In this episode Brad and Myke follow-up on the challenges of having too many fountain pen inks, Myke's new Doane Leather Pen Holster, and a rash of new TWSBI products. Brad also discusses ten pens under $10 that you cannot buy at an office supply retailer, and wraps up with one of his patented rants.
Links and Show Notes
In this episode Brad and Myke follow-up on the challenges of having too many fountain pen inks, Myke's new Doane Leather Pen Holster, and a rash of new TWSBI products. Brad also discusses ten pens under $10 that you cannot buy at an office supply retailer, and wraps up with one of his patented rants.
Sponsored by Squarespace
- Doane Paper 4 Barrel Holster
- New TWSBI
- Hypercriticial Episode 100: Metacritical
- Uni-ball Signo DX (UM-151)
- Ohto Graphic Liner
- Monteverde Poquito
- Tombow Olno Body Knock Pencil
- Kuretake Fudegokochi Brush Pen (Super Fine)
- Kokuyo Beetle-Tip
- Tombow Airpress
- Pentel Vicuna
- Platinum Preppy
- Uni Live Pigment Sign Pen
- Dan Benjamin's Tweet
- Brad's Tweet
- Namiki Pens
Hello and welcome to episode fifty two the pen addict podcast a weekly show where we discuss pens paper and the analog tools you love so dearly. My name is mike early and I am joined today by a man who takes his power from the mighty mythology of the heavens he is brad or the pen god. I want a comic book now I was looking at the comic book characters I have around my desk and saw for and for I would go along that that sort of route that's why brad or. Nice I was always I was always a Thor fan when I was a kid for some reason he resonated with me Thor and Spider-Man where were my or my guys grown up so cool this is if I knew I've got Nick Fury the Hulk reds gold Captain America Batman and Spider-Man as well Thor my desk and for was the one that I chose for you nice nice I like it you know my physique is quite similar I yeah I've seen photos. Oh yeah let's go go the wrong direction real quick so that's a that's a it's all things going. Yeah things are good things are good moving on. Segue master. Yeah so we had a good episode last week that I got a lot of feedback on you know we talked mostly about how. Finning out you know our about our fountain pen collections how we make purchases how we collect pens or you know what what our purchase what's behind our person is purchasing decisions and you know more importantly kind of how many pens we use. Frequently you know like for in my case how many fountain pens I have you know and I kind of had a you know a dilemma on the quantity that I had. Inked up and I got a follow-up email from Daniel who initiated the topic from last week and Daniel made a really good analogy that really hit home with me because it's it's it's another thing I collect and use a lot and which is CDs he made this CD analogy so let me let me I'll read a little bit of it real quick. As someone has far too many fountain pens I like to think of them as similar to my CDs there are some I make use of all the time because they're my favorites and others I pull out make use of once in a while because while I like them and would have them if I didn't they're not the ones I want to put in a heavy rotation like my CDs I want all these pens around so I can have access to them whenever I feel like. That doesn't mean I need to use my Parker recommending daily just as I don't need to listen to Frank Zappa every day so I thought that that was a really good analogy because I have a huge CD collection I'm a huge huge music fan and you know and. It made me sleep a little better. You know knowing that I have eight or ten fountain pens inked up or you know took some ones that I just purchased and cleaned them you know got the ink out of them clean them up and stored them away you know it's just you know I might have I'm a huge Smith man you know I've got fifty or sixty Smith CDs and. You know they're my favorite band and while I don't listen to them every day you know I'm glad I have all the CDs and they're here for when I want to listen to them and. You know I'll go and break them out and get great enjoyment out of it so I thought that was a good analogy and that made me that made me settle down a little bit from like I have to cut this down you know I was like trying to be like hard line like I've got way too many I've got forced myself to cut this down and know I'm going to take a little bit slower so. There were a couple other people that email what we got some tweets right after the right after the episode to I forget who who said about one of the persons tweeted us said something like if I don't use the pen within two weeks it goes on eBay and I was like whoa that's a little that's a little harsh there. But yet he he said he said that's exactly what I do and that's that's how fun new pens and I'm going to buy I was like well I couldn't do that that's a little extreme. But I thought it was I thought it was good you know I'm still going to cut down on the amount of pens that I have it up but I don't I'm going to worry less about you know not using. Some of the pins that I own I'm not going to I'm not going to worry about like I have to use everything all the time just to be fair to to the pins that I own and things like that you know I've always had that mental block like if I buy something I want to buy something to make sure I use it. So I thought that was a good analogy with the CDs because I'm definitely in that same boat being a man from this the CD generation I've still probably got five or six hundred stored away somewhere that I don't really use anymore because everything's digital now but. That was a that was a big deal for me I was a big CD collector. Very cool. Yeah yeah so you got you got some mail this week right. Yeah I received the package in the mail which I wasn't expecting to get so soon and I was very happy so I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I bought one of the don't level works projects products and projects I guess it's a bit of both. And I received is I think it's for it's for pen holster. Yeah I think that's what it's called for for barrel holster which is a much better term from down paper and it's really nice it's it's kind of everything I was expecting from it in all honesty like nothing has surprised me because I was expecting a really good quality product and that is exactly what I've got it's got that great leather smell to it. Yeah smells great it's really nice color brown and the beautiful blue stitch in that was really excited about. I found that it obviously you know four pens do fit in it but not always it depends what I'm putting in there sometimes it's more like free like the twizz B's are really big barrels like they're quite white so that they kind of take up a bit more space but. I don't think I would want to put four in it I'll probably be happy with like two in here. I don't really know when I'm going to use this but I know I wanted it and I'm happy that I have it because it's one of those things that is probably going to last forever because it's a really well made product and you know it'll probably be something where when I'm when I'm when I'm not in a position where I'm leaving my pens somewhere else to where I you know where I would prefer to be using them so when they're not left at work because I don't want to be carrying them back as a forwards to mention many times. This is where I like on my