The Pen Addict 611/transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict episode 611. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Enigma Stationery. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.

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

Myke Hurley: I'm good man, how are you? I'm ready to get into it today, you know?

Brad Dowdy: I am. Actually, I have very few topics, you know, individual topics, but I feel like I have a lot to say about these topics. And it was funny, I was thinking to myself last night, so like I had done the show notes yesterday. And actually, I was looking at, I was thinking about writing up the show today and I was like, I don't know exactly what I want to talk about. I can always come up with something. And then I just happened to be doing some blog work and caught a comment on the blog and that just kind of set my mind racing. So we're going to kind of talk about a lot of different things with kind of like a through thread through one particular topic this morning. But I was thinking, separate from this last night, and like I even wrote myself a note is like, I really have a lot to say about stationery, which is a funny thing to say out loud. And I'm very fortunate to have this platform where I get to share these thoughts. Not that they're important thoughts or like necessary thoughts, but that I'm able to. And there's people that like have the same thoughts and share their thoughts with me. And you get this feedback loop going about pens and paper and ink. It's kind of cool. Like I didn't want to think about it too hard because it would break my brain. And that just a simple phrase, like I have a lot of things to say about stationery, can get me just off on a tangent. And that's kind of what today's episode is going to be like.

Myke Hurley: That's exactly what the podcast is for, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And, you know, we've been doing it a while and I never lack for things to say. And that's actually going to be part of the topic today in that we always have, you know, new listeners, new people sharing their experiences and lots of fun like that. So let's get into it. So what kicked this off was not a topic that was ever going to be in the show. A lot of times we discuss my reviews and this one, you know, I just reviewed an ink, Heimdahl from Wearingoel. And it's a cool ink. I had a real fun time doing the review. It was a very fiery orange. You know, I learned about Heimdahl. I don't know if you were familiar with the mythology of Heimdahl prior to this. Myke, were you?

Marvel Cinematic Universe and Heimdall

Myke Hurley: I know Heimdahl from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So that's my... Heimdahl controls the Bifrost, which is the bridge that the Asgardians can take between planets and places. So when Thor wants to go to Earth, he goes to Heimdahl. And Heimdahl spins up the Bifrost and creates a bridge for him to come down to Earth.

Brad Dowdy: Nice, nice. So, like, I wasn't even aware of that. Like, I haven't, you know, done much Marvel Cinematic Universe stuff, even though I like all those characters, like, growing up on X-Men and stuff. I'm so big in on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Myke Hurley: X-Men, by the way, Brad, with Tangent Time, did you watch the X-Men cartoon? No.

Brad Dowdy: When you were younger? Like, oh, I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Myke Hurley: So you, right, the X-Men 97 series on Disney Plus is absolutely mind-blowingly good.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Like, I would be very into that.

Myke Hurley: It is focused basically to us, not to children, right? Okay. It's effective. They've just, it's called X-Men 97. It just follows on from where the show in 1997 ended. And the themes they are dealing with are so grown up. It's, like, halfway through. This is some of the best stuff I've seen from Marvel Disney ever. It is unbelievably good. Recommended. I'm writing myself a note right now. Yeah, it's so good. They even kept the theme music. In fact, they made it better. Oh, so sick. Love it. But, yeah, there you go. Slight aside. Sorry about that. No, no, no. I just watched today's episode before we got started today. And it freaking rules so hard.

Discussion of ink inspired by Heimdall

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, well, I had no clue who or what a Heimdall was before getting into this ink. And, you know, people were telling me, you know, when I bought it. And so, you know, I went and looked it up and read some of the Norse mythology and the history on it. But, anyway, it's an orange ink. It looks like fire. It's awesome. So, like, it rules. Like, I have no, nothing less, nothing more to say about this ink other than, boy, I really had fun reviewing it. And I enjoyed it. And I'll keep using it. So, that's the review. And, you know, we'll have a link in the show notes. You can go read it. But where that brought me to today and kind of had my mind racing yesterday is there was a comment on that review from Jonathan. Don't know Jonathan at all. But I am saying their name because it's listed publicly on the comment. And this is not, like, I'm not calling Jonathan out or anything. But I thought this was a very valuable comment, which is pretty rare as far as comments on a blog post goes. Hey, this was really valuable to me. So, Jonathan says in this review, And so, like, your initial thoughts are like, Oh, man, complaining about the ink, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was like, I don't see it that way. Like, I find this to be extremely valuable. And I thank Jonathan for posting this, giving their experience about Wearing Oil as a brand. Because when you take the snapshot of my Heimdall review, for example, it's one person with one ink and one nib, even though I've used it in two different nibs, on a few different paper, a few different paper types. And my experiences were basically diametrically opposed to Jonathan's experiences. But you know what? Both of our experiences are valid. Right? Sure. And I think about that a lot when we're talking about reviews in the context of stationary reviews. I guess I didn't think about this until I'm literally talking about this. MKBHD is going through some stuff right now.

