The Pen Addict 157/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 157 |
| Title: |
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| Release Date: | June 1st, 2015 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | No guests this episode |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 157 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 157 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 157 |
| Length: | 5353 min <br />0.883 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict episode 157. Today's episode is brought to you by lynda.com, where you can instantly stream thousands of courses created by industry experts and donepaper, grid-aligned stationary goods and accessories. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined, as always, by the one and only Mr. Brad Dowdy.
Brad Dowdy: Hey. What's up, buddy? I'm good. How are you? Good. I'm feeling good. We're recording on a normal schedule for a change, at least for one day. You know, it's going to change, like, immediately after this. But yeah, I'm feeling really good. How about you?
Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. I'm trying to get ready for the week ahead, and then next week, you know, it's a busy time of year, but fun time.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so, like, your next two weeks are, like, pretty much slammed, which is why we're recording on Thursday this week, getting ahead of next week's episode, as you do.
Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.
Q&A Follow-up
Brad Dowdy: So, we have some follow-up from last week, some unresolved follow-up, and we need to handle this hashtag thing right now for our Q&A follow-up topics like you do for the other relay shows. I really want this. You know, I think this is perfect for us to track some of the follow-up, but we could never come up with a good hashtag in the past few days since last week's episode. I think the best one that came in was from Tony Roman is Hello Sailor. I mean, that is such a good hashtag, but there's lots of other junk in there. So, did you have any more thoughts on this?
Myke Hurley: Uh, I don't have anything that's, that's, because the key with it is you have to pick something that is easy to type when you say it. Right. Primarily. Right. And then also that it's not going to be carried up with a bunch of, a bunch of other junk.
Brad Dowdy: Right. So, so you, you say that because you see the first one in the list that I put in here, and I said the exact thing that you just alluded to when someone said that to me. How does it sound when I say it? And that hashtag is pinquery.
Myke Hurley: Yes, it's too difficult.
Brad Dowdy: It's very hard to say. It's a great hashtag when you look at it. But when I say it on the show, it's hard to say. I feel like you have to spell it when you say it. Um, you know, I, it's a, it's a thing. So, um, I, you know, I've got, I like ask PA FM. That's kind of annoying though.
Myke Hurley: Well, the closest that I think I have, which is similar, would be ask TPA.
Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah. We'll have to see. Is that, uh, there's nothing in there. There's nothing in there over the last week.
Myke Hurley: Like, cause like we were, you know, when we were thinking about doing this for analog, um, we didn't do ask analog because you don't know how people are going to spell it. Right. Um, so yeah, yeah, this is, this, I think this will be an eventual good way of collecting feedback whenever we can decide on the hashtag that we want to use.
Hashtag Decision
Brad Dowdy: All right. So ask, ask TPA. That looks like the leader in the clubhouse. I just want to get this started because I really like the, um, I really like the, uh, thought of doing this and the way it can just kind of continue to roll in, you know, as we go. Uh, it'll be very helpful for me, uh, in particular. So yeah.
Myke Hurley: All right. I'm going to set it up. I'm going to set up ask TPA, ASK TPA. Um, and then if we have to change it because it doesn't work, then we'll, we'll change it. But if you have any followup, if you have any feedback, questions, topic ideas for us from now until hopefully forever, you can use the hashtag. So just tweet with the hashtag ask TPA. You don't even need to add Dowdyism or add iMike with it. You just tweeted that hashtag. It will go into a Google spreadsheet that we will see, and then we'll be able to, to look at that and use that in the future. So if you have any from here on out, if you, if it's a, it's a great way, if you ever ask us a question on Twitter or a suggestion or anything like that, if you just throw that hashtag in there, um, then we might be able to talk about it on the show as well, which is, so it's very, very useful for us in a way to just make sure that we're collecting stuff that's interesting and also talking about the things that you guys and gals want us to be talking about. So hashtag ask TPA, and we're going to, um, we're going to bring that in to, to other things into the future.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, good. I like this business, Myke, man. You just, you're like, I'm making a decision and I'm making it now.
Myke Hurley: Well, you gotta, cause otherwise you'll dilly dally.
Brad Dowdy: Yes. You know, don't, don't dilly dally.
Myke Hurley: Don't dilly dally on the way.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That Edwin Collins?
Myke Hurley: Something like that.
