In Paper Review

Giveaway: Galen Leather Co. EveryDay Books

Author Laura CameronPosted on 103 Comments

Review by Laura Cameron

I love all the Galen Leather Co. products I have tried, so when I received a handful of their new EveryDay notebooks to review I was super excited.

We’ll start with the complete set. The A5 EveryDay Book set ($32.00) includes three A5 notebooks, guide sheets, a leather blotter and a fun zippered case. Each A5 notebook is filled with 128 pages of blank 52gsm Tomoe River paper. The covers are made of cardstock and are handbound (stitched). The notebooks themselves measure 5.7 x 8.25″ (14.5 x 21 cm).

The paper is, in a word, lovely. It is thin, but sturdy. The ink dries fairly quickly and while there is a bit of ghosting on the reverse side, there’s no bleeding through or feathering.

But if A5 size isn’t your jam, there are tons of other sizes: passport, pocket, regular (Traveler Notebook sized), B5 and B6.

So now for the giveaway. You are entering to win:

  • TWO A5 notebooks + guides + leather blotter courtesy of Galen Leather (we’re sorry to break up the set but we used the third A5 notebook to test and the zippered pouch had an unfortunate ink exploding incidient)
  • TWO Regular notebooks + leather blotter courtesy of Vanness Pen Shop

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell us what your favorite paper is! Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting, okay? One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Friday, March 13, 2020. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 7 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

In Pencil Review

Pencil Review: Musgrave Tennesse Red

Author AnaPosted on 6 Comments
Pencil Review: Musgrave Tennesse Red

Okay, I talk about Chicago all the time but what you might not know about me is that I went to high school and college in Tennessee. I appreciate my varied upbringing and that I can relate to urban life as well as the smaller, Southern towns. As a result, I’ve always had a soft spot for Musgrave pencils. When I heard about the release of the genuine Tennessee Red cedar pencils ($9/dozen), I knew I needed to get a dozen ASAP. The pencils come in a beautiful matchbox-style box with the Tennessee Red lettering emblazoned on the sleeve in white on bright red.

Musgrave Tennessee Red Pencils

Inside the box is a dozen natural finish Tennessee Cedar pencils with gold ferrules and bright white erasers. The branding is printed in red foil on the natural, hex pencils.

Musgrave Tennessee Red Pencils

For Tennessee natives, you’ll recognize the red circle with three stars from the Tennessee state flag.

The pencil sharpens to a good point and don’t let me fool you, I ripped this package open and sharpened these pencils as soon as they arrived. I love a crisp hex pencil and the variations in the tones of wood made these pencils covet-worthy even if they wrote terribly.

Tennessee Red Writing Sample

Which they don’t. They are actually some of the smoothest Musgrave pencils I’ve used. They are a rich dark graphite but don’t actually smudge that much which is a big deal for a lefty like me. I was even using Rhodia paper ($13.75) which is super smooth and therefore more inclined to smudge but… no, not so much.

The built-in eraser works better than most on-pencil erasers but do yourself a favor and get a foam eraser like the Pilot Foam Eraser ($1.65). The different is amazing.

If I could have tweaked the design of this pencil at all, I might have gone for a silver or dark pewter ferrule but otherwise, I think this is an exceptional pencil at a great price.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Pencil Review

Pencil Cap Review: Sonic Cupot

Author Laura CameronPosted on 2 Comments

Review by Tina Koyama

Usually made of lightweight plastic or aluminum, pencil caps save you from being stabbed by sharp pencil points and keep your bag or pocket from being marked. You’d think that something as simple as a cap would be easy to choose and be happy with. Given all the colored and graphite pencils in my daily-carry, I have tried many caps, all of which imply that they are one-size-fits-all. Yet as with sharpeners, subtle differences in pencil barrel size make finding a universal pencil cap challenging. It should not be so loose that it falls off on its own, nor so tight that it’s a struggle to remove or mars the pencil’s finish.

I had heard good things about the Sonic Cupot (6 for $3.25) accommodating many different pencil sizes, so it was time to give it a try. Giving an eyeroll to the “boyish” set and the “girlish” set, I opted for the rainbow assortment. I like that they are brightly colored yet translucent, allowing the point to be visible.

Most pencil caps are straight-sided or tapered tubes made of one material. A unique feature of the Cupot is its “soft rubber rim that grips the pencils without damaging their paint.”

