver pen. It looks cool. It's fairly priced. Fine. I don't need to buy that. These, this blue one I got. I can't even remember the name. It's a weird name.

Myke Hurley: Is it the Fantasy Bloom?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. But then it's, no, the Fantasy Bloom is the collection of the three pens. It's a blue one, a green one, and a yellow one. And then they each have an individual name.

Myke Hurley: Blue Cross Gentian.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So I can't ever remember that. It's, it's awesome. I love it. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I'm down with this one. Like I would like to see one of these like that. These are good looking.

Brad Dowdy: It's exactly there with Leonardo and Estabrook. Like in the price point and the style and the feel. Like all of these pens are like in the same category to me and they're all great. And I want to see more. I like, are we going to see more? I don't know. I don't know. I'm just kind of fascinated with this section of the market right now just because I've never been there before. And I like what I'm seeing. It's good. It's good times, Myke. I like using all these pens. I have them all like all these pens like live in the same case. And I say all these pens for me, you know, what did we count? I had like 13 sailors the other day. I have four. I have two Leonardo's, a Montegrappa Elmo and Estabrook. And I'm just, I stare at them all the time. I use them all the time. I have different nibs in them. I have a nib grind on one of them and I just want to use these pens. And there's no better compliment I can give any product than I just want to use it all the time. And that's what I feel about these.

Future of Stylish Pens

Myke Hurley: Maybe this is the next frontier then. Like maybe this is the next trend, right? Maybe. That's what I'm wondering. That's kind of what I'm getting at. Make a style pens at 150, you know? Right. Interesting. We'll see. All right. Today's episode is also brought to you by Harry's. Now is not the time to overpay for razors at a drugstore. Harry's knows sometimes it's better if we stay inside, which is why they ship directly to you so you can experience the quality of a Harry's shave in just a few days from the convenience of your own home. You should join the 10 million people who have tried Harry's and claim your special trial offer. Go on a harrys.com slash pen addict. Harry's is a return to the essential quality, durable blades at a fair price. Just $2 per blade. They've cut out all the stuff in the middle, manufacturing blades in their German factory that's been honing precision blades for a century, which means that you get incredibly high quality blades at factory direct prices. Harry's is incredibly convenient with blade refills being delivered directly to your door on your schedule with or without a subscription. I bet a lot of people need stuff like this now, huh, Brad?

Working from Home Tips

Brad Dowdy: I want to elaborate on a statement I've made about working from home. And one of the core tenets of working from home is to get up in the morning and act like you're going to work. Go through whatever routine, right? You would normally go through. Get up, take a shower, get dressed, make your coffee, eat breakfast. And I do not live that life except for one thing. So I'm definitely a pajama, pajama life, you know, pajamas for life team until like I'm ready to take a shower except like I have to shave. That's the one thing. It's like I'll put off a shower, but I will go shave because I don't like stubble on my neck. And of course I use Harry's for that. And I'm finding I need to order just yesterday. I realized I need to order more shave cream. So thank you, Harry's, for keeping me clean shaven during these quarantine times. I appreciate it. Team pajamas for life.

Myke Hurley: You can feel good about your purchase because Harry's have a 100% quality guarantee. So if you don't love your shave, let them know and they'll give you a full refund. And 1% of proceeds are set aside for non-profit organizations devoted to helping provide access to better health care for men and veterans. Listeners of this show can redeem their Harry's trial set at harrys.com slash penaddict. You'll get a weighted ergonomic handle for a firm grip, five blade razor with a lubricated strip and trimmer blade, rich lathering shave gel for aloe to keep your skin hydrated as well. So you're going to get that in there and a travel blade cover to keep your razor dry and easy to grab on the go. Go to harrys.com slash penaddict to start shaving better today. That is harrys.com slash penaddict. Thanks to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right. We got a few STPA, a couple digital ones and a couple analog ones. Myke, I have some postcards to read. So why don't you handle these first ones and I'll take the postcards probably because you don't have them there to read.

Myke Hurley: That's a good point. It's like, I could try and read them, but I physically do not own them. Alex DeMaldo asks, I wanted to know what pencils and paper you might suggest for my six year old. She loves to color and draw. And I want to make sure she has the best tools at her disposal so she can survive a kid's habits as well. That can also survive a kid's habits. I should say they want to have good stuff, but durable.

