Editing The Pen Addict 351/transcript (section)

== Sizing Discussion Begins ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I understand that, though. That was a whole different thing with the sizing and whatever. And we're going to talk about sizing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Still available to buy that edition. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's not a surprise whatsoever. But anyway, they do an endpapers type of thing. Like, it's a singular, different stock, different material, different look sheet. It's, you know, it's not special painted or anything like that. But I like that aesthetic on the notebook. The interior page is a 70-pound page. And right now, for what I've thrown at it, it handles pretty much everything, like, really well. From fountain pens, gel, ballpoint, rollerball, pencil feels great. Like, I'm super happy with it. I just inked up some wider nib pens. I wanted to test with it later today. So I'm going to do that and see how it handles them. But I don't see any issue why it can't handle everything. The one thing that I'm okay with, but I don't know if I love it, is they went with the smart sizing aspect of the notebook. What does that mean? And it means whatever you want it to mean, which is what I always get to hang up on in paper goods where I want standards, right? I want A5s and B6s and normal standards. So their notebook is four inches wide by five and three quarters inches tall. Like, it's perfectly fine. Like, on its own, it's a great size. Like, it's a really good size. It gives you more space than, like, a standard field notes or any standard pocket notebook. But you're pushing the limit of actually being a pocket notebook. We're getting close to it's almost a desk notebook. It's not there. Like, it's still pocketable. It's still small. But, you know, it's, it kind of, making up your own size thing always feels weird to me in a pocket notebook because then you're going to commit to that size and, like, other things that have to fit that size. And I don't know. But regardless, it feels good. It feels right. It's not too big, which is what I was worried about. So, but it's on the edge. Like, another quarter inch anywhere, we're probably not fitting it in a man's pocket. Women have no shot of fitting this in their pocket. The pricing is really good. Like, it's $11, about $11 US for a two-pack. All the prices on the site are in Canadian dollars. So, the conversion, just to give you, like, a ballpark. So, it's a two-pack. So, they're premium. I mean, that's a premium price. It's expensive. I feel like I would pay this easily for the quality of these notebooks. I think you would actually really enjoy these notebooks, Myke. So, they have the standard notebooks are $11.25 for a two-pack. Then they do limited editions. Like, the one I'm using today, what's it called? It is, like, Obsidian Obelisk. So, they sent me, like, one of each. Like, a single of each. So, I could feel the different colors. So, like, this, if you go to their website, like, the Cavadon is this cool metallic-looking paper finish on the cover. And I'm using the Obelisk, which is, like, a textured cover. They still look really nice. Those are more expensive. Those are, like, $15 for a two-pack. Yeah. I still say, like, that's worth it. Technically, they need a little bit of work on their corner rounders. So, they need to just clean up the edges. Like, you can see where their corner rounder is probably done manually. And it's a little bit off. Like, that's not a deal-breaker for me. Then that's an easily fixable thing. And I didn't even notice it at first until I started using this notebook more. Like, I'm starting a little side project that I'm going to use this as a project notebook for. And I happened to notice that, like, the bottom right corner rounder didn't quite do its job correctly. So, just something they need to pay attention to as they move forward. Really high quality. Really awesome stuff. Like, this isn't, like, some kind of sales pitch. They didn't pay me to say any of this stuff. I just like talking about stuff. And when I get new stuff that's good quality, I'm going to praise it. Like, you know, it's just kind of the way I am. I like these notebooks. I'm going to use them. And I think they're worth people checking out. You know, very impressed so far with what North of Rosemont has done.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I like that name.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I do, too. Like, I, okay, let's talk about this. I wasn't sure at first having such a highly specific name. And I'd say, like, the whole branding thing is, like, really freaking hard, right? Like, it's impossible to, like, sleep at night when you make that decision, the final decision on, hey, this is what we're going to call the company. So, they've committed to it. Like, it means something to them. Like, it's meaningful to them, right? And if you're a company that builds a product around something that's, like, even just a name that's meaningful to you because of where you were raised or where you're located, like, I like that. Like, that's really cool. Like, that's why at Knock we use, like, local, you know, natural areas for product names. Like, it means something to us. So, yeah, having that North of Rosemont name, it obviously means something to the people behind it. And, you know, they're going to do their best to, like, live up to that name. I think it's kind of cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think it – I don't know if this is what they're going for, but I think that it really gives a high-end feel. Like, it's a very high-end, like, high-end quality brand name feels to me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. They use the word premium a lot for the site. Yeah. So, that is exactly what they're going for.