The Baltimore-based Write Notepads & Co. produces American-made notebooks featuring high quality letterpress chipboard covers. At $16 for the Large Notebook, you get 120 5.5″ x 8.5″ pages of lined or blank paper with a brass spiral binding. Each notebook comes with a thick rubber band that can be used to keep the notebook closed. When you buy a notebook from Write Notepads & Co. they donate one to a public school, so the $16 for the large notebook actually buys two.
I quite like the rustic look of these notebooks. The thick chipboard covers go well with the brass spiral. I also like the letterpress logo featuring a fountain pen.
The inside front cover features a place for your name, address, phone number and email, all done in letter press.
The notebook is dubbed “fountain pen friendly” and while smooth and thick, the recycled paper doesn’t handle fountain pen ink all that well.
I found that the paper tends to bleed with fountain pens, roller ball pens and porous tip pens. Most of the gel pens and all of the traditional ballpoints I tested, behaved well on this paper.
Bleed-through seems to be more of an issue than ghosting.
Interestingly, the lines on the page do not seem to be perfectly printed, some are thin, others are fat and I notice that in the middle of most pages there are some breaks in the lines. I think this adds to the character and charm of the notebook but others may find it distracting.
The pages are perforated but don’t always produce the cleanest of tears.
Overall, I like this notebook because its design and materials have a lot of character.
Is it right for fountain pen users? I wouldn’t call it “fountain pen friendly” but I have no problem using it with most of my fountain pens; some bleed through doesn’t bother me and one advantage of an absorbent paper is faster dry times.
Please note: this product was provided to me at no charge by Write Notepads & Co. for review purposes.
Here are some great reviews of the Write Notepads & Co. Notebook:
(I have no affiliation with the sites linked below)
Having abandoned my Cartier diary (as the refills have increased an unbelievable 60% in price) I began searching for a replacement and stumbled upon a thread on The Fountain Pen Network discussing diaries for 2014. The one that seemed to peak everyone’s interest was the Hobonichi Planner featuring Tomoe River paper. To my knowledge, 2014 is the first year that this planner has been released in English. After doing more research and learning about the awesome layout I knew I had to have one.
The appearance of the planner is simple and elegant. The cover is a thin flexible black leatherette with “Techo” (in Japanese) and three keys printed in silver. Printed on the spine in silver is “HOBO” and “2014”. I like the look of the black leatherette cover so much that I am tempted to use it without a case. The planner measures 105mm wide x 149mm high x 14mm thick (that’s approximately 4.13″ wide x 5.87″ high x o.55″ thick). Pictured below is the spine with the book open. Tomoe River paper is so thin that you can fit 464 pages + the cover into a 14mm dimension. The planner lays flat thanks to its excellent construction.
For those interested in book making look at how many tiny signatures (folded sheets sewn together) there are!
The layout of the planner is quite nice. You get a full page per day with 4mm grids. Each page shows the current moon phase and every two page spread features a quote. Most of the quotes are from Japanese cultural figures.
Up front you get full months spread across two pages.1 month per column and a day per row.
For Sunday the print on the page is orange instead of the normal black/grey. In the back of the planner there are several pages of blank orange dot grid followed by some reference pages (clothing sizes, international holidays and country codes) as well as informational pages like a sushi guide and a sake guide. One thing that I would like to see in the Hobonichi is a color map of the world.
Sushi Guide…I particularly like the part on the top right page that says “If you are having trouble ordering….Just point!”
The paper, as I have show in my review of a Tomoe River notebook , is simply amazing. It holds fountain pen ink as well or better than any other paper I can think of. It’s hard not to love this planner. The Hobonichi planner is reasonably priced at 2,500 Yen (approx $24 USD) before shipping and handling.
No issues with bleeding or feathering…the only draw back to this paper is dry time.There is show through but it is not something that would prevent you from writing on both sides of a page.
Naoko at Hobonichi Planner was kind enough to send me this planner free of charge for me to review. Along with the planner she included a cover, a couple of stencils and a set of page flags. The design of the cover to be honest, is not my cup of tea. The polyester cover was designed by the children’s book illustrator Ryoji Arai. The front features a bright red donkey against a sky blue cover and the spine and back cover has some doodles and pictures. It’s a very interesting composition. The inside of the cover is bright pink and has two neon green page makers with pink tips (one is a rectangle and the other is a triangle).
Hobonichi cover with a Montblanc 149 in the pen loops.
