The Pen Addict 730/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	730
Title:	Yummy Go Bananas
Release Date:	August 20th, 2026
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 730
Audio File:	Audio Episode 730
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 730
Length:	4343 min <br />0.717 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 730. Today's show is brought to you by Enigma Stationery. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

Brad Dowdy: What's up Myke Hurley, how are you?

Myke Hurley: I'm good, no sad stories from me today.

Brad Dowdy: Are you sure? Yet.

Myke Hurley: Yet, that's true, who knows what's going to come from me.

Brad Dowdy: You haven't listened to me, I'm going to make you cry later, you just don't know yet. That's good, I look forward to that then.

Rotterfaden Taschenbegleiter

Myke Hurley: I wanted to give some follow-ups, so my Rotterfaden Taschenbegleiter has arrived, from Baumkuchen, and it's great. I was immediately reminded of why I loved this system. Like this is the, you know, the system of holding whatever notebook you want into a nice cover with their kind of like, like hook system, I guess I'll call it. And kind of how you can make it work for you, you know. So I, there's like three hooks in the notebook, because I only, like in the cover, because I only really want to use one of them, I just use the one at the back and then just hook the back of the notebook in, so I don't have to be fiddling with it. Gotcha.

Brad Dowdy: So like your spine is where the other two hooks are, they're just not engaged.

Myke Hurley: Exactly, because you don't really need to hook, you know, like the hooks are for you, so you can have multiple books, but. Yeah, if you're going to use thin books. Yeah, I'm using the MD paper notebook, the A5 one, it's the one I popped in first, and it's a thicker book, so I wouldn't want to put anything else in here. So, you know, you can do it where you're kind of moving the clips each time you turn the page, but I've done it where it's just kind of like grabbed the, I don't know, like the back fifth of the notebook or something, and it just holds it all in place. So, so far it's going really great. I love the one that I have, I can already see how, I can already see how without restraint I could fill this thing up with all kinds of stuff, like those little pockets and stuff like that. And, you know, I could imagine, you know, putting a little sidekick pocket, there's a kind of like a big pocket where you can tuck in a portrait notebook, essentially. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. And so I could throw a sidekick pocket in there if I wanted to as well, just for funsies and just carry that around. But yeah, I've only, just because of where I am in my work for this project right now, I've just basically done a couple of pages of just like writing some basic stuff down about the show and some thoughts and things like that about designing California, which is what this is for. So, but it did make me want to ask you, like I'm using the MD paper notebook, feels good so far, but I've mostly just been using like my uni pens and pencils and stuff like that. What is the general opinion of fountain pen feel on the MD paper?

Brad Dowdy: Great, as long as it's the standard one, not the cotton one, I'm assuming. I don't think they make cotton in any one.

Myke Hurley: No, I have the standard one.

Brad Dowdy: It's fantastic. It's like one of my top choices.

Myke Hurley: Oh, wonderful. Well, I haven't cracked out the fountain pens for this one yet. Yeah. So I'll look forward to that. It's very smooth. I also want the life paper notebook, right? And I know that's bank paper. And I know I don't like that feeling in fountain pens.

Brad Dowdy: So I was just wondering about MD. It depends. The life, if you got like a side bound one with like the orange cover or something like that, what color is your cover?

Myke Hurley: I think it is the orange one.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that's not bank paper. Oh, fantastic. That'll be closer to the MD paper.

Myke Hurley: Oh, brilliant. I'll look forward to using that too. I just bought like a bunch of stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So those will be equivalent. All right. The light paper, the only difference you're going to see is that life is going to be like a more ivory cream tone.

Myke Hurley: Which I like, honestly.

Brad Dowdy: Midori's is light. It's definitely there. It's not a white page. And then life is like a tear up from that as far as like color depth on just the base paper. Okay. They both perform exceptionally well. Even like with your big stack nib, you should have no issue.

Myke Hurley: Oh, brilliant. Yeah. I need to ink some stuff up and play around with that too then just for the fun of it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I like I was looking on the product page at Bombkuken. Bombkuken. Yeah. I have no idea. Yeah. We need to work on that one. Rotor fat and Toschenbelgader is good, but like Bombkuken is not. I'm convinced it's Bombkuken. I mean, it's a Japanese term. It's not German.

Myke Hurley: I'm saying it like it's a German thing. And so this one, I'm convinced.

Brad Dowdy: So they list a compatible notebooks list. I mean, the list is obviously much longer, but it's literally all the good Japanese A5 notebooks, right? Yeah. Plus the rotor fat and stuff they carry, right? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. The MD, live, stiology, apica, Clyde.

