Kunisawa A5 Find Notebook: 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.)

Earlier this week, Jeff did a review of the Kunisawa Pocket Find Notebook. Today, I’m reviewing its larger cousin: the Kunisawa Find Notebook.

The Kunisawa Find Notebook is an A5-sized, cardboard bound notebook with 192 pages. The outside edges of the pages are gilded, making the notebook look especially sophisticated.

The first page of the notebook says, “i do not seek, i find.” Thus the name: Find Notebook.

The exterior of the notebook is dark gray with a metallic sheen. The Kunisawa logo and name adorn the book in copper (which matches the gilded edges). This is definitely a great-looking notebook.

The notebook is nicely bound so that the book lies flat when open. The pages aren’t perforated, so you cannot easily remove them. A ribbon bookmark is included.

The paper is called “Foolscap,” but I could not find the weight on the website. It is a cream color with 5mm gridlines. I tested the paper with various fountain pens and inks. All of the pens and inks seemed to work well in this initial test. I didn’t notice any bleeding and the paper was very smooth.

However, there’s quite a bit of show through on the reverse side.

I also tested the notebook with other kinds of pens, a highlighter, and a pencil. It handled all of these quite nicely. However, the Sharpie (unsurprisingly) bled completely through the paper, and there was a bit of show through with the other pens.

Next, I tested the paper with my my Aurora 88 stub inked with Iroshizuku Ama-Iro. In this test, I discovered that the ink feathered and bled through pretty obviously.

Although I love the look of the Kunisawa notebook, I am not impressed with the paper. It works well with fine-point fountain pens, rollerballs, and pencils. But even some of those exhibited show through. With the Aurora 88 stub, there was feathering, show through, and bleeding. For a notebook “specifically designed for fountain pens” (according to the website), the amount of bleeding and show through was disappointing.

You can purchase the Kunisawa A5 Find Notebook directly from the Kunisawa Stationery Store for 3,000 yen (= $27.13).

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

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Posted on September 7, 2018 by Susan Pigott and filed under Kunisawa, Notebook Reviews.

Schneider Pen Review, and the Story of Stride Inc.

(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.)

For any given product, there is a lot more to it than just the piece that ends up in our hands. There are people's dreams, designs, ideas, lives, and hard work behind every one of them. I enjoy learning about the people behind the products I use and review, but every now and then there's a story that is really exceptional.

That's the case with Schneider products. What makes Schneider awesome isn't just the products--though those are great, too--but their partnership with an American distributor called Stride.

Stride is a small, woman-owned business (WBE) that is devoted to employing and enriching the lives of adults with intellectual delays. The company was founded by Barbara Brennan and is now run by her daughter Kerry Brennan Bertram. They provide a workplace that emphasizes their employees' strengths and gives them opportunities for advancement within the company.

Stride has partnered with a number of companies, including Schneider, and now all Schneider pens sold in the US are packaged, labeled, shipped, and sometimes assembled by Stride employees. So, when you purchase a Schneider pen, you're also supporting a company that's doing a great deal of good in the world.

If that's not reason enough (it is), those pens you're getting are also awesome products.

The ballpoint pens are called the Slider Rave XB. They're retractable, with a solid, satisfying click. The body is ergonomic and rubberized and the clip is one of the best ever. It's strong, well-anchored, flexible, and wide enough to clip to a thick book cover. The ink is waterproof, fast-drying, and available in black, blue, red, and green. The pen is refillable with the long Slider 755 XB refill. The 1.4 mm stainless steel tip uses Viscoglide Technology, so the pen writes very smoothly, almost like a gel pen. It's a fantastic workhorse pen and should write for a whopping 2.5 miles. I wish I could stash these in every office supply closet in the world.

Another Schneider offering is the Xpress Fineliner. These have the same rubberized ergonomic shape and awesome clip as the Slider Rave, but have a cap closure and the familiar felt tip. The tip is .8 mm and protected by a metal casing. The ink is waterproof and available in red, black, blue, green, purple, and pink. The ink's claim to fame is that it will not dry up even if left uncapped for a few days. These tips really glide over the page and give you a smooth, crisp line. My only gripe is that I wish there were more colors, and then I would want all of them.

