Editing The Pen Addict 337/transcript (section)

== Fountain Pen Expert Category ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' We ordered them for variety reasons, right? That's what it was. You were looking for variety.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, this was purposeful and meaningful. Yes. That the fountain pen expert category is next. So, this is the person who's kind of got it all. They know what they like. They know the brands they like. They know the styles they like. And is there something you can get that person that is compelling? Like, what would interest someone who has it all? And there's one thing that I can never get enough of. And that is custom nibs. Like, loose nibs that I can use for other pens. And I specifically put in the gift guide the Franklin Kristoff custom nibs. Because they have such a huge variety of styles, sizes. You know, everything from a steel extra fine to like a 1.9 millimeter two-tine music nib. You can get Masuyama nib grinds. You can get all kinds of different shapes. They have gold nibs. And it's actually really helpful for someone who's into fountain pens and wants to mix things up a little bit to have options for nibs. So, like, I'll have a favorite pen barrel that I might use three different nibs on depending on the mood I'm in when I fill up that pen and want to do it. So, I like having that customization option of just having an extra loose nib unit laying around. And you can get these, I mean, just the basic nibs, you know, in the $20 range. You know, special grinds for steel, you know, $60. And then the gold nibs, you know, up well over $100 depending on what you get. So, there's a huge range of things you can get here with just like spare nibs. So, that seemed to be a pretty good option.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I like that because if you already have a bunch of stuff, this could allow you to play around with some new things without necessarily needing to buy new pens, right? It's like I bought a couple of nibs like this myself. Like, I bought that few-day nib, right? And that was a lot of fun to play around with to kind of understand a little bit more of what I like. So, now, when I actually buy pens, like some of the sailors that I've bought, I've been a little bit more adventurous with the nibs that I'm using. So, I think this is a very good pick. My thinking was the fountain pen expert probably at this point has maybe purchased everything that they would want which is available to them, right? You have your sailors, you have your pilots, maybe you even have a Nakaya, right? Like, you've bought a bunch of things. So, there is one route that if you have not explored at this point, you should do. And that is to order something completely custom. So, to actually go to a company like an Edison or Newton pens or you go to Jonathan Brooks and you're like, okay, I've seen these types of pen bodies. I want this type of material. And like you go through the whole process because it is exciting and it is terrifying. And you end up with something unique and wonderful at the end of it, right? So, I think that if you're at a point where you feel like, oh, I've maybe bought everything that I've been looking for but I want to know where to go next. I think ordering something of your own desire from scratch is a really, really fun thing to do. And it's a nice kind of like milestone in your kind of pen buying history.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, Anna, what do you have? I actually liked your selection a lot.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Oh, thank you. Myke, I think that's a great idea. Yeah, I'd be nervous to try to pick out a pen for somebody else. But I'm wondering if Newton or Brooks or anyone actually offers gift certificates where you could maybe contribute to someone's custom pen purchase.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, that's a good idea.

'''Ana Reinert:''' So, my suggestion was that I would not risk trying to figure out what another fountain pen enthusiast needed or wanted or if they already had something. So, I went with a book and I recommended The Adventures in Stationery. I think it was originally called The Perfection of the Paperclip by James Ward, which has like historical information about all the different office supplies from highlighters and ballpoint pens to fountain pens and just sort of how they came about. And it's a really nicely designed book. It would make a good gift, I think, if you haven't read it already.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I haven't. Like, that's one I need to put on my list so I remember to pick it up at some point. I need to get that because I like to read all these stationery books. And they're always so interesting and such good reads that I need to get this one.

'''Ana Reinert:''' We actually included several other books on the Well-Pointed Desk gift guide that Laura, Tina, and I put together maybe a week ago. So, there's more options.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so quick note on that. I purposefully did not read your wish list so we could link them in the show notes. So, there's more options to your overall gift guide for the Well-Appointed Desk. And then, like, your personal gift guide for you and all the writers, Jesse and Tina and Laura over at the Well-Appointed Desk put up another post for that. So, there's some more gift guide goodness y'all can all go check out. We'll have links to that in the show notes.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Okay, what's next?

