Stillman and Birn sent me some of their books to try, and here are my observations after some brief but purposeful use. I’m not an artist nor an art student. I just like to draw from time to time, and recently I decided to try to take my skills a bit further. That and journaling form my perspective in comparing these books.

Stillman and Birn offers three kinds of paper:

180lb paper with a rough surface, suitable for mixed media is used in the Beta and Delta books.

100lb paper with a vellum surface is used in the Alpha and Gamma books

100lb paper with a plate (very similar to a ‘wove’ surface) surface in the Epsilon book.

I used the following:

Pencil: Palomino Blackwing, Pentel HB and 2B, Musgrave Unigraph 2H

Pen: Namiki Vanishing Point in fine, with Noodler’s Bulletproof Black, Pelikan M800 in extra fine (writes more like a fine) with Private Reserve Midnight Blues.

For fountain pens, I found the Epsilon was best, followed by Beta, and then Alpha. Epsilon is like a brand-new asphalt road. Very smooth and flat. Beta is like an older asphalt road – one that gets little traffic but was laid on a poor base. It’s lumpy and the car lurches up and down, but there’s no tire noise or steering jitter. The texture of the Beta paper wasn’t scratchy, although there’s clearly more feedback than with Epsilon. Alpha is like a brand-new concrete road, where they give it a rough surface for poor weather traction. Flat, but lots of tire noise – a rough surface. I found writing with a Namiki fine point, or fine point gel pens to be scratchy. Not unwritable, and the line quality was comparable to the others, just not very pleasant.

For graphite, Alpha was the surface that did best from a line-quality and performance perspective. Next was Epsilon, then Beta. My simplistic shading test left me with the impression that Alpha would be more forgiving of bad technique. I simply colored the left side of a box, and then using a stomp tried to blend the shading to the right:

Above is the Epsilon. You can see where my original vertical strokes are, even after blending with a stomp.

This is the Beta. The absence of blending here is more my fault than the paper’s – started blending the dark band on the left, and did so too long before trying to blend to the right.

And finally the Alpha. What caught my eye was that the texture of the shading seemed to be more consistent with the Alpha. The density of the shading is more reflective of technique – or lack of. I think all the papers could shade well with good technique.

I found Alpha to lower the apparent grade of a pencil by about 2 grades – an HB lead on Alpha writes about the same as 2B on Epsilon. It also seemed to consume graphite faster. Epsilon was more pleasant to write on, and was more compatible with the grades I prefer for other papers. The Epsilon paper isn’t as smooth as Moleskine or Leuchtturm1917 paper, and it lowers apparent pencil hardness by maybe as much as a grade.

I haven’t yet tried anything wet, but I did try both pen and pencil on the Beta and found it was not very pleasant for me with Pencil – I don’t care for the crayony look it gave the pencils I typically use, although harder lead looked better. For fountain pen it was smoother than I expected, and I’d rather write on Beta with the Namiki fine than on Alpha. With the M800 it felt like many resume/high-end office papers. Another item in the Beta’s favor was the lack of transparency. Both the Alpha and Epsilon are somewhat transparent. Not enough to read what is on the other side, but definitely enough to know something is there. On the Beta I couldn’t see it. I’m not very sensitive to this, and it’s far less than with thinner papers, but I mention it because I know some folks are very particular. I think the Beta is the only book I’ve ever seen that is fully opaque. Its paper is thick and tough, and while this makes a really sturdy book it also hits page count, which is a big issue for journaling.

They all seemed to erase about the same. White plastic erasers did the best, followed by kneadable and then the harder rubber style. In all cases the paper didn’t seem to be affected.

So where am I with this? Still trying them out, since I’ve only filled a few pages or so in each. But, right now the choice would be between the Epsilon and Alpha. The trade-off is either poorer pen feel and the need for harder pencils on the Alpha, or slightly lesser pencil performance on the Epsilon. If I knew I was going to use both pen and pencil, it would be Epsilon. Especially if I would be writing very much as the smoother paper is more pleasant to write on.

However, for sketching in pencil, Alpha is clearly the better paper and I enjoy using it. I’m not sure I can articulate all of why I like using it so much, and I’m not convinced the difference in book size – my Epsilon is 5×8, the Alpha is 8.5×11 – isn’t clouding my feelings, but the alpha seems better enough that I would consider a book just for that.

Last but not least, my experience with these books so far confirms what I thought when I unwrapped them – there’s nothing else out there like these. The paper is heavier and nicer than anything commonly available, and certainly anything available in a bound book. They cost a bit more than the alternatives, but at the rate I would fill books like these, it’s not much to pay for a whole lot more book.

As I said, I’m still checking them out – more to follow!

Ever since Moleskine started making their music notebook (affiliate link*)I thought they were cool, but there’s not much use for one other than music so I resisted buying one.

When I revived my guitar playing a year ago I finally bought one. I wasn’t writing music, but I wanted a place to record little riffs and bits that I picked up here and there. It actually didn’t work out. TAB is much easier to use for guitar, and that is one format Moleskine doesn’t do yet.

