For Winter, Let's Have Cold Horizon

(Courtesy of Bryan Bedell / fieldnotesbrand.com)

And Field Notes has done it again. Wow me with their notebooks, that is. 2013's Winter FIELD NOTES COLORS limited edition release has been revealed! Cold Horizon, the sibling to my 2011 Winter FIELD NOTES COLORS pack, Northerly is here! 

Field Notes' 21st COLORS edition features three seasonally-inspired colors, a blend of three blues across all three notebooks, invoking the deeply saturated winter twilight sky, fluorescent glacial water, and the shiny metallic glimmer of the Aurora Borealis. These notebooks are BLUE!!! Did they make these for me?

The notebook covers are printed on glossy UV-coated 120lb (178gsm) Appleton Utopia One stock. Arranged side by side, or back to back, the blues fade evenly from notebook to notebook, evoking a single, wintery gradient.

(Courtesy of Bryan Bedell / fieldnotesbrand.com)

Each of the three notebooks from the Cold Horizon limited edition pack uses Finch Opaque 50lb (74gsm) paper with a 3/16" gray graph grid. The grid pages of the three notebooks correspond to the colors of their covers: light green, light blue, and cool gray. How cool is that? It's like getting three different notebooks when you buy a pack of Cold Horizon.

(Courtesy of Bryan Bedell / fieldnotesbrand.com)

My small tiny Field Notes collection includes (left to right): Northerly, Winter 2011; Red Blooded; Traveling Salesman, Fall 2012; and Day Game, Summer 2012. I'm waiting for my local source of Field Notes notebooks, Avalon.ph, to stock up on Cold Horizon so I can add it to the lot.

For more information about the FIELD NOTES Brand notebooks, visit their website at http://fieldnotesbrand.com/. 

To read more about their limited edition COLORS notebook packs, and how to buy them, go to: http://fieldnotesbrand.com/colors./.

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Notebook Review: TWSBI

When I shifted to full fountain pen use in 2008, I didn't realize that the major challenge I would have to face was to find suitable paper types for my pens and their inks. My lack of knowledge then about the proper pen, ink, and paper combinations brought home stacks of useless pads and notebooks. Since then, I have found notebooks that are friendlier to my fountain pens, but when Taiwan-based company TWSBI announced that they are coming up with a line of notebooks tailored for fountain use, I was curious. When Scribe Writing Essentials, the local distributor of TWSBI products in the Philippines, sent me a medium lined TWSBI notebook to review, I was thrilled.

TWSBI promotes their notebooks as "universal to all types of writing/drawing instruments, however, specially tailored for fountain pens." Their notebooks have soft and textured but shiny covers made of  fine polyurethane (PU). TWSBI made sure their notebooks are easily identified in the crowd, with the company's logo heat-pressed neatly onto the PU in the front cover.

The logo is again heat-pressed on the bottom of the back cover, but includes their acronym, TWSBI.

TWSBI offers their notebooks in three sizes: small (3.75 × 5.5 in), medium (5.25 × 8.25 in), and large (7.5 × 9.8 in). Each size is available in lined, grid, or blank pages. All notebook sizes have 120 sheets of paper, or 250 pages, but the small notebook has perforated sheets.

A black elastic strap holds the cover and notebook pages together, but it's a bit loose. I wish TWSBI used a stronger and wider strap for their medium and large notebooks.

In the photo below, the TWSBI notebook (on top) has the thinnest elastic strap although it's the thickest. The notebooks below the TWSBI are: Quo Vadis Habana, Moleskine, and Rhodia Webbie.

Despite the thin elastic strap, the red page ribbon marker adds vibrance to this black notebook. It's also a nice, thoughtful touch of TWSBI to have the end of the ribbon glued to prevent fraying. Most new notebooks come with loose ribbon ends and I usually just tie them into small knots to avoid early fraying.

