The Pen Addict 344/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	344
Title:	French Rule Territory
Release Date:	January 30th, 2019
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 344
Audio File:	Audio Episode 344
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 344
Length:	6565 min <br />1.083 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict. 344 is this episode's number. Today we are brought to you by Squarespace, Pen Chalet, and Mace the Design. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello, Tom Bobson, writer of Techie Magazine. How are you? You knew I was going to do it to you. I mean, how did you not assume?

Myke Hurley: And then been prepared. I thought about it earlier, but then forgot.

Guest Introduction

Brad Dowdy: I love our made-up personas from Fake Website Magazine. You are a techie writer, Tom Bobson. Tom Bobson. James Johnson from a tech company. From a tech company, yes. So, if you're not tracking with us and don't follow us on Twitter, Myke and I's Twitter images got hijacked for use from something that we're not going to look to.

Myke Hurley: This happens to me more than I would care for it to happen. Mm-hmm. I think this is my first. Doug MacArthur picked this up for us. Mm-hmm. He just found it on some website. I mean, I'm sure he was just looking it up and just saw us there. Mm-hmm. They didn't even bother.

Brad Dowdy: Uh-uh.

Brad Dowdy: It was pretty great, though. So, yeah. I mean, I was not going to let that slide. There was no way. You've known me long enough to know that there's no way I'm letting that slide. So, Myke Hurley, really, how are you today?

Myke Hurley: Very good. But, Brad, what are you using today? That's what I want to know.

Brad Dowdy: Hmm. That's a good question. I have, uh, I'm using one of my all-time personal favorite pens, and we'll talk about this in multiple places in this episode, but the Y Studio Portable Fountain Pen, it's just one of those pens that's me. Like, it's not an everybody pen. It's not a pen I recommend a lot, but it's a pen that's almost perfect for me. Just style, design, story, feel, look, wear, usability, quality, all these things. It's a Brad pen. It's one of those Brad pens that's, uh, that's out there on the, on the interwebs. You know, when you see them, like, oh, that's a Brad pen. This is a Brad pen. Um, I just love it. And, um, it comes with a Schmidt nib, which I think I've had this pen for, like, two or three years now. But I don't think I ever used the original Schmidt nib. It came out immediately, popped in a Franklin Kristoff No. 5 nib that fits on these Schmidt feeds, popped it right in, a broad cursive italic nib, and, uh, we've been, uh, living the dream with this pen ever since. It's freaking fantastic. I love this pen. And I hadn't had it inked up for a while, so that's why I wanted to get it back in the rotation. It's, it's a pen that should actually never leave my rotation, but you can't keep pens inked up year-round, even if you're, you know, changing them out and cleaning them. You know, you want to mix it up every, every now and then. But this is one of those pens that would absolutely, like, if I picked, like, five pens to be in, like, the annual rotation, this would be one of them.

Brad Dowdy: I did, uh, I did test out an ink in this, which I was anxious to, to, to try out. I think we talked about it on the show. I don't know, a month or two ago. Maybe in the gift, in the gift guide episode, we talked about it, because I was fascinated with the bottle for Ackermont Delft's Blue. It was a limited edition Ackermont ink, which they don't do a lot of. And, you know, the story of the, the Delft region and the, the Delft, uh, I guess, pottery. I don't know if that's the right term. Ceramics. Um, that blue, that beautiful blue color you see on, on the, on the white, the, the artwork and the, and the way it looks. It's a really striking color in those ceramics. It's not a very striking color in a fountain pen. So I'm glad I only got samples of those. So thank you for sending me those samples. But this is a, a good story for trying before you buy. Um, I'm glad I got the ink sample before I committed to a bottle. Yeah. Because there's no way I would use this ink on a regular basis. Okay. Like it's, it's perfectly fine. Like it is a basic school blue. Like it's any blue you get from, you know, your standard ink cartridge when you buy the generic pen, right? It's the blue that comes with the Lamy. You know, when you buy a Lamy Safari, you pop that blue in, you're like, oh, this is nice. This is a great blue. It's pretty fun. It's kind of a cool color, but there's 8 billion other cooler inks I can put in there. But I needed to test this one out. So I wanted to get a good feel of it. So I think that up, it's, it's, it's, it's perfectly fine. It's nice. It's just not special. And for this, I would want it to be special. Um, paper. I am in my last days of my monthly notebook this month. It was the not co dot dash pocket notebook, the monthly paper notebook project still going along. I haven't filled up one notebook, one pocket notebook per month yet. And I thought for sure I would, but I've been writing a lot. Actually, it's just tends to go in some bigger notebooks and when I'm planning out some project stuff. So, um, we'll see. I'm keeping on with the notebook project. And this was the first time probably my favorite notebook has been in use. So, uh, the doc dash pocket notebook. So, I mean, all of this, you know, fits in my pocket. You know, it's basically the, the pen, the notebook, the ink, the nib, like, you know, this is one pen and a notebook. And that's kind of the carry that I'm using this week. And we're going to talk about Tuesday tool set in a minute. And it's a, it's a, I try to switch it up as much as I can. And, uh, this is a good setup for me.

Myke Hurley: So, I'm still using the panel book all the time, right? Like, it's just my, it's just my sitting at the computer notebook. Um, and today's two pens are, uh, of course, two sailors. The bong box fifth anniversary, which is the gold, um, bong box with the, with the metal grip section. I'm using that. And the 1911 tangerine, uh, I'm also using that today too.

Brad Dowdy: What are they inked up with?

Myke Hurley: Oh, uh, the bong box has the gold ink. What is it? What is it called? The matchy matchy ink. Yeah. The Ibisu ink. Ibisu. It's got that in it. And I don't remember what orange I have in my 1911. I think, I think it's Mont Blanc, like the orange. Ah, gotcha. I have like three or four different oranges that I use pretty frequently. So I kind of lose track. Well, I'm going to add to your collection later.

Brad Dowdy: We'll talk about that later too. Yes. Yes. I'm wondering if there is any particular reason why the 1911 tangerine is currently inked up.

Myke Hurley: I've just been thinking. I've just been thinking about it, you know.

Brad Dowdy: I wouldn't go let you off the hook that easy.

Myke Hurley: I'm not buying it, but I'm just like thinking about it. I did even go to the extent of like, I think this might have been this morning. And me and Nadine were having breakfast and I was like, oh, so there's this pen. You know, so I just kind of just planted the seeds for the idea that this $900 pen might enter our household at some point.

Brad Dowdy: Michael, will you pass me the tangerines?

Pen Discussion Shift

Myke Hurley: Oh, it's funny. You should mention tangerines. I didn't bring those out this morning for any reason. I just kind of just like, oh, it's like that one that I like, but like a bigger one. It's like a mix between that one and the really expensive one with a big nib. And she's like, okay.

