Bookbinders
Design** is one of my favourite Melbourne stationery haunts. Its owners love what
they do and you can feel the stationery love each time you meander through its well
organised, colour-coded collections of notebooks (including their own, Leuchturrm,
and Midori/Travellers) pens (including Caran d’Ache and Ajoto), washi tape,
rubber stamps, paper (including Tomoe River) and general stationery paraphernalia.
The good folk at Bookbinders Design recently reached out to
me to write a review of their notebook, and, delightfully, provided me with a
monogramed notebook for the review. While the focus of this blog is fountain
pens, clearly if one uses a fountain pen, one uses it on something: generally
paper. Unbiased by giveaways (but happy to accept them) today’s blog is therefore
a review of the Bookbinders Design Signature-design cloth notebook – clearly
with a focus on Fountain pens.
To assist me in this review, I engaged the talents of the many
who attended the recent Melbourne Pelikan Hubs event. “Please write in the notebook and
let me know what you think” I asked them; and write and divulge they did.
I also asked a fellow Fountain Pens Australia Facebook
member, (and one of the organisers of the Melbourne Pen Show) Silvana Abela, to
join me in putting this notebook to the test; so, fountain pens at the ready we
challenged and tested the Bookbinders Design Signature Notebook to see if it
performs as well as it looks.
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| Our working table |
THE COVER
The cover is really the centerpiece of the Bookbinders
Design Signature Notebook. Indeed, as the name of the shop would imply, quality
bookbinding is the hallmark of this establishment. The colours especially are
what attracted me to both the shop and the notebook in the first place, and
provide a fabulous “ambiente” to the shop. Made in Sweden from what they call
“Bookbinding Linen” and coming in what I counted on their website to be over 20 different colours, these covers scream soft sophistication and sumptuous,
Scandinavian style.
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| The colours in situ at Bookbinders by Design Shop |
The cornucopia of colours of Bookbinders Design Signature-design notebooks on their website
I’m not sure that my iPhone can really do
justice to the subtle weave of the cloth cover, but the weave is beautifully
delicate and just begs to be touched. That being said, the cloth doesn’t feel
flimsy or overly delicate either.
Bookbinders Design will also happily (for a price)
personalise your notebook with initials or text to give it that extra personal
touch. A range of fonts are offered including:
- Artcraft italic,
- Bodoni Trueface,
- Caslon Bold,
- Garamond Bold italic,
- Helvetica Medium and
- Mandate.
The lettering can be produced in seven different colours: gold,
silver, copper, blind (I guess you just can’t see that one), clear, black and
white (arguably, those latter too are not, technically, colours, but you get
the drift).
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Front cover
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THE BINDING
Coming in three sizes: 170mm x 200mm, 210 x 240mm and A4, Bookbinders
Design claim that their notebook in all its sizes is “Traditionally bound, like in the old days”. Unfortunately I cannot
claim to be a bookbinding buff; and I was not around in the old days (although
my daughter would beg to differ); nevertheless I can say that the binding is
certainly solid, it’s not stapled and I have no sense of anything other than
high quality. Hopefully
this picture will satisfy the more knowledgeable of you.
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| Yes, it comes with a bookmark too |
The inside cover and opening page (front and back) are
covered with a colour-matching, slightly thicker grade card-stock followed (or
preceded in the case of the back cover) by the notebook proper. This both makes
the book look a cut above many others, and nicely reinforces the colours of the
cover.
The Bookbinders Design Signature Notebook does not open flat
but not too far from it. And in holding it open, there is no sense of it being
flimsy; or concern with it coming loose from its binding. Even so, one page or
the other will always pop up a little towards the centre of the notebook, and
this would be a little annoying if you were using it for drawing or similar
artistic endeavour.
PAPER
A notebook without paper is a folder. Paper maketh (or
unmaketh) the notebook. In this case, Bookbinders Design use white, Swedish
100gsm paper (I can’t tell you what the difference between Swedish and other
country’s 100gsm paper may be). The paper is smooth to the touch (so no obvious
fibres), and does not appear coated in any way (like Rhodia paper may be).
Bookbinders Design also make a number of additional claims
for the blank and ruled formats of their paper:
1.
Acid free
2.
Totally chlorine free (TCF) – I guess this means
you can swim in it without hurting your eyes
3.
Age-Resisting (what’s your secret?); and
4.
Forest Stewardship Certified (FSC).
What does all this mean? Well my research has dug up the
following:
1.
