The Pen Addict 406/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	406
Title:	Maruzen After Lunch
Release Date:	April 15th, 2020
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 406
Audio File:	Audio Episode 406
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 406
Length:	5555 min <br />0.917 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 406, and today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley, I'm joined by Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hi, Myke Hurley, how are you today? Fine and dandy, my friend, fine and dandy, and Brad, what are you using today?

Brad Dowdy: I've fallen into this grouping of pens and pencils that I'd like to share with you, Michael, is that okay? And our listeners, I guess I'm really sharing it with our listeners because I look at this list as it relates to you. I do that sometimes, I think about you a lot, and I was like, Myke wouldn't use that, Myke wouldn't use that, Myke would never use that. Myke might use that, but I'm really here for our listeners, not you, so I'm just going to talk to them for a little bit, is that okay?

Myke Hurley: That's not a problem at all. I'll just, I'll be back, you text me, I'll come back when you're done.

Brad Dowdy: So I tend to do this, like I talk about my desk a lot, right? And I talk about the things that, that pass, things that live on my desk and things that are passing through. And a lot of times there's like this big gate where the things that are passing through like never actually leave. Like I try to kick them out and they just refuse to go. Because I always find a reason to use certain things. And I have all these fountain pens, like ever since we did our little video a couple weeks ago, I've got all these new fountain pens inked up. And so I have more fountain pens inked up than ever right now, probably. You know, I probably like 15, like that's a lot for me. That's an outrageous number for me because I just won't use them that much. But, and it's funny and it's like, you know, like this is the humble brag part of the show. It's like thousands of dollars worth of fountain pens sitting there, right?

Myke Hurley: And you could easily like buy a small car. Yeah. How many more? More than a small car. But yeah.

Pens and Gel Ink Experience

Brad Dowdy: But I've used this Uniball Signo DX 0.38 needle tip for like two days straight. It's like a $3 gel pen. And I just, the experience when I write with that is awesome. Like this is the kind of thing that, you know, keeps me going, right? This little $3 gel pen because I'm just kind of fascinated at how good it is, how much it suits me, how cool the color is. And then I think about why can't anyone else do it as well as Uniball does. So, you know, this is the things that fascinate me, even though I have my Namiki Milky Way sitting, you know, 12 inches away from it. Right? It's like, I've used this pen for like two days straight. On top of that, I've used the CW Pencil Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil quite frequently over the past couple days. Just drawing, sketching, taking notes. This is the, this is what the Perfect Pencil should be. Not the $250 version. And I've talked about this before when I, when I opened this up. But at the time, I hadn't really used it to see like, is this a good product? And I think it is. I'm still concerned about the other pencils fitting in it. I'm going to need some narrower diameter type of pencil thing going on here. But yeah, those are the non-fountain pens that I've been using. And I don't know, this is why I like doing what I do because I get to play with all of these things and they're very cool. The Y Studio Resin Fountain Pen, I'm prepping it for review. So it's been in very, very active use for the last couple weeks since I got it. Or maybe last week, week and a half. I like, I knew I was going to like this pen. I was concerned how much I was going to like this pen. But once I got it in just like regular use, which is, you know, I need a couple weeks with a product for, that's like this. That's different, right? Like if I got a new gel pen, I can tell you pretty quickly if it's good or bad. But with a fountain pen that's a little bit different, like the Y Studio Resin, I need a little bit more time to kind of formulate my thoughts. And I was, I had some concerns and I still have some concerns and it's not a perfect pen. But it's better than I thought. And I think it's going to do pretty well for them. But we'll see. To be determined. I'm sitting here clicking and I'm sorry. That's me. Because it's kind of fun to play with. It is a very tactile pen. The way it's built. And I just, I enjoy having it around. And the last pen I've been using is the Kaweco Sport Ocean Blue, which got sent to me by City Lux. And I've got a ton of Kaweco Sports.

Brad Dowdy: And I should just like have one and keep it inked up all the time because whenever I don't have one inked up and ink up a new one, I always go, God, I love this pen. It's just a good pen, right? The, I said AL Sport. It's just the Sport Classic. Not, it's the plastic body. Not AL.

Brad Dowdy: These are just darn good pens. And this one's a little bit different because it has a medium nib. So there's two things different than I would normally do with this Kaweco, which is why I'm continuing to use it. One, it's a medium nib, which I just said. And which I'd never get a Kaweco with a medium nib. And I'm enjoying writing with it. It's not overly wide. Like, it's definitely wider than my extra fines and fines. But it's not like these are micro tip nibs to begin with, even the extra fine. So the medium hasn't been bad. And then I also used the Midnight Blue Kaweco ink cartridge that came with it, which is their blue version of blue black. And it's just a very enjoyable combination.

Brad Dowdy: All of this is going in my William Hanna notebook. This has been at the core of my workflow for a while. And I don't see it going away anytime soon. And so I've shared, I've talked about it a bunch. And I've shared my layouts. And I can put more layouts on the Instagram machine. But I have basically my calendar on the left page and a blank note page on the right page. And like this week's right-hand note page is like three quarters filled already. Like, I like just having this blank space to where I can have like podcast notes. Right? We're going to talk about Tokyo Inklings again. Like, when I listened to the podcast, I like I took my notes on here so that I could put them in the show notes here. So it's a very good layout for me. Also, I've also been keeping track of my turnip prices, Myke. Good, good, good, good. Yeah. It's important stuff. So I have a column. I have a column that says stonks on here. So just so you know, you know, keeping track of that and was able to make a good sell. It's the stalk market. You know that, right? I know.

