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A Less Expensive Entry To The World of A5 Ring Binders

As I recently got my A5 Plotter, I have started the trial and error phase of seeing how and what I want to use in the Plotter and in what order. Part of this is looking into the variety of brands that are out there to find the right options, and not necessarily lock myself into a single brand.

As luck would have it, right after I got my Plotter, my local store The Gentleman Stationer posted about having just received a new offering from Laconic that was a binder and pre punched 6 ring inserts. Since I am just getting into the 6 ring A5 world, I picked up a variety of the inserts as well as a binder to see how they might be of use. The inserts that I got are Monthly, Weekly, Meeting and My Life. There are a few other options like Spreadsheet, but I didn’t think the other formats would be of use to me at this time. One big perk of these inserts is that they are undated, so they offer much more flexibility when it comes to calendars. This is going to be great for me, as I don’t have to commit to a years worth of calendar inserts if I end up not using the A5 for calendar long term.

Part of moving into the A5 is the variety of accessories. I mentioned in my Plotter video that I was on the hunt for a binder to store my extra pages, and this Laconic I think is going to fit that need. The ring mechanism is easy to open and it holds plenty of pages, so this is going to be how I start for paper storage, as I think this notebook will still be useful if I find a better option in the future. For now, it is filled with my blank sheets of the various insert styles, and with this being as inexpensive as it is, I could see getting as second one in the future to use for used pages vs unused.

I mention in the video that my initial hole punch ended up working decently, but it was punching with a different margin to the holes when compared to the Plotter paper. I was able to get a recommendation from a friend who is already into the Plotter system, and I ended up picking up a Bira Adjustable 6 Hole Punch from Amazon. So far, it seems to be a much closer margin which is what I was looking for.

I mention in the video that my A5 Plotter that I got initially was having issues with the tabs to open the rings, so I contacted Dromgoole’s and they did a warranty return. I have to say I am glad that I reached out as my replacement arrived and the rings opening are a night and day difference.

The tabs were sitting flat and never came up to allow the rings to open.
One of the rings never did fully close, so that was confirmation to me that the mechanism was faulty.

All this to say, it never hurts to reach out if you get something new and it doesn’t seem right. There are always one of issues that can slip by quality checks on any product.

I look forward to continuing this journey into the A5 Plotter world and will continue to look for other accessories and inserts to let me fully customize this setup and use experience.

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Moving Into The Plotter World

Earlier this year, I ventured into the world of Hobonici by getting a Weeks, and I had no idea that I happened to be choosing a loaded gun of sorts, as I had no idea the I would happen to be entering into a paper battle and struggle that many people have experienced with the new paper formulation in some of the Hobonici planners. The bleed through was too much for me to use with most pens that I tried, so I put that planner on the shelf and started to look into what my options were for the rest of the year.

After college, I was using a Filofax Executive size 6 ring planner, and I still had the cover, as well as a second new one that I got when the bookstore I worked at was clearing them out. My wife ordered some some custom Filofax inserts earlier in the year, and put them in that NOS cover, but after they arrived, she realized that she needed a larger format, so those refills were sitting on a shelf, so I ended up taking them over for the rest of the year. I moved the remaining year of inserts into my proven old cover, and ended up ordering a couple of bible size plotter accessories like the pen loop and divider with elastic to use alongside the inserts. This was working pretty well, but the inside of the close to 20 year old cover was never meant for this type of duration it seems, and all of the inside liner was flaking apart and leaving a trail everywhere, so knowing that my proof of concept for that format worked, I made the move to get an actual Plotter cover.

I started with the black horsehair bible size cover, and after using it for a couple of weeks, I really liked the idea of having a ring system in the A5 size as well. When I interviewed Lisa aka Olive Octopus, I really liked how she had put the disk bound system to use for have a great way for side by side paper comparison, so I wanted to do something similar with all of the A5 size papers that I already had. With this in mind, I ordered the A5 cover in the US exclusive Shiranami color. I got the necessary accessories with it as well, such as the pen loop, elastic band, project manager folders and the zippered case. A local pen club friend gave me some A5 paper samples, so I also picked up a pad of the Plotter dot grid and 2mm grid papers to use in addition to generic A5 looseleaf papers.

