Hello and welcome to the Planner Palace Podcast, a podcast hosted
by two true planner pals. My name is Spark and I go by
Mark Your pages. And I'm Jess or Jessica Ren and
in this episode, I feel like this episode is like just for
Mark really. Because honestly, I feel like
you have more of a what's the word?
What's the word that I can put as nicely.
You are more of a persnickety biscuit when it comes to pens
than I am. But that is what we're going to
be talking about today. Our favorite pens, our write or
dies, where they write or dies. I know we've talked about this
before. I don't know the terminology.
I shouldn't use it, but I'm going to keep doing it.
But we do have pens. We are always picking up.
They're the ones that as soon as we need one, it's going to be
the default. And if it broke, we would
replace it. If it runs out, we would replace
it. I always find that that's a
really good measure for whether something's your favorite.
Like if I did not have this but I knew about it, would I get it
again? In this episode, it's not just
for me because we're talking more than just fountain pens,
even though I would love to do another fountain pen episode.
But this are just, you know, kind of the pens, like you said,
that we're going for and loving. And the hope really is maybe to
introduce you to something that you don't know about.
But I really honestly feel like this is an episode for the
planter pals because we are all persnickety biscuits when we
come to our pens. You know, the one thing that I
don't hold back against now, especially as I've gotten more
into fountain pens and inks, is the color because there are
certain people, people who will not use a blue pen no matter
what. It is only black.
And I've never seen anyone use a red pen outside of like a
teacher, like circling things that are wrong.
But you know, people are out there.
But I'm really excited because I've been on a pen journey for a
very long time. I remember when I first started
with journaling as a whole, I was just using anything that was
out there. And I don't even know the name
of the pen that I originally loved, but it was always the
ones that I got from doctors offices and they had this like
interesting body style to it. I didn't know anything about
pens until really I started getting more into journaling as
a whole and it became a really important part of my life.
Because you're running with this instrument, right?
And you're like, OK, I'm going to use this every day.
And I've tried them all. I've got them all behind me.
You can see them all because I don't get rid of pens unless
they're crappy. I have a bunch of the not as
fancy ones in my drawer, like they're all over the place.
But I definitely have my favorites.
But Jess, why don't we start with you today?
Because I'll just talk forever about pens if you let me.
But let's start with one of your very first pens.
That's your all time favorite or your goat too.
My all time favorite go to like tried and true treasured pen,
right? This is the one that as soon as
somebody asks what's your favorite, this is the one that
comes up and being one of those people who is a little bit
particular about having a black ink pen in their notebook and
had to be black. So that would be the Papermate
Inkjoy gel pen. I know it's not like everybody's
favorite and I know that in particular some people find that
when they get it, it skips. I have had some that have done
that previously, but in, in the grand scheme of things, like,
you know, given how many of them I've had, that's like .2% of the
ones that I've tried out. OK, that math is bad math or I
do not, do not quote me on that math because I have not tried
like 10,000 of this pen. But I love the quality of the
black ink. I love that it is like super
dark saturated. I don't like it when you write
with a black pen and then after it dries, it's kind of just like
a charcoal grey. I'm like, no, I picked up a
black pen for a reason. I want it like pitch noir, like
very, very dark. And this pen does that for me in
terms of the kind of like, you know, dry time and such like
that. It is on the inkier side.
It is a gel pen. So it does take a little bit
longer. Maybe not as friendly for
lefties. I'm pretty sure in their
marketing materials, they say that it's quick drying.
I don't write with my left hand all that often.
I'm not out here intentionally smudging my pen very often
unless it's like specifically for a journal notebook test or
something like that. But I do love the black quality.
I like the thickness of it because it's a .7.
I do prefer my line weight to be a little bit heavier.
I'm not out here with those like needlepoint pens, which for some
handwriting looks gorgeous. For mine it does not.
So that one is definitely my go to.
Yeah, everything that you just said on why you love it is all
of the reasons that I'm not as a fan of it because I have seen
them out there. I can say that I really do like
the grip on those pens because they're kind of made out of kind
of a whole grippy kind of material, which I think was
really nice. But I am the person who likes
the needlepoint fine tips and that .7.
And I think even one that I got might have been a 1.0mm too, it
just felt very big and very thick.
And especially for me as a lefty and using pens and smearing off
them with them, I was just not as much of a fan of them because
of those reasons there. But I know that you're a
hardcore fan, which I very much appreciate.
And I know that's like, you're always here to go to.
And I was like, no, I'm going to give it a try.
And I, I've had tried them before, but it was just one of
those things that didn't quite work out for me though.
But I know a lot of people that do love them.
No, that's very fair. I mean, as a right-handed
person, I don't usually have the kind of smudging and smearing
issue quite as much. Another thing I do definitely
love about it is that because the barrel of the pen has that
kind of safe through section, you can see how much ink is left
in your pen. Which when it starts to kind of
like, you know, get a little fainter, maybe that black isn't
as saturated. Maybe it's skipping a little
bit. I can just roll the pen over and
say, ah, it's because you don't have any ink left.
Time to get a new one. It's those features that really
do make a really big difference. So a lot of the pens that I have
are transparent for that reason. It's something that I don't
think you always think about until your pen is running ink
because usually they're encased in something, especially if it's
like a gel pen or you know, kind of a normal pin on a fountain
pen. You don't worry about it because
it seems like they last forever. And they do, which is funny
because as a person who has a lot of pens and I'm always like,
oh, but I what if, what if it runs out of ink?
And I've never actually taken time to like use one pen for
like every day for X amount of time to see how long it writes
for. I don't know anybody who does
that necessarily, but I bulk buy my favorite pens like that's
just how I roll because I'm just like, what if it runs out and
then I can't have it looking consistent in my journal like I
can't do. That no, I'm definitely that way
inclined as well. I have a little drawer that's
just filled with my inkjoys because if that one runs out
instantly is replaced. It's it's not that kind of thing
where I'm going to run out and then have to sit there for five
to seven business days waiting for my new pen to arrive.
Because like you mentioned, I do enjoy that consistency in my
journal. I like it when all of it looks
matchy. Matchy in terms of, you know,
titles and decoration and headers and all of that.
But also just my general writing.
I don't love it when for some reason you have to change pen
halfway through a list and then that weight changes or the depth
of the black changes. And it's like super obvious
because it's this like block of individual entries that's in
this like thick, gorgeous, dark, deep black and then charcoal
grey and a slightly finer line weight.
I'm like it's a note from me. Yeah, you definitely can't have
that. Well, one of my favourites,
complete opposite to kind of where you are like my first love
has always been the the Uniball Signal DX, specifically the
.38mm. That's a nice five point pen.
I know something that you just mentioned from yours of having
an issue with skipping with pens.
And I think it's really important not to have that,
especially when you're running with something.
I have never ever, ever, and I, this is a rare thing to say,
ever had this pen skip on me. It has been the most reliable
pen I have ever used. And this comes after probably
four or five years of trying a bunch of different pens.
I was a big Mooji boy back in the day, like those like semi
transparent pens from Muji with all the different sizes.
But I'll tell you, I didn't know the importance of like the
millimeter size of a pen because most pens I don't feel like
really come forward with that right off the bat.
At least the pens I used to buy. I have no idea what some of
those other pens were, but I think it was like this one
specifically, I was like, oh, specifically the .38mm because I
was trying to find those like really nice needlepoint pens.
I love the thin lines. I think that's why I love like
extra fine fountain pens so much.
I don't know, something about that aesthetic of like writing
on a page and it'd be nice and thin.
I also do like the sound and a little bit of that scratchiness
on my page. I it's like feedback for me.
Some people don't love that and they hate it and they, yeah,
their skin crawls, whatever they get to scratchiness.
But I love it because it's like the same thing as like a
mechanical keyboard. Like hearing yourself type is
very therapeutic to me, right? And, and hearing myself right
makes me feel that I'm doing something right.
I think that's why I love it so much and why it's been so great.
And So what I loved about this is I think I got maybe like a 5
pack to begin with. And then after I knew that I
loved it. And this was also when I was
going into work. So you also, that's the other
thing too, I guess you have to have extra because you may lose
your pen, right? Like you might lose it.
I was buying like 10/12/15 packs of these, like a whole bunch of
them. I have a whole like section back
here that's just filled with brand new pens that are just
waiting to be used. And then now I don't use them as
much at least for like normal writing inside of my bullet
journal because I use fountain pens so often.
