The Pen Addict 370/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	370
Title:	Second One on the Way
Release Date:	July 31st, 2019
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 370
Audio File:	Audio Episode 370
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 370
Length:	5858 min <br />0.967 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 370, and today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley, I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hello Myke Hurley, how are you today? I'm fine and dandy, Brad Dowdy, how are you? I am very good. I am very, very good. I am exceptionally good. Oh, that's two different varies and one exceptionally. Must be a big day over there.

Brad Dowdy: It's the story of my life now. I'm just a very exceptional person and doing very exceptional things, talking about pens on the internet. It's quite outstanding.

Fan Art Discussion

Myke Hurley: Something else that's outstanding, listener Rick sent in some fan art for The Pen Addict Horror Stories, which I enjoyed immensely, and I wanted to make sure that everybody saw it.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, so we need to give Rick a shout out. We saw this, and I just, I loved this so much. Number one, the image is amazing, like it's a true horror story, like it modifies our show logo, and the pen's exploding, and I'm not quite sure what the hand's doing.

Myke Hurley: It's a green hand, though.

Brad Dowdy: It's a green hand, and there's a kind of weirdness with this image that I appreciate, which is why I wanted to share it. It's like half like exquisite and half Microsoft paint job, right? It's like perfect for the horror stories aspect of it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, there's something really interesting just about the visual look at it.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. It's amazing. It's amazing. So thanks, Rick, for sending that in. We always appreciate our fan art being sent in. And as you noted, we do have a horror story history link, all the horror stories on the stationery wiki, which we'll put the link in the show notes. Alexander, friend of the show, is keeping up with that. And I just wanted to let everyone know that I did finally get Emile and David's t-shirts to them. So now that was the original horror story entries into the horror story Hall of Fame. I've got t-shirts, so now I need to get on this next round, which is Anthony and Roland. I'll have to go back to Roland. Okay. So yeah, we'll get them contacted. I keep waiting for Anthony to say something to me, and he hasn't yet. So I think I just need to drop the bomb on him in case he hasn't listened to that episode or doesn't or anything like that. So yeah, I will get those to them very quickly. But finally, sorry, Emile and David, it took so long, but they're there now.

Pen Review Begins

Brad Dowdy: So the pen of deceit is here, Myke. And the name of this pen has kind of taken a life of its own, which I appreciate. Like, you kind of nailed it when we discussed it, and I guess it was just last week, about the Sailor Rialo I ordered without letting you know that I ordered. Even though, like, and it turns out my instincts were right that I didn't think you would be interested in it. It's still one of those things that, like, friends tell friends, like when they do something weird and wild and wacky, which is what we do. Like, we order the weird sailor pens that are difficult to get from Japan. That's kind of our niche, right? And so normally, you know, your podcasting partner, your good buddy would tell you when he's doing a thing, and I didn't. And you tabbed it the pen of deceit, and I have not been able to live it down. It's already making its rounds on Instagram from my friend Fude Fan, who got his own hands on his pen of deceit or someone else's pen of deceit to show it. And it's just so we can stop calling it the pen of deceit, even though I know that we never will. It is the Sailor Rialo YY Pen Club 10th Anniversary Edition, which it's just easier to call it the pen of deceit, to be quite honest. Yes, because the full name is way too much. It is way too much. And then, like, if I added in, like, a descriptor of what the pen looked like, it would be just, like, completely out of hand. So I wanted to talk about it, if you don't mind, even though, you know, it was deceitful on my part. But it's a Sailor Rialo, and I've never owned one. You've owned one. You currently own one. But I've never owned a Rialo, which was kind of the whole idea behind me ordering this pen. It was finally a Rialo design that I could get behind. And I want to take you through my thoughts real quick on this pen, if you don't mind.

Myke Hurley: I would love it.

Brad Dowdy: So the Rialo is a piston filler. So the Sailors that you and I normally talk about are either the ProGear models or the 1911 models or even the King of Pen models, which are all cartridge converter fill. So the Rialo is Sailors' kind of mainline piston filler. And the discussion around them has always been, well, they're kind of boring. So I found this one that wasn't, that fits my style. So I ordered it up. And, of course, the first thing I did once I unboxed it was I have to fill this immediately. I want to see how this piston works. And I think I need some practice. Like, I got three quarters of a fill with mine, right? So it's a demonstrator barrel I could actually see. You know, that's one of the flaws of the demonstrator is you can see how good or bad you fill a pen or how weird it makes the interior of the pen look. And in this case...