But more recently I restarted an interested in learning the penny whistle. And again, out came the music notebook to write down a tune I’d found – one of the bits of fife music from The Patriot. Anyway, this time it worked out much better and before long I’d filled up 15 pages with 20 tunes. Normal musical notation is perfect for the whistle – hardly any ledger lines – and it works great for putting all the tunes I’m learning in one easy to carry place.

I’ve been using three different pens to write the tunes. A Pilot G2 gel pen in .5mm works ok, but is a tad wide. My Pelikan M200 with a home-ground italic was a little disappointing. I’d thought it would give me the roman-style line thicknesses I see in printed music, but it didn’t. It just didn’t work as well, and neither did the color of the ink. I’ve landed on my Namiki Vanishing Point in fine, black Namiki ink. It works a tad better than the G2, and is portable enough to take anywhere and toss in any bag.

Make sure ink is dry before you close the book. Little dots of undried ink in a writing journal causes no harm, and may even bring charm. In a music notebook it can cause dotted notes. Ditto with bleeding ink. This may rule out some wetter fountain pens. So far mine have been ok.

I’d thought it would be hard to write anything I’d be able to read while playing, but I actually find I prefer the denser style I write the notation in. Printed notation tends to make the bars all the same width, and allows more space to longer notes. I find that tedious to read, so I write them more densely. A whistle tune easily fits on a page or less, so it will be a few hundred tunes before I can fill up this book.

*You can assume any link is an affiliate link on this post. I own and use all of these items, and they work well for me.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve set aside the ball point and gone back to a fountain pen. This morning I actually remembered to throw my pen case in my briefcase.

So I opened the case just now and grabbed my Pelikan M200
(affiliate link). It wrote perfectly. No tapping the nib to get things started. No licking (yuk) the nib to loosen up dried ink. It just wrote like I’d just set it down. The last time that pen was used was January 5th.

The Namiki Grance is no longer sold, which is a real shame because it is a great combination of quality, price and pure usability.

I bought it back in 1997 or so, and it quickly became one of my favorites. It writes very well, with a ink feed that almost never dries out. I swear I can leave this pen full of ink for months, pick it up and if there is any ink left in it, it will write.

The cap is a click-on, instead of twist or threaded which I like. The pen is not very thick, and the nibs run narrow, but if you write fairly small it’s all good. The nib is not very flexible, but it’s very smooth. Construction-wise, Namiki doesn’t disappoint. Solid feel, reasonably tight threads with only a little grittiness when screwing the body together. There’s an O-ring to keep things tight, which is a nice touch. The cap doesn’t noticeably rattle when it’s on, which is often a problem with click-ons. The clip is very tight, and is designed to put a death-grip on a shirt pocket – it’s not going to be so useful when gripping thicker fabrics. The reveal is pretty short – perhaps a quarter of an inch – but enough to reliably grab the pen.

While these are no longer made, they are still showing up on Ebay for $100 or so. At that price, they are a nice pen, very usable, without the fragility you sometimes feel with more expensive pens.

Realizing I can’t review only ballpoint pens, I decided to review the Namiki Vanishing Point fountain pen. If you are someone who uses fountain pens, especially if you need one you can carry reliably, the Namiki is for you. These are the only retractable fountain pens out there, and they write wonderfully.

The pen can be filled via cartridge or converter, but I use cartridges because a) Namiki ink is among the most waterproof and fade resistant, b) I can carry spare cartridges a lot easier than an ink pot, and c) Who doesn’t love Pilot-Blue ink?

The pen is fairly comfortable to hold, with the pocket clip aligning the pen into proper writing position. I don’t care for the ultra smooth gripping surface – a matte surface would be easier to hold on to, although probably not as attractive. The clicker mechanism is not very quiet, but has a solid, positive feel to it. There is a sort of trap door that seals the nib from the outside, with the idea of keeping it moist and ready to write. It mostly works really well – too well, as it’s easy to forget to empty this pen if it’s going to be left unused for a while.

When then pen is opened, there is a central portion that is the nib and ink feed, with the cartridge or converter attached. No other parts come out of the pen, and the architecture makes it easy to swap nibs and bodies if you have more than one. I have the feaux carbon fiber, and an older green one, with one medium and one fine nib. The fine is very fine, and the medium is more like a fine in other brands.

The reveal is a tad too short – it can be difficult to grab the pen out of a tight sleeve or pocket, but most of the time this isn’t a problem. The clip is a simple spring style, but has pretty good grip if not much capacity. It certainly seems strong enough, and I’ve had no problems with it loosening.

I love my Namiki’s, and will never sell them. They’re great writers and are easy to carry. The only downside is that, being fountain pens, they don’t write on many kinds of paper you commonly run across in daily life. However, for serious note-taking, nothing beats a fountain pen for reducing hand fatigue. If you are looking for a reasonably priced (~$100) fountain pen and would prefer something simple to own, try a Namiki Vanishing Point.