Paper & Notebooks Archives - Page 6 of 12

My new diary – hint: it’s a Hobonichi Techo

7 Comments / Hobonichi, Paper & Notebooks / 1 July 2016 / Hobonichi, Made in Japan, Techo avec

Today is the first day in my new diary.

For many years I’ve been using the diaries that my employer has provided. I have shown them previously in this blog post where I put a NFC tag (from a price tag) in my diary, so that my phone goes quiet when I put it on top of the diary (e.g. in meetings).

A photo from the 2012 blog post where I put a NFC tag in the diary

From digital to analogue, Apple Newton -> Nokia Communicator -> Filofax

Well, here’s a short version of my diary experience. In the 1990s I used to use the Apple Newton’s calendar (there was a point when the old model was sold very cheap in 1994 or 1995, so I couldn’t resist and bought one. Later there was a point when Apple offered you the later model for a very small fee if you returned your old Newton, I did that, too.).

Well, after Apple decided to drop the Newton I bought a used Nokia Communicator and used it as my diary.

Later, in 2001, when I moved to England, I bought a Filofax. My Communicator was pretty slow by then, maybe because all the memory was used up. In the 1990s Filofax wasn’t very well known in Germany. I think I only knew about it because of the 1990 movie Taking care of business – the German title of the movie translates as “Filofax – I am you and you are nothing”.

My old and new paper diary

Well, let’s fast forward fifteen years. I used to like the Lyreco diaries my employer provided, but this time they ordered a slightly different one and it seems so much worse, so I decided to buy my own diary. I didn’t really consider a Filofax because I remember that I found flipping pages in the ring bound Filofax annoying …so I thought I try a Hobonichi Techo. Lexikaliker, as usual one of the early adopters of new trends, has mentioned the Hobonichi Techo in 2013 ^[1]I wonder how many items would me much less known in the stationery fandom if it wasn’t for him. The Swiss Wood pencil, the Pollux, the Janus, the Greande, … this will be a very long … Continue reading.

The kind of work I do means that I need a diary from summer to summer, rather than January to December, so I bought the Hobinchi Techo avec, July – December in A6, just to try out whether this is for me. My previous diary used to be A5 and Susan M. Pigott’s excellent review at The Pen Addict indicates that A6 might be a bit small, but I thought I try ‘portable’ for now, I can then still switch to A5 in January if this one turns out to be too small.

First observations

Thickness

My first observations: the diary is not as thin as I thought it would be. According to Nanami Tomoe River paper has nearly half the thickness of copy paper, but this six months diary seems about half as thick as my twelve months diary (if you deduct the thick lids), even though my old diary has lots of extra pages before and after the ‘page a day’ section.

The Techo isn't as thin as I expected - The diary on the right has twice as many pages — The Techo isn’t as thin as expected – The diary on the right has twice as many pages

Pencil leads

The Orenz is a great pencil for this diary, the 0.2mm lead helps to write small so that you can get more on a page. I did also try to use my Color Eno leads, but these coloured leads don’t like to ‘stick’ to the paper and the colours are very difficult to read. Have a look at the image below. W15 and W14 (in graphite) are easy to read, but the word in orange (Assessment) and the squiggly line in green (both Color Eno leads) are not.

Graphite is easy to read, coloured leads are not

Erasing

Erasing on this paper is great. The ink on some printed documents can rub off if you use an eraser, but when I use an eraser ^[2]The Faber-Castell dust-free. on the Hobonichi Techo the graphite gets removed but the print on the pages stays, just as it should.

I have recently started using an eraser shield, in this case Staedtler’s eraser shield ^[3]Made in Taiwan, Shangching helped me get it, together with the Orenz I use in the Hobonichi. and it is a great addition to the Hobonichi (you can see it on the left in the image below), especially if you use very fine leads and write small.