Myke Hurley: Because the Rialo is a piston filler, you get the very, very, very rare Sailor demonstrator where you actually get the benefit of the demonstrator.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So most Rialos that aren't a demonstrator barrel, they have a clear ink window, which is always at the bottom of the ink reservoir. So you can see how much ink you have left to see if you need to refill it. But with this particular one, and I got to take some pictures. We'll add them in the show notes. I'll get those before we post that. I'll do it right after this episode because I meant to do it yesterday. You can see the full ink reservoir and how much ink I filled. So I was like, well, I grabbed Montblanc Leo Tolstoy ink, which is a lot of people's most favorite ink in the world. It's not quite mine, but I really enjoyed it. I wanted kind of a... I wanted a blue, but not a blue black. Some people call it a blue black. I don't know. It's kind of hard to explain the same, but it's like, it kind of reminds me of Platinum's blue black, which is a good color. It's a color I enjoy. A little bit of brightness, but still a good blue.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, I filled it up first shot about three quarters and I would like to get, you know, seven eighths. You know, I'm being particular about it because if you're getting a piston filler, you want to use the entire capacity, right? That's the purpose of the thing. And I could probably do a better job of filling it, but I was too excited to do it. So the plunger that you can see on the sailor that they use is this weird little plastic nubbin looking thing. I don't know how to describe it. Describe it. The pictures will have to show it. And the ink kind of pulls up around it in this really weird thing. And I don't know that I like that. Like I'm pro demonstrator. I'm not sure I'm liking how the ink is working within this barrel from a visual perspective. It kind of holds it. It's almost like it holds the ink in two separate areas, right? So like there's ink at the top around where the plunger part, air gap, ink barrel, right? The ink, the large capacity of the ink. So it's a little bit of a weird thing that if you had a non-demonstrator, you wouldn't even know this was happening, right? So I don't dislike it. I just find it odd. Like I keep messing with it. Like shaking the pen back and forth is like, can I get all this ink down here? When I clean this, is this going to be a problem? How is this all going to work? So I'll take some pictures of that and share it. The overall aesthetic of this particular pen is perfect. The majority of the barrel is frosted. So it's a demonstrator, but it's essentially a frosted demonstrator, right? It's like a satiny finish on the clear parts. The only thing that's a smooth, purely clear translucent material is the ink window itself, which gives it a good look. So the metal parts are also, they're silver, but they also have a satin finish, which looks great. And it has a metal grip section with that same finish, like all the hardware matches. It's really cool. I love the feel of the metal section. It gives it a little weight, but this one's not as heavy as something like the Sailor Imperial Black. Well, no, that one didn't have a metal section. The other one, the 1911 with the metal section, I forget the exact name of it, had a heavier weight to it. This is more of a thin, lightweight aluminum grip, which I enjoy. The nib, which is apparently a YY Pen Club thing, is 100% clean. No adornments, no etchings, no pen size, except like a little, you know, how Sailor like puts it on the corner of the flange of the nib, like by the section, like the F nib. But like it's completely unadorned aside from like the 18K or 14K, I can't remember which this is. So it's a clean nib, which kind of fits in with the overall clean aesthetic of the pen. And I got a fine nib, which I really enjoy. Anyway, I do find the satin grip section to be a little bit slick when you first pick it up. But once you kind of get to writing and, you know, your fingers warm up a little bit, it has a little bit more stickiness, if you will, for your grip. If your hands are cold and you pick up the pen, you know, off the desk, it's going to feel like, how can I hold on to this? But as soon as you start writing, at least for me, it works well. The cap band font, which is something you pointed out when I showed you pictures of it, you're like, boy, that is really weird looking. You don't really notice it when you get the pen, like it's integrated so well into the cap band. You really have to kind of look for it. And I don't personally mind the font. It's like I don't even notice it. And I like on that show on the backside of where it says YY Pen Club around the back. It just says 10th. So I like the 10th anniversary aspect of it.

Brad Dowdy: I'm surprised that I want to post this pen. And I don't know what it is because I never post any of my other sailors, even the small ones like the Progear Sapporo or the Slim. I guess it's maybe the taper of the barrel is even more than the 1911. It's enjoyable to write what this pen posted, which kind of boggles my mind because I never, ever, ever, ever do that. But it fits like the way the Rialo is shaped. It makes that work. Does that make sense? Yes. So do you find, do you post your pens normally? I forget this. No. So you have a Rialo. Have you ever, like, does that ever come up with yours? You just use it completely unposted. Doesn't even phase you. Nothing.

Myke Hurley: Always unposted. Never a problem.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And I think when I was writing with it yesterday, I used it mostly unposted until I just happened to want to set it down and not roll away. So I put the cap on the back of the pen and I was like, huh, that works pretty well. I was kind of surprised. So, you know, so I'm going to mess around with it and see which way I prefer writing with it. Like I said, it's a stock fine nib. This is the pen when we mentioned the San Francisco pen show that Mr. Nagahara, who was formerly a Sailor's nib guru, is now out working on his own and will be at the San Francisco pen show. I said I need to bring, I need to figure out which pen I'm going to bring to get him to work on. It's going to be this one. Not that it needs to be worked on, but I just want to modify it. I'll either get a needle point, which will be even finer than the fine, or I'll get a stub like I've done with a lot of my Sailor fine nibs before. I'm kind of thinking needle point because I don't really have a Sailor needle point and will kind of suit this pen well, the way the nib is shaped and the way it looks. So I think this will be my pen that I take to get worked on in San Francisco.

Brad Dowdy: Overall, and to kind of wrap it up, it was too expensive for what this pen really is. Okay. So I paid about $500. I'm okay with that. It feels more like a $350 to $400 pen. And I know that's a little bit picking knits. And it's because there's so few of them that were made, right? Like that there's a premium just in the cost of the pen because the quantities were low. I think there were 60 total made. So, and with the different, you know, shapes and I mean, the different styles and finishes it has on it, you know, the price increases. I still think it's probably too high. Like, like $350, I would be like, oh, this is the best pen ever. It's like, I'm going to use this pen. Like, this is going to be like a workhorse pen for me because of the style and the way it works and the way I write. I just like it. It's kind of perfect for me. I do feel like the price was a bit of a premium that I wouldn't recommend for everybody. It was like, it was good for me to do this once. And like, I'm good, right?

Brad Dowdy: I will say the box that this came in, and you know, I'm not a packaging guy. We've had these discussions a thousand times. The box was ridiculously bad. So, it should have been, at a minimum, it should have been the basic blue box that you get. Like, if you went out and bought a Sailor 1911 Royal Tangerine right now, you know the blue box that you get, the clamshell, like the little gray interior that I'm talking about. So, what this came in was what you would expect the $15 or $20 Sailor fountain pen to come in. It was the thin cardboard box with a slide-out tray. So, it was like a two-inch by six-inch cardboard box. It really looked like it should have like an $18 sticker on it, like for what was inside of it. So, it was really disappointing for someone who doesn't care about the packaging. Even I was disappointed by it. It didn't make sense. I would almost rather, if you're going to give me that, I would rather you just send it to me, the pen to me, in bubble wrap. Like, I wouldn't care. It was just such a, it was kind of a negative on that. Just because it was so janky for what was contained inside of it. I literally would not have cared if it came in a plastic tube or in bubble wrap more so than in this box. So, anyway, I just wanted to point that out. That is like apropos of nothing. Like, it makes no difference in the grand scheme of things. But I'll take a picture of it and just go, huh, like you put the $500 pen in this little weird piece of cardboard. But, again, this is why I don't care about packaging. So, that's my pen of deceit, Myke. I'm going to get a lot of use out of this pen. I love it. I love the shape and the size. I do think the price, you know, in a vacuum was too much. But for me, I'm going to get a lot of use out of this pen. And I can't wait to kind of needle point it up and, you know, kind of just take it with me anywhere and everywhere. It's going to be that useful for me. And I enjoy it. So, I'm definitely liking the Rialo so far.

