The Pen Addict 442/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	442
Title:	Instead I Got a Monitor Stand
Release Date:	December 30th, 2020
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 442
Audio File:	Audio Episode 442
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 442
Length:	6868 min <br />1.133 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad Dowdy: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 442. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace, Pen Chalet, and ExpressVPN. My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi Brad. Hey Myke, how are you? Good, final episode of the year. Wow. I do this every 3, 4, 5 episodes. I go, 442, good grief. And then we're going to wrap up the year. So we have all the things today. All the insignificant numbers are out in force today, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Brad, I have what I describe as best worst problem. So we have sold out the Theme System Journal again. I wasn't expecting that to happen at this rate. But what happened was what we thought could happen, which is, well, Gray was putting a YouTube video up about the journal on his YouTube channel.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: And this was intended to live there. And it can be linked to at the end of videos and stuff like that, right? Right, right. So, you know, if there's a video that is somewhat related to yearly themes, he can put that at the end of the video, right? And so Gray made a lovely, it's a really lovely video, actually, which I recommend people just go and watch for the fun of it. But we had no idea what that would do, right? It did the thing. Could it, like, mean we get 500 orders or could it be 1,000 orders or whatever? Mm-hmm. And it ended up being, it took us to, we were about halfway sold out, which was already a surprise for the amount that we ordered. And then it took us the other half of the way. So, we sold out, I don't know, a week and a bit, and now they're all gone again. And even though now I know that our production timeline is better, the end of December is a terrible time to be putting in an order for production. Yes. Right? So, we don't expect to have any now until probably March, I reckon.

Best Worst Problem

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Well, think of it this way. So, I'm going to categorize this in the best category. Now, it's not 100% in the best category. Like, there's a minimal category that's in the, minimal percentage that's in the worst category. Like, I agree with that. But it's in the best category. Because it clearly resonated with people, right? Which we knew from round one that people liked it. And by the time the next batch is ready, people are going to be deciding, your current customers are going to be deciding, do they want to continue with the product? Yeah. And they'll be able to get it because you're going to be three, there are three months, at a minimum, three months out from wanting another one. Yeah. If they want to continue with the product, and then the new people can pick it up then. Yeah. This is like 90-10 best worst.

Myke Hurley: We've had this before. Like, one of the stocks we were able to get in within a relatively good period of time, but then the rest, you know, it's kind of just been a bit of a nightmare trying to get them in. Yeah. Trying to get them made and in. That's the kicker. It's really important to me that we have them available for sale again in March for that exact reason, that people that stuck with it will want and need a new journal to continue. And then there will be some people that won't stick with it, or some people that it will take longer. Like, it takes me longer than three months. It takes me about five months to fill a Theme System journal. So, you know, there's, and then hopefully we'll be able to bring in the people that missed out the first time. And, you know, like, there is definitely a, and I say this completely honestly, an unintentional hype that is created around a product in this way, because now people that were kind of interested know that they need to get it as soon as it becomes available again, right? And I promise you, like, we ordered a really large amount of journals. I don't want to talk about the amount, because I haven't spoken with Gray about if we're cool with that. Right. But what I'll say is, we ordered an amount that was not far off of the total we have sold in 18 months.

Myke Hurley: Right. Right?

Brad Dowdy: So, up until this point. Let's be real. They weren't in stock for 16 of those 18 months.

Myke Hurley: I know. I know. Well, yeah, I know that. But then, you know, we have more that went on sale in August that didn't sell out immediately. Now, there are millions of reasons for why I think that was the case. And I think we actually have proved our thinking on all of those. But I ordered an amount that I thought, best case scenario, we would have three to four months of stock. Right. And that has not happened. I'm so thankful for everybody that has bought one. And this is that thing. It's like, best, worst case scenario. Which is like, they sold really great, which means people were excited about it. And the feedback, man, some of the feedback I have had, Brad, I'm just, I'm so into it. Like, look, there have not been no issues. Some of them have had issues. But we keep a very small amount to do exchanges if people want them. Most of the time, people don't want the exchanges. But because of the type of relationships we have with our listeners, people want to let me know if they have a problem. But we have sold way more. And I have had way less problems than we had in the first couple of batches. That's good. And everyone is like saying how amazing it is and how much they love it. And you never know. Right. Like, I never know that's going to be the case until people start to receive it. And we've got such good feedback from it. I feel really proud of it. So very, very excited. Very pleased. I'm sorry that we don't have any. Thank you if you bought one. And I'm working hard on trying to make sure that we get them in again in the time that we want. It's a freaking nightmare.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So let me. You alluded to one thing that I think listeners of this show understand, but I'm not sure the listeners of your other show would understand. Is, okay, you're trying to get to this to the point where you can pick up the phone and call the printer and say, hey, I need more of these. And like you can do that. Right. You can submit them in order today. And that's not the holdup. The holdup is, okay, you talk to the printer. They may not have the supplies you need to build these things. Yeah. They could be out of the gloom.

Myke Hurley: They told me they can get me into the schedule in February. Like, so I've already done all I can do now, which is like, hey, I want them. This is how many I want. And they go, yeah, no problem. And it's like that funny thing where I said, you know, I might want this amount, but I might possibly want this amount because I put the order in before we sold out because I could see where it was going. Right. Right. And she was like, doesn't matter how many you order, which I kind of knew would be the case, but I wanted to just see. Right. Because that's not the problem. Right. We spoke about this a bunch of times. It's getting the time on the machines is always the issue.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I think we've, over the years of this podcast, we've talked a lot about the manufacturing thing. And I think a lot of people that listen, like, understand that, like, it's not always, like, directly in your hands, you know, when you're trying to do this.

Myke Hurley: And different times of the year, you have different wait times. Like, so when I ordered them in November, they were ready to start printing the next week. Right. But for whatever reason, this is this time of year. They don't have the time. Well, you know, I imagine places taking external, like, extended vacations. There's a lot of disruptions. So, like, it's just this is the time we can get it in.

Brad Dowdy: And then they come back and everyone's getting started with their 2021 printing for whatever jobs they got to do. So, yeah, it's a busy time, I'm sure, for the printers.

Myke Hurley: All I want, all I want is just to have them in stock. It's all I want, you know. But it's, I genuinely now, like, I have no, I have no idea how many to order. I have asked them, like, provisionally for the same amount I ordered this time. I think that's exactly right. I really, I, you know, I really don't imagine that we will need more. I might do more. I don't know.

