I’ve been holding off on to this Maruman Spiral Note Basic Notebook B5 review for a little while in hopes of it coming back in stock with our friends over at JetPens, but I really like it so I didn’t want to wait any longer to share. Its a really simple notebook but one that also just knocks it out of the park in terms of the paper quality and some other small features that successfully address some pet peeves of mine. Although its not currently available, hit up the JetPens website right here (links to the ruled and blank versions as well) where you can sign up for notification when it is back in stock. For now though, lets take a quick look at what makes this such a great little notebook.
Besides the usual niceties that do it for me like minimal branding and a simple look with the cover, the Maruman Spiral Note Basic Notebook does something else REALLY well. It may seem like a minor detail, but he gauge of the spiral binding seems to be perfect for ripping pages out and not leaving behind chunks of the edge of the paper trapped inside the coils. That has always been something that bothered me, I hated those little “T” shaped scraps of paper left behind on so many spiral notebooks when you rip the pages out because it was messy and unsightly.
Here is a quick look at a sheet of paper after being ripped out. I believe that the thinner gauge (but still strong) coil here helps to cut through the paper rather than tug and rip it as you try to remove it from the coil binding. Again, I know its minor, but it really is something that always bugs me about so many notebooks. Having the pages rip out so cleanly requires less cleanup and makes for less mess, who wouldn’t love that?
Maruman Spiral Note Basic Notebook Writing Sample:
Besides the awesome coil binding keeping things neat and clean, the really big win here is the great quality paper and writing experience it provides. Each of the pens that I wrote with on this paper found an unhampered and incredibly smooth glide path across the page with no scratchy or rough spots. In terms of being fountain pen friendly, the Maruman Spiral Note Basic Notebook certainly lives up to that standard. If it can hold its own with a 1.1mm stub nib and a dark red ink without giving into any sort of bleeding, feathering, or show through, then that should tell you something right off the bat. Each of the other pens I tried such as the Sharpie Pen, Pilot Precise, and Pilot G2 did similarly well on this fantastic paper.
I particularly like the very light grey markings for the grid lines as they are subtle and don’t distract from your writing, but still provide the structure and guidance you would expect from any type of ruled paper. There were two other things I really like about this paper. First is just the simple but very helpful grey arrows you see that I circled in red. There are four of them, one on each side of the sheet of paper to indicate the center lines of the grid, which is a very helpful, but still subtle guide to help you keep your work centered and looking good. The second item is just the micro perforations on the left side. This ties back to ripping out of the coil binding smoothly, so once you rip that out cleanly, even the micro-perforation lets you remove the edge in an incredibly smooth and clean fashion. The Maruman Spiral Note Basic Notebook is just an incredibly simple and well done implement of stationery excellence, so if/when they become available at JetPens again, you need to get your hands on one or a few dozen, whatever works for you. Check them out and sign up for that restocking alert right here on the JetPens website.
©2017, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.