desk I would probably keep like a Twizz B and a rich my favorite retro in here and they'd be nice and tucked away right next to me all times. Yeah I have the the previous model this is the new one that you have the newer one it's got a slightly different shape and then he's got a different working with a different leather manufacturer I believe and it looked it looks very much the same it's a beautiful beautiful piece the leather is like. Nothing that I've ever used yeah it's very rich but it's like buttery smooth soft and but it's like really thick and you can tell it's going to last forever. But like you I mean it's called the four-barrow holster and yeah if you're not using four big fat fountain pens you know like a lot of the pins that we use it puts four pins easily but like you I usually end up carrying three like if I'm carrying. Lomi 2000 you know pilot custom heritage 912 and a Twizz B I mean that's going to fill it up those are all three wide barrel pens. But it it it breaks in very very well it's one of those products that gets better with age and I'm super happy with mine so I hope you enjoy yours as soon as I put put pens in it I know it's like the changing the stressing of the leather at the bottom. Yeah yeah and it like I said it just it really just gets better and better has the more I use it and it gets break in broken and excuse me and you know it forms to the shape of the pens a little bit you know and obviously you're switching around and putting in different spots but it. I'm very happy with it it's a it's a cool product it's one of the one of the favorite one of my favorite things that I've bought in a long time I like using it and I do carry that in my backpack when I'm. I have that when I'm carrying the normal amount of pins that I should be carrying that's what I use. So it does it does work well in in the backpack and that's my preferred thing because I don't want to carry you know too big fat pen cases you know if I'm going back and forth to work I don't need to carry 20 pens so that's what I use say if I was transport in my pens every day this is what they would be in but but I don't transport them. I want to see that they stay in one place just because I worry about damaging them yeah yeah I can I can definitely see that so I leave them where I used in the most which in the moment is at the office. Cool cool and now. We I think you saw this you saw this tweet around when when I saw or you might have you might have seen it first but yet these we got a tweet from. I guess it was from Anna or artists or some of our followers on Twitter sent us a link from the fountain pen geeks website which I like those guys Dan and Eric at F P Geeks dot com they do a great job over there and. They had a recent post with new Twisbee models and both you and I are fans of Twisbee we like. We like their style we like we like the value that Twisbee offers they make some of the best bang for the book pens on the market in my opinion you can get a really serious. Really good pen for a very good price I think and they had a a post other day with a bunch of the new Twisbee models did you get a chance to go through that whole post and like look at all the links and all the new products and everything I'm looking at the other links now I only looked at the original images but ho mama. Let me let me go let me just go through their post real real quick and we'll link this in the show notes if you're not familiar with the F P Geeks and you should definitely bookmark their site and and read it frequently they post. They do something like I don't do very frequently is they post a lot of news right so this is this is what I consider a news poster saying hey these new products are coming you know my I stick with reviews otherwise you know I don't have time for 10 or 20 posts a week so. I kind of stick with what I do best and you know I like to read guys like Dan and Eric and you know they have they use a ziza from gourmet pens and a jelly right on the site too so they they have a lot of. A lot of news post a lot more frequent articles I'm just surrounding new products and things like that so definitely check them out but. This was the post was really for they're doing so they have that was the back 700 which is very large full size vacuum. Of filling fountain pen well they made this prototype that they showed on. F P Geeks link the picture for the back mini and that's really. That's one of the most beautiful pens I think that they've designed yet it's just it's in these colors is absolutely beautiful and I'm looking at the other links and. Oh my god the 850 I R O C yeah oh my word the chrome chrome finish and that finished was aluminium probably. Oh they don't say when are all of these products going on sale Brad you need to yeah that was that was the big question and actually Dan pose that question anyone want to start taking. That's on a release date so they don't have release dates yet I mean they're Twisbee for all the. Products that they have their release schedule is pretty. How should I say it's they spread it out pretty well they don't they're not jamming a lot of new products at one time down everyone's throat so they're spread out pretty well so it could be up until next year that will see some of these because. This that 580 or 850 excuse me I rock. That's been a prototype I think for a while and it's pretty awesome I mean it's like an it's an all metal barrel I don't know if it's aluminum or not I don't have the specs on here but they have a chrome finish one and a matte finish one and it's just it's straight up beautiful I mean it's an awesome looking pen. It's basically the 580 just all all chromed out which is pretty awesome and I made fun of the name on Twitter the other day the Iraq and you're you're too young to know what an Iraq is aren't you Mike. I don't know you're you're too young and too British know what an Iraq is but back in the back in the 70s and probably the 80s the the. There's a Camaro the Camaro model Z 28 I think I rock and it was it was just you know that's what you are that's what all the cool kids drove you know in the 80s was the Iraq Z. You know just a kind of a several muscle car but it's just kind of a kind of cool car it was a it was a hot car back in the back in the 70s and 80s so I kind of made a joke about that the other day of the name of it was was kind of funny to me but it's a beautiful pen and then they also linked to. You know some some other things in this in this article on F.P.E. because they linked to a Twisbee's working on their own notebooks which look very nice to look like they're going to be a good you know Moleskin look in you know black covered notebook. The one I really like was the was the slim the PPO 81 slim fountain pen that look like a really good good model to me and the Twisbee eco which is going to be their entry level fountain pen I've read about this one before it's going to be like the Lamy Safari. Of their Twisbee product line it's going to be like around a $30 price point a good entry level fountain pen you know I think a more you know just a more straightforward barrel simplistic nib things like that so it but it's still going to be a piston filler I believe so that's a that's a pretty good price for you know a $30 pen or so so that would be nice if we get to see the sea some of these before the years out and