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LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note

Comb Binding Notebook Reviews — 31 August 2009
LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note
The B5 Twist Ring Note by LIHIT LAB

The B5 Twist Ring Note by LIHIT LAB

During my recent trip to San Francisco, I wanted to make sure I found some stores that sold unique office supplies and stationery so I could pick up some stuff for new reviews, luckily I found Maido Stationery to fill that need.  One of the first items that caught my attention there was the B5 Twist Ring Note by LIHIT LAB.  Check out their site at that link, but dont ask me to translate anything on there for you. :)

LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note Cover

LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note with blue cover, and clear plastic overlay

On the surface the LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note looks like a pretty basic notebook, but what caught my attention was the thicker spiral coil that binds it together.  If you look closely, and if you look at the diagram on the lower left corner of the cover page, you can see that its a little more than just a simple plastic coil.  It has a spring running up the inside of it, and you can see some interlocking teeth embedded into it.  Additionally the diagram on the cover kind of gives away the fact that this binding system opens and closes in order to add or remove pages from your notebook, similar to the Levenger Circa Notebooks.

Click the photo for a closer look at how and where to open the LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note

Click the photo for a closer look at how and where to open the LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note

If you take a look at the individual pages of the notebook you can see in light gray watermark style text how to open the binding system to add or remove paper, clicking on the photo above will give you a better view.  My first attempt at opening the binding system was very easy, a slight pull on the top inside corner, and the bottom inside corner in opposite directions opened up the plastic binding to allow for adding or removing the paper.

A close up of the open rings and instructional text on each page of the LIHIT LAB Twist Ring Note

A close up of the open rings and instructional text on each page of the LIHIT LAB Twist Ring Note

The above photo shows the close up of the individual rings on the binding system of the Twist Ring Note, and lets you see the simple instructions printed on each page.  Once you open the notebook and either add or remove pages, its quite simple to close it back up.  You simply start at the bottom of the binding, and just squeeze the two sides back together, working your way to the top.  There is no guess work involved in closing the binding back up, you can see and feel once it is firmly closed up and ready to hold all of your pages together.  Its a pretty simple and seemingly sturdy system, and it only takes one or two opening/closings to get the hang of how to use it.

One more close up of the LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note ring system

One more close up of the LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note ring system

Just wanted to include one more photo of the LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note ring system so you can get an idea of how it functions.  The plastic on these rings is the harder less flexible type of plastic, so it seems like it should be quite sturdy and hold up to daily use.

LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note Writing Sample

LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note Writing Sample

Before getting down to the actual writing sample and results, its important to note that this notebook is great if you are the fold over type.  It folds over pretty nicely and does not cause any buckling or bunching up when you do it.  At 30 pages thick (40 pages when I added the 10 extra refills that came with it) it does not become at all bulky or hard to write on when folded over.

I found that all of the pens that I used on this notebook performed fairly well, everything from gel ink, to rollerball, to fountain pens were use.  There was very minimal feathering with a few of the pens, but not anything that was disruptive to my writing.  On the bleed through issue, there was somewhat of a noticeable amount on the other side of the page.  The Uniball Signo, and Pentel Slicci seemed to do best in the bleed through department, but they were also some of the thinner tipped pens that I used, so that could also be why.  Id say if you are picky about bleed through you might be cautious about this notebook, but overall its not TOO bad.

As I mentioned before, the removable nature of the paper in this notebook, and the proprietary binding system remind me of the Levenger brand of notebooks, but clearly not as high end.  I could see these notebooks being kind of “Levenger for the school budget” if you will.  At $6.15 for the whole notebook and extra pages, its not a bad deal, considering you can keep adding paper refills, and you can move your notes around while keeping a clean and neat appearance with them.

Also, in regards to full disclosure on this, there was no discount or special consideration given to me for the purchase or review of this notebook.  This notebook was paid for in full from my own office supplies budget.

© 2009 – 2011, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

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  • http://www.completeorganizingsolutions.com Tanna

    I haven’t seen those before, I like!

  • http://twitoaster.com/country-us/officesupplygee/ OfficeSupplyGee

    Review of a pretty cool, and different notebook http://officesupplygeek.com/notebook-rev...

  • http://diysara.wordpress.com sara

    I posted a link to this review over at DIYPlanner.com :D this looks like so much fun.

