Fountain Pen Friendly Notebook For Work

[Inksomnia]

I need to take notes at my work. My employer provides notebooks, but you can guess, that they are horrible and not fountain pen friendly at all. I use approximately one notebook in 3 months, it has 150 pages, both sides. But I need to write pretty large, even if I use EF nibs, because all the bleeding and feathering! I have been thinking to switch to my own, I can't stand the paper anymore.

 

Criterias for notebook:

• Must be spiralbound
• Hardcover
• Lined or dotted
• A5 size
• available in european website
• Under 20 euros.
• No bleedtrough, no featering etc.
• At least 150 pages
• Preferable fast drying capabilities

 

So, any recomendations?

[bogiesan]

If the paper quality is the single most important factor, it doesn’t matter what the notebook is going to cost. If you’re worried about spending more than 20 Euro, the paper quality is not that important to you. Clairefontaine, Midori, Tomoe River, Rhodia.

 

Personally, I stopped using the verso side of notebooks decades ago. Especially with work or school related notebooks. The lower data density made finding stuff in the notebooks much easier and what’s the point of retaining a notebook full of notes that you can’t find?

[almoore]

Muji sell a wire bound A5 notebook with brown card covers. I think it comes in dot, lined and grid.

 

I use the dot version and it's fp friendly and well within budget, I'm not sure on the page count but they are on the Muji website.

 

Al

[Inksomnia]

If the paper quality is the single most important factor, it doesn’t matter what the notebook is going to cost. If you’re worried about spending more than 20 Euro, the paper quality is not that important to you. Clairefontaine, Midori, Tomoe River, Rhodia.

 

Personally, I stopped using the verso side of notebooks decades ago. Especially with work or school related notebooks. The lower data density made finding stuff in the notebooks much easier and what’s the point of retaining a notebook full of notes that you can’t find?

Price may not matter to you, but it matters to me. Using up 4+ notebooks in year get quickly expensive. Plus they are destroyed when full. Also mentioning brands isn't helpful, none of them has notebook that is in my criterias....

 

Muji sell a wire bound A5 notebook with brown card covers. I think it comes in dot, lined and grid.

 

I use the dot version and it's fp friendly and well within budget, I'm not sure on the page count but they are on the Muji website.

 

Al

Muji's shipping cost to my country is 30 euros and goes up only. But their notebooks are nice, I had one that I used as sketchbook. Next time I travel somewhere where is Muji Store, I will definitely stock up on those.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Inksomnia

[senzen]

Best of the best, slow drying times (use something as a fan, get a rocket blower), inks look awesome, perhaps easily within your budget (in France it's something like 6.5 euros but it depends on your country, even within the EU, shipping charges can get crazy): Clairefontaine. Keep another piece of paper under your hand, oils can make the paper reject inks.

 

Faster drying alternative: Fabriano.

 

I hate spirals but paper quality should be the same as cloth bound, stapled or glued.

 

There might be more cheap decent paper than in the rest of the world, for instance Oxford Optik gets good reviews, you could make your own notebook or have someone make several for you, or even try with Clairefontaine copy reams (they're not of equal quality).

[Inksomnia]

Clairefountaine is available here, but most of them seems to be soft covers. They had some hard cover options on amazon, but it was again shipping that was expensive. I need to check Fabriano, their sketchbooks are good quality.

 

I hate spirals too, they bend easily and are just anoying. But I have no choice. Problem is, that I often need to stand, hold my notebook on one hand. And I need to take notes so fast, that sometimes I fill pages in minutes. I have small hands and I find impossible to hold colth or hard bound.

[inkstainedruth]

Not sure what price point you need, Inksomnia, but I just checked the Goulet Pens website, and Clairefontaine, Rhodia. Apica, and Marumen all are listed as having spiral bound notebooks.

Not sure what page size/# of pages you need. But also check out Miquelrius. They have (or at least used to) have five subject spiral bound notebooks -- although they no longer seem to make the kind my husband used to get at Barnes & Noble, which had some lined pages, some graph pages, and some pages that were divided up into quarters with boxes around blank spaces (I guess for doing diagrams or drawings). I'd say that might do the trick for you, if you can get something like that. I have a bunch of their leather-look 300 sheet journals, and I go through about 3 a year, writing 3 pages a day. I think the last batch I ordered were about $15 each, and I find the paper pretty FP friendly (but of course that depends on the ink and nib width I'm using as to whether I get much show through). I don't know if the notebooks have the same quality paper as the journals, though -- and they seem to have redone their main website to make it really difficult to just leaf through to see what you want, and get info about prices, page sizes, and capacity. To actually order, use OM Online (http://miquelriusshops.com). No affiliation except as a really happy user of their journals.

