The Pen Addict 282/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	282
Title:	100% Humidity Paper
Release Date:	November 8th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 282
Audio File:	Audio Episode 282
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 282
Length:	5353 min <br />0.883 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 282. Today's show is brought to you by Blue Apron and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by the wonderful man of the Penland, Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: I like it. We're back to some titles. That one I can get after. I'm all for that. Good job, mate. It's not the master of the moleskine.

Myke Hurley: Oh, that's a good one. But I don't know if you'd be the master of the moleskine, right? Like, I think there'd be some other, like, some other word. I don't know. I can't think of what it would be. I'm not operating up for 100% today.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, it would not, it would have to be beeped out or something, right? Like, if we talked about it. So, let's get, let's get this out of the way, right? So, we talked last week how I wanted to try a new moleskine because maybe the paper's improved and the, I don't know what, 10 years since I've last tried one or something. So, maybe eight years, something like that.

Moleskine Notebooks

Brad Dowdy: And I've heard a couple good things about the moleskine and I ordered one, which we talked about last week. I won't go all into it again, but it's basically the standard black with a dot grid. So, I open it up with high hopes. First thing that goes into it is a fountain pen and I'm writing with a fine cursive italic with Ackerman number eight ink. So, it's kind of a dry pen setup and I don't see any feathering, like when I'm writing, like, oh, my letters look good. And then I turn the page to see what it looks like on the back. It's like I've written on the back of the page.

Myke Hurley: See, here's the, you know, I saw this and I was like, oh, you know, I don't know. I know, like I have a lot of, I have a lot of pens that do this to paper, right? Like, you know, you get bleed, it's normal. But then you just said that was a fine. I was like, oh, okay then.

Brad Dowdy: Well, it's a fine cursive italic, so it's wider. But then I kept writing. All I have inked up right now are fine or extra fine, Japanese extra fine pens. And everything you can see straight through the back of the page, almost like it's written on the back. It's crazy. So, from a fountain pen user's perspective, there's no way I could ever recommend a Moleskine. Now, what does work are ballpoints and pencils and gel ink pens. I was surprised that the Schmidt refill worked well because it's a water-based ink, right? The P8127. It did okay. You know, there's like a little bit through the back. Nothing like the fountain pens at all. I used a brush pen on it and I used my drawing pens on it. They did okay. Like, it's not bad. But from a strictly fountain pen user's perspective review of the Moleskine, you could never, ever use this. Because I didn't even, like, stress test it because I didn't have to. My fine and extra fine nib pens, I mean, just went straight through the page. And, I mean, there's no two ways about it. Like, anyone that uses a medium or a broad, I mean, it'd be a catastrophe.

Myke Hurley: And I would guess, really, that, like, these notebooks, these specific notebooks, they don't have any particular redeeming features that make it a trade-off, right? Because you could just write on the left. You know, we were talking about the Hipponoto, right? And I was saying that it isn't necessarily a bleed problem, but, like, the size makes it hard to write on the back left page, right? Now, in this instance, you could just write on the back left page. But there's nothing about the Moleskine notebook where it's like, I will only use 50% of this notebook because of X. Like, there is no X. You know what I mean?

Brad Dowdy: So, there is an X, and I had two people in my Instagram feed say the exact same thing. Okay. I buy them for the cover.

Brad Dowdy: No one makes as good a cover as them. Like, Le Reyes and then someone else. I don't have it pulled up. Yeah, they said, I buy it. Their covers are so good. I mean, I don't discount that. I mean, it's a really nice cover. So, yeah. But, no, there's no redeeming value on the inside, right? I mean, unless you're pencil, ballpoint, gel. So, that's fine. You know, knock yourself out. Drawing pen. The one other comment I wanted to make on this, and I don't remember feeling like this from my old Moleskines that I used. When the nib of the pen touched the page, it felt like writing on the stone paper that I hate so much. It had give to it. And not give from writing on a stack of paper. Like, individual sheet give. It was spongy. Like, 100% humidity paper or stone paper. It was creepy. I did not enjoy the writing performance. Even on, like, Tomoe Rivers, like the thinnest paper in the world, you feel a firmness in the sheet, right? There's a difference in the sheet. This has a really uncomfortable feel. I thought it was stone paper, the way it was acting, and especially the way it acted with liquid pens. It was very uncomfortable. So, I... It's... Yeah. So, there's just no way I can use this notebook because I'm not going to commit to just using... I'm not going to commit to avoiding fountain pens in a notebook. You know, I want to use all of my pens or pencils. You know, if I use a smaller notebook, like a field notes or a knock notebook, I'll commit to, like, a single pen. If I'm going to do something, that's fine. But in a large, full-sized, you know, lots of sheets notebook, I have to be able to use fountain pens. And it's a bad experience. It's not even an average experience. It's a bad experience for fountain pens. Everything else is okay. So, if you want to use Moleskine for non-fountain pen uses, you'll probably be okay with it. If you think you're going to be able to use fountain pens with it, it's not going to be really good. So, that's kind of that.

Brad Dowdy: Experiment complete. Nothing has changed. In fact, it might be worse for fountain pens now than it ever has been. I'll have to find some old Moleskines to try. I think it might actually be worse because it feels different.

Brad Dowdy: So, there you go. Yep. Order your Moleskines, everybody.

Myke Hurley: No, I think you got that the wrong way around. Hmm.

