The Pen Addict 10/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	10
Title:	The Major Haul
Release Date:	April 18th, 2012
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 10
Audio File:	Audio Episode 10
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 10
Length:	3838 min <br />0.633 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to The Pen Addict podcast, your weekly source for pens and paper and the analogue tools that we love so dearly. My name is Myke Hurley, but I am joined, as always, by your host, The Pen Addict himself, Mr. Brad Dowdy. Hello, sir.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, Myke, how's it going?

Myke Hurley: Very well, sir. How are you?

Brad Dowdy: Good, good. Doing very good. Watching it rain out my office window, so it's enjoyable for a change.

Myke Hurley: Oh, cool. And we're releasing a day early this week. Yes, we are. We're releasing on a Wednesday instead of a Thursday. How metaphor is that?

Brad Dowdy: It'll be a surprise, surprise recording.

Myke Hurley: Exactly. And that reminds me, I must remember to mention to you about next week. I don't know if we're going to have a show next week.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: Because I will be on a plane.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Not a problem. We'll be sure to tweet it out to all the listeners. We'll give a status update mid-next week on what our recording status is. How's that sound?

Myke Hurley: We might be able to try and fit something in. Because I fear that we're going to start getting people out of doors with pitchforks. Because, yet again, we're not talking about digital.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I know. And we have to. But we had a little exception this week. And we mentioned it last week. I took a little road trip over the weekend. And we thought that might be a good topic for this week's podcast. So, again, the digital episode got pushed back.

Atlanta Penn Show

Myke Hurley: So, I remember last week we said that we would only talk about the Atlanta Penn Show, which you visited over the weekend, if you spent a ton of money. Otherwise, we just wouldn't have spoken about it at all. So, the fact that this episode is about the Atlanta Penn Show means that you spent a ton of money.

Brad Dowdy: Well, we won't say a ton of money, but I definitely spent everything I had budgeted. I figured I was going to blow the entire budget or I was going to spend zero. It was kind of how it was going to go. And, you know, fortunately, I found some things I was looking for, some things I wasn't looking for that I still had budget for. And, you know, it was pretty cool. It's my first Penn Show. And, you know, I kind of had a general idea of what it might be like. But not ever having been to one, I wasn't sure. You know, my expectations going into it was that there'd be a lot of vintage pens, a lot of classic pens, a lot of classic fountain pens, you know, the majority of them. And then there'd be a lot of the nicer, higher end, new fountain pens and new roller balls. You know, the, I don't know what the proper term is for them, but, you know, the more executive or collector type, you know, the two, three, $400 fountain pens and roller balls, you know, that you see with all the nice hand painting or the gold inlays or whatever, you know, all the bling type pens that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, the ones that weigh like two ton.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, that I personally have zero interest in, that type of stuff. I also, at this point, and I'll reserve judgment, I don't have a lot of interest in classic fountain pens or classic writing instruments yet. That's always, that's always subject to change. That's just not in my, you know, not in my thought process right now. So, you know, going into the show, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to find the types of things I was looking for. Sure. And I'd say, you know, the, the pen shows just like, you know, if you've ever been to like a hotel ballroom or conference rooms or something, they had two big conference rooms set up with dealers and, you know, all their wares out. And it was, I say it was probably 75% vintage, classic, and then like the higher end writing instruments. Okay. So, you know, I'm walking around, I'm like, you know, these are nice. It's not really, you know, up my alley, but I had a few things in mind. And, you know, we've talked in the past about kind of like a, not necessarily a Holy Grail pen, but if there was one fountain pen that I wanted, that's been on my wish list for a year or two, is the, the pilot vanishing point, the black matte one. And, you know, it's, it's the full black and, and, you know, black clip, black plunger, you know, the, the nib is, is, is, it's gold. It's a gold plated nib. So it's silver. It looks sharp. And, and, you know, I've held off and held off and held off. And I was pretty sure I would be able to find one there because it's a relatively recent pen. And, you know, most new pen dealers, you know, will, will have some type of stock of, of the vanishing point. And sure enough, I came home with one. So, uh, that's.

Myke Hurley: I was looking up, I was, because I've been, probably since we started doing the show, I've been talking about the possibility of a vanishing point because it's a fountain pen that's retractable. And that just seems very exciting to me. But the pilot also do something called capless, right?

