Hello and welcome to episode 75 of the Panatic Podcast, a weekly show where we discuss pens, paper and the analog tools that we love. So dearly, my name is Mike Hurley and introducing the Yoda to my Annie Penn Sky Blue Walker. That was good. Well done. How's things going? Really good. So how are you? Very good. Very good. Glad we got to record on a Tuesday this week, which is our normal day, of course, because both you and I had a busy, busy weekend. Yes. Yeah, very busy. I mean, I have lots, but let's start with you. All right. We have lots to talk about this week. So we wanted to, we were going to talk about sort of the process of comments and updates on Kickstarter. We mentioned that. I don't know if you want to talk about that, or maybe we saved that, maybe we just talk about how knock is going on. Well, we can cover it real quick. It's a pretty easy topic. I mean, we said we do it last week, and there's really not too much to say. With the Kickstarter projects going really great, we're just a tick under 49,000 in what a little over a week. So eight days, I guess. So that's obviously exceeded any expectations. You've done all right, I guess. Yeah. Well, it's done all right. It's done all right. It's like now we're getting greedy. It's like, why isn't it moving more? You get spoiled there in the beginning. The beginning was great. And I was like, oh, this is going great. Then when it just kind of went gangbusters so much, it was like, we're starting to sweat a little bit. It was like, are we ready for this? Are we prepared for this? And then once it kind of settled down, and as the days go on, and we've done some planning on the back end, we're like, yeah, okay, this is good. This is right there. We can handle this. Ship dates are good. Everything's tight. So we're doing good. And we're working on some stuff on the back end. Maybe we can announce next week if we're done or how we're going to handle it, but we're going to try to get an early start on production. So we'll have more news on that as we get everything finalized. But the ball is rolling, if you will, to kind of get us a head start to where we'll be in good shape for fulfillment in January, just as we promised. Excuse me. But yeah, just a quick word on the comments and the updates. It's never having run a Kickstarter project before. I didn't know what to expect with the comments and the messages and just the quantity of stuff going on there. And, you know, the first two or three days, it was just like, you know, machine gun, you know, in the inbox, it was just constant, just message. You have a new message, message, message, message, comment, comment. And I like to try to, I try my best. And Jeffrey does the same to respond to everyone. I don't want to leave anyone hanging. So I think we've done a good job at that. The comment section is a great place. If you have any questions, just general questions about the product, you know, specs, designs, colors, plans, all that kind of stuff, you know, we're in and out of the comments section all day. And then, you know, you can also send us a direct message if you have more of a specific question related to, you know, your pledge level or something like that. And trying to figure out when to do the updates, the updates are interesting because the up doing an update, a creator update allows me or Jeffrey to basically send an email out to everyone who's back the project. And I want to be careful with that. You know, I don't want to have an update every day and start spamming people's mailboxes. So, you know, I've just done, I guess I just did the third one this morning, I guess, just to kind of give an update on how the first week went, you know, we've got some reviews in on the cases which have been real positive so far. And, you know, I wanted to share the link that we talked about on the last week's podcast where we went where I went kind of in depth on just the whole project in general. So, any of the backers who aren't necessarily familiar with that, which there are probably plenty who just picked up on this, you know, through Kickstarter directly and, you know, not necessarily, you know, listen to the podcast or read my blog or anything like that. So, they can go in and click the link, listen to the podcast and kind of get some more information on where this whole not cocaine thing came from. So, it's been real good so far. We've been able to keep up with all the messages and comments and updates and, honestly, it's going along swimmingly. Yeah, it is. Yeah, we had, I'm not going to lie, we did have some panic moments last week going, oh my gosh, can we fill, you know, can we fulfill our shipping dates, but we're going to be totally good and we're going to be even better if we get an early start, which I'm 99.9% sure is going to happen. So, maybe by next week, I'll have more information on that. We're not, we don't have everything finalized yet, but, you know, the way Kickstarter works, and I think a lot of people are familiar with it, but for some people, it's their first, first time backing it so they don't know what to expect from us, you know, the project creators. What happens is when this project ends, like the minute it ends, that money doesn't get transferred into our bank account. It can take some time. So, there's often a gap from when it ends to when the money is there for us to use to start purchasing materials, start purchasing equipment, start the management that gets us starting the manufacturing process. So, every little delay backs up everything else. So, we're trying to get ahead of the game using some of our own funds to get the machinery and equipment since it's obviously going to