Brad Dowdy: No. I mean, like I said, I really like what Moleskine's doing. The paper is bad for fountain pens. You know, those two things can be. Both be true, right? Yep.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Field Notes

Brad Dowdy: So, something else that is true is how awesome these new Mondo X, Land Land X, Drap Linux Burlesque field notes are.

Myke Hurley: The MLBD edition.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just have to get them for the name, right? The MLBD. Yep. So, why did you put these in the show notes?

Myke Hurley: Because they're exciting, right? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: They're kind of cool.

Myke Hurley: We try. I don't like to put every single edition in our notes anymore. Like, every single edition. We did that for a while, right? Sure. There was... There were a lot of stuff. It was exciting. We would cover them. Basically, all of them.

Myke Hurley: But these... The Mondo ones, like the Land Land ones, have been a couple of these before where they've collaborated with Draplin. And this is another one of those. And they look incredible. So, I thought that these were a fun one. Like, if there is a limited edition field notes that's got Draplin's stamp on it somewhere, I think that they're ones worth talking about.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I don't buy the extra editions very often anymore. I think the last ones that I went out and bought something like this were the Nixon watches because they kind of had the America is Beautiful style photograph cover, which I thought was really pretty. And they were surf-based and they look really cool. So, like, I won't run out to try to, like, buy these or, like, set my alarm to order these or have someone at MondoCon, you know, try to get me a set. But I do think they look cool. And I like the glow-in-the-dark aspect of them. But, yeah. Like, I've definitely stopped the chase of the non-colors editions. Like, I'll get all the colors editions. I'll keep getting all those. And then maybe every once in a while, I might pick something up like this. Like I did the Nixon ones. But I do think they look cool.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. There are, like, what is it, like 100 packs available at MondoCon, but they're going to be selling them after the fact, too, as well.

Brad Dowdy: And I think Draplin's in Chicago this week, maybe. They might be doing, is it this week they're doing something at Field Notes? I wonder if he'll have them there because he always does, like, pop-up shop type stuff.

Myke Hurley: Huh. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Who knows? But, yeah. They'll be available. I want to see some pictures of these because it's like the two rivers where, like, almost no two are alike. Right? Yeah. You know, you kind of have the same aesthetic as that edition, which when we talk with the guys, that was Brian's favorite edition because it's just a very cool, very cool look and style. And I love those, too. So, yeah. These are great.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I'm still waiting to see what that 10th anniversary one is.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I know. I think we got shipping notifications. Someone got a shipping notification in my feed that I went and got, I went into my inbox and I didn't have a shipping notification. So, we'll see.

Brad Dowdy: So, it seems early, but maybe not. I don't know.

Myke Hurley: I did just renew my subscription.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I have to renew after this one. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I got the email and I was like, yeah, I'm going to do it. Like, I'm not going to do that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You know what else is new, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. I knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. The new Sinclair Colourway. Unicorn snot, baby.

Myke Hurley: Not unicorn snot, baby.

Brad Dowdy: It's just unicorn snot. No, no, no, no. It could be that.

Myke Hurley: So, what was the previous one called? Like, just the pink and blue?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's all we called it. It was pink and blue. Then it went into the unicorn barf, which was a popular pen acrylic at the time, too. So, it just kind of took a life of its own. We never said any, you know. We love doing, you know, appropriating that name for, you know, the pink and blue, you know, pens, pink and blue pen cases. And everyone, this was the story I've told a lot of times, how we made this case knowing it was out there, the original unicorn barf case. And we couldn't sell them. Like, we put them online and we could not sell the things for anything. No one would like. We loved them. We thought they were awesome. And then we started taking them to pen shows. And people started getting them in their hand and seeing them in person. And then we couldn't keep them in stock. Yeah. Right? They would.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I remember the first Atlanta, I think it was, where, like, this one lady came and she just bought 10 of the brass. Right? She was just like, I'll have all of them. Yeah. Yeah. These are ones that sold really well. And people wanted it for a while. So, I'm happy to see it. And also, do you know what? I love this colorway even more with the bright green on the inside. This is exciting. And I want one. So, how and when do I buy one?

Brad Dowdy: They're going to go to retailers first, which hopefully will start shipping to them in the next week or so. We're finally starting to get enough in stock to where we can get all the, we try to get all the retail orders at the same time. So, we have to kind of build up a backlog. So, it's almost to that point where we'll be able to ship to retail soon. And then you will be able to purchase them from there first. So, and then they'll eventually be on the knock shop. But we're going to give, this is the kind of the retailers thing first. You know, the new colors of Sync Colors and Brasstown. So, there'll be a Brasstown in this exact color as well.

Myke Hurley: I'm very excited about that. Very excited.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. People are pumped about it. And I'm glad they are. So, yeah. I love it. It's cool. You know, like I said in my little tweet, we like having fun doing this. You know, we have fun. So, and we like to do fun stuff. And there'll be more fun stuff coming out very soon.

Myke Hurley: This is super fun. It's a great, it's a really interesting colorway. I'm really excited about it.

Tiffany Blue

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So, turning the corner from unicorn snot to Tiffany blue. I wanted to put this in the show notes because my jaw hit the floor. And it kind of shouldn't have. Even though, you know, thank you Elaine for sending over the link to this because I haven't seen this before. But this is a pen that's available on the Tiffany jewelry. If you're familiar with them, the Tiffany blue. Real pretty color. Lovely designs. Very expensive products. Tiffany. That Tiffany. They essentially have a Sharpie in the Tiffany style. Which could be yours, Myke. For the low sum of $750. How many do you want?

