Category Archives: Review

Review: Osprey FlapJack (OriginalVersion)

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For my final year of graduate school I realized I needed a smaller bag, my Brain bag was simply TOO big. I only had 2 classes, and only one of which met regularly in the city. Additionally, I didn’t need to cart around quite so much stuff. I established what I’d be carrying on a regular basis.

  • My tablet and keyboard
  • A notebook
  • Pencil case
  • Phone
  • Assorted daily items
  • Clipboard with printed articles (roughly 25 to 100 printed pages depending on the day.)

Obviously, my daily carry for classes had changed over time and had dramatically reduced. I wanted a backpack with an integrated laptop sleeve for my tablet and keyboard and enough room for my stuff plus occasional purchases and removed outer layers.ospreyflapjack

With this purchase I was far less concerned with the longevity of the bag and more concerned with it being cost effective and comfortable. With this in mind I checked out the bags carried by some of my peers and searched Amazon for something about half the size of the Brain Bag. The Osprey FlapJack fit the bill. I purchased the olive green.* The FlapJack includes several replaceable straps for the closure and sternum strap. These are easily replaced with a little oomph applied.ospreyflapjack

Inside the bag are two large compartments divided by the integrated laptop pocket. The pocket furthest to the back is slim and doesn’t hold much at all, only a few notebooks. I used this mostly to hold a clipboard with printed articles, or my tablet depending on the day. The integrated laptop pocket will hold up to a 15″ laptop and was plenty deep for my 10″ tablet and keyboard. The largest pocket, furthest to the front of the bag has a small mesh pouch that is not overly useful but will hold a water bottle to the side of the bag. The large compartment can hold several books and notebooks as well as an assortment of other items. There is a side pocket that is long and slim.It is perfect to hold a waterbottle, and on several occasions I’ve used it to corral a wet umbrella. The flap has a small pocket that is accessible when the bag is closed. This pocket is only big enough to hold keys, chapstick, and a few other things. This bag is not big, it has a slim profile that can be snugged down even more slim with the use of the straps. The flap can be used to secure a jacket or other loose items.ospreyflapjack ospreyflapjack ospreyflapjack

There is no suggesting that this is a big bag, it’s just big enough for someone who needs to carry a few books and a laptop or tablet, maybe a few other things. This is not a bag for a long weekend trip or even a student in need of a lot of things. You aren’t going to pack this bag with things for more than 2 classes, and even then, you won’t fit all the books for 2 classes in it at a time. No, this is a bag for when you don’t need a lot of stuff with you. It is a perfect bag for grabbing and going to the cafe to work, or to the library for research.ospreyflapjack 20160528_133525 ospreyflapjack

The bag was very comfortable when packed full or packed lightly. The straps are very comfortable and the back utilizes mesh as well as foam to create air channels that help to keep your back cool. I found this very comfortable. I did find that the sternum strap did not adjust quite low enough for me and in several positions I felt as if it were strangling me. On the lowest position it worked just fine. The sternum straps are secured to the shoulder pads via a button and buttonhole type attachment. There are only 4 options for attachment. The zippers are smooth and work incredibly well.ospreyflapjack

I purchased this without expecting it to last past the school year, but even after repeated use and abuse the bag looks good and still works well. I’ve found that some types of foam flatten out with use and are less comfortable over time. The FlapJack does not suffer from this issue. The straps are just as comfortable today as they were a year ago at the day of purchase. I expected to toss this bag into the recycling bin at the end of the school year, instead I’m reaching for it again and again when I walk to the cafe or to the library to work on this blog. This is a high quality bag that I expect to use for years to come. For a backpack that I spent roughly $60 on, this has worked extremely well.

