Clairefontaine Notebook and a New Fountain Pen and GOOD RIDDANCE BLOGGER! I'M MOVING TO WORDPRESS!

Four hours trying and retrying the new blogshit.  No more. I hate software I cannot get to work properly and this is not software I care to mess with.

sorry there is no review here.  When I get set up on WP I may continue this.
I apologize for the tiraide since I really wanted to review this last notebook and then do a final summary.  Things will need to wait until I get time to move to WordPress. I'll be letting this blog up IT will not be supported.

Rhodia A5 Notebooks

Rhodiarama on left and Webnotes on right.

Sorry for the usual typos. One day I'll not make any.

I generally don't choose soft cover notebooks or journals larger than pocket size, but I do like this one even better than the hardbound.  You'll see why later.

Both this Webnotes as well as the Rhodiarama have a soft-touch to the texture of the  covering on the cover, but this one leaves a lot to be desired of a quality cover.

This paper is nice to write upon with any pen I tried, even pencil.  Very smooth.  I meant shadowing as there was no bleed through for any pen used, even the sharpie.

As seen, very little shadowing.

0.0045 inches thick paper.

This is why I'll not be buying any more of these.  The weird feel to the covers and they arrive damaged which says to me they will be easily damaged if carrying them around. 

My trusty Barcelona made Olivetti Lettera 32. It has a nicer touch than my Italian made one.

As with typewriters all notebooks have their quirks.  For Rhodia it is the covers on the Webnotes one. For the extra price it is not worth buying compared to the soft cover Rhodiarama.  Both are casebound which makes them a good choice, and the Clairefontaine paper is hard to beat.

Both notebooks lay nice and flat and have ruled pages with line spacing of about 7mm.  There are plenty of choices from Rhodia, plain paper, dots, lined, and quad ruled.

There are also plenty of sizes from pocket to large and assortment of binding styles.  Overall a very nice product, and much better for the price than Moleskine.

UniNote Cloth Covered A5 Notebook

The richness of the cloth covering makes these journals look more expensive than they are.  There is a disadvantage to cloth though; dirt.

My 4B needs a platen and feed rollers.  The ribbon feed was acting-up today also.  I guess it works fine for being 93 years old.

I started, and continue, to leave the ink test pages as they scan. I do not edit or scale them so sometimes like here, on this page they look smaller than the covers, but once clicked open to a full size scan.  Feathering? What feathering.  A bit at the M in My, but I have not found any ink to feather.

I was completely amazed at the tiny bit of shadowing with this paper. It is the best paper I found. There is a reason I did not like Leuchtturm1917 beside being higher priced than many notebooks; it was this notebook and its paper. It is a bit smaller than the Leuchtturm1917, but for the price I'll use these for fountain pen.  Pages are not prenumbered. That has never been a notebook killer for me since I have been numbering pages manually since high school.

This just happened to be the center of a signature. I left it here because I thought the pages might be perforated. They are not, but I do not know what may have caused the mark.  These are the only  2 pages I found with the mark along the inside.

I like to measure the pages because of the confusion of vellum vs text vs book paper sheet weights.  This is 100 gsm paper and measures (I could feel it as soon as I opened the notebook) a whopping .0057 inches thick!

 If I am not mistaken even Clairefontaine paper is not this thick. I'll find out because I have one on order. I've never used one of their notebooks, and there are so many different styles I did not know what to pick.  You'll see it in a future post.

Lines are spaced about 1mm wider than the other notebooks: 7mm vs 6mm

This company does not hide the place of manufacture.

This typewriter has one of the best feels compared to all of my typewriters, even Underwood. Perhaps because I grew up with a very similar one that was made about 1929 or 1930, and it is still in the family.  Thanks to Richard Polt this one now rings its bell at the end of the line.

I really liked the journal in the center from Greenroom in Taiwan, but they no longer manufacture it.  It is a bit larger than A5 (same size as the Leuchtturm1917), and the lines are wide spaced.

Unless the price goes up, I'll be using more of these.  Even if the price goes up, as long as it is not much more than $10.00 I'll still use these for fountain pen.
The only thing that shadows is a Sharpie. I thought of that after I posted.  I tried a sharpie and it does ghost, but it does not bleed like with thinner paper.

Look for these on Ebay or Amazon.

Markings, By C.R. Gibson

I don't really know why, but I quit using these.  Maybe because I could not find them locally. I originally used these and Piccadilly for almost everything, plain old journalling, ham radio, work, travel, and in my garage.  I liked to get a new one of these and a matching pocket size every time I went on a trip, especially a business trip since they have a business executive look.  Since I was in Engineering I liked to have something nicer than a steno pad which I used to use for general notes.

Here's a link to C. R. Gibson.

I never knew of this company until I came to Kalamazoo. Here's a link to more information.

Very little feathering if any.

Ghosting is about the same as Piccadilly, but I could not find any bleed through on the page under this one, even with the fine nib Phileas.

Measures .00039" which makes it 20# or 75gsm. Those are typically .004 inches thick.

Typecast courtesy of my 1969 Olympia SM9 with Professional Elite typeface.

Matching A5 and pocket size.  The big one has 240 pages and the small one has 192.  Both are Smyth sewn and lay flat, have marker ribbons and elastic closures as well as a pocket on the inside rear cover.  Very nice notebooks for the price.  I've found the small one as cheap as $3 something and the large one for around $5.00 when they are on special prices.

