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Snippets: Lamy notebooks, Anderillium inks, Pebble notebook and more

I became a dad (again) at the weekend, so my “free time for blogs” bucket has felt pretty empty the last few days, and I expect that state of affairs to continue. But a few quick updates to make you aware of:

Lamy notebooks: worth a buy

Write Here sent me a couple of the new Lamy notebooks to review, one softcover A5 priced at a shade under £16, and one softcover A6 priced at a shade under £13.

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I was intrigued by the combo dot grid/lined layout and the 90gsm ink-friendly paper that Lamy claims to use. Full review to come, but these are a very solid entry into a crowded market. No page numbers or lay-flat binding, but elastic closure, two bookmarks, back pocket, rounded corners, perforated pages and all the rest of the notebook feature set are there.

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Most importantly, the paper is good. It has some tooth and is thick and absorbent, which makes for decent dry times at the expense of shading and sheen. There’s no showthrough or bleeding, only the tiniest amount of feathering, and the combined dot grid/line layout is actually very usable — even though at first I thought the print was a bit heavy and dark.

The photo below shows a 1.5mm stub, Sheaffer B, Montblanc M with extra wet Troublemarker ink, FC Music nib, Montblanc BB, Aurora italic, JoWo B. Inks of all kinds. Good performance.

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Not Tomoe, but definitely usable and I really like the line/dot grid layout.

Pebble notebooks: also worth a buy if you like Tomoe

Again a full review is probably in order, but if you’re looking for a slim A5 Tomoe exercise book, here’s another great option.

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The specs are good: 120 pages of 52gsm white Tomoe, with an unobtrusive 5mm dot grid. Numbered pages, rounded corners.

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Very sweet duck-egg blue inner covers and stitching, with textured grey 350gsm outer card covers and the subtlest of embossed branding.

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Very classy indeed. And at $13, competitively priced. The Tomoe paper takes everything you can throw at it, of course.

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What sets Pebble apart is the company ethos: it donates pencils to children in need, and generally seems to be one of those outfits that does the right thing. Kudos.

Anderillium inks

As I mentioned at the end of my previous post, I’m testing out eight inks from Florida-based Anderillium inks. These have got me quite excited. Check out the colours in the Cephalopod range:

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Anderillium makes the kind of inks I like, and this set of eight inks covers all the bases. Wonderful themed memorable names. A few real zingers like Blue-Ringed Octopus Blue and Flapjack Octopus Orange. Some more sober and subtle beauties like Flying Squid Blue and Colossal Squid Dark. They’re all wet and lubricated, and with the exception of Cuttlefish Brown, mostly don’t really bother with sheen. Some of them shade quite nicely, though. And they come in good-sized glass bottles with a wide mouth to fill any pen.

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I was also won over by the company’s ethos:

Our inks are made without any animal products at all, including our label and box adhesives. Our inks are water based and are made only with chemicals that are safe for the environment.

You may have noticed some feathering on the Col-o-Ring cards above where the ink is wettest, and I’ve seen a little in my Stalogy 365 notebook too. Tomoe seems unaffected:

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More investigation required.

That’s it until next time!

 

 

4 Comments

  1. Bruce D

    I am intrigued by the dot/line grid in the Lamy notebook, as I am looking for a series of +/- 48-60 sheet notebooks to keep data and research dedicated to each project I work on.
    A hearty congratulations to you and your wife on the new family arrival!

  2. Veganodon (@Veganodon)

    That’s why I keep coming back to your posts. The unique interest in the ethical side of this hobby.

    Thanks for sharing those two brands that I will be favoring next time I need ink and paper.

  3. Effandpee

    Many congratulations!!!

  4. Martin

    Congratulations on the second kid. Hope things are going smoothly.

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