Nitty gritty details at a glance:

  • 1 large compartment divided in two
  • Zippered laptop compartment, fits 15″ laptop
  • Mesh organizer pocket inside main compartment
  • 2 small organizer pockets at front of bag- largest with organizing pockets, one with a key leash
  • 1 side pocket that fits a 1L water bottle or umbrella
  • Large flap keeps contents dry
  • Small pocket on flap
  • Sternum strap
  • Hip Straps
  • Holds 25Liters

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Review: Casemate Premium No. 2 Pencils

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I found these due to a post on the Erasable Facebook group. Casemates is Walmart’s private label office goods brand.I found a wide assortment of Casemate (CM) goods- from legal pads to pencils to journals in their office aisle. You name it, they have a Casemate logo slapped onto it. The majority of the goods, well, it is easy to see that they are simply rebranded things from other manufacturers. Such is the case with all private label goods*. With careful purchasing you can buy a product that is ALMOST the same as the regular product for a fraction of the price**.CMPP CMPP

The CM Premium Pencils (CMPP) are sold in an 8-pack for 97 cents. The 8-pack comes in a tin and plastic tube that doubles as a sturdy pencil case or stand. It does dent easily, but it is not crushed with ease. Inside the case are 8 pencils and a sharpener. The sharpener is pretty meh, but it does the job. It sharpens to a standard short point. The sharpener is labeled “Nataraj.” Which leads me to believe that the pencils are made by the Hindustan company which manufactures the Nataraj pencil brand***.

The pencils are quite nice. They have a thickly applied glossy lacquer in silver and black. The color scheme appeals to my inner angsty teen. The imprint is in silver foil and simply says, “No.2/HB.” the imprint is done well on some and not so well on others. On  a few of mine only part of the imprint was there the rest it was fine.CMPP

The wood appears to be linden/basswood. It’s light in color and sharpens well. When sharpened it has the smell of bay leaves. The ferrule is affixed to all of mine well. It holds a useless nubbin of an eraser that must’ve been added as a joke. It’s a white rubbery blob that is too small to fit properly into the ferrule and does an absolutely shit job of erasing graphite from anything I’ve tried- from Field Note to Story Supply Company to 3×5 card to Reporter notebook to my Mt Tom. It was a useless turd of an eraser. It sort of dust gathers, but mostly the pristine white eraser turns a shade of gray and feels mushy. This thing sucks sooooo bad.CMPP

The core itself is dark, smooth, sharpens easily, and holds a point remarkably well for a pencil this dark. I didn’t have to sharpen the pencil for page after page of writing. Holy smokes awesome. I was able to keep on going and going. Amazing point retention. However I would not call this an HB pencil, no, it is easily a B if not a 2B. Cores are mostly well centered, with one or two of the 24 I purchased off centered enough to notice a problem during sharpening.

Now the reason these pencils are kind of a big deal? Well first off the whole package- case, sharpener, and pencils are only 97 cents. That a pencil this dark and smooth is available for 97 cents is pretty amazing. The other part of the awesome is that these look and feel just like the Nataraj Platinum Extra Dark 2b pencil. Which is an awesome pencil with all the same flaws I’ve listed above. More importantly is availability. Previously, you have to order from CWPE (not a bad option) or find them via Amazon or eBay. None of these are deal breakers, but if you go the Amazon/ebay route you could wait weeks to a month to get your pencils, and pay more than 12 cents a pencil, plus you don’t get a sweet hackable metal case. The sharpener is okay, but nothing special. It’s the case that makes this a sweet deal. The case holds 13 pencils packed full, and is so much fun to decorate. I really really enjoy this tin.CMPP

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Revisit: TWSBI Eco (nomical) Fountain Pen

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Nearly a year after its introduction, the TWSBI Eco is now available in full demonstrator model. I would be a liar if I said I didn’t want the full clear model.* I have been using the original black and clear since purchasing it shortly after release. This is the ONLY fountain pen in my stable that I’ve kept full of ink since purchase. I’ve run several fills of ink through it, until settling on Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo as my go to ink for this pen. Tsuki-yo is a medium teal ink that leans perfectly between blue and green for me. It’s well saturated yet not overly so and lubricated enough to make the EF steel nib on my Eco glide over most paper. This ink and pen combo is great. I am currently testing out the Edelstein Turquoise ink and it is also a great combo with this pen.TWSBI ECO

I have abused this pen. It lives in my Nock Co Fodderstack XL all the time next to one of my MetalShop CT Twist bullet pencils. This is not an easy life for a fountain pen. The Fodderstack lives in the back pocket of my jeans. I sit on it regularly. It bumps up against the Twist. I’ve dropped the Fodderstack and it’s contents, I’ve tossed them across the room and onto the couch. Shockingly, the Eco has survived, certainly with some scratches and wear, but not a crack has appeared. This is precisely WHY I’ve been so abusive to the pen. Why I’ve thrown caution to the wind and risked a teal colored bottom. I wanted to see if the Eco would crack not only under normal circumstances and use, but with abuse.TWSBI ECO

