O'bon notebook review

September 3, 2009

Complete review with pictures can be found on my blog.

INTRO

I was pleasantly surprised by this notebook. Like the Staples sugarcane bagasse paper, the O'bon notebooks are made from the waste pulp of sugarcane after it's been crushed for juice. Now, how does this notebook stand up to its cheaper Staples counterpart?

CONSTRUCTION

The notebook is wire-bound, but unlike most other wire-bound notebooks, this one has a double loop of wire, so it won't get easily twisted and warped while in your backpack. Goodness knows that's a huge gripe I have about most wire-bounds.

There are 80 sheets of paper per notebook. Sadly they are not perforated...ah well. Not a big deal.

One interesting thing is that the lines inside the notebook are actually black (instead of, say, blue or grey). Oh, and the pages are college-ruled, not wide-ruled. Hooray! I'm always dismayed when great notebooks/journals have big wide lines, so I was happy to see that the lines in this notebook are nice and thin

PAPER

I tried out my Pelikan M200 once with Noodler's Navajo Turquoise and again with J. Herbin's Rouge Bourgogne. The RB displayed a bit more feathering than the NT. This plus the fact that the Poussiere de Lune from my vintage Waterman 56 feathered a lot leads me to conclude that J. Herbin inks (which have feathery tendencies) are not the best choice for this paper. Private Reserve inks, on the other hand, seem to fare very well. Noodler's displays moderate feathering, and my MontBlanc Violet was surprisingly well behaved. So, I'd suggest Private Reserve as the best choice for this paper. Not that there's a particularly bad choice for this paper; even though there is feathering, it's so slight that you have to really look hard to notice it! Even with wetter nibs. What remarkably resilient paper

PURCHASING O'BON NOTEBOOKS

O'bon notebooks can be purchased at -- gasp! -- the O'bon website, which is:

www.myobon.com

Check out some of the other cool goodies O'bon offers, as well =)

CONCLUSION

O'bon paper is some of the best recycled paper I've tried. With the majority of pen/ink combinations, there's no feathering or shading, and like I said -- the feathering/shading that DOES occur is very, very slight.

Thus, I find myself liking this notebook more and more. It has thicker pages than the average notebook and it takes fountain pen ink remarkably well. If you're hunting for school supplies ('tis the season, after all) I definitely recommend the O'bon line of sugarcane tree-free notebooks!

September 10, 2009

+1

I just ordered a few of these notebooks. Service from www.myobon.com was great. The notebooks seem much higher quality than those from Staples. The paper is thicker and the covers are top quality.

I have only tested, but it shows no feathering.

September 10, 2009

The paper shows through more than the Staples, but I now use an Apple-covered O'bon notebook for my work notebook.

http://www.myobon.com/files/1997511/uploaded/fuitsA5apple.jpg

September 11, 2009

+2 for O'bon; no feathering or bleed through with my M800 filled with Noodler's OMB. The paper isn't that quite white or smooth... but why should I complain? We're saving the environment!