Brad Dowdy: I think this time, if it's me, like, the audience is yelling, get on with the show at this point. But I love this stuff. This is the show. If it's me, I'm ordering the exact same amount and having the idea that you thought the time frame of the original amount was going to be good for this time around.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But what I'm going to do this time, though, is I'm then going to say, book us in again. Because I can always say, no, don't make them. Right? Right. But literally, as soon as these ones are made, I'll say, get us another slot just in case. Right? Because it might be that I sell half of those. Well, then I'll want another half of that order again. Right? Yeah. Because I will then want to have enough of these in stock to run me the whole year at that point, which I think it probably would at that point. Because you'd get your second bump from the person that missed it the first time. And then we're just selling to the people that will use them throughout the year.

Myke Hurley: One of the good things of this one I didn't have with the first edition is I'm not going to make changes. So I can have them in stock. Like, when we come around to next December, January, which is always going to be our big time, obviously. Right? I'll just top up what we have in stock at that point. I don't have to worry about, like, have I sold them all out yet? Right. Because it's just a stock. Because then the other thing is, like, I could order just an obscene amount of them. But I don't want to put that pressure on our distribution partner. Right? Of just having these, like, boxes upon boxes upon boxes in their facility. So it's a balancing act of everything. And plus, I don't want to have so much capital tied up in stock that's not selling. Yep. Because we have, believe it or not, still other things we want to do. Like, me and Gray talk about this a lot. Like, Cortex brand is not just the theme system journal company. But it's literally the only product we've been able to put any development time into since we started this whole thing. So it's a real learning experience every single time. Yep. But, you know, we're just going to keep taking bets. We're just going to keep taking bets. But the good thing is, and I'll say this, like, we're able to take those bets from a good position. Right? We're not taking bets from a bad position. You know, we're taking bets on, like, we sold all those out. We met our profit margins. Which means we have enough money to order more again. You know? And to do what we wanted to do, which is to invest that money into other ideas.

Brad Dowdy: Exactly right.

Myke Hurley: Oi, oi, oi.

Brad Dowdy: It's going well. And don't let it stress you out too much. Because you got over the biggest hurdle. So it's... Yeah, I'm not as stressed. It's not all smooth sailing from here. But it's in... You're in a better position than you've ever been with this book.

Stress Over Sales

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I was super stressed before these went on sale. Like, super stressed. The most stressed I've been about it since we first introduced it. Right. Now it's kind of just like, no one's giving me any trouble. Like, people were just, like, asking me, like, hey, when's it going to be? And it's like, okay, like, maybe, like, March time. And they're like, yeah, okay, cool. And then they just put their name on the mailing list. And if they still want it by then, they'll get it. If they don't, they won't. But my hope is that there'll be people that will still be using it. And they'll go for it. So, wild. Freaking wild. All right. Let's take our first break and thank our friends over at Pen Chalet for their support of this show. They sell the best products that you're looking for from your favorite brands. So, if you want rollerballs, fountain pens, mechanical pencils, ballpoints, inks, carrying cases, pen holders, refills. No matter what you're looking for, Pen Chalet have got it. And they sell products from your favorite brands, too. Pelican, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco, Pilot, Lamy, Monteverde, so many more. They're always doing great discounts. They're doing specials all the time. Every couple of weeks, you can find more fantastic discounts over at Pen Chalet. As well as new styles of pens, new products. Every month, they're adding new stuff in there. They have fast and reliable customer service. And they do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the U.S. They also sell internationally with really great shipping rates and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So, go 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 use the password PenAddict for this week's special offer. And to get you the code that you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet. What's piquing your interest?

Brad Dowdy: I have a little business-y anecdote first before I get into this page. So, every month, Pen Chalet is one of my blog sponsors as well. So, every month, I write a thank you post or, you know, just like a little, you know, quick hit advertising post for the sponsors. And I was doing, writing up the Pen Chalet and they're in the midst of their year-end sale.

Myke Hurley: Mm-hmm.

Brad Dowdy: I stopped before I got to the end of the scroll. There was so much stuff. Yep. It just kept scrolling and I finally just had to give up. It was kind of funny.

Myke Hurley: They weren't anywhere on the site at the moment. They have their inventory reduction sale for the end of the year. Ron did want me to mention that, actually. So, thank you for doing it.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, one of the items that was in both sales. So, we have our special Pen Addict sale page, which gets you an additional percentage off. They have one of my all-time favorite pens. And I've talked about it before because Ron will put it on this page every now and then. And it's not a fountain pen. It's the Pilot Ageless Ballpoint. It is this really unique Pilot barrel that it's like way over half off. And it's just this cool, pocketable ballpoint pen. The way the mechanism works is cool. It's like this little twist-out mechanism that puts out the entire nose cone, not just the tip of the pen. It's a really, really unique and fun pen. It's very inexpensive, you know, related to most pens. You know, it's like essentially about the price of a Retro 51. And then you just scroll. I mean, there's a Momento Zero in here. There's Pinnider Avatars in here. There's Diplomat Arrows in here. Like, oh, there's Platinums. And again, I'm not even getting to the bottom. Ooh, sorry. There's the Caran d'Ache 849 Nespresso, the new one that's purple. It's in here. I haven't bought that one yet because they charge a premium for the Nespresso ones. Do you remember us talking about those, Myke? They're where they recycle the Nespresso coffee, little coffee, you know, pods, you know, the aluminum pods into pen barrels. And this is the purple one. So I could go on and on and you should go on and on and check out everything. Oh, there's the Moonstone. Good grief. Yeah, I'm going to stop now. Good stuff over at Pinchelay.

Myke Hurley: They actually also wanted us to mention this Retro 51 Tornado that they've got. Oh, nice. Okay. We talk about that in a minute, actually. But Ron didn't want to mention that because they've got that in stock. Yeah, so I put that in the show notes. And I actually think this might be the last popper that is on general sale. We're going to talk about this. All right, cool. So they wanted me to mention that that is available. I'll have that in the notes as well. But you can go to Pinchelay.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website to get a code. You need to save 10% on anything at Pinchelay and to get your hands on some special offers. Our thanks to Pinchelay for their support of this show throughout the entire year. We really, really thank them for their support and for supporting RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Thank you, Ron. Thank you, Pinchelay. I really, really appreciate you. Hope you have a great 2021. All right. So I just put in this Retro 51 this morning, Myke. I was just going to skip it, right? Like it just seemed like I'm a little... I'm in a mood about Retro 51. I feel grumpy about it, to be honest. I was just going to keep it to myself and we were just going to carry on the show as normal. But a Twitter follower just made me cackle yesterday. So let's talk about the pin first. It's the Retro 51 Tornado Popper. It's called Tuesday. I have not been able to discover why it's called Tuesday in all of their marketing.

