Hemlock & Oak 70gsm Planners and Notebooks

When I was first contacted over a year ago by Tia with Hemlock & Oak, I was surprised and flattered that they wanted me to give some feedback on a new paper that they were developing. According to their email, they were “interested in developing an alternative to Tomoe River that is uncoated and FSC-certified”. Of course, I said I’d love to try it out and give my feedback. Fast-forward to late 2025 and I’m holding a planner that’s filled with their new 70gsm paper.

In this post I mainly want to take a look at Hemlock & Oak’s new paper. Of course, I’ll be taking a look at their planner and also at the notebook that they sent me, but my main interest is their new paper. So, let’s start out taking a look at that and then move on to what they have to offer where you can try their new paper.

Disclaimer: The items in the post were provided to me for free for the purposes of this review. All opinions in this review are my own and were not influenced by the generosity of Hemlock & Oak.

H&O 70gsm Archivist Paper

If there’s one thing most of us can agree on, it’s that having an alternative paper to Tomoe River paper would be fantastic. For me, that means a paper that is lightweight, makes ink look great, and handles whatever you throw at it. I feel like there are quite a few papers on the market that fulfill two of these three criteria, but hardly any (or none, besides TR) that can do all three. So that’s what this new paper is up against. As I write this, I’ve already written on it a bit, but have yet to test it or really put it through it’s paces, so I’m excited to see what it can do.

The Official Tests

So now that I’ve done some tests and used it a bit, let me start out by saying that this paper is very impressive. As I do with all of the papers I review, I tested this paper with my standard tests and came up with the following results:

• Sheen: Very High – 5
• Shading: High – 4
• Bleeding: Very Low – 5
• Ghosting: Average – 3
• Feathering: Very Low – 5
• Dry Time: Low – 4

These ratings give this paper an overall score of 4.33, which is tied for the highest-scoring paper I’ve ever reviewed. The only other paper I’ve tested with a score this high is Figurare, which is no longer available. That means this paper scores higher than Iroful, higher than Graphilo, probably higher than any paper you’ve heard of.

The main reason for such a high score is the low dry time this paper has. Inks dry much more quickly on this paper than on many other papers on the market. Somehow, it still shows very high sheen and high shading, which is very unusual for papers with low dry times. Add to that great overall performance with no bleeding or feathering and average ghosting and you’ve got a very high-performing paper.

So if we’re comparing this to Tomoe River (TR), it’s as good as, if not better than, any Tomoe River I’ve tried. It makes ink look just as good and has much better dry times. It’s also lightweight. Weighing in at 70gsm, it’s still a bit heavier than 68gsm TR and quite a bit heavier than 52gsm TR, but it’s still more lightweight than most paper that’s available today.

Comparing it to other papers, it is not a high-contrast paper like Iroful or Cosmo Air Snow. These high-contrast papers really make inks pop off the page, but this typically comes with the tradeoff of thicker lines from your pens and a specific feeling when writing. This paper feels natural and lets your pens write normally.

The Unofficial Tests

So I said that the third test for this paper to be a Tomoe River replacement would be for it to handle anything I throw at it. I have a notebook that’s full of original 68gsm TR and use it for doodles, playing with ink and water, and anything else that strikes my fancy. That is my standard that I compare all other paper to. I’m very happy to say that this 70gsm Hemlock & Oak paper can take a lot of water and ink without issue!

There are a few different ways I like to play with water and ink. One way is to dip my finger in some water, make a wet spot on the page, and then touch the wet paper with my nib. This pulls ink out of the pen and spreads it across the wet paper, giving a look at the chromatography of the ink. Another thing I like to do is “draw” lines of water with a bulb syringe and drop ink into them. Putting this much water on some paper can completely saturate it and soak through or ruin the surface when a pen is used on it. I experienced neither with this paper. In fact, the page underneath the one I added water to remained dry and unharmed.

Is It A Tomoe River Replacement?

Knowing that this paper not only handles ink very well and makes it look great, but can also handle water, makes it a new favorite of mine for having fun with ink and water. Does this make it a replacement for Tomoe River? It really depends on what you want out of your paper. Anyone who has ever written on the original 52gsm TR knows it had a special feel to it. The 68gsm TR had a similar feel. This paper feels great to write on, but not quite the same as TR, so if you’re going by writing feel, it’s not a direct replacement.

If you’re looking for paper performance, I’d say it’s superior to Tomoe River. It shows similar sheen and shading, but with much faster dry times. If you’re all about making your inks look good but don’t want to wait nearly as long for them to dry, this paper easily replaces Tomoe River.

If you like to play with water and ink on your paper, I’d also consider this to be a TR replacement. It really surprised me with how well it could take large amounts of water and ink without bleeding, feathering, or becoming completely saturated.