Brad Dowdy: Right. It's the same premise. I, I, there's a pilot capless, a pilot decimo, and the pilot vanishing point. They're all the similar functionality. I, I can't, I don't know the differences, what makes each one named differently. Um, I, I do know that the vanishing point for whatever reason are the lower end of the price spectrum. Um, if you looked at the capless or the decimo, they're maybe 25% more expensive. That's just ballpark guessing. I, I don't know why. I don't know if it's some of the barrel materials or things like that. Um, although some of the vanishing points are, are kind of around the same price. So I don't know if that's a regional thing. You know how we've talked in the past, some pens are named one way in one region and one way or in another region. You know, the pilot, uh, Namiki brand is, you know, originally a Japanese brand. So there might be some branding type things going on there.

Myke Hurley: Right. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: It's the same general concept of a pen of the pen.

Pilot Vanishing Point

Myke Hurley: So, so the vanishing point is, you know, so named because it has the vanishing point, right? So the, the fountain pen is retractable. It's a rocker style pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I want you to listen to it. Cause this, this is right up your alley.

Myke Hurley: Oh yes. That's kidding me. You're just murdering me.

Brad Dowdy: It's really strong and sturdy, you know, mechanism. I mean, it's thunk. I mean, it's, it's, it's a good one.

Myke Hurley: No, I'm going to assume that you went with the fine.

Brad Dowdy: I did. I did. Absolutely. That, that was easy. There wasn't even any consideration on, on medium or broad, um, which were the majority of the options. You know, one of the dealers were going through and it's like medium. Medium, medium, medium, medium. Oh, here's a fine. You know, it's like, it's one of those things.

Myke Hurley: But you get a bit worried.

Brad Dowdy: Nah, nah. There were a couple of choices and, you know, they're all, you know, everyone there pretty much prices, prices similarly. So, and you know, I will say this is, this is far and away the most expensive pen I've ever bought. I think it probably at least by double. I'm guessing.

Myke Hurley: It's not cheap.

Brad Dowdy: It's not cheap. You know, I think I got it. You know, I bought a few other things from the same vendor. So I've got a tiny, tiny discount. I think I, I told someone on Twitter, I paid about 135 US dollars for it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So you've got a tiny discount.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And that's pretty much what they go for. You know, like on jet pins, they're 140. I mean, that's a completely fair price. You know, some people were selling for higher than that at the show. And then some of the other, like the capitalist and decimos were up like 175, you know, 200 range. Um, and I don't, like I said before, I don't know what makes those more expensive, but it didn't matter because this was the one that I wanted. And, um, just really because of the looks and, um, and I, I was fairly certain I was going to like the nib and I do. I mean, the, uh, retractable mechanism's great. I, um, I couldn't wait to get it home that day. And I got home and started messing around with how to, um, you know, how to fill it. And, you know, I was following the directions in the box and I started writing away and, you know, I got, you know, 10 or 20 lines into it. I'm going good. Then all of a sudden it kind of petered out on me, the, the ink. And I was like, hmm, maybe I didn't do it. You know, I'm not, I'm not experienced at filling, you know, uh, cartridge or in this case is a non cartridge pin. This is a plunger converter that comes with this. It comes with a cartridge, but I was adamant on using the, um, the converter that came with it. Well, you know, I've, I went to Twitter and I got, I got a bunch of good responses and actually figured it out to get a better fill, um, for the, for the cartridge. Um, so, you know, I've done a little bit better job there, but as I kept reading and kept reading, this is one of the few pins where people actually use a cartridge more than the converter, just because this is a pin that's used a lot, right? I mean, it's, it's designed to be, you know, it's got the clip and the retractability so you can carry it around and use it. So a lot of the things I read, people weren't getting enough ink even to make it through the day sometimes, um, with this pin. So what they'll do is use the cartridge that comes with it and then just syringe refill the cartridge with their ink of choice and just keep using the same cartridge over and over and over again.

Myke Hurley: Well, could you not just find a good cartridge? I mean, did they not exist, Brad? The good cartridges?

Brad Dowdy: You're limited, right? Number one, you're limited by design. Um, the Pilot Namiki cartridge is different than, in design than, like, you know, we talk about short international cartridges that fit, you know, the Kawekos and several other brands. There's not many non-Pilot cartridges that fit, um, the Vanishing Point, if any. I don't know of any. There might be some, um, offhand that I'm unaware of. So that's, limits you to six colors right there. I mean, I think it's black, blue, brown, red, green, and purple, something like that.

