The Pen Addict 76/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	76
Title:	It Has Two Nibs
Release Date:	October 15th, 2013
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 76
Audio File:	Audio Episode 76
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 76
Length:	5656 min <br />0.933 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 76 of The Pen Addict podcast, a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper, and the analogue tools that we love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by a man who doesn't wear a belt, he wears a belly band. It's Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: That is so terrible, it's hilarious. And hopefully, you know, Field Notes fans are listening to understand what that reference is to, and you're not going, what's Myke talking about?

Myke Hurley: I don't think anybody ever knows really what I'm talking about.

Pen Loop

Brad Dowdy: That's true, that's true. I'll give you that. So, how are you, sir?

Myke Hurley: I'm very well, mate. How are you?

Brad Dowdy: Good, good. Hanging in there, fresh off a little extended long weekend vacation, so I've been out of the pen loop for a few days. It's always challenging coming back and, you know, writing a blog post and getting back, answering emails, following up on tweets, and putting together a podcast episode. It's challenging sometimes, but I'm refreshed and ready to go.

Myke Hurley: Excellent. Good.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, sorry. I just hit the mic. So excited you punched the microphone. Yes. Goodness gracious. So, yeah. I'm back, better than ever. And, you know, watched the NotCo pen case Kickstarter project continue to slowly ramp up, which is going great. It's almost $60,000. I was hoping to be at $60,000 by the time we recorded the podcast today, but maybe by the time people are listening to the podcast, we will have ticked over to $60,000 from $59,672. Incredible.

Myke Hurley: So, incredible.

Brad Dowdy: It is incredible. It is incredible. And it's really exciting. And just like, you know, pretty much like I talked about last week, you know, Jeffrey and I went through like panic mode like the first few days when it was just going gangbusters going, oh, my goodness. But, you know, once you can get past that initial little shock and kind of step back, realize that, hey, you actually planned for this in the beginning. It's not unexpected and you can handle this. It's all good. So, it's been all good from there. So, and we talked a little bit about it last week and I alluded to the fact that we're going to start, you know, pre-ordering some machinery, pre-ordering some fabric and everything to start manufacturing early. And I said I would give an update on that once everything started coming in. And it has started coming in. So, we got one of our main pieces of equipment is this Bartak sewing machine. And I'll put a link to the picture of it in the show notes. That just came in today, I think, either yesterday or today. And it's a really big gold Singer machine.

Brad Dowdy: It's kind of huge. I didn't know what to expect. And what it does, it's going to allow for us to really tighten up the seams and the pockets and the pin slots. So, it's really, really nice.

Brad Dowdy: Basically, it's going to finish the cases really nice. That was something we had to have for this project and something we were counting on. So, we have already got that in. And we hope to have fabric and all the other pieces, fabric binding, padding, zippers, all that stuff should be trickling in through the rest of the week. So, I'm going to do a project update today or tomorrow on the Kickstarter project for those people who don't happen to listen to the podcast with these updates. I've got a picture of the machine and things like that. So, we're ramping up, getting ready to roll.

Myke Hurley: That is amazing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's exciting times. Exciting times. So, 14 more days. It seems like it's been going on for like six months at this point. And it's only been two weeks. So, two more weeks to go. And we're hopefully, we should be manufacturing before the project actually closes. So, that'll be good.

Myke Hurley: That's probably needed.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I think so. So, but yeah. It's going great. Had some continued good feedback. And everything's looking good. So, I am happy, happy about that. So, that's great. One other follow-up topic I had was about this fountain pen that we talked about on a previous episode of the podcast. And I can't come up with the previous episode number for the life of me. It was just kind of a side mention where you and I, I mentioned it to you saying, hey, check out this cool-looking fountain pen that just came out. It's this company called Franklin Kristoff. And they made, I was familiar with the brand. I'd seen them at the Atlanta Pen Show. But they didn't have this particular model. It's called the Model 40 Pocket. And they've had that style for a while. But they came out with a new model, a new acrylic model that's called Smoke and Ice. And it's a pocketable fountain pen. So, it's kind of short. Think of it like a Kaweco Classic or Kaweco Classic or AL Sport. How did I do?

Myke Hurley: Well done.

Brad Dowdy: And so, it's, you know, it's that smaller pen. But it's got this, I don't even know how to explain the looks of it. It's just a really cool-looking acrylic pen. And I'd said a few months ago when we talked about it that I was absolutely ordering this pen when I got the opportunity and the money. And I did have both. So, I went and ordered it yesterday. And I actually just got the shipping notification a little bit before the podcast. So, I hope to have it. They're only one state away from me in North Carolina. So, hopefully, I should have it by the end of the week. And maybe I can talk about it a little bit next week. But it just really, the design really caught my eye.

Myke Hurley: Boy, oh boy, oh boy.

Brad Dowdy: It's nothing like I had seen before. Are you looking at it now?

Myke Hurley: Uh-huh.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, it's the one called Smoke and Ice. There's, I don't know, there's probably eight different colors you can get it in. There's a Fire and Ice. And those are the, it's hard to explain. It's kind of got the clear acrylic with like a ice interior. I don't know. It's going to be pretty cool looking. It's like frosted glass. Yeah. There you go. Like frosted glass. That's a good way to put it. And one of the cool features that Franklin Kristoff as a company provides is my buddy Myke Masuyama, who I always praise every chance I get. They actually have stock nibs that he has already done for them. So, he does their needlepoint nibs, which are like extra, extra fine. And then he does their cursive italic and stub nibs for their pens. So, that's actually a purchasing option when you go to buy one of these pens. You can buy like the stock steel, you know, extra fine, fine, medium, broad, et cetera, et cetera. Or you can buy the steel needlepoint or any of the stubs that Myke Masuyama has ground himself. And so, I got the Masuyama medium cursive italic in steel.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. So. That was, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: What was that, Myke?

