Category Archives: Paper

Victoria’s Journals’ TeaBook–End of Book Review

Disclosure: I got the Victoria’s Journals’ TeaBook at the 2016 ISOT as a sample from the notebook maker himself. I told him I’d use it and abuse and write a review only if I thought it was worth buying. It turns out it is.

The maker of the TeaBook is a fountain pen addict and designed the notebook to hold up well to fountain pens. He did a good job.

In general, the paper held up quite well against the brutal fountain pen onslaught I inflicted on it.

The TeaBook is an almost A5 sized notebook (it’s a few millimeters thinner but is the same height). It is designed to be rolled up and carried in clothes pockets or even in the bottle holder on a carry bag.

The TeaBook rolled up tightly.

It comes rolled up in a tube that reminds me of the tubes that Retro51 pens come in. The notebook can be rolled up quite tightly, but then lays flat without any latent curl. The cover is a flexible red plastic that didn’t crease over time.

The TeaBook in front of its case.

The pages are made of 80# Spanish paper. The version I had was lined, but it appears to come in at least dot grid as well. (Note: I had a prototype case that didn’t match the paper I had inside so this is just a guess.) Each page is perforated, which is something I usually don’t like, but after a few months of regular use, none of the pages had started to work loose. I did, by the end of the book, like the idea of being able to rip out pages I wanted to use and then get rid of the rest.

Detail of the perforations and the lines. I liked the light ruling.

The paper handled fountain pens about as well as the Field Notes America The Beautiful edition. Several inks bled through, though, including one that destroys laughs at notebook paper and snickers at Tomoe River paper—No, really, it mocks the paper it’s used on—and that was while it was in a pen with a steel M nib. (More on that ink in a future post.)

My ink testing page.

The results of the ink tests. The results are respectable, given most of the nibs and inks were terminators, but not great. I’m not sure this facing page was necessary, though, so I didn’t mind defacing it.

My only complaints with the TeaBook were minor and more a matter of personal preference. I’m not a big fan of title pages on notebooks, and even less of a fan of personal information sections. I’m not going to leave my address around in case some radical pen/notebook addict finds my notebook and then tracks me down to punish me for disrespecting stationery. (Oh, sure, mock me as if I’m the only person who does that.)

This really isn’t necessary and could lead to me visiting your house.

Also, I’m not sure it needs the logo, as cool as it is, taking up space on each page.

Lastly, some kind of built in strap or aftermarket binder loop to keep the notebook closed tight would be nice because it tends to unroll to fit the space it’s put in. That said, it’s probably easy to make or rig up something like that.

Right now the TeaBook, if it is available (it may only be a prototype) is only available from retailers in Asia. Interested parties will have to contact the maker for more information.

I’ll be contacting him myself. I’d like to try a couple versions with different paper styles.

New Year’s Planner Planning

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Although it may seem crazy to so-called normal people, pen/stationery addicts understand the necessity of deciding your new year’s carry before New Year’s Day. They also understand the idea of “your carry”.

So-called normal people use a smart phone app or a portable calendar or, in a really risky stretch, they write in the squares on calendars that hang on the wall. They also have the crazy notion that “you should just use the system you used last year.”

Pen/stationery addicts, on the other hand, find this crazy. They have a lot of stuff they need to use, even as they acquire new stuff, and this inspires them to try different things each year. Variety. Spice of life. Etcetera.

In my case, I’ve decided to abandon the daily log that resides on my desk (more on that in a future post) for something more portable. I’ve also decided to abandon a scratch planner that I carry both as a justification for owning my Old Church Works Quad Cover and as a way to use up notebooks.

Instead I’ve acquired a smaller Hobonichi Techo that will serve as my planner and log and I am trying to figure out way to use the pages I didn’t use in its larger cousin (aptly named Cousin).

I’ve also decided to switch my daily 10 Ideas to a random Field Notes notebook or a similar sized notebook from a different maker. That will go in my OCW cover along with my food log, my random notes notebook, and the “book bible” for my latest project. This might give me four notebooks in the cover, which will make it fairly thick, but will give me something to write about in the future.

My other goal is to limit my goals in the new year. I have a couple projects to finish before I worry about other projects. Any attempts at multitasking have, of late, led to paralysis and that will change.”

