The Pen Addict 540/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	540
Title:	Just Do the Job Brad!
Release Date:	November 23rd, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 540
Audio File:	Audio Episode 540
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 540
Length:	5454 min <br />0.9 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 540. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Trade. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: What is up, Myke Hurley? How are you?

Myke Hurley: What is up, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: What is up? What is up? All of the ask TPA. All of the ask TPA that we haven't answered in months.

Myke Hurley: What is up?

Brad Dowdy: So, these, like, all of our listeners, like, they're awesome and, like, they, you know, they appreciate us, you know, helping them out with their ask TPA questions, Myke. And they, you know, are looking for answers from us and then what do we do? We add them to a show doc and then Brad rambles too long and then we never get to them. So, let's get to them this week. What do you think?

Myke Hurley: I love it. I do, you know, I worry sometimes. Like, I see these questions and they go back so long and I'm like, have they had to, like, move on? You know what I mean? Totally. They just moved on and so, like, there's no help at all and they were, like, relying on us and now we just moved on with our them.

Brad Dowdy: I know. It keeps me up at night, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Oh, no. Don't let that happen. That might be a tad too much.

Brad Dowdy: No, I take my responsibilities seriously.

Pen purchases outside personal preferences

Myke Hurley: Okay. Okay. Carol asks, what is a pen that you purchased that was not in your usual wheelhouse of what you like but is beyond amazing? For Carol, it was an Ironside pen from Birmingham Pens.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Birmingham Pen Company. So, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Is this my Birmingham or your Birmingham?

Brad Dowdy: That is, this is neither. Okay. Well, I mean, technically it's mine but it's not even Birmingham. Right, but they would probably say Birmingham, right? They would probably say Birmingham. Well, no, no, no. I was saying it your way but, yeah, but it's not the Birmingham that's actually the big city. It's actually a region, an old historical, like, in Pittsburgh steel, steel country up in Pensylvania. So, I don't know the exact technical geographic naming reason but it's basically the Pensylvania, Pittsburgh, steel city, that whole, that whole thing. Not actual Birmingham, Alabama, which is close to me. So, aside from that background, there's background from Carol in this. Carol is one of my biggest pen ablers on stream. She is the one, Brad, have you seen this? Brad, have you seen this? Brad, you need to look at this. So, like, I pretty much have a list that just, it's pretty much just called Carol. And Carol's recommendations because she's always right. She's, like, always, like, into stuff that she knows, she knows what I like and will therefore recommend the things. So, she has been on me about this Ironsides pen. And I was, like, I'm not buying this pen. Like, this is not a pen for me, right? It's a, so what the Ironsides is, and we'll have a link in the chat to this over at Birmingham Pen Co., which is, if y'all are familiar with Birmingham or have heard me speak of them before, they make a lot of inks, right? So, a lot of people use a lot of their inks. And I do, too, and I've reviewed some, enjoy their inks. But I've never bought one of their pens and they do some pen manufacturing themselves. So, this is a full metal barrel. You know, like the Enso Puma or, oh, what's that one from the UK that you like? I'm blanking on it. Nexus? What was it? Oh, Namisu. Namisu, Namisu. So, yeah, like, a full metal barrel pen. Like, which is great. Like, I like my full metal barrel pens. Just, you know, in last week's episode, I raved about the Diplomat Arrow. I just don't need a lot of the full metal barrel pens. This one is kind of tempting, right? Because they will anodize color match clips and nibs. So, say you have, like, just a steel colored barrel. And, like, the link I put in the show notes, there's a bunch of different colors. But the one I chose has, like, this mint turquoise-y blue nib and clip. It looks awesome, right? But, like, I'm not interested in necessarily buying this pen because I don't think I would totally use it. And Carol felt the same way. She's like, I'm not sure. And then tried it and was actually, you know, blown away by it. So, have you ever had that experience for a certain product in the past? So, like, that's the question here. Like, that was her. Like, this is not my wheelhouse. But I went ahead and bought it, and it turns out it's perfect. Do you have that pen?

Myke Hurley: King of pen.

Brad Dowdy: That's such a good answer.

