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Perfect Notebook


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Hello all of you in this sub of FPN.

 

I've been using several notebooks in the past 15 years, cheaper when I was young, more expensive and higher in quality when I grew older until last year I bought a manuscript book from Smythsons, and I've been using a Allan's Journal for the past year orso.

Most of these journals/notebooks are not bad but every one of them fails when I'm not in the office.

Basically they are just not waterproof, certainly not seawater proof and they are not adjustable to one's needs.

 

After long searching if found "paper" that fit's my needs and I've been using it for about 10 months now.

"paper" because this isn't paper in the true sense, it doesn't contain any cellulose.

It is something of polypropylene and a silica plastic that feels a bit smoother than paper, is printable by laser and inkjet,

can be cut, perforated and used like paper and makes a nice basic notebook that I used up until now.

http://www.goudriaan.biz/forafotos/IMG_6980.JPG

The brand name of it is Teslin, it is mighty expensive, think in the range of 30ct per A4 sheet when bought per 1000.

But it is really good, ink is instant dry, even with my very wet Visconty LE Wall Street.

There is no seep through to the other side, no bleeding, no feathering.

http://www.goudriaan.biz/forafotos/IMG_6983.JPG

http://www.goudriaan.biz/forafotos/IMG_6981.JPG

 

Oke, don't mind the writing, it was in a hurry and I write like a coal mine worker, I know.

After writing with the Visconti, I hold the piece under a running tap and it just gave a ever so slightest

blue shade in the water. But I couldn't detect in on the paper.

This Teslin can be written underwater, not with a fountain pen, but with a Fisher space pen it is possible.

It has resisted abuse on a shipyard, surveying workshops, when kayaking etc. etc.

But as a notebook it was rubbish. The whole was much too flexible, the leaves would fold, wrinkel,

I couldn't ad new pages (e.g. printed maps for the area I wanted to kayak, can be handy!).

 

So being a su**er for titanium, I want to make something nice, special and extremely rugged.

The size will be A5 (148mm by 210mm, aprox. 6" by 8")

And perhaps I will later on make some A6 or even smaller.

The spline will be made by 2mm wire titanium spiral wound, so it is, with some effort

possible to take apart for adding and removing pages.

The front will be 1mm titanium as will be the back:

http://www.goudriaan.biz/forafotos/FrontNotebook.jpg

 

I think it could be made in aluminium as well, but you would need some special aluminium to be good resistant against sea-water.

And you can't see it by eye, so only time would tell if it was the good stuff or just another piece of cheap aluminium.

I've had aluminium carabines oxidise within days until they where utterly unusable.

And aluminium is relative soft, making it easily scratched and dinged.

Stainless steel like 316 would probably do well, but it is a bit more heavy and not that much cheaper,

but still a real pain to work with. And as I said, titanium rocks. well, IMHO :D

 

Do any of you have any idea's, has this been done before?

just let me know!

Edited by alecgold

Cacoethes scribendi

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You might consider Yupo paper. It's waterproof and smooth....might work really well for a seafaring environment.

Regretably, Yupo is also washable.

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You might consider Yupo paper. It's waterproof and smooth....might work really well for a seafaring environment.

Regretably, Yupo is also washable.

 

Is that washable as in the ink can be washed out? cause that is certainly not the idea I have :)

 

Only regret I have for Teslin is that it might not be as environmently friendly as paper could be, althoug making paper costs a lot of energy and produces a lot of waste.

Cacoethes scribendi

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The elastics are now connected to the backplate. There are two oval slots at the back of the notebook,

where a piece of elastics can be weaved through, so the elastics don't jump into outerspace when you slide them off.

I'll try to make a picture.

 

http://www.goudriaan.biz/forafotos/IMG_6999.jpg

back of the notebook

 

http://www.goudriaan.biz/forafotos/IMG_6998.jpg

close up of the slots

 

http://www.goudriaan.biz/forafotos/IMG_7004.jpg

Side view, here you can clearly see there is some ripling of the pages, it is nothing real bad, it is just that it isn't handy.

 

http://www.goudriaan.biz/forafotos/IMG_7005.jpg

When I'm at it, this is a page of mine, thin blue squares and thicker blue lines, red line left and a hand stamped number on every page, so when I pull it apart

I know which page went where. I stamp all my notebooks with successive numbers, so i can index them.

I'm a nerd, I know, who-ever indexes his notebooks :)

But I've got several pack lists etc. throughout my notebooks that I want to find easily and this is a way to do it with not to much effort.

 

 

I'm not completely sure about the spiral wire back but it does work nice.

 

First the front:

http://www.goudriaan.biz/forafotos/IMG_7006.jpg

 

It looks a lot better now, compared to the crappy too-often-bend-wire that I had before.

 

http://www.goudriaan.biz/forafotos/IMG_7010.jpg

This is a clean look without the elastics, it is certainly useable, it looks IMHO a lot better.