It hasn’t.TWSBI ECO

I also wanted, and needed a pen that could withstand such abuse. My work tends to be on the go. I move around much of my day. I’m standing at a whiteboard, sitting with a group, moving from room to room, little of my day is spent in one place. I needed a pen that could survive my use. The Eco did it, with a gold star.TWSBIECO

While I hesitate to recommend the 500 series to people for this same sort of abuse, TWSBI has done something with the Eco that seems to eliminate the cracking issues. I’m confident that when I purchase the full clear demonstrator model I’ll be happy.
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Review: USA Gold Natural HB pencil

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USA Gold is an interesting brand. Virtually ubiquitous, you can find these in Target, Walmart, CVS, and even the local Stop ‘n Slop. You can also order them via Amazon and a variety of other online retailers. Comrade Johnny over on Pencil Revolution might put these into the category of semi-cheap, but I’m comfortable going a step further and calling them cheap. They average around $2 for a 12 pack, putting them at 16 cents or so per pencil. Compared to higher end pencils, that’s cheap. Of course, you could compare them to the average Staples brand pencil which are about 2 cents per pencil and they seem expensive. Those 14 cents make a huge difference in performance.USAGOLD

The USA Gold, in any form (natural, yellow, or one of their fancy paint jobs), features a decent HB core. It is smooth and nicely dark for an HB. Of course it doesn’t compare to the previously reviewed MB9000, but that’s comparing apples to oranges. Comparing it to a General’s Cedar Pointe #2/HB is fair game, and in my book the USA Gold comes out on top. The core of the USA Gold is much more consistent. I haven’t had a bit of grit in any of the USA Gold pencils I’ve chewed up. These cheapies perform. Further, the blue foil imprint on the USA Gold is awesome. The blue stripe on the ferrule is awesome too. The only place where they vary is in the thinly applied lacquer. On some of the pencils I’ve purchased, this coating is so thin that the pencil feels raw, on the most recent pack I picked up it’s thicker and more noticeable. I much prefer the thin coat.USAGOLD

For those of us pencil fanatics, who like their stuff local, one of the great things about the USA Gold is that it is still made in America. I tweeted at WriteDudesUSA, a subsect of RoseArts, to find out a little more about the pencils and to confirm that they were made in the US. They are made in Lewisburg, Tennessee* at a facility owned and operated by RoseArts. ‘MuricaUSAGOLD USAGOLD

If you are looking for a fantastic pencil at a fantastic price, you can’t beat a USA Gold- on price or performance.

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Review: Mitsu-Bishi 9000 2B

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For my triumphant return to blogging after my thesis induced hiatus, I thought I’d start with a pencil that is equal parts magic and secret pencil processing, and that is the Mitsu-Bishi 9000 2B. It comes with the tagline “Made by Elaborate Process” stamped into its perfect, glossy green lacquer, so you know this is a special pencil. You might think that calling a pencil magic and elaborate in the same sentence is hyperbole, but I dare you to write with one of these pencils and try to tell me it’s not magic.

Let’s start off with how perfect this pencil looks, because the lacquer is thick, evenly applied and super glossy. The imprints are gold foil and also perfect.Near the non-business end there is a stripe of darker green with the grade of the pencil stamped, also in gold foil, also perfect. The grade is bracketed with asterisks. *2B* The bar code is stamped in white, close to the business end, so it is sharpened away more quickly. As all pencil makers should do it. The pencil is end dipped with one of those little plastic caps rather than paint, but this is also well done. Without a doubt this is a good looking pencil.

Gah, look at that green!

Gah, look at that green!

