The Pen Addict 35/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	35
Title:	Scratched Off The List
Release Date:	December 27th, 2012
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 35
Audio File:	Audio Episode 35
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 35
Length:	4848 min <br />0.8 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 35 of The Pen Addict. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined, as always, by your host and mine. He is The Pen Addict. He is the St. Nicholas of pen giving. The one, the only, Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hello, sir. How are you?

Brad Dowdy: What a topical drop in today, Mr. Hurley. That was very good.

Myke Hurley: There were two ways I could have gone with that. One was offensive, so I decided to go with St. Nicholas.

Brad Dowdy: Well, seeing how we ended last episode and the title we came up with, offensive is in our wheelhouse. So, you could have gone there and it would have been alright, I think.

Myke Hurley: So, how are you doing? Did you have a Merry Christmas? Did you get all the pens you asked for?

Christmas Gifts

Brad Dowdy: I had a really, really great Christmas. And you know, it's funny about pens and Christmas time for me, I rarely ask for them. You know, it's just, it's one of those personal things that, you know, I want to pick out the, if I'm getting a pen for Christmas, it's usually something I've picked out and bought for myself or something like that. So, I really didn't get much in the way of, you know, pens, paper, stationery. I got a couple of small things. My wife got me, picked me up a bottle of the J. Herbin Grease Nuage, which is this really pretty gray fountain pen ink, which I haven't opened yet. And one other thing I got, and I don't even remember the brand of it, it's not a Levenger, but it's based off of the Levenger Pocket Briefcase, I believe it's called. It's basically an index card holder. You know, I like my note cards. It's like a little leather, four-corner pouch is not the way to describe it. It's kind of hard to explain, but basically, it's got a pocket that holds about 10 note cards and you pull one of the note cards out and you can put it on the flat side. Flat side of this little case. It looks like a wallet and just like the four corners stick in. So, you have like a hard pad to write on your note card and you can slide it into a pocket or, you know, briefcase or something like that. It's just a little neat way to transport.

Myke Hurley: People use them for index cards.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, they're for index cards. So, that's really all I've gotten. And, you know, I think for Christmas, I almost never asked for pens. I think the last pen I asked for for Christmas was the County Comm Embassy pen, which I got two or three years ago by this point. And, yeah, it's just not a big pen receiving time for me. How about you? Did you get anything?

Myke Hurley: No, I mean, I had the same kind of thing. Like, leading up to Christmas, a family member said, oh, why don't we get you a nice pen? And I was like, well, pens are things that I buy myself sort of throughout the year. So, it's not really something that I think of when it comes to Christmas as a gift. Yeah. But Christmas came slightly earlier for me this year. Oh, yeah? In the form of a package from Mr. Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. Interesting. Interesting.

Field Notes

Myke Hurley: So, you sent me a handful of things. One, which blew me away, was you sent me one of your, the green field notes. What are they called? Grass Stained Green. Grass Stained Green that we spoke about a couple of weeks ago. And it really surprised me because you were talking, you know, about how much those ones meant to me, to you. And so, that meant a lot to me. It was very nice that you did that.

Brad Dowdy: Well, good. I'm glad you like it. It's definitely my favorite. And, you know, I had a couple extra and I wanted someone else to experience how cool these notebooks are. Because, you know, unfortunately, not everyone got to at the time. You know, no one knew at the time what was going to happen with these things, right? So, you know, that's not one a lot of people get to see or hold or use. So, I wanted to get one in your hands just because, you know, I appreciate everything you do for me. And, you know, I thought that would be a neat thing for you to send to you.

Myke Hurley: Very kind. But that's not where it ends, though. That's not where it ends. I also got – so, explain these to me. So, I've got a pack of three sort of yellow books here. And they say capsule on the front of them.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, that is one of the promotional ones that we talked about on the Field Notes episode. And, you know, that's not something I would know existed except for, you know, like Sandy McDonald. Like we talked about, he's posted different ones that he's got from, you know, different vendors or different organizations that have had special runs made. And I just decided – this capsule one looked really cool. They made a yellow one. But it's like a yellow – I don't know. It's a pretty bright yellow. And it's like a letter-pressed Field Notes cover.

Brad Dowdy: And, you know, a special band. And I think they made a blue one as well. I don't have any of the blue ones. But I basically somehow found – I'd have to go back and look. I basically found one of their – I don't know if it's a PR person or some type of contact person. I emailed them. I said, hey, you know, I enjoy – I use Field Notes. I try to collect a lot of versions. I said, do you have any of these I can buy? Do you have any of these, you know, you can send me and, you know, I can make a donation on your behalf? And they said, oh, no, we'd be happy to send you some. And she sent me like three packs of them. So I shipped one off your way.

Myke Hurley: I appreciate that. When did you say you did that?

Brad Dowdy: When did I get them?

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Right before Thanksgiving or so.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, not too long ago. I haven't had those very long.

