Paper Trends

Around the start of 2020, we came across this brand from Japan “Nakabayashi” which was marketing fountain pen-friendly notebooks. All fountain pen users are aware of the perils of using just any notebook with fountain pens and are always on the hunt for fountain pen-friendly paper or bookmakers. When we tried out Nakabayashi notebooks in Jan 2020 we were convinced it would be the next best thing that happened for fountain pen users.

As a trial and to understand the markets, we introduced the Notebooks at the Mumbai pen show in March 2020.

The outer of the book is bound with cardboard, harder than most of the other products thereby adding strength and stability to the product. Hardcover also enhances the performance of the product and makes it easier to use. The pages are made from a specially sourced pulp and are 75 GSM thick.

At the event, we got a good response from the FP community. Every fountain pen connoisseur who had tested the book ended up buying it. In fact, Nakabayashi books became a highlight of the show and every visitor did check it out.

Below are some writing samples from the book. The ink used is Leonardo from Italy and the Pen used was a Pelikan M815 in a medium nib.

We tested the book with most kinds of ink. Pelikan, Diamaine, KWZ, Lamy, Leonardo, Montegrappa etc etc. It did have varying properties but scored most positively in common parameters. For eg there was least ghosting/feathering in almost all inks. Sheen is quite visible on this paper and the colors are vibrant.

The books are slim in nature and consist of 4o pages making them very functional to carry around. The spiral books by nature ben complete backwords making every side useable completely and also easy to use when on the move. The spirals are uniquely placed. They are not completely spiral-bound like most brands. A small spiral is placed on the top and a small spiral is placed at the bottom as is evident from the image below. The concept has added great convenience in using the notebook.

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