Retro 51 X Denik X Bat Conservation International Notebook Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Bluesky. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)

One of my favorite Retro 51 releases of the past few years is their collaboration with Bat Conservation International. The vintage colors, cute bats, pretty moths, and repeating geometry all charmed me. The design reminds me of Art Nouveau wallpaper, but spooky, and I love it. I was extra excited to see that they had also collaborated with Denik on a notebook, so I could be matchy-matchy. They've done this for a handful of their pen designs, usually a rescue edition, and those notebooks also contribute funds to the rescues.

Apart from the fabulous cover design, this A5 notebook is fairly simple. If you've used a Denik notebook before, you'll be familiar with the format. The cover is thin cardstock with a matte finish. It has decorated interior covers, and then 144 pages of lined paper (it also exists with dotted paper). The binding is sewn and glued in signatures. It's a bit crispy for the first few uses, but as it breaks in, it does get to the point where it lays flat.

The paper inside is decent. Denik's paper can be inconsistent as far as its fountain pen friendliness, but so far I have had good results with this one. The only thing that bled through at all was a sharpie. There was some light feathering with liquid inks, but only visible if I held the notebook three inches from my face. It's not a notebook for paper snobs, but it's very functional and perfectly useful.

Like all Denik notebooks, this one is very affordable. It sells for $16, which is a great price for that page count. There are no bells and whistles on the notebook--no ribbons or elastics, no rounded corners or page numbers. The cover is obviously cut from a large printed sheet, so the design cuts off at the edges. It's not fancy, but it is nice. It's pretty without being precious. That helps keep the price low, and still allows them to give some of the proceeds to the bats. Everybody wins.

This is the perfect notebook for a commonplace book or ideas journal. It would be great for meeting notes. It has enough pages to be devoted to a longer project, and will very likely end up as one of my novel planning notebooks. And it's gotta be for a vampire novel, right?

(This product was purchased from Dromgoole’s at regular price.)

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Paper Source A5 Dotted Journal Refill Notebook Review

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

I’ve been on a bit of a paper kick when I saw notebooks at a nearby Paper Source store and was curious to see how it handled fountain pens. Paper Source had gone bankrupt a few years back and has since been bought by Barnes & Noble. Since the store is near one of my running routes, I decided to buy one for review.

I got the Paper Source A5 Journal Refill in dot grid. They are also available in lined, graph, and undated. It is 5.83” x 8.27” or 15 x 21 cm. The cover is a little bit stiffer than a softcover but thinner and more pliable than hardcover. This is so you can put them into most A5 notebook covers out there, including ones sold by Paper Source, as well as Hobonichi. This was also one of several notebooks I used when reviewing Helen’s Creations A5 notebook cover.

The back of the notebook is minimally branded with the Paper Source logo in gold.

The insides have the same color end papers as the cover.

Neither the notebook band nor the website mentioned the weight of the paper, but it felt slightly thicker than the Leuchtturm 1917, which is 80 gsm, and thinner than Leuchtturm’s 120 gsm paper, so my guess would be ~90 gsm. The Paper Source paper is not as cream-colored as the Leuchtturm but isn’t bright white either; It is slightly cream-colored and also feels smoother than Leuchtturm.

The notebook opens fairly flat, but I don’t consider it truly “lay flat” if I have to hold it down.

This is the first page of the notebook - I hate when it is glued to the end paper such that it needs to be pressed flat to be used.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, when I review notebooks, I do my writing samples in the back of the notebook. This way, I can still use the rest of the notebook starting at the front.

The paper is fairly smooth, but I never felt like my nibs were sliding uncontrolled. I picked a wide range of nibs so that (1) I could see if there was any feathering, (2) if the paper felt equally good to write on with different nibs, and (3) to see how it handled different ink qualities.

Left to right: Platinum 3776 (Stacked Coarse by Gena Salorino), Schon Dsgn Pocket 6 (Masuyama Needlepoint), Platinum 3776 (Broad), Pilot Custom 823 (FA), Leonardo Momento Zero (Stylosuite EF X-Wing Harpoon flex), Kaweco Perkeo (1.1), Penlux Delgado (Broad), Franklin-Christoph (Medium Schon Monoc), Grifos Dante (Medium).

TWSBI Eco (1.1), Pelikan M215 (EF), Scribo Piuma (14kt gold Broad Flex), Visconti Comedia (Medium), Pelikan M800 (Italic Broad), Zodiac Pen Co (Fine Monoline by Kirk Speer), Montblanc 146 (Medium).

