Editing The Pen Addict 463/transcript (section)

== Uni Pizza Ovens Promotion ==


'''Myke:''' You should be able to cook restaurant quality pizza in your own backyard.

'''Brad:''' It not only does, it's spectacular, right? Like it doesn't, okay, it kind of works. It's like life-changing. That's too big of a word. But it's like, oh my gosh, this is awesome, right? It is easy to use. It's portable. I literally take mine out of a storage closet, walk it outside, pop down the legs, hook up the tank, fire it up, and I'm cooking pizzas in like a few minutes after it heats up in the L-shaped burner on the pizza stone. Our pizza stone is now lovingly flavored with lots of good pizza on there. And you fire that thing up to a billion degrees, you know, give or take a billion. And you throw a pizza in there and you cook it in like 30 seconds, and it's awesome. And it's like, this really works. It's such a cool, cool thing. So it's full-on pizza season here. We're going to break the uni out maybe this weekend and get to cooking. I just, I adore the thing.

'''Myke:''' Listeners of this show can get 10% off their purchase of an uni pizza oven, which could be up to $50 off of the uni code of 16. Just go to uni.com and use the code unipenaddict21 at checkout. When you're there, you'll also find a great range of accessories from peels to cutters to oven tables. So you can really get kitted out of everything that you're going to want to make that pizza at home. Like so many people are, especially as they're getting towards the warmer summer months. And so that is why uni pizza ovens are in such high demand right now. So go check that out for yourself and get it fast. Go to uni.com, O-O-N-I.com and use the code unipenaddict21 for 10% off. A thanks to uni pizza ovens for their support of this show and Relay FM. All right. Should we do some RSTPA to finish out today? Let's do it. All right. First comes from Miles. Miles asks, what pocket pen is the best gel pocket pen? I've been trying to use a fountain pen for years. It just doesn't work for me. And I keep coming back to my Fisher Space pocket pen, which works, but doesn't write as well as my favorite non-fountain pen, which is the Uni Ball Signo Micro 207. Is there something similar to that in a Fisher Space pen style?

'''Brad:''' So I replied back to Miles and said, do you know how hard this question is to answer? And he's like, yes, that's why I emailed you. This should not be, you know, like what Miles is looking for should not be a completely difficult thing to answer. And there's a few kind of sort of answers, but there's no, I don't know that there's a perfect answer for this. So I obviously use the Spoke Rody a lot and we ship it with the Uni Ball Jetstream refill. That is not a gel refill, but it is a, what I think is the best like Parker style pocket pen refill. Now there is the Odo Flash Dry refill, which is, it fits that. And I use those in my Retro 51 sometimes, but it's a needle tip, right? So there's an aesthetic thing that sometimes I personally can't get, get past with conical shape nose cones on pens that aren't designed for the appearance of a needle. Sometimes it just doesn't look right. Like it doesn't look great in the Retro 51, but it's, it's workable. So you can buy that refill as an option, but understand that it's a needle. It's 0.5 and really, really good gel ink. Like I love the refill, but I generally don't carry it in a smaller pen because of the needle. It's just a me thing. The Kaweco Sport and the Kaweco AL Sport have a gel refill option. It's like a 0.7 Kaweco gel. I'm assuming it's some kind of Schmidt refill, but it's really, really good. It's not going to write as fine as the Micro 207, which is 0.38, right? But this is the challenge with this. It's this weird like give and take of imperfections that you're going to have to decide. Is the format of the pen the most important thing that I like? Is it the writing experience the most important thing that I like? Because you can get into a pen like the Monteverde Poquito, which I've very, very much praised. But it takes a D1 refill. And while I like D1 refills, D1 gel ink refills, they vanish as soon as you start writing with them. Like you just literally burn through gel ink in a D1 refill. Like that's not a match that should happen. It does. Zebra sells them. They're very, very expensive. But you can get, you know, Jetstream D1 refills that are a little better or other ballpoint. But finding the best gel ink refill for the best small pocket pen, like a classic Fisher Space Pen bullet, is a really tough, tough solution to try to find. It just is. And like there's options out there. Or, you know, the chat's mentioning the Big Eye Design is a TI mini pen, but it also takes the D1 refill. Like the Poquito. Anything you can get a D1 refill. You can get a D1 gel refill. You're just not going to like the expense of a D1 gel refill. Because you will write them. You could write those out. If you're a heavy writer, you could write those out in the span of a couple of days. Because they're that, you burn through them that fast. And they're like $3 a pop. So it's not a cost effective thing. So it's just a tough, it's a really, really tough answer. So I like the Kaweco for the wider, it's a little bit wider than the Fisher Space Pen, a little bit wider gel ink refill. But I like the pocketable. Otherwise, I go with things that fit the Jetstream refill, which is good enough for me for getting that gel style of performance. Even though it's not technically a gel ink pen. It's a hybrid.

'''Myke:''' Seb asks, is Maiora pens on your radar? And what do we need to know about this Italian pen maker? I'm intrigued.