Myke Hurley: Well, because they used to... They would release them on Tuesdays.

Myke Hurley: That's the answer. So Tornado Popper's War is released on Tuesdays. So this is... I think it's a commemorative... This feels like a commemorative pin.

Brad Dowdy: So that's your... So they've made a big deal that this is the last popper of the year, right? And you're saying it's commemorative in what way? Tuesday. In more than Tuesday? Or just, hey, this is Tuesday's pin and it's aliens?

Myke Hurley: No, there's something else going on, but I've yet to be able to really work it out.

Brad Dowdy: So according to my Twitter follower, Jessica, she cracked me up. So she sent me a tweet. This is after I'd already decided to not put it in the show notes. She says, the new retro popper has the owners being sucked up into a spaceship. Maybe this is goodbye this time. And I just died. Like, I thought that was hilarious.

Myke Hurley: I don't think this is a joke, Brad. No, no, no. Listen. Right. This is from the description on the pen chalet page. And could that be a few essential pen industry personnel being taken alongside their pen creations? Oh, that's in that description. Hmm. So. That's it? Yeah. But, but the Retro 51 Instagram account was asked about this. Mm-hmm. And they said there are still some vendor specific additions in 2021. Mm-hmm. So I think, so while they, I'm reading between the lines of what they didn't say rather than what they did say, and I believe this is the final general available edition, and that there will still be some that probably got delayed that will be available next year. But this is probably the last one. And it's limited to 1,951 of them. Right. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Which is why it hasn't sold out yet. If you want it, you should go get it. I'm buying it right now. Yeah. If it's the last one, I think a lot of people are going to want it. Can I just say good? I don't want to be like, like, I'm tired of this story. Is that okay for me to say? I think so. Because I love Retro 51, but I'm exhausted.

Tornado Popper's War

Myke Hurley: We got tired, we got tired out from it because it was a big thing, right? It was. It was. And then it kind of just, the story wouldn't stop, right? Where it was like, this is happening out of nowhere. We're all really upset about it. But then nothing else was said. Yeah. And then that was it, really.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, it's like, I stopped feeling special about the pens because it was just incessant. It was just like constant. So anyway, I love them. Love them to death. I love this pen. This pen looks great. I'm probably not going to order it. I just don't need it. But I think it's cool. It'll sell out in a minute. And yeah, we'll see if coming around in January, they'll have like an official announcement, right? Like get this pen out into the wild. And now they're free to say, hey, we're going to wrap up a few dealer things. And then whatever is going to, does that mean they're closing forever? Maybe it means they're going to sell it to someone. Like I have no clue whatsoever. We don't know, do we? We don't know. Not even like, I don't even ask. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. I don't have any inside information. I have no concept of what's coming next. But they've been so quiet. And if they're saying this is the last tornado popper, it sounds to me like they're lining up for to say something hopefully in the early months of 2021.

Myke Hurley: I hope so. I think that might be the case. So, Edge, you can help me here. So, I've added this to my cart. Yeah. And I'm buying it for my friends over at Pen Chalet, of course. And I figure maybe there's other things I could add to the cart, you know, like to balance out the shipping. And is there anything that you can think of offhand that I might want to consider? I've added a pack of ink cartridges for my Pilot M90 because I'm out of those. Unfortunately, I can't find it anywhere. The purple that I've used, I could only ever find those at Pen Shows. So, I'm going to have to go of a different color. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I don't know why they're not normally stocked in inventory. And I don't know that hardly any store does that. So, yeah. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I'm weirdly going for sepia. It's like, why not? Oh, I think you should.

Brad Dowdy: No, that's a good color. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Good move on that. I mean, you're asking me and all I want to do is pick like hundreds of dollars worth of fountain pens for you.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But I want to know if there's something you think that I should have considered. Because like I was thinking about this for something we're going to talk about later on in the show. So, I have not really spent much money at all on Pen products this year for a variety of reasons. And so, I'm just thinking like, is there something that I should not miss out on maybe?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know your stance on this model of Pen. But I think the Pelican M205 Moonstone is really cool. But that might not be your style of pen. Right?

Brad Dowdy: So, it's just a really neat translucent smoky gray sparkles. Limited edition. It's like this year's M205 limited edition release. It's just really cool. That's nice looking. I have not bought it yet. I keep threatening to buy it. I just like I'm... This is a whole other discussion on buying things that we're going to have.

Myke Hurley: I really appreciate this. But I can't imagine myself using it.

Brad Dowdy: Right. That's why I don't know that it's... That it was your pen. Boy, I wasn't particularly planning on going shopping for you.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I wasn't planning on it either. But here we are. I was wondering... Here we are. Like, Estabrook maybe?

Brad Dowdy: I mean, the two new colors are pretty cool. They've been really popular. Like, for the fountain pens, the Peacock and the Rocky Top. I know... Which ones are they? The Estes? They're the Estes. Yeah. They're the large size fountain pens. Or they also have the smaller size ones. I don't know which one you would prefer. I think you'd prefer the bigger size. Which, they're not overly large. They're, like, maybe a little shy of king of pen size. Maybe pretty close to king of pen size.

Brad Dowdy: But they even have, like, some of the normal colors. Those are the expensive ones, right? They're the diamond cast materials, right? So, they're much more expensive than, like, the standard Estabrooks. So, like, the standard Estabrooks are, like, almost half the price. And equally as cool and nice. So, like, I use the, like, one of the lilac one, I think, is the one I have. So, it's really nice. So, yeah.

Myke Hurley: I might poke around.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: All right. So, what have we got next?

Cleaning Fountain Pens

Brad Dowdy: All right. We have... What do we have? I've got too many tabs open now. Oh, we're going to talk about me doing shopping for me for the holidays. So, I don't know if you... We talk about this every year around holiday time. You know, do I get any stationary items for Christmas is generally what people want to know. And the answer is always no. Because I don't have people, like, in my family that would just up and buy me something knowing, you know, thinking that I would like it, right? I would have to tell them specifically. So, I generally don't. So, I bought myself something, which is, you know, kind of the norm for me around the holidays. I'll buy, like, the one pin that I've been waiting for. And I bought the Montegrappa Mia Meteor Shower, which is a pin I've been eyeballing since Drees reviewed it on the Pencil Case blog. And Joe reviewed it on the Gentleman Stationer. And it's kind of this black, orange, gray, streaky fountain pen. And I like Montegrappas as is. And I just thought this was a really, really cool shape and design. The only kicker, Myke, is I'm sitting here staring at it. And it's not inked up. And I'm just going to have to wait until my hand is back to normal to ink it up because I will just be mad at it if I ink it up and don't get to use it, like, in a real traditional, normal way. So, I'm staring at it. I'm literally looking at it right now as I'm talking to you, lusting over it. I think it's a really neat pen. You would probably like this pen just from a design perspective. I don't know if you have any. I don't think you have any Montegrappas. I'm not sure. No, I don't have any Montegrappas. It's a cool shape. It's a cool feel. Nice steel nibs. They're really nice. So, it's just kind of my jam. So, that was my Christmas present to me. The only things I asked for on, say, like a Christmas list, like that got passed around the family, I asked for a dozen of the Musgrave Tennessee Reds. Didn't get them. And I asked for the Tombow Dragonflies baseball cap, which was when Tombow sponsored a Japanese professional baseball team back in the 50s or 60s, something like that. Didn't get that. So, I was 0 for 2 on my stationary type request this year.

