I'm A Sad, Pathetic Stationery Junkie.

[Penguincollector]

Oof @A Smug Dill, that sounds like a major hassle, and the seller a real see you next Tuesday. I’m glad you were able to get a refund. 

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, Penguincollector said:

I’m glad you were able to get a refund.

 

Thanks. The one for which I got a 30% refund, I was able to repair. The two other defective ones are functionally usable, but don't look so good; and the cracking and flaking off will only get worse. To what this has really alerted me, however, is just how fragile and/or apt to deteriorate the sheets of (call it leatherette, call it polyurethane, or whatever) synthetic material used in Kinbor journal covers is. Best to stay well away from such in the future; even if they arrive at my door in perfect condition, chances are they won't stay good-looking after a couple of years of use, or perhaps breaking down on its own even if just placed in storage for a long while.

[txomsy]

I'm in using mode. Want to retrain purchases until I start using several more notebooks.

 

Yet, today in Stockholm I found myself looking at the stationary in a Flying Tiger and other shops.

 

Luckily they didn't have what I wanted, for it's a very long trip yet to destination and back again to travel loaded.

[Misfit]

Thanks to a post by @A Smug Dill about Leuchtturm notebooks being restocked, I went to the nearby Home Goods. Hurray! There were more, plus more than I’ve seen at that location. Maybe they are for back to school.  There weren’t many color choices I didn’t have in A5.  I already had an Emerald lined in A5, and could have got dotted, but I got another Emerald lined in A5. I have a Purple dotted, but decided to get the Purple they had in squared only.  The Leuchtturm A6 notebooks provided  more color choices. The A5 Azure-Lime is a new color for my collection. 
 

 

Bottom row are the Gold from the metals series, Royal Blue, Nordic Blue, and Ice Blue.  The blue notebooks are dotted. The gold A6 has blank pages, as does the middle notebook in the top row.  I’ve been getting different sizes in Nordic blue since I have Danish relatives and ancestry. 
 

I’ve never had a Leuchtturm notebook with squared or grid paper. I prefer lined or ruled, then dotted. They had silver and copper in A5, plenty of emerald in A5, plus a Whitelines in A5. I left those for other people. The person who checked me out seemed interested, so I mentioned they were fountain pen friendly, didn’t bleed.  She seemed glad to know they didn’t bleed. And I mentioned the usual price. Maybe she’ll try one. 
 

I might will go to a nearby suburb to check their stock. Maybe they will have a Neon version, Gold or Lemon  in A5. I wish there had been colors I didn’t have in A5, but for $7.99 I had to get them. 

[Misfit]

I went to another Home Goods location, the one that had the best selection before. I thought I’d be happy to see an A5 in gold, a Neon version, and one in Lemon. They had Lemon in squared, so I got it, but at $9.99.  The only gold was A6. Emerald and purple were the other A5 options, and they had the same blue options that I found at my local Home Goods. I ended up getting the Lemon yellow and a large ruled JottBook in Sand.  So this time, the better selection was at my nearby Home Goods. Now I have to decide if it’s worth going to the close TJ Maxx. 
 

The bonus was in the checkout lane, a longtime friend I hadn’t seen for several years was behind me. We got to talk some.  

[A Smug Dill]

I received another hole punch from Amazon today, this time to suit Lihit Lab A5/B5/A4 re-closable binding spines — but with (smaller) rectangular holes instead of round holes (for which I already have the Lihit Lab-branded hole punch). The way things played out, it ended up being another ‘freebie’, with Amazon giving me a full refund without requiring me to return it. I guess that's a sorta nice note on which to end an otherwise rather bad August for me.

[Radius Solis]

I have come to conclusion that (beside occasional exceptional ones) my days of buying notebooks is coming to an end. That's because I'm interested in making ones, watched several videos about stitching techniques, got required tools ( paper trimmer, conner cutter, linen thread etc ) except A3 printer. Therefore I'll see if I can make artisan notebooks primarily for myself in future.

