There are all sorts of ways to compare how inks behave, from the deck of cards on a ring to the dedicated paper-based blog - but this new solution to the age-old problem comes as a handy little notebook, in standard pocket size (90x140mm) too. One of the great things about this is that it really works. The paper is thick enough to test for bleeding, sufficiently high-quality to give a fair picture of performance re feathering, and the grid captures every lovingly obsessive point of order that one could wish for.
This particular pair of notebooks, dedicated to The Night Sky, neatly illustrate the constellations to be seen from north and south hemispheres of the planet. Admittedly Google Sky will do that too, but as the old tag-line has it: forget the app, there's a notebook for that.
When it comes to pocket notebooks, I prefer simplicity. I have tried plenty of covers, but always revert to 'bareback' and slip the notebook into a pocket with an EDC pen or pencil. A little wear and tear on a notebook doesn't worry me too much. However, there is one use case where a cover makes sense for me: Hiking. I walk in all weathers, either in 90 minute snatches as commuter or longer when I go on walking holidays. Weather and paper is not necessarily a great mix. If it's hot, then I can soak a notebook from the...
Whether it was the international pedigree or the adoption by various artists that did it, the Blackwing pencil evidently won itself a loyal following. Apparently, during the decade or so that no Blackwing was produced, online auction prices for 'new old stock' rose a hundred-fold. That's crazy, of course, but it showed there was a market waiting for someone else to tap...