Myke Hurley: I love when my walls just collide at a shattering pace. Because you were saying about reviews. I was like, huh, I'm going to be talking about this later on, but in a completely different context. But nope, there we go. He got it. He nailed it.

Brad Dowdy: That was not... I have handwritten... I have documented notes for this show, and I have handwritten notes for this show. And that only popped in my head as I was speaking. And I kept saying the word review and how one person's experience.

Brad Dowdy: Number one, MKBHD did no wrong. So we'll leave it at that. Maybe I can guest on another one of your podcasts or something if there's any alternate views. But anyway, so y'all should go check that. Maybe we'll link that in the show notes. But not even the video, but just the fallout to the video. But anyway, so it's good to hear what other people have to say. Because Wearing Old makes a lot of inks. I've used... I was counting how many I've used. I think I've only used four of their inks. And I'll put some links in the show notes. I've reviewed two of them. I reviewed Seven Color Ocean. And I reviewed Cheshire Cat. And then I've just reviewed Heimdall. And then I have Dracula, which is one of their shimmer inks. Which I've actually never reviewed, and I probably should. But anyway, so I've used a few different ones. And so Jonathan... The reason why I'm going to keep going back to this, and I'm going to keep referring to Jonathan. And this is only positive towards Jonathan. I'm just using this comment as a jumping off point to talk about a lot of different things today. And thinking about other people's experiences with similar products or similar brands. And we all have different tastes and different likes and different things. So I got to thinking, just breaking this down for, say, a new user who's not very experienced with inks or fountain pens or things like that. Someone who's listened to the show and is more on the beginner level. Why would Jonathan have such a varied experience with wearing old inks than I do? So there's a few things it could be, right? But I also... We don't have to try to figure it out. It just is, right? I very much believe that as well, right? I don't have to try to dissect, oh, I'm right. Jonathan's wrong. It's not about that. We're both right because these are our truthful experiences with these products, right? But people who are not experienced, they were wondering, well, why does Jonathan's experience vary so much from Brad's experience on this? And there's several different things. So Jonathan didn't specifically comment on Heimdall. And he didn't specifically say this wearing old ink or that wearing old ink. So it could be some...

Myke Hurley: Or what products Jonathan's even using, right? Which I'm sure we came to.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. I have a whole list. Like, what are these different experiences that we have? Well, Jonathan's wearing old ink colors he may have used could have been something that I've never used. And maybe the properties of that formulation lean to dry times, feathering, you know, dry inks or feathering or things like that. You know, that could be one thing. Just the specific color. Or in an ink brand, say, like, you know, if you take, you know, a Pilot Orozhuzuku ink lineup, you could have one color that just feels different on the page. Are they using the same nib as me? Are they using the same, you know, types of feeds as me? Or, you know, we don't have in the stationary world, like, one set of review parameters to make everything consistent.

Note-taking and paper preferences

Myke Hurley: This is kind of funny. So, yesterday, me and Idina were in a meeting. She was taking notes, and she was using a notebook, and she was saying, oh, the pen's not working on one side of the paper as well as the other. And I was just like, yeah, man. Yeah. It's just like that sometimes. That's literally truth. The roughness of the paper. And, like, so if you're running low on ink, which is what was happening, the ink wasn't drawing as easily on one side of the paper as the other. Like, it was just funny hearing you mention that and just remembering that happening to us yesterday. My answer was kind of just like, yeah.

Myke Hurley: Stuff be weird. Like, there's nothing we can do.

Brad Dowdy: Yes, that is correct. So, yeah, paper is a big deal, right? What type of paper is someone else using, you know, in relation to what I'm using? That's probably one of the larger variables, even without, like, the ink choices or the nib choice. Like, those are the three big things, right? And then you have some smaller things that could be changing how one person perceives one ink differently from another person. You know, like, you can have a filling system, like an eyedropper. I always feel like my eyedropper-filled pens flow a little bit wetter than, say, like a converter-filled pen. You know, that's a pretty minor adjustment. And you also have environmental aspects. Like, I live in a humid environment. Does someone live at altitude? Like, those are very minor things. Those usually don't come into play that much. But it's things to think about. And all of these things that line up, you know, on this list that make my experience good can just as easily line up for someone else's experiences and make them poor. And both of us are right. Like, that's how this works, right? So there's no, like, right or wrong in these aspects.