But this one stays on my desk as well as my other second favorite
that is not a fountain pen. And they just are easy like you
said, they grab, I write with it.
I know I can rely on it. No smudging of that super fast
drying ink. Again, as a lefty, it's great.
And because it's so fine point as well, it drives even faster,
right? I don't have to wait or anything
else like that because for me in my bullet journal, especially
again, when I was at work taking notes in a meeting, closing that
go into a different meeting room, I hated like opening that
back up and then seeing like the carbon copy on the opposite page
if I didn't get enough time for that ink to dry.
So this has just been a really fantastic one for me and I just
love the way that it looks. Yeah, I think that part of the
reason why I, I kind of steer clear of those finer point pens
is that I'm just quite heavy-handed.
So I feel like I'm just like making track lines in my
journal, like kind of a thing like you're trying to gut the
notebook. Not really what I'm trying to
do, but because I apply as much pressure as I do, if it is
finer, you get, you know, extra pressure, force over area,
yadda, yadda type deal. Which means that on the reverse
side of the page, sometimes you can see that ridging, which I
don't necessarily dislike, but not in my journal.
Like if it was just a kind of note book where I'm just, you
know, black pen in the notebook, writing things down, flipping
over and having that kind of it's almost Braille, but like
definitely not Braille. But is that ridged kind of
feeling? It feels very satisfying.
It's like, look at all the look at all the notes I took, look at
all the work I did here. But outside of that, I don't
love that. I don't love having ridging in
my notebook at all. So I kind of steer clear of
those really fine point ones, especially the fine point ones
that are a ballpoint because then they hold up better to my
ham handedness. Which means that then I do apply
more pressure, which means I get more of the ridging as opposed
to like a fine liner, you know, same nib size or whatnot.
Where you if you apply that much pressure, you end up with like a
deformed or bent or blunt or like literally like twisted nib
kind of, you know, jutting out the side of the pen, just
reminding you of the sin that was your ham fistedness.
Yeah, or just not existent felt tip because especially for like
the Micron pens and the really thin ones like that yeah, you
put any amount of pressure on that and it pops up inside of
there to never be seen again and it's very sad.
Yeah, I agree with you. This pen on certain types of
paper definitely does that, you know, especially on like earlier
loystroms, you know, whatever that was, 70 LB paper or
whatever it was kind of the OG ones all the time.
You know, you could feel it through there.
And I'm not doing any type of art really inside of my journal.
But if you are the type of person that does art or uses
anything like that, you're absolutely right.
You can get like kind of almost like a relief kind of on the
other side of there, right Or something that has happened to
me, especially with really fine points.
None of the ones that I'm talking about today.
I remember one time I was in New York and this is very famous
stationary store there and I totally forget the name of it.
It starts with the Y and I remember finding an even finer
point than .38 and I don't know where I have it.
It might be like juice up or something like that.
I forget which brand it was. I have never written with more
of a fine point pen. I was so excited for it.
I was like, yes, even finer than what I'm already using and I
used it and it was 2 too fine point for me because it was
really bad paper. It can actually RIP through your
paper. Like there is a point where your
needlepoint pen is like a needle.
I can't go through there. Or if you do like draw a lot of
lines or circles, I've had that happen too actually with a lot
of this pen specifically because it's fine point If you like
really draw in a circle and then go to the other side and you
Draw Something over top, it can kind of RIP.
So I think it's very much finding the tool for what you're
trying to do. If you're just writing in a
notebook, regardless the type of paper, it's great.
But if you tend to go a little bit harder with it, depending
again, you, you start to learn that over time, right?
Like nothing that I would have ever thought about.
Like, oh, I write with more pressure with my pen inside of
my notebook for whatever reason that might be.
It's kind of the opposite for people who don't look like
they're like they're just gliding across the page as they
write. I'm like, who are you?
Because not me, I'm trying to etch into stone.
I'm making sure that lettering is getting on my page.
It's just one of those things where I love the feedback.
And so regardless of the pen I'm using, I'm probably in the same
spot. I guess with certain fountain
pens like flex nibs and things like that, if you press too
hard, you know, then you're getting the thicker lines.
And if that's not what you're trying to go for, it's like a
whole other thing. But this is definitely something
that I've been a fan of. I think it's a great way to go.
Yeah, I find that I do use a finer nib, but just not for
writing. Like the majority of the pens
that we're looking at today, at least for me, is for writing or
some other kind of like function that I use quite a lot when I'm
doing my journaling and planning and that kind of such thing.
But when it comes to like drawing and such, then a .2 is
really great. A .1.
I'm pretty sure that my friend Monica writes in like a .05 or
something ludicrous, but her handwriting is so gorgeous and
it looks so good with the fine nib.
And I'm just like, I wish, I wish that I had a lettering
style that looked like the font that is her handwriting and how
good it looks with the fine pen. It makes sense that she uses
that. But for my regular everyday
writing where my letter forms are usually a little bit wider,
they're not quite as like, you know, skinny narrow type thing.
Because if you do have skinny narrow handwriting, then having
a fine point pen can really help make it more readable.
If you're going in with something like mine, which is a
.7, and you've got letter forms that are quite compact and quite
tight, everything kind of just ends up looking like black
blobs, which like quality of black love that, but readability
not so much. All right, well, what about your
next pen? Talking about your first one,
that inked joy. Loving that so much.
What's your next one that you are a secondary fan of?
So the second one kind of came out of necessity because the
notebooks that I typically like to use, despite their claims,
the paper is different, at least it behaves differently with my
ink joy. It got to a point where my ink
joy was causing me some grief. It was smudging and such.
I'm not going to give up on it. I still love it.
It is my baby. Love this pen.
But I was finding that given the smudging that I was getting in
my everyday journal, that was not sparking joy with as much as
I needed to write and the speed with which I want to be able to
write it, I didn't want to sit there and like write a line out
and wait and wait and let it dry.
So I figured, OK, it's time to explore something new.
It's time to find something else that you can use in here that
maybe it's going to be a little bit more friendly to work with.
Part of the change I did was go from a .7 to a .5, So it's
slightly thinner. And now as I've kind of gotten
used to it, I'm like, oh, oh, is this my new happy place.
But whatnot, The pen is at least my happy place.
That's the zebra serasa mark on. I love it.
I don't use it for the kind of a no claim on the packaging or
like the kind of main use that most people have it for, which
is the idea that you can write with it, let it dry and then go
over the top of it with the mild liner.
So it's the idea that it won't smudge when you highlight
something over the top. And I know that that is
something that's really, really valuable for a lot of people.
I don't highlight over the top of my writing pretty much ever
unless I have done some poor prior planning and stuffed
something up. I'm usually the kind of person
who will highlight first and then write over the top.
But I have found that it's dry time and the like smudging that
I thus don't get given the improved dry time is a lot
nicer. So this is another one that I've
gone and like stocked up on and got a little draw section just
filled with this zebra Sarasa mark ONS because they are
definitely a new favorite for me.
Yeah, well, I'll just go ahead and say that's also my second
favorite as well as this one because I've also, and again, we
did not talk about this before. We just said pick four pens that
you love and, and come up with. So all of the reasons that you
said and actually for the reason you said you don't use it is
because I love my mild liners very much and utilizing them and
color coding. And that was one of my biggest
things that I despised with other pens.
Actually the, the the Uniball one works well too because it's
quick dry and I think that's a really big, big part of archival
or waterproof, all those things. But I love it for that.
Yeah, the enjoy is not waterproof, even in the sliders
it will smudge the smudge the Bishop.
If you try and highlight over this one it's OK still love it,
but not for highlighting if you're doing that again.
Yeah. And there's nothing worse than
like trying to think about the space you need to use a
highlighter to then right over top of that highlighter.
I think that was like when I got so excited when Zebra was, you
know, telling us about like this new pen that they were coming
out because that was a really big customer issue that they
were seeing is like, OK, we love your, your highlighters and your
mildliners. We do not love that I can't use
them with most of my pens or you have to think about it at a
time. So this has also been one of
mine too. And because it is a .5, like you
said, I'm kind of like, OK, sometimes I like to write a
little bit thicker and sometimes it doesn't matter.