'''Brad:''' They are. As a matter of fact, I just received one yesterday that I ordered and unboxed on stream, twitch.tv slash pen addict. So yes, they intrigued me. Because at first, I was like, eh, this looks like a little bit wide. And they have this very deep concave grip section, right? That's kind of a standout feature. But you got to be sure that you like it, right? And I wasn't sure that I was going to like that until I picked up my Kusama pen, which has a similar, very deep concave grip section. I was like, oh, wow. It really goes for it, this pen. Yeah. Yeah, it definitely does. Combined with just the barrel diameter itself, it's a real standout feature. And I was like, oh, turns out that I do like that and I can work with this. So I ordered a Maiora. I have not inked it up yet. But what I learned as we were unboxing them, that Maiora was founded from employees of the former Delta company in Italy, which also shared employees with Leonardo. So people say that the Maiora pens and the Leonardo pens, you know, favor each other. Well, it's because both of those new companies were formed out of the closing of Delta. So I don't know that that's a big surprise.

'''Brad:''' The pen looks great. The price is right. And now I just need to ink it up and see what's so funny.

'''Myke:''' Come on down, Brad. Come on down and check out the Maiora.

'''Brad:''' You have to guess the price now. Price is right, rules.

'''Myke:''' $75.

'''Brad:''' Oh, no. I mean. I don't know. That was terrible. You would probably win because someone else would go $250. Yeah. No, they're like $170, $180, something like that. So they're in that $150 to $200 range that I like so much. So they're just right in there. Right in there. So, yeah, really good. So, yes, you will hear more from me on the Maiora pens. I just need to test it. So give me a little bit of time. Another pen I need to ink up, Myke.

'''Myke:''' Oh, no. How are you going to do it? Oh, imagine having more than five pens inked up. Oh. Shawnee asks, can you recommend some pencils of erasers that resist drying out and hardening? I use the Field Notes pencils that have an eraser that does well, but I'd like to mix it up.

'''Brad:''' I cannot. All erasers suck.

'''Myke:''' I actually don't agree with you. Yeah. I have one. I don't disagree with you is what I wanted to say. That's what I meant to say. Erasers on the end of pencils never do a good job. You need like a real eraser, I think, to do a good job.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. I looked through some of my reviews to see of pencils I've gone through. Like, I generally prefer, you know, like, I don't mind pencils without erasers, right? Mm-hmm. So, and when I use a standalone eraser, I'll use, you know, like a Tombow eraser. And then I went back and looked and I found my Tombow 2558 pencil review and really enjoyed that eraser. That it did a good job, which is, I don't guess, is a shock knowing Tombow make great erasers, as is. That their on-pencil eraser is pretty good, too. And that's, like, the entry-level Tombow. And it performs, like, way above and beyond, like, what an entry pencil should perform like. So, that's one I could recommend. And I think that's about the only one that I'm familiar with that I was like, oh, this is actually a good eraser, right? Generally, like, black wing erasers are terrible. And I don't even know what some of these other ones are like. And that's why I generally just scratch out. I never erase pencil. Just like pen. I'll just scratch through it and keep going. Just out of habit because it's never a good experience. But 2558 Tombow, give that a shot.

'''Myke:''' While we're talking about pencils, I will take a moment here to pimp Brad's new pencil collaboration with Musgrave. The Pencil Addict Pencil. It's available on the Pen Addict shop. I'll put a link in the show notes to it. It's a really, really good color. And the design of it's really fun. I think you did a great job here.

'''Brad:''' It came out so good. I'm very happy with it. I have not tested the eraser. So, let me do that right now. Hang on. Live testing. Let's see if it's crap. So, this is Musgrave Harvest number one. It's a reasonably dark pencil.

'''Myke:''' This is when you know you can trust Brad. He's doing it live to tell you if it's bad or not.

'''Brad:''' It's not bad. It's not great. It's average. Like, it's soft enough. But it does not, like, you can still see the graphite on the page. Because this is a dark soft lead. So, that doesn't surprise me.

'''Myke:''' I just had a similar experience using something for uninteresting reasons. But it's funny for us. I have been using a stone paper pad today. Oh, Michael. I know. I don't want to use it. But it's a format that I wanted to check out for a future idea that I have. And just, I needed some pads in a specific type of format. And Adina found one. I don't remember the name of the company. It begins with a K. And their marketing is super good. Because this was what the other thing that we were looking at is, like, the marketing of notebooks and stuff. Because I'm approaching K.A.R.S.T. Adina has provided in the chat. And their company, because their website, K.A.R.S.T. Stone Paper, is absolutely beautiful. The only problem is, they make stone paper products. Which, stone paper, if you've never used it, is absolutely horrible. I do not know what it's made for.

