Editing The Pen Addict 76/transcript (section)

== Fountain Pen Lists ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So how do I, if I had just one single top five fountain pen list, I think people would kind of look at that list kind of cross-eyed saying, I don't even know what these pens are. I don't think it would be that useful, I guess, to readers of The Pen Addict if I just had a straight, what are Brad's top five fountain pens? So I tried to separate them into, and I really, I had trouble coming up with a name for this. And, you know, I'd love to hear some feedback on this. But I have, I've broken into two lists, the top five fountain pens in the easy to buy division and the top five fountain pens in the hard to buy division. And those aren't really accurate names. I didn't want to say, you know, beginner or beginner and expert because I didn't think that was fair. I didn't think that was accurate. I don't want to say common and uncommon because that's not really accurate either. So I was having a hard time coming up with those actual list names. So I went with this and I explained the easy to buy list is what people, readers of The Pen Addict are going to recognize as the more common or readily available fountain pens. Like if you look at most online vendors or most stores or most any other shops, these are the types of pens that they're going to have easily available for you to test out, try out, and purchase. And then the second list, the harder to buy division is it's not that the pens are hard to come by or even hard to use. It's just I wrote that you have to take, there's some extra things you need to take into account when looking at these pens. This is actually the list of pens that I use more than most. So these pens include like, you know, the Pilot Falcon, which has a flex nib. It's a very specialized flex nib on it. And that's not something I just want people to go out and buy without doing research. So I wanted to try to clarify that and separate those two lists for those types of reasons. You know, I've talked for months about my Pilot Custom Heritage 912 with a PO nib. That's one of the most, that pen's pretty much always inked up and in use by me. But I wouldn't want someone else to go out and buy that PO nib without doing tons of research and even, you know, trying one. So I had a bit of a challenge trying to segregate that. I didn't want a list with just these exotic things that I use. I wanted more of like a regular person's list that, you know, when people come to me for recommendations, you know, I can talk about, here's a good list of fountain pens for you to look at. These are, you know, great quality, well-designed, well-built, perfect functioning fountain pens that, you know, anyone can use. And then, you know, once you get a little bit of experience and you decide that you like these things, but maybe you're looking for something a little different, then you look at this other list and say, okay, let's talk about, you know, what are the differences between, you know, the Twisby 580 that you recommend now and, you know, the Pilot Falcon. You know, why would I consider those type of pens? So that's the kind of conversation I want to have. I didn't want to just, you know, have all these exotic pens out there and people would just be looking at it a little bit oddly. So am I making sense in what I'm trying to accomplish there? Do you think I accomplished that task?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I get it. It's difficult to distinguish. Like I was trying to think, could you call it beginner? Well, no, it's not beginner. You know, it's difficult. It's difficult.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Yeah, I had a hard time coming up with the names. I didn't want to – beginner and expert were scratched off the list pretty quickly because that's not really fair. It doesn't work. No, it doesn't work for what this is. So I was trying to – I don't know. I still – those names might change. I had a challenge, and common and uncommon didn't really work. So I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what the people say. If there's – maybe it makes complete sense as it is, and we'll just leave it as it is. But so in breaking up these lists, I kind of had – I don't know. You'll see. I'll go through these lists real quick, and we'll see. Like in the top five fountain pens, which I used to just have a top five fountain pens list. Let me pull that up real quick, Myke. And so I can tell you what the previous list was. I'm sorry here. I was not prepared for that. But I said I better save this list off just in case I need to go back to it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You need to find a special place to store it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know. I need an archive. Archive. So the old list, top five fountain pens was Pilot Banishing Point, number one, Lamy 2000, TWSB 540, Pilot Pereira, and Kaweco AL Sport. All right. So now the new list, the new top five fountain pens easy to buy division list is kind of the replacement for the old general top five fountain pens list. So I had a new number one, which is the TWSB 580.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Now, you've not reviewed this yet. I have not.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Every time I update my top five list, I realize how many things I haven't reviewed yet, and it's kind of embarrassing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Have we even spoken about the 580 on the show?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, plenty of times. But you own one? Oh, yeah. I've owned one since the day it came out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, yeah. Of course.