fund. Yeah, you can feel confident that even if you're dipping into maybe a savings account that you're going to be able to fill it back up again because of the money. Yeah, we'll be able to recruit that directly because it's obviously the money's there. It's just, it's going to be a while before we get our hands on it, but we want to go ahead and get started just for, you know, planning purposes and sanity purposes just to get everything going. And I don't think that's going to be an issue at all. I just don't have all the details to share yet, but I will say that things are in progress before getting that done. You just need to hope that Kickstarter or Amazon don't go bust in the next month. I know, right? I think you're okay. Yeah, I think we're all right. They seem, they seem pretty solid ground. So, we'll see, but hopefully I'll have more to share on that next week. But yeah, that ball's rolling. We're going to be in good shape. And yeah, hopefully we'll just keep on cranking. We're, we'd like to see some bigger numbers at this point because we think we can handle it. Good. Yeah. I'm running. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited for what's to come, you know, once we get this, once it does fulfill and, and the project, you know, closes, and then we get all these shipped out and get all these in everyone's hands and then see, you know, the future's looking bright for not go. I'll say that. Good man. Yes, sir. Okay. What else have you got? Um, had a, uh, interesting, fun, very cool thing happened to me this weekend that, you know, starting into the whole pen addiction thing, you don't think these types of things exist. But as it turns out, um, they're quite prevalent around the country. I was honored to attend a meeting of the Southeast Pen Collectors Club. Man, that's so, some justice. So I don't know, I didn't know a lot about this club, but my friend Mark Baptist, um, invited me to it. He's been involved in it for years. He's been president of it at one point in time and he has explained me this club's been around for 20 years. This isn't, uh, this isn't a new thing. So it's been around for 20 plus years. It's based out of Atlanta. They meet at, you know, different members, house houses, you know, throughout, you know, the city and surrounding areas. And they happen to be in my town, which is making, um, this past weekend. So Mark had emailed me a month or two ago saying that they were coming, you know, with what I like to go with him. I was like, absolutely, I would. And, um, fortunately, my schedule worked out to where I was able to attend it. And I had the best time. Um, I got, it was at one of the members houses and I'd actually met him at the Atlanta pin show the past two years named Dan Lanford. Um, he cut, he's a, uh, kind of a vintage pin collector and a pair and things like that. So he's got a lot of, uh, you know, about a park or 51s, vacuum, added access to brooks, pelicans. I don't, you, you name it. The guy has everything. And I'll, I'll talk more about them in a second, but just the, the meeting in general was very cool. It's very, it's very laid back. You know, it's, um, they don't necessarily don't really have a program or like an official, you know, timeline of events, but it's basically just, you know, you meet with other like-minded folks. Um, you discuss pins, people bring some of their pins to share. Um, you know, you get to meet some people that you exchanged emails with. Like, I met a nice lady and her husband, shell sheet, emailed me before, before the meeting and saying, hey, we're having this meeting. I'm pretty sure it's near you. And I said, yeah, I'm gonna be there actually. So, you know, I got to meet some people that read the blog. Um, got to meet some people that listen to the podcast. There was a gentleman there named Tom who said he's listened to every episode of the podcast. So I told him he better listen this week because I was gonna, I was gonna talk about him. Tom, Tom's a real nice guy. He's a computer science professor and he actually brought some pins that I got to check out. You know, it's part of the, part of the deal. Like, I brought some of my pins for other, other people to look at. I didn't know what to bring, you know, I was talking to Mark and I was like, well, what do you bring? Do you bring anything? He's like, yeah, just bring whatever. You don't have to bring anything. Some people don't bring anything. Some people bring, you know, some pen to look at. Like Mark brought a bunch of his collection, but I think he brought a lot of it to show me him and I met beforehand at Starbucks and he, he brought some of the most drool worthy pins that I've seen in a while. He, his collection, the stuff that he buys or collects or uses is a lot of the stuff that I like. Like, he had some of the old, um, pilot, Miraxes, pilot Mayus, um, a bunch of the old, old sailors, you know, all these really like vintage Japanese pins. Um, he actually gave me a pin while I was there. I forget the name, I'm blanking on it. Um, he gave me a sailor. Um, he's got some, you know, just rare and unique items and it was fun sitting in, we were sitting in Starbucks, you know, going, we had his whole pen collection laid out on the table and like, we'd have a lady come up. It's like, oh, love pins. You know, it was, it was just, it was interesting, interesting to see, interesting to go through his collection. That was fun. But, um, back to the meeting at Dan's house. So Dan is retired. He's been retired for like 10 years. And so he just, I guess just collects fountain pens and he has a whole workshop in his garage. Um, I've got a couple images I need to share. They're still on my