It comes to no surprise that Galen Leather launched Tomoe River notebooks that were covered in – well, leather. In March 2020, Galen Leather informed us that they were working on a leather-bound notebook that was slated to be released in May.

They launched their leather-bound notebooks (along with other brand new products) in June. The Leather Tomoe River Notebooks come in 3 sizes – A5, A6, and B6 – all of which come in Galen Leather signature colors, Crazy Horse Brown and Crazy Horse Forest Green.

It’s been a childhood dream to create a leather-bound journal just like our grandfather had produced using old school techniques once upon a time.  The idea was to craft a leather notebook that was functional, minimalist, with excellent quality paper and superior binding that wouldn’t come undone after just a few uses.

Galen leather

Notebook Specifications

• Completely flat-lay
• Vegetable tanned cow leather cover
• Hand-bound from Tomoe River 52 gsm white paper
• Blank paper 
• 200 sheets (400 pages)
• Includes grid and lined guides
• Includes blotter (also can be used as a writing mat for comfortable writing)

Unboxing

Galen Leather is one of those companies that pack their products with intention. With every order, you will receive a few Galen Leather trinkets such as:

• Vintage inspired Postcard
• Galen Leather pouch
• Turkish Instant coffee
• Earl Grey tea
• Evil eye

Quick Look

The leather notebooks come in a cardboard notebook case to protect the notebook. While the leather is already protection enough, this case protects the notebook’s very thin pages from potential damage when kept in a bag.

The blank notebook will also come with a leather ink blotter which also doubles as a writing mat. It also has 2 guides – one lined and one graph (both with different line heights).

The Leather Notebook’s design is minimalist and the only branding visible is at the back of the notebook which contains the notebook’s specs. Galen Leather keeps their branding on their freebies such as the pouch and also the notebook case.

Paper Quality

These notebooks use genuine Tomoe River paper. In case you didn’t know, Tomoe River is one of the many premium fountain pen friendly papers. Tomoe River stands out from the rest because of its ability to bring out the unique properties of fountain pen ink. It is also well-known because of the paper’s ink resistance despite it being only 52gsm.

The notebook remains flat regardless of what page you are in. Expect the first and last page to have a few imperfections like the visibility of the glue/adhesive. This isn’t a dealbreaker and does not affect the quality of the notebook but this is something to note as well.

Overall Thoughts

This is by far the best Galen Leather notebook I have every tried. The leather cover is what makes this notebook stand out from all the Tomoe River notebooks out there. While they only offer this as a blank notebook, Galen Leather includes grid and lined guides that are visible through the thin Tomoe River paper. I am also pleasantly surprised with the variety of sizes that they offer because I rarely come across Tomoe River notebooks that come in B6 and A6 sizes.

Because of the paper quality, this notebook suits fountain pen users the most. It’s especially good for those who do long-form journaling or use Tomoe River notebooks for sketching. Unless you’re someone who likes to Bullet Journal on blank paper, I don’t really recommend this for bullet journaling because the use of guides could be more counter productive.

You can get yours on the Galen Leather website (click this referral link to get 10% off) or check out their stockists.

Disclosure: This product was sent to us for free in return for my honest review. Photos are ours unless otherwise stated. All opinions expressed here are the author’s own and are not in any way influenced by the aforementioned organization. For inquiries, please visit our Partnership and Advertisements page.