Brad Dowdy: She's at the point where she's just going to blow you off now. Oh, pens.

Myke Hurley: She likes pens, right? Not to my level, right? But like she enjoys. I actually, yeah, I have what tends to happen every now and then has happened. Where there is a stack of pens that has accumulated on my desk here, which means it is time for you to fill these pens, right? But I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Oh, hers. Yes. Yes. Yes. So they're just, they're given to me to fill them up, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Nice.

Brad Dowdy: One word on the panel book. It also lives on my desk. I just don't happen to have this recording equipment at my desk proper. So otherwise it actually does live on my desk. That's one of my, one of my favorite products as well.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Dig it. So, yeah, I think if you have, if you enjoy this kind of discussion and you've yet to check out the Tuesday tool set series that Brad has been working on that we've spoken a bit in the past, I'll put a link in the show notes to the past two weeks. Very good, Brad. Still want to see you labeling those images, but aside from that, it looks very, very good.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So like three weeks ago, I labeled one of the images and then the last couple of weeks I haven't, I felt they were more self-explanatory, but I should probably be consistent. I'm still, I'm still trying to find my footing on these posts. Sure, sure, sure. Like I like doing them and the feedback I've gotten on them has actually been surprisingly positive, which I wasn't sure quite honest it was going to be. Um, so that makes me want to do it even more. And I'm still, I'm still feeling, feeling it out. Like I'm still trying to find my way with these posts. What do I really want to say with them? And, um, you know, I'm taking a lot of the feedback to heart on, on what I've been getting so far. And, uh, yeah, it's, it's been good. So I'm going to keep it up, um, and, um, you know, see where it goes. Like just gonna, just gonna keep working on it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I don't know if this is beneficial to you in any way, but like, I would love to see some of this content on Instagram too.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, no, I, I, I totally need to almost like a cross post type thing. Yeah. Like they should, they should relate.

Myke Hurley: Like I would love to see some, some, some stuff there too, like a pic, like a picture of each product or whatever, or something like that would be really cool.

Brad Dowdy: So totally think that's a good idea. Let me write that down with my, you're going to write that down. Franklin, Kristoff, BNib, Akramon, Delfts, and my NotCo.

Myke Hurley: Well, I'll just mention, uh, we, last week we spoke about blank slate paper, uh, which is our friend Dave Ray's company. Um, and so if you remember last time I created an ugly paper format and put the link in the show notes because it's like a permanent link. So people could just go in and mess with it and it's gotten real bad. It's just really bad. It's very bad. Um, so I will put it in the show notes again. When you hear this, it's probably changed a lot since I'm looking at it, but it's, I keep, I've been checking in on it a couple of times, uh, and over the last week and you know, uh, it's, it's bad, you know,

Brad Dowdy: I think we're into like French rule, um, territory here to the extreme. Yeah. So yeah, this is pretty rough.

Myke Hurley: Oh God, I haven't thought about French rule in a long time. Gosh, we used to use that in school. I have no memory of why, but we used to use French rule sometimes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I talked to Dave on and off last week and we actually did not break the site. So I'm pretty happy about that. I didn't think about that. Hey, that's great.

Myke Hurley: I was a little bit worried about it because I was worried that people were just gonna, just gonna pop in there and toy around, which is great. Same here. But, uh, I was a little bit worried that something bad was gonna happen, but didn't. Gosh, why did I use French ruled paper? It had to just be handwriting practice. Yeah, it must have been. I mean, that's nothing really else it's for. Yeah, but it, yeah, it must have just been like handwriting class.

Brad Dowdy: But I still don't understand, I still don't understand the reasoning of the, the lines and the, you know, all the, the narrow verticals and things like that. I think it's meant to, so you're like, you're drawing your characters at the correct height,

Myke Hurley: right? So like L would go higher than a T or whatever, you know? I think that's the reason that it has all of the horizontal lines within the thick horizontal lines. So like you're drawing to a specific line and not going above it. That's what I remember. But I hate that paper. Because I didn't like handwriting classes, right? I hate them because I had bad handwriting. So it was always just a test of my patience as a kid.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. But, uh, props to Dave on his coding skills for, uh, us to do that and not take down the site. Good job by you, Dave.

Sailor Ink Prices

Brad Dowdy: Um, bad job by Sailor, Myke. I, as much as we love him, I gotta get, I gotta give him a, uh, if I'm not gonna give him a shout out, what am I giving them? A shout down? Sure.

Myke Hurley: A whisper down. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: A whisper down. Okay. A tell it off.

Myke Hurley: A tell it off probably works.

Brad Dowdy: A tell it off. Yeah. Let me tell off Sailor a little bit. A little bit. Um, they raised their ink prices, what, a year and a half ago on a specific particular subset of inks that they were reformulating, repackaging, um, re-evaluating, repricing, um, for whatever businessy reasons they're doing. And then they kept the stock lineup of 10 or 12 normal quote inks in their 50 milliliter ink pots. And now they're yanking those. They're just getting rid of those period. So the 50 milliliter ink pots that everyone's used to and has used for years and years and years that were wonderful inks and reasonably priced right now around $18, give or take. Like they're now getting repackaged into the 20 milliliter glass bottle that they introduced a while back and they're going to be $15. So this is bad for us, obviously for as consumers of ink and as a Sailor ink fan, you know, it kind of stinks. Like, you know, I guess it is what it is. I'm not going to rail on them too hard, but the optics are crappy. You know, when you're looking at $18 for 50 milliliters and we're doing away with that and we're going to charge, do the same ink for almost the same price for less than half the amount. Like it's like, it doesn't give you a warm fuzzy about how they feel about their consumers, but I mean, I guess they know what they're doing there. Whatever their market research says, this is, this is the size bottle we need to do. Like they introduced in Japan last year, that hundred and something ink set of just numbers. Like it was up in the like 120s, 130s, like individual inks in these bottles. Like they're making a lot of inks. They're making a lot of pens. They must be doing something right. So I don't like it just from a consumer's perspective because they're, they were my number one ink for years. Like my top five list has them as the number one ink. And I think this hurts that like I could knock them completely off the list just because the pricing is now doesn't line up with the other similar quality inks. Like all the top inks have similar characteristics and qualities. So what's the biggest differentiator? Well, it's probably going to be price.

Myke Hurley: It doesn't match up right now, but it could change. Sure. Right. The whole market could be moving and Sailor's just moving first, you know, or maybe the whole market moves because Sailor moves. Like I'm sure that Sailor have a very good reason for making the change, which they're clearly making for economic purposes.

