Maruman Eco Spiral Notebook Review

I am a big fan of all things Maruman. In fact, when I am not using my favorite Doane Paper product at my desk, I usually have the Maruman Inspiration or Imagination in use. Great care has gone into the design of these products and the paper quality is second to none. The Maruman Eco Spiral Notebook is a much different product than either the Inspiration or Imagination. Can it live up to its big brothers in the Maruman product line?

The selling point of the Eco Spiral is right there in the name. It is designed as an eco-friendly notebook alternative. Maruman doesn’t just phone it in with recycled paper either. The paper is FSC certified, which means it comes from responsibly harvested and managed forests. Maruman also uses eco-friendly ink to print the lines on the page and even the coating on the spiral binding is biodegradable.

What concerns me when I see eco-friendly products is the possibility of the quality suffering. That is not the case at all with the Eco Spiral. The paper is very smooth and handled every ink I threw at it with ease. There was no bleed or feathering with the exception of the TUL Permanent Marker, which is to be expected. An impressive performance for a very thin page.

Each Eco Spiral contains just 30 sheets, so that is somewhat of a downside. Students will enjoy the size and portability, and they make great project notebooks, but for any large scale or long term needs you might want a bigger notebook. But, if you are looking for a high quality eco-friendly notebook, I haven’t used any better.

Milan P1 Touch Ballpoint and Guerrero Notebook Review

I am very lucky to have made some great friends over the years here at The Pen Addict. This review includes products from two of my favorite world-travelers: Carmen sent me the blue Milan P1 Touch she picked up while in Spain last year, and Hen from Rad and Hungry sent me the black Milan P1 plus a Guerrero Notebook from the STMT X Spain Kit, the final kit from last year’s world tour. Hooray for Spain!

The Milan ballpoints are very nice to write with. The barrel is coated in a very thin rubber which provides a good gripping surface and the entire pen feels solidly constructed. I thought I was going to prefer writing with the blue ink more than the black, but the opposite was actually the case.

Both inks are smooth, but when compared to each other the blue comes out looking very streaky. The black is one of the darker ballpoint inks I have used, almost making me think it is a hybrid ink like the Pentel Vicuna. It is that dark.

The Guerrero Notebook is a nice paperback that looks ideal for schoolwork. Do any of you remember the blue books from school that you had to take your essay exams in? They are a lot like that. The paper is nice and smooth and is set up well for note taking or writing practice.

I don’t travel to Spain very often (ok, never) but these pens and notebooks would be worth picking up if I did. You should give them a try if you ever have the opportunity. Milan does have a small presence in the US so some of you might be able to find their products locally.

Kikkerland WritersBlok Notebook Review

Pocket sized notebooks are a great utility item. I keep one on my person when I leave the house (even though I also carry an iPhone), one in my car center console, and one in my backpack when I take it to work out of the house. I have tried many - Doane Paper, Field Notes, Moleskine, Behance, Ecosystem - and across the board they are all good quality notebooks. The Kikkerland WritersBlok Notebook, on the other hand, is not so good.

I added these to a recent Amazon order, and I could tell before I even took off the shrink wrap there was going to be a problem. The cover of the notebook has a raised rectangle area for you to apply a label. It was out of alignment by several degrees on the top notebook, and progressively worse through the next two in the pack. I could let that slide if it were just the cover, but unfortunately, it transferred to the paper too.

You can see clearly in the photos what I am referring to. If I used blank pages it wouldn’t be an issue, but trying to use grid paper cut like this is not going to work. I’m not sure how a product like this leaves the factory to be quite honest. It’s too bad because this could be a decent option for a pocket notebook.