VICTORIA’S JOURNAL NOTEBOOKS

Back in February I wrote about the refillable leather Victoria’s Journal.  The same brand has these cahier-style notebooks in packs of two.  Each notebook has 80 pages of cream-colored paper, and has a sewn binding. They’re smaller than A5 size, around 13cm wide by 19cm tall (about 5 1/8 by 7 7/16 inches).

They’re PhP 99 (just over USD 2) per pack of two notebooks, at National Bookstore (their exclusive distributor).  For the life of me I can’t figure out if this is meant to fit into a leather notebook cover, but I would love to know if it does.  There doesn’t seem to be any such matching refillable cover on sale, alas.

The wonderful thing is that it has fountain pen-friendly paper!  (“80 gsm, lined pages, wood-free cream paper”)  Well, for most fountain pens with F or M nibs, that is.  I’m not sure it’s thick enough or sized enough to take on wet B nibs or flex nibs, but for every day use, this passes muster.  Only Herbin Lie de The had the teeniest bit of feathering.  I wouldn’t say totally no bleedthrough, but yes, you can write on both pages and read what you’ve written without irritating marks getting in the way.  Here’s a photo of the ink test page.

Victoria’s Journals brand notebooks are “Designed in Italy, Made in PRC”.  They’re not cheap, but they’re really affordably priced, and stylish.  Would I buy these again?  Seeing as there are very few locally available brands of this price point  (much lower than Clairefontaine and Rhodia) that are fountain pen-friendly, definitely.  I still wish there was a leather cover product to match.   This doesn’t stop me from hunting down other fountain pen-friendly brands, though.  National Bookstore cannot guarantee that certain product lines remain permanently stocked, or that the same quality item can be sourced from their suppliers in the future.  We can always hope.

I am not affiliated with National Bookstore except as a regular customer.  The items being reviewed are my own purchases.

VICTORIA’S LEATHER JOURNAL

Happy Chinese New Year!  I know most of you already have 2013 diaries and journals, but I discovered a leather journal recently that can give the Midori Traveler’s Notebook a run for its money.  The thing that confused me about is that it’s called a Pelle Leather Journal, by Victoria’s Journals, but it’s not the Pelle Leather Journal you know of in the US, that directly competes against Midori.  From this point for purposes of clarity I’ll be referring to it as the VJ.

Regardless of branding, the important thing to me was that the VJ is made of real leather.  I found them in Bestsellers (a National Bookstore branch at the Podium in Ortigas Center), each in their own black box.  I got one in brown.

Each journal fits three 9 x 14cm (roughly 3.5″ x 5.5″) notebooks: a to-do planner, a lined notebook and a blank notebook.  There are Venzi flexi 2 notebooks (also made by Victoria’s Journals, available at National Bookstore) that can be used as refills in case you can’t find notebooks to fit.  As for me, I make my own refills, because that means I can choose the paper quality – must be fountain pen ink-friendly!

And this paper is friendly, as long as you don’t use a B nib that’s an overly wet writer.  There’s not much bleedthrough or showthrough at all. Imagine that!  I haven’t been buying notebooks in a long time because I don’t like spending money and then finding out the paper only takes ballpoint ink.

Here it is, with my Waterman’s Ideal No. 3 set.  And below, a comparison shot with my passport-sized Midori:

The feel of the Midori leather is a bit more luxurious.  It takes distressing well.  The Victoria’s Journal journal is a little stiffer.  I like the leather clasp that holds the covers together, it doesn’t dent the cover as much as the plain elastic does.  Also, the inside elastic fastenings don’t require much fiddling with.

I posted this on the Fountain Pen Network-Philippines Facebook page, and sort of caused a shopping frenzy.  Why?  Because compared to the Midori (about USD55) this VJ journal costs only P590 (about USD15)!  My friends and I found out that there are three colors:  Black, Brown and Maroon.  If you want your own and it hasn’t been sold out yet, the magic stock number is 103722 at National Bookstore.  Call them and reserve the item, before visiting.