Myke Hurley: I'm struggling to find a link to them anyway. Don't –

Brad Dowdy: You can link to my Flickr page where I took a picture of them, but I didn't really – I don't even know if I described them on there. I did take a picture of them in Flickr with a couple of other Field Notes items. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if you can – how easily they're hard to find online or not.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I've been Googling for them. I haven't had much luck, but – so, there we go. Yeah, I remember you with this image. Now, this is after –

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I keep meaning to go tag that image a little bit better or write a description on it, and it's just one of those things. And a long list of things that I do part of the way and never get back to finishing. Interesting.

Myke Hurley: And there was one other thing that you included in this package. And this was something that my understanding was asked to be forwarded over to me. Yes. Is that correct?

Brad Dowdy: Well, I asked if I could. Yeah, I was lucky enough to get two of these particular pins, and I asked if I could send one to you, and they said, absolutely, freaking-lutely, send one to Myke. And this was the one I was worried about getting through customs.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's interesting. It's very, very interesting. So, you could probably do a better job of explaining this than I.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Well, what I sent Myke was – it's called The Bolt. It's from my friend Dan at Kara's Customs who built the Render K that everyone hears me talk about all the time. It's the orange pin that everyone likes to point out in my pictures. The Render K was a high-tech C-barrel, a machined aluminum barrel they launched on Kickstarter. It was their first project, and it did real well, and they made different versions of it. And then they moved on to the second project called The Bolt, and it's a bolt-action pin, which is – if you think of it – I've never owned a bolt-action pin before. I don't know if you have, Myke. No. They're not that common. But it's essentially – it's a take on a traditional knock or retractable pin. You basically – there's a knock on the end that you depress, and you kind of twist it over in this little bolt. But it's got like a machined cutout to where this bolt slots in and holds the pin down into the writing position, and then you push down and twist back the other way to retract the ink cartridge. And the particular one I sent you was a heavy-duty one. It's made out of brass. Yeah, this is – I have the aluminum one. Okay. And I sent you the brass one.

Myke Hurley: You did. And this thing is incredible.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because I have the brass Render K, so I didn't need another brass one because they're really heavy.

Brad Dowdy: So I sent you the brass one for the bolt. So what do you think about that pin? It's probably not like anything you've ever used before because it certainly wasn't – it was for me. I mean, I never used anything like this at all.

Myke Hurley: It's not like anything I've ever owned before. I've never had one solid thing feel so sturdy. Like, it just feels like I could never break this. Like, there is no possible way I could ever break this pen. Right. There's a couple of interesting sort of points about it. One, it's far too heavy to be a daily use, in my opinion. Like, I couldn't use this all day every day. Yes. But it's fun to use. So, like, you know, if you looked at this and thought this is what I'd want it to be for my daily pen, the aluminium would probably be better for you. Yes.

Pen Weight

Brad Dowdy: Agreed.

Myke Hurley: But for a piece to own as a collector, like we are, the brass would be the one I would choose. Right. Because it does, again, doesn't look like anything I've ever owned either. The mechanism is the most fun mechanism I've ever had in a pen. Like, it's, to me, more impressive than the mechanism and the vanishing point because it's so different. Like, basically, you push it down and twist it to get the pen to come out. What's the right term for that? Is there a term? Because you retract it when it's going back in.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I call it eject. Yeah. And I don't know if that's the right term. And that's one of the terms I've struggled with ever since I've written this blog. I don't know what the right term is when you press down the knock or, in this case, twist down the mechanism. And I call it ejecting the nib or the tip. And whether that's the right term or not, I have no idea.

Myke Hurley: I'm sure somebody will be able to correct us if it's wrong. But the way that you retract it is you kind of, like, push and flick to the side. It's a real interesting, like, way of doing it. You kind of just sort of, like, take your thumb and just flick the mechanism around again. And then it flies back up. It's like a rifle, right? It's like a bolt-action rifle, I guess.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So there's, like, some spring tension on the inside. So you just push it down and twist it back over and it snaps back up. It's really well done.

Myke Hurley: And I guess that's where the idea comes from. Now, because of, basically, there is a downside with the brass with the weight, an extra one, in that it comes in two sizes. Now, this is something I've never experienced before with a pen either. And it has a long barrel and a short barrel. So that's so you can use different types of refill. And you sent me the Moleskine, the gel Moleskine refill and a Pilot G2 refill. Now, I naturally gravitated towards the G2 refill because you sent me it even in my preferred size, which is a .7. But the barrel is so long when you use that that the weight of the pen is far too heavy on the end. Yep. Because there's too much of the pen.

Myke Hurley: Too much of the pen is over my hand, like, as it goes back towards my wrist. Yes. So, therefore, it's far too heavily weighted.

Myke Hurley: But with the shorter barrel, the weight is great. Like, the proportion of weight is perfect. So, I would probably, I mean, having the aluminium, you can say whether I'm right or wrong. But I would expect that it's still very comfortable to use the longer barrel with the aluminium. I played with it a lot.

