Posts filed under Notebook Reviews

Blackwing 602 Summit 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.)

The Blackwing 602 Summit Notebook is a 7.5 x 10 inch notebook with 160 pages. The cover is gray with a soft, velvety feel to it and it’s flexible. The only branding is on the back cover where “Blackwing” is inscribed.

The inner cover is printed with a place for one’s name, notes, start and completion date, and contact information.

The first page is a “Notebook Log” with columns for date, content, and page numbers. Unfortunately, the notebook itself is not paginated, so you will have to write the page numbers in yourself.

The book lays flat when open thanks to the sewn binding. There’s a pink ribbon bookmark that complements the gray cover well.

The ivory paper is 100 GSM with gray lines spaced 6mm apart. There are 36 lines per page.

Blackwing notebooks are, of course, meant to be used with Blackwing pencils. Unsurprisingly, the paper and pencil combination works perfectly.

But, I wanted to test my notebook with fountain pens and other writing instruments, just to see how it held up. The paper is smooth and thick and worked well with all the fountain pens I tried. I noticed a little show through and a tiny bit of bleed through with my wettest inks, but it was so minute, it didn’t show up in photographs.

With other writing instruments, the paper works equally well. The only pen that bled through was (as usual) the Sharpie. Highlighter did not bleed through, though I should have waited a bit longer to let the ink from my Pilot G2 dry (the smudging is my fault).

The Blackwing Summit is a no-frills notebook. It doesn’t have a pen loop or cover pockets or page numbers or any other bells and whistles. That suits me just fine. It feels nice in the hand, the paper is good quality, and the notebook should stand up well to abuse. I like the size because it’s portable yet large enough to write lengthy passages. It’s become my new Pen Addict review rough-draft notebook.

You can purchase this notebook from Vanness Pens for $21.95. It comes in blank, lined, and dot-grid versions.

(This notebook was purchased at a discount from Vanness Pens.)

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Posted on April 12, 2019 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Blackwing, Notebook Reviews.

Kokuyo Campus High Grade MIO Paper Notebook 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. And check out her first novel, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, now available where books are sold!)

Kokuyo has earned a reputation for providing top quality paper for very reasonable prices, and the Campus High Grade MIO paper notebooks promise to be their best paper yet. I'm not entirely sure it keeps that promise. I think I personally prefer the thicker paper they offer. However, this is still excellent paper for the value and very good paper overall.

The MIO paper is a premium paper that Kokuyo has bound into A5 and A4 notebooks. There are 6 and 7 mm rule lines available so far, though hopefully they'll add a grid option at some point. The paper is ivory colored and the lines are faint, so they don't interfere if you need to disregard them for creative purposes. There are 28 lines per page. The top of each page also has a place for the page number and date, as well as dots to mark vertical alignment.

The notebook is glue-bound with a soft, very flexible cardstock cover. It's coated in a way that makes it feel like plastic, and will hopefully hold up well to wear over time. The spine is reinforced with a silvery tape that allows enough flex for the notebook to lie flat.

The paper is 60 gsm and the notebook contains 80 sheets, or 160 pages if you write on both sides. And you can indeed write on both sides, at least with most pens, so long as you don't mind a little show-through.

The lightweight smoothness of the paper reminds me a lot of Tomoe River paper, but it doesn't have the same level of impervious coating. It held up well for almost everything. Sharpie, of course, bled through. I tested an ink spill on it. The ink bled and spread across the page, and bled though the next page behind as well. That's the first time I've had a multi-page casualty from two drops of ink on fountain pen friendly paper, so I suspect this paper is not treated with whatever sorcery it is that keeps liquid inks on a paper's surface. True to this theory, my broad Pilot nib caused quite a bit of feathering when I wrote with it. It is a very juicy nib, though. With all of my other currently-inked pens, I had a pleasant writing experience and little show-through. Certainly not enough to bother me, though others may feel differently.

I don't think this paper will be the one pen addicts reach for when they want to show off sheens and shimmers or interesting shading--it's a bit too absorbent for that. But if you have a medium or fine point pen and a good number of pages to write, you can do that with one of these for only six bucks. That is, as I often find myself saying about Kokyo notebooks, completely bananas. When compared to many bound books of comparable paper, that's about half the cost. It's a good balance between luxury and practicality.

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

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Posted on March 21, 2019 by Sarah Read and filed under Kokuyo, Notebook Reviews.

Traveler's Company Spiral Ring A5 Slim Paper Pocket Notebook Review

Reading is fundamental, they say. Reading comprehension? Even more so in my book. That’s something I learned about first hand with the Traveler's Company Spiral Ring A5 Slim Paper Pocket Notebook.

Reading that product description, I thought “Cool. An A5 slim spiral notebook with an added pocket inside. Count me in.” I couldn’t have been more wrong. This is an A5 slim “notebook” full of pockets. That’s literally all there is. 16 sheets, with pockets on the front and back of each page, making for 32 slots of storage. The entire notebook is pockets!

I was flummoxed when I opened this up. I honestly thought it was a mistake - there is no way I would have ordered this on purpose. Then I re-read the product title - which is all I ordered from, no pictures or product description - and I still couldn’t wrap my head around what I missed. As it turns out, I missed all of it. Japan got me, once again.

What this notebook is is a storage folder. It’s honestly hard to even call it a notebook - folder may be a better term. It’s made to hold anything from stamps, to notes, to stickers, to receipts, to tickets - any loose items that you want to hang on to, either for storage, or for future use. And for that, it is fantastic.

As confused as I was upon receiving this product, it makes me smile. It is so specific, and not something I had ever seen before. Sure, you could use a coupon folder, or the like, to perform the same task, but the Traveler’s Company made it. One of the coolest stationery companies in the world. They know better than me, right? So I better find a good way to use it. And I think I did.

I’ve mentioned the visual journal I keep for mind-freeing and creative purposes. Most of its contents are cut from magazines and washi-taped into a notebook. The Traveler’s Paper Pocket Notebook has been hugely beneficial in helping me sort my images before I use them.

Before, I would just stack things up on my desk, or use them as I cut them out. This notebook allows me to flip through various images and pick and choose what I want to put in my journal. Maybe an image that I had set aside by itself works better with an image I found a few weeks ago. I can sort by artist, or size, or color palette and pull from the notebook as needed. Somehow, this notebook opened things up and allowed me to be more creative.

Aside from my paper trimmings, I’ve found it to be a good place to store note cards. I’ve talked about how I use my cards to sketch out product ideas for Nock, and I like to keep those together for inspiration. Instead of a stack on my desk, they now live in this pocket notebook as well.

Products like this are why I love stationery so much. This shouldn’t exist. No one in a creative meeting should go “I’ve got it! A notebook … full of pockets!” But they did. And I love them for that. And I’ve found a new product that I love, purely by mistake.

(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!