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View Full Version : The Baron Fig Confidant Notebook Review



heath
February 28th, 2014, 01:52 PM
Ok, this is a long review and as such I am not going to include all the images I have on my blog version. If you want to see the pics click here: http://penpaperinkletter.com/baron-fig-confidant-notebook-review/

This is the Baron Fig Confidant notebook that recently blew up on Kickstarter with 4,242 backers gaining $168,289 pledged of a $15,000 goal. Funding wrapped up on October 3rd, 2013 and starting Tuesday, March 4th they will be available for retail through baronfig.com. This notebook was hailed as a “notebook for thinkers” and promised quality materials and craftsmanship among other things. Because this notebook is one from a kickstarter campaign and not yet available to the public via retail I need to review it in two ways. One, does it meet the expectations and promises of the Kickstarter and two, once it is available to the public where does it fit in to the notebook world and how does it measure up. I’m giving this review the full treatment because I have been asked about this notebook a good bit. I hope in the end I have helped you make sense of all the other reviews you will read and help you to decide for yourself on the Baron Fig Confidant.

http://penpaperinkletter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Baron-Fig-Confidant-Kickstarter-05.jpg

I generally give away my findings in the first paragraph or so but with the complexity of this notebook and its hype I will save final judgments until I have explained more about the notebook.

From a Kickstarter project perspective this notebook hit all the right buttons. It had great design, great marketing and graphics, promised the best possible experience and ensured quality. It is also one of many pen and paper projects on the crowd funding site to benefit from the resurgence of quality first. If it is well designed and well made it seems people will by it and figure out why later. Within certain parameters this new desire is honest and worthy but unleashed on the mainstream it often becomes something it is not. The desire for such goods becomes a trend or fad. None of this affects the notebook itself but the Baron Fig Confidant is one of those products that transcended need into fad in my opinion. Do people want well made notebooks? Yes. Should we desire for more companies to put the thought and energy into each of their products that is seems Baron Fig has with this project? Yes. To sum up this thought I am saying I want more Baron Fig notebook projects. Irrelevant of what I say next, I want more people trying to make better things. But, and it’s a big but, this trend of desiring perceived quality before we actually know why we need it isn’t always a good thing. Ok, my rant on the subversion of vintage consumerism by elite micro consumerism is over. It has only a tiny bit to do with this review but it was something that the Baron Fig profited from.

Now, regardless of all that, is it worth it above and beyond the hype? Well, I don’t want to ruin your party but no. It’s not better than the hype. It won’t make what you write sound smarter and it won’t get up and pack your bag before you go to class and then zip itself in from the inside. It’s a notebook. From some posts I have read on reddit, facebook and a few blogs you would think that it not writing in itself for you was a mistake. What I am doing now is trying to lower your expectations. Not because I want you to like this notebook more or less than you should but because it needs to be put where it belongs, on the shelf with other notebooks.

And now that we are all looking at a notebook and not an idea I hope to actually explain why I think the Baron Fig is a very good notebook. It’s well made and it’s a good product. It’s not perfect but few notebooks are.

Kickstarter Product Expectations

The Baron Fig Confidant is a hardback bound notebook. It has stitched binding and a thinner spine than a lot of notebooks or books even of a similar style so that it can more easily open flat and get better use of the entire page. The cover material is textured but as far as I can tell it’s not listed on the project so I’m not certain what it is. The paper is thicker than most notebooks and the last few pages are perforated. As for the promises it makes in it’s kickstarter project I think it lives up. I have much more to comment on but simply looking at what they said it would be and what it is I think you have to give it to them for delivering. Again, it’s not perfect but notebooks rarely are.

Design Features

The notebook is a cloth bound hardback with a light gray cover. The pages are white with a gray dot grid. It is also available in ruled or blank. The corners are rounded and the binding is stitched. The first page has a square with lines for you to label the notebook in any way you wish. There is no branding on the notebook, including the covers and pages, except on the inside back cover page. It is a clean, minimalist notebook that is at home on your desk next to your Macbook but just as easily would have fit in on a Mad Men set.

Lay Flat Binding

A bit on how well the notebook does what it promised here, they claim it will lay flat. It does. It doesn’t lay flat when you pick a page and sit it down but if you position it on the page you want and push it down it will then let you use it to the spine. That’s about the best you can do without super creative binding techniques or moving to binding such as metal rings or thin staple bound notebooks. In my opinion it serves its purpose but it’s not going to make you rethink how a notebook should open.

