JetPens Tomoe River Kanso Sasshi Booklet 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.)

Sometimes my favorite pocket notebooks don't play nice with fountain pens, and sometimes they don't have enough pages for my project, and sometimes JetPens comes to the rescue and puts 48 sheets (96 pages) of 52 gsm Tomoe River paper into a beautiful pocket-sized notebook.

The Kanso Sasshi boolklets are minimalistic with just enough branding that I don't end up writing in it upside down or backwards. The name Kanso Sasshi translates into "simplicity booklet" and that is indeed what you get--a pack of two simple notebooks. The covers are embossed in silver with the branding on the front and at the bottom of the back. They are staple-bound with a soft cardstock cover. The pages are blank, but each book comes with its own line guide that can be placed behind the page.

The paper, naturally, is a dream to write on. It works well with any writing instrument with no bleeding or feathering. There is substantial show-through with darker inks, but not enough to deter me from using both sides of the page. It would be trickier, though, to see the line guide through the back side of a page that had a lot of dark ink on it. The well-coated paper has a long dry time for liquid inks and some inks may smear on its smooth surface. If you're using your booklet for quick notes, you may want to have a square of blotting paper handy.

This wee book ticks a lot of my wishlist boxes in a pocket notebook. It makes a perfect travel journal for when you want to pack light, or a planning book for a longer project, or notes for a conference. It can be used as a sketchbook or journal. It's packed with practicality. My only concern is that it might not be as durable as some pocket notebooks. As wonderful as Tomoe River paper is, it's not terribly hardy when it comes to the rough-and-tumble life of a pocket notebook. My notebooks tend to look like they've seen a war by the time I'm done with them, and this book may be too delicate to live in my pocket. As an insert in a traveler-style cover, though, it would be protected and fabulous. So maybe I just need (another) one of those. And then a bunch more of these.

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

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Curnow Bookbinding Backpocket Journal Review

As a frequent fountain pen user I find it hard to beat Tomoe River Paper for every day use, especially if you want to show off your inks. When it first became a hot item, users were limited to loose sheets of Tomoe. Fun to use, but not exactly functional or portable.

Since then, many companies have been able to get their hands on the pixie dust and turn it into all kinds of bound products. Curnow Bookbinding was the first I recall to bind it into smaller formats, most notably the memo book sized Backpocket Journal.

This pocket rocket contains 48 pages of blank, cream-colored Tomoe River paper. The binding is hand-stitched tightly, and the size is just a tick shorter than standard memo book, checking in at 3.5” x 5.25”. Included with each three pack is a lined guide card to help keep your lines straight if needed.

The overall package is nice, if bare-bones. That’s completely fine by me, because it’s what’s between the covers that counts. What Tomoe River paper does for fountain pen inks is a turning point for many people. It is so thin that you think you are writing on tissue paper, but without the feathering and bleed. Unless you pour ink onto the page you aren’t going to see either of those things.

Even more importantly, the paper allows the ink to shine, almost literally. If you want to see any and every feature an ink has you must use Tomoe River. All of the shading comes out, and inks you never thought had sheen light up around the edges. Using this paper never fails to put a smile on my face.

If I had my druthers I would increase the pages in the journal by at least 50%, if not more. 48 pages is what memo books without thin paper use, giving them a nice, sturdy feel. The Backpocket Journal is flimsy in comparison and could use a bump in that area. But still, it’s Tomoe River paper in a pocket notebook. How much can I complain?

Curnow Bookbinding doesn’t have a traditional storefront you can order from. Instead, you can see their inventory on their Facebook page and contact them directly to order. You can also order from Vanness Pens and see all of the sizes, shapes, and colors that Curnow is offering, including refills to fit your Midori Travelers Notebook.

Bung Box 4B has a full red sheen in the right light.

Nanami Paper Seven Seas Writer Review

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

Tomoe River paper took the world (well, a very small portion of the world) by storm a couple years ago for its phenomenal paper. Basically, the paper that Tomoe River produces is super thin, but handles fountain pen nibs and inks like nothing else. You're hard pressed to find something that will bleed through or feather on its worst day. Brad wrote a bit about it back in 2013, and I've never had a bad thing to say about it. I love Tomoe River paper.

Problem was, you could only buy Tomoe River paper in loose leaf. There weren't any notebooks or pads at first. Thankfully, this has changed. There are many products nowadays that feature this miraculous paper, and in many different formats and uses. This review focuses on a product that appeals to those who like to write on lined pages without having to switch to a new notebook for a long, long time: The Seven Seas Writer by Nanami Paper.

Most of the notebooks I review come in around 80 pages or so. Some of them even have upwards of 220. The Seven Seas Writer blows that number away with a whopping 480 pages of ivory lined Tomoe River paper. In case you didn't know, that's a ton of paper for one notebook. You'd expect a notebook of that size to be about 3 inches thick to accommodate all those pages, but that's not the case with the Seven Seas Writer. Since it's using the ultra-thin Tomoe River paper, it's the same thickness as other notebooks I have that only have 220 pages or so. Same size, almost twice the pages.

The book is an A5 size, and features a strong (but soft) cover. The cover is thin and made of a fabric of some kind. To my eyes, it's a dark brown or dark green color, and looks really inconspicuous. It's not flashy at all, but you can easily change that by purchasing a high-quality leather cover to go along with it (if you can find them in stock).

The exterior of the book is well-made. When you look at the sides of the book, the pages line up perfectly. There's no sloppy binding here. Everything about the construction of this book is done with care, and that really becomes obvious the more you use it. Tomoe River paper is incredible for how thin it is and how well it behaves with pens and inks of all types, but it's still really easy to tear. The Writer protects the pages very well so you don't have to worry about where you take it.

I've taken my Writer with me (sans-cover) many, many times, and it barely shows any wear. The cover is soft, but strong.

There are a couple of things it lacks that are mostly personal preferences: page numbers and a bookmark. The first is a nice-to-have, and the second can be solved by adding a notebook cover that also has a bookmark ribbon attached. These are really minor quibbles, though.

So, how does the book do when you're actually writing in it? Well, I love mine.

The book has absolutely no issue laying flat, even when you're still in those first pages where most notebooks really resist until broken in. Given the thin paper and high-quality binding, it just lays flat naturally, and closes with ease.

The paper is glassy smooth, the lines are perfectly spaced (8mm spacing), and it just stays out of your way. I tend to get a bit uncomfortable when writing on the fat side of the notebook when I get to the bottom of the page, but that's normal for any notebook that has this many pages (or half as many).

Dry time is incredibly fast, but you will smudge or mark up other pages if you close the book just after writing. Nanami was nice enough to include a perfectly-sized piece of blotter paper that you can use to keep that from happening, but I'm reckless and live a life a danger. The paper is thin, so there's plenty of show-through on the backs of pages, but actual bleed-through is extremely rare, regardless of the pen/ink.

I can easily say this is my favorite notebook. It's a pleasure to use, and it just keeps holding up past my expectations. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys lined paper and an exceptional paper. Since it's a standard size (A5), you can customize it by adding covers.

And, did I mention it's only $25? I'm still blown away by the price. Tomoe River paper is like mithril to me, so I honestly don't know how this 480-page notebook comes in at that price. I would guess that the cost is reduced because of the plain, thin cover and lack of bookmark, closure band, etc., but it still gets the job done.

Check out the Seven Seas Writer for yourself or as a gift. If they happen to be sold out, don't worry — they'll likely release a new edition fairly quickly.