Sometimes I'm not even looking. I just know where my pens are
and my little pen holder next to me and I grab it and I can start
writing with it and it's never a problem too.
I've had a few issues with like skipping and things like that,
but I really think it's more about the paper sometimes than
it is the pen itself. I'm sure other people have had
this too where like you're writing normal and like all of a
sudden there's like a spot on your page that doesn't take ink.
And I'll be like, wait a SEC, oh maybe OK.
And this is weird because it doesn't usually happen.
And I'll go over it again and I'm like, what is going on?
And then I'll test my pen like another piece of paper without
any issue whatsoever. And I'm like, something is not
right here. Like what is going on.
And so a lot of the times where I think that it's the pen that's
having an issue, I like double check and sometimes it's the
paper. So like this is another one,
super reliable. I, you know, love the way it
holds. I even like the design.
I like the little kind of graph paper look to it.
It kind of fits inside of like what I'm doing.
I'm writing in a notebook. I can rely on it.
It's an easy go to and you can buy a multi pack of these and
they're not super expensive. And I'd say the same thing about
the other one too. Like my first two picks are not
very expensive picks. These you can buy anywhere.
The other ones go up in price a little bit.
I'm sure a lot of people know the direction I'll be going from
my last two picks, but these definitely are like easy
accessible by everyone and just love them so much.
So I'm 100% there with you. Is there anything that you don't
love about it? I know we're like gushing over
the things that we do love, but like, anything that you're not a
fan of, of this pen? I think if anything it would
just be how long it lasts given how much I write.
Like I'm kind of sitting here looking at my one currently.
I'm like, Oh yeah, no, don't have the transparency on the
barrel, but if you hold it up to the light, you can see through
the grip that that ink is running out.
It's time to pull out the next one.
Do you ever let your pen just run all the way out?
Are you like pretty close and you're like, go and get rid of
this because like just in case I'm going somewhere, I need to
have a full pen. Do you ever think that far in
advance? I typically if I'm traveling, I
will check and see if it has enough ink to kind of last me
through. That's usually not the problem.
The problem I find is that because I write as much as I do,
I go through quite a few pages oftentimes, which means that
once you flip over and start writing with it, you don't have
any reference of when the ink was more plentiful or like
fuller or whatnot. I'm kind of trick myself into
thinking like, Oh yes, this is the normal amount of ink,
Everything is fine. We just need jumping down what
we need to do and such and getting on with our day.
And then it gets to that point where it's like, no, no, bottom
of the barrel dead kind of a thing.
I'm like, all right now I'll change out for the for the new
pen. And then when we have the full
amount of ink, it's like, oh, that's what you're supposed to
look like. And now my lines don't have
consistency. Now my list doesn't have
consistency. And now I'm pissed, not pissed
enough to go back over everything I just wrote.
But still, at least I know that within half a week I'll be off
that page and I won't have to look at it anymore.
But in the moment, very. Upset, yeah, let's not piss off
Jess about these line widths and things like that.
Yeah, I think a lot of the times having the ability see how much
ink is left is really great. I think with like fountain pens
as well, something that I really like because that's one of those
things that if you're out and about and you don't have your
ink filled, like you're not replacing that.
And actually this is like the pen recently that I'm like
grabbing. If I go into work or somewhere
where I take pens, I kind of a backup.
I have a regular ink pen and I have a regular pencil as well,
along with my fountain pens that I take just because, again, I
know that I can rely on these. I know that they have ink in
them. They're not going to run out
anytime in the near future and I'm and I'm good to go and I can
use them with anything highlighters and whatnot, which
is something that, you know, we've now mentioned.
It's actually a really important part, especially if you do
highlight things. If you're in school or college,
right, or you are a teacher or you're in a profession where you
are highlighting a lot, having a pen that you can use kind of
anything over top is really important.
And it's not something again, that you usually think about.
You know, the worst thing is when you do take that one home
and you're like, I'm so excited. I love this pen.
And then you take the highlighter over it and it's
smudges and then you're highlighter gets dirty on the
end and it's just, it's a mess and you're just so sad because
you're like, now this looks like poopy on my page and I don't
like it. I don't like it at all.
Yeah, no, I think that your point about the idea of not
necessarily knowing how much space you need to highlight for
as well, because if you know the amount of space, it's cool.
You just slap the color down first.
You write over the top of it, easy.
But if it's just, you know, a particular phrase you're trying
to highlight or you know, a header or something and you're
just not sure what the kind of width of that is going to be,
that's where the biggest issues kind of lie.
To the extent where previously when I was using pens or like,
you know, exclusively using pens that weren't very water
resistant would give the whole kind of like a muddied effect.
If you highlighted over the top. I would just kind of structure
any of my headers, which is usually where I was doing the
highlight. So that then each box in the
dock grid got one letter. So rather than writing in my
regular kind of, you know, width of writing or whatnot, regular
handwriting, I would just have it structured so that it's like,
I know it's going to be 1 box per letter.
So this is how many letters, this is how many boxes I need to
highlight and do it that way. But that's not necessarily the
effect everybody's going for. Like yes it's a solution, but a
better solution is a pen that doesn't do the smudging.
Yeah, yeah, It's such an important part.
Again, you don't really think about it.
And that's when we turn into small, like, pen snobs.
But I don't think it's anything like terrible, though.
Like, I love when you're in a meeting or you're meeting other
people and you're like, oh, can I borrow a pen?
And someone like takes a moment because they have to think about
the pen that they're about to lend you.
I, when I was in the office all the time, I always had a lend
pen section of my pen holder because I was like, you're not
getting any of my good ones. Because there were a few times I
remember, because I, I held these, you know, like so
precious in my life. I was like, I spent like a
decent amount on these, you know, like the bulk one that I
did. I remember writing down to my
notebook who I lent a pen to because I wanted my damn pen
back. Like, it's one thing if I was
giving you like a crappy one or the one that's just in like the
stationary closet at work or whatever, I don't care.
But if I'm giving you something that I deem precious, I will
damn well make sure I get my pen back.
So I was the guy that like, literally like on my desk, like
I had a cup that I had all the blend pens on.
Because sometimes people will just like, walk by your desk and
take a pen off your desk, right. But all my good ones I put
inside of my drawer because I was like, you hopefully aren't
going to be going through my drawers for these pens.
So if you just take a lend pen off the top, like, I'm not
worried about you. Yeah.
It's like a library catalog of your pens to be like, ah yes,
the borrower's list of something, and a little bar
codes on all your pens that you can like, scan them out.
I'm not going to lie to you, if I was doing that fountain pens
100%, I was just talking to my friend at work the other day and
she was asking me, she's like, I think I'm ready to get into
fountain pens. Like what do you like?
What do you think's best for me? And we got talking about it and
I was like, no, I have a lot of fountain pens.
Like I could just give you or like lend to you if you wanted
to. She's like, what do you mean
lend? I'm like, well, we go into the
office once a month. Like I have enough fountain pens
that I'm not going to miss like certain ones, like if I don't
get it back, but like I'm not going to give her like a really
expensive one, but like try it out, see if you like it before
you buy. Like it's essentially A
stationary store inside of my life right now.
So it's like instead of going into a pen store and testing it
there, let me just lend you one for the month.
You know, I'll put it on my library card of lens pens and
I'll get it back the next time that we meet.
You can tell me what you think about it.
It's just one of those things where like it does make a really
big difference. I think on like what you have,
what you're letting people borrow.
But I mean, my introduction, the fountain pens was just someone
let me borrow one. It was just like the, you know,
pre filled ones. I forget the brand name of the
one that I had, but it was just someone was like, here, try it.
You know, it's like a 2-3 dollar pen wasn't a huge big deal.
But for me, it really started to make me feel a little bit more
comfortable and confident moving in a fountain pen.
So I'm super thankful when people do lending me pens or
like, let me use them because you're like, oh, I like the way
this writes. What pen is that?
Oh, I haven't tried that one before.
Oh, let me give it a I'm going to go buy them here.
Here's the Amazon link. All right, I'll be at my house
tonight. Like I love those types of
conversations. Maybe it's just me that has
those type of conversations with people, but like I've done that
so many times where I'm like, this is a great pen.
It'll be at my house by 5:00 PM. Now, I do definitely think that
there is benefit in doing an Ooch or like, you know, a trial
run with pens, especially ones that are a little bit pricier.
