Case Review: Lochby Field Journal Notebook Cover

Continuing my series of reviews of products that are easily accessible to me (i.e., being carried with me everywhere I go while my home and office are under construction), I turn to another recent addition to my daily carry: the Lochby Field Journal in brown. Currently, this particular notebook cover holds my Theme System Journal and a Nanami Paper Seven Seas Writer that I use for a NaNoWriMo novel-in-progress (that, sadly, has fallen by the wayside). Paired with my Standard Traveler’s Notebook in blue, the Field Journal is with me pretty much every day from mornings at home through, more recently, longer nights at the office. Is this case a good fit for you? I discuss some pros and cons below.

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The Lochby Field Journal, compared against the Standard Traveler’s Notebook (right), and a 13-inch MacBook Air (top).

What I Enjoy About This Case

• Durable Waxed Canvas Build. Like all Lochby products, the Field Journal features vegan-friendly waxed canvas, with no leather components. While I’m not vegan, I love the look of waxed canvas in general, and multiple items in my personal daily carry share this aesthetic. Waxed canvas is water-repellant, and looks great as it ages. Plus, all Lochby covers and cases are double-stitched and bartacked for durability. The aluminum clip attaches securely to canvas loops on the cover, and you can pull the strap to tighten the closure. (It will hold!)

• Yellow Interior. Ok, so this is a personal point, but if a product is made with yellow or dark red interior, I will buy it. There simply aren’t enough stationery items on the market with this color scheme for me not to go all-in. (And for those of you who would prefer something a bit more muted, note that the interior lining to the Navy and Charcoal Field Journals feature different shades of tan.)

• Notebook Versatility. The Field Journal fits standard A5 notebooks, and can fit up to six “softcover slim" notebooks, like the refills sold by Lochby. To fit this many notebooks in the cover, you use a Traveler’s-style cord system to attach four refills, as well as slots inside the front and back covers for two more. As I mentioned above, the cover easily holds two relatively thick, full-size notebooks like the Theme System Journal and the Seven Seas Writer, both of which I attach using the cords.

• Compatibility with Other Lochby Products. The outside pocket of the Field Journal is designed to hold either the Quattro Pen Case or the Pocket Journal, so you can use the Field Journal as your main daily carry item if you want a smaller, handheld carry-all. Lochby includes a strap on the spine of the Field Journal for this purpose.

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The interior of the Brown Lochby Field Journal. You can secure the refills using the four cords or the cover flaps.

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If yellow isn’t your thing, the Charcoal and Navy Field Journals (pictured here) feature different shades of tan interior.

Potential Drawbacks

• Closure. Some people may not appreciate the strap and metal clip. While I don’t find the Lochby mechanism particularly cumbersome, especially as the loops soften up over time, it does take some getting used to and may add a few seconds to the time it takes you to close your notebook when you’re finished working.

• Open Sides. While the Lochby Field Journal closes securely, and will certainly remain closed in your bag, it does feature open sides, meaning the edges of your notebook and whatever papers you keep inside aren’t protected from the elements or other items in your bag. Personally, this isn’t a big deal to me. I use other open-sided cases like the Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter and Traveler’s Notebooks, but many prefer the ultimate security of a case with a full zipper that extends all the way around the outside.

• Size. The Field Journal is not a slim case, and can get pretty thick but if you’re someone who carries up to six A5 notebooks with you at any time this likely won’t be an issue for you.

I use two larger A5 refills, secured by cords, and then use the interior cover slots to hold index cards.

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Takeaways and Where to Buy

Overall, the Field Journal is an excellent utilitarian notebook cover capable of holding multiple refills and daily essentials, and pairs well with other items in the Lochby lineup. At $59 (including one 68gsm Tomoe River refill), it’s attractively priced, leaving you room in your budget to stock up on more paper or even another case like the Quattro (which holds four pens) or the Pocket Journal (which holds pens and a pocket notebook). I’ve been using the Field Journal regularly as a larger counterpart to my Traveler’s Notebook, and I don’t see myself swapping it out anytime soon.

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I have no fear of carrying thicker notebooks.

The T.G.S. Curated Shop carries a selection of Lochby Products, including the Field Journal in three different colors. Each Field Journal ships with a dot grid refill, with other rulings (lined, blank, and planner) available for purchase separately. All Lochby refills feature 68gsm Tomoe River paper, which is fountain pen friendly and gives you a high page count in a thin format. For further reading, check out my recent review of the Lochby Quattro Four-Pen Case, which is back in stock.

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of Lochby and all other products we stock.

In the Shop: Midori MD Cotton and Other Fountain Pen Friendly Papers

Japanese stationery company Midori makes so many different types of paper that it’s easy to lose track of them, especially some of the harder-to-find papers that don’t get as much attention. Case in point - Midori MD paper is quite popular on its own, and is used in everything from the classic Midori MD notebooks to the standard Traveler’s Notebook refills, but the MD Cotton paper tends to be sadly neglected.

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The slightly textured cotton paper is also excellent for pencils, especially darker graphites!

Why Midori MD Cotton? For starters, the paper has more of a white tone, as opposed to the standard cream MD, which some enjoy because they feel white paper shows off ink better. Personally, I love the A4 writing pad because you can tear off the sheets and use them in a typewriter. Cotton paper is strong and holds up well, with little bleed-through on most of my machines.

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The Traveler’s Company “Letter Pad” features Midori’s lined “letter-style” ruling on the front, and grid on the reverse.

