Goulet Guests: David Parker, Creator of Figboot on Pens 

Thanks for having me. It was great to spend time with you and your gang!

Soooooooo great to see two of my favorite reviewers talking about our favorite subject😁😁👍👍👍👍

Love u guys. Now we really want you two plus Stephen, Aziza and Matt doing a one hour show . Cmon make it happen

I love how Brian engages with his guests. He's so knowledgeable yet humble. Not an iota of arrogance. I wish you luck and success.

Thanks a lot, David! I had successfully resisted the temptation to buy a Stargazer on clearance from Goulet. But after you mentioned it, all hope was lost and I ordered it! You should get a commission! 😁

Thanks David and Brian . I love Davids reviews on his channel he does an amazing job and bringing only pens you sell for this interview you have to take your hat off to such thoughtfulness , Great guy. Congratulations on the 100k Brian and the team very well deserved.

All your videos make us viewers feel like we are there with you. Enjoy both of your videos all the time. Thanks for posting, guys!

For me, mostly Brian's videos. I've always been into pens, but only after I stumbled upon these videos did I dive deep into the hobby. I got 11 pens just last year (plus two from coworkers randomly). So there you go...

David & Brian if it wasn't for you and all the other fountain pen reviewers and pen shop owners out there this hobby of ours wouldn't be as interesting. Everyone's opinion and knowledge matters to us all. So thank you both for sharing with us all.

I just discovered Mr. Parker. After I placed an order with Goulet... Super stoked I did. Seem like good people!

Just to validate the idea, I’ve started my own fountain pen review channel as an extension of the hobby because I enjoy both of your videos (and SBE Brown’s videos) so much. Thank you both, Brian and David, you’re wonderful!

Mr. Parker, your interview with Dr. Tyson is one of the very best things I have seen on the internet. Thank you! Excellent!!!

What got me into FP’s? Your videos. I had a Lamy Safari many years ago but stopped. Then in the past year got back in with some Pilot Metro’s and just ordered my e95s from Goulet Pens and it should arrive any day now. I use pens mostly for jotting notes and enjoy the feel of writing with a FP along with the care of them. The ritual of cleaning, filling, picking ink colors, and the variety of pens out there adds a new dimension to writing that is hard to explain to those who don’t know it.

Loved the video! I watch both channels regularly. And congratulations on the 100K mark!!!!

Wonderful video!!! I enjoyed this so much. Thank you both for making this happen. Edited to add: any company that has a Mac and cheese cook off at work is AWESOME.

Another lovely chat to listen in on. I love these sit downs you do with other members of our community. Davis is great and I sub to his channel too. I could have happlily listened for another hour plus.... I too had no idea that so many minutes had passed as I was enjoying it so much!

I just recently saw the NDGT video and found it fascinating, I had no idea Tyson was into pens so that was a fun discovery. Also, I love how specific he was about what he wants from a pen, such as the nib needing to have character, and the fact that he owns several quills and how he wants sort of a connection or gateway if you will, to the past. It was an interesting watch 👍

Loved this video, I just found both of you the last week and am binging on all the videos. My husband just commented "how many days are you gonna watch pen video's", lol. This is day three and still watching and learning. I would love to see videos on what pens you think will hold their value or increase in value or brands. TY

Mr. Parker, your interview with Dr. Tyson was brilliant. What a great idea. It's interesting to hear about the pen collections from well known respected public figures.

Thanks to you David and Brian, along with SBRE my favorite FP resources 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

David and Brian, thanks so much for an hour’s worth of insights by two men of renown in the field. I have an idea for my next pen, and it will be a Goulet purchase. Frankly, I could easily have relaxed for an even longer in-depth discussion. Thanks so much for an outstanding video

This is a very nice video! David Parker AKA Figboot looks [even] nicer here from a different angle and a bit less in the face. Really nice watching both of you. Thank you for both of you sharing your rich knowledge and experiences with pens etc.

I also had a piston filler take me over the edge, for me it was the Pelikan M200:) It was my third pen in my collection after a Loom and an Al-Star and there was something about the writing experience that I felt was so different from the other two that it made me realize that you could get 500 pens and have 500 different writing experiences. That is what I am still looking for, something different from the last pen I bought - which might make this journey a very long one:) Great interview!

Thank you David and Brian, for great content and knowledge sharing that is also enjoyable at the same time.

