Editing The Pen Addict 223/transcript (section)

== Wooden Pencils ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Before I get to that, I want to talk about that. I did add the top five wooden pencils. That was one I wanted to have more of a range for as well to understand what makes a good pencil. So I've been using pencils regularly for probably the past year or two. But I just had the Blackwing 602 and the Tombow Mono 100 for the most part. So I wanted to get some more pencils in, kind of broaden my horizons until I was able to talk about that. So I didn't want to just put something straight away that I'm going to have to totally revise the next time I do it because I've gotten more experience with it. I wanted to go ahead and have that experience before I commit to putting out a list like this. Because like we talk about, this is a recommendations list, right? This is not a Brad's, what Brad uses every day, even though 90% of it is what I use every day. But this is where people go for recommendations. I'm looking for this X and you can look at this list and get a pretty good idea of what has stood the test of time. So back to the Optima. Kind of like the Pilot Custom 823, it's a pin I can't put down.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And when I started looking at pins in that price range for between $200 and $500, there was two easy ones. It's the Pilot Custom 823, which I haven't shut up about since I bought it, and the Sailor Pro Gear. And both of those are in the $200 range. So they're on the lower end of the price range. But they provide so much value, quality, style, feel, fit, finish, everything about a pin that you want. Those two pins have. And since that price range is so broad, those two are the clear standouts in the beginning. The third one is the Pilot Custom 912. That's a pin I've used for years. It's only now become widely available in the U.S. So that's why it finally made the list. And it's just over $200. It's $220-ish, $230-ish.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Then I was thinking about this price range. I was like, well, what pins do I have that are $300 or $400? There's a big gap right there. That's your custom pin range. Yeah. Edison, Newton, you know, Brooks, anything you're getting into there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Plus, it gets super hard to separate pins at that level. Right. Because you're at the point now where it's personal taste. Right. Because what you're buying is design. Yeah. Because you've already gone past the level of where you can change nibs up. Like the $200 to $500 range is where all the nibs are. And then like $500 plus is where it's just all about design. Would I be right in saying that? Yeah, that's fair.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's fair. But yeah, like every pin I own that's like in the $300 or $400 range is a custom pin. So those aren't going to land on the recommendations list, even though they're some of my favorites. Just because that's not necessarily a stock item. Right. It's a one-off.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And it's unrealistic for most people to really make that choice. Like, oh, I'll go five of them or something. It seems a bit. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So then to fill out that range, what other pins do I like in that price range? And I'm just absolutely in love with the Optima. You're going to see a bunch of Aurora reviews coming up on the blog. I've taken some pictures. Kenro hooked us up with a bunch of pins to review. I've already got – I mean, I've had mine since the DC show, which actually isn't that long ago. And didn't realize how exceptional the build quality and nibs are on these pins. And the biggest reason is they had a huge price drop like in the past six months. This used to be like a $700 to $800 pin. Now they're $450 to $500.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Why is that?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't really know the story, but I'm going to talk to Kenro about that. And actually, we're going to try to get – we've talked about getting the guys from Kenro on the show to talk about different things like that. So that will be a question for them that I'll have clarity on. But, I mean, that comes from Aurora, not from Kenro, right? So we'll just have to figure out what the answer is. And then the Pelican 600, which is a wonderfully sized Pelican. Like the 400 series is too small. The 1,000s are way too big. The 600 and 800 are pretty good size-wise. And that's a pin I ink up quite frequently because the Pelican nibs are so nice in those gold nibs. So, you know, that's that range. That's probably the range I use the most these days as far as the pins that I'm inking up and using all the time. And I put in the Just Miss section of that. I put in the Sailors that are like the Pro Gear but are a little bit more special, like the Black Luster and the Imperial Black, both of which I use constantly. They're just more – they're worth a mention because they're more of a one-off to the standard Pro Gear line. So, I think that's pretty much the top five in a nutshell. There's – it gets to a point where it kind of, you know, it's at the point where it just – it's kind of answers itself. There's no new stuff coming in a lot of these categories because, I mean, what's tried and true works. And there's not a ton of innovation, especially in the low end of the market, like with Pilot, Uniball, and Zebra, and Pentel. You know, we're going to start to see – I've seen pictures of a few new models out. You know, are they going to be better than what we already have? Who knows? But, you know, we'll see. You know, this is no more than two updates a year at this point to the top five pins list. I think that's a good pace for it with the lack of change in it. So, I'm very happy with the list, though. Like, it's got really good stuff on it. And it's the stuff I stand behind. It's the stuff I point people to all the time. So, I'm real happy with the list.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.