Editing The Pen Addict 468/transcript (section)

== Drillog Pen Excitement ==


'''Myke:''' Did they ask for it? They asked. Did you just give it to them? They asked.

'''Brad:''' They asked for it. So hopefully, you know, this is coming from Japan to me. Hopefully, I'm going to get an early look at what they're offering for Kickstarter. That's the working plan. You never know how it's going to work out. And anytime I do get things like this and I like them, I always back them. Like this doesn't like change me from like, oh, I got my free one. No, I'm not going to back it. I always back these products. So hopefully, I'm going to be able to get some samples. I don't know exactly what they're sending, when it's going to be sent. But we have finalized our communication, ending with my address and a thank you for sending it to me. So hopefully, I'll be able to talk about them. They're like totally cool with me when I get them just like talking about them. So yeah, I'm sure that doesn't hurt their marketing efforts, having some dude that's independent, like literally fawning over their products.

'''Myke:''' So you don't usually get this excited.

'''Brad:''' I'm probably overselling it.

'''Myke:''' I don't know. You don't usually, you're pretty hyped up about this, like in a way that you're not really usually.

'''Brad:''' It's a very unique product, right?

'''Myke:''' Which is why I want it. It's like the same reason why I like the Pencho PEN XO lead holder.

'''Brad:''' Right. I like products. I like design companies who come out the gate and say, either through words, marketing, or design, that this product is not for everybody.

'''Brad:''' And that's what Drillog has done by the design of this pen. You know, they're never going to come out and say that in words. But they are committed to saying, this is what we do. So it is probably not for you. But some people are going to really dig it. And I get behind, like, that's how I think about products. Like, I'm cool with not making a singular product for everybody, if that makes sense. And I think that's what Drillog is doing here. And it just has me, like, I'm committed to, like, learning more about this. Because it speaks, oh, it's like, oh, like, this checks all my boxes, right? I was like, I'm in. And you don't get, you don't often get this in our world, right? You know, when's the last notebook that's blown your mind, right? So, like, we get some of this in pens and pen design and mechanical pencil design and, you know, ballpoint pen design every now and then. And I just find the idea and the statement that they're offering to be, like, just really, really compelling. Like, that's why I get into a product like this more so than, you know, the next Montegrappa fountain pen, which I will love to use, right? Like, I love my Montegrappa pens and, you know, I have a Mia Meteor shower and it's awesome, right? And I just thoroughly enjoy it. But, like, this is telling me a different story and that's what I like.

'''Myke:''' All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Pen Chalet. They sell the products that you are looking for from the brands that you love. They sell rollerballs, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, anything you want from brands like Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco, and many, many more. And they're an authorized dealer of all of them. They have fast and reliable customer service. They give a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their high-quality products. Pen Chalet also do tons of discounts. A couple of times a month, you'll be able to go to Pen Chalet and find some new stuff. And, of course, they have some special discounts for Pen Ellic listeners that I'll get to in a moment. As well as adding new styles of pens every single month, Pen Chalet also sell limited edition products and accessories. Pen carrying cases. They sell ink refills. They sell pen holders and cases and all kinds of stuff. Really awesome products across the board. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States. And they sell internationally as well. Great shipping rates also. So take yourself now to PenChalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. And click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password Pen Addict. This is where you'll get a 10% code to save 10% on anything at any time over at Pen Chalet. And you'll be able to check out this week's special offers. Like what, Brad?

'''Brad:''' Ooh, buddy. We got a good one in here. Sneak Attack from Ron, Diplomat Arrow.

'''Myke:''' Oh, you're a friend.

'''Brad:''' What did I just... My friend, the Diplomat Arrow. Not Myke's friend. This is my friend, the Diplomat Arrow. I would 100% order one of these if I didn't already have one on order. So I have a pre-order one from a different higher-end model because I'm already familiar with the base model, which is what this is. Price point, stunning. It's, yeah, good, good stuff on the Diplomat Arrow. They also have the Diplomat Traveler, which I have never used, but I know people enjoy that pen a lot. And it comes in, it has one of those barrel options where you have like the torch barrel and it's really inexpensively priced. It's a thinner pocket, not pocket pen, but just like a thinner barreled, smaller, like a number five nib pen, right? It's a traveler.

'''Myke:''' They have a ballpoint version as well on here too.

'''Brad:''' Yep.

'''Myke:''' But further down the page.

'''Brad:''' Yep. And then the Panider Arco rollerball, I have not tried that. It's certainly a unique looking pen. I don't know if anyone's into the rollerballs, but I like Panider's style. And I want to say one thing off the page, Myke. If you're a Visconti fan, and I know that Myke is not necessarily a Visconti fan because of the clip. I don't know what's gotten in the water at Visconti, but they are going full bore right now. I've seen so many new Visconti releases. So if you're a Visconti fan, they have a bunch of new Van Gogh style pens. They have like new, I don't know, some of their bigger models, the Opera Master. All kinds of new materials, all kinds of new colors. I am, they are tempting me with just the volume of products they're putting out in. Pen Shelley carries them all.

'''Myke:''' Looking at them now, some really nice colors there.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, it's really good. That's what, you know, I like the bright pens. And so that always stands out to me. And when I see them and every time I turn around, it's like, that's a Visconti. This is a Visconti. I was like, oh man, I'm tempted. So there you go.

