Editing The Pen Addict 350/transcript (section)

== Kickstarter Discussion Ends ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Maybe I'm not a super backer. So I know not everyone's into the Kickstarter thing and all the products. So we appreciate your download this week and we'll talk to you next week because we've got a lot more to cover.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, we really have. We spoke about last time the CW&T sketchbook, the campaign launched. They've been greatly successful. But you got one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So Sayway and Taylor sent me one with some cute little packaging that cracked me up when I got it. So that's over on Instagram. But let's go through me opening this because it is super hard to explain. And the first thing I should say is if you've listened to me any length of time, I am a CW&T fanboy. So keep that in mind as I speak about this product. As far as I'm concerned, they're the best. I love them and I love what they make. So I opened this product, got it out the envelope. My first reaction was, wow, it's small. And then I remembered, oh yeah, it's supposed to be A6 size, which it is. And then my second reaction is, wow, it is soft.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So this paper and the way it's built, what was the name of the paper? I pulled it up again. I had all the specs, but I don't know I'm off the top of my head. The Hange paper.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It is so soft, but in a strange kind of way. It's like, it's hard to describe. Like no amount of words I will say on this podcast will do any kind of tactile feeling justice. Like it just feels different. Like it's lightweight. It's lighter than you would think a normal paper A6 size notebook feels. It's lighter than that. The paper feels lighter. So the paper really is like, what from the inner bark of the mulberry tree. So, I mean, all papers made from trees unless it's stone paper. It's obviously not, but it sucks.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I hate stone paper. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We can, we can talk about that after the show. I got a story for you. Okay. So it's like any paper you think, okay, it's going to be fibrous. How is it going to act with my pens? Well, this is extra fibrous, right? You like see snakes crawling through the page. It's kind of wild.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Don't do that. Don't say that. No, thank you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's kind of cool. It's kind of cool. There's like, okay, how about worms? There's like these little, there's like these little shooters that go through the page and like each page is different and it's kind of wild. It's actually like you're looking through the tree under the microscope, but it's a standard kind of white page.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The cover, the orange dot on the cover is like, it feels like it's hand painted on there. I mean, they have a video of how everything was done. So what I, here's the big picture of what I think about the notebook just from a aesthetic and style and feel perspective before we get into performance.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This feels like if I was in some small town in Japan and I walked into like a single door, single window stationary shop and there was a husband and wife at the counter and displays of loose paper everywhere and I put together what I wanted. I handed it to them. They turned around, walked in the back door, shut the door behind them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sparkles and rainbows come out the door and all these happy singing sounds like you see like the, the, all the light blasting through the door, but you don't know what's going on and they come out and they hand you this product. That's what this feels like to me. Like it's super cool. It's super unique and like I, I'm obviously in love with it. So down to brass tacks, does it work? It's built great. It's like the binding is killer. It feels great in the hand. The paper, I was concerned, like it's not made for fountain pens, right? Like there's, they don't come out saying like, hey, this is your, your fountain pen, friendly paper, friendly paper. We have other products for that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It works surprisingly well with fountain pens. I was shocked. So it's not a smooth paper. It's a little bit fibrous. So I, you get very little bleed from the edge, but there's, it's there sometimes. When I use my architect nib using that metal going in an abnormal direction, it did catch like the, the worms in the paper. That's a, I call it catching a runner. So it hits that and then the ink runs. It shoots on that little vein, if you will. But in general, my standard pens worked great. Like my cursive italics and extra fines and stubs. The only pen I didn't like from a fountain pen was my extra fine vanishing point because that's so sharp. It really gets into the page a little bit.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I think like, and I'm looking at your ink test and like some of your broads, there looks to be a bit of feathering and stuff. Really? I don't think this is a fountain pen notebook. Like this is not what it's for.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But it actually, it's not a no go. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If you wanted to use fountain pens to maybe write a title before you do your sketch, you're good, but this shouldn't become your notebook, right? Yes. It's not the best experience.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. For a fountain pen, but it works better than I thought it would. I thought it would be like a Sharpie marker on a Moleskine, right? That goes straight through the page.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I thought this was going to be a disaster. Like when I read about the paper the first time, not like it was going to be bad, but like it wasn't going to work for fountain pens. I mean, it's a sketchbook. I mean, like sketchbooks, then it clues in the name, like what it's for. And like when I read about the paper, I was like, well, I don't know about this, but as you say, it seems like it's doing a better job than you would have expected. But like it still kind of remains true as to what you should really be using in this. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So like there's zero bleed through the back of the page, which is kind of fascinating. That's incredible. Yeah. So like it's got that little bit of, no, it's medium. Like you wouldn't say it's thick or thin. You'd say it's average thickness. So everything else works fine as you would expect. Roller balls, gel, ballpoints, pencils, except drawing pens. They are terrible. Oh, that's not good. It's like this. No. So like I was thinking I would use this with like a Copa or Copic or a Secura or a Pigma Micron or something like that. The way the plastic tip interacts with this page, it almost rejects the ink. Like I cannot get a solid line. It's almost like the page is too dry, even though it's not really absorbing the ink. It's very, it's a very weird.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Let me see if I can try and understand that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So is the ink, does it feel like the ink's not flowing properly? Right. Okay. It feels like I'm writing with a dry pen. Right. Even though the pen's perfectly fine.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's so weird.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That one caught me off guard because I thought that would be one of my primary uses for this notebook was that type of marker. It does feel like that's what

'''Myke Hurley:''' really I'll look at like a sketchbook like this and I'm like, okay, markers, pencils, and then like these ink drawing pens, you know, like the Copics, right? Like that feels, especially because like it kind of has that influence. Like it feels like those two things would go together, right? Like with where it's come from and how it's been made and just kind of like stylistically, I would assume that they would be a match.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So like, I see it good for everything except like those drawing pens. Otherwise, like it was fine. And I just, I really enjoyed the build. I love the feel and the finish. I love the story. It's pretty. It's a beautiful little looking book. It is. It's not a big book. Like it's as big as the palm of my hand, you know, but it's a lot of pages for what it is. And it's just really cool. The binding is super cool. So I'll be using this a bunch. I just don't know exactly how yet, but I mean, I love it. I think I've backed it for two of them, you know, before they even sent me this and I'm definitely staying in that loop.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. That's it. Looks like a cool product. I'm pleased you did the testing, right? So like people can know what they're going to be getting if they go into this. So I think it's good. Good of you to, as always, you share, share the knowledge.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. And if anyone has any questions about this stuff, they know how to get in touch with me. I like do specific testing for specific things all the time. So glad to do it.