Moleskine Dilemma

[3l3phant]

As always, much appreciated!

[fumi]

Moleskine produce the most over-rated and over-priced notebooks available. They are completely hyped up on the Ernest Hemingway and other (insert famous writer) nonsense. Their paper is truly terrible quality. I never understood their popularity at all.

 

I would go with Rhodia web notebooks. You still get the hardcover, the elastic strap but most of all, the quality of the paper is insane. Absolutely gorgeous.

[3l3phant]

Thanks Fumi - I just got the free leather journal referenced on another board (http://www.freeleatherjournal.com/). The paper is amazingly cool but for what I'm looking to do, simply too expensive. I need something for daily use in meetings, etc. A Rhodia definitely sounds like the right move.

[luvpens]

Moleskine produce the most over-rated and over-priced notebooks available. They are completely hyped up on the Ernest Hemingway and other (insert famous writer) nonsense. Their paper is truly terrible quality. I never understood their popularity at all.

 

I would go with Rhodia web notebooks. You still get the hardcover, the elastic strap but most of all, the quality of the paper is insane. Absolutely gorgeous.

+100.........

Totally agree.

Bog standard black "n" red products are more fp friendly..........

[The Good Captain]

Got to announce that Noodler's Black (Bulletproof) in a Sailor 1911 MF nib is absolutely perfect with the worst paper Moleskines. (As good as 4001 Blue-Black in a M205 EF.)

Discovered yesterday. I'm impressed.

[inkypete]

Got to announce that Noodler's Black (Bulletproof) in a Sailor 1911 MF nib is absolutely perfect with the worst paper Moleskines. (As good as 4001 Blue-Black in a M205 EF.)

Discovered yesterday. I'm impressed.

Problem is it won't be in the next one.

[Chouffleur]

+100.........

Totally agree.

Bog standard black "n" red products are more fp friendly..........

..but you keep hitting your elbow against the toilet paper dispenser.

[cimmerian]

I've got a Moleskine Large Plain Notebook and a Small Plain Notebook (don't know if they're the "classic" you're talking about, Pjay).

 

Presently, I use a Lamy AL-Star on them, alternating between B and F nibs and Lamy Blue Washable or Sheaffer Skrip Black. There's a little bit of ghosting with the B nib, but not enough to cause trouble whatsoever. I took a picture to try and show it:

 

 

I've been using Moleskines since college, mainly with pencils and the ocasional BiC rollerball. Then I got into fountain pens on my senior year and seldom use anything else to write on them. I'm well aware that I use Moleskines for their fame and gravitas, and I'm the first to say it's and affectation: there are better, cheaper (albeit less famous) notebooks out there. There's even a Brazilian brand called Ciceros that makes Moleskine-like notebooks that blow the real Moleskines straight out of the water.

 

Yet, I was taken aback when I started delving into fountain pens on the Internet early this month and saw that there's no love lost between the fountain pen community and Moleskines. Some of you straight loath them!

[The Good Captain]

Problem is it won't be in the next one.

Ah, but my current one is the worst paper I've ever come across, of all the Moleskines I've had since about 2009 or thereabouts. Don't reckon there'll be any worse. Fine on the current Field Notes I'm using. AND the 'difficult' Allan Bible paper.

We'll just have to wait and see. I'll be starting another Moleskine pocket soft-cover book son - I'll post then.

[brunico]

Never had a problem with any Moleskine, and that's writing with broad italic nibs and any number of inks.

 

Then again, on fountain pen forums there's a fashion - not mirrored among other FP users - for adjusting nibs to be as wet as possible. So it's not astonishing that so many people here will get the same result as painting a watercolour on copy paper.

[cimmerian]

Then again, on fountain pen forums there's a fashion - not mirrored among other FP users - for adjusting nibs to be as wet as possible.

 

Is it possible to do that without sending your pen to a nibmeister? I've got an old pen here that I love because its body is very thin, but it writes very dry. I'd love to know how to make it more wet. Can you point me to the right place, brunico?

[brunico]

Yes, you can press down very gently on the nib or pull a thin sheet of metal through the slit or cut a deeper groove in the feed. If you're careful and appreciate what you're doing - do it in stages and test the flow as you proceed - you should be all right.

[cimmerian]

Yes, you can press down very gently on the nib or pull a thin sheet of metal through the slit or cut a deeper groove in the feed. If you're careful and appreciate what you're doing - do it in stages and test the flow as you proceed - you should be all right.

 

Thanks! I'll try that. It's an old, cheap pen anyway, so I won't cry a lot if it gets messed up.

 

I'll do my best not to screw up, though.

[CajunNib]

I have been using the moleskine pocket notebooks with a bunch of different pens and find that felt tipped ones are the worst but for most of my writing it is OK wven with some leakage.

[drafty]

 

For several years I've been using the Moleskine Folio Professional Notebook (A4) for journalling, and the 100gsm paper has given liberty to write double sided with pretty much any combination of pen and ink.

 

My wife game me a lovely Oberon design leather cover, with embossed Celtic design, for the smaller Moleskine classic, 5" x 8 1/4", and only 70gsm. I've tried lots of combinations over the last three days, and pretty much every one of them has excessive bleed through, enough to make writing/reading on the reverse quite difficult. So I either write on one side only for the year, or switch back to the Folio with the thicker paper and use the smaller notebooks for another purpose.

 

Anyone successfully using the Moleskine classic double sided? I'd be very keen to hear of any pen/ink combinations that may work.

 

Hello there. I use Moleskine (A5) soft covers. I write with a Waterman Edson medium nib, although I think the relevant thing is probably the ink.

 

Edelstein Onyx ink from Pelikan writes so smoothly on the MS paper and there is 99% no bleed through. Of course if you sit on a point like I do sometimes, contemplating the word then you might get a small dot, but it's otherwise excellent. I'm sure any of the Edelstein line would work if you don't dig Onyx.

 

There might be something to do with the shape of the nib from the Edson, in that it doesn't flex too much and therefore doesn't bed ink too deep. The Waterman Carenes and some Sheaffers have similar nibs.

[FOUR X FOUR]

The Moleskine Sketch doesn't bleed through.

[jmeldorf]

Can anyone tell me if the Moleskine Volant collection is FP friendly? I was given two soft back notebooks for Fathers’ Day so I would like to use them, but I My last outing last year with Moleskine’s “Leuchtterm 1917 journal” knockoff was very disappointing. Could only write on the front page of each sheet of paper.

[Studio97]

Test the last page to learn what works and what doesn't. Fine point and serenity blue for minimal bleed through for me. I use a ball point in my volante now as I gave up FP ink in my moleskine stash for the most part. I no longer buy Moleskine anything.

 

It was a thoughtful gift. Happy Fathers Day to all of us.

Edited June 16, 2019 by Studio97

[bogiesan]

Moleskine does not care about fountain pen users; were just not in the demographic. The paper is just not suitable. However, molies remain my favorite pocket notebooks and I mostly use my fountain pens in them. I only use the recto side of each page so bleed thru is a non issue for me.