Review: Piccadilly Wire-O Journal

[biffybeans]

Click here for full review with pictures

 

First reactions to this large Piccadilly Wire-O Journal? With it's hardback covers, it's really heavy. This book would add a significant amount of weight to a backpack filled with schoolbooks. I appreciate the hard covers since I'm not always writing on a flat surface, but these really add to the weight of the book.

 

Looking at the Piccadilly website, I count over 140 different covers for their Wire-O Journals and I have just one thing to say about that.

 

Why?

 

I'm much more concerned with paper quality and product functionality than cover design. I always get a sense of a company desperately trying to please the consumer when they offer so many design choices. I think of designs that don't sell, and product having to be destroyed/recycled. In my eyes, it's bad marketing and overwhelming to the consumer.

 

When I first opened the book, I noticed that several of the pages were stuck together in the area of the ring holes. When I pulled them apart, they tore and had to be discarded. Flipping through the book, many of the pages need to be separated at the punch holes, and though no more pages tore, I think maybe Piccadilly might need to check the sharpness on their punch presses.

 

I do not understand why some of these books are listed on their website as "lined one side." Does that mean that some of them are lined on both sides? Why no consistency? For people that prefer to write on lined paper, they are going to be wasting half of the book.

 

As I am an avid fountain pen user, there was no doubt that I would be testing this paper with fountain pen inks, which are water based. With the dozen or so inks I tested, there was no visible bleed through, but there was a small amount of show through. Every ink tested feathered to some degree - some worse than others, but only a few were visible without magnification. (J. Herbin's Perle Noire was the worst of the batch.) The paper surface is ok to write on. It's better with larger smoother nibs than thinner ones, and I probably wouldn't suggest this paper for dry writing pens/inks.

 

This isn't really a product that suits my needs, nor my tastes.

 

Wire-O Specs:

200 pages

Lined

Hard Cover w/ Wire-O binding

White 100gsm Wood Free Paper

[GladWriter]

I got one as a gift for Christmas. You made me take it out and put it in my bag.

 

I think I'll put some Manga paper on the cover and doodle it full, then I'll laminate it. Anything would be better than the frog eating soup on the front of mine.

 

Thank you for the review.

[Treecat]

Thanks for the review and your thoughts. Piccadilly has become very popular and I've hoped the increased popularity wouldn't lead to them trying to cover all the bases and losing quality at the same time. The sticking paper problem on the wire-o's is a worry. I hope they'll keep up the paper quality and of the basic black books, which are the ones I like and use.

[Ghost Plane]

Sounds like the usual problem with many wire bounds. Thanks for saving me!