Apica Journals

[seikoguy]

Well, my order from Molly Taylor of "taylorsintherockies" arrived today and I'm more than pleased! Thanks to Allen for his post, I've now discovered writing paper that has easily met my expectations, and then some. I bought an assortment of notepads, and Molly was kind enough to even include a few extra complimentary samples for me to try. (Thanks, Molly! ) I could not resist getting a couple of the 100-sheet 6A10 notepads mentioned in the first post and tried it with a small selection of my favorite daily writers (all Japanese, I might add!) that were loaded with an assortment of ink by Private Reserve, Waterman, Pelikan, Noodlers and J.Herbin.

 

From left to right, Danitrio "Mae West" polished ebonite, Pilot Bamboo, Platinum Very Presidential, Pilot Custom 823 and Sailor Rhodium Professional Gear.

 

http://www.fototime.com/CA72C744BDFBE31/orig.jpg

 

Ok, at first glance, the photo below might appear to be a pic of a blank page. Err well, you're right. It is! I had filled up the previous page with loads of scribbling and doodling with the pens above. When I turned the page over, I was surprised at the complete lack of bleedthrough. If you were to click on my photo and examine the fullsize image, you can see the physical impressions that my pen nibs made on the page, but no bleedthrough. The pens also wrote wonderfully on the smooth paper, putting down ink with just the weight of the pen alone, nary a skip. I didn't notice any feathering either.

 

http://www.fototime.com/224BBEBCEA14EBB/orig.jpg

 

Yup, I'm happy!

Edited May 1, 2007 by seikoguy

[Freeloader]

Very cool! I may have to pick up some of these.

[a11en]

Fantastic!!! Really glad you liked your purchase. I'm also glad to have the other inks and pens tested out on the paper- nice to see the paper is good with a variety of inks.

 

Your pictures are wonderful also, Seikoguy!

-Allen

[Latro21]

  a11en said:

How cool that you may have an opportunity to do more pen-related shopping in Japan in the future!! Totally awesome. Hope your Grandmother and Cousin had a great time!! One of these days I hope I can go there as well!

-Allen

 

yea, they had a good time there. it seems a lot has changed since i was there last with regards to my family, but all in all things are well. their only gripe was how much more packed the train cars are now that there are the women-only cars.

[seikoguy]

  a11en said:

Fantastic!!! Really glad you liked your purchase. I'm also glad to have the other inks and pens tested out on the paper- nice to see the paper is good with a variety of inks.

 

Your pictures are wonderful also, Seikoguy!

-Allen

Thanks, Allen. Glad I could contribute. I am also surprised that the heavier 60-lb bond paper that Levenger uses on their premium pads experience enough bleedthrough that I won't ever use both sides of it, whereas this thinner and lighter Apica paper can easily be used on both sides. Heck, I just doubled my savings!

 

 

[a11en]

  seikoguy said:

Thanks, Allen. Glad I could contribute. I am also surprised that the heavier 60-lb bond paper that Levenger uses on their premium pads experience enough bleedthrough that I won't ever use both sides of it, whereas this thinner and lighter Apica paper can easily be used on both sides. Heck, I just doubled my savings!

 

Interesting to hear your experience also! I just recently picked up another Levenger pad (letter sized) to jot some notes in a meeting this week (quick carry)... and noticed as soon as I started writing a lot of bleed. It's not horrible, but it's not great either. So, I'm glad to have tried the Levenger pad again. Apica's paper certainly is fantastic- yes, it's quite thin, but you're absolutely right- the bleed is almost nothing- only if I rest the tip on the page for a while or use an extremely wet writer have I noticed an issue. Glad to have my experience confirmed by at least one other person!

 

Molly's a great gal also! Will be guying from her in the future!

 

I hope you're having a great weekend, Seikoguy (and everyone else in the thread)! I'll let ya know when my newer 100page journal comes in.

 

Cheers!

-Allen

 

(who's still a bit envious at the gorgeous pictures you take, seikoguy!)