Hobonichi Techo avec Jul-Dec — Now housed in my Galen Leather cover

As usual, please open images in a new tab to see the high res version – this doesn’t work for the 2012 and the Creative Commons images.

I have bought the Hobonichi Techo avec from the official store for ¥‎1188 (~$11.60; £8.70; €10.40) plus postage.

Price: June 2016

Exchange rates: July 2016

I have already linked to the Hobonichi Planner review at The Pen Addict. If you want to read more I suggest reading Shangching’s and Sola’s reviews.

Maximising pen storage while staying jeans pocket friendly

References[+]

References
↑1	I wonder how many items would me much less known in the stationery fandom if it wasn’t for him. The Swiss Wood pencil, the Pollux, the Janus, the Greande, … this will be a very long list.
↑2	The Faber-Castell dust-free.
↑3	Made in Taiwan, Shangching helped me get it, together with the Orenz I use in the Hobonichi.

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One cover to carry them all

5 Comments / Paper & Notebooks, Uncategorised / 17 June 2016 / Galen Leather, Made in Turkey

A weekend away

As both, my wife and I, live in different country to the ones we grew up in we usually end up spending our holidays visiting relatives. It is nice, but it means we normally don’t get more ‘normal’ holidays. Last time was the weekend we spend in Shropshire for my 40th birthday.

Size comparison: a Banditapple Peewee and an A6 notebook

Well, last time we went 80 miles South, this time we traveled a similar distance, but East, to Yorkshire: We booked a coach trip for two days, which is great as the whole trip, including admissions to attractions, doesn’t cost much more than what the night in the Holiday Inn would have cost us.

The main notebook is held by an elastic band

One handy solution

I thought I travel light, so the Galen Leather cover I got recently came in very handy. It’s the Small Moleskine and Field Notes cover. It usually comes with a Monogram (up to three letters), but I forgot about that so mine doesn’t have one.

A big elastic band is holding the cover in place

Using this cover meant I could keep everything in one place, including my mobile phone and my mp3 player. Yes, I know that phones come with mp3 players these days, but there are several reasons why I have a separate mp3 player (with camera), I spare you my long winded explanations, though.

What I stored:

Phone☑ I have to add though that I misused the cover. It comes with an elastic band that is supposed to close the cover, but I misused it to store my oversized phone.
MP3 player☑ which I stored inside, actually supposed to be for your phone
Main notebook☑ Which was held in place by the case’s second, inner elastic band. I picked a Muji A6 notebook. I’ve been using these for over ten years now. A6 is the maximum size you can fit inside. I tried to maximise the notebook size, so didn’t pick the slightly smaller Banditapple Peewee and couldn’t go for a Silvine Memo Book, which is a bit too tall. You can see a comparison of the different notebook sizes on this page.
Other notebooks☑ I stored two Fieldnotes, one in the left and one in the right half of the cover.
Stamps and Airmail sticker☑ I stored them in the left half of the cover, too.
Pen☑ I put a pen in the cover’s pen loop. It’s an M5-2005 mechanical pencil from Mitsubishi / Uni, made from reclaimed oak wood from Whiskey bottles. More about this pencil another time.

Overall

Altogether this was a great, small, carry-all solution (because I slightly misused, e.g. used the strap to hold the phone). The best part was that all fitted neatly in the back pocket of my jeans, it wasn’t too thick and it wasn’t too wide. The leather of Galen’s cover is quite thick, much thicker than my Rustico cover, but not too thick. The good thing with Galen’s cover is that the pencil’s point is protected, so you don’t need to retract the lead.

I kept this blog post very subjective as many other blogs have or will review this case, too. I got this case free of charge from Galen (thanks). They have send out a few of these to different bloggers, including The Pen Addict,The Pencilcase Blog, I Laike Pens, The Gentleman Stationer, This Bug’s Life, Desk of Adam and maybe more (maybe Ed Jelley).

As usual: please open the images in a new tab to see them in high resolution.