Brad Dowdy: All right. I have, um, we don't have a ton of follow-up today, so I have time for what I like to call email story time. And I still want to, um, I still want to soundboard for this, Myke, you know, that, that masterpiece theater thing. You know, when it's, when I have story time, you know, once every couple months, I get a really long email I like to share with the readers. So this is definitely a, a kickback, grab a drink, uh, email, but this is, uh, this was really well done by Ryan who sent this in to me last week. So I want to read this all to y'all and, uh, I think anyone who listens to this show will relate. So this email came in. The email is titled Addicted. Addicted. My wife calls it a midlife crisis. This all began on February 20th when my brother sent me this link regarding the advantage to learning and memory when writing versus typing. I had just convinced him to try a stylist to take notes on the iPad instead of typing. I actually purchased my first Black Wings while watching the video. I quickly began reading pencil reviews, a thing most believe does not exist, and quickly became familiar with pencils.com and blogs like Pencil Revolution. Through that blog, I learned about the Erasable podcast and began listening. My small apartment quickly began to be littered with pencils, sharpeners, and beautiful shavings. I had also purchased How to Sharpen Pencils by David Reese and was learning the craft. I abandoned pens for several weeks until in one podcast, the pencil triad mentioned you and your podcast. I was curious, but stayed the course faithfully. However, once you appeared on their podcast as a guest, I just had to listen to the pen addict. Wanting to do it properly, I began in episode one. This was around the beginning of April. I followed your journey on a much quicker path since I listened to several episodes a day at 1.5 speed. That road leads straight to jetpens.com, and I quickly found myself surrounded by high-tech seas, Sino-151s, jet streams, and the like. I loved them all and was still unworried as the purchases were still very pencil-like as far as my bank account could tell. Ah, but there you went into the fountain pen world, and now quite attached to you and Myke, I followed. Jumped forward to Platinum Preppies, Pilot Petit for the Wife, a Metropolitan, and I was hooked as well. Pens alone aren't any good course, so I then jumped into Goulet's Ink Drop and began playing with colors. This requires more paper, and by now I also had a decent stack of field notes, barren figs, and some rhodia. Add a Pilot Plumix to try italic nibs and a Noodler's Creeper for a flex option. By now my wife had become accustomed to my problem and volunteers to contribute a vanishing point on our anniversary, the blue carbon-esque model. All the while, my brother is following along my purchase path and also has his inky fingers wrapped around his own vanishing point, a limited edition copper from 2014, along with a TWSBI 580, Pilot Pereira, Lamy Safari, and some others. We're both passing around pens, pencils, and paper like sacred gifts to our confused friends and family. As of this morning, I am now caught up on the current episode, having listened to you, Myke, and guests nearly daily for two months. I've really enjoyed the hyperspeed version of your move into doing what you love as a business, and I'm eager to hear what happens next. By the way, the Hightower has been out of stock for a good while, and it's the case my brother and I both need a little help. Many thanks for your show. Maybe it's a crisis. I just turned 41. Maybe it's an addiction. But whatever it is, it's a heap of fun. I may never afford a Nakaya, but the joy I get from putting pen, ink, and paper together again like we did before digital, that is a greater return on my invested than I ever expected. Thanks to you and Myke. Ryan. How cool is that?
Myke Hurley: I love that stuff, man.
Brad Dowdy: That's like the creed of the pen addict listener. We've heard this story lots of times, but Ryan laid it out there so well I had to do it. And boy, the pace that he went in like two months, he went off the deep end. It's pretty amazing.
Brad Dowdy: Oh, man. That's, you know, I didn't quite go as far as he went in two months, but I guess we contribute to that in a good way.
Myke Hurley: I hope so.
Brad Dowdy: His wife might disagree. But I thought that was well worth sharing. I love getting those emails, so continue to send those in. And I thought he did an awesome job there. So well done, Ryan, and welcome to the podcast. You are definitely one of us.
Pen Blog
Brad Dowdy: All right. We got a pen blog of the week. We're going to go ahead and talk about this now because we got a big topic to talk about today. But the pen blog of the week is pretty big in and of itself, and it's one that I've wanted to feature for a while. And it's Fountain Pen Economics, which is peneconomics.com. And a bunch of our listeners are familiar with that and sent it in and said we need to, you know, make sure we get that added into the list. And I really enjoy – it's Dr. Jonathan Deans, I think is his name. Yes, I got that right. So Dr. Deans is an economist in Australia, and he basically – he doesn't do pen reviews, but he does, you know, his thoughts on the, basically, economy of fountain pens. You know, what retailers are doing, what individual pen makers are doing. He's doing a brand analysis on Noodler's Inc. He's done a breakdown of Goulet pens. It's really interesting reading on what he does. So you should check this out. And this is actually one of those blogs where you'd be worthwhile reading, like, every post he's ever done.
Brad Dowdy: He's only been doing – it's probably been less than a year. He's been doing maybe six or eight months. But all his older posts are really good.
Brad Dowdy: We got talking – the first time I got introduced to him was on Reddit, where there was a conversation basically about, you know, like, pen blogging and, you know, getting samples and how you manage, you know, to have an honest review when you've been provided the product for free and things like that. And I've actually talked to him about this, and we're going to get Dr. Deans on the podcast here in another month or so. When he is out of school, he's an economics teacher. So when his summer break is on – or winter break, I guess, in Australia would be – we'll get him on the show, and we'll have lots to discuss. That'll be an epic-length episode, and I'm excited about getting him on. So if you're not familiar with pen economics or fountain pen economics, definitely check it out, and it's worth putting all these posts in your reader of choice and reading them all. Have you read any of these posts previously, Myke?
Myke Hurley: Are you familiar with it? I didn't even know they existed.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. He does a really good job. You know, he – I like him because he's not afraid to call people to the carpet, which I am a fan of. And that includes myself, you know. I mean, him and I disagree on some things, but we agree on way more than we disagree on. And when you have an understanding of someone like that and you're able to have an adult conversation and still disagree, it's a good thing, you know, without – you know, there's – we're all familiar with other communities that are not, you know, really open to disagreements. You know, there's lots of my way or the highway type stuff. And, you know, we've – I'm willing to state my point and Dr. Dean is willing to state his point. And, you know, if we disagree, we both understand that we're both coming from a place where we believe in what we believe in, and that's okay. So I enjoy talking with him very much, and I've gotten to talk to him several times via email over the past year or so. So definitely check out his blog.
