Editing The Pen Addict 541/transcript (section)

== Specific pen gift recommendations and categories ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So let's get into these specific items. And I kind of, you know, set up some general categories, but we can just kind of talk through them as we go. And the first category I wanted to, which is probably one of the more popular categories, just standard pens, right? The non-fountain pen category, right? Mm-hmm. The non-fountain pen. Do you know how to pronounce that? I know you reviewed one on the blog.

'''Anna Reinert:''' I'm going to go with Dre Giffel.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Dre Giffel pen. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. So they came out with this pen a couple years ago, and they did a long version of this pen. And now they, Lloyd Sturman's had a long-time relationship with Bullet Journal. And now they've made a Bullet Journal specific pen in collaboration with the Bullet Journal team that is shorter. It's got some brass, you know, kind of the twist mechanism is brass. The nose cone is brass. The barrel is aluminum. And it's just this really sleek black matte pen. I'm actually using it for show notes today because I like it so much. It's just small and compact. It's about $30, I think. The interesting thing, which is something to explore, like, down the line, it uses a Parker-compatible refill. And if you're just listening for the gift ideas, you can turn out to this level of nerdery. It's using a Parker-style gel ink refill that's a 0.5 millimeter. And we don't normally get 0.5 millimeter gels. Moleskine used one a while back. So I'm wondering who they're using, if Schmidt's making these or whatever. But the 0.5 gel Parker-style refill is back if you're interested in this. So it's really good. I'm enjoying this pen. I've been enjoying it a lot. I love the style. So, yeah, I think that would be a fun gift option for anyone who does even just a little bit of writing. It's a really, really neat pen.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Yeah, and these are the kinds of gifts that I think you could, you as a pen addict, could also give to someone who's in your family who might be looking for something that's just, like, nice and not using the same plastic disposable pen. Like, I had some coworkers who I slowly lured into our world a little bit just through, like, a standard pen or an inexpensive fountain pen that we'll talk about later.

'''Anna Reinert:''' But, yeah, and they were like, this is great. Like, I feel like it's better for the environment. I'm not throwing away a whole empty pen. I'm keeping it with me so I don't have, like, 40 gel pens laying all over my desk. I just have one really nice pen that I keep with my notebook. So if you're trying to lure other people into your world.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it definitely – it's definitely eye-catching. Kind of like what you put on this list, which you know is one of my favorites.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Yes, I put the Caran d'Ache 849, the standard ballpoint version, which was actually one of the pens that I lured someone in with because they saw that it was available in those bright fluorescent colors. And they were like, yes, I'll never lose that. It is bright green or bright yellow or whatever. She had a hard time picking which color she ended up going with. I think she got the bright, like, fluoro yellow one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. Those are really great. And these are both, like, at price points where it's a pretty good gifting price point, you know, in that $20 to $30 range. You know, you feel, like, a little bit better than getting, like, you know, a pack of, like, the Sharpie S Pen or something like that. But you're not, like, going just, like, crazy, crazy on, you know, like an expensive fountain pen. And it's safer, to be honest, right? Like, you know – or, like, we know that people are going to really, really love these pens.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Yeah, they're good quality. They look really nice. You know, I mean, even if it's the pen that someone saves just to use when they're signing important paperwork or whatever, it's a good, solid pen to have.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Anna Reinert:''' It's just really nice. So, for Myke's, should we all say it together? What would Myke recommend?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, what would Myke recommend? And so, since he couldn't join us, I thought it would be fun for us to pick out Myke's really standard, obvious answers to all of the gift guides. And at least we can agitate him a little bit on this gift guide. So, what would you – if you could pick any standard pen that Myke would – what would you guess he would put down on the gift guide?

'''Anna Reinert:''' It's not even a guess. I'm pretty sure that on the ye olde bingo cards, it was the free –

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The free square on the bingo card.

'''Anna Reinert:''' It was the free square on the bingo card.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Is the Retro 51. Absolutely. So, that's Myke's choice for standard pen gift. So, Myke had no input on these. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun as we go through this episode. Yeah, he's going to yell later. He has no idea that I'm doing this. So, I'm going to enjoy this thoroughly. So, thank you, Myke, for your input. Retro 51 is the favorite standard pen gift for Myke.