Myke Hurley: Can I ask, why did you not get them?

Brad Dowdy: I don't know. It was a long list. It was a list. Okay. I just didn't. I mean, no one bought them for me, Myke. What's up with that? Unbelievable. What's up with that? Golly. So, yeah. Instead, I got a monitor stands for my computer desk.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you know. Woo!

Myke Hurley: I'm buying the Estabrook.

Brad Dowdy: Which one?

Myke Hurley: The Mountaintop.

Brad Dowdy: Rocky Top.

Myke Hurley: Rocky Top.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That one seems to be pretty hype. A lot of people are liking that one.

Myke Hurley: It's beautiful. I like it a lot. It's really pretty. They didn't have the John Lynn nib, though, which I was interested in. Oh, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: You would enjoy that nib.

Myke Hurley: Don't tell me that, because I can't get it.

Brad Dowdy: It's a really good nib.

Myke Hurley: Why are you doing this? What did I just say? Excellent.

Brad Dowdy: Excellent nib. So, I don't know if I'm supposed to say this about the Rocky Top. I don't know if it's public information, but I'm going to say it anyway, and I'll just get in trouble later. All right. Our good friend, Carrie, and Brian from Kenro actually mixed that color.

Brad Dowdy: Huh. At McKenzie Penworks for the Diamondcast material. So, they had their hands in making that material. Oh, I like that even more now. Yep. So, I don't know if that's public information before, but it's public information now. And, you know, Kenro may have just fired me, so.

Myke Hurley: Oh, well. I want him for broad nib.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Just for fancy. It's Yovo Steel. You'll like it.

Myke Hurley: Nice.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So, this whole me being frustrated with fountain pens led me to finally clean my fountain pens this weekend, Myke. Okay.

Brad Dowdy: It was more of a rage clean, you know, when you just do something kind of begrudgingly. It was an annoyance clean because these pens have been sitting there for weeks with ink in them. And I never, ever, ever do that, right? Like, I am very diligent with my pen cleaning. And I like my pens, you know, a certain way. And I like to clean them a certain way. And I went into it this weekend just frustrated. Like, I just had to clean them no matter how I cleaned them. They were getting cleaned. And so, I attempted to do it in my normal fashion where, you know, I break down all the parts and I have my little aspirators and I'm squeezing the, you know, the water through the nibs and trying to flush them out as aggressively as possible because that's what I do. And, you know, and then wrap up the nibs and like shake them in a cloth, you know, like I'm doing this all left-handed. So, like, I can't put as much pressure on and I'm shaking the nibs out in the cloth. And like, I threw one of the nibs across the room, like shaking it. I'm like, oh, this is a nightmare. It didn't, it didn't, it didn't hit on the tines or anything like that. So, it was, it was fine. But I was like, oh, this is, this is not going well. But I'm so glad I did it because it was more not going well sitting there inked up and not being used, right? That was the worst part about it. So, I finally just got rid of them and now all I want to do is ink up more pens, Myke, even though I know I'm just not going to use them like I would normally use them.

Myke Hurley: How much did you enjoy cleaning them? I didn't hate it. Okay, because I was going to say only fill them up if you enjoyed cleaning them because all you will do is fill those pens and then empty them again. Yeah, no.

Brad Dowdy: And clean them. I don't hate cleaning my pens because I feel like it's, it's like the proper pen hygiene is like one of my things, right? Yeah, yeah. It bugs me if they're not. So, it never bothers me. I will say I did like a day after I got a Twitter question about using an ultrasonic cleaner and saying how you really don't need one if you're keeping up with cleaning, right? If your nibs and pens aren't like gunked up, an ultrasonic cleaner is not going to do you much more benefit than just hand washing them and, you know, doing things like the nails last burger like I do.

Myke Hurley: Then you should probably send your ultrasonic cleaner to me, right? Yeah, yeah. Like you need it, right? I need it more than you.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But I actually got it out because I couldn't get some of the nibs and nib units and I wasn't feeling like taking them all apart. And some of the converters, you know, from the ink sitting in them were kind of cruddy. So, I put those in the ultrasonic cleaner and I was like, well, this is funny. I just told someone yesterday not to bother it with one and then here I am using it. But it was for the exact situation, right? There was some things that I couldn't just get clean on my own. So, ultrasonic came in handy.

Myke Hurley: You probably couldn't clean as easily. Exactly. At the moment, right? Like, I guess that's the thing. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So, I didn't try to overdo it saying, well, I'll just throw these in the ultrasonic cleaner. Yep. And it took like three rounds in the ultrasonic cleaner for it to finally run clear. So, that was fine. It was a good moment. But anyway, I'm anxious to, now that I have zero fountain pens in use, I have like this mental list I'm keeping in my head of like all the pens I want to ink up when I'm able to start writing again. Like, I miss using my Namiki Milky Way. Like, the most expensive pen I own should be used like all the time. And I just haven't been using it, right? It's one of my favorite pens and I love it. And I am just not using it and I'm dying to use it. So, hopefully that'll get inked up soon. And the Y Studio Resin Pen, which is completely opposite the price scale of the Namiki Milky Way. But I love that pen. And like, I love how it writes. And I haven't inked up the pen of deceit in a while, Myke. My YY Pen Club Sailor Rialo, you know, with the Pizza Planet logo on the cat band. I love that pen since I got a needlepoint grind on it. Like, I want to use this pen, my Montegrapa Mia that I just bought. It's sitting here, not used. And it drives me berserk. And it's screaming for Robert Oster fire on fire. This orange ink is going to look awesome with that pen. And I can't ink it up. It's starting to get to me.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: What's your timeline?

Dental Work Update

Brad Dowdy: I, we check on January 11th. We re-X-ray. It'll be at least another month of brace after that. But hopefully a softer, smaller brace. And we'll see if I can write with it. I can't. It's not enjoyable to write with this brace at all. It's too stiff. Yeah. So, we'll see.