Brad Dowdy: Do you think that you would get more Rialos? I mean, I already have a second one on the way.

Myke Hurley: Oh, you do?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, I've got a secondhand resale one on the way that we'll see when I get it. Hopefully, maybe this week, next week, something like that. So, we'll talk about that when I get it.

Topic Shift - New Subject

Brad Dowdy: Let's talk about our next topic. Yeah. Because I think this is going to help answer that question. I'm not ignoring the question.

Myke Hurley: Let me answer your question with another question.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: I mean, that's what you're saying to me, right? Yes. I'll answer your question with this question.

Topic Shift - Sailor Pens

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So, in keeping the first segment of this podcast the most on-brand segment, we're going to talk about more Sailor fountain pens. Specifically, the Rialo, specifically two new Rialos from Kingdom Note, which I saw pop in my Twitter feed, what, Monday, Tuesday, something like that. Sailor is ramping up the Rialo customization. And what they've done for these Kingdom Note pens is stellar. And I'd like to know your thoughts on these pens.

Myke Hurley: I really, really desperately want the green one.

Brad Dowdy: Right? I mean, they're legitimately great looking.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It doesn't seem like a thing that I tried to buy it. But, like... Oh, did you already? Yeah. It seems like a you-need-to-be-in-Japan type deal. Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. So, these new Rialos, they're... I'm going to... I love Google Translate for these Japanese products. May I read the description? Yeah, man. For this? All right. So, this is Google Translate. Take it for what it is. But it's glorious. It is Genji Monogatari series that expresses the noble peace, society of colorful peace with colorful fountain pen and ink. The Genji Monogatari series released in 2017 is Seven Women Surrounding Mr. Light Source. This work is two kinds that spotted the protagonist's light source. The theme is costume. The beautiful appearance of the light source that fascinates the surroundings, its color, is expressed with the same fountain pen as the previous work, Professional Gear Rialo, and the ink manufactured together. Please enjoy it in conjunction with the ink peeking from the ink window as if expressing the attack of the kimono. So, I'm going with... These are the attack of the kimono pens because that's a killer translation.

Myke Hurley: Attack of the killer kimono.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. But it's really... It looks like a kind of a nature-themed, right? Mm-hmm. Like the green is ivy. Is that correct? I'd have to pull it back up and see. But, yeah, they're pretty spectacular because they take every... Almost every bit of the pen barrel and each little section is something a little different. But, like, aesthetically, they work. They're very reminiscent of the Vegetable Series. Did you get any of the Vegetable Series pens?

Myke Hurley: No, but they do remind me of that, too.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about, right? Of course. So, yeah, the green has, like, feet... It's, like, the same color green as the carrot and the same color orange.

Brad Dowdy: And the pink and purple. See, I love the pink and purple one. But, like, I'll get neither. Number one, I just spent a lot of money on one that I like better than these. And number two, it's got gold trim.

Pen Color Discussion

Myke Hurley: If it was easy for me to buy the green one, I would have bought it already. But it seems like it's not a thing that you can do outside of Japan.

Brad Dowdy: Gotcha. I mean, there's probably people. Like, you know, your statement just generated three emails. You understand this, right? Yes. Okay. I mean, that's how it ends up working. All right. So, the green one is autumn leaves. And the pink one is flower party. I mean, flower party. Hello. It's actually flower rose. But the translation says flower party. That's interesting.

Myke Hurley: Because for me, it's a flower banquet.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, really? Are you using Google Chrome?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Autumn leaves and flower banquet. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: That's interesting. Yeah. Mine says flower party.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. But I think we're going to start seeing this, right? Like, they've done so many Pro Gears, Pro Gears Slims, Sapporo's, 1911s. Like, the Rialo, like, which we've been saying all along, which is why I've gotten into this style of pen so much. Like, that's the next forefront for their special editions. And I'm all about it. So, I will not have that many of these. You know, they're very expensive. I didn't even look at the price of these. If you want to translate that real quick while I'm talking to that conversion. But, you know, there's only so many of these pens that I need. Just like any sailor pen. Like, you know, I've passed on so many great looking sailors. I don't need that many. The Rialo was special to me in that I didn't have one. And it took me a while to find the one. And I feel like I got it. You're looking at about $370. See, that seems great. Like, that, you hear that price and you go, okay, that seems correct. Like, what I paid for mine was much more than that. Like, that seems like that $350 to $400 range for a very specialized pen seems correct. So, regardless. I think they're great. I think we'll probably see a bunch of these. I think these are going to be popular. And hopefully we'll get to try one out. Because I would like to see them in person. To keep the theme alive, Myke, we have a new, easier to acquire sailor fountain pen that I wanted to discuss. It's the North American limited edition for 2019 and the sailor 1911 large. And they're calling this the ringless epinard. And I want you to just go.