Very enjoyable watching the two of you talking about pens.

Excelente video. Bien por los dos. Esto promueve la cultura de las estilográficas y ustedes son ejemplo de lo que debe ser el mundo de los negocios. Pasión, gusto y alegría en el trabajo. Un gran abrazo a los dos desde Medellín, Colombia.

two amazing channels that has helped a beginner like me to become more knowledgeable about fountain pens.

Finished work and flipped on your new collaboration video = one of your (both) best videos to date simply because it's two friends, sharing their passion in casual conversation while actually providing "meaty" information around several perspectives. At least for me, I could relate in many ways including starting out with a single pen (a Retro 1951 rollerball!) at roughly $30 and moving up/out to....too many now. Nice job. Congratulations.

TWSBI 580 was the very first pen I bought and it still is my favorite because I just love seeing that ink!!! When I load with a different color, it's like a whole new pen to me! I now have several Lamys, a Karas Kustom Copper K, Conklin Duragraph and several starter pens. When I can decide on a "Grail" pen, which is quite difficult since there are sooooo many stunning pens and because my "wants" far exceed the budget, I'll fall down that rabbit hole hard!!! Great interview and fun show today!!!

Love getting to see all his pens...that was fun!

Good to see you two get together! It was fun watching the whole video.

Brian (and David): thanks for hosting this video. David (Figboot) is one of my favorite posters and, in my opinion, he's right up there at the top with you Stephen and Matt. Each of you bring your own style, approach and content and each of you do it in an informative and entertaining manner. Pens and inks are fun, but it's the passion that community exudes that sucked me forcibly (and pleasantly) down the Rabbit Hole. Brian, it was actually my purchase (from the Goulet Co.) of a beautiful blue Pilot Custom 74 identical to yours that made me ask what else is there! I thank you for that even as my wallet whimpers and moans. I forced myself to watch this all the way through before commenting, otherwise I'd have written a book on all the elements with which I agreed, nodded to and even chuckled with. THANKS to both of you!

For me the pen that got me diving deeper was the Faber-Castell Loom. Before that I had mostly Jinhao, a couple of Safaris, a Metropolitan and a couple generic chinese pens. The Loom showed me how great a nib can really be. My collection has since grown to 140+ pen but my two Looms are still amoung my favorites. By the way, I discovered the Loom when I seen David's video on pens between 50 and $100, which was also the first of his videos I saw.

David has a great point about building slowly. Absolutely: the early stuff is often better forgotten. But this is how you learn. And it's also true that you shouldn't invest in equipment right away. There is the discussion of content vs. quality which you mentioned. But, more importantly, you need to be there and continually shooting videos. Too many channels seem to flower and fade with only a few videos. They don't realize the work and time involved in managing a channel and producing regular content. I also enjoyed the comments about Neil DeGrasse Tyson. In one of my extra jobs, I do photography. And I've made all kinds of mistakes on something that could never be replaced or replicated. I always wish I could take those things back, but you can't.

The TWSBI diamond ALR was also the pen that drug me down the rabbit hole. TWSBI has special place in my heart no matter how deep I get.

Great video, two great favorites spending great time for great pen fans.

Super cool guest. I have started following David recently and it was interesting to hear how he got into the review process, and also how you can do this cheaply:-)

i like David !!!! such a great personality !! thanks for the enjoyable interview

Oh. I just watched his amazing interview with a certain astrophysicist! How exciting.

April 7th, 8:42PM PST, 100,806 subscribers Who would have thought that there were that many people interested in fountain pens. Wow.. Thanks for the education, the pens in my mailbox, and congratulations on 100K! Kinda cool to see you both in the same room. Is someone going to sit down for 20-25 minutes and listen to you talk about a pen? Yes, Yes, we will..... :-)

David just seems like a nice guy.

This may be a little old now but I've only just found this video and watched it start-to-end. Very interesting sit-down and looked like you had a blast.

The thing that really accelerated my interest in fountain pens was discovering the vibrant ink bottles and syringe filling / converters. I was primarily using cartridges and a friend introduced me to samples of bottled ink colors and showed me how to refill your own cartridges. Soon after, my local pen store started carrying private reserve and other brands of brilliant colors. Eventually, I found out about online retailers and a whole community of fellow FP geeks. The fountain pens that really hooked me into the hobby was the cool factor of the Pilot Vanishing Point and my first demonstrator - the Pelikan m200 and the amazing smoothness of it's nib.

