I’ve always been a fan of Musubi. The owner Daryl is completely transparent about what he is trying to do: create beautiful writing tools and notebooks that fully support artisans who hand make many of the products. The Pocket Folio Notebooks are just the newest to a wonderful product lineup.

There are a lot of pocket folio notebooks out there to choose from, often at similar price points. This particular one comes in a slim A6 size (90mm x 140mm, or 3.5″ x 5.5″. The books have cardstock covers and sewn binding, reinforced with tape.

The paper itself is Spica Bond 75, a white 75gsm paper made from 25% cotton. The books are available in blank, lined (7.2mm) or cross grid (5mm) and each book contains 48 pages.

The notebooks come in eco-friendly packaging of cardboard and ribbon. And here is why I love Daryl’s products so much – he truly thinks about how every part of the product and packaging can be used. The cardboard used to hold the package of 3 notebooks together is actually perforate and designed as index cards. These cards can then be used to sort your notebooks (for easy storage in any box that can store standard 3.5″ x 5.5″ index cards or photos). The only part of the cardboard that is “waste” is the small tab connecting the two index cards. The ribbon can be repurposed to be a bookmark, or used to tie the notebooks back together.

So let’s talk about the paper a little more. The paper is smooth to the touch and my pens glide across it easily. One thing I do really like is that the cross grid still absorbs the ink as normal – in some notebooks the ink is repelled by those grid points making it harder to read. I don’t see any feathering on the front side.  As for the backs, it’s not bad news. There is some bleed through where I reinforced my lines (the musubi up top) and when I used larger nibs (the Sailor Music nib I used for “pocket notebooks are the best!”)

Even so, I think these notebooks are perfectly functional for an every day carry. I can see carrying one in my purse or pen case (specifically the Sinclair) to jot notes, quotes I want to remember, to do lists, or more. And again, I appreciate that if I want to keep the notebooks as an archive of my daily life, I have some handy index tabs to sort them by! Are they the cheapest notebooks on the market? No, but it’s roughly comparable to other popular pocket notebooks like Field Notes and a number of other smaller brands. However, if you want to support a business that is committed to creating great craftsmanship and ethical production, I can’t think of a better place to shop.

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Paper Review: Musubi Pocket Folio Notebook appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

The four notebooks in this review are:

• Life Kleid Noble Note Section (B6, 2mm grid, 100 sheets, made in Japan, $16)
• Book Note 360º (B6, blank, 190 sheets, made in Japan, $29)
• Nakabayashi Yu-Sari (A5, 96 sheets, made in Japan, $14.40)
• Musubi Rasa 83 (A5, 7mm lined, 83 gsm, 105 sheets, made in Singapore, approx. $23 USD)

Like I said in my intro, I think my expectation may have been high for these notebooks, maybe unreasonably so. With the price points varying from just under $15 to almost $30, one might think that my preferences would fall along price lines — the more expensive, the better the performance but that was not the case.

When looking at the overall construction and binding of the books, all featured stitched Smyth-style binding with multiple signatures of paper stitched together and then taped with bookbinders tape or wrapped with board-supported book cloth covers. The Book Note 360º and Musubi both are completely wrapped in book cloth with board underneath to create a sturdy, flexible cover. The Yu-Sari and Life Kleid books both have book tape spines and cardstock covers but the Life Kleid has a plastic overwrap that can be left on the notebook to protect it or removed.

Both the Book Note 360º and Musubi have rounded corners while the Yu-Sari and Life Kleid have squared corners. I don’t know if these aesthetic decisions will be make or break for you, they certainly weren’t for me but its intersting to see the similarities and differences.

The Book Note 360º and Musubi Rasa 83 are the most similar in all aesthetic details but the Musubi is actually less expensive (minus shipping costs) than the Book Note 360º and its a smaller notebook. Even the paper texture on both books is more similar to each other than the Life Kleid and Yu-Sari — the paper in both books has a slight powdery texture to the hand. Under a pen, it is ever-so-slightly toothy creating a bit of friction, slowing down the writing process.

The Life Kleid and Yu-Sari are also more similar to each other with square corners and black-tapped spines. Even the paper is more similar being very smooth — more like Rhodia paper with an almost slick surface that will keep pens skating along the surface.

The only aspect where the similarities change is in paper color. The Book Note 360º and Life Kleid both feature a creamy, ivory paper color while the Musubi and Yu-Sari both feature more of a natural white paper color. The Musubi paper is the brightest white of all four books.

Now is the point in the review where the proverbial wheels come off the wagon. The writing tests. Which, in all honesty, is the most important part of any notebook.

My first ding is the Book Note 360º which performed fine overall except that there was a good deal of show through to the back side of the page. For the price, only getting to use one side of the paper effectively is not ideal.

From the front side, the paper looks just fine and will be a good writing paper. It does not handle copious amounts of ink well so don’t reserve this notebook for ink testing or swatching purposes.

The paper used in the book is OK Fools which I’ve tested in the Yamamoto Paper Sampler in the past but it always feels different when I start using paper in a notebook that just testing a couple full-sized sheets. There is also very visible laid lies and watermarks. This may be a bug or a feature depending on your personal preference. I am okay with it but is definitely something to be aware of.

Notebook grievance #2 is the Life Kleid Noble Note Section notebook. I was all keen to have a full notebook of the teeny tiny 2mm grid lines. What I didn’t realize is that the printing technique used to get the grid on the paper, resists most ink. This is a huge “nope!” for me. Overall, the Life Kleid was more tolerant of fountain pen ink than markers or brush pens but what a strange reaction!

On the plus side, there was no show through or bleed through on the Life Kleid paper, even when copious amounts of ink were thrown down so it did redeem itself a bit when used with a folded nib pen for ink experimentations.

This is the notebook grievance that is hardest to talk about. The Musubi Rasa 83 did not meet my expectations. Even after reading the lengthy explanation on the Musubi site about he paper choices and the trade-offs that had to be made in order to find a paper that would dry relatively quickly while keeping many of the properties required by fountain pen users. However, there was a mention in the description that the original paper has been modified to improve dry times and resist hand oils but in doing so, I found that the line weights of my pens was significantly altered. My Japanese fine and extra fine nibs performed more like medium nibs, and so on. I buy extra fine and needle point nibs because I like an extremely fine line and a paper which increases my line width willy-nilly is not acceptable.

I don’t normally use lined paper but the 7mm line width on the Musubi Rasa 83 is good with a pale, extra fine line printed on the sheets. But the issue with lined or grid papers, like the Life Kleid is the printed lines or grids can have unexpected results depending on the type of ink chosen to write on the paper. When I attempted to use a folded nib on the lined Rasa 83 paper, weird things happened.

So, those were the three disappointments for me: the Musubi Rasa 83, the Book Note 360º and the Life Kleid. They all have things that recommend themselves depending on how you use your notebooks. I use my notebooks for everything and I ask a lot of the paper contained within them. Some of the issues I ran into specifically had to do with the pre-printed lines so I recommend that if ink resistance is something you don’t like, I recommend purchasing blank notebooks and using guidesheets behind your page to help keep you straight.

I plan on purchasing a Life Noble Note in blank because the paper is really good, with no bleed through or show through. It was really the grid lines that made the Life Kleid a no-go for me. I will also pick up a blank Rasa 83 from Musubi in blank as well since I am hoping that without the lines, the paper might perform better. Though the widening of the line widths might still be an issue so I’m on the fence about investing in any more of this specific paper from Musubi.

The one notebook that was the pleasant surprise was the Nakabayashi Yu-Sari notebook. It was the least expensive of the four and performed the best across a variety of writing tools and techniques from extra fine nibs to folded nibs that I use for ink testing. This is the second time that a Nakabayashi notebook surprised me. The first time as the Nakabayashi Logical Prime Notebooks. They are such unassuming notebooks with simple paper covers and a small gold foil logo on the cover. I just didn’t expect the Yu-Sari to be the runaway winner in this batch of notebooks. I expected it to be a solid option but not necessarily the notebook I would most likely recommend to others.  I tested the blank version of the notebook so it had the unfair advantage of not having any pre-printed lines or grids that might resist my fountain pen ink or markers. The Logical Prime notebooks I tested earlier were pre-printed with grid lines and I did not notice any ink resistance like I saw with the Life Kleid and Musubi Rasa 83 so I feel fairly confident in moving the Nakabayashi notebooks into my Top 5 list at this point.

Have you tried any of these notebooks? If so, what are your favorite features or not? I’d love to hear how these notebooks perform for you.