The advantage of Acid-free paper is that it
provides a good base for the things you put on your paper to remain there and
not disappear over time. Paper with acid in it (which is not uncommon) can
interact with the materials you use on the paper and cause them to decay over
time
2.
Chlorine is often used in the wood pulp
bleaching process. Why is this bad? Where chorine is used, the compounds are
generally released into waterways as effluent where they may produce
environmental damage. So this won’t change your writing experience, just something
for the soul (not to be underestimated).
3.
Age-resistant paper is also linked with the
acid-free component. According to an article sourced from Klug conservation, in
order for paper to claim that it is age-resistant it must meet the following
criteria:
“ • The paper must be free
of unbleached cellulose pulp or wooden fibres. Thus pulp or semi-pulp fibre
materials can be excluded.
• The paper must possess a
low content of oxidisable material,” …
“• The paper must have an
alkaline buffer – an alkaline reserve – of at least 2 % natural calcium
carbonate.
• The pH value in the cold
water extract must lie between 7.5 and 10.”
[See, that’s much clearer!]
4.
FSC is a certification that, since 1993 allows
customer to choose paper, amongst other things, that has been sourced in an
environmentally-friendly, socially responsible and economically viable way.
(source: mother nature network)
UNDER INK
OK. All this is starting well. The real test however, is how
does it cope with being written on?
The Melbourne Pelikan Hubsters assisted this review by
writing in my Bookbinders Design Signature Notebook in various pens and inks.
Silvana and I then continued to play with the paper to see what it could do…
If you are planning to use a fountain pen, pencil, ballpoint or other writing implement to write in your Bookbinders notebook, we think you’ll be happy with your choice. We wrote on the paper
in a variety of inks and nibs and, with the exception of what looks like a red
marker (to the Pelkan Hubster that wrote “Pelikan Hubs” in red – feel free to
post a comment on what you used), there was really no bleed-through or problem.
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| Back of the previous page - very little bleed-through with fountain pens |
One hubster suggested that there was a little feathering;
but we examined the pages thoroughly and, other than with a 30x loupe, we could
not visibly discern any feathering with regular nibs. Drying time was about
average (probably quicker than Tomoe River). When we used dip nibs, however,
whether it was scratching the paper or a higher saturation of ink, there was some minor feathering to the writing.
Next we tried using some calligraphy pens of a brand named
Automatic Pens (that were a lot of fun to use, and easy to clean). The results here
were not so good. In each case we drew one continuous line and then wrote
underneath it, mostly in dip pen. What we found was that while there was no discernable
issue on the page in question, there was
bleed-through to the next page, and the dampness made an impression on a number
of following pages.
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| You can see the dip nibs start to feather a little here; although the saturated lines look OK. |
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| Unfortunately, those saturated lines have started to saturate through |
We were so intrigued by this that we wrote again on the
paper with a 2.4mm Pilot Parallel and a 1.1 Franklin Christoph stub nib (in a Pen Addict FC pen) to see if
there were any issues on the paper – there were none; but upon drawing another
wetter, thicker line underneath this, BAM, more bleed-through.
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| Once again, no real issue with normal fountain pen writing (even with the 2.4mm Pilot Parallel); but once the ink gets a little saturated... |
CONCLUSION
The Bookbinders Design Signature Notebook is an excellent,
value-for-money product. The quality of binding, the ridiculously large option
of different colour covers, the presentation and monogram options all make for
an extremely desirable and useful product/gift that will protect your writing and last for generations.
From a fountain pen (and ballpoint/pencil) users
perspective, the paper offers a fabulous surface for writing or drawing. If you
were thinking of using the notebook for painting or larger, wetter ink
exposures however, be wary of bleed-through to the next page – put something
behind the page to protect following pages and all should be forgiven.
Thankyou Bookbinders Design for providing the Notebook, and to Silvana and the Melbourne Pelikan Hub folk for their contributions to the testing regime. I look forward to seeing you all at the Melbourne Pen Show on 26 November; and don't forget to have a happy International Fountain Pen Day on 3 November.
Until next tine...
*Bookbinders Design should not be mistaken with that other
excellent Australian stationery purveyor: Bookbinders Online, which is an
unaffiliated stationery company based in Aspley, Queensland, on the North east
coast of Australia.
**Pelikan Hub is a world-wide event auspiced by Pelikan Pens
where fountain pen owners around the world are encouraged to meet in cities
around the world on a single night in September each year to share their pens,
inks and good humour.
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