Brad Dowdy: And before I'd even thought of this topic, I was streaming yesterday. And I had inked up Lamy Dark Lilac last week on Thursday. And I didn't get to write with it much the day that I inked it up. But I spent kind of all day Monday. I was like, okay, I haven't really used this pen and this nib and this ink, the Dark Lilac ink. So that was my Monday pen. And I used it a bunch. And I had a terrible experience. Like, as I was writing with this ink, I was like, I really don't like this ink. And trying to describe what I didn't like about it was difficult. It kind of hard started a little bit, which doesn't necessarily mean it's the ink. It could be the pen. It could be the nib, the way the nib's set. Different things like that. It could be because I haven't used it for three days, you know, something like that. So I kind of discount the hard starts for the first time. But I thought the way it performed out of an extra fine Yovo No. 6 nib, which is probably a nib I'm more experienced with than any and know what to expect from that nib, was extremely inconsistent. Like, I was getting, you know, thin lines, thick lines, uneven lines. I was like, is this the ink? Did it dry up? Did it not flow well? So, like, I tried to, like, manipulate it to get it back into a consistent state, right? You know, kind of making sure the ink's flowing well. Kind of cleaning it out with the shim. Making sure it, like, didn't gunk up. Which it really shouldn't after, like, three days. And I don't think it really did. I just thought it was a very inconsistent performing ink on a few different paper types. Like, I was doing a bunch of different writing and different types of paper. And, like, something as classically good with a fountain pen as original Tomoe River 52 GSM. I just hated writing with it on there because, like, my lines were not clean. And I don't like that from pens. I like a clean line. I don't care if it's thin or a thick line. It just has to be clean and consistent. And this was variable. And then I didn't like the color that much as well. It's a very dark ink. I like the sheen. The sheen is green. That was probably the highlight of the ink, which I do like. But Dark Lilac is very, very dark, as the name indicates. If you looked at it, like, if I was sitting at my desk writing and you were standing over my shoulder looking down at the page, you would just think it was a black ink, right? It's a pretty dark ink, which that's not necessarily a performance thing. But that just was, okay, one more thing. I don't love this ink. It's a little dark. So, again, that's my singular experience with that ink. And I'm going to keep using it because I want to understand. So, like, when someone like Jonathan makes his comment about not having a good time with wearing wool, and then I make my comment about not having a good time with Lamy Dark Lilac, and I would say both Jonathan in his case and me in my case are in the minority opinion. I want to learn why, right? Like, this is why I love this stuff so much. I was like, okay, like, huh, I wonder why Jonathan's saying that. And then in my case, I'm going, huh, I wonder why I think this about this ink. So, I don't give up on it, right? Like, I'm in a position where, okay, now I want to understand. Am I missing something? Am I doing something wrong? What are my expectations? Are my expectations wrong? And I try to sort it out with this ink. And Jonathan looks like he's gone through that and has had a very consistent experience with wearing wool. So, back to that comment that Jonathan made.

Brad Dowdy: I've only tried four wearing wool inks. They've all flowed from various nib sizes very well. Cheshire Cat has been one of my favorite inks of the past year or two. I use it very frequently because it writes so well. And I don't recall ever having any feathering. But, again, our use cases may not overlap. It may not be the same ink, same nib, same papers, all these things, right? So, whatever he's doing, he's seeing these problems. And that's turned him off from the brand. And so, I just try to understand these bigger picture things when I get a comment as simple as this. Because this is like an all-day everything in the stationary world, right? Why does one person like this pen? And this person hates it or vice versa. And, you know, that's cool. That's why we have 611 episodes of this podcast is because we all have different needs, likes, wants, all of these things. And it's fun for me to see, you know, differing opinions and helps me learn more and be better educated about all of the things that I talk about. So, it's fun to think about. And Jonathan, unbeknownst to him, has made me want to do another little project here. Which will, it's not wearing a little ink related, but it's a product I talk about a lot. And maybe shortchange a little bit. And I'm going to think about that up next after we talk about our friends at Squarespace.

Myke Hurley: Can I just say something about reviews before we do? Please. So, one of the things that I feel like I have learned over time, and I think that this is especially great in the age of content creators, is with any person reviewing anything, one of the things that I find valuable is like you pay attention to someone for long enough and you try things that they try. And then you can align yourself to that person, but not exactly mirror them. So, like, there are content creators that I follow where some things that they may say about a video game or whatever, things that I know that they like or don't like are things that I like or don't like and they're different. So, if they're like, oh, I don't like this game because of X. Well, that X might actually be something I like. And so, like, if you follow people for a long enough time, you can kind of, like, set your clock to them and their preferences, but they don't necessarily align with yours. So, like, for example, with me and you, I know that you like fine lines and not thicker lines. So, sometimes if you might say, like, this pen's great, da-da-da-da-da, but the line is a little too thick for me, I'm like, bang on, I love it. And I think that is the real value I find in reviews. Like, you don't just trust blindly what someone's saying, but you, and I also feel like these days it's not so great to just, like, read a review from a random person you don't know. I think that there is a benefit in finding people whose voices you trust and aligning yourself to them in some way, whether that is positive or negative. Like, there are people who, like, they'll say, like, they don't like a movie and I'm like, great, I'm going to love this movie. Right. Because I just know every single time something you don't like, I do like. And so, I find that to be valuable and that's my recommendation for, like, paying attention to reviews of any kind.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. It's just one data point and there's lots to consider other than just, like, the literal black and white review piece, right? There's, you know, a lot you can take away from it. So, and again, that's, like, that's why I found this comment so valid. And I'm going to keep going back to it the entire show and you'll see why here in a minute.