Misusing the big elastic band to hold my phone

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Using the Staples puncher with the Atoma system

7 Comments / Atoma, Paper & Notebooks, Staples / 25 May 2016 / Arc, Atoma, desktop punch, desktop puncher, hole punch, hole puncher, M by Staples, paper punch, paper puncher, Staples

After my 2012 blog post about the Atoma and the M by Staples’ Arc notebooks ^[1]…to my surprise it is still by far(!) the most popular blog post at Bleistift, even though it is a few years old. I have been asked more than once whether the Staples ‘desktop punch’ can be used for the Atoma system.

The short answer is that it works well.

Why would you want to use a hole puncher ^[2]I know they are not holes, but I will stick to this name for now as it is commonly used. not designed for your system? Well, it is much cheaper. The Atoma hole punch currently sells for around £140 (~$205; €185), the Staples one can be bought for around £35 (~$50; €45). ^[3]I got my Staples desktop punch for my birthday many years ago, so I am not sure, but I think prices were pretty similar at the time.

Not surprisingly holes punched with the Staples desktop punch, when used with Atoma discs, seem a bit worse than the original Atoma holes ^[4]I assume that Atoma punched paper, used with a Staples discs, would also be slightly worse than Staples punched paper. – but in my opinion Atoma makes the better notebooks, while Staples makes the affordable paper puncher, so I will stick with this combination.

The M by Staples arc desktop punch is sturdy and well made in Taiwan and can officially punch up to 8 sheets in one go.

If you want to read more about Staples’ Atoma clone have a look at the Arc It Blog (not updated anymore).

Price and exchange rates: May 2016

As usual: open in a new tab/window to see the images in high resolution (except the last image).

References[+]

References
↑1	…to my surprise it is still by far(!) the most popular blog post at Bleistift, even though it is a few years old.
↑2	I know they are not holes, but I will stick to this name for now as it is commonly used.
↑3	I got my Staples desktop punch for my birthday many years ago, so I am not sure, but I think prices were pretty similar at the time.
↑4	I assume that Atoma punched paper, used with a Staples discs, would also be slightly worse than Staples punched paper.

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Staedtler’s posh pencil and Atoma’s posh notebook

12 Comments / Atoma, Mechanical pencils, Paper & Notebooks, Staedtler / 21 May 2016 / Atoma, Cult Pens, Initium, leather, mechanical pencil, Staedtler

Expensive pencil purchases

There are two pencil purchases I’ve been thinking about for a while. One of them is a Rotring 800+, but with a price tag of more than £40 I haven’t been able to convince myself to buy it yet ^[1]I guess I should buy it. In a recent Pen Addict podcast they were talking about a similar situation https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/204 , it all reminds me of a Bavarian movie called ‘The sooner … Continue reading.

Every now and then I check whether I find a good offer for this pencil in online stores, on Amazon and on eBay. Earlier this week I was just checking CultPens again (so far they have been the cheapest store for the Rotring 800+ when taking postage into account) when I saw an offer I couldn’t resist: Lots, really lots, of ‘free’ items if you buy a Staedtler Initium pen.

cultpens-initium — So many ‘free’ add-ons…

The Atoma leather notebook

The most tempting of these ‘free’ add-ons was Atoma’s Leather notebook ^[2]Mady by Belgium’s Ruitertassen.. Most tempting for two reasons:

I am using my Atoma notebooks on a daily basis, at work and at home, and I really like it
and I really like the look and the graceful ageing of tanned leather ^[3]Think Yo no bi, which reminds me: I just hope my Rustico notebook doesn’t get too dark over time, but based on experience with a leather bag I think I will be fine

…so this notebook was the reason why I went ahead and ordered the Staedtler Initium pencil.

I think I was probably even more interested than I otherwise would have been because of the recent flood of blog posts about William Hannah’s similar notebook after they sent free samples and discounted samples to many bloggers ^[4]including Scribble, Philofaxy, Pen Paper Pencil and Gourmet Pens.