Myke Hurley: Oh, dear. Are we still recording this podcast? I just had a moment. Brad, I think I might want this. Free worldwide shipping.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, totally. I actually didn't notice that when I ordered it. And I went through the PayPal screen and the shipping didn't come on. So, I was like, oh, maybe this has free shipping even better. So, yeah. The total price of the combination that I got was $134.50.

TWSBI

Brad Dowdy: That's the base price is $119.50. So, for another $15, I got this. I got a Masuyama nib, which is probably $30 or $40 if you're just sending your nib off to him to get worked on at least. So, that's a pretty good value.

Myke Hurley: I like the fire and ice.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It was a choice between those two. Okay.

Myke Hurley: Well, depending on what you think, might be an expensive week for me next week.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm actually anxious to get it. And I put a – we'll have this in the show notes. Medium stuff. One of our listeners, I think it's Peter. Is his name Peter? Yeah, Peter. I won't even attempt to pronounce his Instagram name. I can't go there. No. Peter has this exact – he actually has the exact – he put up a post on Instagram yesterday. And I started talking to him about it. I was like, oh, I've been meaning to order this pen. I think tonight might be the night. And it turns out he's got the exact same one that I ordered. Oh, my God. But when you put the ink in it. So, yeah. Let me tell you about this. So, the way this pen is designed, you can have – there's two ways to put ink into it. One, it takes two short international cartridges. Excuse me.

Myke Hurley: How?

Brad Dowdy: It takes short – yeah. Whoa. That would be pretty cool. It takes short international cartridges. It has two nibs. Yeah. It has two nibs. Hey, there is a pen coming like that. I'll have to send you that link. What?

Brad Dowdy: Anyway, you've got me sidetracked now. It takes short international ink cartridges. So, it's a cartridge filler. There's no converter that fits it. Or what Peter did is it is converted into an eyedropper fill. Which, if you look at this picture, that's what Peter's showing off here. So, even from the manufacturer and on the manufacturer page, they say this is an approved way to carry this pen. So, what you do is you just put like silicone grease on the threads and you just dump ink into the barrel basically. It's just like a wide open full vessel of ink. So, that's pretty crazy looking. I told Peter, I said, I don't know if I have the stones to pull that off right when I get the pen. Yeah, I don't do that. Because he carries it in his pocket like that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I don't like the idea of that. That's upset me now because I thought that that was how you filled it. Because I was thinking how awesome it would be to get the fire and ice and put the orange Roshisuku in there.

Brad Dowdy: But there's no reason not to do it. I mean, it's a completely approved method of filling.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but when you say something like get some silicone grease.

Brad Dowdy: I'm like... I'd say, yeah. It's a normal thing though. I know, but at that point... For eyedropper conversions.

Myke Hurley: Sure, sure. But at that point, I'm a bit hesitant, you see, to do something like that.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. I'm with you. That's actually what I said. I said, I don't know if I could pull that off and carry it around in my pocket. So, I'd be pretty nervous. I imagine I'm going to start with the ink cartridges first. And then I may switch over to this once I've had it a little while. This would be actually my first eyedropper fill pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, I got to... I am sure I will try this out and we'll report on that. But I don't think it's going to be like the day I get it or anything. I think I'm going straight to the ink cartridges at first. So, that's the plan. But I thought you would like that picture that Peter had with the ink floating around. And I don't know. It looks great. It looks really, really good.

Myke Hurley: It's cute. That's what it is.

Brad Dowdy: Hmm?

Myke Hurley: It's a real beauty.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it is. It came out stunning. So, I'm... This is one of those pens. As good as it looks in pictures, it may even look better in person. So, I'm anxious to get it because I haven't actually physically held one. But anyway, it should be here this week. And hopefully, I can talk about it next week a little bit more. So, that will be good. And I think that is all the follow-up I got. I did notice... I did notice last week after I posted or after we talked on the podcast about your trip to the London Pen Show, I saw at least two other people post that they had gone to the London Pen Show as well. So, you missed that. You were in and out so fast. You missed that meetup opportunity.

Myke Hurley: I know. A couple of people contacted me afterwards. I felt really bad. My day kind of got away with me. I didn't have as much time as I thought I was going to have.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I was actually surprised when you... The first time you texted me, I looked at my watch and I was like, it's kind of late for you to be heading that way. Yeah. But yeah, that's cool. I'm still glad you got to go. So, some other people were there and they had nothing but good things to say. And I saw some good images of the show and that... Yeah, what you were describing looks exactly like how the Atlanta Pen Show would look or some of the other shows here in the US would look.

Myke Hurley: You see, I also hadn't considered to check to see if all of the tubes were running. Sometimes they do works on the weekend. It took me twice as long to get there than I expected. One route was shut down or something. Yeah, it was 90 minutes instead of 45. Oh, gosh. Yeah, that's terrible. So, that threw another spanner in the works, as it were.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep.

Squarespace Commerce

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, we have a pretty good topic today that I've been meaning to get to for a while. So, do you want to take care of our sponsor friends first? And then we'll get into the topic of the day?

