Today: another product from Muji. This time a green notebook (item code 8238231). Muji’s UK website advertised it as a notebook with a 100% Cotton fabric bonded cover. With a price tag of £ 6.95 ($ 10, € 8.40) it is not cheap, especially since the main feature that distinguishes this notebook from other notebooks, the cover, is nice, but not quite as nice as “100% Cotton fabric bonded cover” sounds. The paper is white, but not too white, pleasant for the eyes. Writing on this paper using a pencil is great. Using an eraser does not create any problems either. The paper is however completely useless when it comes to writing on it with a fountain pen as it seems to suck ink in like blotting paper, even though the surface is smooth, not rough. The lines get up to four times a thick as on other paper and will bleed through (even when using Noodler’s X-Feather ink!!). This will obviously depend on how wet your fountain pen writes, but even with a dry fountain pen you will not get any joy.
Conclusion:
A nice looking notebook, but not cheap. If you do not use fountain pens it might be worth having a look. Even though there are so many alternatives it is nice and has the plain Muji look.
This notebook is available in white, black, dark blue, light blue, red and green. There might even be more colours.
Price and exchange rates: June 2010
I would like to thank Sean from Pencils and Music for the Seed Super Gold Eraser used in the last photo.
Wow, I can’t thank you enough for this review! I saw this range of notebooks at a local Muji and was smitten by the colours. I wanted to get one in light blue, but after fingering the paper for quite a while, decided that it may be a little too thin and porous. My previous (limited) experience shows that Muji paper isn’t fountain pen friendly, which is a bummer because I like their design aesthetic very much!
This one is really bad for fountain pens. The worst I have ever seen. A real shame, because the notebook looks good.