Hardgraft Notebook Wool Wrap – Quick Thoughts

I picked this particular item up to serve a very specific purpose, to carry very non-specific gear. I often run into a situation where I have some smaller things I need to stow somewhere in a bag. I need to easily pull them back out of the bag, or to get at them while they remain in the bag. Sometimes this is for travel on a plane or by car. Other times it’s heading out with the kids for the day.

The items vary widely and I wasted a lot of time trying to dig through my pouch pile to find something suitable. So I set out to find a pouch which would work well enough across all my uses. I’ve kind of found it in the Hardgraft Notebook Wool Wrap.

Materials & Size

The idea behind this is to hold a notebook and a pen or two. It’s essentially an envelope design, with two straps long enough to wrap around the entire thing and tie. It measures in at 9.8″ x 6.3″ x 0.8″ — which is a pretty nice size.

It’s entirely made of felt wool and leather accents. The straps are both wool and leather to give it strength, but to carry the look through. The wool is quite thick, so even before you put something in it — there’s a lot of bulk already in the design.

In typical Hardgraft fashion, it’s very well made and feels incredible.

In Use

There’s not a lot to say about this pouch overall, so I am going to touch on some things rather quickly:

I really like the overall feel of this pouch in my hand. It has a very pleasant tactile feeling, and it’s one of those items you enjoy holding.

It tends to hold a lot more than you would expect, and holds oddly shaped items well.

I use it a lot for carrying flashlights, or pocket knives (or both) when I am traveling by car or to meet with friends who might want to see the latest gear I have.

I also keep it empty at the top of my bag when I am flying, and use it as a pouch to empty my pockets into, so I don’t have to fish for my items later post security.

The wool offers a soft landing place for all my gear, and offers solid padding to protect it once in the pouch.

The straps to secure the pouch closed work a lot better and easier than I thought. A quick twist is enough to keep it closed under most circumstances.

Bulk is the real issue here. Even when empty, this pouch is taking up a notable amount of space within the bag you are carrying it in. This is the primary downside I have found.

There’s only one pocket here. For how I am using it, it works really well, but if you want more organization — this is not the pouch.

The only other thing to note here, is the product description:

Do not even think about using this case as a convenient cable pouch, the perfect iPad mini case, kindle cover or portable speaker pouch. Although it might fit most of your small tech this case is meant to be for your good old fashioned “real life” hard goods.

I found that great, and to Hardgraft’s marketing credit, they do have a variant specifically for cables.

Overall

I bought this because I had a need of a dump pouch, but I wanted something that was a joy to use and look at. I could dump my gear into a Ziploc bag, but that seems crazy to me. And if you are of a similar mindset, then this is a really lovely pouch in a lot of ways. Perhaps the cable pouch would be better, but I don’t put electronics (outside of flashlights) in this, so this felt like the right choice.

I don’t even think it’s a particularly great pouch, but I do really like using it. (This is probably the most practical pouch, but it lacks the svelte nature of the Hardgraft.)

Buy here, $93