'''Anna Reinert:''' It's a good call. Lots of options.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Hey, it's a good gift. It's a good gift pen. It has made many appearances on all these lists. All right. Let's jump straight into fountain pens, which is kind of a big jump from standard pens. Like, this is a different level of thinking about what you're having to buy someone. And I'm glad you put this on the list. So, what do you have?

'''Anna Reinert:''' Well, apparently, this is unofficially sponsored by Caran Dosh. But I put the 849 fountain pen. It doesn't get a lot of love, but it is one that I feel is a good – a little bit higher end. It's not like a $20 to $30 one. It's more in the range of like $50-ish. But it has a snap cap, which is great for people who are not used to twist caps. And it's standard international cartridges, which, again, if somebody's new to pens, is a great way. And it's such a classic design. So, that was my pick.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's great. And kind of like you were alluding to, I do forget about that. And I know it's just a really good pen. And you know I love pretty much everything that CDA makes. And they make really good gift items. So, what else did you have on there? Because I think we were kind of thinking along the same lines, which happens a lot on these gift guides. It does. We are very simpatico.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Well, because – why don't you tell yours first, and then I'll explain my second one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. So, I went with kind of a couple of different price point options. And just from a gifting perspective, from a fountain pen, I think the Kaweco Sport and then secondarily from a different price bracket, the Kaweco Steel Sport are not just like two of my favorite pens. But they're two really great gift pens because they're a little bit different than your standard traditional fountain pen. Even like taking the Caran d'Ache 849, right? Just, you know, standard, full-size, traditional, you know, looking, even though it's a cool style. These are fun and pocketable. The Kaweco Sport size is just kind of like the perfect gift pen because it's not standard in what you think about a fountain pen. But functionally, it's as good as any fountain pen out there. I love them.

'''Anna Reinert:''' I find that they are – maybe they're less intimidating because they're kind of small and a little funky shaped. So – and again, with the Sport, it's plastic. So, it doesn't feel like someone has something that's like precious. It's – you know, and the steel as well. It's pretty durable. So, you can throw it in your pocket. It can get dinged around with your car keys. It's not a big deal.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I just think they're awesome. In either model. So, like the plastic, you know, the classics, the – gosh, they have so many names for, like, the entry-level ones. They're, like, between $25 and $30. The steel one, I think it's over $100. Yeah. The standard.

'''Anna Reinert:''' The carbon fibers. The collection.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. So, we'll just put in a link to a bunch of Kaweco stuff. And there's a huge range of them, and they're all really, really good. I did throw in one kind of higher-end fountain pen, just that I think is, like, a really neat gift. And it's a very traditional style pen. It's the Edison Newark, which is the shape that Edison makes exclusive to Gold Spot. I thought the Orion Nebula model from last year was, like, my pen of the year. And I don't normally do a pen of the year, but I was so impressed with this. I was like, this is my favorite pen last year. And they've continued on with this material and shape. They do some neat diamond cast type of stuff on here, and then just some traditional acrylic. So, I think it's a really good shape. This is, you know, the more advanced type of fountain pen user. You know, someone who's really into these things, that's maybe a pen that they would appreciate.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I feel like Myke went off the rails a little bit here, and I'm going to need you to tell everyone what Myke picked for this, because I'm not sure I will be able to get this out without dying.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Myke is feeling very strongly about the Montegrava Tutankhamen.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Wow. Seems like a really good starting pen, very entry-level, you know, just easing people into the fountain pen world. You know, it's not audacious or showy. It's just very clean.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It doesn't come with a coffin or a sarcophagus or anything like that. It's just a very good entry-level pen, you know, very, you know, basic display case. You know, it doesn't look like a mummy or anything like that.

