The Well-Appointed Desk

The Lett’s Travel Journal (£20, soon to be released in US) is a petite, pocketable notebook that feels both elegant and personal. The paper is just 147x69mm (approx. 5.78″x2.7″). The whole book is closer to 3.5″ across, when measured from the spine. The cover is a textured leather with embossed logo, centered on the cover. It’s very understated.

The Lett’s Travel notebook has a lovely satin ribbon bookmark and gold metallic edge painted pages. This book feels very posh.

Down the spine is a thin, gold fluted pen, hidden in the seam of the spine. It’s a slender ballpoint pen which is not always my tool of choice but the fact that it fits perfectly, and invisibly down the spine means that you always have a pen with the book, even if it’s not your favorite. It comes with a medium point refill which seems a bit chunky for the delicacy of the notebook and the pen itself. I really want to replace it with a fine refill. I think it would better suit the whole set-up.

Inside the book are lightweight 45gsm, soft ivory pages that have been printed with all sorts of sections related to travel. The book starts with a set of contents pages and then moves to several pages for specifc locales.

The pages are numbered and feature a spot at the top for date and location. These pages make up the majority of the book.

Towards the back of the book is a section for planning out your year and listing favorite restaurants.

There is also some top level city information for major cities across the world that includes time zones, airports and a few hotels. I have no idea how the hotels were selected. The one city included that I am most familiar with is Chicago and even if the criteria was poshest hotels, I’m not sure the hotel they chose were the ones I would have picked. But I am not old world money, so what do I know?

As I mentioned earlier, the paper in the notebook is quite thin, in order to make this notebook small and pocketable. As a result, ballpoint pens, gel pens and pencils are really the best option with this book. Wet liquid-y inks are going to show and bleed through.

The more I tested this little notebook, the more I started to appreciate it. When I first got it, it seemed like something for someone much fancier than myself. But the more I played with it, the more I realized, I’m someone who travels a lot. Having a small notebook to keep track of what hotels I stay in, which restaurants I like and don’t like, what various adventures (both good and bad) occur on a given trip might be nice to document. This book is no more of a luxury than all my fancy pens, right?

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Lett’s of London for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In news

News: (and Shameless Plug) Col-o-ring Oversize

AnaJune 29, 20191 Comment

We have finally released a new Col-o-ring product: the Col-o-ring Oversize ($15). This is our first fully bound notebook/sketchbook product. As always, this book came from the combined genius (and combined drunken logic) of Skylab Letterpress and The Well-Appointed Desk. We thought, “How could we make the best ink testing book even better?”

“OVERSIZE it!” And, of course, endless thanks to Stephen (our favorite Montblanc collector and auction caller) for the name.

We made the notebook 4”x 5.5” (A6-ish) with die cut rounded corners. It’s filled with 40 pages of the same great paper that you love from the Col-o-ring and Col-o-dex products (100lb/160gsm European paper from a 400-year-old mill), spiral bound with a durable, plastic spiral. The covers are made with the same thick chipboard and letterpress printed with our logo in black on the over and printing details on the back.

We have been testing the books with watercolor, brush pens, all sorts of inks (not just fountain pens!), pencils (colored and graphite) and so much more. The paper is thick enough to handle light washes of watercolor and show great color definition. Inks and brush pens look fantastic and, of course, no feathering or bleeding.

The two photos above are the front and back of the paper using a brush pen for lettering. The ink is Robert Oster Deep Purple and the pen is a Platinum Maki-E brush pen.

Colored pencils show lots of texture as a result of the tooth in the paper which I really like.

For the moment, the Oversize will be a limited edition. These books were especially made to test the waters with a new format. We hope folks like them and we are curious to get feedback about them.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this post were provided free of charge for the purpose of review (except for the ones we made). Please see the About page for more details.

In feature, Ink Review

Ink Review: Franklin-Christoph Graphite 4B

Jessica ColesJune 28, 2019June 28, 20191 Comment

By Jessica Coles

Franklin-Christoph. New Ink. How on Earth did I miss two of my favorite things intersecting?

I was only able to attend the first few hours of the Raleigh Pen Show this year, although it was long enough to see the prototype tray set out and find an amazing 45L pen in a Sky Blue Loi material from Jonathan Brooks. Amazing. But I was in such a hurry afterward that I failed to notice a new option when choosing the color of ink for my new pen.