We are fully into the realm of future patrons at this point as the kickstarter project didn’t move much into the realm of details. It has the right number of pages at 192, perforated paged, is the same size it said it would be, roughly 5.4″ x 7.7″ , etc. so from now on I am addressing aspects that someone looking to purchase this notebook retail might want to know above and beyond anything mentioned in detail on Kickstarter.

Stitched Binding

Another aspect of the notebook itself is the stitched binding. It’s not unique among books but at the price point it is somewhat rare in notebooks. You’ll find some but most have chosen to stick with glue or staples or have left the book model and gone to metal rings. To each his own to some extent but it does add something to the product and will indeed add to the production cost. This is also a factor in that the cover doesn’t quite lay down when you sit the notebook on a table. It hovers a bit due to either tight binding or the cover being adhered a bit tightly. Either way I think it will settle down with use.

Build Quality

Ok, we discussed the fact that the binding is stitched but we didn’t say if it was done well. We talked about the cover a bit but not if it was well adhered to the internals. Those things along with many other aspects of a notebook come down to build quality. I mentioned online earlier that the Baron Fig Confidant was getting some hits in this area from some folks that have also gotten their hands on the notebook. I purposely held off on a first or second day review instead waiting over a week to comment on this topic.

I’ve seen people criticize the ribbon and how it is, from the moment you open the box, already fraying. On this front I have to agree. The ribbon, potentially the most important design choice in terms of the graphics used to sell the notebook, is just not well finished off. It should have been cauterized, if that’s the right term, or somehow sealed to prevent fraying or another material that wouldn’t so easily do so should have been chosen. Now I know a little over a week is nothing in terms of long term quality but I will say that mine has not gotten any worse. I will update in the future on this point if I feel I need to but for me it has stayed the same as the day I got it.

I’ve also seen people criticize the inside cover corner craftsmanship and how the internals are laid in the cover. For me this is a non issue. It looks fine to me and there is no negative consequences to how it was done. Some books likely have been done better but I have nothing negative to say about the Baron Fig here. In fact I actually quite like the look. It’s probably just the fact that it is more book like but the crimped corners and adhered inside cover page make it look nicer than most of my notebooks.

Finally, the other criticism that I’ve seen most often is about the spine. It shows the stitched binding in lines under the cover material. Well, yes it does. I don’t see this as a build quality issue though. The thinner material no doubt helps in it being able to open flat and a thicker binding would cover the stitching more. You pick I guess. It’s not poorly made it’s just trading one thing for another.

Materials

I have no real details here but I want to comment on the materials of the Baron Fig Confidant. The paper is higher quality paper than just about anything you will find in a big box office supply store. It’s premium in terms of thickness and it has a good feel to it. It’s well made for writing and has no coating to speak of. The cover is a woven fabric of some kind glued to some type of backer board as most cloth bound books are. It feels good to the touch as well and looks like it will hold up well. If anything might be a problem here it will be keeping the light gray material free of dirt or other debris but the color combo of light gray and yellow are a big reason so many like this notebook. The ribbon seems well made and its a bit thicker and wider than most of the ribbons in my other notebooks. If they had done a better job on the end I think we’d all be praising the ribbon as a major improvement but as it stands it is what it is. The paper itself is white leaning ever so slightly towards off-white. In other words it isn’t a blinding white but you won’t confuse it for cream either.

Writing on the Page

The pages are thick, matte, smooth pieces of paper. They are marked with a medium darkness gray dot grid. Some have commented that the dots are a bit thicker than others and I will say they seem to be a bit thicker than the Rhodia dots but it’s not been an issue for me. Below are two pages of writing samples, one with all fountain pens and the other with a combination of ballpoints, gel pens and pencils. On the fountain pen front I would say that the Baron Fig Confidant is fountain pen friendly. It has a bit of show through when I used a flex nib though so I’d likely stick to EF through B nibs and leave the flexing for another day. It had no issues with any of the standard pens either.

Wrap up and Comparison

Ok, you may have already made up your mind on the Baron Fig Confidant. You may think it’s a no brainier. If you have good for you. I am not as clearly decided as you and so I don’t even want to speculate which way most people are leaning at this point. To wrap up I want to talk about the Baron Fig Confidant in light of other notebooks on the market. I want to hit on quality and price. If it makes sense in other words to give the Baron Fig Confidant a look in the retail space or not.

