Notebook Review: Clairefontaine Basics Clothbound Notebook

When I received the package that Karen Doherty of Exaclair sent me in September, I liked everything in it except a black, plain notebook. :) It's a medium Clairefontaine Basics Clothbound notebook with black cloth binding and black cover, but had the purest whitest paper I've ever seen. Back then, I was craving orange Rhodia pads, orange Webbies and other colorful notebooks, so I kept the Clairefontaine Basics notebook for future use. While looking for a notebook from my stash sometime last week, I saw the Clairefontaine Basics once again, and though it may not have been love at first sight for me, the notebook held my attention the next time we met. 

First of all, I searched for the notebook's name, and I'm happy to learn that it is called the Clairefontaine Basics Clothbound Notebook. I didn't know it then. Hm. Aptly named, huh? It measures 5.75 x 8 inches, is made in France, and the solid cardboard cover has texture like grainy leather. The purest whitest paper in the Basics notebook is pH-neutral and acid-free 90g Clairefontaine paper. Whoa.

This time around, I fell in love with the simplicity of this French-made notebook. There is nothing fancy, or elaborate on its cover except for the modestly placed Clairefontaine logo embossed on the lower right corner of the front cover.

The cloth binding in this black Basics notebook blends well with the color of the cardboard cover. Simple, neat, modest.

The Clairefontaine Basics notebook is clothbound and sewn using linen thread. Its pages open flat and that makes the Basics notebook easy to write on. There are just so many features to make one fall in love with this notebook: rounded corners, ruled, unmargined pages, and it doesn't have a dangling ribbon pagemarker. (I don't have anything against pagemarkers, they are just annoying at times.) The Clairefontaine paper used is chlorine-free and made only with pulp from trees harvested from certified sustainable forests. (Clairefontaine is the only European manufacturer that makes its own paper for its own products.)

The purest, whitest paper of this notebook is touted to be the best paper for fountain pen use. I know this is true, but I want to do a more demanding test on this notebook, so I used most of my wide nibbed pens. First, my calligraphy pens: Manuscript, Lamy, Osmiroid. The mediums followed: Haoililai, Wality, Lamy, Schneider. Then, I used most of my wet inks: J. Herbin, Camel, Waterman, De Atramentis. The results? See the photos below. :)

I did not see any feathering on the Clairefontaine paper...

... nor any bleed at all. What is seen here is the ink showing through the other side of the page.

Clairefontaine Basics Notebook is a neat notebook. Simple and elegant, yet, sturdy and durable. I like its simplicity, but mostly, I love it because it makes fountain pen writing possible, and a wonderful experience, too.

The Clairefontaine Basics Clothbound Notebooks are available in a variety of sizes and covers. See the selection at Exaclair's website, the 2010 catalog is presented as an interactive online publication, very much like browsing a printed catalog, which is another cool thing from Exaclair.

The Clairefontaine Basics Clothbound Notebook and other Clairefontaine notebooks are available online at the Goulet Pen Company, and from other stationery stores.

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I Love Notebooks, Part 2

I just love notebooks. Remember this post about my 55 notebooks? All of them 55 are still with me at home, but now they got 57 more companions! Oh, there are worse addictions, as the Pen Addict loves to say. It's hard to believe I got 57 more new notebooks after the 55 I've counted last July. The funny thing is, I did not know about this until two nights ago when I was tidying up the large plastic boxes where I keep my notebooks. I took most of them out the boxes, and the tall stacks suprised me. Counting them was a bigger surprise for I surpassed the previous record by a hairline number: 2 notebooks!

First stack on the left, 18 notebooks. Middle stack, 22; and the third and last stack has 17 notebooks.

First stack. From the bottom: 5 Mead, large Golden Gate, Eagle Index, orange Clairefontaine, purple Clairefontaine, medium Golden Gate, orange Geman notebook from George, 4 Memo Notebooks from our Recto trip last year, black Clairefontaine, small Blue Feather, and small Golden Gate.

Middle stack. From the bottom: QV Habana, black large Scribe, 2 red large Scribe, Grandluxe Damask-covered large notebook, large silver Grandluxe Monologue Journal, Exacompta skethcbook with red leather cover, black large Clairefontaine Basics, Graf It 909 sketch pad, 2 Korean nobtebooks I got from National Bookstore, G. Lalo pad, Rhodia Bloc No. 16, a leather-covered notebook I won from a pen meet raffle, large orange Rhodia Webbie, purple notebook from Mona, small white Grandluxe Dialogue notebook, Green Apple faux-leather covered journal, and 4 Rhodia Bloc No. 10s.