'''Anna Reinert:''' No, not at all. Not at all. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's a really interesting pick, Myke. Thank you.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Myke, wow. You are just blazing a trail.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Thank you, Myke. Wow. That was a good call. Good call. So, speaking of good calls, Anna, we got to talk about our good friends at Pen Chalet, where you can find a lot of these products that we're going to talk about today. So, this episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have all of your favorite brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, and Kaweco, and are, of course, an authorized dealer. They have very fast and reliable customer service. They run special discounts twice a month, including closeout specials every two weeks, and they're always adding new styles of pens every single month. As well as the brands I mentioned earlier, Pen Chalet sells limited edition pens and all the pen accessories you ever need, like pen carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pen converters, and so much more. They have free shipping on orders over $75 in the U.S., and they sell internationally, ship internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices on high-quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So, go to penchalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password penaddict for this week's special offer. And to get the code, you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet. So, if we jump over to the Pen Chalet site, oh, y'all are going to have to go check this out when you hear this episode. I know Ron has put a bunch of stuff behind this wonderful penaddict link in there. You use the code ADDIC10 in your card to see all the awesome offers and a lot of great gift ideas, including inks, pens, fountain pens, ballpoints, and storage accessories. So, thank you so much to Pen Chalet for sponsoring Relay FM and the Pen Addict.

'''Anna Reinert:''' This is the point in the show where I start to lose money.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Pen Chalet is good at that. So, yeah, checking out that link always gets me in trouble. And I know our listeners really appreciate all the work that Ron puts in to give us all these awesome deals. All right.

'''Anna Reinert:''' What's next?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Paper. Is paper the easiest gift to give or the toughest gift to give? I always have to think about this. What do you think just in general about giving paper as a gift?

'''Anna Reinert:''' Yeah, it depends. It depends. Like, if someone is super, super choosy, it can be a challenge. If someone is willing to try something that they haven't had before and then find a use for it if it doesn't work for what they normally use paper for, you have a little bit better luck. Like, I think you and I have both talked in the past about, like, when you have a notebook where the paper really isn't fountain pen friendly, but you realize, oh, this is great for sort of using as, like, a little scrapbook or for sketching. Or I just keep it by, you know, my desk to take notes with a gel pen. Like, just being able to be a little flexible about, like, they meant to, you know, they meant to get you a gift you'd really like. So hopefully you can find a use for it. It isn't always what maybe they had originally intended.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. I think it's generally pretty easy. Probably it's not worth overthinking, right? Like, paper gifts, I think they can be good. Just like we were talking about in the beginning, you know, figure out, go look at someone's, if you can sneak in and look at their notebook stash, if you get them more of the same thing, I promise you they will be happy, right? Like, or something along the same line. So I went with a few, I went with a wild range here. I went very expensive with the plotter because I am completely enamored with mine all of a sudden. So it took me a while to get there, I will admit, on the plotter. I used an A5 for a while until I found one of the smaller sizes called the Narrow. That one really fits my style. So that's kind of a big gift. You know, it can be very expensive. By the time you add in the cover and the inserts and the accessories, it's kind of like a Build-A-Bear type of notebook situation going on here. And you could spend, you know, $200 easily on these sizes, even the smaller sizes. But I find the smaller sizes of these to be just really, really functional, more so than some of the larger sizes on that. I think one of the best gifts of the year and something I'm going to try next year myself is to do a three or five year diary, right? That seems kind of like a perfect gift for a stationary fan. And, hey, here's a diary you can use for the next three years. So Midori, I put a link to them. They have three, five, and ten-year diaries. Crazy. That's a crazy one, the ten-year one. But, yeah, three or five. And these are great functional objects. And stationary lovers will love filling this out. It's just a small, it's just like a few lines every day for however many years you want to do it. It's not as intimidating as it sounds.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Yeah, and I've heard a lot of people will use them just to sort of keep track of certain things, whether it's, you know, something that you did with your kids. Or, you know, were you, you know, on this particular day, did you have dinner with friends or that kind of thing? So it's like you're just, it's almost logging events so that you can go back the next year and be like, oh, today, this day, last year, you know, my kid was just learning to walk. And now, you know. Exactly. Like, you know, so rather than trying to document or archive all your thoughts, these are great for sort of keeping track of those little things that over three and five years can seem a lot more poignant. You know, when you see it and track back like, oh, on this day, three years ago, we had a terrible snowstorm. You know, and today it's 60 degrees outside.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Exactly. Exactly. And you get to see all that all on the same page. If you're not familiar with these, you should look at the layout of them because it is really a simple layout. And you get to see, like Ana saying, the year over year changes that you had. And I know a lot of separate from that, people will just use it as their gratitude journal because it's really like three to five lines a day. Right. And, you know, hey, I was thankful for this today. And, you know, just do that every day. And do you have something to go back and look on, you know, for inspiration down the line? Last thing, I love postcards. And I want you to make more of your postcards that you send in the Patreon members that you send out. I use your postcards to write lyrics on and send them out to friends. And I found some this year from my friend, the Dormouse Desk, when I was at the Orlando Pen Show. So I'm going to put a link into the show notes for some ink chromatography postcards that I've been using. Yeah. So they're done with, like, inks that we're all familiar with, right? Yeah. And their artwork is on the front side and use the back side on a fountain pen friendly card to send out to friends. So, yeah, it's just a cool little small gift, you know, paper gift that I think is just really, really fun to use, you know, throughout the year. You know, grab some postcards, send them off to a friend and, you know, have some cool artwork on there like that. So, yeah. So wide range of paper gifts.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Excellent. Excellent. So for my gifts this year, paper gifts, the first thing on my list is the Endless Regalia Daily Planner. So this is the Endless Paper Stationery Company has found this paper they call Regalia that they're sort of bringing in as a substitute for Timoway River. However, we've tested this paper and reviewed it a couple times. I think I did it and I think Jesse might have done it as well. Just to compare it. And it's really nice paper. They're doing their own planner this year. I'm pretty sure right as of today there may be a coupon, you know, with the whole – I don't know when this will go out with Black Friday and stuff. They were doing deals.

