Midori MD Notebook - A5 Grid Paper

Product Information

The front of the book, like the Cover has a difficult to notice (though more prominent than the Cover) debossed mark saying “MD PAPER made in Japan”. 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 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.

I think this is a great little kit of items and they all work really nicely together. The Fountain Pen is light and easy to use with a great nib. It might not feel like a premium fountain pen but it does its just very well and has a very appreciable aesthetic. I am genuinely impressed with this simple pen. It would work excellently as a beginner pen but its still something I like to cary with me at times. I’m a big fan of Midori paper so this notebook is easily something I would recommend. It has a very pleasant feel to it and presents inks well and handled poor performing inks decently. The cover is fun, simple, affordable and protects the Notepad. It isn’t mandatory but it is a nice addendum and rounds out the kit nicely. It has a small inner cap to seal the nib. There’s a strong springy clip that looks like it’ll take plenty of punishment in its stride. The finial of the barrel has O sharpe moulded into it and the finial of the cap is a simple smooth rounded piece of metal. The whole of the cap is made of metal apart from a plastic insert inside. The clip has some nice tension and spring to it. The whole cap is quite simple and reminds me a lot of the Parker 51 cap (though without a jewel finial). 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.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. The blank version which I’ve learned works very well as a sketchbook. MD Paper also makes a sketchbook in this range with a slightly different paper but a blank A5 notebook is an option too. MD Paper consists of a range of products owned by Midori. Midori is one of Japan’s most well-known stationery design companies and has been operating since the 1950s. You might recognise Midori as the company who created the Traveller’s Journal range. 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. 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.

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 You can find my ink collection here and my pen collection here. Is there something you’d like reviewed? Let me know! 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; It’s soft! This paper is some of the softest, most luxurious paper I’ve written on! To my knowledge, while there are options to buy loose-leaf cotton paper, this is pretty much the only cotton-based paper notebook around. If you’re used to writing on Japanese papers, you’re probably used to good sheen, longer drying times and super-smooth surfaces. This paper is like no Japanese paper I’ve ever used. Is it luxurious? You bet. Does my fountain pen still glide across its surface? It does! Does it perform like regular Midori MD paper? Not exactly.Lamy 1.5 Stub: this nib is moderately wet to write with (this is used for the brand and ink name title); Now, this is a really important question. Is the MD Paper notebook better than the Leuchtturm1917? If you take a direct comparison I’m going to say no. The MD Paper notebook is great, but so is the Leuchtturm. There are just a few things which make me prefer the MD Paper.

Noodler’s Pushkin: is a poor performing ink. It nearly always feathers and bleeds and displays as quite faded and splotchy; and

Stickers have been added to the Products page.

If you’re looking for a new notebook I really would give the MD Paper notebook a try. I loved the minimal design, the simple cover is very aesthetically pleasing. As I mentioned it was designed for writing and I enjoyed the experience of using it. Uncap it and you can see it’s not all vintage. The section is long, made from slightly textured clear plastic, with pronounced grippy ridges (and a quite visible casting line). The book does a really excellent job of laying flat. When opened near the centre it is dead flat; when opened with a bias to one side it is still very flat. These are some of the best notebooks I’ve used for this. Midori credits the simple bookbinding design. Paper

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. 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. This recently released Midori MD Fountain Pen is definitely designed as a pen for people new to fountain pens. It is affordable, designed to be light ‘like a pencil’, has a "happy medium” nib, and nib design that absorbs pressure if you are used to pressing hard (as if they are anticipating those coming from ballpoints). Indeed, Midori’s own literature starts by assuming they are talking to someone new to fountain pens: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. I guess I should explain this story a little more. I was browsing a few stationery shops online when I came across the MD Paper notebook. At the time I was looking for a new notebook and thought this could be a contender. The MD Paper range is sold in the London Graphics Center so when I was in the area, I decided to take a trip to have a look at the notebook in person. With the assumption that I would buy one.