Myke Hurley: When I first saw the King of Pen, I just thought it was a ridiculous joke. Like, it was like a joke to me. It was laughable, right? Like, it's big, and, like, even the nib was large. That was, like, the thing that really got me was how big and large the nib was. And I just was like, there's no way this is for me. It's way too big. I'm not going to enjoy it. Boy, was I wrong.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yeah. I think that's a really, really great answer because we were thinking the same way. I, like, to the point of, like, this is ridiculous. Like, this is, like, a mockery of a pen. And then, you know, after spending years looking at them, handling them, and finally breaking down and buying one, it's like, okay, yeah. This is pretty good. This kind of works. I don't know why it works. I don't know how it works. But it does work for me. So, that was my first thought. But then I thought of another one. For me, it's the Kusama Una Ultem. So, another big pen, kind of like the King of Pen. Large, wide barrel. Little bit stubby. You know, not really long, but wide. It has a huge titanium metal grip section. So, it was very front-weighted with the Ultem rear section of the barrel. And then had this huge concave cutout for the grip that was dropped back from the front of the pen a little bit, right? Like, the concave didn't taper down to the edge of the barrel, right? It was, like, in the center of the grip section. So, like, this is one of those Instagram pens you see and you go, wow, this looks amazing. And there's no way I will be able to use this pen, right? Just, it's not going to fit in my hand. It's not going to feel right. It's just not going to work for my writing at all. And then, lucky for us, we get to go to pen shows. And other people have these pens. And I was able to test one out. I was like, okay, this actually doesn't just work. It's kind of perfect, right? Kind of like the king of pen. This works exceptionally well for how I handwrite, how I write my hands. But again, like the king of pen, I would never recommend this to anybody unless they got to try it first, right? They're that unique of a product as far as, like, the shape and the balance and the weight. But now, like, I couldn't not have this pen. Like, I'm so glad I finally got one. And it's been everything I hoped it would. It's fantastic.

Myke Hurley: Okay. I don't think I've ever used this, but I know you've mentioned it before. I know we spoke about it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I don't think I've seen you since I've owned this pen. I've only probably only had it like a year, year and a half. So, I think I got it sometime last year. It's great. This is a pen, kind of like the king of pen. I would buy another one. Like, I don't need five of these, right? But there's some different colors and shapes and different materials. So, Kusama makes, use a lot of the medical-grade plastics like Ultim and Peak and some of those things that we're seeing, like, you know, Shown Design and other makers, Gravitas, Pickup and doing these really unique sections. And I think they're beautiful. And now that I know it works for me, I would probably like a second one. You know, maybe not, you know, a third one. But, you know, yeah, I would definitely partake in another one of these.

Best A5 notebook cover options

Myke Hurley: All right. Next question comes from Jacob. What's the best A5 notebook cover with around three pen storage? I prefer non-leather due to price point. I just wanted to carry some loose-leaf notebooks with two to three sub-$35 fountain pens.

Brad Dowdy: How long is this podcast going to be today?

Myke Hurley: However long you want it to be.

Brad Dowdy: This question is so perfect because it is so difficult to answer. Okay. You would think this would be the simplest problem to solve. And we've run across this before, right? We have had this question. This is a common problem that people have. I have a notebook. I have pens. I want to put them together and take them with me and then be able to use them.

Brad Dowdy: Historically, you've been able to have a notebook. And maybe if your notebook manufacturer wants to throw you a bone, they might add in a single pen loop or some weird over-the-cover elastic bit or something on the spine to carry one pen. So the notebook makers themselves aren't really in the business of solving this problem. They're in the business of, hey, we'll make a cover for our notebook or build something into the cover of our notebook. But it's kind of an afterthought, right?

Brad Dowdy: So the notebook makers don't care. But we care as writers and stationary lovers and want to use all of our stuff all the time.

Brad Dowdy: So is there a way to have a case to hold the notebook? And to hold two to three pens? There is, Myke. There's a wonderful product called the Knock A5 Seed.

Myke Hurley: How could you do this?

Myke Hurley: You know?

Brad Dowdy: Because it's unbelievable to me to this day that this product is not more widespread. Now, we didn't invent something with the Knock A5 Seed. We just tried to answer Jacob's question in our way, right? I want a cover for my notebook. And within that cover, I would like to store two pens. I'm not asking for a lot, right? I'm not asking for six pens and a notebook and this whole big bulky system.

Brad Dowdy: So it's a technical challenge to do this right. So the reason why the notebook makers don't make larger items is because once you start putting multiple pens in any type of cover with a notebook in it as well, you start to compromise the performance of the notebook, right? You're laying the cover somewhere over these pens, right? So you have a side of the notebook that is now wobbly or bulky or uneven. You know, it's not flat anymore. All these types of like technical issues. These are the things I think about when we were making products, right? So how do we solve these technical issues and get what we want, right? I want a self-enclosed case for a notebook and some pens. Make it happen. So the way we were able to design the seed is when you could have two pen slots because when you would open the case and open up the notebook, the pens would slide mostly out of the way of the first slot of where the pens were slotted in there. And then you would take out one of the pens to write with the more inside pocket and then the cover of the notebook would lay down flat, right? So if you took out the inside pen in the slot, you would get a perfectly laying notebook. And that's even a sacrifice too because, well, what if I don't want to, do I have to move? What if I want to use the outside pen in this slot? Well, I would have to take them both out or swap the pens to get the notebook cover lay flat. So this is why, this is my long-winded designy explanation of why you can't have nice things, Jacob. Because there is a technical challenge to having a good writing surface and pen storage in a single unit. Okay? So that's why we made the seed and it worked. So I started looking around since we're not making the seed anymore. And maybe we will one day. Maybe I'll work on a collaboration with someone to continue the seed because it obviously solves a problem. So, like, what I wanted to look for when trying to answer this question is I want to look for makers who don't make their own notebooks, right? Makers who are making things to surround notebooks and build in pen solutions. So I went over to LockB.

