The Paper Series: Inky Fingers Currently Inked Notebook

As I've mentioned before, I don't usually like purpose-built notebooks. Part of the fun of getting a new notebook is figuring out what I’m going to use it for. But sometimes you find a product that fits a specific niche just right and you have to give it a shot. The Inky Fingers Currently Inked notebook is exactly that.

The Inky Fingers notebooks are made by Matt Armstrong of the Pen Habit, and his touch shows through in all of his notebooks. He’s been very transparent about the creation process of the notebooks, as well as his struggles sourcing paper. By just picking up the notebook, you get a sense that this was created by someone who is passionate about fountain pens. I picked up my Currently Inked notebook from Vanness Pens at the DC Pen Show this year in the Traveler’s Notebook size.

According to Matt, the paper in the Currently Inked notebook is a wheat straw paper that was carefully chosen to meet his specifications for fountain pen friendliness. And very importantly, it’s a pure white paper, which I think is a great choice for this notebook. It’s literally a book for documenting what ink and what colors you have in pens, and the white paper provides the most "pure" example of exactly that. The "standard" tracking template is printed four times on each page, front and back. The wheat straw paper is, as expected, fantastic, and has no show through even from my broadest nibs. Shading and sheen both show up nicely, and there’s no feathering or bleeding either.

I have an Inky Fingers lined pocket notebook from the last DC Pen Show, and the new notebook fixes everything I didn’t like about it. The older notebook had some sort of glossy cover that felt a bit weird, but the newer notebook has a nice matte cover. Also, the paper texture in the older notebooks was just odd. There was a weird toothyness that gave me the heebie jeebies every time I ran my fingers over the paper, and multiple other people had the same experience when I showed them. This new notebook has none of those problems. The paper is smooth and enjoyable to write on, and I really have no complaints.

Overall, I’m incredibly pleased with the Inky Fingers Currently Inked notebook. It’s a great tool for tracking how long pens have been inked and with what, and just a solid notebook. There are certainly other options for tracking your currently inked pens, but if you’re looking for good paper that’s going to reflect what you’re more likely to use day to day, I feel like this notebook is a tough one to beat.