Stálogy 016 Notebook Review

Stálogy is best known for it’s 365 days notebook, which is more or less a direct competitor to the Hobonichi Techo. Many people might not be aware that they make regular notebooks as well. I had occasionally seen Stálogy suggested as great paper for fountain pens, but their notebooks are not widely available. Fortunately, I was able to get my hands on one to try out. Let’s take a look at the Stálogy 016 Notebook.

The cover of the Stalogy 016 notebook is simple yet attractive.

First Impressions

On the cover of this notebook, Stálogy claims that this is “a notebook without the needless frills” and I couldn’t agree more. This is a plain and simple notebook that is meant for one thing: writing. It doesn’t have any extras like an index, page numbers, rear pockets, marker ribbons or elastic closures. The paper feels incredibly smooth to the touch, so I have very high hopes for how it will perform with fountain pens.

The cover has some relevant information about the notebook.

The Details

Let’s take a look at the Stálogy notebook and see what it’s all about:

• Pages: 68 (34 sheets)
• Paper Weight: 81.4gsm
• Binding: Stitch
• Page Style: Lined (7mm)
• Size: B5

Ink-handling characteristics (A table with the following properties can be found at the bottom of this post)

• Sheen: Medium
• Shading: Medium
• Bleeding: Very Low
• Ghosting: Low
• Feathering: Very Low
• Dry Time: High

Other features

• Comes in 5 colors
• Very light lines
• Lovely cover texture and material

The stitch binding allows this notebook to lay flat.

Actual Use

As I mentioned earlier, this notebook is no frills. It is simple and well-made. The stitch binding allows it to lay flat (with a little encouragement), making writing in it that much easier. The light-grey lines on each page are easy enough to see, but almost disappear when there is writing on the page. To me this is ideal, as I don’t like paper whose lines stand out. The lines on each page begin and end before they reach the edge of the paper and there is a small margin at the bottom and larger margin at the top of each page. Overall, I love the page layout of this notebook.

This simple page layout is ideal for me.

I wasn’t expecting it, but this paper is one of the smoothest and most satisfying to write on that I have ever tested. Where Clairefontaine is very smooth but is almost “slick” and the Itoya Romeo notebook is smooth and “buttery”, the word that kept coming into my head when I was writing in the Stálogy notebook was “whisper”. It is velvety smooth and writing on it feels like beautiful voices whispering into your ear. Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, as my wife just thought it felt “nice”, but it’s still great to write on.

Fans of extreme sheen might want to look elsewhere for a new notebook. While this paper does show some sheen, sheening inks don’t stand out on it like they do on Tomoe River or Life Noble paper. It has decent shading as well, but again, not as good as many other papers that I’ve tested. Dry times are on the high side, as is usually expected for high-quality papers.

Stalogy Paper Test: front

This paper handles fountain pen ink very well. I did encounter a bit of random feathering when I used a combination of very wet nib and saturated ink, but for the most part I saw no feathering in my writing samples. As for bleed-through, I only observed the very beginning of bleeding where a lot of ink was applied, and it wasn’t even enough to see the color of the ink on the other side. Ghosting is low and I wouldn’t hesitate to use both sides of a sheet.

Stalogy Paper Test: back

Conclusion

I love the paper in the Stálogy 016 notebook. Writing on it is extremely calming and satisfying. It also handles fountain pens very well. Despite a few instances of feathering, I would say that it is very fountain pen friendly. While the notebook doesn’t have any extras, it doesn’t need them. It is made for writing and nothing else.

Interested in trying this paper before buying a notebook? Head over to my shop and pick up a paper sample pack.

If you’d like a bit more information about how I test papers and notebooks, I wrote an article about my paper rating system.