Bombay Journal From Barnes & Noble

March 13, 2015

I am resurrecting this old thread because the paper in this journal is some of the best paper I have ever used! I want to find out who distributes it and see if the paper is sold by the ream--or if another company makes something similar. The paper is watermarked "parchment," and the name "Punctuate" is on the inside sheet. Punctuate is a Barnes and Noble trademark, however. When I searched Google for more information about this paper, I only found the following mill information, which may refer to paper used in their books not their journals. In any case, does anyone have an idea as to what paper Barnes and Noble uses in these lovely journals?

Thanks!

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/03/barnes-noble-national-geographics-illegal-logging-ties

February 11, 2016

Bumping this topic again, as I just discovered it. I've enjoyed these journals for several years, and am adding the Basil, Ochre, and Caramel Apple colored covers to my black and brown ones. After trying several fountain pens, the nibs that work best are my fine Duofold loaded with J. Herbin's Lie de the', a slightly washy, olive-toned sepia that resembles time-faded black, or my fine Sheaffer Balance II with Diamine's Ancient Copper.

I very much appreciate the medieval-style binding because the pages open and lie *flat*, making writing easier, without holding the book open being part of the task. Ink bleed-through isn't a problem, either. The extra pages have come in handy as blotter-bookmark. And it takes a very long time, even with multiple-page entries, to fill one of these journals.

When I set out to find a leather-wrap and tie journal, I wanted hand-pulled paper, with its soft deckled edges. Handbound leather wrap journals with hand-pulled paper are far more expensive than I can afford, though, so the Bombay was an easy compromise. I did try an experiment, which gives me the look of hand-pulled pages and a softer, less stiff and crisp feeling to the journal.

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/arliss/1028683/100355/100355_600.jpg

Those are wood rasps.

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/arliss/1028683/99753/99753_600.jpg

I held the page block tight together while I rasped the top, bottom, and unbound edges with the rasps. You can see the difference in the second picture. Overall, the book, when wrapped and tied, is much softer and more flexible in the hand, and when unwrapped and spread to write in, is more relaxed and lies flat and open to the relevant page. I like the esthetic, too, obviously not hand-pulled, but not squared-up and cut crisply, either.

Rasping the pages of a single journal does take time, often more than one can accomplish in one sitting. But for me, the look and feel of the amended journal is well worth the effort and time spent.

Edited February 11, 2016 by arliss

February 16, 2016

Bumping this topic again, as I just discovered it. I've enjoyed these journals for several years, and am adding the Basil, Ochre, and Caramel Apple colored covers to my black and brown ones. After trying several fountain pens, the nibs that work best are my fine Duofold loaded with J. Herbin's Lie de the', a slightly washy, olive-toned sepia that resembles time-faded black, or my fine Sheaffer Balance II with Diamine's Ancient Copper.

I very much appreciate the medieval-style binding because the pages open and lie *flat*, making writing easier, without holding the book open being part of the task. Ink bleed-through isn't a problem, either. The extra pages have come in handy as blotter-bookmark. And it takes a very long time, even with multiple-page entries, to fill one of these journals.

When I set out to find a leather-wrap and tie journal, I wanted hand-pulled paper, with its soft deckled edges. Handbound leather wrap journals with hand-pulled paper are far more expensive than I can afford, though, so the Bombay was an easy compromise. I did try an experiment, which gives me the look of hand-pulled pages and a softer, less stiff and crisp feeling to the journal.

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/arliss/1028683/100355/100355_600.jpg

Those are wood rasps.

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/arliss/1028683/99753/99753_600.jpg

I held the page block tight together while I rasped the top, bottom, and unbound edges with the rasps. You can see the difference in the second picture. Overall, the book, when wrapped and tied, is much softer and more flexible in the hand, and when unwrapped and spread to write in, is more relaxed and lies flat and open to the relevant page. I like the esthetic, too, obviously not hand-pulled, but not squared-up and cut crisply, either.

Rasping the pages of a single journal does take time, often more than one can accomplish in one sitting. But for me, the look and feel of the amended journal is well worth the effort and time spent.

I like the look of the rasped edges. I might try that maneuver myself. Meanwhile I'm traveling this week, having begun with the L.A. Pen Show two days ago and continuing in my old hometown till next weekend. I wrote 10 pages last night, and now I've consumed 110 of the 256. I can attest it takes a long time to fill one of these volumes.

February 27, 2016

I had a gift card for Barnes and Noble, and so did some reading around about what they might have in the way of fountain-pen friendly notebooks and journals. I was in the market for a sort of family journal, where my wife, daughter, and I could just put whatever we wanted in it, whenever the feeling moved us -- quotes, sketches (that would be more my wife and daughter, who are significantly more talented in that regard than I am), notes to each other, whatever. (Sort of like a very small-scale and localized version of the travelling Inkophiles Journals.)

It seemed that some of the offerings from Piccadilly would be suitable -- alas, my local Barnes and Noble carried a number of them, but not the graph Essentials version I was hoping to find (a lined notebook seemed less friendly to free sketching and such, so I was hoping for graph paper). So, I wandered over to the area where they had their wall full of leather journals. I'd seen this thread about the Bombay journals, and while I didn't think that was really what I was looking for, I still pulled one down off the shelf when I saw it. They had one that wasn't in the plastic wrapping, so I could flip it open and look through it. And, I have to say, as soon as I saw and ran a hand over the paper, and got the smell of the soft leather in my nostrils, I was sold. Walked up to the counter, plunked down my $10 gift card, paid the difference, and brought the new book home.

I was hoping for something with paper that was closer to white, as colored sketches are going to be a little problematic. But aside from that, I really love the paper. I've got a 1.1mm stub-nibbed Lamy Safari filled with Waterman Inspired Blue as my daily pen, and it looks wonderful on the Bombay journal paper. No bleed or show-through at all, and a little experimentation with one of the loose pages included showed that pretty much anything I had ready to hand, aside from a Sharpie marker (which bleeds through everything), was handled without issue. I've been taking it for granted that I'd need some kind of guide to keep my writing even, but after a few sentences, I decided that there's a lot to be said for not worrying overmuch about perfectly straight lines. The paper is lovely, the ink is beautiful on it, and the words, while tending to go uphill and down a bit, are perfectly legible.

I'm looking forward to a number of months spent filling this up -- and then, most likely, picking up another one. Really excellent purchase.

February 28, 2016

[T]here's a lot to be said for not worrying overmuch about perfectly straight lines.

Hear, hear. I've written 130 pages in mine, the large edition, which I use for a travel journal. I've never used a guide and never concerned myself with whether the lines were perfectly perpendicular to the fore-edge. Nevertheless, most of the lines are, and the ones that aren't are nearly so.