Inside the lacquer is fragrant cedar. Every Time I sharpen this pencil I’m reminded of dew covered forests with unicorns prancing about. Rainbow unicorn farts MUST smell like cedar. I’m telling you magic. That fragrant cedar is wrapped around a 2B core so smooth and dark on the page that writing with it is like writing with a stick of warm butter. It glides across any paper and even the lightest of pressure produces a mark that is deeply dark. Using this pencil on most any type of paper was quite nice. I experimented with Field Notes- Shelterwood’s smooth paper produced nice results as did the standard issue paper in the WBEZ edition. I also checked it out in a Staples composition notebook, and a Bob Slate Mt Tom. The pencil did well on all of the mentioned papers. The comp book seemed to wear it down faster than other papers, but that is to be expected- it’s toothy paper. MB90002B
The one area the MB9000 2B has any issues is with point retention. In the land of 2B pencil, the MB9000 performs admirably, but it does wear down quickly, like most 2B pencils. I found myself touching up after only a page of comp book or after 2 pages in my FN. It’s not horrible, but it’s not great.
MB90002BUsing this pencils was simply nice all around. From its good looks to performance on paper, these are amazingly nice pencils. They are well worth the $1.05 at Jetpens. CWPE only carries the HB, also for $1, but I have it on good authority that the HB performs almost as well but has better point retention.

Finishing Thesis

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I’ll be back to regular posting after the middle of April. I’m finishing my thesis and need to fully concentrate on that for the next few weeks. But I’ve got a few interesting tidbits planned for then. More reviews because HOLY COW do I have a backlog of pencils that I’ve got on my desk but also that have met my criteria for review ( I’ve used them for some writing) and are also awesome.

A photo posted by LC Harper (@originallcharper) on


A brief look at the new Blackwing Volumes 24 limited edition pencil.

I’m going to tell you right now that if you like the old Palomino HB in blue or orange, just go ahead and see if you can get a pack of the Volumes 24s. If you don’t want to spend the cash, just buy the Palomino HB. After a few days of using nothing but the two pencils I can tell you the following:

  • You will notice a difference if you are using smooth paper. In that case the PalHB is noticeably soft and smoother. The 24 holds it’s point longer.
  • If like me you use composition books with toothier paper, you may notice a difference, but it may not be by much. In fact, in use on rough copy paper and my comp books I could go either way with the 24s.
  • Blackout finish. My inner angsty 90s teen rejoices, but quietly, because angst.

I’m saying these are super good looking pencils that are great for quick sketches or for long writing sessions. If you want cool kid black pencils, get ’em, if you don’t want to spend the coin, get the old standard PalHB and some bottles of black fingernail polish and paint them up. 🙂

A photo posted by LC Harper (@originallcharper) on

Review: Caran d’Ache Grafwood

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I’m going to declare the Grafwood the answer to all the problems people have with the Swisswood, which will be referred to as the Stinkwood.* What is so great about he Grafwood? First it looks great. The lacquer is thick, smooth, and glossy. It’s pearlized and each grade has a corresponding shade, so the HB is a light gray while the 9B is black, with every shade of gray in between. The imprint is silver foil, and it’s perfectly crisp and sharp. It’s not too deep to cause crinkles in the finish. The reverse side is adorned with the now standard bar code, black on the lighter colors and white on the darker.Grafwood

One may be inclined to disparage the bar code as a wart on an otherwise beautiful object, but consider the alternative- the barcode sticker which leaves behind a sticky mess of residue. I’d rather have a barcode that eventually sharpens away than  a sticky mess.

Inside the paint is cedar and a thick lush core. Each of the Grafwood pencils I”ve tried, B, 3B, and 7B have been delightfully smooth. They skate over the page. I find the HB and B to be a touch harder than most brands the 3B is perfectly dark and smooth and right on point for a 3B pencil. The 7B is also dark and smooth and perfect for sketching. The B is perfect for writing and keeping the point pointy for pages.Grafwood

There is a downside. For those of us who are aficionados of the long point our devotion will require something special with these pencils, you see they do not fit into the standard pocket carry sharpeners. Neither the Masterpiece, nor the KUM automatic, or even the KUM stenographer will satisfy the loing point craving No, the only thing that will bring these to a lovely long point while on the go is a knife. Further frustration is that they barely, and i do mean, just barely squeeze their way into the Carl A5. If there is a variation in your Carl A5/Classroom Friendly, well, these beauties won’t be fitting in.Grafwood
Grafwood

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Review: Viarco Fine & Candy “Smoke”

