Informal review Tops Composition Book

[pico]

I keep a finance journal and was running out of good notebooks and I found this Tops Composition Book I had picked up a couple months ago at Target. It is the 100 sheet wide rule made in Vietnam. I had VERY low expectations.

I've recently expanded my ink/pen collection from my Parker only habit. So, I just grabbed several of the pens I'm using for testing inks and pen combinations and started writing on the paper.

The text on the page is nonsense, but I just wanted to do some normal speed and fast writing. (Please forgive the penmanship and spelling, I was on my first cup of coffee this morning)

The pen/ink combinations:
Sheafer VFM medium nib with Private Reserve Chocolat.
Jinhao 606 fine nib with Diamine Ox Blood.
Jinhao x750 medium nib with Noodler's X-Feather
Parker Urban medium nib with Noodler's 54th Mass.
Platinum Preppy fine nib eyedropper with Noodler's Baystate Blue.
Platinum Preppy fine nib eyedropper with Noodler's 54th Mass.
IMG_20140223_111154_191.jpgIMG_20140223_111237_364.jpg

I was actually surprised that it wasn't that bad. For a $2.00 notebook, it has show through, but only minor bleed through with two pens. The worst was my Parker Urban medium with 54th Mass. and this pen has my wettest nib, so it did not surprise me that it was the one that bled the worst. The Baystate did poorly even in a fine nib preppy. All the others did not bleed through and even X-Feather in a medium fairly wet Jinhao did ok.

Feathering is actually minimal with most of the inks except BSB. The photo is not that great, but the top three combos are actually quite sharp.

The paper is not very smooth. It does soak up and dry pretty fast, even the X-Feather.

For a throw away journal I use for keeping budget notes, this is actually not too bad. I wouldn't use this for anything I wanted to keep or writing for pleasure due to the roughness of the paper and it is limited to one sided writing. But, for the price it is much better than I expected since I expected to be throwing it in the supply bin at work for all the ballpoint users. I figured someone out there may find this information useful.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Nice review and photo! The BSB really jumps out and sears your eyes, lol.

Have you ever tried India paper comp books from Dollar Tree? They are, as you might suspect, a dollar.

[DPWilkens]

I recently found one of my old grad school notebooks, a roaring springs composition. They were the first notebooks I used with fountain pens, and seemed to hold up pretty well. The shop on campus stopped selling them though...

[xewepi714]

If you're not sure how to dispose of your perishables, check with your local waste management authority for guidance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wnR6Dzj3Fk