Brad Dowdy: So I think you were fine going with like colored pencils, like from Statler, like they make really great color pencils. They're easily accessible. They're very good quality. Um, so I would look at something like that. Uh, Stabilo is good too. Um, both of those brands make good quality products. They're not going to break the bank and they're reasonably accessible. Like big box stores, you know, retail types of things. You're not going to hunt these down. Uh, have to hunt them down like crazy. I would probably stay away from pens for right now. I mean, six is pretty reasonable to, to manage pens, but my kids are 11 and 13. And I still question, um, I still question what they're doing with pens most of the time. So I would stick with the colored pencils for paper.

Brad Dowdy: I'm buying a ream of 500 sheets of the cheapest copy paper I can find. I know that might not be the answer you want to hear, but they are going to churn through so much paper buying any type of notebook or pad or anything. They could go through in a minute is a bad idea. My kids with all the access to stationary that they have to this day, they use more copy paper for regular drawing than anything. They just want a sheet of paper to write on and drawn and scribble and scratch. Like they're not concerned right yet at this point of having a book to have all of their drawings or their notes or their journal. They just want mass consumption of paper and copy paper is the way to go. Just get a ream of copy paper, hide it in the closet and give your kid like 10 sheets at a time. And that will last you forever. They will be happy that they can throw the paper all over the floor and make all kinds of drawings. They can make a drawing of this on this sheet and a drawing of that on that sheet and just go on and on and on. So that's my tips right now for a six year old. If you want some real specifics, you know, shoot me a tweet and like we can like really narrow some things down. But I'm going with like Statler colored pencils and 500 sheets of blank cheap white copy paper.

Myke Hurley: And Fibber asks, have you ever tried learning another script other than the alphabet that you know?

Brad Dowdy: I haven't. And I really love this question. I'm glad it's in here. I've, how do I explain this? I want to do more handwriting stuff, but not change my handwriting style, right? My handwriting style will just be my handwriting style and that's it. Like, and I can work on it and improve it. But do I want to learn how to do, you know, any other styles of writing? I think that would be pretty cool to learn. And people have asked me to do like handwriting stuff on the stream and I haven't quite figured out how that would work, but I haven't. I know a lot of people do. And I think it's a really cool thing to do. And you get to not only get to learn something new, you might get to learn a new language, but it's going to improve your regular handwriting by learning on, you know, different styles, different scripts. Like if I learned like a real good quality cursive handwriting, it's going to improve my print handwriting. It just is that motion and repetition is very helpful, but I haven't. I know people that have, and I think it's a great idea and you all should. All right. Why don't you read those postcards for me?

Myke Hurley: Uh, so the first postcard comes from.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Let's do this by date. Um, they're both like the past month or so. I haven't been super quick. All right. So first one.

Brad Dowdy: Uh, maybe I should have read this before. I just saw the ask TPA and grabbed it. Let's. Oh, this is cool. Okay. It says, guys, any chance that Myke and Anna could team up for a recurring feature called pen sinister, where they discuss pens and pen adjacent topics from the perspective of lefties. It could be really interesting stuff. Keep up the amazing work, Joe. What do you think about that? I think that's a good idea. I mean, y'all are both evil. So pen sinister sounds like the right phrase for, for any left-handed, you know, segments we have on the show.

Myke Hurley: I feel like I've been through this a bunch. I almost at this point refuse to talk about left-handedness because like, I just can't handle this. Like is Myke left-handed question anymore? Like that seems to play to me now.

Brad Dowdy: You're left-handed to me. I will not, I will not fall for this.

Myke Hurley: Thank you.

Brad Dowdy: Whether I'm telling the truth or not is to be determined, but I'm just going to say for the purposes of this show, you're left-handed. Maybe I'm just like pen different, you know?

Brad Dowdy: So what do you think? Do we need, do we need a lefties corner or we just need to put you in the corner?

Myke Hurley: How dare you? See, this is the, this is the persecution that left-handed people have been suffering for years on display. Once again, by Brad Dowdy, the perpetrator of anti-left-handed propaganda.

Brad Dowdy: I am very, very often outnumbered in handedness. In hosts of this show, you are the minority. In hosts of this show. In a lot of times in person, there are a shocking number of pen addicts that you meet in person, like a way higher percentage.

Myke Hurley: Because left-handed people are inherently smarter and more creative. You know, just.

Brad Dowdy: I will not, I will not discount that at all. And they have to be concerned about what they write with. Yeah. For reasons that right-handers don't have to deal with.

