Editing The Pen Addict 454/transcript (section)

== Paper Review ==


'''Myke:''' So we're going to continue the path, down the path of sharing some companies and products I love. And I know you haven't tried a Misubi notebook yet, Myke, but I know you respect what Daryl and his team at Misubi does because we talk about them all the time. And with the Tomoe River paper that a lot of his notebooks were made from going away, he started to bring in the Cosmo Air Light paper to make some of the Misubi notebooks. And this is...

'''Brad:''' I've never heard of this paper.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. So we've kind... I don't know if we've actually mentioned it. I definitely mentioned it on the blog and I've just mentioned it in passing. It is... Saying something in the Tomoe River paper, that's a Tomoe River paper replacement, is hard to say. Like, that exact thing. Because, like, it's a very unique paper. But this is about as close as you can get, at least from, like, people testing this out. And I had never tested it before. So Daryl launched his Cosmo Air Light notebooks just last week, I think. Maybe two weeks ago. And he sent me a couple. And they're awesome. Like, I just started testing... I got them in last night. So I've been kind of rushing to test them this morning before the show.

'''Myke:''' And my initial thoughts are this. So the paper is awesome, right? If you're comparing it to Tomoe River, if I had to compare it to Tomoe River, which really isn't fair...

'''Brad:''' No, but I want... That's the point. Right.

'''Myke:''' Like, everybody wants you to. It's the point. So it's a thicker page. Okay. So, like, the density of the page is thicker, right? The Tomoe is known for being very thin. It has some cushion when you write to it. And I don't know if that's, like, a product named Placebo, right? It's called Cosmo Air Light, right? But it makes me... Like, the notebook itself does not feel light and cushiony. But when you write with a nib on it, it feels like it does have some cushion in it, as opposed to, like, writing on a brick pad, right? Like a rhodia pad. You know? It feels completely fine. But then if you switched over and wrote on this Cosmo Air Light, you could feel, like, a slight give in the page, which is great. Mm-hmm. Ink-wise, it doesn't have the massive shading and sheen in my early testing. But if Tomoe River is, like, a 10 out of 10 on shading and sheen, you know, to show the features of the ink, this is probably, like, a 7 or 8. Okay. Which I think is really good, right? I see the shading. I don't have any sheening inks right now in my initial tests. The one thing you can tell that the ink is, like, sitting up on the page is, like, the brightness is good. Like, I'm getting the color I expect out of an orange ink or a green ink or a purple ink. Like, the colors remain bright. There's no feathering. There's no bleed. There's no, the added features of the thicker pages, there's not as much show through as, or ghosting. Like, a Tomoe River paper, you'd see through the back of the page. And a lot of times you couldn't use the back of the page. You could totally use the back of the page on this. I think it's going to do extremely well as a standard fountain pen notebook paper. I haven't tested regular pens on it, but just feeling the texture of it. So, I think it's going to be fine. Where Tomoe River, like, wasn't great for pencils or gel pens. I felt like those types of pens and pencils, they slid a little bit on the page. It was a little bit glassy for that. I don't think you're going to get that out of the Cosmo Air Light, but I haven't tested that yet. But just feeling the texture with fountain pen nibs on the page, it feels like it's going to be excellent. One cool thing that Daryl did is he shipped me this, I wonder if this is, like, listed on the site. Certainly it is, and if it's not, it probably will, because it's very detailed on the page. But he kind of gave me, like, the spec sheet of Cosmo Air Light versus Tomoe River versus bank paper. Like, and those are his main offerings at Musubi. And the Cosmo Air Light. So, this notebook, you have the cross field, right, for Tomoe River? Yeah. So, this is similar in size, shape, and build to that. So, it's that kind of, like, straight edge, rounded corners, you know, just flat, you know, flexible cover notebook page. So, 208 pages. It comes in blank, lined, or grid. I got the cross grid, which is great. The crosses are so small, it just looks like a standard dot grid. It's got these little page numbers in the corner that are also small, but a really good feature for those who like an index for, like, a bullet journal or something like that. And it's only 25 bucks, like, which is completely fair. Like, that's a really good price. Like, the Tomoe River, the 52 GSM Tomoe River, a lot more pages because it's so thin, right? And it comes out to the same size, but it's 384 pages. It's 35 bucks. It's the bank paper, which is a paper of Misubi's that I love. I use in the fancy indigo denim cover notebook. But just the basic folio style that he ships is, like, the bulk notebook. The bank paper is 224 pages, and it's $40. So, this Cosmo Air Light, I think, is going to do really well for your all-day, everyday writing type of paper. But it's going to be exceptional for fountain pens. And it's, I don't know. I'm just getting into it, right? This is the first one I've tested. I've literally had it, like, 12 hours, and I just started testing it this morning. I am very pleased with how it works with the pens that I'm using. I've been using the bank paper, which is my personal favorite because it has more texture, and you can feel, like, the graphite more when I use pencils and things like that. So, I'm anxious to see how Cosmo Air Light is going to do with those types of pens and pencils. And I'm going to test that out next and report back. But I'm thrilled with how this performs. Of course, the build quality of Misubi is just about perfect, right? These are very, very well made. You can tell that in the construction of the notebook. They feel great. They look great. And this Cosmo Air Light, I think, is going to perform great for fountain pens and for probably anything you throw at it. It's unpleasantly surprised. I didn't know what to think, to be honest. I think the name is funny, right?

'''Brad:''' It's a very strange, very strange name.

'''Myke:''' Like, I think it's going to be, like, some tracing paper or have some kind of weird, you know, kind of feature, like, woven into the page, you know?

'''Brad:''' A Cosmo Air?

'''Myke:''' I don't know. But it's just, like, a straight-up light cream colored. Like, it's very light. It's not white, but it's a very, very faint cream color. And I don't know. So far, none. None? Yeah, there's, like, no. No bleed. No feathering.

'''Myke:''' Yeah. Like I said, it doesn't have, like, the pure shading and sheen of, like, the classic Tomoe River. But I don't know what that would perform as well as this, right? Right. Like, I think you're going to get good enough for your fountain pens to be really happy.

'''Myke:''' So far, I'm really loving it. So definitely worth checking out. Definitely worth checking out at this price point, too. Price point's excellent for this notebook. And then you can also fancify it, you know, when you get into all the fancy material covers that Misubi makes, which is my bank paper notebook. So, yeah, it's great.

'''Myke:''' You know what pen would go good with it, Myke?

'''Brad:''' What's going on, my days? What is this all about?