Myke Hurley: My recommendation to you would be to stop torturing yourself.

Brad Dowdy: I said, stop torturing myself. I sit around this stuff all day. It's my job.

Myke Hurley: I know. I know.

Brad Dowdy: I do get, I frustrate my own self though. It's my own fault. I agree. So, yesterday, and I won't belabor this point. We can move on. But like yesterday, I pulled out like 40 pencils that I haven't been trying. So, like that's what I'm going to work on next. Right. So, you know, just trying to actively distract myself from not being able to use all my cool fountain pens. And you know what? All I want to use is blue black ink in these pens too. Like I'm dying to ink up a bunch of blue black ink. It's like the dumbest thing ever. I have like every color of the rainbow. Yeah. But I'm going to ink. I just want a bunch of good blue black inks in all these pens. It's like, I don't know. I'm weird.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I understand. And I just think that your energy might be best served in doing things that aren't like things that make you wish.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I couldn't agree more.

Myke Hurley: You know, this is not really helpful advice, nor is it something you don't know yourself. But you know, like maybe instead of like cleaning them out as such, like you could, I don't know, spend time taking pictures of them. And like, can you level up your photo taking skills of your pens, you know, rather than like, I don't know if that would help, but necessarily focusing on like what you can't do with them, like making a list of the pens that you want to use first while that's a nice activity. Maybe it's an activity best served when you're four or five days away from being able to use them, you know, than where you are right now, which is still. Pretty undetermined, like an undetermined time. Right, right. No, I'm with you. This is just a hobby for you, though, which just does make it a bit trickier.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So I'm actually, the photography thing is actually at the top of the list. Good. And a couple of things I'm going to try out today.

Myke Hurley: Good. That's like, because then you're still getting to enjoy these things, but still like benefiting from them professionally. Right, right, right. All right, let's take our second break and thank Squarespace for their support of this show. You can make your next move with Squarespace because they will let you create a website for your next idea or project and give you all of the tools that you need to make it look fantastic, to make it appear very professional. One of those ways is by registering a domain name. You want to have a domain name for your website. You know, you want to say, go to blah, blah, blah.com or blah, blah, blah.net, you know, and that's what Squarespace can help you with. That's all built into the platform. You can register your domain with them. And then when people come to your website, they're going to see something that looks fantastic because all of their templates that you use, that you benefit from, are beautifully designed. They're award winning. In fact, they've designed so well. And you can customize them. You can change colors. You can rearrange the way that things look on the site. You can add in different functions. They've got so much inbuilt functionality that you can choose from and you can turn things on and off as you need them. You just drag and drop stuff into your web page. It's really, really easy. You know, like if you want to make a gallery, you can do that. Maybe you want to put a music player onto the site. You can do all these things super, super easily. And then you can make it look exactly as you want. You can customize the fonts, customize the colors. It's really excellent. But you don't have to because their website designs, their templates look so fantastic. You can just get them set up and you're ready to go. So if you want to have an online store, this is the thing more and more people are doing these days. I think lots of people have been turning their hands to a hobby or a little side business during COVID time. And if that includes selling physical or digital goods, Squarespace can help you set up that store. Super easy. And it's very professional. This isn't just like a like, oh, I'll just use Squarespace. This is what Brad uses. Like Brad uses Squarespace to power the Knox store, to power the Pen Addict store. It's a real deal function. It's super awesome. Squarespace really is an all-in-one platform that will let you build the website you want to make. There's nothing to install or patch or upgrade. They take care of all of that stuff and offer 24-7 customer support for you as well if you do need any help. You can start a trial today with no credit card required by going to squarespace.com slash Pen Addict. And their plans start at just $12 a month. When you decide to sign up, use the offer code Pen Addict and you'll get 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain to show your support for this show. That's squarespace.com slash Pen Addict and the code Pen Addict for 10% of your first purchase. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of RelayFM. Squarespace. Make your next move. Make your next website.

Brad Dowdy: So I put this next topic in not to go through a big discussion but more as a lead-in to a discussion we might have in the next few weeks. And we actually got a question that's pretty much exactly what I wrote down here. And the general gist of it is what am I looking forward to in 2021 from the stationary world. So I'm trying to work through my thoughts on this and big picture. What am I looking for for myself? What am I looking for for different companies? And I was wondering, I know you do this like technology-wise, right? You're always doing like predictions or like what ifs, what would you like to see? And I've done this before for stationary companies. And like the question we got from Greg on Twitter is like, what is a New Year's resolution you want X company to do or make? For example, I'd like to see what kind of pen Musgrave could come up with. You know, some weird stuff like that. So I'm going to work on this on like for the next couple of weeks. Like this isn't something like I can just like spill, you know, my thoughts on there. Like I could, you know, I could always say I want an orange Lamy 2000 because I always want an orange Lamy 2000. And I want it to not cost $500. That would be great. But, you know, and we've done this before on the show. So I'm going to work on this for the next couple of weeks. So if anyone has any commentary or thoughts or anything like that, I just wanted to mention that out there.

Brad Dowdy: Going into 2021, we're going to talk about planners as well. We'll probably do that next week. I'm going to talk about my theme for 2021. We'll talk about planners in general, how we use them. Like I got that question on Twitter. So we're going to cover that next week. But I did and I always like to bring up when the new version of the Chronodex is released. So Patrick Ng released the first six months. This is always like a free template he puts out there to download. And I would love if any Panadic listeners use the Chronodex to get in touch with me. I would like to learn a little bit more about it. Like I'm not going to I have no interest in using it, but I want to kind of pick your brain on like what's working for you in the Chronodex. I've always said it's the most beautiful. It's the most beautiful planner the way Patrick does it. Right. It's like I could frame. I could frame his day.

Brad Dowdy: Each day I could put it on a frame on the wall. It's kind of ridiculous. But that's why I love him so much. And in the link we'll put in the show notes. He also has the video that I talked about from the Stationery Cafe where he was talking to April. That video is on this link of the page if you go look at the Chronodex. But yeah, I would really like to know if anyone is using the Chronodex system regularly because I find it super, super interesting. I find it scary. Right. I like I have no interest in using it, but I'm still completely fascinated. So I like learning about those things. Even if I don't have anything that I want to do or any ideas about it myself, I like to know what other people do. It's just like part of the bigger, wider education of myself. So I would love to hear from you if you do. You seem like a Chronodex guy, Myke.

Myke Hurley: It's beautiful.

Brad Dowdy: My day is not set up that way.

Myke Hurley: No. I just couldn't do it. No, it's not.