Brad Dowdy: So, you know, the black's a good choice and I'll, I'll probably, you know, order some cartridges. But in the end, I'll probably use those cartridges to refill it with something else. Like, I had a bottle of Pelican, Pelican Brilliant Black that I was trying to use for this. So, we'll see. That's, that's, that's to be determined. We'll see how that goes down the line. Um, I'm, I'm still reading a lot about this pen. Um, just because there's a lot of different options. You know, there's two different converters it takes and then there's the, the cartridge refill, um, filling it with a syringe that, um, I'm going to look into. I don't know which way I'm going to go yet.

Myke Hurley: Because it, it looks like from what I can see on jet pens that it comes with a CON50 converter, which is what I have for my Pereira. Um, and as, as I said before, the Pereira was playing up a little bit, but since has been fine.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: I think that's more me than, than, uh, than anything else, to be honest.

CON20 Converter

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I have the CON20 in my Pereira, which will fit the, uh, vanishing point also, which is supposed to be better for the vanishing point even than the, the CON50 converter that it came with. Based on what I was reading, I haven't tried it out for myself. It should hold a little bit more ink and should be a little bit easier to fill and suck in the ink. So, yeah, I have, I'm going to try that converter probably next and then I'll probably think about doing the, the cartridge, uh, the cartridge dance with it and see. But I mean, a lot of people do the cartridge method, but still use whichever ink they prefer.

Myke Hurley: Is it because the cartridges can take more ink than the converter?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Right.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. That explains it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm, I'm recalling this off of something I read off the top of my head. But I think the cartridge holds about 1.1 milliliters and the CON50 about 0.7. Right. So, so there's almost a 50% difference in, in actual, that doesn't sound like a large number, but in actual ink, it's about 50% more.

Myke Hurley: So do you just use a standard syringe for that?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I was, the ones I read were using like a, a wide gauge needle, like a 18 gauge, which is a really wide needle. And they even had some of them with like, you can buy some with like ink refilling kits.

Brad Dowdy: You know, I, I started looking at that. I didn't get too deep into it, but there's like a 18 gauge needle with like a blunt nose, you know, so you're not stabbing yourself. You know, that sucks it up, um, pretty easily. And then people also use, um, like the ink jet cartridge refill kits. There's a syringe that comes with those to fill your little, your little printer cartridges. And people say, you know, they use those with, without, uh, any trouble. So I was watching videos on how to clean out ink cartridges with syringes and refill them and all that stuff. That's what I was doing all day, all yesterday afternoon. I haven't done any of that yet, but I'm just trying to get some ideas here because, uh, this, this might be my go-to pen. This might be, this might be the one for me.

Myke Hurley: What, like out of everything?

Brad Dowdy: Maybe. I mean, still to be determined, to be determined. Well, so far I'm really pleased with it. I like the feel and I like the build. You know, when I first saw this pen years and years ago, not necessarily the black mat, just the vanishing point, I was like, there is no way I'm going to buy a pen or use a pen where I'm gripping it in where the clip of the pen is in between my fingers. But, you know, the way I grip the pen, you don't even notice it's there. And everything else about the pen outweighs, weighs that, you know, I, I, when I first started the pen act, I would never imagined I would have enjoyed a pen like this and now it might be my favorite pen, but we got to give that some time before I'm ready to proclaim that. So.

Myke Hurley: You're aware of what you've just done to me, right? You know what I've done. Yeah, I know.

Brad Dowdy: I know, I know.

Myke Hurley: Because I've been talking about this pen for a while. I know. And now, I, I, I may just buy one like very soon.

Brad Dowdy: I'm really going to get in trouble after this episode.

Myke Hurley: Because I've been holding off, right? Because it's, it's, it's like five times the amount of my most expensive pen that I've purchased, right? It took. This is something that, I mean, Sammy doesn't listen to this show, my other half, because she's not a pen addict. Right. And I would never tell her how much it's been cost.

Brad Dowdy: That's exactly right. That's exactly right.

Myke Hurley: Because that's expensive. It's expensive. You know. It is. It's very expensive. And when you're looking at those sort of prices, people are expecting to see a Mont Blanc or something like that, right? They're expecting to see a name that they know, not Pilot. Right. You know? Like, I'm going to talk in a bit about a Pilot that I'm using that cost me £2.50 today. Right. I think that's what people assume Pilot to be. But it's because of the Namiki brand that you mentioned, right? Which Pilot seems to have taken.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, that's exactly right. And I don't, I don't know the whole lineage there, but that's, that's exactly right. And, you know, I mean.