The makers of these notebooks paid a lot of attention to detail: the notebooks have round page corners! I've always preferred round corners in my notebooks. I don't like pointed corners because they are sharp and dig into my palms when I write, and they also fray easily.

The pages of the TWSBI notebooks are sewn, to ensure more page security and flexibility. Sewn binding is so much better than most punch and bind methods because the pages are more secure and they also look tidier.

The paper used in these notebooks is not cream color, but it's not pearly white, either. It is off-white, soft, and smooth. TWSBI did not indicate the weight nor the type of paper used on these notebooks, but I'll guess it to be around 80gsm. Another plus for these cool notebooks: the binding allows them to open completely flat. The pages are not glued to the spine to give it full flexiblity.

The soft PU cover is flexible and the spine easily folds when the notebook is open.

See? No bulges, no bumps, no big creases to get in the way of the inside pages while the notebook is open.

Again, I am not sure about the paper type used in TWSBI's notebooks, but they are certainly excellent for fountain pen use. It's a brilliant move of TWSBI to use a faint gray ruling in the notebooks' pages, instead of black, or blue.

And unlike most notebooks with continuous line ruling, TWSBI used faint dotted lines, which is just fine. The faint gray lines are perfect for writing, but they do not get in the way of it at all.

I was really excited to try this notebook's paper and filled a page with different pen and ink combinations. I also included in the test page some of my remaining gel pens and rollerball pens. True enough to their claim, TWSBI's notebooks are perfectly suited to fountain pen use. Most of my pens have stub, medium, broad, and italic nibs that bleed ink on most paper types. But the paper in this notebook behaved so much better than I expected, and I was so amazed to see clean lines — no excessive feathering, and not a trace of bleeding. There is some see-through though, but again, that's fine because writing on both sides of the page is still possible.

The back side of my pen and ink test page did not show any bleeding at all.

I was not able to do a test for different ink's dry times, but I did not have any problems with drying ink when I did the pen and ink tests. Below are samples of the inks I used and there is no significant feathering and no bleeding at all. From top: Diamine Royal Blue (TWSBI 540 medium nib), Pelikan Edelstein Jade (Pelikan M205 medium nib), Diamine Red Dragon (Pelikan M400 medium nib), and Noodler's Air Corp Blue Black (Lamy Safari 1.1 italic nib).

Overall, TWSBI's notebooks are excellent to use with fountain pens. They are simple, yet very attractive and have the "classic black notebook" elegant look. They have soft flexible covers, an elastic strap to keep the pages together, the pages have round corners, and the paper is excellent for any pen type. Each of TWSBI's notebooks has that happy vibrant red ribbon page marker and back pockets with red accents. These notebooks are perfect for note taking and journaling, and they do not cost a fortune. I really, really like my medium TWSBI notebook, and again, it is super friendly to my fountain pens!

To get these notebooks from TWSBI, visit: http://www.twsbi.com/category.php?id_category=9.

In the Philippines, these wonderful notebooks are available at Scribe Writing Essentials together with TWSBI fountain pens and ink bottles, with the following prices:

• Small: PhP 495
• Medium: PhP 675
• Large: PhP 845

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Review: Unlimited Notebook by Rhodia

When I received these Rhodia UNLIMITED notebooks that Karen Doherty sent to me last year, I asked her why they're called UNLIMITED. Karen said the name UNLIMITED refers more to a lifestyle with no limits on activities or ideas which could be noted in a stylish pocket notebook. And I thought she's right, these notebooks are aptly named UNLIMITED. This post will tell you why.

I've always preferred big notebooks and pads because I could write more in bigger pages and they take longer to run out of pages. They are heavier, though, and when I saw the pocket-sized Rhodia UNLIMITED notebooks, I immediately took one as my 'pen and ink test notebook.'

Rhodia's UNLIMITED notebooks come in pocket size only, measuring 3.5 x 5.5 inches, just like the size of a small index card. These notebooks are available in black or orange covers, with ruled/lined or grid/graph inside pages. What I really liked about this notebook is the cover which is not just ordinary laminated board, but a soft, velvety material called Verso soft touch. 

