Field Notes Shelterwood Wood Covers

The second I saw these Field Notes Shelterwood Wood Cover notebooks show up in my email in-box from the Field Notes Newsletter, I knew I had to have them.  It was just a matter of how many I should order, so it was only a matter of seconds before I hit the website and had a bunch of Field Notes Shelterwood notebooks heading my way.

Field Notes Shelterwood Wood Covers with Knot

Because the Field Notes Shelterwood edition covers are made of a super thin sheet of American Cherry wood glued to a cardboard stock, each cover is completely unique.  They each have a distinct wood grain pattern all their own with a ton of detail when  you look close.  Of the ones that I was lucky enough to pick up, the one above is my favorite because of that one little knot towards the bottom.  Some may see the knot as an imperfection, but I love the character it adds.

Field Notes Shelterwood Wood Covers Flexible Cover

When I shared my first picture of the Field Notes Shelterwood notebook on Instagram, Tumblr, and Google+ there were a lot of questions and concerns about a Field Notes with a wood cover, so I took this picture to answer the one biggest question.   Although the covers are made of wood, they still curl, bend, and flex like any other Field Notes journal, and the wood does not splinter or crack at all.  Also, the wood covers are pretty smooth, you can feel the grainy texture but again, there is no sense of splintering or anything like that when you touch the covers.

Field Notes Shelterwood Wood Covers Curling

One thing you will notice about the covers on these is that they tend to not stay flatly closed, and even curl a bit which really isn’t a big deal but I thought it was worth mentioning.  Some other quick things to note are that these are bound with three gold staples and all of the text printed on the wood covers has a white washed look that lets the wood grain still show through.

Field Notes Shelterwood Wood Cover Fountain Pen Writing Samle

Field Notes Shelterwood Writing Experience – Fountain Pen Friendly?

People often ask if Field Notes are fountain pen friendly, and I think it is a question that depends on a few different variables.  In the picture with the writing sample above I used my Sailor Professional Gear Imperial with a Fine nib that was loaded up with some Organic Studio Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass ink.  This is a great combination of pen and ink for the Field Notes Shelterwood for multiple reasons.

First and foremost, the fine nib and a rather dry writing ink keep the ink well behaved on this paper which can sometimes be a bit rough on fountain pen ink.  There was no bleeding, feathering or otherwise bad behavior of the ink on this paper, we will have a full review of this ink coming shortly.  The second great thing about this ink and the Field Notes Shelterwood notebook is that the color of the Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass ink is an excellent match for the rulings on the pages of these notebooks.  They are both very earthy and grass tone dark greens that are perfect on this soft white paper.

Field Notes Shelterwood Wood Cover Close Up

Field Notes Shelterwood Summary

Overall I think this may be the coolest Field Notes special edition yet, if not the coolest notebook that I’ve ever seen.  I would highly recommend picking up some Field Notes Shelterwood editions ASAP at the Field Notes website before its too late.  While you are there you should check out the video of how these were made too.  They used one 60″ log that was sliced super thin to make the wood veneer that was glued to the kraft paper to make the covers.  They also mentioned that the excess wood was used to heat the factor, so there was nothing wasted in the manufacture of these.

©2016, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.