Brad Dowdy: And I went back and forth a lot. And I preferred the shorter barrel. Right. Just because the shorter barrel was manufactured to just the right length. It falls within the realm of a normal length pen. Right. Whatever that measurement is. It's around what you would expect as a normal length pen. And so, to explain this for those who haven't looked at it yet. And, you know, go click on the links and you can see the different parts. And I think it was an add-on at the time that they did the Kickstarter project for it. It was, you know, you bought the shorter barrel. And then you could add on the longer. It doesn't come like the kit that I sent you. Right. Right. It doesn't come with the full kit in one shot. So, you get the shorter barrel when you purchase it. And that fits Parker style refills. Any Parker style refill you can come up with. I sent my – I had an extra Moleskine gel pen. Everyone knows I like those Moleskine – those rectangular body Moleskine pens. And I had some extra refills I bought for those. That fits in this pen perfectly. It fits it really well. But any Parker style refill will fit in the shorter barrel. And what it does, the bolt, it unscrews in the middle. So, your whole bolt mechanism and clip, the whole upper barrel stays in one piece. The shorter barrel just has the front end barrel and a spring. You unscrew that, take that off, and you pop in. And the longer barrel is designed for a G2 style refill, a Pilot G2 style refill. So, you just grab the longer barrel piece, which is – I didn't look at the measurements or didn't do it. But it's on the realm of maybe a half an inch longer, which is – it's quite sizable in a pen. But it fits the longer G2 ink cartridges. And you put that on there, and it's just a little bit too long. You start running into balance issues. Even on the aluminum, it's not weighted so that it's really way off balance. It's just that it's a heavy pen to begin with. And on the aluminum, it gets to be too heavy. And on the brass, it's probably even more so. I didn't even use the brass one. But I know the brass in itself is just a heavier, more dense pen.

Brad Dowdy: But it does give you that flexibility to where you'd want to – if you want to use a – like the G2. I think some of the other refills that are similar to the G2. I think the Uniball Sino RT is around that same dimension. Like I didn't try all these refills in the longer barrel. But there's a few other ones that fit in there besides the G2. But I – for day-to-day, I prefer the shorter barrel. And I actually use it quite frequently with the – I have a blue 0.5 millimeter Moleskine gel refill in it. And I use it a lot. I used it last night at work. As a matter of fact, it's a good pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. As I say, it's extremely well made. And I think that's the main thing that comes across to me. I mean my advice would be if you're thinking, oh, I have a refill that I love, which is one of the longer ones, I would suggest that you just find a shorter one that you like and then use that. Like don't buy – I wouldn't suggest to buy this pen with the idea that you want to use the longer one because it doesn't really work that way, I don't think.

Brad Dowdy: Right. It definitely works better on the short one. The only kicker is if you like to use micro tip pens like sub 5 millimeter, like 0.4s, 0.3s, 0.38s. I don't know of a Parker-style refill that's going to fit. So I'm using a 0.5, which works great for me. But just keep that in mind. It's not like you can fit a high-tech C, you know, something super fine in there.

Myke Hurley: But the refill – the Moleskine refill is an excellent – it's an excellent refill. I have the Moleskine pen and I like it. I just don't like the shape of the Moleskine pen. I find it really uncomfortable to hold and use. So I'm very happy to actually have a body that it fits in a lot better. Oh, cool. But, yeah, I'm really, really thankful that these guys were happy for you to send this over because it's quite a piece.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. They do really good work. And the samples that I've seen and have and use, I've been real happy with the construction. You know, on the bolt, I've been trying to – you know, with a retractable pen, the key to like a retractable pen is you want to be able to have like a one-hand use, right? You want to be able to take the pen out and use it one-handed for quick note-taking. So I've been practicing trying to get the bolt down with one hand and twist and thing. It's a little bit awkward. It still takes me two hands to kind of get it down and I can pop it back out with one.

Myke Hurley: I can do it with the thumb.

Brad Dowdy: It's just something I keep playing with.

Myke Hurley: It's fun to play with. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I mess with it all the time.

Myke Hurley: I mean, because of the – like the pens that I like to have, I like people to ask about them. Right. You know, I kind of – some of my pens are definitely show-off pieces. You know, I use – not only do I use the Retro 51s a lot at work, I use the Metalsmith series ones, which are very striking. So like the brass and the nickel ones and they've got the interesting body shapes and things like that and the detailing on them. And the vanishing point also people ask about that. So this is one that falls into that. Like people want to know what – why not only – because one, this pen looks like a bullet. Like in brass, it looks like a bullet.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's why I was worried about getting it to you.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Just an extremely long bullet. And then it's also got the bolt action, which is – you know, it's – yeah, it's cool. I really like it. And just for – even like the clip is – it's got these two huge screws in it and it's this really thick metal.