Myke Hurley: They're sold to you by a stalk, which is just the best thing. We're talking about Animal Crossing now, everybody. But that's on my page. What's your highest turnip price so far?

Animal Crossing Turnip Prices

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I sold it on someone else's island yesterday. But the week, last week, I didn't buy any turnips because I missed Sunday morning. My local island went up to over 650.

Myke Hurley: Brad, you've got to tell me when things like that are happening. I just sold mine yesterday for 200.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I sold mine for like four or something at someone else's island yesterday. You need to join the Animal Crossing channel in Slack. That's where you find these things.

Myke Hurley: In the Panatic Slack?

Brad Dowdy: In the Panatic Slack. We created Animal Crossing because the gaming channel was getting mad at us.

Myke Hurley: Open Slack. Presses the post button. Animal Crossing. Join. There we go. Happened in real time.

Brad Dowdy: So, all of us in there got like 428 or 483 or something yesterday. So, yeah. Good times. Good times. Yeah, okay.

Myke Hurley: I need to get on that train. On the turnips market. Last week, I lost money.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, this is the first week I had done it. But, again, these are things I track in my William Hanna notebook. Who knew? I wonder if David at William Hanna knew that I would be tracking Animal Crossing turnip prices in my precious William Hanna notebook.

Myke Hurley: While we're talking about Animal Crossing, I want to make a recommendation for an iOS app, which I really, really love, which has been made for Animal Crossing. And it's the third-party iOS app. And now it's called ACNH Travel Guide. I'll put a link to it in the show notes. It's absolutely fantastic.

Brad Dowdy: That seems to be the popular app in the Slack channel, too. So, I have it.

Myke Hurley: Made by a listener. Like, a listener to I don't know which shows, but the person who made it sent a link to me and was like, hey, I made this app.

Brad Dowdy: And, like, the update of that app from, like, the first time I downloaded it to, like, the second update was glorious. Like, it's really well done. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: The developer is really, like, putting a lot of work into it. And it is, like, excellent. It's super worth looking at.

Transitioning from ACNH to Stationery Recommendations

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, there is your Animal Crossing segment of this week's show. It may not be the last Animal Crossing segment because I'm building a writing room. So, I have, like, people have been giving me all the different writing sets that are available in the game. So, we'll have to do it right now.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I have a good one called the essay, which is, like, what looks like a bottle of sailor ink. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: I got that one. I don't know what pen it is. Yeah. I got the essay set, the homework set, the painting set.

Myke Hurley: I need a desk. All these things. Anyway, let's not do this. All of my Apple podcasts are turning into Animal Crossing podcasts.

Brad Dowdy: I just need furniture. All my stuff's on the floor. So, anyway, well, this falls into the category of what are we using this week. I didn't say what stationery we're using in this header, right? So, I'm also using my Nintendo Switch playing Animal Crossing. So, there you have it. So, there. It is now officially on topic. But let's talk about other things.

Myke Hurley: We need to arrange a joint stream on your channel where I come on and we play together. Yeah. And we go around each other's islands. Easy peasy. People will enjoy that. I will enjoy that. We need to watch that one. I will enjoy that. Today, I am using two pens. They're fancy special pens to me. The Platinum 3776 Arushi Riding Galaxy Starlight, which is its full name. Because I keep picking... I pick this pen up every day. Yes. I try and find a use for it every single day. Because it is absolutely stunning in its weird mix of subtlety and garishness. I don't have another pen that's like this, right? Where, like... That's fair. I like how you put that. Take away the Raden. It is the most boring of looking pens, right? Where it is just like a black Arushi pen with gold furniture. So, like... Yes. At a distance, kind of, maybe, if you're not looking at it in the right way, you could dismiss it as just like, I've seen these pens a million times. But then you pick it up and it's like more Roden Flake than you've ever seen. Your entire life. The pen is just covered in it, right? So, like... That... Yeah. That makes it very... Makes it very special. And I adore it. It's a Platinum, right? And it's 18 karat gold nib. Like, it's just... Is it 18? I don't know if it's 18, actually. It might be 24.

Brad Dowdy: I think we do this every time. It is. Because we've talked so much about this nib.

Myke Hurley: Well, I know it. We still don't know what it is. It is a gold nib. I know that much.

Myke Hurley: I'm trying to find it now. Nib. Nib. Who knows? It is 18. Yeah. 18 karat gold nib.

Brad Dowdy: Mark your nibs, people. Yep. Size and material.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. And I've also been using today the Japan Steel Pro Gear. Yeah. The one that's like... Got the little marks in it. Like the hammered marks in it. Yep. So, they're the two pens that I've been using today. Going up market. Luxury today.

Brad Dowdy: That... Sailor is such a unique pen. Mm-hmm. Like I'm not regretting not getting on it. And I could probably source one if I...

Myke Hurley: I actually think... Wanted to. They are still available.

Brad Dowdy: It's so unique. It's better... Even better in person than it looked on the screen. And I was fascinated by its style. But it's just like I really don't need that pen.

Myke Hurley: So, on Wunch's website right now, they are saying that the fine nib is still available.

Brad Dowdy: Hmm. Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to buy it. Like I don't need to spend... Yeah. So... That seems... Honestly, that's more reasonable than some of their other stuff. To be perfect. Having held and used that pen, that's a more reasonable price than some of the other things that I bought. I promise you that. I will say as well,

Myke Hurley: I absolutely adore the Bunglebox 4B. Right? We said it on the video that we did. That is a mic pen through and through. It is. Those pens are about the same price. And the Japan Steel is a better like price. Like it's a better value, I think. Because that pen, it is undeniable that somebody handled that. Right? Like and you know, it just is full of all of these little elements to it and the way it is made, which makes it feel like it was artisan made. Yeah. Like you can't get away from it.