Myke Hurley: But yeah, I agree with you right now. They're overpriced. But if I was an ink manufacturer, I might be looking at my pricing again if Sailor is able to charge more money.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, I know different companies have raised prices and some companies have lowered prices like Orochizuku lowered price two years ago, year and a half ago. Oster raised price. You know, there's a balance and a fine line that these companies are trying to figure out. You know, Oster keeps changing and innovating and they raise the price like a dollar. You know, Orochizuku has been the same ink for a decade. So they lowered the price like, you know, it kind of makes sense in what they're doing. So there's always going to be some ebb and flow in the pricing structures. But this is just strikes me as completely out of line based on what they've always offered in the past. But I mean, I understand things can't stay the same and, you know, the business aspects of it, whatever. But this one seems especially strong. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Well, sure.

A4 Folio Discussion

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of outrageous pricing, Myke, we had an STPA last week about an A4 folio, you know, to carry a notebook, kind of a professional looking, real nice quality folio. And I thought, you know, the only one I really know about is the Bellroy A4 folio. And I knew just in my head it was expensive, but I didn't look at the price until our friends at the Sweet Setup posted a review, just so happens this week, of the Bellroy A4 case. And I was like, oh, let me read this. Oh, my God, it's $300. It's beautiful, though. It's beautiful. If this is like the if this is the only thing you own to like carry your stuff in, fine. But like I there's no way I could like in any scenario recommend a $300 A4 folio unless you like live in this thing all day, every day, then it's probably worth it. But like that was that one even surprised me. And I knew that the A5 case was like 180 or something like that. Just something really, really crazily priced. But, you know, I guess if you want something, you know, we love Bellroy and I love their products. That feels like a lot. But I guess I'm coming at it from a perspective of I wouldn't use it constantly. If it's something that you lived in, you know, Monday through Friday, I could see that. But we didn't get many recommendations for A4, but the only one I got was from Filofax. So that Filofax is still making some decent A4 size cases. And they're more in like the $100 range, which, you know, seems to be like where I would go for that. But, you know, this is this is a definite luxury item on that Bellroy. I just didn't realize it at the time when I was saying maybe the Bellroy one's good. I know it's expensive, but I was I think I was even a little short on that.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. Is that blue, though? It's stunning.

Brad Dowdy: Those I mean, yeah, I mean, you know, Josh was a friend of ours and his pictures and the review is great. And that blue leather is fantastic. But yeah, it's a it's a long time. Can I lay it? It's a can I lay a pen worth a worth of folio. So put it that way. You know, some people it's worth it.

Myke Hurley: This episode is brought to you by Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet. Let's buy some more stuff. Amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils and so much more. They sell income refills and they have your favorite brands. Whenever you're looking for something new, go check Pen Chalet because they have low prices on high quality pens or 100% satisfaction guarantee on everything. They believe in making sure that you get the pens that you're looking for, the stuff that you're looking for. You get it in a timely fashion and everything's taken care of. That's what Pen Chalet give you. If you are in the US and you spend over $50, which is not hard to do when you're buying pen stuff, you will get free shipping. But they also do international shipping as well with very reasonable rates. And it's fast, too. I've always been really happy with the stuff that I bought from Pen Chalet, of which I bought many things because Pen Chalet are adding new products all the time. And they're always doing great discounts as well. But there are no better discounts than the ones that Pen Addict listeners get when they go to Pen Chalet. If you go to penchalet.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website and then enter the password Pen Addict. You will get yourself a code to save anything, to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet at any time. You just go there, you get that code, you'll get 10% off whatever you want. But there's also, as always, a selection of wonderful offers just for Pen Addict listeners.

Brad Dowdy: This page is actually breaking my face today because I keep squinting at it going, is that correct? And you know, Ron drops those in on us from time to time. And that's why we brag about him. That's why we love Pen Chalet so much because he really takes care of us and the customers of Pen Chalet. There's some prices on here that just don't add up. There's two Diplomat pens in here on the opposite ends of the spectrum. The Diplomat Magnum is kind of their low-end entry-level pen at a price I've never seen before. And their high-end Diplomat Arrow, which I absolutely adore, think it's a great pen. I don't know what this price is. Like, we should almost, without being like totally hyperbolic, it's like, it almost deserves an email to like Ron saying, are you sure?

Myke Hurley: Did you see the price of this $37.76? That's a little bit further down the page.

Brad Dowdy: I have not gotten there. And that's, yeah, that's at a level that's abnormal. And then there's Lamy Special Edition Inc. That's crazy cheap.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. At a silly price. It's just a silly price. So, there are great deals. Silly price day. We're not going to tell you the prices because we do want you to go and look. Yeah, you got to go look. Got to go look. That's what you got to do. Penchalet.com. Enter the password penaddict when you hit the podcast link at the top of the website. Our thanks to Penchalet for their continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Penchalet's not the only one with ink for sale, Myke. I did it. I did a thing.

Myke Hurley: Ah, yeah, I did. I think this is a pretty monumental day for Brad Dowdy. You know, you've made some stuff in the past. You've worked with some people. But this is important, you know. It's like, it feels to me as important as the first fountain pen that you made. The Retro 51s are awesome. They're beautiful, right? They're really, really fun. But there's something about kind of like the fountain pen materials that are a bit like, they're like, it's like an extra level. Now there is a penaddict ink, an official ink. Can you imagine what color it would be? The penaddict official ink. So why now? Like, why is this happening now?

Brad Dowdy: Well, it's years in the making, just in the idea of it, right? Like, it's been a years long, I should do an ink or Brad, you should do an ink question that I never felt like I had an answer to. And then like, all of a sudden, boom, it's for sale. So that's kind of how it works for me, in my head.

Brad Dowdy: I knew I wanted to make an ink, but it had to be right. Just like anything we do. You know, we just don't want to, you know. I'm not really a, let's throw it at the wall and see what sticks. I'm, let's take our time and see if we can get it as right as possible on the first go. And with fountain pen inks, I had convinced myself that doing an orange was number one, too obvious. And number two, felt that orange had pretty much been solved. Like, why, if I make an orange ink, how can I tell you it's different? And I struggled with that for a long time. So when I started playing around with inks, I started getting like samples in and like, 2017, I was looking back at the dates on some of this. And I was trying out blue blacks and purples and greens. I was like, well, if I can find a color in there that I like, I think I might go with that instead of orange.

