Editing The Pen Addict 167/transcript (section)

== Baron Fig Notebook ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Well, let me let you get back into what you alluded to a minute ago. You got some paper that's not handling some ink very well. And I know exactly what it is.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So it's the Baron Fig. Mm-hmm. So Baron Fig arrived. The work play edition is what I've got my hands on. And so I really think that they messed up in creating a limited edition, which is just black.

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

'''Myke Hurley:''' When they had that beautiful work play artwork on the box.

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

'''Myke Hurley:''' I would have really liked to see them put that actually on the outside of the book. I can see that. Because I don't know why you would make it a limited edition. I mean, I know the paper inside is different, but I don't know why they would commission that artwork to be done. Right. And then not put it on the actual book itself. It feels like that makes more sense to me. But it's a style choice. I mean, maybe they just wanted their books to remain pretty, like, calm. Which I understand. If that's what they're going for.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, but so far the confidants have had nothing on the cover. Yeah. In the three colors I think they've done.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That remains the way that they do it, even as they do more limited editions. And I will forgive it. But if they start putting things on the outside, then they missed a trick. Because I actually think that I prefer the colorway of the gray and the yellow. But I wanted to get this one because I liked the paper. Yeah. And I saw about it on your website. So I figured I would buy it via your website. So I actually got the one that they got. And the quality of the book, the way that it is put together, is really great. Like, they are very well made. They have a real great feel to them. They really do open flat, which is not easy to do. And it closes flat as well, even after being open flat. So that is a, you know, I have my hats off to them. Because even like in the middle pages of the book, they managed to open flat. Yep. Which is very difficult to do. Well, I would expect it's very difficult to do because of the amount of people that can't seem to do it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Especially the more pages you get. Like, I mean, it's a thick notebook. I mean, it's not like it's 40 pages and lays flat. It's, you know, it's large.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And the paper quality is okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's fair. That's, I would sum that up about right, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But it has, for me, like, I think as much bleed as the field notes. Mm-hmm. And, you know, as I said before, field notes bleed. And I know that is the case. But the trade-off for me is, like, the interesting design and the pocketableness of it. Right. A book of this size, of a hardback, I don't want my ink to be bleeding. Right. It feels like that there is, to me anyway, it feels that there should be a disconnect. Like, a book like this, I want to have to be made out of much better materials. Even though the paper quality is very good. It's very good. I don't think it's very fountain pen friendly.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I thought, for some reason, I felt that this one was actually more fountain pen friendly than the first ones that I tested. Like, the first ones that I tested, I didn't enjoy using fountain pens at all. Okay. When the first gray confidant came out. And I got this one, and I was using different pens and inks when I got the Workplay edition. I actually emailed him. I said, hey, I feel like my fountain pens are working better. Did the paper change on this edition from the original confidant? And they validated that, no, it's exactly the same. So, I think it's just a matter of, like we talk about with field notes, if you want to use fountain pens, it's not the most fountain pen friendly book going by a long stretch. But there are certain combinations of nibs and inks that do much better in this type of paper, with this type of paper, than others. So, you're going to find, like the first time I ever used a Baron Fig, I didn't like it for fountain pens at all. And then this Workplay edition, whichever fountain pens I had inked up at the time, they worked really well. I was, it actually kind of, it made me, they worked so well, it made me ask them the question, did something change? So, I think it's a matter of the pen and ink choices. And I do tend to use more gel ink pens in the Baron Fig than fountain pens, just because I know for sure that that's going to work instead of trying something random necessarily and being disappointed with the output. So, I think your assessment is spot on.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, without, and I really don't want to do either A, just blow smoke your way, or B, just make this show a shill for your product. But genuinely, having used the paper quality on the spiral pad, the Notco spiral pad, which again, I can't even remember if that's the name. Why can't I remember the names? I don't know. I think you need to give them like a name, like a name. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know? We have these discussions. These are long, these are not simple discussions when you're introducing products. Yeah, I'm with you.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, even if it's like the Notco Barry, just give it a name. I just want a name because I can't, for some reason, I can't remember the name. Having used that and then used this, the paper quality is so much better. Like, and the place I noticed this the most was in using a mechanical pencil. Like, because on your stuff, it just glides. But on the Baron Fig, I could feel resistance, but not the good kind. Right. It just didn't feel as nice to write with. It didn't feel as comfortable to write with. So my overall feeling about the Baron Fig is, so my main takeaway from this is both a good thing and a bad thing. So this, the way that this is presented and made, the way it feels and looks, this is a notebook that I want to put important things in. Right? I mean, because the paper quality is good. It's not incredible. It's good. It definitely does the job. But overall, the overall build and production of this is excellent. But I don't know what to put in here. So I probably won't put anything in here. That is a problem. This is a problem I don't have with field notes. And the reason that I don't have that problem with field notes, I don't mind them getting battered up, bashed up. I have a ton of them. They slide in my pocket. They go in my bag. They go everywhere with me. And that works a lot more for me mentally into I can just put anything in here. It doesn't even matter. Right. And that's the same with the Knock Co Barry pad. Is I could just, I don't feel like I need to be precious about it. Right. So I just chuck anything in here. But this thing for me is too fancy looking and feeling. And that means that I feel like I have to be putting in my hopes and dreams into here, which I know a lot of people do, but like this is a perfect journaling notebook. Right. But that's just not the way that I use this stuff. It sat on my desk and it will continue to sit on my desk for a while because I would like to think of some important stuff to put in here. But that tends not to be what I do with pen and paper these days.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So this is an entire show topic that we could go down that path. And we won't do it today, but the preciousness of the tools that we use. And I have certainly changed over the past couple of years in my thought process on that. But it's still a challenge in using things. There's like a mental block for what the appropriateness of the tool is. Right. Well, I paid a lot for this pen, so I need to be like super careful with it and only use it at my desk and only use it with this certain paper. And, you know, I think we can we can we can shelve this this topic and maybe do one down the line because I know we've certainly talked about these things in the past. Right. And a lot of it happened like around the time I bought my first Nakaya. I think that's when the switch flipped for me. That's when I knew I was ready to stop being so precious. When I bought the most expensive, delicate item that I own was the day I stopped being precious with the tools that I use. So I think maybe we should we should shelve that because we could go on for another half an hour about that topic because I think it's an important topic. I mean, I think it's it's a thing. It's a thing we all have.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like I get the the the like the not being preciousness of it, but it's like I think there's a difference between what you've described and what I'm describing is like I just don't like I just don't feel like I have anything that needs to go in here. Sure. As that couldn't go anywhere else. But having something like an Nakaya is like a it's a different experience because you I well, at least me personally, I don't own a pen where I'm like this pen's too fancy for this kind of writing. And I know that I'm basically just making the inverse argument on the paper side. But it's just the way that my mind works is you put things into the notebook and the notebook kind of says something about what's inside it. Sure. Where the pen, the pen is like an extension of me and the notebook is a container. And for me, those two things create some sort of difference.