Myke Hurley: And I just think it's great. It's stunning. And I just feel like this is something that as it gets older and gets dinged and stuff like that, it would look even better. And it's just something that I know that if I keep – as long as I don't lose it, you know, basically the only reason this pen wouldn't stay around forever is if I don't lose it. Right. It will be around forever if I know where it is because I just can't imagine anything being able to damage it to the point where it couldn't be used anymore.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So it's a very cool pen. I've been happy with it. So I was glad to get the opportunity to send it to you. So thank you, Dan, from Keras Customs.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much.

Squarespace

Myke Hurley: So I have something else that I said that I would follow up on. But before I do that, I just want to talk about Squarespace quickly. Okay, sure. And then we'll get on to that. And for anybody that listened last week, the Parker 5th refill came. So that's what we're going to give my impressions on that. So we'll see. Yeah, I definitely want to hear about this. We'll see if you were right or if I was right in being hopeful. So we will see about that very shortly. But before we do, before we talk about that, let's thank our sponsors for this week. And, of course, they are the fine folks over at Squarespace.com. Squarespace gives you everything you need to make an amazing website. So I've been using Squarespace for many, many years now. And we've been talking about them for many, many months. So by now, you know how fantastic they are at giving you exactly what you need to create your home online. They give you all of the tools. It's like Squarespace is like the workman's tool belt for people that want to create websites. Because you've got everything you need all in one place. That's what's so fantastic about it. You have hosting. It's built in. So you don't need to worry about web hosting elsewhere. You don't need to worry about buying themes or getting a designer. Because they have beautiful, responsive web design templates built right in. You don't have to worry about learning code to create the site that you want. Because they have a drag and drop interface called Layout Engine. Where you drag and drop blocks of content like photos, videos, text and loads more. Like image galleries and things like that. You can just drag and drop all of those in. Drag and drop and move them around. You don't need to buy fonts. Because they have the Google Font Library built right in. So you can choose those. You can then also, with their Layout Engine page builder, you have the ability to choose custom colors and things like that for your site as well. So you're able to make it look exactly how you want. What else do they have? They have domains integrated if you buy one of their annual plans. They have social media integration built right in. So not only can you display your tweets, you can display Instagram photos, Flickr photos right on your page. You can also have it automatically tweet or post to Facebook or whatever for you whenever you write a new post on your site. It really is just a fantastic system. And if you need to create a new website, they are the place for you. They have stats built in. They have a great blog importer, iOS, Android apps, loads more, 24-7 customer support. I could just keep going on. But the best thing for you to do, rather than listen to me talk about it, is to go right now to squarespace.com forward slash 70 decibels. And you can start a free trial there. No credit card needed. You just give them your name. You give them a username, password, email address. That's it. And you've got an unlimited free trial there. So when I say unlimited, you get access to all of the site's features. It's two weeks from when you say enable this theme or whatever. So you can play around, build a site however you want, enable the theme, and you get two weeks where you can try it out. Squarespace starts at $10 a month after the free trial for their standard plan and $20 a month for their unlimited plan. But if you sign up for a year up front, not only do you get a free custom domain name like I mentioned earlier, you get 20% off that price. And if you sign up for two years, you'll get 25% off. But I can give you an additional 10% off, either that or whatever your first purchase at Squarespace will be, if you enter the coupon code or the offer code 70decibels12 at the checkout screen. So you'll see there's a little link that says enter a code below the pricing information. You just enter that in, 70decibels12. So go check out Squarespace, everything you need to make an amazing website. Thanks to Squarespace for supporting us. And if you want to support the show and Squarespace, of course, go check out what they do at 70decibels. Sorry, at squarespace.com for 70decibels. That's the place to go. So it arrived a few days ago. Parker 5th Ingenuity.

Myke Hurley: What are you going to say?

Brad Dowdy: Just the refill, yes.

Myke Hurley: Yes, just the refill.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah, I just want to be clear.

Myke Hurley: You will find out if I have bought one.

Brad Dowdy: I will let you know. Oh, okay. See, what you guys don't know that, listen, is Myke and I, we don't really talk about pins during the week. So there are some surprises during the show sometimes that, you know, we don't necessarily know what the other one's got in their hand or talking about or things like that. Yeah, we talk a lot.

Myke Hurley: Like, we do talk, but we don't. We try not to spoil the show. Like, we might talk about some things, but I definitely, I mean, I believe I told you that this had arrived. Yes. But I will purposefully not tell you about my impressions. Okay. Exactly.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly right.

Felt Tip Pens

Myke Hurley: All I have is the refill. I mean, but the refill is sized well enough that it is like a pen, right? It's thin, but it's long enough. I can hold it like a pen. It comes with a cap as well. So, you know, I'm using it. And I am disappointed. Oh, wow.

Brad Dowdy: I didn't see that coming.

Myke Hurley: Simply because, right, so it's a perfectly fine. If not really nice felt tip pen, right? So, it's like, you know, I like those. We both like these types of pens.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I'm a huge, huge fan of this style of tip.