some of them like the. Like the 850 Iraq we may not see for a while but the first the first post that fountain pen geeks had on the 850 was in October of 2011 oh my god yeah they said in one of the one of their sort of I went I started looking through. The chain and they're like we we our first article was published way back in October 2011 that simply included design renders. Wow well but I do like how a Twisbee does you know they released some of that some of that stuff earlier like hey this is what we're looking on it's like the up it's like the car show where they have the prototype cars you know you like you'll never see them on the road but you know hey this is what we're working on and maybe you'll see some of the stuff integrated into our product line in the near future and I think Twisbee does a good job with that I think they post most of their on their Facebook page. I don't I don't use Facebook but um you know if you're on Facebook check out Twisbee on Facebook they post a lot of images like this and I think that's where I'm F.P. Geeks are seeing all this information about all the cool new stuff that Twisbee's coming up with. Well you know I want to just get one of these products soon because they were amazing if they could you give me any of them I'll be happy. Yeah I mean it's like they don't they're not playing around it's not just like we're working on this one pen I mean there's like they have you know five different things and you know in the hopper right now that there were. Working on so I like the the mini on the picture on the the Twisbee post that we're looking at the main one the the black faceted mini one that's on the right hand side of that image that one that one's mine whenever it whenever it comes out so they all look like design renders to me though yeah I know so that by looking by charging by that it's going to be a long time till we get them. I know I know but anyway I'm now I've now just liked their page on Facebook so I can try to find some stuff okay cool. Awesome and one one more thing about F.P. Geeks before we move on I've I've been more active this week they have a really nice forum at F.P. Geeks definitely check that out. It's it's a good I like the layout I like the community it's a good good growing community very helpful you know I've I've very much enjoyed it I've been trying to use it more over the past week just because I like those guys I want to support those guys so. And then you will definitely notice some of the names on the board if you if you're into into the pins at all so you'll see some of the same people on on Twitter that you're that are talking on this board and things like that so. Anyway I just wanted to give them a give them a shout out for their for their F.P. Geeks forum which is is very cool yeah I hear I hear the F.P. Geeks forum mentioned a lot I don't feel like I have the knowledge to be there. Oh no that's the thing I mean it's like I mean it's like totally beginners to experts I mean people buying their first pound fountain pens are posted on there and you know I posed a question you know about inks yesterday that I don't you know I didn't even hesitate to to make the post just because you know. I didn't have the knowledge and you know got some responses and things like that so no it's totally for beginners beginners to to experts and everywhere in between so you should you should absolutely chime in. Maybe I will yeah you should you should so it's a it's a nice community over there I'm very much enjoying it. So I think that's I think that's all the kind of the follow up catching up stuff I gotta do if you want to talk about our sponsor and then I've got an interesting topic that is kind of a combination of a few things we've talked about in the past. Do you know this show now has hyper critical levels of follow up 18 18 minutes of follow up yeah I love it I think it's great I really like because I am such a fan of hyper critical. I'm the old show 5x5 like I even I listen I've started listening again I'm up to like episode 39. From the beginning you went from the beginning from the beginning yeah oh wow yeah I really enjoy really really enjoy and I like that a show like this one it's become such a thing now you know for us and for the people around us that you know we get sent in stuff and we have other things that we need to address and I really like that I think that. For me personally that shows the maturity of a show I don't know how good it is for new listeners that was something that John Syracuse is talking especially in sort of the final episode I'm going to put that one in actually I think it was called metacritical where he sort of criticized the show any criticized the. The idea follow up and the fact it was a start because it made it made it difficult for people new people coming to show. But he still says that he always would have wanted it that way because it made sense to him and it makes sense to me to have it. Then as well because it's like your it's the continuation of last week's content. Right I mean I definitely see John's point to where it could be difficult for a new listener actually get some email saying hey I'm a new listener have you discussed this or things like that but I think I think it absolutely helps with the with the continuity of the episode people can be engaged. In the podcast knowing that you know we've discussed the topic and even if they don't email us you know in their room or tweet us that we're likely to mention that again and they will know where we're coming from you know on that particular topic or you know we can ask a question you know to listeners and we can follow up with the answers on a future episode and things like that I just think it really engages the community around the podcast you have this type of discussion. You know and and we have said it before we could do a whole we could just do our whole episodes on just you know all the follow up stuff from the week you know all the emails and tweets and answering questions and actually I want to do an episode coming soon like an all questions answered kind of episode soon so. You know I like doing that because it's actually. Sometimes it feels like a there are some main topics that I want to approach and do specific things and do some. Larger discussions around but sometimes you know I just want to chat with you and talk about pins and and talk about what we've talked about before and what people are asking questions about so I think I think it works out well for us I think it's a good it's a good format for our type of show. I agree and and something that John used to say was that he thinks it would be we're there to put it at the end because then you're having a whole conversation in between last week's topics so last week new topic. Follow up on last week kind of seem strange so I agree yeah anyway let's talk about square space. So I want to take a brief moment just to thank our fine friends and the great folks over at squarespace.com who give you absolutely everything you need to make an amazing website me and Brad both have our personal sites there. Well it's my personal site Mike holy dot net Brad has a pan addict dot com I would like to tell you show your attentions to our field notes pages and you'll see them in the in the list there you know like in our navigation right at the top both mine