Along the way I’m looking or ways to use up notebooks. I’ve already passed a few on to the girls whilst trying to encourage them to find ways to use them.

I’ll give specific details on all this in the future. Until then, there are notebooks to assemble.

There’s also a business to formalize or simplify. I’ll need a notebook to help me think about
that, though. I’ll have to decide if I’ll use one I have on hand or if I’ll have to buy a new one.

That makes sense to pen/stationery addicts but so-called normal people may find it crazy.

Takegami Products 100% Bamboo Notebook–End of Book Review

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The Takegami Notebook from Takegami Products is fountain pen friendly in an unfortunate way: Ink doesn’t bleed or ghost but the paper texture makes it unusable for all but a few fountain pens.

The Takegami Notebook is made in Japan from 100% Japanese bamboo. The name is made from the letter 竹 “take” (pronounced the similar to “Takei” in George Takei) meaning “bamboo” and 紙 “gami” meaning “paper”.

The logo with 竹紙, bamboo and 100.

The two notebooks I tested are B5 sized and contain 60 pages (30 sheets) of fairly hefty ruled paper. The are saddle stitched with thread. One notebook is in a tan “natural” look with pages matching the cover. The other has white pages and a white cover. If you’re in Japan, I’ve seen them for sale in ItoYa. Otherwise they are available from sellers on Amazon.

The two Takegami notebooks. I like the bamboo decoration on the covers.

Although it felt good with ballpoint pens and roller ball pens–even pencils worked well–I found the tan version to be unusable for many fountain pens. The page has some natural tooth which makes any pen scratchy. My smoothest pens sounded like Platinum or Nakaya nibs (which sound like pencils being scratched across paper). My Platinum and my Nakaya sounded as if I was pressing my fingernails tightly against the paper and dragging them across. The Nakaya, especially, was unusable on the paper, despite having a broad nib.

The white notebook was better, although it had a bit more ghosting. I disliked the tan version enough that I stopped using it.

I’ll probably keep my eye on the company. I like the idea of notebooks made from materials other than paper. The white paper is usable, but I don’t like the size of the notebooks. I hope they stick around long enough to put out different shapes and sizes.

Field Notes Sweet Tooth–Longish Term Review

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I gave the blue ones away to our girls. As of today, our youngest doesn’t know where hers is. That pretty much sums up my reaction to the Field Notes Sweet Tooth Quarterly Edition.

For their quarterly editions Field Notes will, on occasion, attempt to shock its subscribers to the point that they begin to reconsider their subscriptions. They’ve changed the size, changed the shape, and used plastic paper that seems to work with only one or two ballpoint pens.

For the Sweet Tooth edition they did a good thing (offered a notebook with blank pages); a neutral thing (added perforations to the pages); but then did something that made the notebooks unusable (made the pages the same color as the cover).

When I got them I tested out a few pens and quickly realized that although the 70# paper was fountain pen friendly, the red only really worked with black ink and inks with sheen.

I quickly gave the blue ones (aka Blu-Raspberry) away and then tried to think of a use for the Redish and Yellow (aka Tangy Orange and Banana Split, respectively). I finally decided to use them in my class by making them the books for any “yellow cards” and “red cards” I give out. I can hold up the notebook, announce the card and then write the students’ names in the book.

The Banana Split and the Tangy Orange with a special warning stamped on the front.

In my system, three yellow cards equals a red card which equals homework. I will also give them out to an entire class during special activities where no Japanese is allowed. (The record: four red cards.)

The yellow and red card are noted. When three yellows become a red, they get crossed out.

The class yellow and red cards are noted. Please note the perforations. (Also: the colors are reasonably accurate here.)

That’s about all I can think of for ways to use this book. Some people use them to leave notes, others actually enjoy them for the artistic possibilities.

Although some of the experiments on the quarterly editions have been surprisingly good, (Arts & Sciences and Byline) this one is disappointing. The colors are great, but I’d rather see the colorful cover and blank pages; or to see lines or dot-grids that match the cover.

Once their gone, I’ll need a new red and yellow card system, but I won’t miss the Sweet Tooth much.