Graphite 4B was offered for the first time at the Raleigh Pen Show, but with very little fanfare. True to the Franklin-Christoph way, Graphite 4B was set before the public to earn its own name in the world.

Although it is not a current offering on their website, Graphite 4B will soon be available to order in either a 1-ounce bottle ($8.25) or a 2-ounce eyedropper bottle ($12.50). The photo above shows the 1-ounce bottle.

My first impression of the ink was the name. Why 4B? It brings to mind the Bungubox color 4B (which stands for Bungu Box Blue-Black). However, after speaking with Scott Franklin, the owner of Franklin-Christoph, I found that the color of the ink was modeled after the color of the lead in a 4B pencil.

Knowing that story, I naturally had to add 4B pencil to my Col-O-Ring swatch card. You can see the pencil in the lower left and lower right of the written portion of the swatch card above.

I used a Tombow Mono 4B pencil for comparison and found the color of the ink to be warmer and slightly darker than the pencil, although it absolutely brought pencil lead to mind. Kobe #59 might be a closer match to the color of 4B lead, however, Graphite 4B has a more even coverage with less shading, overall closer to what I would expect of a pencil.

That’s not to say that Graphite 4B doesn’t shade. There is plenty of that, especially when printing rather than using cursive.

Papers: Birmingham Pen Company A5 Slim Notebook ($8.99)
Swatch cards: Col-O-Ring ink testing cards ($10)
Ink: Franklin-Christoph Graphite 4B ($8.25 for 1-ounce or $12.50 for 2-ounce eyedropper)

Disclaimer: All items in this review were purchased by me. For more information, visit our About page.

In Planners & Organizers

Review: MiGoals Focus Pad

AnaJune 27, 2019July 21, 201932 Comments

MiGoals Focus Pads ($9.05 US) are 50 sheet pads of cream colored 100gsm paper that is divided into four quadrants. The pads are about 7.5×9.5″ (190mm x 245mm) which fit comfortably next to your laptop or tablet computer. They are listed as B5 sized… some of the ISO sizes leave me a little befuddled. Suffice it to say its a pleasing size. It’s smaller than A4/Letter but a little larger than an A5/Half-sheet.

The tearaway sheets can be tucked into your planner or notebook making it adaptable to other systems.

The paper is a little bit toothy but not scratchy and pretty fountain pen friendly.

The quadrants provide areas for a To Do list, Schedule, Delegate and “Don’t Do”. Someone on the MiGoals site suggested that the last quadrant be turned into a follow-up section which I think is a much better use of the space. Or leave it blank for doodles, perforated shopping list or other note?

I certainly like that this tablet feels less precious than some of the fancy planners I’ve reviewed. It just has nice paper in a usable form. It’s aesthetically appealing but looks like something I want to use and then recycle. Or I can draw on the back when I’ve used the front. I can just get the most mileage out of the paper and move on. I do not feel obligated to archive it on a shelf for all eternity. How nice is that?

Thankfully, most of the pens I tested didn’t bleed through so I really can use the back of the paper for doodles.

The Giveaway:

What would you do with a MiGoals Task Pad? Answer that brainbuster to enter a chance to win one new MiGoals task pad.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me what what you would do with a MiGoals Task Pad. Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.
If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the moneys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Wednesday, July 3, 2019. All entries must be submitted on wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Thursday, July 4 (Happy Independence Day!). Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form (where it says “email address”) so that I can contact you if you win. I will not sell your email address to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 7 days (So if you’ll be on vacation next week, check your email, okay?), I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

DISCLAIMER: Items in this review were provided by MiGoals free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: A Full Docket

AnaJune 26, 2019June 26, 2019Leave a comment

While I was in St. Louis for the pen show this weekend, it looks like everyone else was hard at work getting a backlog of reviews and posts completed. We have a full docket this week with reviews for the new J. Herbin shimmer ink Kyanite du Nepal, lots of pencil reviews, some event recaps and more.

Fountain Pen Review: Opus 88 Omar

Laura CameronJune 25, 2019June 25, 20192 Comments

Review by Laura Cameron

I love looking at Opus 88s! They are all colorful and fun, and they hold so much ink. They remind me of candy – I feel like I need one of each color. So when the Opus 88 Omar (Appelboom, €82.23, approx. $93.50) came out, I knew I wanted to try one. What color? My signature purple, of course!