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I just don't. I mean, for whatever reason, I just forget to review things sometimes. And a lot of it's because I'm using it all the time, which you would think that would remind me that, oh, I might want to review it. But I guess the more I use it, the more I think I've already reviewed it or something like that. I don't know. I can't explain it. But every time I do these lists, I always find a whole list of things that I haven't reviewed yet. And it's usually like the number one or number two things that I'm recommending. So I will be reviewing that soon. But you can look at the TWSB 540 review that I've done. And I'll get a link or you can grab it. It's kind of similar. It's kind of similar. But the thing that I found about the 580 and why I put it at number one is it comes up in every conversation about fountain pen recommendations. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, whether you're looking for a low price fountain pen or willing to spend a decent amount of money on a fountain pen. The TWSB 580 comes up everywhere. So, for example, for a beginner, if they're wanting something like a Lamy Safari or a Pilot Metropolitan, those are, say, $15 to $30 pens. You can get the TWSB 580 if you're looking for something. You know, maybe if you're a very, very, very beginner, maybe the 580 is not for you because you have to. It's a piston filler. So you have to have a bottle of ink. If you're just wanting to take it easy and just use cartridges, you know, the 580 is not for you. But if you're wanting to have kind of that full fountain pen experience with the fountain pen bottle ink, the TWSB 580 and the price point and the quality of the pen, it's completely the way to go. So it works well for beginners. And then even so, the beginners who haven't gone with a TWSB at first and have like a Lamy Safari and they're wanting to, you know, ramp it up a little bit. Well, they might start looking at like one of the Pelican steel nib pens or one of the Sailor steel nib pens. And both of those are, you know, between $100 and $130. Well, when you compare that to the TWSB 580, it's hard to justify buying those more expensive pens. Sure, there's little things that set them apart. But for almost half the price, buying the TWSB 580 just seems like the right thing to do. It's that good of a pen that it basically, it can play up to the next price point level easily, if that makes sense. I mean, it feels and looks and is designed and performs like a pen that's probably twice as expensive. And it always seems like I have one inked up and handy. You know, I never just let that pen sit by and collect dust. I get total enjoyment out of using it. I love the design. I love how easy it is to clean. I love the piston filling mechanism. I love the nibs on the 580. The build quality is great. I love the looks. There's really, I don't have a knock on this pen at all. It's also, you can also swap out the nibs on it, which I have for my 580. I have an extra fine steel nib. And then I have a 1.1 millimeter stub nib that I just switch out whenever I feel like it. So it's almost like two different pens in one. I can just unscrew the nib unit and pop in another one. That was like $25. So I basically got two completely different pens out of the same pen barrel by switching out the nibs. So when I was putting together this list, it seemed like a no-brainer that that was going to be my number one pen. It's a pen that everybody can use from very beginner fountain pens to the most expert of expert fountain pens because you can do some modifications to it. Like my friend Thomas, since it does, you can swap out the nibs on it. But he has, you know, pilot nibs that have been made to where he can put in a Twisby and things like that. So it's got all the toys and bells and whistles that, you know, expert fountain pen users or fidgeters or people who like to play around can do things with the pen. But at its most basic level, any beginning fountain pen user will find it to be wonderful, I think.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So now, you don't have a 580, right? You just have a 540?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I can't imagine that there's enough of a difference that, you know. They're very similar. Yeah, I love my 540.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, there's a few minor cosmetic and functional differences. The 540's had a cracking problem in the section. So the 580 kind of fixed that with a little chrome piece for durability and things like that. So yeah, like before the 540, what did I say? It was third on my list to begin with. The 580 is basically the next model of that same pen. So it basically went from number three to number one, which isn't that big of a jump if you think about it. But it's just a different model number than the previous version. And it's just an all-around great pen. And I think, I don't know, I think everyone should own one. It's an awesome pen. Because then after that, you start getting into, you know, like the Lamy 2000. That's an, I recommend that pen. And number three, the Pilot Vanishing Point. I recommend those pens all the time. But they're getting up into that $140, $150 level. And that's past the comfort level that a lot of people are willing to go to. So something like the TWSBI 580 kind of fills that need. Even though it's a steel nib pen and the next two are gold nib pens, the 2000 and the Vanishing Point.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The fourth one is the Kaweco AL Sport, which is, it's kind of hard to beat that pen for any pocket fountain pen. So we'll see how the Franklin Kristoff Model 40 compares when I get it. And then the fifth one is the Lamy AL Star, which this is just another, it's a pen I can't get enough of. And it's just a very basic pen. And you could substitute the Lamy Safari here too. I mean, they're essentially the same design. I just like, I like the aluminum body a little bit more. It's just a little bit cooler. I like the all black one that came out this year. I like that. And I love the Lamy nibs. They're just very, very good, very good functional pens. So that's the top five fountain pens in the easy to buy division. So then I separated out another list. And these are the pens that I use. Let's see. Out of the top five easy to buy division, I have every one of those pens inked up right now and in use. I say that because in the harder to buy division, I have all these inked up to minus one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Actually, minus two. I'll tell you about that. Minus two. But these are the ones that I tend to reach for personally first. So I have the Pilot Custom Heritage 91.