Another feature that I liked about Rhodia UNLIMITED notebooks is their round page corners. I have always preferred round corners on my notebooks because they do not dig into my palms when I write, and I do not see frayed corners as the notebook gets used.

A bicolor (black with three orange stripes) elastic strap keeps this pocket notebook tidy, a feature that I do not often see in pocket notebooks available in the market. The strap is held tight by small grommets in the notebook's back cover.

What's clever with the elastic strap is that it covers the grommets while keeping the notebook closed. I just worry that these grommets may create bumps in the notebook pages, especially if I am near its last few pages.

Most pocket notebooks are either sewn or stapled in the spine, but Rhodia's UNLIMITED notebook has its pages glued to the spine. I tried pulling on the pages to test if they will fall off the binding but they did not. The glued binding in this notebook is definitely durable, but it prevents the notebook from lying flat.

Both ruled/lined and grid/graph notebooks are perforated so users can easily tear a page off when needed. This feature may be welcome to some, but I hardly tear a page off my notebooks, so I don't see this feature as useful to me. I still think it's thoughtful of Rhodia to include perforations in a pocket notebook.

These pocket notebooks have 60 sheets (120 pages) of 80gsm white paper. Both ruled/lined (right) and grid/graph (left) notebooks have double ruled margins at the top of the pages.

I noticed that the ruling of the UNLIMITED notebooks is gray instead of the usual purple used in most Rhodia pads. I prefer this color because it is more subdued and does not compete with the bright colors of my fountain pen inks.

Just like all the Rhodia notebooks that I've tried before, the 80gsm smooth white paper of the UNLIMITED is perfect for fountain use. I tested my daily writers on a page (left) - most of them have either medium or broad nibs filled with wet and saturated inks - and the paper held up well. Feathering has not been a concern for me when I'm using Rhodia paper, although I noticed that inks took longer time to dry.

I also tested other pens on the UNLIMITED notebook with ruled/lined pages, and again, the paper held up well. I tested a rollerball, several gel pens, felt-tipped pens, a ballpoint and highlighter, and Sharpie, of course.

The photo below shows the back sides of my pen and ink test pages. There is some bleed in the fountain pen and ink test page, and I attribute that to the medium nibs on my pen, and the BB stub nib on my Pelikan M205 filled with Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue at that time (bleed on top of the page). I believe it's understandable that wide nibs and saturated inks create messy show through and ugly bleeds, but for most of my medium nibbed pens, the paper held up well. The rest of the pens in the other test page did not bleed at all, except for the Ultra Fine Point Sharpie which bleeds on any paper.

Overall, Rhodia's UNLIMITED notebook is an excellent pocket notebook to use. It has a unique cover which comes in two colors, the elastic strap is tight and keeps the notebook together, the pages have rounded corners, and the paper is excellent for any pen type. It doesn't have a back pocket or page marker, but for such a small notebook, who needs those? I've been using my orange UNLIMITED notebook for pen and ink tests and I'm happy with it. It's a wonderful pocket notebook that can be used for different lists, fits in small pockets and bags, and it's a Rhodia. Why don't you get one for yourself?


The Rhodia UNLIMITED notebooks used in this review are from Exaclair, Inc. through Karen Doherty. The pens and inks used in this review are from my personal collection.

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Notebook Review: Write-Now by Poppin

I received this red medium Poppin Write-Now notebook when the brand has just been launched. That's a shameful two years ago. I read about a notebook giveaway and I signed up to receive a sample to review here. Meredith Zenkel, Poppin's Director of Public Relations, sent the notebook to my friend in the US who then sent it to me here in the Philippines.

As a fountain pen user, there are two types of notebooks (or should I say paper?) for me: fountain pen friendly notebooks, and the not-so-fountain-pen-friendly ones. When I received the Write-Now notebook, I fell in love with its red soft cover, but cringed when I saw that ink bled profusely to the next page when I wrote. But I still kept it and made plans to write a review but I never wrote one. Shame on me.