Quad Field Notes Leather Notebook Cover–Long Term Review

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I’ve carried the Quad Field Notes Leather Notebook Cover from Old Church Works in Andover, Kansas for over nine months and I’m pleased to say it’s aged well. I just wish it were a little thinner and little softer.

I’ve written before how I got the Quad Cover to replace the Midori Traveler’s Passport sized cover. My main gripes with the Passport were that it fit only notebooks that were smaller than i was interested in carrying and that it had an annoying metal bit strapped to the outside.

However, the one thing Traveler’s gets right is the leather itself. It is the perfect weight and starts out soft and flexible which makes it comfortable to use and carry.

In the case of the Quad, the 6-7 ounce leather cover has developed a nice patina, but it remains too stiff to lay flat without forcing it by bending the cover around backward. I find that one hand has to hold the cover down while I write.

The Quad Cover’s leather has aged well.

This thickness and stiffness also make it bulky in the pocket, especially when carried with a full complement of four notebooks or, in my case, three. I feel as if every time I use it, I need to bend the cover back and forth a few times just to soften it up a bit. It reminds me of breaking in leather boots.

This is about as flat as the Quad cover sits by itself.

That said, everything else about the Quad is terrific. The straps have held up well. With the Traveler’s I kept having to tighten the binding strap that holds the cover closed, but I haven’t had to do that with the Quad. When I’m writing while standing, the stiff leather cover actually comes in handy by providing a solid writing surface.

I also think the Quad is the perfect size. I can use every type pocket notebook I own (precise number: too many) without having parts of them stick out. If the leather were a touch thinner and more supple it would be perfect. I hope Old Church Works experiments with lighter leather.

The current bundle of notebooks: A Monokaki sandwiched between two Calepinos

Dressco StitchNote Avocado: End of Book Review

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The Dressco StitchNote Avocado is an odd notebook and it’s not going to appeal to all stationery addicts. It all depends on their tolerance for bleedthrough and show-through.

The notebook is 85mm x145mm x 5mm (3.34″ x 5.7″ x .2″ )which makes it slightly taller, slightly narrower and substantially thicker than a Field Notes notebook. It has an orange peel textured green card stock cover stamped with the Dressco peacock.

The cover of the book after six months or so of use. The stitching is only now beginning to fray.

The cover of the book after five months or so of use. The stitching is only now beginning to fray.

Inside it has navy blue inner covers and 84, or 168 pages of SunValley OnionSkin, depending on your point of view.

The paper is what will separate the haters from the lovers (or the “love it but not in that way”ers). The paper is thin and reminds me of the pages in a Bible. I used it as my daily outliner/planner for over five months and found that it takes almost every kind of ink well, but fat nibs and wet inks will feather. The colors look good on the white paper. Only occasionally would ink bleed through to a page below.

Ink tests with different inks, nibs and pens. A pencil even makes an appearance.

The potential problems appear when the user turns the page. Even inks that don’t bleed show through. This will make it an 84 page notebook for many people. Even if you use only one side, the paper is thin enough that writing on a bottom page will show through the page above it.

The other side of the page.

The center stitching. You can see the show through from above and below on either side of the stitching.

I also found that odd nibs, like the calligraphy nib on a Pilot Prera didn’t like the paper, which does have some tooth. They tended to skip if they weren’t held exactly right against the paper.

That said, I like this notebook a lot. Because I embrace the bleedthrough, I like the extra pages that gives me. Even flipping the onion skin pages is kind of fun and relaxing. I don’t think it needs the navy inner covers but they do look sharp. Other stationery addicts may be more interested in the apricot version.

I’ve already purchased another one, but won’t get to use it for a while.

Pens, Paper and Clumsiness

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I only tried to hurt myself once today. Luckily, I failed. I also managed not to buy much today.

I met a fellow pen addict on his second trip to Japan and we roamed around the pen and stationery related sight in Ginza. (Museum? We don’t need no stinking museum.)

The first, Euro Box, was closed, which has become a tradition when the fellow pen addict is in Japan.

At the second, we ogled several gorgeous expensive pens and mocked several others. We only drooled over a couple.

That was followed by bland curry and an art supply store where I noticed there was a short drop off, right after I stepped off it. Except pride, everything held together after the rough step.

Relishing my role as enabler, I took the fellow pen addict to another store where he bought a few things he hadn’t planned on buying.

