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- Feb 28, 2007
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There have been a couple of threads lately talking about Right In The Rain (RITR) paper products. Here is yet another that constitutes a notebook cover designed to fit 4 5/8" x 7" RITR notepaper and offered by Off the Map Outfitters, designed and manufactured by Brian Andrews.
When I first saw this product on Brian's newsletter I knew I had to get one. Well, I actually bought three with a couple of spares for gifting to a couple of colleagues. As a field biologist the venerable field book is a difficult beast to come by. Note taking and lab/field book note storage is serious business to my profession and something one can't take lightly. Over the years, I have found that a small hard cover field book tends to work well. The flimsy soft covers don't stand up to abuse and eventually tear of deform while writing on them. On the other hand hard covers are difficult to store, don't fit big pockets very well.
As for paper, I usually just used books with lined regular paper. They have the problem of smudging, expanding on wetting and turning to mush on prolonged wetting. I had known about RITR products in the past, but most people I knew who used them did so in conjunction with clipboards. Clipboards work well for forms and are okay for taking notes, but loose leaf is well, loose leaf. Critical data sheets seem to have a way of wondering or disappearing on you. The smaller RITR notpads are okay but they have that floppy front and back cover that while weather proof is not a great platform for taking notes on.
So Brian's RITR product seems to offer the best of all words. It features a stiff, waxed leather cover/backing that is just as good to write on as a hard cover. The cover provides enough flexibility to fit it into tight spaces. The waxed leather is highly protective.
It fits RITR loose leaf paper having all the advantages of RITR paper and secures them in place by three Chicago screws. This keeps the individual pages from wandering. The loose leaf RITR paper can be purchased separately making a permanent field book and it is easy enough to transfer those filled data sheets to a binder at my lab for permanent archiving. The size of both the cover and paper seems just about right. Fits the administration pouch of my Maxpedition Falcon II perfectly and small enough to put inside a large coat jacket. The pages are large enough to take notes, but is a good balance of space, volume and work area.
Last but not least, the product is quite beautiful. Handsome, thick, genuine leather. I just know that I'll be the envy of all the other field biologists out there
Seriously though, Brian's price point on this is a steel. I'm always buying Franklin Covey day planners and organizers. I'm executive enough in the daytime office part of my job that I can't look like a total schmuck with my business attire. Those leather organizers are usually about $60-$90, well over what Brian charges for his much more robust cover.
The cover itself is pretty simple. Nice stitching around that fits where the page ends sit and I suspect help with the refilling of the pages. There are no pen holding loops or anything like that. A pen with a decent wire clip will sit on the inside edge well enough. However, since I keep it in the admin. pouch part of my maxpedition there are pen holders a plenty built into my pack.
Okay, for myself a sturdy, weatherproof field book is a must have. But what about the rest of you folks? There are lots of great reasons to have a field book in your EDC. Birders can store their information. Wilderness first aid strongly suggests that diagnosis, symptoms and patient monitoring be accompanied by good note taking. These are passed onto the EMT's once out of the woods. For all those folks out there dragging their edible plant books and keying and identifying plants, these notebooks would be great. You can make drawings and take notes about the position, even record GPS waypoints (never trust the waypoint memory of your GPS it is just too easy to loose your data like that) of plant beds for later referral.
The more I think about it, the more handy it is to have a good field book handy for use in the outdoors. Navigation, signaling, heck even emergency tinder if need be. P.S. unlike my photo, I recommend taking a pencil along instead of a pen. Pencil is less likely to bleed from paper when wetted. Also Doc Canada has a 101 uses tutorial for pencils in the outdoors. Thus, they become multifunctional on their own.
The Off The Map Outfitters RITR notebook cover I think is a great product. For my uses I expect that it will fit the bill perfectly. For others out there, this may be more of a notebook than you might need. Still its pretty easy to rationalize why having such a notebook on your person would be a great idea. Probably not for the ultra-light crowd out there, but for those of you serious about taking notes this is a great product at an affordable price.
When I first saw this product on Brian's newsletter I knew I had to get one. Well, I actually bought three with a couple of spares for gifting to a couple of colleagues. As a field biologist the venerable field book is a difficult beast to come by. Note taking and lab/field book note storage is serious business to my profession and something one can't take lightly. Over the years, I have found that a small hard cover field book tends to work well. The flimsy soft covers don't stand up to abuse and eventually tear of deform while writing on them. On the other hand hard covers are difficult to store, don't fit big pockets very well.
As for paper, I usually just used books with lined regular paper. They have the problem of smudging, expanding on wetting and turning to mush on prolonged wetting. I had known about RITR products in the past, but most people I knew who used them did so in conjunction with clipboards. Clipboards work well for forms and are okay for taking notes, but loose leaf is well, loose leaf. Critical data sheets seem to have a way of wondering or disappearing on you. The smaller RITR notpads are okay but they have that floppy front and back cover that while weather proof is not a great platform for taking notes on.
So Brian's RITR product seems to offer the best of all words. It features a stiff, waxed leather cover/backing that is just as good to write on as a hard cover. The cover provides enough flexibility to fit it into tight spaces. The waxed leather is highly protective.
It fits RITR loose leaf paper having all the advantages of RITR paper and secures them in place by three Chicago screws. This keeps the individual pages from wandering. The loose leaf RITR paper can be purchased separately making a permanent field book and it is easy enough to transfer those filled data sheets to a binder at my lab for permanent archiving. The size of both the cover and paper seems just about right. Fits the administration pouch of my Maxpedition Falcon II perfectly and small enough to put inside a large coat jacket. The pages are large enough to take notes, but is a good balance of space, volume and work area.
Last but not least, the product is quite beautiful. Handsome, thick, genuine leather. I just know that I'll be the envy of all the other field biologists out there
Seriously though, Brian's price point on this is a steel. I'm always buying Franklin Covey day planners and organizers. I'm executive enough in the daytime office part of my job that I can't look like a total schmuck with my business attire. Those leather organizers are usually about $60-$90, well over what Brian charges for his much more robust cover.
The cover itself is pretty simple. Nice stitching around that fits where the page ends sit and I suspect help with the refilling of the pages. There are no pen holding loops or anything like that. A pen with a decent wire clip will sit on the inside edge well enough. However, since I keep it in the admin. pouch part of my maxpedition there are pen holders a plenty built into my pack.
Okay, for myself a sturdy, weatherproof field book is a must have. But what about the rest of you folks? There are lots of great reasons to have a field book in your EDC. Birders can store their information. Wilderness first aid strongly suggests that diagnosis, symptoms and patient monitoring be accompanied by good note taking. These are passed onto the EMT's once out of the woods. For all those folks out there dragging their edible plant books and keying and identifying plants, these notebooks would be great. You can make drawings and take notes about the position, even record GPS waypoints (never trust the waypoint memory of your GPS it is just too easy to loose your data like that) of plant beds for later referral.
The more I think about it, the more handy it is to have a good field book handy for use in the outdoors. Navigation, signaling, heck even emergency tinder if need be. P.S. unlike my photo, I recommend taking a pencil along instead of a pen. Pencil is less likely to bleed from paper when wetted. Also Doc Canada has a 101 uses tutorial for pencils in the outdoors. Thus, they become multifunctional on their own.
The Off The Map Outfitters RITR notebook cover I think is a great product. For my uses I expect that it will fit the bill perfectly. For others out there, this may be more of a notebook than you might need. Still its pretty easy to rationalize why having such a notebook on your person would be a great idea. Probably not for the ultra-light crowd out there, but for those of you serious about taking notes this is a great product at an affordable price.