Myke Hurley: Awesome. Awesome.
Custom Pens
Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Well, let's hit a sponsor, Myke, because we're going to talk about custom pens today. We've had some people over the past few months wanting to know more about buying customized fountain pens or getting a fountain pen made, so we're going to delve into that a little bit.
Myke Hurley: Sounds great. This week's episode is brought to you by lynda.com, the online learning platform of over 3,000 on-demand video courses to help you strengthen your business, technology, and creative skills. For a free 10-day trial, visit lynda.com slash penaddict. That's L-Y-N-D-A dot com slash penaddict. Lynda.com is for problem solvers. It's people that are curious and who want to make things happen. Maybe you want to master Excel, learn negotiation tactics, build a website, or boost your Photoshop skills. If you head over to lynda.com, you can feed your curious mind. It can help you learn amazing stuff. Lynda.com is there. Maybe you want to learn how to bootstrap a business. Maybe you want to learn how to be a marketer. Maybe you want to learn how to create shareable content, viral marketing, that kind of thing. Maybe you're really interested in learning how to draw, how to paint, how to sketch, how to etch. Lynda.com can teach you any of this stuff. They have absolute experts who are on hand to help you out with what you need to know. They are able to give you these videos in such fantastic quality, and you can watch them at your own pace and in your own way. You can create and save playlists of the courses that you want to watch to customize your learning path. You can also share these with your friends, your colleagues, and your team members. You can browse each course video's transcript to follow along, and you can search for an answer as well and skip right to that point in the video. You can even watch and download courses to your Android or iOS device as well, so you can learn on the go. Your lynda.com membership will give you unlimited access to training on hundreds of topics, all for one flat rate. Whether you're looking to become an industry expert, you're passionate about a hobby, or you just want to learn something new, I want you to go ahead and visit lynda.com slash penaddict and sign up for your free 10-day trial. That's lynda.com slash penaddict. Thank you so much to lynda.com for supporting this show and all of RelayFM.
Brad Dowdy: All right, so this is definitely a hide your wallets episode, as the chat room has started to shout as soon as I said what we're going to talk about. So is your wallet properly taken care of, Myke? Nope. Nope. Nope. Yeah, mine's not either as I was researching this post. But basically, I wanted to talk about getting a pen maker to make a pen specifically for you. You know, not a stock item, fountain pen, not something, you know, you just order from a big manufacturer like Pilot or Sailor. You know, they do some fancy stuff and some high-end stuff, but it's not necessarily custom. It's not something that you're personally involved in picking all the parts for and having a conversation with the person who will actually physically be making your pen and things like that. So I wanted to talk about a few companies that do that. What my experiences have been with doing that, what some of the pros are, what some of the cons are, and what are, you know, some of the things you can expect as you're going through this whole process. So the first question that always comes up is, why would you do this? Why would anyone buy a custom fountain pen? I can go buy a Twisby that I'll be super happy with for $50, or I can buy a Lamy 2000 for $140, and that's all the pen I will ever need. And I can't argue with that. I mean, that's absolutely valid points. But when you develop a problem like myself and like other listeners of this podcast, and I feel that Ryan, whose email we just read, is heading down this path eventually, you just start exploring more. And you realize, okay, my Lamy Safari can do this. But what if I had a pen that was kind of like it and could do this? And is there something available on the market that can meet those criteria that fits me specifically? And, you know, you shop around. You look at all these different brands. Well, can Pelican do this exact thing that I want? No, I don't really see that. Can Pilot offer up this perfect pen that fits my hand perfectly and my style of writing perfectly? Eh, maybe not. So then you start looking into custom things. And it's really about the customization when you're getting into these pens. You're really looking for something that is going to fit not just your handwriting style and the type of writing that you like to do, be it cursive or print or italic or calligraphy or having a crazy flex nib. But it's going to fit your personality too. I mean, it's really twofold. These this type of experience. It's to fit your writing style and to fit you as a person. What's your aesthetic choices that appeal to you? You know, what's the feel in the hand that you like when you have a fountain pen? You know, is there something specific that you need done to the nib that you can never get off a stock nib and things like that? So the customization is really first and foremost in why people go the custom pen route. It also allows you as the customer to partake in the design of the pen. So that's part of the experience when you're dealing with a bunch of these companies that I'm going to talk about in a minute. You're communicating directly with the person that's going to make your pen. They can tell you based on information you give them. You could even send them a handwriting video. You can send them handwriting samples. They're able to communicate what's going to work for you. What they will able they're able to translate what you're saying in words into design.
Brad Dowdy: And. Able to collaborate with you to make something really, really great. That'll fit you well.
Brad Dowdy: And also when you're doing this, you know, you're getting a pen that's really unique to you. You know, most of these manufacturers, you know, it's not going to be the same pen churned out twice. It's going to be something that, you know, is really.
Brad Dowdy: Perfectly fit, tuned, the colors, the style, the shape, everything is really going to be fit to you. And that gives that pen a personality and a story. And that's that's what I like a lot about getting a custom pen. It's not just that. Hey, I've got this pen that's great. A great writer. I've now got a unique design that I was part of building. And it not only fits my personality, the pen has personality that when other people see it who are interested in fountain pens and are looking at these types of things, you know, they are, you know, interested in how you got it done and what's so great about it. And you have this story and this whole conversation around these pens.