Myke Hurley: And they'll be more, like, general purpose.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. Make me a case that I can carry a bunch of stuff in. So I went over to LockB. And I was thinking that LockB, I know they make notebook covers and I know they make pen cases. I was like, do they have a notebook cover that has pen slots in it? You know, I was thinking they certainly have this solution. Their notebook cover has zero pen slots. And this is common, right? That's the way to do it. Because most of the time you end up making a compromised product adding in pen slots. So LockB's notebook cover, the inside pockets are all flat. They're for cards and rulers and anything that will lay flat to not compromise your notebook writing. So, you know, like their field notebook cover, like it's an awesome cover, but there's no pen slots. So your solution, Jacob, unfortunately, is like a plus one situation, right? You have to have a notebook plus, right? So you find your notebook, find a notebook cover, and then you have a pen pouch, right? Like a three pen slot pouch, which you can get, you know, like Rickshaw or anyone. And because we're mostly looking at non-leather solutions here, you know, nylon, wax canvas. That's what LockB and Rickshaw do. So unfortunately, that's like today, that's what you're looking at. There might be something out there. And if anyone has, you know, a nylon or fabric-based solution, I think Galen, like if you are looking for an answer to this as well and are open to leather, I think Galen Leather does have a six pen notebook holder. But again, like you have to accept some compromise in that type of situation. So the other idea, which is also a great knock design, we were pretty good at what we did at KnockCo. I'm not going to lie. We were pretty good. So we designed a product called the Burton, which is an upgrade of the Lanier. It's a pouch. It's an A5 pouch where you slide in your notebook in the center, and then you have accessory storage, you know, in pockets on the side, right? So it's not necessarily a cover that goes on the hardcover of the notebook, but it's a notebook-sized envelope wallet, if you will, that carries the notebook plus accessories, right? It's like Superior Labor makes some good ones now, things like that. So, and Lihit Lab, I put a link in the show notes to Lihit Lab. They are the bag-in-the-bag inventors.

Myke Hurley: They're the bag-in-the-bag.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, they're the bag-in-the-bag people. So they make some good options if you want to carry, like, a notebook in a sleeve-type cover and then have some storage for pens built in there. But it's not a cover in the way that you and I think about a notebook cover. So there you go. This made me put on my designing hat and made me realize the reason why we made some of the products we made at Knock, because they literally answer questions that no one really had any other answers to. And I, yeah, it makes me... Well, I was saying it's the best products. It doesn't make me sad. Yeah, yeah. Like, so maybe we can continue some of these. I'm going to continue to work on some collaborations next year for Knock. And those are two products that would be at the top of the list. The Seed and either the Lanier slash Burton. Probably the Burton shape. The Burton was a little bit more detailed and had dedicated pin slots and things like that. So, yeah. It's a tough... I wish I had an exact answer for you, Jacob. And maybe it's out there that I'm not aware of. But I wanted to at least explain the reasons why you can't find that product. And as I say that from, like, as someone who helped design products like this, there's sacrifices you have to make to get what you want. And most people aren't willing to do that. Like, the notebook manufacturers aren't willing to do that.

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Brad Dowdy: How do I say it out loud? TI? You would be fine either way.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Discussion on TI Ultra and titanium pens

Brad Dowdy: So I say TI, but I think TI Ultra is actually acceptable when you're talking about the titanium initials TI. Okay. But I say TI.

Myke Hurley: So Myke wants to know, can I use any ballpoint rollable gel refill that I want? You don't have a top five list. So what do you like? I love this. Settle down, Myke. You're just a top five list generator. And if you don't have it, it's unacceptable. That isn't what that Myke said. This Myke said that. But the other Myke said, you don't have a top five list. What do you like? Preference for a high saturation color and not super micro line. My ham hands don't have the dexterity for it.

Brad Dowdy: I kept that part in on purpose. I was like, that was great. So thank you for your question, Myke. Will you just do your job, Brad?

Myke Hurley: Will you just do it? Just do the job, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: So this is a good question. So the TI Ultra is, so if you're familiar with Big Eye Design, they make various pins that use like a clutch type mechanism to fit a bunch of different refills into the single pin barrel. So you just buy a pin barrel. You can swap in and out refills. What the Ultra is, it also has a fountain pen tip. So it's a really cool, cool pin. So you can, it's kind of a really an all in one type of situation. So when Myke, I guess, is not using the fountain pen, they want to use a high saturation color and not super micro line refill. So what's the refill recommendation? So when I think of high saturation color, I think of the Uniball One because that's what it's marketing, marketed as. This is a high saturated color gel ink pen. So the colors are rich, smooth, wonderful. The kicker, and I'll put all these links in the show notes for Myke to go check them out because I have a few here. The kicker with the Uniball One is they only go up to 0.5 millimeters. So Myke, if they want, it's not a micro line, but it's kind of in the middle. So that might be too fine. If that is too fine, the Uniball 307, the ink is similar to that of the Uniball One. They have 0.7 millimeter options. But they only come in like black, red, and blue instead of where the Uniball One comes in, you know, a dozen colors, things like that. The main, just standard, you know, not marketed as a high saturated color ink, but it's just technically like a really good color gel ink. Pentel Inner Gel. The RTX has an 0.7 millimeter gel pen. That's one of my personal favorites. They come in probably 20 different colors. They have a navy blue that I really use a lot. It's really, really good. So I would probably try the RTX and then one of the Uniballs to see if you can actually tell a difference in like the color saturation in those. But I think those are going to be good choices for Myke.