Myke Hurley: Look, here's the thing. I think this is amazing. Right? I think this is amazing. It kind of is. I'm never going to buy it, but I think it's fantastic. Do you think that it is a Tiffany blue ink? No. That's what I want to know. And that's what they should do, right? It should be a Sharpie, which is Tiffany blue. That would be amazing.

Brad Dowdy: I don't see a picture with this uncapped, which is what I want to see. Yeah. And they don't say specifically in the descriptions the phrase or word Sharpie. They say refillable with standard size permanent markers. I reckon you put the entire marker in this thing. Well, Sharpie has a refill, right? But it includes the grip section, which is black plastic.

Myke Hurley: Scroll down. It's there. Where? If you scroll down on the page, there is like a picture, like a banner called Everyday Objects. And they have the pen uncapped and it looks like it is blue.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Do you see it? I see that. I see it on the table now by the coffee cup. Yeah. And it does look like a teal blue. Okay. Well, I wonder if you can buy refills. Now we need to go shopping for refills on their site. So let's do this live.

Myke Hurley: I think that this is kind of incredible, like in the worst possible way. Do you know what I mean? This is so ridiculous. But that's why I like it because it's $750. Like they are owning it. Like they are just owning. Like this is what it is. This is what we make. We make a $750 Sharpie. If you don't want it, that's fine. You don't have to buy it. That's kind of how I look at this thing. And it's like, all right. Like if that's what you want to do, you just go for it. It's £705 apparently.

Brad Dowdy: So there's paper cup, bone china. There's pencils in this picture. But why can't I search their site very well? I want the refills for this thing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I'm looking at their writing instruments page and it doesn't look like they have refills for sale.

Brad Dowdy: Honestly. All right. How much are the pencils? The pencils are in the image. But they're not in the writing instruments page. I don't know if they sell those pencils.

Brad Dowdy: Interesting. So we'll have more news on the Tiffany permanent link refill.

Myke Hurley: If anybody out there knows more about this, we would love to know it because this is absolutely fascinating to me. Like I think it's kind of hilarious and wonderful.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, so the color is on the balloon. That's what's written on the balloon. Now that good works. The smiley face.

Myke Hurley: Yes, that is it. There's like we're really weird. So by the way, you want to check out our show notes for these images.

Myke Hurley: Which is at related.fm slash pan addict slash 282. Because otherwise we sound like bonkers people. But yeah, you can see when you go down the page, there is this image. And yeah, there's a balloon that's got drawing on it. And the color of the ink on the balloon is Tiffany blue. So maybe they do put a Tiffany blue refill in it.

Brad Dowdy: So we've essentially lost our minds over a $750 Sharpie.

Myke Hurley: I mean, you know.

Brad Dowdy: I guess that's what we do, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Like what are you going to do? Like it's ridiculous and wonderful and it's dumb. And I kind of love it. I'm never going to buy it. But I think it's hilarious that they did it.

Brad Dowdy: This is pan addict life right here. Someone at Tiffany's listening. They said, we need to do this. Yep.

Myke Hurley: Why not though? Right? Because this is, you know, people are either going to buy it or they're not going to buy it. Like this is the type of brand for that kind of thing, I guess. Right? Like it's. Right. Right. You know, like most of this stuff, they're not going to sell a lot of units of. Like there's a $235 Sterling Silver straw on this page.

Brad Dowdy: I'd rather have the Sharpie.

Myke Hurley: There's a 285 pound yo-yo.

Brad Dowdy: Now we're talking though. Oh yeah? You're up for the yo-yo? No. I still might go Sharpie.

Myke Hurley: What about a 260 pound pencil sharpener? Oh, I'm there. And glass and Sterling Silver. I can find a pencil sharpener and a ruler, a harmonica and golf tees, but no pencils. I can't find the pencils.

Heartwood Pens

Brad Dowdy: They tease them in the picture. We'll have to hunt those down. We'll have to hunt those down. All right. Well, let's get to some more reasonable pen shopping and talk about our good friends at Pen Chalet.

Myke Hurley: I just did a search for pencil and it returned nothing. So I don't think that they're selling those. But yeah, let's talk about someone who sells things at way better prices than the Tiffany pen. And that is Pen Chalet. They have everything that you're looking for from all of her favorite brands. They back it up with fast and reliable customer service, a bunch of great discounts and close out specials all the time. Pen Chalet are always adding new styles of pens. We're going to talk about those in a moment. Actually, there's a couple of things in our document that Pen Chalet have got. They do free shipping on orders of $50 in the United States. They sell internationally as well with very, very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you go to penchalet.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password penaddict for this week's special offer and to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet. You can go there anytime. Go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click that podcast link. You can always see what offers they have because they have tons of offers all the time, especially on that page. But you also get that 10% code that you can use on anything. Now, this week's special offer for the Pen Addict listeners. If you buy any Montegrappa heartwood and you will get a Montegrappa notebook, sunglasses and bag for free. It's a lot of stuff. You get like a whole Montegrappa goodie bag pack.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and those heartwood pens are really good looking. I've been thinking about getting one of those.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I hadn't seen them before. They were new to me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they came out a couple of months ago. They're in the shape of the mule. Remember when they had the Moscow mule thing and the copper pen? They're in that shape, except they're wood-based pens. And I think they're really nice looking. I've read a few reviews on them and they look really, really pretty.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, you can go there. Go to Pen Chalet. You can go hit the password and then you'll be able to get your hands on that fantastic set of Montegrappa goodies. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Lamy Safari Gift

Brad Dowdy: And check the specials page, the Pen Addict specials page. They have, if you're looking for gifts for new fountain pen users, they have the Lamy Safari gift set, which is a really, really good deal right now on the Pen Addict page. And it'll be great gifts for Christmas.