phone. I haven't, haven't posted them anywhere yet, but like, I've got a couple images of his workshop. And what was cool about his house, he's got his workshop set up, then he has like a sunroom in his house. It's like the pen museum. He's got all the rare stuff that's like his collection, like the stuff he doesn't sell. And so we got to go through that and seeing all this stuff is just fascinating. He's got the way his collection set up. I mean, it's basically on display in his house in a big room. I mean, well, I say big, it's probably five by eight, maybe something like that, which is pretty sizable room for just pins and pin, you know, pin displays and things like that. And he has all this old collector stuff. Like if you see like an old Pelican display or an old Shafer display, he would have like the display. And then he'd have all the pins that were in the display originally. It wasn't just like some blank display. I was like, goodness gracious. How what? I don't even know how he came across all this stuff. So it was fascinating. But, um, I did get to try a couple of other of the members pins there and Tom had some really cool pins that I liked. One of them I read about and had seen before but never seen in person was a Mont Blanc Agatha Christie model. It was a limited model. I guess they came out a few with a few years ago. And it's this really intricate, intricately designed pin, I guess based on Agatha Christie's work. And it's got this cool like snake clip and the design of the nib has a snake on the nib. It's it's pretty crazy looking. You have to check it out. We'll have it in the show notes. Have you looked at this yet, Mike? Oh, we're just looking at it. Wow. It takes a second to come up. Yeah, it does. But it's like the snake has little jewels in its eyes and I had seen this pin and heard about it before and knew it was kind of a, I don't know, a famous, a famous pin. But, you know, getting to get one of those in your hands and use it for a minute and just kind of look at it up close. That was that was pretty fun. So Tom had that. He also had a Pelican M800 which is a, you know, pretty easy to get a hold of pin, pretty standard pin, but it's a very, it's an expensive pin. And I, doing this, you get to see, like, you know, I've started to get pin modifications for a lot of my nibs and using something like his Pelican. He's had it. He's had a stub nib. He's had it ground to a stub nib by a gentleman named Pendleton Brown who's also in the Atlanta area. He wasn't at this meeting. But just getting to see, not only did you get to see the other pins that people use and other pins that you might have been interested or, but are never able to get your hands on to test drive. Go into a meeting like this. You get to test these things out, right? So you get to try out these pins that maybe are on your wish list or maybe on your dream list. And then on top of that, you get to talk to people about the experiences they've had with, you know, other, you know, nibmeisters or other people working on their pins and, you know, getting to see what that work is like and how that feels on the page. So I got to test out this Pendleton stub nib and it's just, it's so smooth. You know, I might have to try to get, uh, try to have, have to get something like that myself. It was just, I'm starting to get into the stub nibs more and I was really impressed with how the nib came turned out. I was trying out some of his, some of Tom's pins and how smooth they were thinking, boy, I really need to get some more. Somebody need to spend some more money to get my, my nibs worked on a little bit more, but um, it was a fantastic experience. There was probably, gosh, 15 to 20 people or so we were there for probably three hours, you know, food and drink and just a real casual meeting. Everyone, you know, I kind of got to talk to everyone, got to learn a little bit about everyone and, you know, people were asking me questions about, you know, panatic and, and knock and things like that and what all I did and what type of pins that I like and how did I use my pins and things like that. It was just a real, real good conversation, um, to have and it was a blast and I look forward to being able to, to do that again. So, um, I had a great time. So I don't know, I know there's groups all over the country and it's very open to new fountain pen users or new pen users in general. Like, there was at least two or three of us there that it was our first meeting and everyone is so nice and they just want to talk to you and learn about you and, you know, then, and you have the one thing in common, you know, you have these pins in common and that's just a great jumping off point for conversation and that's what it was all about. You know, I met a lot of great people and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's just a group of like-minded individuals. Yes, yes. And it's perfect and Dan, Dan's collection is so gigantic. He actually had like a whole table full of pins. He was selling like, if like he was at the pin show. I mean, his, his, uh, the amount of stuff at his house, I could, I could reel off a whole, whole digital role of film taking pictures of everything but, uh, I was too busy talking to get too many pictures but, um, it was fun. It was, uh, it was an eye opening experience. I really got to, he has a real nice, uh, pelican collection. So I was checking out some of those, um, kind of rare and unseen pelicans that I haven't even, didn't even know such a thing existed and actually got to, you know, hold them and check them out and take a look at them. It was, it was fun. It was a good time. I got pelican envy this weekend. We're gonna