Last stack. A colorful (but very FP-friendly) notebook from Korea, 2 Rhodia Bloc No. 14s, 2 Clairefontaine hard-covered notebooks, pink Daycraft Signature, blue Grandluxe Mosaic, 2 small red Scribe, small black Rhodia Webbie, small Clairefontaine notebooks, Paul Smith Rhodia pad, and small purple Granluxe Elastiq journal.

So what do you think, Nifty? Would 57 more notebooks give me a place in your Notebook Addict of the Week list?

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Ink Review: J. Herbin Terre de Feu

Here is Terre de Feu, another excellent ink from J. Herbin, the oldest name in pen inks in the world. This ink, together with a bottle of J. Herbin Diabolo Menthé (to be reviewed later) was sent to me early this year by Marian Ong, owner of Manila-based Scribe Writing Essentials, the only store that offers J. Herbin inks here in the Philippines.

Terre de Feu reminds me so much of the warm, sweet, thick chocolate drink that we used to have as kids on Christmas mornings. Tatay will prepare the morning treat for us from the tabléas (chocolate tablets) that he himself made, using the antique tsokolatera and batirol to create a frothy, thick and seemingly magical concoction of a drink my brothers and I love to call tsokolate. Seeing how chocolatey brown Terre de Feu is, I'm all at once reminded of that warm Christmas morning feeling, and all this ink review lacks now is a plate of suman and latik. [Drools...]

As a person whose eyes are easily caught by colors and lovely intricate designs, I always look closely at packaging details (I do graphic design), and again, I'm impressed that the makers of J. Herbin inks pay careful attention to details in their product packaging and presentation. J. Herbin ink boxes are elegantly designed, with a separate icon or artwork for each ink color. I love the watercolor-like artwork in the Terre de Feu's box, depicting the island this ink was named after. Here are the boxes of Rouge Opera, Bleu Pervenche, Larmes de Cassis and Orange Indien.

Also unique about J. Herbin's product packaging is the integrated pen rest on their ink bottles, though it is never enough to hold bigger pens. Luckily enough, I have this slim white UNIC fountain pen that fits into the pen rest perfectly. :)

Terre de Feu is another excellent ink from J. Herbin. It has good flow, beautiful shading, and a charming color. It is brown, yes, but its shading reveals hints of terra cota and red. I love its earthy brown color and the shading it offers when it dries on ivory paper. It's a light, pale brown when wet, but becomes dusky, earthy, warm brown once it dries.

The brown of this ink is lovely in the ivory paper of my Scribe 'ink diary' notebook as the ink + paper color combination complemented each other. The text written using the calligraphy pen shows shading and beautiful line variations. The round medium nib of my Schneider Base also showed visible shading, and that is just awesome! The fine (or extra-fine) nib of the Hero 616 wrote a bit on the dry side, but the size of the nib could have affected the flow. I'm suprised, though, that Terre de Feu appeared pale and lighter on the white Rhodia paper. My pen/nib-ink-paper combination may be the reason behind this, but again, I am not completely sure.

Terre de Feu on Scribe notebook...

 

...and on Rhodia pad.

Below are the back sides of the notebook/pad pages where I have written using Terre de Feu. The ink dries fast, but I do not see any feathering or even minor bleeding, which I saw in the earlier inks I tested. Then again, it could be the pen, the paper, the ink, or a combination of all.

Back page of the Scribe notebook...

 

... and the Rhodia pad.

I got three other brown inks in my stash, so I wrote lines using all of them. Havana Brown and Copper Burst do not look as dark as they look here, though.

 

Lastly, the drying time of Terre de Feu is amazing! It dries quickly and nicely. Above is a comparison of the drying time of the four brown inks [(1) Terre de Feu, (2) Havana Brown, (3) Burnt Sienna, and (4) Copper Burst] and two other J. Herbink inks [(5) Rouge Opera (6) Orange Indien]. Terre de Feu dried the fastest of all the four brown inks. Hurray for Terre de Feu!

J. Herbin named Terre de Feu after Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago in South America whose main island, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, is split between Argentina and Chile. According to Wikipedia, "the climate is cold, windy and rainy in this place called Land of Fire." Whoa.

J. Herbin inks are available in 30 beautiful colors. These water-based inks are non-toxic, have neutral pH and manufactured using natural dyes. Dowload a printable PDF of the J. Herbin fountain pen ink swatches here.

A 30ml bottle of J. Herbin ink sells for P475 at Scribe Writing Essentials, and US$10 at The Goulet Pen Company. (I have no affiliation with both companies, though.)

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