Myke Hurley: It's a great looking box as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's really cool. And it actually, it kind of floats there.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: In the middle of the box. And it's like this cellophane, it's not really cellophane. It's like a thicker cellophane. So actually, when you open it, when you separate the two sides, the pen like rolls out. But when you close it, it kind of just grabs it and holds it and floats it there in the middle. It's not like a molded insert.

Myke Hurley: Oh, awesome.

Brad Dowdy: It was kind of different. I don't know how to explain that. But, but yeah, back to the cost of this pen, it, it took me over a year, maybe a year and a half to finally pull the trigger on this pen because it's very expensive. And the scariest part about it is relative to a lot of the other pens at the pen show, this was probably on the lower end.

Myke Hurley: I'm not surprised.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And which is why, you know, I only spent a couple hours there and, you know, kind of looking through everything and getting it just because, you know, the rest of the stuff's not really in my price range or in my, or on my wish list or one list. It's not something I would enjoy writing with, you know, the three or $400, you know, gold plated gold nib pens are not my thing. This is a, you know, despite the cost, it's a more practical pen. And, you know, it's, it's going to go in my pocket or in my shirt or, you know, in my backpack to work whenever I find a job.

Brad Dowdy: It's, it's going to leave. It's, I've said it a hundred times probably already on the show. I'm, I'm 99% of the time. The pens that I purchase are pens that I will feel comfortable leaving the house with. You know, I'm not a collector of pens. I'm not starting a pen museum in my home. I'm using these instruments and I want to use them. And, um, you know, so there is a, a line of demarcation there that, you know, is probably not going to be crossed for a very, very long time and without very good reason.

Nib Sizes

Myke Hurley: Now the, the vanishing point, the nib sizes, are they Japanese sizes?

Brad Dowdy: Yes, this is real, really fine. I, I, I broke out my re-inked my Prera, um, on Sunday so I could get a good feel because that's the one we've talked about how, uh, how final line it writes. And, uh, it, it's pretty much spot on the same as the Prera F nib. So yeah, it's, it writes very fine.

Myke Hurley: So maybe I would be better off of a broad.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, broader. Or, or, yeah, I haven't really tried the medium.

Myke Hurley: Because I have the medium, um, Prera. Yeah. And I feel like I would like it to be a little thicker.

Brad Dowdy: Really? Okay. So yeah, then probably the broad.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because as I said before, as much as I love the Prera, it can be a bit scratchy for me. Okay. Um, so the broad might be an interesting experiment. Although then the, my, the, like the angel on my shoulder is saying to me, do you want to experiment with a pen at that price?

Brad Dowdy: I know, right? Right.

Myke Hurley: But I can't imagine that the vanishing point broad is going to be any thicker than the Lamy medium. So, and the Lamy medium is great for me. I love it. So yeah, we're, we've spent far too much time as I assume talking about that. Yeah. The vanishing point. What else did you, did you, did you pick up while at the Atlanta pen show?

Brad Dowdy: Well, you go to a pen show, you think you're going to come home with dozens of pens and all kinds of cool stuff. I came home with two pens. Not at those prices, Brad. Yeah, I know. But still, you know, going into it, you know, you're like, Oh, I'm going to get all kinds of stuff. You know, I, I will say one, one general comment on, on the show, but, and I'll tell you about the other pen that I got. I was looking to see, you know, whether the brands would be in my price range that I might find something different that I don't already have. So I was thinking, you know, um, Lammy, Kaweco, and, um, I was actually looking for a Twisby, which we haven't talked about on this show before, but it's a good mid-level, um, quality or entry-level quality fountain pen. I didn't lay eyes on one Kaweco or one Twisby in the entire show. Um, I would have liked to come home with something, uh, of one of those two pens that I did not have already, but I didn't even see one that I already had. I saw none period. So I thought that was kind of odd. Um, uh, I did see plenty of Lamys there though. So they were well represented. The other pen I came home with was a surprise purchase. Um, I just happened to see it. It wasn't anything on any kind of list, shopping list I had or anything like that. But, um, you know, I've talked about how I'm a big fan of, uh, the Rotring pens. They do, uh, and, and Luke, our friend Lucas, who sent me the audio file on how to pronounce Lois term, which I still probably butchered. He sent me on another audio file for Rotring and I'm not even going to come close to his pronunciation. He's really got it good. I mean, there's a, there's a lot going on in that, in that, uh, the first syllable there that I can't even handle. So I'm going to go with Rotring. It's about as good as I'm going to be able to get at Lucas. And, uh, so, but I came home with a, uh, Rotring roller ball, uh, Rotring 600 roller ball, excuse me, which is a big, sturdy, heavy black hexagonal barrel roller ball. Um, I mean, it's, it's, it's heavy duty. This is the click when you put the cap on the top. Well, hang on. No, that wasn't it. Hang on.