Myke Hurley: It's not for me, but I think it's an awesome thing. And I think it's I imagine it being quite a nice meditative practice, but it's just not something that is my kind of thing.

Brad Dowdy: It could probably work to a degree for me because I do time blocking. And this is a little bit of a time blocking setup the way it's designed to be. But it's a little more. I don't know that it flows for my brain, right? The way my brain works. I don't know that it would flow for that. But anyway, Patrick has been doing this for a long time. It's got to be a decade now. I'd have to look back. But it's been a long time out there. People love it. So, yeah, there you go. Go check it out. But even if you're not interested and if you're not a planner person, just go look at it from just a stationary lover's perspective. What Patrick's Patrick's work is awesome on the chronodex.

Myke Hurley: KJ Miller asks in our first Ask TPA question of the episode. Now that Tomoe paper has changed, what are the new recommendations on fountain pen friendly notebooks for folks that want a lot of paper in an A5? I was using an endless recorder before, but my last book was not as good as I wanted. Dotted is preferred.

Brad Dowdy: All right. So this is a big question and I'm going to answer this question. Okay. Well, I'm going to attempt. I have a lot to say on this question. Before we get to this question, Myke, did you know hashtag Ask TPA got hijacked?

Myke Hurley: No.

Brad Dowdy: In our document. Okay. There's someone now using hashtag Ask TPA that got picked up by us.

Myke Hurley: Oh, no. I looked at the list today, but like I only looked at the most recent ones.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm not going to share it. I mean, people can search a hashtag and find it, but there's like three entries in there. Luckily, no one was asking them questions. Oh, yeah. Look at that.

Brad Dowdy: It's been hijacked. So we'll see how that goes. All right. This is nothing. No, it's nothing. It doesn't look like it's going to stick. So it doesn't have any stick to it of this, I don't think. So, yeah. It was part of the company's name, the PA part, not pen addict. All right. Jay's question.

Brad Dowdy: I think 2021 is going to be, if 2021 had a stationary theme, it's going to be the year of the notebook. Because there's going to be a lot of discovery or rediscovery of what people like in a notebook for fountain pens now that Tomoe River paper has changed. And the change to Tomoe River paper is okay. It's just so different from the original that I think it will turn people off. Right? It doesn't mean it's a bad paper on its own, but you're used to Tomoe being one way and now it's a very different thing. And like there's a mental hurdle to that. So I think this is going to be the year where we're going to get this question a lot and we're going to have to explore more. And one of the things I'm going to work on a lot this year, just because I know I'm going to be getting the questions, is figuring out what are the other notebook options. Yeah. Because nothing right now can compare to the old school Tomoe River paper. There's not an answer to this question. Right? So now you have to figure, well, if I'm not going to use that, what am I going to use? What am I going to enjoy as a fountain pen user that can replace, say, a Nanami Crossfield? Right? Like some people are buying up the books that are still with the original stuff, but it's going to run out this year. Right? I just have a feeling like there's only so much old paper inventory to go through. And then there's going to be this discovery period where people are going to have to figure this out. And I don't have an answer. Right? I could like, I like bank paper, but do you want something that's completely opposite of what Tomoe is? It's that. Right? Like people aren't going to like that.

Brad Dowdy: You know, what other thin page, high quality for fountain pen, notebook paper can you get? So we're going to be, I think this is a topic that we're going to approach probably every month this year in trying to figure out what the new good thing is or what is out there that we're going to be doing? That might be at least a moderate replacement because nothing right now is going to completely replace it. There's no, what's the phrase? Like there's no like mass quantity of the thing. Mass production? Yeah. Well, I'm just saying there's not, there's not an abundance of any one thing. Well, I'm just saying there's not a new hotness that has a full production across all these companies that make the notebook. There, no companies are saying this universal thing is the new thing. Right? Like the chat is saying Cosmo Air Light is going to be something that's going to take off because it's a thin page. It has good performance characteristics like Tomoe does, but there's no, um, there's just an availability problem right now. Right? Who has the access to this? Who is putting it out there in a notebook? Right? Tomoe is not a notebook manufacturer. Tomoe is a bulk paper. Right? So these papers have to get bought in bulk and go to the printer. Then the notebooks have to be made, um, by the notebook manufacturers, which is something you know about. So I think 2021 is going to be this big year of rediscovering like the best fountain pen notebook and, and right to like today, like right now today, I don't know what that answer is. And this is something I'll be exploring a bunch over the year. So I'm glad you asked that question because it's something I've been thinking about a lot.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. But, um, I, I, this is the thing where like, I think that if you are a fan of Tomoe River paper and there are products still available that use the old one, plenty move now though. Like, you know, I try and take this tact with things often. If I know something's going away, move away from it as soon as you can. Cause you want to give yourself as much time as possible to get some kind of replacement while still being able to maybe buy the old thing at the same time, but you're, you're investigating other options before you have no option anymore.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So yeah, I tend to not hoard the thing. I will go ahead and move on. Right. Like I won't go buy five cross fields, right. If I, if I'm a heavy cross field user, right. I'm not going to go buy five of those. I might buy one or two more as I work my way into discovering what that next one's going to be, because it's going to come into an end sometime and I want to be ready. Like, that's just one of those, one of those things, but everyone does it differently. There's still plenty of Tomoe out there. The original version, you just got to hunt it down a little bit and ask some questions and then, yeah, we're going to see next year. Like we're going to, we're going to be trying some new paper types for a fountain pen friendly. Like the good thing, if you're not a heavy fountain pen user, this really doesn't matter to you. There's so many good choices out there, but this is such a good, good paper that has really like stood out in the fountain pen realm for a while now. And it stinks that the, that the, that the formula has changed.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Next question.

Myke Hurley: Myke D Reynolds asks, do you constantly sharpen your pencils to have a nice tip or to run or do you run them down to dull and then sharpen them?

Brad Dowdy: Yes.

Myke Hurley: Hmm.

Brad Dowdy: Do you know why? Why? Because I'm now ambidextrous. So I, when I was using pencils with my normal right handedness writing, I liked them firm and fine and sharp. So I would, so I would sharpen frequently. Now that I'm writing more left handed, I like them soft and dull. So I don't sharpen them as frequently. It's completely different depending on which hand I use. And, you know, so I am really enjoying softer, darker cores in my pencils right now and writing like a full page of, you know, just, you know, whatever I'm writing and letting the pencil just dull down as normal until it gets to like a really wide and, you know, not a clean, you know, the, the line separates a little bit. It just doesn't work as well. But, um, like my hand pressure isn't as heavy left handed as it is right handed, which is why that works better for me. And I can go longer without having to sharpen when I'm writing left handed. And, um, that's, that's what I'm doing right now. So when I was writing right handed, I would keep pretty sharp tips for the most part and looked out for pencils specifically that had good point retention and left handed. It, it, it doesn't matter as much and I'm not striping as much. So soft and dull is kind of what I'm doing right now.

