The InkJournal

The InkJournal

This just came in the mail from Tom Oddo of Goldspot Pens and Oddo Ink, one of the best ideas I've seen for fountain pen lovers:  the InkJournal, a pocket-sized notebook to record pen and ink combinations, as well as space for a color swab and a comments section.

Inside front and Index

I've kept track of my pen/ink combinations in a small notebook which eventually I misplaced.  This is more detailed than I used before, and I like Tom's idea of giving fountain pen lovers their own specialized journal.

The first two pages of the InkJournal are an index with page numbers, so you can find each pen and ink combination easily. 

Second index page and first ink/pen page

The journal is made from 100% recycled papers, printed with vegetable-based inks, and the cover is a very stiff 18 pt chipboard.  The interior pages are 70# text weight, and fountain pens do work well on the paper.

Second ink/pen page

There's a lot of of room to show off your pen/ink combinations, with all the necessary information you'll need (date, dry time), while the second page is blank for notes or additional comments.  There was some bleed through with this ink, an Everflo I think, but it wasn't too bad and didn't detract from the overall great paper.

The 3.5" x 5" InkJournal allows you to catalog 15 pen/ink records, so you have 45 combinations you can keep track of for future reference.  The InkJournal's front cover is a drawing of a 14k nib being dipped into an ink bottle, while the inside page designs are elegant and spare.

front of the blotter card

Each 3-pack of journals includes an instructional blotter card explaining some basic ink terminology (shading, saturation, flow).  The card is thick and can be placed behind the page you are writing on, giving a firmer writing surface while also preventing any ink bleed through.

Back of the blotter card

And since it's unfinished matte paper the card makes a great blotter, although it's so nicely done I'd hate to ruin it.

Besides using this for fountain pens, I don't see why you can't record your favorite gel inks or other pens.  It's a great way to see the way a pen writes or to note a particular color.  I'd use it to test out various blue/black gel ink pens, to see how closely they match.

Do check out the Facebook page, where you're invited to post scans of your pen and ink pages.  That would be a lot of fun to see, and I hope Tom gets a lot of photos on his page.  If you want a new journal dedicated to keeping your pen and ink combinations in elegant order, the InkJournal is something you want to add to your notebook collection.

Compendium Write Now Journals @ShopWritersBloc

Cheryl at Writer's Bloc very generously offered me a journal to review from their Compendium line, a name I wasn't familiar with that has an assortment of message journals that look to add a little hope and inspiration to your life. In particular is this Write Now Journal with the "Make the World A Little Kinder" motif that immediately grabbed my attention: it's a really beautiful image of the 7 chakras centers on the front cover.

The front and back view is beautiful, with the vibrant Roy G. Biv assembly of circles on a page green-gray background. I'm impressed with how bright the inks are and the overall design of this journal; the others in the series are equally compelling, but I have to say this one is my favorite. The cover is flexible, and has a light grain texture that's actually pleasing to the fingertips. Measuring about 5 by 8 with 128 pages, it's a good journal for every day use.



Inside you see the pages, which are printed in soy ink on chlorine-free paper. The paper is actually a bit on the scratchy side, I could feel the tip of my fountain pen going over it but there wasn't much resistance and the surface actually feels smooth to the touch. Every 6 pages is separated by a colorful buffer page containing a quotation, which adds a nice touch.


The inside cover has a space for writing your name or whatever you want to put down, with a lot of colorful images that add to the overall appeal of this journal. That, and the price, make it a winner!



Fountain pen ink had a slight bleed through, although the actual writing didn't feather out on the line. I'd say it would be about the same with a gel ink pen, so double-sided writing will have some shadow to it.

That said, this is one of the best-looking and most thoughtful journals I've ever seen. If you're a reiki/chakra enthusiast this would be a great journal for detailing your work and thoughts, but it's perfect as a daily diary for the less esoterically inclined.

Exacompta Nostalgie Journal by @Exaclair

I've been using various journals and notebooks for daily record keeping, and when my last one ran out I dug out this Exacompta Nostalgie Journal with Frank Lloyd Wright's May Basket illustration on the leather-like cover.