Brad Dowdy: So, I mean, that's kind of the on and off. I mean, it's a, it's a heavy duty monster of a pen. And it's actually really heavy to write with, with the cap posted. Um, this might be one I have to, um, write with the cap unposted. Um, but I believe, and I'll, I'll get corrected if I'm wrong. So I'm never afraid of being wrong. I don't think this is in production anymore. This is, I guess what they consider new old stock. You know, it's a brand new pen, you know, fresh in the box and with fresh refill and everything, but it's not manufactured anymore.

Rotring 600

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: And I saw it. And at first I asked the guy, cause I just saw Rotring 600 there. I said, is that the fountain pen? Cause I knew they made a fountain pen. And if they had one of those, I was like, Whoa, I'm definitely getting that. And he said it was a roller ball. And, um, the price was right. Um, you know, I did a little quick internet research cause I didn't have a, you know, I had my iPhone with me, but I didn't, wasn't aware of what this pen should go for. And this guy was selling them. He had about five of them and he was selling them for $65. And I went and looked online and I couldn't find one less for less than like 125 or 145. So I went back and picked one of these up. So just to have, I, it's a pen I've heard a lot about. Um, it's pretty cool. It, uh, like I said, it's very heavy, very sturdy. It, the best part about it is it takes a pretty standard size refill. It's a Schmidt refill. I don't have the model number. I'll have to separate the pen and look at it, but it's, it's a basic refill that I'll be able to try. I'm actually pretty happy with the refill that it came with. It writes, it's a, it's a 0.7, but it writes pretty, pretty thin and very smooth. So, you know, if I run it out, I'll switch refills, but I'm not going to have any problem refilling this pen. And, uh, I'm really happy with it. You could, uh, it, I'm gonna have to weigh this thing cause it's, it's really substantial. Definitely weighs more than the vanishing point.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. So, cause it's, it's metal, right? And the vanishing point is plastic, I guess. No, it's metal. Or is it metal? It doesn't look it. That's nice. It is. That looks, that's going to be a very good, cause the matte finish looks really, really attractive. So to think that's metal, that surprises me. That's even more intriguing.

Brad Dowdy: I'll see if I can figure out what, what metal it is. I'll have to see if it's aluminum. Did I say it right? Yeah, pretty much.

Myke Hurley: Pretty much. Well done.

Brad Dowdy: I'll have to see if, I'll have to see if it's an aluminum barrel or brass, but it's off. It's, it's lightweight, but, um, it's, it's definitely metal. I'll have to see which kind of it is. But, um, that, that, that, those were the two pins I came home with from the, the big grand pin show. Um, you know, I, I, I did buy, one thing it was lacking in was ink variety. I was hoping to get some Noodlers ink just to try some different colors. Not a single person had any Noodlers. Um, there wasn't even any, uh, Diamine or Diamine or D-a-mine that I could find to purchase. Um, there was some Monteverdi ink. Um, I did buy one bottle of Private Reserve with this really deep, dark blue called, uh, what, uh, Electric DC Blue, something like that. Um, that was, uh, that, that's what I actually refilled my prayer in. Um, it's a really dark, deep blue. That's very, very nice. It's not a blue black, but it's a dark blue and then it, it came out very nice. And also, you know, I bought a few of the Rodia Unlimited. They're kind of like a pocket notebook with a band on it. Kind of take your, take your field notes notebook and kind of double the thickness of it. You know, page wise, it's something like that. And it's got a little band on the cover. So, you know, the quantity I did not come home with, but the, uh, quality was off the charts. So I was real happy with my pin show experience and, uh, you know, and I did see some other pins that I put on the wishlist, um, for, for down the line that were a lot more expensive than I thought too. So we'll have to see what, uh, what'll be next in, in the, the big line of fountain pins for me. Cause it's becoming a problem.

Myke Hurley: See, the pen show seems to have been successful for you and unsuccessful for the rest of us because now we all need to spend far too much money.