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The Viarco Fine & Candy “Smoke” pencil was the January Pencil of the Month (PotM) via CW Pencil Enterprise.

smoke

The pencil is made of cedar and sharpens up as most incense cedar pencils do- very well. When sharpened this pencils smells fantastic. When I turn it in the sharpener there is a burst of strong cedar fragrance, it’s great. The core sharpens pretty well too, well sometimes. On many occasions a piece of grit catches on the sharpener’s blade and causes the core to snap off. smoke

Those bits of grit turned an otherwise pretty decent writing experience into annoyance. My pencil was plagued by these bits of grit. Barring the grit the pencil is dark and mostly smooth for what I assume is an HB core. It’s not overly smudgy and it had ok point retention. I tested it out in a couple of Field Notes as well as with taking notes in class and while reading. It did quite well in these tasks. I spent quite a  lot of time with it doing some character driven writing prompts*. It was quite nice for these prompts. I was able to write 2 to 3 pages in my Field Notes before needing to touch up my point.smoke smoke

It must also be noted that this is a very very pretty pencil. The neutral gray is fantastic against the grainy silver end dip. Contrasting the grainy end dip is a smooth foil imprint of the Viarco and Fine & Candy logos. Simply well done. A really great pencil for a gray winter day. I ground this one down to a nubbin and it resides in my pencil nubbin jar.smoke

For me this is one of those one is enough pencils. While I liked it well enough and found it very pretty, I don’t find myself wanting another. The grittiness is enough to keep me from purchasing another. The grit irritated me, and in a $2 pencil shouldn’t be there. Why spend $2 on this pencil when I can pick up an equally pretty Palomino Pearl for less? Or a stunning Nataraj Pop for pennies and have it out perform the Viarco? If you are looking for a stunning pencil to look at, go no further.smoke Continue reading →

Review: Highlighter Pencil Round Up

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Consider this a mass review, or comparison, or whatever. My favorite highlighter will always be an eye droppered Platinum preppy with a 50/50 mix of Noodler’s Electric Eel and Year of the Dragon inks. It’s the best highlighter ever. I had to test out some highlighter pencils, simply to satiate my own curiosity. It also makes sense for when I’m reading books printed on cheap pulpy paper and my Preppy soaks through the cheap paper like it’s TP.pencil highlighters

I looked at 4 factors that make a good highlighter pencil:

  1. Price- These things get used, and used pretty quickly when I’m reading a lot of text for school. Cheaper is better.
  2. Texture- This can get broken into 2 subcategories: smooth and crumble. Smooth refers to how the pencil applies to the page- does it glide or catch? When highlighting I want glide. Crumble has to do with how the pencil responds to pressure and application to the page. Does it crumble and make a mess or is it strong and clean?
  3. Transparency- Can I easily see through the color or do I need to underline with the highlighter? If I can’t see through it then what is the point?
  4. Sharpening- How well, or badly, does the pencil sharpen? Am I wasting a ton of core in each sharpening of the pencil?

Using this criteria I looked at a selection of highlighter pencils and tested them out. The best is listed first and the worst last, however none are truly horrible, just when compared to the others, not as good.

These are listed in the order of best to worst.

Koh-I-Noor Highlighter/ Dry Marker Pencil

These are reliably good highlighters. Transparent and smooth with minimal crumbling. They sharpen well unless they have been abused. They come in a 6-pack and are reasonably priced. My package was roughly $6 at Artist and Craftsman but they are a little more on Amazon.

Kutsuwa Highlighter Pencil

I picked this up at Jetpens for $3, which is it’s only downfall. It would be the best of the best if it weren’t $3 a pencil. It does come packaged with an extender and sharpener in one.These are perfectly smooth and transparently. They sharpen perfectly each and every time. If you don’t use your highlighters often this might be the highlighter pencil for you.