Myke Hurley: This is like one of the main reasons that I prefer, uh, mechanical pencils though. Um, yeah, because I, I, I want it to be consistent. Well, it's like one or the other, right? Always sharp or always dull. And what I don't like about woodcase pencils myself is it's, it's whatever it is and it will change. And I don't like that personally in my tools, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And then you have to, you have to consider sharpening, right? Like you have to think about, okay, what sharpener am I going to use? How am I going to use it? Is this a, is this a closed sharpener? Do I have to do this over a trash can? And what's the tip going to be like, how long is the, everything going to be like, which, you know, is the beauty of it to me, but like, it's a thing just like all of it, all the stationery is a thing.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Cause I guess mechanical pencils do dull, but they don't dull in the same way. I feel like the variance isn't as, isn't the same.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Nor is it as great. Yeah. I agree. Agreed.

Myke Hurley: All right. This episode is also brought to you by express VPN. We all know that a VPN can protect your privacy and security when using the internet, but it can also take your TV watching to the next level by unlocking content that is available in other countries. Express VPN hides your IP address. So you can control where you want sites to think that you're located and you can choose from almost 100 different countries. Just think about all of the different Netflix libraries that you can go through. This is something I've done in a couple of ways. I have watched, there were shows on Japanese Netflix that I wanted to watch when I was at home and I was able to connect to Japanese, like through, to Japan through express VPN, just reload Netflix and I could get it there. If you love anime, you could do this yourself. But it's not just like Netflix. Express VPN works with Hulu, iPlayer, even YouTube, if there's content that's locked out. Yep. That's why I said BBC. It's iPlayer. Sorry. BBC iPlayer, I should call it. I think of it as just iPlayer, but it is BBC iPlayer. That's just what I use.

Brad Dowdy: I use mostly for BBC. So it's always on the top of my list. I mean, it totally works. Totally works.

Myke Hurley: And I've also used it in another way where if I've been in another country and needed to access Netflix in the UK, you can do that. We did that when we were away and finishing off Schitt's Creek because Schitt's Creek was on Netflix in the UK, but it isn't elsewhere. So we were able to connect back to it. It's awesome. Really, really cool. There are so many VPNs out there, but Express VPN is super fast, which you want when you're watching shows. No buffering, no lag, streaming HD. I've done this. It really is astounding. Express VPN is also compatible with all of your devices, from phones to media consoles to smart TVs and more so you can watch what you want wherever you want. If you go to expressvpn.com slash penaddict, you can get three extra months of Express VPN for free. Support this show, watch what you want, and protect yourself at expressvpn.com slash penaddict for three extra months of Express VPN for free. Our thanks to Express VPN for their support of this show and all of RelayFM. All right, our next question comes from Mark. Mark says, I love my Jinhao 159, which is a giant, big, heavy pen, but I run into evaporation issues living in the high desert of Colorado. Two questions. One, how come I can have ink in a jar last a long time, but I don't have pens that seal so well that I can't leave them loaded for a few weeks without them drying out? Are there pens that are better at this than others? For example, my Sailor Fude pens and Fude nips and Twisby Eco last way longer than my Lamy Safari and my Jinhao. I mean, the answer to this question is in the question. The answer is yes. Yeah. Right? There are some pens that seal better than others.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, there just are. And then compounding the fact of altitude and dryness, you're just going to have more of an issue than, say, like myself who lives at, you know, essentially sea level and, you know, high humidity areas. So you just have to, you do have to put in the work to figure out that say, hey, my Twisby Eco, it's going to, you know, hold this ink better. Even though I'm honestly, I'm surprised the Eco is on this list, but maybe the cap seal as well. Generally pistons, they seem to have, I don't know, maybe not, maybe not more airflow. It just depends on, it depends on the pin so much how those connections are. And, you know, converters are generally universal, like an international converter, say like a Jinhao uses. But there's some variance and there can be some looseness, you know, could you find a tighter seal? You know, is the converter seal going to matter if the cap seal is going to allow a lot of air movement around the nib? And just, you know, there's a lot involved in that. But Myke is right, there is going to be pins that handle this better and pins that handle this worse. And you're just going to have to sort that out. There's no fix for this, right? We're not going to say, well, you could try a different converter on a Jinhao, but if the cap doesn't seal as well as your Eco, it's going to evaporate worse.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, and this is, I think, is going to be a bit of trial and error. So that's kind of just where you're going to have to be with that. Mark does also ask, is there anything you can add to a pen cap to seal it better? Like if I had a leaky pipe, I'd put plumber's tape on it. Is there anything like a mini nib cover or something you could put under a cap?

Brad Dowdy: Not really. I mean, they've designed, like, there was this one Kickstarter pen that designed a water kind of weird holder in the pen cap where it would keep it moist. Yeah, it would keep their cap moist. But there's more than that that goes into play. So it depends. Like, I wouldn't want anything external on my pen when I'm writing, right? Yes, I could put tape or I could put silicone, you know, grease on there. But then that's on the external parts of the pen that when I write, I don't want.

Myke Hurley: Could you store the pen in something more airtight? Would that help?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that would probably help. So you can find those cigar boxes that have the sealing mechanisms. I forget the terminology.

Myke Hurley: The humidors?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like the humidors, but like the connection. And you don't have to get like a huge humidor. You can get like a small box that has like this air pressure valve on the box. It's like for flying, right? We've talked about these for flying and you can put that in there and it keeps the air pressure like moderated. I don't know if that would necessarily work for like dryness, like high desert, you know, a mile high in dry air. I don't know if that would work the same or not. But like you can try some things, but I think you're just going to end up being more annoyed with any external thing you add to make this better. I've heard of people putting sponges in the caps of the pens with water on them, like for the same moisture thing. But at some point that just becomes too fussy and I would just fill up my pens more.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So yeah, there's actually a ton going on in this question. Yeah. It's not straightforward. It is definitely an issue though. And it's a matter of trial and error. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I really think that the better long-term option here might be storage, different storage. Yeah. I think that's worth trying. I would recommend that so you don't end up breaking things or doing weird things to your pens. Like putting a piece of sponge in there is fine. But then what if like fibers from the sponge break off into the nib and then you're like, you know, it's just like a whole thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And then, you know, you need to try different inks on top of this too, right? True, true. Like this is a whole huge trial and error test zone. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And we can't really give you specifically useful feedback because the conditions that you're working in are not at all like the conditions that we work in.