    Any info on where these may be available outside of Cali?

  • shaijinx

    @OfficeSupplyGee Very cool notebook. What was the price? Did it come in smaller sizes also?

  • Thomas

    I wonder if the spacing on these is similar to the plastic comb binding paper. They sell pre punched of that at most office stores.

  • Kelly Seltzer

    Wow – very nice. I see from their website there is a store in New York. I will have to pay them a visit.

  • http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

    @Tanna – Glad you like, and thanks for stopping by! :)

    @Sara – Thanks for posting the link over there, the people on that site are so knowledgeable so Ill be happy hear what they have to say.

    If you go to their site, http://www.maidostationery.com/ and look at the “Contact Us” section, there are other locations there. And also, when I shopped at the store in SF, the very friendly woman there told me that since I was from NJ, I could email them any time if I needed anything else…which I guess might tell you how much time I spent shopping there. ;)

    @Thomas – Im not sure but if you show me a link to something similar to what you are talking about I can check it out.

    @Kelly Seltzer – Yeah, that NY store is now on my radar…Im sure Ill be visiting too.

  • Thomas

    http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/142854/GBC-Prepunched-Paper-For-Comb-Binding/ is the link. I guess it would depend on what holes there are.

  • http://twitoaster.com/country-us/officesupplygee/ OfficeSupplyGee

    @shaijinx It was $6.15 + CA sales tax which is about 7,000% :) The did have larger sizes, but I didnt notice smaller sizes.

  • shaijinx

    @OfficeSupplyGee Cool, thanks for info. Unfortunately, my work won’t sell something that specialized..or awesome.

  • http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

    @Thomas – I forgot about those, we actually use those where I work. I think those holes are a slightly longer and thinner, but I can check against what we have in the office next time Im in. For comparison the ones in that link that you provided show 19 holes for an 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet, and the LIHIT LAB Twist Ring is 7 1/8″ x 9 7/8″ and uses a page with 29 holes.

    I also think that the binding comb for the one in your link is a much thinner plastic. You might be able to fudge things a bit and get one to work with the other though.

  • http://frindling.blogspot.com/ Chris Chan

    Nice review, but I dislike the proprietarily punched paper (alliteration alert) of this and Circa. I prefer the three-ring system of the Mead Five-Star NoteBinders, which is a slightly more binderish take on this concept.
    Anyone else an avid NoteBinder user?

  • http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

    @Chris Chan – Thanks for the kind feedback. I can understand having a different preference when it comes to the binding systems, my biggest gripe with the three-ring systems is that they are more difficult to open/close, but mostly that they dont hold the pages tight in their place, they tend to have some play and move around a bit. Again, noting wrong with different preferences though.

  • http://www.mepem.com PemIam

    I’m also curious about the Mead Five-Star Notebinder. Would be interesting to see an OfficeSupplyGeek review of that? Though I am skeptical, because I want thin notebooks to keep in my backpack. Right now my favorite 3 hopeful choices are:

    1) Circa Levenger, using 1/4 inch discs

    2) 19 hole comb binding, using a variations that is fast/easy to open/close, such as GBC Proclick (another blogger called it “zip binding”)

    3) this proprietary 29 hole LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note

  • http://www.mepem.com PemIam

    okay, is there somewhere I can order LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note online in the USA?

  • http://www.mepem.com PemIam

    Btw, I live in Austin Texas, in case there is some awesome paper supply store with stuff like (Levenger Circa, GBC Proclick comb binding / zip binding, LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note, etc) O:-)

  • http://www.mepem.com PemIam

    Er, there’s actually something similar for both 19 hole comb binding holes (GBC ZipBind) and 32 hole wire binding holes (GBC ProClick)

  • http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

    @PemIam – Personally I prefer the Levenger Circa over everything I’ve used. If you read enough reviews you will find people who do and dont like them though. I have been using two of them on a daily basis for probably 2 years now and 2 others on a less frequent basis.

    As for the LIHIT LAB notebooks, I would suggest going to the Maido website and clicking on the “Contact” tab there and calling them. When I was visiting the store in San Francisco they told me that they take orders that way.

    As for the GBC products, I always viewed those as more of an industrial/office type of product, not ideal for the individual user.