Notably Local

I’ve missed the boat on any new Canadian pencils, which apparently ended in the early 2000s or 2010s (notwithstanding the current Mexico-made “Canadianas” from Papermate). But since so much of the world’s timber harvest comes from here, and major paper and packaging plants are based here, I figured I should be able to find some good paper products made here.

Still working on it.

First I tried the local art superstore, DeSerres, who carries a lot of great global brands, plus a peculiar brand called “Nobel” which I have been unable to find any trace of information about. I emailed the store, and was told by customer service that the pencils are manufactured in Europe (though many other items under this brand are listed as made in China or Indonesia according to site pictures). The package itself has no origin label or company information, which makes it odd that the company would even put its brand on the product. The artist set I bought feel and look great as low-end artist pencils go (not as good as the Cretacolor or Conté set I got a while back), and also come in a triangle shape, which my hands really like. DeSerres also said this is the company that makes their house-branded pencils.

In search for origin information on other DeSerres listings, I found this review of the Fabriano hardcover sketchbook, made in Bosnia, so I snapped up a few of them. They are really nice sketch books. Again, not local, but from a local supplier rather than Amazon, which makes me happier.

At the start of my term I bought an excellent pack of China-made slim notebooks. Plain brown card covers, A5, stitch-binding, 64 pages, with quality cream-coloured paper, they are one of the reasons my initial pencil notes were such a joy when I started the semester.

These are essentially low-cost knock-offs of the Calepino Carnet No5. I hoped I could find something similar made closer to home.

I thought I had found something like this from BlueLine, a Montréal (Saint-Laurent) company still with significant production here. Their web site showcases lots of Canada-made notebooks, most in wire binding. I don’t like spiral or wire binding for my class notes or my writing (especially stuff that I want to be on a bookshelf eventually), but when I’m doing my teaching I only use spiral for its ability to fold over onto itself and take less space, and carry around with the action page on top. A stiff cover also helps for my needs. BlueLine had a lot of great books for this purpose.

The BlueLine NotePro is a mid-price hardcover wire-bound book with index tabs and a vinyl pocket in the back. It bills itself as refillable but there are no refills on the BlueLine site. It folds over perfectly as a spiral book should, despite the hard binding over the spine.

The MiracleBind notebooks are essentially the same as the NotePro on the outside, but inside they have paper with anvil-shaped punches allowing pages to be removed and reinserted without tearing. These sheets are sold on the site as refills.

BlueLine also has a slightly larger set of DuraFlex notebooks with plastic hard covers, which are much less expensive than the NotePro or MiracleBind A5, but slightly larger than I’d prefer, and lacking the firm cover of the NotePro.

Finally on the Canadian-made A5-ish side there is the DoodlePlan, a perfect-bound notebook/adult colouring book combo. I’ve been using this for my lit review notes for my thesis - it’s excellent when my mind needs a rest from McGill’s horrible library interface and my slow rural broadband.

Now, you remember how I mentioned I was originally looking for some slim stitch-bound A5 books? BlueLine had these, but I couldn’t find an origin mark on the site pics. I assumed they were from Brazil or China, as I could see this mark on other photos of books that didn’t flash the Made in Canada sticker. But I emailed to make sure, and a nice customer service agent in Montréal very quickly got back to me telling me these were also made at their Saint-Laurent plant. I was excited and ordered a couple packs.

Turns out even the employees don’t know what’s going on, as the outer wrapper on the set of 5 was marked Made in China. On top of this, they are very poor quality. The paper is thin and slick and difficult to use with anything harder than a 4B for me. They are also significantly more expensive than the other much better China-made books I originally got from Amazon. So the search for this perfect book from somewhere more local continues…

A side note, my husband also bought me some sketchbooks, all of which were excellent quality (as would be expected by the price), labeled “Made in the USA with materials from Canada.” So we know we have what is needed to get it done here, we just can’t be bothered - sort of like with our TV shows, retirements and vacations, and political decisions…