Myke Hurley: So that's the top three then? Yep.

Myke Hurley: Frames wants to know. Frames has a question that I've been intrigued about, actually. Yeah, you and me both. Brad, how's the Pen Addict 100 going?

Brad Dowdy: It's going pretty poorly.

Myke Hurley: Can you remind people what that is?

Brad Dowdy: So back in the early summer, I was thinking to myself, like it's time, about once a year, I will kind of go through my fountain pen collection and like my personal stuff, my personal library of pens, I like to call it, and sell off pens that I haven't been using.

Brad Dowdy: So this was around the time I discovered Toyocraft. So they're the beautiful Japanese storage box manufacturer. And they make a box that holds 100 pens. I was like, you know what? If I can't live with 100 pens or less, whatever I can fit into this box, you know, like I'm doing it wrong. Like you say that out loud. It's like the most ridiculous thing anyone's ever said out loud. It's like, really? Like you can't deal with like less than 100 pens. So I made it a goal. It's like, I'm going to have all of my personal pen library fit into this box. So I called it the Pen Addict 100 because that's how many slots are in this box. So I've had the box. I filled the box. I have pulled probably 20 pens off to the side to try to sell in an effort to get down to this number. And it's just been on hold pretty much ever since. So I just haven't had time to actually do it. So we're going to bump that into Q1, Myke.

Brad Dowdy: We're going to circle back. Yeah, we're going to circle back on that because it has to happen. This is going to happen. And then this way, the end goal of this is to have the box. It obviously would need to be less than 100, right? Because things will be moving in and out. But the goal is to stay within the parameters of the 100 count box and then have a spreadsheet attached. Say, this is my library of pens and do a little bit of tracking. And then this will allow me to sell or rehome or give away the pens that do not make this top 100 of my personal fountain pen library. So it's going to happen. It has to happen. So there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Like I actually, my desk in the other room literally has all the pens that I've pulled so far boxed up to sell. Like I just haven't moved on it. So, and it's not going to happen before the end of the year at this point. So just too much going on. So it's fallen by the wayside. And one of the issues, and I'll be perfectly honest, is I bought too many pens between San Francisco and Orlando. Whoops. Whoops. So like I can still, I can totally manage getting under 100, but like I added in a few extra that I wasn't necessarily planning on.

Myke Hurley: Because it will become one in, one out, right? Like that's the...

Brad Dowdy: It will eventually, that's the goal. Yeah. Like we have to manage. I think it's good to manage your personal collection of stationery, right? Like it's just, it only makes sense because like I tend to, as we saw between San Francisco and Orlando, I tend to get a little loose when I haven't been out shopping in a while. And like you said, budget, what's that? So yeah, this will happen. But we're going to revisit that in the first part of 2023. Like I just have to take it off my plate right now. I'm too busy with other stuff. So it is definitely the item that gets pushed down the list because it's not mandatory, but it kind of is at the same time, right?

Myke Hurley: So there you go. And it will be good content when you do that. Yep. Harold wants to know, the recent mention of the Progear Wicked Witch. Oh, it's in 1911. It's still a Progear name. 1911. 1911 on the show made me jump up and down my first serious pen. But do you worry about the Ackerman ink messing up the black ion coated nib?

