There are many different approaches to notebook systems and the Endless Explorer fits into the modular approach with gives the end user more control over how they adopt the product to their personal needs. The Endless Explorer exploits multiple notebooks and some accessories to provide a reserved but functional experience.
Thanks to Endless for sending this notebook system in for review. Use code MACCHIATOMAN10 for 10% off!
As mentioned in the preamble there are multiple different approaches and The Gentleman Stationer has has a great set of four articles that cover the general concepts and categories (I, II, III, IV). From simple notebooks, to binder-based systems, to single use bound notebook systems, to modular systems. The Endless Explorer sits into the latter (which comparable to the binder-based system but still quite different).
At its core and its most basic the Endless Explorer is a rectangular piece of leather (or vegan cactus leather) with some holes and cuts in it and some elastic bands. This is an oversimplification in one sense but it is still true. An obvious comparison here is to other modular systems such as Traveler’s Notebook or Lochby (and others). The Traveler’s Notebook is not different in that it is a single piece of leather and some elastic bands.
While the binder system allows for individual pages to be swapped in and out and moved about, this modular system is based around smaller but separate notebooks. The idea being to have one than one notebook for different purposes. It can also be used as a simple cover and bookmarks but it allows for more than that. That is a little more restrictive, in one sense, than a binder approach, but this restriction can offer simplicity in approach.
Packaging
The packaging that comes with the explorer is a lovely premium feel box with a drawstring that opens the draw that includes a Regalia Paper Storyboard Notebook and, if purchased, room for a pen loop. The draw is very smoothly operated. Packaging is ultimately not hugely important for any product (behind keeping it safe) but it is nice to see the attention to detail.
Explorer Notebook System
The Explorer is relatively spartan. It only includes the ENDLESS name with their Dash Dot Dot Dot logo underneath that on the bottom of the back of the notebook. The helps otherwise to know which way is front and up when handling the Explorer.
Otherwise the only things visible on the outside of the Explorer is the brown elastic band to keep the Explorer closed and the two red and yellow internal elastic bands for holding notebooks inside. The brown elastic band also works internally as a third holder for notebooks (or potentially as a bookmark)
My Explorer is the simple Brown Leather version but there also exists Green Leather, Blue Leather, Maroon Cactus Leather, Beige Cactus Leather, and Black Cactus Leather. Finally there is also a pocket version which fits much smaller notebooks that is available in Brown Leather.
The pen loops has to be put on last (after closing the Explorer and strapping it closed with the elastic band) and sits on top of everything keeping it more closed. This does mean that you have to remove the pen loop every time to open the notebook, keep it somewhere, and then put it back after you finish. Not a big deal by any means but something to note. An approach like that of Traveler’s Company does (where the loops is clipped onto the leather) means the loop doesn’t need to be removed but also means that there is a loop that can get in the way a little in use (it also somewhat permanently indents the leather). There’s nothing stopping you from using the Traveler’s Notebook Loop or another third party pen loop here but both approaches have the positives and negatives.
The leather is a matte finish with no gloss. This means that it might scratch, stain and age quicker than something with a glossy finish (such as the leather in Traveler’s Notebooks). One of the attractions of leather is how it wears or patinas. I treat my products fairly carefully and I have only had this a few months so I haven’t been able to develop anything so far but it will be interesting to see.
The loop does come in vegan cactus leather as well. The Endless Explorer is 20.6cm x 14.5cm (or 8.1” x 5.7”) with the notepad inside measuring 19cm x 13cm (or 7.5” x 5.1”).
Cotton Wallet Accessory
Along with the pen loop the other accessory provided by Endless is the Cotton Wallet. This wallet adds slots, pockets, and holders to your Explorer to expand its functionality, especially in terms of EDC uses. This is an important accessory for Endless, in my personal opinion. Traveler’s Notebook is an old and very established notebook system and it has many accessories as well as third party accessories. This Cotton Wallet adds a lot of functionality in one single product.
Is this necessary for everyone? No it won’t be. It will depend on how much you integrate this wallet into your every day carry and indeed how you use it. Do you already have a bag or wallet system with lots of pockets you take with you everywhere? Maybe this won’t be needed as much but if try to be more minimal with what you carry with you then this adds options for a bunch of small extras to take around with you. That said, if this notebook just mostly sits on a desk waiting for you to use it at home, maybe this isn’t as necessary. But for those it is useful for I think it is a well thought of an well made accessory.
It offers a large zipped compartment on the back, a cable holder, on the front as well as a larger pocket protected by only a flap this time. Also on the front is a slim deep pocket, a slightly larger deep pocket and three card slots. It offers a decent amount for it’s size.
I was able to fit cables, a Bellroy wallet, a small battery pack, some polaroids.
The Cotton Wallet is well made with leather trims and well regarded YKK zippers. The sticking seems tight and there is a nice piece of leather protecting the end of the zipper section.
Thickness and dimensions
With a Cotton Wallet loaded with what I mentioned above as well as three notebooks the Explorer is a little chunky. The internal notebooks also starts to peak out beyond the leather cover (this also happens with chunky Traveler’s Notebooks so nothing new).
With a thinner Cotton Wallet and two notebooks the Explorer feels like a very practical thickness (as with no Cotton Wallet but three notebooks). With two notebooks and no Cotton Wallet it seems a little sparse (as would a single notebook). I say seems a little sparse only in relation to how thick it can be. It works perfectly fine and looks perfectly fine with a single notebook.
Notebook System Comparison
While The Gentleman Stationer did a great job of this I want to touch on it all the same but this time within the context of comparing some of the others to the Endless Explorer specifically. I have, for better or worse, a lot of notebook systems in various states of use.
At its fundamentals, the Endless Explorer adopts same approach as the Traveler’s Notebook. They are both a simple piece of leather with elastic bands that create a modular system of separate notebooks. The main difference between the two is the size and the accessories. Traveler’s Company, previously under the Midori brand, have well established products with third party and their own accessories to complement the product. The Endless Explorer hasn’t been around as long and so the accessories aren’t as abundant. The Cotton Wallet helps a lot with closing the gap, however. As for paper sizes the Endless Explorer is noticeably wider in practice than the Regular Traveler’s Notebook but technically it is only 2.5cm wider while being 1.4cm shorter. Subjectively I find the Regular Traveler’s Notebook to be an awkward size to work with; I find it too narrow. I, personally, prefer the wider paper of the Endless Explorer and I don’t notice the loss of hight (in comparison to the Regular Traveler’s Notebook). The Passport Traveler’s Notebook more directly compares with the Endless Explorer Pocket but the dimensions of both are below.
The Lochby Field Journal is another modular notebook but this time in builds in the pockets, pen holders and accessories into a larger and more complicated case (this time made out of canvas). With an A5 notebook this whole setup is more standard than the Endless Explorer but is also chunkier (which may or may not be beneficial to you).
Hobonichi is another very popular approach but this one pre-fills the the internals (while giving you lots of options) but limited the purpose to more of a journal or diary. It offers a lot and has a lot of pages but is otherwise restrictive to how you can approach each predetermined sections of the notebook offering very limited customisability. It does have a lot of options for covers and some accessories of which many are third party.
The Milligram Agenda Planner A5 is a binder approach which means that you can completely customise the experience. As each page can be moved around you could technically mix and match different pages. For example you could theoretically put a notes pages after each set of weeks pages to expand notes for the week. Or you could treat it more like a notebook nodular approach with dividers separating items. This approach is much more fiddly but that offers a lot of customisability which may or may not be needed. Again, as it is A5 it is quite a bit larger than the Endless Explorer.
| Dimensions | Cover | Paper |
|---|---|---|
| Endless Explorer | 20.6cm x 14.5cm | 19cm x 13cm |
| Endless Explorer Pocket | 16cm x 9.9cm | 15cm x 8.9cm |
| Traveler's Notebook Regular | 22cm x 12cm | 21cm x 11cm |
| Traveler's Notebook Passport | 13.4cm x 9.8cm | 12.4cm x 8.9cm |
| Lochby Field Journal | 25cm x 17cm | 21cm x 15cm |
| Hobonichi Techo A5 | 33.7cm x 22.8cm | 14.8cm x 21cm |
| Hobonichi Techo A6 | 24.4cm x 16.5cm | 14.8cm x 10.5cm |
| Studio Milligram Agenda Planner A5 | 23.3cm x 18.3cm | 21cm x 14.8cm |
As for paper size of the Endless Explorer’s Storyboard Notebook the size is a peculiar one. Like the Traveler’s Notebook it is unique size. Not exactly proprietary but with practically unique dimensions for Endless. At 18cm x 13cm its closest common paper size would be B6 at 17.6cm x 12.5cm. B6 would then be 0.4cm shorter and 0.5cm narrower. This would mean that if you wanted to put B6 notebooks in the Endless Explorer it would work quite well with limited overlap. While I do think Regalia paper (discussed bellow) is lovely paper if you had B6 size Notebooks you could easily swap them in with little ore no issues.
Regalia Paper
The Storyboard refill notebooks (though they obviously can be used standalone and not as ‘refills’) use Endless’s ‘Regalia Paper’ which is a bright white paper. While some of Endless’s products use Tomoe River, this doesn’t - which is interesting!
The notebooks come in this standard large size or pocket size and can be Dot Grid, Ruled, or Blank and it shows which on a little icon on the front bottom right of the cover. The Regalia Paper is 80gsm and you are give 64 pages per notebook.
The back cover has the Endless Logo as well as details of the notebook.
The stitching down the spine is tight and the single signature text block has many sticking incisions.
Nib, Pen and Ink details
I used either Lamy Safaris. Lamy Vistas, Lamy AL-Stars, a Lamy Joy or a Lamy Studio for these reviews (I can’t remember which exactly) and seven different stainless steel Lamy nibs on that pen. The choice of pen (be that Safari, AL-Star, Vista, Joy or Studio) will have little impact in the writing performance. I will not use a Lamy Dialog because there is the rare chance of the nib drying out slightly which might affect the writing performance.
Lamy 1.9 Stub: this is a very wet nib
Lamy Broad: this is a wet nib;
Lamy Medium: this is a very wet nib; and
Lamy Fine: this nib is moderately dry.
The inks used in this comparison and the general characteristics are:
Lamy Crystal Ink: This ink is high saturation wet ink that presents with a moderate amount of sheen;
Robert Oster Bondi Blue: This ink is a moderate saturation and moderately wet ink with good lubrication that presents with a low moderate amount of sheen that occurs at the edge of where the ink pools and can show with various degrees of saturation. It can present with decent shading in the right conditions;
Montblanc Irish Green: This is a drier ink with low moderate saturation that can show with good shading and generally no sheen (apart from on the swatch);
Bungubox Omotesando Blue: Is a moderate sheen Sailor ink with little shading that is quite dark and moderately saturated that is very wet and can show dual sheen;
Noodler’s Pushkin: is a poor performing ink. It nearly always feathers and bleeds and displays as quite faded and splotchy; and
Diamine Skull & Roses: Is a super sheening wet ink with limited shading and high saturation.
These inks were chosen because they offer a variety of different characteristics from dryer inks to wet inks, from flat inks to shading inks, from sheen to no sheen and from high performance quality to low. These inks also come from a variety of manufacturers as well as different regions.
For comparison sake here are other papers using the same inks:
Lamy Crystal Azurite is rich and saturated. It leans a little more blue than some other papers have (but of note is that this paper is very white and some others more yellow which could contribute). It shows a strong golden-green sheen (almost bicolour) on the swatch even the writing has a very decent amount of sheen which is a surprise. The shading is smooth, frequent and low-to-moderate contrast and there is no halo.
As we’ll see later there was some very limited Bleeding on the swatch. No Feathering.
Robert Oster Bondi Blue is more saturated than can be shown here to limitations on colour spaces in the cyan colour spectrum. It has some red edge-sheen on the swatch which is very subtle on the written line and only really in the more saturated parts. Shading has some high contrast and frequency with a sudden gradient; delightful! There is some limited haloing.
As we’ll see later there was some very limited Bleeding on the swatch. No feathering.
Montblanc Irish Green is quite dark and rich on Regalia Paper (which is how I prefer it). There is decent contrast in the shading with a fairly sudden gradient and with decent frequency. There is a subtle halo. The sheen is a subtle dull pink-silver sheen but it doesn’t really show on the written line much (apart from a couple of very wet letters).
No feathering, spread, or bleeding.
Bungubox Omotesando Blue is a fairly rich darker blue. It leans a little more purple than it does teal. The ink is fairly flat but still produces some nice shading with moderately sudden gradients and moderate contrast (if somewhat infrequent). The sheen is a subtle pink on the writing but not very strong. You can see it more on the swatch but still it isn’t a strong sheen.
No feathering, spread, or bleeding.
Noodler’s Pushkin often performs quite poorly with a patchy look to it and with feathering, bleeding and spread being common. It isn’t the worst ink I have ever used but it is probably one of the poorer performing inks that a user might reasonably run into.
On Regalia Paper Noodler’s Pushkin performs excellently! The ink still looks like paint but it isn’t flat or pale. It doesn’t look like it absorbed itself into the paper but sat on top like other inks. It is relatively saturated for this ink. Very surprised to see how excellently this poor performing ink performs.
There is no feathering, spread or feathering!
Diamine Skull & Roses is a practical super sheening ink. It isn’t quite as extreme as Organics Studio Nitrogen Royal Blue but it is a little more practical because of that. The ink presents as a very rich blue that leans a little more to the teal side of the blue spectrum. The shading is decent with moderate frequency but smoother gradients and moderate contrast (a higher contrast being exaggerated by the sheen). The sheen is a very strong bright red that shows wrongly on most of the written line from each nib. The sheen sometimes makes it look like there is a halo but the ink (as distinct from the sheen) doesn’t create a halo.
No feathering, spread, or bleeding.
As mentioned there is some limited feathering in the swatches of Lamy Crystal Azurite and Robert Oster Bondi Blue. Otherwise this paper performs very well with all inks I have tried it on.
The dry time of this paper is fairly similar to what you would expect on Tomoe River (somewhat in between 52gsm and 68gsm Tomoe River). It isn’t quick by any means but it isn’t crazy slow. If you don’t mind Tomoe River you’ll not mind this (in terms of dry time). Dry time here was from Bungubox Omotesando Blue (which is a typical Sailor ink in terms of dry times).
So how does the paper feel?
It is 80gsm so thicker than Tomoe River but about what many paper types are so feels fairly normal. It is quite smooth but there is still some texture to it. A little more texture than Tomoe River 68gsm (much more than Tomoe River 52gsm) but not near something like parchment paper. It’s in the ballpark of Rhoda but with a little more texture.
One issue the paper has that Tomoe River also has is that it is quite susceptible to hand oils. Touching the paper with your hand or fingers has the potential to affect how ink will go on the page. This issue is very noticeable on 52gsm Tomoe River. The way it presents here is finger prints being visible and also some scruffy edges around written lines or shading. It certainly isn’t a big deal but again worth a note!
Final Remarks
There are a few different angles to comment on with this Explorer Notebook. Overall the general concept and design is similar to Traveler’s Notebook. The matte leather finish will be interesting to see down the track compared with a glossy finish. I also personally much prefer the size and while the choice of a paper size that isn’t common is unusual; there still remains the option to use B6 notebook sizes but in practice for me I really like Regalia paper and I am perfectly happy to purchase the refills of these from Endless. I like Regalia so much that I am considering using it over Tomoe River for my Minireviews (at least). It is a very nice fountain pen friendly paper that handles poorer inks well and still highlights the characteristics of inks. The accessories, while currently limited to what Endless produce for the experience (of which the Cotton Wallet which I bought myself offers a decent amount of functionality), are easily enough for what I want and you can always still use generic accessories (such as divider tabs or various clips etc.).
The Endless Explorer in Leather is US$50 (Cactus Leather is US$60) and that comes with a supplied notebook). The Pen Loop is US$15, the Cotton Wallet is US$24.99. Finally replacement notebooks are US$8.5ea. I think these prices are easily within what would be expected for a product like this. Shipping is decently priced with free shipping over US$60.
Thanks again for Endless for sending this notebook system in for review. Please use code MACCHIATOMAN10 for 10% off!
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I was not compensated for this review and everything here is my own honest opinion. I was sent these items for the purpose of an honest review (I purchased the Cotton Wallet myself, however). Endless Explorer does sponsor the blog (although during the pandemic I have suspended any payments).
Today is a review of a set of items from Midori that work quite nicely together. These aren’t an official set but I think they could easily be and would be great to buy together. They are the Midori MD Fountain Pen, the Midori MD Lined A5 Notebook with the Paper Notebook Cover. These are affordable products from an established Japanese brand that have a certain minimalist-like aesthetic about them.
A big thanks to Ink’d Pens for sending these in for review!