Midori MD Notebook - A5 Grid Paper

Product Information

I think it’s really difficult to say which notebook is the best. I love both the MD Paper and the Leuchtturm. But I enjoyed the experience of using the MD Paper notebook more. Which I guess is the whole point because it was designed to be an enjoyable experience. FINALLY Lamy 1.5 Stub: this nib is moderately wet to write with (this is used for the brand and ink name title); Montblanc Irish Green: This is a drier ink with low moderate saturation that can show with good shading and generally no sheen (apart from on the swatch); No one was more surprised than myself when I decided to not buy the notebook because of a few little issues I had with the notebook. As you may be able to tell I eventually got over those issues. Fountain pen people can be pretty obsessive over unusual things. Online communities can also drive some slightly-crazy group behavior, which is what I think happened with the Midori MD Cotton notebooks in the A-sizes. Sure, no one likes to pay more than they used to and if you’ve already invested in a notebook cover, you don’t want to buy a new one because your favorite notebooks aren’t made in that size anymore. Still, is the Midori MD Cotton paper worth all of the fuss people made about it? I don’t think so. It is some great paper that is very pleasant to write on. If you get a chance to try it out, take it and decide for yourself. Just don’t overpay for an A5 notebook when the new sizes are widely-available.

Considering how thin the paper is I didn’t think it would hold up well to wet media. It was surprising to learn that it worked very well. I began experimenting with calligraphy in my bullet journal, using it to create headers for my monthly logs. The section is quite slim, and the barrel step sharp, but I didn’t find that compromised comfort, thanks to the section’s length and texture. And if you find the MD too short or light, the metal cap posts extremely deeply, making a seamless extension to the barrel. It’s one of the few pens I prefer to write with posted. Taking standard international I don’t see why a converter wouldn’t fit. There is certainly space for it however none is provided.Note: this notebook is the same as the Midori MD Notebook with model number 15003006, except for the paper band design. After using ink in my notebook, I went on to try some brush lettering using gouache. Again I found that the paper held up surprisingly well to the paint. I had no problems with the paper warping or becoming soggy when adding paint. In fact, I would say this notebook works great with gouache. It almost makes me want to buy a blank version to try using as a sketchbook. IS THE MD PAPER BETTER THAN THE LEUCHTTURM? For a long time, the Leuchtturm1917 was my favourite A5 notebook. I even wrote a blog post about how it was the best A5 notebook you could buy. Well, it turns out there is a new contender and it might be even better than the Leuchtturm. This is quite surprising for a number of reasons. The main one being that I didn’t like the MD Paper notebook when I first saw it. Midori I remember as the original company that brought us Traveler’s Notebooks (I still have a Midori branded Traveler’s Notebook) but in 2015 Midori spun out their Traveler’s Company brand. Indeed, Midori was the original name with the company starting in 1950 as Midori Shokai Co., Ltd. where it made courier, letter and notebook products (so it hasn't strayed too far from its origin). Today the Midori Brand and the Traveler’s Company brand are subsidiaries of the parent company. The parent company went through many name changes before arriving at Designphil Inc. today and the name is portmanteau of “design” and “philharmony”. Designphil’s other brands are Knox, Plotter, Touch and Flow, Custom Made Letter, Innovator, and Watashi Dayori which all come under it’s “Lifestyle Design Business” (they also have a commercial side to the business where the products are created and branded for specific external companies). Nearly all of these subsidiaries deal with paper stationery products or the leather cases that surround them. In general Designphil’s philosophy seems to be around using traditional techniques and modern techniques of manufacture. More recently the Paper Cream version was launched and this is the version I bought. I really loved the paper in this notebook. It’s an off white colour and complements the pale blue grid design in the notebook. It’s a lovely surface to write on, working well with coloured pencils and the Muji gel pens. MD PAPER DESIGN

The notebook has a sturdy thread binding that lies flat when open, making it easy to write. It also comes with a ribbon marker to keep your place. The cover is not a typical notebook cover. To feature the charm of the paper itself, the cloth tape used to bind the spine, usually hidden by a cover, is exposed, giving the notebook a unique look. You can even see where the ribbon marker is glued in place. The pen body is made almost completely out of plastic. There is a little metal ring on section near the threads for the barrel. The section has two sets of ridges at the top half and there is a lip near the nib that interrupts the smooth narrowing of the section. The body is a simple tapered piece of plastic with a plug at the end all made in the same off-white colour. The body has “MD PAPER PRODUCTS” etched into it that shows in a brown colour. The threads on the barrel and the section are both plastic. The nib arrived perfect out of the box and needed no flushing or tuning. Its design is very cool: it’s MD branded, has no breather hole, and is on the small size, but it swoops down like a beak, giving a great feeling of precision and control, a little like a Pilot PO nib. Like the PO, it’s a firm writer. The ribbon marker was in the notebook at an odd angle and bent, but eventually straightened out. Actual Use I went on to try a number of different calligraphy inks in the MD Paper notebook. It turns out that the Dr PH Martin metallic inks worked particularly well thought they take longer than usual to dry.

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Lamy Crystal Ink: This ink is high saturation wet ink that presents with a moderate amount of sheen; Overall it’s an attractive and well-proportioned design, but it’s worth noting that the MD is a small pen, short, slim and light at 15g all-in. Robert Oster Bondi Blue: This ink is a moderate saturation and moderately wet ink with good lubrication that presents with a low moderate amount of sheen that occurs at the edge of where the ink pools and can show with various degrees of saturation. It can present with decent shading in the right conditions;