talk about that. Yeah, that's a, that's a problem. That's what happened to me. I had no interest in pelican pens really at all. And my friend Thomas just happened to send me a couple that, you know, I was, I was working, you know, able to review some of his pins and he knew I like all the Japanese pens and so he was sending me a bunch of pilots and sailors and he slid in a couple pelicans and that was, that was all I needed. They were, uh, they're kind of a different animal. I, they're hard to explain to be quite honest. Um, and maybe we'll talk about that a little bit more. Um, when we, we talk about what you did this weekend, I think that we should, this would be the perfect time to take a quick break there. All right. Let's do it. It feels like it's just the right spot. And then we'll talk about it. You're the pro. My fun weekend. So let's take a quick moment to thank Squarespace, the all new one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio for a free trial and 10% off. Go to squarespace.com and use the offer code tally ho 10. Me and Brad love Squarespace. We use them for our personal websites. I use Mike Hurley.net is a squarespace site and Brad has, uh, I've just remembered I need to update my, my, uh, page on my Squarespace site with my field notes on it. Yeah. That's true. I need to take a picture of my new one as well. I need to do that. So I'll do that. I'm getting my field notes out now. So I remember to do that later. So what I'm talking about is both, I don't even know if I did finish saying about the, the offer code. I've got so caught up thinking about my own Squarespace site because I love to update it so much. Me and Brad have our own sites. I have Mike Hurley.net. He has the pan addict and knock code or both on Squarespace. But it's something that we mentioned before. So we both have pages on our sites where we, uh, we highlight our, um, field notes collection. So we both have pages on there where we take pictures of our field notes and the ones that we have. And then we post them on there. It's really easy to do that. So what I'm going to be doing today, I'll take a picture of my field notes and I will upload it to Dropbox. And then I will just drag and drop it from Dropbox right onto the page, um, into a little image block and it will format for me and I can add a little caption in which I will do. Um, and it's, it's just so easy to do. Like I, I don't need to worry about any nasty stuff. It's just drag and drop. And I mean, if I wanted to create an image gallery out of them, I could just point Squarespace to a Dropbox folder. And any images I had to that folder just go into a gallery. I just little things like that. I just make it so awesome and easy to use. They have beautiful templates that you can use. They have 24 hour a day, seven day a week support, but you don't need to hear any of this. Just go to Squarespace and try out for yourself. Go to squarespace.com and sign up for a free trial. You're going to be able to get your hands on all of the features that they have. Um, there's no credit card needed for this, for, you know, to start the trial with them. Squarespace plans started just $8 a month. It includes a free domain name if you sign up for a year. And if you're anything like me and Brad, and I know that you guys are, because you're smart like minded individuals too, then you're going to love Squarespace just like we do. So go check out Squarespace, use the offer code tallyhode 10 to get 10% off. Thank you so much to Squarespace for their support of the Panadact and all of five by five. Awesome. Thank you, Squarespace. So what'd you do this weekend? I went to the London Pen show. Whoo. So I'm very happy that I did this because I remember last year, I, we were talking about your pen show, or we were talking about a pen show or something like that. And I looked and the, to my memory, if I remember, the show had pretty much just concluded. Yeah, I think that's right. It was like right there within a week or two when we talked about it. So at that point, I found out when the next one was, and I put it in my diary. And a couple of weeks ago, I was going for my diary and I saw that it was coming up. So I made sure that I went. Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend as much time at the show as I had planned to. My sort of day got a bit thrown at a whack. So I ended up not being able to meet with anyone, which was a shame, because I really wanted to do that. But I basically had enough time to go to the show and kind of get out of there, which ended up being for the best. But I'll explain that in a bit. Pelican envy, I'll start with that because it's not too much of a topic. I saw, I just, I saw some pelicans for the first time, fell in love, saw the price tags, decided I shouldn't do that. They're expensive, man. Yeah, that's the wow. I think that's probably what turned me off at first from Pelican. Just when you compare that pen price-wise to other like pens, they're more expensive. I mean, and it's kind of not even close. You know, say like, you know, you can get, say like the Lamy 2000. That's a nice classic design, 14 karat gold nib pen. It's about 150-ish or so. And then like the first gold nib pelican that you can buy is about 250, you know, or 275 or something like that, which the M 400 thinks the first gold nib pelican. And they start like it. Yeah, like around 250-275. So yeah. But go ahead. So you like them. You like the style? Oh, love them. Really, really love them. Yeah, I think that's what got me about the pelicans is how they feel in the hand, like the way the barrel is designed and the sections designed. And just the complete pack, the total package