Myke Hurley: I think that sounds excellent. So, this episode is, of course, brought to you by the fine folks over at Squarespace, who give you the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio. For a free trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com and use the offer code Tallyho10. Now, Brad, any listener to the show is going to have heard all the amazing stuff that I've said. You know, the beautiful template designs that Squarespace have, the 24-7 customer support, basically everything that you need to create your own website. But I want to talk about commerce today. All right. So, this is Squarespace's commerce platform, which is what allows you to sell physical and digital goods right from within any Squarespace site. Squarespace commerce is now available in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain. So, they've really been growing the Squarespace e-commerce system. And as I said, it can be integrated into any existing or new Squarespace site. It works seamlessly with all of their template designs. You can sell any type of product using a single interface, for example, digital goods, and they are delivered via customized email links that expire 24 hours from delivery. They have a fantastic order management interface that lets you easily track outstanding orders, resend customer update emails, and print packing slips all within one interface. It works perfectly with the Squarespace developer platform. So, developers can create custom stores of a totally unique design, if that's what you want. And you have all of the excellent PCI, SSL compliant, and all that sort of stuff. That's all built in. So, you don't have to worry about any of that. And you can just build on top of this incredible compliant platform that allows you to take credit cards and sell and have great inventory management and stuff like that. They have 30-second merchant sign-up for Stripe. You get instant approval. It does not require any paperwork. And you can begin receiving money for purchases via direct deposit in just moments. They have a donation system. So, you can set preset or unbounded amounts via their donations block, which you can just drag and drop right into the page. And it's all managed on a separate page from regular orders and purchases in your site manager. So, you can keep all that sort of stuff separate. You can have your customers sign up for mailing lists. You can export all your data in a CSV format for accounting and spreadsheets. You can move your existing Shopify or big cartel inventory over to Squarespace with just a few clicks. You can have store managers that you can designate. You can customize customer emails, order emails, and stuff like that. It's incredible.

Myke Hurley: Squarespace don't charge anything additional on your transaction fees. Stripe charge 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful transaction. Squarespace don't put anything additional on that. You just pay for the Squarespace commerce plan, their business plan that they have, which I think is $20 a month.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I was just thinking that while you were saying that. It's in the 20s. It might be 24. I'd have to look.

Myke Hurley: Could you check that for me, Brad? I will. While I just finished this spot because I don't want to give incorrect information to people. Yep. So, you can find out more by going to squarespace.com. You can also sign up for a free trial there so you can understand exactly what goes into creating your own Squarespace site. You can see how amazing it is for you. And when you sign up, make sure you use the offer code Tallyho10. That's going to get you 10% off any of your purchases over at squarespace.com. And Brad, how much is the business plan?

Brad Dowdy: It's $24 a month with a yearly purchase. $30 a month if you go month to month.

Myke Hurley: So, if you buy the yearly purchase, which is the $24 a month, you're going to get 10% off the entire year, which I think is probably the way to go.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's what we did.

Myke Hurley: So, all of this commerce stuff, Brad, all those amazing things that I've just listed, is that why you're going with it for Nock?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, without a question. And, you know, it's not live, obviously, yet. And it's going to be a few months before it is. But we've already set up a bunch of stuff on the back end. And it's just, we just keep commenting on how easy it is to use. And we haven't found, there hasn't been anything that we've needed that wasn't available for us to use on the commerce side. You know, from, you know, just setting up the products, all the product descriptions, all the inventory, doing everything like that. So, it's been super simple so far. So, we're actually already chomping at the bit to get that store turned up. But it's going to be early next year once we get Kickstarter done before we do so.

Myke Hurley: So, I know we said a lot today, but Squarespace Commerce is incredible. And you should go check it out. Definitely. So, thanks so much to Squarespace for sponsoring Tallyho 10. Get your 10% off.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, speaking of Squarespace, they allow me to make these extra pages on my blog with ease. And that was kind of the impetus behind creating a permanent home for my top five pens list. And that list was updated today. Or actually last night during the middle of the night. But I digress.

Brad Dowdy: I've done a fall update. I guess my last update was in July. And that was just some minor changes. I didn't really re-rank or add. I think I added a couple things to the list. But there were a couple things I wanted to do this time around. And one of them, well, most of it revolved around how to rank my favorite fountain pens. And that's proven to be more of a challenge than I thought it would be. Because I can have like a list of what my favorite fountain pens are. But it's not as useful to the readers as say what a list of my favorite gel pens are. Or ballpoint pens are. And that's because there's so many variables that can happen or are available for fountain pens. From things as simple as nib sizes to things as crazy as like ordering directly from Japan. And having these really just crazy things going on that not necessarily everyone is familiar with. So as I've gotten deeper into fountain pens, I've kind of gone from, okay, I've enjoyed these basic things. So now let me step it up a notch and try out some more exotic things, if you will.