Brad Dowdy: Really great question. There are inks that could mess with that. I tend to not overly obsess about that because I'm okay with imperfections. But as someone who does own Sailor Ion plated nibs, what I have found is it's not the ink that I personally have a problem with. Taking away any of the plating on the nib. It's actually cleaning the pen. Because I am a very obsessive cleaner. Like, I don't have to... Like, I can have pens sitting here inked, right? Or that need to be cleaned and they can sit here on the desk for weeks at a time. And just waiting to be cleaned. But once I do decide to clean them, I am obsessive about getting them, like, 100% clean. So, I didn't notice... You don't notice this at first with, like, the ion plated. This was in an Imperial... Sailor Imperial Black, which is the same plating. And maybe it's just because it's older. I don't know if they've changed the plating process or whatever. But the nib... I could start to see lighter colors on the nib. And I think it was from where I was, like, cleaning the nib or rubbing it or drying it or whatever I'm doing, like, aggressively to get the nib clean. Over time, the ion plating started to lighten up. But once I saw it and it's like, okay, yes, it's lighter. It's like, okay, we're just going to keep going, right? Like, hopefully you'll get to a point where, you know, you don't want to actively cause damage, right? Like, I think that's Harold's goal. It's like, hey, I don't want to actively cause damage. And I don't think you generally are with Akramon inks. They're made by Diamine, allegedly. And those are about, you know, as tame of an ink as you can have. Number 10, Akramon number 10. Like, Harold didn't mention which ink he was using. Akramon number 10 is a permanent or has some, like, iron gall tendencies in it. So, maybe you want to clean that a little bit better. But I don't think it's going to affect your nib. But there are inks out there that will affect your plating. Just, I just implore, just not, just enjoy your pen and your ink if you like it. And, you know, do your research like Harold's doing to not actively damage it. But, like, I don't think, like, I don't think you're going to have a problem. And, you know, you just want to try to avoid the micromanaging part. Like, being scared away from in a pretty basic ink to worry about the plating and get like that. But, like, I understand it as well. So, there you go. But that's been my experience with the ion plating.

Myke Hurley: I've never had one of those nibs go bad. Like, I've never seen anything get stained or anything like that.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. The sailor's ion plating seems to be pretty rock solid. But, like, I do have one nib. Like, if I showed pictures, if I did side by sides of this one nib, I could point it out, like, pretty clearly. It's like, hey, this is me using this pen a lot. Maybe it was from the ink, but I didn't notice it until I was cleaning it. And it's like, you know what? I'm still going to use it. It's still pretty cool.

Myke Hurley: Wabi Sabi. Yep.

Digital writing systems from Lamy and Moleskine

Myke Hurley: Kim asks, have you seen this digital writing thing from Lamy? It looks similar to digital writing systems that companies like Moleskine offers, doesn't it?

Brad Dowdy: We have seen it. We've talked about it on the show. I am completely enamored by these every time they come out. I don't know what your thoughts are, Myke. Do you immediately dismiss these type of tools based on history? Or, like me, I am like, yes, I hope this one works, even though I know it won't.

Myke Hurley: Well, so this is like a Lamy Safari digital pen, which can, you know, as you write, can make a digital version of the notes. But the thing that always happens to me, I always get this slight excitement. And then I continue going through it and read that it has to be paired with a specific notebook. That's where it always falls down for me. It's like you need the pen and the notebook combo. And that's where it's like, yeah, that's kind of where it ends for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and you're pretty much stuck with those refills, right? It's a singular unit. It's basically, my conclusion with these is always, I love this. I want this so badly to work. It would just be lighting $200 on fire every time. Yeah. But because it would last, I would be so over it within a week that I just, you know, the lack of variety, like, you know, the fixed, all the fixed systems that you have to be a part of. Despite the fact that it looks cool, the idea is amazing, right? I want this to be amazing. And, like, it would be collecting dust within the span of a week, right? So, it's like, I want this to work. Like, I really, really do. And, like, technically, I'm sure it does. But I am not a stationary monogamist, as we have talked about. It's like, this can't be just the thing that I use all the time. I would be bored to death, you know, just in the way I write things, even though, like, I fully support, like, the capturing type of system that this is. So, yeah. Like, I love it. I could never, I would never be happy using it.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And R. Windell asks, I'm in the market for a new planner, and I really like the Hobonichi Cousin layout with months, weeks, and days. But is there something similar without all the inspirational quotes, time tracking, moon phases, and the general ephemera?

Brad Dowdy: This question is like the, hey, can I get a notebook cover with the pens? Except this one's a little bit closer to solvable, right? There's a little bit more options, a little bit more freedom in there. So, I was digging around. What R. Windell wants to look for is a daily planner, right? So, that's where you're going to start your search when you're, you know, Googling or looking on sites. Because when you say you want to lay out with months, weeks, and days, those are daily planners, right? So, they'll name the products as the primary core feature. So, if they say it's a daily planner, that means you're probably going to have one page per day. Right? If you have a weekly planner, you're not going to have those one page per days. You're going to have like one week per two pages or something like that, right? So, you want to Google or search on these sites for a daily planner. So, there's a couple. The first one that I thought of was the Steyology. So, the Steyology 365 Days is super popular. It's super open while keeping a little bit of organization date tracking. Like you basically like have the dates across the top of the page. There's not a lot of additional calendaring in there, right? You may not get your monthly and your weekly spreads in there. But if you're just looking for the daily calendar and you just basically has the dates across the top of the page, it is extremely popular just for that, right? For a planner. Some people just use them not even as a planner. It's just like a really good notebook. But it does have those options. That's the simplest one. Kind of somewhere in the middle, maybe more of what you're thinking about is the Midori MD Diary.