Brad Dowdy: We'll see like by this summer, like if I'm not able to go to any pen shows and I need to purchase a pen, I'll keep that one on the radar. Like if I need to make a new add to the Brad's accumulation of pens.

Myke Hurley: Thoroughly recommended. Cool. Talking about recommendations.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I have something to thoroughly recommend. Go on. We're not going to do this every week because we could. But I wanted to give a shout out to Tokyo Inklings podcast. Now that I've actually listened to the first two episodes, we mentioned them last week and the podcast had just dropped and I hadn't had a chance to listen. I had a chance to listen to CY and Jacob through their first two episodes and I have a couple of things I want to talk about. But really, I wanted to know, did you download and listen to this show?

Myke Hurley: I haven't downloaded, not listened yet.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. You should probably keep it that way.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: And that's what I was afraid of with the first episode. It's the second episode. It's going to cause you a real problem because they really get into like some shopping stuff. You know, the first episode was laying some groundwork and it's fascinating. Like I learned, you know, get to hear CY and Jacob talk about what Western brands are big in Japan, right? So it's cool. Like we have all this Japanese stationary fascination and we know about all the other brands and all around the world. But how does Japanese handle, how does the Japanese market handle, you know, non-Japanese pens? Like what is that market like and what are the popular ones? And they mentioned Mont Blanc, which makes sense. I mean, they're probably popular anywhere just because it's a luxury brand and a recognizable name. But good though. Like a good luxury brand.

Myke Hurley: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Quality, you know. Pelican, they mentioned, might be the biggest of all of the non-Japanese brands, which kind of caught me by surprise. Like I get it because there has to be an appreciation for what Pelican manufactures, right? I think probably that level of respect for Pelican in their manufacturing quality and the style of pen that they make, I imagine is, plays very well in Japan. And then Lamy, which also surprised me. And they were mentioned, you know, mostly the lower end Lamy's and they, but they made a point to specifically say that the Lamy 2000 is not popular at all in Japan. And I found that to be interesting. And their reasoning behind it was that that price point is when you get into all the traditional Japanese brand gold nib pens, right? And if you're living in Japan or from Japan and you're shopping in that mid-range, you know, $150 US, I don't know what the conversion is off the top of my head, but that price range over there, well, that's when you're landing on all your platinums and sailors and pilots and that's just what you're going to buy, right? And if you're from Japan and you have hundreds, you know, centuries worth of history behind these brands from your country, that plays up more than something like the Lamy 2000 despite the uniqueness of something like the 2000. So I thought that was super interesting.

Brad Dowdy: And then episode two, I did want to make a quick point of how the stationary world is so different in Japan. And this is why I'm glad that CY and Jacob are doing this because Jacob had this quote. I wrote down this quote of Jacob's in my William Hanna notebook with my Kaweco Ocean Blue and Midnight Blue, Inc. I wrote this down. I went to Morazon on a Wednesday after lunch.

Brad Dowdy: There's a lot to take in with that statement. And I think that kind of summarizes the Japanese market and why we're so fascinated with it, right? Like, I never will get to say that in my lifetime. Yes. Living where I do. I will never get to say that. And he's like, basically, it's like, I was on my lunch break and swung into, like, one of the most respected pen shops in the world.

Brad Dowdy: And, like, I do this every Wednesday, you know? Like, I took so much from just that little statement. And I just grinned and smiled. And I was like, yeah, yeah, that's, that's, that's the place to be, man. So, one of these years, one of these years, we'll, we will get over there and we too will go to Morazon after lunch, Myke. We will do that.

Myke Hurley: One day.

Brad Dowdy: So, anyway, I, we won't, we won't replay every episode of Tokyo Inklings every week, but props to them. Good job on them and making really good and interesting content. And, I hope they keep it up. And y'all should go listen because I want them to keep it up and they need listeners and downloads. So, go do it.

Myke Hurley: We have an important Kickstarter update. Do we? We do. Because we've, we got the, we got a prototype of the pen. So, it's, it's been updated. I'll put a link in the show notes to the update, but anybody that's back to Kickstarter should have gotten a notification of this. But we have finally got to look at what this thing is going to be and I'm super excited because sometimes you can like, you can design something, you can think you know what it's going to look like. But now I've seen how this pen is going to be presented. It just looks so much better than I'd ever imagined it to be. You know, like at this point, if I would have, if anybody would have made this pen, I would have bought it, you know? Right. So, I'm super excited.

Brad Dowdy: The thing I've learned from working with Retro 51 over all these years is that their execution is really good. You know, and sometimes there's mistakes, right, made through like the prototyping process, but they know how to fix them. Like, they see the things, they see the problems, they're on it before.

Brad Dowdy: You know, like this whole way I've been working with them and they forward me images or documents or artwork or whatever and they see the problem before I see it and give me a solution before we have to discuss the problem. And it's really good. It's fun to work with someone who operates in that manner, right? Where I don't have to question everything. I say, what about this? What about this? They're pointing about, they'll point out and say, look at this, look at this, look at this and then we need to decide what to do and here are my ideas on what I think we should do. And you have this trust in them to build the product with like the same vision that you have in your head, right? And it's really good. So like this prototype, they're, when they tell me they're very happy with it, like I tend to just totally believe them. Which is like, you know, I'm getting this pen in my hands later this week and I'll get to see it for myself and you know, if I have anything to say, but I already know that if they're happy with it, it's going to be good. Like there was one little thing that they pointed out on this entire pen that they said they will have fixed for production. Like the snowflake has some very thin arms in it, like the white of the snowflake in the red background bleeds a little bit and he's like, we already know how to fix that in production so don't even sweat that. I was like, cool. Like these are the things like I need to know. It's like, hey, I'm pointing this out and hey, I already have the solution and I know how it's going to be when it's done. It's like, being able to work with someone like that is just great. Like I really, really enjoy that.

