Field Notes vs LOCHBY vs Dialog Notebook: What I Use Each One For

I want to give you a brief overview of some of the pocket notebooks that I use on a daily basis.

Watch the full video for everything shown on camera.

For which one to carry every day, see my everyday carry notebook guide.

Short answer: Field Notes for daily capture, the LOCHBY notebook for fountain pens and a commonplace book, the Dialog Notebook for thin, special paper, and the Pocket Bujo when I want more room to write.

Disclosure: Dialog sent me their notebook to try, and a friend sent some of these Field Notes.

Field Notes: my everyday notebook

Field Notes, my favorite out of this bunch. The covers are super nice. They feel and wear out extremely well.

I've been using them for about a year now. I believe I've used about 15 or 16 of them and still going strong.

They can just go in the pocket and just go with me all the time.

A lot of times I just carry these along with my favorite pen, the Big Idea Design Base Line bolt action. And I just clip it to the front and I just put it in my pocket.

It has a super deep carry pocket, which is super nice because the top is flush with the notebook.

This edition doesn't feel like matte or glossy, but it's somewhere in between.

I don't expect this notebook to be super fountain pen friendly.

It is a daily use notebook where I can just write stuff down, get it out of my head and into the notebook.

And I love carrying these around just because they look so great and they wear out super nicely. So that's my main use for Field Notes.

And these alternatives are just ways that I can still try some different types of paper and see what's out there in terms of other, maybe higher quality paper, like the Tomoe River paper.

Best for daily capture. Skip it for fountain pen writing.

LOCHBY: the fountain pen notebook

This one is 68 GSM Tomoe River paper.

The cover doesn't have anything else on the inside or the back of the notebook. It's just plain cardboard, fairly flexible.

It is stitch bound, which makes it a little more durable.

So, it's 68 GSM compared to, I believe, the Hobonichi ones, around 52 GSM.

It doesn't bleed as much, and I'm able to use my fountain pens.

So, super nice notebook. I personally don't love the cover, and that's why I keep it inside one of these LOCHBY covers.

Super convenient, and a pack of four. You can even mix and match if you're trying to find different insides: lined, dotted, or blank.

I was actually a little surprised by the Field Notes. We all think this is the cheaper of the bunch.

It's not that much cheaper than the LOCHBY, which was surprising, because the LOCHBY uses a much higher quality paper, and they're very comparable in price if you add up the number of pages you get by the total cost.

The LOCHBY is my commonplace book. I love the Tomoe paper for that.

Best for fountain pens and anything you want to keep. Skip it if you want a cover that looks good on its own.

The pen in my LOCHBY cover

It just allows me to use the notebook inside this cover and carry with me a pen.

It's my first expensive pen that I own. It has super nice patina.

The ink I use in it dries super quickly.

So I'm able to highlight right after with a highlighter, in this case the Mildliners, and it doesn't smudge or anything.

Dialog Notebook: the thin paper

And this notebook, I've been trying to get my hands on because it has a different type of paper.

And holding it, it's just a gorgeous notebook. The paper, it's super thin.

And the dot grid is just super nice, not super intrusive.

It's very minimal, very nice, 62 numbered pages with a 5 mm grid, and the paper I had never heard of before, and it just feels super nice.

They do have a mark at the bottom where you can put what number this notebook is.

This one is staple bound. So, there are two staples that put everything together.

I still haven't figured out what I'll be doing with this notebook.

I'm thinking about using this notebook as my ink swatch, and it's going to keep track of the pens and all the colors that I have.

This one was sent to me by Dialog themselves. So, I'm very grateful to them for sending me this to try and to review on the channel.

I found it on Yoseka, which I believe is one of the few places you can buy it directly in the US.

They do ship to the US from Japan, but it's a little longer wait time and you do have to pay additional for shipping.

I can see why it costs more, because it's coming all the way from Japan and you do get a high quality paper and some of the nice things that this notebook has to offer.

Best for trying a different, very thin paper. Skip it if you want the easiest notebook to find.

Pocket Bujo: when I need more room

So, this is the Pocket Bujo, and this is an A6 notebook.

So, it's a little larger than the pocket size notebooks like the Dialog. It is a little taller and a little wider.

And that really makes it perfect for me to write maybe a little longer form content.

As you open it, it is the same size as an A5 notebook.

So, that's super nice, super useful when you're trying to write a lot of stuff.

This is my prayer journal and it's private, but I do have different prayers that I carry with me inside this cover that I got from Etsy a little while ago.

I added this a couple weeks ago and I am loving that setup.

Best for longer writing in a small format. Skip it if it has to fit a pocket size cover.

The cover I just started carrying

I recently got the Paper Republic Grand Voyageur in the pocket size.

I've seen these ones enough that I wanted to get one for myself.

I got it in this beautiful olive that is super nice, super soft to the touch, and it's already developing some patina as I use it and as I carry it with me.

Why I carry more than one

And it's the beauty of having just different tools in your arsenal.

I get bored if I use one thing for a long time.

So trying to find different tools, different ways of doing things, keeps me motivated to keep going on this journal hobby.

The gear worth a look

• Field Notes: my everyday capture notebook.
• Dialog Notebook: thin paper, 5 mm dot grid, numbered pages.
• Big Idea Design Base Line Bolt Action Pen: the pen I clip to my Field Notes.
• Paper Republic Grand Voyageur (Pocket): the cover I had just started carrying.

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Related reading

• Best Pocket Notebook for Everyday Carry? I Carry Three Instead
• Best Field Notes Alternatives for Fountain Pen Users
• Pocket Notebook Covers: 7 I Have Carried and What Each Is For

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Field Notes good for fountain pens?

I don't expect this notebook to be super fountain pen friendly. It is a daily use notebook where I can just write stuff down.

Which of these is best for fountain pens?

The LOCHBY, with 68 GSM Tomoe River paper. It doesn't bleed as much, and I'm able to use my fountain pens.

Why use more than one notebook?

Trying to find different tools, different ways of doing things, keeps me motivated to keep going on this journal hobby.