Myke Hurley: It is a green pen. And it has no metal rings of any kind adorning the cap. Which makes it look like a very different pen indeed. I'm assuming there are also no rings on the body towards the end of the pen. Like, I'm assuming it is just pure acrylic. It makes it look like a more expensive pen than it actually is. It's retail at $450. But it gives it the look of the king of pens. Like, the ebonite ones or whatever, right? Like, these just, you know, almost kind of like pushing towards that typical style. That, like, ebonite style. Like, oh, this is really well made. But it's just the body. I really like the look of this. But I will not buy it until I see it. Because I'm not sure about the green.

Brad Dowdy: Isn't it funny that taking something away makes this pen look more expensive?

Myke Hurley: Yes.

Brad Dowdy: Because of what sailor style represents on their high end of the market. Their high end Arushi king of pens have less rings than this, right? This has a ring where the clip goes in, right? Because there's a manufacturing rule there that you've got to be able to unscrew that cap. And you need a little bit of a seal there. And then there's a ring where you unscrew to get into the inside to put in the converter or cartridge.

Myke Hurley: I'm going to, like, just for comparison purposes, I'm going to put in the show notes a link to the 1911 Key Lime. Okay. And you can kind of then go between the two of them. And you can see the differences, right? You can see the kind of, like, the rings. Like, it's, yeah, it still has the little ring where the grip section is. But that's it.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Yes. So, they slimmed the design, not in physical size, but just in the things that are on the pen. And it looks fascinating. It looks so much better to me. Maybe because that's always been my aesthetic, the large king of Penarushi, which I don't love. But they took something away and charged you more for it. And I want it more, right? Mm-hmm. Like, I don't know how they came up with this. I mean, it's a very simple change. But I don't know that I would have gone there with this model because they have it in other models. And I'm kind of just fascinated by the whole design of this pen. And I, too, will probably not buy it. Like I said, in the sheet that, you know, I really want to see it in person, right? And that might change my mind. I have no intention of spending this kind of money after I've just spent on a pen. I could see owning this pen. It's kind of cool. Mm-hmm. And then all I can picture right now is the orange one, right? If this came out in the Royal Tangerine, which they wouldn't do because they did the 1911 large already, they would just be taken off the band. They haven't done this color before, even though it's kind of close to lime. It's not really.

Popularity Prediction

Brad Dowdy: This one's going to be a problem because I don't see an end to this style because I think it's going to do really well, right? Like, that's my perception because they're pairing it with an ink color, right? Sailor Epinard ink has always been, like, one of their classic inks. Like, out of the six base inks that they've always sold or eight, whatever that number is, it's right there with, like, Grenade and some of these other ones that they've done originally. Oh, what if they do a sky? If they do a sky high of this one, it's like I almost want to wait and not buy this one because I know something even better is going to come. Like, if they do sky high or apricot, it's just over for my wallet.

Myke Hurley: I didn't know that about the ink. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, they're calling this color Epinard, and that's their green ink color, which is a spectacular ink. So, it's like I have to, as much as I, if I want this pen, understanding what they're doing with this one makes me hope for something else, which would be even better for me. So, it's like one of those wait and see type of things. So, you know, and to kind of take this Sailor Talk full circle, our friend Alex, who I mentioned earlier, who was updating the Horror Stories Wiki, sent in a question for Ask TBA, which fits here. He says, can we make an official pen at a club as a buying block so that there is more leverage when talking to companies like Sailor to make custom pens? I think like a solid 50 plus people could hop aboard. I've already, I haven't chased this down, but I've already had people reaching out that would be my conduit to make this happen. So, I'm not going to say it's going to happen, but like people's minds are, the wheels are turning, so are mine. So, I'll pursue it a little bit and see. It's like, it's not one of those things. I'm not compelled enough to say, we have to do this, Myke, and we're going to make it happen yet. But we could get there, and I think we could get 50 people on board to make a custom Sailor pen, maybe up to 100 would be my guess. Because y'all just heard me mention the price of these pens, right? Yeah. It's no joke.

Myke Hurley: It'd be a four for you when we go in King of Pen. That's our first.

Myke Hurley: No one makes custom King of Pen. That's where we're going to go.

Brad Dowdy: So, Alexander, I mean, you're definitely on the right track. Like, and I have had some back channel conversations. And so, yeah, like there's nothing imminent. There's nothing that's not even, you know, more than just, you know, a little Adam, you know, deciding to split and grow a little bit more. So, we'll see what comes of this. So, it's not an imminent thing. So, phew, that was a lot of Sailor talk, Myke. Good.

Myke Hurley: Good for who? Me. Me. Yeah, me too. Today's episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet are the company that have all of your favorite brands. Pelican, Lamy, Sailor, Kaweco, Pilot, Namiki. They're an authorized dealer of all of those and many more. And they are adding new pens every single month. All of the new stuff is there. Like that Sailor we were just talking about, right? The ringless. You'll be able to buy that on Pen Chalet. You can go and pre-order it now if you want to. There'll be a link in the show notes to do that. Pen Chalet is still authentic and amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, pen cases, pen holders, refills, converters, ink, and so much more. They have the Pen Chalet Ink Club, which is awesome, as well as a way to save money and get access to even more special deals all the time. I really love Pen Chalet because they give a satisfaction guarantee. They want you to be completely happy with the stuff that you're buying from them. They sell internationally with great shipping rates. And if you order over $50, they will ship to you in the US for free, which is fantastic. 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. Use the password Pen Addict to get your hands on the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet and also to get your hands on this week's special offer. Ron wanted me to mention that they're going to be selling the Diplomat Magnum for $11.99 as a super special deal this week.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's what caught my eye. I have not used this pen, but Jeff reviewed it for the Pen Addict and enjoyed it. It was kind of a surprise, like entry-level contender. And in its normal, you know, mid-20s retail price to get it for $11.99 puts it in that spot to where if you're a new fountain pen user and you're trying to figure things out, like this is a really good deal that you know you will get a very quality pen from.