I popped a Cupot onto each of six pencils, some of average size and others that tend to give me trouble because they are slightly larger than average – two Caran d’Ache (Museum Aquarelle and Grafwood) and a Derwent Drawing Pencil. In every case, the Cupot went on without feeling forced, stayed on without any doubt that it might slip off, and pulled off easily without scratching the finish. I even tried one on a “mini-jumbo” pencil, and while it does fit, it feels a bit forced and requires muscle to pull off, so I probably wouldn’t use it on that. But for all other pencils, the Cupot is, indeed, universal. Finally, one size fits (almost) all!

 

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

 

In feature, Ink Review

Ink Overview: Standard Bindery Inks

Author Jessica ColesPosted on 1 Comment
Ink Overview: Standard Bindery Inks

By Jessica Coles

Standard Bindery Store in Australia has introduced a new lineup of original ink colors; these inks are now available at Vanness Pens! Due to feedback from my previous ink overview posts, I am laying out the entire lineup of 6 Standard Bindery inks.

I purchased my ink samples from Vanness Pens – samples of Road Trip, Clear Seas, Stargaze, Old Friend, Canyon Walk, and Luna Tone. As a side note, have you ever noticed that Vanness ink sample labels come in the color of the ink? I love that little detail.

I have to say that this is a very original layout of colors – not your standard ink color from Standard Bindery.

The first ink in the lineup is Road Trip – a yellowish-green that is very legible and has great shading.

Road Trip is a bit darker than Bungubox Sunlight Raindrops but is in the same region of color.

Luna Tone is a dark blue-black that has a subtle reddish-black sheen. I accidentally tested the water resistance – it isn’t. However, you can see that the writing is still legible after the water dried and the color spread in the water is beautiful.

Luna Tone has a strong purple undertone, close to Penbbs 524 and ColorVerse Proxima B

As I first swatched Old Friend, I was a bit disappointed – it is the one purple in the group. But as I wrote with this ink, just a touch of shading started to show. A faint sheen showed up and I started to love the ink.

Callifolio Bourgogne is the closest to Old Friend and I believe the two will look even more alike when writing with a fine nib.

Standard Bindery Stargaze also surprised me. When wet, Stargaze is nearly black, or a very dark grey. However, the ink dries to a greenish-grey that shows a bit of shading and a faint dark halo.

Stargaze is close to both KWZ Midnight Green and 3 Oysters Giwa – a group that I would classify as green-black and quite appropriate for work writing.

I predict that Clear Seas is going to be the most popular in the Standard Bindery line. It is a bright, cheerful teal-turquoise that leans towards green.  The writing is haloed by a darker teal or green and letters can appear as light turquoise or dark teal.

Clear Seas matches Kobe #13 Emerald closely but behaves like ColorVerse Photon. If you missed out on Papier Plume Lake Michigan Summer, grab a bottle of Clear Seas!

Canyon Walk is my favorite color of the bunch. It is a rusty reddish-orange that likes to shade a bit, has a halo around letters and the halo in the swatch (not apparent in this photo, but definitely there) shines a dark brown.

Canyon Walk is close to another hard-to-find Papier Plume ink, 011 which was created to go along with the TV show Stranger Things and designed to look a bit like dried blood. In writing, it reminds me strongly of Monteverde Copper Noir.

Standard Bindery inks were average when it came to cleanup time and wrote a touch on the wet side for me. They are not water-resistant, dried quickly (15 seconds or less), and did not smear once dry. At a price of $21.95 for 60mL of ink, they are a great price per mL. Vanness Pens quickly sold out of Clear Seas, but they will be restocked – you can sign up for a reminder on their website (I will be getting a bottle of it myself!). I am glad that a new ink line has come out with such unusual colors!

Disclaimer: The items in this post were provided at a discount for the purposes of this review. See our About page for more information.

In Link Love

Link Love: Dancing about Typewriters

Author AnaPosted on 1 Comment

Welcome Home

I drove to Baltimore with Lisa Vanness from Vanness Pen Shop and then we drove back to Little Rock and I drove on to Kansas City. It took a total of about 25 hours each way for me and I got home last night around 9pm. I collapsed in bed pretty much the moment I got home. So, it wasn’t until this morning that I saw this lovely message left on the chalkboard inside our front door from Bob. The Baltimore Pen Show (BWI Pen Show) was very busy for me, despite it being the first time I have attended. I was asked to participate in the live Erasable Podcast recording on Friday night, I hosted a Meet the Makers: Paper Panel (the first few minutes sound is dodgy until the hotel staff brought in some microphones for us) and then I acted as a judge/Vanna to Brad’s Pat Sajak in the first-ever Pen Show Jeopardy Game Show. I also helped Lisa with her ink emporium.We were directly across from Kenro Industries, The Gentleman Stationer and Nock Co. so I felt surrounded by friends.

