Col-o-dex Rotary Cards: 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.)

When Ana Reinert from Well-Appointed Desk came out with her Col-o-ring cards, I was thrilled. I wrote a review here, and discussed the nice quality of the cards and how convenient they were for doing ink swatches.

Recently, Ana came up with a new ingenious idea: Col-o-dex Rotary Cards. What a terrific brainstorm! The Col-o-dex cards work on any normal-sized Rolodex card system. So, no longer do you have to fiddle with rings, now you can put your ink swatch cards in a Rolodex and organize them with the Col-o-dex Tab Cards.

The Col-o-dex cards are 4 inches x 2.625 inches, which is plenty of room for whatever you want to include. On my cards, I put a large swatch at the top so that I can easily compare colors within color groups. I wrote the name of the company and the ink color in the middle. On the left side I did some swirls to test for shading, and on the right I did splats since those often are what show off an ink’s sheen. For all my cards, I used a Brause 361 Steno Blue Pumpkin Calligraphy Pen Nib for consistency. Plus, this nib (for dip pens) is super easy to rinse off, so I could do numerous cards at once.

The Col-o-dex cards are made of 160gsm European pure white paper. The paper is thick enough that ink does not bleed, feather, or show through. It has some texture that you can see in your swabs, but the paper fibers do not get caught in your nib.

However, the cards do curl a bit due to the wetness of the swabs. I’m sure you could press them between heavy books to flatten them out before you put them in your Rolodex.

The best part about the Col-o-dex Cards is that you can organize them with a set of tab cards. I labled the tabs with color names and then organized the cards by company name alphabetically. This is an OCD-ink-fanatic’s dream system!

Another wonderful thing about organizing your ink swatches this way is you discover interesting things about your ink collecting trends. For example, I have a zillion blue and turquoise inks, which makes sense because blue is my favorite ink color.

But, I was surprised to discover that I own only three red inks: Montblanc Corn Poppy Red (my favorite); Robert Oster Astorquiza Rot, and Diamine Red Dragon. I don’t use red ink very often, so that’s why I don’t own many bottles of it, but it’s definitely a color I need to test more. In fact, I need to get out of my blue ink rut and try more pinks, yellows, golds, and browns.

I think the Col-o-dex Cards are an absolutely fantastic way to organize your ink swabs. The only caveat is that it is super hard to find a freaking ordinary Rolodex! Sure, you can find some models on Amazon, but most of them are for business cards or they get horrible reviews. I finally caved and bought this massive Rolodex 200-card File.

This thing is TOO BIG, but it matches my triple-decker pen box, so . . .

At first I thought, “This thing is way too big! I’ll never fill it up enough for it to work well.” And, it’s true. Right now, the cards just dangle like limp fish and won’t rotate when I turn the knobs.

I thought about sending the thing back, but then I realized how much ink I have. I spent several hours swabbing most of my bottled ink. But I haven’t even touched all the samples I’ve accumulated over the years. Maybe my Texas-sized Rolodex isn’t too big after all.

Obviously, you can find older, ordinary Rolodex systems on eBay or in your mom’s garage. I know I had my mom’s old Rolodex, but I think I threw it away when I cleaned my home office a while back. Now, of course, I’m upset that I didn’t keep it.

You can purchase the Col-o-dex Rotary Cards from Vanness Pen Shop for $15.00. The pack comes with 100 cards. I suggest also purchasing the Tab Accessory Pack ($5.00 for 20) so you can organize your swatches. The Tab Accessory Packs come in three colors: kraft brown, blue raspberry, and limeade green.

(Vanness Pens provided the Col-o-dex Rotary Cards and an Accessory Tab Pack to Pen Addict for review at no cost.)

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Print Prologue Foil Stamp ed. 1 Notebook Review

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

There's never a shortage of notebooks available on the market at any given moment, and that means that the choices are nearly endless. Interested in a minimal, no-frills notebook? Easy. Something rugged and suited to outdoor use? You have several options there as well. The one thing that they all have in common, though, is that there was significant thought put into the printing materials and method before the product ever existed. These design decisions sometimes get left out once the final product is completed, but some companies like to publish that information along with the stationery products they provide. Field Notes is a great example of this. The materials, machinery, print shop, and other meticulous details are documented in the back cover of each notebook. You know, in case you're interested in that.

In the case of Print Prologue, the assumption is that you're definitely interested in those details.

The front cover of the Foil Stamp limited edition notebooks contains the detailed specifications of the notebook, from paper, ink, size, machinery, binding, and more. Print Prologue are definitely serious fans of the printing process, and that enthusiasm is seen in every detail of these notebooks.

While you can't buy these notebooks anymore, this review will hopefully provide some awareness for the company and help you decide if you'd like to jump on the next limited edition notebook they release.