Myke Hurley: Interesting looking pen, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. It's very strange. Like it passed through my hands. It's lightweight. It's a plastic build, but it's kind of cool. Like it's a little bit edgy the way it has the ink window and the way the barrel tapers and the cap is shaped. So, you know, this is something if you're looking for like your first fountain pen, this is kind of the kind of risk you would take, right? To jump on and say, hey, let me try a fountain pen. This is kind of right up my, you know, look and style and functionality that I would get. And it's from a very good fountain pen maker and diplomat. So, yeah, they've kind of expanded their lower end offerings off of the arrow, which was so popular, which is like around a $200 pen. Yeah, this is a cool, cool idea for them to kind of explore this into the market.

Sponsor Mention

Myke Hurley: All right. So once again, penshalay.com. Hit the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password pen addict to get your hands on those special goodies. And thanks to Penn Chalet for their support of this show and all of Relay FM.

Topic Shift

Brad Dowdy: A couple of products I want to talk about, Myke, as we just, I guess that's kind of what we do, right? We just talked about all the sailor products. Our good friend, friend of the show, maybe our first interview ever. I'd have to go back. I meant to go back and verify this. Myke Rohde. Mr. Sketch Note himself has always made, you know, different books, different products around sketch noting. He's kind of the sketch note guru. He has the sketch note idea book coming out, which is basically a sketch book to allow you to sketch note in and talking to Myke about this and reading the product page for the sketch note idea book kind of knocked my socks off, right? If you're a pen addict and you've listened to this podcast or read my blog, you understand the nerdery that goes into picking out a paper for you to use with not just a singular pen, but all kinds of writing instruments. And what Myke has done with just this sales page for this notebook is fascinating. Like I ate up every word of this. I loved all the testing he put on here. I love how it looks like it's a really, really good looking notebook and a good looking product page. Um, the tests and testimonials he has from a lot of our friends. I just am kind of blown away by what Myke's done here. So this is going to be launching on Kickstarter. I maybe next week. I don't have an exact date. Um, Myke wasn't totally sure, but it's going to be very, very soon. So I just wanted to bring this up for those of you. Number one, who sketch note, and you probably know who Myke Rohde is and you can check out all of his stuff. Number two, those who are looking for a good sketchbook. Look, look at the ink tests that Myke, he's just laid it all out there with all the ink tests on this page, front, back, every type of pen, anything you can imagine in this book and look at how it handles it and see, you know, maybe this is something, you know, you should look at if you're a heavy duty sketch artist. So what do you think about this product, Myke?

Myke Hurley: I'm super jealous of this page.

Brad Dowdy: Right?

Myke Hurley: As someone who is trying to put together something like this at the moment, I will be using Myke as inspiration here for how to put together a book like this.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So one of the things I learned in my retreat last week that this is actually called a sales page, right? For obvious reasons. And whether it's someone selling digital goods or a singular product or whatever, what does your sales page look like? This is a primo example of an awesome one. I think like I wrote that in the show doc, like just about the webpage, like how I said, this sales page is nuts. It has every detail a stationary nerd could want. Like he crushed it. So I, I've known Myke Rhodey long enough to know that anything he produces is going to be exquisite. And I just think this is just going to be a killer, killer sketchbook. And I'm in like, I don't know what else to say, but I was kind of blown away by the whole setup. So y'all should go check that out. If this is something that you're interested in.

Brad Dowdy: I'm going to spend more people's money, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: I got the shown design fountain pen in my hands and this just kind of came up randomly like Ian. So Ian shown we've known for a while. We've gotten to meet him. We've bought several pins for him. My love for the shown design pocket ballpoint pen. I think it calls it the, is it the Oh one? I don't even remember the number, but it's a basic number. I have three of them. I use them religiously. I, I, they're with me more times than they are not. They're just fantastic work that Ian's done around this ballpoint pen. And as any pen maker could probably tell you whatever they're, whatever the one thing they're known for that they do really well, they always want to dabble in the other thing. So if you're a fountain pen maker, you're probably trying to make, you know, something really cool for a gel ink refill or rollerball refill. And if you're a ballpoint pen maker, like Ian was, he uses, he built all of his pens around the Fisher space pen. Well, let's try to make a fountain pen. And man, has he done it? This pen is crazy. I wish you could hold this pen and see and feel what I'm feeling about this pen. And it is wild. So anyone that's familiar with Ian's ballpoint pens, and then they pick up this fountain pen, it's almost the exact same size and shape, but it is much lighter, which I did not expect coming out of the package. So it's an aluminum barrel pen, but it's thinned out so much. Aluminum is going to be light as it is. But the way this is made and Ian's like machining skills are really shown off in something like this. So the big selling point of this pen is not that it's a pocket fountain pen, but it's a pocket fountain pen that uses a number six nib, which is the larger size. Kaweco's use essentially a number five nib. So this is kind of a Kaweco sized pen when you post it, but it has the full size nib writing experience. It's. Have you ever gone to like one of those outdoor stores, Myke, and picked up either what's either called a pill container or like a waterproof match container? Do you know what I'm talking about? If I refer to that type of thing?

Myke Hurley: No, I don't.

Brad Dowdy: So I think a lot of people will. And so it's like you find them at camping stores or outdoor stores for people who are going, you know, hiking or camping or staying out. So there'll be like a titanium tube and it's threaded and it's built to either keep your matches in a waterproof area or keep your medicine protected. They're really lightweight because they're made to fit in a bag or backpack and not notice them. And that's what this pen feels like. It feels like one of those titanium little containers that you find in these type of stores. But it's a full size fountain pen in this little container. I'm having a hard time explaining this pen. Like I put it up on Instagram yesterday and like the questions were endless. Like, wait, what? How is this happening? What is he doing?