Brad Dowdy: And they just never stuck with me. Like, I never wanted to ink my pens, like, all the time with these inks. Like, the inks were great. I loved them. They're super great. And did I want it in like three pens at all times year round, you know, and an extra fine and a wide and a broad and all these things. And I was like, I could never really latch on to that. So I kind of put that to the side. And then I don't remember exactly when the idea for this ink hit me. But it was 100% due to a name I came up with for the ink. And, you know, the ink is called, it's made by Robert Oster, which we'll talk about all these things as we go. And the ink is called Fire on Fire. And it's an orange ink.

Myke Hurley: You can't just gloss over that name.

Brad Dowdy: We can't glance over the name because I am really proud of it. I don't know when it hit me. It was, I think it was sometime when I was traveling, like I was on a plane or in a car. And, you know, the ink idea has always been in the back of my head. And once I decided, well, it doesn't look like it's going to be blue or green or purple. Like, I'm not completely happy with one of those. It's got to be an orange probably. But how am I going to make an orange? And then I'm such a huge fan of Robert Oster inks. And I have all the on fire inks, you know, lake on fire. He likes to set water on fire.

Ink Color Discussion

Myke Hurley: He's a big fire.

Brad Dowdy: Fire on ice.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Fire on ice was the first. Lake of fire, river of fire, carbon fire. There's some sparkly one on fire.

Brad Dowdy: And I said, it just hit me. It's like, fire on fire would be an orange ink, wouldn't it? And like, I'm having these conversations in my head. And it's like, we could do an orange ink with maybe a little bit of red sheen. I didn't want a reddish orange. And I didn't want a yellowish orange. It's like a pure orange and then maybe a little hint of red. I wonder, one, if Robert Oster can do it. And two, he would be okay with me kind of making a joke at his expense, right? Because I'm really kind of, it's all in fun, right? I'm not, it's not like taking a shot at him. But it's a little bit, you know, fun, mockery. You're being cheeky. So, yeah, I'm being cheeky, right? So, would he be okay? Like, so when I came up with the name, I was like, this is it. But this is before I've even asked him, right? This is not Robert Oster. Like, I haven't talked to him at all. And I was like, so I've got this idea. Let me tell you what, let me know what you think. And he's like, I'm in. He's like, you know, let's do this. So, we started working on samples and he was super, he was super happy with the name. And he appreciated, you know, what I was getting after. And like, I knew when I had the name, if I could convince him to do it, it would be good. And it is. It's like, it's a really bright orange. It's like a good, I call it like a good all day writing orange, right? It's not going to sear your retinas out. And it's not like too light. It's like a good mid-range orange. And if you use and ink your pen, you'll get a hint of red sheen. Like, I did not want an overly sheening ink. I did not want a sheening ink, you know? I just wanted a touch if you had it, a lot of ink on the page. And he delivered. I'm ecstatic with how it turned out. And I have it in use like all the time. I think I have three pens inked up with it right now. At least two. Like an extra fine and then like a medium nib so I can see the different characteristics as I'm playing around with it and stuff. But yeah, like I came up with the name. And he was on board. And he nailed the color. And now we have fire on fire, Myke. Like, it couldn't have worked out better, I don't think. And like, I'm just so happy with the color. I think you're going to like it.

Myke Hurley: I can't wait to see it. You know, I love orange. And orange with some kind of effect to it is great. It's why I do like lucky orange from Mont Blanc as well, right? Like I feel like it's got something to it there that I enjoy. So, yeah, I'm really excited. And I'm very pleased that you've done this. I think it's awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I just ordered 200 bottles. You know, I have no idea, you know, when you're doing this type of thing, how it's going to go. I figured it would go pretty well. And the first 200 are almost gone. And I already have another 200 on the way here. So, I think it's gone well.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, that's about as well as you would want it to go. To basically sell out in a couple of days. That's pretty good.

Brad Dowdy: Well, the funny part, well, to me, not to anyone else, the people who have bought it, I have not shipped them yet because of the insanely cold weather that's going across the U.S. I could have started shipping on Monday, but that would have put a lot of ink in the air and in facilities that I can't control with really bad weather coming through. And I did want to risk ink getting damaged. So, I'm probably going to start shipping them this weekend. I'm actually going to probably start packaging them up tomorrow and get them in the mail by this weekend. Something like that. So, there's a little delay in shipping only because I wanted to be extra cautious with super crazy negative temperatures all across the U.S. right now. So, thanks for everyone for ordering and not having your ink yet. It's coming soon.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Super cool, man. I'm really pleased about this. I'm excited. So, there'll be a link in the show notes where you can buy it. It's on the Panadic website. That's the place to get it.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, you know, anytime you make something yourself, you're like, you're super pumped about it. But I think I nailed this one. I think the color came out great. So, super happy with it. That's not the only thing I'm shilling today, Myke. All right. We did the Knock Co. Ooh La La Special Edition, which was a really interesting project we wanted to take on at Knock because it was kind of our first non-Kickstarter crowdfunded product. Right? So, we did a direct presale on the site. We had wonderful fans and followers, Ana and Rodrigo, create this colorway that they said they wanted in a seed case. And we told them, well, if you can get kind of like supporters not to commit to buying, but like, you know, show your interest in buying this product. You know, we need like at least 200, like if you can show that you have like 200 people pretty much interested in pre-ordering a product that you might not get for six months or more, you know, we'd be up for trying this. And you know what? It's worked out. We've run this campaign essentially for a month. It ends tomorrow at midnight-ish or whenever I remember to take the page down after tomorrow at midnight-ish. And we're going to order, get these cases on order. And it was interesting to see how this would do for Knock. Not that it's going to be like an all the time type of thing. Like I wouldn't want to do like, I wouldn't want to do like rolling pre-orders of stuff all the time. That just gets to be a logistical nightmare. But if you can do like one project like this, see how it goes, see it through to completion, get it shipped. You know, that might be something we play around with, you know, like a crowd-sourced, you know, design, color, pre-order, directly through Knock, outside of Kickstarter type thing. So this has been a good experiment for us. It's gone really well. And if you're interested in an A5C notebook case in a color that you'll never be able to get again, it's going away in like a day.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, I think this is a last call. An interesting idea for you, right? Like if there's a specific call for a thing or if you want to make something which is like one product, it doesn't deserve its own Kickstarter campaign. You now at least have an idea that it is possible for you to do pre-order campaigns and, you know, without too much stress, I would assume. So it's a good test case.

Brad Dowdy: I see what you did there.