The Kickstarter price was $20 including shipping in the US. The box I have says $15.95 and it’s rumored that will be the retail price unveiled on Tuesday. I am basing this aspect of my review on the assumption that is the case. If not then I’ll come back and add an update based on the price.

At $16 the Confidant is about half that of the Tomoe River Hardbound Journal that won our product of the year in 2013. That notebook is what this notebook most wants to be compared to in my mind. It’s similar in style in that it’s hardbound with a cloth cover. At about half the price I would say that it matches up to about half the notebook too. In other words, in comparison these notebooks are both about where they should be compared to one another. The Tomoe River Journal paper is superior but so different it is actually hard to compare. The binding on the Tomoe River Journal seems to be slightly better and the experience of simply holding it in your had seems to lean the same way. The Tomoe River paper also has more pages so you have to consider that although it has no ribbon. I think in this comparison the Baron Fig does well. When compared to a truly premium $30 notebook it doesn’t look to be put to shame in any way. It sits where it should.

At $16 the Confidant is about $6 more than a standard dot grid Rhodia pad and a good bit less than the bound Rhodia Webnotebooks that are most similar in size and also have a dot grid pattern. The Rhodia paper to me does seem to be a bit better but in both the pad and notebook Rhodia books they have less than half the pages. Again, I think in comparison the Confidant is priced where it should be.

Another factor in comparison, that may seem hype based but I actually find to be a worthy factor, is the cloth hardbound manufacturing. It just holds a different spot on the shelf than a flip back pad or spiral bound notebook. It looks and feels nicer for those that have design sensibilities leaning in that direction.

To me, I can say that this notebook is worth more than a Molekine standard which usually run around $15-$20 in my shops. It’s not as refined maybe but it is a slightly better notebook for me. This partly comes down to it being able to handle fountain pens where the Moleskine cannot and if you drop that then the comparison is a bit tighter.

Ok, I’ve written an ebook on the Baron Fig Confidant. Sorry. I did want to address this notebook though on several levels and I hope I have done that. To finally finish up I will give one more thing to the Baron Fig developers. They say the design is a blank slate, a starting point. They expect feedback and say that it will directly impact future designs. In that case I think we have a lot to look forward to. I would consider this a very successful 1.0 version. For what it is I think it’s worth a look by anyone who has a place for a hardbound notebook. For anyone with reservations I encourage you to add them to the comments here and I know the Baron Fig guys are paying attention. If you get one, please let me know what you think!

-Heath
@WeThePPIL

tandaina
February 28th, 2014, 03:37 PM
I'd be curious how it compares to the Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks? That's what I generally use and this comes in a good $4 cheaper per book, so if it is an even contender that would be lovely! It is so hard to find good notebooks that lay flat and are dot ruled!

writingrav
March 4th, 2014, 06:12 AM
I just ordered one. It comes with free shipping which reduces the total price that I usually have to pay for a Rhodia or Leuctturn (which, by the way I don't like) to a more than competitive advantage. Obviously we'll have to wait and see, but the paper looks to be better than anything but the Tomoe River. But the Tomoe River is so expensive it is really only an occasional treat for me.
Great review, by the way.

kia
March 4th, 2014, 07:51 AM
Very interesting review. I will be watching the Baron Fig notebook.

tandaina
March 4th, 2014, 11:12 AM
Leuctturn isn't perfect, I'd prefer Clairefontain, but I really prefer dot rule and it is pretty hard to find good paper and dot rule. So I take what I can get!

AXCross
March 17th, 2014, 01:56 AM
Bought one after reading the review.
Nice packaging, very nice fit & finish, love the versatility of the cover.

In terms of paper quality, I have found it to be good with Japanese fine nibs,(Sailor F, old Namiki F), but it showed feathering with a Montblanc fine nib. I assume it's due to wider nib and more flow from MB, which makes me think it will show more feathering with wider/wetter nibs.

Since I only used one tear-off page from the back for my tests, I will most likely pass it on to somebody.

FWIW, I had very light feathering with a Leuchtturm notebook as well, but it was much less visible and easier to ignore than on Baron Fig, possibly due to less textured paper. Thought I'd mention that.