That this is not leather is a tribute to the faux-textile manufacturers everywhere. It looks and feels like leather, while the tan color and saddle-stitch needle work bring to mind a leather journal made from saddle leather. The May Basket design, originally intended for a magazine, is embossed and appears on both the front and the back. Inside you have a brief description of May Basket's original date and purpose as well as Wright's signature. Overall, an impressive cover.

The journal is an Exacompta Basics Forum blank refill, with 200 pages of 64gsm Clairefontaine paper. If you are a regular user of the 80-90gsm Clairefontaine and Rhodia papers you will feel the difference in this blank refill's paper right away. It's smooth to write on, but much thinner and easily see through using fountain pen, rollerball gel ink, or ballpoint oil-based ink--but especially the first two.


I've been keeping a daily record of my consumption habits, both food and money, to get a better sense of what I'm doing and why. I like the size of the Basics Forum blank refill (4.75 by 6.75, plus a few extra millimeters for the cover), as it gives me the room I want to write out notes as well as accounting. The above, with some details buffed out, is an example of one day in the life ("pigeon" is a notation on an injured pigeon I found outside my building, and took down the street to the guy who raises pigeons hoping he could help--don't know the outcome yet, haven't had the nerve to go back--Schroedinger's Cat, anyone?).




But entries can be seen through from day to day, making this a very busy page. On the one hand that's great, as I only have to use one side to mark the page in half (such as above, the line divider shows through on the left page while I've made a line on the right). On the other, I have to read my current writing over my older writing which makes the page seem too busy.

All in all this is an excellent cover and a very good refill journal. If you're looking for something decorative and functional, check out the Exacompta Nostalgie Journals.

Post-it Personal Journal

Target carries a lot of great office supplies and many Post-it products, including this Post-it Personal Journal. Made out of a fairly thick cardboard stock, this holder contains two 4x6 inch 50-count Post-it pad for all your note taking needs, including a 7-day to do list and a regular lined pad.


Semi-pocket sized, it's just a little wider than a Moleskine or Rhodia pocket notebook and so may not be useful for everyone. The sides fits smoothly when closed, so there's no room to slide in a pen or pencil (a Tombow OnBook clip ballpoint will work, however). And the elastic closure band needs to be a bit more robust (i.e., not a cheap hair scrunchy).

Finally, color selection could be better: there were blue Greek coffee shop style patterns and red Animal print-style patterns, but no solid black for the serious or business minded.

If you're looking for something to carry Post-it notes that's refillable and handy, this is a great choice. Finding it may be a bit challenging, as I didn't see it listed on the Post-it website.

So you may have to check out a few places, but for $7.99 it's a handy way to carry your Post-its for quick notes and lists. With a bit of re-tooling (size is okay, color needs some work), this could be a fantastic and fun "productivity tool."

Michael Roger Landmade Cork Pocket Journal

One of the more interesting purchases from Sustainable NYC was this Michael Roger cork notebook. It's a pocket hardbound notebook measuring 3.5x5.5 with lined cream-colored paper that's rough to the touch but works pretty well with an assortment of pens.

The journal cover is made from sustainably-harvested cork (stripping the outermost layer of bark from the cork oak tree, which then grows back and can be re-harvested). There's an elastic band for closure, but no pouch at the back (which I find refreshing, actually). It's certainly different from small Moleskine, Ecosystem, and Rhodia webbies, and if you have several small pocket journals around you'll find this one right away by touch or sight. I'd probably go with a tan or dark brown elastic band, as I find this white one a bit out of place, but that's really my only negative for this small pocket notebook (and the price of $10.95 is right in line with other pocket notebooks as well).


The small pocket journal has 160 narrow-lined pages (there's a blank journal one as well), but I didn't find them too narrow that I couldn't write. In fact, I was rather impressed by this little journal. The paper is quite writeable with no ink creep on the letters or smearing. And except for the Sharpie permanent marker, none of the inks bled through the pages.


According to their website, Michael Roger Press is a small bookbinding firm in New Jersey, and they manufacture almost everything by hand at their warehouse. There are some very nice small and medium-sized journals available, along with other odds and ends that are in the "buy it and then find a use for it" category. I do like that Dispatches Journal, and will have to look around for it or place an order.