Armed with a hole punch, I added in some Life bank paper and You-Sari to start, and that paper selection will continue over time as I get into the Plotter system more. There are still some other accessory items that I am looking into such as paper storage when it is not in the rings as well as calendar inserts for limited use in the A5, and inserts for the Bible size for 2026. I do appreciate that due to the somewhat standard 6 ring system, I am not bound to only using items from the Plotter brand, so I will be able to search to find the right option for me regardless of what brand releases the product, and that is part of the fun of this hobby, finding the right fit for how you intend to use it.

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Comparing Maruman Mnemosyne and Spiral Note

As I continue to go down the path of trying and comparing various papers, it is always interesting to compare like to like within the same brand. This is one of those examples when taking a look at the Maruman Mnemosyne vs the Spiral Note. I have been using the Mnemosyne for the last 6 months between the regular black cover and then Kleid ruled horizontal version, and this has become my standard notebook for work notes that I keep at my desk.

The Gentleman Stationer recently got in the more budget minded Maruman Spiral Note, I picked one up to give it a try. Finding a reliable less expensive option for a quality paper. The Spiral Note is a great contender to fit that bill. The paper is a 70gsm paper vs the 80gsm that comes in the Mnemosyne, and there seems to be a lack of coating on the paper as well. The cover is a basic Kraft cover, and the rings are a single uncoated ring vs the double coated rings found on the Mnemosyne.

Both of these papers have perforated pages which is great for being able to take notes, and then remove old pages to be discarded when no longer needed, or to file them away for historical needs. This also makes both of these a perfect fit for a desk notebook that could be put to use across meetings or projects without having to keep a stack of notebooks handy. The Spiral Note comes in a variety of ruling options such as grid, dot grid, blank, and 2 different sizes of lined pages. While I tested the A5 version, there is also a B5 version with the same 80 page offering as the Mnemosyne, as well as a 40 page option in the B5 size.

In the video, I do a comparison of a variety of pens, inks, nib sizes, and pencils, and I also do an ink swatch to see how well the paper can handle it. Overall, both papers performed wonderfully for everything except for a Sharpie marker, but to be honest, that is to be expected. The ink swatch didn’t bleed through, but for me, this is not the type of paper that I would consider using for a general swatching book, but the paper can handle an occasional swatch or a spill well enough.

So overall, the Spiral Note is a great budget minded option when it comes to paper, but for me, I plan to stick with the Mnemosyne for now. It takes me a while to finish up a notebook, so the small little fit and finish details are worth the small amount of extra cost for me. If my situation changes where I need to go through notebooks at a quicker rate, I would have no hesitation to switch over to the Sprial Note as my primary use notebook.

I purchased these both of these notebooks from The Gentleman Stationer. If you are looking to pick up these notebooks, you can use the code DWRDNET at checkout when shopping at The Gentleman Stationer to save 10% on your purchase, so be sure to take advantage of the this generous offer that has been offered to those following along with the website and YouTube videos.

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A First Look at The Gentleman Stationer First Ever Patron Blind Box

As soon as I saw that Joe from The Gentleman Stationer was going to be releasing a mystery stationery box to Patron members, I immediately ordered one. There were only 10 made for this first release, and I was able to be one of the lucky people to order in time. This is the first time that I have done any sort of blind unboxing in years, and definitely the first one that I did while recording a video.

I did not anticipate the extra challenges added in when doing one of these type of openings on video, as Murphy introduced extra hurdles. I had to re shoot parts of the contents a few times, as I had audio that was not syncing to video, but I was able to get everything edited to cover the topic at hand well enough.

As for the box and its contents, this was a more pencil centric box, and I actually love that fact. Joe has always been a proponent of using a variety of writing tools, and while my main focus has been fountain pens, it was nice to have a change of pace by adding in some pencils, especially some wooden pencils. I said it in the video, and I still think this to be accurate, that I probably hadn’t used a manual pencil sharpener in 15 years. I can now reset that clock, and I look forward to putting those pencils into my writing rotation.

