I probably should stop trying to break stuff.

There is a trend in the knife community where some reviewers take a perfectly good liner-lock and frame-lock knife and smack the back of the blade against something hard. If the lock fails, they treat this as proof the knife is terrible. The problem is, the odds of a blade being subjected to that kind of stress is very long indeed.

The same thing probably applies to notebooks. When I get a new notebook, my first act is to write on the back page with various pens and inks and try to break the paper. The problem is, that’s pretty easy to do but it doesn’t stop me from posting about the quality of the paper and the notebook.

In the case of the Pocket Staple Notebook (PSN from now on, because I’m lazy) from Story Supply Co., I was probably too hasty.

After extensive use, I’ve been really impressed with the PSN.

The cover of the Pocket Staple Notebook from Story Supply Co.

The PSN is 5.5” x 3.5” (the same size as the popular Field Notes notebook). The cover is 100# French paper with a blue coating and the 48 pages inside are 70# Cougar Natural. It’s all held together with three copper staples. The version I chose has blank pages.

Under normal writing, the paper holds up well to most inks. A few inks, especially when they’re in wet nibs, will show through and, on occasion bleed through, but not enough to make the other side unusual.

The backside of a page. The top two-thirds are normal writing; the bottom third is where I tried to break the notebook.

The paper handled pens better than the Field Notes Workshop Companion, but a few had trouble on the smooth paper. That, however, may be a testament to my inability to keep a consistent angle more than a fault of the paper.

The cover and the binding held up well, but since I carried them in an Old Church Works leather cover, it’s hard to judge the actual durability.

That said, I have a few more of these on hand and I’m already looking forward to the next one coming up in the rotation.

Note: for every pack of notebooks you buy, Story Supply Co. donates one of their Supply Kits to a young writer or artist.