Myke Hurley: I didn't mean to do it, but I was proud of it anyway.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I know. I was proud of you. Yeah, that's exactly it. Like we've always had this idea. It allows us to order a smaller quantity and absorb the extra cost directly because it's not going to retail type of sales, right? We're doing this for the community and we'll obviously still make money on it, but we don't have to worry about like the exact amounts because there's not like a wholesale retail thing going in. It's essentially a direct to customer pre-sale. And I like how this has gone so far and I could see us doing this in the future, not frequently. Like this is not something like every quarter you're going to get. Like here's, you know, here's the quarterly not co pre-order. That's not something we're interested in at all. But like once in a blue moon, if we got a really cool idea, I could see us doing this again. So thanks, Anna, for putting us up to this. We wouldn't have done it without her, let's call it persistence. She knows I love her and she did an awesome job of getting us to do this. So thank you, Anna.

Sponsor Transition

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of thanks, Myke, if I may have a moment after all this selling things, I just wanted to tell everyone thank you for letting me do this for a living. Like I feel weird like selling stuff all the time. But I also understand that this is my livelihood in my business and the emails and comments that I get. And, you know, the listeners to the show and the readers of the blog and followers on Twitter and people who just like to comment and talk and, you know, say hi. I just appreciate y'all so much that I am able to do this. Like I never in my wildest dreams that I think I'd be here today. And I just wanted to say genuinely thank you so much for all of your support over the years. Like all the messages I read and tweets and all that stuff. So I really, I really, really appreciate it. And y'all are what keeps me going. And I love what I do. And I could not do it without y'all support. So thank you so much. So I just wanted to throw that out there.

Myke Hurley: I concur and feel like this is a great time to talk about a sponsor for similar reasons. Similar reasons. Thank you, everybody. We have a new sponsor for the show, which is Mace the Design. It's a New York-based design studio, Mace the Design. And they work hard to create beautiful experiences for their customers. They produce hand-drawn black and white typographic illustrations of buildings in New York. They use microns and Japanese brush pens. They use Kuretake number 8. They wanted me to tell everyone that that's what they're using to create this work. The artwork is a mix between typographic lettering and architectural design. And the results are wonderful. So you can go take a look at them on their website. We'll have links in the show notes for that. They're wonderful. The prints are produced in the United States as well. The designs are available in beautifully crafted letterpress prints, as well as posters, greeting cards, and tote bags. And Mace the Design will be adding more cities and buildings in the future, as well as New York. And they sent me some of the letterpress prints. They are really just great-looking designs. I do like the designs very much. It mixes a few favorite things for me. You know, like typography I enjoy and letterpress and New York City. Like, it's like, oh, yeah, I like all that stuff. And the letterpressing is on point. It's very, very nicely done. It feels great. It looks great. And we're currently, at the moment, we're, like, we're working on framing stuff and hanging stuff at home. Like, we have some big things, but we have a lot of little things. And one of these prints will be finding its way probably onto a wall in my office somewhere. So really, really wonderful stuff. And they've given Pen Addict listeners the ability to get 15% off if you go to Mace the Design and use the promo code PENADDICT. That is M-A-E-S-T-E-R DESIGN. There'll be links in the show notes for that. And use the promo code PENADDICT and you'll get 15% off at maestadesign.com. Our thanks to Mace the Design for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke. So we have PEN show season underway with Philly and the Books. L.A. coming up, what, in two weeks or so? And then Baltimore in another four or five weeks? And Baltimore is going to be my first show. And we're doing something a little different this time with the events. Like, the show's going to be the same. It's going to be awesome. It keeps getting better, you know, with all the work that Bert and Corinne are doing behind the scenes to bring more fun into an already fun show. Last year was my first Baltimore show. I fell in love with it, with the way they run the show. And, of course, the crowds that they brought because it bore all their hard work. So we had a really good time last year. So they had some ideas this time of what they wanted to do differently at their PEN show. And how can they improve it? So Corinne, months ago, asked me. She said, hey, I've got this idea. We want to do this Meet the Makers panel where we get, you know, a lot of the PEN people who make stuff in a room. And we want you to interview them or, like, you know, host it and, you know, toss questions at them and things like that. I'm like, ah, that's a really good idea. So it'd be like, you know, an event at the show where people can come to after the show. So, like, it's for real now. You know, it's going to happen on Friday of the PEN show, 6 p.m. Um, there is going to be a register. It's free, but you are going to have to register for it because seating is limited. I don't know what that seat count is. They'll launch it on the show. But I wanted to get your opinion as someone who goes to larger events, like, say, a pod con. What do you think of this type of event at a PEN show? And what other types of events would you like to see at a PEN show? Knowing that your time is limited and you can't take up necessarily half a day of people's time, you know, from going around to the show necessarily. But what do you think about this?

Myke Hurley: Well, I think that we have learned from doing Atlanta the last couple of years that people do really enjoy hearing the stories of other people. So, like, that is a fun thing, which I assume you will be talking about in this panel, right? Like, the stories behind the work that these people are producing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, real quick, before we continue, sorry, I should have mentioned it's Myke Allen from Woodshed PENs, Jonathan Brooks, you all know him, Richard Greenwald, and Chet Herbert from Herbert PEN Company. So, those are the panelists, if you will. So, good.

Myke Hurley: So, I'm sure you'll be diving into, like, how and why they make some of the stuff that they make and stuff like that, which is super, I find that stuff really interesting. But I do think that in general, as there is a trend in this industry of moving towards influencers and individuals who have something to say, that having events where you get to hear from them as part of the PEN show and just get to hear, like, how do they do this thing that they do? Whether it be somebody who makes something or somebody like you, where, you know, I'm sure that there are many, many people that go to a PEN show that would love to get some tips on how to take great product photography for Instagram or, like, to hear a little bit more about, kind of, like, some thoughts around PEN blogging and stuff like that. Like, these are all, like, the ancillary parts that are of interest to many people that attend something like this. So, I think it's really great. And I think it's why we continue to do these types of events at Atlanta, because for our purposes for the show, it adds a level of additional complexity, right? Like, to have extra microphones and extra audio tracks and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, for ease of use, it would just be better if we didn't do it. But I think the content is so good and so interesting that we want to do that stuff.

Brad Dowdy: And I think, just on that point real quick, I think it's without question the thing that people remember the most about the show.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I think so. Because it's added a new dimension to it. And we're lucky enough that there are enough people that go to that show and that want to come to it, but partly because of the fact that we've helped kind of, like, raise the profile of it over the last few years.

Brad Dowdy: And not just, I'm not saying that from just the podcast specifically, but I'm saying the people and after hours part, not the podcast specifically. Like, people remember the people they met and the stories they told. Yes, 100%. And I say this all the time, more than they remember what tables they visited on Saturday at two o'clock.

Myke Hurley: So we get the opportunity to share those stories of people that also can't be there. So, yeah, I think this type of stuff is really cool and is a good idea. And I would hope that more pen shows could incorporate stuff like this, especially, especially as time is going on, pen shows are becoming something that people travel to. So I think it is the responsibility of the promoters to have more variation in the things that can be attended.

