The Pen Addict 705/transcript

From Relay, this is The Pen Addict, episode 705. Today's show is brought to you by Penadex, Squarespace, and Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad.
What's up Myke Hurley, how are you today?
I'm good, there's a big document in front of me today, I've got to say, there's a lot of stuff going on. And I'm happy to say that none of it is price related.
True, true. We've gotten off the price bandwagon. It would run its course and things are going to play out over now an extended period of time.
Let's just be happy, Brad, that pens don't need RAM, you know?
No, no RAM.
No RAM needed.
Don't give anyone any ideas, Myke.
Well, I guess some pens have RAM in them, like the smart pens probably have a little RAM in them.
Yeah, yeah.
But we don't worry about those. None of those work very well.
God, Mont Blanc is probably like buying up all the RAM now.
Mont Blanc could triple the price of their smart pen and it would be fine.
They'll still sell just as many as they were selling before, I'm sure.
Absolutely, absolutely no issue at all.
But yes, we have a lot of little things to talk about, which is kind of like my favorite show where we just kind of bounce around from some good topics.
And we've got them today, but not before we hit some follow-up.
Yeah, Mallory wrote in and said,
I was issued the Pentel Multi 8 in undergrad geology field camp years ago for field mapping.
They were absolutely elite then and it's kept its spot in my pencil case 10 years since, even if I'm not in the field so much these days.
So yeah, awesome.
Number one, Mallory.
Number two, I have so many questions.
Number one, if you were issued this from a university, how much did they charge you in a premium for this pencil?
That's all I can think about.
It's an expensive university, right?
Yeah, it's a $38 pencil now.
And I mean, 10 years ago, it was probably a $25 pencil.
But from a university bookstore, it was probably $98 at the time because that's how they roll.
So that's all I can think about.
Two, if this thing lasted field testing, like out and about bouncing around in a bag, I'm impressed, right?
Because it's got, you know, eight different cores in it, which, you know, they're clay color cores, like those things crack and break.
And if it's withstood, like just the minimal bouncing around, you know, even protected in a pouch or something like that, you know, sling bag.
Totally great.
Like that's impressive.
And looking at this pencil and kind of being fascinated with it now, I'm obviously a newcomer to it.
It doesn't have a lot of points of failure, right?
It seems like it could be a mess and just things like messing up all the time.
And it does have like the twist mechanism.
Like when you move the top bit around to point the correct color to eject, like that top twisty bit, I think could fail.
But like it's not that many mechanics inside of it.
It's just it's basically an eight core clutch pencil, which is kind of sick.
I'm impressed.
I'm impressed with it.
Like I have I'm this is one of the products that I'm glad that I just went ahead and bit the bullet and tried.
And OK, I get it now.
Yeah, fair enough.
Good job.
Pen Don't Multi-Ape.
Very cool.
I want to talk about the Sailor K.
Sarah, Myke.
Sarah.
Yeah, we're going to we're going to talk about the name here in a minute.
But our good friend Jacob, a.k.a.
Fude Fan, has the new Sailor erasable gel ink pen video up.
And there are a lot of comments.
So y'all should go watch this video.
It's like a four minute video.
It's like perfect, perfectly compact.
But I took a lot of notes while watching this.
Long story short.
Pilot has to be thrilled.
You think so.
With this.
Yeah.
I don't know.
There's.
We'll go through this whole thing.
There's not one thing that pilot should be worried about is with the friction lineup.
I would say yet.
Sure.
I mean, I absolutely agree.
Fair enough.
Pilot started off worse than it is now.
The friction.
So, yes.
Fair enough.
So, this is Sailor's friction killer.
Right?
So, this is Sailor's erasable pen that they've been working with with the parent company Plus and Pentel.
Which I keep forgetting that Pentel is now a plus company.
Yeah.
Which is the parent company to now both Sailor and Pentel.
Along with other like external type of non-stationary companies.
So, the pen design is basically a Sharpie marker with a nipple on the top.
And it's just ugly.
Like straight up.
I'm sorry if I'm being blunt about it.
It is not an attractive pen.
No.
They've gone.
It's just there's nothing redeeming about the design.
The logo is way too big.
The grip section is boring.
It looks like something Uni would make.
The, I will just call it the weird shaped eraser that sits on the top is very strange.
And the barrel is just boring.
Like there are so many things that could be done.
I mean, it's funny.
In Jacob's video, you know, he talks about like, oh, the friction is so much better looking.
And then shows off a friction which is good looking.
But come on, Jacob.
Come on now.
And you chose specifically here.
That is, it is the modern popular friction, the one he used.
To be honest, that's the one I'm using right now and really enjoying.
That one looks great.
A distinct lack of tribal tattoos, Brad.
Gotta say.
A distinct lack.
Yes, fair.
So, the Kaysera, the name apparently means erase or eraser in Japanese.
Yeah.
Or at least like the.
It's a pun.
You know, the.
Yeah.
The pun.
The sound of Kaysera.
It's kind of like a slang.
Yeah.
Kaysera, actually, like a lot of people know that song.
What, what may be, will be kind of thing.
Mm-hmm.
Is the opposite of erasability, right?
I don't know.
Kaysera means.
I think the name's fine in English.
I think it's fine.
It's fine.
Okay.
So, I won't get on that.
There's something I will get on them.
The eraser leaves rubber shavings.
Yeah.
That's an enormous failure point in comparison to, for a gel ink erasable pen that's erased
by friction.
There has to be some patent to what Pilot's doing and Sailor is scared of that.
Because there's, under no circumstances, should this type of pen have rubber shavings from your
eraser.
Yep.
I don't understand that decision unless it's legalities.
Because that just, it makes it, it's a worse product.
I don't care if the ink's better.
The reason for existence of the pen is now worse because you now have a mess on your page like
you're using a graphite pencil.
So, super, super strange.
The ink colors.
When Pilot Friction launched, the original one, which I tried, they were pretty light
and faint.
They've gotten better over the years.
Sailor is starting from where Pilot started.
That was 20 years ago.
I would think some type of formulation could be better, you know, with the, in the current
market.
Like, why is it, like, the black is gray, right?
Just straight up gray.
Which has always been a challenge, right?
You have to have a certain type of chemical composition to actually erase.
I don't know, man.
It just seems like a huge swing and a miss.
The interesting part...
