Editing The Pen Addict 368/transcript (section)

== Pen Materials Discussion ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Stainless steel is one of my personal favorite pen materials. Like aluminum and titanium and stainless are kind of my jams. And they talked about why they don't do brass. And they didn't mention copper, but it's in the same category as brass. It's too heavy and it's too soft. And you wouldn't sell enough of them to like make it worthwhile. Well, I was talking to them about it as well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's like we were talking about all the materials that they could have used. And ultimately, some of them make no sense because you're covering it. Yeah. There's no point doing brass if you're going to cover it. Right. Because people like the way brass looks, right? Right. If you're going to PVD cover. But like is it even like looking at either titanium or stainless steel? Yeah. You're better off going stainless steel. Because you get most of what you want, like the weight and the strength. But if you're going to cover it with PVD coating, it doesn't matter what's underneath as much. It's like the same as they go with aluminum for the regular one because they're going to set or coat it. Right. So the material that's underneath the coating, it just has to have some of the properties that you want. It doesn't need to be the best material. Or like I'm not saying stainless steel is a great material.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, yeah. It's one of my favorites. But you don't cover brass and copper because they patina. And the purpose of those pins is that their characteristics change the more you use them. Right. And they look better the more you use them. You don't cover that with something to not do.

'''Myke Hurley:''' In my opinion, like brass and copper have no other benefit really. Because you can get stuff that's heavy. Right. Sure. And whatever. But like it's the color changing. And if you like it, the smell.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And I mean, people like the copper because of the antimicrobial properties. You will actually get a few things. But that's edge case stuff. Right. That's edge case stuff. So I love the logo. Honestly, that's probably the PVD coating and the logo sold me. As much as I love stainless steel, I love that little logo. It's the shininess for me. The little landing module logo is dope. I said in our show notes, I need a t-shirt with that on it, please. Dan and Tom. Oh, yeah. They should do that. Because I think Dan drew it. So. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So. And like the timing was great for me. Right. I was on vacation last week, which we're about to dig into like what I use for a travel kit for that. And one of the stops in Florida was at the Kennedy Space Center. I won't go as far as saying it was like life, a life changing experience. But like we did things like go to Key West and swim in the clear blue waters and like have awesome beach time and really cool stuff. And I'm not sure I took more out of this trip than our visit to Kennedy Space Center. And I think my wife would agree with that. It really knocked our socks off just in the size and the scope and importance of what NASA and the space program has meant to this country. And like it really hit home with us on that visit. Like we're of the age. Like our kids didn't get as much out of it as us because they don't know the space program like we do. Right. And I'm not a space nerd by any stretch. Like I don't listen to Liftoff, our wonderful podcast on Relay FM with Stephen Hackett and Jason Snell. Like I don't get into that level of nerdery on the space program like a lot of people do. But I get it. Like this, it was like an eye opener trip. And it was, it was fascinating. And we got to see the Fisher space pen display at Kennedy Space Center. They talked about like all the different models of pens and things that the astronauts use. And I took some pictures of that. So that was cool. And, you know, after the, I hadn't listened to the podcast 13 Minutes to the Moon, which is done by the BBC. I don't know if you've listened to that, Myke, but it's a really neat podcast series about the Apollo 11 mission. So like all of this lined up together perfectly for me to like back this pen and go to the space center and do all these things. Like I'm eat up with space right now. So it's kind of a good time. If you're a space space fan, it's a good time to be alive and getting to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. So it's pretty cool.