Posts filed under Notebook Reviews

Maruman Utöka Pocket Notebook Review

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

My philosophy when it comes to notebooks is that there's always room for one more. This philosophy is in direct conflict the lack of adequate storage for the notebooks or enough time to fill them all. But, for better or worse, the philosophy of never turning down a new notebook always wins.

The Maruman Utöka Pocket notebook is the latest notebook to find a home in my collection. This is a small spiral-bound notebook with 80 sheets of 4mm graph paper, and 10 sheets of lined "list" paper at the back. All 90 sheets are perforated, making them easy and clean to tear out. And, these sheets are made of 70gsm paper that works really well with all types of writing instruments. Fun fact about the name: Utöka means "expand" or "extend" in Swedish.

Despite this notebook looking like a top-bound steno-style book, it's laid out to be used with the binding on the side. In practice, it's like using a standard A5 notebook that's been sliced in half. I actually like having the extra horizontal space instead of the typical vertical space you get with most notebook orientations.

Since "pocket" is part of the name for this notebook, you might assume that it can fit in something like, say, a pocket, but you'd be wrong! It is a small notebook, but there aren't many pockets that will hold it. At a total size of 107 x 163mm (4.2 x 6.4 inches), it's very portable, but not pocketable. For most people, a pocket notebook is something around 3.5 x 5.5 inches. It's just barely too big to work well with pockets.

The usable sheet dimensions are close the A6 size (105 x 148mm) at 107 x 142mm, meaning there's plenty of space to let your ideas and sketches breathe. The 4mm grid also provides lots of structure while also disappearing if you want to freeform.

Maruman paper is always a delight to use, but most of my experience with their paper is in their Mnemosyne line. With the Utöka notebook, they use a little lighter paper, but it still performs well. It's done great with all the pens and inks I've thrown at it. There's a small amount of show-through when using some inks, but it's not enough to make the back of the page unusable. There's no feathering or bleeding or other weird ink behaviors to speak of. It's a consistent paper that works really well.

The covers of this notebook are a sturdy cardstock material with a glossy coating on the exterior faces. The covers should stand up to minor wear and tear, but I'd expect to see plenty of bends and deterioration with lots of use. Likewise, the double-wire binding is really sturdy, and I love that they've colored the wire a nice gray to complement the color of the cover.

At $7.75, the Maruman Utöka Pocket notebook is a good value. It's perfect for jotting down notes, sketching out ideas, and throwing into a bag to carry along. While it's not a true pocket notebook, it's still very portable and up to the challenge of being a notebook you carry frequently. Plus, if the yellow isn't quite your thing, there are four other accent colors available! You can pick from yellow, red, navy, light green, and light blue.

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

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Posted on January 15, 2025 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Maruman, 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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