Soumkine Paris Sketchbook 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!)

(Note: Sarah and I discussed the poor quality of this notebook in advance of publication. We review products as provided, and provide our thoughts based on the item in hand. I will be forwarding this review to Soumkine for their input on the issues present here to determine what went wrong and will report back if and when they respond. -Brad) (Update: Scroll down for Soumkine's response.)

Soumkine are a company in Paris, France that make high-end luxury notebooks and agendas. The Italian paper in their regular line of notebooks has reviews that rival Tomoe River paper. So I was very excited to try their new line of sketchbooks.

The sketchbooks are substantial, with 120 pages in this slim size. The pages are bound together in signatures with a thread and glue binding protected by a paper spine a very firm cardstock cover. The cover is pressed with the Pages logo and Soumkine's name. Inside the front cover are the number of the product, a space to index the date and contents of your sketchbook, and a warning that using such fine materials may cause one to become addicted to the finer things in life. Inside the back cover there is more information about Soumkine's other products.

I'm not an artist, myself, so my first instinct when given paper is to write on it. I'm not quite sure that that's what this paper wants, though. While it does well with pencils and drier inks, liquid inks like fountain pen ink had a tendency to feather. Per the product page:

“When you want a place to scribble notable quotes and perfect lines of poetry or to sketch ideas and capture spring blooms with watercolor, you want a paper where the pen doesn’t scratch, the ink doesn’t bleed, and the brush glides effortlessly across the page.”

This paper is more fibrous and stiffer than notebook paper, and it handles media like pencils much better than fine-tip pens, and will handle moderate watercolors.

I suspect that this thicker, stiffer paper may be the cause of the one big issue I had with the notebook--the signatures split easily, breaking the glue at the spine. While this binding technique works very well with their notebooks, their notebook paper is very fine and relaxed, allowing it to lay open flat. This stiff paper will not easily relax or lay flat, and this binding doesn't hold it well at all. The spine cracked between every signature on mine just by opening the book, even without trying to smooth the center to lay flat. When the center is smoothed to lay open flat, the split becomes a fairly significant gap. I've seen this happen in plenty of notebooks before, but the main difference between those notebooks and this one is that this one costs 36 Euros, or roughly $44. There are premium versions of this sketchbook that go up to 170 Euros, or $205 (a steal compared to the $578 limited edition planner). What might be just a bummer in a $5 notebook is a problem in a $44 notebook, and would be a travesty if it happened in the premium model.

It's possible I got a lemon, or one of a bad batch, and maybe the binding glue does its job more effectively on other books--but as it stands, I can't recommend this sketchbook until there are more reviews out there to see where the issue lies.

I genuinely hope my book was an anomaly, and that other versions of this product will prove to be as stellar as they look. If these sketchbooks can hold up to the praises I hear sung of Soumkine's other notebooks, they'd be a great addition to the stationery world.

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

(Update from Fiodor Sumkin, founder of Soumkine:

Dear Brad and Sarah,

Thank you for such a thorough and honest review! We are temporarily putting a "sold out" label on the ‘Pages’ series. There are two main issues: the binding and the paper type.

We sold this sketchbook model 66 times, and we will personally contact each customer to apologise and to offer a free replacement or a refund.

We value each customer, listen to their requests, and it is important for us to admit mistakes while moving forward and constantly improving our products.

Please note that what happened is the result of our brand's growth. I firmly believe that the only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.

I started the paper business 4 years ago in my apartment and my first product was a very simple 32-page notebook. For half a year I was looking for the right type of paper and personally tested them all, choosing the best one I could find.

Our company is no longer a child now, but not an adult yet. It looks more like a teenager in an awkward age. This creates all sorts of problems that my team is bravely dealing with. There are now 14 people at Soumkine.

We’ll send you a new ‘Pages’ sketchbooks shortly, made with a saddle-stitch and a spiral binding that we’re going to launch in the nearest future. These binding types are popular among artists, and I’m now starting to understand why.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to leave an official comment on your review and give our perspective. It means a lot to us as our main priority is to be honest and transparent with our clients and the whole paper-lovers community.