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's an extremely good value pen. Kind of like it's basically the TWSBI 580 of the 14 karat gold nib pens. But the kicker is it's Japan only. So that's kind of why I put it in this division. And I hope that makes sense on why I'm separating these. You know, a lot of people aren't comfortable with either buying it directly from a vendor in Japan. Or like me, I bought mine secondhand off a message board, the Fountain Pen Network classifieds. It was practically brand new. I think I paid $90 for it. But it's only, gosh, in the low hundreds. If even that, I think you might can get it under $100 directly from Japan from some of these vendors. And the build quality and quality of the nib, it's unparalleled for the price. So that's why I wanted to put it on this list as the number one pen in this division. But the kicker is you're going to have to hunt it down. You know, no vendors carry it. That, you know, or regular, you know, vendors on our show that we talk about. Jet pens, Colt pens, Goulet pens, all that. No one carries this pen. But it's very common in Japan. It's kind of almost like an entry level pen in Japan. And you can find it from different vendors and things like that. It's a fantastic pen. The Pilot Falcon, which is my number two one, it's actually more available here in the U.S. Like I know Goulet carries it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But it's a flex nib. So I don't want people just running out and say, well, Brad said the Pilot Falcon's good. And they spend $200 on this pen and go, what's this nib? So each one of these pens has a little thing about them that you kind of got to be aware of. But I've gotten used to them. And once you kind of go down this path, you're really kind of off the deep end and you're kind of figuring out these things that you like. Like the Pilot Falcon, it's an amazing nib. I mean, it's really all about the nib for that pen. And it writes in a super fine line. And the flexibility of the nib, it makes the line a little bit broader. And it's beautiful. And it uses like real shaded inks with it. It's really cool. The third one is the Edison Beaumont. It's actually real easy to purchase.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' A lot of vendors carry this model. I happened to get a limited model, which is the limited stealth version. They made, I don't even remember, 100 of them or so. 140. I can't remember the number. It's a fantastic pen. Actually, the first time I tried it, I wasn't crazy about it. There was a model called the Edison Pearl that's a little bit larger. And I thought it fit my hand a little bit better. But once I got this Beaumont, I figured out that it really fit my writing style better. It was a better fit in my hand when I was actually writing. So, you know, the Edison, it does a production line pen, which you can get from places like Goulet pens or Anderson pens. And there's like maybe five colors with, I don't know, five or six different nib styles. Then directly from the Edison site, they do a signature line where you can just go through their whole collection of acrylics and barrel materials. And you can design this pen any way your heart desires, pretty much directly through the Edison site and from Brian Gray. So, that's a very cool pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It still always confuses me that his name isn't Brian Edison.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know. I have to think about it every time I say it. Same thing like the Parker 51. I really have to think about saying it because I got myself saying it. It's just one of those things that sticks in my head where I would say Pilot 51. It just sounded normal even though it's like so wrong it's embarrassing. The fourth one is the Custom Heritage 912. And that one is on the list because it comes with the PO nib, which is the posting nib that I've reviewed and raved about. It's just a really firm, fine nib. You're not going to really find anything like that. It's a really unique nib. And there's probably other pens that come with a similar type nib. The 912 is the easiest one that I could find and the one that I tested out and the one that I love. And then the Pelican M405. It's, I don't know, it's an amazing pen. It's just, it's very expensive in relation to, say like the Pilot Custom Heritage is very expensive compared to, the 912 is much more expensive than the 91. And there's still, you could buy both of those cheaper than you could buy the Pelican M405. But there's just something about a Pelican. And, you know, I suggest anyone that's looking at them and balking on the price, you just got to, one of these days you'll just have to try one. And Myke, it was a good idea. You didn't pick any of them up at the London Pen Show probably. Because that was my opinion of them. Looking at the price and looking at the style, I was, turned off isn't the right word, but they weren't really on my shopping list until I tried one. My friend Thomas, my enabler, you guys all called me, call me the enabler. Thomas is my enabler. He sent me a handful of Pelicans and I fell in love once I started using them. It's, it's hard to explain. I wish I could explain it in words, but I can't. Um, so yeah, good job by you not picking one up because then you'd really be broke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I'm staying, I'm staring clear at that for the time being, I think.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So those are the two new top five fountain pen lists. Um, you, you good with that? You, um, any questions on those lists or anything?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, no questions. Okay, good.