The Pen Addict 369/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	369
Title:	One Week Per Two Days
Release Date:	July 24th, 2019
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 369
Audio File:	Audio Episode 369
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 369
Length:	5555 min <br />0.917 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Episode Introduction

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 369. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and the Canalea Pen Company. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Brad Dowdy.

Myke Hurley: Hello Myke Hurley, I hope you're feeling nice today.

Brad Dowdy: Listen to me, I'm back to full voice health.

Myke Hurley: That was extremely rough for you last week. Oh boy. And I like felt guilty the whole time, especially as it degraded through the episode. But I'm glad you're back, back to normal, feeling all good now, right?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, if you heard last week's episode and noticed how my voice is degrading, go and just check out a few minutes of the Connected episode that was recorded later on in the day. Because it was totally gone by that point.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah. Like it ramped up just on our little hour of podcasting. And then I saw your links, I didn't listen to that episode.

Myke Hurley: But I could tell just by the tweets y'all were sending out, like it had to be terrible.

Brad Dowdy: One word answers only was my... Yeah. That was your role.

Topic Transition

Myke Hurley: Well, thanks for taking one for the team last week. Myke, you're a good guy. Well, one thing that we had planned on discussing last week was the feedback that we got when I happened to mention the word planners on a recent episode of the podcast. It was only a few episodes ago, you know, late June, a few weeks ago. And I talked about what I wanted in a planner and how I'm enjoying the Sumkin A5 agenda, which you've all heard me talk about a billion times this year, that it's been the one agenda slash planner system that I've been successful with in years. And I enjoyed the layout and I was just looking, you know, are there other options for me out there? And Myke, let me just tell you, we get a lot of feedback on this show and a lot of questions for Ask TPA. I have never, ever received as much feedback as I did when I said the word planner and got specific about it in that episode. It was unreal and awesome. Like, I'm not saying that in a negative way. It was fascinating the beliefs people have in their planner and how it works for them. And I found it, one, fascinating. I found it, two, lovely that everyone would share what they do and would try to find a solution for me. You know, maybe and maybe I don't need a solution. I was just bringing it up as like, is there something out there better? Like, this one works so well for me. Do I just keep going? Probably should do that. But you know us, Myke. You know, we have one pen. Why shouldn't we have two pens, right, Myke?

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: So we need more. We need more planners. We need, there's always the next one. There's always something better. There's always something we're chasing.

Brad Dowdy: There is a thing, though, like, I feel like you can use pens simultaneously. I don't know how many planners you can use simultaneously.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, yeah, no. I'm not saying that from a, I would have multiple planners. I'm saying that, well, this one's been really good to me. So let's switch because that's what we do, right? Yep. Not that I would have two different planners for two different things. So I kind of wanted to break down some of this feedback because it was so deep and involved and the topic really resonated with a lot of people. We're going to have to devote a lot of time to planners when planner season comes up, which I usually denote as about September 1st. That's usually when Hobonichi releases their swarm of planners. And then it's just all systems go with every company seems to be like in that September timeframe. So we'll be talking about this a lot because we don't have all of the new planners and there's always, you know, split year planners and there's always randomness coming out throughout the year. But really planner season for the following year usually hits about September. So we'll be talking about it more. So just to recap without going into what we talked about in episode 366 too much. Um, I like a two page per week planner. So the left side has my seven days and each of those seven days has their own area to write in like a horizontal block. I'm about five grid lines deep, if you will. And this is a five size page. So that's the left side of the page. And then the right side of the page is just a grid layout blank, like no restrictions or guidance on those pages. So that's what's worked for me. So I said those types of things. And, you know, I would also like the issue I was having is I don't have the future planning available for like, um, one month per two page layout in that. And that's kind of something that would be, I would find helpful. The undeniable winner in my inbox of that layout is the Hobonichi weeks. So I knew it was pretty clear that that was going to be the winner when I would get, I got multiple emails that essentially said the answer to your planner question is the Hobonichi weeks. And that would be the entirety of the email. There were like three of those. The answer is the Hobonichi weeks for what you're explaining. The answer is the Hobonichi weeks just over and over. It was like, okay, okay. I get it. It's like, I knew that was probably one that would be interesting, but it actually does have the weekly layout that I want in the monthly layout that I want. So I put the link to the 2019 Hobonichi weeks page in here, Myke, and I wanted to bring out one thing that I very much like about this planner, which I didn't discuss that I like about my current planner. They call it the two dot timeline. Now what that is, is it's breaks out. So you have this weekly rectangle, right? For your day. So each day, so Monday has like a six grid red rectangle, six grid deep rectangle. And then on the vertical, there is a dot at the top and a dot at the bottom that will split that section into thirds. If you want, it stays out of the way if you don't want it. But the idea for Hobonichi was to split each day into morning, afternoon, and evening. Now I don't use that, but my Sumkin has something similar where I take the right most marker and I'll draw a line full down the week. So I'll have two thirds of Monday's block for what I need to do on Monday. And then the one third of Monday's block that I leave, I put my personal stuff in there. My wife's work schedule, my son's practice schedule, my daughter's school schedule, you know, any appointments I have, any of the non-work related, any of the like family life type stuff goes in the right third. So I create my own column every time. And this Hobonichi Weeks has that little dot there. I don't have to have the dot, but it's nice to know that I can just run my line down there and keep, you know, my family obligations in that one third section. And I still have the two third section available for my traditional Monday through Sunday planning. So it also has the calendar at the front of the book. So it has the two page per month calendar layout that I like. It even has more little indexes and things. And, you know, it's slim. It's like an A5 slim style, about the size of your traveler's notebook style planner. So, yeah, I'm kind of thinking this will be the way that I go for next year, just because it takes what I exact, I can move exactly to what I'm doing now. And I can move it into this notebook and get the extra calendar that I want.