It looks like Pilot's patent is actually on the ink.
Okay.
I've been Googling, like, Pilot patents, and they have a patent on an erasable ballpoint
pen ink.
Okay.
Interesting.
Because, like, the friction eraser is so key to this whole, like, pen idea.
But it might be that, like, the friction eraser works with the ink that Pilot have created.
The ink that Sailor have created doesn't work that way to get around this.
And therefore, it needs a different erasing.
Because one of the key differences that we haven't mentioned yet is that the Sailor ink
is claimed to completely disappear where the Pilot ink can be retrieved.
Fair.
Which I think is actually a really good selling point of the Sailor product.
If you can deliver that, yes.
That's good.
I agree.
Because you can say, you know, yes, it's erasable temporarily.
Like, if you actually never want to see what you've written down again under any circumstances,
then you want our product.
Yeah.
If it works that way.
But, like, that's what they're pitching as their selling point compared to other products
like the friction.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, I'm just curious about the eraser and the shavings.
Like, they're not selling, this is not a replaceable type of eraser situation.
You know what I mean?
I guess, like, wooden pencils mostly don't have replaceable erasers unless you're a Blackwing
or something like that.
So, no one's...
Yeah, I guess also the interesting part about the eraser based on what Jacob did is a regular
eraser didn't do the job.
Right.
So, like, what is going on with that combo?
Right.
Very peculiar.
Yeah.
So, the front end is complete Energel front end, which is good.
Like, it's the Energel grip.
It's the Energel nose cone shape.
It's the Energel looking refill tip, which I do like.
So, that's nice.
Yeah.
I just don't think...
Like, this is a...
They're so far behind.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
Other companies have tried Uniball's on about their third or fourth version of an erasable
pen, and they've never been able to make anything good enough.
I've tried...
I think I've tried different Uniball's.
They hit...
One of the older Uniball's, like, around the...
When the friction came out, like, 20 years ago, I think that first eraser did have eraser
shavings.
But then their more modern ones had just, like, the friction, like, the round bit, like,
more closer to Pilot's friction eraser.
So, I mean, I obviously want to try it, right?
But, like, I was certainly not impressed by the product.
I was impressed with Jacob's review.
Like, it was a thorough review in comparison.
It just...
I don't know what checkbox it had over the friction.
It doesn't.
I mean, again, the one thing is the ink, but...
If the ink is permanently erasable, I think people will like that as a selling point.
Which, if it is, that might be the saving grace to allow them to develop this product
into something that is a better overall package.
Because if that's not the case, or if it was just worked exactly the same, essentially,
this product is just dead on arrival.
There's nothing about it, just from the way that it looks, the way that it performs
in every other way, that makes it a better product.
Then the friction.
Right, right.
And I'm sure this came at no small cost, like the R&D for...
Massive.
Or erasable ink.
Especially if they did, they had to, like...
They had to go from scratch because they had to work around the patterns, right?
So, like, they had to start from idea and then try and find a product to fix it.
Yep, yep.
Maybe one of their takeout robots could.
Um, I knew Sailor was a robotics company.
I've...
My assumption was always, like, manufacturing robots, right?
Like, uh...
And maybe that's part of it, but, you know, the takeout robots, apparently, those come
from Sailor.
That has a product line of takeout robots.
So, shout out, Jacob.
This is an interesting thought.
Uh, this comes from Strange Camel in the Discord.
What if the shavings are the ink?
Uh, it's black, so it could be, but, like, I doubt.
Just look at the eraser.
Like, in watching Jacob's video, they only appear where he rubs exactly.
I...
It's the eraser turning color of the ink.
Just like if you have a pink pencil eraser and you put it over graphite, it ends up black
when you...
Yeah.
When you...
When it shaves off.
Yeah.
So, it's picking up the ink and turning it the color of the ink.
Yeah, okay.
I don't know.
Super interesting.
Um...
According to Jacob, before the review, they were going to make a big deal out of this
pen, so hopefully a lot of us will be able to actually access it in worldwide markets
outside of Japan.
My guess...
Sailor's never had...
Any non-fountain pen product with wide distribution, right?
I've been able to pick some random ballpoint or gel over the years.
Either people send them to me, or maybe, like, some importer, like a JetPens or something,
might get something in, but it's never been.
A, like, active product lineup.
So, I'll be interested if they push this outward outside of Japan.
Who knows?
Um...
But I'll get my hands on one somehow and, uh...
And test it out.
I...
I certainly have very low expectations.
But, again, you know, the friction grew on me, right?
I was not feeling the friction at all.
And then all of a sudden, in, like, the past five to ten years, maybe, the ink improved.
And the experience improved.
And the barrels got less tribal.
And there we go.
Like, it was...
It was good.
So, it is now a pen I choose...
Yeah.
...to use instead of, oh, this is a fun thing in case I ever need an erasable gel pen.
Now, I've been using my three millimeter blue-black regularly.
Used it most of the day yesterday.
It's just a good pen.
It's not a good erasable pen.
It's just a good pen.
You're not gonna like this.
Very interesting.
This point, A.
Like, you're gonna hate it for that to start with.
No.
I...
No, no, no.
Well, me personally, yes.
Yeah.
But I will understand it as a product.
Sure.
That's fine.
Yeah.
The friction was 0.7 when it started.
Yeah.
Right?
So, the standard...
The OG friction was 0.7.
And the colors were so faded.
And it was like, I don't get it.
Like, sure.
If they wanted to do this, why have they taken so long to do it, do you think?
Like, why now?
Why would you do this now?
Um, money.
You think it's just that they've looked at what we were talking about last week, 5 billion
sold?
I mean, obviously, they probably looked at it sooner.
Did you see...
Jacob mentioned that piece.
He did.
Yeah.
But they don't have the money to invest, right?
Sailor's losing money every year.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
It's an investment piece.
And when you're the pen line item in a robotics company, I wonder how much you have to fight
for budget, right?
To say, we're gonna invent...
We have to invent this new ink formulation.
That's no small feat.
Yeah.
Do they consider themselves a robotics company, or are they a company that does pens and robots?
Probably the latter, but I don't know.
I don't know.
And again, they don't have a cool PDF like Pilot does that I've seen.
Maybe they do, but to see where the breakdowns are of the business.
But Pilot is definitely more pen business up front and ancillary businesses.
Down below, I don't know what that percentage is for Sailor.