Myke Hurley: But, so, you know, it's, but it's, all it is really, Brad, is kind of like a step up from the Sharpie pen. Right. I mean, the Sharpie pen is kind of probably the best in this field. My, I don't use them because, I mean, I've used them in the past and I feel that they don't last for very long before the ink dries out. I've not been able to, I haven't wanted to do that sort of test yet. But, but the problem for me is, if this was 30 bucks, maybe even 40, I would probably do it. Right. If they look like they did. And then, because I've got a nice looking, like, pen body and a refill that I know I'm going to enjoy. You know, like, for example, the Retro 51, right? I've paid $20, $30 for those.

Myke Hurley: When, you know, because I like the refill and I like the way that the pens look. But for $150, you couldn't make me spend that money for this. Like, you really couldn't. Like, it just, there's nothing to it that is special. You know, like, I feel like I can't write in my normal way. Like, if I write on the side, the line is inconsistent. Oh, really? And, and, and it's scratchy. And I kind of, to get the best out of it, I have to write with the pen flat on. You know, and then maybe, you know, as they say, like, it's like a fountain pen because it wears down to you. Yeah, maybe that's the case. But as you mentioned last week, we'd have to do that every time you refill it. Every time you get a refill, you'd have to start all over again. And that doesn't seem like $150 worth of pen. You know, where every time you're having to start over. Because if you spent $150 on something, like a pen, you expect it. A pen that you spend $150 on, typically you expect to get better with you over time. Now, roller balls and stuff, they won't change anyway. So, you don't, you naturally don't expect that. But a pen like this, it would wear down. The tip would wear down. Maybe around the edges or whatever. Or maybe on a certain edge if you hold the pen in the same way. Which you might do, depending on the way that the pen's made.

Brad Dowdy: Right. That's the nature of that tip, right? Anyone who's ever used a Sharpie pen or a Sakura Pigma Micron. I mean, these are not long-lasting, durable pens. I mean, these are pen tips that break down. And that's just the nature of them. I mean, you love them while you're using them. If it's a well-built tip and then it's disposable, you chuck it in the trash. And you get a fresh one and it's a new writing experience.

Myke Hurley: One of the things that you love about it is that it does break down. So, by the time that the pen is finished, you've got something that writes just like you want it to, right? Or like a good fountain pen. But you have, and so you throw it away and you pick up a new and you're like, oh, I have to start again. But it cost me $5 to do that.

Brad Dowdy: I thought it cost about $10.

Myke Hurley: No, I mean, like, so it's cost you $5 to do that with a regular pen. You know, even a really good one, like a Sakura Pigma Micron or something. It's cost you $5 to start that process again. So, you're like, it's frustrating, but it's $5. Give it a couple of weeks, maybe a month or two, and I'm back to where I was. But with this thing, even though you're spending $5, $8, $10 to refill it, you also spent $150 on a body for it. And that kind of ruins it. That makes the whole thing stupid. Like, if this was one of the parker lines that was $20 for a body, $20, $30 for a good-looking parker body, and then a refill, I think that I would have said, Brad, I've bought one. Because this thing writes really nicely. The refill is fantastic. There is nothing wrong with it. But the fact that it hasn't blown me away is the problem. Right.

Myke Hurley: It's perfectly fine. When you've got it at the right angle, it's got a nice, consistent line, good ink flow.

Myke Hurley: There's no splatter to the line or anything like that. But again, that's nothing that a Pigma Micron won't give me. Exactly. Because I think that if you're going outside of the standard, I kind of said the Sharpie is the best. When I meant best, I just meant it's the most prolifically widely used and accepted. But I think we would both say the Pigma Micron is better. The Sign Pen, who makes that?

Brad Dowdy: Uni. Yeah, the Uni. I mean, there's a couple of different Sign Pens. Pentel and Uni both make a Sign Pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, but the Uni is the one that we both have.

Myke Hurley: And I really like that. But that suffers the same fate. I had a blue one. It just ran out really quickly. And maybe the parkour, again, maybe the parkour will last longer. Maybe they've done something to make it last longer. That wouldn't surprise me at all. Because it's quite a large refill. The refill is pretty large. The refill on this is as big as the main body of the Retro 51. So if you take off the screw top, so if you just remove the screw section, it's as large as the rest of the pen. Wow. So that's a big refill.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And I'm sure that's because they want to get a ton of ink into this thing to keep it running. Which is great that they've done that, because they don't have to do that. They can make it standard, and it could run out every six weeks or whatever. Well, that's how this pen is. So in my opinion, they've taken some steps to make it run longer. But again, that's still not enough. I needed to be blown away. Like, I don't have parameters for that, because otherwise I would make that pen. But I needed this to just be outstanding, just incredible. Like how I felt when I first picked up the Retro 51. When I first picked up the Retro 51 and put the pen to the page, I was blown away. Because it was totally unexpected. But I got with this exactly what I would have expected from this type of pen. And with the Retro 51, I got nothing like I've ever experienced with a rollerball before. You know? And that's kind of where... And it was like the first time I ever used a Lamy Safari, right? That blew me away.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, exactly. Yeah.