Last month, while I was sick at home, I re-organized my notebooks and came upon the Poppin beauty still wrapped in its original plastic. I took it out and tried some of my inked pens on a page. I felt bad that again, there were the same nasty bleed and ugly feathering I saw before. But... When I tried my Parker 45 inked with Pelikan Blue Black, I was dumbfounded. I noticed that it did not feather on Poppin's paper. And... it did not bleed!!! Hurray! I can now use my Poppin notebook!

Apart from the not-so-fountain-pen-friendly Poppin paper, there's a lot to love with this medium Write-Now notebook. It measures 5 x 8.25 inches, and has a lovely, bright, happy red cover with Poppin's logo etched in the lower right corner.

The gray elastic closure is a happy contrast to the brightness of the cover. It's not too tight to cramp the notebook with its soft cover, but fits just right to hold the pages together. The gray elastic closure of Poppin's red notebooks has been changed to red now.

The Write-Now notebooks are thread-bound for flexibility and durability. Thread-binding ensures that the pages will not simply fall off. Below photo shows the signatures of this notebook bound together, and its gray ribbon bookmark.

One more feature to love with the Write-Now notebook is its round corners. Generally, I prefer notebooks with round corners because they are easier to handle. No sharp corner pokes or scratches, and no page corner curls. I understand that not all notebooks are created equal with round corners, so I bought a round corner cutter for notebooks with sharp, pointed corners.

Like most of my bound notebooks, the Write-Now has a back pocket to hold receipts, notes, cards, etc. But I have never used notebook back pockets for such purposes because once I fill the pocket with bits of paper, it starts to bulge, and the uncomfortable bump gets in the way of my writing. This is a useful feature, I just don't like using it.

Because of its binding method, this notebook lies flat when it is open. It has 192 pages of ruled acid and lignin free ivory-colored paper. But unlike most ruled notebooks, the inside pages of Write-Now are printed with boxes on the upper part of the page, and vertical lines in either outer left and right sides. These features make the Write-Now a very useful tool in record keeping.

As mentioned earlier in this review, I ran an initial pen and ink test on this notebook when I received it, but perhaps due to its thin paper, almost all of the ink I tested feathered...

...and bled. Two ink types did not feather then, but the rest bled heavily. I understand that this notebook wasn't even made for fountain pens, and that there are people who use rollerballs, ballpoints, or pencils and  find it perfect. But I use fountain pens for everyday writing, so when a notebook comes to me for review, my tests are done using my ink tanks.

BUT...

There is a way I could use Poppin's notebooks! I need only to find the right pen and ink combination as I did when I tested my Pelikan BB-filled Parker 45. I know I can also use the old iron gall Lamy Blue Black on this notebook but I try to avoid that ink because of its corrosive properties.

Pelikan Blue Black behaved well in Poppin paper, with only a tiny bit of almost unnoticeable feathering. The ink also dried fast on this notebook's paper and that's good to know because ink dry time affects my writing speed. I know I wouldn't need to wait for an entire page to dry before I could proceed.

Pelikan BB did not feather on this notebook's paper and did not bleed, too. There is show-through, and the tiny dots visible on this side of the paper are due to my heavy handwriting. But whatever, this is happy enough for me because I know that there exists a pen/nib-ink combination that is nearly perfect for this notebook, and perhaps for my other not-so-fountain-pen-friendly notebooks as well.

As I said, there's a lot to love with this notebook. It has a lovely, bright, happy red cover; round corners; thread-bound; nice elastic closure; and an almost fountain pen-friendly paper. I'm happier with my Poppin notebook now! Thanks Meredith! (And sorry for the late review.)

