Posts filed under Notebook Reviews

Kawachiya Paper Lab Kamon Letterpress Notebook A5

(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!)

It's such a great thing when good notebooks are also pretty. These Kawachiya Paper Lab Kamon designs (Japanese house crests) are so gorgeous. They are crisply letter-pressed into matcha green cardstock with a slight texture to it, which makes the whole book wonderfully tactile. The pressing can even be felt on the inside of the cover. It makes a fantastic first impression, so I was excited to try the paper.

Kawachiya Paper Lab Kamon Letterpress Notebook Paper

Under that stunning cover are 64 pages of cream-colored dot grid paper. It feels like a heavy gsm, though I can't find the exact specs. In weight, crispness, and texture it reminds me a lot of Midori MD paper, maybe slightly smoother--closer to a heavy Tomoe River. The dots are dark grey and more pronounced than in some notebooks, so they don't fade into the background much, but do serve as excellent guides.

Kawachiya Paper Lab Kamon Letterpress Notebook

The pages are staple-bound with two brass staples. That does leave the top and bottom edges loose, which isn't an ideal structure as far as durability goes. But the minimal binding does help train the notebook to lay flat easily once the crease is smoothed.

Kawachiya Paper Lab Kamon Letterpress Notebook Test

The paper itself performs very well. Even a wet, bold fountain pen line with black ink has zero show-through. Magic! The only thing to defeat this paper, as usual, is the Sharpie. Pencil users might find this paper a little bit too smooth for harder leads.

Slim A5 notebooks with great paper aren't as rare as they were a few years ago. Once upon a time, that was quite difficult to find! Now they're everywhere, and it take a bit extra for new ones to stand out. I think this lovely letter-pressed design is a total standout. The perfect, tiny details are charming and beautiful. At $14, though, it is more than twice the cost of a similar Clairefontaine notebook. I think it's worth it for its handcrafted cover, but it's not something I'd buy in bulk, even if all the available colors are lovely. As a special treat, though, it's great.

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

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Kawachiya Paper Lab Kamon Letterpress Notebook Cover

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Sarah Read and filed under Kawachiya, Notebook Reviews.

Endless Storyboard Notebooks Moonshot Edition Review

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

At this point in time, I can barely keep up with all the different pocket notebook makers. The pocket notebook is such a convenient and affordable class of notebook, it's virtually impossible to avoid making one if you are involved with any kind of stationery market. The ubiquity of the humble pocket notebook deserves the recognition it has achieved, though. It's an indispensable tool that people used long before it was cool. With that mentality, I'm always happy to try out a new pocket notebook and compare it to the old standards.

Endless Storyboard Notebooks Moonshot Edition

The Endless Storyboard notebooks are new on my radar, but I'm glad they made their way to my desk. The specific one I'm looking at today is no long available (special editions!), but I'm definitely excited to see what other editions come out from the Storyboard line. Edition 01 - Moonshot is a two-pack of moon-themed pocket notebooks. The cover of each notebook features imagery of the moon. One cover uses a shot of the whole moon, while the other is a low orbit view across the surface of the moon looking out into open space. They're both excellent choices for a notebook cover, and they definitely know how to pull my strings when it comes to any kind of space exploration theming.

Branding aside, this is still a pocket notebook, so how does it compare to the others? Well, one of the specifications that threw me off is the sizing. It's not the standard pocket notebook size (3.5 x 5.5 inches). This notebook measures in at 3.5 x 5.9 inches. The extra fraction of an inch of vertical space means you get another couple of lines out of each page. It's not large enough to make a visual difference (unless you're comparing two different notebooks side-by-side), but it definitely makes a difference on the inside when doodling and writing notes. One of my first thoughts regarding the extra height was whether or not the notebook would fit in other cases I had for standard pocket notebooks. The Nock cases I use have just enough extra space to accommodate the additional 0.4 inches without introducing any negative side effects. I can even use this notebook with a leather Traveler-style notebook cover. The leather cover is flush with the notebook height, but it still provides excellent coverage. And, of course, these notebooks still fit perfectly in most pockets and bag sleeves.

Endless Storyboard Notebooks Inside Cover

Moving around the rest of the notebook, it features a strong stitch binding, rounded corners, and sturdy cardstock cover. The inside of the covers are blank, and the only unique page is the very first one, which contains some space to fill in vital information and dates. The large "Storyboard" on the front is the only branding you'll find on the front, and the back contains a little more information such as the company name, the dimensions, number of pages, and paper quality. There's also some text to note the special edition:

EDITION 01: MOONSHOT

One small page turn for man,

one giant idea for mankind.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the way they repurposed Neil Armstrong's famous quote upon stepping foot on the moon. The changes they made to fit the theme and edition of this notebook seem minor enough to feel lazy, and I wish they'd put a bit more thought into creating their own writing-oriented idea or just left it off completely. Writing is what generates great ideas, not turning pages. It leaves me with a vague "huh?" feeling.

