As I mentioned earlier there are new limited edition Moleskines available to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Schulz’s Peanuts. I first read about the Pac-Man edition in Office Supply Geek’s newsletter which in turn lead me to the Peanuts edition.
This is my first Moleskine. I have used similar notebooks in the past, but somehow I have never bought one from Moleskine Srl / Modo & Modo Spa. My first surprise came when I saw that Moleskines are made in China. I assumed they are made in Italy, but (as Lexikaliker would write it) a quick google search extensive research has shown that they are made in China since 2006. Contrary to the popular believe, I come across quite often, made in China does not equal inferior quality: I have seen many items of extremely high quality that are made in China …but without going into too much details about currency exchange rates etc, I would like to say that I was quite surprised to see Moleskines are made there because similar notebooks made in “high wage countries” are not more expensive than Moleskines (limited edition or not) – I just assumed Moleskines were made in Italy because of the high price …but of course I cannot blame Moleskine Srl or its parent company for trying to milk the cash cow by increasing their profit margin. In the end they are a company and want to make profit.
I ordered this Moleskine from WHSmith’s online store – they were the cheapest shop I could find. This A6 Moleskine was £7.43 ($11.93; €8.56). I have not yet been able to find the limited editions on the high street or in shopping centres (Paperchase, WHSmith, John Lewis, …). It feels nice and well made, though I have seen similar notebooks where the workmanship seems to be better. The coating above the spine feels a bit loose but should be able to cope with daily use.
The first time I came across Banditapple carnets was when my friend Kent from Pencilog send me a few to try out. A few weeks later I received another envelope with Banditapple carnets, this time from Arnie Kim, the man behind the Banditapple carnets and an acquaintance of Kent. Kent told me that Arnie quit his job in Korea and went to Vietnam to create the perfect notebook. Vietnam was a French colony and was therefore influenced by French culture with the French-style carnet being no exception. Kent also added that Vietnam is the most suitable place in Asia to produce European-style notebooks. When I asked Arnie about his carnets he told me that he designed and planned the whole project and that he spent more than two years to find the right paper, the right “masters” to produce his carnets and the right location to make the carnets. The carnets currently available are the first edition, but he hopes to produce the second edition in a year or so.
Talking about the current edition he added that the paper is acid free paper and that it works great with a fountain pens, because the ink can dry quickly and because there is no feathering.
His Banditapple carnets are now being sold in the large stationery stores in Seoul and are also available in selected shops in Japan. He is also selling them online (contact banditapple@gmail.com if you are interested), with most orders being shipped to the USA and Japan, followed by Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The online sales are however tiny in comparison as Arnie does not have an online shop and these orders are based on word of mouth. The carnets are available in the following sizes:
Peewee size, a moleskine pocket size, 9×14 cm
for 1,800 KRW (~$1.54, ~ €1.21, ~£1.00)
Handy Size, a midori traveler’s note size, 11×21 cm
for 2,800 KRW (~$2.40, ~€1.89, ~£1.56)
Tablet size, a moleskine large size, 13×21 cm
for 3,300 KRW (~$2.83, ~€2.22, ~£1.84)
Banditapple left, Muji right
When I first looked at the Banditapple carnets my first impression was that they are very similar to Muji’s passport sized notebooks I bought in the past. If you have used Muji notepads before or read my previous posts about Muji (about their A5 notebook and their A6 memo pad) you know that Muji products look nice and are great for pencil users, but that their paper is not particularly fountain pen friendly. I use their white lined A6 notebooks to keep QSL logs, but I only use graphite pencils (mainly mechanical pencils) for this purpose. The similarities between the Muji passport notebooks and the Banditapple carnets lend themselves to comparing them. Keeping Kent’s and Arnie’s praise for their ability to cope with ink in mind (“The main partner with this notebook is actually fountain pen”) I decided to have a closer look and see how both cope with graphite and ink.
Banditapple carnet, sewn through the cover
Both notebooks are sewn, not stapled, which adds a nice touch to them. While the Banditapple’s cover feels like normal, coloured paper the Muji’s cover seems to be made from impregnated paper, which will probably keep it looking new and tidy for longer. Another difference is that the Muji notebook was sewn with a white thread before the outer cover was glued on, so the seam is not visible from the outside, while the Banditapple was sewn with a red thread through the cover. The paper used in the notbook is also quite different. While the Banditapple’s paper looks a bit rough, Muji’s paper looks extremely smooth, nearly shiny in comparison and with a more yellowish tint.
Banditapple
Muji
Workmanship on both notebooks is very good, but if you are looking hard you can see that the last bit of thread is hanging loose on both notebooks and that the rounded corners of both notebooks could have been cut a bit better.
Texture Banditapple
Texture Muji
Click on the images to see the texture in large.