Brad Dowdy: They're very good. Like I love the pen. Like I said, I'll have it in hand. I'll have my copy so they make two, like you see two in these images so they get one and I get one so we can talk about them in conjunction, you know, and have these discussions so we're seeing the same things and it's good. It's really good. I don't know what else to say. The packaging is great. I like that. Some people were asking in the replies to that commentary, how are we going to know what all those finials are? Well, that's part of the campaign is we're making a poster with Skylab Letterpress that you're going to get that's going to index these and Anna and Bob are already working on that and they've shared some layouts with me and we're just figuring out how to lay it all out and get all the names. I actually owe her some names. I just reminded myself there. Make sure you write that down. Yeah, I'm going to write that down. I'll use the Uniball for that one. Let me write that down. I mean,

Myke Hurley: that feels like a good use for it.

Brad Dowdy: It's how I use my Curitas all the time.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of which, I don't have mine yet but they've started to hit the US. Have they? Everyone's starting to get them. Yeah. Okay. Hopefully I'll have my thoughts in the next week or two once I have it in hand.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but this, I'm very happy with this. I will,

Brad Dowdy: I posted that I'll update once I sign off on something next, right? Because I'll have the same pen that's in these pictures already so I don't need to post another picture. So I'll post when I've signed off on it and paid the bill, right? I'm still waiting for the Kickstarter funds to transfer but I have the invoice from Retro 51 and so that will be paid like hopefully within within the week we'll get this all wrapped up and then we'll can kind of get in the production queue and I'll have a better idea on ship dates and that kind of thing.

Myke Hurley: Nice. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So I'm very happy with it. The feedback seems really good. Retro is very happy with it which I always find to be very important and we're rolling. It's looking good.

Kickstarter Update Discussion

Myke Hurley: Especially this one we want them to be happy because we're kind of like celebrating their company for them. Yeah. It's just like they deserve to be happy about the result of this one.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. It is like this whole thing doesn't happen without their buy-in to the idea, right? Yep. It's like we're I'll say profiting like because we use the money for travel and stuff. We're making money off of a celebration of a brand that we don't have a stake in essentially. Right? So they have to sign off on that.

Myke Hurley: Exactly. It's very different to us showing up and being like here's our design make the pen for us we'll pay you. It's a very different situation that we're in. Yep. So I'm pleased that I like it too.

Brad Dowdy: I'm super thankful for that. Yes. Very, very.

Advertisement Break

Myke Hurley: All right. Today's episode is brought to you by Squarespace. You can make your next move with Squarespace. They will let you easily create a website for your next idea or project. Help you register a unique domain name as well. So your website will have a wonderful name attached to it. You can customize award-winning fantastically designed wonderfully laid out templates to really give that website exactly what it needs. Exactly what you want to have. One of the things I love about Squarespace is with their templates and with their page building system I can have an idea in my mind for what I want the website to look like and I can create it myself without needing to know any code. It's all very easy to do. It's all drag and drop. I can choose from drop downs. I can choose colors. I find it to be very satisfying because I'm able to express what I'm looking for with the websites that I'm trying to make. They have all the functionality that you would want. You can integrate blogs. You can integrate maps. You can integrate audio. If you want to have music and maybe you make music and you want to show it off. Galleries and even online store functionality. So much more. Squarespace is an all-in-one platform that will let you build any website that you want to make. There is nothing to install or patch or upgrade. They do all of that stuff so you don't have to. You can sign up for a trial today with no credit card required. Just go to squarespace.com slash penaddict. There you'll be able to build your entire website. That trial you don't need to give them any payment information. No commitment. You just go in you build the website and then when you're ready to launch it to the world you sign up for one of their plans. But you can get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and show you support for this show by using the offer code penaddict when you check out. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict to get 10% off your first purchase. A thanks to Squarespace for their continued support of this show and RelayFM Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

Brad Dowdy: So I wrote down a show title with my Faber-Cast LCW pencils perfect pencil in my William Hanna notebook and then I followed that up with a note that I need to do later. So I was very busy during your ad read there. I wrote that one with the Y Studio resin font pen just so you know.

Myke Hurley: You're really mixing it up today.

Kala Ink Introduction

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, we're rotating so we've got one of everything so far. So yeah, we're in. Speaking of one of everything, Myke, a good friend of the show in the chat room today, Robo Jim, sent me a link on the Twitch stream yesterday.

Brad Dowdy: And it's for Kala Ink which is a brand that I've just discovered. Jetpens carry some of their basic pigmented ink. It's a pigmented ink. You know, it's waterproof, you know, kind of really latches into the paper and does a really good job. I was very impressed with the pigmentation and waterproofness. And what he sent me was a link to the Kala Ink Tribute to Neon which is an 8-ink set essentially. You can buy them individually. Of the brightest like literal neon colors in fountain pen inks. And you know, other companies have done these types of things before. We see things in highlighter inks. But I like what they did here with the whole theme of the set. It's like this whole hippie 60s psychedelics, you know, type of feel to them. And like I saw like the nib section which is another amazing podcast y'all should all download and listen to. They had our good friend Anna Siskey on and they talked about this ink which I missed earlier. But they talked about it, you know, a month or so ago. I think I'm going to need all of these inks, Myke. And the problem with that is I just made a statement in refill within the past week or two that I don't need to buy complete sets of inks. I'll be happy to pick and choose what I want. And then I get sent this link of 8 inks and I have no idea how to pick one or two out of an ink set that is this cool. What are your thoughts?

