Back when he did the Philly Pen Show walkthrough in January I was on the hunt for a new notebook. I’m getting ready to change jobs (I start a new one on March 6th!) and I wanted to treat myself to a new notebook to store all those first few weeks of information in. You know, where they turn on the fire hose and inundate you with information you’ll need later but just can’t absorb all of. So here I was blithely watching Mike walk the pen show floor when he came upon Odyssey notebooks. And that Pompei Marine Life? I was smitten.

I chose the 300 Page A5 Cosmo Air Light Notebook, with the Pompei Marine Life cover ($34) because those sea creatures (artwork by Flaroh Illustration) are AMAZING.

The notebook is A5 size (8.25 x 5.625″/21 x 14.5 cm), weighing in at a hefty 423g. Though it’s not lightweight, it packs a lot of pages!

The cover is printed cardboard and the inner illustrations are beautiful as well with their Greek theme. Inside are 300  numbered pages of 83gsm Cosmo Air Light paper in an off-white color. I was super interested in trying this notebook out because I haven’t sampled Cosmo Air Light paper yet. While I love Tomoe River, I often find it’s too thin for my liking, so I was interested to try out a slightly heavier weight notebook. The paper is really interesting – it’s super smooth and just a bit toothy. On my wider nib pens (Kaweco B, Pelikan F) the ink is really wet, but it seems to dry quickly. I didn’t find any feathering, but the ink definitely spreads a bit. Even my Kaweco with the F nib isn’t a super thin line.

That said, there’s a bit of show through but no bleeding and the opposite side of the page is super useable (I get distracted if I can see too much of the previous page through the paper).

While I love the cardboard cover and it seems sturdy, I’ll likely slip it into one of my notebook covers (maybe my Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter?) to keep it from getting too banged up.

I’m excited to start a fresh new job with a fresh new notebook.

P.S. Next week I’ll tell you about the new pen I bought!

DISCLAIMER: I purchased the notebook above from Odyssey Notebooks with my own funds for my own use. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Notebook Review: Odyssey A5 Cosmo Air Light Notebook appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

About the notebook:

The CAL notebook I got came from an Etsy seller named Danika58. The notebook features kraft cardstock covers with a black binding tape around the spine. There are 10- stitched signatures in the notebook and the soft tape-bound spine means the book lays flat easily. Because the cover stock is not as heavyweight as a traditional hardback notebook, this is the perfect notebook to use with a cover. The cardstock cover though heavy enough to survive on its own. There is NO branding on the notebooks at all so if you love it, be sure to remember where you purchased it because a year from now, you will not have any clues where it came from. Of course, a year from now, there probably won’t be anymore Cosmos Air Light paper anyway so its probably a non-issue.

Understanding the B6 Slim Size:

I have mentioned several times this year how much I am loving the B6 size so I thought I’d try a B6 Slim (approx. 7 x 4.25″) which is approx. 1″ narrower than the standard B6 size. As far as I can tell, the B6 Slim size relates back to specific Midori notebook sizes (Midori: also responsible for the A5 Slim sizing for the Traveler’s Notebooks). The Jibun Techo calendar/planners feature a size described as B6 Slim but it looks to be a little bit larger. Ah, the joys of “-ish” sizing.

Pictured above and below is my B6 Bassy & Co leather cover and the CAL B6 Slim notebook. I included a side view of the B6 Slim on top of my current Stalogy B6 to make it more apparent the width difference.  The B6 Slim is going to be too narrow to work effectively in a standard B6 cover. Note to self.

Writing  & Pen Tests:

Jesi did a very thorough review of the Cosmo Air Light paper from Musubi awhile back and has continued to use the CAL paper as part of her ink reviews so I took a slightly less thorough approach to my pen tests and included (gasp!) pencils in the mix.

The CAL for pencils is a little hard. I recommend a slightly softer pencil, HB or softer and colored pencils with a softer core unless you want a really fine, light line. I prefer to not have to stab my paper to get the pigment onto the paper but everyone has their own preferences.

For my fountain pen tests, I used some of my everyday carry pens and had good results overall. Inks sheened or shaded as expected and lines were crisp.