Brad Dowdy: Right. It's definitely more of an event. And we're going to talk about this more in our next topic. It's more of a, a let's plan to take a trip, not let's, we have three hours Saturday afternoon, let's swing by the pen show. Yep. Right. So, so yeah, I'm really looking forward to this. I am starting to kind of write just a general idea of what I'm going to ask. You know, it's definitely going to be coming from a very basic level. Like if people know the ins and outs of all the stories, you'll know some of that stuff, obviously, but we have to cover like all the basics. But I do want to know, based on that list of people, if you think you're going to be in Baltimore and you have questions, I want to get, you want me to get in front of these makers, I'm all ears. Like I need this. I'm going to be asking for questions. I don't know if we're going to be able to do like a live Q and a during the event. You know, maybe we can, I, we haven't broached that subject yet, but just questions, email them to me, send them to me via Twitter, say, Hey, you know, Myke Allen, why do you do this? Or Hey, Jonathan, well, you know, whatever you have, if you think you're going to, I will definitely take priority for people who think they're going to be in the show. Right. I'm just, I don't want just, a huge list of random questions because we'll only have an hour and I think we shouldn't have any issue covering that up with four people and me talking. So I would love to hear it. Email me hello at pen addict.com with Baltimore meet the makers panel questions. I would, I definitely want to know what you guys want to know from this group. And I really look forward to it. I think it's going to be fun. So one of the things when we're talking about pen shows in Philly in particular was the aspect of not forgetting the first time attendees at pen shows. And that's something I wanted to focus on more this year. And my friend Jacqueline, who just popped up in the chat room, so she knows, she must've known I was going to talk about her. She did a really wonderful post on her blog. So it's the Philly pen show 2019 reflections on maximizing your pen show experience.

Brad Dowdy: I thought this was a fantastic kind of play by play. Let me take you through my weekend and tell you like the silly little minutia that you're too afraid to ask that you should ask. So let me tell you about it. So I hopefully can make it easier for you next time. What did you think

Myke Hurley: about this article, Myke? I think it's, it is, even though it is written as a kind of a diary of a specific show kind of thing, right? Like that perspective is like, here's the thing that happened. And here is like some of my thoughts on it. It's completely applicable to any pen show, right? Like there's almost the point of like calling it the Philly pen show experience was it doesn't do justice to how good the article is. So what I wanted to say is like, just from a very, very high level perspective, the, the list of kind of subheadings that Jacqueline is included in this post are just a perfect checklist for how you should operate if you are going to a pen show weekend. So I want to read them. Now you should go and read the post because you'll get a little bit more about it, but the headings are make a weekend of it. I agree, right? Like make it a fun thing. Take your time, try as many things as you can save some budget for customization, any paid courses and unexpected things you find. Do not miss the mixes. So the things in the evening when people are hanging out, do your homework and get out of the hotel and check out the local stationary scene. Perfect. Perfect list. This is a perfect list. Like it's wonderful. Uh, this is exactly the way that, that if you do this, if you follow this list of things, you will have a great experience at any

Brad Dowdy: pen show that you go to. Right. So we want to continue banging the drum, not just this year, but forever and not forgetting the first time attendees or the new attendees that are going to these shows or have only been, you know, for an afternoon on Saturday and are actually making a trip out of it. We want to, you know, be that support system, make everyone a little bit more comfortable about going because it can be intense. It could be overwhelming. Um, our group as a whole is a giant bunch of introverts that have a hard time being in the same room with a lot of people and just making it easier and open and comfortable for everyone to have a great time. I've never seen a community that will band, um, band together for the greater good, more than the pen community has and will continue to do. And she, you know, like a couple of specific points in there, like she, she made a point of saying, you know, if you're by yourself and you see a table of pen people walk up and sit down, like that is a really hard thing for someone who's an introvert to do, but I've never seen it so open and welcoming at a pen show for someone to be able to do that. Like I've done it like, you know, and I've seen other people and people have done it to me. Like if people have come up, don't know me, you know, or, you know, maybe know me from the pen addict and the blog and stuff. And, you know, I'm sitting there with like three other people, you know, like in a small group, they'll come up and then we'll say, Hey, pull up a chair, come on, let's go. And that, that, that's it. Like this, this community is, is, is awesome for that. And another point she made earlier, which I laughed at, it's like, if I'm there and I bring in Nakaya and I hand it to you, you're going to try it. That's just the way it is. Like I'm not handing it to you because I want you to like say, Oh no, I can't do that. Take the pen and try it. Cause you're, you may not get that opportunity again. It's like, we, we've said all the, a lot of these things in the past, but reiterating them because there's always new people coming to the shows, just how much information we can pass along, not just inside the show or on the show floor, but outside in, you know, the restaurant, the bar area and the getting out of town and going out to dinner, those things, like it's a big deal for someone who's never done it before. So anything we can do to help, um, we want to, and posts like this one from Jacqueline are going to be something we'll

Myke Hurley: be sharing a lot. Yeah, most definitely. Cause, uh, we are big proponents for going to these things and enjoying them, right? Like I think it's something that we truly, truly believe in. Yep. Yep. Okay. Let's thank our final sponsor for this week's show. And that is our friends over at Squarespace. We love Squarespace here at the pen addict. They've been a, again, a long time supporter, but it's a product that we both use extensively. You can make your next move and make a beautiful website with Squarespace. They give you all of the tools that you're going to need to put your next project online. You can create a website so easily to host your next idea for your next project, for your next event. They give you all of the tools and all of the functionality that you're going to want. And they make it super, super simple. You don't have to install anything or patch anything or upgrade anything. In fact, they have award-winning 24 seven customer support. They have it right there in case you need anything. You can quickly and easily grab a unique domain name. You can take advantage of and customize beautiful award-winning templates. And so, so much more. You can create portfolios, blogs, stores, sites for big events. Like we've created our wedding website and Squarespace. They have all of these different templates that you can take advantage of to help give you inspiration. But you can also start completely from scratch with one of their beautiful templates and customize it and lay it out to your heart's content. So easy to do. And the great thing about Squarespace is once you've got it how you want it, you don't have to worry about anything else because they take care of everything for you. You can sign up for a free trial. Just go to squarespace.com slash pen addict. You can play around, you can build your website. And then when you're ready to launch it to the world, just sign up for a plan. They've planned start at just $12 a month, but you can get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain when you use the code pen addict to check out. Um, our thanks to Squarespace for the support of the show. That is squarespace.com slash pen addict and the code pen addict for 10% off your first purchase Squarespace. Make your next

