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Mead 5-Star Hardcover Composition Notebook (Mini Review with Photos)


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I don't know whether you've seen one of these before.  I hadn't until yesterday.  This is a genuine Mead 5-Star hardcover composition notebook, 7½ inches by 9¾ inches.  I saw it at Target and I knew I had to buy it.  Why?  Because for years—probably decades—Mead paper has been krap for fountain pens.  In the past year or so, however, Mead 5-star has produced composition notebooks with slick FP-friendly paper sourced from Vietnam.  Mead 5-Star still makes krap paper, and you'll find it in composition notebooks that are made in the US and those made in Vietnam with paper that is smooth-ish but not slick.  I only recommend the slick-paper edition.  It might not invite you upstairs for coffee on the first date—that would be Clairefontaine—but it's friendly enough.  Look for the source on the back cover.  And then run your fingers and palm across a sheet.  Test a few others.  The worthy paper feels as smooth to the hand and fingers as Clairefontaine.

 

I saw only one of these hardcover models at my Target.  And so I can't say whether others might be sourced with paper made in the US, Mexico, Egypt, etc.  I can't say whether the company makes comparable wide-rule hardcover notebooks.  But I can say that I've been completely satisfied with the slick, made-in-Vietnam paper in the Mead 5-star composition notebooks I've bought in the past year, and I've bought eight—one college-rule hardcover (reviewed here), four wide-rule softcovers, and three softcover college.

 

 

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This construction allows the notebook to lie flat-ish at any place.  The typical comp notebook is like an out-of-control dog.  Good luck getting it to lie flat without a struggle.  This hardcover version is like a good dog that means well, he just needs a little help.

 

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I use mostly EF, F, and M nibs.  With them I have not experienced any feathering.  There tends to be show-through, but not enough to deter using both sides of a sheet.  Occasionally, the show-through is too much, as you can see in these photos.  The Monteverde Coffee coming out of an Edison F was too much.  But it only showed through, it didn't bleed through and it didn't feather.

 

Price: $5.99.  Cheers.

 

 

 

 

I love the smell of fountain pen ink in the morning.

 

 

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Thanks for the review!  I would add one more recommendation to the "slick paper" and "Made in Vietnam" ones: that the pre-printed lines on the page are crisp, not fuzzy.  I've found that trio is a very good predictor.

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I was just in Target a couple of hours ago.  For under $2.75 US, I bought five Unison college ruled composition books (on sale this week for 50¢ each plus tax).  Paper made in Vietnam, which tends to be decent, IMO.  Only 80 sheets (I actually prefer 100 sheet ones), but for that price....

I'll be interested in what you think of the Mead composition book over the long haul, Bookman.  I've always been a fan of their small fat side-bound spiral notebooks (sort of 3-1/2" x 5" size -- I think they were actually called "little fat notebooks") because I'm kind of a cheapskate, and am somewhat less snooty about paper than some people (I've used fountain pens on stuff like shopping lists on everything from the back side of cheap printer paper to 3x5 cards from a local dollar store).  But I'm not seeing the ones I used to get on their website now....  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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