(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
Earlier this week, Jeff did a review of the Kunisawa Pocket Find Notebook. Today, I’m reviewing its larger cousin: the Kunisawa Find Notebook.
The Kunisawa Find Notebook is an A5-sized, cardboard bound notebook with 192 pages. The outside edges of the pages are gilded, making the notebook look especially sophisticated.
The first page of the notebook says, “i do not seek, i find.” Thus the name: Find Notebook.
The exterior of the notebook is dark gray with a metallic sheen. The Kunisawa logo and name adorn the book in copper (which matches the gilded edges). This is definitely a great-looking notebook.
The notebook is nicely bound so that the book lies flat when open. The pages aren’t perforated, so you cannot easily remove them. A ribbon bookmark is included.
The paper is called “Foolscap,” but I could not find the weight on the website. It is a cream color with 5mm gridlines. I tested the paper with various fountain pens and inks. All of the pens and inks seemed to work well in this initial test. I didn’t notice any bleeding and the paper was very smooth.
However, there’s quite a bit of show through on the reverse side.
I also tested the notebook with other kinds of pens, a highlighter, and a pencil. It handled all of these quite nicely. However, the Sharpie (unsurprisingly) bled completely through the paper, and there was a bit of show through with the other pens.
Next, I tested the paper with my my Aurora 88 stub inked with Iroshizuku Ama-Iro. In this test, I discovered that the ink feathered and bled through pretty obviously.
Although I love the look of the Kunisawa notebook, I am not impressed with the paper. It works well with fine-point fountain pens, rollerballs, and pencils. But even some of those exhibited show through. With the Aurora 88 stub, there was feathering, show through, and bleeding. For a notebook “specifically designed for fountain pens” (according to the website), the amount of bleeding and show through was disappointing.
You can purchase the Kunisawa A5 Find Notebook directly from the Kunisawa Stationery Store for 3,000 yen (= $27.13).
(Kunisawa provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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