Stubby Pencil Studio, Eco Highlighter

I scored this jumbo pencil in a swap but they are available on Amazon. They are sold in sets of 4 of one color, 12 of one color, or rainbow packages. They average about $4 each. They are the largest of any of the pencils in length, with a thick core that sharpens well. If you like raw wood pencils, these will make you happy. That being said, the core does crumble in use, not as bad as the worst of the lot but enough to make note of the crumble. The core is nicely transparent so there is that. At $4 each, they are a little pricey for me, especially since the core is crumbly.pencil highlighters

Yoobi, Highlighter Pencil Set of 5

Available from Target and Yoobi for $3.49 a set or $11 on Amazon. I’m not sure why Yoobi has decided to price their products so expensive on the ‘zom but they have. Anway way, these are also a jumbo pencil, in lightly finished wood. They look great with a nice black imprint of the yoobi name on one side. There are 4 colors in a pack, with 2 yellow pencils. These sharpen well and are mostly transparent but I think a tad too dark over black text. The core itself crumbles and leaves a mess all over the page. I find myself sharpening the pencil all the time because the tip has crumbled off. If you are looking for a cheap alternative with a good cause, these are it, but they aren’t going to convince anyone to give up a marker style highlighter.

Koh-I-Noor Magic colored pencil  in red, orange, and yellow*

This is a jumbo colored pencil and not really intended as a highlighter but the blend of colors works well for editing and underlining. It is fairly opaque, which is why it does well for editing and underlining. It sharpens well and has a fun marbled paint job. Due to it’s multicolored core it can be a bit crumbly but it does okay. At $1.50 a pencil these aren’t a bad price for editing, but as a highlighter, meh.
Over all, I find myself reaching for the Koh-i noor Dry Marker over and over. They are regular pencil sized and I can get a nice broad tip going, then sharpen up in any sharpener. They work well and are priced right, when they can be found. The Kutsuwa is the better highlighter over all, but just so darn expensive. Also I chewed through one in a week of use. It was a heavy reading week, but still, gone. If you are looking for a highlighter, you’ve got some choices.

 
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Review: Shinola Small Notebook Paperback, Ruled

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During my last visit to Artist & Craftsman I purchased a few Shinola notebooks on a whim. The small paperback notebooks are available in a variety of colors and are displayed in a neat spinning display made of dark stained wood and plexiglass. For the paperback books I snagged the orange color but they also have a nice pink, tan, navy, teal and black. They were out of the teal or I’d have gotten that*. Orange is a great color for a notebook because it can easily be found in a bag and in among crap laid out on a desk.Shinola Papercover

The notebooks are covered in a stiff cardstock that is sturdy, and the one I’m using has survived some seriously rough use. Yes, it has achieved and nice wabi sabi worn in look, which will offend some of new “brand new look” purists but, I love me the worn in look, and this is starting to get a good patina. The cover also has some nice embossing and debossing details. The name plate has a nice rounded rectangle embossed around it as well as a series of double lines at the top and bottom, which I think it could do without, but look okay. There is an embossing around the edges of the front cover. The back cover is adorned with simply, “Shinola Detroit.”Shinola Papercover

I’ve made my way through 3/4ths of the book and the spine is surviving well. The spine is not stitched rather it is perfect bound with embedded cords. While this is a sturdy sort of perfect binding, it won’t last forever. Eventually the rubbery glue they have used on the spine will give out, it might take 10 or 20 years, so if you use these for notes you want for posterity, because you know your thoughts are really THAT important, these might not be for you. So yes, perfect binding is generally the devil’s tool, but this is a good one, and has survived my rough use thus far. Also, for even more of a party foul, it won’t ever lay flat, nope don’t bother I tried. A final weirdness, these measure 5.5Hx3.75 inches, so you have to wedge them into your covers and they do NOT fit into a Fodderstack XL, again don’t bother I TRIED.Shinola Papercover

The paper is a delightful cream color with light grey lines. I love the color of the paper and the lines. the paper is smooth and lacks any sort of toothines that I like for graphite. I find the pages are prone to smudging when I use my usual B or 2B pencils on them. this is a great paper for HB or even *GASP* Wopex! Oh yes, this paper is DELIGHTFUL for the odd wopex pencil you have in your kit.Shinola Papercover

Anyway, you can ge a 2-pack of these 72 page lined notebooks for about $6.75 at Artist & Craftsman in Saugus, MA or you can go to the Shinola website, or a number of other sites.Shinola Papercover Shinola Papercover

Details:

  • Paperbacked
  • Perfect bound, NOT stitched
  • 72 lined cream colored pages
  • 60lb/90gsm acid free
  • 5.5×3.75 inches

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