Hi Heather, I would recommend this for those wishing to create their own notebook, sketchbook or journal, the Cinch Bindery Tool V2. I was lucky i was offered one second hand, prior to that i hadn’t considered such a tool but now i wouldn’t be without it
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All of the bought sketch books i have bought have paper which is too thin in my opinion, i find 90lb cockles so i try to use thicker paper when possible. There may be better ones available but they don’t stock them at the 2 art shops i use.

Using this the Cinch allows me to build my own books, i can use 300lb HP papers together with 140lb cartridge paper which i really do like for Gouache. I often include a few pages of not also to offer a different surface texture but you could build yours using any paper you wish then using strong card for the covers to offer protection to the pages within.

Although they are not cheap, it would last you a lifetime and it would allow you to use a multitude of different papers.

a Moleskine watercolor notebook right now that has 200 gsm cold press pages. Not sure how that converts to lbs, but I assume it’s around 140 or less? I’ve found the paper to be plenty think. So far I’ve been able to paint on both sides of the paper with little problem.

~97 lbs. 300 gsm is the equivalent to 140 lbs (given a 30×22 sheet of paper, since the pounds system fluctuates wildly by original paper size). For example, the Stillman & Birns are available in 270 gsm/180 lbs versions (also 150 gsm/100 lb). Toss out the “180 lbs” as a useless comparison – the grams per meter squared is a constant, the pounds isn’t.