That was followed by a long walk to a couple department stores where ink was acquired.

I’ve already tested the one I bought. It will be sold at first chance.

Now I have to save up energy. It’s time to go back to work.

Story Supply Co. Pocket Staple Notebook—End of Book Review

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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 is where I tried to break it.

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.

Stationery of The Year: ISOT 27

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The only thing that interested me was the stapler. The rest made me think I should be a member of the committee.

Every year at the International Stationery & Office Products Fair Tokyo (note: link now getting ready for next year) a select group of five people choose new products for the “Grand Prix” or top products of the year. The two main categories are “Functionality” and “Design”. Last year’s winners included Suito Cleaning Paper and an expensive tape measure.

This year’s nominees, and winners, were, for the most part, unimpressive.

The Lihit Lab standing pen case had potential but suffered from being silicon, which made it slippery. It also requires two hands to use. To open you had to unzip it, then you pushed it on the desk and a center tube pushed the pens and pencils up. When you went to close the case, you had to pull the tube down. I told them it would be really cool if I could squeeze it to open it and then squeeze back after standing it up.

The paper products weren’t that interesting. The “Design” Grand Prix winner featured Japanese manuscript paper printed with color unique enough that people apparently use it for wrapping paper. It’s not that useful, though, unless you write manuscripts in Japanese or wrap presents.

The Knoxbrain LUFT is a more traditional sized Traveler’s notebook (no surprise as Knoxbrain is owned by DESIGNPHIL which owns Traveler’s) It uses ring clips which makes it a thin Filofax. It was nice looking but was nothing special.

I liked the white board brush, but it’s more of a specialty item than something useful to the general public.

The lighted hanko/chop is interesting, and I like that all you have to do is touch the bottom section with your finger to turn on the light,but it’s more for people worried about getting things perfect than for the general public.

The ruler pen thing was well made, and reasonably priced, but not something I’d ever need.

I liked the bookends. The colors were great and they had a brushed texture that was cool. I’ll look for them in the future.

My favorite thing was the stapler. It’s made by Max, who also make an impressive small stapler capable of binding 40 pages with no problems. Th award nominee is the size of a thick USB thumb drive and designed to be carried loose in a pencil case. It handles 10-15 pages with only two fingers. I liked it enough I ordered one after I got home.

My only complaint about the small stapler was the name. Never call your product “gimmick” (says the man who calls his blog Mere Blather).

Pens Among the Office Supplies

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I was mostly looking for notebooks, and scaring the hell out of the people who make them, but ran into a guy who likes fountain pens and that slowed me down.

Today I was lucky to have the time to head down to Tokyo Big Sight to attend the International Stationery & Office Products Fair Tokyo. I’ll write more posts on this in the future, but today’s story was typical of why I like the pen and stationery community.

First, I made it my mission to track down non-Japanese pens and stationery. I found a number of pen manufacturers from Korea, Taiwan, China and Turkey who all offered interesting pens (one of my favorites featured Japanese ink and Swiss pen tips in Chinese bodies).

However, this year there seemed to be more notebook manufacturers than last year.

It therefore became my job to scare the notebook manufacturers by using my two wettest fountain pens to test the fountain pen friendly nature of their paper. A typical conversation went:

Me: Are these fountain pen friendly?
Victim: Yes, they are.
Me (taking out my Nock Co Sinclair full of pens): Oh, really?
Victim (as I write on the paper): Gasp.

Several of the manufacturers expressed relief when their paper held up–more on that in a future post–and all admitted they were nervous when I started testing. None of them failed horrible, all though some did have minor bleedthrough. Granted, some of them seemed to think I was more professional than I am but no one was upset by the testing.

Note: I realize that, perhaps scaring the hell out of people is not the best way to win friends and influence people, but it did kind of make me a friend. One notebook maker, though, said he was a fan of fountain pens and, sure enough, his notebooks held up well. This, however, led to a long “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” meeting where we played with each other’s goods, so to speak.

I was impressed that he was interested enough in fountain pens to interrupt his work to try out the ones I was carrying. He also gave me a couple notebooks, including one with a cover and two refills and promised more samples if I was able to show up on Friday.

Still don’t know if I will, but it does have me wondering who else I can get samples from since it’s the last day…