You had me at Bank Paper.
I first heard of The Paper Mind notebooks when their creator, Blake, reached out to share his new product, and set up a future ad spot to run on the blog. Turns out, I knew Blake already from his former stationery blog Unroyal Warrant. Blake’s Broadcast has taken over the blogging side of things for Blake, while The Paper Mind is scratching another creative itch he had.
As I witnessed during Unroyal Warrant’s blogging run, Blake exhibited exquisite taste. It should come as no surprise that his notebook creations follow along the same lines. The launch notebook, using Mitsubishi Bank Paper, was designed to be a premium experience, with a clean design, flexible stitching for lay-flat binding, and paper that is elite for fountain pens - all while being universally usable for all other types of writing instruments.
As I alluded to at the top, I am a bank paper fan. As a self-professed Pen Addict, I have an enormous amount of paper types and styles at my fingertips. If I were to pick one paper out of the entire lot to be my one and only, it would be bank paper. I enjoy it that much.
I went through many reasons why in my Life Bank Paper Review, and the same holds true for The Paper Mind version. In fact, it is the same Mitsubishi Paper Mill Three Diamonds paper that is used for both products. The only product difference between the two is the binding.
The stitched binding, in 12 signatures for each 192 page notebook, allows for ultimate flexibility. Combined with the paper cloth cover, the notebook lays flat on any surface, or can fold back on itself without damaging the spine for use cases that may require it. Even if I don’t use this notebook in that manner, I like the soft setup for better portability in a bag or backpack, while remaining sturdy enough to take a beating.
The back side of my Hinze Pen review, using a medium steel nib, inked with Bungubox Imperial Purple. No feathering, no bleed, yes ghosting.
I’ve been using the lined version of the notebook that Blake sent me a few months ago for product reviews. You will see a sampling of pictures here that you may have seen previously. That I choose this notebook for pen and ink testing reviews should tell you how highly I think of it.
The Bank Paper notebook also comes in a blank page format. If I could wishcast other formats for the future, I would love a 5 mm grid version, and would settle for the universally more popular dot grid format. One can dream!
Many pages of writing.
Build, quality, and design-wise, this notebook is in a class that few other similar products reside in. It’s up there with the Apica C.D. Premium and Musubi Bank Paper notebooks in my personal rankings, and I would recommend it to users looking for a similar high-end experience.
At $35, it is not cheap, but fairly priced. Taking into account the all of the parts that make up the whole, it seems right, and I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up a blank one the next time they appear in stock. Or, maybe I should test out the recently released Gmund Blocker Paper notebook for another interesting writing paper experience.
(The Paper Mind provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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