And, and if you've got somebody who's, you know, close to you,
who's willing to let you either like borrow it or just test it
out or something like that, it can be a very good way to get a
feel for whether it works for you.
If you were borrowing somebody's pen, though, you damn well
better give that thing back, right?
You're not going to have Mark coming like at your door.
Like, please, where's my pen? I lent this to you.
But like, I need it back, right? It'll be him.
It'll be whoever like else, lend it to you because these things
are precious. We're only just like a little
particular about it. I stole your second one, though,
Mark. So what would be your third most
favorite pen? It's good to be on the same
plane. So I'm going to go into fountain
pen territory now because this has been this is actually, it's
funny, this is actually the timeline of my life from a from
like going into pens, except for the mark on because it did come
out after I started collecting my fountain pens.
But this is very exciting. So my very first fountain pen
and the 1 I actually recommend for everyone is the Lami,
whether it's the Lami safari or the All Star.
So like my very first fountain pen was this one right here.
This was a gift to me from my sister-in-law for Christmas one
year. I had never tried a fountain pen
before ever in my life. Like I've tried the one that,
like he said at work, my friend let me kind of borrow the, you
know, one that's already filled up.
But I didn't, you know anything about cartridges, converters,
none of this kind of stuff. But this pen has been so great
because I think it's a great entry level pen for a lot of
individuals, especially when you are trying to find, you know,
colors that you like because they come in so many different
fun colors and materials. The the All Star one I have is
like a aluminum one. It was a special edition one,
but you can find them just, you know, I call them like my snack
pens. They're really just like they're
always around and any type of color they're made out of like
plastic or like a resin or something like that and they
come in every color of the rainbow.
And I love them so much and it really is just a great way to
get into it. I think they come usually with a
few cartridges that you just pop into the back of the pen and you
use it till it's gone or you can buy the converter.
So you can suck up fountain pen ink and use it.
It's very easy. And I was just talking, this is
actually the pen that I was recommending to my friend at
work who is trying to get into fountain pens.
And the reason was also that with these pens, you know, they
come with a nib and you can buy them, you know, whatever you
want, but you can actually buy replacement nibs or other sizes
and they're really easy to change out because you just
literally take this part and you pull it off, which is very
scary, don't get me wrong. And you just pop on the other
one and you've gone from having like a medium or a larger one to
like an extra fine, which is what I replaced mine with when I
very first got it because the mediums for me were just too
thick. And I was like, no, no, I can't
go from like a .38mm to like a medium.
So I had to get the extra fine. They do have a little ink window
in it. So when we talk about features
of pens, I guess something that I'm not usually thinking about
is having that ink window. And the grips are always really
nice. They're kind of already kind of
made for your hand to fit in. Whether you're left or
right-handed, it doesn't matter. So if you're nervous about like
how to hold a fountain pen if there aren't grips, it already
exists. So you literally just put it in
your hand and you know it's wrong because it feels weird in
your hand. And like I said, they're very
budget friendly depending on what you're looking for.
And you can really start to customize them and kind of go
with them. And mommy's been around for a
very long time. They're definitely a brand that
is established or not, like just some new person off the street.
So the quality is always very nice.
And like I said, you can get them usually pretty
inexpensively, you know, in some cases for 10-15 dollars,
especially when you're getting them on sale or like a discount
code or whatever. And I just think that they're,
they're everyone's best friend. No, I think that accessibility
is a big thing when it comes to pens.
And knowing that I can order, you know, my first two favorites
very easily and get them sent to my house, that's always
something that is very pleasing to know.
Lamy, Lamy, Lamy. Lamy.
I was like Lamy. The Lamy, well, that's the thing
with some of these is like the same thing with Loystrom.
Like I didn't know how to say that until I actually was like,
I need to watch a video to see how someone actually says it
because I was saying like Lecterum and like other things
like that. And you listen to like Loystrom.
So Lamy is what all the professionals say.
So some people say Lamy because that's the way it looks.
But but Lamy is how I've been. Yeah, and I'm over here calling
it Lamy, but mainly because I don't think that it would be for
me, mainly because of that like pen grip that you said was like
technically speaking, yes, a good feature, one that helps you
hold your pen quote correctly. I don't hold my pen correctly.
I don't want to be told what to do.
I'm a rebel, right? I'm not going to let my pen
dictate how I'm going to hold it.
So most of the time my preferred barrel type is just going to be
round because then I can have my incorrect grip and still have it
be comfortable enough. I totally forgot about that.
That's right. You write.
You write very odd. Yeah.
Like a little Kremlin. Like how you write your stuff?
You know I have instead of resting the pen on my middle
finger, I rested on my what? Ring finger?
Second middle finger? What is?
What is this one called? Your index finger.
No, not your index finger. That would be hard as how do you
rest your pen on your index finger and get any kind of like
security. I'm the kind of person who puts
my middle and index finger on the top of the pen and rests the
pen like barrel the one next to your pinky finger.
Your index finger. No, no, your index finger is
your pointer finger. Is it?
Isn't it? I don't know.
I always called it the pointer finger.
I thought this was the index, maybe not.
The wiggles say where is pointer here I am and then that's the
first one and then where is tall boy because they want don't want
to say like the rude finger or whatever.
And then it's Ringo and then it's pinky.
I don't think they do anything for the thumb though.
This is like a throwback to like 4 year old Jess though so.
Well, that makes sense because you right like a four year old
usually does before they learn how to hold their pen correctly
at. Least it's more legible than a
four year old, at least most of the time.
But because of that, because I have a slightly different way to
hold my pen, it means that any of those kind of grips that are
supposed to help you hold it in a particular traditional
whatever way, they usually end up causing me more discomfort
when I use those types of pens. No, it's funny you say that.
So yeah, then then Lami isn't for you.
If you don't write like a normal human being, then yeah, this is
not going to be right. Because I'm just looking through
all of mine and realizing they all have this, regardless of the
type. So that's actually a really good
point to make about it because yeah, that's a really great
feature, I think. But you're absolutely right, if
I try to write like this it actually feels weird because the
pen kind of rest almost on your fingernail it feels like right
like instead of where I have a permanent crease inside of my
finger from how I hold mine. I think I do end up, I do end up
resting it on my knuckle for that ring finger or whatnot.
And that does mean that I have a kind of like pronounced pad, I
guess on that knuckle because over time I've caused trauma to
the finger. So now it's just like belt
itself. That's like padding to safeguard
it from my hand fisted pin holding.
But it is, it is curious to see how people hold their pens.
I'm also always very curious to see how people hold chopsticks.
That one's always one that I'm quite fascinated by.
Completely not related to the topic at hand.
It's still a curiosity point. Yeah, because, yeah, when you
hold chopstick, you're holding it similar how you hold a
pencil. So for you, you're holding it
like again. A good little gremlin grip on
your sushi. Yeah, exactly.
I think I end up holding it so that then one of the chopsticks
rests on the ring finger and the other one rests on the middle
finger. Now I'm thinking about it.
I don't have chopsticks. I'm like trying to do chopsticks
with my pens not working. Because yeah, I've always held
it similar to how I hold a pen. So you are holding chopsticks.
How you I guess I wonder if that's how it's done Like people
that well, planter pals, let us know now that you've uncovered
this oddity in the world. I never really put two and two
together about like using chopsticks similar to how you
write. So you're doing it similar to
how you write. So you're, I don't know, no
wonder. Do you have issues?
Do you have to use like a little supporter when you're using
chopsticks you have? Issues.
Well yes, thank you for calling it out.
But I can hold chopsticks fine, or at least like, I can use
chopsticks fine. I don't have to have, like, you
know, any kind of assistive grip or anything with the chopsticks.
Vogel uses an assistive grip because despite our best efforts
to teach him, he's very stubborn.
And I don't know, I'm like, that's a defeatist mindset.
How dare you? But yeah, we.
Don't do that. Does he have the little clips
that go on the back that spring it or do you use the paper from
the chopsticks to create that? No, we have a little spaceman.
We call it his spaceman. It's got, you know, the little
kind of rubber feet that then you can slide the chopsticks
into and it holds it at that kind of open a shape or whatnot.
You just press against it to get them to close.
Oh my God, I love that you have to take that with you.
When you go out to eat somewhere, you're like, do you
have the spaceman? Nope.
Go back inside and get it out of the drawer.