Myke Hurley: They're amazing. I'm going to put a few links in the show notes because the link that you sent me doesn't work for me. I don't know why. So there'll be a few different links so people will be able to check it out for themselves. I think that these are unbelievable. Not only do they have great labels and great names like skinny, groovy, joy, boogie, peace out, foxy, do it and dig it. They're the names of these inks. They are, I want them. So basically I want you to try them out. Where are you going to get them from?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. Kala is starting to spread out a little bit. Kala is the brand. The site we were given is a site in Taiwan, which I could order from. I've seen them, if you search for them, you see some other sites carrying them. But Kala is starting to spread out its distributorship a little bit. So I'm just going to hang tight and see where I'll be able to get them from. So I'm not in a rush. And the other thing is they're reasonably priced. They're about $10 a bottle. So that's the other thing that's pretty cool about these. You know, they're fairly priced. That orange,

Myke Hurley: the pink, that's like a coral color. Yeah, I'm interested.

Brad Dowdy: Like, choose one. Like, pick one, and you only get one, and that's your ink. That's your tribute to neon is one ink.

Myke Hurley: Pick it.

Brad Dowdy: This is the game we played the other day.

Myke Hurley: Okay, so you have to just choose one of them? Yeah,

Brad Dowdy: you only get one. You can't buy the whole set. You can't buy multiples.

Myke Hurley: then I'm going to go with, whilst I'm most drawn to the orange naturally, I think I'll go with Foxy, the pink.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. See, I went with Boogie, which is the darker pink, the more magenta. I think Groovy was the most popular. That purple looks really, really hot, and then the peace out green was pretty good, too.

Myke Hurley: The purple, whilst looking like a good purple, doesn't look neon enough in the images. Yeah,

Brad Dowdy: but it's like aggressively purple.

Myke Hurley: It's true.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So anyway, yeah, it would be super hard to come up with one of these inks because you want that mixture of colors on the page that you're working on with these type of inks. I don't see anyone buying any less than two or three of these if they're going to sample them. I don't know. That's just me. But like I just said, I don't need all this stuff and then boom, eight neon color inks. And I don't have anything like this, so I'm super interested in seeing them. It's pretty cool. I like that. I like seeing those type of fun products which also shows up in this next link that I sent you, Myke. Are you familiar with the Japanese character Kumamon? I don't know if I'm saying that right.

Myke Hurley: I looked it up this morning. I feel like I've seen this character before.

Brad Dowdy: Lami has done Kumamon before.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I just feel like it's, you know, because in the Wikipedia article for Kumamon, they referenced that this mascot, which I'll get into what that means in a second case you don't know, has kind of achieved worldwide, like it's recognized in different places across the globe. So I feel like, you know, these characters, they come by your way every now and then. Like, for example, I know of all of the line characters having never used line. Right. So like, these things, they just, they have a way of appearing visually in other places. Kumamon is a mascot created by the government of the Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan. So the idea of mascots in Japanese culture is very prevalent and they can be from companies to like recording artists to also places like local governments may create a mascot. mascot. And these are typically cartoon characters as a mascot. So, you know, I'm trying to think of, you know,

Brad Dowdy: I had a question, like, do you see that in the UK? Like, where a government entity, you know, we're not talking sports teams or events or, yeah, like a government entity created like essentially a town mascot, like the prefecture's mascot. It's such a unique thing. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of how this came about and whoever created this or the team that created this, I hope they got a raise.

Myke Hurley: I guess their thinking is like, this is a tourism thing, right? Like, you can create a popular character which is associated to an area, you could sell a lot of merchandise in that area, right? I think like that's probably why they would do it. Sure,

Brad Dowdy: but the odds of that succeeding has to be just minuscule, I would think, right? To really get that right is what amazes me the most. And they've done that so well with Kumamon. Like, what we want to talk about today is this Lamy Kumamon set that they've done. They've done some basic Kumamon pin clip attachments and some other individual pin sets. But what they did for this set, did you click through these links? Yes, the Reddit

Myke Hurley: link is the best one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so there's like an entire pin storage, wooden two drawer pin storage box and silk kimono pin wraps and storage that is a Lamy creation for the Kumamon brand. This is

Myke Hurley: straight up like the level of like work would be for like the most beautiful and expensive Micaiah that you would buy would come in packaging that looks like this. But inside is just a regular plastic Safari. It is a black Safari with a red

Brad Dowdy: clip. And it's absolutely outrageously fascinating. Like this is the this is why I enjoy the Tokyo Inc. podcast because we don't get to see this type of thing in our part of the world. You know, we get other things, you know, that are that are unique and interesting, but like for fountain pen lovers and stationary lovers, seeing not just a simple collaboration, but something completely off the rails like this I'm just in love with the whole thing, right? Like this is everything that I want in in stationary that I like, right? It's just it's immensely cool. So I just wanted to bring that forward for people to see like what this is this is something from Lamy Myke I wouldn't have to change. Like if I ever took if they ever hired me, like I would not change this. They're doing a great job with this with the Japanese exclusive. It reminds me of my

Myke Hurley: Pikachu pen where it's so extra. So extra.