Brad Dowdy: move. Make your next website. All right. We got a bunch of good ass TPA this week. I think we can get to them all. I actually even had a couple of extra ones that came in this morning. I don't know if we'll

Myke Hurley: be able to get to them all or not. We'll see. We don't want to get rid of all of them because

Brad Dowdy: we might not have any next time. I know. I know. Right. So this first one from Kimmer kind of goes in hand with what we were just talking about pen show. She said, can we do a field trip to jet pens or black wing during the fun pen show in August and Redwood city? So she means San Francisco, um, which is, I, I like that idea. I like the idea that she's calling it the fun pen show. You know, I might take some umbrage to that. You know, Atlanta is pretty fun. Baltimore is pretty fun. Some of the other pen show, uh, sites might take a little umbrage to that, but I get, I get you Kimmer. Um, you know, I, you know, that's part of, you know, can you plan extra days in to go do those things? I don't know if they would allow for that, but really what we should do is bang the drum to get them to come to the fun pen show. That would be a lot cooler for everybody involved in the show. So I don't even know if that's possible or if they would want to, I would think maybe they would, but who am I to say, but how cool would that be for, to have like some different, um, some different, some different vendors at the show. Um, you know, we all, we love all of our regular vendors, but you know, uh, jet pins and black wing are such, uh, icons in our little space and they're in that general area of the San Francisco pen show. So that would be kind of, that would be kind of fun.

Brad Dowdy: All right. I want you to, you take this next one because you don't have exact experience with this, but, uh, you kind of, you kind of have something similar. Yeah. So electric penguin says,

Ink Compatibility Questions

Myke Hurley: I received the Pelican M205 duo highlighter ink, which says to only put it in an M205 duo. Why? What harm would it cause another pen? I'm considering TWSBI, uh, TWSBIGO or CAFECO ice, I dropped it instead of a stub nib. Um, so I actually have that Pelican M205 highlighter ink. I bought it once and never used it. And then I, I also recently purchased a sailor 1911 highlighter pen, uh, which is in like, it's this beautiful green lime kind of yellowy highlighter color, but also comes with highlighter ink. Uh, and I bought the pen just because I love the color of it and got a pretty good deal on it on wonder pens. Um, this isn't going to do anything to any other pen. They just want you to buy the M205 highlighter edition, which is a really cool pen as well. Um, but it's, unless they are doing something that like it will specifically erode every other pen, which they're not, uh, I wouldn't consider this an issue of any kind. They would just

Brad Dowdy: really love it if you bought the whole set. Yep. Use it wherever you want. Electric penguin, have fun with it. It's pretty cool link. Yep. I like it. So Jason says, I am buying a Franklin Christophe model 46. Would you recommend a gold or a steel nib? Like, I mean, that's an unanswerable question. You're going to have to answer that for yourself. If you're going to, uh, force me to answer, I'm going to say steel probably every time. Um, from my perspective, from the way I write, the way I have a firm hand, I like a fine line. I like to block print. So steel nibs work really well for all of those things. Cause they're firmer. You might, and this is your problem experience because I

Myke Hurley: would say gold nib because I always prefer gold nibs over steel nibs. Steel nibs can give me some trouble sometimes. Like there's not enough like flex to them. And with the way that I write being like a left-handed over worker, uh, sometimes it just doesn't flow well enough and they get scratchy, um, where gold nibs don't for me because they're softer. So it's easier for me to produce a line from a gold nib than it is a steel nib, but sometimes. Yep. So there's your answer, Jason. Yes. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Unfortunately, you're going to need to try it. So yeah, that's a, I mean, that's just a tough, tough answer, but like I'm almost always going to pick a steel nib and other people will never touch one. So just, and, and it's not a materials preference. It's more of a writing preference

Myke Hurley: than a materials preference. This isn't even like a defined thing. I have some steel nibs that I absolutely adore, some gold nibs that I don't like, uh, that it really differs from pen to pen, nib maker to nib maker and size. Like sometimes a steel nib on a fine pen is better than a gold nib on a fine pen, depending on what you're looking for. Um, so this is just one of those things that sometimes if you can't try, you just have to take a gamble on it. Yep. Yep. All right. F Nordstrom

Brad Dowdy: says, what are your thoughts on the platinum Macchiae brush pen that supposedly, supposedly takes fountain pen ink? Have you seen it or tried it? Um, so it could take any fountain pen ink because it's a cartridge based brush pen. A lot of artists will just use the, the platinum carbon black cartridges that I'm, I'm sure it ships with. If not, that's probably like the regular thing. So yeah, I mean, it's completely normal. It's depending on the ink you use, it could be more of a, uh, a lighter color brush. You know, if you're using, you know, non-pigmented pen. Oh, they're great. These pens are super popular. You're obviously playing, paying a premium for the Macchiae work, right? It's normally like a, I don't know, $20 pen, but it's just stunning. These get rave reviews from artists. I would never use them because their brush is a long brush. It's a long soft brush. So that's really an artist brush. And I'm, as much as I love my brush pens, they're all firm and fine because I use them for handwriting. Um, but these are highly recommended by artists. I see them all the time. Um, and they like them because they can just pop those cartridges in and keep going to town. So yeah, they're very popular. So if that's something you're interested in and you think you'll use it, they're very, they come very highly recommended. All right. Atlas 100 wants to experiment with an architect grind fountain pen nib. What is a good size nib to modify? Should it be abroad? I think it should. If you're experimenting, I think the wider, the better for your first architect nib. And then you can, if you like the style, cause it is, it is extremely different. Like I'm pretty open to trying different styles of nibs and can get used to different fields and angles. Like I'm fine playing with all that. And architect even took me a while to get used to in a broad, but that is the best architect nib I have is the broad one. That's the one I would recommend to the most people because it takes a lot of getting used to. Now I have a micro, like a, I don't know, I think it's, I don't know if it's on a fine or an extra fine steel nib that, that is my nib, right? That is really made for me. What I would like, not in a million years would I recommend anyone to experiment with that as their first architect nib grind. So you got to go broad out the gate. Yeah. And I think if you, if you're experimenting

Myke Hurley: as well, like probably don't try and put it on anything too expensive or, you know, like if it's a way to give it a go, cause I've tried, I don't, I don't like architect grinds. Everyone likes them,

Brad Dowdy: but it doesn't work for me. I got mine on a platinum 3776 broad nib. And I think that's an excellent choice because that price, yeah, I wanted a gold nib for it for one. Um, the platinum nibs are fantastic for, uh, nib smiths and nib grinders to work with. And like, that's just kind of the perfect platform for that type of nib. I feel, but there's lots of choices. I would expect a

Myke Hurley: typical rule of thumb for this, for any nib grinding is you're only going to get something. It's only going to be as good as the materials that you can put into it. And if you're starting with something that isn't that great, it's maybe not going to be as good if you start with something like a platinum nib, whereas everything is, it's all perfect, right? It's easy to work with. They've already knows how to do it and you're starting at a great place. So like the, it doesn't

Brad Dowdy: have to be fixed before it can be amended. All right. J. Mary says, when journaling in my loiter term, my hands end up half off the notebook onto the desk when nearing the bottom of a page due to the thickness of the notebook. It's very uncomfortable and I have to contort my grip to adjust my handwriting to compensate. Am I alone with this? No, this is the historical issue with any bound notebooks. Can you imagine back, uh, you've seen some of the size of the books in that the British stole in all y'all's museums over there, right, Myke? How can you imagine their hands off the edge of the books? You're going to have to adjust. If anyone actually has a legitimate answer to this, other than sticking another equally sized notebook below it to match up the height. I mean, this is an, I'm not going to say it's an unsolvable problem, but it's not a problem that people are focusing on.

