Journal with good binding

April 1

Greetings all,

Does anyone have a recommendation for an A4 journal with a good binding/cover? Whilst good paper is important (fountain pen, unlined), I am finding that the binding of my Rhodia journals is a bit poor. This has been true for the webbies and the A4. The paper is great, but even before the journal is half-finished the cover starts to fray.

This is for a journal for my young daughter, so I'd like it to look good 30 years from now. At the rate the Rhodia is going, the cover will have disintegrated in a few more years. Other desirable characteristics are: lay flat and smooth paper.

Anything come to mind?

April 1

I have found a few that I like. I have previously listed these elsewhere, but I am willing to do it again. These references are all a couple of years old, so things may have changed. These are all ruled notebooks, they may also have blank or dot grid pages, if that is preferred.

Minimalismart.com sells hard cover A4 journals on Amazon, with a nice cloth binding. It looks like it should last reasonably well.

Black n' Red also sells a nice hard cover A4 journal, although it is a little business-like and may not suit the esthetics of young children.

Hiukooka is a brand of notebooks, made in China, and also sold on Amazon. They are covered with a good quality and flexible soft cover in what seems to be faux leather, and they come in different colors. They are so flexible you can bend them back on themselves with no ill effect. The one I have is quite thick, I don't know if they make journals with fewer pages.

Franklin-Christoph sells leather snap-closure notebook covers, which would probably help any notebook used in it last a long time. They are pretty pricey at $125. I suspect there are lots of A4 leather or faux leather notebook covers sold on Etsy as well.

I hope this helps.

April 1

If you can deal with notebooks covers, then you could get a cardstock soft notebook and then use the notebook cover.

Lamy's hardcover notebooks seemed to be bound well and have nice paper (the kind of paper I like, at least).

You can find Clairefontaine casebound books, which won't lay flat, but their covers seem quite durable.

A lot of these might not come in A4, though. I think Leuchtterm1917 makes their master journal with heavier paper, but I don't know if the paper is good enough to count.

I'd second the Black 'n' Red as seeming to have durable covers.

June 3

It is true, or at least was, about the Black 'n' Red covers. I used those as a consultant and the covers hold up very well. Now if I can just find one with unlined paper...