Personally, I think Blackwing undersells their paper products. While paper quality is less important to pencil users, Blackwing’s paper is still versatile, and works well even with fountain pens. Previously I’ve reviewed Blackwing’s “Slate” notebooks, and today I turn my attention to their latest release, the “Illegal Pad.” Note up front: For purposes of this review, I’m going to test the paper with pens. It’s slightly tactile and exceptional with pencils, but that’s a given coming from Blackwing.
As a practicing attorney, I can testify to the fact that truly great legal pads are hard to find. You end up playing the “good enough” game and settling for something that meets most, but not all, of your stationery needs. Blackwing’s version may change that. The Illegal Pad features quite nice ivory 80gsm paper in either a ruled, blank, or dot grid format, yet maintains the traditional slim “legal pad” profile. (More on this later.) The pad is 8.5” x 11” letter-sized, not the longer, traditional “legal” format, which is something I prefer because the paper is compatible with more binders, notebooks, and file folders. (In my experience, hardly any attorneys still use actual “legal-sized” paper, though this may be more a function of the specific courts in which I practice.)
The Illegal Pad is sewn-bound and the pages perforated, making it very hard to accidentally tear loose pages when you’re working or carrying the pad around in a portfolio or briefcase. Returning to the slim format, one thing I prefer about the Blackwing Illegal Pad over other pads of high-quality paper, such as Clairefontaine or Rhodia, is that the Blackwing version fits easily into portfolios. Even if you have to sacrifice a bit of page count to maintain a slimmer profile, I don’t like it when a portfolio appears so overstuffed that it barely closes.
And paper performance? Well, see for yourself!
The only pen that bled through, just a touch, was the Baron Fig rollerball. Even some very wet fountain pens, such as my Momento Zero Grande, performed quite well. Since the pages are perforated and most people will want to use both sides of the page at this price point, I would like to see Blackwing incorporate a double-sided format.
Pens used in this review, from left: Baron Fig Squire, Erasable Podcast edition; TWSBI Yellow ECO; Caran d’Ache 849 Ballpoint; Montblanc Starwalker Rollerball; Leonardo Momento Zero Grande in Primary Manipulation; and my Conway Stewart Model 100 in “Honey Noire”.
Takeaways and Where to Buy
I’ve been looking for a quality, reasonably priced pad of paper to fill this slot in my work rotation, and I plan to place a bulk order for more Illegal Pads. I ordered the paper featured in this review directly from Blackwing. The Illegal Pads are currently priced at $17.95 for a pack of two - just under $9 per pad, which isn’t inexpensive but also falls within the range of reasonableness for this format and for paper of this quality. On a per-page basis, this product is priced similarly to the Baron Fig Mastermind Desk Pad, and while I love the Mastermind as a desk jotter, the glue-bound pages tear off easily, making the Illegal Pad much better suited for portable use. The letter-sized paper also fits my files and notebooks better if I need to retain my handwritten drafts.
Disclaimer: I purchased the product featured in this post with my own funds, for my own use. This post does not contain any affiliate links.