Canvas Journal Covers
The leader in the field, in part, due to marketing, in part, due to perseverance, I would guess, and in part, just “good enough.”
Now I have several.
The first one I bought a couple of years back, as an exploration, like, to try the products. Read about it, and it seemed good. Looks better online than it does in person. Pluses for the Lochby products I’ve got? Well-made, durable, feels like the picture on the web. The covering material is supposedly canvas, and I like the way canvas ages. There’s a sense, a touch it has, and while “Cordura nylon” is the current rage for bag and baggage makers? That plastic-like kind of material has no feel, no appeal.
The way I use it, at first, it was my “work” journal, used for notes and accounting in Austin — and beyond. However, after a year or so, the zippered case became a pocket version I could carry some afternoons for coffee shops while the newer one replaced the “work” journal, as I like the clip, dual-notebook set-up better for various work and work-related note-taking arrangements. To me, it still feels like an over-stuffed Day Timer, only smaller, thoughtful, and more useful.
Austin requires at least two pages, a single page for the day, and page for accounting, the readings, usually enumerated by sign alone. Anonymous yet useful. In San Antonio, now, it’s just a coffee stop with friends and family then off to work, but I get various notes along the way. No real accounting required.
The, I think, ‘A6’ size is near perfect for my style, 3 and 1/2 inches wide by 5 inches tall for Field Notes (style) of journal. I tend to a single page for a day on the desktop version, a simpler canvas cover for a single notebook. The one in the picture actually holds two notebooks at the moment, as I’m down to just page or two in the old journal.
I use three or four different set-ups. One is for work. One is in a go-bag, also used for travel, and sometimes called an analog kit. One sits on my desk, the main one I use, it sits next to the computer’s monitor, under a secondary display. Finally, I wanted a single one to slip in my pocket for odd Sundays for coffee, or a Tuesday with fishing buddies. Or even a Thursday.
I started this when I was looking at my EDC gear, again. A deck of tarot cards goes in every carry-kit, work, travel, play. But when I’m just heading out for an afternoon of coffee with friends? I discovered I don’t need to haul a purse (man-purse, backpack, book bag, sling, briefcase, whatever) with me. I did need a pocket notebook for various analog activities. The zippered Lochby fits in cargo shorts’ pockets.
The aforementioned zippered cover, while a pain to work with at work, as stand-alone carry piece, more like a spare? Works good enough. I like the pocket for pens and pencils, the zipper itself, while an unnecessary step most of the time, for a pocket carry? Effective as a catch-all. I stuck a pin, a badge on mine, “It gets worse before it gets worse,” as a humorous reminder for myself. The front also sports a hook and loop patch for affixing whatever strikes me as needed, as a reminder, in the form of a morale patch.
The dual notebook, fastened with just a hook instead of a zipper? I glued on a patch that said “This actually is my first rodeo,” again, as a reminder for myself. Notes, diagrams, quick cartoon-like figures, and simple reminders. Checklists, sometimes. In Austin at the rock shop, a running tally for accounting purposes. At one time, I was transcribing the planets and their positions, more as a reminder than anything else.
Currently that one has a special pen, with a purple ballpoint replacement cartridge, plus a “forever” pencil. The pen was a family heirloom-like acquisition, and I merely replaced the dried-out cartridge with a sharper “purple” color. That’s what the label said. It must amuse me.
While it was the Field Notes Brand that got me started, the cost of the notebooks, relatively fewer pages, and build quality left me a little underwhelmed. I prefer slightly heavier stock of paper, and I tend towards ballpoint these days. Previously, I was strictly a Sharpie guy — used to burn a CD with a reading and hand-mark the date, sign of the client.
On my desk, there’s the most used one, merely a single notebook with just a day-date and a single set of notations for the day. On work days in Austin or San Antonio, I leave the desktop blank and use the portable one in the work bag. Other days? Such as needed.