The Foil Stamp ed. 1 notebook features 48 pages of 5" x 7" 60# white paper. I'm not an aficionado when it comes to paper stock, but this sounds (and feels) very similar to the paper you find in the standard Field Notes. And, of course, there's a single black foil stamp on the front cover to commemorate the edition.

The edges are square, and the binding is "perfect binding," which means the spine is square and uses glue to bind the pages. The notebook is fairly easy to open and break in, meaning it lays open fairly easily when in use. But, this also means that the front cover will always be slightly ajar once you break it in.

The inside covers are blank, and the back cover features a few places to organize your notebook. There's a place to add a date range, and there's also a nifty "Thumb Index" built into the notebook. This allows you to categorize the notebook into the three areas.

Overall, I'm not a huge fan of the exterior aesthetic of this notebook. But, I can see how it would speak to others. It's classy and well-done.

As for the insides, the notebook has a great dot-grid system using a "light-black" ink. The grid spacing is 0.25" (no metric system here) and feels comfy when writing. As an added perk, the notebook comes with a 6-inch ruler inside.

While trying out different pens and inks with this paper, I came to the conclusion that I would only use this notebook with gel or ballpoint pens and pencils. Fountain pens and rollerball pens just bleed too much to be useful. Another thing I noticed when using fountain pens is that this particular paper stock has a lot of fibers in it that get caught between the tines. I've never had this experience with other notebooks, so this was fairly disappointing. For gel pens, ballpoints, and pencils, the paper works great. It's a smooth surface with minimal feedback.

This particular edition cost $16 per notebook when it came out. Each notebook came with a 6-inch ruler and one Print Prologue branded pencil. It certainly nails the aesthetic they're after, and I'm sure that it appeals to a wide range of people. For me, the Foil Stamp ed. 1 missed the mark both aesthetically and performance-wise. That said, it's still a well-executed notebook, and I'll be interested to see what Print Prologue come up with next.

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

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

Kokuyo Sokuryo-Yacho: The original Japanese field notebook

(Original Mai-bun.com article. Written by Takuya Takahashi. Translated by Bruce Eimon.)

Did you know Japan has its very own field notebook? As its name implies, Sokuryo (survey) Yacho (field notebook), was originally designed for civil engineers to record measurements in the field.

Originally released by Kokuyo in 1959, it is a long-seller that is about to celebrate its 60th birthday. While it has been a long-time stalwart at construction sites, it is steadily gaining popularity with the general public for its handy size and sturdy build-quality. Its die-hard fans have even come up with a term for themselves - “Yacho-lers.”

What I want to highlight here is how this is an excellent notebook even for an office environment. I have a job at a large corporation (known in Japan as a “salary-man”), as far as can be from a construction site, but I still find it to be an excellent carry-everywhere notebook for my work. Let’s start by taking a look at the specs of the Sokuryo-Yacho.

This is a slim size that fits nicely in a jacket pocket. Its dimensions are 165mm (6.6”) x 95mm (3.8”) x 6mm (0.24”), which is roughly the width of American Field Notes, but about an inch taller.

It fits easily in a suit pocket, and won’t add any bulk when carried with your planner or other notebooks. I particularly like how thin it is.

The cover is thick cardboard imprinted with a cloth-like texture. It has a sturdy no-frills aesthetic.

The hard cover is sturdy enough to give you plenty of stability to write while standing.

The paper is high quality fine paper that handles fountain pens with ease. The paper is easy to turn and has a nice smooth surface. I feel 40 sheets (80 pages) is just the right amount, neither too thick nor too thin.

Three different layouts are provided for three different surveying use cases: Level, Transit, and Sketch Book.

The most popular layout for the general public seems to be the “SKETCH BOOK”, which offers a 3mm grid. The simplicity of the design offers great freedom and versatility. Let me show some of the ways I like to use them.

Since this easily fits in my jacket pocket and is thin enough to be carried with other notebooks, it is great as a dedicated To-do list notebook that can be carried everywhere.

It can even be used as a highly portable bullet journal.

I also like to carry one around as a notebook to collect ideas I have when I’m out and about. Such moments of brilliance can easily get lost if buried in my regular notebooks, so I like having a dedicated notebook for this.

You can even slip it into the cover of your planner.

Given its size and versatility on the go, this is a great notebook to capture small snippets of information and even advice you get from your boss and colleagues. As you burn through them with nuggets of wisdom, I recommend you number them sequentially before your archive them. Looking back, they will serve as a visual reminder of how much experience you have gained over the years, boosting your confidence at work.

This is a simple, yet versatile, all-around notebook. I can guarantee that it will come in handy at the workplace.

Recommended for:

• People who need to take a lot of notes at work.
• People who tend to lose their T0-do lists.
• People who need to better organize their random ideas scattered in several notebooks.
• Young people who have a lot they need to learn at their new jobs.

Information: Sokuryo-Yacho, Kokuyo

(This article was originally written for GetNavi.jp and modified for republishing.)