Brad Dowdy: So that's kind of. In a nutshell, the pros of it. There is a downside to custom pens. Number one, and first and foremost, is the price. You're not going to get into anything where you're going to get to pick and choose the pieces, parts, design, shape, colors for probably less than $200, probably $250. It's just a fact. These are not mass manufacturers who are making these pens. It's time consuming work. The materials cost, you know, the materials cost, you know, a decent amount.
Brad Dowdy: The labor to get something very precise like this costs. And it's just not. If you're going into this thinking you can get a custom pen for $100, it's not going to happen.
Myke Hurley: And if you can find one for that price, it's probably not worth the $100.
Brad Dowdy: That's exactly right. It's it's in my experience. It's definitely been a get what you pay for thing. But there is a bit there's a baseline. You know, if. You know, if you're not. I say it's definitely over $200 really to probably get into something. Now, there's other options. You can you can get something close. And we'll talk about that. But, you know, price is definitely a drawback. So it's not for everybody as far as price go goes. One of my personal cons about custom pens are the nibs. Most of. The vendors that I've seen. Use some type of generic nib, which I'm not really a fan of, like Brian Edison, who we'll talk about first. He's first in the lineup because I have the most expensive. I mean, Brian Gray with Edison. God, I do that all the time. He uses Joe O nibs, which is actually a very popular nib line for. Other manufacturers to use in their pens like Twisby uses those pens. Those are actually I consider a very good nib. There's lots of other nibs. I just don't know enough about. And they're awfully generic looking.
Brad Dowdy: You know, you can probably talk to these vendors and get things made. Like if you have some extra nibs like I do laying around. Like if I had a sailor or a pilot nib, I could probably get something made around that nib. But that's something to consider. The nibs generally.
Brad Dowdy: Just from an aesthetic standpoint. I'm not talking about performance. I'm talking about aesthetically or generally not pleasing to me when I look at all these sites. And right there along with price as the con. Another big con for a lot of people is the time it takes. This is not a quick process. Anyone who's manufacturing custom pens probably has more than just your order to manufacture. And you're probably looking at a minimum of three months. And that's probably gracious. It's probably going to be like in the three to six months range. And then there's some vendors that are even longer than that. Even over a year. Which we're going to talk about going down. So anything I need to add there for kind of on the pros and cons, Myke? You've gone through this experience once with Edison Pen Company? Or have you done it more than once?
Customization Options
Myke Hurley: Only once. One of the things that... This isn't a con as such. But this is just a kind of warning thing. Just something to think about. Keep track of what you're spending during the process.
Myke Hurley: Because it can be quite easy to be like, I want this, this, this, and this. Would you like it this way or this way? So I'd love it this way. Great. Would you like it this way or this way? Just keep track of what you're spending. Or set a budget when you're going in. And work out what the maximum is you can go there. Or tell the person you're working with up front how much money you're going to spend. Like for my Edison, I was kind of like, I'm going to get exactly what I want. And then I'll deal with the cost at the end of it. But then when the cost come through, I was like, okay, it is expensive, but this is what I wanted to do. But I could see how if I was just making those decisions, it would have been quite easy for me to rack up a huge bill that I wasn't ready for. So I think it's just worth just keeping tabs of what you want to spend and how you want to spend it. Do a bit of research and stuff before you go into the process. Because this is manual labor. And that's why it is craftsmanship. And that's why this stuff is expensive. Because you are having something crafted for you. This is not being spat out of a machine on a production line. So these things, because the more work you have done to them, the more time they take. And the more time they take, the more expensive they are. That is just the way these things work. So you just have to bear that in mind.
Brad Dowdy: Yep. I think a good way to talk about the pricing, it's essentially a la carte pricing. Right? There's a baseline. And then pretty much all add-ons are extra. So we're going to talk about pricing on various different pens here coming up in a minute. But if you think of it that way, well, let's dig into it. And let's start with Edison. Because that's who I'm the most familiar with. I don't want to say they're the biggest because I don't have any information to back it up. But they're very popular. They have a huge lineup of production line pens, which are your standard pens. You can get them in fixed colors. Say four or five different acrylics. And fixed sizes. And they're sold by several different vendors all around the world. And there's maybe four or five models in that production line. So that's Brian's retail business. But where he really does his best work, in my opinion, is in the Signature Line series. Which that's when you're getting into everything's custom. I mean, he messes around and has some Signature Line pens for sale. That where he's just made, you know, one-off stuff on his own. But they run you the same price as if you email Brian and say, Hey, I want an Edison Menlo. And, you know, not the green one that you have up on the site. I want to customize it. And I want to use, you know, these acrylics. You know, this nib. These colors. You know, you can mix and match the colors within the barrel. Which is something I did. We'll talk about this review I did in a minute. But basically, someone like Brian, and this goes for all these other companies. You go to one of their sites. They have a general pen design lineup. Basically the barrel shape, okay? So you find a shape of pen that you like. And then you go over to their, I'll just say acrylics for, there's several different, you know, there's ebonite. There's all kinds of different materials you can make