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right, so our next category is for the Experimentalist. So, this is something that you're trying to buy from someone to blow their minds, which I like this as an idea. And I was sitting and thinking, like, what can it be? Like, what could you buy somebody to blow their minds? And for me, it was something that the first time I saw blew my mind, and it's the Pilot Parallel. Now, the Pilot Parallel are these pens that have varying nib sizes, right? So, you can get, I think they're from 1.5 to 6 millimeters. And they're kind of like ink pens, so a really weird fountain pen is the way I think of them. But you can touch two pens together and change the color of the line. And it is this super weird and wonderful thing to see. And I think that they are, if you can find someone who kind of knows what they're doing, they are a ton of fun to play with and experiment with and to fill with weird and wonderful inks and see the kind of crazy combinations that you can come up with. And they're not very expensive. I think they're like, I'm looking at Colt pens right now, like 10 pounds on Colt pens. Buy a couple of them. You could get some exalted in cartridges as well. You can go to town and have, these things are a lot of fun.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Did you know Ana has a super special Pilot Parallel?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes, I have seen this actually.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Can you tell us about that, Ana? Because I'm totally in love with what Brian from Red Dragon Pen Co. did for the Parallel.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Yeah, I heard about these during the DC pen show. And basically, I mugged him in the hallway to get one. Actually, I think I have two. I got two of them from him. And he had created like a resin barrel bodies for the parallels. So basically, you can twist out the nib unit from a, you know, he pulls out the nib unit from the plastic body that was originally made. And he made these beautiful, you know, turned resin bodies for them. And the bodies are much shorter. So they'll actually fit in a regular pen sleeve or pen case. But yeah, they're extraordinarily cool. And every time I mention it, he gets contacted by like, you know, dozens of people being like, when can I get one? So let's mention it again.

'''Ana Reinert:''' So yeah, Red Dragon Pen Company.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. But that's not on your list. And I almost put this down on my list. So I'm glad you did. So what do you have for this category, Ana?

'''Ana Reinert:''' Oh, so my category for the experimentalist is the new Pinnider snorkel filler. It looks completely bizarre. But it's one of those things that it's like, if you're trying to blow somebody's mind, this would probably do it if they haven't seen it yet. But it is a little device that can be attached to a converter. This is so cool. And then it's like a long, it's basically like the long needle tip so that you can get into your ink bottle. And then just suck up the ink into your converter. And yeah, it's supposed to like give you a complete fill. And so you don't get as much of that air bubble issue that you get when you're trying to fill a converter from your nib into an ink bottle. And it's also going to let you be able to get into the corners of all of those jars, you know, particularly the sailor ones, which are impossible. Those little flat sailor bottles. And it's not very expensive.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm 100% in.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Yeah, totally. But my other option was to try out the pencils for pen lovers from CW Pencils. I believe someone we know put that set together.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, it was me. I know that guy. It was me. I did it. I did it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Myke, the lover of wooden pencils. Yes. No, I did put that list, that group together. And I'm really happy with that group of pencils, especially for someone who has not tried pencils before. And, you know, it's one of those things you always kind of, after you make up a kit like that, you always want to revisit it, you know, a year or two later. And this one holds up really, really well. So, awesome. Thank you for including that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' For my experimentalist, I like vacuum fillers. And I didn't want to go as deep as, like, Conid or, like, a Pilot 823 because they're very expensive for that, especially for gift giving. But the Twisby Vac Mini gets absolutely no respect. And I think it's just a feat of engineering. To have that filling system and that small of a pen and for it to work that well, it continuously blows my mind. It's one of my favorite little Twisbys. And it's just such a cool little pen. And the body is clear. So, you see the vac working. And, you know, you can see all the internal. So, I thought that was cool. I also added the Tech Accessories Coaxis Rail Pen, which is a pen that I like. This is a very specific to me pen. But if you're looking for something weird and, like, you have a friend that's, like, an engineering-type person or, like, a builder or likes to put things together, this is such a uniquely designed pen. It's definitely not for everybody. It's definitely kind of a risk purchase to buy. But if you know someone who likes kind of odd, weird, you know, fidgety-type things, the Coaxis Rail Pen, it works for me. I have a traditional grip, traditional tripod grip. So, being a rectangular-shaped barrel, you have to have a specific grip to hold it well. So, it's super particular. But I think it's super fun if you want to take a chance and a real risk buying a gift for someone.

