Posts filed under Notebook Reviews

Papier Platz x Eric Small Things Notebook 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 her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)

Can you ever have too many pocket notebooks? No, of course you can't. That was a trick question. I will always be excited by a pocket notebook, and this one is extra adorable.

The Papier Platz collaboration with Eric Small Things brings us this wee treasure. The highlight is the vinyl cover, which is a cheery shade of orange and decorated with images of pleasant things. There are other colors available: a bright blue, a navy blue, and a grey--each with unique illustrations on the cover. The cover itself is a standard sleeve-style book jacket, where the cardstock covers of the notebook insert slide into a folder pocket on each side. The vinyl adds that pop of decoration while protecting the notebook insert from the danger of everyday carry.

The notebook inside the cover, which comes with it, is a very decent pocket notebook. It's thicker than most, with 192 pages (96 sheets) of 4mm graph paper inside. It also has a built-in ribbon bookmark for keeping your place. It's well constructed, with a sturdy binding that should survive being carried around for the length of time it will take to get through all those pages.

There are some downsides to the notebook, though. First, you can't buy replacement inserts for the vinyl cover, so while the cover is removable, it isn't refillable. It's also not quite a standard size, so you can't substitute a refill from another brand. And that also leads to the second piece of bad news, which is that the paper isn't very fountain pen friendly. It does say that it is, but my experience with it involved some bleed-through.

I still think this is a good notebook--it's great for work, where I'm often not using fountain pens anyway, or for making quick notes when I'm out and about. The notebook costs $10.25 on JetPens, which is fair for the sturdy cover and generous serving of pages.

Papier Platz also have a wide variety of accessories like washi tapes, sticky notes, and stickers that go well with this notebook, if it needs friends. A lot of it is very cute, and much of it celebrates the joy of stationery, which we can all relate to.

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

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Papier Platz x Eric Small Things Notebook Back Cover

Posted on December 19, 2024 by Sarah Read and filed under Papier Platz, Eric Small Things, Notebook Reviews.

Blackwing Slate Volume 710 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.)

If there's a notebook size that's even close to perfect for me, it's the A5 size. It offers plenty of space, but is still easily portable and can make do in a lap or spread out on a table. It's the ubiquitous size that works best for me — it's the ideal compromise of convenience and utility. Problem seems to be that every stationery company has at least one A5 notebook in their lineup, and it can be daunting trying to pick one that works well with a variety of writing instruments.

The A5 notebook that I've been trying out most recently is from Blackwing, and it's a limited edition of their Slate notebook line. The Blackwing Slate Vol. 710 features a colorful cover that uses Jerry Garcia's artwork — a blend of colors that remind me of a tie-dye shirt. The other accents of the notebook, like the spine and the elastic bands for both the notebook and the pen loop are a complimentary brown. The pop of color definitely catches your eye.

The covers don't have any branding, but there are a couple of debossed shapes that are honestly difficult to see. In the center of the front cover, there's an outline of a hand that is symbolic for Jerry Garcia's missing middle finger. In the bottom right of the front cover is another debossed shape of the Blackwing logo.

The covers are soft to the touch on the outside, but hard on the inside, making them feel nice while also staying rigid. The soft covers are sewn onto the hard covers with visible stitching along the spine edge. To match with the elastic bands and spine, the stitching is also a complementary brown thread.

Inside the front cover, there's some space for writing down pertinent information about the owner, as well as a single page for listing out the contents of the notebook. Since the pages aren't numbered, this is probably meant to be more of a guideline about what's included as opposed to a table of contents. Either way, it's nice to have the organization if needed, but it doesn't detract from the page count if you don't want to use it.

The inside back cover holds a slim paper pocket or sleeve that can hold some paper. Again, the paper is a nice brown that goes well with the colorful cover. The pocket feels flimsy and like it might tear easily, so I'd be really careful with it to avoid accidentally ripping it apart.

Getting to the main feature of the notebook: it has 160 pages of blank 100gsm paper that feels fibrous and a little rough like sketchbook paper while still feeling smooth enough for general writing use. The paper is a nice ivory color that helps to showcase your ink colors.

Since the paper weight is on the denser side, I was expecting zero problems when trying different types of inks with it. Unfortunately, this paper is not coated with anything and tends to cause inks to feather and bleed a bit. It's not terrible — I've certainly seen worse — but it's worth mentioning.

The part that really disappointed me was how much the writing shows through to the back of the page. Even with pencil and super fine gel pens, the back of the page is unusable for me. Some people may not mind the amount of marks that clearly show through, but I can't handle it. For me, this is a front of the page notebook only.

Writing on the paper felt somewhat scratchy with any fountain pen nib that was larger than a European fine tip. Writing with ultra-fine gel pens (like 0.38mm) was also a bit scratchy, as well as hybrid ballpoints (0.7mm and smaller) like the Jetstream and Acroball. Rollerball inks tended to create wider lines than normal, though they didn't seem to have issues with feathering.