Fountain Pen Lists

Brad Dowdy: So how do I, if I had just one single top five fountain pen list, I think people would kind of look at that list kind of cross-eyed saying, I don't even know what these pens are. I don't think it would be that useful, I guess, to readers of The Pen Addict if I just had a straight, what are Brad's top five fountain pens? So I tried to separate them into, and I really, I had trouble coming up with a name for this. And, you know, I'd love to hear some feedback on this. But I have, I've broken into two lists, the top five fountain pens in the easy to buy division and the top five fountain pens in the hard to buy division. And those aren't really accurate names. I didn't want to say, you know, beginner or beginner and expert because I didn't think that was fair. I didn't think that was accurate. I don't want to say common and uncommon because that's not really accurate either. So I was having a hard time coming up with those actual list names. So I went with this and I explained the easy to buy list is what people, readers of The Pen Addict are going to recognize as the more common or readily available fountain pens. Like if you look at most online vendors or most stores or most any other shops, these are the types of pens that they're going to have easily available for you to test out, try out, and purchase. And then the second list, the harder to buy division is it's not that the pens are hard to come by or even hard to use. It's just I wrote that you have to take, there's some extra things you need to take into account when looking at these pens. This is actually the list of pens that I use more than most. So these pens include like, you know, the Pilot Falcon, which has a flex nib. It's a very specialized flex nib on it. And that's not something I just want people to go out and buy without doing research. So I wanted to try to clarify that and separate those two lists for those types of reasons. You know, I've talked for months about my Pilot Custom Heritage 912 with a PO nib. That's one of the most, that pen's pretty much always inked up and in use by me. But I wouldn't want someone else to go out and buy that PO nib without doing tons of research and even, you know, trying one. So I had a bit of a challenge trying to segregate that. I didn't want a list with just these exotic things that I use. I wanted more of like a regular person's list that, you know, when people come to me for recommendations, you know, I can talk about, here's a good list of fountain pens for you to look at. These are, you know, great quality, well-designed, well-built, perfect functioning fountain pens that, you know, anyone can use. And then, you know, once you get a little bit of experience and you decide that you like these things, but maybe you're looking for something a little different, then you look at this other list and say, okay, let's talk about, you know, what are the differences between, you know, the Twisby 580 that you recommend now and, you know, the Pilot Falcon. You know, why would I consider those type of pens? So that's the kind of conversation I want to have. I didn't want to just, you know, have all these exotic pens out there and people would just be looking at it a little bit oddly. So am I making sense in what I'm trying to accomplish there? Do you think I accomplished that task?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I get it. It's difficult to distinguish. Like I was trying to think, could you call it beginner? Well, no, it's not beginner. You know, it's difficult. It's difficult.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah, I had a hard time coming up with the names. I didn't want to – beginner and expert were scratched off the list pretty quickly because that's not really fair. It doesn't work. No, it doesn't work for what this is. So I was trying to – I don't know. I still – those names might change. I had a challenge, and common and uncommon didn't really work. So I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what the people say. If there's – maybe it makes complete sense as it is, and we'll just leave it as it is. But so in breaking up these lists, I kind of had – I don't know. You'll see. I'll go through these lists real quick, and we'll see. Like in the top five fountain pens, which I used to just have a top five fountain pens list. Let me pull that up real quick, Myke. And so I can tell you what the previous list was. I'm sorry here. I was not prepared for that. But I said I better save this list off just in case I need to go back to it.

Myke Hurley: You need to find a special place to store it.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I need an archive. Archive. So the old list, top five fountain pens was Pilot Banishing Point, number one, Lamy 2000, TWSB 540, Pilot Pereira, and Kaweco AL Sport. All right. So now the new list, the new top five fountain pens easy to buy division list is kind of the replacement for the old general top five fountain pens list. So I had a new number one, which is the TWSB 580.

Myke Hurley: Now, you've not reviewed this yet. I have not.

Brad Dowdy: Every time I update my top five list, I realize how many things I haven't reviewed yet, and it's kind of embarrassing.

Myke Hurley: Have we even spoken about the 580 on the show?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, plenty of times. But you own one? Oh, yeah. I've owned one since the day it came out.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah. Of course.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I just don't. I mean, for whatever reason, I just forget to review things sometimes. And a lot of it's because I'm using it all the time, which you would think that would remind me that, oh, I might want to review it. But I guess the more I use it, the more I think I've already reviewed it or something like that. I don't know. I can't explain it. But every time I do these lists, I always find a whole list of things that I haven't reviewed yet. And it's usually like the number one or number two things that I'm recommending. So I will be reviewing that soon. But you can look at the TWSB 540 review that I've done. And I'll get a link or you can grab it. It's kind of similar. It's kind of similar. But the thing that I found about the 580 and why I put it at number one is it comes up in every conversation about fountain pen recommendations. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, whether you're looking for a low price fountain pen or willing to spend a decent amount of money on a fountain pen. The TWSB 580 comes up everywhere. So, for example, for a beginner, if they're wanting something like a Lamy Safari or a Pilot Metropolitan, those are, say, $15 to $30 pens. You can get the TWSB 580 if you're looking for something. You know, maybe if you're a very, very, very beginner, maybe the 580 is not for you because you have to. It's a piston filler. So you have to have a bottle of ink. If you're just wanting to take it easy and just use cartridges, you know, the 580 is not for you. But if you're wanting to have kind of that full fountain pen experience with the fountain pen bottle ink, the TWSB 580 and the price point and the quality of the pen, it's completely the way to go. So it works well for beginners. And then even so, the beginners who haven't gone with a TWSB at first and have like a Lamy Safari and they're wanting to, you know, ramp it up a little bit. Well, they might start looking at like one of the Pelican steel nib pens or one of the Sailor steel nib pens. And both of those are, you know, between $100 and $130. Well, when you compare that to the TWSB 580, it's hard to justify buying those more expensive pens. Sure, there's little things that set them apart. But for almost half the price, buying the TWSB 580 just seems like the right thing to do. It's that good of a pen that it basically, it can play up to the next price point level easily, if that makes sense. I mean, it feels and looks and is designed and performs like a pen that's probably twice as expensive. And it always seems like I have one inked up and handy. You know, I never just let that pen sit by and collect dust. I get total enjoyment out of using it. I love the design. I love how easy it is to clean. I love the piston filling mechanism. I love the nibs on the 580. The build quality is great. I love the looks. There's really, I don't have a knock on this pen at all. It's also, you can also swap out the nibs on it, which I have for my 580. I have an extra fine steel nib. And then I have a 1.1 millimeter stub nib that I just switch out whenever I feel like it. So it's almost like two different pens in one. I can just unscrew the nib unit and pop in another one. That was like $25. So I basically got two completely different pens out of the same pen barrel by switching out the nibs. So when I was putting together this list, it seemed like a no-brainer that that was going to be my number one pen. It's a pen that everybody can use from very beginner fountain pens to the most expert of expert fountain pens because you can do some modifications to it. Like my friend Thomas, since it does, you can swap out the nibs on it. But he has, you know, pilot nibs that have been made to where he can put in a Twisby and things like that. So it's got all the toys and bells and whistles that, you know, expert fountain pen users or fidgeters or people who like to play around can do things with the pen. But at its most basic level, any beginning fountain pen user will find it to be wonderful, I think.

