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Many pens, fewer notebooks.
Lamy 2000 with Sailor Massachusetts
Esterbrook J with Diamine Oxblood
Pilot Decimo with J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage
Sheaffer Balance with Pelikan 4001 Konigsblau
Franklin-Christoph 65 with Colorverse Ham 65
Kilk Orient with Diamine Blue Black
Pilot Murex with Anderillium Shoebill Stork
Graf von Faber Castell Guilloche with Parker Black
Eight pens inked. I haven’t had that many going since…I couldn’t even tell you. The 2000, Decimo, and 65 were up and running before I went to the pen show last Saturday. I bought the Balance and Murex so they got inked. I had the Orient and Guilloche nibs worked on so they got inked. I bought a new nib for the J so it got inked. And now here we are.
I’m usually running three or four fountain pens at a time. To quickly double that leaves me feeling out of sorts when I reach for something to write with. The Balance, J, and Guilloche can be emptied now that I’ve had a little time to see what they’re like as new or modified pens. The Lamy is on daily journaling duty so it will stay through month’s end. The Decimo is going to work most days and I’d like to keep using it. The 65 and Orient have some overlap with nib style and ink color. I figure I’ll sideline the 65 so I can continue to play around with the new grind on the Orient.
That leaves the Murex, which I may want to keep inked for an extended period. The grey Anderillium ink I put in for the first fill looks good. However, combined with the all-steel pen it feels too grayscale as a package. I think I’ll change out to something else. Maybe a teal or turquoise.
At the start of September, I gathered every unused notebook I had and asked myself why I bought them. The answers were easy — nice paper, pretty cover, handy size, unique features, never tried this brand before, it only cost some rationalized dollar amount, on and on. Then I asked why I was keeping them. The answers didn’t come so quickly.
As with pens, the last 8 or 9 years have helped me refine my preferences in notebooks.
My favorite size for journaling or general use is A5. Big enough not to feel cramped, small enough to take anywhere. I like 3” x 5” or something close for my pocket notebook at work. A4/letter size is handy for project layouts or using nibs with very wide lines.
I like writing on 7 or 8mm lined pages. 5mm graph paper excels for certain uses, as does plain, but lined is clearly my #1 format.
Binding? Wirebound is very durable and lets me deal with just the page I’m writing on. A good lay flat sewn binding with a flexible spine is pleasant to use and neater to stack.
I love the aesthetic of a rugged hardcover but thinner softcovers are easier to use day to day.
Paper type used to seem like an impossible thing to settle on. Once the above variables sorted themselves out, I often found myself using Clairefontaine and it has never let me down. They are the first place I go for any size/type of notebook. Kokuyo and Itoya ProFolio get the second most use. Old Tomoe River 52gsm is still magic but I don’t have much of it.
So, a wirebound lined Clairefontaine A5 softcover is my notebook happy place. Then why did I have close to 40 (yikes!) unused notebooks when many of them didn’t meet two or more of the preference points I’ve settled on? Looking over the group, I know several were bought out of curiosity or as part of a search to fill a particular role.
Case in point, I bought 9 or 10 pocket notebooks in the last year trying to see which was best for work. Many of them never spent a minute on the job because they lacked certain things. Could I have researched more and bought fewer? Yes, but it seemed easier to cast a wide net over an inexpensive category and see what shook out. I might try to argue I needed to see them first hand to know if they were the right one. That ultimately feels like a lazy justification for more shopping with less discernment. I’m sure I also had the thought somewhere in my mind that even if a notebook didn’t fit the intended role, it might still be good for something else. They were mostly good for sitting in a drawer doing nothing.
Trying to dissect these decisions in hindsight often leads to more critical self-analysis, which collides with my desire to keep the hobby focused on enjoyment. Deeper examination of an unnecessary notebook accumulation is not enjoyable. I’d like to leave it at realizing I had too many notebooks I wouldn’t use, decided to correct the situation, and will be more conscientious in the future. I know what I like and what works best for me. That’s the lane I should drive in most of the time.
I gave some notebooks to my mom. Several others went to a family member who’s a writer and was attending a writer’s conference soon, so they planned to give some out to fellow attendees. To know the notebooks would be going to folks who can appreciate and use them made me happy. It also made the space they used to occupy for me feel less like a void and more like room for something else to grow.