While the ink tests weren't stellar, I was rather surprised with how good this paper feels when using pencils. Being that Blackwing is a pencil brand, this makes sense. Writing with the different Blackwing pencils felt smooth and responsive due to the fibrous paper, and other pencils felt just as good. This is a paper that excels when it comes to graphite-based writing instruments and tools. If only the pencil marks didn't show through to the back of the page so prominently!

Everything about the design and form of this notebook shows that Blackwing knows how to make a good notebook. Other notebooks that I've tried from Blackwing that use a different type of paper have been really impressive. It's a shame this one doesn't perform as well. The fit and finish of the notebook is fantastic. It's a joy to handle with your hands due to the soft but rigid cover, the fabric-covered spine and the snappy elastic. And including an elastic loop on the spine to hold a pencil is a nice touch. It's sized just right to hold a wood-case pencil perfectly. In fact, the notebook also comes with a limited edition volume 710 pencil that uses Blackwing's soft core (same as the standard matte black pencil). This is a product I want to love, but the paper performance has me holding back when I'm picking a notebook to use.

In a world where we are spoiled for choice, paper quality is a huge factor in choosing a notebook. For me, the Slate isn't one that I'll be choosing again, but I'm glad that Blackwing has other great notebook choices that use more accessible and fountain pen friendly paper. At $30, this limited edition notebook is something I'd only recommend to Grateful Dead or Jimmy Garcia fans as a collectible item. The standard Slate notebooks are $25 and also include a standard Blackwing pencil. If you're only planning to use pencils, then the Slate is a great option. Otherwise, I'd go with something else.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on October 30, 2024 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Blackwing, Notebook Reviews.

Clairefontaine Triomphe A5 Blank Notebook Review

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

Clairefontaine is a paper brand from France that you'll be hard-pressed to miss if you spend any time at all in the stationery community. Their paper products are top-notch and fairly priced, making them great entry points for trying out exceptional paper that handle all sorts of writing instruments with relative ease.

The Triomphe A5 notebook features the great 90gsm paper on the inside with a stark, classy white and gold-leaf cover. The notebook has 50 sheets of paper inside with zero additional front or end matter. The front inside cover is blank outside of a small logo that is just a shade or two different than the color of the cover, making it blend in. The back inside cover has some information about the brand and notebook specifications, but that's all. No organization blocks or admin folders in this notebook — just glorious, beautiful bright white paper.

The front cover of the notebook is really quite pretty. The Triomphe name is bold, debossed and inlayed with gold-leaf foil, along with a rectangle that outlines the outer edges of the cover. It definitely grabs your attention because it's bold and not something you see on notebooks often. There's also a smaller Clairefontaine logo on the front, but the color is faded so that it takes a distant back-seat to the gold-leaf design. The back cover has a single Clairefontaine logo, debossed and inlayed with gold-leaf foil, along with a standard name and barcode block, which is printed on the notebook directly. This isn't a sticker that you can peel off after you unwrap the notebook.

The notebook is thread-bound and feels great to open and close. I have no doubts that this binding will still be in good shape after spending the time with it to fill all 50 pages. The notebook doesn't like to lay open when it's new, but some gentle breaking-in solves that problem quickly. After using the first few pages, the notebook easily lays flat on its own.

The paper is Clairefontaine's standard fare — 90gsm acid-free bright white paper. The corners are rounded off on both the covers and the pages, making it less likely to get caught on things when taking it in or out of bags or pockets. The version of the notebook I have is a blank paper, which is somewhat rare for Clairefontaine. In most cases, Clairefontaine is only available in lined paper, with only a few blank or grid options in only some of their product lines. The blank paper is a nice change of pace, and I've taken to keeping a sheet of lined paper tucked into the notebook so I have a line guide when writing. Or, if I want to do something more free-form, I can put the guide away and just use the blank page as I see fit.

The paper in this notebook (and any Clairefontaine paper product) is so nice to use. It may not be the best or the favorite paper of everyone, but it's a good, solid option that handles many kinds of writing instruments without any hiccups. For fountain pens, rollerballs, gel pens, ballpoints, and pencils, it's a fantastic experience. The paper is silky smooth with just a small amount of feedback to make handling your writing instrument easier. The paper is also really consistent, meaning there aren't random spots where ink behaves differently. It's just a really good paper, and you should absolutely try some if you haven't had the pleasure.

Being 90gsm, it's a tiny bit thicker than comparable brands, but it doesn't feel any thicker in use. Inks don't show through easily, so using both sides of the sheet is easy unless you're using excessively wet or wide nibs that lay down ink like a wet mop.

Using Clairefontaine paper, and this particular notebook, is a great sensory experience, and it really makes your writing instruments shine. It offers an ideal environment for using the pens and pencils that are so special to us. And, at $12 for a notebook (or cheaper if they're on sale), it doesn't break the bank either.

My only complaint about this notebook applies to Clairefontaine in general: give us more options for the ruling! If Clairefontaine had blank, lined, graph, dot options for all of their most popular notebook lines, they'd be so much more popular. Since they mostly standardize on wide lined ruling, that instantly turns some people away, and that's a shame. I'm hoping some day they'll see the light and add more options to their lineup! Until then, I'll make due with what they already have since lined isn't that bad and blank is also fun to use from time to time.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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