I thought it might be nice to start a thread about Moleskine safe inks. Here's mine:

Noodlers black: no feathering or bleedthrough
Noodlers aquamarine blue: very slight feathering; tiniest amount of bleedthrough
PR American blue: no feathering; tiniest amount of bleedthrough
Waterman red: very slight feathering; tiniest amount of bleedthrough
Aurora blue: no feathering or bleedthrough
Swisher Pens antigua blue: feathering and bleedthrough (drat)

Stephen

PS: I'm using EF or F pens (mostly Lamy)

I went out and purchased a set of Moleskine Cahiers based upon some comments I read about them on a PenTrace thread (fortunately there is an office supply store in the lobby of my building here in NYC that carries them). The paper is indeed different than in the regular Moleskines!! I took a very wet, broad writer and tested it on a page and the result....no feathering or bleed through unlike on regular Moleskine paper.

Why can't they put this Cahiers paper in the regular Moleskines???

The inks I have found to work fine in a Moleskine are:
Waterman Florida Blue
Waterman Black
Noodlers Black
Aurora Blue
Sheaffer Blue
Lamy Blue-Black

None of these bleed through the paper, but when looked at very closely, they all feather a bit (I care a lot more about bleeding than feathering as long as the feathering isn't so bad to make my writing hard to read).

Inks with very slight bleed through (should be usable in a dry writer)
Noodlers Ottoman Rose
Parker Quink blue

Every Private Reserve ink I've tried (American Blue, Lake Placid Blue, Supershow Blue, Midnight Blues) bleeds through as does Namiki Black and Noodlers La Couleur Royale, Levenger Cobalt, Diamine Prussian Blue and Penman Sapphire.

The worst inks I've tried are:
Swisher Antigua Blue, Emerald
Swishmix Glacier Blue

I have a couple of regular Moleskines and some Cahiers notebooks (I just tried the Cahiers for the first time tonight after reading your post, Edelma). The paper seems to be a little different in each notebook. The Cahiers notebook does seem to have less bleed through (the paper does seem a little thicker and less smooth), but it still bleeds. I might be willing to use some of the Private Reserve inks in there in a drier writing pen (Midnight blues in my Wality 52 seems usable in the Cahiers, but not in the regular Moleskine, but Supershow Blue in my wetter writing Pelikan M200 bleeds too much to use in either notebook). I think I'd stick to my safe ink list in any Moleskine.

John

My default ink, Waterman Havana, also feathers in the small notebook using a Speeno (that's my blog linked to in there). However I've used the same ink in the notebook one size up, using a Duke/Uranus 308 — I do love those fine nibs on the Chinese pens — with almost no feathering at all, and no bleed-through unless I linger.

When I look through a magnifying glass at my writing, it seems that the feathering is caused by little fibers in the paper that wick the ink away from the lettering. Ah well.

I understand that people's experience with the sketch paper and fountain pens have been less than stellar?

Stephen