Lamy Fountain Pens

Myke Hurley: Because it's a fountain pen, and it's cheapish. But it's practically as good as anything up into the three-digit range. You know, you take something like the Lamy Safari, and you can go all the way up to $150 probably, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a better pen than that.

Brad Dowdy: True.

Myke Hurley: Yes. There are very, very few exceptions to that in the fountain pen realm. Something like that is just like the cornerstone of that type of pen. But this has not managed to do that in any way, and it's a real shame. And I'm so pleased that I did this rather than... Because if I would have... Basically, if I would have spent $150 on this, I would have used it, but I would have been disappointed. I would have felt like I had a bad deal.

Brad Dowdy: It sounds like a real missed opportunity by Parker, to be honest. I mean, I don't know what their expectations were, manufacturing a pen like this and starting it out at that price range. And I guess there is one lower-priced model that you can get, one lower-priced barrel. But it sounds like it needs to be more in that $30 range barrel. And then they're probably selling, I don't know, would they sell five to one of what they're selling right now and make the same amount of money, right?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it should have been the other way around. So you have the really expensive one for the crazy person, like the limited edition. But it should be in their mid-range line of barrels.

Brad Dowdy: Right, because I think it sounds like it's a limited market to spend that type of money for this type of pen. I mean, if it was a fountain pen nib on this same pen barrel, I don't think any of us would really blink. You'd just say, oh, that's what it is. But when you put this type of tip on that priced barrel, a lot of people are going to question it. And I think that's what's happened.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and as I say, it's such a shame, I think, because you could even charge that amount of money for the refill. I mean, it wouldn't be great, but you could do it.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah, you keep it the same price. I mean, it wouldn't be cheap to refill, but like you said, maybe it lasts a long time. Maybe that cost would be worth it. But neither one of us are certainly going to drop that money just to test it out. So, yeah, I'm glad you just bought the refill for starters and just kind of go from there.

Myke Hurley: It was a good idea by you.

Brad Dowdy: I'm glad it worked out. I mean, you hate to be disappointed when you're spending that kind of money. And that's what I – we've talked about it before, and I call it the Mont Blanc problem. And people always ask me, give me a pen to buy for $100. I'm like, you're totally missing the point here. It doesn't work that way, right?

Brad Dowdy: You need to decide why you're buying the pen and what it's going to be used for and then determine what type of refill is going to be best for that and then figure out what kind of – and if the answer to your question happens to be a pen that's $15 and that's the best option, that's what you get. You don't just go say, I want to spend this amount of money on this pen and expect to have the perfect writing experience. I'm more concerned about the writing experience than how much I've spent on the pen.

Myke Hurley: You only really buy something like a Mont Blanc if your reason for buying the pen is to commemorate something. Exactly, and I agree with that. They're good commemoration pens. They're not necessarily the best writing instruments because there could be a – because as you said, there are many varying factors. Like I probably would say I would not expect you to be able to give me any Mont Blanc rollable and I would prefer it to the Schmidt refill and the Retro 51. I would expect that to be – because I'm working in the type of world that I work, I see lots of Mont Blanc pens and I see the lines that they put down and I know that I'm not going to like them. Right. Because they, to me, just look like a Parker rollable or an insert rollable name here, right? It's just anything. Right. But the line that the – I mean it's more of a liquid than – it's more like a liquid ink that comes out of the Schmidt. So it's more – it sort of bridges a gap there. It's an interesting refill and it's because of that refill is why I love the pen so much. Because as I said, like when I've used – I've used a couple of Retro 51 products that have not come with that refill built in and I have found them to be fun but they've not been mainstays. There's only been one where I've not been – well, there's actually been two that I've not been able to change the refill in for varying reasons and I've not used them for extended periods of time.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep. No, I agree. I agree completely. So good. I'm glad you got that taken care of, if you will.

Myke Hurley: Indeed. So you had – Scratched off the list. As they say. Have you got – you've got something you want to talk about today as well, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, just one other really small topic actually.

Pilot Easy Touch

Brad Dowdy: One of my favorite pens that I've used in the past couple of years and I guess it came out in Japan a couple of years ago is the Pilot Acroball. And a lot of people have heard me talk about it over the years and reviewed different models of it. And what it is, for those who aren't familiar with it, it's basically a hybrid ballpoint ink pen similar to the Uniball Jetstream. Uniball was way ahead of the game when they invented the Jetstream hybrid ballpoint ink. It's smoother. It was waterproof. It didn't smear. All kinds of good properties that normal ballpoint pens didn't have. Then every other major manufacturer didn't have anything like this. Pilot didn't have anything. Pentel, Zebra, you name it. No one could compete with the Jetstream. Then all of a sudden about two years ago, everyone decided to compete with the Jetstream. I mean, Pilot came out with the Acroball. Pentel came out with the Vicuna. Zebra came out with the Sorari. And all these came out in Japan, by the way. This wasn't a U.S. thing. We're not as fortunate as our Japanese friends to get all the front-end new pen technology. But the Acroball came out. I had a reader pick me one up in Japan. And she was nice enough to send it to me when she got back. And it knocked my socks off for a ballpoint ink. It was better than the Jetstream. It's a really good writing pen, 0.7 millimeters, fine line, super smooth, clean, everything. Loved it. So then that line kind of exploded. And JetPens started carrying them and doing a little bit of research. Pilot actually manufactured a pen in the U.S. that used this type of ink. It was called the Pilot Easy Touch Pro.