Myke Hurley: So we'd think like we could just end it right there.

Brad Dowdy: See, of all of the Hobonichis, you never had a Weeks then?

Myke Hurley: No, never had a Weeks.

Brad Dowdy: You had a Cousin, you had a original Techo.

Myke Hurley: Techo first, Techo twice, Cousin the third option, and then nothing. Right, like I stopped. So I've never used the Weeks, but the Weeks lovers were out in force saying that was it. So, but yeah, and honestly, I think it probably is. Like I'm pretty resolved to let's see what the 2020 looks like. They don't change the overall formats of their core styles, Weeks, Techo, Cousin. No, that'd be weird. Very much. Like it'll just, if there's anything different, they'll just do some little, you know, layout differentiation on the indexes or something. Like the change logs on the core products are very small and very generally insignificant to the main aspects of the planners, right? They're not changing layouts, things like that. But I got a bunch more feedback that I didn't think about, and I wanted to give them some time as well. So aside from the Weeks, the second biggest bucket, if you will, of feedback came in one specific system. And it's more of a general term as opposed to a specific system. But everyone that uses disk-bound systems, you know what I talk about when I say a disk-bound system, Myke? Like the Levenger one. Levenger Circa, Staples Arc. There's one by William Hanna, which we'll talk about in a minute. But that is very popular. Like as soon as I say something like, I want these very specific things for a planner, the disk-bound system pops up because it's probably the most customizable. It's infinitely customizable.

Hobonichi Inserts

Brad Dowdy: Because you can just take pages in and put, like, as long as it's a system that has a lot of pre-printed inserts. Or you can design your own. Or you buy one of the things, yeah, you buy one of the things that cuts the disk-holes out yourself. Right. And then you can make whatever you want to go in it.

Myke Hurley: You can do anything with a disk-bound system because you can create the page, right? I could make a page that's perfect for me in, you know, all the descriptions that I laid out in that episode and create something. Or, like you said, I can buy the pre-made layouts. You know, Levenger has some. You know, over the years they've done things. They've collaborated with Rodia to have inserts. And there's all kinds of different things. So here's my couple of issues, which why I won't do disk-bound.

Myke Hurley: One, I don't want to spend time creating the page layout. No, I don't want to do that. That's a different level. Yeah, right. Say that again, Myke.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I can't believe I said that that came out of my mouth. But you say it too, though. You make paper layouts. But yes, well, okay, here's the thing. I didn't want to make it. I had somebody else make it, but it was still my idea. But nevertheless, it's a different kind of thought. Like, I'm creating it for me, but also as a product to sell. I'm not interested in creating a page layout just for myself.

Paper Choice Concerns

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because the spending time creating the thing actually ties in with point two and point three is I don't want to question the paper I use and I don't want to question the printer ink that I use. Because I will not be getting these professionally made, right? The idea is...

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you actually kind of hit the nail on the head of what I was... I think I was trying to get at was why I don't want to make them. Because I don't want to have to deal with that. It's not the design so much, I think, which is what I'm resistant to. It's the making of the thing.

Myke Hurley: Right. And it's not that the making of the thing is bad. It's that the making of the thing makes me question, well, the printer cartridge that I'm using in this printer... I would never be happy. How is a liquid ink going to handle that black line if I run across it? What paper is going to... You know, what copier paper is going to use this? You know, there's actually some decent copy papers out there now. That could be all kinds of pen friendly. There's actually one by Kukuyo that one of my friends gave me some samples of. Which was just brilliant white copy paper, you know, bought in like 500 sheet packs. And I was like, you know, you could really do something cool with this. But it's the combination of creating the layout and matching the paper and matching the ink to an idea that when I'm done with, I'll be content with just grabbing and using any pen, any paper, any time, or any ink, any time, and be happy with that. Like, there's an overhead in discbound that I cannot, at this time, get past, right? I have enough overhead as it is, which we'll probably be talking about. But, you know, I'm trying. Like, that's too fussy. But I 1,000% get it. Like, I've looked at Circa for years. And I've looked at other people using the Circa system. And I'm just kind of fascinated by it, right? It's a really cool system. And for people that, like, really live and breathe that system, they don't want anything else. And, like, I get it. But William Hanna, which I mentioned a minute ago, they make, like, the super fancy version, like, the real stationary nerd version of these. I've seen some of these in person. And you can, like, pick and choose your interiors and exteriors. Like, you can really design a really cool cover and disc system. But the problem is still, like, I got to pick out the paper and I got to print it out to how I want. And just there's a level, a barrier to entry there, if you will, that I'm not willing to get past.

