Lochby Travel Journal

A while ago I reviewed some Bond Travel Gear products, and since then I’ve been using their A5 Tomoe River notebook daily-I’ve actually gone through 4 of them (and I wish I had at least 4 more). Bond Travel Gear has branched out to a new stationery brand called Lochby. They recently sent me two of their products to try-the Field Journal and the Tool Roll (which I will review separately).

The Lochby Field Journal is a waxed canvas notebook cover that comes with one dot grid refill. It utilizes an aircraft-grade aluminum hook closure with sturdy straps, including a handle on the spine. The inside is a pretty mustard yellow fabric. The refills contain 72 pages of white 68gsm Tomoe River paper and a Kraft cover, available in 5mm dot grid, 6mm lined and blank rulings. Thanks to Lochby for sending this product over for review.

Back Pocket

The cover has a pocket on the back, it currently holds my favorite writing pad from Nanami Paper. When I use a notebook cover I don’t use the writing pad under the paper, but under my hand so the paper is protected from my hand oils.

Pen Loop

The pen loop is elastic and holds most large pens. I currently have a Pilot Custom 823 in Smoke in mine.

Inside Cover

The inside cover has a mesh pocket on the top with a velcro closure, as well as two other pockets on the bottom. I currently have clips, pencil lead and page flags in my mesh pocket, and post-its and stickers in the bottom pockets.

The cover uses elastics to hold the notebook refills. You can comfortably fit six refills in this cover.

The Travel Journal comes with one dot grid refill, which I have been using to swatch out my bottled inks by color. My local pen club has our annual Inkstravaganza coming up-where we all bring inks to share and try. I wanted a swatch book by color I could bring and let everyone look at, which this notebook is perfect for. I may need to order another dot grid refill since I have so many bottled inks. The paper has just a little bit of show through, but not much bleeding, even from the large swabs. 68gsm Tomoe River paper is my favorite fountain pen paper.

I’ve been using the lined refill for some of my ink testing for reviews. In this photo you can see my testing of Troublemaker Grape Vine. The lines are numbered in the inner margins, 1-31. There are hash marks at the 0, 12, 24 and 32 lines. These hash marks make it easy to create charts and diagrams.

I use the blank refill for random scribbles, doodles and playing with ink. The refills comfortably lie flat.

I wanted to see if other notebooks I have would fit-here you can see the cover with an A5 Taroko Breeze Notebook.

Overall, I love both the refills and the cover. The refills are a great size, great paper, and are available in 3 different rulings. The cover is durable, attractive, and can be adjusted to fit your needs.

Disclaimer: This product was provided by Lochby for the purpose of this review. All photos and opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links, and this post is not sponsored in any way.