and Brad science which look which do look very different are both built with fantastic squarespace templates. They look great on all devices Brad's recently redesigned his site and I think it looks even better than ever especially on the phone and I think it looks really really great and you'll see that we've both created these fields notes pages so we've created those pages if you go to for example Mike holy dot net forward just go Mike holy dot net and you'll see field notes collection or pan addict dot com and you see field notes are at the top and you'll see that we've both created these pages and we're able to do those using squarespaces page layout system called layout engine. And with that we're able to drag and drop so for example I wanted to put to put the photos around and put them in the order that I wanted from when I. So first purchase to now and as I've collated more and I'm able to just in the web browser drag and drop these images around and able to resize them all within the web browser. It's so simple I don't need to learn any code or anything like that it's just the way I would want it to be if I was going to create a grid of icons I would want to be able to drag and drop them like if it was. Resizing images in a PowerPoint for example that's how simple it is you just can click the the just as drag them to make them larger or smaller and move them around the page is so simple and that's what I love about squarespace is how easy you can throw something like that up. It took me for like even to upload the images you drag them into the web browser into the little says like upload an image here you can click it or you can drag it from a desktop into your browser and it uploads into the page and I just love that stuff I just think. Really it's great that I don't have to worry all I need to worry about is putting my content online. So I've kind of deviated from the regular discussion that we have with squarespace but I think that that's a good sort of you know this is how we did it. Squarespace have everything you need great hosting great integration they have squarespace commerce we can sell products brilliant they have 24 seven customer support. Find out more and try out for yourself go to squarespace.com for 70 decibels you can start your free trial there. Squarespace plan start at ten dollars a month for their standard plan and twenty dollars a month for their limited plan if you sign up and pay up front for one year you'll get twenty percent off these prices if you sign up for two years you'll get twenty five percent off but don't forget to use the code 70 decibels for that seven zero D E C I B E L S and the number four and you will get an additional 10% off your first order so go check out squarespace everything you need to make an amazing website. Okay Brad I kind of went off script totally yeah no I thought it was good for a change you mix it up it was more of a use case which actually I think is is is better you know it's it's really it's it's a very simple product use and I think I mentioned last week when I did my site redesign I mean it's when I decided to do the redesign I'm sitting on the couch at like one o'clock at night and I think I go I think I'm a redesign the site you know it's not like. All right you know a week of planning let's put on a pot of coffee yes and get some red bull going and let's dig in to the back end I mean I think I said it took me 30 minutes to redo everything that I wanted to do so I mean it's just for me it that's what. What what I'm looking for is a site that looks great is easy to use and I don't have to manage all the back end code that's why I've never gone to word press and unlike word press installs because I don't want to have to upgrade my own back end code. I want someone else to handle that so I'm happy to pay square space to do that and for me that's what works so cool. That's my that's my speech I appreciate it. So I have a topic I would like to discuss that is kind of a culmination or kind of a a merging of of quite a few different topics one is you know my top 5 list that people enjoy. You know second is the state of the big box retailers like staples office max your large you know retail establishments that carry office supplies and then you know related into that the things you cannot buy at a retailer. So we got a I got a tweet from a Brian Esposito who's on Twitter at s p o r e s p o w a r i a r i and he says article idea top 10 pins under 10 dollars that you can't buy at a big box store. So I thought that that was a. I thought that was a really good question and it was actually when I decided to do this topic it was actually harder than I thought and I'll talk about that in a second but I wanted to follow up. An email I got it's probably been a month or two since I did my last little rant on the the state of the big box retailer and I actually got an email from a guy that applied at office max and I've saved this email ever since he's sitting Senate Randy sending this email and I wanted to read it because it pretty much I mean it's not surprising at all you know what he says in this email to me anyway, but I just I just wanted to read it out because it's just it's kind of. What we're up against if you will so i'm going to read this it's a little bit long but let me read through it because I think it's good says dear Brad great podcast yesterday about Japanese pins and why they are so scarce a couple weeks ago I applied for a part time gig at the local local office max hoping to pick up extra bucks to feed my habit and if possible take advantage of any employee discounts. The hiring manager asked why I believed I was qualified to which I replied that I had a semi encyclopedic knowledge of pens and how they might improve their sales of writing instruments young mr manager suppress the lip curl and reply that the stores customers did not really care about pens as long as they write and or cheap. This to my mind is one of the things wrong with big retailers they offer only mediocre crap because they believe no customer over want a better or more specialized product my response was to say offering a wider variety of writing instruments might provide a marginal competitive advantage the door he said this didn't matter as there was no real margin on pins. Now admittedly I was less than an ideal interviewee but this incident may illustrate why office max staples office depot won't devote three hooks say to the pilot I taxi or the zebra sorari I think if you offer great pens most customers might accept a slight markup but maybe that's just me thanks. So that that's pretty disappointing it's not surprising right i mean. They're not a pin store there feeling a need of someone who's coming to buy in general in general they're feeling the need of someone who's coming in to buy. Large quantities of office supplies and so they're getting you know the cheapest pens they're cheap and they're right they're gonna sell it so that's kind of that's kind of what we're up against and why you know that's why i write a blog called the pen addict and finding other things that are available there that are so much better so. I thought that was kind of that really summed it up in a nutshell with the thought process is behind these retailers yeah yeah such a shame i mean i understand. You know i understand that that maybe not all of their