Besides the odd quote on the back cover, this notebook is stellar. The paper inside is 90gsm off-white paper with a standard dot-grid layout. The paper has a good bit of tooth, but it performs beautifully with different kinds of nibs and inks. I'm extraordinarily happy with how this paper performs. The fact that it's used in a small pocket notebook is even better. I haven't noticed any feathering or bleeding, and show-through to the back of the page is almost unnoticeable unless you're using a very dark and wet ink. Honestly, this is some really great paper.

There are two notebooks in the pack, and each each book contains 64 pages (32 sheets). That's plenty of space for lots of ideas, and the quality of the paper means you can use any of your favorite pens and inks without worrying about bleeding or unusable show-through on the back sides of the pages.

The Moonshot edition isn't available any more, but you can sign up to receive notifications on the next special edition announcement. For people looking for fountain pen friendly pocket notebooks, you should seriously consider this option. Endless also offer another line of notebooks called the Recorder Infinite Space that look promising. With Tomoe River paper inside, these A5-ish hardcover notebooks have great color and layout options. At under $15 USD, these look like a great deal.

These notebooks aren't perfect, but I'm really excited to see what Endless produce next as part of the Edition 02 campaign. These are fantastic notebooks, and it would be great to see them available all the time.

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

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Posted on August 26, 2020 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Endless Notebook, Notebook Reviews.

Analog Supplies for Virtual School

It's that time of year again, but this time it's totally different. School supply shopping--stationery Christmas--has gone weird, like everything else. But even though our education has gone virtual, the act of study, of learning, has not. It's still a very tactile thing, and analog supplies are maybe more important than ever. I learn by writing, so even if I'm parked in front of a computer for class, I need to be writing the material down. I still need writing instruments (I have a few) and notebooks (check), and I need a system to keep them organized.

I'm writing this in the middle of my grad school orientation week, which my university has affectionately dubbed "bootcamp" to prepare us for the intellectual equivalent of an obstacle course designed to find our weaknesses and limitations. So that we can improve them, of course--not out of cruelty. While the effect might be the same, intent matters, in this case. It's also my first foray into online classes, as the event was moved to a virtual platform due to the pandemic. My courses themselves were always going to be online, so it's actually serving as excellent practice for navigating that format--and for testing out my assembled supplies to see if they will work for online learning.

I had joked, when I first enrolled in grad school, that I wanted a travelers-notebook-style setup that would hold my hobonichi cousin plus five A5 notebooks with decent page counts. It was only a half-joke, though, because while that sort of thing sounded a bit ridiculous, I really did want one! Well, I found one. On Etsy, of course. The maker is DianoD, a leatherworker who I believe is located in Russia (their shop is currently on vacation, so not all details are visible). They make a variety of goods, including the beast I decided to order for my school needs.

I ordered the A5 extra wide cover with all the extra bells and whistles. It has a pen holder on the snap strap, another pen loop inside, two back pockets, an insert flap for my planner, five widely spaced elastic bands for notebook inserts, another slip flap for papers, a zipper pouch, three card slots, and on the folding piece there is a phone pocket on one side and a snap pocket and smaller pocket on the outside.

The leather is smooth but rigid, so it holds the contents firmly in place, and the snap closure has two positions, so it can be closed tightly, or let out a little bit if (when) it gets overstuffed.

It is a beast, when full. It dosn't fit in a purse, though it works in a tote bag or backpack. I was surprised to find that I can actually write in the notebooks while they're still in the cover, but I prefer to take them out for longer notetaking sessions, and then put them back when I'm done. I have one notebook for a commonplace book, one that I am using for all the information I need about school, a notebook for each of my two classes, and a notebook for my writing ideas. My Hobonichi is behind all of those. I keep a fountain pen in the strap pen pouch, and a mechanical pencil in the inside pen loop. I have blank notecards, business cards, and a very small pocket notebook in the card slots, and sticky notes in the snap pouch. I use the back pockets for planner items, like my ill-fated concert tickets. I keep work papers in the front pockets. It really is the most complete system I've used, and so far it's working really well for me.

Its weak point is, I think, the snap closure. The snap is a fairly standard craft snap notion, and it doesn't match the sturdiness of the rest of the construction. It works great now, but it feels like something I'm going to break, eventually. The rest of it feels like it will outlive me. All of the snap pieces are accessible, though, so I think it would be a fairly simple matter to replace them, if they do get bent or worn out.

I paid $165 (including shipping from Russia) for this, making it the most expensive Trapper Keeper I've ever owned. I do not regret it.

There is some irony here, considering that what I'm studying is the organization of information (how, why, where, when, how much, and by whom). I wonder if I can do a thesis on notebook systems.

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