Clairefontaine Triomphe—Different From Standard Clairefontaine?

[tim77]

[...] I'm fed up how fussy Clairefontaine is. Like I said, smooth pens with certain inks tend to skip regardless of whether I touched the paper or not [...]

 

My current favourite is Lamy's notebooks. Their paper is not as unnaturally smooth as Clairefontaine's, with a noticeably more, er, papery feel.

[RJS]

Thanks, Tim.

[XYZZY]

If you're concerned about interaction with hand oils, I would avoid Leuchtturm1917 and Yoseka Stationery. I'm using both right now, and ink doesn't want to adhere to places that my hand has been. Tomoe River paper is much better for me in this regard.

 

I would recommend getting a stationery sample pack from somebody to try out different papers. In 2018 I ordered the one that Goulet sold and I thought it was worth the money.

[Mercian]

If you're concerned about interaction with hand oils, I would avoid Leuchtturm1917...

I too have had this problem with Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks. Which was annoying, because I love most of the rest of their features.

 

To make sure that I avoid hand-oil problems I now rest my hand on another sheet of paper (or blotting paper or an envelope) in order to protect the unused portion of the page from my paw.

For journalling I use Rhodia Webnotebooks, and put up with the occasionally-noticeable differences between the two sides of particular leaves of their 90gsm Clairefontaine ‘ivory vellum’ paper.

That said, if I could get A5-sized Oxford ‘Optik’ paper in a notebook that had the same covers & other features as a Rhodia ‘webbie’, I’d probably buy those for my journalling.

 

One could always use blotting paper to protect the pages from hand-oils with one’s Leuchtturm 1917, but I personally find the 6mm-ruling of their lined notebooks to be just slightly too narrow for my journalling-scrawl

And 5mm dot-grids irk me - for me they are too-close-together to write each line between them; and also too-far-apart for me to feel comfortable using two rows per line of journalling.

 

But I find their numbered pages and their ‘contents pages’ at the front to make them excellent notebooks for use in keeping track of things like household & car maintenance scheduling/expenses, etc. And I have not had any problems with inks feathering or bleeding-through on their paper.

[XYZZY]

One could always use blotting paper to protect the pages from hand-oils with one’s Leuchtturm 1917, but I personally find the 6mm-ruling of their lined notebooks to be just slightly too narrow for my journalling-scrawl

And 5mm dot-grids irk me - for me they are too-close-together to write each line between them; and also too-far-apart for me to feel comfortable using two rows per line of journalling.

 

 

I used to use a guide-sheet under blank pages, and that way I can have whatever spacing I want (I'm pretty happy with 7mm). But my latest invention: print the guide sheet onto the blotter paper! Since I always carry a blotter sheet anyhow, now it has a job to do when it's not blotting.

 

What reminded me of this, though, is that my blotter sheet is no longer there for duty to keep oils of the page since it's serving guide duty. But I never liked it much for oil protection anyhow: I want the thing sliding along with me to be thin and flexible, and blotter sheets generally aren't. Also, I use an A5 blotter sheet whereas a thin strip is sufficient for sliding between my hand and the page. But that's probably too much detail: I think the real point is that it's easy, do what you find simple and sufficient for your own needs & quirks.

[A Smug Dill]

But my latest invention: print the guide sheet onto the blotter paper! Since I always carry a blotter sheet anyhow, now it has a job to do when it's not blotting.

 

 

Nice one!

[TheDutchGuy]

In my experience, Clairefontaine, Rhodia and Oxford behave quite different with fountain pens.

 

Clairefontaine feels plasticky to me. As mentioned by several others, skips are common. If a nib has even the slightest hint of BB, then Clairefontaine will bring it out whereas Rhodia and Oxford will not.

 

Rhodia feels much less plasticky to me. It may be my imagination, but Rhodia’s line, dot and grid paper feel different to me. Especially with lined paper, the difference between front and rear is both profound and annoying. One of the wonders of the world is why some (like me) really notice this, whereas others perceive front and rear to be identical.

 

To me, Oxford doesn’t seem to have any drawback. Perfect paper and very competitively priced (in Europe, at least). Extremely consistent, no plasticky feel, no differences between front and rear, available in many formats and easy to find. I use tons of the stuff.

[Kilrymont]

Over a number of years I've used all sorts of cheap to midrange pens with mostly Diamine but also Edelstein and Waterman inks, and have never had any kind of skipping or other unwanted behaviour with either Red'n Black A5 notebooks using Optik paper or several types containing only Clairefontaine. All A5 notebooks. Other papers have intermittently shown all the usual issues, Moleskine being far & away the least satisfactory due to soaking up the ink like mini blotting paper might.

 

Indeed I've just had several days spent intermittently writing-in three brand new Pelikans. Been lusting after these things for ages but finally decided that at my age it'd be wiser to buy while I'm still here.... and while they're still available, since the supply issue seems to be still in force.

 

And both Optik and Clairefontaine paper types behaved perfectly, both sides. And I hadn't taken any precautions with blotting sheets either.

[david-p]

On 9/29/2020 at 2:09 AM, Mercian said:

And 5mm dot-grids irk me - for me they are too-close-together to write each line between them; and also too-far-apart for me to feel comfortable using two rows per line of journalling.

Yes.