Myke Hurley: I've just Googled Bombkuken and it's taken me to the German Wikipedia for a dessert. So I don't know what you're talking about. It is a dessert. Last time, I was like, there's no way that is a Japanese word. Like that to me is like German through and through.

Brad Dowdy: Sure, sure, sure. I guess I got it wrong, but maybe they make that dessert in Japan and I've watched too many Japan travel videos. I knew it was a dessert. Yes.

Myke Hurley: One of the sixth most searched term on Google is Bombkuken Japan. Okay. So they must love it.

Brad Dowdy: So maybe it's just a thing they make. Like they make a Mont Blanc there too, right? Like because I'm watching all these videos.

Myke Hurley: Yes, it is. It is a German dessert that is popular in Japan. Okay. Gotcha. So I was right. You were right. Like, look, you've had a good year. Yeah. The saying is that, you know, it goes, Michael's right. And so that's right.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You've had a good year. I've been wrong a lot. I think it's the old age, which kind of scary to think about.

Myke Hurley: That's enough on you. It is.

Brad Dowdy: Don't worry, old man. I'll put you right. Don't get old. I mean, like, do you want to get into the get off my lawn stuff? Are you done with the Rotor Fodden?

Myke Hurley: I am done because I can't wait to hear what you have to say now.

Uniball One Piece

Brad Dowdy: Last thing on the Rotor Fodden. I kind of wish you didn't do this because this is a really beautiful cover. I've never seen one like this. You did exceptionally well. It's really, really good.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: All right. This. I. I. I'm trying to start this. Uniball one piece into talk with a caveat that I am tired of talking about this, but this is a problem of my own making. This is who I am and why I am this way and why we have 730 episodes of a podcast about pens. Because until I have like clarity to talk about products, I'm going to keep asking questions and just being curious about these things. So y'all might be tired of me talking about this and I get that. So I'm going to try to put a bow on that this week and just have some definitive talking points on the one in the Zento. Just for new users or for reminders as I go through this.

Ink Formulations

Brad Dowdy: There's two things you should keep in mind. Well, one thing you should keep in mind. It's ink formulations. When I say, when I refer to one, Uniball one, that is an ink formulation. And I refer to Zento, that is an ink formulation. I'm not talking about like pen barrels or pen bodies, anything like that. So when I say one or when I say Zento, I'm talking about ink. So Myke, I did a journalism, which we are not journalists here. We never will be. No intent.

Myke Hurley: But except when you want to be.

Brad Dowdy: Except when you want. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like now. So I have a contact at Uniball North America, who is the U.S. distributor for Uniball products. So this is, if you've been around a while, this is where like I did a talk for them many years ago at their office in Chicago. And so I've been able to keep in touch with them and fire off some questions when I have them. Like back when the dive, the Uniball dive came out and the pricing was all screwed up. I emailed them and they replied. Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: So keep in mind, that is also a very corporate, you know, job there. The reason why I don't do journalism that much is because I don't care what distributors and manufacturers generally have to say. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because it's seldom what you want because they're not going to tell you what you want to know. You know, they're going to tell you what they want you to know, which is just, you know.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly. So people say, well, why don't you email them? And my reply is because I already know the answer.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Like I don't need that. So this one, I do have a good relationship with Uni and did get, I did get, I sent two questions, short email, two questions. And I was curious if I was going to get an answer. And as of this morning, I have answers. So question number one, is the ink formulation of the Zento classified as a rollerball type ink or a gel? I see some confusion around this and I myself can't sort it out. So I first reviewed the Zento last year and I have this link in the show notes. And that link also has the UniBall product pages, the UniBall Japan product pages. And this is what I always reference when people talk about the Zento being a gel ink pen. There's nowhere on UniBall Japan, the Mitsubishi homepage, where they go through literally the in-depth product talk about the Zento. You cannot find the word gel anywhere in these pages, right? So it became very confusing to me when I saw retailers popping out the Zento gel ink pen on their pages, right? To sell.

Myke Hurley: So it's like they are using it as a broad term, right? Yeah. Like where there is specificity here, but people are just saying this is a gel ink pen because it like clicks in the mind of the consumer rather than whether it's actually correct or not.

Brad Dowdy: So your statement is very prescient in the answer that I got. Okay. And this will all make a lot more sense. So in answer to that question, UniBall said to me, in regards to Zento's ink formulation, we've called it a hybrid, i.e. roller gel or liquid gel here in the US. For most resellers, we've positioned it in the gel category for simplicity.

Myke Hurley: There you go.