Brad Dowdy: Right. And there's no one definitive fix, right? There's a lot of things to try. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Because being in what, like dry, high altitude? Mm-hmm. Like you're doing a real like double threat there, Mark, right? Because Colorado's higher altitude, right? Yes. And if it's in the desert, the air is going to be drier as well as thinner. Right. Which, you know, I don't even know where to start. With all that. Good luck to you. Big test, big test coming up for Mark. Yeah. Damien asks, I've been finding that the gold versus steel nib factor is sliding down my priority list when deciding to buy a fountain pen. I have limited experience with gold nibs, but have found them comparable to steel. Consequently, I'm making more decisions based on the other design factors such as barrel material or ink windows. I'm currently considering getting a pilot vanishing point. I'm considering a steel nib import instead of the gold nib. In your opinions, how much intrinsic value does a pen having a gold nib carry? Would I be missing out on anything by choosing the more economical nib?

Brad Dowdy: This is a great question. This is something I have very strong thoughts on.

Ink Storage Conditions

Myke Hurley: I think my first thought would be that I just want to get out of the way is like, make sure that importing the pen wouldn't make it more expensive than the gold.

Brad Dowdy: Well, the funniest thing I find in this whole thing is Damien happened to mention the one singular pen I would never buy the steel nib option for. And that's the pilot vanishing point. Otherwise, I'm 100% steel guy. Like, I don't care. Right? I love my steel nibs. I just bought this Montegrappa Mia. It was like $250. Steel nib. Don't care. Like, I love my steel nibs. In the very highly specific case of the vanishing point, I do not like those steel nib units. Just go ahead and buy the gold nib unit for the vanishing point. Anything else that you like, go for the steel option. So I'm glad you mentioned the vanishing point. I don't think you will be as happy with those steel nibs from what I've seen of them, from what I've heard of them, compared to the gold nib. Anything else, knock yourself out with steel nibs. I do it all the time. It really, like, I'm like you, Damien, where I will say, hey, what does this pen look like? What features does it have? Does it, you know, make me feel good when I hold it or look at it? Does it inspire me? And just, I don't know, does it fit my style, basically? Oh, what kind of nib is it? That's down the list for me. So it does matter, right? Like, there are some times where I prefer certain things overall. But in general, you're going to be completely happy with steel nibs. Except in the vanishing point.

Myke Hurley: I, in general, prefer gold nibs. But I wouldn't not buy a pen for that reason. Yeah. And I kind of, I will go for the design first and then make some different decisions. And depending on the pen and its expense, I might just upgrade to the gold nib anyway. And I do have more gold nibs just because the typical pens that I buy, that's what they come with. Right? Right, right, right. So, like, being somebody who has so many sailor pens, the Progio is a gold nib pen. That's just how they start. Yep. And then you can change what you want to do from there. But, like, I, my typical thing is I prefer gold because of the softness. But I have some steel nib pens that I love as much as the gold nib pens. It is not a definite that gold will be better for you.

Brad Dowdy: It just isn't. Yeah, Myke is exactly right. You're exactly right here. But writing style matters. You and I write differently. The way I write lends itself to a fine, firm nib. Well, you can get very fine and very firm with steel. So, they tend to work very well for me. Therefore, I love steel nibs in my pens. It doesn't mean I don't like gold, but, like, I'm really happy with steel. Whereas, someone who writes in a more cursive fashion or a lighter hand, you know, might prefer the softness of gold. So, like, there's definitely factors. But, like, in the priority list, like, yes, it does slide. The gold nibs slide down for me, like, if there's an option. Right? So, yeah.

Myke Hurley: All right. So, I have a question here from Fibber that I'm going to slightly modify. Yep. And ask, do you know of or have any opinion on if some ink colors are inherently wetter or drier than others? Yes. The reason Fibber asks this is that they think that chemicals, the chemicals used to make green inks might make it naturally drier.

Brad Dowdy: So, I do not know a definitive answer. I'm not a scientist or a chemist.

Myke Hurley: You sure?

Brad Dowdy: But, yeah, I'm a lot of things, Myke. Right. But a chemist is not one of them. Hmm. Okay. Anecdotally, anecdotally? Anecdotally, yeah. Anecdotally from other people, your anything in the orange, red, yellow range tends to have a different chemical composition that lends them to being drier than most colors. Because by getting to that color, right? Like, whatever chemical is making those shades makes those inks drier is kind of the general thought on this. So, I've never heard of green being a dry ink. Now, you can get specific. Like, you can say, you know, I'm not saying this for a fact. I'm just saying this for example. Oh, you know, Monteverde green is very dry and Montblanc, you know, Irish green is very wet. Maybe. Who knows? Like, you'll have to, people will have to test those individually. But in just, if we were just talking from an overall color range, it's going to be those light colors that fall in that red, yellow, orange category. And colors that use those types of chemical compounds to make those colors tend to be the driest. Everything else is going to be on an individual ink basis. And I say this not as a chemist, just as someone who reads things from people on the internet, which you know how that goes. It's all true.

Myke Hurley: Everything you read on the internet is true. Otherwise, it wouldn't be on the internet, right?

Myke Hurley: Yep. All right. So I think that wraps up this week's episode of The Pen Addict and therefore wraps up 2020. Wow.

Myke Hurley: I mean, you know, weird across the board for everything, but it's been kind of weird for this show because we didn't get to do one of the main things that we get to do or get to talk about one of the main things that we get to talk about, which is pen shows. It's kind of meeting in person is an inherently more pen addict thing than any of the other shows that I do. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: We didn't see each other this year, did we?

Myke Hurley: No.

Brad Dowdy: Sheesh.

Myke Hurley: No. Wow. Which has been a break of a five-year tradition, six-year tradition at this point. But I am confident in 2021. I am confident in it. So I look forward to a better year. I want to thank everybody for tuning in and supporting the show this year by listening to us and buying our products. Some of that kind of stuff. We really appreciate you. And again, I want to thank Pen Chalet, Squarespace, and ExpressVPN for supporting this episode. And these sponsors have supported the show all year and are continuing to into 2021, which we also really appreciate. If you would like to find Brad online, you go to penaddict.com, knock.co, spokedesign.com. These are all places where you can find Brad's work and products. And at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at twitch.tv slash penaddict. Brad is at dowdyism on Twitter, penaddict on Instagram, and I am I-Myke. I-M-Y-K-E. And we'll be back next week with the first episode of 2021. Happy New Year to you all. And we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad. Bye.