The Arts and Sciences editions are special because they are much larger than all past Colors editions. Instead of the normal package of three 3.5″ x 5.5″ notebooks you get two large 4.75″ x 7.5″ notebooks with 64 pages each.
The Arts Field Notes notebook next to a normal-sized Field Notes.
The covers feature the normal Futura Bold typeface but unlike past editions “Field Notes” is debossed into the covers as are the little Arts and Sciences logos on the back cover.
The back covers feature debossed logos show here with matching buttons.
The Arts notebook has a “chili” colored cover and features art related references on the inside covers:
Arts inside front cover.Arts inside back cover.
The Sciences notebook has an “urban grey” colored cover and features science related references on the inside covers:
Sciences inside front cover.Sciences inside back cover. Notice this one has a metric ruler where the Arts has an imperial ruler
The pages in the Arts notebook are lined on one side and blank on the other. The Sciences notebook is a bit more interesting. It features “Engineer’s Graph Lines” on one side and blank pages on the other. The thickest grid lines are the 1″ followed by 0.5″ and 1/10″. I love these graph lines.
Arts on the left and Sciences on the right.
The paper in both of these notebooks is the same and like most Field Notes they don’t hold up well to fountain pen ink. There was a good amount of bleed.
Again Arts on the left and Sciences on the right. Lots of bleed…the thicker nibs even bled onto the opposite pages!
Of the two, the Sciences notebook is my favorite. I really like what they did with this edition. I am not sold on this larger format at the moment but I need to spend more time with them. My initial reaction is that they are too big. You can’t put them in a pants or coat pocket.
Calepino appears to be the French equivalent of Field Notes. Calepino focuses on small pocket notebooks with a simple core line of 100% French-made notebooks numbered one through four. No 1 features a red striped cover with ruled paper, No 2, the version I purchased, has green stripes and grid paper, No 3 has blue stripes and blank paper and No 4 has grey stripes and a dot grid.
Notebook numbers 1-4 come in packs of 3 for $13 compared with Field Notes’ 3 for $10. The No 2 measures 3.5″ x 5.5″, though up against a Field Notes, the No 2 is a hair shorter and a hair wider. The page count is the same 48 pages. So are they better than Field Notes? Let’s find out!
The Calepino notebooks come in very nicely branded box that features the same design and same cardboard as the notebook covers. The inside of the box lists all the specs of notebooks much like on the back inside cover of a Field Notes.
The cardboard cover is much rougher than a standard Field Notes cover and is noticeably thicker. The cardboard is made by a company in the Creuse area of France that has been making cardboard since 1927. The design is quite nice but I definitely prefer the simplicity of the Field Notes covers. The Calepino has three fonts on the cover where Field Notes only has one.
Inside the cover is a place for your personal information and a place for the start and finish date.
The pages are made of a bright white recycled paper with a green grid. The 5 x 5 mm grid is a bit larger than the 4.7 mm x 4.7mm grid found on a standard Field Notes. I prefer the smaller grid and the light brown ink the Field Notes uses.
Field Notes on the left and Calepino on the right.
In my testing I found that the Calepino’s paper handled relatively well for a recycled paper. It does bleed and feather a bit but overall it holds ink better than the standard Field Notes paper. To my touch the Calepino paper is a bit rougher and it provides a bit more feedback when writing which I like.
Bleeding with fatter nibs but very minor ghosting.
The Calepino is bound with two staples vs Field Notes’ three. The back cover has a little blurb about the company (I hope you speak French) and a metric ruler.
I have been carrying around a Calepino for about a week now and I definitely like the notebook but I don’t like it better than Field Notes. I fold my covers over when I am writing on a page and the Calepino is noticeably less pliable than a Field Notes notebook. I can fold the cover over but its more difficult and the two staple binding does not do as nice a job of holding the pages in place.
The Calepino offers better paper and better packaging than Field Notes but in the end I prefer the softer cover and overall look and feel of Field Notes.