I need my spaceman. It's literally that.
Actually, usually we get to Yum cha and he goes, Oh no.
And I'm like, did you forget your spaceman?
He looks very dejected, like, yeah, like they have forks.
We'll just ask them for a fork. Jess, you're his wife now, so
that's like a part of your wifely duty is to always make
sure the spaceman is in your purse or pocket.
I'm sorry this happens. I know I'm just gonna get
another one and keep it in the car because we already have at
this like we have, you know, those telescopic metal straws or
whatnot because he is like adamantly against paper straws,
which like fair, I get it. I'm I don't like them, but I'll
use them. He just he can't.
I can understand sometimes like with those kind of tactile
things like using a wooden spoon is absolutely hideous.
And now I'm thinking I should probably get a car spoon so that
then if I go somewhere that has a wooden spoon, at least I have
a spoon. You don't you don't you don't
think about these things until you say it out loud and the
thought of eating anything with the wooden spoon just made like
made my I got me chills like thinking about it.
I'm with him on the paper straw. Not to go on this side tangent,
but I hate nothing more than drinking out of a paper straw
and then it like going limp as you're drinking from it.
It is I hate it. I can't because I love my
drinks. I love my straws and I love my
ice. Like if if I can't have the best
experience when drinking my fountain soda then I'm not a
happy boy. I'll just take the cap off.
I'd rather not use the straw than use a paper straw.
I just like to think of it as an incentive to drink my drink
faster. It's like we're not going to let
it get to the pulpy gross of this because you're just going
to drink this quick enough that it's not a problem.
Or if you get as many refills as I get, it becomes a problem
because then you're just, it's a lot of use.
Anyway, let's get back to pen talk.
What's your next one, Jess? So sniffing away from my kind of
writing favorites and into ones that I use for just other stuff.
One would definitely have to be the Tombo dual brush markers.
This is the pen set that I got like what I think I was two
weeks, if that, into my journaling journey and I had
seen them online. I'm like, oh, FOMO's here, like
maybe I should get these, but I'll get the mild liners first.
Got the mild liners. They were fine.
Like I was excited to get them because I hadn't gotten them
before. So, you know, there's a novelty
and a newness, but I didn't love that the chisel wasn't the full
width of the dock grids. I'm like, well, hey, I've seen
people use these Tombo dual rush mark is to get a line that is
the full width of the Dockerid. I'll get those, but of course I
am me. So I'm like, well, we could we
could start with just like 1 pack of them to do the urge,
give it a test run or whatnot. Nah, I got the full set all at
once, which like shipping from the US, like US Amazon to the
ass end of the world where I live because they just did not
really have them accessible down here that cost a bit.
That's fine. That's past Jess's problem.
Current Jess loves her set of Tombos though.
It is definitely one of my most used.
Like pretty much any journal setup I do is get a feature of
Tombo in some way, shape or form.
Very rarely will I use something else just because I've, you
know, over the years collected more pens that have the same
kind of like brush tip or bullet tip or whatnot.
But I do love the fact that like the name suggests, it is dual
ended. So you've got your brush tip,
you've got your bullet tip, so that you can do different line
styles or whatnot. My main use for these was
previously coloring in. So when I did a lot of
decoration styles that did require me to draw stuff, I
would color in with the Tombos. Nowadays, it's mainly for second
line highlights more than anything else.
And the second line highlight is just a great way to, one, add
some color to your page, which too is also some visual
interest, but also three increases like readability of
things. I find that with a second line
highlight on a list, it just makes the list just more user
friendly almost. You can see separate entries
very easily and even if one entry takes up two lines, it
still is increasing the readability.
For me. I also appreciate because it is
a water based marker and at least in the journals that I'm
using and with the way I use it, if you go over it multiple
times, it will darken that section.
Which is a really nice thing for when you're trying to make
tables or use the Alastair method because you can do
horizontal rows to say like you know individual entries, but
then you can also highlight alternate columns.
So that means that any time that it's gone over twice, that part
will be a little bit darker. So not only means that like you
can make gingham patterns and whatever in your journal if you
want to, but you can also get the functionality of being able
to very easily read your tables because you have those darkened
up column sections or whatnot. I love them a lot.
No, everything you were saying, it's funny.
I don't. I never really think about that,
about those pens. First of all, I have, I don't
have the entire collection, but I have a lot and I only ever use
the brush side and I mostly use it for exactly like you said,
second line underlining or like adding little pops of color like
drop shadows and things like that.
Sometimes I will use it for like really big lettering, especially
like brush lettering, trying to be fancy about it.
But I have a hard time because the brush is so thick and I have
0 control when I try to do anything with a really thick
brush, right? It's just like OK, now that's
half the page and it says to do day, you know, whatever it is.
But I really did like it. And when you mentioned about it
being water based, I love it for that reason too.
I personally, watercolor is like my favorite paint medium to work
with. But because of that reason, I
love that it can be very light. I love that you can go over it a
few times. One of my favorite things that I
ever learned to do with Tombos because they are water based was
actually to add like a watercolor feature to a page by
using like a piece of like Saran wrap or a plastic baggie or any
type of plastic. And you know, you kind of go
over top of it with your Tombow and then you can add a little
bit of water to it and then flip.
Put upside down on your page and get this really cool look and
you know it's safe for your notebook because it's Tombo.
It's the same thing. Obviously know your paper and if
you can add a little bit of water to it if you want, but I
know people also blend colors that way.
I can't touching tips together with two different markers
bothers me a lot. The same thing with the
highlighters. But you know, to each their own
and it's just one of those things where I feel like they
can be very versatile. You can do a lot with them.
I've had mine literally since I started journaling and I don't
use them all the time. I've definitely collected other
things instead, but I know that they're super reliable.
I probably need to get another black one because I, I actually
used it the other day and it was starting to like, I don't know
the right word, but like fray on the end or kind of like ghost a
little. I don't know the right word that
I'm thinking of here. Feather.
That's the word that I'm looking for.
And it wasn't a nice crisp line. And I was like, oh, gosh, all
right, like don't use that brush pad again because it's not the
right thing, but it's not out of ink.
You know, I don't know. But I definitely think that all
of your reasons are the right reasons to really love them.
I don't have, like you said, I've always wanted the whole
collections, but I know that I'm not going to use them.
So I just kind of stopped collecting after a while.
No, that's very fair. And I think that there is a lot
of merit to not getting the full set, especially if you don't
think you're going to use all of the colors.
Like there are a chunk of the ones that are in there that they
are my first version of that pen.
Like I've had that since I first got it back in, you know, like
20/17/26 actually. Like, yeah, end of 2016 or
whatnot. So I've had those pins for a
while coming up like 10 almost years or whatnot.
And some of them I just haven't used enough to have run out of
the ink of them, whereas other ones like N95 or N89 or 990,
those ones I have multiples of I have like a back stock of them.
I've got my main kind of carry case that has all of the like
individual ones done in the rainbow order.
Like I like them. And then the like backlog of
pens that just like when that runs out, because it will,
because you use it enough. Here it is.
So then at least if I'm doing, you know, some kind of setup,
I'm in the middle of the month and then my N 89 precious baby
runs out or what, but not I know I have backups of those.
I also appreciate that these are a pen that I can actually get in
New Zealand now they are popular enough that they are actually a
bit more like locally available. So I can just jump down to the
local kind of craft store and grab those.
It is only one craft store. 1 craft store has them near me and
that's OK because at least it means they're accessible.
In terms of the blending thing, though, I do love that you can
do blending with those. I don't blend mine by touching
the nibs together. I'm not doing like chameleon pen
work out here. But I do like that because of
the kind of like water based nature of it or whatnot.
You can put down the lightest color 1st and then like build up
layers of it just with the same pen to make it a little darker
and have a gradient done that way.
Or you could do kind of a multi colored gradient.
So like slap down a yellow and then an orange and then a red or
whatever and kind of like blend those together either with a
little bit of water or with the colorless blender pen or
whatnot. Add some kind of visual interest
in terms of doing lettering with them.
I also don't use the brush nib for like brush lettering because
it's one of those skills that I kept saying like, oh, I really
need to practice that. I really should.
I was like shooting all over myself and like, I really should
practice this because it's something that bullet
journalists just do. I never got around to it.
