Esterbrook Premium Peacock and Rocky Top Pens

My thanks to Kenro Industries for sponsoring The Pen Addict this week.

Two beautiful new Esterbrook colors have hit the market, just in time for the holidays. Both Peacock and Rocky Top Esterbrook Esties are available today at Pen Chalet.

Once again, these new Esties will use US-made DiamondCast material for the barrel, now with beautiful blended colors, complimenting the previously released solid colors of the Sparkle collection.

These new Esterbrooks will make a great gift for a pen friend, or even yourself, so don’t delay!

Kokuyo ME 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 Kokuyo ME Notebook is an A5-sized (210 x 148 mm), seventy-page ruled notebook. The cover is made of shiny cardstock with a geometrical pattern and copper/gold tape on the spine.

It is perfect bound, which means that the book block of single pages (rather than sewn signatures) is glued into the casing. With some pressure, you can get the notebook to lie flat.

I couldn't find any information about the kind of paper used in this notebook or its weight. It feels thicker than Tomoe River Paper. It is off-white with 6mm ruled lines in grey. The top of each page is labeled with "Title," and the bottom has a place for the date.

The paper is smooth to the touch, but when I wrote my long writing sample, I noticed a tiny bit of tooth. I wasn't bothered by this at all. In fact, I liked the fact that there was some resistance under my nib.

I tested the paper with ten different fountain pens and inks. Although it handled fine and medium nibs well, there was a tiny bit of bleed through with wetter inks and show through is quite visible.

Swabs cause the paper to buckle. The ink looks good and you can see varying shades and pooling. The paper brings out a little sheen in the inks and some bleed through occurred.

I also tested various pens and pencils. The Sharpie Ultra Fine Point bled through and show through was visible for most of the pens.

The Kokuyo Notebook is lightweight and can get bent with normal use. The binding tape pulls away easily, though the glued spine seems fairly stable.

The paper in the Kokuyo notebook is pleasant to write on, but it does exhibit both bleed through and show through with some inks and nibs. I'm not impressed with the notebook's construction. If it is thrown in a bag with other books, it will get beat up pretty quickly.

This notebook is available at Vanness Pens for $6.75.

(Vanness Pens provided the Kokuyo Notebook free of charge to Pen Addict for review purposes.)

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

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

Kamio Japan Pokemon Paco-Tray Case 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 latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

I've reviewed a Kamio Japan Paco-Tray Case before, but it's a good enough case that it's worth revisiting, especially because this one has Pikachu on it. Originally, it was only available in some fairly plain colors, but now you can get them with all sorts of fun characters and in a lot more striking designs.

To recap: It is a simple rectangular cuboid in a clamshell-style with the zip opening lengthwise across the front and side edges. It's made of nylon canvas and has a double zipper, which is always a plus. When opened, the inside lining blooms like an accordion into three separate trays. Magnets in the spine snap together to hold the case open. When you close it, the dividers hold the contents nested in those trays, so everything stays neat and orderly and is easy to find when you need it. If you overstuff the pockets (lol if), there may be a few things that smoosh out into other compartments, but otherwise it does a great job of keeping things separated. When the case is closed, the magnet in the spine can be used to attach the case to a metal surface, like the front of a desk drawer.

Despite its small size, the case can hold a surprisingly large number of pens. A few dozen easily, plus accessories. It is, alas, too short to hold some wood case pencils at their full length, but once they've been sharpened down a bit, they'd fit, too. The rectangle shape makes it easy to fit in bags alongside books and other pen cases.

One downside is that you can't just open one end of the case and dig out a random pen. Because of that tray lining, the case has to be opened the whole way to get to anything. So, it's great for sitting down to a work station, but not great for quick access.

Since I first reviewed this over a year ago, I can now also attest to its durability. My eldest has been using my old one for his school pens for the past year, and it has not disintegrated the way everything else in his backpack does. This Pikachu version was immediately claimed by my youngest, who drags it around the house full of markers, ready for spontaneous illustration.

Standard design cases are $16 on JetPens, and character cases sell for $17.50. It's a really good price for a sturdy, well designed case. Someday I might even get to keep one for myself.

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

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

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