The Opus 88 Omar has a semi-transparent resin barrel. The cap is mosaic patterned in a matching resin. The Omar is available in Amber, Grey, Green and Purple (also called Amethyst). The pen has silver accents (clip, rings around the ends) and ivory resin finials on both ends of the pen.

The Omar features a #6 JoWo nib stamped with the Opus 88 logo available in multiple sizes; mine is a Fine.

All Opus pens have an eyedropper fill systems (a glass eyedropper is included in the box) and make use of a piston knob on the end of the pen to increase or decrease airflow to the nib, allowing the ink to flow smoothly. While I’m always tempted to add a little silicon grease when I seal up the pen after cleaning, for the purposes of this review I didn’t – I just let the tiny black o-ring do it’s job. No leaks so far!

The Opus Omar pens are big. There’s just no way around this. They dwarf my Pilot Metropolitan and Diplomat Traveller, and are still quite a bit heftier than my Retro 51 and some of my indie pens like this gorgeous one from Carolina Pen Company. The pen is 5 7/8″ or 15cm long, capped, and 5 3/8″ or 13.5cm long, uncapped. When filled, it comes in at a hefty 37gms.

pen weight comparison chart

So here’s my problem: I love the way the Opus 88 Omar looks! This one was a little slow to start, but once I got the ink flowing, I had no problems. The nib was smooth, worked great right out of the box and the pen was a pleasure to write with. But I have to face the fact that my tiny hands and the Opus 88 Omar pens are never going to be a good match. I just can’t deny that I get hand fatigue if I use them for too long. So my recommendation is this: if you have small hands and don’t go for big pens, you’re gonna have to give this one a pass (until they make a smaller size… please?!?!?). If you enjoy larger pens, give these a try. They’re fun to look at and write with and I desperately want one in my collection!

Tools:

Papers: Rhodia Soft Cover Rhodiarama 7.5″ x 9.75″ Silver Notebook (Vanness, $26.95), Story Supply Co, Limited Edition Ithaca
Pen: Opus 88 Omar (Appelboom, €82.23, approx. $93.50)
Inks: Waterman Harmonious Green (Vanness, $11.00)

DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In Paper Review

Notebook Review: Studio Neat Totebook

AnaJune 24, 2019June 24, 20191 Comment

Once again, Studio Neat has ventured into the stationery world and proven that they are more than up to the task. This time, they have produced a more traditional style notebook in a not-quite-A5-sized (135 mm x 195 mm), flexible cover, leatherette Totebook (2-pack for $20).

Inside the front cover is a place for contact information and content notes. After this weekend at the St. Louis Show where I found lost items twice, I highly recommend filling this section in.

Inside the back cover is my favorite “helpful info”. Studio Neat includes a font point size guide, the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, ideas for archival sticker placement, and details about how the notebook is designed and laid out. There’s also specifications about the production of the notebook itself like the paper, ink and printing processes, like the closing credits in a feature film. For most people, none of this will ever be useful or needed but I find it aesthetic and nerdy. It’s like the map of time zones in planners — they aren’t really necessary but I still like when they are included.

The Studio Neat Totebook features 5mm dot grid paper and the last eight pages are perforated (“perfed,” as we say in the business) into quarters so that the sections can easily be removed for notes, lists or other small tasks. The dots are light and unobtrusive but still visible. They are also not ginormous dots. I did not get a caliper out to measure them but suffice to say, they did not irritate me. Since I normally prefer blank paper, that’s saying something.

In writing and pen tests, the 100gsm paper withstood all the pens I subjected from rollerball, gel, felt tip and fountain equally well.

There was no feathering of ink and no bleed through.

Even when I switched to thicker brush pens, there was very little show through. I did not test alcohol markers like Sharpie markers or Copics so use those at your own risk (in other words, put a slip sheet between the pages on your first attempt, just in case).

Stickers are included for labelling the Totebooks when completed for storing. I’d like to think I would be this organized and remember where I kept the stickers AND I completed a whole notebook but I think that’s a bit of a pipe dream. I’m not very notebook monogamous. But if you’re the kind of person who is, this might be useful.

The Totebook is a serious upgrade to the Moleskine Cahier which is the closest comparison I can make to this notebook. If that size and format is something you liked but wished someone had made it better, then the Totebook will be perfect for you.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Studio Neat for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The Giveaway:

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things: