The Black n' Red Ruled & Perforated Notebook

On my many trips to Staples for office supplies, Ive always seen the Black n’ Red brand notebooks, but I never really thought much of them so I always passed them up for something else.  On my last trip to Staples, I finally broke down and decided to pick one up, so I went with the Polypropylene Wirebound Notebook that was $4.99.

Inside the Black n Red Notebook, the personal information and table of contents page

The Black n’ Red brand notebooks have a great look to them with their contrasting black cover and red double coil binding, and the sturdy plastic cover will ensure that over time, the notebook will not become ragged looking.  There is also a nice sturdy elastic strap that acts as a bookmark or closure, that incorporates the black and red color scheme with a checkered pattern.  The elastic closure is bound through the back cover with metal rivets, so it looks like it wont end up breaking off on you one day.  Once you take in the great looks of the outside of this notebook and crack it open you are met by a very practical “Personal Information” page to help you organize your notes.  In addition to having spots for basic contact information it also has a nice table of contents area where you can keep track of where things are in your notebook.

Useful conversions and other info inside the Black n' Red notebook

In addition to the personal information and table of contents page, the Black n’ Red notebook also has a handy conversions and time zone page that covers things like US and European paper and envelope sizes, along with basic metric system conversion charts.  This is one of those things that I think is always good to have on hand.  Inside the notebbok, which is 8 1/4″ by 5 7/8″ you will find 140 pages of ruled paper.

Lots of different pens and inks to test out the 24lb paper in the Black n' Red notebook

Now for the really good stuff…putting lots of different pens and inks to use on this paper turned out to be a great experience.  Not only was the writing surface of the paper incredibly smooth and easy to write on, but there was little to almost no feathering with any of the inks on this paper.  I tried everything from Private Reserve and Noodler’s Fountain Pen inks to a Sharpie Pen, Pilot G2, Pilot Varsity, Uniball Signo, Pilot Hi Tech C, Post-it Flag+ Gel Pen, Pentel Slicci, and Paper Mate Liquid Flair, none of these pens had any issues on the paper whether it be bleeding, feathering, or scratchy writing.  The only pen that showed slight issues was the Uniball Vision Elite, but even the feathering and bleeding with this pen was very minimal.

Back side of the writing sample in the Black n' Red notebook shows that the blledthrough is incredibly minimal, if any at all

I wanted to post a picture of the back side of the writing sample just to show how well the paper holds up.  You really dont get much of any bleedthrough on this paper, which is quite impressive.  Normally Im kind of picky about bleed through on paper, but I can say with confidence that you should not have any issues with most pens on this paper.  One other aspect of this paper is very nice, which is how well the perforated edges rip off.  With a simple fold back and forth, it rips right off vlean and neat.   Overall you really cant beat this notebook in my eyes.  Between the clean and professional look, the sturdy cover and binding, and the high quality paper, you can rest assured that your $5 is money well spent with this notebook.  If you dont have a local Staples to pick up your office supplies from, you can also find this great notebook on Amazon.com here, or in my Amazon Store with lots of the other cool office supplies I’ve reviewed.

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