'''Brad:''' That's why the marketing has to be good, Myke.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. So, I was just looking it up, and then we got a couple of their products. Because I wanted to check out their overall branding and stuff like that. Because of, like, lifestyle notebook brands, they actually have one of the nicer overall branding kind of themes that I've seen. And, yeah, you're probably right. Because otherwise, what are you going to buy it for? But, like, I was using it today. And everything I tried on it, like, nothing was really that nice. Like, the Mark I was pretty good on it. But it's because the ink was, like, sitting on top of the page, which I've never seen before with the Schmidt refill. And then I was using a pencil. Like, and a pencil also did fine. I think, really, this paper is probably best of pencils. But, like... Yeah, pencil and ballpoint, that's it. But, like, I just... I don't get it. I don't really know what it provides. And it's so thick. And, like, I tear off one of the pages. And, like, you're screwing it up, and it's, like, plastic. I hate it. But I needed something in the format, and I wanted to check out their overall branding. Very nice branding.

'''Myke:''' Stone paper, though. I mean, I'm sure some people like it, right? I'm sure they do. But I cannot get on board with stone paper.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, yeah. If you're listening, just don't do it. Like, you're going to get marketed to, and it's going to look beautiful. And in the end, you will be disappointed. Like, that's the kicker.

'''Myke:''' Because it's like, I remember when we first tried it years ago, right? Years ago. Like, a long time ago. Maybe the first year of the show. We both got stone paper notebooks and tried them out. Because we're suckered into the idea that everybody else is. Paper made of stone? That sounds so interesting. Yeah, here's the thing. No, it's a bad idea. Don't make paper out of stone. Don't do it. Exactly so.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, that's rough.

'''Myke:''' And a final question today comes from Arden Burrell, who says, I got the spoke icon, and I can't get a reasonable amount of ink in it when I fill it. Am I bad at filling? I get my Safari filled up about half the time, and the only pen that I ever get every time is the Cafeco AL Sport. What am I doing wrong?

'''Brad:''' You're not doing anything wrong. It's the converters that are doing things wrong.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, I mean, there are ways to do it to get the best results. So what I'll say is the best way that I've found to fill a converter to as much as you can fill it is dunk it, fill it, empty it, and fill it without ever taking the pen, nib, or the converter end out of the ink. Because what you're doing is you're expelling the air that's trapped inside by you fill it and empty it and then fill it again. And you'll get as much as you can possibly get in that way. Because there's air in the converter. You have to get that out. And you'll hear the bubbles when you kind of empty it again. But just never remove it from the ink bottle. You still never fill it up. Like a typical converter, you'll never fill it up. And there are ways that you can syringe fill pens as a way to try and do that. But that's more hassle than it's worth, I think, for most instances, in my opinion. And then there are other filling systems that don't use converters that will let you draw more ink. But yeah, just do what I suggest. I'm sure Brad would agree with me. And you'll get as much as you can get in. And then just don't worry about it.

'''Brad:''' Myke is 100% right in that. So you put the nib in the bottle. You fill it. You do not take the pen out of the bottle. You empty it right back in. And then you fill it again. That way you're going to get like a 7-8 fill instead of like a half fill. Like trust me, when I fill up converters in pens, I'm not getting more than like a half or 5-8 fill. Right? It's just how it works. They're not good at doing the job that we expect them to do. So you have to do that double take with the converter. Just don't take the nib back out. Just, you know, draw it in. Expel it out. Draw it back in. All kind of in one move without removing it from the bottle. And you're at least going to get a better than expected fill from what you've been seeing. So there you go.

'''Myke:''' All right. That's it for this week's episode. If you'd like to send in a question for us to answer in a future episode, just send out a tweet with the hashtag RSTPA or use question mark RSTPA in the RelayFM members Discord. You can also email Brad if it's a longer question at hello at penaddict.com. Penaddict.com is where you can go to find Brad's wonderful work along with many other fine contributors who write wonderful reviews of stationary products. I've been noticing more keyboard content sneaking in there, which I appreciate greatly. That's Mr. Jeff. Yeah, I don't recommend a plank, by the way, Brad. They look really nice, but then you also have to learn a new typing system.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, it's a whole new format.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, they're very beautiful and you can get them looking real good. Or muscle memory.

'''Brad:''' It's a whole new muscle memory, I guess I should say.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it unless you want to go all in on the author typing layouts. Anyway, if you want to find Brad streaming, twitch.tv slash penaddict. Brad streams at least on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. Eastern and recently a lot more as well. Help Brad get a partner. That's what we're doing here. We're helping Brad get a partner. You can also go to knock.co and spokedesign.com as well. You can find Brad online on Twitter. He is dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M and penaddict on Instagram. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E. And hey, go pick up a subtle notebook. Go to cortexbrand.com. You can also get a journal there too. In stock. Hopefully, always in stock, forever. Reliable.

'''Brad:''' And not made from stone paper.

'''Myke:''' Not made from stone paper. Made from good, real paper. Thanks so much to our sponsors of this episode, Uni Pizza Ovens, Hello and Camera Industries. And most of all, thank you for listening. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

'''Brad:''' Goodbye, Brad.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]