Muji Grid Notebook Review

This is Part 8 of my Mega Monster Review series on pocket notebooks. You can visit the main Mega Monster Review page for a listing of all the notebooks reviewed in this series. You can also open the massive Master Spreadsheet to see all the aggregated data on these notebooks. Note: This is a work in progress and will take several weeks to complete.

Muji Grid Notebook (A6)

Introduction:

I have to say that despite seeing their name on many occasions and in many venues, I’m pretty unfamiliar with Muji and their stationery offerings. They seem to fly under the radar, but I’ve only ever heard good things about their pens and notebooks.

A classy, simple take on The Little Black Book, this little A6 wonder impressed the heck out of me with its performance. Is it worth carrying around an an EDC pocket notebook? Well…if I told you now, it would ruin the surprise. Keep reading for the juicy details.

About the Company:

Muji is not a stationery company, but a retail company. You can read their full “About Us” description on their site, but if you’re looking for the short take, they were started in 1980, and their origin stemmed from “a thorough rationalization of the manufacturing process with an eye to creating simple, low-cost, good quality products.”

They kind of make it sound like they make their own products, but they also have about 700 stores that sell things like food, clothing, and houses (???), so I get the impression that they partner with white-label manufacturers to make goods and sell them under the Muji name. I have no idea who manufactures these notebooks, but I figured this pocket notebook series was a good reason to look into them.

Description:

At first glance, these notebooks are extremely simple. They are black notebooks with no embellishments, not even rounded corners. The covers are thick, stiff, charcoal-black cardstock with a dark gray binding tape covering the spine.

Inside, you get 60 pages of natural beige paper that borders on ivory in color, and very thin, light gray, 5mm graph ruling. The only thing added is a sticker on the back cover with a UPC code and some descriptions of the product.

Update: Thanks to Bradley for asking about removing the sticker. The sticker DOES peel off easily, but it looks like a little of the glue soaks into the cardstock, so it leaves behind a darker patch where the sticker was. You can feel a bit of a difference, but it’s not sticky at all.

I’d like to note that the paper in these notebooks is 55% recycled. Typically, that means crappy performance with fountain pens and rollerballs. As you can see from the image below, my fears were unfounded.

Although the notebooks are super simple and very inexpensive ($9.36 for five notebooks), there are a few really nice touches that, in my opinion, move these notebooks from “basic” product to “premium” product.

First, the binding is awesome! It’s stitched with white thread and then reinforced with a generous strip of textured binding tape on the outside of the spine. This tape also boosts the durability of the spine so you can carry this notebook in your pocket, purse, gym bag, toolbox, or backpack without fear that it will fall apart with extended use. The stitching also allows the notebook to lay flat when open. Bonus!

The cover stock is also thick and durable. It’s certainly not fancy, but it’s going to hold up to rugged use.

And I’m also going to mention the manufacturing details (fit and finish, if you will). I don’t expect a lot of attention to detail for disposable notebooks that are intended to be used and tossed. But the binding and cutting of these notebooks are perfect. There are no rough edges on the covers or paper where they were cut, the binding tape is perfectly aligned to the cover, and the cover is perfectly aligned to the paper. Even the printing of the graph ruling is 100% lined up to how the paper was cut. Some pocket notebooks have slightly sloppy assembly, but not these.

Pencil Results:

I expect pencils to work on any of these notebooks. This notebook met my expectations.

• Palomino Blackwing: The paper is a little toothy, but really not that bad. It’s pretty kind to the pencil tip, which isn’t wearing down as fast as I’d expect. Erasing is okay, although stubborn to start.
• Uni Kuru Toga Mechanical Pencil (0.5): Nice and precise! Very toothy feel; not as enjoyable as the Blackwing. The line is lighter than I’d like it to be, especially against the beige paper. But the lines are also super crisp.

Ballpoint Results:

Ballpoints also worked as expected. Unremarkable experience, but they work flawlessly.