'''Anna Reinert:''' But, yeah. So I feel like this is a really good opportunity. It looks like a really good layout. I just thought it was a good option.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I hadn't caught the – I've been testing out the Regalia paper myself, but I hadn't seen the planner option. And that's really cool. Like, again, like the – I think planners are good gifts. Like, you know, it's something to get the year off right, you know. And I think that's very cool. So, yeah. That looks pretty cool. I'm going to check that out myself.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Cool. So the other thing that I really get a kick out of – and, again, this is the kind of thing where they've done several variations on this. I, of course, prefer the one with the cats on it. But it's the Himekuri sticky calendar. So each day is a little sticky, like a little sticky note that you can pull off and then actually put in your planner or in your journal or diary or whatever, which I found absolutely delightful. So this is one that I – you know, it's like really quickly I can put the date because I kind of just do bullet journal style. So I can just put the date at the top with a silly little kitty sticker.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I am all the way in on this. This is super cool. Yeah. I really, really like this.

'''Anna Reinert:''' There are several other designs. I think they have one that's just like big, bold numbers, which is, you know, if you want a real minimal, modern look, you can go with that design. They have one, I think, that has flowers, the cat, and I think there's a couple others. And they have one that's undated as well where it's just – you can like color in the – like it looks like an old digital clock and you can color in what date it is. So if you wanted to start today, you could. You won't have to wait until January 1st.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I'm going through this now. There is a bunch of them. I – yeah. I'm – okay.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Yeah. I missed them last year.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm making my list.

'''Anna Reinert:''' There you go. See, I told you this is the point at which this podcast starts to cost you and I money.

'''Anna Reinert:''' And then the last thing I put was if I were trying to entice someone into better paper, better, you know, just the better world of stationery, I would give them a Traveler's Notebook Starter set.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Anything that you can kind of like customize to make it yourself or make it more personal to you, which is Traveler's, even if it's just like the cover and the notebooks, it's still just like – it gives you this little bit of freedom that – I like that personal touch that the products like Traveler's and like I mentioned Plotter gives you. So yeah, I think that's an awesome idea.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Yeah, and I've just – I've never met anybody who didn't find them enticing even if they weren't paper nerds or whatever. They're like, oh, that looks really nice. Like you take that into a meeting, you look professional but kind of cool. Yeah, exactly. It's cooler than a Moleskine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' How did – they're legit cool. They're legit cool. All right. So Myke went way, way off the table here and chose this theme system journal for his paper gift. I mean it is a legit awesome journal. It's really smartly designed. I know it's kind of Myke's baby over there at cortexmerch.com. I've used it in the past. I really enjoyed using it when I do. But that is a legit great product.

'''Anna Reinert:''' Shameless self-promotion and he isn't even here.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know. I know. Don't worry. You and I are going to get to do some shameless self-promotion here later. Wow.

'''Anna Reinert:''' That's like she sells.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That was – I had to – you notice I had to pause like really hard for that.