when you're writing, it's just a very effortless, comfortable, beautiful looking pen. I mean, they're beautiful looking. A purpose we didn't pick one up. Man, yeah, you should. No, I shouldn't. You should. You should. You got to. That way you can compare it. And you know, you don't even have, you know, that can be on the two to three years down the line list. But it'd be nice to know what to experience one. And even now starting to get into the steel nib pens, the steel nib pelicans a little bit now. And they're very expensive, relative. It's, I've got a review coming up of the M205, which is the steel nib, one of the steel nib that's considered kind of an entry level pelican. And a lot of what I talk about is, is that price justification? Because it's way more expensive than like a Twisbee, which we recommend all the time, you know, probably twice as expensive. So why should you buy a pen that's twice as expensive when you're going to get such an excellent performance out of something like a Twisbee for half the price? So we'll, I'll talk about that. I've got a review coming up. I don't, I don't have it. I don't have a date yet. It's not finished. But that's a dilemma I have had with the pelican. And I've actually kind of like to hear from other people too. I know a lot of people collect pelicans. And you know, there is an, there is a justification. It's, I guess it's, you would consider it a premium brand. So they're charging a premium for it. But are you getting the value out of that price? So yeah, that's something I'll talk about later. But I'm totally hijacking your, your pin show experience. Let's, let's go on. The level of nerdiness is a level of nerdiness I have yet to experience in my life. And I sent you a text message and I, and I will say what I said, I have stood in San Francisco on the roof of the Macworld magazine building, discussing the ergonomics of the PlayStation 4 controller with a group of friends. Being at that pin show is the nerdiest I have ever thought in my life. But not in a place. I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just I've never been to something where the enthusiasm is that high and that basically it is like being a computer nerd 10 years ago, because the average person doesn't care about pens. Like the average person didn't care about computers. So it's nerdiness in its pure form, not like this nerdiness these days, where everyone's a nerd because they own a smartphone. Right. You know, this is, this is a level of nerdiness I had not really experienced before being around people that like just overhearing the conversations. Some conversations are exactly like the ones that we have every week. Some I couldn't even understand what people are saying. Right. It's a whole different language. Yeah. And I was like, wow, I really, I'm not even near you. Right. So, so paint, paint a picture for me, but give me the big picture London pin show set up. Like, is it a hotel, like a ballroom kind of meaning room kind of thing? It was like a hotel meeting room. It was quite, it was much smaller than I expected. Mm hmm. Like when you tell me about the Atlanta Pen Show and you can tell me from wrong, I imagine like a huge room. I don't know why. Like a, like a, maybe like a gymnasium or something. No. Yeah. So it's probably quite similar than it was like a hotel conference room. Yeah. You know, and it had like four rows of tables, four or five rows of tables, like two tables deep and then tables around the outside. So we got to make a square. And there was just enough space like to walk through, to have like two people walk inside by side through the, through there, but it was really busy. Yeah. Yeah, it was really busy. Like, it was difficult to move around. Yeah. Well, that's good. It's good to see so many people there. Did you have to pay an admission? Yes. Yeah. Because I think that there is probably the saying that they're run by an organization. Right. Like, I think this is the London Writing Society or Writing Society of London or something like that that puts this on. Yeah. And this, yeah, like in Atlanta, I think it's really just a, like a promoter. But I mean, he's affiliated with, you know, other, he might be do other Pen shows. But yeah, I mean, I think he charged $7 or something like that admission. And I don't know if this is bad. And I don't know if like listeners will get upset at me for saying this, but I saw more young people there than I expected. No, I want anyone to get mad. I don't know. Because it makes it sound like I'm saying that I was just expecting older people, which I was. Yeah. I was. That's good. Like, I was expecting to be the only person of sort of my age group there. But I saw there was a young couple there. And there was actually a girl of my age who was selling. Oh, wow. She didn't really have anything impressive. But it was clearly something she was just interested in, like me. And instead of going to buy, she was just going to sell some stuff. But yeah, I found that quite interesting. That is interesting. That's pretty cool. That was so many pens. Like there was just like it was, it was honestly over what I was completely overwhelmed. So like, I'm texting you. And I'm like, I don't know what to do. Like, there is just too much. So like, I went with two pens in mind. I wanted to get a Parker 51 and a Parker vacuum addict. I did not even begin to sort of estimate how many of those there would be. Right. The 51 a lot more than the vacuum addict. Every table had a selection of them. So I want to talk about the 51 for a minute before I talk about what I actually came away because I didn't buy a 51. Okay. So I'm going around from table to table. I