September Sponsor Spotlight

Nahvalur Horizon Habitat and Wonderland, via Pen Chalet.

Sponsor support is very important to me here at The Pen Addict. My sidebar advertisers put their faith in me to deliver good value for them month in and month out, and I want to shine the light on the best of the best for you. If you are shopping for pens, paper, inks, and more, please check out these great companies and see what they have to offer. Some recent highlights:

JetPens received J. Herbin Fuchsia de Magellan Ink, this year’s 1670 Anniversary Special Edition.

Pen Chalet has the newest Nahvalur Horizon Fountain Pens in stock, Habitat and Wonderland.

Goldspot launched their latest store-exclusive Kaweco collaboration with the Kaweco AL Sport Fountain Pen in Mercury Orange.

Vanness Pens dropped the juicy new Esterbrook Estie Punch, featuring gold trim and several Esterbrook specialty nib options.

Clairefontaine Triomphe A5 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 her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)

Clairefontaine were my first introduction to good paper. I found them when I was a student in my freshman undergraduate year, and I used them all through school--though back in those ancient times, I had to order them from Europe. It was worth it. Now? I can get as much Clairefontaine as I want from JetPens. I am limited only by the volume of my house.

The Triomphe A5 Notebook is one of their fabulous middle-of-the-road books, as far as cost and quality go. You can get nicer ones for slightly higher cost, and less fancy ones for very low cost--but this one is the Goldilocks. It is A5 size, with lined, white, acid-free paper. There are 48 sheets at 90gsm, and the heavier weight minimizes ghosting, so you can easily use both sides of those sheets.

At 8mm, I do find the line spacing a bit wide for my comfort, but it's the perfect layout for testing broad, juicy fountain pen nibs, as this paper can happily handle it all. Every pen I tried felt great on this paper, and the medium nib I ultimately chose to write with felt like it was gliding across the page. Only the Sharpie, the laser of pens, dotted through at all.

The cover is cardstock, with minimal branding. The single signature is stitched with thread that runs the whole length of the spine, so the notebook lies flat without any worry about pages coming loose. It feels durable. My Clairefontaine notebooks from college, which were the less expensive staple-stitched ones, were tough enough to last an entire semester of daily use, and this one is considerably stronger than that. This nicer one is still only $12 at JetPens, which is a great price for the quality.

These notebooks are perfect for students, for commonplace books, work notebooks--any use where you need a moderate amount of fabulous paper. It almost makes me sad I don't have classes anymore. Almost.

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

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The Pen Addict Podcast: Episode 593 - The Soft Stuff

Myke is out of town, so who better than Mike to fill in? Mike Matteson joins me this week to discuss all things Inkdependence, including his new YouTube milestone, and some of his current favorite inks. We also discuss pen shows, and what we would like to see to make the experience better.

Show Notes & Download Links

This episode of The Pen Addict is sponsored by:

Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code PENADDICT.

Factor: Healthy, fully-prepared food delivered to your door.