So back in October 2014, I changed Jobs within the company I work for, for information sake I work in the Power Generation field (AKA Making Power). Well I went from a maintenance job (AKA Fixing Stuff) to an Operations/Production job (AKA making sure stuff is running). That’s enough about me but the reason why I brought this up is to help explain why I started to look for a quality note book because, I found myself in my new job writing on myself with a sharpie I always carried and pretty much felt like I was back in high school. Let’s be honest in my field of work you have to have some professionalism about yourself, or everyone will take you as a joke and more or less your word and input goes straight to the poop chute, In My Opinion of course.

So I had been following various makers of all kinds of goods and people from all different walks of life. I saw some people posting pictures of these small books called Field Notes which are 3.5 X 5.5 pocket-sized note books for carrying around so you can write notes or do small sketches in that you would possibly need to remember. I started to research them and was almost ready to pull the trigger and buy a 3 pack of them ($9.95), but for some reason I kept forgetting to order them. Then one day checking Instagram, one of the people I follow @drewscustomleather, had a picture posted of a nice handmade leather covers for Field Note sized books, the one that really caught my eye was the “Heritage” style cover, he makes another one that’s called “The Drifter” which has a strap with button snap closure, and a d-ring to clip to but I liked the stripped down esthetics of the heritage and order one.

When I received my Heritage in the mail, the cover came with one Orange covered Field Notes book which I will explain what that means later but, I brought it with me the next day to work. Now initially it needed a break in period because it wouldn’t stay closed but don’t worry me consistently keeping it in my back pocket and sitting on it made short work of that problem, next was the pen pocket sewn into the front needed to stretch and break in a little but Drew does warn you of that fact. Now another issue which is not Drew’s fault at all, it actually deals with the Field Notes book, remember earlier I said something different about the book being orange, well the orange stands for Expedition Edition. The Expedition edition means it not actually made of real paper, what looks to be paper is actually Yupo Synthetic paper, which is made from extruded polypropylene pellets, is water proof, tear resistant, chemical resistant, has been tested 12 different ways by Field Notes, and is made right here in the good old USA. Now I told you all of this because since it’s not real paper, some pens don’t work on it especially Gel pens which are what I usually write with. So after doing some testing I found a cheap pen one of our material suppliers cheap give away pens work great, so stick with cheap ball point pens and you’ll be fine.

I have carried this wallet with me at work every day and I couldn’t be happier with it! Sincerely the outer buffalo leather that the cover is made from has held up very well and darkens beautifully with age and wear, I have scratched the surface by accident on corners of sharp metal and with a finger nail or 2 and it will fade away in the leather like it ever even happened. The inside of the cover has 4 slits cut into the flaps to old business cards or even credit card sized cards, I keep my Mobile Crane and Forklift certifications in those slits. Not one thread of stitching has come out and it’s had some rough handling including falling out of an off road vehicle a few times. I have even had coworkers question on what it was and when I showed them, they were actually impressed…see what I mean about professionalism. I use this every day at work writing down tank levels, oil temperature, and valve numbers just to name a few. If you need to remember things thru the day or just need a book to write some things down in, I highly recommend this product, because I honestly don’t think the Field Notes book would have survived this long without the Heritage Cover from Drew’s Custom Leather. As always if you can buy from small businesses, I think you notice the difference in quality, and you are helping a person not a stock price.

Website: Drewscustomleather.com

Price $109 includes Field Notes Book

Website for refill note pads: Fieldnotesbrand.com 

Rating 4.7 out of 5 pints