these pens out. But when I say acrylic, just assume it's the different materials that you can have a pen manufactured from. And then there's different, you know, add-ons. Whether you want a steel nib or a gold nib. Do you want any kind of special nib modification done? Things like that. So all of these sites that I'm going to be talking about are kind of set up similarly. You pick out your style of pen. You pick out your colors. And you can have a conversation back and forth with everybody. Which is what I've done with Brian in the past. You say, you know, this is the material I'm looking at. And this is the pen style I'm looking at. And can we do something a little different on this end piece? Because it could be a different color. And how about on the cap? It could be a different color. And we can do all these tweaks. And, you know, Brian's generally like, yeah, we can absolutely do that. And he will tell you if you can. Yeah. So I've had two pens from Brian. One that I designed myself. And one that was a gift for me. And that's the pen I reviewed today on the Pen Enix blog. Which is my Edison Menlo pump filler. If you go look at that pen. You can see that it's a pen that's made for me specifically. Right? You're not going to find this pen for sale by Brian ever. You know? Because no one's as dumb as me to get a red and blue demonstrator pen barrel together. I love it though. Oh my god. I love this pen so much. It has personality. And it fits my personality. It's just a cool looking pen. But the way it was built. I was talking to Brian about getting my first Edison custom pen. And I was saying, well, what if I did this barrel and these colors? And I had this whole email chain from him. And I never decided on a pen. Well, Jeff, my partner at NOC, wanted to do something for me. So he emailed Brian. And Brian's like, look, I've got all this stuff from Brad. I know what he likes. Let's make him a pen. And so they did. And Jeff got that for me. But it's basically, he went back and forth with Jeff on the colors. Where to put the colors. Make the barrel blue. Make the cap red. Make the section clear. Things like that. Those are the kind of things you can do when you're making a custom pen. You can really do some weird stuff, which I'm all about doing weird stuff. So Brian's real easy to work with. You share these emails back and forth. They want to do it right for you, right? It's not like a one and done, you know, tell me what you want and I'll make the pen and you'll get it whenever. It's a really great communication process I've had with Brian and anyone else I've purchased pens from. For example, the next person I want to talk about is Sean Newton.
Brad Dowdy: The only Sean Newton pen I have is a nib holder he did for me, which several of these companies do that. You know, they make these nib holders that fit loose nibs. Like I have an Esther Brook nib. Thomas Hall and Sean collaborated to make me a nib holder. Well, I've seen some of Sean's other work, including the Shinobi, which is a really uniquely designed pen. And I was like, okay, I want one of these. So I did this one from scratch, just communicating with Sean. Sean, I emailed Sean. It's like, hey, it's time. I'm ready to order my first Shinobi. What do you need from me? You know, that's how you start off the email. You know, have a great, you know, just a little introduction. Hey, this is what I'm thinking. Tell me what you need from me. And so Sean replies back. He says, all right, go to this link. Pick out your acrylics. And you can do this with your acrylics. You know, you can, you know, you can do the barrel one color. You can do the section another color. You can do whatever you want to do. Pick those out. Tell me what you want. And I'll let you know, you know, what I think, you know, of your results. So I emailed him back. And I'm getting like a smoke gray translucent barrel and a orange translucent section, which the way the Shinobi's designed, it's going to have like a line across the middle. So it's, it's, I'm excited that it's going to look pretty sweet. I haven't seen it yet. But to kind of put an idea in your head how long these types of things takes, I think I ordered that in February from Sean. Paid for it. Got the design right up front. And we solidified it. He sent me a purchase order and I should get it in June. So that's like five months.
Myke Hurley: Yep.
Brad Dowdy: That's normal. That is completely normal, especially for Sean. Sean's in a transition, right? He's leaving his teaching job to make pens full time. So I wonder, you know, in the future, maybe it's quicker, but you can just assume it's going to be close to six months when you're getting into this.
Brad Dowdy: And doing this. And I'm going to back up a little bit. And I'll roll Sean and Newton pens and Edison pen in together. The price, kind of what you were talking about. Like the Menlo that I got that Jeff bought for me was $350. And I think my Shinobi, I didn't pull up the invoice, but it's right around that price too. $330, $350 range. Those are... The Menlo is a little more expensive because it has this pump filling system that took a lot of... It's a lot of engineering going into that pen. But these are not cheap pens. I mean, it's not something you go into without a lot of thought into it. Because you're going to spend a good amount of money on making any of these pens. And this is going to be the case on a lot of these manufacturers. It's just something you should know going into it. And I'm really excited about this Shinobi and getting it in. And maybe when I get it and review it, I'll talk more about the ordering process on how I did it. That might be useful. Because that's the first one I've kind of walked through all the steps with someone to make a pen for me. So those are the two that I've had direct experience with and having pens. But I wanted... I didn't want to leave out... Well, I'm sure I'm going to leave somebody out. But I wanted to talk about a lot of other manufacturers that are doing awesome custom work. And I see all these things on Instagram. All these other examples of people doing great pens. Doing great designs. Using beautiful acrylics. Doing awesome work. So I want to shine the spotlight on a handful of other vendors that I haven't used but I hope to use in the future. But first, Myke, let's do our second awesome friend of the show that I'm dying to talk about. And then we'll get into some of these other vendors.