can easily spot what the 51 is. I don't have a lot of knowledge of the pen really, but I know it's like it's like the part metal part plastic body. And the plastic goes all the way up and covers the nib. Right. Right. Plus a lot of them are nicely labeled and stuff to say that they're 51s and sure, this is our section of 51s and stuff. So, you know, first I'm just walking around and I'm just making note of maybe some of the colors that I like. Maybe just looking not really paying too much attention, but doing what you told me to do is just to walk around and look every single table first. So I did that, which I was actually glad that I did for the things that I ended up buying. If I would have just bought straight away, I would have blown my budget on the first two tables and that would have been it. So I went around and I took a look and I was like looking a bit like, okay, so I made some mental notes like that table had a good selection that had a good selection. And then I started to like, so once I sort of picked out the tables that I knew had good 51s and I went and picked up some of the ones that I liked to look of, like that they weren't too beaten up. They looked relatively good condition. And the colors that I like the colors of them as well. So then I started taking the caps off and just looking at the nib, just bringing it close to my eye. And if I'd see any that had gunk in them, I'd just put them straight back down again, because I figured they're not being clearly not being taken care of. Not like if they'd been used today, but if you could tell that they've not been clean very well, is that, well, I'm not even going to entertain this, because if it's not been looked after, if it's second hand and it's this old, I want it to be as good as well looked after as possible. That was my thinking anyway. Some of these are quite expensive. Some of the good looking ones are like 50, 60 pounds. So considering how common they are and were, I should be able to find one for a good deal. But I'm going from table to table and I'm looking at them and I'm like, these are everywhere. And I feel like I don't know enough of what I'm looking for with this pen. With the park of Ecumatic, there was a lot of them, but they weren't on every table. And they were varying, wildly varying levels of upkeep. But the 51 had quite a uniform, like all of them looked okay. So I was like, I'm not sure, I'm not sure. Also at this point, I hadn't worked out the etiquette for trying them. Okay, yeah. So I'm like, what do I do here? Because like I'd only seen at this point, so this is like a little while then, I hadn't really seen anyone using pens, which was strange to me. I was expecting to see people all sitting down and using them. The most that I'd seen was a guy with another 51, and he was just running it across a piece of paper without any ink. I'm like, what is the etiquette here? I have no idea if I can use these pens. So then I'm like, right, I'm going to go look for a Ecumatic. So I started looking around and I found a couple of tables. Again, there wasn't so many of them, but there were many different styles, like different sort of barrel sizes and stuff. I have to somewhere larger than what I expected. Yeah, yeah, because yeah, there's a few different links. I forget the exact names of them, but yes, they'll look the same, but then they vary in the overall length of the pen and diameter. So I wasn't really too sure what to do in that regard. So because I'm not looking at them and I'm like, you know, what sort of size to want. And then as I'm looking around, I end up coming to a right, okay, this is the sort of the price range that I want. This looks like the one that Brad has size wise. So I'm going to go with that. I'm going to look for the ones in this range. And then again, as I'm looking around, prices vary wildly, which is, it makes it difficult because you don't really know if you're getting a good deal or a bad deal. And also I'm like, I'm confident with the haggling. Sure. As well. I'm not, you know, I've never, I've never haggled before. Right. So I'm like, well, I don't really know what to do in this instance. Like, do I say, okay, I'll give you $10 for this? Like, I've literally no idea what to do. Right. So I'm going around and I come up to this one table and there's some people buying at that table. And I'd already decided that I was going to buy a a a vacuum addict from this table, because they had they were pretty well priced, but they looked in really good condition. So I was like, right, this is the table that I will get one from. And luckily, as I walked over, there was people buying something at that table. So I was like, right, I'm going to just look at these pens, but I'm just going to see what these people are doing to one of them then asks if he can try it. So the guy like the vendor, he, he breaks open like a bottle of ink. And I'm like, great, this is what I need. So then like the guy just dips the pen in the ink and just uses it. Right. So I'm like, obviously, as you're saying, that's the way it's done. I assume a lot of times you know, because you probably don't want to fill the pens up. I don't know. That makes sense to me. So I'm like, I'm looking. And I'm like, right. And then I find the one I want. And it's the same colors that you have. That was the one I wanted. So it was a sort of a like a black vacuumatic body with the silver flecks in it. Yep. And I actually was lucky when I was looking, there was a guy who was talking to his wife, I assume it was his wife, about the vacuumatic. And he's like, Oh, you know, these ones are nice. And he's talking a tour a bit about the history. And he's