Nowadays I just like don't care. I'm not going to practice
lettering like that. I would rather just find a nice
font online printed off on stick of paper and stick it into my
notebook because I ain't got time to learn how to letter.
Like it's just not something that I actually feel like I'm
going to invest the time, effort and energy into.
But I did always love seeing people do lettering with the
brush nib. What I would be more likely to
do though, if I was going to do lettering with them outside of
occasionally dabbling and gradient lettering, which was
kind of fun, I would just use the Bullet nib.
And then this is where I would get out my .38 pin.
Like my one use that I had for my .38 pin is doing the fine
lining around the outside of it because it was that really thin
line that was sufficient to kind of make it pop.
And then you could use a, you know, different Tombow, usually
a Gray one to add a little drop shadow or whatnot and then maybe
add a little bit of like a white highlight to it or something,
depending on which nib you used. If you use the Bullet nib, then
I'm probably not going to go in and add a white highlight to it
because you just, it's like white out.
You just white out your lettering or something.
But if it was the brush nib and I had done some kind of like
gradient through it, put the drop shadow in, done that kind
of fine lining or whatnot, adding a little white highlight
to make it look a little 3 dimensional was kind of fun.
So there was a period where that was the type of journaling I was
doing. It was really, really fun for
using in that way. Nowadays it's just like, hey
second line, highlight my baby, I love you.
Yeah, I remember way back in the day too, always wanting to the
people that do the big brush lettering.
It's beautiful. I remember a lot of like the
other art accounts would have people like do classes.
There's some people that have like whole courses on how to do
the brush lettering and, and I love them for that.
I've definitely tried it. And there's something very fun
about like a bouncy brush letter, you know, like that's
always what you see. And I tried and it's, it's just
not me. I want it to be me.
I want it to look nice. I was talking, I did a live
recently and I was talking about lettering.
I was like, you know what, I should just do a lettering video
and like as an average everyday human, that's not like a big
bouncy brush letter. Like how do you do it though?
Like how could you maybe do that?
Or like calligraphy or things like that.
It's like a a total person that just kind of learned it on my
own and people were like, I would love that video.
Like I would totally do that. And I was like, OK, maybe I
should follow through. So it's on my To Do List of
things to do because there's different types of brushes too,
like Tombo makes 1. I remember everyone, it was like
a really hard tip brush pen and that was one that what a lot of
people like. Do you remember the name of it?
I can't. Yeah, no, that was the Tombow
Footnoske. There you go.
Because I could never say it. So that's what exactly it.
So like that was one that I really liked because for me it
was nicer with that harder brush tip.
Again, I knew nothing about brush lettering, right?
So I was like, they're all the same.
And you find that and you're like, Oh no, like this is next
level because I can get that look of that brush lettering,
but it's not super thick. It's kind of thin actually and
looked really nice. So that's definitely one that I
definitely say like first time, it was great to have worked out
nicely. I don't know.
I would say Tumble overall makes some really nice brush pens.
If I'm comparing them to others, whether it's off brand or I even
thinking about like the coleographs from Archer and
Olive, like I feel like I've had more issues with those.
I've never had an issue ever with Tombow.
Like they've never gotten like weird or grimy or anything like
that. Where like I know some of my
other coleographs like crystallized over, but like I've
never had that happen with those, which makes me wonder
like what's different about those versus the other?
If they're all water based, I don't I don't know the
difference. Yeah, I have had one of my
tombows do the looks like it's growing tree bits type of the
deal. You know, like, you know, like
you see the trees in the forest and they've got those kind of
like fungi that would grow out in like layers like that.
It always looked like crystal rock to me, like a geode, you
know, like it kind of just was like crystallizing over top.
And I was like, is this safe? Can I still use it?
I'm just gonna throw it away. This is kind of gross.
You know, I would for those ones, like the ones that I had
from Tombow, because I've only had it happen like maybe once or
twice and it was definitely like it didn't arrive like that.
So I'm like, what did I do? Did I breathe on you wrong?
Like am I like, you know, making you into a science experiment or
whatnot? Calliographs, though I have had
some of those arrive and be a little naff like in the kind of
like scale of my pen set, not sufficiently, but like enough
that it was like you were doing you're doing a worse job than my
Tombos are type of a deal or whatnot.
But I didn't least appreciate with the Calla graphs, you do
get to brush nibs. So you get that final one, which
is a little bit less flexible, a little harder tip, which I find
is just a little bit more beginner friendly when it comes
to lettering. Like if you're using it for
lettering, specifically the Tombos with the like you know,
Tombo tool brush markers. With the nib being as large as
it is, it is a little bit more unruly.
Typically speaking, to get your letter forms looking nice, you
do just have to do bigger letter forms, which in an A5 journal
that's starting to take up a fair bit of space.
Yeah, you have to like really learn about like the angle and
the pressure to try to get that. I mean, it's really like drawing
with a brush, right? That's essentially what it is
without dipping it in paint. So it is definitely one of those
things where like if you are giving the time to it to learn
how to brush with it, like props to you.
Me and Jess are in the same boat here.
We're, we're underlining stuff real quick and a little fun and,
and then we're like, and let's move on to writing the rest of
our notebook. Yeah, One of my favorite ways to
use Tomos decoratively though, is just to take the nib and kind
of press it down onto the page from the tip and making
effectively like these little petals almost.
Or you can make it as kind of little, no confetti lines or
something like that. You can kind of add them to the
start of a header and just be like pop kind of a thing.
Those are kind of cute. That's not something I do a lot,
but when I do it, it always feels very satisfying, like, oh,
very cute. But if you've used your Tombow
sufficiently that the end is a little bit fluffy, a little
frayed or whatnot, then you don't really have that kind of
crisp point to it, which isn't as fun.
When you mentioned the idea of like, what do I do with these?
Like do I keep them because the ink is still good or whatnot?
I, I was keeping mine because I don't like throwing things away
that I still feel have a function or whatnot.
I'm like, well, I can still use you to color in.
I can still, you know, do XYZ with you, but I need one that
has that really kind of like pointed nib.
So I will get one with the pointed nib, bring that into my
collection, and then I'll just have them both there.
But then I just use the one with the pointed nib.
So eventually when I did my declutter, I'm like, look girl,
you're not using it. It's just taking up space.
It's time to let it go. Thank you for serving your
purpose. I appreciate you.
Goodbye. Yeah, 100%.
What would be your next 1 though?
Yeah. So mine would be another
fountain pen because, you know, let me just tell you how hard
this was because when we were, I mean, we didn't technically
limit ourselves, but I know we could talk forever.
Like I said, I would pull out every single pen that I own and
be like, this is my favorite pen.
But when I really think about like what do I have a lot of and
why this was the next one. So Twisby Geicos are it's
similar to the Lami's for me. You come get them in so many
different colors. I actually think that the Twisby
pens are even more fountain pen newbie friendly than the Lami's
because everything is built into this pen.
So like after I had my, my very first Lami, the Twisby was the
very first fountain pen that I bought on my own as like my next
pen. And then it just grew and grew
and grew and, and grew and grew and grew, right.
But what I love about it, and it's hard because I actually
have two of them inked up currently because that's how
much I love them. But essentially, like inside of
the pen, you'll see this little piston here and all you have to
do is just turn it and then that's down and you put it in
your ink and you turn it the other way and it sucks it up and
like that's it. You don't have to take anything
apart. You don't have to do very much
cleaning. It can be very easy.
You just stick it in clean water, suck it up, spit it out
somewhere else and do that a few times and you got a clean pen.
But like they're just really great.
And I love again, like the personality.
When I talk about fountain pens, you all see me get very excited.
You probably hear to my voice. But like fountain pens are just
a really great way to like show off your personality and show
off what you like and what you love.
And I think what the twis bees, I think with the law means,
because there are so many different versions and and ways
that you can use them. You know, like I have some that
have like really nice college with like brass accents on them,
right? The one that I gifted to Jess
has like a really cool like iridescent look to it, right?
You can get those two. Like it really is fantastic.
And with a lot of these, when you're just using just a little
piston fill here, you realize like it's not as intimidating as
you think it is, right? Same thing on a price
standpoint, they're a little bit more than Malami's can be,
especially when you get into like some specialty colors, but
like just a transparent like yellow one.