Fortunately, when I need a pop of color, Schneider has the Link-it markers. These are a total marvel. It looks like a set of mini-markers--half 1 mm felt tip and half .4 mm fineliner. And it is--but then they transform into a mech supermarker. The back ends have a clever and unique snap system that securely links them together. I've seen markers that link together before, but not like this. They look like normal pen ends, but if you press down the spring-loaded green sleeve, you can see a yellow locking mechanism. This is some really cool engineering and they are way fun to play with. And, as with other Schneider products, the writing experience is fantastic. Both tips write wonderfully and there's a great variety of color. They come in a handy easel stand. The rubberized triangle profile is comfortable to hold so you can color to your heart's content.

Schneider products are also extremely environmentally friendly. They are made almost entirely from bio-based materials, Co2 neutral, and carry the prestigious Environmental Management System (EMAS) verification.

If you want to do good by your fellow humans, your planet, and your pen cup, I'm not sure you could do better that this. I am totally and happily won over.

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

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Posted on September 6, 2018 by Sarah Read and filed under Schneider, Pen Reviews.

Kunisawa Find Pocket Notebook Review

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

The market for good pocket notebooks is one that continually grows and allows new players to offer their unique take on what makes a pocket notebook great. The latest notebook I've had the pleasure of using is from a company called Kunisawa. The Find Pocket Notebook is a plain book with good paper, strong and attractive binding, and a great price.

Like any true pocket notebook, the Find Pocket comes in at 145x90mm (or 5.7x3.5"), which is a great size for stuffing in pockets, bags, and other small spaces. It's just a little taller than a standard Field Notes book, so you already know the form factor. With 50 sheets, you also get a bit more use out of it through its life.

The cover is a thick and durable chipboard. I love the texture and colors of these books. I have three versions, which come in a light gray-blue, a tan khaki color, and a medium gray. The bottom corners are rounded, which make it easier to slip into pockets without getting snagged. This isn't the thickest chipboard I've seen on notebooks, but it's certainly a durable variant. I've had no concerns that the cover will ever tear, break, or come undone from the binding.

Unlike a lot of pocket notebooks these days, the Find Pocket notebook contains minimal branding. On the front cover, there's a small gold-embossed logo that includes the company name along with a small bird. On the inside of the front cover, there's a small embossed logo as well. The only other branding present on this book is in the inside of the back cover, which contains the company logo, name, and some information on where it was made.

The binding is an attractive double spiral made from (what looks like) brass. It's fairly strong and resilient, but it can be bent and misshapen if enough pressure is applied. The binding is smooth, looks great, and does a great job of keeping the pages connected. The color an absolutely perfect compliment to the cover colors.

Now to the paper! The paper in this notebook is lightweight, but still very capable. The exact weight isn't listed on the website, but I'd guess it's somewhere around the 80 or 90 gsm. The pages are not perforated, so keep that in mind if you tend to remove pages from spiral notebooks. It's possible with this notebook, but you have to tear from the binding and deal with the paper teeth that are left behind.

The paper is covered in a light gray graph pattern. The graph is spaced at 5mm, which is a comfortable distance. The paper is also a light cream color, which also looks great against the binding color.

The paper looks and feels nice, but it's also a great paper to write on! I tried many pens with this paper, and it performed incredibly well. No issues with bleeding or feathering, and acceptable amounts of show-through on the back of the page. Depending on the pen and ink you're using, you can probably write on both sides of the page. The paper has a smooth coating on top of it that makes writing an enjoyable experience. This coating does mean that dry times are close to 15 or 20 seconds in most cases. Despite that, this paper is fantastic.

The retail price of the Kunisawa Find Pocket notebooks are somewhere between six and seven US Dollars (750 yen), which is a great deal. The paper is premium, the aesthetic has a great vibe, and it fits in small spaces.

There are many shops that carry the Kunisawa brand, and if you happen upon these notebooks, I encourage you to give them a try. You really can't go wrong.

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

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