part in that their customers do but i'm sure they get some that do and i feel that. Maybe even people that are going into this store and not just picking up what's in the office supply cabinet at least care a little bit more. And then you get people like you know people like us going to the shops and have a look around and i don't know it's a shame it's a shame. Right like i always said i mean you know not everyone's gonna have the level of the craziness that we have around pens but. If you just take you know one second to buy one thing different than what you would find like in the office supply cabinet you know just take one little step up and you're just being a lot better shape. You know in your writing instruments but anyway that's a. Everyone knows my stance on that that's my rant but it's a but hey this is a precursor to our rant a rant i have at the end so that's a tease everyone needs to stay around for my rant i have at the end it's a good one. Well i'm excited but let's get into brian's real question so just to recap the question is. The top 10 pens under 10 dollars that you cannot buy at a big box store so it's pretty much retailers you know online retailers and in my case all the pins i use i think i pretty much found all these jet pins just because i mean obviously i love them. And have used them forever and obviously have worked for them and you know i they they do they stock they do merchandising better than anyone i think pretty much so let me go through my list will talk about it. And you know if you have any questions about chime in mike and this was like i said this was harder than i imagine cuz i tried to be somewhat strict to wear you know like. If they like the pilot high tech see you can get it at the store now in like the pilot g tech see form right so i didn't say well. The pilot high tech see point three millimeter they only care the point four millimeter at staples so i didn't say i didn't take the easy route say well the point three millimeter that's a better one and you can't buy that in the store i tried not to do that. You know so i tried to get things that you really can't buy it a store in you know a another tip size or you know something something relatively. Relatively summer same product line but a different size different color things like that so i tried to be as strict as i could so let me go through. The ones that came up with number one for me was super easy and then after that it was all downhill from there. After number one it was hard but number one is the uniball sino d x this is the one that they call the the model numbers you and one five one which a lot of people refer to this pen as the u one five one. And i've always been. On i've always said the same thing about this the sino d x and i know it's pronounced signal you don't have to tell me that i just can't say signal sign it makes it's a sign it's a sign it's a sign to me. But in the stores they have you know the sino two o seven the sino rt in various different versions. The u_m_ one fifty one sino d x is different it is absolutely different i will go to my grave saying it's different it writes different it writes better it feels better it feels different that's. That's my favorite pen that you cannot buy at a store and i tell that to people all the time you know if you want something the store here's one look. But if you want to try something that's really good it's really cheap that's going to write really really well compared to anything else you've ever used it's the sino d x and that's. For years that's been the pen i've recommended more than any and it's never been available in any store that i've seen and i want to clarify we're talking about big rock big box retailers here you know if you go to. You know my though like in san francisco or i can't pronounce this the cano can you a bookstore in new york in san francisco you're gonna find these pens those are specialty retailers we're talking about the big box stores here so make sure you tell me the name of that place in san francisco little closer to wdc i'll be going. Oh yeah yeah kenoka you book store in my my dough you might need to send me that yeah i think i've linked it in one of the other podcast before but i know that i've ever ever actually said the word. I was my number one my number two is a pin that i've been talking about a bunch in a bunch of people ordered on my recommendation and have enjoyed it fortunately that's always a scary thing for me when i recommend pins and everyone's orders and says all this is terrible. But the the autographic liner has been a huge surprise continues to be a huge surprise continues to be in my top five pins list all around and it's just a flat out great pin that i enjoy writing with a lot you picked up one of these recently didn't you might. Yeah and i even told down to get one to look at what we've got we've got them Benjamin on the bandwagon guys he's joining us he's joining the pan addict ranks. Yeah Dan posted a tweet will have to post that tweet he had he had two fountain pins in his tweet the other day and i was like oh the big boss man has got the bug so we'll have to get him on but he's got a pelican m two oh five and a kiwiko alesport. Don't worry guys that was with my mind and Brad helped him with that don't worry. Yeah and i was proud of him for getting the clip on the on the kiwiko cuz i think that makes him look so much better well of you know obviously somebody told him to get. I said you got to get the clip you've got to get it because yeah it looks better and it's function more functional yep and he got he found j her bin pearl new art on his own. Yeah that was a great choice i figured you told him that but if he found that on its own that was that would probably in the top few inks that i would recommend to someone trying you know the first time j herman inks is really a easy thing to use them yeah he said well in pro noir gets a lot of good reviews he said i think he was looking for like the top list. Japan seems like what do you think is that perfect you said you i think i said you will love it you think it's great good good good good good solid anyway sorry i do round here. Yes no no i forgot we should we should talk about that in the beginning to but yes we'll link to Danza pictures i thought it was pretty cool so anyway the oto graphic liner that's number two just that's that's one of those pins that it's cheap enough to where you can just throw it in an order sometime and try it out to see if you like it i was impressed with it and it's got a it's a. And it's got a pigment in ink and a very firm tip and comes in lots of different sizes so i very much enjoyed it. On the third one is the monoverday pokito which is a mini pen that i use a lot it's probably the most it's one of the two most expensive pens on here this is actually a straight up ten dollar pen so it's not cheap but it can't stay under the limit. And it's a it's a portable pen that i clip like inside you know like a field notes cover or don't utility general cover and it's it's got a really good ballpointing cartridge that's what sold me on it is the ballpointing cartridge. Right it's really smooth and really dark and it's also got a stylus that works really well on the other end of the pen it's a it's a twist it's a twist and so the stylus doesn't get in the way at all. And the stylus works