Editing The Pen Addict 207/transcript (section)

== Book Block Journal ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I love this stuff. Another product I got in like a month ago, I want to say is a book block journal. And this happened on Kickstarter, I believe originally.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. When I went to this page, I know I've seen this before.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. And I, I'm almost positive. And, um, you know, they'd been contacting me and they contacted a bunch of other bloggers and they, um, got like, um, my pen addict artwork and wanted to make a journal for me and send it to me and, uh, have me check it out and review it, which I'm going to do. That's like in the review queue. Like I did a Periscope mic before the podcast today, since we're running a little late and I had some, some time I did a Periscope, but just realizing how big my backlog of stuff I need to review. And this is, this is one of them. So what they did is they took my pen addict logo and you can choose like different, uh, brands of notebooks to get printed on. So like mine was done on these, uh, Monsieur notebooks, which they can do like this digital print of the pen addict logo. I picked an orange color. They matched the orange color of the notebook, did the pen addict logo on the front, did the text, um, you know, dropped in, um, you know, there are worse addictions right on there. Well, I snuck that in on me, which was really cool. They, they did that without, without me. I just sent them the logo. So that was cool. And they, the quality of like the printing, it's good. But as you put in the show notes, they're not the best notebooks, right? Their choices are Moleskine with, uh, Monsieur, which is pretty much like Moleskine. It doesn't work great with fountain pens. Like, uh, Joe Crace reviewed his, you know, it's, it's good, um, for just like basic pens and pencils. It's not great for fountain pens. Um, and then the, the book block, um, notebooks I'm not familiar with are the Castelli, which are the other options, um, you can get, I love the idea. The idea is good. What they delivered was good. It could be better, right? That's kind of where I'm at on this. Like I even emailed them some feedback on this Monsieur notebook. Like they didn't package mine. Right. So, um, the notebook cover rubbed against the cardboard envelope. Well, my logo is white. So that affected the logo when it arrived, right? That's something easily fixable. They just need to wrap the notebook better. Um, you know, the backside of the Monsieur notebook, um, it has the ribbon, you know, like all these notebooks do like the Moleskine and, you know, all these, you know, have the ribbon closure. The backside of the Monsieur notebooks where the ribbon attaches is not grommeted. So when you have a dark color notebook, you don't have that metal ring protecting it. So it kind of tears it and wears it. And you see the white through, it's just a glaring kind of eyesore type of thing. So there's like some fit and finish the details they need to work on. And I've told them this, uh, through email and sent them pictures of what I was talking about. And this will, this will also be in my review, but like the printing stuff and the ones that I've seen, they do a really good job at that. It's just not the best product for us.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It feels like it's kind of perspective that you're putting all this effort in and you're wasting it by putting crap paper inside. Like, I feel like they should at least have the option. Like, do you know what? I looked at this. I looked, I looked at this page and I started scanning and immediately I was looking for tomorrow. River paper. I was like, where is it? It's gotta be on here.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That was like what was going through my brains. It's like, you make that, my God, we'll all buy notebooks from you. If you can like put something like Tomoe in here, everyone's going to get one, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's probably never going to happen, but something like Rodeo that is more common and could probably get, um, to be able to do this. Yeah. I could see that. Yeah. But, uh, Rodeo is one that does, um, their logo on the front cover where, you know, Moleskine and some of these other ones don't. So maybe they're just getting standard stock stuff instead of getting something built for them. But if they took the time and effort to get something built for them that they could use for this, it would be an infinitely better product, uh, infinitely more useful.

'''Myke Hurley:''' From the way that they put it on the website though, you can kind of build it to order. Like you can choose any outside and any inside. So, you know, it feels like it would be possible to, to not have the Rodeo thing on there, but maybe it gets more expensive when you do that. But maybe because it kind of says that the website is like, uh, pick your cover material, pick your paper interior and papers. Like it looks like you can do the whole thing. We can custom make any notebook, any size, just the way you want it. I think put some, put some better paper. Like I know you say it's difficult, but if they could find a way to, to put like the Tamari inserts, you know, like you get the little small inserts cause they have some of those here, chuck a couple of those in a notebook and with a cover that you make yourself and be game over. Be great. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Be great. Cause the, uh, the, the logo work like they do, like the, the, that actual process of getting it onto the cover was pretty cool. They did a good job with that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So yeah, nearly there guys.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a, yeah, it's a something and it's just not all the way there yet. So, so it's a thing. So another thing that just launched this morning was the Baron fig Vanguard. When I started like being like really into stationary and getting older, this is like pre pen and attic stuff. So, you know, probably like 10 years ago, my favorite notebooks were the moleskin, the Kaye's, the, the paper cover, the soft cover, not the hard bound. I would have stacks and stacks of the paper cover, the soft cover notebooks. Did you ever use those?