When I first filmed the video, I was looking at the TGS website for what some of these items were, and I couldn’t find the Midori A7 notebook. It turns out that was such a new item at TGS, that it went into the Patron boxes before it was even added to the website, so to me, that reenforces that the box is curated of new items and not things that have been sitting around on the shelves.

Along with the pencils, I also got my first bottle of TWSBI ink, so that is another brand to add to the ever growing ink collection. While I have not put this into a pen yet, the swatch that I did on the video looks to be a very nice green. I am not sure if all 10 boxes had the same color, so I look forward to seeing what others ended up with when talking to some of the other Patrons on the Patron discord that Gentleman Stationer recently launched.

Another item that I am really excited for is the Pentel Kerry mechanical pencil and the Uni smudge resistant lead. Having recently started to do watercolor, I currently had one of my multi pens in with my painting supplies, but I think this is going to be a better fit for that use case. I like that the pencil has a different look, and that it has a pull cap that protects the end of the pencil, which is great to keep it from pushing through the Lochby Tool Roll that carries my watercolor supplies.

To round out the box, aside from some TGS swag of a sticker and some coasters, Joe included one of the low viscosity Anterique Ballpoint pens, and to add to the great pen, he did some mix and match to have it be in the Gentleman Stationer colors of black and red. I already own a couple of these pens that are in places like my Jeep or gym bag, so now I have another one to keep around on my desk.

Overall, this was a fun unboxing experience, and I will definitely do my best to try to get any more of these that are released in the future. It was nice to be truly surprised by what was in the box, and now have some new items to add into my normal stationery use. Be sure to check out Gentleman Stationer on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/gentlemanstationer

Another thing that happened to line up with this video release, is that I am able to announce that the DWRDNET YouTube channel now has a discount code that can be used when shopping at The Gentleman Stationer. Use code DWRDNET at checkout to save 10% on your purchase. Some exclusions apply. I really do appreciate Joe offering this to YouTube viewers. Any chance to save, much less on items that might be more hobby related these days, is a very pleasant surprise.

Be sure to Subscribe to the Youtube channel, as there should be an episode of the DWRDNET Stationery Feed in the near future.

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This Australian Burl Just Had to Follow Me Home

So lately I have run into a trend of if I haven’t purchased an item from someone that I have interviewed, I end up with something shortly thereafter. That is exactly what happened with my first pen that I picked up from Tristar Studio.

Butler Stationery has started a Friday morning pen meetup of sorts, so for the last few weeks, I have been going out there and have been able to meet up with some of the pen people who are local to Columbia, TN. One of these people is Scott Lewis from Tristar, and the day after his interview released on Youtube, he had just done one of his first matte finish pens, and the very first pen that he had burned his logo in on the barrel of the pen with his laser. I don’t think he planned on selling that pen that morning, but when I saw it, I knew that was the pen that needed to come home with me.

Don’t get me wrong, polished pens look great, but there is something about matte finishes that I seem to prefer in many cases. This Australian burl wood is just gorgeous, and the Turnt Pen Company Carson IV section material was a perfect combination with the wood. Scott uses Bock #6 nibs, and thanks to some of his other pens being on sale at Butler Stationery, we were able to do musical nibs to get an EF nib put into this pen. Since then, Scott did give me an EF nib with the Tristar Studio logo engraved on it, which is now what is in this pen.

He brought the pen that morning in a great sleeve made by Rachel of Third Bungalow Crafts, and just adds to the look of this pen. The topographic pattern just has a cool look, and seeing as I have a topographic sticker on my laptop, it was a natural fit.

Be sure to go and take a look at Scott’s website, as he has been posting new pens every few days that are all stunning, and I know that some of them only lasted on the website for a few days, as I had a friend pick one of them up recently as well.

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A Different Kind of HandCrafted Pen

When I was at the Arkansas Pen Show for 2025, I hadn’t ‘t been to a pen show in a few years, so I went in expecting to see some people I knew from the past and while that was great, I didn’t realize that I was in a way short changing myself of the chance to explore and meet new makers and products that I hadn’t ever seen before. One of my local pen club friends who was at the Arkansas show as well had this very unique pen, and it was so different, I had to know more.