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided free of charge by Musubi for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Notebook Reviews: 3 Disappointments and 1 Surprise appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Tomoe River has been a paper that is loved by the fountain pen community due to the unique interaction between the paper and ink. Ink shows incredible shading and sheening properties on Tomoe River paper and the paper can take a large amount of ink before bleed through is an issue. New Tomoe River paper is manufactured in a slightly different way and the comparison between the two does show differing properties (although the pros and cons of this change are debated).

Since the announcement that the manufacturing process of Tomoe River paper was changing, the interest in new paper types has increased dramatically as stock of the older version of Tomoe River paper dries up. This interest has driven an increase in notebooks using a variety of paper types.

Musubi recently released a notebook using Cosmo Air Light 83gsm paper.

The exterior of the notebook is covered in a light colored cotton and matches the other notebooks in the Musubi lineup of Tomoe River paper and Bank paper notebooks. Each notebook is a slightly different neutral color.

The Cosmo Air Light folio notebooks are available in blank, 7mm lined ruling, and crossgrid paginated. my Cosmo Air Light is the blank notebook (blank is best!)

As with all of the Musubi folios, the notebook is only branded on the lower right corner of the front cover.

Musubi CAL lays flat and stays open to your page although new notebooks might need a bit of encouragement at first.

The Cosmo Air Light paper has a very slight color – somewhere between white and ivory. It was hard to notice this color during use.

I tried to test many different characteristics on this paper – bright colors, shading, showing multiple ink colors, sparkly inks, sheening inks. Above is the front side of my testing page, below is the back of the same page.

There is a slight bit of show-through with Cosmo Air Light 83gsm, but very little. The camera actually picks up more show-through than what is seen in-person. Sheen is another piece that is hard to show here – it is quite high in-person.

To show this comparison a bit more clearly, I ran the same tests on a Musubi Tomoe River folio.

Above: Front side

Below: Back side

Cosmo Air Light paper:

Cosmo Air Light paper with watercolor, front (above) and back (below)

Tomoe River paper:

Musubi Tomoe River paper with watercolor, front (above) and back (below)

Cosmo Air Light paper is thicker, less show-through, doesn’t wrinkle as much with water, and shows brighter colors than the Tomoe River paper. I did notice that the back side of the Cosmo Air Light paper appeared shiny after the watercolor had dried:

The back side of the paper with watercolor was still great for writing – the shininess didn’t affect the quality.

After the writing and watercolor, the pages only showed slightly when the notebook was closed – no major wrinkling even with the water.

To wrap up the comparison, here’s a short list (TR for Tomoe River, CAL for Cosmo Air Light):

Size: TR A5, 384 pages; CAL A5, 208 pages

Price: TR $35; CAL $25 (approximate pricing from Singapore currency)

Paper weight: TR 52gsm; CAL 83gsm

Sheen: More from CAL

Shading: Crisper shading from CAL

Color brightness: Slightly brighter on CAL

Multiple ink colors: More from TR

Shimmer: Equal

Show-through: CAL has significantly less

Watercolor: Brighter colors from CAL, easier to blend on TR

Water resistance: CAL superior

Smoothness: CAL has more tooth, TR smoother

I love this new Cosmo Air Light folio. Downsides include number of pages – TR has nearly twice the number of pages, although the CAL does reflect this with a lower price. CAL also shows ink as crisp – very crisp. This could be good or bad – to me it is just different.

I am incredibly impressed with the quality of this new folio and the paper. I do mourn the loss of traditional Tomoe River paper, but at the same time, I’m very happy that this change is motivating new notebooks. I have expanded my daily notebook pile to include a Cosmo Air Light folio and I expect to replace it as soon as it fills up – I’ll also be expanding ink reviews to cover the ink on CAL in addition to TR. This new paper won’t take the place of TR in my heart, but I couldn’t be happier with the quality of the new Cosmo Air Light notebook. Thank you so much, Musubi!

Another thank you is due to Musubi as well. They recently contacted the Well-Appointed Desk to ask if we would give a new Cosmo Air Light notebook to a reader of the blog! In order to enter to win, leave a comment with your favorite feature of the new CAL paper. Details and rules are listed below.

DISCLAIMER: The item in this review was purchased by me and no affiliate links are provided in the post. Please see the About page for more details.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and leave a comment with your favorite feature of the new CAL paper. Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Monday, April 5, 2021. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 5 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

The post Paper Review and Giveaway: Musubi Cosmo Air Light Notebook appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.