Brad Dowdy: It has all of the best characteristics of both roller and gel, low viscosity, smooth writing, quick dry time, no smearing or smudging. Hopefully that helps. It's a hard one to pin down, but writes beautifully. So which is it then?

Brad Dowdy: It's a hard one to pin down, Myke. They're still not saying, right? They're still not saying, but it's a hybrid. So the UniBall Jetstream is a classified hybrid ink, but no one refers to it as anything but a ballpoint ink because that's pretty much what it is. The original Jetstream was classified as a ballpoint from the beginning, even though it was a hybrid ink.

Myke Hurley: It has some gel property, right? Yes. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And they talk about that in the ink description, right? I don't... I love my friend, Myke. I don't want to hear that it's a hard one to pin down. But they have taken to using gel as the descriptor for Zento. And I actually think that's a problem. I would be in that meeting saying, well, then we just have product line confusion with literally every other gel ink that we make is great.

Myke Hurley: Well, are they doing this then? Are they... So they say the Jetstream's a rollerball, right?

Brad Dowdy: No. Ballpoint. Ballpoint. Hybrid. Hybrid. Hybrid. Hybrid.

Myke Hurley: They say that's a hybrid.

Brad Dowdy: The Jetstream.

Myke Hurley: So maybe they just don't want to keep saying everything's a hybrid, right?

Brad Dowdy: But that's actually a feature. That's actually a good feature of the Zento. Well, it's different.

Myke Hurley: I just mean like you put this on the shelves in the stationery store. It's just easier to call it a gel ink pen, right?

Brad Dowdy: A thousand percent. And it's going to sell more.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Without question, it's going to sell more if you put gel on that. So anyway, so that's that answer. So it's a hybrid ink. Okay. I feel satisfied in that it's actually a rollerball hybrid. If you look on like the uni product pages again, they call it liquid. You don't ever call a gel ink any gel ink formulation. You don't ever use the term liquid.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: So that's a water-based rollerball when you use that terminology. So I'm fine with calling it a hybrid. I'm going to call it a hybrid rollerball with maybe some gel ink properties. Like the Jetstream is a hybrid ballpoint with some gel ink properties. I think that's fine. I think that's fine. But they want to position it as a gel, at least in the U.S. market. And that's fine too. But to me, if you look at my review, that actually makes it worse. It's not as good as their other gel inks, but it's better than every one of their rollerball inks. So that's just my opinion, right? And using all of these pens, it's maybe the third or fourth best gel ink pen, but it's the best rollerball ink pen. Because it only has the Vision, the Vision Elite, the Deluxe, and the Onyx to go up against. And it's better than all those by like a pretty good margin. So anyway. All right. So that was my ink formulation question. I'm actually good with the answer, but it's not helping the overall situation. But for the consumer, it's fine. Like it's good. Like it's just going to be classified as a gel.

Uniball Zento

Brad Dowdy: So the second question.

Brad Dowdy: This is verbatim what I said. The Uniball 1P Zento is making my life miserable. Exclamation point. Crying laughing emoji. I sent them that. I literally sent that. Then I said, just kidding. But what is Uniball trying to do here from a marketing perspective? Is it as simple as, hey, we know you like the 1 and the 1P barrel. Here, try this Zento refill to see what exactly. I'm so confused with it that I had to order two of them. So that was my question. Okay. This is a lot more nebulous of an answer. And I was actually asked to, I have really, really good relationship with Uniball. And we're going to keep it that way. And I was actually asked to, we could have an off the record discussion. I've been offered that discussion about this. So he didn't give me it. Yeah, there's not much here. So in reading their answer to this, saying onto the Uniball 1P, this has also been a very popular product for us. We released limited edition 1P with the Zento refill. I'm like, yes, I know. I very much understand this. That's what I'm talking about. Thank you. It sold out quickly and we have not released any new versions. And that's pretty much everything else would prefer to be off the record. And he was open to having a call with me on that, which is, I might take him up on it. I don't necessarily.

Myke Hurley: I think that their answer to what's going on here is it was very popular.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And we're not doing it anymore. Like, weird.

Brad Dowdy: No, no. Here's my assumption.

Brad Dowdy: And it kind of makes sense, at least in my head. I have a very complicated brain. I think the 1P surprised them. And the 1P, for those not initiated, is actually a barrel. So the 1 is a gel ink. The P is a barrel shape. And what it is is this short, stubby barrel that I think did better than anyone expected in style. And, like, just in relation to the standard 1s, the 1P really did numbers, is the way I read this. And that they're trying to, like, push that barrel.