Myke Hurley: The next one caught me completely off guard. And I'm sure you're familiar with the Shinolo brand. And we've actually probably talked about their notebooks in the past. They're from Detroit, right? Yeah, they're a watchmaker in Detroit. And that's how they kind of rebooted the brand. It was, there's a whole long story there. You can go look up Shinolo history. It was a completely different product. But it was basically a Detroit revitalization project. And they've done very well. So they added accessories into their watch lineup. And it started with notebooks. And I've tested out some of the notebooks. And the paper was really bad. It's, like, you know, just not good for a lot of pens type of paper. So I just kind of, you know, blew them off. And I was like, okay, you know, this is just, like, more of a marketing thing than, like, a real focus and importance on their notebook, right? It's an add-on type of thing to the rest of their products. But I got a link to what's called the Shinola Runwell Planner. And what that is, it is actually the thing. It solves the one problem that I mentioned to where I don't have the month layout handy for the calendar. At the start of every month, it gives you that two-page layout before going into your four weeks, say, of the following month. So, like, if I have May getting ready to come up and I have my two-page, my one-week-per-two-days, excuse me, one-week-per-two-page layout, all these planner terms get confusing.

Brad Dowdy: It gets very confusing.

Myke Hurley: Before May starts, I will get May's calendar, two-page monthly calendar before that. So am I making sense? Right? So when April ends, the next page, I get a two-page calendar for May.

Calendar Features

Brad Dowdy: Does it have space for you to be able to write stuff in?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Yeah. Just like any two-page monthly calendar, right? It's got all 30 days. Their website does not show this. Right. So we're getting to that. Let me read you what I say in the GDoc. And I only knew this because the reader who emailed me this included pictures. So I'm going to read this straight out of the document. I think it is a smart layout. I don't think it beats my other options, but I was impressed. They do a terrible job showing, explaining the layout, and I wouldn't have known if I didn't get pictures sent to me in an email. Yeah. I tried to find a picture we could share of this. And I'm not going to put the link that someone sent me because they have their information in it. But yeah, I could not find a link to share with the chat of one of the neatest features that not a lot of companies do. There might be someone else out here that does that. But I thought it was a smart. I thought it was very smart to have that month's two page layout before the next four weeks of the month. And then, you know, that month ends. Then you get June's month layout and then June's four weeks and then on and on and on. So I thought that was a really unique layout. Again, I'm not going to get it. I thought their paper was very bad. The person who sent me the link to this actually, you know, tested out a bunch of inks and it appears that they've gotten better over the years. But I was just kind of taken aback that I couldn't I couldn't show you. I couldn't show you a picture of it because they just don't they just don't have it. So if you run, they've started to carry these. I've seen these in stationary stores, at least the Shinola notebooks, just the basic pocket and hardcover notebooks. So, you know, if that's something that interests you and you want to hunt one down, you might actually just, you know, run into one and maybe you can see it for yourself if it works. But I I thought I was missing something when I was scrolling through all those pictures, you know, because they have lots of pictures of all the different colors and covers and all those fun things. But, yeah, I couldn't couldn't get you a picture of what's the most important feature to me. The last bit. And this is probably I got as many emails about this as I did probably about the disk based system. Teachers. Teachers know what's up, Myke. Teachers have to plan in ways that probably none of us would ever understand. They have to plan their days, weeks, months, years, and they have to do it a lot of times very far ahead of time. And that's kind of where a lot of the teacher feedback was is like, hey, look, we have all these different planners that are like teacher based, teacher focus. And it's really exactly what you want. You know, I have a yearly layout. I have a monthly layout and I have my weekly layout because that's how I have to do my job. Like this is how I work. So there was no specific ones that the group of teachers, you know, said specifically. They like they were all over the board in different types, but just basically look for those educational type planners. And they might fit something that I'm looking for as far as the layout goes. You know, they were very, very specific. So there would be something to look at. And they have a lot of very specialty options like that we would never see from any of our normal planner manufacturers. Like if we're going to go to Rodia or Clairefontaine or Hobonichi or whoever, Quo Vadis or whoever. There's all these brands that focus on teachers that I don't know anything about, you know. So I thought that was very cool. And, you know, a couple of people did mention that I might know a guy who does a podcast about planning and scheduling things that I maybe should start listening to more closely.

Brad Dowdy: If you want to do a design, we can do a notebook. I have no problem with that.

Brad Dowdy: I thought it was funny. If you want to come up with, if you have an idea and I have no problem looking at that as another option.

Myke Hurley: A couple of people like, do you even listen to Cortex? You know, Myke talks about this. I'm like, I know, I know, I know. I know. It was pretty funny. So I appreciated all the Cortex listeners coming out and saying like, you know, you know a guy, right? I'm like, I know, I know.

Manufacturing Difficulty

Brad Dowdy: So Brad, can I just take a quick pause here to say that manufacturing is the hardest thing in the world?

Myke Hurley: Hey, I mean, I'm going to just have to get the T-shirt made, right? Manufacturing is hard. How many years have I been saying that?

Brad Dowdy: I know.

Brad Dowdy: It's.

Myke Hurley: You don't know it until you know it. And then you're just like, oh boy, do you know it? Oh, God.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Just that some things seem like they would be so easy.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Manufacturing is hard. Words to live by. I mean, that's for real. So yeah, we'll talk about that more. Yeah. We'll have to, you know, well, there's always manufacturing things coming up.

Myke Hurley: Coming up out of the woodwork, if you will. And just never know until you know.

Brad Dowdy: So I hope in these weeks, huh? That's what you're going to go for.