[elena]

I just bought the smallest of these from Flax in SF in February. I decided on the smallest because I didn't want to invest in more notebooks that end up in the give-away drawer, and because it looked cute. After reading all the rave, I can't wait to put pen to it.

 

 

[donwinn]

  a11en said:

This review has been a long time coming. I find myself almost to the end of my first Apica Journal, and I want to share with you guys my take on these great skinny journals with fantastic paper.

 

I found out about these journals through an earlier post requesting a Smythson alternative- Jsonewald tipped me off to Apicas. The goal- a thin paper that takes FP ink well. [i had previously focused on thick paper that was excellent, but thin now attracted me for some strange reason.] Of course this was one of the nice aspects of the Smythson blue paper, although horribly expensive. [i'll hopefully get to Smythson in a future post.]

 

The Apica journals that I have are the CD series- in specific, I purchased (if I remember this right) the CD5, CD11 and CD15.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/389610867_a0165cc423_m.jpg

It's hard to explain just how thin and floppy these notebooks are. I thought at first I would hate them because of it, but I quickly found the thinness of the notebooks to be a wonderful advantage. It would easily slip into a bag that was stuffed to the gills, or my slim computer bag where only a lightly used file-folder would fit. After writing in it the first few times, I was hooked. The paper inside is wonderfully smooth. It's not as smooth as Triomphe, but it's much smoother than BnR and Miquelrius, etc. At least to my touch it feels this way. [Please feel free to get me to recheck this if you are wondering before purchasing yourself.] I loved the paper so much, I switched over to using the larger CD15 notebook for my everyday work notebook as I made notes on my calculations and writing.

 

I think there is a slight difference in paper between the larger notebook (CD15) and the mid-size (CD11). The CD11 seemed to have a slight bit of bleed and seethrough with wet nibs. The day I took these I had only written in the 11, so I'll have to take some more tomorrow from my work notebook, the CD15. It has no discernable feathering and no bleedthrough that I can see.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/389594387_09621cf602_m.jpg

 

Apica journals weren't very easy to track down. I found only 3 places that sold Apica journals online. They were as follows:

 

The Daily Planner (Apica Section)

AsianFoodGrocer.Com (I think most are made by Apica on this page, but I can't be sure.)

TaylorsInTheRockies on Ebay

 

Being a poor grad-student, I took my chances with ebay after asking a few questions of the seller. [Disclaimer- I'm not associated with her in any way- just a very happy customer.] TaylorInTheRockies turned out to be another lover of Apica notebooks. She loved them so much she decided to import them because they were so hard to find over here.

 

All in all, I loved this first notebook so much that I'll have to buy a number of them just so I won't go without in the future. So, a hat-tip to Jsonewald for telling me about Apicas!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/170/389604913_56f354493c.jpg

 

I purchased a few of the journals from taylorsintherockies on eBay, and have been very happy. I carry a mini in my pants pocket, and it is VERY FP friendly. The larger ones (don't remember off hand which) are equally friendly to FPs. I use a variety of Waterman cartridges, Parker cartridges, no name cartridges, and Noodler's la Coleur Royale fueled pens of varying brands and quality, and all are handled by the Apicas with equal aplomb. Money well spent.

 

Donnie in Little Elm TX

[goodyear]

Man, I shouldn't browse 'back in time' here.

 

That's more notebooks to buy, as if I didn't have enough already!

[a11en]

Hi guys!

 

Man, long time no read in FPN- I am a daily user, however, so my heart's still here. I just have been so swamped with work, I haven't been able to do anything else.

 

I wanted to add a comment on the 6A10 series of notebooks (the thicker notebooks -v- the CDxx series). I recently got some (again from ebay). They are slightly different than the larger CD series notebooks. I've noticed that the paper is a very light grey-blue (perhaps more blue than grey)... it's not exactly white. At least, not as white as the CD series notebooks. This may or may not matter to you, but just thought I'd mention it. I notice more variation in color as well, with some coloring of fibers being different than others. *However*- they have the same wonderful smooth paper and little to no bleedthrough. I'm amazed at how thin the paper is and how little bleed through occurs, there is of course see-through when a light is behind the paper.

