Tag: Japanese paper

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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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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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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.