very well on you know your your devices you know it works great on my iPhone stuff like that i'm very i'm on my second one of these because it's so tiny and small i wash the first one in my pants pocket one day so. I'm on number two of the pokito i liked it that much i went ahead and ordered another one real quick cuz i didn't like being without it. The fourth one is a really cool pencil it's called the tombo all know body not pencil and i recommend this to people a few times you just want it's a more casual pencil. Compared to like a carotoga roulette or you know like a road train you know it's not it's not a real it's an everyday use type of pencil not a you know it's not an engineering or drafting type pencil and what it does is it allows you to extend the extend the lead just by clicking the middle of the pen so there's like a. That's called the body not really because there's almost you can't feel it but there's almost like a break in the middle of pencil and you just use pressure. Like you never have to leave your writing position to extend the lead you just kind of make this little move with your fingers it's hard to explain on the on the microphone but it actually i have a couple of these and it works really really well and it's i think it's under five bucks and great colors. Yeah they're cool looking they did a great job on the design, this is something that if you get that if you buy. This pencil no one else is going to have this this one you show off to your friends and go cool what is that and you can tell them and show how it works and it's a great writer it's very comfortable i'm one of my favorite pencils outside of the carotoga and the drafting style pencils that i like so much it's probably i don't know maybe one of the few that i use outside of those. And like you said they have really cool colors on them um. The next one number five. Is a pen that i fell in love with a couple years ago and actually forgot about until i started writing this article and i have to get get it back out because i really enjoyed it. When i use it and this is another branch out type of pen to where if you haven't used something like this before you want to this is the one you want to look at it's the kurataki fudego kochi brush pen. In super fine so brush pens most people think about having a large very large flexible bristle tip pen this is almost. More of a porous tip pen it's the super fine it's got a firmer tip it's not a it's not a very expressive brush if you will it's more of a finer firmer brush tip. And i use this pen to write notes with i mean i've had i've had a lot of and got a lot of enjoyment out of this pen and i think you know this kind of. This pen is it kind of really sums up the whole feel of this list this is kind of a list you want to look at for something if you want to branch out from the norm. You know that's kind of the gist behind this whole list you can't find these pens regularly maybe you've never tried a brush pen before or something like that so this is kind of the first one you might want to consider trying if you've ever thought buying. A brush pen or you know a different kind of pencil or a mini pen or anything like that so that's that's kind of the gist behind this list. I enjoy that panel a lot and you know the number six item on this list is one i recommend a ton and is also one of those branch out items and i think you have this pen on my recommendations the kokuyu beetle tip highlighter. Of course that's i mean in my book it really can't be beat for a highlighter just because of it some. It's it's functionality you can do different things with a different line with you know why medium super fine underlining it does it all it looks cool. You know it'll freak your friends out when they when they see it so it's a it's a it's a really good highlighter it's about the only high the lighter i recommend and you know you just can't pick up something like this it it staples or. Office max the next one is it's i think tied for the it's another $10 pin but i had to include it because it's you can get some similar things at the store but nothing really as great as this and that's the tombo air press. And this is a pen i don't talk about enough this is a pen i like to keep in my car because it is a it uses a pressurized refill to ballpoint pen pressurized refill like the fisher space pin it comes in a really great barrel. Wow it's really it's really well designed it's really durable yeah it's got a super super fantastic clip on it on the knock mechanism is really solid. You know it's not the purest ballpoint writing experience you know compared to like a jet stream but the functionality. And the type of things that you use this pin for it it's one of the best it's it's really kind of like the all weather pin it'll write in the rain it'll it's can stand the freezing cold it can stand the super hot that's why i said i keep this pin in my car. What the journal i keep in my car because i know it's not going nothing's going to happen to this pen until i ran out of it i've already run one of them out i've used it so much in my car. I it's one of the best pressurized refill pins like i said like at the store i think pilot is starting to put their down force. I think i've seen that in the store shelves which is a pressurizing refill pin but it's not as good as this air press it's actually not even close just mainly because of the barrel design and clip and knock and looks of it this is a killer pin. Excuse me the next one. I wouldn't be surprised if one day it did come into the office apply stores i'm out of this whole list of any of them show it up. Besides maybe the uniball sino d x it would be the pen tell vicuna. It's a it's pen tells version of the hybrid ballpoint ink pen like the jet stream like the sorari. I'm like the pilot acro ball this is pen tells versions the vicuna i didn't like this pen at first i thought it was a little bit globby little bit messy. And then i ordered a point five millimeter and i ordered the multi pen and i can kind of i kind of fell in love with it because the i use the black ink on it which i'm more of a blue ballpoint ink. Guy i don't like the blue as much but the black vicuna is really really dark and rich and clean and write a really good line so i was very i'm always very happy with this pen. Like i said it's you know the base hybrid ballpoint is i wouldn't be surprised one day of pen tell put it in the store you know named it something named it something other than the vicuna i guess cuz i think that's the rule for any company if they make something in Japan it's successful they make it in the US and change the name which makes complete sense right. Sorry i'm so negative it's okay. Number nine is a pen i reviewed in the first one or two months of the pan addict back in 2007 maybe early 2008 and it's still popular it still sells a lot and it's still not available in a store and probably never will be. But the platinum preppy fountain pen is a really you know you're not going to find hardly any fountain you'll find a few fountain pens under under ten dollars at the store like the pilot varsity i think is one you can find the store i was not a fan of that pen at all on the platinum preppy on the other hand it's got a really fine it comes in a lot of colors i mean i think for about three fifty it's a really it's a really good. It's