A few weeks ago Brad had a review of a great new notebook, the JAWNS No. 1 that he stumbled across on Instagram. Shortly after Brads review, the folks at JAWNS Brand Notebooks reached out to see if we would want to review their new notebook here as well, and of course we jumped at the opportunity, so lets take a closer look at this unique JAWNS notebook with some unique features.

Inside the front cover of the JAWNS No. 1 Notebook you see one of its unique features, which is the two pockets that are the ideal size for credit cards, business cards, and gift cards. This is something that you might typically find in more expensive notebooks, but not usually in pocketable notebooks like this. That “Handmade By Daniel” tag is also a nice touch, and just for clarity its not part of the notebook, but part of the label/band that is completely removable.

The back cover of the JAWNS Notebook features yet another pocket which I’ve stashed an 3″x5″ index card in to give you a perspective on how big it is. Considering that you can store credit cards and cash in the JAWNS, when I saw this back pocket I immediately thought it would be a great notebook for any work related travel. You can keep the bare minimum number of credit cards and cash on you, while also having a place to tuck your receipts for those pesky expense reports you will need to fill out when you get back to the office. You will also notice that the last sheet of paper on the back has a raised stamp of the JAWNS brand logo which is also found on the front cover.

With what I think is one of the coolest and more unique features of any notebook I’ve seen, the JAWNS notebook has a spot on top that acts as a billfold. As someone that has been impacted by the huge Northeast blackout in 2003 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, I’ve become particularly fond of having places to stash some extra emergency cash for when we are without power (ie no ATMs) for an extended period of time. In the photo above, the JAWNS notebook billfold section is holding 2 $20 bills which fit nicely. The depth of the billfold pocket does not go the whole length of the cover which is good because it keeps the bills at a depth where they are easy to retrieve.

I found that adding a third $20 bill (I know, I’m rich, right?) to the mix actually started to impact the closing of the JAWNS notebook and causing the cover and binding to warp a little more. You can definitely fit more bills in here, its just a matter of how comfortable you are with having the cover get a little disfigured as you close it. I don’t think it was intended to hold tons of cash, but rather to be a place to store some emergency cash in your notebook as I mentioned before. Best case scenario is that you can probably squeeze in anywhere from around $3 to $300 depending on the denomination of the bills that you select.

JAWNS Notebook writing sample

With all of the unique storage compartments in the JAWNS Notebook, its almost easy to forget about the fact that this is a notebook and you can be writing in it as well as storing your credit cards, cash and other important documents. The photo above shows writing samples of multiple pens, as well as one pencil and an eraser test on the paper. Each of the pens and the eraser perform well on this paper, with the exception of the fountain pen. The fountain pen which was a Sailor Professional Gear was used for the OfficeSupplyGeek header on the page, as well as the last line of the writing sample. The fountain pen ink tends to spread a bit and as you will see in the net photo, it also shows through the back side of the paper as well.

Here is the back of the page where you can see the fountain pen ink shows through the back pages of the JAWNS notebook. This is probably as good a place as any to point out that the JAWNS notebook has 40 pages of triangular grid paper sandwiched between the Yupo brand cover stock. The Yupo brand cover stock is a really nice touch being that it is water and tear resistant, which make this a very durable notebook for traveling around in your back pocket.

Oh, and to be 100% honest, I know I said you can only fit between $3 and $300 in the billfold portion, but technically you can also squeeze in 100,000,000,000,000 (thats one hundred trillion) Zimbabwean dollars in there too. I bought a bunch of these 100 Trillion Zimbabwae Notes as gifts and as a good reminder of how awful inflation can be, and it turns out that they are now worth a bit more than I actually paid for them. That was a nice bonus find for something that was just a gag and prop for this review. Anyway, the JAWNS Notebook is definitely a very unique and practical notebook that can also serve as a minimalist wallet if need be. Check them out over at the JAWNS Brand website and pick one up for yourself. Thanks again to the folks at JAWNS for sending over this notebook for a review.