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Poppin is a great company with an amazing tagline: work happy. They offer personalized school and office products (notebooks and iPad sleeves), lots of items for organization (storage boxes, folios, binders, inboxes, trays), furniture (chairs, desks, cabinets), and tons of pen and paper combinations! They also promote shopping by color for a heavenly color fix, and offers a design-a-desk contest, a fun play to dress up your own desk. They say they are a small company with big dreams, and they're here to give us products that will make work happy. Amen to that.

We can like Poppin in Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/poppin), follow in Twitter (https://twitter.com/poppin) and check their weekly pins at Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/poppin/).

The Write-Now notebook used in this review is through the kindness of Poppin. The red Parker 45 and all the inks used to test the notebook are from my personal collection.

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Ink Review: Sailor Jentle Grenade

O drops of me! trickle, slow drops,
candid, from me falling — drip, bleeding drops,

~ From "Trickle, Drops" by Walt Whitman

One of the joys from using fountain pens is the wide choice of ink colors for everyone to choose from. When I switched to full fountain pen use, I realized that there wasn't just one red or blue ink that I could use—there are a lot! In the last four years, I have built a collection of fountain pen inks including 13 red-based ink colors, and I'm still craving for more!

When Scribe Writing Essentials launched the arrival of Sailor products in the Philippines last September, I knew I had to test their ink offerings, and what better color to start the Sailor ink taste test—I chose red! Scribe sent me a bottle of Sailor Jentle Grenade to review, and I tested it on two different pens with regular and italic nibs, and on different paper types. Grenade did not disappoint, it gave me a blast!

My bottle of Grenade holds 50ml (1.7oz) of water-based ink and costs Php695 from Scribe Writing Essentials (for Philippine readers of this blog), while Goulet Pens (for international readers) sells it for US$12.50. This ink is a bit expensive, but it's worth the price.

Each bottle of Sailor Jentle inks comes with a plastic tube that serves as an internal reservoir to make filling pens easier. When the plastic tube is empty, just turn the bottle upside down and then right up again to let the ink into the plastic tube. Just make sure that the bottle's cap is tight and secure before flipping it to avoid spilling ink. The plastic tube is helpful especially when the ink level in the bottle is very low.

Grenade is a deep, dark red/purple/burgundy ink that is highly saturated, but has good lubrication and flows very well. It is smooth on all the paper samples I tried, and the shading is just amazing! While wet, it appears as dark red, but becomes dark purplish red when it dries. It is not difficult to read and looks beautiful either on white or non-white paper samples (ecru, beige, etc.)

For a saturated ink, Grenade dries fast (8mins) on the 90gsm Canson sketchpad and Kokuyo paper, but a little slower (12mins) on Rhodia paper from the Reverse Notebook I used in the written review above.

I did not have feathering and bleed through issues in the three paper types I mentioned, but Grenade bled heavily when I tried it on 70gsm copy paper.

Grenade shows unique shading when written from a wide-nibbed pen. The sample above shows Grenade (upper swatch) with J. Herbin's Rouge Hematite (lower swatch), or 1670 Anniversary ink, the only ink that I can compare Grenade to, for obvious reasons. Grenade has dark green shading, in a similar way to the 1670's gold flecks. The green shading is the reason I chose Grenade over Epinard.

Well, my red ink collection is growing, and though Grenade is only the first Sailor ink I reviewed, it is my 14th red ink. It will surely be on my top five favorite red inks because of its deep, dark purplish red color and amazing shading. Grenade is an excellent ink and I will get more of it when I finish the bottle.

Sailor Jentle ink is available in nine colors: black, blue, blue-black, ultra marine, sky high, epinard, grenade, apricot, and pêche. Sailor also offers two pigment inks, Kiwaguro (black) and Seiboku (blue-black), both  quick drying and water proof inks.

The bottle of Sailor Jentle Grenade used in this review is courtesy of Scribe Writing Essentials, the leading contributor of high-end reading and writing accesories in the Philippines. The red Lamy Safari and Rhodia notebook are from my personal collection.

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