Editing The Pen Addict 278/transcript (section)

== CW Pencils ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So out of the blue, a new pack of a set, a sampler set goes up on CW Pencils, who I believe that they're going to be opening their store again soon, which I'm really excited about. I'm so pleased for them that they've been able to get all that sorted out. I'm really, really excited to see what the new location will look like.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, they're moving today. So they're shut down today. So they're moving.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm really, really, really, really happy for them. And I can't wait to see more. And the next time in New York, I can't wait to go and see their new digs. But you've worked with the lovely folk over at CW Pencils. And you've created a sampler set of pencils, which sold out immediately.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So this was really fun to do. And when Caroline and Alex first approached me with this, I was like, instant yes. It's like I couldn't reply fast enough. Like, yes, I want to do this. So, you know, I put together a bunch of pencils that I've enjoyed from my, obviously, I won't say limited, because I've certainly tried more pencils than any normal person would. But not the depths of my good friends at the Erasable Podcast, who are the true pencil kings. And, of course, my friends at the RSVP Podcast, who, Les, being one of the hosts, I just opened a huge envelope from her today with, like, 10 other pencils. Because she was talking to me online about the Mitsubishi 9850. So she sent me, like, 10 pencils that I didn't have a single one of them. So that was awesome. Thank you, Les, for sending that. So I clearly don't know everything about pencils. And I don't pretend to. But I do know what I like. And I do know how those things relate to pens and things like that. So this is a list I put together, you know, of a bunch of pencils I've tried that I really enjoy that I think other pen people would like. So that's how the list came about. You know, they had other sets together. And they asked me to do this. And they sold out of them so quick I couldn't even get a blog post up. Like, Alex emailed me. She's like, oh, my God, it's already sold out. You may want to hold off on your blog post. I'm like, yeah, okay. I will. They, like, ran out of a couple of the pencil models from the list. So, yeah, this was really fun. And I'll have a short little Q&A with them on their blog sometime soon. They're a little bit busy right now. But they've done a bunch of community member posts on the CW Pencils blog. So I'll have a Q&A I did with Caroline coming up soon for that. And you'll notice my new avatar on Twitter and Instagram. That was a picture. They needed some pictures for the blog post. So I took a new picture. And that's now my avatar because I think it's kind of fun and funny.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's carrying on the pencil theme. I think it was maybe last week we spoke about the modern fuel mechanical pencil, maybe two weeks ago. Yeah. You today published a review of one. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So this is one of those posts I enjoy writing because I got to experience the, I guess, the life cycle of a product. It's going to be perfect from the original release, which I didn't really enjoy. getting to see all the changes actually happen and then a new model come out that I do enjoy. And, you know, that's a little, I feel kind of selfish saying that, like I'm making it about me, but, you know, I get these emails all the time. I get these products all the time. They're just like, I don't want anything but your honest feedback. So, you know, when I got the first pencil a year ago, the 1.0 version, you know, from Andrew who does the modern fuel design, I told him I didn't like it and here's why. And that doesn't make him change anything, but he gets that, gets feedback from a lot of places, right? It's not my feedback. It's not important. It's like I talked before, it's the collective feedback. And he takes that stuff to heart as a lot of product designers do. So you understand what other people are using these things for, how they use it, how they feel when they're using it. And what can I do better? Like we all do that as makers, right? So he came up with the second version, sent it to me. And he, he's always been like super open, like communicating. He's like telling me everything that's going on over this past, I don't know what the timeframe, a year at least. And he's like, the list of changes he made on a steel barrel mechanical pencil is fascinating. The most fascinating thing that he did is he completely engineered his own mechanism for a pencil. That can't be an easy thing to do. Like, I don't, I'm not an engineer, or I don't, you know, know about the technical aspects of that. But just looking at what he made, it seems crazy, like what he made for that mechanism. And he has the different sizes, you know, 0.5, 0.7, 0.9. I really enjoy using this pencil. The reason why is because I fell in love with a 0.9 millimeter lead size, which I would have never bought for myself. Wait, who are you? 0.9 millimeter. Who are you again? So there's clear reasons why. Like after you do it and realize that you like it, you realize like all the things that happened that made this change in you. So for me, it was using woodcase pencils more, which we just talked about. Yeah. Yeah. You don't, you don't, you don't write a fine line with any woodcase pencil. I don't care. I mean, you can get the, you know, 4H and up.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It lasts for seconds though, right? Like no matter how much you sharpen it to, it won't last.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. Unless you're just way, way up on the hardness scale. And, you know, and I've enjoyed writing with pencils like that. Secondly, I got the stainless steel barrel for this pencil, which my original 1.0 version was aluminum. And we talked about the lightness and the balance and how people would use these pencils and things like that. Well, with a heavier pen pencil, I don't care what it is. I need to have a thicker line because of the way you use a heavier pencil. It's hard to write a fine, small, slow motion, fine line with a heavy pen or pencil. So with a heavy pencil like this and the wider lead, I just, it just kind of worked all together. You know, like the feel of the stainless steel barrel in my hand was heavy, but it was balanced and it worked better with a nine millimeter mechanism as opposed to a five where I would have this heavy pen and I'm writing really, really small like that. So then he did other things like he made a retractable tip. Like I didn't even think that was a consideration for this type of pen for someone to make. And that was the first thing I noticed when I didn't know it was, it was coming when I received the pen to test and I took it out the package and took it out the sleeve and clicked it. And I was like, Oh, the tip retracts. I was like that. I mean, that hadn't been sold right there. That's an important thing for mechanical pencil fans. So I say all that understanding that this is a pencil for very few people, you know, this is not going to be, you know, your every, every day pencil that someone's just going to grab and pick up and go to town with. But for that very specific set of people, it's going to be perfect. Just like I find the pen type B to be perfect for me, even though it doesn't really work for a lot of people. This one really works for me. It works for a lot of people though. I do say that knowing that he's got like over 70,000 and backing on the Kickstarter right now. And the last one was like 130. So he's clearly doing something right, striking the right notes with mechanical pencil fans and making a really, really quality pencil. So I enjoy this pencil. So this one's going back to him today. And I've backed, uh, I've backed the exact model that he sent me the prototype on the stainless steel model. They're very expensive. Like I really want the titanium, but I'm not paying $130 for that. So I paid, I got on the early, early bird for the stainless steel. So it was like 60 bucks, which is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination for a mechanical pencil. But I like supporting makers and I like using things like this. And, uh, I just think it's a really cool project and knowing what Andrew has put into making the product better year over year. I can get behind