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, but my favorites, and you could probably go back in time and get this was the standard moleskins, standard size moleskin, standard thickness, but with soft covers. Yeah. So they would make them with cardboard covers, not the Kaye, not the thin ones. Right. Yeah. They were the regular size, thick, regular ones, regular moleskins, but with soft covers so they could be opened flat and more easily. Like the ones that you're mentioning, I think are the ones where you get them in like a three pack. Exactly. Yeah. But these ones were the regular ones with a soft cover, but yeah, I used to love that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So I'd buy the ones, the small ones would come in three packs. The large ones would come in two packs because they were so big and they had tons of pages. That was always my favorite format. And I love that style. And Baron Fig launched that one this morning called the Vanguard, which is similar. It's that soft cover that I love, love, love, love the soft cover. Um, and they did it in, you can get it in grid. I'm sorry, dot grid ruled or blank. And they have like a light gray and a dark gray cover with their yellow stitching that they use. It looks similar. It looks like a Baron Fig product, but it's in the soft cover. I've reviewed them. They sent me some, um, in advance. I've been checking them out. I just posted some pictures this morning. Um, I didn't have time to do a proper review before they launched them, but they're really cool. Um, the paper, it's just like any other Baron Fig product that you've ever used before. The paper's the same. So it's really good with gel, ballpoint pencil. It's pretty good with fountain pens. My finer nibs have zero issue, no bleed, no ghosting, no feathering, nothing. The wider nibs, um, like I used a medium German nib, um, and that ink, it doesn't bleed through the page. It doesn't feather, but you can see the ghosting, like you can see it on the back. Right. And then like the roller balls, like the Schmidt, which is funnily enough, the Baron Fig Squire that with the Schmidt P81, 26 and 27 reviews, you can see that through the back. Uh, sorry, refill, not review. Um, but it's not, yeah, it's not a lot. It's not anything that I think would prevent someone from even writing on the back. So it's pretty good. Um, but I, I just love the format of these notebooks with the soft covers. I'm a soft cover junkie.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What is the difference between the Vanguard and the apprentice?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Uh, nothing. The, oh, where'd it go? I thought I brought it in here. I think it might be a little bit thicker. I don't know that it is actually thicker. It's, it's pretty much the same.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it looks like on their website, they have now replaced the apprentice with the Vanguard and they have them in different sizes because previously they were just pocket.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. So I think they're identical. Um, could you get the apprentice in different rulings?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't think so.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So maybe they've just, um, maybe it's been usurped with this one. That's a good question. It looks like the same size.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Uh huh. And so what is the material of the color? Is it like a cardboard? It's not like a cardboard. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's like a thick cardboard.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Cause another thing I used to like about the Moleskine ones is they had that same covering, you know, like the faux leather covering. Yeah. They would put those on the soft cover ones that I used to use. And I used to really like that cause it was something a little bit more durable than paper or cardboard.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. This is more like the Kaie that had the cardboard covers. And that's how this is. So it's cool. The cool thing about the pocket size, which I have told people several times, um, the, the old apprentice and now I guess the new Vanguard pocket that fits your traveler's passport size. That's what size the small one is. So that's a good option for people that are looking for something different, um, in their, in their passport, um, Midori passport books to, to check out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' As usual with Baron Fig, um, I really liked the naming of the, uh, sizes, pocket flagship and plus they're really nice names.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's perfect.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Perfect. So I, I've used, I chose the flagship dot grid to start with. So that's the one I've been playing around with. I like it. Good. I very much like it. Um, and I have some of those to give away. So they sent me a whole box full of them. I got about six or seven packs of them. So I'm going to do a giveaway maybe next week, maybe the week after. So stay tuned for that. Um, more stuff on my desk, Myke, more, more making you mad, even though this one's not necessarily for you. I don't think you would like this pen. And actually you put a note in the, in the, in the review that it's not for you at all. But I, Ian Schoen has made, um, pocket pens for a while. He started on Kickstarter a few years ago. He's always had really cool designs here. Let me get this out of its case real quick.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Ooh. Ooh. Ooh, do that again.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's just in its, uh, it's got one of those cardboard, uh, tubes, but it's so tight. That's great sounding. That's just, that's out of its, uh, storage tube. I've been carrying this. It's a little pocket pen. It fits the Fisher space pen refill. He started out making aluminum pens, sold them on Kickstarter, started his own site. He's done real well. He does a really good design. Um, so now he's making them in other materials. The one he sent me is stainless, uh, which he's also sent to our buddy, Myke Dudek. And Myke has got his review up on it. Um, this is a heavy sucker. Like it's heavy. I don't know how to compare it. It's like, it might be the heaviest pen I own. It's probably ranks up there with some of the full size Karas customs, uh, brass and copper pens. You know, I haven't weighed them side by side. It's got some density to it. I mean, that's bouncing off my desk right there. So I carry this in my pocket. I actually don't notice the weight in my pocket. Like it's, I thought it would be, I thought it would bug me in my pocket being too heavy. It's not where it does get heavy. Sorry. As I, as I unscrew that is when you post it, like writing unposted is fine. It's long enough for me to write unposted. I've been carrying this at knock every day. Um, because I liked, I'm in and out of the office and the shop constantly all day, all day, all day. And I need a pin sometimes. And I ended up not carrying, um, a pin clipped to my shirt because I'm up and down, bending over, pulling stuff off shelves, whatever. I think it's going to fly out. So I care. I've been wanting a pocket pin. I've been carrying this one for a week and I've been using it and I love it. Um, the only downside is the weight is too heavy for me when it's posted. It becomes a very unwieldy pin, if you will, just because of the weight. But I think some people would like that. Um, other than that, I really like it. I'm going to, I'm still working on that review. So that's another one coming soon. That's another one I will probably give away because I wanted to go to someone who will use it more than me, but I don't know. I've been carrying it a bunch. So maybe I'll have it so banged up. I did drop the, drop this on my foot once. Um, luckily it like hit my, I was wearing like a flip flop. Luckily it hit like the strap or else I'd probably have a mark.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I just don't like how it looks.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.