Notebooks with 300+ pages OTHER THAN Tomoe River?

[HobbitLife]

Like many of you I am saddened to hear about the impending demise of Tomoe River Paper. It isn't my PERFECT paper for daily bullet journaling due to the slow dry times, but the THINNESS is huge because it allows me to use only one notebook/year (typically use about 300-320 pages in a calendar year). 

 

My question is: what other notebooks (ideally A5, ideally dot-grid, and definitely FP friendly) have 300+ pages and aren't crazy thick?

 

I have discovered Stalogy and it would seem like a fantastic alternative (with better dry times!!) but for some bizarre reason the A5 notebook has a 4mm grid instead of 5mm, which is definitely too small for me! Maddening. The only other notebook I've found with 300+ pages is a Cosmo Air Light notebook on Etsy, but it is VERY thick (and I find the way CAL paper reacts to hand oils to make it impractical for my daily work use). So...yeah: any other alternatives I should look into? Thanks in advance!

[Detman101]

CVS - Caliber (5 Subject Notebook)
Fountain Pen friendly and only $5 for a buttload of pages.
No dot-grid though...lined only.

[Karmachanic]

Stalogy A5, 5mm grid.  Similar to TR, 368 pages.

[HobbitLife]

6 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

Stalogy A5, 5mm grid.  Similar to TR, 368 pages.

Does Stalogy make a 5mm A5? All the ones I can find have a 4mm grid. I believe the B6 has a 5mm grid. No idea why it isn’t consistent, let alone switches to a smaller grid for a larger notebook…

[HobbitLife]

6 hours ago, Detman101 said:

CVS - Caliber (5 Subject Notebook)
Fountain Pen friendly and only $5 for a buttload of pages.
No dot-grid though...lined only.

I’ll have to look into the Caliber, thanks!

[Detman101]

2 hours ago, HobbitLife said:

I’ll have to look into the Caliber, thanks!

Awesome, Enjoy!
I know I'm loving mine.

[Karmachanic]

11 hours ago, HobbitLife said:

Does Stalogy make a 5mm A5? All the ones I can find have a 4mm grid. I believe the B6 has a 5mm grid. No idea why it isn’t consistent, let alone switches to a smaller grid for a larger notebook…

 

Could be.  I haven't paid that much attention.  I use the grid for layout purposes, and use a 6mm guide sheet for writing.  Consdidering the quality and quantity of the paper, just use a 5mm guide sheet.

[A Smug Dill]

12 hours ago, HobbitLife said:

Does Stalogy make a 5mm A5? All the ones I can find have a 4mm grid.

 

Yes, it does.

 

[Karmachanic]

3 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Yes, it does.

 

To confirm.  I measured.  The seven A5 and the one B6 have 5mm spacing.

[inkstainedruth]

Might be too thick for what you want, (and increasingly hard to find, unfortunately) but I really like the Miquelrius 600 page journals for doing morning pages (I go through about 2 or so per year, because I'm writing 3 pages every morning).  Don't know what size the grid is (they also come in 400 page ones, I think) -- I swiped a page from one my husband had to try the paper out, but I don't tend to like grid paper except for the 10/inch paper pads that you get at Stapes -- and only use pencil or roller ball on those).  I wish I could get them with blank paper, but have to settle for lined.  They also used to come in different colors for the leather-look covers, but the last time I ordered (and for the life of me cannot find the URL I found them at -- had trouble finding them on the Miquelrius-US website) I could only get black covers.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[HobbitLife]

14 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Yes, it does.

 

Ah! Thanks @A Smug Dill - it looks like there is a 5mm dot version only available on the Japanese Amazon site. That notebook does not exist on the US site. This is very good to know. I hope they'll bring it to the US market soon! I may order one from Japan anyway. Looks like the A5 grid version on the Japanese site still has 4mm spacing.

 

11 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

To confirm.  I measured.  The seven A5 and the one B6 have 5mm spacing.

 

@Karmachanic that is really interesting - thank you for measuring. Everywhere (in the US) I look, it clearly says on the cover that the A5 Stalogy 365 has a 4mm grid... however I found one A5 grid version on the UK-based Journal Shop website that DOES appear to have a 5mm grid. Did you acquire yours from a British retailer by any chance? 

[Karmachanic]

4 hours ago, HobbitLife said:

Did you acquire yours from a British retailer by any chance? 

 

Amz UK. 

[JakobS]

If you can figure out how to work with the 4mm, or get one with 5mm spacing I also recommend the Stalogy 365, the lines are pretty faint, so if you do end up using a 5mm grid underneath, you won’t really notice the grid that is printed on the page. The paper is amazing, holds up to a number of different FP inks, and is considerably durable for how thin it is. It’s really setup to be used in the way you want to use it, and not how the notebook company “wants” you to use it. I got one for my wife for Christmas, and she has filled it with drawings, journal entries, MU Print-On stickers, and seal wax, and not a tear, or bleed through to be seen. I should be receiving my own tomorrow because I have been so impressed with it as a journal, something I rarely do because notebooks are rarely setup in a way that allows me to do it well.

[HobbitLife]

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for the recommendations and advice. I ended up ordering the Japanese-only Stalogy 365 with 5mm dot grid (though I now see that it is very recently available on the US Amazon page too, which is great bc shipping was super expensive from Japan: https://www.amazon.com/Stalogy-S4-Gridded-Notebooks-Notebook/dp/B095LPGTT3/ref=pd_ybh_a_11?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=P44HHW9DVVHB3MSPDNP9).

 

At first, I was thrilled and thought I'd found the ideal work notebook for me - seems to handle ink well and dried twice as fast as TR paper, while giving me 368 pages in a form factor as small as my Nanami Crossfield that I love. However, as I tested out more of my pens and inks I started seeing a lot of bleedthrough (not ghosting, actual bleeding) with some of my wetter pens. It surprised me, as some pens that did NOT bleed through in a little Stalogy A6 I bought to test the paper DID bleed through in the dot grid A5. After doing some more research around the interwebs, it seems that Stalogy's paper quality is just inconsistent. Sometimes it is fantastic and acts like a faster-drying TRP; other times it bleeds and feathers with all but the driest inks. Sadly, this has ruled it out of consideration for my use ☹️. I could use only very well-behaved inks and make it work, but that would take away some of the joy of using fountain pens for me.

 

SO - I went back to the drawing board and have ordered a Midori MD Codex Journal that has 365 dot grid pages in an A5 format. I am a little worried that it will be too thick for me, but Midori notebooks are famous for opening perfectly flat with zero break-in needed, so hopefully that will make it more usable. I at least know that Midori paper doesn't bleed or feather with any of my pens and inks, and it does dry faster than TR, though not as fast as Stalogy.

 

Whew. Sorry for the longwinded narrative, but hopefully it can be helpful for others who also prefer 300+ page notebooks for work, etc! I'll update with thoughts on the Codex when it arrives.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Just noticed this thread.  I have, I think, three unused Tomoe River journals left, and am about halfway through another, so I won't need a replacement very soon; these typically last me about six months.

 

But the ones I have are blank paper, for which I have a strong preference.  Don't like lined, or graph, or dot grid, not for my journals, at any rate. 

 

So, do any of the papers above, or different ones, come in blank paper versions, while still having three or four hundred pages?

 

Not an urgent question, and of course I can get blank Life Noble, or Apica journals, among others, just not with that many pages..

 

I did do a little searching, by the way.  Found a brand named CIAK that has a 256 page blank A5 journal, for example.  Not quite what I was looking for, but possibly worth considering.  Found Stalogy, but not with blank paper.  Just out of curiosity, I'll have to see if my local CVS carries those five subject notebooks, but again, not what I'd want.

[JakobS]

22 minutes ago, ISW_Kaputnik said:

Just noticed this thread.  I have, I think, three unused Tomoe River journals left, and am about halfway through another, so I won't need a replacement very soon; these typically last me about six months.

 

But the ones I have are blank paper, for which I have a strong preference.  Don't like lined, or graph, or dot grid, not for my journals, at any rate. 

 

So, do any of the papers above, or different ones, come in blank paper versions, while still having three or four hundred pages?

 

Not an urgent question, and of course I can get blank Life Noble, or Apica journals, among others, just not with that many pages..

 

I did do a little searching, by the way.  Found a brand named CIAK that has a 256 page blank A5 journal, for example.  Not quite what I was looking for, but possibly worth considering.  Found Stalogy, but not with blank paper.  Just out of curiosity, I'll have to see if my local CVS carries those five subject notebooks, but again, not what I'd want.

Stalogy just recently, as in this past week or so, came out with a blank/plain version of their 365 notebook, it may not be available at all retailers yet, but in the U.S. it is available at Yoseka. Happy customer, no affiliation…

 

[ISW_Kaputnik]

35 minutes ago, JakobS said:

Stalogy just recently, as in this past week or so, came out with a blank/plain version of their 365 notebook, it may not be available at all retailers yet, but in the U.S. it is available at Yoseka. Happy customer, no affiliation…

 

Much obliged.  Bookmarked.

[jesse]

2 hours ago, JakobS said:

Stalogy just recently, as in this past week or so, came out with a blank/plain version of their 365 notebook, it may not be available at all retailers yet, but in the U.S. it is available at Yoseka. Happy customer, no affiliation…

 

 

JetPens is also just now stocking them.  Thanks for mentioning these, I too am looking for a replacement blank page notebook.  Just wish it was cream paper 

[ibrahim]

On 7/30/2021 at 11:30 AM, Detman101 said:

CVS - Caliber (5 Subject Notebook)
Fountain Pen friendly and only $5 for a buttload of pages.
No dot-grid though...lined only.

Thank you so much for sharing about this notebook. I’m now really curious!

[ibrahim]

On 7/31/2021 at 8:51 PM, inkstainedruth said:

Might be too thick for what you want, (and increasingly hard to find, unfortunately)

I get them easily via Barnes and Nobles. We order them online. For less than ten dollars!

 

Also I ordered this yesterday 

 

https://www.amazon.com/MIQUELRIUS-Notebook-Coloured-Horizontal-Micro-Perforated/dp/B004LG2J8U/ref=pd_day0_3/145-1707767-6764802?pd_rd_w=sxTJ8&pf_rd_p=8ca997d7-1ea0-4c8f-9e14-a6d756b83e30&pf_rd_r=ASZR4ENC4W8RJJPH9Z7A&pd_rd_r=b3cfe914-4a2a-4158-9121-991d09ce97e9&pd_rd_wg=F1X0c&pd_rd_i=B004LG2J8U&th=1