Myke Hurley: This episode is brought to you by our friends at Squarespace, the all-in-one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or managing a growing brand, you can stand out from the crowd of a beautiful website, engage with your audience and sell anything. Your products, services, or even the content you create. Squarespace has got everything you need, all in one place, all on your terms. Maybe you want to be a reviewer of your own. Squarespace is the perfect place to get started for blog of your own and you can write your content, share it with the world, and they make it so easy to do that. Squarespace's blueprint AI and SEO tools make it even easier than ever before to get started. You can start up a personalized, completely personalized website with their new guided design system, Squarespace Blueprint. You can choose from a professionally curated layout and styling options to build a unique online presence from the ground up, tailored to your brand or business, and optimized to look fantastic on every device. You can then launch your website and get discovered fast with integrated, optimized SEO tools so you show up more often to more people and to grow the way that you want. You can also integrate with flexible payments too to make checkouts seamless for your customers with simple but powerful payment tools. You can accept credit cards, PayPal and Apple Pay, and in eligible countries, offer customers the option to buy now and pay later with Afterpay and Clearpay. One of the things I have loved about Squarespace for the decade and a half that I have used them is how often they are improving and updating and adding functionality into their system to make it easier for people to get started and easy for you to manage your website once you've got it going. Like they've really taken, I think, some of the best stuff I've seen in AI here to make their system work. So you can kickstart or update written content on any website, a product description, or an email with Squarespace AI, generating instant personalized results that know and show your brand identity. They can explain what your site's about, you can choose your tone, and then enter what you need to get short or long form text. No matter the placement, Squarespace AI makes it easier than ever to go live, stand out, and succeed online. Go and check it out for yourself today by going to squarespace.com and you can sign up for a free trial, see what their tools are, and build your website. Then when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash penaddict and you will save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That is squarespace.com slash penaddict when you decide to sign up to get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for the continued support of the Penaddict and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: So one quick hidden Squarespace setting that I use, since we're talking about comments, you can have comments on your blog. And you can also limit the time that the comment windows are open. So someone who's been on Squarespace for like over a decade, I don't want a post from eight years ago to just have this open comment section. So like I want people to comment on my current post and after 90 days, you can no longer comment on a post. And I think that's pretty fair. It's kind of not needed at that point, right? Yeah, it's kind of not needed. Like we've run past that. And, you know, any future, if you have, if you find like an old article and you want to comment on, well, that's when you can hit the contact page or email me or find me other ways. But yeah, like that's one way I manage my Squarespace site that I actually really, really enjoy that.

Myke Hurley: See, that's smart.

Brad Dowdy: That's smart. All right. We got a shout out of the week, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Shout out of the week, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: So we have wait at Jerry underscore you on Instagram. So Jerry Yu is a super fan of Japanese pens. I believe lives in Japan. And someone pointed me to this account probably like a month ago and I've been following him. And what's interesting, one post that popped into my feed is he's doing basically an Instagram post about Pilate's 1968 bankruptcy crisis. And I thought this was just so fascinating. Wow. And like he's going to continue to post some of this stuff on there. So like I really, really like this. So it's kind of an amazing account.

Myke Hurley: Getting a history lesson over here, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Not only just so Jerry also loves like short pocket pens, like right, which is speaking my language. So that's the style of pen that I like. So y'all will put a link in the show notes for you to go follow his Instagram account. He's got a couple of other spaces online, like on YouTube, but there don't seem to be as active as the Instagram right now. But definitely go give him a follow and read some of these posts there. It's very fascinating stuff. So thank you, Jerry, for putting this out there.

Myke Hurley: Love to see it. All right.

Lamy All-Star pen critique

Brad Dowdy: All right. So continuing the theme for today in thinking about stationary. I have for years, given the Lamy All-Star, a very difficult time. Why is that? Mostly because of the colors. It's not necessarily a technical problem with it. And it's fun to pick a side between the Lamy Safari and Lamy All-Star. But contrary to popular belief, I do not hate the All-Star. My hang-up with the All-Star versus the Safari has always been the aluminum barrel versus the plastic barrel. So the aluminum barrel and the All-Star versus the plastic barrel and the Safari. Well, you know what I haven't done, Myke? I haven't given the All-Star a proper go in years. So as someone who's constantly picking its stablemate as the best Lamy, maybe I should spend some quality time with the All-Star and make sure that what I'm saying is actually something I believe in instead of just a bit or just something to have fun with as a joke. So the new colors came out. We've talked about them a bunch on the show, Fiery and Aquatic. And I picked them up at the Atlanta Pen Show. And I have inked up Fiery, the red one, with Lamy Blue Black ink. And I'm going to give myself a 30-day challenge to use the All-Star as my daily pen. Now, that doesn't exclude me from using other pens, right? But my idea is to use it every day.

Myke Hurley: It's going to be your main.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it'll be my main pen, right?

Myke Hurley: You're going steady with the Lamy All-Star.

