The market for luxury hard-bound journals has been well established by a number of bigger brands - of note, Moleskine and Leuchtturm are the major contenders locally in this format. I’ve never really been a fan of the paper Moleskine uses (it’s not terribly fountain pen-friendly and overall it’s quite expensive for what you get) and despite recommendations for paper quality and FP-friendliness, I’ve been putting off trying Leuchtturm1917, also for reasons of cost.
So, lately, I’ve been trying some of the close alternatives.
I was holiday shopping today when I came across the ‘Picasso Fine Journal’ offered by CTG Brands at Best Living (an Asian furnishing shop in Toronto) and had to check it out.
This is a 4.5x6.5″ hardbound notebook with 80 sheets of 80gsm lined paper. Like most books in this format, it’s got a soft faux-leather cover (also available in black, white, purple, blue and i *think* pink? Will need to check.), elastic enclosure with pen loop, marker ribbon and expandable inner pocket. From what I recall, there was one smaller size and two larger, although offhand I don’t know what those sizes would be specifically.
It opens reasonably well and is generally unobtrusive under the hand from side to side but, as a somewhat small book, it does not lie flat on its own. The paper is cream-coloured and the lines are thin, grey, unobtrusive and present no obvious resist issues under application of ink.
Overall, I am quite pleased and surprised at the quality of the paper and the build of the book.
The binding uses a quality fabric base that holds together stitched booklets and the whole thing is seated securely within the cover.
The paper has some tooth to it, but takes to fountain pen ink quite well. I used quite a few pens, ranging from extra-fine to stub nibs, plus a couple pencils, gel roller-ball & Sharpie, and experienced relatively few problems.
The bulk of my writing on this paper during testing was done with an extra-fine Wahl Eversharp #2 flex nib, which is rather scratchy to begin with. The paper held up well and didn’t feather as I feared it might. Edges for most of my inks on this paper have been pretty clean and crisp - Even deAtramentis Magenta Red-Gold and Heliogen Green-Copper (which i’ve had significant feathering problems with in the past on other reputable paper) behaved quite well in swab tests.
CTG is generally more known for budget supermarket/dollar-store grade stationary, so I was very wary that I might have another stinker on my hands, but coming in under CA$6, this was a welcome bargain I’ll likely take advantage of again soon.
After doing a little research online, it’s not clear to me whether CTG is doing much to promote these. They did have their own display in the shop I bought from, but there is no specific site where these can be found otherwise. I do not know what sort of distribution these books see. Might be hard to find, but if you see these and wonder whether they’d be helpful, I’d say give them a try.
Purchased for review with own funds. My thoughts are my own. This post was not sponsored.