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Okay, 'hate' is a bit much, I don't hate it, it's quite nice actually. The only thing that spoils it a bit for me is that the lines on the grid pattern are just a touch too strong - I like mine barely-there. And if you don't like grid at all, you're SOL when it comes to this notepad because the paper only comes in grid. There is a punch available (from Rakuten) but it only punches like one sheet at a time, not even business card thickness, so not something you could ever use to MYO refills. So, what to do? Get another A7(ish) wire bound notepad, cut off the rings to liberate the pierced paper, and bind it together with the lihit lab binding mechanism Here's the detailed how-to: You need: A pair of wire cutter pliers. Jewelry making weight should be all you need, no need to haul out the fence cutters Your Lihit Lab Twist Ring notepad (I'm calling it LL) Your refill notepad: it should be wire-bound in the twin-ring format, in a size that's about a7 - exact dimensions down to the mm are unimportant, it's the holes that matter most: the number and the spacing of them need to match the ones on the LL. I could go on in the abstract about how to do that by measuring, but really the most intuitive way to ascertain this is to get one sheet off the notebook you want to use to replace the aqua drops, and test it with the binding (that's step 1). Step 1: Make sure your paper fits the LL binding. Don't cut open the rings on your replacement notebook just yet, in case it turns out the holes don't match up - wouldn't want to destroy the binding only to find you can't reuse the loose sheets as a refill Start by separating one sheet from the notebook - to avoid getting the fluffed-out bits of paper where it was torn from the rings, don't tear it in the usual upward side to side motion, but pull outwards: Remove the extra bits that may still be stuck. Then just slide it up to the rings of the LL. This fits: This doesn't: Okay, you're all done with the tricky part Step 2: Liberate the paper. Cut open the rings with your wire cutter. Not much more to say than that - just go to town on the rings, it doesn't matter, all you need to do is make sure not to damage the paper and you're done. Step 3: Switcheroo Open the lihit lab and take the paper out - maybe the covers too if you want to ditch those. Replace with the liberated paper and covers from your other notebook, starting with the covers (one on each half of the open rings), then the paper. The only thing to mind here is not to overfill the LL. It takes less paper than most pocket A7 notepads, because the twist ring mechanism needs room to work. Done! Here's a list of the notepads I tried (because I had them on hand) and the results: These fit: Kokuyo CamiApp (note: if you want the Scanner feature to work you have to transfer the covers too because the black works as a frame for the app when you take the photo, otherwise it might not work). Midori Diamond Memo Small This didn't: maruman Mnemosyne 184 Roots (meh, this one sucks anyway - only one side printed, WTH?) If you try this, could you please list your results here? I would love to know how you got along as this is my first pen-related tutorial (hey, gotta start somewhere lol). I would also love to know if anyone tries this with any of the larger sizes of LL twist rings notebooks, like the B5 that Jetpens stock

Notes - Having produced a nicely formatted article in LibreOffice Writer, I found that the only way to transfer that to the FPN without losing the formatting was to save the pages as JPG, and attach the images. The photos of the products are arranged alphabetically as they are first mentioned, so you know what to look for if you want to get any of the products. I will try to add some scans of representative bleeding and feathering examples.

Have you ever wanted to remove some pages from a wire-bound notebook but without actually tearing them out? For instance, maybe because you don't want the fluffed out bits and there's no micro-perforation, or maybe you wish you could bind them in a different order or move them to a different notebook? So far you could only pry the coil apart or just cut it with pliers, but that left you with an unuseable notebook. Well, it turns out that some designers over in Japan maybe got tired of that and created a little tool that neatly opens out the coil evenly from end to end, so when you have removed the pages you want, you can use any wire-binding machine to clamp the wire coil shut again and continue to use your notebook. Here it is in action: It's made by Lihit Lab, and so far the only place I know of to get it is Rakuten; just search for Lihit N-1811 (that's the product code - thanks again to gsalazar for helping me find that!!) To be honest, I think it might be possible to get the same result using one of those tools for opening packages, like this one (as suggested by FPNer Michael/my63 on the thread I created asking for help on where to get this tool ) That one would be cheaper and easier to obtain outside Japan, but it's probably a bit unwieldy - bulkier and heavier. Also, most of these things will have a little piece of blade in that notch; that might give some trouble as well. If anyone has one of these, will you try it and post the results?

I went to Jetpens to reorder a kokuyo inspiracion (my favorite notebook to use as a refill for the lihit lab twist rings system) and to my horror they don't stock it anymore!! I couldn't even find it on Rakuten, so I suspect it may have been discontinued So now I need your help to replace it! For the general info, here's the old description on Jetpens. And here are the parts that mattered to me: - page size and hole pattern: they're identical to the lihit lab twist ring system (a 3:1 pitch, for binding geeks). This is a must-have - without this there's no point - color and page layout: off-white (cream and ivory would be ok too, just no bright-white), 5mm grid type, but faint (fine and light in color) so it organizes the page without overwhelming the writing. Please, no dot pads - I know many people love them and are excited to recommend them, but I really don't get along with them and would be grateful if you could help me avoid the confusion of having to sort dot-pad recommendations from grid ones :-) - available from a retailer with sane int'l shipping. The inspiracion also had microperforated pages, but since the Lihit is a binder system that's not critical (the neat edge was nice to have when I wanted to give someone a page, but I wouldn't sacrifice the other stuff for microperf'ed pages ) I also liked that the grid pattern extended to cover the whole page, no margins. But I can live with a frame/box style grid, as long as otherwise there's nothing to prevent me from using it in both portrait and landscape mode ) Can you guys think of anything that fits the bill? Or alternatively, just a good place to buy Inspiracion notebooks? At this point I could even stock up and buy several, which should make the shipping situation a bit easier hopefully! thanks!!

I mean the stuff that's got pages you can move around, but that isn't a traditional ringbinder with the bulky metal spine hardware to open and close the ring for accessing the paper (usually with 2/3/4 rings, sometimes 6 as with organizers BUT either way with the bulky hardware). These are generally sold as 'notebook systems' (or just plain notebooks) but essentially they pack the versatility of a binder into a compact package like a notebook. To do that they usually sacrifice either sheet capacity, ease of adding/removing sheets, or hardiness of the binding mechanism. So, it includes all those I mentioned in the thread title, but excludes things like that Mead Flex thingy or ringbinder organizers (Filofax, daytimer, whatever the brand). I tend to call these notebook/binder hybrids, but I was wondering if there were any other names about, like any industry names maybe? Something a bit shorter would be nice too - 'notebook/binder hybrid' is descriptive enough but it is quite a mouthful! I'm asking because this type of notebook is a big focus of my paper-related interests; I've always enjoyed tweaking and tinkering with this type of thing (it reconciles two opposites tendencies - I love the idea of a notebook, but loose leaf and a binder is way more practical for me ) A less awkward way to refer to these would be nice!