Happy holidays to everyone from us here at Black Cover. It’s been a long time since the last post, largely due to a shortage of quality notebooks worth reviewing. A few great suggestions have come in recently, and hopefully I’ll get to them after the holiday season some time.
However, I wanted to share an email I got from the Mazzuoli company in Italy, the manufacturers of the Stifflexible line of notebooks I continually rave about. Over the past several months, there have been rumors that their line was going back into production. Today, I can not only confirm those rumors are true, I can provide you with pictures of the new notebooks!
There are a few major changes, the most noticeable being the new cover material. Unlike the old Stifflexibles, which had an oilskin cover similar to the Moleskine, this has…something new. Exactly what, I’m not sure – take a look up close (note: this is the back of the notebook; there are no words on the front):
My hope is that it’s something as durable as the oilskin/faux-leather we’re used to. It looks like cardboard in the pictures, but keep in mind that this cover is not soft; it’s rigid, with the two creases in it that allow it to bend. Fingers crossed on this one. As you may also note, the page edges are no longer colored, which I always thought gave it a distinctly European look to it.
I have to point out something quite flattering; they’ve named the black notebook in this line the “blackcover,” in dedication to this website and all the notebook fans that have written to them recently and helped move this back into production. Check it out:
Very cool. However, I said in many reviews that thing you had to change with this notebook was absolutely nothing, and it’s clear that several things have been changed. Hopefully, the basic value of the Stifflexible is still in tact. I will give you my full review as soon as I receive a copy. I’m very excited to check it out.
And not to worry – even though they’ve got a notebook named after our website, I will give it a fair and honest review.
11 responses so far ↓
1 Pat // Dec 23, 2007 at 4:22 am
Awesome…
So have they got a U.S. distributor yet?
2 Kara // Dec 23, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Oh please, let the cover be made of something durable…my Moleskine gets carted around in a purse full of pens, pencils, and lipgloss, and this book cover can’t be anything papery if it’s going to survive.
I think you could use Sharpie to color the page edges…it might bleed, though. I’m sure there’s some way to do it. Coloring them a contrasting color to the cover would look cool, too.
3 Andy Welfle // Dec 23, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Congrats, Nick, for a great comeback! And further congratulations on the dedication! I can’t wait to see what this notebook is like!
4 Speedmaster // Dec 23, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Great post, very glad to see you back!!!
5 mick // Dec 26, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Fantastic! I just got the 2008 Stifflexible MOMA datebook. Its red, but am happy to see these will be coming soon.
6 Jomiel // Jan 6, 2008 at 10:46 am
Good to hear this… I hope the cover is as durable as the moleskinian one and that they remain slightly smaller… I am close to the end of my pocket ruled Moleskine. I was going to get a new one but now I will wait for the Stifflexibles. If I can’t find them in Spain I hope that Mazzuoli accepts orders online.
7 Ree // Jan 24, 2008 at 12:42 pm
How I wish page edges were colored the same color as the cover.
8 John // Jan 31, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Any news on when and where these will be available?
9 Spork // Feb 15, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Hey! YOU!
Any news on where we can get these damned things!?
10 noisician // Mar 13, 2008 at 11:37 am
hey, what’s the word on this? hope you’ve gotten one by now! how are they? where can you get them?
11 Andy // Mar 13, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I know! Nick’s been woefully silent on the blog! I hope we get to hear the follow-up soon!
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