Hobonichi Day-Free Cover BS Lite

December 10, 2023

The Hobonichi Day-Free Cover BS Lite in A5 size will fit around a Leuchtturm1917 Medium (A5) hardcover notebook (with 251 pages of 80g/m² paper) — or a Nitoms STALOGY 365 Days A5 notebook (with 184 sheets, or 368 pages) for that matter — just fine, and close properly, even though the product was expressly designed for the much thinner Hobonichi Day-Free Book (A5 size) that is only 8mm-thick.

Notwithstanding some product reviews I've read complaining about the pen holder loops on the Day-Free BS Lite cover, the manufacturer has clearly stated,

Quote

They replicate a popular feature of the standard Hobonichi Techo covers: the “butterfly-stopper” pen-holders that store a pen and keep the cover shut inside your bag. …‹snip›… The ivory-colored pen-holders in BS Lite are small, at only 13 mm tall, but can both hold a single pen by its clip.

leaving little room for misinterpretation, and they do in fact work that way, even with a thicker book in the cover.

The cover material is a “high-quality, sturdy polyester”, according to the manufacturer. It feels densely woven and slick to the touch, and gives the impression of being a high-quality fabric, insofar as a synthetic fabric can feel rich and luxurious. Water will slide off it easily without seemingly being absorbed; that said, after wiping with a dry cloth the front cover that has been put under a running tap for a few seconds, it felt slightly cold and damp in contrast to the rear cover that wasn't exposed to the water stream. I flicked a few droplets of water onto a dry patch of the material, and they neither beaded up nor sank into the fabric.

As a protective cover for something like a STALOGY 365 Days notebook or planner, this product is certainly several steps up from using a Midori clear plastic notebook cover, in terms of product quality and (expected) longevity, and shielding from impact and sharp corners on other objects… for a tad more than threefold the asking price of the latter. Then again, it doesn't cost that much more to buy the Lihit Lab Smart Fit Cover Note product instead; and that is the superior product and better value proposition in so many ways from my perspective.

December 10, 2023

Thank you for that informative post. Now I must resist...especially since I spotted their leather version by following your links. Thankfully for me, it's out of stock at the moment.

August 26

Thank you for this post!! I was afraid the A5 BS Lite cover wouldn't fit the 10mm thick Avecs, but if your Leuchtturm and Stalogy fit then the Avec should have no problem.

How has your experience with this cover been one year on?