Given my usual disdain for spiral bindings it might be considered unusual for me to put up yet another positive review of another spiral binding, but I am. So for those of you who need no other info, I like these so read no further.

Let me get into WHY I like these notebooks so much.

Let’s start with the insides. These notebooks sport 120 super thick eggshell colored pages. The paper is smooth yet toothy. The ruling is a pale shade of green that melts into whatever is written. The combination of warm paper with pale ruling just gets me. The paper isn’t so warm or off-white that it interferes with ink color or pencil has difficulty showing on it’s page, rather it compliments everything I’ve put onto the page. Everything simply looks good on this paper.

As for what I’ve put onto these pages. Well I’ve used Akkerman Zuiderpark Blauw-Groen, Sailor Yama-dori, Platinum blue black, and every grade of graphite available to me. I’ve been sticking to fine and extra-fine pens so the paper works okay with fountain pen ink with a minimum of show through and bleed through. Larger nibs, well they are out of the question. Ink spread out to a bit more than nib size, and the wetter the nib, well that just invites disaster. Pencil, on the other hand, oh mama, that might be what this paper was chosen for. Pencil slides onto this paper without grinding the tip down quickly. Yeah a large amount of graphite is taken, but tips seem to last well.My favorite grades were HB and B. Which were plenty dark and were complimented by the cream shade of the paper.

While I adore the paper inside the covers, the covers might be my favorite part of these notebooks. The chipboard is heavyweight and perfect for writing in hand. There is just enough flex in the chipboard that it conforms to my hand as well as to a pocket. Over time the cover also gets softer with use, not just in stiffness, but in feel. I’m a fan of the worn in and well used look and these covers get that look oh so well. Yet, they don’t look like the dog chewed on them either. This notebook has been with me for about  a year and it’s gotten better looking with age.

Now, my least favorite topic, spiral bindings. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I don’t despise them as much as I thought I did but rather, I like them for some uses. It seems I like them for some small pocket notebooks. Which makes sense, the way I got into pocket notebooks was through the free 3×5 pocket notebooks we were given at my old DayJob to keep track of things. I must’ve used hundreds of those things. For journals, I hate spirals, for day-to-day notes, ideas etc… spirals are a-ok. The good thing about the Write Notes spirals- they don’t crush or smush in my bag- they stay strong. I can get behind that.

I think it’s worth examining the size of these ledgers. By modern standards it’s weird at 3×6 inches; bigger than a 3×5 notebook and too small to be a reporter notebook. That said, it is a perfect size- it fits in the hand just right and is easy to write in.

Full disclosure, I was given the Metal Shop CT ledger but I’ve since bought 2 more because I liked it so much. I was not influenced by free stuff (the ledger was not given to me by Write Notepads) and actually really enjoy the product.