Composition Notebooks

[tlaine]

http://www.trish-art.com/images/blog/compositionbook/gramcousa-norcombrz-covers.jpg

Gramco and Norcom Brand Composition Notebooks

 

 

 

 

Norcom - "Made in Brazil"

 

I have two types of composition notebooks that I want to review today, the first one is by Norcom that can be purchased at Wal-mart and lots of other locations that I am unsure of, possibly Walgreens and CVS and maybe Office Depot and Target. I purchased mine at Wal-mart. This is specifically a Norcom brand that has "Made in Brazil" written on the back. There are other Norcom brand notebooks that are "Made in Vietnam, Korea, China" and probably other places. A lot of people agree the "Made in Brazil" paper is much more fountain pen friendly than any of the other locations. Wal-mart had a huge amount and all the ones that I looked through were "Made in Brazil". Be prepared to dig for them because I imagine it is rather random which ones a supplier ships to a store. These cost about a dollar or so off-season, but at the "back to school" sales you might be able to find these at incredible prices, maybe as low as 25 cents each.

 

The Norcom Brazil paper is very smooth and a bright white. Which works beautifully with fountain pens. There was no feathering and no bleed through except with the wettest nib I had. Most of the notebooks I have seen are wide ruling, I usually prefer college rule.

 

Gramco and Norcom paper color comparison

http://www.trish-art.com/images/blog/compositionbook/gramcousa-norcombrz-paper.jpg

 

Norcom Brazil Paper front and back side by side

http://www.trish-art.com/images/blog/compositionbook/norcom-frontback-sm.jpg

 

Norcom Brazil paper close up

(written with my Pilot VP Decimo medium nib and a mix of Waterman Blue Black and PR Naples Blue.

The ghosting you see in this image is from the page behind this one.)

http://www.trish-art.com/images/blog/compositionbook/norcom-paper.jpg

 

 

 

 

Gramco - "Made in the USA"

 

In a search for finding a blank composition book lead me to the company Gramco. They sell blank composition books online as well as several other varieties, such as regular and quad (graph) ruling. The only thing is, they are not very specific on what brand and paper that is in these comp books on their website. There is also a minimum online order of $25, and then you will have to pay shipping on top of that. So you'll have to buy A LOT of notebooks to meet the minimum and then pay almost as much for shipping. I ordered 5 - 50 sheet and 10 - 100 sheet notebooks (blank ruling), which came exactly to $26, and then shipping was about $16. So it was about $42 for my complete order. That's about 2.80 per book, which is still fairly cheep except that I had to buy a whole bunch of them. I figured if I didn't like them, my niece would love them for sketchbooks; so no loss of use and right on time for her birthday. I wont post pictures of the 50 sheet notebooks, but I will say the paper in them was not the same as the paper in the 100 sheet notebooks, the quality of that paper was pretty awful, so those will definitely be going to my niece. ;-)

 

I didn't write in each of the notebooks I got, but I did look at the paper in each of the 100 sheet notebooks and they all appeared to be the same, although the quality of the 50 sheet notebook versus the 100 sheet notebook make me wonder if its random paper quality in all of the notebooks. If that makes sense.

 

Front and back side by side

http://www.trish-art.com/images/blog/compositionbook/gramco-frontback-sm.jpg

 

I'm not sure why, but I was expecting a Mead brand notebook but these are Gramco brand and on the front of the notebook it says "Made in the USA". The paper in the Gramco 100 sheet notebooks had a slight sheen on the surface and it is an off-white color which has a little bit of tooth. My fountain pens did very well, I hardly noticed any feathering and there was almost no bleed through with maybe a pin (soapy mouth) of ink showing here and there. I wasn't able to use a really really wet nib but I did use my 3rd wettest nib, which is my Pilot VP Decimo medium and in my opinion it did very well. I didn't think to try one of my Pitt Artist Pens to check bleed through with those, if I get a chance I'll post the results of that here later; and I didn't even attempt a watercolor test. Although the toothiness of the paper didn't bother me so much, it might bother some people. Gramco paper definitely isn't as smooth as the Norcom Brazil paper. Also, the paper is rather thin and you can see ghosting on the other side as shown in the pictures but that didn't disturb me much either.

 

Close up of front

http://www.trish-art.com/images/blog/compositionbook/gramco-closeupfront-sm.jpg

 

Close up of back

http://www.trish-art.com/images/blog/compositionbook/gramco-closeupback-sm.jpg

 

Overall, I like the blank notebook a lot, I just wish that the paper was a little brighter white but maybe that itself isn't such a bad thing to help reduce eye strain. The Norcom Brazil paper was very smooth and a pleasure to write on if you like lined notebooks.

 

Composition notebooks are great for using as you want and not having to worry about "messing it up" because of the low cost and easy availability. With the exception of trying to find blank notebooks. Mine are keepers and if I ever do manage to use my supply of them, I'll definitely buy more.

 

[tlaine]

Update on the Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens:

 

In both notebooks the Artist pens did not bleed through unless the ink was marked over the same spot repeatedly and a Sharpie fine point did bleed through very badly. Of course, the paper is really thin in both notebooks.

Edited February 12, 2009 by tlaine

[Sailor Kenshin]

This is a great review, and I know a lot of people who like unlined notebooks. I sometimes regret the amount of money I spent on 'traditional' artist sketchbooks and wish I'd had these available when I was buying a new sketchbook. The off-white tone of the paper would please me, too.

[SonyaSpiral]

Had to check out Gramco's site.

 

The site shows this only.

 

 

 

which can be so uninformative.

 

 

Thanks for the detailed review and actual pictures of the Gramco brand comp book.

 

 

 

[cpsantillan]

Great review!!!just want to say that I have a norcom composition book and it is made in vietnam,and it has worked really good for me,though I am going to try the ones made in brazil,like you said almost everyone seems to like this paper,cheap compo books definetely are very fountain pen friendly,and you don't have to pay a fortune to have the pleasure of writing with a fountain pen...