Editing The Pen Addict 377/transcript (section)

== Accessory Focus ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' On the accessory side of things as opposed to the pen side of things.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. Oh.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. Okay. Fine. Yeah. Fine. Interesting. All right. Yeah. Something to look out for, I guess. Emile asks, I've always liked Sharpies on markers. I've gotten into huge trouble when I wrote in a blue marker for the entirety of my fifth grade class. Emile, I'm so with you on this one. I love Emile. I wrote in like a pink gel ink pen. One of those Pilot V5s, I think. I found them in like pink and purple. Oh, no. What's the disposable fountain pen that they make? Who? Is it Pilot? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Varsity. I mean, they make the Varsity. Yeah. I don't think it's called that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' In the UK. But like they're plastic and they're just disposable. And I could get them in a bunch of colors. And I used to write in pink and purple pen. I used to get in so much trouble for that. I wrote my English coursework in it. And then they photocopied it and sent it to the exam board. Right. So it'd be in black and white. I just love that color so much, says Emile. Even the scoldings and the F grades couldn't stop me. You go for it, Emile. You stick it to them. Anyway, I recently bought some Secura Microns and they're amazing. Archival ink, good colors, and they work superbly with watercolors. So I tried to write with them and here lies the rub. None of the markers and Sharpies have the ergonomic shapes my fountain pens have. Are there any pens like Secura with a proper grip section and little bulkier bodies? Don't say Parker 5th generation because F that, apparently.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Do you remember the Parker 5th? No. We talked about this years and years. This is probably like five years ago in our seven-year journey. It's the really expensive Parker barrel where you buy that fake fountain pen nib where the plastic tip drawing pens nib sticks out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, my God. I remember this look.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, my God. This pen. So Emile is super accurate, right, in that statement. Did one of us try this? We got one for review. I think I got one for review and I don't even think I could bring myself to do it. I either sent it to Jeff or we didn't review it. I can't even remember if it's even on the site right now. It's been so long ago. Yes, it is. It is. Did Jeff do it or did I do it? I might have done it now that I think about that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Sebastian Morissette?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Yeah. I didn't think I did it. So Sebastian from Canada. Yeah. He's still around. Yeah. He heard us talking about it and he said, let me write this for you because it's not good.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's just like it's it's just a bad idea. Like it's just a bad idea. Like I don't know what they were thinking at the time. But then again, like Montblanc sells fine liner refills for their three, four, five thousand dollar barrels. Right. So people buy those types of things. This was just not a good idea. So to answer Emile's question, there's not a great answer. Like the standard art and drawing pens all generally have the same secure pigment micron shape. Right. The cheap plastic barrel with very little grip room and certainly not the most comfortable thing to write with. The Copic SP multi liner is your biggest upgrade. And I don't just mean in barrel. I mean in price. They are ridiculously expensive, albeit refillable. They're like 10 bucks a pop. And you get an aluminum barrel and you get a wider diameter, which will help you if like the the microns too thin. That's also not only is it not a well designed barrel, it's not a wide barrel. So you're kind of getting the double whammy in that grip section. The Copic is at least wider.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Outside of that, you could hack in the Montblanc fineliners, but then you run into the colors issue. Like I think Montblanc, it might only come in black. I don't know if it comes in blue at all. And that fits into other pen barrels that fit that refill shape. I can't recall it off hand, but like I know a bunch of Kickstarters have used that refill. Like Prometheus did a whole pen around just that specific refill. So you can find some pen barrels that'll fit that Montblanc fineliner, but you're not going to get your oranges and purples and really cool colors with that either. So it's not a great market for what you're looking for. And I'm kind of with Emil, like I would love to have a better barrel for some of my drawing pens that I enjoy so much because they just are traditionally poor. And, you know, it's just hard because, you know, people have made other pen barrels for other refills. Well, these drawing pen refills don't work like your standard pen refill. So it's a challenge. I enjoy the Copic the most just because it's a little bit wider, a little bit nicer. But I admit that it is ridiculously expensive. They've raised the prices over the past three years by like 50%. So that's that.