Brad Dowdy: So, it has a one day. Midori makes a one day one page planner, which is like the description I was talking about. This is a really popular one as well. I have some particular issues with this one as far as layout goes. But some people love it. So, the way it's designed, there is a lot of white space around the edges of the page. And that's done purposefully for you. So, like there's a little bit of organization areas on the day page, like some lines. And then there's like blank. Like it's kind of like a half and half type of layout. I personally, I think I would have a little bit of a challenge using it that way. But it might work for you, right? It's at least that one page per day type of setup. But for all things that Midori does, I thought this was a little bit of a weird design. They've been doing it for a couple years though. And I know people do like this one a lot. Another one to mention is this one kind of goes into more detail. This is probably closer to the Hobonichi. This might be the closest to the answer, in fact. But it actually goes, what you lose in like the quotes and those types of things, you actually gain in like obsessiveness over like time blocking. The Kokuyo Jibo and Techo Days Diary, right? So you can, you know, you see like a lot of time breakdowns, a lot of different things breakdowns. But it's probably closest to Hobonichi in the layout, you know, month, week, day. But it takes day to like the nth degree. Like it takes day to like hour to minute to things like that. So like there's a balance there. So those are like three kind of, you know, lightweight, medium weight, heavyweight planning type of situations. And then you could always look at Leuchtturm. I think they have some, just some one page per day planners, but I didn't totally look at those. But I think they generally do a good job as well. So I'd throw in Leuchtturm there as well. But look for daily, daily planners and go from there. And that's going to be what you want. That's not, that's not the most popular category. So you don't have a ton of options out there. So hopefully those few at least give you some ideas.

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Myke Hurley: All right, next question comes from Eric. So, I'm loving my new Y Studio with its medium nib. But after some conversations with a friend who's big on stubs, I just got a Sailor Pro give a music nib. This has me wondering, how do I get a Sailor Zoom nib on my Y Studio?

Brad Dowdy: Probably with like, you know, welding tools and some other things. Yeah, much difficulty. You don't, basically, right? So, this is a great question because it gives us the opportunity to discuss nibs. And like, we won't be able to do it justice in the time we have. We wouldn't be able to do it justice in several episodes back to back to back. But just not all nibs are interchangeable, right? So, different companies make different nibs. Companies like Sailor make their own nibs, right? So, they have their own proprietary shape, their own feeds and housings and collars that work together with the nib to make the ink flow the best possible for Sailor's pens. Y Studio uses Schmidt nibs. So, they have their own Schmidt nibs, Schmidt feeds, Schmidt collars, Schmidt housings. And you can't just swap one nib from one maker into another maker's, you know, feed and nib hardware. Sometimes you can. Every now and then, there are, hey, this is a close match. And people will be able to slot in those things. Most of the time, it involves some, you know, some warranty voiding, frankensteining of things to make them work. And then, that's even questionable if they will work. So, what I will tell you is with the Y Studio medium nib, you can get it modified. You can get, like, the nib ground to write differently. You can't really get the full-on tip sizing and wetness of the large tipping Sailor Music nib. But you could get a sub nib grind on your Y Studio and it would change the writing performance. And that would be cheaper than buying a Sailor Music nib to fit into the Y Studio. So, I would look at getting it modified. You know, that's really the main thing you can do. There are some nibs that fit into the Y Studios. I would have to check. Honestly, I would have to check and see if the Yovo's fit those Schmidt housings. So, the Yovo's fit the number five Schmidt housings. So, depending on what Y Studio you have, if you have one with a number five nib, I don't know if you can get a Yovo number five stub nib to swap in there. Schmidt actually might make one. I'm thinking about this out loud. So, basically, you would have to get a Schmidt or Yovo nib if it's a number five sized nib in your Y Studio. I think they do make some pens with a number six size nib, like the desk pen and things like that. So, these nibs aren't hot swappable, unfortunately, for you, Eric. But there are options to make your writing experience more similar to the Sailor Music nib. And I would look at getting a stub grind on that nib first. That would be the easiest and best thing and probably the most enjoyable end result, to be quite honest. I think you would like that very much.

Myke Hurley: All right. Brian asks... This is a fun one.

Brad Dowdy: Historical question right here.

Myke Hurley: Oh, my God. I'm listening to Myke's Arushi Platinum drama knowing COVID is around the corner for their timeline and it's killing me. Don't spoil the end of the story for me. Also, it took about a year to get through 365 episodes. I'm on 375 now. So, a question for you guys. I think there's three questions here, really.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. We can knock them all out.

Myke Hurley: And eventually, Brian will get to this episode, I suppose. If not already there by the time he hears this, who knows?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, probably not. This isn't that old of a question. Maybe only like a month ago.

Transition to expensive pens and decision-making

Myke Hurley: How did you guys decide it was time for more expensive pens?

Brad Dowdy: Boy, that's a good question.

