My recent post about the damage to my Miquelrius “Boarding” notebook reminded me that I had another Miquelrius notebook in my review queue: the Miquelrius Logbook.

The Logbook is about the closest Miquelrius comes to a Moleskine clone: it’s a pocket sized 9x14cm hardcover notebook with an elastic closure, a ribbon marker and a back pocket. Various designs have been available in the past couple of years (including a linen-covered version and this version with a cool marbled cover ), though it looks like the most recent catalog on their website just has them in pretty basic plain pastels.

But I was fortunate enough to come across this very cool design, which looks like a vintage composition book. Having a composition book in my favorite size has always been a fantasy of mine, so this was quite exciting! Miquelrius still offers a line called “Vintage Notebooks” that have this kind of cover design, but in larger sizes. The ornate label on the front cover makes it look less like an American-style composition book and more like a traditional European notebook, such as Emilio Braga‘s notebooks, or these Italian notebooks.

The Miquelrius Logbook is a bit thicker than a Moleskine, giving it a pleasantly chunky feel. The outside is a smooth paper surface– the black spine is just printed on, but the red and white label is an actual pasted-on label. I haven’t tried to remove it, but from tentatively picking at one corner, I don’t think it’s mean to be removable.

The cover overhang is bigger than I’d like, but not totally out of proportion with the notebook’s dimensions. The spine is quite squared off, so the notebook doesn’t open quite as flat as I’d like. It will get pretty far open, but over time I could see that the corners of the spine might get stressed by this and start to tear.

Inside, there are plain black endpapers. The first page has a little blurb about the company’s history, which I didn’t realize went back 150 years.

Then you get 100 sheets of creamy, unlined 100 gsm paper– at least according to the label. By my count, it’s actually 96 sheets! Or 192 pages if you count both sides– just like a pocket Moleskine. But unlike a pocket Moleskine, the paper is sturdy and fountain pen friendly! There was only a tiny bit of bleed-through when I pressed down quite hard with a flexible nib (and of course with the dreaded Super Sharpie). The paper is smooth but gives a little feedback– it’s a really nice balance.

This charming Miquelrius Logbook is still listed on Amazon but not currently available. Too bad! It may not be perfect in every respect, but the retro exterior and fountain pen friendly paper make it a winner for me!