Editing The Pen Addict 54/transcript (section)

== Notebook Paper ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' That's what I use all day, every day.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, in the Retro 51s. But you use them in a Moleskine, and, you know, that's your primary paper for your fountain pen usage. For me, I'd say most of the time it's Rhodia. I mean, I know I'm known as the dome paper guy, and I use it, you know, for all my gel pens, ballpoint pens, pencils, everything goes in dome paper. But for fountain pens, I like the performance of Rhodia better. Now, Anna, you've tried way more than those type of things. So let's talk about that a little bit. What do you find that's good and bad about different brands and with different fountain pens and things like that as far as paper goes?

'''Ana Reinert:''' Well, for me, it's a cost-value kind of thing. And also, I'm also left-handed, like Myke. So I have other issues that sometimes come up, which is that some of the really high-end papers, like Clairefontaine, the ink sits up so well on the paper that even quick-drying inks take too long to dry. And I end up smearing what I've written and have it all over my hand. So the Clairefontaine, I haven't written the review yet, but I just got the 1951 books because they were in green. And they're beautiful. They're great little kind of mini notebooks, great for like work projects and things like that. But for me with fountain pens, I don't think I'm going to be able to use fountain pens with them because the ink takes so long to dry. It's great. And I think for a right-handed person, they would be awesome because they're like $4 a piece. So like cost-value, really good for individual projects or if you want a specific notebook, just a test inks or something. But for me, the paper's too good. So I have to kind of make a trade-off. I have, ever since you had mentioned the Piccadillies, I had been looking for one. And I finally got one. And for me, it hits a real sweet spot that the paper is a little bit thicker than what's in a Moleskine. But I don't have as much issue with inks drying because it is a little bit more absorbent. And you can't beat the price point. They're like $5 to the equivalent Moleskine, which is almost $20.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, right. And I think that's why you use the Moleskines, right, Myke? Because being left-handed, it's a more absorbent paper. It really helps in that aspect, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I mean, I don't have any issue with them. I've been using – I was using Moleskines before I really started to get into this stuff. So I didn't really feel that there was an issue. And then after I started branching out, certain paper types weren't being so kind to me. I mean, Rodeo was excellent. And as I said, I'll probably – I definitely will go back to Rodeo at some point. But I don't know when that will be. And field notes was a problem. But as we discussed with the most recent, that's not been the case. Like the paper that they've currently got in the America the Beautiful set is very kind to Fountain Pen.

'''Ana Reinert:''' I was very impressed with the paper in those field notes. I was very excited. I don't know if you guys know, but I'm actually friends with one of the guys who works. For field notes. And so he and I have talked back and forth over the years about what they've been doing. And I sent him a very nice email about how awesome I thought the new ones were.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I love them. I love the design. But the paper thickness and just the quality of the paper is perfect. It's perfect. And if they continue to make these, I will continue to be very, very happy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And I've been talking about it for weeks about how I did some Fountain Pen ink tests on the America's Beautiful edition versus just one of the basic editions. And I finally just got around to taking the pictures for the post. So hopefully in another week or so, I'll get around to editing that and posting that. Because I know I've been talking about that for a while. And there is a good difference. And that actually prompted me. And I told Myke this offline. I'm just, I need to make, I'm making a chart of all, you know, going back and looking. Since all the paper information is in the back of all the field notes, books, I'm just going to make a chart for everyone. Because people started asking, well, once this America's Beautiful edition came out with a different paper weight, paper density, they started questioning, well, what's in these other ones. So I'm putting together a spreadsheet that I'll share with everyone once I get it fully populated with all the paper information of all the notebooks they're releasing. And there's a pretty wide range so far that I've found, which I didn't realize before until this one really piqued my interest with the really heavier paper. So that's pretty cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Funny thing about that, and this is a little behind the scenes, to mine and Brad's conversations, and also a bit of insight into the type of person that Brad is. I had to help him with some of them because he wouldn't open some of the packs if he's filled notes. And he knew that I would, so I had to fill in some gaps for him because he has some packs which are unopened that he refuses to open. So I either had to open mine, which I'm fine with, or just get the right ones for him.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep, yep, and there's going to be a few more coming too.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's great. That's great. So now there's, I guess the easiest way to say it, there's a new kid on the block in the fountain pen world that I've been hearing about and you've been hearing about. It's called Tomo River Paper. I'm assuming I'm pronouncing that right. I've never heard it been said out loud other than reading, but it's T-O-M-O-E, right, I believe?

'''Ana Reinert:''' I don't think I've heard of them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Have you heard of this? You haven't heard of this. Okay, so it's this, I don't know how to explain it. It's like, it's like if you were wrapping a present and you know like the, you know, the white paper that you've stuffed in the, you know, like in the box or something, just kind of like the filler paper, that really thin, thin, thin white paper. Well, this paper, it's this Japanese paper, and we'll put a link in the show notes. It's, there's a website that everyone keeps pointing to. It's called Nanami Paper, N-A-N-A-M-I paper.com. And they sell, it's called Tomo River. And it is, one of the listeners, Rachel, hi, Rachel, thank you for sending me samples of this Tomo River paper. It looks like you would not be able to write on it at all. It's so thin and so fine, but apparently it handles the paper that handles the fountain pen ink just like incredibly, incredibly well. And it turns out it's used in lots of, I think in some diaries in Japan, some planners, I think it might be Hobo Natchi. I think they might use the Tomo River paper. But this stuff will blow your mind. So you have to check this out. And I haven't done a review on it yet. But it's, it's like, it's really hard to explain. And that's why I keep struggling with it. It's, it's like Kleenex thin. I mean, it's that light, that thin. It looks terrible. It looks terrible. And it feels terrible. It's like this crinkly paper. But when you put your pen on it, it doesn't bleed through. It doesn't spread. It's, you know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of tracing paper. That's what it reminds me of.

'''Ana Reinert:''' And I was actually going to say, this is sort of how I came to fountain pens in the first place, is that one of the things that I like to do at work is actually do hand lettering. And so I kind of came to fountain pens because I had been using flexible nib dip pens. And we have a whole department of people who are incredible lettering artists that do all of this hand calligraphy. When you see it on a greeting card from Hallmark, nine times out of ten, it was hand lettered. So someone sat down with literally a piece of this. And most of the lettering artists do work on what's either called marker paper, which is a little bit more opaque than tracing paper, or they work on tracing paper because it does, the ink does sit up on the paper, but it takes a long time to dry. Right.

'''Ana Reinert:''' So, again, for lefties, it's a challenge. But for right-handed people, it may work really well if you're willing to sort of wait for the dry time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes, I'm putting a link in the show notes to a fountain, FP Geeks, Fountain Pen Geeks review of the Turbo. And they have like a – it looks pretty extensive. And one of the images that they have is of dry time with different pens and different inks. And it looks terrible. Like it looks like it just doesn't dry for like half a minute in some cases. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So maybe for a lefty it might not be so good. But it's a fascinating looking and feeling paper. I haven't done a review on it yet. But yeah, what were you going to say, Anna?