Myke Hurley: That they're all like given wrist rests, like there are keyboard wrist rests that you would use,

Brad Dowdy: right? But you're still at that point, you're still moving your writing space forward or upwards. Like if you're sitting at a desk, right, you're still, or your arm is having to come down or backwards. So yeah, it's a, it's a tough, it's a tough sell. And that's why I tend not to use probably the last quarter of the page on a lot of notebooks. Maybe that quarter is too much, maybe the last eighth of a, like an A5 bound notebook, like a Leuchtturm, because my hand goes off the edge and my handwriting gets worse. And I don't know, I don't know a solution to that. That's a, that's an awesome question. Like that question never comes up. I think because just people say, huh, that's the way it is. Maybe there's a solution we're missing.

Myke Hurley: You get used to it or you get a notebook that is different. It's like, okay, well, don't get thick ones anymore then. Right. Like, you know, or like get a bigger one. I don't know what it is.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I don't like thick notebooks for that exact reason. Right. Like the A5 Leuchtturm thickness is about as thick as a standard notebook I'll go. You know, I know the Hippo Noto is super popular. So like, if you get something like that, which is an awesome notebook, you're going to have to deal with, you know, kind of the, the brick style layout that it is, you're going to have a large drop off when you get to the end. So my issue isn't something you got to think about.

Myke Hurley: So my issue with big notebooks, thick notebooks, isn't the, like the hovering hand. Cause I, I don't really have a problem with that. It is when you're at the beginning or at the end and you're trying to use the thin side. Right. So like you've got a notebook open and you're trying to write all the way to the edge of the thin side, but then you're like an inch off the

Brad Dowdy: table. Right. Like I don't like that. Yep. Yep. So yeah, I, I'd love to hear some feedback on this question. Cause I don't, I don't know that we've ever gotten this question, but every single one of

Myke Hurley: us deals with this. I've never really thought of it before, honestly, like it's never really popped into my head as a way that this is a solvable problem, but it probably is in some way. I mean, probably the easiest way is, as you said, you buy two of them and you just put them next to each other and then you're good. Our last question comes from a JW Sanders Jr. That is a difficult Twitter handle to just read out by the way. Like I was looking at that earlier, right?

Brad Dowdy: You nailed that. I was not even there at all. Cause otherwise it's like just swanders. That's what I said. I totally would have said that I get in trouble on Twitch sometimes.

Myke Hurley: Uh, just, this is, it's going to be, it's going to be, uh, so JW Sanders Jr. Says, I've got a Schaefer Targa that is having nib issues possibly bent up from the feed. Um, I know it'd be best to see a nibmeister in person, but I do not have that option. Uh, do you have recommendations or advice on how to handle having nib work done via the mail? You 100% should get it done via mail. Yeah. It's definitely a harder, uh, um, thing to go through. Uh, because I get the feeling of like, if something goes wrong and you're with someone, you can get it taken care of. But like, if you're mailing it, well now that's a lot more mailing backwards and forwards. And then you've got, might have questions of like, well, it was okay when I sent it to you, you know, like all that kind of stuff. Like I totally get the anxiety around it. But isn't it better to give it a go rather than have a pen that you can't use anymore that you enjoy?

Brad Dowdy: 100%. You know? So yeah. And they're going to get it back to, if it's a bent nib, they're going to get it back to that standard baseline. And it's going to be like a really great writer. Like, you know, if you're getting a grind that's going to have to fit like your handwriting preference, you know, that's maybe something you want to try in person first. But for a repair, there's a standard, there's a standard baseline that it will be returned to, which will be perfect.

Myke Hurley: They're just going to get it back to how it should be. Right. Cause these people are so talented. They don't even need to know what a shape of target feels like. They can just look at it and be like, all I see was wrong with it. Right. Right. Yep. But who should they send it to though?

Brad Dowdy: I mean, any of the nibmeisters that are in our community are all going to be able to handle this fine. Mark Backus, Dan Smith, Myke Masayama. I mean, I'll forget half of them, but there's no one that wouldn't be able to handle this pretty in a pretty straightforward manner, unless it's obviously some weird mangling going on, but they can all make it a happy writing experience again.

Myke Hurley: All right. Could you actually, could you tell me you said three people and I missed one of them?

Myke Hurley: Backus, Dan Smith, Myke Masayama. Dan Smith. That's what I wrote. Dave Smith. Hmm. I just want to get them in the notes. Tom Bobson. Tom Bobson. Everybody loves Tom Bobson. So it's Dan Smith. All right. Great. Okay. All right. So I think that brings us to the end of this

Topic Transition

Brad Dowdy: episode. We have a lot more as TPA to get to, Myke. We'll, we'll chalk those up for next week. I want to save them. Take on some more. I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to,

Myke Hurley: I don't want to do them all because then you end up. These are good questions. And then it's like, oh no, no, we haven't got any. I always like to, you got to keep some in the hopper, as it were. I agree. I agree. If you want to find our show notes for this week, you can hopefully find them in your podcast app of choice. But if you don't, you can go to relay.fm slash pen addict slash three, four, four, and everything is all there, including the links to our sponsors, links to Brad's new stuff and everything that he's working on. There's a lot of great stuff going on there linked to a lot of the products and people that we've spoken about on the episode. And also there's a, there's a link to the, the pen kind of, kind of the pen show experience Bible that Jacqueline wrote. You can find links to that there too. If you want to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com and knock.co. You can find him on Twitter at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M, penaddict on Instagram and twitch.tv slash penaddict as well. Um, I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E on Instagram and on Twitter as well. Uh, thanks again to our sponsors this week, Maester Design, Squarespace, and Pen Chalet. Uh, and we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Bobson.