Myke Hurley: I assume he's using short international cartridges, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. So it'll only fit short international cartridges. I'm sure it'll fit one of those tricky Kaweco converters, but you should not even buy those. Like, don't even, you know, don't even go there with those. So, you know, the only other pen I use that's this size that uses a number six nib is the Franken-Christoph Pocket 66, which is one of my all-time favorite pens. And this is even smaller and it's metal. So it's really going to, you know, you can put it in your pocket and bang around with your keys and not have any issues. The cap has a basically like a plastic tube inside. You can't really see the way it's integrated into the barrel, but it's so, you know, the like the threading stays tight. Like it's, it's metal on metal threading, but it kind of pushes itself into like this plastic, you know, almost like the platinum like seal slip and seal mechanism. It's not that it's not one of those, but you can tell like the air tightness seals up inside of this pen. Ian sent me a basic raw aluminum one. If you go troll through Ian's Instagram feed, he's basically doing all these wild anodization colors, which is something I know you and I like, Myke. Like I've bought the one we refer to as the Lisa Frank pen, which is just blues and pinks and yellows. I believe you brought the one we call the Dexter pen, which looks like blood splattered red. He's doing this in this pen.

Brad Dowdy: Go see Ian at the Washington DC pen show and check out his work because it's very unique in our space. And I love Ian.

Myke Hurley: It's also impossible to not go and talk to him and not want to buy from him. He also makes watches too. And that's becoming like a big thing for him too, which is nice.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. And it's good to see him getting some, getting some press for his watches. But that's what I was going to say. Go as good as Ian's pens are. He's even a better person. Such a nice guy. He is legit. Great guy. And just hearing him talk about his stuff. You just stay in there with a smile on because he talks with a smile the whole time. Like it just reflects back on you. And like, he's just such a good dude. Go talk to Ian, see what he's doing because it's different than what a lot of people are doing and his skills are excellent as far as like pen making goes. And he's just a great person. So if you're at the DC pen show and don't at least go look at Ian's table, like you're not doing the show right. Like DC has so many vendors that do so many different things. Like Ian doesn't, I won't see Ian this year at any pen show. Like he doesn't go to many. Um, so you want to, if you're at DC and you haven't seen Ian before or Ian's work before, like you want to make that opportunity worthwhile. So you go and check out these things that you can't see before, like kind of lay a pen company, like Ian's work, you know, like, um, you know, I don't know. I'm blanking on anyone else. Anyone who you haven't seen. Now's your opportunity is dumb to do the DC pen show, right? Which leads us into an ask TPA question, Myke, you might already have it on the agenda, but any advice for a first time DC pen show goer must see vendors, cool stuff from knock. Um, their website leaves much to be desired for us noobs being, uh, the DC pen show website. I'm not sure who's running their Instagram account, but they are doing a good job on Instagram, uh, despite the fallings and failings of their website. But yeah, you want to go see these people I just mentioned. You want to go see Yenderings. Um, Union makes awesome pen wraps and I know she's going to be there. Um, you know, I don't have like the complete list of all the people, but you know, anytime you haven't seen a product that you've read about online and you have that opportunity, this is where you want to do it. DC and San Francisco are kind of like the hunt people down, search them out, make a point to go see these people in the bigger picture DC, uh, show tips. As anxious I'm getting talking about it and as fast as I'm talking, you got to go slow. DC requires you to breathe. It is big. There are a lot of people and not all of us are built for that. Myself included. Take breaks, walk around, look. Don't feel like you have to get everywhere in the first hour because it's physically impossible. Take it slow. Take a break. Drink lots of water. You know, I know I can tell you to go look at things and go buy things, but if you're not able to be physically upright, you're not going to get to those things. In DC, that matters more than any other show, I would think. Do you have any, uh, you've been once now to DC. Do you have any recollection of, um, what you experienced or any tips you would give to a first timer?

Myke Hurley: Don't eat at the hotel restaurant, especially for dinner. Um, find other places. You're in a nice enough area. There's lots of options. Go and do that. Get outside of the hotel, basically. Yeah. Just in general, like just get outside of the hotel.

Brad Dowdy: Um, yeah, I think the first year I did DC, uh, at the new hotel, I never left the hotel. I even, I don't even know that I went physically out the door for fresh air more than like once, which is a huge mistake. So last year, you know, I was able to go out for dinner with friends, you know, just, you know, there's lots of places within five minutes, you know, Uber or Lyft or, you know, someone who drove catch a ride kind of thing. Um, you know, everything outside of the floor, it's important for like self-care and sanity. And for all kinds of purposes, you need to do that. Especially if you're going to be there more than one day, take your time, take it slow, drink lots of water, breathe and have fun. You're going to see lots of stuff. You may not get to see it all. It's highly likely you don't get to see it all. Um, but you know, pick out a few vendors. If you see, you know, someone you have a question about and want to shoot me an email, I'm glad to help. There'll be other people there that can help. I know Anna will be there and Joe Grace will be there from the Gentleman Stationer. Find them, hit them up, ask them questions. And there'll be a lot of people there, uh, and from the Panetta community. And, um, yeah, just, uh, take it slow. That's the best advice I can give with DC because you can get overwhelmed real easily. I hear it every year that I've been at DC that I didn't know, like I didn't know how crazy, how big, how busy it was going to be. Um, so I'm telling you, it's going to be that way. So look out for yourself and, um, and then, uh, you'll have a better show experience. I think.