Brad Dowdy: The way they responded, they're calling it the P. Which I think the P might end up being, having a Zento P. This is all, I'm reading between the lines. Right, so when. I don't have any information.

Myke Hurley: This is the.

Brad Dowdy: I think we're going to separate these things now.

Myke Hurley: This is what we spoke about. And, like, I think even me or you brought this up of, like, this pen is the P. Why not just do a Zento P? A hundred percent. And the answer is, yeah, we're gonna, but we just didn't. So I think. Yeah. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: Well, I think they just got caught off. Like, oh, my God. This actually worked. We just happened to call it the 1P from the jump. And so it was tied in with the 1 refill. I still don't understand why they packaged it with a Zento refill. Maybe that's, you know, leading the witness to eventually we'll just have a Zento one. I mean, excuse me, a Zento P. Which would be great. Like, I'd be down with that. But this whole, like, combo packaging deal doesn't make sense. Because they don't explain why they're doing it. They don't. Like, this would make a lot more sense if it was this exact same package. And it's like, bonus refill. Try the Uniball Zento. Right? Yeah. And it's not. It's not. It's like a co-habituation. Co-lab. Habituation. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. They've done it in a weird way. But I also understand what they're doing here. Totally. Like, you know, it's like we want to see if this will work. What's the easiest way to do this? Well, we already have all these 1Ps. Let's just. Yeah. Yeah. Let's just throw the Zento in there.

Uniball Success

Brad Dowdy: At the end of the day, Uniball has hit home run after home run. And they don't know what to do. Yeah. They are flush with successful products. Yeah. Which is a good thing. Like, you know, I'll get asked, well, do you prefer the One Gel or the Zento Ink? And, like, I have my preferences and, you know, but it's like choosing between, like, your two favorite types of sushi or your two steak types or, like, they're all good. Yeah. Right? It's a good. They have a good problem. They're just confusing me with some of this stuff. And I think that is because they're suffering from their own success in a great way. Like, this is probably fun problems to solve. I don't know that they did this one right with the combo meal of the Zento refill just thrown into this packaging randomly. I don't get that. But I think it's just like leading, like I said, leading the witness to get the Zento name out there. So when they do the Zento P or do these other interesting Zento barrels, that it's going to be more normal and people will understand what it is because the One P has already been very successful.

Brad Dowdy: It's fun stuff to discuss. I appreciate Uniball answering my questions because not a lot of companies will do that. 2026 is the year of Uniball. God. I mean, they've been doing it for a long time. I mean. I know. But I feel like they've really, like, they hit a stride in the last year or so. Historically, I've always given them the most praise because they're willing to invest in ink formulations. Yeah. And then everyone else follows. Except with one exception. It's the Pilot Friction. They got pantsed on that one. Mm-hmm. And Uniball. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Otherwise, there's no ink maker that has a better product lineup than Uniball and it's not particularly close. Yeah. Like, the Jetstream is literally the best in its category. You know, their gel pens. I think that's where you'll get the, like, the shelf gel pens. Like, say, the 207, the Uniball 207 versus the Pilot G2 versus the Sharpie S gel. They're not number one in that category. But they're specialty gels. Like, the One, the DX, the Signo RTs. Those are better than almost anything. Yeah. Yeah. It's great to see this. And so now I do have some answers. Like, I'm willing to just call the Zento is a, I'm going to, it's just a rollerball hybrid. And they've chosen to market it as more of a gel hybrid in the U.S. because it's going to sell more, just straight up. And I appreciate them, you know, with those answers. So, it's good stuff. Lastly, I literally did get those pens, which, you know, I guess I kind of buried that here. The, kind of the confetti, one P Zento. It's just, I don't get it. I just don't get it. It's great. Look, the P Barrel is so good. I can't believe I like that barrel. I didn't think. It's great. I would enjoy it. So, I never bought it in the beginning. And then I got to use it. And then I bought one. And now I think I have, like, three of them, which I don't need three of them. So, it's great. Yeah. That's it. It's, I appreciate Uniball's feedback. I did get some answers. And then everything else. Like, you know, it's a big business. And, you know, they got to keep things close to the vest. And I do understand that. But I think that's what's happening here is we're going to see some more P Barrel action across the lineup.

Myke Hurley: I don't like it, though. You know, it's just so weird to call it that.