Brad Dowdy: You know, we got prom this weekend here. So I'm going to get a little bouquet. Maybe, you know, the little O-ring that they ship it with.

Myke Hurley: I look forward to the photos that Mary Beth will take of you and the Lamy All-Star getting ready to go. Yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: You know she will. So I've kept the little cardboard O-ring that they ship with it. I'm going to put that, you know, on my finger. Beautiful. It's going to be my commitment ring for the month. Yeah. So, no. But this is just one of those things, you know, being in the stationary world like I am. Like you want to be like consistent and thoughtful and knowledgeable about products. And there's just too many products to be able to do that for all products, right? But one that I talk about so much that we focus on at least once a year for about a month, it seems like, is the Lamy Safari and the Lamy All-Star. So, I never, ever, ever use the All-Star. Ever. Like, I don't even know if I own one besides this one. You know, maybe I could find one in the closet. I never ink it up. It's never in the rotation. So, I've done that. And so, what's today? I just did this this morning. And so, by May 17th, I'll have, you know, over a month with this pen. And, you know, I'll come back with my thoughts. Maybe write up a little article. And see, you know, what I really think on a more user technical type of level other than just like the aesthetics, which is usually what I'm picking the differences is. And see if I really, like, don't get along with this aluminum barrel versus the plastic barrel just from a feel tactile perspective. Like, some things just don't feel the same in the hand. So, yeah, I want to give this a try. And this also comes about, again, threading this through the whole topic that we're talking about today. Someone asked recently, I said that I'm going to review the All-Star for the blog. And someone asked, well, why would you do that? You've already done that. And it's because experiences change. And context changes. And even though the pen necessarily doesn't change over time, right? It's technically the same pen, same design. A lot can change with that. Aside from the easy answer is, and this is something I consider all the time and something we've talked about a bunch here, is there's someone new reading the blog today, right? Or there's someone new listening to the podcast today. So, I do, I don't, I never have a problem, like, rehashing reviews from pens if I have something new to say, right? I'm not going to review every Kaweco sport that comes out, right? I don't have that much to say about lime green versus cyan blue. But if they come out with something new and interesting, you know, I'm going to bring it back up. Or if I haven't done a Kaweco sport review in two or three years, yeah, I might bring that out, say, hey, how has my experience been over these past few years? Has the product stayed consistent? Has there been any changes with the build quality, nib quality, things of that nature? So, it's always good to review the basics in a reasonable time frame from each other, right? Like, I'm not going to review every All-Star Safari or every product that comes out five times a year or 500 times a year in the case of Sailor. But, you know, when something new or interesting comes out or there's been a big enough gap in between the previous review, yeah, yeah, we're going to give an update on these products. So, it's weird how, like, sometimes I just want to dig into, like, these basic topics because it still gets me really, really excited to get ready to spend all this time with Alami All-Star. It's kind of fun. So, that's the way I think about these things, Myke.

Myke Hurley: But then again, like you're saying, like, oh, you know, I've done this before. Like, it's been reviewed before. I should do it again. Taste change. Yep. And preferences change over time. You know, it's like we think about back to when we started. It was like, ah, Vanishing Point. That's where it ends, man. That's the end. If I'm part of Vanishing Point, what more do you need? So, taste change experience continues to, like, twist that over time. And so, yeah, I would love to know for you what it's like to use this pen on the daily long term because I expect the first couple of days, you know, you might have a thing about the weight of the pen, whether it's heavy or light or whatever, like, for what your preference would be. But you'd get used to that, you know? Right. So, stuff like that would change over time. Because I would expect for a metal pen, the All-Star is pretty light.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, that's my preconceived notion going in, right? Yeah. But my choice between the Safari and All-Star is, in my preference, is mostly tactile, right? I like how the plastic of the Safari feels versus the aluminum of the All-Star.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I actually just think visually, too, the plastic is better looking. Like, you know, like, it's not reflective. And I think that that helps them produce more colors and the colors look nicer. Like, you know, these are some of my preferences anyway for why I prefer it over the All-Star. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, if I'm taking this tactile feel and actually, you know, using it every day and putting it in my hand every day and having different thoughts about it and actually just using it blindly and not thinking about it, like, what is it really like? You know? Yeah. So, it's this opportunity for me to kind of, you know, expand my horizons, which is funny for, you know, a pen that I've known about for forever.

Myke Hurley: Love it. Yep. All right. Let's expand people's horizons by talking about our next sponsor. And there's our friends over at Enigma Stationery because they offer unique items made from in-house designs along with top brands and hard-to-find imported products. We're here today to tell you about Enigma's new pen, the Special Edition 9 Mystic Magenta Magic. This is made by Joe Little at Little Pen Designs. The slim pen is ready to bring sparkle to your collection. The translucent material is a vibrant magenta with a generous amount of shimmer. Only 11 pens made for this edition, so you've got to go fast. Each comes with a numbered and signed certificate of authenticity. The Mystic Magenta pen is available now for $200 with your choice of a Yo-Yo No. 6 steel nib. And Dan from Enigma popped up in our live chat today and said, On Wednesdays, we launch pink pens. And oh boy, do we. This thing.