Brad Dowdy: Right. For one of the most basic pens, honestly, like I mean I have a love for the Lamy Safari and I don't think it's a basic pen at all, but in the end that's really what it is. But then to wrap this whole shell around it, it's such an amazing fashion. It just knocks my socks off. I love everything.

Myke Hurley: It is a weird flex, but it's okay.

Brad Dowdy: Weird flex, but it's okay by me. Yep. All right. Let's, we have some Ask TPA to get to, and this is kind of a lead-in to that, and it's a follow-up from last week's conversation that I had around the $150 to $200 fountain pen range and the certain brands that are doing things differently in that price range. So this is from Caleb, and I'll read this one, and I'll let you grab the Ask TPAs. So Caleb says, long-time listener, first-time question asker. Thanks for all your work on this podcast. I find it such a refreshing break. So time out. I'm going to let Caleb build this up real quick before he crushes our hopes and dreams. I find it such a refreshing break each and every week. Before I get to my question, I just wanted to say that I found it surreal to listen to the episode two weeks ago where you broke down the Kukuyo notebooks. So these are the sketchnote notebooks that I brought in for the pen addict shop. The reason for the deja vu moment is that you all talked about them maybe two years ago when I started listening. In fact, after listening to it, I went and ordered a 50 pack from Japan and used them every day. Those are really fascinating notebooks.

Brad Dowdy: That's another one of those products that just gets integrated into people's workflows and they love them. Anyway, on to my question. Brad, fun to hear you break down the $150 category on this week's episode, but you were critical of Pilot, which caused me to pause. The Pilot Custom 74 is $160 and a really good pen in my opinion. In fact, it was my first gold nib pen and the Con 70 converter actually holds a significant amount of ink. What are your thoughts on the 74 and why does it not meet the criteria of the $150 category you laid out? This question is not meant to be adversarial at all. It's just meant to be a fun follow-up to an interesting conversation you have. So I was not critical of Pilot. I was, what's the word? I was, I want to be hopeful with Pilot and I guess maybe I would technically I was critical. It's because I think they can do more, right? It's not critical of what they have currently on offer in that price range. As a matter of fact, I think it's some of the best pens in that price range. My complaint with Pilot is that it's boring, right? It's the SSDD Pilot offering in that price range and the lower price range and a little bit higher price range, to be perfectly honest, right? Like Pilot, I feel, is stuck in a little bit of a design rut, right? They flex a little bit on the vanishing points and decimos, but what are they doing for the rest of their, the 91s, the 92s, the 74s, and the 912s, which all fall in that $100 to $200 range? I love every one of those pens. I talk about how great the 912 is all the time, but you can only get it in black with rhodium trim. And what I'm seeing, and the, the reason for that discussion is what I'm seeing in that market is a more fun pen that's marketed differently than what those pens are. And now Pilot's not trying to do what Leonardo and Esther Brook and Montegrappa are, but I want them to, right? So if that's being critical of Pilot for wanting them to do more in that price range, then yeah, I guess I am critical of them, but I'm not critical of the products that they currently have. They're exceptional. It's just that to me, I want to see more because it seems like a very easy spot for them specifically, Pilot specifically to make a difference in the market and they choose not to.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, I don't know. It's very minimal. You know, they'll, they'll introduce one or two new colors of the same shape every year, which is, it's fine, but it doesn't move the needle enough to say I need three custom 74s, right? That's, this is the market who a lot of people who listen to like the pen addict, you know, they have their pilot 74 and they never need another one. That's fine. But then I look at a company like Leonardo and I try to figure out, well, why do I want three of those?

Myke Hurley: We need to talk real quick about the fact that there's going to be some Leonardo's made with primary manipulation.

Brad Dowdy: Do we? I'm trying not to talk about that. Why?

Myke Hurley: So I might

Brad Dowdy: actually have, so I might actually have a chance to own one.

Myke Hurley: Oh, I want one so bad. Like, I don't know what strings I will have to pull to try and get my hands on one of these, but like Jonathan Brooks, who's a great guy. We'll put a

Brad Dowdy: link in the show notes. Yeah, we need to put a link in the show notes.

Myke Hurley: Has delivered like a ton of rods of primary manipulation to Leonardo and they're making some Leonardo pens. I don't know anything more than that. I hope that we get to know at some point, but I would be very excited to get my hands on one of those.

Brad Dowdy: So I did ask him. He popped into the stream on Tuesday and I said, we were talking about that picture and I asked him like the quantity that he sent and related to that quantity. I was like, how many pens do you think they could make from what you sent them? And he's like, I don't know, 100, 120. That's not a lot of pens, right? That's not a lot. So there's going to be a scramble for those. So we'll be following that because I know I want one. I know you want one. And I know the rest of the Leonardo and Brooks fans. So it's a great collaboration. Very fun to see. So that leads in to my argument. And like I said last week, Pilot does not care what I think. Pilot does not care about the fraction of 1% of market share that that change would get them in their overall, right? They're in a different level, which is why I'm finding the smaller companies more interesting and why I need three Leonardo's and I don't need three custom 74's, right?

Brad Dowdy: Correct. So there. What I'm saying is I want Pilot to give me a reason to own three custom 74's and it's not, it's just not going to happen. It's just not and I would love it too. So that's, that's my argument. So if that was being critical of Pilot for loving them and wanting them to do more than yes, I was critical of them, but I just feel it's out of, it's because it's so good. I want them to do more. Yeah. Right. So it wasn't a knock on the quality. There was no knock on the existing pins in that price range and they're in a discussion of their quality. They're all amazing and excellent, right? The Lamy 2000, the Pilot Vanishing Point, the Sailor Sapporo Slims, like all the pins we talk about in that category we love. But I was, I was trying to break out a separate category within there. That's not a statement on the quality of the product, but a marketing of these smaller companies and how they're doing different things than the bigger companies.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: There you go.