Staedtler’s premium line

I do love Staedtler products, you might have noticed that this blog has more articles about Staedtler than about any other manufacturer ^[5]So fat there are 50 Staetdler articles. Faber-Castell, the number two only has 39 articles at Bleistift. but so far I haven’t been very excited about their foray into the world of more expensive stationery, their Initium line. Based on the photos I have seen online I think the Initium fountain pens look like cheap ‘own brand’ pens from a high street stationery chain – I might revise my opinion when I see one in reality, though, photos can be deceptive. The pencil on the other hand looks nice to me, but maybe not >£60 nice. So I went with the mechanical pencil instead. On the photos it looks better than the fountain pen, but I couldn’t really imagine how the clip works – is there a spring like in the Lamy 2000?

Arrived!

Well, my purchase has arrived now, I just unpacked the items. First impression: The body of the Staedtler pencil looks a bit more plasticy than expected, but overall it looks good. The Atoma leather notebook looks just amazingly beautiful!

I’m very much looking forward to trying all the items out.

You can read more about Atoma in my 2012 blog post about this system.

References[+]

References
↑1	I guess I should buy it. In a recent Pen Addict podcast they were talking about a similar situation https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/204 , it all reminds me of a Bavarian movie called ‘The sooner you die, the longer you are dead’
↑2	Mady by Belgium’s Ruitertassen.
↑3	Think Yo no bi, which reminds me: I just hope my Rustico notebook doesn’t get too dark over time, but based on experience with a leather bag I think I will be fine
↑4	including Scribble, Philofaxy, Pen Paper Pencil and Gourmet Pens
↑5	So fat there are 50 Staetdler articles. Faber-Castell, the number two only has 39 articles at Bleistift.

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Graf von Faber-Castell Journal and Paper

1 Comment / Faber-Castell, Graf von Faber-Castell, Paper & Notebooks, Pencils / 27 January 2016 / Faber-Castell, Graf von Faber-Castell, Made in Germany, Notebook, pencil

Today: a noble notebook and pencil.

Graf von Faber-Castell, that’s Faber-Castell’s posh product line started in 1993. Back then our favourite count, Anton-Wolfgang Graf von Faber-Castell, introduced this line as part of Faber-Castell’s reorientation. As a pencil enthusiast, I am quite happy that the Graf von Faber-Castell line has not neglected the humble pencil. There was a Graf von Faber-Castell version with only an eraser cap, a pencil extender and the perfect pencil and there were some other pencils along the way, like the fluorescent Graf von Faber-Castells.

This Graf von Faber-Castell Journal and Pencil set is available for free with most purchases from The Pen Company’s Graf von Faber-Castell line. I got it free of charge when I recently placed an order with them.

The pencil included in this set is one of their fluted pencils with a silver plated end cap. I assume it is silver plated, not solid silver but I am not 100% sure. These pencils are a bit harder than the very old Graf von Faber-Castell pencils, but certainly softer than a Faber-Castell HB pencil. In any case, they are a pleasure to write with while keeping the point fairly well.

The notebook you get is clothbound and has thick, creamy paper in a kind of slightly yellow shade of light beige. It feels quite different to the ordinary white from most notebooks. Despite the smooth surface, the paper is taking the graphite on very well. I am spelling this out because some smooth paper, like the one found in the original Field Notes, is very smooth and doesn’t work well with pencils – as if the paper is too smooth and not abrasive enough to get the graphite off the pencil and onto the paper. This Graf von Faber-Castell paper does, however, feel very smooth to the touch but is ‘abrasive’ enough for use with HB pencils. The writing experience on this paper is just excellent. It’s a shame you can’t buy these individually, but since they’ve been around for at least five years I hope that we will still see this notebook as part of some special offers in the future.

This blog post has been published on The Pen Company’s Blog, too. Just to spell it out, I have not received any money for writing this blog post.

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