The Kaweco Sport Classic was the one that got me deeper down the rabbit hole. I don't use mine much anymore, but it's a keeper for sure because it got me into pens.

Great conversation, I'm glad you guys shared it with us! :)

It's great,seeing both of u..!!

I've just started in this world and I've been thinking the were both great. this is the mash up I needed

Very humble man. Bravo!!!!!!

such amazing youtube content! congrats here is to a million more!!!

2 of my favorite content creators in one place! What sort of derangement could 23 people have to give this a thumbs down geesh

This video is a good way to spend an hour hearing people talking about your favourite hobby :)

This was a great video! The pen that really got me into fountain pens was the Namiki Falcon with a nib modified by John Mottishaw (spelling?), I did not know anything about fountain pens before but knew about an artist I admired who used a modified Namiki Falcon and the of course I had to have one myself, and the rest... down the rabbit hole!! I still have the namiki and I love it!!

two very personable guys - I enjoy their videos.

That is truly awesome that you both are so willing to share your hard earned wisdom to encourage new folks to the RU-vid game. I’ve been trying to overcome some social phobia to create some content of my own, and this was very encouraging.

You two with Matt Armstrong and Dan Smith are best four FP reviewers in my opinion. It is very heart warming to see your mutual respect. I wish one day Matt will too join you, Mr. Goulet.

So I am not the only one who is "obsessed" with fountain pens! LOL!

Wonderful video!!! Great stories.

I forgot- great congratulations to hitting 100 000 subscribers!

Varieties of inks, slow-friction writing, and “modern vintage” feels is what got me into fountain pens.

Great interview fun watching and learning.

Kudos to you and the 100K subscribers!

100,000 subs. Congrats!!!!

This was awesome, I could listen to you guys for hours!

Getting low on ink in my first fountain pen was got me really researching and getting hooked on fountain pens

Congrats on 100k ! And thank you David for coming ! Love to see these 2 guys together !

Nice to see two fountain pen treasures at the same table. Wow did that hour fly past fast! QOTW: The thing that send me down the rabbit hole was ink actually. I was tired of black or blue cartridges so I had put my fountain pens in a box in the back of a desk drawer, where they mostly sat for 15+ years. Then I saw a video by MissVickyBee about Goulet 101 videos and found cartridge converters and ink, beautiful bottles and samples of bazillions of colors of ink, even sparkles and boy did that box get dusted off fast! Of course, I did get a TWSBI 700 vac that made me want to add new pens to my new ink collection 😂 and so it goes. 🖋🤓

Great conversation gentlemen. QOTW: I was just starting to Bullet Journal and watching a video about Exceed Journals, available at Walmart of all places, and the person mentioned Platinum Preppy pens and how the ink was fairly quick to dry. As a lefty who had been using a Pilot G2 that I loved but smudged all the time I gave it a shot. Boom 💥 Down the fountain pen rabbit hole I dove. 🤣

Wow! Two of my favorite pen meisters talking about pens! Thanks, guys! It made me think that my budget would appreciate it if I'd never come across each of you. David, earlier today (before seeing this) I found and ordered a Stella 90S in red like the one you showed! I'm not a "small pen" user either (my daughters usually inherit them) but I really like Pilot and sometimes a small pen is just perfect. Can I send you the bill? As for what sent me down the pen rabbit hole, it was (ironically) a Parker -- in this case a red (modern) International. I started the hobby backwards, hunting out vintage Parkers, then Pelikans etc and only in recent years have I gone exploring TWSBIs, PenBBS, Moonman and the world of steel nibs.

What made me go down the rabbit hole... Not really a pen, but Pelahale's channel.

QOTW: After using the Pilot Metro and TWSBI pens for a few months, I took a leap and bought the Lamy 2000 in Makralon. That was the game changer for me. One year and 50+ pens later, I am more selective in my purchases, focusing on more timeless additions to the collection. Great question !

Great video!, really nice example of community For the wow pen was the sheaffer’s PFM snorkel... =D Bye and many thanks!, Paulo

David you will get to 100K subs eventually my friend it just takes time.

David's videos are fairly enjoyable and has good educational value

If I showed up at Goulet HQ to sit down and talk to Brian for an hour it would be less like a breezy discussion and more of a hostage crisis-esque, "excuse me who are you with again?", "excuse me sir I'm going to have to ask you to leave," call-the-cops type situation. Where's the awkward squad at!? Anyone?.....anyone?