Myke Hurley: I would. We're probably like in the 90% certainty. You know, there's more things to go through. I'm going to see what Kakugo does with the G-Bun lineup this year. They've, in the past, they've been a little bit overly complex layouts for me. Like, not overly complex, but too many things I wouldn't use. Right? That's the kicker. Right? I don't want too many wasted pages in the planner. That's why these types of layouts that I've talked about with the Sumkin that I've been using in the weeks. You know, there's not too much in there that I wouldn't be using. So, like, I don't want a bunch of extra stuff. So I want to see what G-Bun Techo does this year just as an option. And there'll be some other, all kinds of planners, you know, that I won't know about. You know, there's a, especially the Japanese planner market. You know, there's, I've seen catalogs and all kinds of crazy things coming out. You know, Midori and, I forget the one, David's. I forget what they're called. I don't know. So, yeah. No, we're looking at the weeks. And then there'll be a lot of things, like, in September timeframe I'll look at. But one last thing, and before I, you know, belabor this point too much, that Hobonichi stuff will be sold out by, like, December. Right? So, if you're interested, and I don't say this kind of flippantly, like, they really do sell out of, like, the best stuff before the years. The current year is out before you even start into the next year. Then there'll be some continuing, like, I bought my Sumken, like, in January. You know, there'll be plenty of options for you. But, like, the big brands, like Hobonichi and Kikuyo and all them, they'll sell out of this stuff. Like, it's probably their biggest time of the year is probably September when this stuff launches because people know it's not going to be around in March of 2020. It just doesn't exist anymore.

Myke Hurley: So, that's why I got to decide now, Myke. So, it's looking like the week, so I'll be keeping an eye on when they launch. Usually late August, early September, something like that.

Sponsor Break

Brad Dowdy: All right. Should we take our first break? Let's do it. All right. Today's episode is brought to you in part by the Canalea Pen Company. Canalea pens make wonderful – they just make the most wonderful products. They are inspired by stunning landscapes of Hawaii. And Canalea's founders, Hugh and Carol, believe that these locations, the wonderful places that they like to depict in their products, help recharge our spirit. They help connect us with nature. The pens that they make have been created with a particular image in mind. They like to look through the images that they find the most inspiring. And then they try and create and work with wonderful people who can take those products – who can take these pictures and turn them into pens. And you can look at – on their website, when you go to canaleapenco.com, you can look at all of their pens. And you can see the images that they've taken the inspiration from. And the results really are incredible. The story behind these products is amazing. The execution is perfect. I love all of my Canalea pens. Every single one of them is handmade in a process that means that no two pens will ever look alike. The coloring of all of them and the way that they're made up is completely unique. Canalea have a wide variety of styles of material as well as shapes of pen as well. You'd be, I think, incredibly hard-pressed to find a collection of pens that one company makes that are as stunning as these ones. I said that we both own multiple canalea pens. I have actually purchased the new one from Hugh and Carol. I've sold them which one I want. So I now own another canalea pen. And I'm talking about the Eolani, which is the new model, which is based on a photo of the clouds at sunrise rising over the Haleakala volcano on the island of Maui, which was where I honeymooned. So, you know, it's just a nice little thing for me. But they are incredible canalea pens. It's usually number six nibs. You can buy steel or 18-carat gold nibs directly from canalea. They offer sizes from extra fine to 1.1mm stub. And every single canalea pen, whether bought online or at a pen show, leaves the shop after being inspected and tuned by Hugh personally to make sure that it writes like a dream. Talking about pen show, if you want to see some of these pens in person, which you should, and meet Hugh and Carol, the canalea pen co will be at both the San Francisco and DC pen shows this year. So this is a great place to see the new Eolani in person as well. You can check out their range of pens right now at canaleapenco.com. That is K-A-N-I-L-E-A-P-E-N-C-O.com. Canaleapenco.com. You can find links in the show notes to that as well. Canalea is one of my favorite companies run by some of my favorite people in the pen industry. I think that their stuff is amazing. You should go and check it out and add one of these pens to your collection. That's canaleapenco.com.

Myke Hurley: Can I elaborate real quick on the uniqueness part that you mentioned?

Myke Hurley: If you can ever get to a pen show and you're interested in these pens, you should take a look at their display because each pen really is different than the one sitting right next to it. Even if it's in the same product lineup, you know, the materials are so complex. They can't help but be made from like different parts. Like they're not all similar to similar type swirls. And even, you know, if the coloration is the same or, you know, the layout's the same, they all have these different pieces and parts that you can kind of pick out that really kind of speak to you. Like my Hanamabe has a lot of translucency. Like I picked out the one that had a lot of clear parts in it. And, you know, someone might like more of a darkness or a depth in theirs, you know, as opposed to what I like. So I thought it was really cool. So that's one of the super highlights of getting to pick out your Kenalea Pen Co. in person. So make sure to see them in D.C., see them in San Francisco, and, you know, tell them the pen and I said hi.

Pen Show Discussion

Myke Hurley: Speaking of pen shows, I'm doing something we've probably sort of discussed, like in very short bursts about pen shows. But I got an email from Kiyomi who wanted to know how to buy their first vintage pen at a pen show. And I hesitated to put this in there because I'm by no means an expert in buying vintage pens and vintage pen markets and vintage pens at all. But that's kind of where a lot of us are coming from.

