Enjoy!

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At some point I will have run out of space to keep these files on FPN. If that happens, these links are direct downloads to these files. Warning these are large files. Enjoy!

Review Page 1 PDF
Review Page 2 PDF
Photo of cover closed
Photo of cover opened
Photo of cover's stitching

Brilliant review. Thanks a lot for making the effort to write this review, especially by hand. The bookmark was certainly an excellent idea!

Excellent review and a great cover. I think there may be a purchase in my near future.

Thanks.

This is a great review... thanks! I ordered some Apicas and should see them soon. If I fall for them as many of you have then I will probably order the cover. I have ordered from them before.... I ordered a cover for a greek new testament in the brown and it was GREAT. I ordered another cover later in black and the aesthetics left much to be desired. This is purely opinion of course, but I would definitely stick with the brown for my next order.

Thanks for a great review!

DRAT! My Ren-Art cover arrives on Friday and I just saw your excellent idea for the bookmark. Nice addition! Maybe I can get something similar added locally.

Thanks for the nice review. Now I just have to be patient for the FedEx truck on Friday.

Chris,

Great review (written w/ your new Glenmont and Noodler's Walnut?). I had them make a black leather cover for my Clairefontaine notebooks. I wish I had thought of the leather book mark. Nice touch. I end up gluing a grosgrain ribbon into the back of each notebook. BTW, I got the same surprisingly great service from Renaissance Art!

John

I'm going to guess Noodler's Red-Black in a Pelikan M800, actually.

Yeah, I need to read the whole thing... Duh!

Good guess willie!

Thank you for your kind words about the cover you received from us.

A few comments on the leather. It is a full grain 5.5 ounce oil tanned cowhide. It will get much softer over time and develop a nice patina. One thing you will notice about the leather is that if you bend it slightly it will change color a little and give you some more color depth. What I do to my covers and other things is to wring them out like a wet rag in both directions. Then flatten it back out. You will notice a lot of color depth when you do that. If it is too much then just rub it all out. What happens is the the oils in the leather move around to create the color depth. Also, if you scratch it then you can rub out the scratch as well. This will be true of the leather for as long as you have it. Five years from now if you want to change the look just wring it out and your cover will take on a new look.

The leather will stretch a little and mould itself to the book inside... kind of like how leather shoes mould themselves to your feet after you have used them a bit.

When our new site is completed some time next year we will have video on all of our product pages and demonstrate many of these things about the leather we have tanned for us.

Question for you about your cover -

Did it add much "bulk" to the journal. I carry these journals with me everywhere and all the time. I am a little concerned about making it bigger and bulkier. I realize this is a subjective question but I would enjoy hearing your thoughts.

The cover itself will add just under 1/4 inch of thickness, 5/8 inch overall height and about 1/2 inch overall width. The additional height is the seam allownance for top and bottom and to accommodate the thickness of the cover. The width is for the seam allownace on the foredge and the leather on the spine.

If bulk is a concern then you can ask us to use thinner leather. What we do in that case is to split our full grain leather to just over 1/2 of it's thickness, about 3 - 3/-1/2 ounces. We use the top grain piece for the cover and dispose of the split. We do this with the covers for the Cahier books to make them thin.

Hope this explantion helps.

I assume your delivery has arrived - whats it like? Are you happy?