Okay.
So, super...
I love this stuff, right?
This is so good.
Like, I don't care if it's bad.
It's great for me.
Right?
It's interesting.
It's interesting.
It gives me something to talk about.
I absolutely adore this.
I can't wait to try it.
And go like, yeah.
Like, this is just...
It's...
They're...
I've said it already.
They're playing from so far behind.
Yep.
I wonder if it's worth the risk.
We'll see.
You have to hit a home run with this product.
It can't be anything less.
Because the competition is held to such a high regard that you can't come in halfway and expect success.
That's just my outside opinion, right?
They're...
This is a tough...
This is a tough game that they're playing, I believe.
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Penidex is built by a solo developer who's been a part of the pen addict community for over 10 years.
Brad, do you want to talk about Penidex a little?
Yeah, so it's really cool and something I actually need to do better with
because it solves one of the problems I've always had, which is the tracking of things.
And I have my phone with me more than I have a pen with me.
So that means when I do choose to pick up a pen, my phone's right there.
And I need to put the widget on my phone so I can just log my usage.
I've always wanted like great usage tracking.
I talk about this all the time because I'll use, you know, countless pens in one day.
You know, today I've only used one pen so far, but by the end of the day, I might use five pens.
And I kind of want to know how I do that.
And you can enter and log all that stuff in Penidex and check like, you know,
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I need to be more active in logging my usage because that's always like been a dream scenario
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One last time, that is Penidex, P-E-N-E-D-E-X.
Our thanks to Penidex for their support of this show and the pen addict.
All right, Myke, we got our shout out of the week.
Shout out of the week.
Whatever will be, will be.
Oh my God.
You know what?
That was legitimately awful.
I'm just going to leave that there.
The future's not ours to see.
Shout out of the week.
Can we forget the entire lyrics on the pen barrel?
That's the only thing that would make it better.
DWR, D-Net, Stationery Feed.
My friend Derek, we've shouted him out before when he did his first season of interviews.
And season two is underway.
He's had some great stuff already with Lisa Van Ness, Addy from Stationery Stack.
Might have a certain pen addict lined up for the future.
That's not why I'm promoting it.
I'm promoting it because I like Derek's work.
And he's doing a great job getting these guests.
So go check out these interviews.
I have a link to the YouTube.
And you can find all of the videos there.
And it's great stuff.
So go check it out.
All right, little other nugget of follow-up.
The analog defaults page.
I'm very happy with it after it's been up for a couple weeks now.
I do want to adjust the images on here.
I got really sizable images on my page.
But other people are checking in with their analog defaults.
And at the bottom of the page, and I might end up moving this.
I might end up making just like a side.
It might be better to have like a sidebar instead of these at the bottom.
Just so I can shine a light on them a little bit more.
But there's definitely other people have submitted their analog defaults.
If you want to be linked on the page, just shoot me an email.
Hello at pen addict.com.
I love to check it out.
And I'd be glad to link it to the page.
And we need to get Myke on that, huh?
Yeah, I'd hope to do it on my blog and then forgot that it was my daughter's birthday.
You've been a little busy, yeah.
I wasn't at the studio as much as I want to take pictures, right?
Of the stuff that I'm going to write about.
At least some of the things.
And so, yeah.
And then I ended up wanting to.
This will happen.
Like I have a note.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like an Apple note of things I want to write about.
And this is one of them.
So at some point in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to make sure to do mine.
Nice, nice.
Yeah, I love seeing them.
So yeah, this is a long-term project.
I'm already thinking about my first changes.
I'm not ready to.
I'm still pretty actively using everything on that page right now, which is good.
That's the reason for the page.
These are the products that rise to the top of the current state of affairs at my desk.
So the current state of affairs with Lamy Japan is that they are offering the stock version
of the Lamy ballpoint with Jetstream inside.
Jetstream inside.
So yeah.
So I have questions, of course.
Number one, awesome, right?
Is this a stock item or is this an upgrade item?
My guess is the latter.
So I found this link on Lamy Japan's Instagram.
So it's coming from Japan, which they always said this was going to be in a Japan first release.
But are they getting to a point where they can move this into other products?
And how is it going to work?
I, there's not a lot to say about this other than good.
I just don't know what the premium is going to be because just for a fact, it's going to be a premium.
It just has to be.
I'm okay with this.
It's still better.
And when is it going to be easier for everyone to get?
Because this, this refill is very, very legitimate.
The, the Jetstream M17, there's a fine and I'm extra fine.
I'm using the extra fine right now, which is just glorious.
It is.
It's so good.
Um, I know I'm a Jetstream lover, but yeah, it's, it's just that good.
So positive movement, you know, two plus years on two to three years on, you know, we'll get there.
Um, you know, if they hired me, this would have been a worldwide launch from the jump, but you know, they, they, I'm sure they have plenty of M16 refills.
They're sitting on that, that need to be moved at a lower price point.
So, um, anyway, that nothing really to say then other than they put out information that it's available in what I call the stock options, right?
So your blue, red, yellow, like if you go into a Lamy store, the things you see on the counter, those colors, uh, the Vista color, the, the one like scarlet red one, you know, that's all in their image.
The black one, like the basics, which is nice.
It's nice to see.
Yeah.
It's the Safari, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's the Safari.
Yeah.
Uh, it's, it's one of those pins that I love that I, but it's probably not for a lot of people.
Right.
Yeah.
It's kind of funky looking.
Um, it still has the grip.
I would say it's more for more people.
Now they put jet stream in there.
Cause like, it's just, I think it's better than it was before.
It is, but now it's probably like 25 or $30 and stuff like closer to 20.
Right.
They're going to charge for this.
Yeah.
Like, like the refill, um, when I was paying for it was like $8, right.
Or more, it might've been more.
I'd have to look back.
It might've been like double digits.
And that's a, that's a secondary market upgrade, like up price, price increase.
Right.
That's gone through two, two jumps to get to the U S to get, to sell me that product.
Right.
So it's not, it wouldn't be like the inside Japan price, but I don't know.
Just, just keep going.
That's, that's all I want.
Like, just keep going with this.
They have an insane opportunity.
Mitsubishi does with ownership of Lamy.
Um, I just, I'm just selfish because it's two companies that I love and I want it to
go faster and that's just not how it works.
Yeah.
I mean, sailor's 20 years behind on an erasable ink pen.
