Posts filed under Kokuyo

Kokuyo Campus High Grade MIO Paper 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 Twitter. And check out her first novel, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, now available where books are sold!)

Kokuyo has earned a reputation for providing top quality paper for very reasonable prices, and the Campus High Grade MIO paper notebooks promise to be their best paper yet. I'm not entirely sure it keeps that promise. I think I personally prefer the thicker paper they offer. However, this is still excellent paper for the value and very good paper overall.

The MIO paper is a premium paper that Kokuyo has bound into A5 and A4 notebooks. There are 6 and 7 mm rule lines available so far, though hopefully they'll add a grid option at some point. The paper is ivory colored and the lines are faint, so they don't interfere if you need to disregard them for creative purposes. There are 28 lines per page. The top of each page also has a place for the page number and date, as well as dots to mark vertical alignment.

The notebook is glue-bound with a soft, very flexible cardstock cover. It's coated in a way that makes it feel like plastic, and will hopefully hold up well to wear over time. The spine is reinforced with a silvery tape that allows enough flex for the notebook to lie flat.

The paper is 60 gsm and the notebook contains 80 sheets, or 160 pages if you write on both sides. And you can indeed write on both sides, at least with most pens, so long as you don't mind a little show-through.

The lightweight smoothness of the paper reminds me a lot of Tomoe River paper, but it doesn't have the same level of impervious coating. It held up well for almost everything. Sharpie, of course, bled through. I tested an ink spill on it. The ink bled and spread across the page, and bled though the next page behind as well. That's the first time I've had a multi-page casualty from two drops of ink on fountain pen friendly paper, so I suspect this paper is not treated with whatever sorcery it is that keeps liquid inks on a paper's surface. True to this theory, my broad Pilot nib caused quite a bit of feathering when I wrote with it. It is a very juicy nib, though. With all of my other currently-inked pens, I had a pleasant writing experience and little show-through. Certainly not enough to bother me, though others may feel differently.

I don't think this paper will be the one pen addicts reach for when they want to show off sheens and shimmers or interesting shading--it's a bit too absorbent for that. But if you have a medium or fine point pen and a good number of pages to write, you can do that with one of these for only six bucks. That is, as I often find myself saying about Kokyo notebooks, completely bananas. When compared to many bound books of comparable paper, that's about half the cost. It's a good balance between luxury and practicality.

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

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Posted on March 21, 2019 by Sarah Read and filed under Kokuyo, Notebook Reviews.

Kokuyo Buncobon Dot Cover Notebook Review

These sweet little Kokuyo Buncobon Dot Cover Notebook is designed to resemble Japanese paperback novels--a charming paper cover, the perfect A6 palm-of-your-hand size--with an additional eye for usability.

The notebook measures 4.1" by 5.8" and will fit in your favorite A6 notebook case or cover. It does come with a paper cover over the plain cream cardstock, and then another plastic cover over that. I found the plastic cover to be crinkly and irritating, so I set it aside fairly quickly. The paper cover has a pretty dot pattern, and it stays on with a folding flap that also serves as the notebook's index. The paper cover isn't terribly durable, though. And considering the generous page count and the fact that the book will probably be in use a while, an additional cover might not be a bad idea.

The cover itself is softcover cardstock with blue tape binding. The binding is glue, and it claims to lie flat, but I found mine needed a lot of training to even come close, and then I worried about whether the binding would hold together after such abuse. I prefer sewn bindings, but this one is working well so far.

Inside the notebook you'll find 70 sheets of 5mm grid 70gsm ivory paper. The paper has a bit of texture and tooth to it, but in a crisp, pleasant way. It's surprisingly good paper for a notebook with a large number of sheets and a price tag under $5. It held up well with most pens. Not Sharpie, of course, but everything else did very well. There's a touch of show-through with a very wet, dark rollerball, but the fountain pen did great.

A nice feature of this book is its searchable function--there are spaces along the side edge that are designed for color coding that will be visible from the fore-edge, so you can flip to the section you need with ease. Combined with the index, it's a powerful little organizational tool. And it's got a sweet wee ribbon bookmark, too.

These are fantastic little notebooks. Not perfect, no, but the compromises are fair and worth it for what you do get. I love that there are enough pages to see me through a larger project, and that I can use my fountain pens, all without making my wallet weep. I think these would make great bullet journals or planners. They'd be wonderful for class notes. Perfect for novel research! I may use mine as a travel journal for an upcoming trip. Needless to say, it's a versatile book and very impressive for the price. Kokuyo knocks it out of the park again.

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

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Posted on March 7, 2019 by Sarah Read and filed under Kokuyo, Notebook Reviews.

Kokuyo Tack Memo Sticky Notes Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

The category of sticky notes isn't an overly large one, even in the big box realm. Post-It notes are the name brand, and they have several sizes and colors to choose from. Every big box retailer has their own brand of similar products, but the paper quality of these items usually ranges from "meh" to "just okay." Since there aren't an abundance of options, the lackluster paper quality just has to suffice when you need a sticky note.

These days, there are a few more options available in the stationery world if you want sticky notes, and I've recently been trying out the Kokuyo Tack notes.

The notes I'm using are 75x100mm in size and they have yellow paper. They're a little wider than the "standard" Post-It note, but I think that's a good thing. There's plenty of room for jotting out quick notes and lists to stick on the wall or fridge.

The main perk of these sticky notes are the paper quality. They're much better than the paper most sticky notes use, which means you can use fountain pens in moderation. I say "in moderation" because this isn't Rhodia or Tomoe River paper. It's better than your standard Post-It note paper since it doesn't bleed and feather like crazy, but it's not supreme. In my experience, some fountain pen inks do great, but others smear easily due to the coating on the paper. If you do a little testing and determine which inks work well with the paper, you should be all set. Of course, given the coloring of the paper, your inks will look a little different than on a white paper, but that's normal.

Now, another important feature of any sticky note is the strength of the adhesive used on the back. Post-It notes are regarded as having the perfect amount of stickiness that also tends to hang around after several re-sticks of the note. With that baseline set, I'm happy to report that the Kokuyo Tack notes are adequate in this measure. They aren't Post-It note quality, but they're darn close. The adhesive is strong and pliable, giving you plenty of chances to move the note around without worrying about it falling off after a few hours. Even with the breeze of a fan flowing across, they stay put.

The Kokuyo Tack notes come in the 75x105mm size shown here, but they're also available in 74x52mm. Along with the two sizes, there are also several color options, like yellow, green, blue, and pink. The larger size will run you just under $5, while the smaller size costs about $3.

These Kokuyo Tack notes are affordable, colorful, and work really well. If you want sticky notes that handle fountain pen ink better than most, these are a great option.

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

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