Brad Dowdy: They, yeah, if you're going to do that, just give us the full name of what you've shortened it to, what you're using, like, this acronym or this initial for, right? Yeah. Yeah. Is it Patimo? Is it Petite? Is it, you know, it's a small barrel, right? If you're not familiar with the P Barrel. It's, I got to keep saying it because that's what it's called. But it's tough to say. Yeah. So. Not great. Because before you could just say the one P, which is, I don't, that's, okay. Don't think about that one too hard. But it's at least better than, yeah, I'm going to stop now.

Myke Hurley: Good stuff. Thank you, Uniball. You could do what I do. You know, the Zentop. That's what I like to think of it as, right? Zentop. Yes. Zentop. Yes. They should just call it that. They should call it that. I agree.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, where can you find some more Uniball products, Myke?

Myke Hurley: At our friends and the sponsor of this episode, Enigma Stationery. They offer unique items made from in-house designs, along with top brands and hard to find imports. What kind of products are catching your eye, Brad, over at Enigma Stationery right now?

Brad Dowdy: Can I lead with the hot dog pen? Yeah, we can lead with the hot dog pen. Okay, because I have a lot to talk about, but I feel like this has to be up front. So this was, again, where I was wrong. Uniball and not. House brand. Style brand. And not. So has the hot dog pen that I've been talking about a lot. And Enigma Stationery is making some embellished with mustard and ketchup, kind of like I did. But let me be honest, Myke, way better.

Myke Hurley: Way better, yeah. Because it looks like they're like screen printing on it rather than just, I don't know, using some pen that will rub off when you sweat.

Brad Dowdy: So the San Francisco Pen Show is not this weekend as the podcast relates. It's in like a week and a half. So like the 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, something like that. They're going to have these at the San Francisco Pen Show. Incredible. If you're going to the San Francisco Pen Show, you need to go buy Enigma. You need to go check out these pens. And you need to check out everything else that they sell. So I was browsing through the site, as I always do. They have this new Lihit Lab. Lihit Lab has always made like cool, interesting, and very simple pen cases. I don't, there's probably something like this on the market. It's called the Altna tray. And what it is, it's a small zip up pen case that when you fully unzip it, it just lays flat like a desk tray. It's kind of like that nylon-ish rubberized material, silicone material. So like if you've ever felt this material. Yeah. So it zips up nicely. But then when you unzip it, it just goes completely flat. And like that is not a difficult design, but no one does this. And it's kind of useful for like if you're like doing like a portable desking or going to the cafe or something like that. Moving around to have wider access. This is why we like the stand-up pen cases to where you have like a fully zip pen case. And then you just roll down the top and you have like essentially a cup of pens. This gives you a tray. I think it's so simple. Like I'm surprised we don't see more of this. I actually really enjoy that design a lot. Another design I love is the Japanese and other Asian stationery makers are really leaning into the translucency on their plastic products. So like the Kutsua pencil sharpener is clear and you can see the inner workings. I love that they're doing this. Mixing in, you know, the full translucent products into these. Lastly, and I hope they have these in San Francisco because this will probably, this is something like I always would buy in person when I see this, like with Enigma and things like that. They have this, they do greeting cards and postcards, which y'all know I love my cards and postcards. I was just browsing through the site and just kind of cackled. And you can, you can get this one from me, Myke. It's called Dear Hancock is the company. And this one's called Your Old Babe. And it's an, and it's an old bay aesthetic. And it's just paint like hand painted print for like a happy birthday card. It says your old babe, but still spicy. Like I'm in, like I'm in on like how they think about these products. Like that's the perfect birthday card for me, which is my birthday tomorrow. So, you know, whatever. Yeah. No big deal. You can get that for me. But anyway, lastly, lastly, Myke, I just posted a review this morning. Well, not a review, just kind of like a mini look. Kiwi Inks Fairy Dust Ink. Enigma is one of the few retailers that carries Kiwi Inks. And I think it's just because Kiwi is so small, they don't really have the volume to get out there to a lot of retailers. So you can catch this Fairy Dust review. And Enigma has a bunch of the Kiwi Inks, which is an ink brand that I enjoy. So yeah, great stuff. And definitely go see them in San Francisco.

Myke Hurley: Go get that hot dog pen. I want one. Like it looks incredible.

Brad Dowdy: It looks great. Really amazing. It solves the problem that I had because people are smarter than me.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Well, unfortunately so. If you want $10 off on orders of $50 or more, take yourself over to enigmastationary.com slash penaddict and use the code TPA26 at checkout. That is enigmastationary.com slash penaddict. And to get $10 off on orders of $50 or more, use that code, which is TPA26. Our thanks to Enigma Stationary for their support of this show and Relay.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke, we got our shout out of the week.

Myke Hurley: Shout out of the week.