'''Myke Hurley:''' that pretty easily. That's the story, right? Yep. It's what we talk about all the time. The great story,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' that great story is right there. Yep. Yep. So I have a bunch of new products we're going to talk about, but you added one in the notes that I'd actually seen a week or two ago and then forgot to put it in the show notes. So I'm glad you did. Where did you, where did you see this link originally? Uh, somebody sent me on Twitter. Okay. So this is new sailor products. Yeah. And unfortunately, a lot of the text on these pages is graphic based. So I can Google translate them, which that stinks, but you know, I get it. It's the Japanese sailor site, but they have new lineups of the 1911 and new inks. And I want to say not new pro gear slims because all the, of these seasons progress slims are available already. They've been out since last year, but the 1911s with the white caps on them, these are really new, Myke. What do you think about those? I like them. Like again,

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm not, I don't think I'm, I'm ever going to really, I don't think the 1911 is my thing. Um, I much prefer the pro gear, but this is as close as it would get for me for an 1911. I really like

'''Brad Dowdy:''' the white caps. I think it's a nice addition. Right. I mean, I said the exact same thing in refill this weekend when I was talking about sailor limit additions. I'm just not a 1911 person, but these are the best looking ones that I've seen. If I was, I mean, this has me as close to pulling the trigger on a 1911 as ever before the blue one and the, the, I don't know if that's two blues or a blue and a purple, but even the pink one is fantastic. I mean, yeah, those look great. We'll see what they're all about when they launch. I'm sure they're launching soon and it looks like they're going to have matching inks with them. It looks like they're doing some higher, I'm guessing higher ending because they're fancy packaging and smaller bottles and they'll probably charge you the same price or so. I don't know. So we'll see. We'll see how this goes, but any sailors, my favorite ink brand and looking at these color samples, it looks like a bunch of colors I already have, but we'll see. We'll see if I can mix in some new colors. I'll certainly try them, but yeah, this is Lamy needs to take note of this. This is what we talk about all the time, right? There's companies that get it right. Sailor's one of them, you know, and is it fair to compare those, you know, on an apples to apples basis? Probably not, but man, it seems, Sailor seems to make it so easy by, you know, rotating their products so frequently. They have a classic silhouette and they do cool things with it. Why can't Lamy do that? They do that with the Safari and the All-Star and that's pretty much it. So, you know, take note. Lamy's coming to Asia in a big way, so maybe we'll start seeing something. Maybe there's hope to be had. You just can't get off this horse today, can you? No. No, it's fine. I mean, it's all relative, right? It's all relative because you want to see them do well. I want to see them do well. That's all I want, right? Mm-hmm. I know. It's as simple as that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I know. It's like, I can't think of the phrase, but it's like, I mean, you just want someone to do well in spite of themselves, you know? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' How do they know when I'm traveling to sponsor the show?

'''Myke Hurley:''' They just know. They just know. Harry's are in tune with you, man. They know you. They get you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So here's my packing toiletries kit for Harry's. I use the Harry's dop kit, which is, I've had that for a couple of years now and it's held up extremely well for all the trips I take. It's fantastic. And I'm so anal retentive about forgetting stuff. When I pack, it's already sitting on my counter and I don't leave for two days because I have to put all the stuff in there. And I have a specific travel razor handle that I keep in there. I keep the Navy blue rubberized handle is my travel handle. And it's got the kit. It's got the cover on it. And then I have the travel size shave creams that I bring for that. And so I leave the big bottles at home. So they make it easy for me to travel with. And like, I'm going to look clean shaven and smell good on Friday when it's time to record at Field Notes. And that's all thanks to Harry's. Stop messing around. Get started

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I did a thing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, you've done a thing. I've been seeing through the grapevine that you have gone ahead and done what you do every year.