I love watching both of y’all! I originally remembered I learned cursive in 3rd grade then never wrote in cursive and lost the art! I then in high school re thought my self and stumbled across fountains pens and the rest is history :)

Great interview. Thanks. I can relate. I'm in the acquiring phase, still the most is around $100, haven't been able to break that yet. So worried bc once I do OMG, I already have 16 fountain pens under 100! Dang! Same with inks. I am of the persuasion that each pen demands it's own exclusive ink! I recently tried mixing inks bc I couldn't find that one perfect burgundy, and I really enjoyed the result. Also I am less scared of fixing things that may not be just what I like and I'm getting comfortable talking about pens. Still, I have not been able to find a fp for work, bc of the instability of them, in a meeting situation, when there may be a hard start. Its a fact that as you research and either you like/enjoy the person speaking about it, or you find a tidbit that speaks to you, it only reinforces your NEED to get that pen; that's the collector in me. I am currently considering an Ahab, though I don't really need any pens at all, but I like the back story, and I loved the interview with Nathan. I'll never live long enough to enjoy what I already have, these pens seem indestructible and the inks are in big bottles, still, I am enjoying the hobby and I love watching and learning from these videos. Thanks for being there in this vacuum with me! Cheryl

David & Brian, thank you for pursuing your - our - passion and for supporting all the pen aficionados. Kindness matters. Very classy. Thank you. 🙏🏼

To answer the question at the end, I started with the TWSBI Diamond 580AL, and it and learning Neil Gaiman uses fountain pens got me further into the hobby. Now I have a list of grail pens, the Visconti Homo Sapiens being first on that list.

He is a very good reviewer and very likable.

Thank you, Brian and David. Congratulations on 100k, GPC. (You know that's because Drew has been doing more videos, right?)

Going back to watch this video again. Been interested in fountain pens for a while but just started collecting this year. Whenever I am interested in a new pen I ask myself two questions: does figboot have a review I can watch, and can I buy it at Goulet. These two men have been a nightmare to my wallet.

Great interview.

Your going to laugh at me when I say this, but the item that made me dive deeper.... the visconti bridge clip. I needed one of those in my life.

Great interview ...✒️💙✒️💙✒️💙✒️💙✒️

Yayyy David! How awesome 😁

This is like magic/bird for the youtube fountain pen reviewer community

With the last name alone I initially thought you guys had a representative from Parker pens lol. Until of course his face clicked and I recognized Mr. Figboot himself was the guest :D I love the idea of having more people from the fp community as guests

Cool video and discussions...

I subscribe to both of you. really enjoy

I suspect the designer of the Lamy 2000 and the Braun SM3 shaver (an some other industrial products) is Gerd Alfred Müller. He is born in 1932 in Frankfurt am Main and died in 1991. His name is often overlooked or confused because there are a lot of famous men in Germany who are called Gerd Müller, including athletes and politicians.

Congrats on 100k!

My first few fountain pens I bought as an adult I bought from Levenger, it as a Levenger branded Rotring 600, I still have it, but back in 2002 when I bought it there was NO online fountain pen content to be had, or at least that I could find. Google didn't exist yet! I got a little frustrated because I knew I didn't know what the heck I was doing and gradually I put the pens I had bought away until I caught the FP bug again in 2015. I found the Fountain Pen Network, which is how I found Goulet Pens and everything else! My ink collection has grown exponentially too! I went from a sampler pack of Levenger cartridges and a bottle of their Gemstone Green to a lot more inks. I think I have almost every color, except yellow and grey.

For me, it was bullet journaling. I wanted to get into a good system, and I found that a lot of people encouraged writing with fountain pens. Im 26 pens in, and now I'm just addicted :D

Honestly? The Lamy Al-star. I had a Parker and a Cross that I got as presents. But the Lamy was the first pen I chose for myself. And even though it wasn't really the type of design I usually go for (I prefer classic and elegant over industrial), I loved the colour and had heard great things so I decided to go for it.

Great video!

David is great!

Brian should do a segment where he shows/reads the letters he gets from fans/customers as the 100k subscriber special

congrats on the 100k :D

I find the wide grip on the Lamy Dialog 3 is more comfortable for me than most pens since I'm less likely to pinch the pen so hard I get a cramp in my palm.

Great content...