Myke Hurley: Oh, nice.

Brad Dowdy: All right. If you're in Australia, you could pick up some great gifts for Christmas at the end of November, the 26th, in fact, at the Melbourne Pen Show. So I got an email and I think we've talked about them last year when they had the Melbourne Pen Show. So there were some good stories and posts after the fact from Melbourne. And it's that time of year again there in Australia. So we have a ton of Australian listeners and followers. So I wanted to be sure to give them a shout out. Hit up the Melbourne Pen Show, melbpenshow.com.au. We'll have the link in the show notes. If you're in the area, you definitely want to go. It looked like a really cool show last year and it's growing. So there you go. Check that out. Pen Addict worldwide. Worldwide. They're trying to get us down there, Myke. One of these years, right? I mean, the list is getting long for one of these years.

Myke Hurley: We're going to be doing this for a very long time just so we can get through these pen shows.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Fortunately, we have a lot of years left in us. We sure do. So that's good. You know, it's always on the radar. Another new thing I wanted to mention, which I got the early look of this app. It's called the Nibbler app. Mm-hmm. And we'll put a link in the show notes for, I think this is just an iOS app. So Austin Tooley sent me and you an email and a link of this app he's doing where he's basically aggregating RSS feeds for stationery and putting an app on your phone where you can go through and scroll through the most current posts from a lot of the popular pen blogs and ink blogs and things like that. But it's really well done. Like Austin did a really great job. And he asked me about it. You know, one of my feedback, you know, what do you think about this? And, you know, the first words out of my mouth, well, if you're going to run ads over it, I don't want to be part of it, right? Mm-hmm. You know, it's not something I'll use that often, to be perfectly honest, because I pretty much run my life in RSS. So I need an app for all of my feeds. So I already have my pens in an RSS reader, like reader. But as a separate standalone stationery app, I think it's pretty cool. And Austin did a really good job on this. So I was very pleased with the outcome of what he did. So if you're interested, go check that out.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it is really nice. I took a look at it, too. So I really, I do agree. It's a nice looking app.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So I reviewed a pen on Monday. You wanted to ask me about, Myke, the Kaweco Steel Sport.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: What do you think about this pen? Do you use any of this sport series Kawecos? Do you even own one?

Myke Hurley: I own. I own them. I don't own any of the metal ones. I own a couple of plastic ones. Okay. But my question for you, really, was like, because I own them, right? Like, I have them. I have used them. I was wondering how much you genuinely use Kaweco Sports today. Like, how often are they in the rotation?

Brad Dowdy: I always have one inked. Okay. And the one either comes from the Lilliput lineup, the Sport Classic plastic barrel lineup, or one of the metal barrels. Okay. I don't have more than one inked up at a time because I just need one pocket fountain pen. And any of those three are my choices. So right now it's the Steel Sport, which I think is the best looking metal barrel. Before that, I liked the aluminum, gray aluminum sport. The brass sport got a lot of play last year. It was really pretty, but I never stuck with that one. I like the look of the stainless steel better. So I'll use this one. And then, you know, I might go back to a Lilliput. And then probably the one I carried the most this past year was the Classic Sport I got from Glenn HK. And I forget the name of the color. It's like Island Blue or something like that. It was from a shop in Hong Kong. The plastic barrel one is probably the one I carried the most this year. So yeah, I always have one Kaweco pocket fountain pen inked up. So one of those few things. I just love the shape and the feel. It's the right size open. It's the right size closed. I never have nib problems, which kind of play Kaweco sometimes. I think it's because I stick in the extra fine range and I have one or two custom nibs that I've had ground down. I just swap them between the pens. But the nib issue seems to run more in the medium and broad sizes. You get a little bit of a baby's bottom. You get a little bit of skipping when you're writing. A little bit drying out in the pen. I never have that issue. And it's just a pen I always want to have to grab and go. It just fits me very, very well and how I like to use pens and how I like them to feel when I'm using them. So yeah, is this a special as related to the rest of the lineup? Not necessarily. You know, they've done lots of materials. You can go cheaper with the aluminum. That's always been kind of my favorite. You can go very expensive with the carbon fiber inlays. I never liked those. And then kind of the medium price range is the steel and brass. They're right in between the aluminum and carbon fiber. The brass takes beautiful pictures. They look stunning. The stainless steel doesn't have the odor that brass does. But I've gotten used to like the brass pens now. They don't bother me as much. But it's just something that fits me very well. And I'll always have a Kaweco. I'll always try them out when new ones come out. It's one of those things like field notes. They can get you in trouble trying to hunt down various editions. Like I've seen some sweet purple ones and some all black ones. And I was like, ooh, I'm tempted. It's like, I don't need my fifth one or whatever many I have. You know, I don't need to do that. So, yeah, I really like this steel. This is probably my favorite, at least until the next one comes out, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, okay. I mean, it's just because for me, like, they don't do it for me anymore, right? There was a time I absolutely adored my Kawecos. But like, I've kind of moved on from them. And it's just interesting for me to see you kind of referencing the fact that you use one quite frequently. It surprised me.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. It's just one of those that fits me personally. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I get it. I get it. This is a very personal pin. This is not a pin for everybody. But a lot of times people don't expect to like them and they end up liking them. That ends up happening a lot with the Kawecos, especially the base classic plastic barrel ones. I found a pin for you, though.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you did, huh?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I don't know if you'll go for the slim size. But the Sailor Pro Gear Slim Purple Cosmos, that's a Myke Hurley. I mean, that's a me pin right there. What do you think about this pin? This is the new limited edition. Are they calling it limited edition or special edition? I guess it's limited. There's only 800 or so, I believe, being made. I don't know if it's North America or worldwide. But what do you think about this pin?