There was some show through on the back side of the sheet but it’s very minimal. I could easily use the front and back of the pages.

Additional tests included the random assortment of pens I keep in a zipper pouch at work for meetings — a range of gel, rollerball, and felt tip pens for writing on copies, 3×5 notecards and post-it notes in meetings, brainstorms and working sessions. As mentioned earlier, hard pencils like my vintage Verithin was a bit lighter than on a softer, more textured paper. But its’ a pretty hard pencil. Normally, I prefer the Caran d’Ache red/blue pencil for it’s soft, creamy core.

I can see the appeal of the Cosmo Air Light paper. Like all fountain pen fanatics, I can see myself hoarding a few of these notebooks for posterity but now that I have used CAL, I feel better recommending the Regalia paper from Endless as a solid alternative. With the exception of multi-chromatic inks, the two stocks performed similarly under regular usage.

DISCLAIMER: Some items in this review were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

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Paper Review: Endless Recorder (Regalia Paper)

Ana and I have been discussing the future of fountain pen paper lately – the changes in Tomoe River paper and the discontinuation of Cosmo Air Light paper have created upheaval in the fountain pen world over the past three years. Where are ink loving people to turn for comfort in these tumultuous times?

The best way to prepare for the future of fountain-pen friendly paper is to hoard several lifetimes-worth of paper in a giant warehouse… actually, no. Storing non-archival paper for too long isn’t the best idea, so we will need to turn to diversification instead.

This is what started our journey into new (for us) papers, one being the Endless Recorder notebook that uses Regalia paper. This paper is created in-house by Endless and is advertised as “Ink-Loving Regalia Paper” in the “World’s most ink-friendly notebook”. We shall see if these claims are true.

The A5 notebook comes with a hard, leatherette cover (I’ve actually found it is a touch flexible as well) and plenty of features that make it more pleasant and convenient to use as shown on the packaging.

Endless also claims that that is is distinguished by its “uncompromising attention to detail”.

Let’s start with the paper. I’ve made a test page to look closely at various ink characteristics. Here is the front of the page of the Regalia paper:

And the back of the same page:

I have copied some of these test inks on Cosmo Air Light paper:

And the back of the same page on Cosmo Air Light paper:

Shading: Regalia paper is the winner (See the first ink on each paper), showing a greater amount of shading.

Sparkle: This category is a tough call and it depends on what you want from sparkle inks. Cosmo Air Light shows a blinding amount of sparkle but the sparkle often spreads off of the ink and over to the rest of the page. Regalia shows sparkle very well, more middle of the road than Cosmo Air light, but the sparkle remains with the ink and doesn’t spread.

Sheen: Sheen is a close call, but the winner is Regalia paper.

Multi-Chromatic Show: Cosmo Air Light paper wins easily in the multi-chromatic (or dual-shading, chameleon, magic) ink category. Regalia doesn’t show much depth of color for inks with this characteristic.

Haloing: This is an incredibly difficult characteristic to show in a photograph. The best way I’ve found is to show the drop of water in the scribble with the test below. This is a tendency of ink to spread to the outside edges before the ink dries, a combination of the viscosity or perhaps the surface tension of the ink and the absorbency of the paper. It can be described as the crispness of the letter edges. Regalia wins this category by a narrow margin.

Ghosting: Cosmo Air Light paper is the winner, showing less ghosting on the back side of the page.

Bleeding: This is about the same on both paper types. The only bleeding (but not bleed-through) I saw was when I made multiple passes over the same area.

Feathering: None. Both papers win here with incredibly crisp letter edges.

There are several ways to buy Cosmo Air Light paper. The two companies that I purchase from are Galen Leather ($25 + shipping from Turkey or $32 from a US-based retailer for 288 pages of 75 gsm) or Musubi (~$25 US dollars + shipping from Singapore for 208 pages of 83 gsm). Compare the price to that of a Regalia notebook ($23.50 for 187 numbered pages + 16 perforated pages).