Brad Dowdy: So now, you don't have a 580, right? You just have a 540?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I can't imagine that there's enough of a difference that, you know. They're very similar. Yeah, I love my 540.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, there's a few minor cosmetic and functional differences. The 540's had a cracking problem in the section. So the 580 kind of fixed that with a little chrome piece for durability and things like that. So yeah, like before the 540, what did I say? It was third on my list to begin with. The 580 is basically the next model of that same pen. So it basically went from number three to number one, which isn't that big of a jump if you think about it. But it's just a different model number than the previous version. And it's just an all-around great pen. And I think, I don't know, I think everyone should own one. It's an awesome pen. Because then after that, you start getting into, you know, like the Lamy 2000. That's an, I recommend that pen. And number three, the Pilot Vanishing Point. I recommend those pens all the time. But they're getting up into that $140, $150 level. And that's past the comfort level that a lot of people are willing to go to. So something like the TWSBI 580 kind of fills that need. Even though it's a steel nib pen and the next two are gold nib pens, the 2000 and the Vanishing Point.

Brad Dowdy: The fourth one is the Kaweco AL Sport, which is, it's kind of hard to beat that pen for any pocket fountain pen. So we'll see how the Franklin Kristoff Model 40 compares when I get it. And then the fifth one is the Lamy AL Star, which this is just another, it's a pen I can't get enough of. And it's just a very basic pen. And you could substitute the Lamy Safari here too. I mean, they're essentially the same design. I just like, I like the aluminum body a little bit more. It's just a little bit cooler. I like the all black one that came out this year. I like that. And I love the Lamy nibs. They're just very, very good, very good functional pens. So that's the top five fountain pens in the easy to buy division. So then I separated out another list. And these are the pens that I use. Let's see. Out of the top five easy to buy division, I have every one of those pens inked up right now and in use. I say that because in the harder to buy division, I have all these inked up to minus one.

Brad Dowdy: Actually, minus two. I'll tell you about that. Minus two. But these are the ones that I tend to reach for personally first. So I have the Pilot Custom Heritage 91.

Brad Dowdy: It's an extremely good value pen. Kind of like it's basically the TWSBI 580 of the 14 karat gold nib pens. But the kicker is it's Japan only. So that's kind of why I put it in this division. And I hope that makes sense on why I'm separating these. You know, a lot of people aren't comfortable with either buying it directly from a vendor in Japan. Or like me, I bought mine secondhand off a message board, the Fountain Pen Network classifieds. It was practically brand new. I think I paid $90 for it. But it's only, gosh, in the low hundreds. If even that, I think you might can get it under $100 directly from Japan from some of these vendors. And the build quality and quality of the nib, it's unparalleled for the price. So that's why I wanted to put it on this list as the number one pen in this division. But the kicker is you're going to have to hunt it down. You know, no vendors carry it. That, you know, or regular, you know, vendors on our show that we talk about. Jet pens, Colt pens, Goulet pens, all that. No one carries this pen. But it's very common in Japan. It's kind of almost like an entry level pen in Japan. And you can find it from different vendors and things like that. It's a fantastic pen. The Pilot Falcon, which is my number two one, it's actually more available here in the U.S. Like I know Goulet carries it.

Brad Dowdy: But it's a flex nib. So I don't want people just running out and say, well, Brad said the Pilot Falcon's good. And they spend $200 on this pen and go, what's this nib? So each one of these pens has a little thing about them that you kind of got to be aware of. But I've gotten used to them. And once you kind of go down this path, you're really kind of off the deep end and you're kind of figuring out these things that you like. Like the Pilot Falcon, it's an amazing nib. I mean, it's really all about the nib for that pen. And it writes in a super fine line. And the flexibility of the nib, it makes the line a little bit broader. And it's beautiful. And it uses like real shaded inks with it. It's really cool. The third one is the Edison Beaumont. It's actually real easy to purchase.

Brad Dowdy: A lot of vendors carry this model. I happened to get a limited model, which is the limited stealth version. They made, I don't even remember, 100 of them or so. 140. I can't remember the number. It's a fantastic pen. Actually, the first time I tried it, I wasn't crazy about it. There was a model called the Edison Pearl that's a little bit larger. And I thought it fit my hand a little bit better. But once I got this Beaumont, I figured out that it really fit my writing style better. It was a better fit in my hand when I was actually writing. So, you know, the Edison, it does a production line pen, which you can get from places like Goulet pens or Anderson pens. And there's like maybe five colors with, I don't know, five or six different nib styles. Then directly from the Edison site, they do a signature line where you can just go through their whole collection of acrylics and barrel materials. And you can design this pen any way your heart desires, pretty much directly through the Edison site and from Brian Gray. So, that's a very cool pen.