• Uniball Jetstream (0.7): As always (almost), a smooth writing experience, but I wouldn’t call it glassy. The ink is dark and the line is fine. Perfect match to this paper.
• Fisher Space Pen (0.7): The paste ink gave a lot of resistance (felt like a typical, everyday ballpoint). The line is definitely nice and dark, but the sludgy feel of writing is not pleasant.

Gel Results:

Pretty typical results with the gel pens. I’m very happy overall here.

• Uniball Signo 207 Ultra Micro (0.38): Almost perfect. Smooth and consistent, although the line doesn’t dry black…it’s more of a dark gray.
• Pilot G2 (0.5): This one is perfect. Gives some feedback on this paper, but the line is dark. No complaints.
• Zebra Sarasa (0.7): This is always an interesting pen to use. It’s so wet and sloppy, and some papers just can’t handle it. For the most part, it was okay with the Muji paper, but there’s some noticeable spread and it bled through the paper in a bunch of little pinpoints. The line is super dark, though.

Liquid Ink Rollerball Results:

I’m waiting for the day when I’m thrilled with a rollerball (by the way this is the LAST review where I’ll be using the Uniball Vision Elite. What a sucky pen. From now on, I’ll be pairing up a Retro 51 with the Pilot Precise).

• Pilot Precise V5 RT (0.5): Well, I wouldn’t say I’m thrilled with it, but it’s fairly impressive (compared to general rollerball performance, anyway). I did get some feathering (maybe because it’s recycled paper?), but that was pretty minimal. Didn’t notice any spread and it didn’t bleed.
• Uniball Vision Elite (0.8): Sloppy, as always. Lots of feathering. Lots of spread. The good news is that ghosting was minimal and there were no instances of bleed-through.

Fountain Pen Results:

I was legitimately worried with how fountain pens would perform, given the 55% recycled paper. I expected a lot of feathering. Luckily, I hardly got any! The very few instances I had require a loupe to see. So hugely successful for fountain pens…except in one area.

• (EF) Platinum Preppy with Noodlers Midnight Blue ink: Absolutely perfect. Fine line. Smooth. Fast dry time.
• (F) Lamy Safari with Lamy Petrol ink: I think this was the only pen/ink combination that yielded any feathering…and it was just a random tendril every so often. Nothing consistent or glaring. Very smooth with no feedback. Needed another second or two to dry (see the colon after “10-Second Dry Test”).
• (M) Platinum Cool with Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo ink: This pen/ink combination is the true test for feathering and bleed (and dry test, too). No feathering and only one speck of ink on the reverse side of the page. I even got some great shading and sheen with this one. Horrible dry time, though. Probably needed another 20 seconds.
• (0.6) Nemosine Singularity with KWZ Standard Turquoise ink: Almost perfect. Great shading. No feathering, bleed, or ghosting. Didn’t fully dry, but only needed another 5 seconds or so.
• (1.1) Conklin Duragraph with Robert Oster Midnight Sapphire ink: Great shading! Crisp and consistent lines. Did fairly well on the dry time, but like the Singularity, needed about another 5 seconds.

Vital Stats

Conclusion

Muji has three guiding principles to the products they sell:

1. Selection of materials
2. Streamlining of processes
3. Simplification of packages

I think these A6 Grid Notebooks successfully reflect these principles. The materials they use for the paper, cover, and binding are all very high-quality. I can’t really speak to their processes, but packaging doesn’t get much simpler (slap a sticker on the back and go).

The big question for these reviews is always whether or not the notebook is appropriate for EDC use. My answer is an emphatic YES. They are super durable and work very well with all type of writing instruments. The only thing I don’t like is the square corners. They’re going to get crumpled in your pocket or backpack. But otherwise, I don’t think you have to worry about these things deteriorating with less-than-gentle use.

And of course, A6 is wider than a standard pocket notebook, so it may not fit well in smaller pockets.

As always, you should probably avoid very wet pens, as dry times can be a bit of an issue.