2026 Weekly and Daily Planner

Despite being made with 70gsm Archivist paper, this is still one thick planner. Honestly, any daily planner is going to be pretty chunky, given that it will have one page for each day of the year. Add to that a weekly planner and it gets even thicker. This planner doesn’t stop there, though. It also has a monthly calendar, monthly overviews, quarterly planning, and a yearly overview! It has some other sections as well, which I’ll touch on in a little bit, but just know that this is one significant planner. According to the specs on the H&O site, it weighs in at 2lbs and measures 1-inch thick. It also measures slightly larger than an A5, but not by much.

I mentioned that it has a bunch of different sections in it. I’m not going to go into detail on all of them since you can see them for yourself in the virtual flip through on the product site, or even download the PDF layout for faster browsing. You can also see most of the sections on their 2026 Planner Guide. Still, I do want to touch on some of them.

Daily Planning

If you’re buying this planner, this section is probably the main reason. Each page is dedicated to an entire day, with space in the top-left corner to note the date and day of the week. Next to that is a space to write your intentions for the day. If you don’t have intentions, I’m sure you could use that for notes, doodles, or just leave it blank. Personally, I’m using it to write down the pen and ink that I’m using each day.

The majority of the page is taken up with the “Schedule” and “Today” sections. The Schedule section lets you plan your day on an hour-by-hour basis and the Today section consists of check boxes where you can write tasks that you want to get done. This feels like the perfect layout for a bullet-journal-style planner and that’s exactly how I’m using it, with my weekly tasks carrying over in the Schedule section and my daily tasks getting written down each day in the Today section.

Other Sections

The first few sections of this planner really change it from a planner into a life tool. While it would be ideal to complete it at the beginning of the year, these exercises will be useful to work through at any time.

The first section in this planner is the Personal Values section. Exercises in this section include “Self-reflection” and “Identifying Values”. I’ve never done any exercises like this before, but my wife lives for stuff like this. I’m excited to give it a try.

The next few sections are Setting Goals and Habit Cultivation. These seem to be geared more directly towards making your time more efficient and productive, which I think fits into a planner really well. I’m looking forward to putting some time into these sections.

The next few sections are very much what I expect to see in a planner. There are Yearly Planning and Quarterly Planning, both of which are basic frameworks with which to sketch out your year for quick reference. The Monthly Calendars are a little different, in that they start out with a Monthly Overview and end with a Monthly Review, in addition to a blank 6-week calendar between each of those sections. Finally, there’s a Weekly Planning section. I’ve been finding this section the least useful since I’m fairly entrenched in using my Google calendar and don’t want to rewrite everything each week.

One thing that I find myself wishing this planner had are marker ribbons. With so many pages and sections, I find flipping back and forth between them (the Daily and Weekly, for example) to be inconvenient. There are separate items available to make this easier, such as monthly tabs, but I just want a few ribbons to stick between my most-used pages. I am using a blotter instead of ribbons, which does help me quickly find my place and also helps soak up any extra ink on the page.

Personally, I’ve never had much luck using a pre-printed planner. The layouts never quite do what I want them to do and I feel like I end up not using parts of the planner. This probably explains why I gravitate towards bullet journaling since I’m able to use any blank notebook and make it look the way I want. Still, with a planner of this size and quality, it would be a shame to not use it, so I’m giving it a try in 2026. It has enough variety in the different layouts that I’ve been able to find a way to use most of them in a way that works for my needs.

It should be noted that the only 2026 planner to use Hemlock & Oak’s new 70gsm paper is this specific one, the Weekly and Daily planner. All of the smaller planners have the 120gsm paper. This makes sense as far as the larger planner goes, since it would be the thickness of a dictionary if it had 120gsm paper. Hopefully H&O gets positive feedback about their new 70gsm paper and offers more planners with it in the future.

Graph Notebook

Compared to the Weekly and Daily planner, this notebook is pretty straightforward. To start out, it’s an A5 graph notebook with 288 pages (144 sheets). It has the new 70gsm paper, but H&O also makes notebooks with their 150gsm paper. These notebooks are available in either dot or graph grid layouts and in hard or soft cover options.

There aren’t many extras to speak of with these notebooks. The pages are numbered, which is always really nice, especially for bullet journaling. There are no page marker ribbons, table of contents, or any other extras. The binding is lay-flat stitched, but near the front and back of this notebook you’ll still have to give it a little encouragement to stay open. That’s about it. You won’t be buying this notebook for all of the features it has, you’ll be buying it for the paper.

Wrapping Up

Fresh out of Canada, this 70gsm Archivist paper is an amazing offering from Hemlock & Oak. With fantastic ink-handling capabilities paired with great dry times, it’s a very good paper option for a daily planner or notebook. It also makes a great replacement for anyone who has been wanting an alternative to Tomoe River in their planners. Although it is not available as an option in all of their products yet, hopefully it will be well-received and more options will be available soon. For now, the large Weekly and Daily Planner and the A5 graph notebook are available with this fantastic new paper. I’d encourage you to check out what Hemlock & Oak have to offer and give them a try if any of their products appeal to you.