Feb272009
Levenger Annotation Pad Test
Filed under Stationery by Kim at 12:30 am on Feb 27 2009
Yes, apparently my previous time spent with Doane and Rhodia pads was not enough to make me happy! A friend at work swapped me a Levenger pad for a Doane pocket notebook to test. So during a meeting with the tools at hand I jotted down some tests to see if I liked it.
One thing I noticed is that with the fountain pens & inks, there was virtually no feathering. I didn’t write out a dry time test, but the Baystate Blue dries up pretty fast (5 seconds maybe?) and the Noodler’s Red-Black a little longer, but then that stuff takes forever to dry on every surface I’ve used it on. You can see detail here and here.
This paper, while serviceable, is not nearly as fun to write on as the Rhodia or the Doane was. I truly adore the annotation format for sure (I have convinced my friend Joy to take all her class notes this way), but despite this paper having a nice thickness I feel like there’s a teeny bit more drag than other papers. As for how much bleedthrough, check here to see for yourself. It’s the standard Sharpie-causes-a-mess situation, but note that the Red-Black also tries to get through. I think that has more to do with the amount of ink the Lamy M nib lays down than any lack of fortitude on the part of the paper.
I already kind of had a bad attitude about Levenger. I am not their demographic. I always felt, in a reverse-snobbery kind of way, that they were geared partly toward the exec with more money than sense type. Then I bought a “nice” Levenger pen and was sorely disappointed with the performance of the nib and the quality of the molded plastic body. So that didn’t help my bad attitude but I wanted to give them a fair shake with this paper and I admit it’s pretty nice. It’s just too bad I’d tried the others first.
This one comes down to cost… again. At 3 for $20 this is not a steal. I get that you need to pay more to get more high quality paper – those trees won’t just cut themselves down! Hah… ugh. This is why the next paper I’ll be writing about is the Staples eco-friendly bagasse paper everyone on FPN is crazy about.
1 rdonoghueon 27 Feb 2009 at 8:14 pm
Levengers has been a mixed bag for pens in my experience, but where they really excel is in the design of cases and folios (and occasionally other odds and ends). Now that the big office stores are a little more interested in design, it takes less time for the knock offs to get cheap these days, but they are still where good things start.
Or at least they used to. The presence of the Levenger’s store in Tysons has saved me more money than it’s cost me. On at least two occaisions I’ve gone in to check out some very nice looking folios I was interested in and discovered they really had gone cheap on the feel of them. It was pretty disappointing.
I’m still delighted that they still distribute Rollabind (sorry, “Circa”) and I still look forward to their catalog whenever it comes, but there’s definitely less in it these days to really make me stand up and take notice.
-Rob D.
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Kim Reply:
February 28th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
You should link yourself when you comment!
OK besides that: I am definitely not saying I am writing off all their products, and I actually do like the paper! But it’s not my favorite. And I would certainly put alot of pens in my budget before theirs right now. What I *should* have done was return it on the spot, but I didn’t really realize how much I didn’t like it until I wrote with it a while.
I imagine if I went to the Levenger store, it’s probable I’d come out with *something*.
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2 OfficeSupplyGeek.comon 28 Feb 2009 at 4:50 pm
I just did a review on some Noodler’s Blue Black fountain pen ink on my levenger annotation paper, but it was the prepunched for their Circa notebooks, and I didnt get anywhere near that much bleedthrough. The other side of the paper was actually still suitable for writing.
Great review though and very helpful information…looking forward to your review on the Staples paper.
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Kim Reply:
February 28th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Thanks so much! I am off to investigate your review immediately.
I haven’t figured out the big attraction of the Circa thing. I always feel like I am too hard on notebooks and I would almost certainly pull all the paper off the ring before its time.
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3 Con aka Levenger Junkieon 28 Feb 2009 at 7:42 pm
“I always felt, in a reverse-snobbery kind of way, that they were geared partly toward the exec with more money than sense type.”
Ouch!
Thanks for the review.
(for the record, I use the Levenger paper because
I have it but it isn’t the best there is for FP’s –
I am still searching for that elusive “best.”)
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Kim Reply:
February 28th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
I completely admit this is my own snobbery! And it comes from things like offering a $74 stapler which is just… well, it’s really hard to wrap my head around it!
Which paper is it that you do like?
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4 jeffon 28 Feb 2009 at 8:00 pm
I think you will like the bagasse paper. Very nice paper for the price (2-50 sheet letter sized pads, or 100 loose leaf sheets for 1.99 around Towson). For as thin and crinkly as the paper looks, there was NO bleed through. Even with a pen that puts down a LOT of ink… I like that paper a lot.
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Kim Reply:
February 28th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
I got mine at the Annapolis staples for that price – and they had it in notebooks, legal pads, loose leaf, etc. It wasn’t hard to find at all!
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5 OfficeSupplyGeekon 28 Feb 2009 at 10:19 pm
Two quick things:
The Circa notebook paper does very well with being moved around a bit, I’ve not yet had a problem with it falling out or feeling like it was going to fall out…always locked in place pretty firmly, but easy to shuffle around when I start writing notes in the wrong part of my notebook.
As for the $74 stapler…yeah, thats a bit much…I’ve held one before and they are very light feeling, which makes me think its just really cheap plastic wrapped in leather.
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6 RedPianoon 05 Mar 2009 at 9:55 am
I use the Levenger circa paper and have never had any problems with bleed-thru, short of going at it with a sharpie.
I came across a color of “Private Reserve” ink called “Grey Flannel” that is just barely a shade darker than the line printing on the Circa pages. Tested out a new FP with it yesterday and no problems with feathering or bleed through (with M-F nib.) Then I went at it with Green-Black (my current fav because it doesn’t look GREEN on the page) and no problems.
I should shop around for other papers to see how they work (since I have a Circa hole punch) but so far, other than the $$$$$$, I’ve been pleased with the Levenger 60# paper.
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Kim Reply:
March 5th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Hello! Thanks for stopping by.
I have been avoiding the whole Circa product because I have a hard time trusting that the way I treat notebooks, a Circa bound set of papers would quickly fall apart. But if it works, it’s certainly appealing.
I tend to run into issues with paper easier than others because I use M nib pens, and they put down a LOT of ink. Are the pens you are using F or M?
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7 OfficeSupplyGeekon 05 Mar 2009 at 4:36 pm
My Circa notebooks have been pretty sturdy so far, Im not THAT hard on them, but I dont feel like I have to baby them by any means. Try going with one of the plastic covers though, that way you dont ruin a nice cloth or leather cover.
I use a F nib pen on mine, I think as long as you dont have a puddle of ink on the page while you are writing you would be fine.
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