Contact's Family leather A5 notebook cover

[A Smug Dill]

I'm very pleased with this product. Excellent value for money, and the item was dispatched in just one day, even though I asked for (included in the asking price) laser engraving of a custom text string with unconventional placement.

 

 

 

 

 

[txomsy]

Nice acquisition. I got from them a pen sleeve, engraved, and I'm most satisfied with it as well.

[A Smug Dill]

After buying this Contact's Family A5 book cover a while back (and one for my wife as well), I've been waiting for the opportunity to buy myself yet another at a similarly favourable (or even lower) price — not that I don't already have more (leather and non-leather) A5 covers than I can meaningfully use. One can never be surrounded by too many artefacts from dead animals, assuming they've been properly treated to prevent decay or spreading diseases.

 

Recently, that opportunity came.

 

I used the product listing link in my order history to ‘reorder’ what I thought was a ‘known quantity’, but what I received is significantly different this time.

The new cover (left), alongside the same product I ordered and received previously.

 

The new leather cover:

• is made of noticeably thicker and less floppy leather;
• has much more orange/red how it was dyed;
• may have been pre-treated with leather moisturiser;
• has a waxy finish; and
• has the manufacturer's brand debossed on the front cover, instead of the rear.

None of the first four points are inherently bad, or makes the product come across as inferior; but they certainly took me by surprise. That the brand is debossed more conspicuously is not a big deal, although I have more of an issue with the stamp causing some blurry discolouration on the inside ‘flap’ of the front cover, when conceivably it could have been prevented.

 

The new cover is certainly more resistant to scratches; my older one (as well as the one I bought for my wife, shortly afterwards) arrived quite ‘raw’ and dry, and scratches would show up on the surface if I so much as touch it with the relatively flat part of my fingernail, until I repeatedly treated it with leather moisturiser. Even today, it feels a lot more supple and less roughly textured, but certainly very different from the new cover.

 

It's the laser ‘engraving’ of an inscription of my choosing that I have major reservations. I asked for a shorter text string this time, but in the same position and the same font specification as on my first order; so I don't see why a more condensed variant of the font (along with commensurately condensed character spacing) is used on the new cover. The result isn't dreadful; but I was a whole lot happier about how the inscription on my older cover turned out.

 

Whether the orangey dye in more apt to discolour and stain the paper covers of whichever notebook I insert into the new leather cover awaits to be seen.

 

Still, for just a smidgen less than US$13 (taxed, and delivered to Australia), there isn't much to complain about or regret.

[OCArt]

@A Smug DillThis may seem like a silly question, but how do you put the covers on?  When I try I can't seem to manage more than one side. Any tips?

[A Smug Dill]

1 minute ago, OCArt said:

how do you put the covers on?

 

Onto what, a Leuchtturm1917 A5 hardcover notebook? Fold both the front and rear covers on the Leuchtturm1917 back, then fold the Contact's Family leather cover kinda inside-out, so that you can slip both of the book's hardcovers inside the leather cover's two flaps/pockets at once.

[XYZZY]

That the new text is condensed would bother me, but that ultra-condensed space between the two words would be maddening.  It's so condensed it's not clear whether it's a space or a screwup in the layout of a single word.  I don't know Latin so had to look it up: I typed it as one word and Google helpfully suggested "Showing results for translate unicuique suum"

 

How is the stitching?  Consistently spaced and tight with no frilly ends poking out?

[A Smug Dill]

On 11/28/2023 at 4:12 AM, OCArt said:

Any tips?

 

5 hours ago, XYZZY said:

How is the stitching?  Consistently spaced and tight with no frilly ends poking out?

 

It's fine. However, with the leather on the new cover being thicker and less floppy, fitting a Leuchtturm1917 A5 hardcover notebook into it is more of a struggle, and will strain and stretch the leather such that not-entirely-faint stress lines will near the stitching. I decided to fit a Stalogy 365 Days book into it instead; and even that took some work. Also, the pen loop — again, on account of the stiffer leather — gets in the way a little on closure; but that may change once I stick a pen into it to make it more rounded on the inside, instead of folded up in half in a rectangular shape.

[OCArt]

@A Smug DillThanks for the photo