'''Myke:''' Of course, you can use your 10% code to save on those. Or you can go and check out the offers we were talking about at penshella.com. Just click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict or one word. A thanks to Pen Chalet for their continued support of this show and RelayFM.

'''Brad:''' Weird little topic kind of related to Pen Chalet and to various other pen shops where you need to go shopping for these pen maintenance supplies that I just picked up. I wanted to just tell you, Myke, and the listeners a few little things that I use on a not daily but probably weekly basis to help keep my fountain pens in good shape. There's two main things that I ordered. What I needed to do is I needed to order some parts for the shipping department for spoke pens. So I keep a set of, you know, a loop, micro mesh sandpaper, brass shim in the shipping department desk, which means I don't have it at my desk in the house. So I wanted like a second set of all these things that I use. So the brass shim, if y'all don't know what this is, if you're an avid fountain pen user, even if you have just like one or two fountain pens and you use them a lot, what this brass shim does, and we'll link to all these things in the show notes. It's a lot of much shim.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. It makes like, I find it physically uncomfortable because it's almost like onomatopoeic in a way for me. Because in case you don't know what one of these things is, I didn't want to say it. It's an incredibly thin piece of brass.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Let's call it a brass sheet, Myke. Let's call it a brass sheet for your benefit.

'''Myke:''' And all I think about is how bad a paper cut you could get from one of these.

'''Brad:''' It's dangerous a little bit.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. And that's the word for some reason to me, shim, sounds.

'''Brad:''' That sounds like that sounds like a under your fingernail torture.

'''Myke:''' That's exactly what I'm thinking about.

'''Brad:''' So let's call it a brass sheet. I just wanted to clear that up for you.

'''Myke:''' Thank you.

'''Myke:''' Dangerous, these things.

'''Brad:''' But what this thing does, Myke, and you would get benefit out of this. I've used one. Okay, good. You didn't cut yourself, did you?

'''Myke:''' Mm-mm.

'''Brad:''' Okay, good. You take the corner of this sheet and you, on your fountain pen nib, it has the breather hole. Like in the middle of the nib, you stick the corner in there and then you drag it through to the end of the tip. And what it does is it cleans out paper fibers or if any other gunk has gotten in there. It's not something you need to do every time you write. But like if you're using a pen a lot, especially on poor paper that might actually get more fibers in. Like if you're at work and you're stuck using the copy paper but you really would like to use your fountain pens on that, you're going to find it at some point writing worse. You're like, why is that? And well, it's because it has this little gunk in there that you can't really see. That's what the shim does. It gets it out. I love that. That's probably my most used thing. My second most used thing is 12,000 grit micro mesh. So it's a little foam backed sandpaper board. It actually, it's such a fine grit mic. It feels like suede, right? It doesn't feel like sandpaper because you don't want to damage your nibs. You're not buying these products to like modify your nibs. But if you have a little, I don't know, lack of smoothness on your nib, like you feel a little tipping in the wrong place. And, you know, the nib is actually, you know, in good shape. It's not, you know, misaligned or crooked or something weird like that. You put a couple little drops of water on here on the micro mesh pad and just draw some lines. And you just kind of work through. I was learning yesterday, I would do figure eights and infinity symbols. And everyone's saying that's really not the best way to do it. Just draw straight lines in every directions, you know, up, down, sideways, angles, all that. Or write your name, you know, do the motions you normally make with your pen. And you just do it really lightly and just a few times. And it will kind of like knock the edge off, if you will, on the smoothness of the fountain pen nib. So it's really, really great. And the last thing, I do use a loop. You don't necessarily need a loop. But if you really get into this, it's hard, especially the older you get, like me, Myke, to see the nibs and the nib shape. If you have a real problem.

'''Myke:''' A loop is like a tiny little magnifying glass, right?

'''Brad:''' Yep. Yep. It's a tiny little magnifying glass, like a single lens thing. And it just, you can lock in on the nib and see if it's misaligned. And that just gives you some ideas. And if you're new to this and are trying to figure out, oh, my nibs do look misaligned. You know, this left one is up high and this right one is down low. What do I do? Well, a listener in the Twitch chat, Alan, sent me Richard Bender's nib smoothing workshop notes. And we'll put the link to that in the show notes today. And you can read that. It's only like 10 pages long. It's from a class that he offers at various pen shows, which, you know, when we go back to pen shows, we'll see all the classes scheduled for the week. And that's one you can go to. And it's very valuable if you are into fountain pens at all. Like, you don't have to be like someone hardcore into this to learn how the basics of making your writing experience better. And that's what these tools are that I use. I keep them at my desk and whenever I feel something weird, that's all I need to kind of make my writing experience better. And, you know, this document is a good little mini class on that. Like I said, it's only 10 pages long with images in it and it kind of gives you the basics. So it's really cool.

'''Myke:''' Very nice. I'll put a link to this in the show notes.

'''Brad:''' Yep. So like I said, again, these are like the things I keep at my desk and are used probably weekly. It's not a daily thing, but, you know, you pick something up and you say, oh, this is a little bit weird. This is all you need to kind of clear that up.

'''Myke:''' But this is one of those things, though, if you're going to start doing this, you've never done it before. Do always do less. Yes. Then you think you might want to. Yes. You can always continue working. You can't reverse.

'''Brad:''' Yes. You can get in trouble if you are overly aggressive with some of this stuff.

'''Myke:''' Mm hmm.

'''Brad:''' All right. You want to hit some ask TPA?