Editing The Pen Addict 455/transcript (section)

== Product Review ==


'''Brad:'''  I do. I do. I've actually had it for a while, about a month or so. And when I get a new pen like this, especially from a new brand, to me, this is a very old established brand, very classic, well-respected German brand, but has, like you said in the ad, like they're branching out now and like really focusing on their own lineup. So I had the Design 03, which I loved. And then Kenro did send me the Design 04. And I wanted to spend some time with it before I reviewed it. And I really, really like this pen. The model I chose was, has, it's like the blue wave lacquered, right? Where you see these, I don't know, it's almost like strips of metal going through there. It's shiny, but it's like got this polished lacquering over it. It's a really beautiful, stunning pen to look at. And the fit and feel and finish of it is top notch. It's what you'd expect. When you say like German engineered fountain pen, this would be like right there with the best of them as far as like design, construction, fit, feel, finish. Like it's perfectly made. It's well designed. It works flawlessly. I don't have enough like positive things to say about it because it's, it's just good across the board. Like I can say like everything about it, you know, the nib is great. You know, it's a steel, steel nib, fine steel nib. It's, it flows well. It's smooth. The grip section's awesome, right? It's tapered. It's a little narrow. Like if you have big hands, this might not be the grip section for you, but they probably have other model pens that have a wider grip section. This is exactly the grip section size that I like. You know, everything about the pen is just, it's perfectly done. I, I am working on doing my official pen addict review of it. And that will probably come up in the next week or two, because I do like to spend time with these products if I can. And it's been inked up since I received it. It's been in use and I'm, I'm thoroughly enjoying it. And I know in the review, it's going to review really well.

'''Myke:'''The, there's a version of it that I absolutely adore. Color wise, which is the white and rose gold model. Actually, but there's a black and rose gold model as well. It's absolutely stunning. Like just a really beautiful looking pen. Giyosh, by the way, is ornamentation resembling braided or interlaced ribbons. In case you're interested, but you should go and take a look at it yourself. Cause these really are quite stunning pens. Giyosh. I, I did, I Googled this today. Cause you knew it was coming. Google has a little speaker button where it will pronounce it. And that was how it was pronounced. So that's how I've always said it is. Giyosh. Giyosh. Giyosh. So go to pen chalet right now, P E N C H A L E T.com. And you can see the O4 and the entire range of Otto Hut pens. Stay tuned for the new design. O8, a totally fantastic, beautiful pen that pays homage to the complexity of watch mechanics. I was actually looking into this one today earlier, and I am super interested in this one. So our thanks to camera industries for the support of this show and relay FM. You can find out more about these pens over at pen chalet.

'''Brad:'''  One more comment on the O4. When I was doing my research for the review, like this is long before the ad or anything like that. And when I'm just trying to decide on the O4, I couldn't believe the depth of the product offering of that model. Does that make sense? Right. It's not like two pens. No, there was like just, there was a load of colors. It's actually hard to decide like, which is your favorite out of there. Just like you were saying. So yeah, really good looking. I'd like,

'''Brad:'''  I hate saying I like this new auto hut that I'm seeing just because they're new to me, but this is a, you know, a hundred year old company. I hate saying like, you know, this is their transition, but they're new to me. And I like what I'm seeing from them. And I like how they're approaching design and storytelling. And, um, luckily the, the quality of the product matches up with everything else. So yeah, it's, uh, been very cool to watch.

'''Myke:'''Very cool. All right. So the Cosmo air light, this is a product that we spoke about last week.

'''Brad:'''  Yeah. So I was anxious to get this in. So Misubi notebooks sent me a couple of their new Cosmo air light notebooks. Number one, Misubi notebooks are the best, like Daryl and like the construction style and the feel of these notebooks. You get it and you're like, yeah, this is a notebook. I just really love them. But the goal with this one was to test the paper, right? So I knew I'm going to love Misubi as a product, but what does this paper do? Why is it popular right now for people looking forward to Moe river replacement?

'''Brad:'''  And how does it work? Like what are the actual, you know, ins and outs of this paper in, in short, it's weird, right? This is a strange paper. If you are a fountain pen fan, you will love this paper. But I think that's the only thing you're going to be thrilled with about this notebook. Like you can end it right there. Like you can say, this is awesome for fountain pens. And like, that could be the end of the review, but it's a little more complex than that because the way this page handled, ink is interesting from a line width perspective. And Daryl even says that in the copy on the product page, the way the ink dries spread is the wrong term. Because when I say spread, it makes me think that like, it's going to be bleeding, right? That you see feathering and bleeding in the page. It does none of that. There's no feathering, no bleed. But what happens is I don't have a better term than spread. When you put the ink on the page, the line width looks wider than you're used to on a different page. So for example, I took a Lamy Safari with an F nib. And in my day-to-day writing, like if I was writing on my bank paper notebook or in my William Hannah notebook, I know what the line width is. Okay. Like just out of nature. It's habit. The line from the Lamy Fine nib looks like this. If I'm using a paper I'm familiar with. Switch over to the Cosmo Air Light. It is a tiny bit wider. And a tiny bit in a fountain pen is essentially an entire nib size, right? Like the line then goes from fine to medium. That's a really, really tiny amount. But when you're used to line width being X, and then all of a sudden you do it in line width is Y, and it's wider, not narrower, you go, huh, that's interesting. And that's consistent across all nibs, all inks. With fine, medium, broad, and stub nibs, that's great. Like if you like fountain pens with fine and up nibs that put down a lot of ink and you want to see the character and you're just want to, you know, throw a bunch of ink and you're awesome fountain pen at this page, you're going to love it. What I didn't like was my extra fine and my ultra extra fine nibs on this performed far worse because they're not built to have that line spread when you're putting down a line from the tip of say my platinum, 3776 UEF. That is an untipped nib, right? It's made to write like the tip of a nail, right? There's no roundness to the nib. Well, it affects the ink differently on the Cosmo Air light paper. I did not enjoy writing with a needle on Cosmo Air light paper. So that's something good to consider. Every other larger nib fountain pen, you know, the paper's completely smooth. It's allows the ink to be bright. The dry time is much shorter than something like Tomoe River. The colors pop. There's good shading. There's good sheen because the dry time is moderate, right? It's not drying too fast to where you're not, the character of the ink's not coming out. So you get to see all that character. There's no feathering. There's no bleed. There's no ghosting to speak of on the back of the page. So if you're a fountain pen fan and you don't have like an obsession with like the ultra extra fine nibs like I do, you're going to completely love this paper. For any other pen, I almost don't want to use it because it feels so weird. The best comparison I can tell, which is strange because the fountain pens don't feel like this on this page, but take a ballpoint pen. And it's literally like if you picked up a magazine, like a thick glossy magazine, not like a super thin paper magazine. And you know how if you write with a ballpoint on there, it's just like a, it's just like a solid flat circle, no character, no feel or, or anything. It's, there's no texture to it at all. And it's almost uncomfortable feeling. It's very like plasticky feeling. And what's funny.

'''Myke:'''Like writing on a banana of a biro.

'''Brad:'''  Yeah. Yeah. So there's no feel to that, which is funny because I don't experience that with the fountain pens, the fountain pens. I feel like there's like a good texture there. Like they feel different.

'''Brad:'''  So like pencils and ballpoints are very prone to feeling terrible on this paper. Right. It's a not expected feel. I think you can get away with like roller ball and gel pens, but I think there's better options.

'''Myke:'''Okay. Yeah.

'''Brad:'''  So in the end, everything I'm describing is exactly how I would describe Tomoe river paper for the most part. Right. People don't like to use standard pens on Tomoe river paper. They don't like to use pencils, but they do. I feel like, like a ballpoint and a pencil does work a little better on Tomoe river paper. It's just not great. I actually think ballpoints and pencils are worse on Cosmo or light than Tomoe, but in general, the idea is still the same. The idea is the same, right? People don't buy Tomoe river paper to show off their Schmidt P8127 refill, right? That's not the point of what Tomoe river paper does. That's also not going to be the point for Cosmo air light. It's strictly a fountain pen ink notebook for me. And with the caveat that your extra fine and finer nibs are not going to be enjoyable on that page, at least by, by my feel of, of what this, this test was like and what this review was like. So thumbs up for fountain pens. And then that's about it, which honestly, that's pretty much what I'd tell you about Tomoe river paper too.

'''Myke:'''But it does have this added difference that the line width variation is there. This is a new thing.

'''Brad:'''  I will say I love Tomoe river paper on my ultra extra fine nibs. Like I had never had an issue with that fineness on Tomoe. I think the Cosmo air light does not handle that level of fineness as well. So yes, good point.

'''Myke:'''So it's intriguing. It's good.

'''Brad:'''  Yeah. I just basically short version. I don't want this for my all day, every day notebook because I use more than wide nib fountain pens.

'''Myke:'''Would you have used to Moe in an all day, every day? I guess so, right?

'''Brad:'''  Never have. No, I never have.

'''Myke:'''Okay. But at least it wasn't an everyday. Cause it like journaling, but not your main.

'''Brad:'''  So Midori has filled that need. Okay. Life paper has filled that need. And right now the Misubi bank paper is currently filling that need. Right. Those are my all day, every day writing notebooks. Okay. No, it's never been Tomoe.

'''Myke:'''Well, I think it's cool. At least there's something that can give some of that experience because we're obviously losing the Tomoe of old. Yes. So at least it's cool that there's something that can step into the shoes that that type of paper left behind.

'''Brad:'''  Yep. Just don't expect a one-to-one replacement. Yep. It's not that close of a match. Fair enough. It does. It does. Some of the great things that Tomoe did exceptionally well and similar, but there's some downsides to it. As there was with Tomoe. Yeah.

'''Brad:'''  Oh, Myke. Oh, Brad. Oh, Myke. Mm-hmm. Is it happening?

'''Myke:'''I don't know. Maybe.

'''Brad:'''  Is it, are we going to one day be able to walk into a store or go to a store's website and build our own sailor pro gear fountain pen?