So I, I shouldn't get my hopes up.
No need to, no need for shots like that.
They're not involved in this in any way.
Sailor out here catching strays.
Exactly.
Um, one more thing on Lamy, I did get my flamingo and pine versions.
Should I tell you what I think yet?
You don't have yours yet.
Yours are ordered.
No.
Yeah.
We spoke about it a little bit before the show, but yeah.
Yeah.
Colt pens wrote to people, including me, cause where I ordered it from slight delay.
They're due in early March.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, you know, just distribute.
Maybe next week or the week after.
Yeah.
I don't have a lot to say, but you know, the, the key is the colors, right?
Because you're just, that's what you're buying.
If you're interested in these.
Yep.
The pine is one of the best colors they've done in years.
That's very exciting to me.
It is very well done.
I feel like the green is harder to do.
So I'm happy to hear that you say that.
Like a good, good pink, like there's, I feel like it's relatively easy to do that.
Yeah.
But like a really good green, like that can be a bit harder to.
So I don't want to get your hopes up, but the pine is, it's legit.
It's, it's the rockstar of the, of the version.
And so I can't wait for this pen.
It's probably going to be my analog default by the time I've done all the customizations
I want to do to it.
You know what I mean?
Nice, nice, nice.
Speaking of customizations, Myke, last week, or was it two weeks ago?
I was talking about the glow in the dark Kaweco DIY builds last week.
So like, and how excited I am and you know, that's, it's an in-store thing.
And you were like, well, I wish I could just build a regular Kaweco.
You know, why can't I have all the choices?
And literally that afternoon I was just scrolling and there's this company called Preco Corporation
and they're having a little event.
And I, of course, I sent it to you instantly and that's what you want, right?
I mean, the theory of it is maybe better than the execution.
Okay, fair.
Yes, that's where we're going to go with this.
They are, which a lot of companies do this.
Sailor has done this at Ancora and Sailor has done this in North America at certain vendors.
Lamy has done this at a couple of vendors.
I know Gold Spot Atlas is doing it this year.
Where they're, I'm going to use allowing in air quotes, it's happening whether they have the support of the manufacturer or not.
They're taking existing barrels, disassembling them and allowing you to build a bear out of current inventory barrels.
Yeah, I mean, like you put a link in the notes for one Atlas and I also don't like this either.
Yeah.
They just don't look right.
Like, for me, this is a very complicated thing to do.
You can't just be like, here's a bunch of colors.
There has to be consideration for the mixtures of what would look good together, you know?
And then you can build from that.
So it's difficult to do, I think.
I mean, looking at the two, I prefer the Kaweco options to the Safari options that are in the two links that we're putting in the notes.
Yeah.
To your point, they're both going about it backwards, right?
It's just, they're taking a current inventory, disassembling and allowing the customer to reassemble in alternate ways.
I don't know.
I don't see how that's a great thing for the retailers either.
It seems like a cluster to me to manage, but if they have the buy-in.
You're going to be writing off some parts.
Yeah.
Parts.
Yeah.
If they have the buy-in, say from Lamy in particular, if they have the buy-in and Lamy sends you, you know, 20 of each part and each color disassembled already.
Yeah.
Cool.
Like, let people build their pens.
But if, like, you're taking it from existing inventory, I don't know how that works.
Because normally, a distributor wouldn't allow that.
Exactly.
And you've got to really think about it in, like, a tasteful way, right?
So, like, Safari, sorry, Lamy, when they release their, like, set of additions, they will work well together, right?
Yes.
Because they are of a line.
So, you know, like, Lamy could release, like, four colors for spring.
That's all going to work when you mix that up.
But if you just have, like, generic red, generic yellow, generic green, generic pink, it's not necessarily going to work.
Right.
Because they're of different things.
So, we're talking about mixing up that green and purple.
Pink, sorry.
And that green and pink is going to look good because it was meant to live together.
Like, somebody put the consideration to it.
If you just pick random colors, I just, I think it's harder.
You're making it harder on people to make something that looks nice.
Yeah.
One company that has done this well, which I haven't mentioned yet, is Leuchtturm with the Dreggerfell ballpoints.
They build a bunch of colors that do go together.
And they actually build a flip chart book that goes with the setting.
You know, like, maybe, you know, Sophia has the book where you can build the different animals, like, three different panels.
And you can make them all different things.
So, Leuchtturm will literally put that book there to show you all the different ways you can build this pen.
Because they've coordinated the parts as such to work together.
Even if they're already kind of available in different configurations as a mainline product, they're still considered together.
Yeah, because the one you made, I found a link on your blog.
Because, like of everything, just search your name and it's there.
I was talking about you in an interview I did with Jason Aiton of Inc. Magazine a couple of days ago.
Because we were talking about my kind of product stuff.
It's a good interview, actually.
I'll put a link in the notes.
I saw the quote.
I was like, oh, I bet he talked about pens and stuff.
I spoke about you quite a bit.
And I just said that, like, you know, part of the reason that I can do what I do is I've been working with you so long.
And so, like, you helped, like, adapt and shape my taste.
And because you are the guy, like, if you search for any pen and the word review, it'll come up.
Yeah, to your point, that Leuchtturm, when you go look at that review,
the telling part that this was on purpose is that they provide packaging that also matches what you're about to build.
Yeah.
Which is awesome.
You can see that I, yeah.
So that package rotates into different colors.
Yeah.
And you can actually get the colors to complement your pen.
Yeah.
Which, like, packaging's packaging.
It's not a big deal.
But you can tell that this was a coordinated set of products that they wanted people to build together.
Instead of just, hey, here's our current inventory.
Knock yourself out.
And, which I think is a little bit more awkward.
I agree.
As a final product.
Yes.
Right.
Way harder.
So, yep.
So, I've seen this.
So, other companies do this.
This is always, again, it's one of those dream scenarios that I fully admit is fine if it never happens.
Because it's complicated to do inventory and stuff like this.
Like, I totally get why companies do not do this.
Despite me wanting all the things all the time and make what I want.
Like, I totally, it's totally fair to not do this.
Just to be clear.
Because of, you don't want it to be half-baked.
Like, you want it to be like a real experiential type of thing.
Which is what Kaweco is doing with the DIY in-store stuff.
And I think what Leutertum has delivered with the Dregerfels.