Brad Dowdy: You got one, right? I have one. And as a pink pen aficionado, I am not sure it gets much better than this. This is one of those, like Dan said he's sending it to me. I'm like, okay, cool. And like I never get my hopes up when people say they're going to send me stuff, right? Like I'm just going to take it as it is when it comes. And it's one of those products that I unboxed and giggled, right? It's like too good. It's too good. The material. I can't explain the material. It's got a lot of shimmer in it, but in the way it like shines when you rotate it. Yeah. But not in a glittery kind of way, if that makes sense. It's more of like our favorite word, chatoyance kind of way, even though it's technically like the shimmer is just in it and that makes it shine. But it's the color of shimmer is blue-ish. And along with the pink barrel, it's hard to explain. I'll try to take a picture of it later and see if I can show it. Yeah. It's wicked cool. So, yeah. And it's like my kind of shape. It's, you know, your standard like acrylic barrel pen. And the ends are flat, which I really enjoy, as something different. And I wanted to point this out that I'm trying to explain. Let's see if I can explain this without visuals. So, you look at the length of the pen you're holding in your hand. And you're looking at the pictures on enigmastationary.com. And you see this beautiful pink, kind of swirly, kind of iridescent pen. And it's just like, man, it's just banging. This material is awesome. And being experienced with like these acrylic pen materials, usually you get the same experience on the ends of the pen, right? So, say the top end and the bottom and like where a finial would go. There's no finials on these. Or, you know, whether they're flat ends, rounded ends, tapered ends. There's like a continuation of the material. But something I'm seeing in this pen, and it hasn't stopped fascinating me yet. And I love this aspect of it because I have to keep looking at it. But imagine if you had a taffy, Myke. Okay. Work with me here.

Myke Hurley: I'm working with you, baby.

Brad Dowdy: So, you're going to the candy store, and they have lots of different types of taffies. And you know how they have kind of the two-layer taffies? Maybe at a Christmas time, there's a white exterior and a red interior. And if like you cut it, like if you cut it, you like have the outside as white and the interior is red. So, like the end of these pens are a more solid pink than the iridescence throughout the pen, which is a fascinating look to me. It's like I'm getting to see the innards of the material, which I like. Like this is a pro for me. Like I'm saying this in a very positive fashion. So, I'm going to try to take a picture of what I'm seeing here. It's a very subtle difference in material on the ends, but all it is is the interior of the material. So, for example, if you had like a swirly acrylic, right, you're going to see the continuation of the swirl through the ends of the pen. That would be my expectation. In this one, I get much more solid pink ends, and I kind of like it that way. So, it's really, really neat. I love this material. It's ridiculously cool. So, I love it.

Myke Hurley: Love it. Look, you can go and check this out for yourself right now by going to enigmastationary.com slash penaddict. And if you use the code penaddict24, then you're going to get yourself free US shipping or discounted international shipping on orders of over $50 or more plus a free gift. That is enigmastationary.com slash penaddict to get your hands on a limited edition Mystic Magenta Magic plus a free gift and free US shipping on orders of over $50 or more with the code penaddict24. Our thanks to Enigma Stationary for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Broader topic continuation before Ask TPA

Brad Dowdy: All right, before we get into Ask TPA, I want to do one last continuation of the broader topic here that I didn't put this directly in the show notes, but it relates to this enigma pen. This one came with a broad nib. So, it's Yova number six nibs, broad nib. And just yesterday, and this goes in the broader context of the Lamy All-Star and trying different things, we were talking about like what topics, you know, do I need to work on for the blog or writing or, you know, what do people want to see me do differently or, you know, topics to specifically talk about. And several people mentioned to me that they want me to use broader nib pens. And then lo and behold, this pen shows up with a broad nib. And they want to understand why I am leaning towards a particular nib size, mostly extra fine, right? I use stub nibs and things of that nature. But why don't I use more medium nibs or more broad nibs? So, with this pen, you know, it's Yova number six. I have dozens of Yova number six laying around. If I wanted to, I could put in an extra fine nib or do different things with that. But no, like I'm keeping this broad nib in here. And again, I'm committing to a lot of work here. I'm spending a lot of time with this broad nib. I'm actually, between this All-Star and this new Enigma pen, I need to go clean some other pens because they're just not going to get used that much right now. Because of things I want to try. It's always good to experiment with different things. Things that are out of your norm, right? Guess what? Brad goes to his desk. He's going to pick up the Lamy Safari with an extra fine nib. That's just what's going to happen. But that's not really a broad enough scope of options for me to, you know, have in my arsenal or into my thoughts, right? Like, hey, what does this All-Star barrel feel like? Or, hey, what does this broad nib feel like? Right? As opposed to, like, what I standard, my standard use. So, it's really good to, for someone like myself, to break my consistent habits of the basics. Like, the basic brads, not the basic stationary usage. But my basics, my personal basics. You know, extra fine nibs. You know, 0.38 gel pens. You know, things like that. So, yeah. It's really good. I'm really good at it. I got a broad nib on this pen. And I'm going to use it stock, right? It's a really good platform for nib grinds, as Dan mentions. Um, but I want to try more broad nibs. And I do like broad nibs for broad applications, right? You know, if I'm writing in my field notes or some small journal, like, a broad nib just doesn't work. And that's been my tendency for years. But I do have opportunities to use wider, wetter nibs and different types of inks with those nibs. And that's what I want to do. So, I actually picked a, uh, a wearing old ink. Excuse me, not a wearing old ink. I'm still on the mind. I picked a, I picked a Vinta ink. I'll actually have to find the name. It was one of these complicated names that I can't. But it's like a blue, it's a bright blue ink with a pink sheen on it. So, to kind of match the, the Enigma pen. So, give it a little character. But, uh, yeah. It's, it's, uh, it's cool. And I look forward to, again, experimenting with this. And all of this came from this comment. Like, this comment kind of solidified. It's like, yeah, like, I, I want to keep learning about this stuff. And why people use the things that they do. And, uh, I'm, I don't plan on stopping anytime soon.