Sponsor Announcement
Myke Hurley: We have a new sponsor this week. And that is Dunn Paper. Grid and Lines. Stationary goods and accessories. I think maybe from like episode one of the Pen Addict, we've been talking about Dunn Paper products. And, you know, I'm going to hand over the mic to Brad in a minute so he can just talk forever about Dunn Paper. But it's because Chad makes amazing stuff. Chad Dunn makes fantastic stuff that we both use every single day. He has an absolutely fantastic sense of design. Like all of Dunn Paper's products look great. And I say like Dunn Paper. That's the name of the company. I don't know like a ton of other stuff, which I'm going to get to in a minute. But like the design across everything is so well thought out. And it's really nice. It's all super useful stuff. It's all really well made stuff. Father's Day is just around the corner. And Dunn Paper is a fantastic place to start if you're looking for a gift for the Pen Addict in your life. Or if you just want a great gift for yourself. Or maybe, you know, you've got any reason to buy a gift. Whether it's for you or someone, Dunn Paper is a great way to go. But Father's Day is a perfect time. Products like the Topo and DP bag. All of the Winter Session and DP Leather goods. And the Dunn Paper six-color utility notebook pack. The six-color utility notebook pack. They are all fantastic gift ideas. I have used and own a couple of Dunn Paper stuff. I mean, I've used the notebooks and stuff and they're great. But my real love for Dunn Paper products are in the bags and stuff that they make and collaborate on. I have one of the pen holders, the Winter Session and DP Leather good pen holders. It's like a three-pen holder. It's like a brown leather with blue stitching, which is just stunning. But for me, you know, the Topo briefcase. Topo mounting briefcase. I love this bag so much. It's one of the best purchases I've ever made. Like, just flat out. Like, I've never had a bag this good. I was saying this to Brad recently. I am able to get more stuff in that briefcase than I could get in my North Face backpack. I don't know how it's possible, but I somehow managed to do it. I think everything just fits really nicely in there and it stays in place. Get my laptop in there. Like, I'm going to America on Friday for 10 days. That is the bag that I'll be taking on my back. That's where all my important stuff goes. That's where all my carry-on, all of the things that I really care about will be going in that bag. I can put it on my back. I can carry it in my hand. I can put it over my shoulder. I love it. I love the way it looks. Like, the color and the blue. I just love it. Absolutely love it. Now, Brad, tell us about Dome Paper Products.
Brad Dowdy: So, I've known Chad for a long time in internet years. Probably right after I started the blog, I found Dome Paper. And it became part of me and part of the blog right in the early phases because I'm a huge grid person. And then when I saw his grid plus lines design on the paper, you know, it was one of those head exploding type of things. I was like, this is absolutely perfect for me. I've never met anyone. And I say met. I talk to Chad online all the time. I've talked to him on the phone plenty of times. I've never met him in person. I've never met anyone whose design aesthetic matched more perfectly with mine. The things he is into outside of Dome Paper, the things he designs for Dome Paper, every one of these items is, like, straight out of my brain. I was like, this is exactly perfect. My favorite all-time Dome Paper item is the large idea journal. It is, I'm not a, what do you call the people that, you know, like, for the zombie apocalypse, you know, like, the people that, like, stalk their.
Myke Hurley: It's not hoarders. It's not a hoarder. It's like a specific. Is it? Oh, it's something like.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so if I was stashing away, like, a doomsday prepper, a prepper. Yeah, yeah. If I was a prepper and had to have a notebook, it would be this large idea journal. This is an awesome notebook. It's one of my favorites. The chipboard cover is so thick and durable. The paper is awesome. I absolutely love this notebook. Just when I pick it up and, like, if I'm carrying it across the house from one place to the other or I use these a lot at my office at work, you know, if I'm just moving it around, I just, I love just, like, holding it. And when I pick it up, I'm like, oh, this is great. This is a really nice notebook. I just love it. And I'm pretty much a dome paper fanboy. I buy everything that Chad does. I also have the Topo Mountain backpack in the first version, which is the brown version. And it was funny when we were at the Atlanta Penn Show. How many of those do you think we saw there? Like, five?
Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah, they were everywhere.
Brad Dowdy: It's that good of a bag. It is a legit good bag. Like, I find different bags to carry. I'm kind of a bag junkie, so I find different ones to carry to work. And I'll buy other bags since I've had this dome paper bag. And they don't last more than a day or two before I switch back to this bag. It's that good. And, you know, I've got so much stuff. I even bought the dome paper Ebbetsfield flannel hat. I wear that in the winter. Keeps my noggin warm. And I'm just a huge fan of Chad. He's a legitimately good guy. He does great work. So if you're not familiar with dome paper, check it out. If you are familiar with dome paper, check it out and see all the new goods that Chad has. And thank you, Chad, for supporting the podcast. We really appreciate it.
Myke Hurley: Yep. But there is a little bit more. So you've heard us talk about these guys, right? Which is fantastic. But, you know, we say this. These are the exact type of people that we love at the pen addict. So you should go and support him. But to give you even more of a reason, if you go to domepaper.com, that's D-O-A-N-E-P-A-P-E-R.com to take a look. If you use the code pen addict, you can get 15% off anything in the store. So go check that out. Wow. 15% off with the code pen addict. Thank you so much to dome paper for supporting this show and helping us out. The pen addict from Relay FM.
Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Thank you, Chad.