'''Ana Reinert:''' That thing is, like, crazy Lego-looking, like, metal Legos.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It works so well. Like, we have a category later that this would fit into well. So, I might have to mention it again. But it's shockingly good for me. And I definitely know that it's not for everybody. But, like, if you see this and you say, oh, that would work. Oh, you know, Tom or Kate is, like, really into this really weird building stuff. You know, like, to see how things are put together or see unique ways to solve a problem like writing. Well, this might be that type of pen for a gift.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right, let's take our first break and talk about some whether you should be going to buy the gifts for the fountain pen or rollerball or ballpoint pen lover in your life. Pen Chalet. They have all of your favorite brands. They do fantastic deals all the time. We have some deals to talk about later on. They do fast and reliable customer service. That is so important to Pen Chalet. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. They want you to be able to go to them and buy the high-quality stuff that you're looking for and feel happy about it. Pen Chalet do free shipping in the U.S. on orders of over $50. And they have great shipping rates to sell internationally as well. They don't just have pens. They also have accessories, carrying cases and refills. And they do ink and converters and so, so much more. And one of the reasons you should always be going to Pen Chalet is because you can always get yourself a discount that helps support this show. You go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. And there's a link at the top of the website that says podcast. You tap that button and just put the password penaddict in. This is where you will get a 10% code to save on anything at Pen Chalet at any time. So you can always go there, grab that code, and you can get yourself a discount. But as always, we do have some special offers. And there's a large selection of things in there this week. There's a few Retro 51s that have caught my eye for great prices. There's a couple in there that I'm super surprised to see. As well as just some wonderful fountain pens as well. I know there's some stuff that we've been talking about on the show in the past that I think people will get a great kick out of. So you just go to penchalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Hit that link at the top of the website and use the password penaddict. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for the continued wonderful support of this show and RelayFM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This list is always great. This is one of the deepest, most thorough penaddict sales page lists I have ever seen. There is a lot of interesting stuff in here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think Ron has covered quite a wide gamut on this one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so this kind of has something for everyone. Definitely well worth checking out. That's a huge list. I'm going to have to go back through there myself because I'm surprised to see some of these things on here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right, should we move on and talk about The Writer? So Brad, what is The Writer?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So one of the reviewers for the penaddict, Sarah Reed, is about to have her first novel published. So I've learned a lot of her reviews over the years have been focused on her writing and NaNoWriMo. And of course, a bunch of people in this space, like Les at Comfortable Shoe Studios, really write a lot. And our friend Harry Marks, who we met at CW Pencils, has a podcast about authors and things. So there's just so many traditional writers that listen to The Penaddict, read The Well-Appointed Desk, pretend Myke exists, and write stories about his beards, that they need places to put all of this knowledge and all of these stories that they want to tell and things to write with. So I thought, you know, maybe I'm not the best person to answer this, but I see all of Sarah's posts, and she always has just like these crazy systems for writing. So I thought maybe we could maybe take a stab at finding something for the writer. So what do you have, Anna?

'''Ana Reinert:''' Well, I just recently discovered the new Endless Recorder, Tomoe River Notebook, which is a slightly smaller scale. It's only got like 160 pages of 68 GSM paper, but it's still, you know, an A5 size, Tomoe River, nice, you know, PU leather. Just very cool, very reasonably priced. Everybody loves Tomoe River.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' As we can tell by Brad's selection as well, I went the opposite. I went big. 496 pages of Tomoe River in the Elia Note, which is a notebook I just got. And I'm very impressed with it so far. It comes in this really nice slipcover. You know, you can get a blank line or dotted. It's a little bit more expensive than the Endless Recorder, but you do get more pages. Although it is the thinner page. It's the 52, I think, is the thin page thickness. But getting a lot of space to write. I've watched Sarah fill up these notebooks left and right, you know. So I figured something with a lot of pages might be something cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So where I think Brad has maybe picked something for you to actually write your novel into, my thinking was that depending on, you know, you may be writing it on paper, you may be writing it on a computer, like whatever it is that you're doing. There are also things that happen which aren't necessarily in the text, you know, like ideas. So maybe you want to do some plotting and some planning for where the book's going to end up going. And I would say that a nice format for that would be the Field Notes front page, like reporter notebook style. So you've got like long pages with you, but they're short. So they could sit quite easily next to the notebook that you're using to actually write the book into. And you've got like an extra space that can be very easily put into a jacket pocket or into a backpack. So you've always got something with you to write down your next great quick idea.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Anna, I got to give it to Myke. Like that was a smart pick right there. Thank you. Accessory, the accessory to the writing is just as important, right? Because there's always small bits and tidbits, especially when putting together a novel. I can't even imagine what some of these layouts look like for planning. So yeah, great choice by you, Michael Hurley.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Yeah, I totally agree. And it made me think of David Sedaris, who he's sort of talked about it in interviews and stuff that he actually like carries a notebook with him everywhere. And he will write down snippets of conversations, things that he sees out in the world. And I think the front page would be a perfect notebook for something like that. If you're, you know, that whole out and about in the world, and you see something that you want to capture, some snippet of conversation, the way someone looked, like all those little details that go into writing a novel. I think that'd be perfect. So yeah, Myke wins that category. Good pick, Myke.