Myke Hurley: It still always confuses me that his name isn't Brian Edison.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I have to think about it every time I say it. Same thing like the Parker 51. I really have to think about saying it because I got myself saying it. It's just one of those things that sticks in my head where I would say Pilot 51. It just sounded normal even though it's like so wrong it's embarrassing. The fourth one is the Custom Heritage 912. And that one is on the list because it comes with the PO nib, which is the posting nib that I've reviewed and raved about. It's just a really firm, fine nib. You're not going to really find anything like that. It's a really unique nib. And there's probably other pens that come with a similar type nib. The 912 is the easiest one that I could find and the one that I tested out and the one that I love. And then the Pelican M405. It's, I don't know, it's an amazing pen. It's just, it's very expensive in relation to, say like the Pilot Custom Heritage is very expensive compared to, the 912 is much more expensive than the 91. And there's still, you could buy both of those cheaper than you could buy the Pelican M405. But there's just something about a Pelican. And, you know, I suggest anyone that's looking at them and balking on the price, you just got to, one of these days you'll just have to try one. And Myke, it was a good idea. You didn't pick any of them up at the London Pen Show probably. Because that was my opinion of them. Looking at the price and looking at the style, I was, turned off isn't the right word, but they weren't really on my shopping list until I tried one. My friend Thomas, my enabler, you guys all called me, call me the enabler. Thomas is my enabler. He sent me a handful of Pelicans and I fell in love once I started using them. It's, it's hard to explain. I wish I could explain it in words, but I can't. Um, so yeah, good job by you not picking one up because then you'd really be broke.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I'm staying, I'm staring clear at that for the time being, I think.

Brad Dowdy: So those are the two new top five fountain pen lists. Um, you, you good with that? You, um, any questions on those lists or anything?

Myke Hurley: No, no questions. Okay, good.

Top Five Lists

Brad Dowdy: Um, a third new list I added was one I should have done the very first time I ever did a top five list. Cause then I just kept forgetting to do it ever since. And it's been the most requested list. And that's the top five fountain pen inks. And I'm sure you'll have some comments on this too. I'd love to hear your favorites. I think I know them pretty much, but let me go through my top five fountain pen inks real quick. And this, this list could be 10 easily. Um, I probably rotate through 10 inks pretty, pretty frequently. Um, as much as I do these top five. But the ones I use the most, the Pilot Pilot Orochizuku Shinkai. It's a blue-black Orochizuku ink. It's, it's easily my favorite. It's number one. Um, there's a couple of number ones through all these lists that really stand out far and above the second item on their list. And I really, I, the Shinkai is for me. Um, I, I love that ink. The second one is the Roaring Klingner Scabiosa. I hope I'm saying that right. Cause it's such an awful name. Um, but I just, I reviewed it. I've been using it for months. I just reviewed it, reviewed it a couple of weeks ago. And it's a fantastic ink. I always have a pen inked up with that, with that ink. The third one is the Basic Lamy Blue Black. The color of this blue-black ink is what I think of, personally, when you talk about blue-black inks. It's got every shade just right. As far as, it's not too blue. It's not too black. It doesn't have any green in it. It doesn't have any of these odd colors showing up. It's, it's blue-black in its purest form, I think. For me, personally. The fourth is one of your favorites, is the Pilot Orochizuku Kanpeki. It's a stunning-looking ink on the page. So good. It's bright. It's got shading. It's got depth. It's, it's a very impressive ink. Um, it's another one I keep inked up all the time. I just don't use it as much as most of my blue-black inks. Um, just because it's a little bit brighter. And, you know, nothing wrong with that. It's just, I tend to write in blue-black or more subdued inks. Um, the fifth one is Noodler's Apache Sunset. Um, I always keep this ink inked up in one pen, usually in my Falcon, because it's got a ton of great shading. I've done a review on this. You can see all these different, this wide range of colors from yellow to brown in this orange. It's, it's a really fantastic ink. And, you know, I, I always find a way to use it and have fun with it and write with it because it's, it's just that, that great. Um, and like I said, this list is likely to change, have more change than any other list. I go through, I use a lot of different inks. I could list out five more real quick. Um, you know, that could easily slide into these, you know, maybe the number four and five spots on here. Um, the top three are pretty, pretty solid, but I use so many inks and enjoy using different inks. And, you know, there's plenty that I've left off of here that, um, could certainly rank well. It may, it might need a, uh, it might need a top five part two. That would be a top 10, Myke.

Myke Hurley: I feel like you need to try the Fuyugaki.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, that's, that's on the radar. I'm going to put that on my wishlist. Let me write that down right now.

Myke Hurley: The fact that two Hiroshizuku inks are in your top five, I think that this orange is stunning.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'm going to get that. That's probably the next Hiroshizuku, that, that might be the next ink I buy, period.

Myke Hurley: I think that's going to break into that top five, Brad, if I'm being totally honest with you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I bet you're right. I just bought Hiroshizuku, the, it's a Fuyu Sayogun, I believe.

Brad Dowdy: I'm not looking at it, so I hope I got that right. It's the gray ink. Oh, it's so good. It's really good.

Myke Hurley: Oh, wow. Look at that color.

Brad Dowdy: It's very, very nice. So I'll do a review on that one. And the next ink I buy will be the Fuyugaki.

Myke Hurley: Goulet pens is really good if you're in the US for these. And the writingdesk.co.uk is really good if you're in the UK. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: And a lot of these, a lot of these companies offer up samples too. So be sure to check some of those out. If you're unsure and you can spend $2 to test out, you know, an ink that you may or may not like and then go buy a bottle from there. So that's kind of what I've done. I know I got the Fuyu Soyu gun, the gray one from Ed Jelly sent me a sample a while back. And, you know, having that sample is what solidified me buying a bottle of it for sure.

Myke Hurley: The problem with all of the Hiroshizuku inks is they do not photograph very well.

