I recently picked up a set of the Cherry Wood standard edition Field Notes and thought it would be fun to compare them to their older brother, the Shelterwood. The first thing you’ll notice is that the Cherry Wood color is lighter than the Shelterwood and the Cherry Wood has black printed text on the cover instead of the translucent white on the Shelterwood.
Inside, the Cherry Wood features the more popular graph paper with ochre brown lines. The Shelterwood features lined paper in a similar brownish color.
Both books have gold staples, if you care. I didn’t test out the paper but I suspect that the Cherry Wood paper, filled with the standard edition paper stock, Finch Opaque Smooth 50# text stock, will perform as well as the standard Kraft editions. The Shelterwoods were stocked with a bit heartier Finch Fine “Soft White” 70# text stock which is a tiny bit thicker and warmer color.
As someone who prefers lined or blank paper over graph AND I use a lot of fountain pens, I think I prefer the Shelterwood but I’m sure lots of people will be thrilled to be able to get a steady supply of the Cherry Wood.
Cherry Wood editions are available as open stock at Field Notes. A 3-pack is $9.99.
I love that you reviewed this! (Thank you!) I also have the limited edition Shelterwood and considered buying the Cherry Wood. I just wanted to add a few comments from my observation of the two.
While both woods are sustainable, I think the elegance of the fine, curly grained wood of the Shelterwood (a type of Birch Tree) is very provocative compared to the medium, straight grained wood of the Cherry. There is a delicate finesse to the Shelterwood because of the bold knots, a character that is most recognizable in wood, is shown. And the fact that I also find ruled and plain, as opposed to the utilitarian graph-styled, paper much more refined, I would definitely agree with you and say that I prefer Shelterwood over Cherry Graph.
Best,
Victoria
What is the name of the pen that is in the picture of this review? It is awesome.
The pen is from ISHUJA. It was part of the Eco-Essential pen and pencil set that included a holder for a Hi-Tec C refill and a mechanical pencil. I wrote a review about the set a while back if you’d like more information.