Brad Dowdy: And so I went to the – you can just find those at Staples or something. So I went to the store and purchased one. It only came in 1.0 millimeters. But it was nice. It was good ink and everything. The problem with Pilot at that time is I don't think they marketed it as a Jetstream competitor.

Myke Hurley: Such a bad name as well. Easy Touch Pro. It doesn't even make sense.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I have a huge complaint about this. I mean I have a rant on this. So they have a Pilot Easy Touch. It's a base ballpoint. It's the kind you would find in dozens in the office supply cabinet. Just a completely nondescript disposable ballpoint pen that doesn't write very well at all. It's just – it's the lowest of the low end. It's called the Pilot Easy Touch. Well, then they come out with a Pilot Easy Touch Pro and they change the barrel design. But they don't really differentiate. They made a pin, two pins with the same Easy Touch name and put two absolutely different inks in the pin that perform differently and everything. I've never seen a manufacturer do that. But if you have the Uniball Sino, you can buy the Uniball Sino Premier. It's a nicer barrel, but it's the same ink, same refill, same everything. You buy a Pilot G2 Limited or whatever. It's the exact same refill, exact same everything. You buy a Pilot Easy Touch and you buy a Pilot Easy Touch Pro. They're completely different. But if you've ever used the Easy Touch, you would just think you're getting a little bit nicer barrel in the Pro when you're actually getting a hugely improved ink. So they did a bad job differentiating those and marketing that the ink was better and different in the Easy Touch Pro. Plus, the pin was kind of ugly. The Easy Touch is ugly to begin with. The Easy Touch Pro was a little bit of a step up. But again, they didn't differentiate them.

Brad Dowdy: So when I did my Field Notes Expedition Edition review and was talking about what pins work good, I was saying how good the hybrid inks like the Jetstream work. And, well, Pilot on Twitter tweeted me. They said, hey, the Pilot Downforce, which is their pressurized refill ballpoint, and the Acroball should work really well in there too. I was like, you know what? You're right. Those pins are perfect for the Expedition. So I got to talking with Pilot and I asked him, I said, when's the Acroball coming to the U.S.? Because, I mean, I know you have the Easy Touch Pro, but it's not the same. It's just not done as nicely as the Acroball as I can get from Japan. And they're actually coming out in March of this year, and they sent me some in the mail. So I got a handful of them, and I'm happy to say they are essentially the exact Japanese version that I've been using. And anyone else who has bought the Acroball over the years has been using the same barrel design. It's different barrel colors to differentiate them. It's more of a white-based barrel with, you know, different colored accents, you know, blue and green and pink. But it's all black ink, but just different highlights in the barrel.

Brad Dowdy: But the barrel design, and most importantly, the barrel grip, which is one of the best grips I've ever used in any disposable type pin, is identical to the Japanese version. So I think once these launch in March in the U.S., I think they will do pretty well. Because I'm a huge fan of the Acroball, and I'm glad to see Pilot bringing these over. I hate that it's, you know, it's probably been two years, if not more, that, you know, there's been a Japanese version. All of us pin fans who, you know, read Pin Addict and shop at JetPins, we've been using this pin for years. And I don't know, I won't profess to know how the businesses work between Pilot and Japan, and when, how does it have to be a certain amount of success, reach a certain amount of success in Japan before they'll even consider it, bring it to the U.S. I don't know why these markets are so different to where that we, in the U.S., doesn't get the same pin for two or three years later than Japan. But, you know, maybe I can get Pilot on here one day to explain that to me. And I'm pretty sure I would be disappointed with the answer, so I probably shouldn't even try.

Myke Hurley: Mr. Dowdy, have you ever heard the term test market? Yeah. Let me tell you all about our Japanese test markets.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, well, but, I mean, I know the mentality is different in the way stationery is used in Japan and here. So I understand why things work there that don't necessarily work here, but I want that mentality changed here, you know. It's, we're stuck in the office supply cabinet mentality here, you know. They, manufacturers here want to bulk sell cheap pins to office, offices, you know. They don't want to innovate and do something new and neat because the offices won't buy a pin that costs, you know, 50% more than the, they're not going to buy a box of 12 that costs 50% more than the box of 12 they've been buying, you know.

Brad Dowdy: So that's my mini rant. But anyway, I just wanted to share that news that, you know, Pilot did tweet me that the real, legitimate Acroball is coming to the U.S. here in March. And I've got some samples and I think they've probably sent some to some other bloggers. So you'll probably see some reviews coming soon on this, on this new Acroball. I don't know that I'll do just a pure review on it, but I'll take some pictures and post them because it's, it's a good looking pin. And they, they, they did an excellent job and credit to Pilot for finally getting the Acroball and hopefully they can kick the EasyTouch Pro to the curb because that's kind of a worthless, worthless entry in my mind.