Myke Hurley: I would just say, you know, you kind of educated me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And it's educating yourself, right? It's like, what can I learn about these pens with the answer I'm looking for is, hey, how can I make my writing more enjoyable? You know, what is it about, why is this pen $200? And what is it going to do for me in enjoyment, in feel, in performance, in style, in aesthetics, right? So, it was doing a lot of research, figuring out, hey, you know, will I get enjoyment out of this pen? And just going from there, right? So, you know, it didn't necessarily have to be a gold nib, but I know at the time it was, right? Like the Pilot Vanishing Point, I think, was the first time I went over $100. Well, it's not only was it a gold nib pen, it was also this really cool, like, you know, click mechanism for a fountain pen, like a retractable nib fountain pen. Yeah, give me that. Like, and I still love the Vanishing Point to this day. But then you start learning about different filling systems and different nib manufacturers and different things to personalize your writing experience. And sometimes they were just a little bit more expensive than, you know, some of the entry-level stuff. But, like, the entry-level stuff is great, too. You don't ever have to change. Like, you know, price doesn't equal quality, as we all know, right? But a lot of times the price does allow for, like, your style and personality to come out a little bit more. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So then Brian goes on to ask two things. How did you decide it was time for really expensive pens? And how did you decide it was time for pens that will outlast you? So, like, heirloom kinds, which I don't know if I have those yet. But, I mean, I probably do, but, like, I don't think of my pens in that way. But, like, for me, even with both of these things, it's a similar kind of thing to what we were just talking about, really, where at a certain point it's like, well, I know what my preferences are now, and I can continue going down. Like, I don't, like, initially when I was going into the, like, more expensive pens, like the entry-level pens, the ones we were talking about on last week's episode, right, the $100 to $200, like, entry to gold nib, kind of, you know, like the entry to good, I suppose, if you call that. I can't think of a good phrase, but calling $100 entry-level is not what I'm trying to say, but I think you understand where I'm going, right? It's like the next tier-up kind of thing. And then I feel like once you get past that point, you have a better idea of what your preferences are, so you can kind of just chase those lines rather than feeling like where I was at that time, feeling like I needed to spread my purchases a bit more to understand more. But now it's like going into that level, like, no, I know what I like. Let me continue going down that path.

Brad Dowdy: Right. So, and that's the, that first path is when is it time for more expensive pens? That's kind of the area that I pretty much live in, right? When it's, you get into really expensive pens and pens that will outlast you, then that there's, that's a whole different thought process and one that doesn't happen that often, right? Like I have crazy expensive pens. I have pens, you know, close to $1,000. I have one pen that's over $1,000. I will not have a lot of those things because they're not that better. That, that's where the, the deciding factor is, hey, that's really a one-off unique type of situation that I do really think is better in this situation or more enjoyable in this situation than maybe like the $100 pen. But we really don't need to spend that much to get like great enjoyment out of fountain pens. Like I have my Nakayas, like I love, and that's kind of, that's kind of it, right? Like I don't, I am almost never shopping in that category of pen. That's a really a special occasion type of situation and a really different conversation. You know, I think more of the conversation in the sweet spot. Like once you get like really, really expensive pens, like in the $200 to like say $400 range, you can get, you can have the world in that range, right? Like you can really have the world in that range. So the, the other stuff that brings on up the price points much higher than that, like that's into the specialty range and like you're, you're, it's a different mindset.

Myke Hurley: So Lisa asks, if I've got some extra Diamine Standard International Short Ink cartridges, what compatible beginner pens should I consider to make fun starter packs for new fountain pen users in my life?

Brad Dowdy: So basically the opposite question of the one we just had. So we're not buying Nakaya's mic. We have some extra, some extra ink cartridges around, which a lot of us do. So this is a great question from Lisa. Fun starter packs for new fountain pen users. I mean, it has to start with the Gen Howe Shark, right? Great pen, man. Like that's the only thing. How fun. That's literally, everyone was yelling the answer, Lisa, to your question before I said it. Like literally everyone's going, Gen Howe Shark, Gen Howe Shark. It's a fun, silly pen that is actually good, right? Like, and it fits your international cartridge. It comes with a converter, but you can pop in the international cartridges in that and they're like $4 or something like that. So yes, they look like they're called the shark pen because yes, they do look like a shark. That's part of the fun. If you want to have, since you said fun starter pack, that's the first one that I went to. If you want a little bit more basic, the Monami Olica or Olica fountain pen, they come in colors. I could only find the black one right now and they're only about $5 and they do take the international cartridges. I've used those before. They're really not bad as an option. And you could probably shop around and find some colors for that. They come in like, you know, eight colors, barrel colors, you know, your standard pinks and purples and oranges. But I could only find a link for the black one. So yeah, those are your two options. But I'm just going for the shark pen. Those are cool and shockingly good. Good writers. They have good nibs.

Myke Hurley: And I think final question today has come from Chris. Chris, if you're weird, I'm weird right alongside you.

