(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 suppose if anyone was to change my mind about spiral binding, it would be Midori. I'd use their paper in any format, even the dreaded spiral bound. The Midori Grain B6 is an excellent notebook, and while it's not perfect, it does its job very well. And if you like spiral bound notebooks, I think you'd love it.
The Grain notebook gets its name from its unique recycled leather front cover. The leather is manufactured by a workshop in Valencia, Spain. The lightly grained cover comes in black or brown, and it has a rustic inside texture. The back cover is thick cardboard, with an additional sheet of cardboard that creates a very solid back. There is also a sheet of cardstock behind the leather of the front cover, to add structure to the front. You can swing the back cover around, and then have the thick cardboard to serve as structure for both sides of the page if you're writing on soft surfaces. It's a clever solution to a problem that plagues a lot of leather cover journals. The extra sheets of cardstock effectively make this a hardback book, though it is still flexible.
The spiral binding is a double coil of copper wire. It's very strong, but flexible, so should hopefully withstand being dragged in and out of book bags. It does have fairly sharp ends, but they are tucked between the cardboard sheets at the back of the journal, so quite safe and out of the way. So far I've had no issues with snagging. The smaller B6 size also helps with portability. At a larger size, this would be a substantial, heavy book, between the cardstock, metal, and generous number of pages.
The notebook has an elastic band closure anchored by metal rivets. At first I thought it was two strands of round cord, but they are actually one joined strand. Two would have been nice for this book, as one or both could then be used as bookmarks.
The leather and construction are well done, and the design is thoughtful and practical, but paper is always the highlight of any Midori product. This notebook offers two varieties. The first 100 sheets are white lined paper with 6 mm rule and a thicker line dividing the page into quarters. It's a good layout for notes, general writing, or even journaling or planner pages. The second 100 sheets are cream blank paper, perfect for more freeform notes or sketches.
Both paper varieties are excellent and hold up to a full spectrum of inks and nib thicknesses. As with many fountain pen friendly papers, only the sharpie bled through. The white lined paper had more show-through than the cream, but it would not be enough to discourage anyone from using both sides of the sheet.
One feature that the book lacks is a pocket or envelope for spare papers. The pages are also not perforated, so if you have to tear one out, you'll have the awful spiral-bound confetti edging. Those features would have likely come with some measure of cost, though, and this notebook is very economically priced at $15.00. That's a fantastic price for 200 sheets of high-quality paper and a leather cover. The book also has that intangible quality that just makes me want to write when I hold it. For me, that's the best quality any notebook can have. It's even enough to overcome my dislike of spiral binding.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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