My take-away from this post is that I see great results from both types of paper – I’m disappointed only in the multi-chromatic shading aspect of Regalia. Regalia is in my current pile of testing notebooks, and I will continue to seek and test even more paper in the future.

Which type of paper from this review would you prefer?

DISCLAIMER: The items in this review were purchased by me. Please see the About page for more details. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon.

The post Paper Review: Endless Recorder Regalia vs. Cosmo Air Light appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

You may have recently heard rumors about Cosmo Air Light paper being discontinued and I am writing today to confirm that this is true – every type of Cosmo Air Light paper will no longer be manufactured as of… we don’t know. There is not yet information about the final date for this paper.

Daryl at Musubi broke the news earlier this week with an email that you can read on the Musubi website where you can also find a supply of Cosmo Air Light notebooks.

So what does this mean for paper in the fountain pen world? While Cosmo Air Light paper is being discontinued, it is not yet gone. Many small notebook manufacturers use Cosmo Air Light paper and loose paper is available.

I will still be reviewing inks on multiple types of paper including Cosmo Air Light, but these reviews will include new papers while I search for a good replacement. Please let us know if you find promising paper leads!

The post Newsflash: Cosmo Air Light appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

One of my favorite Tomoe River retailers has long been Nanami Paper. The online store offers a focused inventory that includes notebooks, loose-leaf paper, paper pads, and some paper accessories. With supply issues of Tomoe River paper during pandemic lockdowns, the staff looked for other paper sources; this search has recently led to an introduction of Zen paper.

I obtained a small sample of Zen paper from Nanami – each sample sheet seems to be 1/3 of a sheet of A5 paper from a notebook. Nanami states on their site that their Studio notebooks using Zen paper will soon be available and I assume from this sample that A5 will be one option.

The ruling on my sample is a 4mm grid of light gray lines – each line is a dotted line which helps it fade into the background.

Below is my first test of Zen paper. The dry time for Robert Oster Ocean here was just a tad over 30 seconds. Cosmo Air Light paper clocked in at 35 seconds for the same. TR timed 43 seconds.

You can see above how the bright pattern behind the paper shows slightly. Below is the reverse side of the page (with other paper behind to block the bright tropical fruits.

The top of the TR paper below is using the same Robert Oster Ocean ink. Shading is about the same for both options but the haloing of the ink is more pronounced on the Zen paper. By haloing I am referring to the way each letter looks outlined by a slightly darker color.

With the same ink on CAL paper, I saw no haloing but much more shading.

I used the same 6 inks on the rest of the testing. Bungubox Sweet Love Pink ink shows very bright on Zen paper, but with no real sheen. Athena Eternal Blue sheens bright pink on CAL and Tomoe River and sheens a muted pink on Zen. Sailor Manyo Haha shades dramatically on the Zen paper, more so than on CAL or TR, but the purple and green colors did not show on this test. Sparkle from Robert Oster Rose Gold Antiqua was best on the Zen paper – both more visible and richer color. Pen Saijiki would only show sheen when I layered on lots of ink.

You can see below that ink did start showing through the page, but only when multiple layers of ink were applied.

My last test used Robert Oster Antelope Canyon which shades amazingly on CAL paper. On Zen paper, the result was pleasant shading but not dramatic. The shading was similar to the results from TR paper.

Below is the message on Nanami’s homepage regarding the new Zen paper. I don’t know how long this will be offered, but I am certain all handwritten letters would be appreciated!

NOTICE: The Studio Note is almost here! We expect it to arrive in early June. It is made of a new paper we found which is very similar to Tomoe River paper. We are calling it “ZEN” paper. It is 52 gsm and about the same color white as the “white” Tomoe River. If you’d like to try a sample sheet, as well as a sheet of the “New” Tomoe River, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Nanami Paper
Att: Samples by Mail
P.O. Box 17422
Irvine, California 92623-7422

If possible, please use a typewriter or fountain pen in your letter to us. There’s no special reason, other than I love to see stuff like that!

___________________________________________________________________

DISCLAIMER: All of the items included in this review were purchased by me or were provided for free when I sent a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Nanami Paper and is available to anyone who does the same. Please see the About page for more details.

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