Myke Hurley: Or, you know, listen to the Pen Addict podcast or read the blog or things like that. We don't know all these things. And, you know, some of us have learned through experience on how to do it. And we can share that information about what we did, you know, even if it's maybe not the most perfect information ever. It's at least an experience you can take. So I kind of, the way I handled this was I put myself in the mindset of going to buy a vintage pen for the first time at a pen show. So here's Kiyomi's question, then we'll get into the details. It says, you may have covered this in the past since I'm a relatively new listener of a few months. But if you have not, would you consider doing a segment on the must ask questions when purchasing fountain pens from a secondhand seller? So I took this especially like at a pen show, right? It's even harder to buy vintage online. And if you're not extremely experienced, I would almost shy away from it unless, you know, you're up for taking the risk and up for, you know, doing some maintenance and doing some work on your own. If you can do that and you're willing to, you know, put in a little, have a little extra elbow grease, you know, you can get some good deals shopping online. But I've taken this from going to a pen show and trying to find, you know, something you're interested in from a vintage standpoint. So I, and I'm still kind of that way, right? Like I still, I like vintage pens. I like the looks. I like the story. I like the feel. I like the classic nibs, but I'm still not an expert. So I go through these steps. I've kind of done this in the past and I'll do this now if there's something I'm really, really interested in. The first, first tip I have is do as much online research as possible beforehand. Is there a specific brand or model of pen you're looking at? There's online resources. You can search up whatever pen you're looking for and probably find a detailed history of that pen, that pen model, the different styles, the different sizes. Like if you start to look at something like a Parker Vacumatic, you can have one pen color. You think, oh, there's a Parker Vacumatic. But that one pen color, you know, the blue one could have six different sizes and all these different features that change the price dramatically based on how they're, how they're, you know, what size the pen is. So you got to, you have time to, to research before you even show up at a show. Research what qualities make it a good pen. You know, what issues do those types of pen have? You know, what are the gotchas you should be looking for? You know, these pens have been around for 60, 70, 100 years. Sometimes there's information out there, you know, and while you're doing that kind of, you can kind of get a feel for the price. Okay, this pen is in this condition with this nib and, you know, it's around this price. That at least, that's not a hard, fast rule, like price you should take with you and say, well, I saw it online for this. But you start building like this mental database of, you know, pricing and have these general ballparks. You know, what do the most perfect condition models go for? What do, what does, you know, a more used model go for? You know, you can do all of this stuff before you ever set foot in a show. So at least you have a baseline of what you're looking at when you show up. And then when you show up, like I literally, I'll just, I'll walk up to a table. And if the vendor's not busy with another customer, I'll just walk up and say, hey, how are you today? And like kind of, you know, break the ice a little bit. Because if I find something that I want to know more information about, you know, I'll kind of, you know, have started, you know, just like the feeling out process. You know, there's not always a super welcoming party at a vintage pen table, just being honest. But they're few and far between, you know, the kind of the curmiginy types. But you'll know pretty quick, you know, whether someone is like, hey, was open to answering questions and talking to you and, and, you know, give you more information. So I'll just walk up, say, hey, how are you today? And then I'll just start looking. I'll just browse the table, get an idea of what they're selling. Not just what brands they're selling, but what conditions overall the pens are in. You know, you can pick it up by scanning the table if they've just got in a group of secondhand pens from a big estate sale where someone was just hoarding drawers full of pens and they threw them out there on the table. Or you can tell, you know, that there's a lot more care taken in and a bunch of the pens are restored. Like you can kind of tell just in the physical looks of the pens, are they beaten and banged and just kind of being sold as is? Or maybe they've been restored, they look nicer. You know, you can kind of start picking that up on just what the condition is, what the prices are, things like that. So then if I find a pen on that table, I'll ask the vendor, may I pick this one up? Always ask. I don't, I mean, I know some of the vendors and I don't know some of the vendors. Even the ones that I would share a drink with at the bar, like I know them very, very well. I will ask them, may I pick this up? Always. Just do it. Just ask. It makes everyone more comfortable no matter the situation.

Brad Dowdy: It's a good icebreaker too.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, absolutely. And then they know what you may be interested in. And then they may just start talking and say, hey, you know, this is a pen from 1967. If they're a good salesperson, they should start talking at that point. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, they'll give you a little bit more information about the pen, you know, talk about did they restore it? Is it restored? You know, is it going to work in like the moment you try to ink it up, things like that. And also, like if you're going to pick up the pen and inspect the nib, which you're probably going to do, if you're not sure, ask, unscrew or pull the cap, you know, should I unscrew it? You know, and they'll just go, oh, just unscrew that one. It'll be fine. So, and be gentle, Myke. Don't spray ink all over their table.

Brad Dowdy: One time.