Brad Dowdy: No, I know. Just be, just be patient. Be patient. Think about it.

Cheap Purchases

Myke Hurley: Now, I, I do have a couple of, um, purchases that I've made, but they're, they're actually quite cheap purchases and which I'm going to talk about a minute. But before we do that, we do have a sponsor again this week. Um, we are sponsored again this week by Instacast for iOS, which is a podcast catcher, pod catcher, podcast playing application. Um, honored to be sponsored again by an application that I love so much. Um, you know, for anybody that's listening to this show, I would like to think that by now they've gone out and checked out Instacast at least because it is an absolutely fantastic application. Um, it is one that I use daily. Um, and I wouldn't, I can't really imagine wanting to use another application or another system to download podcasts. Instacast does everything so perfectly for me and it's just become part of my daily routine. Um, it's an application that I use so frequently in my iPhone that I can't imagine moving devices. It's one of those apps that I'm so used to, um, and use so often. And I'm so, you know, just so invested in that to move to like say an Android phone where Instacast doesn't belong. I don't think, I think that's one of the apps that would stop me from doing it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think very, very much so. I'm, I don't know if you're like me, but you know, I, I tend to, you know, I always like to download my episodes. I don't, I don't necessarily stream them when I leave the house, even though I can, I get mad when I forget to sync and, and, and download all the latest episodes before I leave the house. And I get in the car, I'm like, Oh, I didn't sync up all my, I don't have all the latest episodes in there. You know, because I, that's one thing when I drove to Atlanta, it's only about an hour and a half for me. You know, one of the first things I did in the morning was went over to my phone, synced Instacast. So I made sure I had all the most recent podcasts in my list. And I listened to, um, one on the way up there and, you know, I think two on the way back. So, um, it's, it's almost an everyday app for me. And I don't know if you know, I'm sure you noticed it, that I was actually surprised with the feedback we got after last episode. We're talking about it. People are like, wow, I've never heard of that. This is where, where have I been? You know, what rock have I been living under? Cause this is an awesome app. So it was a real positive feedback on it. And you should definitely check it out. If, um, you know, you listen to podcasts at all. This is a, a real no brainer.

Myke Hurley: Exactly. So if you haven't yet checked out Instacast, really you should. Um, it comes with mine and Brad's seal of approval for sure. Very much so. You can do that by going to Vemedio, which is V E M E D I O.com. forward slash Instacast. I'll click the link in the show notes and it will take you straight to the app store. It's only one 99.

Myke Hurley: So I did say that I wasn't going to make any large purchases and I haven't made any large purchases, but I did today need to buy a new Moskin notebook for, for the day job because I've run out. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: So I went and picked. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm going to stop you right here. You don't have 50 notebooks in your closet. Like I do that. You can just go pick from, you actually use one all the way through, then go to the store and buy a new one.

Myke Hurley: The, of the Moleskines. Yes. I mean, I have a big stack of field notes books. And I have, I basically have a, like a stack of eight working Moskins for the shows and a couple of field notes, but I don't stock up on the Moleskines too much. I tend to have a lot of the smaller notebooks, but for work, I like to have one of the, like the medium size Moskin journals. I got a soft cover because I remember we were talking about a soft cover. I love the soft cover ones. I don't know why I don't buy more of them. Yeah. Hopefully this weekend, I'm going to be my co-host on the bro show, Terry. He's going to a new arts and crafts store that's opened in Soho in London. Okay. And they, they've got a stocking of the Lego Moleskines. Oh. So I'm going to get a couple of those. I'll put those in the show notes because if you haven't seen the Lego Moleskines, they're so awesome.

Brad Dowdy: Those are so cool.

Myke Hurley: They've got like a little Lego block embedded into the cover. I know. So you can put Lego on it. How great is that?

Brad Dowdy: You can build right off the cover. It's a trip.

Stationery

Myke Hurley: But so obviously any, if I have to walk into anywhere that sells stationary, I have to take a look around. And I was just sort of rifling through and picking up a couple of things that interested me. One of them, and this is one, a pen that I'm actually very impressed with is a Pilot High Tech V5RT. High Tech Point V5RT. It's a great little pen. It's one of the, it's a needle, what is it, a needle tip, but it's retractable, which I thought was pretty cool. Because the only, I mean, I've used Pilot Needle Point pens in the past and I've always really enjoyed them. But they've usually been with caps and the retractable one I quite like. It's a liquid ink and it writes very smooth and I've actually been using it for most of the day today. And I've been enjoying it very much. It was actually a worthy purchase. It's a pen that I would happily sort of have on me and it's a pen that I wouldn't mind using but also wouldn't mind giving to others to use. Right. Which we always say is an important thing. You know, I don't want to be handing over the Lamy. I don't want to be handing over the Retro 51. Yeah, that's exactly right. One, I don't mind passing to somebody, but also using myself.

