Editing The Pen Addict 287/transcript (section)

== Pen Modification ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So yeah. All right. So let's get down to business. I know we, I like to stray because I'm into this stuff. And I don't, honestly, you and I do not talk much during the week just on, hey, how's it going stuff. We'll say, oh, I need this. Oh, I need that kind of thing. So, you know, I'm just following along all your PodCon adventures just like everyone else who listens to the show. And I want to hear about it because it excites me. But we are here to talk pens and paper. So we have some follow-up to get to. The first one, I got a bunch of emails on the copper smell, getting the copper smell off your hands. Yep. And a lot of people replied with the same answers. What you do is you force the patina on your pen to get it to where you want. How do you do that? Just use it, you know. Yeah. But by force it, it just means use it. I mean, there's other things you can do. You can, like, pour things on it. Blowtorch.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Gotta do the old Cafeco thing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Blowtorch it from your desk. From your desk. Torch it, acid it, you know, lemon juice it, all that kind of stuff. So get the pen to how you want it. And then you apply some type of clear coat to that pen and it seals it off. The popular answer was Cerakote. I don't know how easy that is to get. But our good friend Tony from Everyday Commentary said in the knife world, which is his world, he says this is super common for knife handles. People will get them looking how they want to use it, use it how they want it to look when they use it, and then coat it with Cerakote. It's a clear varnish, if you will. And it seals. It seals off the copper. So it's no longer going to patina, which means it's no longer going to smell when you use it. That's genius.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because you can get colored Cerakote, right? So this is just like a clear one? Yeah. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. So the issue is, like I have, because I'm so anal retentive about my pen's look and feel, is like, well, do I get it in the threads? How is that going to work? Like I can see it on a flat side or a grip section or a round barrel. But if you start getting into like the nooks and crannies, like I would be worried about how it would look. So like that's not something I would ever do, I don't think. But I like the idea of it if like you really want to use that copper pen but are annoyed by the smell.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That is a good idea. You just have to live with the smell for a little bit.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And there's other things you can do, you know. But Cerakote seemed to be the common answer in my emails that I got on this. The other email, I got a couple emails on the Pelican Ocean Swirl, the beautiful new release from Pelican. And good friend of the show, pen dealer, Pelican dealer to the stars is what I call him, Mr. Tom Bailey, who I've known Tom for a long time from the pen show world. Let me read his response here. He's a Pelican dealer. He says, The entire body is actually the same in four vertical panels. As Myke said, two opposing panels are bright and bring out the blue and internal sparkle quite well. Indoor, the other two panels can easily be mistaken for black or dark navy blue. In strong light or outdoor sun, it's easy to see it is the same material as the lighter panels. And the internal sparkle will have you reaching for your sunglasses. As he said. So, there's like a four panel variation, like a two and two, where bright sparkle and then depth. But the sparkle is still in there. So, as you rotate the pen, if you notice, all the pictures show the bright side, right? There's not many pens that, hey, check out my awesome ocean swirl dark side of the pen, you know. So, I mean, I guess it's how it's designed purposefully. They should all be sort of the same-ish, but I'm sure there's a lot of variation. And I'm sure that comes up from time to time, which is why it's great to check this one out as an in-person purchase. Tom also went on to add, he said, Side note, this is the first Pelican M800 series to benefit from the retail price reduction, which we talked about that before, right? I know I've talked about it outside the podcast. I can't remember if we went through it on the podcast. So, the previous M800s were $845 MSRP. This one is $650 MSRP. So, that's a great price reduction because almost all stores sell Pelicans for 20% off MSRP. That's like the standard. So, whatever that math is, you know, closer to $500, I guess. So, related are... Okay. So, I was going to say are good friends, but it's not. The people that work at MassDrop have the Pelican M805. And I'd like to table that topic momentarily. Should we... Do we have a whiteboard? Can we park it for now? Because we're going to hit a different type of full-length topic. And I want to bring this up when we discuss that. So, we are aware of the MassDrop issues. I, of course, have opinions on that. And we're going to table that talk until a segment later in the show, which I think should be pretty good.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I went and checked this out before, when I was writing up the show notes last night. I hadn't heard of them. And like my wife does the annual photo album type of thing. Like, you know, gets it, the photos and print. Like, this would be like a cool addition into something like that. So, yeah, it looks very cool. I'm going to have to show this to her.