The Calepino limited editions are quite interesting and I hope to get my hands on a set. The Limited editions feature collaborations with artists and famous design houses. What I particularly like is that the limited editions I have seen come in sets that include other limited edition items like pencils, pens, buttons and bookmarks.
Here are links to some great reviews of Calepino notebooks:
In recent years LIFE has become one of the most coveted brands of Japanese paper. It is generally more difficult to track down than my favorites Midori and Maruman. The prices of LIFE products in the US seem to be uncontrolled as they vary quite a bit and tend to be overpriced.
The product I will be reviewing is the B7 size LIFE Noble Memo Section pad and leatherette cover that I picked up on my recent trip to Japan.
The Memo pad features 100 cream colored sheets with a faint 5mm graph. The graph is printed on one side only; the back of the page is blank. The orange cover has a great vintage look to it with the black scrollwork boarder and raised gold and black “LIFE” letters.
This memo pad oozes quality. Everything on it is tight and the taped binding is one of the best I have seen. You can open up to the middle of the book and it will lay flat and then you can close it and you would have no idea that this book as ever been open.
The cream colored pages are very high quality. If you look at the blank side of the paper you will see that is ribbed. I tested the paper against Rhodia’s 80 GSM paper and found the dry time to be about equal. The LIFE paper is a bit thicker and is more resistant to bleeding. It took multiple strokes with my fat music nib to see any bleed. The grid lines seem to resist ink and while that doesn’t bother me it may bother some.
No bleed to speak of and minimal ghosting. If you look closely you can see the ribbing.
The cover is a brown leatherette that looks sorta like leather but definitely doesn’t feel like leather, that is to say anyone who touches it wont likely be fooled.
Pressed into the leatherette is “LIFE” and the same scroll work we saw on the paper cover. The fit and finish like the notepad is immaculate with beautifully aligned stitching. I have found that in addition to protecting the notepad the cover also helps keep the pad open when you are at the beginning of the pad. I really wish they did this thing in leather.
So what about the price? The notepad with notebook cover retails for 1,000 YEN which is just under $10 USD. In the US, unfortunately, the prices are considerably higher. I found the cover (no pad included) for $20 and I found the pad for $8. To me even with the unusual high quality, $28 is too much money for a little notepad with a leatherette cover. At $10 it’s still expensive but much easier to justify.
The best prices I have seen for LIFE products in the US are at:
World Meister’s Note is a collection from Midori that involves fusion of Japanese craft with other countries craft. I have previously reviewed Vol. 1 “Dainel” and I liked it quite a bit.
I skipped Vol. 2 for the time being as it has been hard to locate one from a US seller. Hopefully when I go to Japan later this week I will be able to pick one up.
Vol. 3 is called Grain and “employs recycled leather meticulously manufactured by workshops in Valencia, Spain.” The memo book measures 5″ x 3″ x .5″ not including the spiral which adds a quarter inch in length and depth.
The memo book features 50 sheets (100 pages) white lined MD paper and 50 sheets of cream blank MD paper. There is also a double elastic band that keeps the book shut.
It’s a beautiful little book. The black leather looks great with the brown elastic and the copper colored double spirals.
The black recycled leather cover is stiff like a regular plastic memo book color but it has a nice leather grain and smell.
As I have mentioned in previous posts Midori’s MD paper is one of my favorites. It holds fountain pen ink very well. The lined pages have a brown dotted rule were every fifth line is solid. Also the front of each sheet of lined paper has the “MIDORI” printed at the bottom.
I had to abuse the paper to make it bleed. Almost no ghosting.More apparent ghosting on the cream colored paper but no bleed even with abuse.
The Grain memo book is too large and bulky for my pants pocket. It will fit but it’s not comfortable. 100 sheets of paper make the memo book quite fat and inflexible.
$7.75 is high for a little memo book but the leather cover and 100 sheets of MD make the entry price worth while. The Grain is a great looking, beautifully made memo book. If it was a bit less bulky it would be my new memo book of choice but for now I am sticking with the Maruman Mnemosyne memo book (N193).