Brad Dowdy: You read it. No, I'm just kidding. And Ongden Boutry.

Instagram Find

Brad Dowdy: So I believe that's their name. So I stumbled on this and I was like, oh, I know exactly what we're talking about this week.

Myke Hurley: Oh my God.

Brad Dowdy: You see why I did this, right?

Myke Hurley: Wow. Wow. I had not seen this one.

Brad Dowdy: I just happened to be scrolling through Instagram. Wow. And I knew we were talking about the 1P today, as we always do. And then I found someone who's like a maquillage and rodden artist who does like all the fountain pen stuff, like makes the beautiful, fancy fountain pens. And then they had a 1P with a painted barrel on it. And it's just sick. It looks so good. Like the 1P, like we're finding out this is a really good platform for artists as well. Not just hot dog art, but really actually high quality macchiere artwork.

Myke Hurley: Because I guess the and not pen is probably based on the 1P, right? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Like, yeah. It's kind of.

Myke Hurley: Like you go from that to that. Same aesthetic. Same aesthetic.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It doesn't use any of the same parts, but they're using definitely the same plastics.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. So that's really, really good. And this is a new account to me. Somehow they got, you know, algorithm in my feed. And I'm happy it did because there's a million like fancy pens on here and then a 1P with like a bird on it. And gold. So it's fantastic. Yeah. Really, really good. So, yeah. Y'all go check that out. You should also check out, speaking of San Francisco, Shown Design has a new dip nib called the Little Dipper. And I just wanted to bring this up because it's launching at the San Francisco Penn Show in a couple weeks. And this is, you know, along the lines of a lot of the popular dip nibs that we see. Like Kakamori is always like spoken of in this category where it's kind of like the bullet shape nib. Except what Shown Design here has done, which I wish people would have done a long time ago. Leave it to Ian to actually get out there and do it. Is they've made the back end so it just screws into your Yobo fitting grip section. Right? So you don't need a holder like a Kakamori nib. You need like a dip nib holder. Right? To put that in. This, if you have a pen that takes a Yobo number 6, which is a very popular nib size, you can just remove the whole nib and feed and housing. Just unscrew it. And then screw this in. And you just use it in your regular pen. Which is great. So I have something, you know, like this. Just like a one-off thing. That Brooks made me once to hold some of my drill log nibs. That just fits in like a number 6 threading. So this is great. Just to see these. So, yeah. If you like dip nibs or playing with ink and you're going to be at the San Francisco pen show, he's launching them there.

Myke Hurley: What's so clever about this? Like it's just dawned on me right now. Obviously, you didn't say this, but I don't think you thought you'd need to. It's not a dip nib anymore. How do you mean? It's pulling. Well, okay. Let's tell him that. Is it not pulling from the reservoir?

Brad Dowdy: No.

Myke Hurley: Oh, okay.

Brad Dowdy: You still dip it. It just screws in. There's no pass through. There's no pass through. Huh. Which is why like it has the hole and all the ridges in it to hold more ink.

Myke Hurley: I see. Yeah. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: It's not those ridges aren't acting like a thing.

Myke Hurley: I'm looking at him using it in a pen and I'm like, oh, like it's no, but there's no ink in the pen. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, okay. No, it's acting as a reservoir, not a thing.

Myke Hurley: Why not do that?

Brad Dowdy: I think it might just be out of control. Ink flow.

Myke Hurley: It'd be fun though, right?

Brad Dowdy: All at once. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what the retention is and like the holes. There's other, I've seen other nibs do like this, this circular thing to like hold, you know, more ink in there. I'm still not sure how that works. Do you have to hold that like on the vertical side of the nib so it's not spilling? Right. So you can, so you can meter your usage. Okay. I misunderstood. Type of things. Yeah. But it's, it's really good. So it's aluminum. I don't know the cost yet, but I imagine it's in the world of dip nibs and Ian's engineering. I still imagine it's going to be within reason. Like I'm guessing a hundred dollars, give or take 20, but I could be, I could be very wrong. Don't listen to me. I, I'm just guessing, but that would be my expectation, but I've been very wrong in the past. So as we know, Brad is wrong.

Myke Hurley: Well, so was I today. So it happens to all of us.

Retro 51 Pens

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Um, you're excited to talk about this next topic. I feel. I am. Well, no, let's. Let's do this, but let's do this. I skipped over one thing, but we can come back to that. Let's go ahead and do what you want to talk about because I was actually surprised and I want you to do this.