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, it sounds premium to me. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But the pricing is, like, relatively premium priced, but I think it's correctly priced. Like, it feels, like, accurate. Like, this notebook feels like it's worth what they're charging for it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Correct pricing is the best pricing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The next product, Myke, I'm not sure if it has correct pricing because it actually seems maybe a little bit on the low end. So, Yoseka – and I don't know if I – I apologize if I'm saying that wrong – Yoseka Notebook. So, there's a store in Queens called Yoseka Stationery, which I had not heard of. Yeah. Yeah, in New York, outside the city. So, their notebook was shown to me at the Baltimore Pen Show by a friend. And he walked up to me and he said, I want to show you this from a stationery store that I frequent because I think you would like it. And it is, like, a full-size A5 notebook. And it's really just called the Yoseka Notebook. And how many pages enter in it? I don't know what you would think it was a typical – 224 pages. 224 blank pages. And it's very simple aesthetic. Like, it's super minimal. It's a completely sharp-edged notebook. Like, the cover is just your basic, like, super thick, hardcore – I don't even know what you would call this – cardboard, like, thick, thick stock. But it's trimmed, so that's the edge of the paper as well. So, it's, like, completely smooth all the way around. There's no cover overhang or no inset paper. And then the binding on the top is – on the side is right on the edge too. And it's kind of, like – it's very raw looking, but at the same time, it's a completely clean and finished product. So, the style impressed me. Just, like, looking at it, the look and feel of how it was built impressed me. So, I said, yeah, get me their information. Let me get in touch with them. And he happened to reach out to them and got them to get in touch with me and said, hey, let us send you a notebook. So, they did. And something about this paper is really awesome for fountain pens. So, the paper, they call it KBU. It's by a company called Conifer out of Taiwan. And they've gone through a couple of iterations of paper. And the paper that they're using right now is extremely fountain pen friendly insofar as it shows off shading and sheen without having, you know, feathering or bleeding. You know, I think there's, like, one spot where I put down a lot of ink that kind of maybe a little bit went through the back of the page but not onto the next page but barely at all. And I'll take some more pictures of this as I review these. But I thought this was worth mentioning, like, before I've even done the review, like, the North of Rosemont. Like, this is a surprise. Like, this is a new product. I love talking about new products. And it's really good. Like, there's so many good notebooks out there these days. This one, the only pen that did not work well with it was the Schmidt P8126 rollerball. That one actually had a tiny bit of feathering. Everything else was kind of perfect. But for fountain pens, this is, like, a faster drying Tomoe River. Like, you can see sheen. You can see shading. I was very impressed with how it handled fountain pens. So, and even for, like, the most fountain pen friendly paper, they're not normally good with pencils. This was exceptional with pencils. Like, you can feel, like, the texture of the page, which those two things usually don't go hand in hand. So, this is a $20 notebook. And that's kind of in the no-brainer territory if you like this style. Like, this style is different, right? It's, I would call it raw. Like, it just seems like they've glued together some pages in between cardboard. But it's actually really refined and really clean and really high quality, really well made. I'm extraordinarily impressed with this notebook so far. So, I'm going to keep using it, keep testing with it. I did get some wider nibs and wider inks. I didn't have everything. I just cleaned all my fountain pens. So, I only had some, like, extra fine stuff inked up. And I always want to see how, you know, these papers work with wide, wet nibs. And, man, it held up really well. So, I just like the style. This is right up my alley of the type of product that I like. And Yoseka is like a brick-and-mortar store. You can go there, you know, if you're in New York City. It's another place to add to the stationary tour, Myke, whenever we go back there again, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I'm excited to see more interesting-looking stationary stores in a place that I like to visit for stationary reasons.