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Chinese Notebook Identification


mvgibson

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Hello!

 

This is a heck of a long shot, but I picked up some cheap notebooks in a supermarket in China nearly a decade ago, long before I got into fountain pens. I was going through my old stationery last week, and lo and behold, this flimsy old thing handles fountain pens beautifully! Problem is, I have no idea what it is. Some quick Googling reveals that "Boshi Paper" is a paper supplier, and beyond exporting services they seem to have no web presence in English. That's all I really know.

 

I'd really like to find a similar product. Amazon has scores of similar-looking kraft notebooks available (in bulk, no less), but I have no idea if they'll handle FP ink or not. Something about this notebook just feels right to me, though, and I'd love to pick up more. Can any of you good folks recommend something similar that scratches the same itch?

 

Thanks!

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Hmmm.  Looks similar to Kokuyo Campus Notebook paper (currently available, though the cover isn't kraft paper). AND to some Dollar Tree Chinese notebooks I got years ago.  I wish I had bought more!  

My latest ebook.   And not just for Halloween!
 

My other pen is a Montblanc.

 

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9 hours ago, mvgibson said:

I'd really like to find a similar product. ...‹snip›... Something about this notebook just feels right to me, though, and I'd love to pick up more.

 

We don't know how you feel, or why you feel that way, about your notebook. Other than that it “handles fountain pens beautifully” — and there are any number of different makes and types of paper in the market that will fit that description to suit individual tastes in handwriting outcomes — what are the specific attributes that another user (presumed to be unlike you, and doesn't think or feel the way you do about things) can assess when he/she sees them in a notebook and say, “Ah, this item ticks that box”? What is relevant to your criteria of “similar”, assuming that how a product makes you feel is not a valid ultimate test to ask spotters and scouts to apply on your behalf?

  • Paper
    • page size
    • colour
    • texture
    • coating or lack thereof
    • stiffness or softness
    • physical thickness
    • weight or density
  • Printed features
    • line height or spacing
    • colour
    • faintness or boldness
    • interval markings at the top and bottom ‘rulers’ (to aid square grid ruling optionally added by the user)
    • page numbers (or lack thereof)
    • date field, day-of-week checkboxes, etc.
  • Covers
    • material
    • colour
    • texture
    • thickness
    • stiffness or softness
  • Overall
    • measurements (including thickness)
    • stitching vs staples vs glued binding
    • total number of pages
    • single vs multiple signatures
    • retail price
    • availability
  • et cetera

I'm sure a lot of forum regulars would suggest paper products made with Tomoe River paper as the starting point if “handles fountain pens beautifully” is the key criterion, especially given that the paper is manufactured in (at least) two different colours and two different paper weights; all the other product attributes are up to the individual notebook producers. Then there are Midori, Maruman and any number of other Japanese manufacturers that produce fountain pen friendly notebooks.

 

The Japanese seems particularly inclined to make A5 and B5 sized notebooks with 30 sheets, which is what your example looks like to me. Daiso and Muji sell a variety of that type of thing, but the paper quality (and fountain pen friendliness) varies greatly from product to product. Personally I've found the Muji products with SKU identifiers 4550182108910 (with square grid ruling) and 4550182109450 (with line ruling) excellent at dealing with fountain pen ink, and even allows sheen to manifest quite easily while not being apt to exhibit any feathering or bleed-through; be warned, though, that other Muji notebooks — including some that state on the retail packaging that the product is show-through resistant — are quite poor in that regard.

 

 

Edited by A Smug Dill
Added hyperlinks to my product reviews

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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I'm sorry, I should have been a lot more specific. The paper is uncoated and A5 size, and roughly the same thickness as that found in, say, a Clairefontaine 1951 notebook. Color doesn't make much difference, and personally I'm interested in as few printed features possible (except, of course, for lines). I'm particularly attracted to the soft, unmarked kraft cover as well.

 

"Handles fountain pens beautifully," in my case, means just a little feedback and little-to-no feathering. Something that can handle a very wet ink without making an EF line look like a B. Apologies if this is all quite vague, but it's about specific as my preferences get.

 

Thank you for your incredibly detailed response. I will look into those notebooks as possible alternatives, too.

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13 hours ago, mvgibson said:

I'm particularly attracted to the soft, unmarked kraft cover as well.

 

To the best of my recollection, the Daiso-branded notebooks with kraft covers I've tried weren't much good for fountain pens. Muji has a number of different plain kraft-covered noteboook products — some made in Japan, some elsewhere in Southeast Asia — and I don't think the paper in them perform equally well. The only product I can vouch for in that narrow category is the square grid notebook I reviewed (and, but extrapolation, also its siblings with ruled and blank pages). I have a stash of nearly a hundred of those notebooks.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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