Myke Hurley: But, but, um, did the pen companies do a lot of blogger outreach?

Brad Dowdy: They've started to. You'll, you'll notice like, you'll see kind of a batch of reviews from a lot of the, around the pen blogosphere on the same product. And you'll know that, you know, there's been some outreach there, you know, hey, we've got this new product coming or, you know, do y'all want to do some reviews. So, you know, I've done several things that, you know, you'll see three or four or five other pen bloggers review all in the same, you know, kind of few week period. Everyone getting, kind of giving their opinion on their new product. I mean, it's not huge. I don't, it's not like I get emails every day or every week, even, um, sometimes not even every month. But, you know, there, there is some, there is a lot of outreach. Um, there's a lot that, um, I, I do some of it. I don't do all of it. Um, I don't know. It's just, I, I don't have as much time as I used to. And, and, you know, I just try to, you know, pick out some of the products that I like that I think some of the readers are like. And, you know, I'll, I'll accept some, you know, some, some products from some of these vendors. And, you know, sometimes I'll review them. Sometimes I run, I tell them up front that, you know, if you're sending this to me to, one, get a guaranteed review and to have that review be positive, you're, you're talking to the wrong person. Um, you can, you're more than welcome to send me anything you want, but, you know, I'm either a going to review it if I see fit. And two, if it sucks, I'm going to say it sucks.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, you know, so here's my address. Feel free to send it. Those are my terms. So anyway, I'm, I'm getting off subject here, but yeah, you're starting to see some, a little bit more outreach than before. Or it's not, um, it's not a huge push thing because see, you're going to get me on another rant now. It's not a huge thing because pen manufacturers in the U.S. aren't that innovative. Right. I mean, there's, there's, what are you, what is Uniball going to send me?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Good point. Good point.

Uniball Vision Elite

Brad Dowdy: You know, I mean, and they're probably my favorite U.S. manufacturer. I love all their pens, but I mean, what are they going to send me? They're not coming up with anything new. That's interesting.

Myke Hurley: Which is a shame.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, they did the, uh, I think it was the BLX models that they did in the Uniball Vision Elite where they, they mixed the color inks. Like they did a green and black and a purple and black. You know, they did like a darker inks. Um, I mean, that was, that was cool. I enjoyed that. I haven't reviewed those pens yet, but those are nice. But I mean, you know, I don't know what these manufacturers are going to send me just because they're not coming out with that much interesting stuff.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, new colors isn't, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Right. I mean, Zebra, Zebra has brought, Zebra came out with the Surari as one of the hybrid inks, you know, in the, in the same categories, the Jetstream and Acroball. Right. And it was a really good, they marketed in, in Japan really well and has a really nice name while I was in Staples a couple months ago. And it's now in the U.S. But they market it as the Zebra, Zeemulsion ballpoint. I mean, it's just, it's just tragic to, to see that the U.S. has to be marketed to that way. It's just such a horrible name and it's ridiculous. Listen, no one knows what you're talking about or how this pen differentiates, you know, call it, you know, the Zebra Surari and then explain why this is a good pen. Then it just looks and sounds ridiculous.

Myke Hurley: What does Zeemulsion even mean?

Brad Dowdy: It's the emulsion, the emulsion ink properties of the, of the pen. And, which is, it's the same, it's in the same category as the Jetstream and the Acroball. It's, you know, that hybrid ballpoint ink. And it's, it's, you know, it, it stinks because it's a nice pen. I mean, it's, it's a good pen, but man, I don't, I don't know. Look what you did, Myke.

Myke Hurley: I know. I'm sorry.

Brad Dowdy: You've got me all wound up now. Now I want another hour of the podcast to just go off. Cause I, yeah.

Myke Hurley: You'll get that next week.

Brad Dowdy: No one's, no one's going to send me anything anymore because I just, I, I don't complain. I just, I don't understand. And you know what? They apparently know better than me. I'm just a guy with a blog and a microphone, but it's really frustrating sometimes. It just, I just shake my head. I just don't get it. I really don't sometimes.

Myke Hurley: Well, let's, let's put a lid on it for today so you can go calm down.

Brad Dowdy: All right. I need a drink.

Myke Hurley: Okay. You do that. So you can find that Brad, dad. You can find dad, dad, dad, broudy.

Brad Dowdy: I couldn't be your dad. We're not that far off.

Myke Hurley: So you can find my father. You can find him at penaddict.com. You can find him. He is dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M on Twitter. Dowdy on app.net. I am iMike, I-M-Y-K-E and all of those places too. Thank you very much for listening to this week's episode of the Pen Addict. I'm Brad. I'm Brad and he's Myke. It's all gone. The wheels have fallen off. And I'm Myke. Until next time. Bye-bye. Bye.