Myke Hurley: So I don't own a slim. I've used a slim and the slim isn't my favorite. I like the regular Pro Gear. I saw this in the show notes today. It's the first time I'd ever seen it. I have one on the way.

Brad Dowdy: It's awesome.

Sailor Pro Gear

Myke Hurley: This is what I was looking for, right? I have been saying I wanted another Sailor Pro Gear and I wanted a cool limited one. This is perfect for me design-wise. We'll see how it goes with the body size. I mean, I'm probably going to be fine with it, right? Like, I can't imagine I'm going to hate it.

Brad Dowdy: You'll go, okay, this is smaller and lighter, but I like it. Like, I really like my slims. I prefer, I'll pick the Pro Gear if I have a choice every time. I enjoy my slims, right? I mean, they're really good pins. Okay, that's good.

Myke Hurley: That's good to know. I also bought a broad. I figured I'd change it up. You know, I have a medium in my current Pro Gear. I thought, what's the point in getting to, like, with the exact same nib? I might as well change it up. So, I went with a broad. Just figuring that I could change it if I don't like it. But, yeah, I saw it and I was like, this is exactly what I need. And I bought it immediately.

Brad Dowdy: I wasn't going to let this one pass me by. And this one's super limited. I mean, you're not going to be able to get it, like, if you think about it, for, like, the next week or two. Like, it'll be gone.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. This was part of it. Like, as soon as I opened the page, I was like, I love the look of this one. Not so sure about the size. There's no point messing around with this. I'll just buy it. If I don't like it, someone can take it off my hands quite easily, I bet. For sure. This was just like, I'm not sleeping. I don't want to keep sleeping on these because this is what I want. Like, right now, top of my list is a new Pro Gear. And it has been for months. And I've been doing a bunch of searches online, and I just couldn't find what I wanted. And I'm always so jealous at pen shows because people like you and Father Kyle, you're bringing out all your amazing limiteds. And I'm just, like, sad in the corner with my one orange. And I'm like, I wanted another one. And this one looks like a great contender. I'm very excited to see it in person.

Brad Dowdy: Well, good. I'm excited that you bought it. I'm going to pass on it. I just don't need another pen right now. Like, I think we'll be talking about that next year.

Myke Hurley: It's like... You should get that tattooed on your arm. You just don't need another pen right now. Brad Dowdy. That could be the name of your memoir.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. We'll write that down. But yeah, like, I'm going through that phase. Like, this happens at the end of the year. It's like, I bought a lot of stuff this year. And there's lots of cool stuff out right now. Like, we're going to talk about another pen in a minute that I really, really want. But it is super expensive. Way more expensive than this one. We'll get to that in a minute. But first, I want to talk about another purple pen, Myke. What do you think about the new Platinum Purple? I'm going to go with Lavende or Lavende. I'm sure it's French for lavender. I just don't know how to say it. I slept on the... 3776 Nice Lavende.

Myke Hurley: I slept on the Lylas, right? Like, I didn't get it. And it's still available, but I didn't get it. I'm now pleased I didn't get it because the purple and the rose gold is way better looking. And I put my name down for pre-order at Pen Chalet. And I will buy this one. When it comes out, I will buy this one. So I've cost you some money today. I need a Platinum in my life, right? Everyone's telling me I need it. I want to spend more time with the nibs, right? Because I want to see how they are before going up to Nanakaya one day. So I put my name down, I think, for a medium, if I remember rightly, for one of these. Because that colorway, purple and rose gold, that is stunning. That looks so good. So yes, I've got my name down at Pen Chalet for one of those. So you made me spend a lot of money today, Brad, in two lengths. I did my job today.

Brad Dowdy: Fantastic. Ron's going to be happy. Yeah, Ron should be thrilled. This is an awesome pen. And you know what? I have to agree with you. This is better than the pink.

Myke Hurley: It is.

Brad Dowdy: And I loved the pink. I didn't buy the pink. I didn't buy... I'm not going to buy the purple. I bought the red.

Brad Dowdy: But I'm not going to buy the purple either. But dang, if this isn't good looking. You know, both Sailor... I mean, pink and purple and orange, it's really hard for me to avoid. But man, this is some good stuff. It's the right time of year for some awesome pen releases. And we aren't even going to cover them all today. There's some really good stuff that we're leaving out.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I'm glad I could spend your money today, Myke. You've made me a happy person. And I'm living vicariously through you today, which is the opposite of what usually happens.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that is... It is weird. I mean, I think that you... For some reason, you woke up this morning and you were like, I'm going to make Myke spend a lot of money.

Brad Dowdy: Well, this next link and pen might cause me to spend a lot of money. The first one I want to talk about is not available. It's the new Aurora Optima Flex. So they're going to be... We said last year when we were talking about Aurora in LA that eventually in 2018, they would have the Flex nib in the Optima and then they would have Flex nib units. So these things are starting to come to fruition. And I'm seeing now there's a picture on Instagram from Laura who helps at the Chicago Pen Show. She's on Instagram at Fountain Pen Follies. She has a picture of the orange Optima with the Flex nib. And what I like about this the most is that it has the rhodium plated trim instead of the gold trim. I still don't know that this is a pen that I would go for. Like I didn't go for any of the other Aurora Flexes. I thought they were too expensive for too basic of a barrel. This might be the same thing. I don't know what the price is on this. This is just, you know, a very early look at them, but they look killer because I love the Optima.

Brad Dowdy: So yeah, when I saw that, I was like, oof, yeah, that's good. The one I want though, Myke, this is as close as I've come to buying a pen recently, but it's so freaking expensive and I don't want to spend the money right now. But the Aurora Optima 365, that's my pen. I mean, this is like, damn. I don't know what it is about this pen, but I just love how this pen looks for me. It's crazy, crazy expensive. There's only 365 of them made. I'm probably not going to pull the trigger because it's so expensive, but I'm in love with this pen. What do you think about it? I don't like it. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: For that amount of money, I don't like it. I feel like I've seen, I mean, you know, the devil's in the details, but like just from the pictures, I feel like I've seen this finish in a bunch of pens that don't cost 660 euros. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: Totally, totally fair.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. It just doesn't, that does not scream 500 plus to me, really. Right.

Brad Dowdy: And the Pelican Ocean Swirl that's coming out right now, it's kind of like the same pattern. I love that one too. And it's like, yeah, I don't, I really think they're beautiful. I don't need to spend that money on just on any pen right now. So, yeah. Let me take a look. I am having a hard time. I am having a hard time with this one.

Myke Hurley: See, the thing is, that Pelican, that looks nicer to me. Like, I could, I think I could justify that design more, like, because I've, that looks like a, something I've not seen, like almost a kind of nebulous type, you know, like it's, it's a, that's a really interesting pattern to me where the Aurora, I feel like I've seen that pattern, that exact pattern, like on pens that cost $45 or something, you know? Do you know what I'm saying? Like, again, like the pictures might not be doing it justice, but like, I don't know, there's just, it doesn't really scream $600 to me.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that's the kicker on these high-end demonstrators, right? Like, that's the most egregious amount of money. And I buy those all the time. Like, I have the Pelican 805 and I have my Optima as a demonstrator. And that's a road less.

Myke Hurley: And you're a king of pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. It's clear. It's clear blue plastic, right? When you, when it boil, when you boil it down to it. So it's like, yeah, but like, I am, I still get wrapped up in those things. And like, that's way more outrageous of a price than at least a full, you know, material barrel or mostly material barrel as opposed to just a clear plastic. So, yeah, I'm with you. I'm not, you will get no arguments from me. It's also not going to keep me from buying some of the stuff too. So it's, it's the, uh, the dilemma of the life I lead, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Something like that. Today's episode is brought to you by our friends over at Blue Apron, the number one recipe delivery service with the freshest ingredients. You can get $30 off your first delivery with free shipping by going to blueapron.com slash penaddict. Blue Apron's awesome because Blue Apron is going to teach you skills. It's going to help you learn how to cook. If you've, if you think, oh, I don't know how to cook, you know what will help you? Easy to follow recipe cards and pre-portioned ingredients. They are two simple things that Blue Apron does, which make it way, way easier because the recipe cards are nicely laid out with all the instructions for you. And you don't have to worry about how much of this, how much of that, do I have this ingredient? Do I have that ingredient? Did I buy the right thing? Because you get all of it and it's all nicely set up and it's all in these little boxes and everything's portioned out for you. So you don't waste food. Blue Apron's reducing food waste and you just get the exact amount of every ingredient that you need for each recipe. Blue Apron's mission is to make incredible home cooking accessible to everyone while supporting a more sustainable food system in the process. And they do that with these meals, which cost less than $10 a meal. They all have fresh, high quality ingredients. All of their ingredients are backed by their freshness guarantee. That means that they're going to be, they will arrive with you ready to cook or they're going to make it right for you. They set the highest standards for their ingredients and they build a community of home chefs along with it. None of Blue Apron's recipes are repeated within a year, so you will never get bored of what you're eating. There's always new food, new wonderful things to try. You can choose from a variety of new recipes every week or let Blue Apron's culinary team surprise you. Right now, you could get cheesy broccoli baked pasta with crispy thyme breadcrumbs, seared steaks and garlic butter with oven fries and romaine salad, or roasted chicken and four vegetables with cranberry and ginger compote. Wow, that sounds fantastic.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, we're going to have to stop doing this before my lunchtime.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I know. It's bad news for everyone. Cooking together is fun. Families who cook with Blue Apron cook together three times more often because they have everything they need right with them. There's no weekly commitment. You get the deliveries when you want them. Try Blue Apron today. Go to blueapron.com slash penaddict to get $30 off your first delivery and free shipping as well. You're going to love how good it feels and tastes to create incredible home-cooked meals with Blue Apron. So go get started today at blueapron.com slash penaddict. We'd like to thank Blue Apron for their support of this show. Blue Apron, a better way to cook.

Listener Feedback

Brad Dowdy: So we've got some good ass TPA this week, Myke, but I wanted to start with the feedback that we got from our letter writing conversation last week where I made a few statements that were extreme, which I do. And then I get lots of email, wonderful email that said, you might want to rethink how you talk about letter writing and here's why. And I got some really good feedback. And I think I want to devote an entire segment to that maybe in next week's episode so I can parse the feedback a little more. There's a lot of stuff on like letter writing tips and writing prompts. And, you know, you don't have to be a natural at it. And here's some things that can help you with that. So our listeners were awesome in sending really, really good feedback on my letter writing conversation from last week. So I want to do that justice and not just burn through it. So I'm going to give that a whole segment next week. So if you have any more comments on writing letters and how to be a better letter writer and tips and tricks that you use, send them in, you know, hello at penaddict.com and we'll get them and I'll put them together for next week's show. Sound good? Yeah, sounds great. All right. So Rebecca, she said, I love Dowdyism's Chicago trip notebook and want to do the same, but with a fountain pen, what notebook? Same question in A5, but as thin and light as a field notes book. So Rebecca is a really good photographer. So I know she gets out and about and goes and sees and does lots of things and has lots of things to put in a notebook. Fountain pen friendly, you can get some of the field notes if you want to do that size. That, um, that work well, right? Notepads work well with, with fountain pens. But if you want to go to have like a bigger A5 format and keep it thin and fountain pen friendly, honestly, the first thing I thought of was the A5 dot dash notebook. We make it knock. So I got to throw in a plug for that. It's a 48 page, like the same thickness as a field notes, but an A5 size soft cover, um, comes in a three pack. They're like 15 bucks. So that's a really good fountain pen friendly. It'd be good for a notebook plus type of layout, you know, where you're adding in, you know, pictures and tickets and receipts and things like that. And then I knew there was something else out there and I had to dig a little bit to find it. And I remembered the Apica CD grid notebook. This might be the choice. If you like that style, they're very thin. Um, I want to say they're only like 30 pages or so. I'll have to go look at them, but they're only like three. Oh, okay. More than that. They're like three bucks. I mean, this is like the no brainer of all no brainer A5s. I choose them over the knock notebooks personally. They're really good. And for that price is ridiculous. But for like A5 thin, soft bound, good quality notebooks, there's not a huge choice. Like once you get into like, you can get like Rodea and Leuchtturm do soft covers, but they do them in like 80 page notebooks and you know, they cost, you know, 10 or $15. Those are great. I don't think that's what you're looking for. I think you're looking for kind of a, a trip specific book with a fewer amount of pages and a better price point. And, uh, I think those are kind of the two choices I came up with. I'm open to hearing some, some more, but you can definitely find some thicker soft bound A5s, but finding those thin ones, um, like in a field notes thickness is the challenge. So those are the two I came up with.

Myke Hurley: I think the only thing I would maybe recommend for, uh, the pocket notebook size would maybe also be the story supply edition 407. They're just really, really lovely notebooks with fantastic fountain pen friendly paper.

Brad Dowdy: That's a great notebook. It's the field note size three and a half by five and a half and a wonderful with fountain pens. So yeah, good call there. I really love the covers on those two. Um, the, the covers on those, those are probably my favorite from story supply. Really, really good. All right. Next one. I love this question. This is from Jane. I think we got this on Twitter, right? It says, is there a preponderance of pen addict relationships? Do fountain pen, do fountain pens bring people together? Have they torn people apart? I think most of the people in my life that I consider my friends, I got from the pen addict. I mean, I don't, I think that's a very safe statement. It's a very weird statement if you parse it verbally to other people, um, you know, out loud in public, but it's the truth. Like I've never met so many good people as I have. And I've made lifelong friends from sharing a fountain pen or a piece of paper or an ink or a pencil with another person. And these person, these people I will have in my life, no matter what I'm doing, no matter where I'm at, I have people that are now my friends for life because of this.

Brad Dowdy: I think because this hobby requires sharing between people and there's a lot of knowledge to be passed. So these conversations are more natural, say, than other situations. You know, you each have a mutual like, but there's so much more you can learn from that other person and vice versa. So I think that leads to those type of relationships, um, bringing people together. Has it torn people apart? I don't know. I doubt it. I mean, probably, but it's certainly not something you see.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm sure people have made some purchases which they shouldn't make, which can lead to some problems. But, you know, I reckon it brings significantly more people together than it does draw anybody apart. Because I feel the same as you. I have so many new friends, people that I consider incredibly close to me because of this hobby. Yeah. And it's also strengthened relationships of mine as well. Like, as more friends have gotten into this stuff, like, there's a couple of people specifically that I think of that I've become so much closer to because they became interested in this hobby. You know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, just think about it. I created a business with a guy I never heard of because he had a friend that read The Pen Addict and we started talking. You know? Think about that. I mean, that's kind of a big deal, right? You know? So, it's, this community is something else. I talk about it all the time. I can't rave about it enough. It's pretty amazing. So, we're very lucky, Myke. Very. Very. Yeah. So, yeah. That's, I could talk more. I could talk about that all day. Just, I love talking about the people in this community. So, it's very cool. All right. Next question from Matthias. He says, how does the Paper Mate Ink Joy gel compare to the Uniball Signo RT1? The Ink Joy's design seems very Signo inspired. This might be blasphemous, but I do think the Ink Joy barrel is better than the RT1 barrel. The RT1 barrel is kind of the cheapy barrel of the Uniball lineup. I like the DX better for a barrel. I like the 307 for a barrel. But the RT has the benefit of added colors in it. It also has the benefit of the micro tip sizes in it. So, I tend to lean towards the RT1. The Ink Joy gel is very, very good. A lot of people use it. A lot of people love it. I haven't used them regularly because they don't get in the fine enough size that I like. But my wife bought a 10-pack of them. And now I've gone and ordered her extra purple ones of it, if that tells you anything. And she uses the pen pretty much all day, every day in her job. So, she likes the retractable nature of it. And she likes how the barrel feels. And she likes how well they write. And she's not alone. The Ink Joy is probably the best pen Paper Mate's ever made besides the flare. They don't have a lot. They sell a lot of pens. But they don't have a lot of amazing pens in their lineup. The Ink Joy gel has kind of changed what I think about what they're doing. And I hope they continue expanding on the success they've had with the Ink Joy gel lineup. Have you had a chance to use one?

Myke Hurley: No, not at all.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. We'll have to. We'll change that. So, it's a really cool. Really cool pen. It's kind of like a full, it's a retractable pen, kind of like a full rubberized barrel with like a small, like, you know, ink color window on there. You know, it's plain, something you find, you know, at the grocery store. But really nice. It's one of the better choices. Certainly better than the G2. So, we got to get people off the G2 train. You know, we got to unseat the G2 as the most popular gel ink pen in the world. Because there's better pens out there.

Myke Hurley: Do we have the ability to do that?

Brad Dowdy: I doubt it. Okay. Doesn't mean we can't try.

Myke Hurley: Doesn't mean we can't try.

Brad Dowdy: We can do one of those change.org petitions, right?

Brad Dowdy: Sure.

Thermal Receipts

Myke Hurley: That'll fix it for you.

Brad Dowdy: Speaking of crappy pens, Kimmer wants to know, what is the best pen for writing on that thermal receipt paper? The answer is, the absolute worst ballpoint pen you can find is the best pen for thermal receipt paper. And that's not a joke. Like, crappy ballpoints on receipt paper is the way to go. Like, I've used some terrible ballpoints that work amazing on that paper. You know, not even, like the Uniball Jetstream is too good of a pen for that paper. You got to drop it down a little bit. You got to lower your expectations. Use a basic BicStick. You know, the, I don't know, the standard Papermate ballpoint. Any terrible ballpoint pen will be great. But don't try to use a liquid or gel ink based pen with that receipt paper. Ballpoint all the way. Oil works best on that paper for whatever reason. And you do kind of need something soft to write under. You know, writing on a table is kind of hard. So, yeah, that's my answer. I don't have a specific recommendation. But just buy the cheapest ballpoint pen you can find and it'll be pretty good. It won't work on anything else. But it'll work on thermal receipt paper. All right, last one from 24 Hours. What are some of the premium barrels that can take Pilot, Zebra, etc. refills other than the Sarasa Grand? So, this is kind of a two-part question. So, there's premium barrels that the manufacturers themselves make, like Pilot. And then there's premium barrels that you see on Kickstarter a lot. So, that's kind of twofold. Since they put the Sarasa Grand in the question, I was thinking maybe they're looking for something stock that you can buy. You know, like at a JetPens or something or Pen Chalet. And the first one that comes to mind is the Pilot Metropolitan. Because it comes in a rollerball option that takes the G2 refill that you remove. You throw it in the trash. And then you buy a Pilot Juice refill and put it in there. And then you have an awesome, awesome pen for like $13, $14. And you can just keep buying the Pilot Juice refills. The Zebra Sarasa Clip refills also fit in there. So, the Metropolitan is kind of the best. If you want to stick in that style of refill, you know, throw out the G2, buy the Juice. Much better.

Brad Dowdy: Or, you can get what I call the one barrel to rule them all. The Big Eye Design Ti Arto. Which will fit any refill you throw at it. It's just a bigger, heavier barrel and much more expensive. It's like $80. But it'll fit any refill you ever want. I don't know if that's really what you're looking for, the way you pose this question. If I could pick anything besides my beloved pen type B, which no one else likes except me. And I'm okay with that. Because my new one's coming. I got a shipping notification for the next one. Which I'm stoked about. And you'll have to hear me rave about. The Ti2 Tech Liner fits the Uniball Signo 307 refills. I use that pen probably more than any, like, specialty type pen. You know, I just got the Tactile Turn Mover that fixed the G2 Juice refills. That's a great pen. The Sunderland MK1. That's one I use a lot. The Ti2 Tech Liner is what I use the most. Because I like the shape. I like the magnet clip. I mean, not clip. The cap. And, you know, I like how it feels. And I like using the Uniball refills. It's just really tough to find a good barrel for Uniball refills. So, where I'd start is the Pilot Metropolitan. If you can find a Pilot Juice refill you like. Especially for the price. After that, you have a world of options. You know, like, we could get more specific on a lot more machine. It depends. That would suit your needs the best. I have a few go-to favorites. And, yeah. This is a question I always like. Because I'm always trying out all kinds of new barrels.

Myke Hurley: All right. Are we done for today?

Brad Dowdy: I think that's got it. I don't have anywhere else to spend your money today. But I think I did a pretty good job.

Myke Hurley: I think I better get out of here before you have any other ideas for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You didn't need me to wake up this morning because I loaded up the... You started the notes this morning or last night. I finished them this morning and I cost you money. So, this is a good day of work, Myke.

Myke Hurley: I shouldn't have looked.

Myke Hurley: That was my fault. You would have. It's looking.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Don't buy Moleskine's fountain pen users. Let's leave it with that.

Myke Hurley: Buy expensive sailor pens instead, I guess. You can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 282 for today's links and all the information about the episode. Thanks so much to the lovely folk over at Blue Apron and Pen Chalet for their support of this week's episode. If you want to find Brad online, he is Dowdy as on Twitter. Penaddict on Instagram. He's at knockco.com and at penaddict.com. I am at imyke on all the social networks. We'll be back next time. Until then, thanks so much for listening and say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.