Myke Hurley: If you haven't gotten that initial like feedback, like when you pick up the pen, when you asked the first time and they hadn't started giving you the information, ask them, can you tell me a little bit about this pen? That's my icebreaker. You know, like if I've picked up a pen and I'm kind of interested in it and it's a maybe like, oh, this is somewhat interesting. And I'll ask whoever's behind the table. Can you tell me a little bit about this pen? And hopefully they're going to, hopefully they will, you know, hopefully they'll tell you about the brand and the model and the age and the condition, you know, and, you know, hopefully they'll give you that information. And you know what, if they don't, and if you're getting, you know, not the information you want, you just set the pen back down and say, okay, thank you. And then there's a lot of choices at pen shows. You have options. And if it hasn't come up by this point in the buying process, directly ask if the pen has been restored. If yes, and if they weren't clear about it, ask them if they restored it or if someone else restored it. It doesn't matter, but you just want to know the information. Like if they restored it, they maybe can tell you anymore. Or if someone else restored it, they might say, hey, you know, this guy, you know, over here who does great work restored it for me. You know, you can kind of, it's vintage pen buying is about the information you can collect to be satisfied that you're making, spending your money. Well, you know, you want to leave with a pen in good working condition and ready to write. We're not going in this from a collector's mindset. We're not grabbing, you know, a dozen vintage pens off here to add them to collection. We're looking to find something cool, unique. That's going to be able to be inked up and written with as soon as you leave the show. I'm not in the pen repair business. You're probably not in the pen repair business. We just want our awesome new pen and not have to worry about it breaking down. So ask these questions. Is it, has it been restored? Nine times out of 10, you're going to want to buy a pen that's been restored unless you have some type of experience, you know, fixing any type of vintage pens. We're here to use the pen and write with it. So you want it working. As I mentioned just a second ago, if at any point during any of this conversation, you don't have a good vibe, you're not comfortable. It's totally cool. Set the pen down, say thanks. Go into the next one. You don't have to be in any rush. You know, in the buying your first vintage pen market, there's a lot of options. That's a big market, right? There's a lot of people out there selling great pens at great prices, but you got to shop around a little bit. You know, we're not buying, we, the collective we who listen to this podcast, aren't buying like the single most rare piece found on that table that if you see it and don't immediately purchase, it might not be there the next time you come around. We're in the market to where we have options, right? We can walk around the room, scope out our options, figure out where we can get the best bang for our buck and who is, you know, giving us the most comfort level. You know, when we buy that pen. Anytime I've bought a vintage pen, I've been happy to pay a premium from someone who I know does good restoration work. You may not know this if you're going to your first pen show and trying to buy your first vintage pen on your own, you know, without the resources that I have. And it's kind of hard to get that information. So hopefully during this time you've researched and you're thinking about going to pen show, maybe you've come up with some other friends or some other contacts that might be going to the same pen show like me. If I'm ever there, you know, hit me up, bounce your questions off me, email me beforehand, you know, things like that. And I can tell you, I can look if you're going to, let's just say the Ohio pen show. And cause I know I'm probably not going to that show and it's going to be your first show and you want to buy a vintage pen. You can email me. I'll look at that list and give you, you know, five or 10 people to start with. You know, I can look at the vendors and say your best bets going to be at vendors X, Y, and Z, you know, and that's just general information. It's not, you know, stone cold facts and things like that, but it's just, any little information you can get before you go helps. And if I can point you to like a few people that I've had good luck with buying vintage pens in the past, and I know they're going to be at that show, I'm going to send you there. Absolutely. Every time. So do your research beforehand, ask a lot of questions and don't spend a dime of your money unless you're a hundred percent comfortable. I mean, that's the best information I can give you. I kind of hope this helps. You know, I, I could have just written all this back to Kiyomi and, um, you know, giving them that information. And I kind of thought it was a good question to share. Um, let me put these things down in words. You know, they may not be completely perfect and there's a lot more you can get into than that. So, um, I think that's a good guideline. Those are kind of some of the steps I've taken. Have I missed anything, Myke? Like you haven't bought many vintage pens, which you bought a couple in the past. Is there anything I've kind of missed in like the grand scheme of buying your first vintage pen?

Brad Dowdy: No, because I would always ask you for advice. I think like, I don't have any advice. I can just commiserate with Kiyomi, right? Like I find it a very intimidating process because I feel like when I go to these tables, I am at a disadvantage. I know less than the person I'm buying from. And if like, I don't really know much about the person I'm buying from, I don't know if they're trying to like suss me out and pull the wool over my eyes.

Myke Hurley: Right. Right. So it, it's sort of related and, uh, I want to bring it up. I think it was a question we had last episode about why don't vendors price their things. And I don't want to say stay away from them because they might just have great deals and they might just be lazy, but that's generally, I'm going to do more looking than buying. If I can't have that piece of information, right? It's the more information I have, the more comfortable I'm going to be. And I don't want to have to ask how much is this one? How much is this one? How about this one? How much is this one? Cause then you're just driving yourself crazy. You're driving them crazy. So all kinds of things. So yeah, that's, uh, that's good. Ask questions if you can, if you can find like some people to bounce, bounce some questions off to off of, that'd be great too. So that's a little bit harder, but super valuable if you can, if you can do that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I would say like, you know, as always just make sure you shop around. Like if you, if you talk into a vendor and you don't get a great feeling from them or they don't give you the information that you want, go and see if somebody else has it like, and, and yeah, going to move around the room.

Myke Hurley: That market's almost, it's that market's just as large as any modern pen market, right? You have options.

Brad Dowdy: Especially if there's a specific type of pen that you want. Like if you want one of the popular pens, like, oh my gosh, if you want a Parker 51, I mean, you can swim in them. So, you know, if you want something that's relatively, you know, if you're going to a place to find something because you want to get a specific pen that is not that rare, then don't buy the first one you see anyway.

Myke Hurley: Yep. Yep. And then like the 51 is a good example for all the pens that you see, you know, you can see the, what you think is the exact same pen and the price vary by a hundred dollars from vendor to vendor. Your goal should be to figure out why.

Brad Dowdy: Because if they don't have a reason, then you don't want to buy it.