This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Pen Chalet.
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We were talking about Lamy a lot.
And this is the time of year if you're buying, if you're looking to buy Lamy's,
they have some new stuff coming out like the All Star.
Pen Chalet has a bunch of leather cases that are gift with purchases.
So there's like the, if you buy like a Lamy Safari, you can get one of these leather cases
that is a really kind of beautiful magenta-y, purple-y, pink color that I really like.
Or the Lamy Safari multicolor set.
You can get that if you buy one of the ballpoints or rollerballs.
They have, I have one of these Lamy elastic bag cases.
It's like the notebook pouch where it's got the elastic, like if you have an A5 notebook
to where you have like a small, about a two-pin wide zipper pouch with an elastic band
that you just use as your book band, right?
And then it's got your little pin pouch built into that.
So those are gift with purchases with like the Lamy Safari rollerballs
that we were talking about before or the Lamy Safari ballpoints, I mean.
So yeah, lots of cool gift with purchases like that.
They also have some new, you were talking about the collaborations.
They have this new Gioia Van Demons World Ocean box set.
This material is crazy.
I have not seen this.
I like the pin shape.
It's kind of tapered aggressively on both ends.
It's very, very beautiful.
It's got some unique ink with it.
I've reviewed these pins before.
They're very well made, very nice.
Very nice pins.
And I'm just kind of, this is the first time I've seen it.
I'm just kind of flipping through the images.
That's a great looking pin.
Very nice.
So yeah, go check that one out.
I also, I had been looking for this for a while and been waiting for any year of the horse products to pop up.
And Novelor has always consistently done like whatever the year of, the Chinese New Year, featured pin.
The year of the horse is so good.
They did a really, really nice job with this one with the kind of the browns and gold swirl.
The Nautilus shape, which is kind of the shape that I like in their pins.
It's just really, really beautiful.
Last one that I've been very tempted by is the Estabrook Love Potion JR.
I love pink pins.
I like the JR.
I've reviewed them in the past.
I don't own one.
This might be the one.
I might, this might be my Atlanta Pen Show pin.
If I go check this out in person here in a few weeks, that we might end up with one of these.
I really like the color of that one.
So very great stuff over there at Pen Chalet.
So go check them out.
And don't forget, you can get 10% off any of those products just by going to penchalet.com forward slash penaddict.
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Our thanks to Pen Chalet for the support of this show and Relay.
Myke, I did a thing you told me not to do.
Okay.
You advised me correctly.
You said, Brad, what are you doing?
Why are you offering to make product review videos for St. Jude's?
I was like, I'm raising money for the kids, Myke.
And I'm putting my feet to the fire.
Well, it turns out it took a while to get the fire going.
This is my point.
This is the point.
Like, you agreed to do this in September.
It's now February.
This is why you don't do this.
Myke was right.
Fine.
Myke was right.
It was actually very mentally challenging to do this.
And I can't really explain why.
Because my whole life, I just talk about pens.
It's the same thing that you're doing right now.
There's just a camera in front of your face.
But it is a difference.
Which I've never had problems with cameras or people or anything like that.
Like, I can talk in front of crowds.
None of that stuff.
None of that stuff matters.
I just, there was a different weight to it, I guess.
I was like, oh.
Do I have to make, like, a product review video with all the bells and whistles?
And once I finally convinced myself that I just had to be me and do what I do, like, it was a lot easier.
And I just basically did, like, a one-take video of two different products so far.
I have two more to go.
So, I did the Pilot Silvern fountain pen.
And these were requests.
So, it was the Pilot Silvern and the Pilot PO posting nib.
So, I did two quick videos on those.
Those are up for you all to check out.
You know, tell me what you think.
You know, it's not, I'm not going to be a YouTuber.
I'm not going to be a YouTuber review.
But I do like flipping on the camera and talking about, like, a singular topic real quick.
Right?
Like, that works for me.
Yeah.
So, I have a couple ink videos I have to do.
I haven't recorded those yet.
But I'll do those probably in the next week or two and get those out as well.
And then, I don't know.
Those are the ones that, you know, I owe people.
Like, I want to get those out for sure.
And then maybe I'll do some other things.
Like, you know, like, I'm using the Pilot Explorer right now.
Which I've reviewed on the blog before many times.
But it's kind of a pen that we've talked about recently that's kind of, like, matriculating to the top.
Just because of price.
Right?
It's a $30 pen in a sea of $300 pens.
That's actually really good.
And they just had some new colors come out.
Maybe that's a good little, you know, talk it through for five minutes video.
As opposed to, like, the fifth review on the pen addict about the same pen kind of thing.
So, we'll see.
No promises on anything of that.
Because it was actually kind of mentally taxing to do.
Even though it was physically easy to do.
I do think that the idea is sound, though.
That you would, you know.
Yeah.
You're doing enough video stuff.
I mean, you stream three times a week.
The idea of doing a video review.
Like, there seems like there's logic in there.
And you are set up for it technically.
Yeah.
Like, if anything, you just got to get your sea legs with it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I don't have, like, all the YouTube-y things.
Like, I didn't do, like, you know, a title screen or, you know, any of that stuff.
Like and subscribe?
Like and subscribe stuff, yeah.
You mean thumbnail when you said title screen?
Thumbnail, yeah.
See, I don't even know.
I got stuck.
I didn't know what it was.
You're one of those new fangled splash screens.
Yeah.
I mean, I can make the face.
Like, the face is fine.
You got to do the face, Fred.
It's just, like, putting together.
Put pen right to the camera, shocked face behind.
Yeah.
I want to see it.
Like, I could have a bank of, like, 10, you know, 10 different poses.
Like, easy.
Easy.
Like, I'm good with the face, but, you know.
Do the face.
Anyway, not a YouTuber over here, but I do watch a lot of YouTube.
So, anyway, fun.
I, as challenging as it was for me to do, I didn't.
I do enjoy the concept of it, so maybe I'll keep it going.
So, we'll see.
Random product.
I guess it kind of goes in with the second thing I want to talk about, which we'll get
to the Ritech ClickTech.
That is insanely hard for me to say.
In a minute, I reviewed that this week.
Random Find.
Didn't know this existed until this week, but apparently it came out last year.
Kikuyo has a fancy fine writer that they sell.
So, what they're selling is basically a felt-tip pen in a fancy barrel.