Myke Hurley: I think that it's like, you know, I never even think about the Custom 74 because there's just no, it just doesn't excite me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think out of that range, like I've been using the 91 because I have a very special one. I think the 92 is the best pin because it's a piston filler and it's just really well made. I enjoy that pin. I do not use that pin enough, but like there's no reason to like have to rush out and purchase one.

Brad Dowdy: It's just always there and it's always the same.

Pens and Brands Discussion

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And it's a heck of a good pin.

Brad Dowdy: As a matter of fact, now I'm going to have to go ink that up, but I will say this. I will say this. I have an orange 74 that I've put in my sale pile, like, you know, like the thinning the hard pile. And it's not because I don't like the pin. It's because I literally never use it.

Myke Hurley: But that would be one of the different ones though.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I know, but it's just I don't reach for it. Right. So these are the conversations I have in my head. I'm not reaching for that pin. And what would make me reach for that new, the new 74? Like what's going to make me go for a 74 over this other than like the gold nib. You always have the gold nib argument. Like you're never going to get better prices for like gold notes. All these pins that I was talking about last week are all steel nib pins, right?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, it's a fun conversation. Like, you know, I just I'm so passionate about like all these little things. I like I want to see more from some companies that I know could do it, but I know that they won't because I understand the math behind what I want, what I'm asking. Yeah. You know, pilots essentially a conglomerate, you know, they just don't like that will never move the needle for them in the short term. But I think it would benefit long term, right? If they continued to build on that.

Myke Hurley: Because that's like the idea of not missing the trends, right? Like we see this in technology a lot. You know, you look at a company like Microsoft where it's like you're so massive. Was it important for you to pay attention to this these new and up-and-coming ideas? Nah, you're so big. What's the, you know, you're fine. What's the problem? Yeah. And then you lose out on something, right? Right. I mean, I think that's a fair comparison.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, that's kind of what I'm getting at with Pilot. It's like they're just so big. They don't have to care what people think about their offerings in that price range because they're already selling thousands and thousands of those, right? Why should we do something different? But doing something different today might change how things operate 10 years from now. Yeah. And they just don't have to worry about that.

Myke Hurley: Nope. Well, we'll see, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's a, this is like one of my favorite conversations is like thinking about like the pen brands. Like that's the whole, you know, hire me Lamy thing that I, that I like to do. I don't want Lamy to hire you because they'll take you away from me. I know they will.

Brad Dowdy: It's, it's right there, man. Like I couldn't do it with Pilot, but I think Lamy could. Lamy is, I mean, we've seen it. They'll make

Myke Hurley: these wild boxes for a Chinese mascot from a, like a prefecture. Like, you know, they have it in them.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They are, they are like five tiny minuscule decisions away from like changing everything that they offer. Yeah. Yeah. But they, it's, that's the thing is like Lamy, you can see it like it's like, oh, they're so close. They're so close. They could just, they just did this one thing. It's so close. But yeah, again, massive, massive company, right?

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Minuscule changes don't, don't necessarily add to the bottom line. And those are the decisions these companies have to make. Yep.

Myke Hurley: Not us podcasters. Should we wrap up on a last TPA question today? All right, sure. All right, let's do this one from Lisa. In the period of staying at home, are you using up your stashes? Which stashes are you using? I'm assuming this is pen and paper. Well, I think there is a, there is a following question of what is the stationing equivalent of toilet, paper, or pasta? Yes. We accidentally bought a three kilogram bag of pasta. It doesn't sound like an accident to me. No, it really was an accident. So we, you know, like food delivery companies like everywhere, right? Like they've been a little bit trickier. We've ended up getting our system in control, but like we had to order from a different supermarket one week. And I was ordering everything on the phone, like on an app on my iPhone. And I was just like, oh, I'll add this bag of pasta. Right. And it was like three pounds. And I didn't really pay attention. Honestly, like, I don't know how this makes me sound, Brad, but like, I don't know how much a bag of pasta costs.

Brad Dowdy: Well, you're not blinking at three pounds. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I know, but I don't, I'm not buying a three kilo bag.

Myke Hurley: Right. But I didn't know I was buying a three kilo bag. I thought I was just buying like a regular bag of pasta.

Brad Dowdy: For three pounds, I would have just pushed the button too. It's not like it was 12 pounds and you had to think, what am I doing? Exactly.

Myke Hurley: It was just like, oh, I'm not really paying attention. Like what, you know, it just is what it is. Right. And I was like, I'll buy two of them because we need, we want two bags of pasta. So, you know, it's just like, oh, this is just what we'll get. So I, then the delivery shows up and I'm in my office and Edina's taking in delivery and she's like, what is this? What's going on? And we have these two.

Brad Dowdy: He's got like a weight belt on, like carrying the groceries.

Myke Hurley: I guess I'll do the conversion. Three kilograms is 6.6 pounds. Jesus. And you bought two? I bought two of them. Yeah. So, but one of the great things you can do with these is you can send back what you don't want. Right. So we just said to the delivery guy, like we ordered these by accident because we were ordering fast. Right. Cause this is, we're in this like panic moment of like, oh, you know, we're trying to get a delivery order in. Cause this was, this was a couple of weeks ago when, when at least here, it was a little bit more tricky in some areas to get groceries and things have calmed down now in a lot of places to a point, not everywhere, but like, you know, so like there's a little bit more like stability and in the processes cause the delivery companies, the grocery companies, like they had no systems in place to handle this. Right. Right. because this kind of thing had literally never happened before.

