I've gotten yet another Rhodia tablet that likes to turn smooth pens into scratchy squeakers. It's driving me nuts. Some of my Rhodia pads perform admirably, but others even make the wettest writers go bumpity bump and catch on the page.

So I'm looking for what to try next. I just bought a few Muji notebooks, and I like them, though there seems to be different grades of papers in different notebooks. I also like Apica just fine. But neither have blank or graph ruled pads.

I haven't yet tried Miquelrius or Red & Black, they're on my list. I'd prefer to have something more affordable than Field Notes or Moleskine.

I have a few Moleskines, both pocket and large, and some 4.3"x6.7" Rhodia- if anyone wants to do a trade, PM me!

Aaron

Search for Miquelrius on my blog, I did a lengthy review a few months ago.

I second the suggestion of MiquelRius. Very nice paper, meant for ink an a pleasure to write on. Don't know about prices. The US branch is here : MiquelRius.US

I haven't been very satisfied with my Miquelrius leather look notebook. Everything writes beautifully on it, but the ink shows and sometimes bleeds through too much. I'll use it up (all 300 pages!) but won't buy another. Apica is the best paper I've found, but I too wish that there were more options in terms of grid or blank, and smaller sizes with more pages. Oh well.

I like the smooth feel of the paper of my tiny flexible cover gridded notebook, but I also have problems with bleeding through (as in, dotting the next page!) and line widening. I use XF nibs, but my lines look almost like M nibs with some inks! I've mostly used bulletproof Noodler's inks--Upper Ganges Blue (come to think of it, all the BP blues I tried were no good) was particularly bad. I don't have it with me, but I think some of my inks feathered on it, too.

Thin pages were my concern with the Miquelrius- at least the paper the thick graph notebooks they carry at B&N. While it doesn't always imply the other, thin pages often mean there's feathering and bleedthrough. Bleedthrough is fine- I've been writing with OB and OBBs lately, and have accept showthrough bleeding as a fact of life. But feathering I don't like so much, or rather, the side effects of feathering on those absorbent papers. On inksucking paper any hope of shading goes out of the window, and it all just takes the same color.

Heck, if it weren't for this shadekilling property I'd just use composition books. But after spending way too much time trying out inks and ink mixes to find ones that shade interestingly while retaining some saturation I don't want to go back to having my writing look completely averaged.

Aaron

Aaron, you might want to spring the couple of bucks for a Mead composition book. Mine shows shading pretty nicely, if I remember correctly. Black & Red is great quality paper, but I don't know that I've seen the shading there, either.

I do have one Mead comp book (carboard black marbled cover) and the paper is decidedly shade-less, at least with the inks I have which do shade on Rhodia, Apica, and Moleskine.