Myke Hurley: Well, like left-handed people talk about the fact that they're left-handed. Like right-handed people do not talk about the fact that they're right-handed. They are just. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I'm like, we know we're normal. We don't have to shout it out loud. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. All right. So this next Ask TPA. Do you recall? I don't know. It's probably like a month ago. I took a picture of a bunch of mail I got. And one of them was a postcard that someone printed with hashtag Ask TPA on it. Do you recall this photo? We'll find it in Instagram. They went through the trouble of printing their own Ask TPA postcard. And even changed the subheading. It says there are worse questions, right? So let's see what we got here. Because I can't remember what it was. It says, hi, Myke. And Brad. See, look at this. You're famous. Like, I'm in parentheses. You got exclamation point. I got parenthesized. So then that just means you're going to have to answer this question, which you'll be very uncomfortable doing. So this is to you. I always pocket carry a loaner pen. That is also something I would use.

Brad Dowdy: Despite this, I do not use this pen much myself. While pen cup brethren live on, these pens die comparably early after light use with ink left. My various victims are the Unosigno DX.38, the Unosigno RT1, Pilot Hitec C0.4, Uni Jetstream, Zebra Saraciclip. Literally all my favorite pens. The pen that has survived this is the Pilot Acroball. So do you have any thoughts on keeping all of these other pens fresh? This was to you.

Brad Dowdy: No. I'll take this. I'll take this. Thank you. I would think. I don't have much experience.

Brad Dowdy: So I would think. So the gel pens you have to use. So the gel pens will be your kind of problem child if you don't use them somewhat regularly. So even if you're not using them on a daily basis, grab your pen cup, take all the pens out and scribble with them. Like I do find that the gel pens will die quicker than other types of pens. I don't know what it is about that formulation of that ink. They tend to be worse performers than some of the other pens, especially the Pilot Hitec C. That one could be a really poor performer if you're not using it on the regular. The Jetstream I'm a little bit surprised about and the Saracic Clip, even though it's a gel, I rarely have that one die out on me. That one usually picks up immediately no matter what. The Signos do kind of croak out if you don't use them. So I don't have any tips other than using them regularly. I'm surprised the Pilot Acroball was the victor out of that because it tends to be a little inconsistent for me. As much as I enjoy the line when it's going good, it does tend to have some inconsistencies in there. So it's just a matter of starting them up regularly, right? You just have to, you know, once a week grab that grouping of pens and scribble with them. The ballpoints are generally going to be better performers than the gel pens. And that's kind of that. So, yeah, that's great. So this is a side shout out to Mr. Forgotten Towel. Seriously, what font is your logo? Your designer should make cards with the logo on it like this postcard here and sell them. So there you have it.

Myke Hurley: So shout out to Forgotten Towel. Do you want to know what the font is?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I can get it. I can get it. I don't know off the top of my head. Do you? No, I do. It's Gotham.

Myke Hurley: Okay, cool. Nice. Thank you. Like all of the RelayFM show artwork, the names of the shows are set in a font called Gotham. But in many different weights, like in the different weights of Gotham, they look quite different to each other. But it's all in that family, that font family.

Brad Dowdy: So shout out to Simon for all the logo work. He's pretty amazing, dude.

Myke Hurley: The best.

Brad Dowdy: That was an amazing show, Myke.

Myke Hurley: As always, Brett. Amazing.

Brad Dowdy: If I do say so myself.

Myke Hurley: If you want to find more about this episode, you want to get links, etc., go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 405. And thanks to ExpressVPN, Penn Chalet, and Harry's for their support of this show. You can find Brad's work online at penaddict.com. And if you're looking for some hashtag video quarantine content, you can go to twitch.tv slash penaddict on Tuesdays, Thursdays, 10 a.m. Eastern Time. American Eastern Time. I don't know if there is another Eastern Time. There probably is somewhere.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, maybe. Probably. Also, side insert here. All these videos I do on Twitch that are stationary related get cross-posted to YouTube. There's no short link for me to send you to YouTube because their naming conventions are terrible. So just go search the penaddict on YouTube and you can watch all this old content. Like if you miss it live, it's all there.

Myke Hurley: Or, of course, it will be in the show notes for this episode. So you can find Brad's YouTube channel there as well.

Myke Hurley: You can find Brad on social media. You threw me off. I have like a whole thing. You threw me off.

Brad Dowdy: I know. You're so good at it.

Myke Hurley: I rave about you. Brad is penaddict on Instagram. Dowdyism on Twitter. I am imike. I-M-I-K-E. And we'll be back next time. Thank you so much for listening. As always, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.