You can sometimes get the journals through Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but B&N B&M stores only carry the size journals I want with graph paper; and -- at least at the moment, the big journals only come with black covers; OTOH, the spiral bound notebooks seem to have all kinds of sizes and colors.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[BaronWulfraed]

Clairefountaine is available here, but most of them seems to be soft covers. They had some hard cover options on amazon, but it was again shipping that was expensive. I need to check Fabriano, their sketchbooks are good quality.

 

I hate spirals too, they bend easily and are just anoying. But I have no choice. Problem is, that I often need to stand, hold my notebook on one hand. And I need to take notes so fast, that sometimes I fill pages in minutes. I have small hands and I find impossible to hold colth or hard bound.

 

Consider a disk system and compatible paper punch -- and make your own notebook using your preferred unbound paper stock.

 

Don't know what names might be available to you... Levenger Circa, OfficeMax/OfficeDepot Tul, Staples Arc. Belgian Atoma

[BergerDM]

 

Consider a disk system and compatible paper punch -- and make your own notebook using your preferred unbound paper stock.

 

Don't know what names might be available to you... Levenger Circa, OfficeMax/OfficeDepot Tul, Staples Arc. Belgian Atoma

Maybe even get a Filofax Notebook and compatible punch, there is a review for them here in the forums somewhere. I feel they are better than disk systems (I know I have one and I'd rather the Filofax system).

[D B Holtz]

Black 'n Red may meet your requirements. Their A5 notebooks sell for under $10 here, and I never had any trouble with feathering or bleedthrough with the inks I have used. Try to look at one before you buy; the "hardcover" on the spiral bound was hard enough for me, but you may need something more depending on how and where you use it.

 

Hope this helps,

DB

[Misfit]

+1 for Black n’ Red. They have spiral hard cover notebooks. Their paper is made to be fountain pen friendly. They call it Optik paper, and have a nib image.

 

Plus it is perforated in case you want to remove a page cleanly.

[A Smug Dill]

Price may not matter to you, but it matters to me. Using up 4+ notebooks in year get quickly expensive. Plus they are destroyed when full.

So write it off as a work expense and get a tax deduction for it, effectively reducing your cost of acquisition by the marginal tax rate.

 

Also mentioning brands isn't helpful, none of them has notebook that is in my criterias....

Really?

 

Brand: Maruman

European web site: Amazon.co.uk

You have a browse through the A5 notebooks. I can see at least one offer of A5-or-larger spiral-bound notebooks that meets your criteria, even without claiming tax deductions, and I can recommend it for the paper quality.

[almoore]

Price may not matter to you, but it matters to me. Using up 4+ notebooks in year get quickly expensive. Plus they are destroyed when full. Also mentioning brands isn't helpful, none of them has notebook that is in my criterias....

 

Muji's shipping cost to my country is 30 euros and goes up only. But their notebooks are nice, I had one that I used as sketchbook. Next time I travel somewhere where is Muji Store, I will definitely stock up on those.

 

+1 for Fabriano - excellent FP friendly notebooks.

 

As for Muji - if that is what interests I could look into shipping from here to see if it's any cheaper.

 

Al

[Cursive Child]

Don't know if you can get Staples (or another brand) Bagasse (sugarcane based) notebooks. Have been writing on them with only FPs for the last 10 years or so, with excellent results, barring the odd batch. Very economical ($5 odd for a 6"x9" sprial bound notebook with 100 sheets), and you can write on both sides - minimal showthrough. Not exactly A5, but close.

 

I also second the Black n'Red spiral bound notebook mentioned above, and can vouch it's FP friendly although haven't written extensively on it.

[katerchen]

Probably no longer relevant to the OP, but since search history is forever ...

 

These are that work notebooks I've settled on:

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MMW8M7M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Cheaper than their fancy black plastic cover notebooks. Price -- as is always the case with Amazon -- fluctuates. I've gotten a 5-pack for as little as $19 and as much as $25 (it's $22 right now with Prime Shipping). I'd say it's a pretty good deal. The kraft hardcover is fairly stiff and the paper is very FP friendly.

[TitoThePencilPimp]

Probably no longer relevant to the OP, but since search history is forever ...