Myke Hurley: So that's, I do recommend that one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, now have you written with that one in your Moleskine? Mm-hmm. That's one of the best Moleskine pens that I recommend.

Myke Hurley: Very comfortable.

Brad Dowdy: And the liquid ink and the Moleskine paper are a good match. In the US, that pen's called the Pilot Precise V5 RT.

Brad Dowdy: And like I said, people always, you know, what's a good pen for my Moleskine? That one is awesome. It's liquid ink, but it doesn't bleed or feather and it goes on very smooth. It handles, you know, the Moleskine paper is notoriously ornery with some inks. And that one, it's no issue. It's probably just about the number one Moleskine pen out there, in my opinion.

Myke Hurley: And since getting the 51, I've become quite obsessed with knockers and pens. Like, it's becoming a thing now where this is something that I want. I want retractable pens. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I know it's like a twist for the Retro 51, but it's... I like having the retractable nature. I like not having to have a cap. And just quickly before I go on, we've received so much feedback about the Retro 51. Yeah. Like, especially this week. So many people are buying them and...

Brad Dowdy: It's been crazy.

Myke Hurley: Because it's... I think it's because of the way that we've been talking about it. Like, it is such a great pen. But, so yeah, if you haven't, you should check that out again. There'll be a link in the show notes to the Retro 51.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and the people who have bought them and got them in was like... Have been, so far, been saying, wow, you're right. You know, and not that we're trying to be right or wrong. But, and it's hard to... It's hard to recommend a pen for someone you don't know. But that's about as safe a bet as any. And everyone that's been purchasing them and has, so far that I've seen, has been pretty ecstatic over it.

Uniball Jetstream

Myke Hurley: Indeed. I've picked up a Uniball Jetstream. Mm-hmm. I have a .7, but they had a 1.0. Yeah. I thought, I'll try that out. But I'm not very impressed.

Brad Dowdy: I agree 100%.

Myke Hurley: It's not... It's just uncomfortable to write with. It does... The ink distribution's poor. Yeah. It's not very good at all.

Brad Dowdy: And what's funny is the .7 Jetstream is one of my favorite pens, period, of any type of pen. The 1.0 Jetstream, I could never use and I would be happy. There's a big difference. That was the first Jetstream I ever tried was the 1.0. And I swore, well, I'm never going to buy these again until I found the .7. And I was like, oh, okay. This is more like it.

Myke Hurley: The 1.0 is just... It's just not a good pen at all.

Paper Mate Replay Max

Myke Hurley: I saw... We've spoken about the Friction before. Did Pilot make the Friction? Yes. I saw a Paper Mate Replay Max today. So I thought, you know, I know that some people like the Friction. And so I thought, I'll give this one a try. It's horrible. Right? It's so bad.

Brad Dowdy: I don't think I've tried that one. I can't remember.

Myke Hurley: There is just no consistency to the ink distribution.

Myke Hurley: The lines are just so peculiar. It just doesn't seem to be... Sometimes it feels like the pen's just not working. Yeah. And the eraser is worse than the Friction. Yeah. You can still see the line.

Brad Dowdy: I know. I've tried a couple other erasable pens that, you know, ever since the Friction came out. Uniball came out with two different ones. They actually came out with a Signor Erasable. And then with an actual rubber eraser, then they came out with the Uniball Phantom, which is a friction-based one. Like the Friction, nothing's in the same category as the Friction. No one's caught up to that one yet that I've seen.

Myke Hurley: And even that, we're not big fans of.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, I like it in small doses. I use them every now and then because they write well. You know, I have a hard time getting used to the light ink color. You know, the raceability works fine. It works well. People love those pens. They love the Friction. That's a huge, huge seller.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That is a big, big-time seller.

