Galen Leather, well-known in the pen and paper community for their leather and wood accessories, have been slowly expanding their business to manufacturing notebooks. And they aren’t just any type of notebook – they have started their line up of Tomoe River paper notebooks.

Read: Tomoe River Notebooks to Try in 2020

They have several types of Tomoe River Notebooks: The Everyday Blank, The Everyday Book, and the Everyday Pad.

Notebook Specifications

The Everyday Pad, to simply put, is designed similarly to the Rhodia Dot Pad.

• Made from Tomoe River 52 gsm white paper
• Blank paper – 150 Sheets
• 145 x 210 mm (5,70 x 8,26 inches)
• Includes grid and lined guides
• Includes blotter (also can be used as a writing mat for comfortable writing)
• Comes with a zippered canvas bag
• Perforated pages – Staple-bound

Quick Look

The Everyday Pad comes with a zippered brown canvas pouch with the Galen Leather logo printed in the front. You will receive a blotter and ruled guides as well. The guides that Galen Leather provide are have lines that are bold enough for you to see as far as 3 layers of 52 gsm Tomoe River. They come in 4 variants – 2 lined (7mm and 10mm) and 2 grid (5mm and 10mm).

The cover has scored lines (similar to the Rhodia Dot Pad) at the top makes it easy to flip the cover behind the pad and also helps protect the cover from wear-and-tear.

One thing that I did notice after a few days of using the Everyday Pad is that the top flap doesn’t stick to the top as well as the Rhodia. When the cover is flipped over for a longer period of time, a part of the cover will expose the staple binding and the double sided tape used to glue them together. However, this isn’t a big of a deal because it doesn’t ruin the binding overall. It is actually easy to “put together” by just putting a bit of pressure to get the binding to stick back on.

Galen Leather also includes multi-function ink blotter. On their Instagram, they explain that “one side of the leather pad can be used as an ink blotter to dry ink and the other side as a writing pad for more comfortable writing .”

The leather pad, when used as a writing pad, would work great for heavy handed writers so that it would protect the next few pages from markings from the previous page.

Paper Quality

Granted that this is made with Tomoe River paper, the paper quality is definitely of high quality. Tomoe River is definitely best for fountain pen ink because it can show off sheening, shading, and shimmer qualities. And it usually showcases better than most fountain pen friendly papers.

The Everyday Pad comes in a while 52 gsm Tomoe River paper – so ghosting is to be expected. Despite how thin the paper is, it is bleed through and feather resistant.

Read: Tomoe River Paper is One of the Best Paper for Fountain Pens (…but)

Overall Thoughts

Overall, I love the Everyday Pad. I have been using this for work particularly taking meeting notes and sketching wireframes. While I am not the biggest fan of blank notebooks, the guides that come along with this notebook really help and don’t interfere with my writing. I do appreciate the inclusion of a blotter because Tomoe River paper can slow the dry time of inks. Sometimes, you just need inks to dry as quickly as possible (or use the ink blotter that comes with Galen Leather notebooks).

I find this product quite unique for notebooks that use Tomoe River paper – and might be the first one that I’ve seen that top-bound. If you are looking for a Tomoe River version of the Rhodia Dot Pad, this might be the perfect one for you.

Get yours from the Galen Leather website. Galen Leather is open for business but please expect delays during the pandemic.

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.