Myke Hurley: I have an Ask TPA question that I think, uh, goes into this pretty nicely. It comes from an anonymous listener who says, Considerations when choosing paper notebooks, uh, paper or notebooks, are typically the intended use, the format, the binding, the texture, the cost, the thickness of the paper, the color, etc. However, is it just my imagination? Or is it true that the ruling of a page changes the feel and writing experience of the paper too? My notebook with Tomoe River paper in a dotted style feels softer and more pleasant with a bit more texture than my plain or lined notebooks when writing notes. I had a thought about this and you can, uh, because it was actually something I meant to mention earlier on, um, about, like, just using pens, inks, paper together. There's a lot of science that goes into this. Like, as, as well as there being tastes and preferences, there are just, like, reactions between materials and chemicals. And from my experience, if the amount of printing that is put onto a page will change the properties of the paper because you are, you are changing its chemical makeup by putting ink on it in the printing process and also the machines that you run a page through depending on how you're making the notebook. It will change the way it feels. I don't know if that's what's happening here, but I know that's something that I have observed in making products too. That the more you manipulate something, the more you change the feel of it.

Brad Dowdy: That's 100% true. And, not to totally distract from Anon's question, but all we have to do is look back at the Tomoe, original Tomoe drama. They changed from one machine to a different machine in the same shop using the same formula and it came out different, right? Like, there's a lot that goes into paper manufacturing. So, whether there's any technical information like we could consider during a review, it's pretty tough, right? To say, hey, does this Tomoe with this graph, which is currently a notebook that I'm using right now, original Tomoe 52 GSM, and it's got a grid printed on it, right? It's a four millimeter grid. Does it feel different than, say, a flat blank sheet of the Tomoe River? And, I don't know that there's any way to measure this or figure this out. Like, could I somehow sort this out? Like, probably never.

Myke Hurley: I don't think so.

Brad Dowdy: But, I also don't want to say, is it just your imagination that it's different? You know, what are you writing in? You know, a thicker notebook or a loose sheet on a table, right? Like, everyone will tell you, like, that feels different, right? When you have different buffers underneath the current page that you're writing on, like, that's a change, right? But, in, you know, how the notebook is bound, is there more micro space between pages in one notebook versus another notebook because of the binding style? Is that something? I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud here. What could be different in these things? So, I don't know that we'll ever be able to know this for a fact, but these, say, two similar papers, one dotted, one ruled, they do have to go through a different process to get those lines on the page, right? So, I don't know if there's something there. I would guess not, but I certainly, I don't want to rule anything out.

Brad Dowdy: But, again, there's so much that goes on with just one little thing in paper. Like, there's so much. We could talk for hours and hours and, like, I could write infinite articles on just paper. And then we take that across all of stationery, you know, just talking about nibs and inks and combinations of and things like that. Man, it's awesome. I love this stuff. So, I think this is a really good question. It's something to think about. I don't know that I could ever answer it, though. So.

Elements of a comfortable pen

Myke Hurley: I have a question from Mark who says, would you be able to list the elements that make a pen comfortable for you for longer writing sessions? Is it pen weight, length, section diameter, section length, balance? How many of those elements need to be included to make a pen that you'll reach for over and over?

