Stillman & Birn : Beta Soft Cover Sketchbook : 270gsm : Cold Press : 8.5x5.5in (14x22cm) : Landscape

I've left off reviewing this sketchbook until I've almost finished it so that I've had plenty of time to live with it. I'm quite particular about sketchbooks as I spend a fair amount of time using them and running classes for others. The book is nicely made and has so far survived daily use in my sketching bag and temperatures in the high 30 (degrees) withough the binding coming away or pages becoming loose. One great improvement would be a band to keep the book closed and hold pages together when in use (as my last Moleskine books had). The biggest problem for me, personally, was the paper. It has a good enough weight to stop too much warping when used for watercolour (and I do tend to use a lot of water), but there is simply very little grain at all. For a book described as having "270gsm rough textured pages" and "substantial tooth", this paper has very little tooth at all and almost no grain. I would expect a paper thus described to produce great texture when used with granulating watercolour pigments (I use Winsor & Newton professional series and Daniel Smith), as other cold pressed papers do, but it is really difficult to achieve any granulation at all - it behaves much more like a hot-pressed, smooth paper, but having said that I get nice granulation using Arches hot pressed paper. 3 stars as it's nicely made, but for me the paper is not great as there is no texture. May well suit someone else's style, but I shan't be buying any more of these.