 

But for now , I'm into buying " Game of Thrones small notebooks " sold in set of three. I'm not buying them for my love of GoT ( I hate the last season as much as anyone else ) , primary reason I'm buying is it has nice paper (with vellum) and at worst case scenario I can replace cover with something else et voila new notebooks. ( Price is also rather enticing as each set is below $2 )

 

 

[txomsy]

Which ones are those? The only ones I see are 10x as much in price.

[Radius Solis]

4 hours ago, txomsy said:

Which ones are those? The only ones I see are 10x as much in price.

 

(Assuming you asked me) these are not of those fancy notebooks with hard covers but simple notebooks ( 9x14 cm ) , afaik it's made by local publishing company here. But GoT has no more appeal, GoT stuff is mostly vanished, these are in limited stocks.

[txomsy]

Yeah, that was what I asked. It's a pity, for notebooks with good quality, at those prices, and specially at those dimensions, would have been a rare opportunity (for me, I don't care too much about cover design).

 

Thanks for the clarification and taking the time to explain.

[amberleadavis]

I was feeling a little blue so my son and I went to Office Depot to see if they had any back to school stuff left. I ended up with a ream of Southworth resume paper for $11.  I didn't actually need resume paper, but you get the idea!

[Radius Solis]

19 hours ago, amberleadavis said:

I was feeling a little blue so my son and I went to Office Depot to see if they had any back to school stuff left. I ended up with a ream of Southworth resume paper for $11.  I didn't actually need resume paper, but you get the idea!

 

If a ream is 500 sheets as Google suggests , it's an amazing price I guess. I'd love to check their site but it simply says " not available in your country " as a joke.

[Penguincollector]

I bought a “Ink Tests” notebook by Steffi Plans on Amazon for less than $4. There were no reviews, so I don’t know how it will do, but for the price, I figured it would be worth a try.  Of course, now the same notebook is twice the price a day later. 

[SLinkster]

I was at Target earlier today and cruised through the seasonal corner in search of clearance art paper. I picked up 3 dozen 9"x12" Mondo llama brand 40-page art pads for 25¢ each. Or 3.75+ reams for $12.

 

The paper is decent quality, probably in the 28# neighborhood.  It is slightly cream, slightly toothy, and plays well with my extra-fine and G nibs. 

 

Christmas is coming, I predict perfect-bound journals for everybody in the family if I don't get tired of folding 😜

 

 

[USG]

On 9/2/2023 at 4:20 PM, amberleadavis said:

I was feeling a little blue so my son and I went to Office Depot to see if they had any back to school stuff left. I ended up with a ream of Southworth resume paper for $11.  I didn't actually need resume paper, but you get the idea!

 

+1  Nothing satisfies like "Moar Paper" .  Pre Covid, stationary stores were my favorite places. 👍😀

 

9 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

I bought a “Ink Tests” notebook by Steffi Plans on Amazon for less than $4. There were no reviews, so I don’t know how it will do, but for the price, I figured it would be worth a try.  Of course, now the same notebook is twice the price a day later. 

 

Inflation... 🤪

 

9 hours ago, SLinkster said:

I was at Target earlier today and cruised through the seasonal corner in search of clearance art paper. I picked up 3 dozen 9"x12" Mondo llama brand 40-page art pads for 25¢ each. Or 3.75+ reams for $12.

 

The paper is decent quality, probably in the 28# neighborhood.  It is slightly cream, slightly toothy, and plays well with my extra-fine and G nibs. 

 

Christmas is coming, I predict perfect-bound journals for everybody in the family if I don't get tired of folding 😜

 

 

 

"Journals for everybody in the family",  Capital idea!!!! +! +1 👍  (are you going to remake them, Sew or glue)

 

Gee, speaking of slightly toothy, I have some pre Sanzen transition period Tomoe River 68gsm paper that surprisingly is slightly toothy...  AlwaysAlertMe never noticed it before the other day... 🤷‍♂️

[SLinkster]

11 hours ago, USG said:

Journals for everybody in the family",  Capital idea!!!! +! +1 👍  (are you going to remake them, Sew or glue)

 

I am such a bookbinding tyro I feel like I am probably embarassing myself by going into any detail here. Most of what I know I picked up from YouTube and from a couple of dense textbooks scrounged from the clearance section of the used book store. 