Brad Dowdy: That's such a good question, especially for today, right? Again, like, I could spend hours. And what Mark's asking, you know, the way I read the question being posed is he's talking about me, right? How, what do I think works for me? Well, guess what? It may not work at all for you, Mark, right? That's what makes this so challenging in having these discussions, right? So, for me, which is the only way I can answer this, and maybe, and then, and Myke, you can answer it too, because you'll have some different answers than I do, and we will all have different, different answers. So, elements that make a pen comfortable for longer writing sessions. So, we're also going to say fountain pens, right? So, Mark didn't say specifically fountain pens, but talking about section diameter and section length and balance, I'm assuming fountain pens. So, and how many of these elements need to be included to make a pen that you will reach for over and over? So, my, one of my core preferences in a pen starts with diameter. And that section diameter and barrel diameter, and separate from that, the combination of the two, right? So, you can have narrow sections, wide barrels, wide sections, narrow barrels, or somewhere in between. And so, those are actually two separate diameters considerations, but they have to work together. I'm generally prefer, and there's exceptions to all these rules, right? But in general, I prefer a narrow section.

Brad Dowdy: Sometimes it doesn't have to be tapered or concave in the middle, right? It could be straight or flat or just have a taper and not a concave, and that's fine, but generally narrower. And then that should lead into a not overly wide diameter barrel, because those are the parts that are going to guide my writing the most, right? That's the part that I'm actually putting between my fingers and resting in my hand, and now all of my movements are going to come from those things. So, if it doesn't feel right in the diameter of those two things, that's the first thing I look at. Then, I'm taking the balance next, right? So, if I like the diameter of the section in the barrel, where's the balance? Is it completely neutral, like a lightweight pin? Like, I find lightweight pins to be very neutral. That's fine. Is it forward towards the nib? That's fine. Is it somewhere in the middle? That could be okay. Or is it somewhere towards the back, and then that's when it's a no, right? And this is non-posted, right? So, I don't generally post my pins when I'm writing. So, when I'm thinking about that, I was like, what's the... Okay, we have the diameters we're handling, and then where's the balance at? And then, I'll look at weight. And that kind of... You can put that in like an A and B category with the balance, because you can have a lightweight pin that doesn't have like many balance issues or balance changes, or you can have a heavy pin that's just like consistently heavy from throughout the barrel. As long as the weight's not too heavy, because when I'm using a thinner diameter section and a thinner diameter barrel, the heavier it gets, the more challenging it is for that design to work in its total design, right? The AutoHoot 03 is a pin that shouldn't necessarily work because of the weight. Like, it fits all the other aspects. Somehow, it does. Like, that's such an outlier pin for me that I talk about a lot because I feel like it should not work how it's designed, but it does. And I think only because the diameter's thin enough to manage the weight of the pin. But anyway.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so how many of those elements need to be included? The ones I just talked about, probably all of them in that order with weight probably being the least significant because if I'm checking the boxes for the things that I require that are more important, I'm not even going to get to the weight discussion because the type of pins I like will never hit a certain mark to where that's going to be a problem. So, this is also for longer writing sessions. I have wide diameter section, wide diameter barrel, and heavy pins, right? And I can use those for longer writing sessions, but in general, I'm going to choose something else. And yeah, that's kind of my how to fit a pin to Brad's hand for a long writing session. Those are the kind of things. Like, I will call out a specific design if you want to go look at all of this in one single pin. The Edison Beaumont is a pin that I talk about a lot. It's a very small pin, but a full-length pin, and it's not for everyone because it's a smaller size, but it hits all of the dimensions right for me. And if I wanted a longer writing session with that pin, it just locks into my hand and we just go to town.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, for me, kind of the most important thing, I would say, is balance in the pin with it not being too long. So the weight isn't necessarily a thing. The pen just needs to feel balanced, right? And then there is how comfortable the grip is, like, you know, the section, like, how comfortable is it to actually hold the fountain pen in my hand. Those are my most important parts from a physical perspective, but the visuals are very important to me too. True. But I know that that's not for comfort, but obviously the visuals are important, but for comfort, it is about balance and it's about how the pen feels in my hand. I can't have something getting in the way, right? The vanishing point, for example, because that doesn't make it very comfortable to use for a long time.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. Yep. So, like, just in general, like, our one singular base difference is if we could just pick, like, a style, my style would end up being a little bit smaller than yours, just in general use. And it's funny, like, these things translate a lot of times to the nib, right? Why do you think I like smaller pens? Well, it's because I use smaller nibs and there's a control aspect to it, right? A line control aspect. Well, why do people who prefer larger nibs prefer wider nibs? It's like, well, they have a handwriting style that can handle the bigger pen and it works better for a wider nib. So, a lot of times those things go hand in hand, which is cool. Which is cool to think about that we all have these little differences that make the perfect writing instruments for us.

Myke Hurley: If you would like to send in a question for us to answer on a future episode of the show, all you need to do is go to penaddictfeedback.com and you can send in an ask TPA question or follow up or other questions for us there. If you want to find Brad online, you can go to penaddict.com He's at penaddict P-E-N-A-D-D-I-C-T On social media, you can also find Brad over at twitch.tv slash penaddict and over at products at spokedesign.com You can find my products at cortexbrand.com You can also find me online I'm at I-M-Y-K-E Thank you to Enigma Stationery and Squarespace for their support of this episode but as always, thank you for listening. Until next time, say goodbye Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye Brad.