There is a pocket on the outside of the back cover which I have found to be handy for slipping in receipts as well as a Field Notes journal. There are two large pen loops, one attached to the front of the cover and one attached to the back so that you can slip a pen into both loops to keep the notebook shut. I was able to easily slide my Montblanc 149 into the loops which is good news if you like to use oversized pens.
On the inside of the front cover there are 5 card slots that fit the Hobonichi stencils perfectly. There is an additional pocket behind the card slots.
On the inside of the back cover there is a black tag that says “Hobonichi 2014” as well as two small pockets.
The retail price of this cover is 1,900 Yen (approx $18 USD). This same cover in a plain solid color is 1,500 Yen (approx $14.50 USD) and in leather is 8,500 Yen (approx $81.50 USD). The are several other cover designs that cost as much as 31,500 Yen (approx $302 USD). The polyester cover is reasonably priced and and provides a lot of functionality.
The Hobonichi planner and covers can be purchased in English directly from Hobonichi here.
Please note: (as mentioned above) this product was provided to me at no charge by Hobonichi for review purposes.
Here are some great reviews of the Hobonichi Planner:
(I have no affiliation with the sites linked below)
A few years ago I received this beautiful Cartier Desk diary as a gift. It is appropriately called a desk diary as it is quite large at 10″ x 7.5 “. The leather cover and thick pages also make it quite heavy. Let’s start with the design; the cover features black leather calfskin with the double “C” Cartier logo embossed on the front cover. Also on the front cover are two stainless steel corners for added durability. On the inside is an attractive burgundy colored calfskin with two pockets to hold the diary refill and an address book. There is also a nice leather page marker with a stainless double “C” Cartier charm. Overall it has a very nice and clean masculine look to it.
The agenda refills feature seven days on two pages organized by lines for each half hour starting at 8am and ending at 9pm. The weekends share a single column and get one line per hour. This layout wont be that useful for everyone. As someone that charges my clients by the hour, I used it to keep track of my time spent rather than as a pure appointment book.
Color map of the world…well most of it anyway
Cartier also lists these additional features (I put the most amusing ones in bold): “calendar of international holidays, world map and map of the European continent, flight times and time zones, area codes, useful telephone numbers, conversion tables, clothing and shoe sizes, gold and the most beautiful stones in the world, ratings for vintages, wedding anniversaries, addresses of Cartier boutiques.” One of the things not listed is a country guide which has up to date information on 35 different countries: population size, the capital city, airport info, currency, and electrical information.
A diary wouldn’t be complete without an entire page on gold and an entire page on precious gems right?Vintage (French) wine rating chart and Wedding anniversariesUseful phone numbers and Country guide
The cream colored pages are very thick and feature a gilded edge. The paper deals with fountain pen ink well and has perforated bottom corners with the double “C” Cartier logo that allow you to quickly jump to the current week. One thing that I really don’t like about this diary is the inability for the refill to relax and lie flat (even with daily use). I have to use a book weight to keep the darn thing open.
Very little ghosting and no bleed throughPerforated page corners
Each year there is a different work of art featured on the first page of the refill and on the back page there is a little bio of the artist, for 2013, the artist was Patrick Vilaire. The outside of the diary refill is burgundy, the same burgundy as the leather on the inside of the cover. In prior years this has been black but it looks like 2014 is burgundy again. You get a seperate address book with each refill.
In previous years the picture was color. I guess they needed to save money this year…recession and what not.Spine of the refillBack of dairy refill and address book coverAddress book
New, the cover with agenda refill is $660, which isn’t terrible, but what is terrible is the price of the refills. The 2012 refill cost me $60, the 2013 refill (which you see here) cost me $90 and the 2014 refill, which I have been simply priced out of, is $155!!! I have called and asked Cartier why these have gone up so much and they have no explanation…the refill is essentially unchanged yet worth $65 more. While I have really enjoyed using this diary the real killer for me has become the price of the refill; I will need to find a notebook that I can use this lovely cover with.
The Midori World Meister’s Note series features collaborations between Japan and other countries. The Dainel is the first in the series which Midori describes as ” A marriage of French leather paper and Japan’s MD paper, developed for the best writing comfort”.
The color of the cover is a bit more brown and less grey than the picture shows.
Let’s start with the cover and then make our way inside. The cover is made in France out of “French leather paper” and according to the packaging:
“[Dainel] stands for ‘suede’ in France. In a town some 200 km east of the capital, Paris, 30 years of experience with suede work have created a one-of-a-kind technology unique in the whole world. This unique technology has crystallized in this gorgeous leather paper.”