like, Oh, you know, look at it. And he said something that I really like is that look, if you look at this, it looks like the lights in a skyscraper. Yeah, it does. And he was saying, you know, this one's a bit more expensive, because it's this sort of body. And like, he was paying a lot of attention on this table. And he clearly knew what he was talking about. So I was like, right, I've made the right choice. Good. Because also it was well, like one of the main things that I was looking at is the sort of the silver like the chrome on them, the silver one, the God, they had a real mix of looking okay to looking terrible. Sure. So take a find the one that I want. And see how much it costs. I was happy with the price. I've tried it out, fell in love, and I own one. Awesome. So happy with the pen you've been using it. I've only used it a little bit, and I'll explain why in a minute. Sure. It doesn't seem to take much ink in. Yeah, I mean, it's. Yeah, I mean, I've only got the one experience with, but yeah, I mean, it might seem to take in a decent amount, but it's not a ton. No, it's not as much as someone will have a pen and I think it's because it's got that weird sort of like, I don't even know what you call it for their mechanism. Vacuum addict. Okay. But it's like that we let you push the button down. Yeah, and then it sucks it up. Talking about vacuum addict, I saw a Vax 700, it used to be a Vax 700. Sure. Yeah, they are huge. It's a yeah, it's too big. I'm pleased that I saw it. I mean, I always thought that anyway, but they are huge. Yeah, it's a good looking pen, but it's a little big. So one of the interesting things about the the vacuum addict, well, I'm really pleased with it. It's in really good condition. You know, I was just looking it up and I was like, this pen was made like potentially between like 1935 and 1955. And I can't believe how well it works. Yeah, it's clearly old. Like I've had it. I've been carrying it around with my other purchase in my don't lever case for the last few days. Yeah. And it's like showing like quite a bit of ink on the nib. You know, so I wouldn't say that we wouldn't say leaking, but as it's being like thrown around and stuff, it's not dealing with that as well as newer fountain pens. Yeah, that makes sense. I don't know if that's an agent, but it's bigger, you know, probably so as as things get older, they have more trouble retaining liquid. So I'm walking around and every it seems to be on the whole independent vendors. But then I come across the writing desk. Now we've mentioned them in the past. They are a UK based company that sell like coal pens, jet pans. They have a table. That's like great. So I had a quick look. So I was like, I was just scanning around. I was like, oh, they've got some, they've got some Erosusuka inks. I would take a look at those later. I thought to myself, you know, I'll probably come back up by myself a nice, a nice color, maybe a nice Erosusuka of some kind. I'm like, oh, look, they've got some Twisbee said, that's kind of cool. And I'm like, listening in on a guy talking about a Twisbee to one of the guys at the writing desk. Like, oh, yeah, these are nice. And then I stop dead. So I have a wooden box as inside it a selection of Edisons. Trouble, trouble, trouble. Exactly. I was like, I don't, what am I going to do? So they had, had a couple of Edison Collier. They had a couple of Edison Beaumont and Edison Pearlette as well. So I've put a link in the show notes to the writing desk, the actual company, they've got the images all of them. I'm like, oh, my God, how much is this going to be? So I like, I woke up to them. I look at them. How much are these? It's like they're 115 pounds. I was like, okay, that will take me slightly over my budget, but I really wasn't expecting this. Right. Like it didn't even enter my mind. Because, you know, I've spoken on the show about how much I love the way that these things look. And then the guy at the writing desk quickly pointed out that was sort of steel nib. Right. And I was like, yeah, I'd assumed that it wasn't 115 pounds for the gold nib. I didn't say that to him, but yeah. Okay, yes, sure. So I was like, okay, I want to try the pearlette. And he gives it to me. I'll pick it up. And I'm struck by the beauty of it. I tried an indigo one, the nice, nice dark blue one, which I believe is what you own. It is. And I was like, okay, this is, this is nice. I like this a lot. So like the weight is, I mean, I actually went back and read your review on it. And you said that the weight sort of surprised you. Didn't really for me. I don't know why it's light, but it wasn't so much. I was like, Oh, wow. Okay. Right. Yeah. No, I agree with that. So, you know, I was like, this is, this is nice. And took it off. I found it comfortable to hold. And I tried it out of a fine nib. And I was like, take it. So we were, you know, he was, we were just talking about it for a bit. And he was like, do you want to try any other nib? And I was like, no, no, it's fine. So you put it in the box. And then I was like, I want to get an ink as well. So I went over and spoke to the lady at desk. I assumed we were right there wrong here that they were a family, because there was a child with them as well, which I like that. I thought that was quite nice. Yeah, for sure. You'll see that a lot at Penn shows. Yeah. There's actually on there about us. Oh, yes, Anna and Martin Roberts. I was talking to Martin. They've got a picture of them at the London writing equipment show 2009. And they're about page. So that that was what I was at. The writing equipment society. That's the institution that sets up these things. So I went and took a look