Search the Community

I asked Paperthinks to send me a few sheets of paper for review, mostly because I didn't want to commit $20 to a journal that might not be FP-friendly. They agreed to send me an out-of-date 2014 planner, but surprised me by sending me a tiiiiny notebook to sample instead. It was a highly classy move on their end. I only wish the paper was as classy as the technique What did I think? Well, read my.... Paperthinks Pocket Notebook Review! Sample provided free from Paperthinks, because I asked nicely. So points for customer / potential-customer service! Item MSRP's at $12.95 on the Paperthinks Site. The Pocket Notebook measures 3.5 x 5.0". The cover is 100% recycled leather, which is nice and appeals to my eco-friendly personality, and the one they sent me is an attractive shade of navy blue. There's an adorable 1/8" wide black ribbon sewn in the middle, and a surprisingly expandable pocket in the back for storing scraps of paper. There's no elastic closure, but it doesn't seem to need one; it seems to want to stay closed all by itself. In terms of branding, the words Paper thinksTM are written, fairly small, on the base of the spine, in an elegant and unobtrusive gray-on-navy arrangement; there is a small logo on the inside of the front cover, opposite a front page that has spaces for Name, Phone, and (oddly enough) emergency contact info. As to the paper, there are 128 sheets (256 pages) of pH-neutral, chlorine-free, acid-free, and "selected recycled fibres", ruled, ivory paper in this notebook. There are 20 lines on the page, with the top 7/16" as a margin, and 3/16" side and bottom margins. The website states that the notebooks are Smyth-sewn and lay flat, which I did not experience to be the case; toward the ends the pages may lie relatively flat, but in the middle it's humpsville, and it's a fight to keep whichever cover has less pages against the desk. This might get better with time, but unfortunately, I don't like the paper well enough to find out. I've only written a few test pages so far, with the 4 pens I have. While my photo-taking skills aren't great, and I've decided not to include them unless someone requests it, here's what I used, and the results: --Pilot Metropolitan (Asian M) with Diamine Ancient Copper: Hairline feathering, which remains quite legible, but some pretty bad bleedthrough at the bottoms of the letters. The reverse side would be basically unusable, but you could get away with using this verso-only. --Noodler's Ahab with J. Herbin 1670 Stormy Gray: All's fair in love and pens, and seeing how a flex pen does with cheap paper is just.... sad. Lots of ink or Ahab's finest receding hairline, didn't matter. The paper still feathered all over the place, and, on the deepest flexes, bled through to the page beyond. Though the ink DOES sparkle nicely on this paper (it doesn't on everything, including Office Despot pads), so that's a plus. --Lamy Safari (Western M) with Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun: This didn't feather particularly badly, partially because I think the nib is just kind of "vague", but it also didn't behave particularly well; the ink is too light-colored for terrible bleed-through, but it still tried pretty hard. Could you use the recto? Probably. But the ink looks "chalky" here, in a way it doesn't on other cheap paper. --Lamy Safari (Western XF) with Noodler's 54th Massachusetts: This was the best-behaved combination I have currently inked (across various papers). The lines don't feather more than the occasional hairline, or bleed through at all, or even show through particularly badly. You could get away with writing on the recto (back of the page) with this pretty easily, if you kept it to the XF nib. With this combination, and this combination Overall: I like that it's recycled and eco-friendly. I want to like this notebook, really I do. But I can't. It doesn't lay flat, it's a little thick for my tastes, and the paper just isn't suitable for fountain pens. As to the paper, with a fine enough nib and a well-behaved ink this MIGHT be a usable journal or notebook. But with most inks and nibs the recto is a complete goner, not to mention its feathering problems. I'm sure it's great with ballpoints, and maybe even rollerballs, but here on the Fountain Pen Network it just doesn't cut it. Spend your $13 on something else. The 3.5" x 5.5" Markings by C.R. Gibson Moleskine-esque notebook sells at Staples for just $7, and, if it's anything like it's bigger sister, it handles FPs MUCH better. Photos: Courtesy of paperthinks.us http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0493/0109/products/PT03558_1_1024x1024.jpg?v=1405440746 http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0493/0109/products/PT91118_02_d80f16e4-8113-4c3a-9026-7d48e3a40861.jpg?v=1405440746

Hey guys. The Topic Title pretty much says it all. And yes, I've searched through the forums, but I'm an information hog and need MOAR DATA before I make a decision on where to spend my precious $20. (That might not seem like a lot to users of $250+ pens, but cash is not exactly flowing like water in the Black Crow household). Specifically looking for something that will support a semi/flexi pen (a.k.a. an Ahab), on the relative cheap. And yes, I've seen the reviews of the Rhodia Webnotebook and the Clairefontaine journals etc. I'm scouring in other places. Does anyone know where or whether a lowly end-user can get paper samples from any of these makers? I'd really like to test and see whether particular papers are going to be FP-friendly, esp. with flexi/semiflexi/maybeflexi nib. I know Seven Seas is much-beloved by many and uses Tomoe River paper, but does anyone know if one can just get a few sample sheets to test out? 480 pages and $30 is a BIG leap of faith.... Ecosystem--how is the bleed-through? I know it's all recycled paper; does anyone have problems using the back side of the page (the. . . verso, maybe? The back, posterior side. Dammit, why can't books be anterior/posterior or dorsal/ventral or something? ) for writing? There's a separate Paperthinks thread, but has anybody seen or used an actual notebook from them yet? I haven't found any good reviews online related to FPs. Shinola looks nice, American-made, but it uses 60# stock (which I'm pretty sure is the same thing as 24# copy paper). Has anyone had any successes or failures with this particular brand? I've seen the one thread about it, but do we have any other happy/unhappy customers hiding in the woodworks? Thank you all in advance!