Here is a great review of the Midori “Grain” Memo Book:
(I have no affiliation with the site linked below)
Baron Fig started as a Kickstarter project and raised almost $170k of crowd funding. Clearly people liked this notebook so I wanted to see what it is all about. Currently Baron Fig only makes one notebook, The Confidant, which comes with 192 pages of blank, ruled or dot grip paper. The book is a bit smaller than an A5 size at 5.4″ x 7″.
The notebook comes very nicely packaged in its own maroon colored box and while I like the packaging I don’t want to see that on a $16 notebook…it actually annoys me…why does a hard covered notebook need an expensive box? Can I pay $10 and skip the box?
Okay so I dislike the packaging but what about the notebook?
The plain, unbranded grey cover and the yellow page marker go great together. The inside of the notebook contains a thick acid free paper that handles fountain pen ink quite well and as advertized the book does lay flat, which was nice to see.
Unfortunately the build quality leaves much to be desired.
The first thing I noticed was the page marker is unfinished at the bottom so it comes new out of the box frayed. That seems a bit sloppy. The spine looks all bumpy, like the fabric wasn’t glued on with much care.
With some use I noticed that the cover would no longer close all the way on its own weight. This isn’t a huge deal but it’s worth pointing out.
The book’s binding has a decent number of signatures which allows the book to lay flat but on the inside the stitching in each signature is poor.
There are only 5 loose stitches and they are off center; from the top of the page to the first stitch is .75″ and from the bottom of the page to the last stitch is 1.25″. If you are like me and like to tear pages out of your notebook, you are going to have a hard time. Every page I have tried to pull rips horribly because of the crap stitching.
For reference this is what stitching on a high quality Life notebook looks like:
The stitching is tight and goes all the way to the end of the page.
The Baron Fig has some really good things going for it but the build quality makes it feel like a first attempt, and when you consider the $16 price tag it’s definitely a no-go.
Please note: This product was provided to me at no charge by Baron Fig for review purposes.
The Field Notes Shelterwood Edition has the most unique cover I have seen so far. It features a cherry wood veneer on a brown kraft paper and it looks awesome. The feel of the cover was initially off putting, it felt like badly sanded wood. As I used the notebook more it felt less and less rough. I did not see quite the variation in color and grain as Field Notes shows on their website but each of the covers is noticeably different.
The cover is surprisingly strong, I have used it in my back pocket for a few days now and I have not seen any splintering.
I suspect as these covers get older, they will become more brittle.
The paper is the same lined paper as you got in the America the Beautiful Edition, which is by far the most fountain pen friendly Field Notes paper I have come across.
Minor bleed and little ghosting.
This is definitely one of the best limited edition Field Notes I have seen. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next!
The Scout Books Black Composition notebook is a pocket sized journal that is made in Portland, Oregon and measures 3.5″x 5″ (half an inch shorter than Field Notes). Each Composition notebook contains 32 6mm ruled pages. The paper is recycled and is noticeably thicker than the standard Field Notes paper. In using the Scout Books side by side with a Field Notes I noticed that Field Notes lays much flatter than the Scout Books notebook.
The cover features a simple black design that looks like a composition notebook (imagine that). I like that there is no branding on the front cover. The design is quite good but I have to say that I prefer the look of Field Notes.
Although the paper is rather thick, it did not handle fountain pen ink all that well. There is some bleeding and feathering much like you get with a standard Field Notes.
The Scout Books Black Composition notebook sells in packs of 3 for $10. While I do like these little notebooks, I prefer Field Notes as you get get similar performance, more pages, and a better design for the same price.
Please note: This product was provided to me at no charge by Scout Books for review purposes.
Here are some great reviews of Scout Books:
(I have no affiliation with the sites linked below)
I love Rhodia paper products because they are both affordable and fountain pen friendly. They come in dozens of formats and I have tried almost all of them and only two have remained staples in my notebook collection: the Rhodia Reverse Book (review to come) and the Rhodia Bloc Pad No 11.
