(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
If you're a fan of the Traveler's Notebook, you know that it's a long, thin notebook (8.3 x 4.3 inches) that can be inserted into a leather cover using elastics. Many people love the Traveler's system, because you can keep several notebooks within one cover. See my review here.
Traveler's notebooks come in many different iterations with various kinds of paper. But if you want a higher quality Traveler's-size notebook with more features, you should take a look at Pebble Stationery Company's version.
The notebook comes with either a grey or light blue vegan leatherette cover. The soft, textured cover is engraved with Pebble Stationery's logo, and the cardboard is thick enough that you can use this notebook all by itself, without the need for an additional cover.
The corners are curved and the binding is sewn stitch bound, not stapled like regular Traveler's notebooks. The binding allows the notebook to lay flat. I love this feature, because I hate fighting with traditional Traveler's notebooks which absolutely will not stay open without clips or something weighing them down.
Upon opening Pebble's notebook, you'll find a title page made of card stock with spaces for your name, the date, and contact information. A similar piece of card stock is at the back of the notebook. Each acts as additional backing to support writing in the notebook.
Next is an index page printed with lines for recording entries. One index page is not enough for me. I'd like Pebble to add more index pages to the front.
The inner pages are printed with 5mm dot-grid in light grey. Each page is also numbered, which is a feature I appreciate. Yes, I can write my own page numbers at the top or bottom, but on more than one occasion I've gotten off on my enumeration and had to correct the numbers later.
The notebook has two thick ribbon markers, one grey and one blue. This is another special touch that sets the Pebble version apart.
The last page features a simple ink journal with the date, the pen you've inked, the ink name, and a box for the swatch. Again, I'd like more than one page for recording inks, and the print would be much easier to see if it were darker.
The journal contains 200 pages (front and back) of Tomoe River Paper (52gsm). Traditional Traveler's Notebooks contain Midori Diary Paper (80gsm) but have only 64 pages (front and back).
Traveler’s, left, and Pebble Notebook.
Ink always looks wonderful on Tomoe River Paper. I tested ten fountain pens with different inks and nib sizes. As you would expect with Tomoe paper, the inks show through but there's absolutely no bleed through.
Tomoe handles ink swabs beautifully with lots of sheen and shading. Show through was evident and slight bleed through occurred with wetter inks.
I made a drawing using Robert Oster Peppermint ink and a Sailor MF nib. The dot grid made it easy to section off the space, and the paper was smooth and pleasant to draw on.
I am thoroughly impressed with Pebble Stationery's take on the Traveler's Notebook. They have improved upon the traditional notebook in every way with the lay-flat binding, page numbers, book ribbons, and soft cover. My only suggestion is that more pages be set aside for indexing and ink journaling, but honestly, if you want more pages for these purposes you can just use the dot grid pages.
You can purchase the Pebble Stationery Co. Tomoe River Paper Traveler's Notebook for $17.99. Yes, this is more expensive than regular Traveler's notebooks ($5.50 for 64 pages), but you're getting more pages, Tomoe River paper, and lots of extra features.
(Pebble Stationery Co. provided this product to Pen Addict free of charge for review purposes.)
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