Writing text using a pencil and erasing is fine in both notebooks, but shading the paper with a pencil does not really work well in the Muji notebook. Shading works much better in the Banditapple carnet, but the rougher paper means that the paper’s texture will be a little bit more obvious than in Muji’s notebook. The suitability for ink was tested with two different fountain pens and inks. I used a Lamy Al-Star with an M nib, filled with Montblanc royal blue ink and a Pelikan Souverän M400 white tortoise with a 14C F nib and Lamy blue-black ink [1]This is the blue-black ink from the bottle, not from the cartridge. I emphasise this because the blue-black ink from the bottle is said to be an iron-gall ink, while the blue-black cartridges are … Continue reading. This M400 is usually a very wet writer, but since this ink is very dry this combination overall is dryer than the Lamy / Montblanc combination. While the Banditapple carnet copes exceptionally well with both inks, the Muji notebook has some problems which result in the text being clearly visible on the back of the page.
The back of the page, Banditapple left, Muji right
The Banditapple carnet is the clear winner in this comparison, because of the superior paper. The Muji passport notebook paper does not perform well if you use ink or if you draw with pencils. I have to emphasise that the paper of the Muji passport notebook is performing much better than the paper in Muji’s A5 notebook I have reviewed previously. If you only write in notebooks and you only use pencils, then both will be excellent and the Muji will provide you with a cover that is more water and dirt-repelling.
I would like to thank Kent and Arnie for the Banditapple carnets used in for this post.
Arnie is an avid collector of postcards. If you would like to send him a postcard, please send it to:
Young-jo Arnold Kim
CPO Box 1754
Seoul
Republic of Korea
100-600
This is the blue-black ink from the bottle, not from the cartridge. I emphasise this because the blue-black ink from the bottle is said to be an iron-gall ink, while the blue-black cartridges are said to be just a mix of blue and black ink
On a recent trip to Belgium I saw this pack of notepads in a Carrefour corner shop. Carrefour is one of the largest supermarket chains in the world, but there are many countries where they are not present (yet).
These Carrefour notepads seem to be available in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. The notepads use 80 g paper, are A7 size and have 160 pages.
The orange-coloured cover and the purple (5mm) grid are very similar to Rhodia paper, but even though these notepads are made in France neither the orange nor the purple match the colours of the Rhodia notepad I have at home, so I cannot be sure whether the paper is made by Rhodia or whether it is just a look-alike.
The cover is pre-folded, making it easy to fold it back when writing.
The paper has the same weight as Rhodia paper, but the surface of the paper, as well as the shade of white is also different, making me think it is not Rhodia paper.
Comparison Carrefour / Rhodia notepad
Nevertheless it is very nice paper, it is quite cheap and copes well with pencil and ink.
If you know whether it is made by Rhodia please let me know.
When my wife and I recently walked by The Pen Shop in Manchester’s Trafford Centre we saw an ink blotter in the window. Since it was nice looking and the price was reduced we bought it. My wife will be using it in her office, but the ink blotter brought an old topic up again: Where to get suitable blotting paper from?
I noticed in the past that many shops sell ink blotters, but they do not sell blotting paper. The good thing is that you can buy generic blotting paper and cut it to the correct size.
If you buy exercise books in the German speaking countries they tend to come with a sheet of blotting paper, because in many areas pupils have to write with fountain pens. Finding blotting paper is however more difficult, as there does not seem to be much choice.
Blotting paper is said to have been invented by accident at Lyng Mill in Norfolk, England. There are however different theories about when blotting paper was first used and about its origins (it probably was not invented at Lyng Mill). Blotting paper was very common in the past, when dip pens and fountain pens were more popular and before the invention of blotting paper people used blotting sand.
For my wife’s ink blotter I cut A5 blotting paper to size. The paper I used was made in Austria, produced by Format Werk, Austria’s largest producer of stationery for schools and offices. Their history seems to start in 1968 when their trademark was registered. The Format Werk factory was established in 1976 and in 1997 Herlitz, I mentioned them in an earlier post, bought Format Werk. In 2001 Format Werk became Austrian again, after a management buyout.
The Format Werk blotting paper is carbon neutral and has a pleasant beige colour. It is suitable for blotting, but I have to say that I have seen better blotting paper. The blotting paper (unknown brand) that came with my beechwood ink blotter does not cause feathering. The Format Werk blotting paper sometimes does cause some feathering, presumably because it does not absorb the ink fast enough and is therefore squeezing the ink onto the writing paper. Unless you use a very wet ink and writing paper that does not absorb the ink well this should however not be a problem.
Conclusion:
A good blotting paper, but it could be better. It is not expensive and, commendable, it is carbon neutral.
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.
Comparison Muji 8238231 / Rhodia
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.
Muji Notebook 8238231, Seed Super Gold eraser, Staedtler Mars Micro 775
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.
