Black N' Red Notebooks

[777]

Recently I was given a Black n' Red notebook for my birthday, but I never got the chance to use it. So now I just dug it out from my bookshelf and I am wondering what it's like. Is it fountain pen friendly? Has anyone else ever used one of these? How did you like it? I'm looking forward to trying it out. The paper feels smooth in my hand, and the look of the notebook is quite delicious. I'm not sure what other types of notebooks the company makes, but mine is a casebound notebook with 24lb paper.

 

 

 

[jbb]

The black n red notebooks I've used have been very nice and fp friendly. Staples.com carries some of them.

[watch_art]

you can get em at walmart, too. they're pretty nice. although it might be a little smooth for some tastes.

Edited June 18, 2010 by watch_art

[irbyls]

Some of my favorite paper! I think it's just as great as Clairefontaine.

[joele54]

I have used the spiral bound Black n' Reds and the paper is excellent for FPs (I use the Noodlers inks)-it shows no feathering or bleed-through. It does take a few seconds for Noodlers inks to dry (being very smooth paper). I highly recommend it. IMO not necessarily better than Clairefontaine, or Rhodia, but certainly worth looking into.

[MicheleB]

Thee are reports of the paper varying between the clothbound and the spiral. I have used the spiral for years at work and it is a fabulous paper value.

[777]

(I use the Noodlers inks)-it shows no feathering or bleed-through.

 

Oh good. I use noodlers ink also.

[beluga]

Recently I was given a Black n' Red notebook for my birthday, but I never got the chance to use it. So now I just dug it out from my bookshelf and I am wondering what it's like. Is it fountain pen friendly? Has anyone else ever used one of these? How did you like it? I'm looking forward to trying it out. The paper feels smooth in my hand, and the look of the notebook is quite delicious. I'm not sure what other types of notebooks the company makes, but mine is a casebound notebook with 24lb paper.

 

 

 

 

 

The one shown on your picture is not quite as nice as the Polypro spiral-bound one.

The paper absorbs (at least some) fountain pen inks less well, in particular if you use broad nibs.

 

 

Generally, I do like Black n' Red notebooks and they perform well, but given a choice I'd rather buy the spiral-bound ones with Polypro cover sheets.

 

 

 

B.

[777]

but given a choice I'd rather buy the spiral-bound ones with Polypro cover sheets.

 

 

B.

 

My brother has a spiral bound one. I'll have to ask him to try it out sometime.

[Alice L]

A spiral bound Black n Red has served very well as my ink logbook.

[777]

I just tried the notebook out for the first time today. I'll still need to do more testing till I come up with an opinion on it, but so far so good.

 

My ink didn't bleed at all, though this could be attributed to the fact that my pen has an extra fine nib. It did take a while to dry out though. The ink I'm using is Noodler's Navajo turquoise. Is this ink known to have a long drying time? Also, the paper did have the smallest bit of nib drag, but again this could be because my current pen is not that smooth of a pen (I'm hoping to get that fixed soon).

 

Overall it seems like a good notebook, just maybe not the best.

[Skyppere]

I love 'em! One of the big spirals serves as my scrap book with my ink log, snail addresses, stamps from snails, beautiful envelopes, pen associated business cards, favorite wax seals from snailers... pix of pens I want but won't ever get...

List of all my pens... I love Black 'n Red!

I might add that they have quite a variety of sizes, shapes, lined, graphed etc, soft cover, hard cover, pocket sized, address books...

skyppere

[rosey]

I use both the Black n' Red hard bound and spiral A5 notebooks with great success. I use either a Parker "51" or a Pelikan 605 for writing in my journals and I find that sometimes the "51" combined with Noodler's ink, does take more time for the ink to dry. The Pelikan is a fine point so I never have problems with dry time. I never experience feathering or bleed through with any of my inks or pens on Black n'Red paper. Black n'Red's perform much better in that respect than a Moleskine, IMHO.

There are so many combination's of inks, fountain pens and paper, I think that part of the fun, is trying different combination's. I hope you have fun experimenting with your new notebook.

[watch_art]

myself... i like the mead journals better. to me the paper is comparable to cf. the book itself isn't that great sometimes. my first one took 3 months of use and abuse, my second one, well, the binding came undone in the first week. you can get em at walmart. black leatherette lookin stuff. about $13.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/154583-mead-vs-clairfontane/page__view__findpost__p__1543554

 

and sadly, the paper quality seems to be hit and miss on QC, too. this book i've got is a bit toothier than the first one. the first one was an absolute joy from cover to cover. this one has some really great pages, and then a few that i just want to skip. of course it could be the pen and ink combos too. i am finding a few of my pens remarkably dry with a couple of my inks on some papers.

[Orange25]

I've got a Black n' Red poly spiral bound as I wanted to see what the paper was like. My one has the 90gsm Optik paper. Very smooth for writing and is great if you have a broad, wet writer.

 

However, if you're writing with Noodler's inks, I find that some take an age to dry. Heart of Darkness works well, as does Bad Belted Kingfisher. Marine Green takes about ten minutes or so to dry. Baystate Blue stays wet for an age; it's not even worth trying (though diluting may alleviate the problem a little).