Myke Hurley: Right. And that's why I said, if I know that the reason why this one's a hundred dollars more is because it's been restored and the nib's been reset and all these things, I'm willing to pay the premium to know for a fact I got something really good instead of getting a deal and having to question it. You say that though, but how do you know for a fact? You don't. I mean, as much as, yeah, maybe a fact is a little bit strong. You have to feel comfortable. You have the best information, decision-making information as possible, you know.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Today's episode is brought to you as a great little, uh, as a great little lesson from Professor Dowdy, I think. Hope so. I like that actually.

Myke Hurley: I meant to say, give me some feedback if there's, you know, things that I left out. You know, like I said, I just looked at this as if I'm walking into a show and walking into a table, here's my process. So I'm sure I missed some things. So, um, feel free to let us know. But yes, please tell me about my good friends at Squarespace.

Sponsor Segment

Brad Dowdy: All right. I'll do that. Today's episode is brought to you by Squarespace. They let you easily create a website for your next idea or project or business or band or whatever type, actually, whatever type of website you want to make. Squarespace have the tools for it. They give you the ability to customize beautiful award-winning templates. Take advantage of grabbing yourself a unique domain name. So people will be able to just type in whatever they want.com or .net and they can just come straight to your website. Squarespace are the all in one platform that will let you do whatever it is you want to do online. There's nothing to install or patch or upgrade. They take care of all of that and they take care of you with 24 seven customer support as well. So if you need any help from Squarespace about setting up your site, running your site, getting extra features and functionality that you're looking to add in, but you're not sure how to do it. They have a support team right there who can help you out. The templates that they have, they have specific templates for specific purposes, but you can enable any of them and customize them to your heart's content. Maybe you like one of the templates that's more focused around, I don't know, like an event, but you want to use it for your blog. Well, you can do that because it's all customizable. You can drag and drop and you can tweak things as you wish and really kind of make your website sing. All of their award-winning templates are professionally designed as well, allowing you to show off your great ideas with wonderful, wonderful design right there. Right. You can sign up for a trial today by going to squarespace.com slash penaddict. Their plans start at just $12 a month. And when you decide to sign up, use the offer code penaddict to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and show you support for this show. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict for 10% of your first purchase. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of RelayFM. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

Myke Hurley: All right. Rapid Fire Ask TPA. You ready? I'm ready. Days In says, I really like the retro 1951 Tornado. It's a quality pen that writes well, feels good in the hand, and looks expensive even though it isn't. What other sub 100, preferably sub 50, non-fountain pens should I look at? The easy answers, Myke, are what I'm going to give, but then I'm going to back it up with what the real answer should be. So the easy answers are the Mark 1, even though it's not sub 50. The spoke pen, which I make, even though it's a gel ink pen, you know, it's not a liquid ink pen. It's not sub 50. I think the best pen in this range, and it's a ballpoint, and it's between $50 and $60, I think, I didn't look it up, is the Lamy 2000 ballpoint. Now, y'all might laugh at me because it's a ballpoint. That pen is way underpriced for what it is. Like, it is such a good pen. I am so impressed with that pen. Every time I pick it up and use it, it looks more expensive than it is. That's the answer to this question, and like, I'll take any heat I get for that. The Lamy 2000 ballpoint is a legitimately great pen that does not get enough love. Next one, 24 hours, 100 miles. Do you rotate your mechanical pencil while writing to keep the tip sharp? Abso-freaking-lutely. You have to, unless you're using the Kuro Togo, which is why it was invented. That's not his own. To answer the question now, the Kuro Togo absolutely works. Yes. It really, really does work. It is not a gimmick. No. So, it will turn the lead for you. And the pencil barrels are really good. So, if it's an issue for you, you know. And there's a lot of options. Yeah, yeah. They have all the huge price range variants for the Kuro Togo. The mechanism in there to rotate your lead works if that is an issue for you. Otherwise, standard mechanical pencils, I absolutely rotate my pencil because I can't, I need the dark, thinner line of the sharp side of the lead. Right? I can't continue to use the flat side of the lead and make it dull and wide lines. It's not as clean. So, yeah. Next one. I'm going to make you say this one, Myke. This one's yours.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, this one comes from JCG Verboom. I found out that the Declaration of Independence was pretty much a copy of the Dutch Plakat van Verleting. And to stay one step ahead of Nicolas Cage, I want to make a replica. So, I need fountain pen paper, A3 or bigger, and a permanent ink, Rabie Registrar ink. What do you think? I have just watched National Treasure. So, this is very much on my mind.

Myke Hurley: I love this question, right? I don't know that I have a great answer, but I think you really have to go full period piece during this time. Like, you can find some A3 paper, like Rodia makes A3. But is Rodia paper really what you want to put the Dutch Declaration of Independence on? I think you got a source. And you can find, like, these old vintage papers, like these whole sheets that are made, you know, like for the Renaissance Fair. Whatever vendors are at the Renaissance Fair can probably hook you up with some sweet paper. And then you want to get a quill or maybe, you know, maybe a dip nib type of pen and nib, pen holder, nib holder and nib. And then you want to get some real, like, walnut iron gall ink. Like, you have to go in deep on this. Like, I could tell you to get the Rodia A3 page. And I could tell you to get Diamine Registrar's ink. And you'll be happy. You will be happier if you can get some really vintage styled stuff to do this with. And it's out there. It's going to take a little bit of research. I don't even have sources to give you. Because that's not my market, but I've seen it. It's all out there. And you can do this. I want to see it when it's done. Dot Ketchup says, I always clean a new pen I get. I'll clean a used pen more thoroughly. Like, I'll, you know, run water through the filling system. Whether it's just a converter or a piston. And if it's a new pen, I will just generally dip the nib in water. And try to clean off the feed and nib just in case. You know, sometimes new pens even get dip tested. To make sure the nibs are in alignment. But I want to know that my cleaning ritual has happened before I begin writing. To stave off any future problems that I have. Know that I did something ahead of time. So yes, I will clean them. You know, I won't go crazy. Like, I'm not going to soak them overnight or do something, you know, outlandish. But I do clean them with water. You know, just a very simple clean.