Brad Dowdy: No. It's really hard to get that on there, isn't it? Yeah. I have a hard time relaying proper ink colors all the time.

Brad Dowdy: So it's interesting. Hey, I got to – it just hit me. I meant to put this in the show notes for you to see. And you may have seen it over the weekend. I got to send you this link. I'm putting it in the show notes now. So you can check it out. But we were just talking about Orochu inks and Twisbees. And I remember this. Someone tweeted – someone sent me this on Instagram a few days ago. We had a quote in – it was episode 44 of the Pen Addict podcast titled Pen-tervention. We had a quote that says, I just discussed Orochu-zuku-filled Twisbees. And we got a big kick out of that because it was like we were speaking a different language there. So someone did this little drawing for us, little text for us with that quote on it. I thought that was cool. It's L-T-B-R on Instagram. I think the same on Twitter too maybe.

Myke Hurley: People tend to be. Yeah, I really like that. I enjoyed that a lot. That was fun to have something like that.

Brad Dowdy: I started cracking up when I saw that. Because I'd forgotten about – I'd forgotten that we'd said that.

Myke Hurley: I don't even remember what it was in reference to.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. I think it was when you were – it was called Pen-tervention. So you must have been going off the deep end about something.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And maybe it was just in my life this is all I talk about. Maybe something like that.

Brad Dowdy: I think that's what it was when you were – I think it was you were like referring to talking about this type of thing like in a public thing or like at the office or something like that and no one would understand what you're talking about kind of thing. I think it was in relation to that.

Pen List Updates

Brad Dowdy: So a couple more quick updates. Some lists that I changed, changed around. No real new things. But I did update the top five pens, the overall list. I got the 580, Twisby 580 at number one. And the Secura Pigment Micron at number two. The Uniball Sino DX.38 at number three. Our favorite Oto Graphic Liner at number four. The Uniball Jetstream at number five. Do you notice anything that fell off that list, Myke?

Brad Dowdy: Putting you on the spot. It's the Pilot Hi-Tech C.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I just haven't been using it as much. And that's what this list is trying to accomplish, right? And anyone who's new to this list needs to read the lead in. It's basically this list, these top fives are what I'm using the most frequently and enjoying the most. So that's why it's always changing. It's not a shopping list. It's what I'm using the most and I'm reaching for the most and it's giving me good experiences. And it's always changing. That's why I try to update it. As frequently as I can. It looks like it's going to be about once a quarter or so updating it. But, you know, I just haven't been using the Hi-Tech C. So it kind of fell off the list. All these other pens I've been reaching for ahead of it. So, and I put it down at number two on the micro gel ink pens, the DX 0.38. I've just been using it more. It's more consistent.

Brad Dowdy: It's got great colors. They're really vibrant, really bright. I love the pen. So, let's see. What else did I update? I think that's about it.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I also did.

Brad Dowdy: Someone had asked me, I think on the Field Nuts Facebook group, didn't I have a list of my favorite Field Notes editions? And instead of putting a top five list on the top five page, on my Field Notes page on the blog, I put down, there's been 20 Field Notes limited editions so far. I ranked them from one to 20 in my favorites. Because I think someone was asking me where the Drink Local edition would rank. And I ranked it pretty highly. I have it at eighth overall, ahead of some of the older classics, plus a couple of more current favorites like American Trades Men and National Crop Edition. So, that list is there for people that were asking. We talked about it on one episode. I had just written it down in Field Notes and taken a picture, posted it on Instagram, and you and I talked about it. But this is a permanent – I wanted to give that list a permanent home because I was having to research back to find it again. So, this way I can just always kind of keep it up to date if there's any changes on there.

Myke Hurley: You need to update your images.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I'm missing the ales and lagers, and I'm missing the fuchsia XOXOs that you sent me.

Myke Hurley: I have updated mine. Oh, did you? Yeah, it's updated. It was difficult to photo the Drink Local. It's probably the worst picture I've taken.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you can tell some of my newer pictures are not as good. But, yeah.

Myke Hurley: I tried to squeeze it all in, and it's all kind of off balance. Yeah. It looks terrible. But you can click it and get a full image.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I need to do that, too. I'm wondering how I'm going to do that. But it'll be fine because I want to get the coasters in there, too, because those are so cool.

Myke Hurley: My image is terrible. You can even see. Like, I take it basically because I have a clear desk, right? So I have this really large envelope, which is just lying around, and I just lay them on the envelope. It's a white envelope to take a photo. But when you enlarge the Drink Local one, you can see the edges of the envelope. It's a terrible picture. I kind of rushed it. Yeah. But I haven't done it justice.

Brad Dowdy: I know. So I need to do that, too. So those are the two that I need to add. And as I was updating this, I was like, oh, I'm not even the most up-to-date with the latest editions and the XOXO. So, yes, sir, I will work on that, sir.

Myke Hurley: Thank you. Hey, so before we finish, I have a couple of quick updates. I didn't give – I should have done them in the follow-up section.

Brad Dowdy: No problem.

Myke Hurley: What do you got? So I just wanted to say how much I've been absolutely loving my purchases.

Fisher Space Pen

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. Gosh, actually, that was on my radar to ask you, and I totally forgot as well. So recap with what you have and how you've been using them.

Myke Hurley: So a funny thing happened. I snapped the clip on my Fisher Space Pen.

Brad Dowdy: Okay, yeah.

Myke Hurley: I just kind of snapped that in half. So I haven't been using that. Like, it's forced me not to use it, which is interesting. I've got a new clip on the way. But I've been using both the Edison Pearl app that I got last week. And go tune in to last week's episode, and the show notes in last week's episode have all the links to this stuff.