Brad Dowdy: All right. So Edison and Newton are companies I have a familiarity with just from talking with them, purchasing from them, and things of that nature. But there's others that I follow online, be it through Instagram, their blogs, other people sharing their work, that I want to share because they're probably going to be in line next for me to order. Ken Cavers is one I've heard about a lot. And the pictures I see of his pens, and I'm not even sure where most of these people get their acrylics, but all the acrylics that people like Ken and some of the others I'm going to mention here, it's just so pretty. It's like hard. Like he just posted one on May 28th, this Cosmos cigar fountain pen. It's just I've never seen anything like it. And that's what you're going to get from custom fountain pens. You know, someone like Ken, he's putting these up. He's showing the work he's doing for other people. He's not putting this up because this pen's for sale. This is one he made from someone, so he's showing his work. The swirl I've seen on this is just mind-boggling. And, you know, Ken's set up the same way that everyone else is. You know, you pick the acrylic. You know, you pick the shape, things like that. But like a lot of the people I'm going to talk about now, they don't do this as a full-time job. So Ken's backlog is like a year and a half. He's shut down new orders. He's got so many orders. His wait list has gotten so long. His wait time is now a year and a half, and he's not taking new orders. But he's constantly pumping out pens, so you should always pay attention. And if that's something you are interested in, his work, you know, keep an eye on what he's doing. Because I'm seeing some pens in here that I've never seen anything like before. And, you know, that's some of the difference that separates a lot of these people. So, you know, a lot of the designs are similar, but they all have some kind of similar, some kind of different shapes and designs that they're kind of known for or that's their best work. And you can kind of tell by the results from what people are ordering. So, you know, check out what Ken's doing. Another one that's really a long line with Ken is Renee at Scriptorium Pens. Her work is awesome. She's super active on Instagram, by the way. I see her stuff in Instagram constantly, and it's always so cool. It's always showing her, like, turning pins and doing things like that. She just has a really, really wide range of designs. She does dip nib holders, which, you know, I talked about with Sean. He did a specific nib holder where I could screw in an Estabrook nib.
Brad Dowdy: What Scriptorium does is gives you, like, the dip nib holders. Like, if you see, like, the art nibs, right, that you buy, like, 12 packs of nibs and things like that. It's just really, really cool stuff.
Brad Dowdy: I actually got in a conversation with her on Twitter yesterday because someone mentioned that Scriptorium is about four weeks out. What they meant to say was four months out. So you'll see this is a common theme if you're getting into custom pens. You're looking at four to five, six months, sometimes even more. And Renee even put up, after our conversation, she said, I went and put up a wait time thing on my, on my, on her homepage. And she sure did because it wasn't, it wasn't clear up front. So she has a current wait time on her front page now after our conversation. So that was cool. But it's just beautiful work. And I'm really impressed, you know, at everyone doing this, you know, as a business and, and turning these pens and sharing them with all of us. Now, the Carolina Pen Company, Myke, that's a new one. And we actually met Jonathan and his wife at the Waffle House at the Atlanta Pen Show. And we were looking at his pen folder at the Waffle House and checking out some of his pens. Do you remember that? Yeah.
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Like Matthew Morse and his wife, they were there to meet them. And Matthew introduced us to him. And we were actually walking out when they had come in. And we looked at the, the whole lineup of, of Jonathan's pens. And I was not familiar with him before the pen show. Matthew told me that he was coming and showed me his work. I really like the designs that he does. And I like the fact, I, I'm a big fan, obviously with Nock, we, you know, name our, our designs, you know, regionally. And he has a lot of, you know, local names and Carolina type names for all of his pens. And I like that a lot. So, um, I'm not sure. The only thing I couldn't find with the Carolina Pen was the timeframe on that. So, um, you'll have to, you know, if you're interested in what Jonathan's doing. And I think you can probably check out Hey Matthew's blog. I think he's probably, um, he's done a, um, a review or two of them. I'm not sure. I'll, I'll see if I can find the link for the show notes, Myke, for you. But, um, it's some, some really nice work. Really nice guy. And, um, it's some really cool looking pens. Now for all of our UK listeners, Myke, this is something you need to look into. I got like, I got the most, well, I asked for what custom, I got all these custom pen vendors I'm putting together for the show. Who am I missing? And twist pens like filled up my feed. Um, I was familiar with them, but I couldn't remember the name of them to save my life. But, um, all of our, uh, UK listeners chimed in with twist pens. And I know, um, like Ian Headley and Stuart Haisley and, and a lot of the, uh, other, uh, pin bloggers that are in the UK have purchased, um, twist pens and they rave about them. They talk about them as their favorite pin. Um, I think, uh, is it John? I think it's John twists who, who makes the pens. I think it's his full-time job. He's retired and he just makes pens now and you can do all your custom orders through him. The ones I've seen from Stuart and Ian that they reviewed are beautiful. Um, if you go through, um, the twist pens website, you can see, um, you know, everything he offers, he offers, and a lot of these do, a lot of the other ones do, they offer roller balls, ballpoints. He does pencils. And I noticed he does wedding pens over there in the UK. So you can sign your register, right? And, and pass down this heirloom, uh, registry signing pen. So, um, if you're, uh, UK based, definitely check out twist pens. I haven't heard anything about twist pens except raves. So I, I've never used one, but I've never heard anything short of just complete raving, um, on the pen. Now this, these next, these last two are really, really different from the mainstream. And the first one is from Silverhand Studios. And I know Chris, uh, follows us on Twitter and listens to the podcast. So, hey, Chris. And, uh, he chimed up when I was looking at, uh, custom pen makers, uh, yesterday on, um, on Twitter. And what