Myke Hurley: A lot of our listeners, I know, say that they like that pen.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Which is fine, but it's just not for me. Yeah. And the last pen that I picked up was kind of like a – it was on the point of sale at the checkout, so I picked it up and checked it out. And it's a Stabilo Smart Ball, which is like a part rollerball 0.5, and it's got like a stylus conductor at the end. Mm-hmm. So it's a little rubber conductor, which is actually passable as a stylus. I mean, we might talk about it a little bit more next week. Okay. But I've been using it, and it's been fine. I mean, it's not as good as my beloved Cosmonaut, but the rubber tip is actually – it's better than some of the foam tips that were around maybe when styluses sort of came onto the scene for the iPad. Sometimes it can take a couple of taps to get it to recognize something, but on the whole, it's actually quite passable for somebody who maybe wants to have a pen and stylus combination around. You know, at all times, like let's say you're like an artist or you take notes on your iPad or something, then it is actually a system you could want to use.

Pen Stylus Combos

Brad Dowdy: Okay. I'm starting to see a lot more of those – the pen stylus combos come around. I know Monteverdi makes a decent one. It's like a $30 ballpoint stylus combo. And at the pen show, there are actually a handful of other smaller ones. It's starting to become more and more prevalent. I haven't seen that still below, but I bet we'll keep seeing more pens like that hitting the market here this year.

Myke Hurley: Indeed. So, yeah, that was the kind of stuff that I picked up this week. Nothing too special. Maybe by the next time we talk, I'll plonk the money down for a vanishing point. Who knows?

Brad Dowdy: I have very little faith in myself. Oh, I have little faith in myself. I'm always scared when someone says that on one of my recommendations. They're like, oh, you're terrible. You cost me $140.

Myke Hurley: Well, see, I always knew I was going to get one. I've spoken about it for so long. It's been on my list for a while. And from like when I first, you know, I asked you in chat, I think this was before we actually started the show, but when we were planning it, I said, are there any retractable fountain pens? And you sent me, it was like this one, but it's crazy expensive.

Myke Hurley: I do have one up. I do have, before we finish, this is just a question for you and maybe we can talk about it next week. Okay. So I now feel like since using the Retro 51, which I love so dearly as I've already said in this episode and continue to say, I kind of feel like I'm a little bit spoiled for pens, like for that sort of quality experience. Because on the whole, I actually, you know, I enjoy a quality pen, you know? Right. So I think I'm going to need some recommendations for pens like that one.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: So I could be something for another time.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'll have to work on that actually because that's a, that pens in a quality and price area that does not have a lot of competition.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I mean, I'm sure that, you know, I would expect to pay a little bit more.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, there's going to be some, to get comparable to that, there's going to be a lot of some gives and some takes. And yeah, we can definitely talk about that. So that's actually a good idea.

Myke Hurley: We can add that, but definitely not on the next episode.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right.

Myke Hurley: Whenever that may be.

Brad Dowdy: We will not jump that gun again, hopefully.

Myke Hurley: Unless there's a London pen show. Although I do have to point out, I got an email from a friend of the show, I believe. I think it was Edith Robertson. Yeah, Edith Robertson sent in another note. She'd sent in some stuff about some UK pen stores. The 24th of April is National Stationery Day in the UK. Gotcha.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: So just thought I'd point that out. That's pretty cool. So we know about it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Very cool. How are you going to celebrate?

Myke Hurley: Buy lots of pens.

Myke Hurley: That's how I sort of celebrate every day.

Brad Dowdy: That's right. Hey, that's no different from any other day, right?

Online Presence

Myke Hurley: Exactly. So Brad, where can people find you online if they want to get in contact or if they want to see what you do?

Brad Dowdy: You can find me at penaddict.com. That's the blog that I run with all the pen reviews and pen chat and news and all that information. You can also email me any questions you have to thepenaddict at gmail.com. And you can find me on Twitter at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M.

Myke Hurley: Awesome. You can get in contact with us via the show as well by going to 70decibels.com forward slash contact. You can fill out the contact form there. Or you can reach me. I'm at imike, which is I-M-Y-K-E. On the National Stationery Day page, they are asking if people are stationary addicts.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I think I might have an infringement claim.

Brad Dowdy: Who do I need to see about this?

Myke Hurley: The partners are Schaefer, Uniball, and Faber-Castell.

Brad Dowdy: I'll just go straight to the Queen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, just go straight to the Queen. I've got a telephone number for you.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Appreciate it.

Myke Hurley: No problem. So, Brad, thanks so much. Until next time. All right.

Brad Dowdy: Talk to you later. See you. Bye.