Beavercraft Leatherbound Journal

A few days ago I received a new leather journal from the fine folks at  Beavercraft and thought I'd put it through its paces and see what happened. 

What happened is, I was impressed.  Keep reading and see for yourself.
Or just go buy one, I think you'll like it.

Ok, on to the review.


Let me start by saying that I'm not always a big fan of perma-bound leather covered notebooks.  I find the leather cover to be too big, the strap to get in the way and the whole thing to be more form over function.  That's much of the reason that I built my books the way I did with removable, replaceable, lay flat pages; I'm picky about having to fight with my paper and wanted several specific things from a sketchbook. 

The difference is that this, is a lined journal, not a sketchbook, and that it has a certain rustic charm that can overcome the things I would usually not enjoy.

Ok, let's dig in!

It arrived unceremoniously in a plastic bag inside of a kraft bubble mailer.  I'm perfectly ok with this as I really don't get the fascination with "luxury" packaging and the criticism that gets levied at products that just deliver to you in a standard package.  When I get a fancy box or container, I'm always torn between recycling it and "wasting" all of the fanciness or keeping yet another thing that I have no real use for because it seems wrong to throw it away.
A plain bubble mailer can get disposed of. 

+1 Beavercraft

Beavercraft leather journal.

 Upon opening it up, I was greeted with supple leather that has a great silky, matte texture and has already started to develop some character, wrapped in a chocolate brown leather strap decorated with a Beavercraft embossed leather medallion.

The leather strap is tied through the cover in a way that makes it strong but removable if you want to.

Beavercraft medallion on the closure strap. Can be removed if you're more the incognito type.

 The leather strap wraps around the book twice, with enough room to tuck the strap under. This provides enough friction to keep it in place, thanks to the texture of the leather. 

The pages are stitched in five signatures with a thick, waxed cord.

The pages are set into the cover in five signatures of twelve flat sheets to make 24 usable sheets per folded signature. I believe that Beavercraft lists this as 120 pages.
I disagree with the dominance of listing "pages" over "sheets" in notebooks and sketchbooks since it mostly just looks better on marketing material and measuring the faces of an object over the actual physical object just feels disingenuous to me.  I'm not blaming the manufacturer here, it's an industry trend that bugs me.

The stitching inside one of the signatures.

The braided stitches at the top and bottom are a nice touch.

The thread/cord used for the stitched binding appears to be very sturdy and the sheets feel secure without being under strain.

 The book measures about 7.25" wide (the angle makes the top look off the edge but I can assure you that it is not).

And it's about 5.25" wide.

It's about 1.25" thick at the binding.

The book is a nice size.  It's a good mix of not too big as to be too bulky and not too small as to be too hard to use.  It also feels good in the hand; it's just nice to hold. The mix of the leather's texture and body and the size give it a reassuring feel in my hand.

I was expecting an off-white or natural paper inside so I was surprised when the pages were kraft, complete with fibers and flecks. It feels a bit thicker than standard copy paper and my caliper agrees.

 Beavercraft paper .0035 in.

Domtar Multiuse 20# copy paper .0025 in.

I love the look of this kind paper but am aware that it often is very porous making liquid inks feather and bleed.  I'm also not a fan of rough, scratchy paper but, once again, I was pleasantly surprised.  This paper is textured but not rough and it has an interesting lack of stiffness that makes it feel thinner than it actually is.

Next up, I needed to test it for bleed-through. I was pretty sure that would be the first major strike against it since fiberous paper tends to wick at least laterally and usually bi-axially.

And... 

I was wrong.

Take nothing but pictures.

I threw everything on my desk at this paper (as seen above).  It was early, so I forgot what refill was in my Right Choice pen.  I even tossed a pencil in the mix for good marks, or at least, pencil marks.

Leave nothing but pen prints.

I flipped the page and saw that not a single thing bled through and, besides my heavy handed writing, you couldn't see a thing on the back of the page. I really thought the Parker or the Monotwin would show through, at least a little, but am happy to be wrong.

+1 Beavercraft.  

Since I had my digital caliper out, I figured I'd get a read on the thickness of the leather.

If my math is correct, the cover is over 20 times the thickness as a sheet of the paper.

Ok, now for my one nitpick. 
The inside of the cover leaves little leather shreds on the paper.  I'm hoping that this will lessen a bit as the leather moves and burnishes a bit. With the open design of the book, I'm sure that dust and lint will find it's way onto the paper too so maybe I just need to learn to sweep the page with my hand before I use it. 
All in all, not the end of the world but something to take note of. 


I went into this review expecting to not be the biggest fan.  Up until now, I've dismissed these types of journals as style experiments rather than useful tools. 
Well, after playing with this Beavercraft book, I think it's fair to say that I'm a fan.  The leather appears to be good quality, the paper was surprisingly good and there's an appeal as a physical object that just makes me enjoy it.
It certainly doesn't replace my sketchbook but it does it's own tasks and does them well. 
I'm really grateful that Beavercraft sent me one, as I don't think I would have tried it otherwise and it's always good to expand your horizons and try new things, especially when they turn out to be so thoughtfully made.

Pictured with a Right Choice Painting Company bolt action pen. I'll have a review for that in a bit so stay tuned.

If you're looking to pick one up, they sell through Amazon here.  I get a small percentage referral if you use the link, but you pay the same as if you searched it directly so thank you in advance.

Think this would work for what you use a journal for?  See anything I missed or have questions?  Feel free to comment down below.