he does is more from a jewelry based aesthetic. He will work and make just a fully custom pen for you with rare metals, you know, silver, gold. You know, it's a really, uh, very artwork style of pen. Um, if he does make like a stock pen to sell, he'll make 10 of them, right? Like it's the maximum of 10 from what I was reading on, on all of his blogs. But most of his orders are strictly custom. Like you'll never see it again. Um, you know, and he just, you know, he's got a whole list of materials that he uses. And it's some really pretty stuff. And if you're looking for something like that, Chris seems to be the go-to person for that. Um, you know, it's, it's really kind of a knockout the way all the, he, he handles this work. So it's, it's pretty cool. And the last one is one that took me a while to remember the name, but I'd read about him a couple years ago. And I don't know if I'm pronouncing this right, but it's Hakase. Um, it's a Japanese manufacturer. And I first ran across them on Fountain Pen Network when people were, I was, there's a Japanese sub thread, which of course is my favorite sub genre of pens that people were waiting like a year or two for their Hakase pens. I'm like, what are y'all insane? But it's this wood, it's these wood turned pens out of these rare Japanese woods. They're super expensive. They take a year or one to two years is their waiting list. The prices are, you know, upwards of $2,000. I mean, I think you can get into them for like about $500. Um, they're really beautiful. I've never been like a wood pen guy. And so I would probably never order something like this, but I know, you know, this is a, a lot of this is a, it's a grail pen type of thing for people who are really into Japanese pens. I think they might have like a small store somewhere in Japan where you can actually buy things or you can at least walk in and place your order to arrive, you know, in two years type of thing. Um, it's, it's pretty intense. Um, what, what they do and you, I can't quite translate, um, all their things on the blog, but, um, it's really pretty to look at. You know, I love that kind of stuff. So, and, uh, it's, it's, you go to that site and we'll have that link in the show notes. It's stuff you've never seen before in your life. I certainly haven't. It's a really, really wild, um, wooden pen. So, you know, I, that's kind of my, my primer on custom pens. I hope I did it justice. You know, I, it's a commitment to get a custom pen, not just monetarily, but from a timeframe and a personalization thing. Um, it's kind of a big deal. So, you know, if anyone has questions about it, I'm open to discussing anything about the process, how it all works. Um, you know, any, anything you want to know about getting a custom pen made and I'm going to work my way over the years. It's not a quick thing. I'm going to start, I'm going to try to get something from everybody that I can. That's at least, you know, four to six months out just so I can talk about them better and, and have a, um, you know, so I can answer questions about the experience and the quality and things like that. So that's something I can work on. I've got, I've got two down, Myke. So I'll have to start checking some other ones off the list. How about you? How many are you going to order now?
Myke Hurley: Oh, hundreds.
Brad Dowdy: I don't, I don't. You're going to get a Hakasi, aren't you?
Myke Hurley: No, I don't even, I looked at the website. I don't understand what's happening.
Shinobi Pens
Myke Hurley: I'm interested to see how your new, your Shinobi comes out. I am too. Cause I've seen some of those and they are stunning. And the design that you explained just sounds so beautiful. So I'm, I'm going to see how that isn't that if I was going to make a purchase like this again, then that would maybe be the route that I would look towards. But this is, this is crazy expensive, this kind of stuff. And I really, I, my, my feeling on this is like, and I do, this is, I do some of my beliefs. Have a reason.
Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah. Don't go into this blindly. Have a reason. You know, let me, let me say this. It's a weird place to be. I'm getting all meta on you now, Myke, because I will just, I could have the same exact show we just did on $3 gel ink pens. That's how much I love all pens, you know, and there's a time and a place for everything. And this is not something you want to go into blindly. I've had a lot of people asking about it. So it's definitely a topic I want to cover. But, you know, next week I could do an hour on $3 pens and be just as crazy passionate about it as I am about these kinds of things. Because the way, you know, just certain things fit certain people and certain types of writing and certain things you're trying to accomplish and certain feels you want to have. And, you know, it's, it's, you, you made a good point. You, you want to go in, you don't want to go into this blindly when you're getting a custom pen. So I don't want to spend people's money frivolously. But, yeah, it's, it's really good stuff if that's something you're interested in. And, yeah, I think that's it.
Myke Hurley: Cool.
Pen Collecting
Brad Dowdy: Cool.
Myke Hurley: Does that bring us to the end today?
Brad Dowdy: I think, I think that's a wrap today.
Myke Hurley: Thank you for doing all the work that you've done.
Brad Dowdy: Oh, sure. This is scratching the surface. I mean, you know, we could get into even more nuts and bolts, but there's probably no real use for that on the podcast. But it's just kind of an open forum now to ask me questions on these things. And I'm happy to help anyone out who's considering, you know, working with any of these companies or any companies I didn't mention and how to get a custom pen made.
Myke Hurley: I've been collecting up the companies that Brad's been talking about and putting them in the show notes for this week, which you can find at relay.fm slash penaddict slash 157. There also should be in your podcast app as well. But you can go there. You'll find them there. Don't forget, if you want to get in contact with us, a great way to do that is to use the hashtag Ask TPA. I've been checking it whilst the show's been going on. I've been having the chat room test it out for us. And it looks like everything's working there. So we can take in your feedback and follow up and questions that way. So we'd love that if you get involved. But you can always tweet to us as well. Brad is at Dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M. And I am iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. And don't forget to, as always, check out penaddict.com and knock.co. Thanks again to our sponsors this week, Lynda.com and Durn Paper. And we'll be back next time. Say goodbye, Brad.
Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad.