Stationery Review
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!
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Esterbrook is a company with a lot of renowned early history until 1971 and a bit of a hiccuped relaunch of the brand since 2014. The 2018 relaunch by the folks at Kenro Industries, Inc. has been a much more confidence inspiring relaunch with the company releasing multiple pens and cases as well as integrating with vintage nibs and custom ground nibs. Thereβs a bit going on and itβs all quite interesting!
Esterbrook, wanting to expand into the Australian market organised a virtual pen meet of sorts for the Australian fountain pen community where they discussed the brand, its early history, and what they are doing with it now. Afterwards we got in contact with each other and they organised a care package with a Honeycomb Etsie, some accessories and a 6 pen Nook case to give away (see the bottom of this review for details)!
I was surprised by how much I liked the pen so after receiving the review pen I bought the Cobalt Blue Etsie from Desk Bandit who just recently started stocking Esterbrook.
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Three reviews in one! Lochby, based in the US, offer three groupings of products: a Tool Roll, an A5 Field Journal, and three different A5 Tomoe River Notebooks. The Tool Roll is a pen-wrap type product that has some extra pockets and different ways of folding or wrapping; the Field Journal reminds me a lot of a Travelersβ Notebook for A5 paper; and the A5 Notebook refills are rather self evident!
I saw these products on Instagram once and thought they looked really interesting. Not too long after that Chris, founder of Lochby, reached out for me to review them, so thank you to Chris for sending these out!
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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 Iβve loved all the stuff Iβve 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.
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I like to keep swatches of all my inks in a binder. In the past I've used Rhodia 80gsm but paper never felt right; too flimsy and I was never good at cutting accurate and consistent rectangles. In the past there was Maruman Mnemosyne Word Cards (which I never used), this year (2017) there is the new Col-o-ring cards, Robert Oster has some swatch cards as well and I have also found some good card stock myself. I'll be comparing these 4 different card stocks with Rhodia 80gsm and Tomoe River (as baselines). They all often perform quite differently and bring different attributes to the table! This is a very image heavy comparison with over 135 images!
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