Brad Dowdy: I switched at the end of the year, like a month ago towards the fall. I bought some loose sheets for the end of a 2022 calendar just to try it out to see what I was going to use for 2023. I bought some sheets for my plotter to see if that's what I wanted to use. So no, this is one of the least weird things you can do, especially. And like you said, you don't have to buy like the running out of time existing planners. You can make some printables. I have handwritten calendar layouts. Like so one of the exercises I gave myself when I was thinking about planners, let me draw in my notebook what I think my perfect planner layout is. And try that and see if that works. And then if that does work and as I tweak it, look and see, hey, is there a product out there that matches most of what I'm looking for? So I have done that as well. So weird, I am it. And you are right at home, Chris. So yeah, definitely test out all the things, print it out, draw, buy some old planners, whatever you want to do. It's not weird in the slightest. I'm literally doing it as we speak.

Myke Hurley: Or you could just get a planner that by design has a flexible layout. So you can just change it whenever you want.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hey, I think we should finish these last STPAs. These are quick hitters. You want to do them? All right. We can zero this whole thing out. Is that what you want, though? I can always ask for more STPAs. There's always more. I have a notebook full of STPAs that I didn't add into this list. So yeah, we need to do this. So let's do them.

Myke Hurley: Franz JPM asks, do you think Pilot pens will ever release a steel-nibbed piston filler?

Brad Dowdy: No. Greg asks. No, just quick. Let me, I will elaborate. So Pilot has a steel-nib vanishing point, right? So that they sell in the Asian market. It's not really a North America market or European market pen. The reason why they won't do this is because, like last week, we talked about the Pilot Custom 92. For $150 or $60 with a gold nib, there's no way they could make a steel-nib one for less than $100, $125. And it would be kind of pointless, right? So if we think about the Pelican M205 when I'm answering this question, right? That's Pelican steel-nib. Pilot already does it with a gold nib for not much more expensive. I mean, I'll never say never, but it doesn't seem like it would fit their product lineup, and their product lineup is already ginormous. But hey, they do it with the vanishing point, so never say never.

Upsetting ink characteristics

Myke Hurley: Greg asks, what are the two or three most upsetting characteristics of an ink that prevent you from using it again? For me, when it does that, like, clumping? What is the word I'm looking for there?

Brad Dowdy: I mean, clumping.

Myke Hurley: Right, when it's like you get kind of the crustiness on the nib, right?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I hate that. Oh, oh, oh, gosh.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so like Mont Blanc Lucky Orange. Yes. What's the word? I'm blanking. Creep, nib creep. Yeah, I mean- It's kind of like a nib creep, yeah.

Myke Hurley: I love Lucky Orange, so, like, I will go get it by, but, like, there's a bunch of- This is, like, a bad thing if it does that. The second for me is the smell.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Oh, yeah, the smell's going to be pretty strong. I was trying to think of how to answer this. Yeah, a non-scented ink that has a strong, like, chemical smell, that's a no-go for me. Like, because I- If I can smell it when I'm writing and it's not supposed to, like, that's probably a big problem. You should.

Myke Hurley: I don't ever want to smell my ink. I never want there to be a smell from ink. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes they have it and it's not good.

Brad Dowdy: The nib creep stuff isn't upsetting to me because I know technically it doesn't affect anything. It's just, it's an annoyance. It's annoying. Yeah. So, I will refuse to use Lucky Orange because I have a lot of other orange options, even though Lucky Orange is great. But it is probably one of the most problematic that I've had. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So, there you go. Yeah. It gets pretty rough. It gets pretty bad. Yeah. And Todd asks, what am I supposed to do with a glow-in-the-dark pen?

Myke Hurley: There you go. You just, yeah, take it to a rave, tie it around your neck, and have a good time.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, come on. You don't write in the dark, Todd, and dance. You know, music dance experience is the link I put in the chat from Severance. If you have your own music dance experience at home, cut off the lights, start to write, get some glow-in-the-dark ink, get some glow-in-the-dark pens. I mean, what kind of question is this, Todd?

Myke Hurley: If you haven't seen Severance, don't click the link. If you have seen Severance, remind yourself of a great scene, which I read the other day because I was doing some reading about Severance. The actors did not know this was going to happen. It was sprung on them. Nice. And they had to react to it.

Brad Dowdy: Nice. Right? Yeah. I was re-watching the scene, and I forgot that Dylan wasn't going to participate. I don't want to have any spoilers. But yeah, I forgot the stage of the event where we were. That was pretty far along when this happened. So yeah, I'm a huge, huge fan of that show.

Myke Hurley: And apparently, it took months of work to get the lights to do that. So I was reading about this the other day. Great show. That's the end of the Ask TPA questions for this episode. If you would like to send in questions, you can always send them in with a hashtag Ask TPA. It's question mark, Ask TPA, in the RelayFM members Discord. Or you can email them to hello at penaddict.com. You can find Brad online. He is Dowdyism on Twitter. Penaddict on Instagram. Twitch.tv slash penaddict. Penaddict.com. Spokedesign.com. I was going to say knock. I was going to say knock. Oh, so close. I'm YKE. Cortexmerch.com. Go buy Theme System Journal. It's the time of year. Thank you so much to our sponsors of this week's episode, Squarespace and Trade Coffee. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

Myke Hurley: Bye. Thank you.