Archaeos
Member
I havn't found much buying advice or reviews on fieldbooks here, i.e. leather-bound blank-sheeters. Although not getting as much attention as front-pinched with-or-without-turn Fedora hats and Royal Ordnance Gas Mask Bag Pattern 37 Mark VII satchels, the Young Indy journal, Raiders notebook and Grail diary are just as much ingrained as part of the Indy image. As I am fond of this aspect (and stationery or papèterie products generally), I thought I could contribute a bit to this area with this thread. Maybe someone shares this interest, otherwise, this thread will deservedly go the way of the dodo.
I can of course only talk from my view, but when it comes to buying a leather-bound IJ-type blank-sheeter, either for scientific notetaking, private doodledrawing or even re-creating a hero-prop, quality is all that matters. The abuse a fieldbook has to take is enormous, so being able to life through heavy-duty environments, survive them intact and stay looking good at the other end of it all is key.
Moleskine notebooks are great for an urbane look, but I have always loved brown or tan leather, especially raw hides or buffalo leather
. Hero-prop creators will of course prefer to make their books from scratch themselves (and chapeau to achieving this 
), but I prefer to spend my time differently and just buy it off shelf after perusing through what's on offer.
A few years back, I bought my current Fieldbook at Magnoli Clothiers (2005). It was the 'Field Journal' for $45 (see here). I was short on money then, and went for the lowest price item, and accordingly did not have high expectations. It was more a "Let's see how long this lasts" approach. To my surprise, it is great! Having gained double in thickness through inlays, maps, stapled-in stuff etc., the spine still holds strong while the leather has aged beautifully. The paper absorbs pencils, ballpoint pens, fountain pens and my preferred finepoint and rollerball pens equally well without bleeding through. The best bucks I invested in a notebook.
Recently, I have come across a small stationery (online-)shop in Berlin, run by Zubin Farahani. It's located at Brentanostraße 11, not that far from where the Kaiserlich-Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, now the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI), is headquartered. Zubin sells what I would call really cool-looking stuff. All hand-made in-house, with heavy-duty paper and what looks like strong binding and very clever opening/locking/wraparound features. The pricing seems to be very reasonable, definitely below Magnoli, and Zubin ships across Europe at fixed rates.
The Nativus A7 has really caught my eye, despite its non-Indy-ness. It's a super-small A7 notebook.
I look forward to checking the shop out when I am in Berlin myself.
(And of course I know that paper is sooo 20th century, and that Lucas' unavoidable creation, namely Mutt's son, Jett "Junior" Jones who would now be in his forties, would use Siri for notetaking )
I can of course only talk from my view, but when it comes to buying a leather-bound IJ-type blank-sheeter, either for scientific notetaking, private doodledrawing or even re-creating a hero-prop, quality is all that matters. The abuse a fieldbook has to take is enormous, so being able to life through heavy-duty environments, survive them intact and stay looking good at the other end of it all is key.
Moleskine notebooks are great for an urbane look, but I have always loved brown or tan leather, especially raw hides or buffalo leather
. Hero-prop creators will of course prefer to make their books from scratch themselves (and chapeau to achieving this ), but I prefer to spend my time differently and just buy it off shelf after perusing through what's on offer.A few years back, I bought my current Fieldbook at Magnoli Clothiers (2005). It was the 'Field Journal' for $45 (see here). I was short on money then, and went for the lowest price item, and accordingly did not have high expectations. It was more a "Let's see how long this lasts" approach. To my surprise, it is great! Having gained double in thickness through inlays, maps, stapled-in stuff etc., the spine still holds strong while the leather has aged beautifully. The paper absorbs pencils, ballpoint pens, fountain pens and my preferred finepoint and rollerball pens equally well without bleeding through. The best bucks I invested in a notebook.
Recently, I have come across a small stationery (online-)shop in Berlin, run by Zubin Farahani. It's located at Brentanostraße 11, not that far from where the Kaiserlich-Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, now the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI), is headquartered. Zubin sells what I would call really cool-looking stuff. All hand-made in-house, with heavy-duty paper and what looks like strong binding and very clever opening/locking/wraparound features. The pricing seems to be very reasonable, definitely below Magnoli, and Zubin ships across Europe at fixed rates.
The Nativus A7 has really caught my eye, despite its non-Indy-ness. It's a super-small A7 notebook.
I look forward to checking the shop out when I am in Berlin myself.
(And of course I know that paper is sooo 20th century, and that Lucas' unavoidable creation, namely Mutt's son, Jett "Junior" Jones who would now be in his forties, would use Siri for notetaking
)