a really good writing pin it does a good job on on paper it's fun to use as a matter of fact when i am. Back when i was at my at my current job but before i went left for jet pins i left a bunch of you know brought everyone a bunch of pins before i left. And just this morning one of the guys was using one of the platinum preppy fountain pens that i left in our in our meeting this morning before i left work so i thought that was pretty neat because he's probably had it for a couple years now in the inks just about out of it i don't think he uses it everyday but i thought that was kind of funny that just this morning he was using the green platinum preppy that i left there before so that was kind of neat. Have you ever have you ever used the preppy have you ever. Know i have someone yeah it's like a it's i mean it's a complete disposable fountain pen you know it's but it's got it's got nice colors like you get a blue black one and they're fine fine nibs very firm firm fine it writes very cleanly it's a really really popular disposable fountain pen. And it's actually not all that disposable people have yeah into i droppers and done different things with them of the barrel stuff but i thought this would just be a waste i'm not going to use it like it's it would just be a waste really yeah yeah i agree i mean it's a it's a fun pin to try but it's not it's not ever going to replace any of my main fountain pens or anything like that or i'm not going to use it instead of a high tech see or something but it's it's a fun it's a fun pin to try if you never trying to fountain pen i think that was the first fountain pen that i bought from from jet pens i don't think i tried to. Really any fountain pens before that point so i wanted to just try something out and look where i'm at now so it's gateway drug be careful yeah totally. The last one is the uni live pigment sign pen i use a lot of marker style pens a lot of drawing type pens. And this is a really really inexpensive pen that leaves a really dark line it's pigmented ink it's got a poor tip. You know it's it's one of those pins it's a good spot number 10 because it's nothing special but it's one if you used it i think you would really enjoy it. Out of all you know i use a lot of secure pygma microns which didn't make list because they actually are available a lot of retailers. This is kind of a replacement for that that i've never seen at a store and it's just something. It's something i like a lot so you know it's a good it's a good marker style pen which i don't think on this list i really had anything anything like that because actually that's one thing the retailers do do a decent job at is the the marker felt to stop and you get some pretty good ones. In the store there you know like the micron or the sharpie pin things like that so so yeah that's my that's my top 10 list of pens under 10 dollars that you cannot buy at the store so i appreciate brines and that question it was fun trying to put this list together and like i said it was harder than i thought i really had to do some some thinking about it and actually got me thinking about some pins that i haven't used in a while like the. The karateaki a brush pen which that's an awesome pen i love that pen i'm gonna go you'll get it out after this show so i'm bringing it to work tonight use it because that's a that's a fun pen to use. I guess what will be waiting for. Okay so i've got a rant and i don't want to be unfair because that's not my intention because i understand. Where these folks are coming from but this is in response to a tweet me give a little background i made a tweet i don't remember what day it was on this weekend maybe. Have to look at it we're gonna i'll link i'll link the conversation in the in the show notes but i made a post i had this role my fountain pens i had currently up it's a lot of pilot products on with a lot of pilot inks like a roshazuku and blue black i don't even i can't remember which i'll use. Anyway i'll i said what my tweet said currently ain't and it should a picture of all the little examples that i just wrote. Pilot pin u_s_a_ responded they said now that's a mean we love to see which pilot pin is assisting you today. So i let me back up a little bit i've talked with the i don't know who runs the pilot pin u_s_a_ account it's me that's not there they are very nice they. Talk to me and they DM me all the time they sent me the acroballs in the past they're very very good this is not a knock on them because i just don't i my rent is basically i just don't think they know everything and it's not to be expected so it's i don't want to be unfair to them i think the people behind the counter totally fine. But what happened was i said they said which pilot is assisting you today i said i love the custom heritage fountain pen that's my peo new pen i said bring it to the u_s_ and then you know i had someone chime in it's like i second that you know and so pilot pins response and this is what got me on the rant. It says thank you for your suggestion in the meantime they're available on amazon here and that really upset me and maybe i'm reading more into this than i should but number one. This is a product so they link me to the pilot custom heritage ninety two so i wasn't specific in the number that i asked them for so. They said they're available they link me to the pilot custom heritage ninety two on amazon that rub me the wrong way for two reasons number one if they're linking me to a pen. That their company carries and sells in the united states they should be able to link it on the pilot pen u_s_a website. That's number one number two they have several vendors several vendors that i support and you support and that are my friends like jet pins and goulay pins and Anderson pins and Richard's pins that carry the pilot ninety two that they linked on amazon and they didn't link to these fine retailers carry this product. So i got a little i didn't respond. Obviously that just it rub me the wrong way i guess you know. My response was you know i was very. Passive and our sponsor said that's just the ninety two the ninety one the nine twelve and the roshu's roshuzuku color demonstrators are needed and the goulay pins chimed in and that's when it really got me thinking about this whole topic. It says goulay pins was correctly responded said it's already here just in clear right now we would love to see more colors that means goulay pins like hey. We're part we're a customer of yours we carry this pen and it's getting linked through amazon i. Maybe i'm wrong you tell me if i'm wrong but i just read me the wrong way that number one they couldn't even link a product a fountain pen product that is very awesome on their own website. To show me more about a product they carry in the u.s. And then number two they link to it on amazon when there's all these vendors out there like the goulay pins and like jet pins that carry this product so. I didn't say anything to them in you know cuz i'm not an extremist i don't i'm not gonna i'm not i'm not trying not to be that guy but it. Just those two things about it really kind of rub me the wrong way and it's not the people behind the twitter account it's not it's by no means their fault. Now it's not an indictment on them they just maybe not don't know but it just kind of solidifies. My thoughts about the state