The Midori is made in Thailand.  The VJ  box is marked “Styled in Italy.  Made in PRC.”  So yes,  it’s made in China, even though they very cleverly try not to point that fact out.  At least every part of it looks well made for the price.

To my friends in the US, the Victoria’s Journal site only sells to the trade, I believe.  You’ll have to look for the item in your stationery store (although the site indicates they sell this item in the US).   The Pelle Journal that’s competing against the Midori (see links above) is a quality product and you can’t go wrong with either brand.

SHEAFFER PENS LAUNCH IN MANILA

One of the first things I ever bought with my first ever paycheck in the early 1990s was a Sheaffer No-Nonsense fountain pen.  It was translucent purple, it had a fine nib, and best of all, I could afford it.  I bought it at National Bookstore, whose Sheaffer kiosk shared space with Parker, Waterman and Cross pens.  I still have this pen, and it still writes as well as ever.  I also now have a handful of vintage Sheaffer pens, thanks to eBay and my pen group, Fountain Pen Network-Philippines.

In those two decades or so, fountain pen use and sales seriously declined, since Sheaffer disappeared from the stores, to be followed by Rotring and Waterman brands.  Imagine my pleasant surprise one day when I read an email that 20 of us FPN-P members could sign up to attend the Sheaffer Pens Launch (held last February 21)!

Jeweler Walter A. Sheaffer started the W. A. Sheaffer Pen Company in 1912, in Fort Madison, Iowa.  He wanted to create attractive fountain pens that wrote well and were easy to refill, and successfully came up with lever-filler pens.  From the 1920s to the 1940s the Sheaffer lever-filler became the US industry standard; some of these pens came with a lifetime guarantee symbolized by a white dot.  Sheaffer also trailblazed with revolutionary and innovative designs in nibs (the conical “Triumph” nib, the inlaid nib) and other filling systems (the Snorkel, the Touchdown).  Many iconic pen models were produced throughout the years:  the Balance, the Pen for Men, the Imperial, the Targa, the No-Nonsense.  Since the 1960s the company has changed owners.  In 1997 it was bought by its current owner, Bic USA, the American subsidiary of the French ballpoint pen manufacturer.  Click here and here for a detailed history of the Sheaffer Pen Company.

So, after about 25 years, National Bookstore returns Sheaffer to its stores.  Sheaffer pens are marketed from Singapore by BIC Product (Asia) Pte. Ltd.  They held the launch party at The Gallery in Greenbelt 5, last February 21.  The program was hosted by the lovely Daphne Osena-Paez. They borrowed fountain pens from the collections of Jose “Butch” Dalisay, Jr. and Clement Dionglay to create a historical exhibit.  Daphne took the audience on a tour of the historical Sheaffer pens, to today’s current product offerings.  She interviewed Butch and Clem about their how their collections started, and why they choose to write with fountain pens.  There was also a raffle, at which I was one of the lucky winners.  There was a confusion between the announced prize and the awarded prize, which led to me being presented a pricey Legacy Heritage instead of a Prelude.  Fellow FPN-P member Caloy Abad Santos, who won the Legacy and got the Prelude instead, graciously allowed me to keep the pen.  Another lucky gentleman won the Valor.

After the raffle we got to chat with Alejandro Rodriguez Tabo, General Manager for Asia.  He told us that the Sheaffer pens were now manufactured in different countries (although no longer at the Fort Madison plant, which closed down in 2006), with the Valor being manufactured in Italy.

I inked the Legacy Heritage at once when I got home.  It was a black lacque metal-bodied model (inspired by the Pen for Men design) with palladium plate trim, and filled via a converter.  It sported a very smooth and juicy 18k medium nib.  It was quite solidly built and well-balanced in the hand.  I was very glad to see that this particular modern Sheaffer pen was a well-made pen worthy of Sheaffer’s long history of fine writing instruments.  In fact, I made up my mind to get myself the more affordable Prelude next…
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National Bookstore is the exclusive distributor of Sheaffer pens and inks in the Philippines.  This blog is not affiliated with National Bookstore.