Editing The Pen Addict 422/transcript (section)

== Paper Performance ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Next one comes from GottsToGo1406. From this week's podcast and discussion of Tomoe Ripper Paper, I came away with a question. What do you think is the best paper for fountain pens and standard pen use? Like you, I use both all the time. What is the best one-stop shop paper-wise? You know what, Brad? I actually want to pause on this question for a second because I just want to extol continued frustration for trying to find paper to make products from. That is a GD nightmare, Brad Dowdy.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I can tell by the change in tone of your voice, either online on this show or offline when we talk, the level of frustration you currently have. And a new long-running frustration, I guess I should say, on the challenges of making things. Michael, I don't know if you know this, making things is difficult.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No kidding. Like why is some paper like, oh, it's great. Oh, but then when you use a fine nib, it's almost like the ink has dried up. Yeah. Have you come across this before?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sure. Sure. Yeah. I mean, you could have the same paper side by side and act differently. That's why this Ask TPA question is evergreen. We could have this exact question from Gotts2Go1407 next week, and I might even have a different answer, right? It is that hard of a question to answer for reasons like you're experiencing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And like I've got to draw a line somewhere, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But the problem is you're never comfortable drawing that line in permanent marker.

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, as well because – so like, all right, peek behind the curtain. By the way, theme system journals are available right now. Yeah, I wonder what we're talking about. There is an amount, not a lot, like an amount of the first edition available, and I am currently working on the second edition and kind of changing some stuff up. One of those things is the source of manufacture. The other thing is Myke kind of rebuilding the thing from the ground up on his own. And the thing that I am struggling with the most right now is to find a paper to go in this notebook because I don't have access to this exact same product that the book was made out of before, so I'm trying to find a paper for it. And I keep finding – like I've had a couple of different samples now, and it's like this is great for this, this, and it sucks for this. It's great. It sucks for this, but it's good for this and this. And trying to find the right line to draw is difficult because I'm changing it, right? So like I'm pretty confident that people are going to say like I will have an element that people go, I really liked the paper before. I don't like it anymore. And I have to be willing to accept that. But at the moment, I don't think I've found the paper that I personally want to use. That's the line that I think I'm going to draw is when I find the paper that I like, that's what I'll go with. But at the moment, I don't know if I've gotten there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it's hard. And I go through this. People who make things go through this. And it's how many questions you want to take without being completely confident in your answer, right? So that's the line you're trying to find is where is my confidence level in the product I'm asking people to spend money on and that I'm personally investing my dollars in to sell to other people, right? So you have to think about those things in like here's the feedback, my anticipated feedback if I choose to go with this product. Am I comfortable with this? And that generally takes a long time to go to figure out. And then there's never 100% level of confidence in that decision.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I should answer Gotsuko's question now. Yeah. And see, I've had all this time to think of the answer. And I said, if we asked me this question next week, it might be different. I think it's Midori. And I will tell you my only hang up with Midori is the paper is a little bit ivory creamy to me. It's a little yellow. But it's really good for fountain pens, gel pens, ballpoint pens and pencils and markers. I use all of those with Midori. That's my most used paper these days, I'd say, because it does handle whatever I want to throw at it. And I throw all the things at it. Like I'm not strictly a fountain pen user. I wish it was a whiter paper or a lighter cream color. It's a little bit yellow for my taste. Like if I had something to change about it, it would be that. But Morimon is that lighter color, closer to white paper. But it doesn't come in as nice of formats as Midori.