 

Perfect-bound is glued spine binding. In the case of these intended journals I will use one 40pg pad per journal. I'll fold each sheet to produce a 160pg page book and include endpapers when I glue the blocks. The cardboard backers are cut in half and become the covers, to which I glue whatever cute paper is handy (or sometimes brown bag, also handy for doodlers and DIY decorators).

 

I make hand-sewn journals for my own use in a decrepit leather notebook cover I've had since high school.

 

Also Singer-sewn booklets that I sometimes agglomerate into perfect-bound journals. In fact I've been testing the limits of the direct-drive motor on a beat-to-heck Singer 15-91 by asking it to stitch an increasing number of pages. The old girl is up to 29 sheets of 24# copy paper plus a sheet of 70# cover as of yesterday, with a fresh needle and plenty of lube. In practical terms that's probably too many sheets in one pamphlet. If I want it to look tidy I have to trim the edges, which noticeably reduces the sizes of the inner pages. 

 

I recently started grooving on two techniques for quick hand-sewn pamphlets: double and split double. These are methods that let you combine two pamphlet blocks into a single cover with but one pamphlet stitch. Split double also offers the opportunity to use different papers in the two blocks and to use different front/back cover stock. That last is a real selling point if, for example, one were to already own an inordinate quantity of assorted cardstock in a size too small for classic single pamphlet, but perfect for use as either a front or back cover with a spare half inch that becomes the "spine" of one half of a split double pamphlet. Not that I know anyone who has such a quantity of cardstock... 

 

 

[Penguincollector]

24 minutes ago, SLinkster said:

If I want it to look tidy I have to trim the edges, which noticeably reduces the sizes of the inner pages. 

  Not a bookbinder, but I do sew- what about covering the edges, like one does with bias tape on textiles, but with whatever is appropriate for the cover material?  Start out with the cover piece large enough that you can cut the inner pages as little as possible. Then the pages just need to line up straight, which is probably the PITA part that takes practice and patience. 
 

  As to the ink tests book, it’s not for fountain pen ink, everything feathers except Platinum cartridge pink, even 4001 inks.

[SLinkster]

1 minute ago, Penguincollector said:

  Start out with the cover piece large enough that you can cut the inner pages as little as possible. Then the pages just need to line up straight, which is probably the PITA part that takes practice and patience. 

11 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

 

 

 

 

If you grab a pinch of paper out of your printer and fold it in half, can you then square up the edges opposite the fold? Nope! It's a mechanical issue. The stack is still a stack. The same thing happens to the folding money in your wallet.

 

You can offset the fold a bit, however. I use bulldog clips to secure a group of pages at one short side. I then align the innermost page's opposite short edge with the square edge in the clips, then allow the remaining pages to "fan" a bit and make the fold for the group.

 

It isn't ideal, but I have enough cover stock *ahem* that I can usually make it work. And if not there is always the split double option. 

 

13 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

  As to the ink tests book, it’s not for fountain pen ink, everything feathers except Platinum cartridge pink, even 4001 inks.

 

Many years ago I acquired several boxes of "mini flash cards", which are essentially blank, white business cards punched in one corner so they can be grouped together on a binder ring. 

They're great for (along other) things ink swabs and even writing samples if you want a pen test and not a pen+ink+paper test. 

 

 

[Penguincollector]

1 hour ago, SLinkster said:

Many years ago I acquired several boxes of "mini flash cards", which are essentially blank, white business cards punched in one corner so they can be grouped together on a binder ring. 

They're great for (along other) things ink swabs and even writing samples if you want a pen test and not a pen+ink+paper test.

  I make these out of different papers for ink swabs, and there’s a commercially available one called Col-O-Ring.  
 

[Misfit]

I was watching a news show. A guest had a notebook, open, with handwritten notes. Kind of cool to see a notebook that is being used on TV.