The T.G.S. Curated Shop carries Midori MD Cotton paper in several formats, including the standard A4 and A5 writing pads, the “F” sized notebooks, and the Traveler’s Company “Letter Pads” from the B-Sides and Rarities collection. At one point, Midori made MD Cotton notebooks in standard A5, B6, etc., and I’m hoping they eventually bring them back! For more information on Midori Paper, and a wide range of other fountain pen friendly papers stocked in our shop (and elsewhere, with our friends), check out this post on fountain pen friendly paper recommendations.

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of Midori and all other brands we stock.

2022 "Best Pens" List Update Is Now Live!

I warned you it was coming, and since I’ve been exiled from my constantly-under-construction home office, I’m taking care of some necessary annual housekeeping here on the blog. First up - the 2022 Updates to the T.G.S. “Best Pens” Recommendations. While there aren’t huge changes to the list, the TWSBI Swipe makes an appearance on the “First Fountain Pens” list, mainly for its value proposition and versatility, and the Schon DSGN full-size fountain pens and Opus 88 Jazz and Omar move into the “Personal Favorites” top five. Enjoy!

The annual “Best Pens” list reflects my personal opinion, and I have not been compensated by any brand or retailer for including any links on this list.

Why It's Time to Stop Reflexively Avoiding Gold Trim: The Caran d'Ache 849 "Gold Bar" and Others

One of the more unfairly enduring myths in the pen hobby is that gold trim is somehow “generic”, “undesirable,” or “boring” - you pick the descriptor, but you get the gist. It’s a throwback to the early 2010s, when interest in high-end pens and other fine writing instruments was starting to take off, and gold trim was the default option for nibs, clips and other hardware regardless of whether it was the best choice for the pen material. I clearly remember those days when it was a considerable coup for a manufacturer to respond to consumer demand by offering rhodium trim on a standard pen - more exotic options such as ruthenium or rose gold were nearly unheard of and mostly confined to much more expensive limited editions. No choice is a good choice when it’s forced upon you.

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Don’t get me wrong, the Black Code 849 looks great, and it’s one of the signature shop items, but that matte gold finish on the Gold Bar stands out without looking showy or ostentatious.

These days, it’s time to reconsider gold trim and to evaluate it on its merits with respect to individual pens - namely, whether it’s actually the best choice to pair with a given design or material. Three pens in particular prompted me to write this article. The first is the Caran D’Ache “Gold Bar” 849 ballpoint, which is a distinguished matte-gold ballpoint pen that I’ve watched sit (relatively) unloved in the shop, despite its “Black Code,” “Original,” and “Brut Rosé” counterparts selling briskly to the point where I have trouble keeping them in stock. Of the four entries in Caran d’Ache’s “Pop Line” series, the Gold Bar might be my favorite, simply because it’s so different from what “Pen Instagram” and popular “Penfluencers” say you should like.

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Honestly, I couldn’t imagine pairing the Diamondcast material on the Accutron Estie with anything other than gold trim.

The other two pens with gold trim versions that caught my eye are the Esterbrook Estie in Nouveau Blue and Scarlet. While there’s nothing necessarily wrong with rhodium trim on either of those pens, the gold highlights the depth in the materials, especially the golden brown undertones in the Nouveau Blue. Pairing either of these vintage-inspired resins with rhodium trim leaves both of them looking a bit flat. Of course, this is my opinion, but the point here is that I made an informed choice of trim based on what I think looks best and what I want to see in my hand when I’m writing every day, not because pen-related social media tells me that gold trim “isn’t popular.”

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Even Blackwing has explored using gold, adding a gold ferrule clip to certain special releases such as these 2019 Black Friday pencils.

It’s long past time that we stop reflexively rejecting gold trim pens as the “generic” or “uninteresting” option, and consider them on their merits. While I was once as eager as anyone to have rhodium trim available as a regular option, I think I’ve gone too far in the other direction. As I’ve considered recent pen acquisitions, including my Nouveau Blue Estie at the Baltimore Pen Show, and certain of my Stacy Robinson pens in Atlanta, I’ve started to reconsider what’s become a default preference, as certain materials just don’t look right when paired with chrome. If you like the gold trim, then get the gold trim! I’ve found that by opening myself to considering finishes beyond rhodium, including ruthenium, rose gold, and now, standard gold, my pen collection started to take on a less one-dimensional look and became more visually interesting. (And I’ve already gotten at least four comments at work on how great that gold ballpoint looks!)

This post does not contain paid third-party affiliate links. The Gentleman Stationer is supported by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop, as well as the T.G.S. Patreon Program. I was not otherwise compensated for this post. Esterbrook Nouveau Blue and Scarlet images courtesy of Vanness Pens.

In the Shop: 2022 Planner Clearance - All Dated Planners on Sale

It’s time to make room for yet more new arrivals, and clear out some back stock as we hit mid-April. First off are 2022 dated planners, which are now at least 30% off. There’s still plenty of time for these to be usable, since many (such as the Midori Planner Stickers) go into 2023! Check out these options from Traveler’s Notebook and Midori MD. We don’t have a ton of stock but the sale will continue until everything’s gone.

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If you’re not into dated planners, I always opt for the undated version, since I appreciate the flexibility and always try to avoid wasting paper if I don’t use a particular month. You can start these planners at any time during the year, and carry them over for as long as you like until they are done. We not only stock undated planners from Traveler’s Company, Midori MD, Lochby, and Soumkine, but also carry the larger Write Notepads Weekly Planner (which can be used as a desk pad since it features a landscape orientation), as well as more traditional blotter-style desk planners from WMS & Co. The latter have been selling briskly and people seem to enjoy them!

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands we carry.