 

So, I'm happy to report that the 6A10 thicker books are going well for me (like Seiko Guy) as well as the smaller CD series books. [i'll have to revisit the medium and small size to see if there is a different quality to the paper... I can't remember off-hand since it's been so long ago.]

 

The thicker 6A10 also has a Table of Contents as the first page. I usually make this myself with the first couple pages, so it doesn't matter much to me, but thought I'd mention it.

 

All in all, I'm still loving the Apicas for FP use, and have filled a couple of them already since I first purchased them in the spring. Thankfully I have bought more, so I have a small stock-pile for the near future.

 

Glad you guys are enjoying them as well!! My best to everyone on the board!!

-Allen

[who will soon be back on FPN as soon as he can find the time!]

Edited August 15, 2007 by a11en

[ojars]

OK folks! I have read so many sterling comments about Apica, that I have ordered several for my use. I long to be a convert!

[goodyear]

Hmm. taylorsinth... won't ship to the UK for me, so I need to find another source that will. DailyP won't, either. Google found me a French seller, but their prices, and especially shipping, are a bit much for a couple of skinny notebooks.

 

ANybody Stateside up for selling me a couple (or more) of CD11s?

[lingyuki]

Hey a11en~

 

Are you the Princeton student that's mentioned in taylorintherockies' description of the notebooks? I just bought a few notebooks to try out based on this thread about how great these notebooks seem to be~ Will using these get me into Princeton? :embarrassed_smile:

[OboeJuan]

Anybody know why taylorintherockies stopped shipping to Canada all of a sudden? I didn't want to bother them by asking, but I finally saved up enough to order some (used to ship to Canada) and then I go to order and no more shipping outside of the US. Thanks.

 

Kath

[girlieg33k]

Kath -- I stocked up on taylorsintherockies offerings on eBay. I have more than I could ever possibly use. Let me know which ones you want in PM and I'll ship it to you when I get around to catching up in my snail mail correspondences.

 

Best,

Kate

[OboeJuan]

  girlieg33k said:

Kath -- I stocked up on taylorsintherockies offerings on eBay. I have more than I could ever possibly use. Let me know which ones you want in PM and I'll ship it to you when I get around to catching up in my snail mail correspondences.

 

Best,

Kate

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly state that, in addition to being a darn good ink reviewer, Kate is one of the most thoughtful people here. Not just because she is offering to help me with my Apica shortage, but in general, she is a level headed, kind person.

 

Kathryn

[I am not a number]

I've got an order in with Taylor's that is being shipped to a mate of mine who is in the US at the moment. Hopefully he will be bringing them back in about 2 weeks as I am looking forward to trying these out!

 

 

[tcheuchter]

Had a tough time finding Apica in Canada. Found out Papeterie Nota Bene now has it. Pricier than Ebay though.

 

[mollytaylor]

  ojars said:

OK folks! I have read so many sterling comments about Apica, that I have ordered several for my use. I long to be a convert!

 

[mollytaylor]

  MollyatTakeNote said:

  ojars said:

OK folks! I have read so many sterling comments about Apica, that I have ordered several for my use. I long to be a convert!

 

Hi Fountain Penners. Molly here, (taylorsintherockies@msn.com) from Take Note Writing Gear, an eBay biz. I'll ship wherever you want me to if you tell me you're from this network. The prices to ship internationally just went skyhigh and I am reluctant to offer them. It makes my overall product prices appear extremely high as eBay is now posting a combined price, shipping plus merchandise. So, when you order, don't select "Pay Now." I'll send you an invoice with the correct shipping added. Please give me an extra day or two because I'll need to go to the Post Office to get the price. For my US shipments, I can print the postage at home. Lastly, I am considering listing a hard bound Apica twin spiral notebook. Would any of you find that interesting? Same great paper. The shipments from Japan are expensive since the weight is high. I have been debating carrying them. Thanks again for your patience, business and consideration. Molly at Take Note (an eBay store)