I have started using a Book Factory (no affiliation) grid notebook for record keeping. I find their books well made with acid free paper, and lots of options. You can order the books directly from the Book Factory Web site. When you order, you can have your name put on the cover, and/or number the books, and you can also select different titles for some books. All at very reasonable rates.

The books are hard bound, and can range from 96 pages to 312 pages. Page styles differ with differnt grids, ruled, or just blank.

So far the paper works well with both Noodlers Black and Pelikan Black. I had some feathering with Noodlers Legal Lapis. My biggest problem is that I write extremely small, so I use XF or XXF nibs.

Just an option to check out, for those of you that are looking for something that you can get semi custom at very little additional cost.

I plan on these books being used for my journals, as they seem far more durable than the notebooks that I find at the office supply stores.

I emailed them to check on the paper stock and they replied the stock is not guaranteed to be OK with fountain pen. End of the line for me.

Guarantees are worth the paper they are written on, a few pennies in other words. I would credit a company that declines to unilaterally 'guarantee' their product to satisfy some nebulous, self-defined standard.

I have had mine for about a year now, and like wrote before, no problems with any inks that I used except for a little feathering with Legal Lapis.

I write on both the front and back sides, with black ink, and have no bleed through problems.

All in all, I am vey happy with mine, and have a second on order for use at work.

The guarantee must have feathered when they wrote it.

Yah that's actually a good thing for the company's image. I'd be suspicious about a company that guarantees their paper for FP work especially since they are supposed to be more interested in the lab/field survivability of their notebooks. Add to that their books have to be archival and show tempering.

Thanks for posting about these. I have been looking at the website for a while but couldn't make up my mind how I would want mine customized! And I wasn't sure about the paper. I was particularly interested in the larger sized one that can take a sheet of A4 pasted into it.

What would be the features of an ideal journal/notebook (I'm sure this has been covered elsewhere.....)?

I use the large grid note book for record keeping, lots of serious details crammed onto each page. I just ordered a record book with ruled sheets for keeping notes for a new project at work. I greatly prefer hardbound covers that stand up well on book shelves and travel well.

I'm not complaining - just stating a fact. I appreciated their openness. Just ain't buyin' any for that reason.

I think the point people were making is that "guaranteed to be OK with a fountain pen" is a meaningless guarantee since the terms are so vague and variable.

My experience with their products (coil bound grid lab notebooks) is that the paper is very good with all my fountain pens and ink. Of course I do only use Noodler's ink, but its clearly superior to anything in an Mead notebook I've tried.