Ecosystem Medium Blank Journal

After seeing the Ecosystem booth at the National Stationery Show back in May I was really interested in their journals, and kept reminding myself to get over to Barnes and Noble to check them out again. But as I tend to buy online at B&N for the MyPoints credit, Ecosystem took a back seat to other things. A few weeks ago I did get to the bricks and mortar store, and checked out all the Ecosystem journals available. What I wanted was a large Grape line journal, or a medium Clementine hard cover blank journal, neither of which seem to exist. So I decided to go with boring-but-dependable, and chose an Onyx medium hard cover blank journal.


What's interesting about the Ecosystem medium journal is that in terms of size it is right between the Moleskine blank journal and Rhodia's Webbie (as shown literally in the above pic: l-r, Moleskine, Ecosystem, Rhodia). The Ecosystem cover is not as glossy as the Moleskine or as leather-like as the Webbie, and it will pick up dings and dirt from being carried around in various bags.


In terms of paper, Ecosystem's 100% post-consumer recycled paper is amazingly bright. Granted I don't really have many blank journals with white paper, but the above gives a good idea of just how the Moleskine and Rhodia stack up against white: Rhodia is definitely a darker ivory, while the Moleskine has a lighter ivory shade. So if you're looking for bright white paper, it's Ecosystem FTW (for the win).

Like the others, the Ecosystem Journal has an elastic band to keep it closed and a back pocket for papers and other stuff. There's also a registration number, if you want to fill out the form in order to log in you journal should it go missing and some kind soul wants to get it back to you (or blackmail the dickens out of you, should you be so inclined as to write down everything).

But unless your journal is really a status symbol (here's looking at you, Hermes), it's main purpose is to be written in and not shown around. Ecosystem's paper makes for a really interactive writing experience, one that I hadn't thought about until I used this journal. I definitely liked using the Ecosystem blank journal, and it does a fairly good job of laying flat on a surface which I appreciated. There are some quirks that make it, for me, a more engaging experience--a word I hadn't thought to use for a paper journal, but which seems quite apt now that I think about it.

The bright white paper is fairly thick, but not in the Rhodia/Clairefontaine league. One very nice touch is that the paper is perforated, so if you want to remove a sheet you don't have a jagged, ripped edge to deal with later, which I do like. This recycled paper is quite thirsty, and it has a tendency to absorb a lot of ink and then bleed through on the other side. However, with some fountain pens and certain inks the paper was extremely well-behaved while some rollerball gel inks bled straight through and onto the following sheet.

For the most part, my Onyx likes an extra fine or fine point fountain pen and a drier ink such as the Pelikan 4001. Medium and up nibs are use at your own risk, depending upon the manufacturer. In these two pictures, the first pen was a Pelikan M205 Yellow Demonstrator with an extra fine nib using Pelikan 4001 ink, and there was no excessive ink absorption or bleed through on the other side. The Pilot Namiki 823 medium nib with Sheaffer ink also worked very well, but my Waterman Laureat with Diamine Syrah had a lot of ink absorption and bled through the paper. The Pilot Namiki Custom 74 with a fine point nib using Noodler's V-Mail GI Green had a lot of bleed through, the writing was extremely difficult as the paper was absorbing too much ink, and there were small blotches of ink on the following page.

Gel ink pens were not without problems either. My Parker Vacumatic Retrofit using a Monteverde gel ink refill definitely had a lot of bleedthrough, but the Pilot Hi-Tecs I used didn't even dent the white paper much less drink up lots of the ink. So some gel inks are very usable on this paper, some are not.

What I've learned is that the Ecosystem Journal is somewhat temperamental, and really does respond to the type of pen and ink that's used on the paper. That to me is more intriguing than frustrating, as it demands that I think about what I'm writing with when I pick up this journal. And I've started keeping a written diary of the different pen and ink experiences, which is also something I hadn't thought to do before.

Now, about the choices. Guys, can't you make a medium hard cover journal in Clementine? And a large hard cover in any color would be excellent (any type of paper would be fine, but blank and lined are my first choices).

As for buying it, for some reason Barnes and Noble at Union Square North near 14th Street in Manhattan decided to either get rid of Ecosystem or just hide their journals as they were nowhere to be found a few weeks ago when I went back for another look. So I may have to go online if I want to get another one, which isn't as fun as picking it up and using it right away.