Myke Hurley: Okay. So retro 51, long time friends at a show. We would talk about them often. They got a new pen. We talk about it. And I feel like over time there were so many new pens from themselves doing them and collaborations and they pull back on some of that. Now I think it was the best because I think that it got a little overwhelming in time. But they still make some of their own designs and release them kind of on their own calendar and have come back with, I'm just going to say all timers, all time great. This is the new fruit series. They have made a strawberry and a banana retro 51. These are unbelievable designs. Like, so the strawberry, it's a strawberry kind of like red and like dotted barrel, right? So it looks like the skin of a strawberry. But the nib section? No. The nose cone. The nose cone. And all the furniture, the clip, everything is green. And it has a little strawberry in the finial. The banana is all yellow. And it has a banana sticker on it. Yeah. Like the faux Chiquita design.

Brad Dowdy: That's popular.

Myke Hurley: With a green, like twist mechanism. So it looks like the kind of the stem of the banana.

Brad Dowdy: It's flat. It's like a mat.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And then the finial has a slice of a banana on it. What's so funny? Why do you keep laughing? That you're so excited about this. They're amazing. These are so good.

Brad Dowdy: So the strawberry design is the strawberry hard candy green, right? So those classic hard candies that you see with like a little, the candy packaging is just the red strawberry and then like a green foil looking hardware. Well, I just think it's like this. Hardware.

Myke Hurley: It's just meant to be like the leaves, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, but it's very shiny. It's very shiny. Yeah. Where the banana is more matte. Like these, like the banana is cool. The banana is cool. I might actually have to get the banana. Like I didn't lose my mind over this. Like I do a lot of things like you are, but I.

Myke Hurley: I can't believe you're not so excited. I'm like, I'm flipping out over here. I don't know where to get them from.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, these are going to be stock. So any retro.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I know, but I want them and I don't know where to get them from.

Brad Dowdy: Also, the banana one, the sticker says, yummy, go bananas. And I'm. Exactly. Yummy, go bananas. Yes. And the stickers off kilter, right? As it should be. Like the sticker. Like when you see those stickers, they're just like all over the place. The bananas elite, like top tier. The strawberries just. It's fine. It's not my, not my jam. Get it? Strawberry jam. I didn't mean that. Wow. I think these are both like.

Myke Hurley: They're bangers. Top tier. Like couldn't be better. Like they absolutely crushed on this one. Yeah. Hats off to them. So good. And they've got like on their website, you get like the retro, like sorry, the rickshaw sleeves. They have some stickers. Like they're really going whole hog as they should. Cause I think this pen rules.

Brad Dowdy: So if the banana pen doesn't have the sleeve, do you think it starts to turn brown?

Myke Hurley: You could only wish for such a thing, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That would be cool. If the banana pen was like heat sensitive ink, that'd be pretty creepy. Nobody put Brad in charge. Uni ball should put me in charge. Well, yeah.

Myke Hurley: I buy them from Manning. I forgot about Manning. M-A-N-N-I-C.

Brad Dowdy: Oh my God. That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Yeah. That's where you get all your retro. So they did this and then they did the color wave. So I think this is good, right? Even though a lot of people might think this is just like basic colors, which they've historically always had a good lineup of standard colors. Because this is just me projecting, but they have to have like a more reasonable price point pen than like now, like the collabs and the store exclusives are like $89 like base price these days. And these are going to be a more reasonable price and really fun and good looking. So the color wave is pink, yellow. What do they call it? Positively pink, hello, yellow, blue breeze, and go green. So just standard solids, but in a different color range than some of their solids before.

Myke Hurley: And they're already vibrant, really fun colors.

Brad Dowdy: Super good color. So yeah, it's been a while since I've bought a retro. I might have to get the banana one. It looks like it's going to be pretty cool. Even if it's, I kind of hope it's like a matte feeling one. It kind of looks like it's maybe a little bit because the strawberry one's very shiny, right? Yeah. So, you know, I like my colors, Myke, which is why we got to talk about this next pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I was really intrigued when you posted this one on Instagram.

