Review: Kaweco Zequenz Notebook - Brown/Cognac @Kaweco

Thank you Sebastin for sending me this Kaweco Zequenz notebook to review. It is certainly one of the more unique notebooks I own and have had the pleasure of using. Let's get to it!

The elastic is pretty snug and pulls in the cover.

ABOUT

Size: A6 / 4.13" x 5.83" / 10.5 cm x 14.8 cm
Color: White
Ruling: Lined & Blank
Sheet Count: 80
Price: €27,80
Where to buy: Amazon

APPEARANCE

The Kaweco Zequenz is a small, portable notebook. It's actually two notebooks in one - the brown side has blank pages, and the cognac side has lined pages. The covers are a soft, flexible faux leather with a pebble texture. The brown is a medium dark brown, and the cognac is a muted sandy brown. Both covers have dark brown stitching along the edges. The covers are marked with the Kaweco logo and Zequenz. An elastic closure slides on over the notebooks to secure them closed, and it also has a pen loop attached to it.

The edges of the covers and pages inside are rounded, making for a more easily portable notebook (the corners of the pages are less likely to get dog-eared). The paper is white, but not bright white, and the lined ruling is easy on the eyes. The lines are thin and not very opaque, so writing is not obstructed, nor is it distracting to actually write.

PERFORMANCE & FEEL

I was most curious how this paper would perform. It feels smooth but does not have a coating, and it looks nice. It also feels a little thin when turning it, but one cannot judge paper based on its thinness! (Tomoe River...)

Pencils have no issues on this paper - they write nicely. In fact, gel pens, ballpoints, and roller ball pens all write without issue. No feathering, they dry quickly, and the ink colours look very nice. In the case of Sakura gel pens, they ink pops off the page; it looks great. Show through, bleed through, and tip print is quite prominent and could render the back of the page unusable.

How about fountain pens? Well, I had high hopes. On the one hand, drying times were fairly quick. On the other hand, the paper did not tolerate the ink so well. I experienced feathering, show through, and a lot of bleed through. I tested a variety of nib sizes and inks and this was still the case. Both the lined and blank pages had the same performance.

Although I was disappointed by the paper's performance with fountain pens, I do realize Kaweco also makes pencils, ballpoints, and roller balls, so the paper can easily work with their other writing utensils. It just doesn't work that well with fountain pens.

PROS

• I love though is the feeling of the thinner paper. When it's written on, it crinkles and feels rather magical. It also makes me feel like I've done a lot of work, so I've been productive. As such, I've been toting this notebook around with me and filling it up with ideas of all kinds (including the draft of this blog post).
• It's small and portable, and convenient with both lined and blank pages. The elastic closure that can be removed is really neat, especially since it has a pen loop built in. I love that, and the loop is quite stretchy so it's fairly accommodating. I usually have a Kaweco Art Sport ASIA fountain pen in it. 
• I like the semi-flexible covers.
• Very well put together. Looks good, feels good, hasn't come apart with my usage so far.

CONS  

• On the downside, the paper doesn't play well with fountain pens. There was feathering, show through, and bleed through. No hope of using wet writers or broad nibs, flex nibs, and there was also no sheen visible on the paper with inks that otherwise have one. (Particles are visible though, but that works differently than sheen does.)

• It seems to be pricy (based on the few prices I've found online).
• My only other issue is, because it's two notebooks put together, it can be quite thick to write on when you're at the beginning of each notebook. 

OVERALL 

This is a notebook with a lot of potential, depending on what your needs are, and it's one that caught my interest. I love the idea of having two notebooks in one and the elastic slide on closure is most convenient. If you use utensils other than fountain pens (I do!), the Kaweco Zequenz is a neat notebook to work with and carry around.

I received this item free of charge for the purposes of this review. I was not compensated monetarily for my review. Everything you've read here is my own opinion.