Editing The Pen Addict 671/transcript (section)

== Launching the Paper Mine and its concept ==

* All right. So you've had, you had the video channel for a while. It's been going on since, you know, pandemic time. When did the idea for the paper mine, which is, okay, let's do this. How would you describe the paper mine? Yeah, so it's a stationery store, an online stationery store. And I really specialize in paper for fountain pens in particular.
* I have my own line of notebooks that I design. That's really where the paper mine started. And it's kind of expanded into other stationery items from there. But it's really all, it's about the paper. Yeah, yeah. When did this start in relation to like the channel? And like, was this kind of around the same time or shortly thereafter? I would say shortly thereafter. I reviewed a Kakimori bank paper notebook and I was reminded how good bank paper is. Oh, yeah. We're going to talk. Believe me, we're going to talk. Like, I wanted to, you know, I wanted to buy another one and they didn't make it. And at the time, like, I couldn't find another bank paper notebook. Maybe Atelier Misubi had one, like their high-end, like hand-bound one. Yeah. But it was blank pages and it was like, well, maybe I should try to make one. I know other fountain pen users will like this paper. And that's kind of, I just started exploring from there, trying to find binders and people that could make the notebook in the way that I wanted. So I think with a lot of us who create stationery content, for lack of a better term, or, you know, make stationery related products, we're, you know, none of us are like big companies and we're not just making like universally like broad products. We're making very specific products that in the end, it's like, hey, I want to use this and it's not out there, but there's parts of it out there. Can we pull all this together and make the thing that I want to use every day? Is that kind of how this started in your mind?
* Yeah, totally. It was like, you know, I've reviewed, I had reviewed a lot of notebooks. I tested a lot of notebooks just between the blog and the channel. And I was like, we can put all these different ingredients together. I can make my perfect notebook and I think other people will like it. That sounds very familiar. Very familiar. Yeah. But like, again, when you're making a, you know, you have a channel and you're creating content and even from the blog days when you're writing, like the paper is important and people always inquire, right? Because it's such a huge, I don't want to call it a barrier to entry to fountain pens, but like if someone's like trying fountain pens for the first time and they don't go all the way through like the whole product cycle where you need a good paper too, like I imagine you get lots of questions about paper and it's like, well, yeah, like here's what I like and here's why I like it. And maybe I should make it too. Why did, why did, why did bank paper stick out for you? Because it's one of my favorite papers. I understand that it's not like a universally loved paper. It's a little bit particular and weird. For sure. But it has some features that I like. What was that the first product? Was it a bank paper notebook? Yeah, that was, that was the first product. And that was, yeah, it was, it's been a, it's been a bumpy ride with paper because like the paper industry is shrinking.
* But anyway, yeah, that paper, I love how crisp it is. It has, you know, an extremely like natural feeling to it. It's not like printed with like a polymer on it, like a Tomoe river would be. And it holds fountain pen ink really, really nicely.
* And it's a relatively compact paper. Like, so it's, I think like 88 GSM, but that's just the weight of the paper. But like, because it's so dense, it's actually thin. Like I have another notebook that I make called the Dandelade and it's 80 GSM and it's way thicker than paper. So it's, it's a very special paper. And I think unlike a lot of other, you know, fountain pen friendly papers that we know, this paper was like specifically designed for writing. It's not like a catalog paper or like Tomoe river was a Bible paper. Like this was made for pens and I just love it.