I think I purchased this one in 2016 when we were traveling for my job interviews since most of the notes are of our travels and my thoughts on various employers.

There is still about 75% of the book unused. I will keep it for our next trip. I never used the pocket one. 

I buy notebooks based on price and quality. Many times I will choose a cheaper price over a more expensive notebook even if the more expensive is better quality.  I go for practical and utility more than fancy.

If there is bleed through on a notebook I use it with pencil and move on to a different brand when it is time for a new one.  I prefer those made in the USA or Europe, but they are getting harder to find or more expensive or both.

What amazes me is that many others on the Fountain Pen Network also find they like the less expensive notebooks over expensive ones if they work with a fountain pen.  The general criteria seem to be minimal to no feathering and no bleed through.

Audio level on the video is a bit weak.

Leuchtturm1917

This is a ruled journal, but also available in dot, quad, and plain pages, and probably the most colors of any brand. Leuchtturm1917

These have a nice tight  closure band, and not shown is the two marker ribbons.  One is the same color as the cover and the other striped.

Using the same pens as before I found the page to be nice to write upon. However I don't know if it was the paper or the nib of the second Waterman that prevented it from working. I suspect the nib since Waterman nibs can be a bit stubborn, especially with Noodler's Bulletproof inks. Ink takes a while to dry on this paper; note the smudging of the Shaeffer ink. This was written about a minute before it was scanned and the scanner smudged it.

I was disappointed at the amount of bleed through even for non-fountain pens, and pencil.

The thin paper is also disappointing. Thinner than Moleskine at .0036 inches. At least thickness is the same on all the pages measured.

I really like the preformatted T.O.C.  too bad the rest of the journal does not measure up.

Predate line and prenumbered are real nice addition, but not enough for me to spend the extra money to get more of these.

I really liked the labels. It would be nice to have a shelf of journals all with the same spine label format.

Typecast sent from my 1953 HHP. 

I was disappointed with this journal.  First thing I noticed was it came from Taiwan.  I thought that might put it a notch above Piccadilly which is made in China, but not so.  I don't like expensive journals that don't give me a big bang for my buck.

I first saw one of these when one of the fellows had one at one of our book store typewriter gatherings (now on hold because of stay at home orders and the virus).  It looked like it would be a nice journal. I especially liked the page format with the date and numbers.  Neither of these are killers for not buying a notebook. I've been manually numbering the pages and adding my date to an entry from way back when I was in school and all we had (at least in a small coal mine town) was the famous three ring binder or a spiral wound binder.
Later I graduated to Composition books.

I did some scanning of this journal and set it aside until it was time for this review which is not all that much of an objective review yet, is it not that I should or should not state my likes/dislikes and why?

I do these reviews without any outline or draft. I should really work from at least an outline, but I did not start that way.  For this I don't want to change.

When I get through all the notebooks I review I'll do a summary that will be more organized with advantages and disadvantages of both.  Again, these will be my view as I know others will have different views on some of the same brands of notebooks.

I know many readers of the blog as well as some locals who love Moleskine. I also know some who run from them instead of to them. That's fine. I used to run into burning buildings and think nothing of it. I still would if I were still in the FD.

I also know some readers and locals who do not journal. Some use plain old pads. Others use different forms of notebooks, and still others use only their PC.

What do notebooks, fountain pens, typewriters, and other methods of writing have in common? We all have our favorite.

Since I posted this
 

...and now for some news…

For all those interested: Adwoa is back!

Check out Retro tech Geneva with the link on my bloglist.

Piccadilly Essential Notebooks

I've been using these for a few years with small entries almost daily.  I miss quite a few days.

Tried to use the same pens as on the other post rather than using my original Piccadilly image in an earlier post.

I started using these soon after I first moved to FL and found them in Books-A-Million on special price quite often.  Over the past 15 years I have not seen these increase in price when on special.  They run about $7.00 almost every place I've found them, mostly in grocery stores.  Normally,not on special, they sell between $12 and $15 locally.  Generally the large only cost a dollar or two more than the medium, and many times the same price.

Believe it or not part 1 and part 2 are scanned to the same size as are the Jpeg Horizontal resolutions, but typical old Blogger they will not display properly. I'm getting closer to moving to Word Press.

Large is on the left, medium on the right.

I decided to measure these as the Piccadilly site only lists an approximate dimension.

I will measure typical page thickness of all journals.

Hopefully all the important points have been covered. I'm sure I missed something on this as well as my other journal review post.

I tried to compare the flatness of this one to the green book, but it'll take a video and more work. I may do a video after I do all the reviews.  This brand has consistently laid flatter than any similarly bound journals I have used, yes, even the over priced Moleskine.  The only side bound that lays flatter are the sewn and staple bound soft cover pocket journals such as a Field Notes, Cahiers, and these that were my go-to pocket notebook until I discovered the one I presently use that will be reviewed later.

These are quite comparable to Markings brand, but I don't know if I have any that are not fully used and packed. Wal-Mart and Staple's used to sell the Markings brand. There is no Staple's here, and our Wal-Marts don't carry Markings as they only sell the store brand which I found quite inferior to good journals.  I have one, if I did not throw it in the trash.

Stay home & stay safe.