New Pen Show Topic

Brad Dowdy: Phew. We did it, Myke. We're almost there. We're almost to our STPA, but I got to talk about another pen show real quick as it relates to the pen out of Kickstarter. So we're not far from San Francisco, right? How far away is that? Three, three and a half weeks ish. Three weeks maybe. I guess it's about three weeks for us because we're going early for the relay FM fifth anniversary, uh, extravaganza, which I'm pretty, pretty hyped about, uh, even though I don't have a clue what's going on other than I'm going to be there. Um, but related to all that, I wanted to let everyone know if you haven't already seen it in your inbox, I've sent out the survey to collect your addresses for your rewards. The Burton wax canvas, uh, case that knock is making for this campaign has started to arrive at my house. I've gotten like the first 60 of about a thousand of them in. So, uh, they're, they're looking great. So I'm going to let those pile up for a little bit, start collecting addresses, which we've done. So if you have not checked your inbox in the past couple of days and you hear this episode, please do so. Please go fill out the address form for the Kickstarter survey. So I will have everyone's information. So I make my shipping life much easier because it's going to take a while to get all of these out. Just based on the quantities, the stickers are already in on, uh, even like sleeved each, uh, sticker set like in a little sleeve. So I'll just be able to pop those in the cases and yeah, it's, uh, it's going to be fun. We will send them out and back our order for those asking. That's my intent. Um, one of the things that does come up with shipping is sometimes it's easier to batch. So it might be slightly out of order. Um, when you're doing shipping a singular item like this one, where you can just print out a group of 100 stickers, slap them on a thing. So, but we're going to, I'll try my best to do them in back or order, but it shouldn't take that long other than the quantities. Like there's not a lot of sorting to do for individual orders, like with spoke pen, which we're still working on fulfilling each individual order has to be gone through. And this one is, this is not the case at all. So check your email. We will be, uh, I will be chasing you down if I don't have your address and, uh, you don't want that. You don't want me coming after you for your address to get your products.

Myke Hurley: So do me a favor when you come across mine, just put it in your bag.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I will do that. I will do that. Thank you for sure. For sure. So more ask TPA related to the San Francisco pen show. Uh, Kimmer wants to know, should I get general admission at the fun pen show or do I need early access? Hashtag ask TPA. If you're going to be there for greater than a day or early in the mornings, I think early access is worth it. That's my opinion. It's totally an opinion thing. I like the pace of the mornings as a, an attendee because it's not, um, as busy, even though like on Friday you run into, maybe all the vendors aren't set up. You know, I don't know if you're just coming one day or multiple days in general. If you're coming multiple days or we'll be there early in the morning, I find the early access passes to be worth it, but that could go either way. That's situational and opinionated. That's my thing. So, um, but the bigger shows, if you're there for those hours, it's, you'll get more out of those one or two hours extra time. That extra money will be well spent in my opinion. Um, you know?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I figure it depends on what type of person you are and what you're looking for. Like if you are the type of person who wants to try and get their hands on like some of the limited edition stuff or whatever, or the things that are going to be at that show, then you should be getting in as early as you can. If that sort of stuff doesn't bother you so much, then just come when you want.

Ask TPA Segment Begins

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. Exactly. So we're ready to hit some Ask TPA. The first one's a long one and I'm interested if you have an answer and I have an answer and I wonder if the answer is going to be good enough, but I have actually answered a similar question. This. So this is from Leah. Hi, Brad and Myke. My sister's getting married on August 25th. So my question is time sensitive. If you would be so kind to consider it, I'm in charge of finding the pen. For the guest book. The guest book cover is solid black and the pages are what I would call a bright white. My budget is $100. I want to find a pen that is classy, elegant, but also cool. My sister is a fashion and beauty blogger in LA and her fiance is a venture capitalist. So I want a pen that reflects being hip, but also the timelessness of a fountain pen. Can you think of a pen that might fit the bill? A couple of things to consider. I would like the pen to be easy to use. I'm in the wedding and can't pop out to teach someone how to use a pen. It needs to photograph. Well, they want the pen to be in one of the pictures. I was hoping she wanted me to hold it instead of flowers, but it's already scheduled to be in a shot with their rings, his cufflinks and her something blue. The pen should either be black, white or metal. Any metal accent should be silver or gold, not rose gold. The ink will be black. Cartridge is fine, but I'm comfortable with a bottled ink as long as it's easy. Thank you for your help and your amazing podcast. So first, Leah, the amount of detail you gave here is amazingly perfect. I love everything that is.

Myke Hurley: I love the detail. The details made it way harder.

Brad Dowdy: That was part two, right? What you want has one answer in my mind, and I'm not sure it's the correct answer. I feel like it is, and it's the Pelican M205. It is one of the most classic, timeless-looking ballpoints, fountain pens on the market. It hits the black, white or metal. It's black with silver trim. Or it could be gold, if you prefer gold. I prefer the look of the silver for the classicness of it. But if it's going to be shot in a picture, depending on the rings and the cufflinks, you could go gold. I don't know what those are going to be.

Brad Dowdy: It is one of those pens that is very unassuming if you look at it, just like in your hand holding it. You think, I'm not so sure about the specialness of it. But this pen ends up in more photographs, more advertising campaigns, more TV shows, because it looks like a classic fountain pen. We see this pen in images all the time because of its style. The nib is really pretty. It's got some nice embellishments on it, little swirls that Pelican does. It hits the price point for $100. You might find it for more, you might find it for less, depending on where you're shopping. It's easy to use. It's a piston filler. It'll take your black ink, whatever ink bottle you want to use, fill it up. I would bring that to the guest book. Who knows if you'll need to refill it or whatever. I'm having trouble coming up with a better looking pen than that. The chat room says the Faber-Castell Ambition is a good choice, and I agree with that. It has a chrome cap with a very classic look to it. I think this is probably an option as well. It's very wedding-y. Yeah, it's very wedding-y. They also do one that's got a little bit of a pattern on the barrel, if it would look. It'll be in that same type of price range, that $80 to $120 range, which I think is probably where you're looking. That's a good choice there, but that's kind of it. I think there's some great pens just for people wanting to use pens in that price range that fit that, but to meet the needs of all the specifics you list, those are probably your two best choices. Now that I see that Ambition, it might photograph a little bit better, but take a look at both of those and see what you think. The Pelican might be a little bit easier to use, a little easier to grip, because the Ambitions have a weird non-grip section that they use for their pen, but if someone's just signing a guest book, they can deal with that. It might be better just visually for that. Do you have anything else on that? That's a really lovely question with a really short group of pens that are options there. Is anything missing?