[beluga]

myself... i like the mead journals better. to me the paper is comparable to cf. the book itself isn't that great sometimes. my first one took 3 months of use and abuse, my second one, well, the binding came undone in the first week. you can get em at walmart. black leatherette lookin stuff. about $13.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/154583-mead-vs-clairfontane/page__view__findpost__p__1543554

 

and sadly, the paper quality seems to be hit and miss on QC, too. this book i've got is a bit toothier than the first one. the first one was an absolute joy from cover to cover. this one has some really great pages, and then a few that i just want to skip. of course it could be the pen and ink combos too. i am finding a few of my pens remarkably dry with a couple of my inks on some papers.

 

 

 

While I cannot agree with a general statement that Mead journals are superior, the hardbound Back n' Red notebooks are such a hit n' miss affair that the brand owners ought to consider rebranding these notebooks as "Hit n' Miss".

 

The Polypro wirebound A5 notebooks (C67009U) represent good value for the fountain pen user; but the casebound A5 notebooks (E66857) by contrast vary considerably. At best they can come close to the wirebound ones, in the worst case they are virtually unusable for fountain pens as they seem to repel some inks. Over the last few months I bought three of the hardbound variety A5 notebooks from different stores and only the first one came close to the quality that I had come to expect from the Polypro wirebound A5 ones. The last one I bought, performs so poorly that I am considering putting it away having filled it to less than one third, even if it should mean that I have to transfer all my recorded data to another notebook.

 

Maybe this is not entirely surprising as Black n' Red, which belongs to the Hamelin/John Dickinson Group, has notebooks produced in different European countries.

 

I have tried six different brown inks, but neither three Herbin brown inks, nor Waterman Havana, or Pelikan Brown leaves a consistent, wet line. Pens with broad nibs skip horribly, pens with medium nibs perform marginally better. Black and blue-black medium nibs skip not quite as bad, but writing in these notebooks is a very unsatisfying experience. Paper quality should be good, the paper is listed a 90 gsm and there is little bleed-through or feathering. I could imagine that the hardbound ones contain more clay, are too smooth and just don't absorb ink that well.

 

Today, I pulled out the last hardbound notebook off the shelf and was ready to toss it in the trash, but when starting to doodle in this notebook - the first one I bought - the quality was close to the wirebound ones that I like so much.

 

Be that as it may - quality for the hardbound notebooks differs widely and in the future I shall stick to the more consistent Polypro wirebound ones.

 

 

 

 

B,

Edited June 20, 2010 by beluga

[brewsky]

i just went and bought one of these today form my local office depot. cost me around $8 after tax. very smooth paper, only downside is drying time (by the time i filled out a page, the top was still no dry). i will probably try something else next time. although this isnt horrible paper, but it would be best suited for a decent ballpoint or rollerball.

 

hope my input helps someboedy

[noctrl02]

I have the Black N' Red hardbacks and find that using a fine nib is best. They do take a bit to dry, but are a joy to write on. I picked mine up for $3 each on clearance so they might be older stock.

 

Andy

[KCat]

Interesting posts here. I bought a stack of them some time back and they were all very consistent. Reading that this is not the case for some worries me. When I say "a while back" I mean at least two years ago. I believe I have two left. Maybe one. I have considered probably moving to Rhodia anyway though the price is a bit frightening since RnB are my "rush through first draft" books. I love the big hard-back wire-bound and except for the occasional rough reverse side have had no problems with paper quality. It distresses me to read otherwise. I suppose once you become popular and have to produce more, you start slipping in the cheaper stuff. I've never had a problem with drying time and am usually a pretty fast scribbler and use medium nibs with moderate to wet flow. But again, I have two-year-old stock at least. I am using mostly Violet Vote and two Iroshizuku inks on it though I also use Diamine inks on it a lot and those work very well.

 

I don't know what I will do in response to this when the paper runs out. I was using Apica for a while. These were very smooth but sometimes the smoothness almost bothered me because it was as if there was grit in there. So I'd be skating along just fine as if on Clairefontaine then suddenly pick up what felt like a piece of sand.

 

I may try a couple from the store when I run out of what I have just to see how bad they really are now and determine how much is "real" v. personal perception/sensitivity. Maybe I've become less picky in some respects now that I've found some inks and nibs that are outstanding on the whole.

[Joshua Perz]

I just tried the notebook out for the first time today. I'll still need to do more testing till I come up with an opinion on it, but so far so good.

 

My ink didn't bleed at all, though this could be attributed to the fact that my pen has an extra fine nib. It did take a while to dry out though. The ink I'm using is Noodler's Navajo turquoise. Is this ink known to have a long drying time? Also, the paper did have the smallest bit of nib drag, but again this could be because my current pen is not that smooth of a pen (I'm hoping to get that fixed soon).

 

Overall it seems like a good notebook, just maybe not the best.

 

I don't use Noodler's inks precisely because they have such a long drying time. Using them on smooth paper just increases that time.

 

As for Black n' Red, I love the spiral-bound notebooks. I basically went around buying one of every notebook people recommended after I discovered that Moleskine was not suitable. Black n' Red was the best (along with Clairefontaine). You might want to use a faster drying ink with these, though.

Edited February 14, 2011 by Joshua Perz