at the samples. Like they had like a piece of paper with different colors of Eroshizuku inks on it. And I was like, okay, oh, these look, you know, I was like, obviously know that these look nice and stuff. And I was like, let me see what ones I want to get. And I went with the Fuyu gaki, I'm gonna say. Okay, which color is that? Oh, that one off top of my head. It's orange. Orange. Oh, nice. Yeah, really bright orange too. Oh, cool. Oh, they have the Pelican highlight ring for sale. Interesting. I still need to try mine. I got mine. My pelican with the highlight ring. I know. I haven't had time to ink it up yet. I really want to hear you talk about that. Yeah, I definitely will. We've completely gone off. Of course, this is just as I'm looking for their website to find the Eroshizuku. Yeah, it's like, it's the bright orange. They have like a lighter orange called the Yuyake. I know that I'm saying these terrible, terrible, terrible, but I've got the Fuyu gaki. Oh, it's just the worst. So then he's packaging it up for me and I'm paying. I'm like, I would regret that I said I would regret this if I didn't try it. Can I just try it with the medium? And I've got a medium. Nice. The fine was really nice, but the medium is really special. I am in love. I am in love with this pen. I am in love with it. It's a great pen. I mean, there's no, I was trying to think of any adjectives to put with it, but it's a great pen. I mean, I actually took that to the meeting on Sunday and a couple people looked at it and just feeling it writing with it, using it, writing with it, they commented on just how well it fit their hand and just how nice it was. It's a fantastic, fantastic pen, the perlet. So I'm actually stunned that you got one. Like you said, it wasn't on my radar for you necessarily at the pen show. I knew you were going. I didn't even think to say check and see if anyone's gotten the Edison's for you to try out. That's what happened to me too. Once I started trying them, I realized how well made they are and how good they feel and how good they look. That's an awesome looking pen. It's not just a good functioning pen. It's a killer looking pen. And there's orange ink. Oh, yeah. I'm going to put that on the list. Yeah, you need it. You're going to love it. It's always been on the short list and I've just got so many inks I just need to go through. But yeah, I'm going to have to get it now. So I've got the comp again, the vacuum attic for you, Gaki and the pelican and not pelican in the Edison. And I'm enjoying it a lot. It's the only pen that I've used this week. Also, because I, well, not because, but I snapped the clip off of my vicious space pen. I don't know. I just put it in my pocket and it just snapped off. I was like, did you buy a new one? Obviously, a medium found in pen does not serve the field notes very well. But I love this pen so much. I'm like, screw it. I'll just use one page. Yeah, I love this pen so much. I don't care. I mean, I'm trying to think like what? I love twizzbees, right? But yeah, I really love this. Yeah, it's different. I mean, it's a completely different feel. It's a completely different look. I don't know. I love that pen. It's awesome. What I was going to tell you about the nib, you know, is like you probably saw from the people at the writing desk, you can swap nibs. I mean, you can order a different nib, you know, for, I mean, it's like 20, $25 or so. And if you want to, you know, like a, you know, have like an extra fine or a broad, you could have an extra nib laying around if, you know, if you were so inclined. I might do that. Like he actually did swap the nib in front of me. That was our 20 pounds on their website, which is pretty good. Yeah. So just say I've got a couple of pins. Like my Twizzbee 580, I have a 1.1 stub and I have an extra fine nib that I mean, it's like, I actually had a note to talk about this on one episode have that's two completely different pins in the same pin barrel. So yeah, they do. They've got stub nibs for sale. Yep. Cool. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's that. I'm really, really happy. I'm so I'm proud of you for going. It's nerve wracking. I know it is, you know, having done it for my first time and not feeling like I was very experienced in just the whole, just the thing as a whole, the show as a whole, it's nerve wracking. I'm going to take more money next year. I'm going to take more money next year. Yeah. Actually, I did that too. I didn't take very much the first year I went and then by the second year I went, I had saved up a lot more money and I was I was better off and I was able to spend more time, you know, spend more hours there going through everything. Whereas the first year I went, I was kind of like you, I was like, you know, done in an hour. I was like, I've got no money left. So, but cool. That sounds awesome. I'm excited. So, that's I think that's about it. Yeah. I think we got it. We had some new experiences this weekend and it was good to talk about. It was a great weekend. Yeah. Very much so. A great pen weekend. Yep. And I'm sure we'll be referring back to this these days more as we go on and but yeah, it's very cool. Very cool. Learned a lot this weekend. That's good. Always good. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, if you want to catch up with us, you can do so in the following ways. Brad is over at panatic.com and knockco.com and you want to definitely want to go to both of those places and he is @dowdismdowdwyism on Twitter. I am iMike, i-m-y-k-e. We'll be back next week for another episode of the, excuse me, next week for another episode of the Panatic podcast. Until next time, bye bye.