Myke Hurley: I don't think I could come up with an option better than the Pelican, because I had no idea that that was a sub $100 pen. Yeah. So that's the one, I think. Yeah. Yeah. So take a look at those and see what we got. All of my stuff ends up being too quirky or weird in some way. Right? Like, if you want classic, you're right. I don't think you can beat classic for that. Right. I think that the $100 budget, I understand budgets are budgets, but that does make it trickier. Because somebody, like Evan in the chat room, recommended the Lamy 2000, which is a fantastic option, but it's like twice your budget. But, you know, I think that that is a great option, because that is a sleek as heck looking fountain pen. Right. With just a silver accent on it. So it's kind of aluminium, so that might not be what you want, right, from the accent perspective. I don't know if you mean silver in color or silver in material or like metal. Right. So, but yeah, I think that's another option, but it is more than your budget recommended.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And then if you're getting into the $200 budget, let's just say that that's when you start talking about the Lamy 2000, that's when I tell you to look at the Pilot Custom Heritage 912, maybe even a Sailor Pro Gear, just for a classic styled pen with a little more exterior accents than your $100 pens.

Myke Hurley: And they're all better writers than the Pelican as well.

Brad Dowdy: Then they're all gold nib pens, the Pelican's the steel nib pen. So, you know, that's your next level. You go in that $100 range for this answer, and then the $200 range is a couple of different models. Mostly more expensive because of the gold nibs, so you may not need that for your guest book. So, all right. Poorly thought to one. What are my options for a planner with a fountain pen friendly paper that begins in August, September? So, what you want to search for is what's called an academic planner. So, those generally start in August.

Brad Dowdy: And there's a lot out there if you just do a general search for that, but there's not a lot of brands that I'm used to using for their paper out there. And the only one I can think of offhand and that I found a link for is Quo Vadis. They have great paper. They also have the Starts in August planner. So, you know, that's something, you know, to search on. I don't know about any of the other brands that come up when you start searching for an 18-month planner or an academic planner other than Quo Vadis. Like, I didn't find Rodia, Claire Fontaine, a lot of the Japanese brands that we use for their paper. I didn't see options for those. So, check out what Quo Vadis offers and I know the paper will be good. So, Myke, this one's for you. And I'm curious about this question. Myke's a pen enthusiast and a notebook aficionado. What does he recommend for journaling near the beach? So, you had a little beach trip earlier this summer. Did you journal, notebook, draw, write, sketch, anything at or near the beach?

Myke Hurley: Sure. But the answer to this question is unsatisfactory to the nature of the question. It's either take your normal stuff and be careful or buy something like the Write in the Rain notebook, but you won't be very happy with it because it's not what you want, really.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. To me, beach writing, which I do a lot, is more about the pen than the notebook, which means I'll use like a ballpoint pen, like a Fisher space pen type of thing.

Myke Hurley: I would use like a Fisher space pen or my Mark 1 or a Retro 51. I'm not going to like take a fountain pen down to the beach with me. It just feels like that is like, I don't want sand and my fountain pen near each other, right? Like, it's just not a thing that I want. But your paper option is like, just take your regular paper and just try not to get it wet.

Brad Dowdy: Totally. So, yeah, I'll write in anything. I will not write with anything. So, that's my beach rule.

Myke Hurley: Damn, look at that. That's like you put on a t-shirt.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, Buckley says, can you recommend a Parker style refill equivalent to the Pilot Juice 0.38 millimeter? Hashtag ask TPA. No, we cannot. Or else we would be pimping it so hard that our brains would explode. That is something that does not exist that we all would prefer to exist. And no one's been able to do it correctly yet. The best we've had, there was a Swedish brand, Premac, I believe, that did 0.4 millimeter gel ink pens. And they were so scratchy, they were unusable. No one has been able to solve this. Monteverdi has some 0.5 millimeters that are going to be about as close as you can get. And that's it. Like, this is a gap that us pen addicts have not seen filled in the past five to ten years. It doesn't exist. And I'd be glad to test something out for anyone who does come across anything. And like I said, the closest we've gotten was the Premac, and it was just poor. Like, they tried. It was a good attempt. It was a Parker style 0.4 millimeter refill. And it was not usable. So, it'll get there eventually.

Episode Conclusion

Myke Hurley: All right. I think that just about wraps it up for this week's episode of the Pen Addict. Thank you so much to Pen Chalet for the sponsorship of this show. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, knock.co. He's dowdyism on Twitter, penaddict on Instagram, and penaddict on Twitch as well. You can find me, I'm imyke, on all of the social media platforms. You can find this show at relay.fm slash shows, where you will find the Pen Addict along with many other shows. And if you want to find the show notes for this specific episode, relay.fm slash penaddict slash 370. We'll be back next time. Man, wait. Next time. Oh, gosh. What are we? Two episodes away? So, we'll have like one more episode. Then we're going to have our like San Francisco pregame. Yep. And then it's live show, baby.

Brad Dowdy: Man, it's coming so fast.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it sure is. Can't wait. Very excited. Very excited to ditch you at the table while I go off and explore. Fair. That's fair. Just wait until we'll.

Future Plans/Events

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, just understand I'll be at the Relay FM fifth anniversary show. And you'll be looking for me at some point. Just, I'm going to throw that out there.

Myke Hurley: You can miss your call time. That's on you, man. That's on you. I've got a lot of people on that stage. I'm not worried about any one person specifically.

Brad Dowdy: Ooh, damn. I just got told. Yeah. But I love you. I love you too.

Myke Hurley: All right. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.