we're in with pen products in Japan versus the pen products in the USA and what the beliefs of these companies are in supporting. Bringing over products that are great from Japan and then supporting the vendors here in the US that purchase their products for them so. You know that that that's my rant i don't i don't want it's not an indictment on the the people behind the twitter account themselves it's just more the overall. The overall topic of you know importing pens and and you know the. Handling the products that you carry and knowing your product lines and things like that so. So the seller that they linked to is some mom and mom and mom and pop mom and pop shop. Called premium Japan and they're a husband and wife team that sell Japanese products on Amazon. So they will buy things for you and ship them to you. This is not the people they should be thinking because they are not. They sell everything i'm on their on their page now they sell they sell a bunch of pen and paper stuff. What they sell knives like cutting knives you know for food they sell small action figures cameras. What they should have they and as well more than anything they shouldn't be linking to a specific. Vendor you know if park park a pilot should not be doing that unless they have one vendor that they sell for they should be linking back to a park a page which says you can buy it here here here. Right that's what they should be doing. Yeah i thought the link should have gone that that's the first thing i looked at it's like why are they. Why are they telling me this pen is available in the US and then don't send me a link to the pilot pen us a website. That shows this pen that's what it should be yeah so that's what it got me thinking and then the glaze responded. And i was like well yeah if they didn't link into on their website they should at least be. You know linking to say you know here's some vendors that carry it you know galay jet pins Richard pens things like that. It just struck me is very odd the way they. The way they did that so anyway and like i said i know this is gosh this is not an indictment on the people that run that account i mean they just make. Not know and i i like i said i've talked to them you know online and offline and they're super nice. But you know it it really struck me as odd and it kind of fits in with a lot of the thoughts i've had about. Yeah well this is this is a problem that me and you keep coming back to which is the issue of the Japanese companies that set up United States subsidiaries who then don't carry the same products or even acknowledge in some instances that they exist. Right that that's it this is a problem that is across the industry and it's not the fault of the person who's on operating the social media account because they don't have a clearly don't have an official line from from pilot about this who's pilot don't even talk about on the page so what can they do right they have to make a choice whoever they choose you know. If they if they chose to lay then there's going to be other places you know jet pens and places that they're also going to be going to be out of luck. Right right right so and on pilots page to their credit they do link to the nikaya brand and then they link to a bunch of the pins that fall under the nikaya. Brand which is a higher end fountain line and it's got a lot of the pins that i'd love to see more of in vendors across the US and some of few of them carry like Richard's pins goes a little bit deeper in this product line but like. The pins specifically that i was discussing and that they did we discussed it it's not listed on that page either. So but they do list a lot of other similar pins on that page so there is some fountain pen some rare or some higher end special Japanese pins on that page but not a particular one that we're talking about where is that on the pilot page. I wish to look for a link called nikaya nikaya i'm sorry nikaya i have a i have a namiki i'm having a nikaya fast little fascination because i was just reading email about another. Another person saying i needed to have some more higher end pins on my top 5 list in the nikaya pin is the one that is on the top of my list but it's namiki yes i'm sorry that was the funny thing like i knew you were saying that wrong. But i still don't feel like i can correct you i feel like i must be wrong. No no we already you already said a parker instead of pilot one episode so i'll let you off the hook there so i always do that i can feel myself. Double checking and triple check yeah sorry namiki not nikaya and i mean pilot not park. Yes so it's yeah i'm i'm pro at mixing up the mixing up the brand names all the time this is like three of the last four episodes probably i've done that. Sorry but yes namiki there's a cool namiki page and i'm it's got you know list of collections and it's got a lot of the things like the vanishing point on there on the pilot custom 74 which i'm a lot of vendors carry. Like the goulais which is a cool pin and i'll probably get one of those one day but and they have the prayers on here but i'm not the 90 not the custom heritage ninety twos and the ninety ones and nine twelve anything that we discussed so. Whatever they do have a link to to some but it was just a it was a telling conversation if you will. So that's all that's my rent it was good i gotta i gotta have at least you know one of one random month i guess so that was that was my rent also i left the rents. Yeah i mean you know i don't wanna i don't know right where an hour so we should probably wrap up yeah well i just want to say you know i i have opinions. My opinions are my own and i'm not gonna shy away i'm not gonna ignore what i think is you know some of a fair discussion point i think things like this are fair discussion points and i have an opinion on them and i'm gonna state it on the blog and i'm gonna state it on the pocket. I'm not just gonna you know i'm not you know i'm not trying to paint everything and you know rainbows and sunshine you know sometimes you know i get frustrated with when i see things like that so i just i try to tell you how i feel and you know maybe i'm wrong but it's it's it's still how i feel i feel like i gotta get it out sometimes. Anyway i'll let you wrap this up i know you're trying to you know if we were in the same room if we were in this tv studio you'd be pointing at me and swinging your hands and trying to get me to trying to get me to stop yapping so i'm doing i'm doing that winded up motion yep yep so you don't know this but i'll apologize to listen there's been some slight skype difficulties during this episode this it's not been crazy but just yeah it's just know that it's mike's fault it's always my everything is always. Always my fault and it's not been crazy but you know sorry guys but thank you for listening though we always love we love that you're here and we love it when you get in touch of us so social networks are always good i am i'm like i am yk on twitter and app dot net Brad is dowdy is m d o w dy is m on twitter and dowdy d o w dy on app dot net so get in touch with there when you can email Brad Brad loves to get your email he is the pen addict at gmail dot com. it's best right yes excellent stuff and we'll be back next week for episode number 53 until next time enjoy your pens one and all goodbye bye bye. (laughing)