Again, it could be like $25, like $30.00 for a pen that
literally you will use forever. Like these are or not, you know,
the ink runs out and you're like, well, throw it in the
trash. No, that's why I also love
fountain pens because you never feel like you're ever not using
something all the way and then you refill it up later on if you
want to. So because of how easy
accessible they are, it's great. I think you'd actually buy them
off of Amazon now. Like that's how broad and out
there they are. Like you can get them in really
nice and easy ways. I don't necessarily know about
like the variety on some of those sites, but you can go to
like a regular pen store and, and, and get them right.
Like it's not like you have to go to like an exclusive pens
place to like try to make this happen or I'm not quite sure.
You can always find them. And again, they come in so many
different sizes, the nib sizes, depending on how you like to
write. I have never done it.
But if you really wanted to like instead of like buying a whole
new pen, but I don't know why you would do this.
You could just do the same thing.
You just buy the nib. That's the right eyes and
replace it out of your pens. Like there's a lot you can do
with it. Honestly, you can do that with
like every fountain pen. I don't like to think about that
because I love pens so much that I'm like, I'm going to have one
pen an extra fine and I'm going to have the other one at a fine
point and I'm going to have this one in medium and broad.
And then I'm like, but I really like the color of this one.
It's always a lot of fun and I also really like the variety
too. This is a different.
This is technically eco, but it's called the diamond.
What is it? 580 ALR.
But this ones nice. It looks the same.
This cost a little bit more, but it's because the details are a
bit nicer like you've got like more of the aluminum.
The other thing too now that you've mentioned about the pen
holders, it's just a regular circular holder here.
So whether you have a gremlin grip or just a regular grip,
you're good to go this one because it's a little bit nicer
has a little bit of actual like ridging on the metal right So
like you can hold it and it's a good textile feel, but they look
really cool. They come in a lot of different
colors, and like I said, I think they're even more fountain pen
friendly for newbies in the because you don't have to do
anything. It's all right there out of the
package. Yeah, I was thinking about like
as you were going through, which I'm going to keep calling it
Lamey. It's not the name, it's lame.
But I do think that at least where I'm based, I know that
Lami is more accessible. Like you can actually get it in
stores here. I don't know if you can get
Twisby's in store here, which I mean, no, no harm, no foul.
I got a twinsby, so it doesn't even matter.
I got my one. Don't say that you don't need
another one. Yes, you need another one.
I think about it all the time because I'm like you're never
going to change the ink in the one that I gave you.
I know that you're not going to, even though I gave you the ink,
even though I tell you how easy it is.
I've sent you the videos, literally a one-on-one video on
how to change the ink inside of your pen because that's how much
I want you to do it and you're not.
So at this point in my life, I'm thinking I just need to buy
another one and send it to you. So you're forced to fill it with
just black ink. You've had that for over a year,
Jazz like you've had so. Much left like look it, no so
much so. Ink, but that's The thing is
that if you were to, I guarantee if you were to literally turn
that no ink would even come out of the pen.
Like there's like there's that's more probably ink that's inside
of the feed that it is. Like you actually can't empty
that pad because there's not even enough ink.
There's more air in your pen than there is ink right now.
Yeah, there definitely is. I'm looking at it.
I'm just like, oh, she is she thirsty?
It's time and you know what just if you don't want to, you can
actually just fill it with another color and then you get a
really cool mix of color, but you need to fill that with a
black ink next no matter what you do because I feel like if
you fill it with a really nice black ink, you'll actually use
it. I gave you carbon black.
Don't let people tell you it's going to stain your pen.
I literally have this blue in here which will probably stain
my pen. Carbon black won't.
I'll tell you how to clean it out if you need to, but if you
put that in that I guarantee you'll use it more because it's
a color that you actually use. I mean, you're not wrong.
I'm wondering like, Oh yeah, if I just suck up the black ink and
then just like gradually overtime just increase how dark
it is, eventually we'll get to the point where it is the black
black. But I really like TikTok croc.
It's really pretty. It's just I don't write in green
ink. Great color, absolutely.
I'm telling you you'll love it. But it's really easy to do.
Like I said, I've literally a planner pals.
I literally just one night. I don't even know what time it
was. It was AM for you and you were
like, how would I go about cleaning this out?
I literally got out of bed and I filmed something on my phone of
like, here's all you have to do like so easy.
And that was like 6 months or so ago.
Yeah, no, the hyperfixation passed.
And so then I'm just like, Oh no, that's cool.
I'll put that in the backlog of projects that I'll never get
back to. So, yeah, you can tell that I'm
like very like passionate about Jess actually using a Fountain
fan. But it's not even because I feel
like like, oh, because I love it.
You'll like it too. I just think that it's a really
fun way to include more writing inside of your journal and your
planners. They're just writing on
anything. I think that's a great thing
too. Just about like all the pens
that we talked about today Also is that, you know, writing is
such an important part of journaling, especially if you
are analog planner or you just like to take notes.
It's not something that I appreciated as a young kid as
much as I love collecting pens and different things like that,
right? I was just a collector at heart.
You know, I, I kind of look back now and think about that, that I
think when you find a pen that you really like or a style or a
brand, you, you start to play around with that and see that.
And then you start to think a little bit more like, oh, what
if I tried something else? Like what if there is something
else out there? I mean, for a long time I did
not think that there was anything else out there other
than this like uniball signal. But when you do talk to other
people or try it out yourself, you suddenly realize like
there's a lot more fun to have in it.
And so that's why I like again, fountain pens have become my new
thing because I'm like, this is my personality and I can put any
type of ink in here that I want to.
And it's so fun. It definitely is something to
get over if you're like, no, no black ink in my notebook can't
be different on every page. But maybe fountain pens aren't
the thing for you unless you're going to use one pen and 1 ink.
But that's boring, right? I think that it depending on the
kind of person that you are, you'd get to a point where
you're like, I don't really care about that anymore.
And so weird thing to say as a person who was like, I will only
write with one pen in my notebook and I have like 3 years
worth of notebooks that are just like black, you know, this pen,
well, not this pen because this one manure this pen for years.
But then now like flipping through my notebook, it is so
much more fun. I'm like, oh, that was a cool
color. Oh crap, that one bled through
the page. This one wasn't great.
I hated that pen. It just creates a little bit
more fun and excitement in your life.
No, I think that as somebody who is like pen enthusiasts like
yourself, that would be like kind of fun trip down memory
lane. Like, oh, you know, I remember
when I got this one and I was really enthusiastic about it.
And I like really love the broad nibble on this one, really fun
to letter with or whatnot. Whereas my kind of style of
planning in terms of like looking back, I'm just like, Oh
yeah, remember when I used to draw everything?
Oh, remember when I started first getting into washi tapes?
Remember when I first started getting into stickers or
whatnot? So I think that for the most
part, because I don't have that same kind of like I don't say
like attachment depends because I'm not going to try and like
insinuate that you're out here. Just like no pressure is like
this is the BL and indolent journaling supplies I.
Don't know I am. I mean, like, yeah, but I was
going to call it out. Now you call it out, I literally
added two more tears to my pegboard behind me to put even
more fountain pens out because to me, it's like they're almost
like art. Like, that was the whole idea in
my like, pegboard that I have in my space with the fountain pens
out is like, they are beautiful to look at.
I love writing with them. And it's like an art
installation. It's basically how I sold it to
my wife. It's like I'm spending all this
money because it's like an art installation.
Like we have to have this. But I think it is just the
really fun part. Like, yeah, I mean, I'd even go
into like, maker pens or anything else like that because
that's getting very, very niche and in most cases, very, very
expensive. I wanted to be like,
approachable in here. And I know there's some people
out there that are like, oh, I'm not paying $3 for an ink pen.
Like, that's ridiculous, right? And some people who think
spending, you know, $80 on, like a fancier Twisby is way too
much. But like fighting that space in
between where you're like, oh, you know what?
If you're going to invest in a pen that you're going to use all
the time, you might as well really love it.
Like that's what I think I love so much about pens as a whole
when people are asking you, because it is.
So specific to like your identity sometimes and like who
you are. And I love giving advice for
things like this. I think that when people see you
using certain pens or they ask you about it, you can give that
advice and like introduce someone to something new, even
if it is just like the Sarasa, you know, Mark on versus like
the BIC that they're using right now.