Faber-Castell Pens

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's pretty cool. So it's called the Faber-Castell Polyflow fountain pen. So Faber-Castell, and this goes the same for Pelican, and then maybe Lamy to a lesser degree, but these German, historic German brands, they do really well on the school pen and entry level fountain pen market, right? Because in the past, they've had to make like thousands and thousands of these because they were used in school, right? So they have that pretty dialed in to make a lower cost fountain pen product to, you know, I'm talking like, this pen's like $22, which we'll get to in a minute, which is a fantastic price. But I'm talking like $5 or less pens that they would just sell in bulk to schools, and they had to have good nibs, and they had to work well and be easy to clean. And so they have this experience, and now they're adding in the style. And that's what the Polyflow lineup is. It's this gradient, like minus purple and orange. What's it called? Something I'm... Punchy Melon, which is a great name. Punchy Melon. You're a punchy melon. And yeah, I am today. I am every week, I guess. And they did, you know, they've been doing this for a while. Faber-Castell has several, let's call it $20 or less fountain pens, where they'll make a black one, or they'll make a silver or a gray one, and then they'll do something absolutely ridiculous. Like there was this mermaid-looking one, like a couple years ago. And it's just fantastic that they have like the classics, and then they make things like punchy melon. But it's only as cool as it is, because it actually works exceedingly well. And that's what makes me the most happy. Like I bought this pen because of how it looks, but I really wanted to test it, because again, it's $22. And that's definitely in the entry-level range these days. I think, you know, you have your Platinum Preppies in like $7. And then you have your Pilot Cocoonos that are like $12 to $14. And then you're getting up closer to $20. Like the next batch is like the $18 to $22. And that's where this one is. This is like cheaper than like your Lamy Safaris and TWSBI Ecos and all that stuff. And it works just as well. The nib is great. It only comes in medium, so that's a drawback. But that's just kind of how I think a lot of these brands do that for this price point of pen. They limit the range of nibs. So that's an issue. But I thoroughly enjoyed writing with this medium nib. I'm going to keep writing with it. It's just a fun pen. And it does have a triangular-shaped barrel, which if you just look at my pictures, you say, oh, that's a nice cylindrical pen. It looks round. It's kind of an optical illusion because it's basically a rounded edge triangle that goes through the barrel and through the grip section. So if you're not a traditional grip holder, you may not like this as much because there is some ridges there in the grip section. But overall, I'm insanely impressed with the quality of this $22 pen. And like I said, it comes in basic black, like if that's not your thing. But you like a style, like a plastic barrel pen that's going to take a beating. It doesn't come with a converter. It fits your standard international cartridges. But overall, like I can't speak highly enough of this product, this product line. And then like just the Faber-Castell school pens as a whole. And I'm just going to go ahead and throw in Pelican as well because anything I've tried from Pelican, like in the $20 and below range, it's just shocking how good of a writing experience these are. So it's something fun to play around with, even if you're an experienced user to have one of these to throw in a bag or a backpack and throw it in your pocket and go and know that it's going to work really, really well because these were essentially designed to be destroyed, right? These school pens are designed to take a beating and then have some cool style like this. I just could not be more impressed with this pen.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I love the look. It's just such a unique design. I feel like I don't remember seeing something that looks like this, which I think is cool to come from a company like Faber-Castell, right? To have like this ombre, essentially. Yeah, exactly. I just think it's really, really great looking. And the fact that it's matte too, really like and solid goes hard. Love it. Also, love that you took that top-down picture. I never would have noticed that this was a kind of triangular look. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And even then it throws you off because the nib opening is a circle, right? And then you have to kind of look and see, oh, it is. But that goes through the entire barrel. The entire barrel holds that shape because sometimes if I go to blindly cap it, the cap wouldn't fit on if you're like going against like the triangular shape of it, right? You have to put it on. You have to slot it in correctly so everything lines up, right? So even the cap and the barrel have that shape into it. But you cannot see that in just a standard picture. It looks cylindrical. Which just goes to the quality of the finish on these pens. It's really... I don't... Like I'm raving about this pen. It's like really good. Like it's never going to be my Lamy Safari beater. But like because that's my favorite pen of all time maybe. But dang, this is a good pen. And they have other colors. And this isn't the first time that they've done this. But this is the first time I've chosen to review one. And I'm just really happy with it. So it's good stuff. I would buy another one of these if I could get one in like an extra fine nib. But even this nib wasn't too wide for me. I enjoyed it.

Myke Hurley: All right. If you want to catch the links to the stuff that we've spoken about today. They'll be in your podcast app of choice. So you can find them on the web at relay.fm slash 730. You can also find everything you need there to go support the sponsor of this week's episode. Which was Enigma Stationery. Thank you to them for their support. I would like you to go to the Pen Addict website. Go to penaddict.com. You can read all of Brad's great work. Go to spokedesign.com. You can buy his products. See him live streaming three times a week. Over at twitch.tv slash penaddict. You can find Brad there. You can find this show over at relay.fm. You can find me at theenthusiast.net. And at cortexbrown.com as well. We'll be back next week. Until then. Say goodbye Brad. Goodbye Brad.