I'm super interested in it, except, like, the base pen is, like, $60 for a felt-tip pen.
So, I, like, hovered over the buy button, like, forever.
And I was like, I'll just wait.
I'll wait.
Like, it's not, like, I know it's going to be a letdown for the price.
Relatively speaking, this can't be that great for what it is.
It's a marker in a fancy barrel.
Cool.
Like, I'm all about that life, right?
They even have a blue-black refill.
I'd be like, heck yes, and a dark green refill.
Those are great.
I just couldn't get past the price tag.
Like, you're paying for the barrel.
The barrel looks great.
You know, nice, fancy, upgraded barrel.
But what would I use this for?
So, I'm curious if anyone out there has this, since it does seem to be out since, like, late last year.
I did notice, if you go to this product page, Myke, if you scroll to the end, you can get a $500 wooden barrel one, if you're so inclined.
I would.
Or a $350.
I actually went on that page earlier.
$350.
And didn't look at the prices, but thought these look nice.
And that's why.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There's a $350 limited edition.
See, these are 2025 pins, so I know they came out last year.
They have a regular limited edition.
So, the regular price is $61.
The basic limited edition is $85.
The fancy limited edition aluminum is $350.
And the fancy wood barrel, which admittedly looks fantastic, is $500.
And this is for a felt tip pen barrel.
So, like, I'll wait.
I just know that this is, the writing experience can only be so good, right?
And we talk about this all the time.
Like, what are we paying for when we buy things?
You know, and what's the difference between steel nibs and gold nibs?
And what's the difference between $300 gold nib pen and a $600 or $700 gold pen?
You start going outside of the writing experience.
You're paying for those, the things that do not affect the writing experience.
Intangibles.
Yep.
So, which is cool.
Like, I mean, we love this stuff.
Like, this wooden barrel is great.
But I know this refill can only be X good, right?
It's not going to be a world beater type of refill.
It's going to be a nice marker tip.
You know, like a Papermate Flare 0.81 millimeter range type of tip.
And I just, 60 seems like a stretch.
But I'll get one eventually because I'm interested in that Kikuyo is doing it.
I don't know if I actually mentioned the Kikuyo part of this whole thing.
The Kikuyo part is what interests me more than anything that they're leaning into this a little bit.
And they have some regular fineliners.
Some, like, the Perpenep fineliners.
Which I actually do want to buy because they're, like, $350.
And that's the type of pen that I use the most.
And that gets us to the Rytec.
So, Rytec has been making some waves in that they're kind of making a bunch of new products and pushing them out.
And they're pretty good products.
They're not great products.
I've reviewed one of the dual color gel ink pens.
It's technically fine.
The refill color and performance was a little bit lacking, right?
They're not, if you compared them to, like, a Uniball or a Pentel gel pen, they fall short in ink, right?
They're just not as nice.
But they look good.
They're fairly priced.
You know, they're a pen that you see around the block a little bit.
And they're fine.
Like, completely inoffensive pens.
And so, they have this.
Well, okay.
I take that back.
Before I even get to the Clicktec, I said inoffensive.
They have a very offensive pen that we'll get to.
And I mentioned it in this review.
So, the Clicktec is the fine liner, which, you know, take your Secura Pigma Micron and make it a retractable in a single barrel unit.
And this has been done before by others.
I mentioned the Sharpie.
I mentioned the Sharpie pen had a retractable version years ago that just kind of didn't stick with.
And I think it's, you know, just assuming.
It's a little bit more challenging to keep the fine liner tip dry in a retractable.
I mean, not dry it out in a retractable type pen, right?
So, these pens or pen tips are very fragile to begin with.
So, they have to have a good seal around the cap.
And I think just with a retractable in general, it's probably more challenging.
So, Rytec, I think, actually did a pretty good job with the seal.
It uses a trap door on the inside of the pen.
Like, a pilot vanishing point, if people are familiar with that.
And I haven't had it that long.
Only a few weeks.
No drying out issues.
The problem I had is the ink just wasn't black, right?
In fine liner pens, if you have a black fine liner, there's an expectation that the ink in black is going to be of a certain color because of how these pens are used, right?
Not everyone's using these pens like I do to write.
These are generally art pens and drawing.
And if the black is not black enough in art or artwork, it's pretty telling, right?
It just doesn't look right.
And then when you compare it side by side with other, like, traditionally great fine liners like the Secura Pigma Micron, it really falls off in shade.
It's like two to three, like, shades down the spectrum from the Secura Pigma Micron black to the ClickTech black, which is its kind of only, like, flaw.
Like, but it's such a flaw in a fine liner that it makes you not want to use it because it's not doing fine liner things, right?
It's just not black.
And that's the expectation.
So technically, it's fine performance-wise.
It falls way short.
The one pen they do make that is offensive, Myke, and I just want to go ahead and do another drive-by.
The Rytec ClickTech fountain pen is an abomination.
And that's the word I used in the review.
If you click on the link, and we'll put a link in the show notes.
So it's called the Rytec ClickTech retractable fountain pen.
It has a trap door on the outside.
That's some, like, um...
That's some ingenuity, Brad.
Is it, though?
I mean, they're doing things, you know?
So it flips outwardly so it's adjacent to your nib when you're writing.
It blows my mind that this product exists.
I can't wrap my head around the final go-ahead of this product.
I don't understand.
But apparently, it sells.
Because it's like a $20, $25 pen, right?
Retractable fountain pen.
People are going to buy it.
But oh my gosh.
It's ugly, man.
This is not how you solve problems, Chad.
But you don't just push everything to the outside and have the door sitting next to the nib.
I can't imagine.
I can't imagine using this pen.
This is very funny to me.
I have actively refused to review this pen out of spite.
Like, there's nothing good that's going to come out of me reviewing this pen.
I don't care if it writes well.
I think it's hilarious.
Like, I think this is so funny.
Like, it's like, hey there.
You know?
It's like, where's the nib comes out?
It's like, oh, hi.
I didn't know you were here.
That's what I think when I see this.
Yeah.
It's like, you want to hang out?
It's like, so just to try and explain it more fully, there is like a plastic disc, which
is covering the hole that the nib will come out of.
When you eject the nib, the nib pushes this disc up to the side.
So it's basically just like flipping the lid, but then the lid just remains to the side
of the pen.
Like, it's like if you, you know, you just like pop the top off something, but the top's
got to go somewhere.