 

These are that work notebooks I've settled on:

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MMW8M7M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Cheaper than their fancy black plastic cover notebooks. Price -- as is always the case with Amazon -- fluctuates. I've gotten a 5-pack for as little as $19 and as much as $25 (it's $22 right now with Prime Shipping). I'd say it's a pretty good deal. The kraft hardcover is fairly stiff and the paper is very FP friendly.

 

How this paper compare with their black cover offerings?

[Mercian]

Criterias for notebook:

• Must be spiralbound
• Hardcover
• Lined or dotted
• A5 size
• available in european website
• Under 20 euros.
• No bleedtrough, no featering etc.
• At least 150 pages
• Preferable fast drying capabilities

That does strike me as being a rather tricky set of criteria to fulfil - the two that I have made bold seem to me to likely to be mutually-exclusive.

I do own some old loose-leaf paper that ‘ticks both boxes’, but the company that made it went out of business several years ago, and they never made notebooks.

 

Here in the UK the Maruman notebooks recommended by katerchen are not cheap - the 5mm grid one is (today) priced at £24 on Amazon.co.uk. That’s for one notebook.

That said, the same brand of paper can be found in Mnemosyne notebooks, which are available on Amazon.co.uk with 7mm-lined paper for £6.58 each.

For a fountain-pen-friendly spiral-bound notebook in A5 that is less expensive than the Maruman or Mnemosyne ones, there are ‘Oxford Campus’ notebooks.

The Oxford Campus can be bought from Amazon.co.uk in a pack of 3 for £10.26 or a pack of 5 for £15.29.

They are available with card covers or polypropelene covers, but they do have ‘only’ 140 pages (whereas the Marumans contain 80 sheets i.e. 160 pages).

 

The other difference is the ruling of the pages:

the Maruman paper is 5mm grids;

the Mnemosyne paper is 7mm lined (gridded ones are also available);

the paper in the Oxford is 8mm-lined.

All three notebooks have pages that are perforated near the spiral-bound edge, so that pages can be easily removed.

[TitoThePencilPimp]

That does strike me as being a rather tricky set of criteria to fulfil - the two that I have made bold seem to me to likely to be mutually-exclusive.

I do own some old loose-leaf paper that ‘ticks both boxes’, but the company that made it went out of business several years ago, and they never made notebooks.

 

Here in the UK the Maruman notebooks recommended by katerchen are not cheap - the 5mm grid one is (today) priced at £24 on Amazon.co.uk. That’s for one notebook.

That said, the same brand of paper can be found in Mnemosyne notebooks, which are available on Amazon.co.uk with 7mm-lined paper for £6.58 each.

For a fountain-pen-friendly spiral-bound notebook in A5 that is less expensive than the Maruman or Mnemosyne ones, there are ‘Oxford Campus’ notebooks.

The Oxford Campus can be bought from Amazon.co.uk in a pack of 3 for £10.26 or a pack of 5 for £15.29.

They are available with card covers or polypropelene covers, but they do have ‘only’ 140 pages (whereas the Marumans contain 80 sheets i.e. 160 pages).

 

The other difference is the ruling of the pages:

the Maruman paper is 5mm grids;

the Mnemosyne paper is 7mm lined (gridded ones are also available);

the paper in the Oxford is 8mm-lined.

All three notebooks have pages that are perforated near the spiral-bound edge, so that pages can be easily removed.

 

I purchased some oxblood spiral notebooks from amazon. Wow they sucked. lots of showthrough with pencil. I dared not use pencil. Are we talking about the same notebook?

[Mercian]

 

I purchased some oxblood spiral notebooks from amazon. Wow they sucked. lots of showthrough with pencil. I dared not use pencil. Are we talking about the same notebook?

 

Not ‘Oxblood’

 

Oxford.

 

They do ranges for students, and ranges for ‘professionals’.

 

Linky.

 

Edit: actually, even better than the Oxford ‘Campus’ wire-bound notebooks that I suggested earlier would be the Oxford ‘Office Essentials’ twin-wire notebook range.

Twin-wire binding allows 360-degree opening; 90gsm Oxford Optik paper; 180 pages; 7mm-ruled lines.

 

Edit again: on Amazon uk they are available (today at least) in packs of 5 for £18.14 with card covers, or £20.34 with polypropelene covers.

They also include a removable, re-positionable plastic page divider/ruler.

 

Why have I never found these before? Now I wants one!

Edited May 13, 2020 by Mercian

[Karmachanic]

 

Why have I never found these before? Now I wants one!

 

Five