Brad Dowdy: Johnny817 says, From one sailor fan to another. I have a sailor 1911 large that I bought used. I've lost the inner cap. So it slips out every time I clean the cap. So every time it pops out. And that's no good. Any idea where I might be able to pick up a new inner cap since warranty is not an option?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I emailed Johnny about this one or replied to Johnny. And that's a tough one. Like, you're going to have to go back to the distributor if you're in the U.S., the Sailor USA distributor. And I'm going to... You're probably not going to get an answer. I'll go there. And then the next thing I would do is go to your sailor authorized dealers. You know, like Anderson pens or pen chalet or gold spot, whoever, you know, carry sailor pens. They're not going to have this part as part of their inventory. But they might have a broken pen they've received back that by some, you know, fate would fit your pen. This is not going to be an easy route to take. After that, you're probably contacting Sailor Japan. And good luck. I don't have a great answer. I wish I had a better answer for this. I understand exactly what you're saying. No one stocks these parts. So you're just going to have to luck into someone who has some repair parts laying around. And it's going to take some groundwork by you to find out where that is.

Myke Hurley: Alex Herehart. Are there any pocket pens with a triangle-shaped grip section? My perfect pen would be a Twisby Mini AL with an Eco-T grip. I'm the mini pen, Myke. I'm the mini pen guy, Myke.

Myke Hurley: I didn't have an answer for this. I love the question. And I'm blanking. Like, I use all kinds of mini pens. Kavecos, Twisbys, you know. Any mini pen I can find. I don't think any of them have a shaped or molded grip that I'm thinking of. So we'll put that out there to the listeners. Let me know what I'm overlooking. Because I thought of everything that I own. And I've used, own and use a lot. But I can't think of a mini pen with a molded grip section.

Myke Hurley: All right. Nicholas has a quillerific accumulation of fountain pens. For which I make no apologies. And that means I don't write with every pen every day. No problem. Until I pick up a pen I haven't used for a while. Like it. Know its brand. Mostly. But have no idea of the model. For some. Say like the Diplomat Arrow or Lamy Safari. Safari's rule. Thank you, Nicholas. Team Safari for life. I don't need a reminder. But for others. Why don't the majority of pens include a marking to say which model they are? I thought this was a great question. Because we get all kinds of new listeners all the times. And sometimes it's really hard to differentiate one model from the next. If that information isn't on the pen. I don't have an answer for you, Nicholas. And I'm not going to pretend that I do. Each brand does it differently. You know, Sailors is kind of stealthily written on the cap band. Pilot is generally bad at doing the exact model number where you can easily see it. Sometimes it's on the cap band. Sometimes it just says custom heritage or something like that. But I don't know why they do or don't. Whether it's space or design issues.

Myke Hurley: You know, I imagine that's a lot of it. You know, you just want to be trying to design like a really clean, nice looking pen. And, you know, hopefully someone will remember exactly what model it is. But, yeah, I don't have a great answer. Like the Lamy Safari never doesn't say Safari anywhere on the pen. It says Lamy on it. Things like that. So, I don't have a great answer for you. But I think that's a really good question.

Listener Question

Myke Hurley: Last one's for you, Myke.

Pet Naming

Brad Dowdy: From Merjam. I will soon adopt a cat. And as a pen nerd, I decided to name her Lamy. Since it works really well as a name. If the cat had black fur, I probably would have went with Lamy Petrol. Are there some names for pens, inks, or brands that you think could work as a name for your child or pet? Thanks for such a good podcast.

Myke Hurley: We've had this question before. It was either for pets or kids. And I can't remember what our answer is. But it's been a while since this has come up. And I just love this question. Because you could do so much silly stuff with this. You know, mostly like Sailor Ink names. Like, you know, Apricot. You know, that's a good pet name. You know, things like that. But, you know, you can get some real silly stuff, too. That's like the first thing that came to mind were like Sailor Ink color names. They're generally, usually kind of neat color names that I like. And would name, you know, a pet. You know, something or anything like that. Except Ricky Chow. I wouldn't name it Ricky Chow.

Brad Dowdy: You could go with, like, Mark for Mark 1. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I'll just get my next dog we get. We'll just call him Robert Oster. Robert Oster, get in here.

Brad Dowdy: Look at the mess you've made. Did you make this mess? There you go. Same joke. All right. That about does it for this episode of The Pen Addict. Thank you so much to Kenalea Penco and Squarespace for supporting this week's episode. If you want to find our show notes, you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 369. Brad is at penaddict.com and knock.co. He is Dowdyism on Twitter and Pen Addict on Instagram and on Twitch as well. I'm imike. I am Y-K-E. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.