Image stolen shamelessly from Hahnemühle’s website.

The new “1584 by Hahnemühle” notebook was sent to me for review by Hahnemühle.
I am both a fountain pen user and daily journaler, so this journal was a timely gift!
I have been happy with all my paper products from Hahnemühle,
and especially my art journals, some of the best ever, sturdy to take abuse and great paper.  I am excited that they now have a writer’s journal.

They can be bought at both Wet Paint Art and Hyatt!

The facts…

The journals currently come in one size, A5 (roughly 6×8), and in
three colors: Sea Green (my favorite), Lilac, and Peach.
I take images under several lights but wanted to show the green as I see it,
which has the slightly green-grey cast, below.  While the company is
gearing its ads for a feminine notebook, I am suggesting
they drop that as these colors hardly suggest gender! 
Mitchell would happily use either of the colors I was sent, the Sea Green or Peach.

It has an unusual format in that it has 100 sheets, divided into the following:
40 sheets of 90gsm writing paper (mine was dot),
20 sheets of colored coordinated blank writing paper at 100gsm*,
and another 40 sheets of 90gsm writing paper (mine was dot)
for 200 pages of writing pages.
*Initially I didn’t know what I’d do with the central blank pages but it didn’t take me long to see I can have fun with them, below.  I will probably use them for our business budget notes and then I will always know where the current budget notes are located.

I unwrapped the Sea Green journal, and was happy with the feel of the beautiful fabric cover; I know from my other Hahnemühle journals it will also be durable. A strong elastic band keeps the journal closed when not in use.
Three ribbon markers are available; I can’t personally imagine using more than two: one for my current page, and one for my index, but I’ll see!  Others may use them to mark the three sections, especially if they use the sections for, say, personal and business notes.

There is also no loop for your pens; I don’t care about that.
They get in my way and I am always a bit concerned about one of my nice pens
getting scratched on the outside so my pens travel protected.
And you can buy the loops and add them if you like…

Opening the book I am thrilled to see that they don’t force me to fill in
my name and phone number.  Crazy, maybe, but I am not in grade school and
find it annoying as I have my own ways of doing things.
In almost every writing journal you’ll see me trying to cover the nameplate!

These pages are clean and elegantly understated.
The paper is white, not ivory — and I am again thrilled because
I love inks, collect them, and want to see their real color in my journal!

Moving to the back, they do not include an envelope.
Most of my journals don’t, but they are nice to have for ticket stubs and other bits.
I taped a sentimental envelope Mitchell sent me, which is easy enough,
but Hahnemühle should add one.

Backside!

Ranger Ink goes through every paper ever tried!

With that, my test pages, with a thicker stub nib,
first a TWSBI Eco 1.1 with Robert Oster Green at Night ink…
and my first marks made me happy because:
NO feathering!
NO bleed through!
You can see ghosting of the next pages text,
but that all my journals ghost because I prefer a fat stub nib!

My ink-bottle stamps using Ranger ink did bleed through, above; they bleed in every single journal I’ve ever used.  Not sure why Ranger’s inkpads bleed through.
I am careful to stamp the bottles exactly back to back to handle this problem…
Writing with a FPR Himalayan with Robert Oster Melon Tea ink and laying in a
normal flexed amount of ink also did not bleed through…  Just ghosting.

More testing and a closer look:

Look first at the top third of the
pages above left and right. The ink does not feather, and a normal pen (not like
the fat juicy ones calligraphy pens I tried
on the lower half) did not bleed through,
even when I scribbled in my half moon!

Then I decided to try wetter inks
and juicier thicker nibs, even those
I am unlikely to use in a journal.
I doubled back and filled in moons and
tried to make a mess. Other than
when I went over the same wet ink several
times, the pages held up to abuse, as you
can see on the back of the page above right.

The pen and ink combinations:

1. Platinum Carbon Pen with Platinum Carbon ink waterproof cartridges
   (medium nib, waterproof thick pigmented ink), ghosting;
2. Lamy Al-Star 1.5 nib with Pilot Asa-Gao ghosted, and when I went over it
   (pen wasn’t working) and scribbled the moon in, it bled some;
3. Jinhao 750 with Goulet 1.1 stub nib with very wet Monteverde Chariote ink, ghosting;
4. Platinum 3776 with a music nib with Monteverde Horizon Blue ink (wet AND thick nib), shockingly no bleed on normal writing (only when scribbled over) and ghosting;
5. Finally my Kaweco Calligraphy Sport with the twin nib in Pelikan Star Ruby ink,
6. some bleed on normal writing (and when scribbled over) and ghosting.

Happy, I set about making this journal my own to begin on the New Moon.
This new moon was also the first new moon of the decade and the new moon marking Chinese new Year, the year of the Metal Rat!

I usually put one of my own stickers on the front of my journal, above;
sample pages showing inks and journal entries follow,
plus the envelope at the back with my bits in it.

BTW, I have not missed dated calendar pages. Dates are logged on computer and phone. I find pre-dated calendar pages leave waste: sometimes pages get left totally blank (Sunday); some days I need several pages to pour my heart and mind out.
Now I put my ink stamp, the date / day, the moon phase, and the ink I am using on the top.  Sometimes a reference note goes above the line. I
can divide a page into two days or write for several pages on one day if so moved!

I tried out the blank green sketching pages in the middle.  (Lighting washes the paper out!)  I wanted notes on the Year of the Rat, and tried a sketch which turned into a wet juicy inkpainting as I pushed the paper’s boundaries and tried the pages for
ink and watercolor painting;
they took the wet mediums well with NO  bleed (the back, right). Amazeballs! I am loving this journal, especially knowing how well Hahnemühle’s products hold up; it’s a keeper.  I’ll follow up again in a couple months.

Giveaway coming:
Rules announced here and
on Instagram later today!!

They can be purchased at Wet Paint Art and Hyatt!
Last day for the sale at Wet Paint Art!

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