I had already purchased more than expected on the first day of the show, but I did make sure to go back and see the D² Arts Table and briefly got to get a card from Darrell Davis and told him that I would love to try to do an interview with him for my soon to launch interview series and he said that would be great and to reach out when I was ready. I was able to do that, and the interview with Darrell went great, and after talking to him, I realized that I need to own one of his pens.

I took at look at his website, and this pen jumped out to me immediately, and I decided that it was the one that I needed to order. The website showed the cool white material with hints of bluish grey in it, and I could see some of the carved marks on the sides, but the photos only showed me half of the story. When the pen arrived, the body was actually squared, and the carving added ridges to take off any sharp corners. Darrell had included a note thanking me for doing the interview and filled in the story on this pen.

The inspiration for this one of a kind creation came after his father had passed away, and he was making a pen to help process that experience. This pen was inspired by his father’s screwdriver handle. As soon as I read that I immediately knew what he was describing. I remember my grandfather had that same exact type of screwdriver. I found an eBay listing with what I am talking about and I will put that photo here.

Darrell also said in his note that this is probably a one of kind creation from him, and he would probably not be making any more in this particular style, so to be, it is an honor to own such a functional piece of art. I put a 14K EF SIG grind on it done by Audrey Matteson of Franklin Cristoph, and I could not be happier with this combination. It is simply a pleasure to write with, and just holding this pen in your hands, you can’t help but fidget with it. Darrell said in the interview that is really what he loves about making pens. He wants the art to be held and experienced, not just looked at.

While I know that this will not be my last pen from Darrell at D² Arts, this one is always going to hold a special place in my pen connection for sure.

If you haven’t seen the interview with Darrell, be sure to watch it. His approach and story of how he got into making pens is a great one.

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Talking Through The Origins of the DWRDNET Stationery Feed

When I decided to make quick videos of swatching the 2024 inkvent calendars, I thought it would be a quick little project that I would put on Youtube, and that would be it. I had no idea that I would really enjoy the filming and video process, so as I continued to make videos, it was starting to become natural. While I love doing videos about new pens or papers, I felt like there had to be something else to do with the Youtube channel. I did a few live streams on Youtube, and I really like the interaction of people asking questions, so I started to wonder how I could continue to get that the interaction with other people, so that is when the idea came to light.

The stationery hobby is odd in that many aspects of it can have no social interaction, but when pen people get together, they always seems to want to share or show off their new pens or papers, so that interaction is normally limited to pen clubs or pen shows. I am lucky to have a couple of stores, and a very active pen club in the Nashville area, but I wanted to be able to talk to other people and bring attention to pet makers, stationery stores, or people tied in with the hobby who a larger audience might not have heard of or be familiar with.

As I was starting to get ready to go to the Arkansas Pen Show, I had already started the research to see how I could make interviews work. I knew that I would have an opportunity at the show to talk to people about interviews once I was ready to get them going. I was able to do a livestream tour of Vanness with Lisa Vanness, and that was in a way a rough test of what would evolve into the DWRDNET Stationery Feed that is now coming up on Episode 8.

I have been lucky to have existing connections with quite a few people to help me get started, but I have also had to take a leap to reach out to people who I have never met or spoken to, but I like their products or store and want to talk to them about it and help to give them a different audience to help spread the word about their business. This is not something that I ever considered I would be doing, but now it is starting to feel natural and I am enjoying the process of finding new people to talk to for future episodes.

I think it is important to support all of these small businesses as much as possible, since competing with someone like Amazon is a massive challenge. A small business is going to see the effect of every purchase in a way that someone like Amazon never would. Many of these businesses are running their store as a second job, so this is something that they are passionate about and by supporting them, everyone benefits.

So if you haven’t yet had a chance to watch any of the episodes, I would suggest checking them out. I have had people tell me that it has been great to put on in the background to listen to while working on other tasks. There are some episodes that are more visually driven, like the interview with Lisa of Olive Octopus Ink where watching is going to allow you to see all of the swatching techniques, but the audio only versions are also available if that is how you choose to consume media.