Greetings from Paris, Fiodor Sumkin, founder at Soumkine)

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Fabriano EcoQua Gluebound A5 Notebook Review

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

The Fabriano EcoQua Gluebound A5 notebook is one of those items that caught me by surprise this year. At first glance, it doesn't look like much, and I'll admit that I didn't even recognize the brand name until looking into it in more depth. Luckily, the EcoQua notebook is a fantastic little product that works best for me as a notepad since the pages are so easy to remove when you're done using them. And the paper quality is good enough to convince me to try this for a while instead of my trusty Rhodia DotPads that rely on perforated paper, which can be a little more finicky to tear cleanly.

Before getting into how versatile this notebook is, let's get the specifications out of the way. The EcoQua notebook is A5 sized (8.3 x 5.8 inches) with 90 sheets of 85 gsm white paper. The entire notebook is made in Italy from 100% natural materials, and features a sturdy but flexible card stock cover that protects the insides. The paper has a 4mm dot grid pattern, and the sheets are held in place with a flexible glue binding that makes the sheets easy to tear out. The Lemon colorway featured here is bright and happy, but there are plenty of other color options too.

I think the notebook is pretty interesting aesthetically, but most of what we care about is how the paper performs, right? Paper weight only tells part of the story in terms of how it feels to use. In the case of the EcoQua notebook, the paper is a little thicker than the Leuchtturm 1917 paper I'm so accustomed to now, but it still doesn't feel heavy or thick. There's a good amount of toothy feedback when writing, but it doesn't impact my writing style at all. It feels like there's a very thin coating on the paper to help with absorption, but it doesn't make the paper feel glassy smooth when writing, which I prefer. The light gray dot grid pattern is fantastic for providing structure when you want it, but disappearing when you don't need it. In my testing, I couldn't find any issues with the paper in terms of feathering or bleeding. Inks seem to dry at a normal pace, and the colors pop on the white paper.

The only downside I've noticed when using the paper is that there's a significant amount of show-through on the back side of the page. For me, this makes the back unusable, but others may not mind. Of course, this also depends on what you're writing with. Fountain pen ink definitely shows through, no matter the nib size. Other ink pens show through as well, but not as much. Even pencil marks show through, but not enough to make the back of the page unusable.

Ultimately, I'm not concerned about the show-through because this notebook feels more like a notepad to me. The cover opens up flat because it isn't attached to the glue binding at all. I've been very content to just tear out sheets when I'm done using them so I can move on to the next blank page. It makes an excellent notepad for me, but the added bonus here is that the notepad comes with a sturdy cover.

If you're interested in the Fabriano EcoQua Gluebound A5 notebook, check them out at JetPens. At $8.50, they're a fantastic value with decent paper. If the yellow is too loud, you can pick from seven other fun colors.

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

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JetPens Kanso Noto Notebook A5 Dot Grid: 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 JetPens exclusive Kanso Noto Notebook comes in four colors: black, dark green, navy blue, and deep purple. It's an A5-size notebook with 52gsm Tomoe River Paper in a dot grid format.

The notebook is simple with cardstock covers, a sewn binding, and a taped spine. There are no extras, such as page numbers, an index, or ribbon bookmarks.

It has 320 pages (front and back) of dot grid paper. The dots are a light grey color--so light they are a little difficult to see except in bright light.

The cardstock covers are easily bent. In fact, my notebook already had creases when I opened it. If you don't want this notebook to get beat up in your book bag, you might want to put it in an A5 cover.

Tomoe River Paper is best known for being smooth, thin, and fountain-pen friendly. Inks are displayed at their very best on this paper, which brings out shading and sheening properties.

I tested ten fountain pens in this notebook. As expected, all the inks worked well with the paper. There was no bleeding and no bleed through; however, because of the thinness of the paper, show through is quite visible.

I used Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo in my Nakaya with a medium flex stub nib to write out a longer passage. You can see good shading properties in the writing sample. Again, show through is obvious, so you may not want to write on both sides of the paper.

I love doing ink swatches on Tomoe River Paper. There's just nothing quite like it to bring out the qualities in various inks. I tested ten inks from different manufacturers in the notebook. All the swatches are vivid (though the cream color of the paper may mute them slightly), and pooling, sheen, and shading are dramatic. I did my swatches with a paintbrush, so they were quite wet and some did bleed through to the other side.

Tomoe River Paper is now ubiquitous, being used in notebooks from many manufacturers. It's good to have options. If you want a simple notebook at a decent price ($19.00) the Kanso Noto is a good choice. Although JetPens is currently out of stock, you can sign up to be emailed when the notebook is back in stock.

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

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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!