(the curvature is due to the lens of my camera, it isn't that good when it is in marco mode :S )

 

http://www.goudriaan.biz/forafotos/IMG_7014.jpg

This is the difference, 12,75mm because of the spiral, when you fold it double.

 

All in all I'm very happy with it, I got the second set of titanium sheets today, they look

pristine and without a flaw. When I'm sure about the notebook I've made

(construction & user wise) I'll make that one ready as well.

All in all it has been a nice project and gone rather rapidly.

 

 

 

Cacoethes scribendi

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Very nice! Have you considered rounding the corners on the paper and the cover to make it less "pointy"?

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."

Oscar Wilde

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Very nice! Have you considered rounding the corners on the paper and the cover to make it less "pointy"?

 

As you can see in the technical drawing, the corners are rounded with a Radius of 1 mm. It isn't much, but it is enough not to hurt yourself or damage the other stuff in the bag.

Rounding of the paper isn't easy, or at least I wouldn't know how to do it.

If you have any idea how to do that, I could perhaps incorporate that in my next prototype!

Cacoethes scribendi

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Very nice! Have you considered rounding the corners on the paper and the cover to make it less "pointy"?

 

As you can see in the technical drawing, the corners are rounded with a Radius of 1 mm. It isn't much, but it is enough not to hurt yourself or damage the other stuff in the bag.

Rounding of the paper isn't easy, or at least I wouldn't know how to do it.

If you have any idea how to do that, I could perhaps incorporate that in my next prototype!

Look for a tool like this.

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."

Oscar Wilde

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Thanks Lloyd.

It is possible, but to clip 125 pages on two sides.. I dunno.

That is a lot of work, and you need to do it on every page you add,

if you take such a large radius, because the paper will really stick out if you don't.

 

But it would make it much nicer looking, that's for sure!

 

Cacoethes scribendi

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There must be more "heavy duty" models that can cut many pages at a time. I'm not a scrap-booker so I don't know.

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."

Oscar Wilde

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There must be more "heavy duty" models that can cut many pages at a time. I'm not a scrap-booker so I don't know.

 

Oke, Well, I spend my 0.02 this day with buying a heavy duty hole punch. That thing can punch 23 holes, but also the needed 16 in my paper!

Now I'm in business, cause I can use A4 size, print e.g. a map on it, punch it, fold it in three parts and it can join

my notebook as a waterproof print of the route I want to walk/kayak/drive.

Although for driving a TomTom is more handy.

Edited by alecgold

Cacoethes scribendi

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This was just posted regarding corner rounders.

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."

Oscar Wilde

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:happyberet: Why not make the covers out of carbon fiber? or have you considered this?

 

Henrico

 

Hmmm, not a bad idea either, but I have no idea how carbon will behave and what thickness to take.

I know my metals, but carbon is a bit strange to me.

But it could be very nice indeed!

Thanks for this very good idea!!!

Edited by alecgold

Cacoethes scribendi

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:happyberet: Carbon fiber is quite a common material now and airplane modellers use it so you may find small quantities in a model shop. It is also used extensively in bicycles frames. The material is light and strong and flexible. You can do almost anything with it and it looks modern.

 

Henrico

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That Teslin looks great! I've been making notebooks for myself and friends for a while now,and would love to give this stuff a try. Where do you get it? I can only find inkjet Teslin for $5/sheet!

 

BTW, I use a small corner rounder on my notebooks (typically 80 pcs top and bottom) and it doesn't really take that long.

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That Teslin looks great! I've been making notebooks for myself and friends for a while now,and would love to give this stuff a try. Where do you get it? I can only find inkjet Teslin for $5/sheet!

 

BTW, I use a small corner rounder on my notebooks (typically 80 pcs top and bottom) and it doesn't really take that long.

 

Hmm, nice to hear there are other people as creative as well, I could send you a few pages in A4 (210x297mm) so you can try.

this Teslin is the SP1000 and rather thick, but still good flexible, not stiff at all.

I've printed it on the laserprinter as well on inkjet, and though laser is faster, I prefer the inkjet.

The warmth of the laser makes the paper a tiny little bit less even, just a tiny bit wobbly.

It is just that when you start printing images, you'll need Teslin for inkjet, but letters, lines in blue or black?

Works perfect!

 

What size notebooks do you use?

 

pm you address and I'll sent them you by snail-mail. You'll have to wait serious time on them before they arrive in sacramento,

but hey, it's free :D

Cacoethes scribendi

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  • 11 months later...

Truth in advertising, I work for PPG the maker of Teslin "paper". I have only used Teslin to make notes on the back of my business cards which are made from this stuff. I use a fountain pen on this. I'd say the paper is not for everyone, but I kinda like the smoothness. I was using noodler's torquoise slightly contaminated with black. I really love this color btw. Black blue with a twist. I love the way the Teslin takes the ink. The paper is pricy, no doubt. But it does have some interesting characteristics. My advice is to try a sheet. It's not an everyday writer, but I find it fun to use.

 

Denny

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