You can check out the video feed at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwFAC_8KRdr4AnR1IhPION7BN-fQvIF7E or if you can find the audio versions on Youtube, Spotify and Apple Podcast with hopefully more podcast providers to come in the future.

If you have suggestions of people that you would like me to try to interview, please leave those suggestions in the comments, as I have an initial list, but part of the fun of this is finding out about people I haven’t heard of and learning about them and their offerings as I am able to help share them with others.

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Exploring Vol. 2 Of The Yamamoto Fountain Friendly Paper Sampler

Recently I continued on my paper exploration journey with the Yamamoto Vol 2 Fountain Pen Friendly paper sampler. I ordered this from Vanness, and this is a continuation of the paper sampler series, as I previously went through the Vol 1 collection.

These are all papers deemed fountain pen friendly by Yamamoto Paper, and while I would describe that as accurate overall, there are some things to note about some of the various papers. In the video you will see that some of these papers show colors very differently, specifically the No 5 offering from the sampler called Smooth Art Paper. This was the thickest paper of the two packs, and it has a coating on the base paper to create the smooth writing surface, but the ink that I tested with was not able to do its expected color change as it dries.

This is not the first paper that I have come across to do this same type of color display, so while that is not a bad thing, it just reenforces that if you are needing colors to show a certain way, you definitely want to swatch the inks you plan to use on the exact papers to be sure that you are ready for the results. Iroful is the other paper that I saw this on with the Teranishi Guitar Gentle Green ink.

I had a YouTube comment ask me which one of these that I would buy a pack of, and I think for me, the Sheep’s Cloud Bond paper would fit the bill. It offers a very similar writing experience to Bank Paper, which is now limited to vendor stock on hand, so this has a good chance of becoming the replacement for people who really love that paper.

I would strongly encourage you to pick up these various paper sample packs, as they are the best way to try before you buy, as most of these papers will come at a higher cost due to the need to have them imported from Japan.

You can find the Yamamoto A5 sampler packs at Vanness Pens online at https://www.vanness1938.com. You can use the code DWRDNET to save 10% on many items at Vanness. Some exclusions apply and are listed on a per item basis on their website. A big thank you to Vanness to offer this for readers and viewers of the dwrd.net website and the DWRDNET YouTube channel.

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Diving Into The Yamamoto Fountain Pen Friendly Paper Sampler Vol. 1

I recently have been getting more into paper exploration, so when I saw that Vanness had these back in stock, I decided that I needed to pick up both Vol 1 and Vol 2 and test them out for my use, as well as to make videos about them.

While the video both shows and shares the overall findings, I wanted to add some more information here to go along with what is shown in the video. This was one of the first paper videos where I tried to be the most apples to apples comparison that I could in terms of using the same pens, inks, and process for all of the papers. I took the viewers advice from past paper videos, and I used the nibs sizes of EF, F, M, B, and I also used inks from various manufacturers. I finished off the test pages with a swatch of the Teranishi Guitar Gentle Green, which I have seen on previous testing to sometimes now get a chance to dry to its expected green color on certain papers. I did not have that happen in this Vol 1 pack, but I wanted to try to anticipate potential things that people would see in their own writing.

I feel like looking at all of the samples side by side at the end of the video, that I did a pretty good job of doing a good comparison that really made the papers be the only thing different. I am going to continue this same testing method for Vol 2, and I will do my best to keep this exact setup going forward for any other sample packs in the future. (Some of the pens were borrowed from my wife, so ink colors in the larger nib sizes might change, well at least until I buy a set of decided testing pens)

You can find the Yamamoto A5 sampler packs at Vanness Pens online at https://www.vanness1938.com. You can use the code DWRDNET to save 10% on many items at Vanness. Some exclusions apply and are listed on a per item basis on their website. A big thank you to Vanness to offer this for readers and viewers of the dwrd.net website and the DWRDNET YouTube channel.

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Time for a Return

My website has been missing for quite some time, and I have decided that it was time to bring it back. Dwrd.net started on Jan 1, 2000 and has lived many different phases in that time. I think it will become a general collection point for sharing some of my hobbies such as scuba and fountain pens. It will take me some time to get it up to snuff, but feel free to check back as I get things going once again.