Myke Hurley: Like the scale that we're talking about. So we ended up sending back one and now we have this, we have this huge bag of pasta now. I love it. That's awesome. So, you know, the great thing about it is like, we just now won't order any more pasta and we'll go through it. Right. Like, that's the great thing about pasta. It's just the dry food. We'll keep it in a, in like the cupboard and we'll just get to it as we go. But, but anyway, so that's our biggest stock of anything is our three kilogram bag of pasta.

Brad Dowdy: I love it. So, so per Lisa's question, what's, what's the stationary equivalent of toilet paper or pasta? Like what does she, what does she have here?

Stashing Stationery Items

Myke Hurley: All right. So, uh, note cards from NotCo. This is what Lisa's trying to stock up on. I get this one. My backup supply was in my office and I use at least one card a day to organize my day. A5 spiral top notebooks, NotCo, or Maruman. This is the biggest notebook that fits well on my tiny desk at home, which is now my only workplace and base of operations. Notepads and smaller notebooks worked and I had a different work office, but no longer. And Balagraph ballpoint pens because one of mine is trapped at work and I miss it. And because they are cheerful and retro and the perfect shirt pocket pen, if I lose one, it's just $6 down. I don't know this, this one. I'm going to look this one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So our good friends, Julia and Pontus, I know they brought me one to the Atlanta pen show one year, which means they probably brought you one too and you're just like completely diss them. But you know, whatever. Why would you do that I've reviewed it.

Myke Hurley: Why do you have to be the way that you are?

Brad Dowdy: It's what I'm good at. It was red and yellow to be specific. Oh, I remember that pen.

Myke Hurley: I remember that pen.

Brad Dowdy: That's a Balagraph. Yeah. You would not have known recall. You would have remembered that they brought you a pen, not that it was a Balagraph, right? Like I definitely know it's a Balagraph. And I'm now looking at the website and I remember this look. Yeah. So I've reviewed a different I've reviewed a green one. They're very traditional. They are very retro styled. Such a really, really good pen, but it's essentially like the bank counter pen in Sweden. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: On their website, they even have the ones you can buy that are like attached to a chain. There you go. You can buy them for your home.

Brad Dowdy: So we have some I have some overlap here with Lisa. So I use a lot of note cards, obviously. Not only do I post them to Instagram on a near daily basis to kind of brain dump some stuff out there, which I need. Like it's it's a need thing for me to dump it. Then it's a selfish thing for me to photograph them and share them with the world. But you know, whatever. It's what we do. Hashtag content creator. On top of that, a five spiral bound and stable bound notebooks. Any top bound a five size. I've gone through to knock and I'm halfway through a Rodia ice pad in the a five. That's just like my scribble pads, my quick note pads. If I don't have the William Hannah or if I run out, if I fill up the first page and I don't go to the back notes pages, pages of that, I will use just the the note pads. So that's my two paper products that I'm using very, very similarly to Lisa. Then number three would be the smaller, less, you know, significant dollar amount pens like the Uniball Signo DX. I'm using a lot of wooden pencils, right? I'm like I'm using a lot of these smaller items than some of like my more expensive fountain pens. I can't explain that. I can't explain why. It's always like a rotation with me, right? Yeah. As soon as I get tired of one thing, I go on to the next and then I get stuck on that for like two to three weeks and then it just keeps rolling, you know, into something else. And so like what I'm using this week, I may not use one of these pens or pencils next week at all, right? It just depends on how things are rolling through. But as far as the stuff that I'm burning through, it's note cards and then A5 top bound anything.

Myke Hurley: The only thing that I have done is I bought like six panel books. Okay. Yeah. Right. Because that's the same thing that I use. That's the A5 thing. That's the desk pad. Honestly, I had bought that like a month ago. Like I wasn't buying them because I was worried I wasn't going to be able to get them. I just run out. And when I run out, I just buy a bunch because plus Studio Neat on their site, they offer discounts if you buy more. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But that's still that's like you bought a bunch because that's the thing that you're using on the daily. Yeah. And even, you know, it didn't have to be like this this time of stash trying to stop up stock up on this. Just what you're going to use regardless.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, exactly.

Brad Dowdy: And I think the note cards in the A5 books are the things I'm going to use regardless. The pens definitely rotate. But I'm using, you know, a lot of, you know, gel pens and wooden pencils have been in heavy use recently for me.

Myke Hurley: All right. I think that wraps up this week's episode, Brad Doughty.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Very nice, sir. Enjoy. Enjoy talking to you.

Brad Dowdy: Pleasure as always.

Myke Hurley: If you want to find the links for this episode, go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash four zero six. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com and go to knock.co where you can buy those note cards and notebooks that we were just talking about.

Brad Dowdy: 25% off. 25% off. Woo. Woo. With the code. Stationary. S-T-A-Y. Get it? Stay at home. Stay. Stay. Shinary.

Myke Hurley: Twitch.tv slash penaddict. 10 a.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays. If you want to find Brad streaming, you can do that. He is dowdyism on Twitter, penaddict on Instagram. I am iMike. I am YKE. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Penaddict. Thanks to Squarespace for their support. You could become a member and support this show, a Relay FM member, if you like. There's a link in the show notes at the very top. You can just click that link and you can become a Relay FM member. We have tons of cool benefits available to you if you do. But thanks so much for listening and we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.