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.

Another Fountain Pen Friendly Notebook

$4.99 @ the local Super Target

The original notebooks

Sorry for the sloppy writing.  I've been drinking too much coffee and that makes me shaky.

Available in the USA @ Amazon

Typical of Blogger.  The link was placed under the first section of the typecast.  However Blogger with its usual crap placed in mid-page even though it was correct in the preview.  Rearranging things after a post with Blogger is sucky at best so the link remains out of place. 

Blogger is free and I appreciate that, but it would be nice if it worked.  I have other sites and thought about moving this blog to my radio site.  It takes so long to build a typecast on Blogger that I generally do not want to use even more time to migrate my blog to my radio site.  One day that may happen.  For now the blog will stay on Blogger.

Another Fountain Pen Friendly Notebook from Books-A-Million

Here is another very affordable notebook I found at our local book store:

The paper in this notebook is a good quality paper and it is not as shiny as the paper in some of the other notebooks that I posted in this blog.  This is an example.  The notebook in the example has a shine to the paper's finish similar to many non-fountain pen friendly paper, but the paper is fine with a fountain pen.  The Piccadilly paper is not shiny.

This Piccadilly notebook is almost twice as expensive, but still half that of a Moleskine.  The notebook example, Moleskine and this Piccadilly all come from China.

The paper in this latest notebook has a nice finish almost like a Moleskine, but not quite as rough.  The inks I tried did not feather nor did they bleed through the page nearly as much as the same inks that I used with my Moleskine notebooks.

It seems the older I get the less I spell correctly.  Here are the pen and ink combinations I used complete with a reference (corrected) to a wrong ink and my mis-spelled words.

All of the pens I used wrote smoothly on this paper.  I did, and do, not like narrow ruled paper for fountain pens.  I usually just write on every other line so I can make my letters at least readable.  When I print I seldom use every other line.

The notebook is a bound notebook of 240 pages.  The band states it is medium ruled, but if laid beside a college ruled notebook the spacing is nearly the same.  The leatherette covering feels much the same as my Moleskine notebooks, and this notebook also has a rear cover pocket for those who like those.  I do find the pockets handy at times, especially when I travel and use a pocket notebook.  The cover pocket makes a nice place to hide money or credit cards since the notebook does not resemble a wallet.

As shown the ink does shadow a bit, but does not bleed through.  I have used other notebooks and papers with pencil and ball point or roller pens that do the same as this example.

The notebook pages are 8.25 inches (210 mm) long and 5 1/8 inches (129 mm) wide.
Fully open the notebook is 10 1/4 inches (260mm) wide.  Closed the notebook is 5/8 inch (16mm) thick.

The notebook has an elastic band closure and a ribbon page marker.

Overall I like this notebook and plan to buy and use more.  Quality-wise this is a much better buy than a Moleskine.  One day I will try a Rhodia.

A Fountain Pen, Ink and a Notebook

From my 1968 Adler J4

Scanner scaned the lines as colors they are a solid blue.  Changing the color in GIMP also changed the paper color.

Target Notebook Post

Chinese Fountain Pen Post

Fountain Pen Notebook Find

These are the ink tests.

Slight bleed through, but not enough to matter.

Not shown is that this notebook also has an attached ribbon place marker. It does not have the pocket on the inside back cover.  On the smaller pocket notebook from Staple's I found the pocket to be quite useful on my recent trip.

It is much easier to see what is on the opposite side of a Moleskine page.

I seldom write on both side of a page and if I do it is generally with a pencil as almost any kind of a pen has a bit of shadowing through the page.  However with my first and only Moleskine notebook I had bleed through enough to mark the blank page.  I just cannot justify spending any amount over about $5.00 for any size Moleskine low quality notebook.  The Moleskine paper has a unique feel, but that is the only thing I found I like about the notebooks, especially since they are made in China.  If I want a Chinese made notebook I will buy one of the cheaper priced ones that match or exceed the quality of the expensive one.

In my collection I have several notebooks from China, Viet Nam and India and they are all nicer than Moleskine.  In the future I hope to try a few other brands including Rhodia or Clairefontaine as I understand both use the same paper.

Fountain Pen Friendly Staple's Find

I have been using a Moleskine 3.5 inch by 5.5 inch leather bound pocket notebook since this past summer.  I like Moleskine products, but I was very disappointed when I noticed they were made in China and cost a fortune.  Very over rated.

I set out on a quest to find another notebook locally that I may like and did not cost as much as a Moleskine notebook.  The criteria was same size, good paper, preferably leather bound, and fountain pen friendly.

I like the Moleskine paper.  To me it is unique unto itself.  Writing on the paper is nice when using pencil or anything but a fountain pen.  My fountain pens write fine on it, but not all inks work fine.  Many inks feather and most bleed through the page.

On my last trip to Staple's I found this notebook on sale for less than half of the normal selling price, and I could buy up to 4 of them at the special price.  I bought them thinking if they do not work for a fountain pen I will have a nice notebook for pencil.

Compared to Moleskine. This notebook is the same size.  This notebook is also made in China.  It is more economical, even at the regular price of $6.99, than my Moleskine.  The paper is smooth and nice to write upon.

Next I tested the paper with the pens I presently have inked.

Please pardon my sloppy penmanship.  I was too lazy to look at the Pilot ink and I mis-spelled Namiki.  Like I blame my typewriters for making typos I will blame the pen for the mistake(s).

This paper does not have the nice feel of Moleskine paper, but it is smooth and takes to fountain pen ink nicely.  There was no feathering, only a small smudge on FL Blue because I did not give the ink enough time to dry before letting the cover page touch it.

As seen below bleed though is minor.  A slight bit better than my Moleskine?

The Jinhao pen with Higgins ink seems to be the worst.  All pens wrote smoothly and none scratched or stubbed.  None bled to the next blank page.

I prefer an unlined notebook for fountain pens so I can write any size I like.  For the price this will be fine.  (The local store did not have any unlined ones.)

For those who, like me, like the ribbon page marker, the elastic closure, and the pocket on the inside of the back cover, this notebook has all three.

I still plan on trying others including Clairefontaine, Rhodia, and Quo Vadis Habana and other notebooks as I get around to ordering some. 

FounntainPen Friendly Target Find

Waterman Ici et La, 1st generation

Ici et La nib