Myke Hurley: That's – what episode number was that? 75. But I'll put a link to that in this week's episode, which is 5x5.tv slash penedicts slash 76 is where you'll find all of the links. So I've been using the Pearl app mainly with the Fuyugaki ink in it, and I've been so happy. So, so happy. The only – oh, I'm about to explain what just happened. The only thing is the inside of the acrylic has quite a pungent odour. Yes. Which sometimes I notice when I just take the lid off, and I really noticed it then when I breathed it in.

Brad Dowdy: As we say in the IT industry, it's a feature.

Myke Hurley: It's very interesting, and I don't know why it's such a strong smell that remains. Wow, that was quite a –

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's the materials, and I don't know if Brian's ever talked about it before. But it's – all the pens – all the acrylic pens are like that, and I'm sure – I'll get – I'll ask Thomas if he can explain. He usually listens pretty quickly, and he'll give us a quick explanation of why it's so. But it's – I think it just has to do with the materials that are used. It's acrylic. Yeah, it's an acrylic material. So it's across all the acrylic pens, and not just Edison pens. Any acrylic pens have the same type of scent.

Myke Hurley: It takes me – it transports me back to working in woodshop. What we called – what did we call it? It wasn't design technology.

Myke Hurley: I think it's called product technology, something like that. And I made an acrylic key ring, and so just cutting the acrylic was that smell. Yep. I've been using that. That's been my pen. It's just been the pen I've been using nonstop for the last week. However, because I'm using it with orange ink, there are some times when I need more official ink, and I've been breaking out the vacuumatic for that. And I cannot believe how old this pen is because of how well it works.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Fountain Pens

Myke Hurley: It's easily one of the best-performing fountain pens that I've ever owned. Like, just how smooth it is, and everything just – you know, it feels like it shouldn't work as well as it does. Yeah. But it really does, and I've been thoroughly impressed.

Brad Dowdy: Well, that means you must have made a good purchase. The person you bought it from did a good job restoring it.

Myke Hurley: Seems like it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's good. It's worth, you know, buying it from someone who's – like you discussed, people have to go back and listen to last week's episode if they haven't, but you discussed how there was varying quality levels of pens, especially in the vintage category. You know, you can find some that look really bad and rough and gunked up, or you can find some that people have restored, you know, to excellent working condition, which sounds like what you got, so that's great.

Field Notes Notebooks

Myke Hurley: So, yeah, that was my follow-up on those purchases. I'm also using – I don't know if I was last week – I'm using an ale field notes at the moment. Okay. I'm using the amber ale.

Brad Dowdy: Nice. I like it. I was going to say, how are you liking it so far? Yeah, very much.

Myke Hurley: I got used to that cover a lot quicker than I thought I was going to. Okay. Just a different feel of it. You know, as I said, I thought it was strange.

Brad Dowdy: And the Hefeweizen grid?

Myke Hurley: Hefeweizen, yeah, I mean, it's nice. It's a grid. I mean, I don't really notice the color too much, in all honesty, because I kind of ignore the grid. Yeah, true. And the Perlet with the Hiroshi Zuko ink is doing okay in it, you know. Yeah, that's good. It's just a little bleed through, so I'm really pleased with that. Yeah, you should be.

Brad Dowdy: That's excellent, because that's a medium nib, right?

Myke Hurley: Medium nib, yeah. Yeah, that's great. There's not a lot of bleed, so it means that obviously the ink flow is pretty good. So I'm very, very happy with that, actually. I was expecting it to be a disaster.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Well, great.

Myke Hurley: Because most other fountain pens that I've used over a fine have been a disaster in the field notes. Yes, it's really tough. Just because it's not what they're built for, both the fountain pen and the field note.

Brad Dowdy: Right. People ask me for that recommendation all the time. I was like, look, you just need to take what you own and go test it out, because it's very particular.

Myke Hurley: So I have one last quick thing, and I want you to have a think about this, and we'll maybe think of something in the next couple of weeks. I have a few one-off edition field notes that are spare. Mm-hmm. So our friends at Studio Neat, who did the simple bracket, they give me a stack of the custom field notes that they have made, the basketball printed on the back. Yeah. I have a stack of them. Oh. And I'm willing to give a few away to some listeners, but we need to think of how we could do that.

Brad Dowdy: Man, that's a great idea. Okay. Yeah. I'll work on that. Boy, if that's not a tease, I don't know what is.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because don't ask me for one now, dear listeners. Yeah. You need to wait and find out how we're going to... I don't know what we will do, but... Yeah. We'll figure something out. ...we'll have to think of something. Because I've got... They gave me like a handful. I only need a couple of them. I maybe have like five or six to give away. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Great. Yeah. We'll put something together here in the coming weeks. I'll work on that.

Myke Hurley: Cool.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Well, good. I think we have wrapped up this edition of the World's Greatest Podcast.

Myke Hurley: Oh, look at you. Oh, yeah. Bring it. The world's only pen podcast. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I take offense every time I listen to the prompt.

Myke Hurley: Oh, everybody else does. Don't worry.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. So I just wanted to drop that in.

Myke Hurley: I say World's Greatest, so it's not the best. And in my mind, that distinguishes him.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Keep telling yourself that.

Myke Hurley: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Well, have a good one, sir. You too, buddy. It was fun, as always.

Myke Hurley: If you want to catch up with Brad and find all these massive lists, go to thepenaddict.com. Yeah. And he is at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter, at dowdy on app.net, and I am iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. Until next time, thanks a lot for listening. Oh, show notes, 5x5.tv slash penaddict slash 76. Say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad. Bye.