Each to their own. No, I do think that also it's
quite interesting to see how your pen preferences will kind
of change over time. Like when I first started, I was
using, I'm pretty sure I was using a creative memories fine
liner because it was the only thing that I had that looked
semi similar to what I was seeing online.
Because I'm like, oh, I want to do it that way.
Like I want to have a fine liner pen and all the fine liner pens
actually work for me. But eventually I graduated from
that to actually buying my own 1.
And I'm pretty sure I was using like the Sharpie fine point,
fine liner type thing because I was like, oh, the quality of
black on this. This is better than the one I
was using because the one I was using was like old.
It had seen some things and eventually it was like, okay,
well, that one, I don't really love that when I go over it with
an eraser, it's kind of Gray. So I graduated to the fabric
Castel pit artist pen because that was looking a little bit
better and it had different line weights and all of that kind of
thing. So that was kind of nice, and
eventually I just came to the realization like, no, if you're
going to do everyday writing, you prefer a ballpoint.
We just need to find a pen that has a ballpoint.
Yeah, and it's crazy too, when you go down that route, because
right now I just put in like a massive stationary order and it
got a lot of new pens and inks and I was going through because
even like Lami, for instance, has ballpoint pens instead of
fountain pens. And so it's like, what are those
things where I never even look at the ballpoint pens anymore
because I'm like, who wants that?
But you can get really nice ballpoint pens like you can get
like gold and silver, like Plated and Platinum and
everything else, but as a ballpoint versus a fountain pen.
And it's just one of those things, I guess, where you're
just, you are, you're investing in what you're doing every
single day. So you might as well have fun
with it, you know, and like I said, I mean, maybe you're not
buying five $100 pens to write with all the time, but you're
going to be a little precious about the one you didn't spend
that money on. But if you use it every single
day or you have it in like a spot where, you know, you sit
down and, you know, do your bills or do whatever, I'm just a
firm believer that like enjoying what you're writing and how
you're writing to such like a really enjoyable part of
writing. Like I hated writing when I was
younger and now I do it every single day.
Like most people be like, don't know, I'm just going to type now
instead, like I don't need to write with my hands.
But like when you really enjoy it and you find something you
love, it's like, this is cool. And then people just know to
come to you. And it's for me, it's a really
good feeling when someone's like, I know that you really
like pens. I have a few questions and I'm
like, and let's talk about it. What you got?
Yeah, I think that enjoyment is a big part and my next pick is
definitely an enjoyment based one.
That one being dog markers, like and we talked about it last time
or like previously Jess was a hater.
She was like, why do you need a dog marker?
I can draw a circle. I have tomos.
Like I have the ability, especially with something that
size, if it's slightly amorphous, who cares?
I care. Oh, I love them so much.
I use them all the time. I'm not usually out here making
a full kind of like bulleted list of dot points with them,
but I do love to use them to just highlight like this is the
most important thing of the day. Pay attention to this.
Like please cast 9 gaze upon this task because that is what
you need to get done. Or I'll use them for decoration.
Like I'm not out here doing hardcore dot art, but some
people do like they do very beautiful designs with them and
such. But I do like to add a little
bit of kind of your visual interest to the corner of a page
or something, fill in a little bit of white space because I'm
like allergic to it or something.
I've also used it on a monthly calendar to like highlight the
day numbers or whatnot. So you just have that kind of
like dedicated spot to put the numbers in.
I don't really use monthly calendars anymore, so I don't
use it like that anymore, but I did I when I first got them, I
was like, OK, we'll try these out because they're kind of
interesting I suppose. And maybe we can like make a
video for it or something like that.
Not really expecting that I was going to enjoy them enough to
actually use them on a day-to-day counter basis.
But now they are a daily use, like every day I'm getting out
my dot market to dot the thing that is going to be the most
important at the very least. Sometimes I'll use it on like a
habit tracker or whatnot. You can use it on a year at a
glance calendar to highlight specific days.
I use a lot of them for like kind of more functional reasons
or things that like help me use my journal productively, I
suppose, but they're just a lot of fun.
I love using them little dot dot.
It's so funny that, like, that's definitely your thing.
Like, even last episode you were talking about how much you
loved, like, the markers right now.
The comment section was just like equal love for the dot
markers as well as it went down, which was amazing.
Yeah. It's just not the one that I
typically go and grab for, you know, it's definitely something
I'm like, oh, I want to do this thing.
Oh, I forgot. I have all these dot markers.
I should probably use them. So to hear that is really fun.
I think that like, no, like this is it for me.
And like you said, it changes over time.
Like you said, just was a hater. I definitely was a hater too.
I can't say like I'm a core lover, but like I'm an
appreciator of the dot marker, you know, to say like it has a
job to do, it can be fun. But like even seeing that over
time and progressing through and how it changes and who knows a
year from now when we do a similar episode of like what's
our favorite of this year, we might not even know who the dot
marker is anymore. We may have found a square
marker instead of a dot that like you, like no squares
instead of dots now, who knows? Or just something like, I don't
even do that. Like Jess is going to become
this like ultra minimalist like you.
You started as this like maximalist with all the colors
and all the brush bends and drawing and all this stuff.
And then like next year you're going to be like the hardcore
straight laced, like 1 pen, one notebook, no decoration
whatsoever. No, that'll never be you.
But it's just funny to see that it's like a maturity over time,
but not that you're growing out of it.
You're just refining your your likes and your loves.
You know, it's going to be me next year with like this episode
being like our favorite pens from the year.
And you're just like, I love this fountain pen.
I love this fountain pen. I'll be like, I have this
mechanical keyboard now because everything is digital and I've
scrapped all my notebooks. And you know what?
And nothing would be wrong with that.
Jess is actually like my favorite pen is not even
something you'll hold in your hand.
Now it is. I draw with my eyes.
That's how I click on my screen when I want something with my
eyes. I don't write anymore that would
be. Just like motion tracking to say
where I'm looking to like add toss.
You're like, actually don't write my hands are now it's just
got like the pros on or whatever they're called and you're just
like touching into the sky to like move all of your things
along and around. It would be fantastic that.
Was just VR planning with like a like VR keyboard just like.
I'm not gonna lie to you. I think the other reason I want
like vision pros or Samsung just came out with a very similar XRS
or something they're called I don't know is because I want to
look like I'm in minority report.
Like I want to like put my task list over here and click it over
here. So like as I'm working, it can
be like next thing done, done. But, you know, like, I, I don't
know, I, I think that would be so fun, but I would miss the
tactileness of writing because it's been such a big part of my
life now and will be forever. Like, I'm going to have pens and
I'm going to be able to give to like my children and my
grandkids in the future. Like, that's my goal at this
point. Some people, you know, have
jewelry. I have fountain pens and.
These are the family elements, like family jewels, kind of a
thing that cost down through the generations.
Yeah, like I hope that when I get older, no one's like, what
is all this crap that that that grandpa had like from the grave?
Like, don't you dare. That ink is still good.
There's a little bit left in that pen.
Don't you dare throw that away. My dad was literally talking
with me about this the other day.
Not specifically pens, but more so like models because he does
figurines and such and think about, you know, Oh well, I
really want to get the maximum enjoyment out of them possible.
So I'm probably not going to sell them on before I pass type
of a thing. And he's like, and then it'll be
your problem. I'm like, Yep, thanks dad.
Always love thinking about that. Awesome.
And already I'm like, Oh no, we would put that inside of a, you
know, a chest or thing to show them up on the wall because
they're just that cool. Well, slightly morbid ending
aside, planner Powers, we would love to know what are your
favorite pens, whether they're just regular writing pens,
whether they're the fanciest of the fountain pens that are out
there or the fanciest of the regular writing pens that aren't
fountain pens, but you still love them.
We want to know. We want you to penable us.
Please let us know what we need to put on our shopping list or
our wish list so that maybe we could get some of those before
the new year. Let us know either in the
comments on YouTube or you can help us up at
plannerpalspodcast@gmail.com or head over to Instagram at
Planner Pals Podcast. As always, just I love talking
about pens. I think we need another fountain
pen episode, maybe in the new year.
If you can, if you can stomach it again, I would love to do it
because it's so much fun. And maybe by that time you will
actually have changed the ink inside of your pen or maybe a
new one. You never know, like what could
happen in the future. All right, planner pals.
Well, thank you so much for hanging out with us today
talking about our favorite pens. We can't wait to hear from you,
and we'll talk to you next time.