So it just hangs around.
It's very funny.
This is very funny.
It's like if you open a can, right?
And the last, you know, 5% of the cans just hanging off to the side.
Yeah.
Like a can of fruit or, you know, fish.
It's madness.
I think, yeah.
I think like Kate's in the chat.
Like Kate has one.
I think like technically it's fine.
I think people who use this go, yeah, it's a good rider.
It's fun.
I just can't get over.
I could not get past the trapdoor situation.
But this is how you make a $22 retractable phantom pen.
Sure.
This is the way you would have to do that.
Like anything, anything other than that is too expensive to produce for, I feel like.
You know what?
The fineliner says that they can do it on the inside if they tried hard enough.
Phantom pen's a different beast.
Yeah, man.
You mean it's not a sponge filler?
Do you see the refill on these things?
Which is, that's a normal marker refill.
But it's just funny.
Like this doesn't have to be.
Like look, fineliners are one of the least eco-friendly products in the pen world.
They're not made to be refilled for, because the ink usually outlasts the tip performance, right?
These, these pens are a failure point waiting to happen every time you use them because the tips are fragile.
They don't need to be refillable.
They're honestly just chock full of waste.
Like this is one of my favorite pen types in the world.
But I will freely admit like these are not eco-friendly.
And, you know, props to Ritek for trying.
But it's just not going to work.
Like it's not going to work.
Even if it was a good black ink.
It's just, you know, the refill is, you know, two-thirds of the price of the pen.
Like it's just, you know, whatever.
So not a great pen.
I would skip this one.
Like the click mechanism is fine.
If you want to buy one of these to play around with, cool.
You won't hate it.
But it can't hang with like the real competition in the fineliner space, which is one of my favorite areas to dabble in.
Some of my favorite pens live there.
So there you go.
All right.
Should we do our final sponsor and then finish out with a couple of our STPA questions today?
Yeah, let's do it.
We've been getting behind.
So let's do it.
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I've got some RSTPA questions for you, Brad.
Sam wrote in and said, I recently went to Japan and brought back far too much stationery.
Yeah, let's go.
One of the things I bought was a Kuro Togo wood.
I love it, but I didn't get any spare lead.
So my question is, what should I bear in mind when I'm getting new lead for my Kuro Togo?
Are they all the same?
Is there a particular type that works best in Kuro Togo pencils?
Wonderful question.
And congratulations on the far too much stationery.
You did really good with the Kuro Togo wood.
I think I'm going to have to change my favorite Kuro Togo to the Kuro Togo wood from the roulette.
It's an exceptional, exceptional pencil.
Really, really well done.
It's pretty expensive.
It's like a $30 Kuro Togo where the roulette's about a $14, $16 Kuro Togo, but still.
The lead question.
So I have done some reviews where I checked out some of the standard leads and some of the premium leads.
So when you start going into these mechanical pencil manufacturers, Pentel, Pilot, Uniball in this case, and there's others, Tombows and Rotrings and all that.
They have a stock lead, which is their base level lead.
And then they have their premium leads, which they will all market in some form of, you know, less prone to breakage and maybe slightly darker.
Right?
So different formulations in whatever the composition of that graphite that they're making.
I personally don't find a ton of difference in the premium stuff.
Some of them, some people swear by them for breakage purposes.
And I think that's true.
Right?
So if that's a thing for you, especially if you're using like a 0.5 or smaller, your chances of breakage are a little bit higher just because that's a fragile stick of graphite.
And I think some of the upgraded ones, you know, the Pentel Einsteins, Uni, Nanodia, things like that are fine.
Like they're fine to pay for an upgrade.
They're still inexpensive relative to the quantities that you get.
I personally choose Pentel as the brand that I prefer in any pencil.
Like you don't have to stick with Uni or Kuro Togos.
You can.
They're perfectly acceptable leads.
I get the best pencil feel and graphite color with Pentel leads that meet my expectations.
Like the stock Pentel HB lead, like the base level one, not even the Einstein one, which is their premium one, is as good as any lead you will ever use.
You will go, oh, this is nice.
And there's just not a huge variety in that whole scope of leads as long as you, you know, as long as you're just fine using like a standard middle grade HB lead.
There's differences if you start getting into the H spectrum, the hard end of the scale or the B spectrum, you know, the softer, darker end of the scale.
Then you might have some testing you want to do.
Like if you want like a 2B, like you might want to play around with like one of the less, like one of the stronger leads, like an Einstein or a Nanodia.
Yeah.
Um, you don't have to worry about it too much.
I've like, I've spent way more words answering this question than you need to worry about.
It's not a big deal.
Yeah.
Go with, I, I choose Pentel stock regular HB leads and they're the lead I compare everything else to.
Like that's my baseline and it's really difficult to beat.
So, um, the Kuretoga, the auto rotation isn't aggressive, right?
You're, it's not like a breakage thing.
Like you're not going to have, no one has like breakage problems with the Pentel Kuretoga mechanism.
It's not a thing.
So just get whatever you like, find something you like.
If you want a recommendation, I'm going with Pentel and not rotering.
There's actually bad lead out there.
Rotering is one of them.
Don't buy rotering lead.
It's, um, it's, it's more clay.
It's not as graphite feeling, right?
You want that tactileness.
It's very, uh, it's almost rubbery feeling.
It was, it was one of the great disappointments in, in the lead reviews that I did.
There was actually very difference between very little difference between good leads, but that made it when you had a bad lead, it stood out and rotering.
I very much did not enjoy.
Skip that one.
Go with Pentel.
Peter writes in and says,
Random question on the theme of should you remove stickers off pens?
What is your opinion on removing the cardboard spaces on Lamy Aluminium or Safari, Lamy Alestar or Safaris?
I've seen a few pictures of people keeping it in their collections.
Personally, I always remove it.
You, you have to remove it.
You have to remove it.
What are you doing?
To technically use the, it's, so the, the Lamy, so to explain Peter's question, if you're not familiar, if I buy, so I just got the new Lamy All-Star Pine, okay?
When they ship it, when Lamy ships it, comes from the factory with a cartridge inside the barrel, but it also includes a cardboard ring spacer between the, the section and the barrel.
So, the reasoning for that is so the cartridge does not engage and allow ink to start going down the feed during shipping.
So, it's a protection spacer.