Writing samples with a variety of nibs including a stacked Platinum 3776 Coarse and a Masuyama Needlepoint and several in between.

The paper handled the amount of ink laid down by the stacked Coarse nib.

Look at that gorgeous pooling from the X-Wing Harpoon flex nib!

No feathering after the flex writing was dry. I liked the shading from the Vanness Hootenanny ink.

The back of the page showing some ghosting which looks more drastic in pictures than in real life.

More fountain pens up top, and standard pens on the bottom. No ghosting except from the Sharpie, including from the finer tip, which bled through to the other side and onto the back end page.

The Pilot G-2 took a few scribbles before it would write, and the Parker Flighter’s gel refill really didn’t like the paper, and wrote worse than the ballpoint above. Both pens wrote fine on scratch paper. Everything else was fine, including the pencil.

Overall, I was surprised at how well the Paper Source A5 Dotted Journal refill handled fountain pens. I was even more surprised, considering it retails for $14 for 192 pages. This is a great value, considering similar softcover Leuchtturm models cost $25. The only thing I wish this notebook had was numbered pages. I plan on using it as a bullet journal as soon as I’m done with my current notebook (a Leuchtturm 1917). This notebook can be found on the Paper Source website as well as in store.

(Disclaimer: I bought the Paper Source notebook at a local retail store at regular price. All pens and inks used are my own.)

KOKUYO Good Tools Soft Ring Notebook Review

Kokuyo got me before with the Perpanep range, and once again, they have landed right in my wheelhouse with their Good Tools lineup, specifically the Soft Ring A5 Notebook.

As best as I can tell, the Good Tools collection is Kokuyo’s way of offering a curated group of desk accessories. Everything seems to be accounted for - from pens and paper, to scissors and staplers. A basic white aesthetic runs through all of the products (did they get ahead of Pantone?) with only a few pops of color seen throughout the full lineup.

I’m a sucker for this look, but I wasn’t into the pens, and I don’t need any of the accessories. So, where did that leave me? Paper. Specifically, the Soft Ring A5 Graph notebook.

To cut directly to the chase, this notebook is perfect for me. Maybe I think that because I had zero expectations going into it. It was an add-on to an order, and I had no plans for it outside of testing some gel ink pens inside of it, or using it as part of a giveaway. It has quickly become a notebook I reach for more than most, even for fountain pens, and even for ink swatching.

The 0.4 mm Zebra Sarasa R colors pop off the page.

More of a shadow on the backside, as opposed to ghosting.

That it holds up well to a lot of ink on the page shouldn’t surprise me - Kokuyo has always been a good choice for that. My issue has always been formats. The Kokuyo Campus product lineup is great, but I never dialed in which one of the many (MANY!) options is for me. They make for great recommendations though, because the quality is always there.

Smooth for fineliners.

The Good Tools Soft Ring nails everything that I’m looking for in a product. For starters, the plain design looks fantastic. I can keep it clean like it looks now, or I can customize it in many different ways with stickers, art, washi, or whatever. The A5 size is perfect for a desk or on the go, and the Soft Ring binding won’t scratch up anything it lays on or next to, like wire binding would. The page perforation is clean, and the Grey 5mm grid is exactly the right shade to provide guidance, and stay out of the way.

Ink swatches with the Kakimori Steel Dip Nib.

Gas Works Park went through the back, only because I ran a second layer over the top and the steel nib breaks up the page. I even added water to Penn Cove Mussel, which is second from the top left, and nothing went through.

It’s right there with the Kokuyo X Platinum Preppy Perpanep, which is about as high of praise as I can give. For less than $20 combined I can have a brilliant pen and paper combo. What am I doing with my life? 🤣

Van Diemans Nightfall is part of their Dual Shader series, and while the full color range isn’t S-Tier like it would be on classic Tomoe River 52 gsm paper, it shows off a lot, especially in the right light.

Almost nothing on the back side.

Kokuyo’s prices are always reasonable, and $10.50 for 70 sheets (140 pages) - in either Graph or their popular Dotted Line format - is exactly that. Unless you require a hard cover notebook, I think the only thing holding this notebook back are the lack of a Dot Grid, or even a Blank page. On quality alone, it’s more enough to be your primary paper in most situations.

I said I didn’t need anything else from the Kokuyo Good Tools lineup, but I guess it is time to take another look after all of this fawning over a plain white notebook.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!