The No 11 is small notepad that measures 2.9″ x 4.1″ and contains 80 sheets of Rhodia’s standard 80g paper in lined and graph formats (I prefer the graph). The No 11 comes in black and classic Rhodia orange covers. Like the vast majority of Rhodia products, there is a lot of branding; all three sides of this tiny pad have the Rhodia logo. The sheets are micro perforated and if you are careful the sheets come out pretty easily. Because the sheets are bound only with one centered staple it is important pull the paper up off the pad to get the perforations to work. If you pull straight the paper will detach at the staple.
The No 11 is great for short lists and notes. I prefer them to using sticky notes.
As you can see there are no issues with feathering or bleeding. Rhoida (and sister brand Clairefontaine) are the gold standard when it comes to fountain pen friendly paper and it is easy to see why.
Virtually no ghosting to speak of.
At $2 a pad it’s pretty hard to go wrong. I believe the No 11 would be useful to almost everyone; I highly recommend it.
Please note: this product was provided to me at no charge by JetPens for review purposes.
Want a notebook with fine stationery quality ribbed paper? The Semikolon Il Creativo may be just what you are looking for.
Let’s start with the stats:
152 sheets (304 pages) of cream colored, ribbed, lined, and perforated.
141 organizational stickers
soft stain resistant vinyl cover
two page makers
5.5″ x 7.48″ (also comes in small and large sizes)
The looks of the Il Creativo are bold; you are going to either love it or hate it. While the cover comes in multiple colors the spines are all rainbow colored. I weirdly, love it. I like that the main cover color (yellow in this case) continues into the rainbow spine and around to the back cover. There is some light branding on the cover; both the front and back covers read “Semikolon” with the little semicolon logo. The spine has a large semicolon logo.
The vinyl cover is soft and has a slight texture to it that feels nice to the touch. The inside of the cover continues the rainbow and yellow design of the outside. The first few pages feature the days of the year in two formats (see below). Also, I should mention that when I initially opened up the notebook there was a strong smell of glue. The smell did seem to go away quickly as I used the notebook.
The lined pages have an unfortunately wide rule that measure 3/8″ or 9.5mm. The lines are also darker than I would like. The half way point is marked with the Semikolon logo that I found to be distracting. Each of the lined pages feature a perpetual calendar at the bottom of the page (to be honest I am not entirely sure how to use it properly). The pages are nicely perforated and detach easily.
So how does the paper perform? In a word, beautifully! My widest, juiciest nibs behaved well, no bleeding, no feathering and very little ghosting. The paper is a pleasure to write on as it gives wonderful feedback without being rough. As I said earlier, it is like fine stationery paper.
141 Organizational Stickers
Even though I may not be in love with the formatting of the Il Creativo I do love the paper and look forward to filling it up. I will be testing out Semikolon’s Mucho notebook (which uses the same paper later as the Il Creativo) this month.
Please note: this product was provided to me at no charge by Semikolon for review purposes.
Word. Notebooks are quite unique in that they are specifically designed for making lists. The notebooks are pocket sized at 3.5″ x 5.5″ and contain 48 pages of acid free paper.
The white flowers and skulls against the blue background makes for an excellent cover design.
On the left margin at the beginning of each line you have a circle within another circle designed to be used with Word. Notebooks’ standardized symbol system (see the use guide below).
The paper is thicker than you find in a standard Field Notes notebook but it seems to feather and bleed when using fountain pen ink. This paper seems work best with ballpoints and fine point gel pens.
I have been using the Word. bullet point system for a few weeks now and I have to say that I do like it quite a bit. If Word. Notebooks were to improve their paper I believe I would use them for my daily to-do lists but for now I have been using them to keep track of the reviews I need to complete for THE UNROYAL WARRANT.
Word. Notebooks are sold in packs of three for $9.99 and if you are not a fountain pen user, I highly recommend these notebooks; the design inside and out is fantastic.
Please note: this product was provided to me at no charge by Word. Notebooks for review purposes.
Here are some great reviews of the Word. Notebooks:
The Calepino is bound with two staples vs Field Notes’ three. The back cover has a little blurb about the company (I hope you speak French) and a metric ruler.