It's immediate trash, right?
You cannot, if you're screwing in the barrel with the cartridge, if that's somehow technically possible, you're, you're overcooking whatever threading you've got going on there, right?
It's going to damage the pin in the long term because you're adding pressure and things that, in places that shouldn't have pressure.
It's only a protection device to stop the ink cartridge from engaging during shipping.
It, it should just be thrown away completely.
And you should also take the stickers off your pins.
Yeah, I agree.
You can throw, like, if you want to keep it for, like, later, throw it in the box.
If you keep the box, throw it in the box.
That's fine.
But it's really just a safety mechanism.
I don't know what you would want to do with it.
I mean, some people keep all of the boxes, the paperwork that ships with the pin, you know, like, you know, like the little tab that might come on the clip, something like that, you know, throw it in the box or whatever.
Carrier says, I need help.
I love all Retro 51 pens.
I love all paper.
But I cannot find a paper where the ink doesn't bleed through.
Even my favorite Midori thick paper.
Something doesn't add up here.
Yeah, same.
So, Carrie, I need you to email me.
Hello at pinnack.com.
We need to discuss this a little bit more.
You should not have an issue with Midori paper in the Retro.
So, this is a Schmidt P8127 refill.
Assumedly, unless something's changed.
I'm assuming it's the stock Schmidt P8127.
It is a wet black line.
It does bleed through some pages.
Any Japanese paper,
Moriman, Midori,
Kikuyo,
Life,
Apica,
never had an issue.
So,
yeah,
email me and let's see.
Because if you're telling me maybe it's Midori Cotton,
which still,
like,
I have good luck with fountain pens,
I could maybe understand that.
So,
I'd want to understand exactly,
specifically,
which paper you're using.
Because it could be a paper issue.
But stock Midori,
it,
I have a stack right here,
like,
literally within arm's reach that I use that in all the time.
It does not bleed,
feather,
anything.
So,
definitely shoot me an email,
and we can talk about this a little bit more,
and see if we can find the solution.
You know,
I think I'm going to do kind of a P8127 refill post here pretty soon.
I was talking about the Blackwing pen when I couldn't sleep last night on Mastodon.
That pen is laser etched into my brain right now,
and I want to talk about it a little bit more.
Sounds like it's haunting you.
I just have so many questions.
We've already covered this on the podcast.
Y'all can,
whatever,
show a few,
three or four episodes ago.
It's really hard to
describe in words
the things I'm thinking about the pen.
And I don't mean that in a bad way,
right?
It's a perfectly fine pen.
But,
like,
I try to,
I want to get,
I want to try.
I think I'm going to do a,
I wasn't sure I was going to actually do a,
like,
a pen addict review of it on the blog.
I think I am now.
So,
there we go.
I think if it's making you think that much,
I think it's worthy of it.
Yeah.
Yeah,
it is.
Those are the best kind of reviews.
The best kind of reviews
aren't for a product I deem to be perfect.
Right?
There's not a lot to say about a great product.
Yes.
I can only say it's great in so many ways.
But I also don't want a product to be purposely bad,
so I can talk about the bad things.
But there's products that kind of hit both sides of the ledger for different people,
and those are the most interesting ones.
Right?
It may not be for me,
but it might be for someone,
and I want to talk about why.
There's two different ways to go about it.
So,
that's,
and that,
that's a prime example of one.
Which,
where I don't think about the Retro 51 that way.
I think it's just a good pen,
probably for the majority of people.
Right?
It's like a 75%er pen,
right?
75% of the people are going to pick that up and go,
oh yeah,
this is great.
Where the Blackwing pen is a 25%er,
right?
But that doesn't mean it's a bad pen.
So,
these are the things I think about,
and that keep,
apparently keep me up at night.
Because I couldn't go to bed last night,
because I was literally just like,
writing the entire review in my head.
Which,
I do that sometimes.
So,
I guess I'm going to write it up.
Sorry,
Kerry,
that was a lot.
Email me,
hello at penhug.com.
Matcha wrote in and said,
but the way the prices are,
I've almost entirely lost interest in fountain pens,
and I've really dug into gel,
rollerball,
and ballpoint.
Low price is great,
but I want to understand some different barrel options.
If you had $50 to spend,
to get a good sampling of these different types,
what five to ten pens would you choose?
This is a great blog post.
I mean,
I can answer it now.
It's just off the top of my head.
I didn't think,
I haven't thought about this,
but like,
this would be a nice way to compose like an idea,
right?
We're going to try to answer an idea here.
And,
you know,
I traditionally use fountain pens.
I'm not really using them anymore.
What are my other options?
And if I had a budget of $50,
how would you disperse that?
I think the first pen that comes to mind is honestly the Zebra Sarasa clip,
because I just think it's a really good barrel,
and a really good clip,
and it's kind of unique.
And I could say like some of my favorites,
like the Signo DX and,
you know,
things like that.
But if I'm going to do like a recommendation,
and you're willing to experiment,
I think that pen deserves some love.
I would probably do a five millimeter,
because they do tend to be a little bit scratchy.
I'd do that one.
I'd do a standard Pentel Energel 0.7.
I would do a Pilot Friction Retractable.
I'd have to look at the name.
They changed the name so much.
You might want to get into the Ball Knock Zone.
I can't remember if that's the barrel I prefer right now.
Definitely one of the Ball Knocks.
I would get a Jetstream multi-pin.
Jetstream slim multi-pin.
And I still haven't spent $20 yet.
So yeah,
I could do this list.
So we'll have to,
instead of like listing out five and ten,
and working on a budget,
let me just say,
I can put something together.
But there's four good pens
that were less than $20
that are going to get you a long way
to experimenting and figuring out
some things that you may like
in like a standard pen.
All right.
If you would like to send in a question
for us to answer in a future episode of the show,
or you have follow-up or feedback
about today's episode,
all you need to do is go to
penaddictfeedback.com.
That's where you go.
Penaddictfeedback.com.
Too many domains in my brain, dad.
Dad?
Oh my God.
Wow.
Which includes your dad.
Yeah, I think the podcast is over now.
Eject the podcast.
See you next time.
Thanks to the sponsors.
Find Brad online.
Find me online.
I'm done.
Peace.
Bye.
Say goodbye, Brad.
Goodbye, dad.
Oh, Jesus.

The Pen Addict 705/transcript

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