Semikolon notebooks

[goodyear]

(My first review on FPN. Images are links to much bigger - and much heavier - files, probably best only to click them if you're on broadband. Photos are just quick snaps, please excuse them and my chicken-scratch!)

 

I recently came across these notebooks, and I posted about it here.

 

http://www.marramgrass.org.uk/fpn/semik_closed_t.jpg

 

The books come in various sizes - here are an A4 blank book, and an A5 lined book.

 

http://www.marramgrass.org.uk/fpn/semik_open_t.jpg

 

The covers are a linen-y, book-cloth-y type casing, with quite heavy, strong boards. I get the feeling these will take a lot of punishment. Each book is very nicely bound and finished, with the nifty touches of headbands and ribbon-markers to match the colour of the cloth cover.

 

The paper in the A4 book here is slightly textured (kind of like a laid paper, but texture is somewhere I am unsure of terminology), while the lined book is untextured with just the tiniest hint of tooth. Both papers have a bit of a light ivory tone rather than being white.

 

When I opened the lined book, I was surprise to see that the ruling was red in colour. It bugged me a little at first sight, but hasn't been an issue. Actually it has grown on me.

 

For about a week, now, I have been using the lined book as my journal. The paper behaves well with a variety of pens and inks, with no bleed through (although in the lined book it is fairly thin, so there is a slight shadow visible). No feathering, except with PR Blue Suede I have seen the very occasional single fibre draw the ink along a spidery line - very occasional, to the point where I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been looking for it.

 

As said above, there is a very slight hint of tooth - it's not as smooth as the Clairefontaine books I work in.

 

I am always on the search for the 'perfect' notebook, and I have two gripes with this that keep it short of that title:

 

1) I really prefer actual white paper.

 

2) The lined books in A5 are very thick - 288 pages according to the label. This makes writing on the right-hand page a little awkward until you get into the book a bit. The plain A5 books come in half that thickness, but the shop these came from (Bradbury Graphics in Belfast) doesn't have the thinner ones in lined. I haven't checked the catalogue yet to see if they exist.

 

However, even with these issues, I think these for now will be my journal of choice, and I went back and bought a few spares!

 

Price was GBP9.95 for the A5 lined book, which compares favourably with the likes of Molesine and Paperblanks - both of which have served as my journals in the past.

 

http://www.marramgrass.org.uk/fpn/semik_writing_t.jpg

 

(Stipula Etruria Nuda, 0.9 stub, Waterman Blue-Black. Cross Century II, F, PR Blue Suede.)

 

These books come in quite a range of coloured covers. There is a catalogue at the Semikolon website: http://www.semikolon.biz

[Slush99]

those look really gorgeous. Thanks for the review.

[Nellie]

I thought I'd add my experience to this very good review after trying one of the blank paperback Semikolons.

I bought my Semikolon notebook yesterday - the Goethe 'Antique' one - and like Goodyear I'm very happy with it as far as bleedthrough is concerned (none, not even from my very wet medium PFM filled with Lake Placid Blue (I've found PR inks to be notorious 'bleeders' and 'featherers' in many other journals). However I've also noticed that the 'tooth' of this paper makes it very difficult to write on it with stubs or italic nibs. Unless I take very great care & write extremely slowly, they just don't write a full, bold line. Hence I wouldn't go out of my way to buy another Semikolon although I'll happily continue filling the one I have already got.

Nellie

 

[misterdimeo]

I just started using my new Semikolon A5 notebook today and I'm very happy with it. I used two pens and can confirm no bleed through or feathering.

 

The pen ink combination I used are as follows:

-Sailor 1911 large with Zoom nib using J. Herbin Éclat de Saphir

-Autora Ipsilon de Luxe with bold nib using Sailor Carbon black ink

[inkypete]

I have a couple of the A5 softer covered notebooks and they are not too bad. Do bleed a little at time but not too much. Another example of a notebook range that for me is 'close but no cigar'. They have a fabulous range of stationery in general as well. Available from the best Aussie source - notemaker.com.au

 

 

http://notemaker.com.au/collections/semikolon-desk-accessories