We were showered with gifts from friends including Berger’s Cookies, Zeke’s Coffee (Jesi ran away with that!) and Unreal peanut butter cups and chocolate gems (AKA vegan M&Ms).

We made new friends like Rachel from Sailor and Anna who coined my new favorite nickname for Bryce at Luxury Brands.

Baltimore was a new show for me but it was filled with all the things I love about a pen show: pens, ink, friends and laughs.

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

In Paper Review, Tools

Notebook Review: Thinkers Notebook

Author Laura CameronPosted on 15 Comments

Review by Laura Cameron

Recently I was contacted by the people behind Thinkers Notebook ($19.95) and asked if I wanted to try their Thinkers Notebook system. I’m always game to try something new so I said yes!

The Thinkers Notebook is a 6″ x 9″ landscape notebook, designed to be used in concert with an app. The notebook encourages you to record ideas, meeting notes, sketches and the like, and then scan them (along with a QR code on each page) into the Thinkers Notebook App (free for Apple and Android Phones), a system that allows you to share out images and also allows commenting/discussion on the images.

Let’s start with the notebook. The notebook itself is discbound, a system I haven’t seen before. The discs allow the notebook to open fully and lay flat, as well as be folded back on itself. The cover is made of thick cardstock, and tiny perforations in the top of the paper near the discs, allow you to remove pages from the book without tearing.

Probably the most important question: is it fountain pen friendly? YES! The paper is 100 gsm and boasts two formats. The front of each page is dot grid (approximately 5 dots per 1″) and the back of each page is college ruled (9/32″). Take notes, sketch, do whatever you want to do in the book! The book has 100 sheets in total.

Once you have written or sketched what you want to, simply open the app in your phone to take a quick scan. Edit the photo how you wish (crop, rotate, turn to black & white, etc.) and add whatever tags you wish. Several tags are included, and you can add your own easily. Then you can share the image with anyone you wish, and they can comment on your photos. They do not have to have the app to be able to comment!

A note on security of your documents directly from the Thinkers Notebook website:

We have developed a Private Cloud Storage system on Google infrastructure to securely store your files. Only you, and those you share the files with can see the pages from the THINKERS Notebook (not even our admins can see them).

You can scan more than just the Thinkers Notebook pages. You can scan any notebook pages, whiteboard images, photos etc. to store for later.

When you buy the Thinkers Notebook, you also get free access to the Thinkers Workshop, a selection of videos, articles and insights that dive deeper into how you can use your notebook.

As a final bonus, the makers of the Thinkers Notebook are so sure you’ll love it they offer a full money back guarantee if you’re not satisfied.

So, what are my thoughts on the notebook?

The notebook itself is slim (approximately 1/2″ (1 cm)) thick and the disc binding adds a bit of bulk, but not much. Though it’s not true A5 size, meaning it won’t work well in A5 sized leather covers, the size does feel portable to me, for situations when pocket notebooks aren’t enough paper real estate.

And I really enjoyed the paper. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I kind of dig having ruled and dot grid in the same notebook, allowing me to record whatever I want, whenever I want. I’m also interested that the site says refills will be available starting in March of 2020 (that means around now!) so that I could just get more paper, and not have to continually buy whole new notebooks. At $19.95 the notebook is a bit pricey, though I understand that my notebook purchase also supports the app and the other material Thinkers Notebook creates.

Now the app. I’m not entirely sold. I appreciate that the app is pretty clean looking, streamlined and easy to use. I also understand that what Thinkers Notebook has developed is a way to store photos and comments/discussion together in one place (versus just posting a photo into a slack chat or other collaboration tool). I am a very limited test case since I don’t use a lot of collaborative work tools outside of Trello, Slack, Google Docs and Dropbox, but I don’t know that I’d find this useful in my business life unless it was something that caught on and the people I worked with were using it too? I might find it useful in my personal life to capture things like knitting pattern design ideas or the like, but I don’t know that I’d be sending those out to friends for comments either.

So I’m left with sort of a mixed feeling about the notebook. I know that I like the paper enough I’m going to be using this one up, but I’m reserving judgement on whether I’ll find the app useful enough to continue to invest in the product. On the other hand, if it becomes a favorite notebook, I might!

What do you think?

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.