Galen Leather Co. are a family company based in Istanbul, Turkey which has been around for only 7 years, since 2012, but they feel like such a staple today having blown up in popularity. I bought my first Galen Leather product in mid 2018 and and have been delighted to buy and use more since (with another product from them on the way as I write this). They make excellent products that are evocative and nostalgia inspiring for people who love to use analogue as well as appropriating that aesthetic for the digital realm. So far I’ve loved all the stuff I’ve used (or seen in the hands friends).
Big thanks to Galen Leather for sending this Leather Zippered Notebook A5 Folio (as well as the the notebooks and brass items) for review.
The Galen Leather Co. Leather Zippered A5 Notebook Folio in Crazy Horse Brown is made with 100% vegetable tanned cow leather. This leather has been distressed which gives it the leather a variety of colours and shades of yellow-brown. It picks up scratches and scuffs somewhat easily and presents with a very rustic and used’ feel - it develops a strong patina. Galen Leather also mentions that it ‘ages and softens quicker compared to regular leather’ and has a ‘suede feeling finish’. The finish definitely has a bit more of a texture, still soft but less smooth, than regular leather.
Sewn directly to the inside of the folio, and underneath the feature pockets and elastic holders on the left of the folio (when opened) is a soft brown velvet which contrasts nicely, in texture, with the rest of the folio.
You can build out the folio in a variety of ways. On the right hand side is where the notebook is meant to be secured. There is a short sleeve at the top, sewn top and right, and a large sleeve underneath, sewn bottom and right. This allows you to easily but securely hold most A5 books but also notepads like from Rhodia.
On the left hand side is where the personalisation happens. Underneath the leather there is a sleeve that can hold something A5 size (including an iPad mini or a thin Tomoe River notebook). Built into that leather sleeve is 4 business card-sized pockets. Above that is an almost 12cm deep pocket and below that is another sleeve where papers can be fit behind and a phone can be slipped inside. Galen also provides a 4-pen elastic-band featured leather and velvet insert that can slip in here to hold pens (or other cylindrical items). To the right of all these pockets and on the edge of the main leather sleeve is three secure elastic holders with leather limiters that can hold two larger pens (though I wouldn’t recommend this as the bottom of the pens could rub together) or two small items and one larger item.
In the middle of the folio is a clip for a provided removable keychain. My initial worry with this keychain is that it could rub against items in the three elastic band holders but when the folio is closed the keychain doesn’t really come close to where the elastic holders are.
The folio is 24.6cm (9.69”) tall, 18.5cm (7.28”) wide and 3.3cm (1.30”) deep and weighs 346g (0.76lb). The weight sits nicely on the folio and it doesn’t feel too heavy for me.
As mentioned there’s a variety of ways you can organise the left hand side of the folio. I’ve tried the three elastic bands with an Opinel knife, a Visconti Traveling Ink Well and a phone charging cable. I’ve also tried it with Montblanc 146 and a Pelikan M805. And lastly I’ve also had it with a small Swiss Army Knife, a chapstick and a stick of glue.
The pen insert works best with smaller pens but girthier pens still fit albeit with more of a bulge when the folio is zipped up. My only issue with this insert is I feel that the elastic bands would be better if a bit higher so that they could fit nicely underneath the clips of pens but this isn’t a huge issue.
As mentioned as well the folio can be comfortably used with a Rhodia A5 notepad due to the slit in the fight hand sleeve. While it doesn’t easily allow folding of pages behind the notepad (how some people use the notepad), you can still easily use the pad and tear out the pages. In fact if this is how you use Rhodia this is an excellent case for such a situation.
The fact that you can remove the pen sleeve completely also provides more customisation options. If you are carrying you pens in a separate case you might want to use the folio to carry your phone or something else entirely in that pocket.
The build quality is excellent. The stitching is delicate, precise and tight with the end of a stitch carefully and closely burnt off. The cuts are also precise. This fits well with the motto that Galen Leather Co. sometime use: “Measure twice; cut once”. They also use the high quality YKK zipper.
The only time that using the notebook, when within the folio, is a little cumbersome is when writing on the back side of a leaf on the left side of the folio. This shouldn’t be unexpected and is the same with any portfolio that puts anything on the left of the inside (which is almost all!). It can be a little lumpy, especially with the pen insert in (which, fortunately, can be removed making it a lot more comfortable).
The folio is advertised to work with Rhodia, Moleskine, Leuchtturm1917, and Hobonichi. The Hobonich, which is a thicker notebook at 1.8cm wide (0.71”), fits nicely inside the folio. With thicker pens in the pen insert it’s a little chunky but still manageable.
The Midori MD Notebook Diary I bought because I want to work out what I want to do with Journals next year, and wanted to try it out along with my Hobonichi. The MD Notebook Diary is a thinner notebook at 1.1cm (0.43”) and sits very comfortably in the folio with any combination of pens and instruments in the pockets and holders of the folio. This smaller size works very nicely.
Of course, you can use a small A5 Tomoe River Notebook, which naturally fits easily with no fuss. However I think the best way to use these thin notebooks is to slip them, under the large sleeve on the left side of the notebook. That way you get two notebooks in one! Or you could just keep a spare there and have another in the normal right sleeve.
The B6 size of the Hippo Noto (now called Pygmy Hippo Noto) fits well from a width and hight perspective but at 2.6cm thick the notebook is too thick for the folio to be closed. This is an unusually thick notebook, however. That said, B6 works absolutely well in the folio (if thinner than this) which is interesting to see.
My first Galen Leather Co. product I bought was this Leather A5 Notebook Cover (also in Crazy Horse Brown). The leather of the Cover is a lot thicker than the leather of the Folio. there are also fewer pockets and sleeves. The elastic that holds the Cover together makes for quicker easier access to the notebook inside compared with the zipper which you have to take the time top unzip and open. It’s not a huge difference, mind you.
The Cover is also a smaller footprint except for depth where it is fairly comparable. The weight of the Cover is only 48g heavier at 406g and surprisingly it feels heavier (even though 48g isn’t that much weight)!
Galen Leather Co. also provided some lovely brass items. I was planning on purchasing them but Galen were nice enough to send them through. There isn’t too much too much to say about these (at least for me).
I wanted a nice brass ruler and this certainly suffices! It has a softly textured top and the undecorated underside is smooth. Up to 20.5cm and just over 8”. The etching and colouring looks high quality.
The Binder clip is quite large (6.3cm x 6.2cm x 2.4cm) the strength of clip is weaker than I anticipated but still strong enough to do it’s job. Each side has a different nostalgic advertising style design. One side mentions Istanbul and says ‘Compliments of Galen Leather’ while the other mentions ‘Loose Leaf Binder Clip. Both sides say Genuine Handcrafted Quality and Galen Leather.
The Vintage Inspired Brass Combine Tool is like the ruler in it’s construction and has a Protractor, French curve, Hexagon, Triangles at 30, 45,& 60 degrees, Circle gauge with 6 sizes, and a 5.5" Ruler (unfortunately no centimetres so for me this is fairly useless apart from as a straight edge). Once I get into journalling more I might try to use this more, especially the different curves!
Finally there is the 9 paper clips. These look great and there’s some decent variety in shapes. Some of them are quite tight and even a little pointy so you might want to loosen them very slightly (without weakening the brass!) before applying to paper you don’t want to leave marks on.
With the brass items came two metal-wool style brushed to distress the the brass and encourage a patina. I can’t say I’ve tried this but it sounds fascinating.
Galen also sent across a three-pack of their Tomoe River Notebooks. These are blank 52gsm Ivory (white) Tomoe River paper and perform as you would expect from 52gsm Tomoe River paper (all my ink reviews are done on 52gsm Ivory (White) Tomoe River paper!). Where these sorts notepads can differ is with their construction and with what is included. These hand-bound notebooks have the standard softer cardboard cover but have an extensive 39-hole string binding that goes through the cardboard cover. Unlike many of these A5 Tomoe River notebooks, Galen has gone all out on the cover design rather than keeping it minimalistic. It again suites the nostalgic vintage aesthetic really well with the product being an advertisement for itself (without being egregious). They state that the notebook is best for ink sheen and shading. I can certainly agree with sheen but I believe shading is often less frequent on 52gsm Tomoe River (though the contrast of the shading can be higher).
Where Galen does things differently than most others is that this comes in a pack of three only. Where they go above and beyond most others is that it also comes with two writing guides (5mm and 10mm graphs, 7mm and 10mm lines) on thin cardboard and a cork or leather-like (I can’t make out the material!) blotter that doubles as a soft writing mat and finally all this comes in a nice (albeit less premium feeling than Galen’s usual product) zippered canvas bag. That’s quite extensive for a Tomoe River notebook!
The packaging that the whole package came in is also great. Inside the courier’s box was a brown paper bag with branding consistent with Galen’s aesthetic and a solid brown cardboard box that housed all the accessories (pretty premium feeling for a mere box).
What also came in my package, which my understanding is was a promotional item from a pen show (so it might not come in all orders!) was a lovely little cultural item: The Evil Eye. This legend is found in many cultures but Galen include the description from their Turkish perspective. Perfect to add to the keychain in the centre of the folio!
I quite like this folio. I’ve always loved this vintage-styled aesthetic and Galen Leather Co. do it really well with high quality handmade goods and at reasonable prices. The leather is soft and stitching is tight and the features are well thought out (and the zipper is good too)! The Folio comes in a variety of colours from natural leather, green, blue, and different browns.
The price of the Folio is AU$173 (US$119, €108) and for a hand made leather and velvet zippered folio I think that’s a perfectly reasonable price. It’s feature rich, high quality and hand made. This price is very decent, in my opinion. For comparison the Bellroy’s A5 Folio is AU$250 and then there’s This is Ground, which might not be a completely fair comparison, but still starts at AU$250 with no inner features at all. For me, this is good value at this price (value is subjective after all).
The pack of three Notebooks come in at AU$47 (US$32, €29) which sounds high until you remember this is a pack of 3! The price each is again very reasonable and you get a bunch of accessories with the notebook.
The brass items are AU$19 (US$ 13, €12) for the Ruler and the Paper clips, AU$22 (US$15, €14) for the Binder Clip, and AU$26 (US$18, €16) for the Combine Tool. I have no frame reference for this but I was planning on buying the clip, paper clips and the ruler before Galen insisted on including them (so the value was there for me!).
Shipping was quick with a courier service and pretty affordable! Because these items are handmade you can sometimes wait a while for the items to be made. Personally I have absolutely no problem with that! You can also get customisations put into the leather.
In the end I really enjoy this folio (as I enjoy the other Galen Leather products I bought for myself). The value is there for me and I hope it would be for you!
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