To me the cover looks a bit like suede but I was disappointed when I touched it; it feels like a mediocre felt. The more I use the notebook the more I like the cover; it is a lot nicer than a paper cover but it certainly isn’t leather. The cover has “Dainel” pressed into the front of the cover and “The World Meister’s Note” pressed into the spine. This cover is the light brown color and I believe they come in four or five other colors.
This notebook is extremely well made and dare I say, better than anything else I have seen in its price range. The notebook is nicely stitched this notebook lays flat.
The inside of the notebook features 91 A5 pages of Midori’s exceptional cream colored MD paper which holds fountain pen ink beautifully. There is no bleed through even with juicy pens and almost no feathering.
It’s a 91 page notebook because the first page has this logo printed on it.
No bleed through and minor ghosting.
At around $13 this notebook is not cheap but the combination of the quality and the branding make it a winner. I look forward to getting my hands on the other notebooks in this series; I believe they are up to volume 3.
Cold Horizon is the latest edition in Field Notes’ Colors series. When the covers are lined up you can see a blue gradient. The blue gradient is continued in the font on the inside of the front and back cover.
Font in blue gradient
In the set each notebook features a different paper color, blue, green, and grey. Each notebook has grey grids.
Top to bottom: grey, green, blue
Overall, I love the design; it is clear that they really put some thought into these notebooks.
On to the bad:
The covers are unpleasant to touch; they have a bit of a grainy feel which seems odd on a glossy cover. Most Field Notes are not considered fountain pen friendly and the Cold Horizon edition is no exception, in fact, the paper actually seems to resist fountain pen ink.
Notice the paper resisting the fountain pen ink.Bleed through
While I like the look of these Field Notes I don’t think I will be purchasing another set.
The Morning Glory Passion notebook contains 32 7.5″ x 5.1″ sheets of lined (7mm rule) red paper. Morning Glory calls these notebooks “Colored Inner Paper Mini Notebook”. They come in other colors such as blue, green and yellow,. The different colors have different sayings on them; I saw a a blue one that says “diligence” on the cover. The notebook looks great with a bright red cover and pinkish red pages.
The notebook is bound with two staples. The paper handles fountain pen ink very well. I only saw bleed through and feathering with my Visconti Van Gogh combined with Noodler’s Qin Shi Huang. The paper is thick and smooth. I there was little ghosting; you can easily write on both sides of the paper.
The pages are much more red (pink) than the pictures show.
I really didn’t care for the Morning Glory Mach 3 but if you can handle colored pages this notebook for $2.00 is a complete home run. The notebooks look great, handle fountain pen ink well and are ultra cheap to buy.
The Lihit Lab Aqua Drops notebook employs an unique ring style binding that on the surface looks similar to your standard spiral ring notebook. The plastic rings are held together with two metal spines separated by a spring. This unique binding system allows you to open the rings so that you can remove and add paper to the notebook as necessary. The Aqua Drops comes with 30 sheets of B5 size paper with a 6mm rule. The covers are made of a translucent plastic and come in multiple colors; I got the Indigo Blue cover. The Aqua Drops logo is inset in black into the cover. There are also these little inset dots that are intended to look the rain drops.
In the picture you can see all of this ugly text / instructions at the bottom left corner of the notebook. This text is the first page of the notebook it is not actually on the cover of the notebook. After taking the picture I pulled the page out.
The pages have room at the top for a title and there are little notches on the top and bottom lines with a thicker halfway notch in the middle. On each page in faint grey “PULL OPEN” with a circle and an arrow is printed to show you which direction to pull to open the binding. The paper is smooth and fountain pen friendly. I only saw some slight bleed with the Visconti Van Gogh and the Noodler’s Konrad. There is some very minor feathering, but not enough to bother me. I have no problem writing on both sides as the paper is relatively thick.
A couple of negative points for me. First, the 6mm rule while nice and crisp is darker than I would prefer. Second, the Aqua Drops notebook only comes in a B5 size unless you want a top bound memo pad.
I really love the binding system on this notebook; it is top notch. If it came in more appealing sizes I would consider replacing my Maruman notebooks with Aqua Drops. At $9.35 for a 30 page notebook and $7.15 for a package of 30 loose leaf sheets the Lihit Lab Aqua Drops is on the expensive side. If the B5 size works for you this notebook is definitely worth a try.
