Posts filed under Midori

Midori MD Pencil Review

Have you ever had trouble deciding if you like a product or not? I’m running into that right now with the Midori MD Pencil.

That makes for a strange review. Do I like it? Do I love it? Do I want some more of it? I don’t know. It’s obviously good and I keep using it, but what is my opinion on it? What should I tell you about it?

It’s a pencil. That’s the hangup for most non-pencil people. “They are all the same Brad!” No, not at all. But this one. This one I can’t tell you what to do.

It’s not as good as my favorite pencils. That list includes the Blackwing 602, Tombow Mono 100, and the Mitsubishi Office 9850 for starters, and even more included in the Pencils For Pen Lovers Sampler Set. And I love using pencils. There is hardly a day that goes by where I’m not enjoying one of the many pencils that live on my desk. I LOVE using pencils!

It’s not as bad as bad pencils. I haven’t tried many bad pencils on purpose, and if you stick with brands that are sold by all of your favorite online vendors, you don’t have to worry about that either. You know bad when you get them. Scratchy graphite, non-centered cores, janky wood quality, and Wopex.

It’s expensive. It’s not egregious at $1.83 per pencil from CW Pencil Enterprise, but that is on the upper end of the pencil spectrum. As a pen person at heart, and as someone who pays hundreds of dollars for a single fountain pen, it is funny to call that expensive. But it matters. Just like any product, price vs. perceived value vs. competition comes into play when making a buying decision.

I enjoyed it while using it over the past couple of weeks. It has good point retention, which is one of the most important features of a pencil to me. Even as a B-grade, which is softer than my preferred graphite hardness. That gives it a nice darkness as well, another favorite feature of mine. The satin finish looks and feels nice, and I’m perfectly fine with the no eraser style. I may even prefer it.

So, what should you do? If you are a Midori fan, then it is a no-brainer. It fits their style and aesthetic perfectly, and, of course, they are high quality. If you are a general nice pencil fan, then there are better options out there. If you want to try good pencils for the very first time, I’m not sure this one should even be on the radar.

Reviewing middle of the road products is the hardest. If there is no one thing that is great, or no one thing that is bad, what do you hang your hat on?

Maybe nothing, other than enjoying it for what it is.

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Posted on September 10, 2018 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Midori, Pencil Reviews.

Midori MD Cotton Notebook A4 Blank: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

The Midori MD Cotton Notebook is a thread-bound notebook with 88 pages made from 20% cotton pulp. Like other MD notebooks, this one is minimalist in presentation, with a cardstock cover and see-through tape over the binding. It also has a ribbon bookmark.

Unlike the MD notebooks with Tomoe River paper (see review here), the cotton paper has a bit of texture.

This isn’t a bad thing. In fact, the cotton fiber absorbs ink more quickly than the Tomoe paper, so you won’t experience as much smearing. Fortunately, the paper’s absorbancy does not lead to bleeding or feathering even with the widest fountain pen nibs.

The paper is thin enough that fountain pen ink shows through (very slightly), but I didn’t experience any bleed through with regular writing.

When I tested the paper with my widest ruling pen and ink splats, I did experience bleed through, but you really have to lay a good bit of wet ink down for this to happen.

I also tested the paper drawing a picture with ink and using a water brush to blend the colors. The paper wrinkles up with moisture, so I wouldn’t recommend it for watercolors unless you don’t mind the wrinkling.

For writing, however, this is excellent paper. I wrote a portion of the first part of The Scarlet Letter and had no problems with fibers getting caught in the tines, ink bleeding, or smearing.

My one complaint about this notebook is that it’s not perforated, so if you want to remove pages, you wind up with a jagged edge. Other than that, the binding is tight and the notebook lays flat.

You can purchase the Midori MD Cotton Notebook in (almost) A4 size (Length is 27.5 cm /10.8 inches and Width is 21.0 cm/ 8.3 inches) from Jet Pens for $28.00.

(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!

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Susan Pigott and filed under Midori, Notebook Reviews.

MD Sticky Memo Pad: Sticky Notes that Write Great and Help You Stay Organized

(Original Mai-Bun article, posted on 2016/05/16. Written by Saori. Translated by Bruce Eimon.)

When you think of sticky notes, you probably think of those that come in bright yellow and pink colors, or those with cute decorations on them. That’s what comes to my mind too. One day at a stationery store, though, I came across a stack of plain looking cream colored sticky notes, sitting there alongside the colorful ones I was accustomed to seeing.

The MD Sticky Memo Pad is part of the MD PAPER PRODUCTS family by Midori, known for its high quality MD Notebooks, and also a sister company to the makers of the much loved TRAVELER’S notebooks. Just like the MD Notebook, the MD Sticky Memo Pad employs a simple design without any decorations.

They are offered in the same page formats as the MD Notebooks, with blank, 7mm lines, and a 5mm grid. For a person like myself who likes using my 5mm grid notebook, I can’t be happier for my favorite format to be available as a sticky-note.

*From top to bottom: mechanical pencil, ball point pen, rollerball pen, magic marker.*

Even as a sticky-note, it has the same smooth writing experience as the well known MD Notebooks. It handles all writing instruments exceedingly well, giving you a pleasurable writing no matter what you use.

Take it everywhere as your pocket notebook MD Sticky Memo Pads come with both a front and a rear cover, unlike regular sticky-notes which are fully exposed. This makes it easy to throw one into your purse or backpack, just like any other notebook.

There are two sizes: an A7 size (H102mm×W76mm) that peels up, and a larger A6 size (H150mm×W102mm) that peels sideways. Both are perfect sizes for taking quick notes “on the go” and are compact enough to fit in any bag or purse.

The one drawback of the pages being sticky is that you cannot flip them over to keep writing on the next page. To get around this, I suggest you peel off the notes after each use and stick them behind the front cover. Since the cover is slightly longer than the sticky notes themselves, they fit in just nicely without sticking out.

*Very easy to move your jottings to your notebook, planner, or diary.*

When you write something in a pocket notebook, it is quite tedious to copy that information to your other notebooks. With the MD Sticky Memo Pad, however, it is super easy to move your notes to your other notebooks. No extra tools, no extra time.

For a person like myself who uses my planner strictly to keep track of my schedule, I am thankful that I have the MD sticky-notes to take my notes on. And to be able to do this on high quality paper?! Why not pick the format of your choice and give this writing-pleasure a try?

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