Shinola is a Detroit based company that manufactures high quality American made watches, bicycles, leather products, and journals. The paper cover journals are sold in packs of two and come in three sizes and in multiple colors. The one I will be reviewing is the middle size measuring 5.25″ x 8.25″. Each notebook contains 144 pages (72 leaves) of blank paper…the cardboard packaging says “ruled paper” so finding blank pages was a bit of a disappointment. The acid free paper is a nice thick 60lb weight and comes from sustainably managed North American forests. Shinola’s notebooks are made by Edwards Brothers Malloy in Michigan. The cardboard packaging features a triangle ruler and a coaster (not sure why anyone would want a cardboard coaster).
Inside the cardboard packaging.
The notebooks look and feel very nice. I really like the clean design; there are no markings on the journal apart from “SHINOLA DETROIT” on the back cover. These books do not lay flat and the spine is slightly less flexible than a cloth bound Clairefontaine journal.
The paper is very smooth and quite nice to write on. I did notice some feathering with the Noodler’s Qin Shi Huang and J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir. There is bleed through from the Visconti but this particular pen and ink combination causes bleed even in Clairefonatine notebooks. The thick line from my semi-flexible Conway Stewart did not bleed. There is some ghosting but it isn’t bad enough to prevent me from writing on the other side of the page. The dry time for this paper is quite fast with most of the inks I tested drying under 10 seconds.
Overall I really like these journals and I consider them to be fountain pen friendly. I have been using this journal side by side with a Clairefontaine cloth bound journal and I definitely prefer the Shinola. They run $9 for a two pack which is about the same cost as one similarly sized 192 page Clairefontaine journal. In the future I am going to give Shinola’s more expensive soft and hard linen cover journals a try.
I have been hearing about this supernatural Tomoe River paper for a while but I could not find it in a format that I liked. Through The Fountain Pen Network I saw that is was available in notebook form from PaperForFountainPens.com (no affiliation).
Tomoe River Notebooks
Tomoe River paper is ultra light weight at 52 gsm with a very smooth texture. This paper has been getting a lot of praise in the fountain pen community for its ability to handle fountain pen ink. I have been playing with this paper the last few days and it is amazing. There is virtually no bleed through. With some abuse I did get it to bleed in one spot. I used my Rohrer & Klinger glass dip pen without removing the excess ink first and the only point of bleed through is where the bottom of the “g” made contact with the “a” in “Scabiosa”. The wettest letter though is the first “R” in “Rohrer” which had zero bleed through. There is no feathering to mention and ink looks beautiful on this paper. The paper is fragile and easily crinkles; to me this is just part of the charm of the paper. Dry times are comparable to Rhodia and Clairefontaine papers.
Loose leaf cream Tomoe River PaperA good amount of ghosting but virtually no bleed through.
I did abuse the paper a bit more. I tried a drop Noodler’s Qin Shi Huang on the paper. There was no bleed through for about the first hour. Here is the result after 3 hours:
Noodler’s Qin Shi Huang (notorious for feathering) still wet after 3 hours.Bleed through after 3 hours.
The results are very impressive. I let the ink sit overnight and the ink finally bled through all the way. The ink did not spread at all and if you use the widest and juiciest of pens with blotter paper you should experience no bleed. This is an excellent paper for fountain pens.
The notebook contains 320 cream colored pages (160 leaves) that measure 4.9″ x 8″. There is ghosting so I only like to write on one side. It is worth noting that because this paper is so thin you will get ghosting even with a pencil. The notebook is nicely made and lays pretty flat. I am really happy with these notebooks and plan to use them as my primary journal. The price per notebook varies based on how many you order: 1 for $29, 2 for $53 ($26.50 each), and 3 for $75 ($25 each).
The only paper I can compare to the Tomoe River is Smythson’s Featherweight 50 gsm paper. Smythson’s paper handles fountain pen ink just as well but costs an absolute fortune. Think $29 is a lot for a notebook? A 5.5″ x 7.5″ Smythson notebook with 192 leaves (not refillable) costs £135 (approx. $220 USD)! To by fair, Smythson notebooks have beautiful leather covers, blue paper with gilt edges and three real ROYAL WARRANTS. Having been gifted a Smythson’s Panama diary a few years ago I can say that they are easily the nicest notebooks (calendar) I have ever used but for almost 1/10th the price of a Smythson, the Paper For Fountain Pens Tomoe River notebook is a fantastic value. I haven’t been this happy with a notebook in a long time. I highly recommend giving one a try.
